Links 7/8/2025

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1. Antifa July 8, 2025 at 6:59 am

   Who Will Score?

   (melody borrowed from Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore written and performed by John Prine in 1970)

   (Colonel Douglas MacGregor often says that the average American has no interest in our foreign wars or in what makes our economy tick. Their attention is on a six pack and some TV football at the end of each day. Why follow topics you can’t do anything about? He suggests that only $10 per gallon for gas will wake them up.)

   Well, I swear that I’ve done my best   keepin’ track of the football score
   I love to rag on my quarterback   when I’m at the liquor store
   Then I booze it up eatin’ food that’s fried   yellin’ at the whole backfield
   As my big TV shows me every toss,   every play, and every steal

   And my low morale won’t let you   bring up topics I ignore
   My grasp of things is shrouded   by the six packs I live for
   I’m drinkin’ and I’m chillin’   while the wolf is at the door
   Can’t you be a pal? I’ll bet you   couple bucks on who will score!

   Well, I’d like to heed your warning   ’bout our bad economy
   ‘Bout buyin’ grub and my last pay stub   and the way things oughta be
   And I do admit that my life is shit   and Monday is the day I dread
   With a workin’ car and a good cigar   I’ll be workin’ till I fall down dead

   And my low morale won’t let you   bring up topics I ignore
   My grasp of things is shrouded   by the six packs I live for
   I’m drinkin’ and I’m chillin’   while the wolf is at the door
   Can’t you be a pal? I’ll bet you   couple bucks on who will score!

   Well, I’m never thrilled when a beer gets spilled   while I yell at my TV
   Don’t perturb—I mean don’t disturb—don’t you bother me
   Turnin’ up the sound for the second down   I couldn’t hear what you said
   I’m a hard workin’ man with a beat up van   just drinkin’ on my sofa bed

   And my low morale won’t let you   bring up topics I ignore
   My grasp of things is shrouded   by the six packs I live for
   I’m drinkin’ and I’m chillin’   while the wolf is at the door
   Can’t you be a pal? I’ll bet you   couple bucks on who will score!

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   1. Victor Sciamarelli July 8, 2025 at 8:04 am

      As much as I admire Colonel Douglas MacGregor, I have to disagree with his six pack and TV football line.
      I think a crucial fact is that Americans have never been bombed. Unlike the people of the industrial world, which know first hand what being bombed is really like even when they were on the winning side of the war, Americans have no idea about that experience and can’t imagine what it truly means.
      I know Americans like war movies, and the special effects are great, but I’ve never heard of anybody developing PTSD after watching a war movie.

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      1. GramSci July 8, 2025 at 9:14 am

         And then you have the EU: WWI, WWII, and lining up for more…

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      2. The Rev Kev July 8, 2025 at 9:36 am

         I think that Americans would not be able to handle a defeat very well going by past experience. Look at the former Confederates after the US Civil war that have never reconciled to being on the losing side and this has kept up for generation after generation. Had a mate once who was touring America and was in a bar in the south. When he and his mate started talking to each other they head this guy curse ‘Yankees!’ A group of them got up and headed over to him and when when he asked in his accent what they wanted they looked perplexed. The guy said ‘Where you’all from? When my mate said Australia, the guy chuckled and said ‘Awstraya? Why boy, we were about to kick your a**. How about a drink.’

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      3. Wukchumni July 8, 2025 at 9:43 am

         Hamburg was bombed into a hellscape, and Germans rebuilt it as there was no other option…

         Hamtramck was bombed into economic oblivion, and we never rebuilt the auto industry.

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      4. Antifa July 8, 2025 at 12:22 pm

         This song was based on real working guys, so I went and asked the roofers who are here today about us never being bombed as the chief reason they don’t give a f**k about politics, and especially about foreign wars. Seven American voters sitting in the shade for lunch.

         Nope. They just aren’t intellectual enough to know why or if any of it matters. They don’t know which state Peoria is in, nor how ES&S voting machines work, and damn sure don’t know where Azerbaijan is on a globe. They took a vote and decided it’s in Africa.

         But they know football, baseball, basketball all the way, in every way, all the players and coaches–and they put sweat money on what they know.

         Bombs? Bombs are something that happens to assholes who cross us.

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      5. scott s. July 8, 2025 at 1:59 pm

         Americans have been bombed.

         Reply ↓
         1. ambrit July 8, 2025 at 5:51 pm

            Yes. By an American sponsored and supported Middle Eastern terror network. 9/11’s very own Usama Bin Laden’s Afghan Freedom Fighters(TM).
            Blowback is a Hillary.

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         2. tera July 9, 2025 at 9:25 am

            Yea, in movies, by aliens.

            Reply ↓
2. The Rev Kev July 8, 2025 at 7:15 am

   ‘乔华莘
   @qiaohuanxin
   Jul 7
   India shamelessly forged some 30 documents for the purchase of 120tons of rare earth and tried to re-sell to the western countries. It did not pass the screening of Chinese customs though and the Indian companies involved were revoked of the right to purchase Chinese rare earth again, for life. 江苏经济报，Jiangsu Economic Daily reports.’

   The trouble here is that those Indian companies have not only queered the pitch for every other company in India but probably for every country wanting to buy rare earths from China. Approval now will likely take much longer as the Chinese will take their sweet time investigating every single request. Of course you have to wonder if Modi and his government were behind these Indian companies in order to win favour with western nations.

   Reply ↓
   1. Emma July 8, 2025 at 10:21 am

      When will we hear about US arms manufacturers cannibalizing old cars and washing machines for Chinese rare earth magnets?

      Reply ↓
      1. ambrit July 8, 2025 at 5:55 pm

         “The Brave Little Toaster Obliterates Fordow!”
         The double plus good tale of our inanimate friends sacrificing themselves for Freedom!
         Don’t forget: Homeland Security Is Watching You!
         Be a good Party member and believe the approved six impossible things before breakfast.

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3. Arby July 8, 2025 at 8:00 am

   Tipping point. Churchill flies to France to meet with his French allies at the moment of great crisis as the German Army breakthrough unhinges their joint defense strategy. Churchill turns to General Gamelin and asks: “Ou est la masse de manoeuvre” and Gamelan answers: “Aucune.” The desperate race for Dunkirk begins.

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   1. XXYY July 8, 2025 at 10:17 am

      “Where are your reserves?”

      “None.”

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      1. ambrit July 8, 2025 at 12:35 pm

         Which was not true. The French had some very good armoured units off to the East that could have been rushed to the point of contact, but weren’t. The French bungled the grand tactical aspect of the battle.
         One of the big what ifs in that debacle is what would have happened if Hitler had not stopped the German Army short of wiping out the British Expeditionary force. His front line generals wanted to drive the Brits into the sea immediately. That would have set the Allied recovery back by a year or more. All those trained troops either dead or captured would have severely hampered the recovery of the UK’s army.
         The lesson here is one that today’s generals should study closely. No plan survives contact with the enemy. And sometimes the enemies are in your capitol city.
         Stay safe.

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         1. hk July 8, 2025 at 2:37 pm

            I always thought those reserves were “cuirassier” divisions, armored units belonging to the infantry arm that were not desigmed for mobile action? The French had only 3 “mobile” armored divisions (belonging to the cavalry) and, iirc, they all took the German bait, into Belgium.

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         2. LifelongLib July 8, 2025 at 3:15 pm

            Interesting view of Gamelin at Wikipedia of all places:

            https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Gamelin

            Apparently he was one of the few generals who respected the French government and kept the military in its place. Many others wanted to do some sort of military takeover.

            FWIW based on what I’ve seen on the web most war game reruns of the Battle of France come out with the Allies winning. They were extraordinarily unlucky in real life.

            I’ve also seen it argued that if the entire BEF had been lost in France, Britain might have accepted some sort of peace terms from Hitler. The consequences of this are incalculable.

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            1. ambrit July 8, 2025 at 5:58 pm

               Well, I for one would have welcomed our new Prime Minister Mosley with raised arms.

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         3. djg July 9, 2025 at 4:00 pm

            Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.
            — Mike Tyson

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   2. Darthbobber July 8, 2025 at 12:31 pm

      I’m curious as to whether there are sources for that conversation other than Churchill himself. The “no significant reserves” thing was a recent and major change in Gamelin’s plans, after he had finished analyzing the reports from Poland.

      I find it difficult to believe that a change that big, and the redeployments that went with it, somehow escaped that attention of the British contingent, or for that matter that the French didn’t inform them.

      I do see why Churchill might have found in convenient to pretend that it came as a complete surprise.

      Reply ↓
4. vao July 8, 2025 at 8:11 am

   A core argument of the article Australia’s Latest Temporary Military Deployment To Europe Is Connected To Containing China by Andrew Korybko is that there will be a quid pro quo between European NATO members and Australia:

   “by showing solidarity with NATO in its proxy war on Russia through Ukraine as explained above, Australia hopes that the bloc’s European members will repay the favor if it involves itself in a future AUKUS+ (AUKUS, Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines) proxy war on China.”

   Now, let us see:

   1) Which European country has a presence in Oceania and in the Indian ocean that might possibly be of relevance when helping Australia against China?

   France: New Caledonia, Wallis & Futuna, French Polynesia (Tahiti), Mayotte, Réunion.

   2) Which European country did Australia royally screw just a few years ago when it came to renew Australia’s submarine fleet?

   France.

   French governments have shown a stupendous level of servility to the USA in the past couple of decades and especially now with Macron, but when it comes to the country down under, I suspect that reciprocity will not flourish without the Aussies offering something significantly more valuable than sending an airplane and a hundred men on a temporary assignment to Poland.

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   1. The Rev Kev July 8, 2025 at 8:26 am

      Say, all our rare earths? I have seen the way that government here in Oz go about such things. About twenty years ago before the Iraq invasion, a news announcer said on TV that Oz had agreed to take part in this illegal invasion. She then immediately followed this story with another saying that Oz was entering into free trade negotiations with the US. Several months later another announcer said that Oz had agreed to take part in the occupation of US and this news story was immediately followed by one saying that we had signed a free trade agreement with the US. It was that blatant.

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5. Hank Linderman July 8, 2025 at 8:12 am

   I have been enjoying Scaramucci’s videos lately, hope it’s appropriate to share here:

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a8Mu1Il5wI&ab_channel=AnthonyScaramucci

   Best…H

   Reply ↓
6. hamstak July 8, 2025 at 8:15 am

   I might see a Bibi nod for the NPP as preventing Trump receiving that accolade, but in this world, who knows.

   And why Trump’s obsession with receiving the honor? Obama (unconscionably) received one, so he must as well? Do they cancel each other out? Does he see himself as some sort of anti-Obama? Or would this be the crowning con in the long-standing practical joke that is his post-business career?

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   1. JMH July 8, 2025 at 8:56 am

      Donny’s Nobel would be bigger and better than Obama’s. Why? Obama got the peace prize before making peace. Donny is running around ceasing fire here and there and everywhere.He has been undoing anything of Obama’s that he can lay hands on. Why? Remember Obama mocking him at that dinner in 2011? Donny does not forget . He does not forgive. He prefers immediate revenge but cold, even 15 years cold, will do. And I would not call it a Bibi nod but a world class suck up.

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      1. gk July 8, 2025 at 11:11 am

         A columnist at the SCMP proposes awarding it jointly to Trump and Khameini…..

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      2. The Rev Kev July 8, 2025 at 7:23 pm

         He seems to have forgiven Bibi betraying him at the end of his first Presidential term when he was on the way out.

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   2. JohnA July 8, 2025 at 11:30 am

      The Norwegian Nobel committee were so burned by the Obama award, chances of any other warmongering US presidents getting one are pretty much zero. The committee sheepishly admitted later that there was no mechanism to withdraw the award once it had been given.

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      1. Here We Go Again July 8, 2025 at 2:58 pm

         I have said this so often that I now know it is pointless, but here we go again:

         The Nobel Peace Prize is not intended to reward saints–it is merely a very useful political mechanism that enables Norway (not Sweden) to diplomatically sway others to its position despite its tiny size and basically irrelevance on the world stage For example, under what other circumstances could a country like Norway get America’s attention??

         The way people argue about the merits of the recipients and the unfairness of the selection process makes about as much sense as arguing over the unfairness of poor Pac Man, who is constantly chased by so many ghosts, or the ramifications of analyzing Iago’s actions vis-a-vis Hamlet–meaning that it is outright retarded…

         I can’t wait for the usual kerfuffle in about three months time when this year’s winner is announced

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7. DJG, Reality Czar July 8, 2025 at 8:16 am

   Bob Vylan! Spiked.

   Poor Fraser Myers, desperately and breathlessly trying to pin blame for antisemitism on Bob Vylan 1, whose real name is the wonderful Pascal Robinson-Foster.

   Myers, bloviating away in the first paragraph: “Bob Vylan launched into a chant of ‘Death, death to the IDF’ and an enraptured, ecstasy-pickled crowd joined in. Tragically, the justifiable public outrage at this sickening display of Jew hatred has now given way to unjustifiable calls for censorship and prosecutions.”

   Let me put out this little proposition: The purpose of an army is to deal out death.

   Now a counter-proposition: Many a civilian population has wished death on an army.

   Meaning: Wishing death on an army that is pillaging, raping, and destroying has nothing to do with antisemitism.

   See: Mother Courage, in which she, as a kind of camp follower and war profiteer and opportunist, contributes to the death of all three of her children.

   That’s the “mission statement” of armies.

   And I will go way out on a limb: As for me, I am glad that Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.

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   1. Colonel Smithers July 8, 2025 at 9:37 am

      Thank you, DJG.

      This nonsense is partisan.

      In the past month, Protestants dressed in Orange sashes in Northern Ireland, Scotland and even St James’, central London, have marched and shouted and sung death to Catholics and the Irish. One gave an interview and said the UK needed independence from Catholics and the French.

      Catholics have been attacked in Northern Ireland and Scotland. Places of worship have been vandalised in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

      Not a peep from the MSM and Westminster. Last year, the minister for Northern Ireland and son of Tony Benn went to a march in Irvinestown. The BBC has long promoted these marches as cultural events.

      Leading Orangeman Henry Dunbar is a Labour Party apparatchik.

      No one should be surprised by the Labour government’s tolerance of Orange Order thugs. During his Labour leadership campaign, Starmer got zionist goon and journalist Paul Mason to harass Catholic candidates Rebecca Long-Bailey and Richard Burgon, asking them if they would defer to the Vatican over social policy.

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev July 8, 2025 at 10:12 am

         Thank you, Colonel. That surprises me to hear that Starmer has nailed the Orange standards to his mast and releases his dogs on Catholics. I do wonder if he also has a liking for Tommy Robinson and those British nationalists as they are all in on Israel and Zionism.

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         1. Colonel Smithers July 8, 2025 at 11:24 am

            Thank you, Rev.

            Starmer is married to a zionist and is raising his (legitimate) children in the wife’s faith. His wife’s mother was an English convert and despised and ostracised by her in laws. That appears to have made her stronger in her faith and zionism. Starmer observes and celebrates with his in laws.

            Starmer has that often discrete middle and upper class antipathy towards Catholicism and the Irish, often interchangeable.

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            1. Revenant July 8, 2025 at 2:18 pm

               As Frankie Howerd almost said: Parenthesis! Parenthesis! They’ve all got a parent thesis….

               At least nobody is claiming those nice young Ukrainian men are Starmer’s love-children. At least not that way.

               As for Bob Vylan and Kneecap, the great British public has voted with its money:

               ” ‘Ban Bob Vylan? The people said ‘Nah’. We need artists that speak up.’

               “Rap duo Bob Vylan have climbed to the No. 1 spot on the UK’s Official Hip Hop and R&B Albums Chart with their 2024 record Humble As The Sun, following their controversial Glastonbury set.

               “[…]

               “Elsewhere on the Official Hip Hop and R&B Albums Chart, KNEECAP have also scored a big week following their own much-discussed Glastonbury set – with their debut album Fine Art jumping up to No.5.”

               Full article here:
               http://www.hotpress.com/music/bob-vylan-and-kneecap-charts-23095096?fbclid=PAQ0xDSwLZ_BNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABp19S9lHQtIHcAHFXnnYoFJ1lJGuomVhaTvAhWkwtUe69zeEVdyBzUuHpT9T-_aem_6xE60wSiz9mH9SMG_89KXw

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               1. Colonel Smithers July 8, 2025 at 5:03 pm

                  Thank you.

                  I hope you enjoyed the concerts.

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      2. Peerke July 8, 2025 at 11:31 am

         Mason of course having been educated at a Salesian college in Bolton so brought up a Catholic.

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      3. Revenant July 8, 2025 at 4:31 pm

         In just a few days time it is the 12th of July, the high point of the Orange Order marching calendar in Northern Ireland, when they will march through Catholic housing estates with endless drums and flutes, celebrating the overthrow of a Catholic King and the institutional supremacy of Protestantism (and all the anti-Catholic Acts that followed to exclude Catholics from commercial, professional, academic and political life – and, of course, from the line of succession).

         Imagine what would happen if somebody marched in England to celebrate the Expulsion of the Jews in the same way? Heads would rightly explode. How is this tolerated?

         In contrast, I went to Kneecap’s Plymouth gigs last week and had a truly profound, atavistic experience (not ecstasy-pickled, to disappoint Spike, just cans of cider!) bouncing on the spot for two hours with a few hundred other people in a tiny sweatbox club and getting caught up in the sweaty press and churn of moshpit for the first time of my life and being part of Kneecap’s “one big Fenian family”. I’ve done my share of clubbing, pickled and not, but this was something else.

         I know we’re mostly commenters d’un certain age here but if you haven’t done it yet, get into a mosh pit before it’s too late!

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         1. Colonel Smithers July 8, 2025 at 5:06 pm

            Thank you, R.

            That’s splendid.

            Rose and I hope to join you.

            Warmest regards and good wishes,

            CS

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            1. Revenant July 9, 2025 at 3:52 pm

               I’m not sure when they next play any small venues in the UK. :-(

               They play Wembley Arena in London on 18th September (that’s next-door to the stadium, for foreign viewers; they can’t quite sell out the stadium with 90,000 people but I suspect a Fontaine’s DC, Bob Vylan and Kneecap show would do it…). I don’t believe it has sold out yet. I don’t have a ticket to this but I could be persuaded….

               They play the 3Arena in Dublin on 16th and @17th December. Their festive gigs are always superb, they really get into the spirit for Hallowe’en and Christmas. They have sold out but there are resales on Twickets. I’ve tickets both nights (and one night I might have a spare, depending on a friend’s plans).

               Reply ↓
   2. NN Cassandra July 8, 2025 at 10:46 am

      That’s the really clever part of this chant. Now all the Zionist have to argue it’s bad/antisemitic/whatever if you wish to kill the entity designed to kill, and which is supposed to be accustomed to the idea of others wanting to kill it. Of course if you think you are ubermensch, then it makes perfect sense to be morally outraged that some untermenschen don’t affirm you superiority and don’t want to go down without fight (although I’m not aware of Nazis throwing ridiculous tantrums about USSR propaganda slogans aimed at Wehrmacht).

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   3. Christopher Mann July 8, 2025 at 1:41 pm

      I wish the individual nembers of the Waffen IDF burn like that little girl in the school whose image will never leave my mind. They choose to be baby-killing monsters. F*#! ’em.

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      1. alfred venison July 8, 2025 at 7:55 pm

         Hear, Hear !

         Reply ↓
8. The Rev Kev July 8, 2025 at 8:17 am

   “Trump says US has ‘scheduled Iran talks’ ”

   Very magnanimous of him, even though he says he does not see a point in them as he has destroyed all of Iran’s nuclear program, or so he wants to believe. But these won’t be negotiations but will just be talks. The Iranians will be wary about anything that the US says as they will constantly be looking for another head fake leading to another Israeli attack or maybe an attempt to kill the Iranian negotiating team. I do wonder if Trump will start issuing demands as he sees himself as having “won’ the war through that one single airstrike. So will he demand that Iran stop buying Chinese weapons to defend their skies? That they curtail oil production or maybe sell it to the west on the cheap to bring down oil prices? That they let Grossi back into the country with his Mossad/CIA/MI6 “inspectors” and be given a free hand to inspect every corner of the country? That they pay him for the cost of dropping all that ordinance on Iran as a sort of ‘bullet fee’? With Trump you just never know.

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9. Michaelmas July 8, 2025 at 8:25 am

   Re: ‘The US and Russia: Space War? Julian Macfarlane’

   Note Chuck L did not find a link to the Rand report.

   Me: Not only no links on RAND — and I dug through various categories at RAND’s site for ASAT-related material, in case such a report was there under another name — but nothing anywhere on the internet under that title till July 7 at the Substack and Twitter sites of ‘Julian MacFarlane,’ after which a bunch other folks, including NC, obligingly amplified it across the internet.

   The kind of ASAT activity that the ‘Macfarlane-Forensic News’ hyperventilates about is definitely advancing in orbit. Here’s a sober account from late May, 2025, forex, with plenty of real-world specifics and actual reporting from people with technical knowledge —
   
   Russian and Chinese development of radiofrequency directed energy weapons (RF DEW) for counterspace
   https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4986/1

   As you see, there’s plenty going on. But the Macfarlane piece has none of it, just bogus hype that easily could have been hallucinated by a AI instructed to generate it. Furthermore, I glanced through the ‘Forensic News’ site for a minute and everything there is like that.

   Indeed, Simplicius looks like a model of sober, deeply conscientious reporting and analysis by comparison. I certainly can’t tell you and NC what to link to, but ‘Julian Macfarlane’ and ‘Forensic News’ looks like a completely worthless waste of time, as far as I can see.

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   1. The Rev Kev July 8, 2025 at 8:38 am

      Thanks for that deep dive. Maybe the whole thing arose out of an AI prompt. Julian Macfarlane should have know that in space nobody can hear you go pew-pew.

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   2. Mass Driver July 8, 2025 at 8:59 am

      The “RAND quoted text” looks like AI slop. The part about “hundred satellites to control attack drones without human intervention” is complete nonsense.

      “Russia is launching satellites connected to an autonomous combat control network. Orders come from space and drones aim, adapt and activate independently. Acceptance is impossible. Hacking is canceled. NATO is facing a threat, but a new system of war in which there is no place for us.“

      This looks like something that low-effort-Tom-Clancy-AI would churn out.

      Reply ↓
      1. AG July 8, 2025 at 10:35 am

         Yeah, especially the attempt of humanisation gives it away potentially: “no place for us”.
         And RAND usually formulates in much more verbosely fashion.

         Reply ↓
10. Carla July 8, 2025 at 8:29 am

    For others, who like me, may have wondered, “The Streisand effect is an unintended consequence of attempts to hide, remove, or censor information, where the effort instead increases public awareness of the information.” — Wikipedia

    The phrase was coined after Barbra Striesand tried to prevent a photo of her home being published, unintentionally drawing instant international attention to something that had been obscure.

    I learn new things on NC everyday! Since I avoid social media like the plague, the Streisand effect had completely passed me by.

    Reply ↓
    1. JMH July 8, 2025 at 8:59 am

       Trendy version of methinks he doth protest too much.

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11. Wukchumni July 8, 2025 at 8:33 am

    Gooooooood Mooooooooorning Fiatnam!

    A war of words had broken out over who was most deserving of a Nobel peace prize medal, with all the nomenclature concerning one individual, it wasn’t as if there was anybody else jockeying for what some experts have called…

    ‘a major award’

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    1. JMH July 8, 2025 at 9:02 am

       And “a major award” ought be awarded to Heller’s Major Major Major Major.

       Reply ↓
       1. Wukchumni July 8, 2025 at 10:23 am

          I was thinking of a different version…

          A Christmas Story It’s a Major Award HD Scenes from the 80s 1983

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OItP8-_mjXw

          Reply ↓
       2. flora July 8, 2025 at 11:00 am

          As played by Bob Newhart. / ;) utube, short clip from Catch-22 the movie.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh1pQIXHdj0

          Reply ↓
    2. ilsm July 8, 2025 at 9:44 am

       In addition to Trump, Netanyahu etc I suggest post humous NPP’s to Bomber Harris and Curtis LeMay.

       “Peace through bombing” has a catchy sound.

       Look at all the casualties fire bombing and A bombs saved! \sarc

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       1. ChrisPacific July 8, 2025 at 10:09 pm

          Graveyards are very peaceful places.

          Reply ↓
    3. Young July 8, 2025 at 11:19 am

       Mark Rubio requested the Norwegian Nobel Committee members to make the RIGHT CHOICE if they want to avoid the sanctions that were reserved for Putin only.

       Trump said that, if he wins, he will share the prize with Putin if he agrees to “two weeks” ceasefire in Ukr.

       /sarc

       Reply ↓
12. Henry Moon Pie July 8, 2025 at 8:46 am

    ECB’s climate warnings–

    Human overshoot, a product both of our numbers and the consumption levels of the richest 10%, impacts us in one of two ways. The ECG is worried about food inflation resulting from flooded, drought-ravaged and insect-devastated crops, impacts that afflict most everyone in the EU. The report commissioned by Britain’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and carried out by the University of Exeter showing a 10% hit to global GDP by 2040 is similar. These abstract numbers, spread over years and decades can be easy to shrug off. “They’re exaggerating to take away our freedoms.” “Somebody will figure it out.” “I’ll prep for it.”

    Then there are the very particularized impacts: western North Carolina; the hill country of Texas; the suburbs of LA; and countless places around the world enduring local droughts, fires, windstorms and floods. If you’re hit by one of of these, there is no shrugging it off. Your life is turned completely upside down. You may even have lost loved ones. But if your not in the destruction zone, you can still dismiss it as somebody else’s misfortune. Too bad for them, but your life continues to move along, maybe you even think it’s moving forward.

    Eventually, these broad and particular effects will worsen and spread until only those deepest in denial will be able to shrug off where we’re headed. What were critical political and economic concerns will be shoved aside as the continued existence of our complex civilization is doubted by more and more people. “Where can I find a safe and stable place for my family to live?,” will become the foremost concern of people from Houston to Islamabad. And there will be no good answers

    Dougald Hine of the Dark Mountain Projects has some specific recommendations, not for where you might escape, but instead how to productively use your time and skills as modernity bites the dust. He reminds us that the death of this world, with its shallow materialism and puffed up human hubris, is not the end of THE world, or even humanity, even its a remnant much reduced from its current 8 billion. He outlines his recommendations in this spot cut from a recent Unheard interview.

    Reply ↓
13. Wukchumni July 8, 2025 at 8:48 am

    Viva Las Vegas? Tourists shun Sin City over ‘ridiculous prices’ The Times
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Pavlovegas reminds me of the lure of the big city before the internet, it was where you could go to museums, concert & sporting venues, cultural events and a much wider variety of things to see, do and buy.

    Vegas was similar to the movie biz, they had a stranglehold on gambling, but then it appeared everywhere as long as you had some Native American representation, and then as states saw income in online sports betting, it blew wide open.

    Why fly or drive to sin city to do something you can do from the privacy of your smartphone?

    I think the grandiose rise in prices of damn near everything in Vegas is a result of gambling income declining precipitously.

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisFromGA July 8, 2025 at 9:03 am

       I’ve never set foot in Sin City, and now that prices have gone vertical, I likely never will. I don’t like to gamble (I hate losing $ more than I like winning it), and now that the $9.99 all-you-can-eat buffet and comped drinks have disappeared, it’s dead to me.

       Reply ↓
       1. Wukchumni July 8, 2025 at 9:09 am

          Once upon a time my jalopy had casino cruise control where as I approached a house of chance’s parking lot, the car would take over and glide into an empty spot, pretty handy.

          Reply ↓
          1. The Rev Kev July 8, 2025 at 10:02 am

             Hopefully your jalopy with the casino cruise control had enabled the function where it would only do so if you had a tank full of gas. That way if you lost your shirt, you would still be able to drive home.

             Reply ↓
             1. Wukchumni July 8, 2025 at 10:15 am

                When I was a young adult, Vegas more or less ended at one point headed west and there was a gas station at the end of the line that had a sign offering free aspirin and sympathy…

                Nowadays you might get sued for either offer~

                All over Vegas are billboards by shylocks offering legal representation, i’ve never seen anything quite like it, you’d think the local economy runs on tort verdicts. Last year I spent a night at one of Dartful Codgers in Vegas, and watching TV, most all of the commercials are also for lawyers, yikes!

                Reply ↓
                1. Adam Eran July 8, 2025 at 4:25 pm

                   Lawyers are the new lottery. “Something wrong? Call Anh Phong!” or “In a crash? Call Ash!” billboards are all over the interstates. We’re praying for an injury so we can cash in.

                   Reply ↓
       2. griffen July 8, 2025 at 11:21 am

          Went once on vacation back in summer of 2004, where the dry heat was still damned hot. The Strip was different then but quickly changing as more “posh” hotel digs were starting to open at the Venetian or the Wynn. I’d concur on the gambling approach…my trip then left me $100 or so down but that equaled my max allotted to lose.

          I did have a once former friend and in spring of 2009 he kindly suggested a low dollar commitment to pick the NO Saints to win a super bowl. Timing is everything….in such instances. Good to find some luck when one can, said by the weekend golfer as well!

          Super Bowl trivia. Was the house and Vegas odd makers upset when the Patriots were denied their football destiny of being the only team ever to complete a 19 – 0 season ? Coach Bill and Terrific Tom were upended by the ( sometimes true ) Electric Eli and the surging NY Giants.

          Reply ↓
    2. CanCyn July 8, 2025 at 9:40 am

       In my younger days, Vegas was always seen as a cheap vacation destination from Canada. But I don’t gamble I’d say to people who wondered why I’d never been – but it isn’t just gambling they’d say – cheap food and booze, good weather, shows, side trips to the Grand Canyon or Hoover dam. I just never got over my distaste of the tacky-ness to want to go. I have a friend whose sister lives in Vegas. They rarely hit the strip and unless it is for a show, my friend rarely hits the strip when she visits. Hiking in Red Rocks park is much preferred.

       Reply ↓
       1. Wukchumni July 8, 2025 at 9:51 am

          We have a favorite easy-peasy flatwater kayak trip we do where we put in about 1/2 a mile downstream from Hoover Dam, and the first 3 miles are full of thermal water, you get out out of your kayak and step into a 90 degree creek flowing down, and there’s about a dozen sandbagged hot springs up canyon, all about 30 miles from the Vegas strip as the crow flies…

          If it wasn’t for being over the glide path to the airport, you’d might think you were a few hundred miles away…

          My favorite of these is Boy Scout Canyon, which has a series of fixed ropes to get you to the action…

          https://stavislost.com/hikes/trail/boy-scout-canyon-hot-springs/

          Reply ↓
       2. Wukchumni July 8, 2025 at 10:07 am

          p.s.

          Bought a big coin deal circa 1990 from an old school casino owner that had them in Reno, Vegas and Laughlin, you’d know the name of the casino if I told you~

          At dinner I was trying to make small talk and asked the then 80 year old which of his casinos he liked the most?

          Without batting an eyelash, he told me:

          ‘Oh, that’s easy… Laughlin, as there isn’t anything to do there and we get 50% of our employees wages back over the tables. It’s more like 10-15% back over the tables in Vegas and Reno.’

          I was kind of shocked how frank he was about something I wouldn’t have figured as being that important in the scheme of things.

          Reply ↓
          1. CanCyn July 8, 2025 at 11:55 am

             Talk about selling your soul the company store!!

             Reply ↓
       3. Jesper July 8, 2025 at 11:36 am

          A young former colleague went to Las Vegas for a long weekend hen-party. Alcohol was involved and there was an accident where she broke her arm. Rather than going to US healthcare providers and risk paying a fortune she toughened it out and only went to seek healthcare assistance once she was back in Ireland.
          Some years back I had private health insurance through my employer, the insurance provider made it very clear that I was covered everywhere except the US.
          The cost of healthcare is scaring some, maybe only a few, away from going to the US.

          Reply ↓
          1. CanCyn July 8, 2025 at 12:05 pm

             I don’t know about other countries but I can buy relatively cheap travel insurance from the Canadian Automobile Club. I’m not sure that I’d trust it for a big problem but I treating a broken arm would be covered.
             My in-laws were snowbirds (retired Canadians who spend the winter in FLA) for a few years. They splurged on enough travel insurance to be airlifted home accompanied by a doctor. Few have those resources I know but I think it is kinda crazy to travel with nothing. I Have a friend who got food poisoning in Jamaica and fell and hurt her head in the bathroom. She was out of pocket on her credit card because the hospital didn’t deal with insurance companies of any kind. She was reimbursed in full but that hospital visit (rehydration and X-ray, overnight stay) for her and her son (also food poisoning no head injury) was almost $10K many years ago.

             Reply ↓
             1. Jesper July 8, 2025 at 12:57 pm

                Made me curious so I had to look up to see what the situation is now. It seems that possibly my previous private health insurance provider might just have been trying to sell additional insurance. They do provide cover now but it looks like additional cover needs to be paid for.
                From what I could tell insurance providers for travels worldwide increase the cost/price of the insurance if the cover is to include the US and Canada. Some insurance companies increased the cost significantly while others were more conservative.
                I agree, travel without insurance is crazy. Only the young invulnerable are likely to do it.

                Reply ↓
                1. CanCyn July 8, 2025 at 6:00 pm

                   Re “ I agree, travel without insurance is crazy. Only the young invulnerable are likely to do it”…You’d be surprised. My in-laws met many Canadians spending weeks to months in FLA without insurance! My understanding is that it is quite common.

                   Reply ↓
                   1. wilroncanada July 9, 2025 at 1:10 am

                      CanCyn
                      I travelled extensively across Canada, Toronto to Halifax, to Toronto, to Vancouver without travel insurance-indeed without insurance at all. Of course I was hitchhiking. And it was 1966.

                      Reply ↓
    3. scott s. July 8, 2025 at 2:12 pm

       Still seems to be the “Eighth Island” here, though maybe not as much press as in the past. Lately there’s been a bit of a marketing push by HPD about raiding gambling rooms in Honolulu. No doubt helps the Vegas Biz.

       One of the highest density of Hawaiians in the country, so always the excuse of visiting the ohana.

       Reply ↓
14. Jesper July 8, 2025 at 8:54 am

    About “Across Europe, the financial sector has pushed up house prices. It’s a political timebomb”
    A couple of things, I agree with most with a few addendums/changes/quibbles:
    This bit:

    But not everyone is suffering. At the same time it is robbing normal people of a comfortable and dignified life, the housing crisis is lining the pockets of a small number of individuals and institutions.

    I’d say the the number of individuals lining their pockets isn’t small. The PMC (or rather upper middle classes possibly even many in the middle classes) have benefited by owning their homes and gotten some windfall profits (some unrealised but still). So the number benefiting isn’t small but that number has an outsized influence as they are in leadership and analytical positions that recommended and then decided policies and unsurprisingly they’ve implemented policies benefiting themselves.

    & then we have situations like this in Ireland:
    https://www.thejournal.ie/who-are-landlord-tds-politicians-in-ireland-dail-landlowners-6636105-Mar2025/

    A substantial number of members of the legislative body in Ireland are landlords. Might be a tinfoil-hat theory but is it really unexpected that the landlord-class in Ireland has benefited a lot from government policies in Ireland?

    Maybe isolated example in the UK?
    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crkm15z1r82o

    Labour MP Jas Athwal has sacked the agency which manages his rental flats, after the BBC found black mould and ant infestations in the properties.

    Anyway, governments seem to have two options to deal with the housing crisis:
    1. Government builds and owns housing (the direct way)
    2. Government tries with various indirect ways. This has been tried for many decades but hasn’t worked yet.

    My guess is that as long as the upper middle classes can safely rule to the benefit of themselves they will continue with option 2. Not only does it not work (and that failure is to to their benefit) but it also provides opportunities for cronyism/skimming which they are in a position to take advantage of….

    Reply ↓
    1. tegnost July 8, 2025 at 11:31 am

       I think the housing market can be described in the phrase sometimes attributed to jp morgan that a bankster can pay one half of the country to kill the other half

       Reply ↓
       1. Jeremy Grimm July 8, 2025 at 4:09 pm

          Jay Gould not J.P. Morgan?

          Reply ↓
          1. tegnost July 9, 2025 at 12:50 am

             indeed, thanks

             Reply ↓
    2. eg July 8, 2025 at 11:01 pm

       In the Anglosphere we are ruled by and for rentiers, so option 1 will never be allowed.

       Reply ↓
15. The Rev Kev July 8, 2025 at 9:01 am

    ‘Djole 🇷🇸
    @onlydjole
    🇺🇦‼️Urgent relocation from Kiev: The government of Ukraine is looking for new accommodation in the west of the country‼️
    July 6, 2025
    The well-known war reporter Yuriy Podolyaka published information on his Telegram channel with the claim that the Ukrainian government is preparing to move its institutions to the western part of the country. 👇’

    You know what? I have just the place in mind for Zelenski and his cohort to go set up shop. It’s called Shehyni and it has one great feature too it which he will appreciate-

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shehyni_(border_checkpoint)

    Reply ↓
    1. XXYY July 8, 2025 at 10:26 am

       I was thinking Miami. Nice weather, plenty of golf, crossroads for cocaine smuggling, and out of the range of Russian missiles.

       Reply ↓
       1. The Rev Kev July 8, 2025 at 10:35 am

          Hey, he could buy a mansion next door to Juan Greedo as he is in Miami as well-

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Guaid%C3%B3#Exile

          Would be handy for Zelensky as he could go next door to borrow a cup of “sugar.”

          Reply ↓
          1. Wukchumni July 8, 2025 at 10:39 am

             I can see both of them starring in ‘Miami ICE’ where they bust illegal smuggling operations~

             …which one gets to be Sonny Crockett?

             Reply ↓
       2. tegnost July 8, 2025 at 11:32 am

          re out of range…
          until they place them in cuba

          Reply ↓
          1. doug July 8, 2025 at 3:51 pm

             submarines?

             Reply ↓
             1. Glen July 8, 2025 at 4:03 pm

                From 2023, combined upped deployments with hypersonic missiles, and things get dicey:

                Russian Submarines off U.S. East Coast Spark Cold War Comparisons
                https://www.newsweek.com/russian-submarines-us-east-coast-cold-war-comparisons-1786907

                Reply ↓
16. AG July 8, 2025 at 9:39 am

    re: space wars

    STRATDELA NEWSLETTER Special #15
    Some thoughts on private companies and space militarisation

    by Dmitry Stefanovich
    July 7th
    https://1dkv.substack.com/p/stratdela-special-15

    Reply ↓
17. Irritable July 8, 2025 at 9:42 am

    > College grad unemployment surges as employers replace new hires with AI

    Huge irony alert here…

    “What do you mean, no job for me because of AI? I got straight A’s in all four years of college, only using ChatGPT 99% of the time! Doesn’t doing 1% of ‘my work’ count for something???”

    Reply ↓
    1. John Wright July 8, 2025 at 11:56 am

       It will be interesting to see if AI ends up validating the late David Graeber’s position that 20 to 50% of jobs are “bullshit jobs”.

       Note that past interviewed workers do not see THEIR jobs as bullshit category, but AI might have a less self interested view.

       AI may have internalized that “Graeber is correct”

       Reply ↓
18. AG July 8, 2025 at 9:45 am

    re: nuclear war

    I was sifting through Pavel Podvig´s X not finding anything new on space wars – but found this interesting statement, considering that he is a UN guy after all:

    Why do all nuclear war scenarios start with someone firing missiles at the US and the US president having to make that decision in so many minutes? I think it’s totally unrealistic – the US will strike first if it ever comes to it.

    Reply ↓
    1. ilsm July 8, 2025 at 10:41 am

       A troubling reason for Satr Wars and now Golden Dome is: a decent defense encourages a first strike, the defenses defeating most of the hopefully few weapons left after the surprise.

       However, a sane world hope is not strategy!

       Would we have a sane world?

       Reply ↓
       1. AG July 8, 2025 at 11:22 am

          Frankly the best hope, I have, is some channels between RU and Pentagon making clear US vulnerability.
          These people obviously understand exclusively force. But if that RU force is understood to be supreme to their own, that means safety even though in the most insane way. However I prefer that to US´s nuclear primacy think of the Georgetown University kind.

          p.s. I can´t imagine anything worse than being at the mercy of folks who write things like NSC-68 and even after 75 years still consider that to be an adequate answer to anything.

          Reply ↓
19. AG July 8, 2025 at 9:49 am

    re: Israel and Nazism

    This “beauty” from antiwar – I wouldn´t find that on German sites for sure.
    So by now it´s not “concentration camp Erhard” but “concentration camp Smotrich”
    (“We do the concentrating and the Poles do the camping”)

    1:15 min. (Lubitsch 1942)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I58CAdlItho

    Israeli Defense Minister Orders Plan To Build Concentration Camp for Gaza’s Civilian Population
    Israel Katz says the so-called ‘humanitarian city’ will be built on the ruins of Rafah
    https://news.antiwar.com/2025/07/07/israeli-defense-minister-orders-plan-to-build-concentration-camp-for-gazas-civilian-population/

    Reply ↓
20. The Rev Kev July 8, 2025 at 9:49 am

    “NATO chief says China and Russia could launch simultaneous attacks in chilling warning over all-out war”

    Yeah, Rutte says a lot of crap and the guy is only a lightweight. Sooner or later he, as head of NATO, is going to have to sit down with the Russians and hash out some sort of working arrangement between the two when this war is over. And that would almost certainly mean Lavrov. So what did Rutte say about Lavrov a coupla days ago?

    ‘Lavrov is the Foreign Minister of Russia, I think, since the birth of Jesus Christ. And since then, nothing, anything useful came out of his mouth. So let’s not pay too much attention to Mr. Lavrov.’

    I note that when Rutte goes to countries outside of NATO, that they do not treat him like a rock star so perhaps he is a tad jealous here.

    Reply ↓
    1. Windall July 8, 2025 at 12:30 pm

       I don’t think anyone really takes Rutte seriously.

       He was kept in power because he kept the PMC happy, but I’ve never heard someone being enthusiastic about the VVD or Rutte because he was such a stellar human being.

       In short Rutte is pretty much a sock puppet.

       Reply ↓
21. t July 8, 2025 at 9:51 am

    ….experts who spoke to WIRED say the agency accurately predicted the state’s weekend flood risk

    That’s not the question, tho, so why is it the subhed? The issue appears to be that coordinated messaging did not happen. One of the quotes was about how hard it is to get public officials who don’t know meteorology to understand.

    The local officials who should have been passing it along were reach out to for comment.

    And if they predicted it could get as bad as X, and it didn’t get that bad, they would still have been doing their job.

    Seems like a combination of overworked NOAA staff, no one at NOAA with the specific job of yelling at city managers and emergency management, and perhaps general Republican distain for over-funded money-laundering egg-heads who promote the climate-change hoax.

    Leaving aside the weather manipulation and Jewish Space Lasers, of course.

    Reply ↓
    1. Yves Smith Post authorJuly 8, 2025 at 12:04 pm

       As I have said, this is false. There were warning of the danger the entire day before.

       https://www.npr.org/2025/07/05/nx-s1-5457759/texas-floods-timeline

       People in the area reported they got multiple high level flash flood warnings (as in from the Feds) BEFORE the alerts made by the counties. These urgent alerts by phone/text started after midnight. Kerr County did not put out an alert until 4 AM. The surge looks to have hit ~ 5 AM

       These alerts were likely ignored because middle of the night, not due to the failure to make them.

       Reply ↓
    2. JP July 8, 2025 at 1:43 pm

       My relatives in Texas knew of heavy rain and possible flooding for days before the event. But it begs the question, if you are right on a river confluence prone to flooding and it is raining cats and dogs, would you maybe think of higher ground.

       Reply ↓
    3. Duke of Prunes July 8, 2025 at 6:02 pm

       And this wasn’t even a “100 year” flood event. This area has had major flooding, often with fatalities every 7-15 years for over 100 years. They call it “flash flood alley” for a very good reason. It’s heart breaking.

       Reply ↓
22. AG July 8, 2025 at 10:23 am

    re: UK vs. Palestine Action

    CRAIG MURRAY´s latest blog entry

    “We Accept Of Course That It Is Draconian: And Deliberately so”
    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2025/07/we-accept-of-course-that-it-is-draconian-and-deliberately-so/

    “On Friday 4 July I headed back to the Royal Courts of Justice for the hearing brought by Huda Ammori, a co-founder of Palestine Action, on an application for relief from the proscription order against Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.

    Huda had applied for judicial review of the legality of this order. There is to be a hearing on whether a judicial review will be granted in the week beginning 21 July. What Friday’s hearing was about, was whether the proscription should be suspended until that hearing on whether permission will be given for judicial review.

    This is called interim relief.

    The legal precedents on interim relief are that this question should depend on three points.”

    Reply ↓
    1. Revenant July 8, 2025 at 4:05 pm

       Craig Murray’s article is extremely concerning. If you read it in full, it suggests that the judicial review of the proscription and then the appeal from it were charades, with two complex written judgements each being handed down in a couple of hours (and, in the case of the appeal, after an extempore appeal without advance exchange of skeleton arguments) as if they were pre-written.

       If Mr Murray’s take is correct, it would suggest that the security state is reaching the stage in “1984” where it no longer cares whether you disbelieve it, merely that you submit to it and suffer what psychic injury you may.

       On a side note, both Gareth Pierce and Blinne Ní Grálaigh are also part of the legal team for Kneecap on Mo Chara’s terrorism charge. I don’t know Blinne but we have an alma mater in common, which makes me proud.

       More widely, it is hard to exclude, from the behaviour of HMG toward Kneecap, Bob Vylan, Palestinian Action and Israel’s crimes of aggression on Iran, that Israel’s lawless campaign of state terror is now a global campaign of subversion, a Zionist Internationale, an exported State of Exception, that threatens our sovereignty, our democracy and our rule of law.

       What is not clear to me is whether this is an unintended “blowback” of supporting Zionism or, in fact, like Gladio and the Red Brigades in the Years of Lead and the Strategy of Tension, the Zionists are useful idiots for the deep state to accelerate a fascist eschatology in the West.

       Historically Putin refused to address the US’s intent to destroy Russia until the Azov tanks were on his lawn. With Israel’s State of Exception and its meddling (with Turkey) against Russian interests in Syria and now Azerbaijan, Russia may soon need to take a view on Tel Aviv…..

       Reply ↓
       1. Colonel Smithers July 8, 2025 at 5:15 pm

          Thank you, R.

          Further to my comments today and last week, there is disquiet building about Israeli influence over the government, Metreweli last month and Palestine this month.

          Opposition is divided into two camps, liberals (for want of a better word) and souverainistes, my French word for the officials who make the distinction between the national interest and Israel’s interest.

          You’re right to highlight the local element seeking to undermine safeguards and using any excuse.

          Reply ↓
       2. AG July 8, 2025 at 9:28 pm

          Judged from across the Channel the danger lies especially in that the issue is not even being addressed in Germany. That is: The potentially grander scheme of things (your penultimate paragraph). As if a status quo of “sanity” which had been fought over roughly since 1918 and somehow settled upon is now being dismantled in record time. And almost nobody realizes this. We are about to loose everything “we” claimed to be our very own humanistic achievements.

          They like to quote that notion of “sleepwalking” into war (WWI that was originally). But I really see that as a ruse. The real sleepwalking is taking place into letting destroy the rule of law, accountability of government, freedom of speech, international law at large.

          You don´t need a world war to wreck a country or an entire continent.

          Scholars are constantly babbling about lessons of history really assuming those lessons will come in identical shape and form as they already struck us in the past.
          How blind, how incompetent can they be.

          Reply ↓
23. AG July 8, 2025 at 10:30 am

    re: Gaza genocide

    Sorry if duplicate

    Francesca Albanese´s June 16th report about the economy of the genocide

    From economy of occupation to economy of genocide – Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (Advance edited version)

    https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ahrc5923-economy-occupation-economy-genocide-report-special-rapporteur

    Reply ↓
24. Balan Aroxdale July 8, 2025 at 10:41 am

    Netanyahu the Cancer is in Washington Again. This time, Though, he’s Showing up Truly Empty-Handed Alon Mizrahi. Wellie, Mizrahi underestimated Netanyahu: Netanyahu surprises Trump with Nobel nomination, as president hails their great success together Times of Israel

    My guess is that Netenyahu is going to Washington to get “approval” for, or to order, an escalation against Iran, or more likely an Iranian proxy such as Yemen or Hezbollah in Lebanon. Netenyahu is now the war shark who must keep swimming or else he will die. The genocide in Gaza remains a given that needs to talks or meetings with the allied quislings.

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni July 8, 2025 at 11:04 am

       It’s worse than you know…

       The quislings in Congress have set up ‘Inter-Netanyahu’ servers which deliver up daily devotions online, giving them no reason to follow anybody else.

       Reply ↓
       1. ambrit July 8, 2025 at 12:56 pm

          Wait, wait. this is perfect. Netanyahoo is The Golden Calf! We all remember what the Tetragrammaton God did in response to the first time the Pastoralist Ubermenschen worshipped that. Fire from on high does sound very concerning.

          Reply ↓
    2. raspberry jam July 8, 2025 at 2:32 pm

       I don’t think Israel can resume escalation against Iran directly until after the JDAMs that were recently sent have been kitted out at the soonest. I think he is discussing the ongoing Gaza ‘ceasefire’ and how to frame it as a ‘peace plan/Palenstinan state’ (NB my usage of scare quotes here) as part of the ongoing charade of managing Israel’s place in the ongoing wars of the West Asia theatre. He needs to buy some time while remaining a player since Turkiye/Azeri have stepped up. The Twitter links above from the Jewish Power members – this is the faction that is keeping Netanyahu in power and out of jail. Netanyahu has to convince them that any ‘concessions’ to Palestinians like dialing back the slaughter or a fake peace deal have been ordered from above by Trump. They are, in turn, ramping up their crazy to their own hardliners to keep the pressure on.

       Reply ↓
25. The Rev Kev July 8, 2025 at 10:52 am

    “The Force-Feeding of AI on an Unwilling Public”

    And here is the heart of this excellent post-

    ‘Before proceeding let me ask a simple question: Has there ever been a major innovation that helped society, but only 8% of the public would pay for it?
    That’s never happened before in human history. Everybody wanted electricity in their homes. Everybody wanted a radio. Everybody wanted a phone. Everybody wanted a refrigerator. Everybody wanted a TV set. Everybody wanted the Internet.
    They wanted it. They paid for it. They enjoyed it.
    AI isn’t like that. People distrust it or even hate it—and more so with each passing month. So the purveyors must bundle it into current offerings, and force usage that way.’

    Reply ↓
    1. Dr. John Carpenter July 8, 2025 at 12:13 pm

       “You’ll own nothing and you’ll like it” is being bundled with “you’ll use AI and you’ll like it.”

       Reply ↓
       1. ambrit July 8, 2025 at 1:00 pm

          “All of your thoughts belong to us.”

          Reply ↓
    2. Enter Laughing July 8, 2025 at 1:51 pm

       EVs are the closest example I can think of.

       Reply ↓
    3. JP July 8, 2025 at 1:53 pm

       We held a protest in my small town on Saturday, the four of us. It was largely positive for a heavy Trump town. Lots of thumbs up and honks of support from car traffic and a few scowls.

       The foot traffic was mostly young christian messengers who had no idea who Bondi, Noem or the odious Steven Miller are but they all seemed to be in agreement that AI is the work of fallen angels.

       Reply ↓
26. Jonathan Holland Becnel July 8, 2025 at 12:03 pm

    I remember watching a video years ago where someone, I think the chairman of the fed possibly another government official, was talking to, I think it was a group of congressman, in either the late 80s or early 90s where he says something to the effect of,

    “The precarity of the American worker is the driver of economic growth in the United States.”

    I distinctly remember watching this video years ago because I was shocked at the flagrant contempt the guy had for the average person. He was, I think, some freedman-esque jackass from the late 80s, so par for the course. I have been unable to locate the video online, possibly because I am misremembering details of the video or it was memory holed.

    Reply ↓
    1. Neutrino July 8, 2025 at 12:23 pm

       That was yet another gaffe that got ignored by the press. Sometimes the truth gets blurted out by a gov person, and sometimes by an investment banker. One example of the latter was that Goldman advice to the pharma people: paraphrasing – curing illnesses isn’t a sustainable business model.

       Others circulate briefly on Wall Street about United Health Care during earnings seasons, without notice of the utter reprehensibility for the inhumane treatment of patients, doctors, nurses and anyone else within their bomb radius. /:

       Reply ↓
27. mahna July 8, 2025 at 12:05 pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/07/07/russian-potato-shortage-shows-putins-economy-is-on-brink/
    The Russian potato shortage that shows Putin’s economy is on the brink

    Reply ↓
    1. Bugs July 8, 2025 at 2:58 pm

       Ya really can’t make it up, can ya. But they keep doing it.

       Reply ↓
28. Jason Boxman July 8, 2025 at 12:23 pm

    Poisoned water and scarred hills: The price of the rare earth metals the world buys from China

    The NY Times had a similar story a few days ago; coordinated media to convince western audiences that it’s better to let China deal with this mess rather than do it here?

    Reply ↓
    1. Bugs July 8, 2025 at 3:00 pm

       Another in the long running series of “China (does something worthwhile) but at what cost?”

       Reply ↓
29. Jason Boxman July 8, 2025 at 12:29 pm

    The Democrat death wish

    How Insularity Defined the Last Stages of Biden’s Career

    The effort by Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s inner circle to limit access to him helps explain why it took him more than three weeks to drop his re-election bid after his disastrous debate performance.

    Are you kidding? He was clearly losing his mind years before that. The entire Democrat Establishment is complicit in this.

    Reply ↓
    1. Jason Boxman July 8, 2025 at 12:43 pm

       This is lit:

       My brief conversation with Mr. Biden prompted a cascade of concern among his top aides. One screamed at me for calling the former president directly. Others texted furiously, trying to figure out how I had obtained Mr. Biden’s phone number.

       Mr. Biden had seemed open to continuing the conversation, but my subsequent calls went straight to voice mail. His automated greeting simply said, “Joe.”

       Two days later, that greeting was replaced by a message from Verizon Wireless: “The number you dialed has been changed, disconnected or is no longer in service.”

       (bold mine)

       Imagine that, a former president that is completely beyond reach, with aides freaking out that he might somehow be accessible without a minder. These people are surely protecting themselves as much as Biden.

       They all ought to be in jail for coving up a presidency unfit to continue.

       Reply ↓
       1. JP July 8, 2025 at 2:03 pm

          You are, of course, talking about Biden but you could just as well be referring to Regan or Wilson. Bush junior’s elevator never did access the top floors.

          Presidents don’t really run the government. Their appointees do. Presidents grab the headlines and hopefully the blame.

          Reply ↓
30. Mikel July 8, 2025 at 12:56 pm

    At the Rio Summit, signs of BRICS in retreat – just when we need serious anti-imperial muscle – CADTM

    A must read summary of the current situation in the world.
    Even if some view particular social and political situations discussed as negatives as positives and vice versa, it’s all laid out.

    Reply ↓
31. Jason Boxman July 8, 2025 at 12:58 pm

    From The Force-Feeding of AI on an Unwilling Public

    And that’s why Google does something similar to Microsoft. They add AI to search results—you don’t get to choose. It’s force-feeding all over again.

    Google also forces Gemini on you if you have a Workspace subscription for their email, Apps, and other business products.

    Every time I open up a new Google Sheet, I get a magic Gemini prompt, Google is here to help me!

    So I finally decided okay, whatever, let’s do this, and typed into the box that the active cell I want to sum the entire column or whatever. It gives up immediately and explains I can only describe what kind of sheet I want or something. You can’t even get it to take an active cell and inject some Google Sheet formula for you.

    What a joke.

    The stuff is garbage.

    And we all know how useless AI Search is, to say nothing of destroying revenue from origin sites, so eventually the Internet will be bereft of any legitimate content at all except LLM output.

    This year is so lit.

    Reply ↓
32. Ken Murphy July 8, 2025 at 1:06 pm

    With all of the talk about rare earth elements (REEs), I would just like to note that there are REEs on the Moon. If there’s any example of “concentration” of a resource on the Moon, the focus of the KREEP Terrane in Oceanus Procellarum could be cited. Also rich in Thorium, FWIW.
    Sourcing REEs from the Moon involves no polluted rivers, no poisoned soil, no displaced bunnies and squirrels. Delivery to Earth can be done via a variety of methods, from railguns to AlOX motors. Drop them in the middle of the desert for recovery.
    I know there are many here who are against making the effort to tap the Moon for energy and resources, condemning humanity to being trapped on this rock (lovely as it is) until we follow all the other creatures to have become extinct in Earth’s storybook. Is the Moon the “solution” to all of humanity’s ills? No. But it does have resources and it does have energy. And what we learn on the Moon will help us enormously as we work our way out into the rest of the Solar system.
    Energy and resources have always been the driver for humans to venture over the next hill, to peek beyond the horizon. Both exist in mind-boggling abundance right over our heads. We can continue to choose to forego our ability to tap them, but at our own peril.

    Reply ↓
    1. neutriono23 July 8, 2025 at 6:42 pm

       It’s not that hard to process REEs on earth. The biggest difficulty I know of is that they are usually associated with nasty stuff like Th or U that you can’t just dump on the ground. I believe there is a mine they are trying to open on the CA/NV border. They will extract the REEs, vitrify the remains and put them back where they came from.

       Reply ↓
       1. Ken Murphy July 9, 2025 at 2:44 pm

          So…a vote for continuing to trash our ecosphere.
          Okay.

          Reply ↓
33. Wukchumni July 8, 2025 at 1:29 pm

    ICE was waiting for us, girl
    It ran one step ahead
    As we followed in the distance

    Between the parted paterfamilias and those oppressed
    In hot fevered irony
    Like a striped shirt & pair of pants

    MacArthur Park is swarming in the dark
    All the Federal men in green ICE uniforms flowing down
    Someone left their green card out in the rain
    I don’t think that I can take it
    ‘Cause it took so long to obtain it
    And I’ll never have that chance again
    Oh, no!

    I recall the yellow cotton dress
    Foaming like a wave
    On the ground around your knees

    The picnics on the benches for free
    And the old men playing checkers
    By the trees

    MacArthur Park is swarming in the dark
    All the Federal men in green ICE uniforms flowing down
    Someone left their green card out in the rain
    I don’t think that I can take it
    ‘Cause it took so long to obtain it
    And I’ll never have that chance again
    Oh, no!

    There will be another song for me
    For I will sing it
    There will be another American dream, you’ll see
    Someone will bring it
    I will drink in the opportunity while it is warm
    And never let you catch me
    Looking at the sun
    And after all the loves of my life
    After all the loves of my life
    America will still be the one

    MacArthur Park is swarming in the dark
    All the Federal men in green ICE uniforms flowing down
    Someone left their green card out in the rain
    I don’t think that I can take it
    ‘Cause it took so long to obtain it
    And I’ll never have that chance again
    Oh, no!
    Oh, no!

    MacArthur Park, performed by Richard Harris

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRwYQgk05DY&list=RDtRwYQgk05DY

    Reply ↓
34. Glen July 8, 2025 at 3:48 pm

    Re: What is a micro-retirement? Inside the latest Gen Z trend

    Just anecdotal so take it for what it’s worth. While working at a large aviation company in the PNW, we had lots of our better, younger engineers go to work for Amazon. They always went for the big bucks, but also with an understanding that working for Amazon was going to be a two to five year gig, and then you get out. Why? Pretty much because you get completely overworked and burned out. At the time, Amazon tech/prof employees (we knew lots of then) were considered “old timers” if they had been with the company for just five years (even though by then, Amazon had been around for over 15 years).

    I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this trend of planning on working for some companies and getting out has become more common. Engineers have always advanced their salaries by job hopping to some degree, and the latest and greatest MBA based management trends of tracking and grading everything have certainly upped the stress levels at work considerably (not sure it seriously improved productivity, and it seemed to kill innovation, but that could just be a sample from where I worked).

    Depending on what the company does, and what the person does having employees cycle in and out may not be a big deal, but for the company I worked for having some of your best engineers leave right as they get into the prime part of their career was very, very not good.

    Reply ↓
35. mrsyk July 8, 2025 at 4:53 pm

    Imposter used AI to pose as Marco Rubio and contact foreign ministers, BBC. Heh heh heh. “Wasn’t me”.
    The AI voice generator seems like it’s going to be a problem.

    Reply ↓
36. Jason Boxman July 8, 2025 at 5:01 pm

    As many here well know, the FDA isn’t an agency that so often distinguishes itself, and FDA food has a habit of ignoring Congressional directives. In any case,

    Inside the Collapse of the F.D.A. (NY Times Mag via archive.ph, 30 minute read)

    How the new health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is dismantling the agency.

    The regulatory failures of FDA Drug couldn’t fit in a comment, of course, but that doesn’t mean Kennedy can’t make it worse.

    Reply ↓
37. Jeremy Grimm July 8, 2025 at 5:11 pm

    In his latest missive James Hansen offered several observations about the Earth’s climate that, at least to me, trump the ongoing Trump madness and our current fixations with the many wars ongoing:

    http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2025/Formula.08July2025.pdf
    A Formula to Keep the Science Flame Burning
    James Hansen 08 July 2025

    “Our research, based on paleoclimate, climate modeling, and modern observations,
    has produced results that challenge the climate dogma promulgated by the United Nations. The UN climate assessment (by IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and the UN policy approach (defined by the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement) are each so seriously flawed that they pose a threat to the future of young people and future generations.”

    “Recent paleoclimate studies, especially improved data on global temperature during the last ice age and on longer time scales,4 show with more than 99 percent confidence that climate sensitivity is greater than IPCC’s best estimate.”

    “Thus, all three methods of analysis – paleoclimate, satellite observations, and climate modeling – indicate a climate sensitivity substantially higher than IPCC’s best estimate of 3 degrees Celsius;
    our best estimate is 4.5 degrees Celsius.”

    Short of their escalation to a nuclear conflict, the many wars the u.s. is backing and pushing for — seem like noise compared with the impacts of the increases in the average global temperature. The IPCC estimate of 3 degrees Celsius should be sufficient to frighten all but the most recalcitrant, but the Hansen team’s best estimate of 4.5 degrees Celsius as the average global temperature for the future is truly frightening. Just from the view from the u.s. the concerns about atmospheric rivers, hail storms, high winds, hurricanes, and periods of unusually cold or hot weather, extended periods and the prospects for long term droughts — especially droughts in the Southwest are quite enough at 1.5 degrees Celsius, and unimaginable at 3 or 4.5 degrees Celsius. For other parts of the world the concerns are even more unimaginable, even unthinkable. As we entertain ourselves with Trump and foreign wars, they seem a much lesser concern, to me, than our future climate and its implications.

    Reply ↓
    1. ArvidMartensen July 8, 2025 at 9:16 pm

       In Australia the seas around Adelaide now have toxic blooms that are killing all the marine critters, including dolphins, sea urchins, you name it.
       Also, deep sea critters are unexpectedly washing up on our shores. Trying to escape the heat?
       https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/weather/sky-news-weather-breaks-down-south-australias-marine-crisis-as-harmful-algal-bloom-changes-course-and-moves-towards-adelaide-beaches/news-story/486d1a51e2f7da59025a1e9a6e27374e

       Better get our fish’n’chips now, because soon there won’t be much around. But of course Musk and Thiel and Zucks will still be able to afford the $1,000,000/lb lobsters and the $500,000/lb salmon for as long as it lasts, so that’s a positive.

       Reply ↓
38. Alice X July 8, 2025 at 5:36 pm

    Any word from Amfortas? NC?

    Be safe, please!

    Reply ↓
    1. Stephanie July 8, 2025 at 5:51 pm

       Looks as if he gave an update in the Zuckerberg thread: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/07/meta-mark-zuckerberg-ai-bidding-war.html#comment-4240366

       Reply ↓
       1. CanCyn July 8, 2025 at 6:07 pm

          Thanks Stephanie!

          Reply ↓
       2. Alice X July 8, 2025 at 6:16 pm

          Oh wow, thanks so much! I am grateful. Still aghast at the loss to the folks thereabouts.

          Reply ↓
    2. amfortas July 8, 2025 at 6:37 pm

       thank y’all.
       (Amfortas blushes)
       it was a wild ride…but mostly just an annoyance…a really, really big annoyance…for me.
       now its fire ants coming forth and for the first time, there are the big house mosquitos on my place(Culex, spp.). we’ve had the little ankle biter asian tigers here forever…but never these guys.
       the ankle biters come out in late afternoon, and go back to wherever they hide around dark(crepuscular)…culex comes out at dark, and stays up late.(i remember them fondly from houston, louisiana, and when we lived in town.. made sure not to import them out here…musta got blown in)

       Reply ↓
       1. Alice X July 8, 2025 at 7:57 pm

          I’m sad for those, and those whose kin did not survive, yet many unaccounted for, so my sadness may grow.

          Still, I’m glad for you! stay safe and keep reporting.

          Reply ↓
       2. MaryLand July 8, 2025 at 8:17 pm

          So glad you made it. And yes we are so terribly sad for the others.

          Reply ↓
       3. ambrit July 8, 2025 at 8:27 pm

          Since you tend to run around the old homestead nekkid and all, wouldn’t that be, hat tip to Lambert, “blushes immodestly?”
          Still, glad to hear from you. Do watch out for those little red buggers. I have had many a bad experience standing on a fire ant pile by mistake. No one not into extreme masochism does so on purpose.
          You now have some of the big black house mosquitos? Time to break out the citronella. Over here, it does keep them away from me when I’m sitting on the porch.
          Stay safe. Happy drying!

          Reply ↓
          1. Alice X July 8, 2025 at 8:51 pm

             The many deserve a glint of the imagination of Lambert, may he be faring well in the quest.

             Reply ↓
          2. amfortas July 8, 2025 at 8:55 pm

             want some citronella geraniums again.
             but i go for the nuclear option, and mostly wear Deet and shoes.
             as for the fire ants…i keep the little native fire ants around, unless theyre in the house or something.
             but i’m merciless with the imported kind.
             guess i need to do the beauvaria bassiana treatment again.
             however, once, i was changing my oil, on my back, shirtlessm under my truck, and disnt realise that i was inches away from a mound of the latter.
             stung me all over my back before i really realised what was happening.
             flew out from under and jumped in our first cowboy pool and got em off.
             but then immediately noticed that my back, my hip, my ankle, knees…stopped hurting.
             for about 4 hours.
             the stings hurt, of course…and itched for days when i lay in bed…
             its the same with honeybees, i hear.

             Reply ↓
39. Ben Panga July 8, 2025 at 8:27 pm

    Israeli defence minister’s Gaza proposal marks escalation from incitement of war crimes to official planning for mass forced displacement (Guardian, which finally has started to notice the genocide)

    It sickens me every day to see this genocide in plain view. I hear my politicians tell me Israel is in the right, and ban protest. And still the slaughter of the innocents continues. Sometimes I doubt my own sanity. What kind of world is this?

    Each day a new depravity. Each day a new Western company eagerly joining in.

    I mention it to friends and they change the subject. It’s too big for them to hold. But it affects us all. This is changing us.

    We (more or less) all did nothing while Israel genocided the Palestinians. Perhaps there was nothing useful we could do. But the doing nothing scars us.

    We have crossed the Rubicon now. No barbarity is off limits.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev July 8, 2025 at 8:40 pm

       There is the viewpoint that Israel is being made the pacer car for international law. That for every war crime they normalize, then western nations will be more free to do the same due to the Israeli precedent set.

       Reply ↓
    2. ambrit July 8, 2025 at 8:42 pm

       “We have crossed the Rubicon now. No barbarity is off limits.”
       Including inflicting barbarity upon American citizens in the Homeland.
       Stay safe. Stack deep.

       Reply ↓
       1. Ben Panga July 8, 2025 at 10:46 pm

          I’m waiting morbidly to see which billionaire (or billionaire mouthpiece like Shellenberger) will be the first to suggest a ‘solution’ to the blight of homelessness.

          I agree with all you say Rev, ambrit and Alice. I take a sliver of solace that I’m not alone in thinking the way I do.

          Reply ↓
    3. Alice X July 8, 2025 at 9:09 pm

       The genocide, since I intuited it with the declarations of Gallant at the inception, has been my constant chimera at my side, a beast consuming the principles of the world’s leaders, and too many others.

       Lament that all you can do is to be turned aside in some revelation, after any number of series, yet a greater revelation will come about.

       We must all work for the principles to be restored.

       Reply ↓
       1. Ben Panga July 8, 2025 at 10:50 pm

          Strongly agree yet some days I can only cry.

          Despite that, despite the ongoing broader war on compassion the f***ers are conducting, my heart beats on. I still believe somehow, someday that people will see that the Buddhists were right about some things. Love abides.

          Reply ↓
          1. Alice X July 8, 2025 at 11:38 pm

             I cry often. too.

             Beware attachments, love abides with hearts that offer it a home. It awaits for the many to be so moved.

             Reply ↓
       2. Alice X July 9, 2025 at 12:01 am

          The principles of humanity have been breached.

          Reply ↓
          1. Alice X July 9, 2025 at 12:24 am

             They have been breached time and time again, but the breaches of the ZE must now be brought to the street.

             Reply ↓
40. AG July 8, 2025 at 8:35 pm

    re: 2x Russiagate

    2x SleuthNews
    
    Pavel Vrublevsky: DNC Hack Is Fraud
    UndeadFOIA
    Jul 08, 2025
    https://www.sleuth.news/p/pavel-vrublevsky-dnc-hack-is-fraud

    “We take this with a grain of salt, but a Russian figure who is currently incarcerated in Russia tweeted today that the DNC hack is fraud and that Sergei Mikhailov was tasked by the CIA to fabricate evidence of Russian involvement.

    This is a complex piece of the story, and while we are skeptical, the assertion is likely directionally true. ”

    FoxNews: Brennan, Comey Under Criminal Investigation
    UndeadFOIA
    Jul 09, 2025
    https://www.sleuth.news/p/foxnews-brennan-comey-under-criminal

    Reply ↓
41. Jason Boxman July 8, 2025 at 8:51 pm

    The deconstruction of government continues

    The Trump administration can move forward with plans to slash the federal work force and dismantle federal agencies, the Supreme Court announced on Tuesday. The decision could result in job losses for tens of thousands of employees at agencies including the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, State and Treasury.

    The order, which lifted a lower court’s ruling that had blocked mass layoffs, was unsigned and did not include a vote count. That is typical in such emergency applications. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote a public dissent.

    Schumer chose not to take a stand at all when the opportunity presented itself. Well done Democrats!

    https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/us/politics/supreme-court-federal-workers-layoffs.html

    Reply ↓
42. AG July 8, 2025 at 9:37 pm

    re: on “Paradise Lost”

    Chris Hedges interview with Orlando Reade
    
    video/transcript

    How ‘Paradise Lost’ Revolutionized the World
    55 min.
    https://consortiumnews.com/2025/07/08/chris-hedges-report-how-paradise-lost-revolutionized-the-world/

    Reply ↓