In Patagonia, a Frog Makes a Comeback The Revelator
Identify The Brown, Streaky, Juvenile Songbirds Of Summer With These Tips All About Birds
Climate/Environment
Unknown Knowns Earth Island Journal
Marine heatwaves may have driven the world’s oceans to a critical tipping point, scientists warn Euronews
Governments Fail to ‘Rise to the Moment’ as Seabed Meeting Ends Without Mining Pause Common Dreams
50° “edge of survival” heat hits Turkey for first time in recorded history Intellinews
Wildfires grip Southern Europe as heat wave intensifies Anadolu Agency
Santa feels the heat as Lapland buckles in Finland’s record-breaking heatwave BBC
Flash flooding and heat continue to dominate the summer Balanced Weather
Pandemics
All the memories I won’t be making M (Is) Living With Long Covid
Chokepoints
Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison seeks mainland Chinese strategic investor as talks deadline ends South China Morning Post
Investors Bet Li Ka-Shing Will Clinch Controversial Ports Deal Bloomberg
China?
Effort to oust China-friendly lawmakers from office in Taiwan fails Semafor
Bureaucratic Lapse, Not Bioterror: The Overblown Fungus Smuggling Case Pekingnology
Thailand- Cambodia Conflict
Cambodia, Thailand agree to immediate and unconditional ceasefire Channel News Asia
Rubio says US officials are in Malaysia to help in Cambodia-Thailand talks Straits Times
Ink denies clash with Cambodia, not a battle between two families, vows to move forward, reveals grudge over extortion of benefits from call center gang Matichon (Machine translation)
Syraqistan
As Gaza starves, Trump tells Israel to ‘finish the job’ Aaron Mate
EXCLUSIVE: Internal Documents Detail Hamas Proposals That Preceded Trump’s Belligerent Rant Drop Site
‘A Cruel and Transparent Farce’: Israeli Attacks Kill 62 in Gaza Amid ‘Tactical Pause’ Common Dreams
The latest child to starve to death in Gaza weighed less than when she was born AP
Kids by the thousands are starving to death. This is what that looks like. Air drops with spaghetti and canned beef won’t save them – allowing all foods in, allowing more doctors in with medical grade nutritional supplements will. All else=theatre. 10,000 trucks must enter now! pic.twitter.com/hakDsFrVhu
— Fadi Quran (@fadiquran) July 27, 2025
We have turned the Nagasaki 80th into a celebration of Israeli genocide Pearls & irritations
To Restore Our Humanity We Must De-Zionise The World Do Not Panic!
***
Israeli defense minister threatens to assassinate Iran’s supreme leader, attacks Tehran Middle East Monitor
Old Blighty
Resident doctors speak from picket lines in England as five-day strike begins WSWS
European Disunion
Germany train derailment: At least 3 killed, several injured DW
Why is everything falling apart? The Berliner. From May, still germane.
Germany Wants American Tomahawk Cruise Missile Launchers Capable of Striking Moscow: Can Russia Stop Them? Military Watch
O Canada
‘The clock is ticking’: Report calls out media’s flawed coverage of MAID Canadian Affairs
New Not-So-Cold War
Kyiv claims Russian Su-27UB fighter jet destroyed at airfield in Krasnodar region Anadolu Agency
Ukrainian Drones Target St Petersburg As Putin Attends Scaled-Down Navy Day Reuters
❗An approximate map of the movement of “Geran” and rockets tonight is published by enemy TG channels pic.twitter.com/P93IypyIN9
— Zlatti71 (@Zlatti_71) July 28, 2025
NATO Rhetoric Reaches New Levels of Hostility with Threats of ‘Swift’ Kaliningrad Invasion Simplicius
The Caucasus
Zangezur Corridor US project targeting Iran, Russia Mehr
In the Caucasus, Donald Trump Has an Opportunity The National Interest
The Roots of Baku’s Financial and Economic Dependence on London East’s Substack
L’affaire Epstein
Exclusive: Private Probe of Alleged Epstein—Mossad Links SpyTalk
Spook Country
Who owns your dreams? Julian MacFarlane
I see more stars online than in the sky The Etymology Nerd
“Liberation Day”
Wow, didnt think it was gonna happen but trump announces trade DEAL with EU.
-15% tariffs on most goods (just like Japan)
– EU buys $750 BILLION of US energy (how much LNG?)
– EU Invests $600 BILLION in strategic areas (vaporware?)
– Purchases US weapons https://t.co/tzHkB6k2sj https://t.co/s010Wq1bVM— Albert Pinto (@70sBachchan) July 27, 2025
How the EU succumbed to Trump’s tariff steamroller FT
The Great Entanglement Warwick Powell
***
Donald Trump freezes export controls to secure trade deal with China FT
Democrats en déshabillé
Kamala’s husband is taking home millions from a law firm that explicitly promised to do Trump’s bidding in return for political favors. He never resigned! She’s literally profiting from Trump’s corruption! Openly! https://t.co/bob7HgLNi2
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) July 27, 2025
Obama Legacy
Two years into genocide, the Nobel Peace Prize winner rouses himself:
While a lasting resolution to the crisis in Gaza must involve a return of all hostages and a cessation of Israel’s military operations, these articles underscore the immediate need for action to be taken to prevent the travesty of innocent people dying of preventable starvation.…
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) July 27, 2025
Antitrust
Monopoly Round-Up: The War Among Democrats Over Market Power, Housing and Capital BIG by Matt Stoller
Turmoil at the DOJ as two very senior enforcers from the Antitrust Division were put on paid administrative leave following disagreements with higher ups over a recent merger settlement in HPE-Juniper. #antitrust @mlexclusive https://t.co/5TwVmOS1fm pic.twitter.com/sjUCCRGsmB
— Khushita Vasant (@KhushitaVasant) July 27, 2025
AI
Zionist spies innovate AI sexual blackmail tech Kit Klarenberg
Groves of Academe
Is math erotic? Archedelia
The Professors Who Supported the Student Deportation Frenzy Drop Site
Accelerationists
Researchers quietly planned a test to dim sunlight. They wanted to ‘avoid scaring’ the public. Politico
Imperial Collapse Watch
America’s Military Is in Big Trouble The American Conservative
Sports Desk
‘More Bark Than Bite’: What Trump’s Executive Order Means for College Sports Front Office Sports
The Friendly Skies
HUGE. The MOSAIC rule is out. https://t.co/Vd3iUwAZLt
Biggest bombshell is the stall speed limit for airplanes moves from 54 knots clean to 61 knots with flaps down.
This covers MANY more aircraft. It is a huge deregulation of general aviation.
/ht @starsandrobots https://t.co/wzwg17vaO0
— Eli Dourado (@elidourado) July 22, 2025
Guillotine Watch
Elon Musk is now officially worth $405.6 billion, projected to become the world’s first trillionaire by 2027. pic.twitter.com/ZLFxgEPzex
— Globe Eye News (@GlobeEyeNews) July 27, 2025
Class Warfare
Private Equity and Insurance? You Bet Your Life… and Maybe Your Pension! Racket News
The Bezzle
AI: bubbling up Michael Roberts
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Guardian
Tom Lehrer, acclaimed musical satirist of cold war era, dies aged 97
Too clever by two.
Appreciate this Alice. One of my favorites:
https://youtu.be/frAEmhqdLFs?si=iMaB6XPVzoal8639
“Egypt’s gonna get one, too, Just to use on you-know-who.”
So long Tom
Loved your happy dark songs
Made me break out into a sing along
[Sic] humor on us from the great beyond
“Israeli defence minister threatens to assassinate Iran’s supreme leader, attacks Tehran”
Yeah, they tried that already and failed. And it does not matter if the old boy gets knocked off as not only does he have a successor picked out but from what I hear, he has about five people picked out in a line of succession. Come to think of it, I am trying to think of any other country in the world where their foreign minister threatens to kill the head of state of another country. Hmmmm. Nope. Can’t think of any offhand.
“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”
How exactly did Genocide Joe think he was going to remove Putin – by winning a tickle fight?
Just about the same intent as what the minister from the Zionist entity said, birds of a feather and all –
“If you continue to threaten Israel, our long arm will reach Tehran again with even greater power – and this time personally to you too”
Well, Israel is just more direct about it. Biden’s “Putin must go!” was simply a cue for the Ukraine SBU to ramp up their efforts. (The US usually kills opponents through military coup/proxy. See:Allende.)
The geran drone movement map: I would have appreciated some traditional penis shapes too.
https://nypost.com/2023/08/02/lufthansa-pilot-draws-penis-in-the-sky-after-flight-diverted/
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/05/14/the-navys-probe-into-sky-penis/
https://interestingengineering.com/culture/see-ya-pilot-paints-a-penis-in-the-sky-causing-social-media-frenzy
Focus from Africa, if you want a different perspective: https://youtu.be/8V5QvHPvlW4
DNC Rwanda peace deal: can refugees return peacefully? Analysis of the UNHCR agreement
The articles by Doyle at Pearls and Irritations as well as Nate Bear at Do Not Panic are worth reading together.
From Doyle, insights into the current level of lies, bullshit, and propaganda: “The ‘UNRWA is Hamas’ propaganda, like the beheaded babies hoax, like the mass rape hoax, like the lie that Hamas killed 1400 civilians, was happily co-signed by the western political and media class. The mass starvation of somewhere in the region of 1.7 million people simply couldn’t happen without a broad caucus of western support.”
As Gramsci wrote, the challenge is to live without illusions.
Having had a long career in publishing and writing, I also note the degradazion of academia and culture in the U S of A. It’s all self-presentation and résumé-inflation.
PS: the same insight also has to apply to Ukraine and Russia, which can only be resolved by negotiation and an armistice, along with a new “Helsinki” arrangement
In case you were hankering for some Hope and Change.
Dazzling beacon, Eat Your Peas Obama :: “these articles underscore the immediate need for action to be taken to prevent the travesty of innocent people dying of preventable starvation.”
“to be taken”
“underscore”
“preventable”
Sez culturally degraded Eichmann of Honolulu.
With four megamansions to fret about, one has little time for a moral compass.
He could at least quietly give back that Nobel prize..
Yes. The Obamamometer returns at last! From his house with the illegal seawall in Oahu or Kalorama or The Vineyard or Chicago…
From Jerri-Lynn:
We called him the Obamamometer or at least I did and it quickly caught on in our circle because it described his behavior so well. Near the end of class time, just in time for the last word, his arm would rise. He’d wait to be recognized. A pause— setting his audience on seat’s edge (or at least the ones who’d never heard him speak before), and then in his mellifluous voice, he’d intone, “Rain is wet”— or something equally banal, with the gravity otherwise due to a proposition from Wittgenstein.
Always the last word. Always uttered with utter conviction. And never, never– despite sitting through two classes with him– did I ever hear him say anything even remotely interesting. The Obamamometer took the ideological temperature of the room, and then unfailingly said something with which no one could possibly disagree— but which no other person would bother to say, because it was both so vapid and blindingly obvious.
Thanks for the Obamamometer reference.
This was a bitter-sweet time
A Fond Farewell to Jerri-Lynn
and
Farewell Post: I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together
He also said we shouldn’t eat ketchup–it’s for kids. However artisinal ketchup is probably ok.
W.R.Hearst always kept a bottle of Heinz on the table of his castle sized dining hall at St. Simeon. Take that Barack.
There once was a lady named Emily Post who gave uncouth Americans tips on etiquette. She died in 1960. One year later Obama was born. Coincidence? I think not.
Reincarnation belief may need another look.
Re Trump-VdL trade “deal”: a Harvard-educated Bulgarian liberal finally discovers the essence of the rules-based world order. Said discovery was catalyzed by the sudden realization that the EU wasn’t an equal partner in the rules-based enterprise, but the useful eedjiot whose turn to be subjected to the rules has come.
That’s a former deputy PM of an EU country demonstrating just how hopeless the current EU elites are. Of course, it is still not allowed to point out that the EU put itself in position to be squeezed dry by severing its energy ties with Russia over Ukraine. And of course, EU liberals being faithful copy of US Democrats, they won’t have a good crisis go to waste – there are already calls to address the uncompetitiveness caused by energy costs and the loss of trade with Russie be addressed by further gutting of social safety nets, regulations and environmental protections.
It’s truly a sad day to be both American and European, seeing the Bully and the Spineless in action.
OIFVet: au contrarie, non frère
The elites of the North of Europe — Merz, Tusk, Macron, their new best bud Starmer, the obtuse Kaja Kallas, the inscrutable Rutte — they are all looking for a way out after paying for proxy genocides in Ukraine and Palestine. They planned the Glorious Victory of Ukraine.
Palestine is their dirty work, to quote Merz.
Now they want to buy off the USanians so as to hold on to their own positions.
What’s money to Ursula? And aren’t suffering and dying what the little people do? (And the wolves, too.)
The U S of A didn’t ask for anything serious like shutting down the English colonialist military bases in Cyprus
‘they are all looking for a way out after paying for proxy genocides in Ukraine and Palestine.’
Should be-
‘they are all looking for a pay out after paying for proxy genocides in Ukraine and Palestine.’
With that group, one should always follow the money.
I know what you are saying, but there’s qualitative shift in treatment under Trump and VdL’s uncomfortable shifting in the video demonstrates it. Trump wants to dominate and humiliate, while until now that was more or less hidden from the little people. It plays well amongst MAGA, but it doesn’t play well on the Euro street. Rather than buying the survival of EU status quo elites, VdL has likely hastened their end. Normally I would say good riddance, except what’s waiting in the wings ain’t any better, and is likely to be even worse…
I’d like to thank all the little people, heh heh, a star is born.
I like to think of her as the Diva with da Brooklyn Accent from “Singing in the Rain,” the incomparable Linda Lamont.
Classic Linda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsbTWsyzRBo&ab_channel=LPKvideoDesigns
I apologize for my pedantic nature, but the character is named Lina Lamont.
“An’ I can’ stan’ ‘im!”
The whole affair is sordid but I am enjoying the Schadenfreude of watching the wheels come of the West’s clown car. The whole thing has the pongy whiff of the corridors of the palace of Versailles. The aristocrats are falling apart from syphilis, the courtesans and lackeys still dance with them in intricate court rituals all masked by copious amounts of perfume, makeup, food, drink and exotic tinctures but outside the peasants are grumbling that maybe the King is not, after all, anointed by God…
No doubt coming to supermarkets in the EU very soon, hormone stuffed beef, chlorinated chicken and GMO cereals from the good old USA, naturally with no labels showing this, as agreed by the idiotically incompetent UvdL.
Here in Oz we have agreed to a Trump demand to accept US beef which is in reality US, Mexican and Canadian beef. It makes no sense. That is like the UAE shipping oil to Saudi Arabia. The US herd numbers are way down at the moment so beef is supposed to be very expensive there right now. And yet Trump wants it put on a boat to go to the other side of the Pacific to Oz where we have a surplus of beef. It will be too expensive to buy and a lot of people are lurky about what diseases it might contain. The only way that this makes any kind of sense is if Trump has a golfing buddy who is a beef baron.
One close to your (and my) heart. Here in UK TimTams have appeared in the main supermarket. They were banned when in the EU using the precautionary principle (additives that MIGHT though not proven, cause health issues like cancer). We’ve rapidly gone to the US model I saw in Australia – it’s OK until there are enough cases of something nasty to initiate a legal case.
NB TimTams have ALWAYS been available in the UK but in EU days ONLY in the “Australiana” shop in London using a special exemption. Major supermarkets were forbidden from selling them. Now they’re here. I won’t touch them……unless they import the white choc version……then I’ll (re)gain the 7 Kg I’ve lost recently LOL Might get the docs off my back for my huge unplanned weight loss.
Trump has enough beefs to keep the world going for a long time after the last four years. This is the Time of the Great Punishment, and if I look long enough I’m sure to find a Biblical prophecy somewhere.
I can hear the splintering sound as the EU begins to disintegrate. Most Europeans will only be better off if and when they are prepared to come to terms with Russia, China and the rest of BRICS. There is nothing less sensible to clinging on to a dying giant. Why not give every Commission member the opportunity to do the decent thing by leaving each of them alone in their office with a loaded revolver on the table?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/28/us-eu-trade-deal-germany-france-tump-tariff
Going by their level of competency, they would probably miss if they tried.
I watch a lot of movies and it’s amazing the degree to which middle class Europeans have become wannabe Americans–NY/LA Americans of course, not SC Americans. Some foreign films now have the characters mostly speaking English so their heroes won’t be left out. Subtitles are such an eyestrain.
Of course some of us who have even lived there now think of NY itself as a foreign country. Who knew Brooklyn would become the center of the entertainment universe? Those NYC provincials could perhaps quell these feelings by vernturing out more on this side of the Atlantic.
Watch me blackmail Gates, mate
Watch me blackmail Gates, mate
Bridge players are a dangerous breed, mate
So watch me approximate
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Keep me cockatoo cool, Bill
Keep me cockatoo cool
Ah, don’t go acting the fool, Bill
Just keep me cockatoo cool
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Ain’t take me veiled threat back, Jack
Take me veiled threat back
Dead men do tell tales that’s a fact
Ain’t take me veiled threat back
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
And mind me Epstein barb, Bill
Mind me Epstein barb
Ah, don’t let facts go running amok, Bill
Just mind me Epstein barb
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Caught you playing with your didgeridoo, Blue
Playing your didgeridoo
Ah, like, keep payin’ ’til I say your through, Blue
Playing your didgeridoo
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Hide my tales when I’m dead, they said
Hide my tales when I’m dead
So we hid what he did when he died, defied
And that’s him hangin’ in his cell, crucified
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie Me Kangaroo Down, by Rolf Harris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEkLy7A37T0&list=RDvEkLy7A37T0
“Zionist spies innovate AI sexual blackmail tech”
‘Kit Klarenberg investigates how AI video tech developed by Israeli Unit 8200 veterans may be enabling a new era of intelligence-driven sexual blackmail, without human involvement.’
This development can be a twofer. Not only can they make up sexual blackmail videos on the fly with the aid of a gullible media, but their use will discredit any genuine ones that appear. So if some of the Epstein tapes emerged showing Slick Willy and Randy Andy getting down and dirty with very, very young girls, it could be challenged as an AI fake. Of course you could make all sorts of raunchy blackmail tapes with this tech. Like Trump naked in bed with Satan. Oh wait, South Park did that already
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_7hbN-ssHw (33 secs)
This development puzzles me and strikes me as the Schmittian sovereigns sawing off the branch they’re sitting on.
If AI deepfakes of sexual deviancy become commonplace, it seems like the whole blackmail playbook will need to be thrown out or significantly reduced. Even if it creates a de facto amnesty for existing (seemingly quite willing?) blackmailees, might this development diminish the leverage the deep state has over democratic institutions and allow the latter to begin to expand beyond ritual significance?
Is math erotic: I couldn’t find the answer to that question in the tect but I do look forward to go the bedway to solve Hilbert’s problems (in case math is erotic) in the new form of university he writes about.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6M4_Ommfvv0&pp=ygUZdmFuIGhhbGVuIGhvdCBmb3IgdGVhY2hlcg%3D%3D
I come (ahem) from different angle regarding eroticism of mathematics: that of the tempered (or not) nature of the musical scale. Dad and I share this interest. I have gone through a long journey regarding understanding temperament. I was always puzzled as to why piano tuners still existed when Bach “invented” equal temperament and modern PCs can tell you the exact frequencies based on the 1/12 powers to tune each semitone on a piano.
Turns out the middle range of pianos are NOT tuned to equal temperament, but something close which irons out some of the most discordant upper harmonics. So it remains something of an art, not a science. Once you open this Pandora’s Box you may never see the light of day again! I now have an additional reason why our conductor of the orchestra I played in in my teens sometimes told us violinists NOT to play the open A string but do a fifth from the D string: yes the tone is different, but shorter string length alters the upper harmonics too.
The maths gets HORRENDOUS if you really delve into it. But the empiricism regarding what (for example) string players do with or without additional instruments that cannot alter their tone is fascinating. Dad thinks more and more people are internalising equal temperament (or something close) as time goes on.
I don’t know mathemstics enough to tell if mathematics can be practiced completely disconnected from our reality. Can it or is it at some fundamental level stuck/anchored in our 3D mind and matter sine qua non maths turns absurd?
As Calvin says speaking to theoreticians: reality continues to ruin my life
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ba/f2/6c/baf26cf9f0e52e7efef39c3587f83dc2–calvin-and-hobbes-quotes-calvin-and-hobbes-comics.jpg
Haha thanks, yes. We STILL don’t fully understand the maths of music. We “know” we like music rooted in certain frequencies and their multiples (non-equal tempered strings playing somthing like Nimrod from Enigma Variations) but why?
The theory ruined my life in terms in upending everything I thought to be true about tuning!
Final tangent: I do NOT have perfect pitch. However, I had a VERY good long-term memory and could “know” A 440 Hz to tune my violin without the oboe for YEARS. Now I can’t do it – my estimate of A is now more like G. Likewise I could count seconds with astonishing accuracy when I did lots of playing – it even messed up a friend’s undergrad thesis when measured alcohol imbibing had NO effect on my ability to count with almost perfect accuracy the seconds. Now I can’t so much. Learnt stuff.
The Long COVID account was painfully accurate to me. My latest symptoms (documented in BMJ amongst other publications) are the neuropathic issues. OK I haven’t touched piano or violin in years but now I’ll probably never touch them again, even if I want to.
Typing is a bitch. I’m thinking of doing what RSI forced me to do for 50% of my PhD (25 years ago) and use voice recognition software. I’ve already trained it (phew) since I refuse to use the “web versions” and EVERYTHING is to remain on MY computer. No cloud interpretation here, thanks.
Currently being very very careful to mask up when doing stuff as part of my caring duties. Friends in NW England have had the new variant of COVID and all said “It is NOT nice”. I definitely don’t need this. It’s almost certainly here in the Midlands already so I’ve been pro-active. Maybe I’ll avoid this latest one. Interestingly YT clearly used my “introductory long COVID” video to “test the water” as to popularity and the algorithm must’ve pushed it. I got a LOT more views than organic growth of my other videos would suggest. I’m now getting a very small but growing band of people coming back to watch my accounts of my travails (including falling over in the bath – damned orthostatic hypotension).
Terry, sorry to hear more details of your on going problems.
To clarify the problems for me, if you don’t mind, is the issue pain in your fingertips as they contact violin strings or even keyboard keys? I think that is what you are describing. Or possibly some moving control issue, but I don’t think that is what you described. Or maybe some combination of issues for using your fingers.
Not trying to pry, and maybe you’ve posted about this before, but would you share a bit more detail of what you experience that is hindering these activities?
Sorry that you are one of the minority (so far) that Covid has hit hard and long.
Re: Claims of Russia Su-27 destroyed
I’ll raise you one German military transport plane destroyed in Ukraine, with 3 German air force officers killed and a Patriot system destroyed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLL-sIZrTeo
(Source is sketchy, but so is the source for the Ukrainian claim.)
Both fall in non-AI slop bracket.
Israel committing genocide in Gaza, say Israel-based human rights groups (Guardian)
..B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, say Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the country’s western allies have a legal and moral duty to stop it…
They do… but they won’t.
So Netanyahu went on ‘The Full Send podcast, hosted by Kyle Forgeard and Aaron Steinberg of the Nelk Boys – a Canadian-American influencer collective known for its conservative-leaning content – is particularly popular among young men.’ He wanted to buff up Israel’s image among that group. And while on it he starts making jokes about how he prefers Burger King to MacDonalds and how he was a junk food junkie. Yeah, food jokes while he starves Gaza-
https://www.middleeasteye.net/trending/netanyahu-jokes-about-fast-food-nelk-boys-podcast-amid-gaza-starvation
And then this happened-
‘The Nelk Boys’ YouTube channel lost over 10,000 subscribers within 24 hours of the episode’s release on 21 July. The interview also received more dislikes than likes before the group disabled the visibility of the dislike count on the video.’
“Thai, Cambodian leaders agree to ceasefire after five days of fighting”
‘The prime ministers of both countries held talks in Kuala Lumpur mediated by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.’
Maybe this is why Rubio is in the region. So that Trump can claim all the credit for this ceasefire and push the work of the Malaysians into the background. It seems to be his modus operandi the past few months so maybe he really wants that Nobel Peace prize as Obama has one but not him.
Trump is a sick person. Everybody knows the US has nothing to do with the situation, no constructive role to play. He craves attention like a 2-year old who’s family just had a baby brother born.
RE: The AI Bubble. Plenty of attention being paid to the critical role of NVIDIA in keeping the grift going. And the parallel/rhyming nature of the dot com debacle.
The NVIDA Coreweave relationship exposes another aspect. NVIDIA invests in Coreweave which promptly invests in NVIDIA chips. There was a lot of this kind of thing in the late dot com era. Multiple companies validating each others valuations with cross ownership/investments. It all started unraveling when it turned out that Cisco had to acknowledge some fake revenues, IIRC they had been stuffing their own channels with switches and routers that had stopped selling.
Ed Zitron has done great work explaining how fragile and prone to collapse they are. His recent analysis questions the SoftBank investment in the still dubious grift of Stargate. Like the missing Cisco revenues of the late 90s, will Stargate ever happen?
If SoftBank doesn’t pony up the cash (or all the cash) does Stargate happen? If Stargate doesn’t happen does NVIDIA suffer a miss? If NVIDA misses their revenue targets is their Coreweave investment safe? If these investments in NVIDIA chips have to be written down who are the eventual bag holders? (Note some lenders have already started accepting NVIDIA chips as collateral on loan obligations)
There are multiple paths into collapse and they are not mutually exclusive. The geniuses running Microsoft appear to already be hedging their bets. Like 2008 the crash is likely to prove epic. Once the tide goes out we will learn who has been swimming naked. Oracle? Meta? Who else?
And what a grift it is! They can throw all the NVIDIA chips at AI as they want and they will never get to the level of human thought or consciousness becasue they are basing human thought on what is called the “empty neuron theory”. It seems our consciousness is created inside the neuron via microtubules. You can look up several videos on the topic by searching for consciousness and microtubules.
In my opinion this is a ground breaking topic that is not only important for consciousness studies, but also mental illness and Alzheimer’s.
FAA.
The article makes no sense. Ok so they are making some new rules for sport, light sport and experimental planes which all account for a very small percentage of airplanes.
But what really doesn’t make any sense is the statement about stall speeds.
Stall speeds clean are always higher than with flaps. The link says 54 knots clean 61 with flaps. Well in the real world that’s wrong. And it also doesn’t sound right as to such a small speed difference between the 2 nor does it draw any distinction between the usual many different flap settings. Most planes don’t have just up or down settings.
Any airplane that has flaps and many small ones don’t, when you land you put out your flaps. This increases lift which allows the plane to fly at slower speeds which is what you want to land more safely. No flaps means higher airspeed to maintain lift, Same as airliners.
Yeah, I’m not a pilot but I tried to make sense and failed.
I followed the link and as you state only small/experimental planes.
Then the stall speeds that seemed the focus of post.
No idea if it makes any sense or why I should care.
“NATO Rhetoric Reaches New Levels of Hostility with Threats of ‘Swift’ Kaliningrad Invasion”
I wonder if it has occurred to any of those UK/European leaders that if they invade Kaliningrad at the suggestion of US General Christopher Donahue and it all blows up in their face, then they will find that that General Donahue would be long gone on a plane headed back to safety in the US a full ocean away.
The elites are lunatics. They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.
If anything, Ukraine’s defense of Donbas should have disabused the lunatics like General Donahue that they can roll into Kaliningrad like the US did in Kuwait 34 years ago. How stupid can these lunatics be? The defenses of Kaliningrad must be world class hardened, manned by experienced personnel with types of weapons that may never have been seen. Does Donahue thinks Palantir is going to guide the way and the NATO troops simply walk in?
The only way a quick occupation of Kaliningrad could be possible is if the ground has been prepared with a nuclear attack. But then the occupation couldn’t happen because NATO would no longer exist.
This madness is simply a cover for grift.
Sports is a Metaphor
NFL Announcer Accused President Trump Of Cheating, yahoo sports.
No surprise I guess, the video embed is gold.
There was absolutely nothing at stake, here. No prize, no money, no bragging rights. Yet his ego is so fragile that he has to resort to the oldest trick in the book. He dishonors the game that he supposedly loves.
We are dealing with a malignant narcissist of the worst order.
The other anecdote at the bottom about Trump kicking another player’s ball off the green is priceless. Happy Gilmore would beat this clown like a hockey goon if he had the chance.
Another small news item which says that something has gone terribly wrong with the UK’s police forces? Is it poor selection, bad training, weak superiors, a new development in canteen culture, just confiscated someone’s cocaine stash, watching too much Gaza on their mobiles, or what? https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jul/28/man-allotment-gardening-tools-arrest-armed-police-manchester
I can match that anecdote with an opposite one (and indeed supplement with other ones supporting my view). The police round here are (perhaps due to previous shenanigans) very very good – better than social services in dealing with people who fell through the cracks.
I had to be the responsible adult for someone close to us who said something that caused the Chief Constable of the East Midlands Police to activate EVERYONE. False alarm. But the police were (to my eyes) surprisingly empathetic – certainly compared to a lot of social services.
I’m not one to “instinctively defend the blue” but the police round here seem on the ball and are just very very tired of picking up the pieces of a social care system that is failing people. The officers I talked with were very human, and desperate to tell their stories about awful encounters with, frankly, psychopaths etc. We had very good discussions and my dad felt same way when he fulfilled similar role on another occasion. I KNOW there are bad eggs but the culture round here doesn’t seem to be a breeding ground for these…..so far.
As goes the UK police, the US police soon follow.
The over oppression of the general public that usually occurs during the collapse of a ruling elite’s power is ramping up in “the West.”
As I said above, there are some constabularies that have not yet gone to the dark side (east Mids).
This doesn’t mean they WON’T……..they once had a terrible record which was only addressed when most of the service was replaced following a VERY high profile trial that showed that lots of officers were “in with” a local mafia, who all ended up in jail with very very long sentences (But had to be tried in Birmingham since the East Midlands was too compromised).
The “cleanout” seems to have worked……..so far…….but like you, I worry for the future.
Germany wants a longer stick to poke the bear.
Since Tomahawks can also carry nukes, is it really a good idea to have Germany help lob them at Moscow, especially when the US is shipping more nukes into Europe?
Is Germany a good idea?
Judging Germany by the quality of its leadership is like judging America by the quality of its leadership. It doesn’t get you far.
Quite the contrary. A country is defined by the leadership. Citizens are not. Germany and Germans are not interchangeable, jAmerica and USA even less so (America is a continent and does not even have leadership, though Trump has wet dreams about it).
Contra this, Joseph de Maistre stated that “every nation has the government it deserves” (“toute nation a le gouvernement qu’elle mérite”) — an aphorism that became famous.
Not necessarily applicable to non-first-world countries. For example, Amenians don’t deserve Pashinyan, Syrians don’t deserve what they got, etc.
It’s an over-used rhetorical question, but German Re-Armament is the ultimate “What Could Possibly Go Wrong?” situation
It’s the good ol’ “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Flash flooding and heat continue to dominate the summer Balanced Weather
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This has been the most pleasant summer in my 20 years here (oh no, now i’ve done it!) with only a few days over 100 degrees-which is frankly amazing. That said, I’ve also seldom seen the snow in higher climes disappear as quickly as it did this spring.
Seems like warming/ change is all about anomalies?
I saw an article somewhere that drew an analogy to a simmering pot of water transitioning to boil…. the bubbles start to pop off, randomly, everywhere… no discernable pattern. Chaos theory?
That said, there are obvious weather-maker pathways… we have one here in Montanny… SW MT storms brew up, head through central MT, then gain big energy over one of the largest (earthen!) reservoirs in the west, Ft Peck, with dire (and increasing ) tornadic activity further east and north.
Knock wood, this has thus far been one of the least smoky summers I can recall over the last 15-20 years, here in Bozeangeles del Caleeforneeya Norte.
Indeed. All of California seems to be lots cooler than normal this summer, so far, while about all of the US east of the Mississippi is frying.
Hmm. Is there something that could contribute to these odd extremes?
“As Gaza starves, Trump tells Israel to ‘finish the job’ ”
I would say that Trump is saying this as Israel’s genocide is making him look not good publicity-wise. All those images of starving children are not good publicity for him and recently some country’s official showed a US ambassador these types of images to shame him. That is why Trump is saying “Finish him!” Of course Netanyahu is saying that there is no starvation in Gaza and if there was, it is all Hamas’s fault. Next thing you know is that he will claim that the biggest killer of people in Gaza is obesity. And on the news tonight you had the Israeli ambassador to Oz make the same exact claim of there being no starvation. Frankly he didn’t do himself any favours and it only served to rile people up more. Nobody will miss him when he flies back to the Concentration Camp with Nukes.
Am I mistemembering various articles over the years announcing “this guy” is likely to be the first trillionaire and “this guy” having no comment of else saying no I’m not, go away and leave me alone?
Or from “this guy” was French, just ahrugging?
Law enforcement officials have been lying about violence committed by protestors.
Imagine if a civilian did this in Federal court.
Since Alan Pakula was topic yesterday or so:
SleuthNews and Russiagate:
All The President’s Men, Again
“With some of our reporting set to be confirmed soon, I wanted to offer some thoughts on where we are. At this time, I do not see the political will for a thorough investigation. The right loves to over hype and over promise, but there’s little indication of anything significant going on. However, if, if there was an effort, based on our sources and the work we’ve done for years and spent over $100,000 on, this is what they would do and this is what they would find.”
Hot in the city tonight, for those in Starokonstantinov. That’s where the airbase that operates air-launched cruise missiles is. Maybe a shipment of Tauruses arived, to start the “production” of definitely-Ukrainian-not-German missiles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starokostiantyniv_Air_Base
I saw a comment on YT that said that a German Air Force transport plane with a Patriot battery aboard was destroyed at the base, killing three German military personnel as well.
Play stupid games…
The expression I keep seeing on YT is FAFO
eff about and find out…….USians are certainly experiencing that in certain sectors and likely more to come.
Nah. Transport planes fly to Poland, and then stuff is moved on road/train, mixed with civillian/humanitarian goods.
OK. That sounds logical. So, the next question would be, why hasn’t Russia blown up the road and rail bridges between Poland and the Ukraine? Some fiendish Dr. Fu Manchu level plot to sucker the NATO into the Ukraine so as to plausibly kill them off?
Whatever, the Russians are playing the Long Game here.
More info.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/136293
Starokontstantinov received more than a hundred “Geran-2” drones, several Kh-101 missiles, and in the morning, after “consequence liquidators” and further reconnaissance, three more “Kinzhal” missiles.
…
For a while last year it seemed like Russia was attacking Starokonstantinov every other week. Looks like they are going back to that approach now. In the Israel-Iran dustup I heard people say attacking airfields was not effective because runway damage could be fixed so quickly, but I guess if you keep bombing the runways repeatedly for months then it’s the repairs that become ineffective.
What official officiate how much Elon Musk is now officially worth?
That determination is within the purview of the Board of Governors of the Bank of Mars.
It’s probably AI math computing his Telsa shares time their current price on the current stock price forecast with ZERO idea that the current price is a bubble price set to blow up sometime withing the next year or 2.
With the site admin’s indulgence.
Not to hijack, but a non-medical advice question for the medically trained in the commentariat.
I need a rear molar removed. It had become infected. Ten days of amoxycillin stopped that, but the problem continues.
I am on anti-hypertensive meds. Beta blocker, anti-coagulant, etc.
My MD refuses to approve me stopping the blood thinners for the procedure. She demands that I consult with a cardiologist for the med suspension.
Is this standard procedure?
That’s all I need to know.
Thank you and forgive me for this quasi thread-jack.
This is NOT MEDICAL ADVICE but it what I would do.
Hopefully IM Doc or another MD will opine
For any surgery, if this is what you are having, the doctors typically INSIST you stop blood thinners and even blood thinning dietary supplements for 2 weeks in advance. That’s overkill, I looked up the half lives and for nearly all, it’s only a few days or even a day.
I can’t see how a few days off a blood thinner will make much difference for your heart. Stroke risk is a different category.
If I were you, I would find out what the at the half life and stop taking them before the surgery an adequate amount of time in advance, if this is a surgery. What is she going to do, put a tube in you to make you take them?
Thank you for the NON MEDICAL ADVICE suggestion. My problem here is that, in the degraded system that purports to be a Medical System in my segment of the North American Deep South, no dentist I have contacted will agree to do the procedure without an official release from the MD or other specialist. The dentist office person I spoke to this morning mumbled something about insurance regulations in response to my query concerning ways and means.
I agree about the half life issue. Checking up on the viability of using some cipro left after another bout of infectivity a few years ago I discovered that that particular anti-biotic was considered to have an eleven to twelve year safe storage life span.
I am now looking into contacting an oral surgeon. They should be set up to deal with patient bleed outs.
Stay safe and thanks for the reply.
My father recently had a cataract surgery and he is on blood thinners (Xarelto). We also needed to talk to his cardiologist, and the standard procedure here is to stop taking it one week before the surgery and replace it with Clexane injections (self administered once per day) until the day of the surgery.
Maybe your doctor will recommend to stop taking the medicine for three days before the surgery, but this will depend on your condition and the risk of stroke.
You really should talk to a doctor before doing anything, but we are not in the USA and healthcare is free here.
Thanks for the information. I’m learning as I go here.
Stay safe.
ZOMG that MD release is ridiculous. So so sorry.
No, no, the half life is in your system, not on the shelf.
See for instance:
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/01.cir.101.10.1206
Thank you very much. I did misunderstand your earlier comment. As I mentioned in a reply to another commenter, I am learning as I go here.
Stay safe.
I was surprised by your dentists request. My grandmother was on blood thinners most of her life after having a heart valve replaced in 1971! I didn’t ever recall her mentioning a need to stop taking it for a root canal which I believe she did have at one point.
According to The Academy of Oral Medicine, you normally don’t need to stop taking your blood thinners for oral surgery.
https://www.aaom.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=126:blood-thinners-and-dental-care&catid=22:patient-condition-information&Itemid=120
Question… does your dentist/oral surgeon WANT you to stop taking the blood thinners or does he just want your Dr to sign off that it’s OK to keep taking them? I have a feeling this is less real medicine and more lawyer-like shifting of risk the lawyers seen and not necessarily the risks the medical world sees.
Personally I can’t see how there is any risk of bleeding out unless they are removing a chunk of your jaw too. If you can’t stop bleeding you’ll know it within 20 min or an hour given it’s your mouth and then someone will employ other means of mechanically stopping the bleeding – I’m sure hemophiliacs still get root canals. It’s not like they are sowing you closed where internal bleeding can go on unchecked until you do bleed out.
I too am wondering if this is an artifact of the Neoliberal love of suing everyone in sight.
I got the distinct impression that the dentist wanted me to stop the blood thinners before the procedure.
This looks like an extreme example of Risk Aversion gone wild.
Be safe and good for your Granny.
Trump caught cheating at golf in Scotland:
https://sports.yahoo.com/article/nfl-announcer-accused-president-trump-214602505.html
– ‘Exclusive: Private Probe of Alleged Epstein—Mossad Links’ – SpyTalk
“SpyTalk has learned that Trump-friendly moneyed parties are pursuing evidence of the late financial adviser Jeffrey Epstein’s possible connections to Israeli intelligence through his now jailed girlfriend and former sex trafficking manager Ghislaine Maxwell.”
Since I can’t get beyond the paywall, could someone give me an idea of who these “Trump-friendly moneyed parties” might be? We know that some of these parties are very pro-Zionist. Are there others who are more “MAGA” than “MEGA” in that they are willing to finger the Israel Lobby? Are they right-wingers engaging in more traditional antisemitic “conspiracy theory”? Are they “pursuing evidence” simply to protect Trump or shut up the critics by “debunking” such theories? Based on the introduction I assume Stein does not “divulge their identity,” but does he provide some sense of who these “hedge fund employers” might be, and what their motives are?
Looks like they removed the paywall …
https://www.spytalk.co/p/exclusive-private-probe-of-alleged
“The investigator is pursuing the theory, so far without any evidence, that Donald Trump was blackmailed indirectly by Israeli spies through Epstein—ie., that he’s been a victim, not an enabler, of the late sex trafficker. That would certainly fit the president’s longtime narrative that he’s been a victim of a shadowy “deep state” that has conspired against him since at least the 2016 elections”