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Links 7/25/2025

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How Some Butterflies Fooled Evolution and Developed a Second “Head” ZME Science

Feather-like crest on Triassic reptile challenges ideas about reptile evolution Phys.org

Invasive golden oyster mushrooms are disrupting native fungal communities as they spread throughout North America Cell

Underground maps reveal 90% of mycorrhizal fungal biodiversity hotspots lie outside protected areas Society for the Protection of Underground Networks

Hulk Hogan Is Dead Defector

Climate/Environment

The Heat is On Balanced Weather

The US military is about to become a world class polluter Responsible Statecraft. About to be?

Pandemics

COVID Can Cause Alzheimer’s-Like Plaques in Eyes And Brain Science Alert

Japan

Tragic to the last Observing Japan

China?

A billion dollars’ worth of Nvidia chips fell off a truck and found their way to China, report says The Register

China unveils the largest crystal for high-powered laser weapons South China Morning Post

Thailand- Cambodia Conflict

Thailand and Cambodia exchange fire in deadly border clashes Al Jazeera

Thai-Cambodia clashes could be death knell for Shinawatra rule Asia Times

Syraqistan

‘Double tap’ airstrikes: How Israel targets Gaza rescue efforts 972 Magazine

The Disgrace of Deliberate Starvation: Israel’s War of Hunger in Gaza Haaretz

Trump tower glimmers over Gaza in Likud minister’s AI video pushing Gazan emigration Times of Israel

Israel and US recall teams from Gaza truce talks, US says Hamas not showing good faith Channel News Asia

***

French President Macron says France will recognize Palestine as a state AP

British premier says Gaza suffering ‘unspeakable, indefensible’ as UK seeks urgent action with E3 partners Anadolu Agency

***

“No One Is Coming”: Why Christians in the Middle East Are Facing a New Age of Menace and Betrayal. Elijah J. Magnier

Old Blighty

Yes, you can now join the new Sultana/Corbyn-led party The Canary

UK and India seal free trade agreement slashing tariffs, barriers Business Times

European Disunion

EU says China’s links with Russia now ‘determining factor’ in ties Channel News Asia

(Chuck L):

Spy cockroaches and AI robots: Germany plots the future of warfare Reuters

New Not-So-Cold War

The war in Ukraine is over and its EU aspirations are dead for now Intellinews

Zelensky ‘Rolls Back’ Anti-Corruption Changes Amidst Pressure, But the Mob’s Ire Not Yet Slaked Simplicius

Ukraine – Zelenski’s Backtracking Shows Fatal Weakness Moon of Alabama

Flag raising ceremony on Knyaz Pozharsky nuclear-powered cruiser President of Russia

U.S. Building Container Vaults To Deploy U.S. Nuclear Bombs To Remote Bases The War Zone

***

***

Russian Development Continues: Innoprom-2025 Industrial Exhibition. Karl Sanchez

Russian general public have divided views on EU sanctions Bastille Post Global. Commentary:

L’affaire Epstein

Top DOJ official Todd Blanche meets with Ghislaine Maxwell in Florida CBS News

Former Watergate prosecutor questions DOJ, Maxwell meeting: ‘Extremely unusual’ The Hill

“What’s in the box?”: 

Jeffrey Epstein’s Birthday Album Included Letters From Bill Clinton, Leon Black WSJ

Trump’s Name Is on Contributor List for Epstein Birthday Book New York Times

South of the Border

Trump Expected to Authorize Chevron to Resume Oil Operations in Venezuela TeleSur

Erick Prince Visits Peru: Blackwater’s Shadow Extends Across Latin America Orinoco Tribune

“Liberation Day”

Window dressing Warwick Powell

Trump 2.0

Trump Signs Order Pushing Cities to Remove Homeless From Streets NOTUS

***

Cryptocurrency, Epstein and the Bullshit Asymmetry Principle The Connector

Trump’s FCC abandons the future Cory Doctorow

Starlink goes dark globally, Musk vows ‘root cause’ remedy after rare satellite outage Interesting Engineering

Democrats en déshabillé

She sure did. As did Adam Schiff (D-California), Chuck Schumer (D-New York), Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada), Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), Chris Coons (D-Delaware), and Cory Booker (D-New Jersey):

Police State Watch

BORDER PATROL WANTS ADVANCED AI TO SPY ON AMERICAN CITIES The Intercept

Accelerationism

Trump’s AI Action Plan is a blueprint for dystopia Blood in the Machine

Big Tech can beat political parties at their own game FT

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Healthcare?

UnitedHealth says it is cooperating with DOJ investigations into Medicare billing practices CNBC

An Inventor Is Injecting Bleach Into Cancerous Tumors—and Wants to Bring the Treatment to the US Wired

The Dismal Science

Economics teaching has become the Aeroflot of ideas FT

Imperial Collapse Watch

The Righteous Community London Review of Books

PATRICK LAWRENCE: Washington Takes on the BRICS Consortium News

US and its allies unprepared to repel saturation missile attacks Asia Times

Groves of Academe

Regulation by Deal Comes to Higher Ed Balkanization

Our Famously Free Press

Paramount Sells Out Journalism to Secure Purchase by Skydance FAIR

Class Warfare

Ford Breaks Union Neutrality Agreement in Kentucky Union Drive Payday Report

Social Security payments have become an increasingly relevant income support for children Brookings

The Bezzle

Capitalism Devours Crypto Ann Pettifor

Startup Claims Its Fusion Reactor Concept Can Turn Cheap Mercury Into Gold Gizmodo

It is one of the deadliest chemicals on Earth – but even Mexico’s cartels can’t resist the lure of mercury The Guardian

If Charlie Brown Were a Socialist: On Beloved Argentine Comic Strip Mafalda Lit Hub

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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125 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    ‘Djole 🇷🇸
    @onlydjole
    🇷🇺🇨🇳🪖🇺🇸‼️Moscow’s gift to Beijing could unsettle the US‼️
    July 24, 2025
    Russia is considering the possibility of handing over to China parts of Western military equipment that it obtained in the field, writes the Chinese portal NetEase. 👇’

    I thought that everybody knew. Sharing is caring.

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisFromGA

      The next time Merz or some Euro clown talks about sending US weapons to Ukraine, how do you translate ‘Go ahead – make my day’ in Mandarin Chinese?

      A live capture of a Patriot system is increasingly likely as the front collapses.

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        Being the Ukraine, it could happen that the Ukrainians would bump off the American or European crew and drive all that gear to the border for a massive payout and Russian passports by the Russians. It wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened there.

        Reply ↓
    2. ciroc

      Since China and Russia’s military-industrial complexes are rivals, it seems more likely that Russia would give those trophies to its ally, North Korea.

      Reply ↓
      1. tera

        Russia would give those trophies to everyone, because they ain’t worth much to begin with. It’s not like anyone want to reverse engineer Patriot and make a copy of system that does not work well in the first place.

        Reply ↓
  2. ChrisFromGA

    Bombs away!

    Melody and inspiration from “Bomb’s away” by the Police

    (Gordon Sumner, Andy Summers, Stewart Copeland)

    Bibi scratches his belly and thinks
    His pay is good but his genocide stinks
    Guerilla girl, hot and sweet
    The kind that Bibi turns to mist in the street

    The President looks in the mirror and speaks
    His shirts are clean but his country reeks
    Medical bills … South Syrian hills

    Bombs away, Don’s not okay
    Bombs away, on those who slay

    Bibi only wants to show he’s top chimp
    He knows that deep inside, TACO’s a wimp
    Guerilla girl, hot and sweet
    A second wedding friend would love to meet

    Bibi scratches his belly and thinks
    His pay is good, but his genocide stinks
    Guerilla girl, hot and sweet
    The kind that Bibi turns to mist in the street

    Bomb’s away, Trump’s not okay
    Bombs away, on Al-CIA

    [Guitar solo]

    Bombs away, Don’s not okay
    Bombs away, on Jeff’s birthday
    Bomb’s away, Don’s not okay
    In CAPS he’ll rage …

    Happy Friday!

    Reply ↓
  3. The Rev Kev

    ‘Leah Libresco Sargeant
    @LeahLibresco
    Bold move to have the sizzle reel include the user recording someone in a private bedroom against their will.’

    The saying used to be ‘Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses’ although that is not always true-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0D81IzwG-w (34 secs)

    But perhaps a new saying will arise over the ick factor of these glasses-

    ‘Men who wear these glasses will not get the asses.’

    Reply ↓
      1. vao

        It will only work for episodic recordings of people one rarely meets.

        In the long run, meeting, socializing with, or working with somebody frequently, but seeing that person wearing glasses intermittently is bound to arouse some suspicion.

        The only case where this gadget may pass unnoticed is for (a) people who must wear glasses anyway and (b) if those fancy recording frames can accommodate prescriptions glasses.

        Reply ↓
        1. The Rev Kev

          I could see them being used in a corporate office so that the wearer will find the visual ammo to sink another person’s job if not career. Talking to a person wearing one of these glasses would be like talking to a cop who has his body cam going.

          Reply ↓
      2. griffen

        I get the odd “Patrick Bateman” type of vibe from the potential or likely abuses of privilege when said product is being worn by a psychopath….

        Reply ↓
      3. TomDority

        A cop would love to gain access to the recordings, ‘I have pulled you over for that scratch near the
        gas fill area…..was that alchohol related? how many beers did ya drink this evening? – oh lets see here about that recording device….I have probable cause now so stream it to me or go to jail….. lets see now… what other nefarious things can I find about your buds……

        Reply ↓
    2. ChrisFromGA

      This sort of thing will just degrade an already low-trust society to no-trust.

      Also, imagine Karen wearing one of these, while asking to speak to the manager …

      Reply ↓
      1. mrsyk

        Heh heh, In the future the “managers” will all be AI bots.
        Are these glasses just another manifestation of our collective insecurity?

        Reply ↓
  4. mrsyk

    Trump just signed an executive order urging states to forcibly institutionalize homeless people, …
    Institutionalize, hmm. What institutions are left?
    Prisons. Or maybe we’re going to build some giant concentration/labor camps a la Gaza.

    Reply ↓
      1. mrsyk

        Heh heh, seasoned with saltpeter! A Sysco product if my memory serves me well. Soon to be found on school lunch-room menus nationwide?

        This world misses the likes of Zappa.

        Reply ↓
    2. The Rev Kev

      Well they could put them in FEMA camps. The same ones that conservatives for years now say will be used to put ordinary Americans in under confinement when “the libs” take over. Maybe they are right when you get down to it as most homeless are actually ordinary Americans.

      Reply ↓
    3. matt

      very foucaultian type stuff. would not be surprised if they brought back peasant labor camps. the classic “oh no the peasants are not doing labor! this must be due to illness!” excuse to get forced labor somewhere. expansion of the prison system to include the crime of not having a house. history repeats itself etc.

      Reply ↓
    4. leaf

      There’s the Alligator Alcatraz or El Savador mega prison
      We’re probably going to back on track for debtor’s prisons and workhouses eventually. Lots of opportunities!

      Reply ↓
    5. TomDority

      As long as a private company can get the contract…all is good. –
      Just like the term shoddy construction was associated with private companies with government contracts for work in the civil war era…. get the cash for the trash

      Reply ↓
    7. amfortas

      they are meant to replace all the berry, lettuce and tomato pickers now being deported(self-, or with “help”).

      Reply ↓
    8. Butch

      If my young post adolescent memories serve, Reagan emptied the institutions, greatly exacerbating the homeless problem. Trump sends them back.

      Reply ↓
      1. Skippy

        Both whilst uttering endlessly or prefacing everything with the vacuous phrase Liberties and Freedom …

        Reply ↓
  5. Adam1

    “A billion dollars’ worth of Nvidia chips fell off a truck and found their way to China”

    I recall reading an article about 8 or 10 years ago about the illegal production of meth for sale in the US. In the article they discussed Mexican data on Mexican pharma production of Pseudoephedrine which was magnitudes higher than legal domestic or export sales could account for.

    It would seem Nvidia has a similar problem with its factory/shipping security. BWAHHH!!!

    Reply ↓
  6. matt

    re: China unveils the largest crystal for high-powered laser weapons

    the most impressive thing to me is maintaining temperature control for the extremely long period of time it took for the crystals to form. (article says the crystal growth phase alone took a month.) i want to know their power sources, how many backup systems they had, how they found heating components that didn’t deteriorate over long periods of time. when you see that scientists made something insane like a BaGaSe crystal of 2.3 inch diameter it’s like. what equipment did they use to maintain the perfect conditions necessary?

    Reply ↓
    2. Acacia

      Isn’t it just the standard crystal growing furnace tech that has been used for silicon since the 1960s? IIRC, the tricky part is getting a perfect crystalline structure, which is tested on a wafer (the so-called lattice check) after the ingot is complete. If the structure isn’t correct, the whole ingot must be rejected.

      Reply ↓
  7. griffen

    Possibly something to watch and monitor into the last half of 2025, but consumer trends on restaurant spending / quick service chains seem to be shifting. Chipotle reported quarterly earnings this week on Wednesday night, and apparently consumers are being selective on where and how much. I haven’t been to one myself in quite awhile. I caught a report earlier this week about a new CEO at Subway, whose same store sales have been declining for some time.

    https://www.fastcompany.com/91373989/chipotles-ceo-just-shared-the-reason-why-sales-have-been-down-many-fast-food-fans-will-relate

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisFromGA

      The last few times I ate there, the food quality had gone downhill. And it didn’t help that the cold metal floors were strewn with stray lettuce, beans, and other assorted trash. I blame the customers who probably stuffed their burritos down their pie-holes in a rush to get out of the place, with no table manners.

      Yeah, I’m in Karen mode today.

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        Wanting decent food at a reasonable price in a clean setting with good service is the minimum that people should expect. And if they don’t get it, then they can vote with their dollars by never going there again and telling their friends and family to give the place a miss.

        Reply ↓
        1. mrsyk

          Dining out used to be my guilty pleasure. Remember when good bistros and cafes were easy to stumble upon? Now it seems like every restaurant is an out-of-the-box venture.

          I despise Chipotle. Once upon a time, when I called the upper west side of Manhattan my home, we had a hole in the wall Lebanese restaurant/hookah bar around the corner. It was fabulous. The food was superb. The chef himself would bring out our entrees, always outstanding. The cellar held impossible to find vintages of Lebanese reds priced well under what could be had for them. Well, that got turned into a Chipotle. And so it goes.

          Reply ↓
          2. Jason Boxman

            I was dragged to a Chipotle once in 2014. Not impressed. I haven’t been back, it was really expensive even then!

            Reply ↓
        2. Peter Steckel

          There is a Southern / Cajun soul food eatery called “A Fork In the Road” inside the perimeter of the old ring suburbs of northern Atlanta’s Megapolis. It’s on the edge of well to do area’s now seedy “shopping corridor” that abuts the more proletarian neighborhoods to the east and south east of it. They charge a reasonable price (think $10 for a po boy and a side) for excellent food, served in an old Wendy’s. It does a brisk business in take out, too. Last time I went, on a Tuesday in June at 6:00, it was a 30 minute wait to get to the counter to take an order. They had two counter girls, a person to pack food, and 6 cooks working the back.

          Vote with your dollars, indeed.

          Reply ↓
    2. Kurtismayfield

      Subway did this to themselves. It’s not an affordable sandwich, and it really is crappy. It tastes like school cafeteria food

      Reply ↓
      1. Jason Boxman

        True story — Its only virtue is it was cheap and fast, not good. For the same price now you can get a much better sub at quite a few places, although it sounds like Jersey Mike’s is going to die having been sold out to PE recently, sigh.

        Reply ↓
      2. Dalepues

        An acquaintance who owns a short chain of excellent pizza
        shops told me that all the meat items at Subway are made
        with turkey.

        Reply ↓
    3. Christopher Fay

      click through takes you to fast co. landing page, click on any article takes you to fast co. landing page. For a few years it often had great articles though it was and is rah rah then it got slimmed down. One time it had a great take down of Fab an on-line consumer store in the 2000s.

      Reply ↓
    4. DF

      A few weeks ago, I went to Chipotle for a burrito and a soda.

      It cost $18. I have no idea how middle class people can afford that.

      Reply ↓
  8. Jason Boxman

    More Democrats en déshabillé

    Ahead of Shutdown Deadline, Democrats Face a Dilemma on Spending

    With a government funding deadline looming in September, Democrats face the same quandary that dogged them earlier this year: Should they cut a spending deal with an administration that has routinely undermined Congress’s power of the purse, or filibuster their way into a shutdown?

    LOL, we know the answer.

    Back in March, Democrats agonized for days over whether to supply the votes needed to allow a G.O.P.-written stopgap spending measure to move ahead. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, and nine other members of his caucus ultimately voted to let it advance, arguing that a shutdown would only empower Mr. Trump to tighten his grip on federal agencies and unilaterally decide what money to spend.

    But that led to an intense backlash from Democratic voters, activists and lawmakers, who accused Mr. Schumer of squandering an opportunity to challenge Mr. Trump. That has soured Democrats’ appetite for voting for Republican funding bills at a time when they are already outraged at the president’s escalating campaign to undercut congressional spending authority.

    (bold mine)

    LOL, no. Democrats did not agonize over much.

    So far Democrats have fought what they’ve been claiming for years is Trump’s fascism by… giving speeches. What exactly would you expect them to do, given this opportunity?

    Yep.

    In a blowout 90-to-8 vote earlier this week, most Senate Democrats voted to open floor debate on the chamber’s first spending bill of the year, a typically less contentious measure covering military construction projects and veterans programs. Some other less divisive bills could potentially be added to the package.

    …

    For now, Democrats appear ready to let the process play out.

    Back to your regularly scheduled “resistance”, I guess.

    Reply ↓
  9. flora

    re: An Inventor Injecting Bleach – Wired

    an aside: chlorine, (what I think of when I read the word “bleach”), and chlorine dioxide are two different chemicals. Article doesn’t make that clear.

    Reply ↓
    1. Bugs

      Yeah it’s really not well reported. Typical these days. Bleach is sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) in water. Used to be called Javel Water, and still is in French. An extremely useful product, but I wouldn’t inject it lol

      Reply ↓
  10. Adam1

    Do any of our UK commentors have any thoughts on what will actually become of this new Zarah Sultana/Jeremy Corbyn new left party?

    As an American I don’t know enough about how the UK’s electoral system works to even guess if it has any chance of success or not.

    Reply ↓
    1. paul

      Third parties have a tough time unless they contain Nigel Farage
      There is a 20 odd year establishment investment in him, after all.
      Established parties containing Jeremy Corbyn, also struggle.
      Third parties containing JC, no chance at all.
      Expect blackout perforated by smear.

      Reply ↓
      1. Ben Panga

        There will be an abundant range of “aren’t they kooky/badly dressed/unfit for government/evil Marxist jihadi jew-haters” stories across all mainstream British media.

        They will be harassed by the anti-Palestine Action cops.

        And despite the desperate state of the UK, I still don’t see Corbyn as any kind of inspirational leader. I lost that illusion during his silent martyr reaction to the antisemitism crap. I admire the man, but he’s not gonna lead a revolution.

        Reply ↓
    2. eg

      It will be enough for me if they wreck Starmer’s “Labour in name only” which is a dire zombie outfit which desperately needs to die.

      Reply ↓
  11. Jason Boxman

    More tariffs, and a bonus sighting of “reporter” Sydney Ember that seemed to pop up every time Sanders ran for president to author hit pieces, before disappearing again. Sanders isn’t running again, as far as I know, so this is most curious indeed.

    Behind a Maine Coffee Company’s Decision to Raise Prices (NY Times via archive.ph)

    Like many companies, Rock City Coffee resisted increasing prices as President Trump’s trade war drove its costs up. Then it ran out of options.

    In this case, poor bean harvests play a role as well. Nonetheless.

    Reply ↓
  12. griffen

    I think the Links today deserve a special bit of applause, for the linking to that video clip. Whatever is in the box, put down the gun and don’t open it (!) Quite the ending to that movie.

    Reply ↓
  13. Jason Boxman

    So did anyone else get to play with small amounts of mercury in school or at the Orlando Science Center after school program?

    Fun times!

    I had no idea I was interacting with a top 10 deadly chemical!

    (We also dissected frogs bathed in formaldehyde, lol.)

    Reply ↓
    1. griffen

      As kids we used to chase the truck spraying for mosquitoes in the peak months of summer. Did we knowingly chase because it seemed fun? Yes. Were we unaware that treatment likely included some forms of DDT in the sprayer? Also, Yes.

      Oh to be a kid again, without cares for Social Security still being around in 15 to 25 years or needing to pay bills or how dang much the AC running in summertime is gonna cost. \sarc

      Reply ↓
    2. Henry Moon Pie

      Yes, I played with mercury and survived, but I knew a kid who had a cut on his finger when he was doing it, and he ended up with some nasty looking, bloodshot eyes. That was the end of my playing with mercury.

      Reply ↓
    3. LawnDart

      In high school, I led a frog-fight from the science lab into a crowded hallway between class periods using two 5-gallon buckets of dissected/partially dissected bullfrogs and bullfrog parts… man, thanks for bringing back the memory! It was beautiful! Frogs flying through the air; the quiet, the shock, the realization and the screaming and panic! Kids scrambling for cover in all directions, but still a long-minute before the hallway was empty– save for frog carcasses, organ parts, and a couple of bewildered teachers…

      Man, I really miss the days before widespread video and video surveillance became a thing.

      Reply ↓
    4. Birch

      I know placer miners who have spent a day going over old workings, trying to get that last little bit of gold, but pulled off two ounces of mercury instead. Apparently it isn’t easy to sell because the buyer wants to know how you got it, and that leads to complications. One guy says he has a gallon jug mostly full in his basement that he’s recovered over the years, and he doesn’t know what to do with it. Good conscience made him bring it home. It’s not good for the fish.

      Reply ↓
  14. Carolinian

    Doctorow on Starlink

    While a satellite constellation like Starlink has many great use-cases (ships, planes, temporary encampments), these use-cases do not in any way add up to a profitable business, given the extraordinary expense of launching and re-launching a gazillion satellites (to say nothing of the dangers these pose to other users of stable orbits, and the problems they pose for astronomers).

    The only way to make Starlink profitable is to get everyone to use it, and therein lies the problem, because Starlink is cursed with something business professionals call “dogshit unit-economics.” Every time you add a new user to Starlink, everyone nearby gets slower internet

    and

    The common thread joining all of Musk’s doomed love-affairs is that all the stuff he’s obsessed with is useful in limited ways, but don’t work at mass scale. As such, much of their potential will require public financing to be realized. There’s plenty of useful things you can do with AI, but they don’t add up to enough to justify the capex that goes into model-training nor the opex that goes into running the energy-hungry, water-thirsty foundation models. There’s plenty of useful limited applications for self-driving vehicles, but they’re all niches like closed-track airport terminal shuttles or closed-site mining vehicles. And, as noted, there’s many remote and temporary sites that can benefit from satellite broadband, but they don’t justify the titanic expense of operating Starlink.

    In other words Silicon Valley these days is about taking the American “genius for the practical” and turning it into a passion for the sci fi futuristic and impractical. Even computers–which I love as much as anybody–are a mixed bag. They built an a-bomb with slide rules. This may have taken more mental energy.

    Reply ↓
    1. Birch

      “Dogshit unit-economics.” Love it, I’ll remember that one. When Starlink fired up the up-front cost was super cheap; many of our neighbours jumped on board. We stayed with the established competitor. Our service got way better when others left.

      Reply ↓
    1. ChrisFromGA

      Addendum: This NY Times story trying to cover up the cause has to be a nominee for some sort of Inspector Clouseau award.

      https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/world/middleeast/syria-explosions.html

      At least five other mysterious explosions at military bases and weapons storage sites this month have caused deaths and injuries. They have also raised questions about whether large caches of weapons, ammunition and other unexploded ordnance from Syria’s 13-year civil war have been properly secured during a transition of power over the past seven months.

      Inspector Clouseau is on it! I tell ya, it’s a mystery, five mysterious explosions. It’s almost as if actor Leslie Nielsen from those “Naked Gun” movies is roaming around Idlib province, throwing his discarded cigar butts over a fence right by the ammo dump. Or maybe it’s the heat … yeah, that’s the ticket!

      (I guess the word “Israel” cannot be printed over at the grey lady?)

      Reply ↓
  16. RookieEMT

    It’s happening daily now as I slowly absorb communist literature and the art of Leninism. I absolutely do not have the historic working class background for it. Yet capitalism’s escalating evil makes Marxism easier to accept and digest.

    Reply ↓
    1. Skippy

      Per the FT link about the Relearning Economics group I would suggest one read everything, don’t become a Marxist, Austrian, neoclassical, Keynesian, et al. Economic History is a better foundation than just ascribing to some cloistered Economic school of right or wrong think. I am with Joan Robinson on this and Keynes is oft quoted as say he was the only non Keynesian in a room full of them. Not that the Americans sorts were call Bastard Keynesian’s due to their synergies with neoclassical.

      And as always one should read critiques of all schools, per se – The Reformation in Economics: A Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Economic Theory

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

      For myself, I found that whilst many schools might have some accurate observations about the past or present … things get stoopid[tm] when they start predicting the future or engage in the fallacy of a ”Grand Unified Theory of Everything”.

      Anyhoo … I could babble on but its Sat here and I have a large 100 yr+ old Queenslander home to make beautiful again. So many decades of wrong to make right … sorta like economics … chortle …

      Reply ↓
      1. eg

        I was pleased to see that you recommended Pilkington’s first book. I was beginning to think that maybe I was the only one hereabouts who has read it.

        Reply ↓
        1. Skippy

          Ta mate, yet there are so many more being published at the moment. All of which take the ideologically ridged or aware proselytizers to task. It really is a arduous task, back drop of natural history/Polisci, philosophy, core royal sciences – phew – and then the advent of each school, funding who/why, path dependency, long list.

          This is another reason I love my work so much. I meet so many that have means, decades of life experience in you name it. Then due to the time I spend working on their homes, we have lots of chats about things. My currant job is for a nice couple in their early 60s. He is a decades long Philosophy of Science PhD, worked in Queensland and the States at places like Notre Dame and some E coast Ivy. Today he was wearing a Notre Dame dept sleeveless jacket so I asked him if he knew or met Philip Mirowski. He drew a blank but mention he met Deirdre McCloskey. Of course, as is my want, I mentioned the moment she informed her boss about a big change in her life, after informing it was about the gender change … her boss sighed and said he was concerned she and gone Marxist … brought a smile to his face.

          Like always I mentioned Naked Capitalism and my affiliation with PKE/MMT.

          Reply ↓
  17. jsn

    “Window dressing”

    What we have here is the Trump administration slowly backing themselves into an understanding of “Superimperialism”.

    A bunch of idiot winners in the deregulated casino, steeped in “loanable funds” nonsense, trying to rebrand incompetence as strategy.

    Reply ↓
  19. The Rev Kev

    ‘Brian Berletic
    @BrianJBerletic
    🇹🇭🇰🇭On the Recent Thailand-Cambodia Conflict – Details the Western Media Won’t Report
    ▪️Following Thai soldiers injured by Cambodian-placed mines along a disputed border and downgraded diplomatic ties, Cambodia has launched Grad MLRS strikes (video) on populated areas causing indiscriminate death and destruction;’

    The past two nights on the news, they go out of their way to say that it is Russian equipment being used. Our newsies are really wrapped around the Ukraine axle over here.

    Reply ↓
    1. jsn

      Yeah, I remember the Soviet made rocks the first Intifada was throwing back when Abe Rosenthal edited the NYT.

      Reply ↓
    2. duckies

      The mines might be American. Cambodia is full of those, though they are mostly maiming civillians instead of soldiers.

      Reply ↓
  20. pjay

    I learned long ago not to get my hopes up that anything will fundamentally change (Yves’ ‘Pox on Optimism’ really resonates with me). But the disgusting sight of Macron, Starmer, et al. being forced to acknowledge Gazan genocide, combined with some of Trump’s MAGA supporters beginning to ask uncomfortable questions about Israel and The Lobby, do make me pause. It would be wondrous if Israel’s assumption that it could do anything with absolute impunity had finally crossed enough red lines to force people to look behind the curtain. I won’t hold my breath, but maybe such displays of obvious hypocrisy are starting to have an effect. One can dream.

    Reply ↓
  21. jefemt

    Mercury. One of my favorite bits of prose was in Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy, in an incident describing the donkey trains carrying mercury out of the Copper Canyon. The moment involved the really malignant bad-ass outlaws forcing the train off the trail, and the animals helplessly falling to their deaths, bouncing off the cliff bands, with the mercury spilling out of the saddle bags in glimmering cascading falls. Horrific.
    But boy could he write!

    Reply ↓
    1. wol

      I finished the overlooked ‘Suttree’ about two weeks ago and I’m still not ready to start another book.

      Reply ↓
  22. Patrick Lynch

    The quote from Andy Beshear in the tweet about a Vanity Fair piece on him made me quite nauseous. Why? I live in Kentucky, and voted for him twice because his first opponent was a wild eyed psychopath (not a joke) and the other one of Mitch McConnell’s chief toadies. Beshear handled the pandemic better than surrounding states and we didn’t get as pummelled quite as bad as a result. He also made sure people who didn’t have health insurance during that time got it by a large expansion of Medicaid. Same for people who wouldn’t have normally qualified for unemployment. Beshear also dealt with multiple large disasters from tornadoes and flooding. So for a time, I briefly considered voting for him as president if he actually ran.

    Well, that thought was a ship that left the harbour and then exploded in a fireball just as it reached the horizon. First, he demonstrated loyalty to party over people when Geoff Young won his primary. Young was probably the most left wing candidate for Congress Kentucky had seen in my lifetime and since he was in my district I voted for him. Beshear declared Young to be fringe for views that among the actual Left would be thought of as normal and sane. He and the Kentucky Democratic Party declared they would not support Young because of his views. So they would rather lose to Andy Barr yet again than to back someone who ran on actual principles and wanted to do something towards putting a stop to actual insanity.

    Beshear made a certain amount of noise about not wanting to wade into the cesspool of national politics but then you saw him do the very sort of things that looked like someone gearing up to run for president. Going to Davos was the last straw for me, “promoting Kentucky” at the WEF hobnobbing with the goons who make up that scurvy crew just said to me that he will be no different than anyone else lobbying corporate to send them to the front office.

    His foreign policy takes were enough to make you facepalm. The way he described Ukraine was a complete victory for the power of propaganda courtesy of corporate media. For a person who is known here for compassion his takes on Iran and Israel are so bad I don’t even have words for it. How can such a person back Israel when the evidence of their genocide against the Palestinians is so painfully obvious? Even without the other reasons, genocide was more than enough to never vote for Beshear ever again for any office.

    Reply ↓
    1. Henry Moon Pie

      So no Beshear/AOC ticket for you? For the life of me, I cannot understand why anyone would consider the Democrat Party as an institution with even the slightest of possibilities for being a vehicle for positive change.

      Reply ↓
  23. The Rev Kev

    “EU says China’s links with Russia now ‘determining factor’ in ties”

    This is unbelievable stuff this. Ursula von der Leyen thinks that she can blackmail China by saying unless they buckle down and force Russia to call a ceasefire in the Ukraine so that NATO wins, then China will be punished by the EU economically. That sort of arrogance may play well for her in Brussels but in Beijing? Reading that article again, it seems like Ursula believes that she is in the dominant position over China and has all the leverage. She’ll be lucky if she does not have to carry her own luggage through customs as she lines up with the rest of the plebs when she goes home.

    Reply ↓
  24. t

    RFK jr will probably give that “inventor” a Gold Visa for free!

    Dreams come true!

    And he’s removed the page on the CDC website that say giving children bleach enemas, industrial or grocery store, is bad.

    Reply ↓
  25. Munchausen

    Spy cockroaches and AI robots: Germany plots the future of warfare Reuters

    Germany plots the future of warfare, again. Wunderbar! Hopefully they won’t kill as many people as the last time, before they lose again.

    Reply ↓
  26. RW

    From the underlying article
    “(Golden oyster mushroom) is a widely cultivated and prized edible fungus native to eastern Asia”

    Coming soon – NC cookbook using edible invasive species. Zebra mussels, waterlilies, oyster mushroom. Yum!

    Reply ↓
        1. amfortas

          ordinary feral pigs are pretty good, too…so long as you get them small(as in “shoat” size). as they get older, they get pretty nasty and full of worms and such. the older ones are considered fertilizer.

          Reply ↓
      2. RW

        Golden oyster mushrooms are edible as stated in the article. Oyster mushrooms are considered delicacies and have a price to match in shops. They are not however good commercial prospects as they don’t travel well.

        Waterlily roots are a common ingredient in soup and stew. They have a mild taste and a crunchy texture. The main barrier is that they are unfamiliar to Western palates.

        Zebra mussels are filter feeders – so while they are edible, if they are living in toxic waters they will concentrate the toxins. on the plus side, if the zebra mussels clean the toxic waters, fish will return to those waters and those fish are then safe to eat.

        “invasive” (in the UK/Europe) American crayfish are edible and apparently delicious – mini lobsters. I’m thinking of trying it! have to apply for an official licence though.

        Reply ↓
        1. scott s.

          Zebra/quagga mussels are killing off the whitefish population in Lake Michigan. Whitefish is a commercially important fishery and also has cultural significance to the native peoples around the lake.

          Growing up in Milwaukee, driving up to Pt Washington for smoked whitefish was always a big deal.

          Reply ↓
        2. LawnDart

          When in-season crayfish are a big-thing, though mostly in the south– can’t have Cajun without ’em. And yes, delicious too, although a bit messy and eating them takes a little work.

          Reply ↓
      3. Birch

        “without joking: are invasive plants edible”
        Many invasive plants in North America are medicinal and/or edible. Off the top of my head: pigweed, chickweed, dandelion, broadleaf plantain, purple loostrife, mullein, Himalayan blackberry, sheep sorrel, clover… if you’re looking for salad greens, berries, or medicinal tea, invasives have you covered. Make sure you understand what you are consuming beforehand, of course.

        Reply ↓
    3. tera

      “Cookbook using edible invasive species” sounds like something from a cannibalistic anti-semitic joke that only Dave Chappelle would dare to say on stage. 🤡

      Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      If it was food or drinks, I would not have them if I were Maxwell. Just sayin’. I would suggest that in that box is the script for her testimony and the names that she will be able to name as prepared by the DoJ. Plus notes for any questions that may come up. The deal is probably that she gives this prepared testimony and then she gets sprung early after showing that there is nothing more to be discovered in the Epstein saga.

      Reply ↓
      1. Ben Panga

        Bingo. Nothing to see here.

        My conspiracy brain thinks Maxwell was running Epstein.

        Maybe her bosses will gift her a juicy Gaza Riviera genocide villa?

        Reply ↓
  28. moog

    Startup Claims Its Fusion Reactor Concept Can Turn Cheap Mercury Into Gold Gizmodo

    The philosopher’s stone!

    Reply ↓
    1. Ben Panga

      The perfect snake oil to sell to all the tech bro VC dorks who love Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle.

      [I am a poor dork who also likes the books].

      Reply ↓
      1. moog

        I had to google the term. I knew that alchemists were into turning things into gold, and that there is a special term for it. :)

        Reply ↓
    2. ciroc

      […] the gold would have to be stored for 14 to 18 years before it could be labeled radiation-safe.

      Fourteen years later, the investors discovered that the vault was empty.

      Reply ↓
  30. Ben Panga

    I think Brian Berletic’s thesis is nonsensical.

    … Western media is pretending not to know who started the shooting and is deliberately trying to link China to Cambodia and its actions – however – Thailand has a by far larger relationship with China than Cambodia and by far greater amounts of modern weapons from China than Cambodia including a Chinese main battle tank fleet, long-range precision guided rocket launchers, drones, APCs/IFVs, and Chinese air defense systems;

    This border dispute has erupted into violence over the past years (2008 and 2011) – at both previous junctures US-backed client regimes were either struggling to stay in power or were attempting to get into power – and now fighting has begun again as a US-backed client regime is likewise hanging in the balance;

    Cambodian PM Hun Sen, while having a growing relationship with China and having been targeted by US-backed regime change himself, has systematically aided US-backed sedition in neighboring Thailand for 20 years – Cambodia also maintains the US as its largest and most important export market – an outlier in Southeast Asia which mostly exports to China and others in the region;

    Like every other conflict around the globe, people need to be cautious about accepting Western news reports at face value – this will NOT be the “first” conflict they report on honestly and without ulterior motives;

    The conflict ultimately only serves the interests of the US which seeks to keep the region (and the world) divided and unstable, Cambodia – a smaller, weaker nation provoking conflict (like Georgia attacking Russia in 2008) seems a textbook case of deliberate divide and destroy and an opportunity to pin US-created strife on China, if even indirectly;

    Where is the US client state here?

    I think his meaning is that Cambodia is acting on America’s behalf to destabilise Thailand (lest it become Sinosphered). If so, this has the geopolitics backwards. China has more sway over The Sen clan in Cambodia than the US does.

    Hun Sen was installed as leader after the Vietnamese booted out the Khmer Rouge in 1979. For the next ten plus years the US (and later UK) funded, armed and trained KR guerillas on the Thai side of the border to fight a dirty civil war against the Sen government. Countless mines were laid, lives lost, and much of the population was forcibly displaced multiple times.

    The motivation for this Western support was to oppose the evil communist Vietnamese, who still hadn’t been forgiven for winning the previous war. Supporting the KR meant defeating communism.

    Thus the Thai Cambodia border area became (in a way) the line that marks the current situation in the Vietnam War.

    Since then much has changed, but Thailand has militarily stayed close to the US. The Sens have always been treated well by the Chinese. If push comes to shove I cannot fathom Sen picking the US.

    On the Thai side, the conflict looks to be the death knell of the Shinawatras and Thaksinism in politics. In the 2005+ Thai political shenanigans, Thaksin (pre-Sheikh owner of Manchester City Football Club and shady telecoms billionaire) was Western friendly and did Westerny things with the economy. His opponents/eventual ousters didn’t like this and began getting a little cosier with the Chinese.

    All of which is to say, I cannot see how this advances US aims, and I cannot fathom Cambodia as US catspaw.

    I also have no clear idea what is causing the conflict beyond the usual muttering and minor incidents in the disputed border area.

    Reply ↓
    1. Yves Smith

      To add, China has vastly more power over Cambodia than over Thailand by virtue of its control over the flow of the Mekong, which is essential to Cambodia while only a (very) secondary river for Thailand.

      And to your additional point, how is a military coup, which is a realistic outcome, in the US’ interest? I am told the last coup was pretty light in terms of its effect on ordinary people and I have no clue about the complex big power factions.

      Reply ↓
      1. Ben Panga

        My Thai coup experience:

        2006 I was in the islands and it had no noticeable effect on daily life. That area (the south) was firmly on the anti-Thaksin side so it was popular.

        2014: I was in Chiang Mai which is Thaksin’s hometown and (was) a redshirt stronghold. Here I saw silent protests and small vigils. We had quite a few army trucks and soldiers posted around to stop any real protests. They stayed for a couple of weeks. Talking to Thai friends in CM, I heard real anger and frustration.

        In both cases there was no violence around the coups, although obviously there was violence around the earlier big protests in Bangkok (eg the military shootings near Siam Square and Khao San).

        Reply ↓
  32. eg

    Re “BORDER PATROL WANTS ADVANCED AI TO SPY ON AMERICAN CITIES”

    Just another example of how the tools used by empire to discipline the periphery inevitably blow back to be employed upon the citizens of the metropole …

    Reply ↓
  33. ciroc

    >Economics teaching has become the Aeroflot of ideas

    In my opinion, economics should abandon mathematics. Equations cannot capture the complexity of people’s lives.

    Reply ↓
    1. Jonathan Holland Becnel

      Facts.

      It’s like translating the Bible from Latin.

      Like who the hell knows what it really says!

      Reply ↓
    2. Samuel Conner

      I don’t think that the problem is maths per se, but the reliance on models that are founded on assumptions that don’t reflect the actual world.

      Reply ↓
      1. Skippy

        Worse is underpinning all the Maths/Physics is ex ante core ideological axioms … cough … rational agent model/maximizing utility tropes.

        Reply ↓
  34. Jason Boxman

    What a sadness

    Under Siege From Trump and Musk, a Top Liberal Group Falls Into Crisis (NY Times via archive.ph)

    Media Matters, a nonprofit group that has played a key role in liberal politics, is struggling to withstand months of legal assaults by President Trump’s allies, offering a glimpse of what might be in store for even well-funded targets of his retribution campaigns.

    The organization, which is funded by some of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors, has racked up about $15 million in legal fees over the past 20 months to defend itself against lawsuits by Elon Musk, in addition to investigations by Mr. Trump’s Federal Trade Commission and Republican state attorneys general.

    (bold mine)

    No one will miss you.

    Founded in 2003 by David Brock, a self-described “right-wing hit man” who switched sides and became an enforcer for Democrats, Media Matters set out to neutralize what Mr. Brock saw as a powerful Republican information ecosystem. The group became the flagship in a constellation of nonprofits formed or acquired by Mr. Brock to help Democrats and undermine Republicans.

    (bold mine)

    Brock, as I recall, is a swell dude.

    Reply ↓
    1. John Steinbach

      Notice that there is near total lack of MSM coverage of the new Russiagate documents release. Aaron Mate was interviewed by Glen Diesen about this today.

      Reply ↓
    2. ChrisFromGA

      I hope we get at least one indictment of a major player. Obama has immunity. But Clapper, isn’t he the same guy who perjured himself in front of Congress and walked? He’d look good in orange.

      Blondi had better deliver.

      Reply ↓
  36. Es s Ce Tera

    re: A billion dollars’ worth of Nvidia chips fell off a truck and found their way to China, report says The Register

    I wonder if these chips are compromised. This seems too convenient. Chip-based Stuxnet, perhaps?

    Reply ↓
  37. Ben Panga

    Immigration agents told a teenage US citizen: ‘You’ve got no rights.’ He secretly recorded his brutal arrest (Guardian)

    Audio in the video catches the unidentified officers debriefing and appearing to make light of the stun gun use. “You’re funny, bro,” one officer can be overheard saying to another, followed by laughter.

    Another officer says, “They’re starting to resist more now,” to which an officer replies: “We’re going to end up shooting some of them.”

    Reply ↓
  39. AG

    re: Israel genocide / Steven Donziger

    via Moon Of Alabama

    Steven Donziger’s Substack

    SHOCK: Israel Has Killed 20.7% of Gaza’s Population. That’s 434,000 People.

    The corporate media ignores the scale of the horror. It’s the rough equivalent of 70 million people in the USA. Official data grossly underestimates the death toll.

    by Steven Donziger
    Jul 22, 2025
    https://stevendonziger.substack.com/p/shock-israel-has-killed-207-of-gazas

    p.s. There was an unproduced screenplay about Donziger’s battle against Chevron in the 2016 Black List of so-called “best unproduced” Hollywood scripts. Pity it hasn’t been picked up so far.

    The screenplay was based on a magazine story:

    Reversal of Fortune
    By Patrick Radden Keefe
    January 1, 2012
    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/01/09/reversal-of-fortune-patrick-radden-keefe

    Reply ↓
  41. AG

    screenwriters of the above mentioned Donziger screenplay are btw Jay Carson and Matt Bai
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Carson
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Bai

    And since we are at this strata of people, Billy Ray who is also closely connected to the DEMS, and who made that Mini-Seris THE COMEY RULE, which made me so angry, is planning on doing a mini-seris about January 6:

    “Tracing events preceding the violent January 6 US Capitol breach, this limited series explores differing perspectives. It culminates with the attack, its aftermath, and FBI plus Congressional probes.”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Ray_(screenwriter)

    It would be interesting to know in how far the current CIA/FBI behaviour re: Russiagate changed or upended plans for similar projects.

    After all these mass entertainment products should not be underestimated in their long-term influence on the public´s perception of how the world works…and what really happened.

    Reply ↓

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