Links 7/19/2025

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1. The Rev Kev July 19, 2025 at 7:19 am

   ‘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!

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   1. Xquacy July 19, 2025 at 8:44 am

      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.

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      1. ilsm July 19, 2025 at 10:30 am

         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.

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2. vao July 19, 2025 at 7:21 am

   “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.

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   1. Yves Smith Post authorJuly 19, 2025 at 7:52 am

      Fixed, thanks. Twitter ALL THE TIME does not put new embeds on the clipboard when you try to do two in succession.

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      1. Cancyn July 19, 2025 at 8:57 am

         YouTube often does it too.

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   2. CanCyn July 19, 2025 at 9:03 am

      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.

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   3. LawnDart July 19, 2025 at 9:13 am

      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.

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      1. gf July 19, 2025 at 10:06 am

         Are vomit emojis allowed here?

         Or do they require extra compute?

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      2. Victor Sciamarelli July 19, 2025 at 10:19 am

         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.

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3. Wukchumni July 19, 2025 at 7:28 am

   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.

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   1. griffen July 19, 2025 at 9:01 am

      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!

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      1. Wukchumni July 19, 2025 at 9:09 am

         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.

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      2. ChrisFromGA July 19, 2025 at 9:14 am

         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.

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   2. ilsm July 19, 2025 at 10:21 am

      KASP: Keep America Safe for Pedophiles.

      Way to go Benedict Donald!

      What is Benedict Donald thinking he made his bones with conspiracy theory.

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4. Acacia July 19, 2025 at 7:30 am

   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.

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   1. moog July 19, 2025 at 9:30 am

      Mandatory Futurama PSA :)
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uE96qUlJ_4

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5. The Rev Kev July 19, 2025 at 7:47 am

   ‘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?

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   1. jefemt July 19, 2025 at 8:47 am

      Looked fairly staged and Utopian?

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   2. Unironic Pangloss July 19, 2025 at 9:15 am

      >> 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.

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   3. wendigo July 19, 2025 at 10:08 am

      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?

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6. Wukchumni July 19, 2025 at 8:02 am

   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?

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   1. griffen July 19, 2025 at 8:46 am

      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.

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      1. Acacia July 19, 2025 at 8:53 am

         Speaking of nukes and Okinawa:

         https://thebulletin.org/2015/10/the-okinawa-missiles-of-october/

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      2. Carolinian July 19, 2025 at 9:30 am

         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.

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7. The Rev Kev July 19, 2025 at 8:13 am

   ” ‘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

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   1. jefemt July 19, 2025 at 8:53 am

      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!

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   2. Carolinian July 19, 2025 at 9:52 am

      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.

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      1. The Rev Kev July 19, 2025 at 9:57 am

         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.

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      2. ChrisFromGA July 19, 2025 at 9:58 am

         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.

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         1. Carolinian July 19, 2025 at 10:06 am

            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.

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            1. ChrisFromGA July 19, 2025 at 10:30 am

               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.

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               1. The Rev Kev July 19, 2025 at 10:39 am

                  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?

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         2. IM Doc July 19, 2025 at 10:38 am

            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”.

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            1. The Rev Kev July 19, 2025 at 10:42 am

               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.

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            2. Carolinian July 19, 2025 at 10:54 am

               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.

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8. MicaT July 19, 2025 at 8:26 am

   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.

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9. DJG, Reality Czar July 19, 2025 at 8:31 am

   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.

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   1. vao July 19, 2025 at 10:25 am

      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.

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10. .Tom July 19, 2025 at 8:36 am

    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.

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    1. Unironic Pangloss July 19, 2025 at 9:47 am

       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

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11. KidDoc July 19, 2025 at 8:37 am

    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.

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12. The Rev Kev July 19, 2025 at 8:49 am

    “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.

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    1. Acacia July 19, 2025 at 9:03 am

       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.

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       1. The Rev Kev July 19, 2025 at 9:12 am

          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.

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          1. Christopher Fay July 19, 2025 at 9:39 am

             Daddy=Uncle Sugar

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    2. ChrisFromGA July 19, 2025 at 9:24 am

       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.

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13. DJG, Reality Czar July 19, 2025 at 8:55 am

    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.

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    1. Stephen V July 19, 2025 at 10:44 am

       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.

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14. Kristiina July 19, 2025 at 8:56 am

    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

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15. sporble July 19, 2025 at 9:01 am

    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

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    1. Unironic Pangloss July 19, 2025 at 10:18 am

       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.

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16. Mass Driver July 19, 2025 at 9:02 am

    The YF-23 ‘Stealth Fighter’ Summed Up In 4 Words National Security Journal

    Had the YF-23 been the winner, it might be an even greater asset to the U.S. Air Force.

    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.

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17. Steve H. July 19, 2025 at 9:03 am

    > 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…

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18. pjay July 19, 2025 at 9:03 am

    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.

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    1. The Rev Kev July 19, 2025 at 10:10 am

       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.

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19. The Rev Kev July 19, 2025 at 9:05 am

    “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.

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    1. Carolinian July 19, 2025 at 10:02 am

       Matt’s reply

       The average American billionaire is a boomer in his early 60s. Donald Trump is a boomer, most of his key advisors are boomers, so is Democratic Senate chief Chuck Schumer. Key business leaders – like Apple CEO Tim Cook and JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon – are boomers, as are most CEOs of Hollywood studios, who have traditionally skewed younger. The average S&P 500 CEO is in his late 50s, and the number of young people serving on corporate boards keeps going down.

       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.”

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20. AG July 19, 2025 at 9:08 am

    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.

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21. griffen July 19, 2025 at 9:25 am

    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

    Reply ↓
    1. griffen July 19, 2025 at 9:54 am

       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.

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    2. Stephen V July 19, 2025 at 10:53 am

       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 🍿.

       Reply ↓
22. LawnDart July 19, 2025 at 9:41 am

    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!

    Reply ↓
    1. pjay July 19, 2025 at 10:25 am

       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.

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23. ChrisFromGA July 19, 2025 at 9:46 am

    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

    Reply ↓
24. The Rev Kev July 19, 2025 at 9:47 am

    ‘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.

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25. AG July 19, 2025 at 10:00 am

    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.

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26. Santo de la Sera July 19, 2025 at 10:27 am

    @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.

    Reply ↓
    1. geode July 19, 2025 at 10:49 am

       It sounds like something Trump would say: “The most important meal, the greatest meal, the bestest of the meals, from my boy Kellogg!“

       Reply ↓
27. The Rev Kev July 19, 2025 at 10:54 am

    ‘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.

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