Pollinators send out good vibrations — and plants respond sweetly Science News (Dr. Kevin)
Is breakfast really the most important meal of the day? BBC (Robin K). Lordie. I heard decades ago from the professional sports mafia that this issue had been largely settled. A high quality study had participants eat only one meal, the same # of calories adjusted for body weight, either when they got up or at dinner time. The ones that ate only at dinner gained weight relative to the other group. The explanation was that the body, being asked to function with no food, downregulated its metabolism on the assumption that it was in starvation conditions. So my guys recommended eating 100 calories within an hour or so of getting up so as to prevent your body from thinking you might be starving it.
Climate/Environment
Nanoplastic concentrations across the North Atlantic Nature (resilc)
NASA won’t publish key climate change report online, citing ‘no legal obligation’ to do so Space (Dr. Kevin)
Drought Spreads in England After Driest Start to Year Since 1976 Bloomberg
Romania among countries projected to see sharp GDP, labor productivity decline due to heat Romania Insider
US farmers scramble as heavy rains devastate key crops: ‘It’s going to be rough’ TC
INSANE HEAT IN MIDDLE EAST
Mind blowing MINIMUM TEMPERATURE 38.3C Tuz IRAQ
Dozens of stations allover Middle East (Iran,Iraq,Kuwait,Emirates) with Minimums >35C
Max. temperatures expected up to 52C
Historic heat wave,one of the worst ever seen worldwide and it might last weeks pic.twitter.com/ZVtRHmtJVW— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) July 15, 2025
During the last decades of the Classic Lowland Maya civilization, the ahauob or “divine lords” who ruled the Mayan city-states did nothing constructive to deal with the subsistence crisis that was spiraling out of control around them, as the swidden agriculture system that…
— John Michael Greer (@JMGreerWriter) July 18, 2025
China?
A 93.5% levy on Chinese battery inputs signals that the U.S. is no longer trying to compete within China’s cost structure, but rather to dismantle its dominance altogether. This move will reverberate across EVs, grid storage, defense tech, and the broader clean energy transition.… https://t.co/I3HbXAg5e0
— EndGame Macro (@onechancefreedm) July 17, 2025
Robots are taking the subway on their own to deliver goods in Shenzhen, southern China. World’s first! 🤖
By using the metro during off-peak hours, this approach reduces carbon emissions caused by ground transportation. pic.twitter.com/UfoilCYybB
— Mao Ning 毛宁 (@SpoxCHN_MaoNing) July 18, 2025
Helen Thompson: Rare earths – the next war? Unherd, YouTube (Robin K)
Africa
France withdraws troops from Senegal, ending military presence in West Africa EuroNews
Sudan’s war is an economic disaster: here’s how bad it could get The Conversation
A look at Eritrea’s role as new Tigray war looms in Ethiopia DW
European Disunion
France’s budget bombshell is a wake-up call for Europe as it veers toward bankruptcy Politico
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee stereotypes the Irish Irish Journal (resilc)
Old Blighty
Stagflation fears fuel interest rate conundrum at the Bank of England amid jobs bloodbath This is Money
Climate groups call for UK wealth tax to make super-rich fund sustainable economy Guardian
Israel v. The Resistance
Israel kills 25 starving Palestinians near aid distribution center in southern Gaza Anadolu Agency
Marjorie Taylor Greene: Israel B0MBED the Catholic Church in Gaza with American weapons!pic.twitter.com/x26aJagIjG
— Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinklle) July 18, 2025
Yes. But the real question is: why would Israel commit PR suicide by bombing the only Catholic church in Gaza — one that Pope Francis used to call daily? To answer that, we must understand how Israel operates. Regardless of official statements, nothing Israel does is accidental.… https://t.co/EofkGo4KZ0
— Thomas Fazi (@battleforeurope) July 18, 2025
What we’re witnessing in Syria isn’t just the collapse of a state—it’s the deliberate dismemberment of a society that once housed multiple ethnicities, sects, and identities under one national roof.
What’s heartbreaking isn’t just the carnage, but the clarity that came too late… pic.twitter.com/AYkPBQShlm
— Kevork Almassian (@KevorkAlmassian) July 18, 2025
Ports Are Shutting Down for Gaza – And Israel is Panicking KernowDamo, YouTube. Dockworkers taking up BDS.
Israel Is Preparing To Bomb Iran…Again National Security Journal (resilc)
New Not-So-Cold War
Uncivilization? Julian Macfarlane. High level discussion of force disposition.
🇷🇺🗣Moscow believes that it is entitled to use weapons against the military facilities of countries that will allow Kiev to strike with its weapons deep inside Russia, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova at a briefing on current foreign policy issues.
"In… pic.twitter.com/rEqeCOOinX
— Peacemaker (@peacemaket71) July 18, 2025
France and Italy refuse to join Trump’s Ukraine weapons fund Telegraph. Not new news but important to keep tabs.
* * * 🇺🇦😡The mayor of Lvov has proposed exchanging the exhumed bodies of Soviet (!) soldiers from the Hill of Glory for the remains of captured (that is, living) Ukrainian soldiers.
Sadovyi announced on his TG channel that the "Hill of Glory" in Lvov no longer exists – today, July… pic.twitter.com/uixnBzggtg
— Zlatti71 (@Zlatti_71) July 16, 2025
* * * Russia says Trump’s new weapons pledge a signal for Ukraine to abandon peace efforts Reuters
TRUMP’S SECONDARY SANCTIONS ON RUSSIAN OIL ARE SPITTING IN THE WIND John Helmer
* * * Risk of undersea cable attacks backed by Russia and China likely to rise, report warns Guardian
* * * “We will destroy it, and quickly”: NATO Ground Forces Commander Donahue announced that the alliance has a plan to “suppress” the Kaliningrad region TopWar. Micael T: “US plan for destroying its vassals.”
General Donahue, who failed upwards to command US Army – Europe after overseeing one of the worst days in the entire War on Terror during the Kabul Airlift, decided to run his mouth today about NATO being able to quickly conquer Kaliningrad.
Let's do the work his staff didn't.⬇️… pic.twitter.com/eJcIUkgosU
— Armchair Warlord (@ArmchairW) July 18, 2025
* * * See also John Helmer on Russia-Azeri relations starting at 42:55: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1CLU29YbUA
🇷🇺‼️Russia brutally punished Azerbaijan: A key refinery blew up – Moscow just showed Baku where it belongs ‼️
In a series of precision strikes, Russian forces hit the Kremenchuk refinery, the Drohobych oil plant and a facility in Odessa, which for years served as a logistics… pic.twitter.com/AkGX5QaNII
— Peacemaker (@peacemaket71) July 18, 2025
Syraqistan
A 77-year-old country is bombing a 5000-year-old city Council Estate (resilc). That’s the sort of thing barbarians do.
By bombing Damascus, Israel imposes red lines on Syria’s new government LeMonde
Israel and Syria agree to ceasefire, US ambassador to Turkey says CNN (rasperberry jam). So Syria has not gotten the memo that Israel does not adhere to ceasefires?
Battle in Suwayda: Where Israel and Turkiye clash over Syria’s trade routes The Cradle
Taliban Clash with Pakistani Border Guards in Eastern Afghanistan Kabul Now
Afghan data leak: SAS and UK spies named in Afghan data breach BBC
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
NYPD Bypassed Facial Recognition Ban to ID Pro-Palestinian Student Protester THE CITY
Imperial Collapse Watch
The Number Go Up Rule: Why America Refuses to Fix Anything Matt Stoller
The YF-23 ‘Stealth Fighter’ Summed Up In 4 Words National Security Journal
The Righteous Community London Review of Books (resilc). On the neverending-by-design war on terror.
Trump 2.0
Check out this big, beautiful billboard depicting Trump as “Swamp King” Boing Boing
Trump is threatening to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Working people would pay the price. Economic Policy Institute
The State Department Guts Its Office Combating Human Trafficking Mother Jones (resilc)
‘An insult’: Malaysians slam nomination of ‘alpha-male’ Nick Adams as US ambassador Guardian (resilc). Go Malaysia!
In the Trump Administration, Watchdogs Are Watching Their Backs New York Times. resilc: “IGs were feared back in the day….”
Russiagate Redux
Note on New Trump-Russia Disclosures Matt Taibbi (Chuck L)
Tariffs
Trump’s Arbitrary Trade War Declarations Daniel Larison
The (Muted) Impact of Tariffs on Inflation Barry Ritholtz. resilc: “Assuming CPI is now real number is a stretch tho.”
Immigration
ICE Unmasked! Mike Flugennock
Democrat Death Wish
Someone got to Sanders (again). He’d been pointedly critical of Israel:
Bernie Sanders told Zohran Mamdani he is creating the appearance that he is "minimizing the fear of Jews" and he "needs to be careful" about how he talks about Israel. His sole function now is to force the entire US left to adopt his laundering of the Israeli death-cult and… pic.twitter.com/haVEuY19pc
— ☀️👀 (@zei_squirrel) July 17, 2025
L’affaire Jeffrey Epstein
Pam Bondi, the Trump loyalist swallowed up by the Epstein affair Financial Times
Trump sues after Wall Street Journal’s Epstein story The Hill. I may be proven wrong, but the Journal (as its parent Dow Jones) does not have broadcast licenses in the US and so can’t be intimidated by FCC threats. They could try threatening another Murdoch holding, Fox News, which had nothing to do with the Journal story…and would further rile up Trump’s base. So the odds of it folding are much lower than we saw with ABC and CBS. And the Journal would get to do discovery on Trump to substantiate the accuracy of its reporting….which could be great fun. But with motions practice (see Kentucky Retirement Systems for an example), the Trump team could easily drag out the timetable until after Trump has (presumably) left office.
Ron Wyden, a Democrat, Won’t Let Go of the Jeffrey Epstein Case, Either New York Times
Mr. Market is Moody
Exclusive: Bank of England scrutinizes lenders for dollar risk amid Trump worries, sources say Reuters
AI
Musk launches AI Grok girlfriend available to 12-year-olds Telegraph (resilc)
The Bezzle
US House passes stablecoin legislation, sending bill to Trump Reuters
Central banks face dilemma over rise of dollar-backed stablecoins Financial Times
Guillotine Watch
The Worst Performer in Billionaires’ Portfolios? Trophy Art. Wall Street Journal
Class Warfare
Why Gen Z goes mad for Dostoyevsky Young people crave an anti-capitalist prophet Unherd Micael T: “Because there are no real anti-capitalists in real life?
Private Equity and Workers: Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud Eileen Appelbaum, CEPR
US – Percent of Balance 90+ Days Delinquent by Loan Type MacroMicro (resilc)
US Firms Passing Some Cost Hikes To Consumers: Fed Survey Barron’s
Antidote du jour (via):
And a bonus:
He used 100% of his brain
pic.twitter.com/CwujLYhrbZ— Puppies 🐶 (@PuppiesIover) July 16, 2025
A second bonus:
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) July 16, 2025
And a third:
Awesome landing 😂 pic.twitter.com/GaLabJ4cdx
— The Best (@Thebestfigen) July 16, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
‘Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸
@jacksonhinklle
Marjorie Taylor Greene: Israel B0MBED the Catholic Church in Gaza with American weapons!’
Trump must be shocked that most of his supporters, like MTG & Carlson, really do want to prioritize Americans first and not some two-bit country on the other side of the world. The present Cabinet are probably like State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce who says that America is the ‘greatest country on Earth next to Israel.’ Priorities!
The executive dysfunction Yves often talks about betrays itself here too. These guys haven’t yet figured out that to get MAGA support for the genocidal campaign, they must arrange to have a few American servicemen — preferably white — killed by (pick your preferred) Arab henchmen. That should quickly steer opinion in the right direction and leave only the moral opponents of empire war making, hanging out like a smelly turd ready for the picking by the gestapo branches of government. Two birds, one bomb.
US supplied (IDF already had one or more THAAD radar sets) to Israel a full THAAD “battery” including the standard manning of 90 US soldiers, seems no time to train IDF and Israel deployment does not need “sheep dipping ” the US soldier as at Kiev.
Maybe.There is a strong economic populism strain in MAGA, including people who see betrayal in Trump’s flip flop on immigration (exempting those wanted by business interests like agriculture, meat packing, and hotels). Trump tapped into that, he didn’t create it, even if he now thinks he did.
“”A fascist dictatorship” identifying as a liberal democracy!
Life in the new-age of identity politics.
What is an ethical country?
More fun with words/definitions in the innovative, 21st century ….
What/who is a “semite”?
……… Anyone who exclusively (1) identifies as a semite and also, (2) can back that identity up with bunker-buster bombs and unlimited cash …..
Ipso facto, Palestinians are NOT semites
“Someone got to Sanders (again). He’d been pointedly critical of Israel:”
is followed by the twitter/X message on robotic deliveries via the Chinese underground.
Fixed, thanks. Twitter ALL THE TIME does not put new embeds on the clipboard when you try to do two in succession.
YouTube often does it too.
Honestly, I preferred the duplicate. I am so sick and tired of the ‘support Palestine = Anti-Semitism’ trope. Every time I think the tide is turning some *sshole goes there again. While I remain appalled by what the Democrats did to Sanders in 2016, I also remain relieved that he didn’t become President. I suspect that he would have been as much, if not more of a disappointment than was Obama.
keeping bernie out was a huge own goal by the dems he would have folded himself into the centrist mold and the dems would not have lost all those voters, many forever gone.
, if not more of a disappointment than was Obama.
This is grossly unfair. Sanders has very little in his record that would lead to Adolph Reed writing this in 1996:
“In Chicago, for instance, we’ve gotten a foretaste of the new breed of foundation-hatched black communitarian voices; one of them, a smooth Harvard lawyer with impeccable do-good credentials and vacuous-to-repressive neoliberal politics, has won a state senate seat on a base mainly in the liberal foundation and development worlds. His fundamentally bootstrap line was softened by a patina of the rhetoric of authentic community, talk about meeting in kitchens, small-scale solutions to social problems, and the predictable elevation of process over program — the point where identity politics converges with old-fashioned middle-class reform in favoring form over substance. I suspect that his ilk is the wave of the future in U.S. black politics, as in Haiti and wherever else the International Monetary Fund has sway. So far the black activist response hasn’t been up to the challenge. We have to do better.”
“It Takes a Village” Hillary was light years better than Obama back then. If she had parted company with more of the old guard, she would be the former president way back when.
Sure there were those who saw through Obama back in the day… Unfortunately I believed the hope and change BS. I count Obama’s election and immediate turning on the middle class and workers as the time when the scales fell from my eyes and I saw US politics for what it is. An elite uni-party whose only goals are to keep the rich rich and to enrich themselves. Bernie may not deserve that kind of a take down but he has shown himself to be unwilling to stand up to the Dem old guard (calling Biden his friend, endorsing Hilary being two examples) and I stand by by my relief at not having to watch him disappoint his supporters if he had become President.
Apparently you need to be reminded that as far as both Clinton and Obama were concerned the economy was fine and healthcare wasn’t a problem at the beginning of the 2008 primary. Edwards gaining traction with two Americas was a shock to both campaigns. Hillary was as much bait and switch as Obama (and I say that as someone who laughs bitterly at the huge number of women who still think she was a feminist and not just an opportunist.) Her record at State certainly destroys the notion that she was light years better. Can we talk the destruction of Libya. But you did condition that on breaking with the old guard. And that was never going to happen. If Obama solidified the destruction of all but tech and financialization, you have to remember that the crash he mishandled can be largely laid at the feet of the Clinton administration. There wasn’t a chance in hell bankers would have been jailed and too big to fail banks would have been broken up, much less real regulatory oversight reinstated and strengthened under Clinton.
Clinton Obama was easily an election where there was no lesser evil. They were both just evil.
By the way, aren’t Palestinians Semites? And isn’t murdering Palestinian children thus antisemitic? Asking for a friend.
More Semitic than the European interlopers from the last hundred years. But in Newspeak words mean what we want them to mean, not anything having to do with reality. The Semitic contribution to the bloodlines of many of those European incomers is a subject that brings to mind the judgment a friend of mine passed on the chicken soup we got at a restaurant: “The chicken must’ve run through that soup pretty damn fast!”
Thank you, Lefty Godot, that was my understanding as well. I’ll pass it on. :) Sounds like pretty weak chicken soup indeed.
I’ve also read that in Israel, DNA tests are problematic for some reason…
The term “antisemitism” (actually, “Antisemitismus”) was coined in the last quarter of the 19th century by Wilhelm Marr to give a patina of scientific respectability to his profound hatred of the Jews. The situation then was such that:
1) Ever since the emancipation of the Jews decreed by the French revolutionists, the progressive end of the Ancien Régime throughout Europe, the consecutive abolition of the “Cuius regio, eius religio” doctrine, and the spread of liberal ideas especially freedom of religion, discriminating people because of their faith was shunned and condemned. The old-time hatred of the Jews fundamentally based on Christianism (Jews as killers of the Christ, etc) was met with opprobrium.
2) That period was also one of scientific development, in particular biology — which was giving rise to new arguments regarding a hierarchical ordering of races — and ethnography — giving additional arguments to a hierarchical ordering of cultures and civilizations. This resulted in utterly flawed, but at the time widespread concepts such as hamitic, shamitic, semitic, aryan, etc, races.
Marr contrived “antisemitism” to oppose Jews. He was not, and neither were other like-minded polemists interested in fighting off Arabs (or Ethiopians), but in designating Jews and furthering hostility towards them as belonging to a fundamentally different, unassimilable race and culture. Arabs were not target of “antisemitism”; actually, Europe had an ambiguous attitude towards them, viewed both as deceitful and craven, but also as faithful and courageous; decadent and depraved, but also austere and noble. The first set of adjectives usually applying to urban Arabs, the second one to those living in the desert.
Marr’s trick to disguise the meaning of “Jew-hater” with “antisemitic” was successful, and made open Jew-hatred salonfähig again. Actually, just after he coined the term, the great antisemitism controversy (“Berliner Antisemitismusstreit”) broke out; it was all about Jews, not about Arabs (or Ethiopians).
And here we are. Some words do not have a straight etymology.
Sanders conflates opposition to genocidal Zionists with “hatred of Jews…”
Sheepdog Sanders is a G@#!@mn ratf&#%$!& sellout SOB– chunky and acidic puke leaves a better taste in my mouth than this kind of betrayal.
May he rot.
Are vomit emojis allowed here?
Or do they require extra compute?
The Unicode character “🤮” (U+1F92E) does require 4 bytes in UTF-8. Lol
I don’t understand your reaction. Sanders is not giving Mamdani ideological advice, instead, he is offering campaign advice and coming from someone like Sanders, who has survived decades of smear campaigns, I think Mamdani should listen.
Sanders is merely saying he [Mamdani] should be cautious about how he approaches talking about Israel.
Mamdani is going to be labeled anti-semitic and anti-Israel by the Israel Lobby regardless. He should, however, choose his words more carefully and don’t make it easy for the crazies to turn his own words against him.
Hmmm! Sanders, critical of Israel, in his way, lets himself get kneecapped by his own party, twice, drops out of primaries, and retreats to his safe Senate sinecure, now advises a guy who, critical of Israel, really, wins a primary, and now does battle the Democratic establishment, aka, Jewish deep pockets, who want to keep him from a date with destiny because he is not 100% pro-Israel. Anything less than 100% pro-Israel is a (political) death sentence.
Sanders advice to Mamdani to be cautious is like a lifer telling a fellow inmate to bob-and-weave and hope the shiv does not hit a vital organ.
With Mamdani out of the way, kibbutznik Sanders’ bequest to NYC and the nation: AOC.
Sanders knows Mamdani is young and inexperienced and NYC is home to powerful people. Israel, anti-semitism, anti-Israel are a device to wreck Mamdani’s Democratic Socialist campaign which has wide support and why he won the primary.
When Sanders ran for president in 2016, he policies were popular but he was attacked every day for saying too little about racism, his supporters were only white guys—Bernie-Bros—he said too little about women’s issues, or there was anger and violence among his supporters, all of it a smear campaign to make sure a popular Democratic Socialist never enters the White House.
It’s politics and Mamdani has to avoid traps around the Israel questions if he wants to save his brand of Democratic Socialism.
I think you are right on this point. The Israel question makes blood boil on too many sides. Not a good political hook even if–especially because–many people consider it so morally critical.
Absolutely. The vitriol is unwarranted.
If he was really offering advice he would do it privately.
As far as I can see, he did. The CNN piece sources to an anonymous “person familiar with the conversation”.
Loose lips sink ships.
True. Mealymouth is how American politics works.
Sorry, but I see no reason to use caution when speaking of genocide. God forbid someone actually speak from their heart instead of playing the politics game. More people need to say the words “It is not anti-Semitic to criticize the Israeli government for committing genocide” That is called being on the right side of history.
That’s commendable. But Mamdani is young, hardly known before the primary, Muslim, a Democratic Socialist, and this is indeed politics in the foremost capitalist city. He needs to run a smart campaign and gather more support, and avoid unnecessary manufactured controversies. He can say more from the heart once elected.
Gooooooooooood Mooooooooorning Fiatnam!
The national debt, emboldened by Benedict Donald suing the WSJ for $10 billion on account of unearthed Xmas card greetings, has teamed up with Hallmark and the plan is to have a limited edition (just 3,700) anti-Trump Xmas card, each with divisive commentary.
That $37 Trillion debt is as good as wiped out.
I’ll presume if our dear leader is “done his work, for the week” at being President he might rest his mind a few hours this weekend watching the 3rd and 4th rounds of the Open Championship being played this week. Weather on Friday got pretty wild and rainy, which for golfers just means bundle up or cover up; weather over there mid July can be unpredictable.
There may be other lawsuits to file of course…the future is hard to predict and such. This Epstein cad must have been more problematic to those involved, given the accuracy of hindsight!
Loved this particular lawsuit, and it’s klazzik Trump.
Everything is about the staggering amount* that he is suing Murdoch for, that’s all the proles will hear. They’ll not hear of it being quietly dropped on some day say 6 months from now when a much bigger story grabs the spotlight.
*$10 billion would have bought you just about any company in the land 30 years ago.
One of the best defenses to a defamation lawsuit is that the defamatory statement by the defendant was true.
That’s a failure of proof claim, and the burden to prove that the statement was not false falls on plaintiff, in this case the WSJ.
Of course, discovery and all that can get ugly for Trump. The letter was hand typed, so no handwriting analysis will help there. The signature, yes, but it could have been superimposed.
I’m 50/50 on its veracity … and given the murky language and innuendos, its probably not going to behoove Trump to keep the lawsuit going for much longer. It’s the coverup of the Epstein files themselves that will linger.
Discovery is a two way street. The WSJ might not like what it has to cough up either. New York also allows a lot of leeway in where you can go in a deposition.
You are being wildly optimistic with respect to Trump.
The standard for a public figure is actual malice. They have to have published something they knew to be false.
Correct. A high bar for the plaintiff, in this case, Trump himself.
I’m also skeptical about the veracity of this “50th Birthday” book. I’m reminded of a big break in the 2004 presidential campaign when Dan Rather and CBS said they’d found memos from GWB’s Texas military service that were incriminating. It turns out the documents were definitely not originals and possibly faked. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killian_documents_controversy
Any investigation of GWB’s life around that time in the early 70s likely would reveal a partying and coked up flyboy who fortunately for him (not for us) was later reeled in and brought back to sobriety by Laura Bush.
But the fact the documents were not authentic basically pushed his weak service record under the rug, and most people would no longer question that volatile time in his life anymore.
The same _could_ happen here. Flout some documents that later turn out fake, and then the whole thing is just something fringe elements hold onto (despite the mountains of other evidence that terrible things were happening).
“falls on plaintiff, in this case the WSJ”
Maybe I didn’t get enough sleep last night and/or maybe not enough coffee this morning, so could you please tell me why you state that the plaintiff is the WSJ and not Donald Trump, who brought suit against WSJ?
I screwed that up. You’re correct, Trump is the plaintiff and the WSJ the defendant. Not enough coffee.
Thanks, ChrisFromGA. It’s nice to know I didn’t step through the looking glass. :-)
An established 18 hole golf course closes every 4 days in these not so united states-a dying sport, and its really only a sport if you walk the course.
My hope is that vis a vis association with Trump, golf goes away.
Golf is like pool. Not really a physical sport. Pool is actually a betting sport. Golf is a business sport, like politics. You would think that golf courses would run bulls on them at night so the players would get to walk the walk not just talk it.
Well there are always wishes and dreams to hold in our hearts and minds. Maybe there will be that day, when we can all turn aside from the most evil game ever invented \sarc
I once played quite often, averaging an 18 hole walk or riding, on local muni or cheaper public courses in North Carolina. But that was a long time ago…okay not really but 15 to 18 years ago that was weekend thing to do. The mental requirements for a focus on one’s strengths or weaknesses could really focus the mind. Today, well I’d rather watch others play for a claret jug or say a hideous jacket on my TV and enjoy a cold beverage or two…
I predict that Trump will eventually die as will Bill Clinton, Bush 43 and even heralded Obama. They can cheat us and or cheat in golf but cheating death is a high order…
15 to 18 years ago is when golf tanked when Tiger had his dalliance and ended up with a 9 iron in his windshield, and its been going downhill since.
Not at all. it’s seen a resurgence, in the anglophone world at least, since 2020. Facility openings/closures in the US have stabilised in recent years. That resurgence may slow down as public golf has undeniably become more expensive, though.
KASP: Keep America Safe for Pedophiles.
Way to go Benedict Donald!
What is Benedict Donald thinking he made his bones with conspiracy theory.
Re: AI Grok girlfriend available to 12-year-olds
Whew. Not difficult to forecast a major sh*tstorm incoming over this.
It’s almost as if the aim is to pry young people away from other humans, cultivate and amplify any latent narcissistic tendencies, and make them dependent on a Musk platform, which at some point will probably start charging them for “Premium” dates with xAni. And then there will be the eventual entrepreneurs (probably former employees of Musk’s company) who will launch “Grok deprogramming” camps, to try and bilk families for $$$ to reintegrate their hikikomori kids back into human society.
Mandatory Futurama PSA :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uE96qUlJ_4
So funny and so uncannily on point.
Not only can we have amor ex machina but Deus ex machina as well.
Clergy grapple with the ethics of using AI to write sermons NPR
Might not one infer from this line of thinking that my car won’t start due to demonic possession?
The sampling operation of the LLM is every bit as mechanical yet subtle as the casting of runes, which doesn’t seem very Christian as far as I ever knew it.
If your car is one of those cell phones on wheels, however, daemonic possession is probably not far from the truth of the matter.
What are gremlins if not demons?
Gremlins from the Kremlin = Lada.
There is a Black Mirror episode on this, Acacia.
In ‘Common People’ a wife and teacher has a growth affixed to her parietal lobe and odds are she will never come out of coma. A nice sales lady that just happens to be cruising the neurology ward asks her husband to come and have a chat. The new company Rivermind offers to create a back up of the affected part of her brain, store it on its cloud, then remove the effected area, and replace it with synthetic receiver tissue.
Its all based on a subscription model and limited at launch to the location of their towers. It works and even though it stresses the budget and having a kid anytime soon all seems well. Until Rivermind starts launching new levels tiered of serviced, those that can’t afford it end up as walking advertising when prompted in conversations lol. Everything is down hill from there ….
‘Mao Ning 毛宁
@SpoxCHN_MaoNing
Robots are taking the subway on their own to deliver goods in Shenzhen, southern China. World’s first! 🤖’
Those robots look cute and cuddly alright but those panels at the side look suspiciously like deployable gunports for when the robots rise.
But in all seriousness, why is it that it looks like the Chinese live in the future while we here in the west continue to go back to the 19th century?
Looked fairly staged and Utopian?
>> why is it that it looks like the Chinese live in the future while we here in the west continue to go back to the 19th century?
because their uniparty has skin in the game—via a better grasp of the need for morals and ethics in governance (more-so than today’s west). Confucius addressed elite corruption when northern Europeans were still in huts.
implicitly China is aware of its own long history of cycling between stability and fragmentation. it’s a long way down and a hard fall from Panem Capitol District.
Unironic Pangloss: Confucius addressed elite corruption when northern Europeans were still in huts.
What planet are you living on?
China, with the longest continuous history of any human civilization, used it for forty-one centuries on state slaves — and slavery was as widespread in ancient China as in Rome — and for political punishment, and to create eunuchs for imperial service, till at the Ming Dynasty’s end some 70,000 existed. In fact, the last imperial eunuch, Sun Yaoting, only died in 1996. So that’s your Confucian stability, and corruption was rampant, persistent, and often deeply entrenched within it, contributing to the fall of each dynasty just as it’s doing in the modern US.
Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE)
Officials were frequently accused of bribery and nepotism. The *Book of Han* (漢書) documents numerous cases of embezzlement and abuse of power.
Tang Dynasty (618–907)
Despite legal reforms, corruption flourished, especially among regional governors. The *Tang Code* (唐律疏義) tried to define and punish corrupt acts but enforcement was uneven.
Song Dynasty (960–1279)
Salaries were relatively high to discourage corruption, yet bribery and favoritism remained common. Scholar-officials sometimes used literary networks to shield each other.
Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368)
Corruption reached unprecedented levels. Mongol nobles institutionalized gift-taking, and Semu officials (foreign administrators) were notorious for bribery.
Ming Dynasty (1368–1644)
Officials often purchased their posts, leading to widespread extortion.
Qing Dynasty (1644–1912)
Corruption was rampant, especially at the local level. Low salaries and high administrative costs drove magistrates to levy irregular taxes and accept bribes. The infamous case of Heshen 和珅, a Qing official who amassed immense wealth through corruption, is well-documented.
Qing dynasty corruption indeed was what enabled the British and then the rest of the Europeans to walk all over the Chinese in the 19th century, if one understands corruption both in: –
[1] The literal technical sense — e.g. the taking of bribes and extraction of wealth by elites from those more vulnerable than them — and;
[2] In the larger sense that Qing dynasty elites very deliberately suppressed China’s technological development to preserve ‘Confucian stability’ — their elite position and privilege, that is — as a result making China deeply vulnerable to superior European military and shipbuilding technologies
Just a couple of links so I don’t overload this post, but there are thousands out there —
High Corruption Income in Ming and Qing China
https://business.baylor.edu/Van_Pham/Ming_Qing.pdf
https://gwongzaukungfu.com/en/corruption-in-qing-dynasty/
Thank you for all of that. The more we learn about human behavior the more discouraging it is; corruption in the powerful is mostly the norm.
“I had a choice. I could be an insider or I could be an outsider. Outsiders can say whatever they want. But people on the inside don’t listen to them. Insiders, however, get lots of access and a chance to push their ideas. People — powerful people — listen to what they have to say. But insiders also understand one unbreakable rule: They don’t criticize other insiders.”
> Elizabeth Warren, reporting what former Harvard President Larry Summers told her.
Thanks!
Of course a neat piece of BS-justification and euphemism for egotism and pathological behaviour and cowardice.
That’s it in a nutshell. So Gen Z blames Boomers for the mess their world is in, but Boomers have been trying to change it where/when they can all along. Never easy. Probably true for generations for as long as we have had institutions.
The exceptionally well researched and annotated books 1421 and 1435 by Gavin Menzies document the sea faring colonial era of the Ming Dynasty. News flash: China discovered and mapped pretty much the entire world 70 years before Columbus “discovered” America.
Menzies’ claims have been rejected as fiction by most historians, according to wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Menzies
I think that the Chinese are more aware of corruption’s existence and persistence as well as its ultimately lethal effects both because of their current philosophical and ideological underpinnings and historical memories. All of which Americans especially our elites do not have.
People have strange fetish about foreign cultures. The strange things that my ancestors–Korean converts to Catholicism in 18th and 19th centuries–believed about implications of their new faith for society and politics are as mind boggling about what Westerners believe about allegedly noble non Westerners and their cultures.
So, is there any problems with corruption in the EU under VdL at the moment? How about the US of A? Sorry but talking about corruption in Ming and Qing China is a lot like talking about corruption in pre-revolutionary France. Interesting to study but France is no longer that country anymore not by a long shot – and modern China’s adoption of high tech is way different to Quing China trying to suppress it.
The men of Qi presented the government of Lu with a troupe of singing girls. Ji Huanzi accepted them and for three days failed to appear at court. Confucius left the state. Analects
The Hongwu Emperor fought corruption tirelessly:
Had I thoroughly eradicated corrupt officials in addition to those already imprisoned I would have been dealing with two thousand men from just two prefectures, men with no useful occupation who used my prestige to oppress people. No-one outside government knew how wicked they were, so everyone said my punishments were harsh, for they saw only the severity of the law and didn’t know that these villains had used the government’s good name to engage in evil practices. In the morning I punished a few and, by evening, others had committed the same crimes. I punished those in the evening and next morning there were more violations! Although the corpses of the first had not been removed others were already lined up to follow in their path, day and night! The harsher the punishment, the more violations. I didn’t know what to do, but I couldn’t rest. If I was lenient the law became ineffectual, order deteriorated, people thought me weak and engaged in still more evil practices. If I punished them, others regarded me as a tyrant. How could anyone lead a peaceful life in such circumstances? Really, my situation was dreadful.
From Huáng-Míng Zǔxùn (Instructions of the Ancestor of the August Ming), admonitions left to his descendants by the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, founder of the Ming dynasty (1368 to 1644).
Confucians fought corruption more effectively than the Romans, partly because of public participation. The people retained the right to withdraw the Mandate of Heaven–and, according to the constitution, still do–and many governments met grisly ends when they failed to honor the Four Principles–propriety, justice, honesty, and honor–or their officials lacked the Eight Virtues–loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, love, integrity, righteousness, harmony and peace.
Gore Vidal, a great student of history, in his excellent novel about the Axial Age, Creation, puts Confucius as the wisest of them all.
“If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success. When affairs cannot be carried on to success, proprieties and music do not flourish.”
― Confucius, The Analects
The only way a robot would be able to deliver goods at night in the subway of a large US city, without being mugged, is with functional gunports.
Perhaps the export model for the US?
“The only way a robot would be able to deliver goods at night in the subway of a large US city, without being mugged, is with functional gunports.”
Actually, it would need than and an armed robot escort. Too many ways the delivery bot alone could be disarmed.
An armed robot escort, in the air, for a proper AirLand Battle. I mean delivery. AirLand Delivery of consumer products, and democracy, and death.
The USS Indianapolis, which left SF Bay the same day as the Trinity test in NM on July 16th, is headed to Tinian with Little Boy as I type, 80 years ago.
Imagine if a Japanese submarine took it out en route and not after it had delivered the A-bomb?
Good reminder of the WWII history, and that I still simply must see the Oppenheimer movie that I just never caught in theaters two years back. I saw a preview of what director Nolan is bringing to the big screen next year…it seems epic of course!
My grandfather might have been stationed on Okinawa by then but I’m not certain of the varied islands where his Pacific travels with the US Navy.
Speaking of nukes and Okinawa:
https://thebulletin.org/2015/10/the-okinawa-missiles-of-october/
That wasn’t the only ‘close run thing’ during the Cuban Missile Crisis: https://www.rt.com/news/564393-dangerously-close-to-nuclear-destruction/
The movie is not so much about the Bomb as about Oppenheimer’s personal life and his later travails with a security committee. In a recent article James Cameron openly criticized the film for saying little about the Hiroshima result and Cameron plans to make a graphic depiction of what happened on the ground that day in Japan.
Of course talking about the result would make Oppenheimer a lot less sympathetic and the movie even exaggerates his role in the Manhattan Project (he was hired by Groves, who really ran things).
Nolan is a whiz with a camera but some of us are a lot less impressed with his scripting abilities.
The reactions to the film are interesting.
Physicists I spoke to surprisingly liked it.
Some filmmakers less so.
I would contradict the fact that Oppenheimer ´s role was exaggerated.
Remember back in 1942 nobody knew how it works and whether it would work at all.
Nukes were an “undiscovered country” yet. Like building the first light bulb.
By comparison Germany messed up the theoretical part. Which is why they did not pursue.
So: all contesting countries started from scratch. It is due to Oppenheimer and his team that they succeeded where others failed.
And that will remain one of the biggest achievements in science history.
Which doesn’t mean I hail them for building the bomb. Absolutely not.
A Jo Rotblat quit as soon as it was obvious that the German bomb was a ghost.
They all should have. Or at least stop after Trinity.
But none of this was due to Groves. He merely turned the pressure cooker on.
I personally found the film boring and tedious where others saw originality (those images to illustrate the physics e.g.).
Most surprising the bad performance by R. Downey Jr. Which reveals Nolan´s limitations as a director. Because directing is so much more than creating some superficial fancy images.
Elevating Downey´s acting above his misconceptions of how to achieve an interesting Strauss would be the real accomplishment of a director.
What IMO does count as Nolan´s achievement was the insight that – on script level – blending Manhattan effort WITH Strauss´s goal to fight Oppenheimer was the way to go.
Which made Strauss the antagonist and the engine of the screenplay. Without that second story element no conflict and thus no mass-compatible plot.
Whether or not that was Nolan´s own finding or the non-fiction books´ he used is secondary.
For comparison watch “Fat Man And Little Boy” 1989 by Roland Joffé. That too being a major production with big stars (and better acting.)
It fails where Nolan succeeds at least on the story level. Simply because Joffé was solely concerned with building Little Boy. But that was not a story with enough inherent conflict. Since there was nobody opposing the goal of building the bomb. And the FBI probes into Oppenheimer´s family businesses – which was the only negative actor – never threatened the completion of the bomb
There’s a scene in the movie where the Oppenheimer character is suggesting how to setup the manufacture of materials–something that was well underway by the time Groves hired Oppenheimer to supervise the design of the bomb itself.
The movie takes all its cues from the book American Prometheus which itself is all aboiut Oppenheimer and only about the bomb as the background. A much better source is Richard Rhodes The Making of the Atomic Bomb which talks about all the forebears who discovered fission etc.
And Groves himself wrote a book which my library had. He could have picked someone other than Oppenheimer to supervise and some said he should have. It’s quite likely there would have been a bomb without Oppenheimer.
Within a year or two the movie a documentary about Oppenheimer was also made. I found this considerably more informative than Hollywood’s whiz-bang production.
Go-to books about the development of the USA’s nuclear weapons were written by Richard Rhodes:The Making of the Atomic Bomb; and Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb
Japan also had a nuclear weapons development program, and it was much further along than outsiders realized at the time. The science part of it took place on the main islands of the country, but the industrial installations were in what is now North Korea and are now part of that country’s nuclear weapons complex.
Oh Amadeus: Mozart / Salieri dichotomy…
I’m appreciative of these helpful notes and yes even the book suggestions too. The high quality nature in such comment threads is really superior, my two cents.
Maybe I’ll save the movie for later and go find that book at the local library. I have a related book on the war in the Pacific, one I never did finish, a bad habit but it was such a long book ( it’s a poor defense…granted ).
I thought reading Brotherhood of the Bomb was far more informative than that 3 hour movie, but if you’re a movie person, it isn’t terrible. But it isn’t amazing either. It’s really long.
What tends to be ignored is the work of the Navy’s NRL, in particular Ross Gunn. The Navy was mostly interested in submarine propulsion and not weapons and was focused on purifying UF6 and isotope separation.
Groves got Bush and FDR to cut the Navy out of funding and resources for nuclear research.
ROSS GUNN AND THE NAVAL RESEARCH LABORATORY’S EARLY RESEARCH INTO NUCLEAR PROPULSION, 1939-1946
” ‘An insult’: Malaysians slam nomination of ‘alpha-male’ Nick Adams as US ambassador”
‘Adams, 40, who was born in Australia but obtained US citizenship in 2021, will need to be confirmed by the US Senate before he can assume the role.’
Almost certainly this wannabe Zionist was chosen to stick it to the Malaysians due to their support for the Palestinians. Such is diplomacy these days. Well he may need to be confirmed by the Senate but the Malaysians can simply reject him as Ambassador and ask for another one. There are already protests by Malaysians about the mouth from the south being selected and if Trump forced this choice on Malaysia, you can bet that the relations between the US and Malaysia would be turned to ash during his term-
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/18/pressure-builds-in-malaysia-to-reject-trumps-pro-israel-pick-as-ambassador
To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, “Hemingway knew Nick Adams. Aussie Nick Adams is no Nick Adams”.
Well, er…. maybe fiction and reality are merging. A different Singularity?
Lordy these times are exhausting!
I find it amazing that Trump’s approvals (currently around 45 percent) are holding up as well as they are. We’ve gone from grifter presidents to Trump’s bizarro world absolute monarch version, albeit his devotion to Israel being an asterisk for the “absolute.” Perhaps the reason he is so hysterical about Epstein is that smoke suggest fire in the blackmail dept.
Meanwhile Helmer suggests that the family history of Alzheimer’s is beginning to show. It’s hard to see how this can last until 2028.
Normally I would agree with you. But then I have to remind myself that the White House staff kept a dementia patient as President for nearly four full years. And what is worse, that was not the first time that that happened.
Remember the late 90’s … Clinton’s personal approval ratings went into the toilet over l’affaire Lewinsky, but his job approval stubbornly held up, much to the chagrin of the Newtster.
Sex scandals, even ones now involving child trafficking no longer shock us.
As an aside, I watched a Youtube news story about Trump’s health issues, and it had a shot of his ankles. They were extremely swollen, and he has tell-tale patches of discoloration on his hands indicative of some sort of medical problem.
Caution needed to heed IMDoc’s warning about trying to play MD.
I believe the White House itself just announced he has a circulatory problem in his legs as many older people do. Helmer says his sources say Trump can’t even tie his shoelaces now and Helmer is suggesting mental issues on top of inevitable old age physical problems.
Having a big gut can make it hard to tie your shoes. Your bloated paunch prevents you from stretching your arms down—too many Big Macs for the Big Guy.
I was thinking the same too. He is kind of a bulky guy and at his age could get winded by bending down to do his shoe laces up. I doubt that he does any sort of exercises either and it all come back to get you sooner or later. Come to think of it, did Joe Biden tie his own shoe laces?
I imagine that Biden’s “handlers” instituted basic protocols and removed his shoelaces and anything else that he could have ‘harmed’ himself with, like in prison.
No. The only laces that genocide joe loved to tie were bibi’s, and what my sources tell me, and swear me to secrecy, was that genocide joe absolutely glowed whenever he had the happy chance to polish bibi’s 👠 shoes. But like everything else that the genocider got tangled up with, he grew more and more confused, and wasn’t able, in the end, to know shit from shinola, and so that put an end to all that. Poor, poor, genocide joe!
Hey that big gut took a lot of effort just to make sure he looks similar to a former golfer who was nicknamed the Walrus….\sarc
Craig Stadler was the golfer, btw I am only kidding. My late father developed a pretty big gut once he deigned to quit smoking cold turkey in his late 50s, sans helpful aids to quit, or anything really except the potato chips became his go to after quitting.
I know there are lots of daily kos readers out there who are just dying for Trump to have some kind of terminal medical problems. I have read all kinds of breathless reports this weekend that he obviously has leukemia, lymphoma, hemophilia ( LOL), myelodysplasia among many others, based on the appearance of his hands. Many of these reports are being seconded by physicians.
Since we are only able to examine the hands and not the rest of the body, it is possible, but very unlikely that they are correct. If this kind of bruising was happening all over the body, there may indeed be very big problems.
I, however, after decades of taking care of people, play the game “common things happen commonly”. And trust me, I am presented hands that look just like this on 70somethings at least 1-2 times a day. It is a very common occurrence. The patients do not even bring it up as an issue. I just notice it during hand shakes. My own father had hands that looked exactly like this during his 70s and 80s. Walk through any nursing home in America and I would dare say 1/3 to 1/2 of the patients will have the same. These are so common and non-problematic, the patients often have names for these bruises like “barnacles”. The bruises become old friends.
The cause is very simple. The older we get, our peripheral skin veins become more fragile by the year. There is nothing to be done to fix this issue. Because impacts commonly happen on the back of the hands and the forearms, with weakened venous structures, this anatomic area often ends up looking like a war zone. This can be made worse by the patient being on aspirin most commonly, but also other blood thinners like Eliquis, Xarelto, and Plavix. It also is seen in recently having blood drawn or an IV site placed. The back of the hand is a common location for these phlebotomy activities. Again, aspirin and the others make this bruising during IV placement much more common.
The irony of having all these doctors make these diagnoses with Trump while for the past 5 years castigating anyone who said a word about Biden ( even though the Biden issues were literally crystal clear) is just beyond the pale.
It is always possible that Trump has something really wrong. Guess what – I could have something really wrong. We all could. As I said yesterday – most of these diagnoses being bandied about would not just involve bruising but many other systemic issues. If a patient has a leukemia or lymphoma situation to the point of bruising, they are simply not going to be out and about doing 18 holes of golf in mid-summer Miami heat and humidity.
This entire situation is just very disappointing. I am continually stunned by my profession not forcefully putting forth accurate and true information and instead lining up to make this type of thing worse. Again, the bruises MAY indicate something. However, way more likely than not, all it is possibly indicating is a 70something who is possibly on aspirin. This line of attack of “Trump is dying” is very likely not going to be fruitful and indeed may end in all involved looking a bit “lit”.
It seems to be a thing for some people to look for weaknesses in their enemies. So Putin is supposedly on his 24th heart attack and about to go toes up any day now.
Yes, this has been a frequent line of attack in recent decades. When Trump was running against Hillary there were numerous articles online about her “stumbling” and being “unsteady” on her feet, which were taken to indicate some serious illness. And Putin was supposed to be on his last legs from cancer or something 3 years ago. It’s almost like aspirational witchcraft, casting a spell against someone the caster wants dead and hoping that will make it so. (That said, 79 is pretty darn old, for most of us; maybe not so much for the rich though.)
Only thing is that with Hillary, there was the time that she collapsed while in New York attending 9/11 commemoration events back in 2016(!!) and they had to throw her into a van like a sack of potatoes so that she could get medical treatment-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhf1HGaAFfg
Thanks as always. I barely watch TV so Trump seems rough in recent Youtube clips but surely what really has people worried would be what comes out of his mouth rather than bruises on his hands. Being able to play golf doesn’t mean he is all there upstairs.
And Biden and his handlers and the media kept his condition hidden away whereas Trump can’t seem to stay away from the cameras and the attention. Most presidents like to take breaks and vacations given the stresses of the office. With Trump we can only say “if only!” The planet might just continue to turn without him suggesting he has something to do with it.
Whatever is going on with our president it will become obvious in due time. No escape for him or us either.
Battery tariff.
The 93% is added to another existing tariff for about 160% on graphite, adding about $7 per kWh to battery prices not a huge amount. I would expect there will be more added as well.
It’s something basically no one else makes.
As to the other part of the story that the US is trying to dismantle the Chinese dominance? Whoever wrote that has no clue. Tesla just bought a whole factory from china to make batteries. Including all materials to supply it. And all the other battery factories are the same, supplied by the Japanese, Korea, or China.
To the best of my knowledge the US has almost if not zero mining/refining of most of the materials that go into batteries.
Martuscelli, Politico. France’s Budget Bombshell.
This article is the usual neoliberal hyperventilating. At least France doesn’t have the Social Security Administration to beat up on, although Martuscelli tries to make up a pension crisis.
To wit: “Bayrou is only one of a handful of instinctively centrist prime ministers in the region to find themselves boxed in by the extremes of left and right: only last week, across the Channel, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer was forced by a backbench revolt of his own MPs to abandon welfare cuts he deemed necessary.” Awwwww, Bayrou and Starmer, both stymied in impoverishing the population.
As journalists and political analysts here in Italy are already noting, maybe, maybe, if France hadn’t tossed billions of dollars into the proxy war / slaughter in Ukraine (one million dead, including some unnamed Franchies) and if France hadn’t tossed billions into sponsoring the genocide in Palestine, the budget crisis wouldn’t have arrived.
To wit (and more claptrap from the article): “And at the same time as solving that problem, governments also have to finance a huge upgrade to Europe’s rusty armed forces, to deal with the renewed threat from the east. So far, Germany, the U.K. and France have all accepted they will need to shell out handsomely for that, but Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has balked at the challenge.”
If anyone is wondering why Giorgia Meloni is now engaged in an extra-special tap dance, along with Antonio Tajani and the ever-lovin’ media creation Matteo Renzi, it is the above two factors: Here’s the equation:
destroyed social state + enforced financing of war = your coalition will fall.
Ça va sans dire.
The problem is much more fundamental than the billions for Ukraine and Israel, as the budgetary shortfall is vastly greater than those expenses and is not caused by excessive outlays, but rather by insufficient revenue.
The price of energy going up, up, up?
We had a tiny wealth tax that Jupiter abolished within a month after his annointment. We also had labor law that gave unions some additional power to keep wages up without having to resort to a strike. We also had retirement at an earlier age. Macron is a disaster for French workers of all kinds. Bayrou is a wet-brained mouthpiece for slurred mediocrity and makes even the worst of his PM predecessors look competent. Our independent foreign policy establishment died when Sarkozy brought us back into NATO. One thing I cannot blame on Manu.
only one of a handful of instinctively centrist prime ministers in the region to find themselves boxed in by the extremes of left and right
Maybe they should have said “find themselves the only adult in the room”
Extreme ventilation!
“More broadly, the European Commission’s last effort at quantifying the problem in 2021 said the overall cost of ageing — including pension, health and care costs — will rise from 24 percent of GDP in 2019 to 25.9 percent by 2070.”
So, a fifty-year economic projection (reading dog poop would be more accurate) shows less effect than the Trump-demanded military spending increase in the next few years, and yet aging is a problem that can only be fixed by austerity, although the “fiscal urgency” doesn’t argue against Europe spending money it doesn’t have on a war it would lose?
Hmmmm
Armchair Warlord writes that US Army – Europe General “Donahue is either bluffing [about taking Kaliningrad] or he’s an idiot.” It could be worse. I suspect he’s a calculating suck-up. The vibe I get from many NATO countries is that the centrist neoliberal cartel is covering for its crisis of domestic political legitimacy by going war with Russia. If that’s going to happen it could be good for Donahue so he’s giving the Russia hawks what they want to hear.
The USAF in Europe and the bulk of NATO air assets will be shot down or destroyed on the ground within the first 72 hours. Fortunately for Donahue’s underlings, a few dozens of pilots will die (and saner heads will prevail???) before the real slaughter on the ground starts
Our hospital ended up (mostly) nixing their pharma delivery robots when they blocked too many elevators, (and perhaps a few (unofficial) accidents…). Elevator signs said patients get priority on elevators.
There was a link to a video here recently showing in-hospital deliveries via containers traveling along a ceiling track. I think it was in China. That eliminates the problems of running into humans, but I don’t know how they handled the transfers between floors. Makes me think of the old vacuum tube system larger business to have to send documents and items inside their buildings. That could work for delivering meds in a hospital.
They still exist and seem to be used in hospitals
https://www.adanacsystems.com/hospital-pneumatic-tube-systems/
There was a clip with the delivery of meds and shipping of samples for lab tests in a Chinese hospital. It was done by monorail attached mini robots to the ceiling and available throught the place.
“Israel Is Preparing to Bomb Iran…Again”
Chinese fighters proved effective in the recent Indian-Pakistan war recently. If Israel attacks Iran, does this mean we will get a chance to see how effective those Chinese anti-air missiles that they have been shipping into Iran will be? Does Israel really want to find out? This article makes it sound like the Israelis will just launch the occasional attack into Iran like they do in Lebanon and Syria. Only trouble is, Iran has the capability to shoot back and who knows what targets they will choose. Bonus points if it is Netanyahu’s holiday home. But then this article uses the following as an excuse for Israel to attack Iran-
‘This stance comes as Israeli intelligence believes Iran could still recover a significant amount of near-bomb-grade uranium from the damaged Isfahan site.’
All that stuff is long g-o-n-e gone and nobody knows where it is. And the Iranians are hardly going to tell the Us and Israel where it is now.
It does seem like only a mater of time before Israel lobs bombs into Iran again. I wonder if the Iranians will respond tit-for-tat like before, and if they will show restraint about striking Israeli nuke sites the way they did last time.
The problem for Israelis that they don’t have strategic depth. They are only a pip-squeak country with one major airport and two major seaports while Iran has dozens of each and is huge. And during that brief war Iran was well on the way to shutting Israel off from the world by attacking those transport hubs. That’s why Israel had to run to Daddy to make them stop.
Daddy=Uncle Sugar
Rut roh … I sense some Patriot missiles being hastily re-deployed back to Israel to defend the counterattack … such a dilemma for the deep state.
Iran is large and can absorb a lot of expensive munitions while responding in kind to little Israel.
The week of the US attacks Ted Postol told Nima he could have loaded the 500 kg of 60% refined in his Prius, if the springs…..
It is unlikely the refined uranium was in the targets! It is also unlikely the gigantic penetrators hit the shafts at the right aspect and that the shafts were straight line to production galleries.
US and Israeli intel is suspect!
That said IDF cannot refrain from keeping US involved, so Iran will be targeted again and again.
Air to air defense requires situation awareness usually with airborne warning and control, which China may have a good system, maybe good as or better than US-E-3. If that system is in Iran and Iran can keep it from being shot down (the radar makes a location beacon). Russian and Chinese air to air missiles are a bit longer range than US counterparts. Which may have benefited Pakistan against India.
We will have to see if IDF aircraft get any closer to Iran than eastern Turkey…
Which places the current weirdness in Syria in perspective. If Israel keeps up foing whatever they are doing now, will they even make it into Tutkish controlled airspace? If Turkiye brings down an IDF F15 or two, what then?
Türkiye is in NATO. It hosts a number of major NATO air bases in the east from it being a southern flank against the Soviets.
If U.S. went to war with Iran it has more and better infrastructure for tactical aircraft than in the area of Ukraine.
That said Turkey likes F-16 and a few other U.S. systems and plays an edgy game in the Middle East.
Complexity
Yes, but does Israel attacking Iran nevessarily imply US attacking Iran? Israel is known to do crazy things eith expectation that US will cover for them. Not sure if Turkiye will necessarily buy in on this if things stray into, eh, strange territories. So my specific scenario is: Israel goes lone wolf via Turkiye-controlled airspace without permission, things happen, then what, given the weird relationships in the region?
Will we get a chance to see Iran NOT stopping its strikes on Israel?
The US and Israel are just saying that Iran is not allowed to use the enriched uranium as a means to force the US into some negotiation and/or agreement with Iran. Iran has to be a pariah and a treat state for the forseable future until regime change and/or balkanization is/are achieved.
Regime change by sex scandal in the Anglosphere, stress on U S of A, land of pseudo-libertines.
Brethren and sistren:
The links to Epstein, Trump, the honeypot (which may have been a feature but not the central function of Epstein’s labors), various musings by Ghislaine Maxwell (who likely is her father’s daughter), Alexander Mercouris’s long question to Robert Barnes in which Mercouris listed fabled Epstein assets like a giant mansion, giant ranch, an islet or three, are pointing toward a major scandal.
RedMaga is incensed, and good for them. Many of us watched excerpts from Tucker Carlson’s now-controversial speech at Turning Points. BlueMaga wants to cause distress to Trump, but then there are (at least) Bill Clinton, he of the painting in Epstein’s collection in which Bill is wearing a blue dress and red high heels.
I say: There are times when one has to put up with inconvenient tactics to get at a goal, which is a (partial) political rearrangement in the U S of A.
If the Anglosphere is peculiar in its use of sex scandals as a lubricant to get resignations from the government, I say: Don’t spare the dildo if the Bill of Rights is at stake.
I wonder: It amazes me how much of U.S. politics runs on sexual innuendo. Here in Italy, where politicians certainly don’t have “hair on their tongue” as the Italians say, private lives are generally off limits, unless a politician drags a personal mess into the public square. I’m thinking of Gennaro Sangiuliano and his recent fraud of a Big Blonde. Then there’s Berlù and the endless bungabunga and his pseudo-widow, the bizarre Marta Fascina.
In the U S of A: It’s everyone accusing everyone else of being a pervert all the time.
So: Henry Moon Pie twitted me in a comment yesterday, asking if I was prepared for a new Baader-Meinhoff Gang. Living in Italy as I do, and in Piedmont, where they were some especially grim incidents, I don’t want to return to the years of lead.
Regime change? I say: Don’t flinch from the various sex lives that the Epstein scandal may reveal. Put the perps in jail.
Regime change? When Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trump agree that there is no scandal — I can assure you that there is a gigundo scandal.
So if you want to restore the Republic, just close your eyes and think of Ted Cruz’s love life.
This made my day. Thanks DJG.
( I so much wanted to identify as Italian despite my Turkish (Calabria) DNA) But recently I learn that my uncle ran numbers for the Pittsburgh mob back in the day. So there’s that.
Stephen V: Turkish is an impediment? Do you know the career of the brilliant Ferzan Özpetek, who most definitely is Italian (having arrived at the age of 19 or so)?
I am mainly of Sicilian descent, which translates as “Greek and messy.”
That’s Italian.
I understand what you are saying Czar, but there is a difference between the rape of children and the “sex lives” of adults.
Americans still like to pretend to be of Puritanical extraction. The Salem girls ultimately proved long time ago that the Devil’s DNA runs deep in these people.
As some good, old Framer said, the blood of patriots is needed to restore the tree of liberty…
That’s incomplete that and I sometimes think deliberately so. Thomas Jefferson actually said-
‘The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.‘
It’s amazing how often they leave off those last two words.
Apologies for offering links, but these two substacks, seem relevant to current and recent discussions: Emmanuel Todd, of some fame for his book La défaite de l’Occident (The defeat of the West) has started to offer english version of his substack, and the most recent discusses russophobia. A wickedly witty person, if there ever was one. https://emmanueltodd.substack.com/?r=ljswa&utm_campaign=pub&utm_medium=web
And one possible trajectory for xAni – the Venusberg for our current-day Tannhäusers – a philosophical look on MechaHitler and waifu Ani. https://open.substack.com/pub/lessfoolish/p/which-way-western-man-mechahitler?r=ljswa&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
We love additional links. We can only run so many in the post proper due to time limits and how many might = reader overload.
Correct link for:
Why Gen Z goes mad for Dostoyevsky Young people crave an anti-capitalist prophet Unherd
https://unherd.com/2025/07/why-gen-z-goes-mad-for-dostoyevsky/?us=1
that made me put on my curmudgeon hat—-Dostoyevsky’s books are in the pantheon of books including “Wealth of Nations,” “Les Miserables,” “Brave New World” (add your own, etc)….that “everyone” says that they read, but they haven’t actually read it.
I have read Brave New World, Les Mis, Wealth of Nations and more (War and Peace, Robinson Crusoe, plenty of Camus etc). I found Dostoyevsky to be unreadable. One of the few books I have ever abandoned. I just wanted Raskolnikov to shut up and die already!
I had a similar feeling about Jack Kerouac.
I have read all of Moby Dick, and Gravity’s Rainbow twice. I loved Crime and Punishment and plan to read Brothers Karamazov soon.
I tried to read The Idiot three times. I stopped at the same place: somebody coming down on a staircase. The fourth time I was on the same wave-length as the book and finished it. Nice reading experience. Crime and Punishment was really intense. For a week or so I dreamt about not being sure if I was the having killed somebody or not.
The Brothers Karamazov, in Garnett’s translation, is the only F.D. book I’ve read. It has many quite humorous passages. The underlying anti-Western theme of the book doesn’t bother me, because it was, indeed, a prescient warning about the tendencies of the modern West..
Re: Kerouac. At first I found The Dharma Bums to be a better novel than On the Road (It also interested me in mountaineering.) However, after repeated readings, I found that On the Road, which seems at first like a breathless jumble, is actually a well-designed structure.
“I found Dostoyevsky to be unreadable”
Ha!
I believe Hemingway said the same thing.
If they read them when they were in the 20s and now are in the 60s, that is a long time… Some ouvres need to be revisited every so often…
Hmm, maybe…. But I’ve promised my 60’s to all those doorstop British Victorian authors (Dickens, Trollope, Hardy, Kipling, Walter Scott, George Elliot, Kingsley etc.). And then there’s Tolstoy and Hugo and Balzac. Dostoyevsky’s going to have to join the queue!
My other big failure to sustain interest was with Don Quixote so I do wonder if the translation was to blame with both Crime and Punishment and Don Quixote. I might need to experiment with other editions….
Some “masterpieces” are stale indeed.
Yea, it would be even better at not fighting anyone but balloons.
P.S. This whole romantization reminded me of Tiger tank prototypes “drive-off”. Both were not very good, but one was worse.
There I was…. the start of most “war stories”.
In the case of the F-35, the “war story. is that the Boeing entry did not “hover” as well as the Lockheed entry!! That capacity is only useful for provide air support to a battalion of marines delivered by landing ship…..”
See how good F-35 came out!
The vaunted “fly before buy” is not so good, decisions are made with too little actual observation.
It is time to get the alien ship from Area 51 to the surface and show the rest of the world what the US can really do.
Well they would but the MIC were allowed to get their hands on it to make “improvements” and “upgrades” and add a whole boat load of bells and whistles – at an exorbitant cost of tens and billions of dollars – and now the damn thing can’t get off the ground.
The reference to the YF-22’s supposed superiority for “dogfighting” brought me up short. Do jet pilots still dogfight? I thought they stood off dozens of miles away and fired air-to-air missiles (with target tracking) at each other. Were the Pakistani and Indian pilots dogfighting in their recent air war? Not saying the Pentagon wouldn’t base their purchasing decisions on obsolete war tactics, but it seemed like a strange concept.
> Private Equity and Workers: Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud Eileen Appelbaum, CEPR
>> What has actually happened is that the new private equity owners have redistributed the company’s resources post-buyout to increase the company’s resale value a few years hence and maximize their own wealth.
I thought Romney showed us that you maximize the paper value now, so you can take out loans and stuff your pockets now, ibgybg to avoid future discounting issues.
o, i just got the giddiness at uncorking mergers…
The end of Kevork’s full post on Syria is worth emphasizing:
“To ignore the degenerative role of imported extremists—disguised as freedom fighters—is to rewrite history with blood-soaked hands. It wasn’t a simple civil war. It was a controlled demolition of a nation, designed to produce either fragmentation or submission to foreign influence.”
“The plan wasn’t botched; it was executed to perfection. Balkanization wasn’t the risk—it was the goal.”
As it was in Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, etc. And as is the plan for Iran. I keep hearing how “Iran is different.” I realize this, but I have no doubt that this is the plan. We’ll see if the project for a New Middle East/Greater Israel finally over-extends itself – or not.
That plan for Iran is just a repeat of Project Ukraine. Use a war to get regime change, install some pliant dummy and the proceed to break up that country and throw it into chaos. Then go in a loot the place clean. You can bet that Trump was drooling at Iran’s oil fields.
Seems that Graham and his likes never got over their failure in 1860s…
Iran is different, as it’s only a slight exaggeration to say that the Levantine Arabic states are basically confederates of clans* (which themselves are confederates of tribes) masking as “modern” states while Persia became one around 550 BC.
So, Iran is much harder to fragment, albeit it could be easier to “regime change”. Hafez al-Assad was a cunning and ruthless (unlike his son) in using corrupt strongmen (thus loyal to the system and not tribes) to retain his power and manipulating the second tier sheikhs to prevent the clans uniting against the government. al-Jolani spend years charming the sheikhs so that the clans allowed him to win the civil war – he still needs his “foreign fighters” to stay in power.
And every day it seems more obvious that the clans are not happy with the current state of affairs.
* the clans spread from country to another, so there are people from Qatar to Syria that belong to the same clan and maybe even same tribe. And it’s really hard to say where their loyalty really is.
I’ve been to Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. These countries are NOT merely “confederacies of clans.”
Indeed, I was quite struck by the degree of national sentiment I discovered in all three of those countries, particularly in Lebanon.
Every state in the world, every society in the world, is a composite of some kind. Every state, every society, has its tracery of fault-lines, which might open under stress.
There are few states in the world which could have withstood the stresses of war and blockade as well as Syria. Absent the interference of the world’s richest and most powerful countries, Syria would never have fallen into the current chaos.
It would, by comparison, be much easier to wreck my own country, Canada, than to wreck Syria.
But even the world’s most seemingly integral countries can be torn to shreds, if enough forces act upon them. That goes for everybody: Persia, China, Japan, England, you name it. I repeat, every state is a composite thing, and every composite can be decomposed.
Civil wars, in themselves, do not indicate whether a state is by nature weak or artificial. China, for example, went through decades of fracture and warlord chaos. As was the case in Syria, much of the division and chaos was fostered by foreign powers.
Syria is not a weak state, as such. It is a strong state, which only cracked after many years of war and blockade.
“The Number Go Up Rule: Why America Refuses to Fix Anything”
Matt Stoller really screwed it up here. His idea is that it is all the fault of those damn baby boomers, curse them. Trump is a baby boomer – by six months – so there is your proof. So forget about people like Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi. Sorry Matt but it is not a generational thing but a class thing. Most baby boomers aren’t rich and influential so how do they figure into his calculations. You could arrange proof of what I say. Just arrest every billionaire in the US and ship them incommunicado off to Fed Alligator and watch the effect on American society after a readjustment. I mean, there is only about 900 of them and they will be hardly missed. Sounds like a plan to me.
Matt’s reply
That some of our oligarchs are even older than the “Boomer” definition doesn’t really undermine his point. We are living under a corrupt gerontocracy.
This all happened before and, ironically, the boomer generation of which I am a member took up the slogan “don’t trust anyone over thirty.”
The flip side: It’s hard to complain about the older people having to rely on assets and not address age discrimination in the workplace. And of there is the job insecurity by people of all ages (who don’t operate in within a certain class and with the right connections) that can lead to engagement in speculation and get rich quick schemes.
Young or old…the problem presented by an oligarchy is the same.
It’s about what the belief system is – not people’s ages.
And that’s not even getting into analyzing a system that values surplus labor over higher employment and a cost of living that always goes up.
The statistics don’t lie: the average American billionaire is a boomer in his/her early 60s. Granted, the average boomer may not be a billionaire. Still, if someone had the chance to buy real estate 30 years ago and has held it, then on paper they are likely a millionaire. So it is also a generational thing, too, and not just a class thing.
I think Matt Stoller wrote an excellent piece here.
I think Matt Stoller misses an important change in the structure of the u.s. Elite. The u.s. Elite is not and has not nurtured the rise of younger members of their class, not unlike the way u.s. firms have done little or nothing to train younger employees to assume the jobs of the many boomers leaving the workforce, or disposed of as they ambled within a decade of retirement age. I also suspect fear of the younger generations contributes to the tendency to promote those who have proven their incompetence, as they offer less threat to those above them.
That works on a flip side as well: younger generations in a position of power that won’t hire someone with experience that could be a threat to their rise.
Probably anyone that is worried about a threat to their rise isn’t going to hire anyone younger, older, or the same age that is more competent.
That’s a function of personality more than age.
It only seems to be a generational issue because the ladder is being pulled up with greater and greater urgency and the younger folks who haven’t already climbed over halfway up are getting a boot in the face. The oligarchs will make sure that their progeny do just wonderfully, but no more helping hand to anyone else. Education that produces more debt than job opportunities, no training if you do get a job (“hit the ground running”), no more pensions, etc. The whole system is geared to “create wealth” by extracting it from everyone who can’t fight back and by inflating the price tag on assets already owned. So, yes, the super wealthy are now mostly old people who plan to pass it on to their favored children, and they have a bunch of well-compensated servants in the professional-managerial class. But it has not much else to do with the other surviving members of the cat-food brigade, the Silents, the Boomers, the older Gen Xers…all the people still counting on Social Security and Medicare not being ripped away.
But this has pretty much always been the age range of those at the pinnacle of the economy and the political structure. For fairly obvious reasons.
And thirty years from now people will be complaining of the “Gen X Billionaires” and think again that it is all a generational thing. No, it is class at the end of the day. The faces changes and names are added and sometimes are removed – just like with Burke’s Peerage – but it is usually the same families which is why we have the ‘term trust fund baby’. The US Civil War destroyed the Confederacy but after a decade or two it was mostly the same people running the new South as had run the Confederacy. That is the effect of class system at work.
I’m so old I recall, and believed in wholeheartedly, the rallying cry, “Don’t trust anyone over 40!” Now, nearly twice that age, I’ve had time to reconsider. I now, perhaps selfishly, subscribe to Lambert Strether’s (hallowed be his name) proposition: “Generation don’t have agency.”
I’m just guessing here, but I suppose that if you were to look at many societies past and present, as well as among social animals, you’d find that elders who’ve been around longer and therefore have acquired more knowledge as to how things work might, for good or ill, tend to occupy positions of political power, moral or technical authority, and so forth—at least until time’s wingèd chariot overtakes them.
Some Indie filmaker could steal the idea of how things would be without George Bailey as in “It’s A Wonderful Life”, but instead of George Bailey, make it a movie about how life in the u.s. would be without about 900 billionaires.
I read some of the comments to Stoller’s discussion. There was very positive mention of Lambert Strether and his rules of Neoliberalism. A reply mentioned feelings of loss with Lambert’s departure from NakedCapitalism.
yeah. has anyone heard from him?
ive been rather sporadic and even spastic in my perusal of anything on the intertubes of late, so i may have missed any updates and/or post cards.
And “the number go up rule” is happening with stock exchanges all over the world. Even China flirts with propping up stock prices.
Some say things are far divorced from economic fundamentals, which could mean that there is manipulation occurring to prop up a system – not one generation over the other.
Yes, that was the first thing I stumbled over too. So, we wouldn’t have “number go up” if the Silent Generation (pre-boomer) had all the wealth and power, or Generation X or the Millennials had all the wealth and power? I think that’s a fairly shaky argument, if not outright silly. This is not a “generational” issue, or related to any other such marketing category.
But that’s the relatively minor of the two things I stumbled over reading Stoller’s piece. The second is the “number go up” problem isn’t limited to the financial sector. All of capitalism is based on “number go up.” I really don’t know what he was thinking by not acknowledging this fact. When has capitalism in its entire history not been tied to increasing profit equals survival, decreasing profit equals death? Number go up, or you fail.
The only connection I can see to acknowledging this in the piece is Stoller seems to want to put an upper limit to how far “number go up”, at least for financers: “people should make money from investments, but not too much.” But he makes no case of how we get there, who else it might apply to, or how it might affect the economic operating system whose single goal is growth: increasing earnings over losses.
“Number go up:” even if finance is tamed, global warming is still full steam ahead. Increasing growth means increasing energy consumption, which means leaving a planet much less habitable for our grandchildren, and progressively worse for future generations, until there’s nothing left. What’s the solution they’re outlining for us, Mars?
Thanks for that Rev. I’ve been feeling a bit guilty for going off on someone at another site for blaming boomers in broad strokes. I am on the older edge of boomer-hood myself and can just manage to keep the lights on in a bare-bones apartment. Half-price day at the local thrift store is my luxury spend for the month. And don’t even get me started on the heart-breaking homeless, toothless boomers I see every day in this city.
What I don’t understand about the premise of generational categories is this: what am I supposed to have in common with someone who was already 16 years old by the time I was born? I guess that’s why someone came up with the lesser known subset for us latter Boomers — Generation Jones.
I agree with you, Rev. This is not really a generational matter, except insofar as the passage of time allows the greater accumulation.
In a few years, will Stoller next blame “Gen X” for the fact that a capitalist society is ruled by the bourgeoisie?
Moreover, are people to blame for investing as best they can, when there are no reliable pensions, or no long-term job security? Thus does the bourgeoisie recruit an army of petty investors to protect its own much greater property interests.
re: Israel – new Superman movie
Film Review: James Gunn’s Superman Cements Israel’s Villain Status in the American Imagination
https://scheerpost.com/2025/07/19/film-review-james-gunns-superman-cements-israels-villain-status-in-the-american-imagination/
p.s. unfortunately I have no clue how Gunn has made it to being a studio boss and do his own idiotic movies. I can understand what his intentions are but with the “Guardians” franchise e.g. he created not new forms but mostly chaos. His works before were meaningless. Which shows you that politically informed artists (the good guys) do not necessarily create meaningful pieces.
On the other hand most “auteurs” who got offers by Marvel or DC failed in some form.
The Russo Brothers are an interesting case – they managed the huge machinery of Marvel – but failed with smaller “auteur” movies before and since.
Their “Citadel” series for Prime was confused and never achieved coherence. However – just like Gunn with Superman above – in covered form that was a rare attempt of criticizing US imperial power that I ran across lately in big budget “content”.
p.p.s. Anybody remember “Conspiracy Theory” from 1997? Mel Gibson, Julia Roberts. Unimaginable today.
According to the article Gunn says his script dates back before the current Oct 7 initiated events. And the Mondoweiss writer admits
Since Israel, Palestine, or any other country—save the United States, of course—is not mentioned in Superman, the metaphor of Boravia can be interpreted, or denied, at the viewer’s whim.
Indeed. Also here’s suggesting we don’t need yet another Superman but rather more new movies not about Superman. Our movie studios have become “rentiers” like the other oligarchs Hudson talks about. And Warners owns that particular bit of real estate and can’t let it go.
John Carter (of Mars) is my recommendation for a good Superman movie. As a silver age fan, a ‘Dark’ DC universe is just dumb.
And ‘Mitchell Plitnick’ writing about Superman? I guess he looks a little pan-dimensional.
You know “Carter” by Disney was considered a huge box-office failure. Which upended any further plans as well as a possible super star career for the lead actor.
Yep.
I put it up mainly because Hollywood articulating views against Israel is about as likely as a unicorn.
I want an Alan Moore’s Miracle Man movie where MM kills a bunch of nazis then nearly kills Margaret Thatcher by telling her “I’m in charge and we’re doing communism now.”
The distance between a character with unlimited power (like Superman) and another one (Emperor Leto II – granted, the emperor could gaze into the future) and their actual achievements is approaching infinity… And in some ways Superman is “stronger” and can fly…
Talk about brain-dead.
A recent Sports Desk entry, from the NFL players union senior leadership. This guy was appointed in 2023, apparently with not sufficient understanding of his career and possibly some prior misdeeds. It so happened that this story was breaking last week from intrepid work by ESPN reporter Pablo Torre. This gets covered on one of the few remaining daily episodes each afternoon, PTI.
Not only was this guy continuing a part time consultation gig with the Carlyle Group, his previous employer I believe, but private equity firms have begun lining up to purchase a minority interest into NFL team ownership. Shocking lack of awareness and an appearance of zero integrity. That’s just the key part and there is more to his seemingly seedy, nefarious dealings against the player union interest.
https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/lloyd-howell-steps-down-as-nflpa-executive-director
An additional note, something I found from earlier ESPN articles. This now disgraced union leader was a lifer at vaunted consulting* firm Booz Allen Hamilton, and most recently had been the CFO until 2022. He can’t say well I didn’t know the rules of the road. Or most likely he’s more akin to the “Two Face” villain from the Batman films.
Come on dude, pull the other leg. We know these consultants ( BAH, Boston Consulting, etc ) keep quite a few tricks on billing for services rendered at the ready.
Obvious to me what Pedro has uncovered–under the cover of Owner Collusion– is Collusion between the Player’s Union and the Owners. Pass the 🍿.
Some of the alleged collusion among team owners was dated in early months of 2023, I think it was. Possibly my timeline is off but the feckless Browns owner gave an otherwise questionable okay to guarantee a full contract to Deshaun Watson. I’ll go so far to suggest that any rhetorical ROI is up there in the realm of the dumbest team transactions ever in professional sports.
Stupid ownership can never be outlawed I suppose, but the supposed or even likely collusion followed that contract signing since the next QB up to resign gets paid, and often at the same or higher price. These players, well the best anyway, aren’t gonna hurt or have concerns on feeding their family, heck it’s possible to be just mediocre to average and sign a second contract. I do think this leads the players into some fickle territory for negotiation at the CBA, when 18 games in the regular season might be a breaker on a good thing going.
Btw…it is Pablo but maybe that was a typo. ESPN is consistently running off talented reporters and writers, especially those who aren’t willing to toe the line on what Disney finds trendy or suddenly highly important.
This guy’s an amateur compared to the multiple malfeasance of which Alan Eagleson was guilty at the National Hockey League Players Association — for decades.
Re; The Righteous Community, Imperial Collapse Watch
Brilliant essay summing up the neocon’s footprints as they stomped all over the face of humanity, from pre-9/11 through present day Zionist terror– no shish kebab tonight as the author has bought-up all the skewers and used them judiciously throughout this piece.
It’s a long but measuredly furious read and I’m allowing myself time to digest the whole thing before starting again from the very first line for the sheer pleasure of devouring a second helping of this essay!
Jackson Lears is always worth reading. He does an excellent job depicting the intertwined actors, interests, institutions, and culture that have led us all into this neoconservative wet dream of history — which is a nightmare for the rest of the world.
As a grad student in the 1980s I remember reading perhaps the best article on Gramsci’s concept of cultural hegemony I’d ever encountered – by Jackson Lears. He’s still on point here.
Thanks for that. I read up on him (he has an impressive mind) and will definately check out some of his books.
I concur. Jackson Lears is a compelling read. But toward the end I lost patience. Recounting 9/11 as a grand exercise in psychohistory is undoubtedly politically acceptable (I wanted to say “correct”) in the LROB. But while the book and its review describe, they fail to explain, or even try to explain.
Neither Lears nor, it seems, Richard Beck addresses the question of why Building Seven fell. Or why Bin Ladin determined to Strike in US and previous presidential daily briefings went unheeded by the Bush White House, or why the bin Laden family was evacuated while all other air traffic was grounded.
Nor any of the other myriad questions surrounding those events.
To be sure, Lears and Beck finger Cheney and Perle and Abrams and their gang of thugs, but in the end, I found their elaborate retelling of Mary Rowlandson’s frontier tale is more of a literary cop-out than a serious engagement with a serious topic.
TIL (today I learned):
In the parlance of our youth, “Big Back” is a derogatory term for obese individuals. There is even a song about it (warning – extremely juvenile and immature)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t21jlBaI28
*I believe this song needs to be played before every Trump presser, as an intro
‘Armchair Warlord
@ArmchairW
General Donahue, who failed upwards to command US Army – Europe after overseeing one of the worst days in the entire War on Terror during the Kabul Airlift, decided to run his mouth today about NATO being able to quickly conquer Kaliningrad.’
The only thing that Armchair Warlord does not mention is that while there was an attack on Kaliningrad by NATO, they the Russians would be launching salvos of ballistic missiles on NATO supply bases and troop concentrations. And by now you have to wonder how many of that Russian garrison are combat vets from the war in the Ukraine who know what they are about.
Donahue is a joke. He knows assassinations (former DELTA)
on this Donahue/Kaliningrad issue, last night´s episode:
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2025/07/amateurs-talk-tactics.html
More in-depth Martyanov with Garland Nixon:
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2025/07/garland-and-me.html
Same topic but broader context, Andrei Martyanov here with Garland Nixon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe1IgoIjO3c
ooops
sorry for the duplicate
Just supply bases? London, Berlin, and Paris will not survive an assault on Kaliningrad, and, possibly, neither will Washington DC.
I’m used to paying a departure fee* in a few countries, but imagine an entrance fee of $250 to get into the USA?
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/business/money-report/travelers-to-the-us-must-pay-a-new-250-visa-integrity-fee-what-to-know/6340352/
* they call it a ‘passenger movement charge’ in Aussie.
That new fee should do wonders for the tourist industries in the u.s. and imagine if Homeland Security added some of their personnel to the gauntlet at the entry gates.
They wanted an entrance fee to enter Hawaii, but had to settle for an increase in the room tax (on Oahu from 13.25% to an even 14%). The complaint is kamaaina have to pay it too.
question out of the blue:
I ran across a German translation of Alice Goffman´s 2014 study on poverty and crime “ON THE RUN”.
Is there any serious assessment of Goffman and the “controversy” surrounding the book – as per Wikipedia?
Which means I do not believe anything Wiki writes. And I cannot judge it in serious.
NC has her name once mentioned in an article by Rajiv Sethi in April but there she is only one name among many where Sethi writes in general about scholars under attack.
Obviously regarded as “star” fwiw, she was denied tenure after the book had come out.
She is the daughter of Erving Goffman, a giant in sociology theory. Early in his career he authored “The Presentation of the Self in Ordinary Life.” He wrote about stigma, interactions in institutions, symbolic interactions, social rituals, and impression management. He was the Benjamin Franklin Professor of Anthropology and Sociology, 1969–82, at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
Thanks!
The parent story I heard of. What I was wondering whether or not the allegations that the daughter Goffman, who too had made a name for herself, had fabricated findings and even instigated someone to commit murder had any serious basis.
I do not believe it. But that is not satisfactory insight of course.
See for the controversy the paragraph “Allegations of data fabrication and criminal conduct”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Goffman
Point taken. It seems as though her career will be seriously handicapped from this.
@Is breakfast really the most important meal of the day?
The article failed to mention that this strange idea was first heavily pushed by the Kellogg’s marketing department to sell cereal in the early 1900s.
It sounds like something Trump would say: “The most important meal, the greatest meal, the bestest of the meals, from my boy Kellogg!“
thanks for this info
Protein and caffeine, breakfast of champions. Those help the brain focus.
Toast and juice, or a bowl of flakes just won’t do the job and you’ll be ravenous soon.
my usual, automatic, breakfast,(“break fast”)is 3 strips of bacon, real butter on burned bread(on the fire on the stovetop, since i havent hooked up the toaster, yet(requires climbing and wriggling)) and 5 or six fried eggs, either blindfolded or over easy, depending on how much beer i had the night before.
one strip of bacon and sometimes 2 of those eggs(and bits of burned bread) go to the dog, Osa(Dog’s Breakfast…i chuckle about this might near every day–like “Shambolic”, it describes the news feed).
if i have the stuff, and want something else, i’ll do eggie in a basket(with homemade salsa burned to the topside), w goat cheese…or a denver omelette.
i would hafta agree, that break fast IS the most important meal of the day.
fuel the fire of one’s efforts…eat a big lunch(or two smaller ones—i often eat two breakfasts, as well, a small, then a large), and wind down the metabolism in the evening…PB&H(peanutbutter and honey sandwich, with milk)…and evenings is the only time i eat cereal(ie: grapenuts/cornflakes), and with honey, as well.
carbs and milk promote sleep, ive found.
Two cups of coffee with cream, and a little tab of butter on the side (vitamin E is best absorbed with a little fat) is all I need to start my day. Depending upon my commitment to intermittent fasting I may or may not have lunch any given day. Been my routine for a couple of decades now. Works for me, so I’m not messing with it …
‘Peacemaker
@peacemaket71
🇷🇺‼️Russia brutally punished Azerbaijan: A key refinery blew up – Moscow just showed Baku where it belongs ‼️
In a series of precision strikes, Russian forces hit the Kremenchuk refinery, the Drohobych oil plant and a facility in Odessa, which for years served as a logistics base for the processing and distribution of “Azeri Light” oil under the control of the state-owned company SOCAR from Azerbaijan.’
I use to think that the President Aliyev of Azerbaijan was one cagey person. But for some reason he thinks that it is a great idea to make both Russia and Iran an enemy of Azerbaijan. He is deliberately provoking Russia no end and let his country be used to help attacks on Iran by Israel. What is he thinking? What did the west offer him? A future chunk of Iran? Does he imagine that the west will ride to his rescue? That Israel will save his bacon? Obviously the Russians have had a gut full and are now making Azerbaijan pay and I would bet that the President and his coterie had a lot of financial interests in those refineries. Not sure if any of that oil went to Israel. But playing hard ball is something that the Russians know how to do. Of course Aliyev might go on to do something stupid but the Russians have an ace up their sleeves. The pop of Azerbaijan is about ten million. But there are about one to two million Azerbaijan living in Russia with more than a few helping the Ukrainians. The Russians could order a mass deportation of half of them – which include many criminal elements – and Azerbaijan would collapse under the weight of taking so may of their people back again. In short, Aliyev effed around and found out.
Re: “Not sure if any of that oil went to Israel.”
Larry Johnson has been saying that the oil transferred from Turkey to Israel comes from Azerbaijan, and that the energy ties between the countries are part of a greater Turkic project seeking to recreate the Ottoman empire by Erdogan at the expense of surrounding countries like Iran and Armenia. I also seem to remember that the Clinton Foundation had deep ties with the Azeri hydrocarbon industry, so the deeper you look the more of the usual characters are showing up.
Bigger question – why was the refinery untouched for 3+ years?
The IDF would have destroyed it on day 1.
Coupled with the destruction of the US investors’ little grain project in Odessa, this might be a sign that Russia is finally taking off the gloves.
The IDF would have done many other things on day 1. That’s why it’s loved by everyone, and has a bright future in front of it.
His father probably was, but was never too sure about the current Aliyev (granted, Aliyev II has been in power for a while himself now….)
>US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee stereotypes the Irish
Clearly, Zionists are not fighting discrimination. Instead, they advocate for Jewish supremacy.
Imagine the American ambassador to Ireland talking about Israelis in that fashion, he or she would be out of a job toot suite.
Something along the lines of:
A bunch of Israelis got hurt when a Shekel was accidentally dropped on the street in Tel Aviv, in the ensuing scramble 7 of them claimed the money~
In a clip I have seen, One of the Kneecap guys explains (and he is related with the Irish Liberation folks) that after the Irish got their independence in 1922, the Black and Tan toffs terrorizing the Irish civilian population were all shipped to… Palestine, to becalm those locals and prepare them for the influx of Jews.
In the uprising of 1936-38, the Brits and their Jewish goons killed about 25% of the fighing male population in Mandate Palestine.
https://twitter.com/ripplebrain/status/1946405832729493924
Like a mushroom, it appears that someone is keeping Hersh in the dark and feeding him crap based on his latest article
Keeping him in the dark would mean preventing him from using the Internet and reading what other people write here or on Twitter/Substack. Nowdays, ignorance is a matter of choice more than anything, and so is feasting on champignon food.
Man, that was just sad reading. The only way that it would be redeemable is if he was repeating what they actually believe in Washington. But if that is what Washington believes, then they might get to thinking that they could take on and fight Russia and win now and so they could put US/NATO troops into the Ukraine.
I genuinely believed that it would be difficult to surpass the Biden Administration when it came to arrogance, incompetence and flat out stupidity.
I was wrong, this is effing spectacular.
I was thinking more along the lines of the old pickpocket’s trick of having an accomplice stage a commotion so that you can do your work with little chance of notice, at least until the deed’s been done and you are long gone…
This shitshow being staged thinking we’ll not notice that tariffs against whomever are taxes on us, that crypto is a Ponzi scheme (now with .gov backing), that endless war keeps our oligarchs rich, that our government is a revolving door of corrupt officials, that the security state is there to protect them not us, etc., etc., etc…
It is effing spectacular, and so too is the casual brazenness the ruling caste displays as they keep effing us– spectacularly, and without consent. And with little resistance.
What gets rewarded gets repeated.
On a postive note, he is better than the next one will be.
jeezlouise,lol.
Idiocracy was a prophetic utterance in the desert.
Idiocracy was a description of a self imploding society. What the US elites are capable of doing is misery on the global scale…
I always wondered what the Roaring Twenties were like, now we get to find out ( see today’s Credit Bubble Bulletin for the gory details of the bank credit boom since the change of government )
The denouement is likely to be similar.
Over at John Michael Greer’s dreamwidth site, the issue of his X account came up. He doesn’t have one, so that the Xpost above is by an imposter, possibly a bot.
The content of the X post is a couple of paragraphs from This past Friday’s essay on Ecosophia
After years I’ve finally entered a weight zone I’d like to drop out of, and was skipping eating so far today. Looks like I’ll correct that this morning.
News you can use!
i should start a fatcamp, or something,lol.
jess foller me around all day, and eat what i eat….do what i do…
lord knows i need the labor.
right now, after the flood, theres even solar heated mudbaths, out in the dirt road.
is gooseshit therapeutic?
i know it is for grass, etc.
Watch out, I may take you up on that. And yeah, the 100-calories in the morning makes sense so I going to give it a try first thing tomorrow… after a short hike.
In basic training, they’d feed us after PT, and I’d suppose that there’s something to that too.
Grok First searches for Elon Musks’ views if you ask it about politics
It seems axiomatic that if “AI” can be programmed/hard-wired with bias, then it isn’t really intelligence at all.
“Stochastic parrots” trained to mimic their owners’ views.
#GreasedAI
Agreed, and for me it indicates Peak AI, when we now have Nazi AI and pornbot AI, from that guy who owns Tweeter. After Web 2.0, NFT, metaverse, scatcoin, AI, along with enshittification it does seem to have reached a rather tawdry conclusion.
Pollinators send out good vibrations — and plants respond sweetly Science News (Dr. Kevin)
Nice! Thanks for this link. We are slowly learning how plant senses work and how they respond. In this case vibro-acoustic sensing allows them to produce more or less sugar in flowers depending on how flying insects transmit vibrations. Pollinators welcome.
One might compare it to sex, actually.
News Corp bought Dow Jones, WSJ in 2007.
This one is hilarious. Buy popcorn stocks.
My personal LOL these days is watching Iowa’s refiners and Big Ag’s stocks tank once TACO Boy announced Coke was abandoning High Fructose Corn Syrup. Love that psuedo-name they came up with, much like Canola. The greed heads who destroyed the rivers and lakes in Iowa making that crap plus ethanol are squealing like pigs. Er, hogs, that’s what the pig farmers call them.
Re: The “zei-squirrel” X post on what Bernie Sanders told Zohran Mamdani
It’s become almost fashionable to criticize Bernie for not always being everything we fantasize we would be if magically turned into US Senators.
For daring to stand up for Palestinian rights, Bernie has long suffered the slings and arrows of the ilk of the Mark Mellmans and other apparatchiks of Israel, who in 2016 also flew in formation with Hillary. He knows of what he speaks and where the verbal landmines are. Bernie has been far more articulate on the topic than most in Congress, and has been calling Bibi a war criminal on the floor of the Senate since June 11, 2024. Any other Senators?
I do wish Bernie would liberate himself from de rigueur phrasing that implies this horror began on October 7th, but I’m also reminded of the last line in the film Some Like It Hot.
Is Intel cutting back on or getting rid of it’s Linux support?
Intel Announces It’s Shutting Down Clear Linux https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-Ends-Clear-Linux
Another Longtime Intel Linux Engineer Leaves The Company https://www.phoronix.com/news/Shutemov-Intel-Linux-Leaving
I suspect Intel is just cutting back since layoffs are happening in more than just Linux support:
Intel axes thousands of technicians and engineers in sweeping U.S. layoffs — cutting 4,000 positions in the U.S., 2,392 in Oregon https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/intel-axes-thousands-of-technicians-and-engineers-in-sweeping-u-s-layoffs-cutting-4-000-positions-in-the-u-s-2-392-in-oregon
Why would anyone look to Intel for Linux support? I guess corporate clients would, but so what?
This is not about customer support. The software (kernal) for the intel CPUs has to be tuned/optimised for linux. For intel to make a better GPU than NVIDIA it needs to provide driver support for linux.
Thanks. I am encouraging everyone I know to switch to Linux. I’m a tech support person at my job and for family and friends.
Matt Taibbi briefly on “Russiagate” fallout possibly hurting Biden and Obama.
https://www.racket.news/p/barack-obama-now-squarely-in-russiagate
I am still waiting for more from SleuthNews on Russiagate before I post it here.
Marjorie Taylor Greene: Israel B0MBED the Catholic Church in Gaza with American weapons!
And 80 years ago:
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255054/atomic-bomb-dropped-on-nagasaki-killed-two-thirds-of-the-city-s-catholics-78-years-ago
A year ago they bombed Orthodox Church in Gaza (that was built in the 5th century). No one cared.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240730-israel-attack-on-greek-orthodox-church-in-gaza-crime-against-religions-authorities-say/
Thanks. Important stuff. Gut wrenching what Nutjob-yahoo is doing in the world these days, it makes me so ashamed to be an American, knowing we are funding this and our leaders are A-fracking-OK with it. Gulp.
GWOT goes gonzo and comes home both.
It’s not about Nutjob-yahoo, nor about these days. Countless Orthodox Christian churches have been destroyed in the former Yugoslavia and Ukraine. It is a long term project of the “Judeo-Christian” “Collective West”. US and UK are also the main reason for the rise of Islamic extremism in the past half century. All that in the name of freeedom, and democracy, and equality, and tolerance.
Inside the Long Friendship Between Trump and Epstein
The NY Times fires its salvo on this.
Fairly jaw dropping, IMO. Not because it’s anything new but for its timing and very dry run down of the facts. NYT bites back? Or am I just wishing.
Israel and Syria agree to ceasefire, US ambassador to Turkey says CNN (rasperberry jam). “So Syria has not gotten the memo that Israel does not adhere to ceasefires?”
Indeed. The strikes into Lebanon also continue.
i set up next to my truck in a folding chair(old metal school variety) at the former “Rest Area”(thanks, rickfuckingperry, for removing a Texas Tradition), just north of town, and just north of the Blinking Light.
Big signs saying “Fresh Produce”.
with 50# of purplke jelly/table grapes, 20# of zukes and yella squash, 10# of cukes, and 2# of fresh figs.
i advertised it for 3 days on the faceborg acct my future daughterinlaw set up for me, and for this purpose.
4 customers…none of whom had seen anything on FB, and $53 bucks, cash money.
for sitting there reading Neruda on the side of the highway for 3 hours in the shade.
gave the unsold 20# of grapes, and a few cukes and zukes, to my wife’s familia, for the nieces and nephews.
Everybody was asking for green tomatoes,lol…which i didnt really think was a thing.
even made a buddy…maybe…
black dude, lives in austin, works in midland…jawed with me for 45 minutes about his grandpaws farm, and asked for my number because his wife likes real organic stuff(like me) and weirdo farmer guys.
last half of any given month, i am skint…so 50 bucks is welcome.
took me maybe 2 hours to pick all those grapes.
3 hours to sit an read poetry.
10 and hour is more than ive made in 20 years.
in fact its what i made, 20 years ago, when i last had a “real job”.
so, all in all, a pretty good day.
with th erecent giant rain event, it is unknown how much more surplus i can produce…things like blossom end rot with the tomatoes, fruit drop(and squirrels!) with the pears and nectarines, unusually abundant and various squash bugs with even my tree climbing squashes….i need to balance what i sell, and make sure i have enough to get through winter.
Green tomatoes are excellent for pickling:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtGQLneUXF0
My father used to make and bottle something similar out of green tomatoes that he called “chow.” I would have described it as a sort of pickled relish, though nowhere near of the same consistency as commercial products with respect to the size of constituent pieces.
https://www.southernplate.com/grannys-chow-chow-recipe/
I shore do love me some chow chow, I shore do…
Ref: Stable coins
Senator Heidi Campbell
@Campbell4TN
·
17h
So under the GENIUS Act, your stablecoin is legally required to be backed 1:1 by U.S. Treasuries.
But here’s the catch:
You don’t earn the interest.
The issuer does.
You take the risk.
They take the profit.
Welcome to the future of fintech:
Public risk, private gain.
https://x.com/Campbell4TN/status/1946438975486378202
Warren B. Mosler
@wbmosler
·
2h
It a complete waste of human endeavor. It has no effect on the US Treasury market or the value of the $US and he knows it/doesn’t care.
This is about shameless self-interest/a revenue source for that industry.
They’ve profiled Trump and are milking him for all they can.
The GENIUS Act could leave taxpayers liable for a cryptocurrency collapse by prioritizing stablecoin holders over regular depositors in bankruptcy scenarios, potentially forcing the FDIC’s Deposit Insurance Fund to cover losses if a bank issuing stablecoins fails.
Making America Great Again ….
From the web site of India’s Financial Express newspaper we learn that in 2019 an All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight had the fuel cut off. “The investigation revealed the plane software made the 787 think it was on the ground and the Thrust Control Malfunction Accommodation System cut the fuel to the engines.The pilots never touched the fuel cutoff.”.
Shades of MCAS.
Yeah, what does that sound like. And of course the Indian media picked up on it.
Here’s an article talking about two incidents to do with the TCMA System, including that 2019 ANA one-
https://www.eplaneai.com/news/aviation-expert-boeing-dreamliner-software-reduced-fuel-use-twice-without-pilot-input
And there are a helluva lot of them flying-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Boeing_787_orders_and_deliveries
Maybe Boeing can recruit “Maverick” to bomb the place that is decoding those two black boxes before they have a chance to finish.
Predictably
Democrats’ 2024 Autopsy Is Described as Avoiding the Likeliest Cause of Death
whut
(bold mine)
I’ll believe it when I see it
And we saw this coming, given the hit pieces against Future Forward (justified) in the closing days of the campaign.
For my part, I think this is a signal to donors that are really pissed off about the blatant graft in the Harris campaign that next time will be different, lol, and maybe around the margins. They need those big donor checks to fund their kids’ colleges and third houses and whatever. So donors need to see that their complaints have been heard and understood, as far as that goes.
The working class, not so much.