Do Dogs Judge Human Character? Science Says Maybe Not Study StudyFinds
One man’s war against Lake Louise’s water lily infestation Cascadia Daily News
How many waterfalls are in the UP? Meet the Michigan man who keeps counting Bridge Michigan
The Mall Rats of Suburbia D Magazine
Climate/Environment
Flash flooding hits DC Metro area on Saturday Balanced Weather
Fields of destruction. Central NC farmers devastated by Chantal. Carolina Public Press
Today’s floods are tomorrow’s warnings Talking Climate
Pandemics
We demanded help for our sick children. We were accused of abuse The Sunday Times. Putting this here because:
Any parent who is concerned that Covid has damaged their child or who actively avoids Covid infection, is at serious risk of igniting CP investigations purely because the data on @LongCovidKids & covid harms is not known by most HCPs & the fallacy that “covid is mild in kids” .
— K8 (@CoastalK8) July 19, 2025
Japan
Japan ruling camp to lose upper house majority in severe blow to PM Kyodo News
How realistic is a “Grand Coalition”? Tokyo Review
Japan and Trump ChinaTalk
China?
U.S. citizen who works for Commerce Dept. ensnared in Chinese exit ban WaPo
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping tipped to meet ahead of or during Apec summit in South Korea South China Morning Post
The US Can’t Debate “Great-Power Competition” with China Un-Diplomatic
How China Became the World’s Biggest Shipbuilder Construction Physics
US Indo-Pacific allies are unhappy about Trump’s defence demands. But they have to comply Chatham House
Signs mount Xi under pressure to cede some power Asia Times
China massively overbuilt high-speed rail, says leading economic geographer Pekingnology
Bevy of Chinese mega listings propel Hong Kong to top global exchange in H1 2025 Business Times
Syraqistan
‘We dream of bread’: Gaza’s streets echo with hunger as bodies collapse from starvation Anadolu Agency
A very alarming spike in deaths from starvation in Gaza.
All the predictable result of Israeli policies: blocking aid, dismantling the international aid distribution apparatus, setting up a fake humanitarian org, murdering Palestinian seeking aid from said fake org, etc, etc. https://t.co/aHl6AillOH
— Colter Louwerse (@ColterL) July 20, 2025
It’s not a food crisis, food is sitting at the border waiting to enter.
“Israel is deliberately starving children to death,” that’s your headline. pic.twitter.com/xq6AaStVIq
— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) July 20, 2025
It’s Clear – Israel Now Has a Plan for the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians From Gaza Haaretz
“He’s a madman”: Trump’s team frets about Netanyahu after Syria strikes Axios. Same schtick as Biden team: leaks like this to Axios and then give Israel everything it needs to finish the job.
Foreign Ministry to Fund Israel Tour for MAGA, America First pro-Trump Influencers Haaretz
Flotilla Ship Heads Towards Gaza With 7 U.S. Nationals Consortium News
Egypt rejects US quid pro quo over Gaza and Ethiopia dam The New Arab
Autel denies selling drones to Israel. So why are they roaming Gaza’s skies? 972 Magazine. Chinese company.
***
Will ‘Greater Syria’ and ‘Greater Israel’ Collide or Co-exist under the Al Qaeda Regime? Vanessa Beeley
How a Turkish Radar Base Provided Critical Support For Israel’s Missile Defence Efforts Against Iran Military Watch
European Disunion
The Great Wall Between China and the EU The Diplomat
A story of idiotic servility GeoPolitiQ
Warsaw gloats, Berlin balks as EU budget fight turns national Politico
New Not-So-Cold War
Convergence? Lily Lynch, New Left Review
Out of Options, West Again Floats Flushing Zelensky? Simplicius
Zelenskyy proposes new round of peace talks with Russia Euronews
German general urges Ukraine to strike Russian airfields RT
Defence secretary to call for ‘50-day drive’ to arm Kyiv and force Putin’s hand The Independent
Boris Johnson: I’m sad about lack of British interest in Ukraine The Telegraph
The Other Azov Brigades Azov Lobby Blog
L’affaire Epstein
An Accuser’s Story Suggests How Trump Might Appear in the Epstein Files New York Times
Epstein Won’t Die Ken Klippenstein
Dershowitz casts doubt that grand jury testimony will yield answers on Epstein Politico
Trump 2.0
‘Extra Cruel’: Trump Admin Ends Job Program for Seniors as Work Requirements Loom Common Dreams
Monopoly Round-Up: The Incredible Shrinking Trump Antitrust Enforcers BIG By Matt Stoller
RussiaGate
Tulsi Gabbard details bombshell claims of Obama-era cabal’s ‘treasonous conspiracy’ against Trump Fox News
Barack Obama Now Squarely in Russiagate Crosshairs Matt Taibbi
Democrats en déshabillé
Democrats in Southeast Virginia Endorse “Pro-Trump, Pro-ICE” Sheriff Bolts
Immigration
Republicans Calling for More Deportations Are Quietly Advocating for Immigrants in Their Districts NOTUS
AI
Musk Hints at Kid-Friendly Version of AI Chatbot Grok PYMNTS
Police State Watch
“Darkness descending.” Patrick Lawrence, The Floutist
🚨 Cops were caught on camera beating anti-ICE protesters on the Ohio–Kentucky state line bridge; then dragging them off in zip-ties like it was open season on dissent.
They didn’t de-escalate. They cracked down. And they made sure the cameras saw it.@BreitbartNews pic.twitter.com/vMpJ5QxURY
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) July 19, 2025
Perhaps we need more of these (backstory.):
I have traveled a decent amount and have never seen anything like this in an airport … until this morning in St. Louis. Am I crazy? Are these normal? pic.twitter.com/YCoJqpXUGv
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) July 20, 2025
Brave New World
The First Humanoid Robot Capable of Changing Its Own Battery Pack Without Any Human Assistance Laughing Squid
AI marks a new chapter for the battery industry The Battery Chronicle
Imperial Collapse Watch
Terminal Phase? Warwick Powell
Accelerationism
When tech CEOs are like grumpy ducklings Programmable Mutter
America in its florentine Medici
Era pic.twitter.com/Vv3VJVGfpP— Albert Pinto (@70sBachchan) July 19, 2025
Their Water Taps Ran Dry When Meta Built Next Door New York Times
Data centers are encroaching on this Pennsylvania town, so locals are taking action early Allegheny Front
Our Famously Free Press
Child Amputees, Aid Massacres, Mass Starvation—the Israeli War Crimes NYT Covers Less than Mamdani and ‘Globalize the Intifada’ Adam Johnson, The Column
EXPOSING THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Paper of Zionist Record The New York War Crimes
The struggle over AI in journalism is escalating Blood in the Machine
Who’s watching city hall? Nobody—and that should scare you Bleeding Heartland
Zeitgeist Watch
The Astronomer CEO’s Coldplay Concert Fiasco Is Emblematic of Our Social Media Surveillance Dystopia 404 Media
Larq Bottle PureVis 2 Review: Drinking Water as a Video Game Isn’t as Dumb as It Sounds Gizmodo
Class Warfare
Experiments in American Unions Phenomenal World
Revisiting Paul Baran’s The Political Economy of Growth for Today ZZ’s Blog
Crosscurrents Internal Exile
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
153 comments
Comments are closed.
“Dershowitz casts doubt that grand jury testimony will yield answers on Epstein”
Says the man whose name figures prominently on the Epstein List. And Dershowitz saying Ghislaine Maxwell should be granted immunity in exchange for testifying in front of a congressional committee is just a way to spring her out early to shut her up. In front of a congressional committee, she could be counted on saying ‘List? What List? I don’t know anything about any List.’
Thank you, Rev.
That does not prevent the BBC from inviting Dershowitz to criticise victims and deny any evidence of records, not the (master) list, and without him having to declare his interest. The BBC is that rotten.
People may think that this sort of thing is mandated by the Tories at the top, e.g. CEO Tim Davey. The rot is much more widespread. There’s no need to micro manage much down the food chain.
Maxwell should beware of law geek-bearing gits.
She is probably much safer in prison than walking around with a gigantic target on her back.
Reading the related article by Klippenstein, it all makes you wonder that Trump* is just so very insistent to fight with Murdoch and the WSJ, to refute and to rebuke his own base for following this whole entirety, the tragedy of this Epstein sage and also Maxwell; the tragedy was always the outcomes for those young victims. Not for Trump, nor Clinton, neither Bill Gates nor Prince Andrew. Underage teenage girls were harmed, much of that generally ran through this enabler Ghislaine Maxwell.
*this continued defiance doesn’t present well of course, but he and these lackeys in the administration do not seem to believe in anything other than ” yes dear leader…”. \sarc. I do suppose or suggest , that the lackeys in the Biden administration deserve the scorn as well. Collectively, these are the best we got on offer ? FFS.
Some of the girls Epstein and friends raped were reportedly less than 10 years old, not teenagers.
I don’t expect any of the perpetrators to face justice, that’s not the world we live in.
>>>…that’s not the world we live in.
But it’s nice to dream.
I’ve read 16 and 14 year olds assuming well into puberty. If you are going to make a comment as speculative as 4th graders please cite a source.
This sure seems like a controlled release, a pressure release maneuver. “Grand jury testimony” is a very limited category, and is not going to answer very basic questions such as why Epstein was so connected to so many powerful people and where he got his money.
So long as Trump does not make damning disclosures of the Epstein collective, he not only avoids exposing himself, as it were, but has all that evidence of miscreance to hold over others’ heads. He’d have to be crazy in ways different to what he’s widely taken to be to let such juicy stuff slither through his fingers!
Dershowitz also is denying any wrong doing by Israel in Gaza and the West Bank…
The Evil are unable to recognise Evil because it is their Normal, and they hate the Good and the Innocent and their greatest pleasure is to torture and starve, maim and kill and spill the blood of Innocents.
Wow, notice how just about every one of the cops in the video were overweight-they sure beat the shit out of protesters on that bridge.
This is what you would have seen on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965 on Bloody Sunday.
…what sort of scary monster have we become?
Just a fatter version of same monster.
monstrous – and how they tackled that woman whose sandals flew off…
https://www.wlwt.com/article/roebling-bridge-protester-punched-covington-police-officer-arrest/65455714
“I definitely felt a lot of blows, and I just didn’t understand why, after the first few, that that didn’t stop,” Hill said….
Hill says that he did not hear the command to disperse over the police sirens and chants being shouted out by protesters.
“At that moment, I did not hear it, there was so much going on, there were so many sirens,” Hill said.
It’s come full circle, let me explain.
Covington Ky high schooler Nicholas Sandmann was exercising his first amendment rights in 2019 and got slighted by the media and got $250 million (or some portion of) for his effort.
Nobody is gonna get a thin Dime from Covington KY police department for them beating up people.
https://nypost.com/2020/07/24/washington-post-settles-250m-suit-with-covington-teen-nick-sandmann/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Lincoln_Memorial_confrontation
Not to mention that they beat him after he was on the side walk which is what they directed him to do. Same for the woman who lost her shoe, she too was on the side walk. We really don’t need to wonder whose side the cops are on do we?
I’ve seen this often enough to wonder if it’s a tactic. There always seems to be the one or two cops being extra violent, designated hitters, with a predictable result: outrage, focus on the outrage, (un)divided attention, protester distraction from the larger goal of the march.
Also, chances are that by various means, showing different lines of force, police indirectly directed that march to the bridge, a choke point, to create a natural kettle.
It was nice to see that women cops were there dishing pain shoulder to shoulder with their men counterparts.
But oh, that metalic grid as a surface to be tossed on, no fun at all.
Re – one man’s war against water lily infestation
the fragrant water lily is edible. Nature has provided free food by the ton!
A real pity that the article’s framing instead prioritises “beauty” and ducks.
“The First Humanoid Robot Capable of Changing Its Own Battery Pack Without Any Human Assistance”
yeah, saw that one coming
“The First Humanoid Robot Capable of Changing Its Own Ammo Pack Without Any Human Assistance”
Uh-Oh
The first humanoid robot capable of scratching its own back. :)
Wait until it licks its own ice cream cone.
IDK who thought that was a good idea… “I’m sorry Dave, I just needed a minute to change my battery… now, where were we?”
If only Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics actually existed…
They exist as much as the international law that everyone keeps talking about.
That large glass impediment in front of the Free Speech Booth resembles a 65 inch flat screen TV, your spirit of St Louis will have to be on the louder side to get an audience. I wouldn’t go as far as calling it the Cone of Silence, but Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park it ain’t.
I have a faint memory of one of these Free Speech Areas being set up in O’Hare airport back when Hare Krishna had won a 1st Amendment decision. Perhaps this is a remnant of that period?
When Bush was President, he too had organized free speech zones for protestors. They had to go into this area a coupla blocks away from what they were protesting about and it was surrounded by a chain link fence and monitored by police.
Yes, I thought the same thing. I remember similar signs in San Francisco Airport advising/alerting people that those Hare Krishna people and/or panhandlers had the right to be there. That was, oh, 40+ years ago?
Rex Kramer knew how to deal with airport nuisances…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3GGKF6CsjY
> Do Dogs Judge Human Character? Science Says Maybe Not
Science should defend its brand against abuse like this. 40 dogs showed no preference between one woman pretending to be generous/friendly and another pretending to be mean.
Years ago I read in Steven R. Lindsay that dogs share certain preferences about people, specifically that it’s possible to identify some people that dogs clearly like, and some others that the dogs clearly dislike, while the dogs treat most people neutrally. Strikes me as plausible.
One thing we teach new volunteer dog handlers at the animal shelter: you have to mean it. Bluffing and faking is a bad idea because the dogs can easily tell a bullsh**er and lose trust/interest. And this, I would guess, is the single biggest flaw in the design of Hoi-Lam Jim et al’s study published in Animal Cognition.
I have a neighbours with a couple of pretty friendly labs (I know, surprise, surprise). I made a comment about them loving everyone and she said she they have their favourites. She can tell by the tone of their barked greetings how much they like the person stopping by.
Know what the favorite breed is in Fresno?
.
.
.
.
.
Meth Lab
Rumour has it that after the first atom bomb was tested at Alamogordo and before the atomic strikes against Hiroshima & Nagasaki, that the United States Army Air Corp wanted to test it an atom bomb on an actual city to see what the effects would be first. The decision was taken to test it out on Fresno.
It is reputed to have cause $400 million worth of improvements.
The taste of Fresno.
Cancyn, I think they do pick up on something we can’t see or sense. I had a pitbull mix that was friendly towards the vet and certain people in the neighborhood. She would wildly wag her tail, bark and drag us towards the person. When we walked our neighbors pitbull mix, she would also be attracted to the same persons, with the same reaction. However, the people they didn’t like could not touch them and they would pull away and even growl.
Thanks. I had an Australian Shepherd that disliked certain neighbors. The common thread was that they were eventually revealed to be bullsh**ers.
The esteemed Patrick Lawrence on Scoundrel Time, that is, the McCarthyist use of antisemitism to destroy free speech and careers — and especially to force self-censorship. One must suppress thoughtcrime.
“There was no anti–Semitism at Broadway and West 116th Street before the events of 7 October 2023 and the demonstrations Israel’s terror campaign in Gaza then prompted. There was none requiring task forces, commissions, and investigations, in any case. Ms. Shipman, to make my point another way, merely caved to the Trump regime’s exercise of power in her statement last Tuesday. She implicitly associates last year’s quite honorable demonstrations—so much of this stuff must be implicit, as it cannot be said openly—with anti–Semitism according to the I.H.R.A.’s utterly unacceptable definition.”
An important quibble: Shipman isn’t just submitting to Trump. She is also submitting to the “donors” at Columbia, who, by and large, consider themselves Nice Liberals. We are seeing the convergence of upper-middle-class interest in suppressing the populace (again).
I seem to recall that Hillary Clinton is on the faculty of Columbia. Where is the fearless Hillary, ever speaking truth to power, these days? Shouldn’t she be defending academic freedom?
Or: Is she hiding out, hoping in particular that the Epstein allegations blow over? What with her base being August Ladies (of the top 5 percent) as well as Fans of Bill, she can’t afford to lose the Fans of Bill, who are already aging into Bidentude, given that her hubby’s base is bigger than hers.
In Upton Sinclair’s “the Goosestep”, focused on American higher education of the late 20s, early 30s, columbia had its own chapter, focused on how donor pressure often sufficed to suppress academic feeedom
Rashid Khalidi already left:
As far as I can recall this is correct:
Wiki:
“(…)
Retirement from Columbia
Rashidi announced his retirement from Columbia University in late June 2024, with the process being finalized in October that same year.[53] In an interview with The Guardian, Khalidi cited the university’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian student protests, which he had vocally supported, and the transformation of the university into a “hedge fund-cum-real estate operation, with a minor sideline in education” as reasons for his retirement.[5] The announcement coincided with news that a throng of extremist settlers had stormed a family home on Silsila Road in Jerusalem, which had been Khalidi family property since the 18th century. After the death of a cousin, plans were made to transform it into an extension of the Khalidi library nearby, which holds over 1,200 manuscripts, some as old as the 11th century. Khalidi fears that Israeli courts will ignore their title and open the property to expropriation.
(…)”
Jeffrey Sachs is also on the Columbia faculty and he has been extremely outspoken against the Zionist entity and the genocide they are perpetrating with the help of the US and other Western nations. I wonder how much longer Sachs will be allowed to continue there.
Or how long he is prepared to lend his good name to Columbia and continue his work there.
Re “The Great Wall Between China and the EU”
More Atlantic Council bilge water.
Feh …
Dogs as judges of character: Why the study doesn’t prove anything.
First, dogs are creatures of habit, as the writeup admits. If dogs have positive interactions with human beings, they are not likely to become sudden skeptics watching a couple of skits. Much as human subjects are not likely to have a strong reaction.
Second, dogs have their own culture, which means that the researchers weren’t thinking clearly about what dogs perceive as lack of generosity. Anyone who has been around dogs knows that they have a sense of fairness. Don’t try giving one a slice of mortadella and then the other one a chunk of carrot. Fairness, friendliness, and generosity are related, ethically.
Third: Now these are the real dogs: “Researchers from the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna recruited 44 pet dogs ranging from 1 to 12 years old, though four dogs were ultimately excluded for lack of motivation to participate.”
Lack of motivation. Ha! They are the four members of the Border Collie Book Group Reading Marcel Proust in the Original French and didn’t have time for minor things like observational studies.
Dogs are also expert at reading body language and tone of voice of humans and other dogs and with humans they can usually tell the difference between expressions that are deceptive and sincere.
An interesting example of this is how some dogs that are inclined to be skeptical of people (as opposed to the dogs that like everyone) have this thing of occasionally choosing someone at a distance to show aggression to. It usually turns out that the people they choose for this behavior are scared of and do not like dogs. My neighbor, who was a FBI Special Agent until she retired a few years ago, explained that some expert muggers use similar skills of reading body language at a distance to choose victims.
So of those 44 dogs, after the four went off to the book club, the others the others were watching a stage play so badly acted they just couldn’t follow.
‘some expert muggers use similar skills of reading body language at a distance to choose victims’ – while working the window at a methadone clinic in San Francisco, one of the male clients and i got into a conversation about muggers and mugging – he admitted sheepishly he’d been guilty of committing a few, then laughed and said, “I wouldn’t have messed with you!” Smart man.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/20/us/organ-transplants-donors-alive.html
archive: https://archive.ph/riS6m
A Push for More Organ Transplants Is Putting Donors at Risk
“The Times found that some organ procurement organizations — the nonprofits in each state that have federal contracts to coordinate transplants — are aggressively pursuing circulatory death donors and pushing families and doctors toward surgery. Hospitals are responsible for patients up to the moment of death, but some are allowing procurement organizations to influence treatment decisions.”
…
“Workers in several states said they had seen coordinators persuading hospital clinicians to administer morphine, propofol and other drugs to hasten the death of potential donors.”
…
“In 2022, when she was 38 and homeless, Ms. Gallegos was hospitalized and went into a coma. Doctors at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque told her family she would never recover.
Her relatives agreed to donation, but as preparations began, they saw tears in her eyes. Their concerns were dismissed, according to interviews with the family and eight hospital workers. Donation coordinators said the tears were a reflex. (Tears can be an involuntary response to irritants.)
On the day of the planned donation, Ms. Gallegos was taken to a pre-surgery room, where her two sisters held her hands. A doctor arrived to withdraw life support. Then a sister announced she had seen Ms. Gallegos move. The doctor asked her to blink her eyes, and she complied. The room erupted in gasps.
Still, hospital workers said, the procurement organization wanted to move forward. A coordinator said it was just reflexes and suggested morphine to reduce movements. The hospital refused. Instead, workers brought her back to her room, and she made a full recovery.
Presbyterian made the treatment decisions, but hospital workers said they faced pressure from the procurement organization, New Mexico Donor Services.
“All they care about is getting organs,” said Neva Williams, a veteran intensive care nurse at the hospital. “They’re so aggressive. It’s sickening.””
Neoliberalism is horrifying. Just how widespread is this? Hopefully a more knowledgeable commenter can provide some more insight on these practices
Now I have to wonder if all the organ harvesting propaganda they attribute to adversaries are really just projection…
Stand and de-liver!
“In a bunch!”
“Hi-ho, Concorde!”
The skit by the Monthy Pythons in their film “The meaning of life” was premonitory.
This is why I stopped signing the donor part 9f my license, and have told all of my family to not allow my organs to be donated. The system is not to be trusted.
My wife didn’t want to be a donor, and paperwork said accordingly. The day after she died, in California, I received a high-pressure phone call from a woman wanting me to agree to donate eyes or parts thereof. I resisted, despite the agression, but expect a lot of family fold under the moral blackmail. It’s quite deliberate that family can overide the express written desire of the deceased.
The UK NHS changed the organ donation system in 2020 to be opt-out from opt-in. And “Your family will still be consulted about donating your organs when you die.” from the factsheet, so again family can overide.
Wowsers, I applied for a driver’s license/ RealID in 2023 and checked the box to be considered an organ donor. Sidebar but during June on Father’s Day weekend, ESPN ran a 60 minute feature about organ donation and the life saving impact on a former Kansas and NBA player, Scot Pollard. Very interesting documentary , and of course a delicate subject. Someone indeed had to suddenly die for Pollard to continue life.
Pollard needed a replacement heart and received one in February 2024. He was honored at Allen Field House during a basketball home game last season I wish to recall.
“Republicans Calling for More Deportations Are Quietly Advocating for Immigrants in Their Districts”
No doubt the people in their districts were complaining that their nannies had been taken away and farmers were complaining that they no longer had people to pick the fruit and where were cheap workers to be found?.
I want to see the US population projections after the next four years. If and when there is a flatline of growth, the Republican party will toss this anti immigration part of the platform aside for their business masters.
Overheard my wife’s interesting conversation this weekend with a cousin-in-law. He noted how he was all for removal of crime committing illegals to begin with, but now they’ve started taking the non-criminal elements and it’s really hurting his construction contracting business.
He admitted to knowing he’s hiring illegals but gave it the old “nobody else will do this work or knows how” excuse. Found it interesting that business owners no longer even hide that they’re hiring illegals.
I’m really tired of that excuse! Had I been talking to him I would have asked him about all the young men working the Midland/Odessa area. Back-breaking work in the heat and much more dangerous than construction. Ahhh, but they pay those young men up there much more than he can afford! But aren’t you the one clamoring about capitalism?
Thing is, he knows this is destroying his business and there is likely nothing to be done about it. But he refuses to entertain any sort of possibilities to get around it other than getting his illegals back.
RE: Obama story
Really want some unbiased reporting on this (Matt + Fox News are giving what I would expect, along with Dems)
My reading of it is this – they knew Russia didnt HACK the election (change results) but there is proof that they tried to influence the election through sowing distrust (similar to what I am sure the US has done to other countires)
The memo’s seem to say that they discounted the hacking thing quickly but Obama wanted a full report on what Russia was doing – and if they were doing more/less than the 2008 / 2012 elections.
I don’t remember “russia hacking the election” being the big talking point – it was always “trump colluded with Russia”
Overall very confused on what this story even is – it really feels like a deflection from the on-going self implosion of Epstein news and will amount to nothing at the end of the day.
I think care is needed to avoid losing the forest in the trees. In the same way that “client list” is used as sleight of hand to distract attention from mounds of testimony and other evidence, “hacking” may serve the same purpose.
The issue is whether resources of the federal government were employed to undermine an elected president, and how high that effort reached.
As someone who has followed this very closely from the beginning, I can say with near certainty that pretty much everything Taibbi/Fox/Gabbard is saying about Russiagate is true. There is no “proof” that I know of that Russia tried to influence the election through “sowing distrust.” What would that proof be? The “evidence” for a coordinated Russian internet offensive proved to be laughable. The “evidence” for Russian “hacking” of the DNC has also been refuted by knowledgeable experts, with the head of Crowdstrike admitting (in closed Intelligence Committee testimony) that they had no direct evidence of this. The information Gabbard is providing on the role of the Obama administration in trying to frame Trump is not really new. It’s all almost certainly true.
Having said all that, the current administration’s “revelations” about Russiagate, though true, are completely worthless. They will be interpreted – correctly – as simply more partisan propaganda for the MAGA true believers against the Evil Democrats. They lock Gabbard in the closet as they are supporting Gazan genocide, bombing Iran, gutting what’s left of the welfare state, ignoring Constitutional rights to free speech and habeas corpus, disappearing the Epstein case, etc. Then they trot her out with much fanfare to announce this big “investigation.” “Nothing to see over there – look at this!” Just another Benghazi-style performance. None of the real actors will face any consequences. This is just for the Red Team masses who might be getting a little restless about Epstein or Israel.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
From the start this was my reading on it – was meant to be meat for the MAGA’s who were focused on Epstein/other things to distract them away.
And it seems to have worked.
Charlie Kirk was talking up Epstein last week – now he has shifted to Obama behind bars.
Didn’t the Supremes just decide that a president can’t be prosecuted retroactively for crimes committed while in office? Tricky Dick had it right: something like “if The President does it it can’t be illegal”.
Agreed. I think we all need to omprove our skills at walking and chewing gum at the same time. Russiagate and the Epstein coverup are both important.
Seconded. Why would Russia need to “sow distrust” about Clinton when she was already one of the most reviled politicians all on her own?!?!? Or maybe it was Putin using her as a ventriloquist dummy when she cackled this out, although I don’t see any hand up her backside….
Yep.
Hardly anybody took of course the time to actually read the Crowdstrike testimony. The “meat” (or rather lack of) is in the passage when Schiff is asking his stupid questions.
Interview Transcript of Shawn Henry (December 5, 2017)
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6884138-Interview-Transcript-of-Shawn-Henry-December-5/
Henry goes as far as he can to not address the Democrats´ manipulation and still there is not a single word suggesting that there is a shred of proof that Russia has anything to do with the DNC hack.
Reading it and looking at the incompetent/malevolent reporting done by legacy outlets is embarrassing and infuriating. All the while they are salivating over journalistic standards. WTF. Here I have all the sympathy for Taibbi in the world – yes burn them all down.
Aaron Maté on this:
Hidden Over 2 Years: Dem Cyber-Firm’s Sworn Testimony It Had No Proof of Russian Hack of DNC
by Aaron Mate for RealClearInvestigations
May 13, 2020
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/05/13/hidden_over_2_years_dem_cyber-firms_sworn_testimony_it_had_no_proof_of_russian_hack_of_dnc_123596.html
Besides it is quite startling that the Russophobia has grown so fierce that even if some random company from St. Petersburg for whatever business reason put up some fb ads worth 10k by design this is automatically identified with the Russian government, with the FSB and cannot but be an evil intelligence operation. How many US companies did business in Russia???
Not to speak about the fact that the influence of the actual US government and her elites in Russia cannot be exaggerated both in real economic involvement and ideological undermining via scholarship or sponsoring of higher education.
This entire “narrative” is so botched it´s frankly sickening.
p.s. Among the many nice details that have gotten completely forgotten was a meeting between Christopher Steele and a high official in Florida (a Dem I believe – was it a court judge? sorry I forgot and can´t find it this moment). As far as I recall she talked to Steele about his dossier and afterwards called it out as BS – regardless of her allegiances.
Of course just like with German paranois about Russia – intelligence services and their stooges in media who call themselves “investigative” love to argue on basis of negative affirmation: How can you ever disprove anything that never happened?
That´s how secret intelligence operates. And that´s how our media report and argue. This stuff used to be material for SNL or Monty Python.
The ability of Gabbard to use ODNI to pry this info out of the IC silos has the “deep state” scared, regardless of whatever consequence there may be for key players like McCabe and McCord. Sen Cotton has inserted language in the FY26 Intelligence Authorization Act (S.2342 Sec 402) to downsize ODNI and take away some of its authorities provided by the Patriot Act. Cotton as Chair and Warner as Vice of the SSCI are key players in preventing abuses in the IC from coming to light.
Thanks for the Cotton hint.
Cotton & Warner heading senate “intelligence” committee defies description…
I am still annoyed about PropOrNot and the use of PayPal to try and curtail dissent from the McCarthyite narrative at the time. If they can get to the bottom of that then Gabbard will have retrieved some small amount of the respect I used to have for her.
RIP Lambert and his “yellow waders.”
He had the absolute best skill at creating a narrative from the facts!
Not RIP but Phoenix!
“He’s a madman”: Trump’s team frets about Netanyahu after Syria strikes Axios. Same schtick as Biden team: leaks like this to Axios and then give Israel everything it needs to finish the job.
Minor quibble. “…. to finish the job.” I believe that should be in quotes. Exact words uttered by Trump before the 2024 election in October after the initial Hamas ‘breach’ . No?
Waste of time, but I do ponder where the world would be without Trump 47.
re: Stephen Colbert / Late Night shows´ demise
Late-Night TV Is On The Precipice After CBS Axes Stephen Colbert; Insiders Lament “End Of An Era”
July 18th
https://deadline.com/2025/07/stephen-colbert-ending-late-night-tv-future-1236462431/#comments
So we can once again anticipate the Native American headdress test pattern after the star spangled banner followed by Big Bang static at midnight? Cool!
Turkish Kurecik radar station very likely was involved in missile defense of Israel.
In early 1980’s I was offered the opportunities to “volunteer” for remote, one year assignments in Turkey, I did not volunteer and somehow was not involuntarily assigned. Always had an interest in Turkish US/NATO military sites.
Subject site has a THAAD radar set (RTX< AN/TPY-2). It is capable of detecting and tracking launch phase missiles.
The site is equipped via NATO European Phased Adaptive Approach, same authority for AEGIS (LMT) ashore in Poland and Rumania. The agreement was sensitive in 2011 because of Israel. That caused the data to be limited to NATO members. Tracks from Kurecik radar station got into the US-THAAD "element" in the IDF missile defense command centers!
One more degree of support for Israel from a Muslim nation. Iran is aware!
“The rot is very, very deep” w/ Ilan Pappé
Ilan Pappé discuss whether he still believes that the Gaza genocide marks “the beginning of the end of the Zionist project”
Makdisi Street
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG_JFp0MDLs
Flash flooding hits DC Metro area on Saturday Balanced Weather
Fields of destruction. Central NC farmers devastated by Chantal. Carolina Public Press
Today’s floods are tomorrow’s warnings Talking Climate
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’ve been keeping a year’s worth of food on hand for about a decade and frankly its stuff i’d rather not eat, but would gladly if push-met-shove. Heavy on canned and dry food, typically the use-by dates are about a year or 2 out, and I know that canned food can last years later than the use-by date, but i’m a little picky in that regard, and I have a really good back up plan in that as the use-by dates come and go, usually 6 months after that I donate everything to our food bank* in town.
It starts off as insurance and ends up as an anonymous donation at Tiny Town’s food bank, keeping locals who need food assistance fed. It’s a lose-win feel good scenario.
Crops are failing all over the world on account of Hunga Tonga combined with climate change, why not do something about it?
You need space to pull it off and for a couple of people its around $2-3k in cost.
* our food bank doesn’t care about use-by dates, but no dented or rusted cans please.
“Foreign Ministry to Fund Israel Tour for MAGA, America First pro-Trump Influencers”
Now that is going to be a neat trick for those “influencers”. Yeah, they get a free trip to Israel – honey traps included – to say that Israel is really, really great. On the other hand I am seeing more and more kids openly hostile to Israel because, you know, that genocide thing. We saw that with the kids recently at that British open air concert. So what happens when these influencers come back from Israel with their thirty pieces of silver to say Israel is great and wonderful – only to have those kids trash them and abandon following them anymore. Trump may invite those influencers to the White House to support them, like Biden did with his batch of influencers, but that may just be the kiss of death by then.
I’m afraid that I am in agreement with Caitlin Johnston here when she said that if you are still supporting Israel in 2025, then there is something wrong with you as a person-
https://caityjohnstone.medium.com/if-youre-still-supporting-israel-in-2025-there-s-something-wrong-with-you-as-a-person-2e43cc369b97
We can always hope for a direct hit on Ben Gurion, just as their plane is landing.
Such a tragedy …
Stories like this make it clear who is wearing the pants in the Turkey-Israel relationship, and that all this bruhahah about a conflict between the two in Syria is simply “kayfabe”. Europe will turn on Israel before Turkey does.
Turkey and Israel are trying to figure out which one is the scorpion. I’d say both.
Interesting that there is a Persian precursor to the more well known version according to that wiki link –
“In The Scorpion and the Turtle, it is a turtle that carries the scorpion across the river, and the turtle survives the scorpion’s sting thanks to its protective shell. The scorpion explains to the baffled turtle that it could not resist its instinct to sting and knew that its stinger would not pierce the turtle’s shell. The turtle then passes judgment on the scorpion. In Kashifi’s version, the turtle judges the scorpion to be a “base character” and reproaches itself for not having better character judgment. In Jami’s version of the tale, the turtle judges the scorpion to be a “wicked fellow” and drowns the scorpion to prevent it from harming anyone else.”
Turtles unite!
The direct link to “Revisiting Paul Baran’s The Political Economy of Growth for Today ZZ’s Blog”
Waterfalls in Michigan…well once upon a time a popular band chided the listener, ” don’t go chasing waterfalls, please stick to the rivers and the streams that you’re used to…but I think you’re moving too fast…”. From the article the 49 yo has been chasing his waterfall ambitions for some time now. I beg to differ I suppose on what counts as One versus Two or more at the same proximity.
Waterfalls are popular at nearby state parks, forests and of course the Great Smoky Mountains…but the footing can get slippery! This park below has a few very good examples.
https://www.ncparks.gov/state-parks/gorges-state-park
… I know that you’re gonna have it your way or nothing at all …
;)
“Egypt rejects US quid pro quo over Gaza and Ethiopia dam”
Well of course they would. If they let Trump “help”, then he would demand a price for that help such as Egypt opening up it economy to Wall Street or something. There always has to be something in it for him. And you would never know if Trump would declare in public that a deal has been made, the greatest deal ever, and that he got the job done – while both sides were still negotiating between them and hadn’t finalized anything.
Defence secretary to call for ‘50-day drive’ to arm Kyiv and force Putin’s hand – The Independent
Where’s France? They are the main ones talking about how they should be able to make their own arms.
Atlanta’s growth streak has come to an end:
https://archive.ph/aBXnp
net migration out for first time in years … add in immigration raids bringing a rein of terror and one of the worst office vacancy rates in the country … bulldoze those blasted CRE edifice wrecks or turn them into affordable housing!
‘paging William Tecumseh Sherman and the March to the Seize…’
We haven’t had a substantial drought here since the mid-aughts. I remember at the time thinking that all the cruddy mcMansions they were building (with postage stamp sized lawns) clustered together would go up like kindling. It seems like it’s just a matter of time until we get a date with the Big Burn.
Heh, multiple families profiled had both spouses work in, of course, IT. I’m not surprised Microsoft abandoned its campus plans for Atlanta in 2023, as that was the beginning of the great tech recession that’s ongoing. They all massively over-hired for the beginning of the Pandemic.
Some Epstein panic fun inside the White House spilled by who knows who. Rolling Stone has the juice.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/inside-trump-failing-mission-crush-maga-revolt-epstein-1235387313/
Lots of foul language lol.
This is from the same outlet that reported that there were so many rubes in Oklahoma taking Ivermectin and being harmed/dying from Ivermectin that the ERs were having to turn away gun shot victims. That dominated the headlines for days – even making it to Rachel Maddow – until all the hospitals in Oklahoma started coming out and stating – What the Hell are they talking about?
I take anything and everything coming out of outlets like this with a big grain of salt. I trust nothing they say until it is being reported by multiple other sources.
I am not alone.
The egregious dishonest behavior of almost all of our media over the past 5-10 years has left scars in their reputations that may never heal.
(Apologies if this appears twice; my first attempt disappeared into the ether the instant I hit the post comment button.)
Thanks, IM Doc. What stood out to me is Rolling Stone’s incessant use of the MAGA/right-wing/far right wing/conspiracy theory/conspiracist verbiage in an attempt to imply that: conspiracy theories only arise from right-wingers; they are never based on facts; and democrats were innocent in their dealings with Epstein, who killed himself in prison and had no files – it’s all a conspiracy, y’all.
Rolling Stone is trying to make the Epstein saga disappear, too.
On the other hand, I absolutely applaud MAGA discontents for going after their party leader for not following through on his promises. Would that we would ever see this kind of turmoil arising from democrats not keeping their promises. I’m looking at a long line of the lying liars and the people who support them no matter what they do.
This is after all the outfit that employed such brilliant talent as Hunter S. Thompson, Janet Reitman, Joe Klein, Joe Eszterhas, P. J. O’Rourke, Kurt Loder, Cameron Crowe and Matt Taibbi. So while they may take artistic license occasionally, they’re reputable. But whatever. It’s amusing and has lots of quotes.
Yes, my initial diagnosis was that doc was basing everything on one tale of woe, Rolling Stone isn’t some johnny come lately rag.
Isn’t it more pleasant to have the President dominate the headlines for days instead, with utter prattle often worse that implied Ivermectin threats.
Taibbi has some comments in today’s ATW, no paywall, about his reporting at RS that got him essentially pushed out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQdZZtODcM0
Artistic license? No they straight up make shit up. Who cares who they USED to employee, who are they now? Now they are one of the most dis reputable rags on the planet. But hey whatever, sure they’re lying and misrepresenting to get you to ignore the fact that EVERYONE has known about Epstein since at least 2008 and no one did a damn thing about it, including the fine editors at Rolling Stone or any of the democrats who are all loudly and safely screaming about it now when they could of done something about at anytime from 2008 to 2016 and 2020 to 2024. Why it’s almost like they know they can denounce it all now since there is zero chance of anything coming of it.
Ceasefire lies, chapter 17:
https://southfront.press/pro-government-forces-violate-ceasefire-in-al-suwayda-with-new-offensive-videos/
You can just imagine Trump raging in the Oval Office, with a Big Mac in one hand, his swollen ankles hurting as he guzzles down another one of his “Super size” Cokes.
“Dammit, Bibi, I told you to stop!”
From NYT op-ed article over past weekend:
“ I think absolutely the weekly reports of Israeli soldiers shooting on Palestinians who are in long lines to get food is a calamity for Jews,” May said
So the calamity is not the IDF using human beings for target practice, but it is the reporting of the fact.
re. China massively overbuilt high-speed rail, says leading economic geographer Pekingnology
Obviously there’s lots of malinvestment in China’s HSR. But I take issue with the lack of profitability. To my knowledge, there are precious few examples of profitable passenger rail anywhere in the world. Generally there are outright government subsidies. Is it a “bad” thing that freight rail subsidizes HSR in China? For decades that was true in the US until government regulators allowed abandonment of common carrier obligations in to 50s and 60s. This resulted in government subsidized Amtrak and a system 1/3 the size.
Somehow China will figure out how to write off the overbuilt system.
Overbuilding politcal boondoggles are not unique to China. One could argue the US Interstate Highway system was grossly overbuilt and unnecessary (did every state need at least one?). The Interstate system brought about sprawl which is horrendously inefficient and wasteful. At least China’s combined HSR, conventional passenger rail and freight rail allows for a more sustainable future decades hence.
The incompetence and grift of US transportation is epic. How else to explain $25B for 2 new Hudson River cubes to Penn Station which are a decade off? Or California’s Merced to Bakersfield HSR. Or the absolutely pathetic state of Amtrak. And freight railroads that carry less freight than 20 years ago and make a 40% margin.
The problem is that from a Western lens, oversupply and supply-side management is not proper. We focus primarily on demand management to achieve goals so when we see that HSR was “overbuilt” it’s a mistake since there is no demand for it. Similarly we, in my opinion, mistakingly require what should be public goods and subsidiaries to be financed and profitable to justify them.
It seems like the philosophy around debt management and forgiveness is completely different as well. In China, debt is just a number to make the balance sheet work. It can be manipulated and restructured to reduce its burden.
Few forms of infrastructure make a direct financial profit – even in the heyday of private investment in railway, most of the profitable routes were built on bankruptcies. The later 19th century profitable lines were mostly the boring ones built to rigorous cost controls (unlike the uber optimistic early lines like London-Bristol, built by Brunel, who liked nothing better than bankrupting his employers). Roads of course almost never make a profit unless there is active restrictions on alternative routes (turnpikes), similarly with ports, airports, etc. The trick is to calculate correctly whether the benefits to the economy and to society ensure the loss is worth it. There are of course lots of different methodologies to assess this, most of which are to some degree flawed. From decades working in infrastructure, I’ve never met a consultant who couldn’t come up with a spreadsheet ‘justifying’ some infrastructure investment, and another who couldn’t debunk it (for a fee).
China’s HSR’s are approaching the problem Japan faced in the late 1980’s, when the accumulated debts of the Shinkansen became too big to ignore. The response was a very painful and expensive privatisation which of course involved the public sector absorbing a huge chunk of debt, which is still being very slowly absorbed. The ‘good’ thing about the privatisation there is that at least there is some transparency about the debts, even if most are still hidden away in various corners of Tokyo’s vast debt mountain.
The problem in China is that the HSR has not just been massively overbuilt, it was badly designed and built. HSR lines are fundamentally very expensive to maintain and run, so they can’t be treated as a sort of sunk cost asset the way boring old freight and local passenger lines can. To make it worse, as the article points out, they were never properly integrated with other forms of transport, which grossly undermines their viability. Metros and local passenger rail can be justified as increasing local productivity and promoting agglomeration effects (i.e., the more people within easy travel distance to each other, the greater productivity effects are seen). Freight is of course vital for most countries. But HSR is primarily a benefit for the better off (a typical HSR ticket costs about 3-5 times a ‘slow’ train ticket in China) and only provides unambiguous economic/environmental benefits within quite a narrowly confined set of criteria (in Europe, distances of 2-4 hours travel time, and between very large cities only). Other than that, its a luxury. Building HSR at the expense of local slow trains, metros and freight (as China has done) is a little like putting in your jacuzzi before building the roof for your new home.
There are no available official figures for the debts of China’s HSR system, but there are reasonable estimates of around a trillion dollars. To make it worse, it seems that the losses are operating losses – i.e. they aren’t even covering the most basic running costs, let along the capital costs. And of course typically in China, those capital costs are laid down at local government level, not on a private or national level balance sheet. And as the article points out, they are still building at a crazy rate, with some schemes that make no sense whatever. As one example, a HSR line just 75km long with three stops is just idiotic, but its typical of what happens where HSR (or any other type of glamorous infrastructure) becomes politicised, and boring old engineering and economic constraints are ignored.
HSR only makes sense as a link between large urban areas within a maximum of 4 hours journeytime, and only if it is very well integrated with other forms of transit. To varying degrees, this is the case with the French, Japanese and Spanish systems (although none are perfect, and all were very expensive and remain so). Other countries, notably Taiwan made a mess of planning and implementing them – sadly there are probably more bad models than good. Its increasingly obvious that the Chinese put the HSR cart before the more boring slow train/freight horse. As with the Japanese, it will take them decades to deal with the debts, and thats before you even get to the question of who pays to run deeply unprofitable lines, many of which only benefit the better off. Its an appalling mess, and as the article points out, Beijing hasn’t even started the process of dealing with it.
Or put another way, if you want to build HSR, look very closely at what the French and Spanish did – for the most part, they got it right. For all the impressiveness of the engineering, the Chinese and even Japanese are not a good model for anyone.
Fascinating comment on a fascinating article. Thank you. The author gives the impression that HSR has become a magical concept in China, just as AI and crypto have in the west.
Thanks Alex. I should have said that the article is excellent – while long, it gives a very good overview of the complexity of rail infrastructure planning and explains very well why not all rail investment is good. Sadly, you are right about HSR in China (mind you, they love AI and crypto too).
Is there any precedent for a sitting US Prez to file a pro se lawsuit and going to court? Is this another new and novel approach to the office of Grand Poobah?
(Not that I expect Trump to go to court with this.)
I’ve been scratching my head trying to figure out what Trump is trying to do and it came to me that what we are seeing is not any kind of coherent plan, these are dominance displays by an narcissistic old man whose life is nearing its end.
Biden’s dominance displays differed quite a bit, the Tara Reade episode and those “Creepy Joe” compilations on you tube are examples.
With Trump the recent tariff letters are one example, however almost all of his actions since 1/20 can be explained as dominance displays, they don’t make any sense otherwise…
It’s not a comforting conclusion, if anyone has a better explanation I would very much like to hear it.
Too many Cokes rotted his brain out? A certain STD that was known to drive Kings mad in medieval times?
It’s not hard – Trump is an entertainer and he is still playing at game shows. Everyone assumes he’s concerned with politics because that’s what politicians are supposed to focus on. He’s not doing that.
Reminds me of Reagan. Everybody said he was an actor before he turned to politics. I’d argue that he never stopped just reading the lines he was given.
What is Trump trying to do? Everything.
And another zinger I learned of today…the NFL franchise in Washington should change their team name yet again. I’ve no idea the precedence being set for just being overly involved but Trump will incorporate his input into almost any hum drum decision if he sees an opening.
Hail to the Commanders…er, to the Redskins. No word just yet if the more recent example, from MLB in Cleveland return to their prior team name.
Since over half of the NFL players are African-American, why not the Blackskins?
That would still be racist, because African-Americans are still alive and able to complain. I say, name them Orangeskins.
Until this past NFL season one could have called them the “Washington Whatevs”, since they remained about as broadly irrelevant in the NFC standings as a professional franchise could be…
But hope finally was sprung with changes to ownership, a QB draft pick , and also quality coaching; and a sorta magical stretch of pulling out victory from the jaws of defeat. Just couldn’t beat them Birds in Philly though.
I’m not even sure what this is.
The Trouble With Wanting Men (NY Times Mag via archive.ph)
Men quitting women has been somewhat of a topic here these past six months, so I guess this is the NY Times Mag view of the other side?
And we come to it
(bold mine)
We were told for years that it was “alpha” males and their “toxicity” that were the problem. Apparently ladies ladies don’t actually like the betas? Be careful what you wish for!
In the real world outside the NYT’s liberal fantasy bubble , the “bad boys” have always been attractive and Leo Durocher told us where nice guys finish decades ago.
jeezzluise!
these chicks need to abandon manhattan vegan bars and get themselves to backroads texas, post haste!
(and they prolly need to modify their expectations about careers and income and such, as well..but that’s just an educated guess.)
i remember the pseudofeminist books laying all over the house, early 80’s, when dad was putting mom through college…just prior to their divorce…and, since i have a lifelong habit of reading everydamnedthing…i read them, on the sly.
this was the age of tootsie and 9 to 5(Dolly) and the in retrospect strange emergence of feminism into the mainstream…this is just another iteration of that whole mess.
and, it occurs to me…after the whole dworkin on meth thing of #metoo, what the heck to they expect?
lol.
i, myself, dont really worry about faux pas and foot in mouth disease…its a part of me, after all….and have been told that my feral directness and hillbilly malapropisms are sometimes charming.
i have no idea whats going on with the guys these gals are after…but even with the mountains on my negative side of the ledger, i still have the balls to follow through.
/s
Call it the Girdle Theory, or the Virginia Slims Theory.
The first one looks across the eons of female subjugation and the gradual, then sudden, appearance of rights when the old ways went bankrupt. As the metaphorical girdle is loosened and shed, the untoned flesh droops and confusion arises at the unfamiliar liberties and sensations. Too much, too soon and those early publications stirred up much anger. No roadmap, precious little training of the flesh and mind, so some period of chaos and adjustment. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
The second one assured women that they could have it all. That sold cigarettes and bills of goods, but didn’t really deliver on the advertising promises. Or maybe it was some other consumer products. No matter. Many waves later, there is still learning and experiences happening.
prolly the only positive thing my mom gave me was a strong internal habit of feminism…women as equals has always been easy for me.
she’s always been a puritan, at heart…so it was kinda creepy watching her flail around with “liberation” in the late 80’s: a job, screwing her female boss(like we didnt know,lol), etc.
but i do give her credit for my version of feminism….which is rather simple, and very non-performative.
as for the various “Waves”…i prefer the one that did all the slutwalks, and such…sexpositivity, and all that.
although Camille Paglia is still one of my favorite people(dont know where she fits into orthodox schema, if at all)
the nyp article we’re talking about contained many words i had to go look up, btw…all that discourse has moved so far into la la land that i dont recognise it anymore.
and, btw, ive still got most of those pseudofeminist diatribes and empowerment methodologies in my library, right now.
now i might hafta open the 80’s file in the music library, dammit.
>>>although Camille Paglia is still one of my favorite people(dont know where she fits into orthodox schema, if at all)
Agree or not with Paglia, I have found her reasoning and common sense nice especially compared to the modern reiteration of feminism (or really, any of the social positions of either political party.) This is why she is a controversial woman because she refuses to use the rainbows and unicorns way of thinking that is the part of the official dogma of the Democratic Party and the Professional and Managerial Class despite being far to the left of the Republicans.
yeah. when she called herself “transgender” in that jordan peterson interview…i didnt find it cringe, at all.
rain is wet.
she’s one of the most authentic people still alive, and has had a standing invitation to my bar and hearth for as long as i’ve had such things, and before,lol.
evisceration by Paglia…ha!
i’d be honored.
I read “Trouble With Wanting Men” and WOW! … WOW!!! I feel no sympathy for women like the one who wrote that essay. She seemed to be looking for sex but it sounded like she was looking sex AND …. Unless she is really picky and not very attractive, a woman can find a lay without much trouble — even a nice guy lay — and even less attractive women only need to wait until closing time nears.
The problem is with the ‘AND’ part. Her open-marriage would be a big warning signal blasting my radar. She is a woman who wants some sort of commitment seemingly without yielding herself to commitment. I must be old-fashioned — how does polyamory blend with commitment? And, though I strongly believe in the importance of basic courtesy in communications I have noticed very little reciprocity in that courtesy, whether by male or female malefactors.
Apart from dating and mating rituals I have been appalled by the number or married men I know whose wives have demurred from work and from caring for their children and from caring for the household and cooking for their children … and husband. How many married husbands must rush home from work to pick up their children from day-care, cook dinner after they settle their children down with tv or other forms of entertainment, sit, talk with their children, and share their entertainments, read bed-time stories and tuck them into bed while their wives rest or brood or do whatever they are doing in the master-bedroom apart from the family. That was the story of my marriage, a friend’s marriage, and it’s the ongoing story of my nephew’s slowly failing marriage, which mirrors the failure of my own marriage.
I also think there is a lot left unsaid in the complaints expressed in “…Wanting Men”. How does the author feel about men who make a decent living … but not a successful lawyer or stock broker ‘living’? The income levels of what men are considered ‘eligible’ is not stated or clear from the context. The fag end [meaning and usage completely UN-related to homosexuality and I believe predating such usages by several decades.] of the male earning population is as broad and much more than complementing the extremely thin spread of the ‘successful’ end of the male population. I believe the Masters-of-the-Universe in law and finance, however ‘nice’ they might project, seldom truly approach any sort of human niceness.
This statement is most telling:
“I could not disambiguate sex from love nor love from devotion, futurity, family integration, things I wanted with (from?) J., even as, throughout the year and a half or so that we saw each other, he continued to gesture to his incapacity to commit as if it were a separate being,”
Given current marriage and divorce laws is it any wonder men are reluctant to ‘commit’. I was especially chagrined by the mention of the “hermeneutic labor” of interpreting and responding to the mystifying male cues that supposedly constitute a mysterious and infuriating “hermeneutic labor” for women. As a guy, I think the signals I give to women when I want them are very plain, obvious, and difficult to ignore. If the author of this essay views interpreting male signals as an infuriating “hermeneutic labor” she has been dating guys who were “not that into her” to quote movie dialog.
The problem of irreproachable male helplessness versus men who don’t want to, suggests a certain man who is unable to, given the desirability of their object of desire of the moment. The “female demand-male withdraw” problem can be explained by noting that if a guy cannot respond to a demand, perhaps his little man refuses those demands. Little man decides on his own. Nothing withers little man like insistent demands where there is no compelling desire or desirability to raise his interest.
The admission: “I could not disambiguate sex from love nor love from devotion, futurity, family integration, things I wanted with (from?) J., even as, throughout the year and a half or so that we saw each other, he continued to gesture to his incapacity to commit as if it were a separate being…” sounds like the complaint in this essay implicitly wants more from a relationship than sex. Commitment, as in assuming financial and caring responsibility for an existing or intended family seems most incompatible with the author’s apparent desires for casual sex.
It’s also called the Male Loser Epidemic according to ShoeOnHead-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M51v1dmhp1k (29:24 mins)
But it is not what it seems.
i dig Shoeonhead. a lot.
Ken Cheng’s take on the Astronomer
Say what you will about his actions, but a week ago I had no idea what Astronomer do.
I still don’t.
This was utterly terrible marketing strategy.
If I was going to get caught on kisscam I would’ve plastered my shirt with the logo.
I would’ve tattooed the company website URL to my forehead.
I would’ve mouthed the company motto as I snogged my head of HR.
I don’t blame this man for cheating.
I blame him for awful business sense.
The worst part? Him ducking out of view.
He gave up free ad time and reduced his engagements by half.
I completely support his right to have a sidepiece.
I do not support his right to waste such a big opportunity for brand awareness.
Disgusting.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ken-cheng-991849b6_say-what-you-will-about-his-actions-but-activity-7352623625792888833-gDzK
Ken Cheng is hilarious.
Top quality LinkedIn Lunatic content
Nice little summary regarding the stablecoin GENIUS regulation that just passed and the proposed CLARITY act. It has a nice clip at the beginning talking about how it will create demand for US dollars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfgUMQIt5JI
TLDR: Stablecoin issuers will be buyers of short term treasuries. Increasing USD stablecoin dominance in the digital sphere is a strategy to increase demand for USD as global finance is trying to find a way to get away from it. AKA maintaining dollar dominance. Goes into how the backend infrastructure has been completed and financial institutions are ready to plug in as soon as the regulations go through.
Dima’s Military Summary Channel video (premiere in 30 mins):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXjA-9AqhQs
The teaser is “3 Patriots Destroyed” and I don’t think he’s talking about Brady, Gronk, and Belichick.
Good thing the U.S. Army is footing the bill for a new radar set for Patriot system. By now there are all kinds of observation of how the radar “forms” appear and “steer”.
That is if the supplier does more than just use different substrates and introduce processing efficiencies….
Familiarity with a radar set breeds vulnerability
I guess the Russkies have gotten pretty good at hunting down/seek and destroy. That’s a few billion vaporized in a moment.
(It’s been a real bad day for the coalition of the unwilling – Pokrosvk is looking like a goner, and apparently plagues of locusts have descended on the Ukrainian part of the Dnipropetrosvk region, so there goes the fall harvest and the dreams of Blackrock to use it as re-hypothecated collateral for some teachers pension fund.)
Yes, you need a well timed attack on their breeding grounds with locusts, drone coverage would make that hard unless an undercover truce was in effect. They may well move into southern Russia though as well now they are away.
Probably the seasons are confused there as well. Here in Qld for the last couple of years the seasons have moved forward 3 weeks, but this year in Nth Qld reports are mango trees flowering 6 weeks early with snake movement and native bird pairing. Ominous for the next wet season, still struggling with flood repairs from last wet.
So “3 patriots destroyed” plus I guess the radar for the ECS so about half a battery, but without the radar in US doctrine the remaining launchers I believe could be remotely controlled from a second battery ECS, given proximity.
From what I’ve seen previously the kills on launchers seem to be while they are on the move which implies decent intel, I’m assuming from UAV assets. That’s why it’s better to also employ SHORAD (short range air defense) like Avenger or Stinger for counter-battery defense.
You just made up “counter-battery defense” because it sounds nice. Excellent for a job of a military expert on CNN, BBC, et al. :)
Long range AA systems do have accompanying short range air defense. Ukrainians had them too. I remember seeing a video of Russian kamikaze drones attacking S-300 launchers, and MANPADS unsuccessfully engaging Lancet (or whatever it was) in its dive towards the target. Now they are running low on everything, and such luxuries are a thing of the past. Russians are going the other way, and started defending short range systems, like TOR, with shotgunners.
Ugh.
How Apple’s iOS 26 and Google’s Android 16 Will Change Our Phones
And roundly panned on Twitter as being truly awful UX that would make Jobs sputter with rage.
Why not leave a UI that works alone, or at least make it suck less?
Apple couldn’t deliver on the AI scam, so literally they’re making the OS suck instead.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
Why. Would. I. want. That?
Kill me. That sounds even worse.
God forbid a phone be a tool that you can use to accomplish tasks to try to reduce the load of neoliberalism as a tax on your time.
(bold mine)
Sounds useful, no?
So instead we get a worse UI, which perhaps is less dangerous than a broken LLM implementation (all of them).
Lovely!
in 1999 when i got my first puter (win98SE), i quickly figgered out that MS updates were toxic, and learned how to block them>
have ever since…in spite of all the hacking efforts of Gate’s flying monkeys.
(touch wood)
but on the fones,lol…no such luck.
it has been better since ive had a samsung fone(it was cheaper)…and, i suppose, android.
but still, bloatware slips in, and i hafta rummage around to figger out how to remove or disable it.
what youre talking about will prolly arrive at 2am on my fone, at some point.
funny…with all the silicon valley rhetoric(for 40 years) about “Choices!”…how they usually try real hard to NOT give us a choice for their latest BS that will serve them, and harm us.
at some point, i’ll revert to the landline.
and CB radios.
I thought Windows 7 did that translucent look back in 2009 ?
Compiz did everything that could be done before that. It’s downhill from there.
Last for today, but this is both NC effected by the following and 15 minutes away, so local, and apparently gone national, and I know Yves Smith is very familiar with paper mills from growing up:
A Mill Town Lost Its Mill. What Is It Now?
On ownership
What we don’t learn is why this mill finally shutdown, or what in the world is going to become of the former mill site.
And that’s basically what we know.
apparently Medhi Hassan has found his stones, post-MSM.
here, he’s playing speed chess, but with debate, against 20 hyper rwnj’s.
its pretty delicious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S-WJN3L5eo
So, we have a potential child molester President in the offing, right?
Walter Breen was the Leonardo Da Vinci of old lucre, nobody knew more in regards to American coins than him, flat out.
He wrote the encyclopedia of American numismatics, and I remember seeing him at coin shows in the 70’s and 80’s, and he was almost the go-to guru if you wanted to ask a question about a given coin, he had mad knowledge~
There was always rumors and whatnot of him being a child molester, but back in the day before this contraption came along, there was really no way to ascertain such things, for instance pulling up his Wiki I had no idea he had a string of arrests for child molestation starting in the 50’s… ye gads!
Anyhow it all came to a conclusion when he messed with the wrong 13 year old, and into prison he went and got beat up a few times I heard-child molesters being the lowest of low in the prison ranks of what are you in?
He died after 3 years in the big house.
So how do we proceed when the news comes out, in regards to our clear and present dangerous person leading us down the primrose path?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Walter Henry Breen Jr. (September 5, 1928 – April 27, 1993) was an American numismatist, writer, and convicted child sex offender. He was known among coin collectors for writing Walter Breen’s Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins; “Breen numbers”, from his encyclopedia, are widely used to attribute varieties of coins. He was also known for activity in the science fiction fan community and for his writings in defense of pederasty as a NAMBLA activist. He was arrested in 1990 for child sex abuse and died in prison three years later.
Breen was initially convicted of child molestation or lewd behavior in Atlantic City in 1954, resulting in a probationary sentence. In 1963–1964, allegations of further sex crimes caused within science fiction fandom a controversy known as “Breendoggle”; Breen was banned from attending Pacificon II and briefly blackballed from the subculture’s main amateur press association. Nevertheless, prominent fans of the era (such as John Boardman and Ted White) dismissed the allegations as hearsay and “character assassination,” and the scandal blew over. Shortly thereafter, Breen married Bradley, who was cognizant of his behavior but chose not to report him. A further molestation conviction may have occurred in 1964.
Breen was again arrested on child molestation charges in 1990. He accepted a plea bargain, which resulted in three years’ probation.
A year later, he was charged with eight felony counts of child molestation involving a 13-year-old boy. Though diagnosed with liver cancer in 1992, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The conviction resulted in his expulsion from the ANA. He died in prison in Chino, California, on April 27, 1993.
In 2014, Breen’s daughter Moira Greyland revealed that she was one of the people who reported her father for child molestation.
Interview with Hunter Biden for those interested. It’s 3 hours and I’m not too far into it, but might be interesting. So far it’s about his journey with addiction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBbkt2vYC4M
Re: Japan ruling camp to lose upper house majority in severe blow to PM
One angle neglected by this article is the matter of Constitutional revision.
The parties that want to revise the Japanese Constitution now have a majority in the Parliament.
This is not only about eliminating Article 9 so that Japan can attack other countries and launch wars, but really about fundamentally changing the Constitution. This has been an ongoing issue and it has become clear that conservatives in Japan don’t accept the basic principle of constitutionalism.
One of the leading constitutional scholars in Japan, Keio University Professor Emeritus Setsu Kobayashi, sees it as the supreme law that guarantees the people as sovereign, with the Constitution acting as a limit on state power. He laments that no matter how many times he has given lectures on this, the conservatives either fail or refuse to understand what constitutionalism is about, probably because they are too embedded in traditional modes of thinking about vertical (i.e., subservient) power relations in Japanese society.
The conservatives — especially including right-wing Sanseito — see the Constitution instead as the opposite: the document that defines their authority over the people. They fundamentally do not believe the people should be sovereign, and they want to take Japan back to the Meiji era, in which the Emperor is the sovereign and the people are only imperial subjects subordinated to the state. They further want to change the Constitution such that the traditional family system is given renewed authority, so that the state can wash its hands of any responsibility vis-à-vis individuals, who would henceforth be compelled to rely on the family, regardless of whether it’s functional, non-violent, etc.
To be fair, the lack of understanding of what “contitutionalism” is very common throughout the world, including even in US.
A particularly dangerous trend is the notion that “democracy” and such are about “doing the right thing.” The state and its appendages, then, are the means to achieve them and those who oppose them, no matter how many of them, are in the wrong and those in power are justified in rolling them over. This is basically the same as early Showa “constitutionalism” that empowers the state and imposes “duties” on “subjects.” I don’t see too many places where this is not the case.
True, though to my knowledge there are not too many places where you’ll find serious conservative movements hell-bent on revising the national Constitution.
In Japan, Sanseito published their proposed revision of the Constitution and it’s clearly about rolling back basic human rights, replacing citizens with subjects. etc. E.g., chapter 1. “The Emperor”. Chapter 2. “The State”. Etc. But as you say, many supporters appear to be pretty much in the dark about what this implies.
Just today, the Minister of Education made a public statement on this, reminding people that Imperial Rescript on Education (which Sanseito supports) was found to be against the Japanese Constitution, and cannot be used in schools. But the conservatives never pay attention to these decisions.
I hate to use a phrase like “low information voters” but at least in the case of Japan that’s very much at play.
I was thinking, in a way, the Japanese politicians are more honest, including to themselves, than their European and American counterparts, many of whom seem to really believe in dictatorial authoritarianism to defend “their democracy.” Japanese right wingers, from the days of Marshal Yamagata, at least, never even pretended–except when they were humoring the stupid gaijin.
It’s always amusing how often the gaijin completely misunderstand what underlies Japanese politics (to be fair, so do many Japanese). I recall a few years ago reading a serious history which described one female mid 20th century politician as a feminist because of her stance against red light districts. She was actually an arch conservative, whose main objection to red light areas was that these were the one part of society where women generally owned and ran the associated businesses.
I think it’s fair to say that pretty much all countries/societies have a unique (and often opaque to outsiders)t relationship to their own constitutions (not least the UK, with its mysterious constitution that nobody has apparently been allowed to read). The Japanese constitution has always had an awkward position in that it was to a large degree imposed upon the nation, for obvious very good reasons.
You mean the post WW2 one, right? Of course, one might say the same thing about the Meiji one, too–except that was by the Choshu/Satsuma/Tosa people on the rest of Japan…for what looked like good reasons back then…
Yes, the post WWII one. The politics of the early Meiji period is fascinating, although I confess to struggling to understand exactly how the Constitution came to be. It certainly left a lot of bitterness among the many losers at the time – a very underestimated dynamic I think in why Japan launched itself so enthusiastically into the void in the 1930’s.
There’s practically nothing written specifically on the politics of the Meiji Constitution in English–that was true when I was in grad school and it’s still true, apparently (George Beckman’s dissertation from 1970s still seems to be the only book length source, other than more general histories and articles.) Some offerings in Japanese, but I’m not going to put any faith in my Japanese skills now given that I didn’t dare when I was presumably somewhat more competent…
On this subject, you might find Harry Harootunian’s recent book Archaism and Actuality (2023) worth a look. It is not specifically about the Meiji constitution, but the second chapter is devoted to a rethinking of the restoration, e.g., the following discussion on p. 74:
So this is a reading of the Meiji constitution as an instance of what Marx calls “formal subsumption”, a concept that Harootunian explores in some depth.
Karatani Kōjin has an interesting reading of this.
He argues that in fact Article 9 has never been put into practice, because Japan maintains the SDF and hosts 130+ USian military bases, both of which should be impossible under Article 9. To make this possible, the interpretation of the Constitution has been repeatedly stretched. However, Article 9 cannot be read to justify sending the SDF into battle outside of Japan, and that is what the conservatives and the leadership very much want to do. This is why they wish to “amend” Article 9.
Karatani notes that the current Constitution reflects some of the idealism of the left New Dealers in the Occupation (though they were purged in the “reverse course”), and that Article 9 was based upon the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, as well as Kant’s theory of peace.
Japanese conservatives frequently note that the Constitution was imposed by the US Occupation and is thus somehow “anti-Japanese” but they ignore a significant historical fact: when the Korean War started, the US demanded that Japan revise its Constitution in order to fully participate in the war. PM Yoshida Shigeru not only responded with a refusal, he also supported the anti-rearmament movement. Karatani points out that in this way, the Constitution was embraced by the Japanese, and still today polls show very strong support for Article 9. He believes Yoshida took this position because he feared Constitutional revision would lead to a collapse of public support for the LDP.
Japan nevertheless served as a military base in the Korean and Vietnamese wars, but the people were largely against this and thus the leadership did not dare to touch the Constitution.
In view of this popular support, still today conservatives generally do not campaign on changing the Constitution, and this most recent election has been no exception. This part of their agenda has been barely discussed. But it remains a significant part of their agenda and the current composition of the Diet (including whackjob parties like Sanseito) now makes it possible.
Its a long time since I’ve done my reading on this, but my understanding was always that Yoshida (or at least, some of the people behind him) saw the constitution as providing a cover whereby Japan would strengthen itself economically while the US bled itself dry fighting across the globe. Essentially, it allowed Japan to launch a long economic war for domination. I’ve seen it argued that the Korean War was crucial to the Japanese economic miracle as supplying the US allowed Japan to access crucial amounts of hard currency, something it entirely lacked in the aftermath of war.
What is “constitutionalism” even supposed to achieve ? The US Supreme Court routinely rules in ways that do violence to the plain meaning of the provisions of the Bill of Rights. It’s the potential or lack thereof of popular resistance that restrains the state not words on a piece of paper. Doubly so in countries where the Constitution hasn’t been sanctified by time and come to be viewed as some sort of secular scripture as Americans do.
There is the other side: the people who are eager to overthrow the Constitution to defend “their democracy” and foist it on the other side, I think are the great big threat to constitutionalism–or, at least, thise willing to actively support politicians openly eager to do so. The sad thing about US is that there are too many people, on all sides, who want to toss the Constitution into fire just so that they can do “their right things” and punish their enemies.
I’m of rather mixed views on Japan: I’m not sure if trashing the postwar Constitution in its radical forms, not just Article 9, has much support and it would take a lot to meaningfully turn things in that direction, in big enough scale. Maybe social unrests, earthquakes, and economic crises on par with 1920s? (I’m pessimistic enough that I doubt the post Heisei Japan is on much stronger footing, institutionally, than the Taisho/early Showa era, but, among other things, demographics just aren’t there. There will certainly be erosion and slippage, but I doubt it’ll be worse than those elsewhere–too many old people who won’t want to change.)
UK condemns Israel for depriving Palestinians of ‘human dignity’
David Lammy joins ministers from 27 other countries in issuing call for immediate end to Gaza war
Starmer said: “The situation on the ground in Gaza is intolerable on so many levels and we make that absolutely clear in all our exchanges with Israel and with other countries. Whether that’s the deaths of those that are queueing for aid, whether it’s the plans to force Palestinians to live in certain areas or be excluded from certain areas, they are all intolerable and absolutely wrong in principle.”
If only he had some leverage. Oh wait, he has loads
He could stop being an active participant in genocide for a start.
It disgusts me to hear these empty words while the horrors continue.
“Depriving them of dignity”. Yeah that’s the problem. Not the starvation, mass murder, torture, killing of children for sport. It’s the loss of dignity. [Angry sarc].
The Hague is too good a destination for these people.
For those following along with the sitcom/tragedy of the NYC mayoral election, a new salvo is not quite as amusing as Cuomo shooting himself in the foot by declaring he would move to Florida if he lost.
A NY young Republican group wants Congress to use the insurrection clause to disqualify Mamdani.
This is much sadder to me than trotting out George Pataki to wave his racism by ranting about spineless Democrats unwilling to call out the Marxist Muslim. It might be just as much of a fear fueled Hail Mary move, but the willing oppression and the misunderstanding of insurrection exhibited by young people involved with politics bodes so ill.