Links 7/23/2025

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1. The Rev Kev July 23, 2025 at 7:15 am

   “What is the New U.S., German and Swiss Plan to Get Patriot Air Defences to Ukraine ’As Quickly As Possible’?”

   Tough luck for Switzerland who were probably at the top of the list of countries to receive Patriot batteries and who are now probably now at the bottom of that list. It doesn’t really matter. Even if Switzerland had gotten those Patriot batteries tomorrow, it probably would not have included the Patriot battery missiles as all of them are being sent to the Ukraine. Don’t know if it is true or not but I heard that there have been three Patriot batteries in the Ukraine turned to ash the past several weeks as the Russians have their number. So maybe at the cost of a billion dollars for each system they are not that great a value?

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   1. jefemt July 23, 2025 at 9:36 am

      Which M I C juggernaut manufactures the Patriot? That is a STRONG buy. Talk about a S L I C C !!!

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   2. Mikel July 23, 2025 at 11:01 am

      Aside from air defense, there is so much talk about long range missiles and drones. It seems like (please, tell me what I’m missing) that Ukraine and associates are laser focused in shooting OVER the Russian troops bearing down on them. Manpower issues…what is it?
      I haven’t been a daily battlefield follower, but that’s the impression. It has me scratching my head…
      Again, it’s like they do everything they can to make Russia occupy more of Ukraine.

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2. ChrisFromGA July 23, 2025 at 7:34 am

   Re:AI

   I’m trying hard to think of a mass hysteria/popular delusion as ridiculous as “AI gonna take muh jobz!”

   Alligators in NYC sewers?

   It’s clear as day that this thing is being oversold to the point of lunacy. Stochastic parrots!

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   1. rob July 23, 2025 at 8:32 am

      It seems like people may realize much of their jobs can USE AI to DO their jobs. , Maybe even making their life easier, in getting their jobs done faster…. But I would guess that much of the craze in this AI revolution MUST be coming from the top down.
      Those at the top of the relatively small AI heap, seem to be riding high on this “hysteria”. Their stock prices, their business models, their dreamed future….. all are seemingly divorced from reality. and gravity.

      These american chip makers, AI software engineering companies…. really seem to not be asked any real questions, as to why their product would remain on top.
      These companies seem to think that what the world needs now is to find a way to build more power production for these server farms. They think that when astounding estimates of the US needing to come up with another 50% of our current energy usage , just for their “computing systems”….is a rational expectation in the current world. No climate change mitigation. no end to resource wars. nothing to curb pollution to local systems. All for a product that may have its uses, but also has its flaws.
      This reminds me of the groupthink that was in the drivers seat that deindustrialized the US in the 90’s. All the industrial equity and knowledge that was cast out to promote multinational profits. Back when people said NAFTA was a top down plan…. no one wanted to listen.
      All the bubbles since… like this one… all never stop the groupthink that is in the process of making a lot of money. No one mentions the house of cards nature of the model. Just that it is inevitable.
      Maybe people think that AI is coming to do their jobs, because these tech oligarchs are pretending they can actually do the job; competently.
      No talk, of competitors in china. like deepseek, like hawei… or others. These tech lords are requiring the interference of the US gov’t , to protect them from what seems like better technology, elsewhere.
      That isn’t a business model. That is a shakedown. Why should people invest in 2nd best technology? because uncle sam won’t let the companies who are actually better, compete?A cheaper alternative, a model that uses vastly less energy…. but the americans have a corrupt gov’t… That isn’t really a sustainable business model. Yet the stock price keeps going up. Why? Quick profits rule the roost.
      So, my guess about why people THINK that AI will be competent enough to actually do things… is because of the hype they are forced to hear ALL the time. EVERYWHERE.

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      1. jefemt July 23, 2025 at 9:38 am

         Tulipmania in the age of communication at the speed of light. What could possibly go right?

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   2. LawnDart July 23, 2025 at 9:31 am

      Re; AI

      I believe that AI will be a great job-creator:

      AI coding platform goes rogue during code freeze and deletes entire company database

      A browser-based AI-powered software creation platform called Replit appears to have gone rogue and deleted a live company database with thousands of entries. What may be even worse is that the Replit AI agent apparently tried to cover up its misdemeanors, and even ‘lied’ about its failures…

      You see, people are gonna get paid during efforts to fix the damage… …be suprised if law firms aren’t lining-up for a slice of the pie too.

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   3. Geo July 23, 2025 at 11:59 am

      Count me as one of those suffering from that mass hysteria then.

      The amount of people and companies I know of using AI for videos, graphic design, photo retouching, writing, and numerous other creative endeavors that used to be reliable jobs is crazy. Even major brands are running entirely AI generated commercials now. Sixt (car rental company) is one prime example but there are many more. I personally know a few fashion photographers using AI to transform their photography into moving images as a replacement for fashion filmmakers. Know tons of musicians using AI to create album art and even create the music under their vocals instead of hiring people to play on their albums or produce the music. It’s race to the bottom in creative industries. And don’t get me started on writers and researchers.

      Seems I can’t go a week without someone insisting I start using AI to score my videos, edit dialogue, generate storyboards, or whatever. All skills I currently am able to do myself (and often do) or know talented people who can do it. But the pressure to cave in is constant. Main reason I don’t cave is because I actually enjoy those things and want to do them. But they take time and time is money, right? So for how long will I be able to afford to be a purist? Heck, just explaining to these people why AI isn’t up to my standards takes too much time.

      Maybe it’s just a giant pendulum swing as people get enamored by the possibilities of the new tech. Maybe there will be a desire down the road for quality over quantity. But, I highly doubt that. In the marketplace it is very rare that quality wins out over cheap convenience. People are getting accustomed to near instant gratification for whatever they desire and seem perfectly fine with slop. Most don’t have refined enough taste to even know the difference and fewer care. Add to that the unfortunate reality that most creative’s output isn’t much better than slop and hiring top talent whose work is noticeably better than AI is crazy expensive and for most people the choice is easy. If you’re gonna get mediocre results better to use AI than hire a human.

      Perhaps if AI generating one day is priced at its true cost things will balance out but for the time being it is much more cost effective to churn out slop than it is to pay people to make marginally better content.

      TL;DR: from where I sit the AI onslaught is very real.

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3. DJG, Reality Czar July 23, 2025 at 7:43 am

   Bonhoffer’s theory of stupidity, Big Think

   I happen to be in the Santa Maria Novella train station, in Firenze, where an international cast of tourists Is having trouble fitting their overstuffed bags into the carriage. Natch, this is causing a delay.

   Stupidity? More likely self-absorption.

   In general, these days, I recommend thinking about behavior as being just smart enough to do harm. Just smart enough to do harm explains Obama, Hillary, Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, and your neighbor who lets her pekinese crap on your lawn.

   Also, instead of stupidity, think: stupefied

   There is a whole lotta stupefaction out there.

   PS: the authors of the piece make the mistake of thinking they aren’t among the stupid.

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   1. Plutoniumkun July 23, 2025 at 8:01 am

      I always liked Lamberts favourite management theorist, Kurt von Hammerstien-Equord idea that the most dangerous people being the stupid hardworking ones.

      I distinguish four types. There are clever, hardworking, stupid, and lazy officers. Usually two characteristics are combined. Some are clever and hardworking; their place is the General Staff. The next ones are stupid and lazy; they make up 90 percent of every army and are suited to routine duties. Anyone who is both clever and lazy is qualified for the highest leadership duties, because he possesses the mental clarity and strength of nerve necessary for difficult decisions. One must beware of anyone who is both stupid and hardworking; he must not be entrusted with any responsibility because he will always only cause damage.

      I think of this every working day dealing with a particularly industrious, and spectacularly stupid, senior manager. I feel like screaming everytime someone says ‘but she works really hard!’ Thats actually the problem.

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      1. The Rev Kev July 23, 2025 at 8:07 am

         ‘One must beware of anyone who is both stupid and hardworking; he must not be entrusted with any responsibility because he will always only cause damage.’

         I am given to understand that such people are assigned transport duties as they can’t do that much damage there.

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      2. Colonel Smithers July 23, 2025 at 8:41 am

         Thank you, PK. + 1.

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      3. ilsm July 23, 2025 at 8:43 am

         I suppose the 4 characteristics have “overlap” a venn where opposites can overlap.

         My long experience with US military bureaucrats there existed a type which is both ambitious and insensitive/unaware of their stupid.

         Peter principle which if benevolent means the ambitious are limited by their stupid, sadly benevolence is not a natural order.

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   2. CanCyn July 23, 2025 at 8:48 am

      Self-absorbed and/or stupefied explains much of the harmful behaviours I see these days. And yes, lack of self-awareness is also a problem.
      I too like the theory that PK mentions that originally came to us via Lambert. Those categories explain much of what I saw in my working life. And indeed the smart and lazy were usually at the top of the admin chain (I have former colleagues who disagree with the smart part of this description, perhaps cunning & lazy would be the way they would describe management) And woe for every time I encountered the stupid hard-working types – the ones who took far more initiative that they should and caused the rest of much work in fixing their mistakes.

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      1. mrsyk July 23, 2025 at 9:51 am

         Now add in Covid, the common cold that makes us stupid, good times.

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   3. chuck roast July 23, 2025 at 10:29 am

      Palestinians might take issue with this piece.

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   4. jsn July 23, 2025 at 10:48 am

      Evil = Power x Stupidity / Humility

      Corollary: any coercive power is at minimum potentially evil.

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4. The Rev Kev July 23, 2025 at 7:44 am

   ‘Buitengebieden
   @buitengebieden
   “Not now Linda, I’m working” 😅’

   Geez. One hot date and forever more after that they are all over you like a rash.

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   1. griffen July 23, 2025 at 9:56 am

      “Ewe you had me at hello..”. “Ewe(r) the one that I want…hoo hoo…”

      I’m not a parent but those really seem like a couple Dad jokes!

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      1. The Rev Kev July 23, 2025 at 10:05 am

         She’s baaaad to the bone.

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5. timotheus July 23, 2025 at 7:47 am

   If the oceans are warming up at an accelerating pace, why haven’t there been any tropical storms nearly two months into hurricane season? IIRC, there used to be a parade of Albert Betty Carlos Don cyclones advancing across the south Atlantic this time of year, but at the NHC site, it’s been clear skies for weeks. Haven’t seen any explanations.

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   1. Steve H. July 23, 2025 at 8:51 am

      See Yves link below:

      >> Given that the storm-making basins of the hemisphere are so far-flung, it’s possible that this year’s unusually low ACE is being influenced by multiple regional factors that happen to be aligned.

      I’ll be broader but less specific. Janet and I have been watching since 1992, which is when Hurricane Andrew whacked her Grandma Grace dead center in Homestead. That’s also the year I got my Environmental Science degree, At that time, the top environmental threat was the acute situation of the Ozone Hole; second was climate change. Since then, the sensing equipment is astonishingly better, particularly interpreting satellite data.

      At the time we weren’t looking at Earth’s Energy Imbalance, a master flux variable that (so far) best captures the issue. (James Hansen used the metric in his 2012 Congressional testimony, but it’s not the 1988 transcripts.) It’s a deeper understanding than temperature and greenhouse gas concentrations. In the same way, Sea Surface Temperature is the best we got for long-term understanding of heat storage, but the real question is how much heat is stored in the depths.

      From that perspective, the effect is not simply more Cat-5’s whacking Florida, it’s increased extreme values and unpredictability. One material manifestation is the disruption of the jet stream, bringing extreme cold to the Gulf Coast (disrupted polar vortex), and extreme heat from heat domes. Like a pot of boiling water, the extremes manifest locally (columns of bubbles), and the average values fall in explanatory value.

      So you don’t get the bowling balls of cyclones striking Florida, you get Hurricane Otis blowing up into a Cat-5 in one day with no warning and devastating Acapulco City. It’s worse because there’s not enough warning for people to get safe. These are more like point-source sparks in an electrical field, and there’s a problem with the ‘I dont see it’ bias when extreme weather is hitting one side of town and the other is just fine. We’ve been fascinated by this video, showing serial extreme local events.

      We’re starting to track Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE), an approximation of updraft strength within a thunderstorm. Last week there was a terrifying prediction for the US in the next day or so. We’re keeping a weather eye out.

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      1. mrsyk July 23, 2025 at 9:48 am

         One thing happening, if I understand this correctly, is the atmosphere has been showing an increasing capacity to carry water, the warmer the air, the more water it can carry. This is one potential reason for all the “once every hundred years” floods occurring.

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      2. Steve H. July 23, 2025 at 9:49 am

         Model charts for USA (CAPE)

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         1. mrsyk July 23, 2025 at 1:01 pm

            That’s a crazy map, thanks.
            Stay safe.

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   2. Yves Smith Post authorJuly 23, 2025 at 8:56 am

      Oops, managed to misplace the reply:

      Please use a search engine:

      https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/07/a-weird-lack-of-northern-hemisphere-tropical-cyclones-so-far-in-2025/

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   3. amfortas July 23, 2025 at 8:57 am

      anomalous blocking high in west africa, a lot more saharan dust flowing west, and whateverthehell is going on with the AMOC/Gulf Stream.
      (this is from memory over the last week)
      in other weirdness, west texas(as in Transpecos/desert) is getting a whole lotta rain, while east texas is not.
      meanwhile, here in west central texas/nw hill country, its humid as heck, when usually this time of year, we’re at 15% at best…

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   4. griffen July 23, 2025 at 9:28 am

      Tropical Storm Chantal has made a mess in central portions, counties and farms of North Carolina. This isn’t that hard to find and view sources or local reports, from approximately two weeks ago.

      Counties such as Orange, Chatham and Person were impacted according to a few articles I read yesterday.

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6. Earl July 23, 2025 at 7:52 am

   The issue of tire microplastic pollution is relevant to the weight of EV vehicles and resulting tire wear and regenerative brake emissions. There are articles claiming that EVs release more toxic particles than modern gas-powered vehicle tailpipes.

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7. Afro July 23, 2025 at 8:04 am

   Conspiracy theorists don’t realize they’re on the fringe ars technica

   ******

   I wonder what fraction of Americans believe the official 9/11 and JFK narratives.

   Even moreso those younger than 35.

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   1. Screwball July 23, 2025 at 10:23 am

      I’m going to be 69 next month so I’ve been around for a while. I don’t believe anything they tell me and go from there, including those two examples.

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      1. lyman alpha blob July 23, 2025 at 11:59 am

         That article really chapped my posterior. Just one more in the litany of pieces debunking “conspiracy theories” without defining what is considered a conspiracy. And in this one, AI can cure you of your misbegotten beliefs! –

         “Last year we reported on another Pennycook study, presenting results from experiments in which an AI chatbot engaged in conversations with people who believed at least one conspiracy theory. That study showed that the AI interaction significantly reduced the strength of those beliefs, even two months later. The secret to its success: the chatbot, with its access to vast amounts of information across an enormous range of topics, could precisely tailor its counterarguments to each individual.”

         Yes the hallucinating, factually challenged AI chatbots are going to teach us the real deal. We are to believe what our “betters” spoonfeed to us rather than using our own craniums for any critical thinking. How utterly ridiculous. IF Stone famously and succinctly said “All governments lie.” and I’m still waiting for him to be proven wrong.

         It’s funny how all the freemarketeer neoliberals will latch on to Adam Smith’s remark about the invisible hand and take that as gospel without bothering to read the context, part of which is this –

         “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. “

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8. The Rev Kev July 23, 2025 at 8:04 am

   ‘Lord Bebo
   @MyLordBebo
   🇺🇦🇷🇴🇷🇺 Ukranian jets flew to Romania when an attack is incoming.
   Here one was filmed, doing so.
   Ukraine has a handy NATO hiding place … where Russia can’t reach.
   The Ukrainians constantly use NATO’s airfield network for their planes. F-16s sometimes spend nights in Poland.’

   This would be no surprise to the Russians as they have done the same themselves in the past. Back during the Korean war, US jet fighters would observe Soviet squadrons taking off from Vladivostock in Russia and a few minutes later would be tangling with them though they sported North Korean roundels on their wings. It is how the game is played.

   Those Ukrainian jets may be safely based in Romania and Poland but it means that they would have to burn precious fuel to get to support operations in the south and east of the country. Even then they still lose planes and there is a report that the Ukrainian Air Force has just lost their first Mirage jet-

   https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/world/2025/07/23/ukraine-loses-first-french-mirage-fighter-jet-in-crash

   But there is no truth to the rumour that just before the pilot bailed out of that Mirage, that he was heard to mutter ‘Oh, merde!’ over his radio.

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   1. ilsm July 23, 2025 at 8:47 am

      Revetments are probably much cheaper than flying the F-16’s away.

      Also, given the aircraft and the experience of the pilots there are risks of total loss due to inflight failures and pilot error…..

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9. Acacia July 23, 2025 at 8:11 am

   Re: Japan Trade Deal

   Toyota’s stock surged 8% following the announcement of a 15% tariff, and the reason is quite straightforward.

   While Toyota only has to pay an additional 15%, American manufacturers like Ford, GM, and Tesla are facing a significant increase in costs. They’ll be paying 50% more for steel and copper, 25% more for production in Canada and Mexico, and a whopping 55% more for production in China.

   This disparity gives Toyota a considerable advantage over its American competitors, which seems counterintuitive to the goal of bringing auto jobs back to America.

   https://x.com/katherinexowens/status/1947828594010443801

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   1. The Rev Kev July 23, 2025 at 9:01 am

      I wonder if the Chinese are making it easier or harder for mobs like Toyota to get access to refined rare earths for the construction of their cars. That would make a difference too in the pricing of their cars.

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10. JMH July 23, 2025 at 8:27 am

    There are street protests in Tel Aviv, “against the starvation and famine in the Gaza Strip”, but Bret Stephens speaking ex cathedra from NY Times says that Israel is not, I say again, not committing genocide. Seems it is a matter of definitions. I am so pleased that Bret is on the job. I have actually been thinking that bombing and shooting and starving and driving people from pillar to post and government officials saying that clearing all the people from Gaza is the goal fit the definition of genocide.

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    1. The Rev Kev July 23, 2025 at 8:37 am

       Reading his Wikipedia entry, it is hard to decide if the guy is Mossad or just Hasbara-

       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bret_Stephens

       But he is far down the Zionist rabbit hole – and he calls himself a Zionist -that if Israel nuked Iran he would claim that that it was all the fault of those Arabs, even though Iranians aren’t Arabs. Facts, schmacts.

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       1. Ben Panga July 23, 2025 at 9:51 am

          Just don’t call him Bedbug ;)

          https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/aug/27/bret-stephens-new-york-times-columinst-bed-bug-twitter

          Odious man.

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    2. Acacia July 23, 2025 at 8:38 am

       Yes, good thing the NYT is handing the mike over to an opinion columnist.

       Things were getting confused when they had an actual scholar of genocide weigh in about a week ago:

       https://caityjohnstone.medium.com/the-new-york-times-finally-stops-avoiding-the-g-word-e890e355b80a

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11. pjay July 23, 2025 at 8:32 am

    – ‘Conspiracy theorists don’t realize they’re on the fringe’ – ars technica

    Articles like this always assume the term “conspiracy theory” is transparent to any rational, well-educated individual who would be reading such a piece – which would likely not include many “conspiracy theorists.” So I’m always interested in which beliefs are used to identify such individuals. Often, popular articles like this which summarize such research only mention the least controversial topics as examples. In this one we have three: belief that the moon landing was fake; belief that Princess Diana was murdered; and belief that Sandy Hook was a false flag operation. Ok, I’ll take those. But I wonder what other beliefs would qualify as “conspiracy theories” according to Dr. Pennycook? How about the Kennedy assasination(s)? Doubts about the official narrative regarding 9/11? The assertion that the Syrian gas attacks were actually carried out by our guys? The idea that Epstein “belonged to intelligence”? Or even the argument that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was actually provoked?

    Of course these days my first impulse toward any academic attempting to show “scientifically” how deluded “conspiracy theorists” are is to ask the question: what about Russiagate? Is that a “conspiracy theory”? I have to admit that those well-educated liberals who believed (or still believe?) this CT tend to meet Pennycook’s “overconfidence” criterion. I can’t say that I like the new twist in this latest CT research: the finding that *AI* can successfully deprogram someone suffering from CT by barraging them with the right facts! Yay! Another victory for science over ignorance.

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    1. Acacia July 23, 2025 at 9:29 am

       Yes, fortunately there are also a few academics who take conspiracy seriously. E.g., I have found Adrian Wisnicki’s Conspiracy, Revolution, and Terrorism from Victorian Fiction to the Modern Novel to be quite good, as he looks not only at conspiracy in literature but in fact at the “conspiracy theory narrative”. It’s really a solid work of scholarship.

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       1. pjay July 23, 2025 at 10:43 am

          Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll check it out. Even more directly applicable to what I have in mind is a book Lambert discussed a few years back, Conspiracy Theory in America, by the late Lance deHaven Smith. He traces the relatively recent weaponization of this term in order to mystify what he refers to as State Crimes Against Democracy (SCADs). Each of my counter-examples could be considered such a SCAD. I’d strongly recommend deHaven Smith’s book as a very useful antidote to the one-sided “Paranoid Style” label made famous by Hofstadter and uncritically accepted by most political psychologists (like the one profiled in this article).

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          1. Martin Oline July 23, 2025 at 11:20 am

             Thank you for the reminder pjay. My library has the physical book so now I have something to read when I finish Cadillac Desert, an oldie but a goodie!.

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    2. Aurelien July 23, 2025 at 10:52 am

       My usual argument is that these things are only as complicated as you want to make them. A “conspiracy theory” is just the theory of the existence of a conspiracy, and by extension that an event that has a generally accepted cause was in fact brought about through the existence of a conspiracy instead. Thus, Apollo 11 did not go the Moon but there was a conspiracy to pretend that it did. Princess Diana did not die in a car crash but was murdered by British Intelligence in a conspiracy because reasons. So, instead of Kennedy being assassinated by Oswald, Epstein offing himself, AQ being responsible for the 2001 attacks, there were hidden conspiracies behind each episode, and many more. The term is therefore a neutral, descriptive one. I’d argue also that to be a conspiracy theory there actually has to be a coherent and convincing theory, not just the assertion that something doesn’t look right, which is at best a hypothesis that such a theory might be possible. In that context I see there are now “theories” circulating that the recent Air India crash was caused by some kind of electronic weapon.

       But it’s true that there are people disproportionately attracted to such theories, often elaborately laid out, and for two main reasons. One is that they simply confirm prior beliefs: the classic is those who could not accept that the French Revolution was an organic process, and came to believe in generations-long conspiracies of Freemasons and rationalists. A modern equivalent is those who could not accept the victory of Donald Trump in 2016, and took refuge in the theory that the Russians dunnit. The other is personality-based, notably the kind of person who sees themselves as “independent”, and above the common horde, and who is obsessed with “questioning the narrative” as a form of self-definition.

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       1. pjay July 23, 2025 at 11:40 am

          A conspiracy theory *should* be just a theory about the existence of a conspiracy – and therefore subject to evidence, etc. But the fact is that in the US at least, this term – “conspiracy theory” – is used as a pejorative to label people who believe in the existence of particular conspiracies as irrational, or at least as engaging in excessive motivated reasoning without considering evidence that might counter their preexisting biases. I mention the book by Lance deHaven Smith above – which, of course, *could* be dismissed as a “conspiracy theory” about the weaponization of the term “conspiracy theory.”

          For liberals, belief that Russia engaged in a major effort to interfere with the 2016 election is an evidence-backed theory about the existence of a (Russian) conspiracy. My own evidence-backed theory of a conspiracy between the Democrats, members of the Obama administration including individuals in the DOJ and FBI, and elements of the CIA and allied foreign intelligence agencies to knowingly frame Trump as a traitorous Russian collaborator (with the help of their credulous media lackeys) is a “conspiracy theory.” My evidence is quite strong, and grows stronger with every revelation. Their evidence is bulls**t. That doesn’t matter. Eventually those who have not completely memory-holed Russiagate will write it off as simply a well-intentioned mistake (“gosh, it sure *seemed* like there was a lot of evidence for Russian collusion – and anyway Russia is evil and Trump is a fascist, so we *had* to investigate…”) They will never, ever, accept that it was an actual plot, a coup attempt. That would be “conspiracy theory.”

          Less educated deplorables might believe the moon landing was fake. But I worry much less about them than about those with real power to mystify real history with this label. Unfortunately, these aren’t the people who are usually studied by academics researching beliefs in “conspiracy theories.”

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12. diptherio July 23, 2025 at 8:51 am

    RE: Amazon Buys Bee AI Wearable That Listens To Everything You Say The Verge

    Different US states have different laws regarding recording conversations. I imagine this might run afoul of the law in states that require both parties to a conversation to know it’s being recorded. Also, this device is not just listening to you and the person you’re talking to, obviously, but to everyone and everything in the immediate vicinity. Bad enough that we’re carrying around smartphones, but this just seems even creepier.

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    1. The Rev Kev July 23, 2025 at 9:13 am

       It was bad enough when Google Glasses came out which would be constantly videoing people on the go. People wearing them were met with hostility and the people wearing them were nicknamed ‘glassholes.’ But to be talking with a person only to discover that everything that you say is being taken down and transcribed is beyond the pale. I can see people trying to use these things and then run off to the police because they have a transcript of what that person said so they can take them to court or sue them. It would be like they were wearing a wire. Fun times ahead.

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       1. Geo July 23, 2025 at 12:12 pm

          Have noticed a total lack of that same hostility toward the newer Rayban Meta glasses. Actually know a few people with them and not one has ever had an issue. Society has shifted in just a decade. Oh, and Google is releasing a new version soon. I assume they think attitudes have changed enough that it won’t be a dud this time around.

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    2. Hepativore July 23, 2025 at 9:29 am

       Wait until employers (Amazon) require employees to wear one constantly at work to ensure productivity and compliance.

       Whatever flimsy laws that might exist to prevent them from doing this will ether be given carve-outs to allow employers to do this or they will be flat out ignored with no consequences.

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13. IM Doc July 23, 2025 at 8:52 am

    Yves, I hope you know that I have told my wife that when my time comes, it will very likely be from an instant stroke upon reading your links. After decades watching elders navigate our end of life health care system, I do hope and pray that my time will be instant. I desire nothing less for my family members and kids.

    The very first link was one such migraine-inducing experience. The American Academy of Pediatrics being bought and paid for by GLP-1 Pharma companies.

    We have sat and watched in horror the past year or two as one article after the other reports the ever expanding recommendations from our national medical leadership to begin little kids on GLP-1 like Ozempic as fast as we possibly can. We NEVER EVER talk about the crap school lunches unfit for roaches, the lack of exercise, the video games, the overweight parents with bags of Fritos. No – just start them all on GLP1

    Now, we are starting to get a better picture what the impetus for this advice is. Lucre is rolling into the AAP. It is even so bad that the AAP has its very own webpage devoted to all of its corporate sponsors.

    I am not making that up – https://www.aap.org/en/philanthropy/corporate-and-organizational-partners/current-partners/

    Read the names and weep. Moderna? – of course.

    The ABIM, and ACOG are certainly not much better.

    They were all bought and paid for during the COVID pandemic. The nightmares of my ethics professor elders in the 80s – what they screamed about for years – has now come to pass.

    I have a very simple observation/question…..These board agencies are tasked with a very simple job – but a very important one – and ONE JOB ONLY – to make sure that their members – the practicing doctors in their respective fields – are qualified to be doing that job. That is it, the end. Over and out. What does corporate sponsorship have to do with that task? What are all these corporations believing they are going to get from this type of “investment”?

    The profession of medicine is corrupt to the core. I do not know what else to say.

    But the next time you are in WalMart, and you see the obese kids all around, just realize that instead of hitting the playground, eating well, etc – the leaders of medicine want to make them eternal customers of products that we have no clue on safety over the years.

    Lord Have Mercy.

    Reply ↓
    1. Neutrino July 23, 2025 at 9:24 am

       Those two renegades at HHS tried their attempted Covid vax end-run while Bobby Kennedy was on vacation. He returned, fired their asses, and rescinded the phony approval so there is some hope.

       Reply ↓
    2. ChrisFromGA July 23, 2025 at 9:48 am

       I’m guessing that the number of long-term studies on side effects of these GLP-1 drugs is the same as the number of Buffalo Bills Super Bowl wins:

       Zero.

       Giving this stuff to kids is criminal.

       Reply ↓
       1. griffen July 23, 2025 at 11:58 am

          These pharmaceutical conglomerates have form after all. I was already in college or just finishing, when apparently in the middle 90s seemingly”every child” who hated classroom instruction was being prescribed Adderall or Ritalin to cure their ADHD. Daydreaming during my Intermediate Accounting courses was my escape…but I digress.

          Btw, may I suggest a different / replacement punching bag, perhaps a different NFL franchise? I humbly submit that America’s team, the Dallas Cowboys are as popular as a SB winner as say, day old bread from the bakery. They’ve done nothing of substance in several decades, other than blast an undrafted QB, Tony Romo , into the stratosphere of post career earning streams. And I rather like Tony.

          Reply ↓
          1. ChrisFromGA July 23, 2025 at 12:57 pm

             I only pick on the Bills out of love. To be fair, Vikings, Lions, and Falcons fans are all in the same boat. Among others. Maybe this is the year for JA17 and the gang.

             I have been watching the ESPN documentary on OJ – An American Tragedy. Those runs from the 70’s … it was like watching Baryshnikov, the way he danced through the secondary of helpless defenses. As a kid I got to see OJ play once – it was I think 1975 and my dad took me to a company outing to Rich Stadium. The Bills defeated the Broncos with the Juice and Jim Braxton (fullback) leading the way. On the bus ride back everyone was pretty much three sheets to the wind. Dad stayed sober, a good role model as always.

             Re: Cowboys hating

             For pure schadenfreude, watch Stephen A. Smith after the Cowboys lose.

             Reply ↓
14. The Rev Kev July 23, 2025 at 8:52 am

    “Conspiracy theorists don’t realize they’re on the fringe ars technica”

    And after adjusting my tin foil hat, I note that Ars technica came up with this story on conspiracy theorists just as the Epstein story has come back with a vengeance and has caused chaos in Congress alone while Trump tries to gaslight the nation by saying that there never was a list. Somebody killed Epstein in his cell? There is a list of all those who went to Epstein’s island to have sex with underage children? What are you? A conspiracy theorist or something?

    You know, I enjoy a good conspiracy theory just as much as the next person, especially when there are actual facts to back it up. But over the past few years some of the fun has been taken out of it. How so? Because far too many of them are now no longer conspiracy theories but have become historical record and I am not the first person on NC to say this. One I hear was Obama getting together with his people to sabotage Trump’s chances in the elections. And now the documents have come out saying yes, that this actually happened, not that Barry will ever suffer any consequences for this. So where is the fun where your conspiracy theory becomes fact and you can no longer talk about it?

    Reply ↓
    1. Sean Gorman July 23, 2025 at 9:14 am

       Isn’t the correct response to remove the word “conspiracy ” and judge by the criteria one would use for any “theory ” (usually an hypothesis)?

       Reply ↓
    2. Neutrino July 23, 2025 at 9:20 am

       Today’s links provide some fun overlaps, from Ars Technica to Taibbi to Turley.
       When so many previous conspiracy theories turn out to be true, how long until there are apologies, mea culpas or any sort of acknowledgements?
       Oh, yeah, never. Looking at Isikoff and so many media personalities and outlets!

       Reply ↓
    3. Carolinian July 23, 2025 at 10:23 am

       Speaking of distractions Taibbi is now making Russiagate his cause as though there is something we don’t know about that or, for that matter, didn’t know at the time it was happening. It was perfectly obvious that Obama and Brennan were following Hillary’s lead to neuter if not outright cancel the surprise Trump election and his supposed fascism. Perhaps one reason Trump is now so bad is that he has decided he might as well give the Democrats what they want!

       The Trumpies are even making noises about prosecuting Obama and Brennan as a “so there” for those who dare to bring up Epstein. The Dems, whose lesser evil strategy was the original Whataboutism, will make that hypocritical complaint about attacks on Obama but Obama isn’t our problem anymore and Trump is. No statute of limitations on mideeds that are happening right now.

       Reply ↓
       1. gf July 23, 2025 at 11:06 am

          I am not so sure about the Obama faction in this.
          I think it was much more the HRC faction because that faction lost.

          Also the HRC faction is tied up in the Epstein thingee.
          By going after Obama they can at least deflect with out consequences to Trumps ties to Epstein.

          Reply ↓
          1. Carolinian July 23, 2025 at 12:00 pm

             Hillary started, Obama and his pal Brennan kept it going with bogus “intelligence assessment.” The Clintons once socialized with Trump whereas the Trump/Obama feud goes back at least as far as the Kenyan thing.

             Maybe Taibbi will dig up proof but so what? All it does now is distract from our real problems which the Dems had so much to do with. One of those is that without the interference of the Obama faction they might have won the last election. Biden was also Obama’s man.

             Reply ↓
15. Adam1 July 23, 2025 at 8:58 am

    “Conspiracy theorists don’t realize they’re on the fringe”

    LOL! I came across a new phase I absolutely love… “pseudo-profound bullshit”

    Reply ↓
16. Bugs July 23, 2025 at 9:05 am

    “Will Corporate Treasuries Have Any Interest In Using Stablecoins?”

    What I love about the Credit Slips blog is that they stick to the subject at hand and lay out the facts and math. Stablecoins are useless, unless you need a very specific hedge against wire fees and even then, the potential savings is minuscule.

    Reply ↓
    1. griffen July 23, 2025 at 11:13 am

       I enjoyed the article just gets down to brass tacks. What are legitimate use cases and is the proposed use cases for stable coins as payment transfer options really an improvement. I accept his use case at face values, basically the rule of do no harm. Corporate treasury functions to pay suppliers and vendors, insurers and of course those pesky employees. A sudden or unexpected break in the link when using, any example above, stable coin instead would be met with a WTF response. But the true believers will try all the same.

       No period in recent history made it more clear that corporations run large balances than during the Lehman failure and the debacle of money market funds ” breaking the buck “. I can’t imagine an complex, international corporation choosing to operate these functions on anything other than what is proven and reliable.

       Reply ↓
       1. Wukchumni July 23, 2025 at 11:19 am

          Since Bitcoin crawled out of the ether, I’ve seen exactly 1 retail store that accepted it as payment.

          It was around 2019 and we’d just completed a nice ski trip in Mammoth Lakes and went to Subway to get a quick lunch for the long drive home, and next to the Subway was a business called ‘U-Wash Doggie’ and in the window was a small sign pronouncing that they accept Bitcoin as payment.

          That’s it, in 15 years of it being the financial force that it claims to be~

          Reply ↓
17. Samuel Conner July 23, 2025 at 9:13 am

    > This is infuriating.

    Wow, that’s something that I did not consider, that undetected CV infection could have been widespread in both “arms” of the study.

    The “same degree of accelerated brain ageing” in both groups result will be seen by people who think that the pandemic mitigations were objectively harmful as support for their views.

    I still think that the robust detection of a cognitive decline signal in a “mild infection” population is a useful datum. Nearly everyone I know has cast the precautionary principle to the winds and is assuming that “mild infection” means “no harm”. I think this study deflates that balloon.

    Reply ↓
18. ChrisFromGA July 23, 2025 at 9:29 am

    Israelis on cruise ship prevented from disembarking in Greece:

    https://www.jpost.com/bds-threat/article-861867

    Protesters near the Syros dock waved Palestinian flags and held banners with slogans, such as “Stop the genocide,” and “No AC in hell.”

    This. Needs to become much more widespread. And include US Christian Zionists who travel to Israel. Boycott, shun, show up at their church meetings with protest signs.

    Reply ↓
    1. ciroc July 23, 2025 at 10:16 am

       To avoid being labeled an anti-Semite, ask the following question: “Why are you here when Hamas is trying to destroy your country?”

       Reply ↓
19. Patrick Lynch July 23, 2025 at 9:31 am

    Regarding the NPR article about rebooting one’s mood by taking smartphone breaks: An equally good way to reboot your mood is to quit listening to NPR.

    Reply ↓
    1. cfraenkel July 23, 2025 at 1:10 pm

       A long time ago (… > 20 yrs), NPR used to be a welcome diversion during long car drives. Now it’s an immediate change of channel. Sad that it gets in the way of decent jazz or classical programming.

       Reply ↓
    2. Joe Renter July 23, 2025 at 1:21 pm

       For the win!
       My ex worked for a fm radio station that streamed NPR. Looking back now I realize I was not wearing my critical thinking hat for way too long.This blog was a helpful turn of events for me.

       Click to Edit – 

       

       For the win! My ex worked for a fm radio station that streamed NPR. Looking back now I realize I was not wearing my critical thinking hat for way too long.This blog was a helpful turn of events for me.

       SaveCancelDelete

       Reply ↓
20. griffen July 23, 2025 at 9:33 am

    Last act of a rock legend belongs to the record books. Ozzy Osbourne death marks an end to his “Crazy Train” of a career and performing as a lead singer. In a remarkable turn, a super lineup performed at this concert a mere few weeks ago in early July. I noticed several had commented yesterday afternoon as this news dropped.

    I’m not yet able to find additional reports on the total being raised, but that is a massive total haul.

    https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/ozzy-osbournes-legendary-final-performance-raised-staggering-190m-worthy-causes

    Reply ↓
    1. LawnDart July 23, 2025 at 10:25 am

       More Ozzy:

       Ozzy Osbourne’s Genes Really Were Wired for Alcohol and Addiction

       “People say to me, if you could do it all again, knowing what you know now, would you change anything? I’m like, f*** no. If I’d been clean and sober, I wouldn’t be Ozzy. If I’d done normal, sensible things, I wouldn’t be Ozzy.

       “Look, if it ends tomorrow, I can’t complain. I’ve been all around the world. Seen a lot of things. I’ve done good… and I’ve done bad.”

       Reply ↓
       1. Martin Oline July 23, 2025 at 11:33 am

          “I’ve done good… and I’ve done bad.”

          That makes me laugh. I remember taking I took my son and his friends to his come-back concert around 1987. It a reunion with his old guitarist and a big thing to the boys. The concert was off to a slow start and his desperation showed when he exhorted the crowd, “Clap your hands, MFs!”

          Reply ↓
       2. Trees&Trunks July 23, 2025 at 12:30 pm

          Lemmy and Ozzy were hardly straight-edge but both achieved respectable age given their habits. Can a meaningful life compensate for hard-core drug usage? Both of them seem to have enjoyed the life of performers/musicians with its good&bad.

          Reply ↓
       3. Yves Smith Post authorJuly 23, 2025 at 1:11 pm

          He actually did stop drinking.

          https://www.newleafrecovery.co.uk/ozzy-osbournes-addiction-story/

          Reply ↓
    2. Wukchumni July 23, 2025 at 11:04 am

       Sure has been a fruitful month for aging rockers to pass away, and all of them went past the average lifespan for their era, even more astonishing.

       Reply ↓
21. pjay July 23, 2025 at 9:45 am

    – ‘Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defends decision to support military aid for Israel’ – Middle East Eye (resilc). Pathetic.

    AOC’s vote, and her rationalization for it, was indeed pathetic. But much more depressing was the fact that the vote was 422-6. Six representatives – SIX – had the guts to take a stand against Zionist genocide. And one of them was Marjorie Taylor Greene! The other Republican was Massie. Congress is hopeless.

    Reply ↓
    1. AG July 23, 2025 at 11:07 am

       “hopeless”
       indeed

       Reply ↓
    2. John Wright July 23, 2025 at 12:18 pm

       One can suggest AOC’s vote was thoroughly discussed with her staff and advisors as they weighed what would be telegraphed by the vote.

       Perhaps showing performative support for donors was paramount, even when a “no” vote by AOC would have had no effect other than optics.

       Reliably bought may be a hallmark of AOC’s brand.

       Reply ↓
22. The Rev Kev July 23, 2025 at 9:45 am

    ‘Benny Johnson
    @bennyjohnson
    BIG NEWS: AG Pam Bondi just announced she is meeting with Ghislane Maxwell to expose the truth about Jeffery Epstein.
    A truly unprecedented move.
    Bondi seeks to find ‘uncharged third parties’ and further evidence of Epstein’s child trafficking operation.
    Bondi has also ordered further disclosure from the FBI and DOJ. Wow.’

    In other news, Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny have been discovered to be true. I would expect Bondi to talk to Maxwell and show here a list of people being accused, half of whom are probably dead. She would then get Maxwell to agree that these were the names that she would identify. And before leaving her cell she would tell Maxwell that any reneging on that agreed upon list would have consequences. And so the microphones would not pick it up, Bonbi would run her thumb across her throat in front of Maxwell so that she got the message. You want out, you play ball.

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisFromGA July 23, 2025 at 9:50 am

       Blondi will make her an offer she can’t refuse. Shut up … or a shank in the back out in the yard.

       Reply ↓
       1. jefemt July 23, 2025 at 9:53 am

          Will Bill or Hillarity be Bondi’s brief case bearer?

          Reply ↓
          1. ChrisFromGA July 23, 2025 at 10:10 am

             “Hey Ghislaine, long time, no see … orange looks good on you. You know, it’d be a real shame if you were to disappear in an Arkansas swamp while on work detail.”

             Reply ↓
             1. The Rev Kev July 23, 2025 at 10:18 am

                Arkansas? Isn’t that Bill Clinton’s old stomping ground? Oh…

                Reply ↓
    2. ilsm July 23, 2025 at 11:33 am

       Larry Johnson reported there are nearly a billion bucks in pay outs to under age “victims” related to Epstein activities.

       There is a lot of “there” there!

       I am certain the powers in DC will miss the “there”.

       A lot of tapes to be deleted.

       Nixon was not a crook by today’s standard.

       Reply ↓
       1. Wukchumni July 23, 2025 at 11:40 am

          We have perhaps thanks to Epstein, the only chance to really clean house on awful predators who happen to have been political leaders or are presently so.

          ‘Are you now or have you ever been a member of Jeffrey’s Party in the United States?’

          Reply ↓
       2. begob July 23, 2025 at 12:13 pm

          For details on the pay-outs, search for Ryan Dawson on Judge Napolitano’s youtube channel. He comes up with a sum of 807m. Other points he makes:
          – Most of his information is from open source court records, supplemented by victim interviews;
          – There is no list of clients as such;
          – Epstein tended to deal with political donors rather than their politicians.
          Seems like it’s been an open goal for the media for a long time, but they ain’t really interested – perhaps like the Post Office scandal in the UK, which was hiding in plain sight for 20+ years until it blew up in a TV drama.

          Reply ↓
23. AG July 23, 2025 at 9:53 am

    re: Russiagate

    SleuthNews live on YT now.

    I hope though the stream will be available online later. It´s always a wildcard as who is participating and who is not. And usually takes longer.

    From the inside of the beast so to speak.

    Russiagate: HPSCI ICA Report Released
    https://www.youtube.com/live/w-kr-QeNgAQ

    Reply ↓
24. Cowboy Frankenstein July 23, 2025 at 10:51 am

    Humans can be tracked with unique ‘fingerprint’ based on how their bodies block Wi-Fi signals

    Makes me think of the Outer Limits episode O.B.I.T. where a senator investigates the death of a defense contract worker at a compound in proto-silicon valley where the alcoholism and suicide rate has skyrocketed due to constant surveillance:

    https://therokuchannel.roku.com/details/dff37daaac7c554e9fa529db9951fa90/the-outer-limits-s1-e7-obit

    Reply ↓
25. The Rev Kev July 23, 2025 at 10:57 am

    ‘Carlos
    @agent_of_change
    The imperialists are getting desperate, because their cultural hegemony is collapsing.
    YouTube has removed more than 7,700 YouTube channels linked to China, that “promoted the People’s Republic of China, supported President Xi Jinping and commented on US foreign affairs”.

    Maybe they got spooked when all those Americans were going on that Chinese social media called Red Note and were swapping notes in real time about their lives only to discover that the Chinese were in many ways better off. Can’t have that. People have to be siloed for their own good you see.

    Reply ↓
26. Wukchumni July 23, 2025 at 11:10 am

    Will Corporate Treasuries Have Any Interest In Using Stablecoins? Adam Levitin
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    I used to laugh at coinspiracy theories, but then in theory they became an important part of our economy.

    Reply ↓
27. Jason Boxman July 23, 2025 at 11:20 am

    From After Pledging to Keep Prices Low, Amazon Hiked Them on Hundreds of Essentials

    Trump warned businesses in May to “EAT THE TARIFFS” after Walmart said higher tariffs would result in higher prices.

    For Morrisroe, whose company faced potential 145% tariffs on Chinese goods already in transit when the plan was announced, that directive carried real weight. “Had they stayed at 145%, we would have been shutting down here,” he said. Instead, his company paid the 30% tariff after Trump reduced the rate. Dayglow is now negotiating with manufacturers, searching for suppliers outside China and considering raising prices.

    For now, Morrisroe said he’s doing exactly what Trump asked—eating the tariffs.

    Amusingly, two things cannot be true at once;

    Trump said

    a) foreign countries will pay for the tariffs
    b) domestic companies need to ‘eat’ the tariffs

    Which is it, Taco man?

    Reply ↓
28. Deluxe July 23, 2025 at 12:32 pm

    https://x.com/Alex_Oloyede2/status/1947726140799418575
    🇺🇸⚡ US President Donald Trump:
    “We’re gonna have more missiles than any country has ever had. We’ll have the speedy ones, the slow ones, the accurate ones, the ones that are slightly less accurate”

    The tragicomical thing is that he was always talking crap like this, and people bought it as the real deal. Even worse is that some still buy it. Murica f yeah!

    P.S. Maybe he will recruit Speedy Gonzales too. :)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSyoOOao8zI

    Reply ↓
29. AG July 23, 2025 at 12:34 pm

    re: AI & Hollywood

    AI Isn’t Hollywood’s First Script Doctor. But It May Be Its Last

    Invisible labor has long powered Hollywood, from blacklisted writers to uncredited directors. But the rise of AI threatens to erase authorship entirely.

    https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/artificial-intelligence-hollywood-script-doctor-1236326141/

    Reply ↓
30. Vander Resende July 23, 2025 at 12:34 pm

    “The prices of the main Brazilian commodities exported to the US have fallen sharply in recent days. This information comes from CNN Brasil.

    The downward movement in Brazil contrasts with the rise in the same products in the United States. One of the most significant declines was observed in beef. In July, the Cepea indicator for live cattle, measured in dollars, fell 8.05%. As a result, the arroba price dropped from approximately US$58 to US$53.20 at the close on Monday, July 23rd.

    Another product experiencing a decline is oranges. A 40.8-kilogram box, delivered to the processor, fell 5% in the month, from US$8 to US$7.60. Arabica coffee, the preferred coffee in the US, also fell in value, with a 4.18% drop in July. Robusta coffee saw an even greater decline, of 11.41% in the same period.”

    https://www.brasil247.com/economia/precos-de-commodities-desabam-no-atacado-antes-de-tarifaco-dos-eua-entrar-em-vigor#:~:text=os%20pre%C3%A7os%20das,no%20mesmo%20per%C3%ADodo

    Reply ↓