Recent Items

Links 7/4/2025

Posted on by

Superconducting magnets from dark matter labs can hear universe’s unheard music Interesting Engineering

Italian Mechanic Transforms Junked Fiat Panda Into the World’s Narrowest Fully Functional Car Laughing Squid

Water

Flint’s still-unfinished lead pipe replacement serves as cautionary tale to other cities AP

Pandemics

Examples in thread:

China?

China Set to Cancel Part of EU Summit in Latest Strain on Ties Bloomberg

China tells EU it cannot afford Russian loss in Ukraine war, sources say South China Morning Post

The world’s most affordable homebuilders? Companies buying homes from Chinese factories Kevin Walmsley

India

How India’s Forest Governance Is Increasingly Loaded Against Forest Dwelling Communities Behan Box

Indian farmers are turning to ‘assisted pollination’ as a ‘pollinator apocalypse’ takes hold Down to Earth

Africa

BLINKEN ORDERED THE HIT. BIG TECH CARRIED IT OUT. AFRICAN STREAM IS DEAD. MintPress News

Old Blighty

UK F-35B fighter jet stranded in Kerala can’t be repaired, likely to be dismantled: Report Hindustan Times

Syraqistan

Gaza: Evidence points to Israel’s continued use of starvation to inflict genocide against Palestinians Amnesty International

GAZA AID OR COVER FOR WAR? US MERCENARIES ACCUSED OF FIRING ON CIVILIANS MintPress News

‘Blood for Food’: The US soldier-spies sidelining UN aid work in Gaza All-Source Intelligence

The Devil in the Details of Trump’s “Final Proposal” for Gaza Ceasefire Drop Site

***

Israel warns of action if Iran resumes nuclear weapons pursuit Iran International

Iran reaffirms NPT commitment after halting IAEA cooperation The Cradle

US targets Iran oil trade, Hezbollah with new sanctions The Hill

Israel holding secret talks with Russia on Iran, Syria during ceasefire: Report Anadolu Agency

U.S. plans nuclear talks with Iran in Oslo next week Axios

Iran says no talks unless US drops deception, commits to diplomacy Press TV. They know the US is not capable of that, right?

Narrative Shift: Israeli-US Strikes Strengthen Iran’s Resolve Simplicius

***

Russia becomes the first country to formally recognize Taliban’s latest rule in Afghanistan AP

European Disunion

Remuneration of Reserves: The Planned End of Government Securities? MMT France

Entangled fates—the rally effect around Europe due to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine Nature

Reviving Europe’s historical scents—including ‘the smell of hell’ Horizon: The EU Research & Innovation Magazine

New Not-So-Cold War

Putin says he won’t back down from Ukraine goals in hour-long call with Trump France24

The Importance of Today’s Chat Between Putin and Trump Larry Johnson

Former Luhansk mayor taken out by Ukraine’s Security Service, sources say RBC Ukraine

Azerbaijani & Turkish Plots, Macron-Putin-Phone Call, Kiev Drones Strike from Kazakhstan Mark Sleboda

Armenia does not deny reports US proposed plan to connect Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan OC Media

BRICS

Exclusive-BRICS to launch guarantee fund to boost investment in member nations, sources say Reuters

“Liberation Day”

U.S. Imported Food Reliance Worsens: Food Trade Deficit Alert! Rethink Trade

Vietnam Trade Deal Takes Aim at Back Door for Chinese Goods WSJ

Trump 2.0

Republicans Deliver on Promises to Borrow Trillions So They Can Punish Poor People, Expand the Police State, and Transfer Trillions of $$$$$ from the Working Class to the Rich. The Cocklebur. Some key sections:

Disappearance Department

ICE Budget Now Bigger Than Most of the World’s Militaries Newsweek

AI Police State

The budget bill opens the floodgates for state surveillance tech and bad AI Blood in the Machine

Silicon Valley/Venture Capital Pentagon

Economic Inequality

Climate

This is exactly what Project 2025 proposed HEATED

“Why are they doing this?” Balanced Weather

Healthcare

Republicans Are Cutting Medicare. Not Only Medicaid, Medicare. David Dayen, The American Prospect

From the States

Nevada Democrat says Trump megabill could push gamblers ‘into the black market’ The Hill

The Big Ugly Bill just got uglier for Iowa Along the Mississippi

Odds and Ends

5 under-the-radar pieces of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” that may impact your life Axios

MAHA

Prasadism Infests the Food & Drug Administration Pandemic Accountability Index

Democrats en déshabillé

‘Immoral’: Democrat Hakeem Jeffries blasts Trump megabill in record-breaking, 8-plus-hour speech ABC News

Mamdani

Mamdani and Beyond ZZ’s Blog

Trump’s Threat to Deport Mamdani Isn’t a Joke Ken Klippenstein

The Necessity of Birthright Citizenship for Black People Black Agenda Report

AI

ChatGPT creates phisher’s paradise by recommending the wrong URLs for major companies The Register

“No customers!” After receiving a $4.7 billion subsidy, Samsung’s chip factory in the United States postponed production Karl Sanchez

Police State Watch

After 47 years in the US, Ice took this Iranian mother from her yard. Her family just wants her home The Guardian

Healthcare?

Stung by high prices, Americans make their own weight-loss drugs Reuters

Insurer Blue Shield of California’s new parent company alarms consumer advocates Los Angeles Times

DOJ’s Largest Health Care Fraud Takedown Ever Should Make Us Ask: Why Is Our System So Easy to Exploit? HEALTH CARE un-covered

Silicon Valley/Venture Capital Pentagon

We need to escape the Gernsback Continuum Programmable Mutter

The Bezzle

Why crypto companies are rushing for bank charters Axios

Class Warfare

Worker’s Song The Baffler

Awkward silences Aeon

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Subscribe to Post Comments
110 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    “Reviving Europe’s historical scents—including ‘the smell of hell'”

    In that article is the following-

    ‘While some Europeans found the scent of hell strangely attractive because the smokiness reminded them of grilled meat, Japanese visitors in Osaka found it “completely revolting,” she said.’

    So does that imply that scents are actually culturally based? That in fact we cannot really experience the scents that our ancestors did in the same way as our cultures are so different? That the scents and aromas from historical Europe are different from modern Europe which means that those scents are not experienced in the same context and thus in the same way?

    1. Revenant

      I have been to an Asian temple with a “hell” you could visit beneath the shrine, complete with demons, sounds, smells etc. I am afraid I cannot remember what it smelled of!

      (I think this was in the Yangtse valley, somewhere between Chongqing and Yichang, but it could have been in Japan sometime too. I have also been to the hell geyser in Hokkaido in Japan, which is just sulphurous as you would expect!).

      1. Wukchumni

        I’ve spent around a week in hell, er Rotorua that is.

        The smell of sulphur hits you well before you hit the city limits, and it was a weird hot springs nirvana, they were seemingly everywhere, but one had to get accustomed to rotten eggs served at all times of day.

        In contrast, no natural hot springs I’m aware of in Cali have any sulphur smell, only the essence of dirty hippies.

      2. Neutrino

        Afternotes of stinky tofu on the grill, unforgettable if you’ve ever been downwind.

    2. JP

      I’m pretty sure Europe’s historical smells were the product of lots of people and horses living too close together. Filth and degradation permeated the air. In the novel Shogun the Japanese were appalled at the crust and stench on the 17th century Europeans.

      1. Acacia

        Even in twentieth-century Japan, the typical retort has been: “smells like butter !”

  2. Wukchumni

    Awkward silences Aeon
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The movies and then TV figured out that awkward silences were of no value so they came up with soundtracks to play in the background to better soothe silence, and I for one think it would be a fun thing to add to our lives, a bit of spice if you will.

    I’ve already utilized classical when walking, and Russian composers are the best for ambling along, so many highs and lows that correspond with walking in the mountains. Of course the music was via headphones, not out in the open as Hollywood typically uses the genre, oh look a tense moment in the film coming up-add tense music!

    1. The Rev Kev

      True story here. Two trainee officers were struggling through a swamp in training to be sent to Vietnam back in the 60s. One turned to the other and said ‘You know what the problem with war is? There’s no background music in real life.’

      1. Wukchumni

        There’s really not much silence going on among Mother Nature’s clients in the back of beyond, always somebody yammering, with the Chickaree being the grand champion in the size to voice event, they can chirp howl something fierce with their alarm call, it sounds as if its coming from an animal 5x the size of Rocky J. Squirrel.

        You often hear the call of the Blue Grouse, which sounds as if somebody is blowing on the top of a bottle to make a repetitive hooting noise over and over again. It comes from air sacs which look like a fried egg-sunnyside up that expands and contracts, check it out:

        https://lewis-clark.org/sciences/birds/blue-grouse/

        Just heard the before dawn patrol checking in about 2 miles away, the Coyote chorale howling for all they’re worth, counting coup no doubt. Sounds as if there are 6-10 of them, and luckily my smartphone has a coyote translator app so I was able to listen in…

        ‘There goes Jerry again with 2 carrion bags, thinks he’s God’s gift to untamed canines’

      2. Ben Panga

        These days, there is always background (or too often foreground) music in Vietnam. Outdoor, loud, karaoke is ubiquitous. As I type this I can hear 4 different speakers in my neighbourhood.

        I’ve become immune and it makes a change from the endless construction sounds.

        Noisy place!

        2. tongorad

          Similar to my old moo ban in Thailand. Nice folks, but noisy. I recall a neighbor’s funeral – a well placed fellow, judging from the weeklong cacophony of electronically amplified chanting, speeches and wall-to-wall karaoke.
          One can get used to anything I suppose, I also once lived next to an airport. Although one’s tolerance does diminish with age IME.

    2. Carolinian

      I prefer to listen to the birds while walking and concentrate on traffic while driving around town. However on road trips my large music collection can become a kind of movie soundtrack to the Cinerama America unfolding outside my windshield.

      IMO music can be as important to movies as photography. Which is not to say that is what they are about. What they are about is “in a world”……

      BTW I’m reading a book you might like–Wildfire Days by Kelly Ramsey. It’s about the author’s experience as a member of a hotshot firefighting crew in California

      1. Vandemonian

        IMO music can be as important to movies as photography.

        Vangelis, and two guys running along a beach at low tide.

    3. Mirjonray

      We had split-session classes when I was in middle school, and for three years I didn’t have to go to school until noon. During the mornings my late mother and I would putter around the house, often without saying much to each other. One of us might even say something to the other, the other wouldn’t answer, and that was fine because an answer wasn’t required. One day I told her that I might not say more than a dozen words to her in the morning, but I loved her very much and there was no other place I’d rather be. Our silences were very comfortable, not stony or awkward at all. I still look back to those simple times with a great deal of fondness.

    4. Polar Socialist

      In 1959 E.T. Hall came up with the concept of high-context and low-context cultures. While the idea itself warrants criticism, it’s understood that one of the separating factor is high-context cultures being much more tolerant of silence, whereas the low-context cultures tend to feel “voids” as awkward.

      I myself live in a culture where an “awkward” silence is pretty much unknown and the term is reserved for people who just can’t shut up. A perhaps biased and anecdotal personal observation from a multi-national workplace is that most Asian, East European and African people can sit in silence comfortably (say, waiting for the meeting to formally begin), while West European and North American people find it difficult.

    5. RA

      As a member of the walking tour in Vietnam 1968, “Have Gun Will Travel”, I spent a lot of nights far from any civilization. Dead quiet may have been a meditation that I honed a few years later.

      For musical accompaniment in the late 70’s on the ski slopes I randomly chose a tape of Fleetwood Mac Rumours. Wow. Unexpectedly, mellow but a rythm that worked for cutting skis into snow on the way down.

      For walks into anything removed from civilization I only enjoy ambient quiet, maybe bird chirps or whatever non human life is sharing the space.

  3. Antifaxer

    We need to develop a phrase for how deranged people are getting about a mayoral candidate for NYC.

    The NYT just published a hit piece where Zohran checked “African American” on his college app to Columbia (narrator voice: he was born in Africa) and their source was an avowed racist.

    All this is doing is raising his profile.

    Maybe even to the point of him being a national candidate for some election that will be taking place in 2028….

    1. The Rev Kev

      ‘narrator voice: he was born in Africa’

      Is this an echo of the accusations that Obama was supposed to have been born in Africa too? As Mamdani was born in Uganda, all that means is that he can never run for President which these days is no big deal.

      Before I forget, happy Fourth of July in Americaland, guys. And don’t forget – if you can’t be good, then be careful.

        1. The Rev Kev

          As was proven in his interview with Tucker Carlson, Ted Cruz is an idiot who probably only ran for President for publicity’s sake.

          1. Wukchumni

            Ted’s all hat and no Canada…

            The claim is that Ted Cruz is quick on his feet, but you don’t get any political brownie points repeatedly sticking your foot in your mouth.

            1. Neutrino

              Alan Doucheowitz gave him props, and kept his underwear on, too, so there is that.

      2. Wukchumni

        Before I forget, happy Fourth of July in Americaland, guys. And don’t forget – if you can’t be good, then be careful.

        Thanks Rev, we were only too happy to pave the way for Botany Bay, as it turned out. Been a good ride so far for my almost exactly 1/4 of the 249 year run

        …Rosebud

        About 40 miles east of Vegas on Interstate 15 is the Moapa reservation gas station and frankly fireworks warehouse, oh my gosh, one is overwhelmed by sheer variety and vast stock on hand, most everything is buy 1-get 1 free.

        Just 100 yards away from the gas pumps is the debris field from pyros lighting off their newly gotten aerial gains, which seems to be a-ok by tribal management.

        It’s hard to set the desert on fire, your surroundings may vary. Be safe with fireworks tonight America!

        1. JP

          I was on Pine Ridge reservation for one 4th of July. The kids were setting off fireworks in the house. Not kidding, we all jumped when a rocket shot across the floor.

          1. barefoot charley

            There was a great “jungle 4th of July” at a drive-down beach backed by cliffs in far-Northern California, where families showed their kids how to aim bottle rockets at each other, and bigger boys chained fine explosions between and sometimes onto trucks. Fine old apocalyptic American fun, though terrifying. Don’t bring your dogs.

      3. herman_sampson

        Anymore, rules are made to be broken.
        Mr. Mamdani needs to invoke that great Hoosier, Eugene Debs, who ran for president as a SOCIALIST, his last time from prison, and still getting 3.4%of the vote, though I think Mr. Mamdani will get much more in NYC, if he is still alive.

      4. Carolinian

        We USians say thanks and consider Aussies honorary Americans since you are in so many of our movies. Next time I’m in Nashville perhaps I’ll catch sight of Nicole Kidman who lives there.

        1. The Rev Kev

          Still sorry for sending you guys Rupert Murdoch. We thought that we got rid of him by sending him to the UK but he outsmarted us and slipped across the Atlantic to the States instead. :(

    2. Henry Moon Pie

      “We need to develop a phrase for how deranged people are getting about a mayoral candidate for NYC.”

      Mamdaniacs?

  4. Watt4Bob

    Why is the American healthcare system so easy to exploit?

    Look no further than the story of Rick Scott, senator from Florida who “oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in the nation’s history.”

    This was related to his tenure at Columbia/HCA a company he started in1987.

    From Politifact;

    Scott started what was first Columbia in 1987, purchasing two El Paso, Texas, hospitals. Over the next decade he would add hundreds of hospitals, surgery centers and home health locations. In 1994, Scott’s Columbia purchased Tennessee-headquartered HCA and its 100 hospitals, and merged the companies.

    And;

    Among the revelations from the 2000 settlement:

    • Columbia billed Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs for tests that were not necessary or had not been ordered by physicians;

    • The company attached false diagnosis codes to patient records to increase reimbursement to the hospitals;

    • The company illegally claimed non-reimbursable marketing and advertising costs as community education;

    • Columbia billed the government for home health care visits for patients who did not qualify to receive them.

    The government settled a second series of similar claims with Columbia/HCA in 2002 for an additional $881 million. The total for the two fines was $1.7 billion.

    On Scott’s 2010 campaign website, he admitted to the $1.7 billion fine, though the link is no longer on the site.

    When courts allow criminals to avoid responsibility and voters ignore criminal behavior because of their twisted ideology, you end up here, with a house/senate full of criminals busy looting our country.

    The man should be in jail, not the senate.

    1. IM Doc

      The company attached false diagnosis codes to patient records to increase reimbursement to the hospitals

      I feel for what you are saying I really do.

      I am certain that Mr. scott did indeed engage in this type of behavior.

      However, with regard to the bullet point of yours I highlighted above.

      I can assure you that this happens in every hospital in America all day and every day. There are armies of coders and billers and other admin staff housed in buildings often over state lines that do nothing all day but alter codes and billing on charges. All to maximize every dime coming in. It is the very business model of our “non profit” health corps. It is the very reason EMRs were invented. They make this hideously easy. It is only the boobs among us that still believe these computers have anything to do with medical records.

      It is why, as just one of thousands of examples, the diagnosis code for morbid obesity ends up repeatedly in the problem list of my big muscular young jock patients. No matter how many times I take it off, it shows up again at their next visit. It is placed there either by the computer itself or an admin staff somewhere to juice the charges. There are times when this involves charges for the individual patients but more often bundling charges for bonuses and aggregate billing.

      Mr. Scott belongs in jail. But I am afraid that there are not enough jail cells in the whole world for those who are engaged in this behavior. The corruption is rampant, wide spread and is now the business model for the entire industry.

      1. Watt4Bob

        Thanks for your confirmation.

        The corruption is rampant, wide spread and is now the business model for the entire industry country.

        Unfortunately, mr. Scott’s tactics, which remember, were employed starting nearly 4 decades ago, were not put to an end, but became a how-to manual for the industry, in great part because no one was held accountable.

        it feels now as if America’s entire business plan is built on crime, increasingly murderous crime, even genocide.

    2. Alice X

      A saying from the Gilded Age (and elsewhere):

      Steal a little, they put you in jail.

      Steal a lot, they put you in the Senate.

  5. griffen

    Bill Ackmann throwing his weight…it’s very off putting but it’s the way of this world for good or for ill. Does it really seem much different when viewing side by side against say, by recent example, Hollywood hitter and tequila enthusiast George Clooney opining on the state of Joe Biden’s candidacy about late June or early July last year in 2024? ” I was shocked into writing an op ed ! ”

    Ackmann hitches a wagon that suits his interests. Shocked but not really surprising…vomit inducement may commence if necessary.

  7. John Beech

    F-35 broken down for transport is no big deal. Once watched a Cessna 172 land on a golf course. Flying it out post repairs wasn’t practical, so they took the two wing panels off, and toted it out of there on a flat top car hauler. Same thing will happen with the F-35 with the car hauler being substituted for by C-131, or similar. Wings will be off that thing and it’ll be loaded within a couple hours of a team’s arrival.

    1. ilsm

      Transporting things on military aircraft require “packing and preservation” of the item being hauled. This is to assure safety in transit of both the cargo and the transport aircraft.

      Troubling is what “failure” occurred that could not be repaired in the deployed location? If the mode is common there are issues with F-35 “suitability”.

      I wonder if Lockheed or whomever has designed the packing orders? How frequently will F-35 need to be hauled to depot?

      Add to this claims the US sent electronic warfare aircraft ahead of the B-2’s over Iran, and maybe stealth is not worth the overhead.

      1. Acacia

        Do we have proof yet the B-2s were actually flown over Iran?

        Indeed, “stealth” may be far less than claimed.

        1. ilsm

          I have seen parts of a very earnest briefing [by Fox News SecDef and ANG retiree brought back promoted over scores of regular officers as a deep state Cincinnatus] with a wishful thinking slide about a straight line vent shaft into the centrifuge galleries of one or more Iranian sites!

          I have a difficult time thinking USAF could get 7 B-2’s off the ground in a week or two!

          I question hitting the dime of the straight shaft that is overlapping the vector of the 30000 pound bombs!

          I see deeds to bridges.

          1. MFB

            What was a British F-35 doing in India? Apparently it was from the HMS Prince of Wales, which was in the Indian Ocean. Apparently it lost its way in bad weather on the 14th of June, but had no difficulty finding its way to an Indian airfield.

            Hmmmm — wasn’t a certain ally of Britain, one which buys a lot of British weaponry and even more British politicians, involved in a war in that part of the world? Was the Fleet Air Arm helping out Mr Starmer’s funders in exchange for the usual fee? Or was it just the usual British military muddle, a miniature Suez?

  8. XXYY

    Narrative Shift: Israeli-US Strikes Strengthen Iran’s Resolve Simplicius

    Simplicious being uncharacteristically optimistic at the end of this piece:

    This is a major reason for why Israel is in such dire straits—the next generation of Americans will no longer support Israel’s domination of the US Congress. Israel will have no choice but to come up with inventive new methods or false flags to keep Americans in line, because without the US’ support, Israel will cease to be as a nation in the Middle East.

    My impression is that Israel has already now been destroyed as a nation in the Middle East, we are just waiting for it to fall over at this point. I don’t think any amount of false flags or anything else is going to change that. Not only has the US population at large wised up, but also US leadership is seeing that the cost of supporting Israel is likely to be much larger than it used to be and that Israel is worthless as an ally in any case.

    Hopefully we will now start to purge the US Congress of the rabid Israel supporters. There’s an interesting polling result in this article about support for Israel and Palestine in New York (!), which has shifted about 50% in favor of Palestine in the last 7 years.

    1. ilsm

      Last week Nima let Ted Postol lecture for about an hour!

      He pointed out: 60% enriched is very close to getting 90%, in terms of “work” remaining. He also pointed out that 6 mid yield A bombs would end Israel as a state. He also proffered that 100 bombs on Iran given its size and topography would be an environmental tragedy for south Asia and the west Pacific.

      He also described the design methods to deny bunker buster access to nuclear galleries, that are obvious to everyone but the screen writers for Maverick. Dust the galleries off and get on with it!

      Postol did not discuss the miracle of so many B-2s flying at the same time nor the greater miracle of hitting a few center meter target…. at the correct angle to go straight down the shaft.

      Queen of Hearts level absurdity believing.

      1. The Rev Kev

        ‘at the correct angle to go straight down the shaft’

        You mean the same way that Luke Skywalker was able to drop his missile directly down a vertical shaft by using the Force. Was that target shaft bigger than a wamp rat?

        1. ilsm

          Fox news Hegspeth and ANG retiree Caine need to pay royalties to writers of Maverick II.

          Tom Cruise did it dead eye!

      2. Carolinian

        Scott Ritter has been saying the same thing. If you have the nuclear material then the gun design of an a-bomb doesn’t require the elaborate engineering of the implosion design that uses Plutonium. This gun type of bomb was used on Hiroshima and was never tested before use. It is little more than a gun barrel where a slug of Uranium is shot into another mass of Uranium to create a critical mass.

        As with the Manhattan Project the elaborate industrial phase is all about refining the rare Uranium isotope. All of this is covered in Richard Rhodes’ The Making of the Atomic Bomb.

        The nuclear issue is all a smokescreen anyway. If Israel ever did use the bomb on Iran it would be an invitation for some other country–not necessarily Iran–to use the bomb on them. The same applies to the US. The other night I watched The Sum of All Fears–not so far fetched.

        Conventional military power is all that matters and on that score Iran won round one.

        1. Jason Boxman

          Having come out so close to 9/11, perhaps that’s why they completely redid the plot. The book was much better, and it was not European Nazis that sought to nuke the US, but Arab terrorists in the book as I recall. Hunt for Red October was the only book-to-movie where I prefer the movie version.

          1. Carolinian

            There’s an earlier film with a similar plot but in that one a terrorist is wandering around Manhattan with a backpack nuke of the implosion type and therefore much smaller.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peacemaker_(1997_film)

            If I recall my Richard Rhodes the switch to plutonium pits was because, in part, these make much more efficient use of the very expensive nuclear material. And they are smaller and more deliverable. The plutonium came from Hanford, Washington whereas WW2 enriched uranium came from Oak Ridge in Tennessee. I’ve been there and there’s not much to see tourist wise except for a beside the road graphite research reactor which you can enter by yourself and see the control room.

        2. Michaelmas

          Carolinian: If you have the nuclear material then the gun design of an a-bomb doesn’t require the elaborate engineering of the implosion design that uses Plutonium … It is little more than a gun barrel where a slug of Uranium is shot into another mass of Uranium to create a critical mass.

          No, this is all irrelevant. In the real world the shortest air distance between Israel and Iran is approximately 1,100 miles. So the question becomes: how does Iran deliver a Hiroshima or Nagasaki-type A-bomb to Israel? After all —

          – Little Boy: ~3 meters long, 4 tons
          – Fat Man: ~3.25 meters long, 4.5 tons

          Does Iran have ballistic miles that can deliver bombs of that size? No

          Early ballistic missiles like the US Redstone or Soviet R-5 had payload capacities in the 3–5 ton range. But Iran does not have ballistic missiles with throw weights in that range today. (Besides Russia, India, and France, few countries now do). Most Iranian systems carry warheads in the 500–1,500 kg range. —

          | **Missile** | **Type** | **Max Range** | **Payload Capacity** |
          |———————|———-|—————-|———————–|
          | Khorramshahr-4 | MRBM | 2,000–3,000 km | 750–1,500 kg
          | Shahab-3 | MRBM | ~1,300 km | 750–1,000 kg
          | Emad | MRBM | ~1,800 km | ~750 kg
          | Ghadr | MRBM | ~1,600 km | ~750 kg
          | Sejjil | MRBM | ~2,000 km | ~750 kg

          https://www.iranwatch.org/our-publications/weapon-program-background-report/table-irans-missile-arsenal

          Even Iran’s space launch vehicles—like the Simorgh or Zuljanah—top out around 1,000 kg payloads, though they could theoretically be repurposed for heavier warheads if miniaturization weren’t a constraint. Except it is.

          Does Iran have drones that can deliver bombs of that size? No

          https://nexttools.net/how-big-are-the-iranian-drones/
          https://internationaldefenceanalysis.com/irans-4000km-range-kamikaze-drone-strategic-game-changer/

          Does Iran have bomber aircraft that can deliver 3-5 ton gravity bombs? No.
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_of_the_Iranian_Air_Force

          Of course, maybe another country could hand over a suitable bomber. But, firstly, why would they? Secondly, any bomber would have very little chance of getting through against modern air defense systems such as the Israel/US (let alone the Russians) can field.

          Carolinian: Conventional military power is all that matters and on that score Iran won round one.

          So what is ‘conventional military power’? Besides being vastly overrated. After all —

          [1] The US reckons it has preponderance in ‘conventional military power,’ yet never wins any wars.

          Indeed, history is a long record of various nations that thought they had preponderance in ‘conventional military power: the French before Agincourt, the Spanish before the Armada, Napoleon before Waterloo, and, arguably, the Israelis now.

          [2] As a specific counter-example, bioweapons are slow compared to nuclear weapons, but can kill or incapacitate more people in the long term. They possess, too, a couple of significant attributes that ‘conventional military power’ doesn’t have: firstly, attribution is very difficult* and without attribution — whodunnit– deterrence is almost impossible; secondly, they’re very affordable, so forex with modern biotech a couple of Palestinian molecular biologists could repay Israel for Gaza in spades.

          War is not about ‘conventional military power. War is about winning.

          * Forex. COVID 19

          1. Carolinian

            Scott Ritter, former nuclear weapons inspector

            A simple gun-type nuclear weapon would not need to be tested — the “Little Boy“ device dropped on Hiroshima by the U.S. on Aug. 6, 1945 was a gun-type device that was deemed so reliable that it could be used operationally without any prior testing.

            Iran would need between 75 and 120 pounds of highly enriched uranium per gun-type device (the more sophisticated the design, the less material would be needed). Regardless, the payload of the Fatah-1 solid-fueled hypersonic missile, which was used in the Oct. 1 attack on Israel, is some 900 pounds—more than enough capacity to carry a gun-type uranium weapon.

            https://consortiumnews.com/2025/07/02/scott-ritter-if-it-wants-iran-is-weeks-from-a-bomb/

            Your assumption that a modern gun design device would have to be the size of the very first one is apparently incorrect.

            1. Acacia

              According to the Wiki:

              The [Little Boy] bomb contained 64 kilograms (141 lb) of enriched uranium. Most was enriched to 89% but some was only 50% uranium-235, for an average enrichment of 80%. Less than a kilogram of uranium underwent nuclear fission, and of this mass only 0.7 grams (0.025 oz) represents the mass-energy equivalence of the 15 kiloton yield.

              This jibes with the numbers from Ritter. Unclear why the Little Boy was so heavy (4,400 kg), but perhaps the designers didn’t care, as long as it could be delivered using a B-29.

              1. chris

                Little Boy was heavy because it was stuffed chock full of tungsten carbide and steel. Here’s a decent article explaining the arrangement and components:

                When the hollow-front projectile reached the target and slid over the target insert, the assembled super-critical mass of uranium would be completely surrounded by a tamper and neutron reflector of tungsten carbide and steel, both materials having a combined mass of 2,300 kilograms (5,100 lb).[29] Neutron initiators inside the assembly were activated by the impact of the projectile into the target.[30]

            2. Michaelmas

              Carolinian: Your assumption that a modern gun design device would have to be the size of the very first one is apparently incorrect.

              No. I’m right and Ritter is wrong — either because he’s saying sensationalist stuff to get attention or he’s genuinely ignorant and/or stupid. Let’s walk through why —

              Yes, today a lower weight gun-type A-bomb using 76–120 lb of U-235 could theoretically be built with modern materials and miniaturized electronics, potentially weighing under 1,000 kg (2,200 lb). But no one who could do it would want to do it, and the Fatah hypersonic missile scenario that Ritter talks up is particularly implausible. That’s because:-

              [1] Gun-type designs are not just inefficient and require large amounts of fissile material — as is true of all A-bombs next to thermonuclear weapons — but they’re also extremely vulnerable to pre-detonation.

              Seriously. Little Boy literally had to be assembled in flight due to safety concerns. The crew assembled key components mid-flight, including inserting the powder charge and arming the firing mechanism about 30 minutes into the mission because of the concern that the gun-type bomb would go off when the aircraft took off from its airfield.

              https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/first-atomic-bomb-had-to-be-assembled-in-flight.html

              [2] So it’s 2025 and maybe you could build gun-type A-bomb with modern materials and miniaturized electronics, potentially weighing under 1,000 kg (2,200 lb).

              But given a gun-style fission bomb’s vulnerability to perturbations, vibrations, and shocks, consider what would be involved in putting one atop a hypersonic missile.
              At speeds above Mach 5, hypersonic missiles are flying through shockwaves, turbulence, and extreme heat-related phenomena. (Remember, the US isn’t even technologically sophisticated enough to have overcome these problems so as to build such a missile yet.)

              Some of the problems —

              Aerodynamic Heating can exceed 3,000–6,000 K, depending on altitude and Mach number.
              Shock waves compress air in front of the missile, converting kinetic energy into heat. This means unequal thermal loads, especially at the nose cone and leading edges.
              Chemical reactions in the air (e.g. dissociation of O₂ and N₂) further complicate heat transfer
              Flow perturbations create shock-boundary layer interactions, which in turn cause separation, recirculation, and reattachment zones, which spike local heat flux and pressure.
              Material science and Structural Challenges e.g. whatever the Russians have done to make Oreshnik not come apart in mid-flight from the ridiculous heat.

              So again it’s 2025 and, as we in the West can’t even build hypersonic missiles, I’ll pretend for the sake of argument that we don’t know what we don’t know and just maybe the Iranians have somehow magically solved the problems of (a) instability of gun-type A-bombs in the context of (b) the severe stresses that hypersonic missiles are subject to.

              BUT there’s no way the Iranians can know that they’ve solved those problems unless they test such a system. Because if they haven’t sufficiently stabilized their gun-type A-bomb warhead on top of a Fatah hypersonic missile delivery system, it’s got a very substantial chance of creating a nuclear explosion on launch.

              So they would have to test it and we know they haven’t.

              QED: when Scott Ritter says ‘A simple gun-type nuclear weapon would not need to be tested because the “Little Boy“ device dropped on Hiroshima by the U.S. on Aug. 6, 1945 was a gun-type device’ he shows that he doesn’t understand that (a) Little Boy was so unstable they assembled it after take-off and (b) a gun-type fission bomb is too unstable to put on a hypersonic missile without testing.

              And indeed here is Ritter’s wiki —
              He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He studied the history of the Soviet Union there and received departmental honors

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Ritter#Early_and_personal_life

              In other words, the ‘former nuclear inspector’ has no technical/scientific background. He was an ex-Marine who managed to parlay himself into a position as a ‘junior military analystr’ during Gulf One, then as a weapons inspector under UNSCOM.

              1. Carolinian

                The point of my comment is not to vouch for Ritter but rather his notion that the Iranians can produce a device much faster than many think. Alastair Crooke has said that MIT’s Theordore Postol has also said this. I’m unsure what podcast he took this from.

                So whether such a device could fly on a hypersonic missile is purely a sidebar. But btw atomic artillery shells that the Army fired and tested in the 50s also used the gun design nuke for the shell skinny enough to fit. Clearly it’s not all about Little Boy.

                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun-type_fission_weapon

              2. ccg

                If it can fit in a shipping container somebody(s) somewhere(s) has been working on it.

        3. chris

          I’m not sure about the need for plutonium or not. The smallest nuclear weapons we’ve ever fielded, like the SADM, used plutonium. I defer to Dr. Postol on this topic but as far as I know, you need the energy density and stability in something like plutonium to make a small nuclear weapon work.

    2. Lefty Godot

      We won’t be purging Congress as long as AIPAC and all of its related NGOs can funnel huge amounts of money into media campaigns aimed at defeating candidates who are America First and against further subsidies to Israel. And also not as long as the media willingly go along with all narrative creation about events in Israel being censored and reshaped in Tel Aviv before being downloaded into American brains. I think we will see the violent breakup of the USA before we see Congress get reformed. With the Supreme Court saying that members of Congress can accept unlimited bribes from both domestic and foreign sources, they have no reason to reform themselves. Neither national party organization even talks about it.

  9. The Rev Kev

    “Iran reaffirms NPT commitment after halting IAEA cooperation”

    Well the IAEA is a busted flush now and Grossi is persona non grata in Iran. But there is a solution. Russia. Russia could act as inspectors in lieu of the IAEA and could issue reports on what Iran is doing – but without the latitude & longitude markers like the IAEA did. But Trump & Netanyahu’s faces would be a study if they had to accept this solution. It would be akin to watching a man giving birth to broken glass.

  10. XXYY

    From the (typically good) Larry Johnson piece:

    I think Trump realizes that he has zero chance of persuading Iran to allow IAEA inspections without Russia’s help. Iran does not trust the US, but it will listen to Putin and Lavrov, who are encouraging Iran not to abandon the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

    Maybe it’s just me, and I know this is a somewhat heretical position, but I’m thinking the Middle East would be far better off if Iran did have nuclear bomb capability. It looks like they are headed that way anyway since the Israeli attacks, and I pretty sure the hardliners in Iran are seeing the futility of trying to cooperate with the US and it’s IAEA puppet.

    My impression that the furious activity of preventing a nuclear Iran is primarily aimed at preserving the status quo where Israel is the only nuclear power in the Middle East. This has allowed Israel to punch way above its weight for many decades. Israel itself is of course terrified of the possibility of having to contend on a level playing field with other regional countries, although that ship may have sailed since the most recent Israeli/Iran war.

  11. The Rev Kev

    “Russia becomes the first country to formally recognize Taliban’s latest rule in Afghanistan’

    Probably a good idea this to bring in Afghanistan from the cold. It’s certainly a bad idea to leave them isolated when they could be hooked up again to major economies like Russia and China which will let them earn the money to take care of their people. Their politicians may be wearing traditional garb right now but give it ten or twenty years and they will be appearing in business suits and carrying brief cases. Other nations may bitch about this happening but those would be the same nations that recognized Al Qaeda running Syria as being a good thing.

    1. Christopher Smith

      Modi wears traditional Indian formal wear. Whatever you may think of Modi, the fact that he feels no need to conform to European formal wear norms is a sign of strength and confidence in his nation and its history. It sends a message that he is Indian and is proud of that fact.

      Whatever direction the Taliban goes with their policies, I do hope that they maintain their traditional garb.

      1. The Rev Kev

        Modi may wear traditional garb but in his case I think that it is camouflage. There is no hiding his ultra Hindu nationalist agenda and using Israeli training and equipment to crack down on dissent in India. I won’t say that he is a fascist – but he is a fascist.

        1. Michaelmas

          I fail to see any logic whatsoever in the assumption that as Modi has an ultra Hindu nationalist agenda the fact that he wears Hindu traditional garb must therefore be camouflage.

        2. LifelongLib

          Modi’s just carrying the “Indigenous People vs Settler Colonialists” trope to its logical conclusion: your ancestors got here after ours did, so you should leave. It doesn’t matter that we’ve both lived here all our lives. The wrongs done to the dead outweigh the needs of the living.

          1. MFB

            Modi may believe in BJP/RSS ideology, but I suspect that this is not tremendously important to him. The main thing is that saffron fascism transfers wealth from the poor to the rich and facilitates the crushing of minority groups for profit (eg forest destruction, environmental degradation) and of course the vast military spending which enabled India to crush Pakistan this year, Islamabad by Christmas and all that.

            And I suspect that, like Wahhabi women who wear crotchless bikinis under their burkas, Modi wears a Wall Street banker’s suit under his Hindu garb.

  12. GramSci

    Re. Suozzi (D, NY-03) v. Mamdani

    Who is Tom Suozzi? Wikipedia:

    «NY-03 is the wealthiest congressional district in New York, and in 2022, was the fourth-wealthiest nationally.»

  14. Christopher Smith

    “Iran reaffirms NPT commitment after halting IAEA cooperation”

    Then they are fools. If they cannot comprehend why Kim is still in charge of North Korea and Gaddafi is dead then they only have themselves to blame. Bluntly, the US and Israel respect strength. Sending a message, making a demonstration, etc. is pure cope.

    1. ilsm

      Observe that neither Japan nor S Korea went to Brussels last week.

      China needs do nothing to subdue the “first island chain”, Kim will do it.

    2. nippersdad

      Who is to say that this is not going to be used as a bargaining chip? It could be that they will use NPT inspections the same way that Russia has suspended inspections under the new START treaty; they will stay in, but won’t allow inspections while they are still in a state of war. I doubt any of the GS countries would have a problem with that. They were, after all, sucker punched by the people demanding inspection regimes.

      They appear to be learning a lot from Lavrov.

  15. Wukchumni

    The Sinatra Doctrine was a Soviet foreign policy under Mikhail Gorbachev for allowing member states of the Warsaw Pact to determine their own domestic affairs. The name humorously alluded to the song “My Way” popularized by Frank Sinatra—the Soviet Union was allowing these states to go their own way. Its implementation was part of Gorbachev’s doctrine of new political thinking.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinatra_Doctrine
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The endgames for the mutual collapses of the USSR and the USA have to be of the Bizarro World variety, our version of the Sinatra Doctrine after the Supremes rolled over for him like a good puppy, is also ‘My Way’ trampling on states rights to determine their own domestic affairs, Hello LA, coming to other blue cities soon!

    1. Kouros

      The Soviets allowed their sattelites their own way almost from the beginning. Romania tried to coopertivize all the land they could (not possible in hill and mountainside) while in Poland about 80% of agricultural was kept and managed under private ownership.

      The main demand the Soviets had was no political liberalization that would have led to drifting away from the Soviet sphere, and into the arms of the Americans, which would have created security problems. There were a couple of countries that while in the Warsaw Treaty only acted as observers to all military exercises, etc.

    2. Polar Socialist

      Gorbachev’s new political thinking was actually Andropov’s new political thinking. He opposed Brezhnev’s open handed financial and material support of Soviet Union’s satellites and allies (for example, Soviet oil exports were paying for Poland’s western debts). Andropov was the poster boy for cutting off the leeches and using Russian money for investing in Russian economy.

      Gorbachev’s mentor Fyodor Kulakov was instrumental in exposing young and rising Mikhail to the ideas (and support) of Andropov. When Yeltsin pulled Russia out of Soviet Union causing the collapse, the idea had been brewing at least for a decade in one form or the other.

  16. Wukchumni

    Flint’s still-unfinished lead pipe replacement serves as cautionary tale to other cities AP
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Come and listen to my story
    ‘Bout a man named Jed
    A poor Michigander
    Barely kept his family fed
    And then one day
    He was at the supermarket paying for some food
    And up through the pipes came a-water tasting like gabagool

    Lead that is, fools gold, had the look of sun tea

    Well the first thing you know
    Ol’ water system is contaminated beyond repair
    Flint kinfolk said “Jed move away from there”
    Said “Anywhere else is the place you outta be”
    So they loaded up the truck
    And they moved to Bloomfield

    Hills that is, Swimming pools, auto stars

    Well now it’s time to say
    Goodbye to Jed and all his kin in Flint
    They would like to thank
    Folks such as Obama for kindly droppin’ in
    You’re all invited back again to this locality
    To have a heapin’ helpin’ of their contaminated hospitality

    Lead leaching out of pipes that is, sit a spell, take your shoes off

    Y’all come back now Barack, y’hear?

  17. AG

    re: German lies&propaganda

    The absurdities aka horrors happen by the day.

    In a TV “discussion” a representative of the German Army stated that the Russians extended army service from 1 to 2 years – which is a lie.

    Now in the government press conference reporter Florian Warweg asked about this obviously false statement. The government is not willing correct the lie. The dishonesty of their “argument” is striking and embarrassing.

    See original:
    https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=135540

    If you look at the last two responses that´s pure Monty Ponthy. This kind of stuff is going on every day. And people point fingers at the WH?

    “(…)
    Excerpt from the minutes of the government press conference of 2 July 2025

    Question Warweg:
    Alfons Mais, Lieutenant General and Inspector of the Army, stated on the last “Maybrit Illner” broadcast “War or Peace” with reference to Russia that they had just increased conscription from one to two years. He then cited this as key evidence that the Russian Federation was seeking a large-scale conventional confrontation with the West and that Germany, in particular, must respond accordingly. Now all available official Russian sources say that there is still only a one-year obligation. I also called the press department of the Russian embassy, ​​and they confirmed this. Therefore, I would be interested to know: On what sources and facts did the Army Inspector make such a convincing statement in front of an audience of millions?

    Müller (BMVg):
    Based on our own assessment of the situation.

    Follow-up question Warweg:
    The Inspector General of the Federal Republic of Germany said in the perfect tense: They’ve just increased conscription from one to two years. – There are no Russian sources that say so. It should have gone through the Duma. That didn’t happen. The Russian embassy said it’s still only one year, and you say the evidence for that is the assessment of the situation. Can you elaborate on that?

    Müller (BMVg):
    I have no information about the basis on which the Army Inspector General made his statement. We have a military assessment of the situation, a situation evaluation based on our own sources. We generally do not disclose these because they concern military security, and therefore I cannot say anything more about it.

    Follow-up question Warweg:

    But that’s apparently a false statement. Do you think you’ll correct it somehow?     That was expressed in front of, I think—I looked it up—three million viewers, and was seen as a key factor in a massive, also detrimental—

    Chairwoman Wefers:
    I think we now understand that you have a different view than the Ministry of Defense.

    Addendum Warweg:
    I have no other opinion! The sources are pretty clear on this. So you can’t say that our———

    Chairwoman Wefers:
    Your sources are different from his sources.

    Müller (BMVg):
    Exactly, I agree. Your source material differs from ours, and we probably won’t be able to agree on that.
    (…)”

    1. jobs

      A debate where one side has to show evidence but the other side doesn’t is by definition rigged.

    2. The Rev Kev

      The Army Inspector General is certainly entitled to his own opinion. But he is not entitled to his own facts.

  18. AG

    re: German vs. Russia

    I posted the machine-translation of a sick op-ed in BERLINER ZEITUNG by renown (😆) historian Andreas Umland in the Forum of Craig Murray´s blog.

    The item is about the relation between Russia´s Putinism and Fascism.
    One of the favourites of German so-called scholars of history of Eastern Europe.

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/forums/topic/ukraine-date-nov-2023/page/47/#post-104624

    Umland´s article was titled:

    Putinism and Fascism: Analogy or Reality? A Deeper Look at Today’s Russia
    How the concept of fascism contributes to understanding Russia’s war against Ukraine. And what “Rashism” is all about.

    The original German text would be here (including the fitting imagery of Mussolini, Himmler and Hitler).
    https://archive.is/BqKNV

  19. AG

    p.s. German everyday insanity

    So I was crossing the sunny city of Munich in the south of Germany.

    The centre as always packed with tourists and countless classes from high schools.
    Their teachers instructing them about what….?

    I was passying by a government building which has the Ukrainian flags presented still (I assume they did remove the Israeli flag by now).
    And just 100 meters away there is Feldherrnhalle which most tourists visit due to the failed right-wing coup of 1923 where Mr. Hilter and Mr. Ludendorff were involved which had a major gathering there.

    And then I pass a class of kids in front of Feldherrnhalle and what do my dear ears catch the teacher telling them that very moment: “Mussolini met him”….

    This kind of thing is happening all the time. I doubt a single person would ever point at the idiocy of the Ukrainian flags hanging just far enough to see them with your own eyes.
    Not to mention the proverbial cliché of the entire set-up of “beware of the Nazis”.

    image location Feldherrnhalle:
    https://www.alamy.com/feldherrnhalle-feldherrenhalle-or-field-marshals-hall-and-theatinerkirche-image60852096.html
    Feldherrnhalle is the building on the left half. The government quater with the Ukrainian flags is right from where the photo has been taken.

    1. GramSci

      Ahh, yes…but Notsies are not Nazis. Nazis hate the Jews, but Notsies love the Israelis.

      1. tera

        There is a thin line between love and hate. Maybe Nazis hated the Jews because they wanted to be them. Now they are one.

  20. Ignacio

    “Why are they doing this?” Balanced Weather

    The author here says that the dismantling of climate science (as well as HC science and science in general) is all about political control. I wholeheartedly agree.

  21. AG

    re: Feldherrnhalle coup

    The coup was 1923 not 1919! But I actually wrote that. So I do not know what it is doing there…
    (I also did correct other typos. So it´s not me.)

  22. GramSci

    I found Remuneration or Reserves (op cit) a long but illuminating read.

    As neither an economist nor an investor, I had been idly thinking that Trump’s desire for low interest rates were at odds with Powell’s need to sell bonds to hedge Trump’s tariffs. The article uses MMT to nicely cut through the kayfabe.

    1. JP

      I’m only half way through and find it rife with misstatements, inaccuracies and omissions. Misstates the primary function of the Fed as controlling interest rates instead of maintaining functional banking. Correctly calls out the money multiplier myth and the QE money printing BS without even stating where fiat money comes from in the first place. Then goes off on the idea that QE caused asset inflation. There is no such thing. Stocks (what he is referring to) fluctuate around PE ratios depending on investor’s view of the economic future. Generally speaking when the gov’t spends PE’s expand, happy days are here again. I won’t go into all that is wrong but will get back to you after reading the second half.

  23. Wukchumni

    There will soon be many suffering from Muscular Nuclear Dystrophy, a reversion to the mean of might makes right.

    Is your donation of just 63 ¢ a day worth it to stop somebody with these warning signs and tells?

    Poor Balance (money or otherwise)

    Pomposity never an impossibility

    Waddling Gait

    Progressive inability to walk away

    Gibbering, jabbering, and/or speaking in tongues
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Please help a few survivors live meaningful lives and give to the MND Foundation-a 501-c3 company!

  24. AG

    So Elon Musk allegedly wants to found a new party, “America”.
    Had he at least used his own name as in “Musk-eteers”.
    THAT I would have respected.
    But then, that would not be a mass based party since who in “America” knows what a “Musketeer” was…

      1. The Infamous Oregon Lawhobbit

        What he’s essentially saying is “Duck, Donald, Duck!”

        No?

  25. Jason Boxman

    From Republicans Are Cutting Medicare. Not Only Medicaid, Medicare.

    Another reminder that Obama was a horrible president, and we continue to enjoy the damage he’s wrought

    The Statutory Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) Act of 2010 requires the Office of Management and Budget to keep scorecards that track the cumulative effects of legislation on the budget deficit, based on estimates from the CBO. The Senate version of the Big Beautiful Bill adds roughly $3.3 trillion in debt over the next ten years. That will have to be made up through automatic sequestration cuts.

    Thanks Obama!

    If there was ever a stupid law, this is it.

    Republicans could have waived the inclusion of the Big Beautiful Bill on the PAYGO scorecard, averting the sequestration cuts, but they did not do so. Future legislation could waive the cuts as well, but that has yet to be discussed.

    Ha, but why would they?

    A doubly stupid law, with a Just Kidding clause if you choose to exercise is.

      1. Kurtismayfield

        We will soon change the phrase “History is written by the victors” to “History is written by the owners”. And the owners loved Obama.

    1. Rory

      Thank you. It never fails to impress – one man on one piano doing what Sousa required a band to do.

  27. Tom Stone

    What can’t go on, won’t go on and I give the USA two years on the outside before it collapses.

    It will take a while before enough people realize what the end of “Due Process” entails, NO One’s life, liberty or property will be safe from the State.

  28. Wukchumni

    …ahhhhh hot dog

    Well-a-well-a I just got into Nathan’s today
    To see how many hot dogs I could put away
    With Joey Chestnut running up the score

    I applied myself, in Coney Island town
    When I finally did sit down
    I find myself in more indigestion than before

    They said we couldn’t do no wrong
    No other love for tube steaks could be so strong
    They served hot dogs from the chafing dish bottom drawer

    I played my part, and forsook my kidneys
    Despite my bulging old blue dungarees
    And I’ll never be able to wear them anymore

    Now my hunger’s gone, I don’t know what to do
    I lost my urge and walked right out the door
    And if I ever again find inspiration, I know one thing for sure
    I’m going to never eat more than four

    I ended up eating seventeen
    A little on the light side these days, it seems
    But they said a bowel movement was well worth waiting for

    I took their word, I took it all
    Beneath the sign that said the score
    Joey ended up eating 70 more
    Ah, oh!

    Hot Dog, by Led Zeppelin

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOLTwt-bqoU&list=RDQOLTwt-bqoU

  29. bertl

    China tells EU it cannot afford Russian loss in Ukraine war, sources say South China Morning Post

    “Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the European Union’s top diplomat on Wednesday that Beijing cannot afford a Russian loss in Ukraine because it fears the United States would then shift its whole focus to Beijing, according to several people familiar with the exchange.

    “The comment, to the EU’s Kaja Kallas, would confirm what many in Brussels believe to be Beijing’s position but jar with China’s public utterances. The foreign minstry regularly says China is “not a party” to the war. Some EU officials involved were surprised by the frankness of Wang’s remarks.”

    Is this just another example of her unfitness for her role as “the European Union’s top diplomat”? I can’t imagine that Wang would ever dream of using her as a diplomatic intermediary to the tea lady waiting outside the door, let alone to convey a message about China’s stance on the Ukraine issue to the world at large (unless it’s to make sure that Trump pulls the CIA, US military advisors and Uncle Tom Cobbley ‘n’all out of the Ukraine and that China feels that, if there is to be armed confict with the US, it would be better if it were to begin sometime over the next 12-18 months).

    If, on the other hand, it’s just the consequence of her stupidity and excruciatingly obvious lack of contact with reality to choose to tell the world that Wang has shared China’s secrets with her, or if it is a malicious attempt to create discord between Russia and China, then it would seem, if the EU wishes to maintain it’s pretence that it is a serious institution, they really do need to “get rid”, as they would say oop nawth (and preferably without a replacement or, if the EU must have one, someone who has had a reasonable degree of professional preparation for a life in diplomacy). Given the EU’s track record over the last decade, it does raise the question: which bad idea will disappear first, the settler colony in the Levant or the colonising EU? The loss of both will be a major benefit to the future of humanity.

  30. AG

    re: NATO vs. civil societies

    As reported by German blog MULTIPOLAR info about a new secret NATO document hints at NATO slowly trying to undermine civil control of various parts of civilian structures and put them effectively under military primacy.

    NATO states implement secret “resilience goals”
    Dutch government admits existence of secret NATO document / Mandatory targets also affect civilian areas from health to “disinformation” / Dutch MP: “huge black hole” in democracy
    July 4, 2025
    https://archive.is/O89Mm

  31. hoki_haya

    tho hardly visible in western spheres, i appreciate much your continued inclusion of issues in the south Caucasus.

    among the many things i can guarantee are unstated and unanalyzed in carnegie’s assessment is that when turkish delegations fly to baku – to, as the piece says, ‘engage behind the scenes’ – they convey to aliyev, “Don’t act rashly, but have no fear – we will exterminate armenia for all intents and purposes, but now is not the time. we will assuage the fool Trump and his lackey Rubio into some ‘business deal’ to open and monitor the Zangezur corridor, and some time after that, the opportunity will reveal itself to claim at the least the entire south of Armenia: be patient.”

    https://carnegieendowment.org/russia-eurasia/politika/2025/06/armenia-turkiye-rapprochement?lang=en&;center=russia-eurasia&ref=oc-media.org

    —

    in the course of looking into all this, the present and potential futures, i delved again into the recent past.

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

    just simply the most barbaric of events, starting in 2004 at a nato-training-gathering. it might be one thing if this was a single act of a truly depraved soul, but not only does this reveal the worst sickness of the human heart, but also abject genocidal policy, irrationality, in his ‘homecoming’ as a hero, the wheels of which were greased by orban’s visit to baku shortly before his extradition, with orban shortly thereafter receiving 9 million dollars direct from AZ govt to Hungarian bank…as exposed subsequently in the 2017 ‘azeri laundromat scheme’ –

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

    and look at the rest of those who have been bribed in various countries! and how little penalty most of them received. the oil of the earth that runs humanity, the grease of dinosaur bones, greases the wheels of multinational human corruption.

    note to self, and to those whom self can communicate with: tho two of his high-level advisors fell on their swords, do everything to get cuellar out of his seat. that man, and others, must be convicted. the azeri lobby as much as the israeli one should be excised from american politics. if elected officials cannot be trusted to have the intelligence to look at issues on their own, what system are you running? it ain’t democracy.

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

Comments are closed.