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Links 8/1/2025

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Compassionate Human Convinces a Lonely Left Behind Cat Living in the Woods for Six Years to Come Inside Laughing Squid

Meet the world’s rarest mineral. It was found only once ZME Science

New-to-science stick insect is the heaviest ever found in Australia New Scientist

Climate/Environment

Turkish city of Silopi calls for help after temperatures top record 50 degrees C Turkish Minute

Hedging against rising insurance premiums Moving Day

Abu Dhabi company plans data centers in space Semafor

Hot and power-hungry: ‘Manhattan-sized’ data centers are just the beginning Fast Company

Inside the relentless race for AI capacity FT

Pandemics

Anticipation of a virtual infectious pathogen is enough to prompt real biological defenses Phys.org

Scientists Develop “Lung-on-a-Chip” That Could Help Stop the Next Pandemic SciTech Daily

Japan

Tokyo Says: If We Don’t Put Anything in Writing, We Don’t Have to Fulfill Trump’s Demands Japan Economy Watch

Japan, U.S. discussing scenario for nuclear weapons use: sources Kyodo News

China?

China, Russia forces to hold joint military exercises in Vladivostok Anadolu Agency

Republic of China Army’s Reserves Missing 30 Percent of Equipment: Armoured Vehicles Cracking Due to Poor Welding Military Watch. Sounds an awful lot like “Russia is using dishwasher chips”

India

India Officially Rejects the F-35: Why Delhi Doesn’t Want America’s Top Stealth Fighter Military Watch

Africa

Why Ghana’s conflict on the Burkina border is raising alarm among security experts AFP

Syraqistan

US support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza hits new low: Poll The Cradle

The Economics of Sanctions: Why the U.S. Targeted Francesca Albanese LPE Project

***

The Zionists Are King on the Syrian Chessboard with Washington’s Support Vanessa Beeley

The Unit That Didn’t Exist The High Side. “How the CIA’s elite Afghan spies tried to recruit one of Daniel Pearl’s killers.”

Old Blighty

“I see no ships!” Ian Proud

European Disunion

Charles de Gaulle is Sentenced to Death History Today. How would a de Gaulle fair in Europe today?

Vague trade deal allows new US attacks on EU tech rules Politico

EU considers pooling demand from companies to buy more US gas Reuters

EU demands ‘immediate tariff relief’ from US from 1 August Euractiv

EU capitals ask Brussels for nearly €130B to spend on defense Politico

New Not-So-Cold War

Trump wants end to Russia’s war in Ukraine by 8 August, US tells UN Euractiv

Ukraine – Anti-Corruption Independence Restored, Zelenski Weakened, Four Cities Are Falling Moon of Alabama

Russia Advances in Ukraine as Trump’s impotent military, economic, and diplomatic policy is in shambles & chaos. Mark Sleboda (video)

Sorosites and Banderites Bandera Lobby Blog

The Caucasus

Russia-Azerbaijan crisis continues to deepen Intellinews

Turkiye

Russian Gas Enigma in Turkey Pluralia

First gas flow to Syria set for August 2: Turkish energy minister Anadolu Agency

South of the Border

El Salvador approves indefinite presidential reelection and extends presidential terms to 6 years AP. The tech loons getting one of those dictatorships they so crave.

“Liberation Day”

Trump rejigs tariff rates ahead of deadline, levies 40% duties on all transshipped goods CNBC

Trump unleashes a flurry of trade surprises on eve of deadline The Business Times

Trump 2.0

AMERICANS WANTED A COST OF LIVING WARRIOR. TRUMP IS THE OPPOSITE Rolling Stone

DONALD TRUMP JR.’S DRONE VENTURES COULD MAKE A KILLING — THANKS TO DAD’S BIG BEAUTIFUL BUDGET The Intercept

RussiaGate

New Whistleblower Report Drops as Pressure Mounts in Russia Case Matt Taibbi

Democrats en déshabillé

Democrat Touts Opposition to Starvation in Gaza — But Blames US Protesters Truthout. CIA Slotkin.

More if you can stomach it:

***

The Anti-Abundance Critique on Housing Is Dead Wrong Derek Thompson.  He is co-author of Abundance, which is being held up as the way forward for Democrats and conveniently backed by billionaires like Reid Hoffman. Here’s a Stoller thread dismantling his arguments:

Will Democrats defend society? Unherd

The Démodé Party Harper’s. From 1970, still germane.

GOP Funhouse

Antitrust

Epic just won its Google lawsuit again, and Android may never be the same The Verge

AI

What Happened When I Tried to Replace Myself with ChatGPT in My English Classroom Lit Hub

Police State Watch

The Prison Conference Money Shower n+1 Magazine

Trump Administration Halted Lawsuits Targeting Civil Rights Abuses of Prisoners and Mentally Ill People ProPublica

Accelerationists

IOM=UN International Organization for Migration

You can’t fight enshittification Cory Doctorow.

Eugenics

Inside the Silicon Valley push to breed super-babies WaPo. From a few weeks ago, still germane.

Our Famously Free Press

ICE, Georgia Sheriff’s Office Combine Forces To Keep A Salvadoran Journalist Locked Up Indefinitely Tech Dirt

The Friendly Skies

NTSB hearing reveals air traffic controllers should have warned passenger plane about helicopter before collision, but didn’t CNN

The Bezzle

SEC debuts ‘Project Crypto’ to bring U.S. financial markets ‘on chain’ CNBC

Class Warfare

07/31/2025: Advice Memo Indicates New GC Won’t Pursue Non-Solicitation Clauses Matt Bruenig

Lessons from Urban Ore’s 40-Day Strike Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee

In a digital age, old-fashioned watchmaking schools, including a new one from Rolex, are in demand Los Angeles Times

Last Of The Traditional Wood Craftsmen, II 3 Quarks Daily

A Language Made of Blue Diary of a Deer

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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212 comments

  1. ChrisFromGA

    A suggestion for future Links:

    https://ddgeopolitics.substack.com/p/the-gospel-of-the-gun

    This story strikes me as incredibly important. I cannot vouch for the work done here by the author, but she cites sources in the press.

    In a nutshell, evangelical Christian zealots are now in bed with ex-CIA/Special forces types and private military contractors and have taken over the Gaza aid distribution. Note that there is even a handy org chart that names names, including the Tim Tebow Foundation, Liberty University, and lots of ex-military hooligans.

    Matthew 7:15-20

    15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

    16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

    17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

    18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

    19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

    20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

  2. The Rev Kev

    “India Officially Rejects the F-35: Why Delhi Doesn’t Want America’s Top Stealth Fighter”

    Unmentioned is one factor that would worry Indian military planners. Washington already backs Pakistan and India locked horns with them recently. So if India put their trust in Washington and bought a few squadrons of F-35s, who is to say that if India gets into another fight with Pakistan that Washington would not shut down those F-35s or severely restrict what those planes could do. Would they really want to risk it? Do they feel lucky, punk. Do they?

    1. Ocypode

      Maybe they also got a little less trusting of Western tech after the (apparent) beating they got from the Chinese jets Pakistan used. Didn’t an F-35 fall from the sky yesterday or something like that, anyway? Sounds like a poor investment.

      1. johnnyme

        As if Wednesday’s crash in California wasn’t enough, there’s also this recent confidence booster:

        Meme-famous UK fighter jet stuck in India finally departs

        A state-of-the-art British fighter jet that became a subject of jokes and memes after being stranded at an Indian airport for more than five weeks has finally left after repairs.

        The F-35B is now airborne and on its way to Darwin in Australia, an airport spokesman told the BBC.

        The jet first landed on 14 June at Thiruvananthapuram airport in the southern state of Kerala where it was diverted after it ran into bad weather during a sortie in the Indian Ocean. It then developed a technical snag.

        Its prolonged presence on Indian soil sparked curiosity and raised questions about how such a modern aircraft could remain stranded in a foreign country for so long.

      2. ilsm

        USN F-35 pilot ejected central California 30 Jul. Under investigation.

        There have been over 10 major mishaps since introduction to regular US flying units.

        F-35 also is very expensive to maintain and the percent available for any mission as a part of the whole fleet is not up to budgeted expectations, that is it breaks too much and takes tooo much time and money to repair.

        A Royal Navy F-35B was grounded for weeks in India recently as reported in the article.

        F-35 is likely unaffordable except in USA where Lockheed profits are a national objective.

        1. scott s.

          OK, but stuff happens. Have a bud who is retired Navy (then FedEx) pilot and had a good story of a Navy Herc (C-130 also Lockheed) that went down at some austere airfield in Western Australia. He had to fly down from NAS Cubi in the PI with an engine and a repair team (I guess there was also some wing damage). Spent a bit of time down there while it got sorted.

          But on the subject of Lockheed, as a space-a pax if you are looking to make a C-5 flight better have a “plan b” in place if the plane doesn’t make it.

          Out here in paradise, the Navy P-8 that overshot the runway at K-Bay was cut into pieces and hauled off.

          1. LawnDart

            But on the subject of Lockheed, as a space-a pax if you are looking to make a C-5 flight better have a “plan b”

            As a former C5 loadmaster, I approve this comment.

            For us, the C5 was a gold mine for per diem.

        2. Lefty Godot

          Haven’t the Israelis been highly successful using the F-35 to drop bombs on apartment buildings in Beirut and Gaza? That seems like the kind of mission it was designed for. In fact, isn’t bombing apartment buildings and wedding parties the type of mission most of our military tech has been designed for since 9/11?

      3. Polar Socialist

        Well, there’s the British F-35 that was stuck on Indian airport for weeks because it had to avert bad weather and then was unable to take off.

        One guesses they seriously pondered if that is what their air force really needs at the moment. Unlike most F-35 clients, India actually has an occasional shooting war with a competent enemy.

        (In other words, what johnnyme says above, silly me)

    2. Wukchumni

      There is precedence, in that during the 1969 Soccer War, El Salvador pitted P-51 Mustangs against Honduras F4U Corsairs, hmmm.

  3. Ocypode

    My most important takeaway from the dramatic turnaround in fortunes of the Sahelian states especially Burkina Faso (which used to be a nothing-country in West Africa), is the the State is by far the most powerful and most impactful entity in the development of an impoverished postcolonial African country.

    (…) the only entity that has both the motive and the capacity to raise and invest the huge amount of needed capital into infrastructure, equipment and R&D in a developing post-colonial African economy is the State. I am one of the people who spent years preaching about the need to reduct the size and power of the state at all cost, based on the neoliberal programming l received from my British education. I genuinely believed that the private sector fixes everything. The past 3 years in the Sahel have completely rubbished that notion in my head.

    I mean, nothing that Latin American development theorists haven’t been saying for eons. The problem lies with certain three-letter agencies that make sure states can never gain the political and economic footing to do good things. For God’s sake poor Yemen is managing to become essentially self-sufficient in many resources, such as food (twitter user Aldnmarki always shares their victories). When a country can manage to fend off both coup d’états and IMF loans a lot can be done (no need for any illusions about mass voluntarism or utopias, it’s just the benefits of proper planning and investment in sectors that matter). Also, Michael Hudson is absolutely right that orthodox economics is a con to keep countries poor, as this tweet rightly notes.

    1. JohnnyGL

      It’s really something to see everyone re-learning Lenin’s point from 100+ years ago that controlling the state is EVERYTHING.

      Wait until they’re able to build a networked block of states that can mutually support each other.

  4. Deschain

    The IVF companies should have another selector that says “Right-wing authoritarian” – “Neoliberal” – “human being”

    1. Kurtismayfield

      Go ahead, I dare them to just select for intelligence and see what happens. The resilience of the human species is in kts variety, and selecting for one trait will cripple those individuals in times of crisis.

      It’s like they pick and choose which parts of dystopian sci fi they want to read.

      1. t

        You’re not looking forward to more “high IQ” kids raised by self-absorbed lunatics?

        I can hear the trauma sources now: “We didn’t select you embryo for a 3.98 GPA! How could you do this to us? Seal yourself in your pod and think about what you’ve done!”

    3. IMOR

      re: naming. They seem to have forgotten or be ignorant of how poorly Hera treated most of her stepchildren… .

  5. matt

    re: What Happened When I Tried to Replace Myself with ChatGPT in My English Classroom
    i think AI writing as a calculator is an apt analogy. when i was young and still learning math, calculators were banned and we instead practiced times tables and long division. by the time i was in algebra 1, we were allowed calculators some of the time but not all of the time. (calculators were kept in pouches at the front of the classroom.) even in some lower level college courses, calculators were banned during exams. calculators were only allowed once we reached higher levels of math. like in all my upper level engineering courses, calculators are required for exams. but you still need to show symbolic math.
    point is: calculators are not allowed until people have mastered the skills calculators can do. at first this is basic PEMDAS stuff. eventually you level up to a graphing calculator. but really advanced math cannot be done with a calculator because it is entirely symbolic proofs, creating new ideas, etc. i will continue saying what i have said for many years: AI cannot create new ideas because it does not have access to a large enough array of inputs. and i will now add on: AI should only be used once the student has mastered doing the task by hand. (this is like how i took 3 years of introductory classes to understand fluids, reactors, kinetics, etc, and only upon entering my senior year do i get to use aspen to do calculations for me.)

    1. NotTimothyGeithner

      Society hasn’t grappled with how much time kids actually missed and how little appropriate work they have done before advancing from completion grades. This is a crisis of “strong” students. Kids will almost always do what they perceived as easy if they are allowed to. Especially with fundamentals, kids can’t see where it is going.

      “Strong” students aren’t even ready for lower level math because all they have really done is problems that were easy enough to count out or just typed in problems and mindlessly copied what a calculator told them.

    2. lyman alpha blob

      I have a friend who is an education professor. She now tells her students that they can do all their work with “AI” and she likely will not be able to detect it, at least not all of it. She then tells them that the person they will be cheating if they use it anyway is themself – they will be spending a lot of money for a degree and yet graduate without knowing anything. That seems to resonate with most of them according to her.

      1. Late Introvert

        That’s what I told my 20-year-old. She tells me there’s a lot of students at her college using it to write papers.

    3. hk

      100 time this:

      calculators are not allowed until people have mastered the skills calculators can do

  6. The Rev Kev

    “Trump wants end to Russia’s war in Ukraine by 8 August, US tells UN”

    And I want a sparkly pony. This is Trump demanding that the Russians accept the Lindsay Graham/Kellogg plan to freeze the conflict in place which will be followed – according to European officials – with European (thus NATO) troops flooding the country to “keep the peace” while they rebuild the Ukrainian military. The Russians would then be expected to sign a Minsk 3 agreement and Trump can then claim that the west won the war. Not gunna happen. The Ukraine is going to lose and it will be on Trump’s watch. And then all those Neocons like Lindsay Graham and the tame media will blame him for “losing the Ukraine” and will call him a loser. And that is why Trump is getting so unhinged here. His persona says that he must always be the winner and get the best of everybody he knows. But now he is coming up against countries that he cannot bully.

    1. ChrisFromGA

      Putin, Xi, Modi, and Lula will not hear his ridiculous demands. He’s a madman King, raging in all-caps from his throne.

        1. ChrisFromGA

          I’m the Prez in-a-box
          Buried in my pit
          Won’t you come and save me?

          Feed my lies (Can you sew my mouth shut?)
          Jesus Christ (Deny your maker)
          He who tries (Will be wasted)
          Oh, feed my lies (Now he’ll have another donut)

          I’m the dog who gets beat
          Shove my nose in tweets
          Won’t you come and save me

          Feed my lies (Can you sew my mouth shut?)
          Jesus Christ (Deny your maker)
          He who tries (Will be wasted)
          Oh, feed my lies (Now you’ve told them)

          La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, oh
          La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, oh

      2. ilsm

        Diversions.

        It takes the heat for the DC deep state off Epstein. The cover up is rooted in the bi-partisan cabal,

    3. Polar Socialist

      Should we make a bet? Which one falls first:
      – Kupyansk
      – Seversk
      – Kostyantinivka
      – Pokrovsk
      – Zelensky

  7. Wukchumni

    We in Cali eschew humidity and it has been in the low to mid 90’s here, which in a dry heat vein is totally doable-not that you want to go jogging in those sort of temps, if you’re in the shade outside its quite tolerable.

    A friend is in the midst of a cross country drive and the humidity is just too much he claims-another Californian in danger of appearing to be raptured when there’s nothing left of him but a clump of sweaty clothing and shoes sprawled akimbo on the ground.

    1. griffen

      Hicks. “Yeah but it’s a dry heat.”. Hereabouts in South Carolina the humidity is in full force, but a cooling trend and welcome respite is forecast to arrive this evening I think into next week. I think outdoor pursuits will be more tolerable as long the rainfall isn’t a torrential downpour.

      1. ambrit

        Gaza. Dry heat courtesy of Zionodevils. Dry heat equipment courtesy of Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Palantir, and various “Conflict Management NGOs.”

          1. Norton

            Drove through LA in 1977, got a headache that stayed until I got to the relatively cleaner air at the beach in San Diego. LA air was a disgusting thick dark brown layer visible from local mountain passes and airplanes on final approach. Descend into that? Yuck!

            1. Wukchumni

              I think I am the way I am now on account of dreadful LA smog growing up, it made me pine for vowel movements.

    4. Carolinian

      Your body adjusts to the humidity but it takes a little time to do so. Therefore driving across country can be a bit of a shock when you hit eastern Oklahoma. In the summer I ride my bike more since my bio-swamp cooler needs air flow.

      Meanwhile all that left coast dryness is why you don’t find many “hot shot” crews back East. Wildfire smoke could be worse for you than perspiration.

      Of course many of my fellow Southrons prefer to travel in their air conditioned cars to their air conditioned houses and offices. We geezers though remember what it was like to go old school.

      1. ambrit

        Well do I remember “old school” summers. Last year I came across a magazine ad from the 1910s or 1920s for a DIY house. It came in a kit with the plans to “assemble” it. At the back of the structure was a screened in porch that was labeled as a “Sleeping Porch.” All the windows were double hung. Open at the top and bottom and you got a passive air flow through the room. Higher ceilings made for a slightly cooler temperature at the floor level. Etc. etc.
        Seriously, watch as the purveyors of AI data centres start campaigns to lower private electricity use so as to divert the energy to their Surveillance State technology. One big electricity “savings” will be to severely restrict air conditioning usage. This being the “best of all possible neo-liberal worlds,” expect the segregation of cooling to be accomplished through the “market.” Boosting the price of electricity to the public should do the job. My money is on those genetic planners moving to select for higher heat tolerance in future Terran human “wet” economic units.
        We at present are dealing with heat indices of 105 to 110 F. Lots of “traditional” summer thunderstorms as well.
        Stay safe.

        1. Carolinian

          I grew up in SC in a house without air conditioning although my brother, the humidity freak, built his own room ac out of an old refrigeration compressor. Kinda worked.

          And ac doesn’t help much if you spend a lot of time outdoors as I do. Arguably it just confuses your body and the above claimed adjustment. Old school means shade and lots of it. For hydration ice tea.

          Stay safe and cool.

      2. amfortas

        i grew up in east texas…and spent much time living in a van throughout Dixie.
        so i know humidity.
        when i moved to austin for 3 or so years, i was amazed at the dry air…100 degrees was entirely tolerable.
        then i moved 100 miles northwest of austin, and it was wonderful.
        like Wuk sez, 20% humidity or lower makes high temps no big deal.
        its been really, unusually, humid out here this year(also in 2020)…and i dont like it.
        yer sweat dont work.

    5. ChrisFromGA

      A plug for my old hometown, Buffalo … now the only major city in the US to never hit 100F.

      Climate refugees welcome; mandatory indoctrination into the Mafia and good beer as long as our Canadian friends don’t embargo it.

        1. ChrisFromGA

          We used to laugh that it took a decade for the trends from the big coastal cities (NYC, SF, LA) to hit Buffalo. I swear that as a kid I saw real hippies smoking pot by the local pond back in ’78. Disco lingered well into the mid-80s.

          I still remember a pyro friend and I setting fire to a tree stump that smoldered for days. Rumor had it that the hippies were mad and were looking for us. That was their dope-smoking stump.

          1. Wukchumni

            Although suffering from PTSD (post traumatic season disorder) i’m ready to suit up and be a made man in the Mafia, running numbers.

            1. ambrit

              You’re behind the curve Wuk. The “numbers” have become the Lottery and scratch offs, all run by minions of the State.
              I’ll wager that the Buffalo Mafia have become Hedge Fundies. That or Crypto Wise Guys. What better ways to launder all those “ill gotten gains?” (The Wall Street Mafia is a given. The Mob always was deep into gambling and casinos.)
              The Godfather of Wall Street?

              1. Wukchumni

                Well, when I say running numbers, of course that means generally an Allen curve or straight ahead run.

      2. Mikel

        Tell ’em to throw some Rick James on their music playlist. He even said his mother worked for some Buffalo outfit running numbers back in the day.

      3. tegnost

        in the 80s we used to drive up to canada from ratchesta for the labatts extra stock…
        mmm mm

            1. Wukchumni

              The one time I went to a game at the Ralph, we ended up hanging out with a fun group of Torontonians pre-game in the parking lot, who brought quite the array of barley sodas south with them…

              At one point I inquired why they were in Buffalo and not watching a game up over, and almost in unison they all cried out~

              ‘Canadian football sucks!’

              1. jonhoops

                Actually Canadian Football is much more entertaining. The 3 downs make it much more of a passing game, and the kickers are very important.

                Never liked American Football since it seemed so much more static.

            2. Jhallc

              My dad was an “OV” Old Vienna fan but, I do remember bringing back some Molson? Brador on trips back from Toronto.

          2. But What Do I Know?

            Wow, Brador. Thanks for the madeline. Brings back memories of unnecessary trips to Canada just for that.

        1. LifelongLib

          After living on Oahu for decades, I remain undecided whether Honolulu is a city or the world’s biggest small town. It certainly doesn’t have the energy and anonymity of even Seattle, much less New York or London. After I was there for a while it seemed like I was always running into people I knew. As for Honolulu never hitting 100, that is probably just a matter of time.

    7. scott s.

      The one advantage when I lived in Cali on the coast, was if I really felt the need for “dry heat” it was easy enough to get to. Here in Hawaii, if you want dry this time of year you go over to the leeward side. If you want rain go to windward. Currently under the HECO “public safety power shutoff” advisory, thanks to Lahaina.

      Though the map of humidity in every state is really in “most” states.

  8. matt

    bit irrelevant but apparently there’s a job posting for head of the “separations” board which is the board that decides if trans soldiers can stay in the military or not. nobody wants to take the position. normally when there’s a board opening like that, officers will already know and be lining up for the position. the fact that they need to advertise that there’s an opening shows that truly: nobody wants it.
    military is slow rolling the whole anti trans legislation. not meeting deadlines, etc. if there is a trans soldier people just pretend they dont know. eventually someone might be forced to take the separations board role. tho they could just give everyone a waiver and let them stay in the military.

  9. JohnA

    Re You cant fight Enshittification. Was it Jerry-Lynn that was a cricket fan among your contributors? I ask because the England Cricket Board (ECB) is now engaged in the enshittification of cricket in England. Having launched the subsequent boom in short format cricket but failing to capitalise on this, the ECB brainboxes came up with an even shorter format – 20 balls (or pitches) shorter, with the aim of attracting mothers and their children that could be better monetised. Who apparently would be too bored to watch the slightly longer format. This competition is played in August where it has a monopoly on the best cricketers in England and some foreign imports picked via an American style draft system. As a result international series, that used to run all summer with a week or two between games, is squeezed into June/July with a day or two between games. This has resulted in several injuries due to lack of recovery time. The competition is also played between 8 new city ‘franchises’ with a view to get rid of many of the smaller counties (teams) in the league. This enshittification has alienated most regular cricket fans but has attracted money from ‘investors’ in the US, India and many the middle east. The chief exec of the ECB has allegedly been paid a multimillion bonus for all this. Sorry to rant on, but as a cricket fan, I find this enshittification a step too far. And I, like many thousands or more cricket lovers live nowhere near the blessed 8 new franchises. As a further insult to the target new audience of mothers and children, the franchises are all sponsors by junk food companies! I could add more of this enshittification of the summer game, but enough said. Football season starts in 2 weeks, in early August, where enshittication in England began in the late 1990s.

    1. The Rev Kev

      I thought that Twenty20 was just an attempt to make a version of cricket to sell to America. I do not think people there would conceive of a game that could go for five days and where players had to have meal breaks. Frankly with modern sport, the first few minutes of the film BASEketball kinda nailed it-

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1-QAF8gLy0 (2:40 min)

      1. JohnA

        Not the T20, the so-called Hundred, which consists of 100 balls, with 5-ball overs and other ‘innovations’. The ECB aims to sell the concept worldwide but the T20 is far too established for that. Basically an attempted money making scam by enshittifying cricket. There are no county championship or test matches in August proper as the schedule has been cleared for the Hundred, and traditional competitions are squeezed into spring and autumn instead. The new franchises literally have no roots, no pathway for young players, no history, no continuity – the roster of players change each year via a draft system. All sponsored by junk food.

      2. JohnA

        Thanks for clip, love it, and very true to life. These days all soccer players have to have their own signature celebration for scoring a goal.

  10. Alice X

    Senator Slotkin says of the CIA: “These are good, corn-fed people who just want to help their country.”

    Another day, another shroud of aghastitude…

    Can’t run, can’t hide…

      1. Jabura Basadai

        there’s an old saying that pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered – still waiting for the slaughtering of this administration’s hogs at the trough – not holding my breath –

    2. Jabura Basadai

      it was nice to see her squirm when Krystal wouldn’t let her obfuscate and try to play dumb -Slotkin is such a tool – and being polite in that description rather than go full bore family blog –

    3. DJG, Reality Czar

      Alice X, Christopher Mann, and other groundlings.

      I watched the video of her interview with Krystal Ball, and Saagar Enjeti in a cameo role as a struggling journalist, and I wondered at Elissa Slotkin’s obtuse babbling and shoutouts to the populace in the form of “Michiganders” and “Hamtramck.” Yet my biggest impression is that she is one more empty suit — now that neoliberalism has devoured U.S. feminism, she is the result.

      Questions:
      –Why now? Does she think that her maundering about genocide-lite is going to be of use?
      –I read somewhere that she requested the interview at Breaking Points. Does she think she’s clickbait? Is she trying to go full media whore? Or has she been deployed by the DNC and central command to play the role of the sensible “Midwesterner” from the no-nonsense Great Lakes States, where we have all subsisted on a diet of deep-fried smelt, maple-flavored fudge, and all-beef hotdogs?
      –Does she have personal ambitions? With these disastrous performances, what could they be?
      –Is she an emanation from CIA / FBI / NSA, now that Russiagate is in collapse and Comey, Brennan, and Clapper have caught their tits in the wringer?

      Here in Italy, a current political equivalent is the execrable Pina Picierno, of the Italian Democratic Party. Yet both Picierno and Slotkin are just plain old war pigs. Or do they sense a change coming in Ukraine / Palestine — proxy wars turning into imminent failures of bankrupt elites — and want to get to the head of the parade?

      1. tegnost

        Or has she been deployed by the DNC and central command to play the role of the sensible “Midwesterner” from the no-nonsense Great Lakes States,

        I believe she’s been deployed in a covering action that is far too little, and far too late.

      2. Stillfeelinthebern

        Krystal asked her in the interview why she asked to come on their show. She responds about her staff “pitching” the appearance to her. Coupled with the Colbert appearance, I read all as a sign of personal ambition in action, but misguided by typical entrenched Democratic thinking trying to use influencer media and not understanding that missing the vote would be the bigger story. It is what you do at your job that matters when you are a US Senator.

        1. Henry Moon Pie

          Our favorite CIA Dem Elissa’s missing the vote reminded me of Joni Mitchell missing performing at Woodstock because her manager wanted to make sure she made the Dick Cavett show the next day. So then Joni went and wrote “Woodstock.” I’m not expecting anything of that caliber from Slotkin.

    4. TreniDiTozeur

      Reminds me of the quote from George Hunter White, a goon associated with MKULTRA – –

      …it was fun, fun, fun. Where else could a red-blooded American boy lie, kill, cheat, steal, rape and pillage with the sanction and blessing of the all-highest?

  11. ZenBean

    Republic of China Army’s Reserves Missing 30 Percent of Equipment: Armoured Vehicles Cracking Due to Poor Welding Military Watch. Sounds an awful lot like “Russia is using dishwasher chips”

    Republic of China. As in: Taiwan.

    1. Don

      “Republic of China Army’s Reserves Missing 30 Percent of Equipment: Armoured Vehicles Cracking Due to Poor Welding”

      This is a peculiar article. Republic of China used in every other sentence; Taiwan not once. Given the low level of USA political literacy, my estimate would be that 90%+ of American readers would assume that the article was about enshittification in the PRC — which I assume is the intention, perhaps along with giving the finger to the One China principle

      1. Darthbobber

        Well, they do manage to say “the Republic of China, unlike the People’s Republic of China ”

        I think they’re using this nomenclature because it is preferred to Taiwan by both the CCP and the Kuomintang.

        2. PlutoniumKun

          Taiwan is an island, ROC is the name of the nation (it includes other islands).

          It’s the same as calling the UK ‘Britain’ or the Netherlands ‘Holland’ or vice versa.

    2. hk

      AKA, the Chiang Kai-Shek army (synonym for horribly run, incompetently led, and deeply corrupt organization in much of East Asia.) Becoming part of “our democracy” hasn’t changed much, it seems…

  12. The Rev Kev

    ‘Trita Parsi
    @tparsi
    This is German journalist Tobias Huch on the forced starvation of children in Gaza. This is not a marginal view in influential German circles.
    The idea that Germany has conclusively dealt with its Nazi past is laughable.’

    That original tweet…First time that I read a tweet and had an urge to go have a shower afterwards.

  13. The Rev Kev

    ‘Aaron Rupar
    @atrupar
    Leavitt: “The president has now ended conflicts between Thailand and Cambodia, Israel and Iran, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India and Pakistan, Serbia and Kosovo, and Egypt and Ethiopia. This means President Trump has brokered on average about one peace deal or ceasefire per month during his 6 months in office. It’s well past done that President Trump was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.” ‘

    And they would give him a Nobel Peace Prize but unfortunately for him, there is that genocide thingy going on that he is actively and fully supporting in Gaza. All those pictures of starving children kinda sink his claim on that prize. Oh well, maybe he can threaten Sweden with 100% tariffs unless they give him one. And maybe Barry will ring him and say ‘Hey Donny, guess what I have that you still don’t have. Haw haw.’

  14. Wukchumni

    Gooooooood Moooooooorning Fiatnam!

    Most of the grunts in the platoon were eager to obtain a copy of PT-107 (or in her mind-profiles in courage) in order to find out what exactly she did for over 3 months on the campaign trail, which has heretofore been a great enigma.

  15. Munchausen

    Republic of China Army’s Reserves Missing 30 Percent of Equipment: Armoured Vehicles Cracking Due to Poor Welding Military Watch. Sounds an awful lot like “Russia is using dishwasher chips”

    Sounds like regular peacetime military to me. SNAFU is a military term that applies universally.

    1. LY

      Republic of China is Taiwan. They have conscription army. It’s not taken as seriously as it used to be.

  17. Jabura Basadai

    Tokyo Says: If We Don’t Put Anything in Writing, We Don’t Have to Fulfill Trump’s Demands –
    reminds me of Teddy Roosevelt’s way of dealing with Korea – promise security and protection but nothing in writing, trust us(sarc), about protecting them from the behind the scenes unspoken agreement between Roosevelt and Japan that it was OK to invade and take over Korea – of course Teddy kept Congress in the dark about this unconstitutional behavior – when the time came and Japan invaded Korea, they asked for “Big Brother’s” help and protection and it all fell on deaf ears – hope it works out for Japan –

    1. jefemt

      Japan and Contracts:

      I am reading Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump.
      2019 book by Rick Reilly. Great read.
      Trump and Contracts? Haw haw haw .

      Sounds like some others all over the world have read it as well.

      Its 8/1 TACO Friday, right?

    2. hk

      There is some serious revisionism in that characterization.

      The so-called “Taft Katsura Pact” exists somewhere between legendary and fictitious existences. Roosevelt knew darn well it was not business or responsibility of US to tell Japan what to do, nor did US have any obligation to “guarantee independence” of Korea, which in extremely perilous state at the turn of the century for innumerable reasons, both domestic and international–most having to do with the fact that Korea has had an extremely weak state since the days of Mongol invasion (not because of the Mongols, but the way Korean kings used the Mongols to create the Korean state back then, I think.) The only “friends” of Korea in US at the time were groups of Southern Methodists, genuine religious fanatics, who dreamed of turning Korea into a Jerusalem in Asia (well, they sort of succeeded eventually) and they were selling all manner of fantasy that would only appeal to contemporary equivalent of modern neocons. So, at most, Taft and the Japanese FM, Mr. Katsura, merely reached the understanding to mind just our own businesses. I don’t think anyone can fault them for doing that.

      1. PlutoniumKun

        Indeed – people so often read far too much into what amounted at the time to little more than polite words.

        I’m no expert on the history of Korea, but it always strikes me that it’s a peninsula cursed by geography. Its relative physical isolation ensured some degree of cultural homogeneity, but travel has always been very difficult – its interior is mountainous with narrow valleys and its coastline has treacherous waters. It lacks the equivalent of a Japanese Inland Sea or the Chinese two great river valleys to bind the country together, so never developed a really strong central State until it was partially knit together by railways. .

  18. LadyXoc

    Article on Republic of China washing machines: please note that ROC, aka Taiwan, is a US client state and not to be confused with the People’s Republic of China, a sovereign socialist superpower.

    1. ilsm

      I worked on a “sale” of US defense equipment to Taiwan about 15 years ago. It was run through an NGO.

      Correspondence from Taiwan always called themselves Republic of China.

      We always referred to them as Taiwan.

      It was funny, US policy versus old republic pride.

      Taiwan is as much China as Alabama is USA.

  19. The Rev Kev

    “A single gemstone from Myanmar holds the title of Earth’s rarest mineral”

    So when can we expect the cage-fight between Bezos and Musk as to who will be allowed to buy this one of a kind gem?

  21. Neutrino

    Daniel Pearl
    The news in 2002 of his decapitation made me angry. It does again seeing his name and remembering, like so many, that exposure to the barbarism.

  22. LawnDart

    Will Democrats defend society?

    As in the wealthy, socially dominant members of a community? Their donors?

    Yeah buddy, I think we know the answer to that one.

    1. JMH

      I was going to reply to that question with one word, No. But you are correct. The democrats will defend society for some definition of society. Did you notice that civil rights lawsuits have been stopped by Donnie? Why would anyone defend “those people?” Those people: Hillary’s deplorables,. Barrack’s God and guns folk, you know losers, the un-rich, the “takers.” So-called ordinary Americans, which implies that there are extraordinary Americans. The democrats would defend them had they the means to do so. I doubt that they do. The funny thing is that the republicans will defend the same bunch. Family fight in the uniparty.

      1. LawnDart

        It’s a caste system, with the good families perched at the very top… the democrat/republican thing is just Harvard vs Yale to them– a game.

  23. JMH

    We get it Donnie. Really, we get it. You want the Nobel Peace Prize. We get it that you want your Nobel Peace Prize to be bigger and better and shinier than the one given to Obama. Putting aside the merit of Obama’s award at least he did not beg for it. Yes Donnie, you are begging. Are threats next? Will Norway see 150% tariffs? By the way, as to Thailand and Cambodia. The Prime Minister of Maylasia got them to sit down with him and agree to stop shooting. The deputy foreign minister of China met with the parties in Shanghai and they reaffirmed the prior agreement. Didn’t hear your name mentioned. Just sayin’. Word to the wise and I hear you are really wise. Just one word. Dignity. Try it sometime.

    1. hk

      Ha, that explains a couple of things. I always assumed that the word had something to do with Roman (and Ancient Med) “Talent” and if so, that’d mean huge inflation–“Talent” in Rome was like 60-70lb of silver, although it used to be a lot less (or more) at different times and places, but invariably a lot more than a single silver coin that a Thaler was.

    2. amfortas

      that wildman resembles me, but i am much skinnier and wiry.
      if i ever get around to issuing coin for my hermit kingdom, i’ll make sure to include a wildman of the woods on it…

  25. Mikel

    Epic just won its Google lawsuit again, and Android may never be the same – The Verge

    From the embedded Tim Sweeney social media post in the article:
    “Thanks to the verdict, the Epic Games Store for Android will be coming to the Google Play Store! It’s already available worldwide from our website epicgames.com”

    So nothing was ever NOT available.
    It seems to me the real win would have been people going to web sites of app providers to download instead of pumping up monopolies they then complain about.
    Help me out here…

    1. cfraenkel

      The old web never went away, it’s still (mostly) there.

      It’s that the ocean of $$$ is in the hands of know-nothings who can’t be bothered to expend any more effort than a couple of clicks.

      Same reason Google search is so bad. NO ONE (statistically speaking) goes past the first page of search results. So there’s been a knife fight to get on that front page, and now Google has waded in and grabbed 70% of that page, and here we are…

      People are just lazy and stupid. (present company excluded, of course…)

    2. TimH

      Google were not offering flat rates. Spotify got it for free for example. They also automatically deleted communications that they were legally obliged to save. Judge told jury to infer that negatively for Google.

      1. Mikel

        You’re talking about for hosting the apps that the people could have gone to epicgames.com to find?
        Most businesses worth a hill of beans maintain a biz website.
        I’m not really a gamer. I just went to epicgames.com and nothing seems difficult about downloading anything from the site. Familiar operations as with most business web pages.

        That’s ALL I’m talking about.

  26. JMH

    Would it be asking too much for a data center to have its own power supply or would that add too much to the losses, since AI (so-called) is a loser. Wait! I forgot. Losses are socialized. Profits are private. Silly of me.

    1. David in Friday Harbor

      AI appears to be metaverse 2.0 and a repeat of the 2000 Dot-Bomb implosion. FT reports today that there is still not a business model for AI other than than rank speculation by tech hustlers profiting from the build-out: https://archive.is/vn81Q

      The required data centers are not only sucking-up all the electricity: “market pricing” is forcing up the cost of electricity for the rest of us. My recently built “green” home was required by code to be electrified. My HVAC and hot water are generated by heat-pumps that require electrical heating elements when temperatures drop. Our monthly electric bills last winter were in the $500 to $700 range. The local utility expects these rates to double over the next five years due to AI mega-servers and electric cars sucking up ever more power from the existing grid.

      The AI crash can’t come soon enough.

  27. The Rev Kev

    ‘Peacemaker
    @peacemaket71
    ‼️from the network ✔️Western channels write something strange, and it is difficult to verify it:
    At night, Russian special forces landed in Ochakov on several boats and penetrated the command center. They captured British soldiers who coordinated the use of British missiles and drones.’

    I suppose that we will have to wait to see if these British officers are real or not by seeing if they go on trial. During the First Cold War there would be secret prisoner swaps but after all the UK has done to Russia the past three years, likely the Russians will just go for a public trial to humiliate the UK government and cause a bit of chaos in the UK itself. And later on they would still have to option of going with a prisoner swap.

    1. Mikel

      If the puppet masters of the world could feel things like humiliation, regret, or anything considered humane, none of this would be happening.

    2. nyleta

      Scuttlebutt is that the GRU has been taken off the leash and told that all those Skorzeny type operations they have planned can now go ahead. Something has changed.

  29. moog

    The most important news item of the day seems to be missing, so I’ll add it. :)

    Name ‘Keir’ dies out after Starmer takes office
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/31/name-keir-dies-out-after-starmer-takes-office-baby-names/

    ‘Keir’ name goes extinct after Starmer comes to power
    https://uk.news.yahoo.com/keir-name-goes-extinct-starmer-143735976.html

    No babies called ‘Keir’ after Starmer took office
    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/no-babies-called-keir-after-starmer-took-office/

    1. Martin Oline

      Thanks for this. I read the annex yesterday and also one analysis this morning. Mainstream is very silent about this, hopes it will go away. I will listen to the boyz after mowing the lawn and recovering on the floor.

  31. IM Doc

    Another twist on the AI front –

    Somehow, my workplace Word Office got updated in the middle of the night in the past few weeks. I have no control of how this gets updated. There is now an AI feature – I guess that is what you would call it – that not only spell and grammar checks – but also gives you tips that this or that word may not be “culturally sensitive” – that is the expression it keeps using.

    You would think what I was writing was KKK material it interrupts me so many times. But, actually no, I am working on a draft about mycobacteria in history. I have multiple koine Greek references which all have the same offending words in Greek and are completely ignored ( hilarious) , and it really does not like the English words “leper”, or “ill”, or “homeless” and the word “mankind” really gets slammed.

    I have given up on Word. I will be looking into Libre, or at least I think that it is what it is called. I have tried in Word to turn this off – and I cannot find anyway to do so.

    This is probably the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen in the history of me using computers. And to think the amount of energy and energy bills we are all going to be paying to bring us the privilege of using this crap.

    2. Daniil Adamov

      Does it suggest substitutions? I’m curious what it wants to replace homeless and ill with. Or leper, for that matter.

      1. Wukchumni

        Leper colony money was special money (scrip or vouchers) which circulated only in leper colonies (sanatoriums for people with leprosy) due to the fear that money could carry leprosy and infect other people. However, leprosy is not easily transmitted by casual contact or objects; actual transmission only happens through long-term, constant, intimate contact with leprosy sufferers and not through contact with everyday objects used by sufferers.

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

        1. Daniil Adamov

          Interesting. That said, I wonder if this helpful new software would object to “colony” as well, due to its culturally insensitive connotations… Here we use the word “leprozoriy”, i.e. “leprosorium”. Perhaps that would be safer.

          One of the oddest things I’ve seen in that vein is the insistent replacement of “slave” with “enslaved person” in a few random texts, which often has the air of find-and-replace to it (like correcting an interviewed gladiator LARPer’s words so that she says “I have my enslaved person clothes”). I keep wondering if that will catch on as well. Maybe with the help of AI, that dream is possible.

          1. Revenant

            Of all the politically correct new locutions, this one seems the most justified to me. The thinking is that the enslaved are denied their humanity and seen as property – slaves – so the language should be honest about it. I support enslaved persons!

            How very different from pregnant persons…

            1. Daniil Adamov

              That was probably the intention, yes, and ultimately I suppose it is more odd than somehow bad in itself. For me the linguistic awkwardness somewhat undercuts the good intentions, especially when it is mechanically applied to every use of the word slave (including adjectives, as in slave clothes, slave trade, slave economy…).

              I’m also fairly certain most people now consider slaves to be people anyway, making the distinction moot. Many historical slave-owning societies did as well, by the way – certainly the Islamic ones, but probably most others too. The Romans are most infamous for openly defining slaves as “talking tools”, but it’s not clear that this meant they actually saw them as non-people. The widespread practice of emancipation seems at odds with that.

              1. Revenant

                They were seen as natural persons but not legal persons.

                Of course:
                – children and fools are still not legal persons
                – animals and objects (steam trains!) were sometimes treated as fictitious legal persons for murder/injury/nuisance cases
                – wives were natural persons but their legal personality was limited and usually.subservient to their husband’s… Who.was of course their Master.

                The distinction is dangerous territory.

                I think the enslaved persons locution is, rather, designed to confront the passive acceptance of them being a chattel and part of the economy. I don’t think it is confronting an extreme position that they were not people but instead asserting that at all times they were not free because other people were enslaving them.

                Like reports on Gaza saying people were killed and not mentioning by Israel. The “enslaved person” wording forces you to consider who is holding the whip….

      2. ambrit

        Good catch. That would tell us the driving ideology of the programmers, or their Lords and Masters.
        Know your enemy.

      3. Henry Moon Pie

        homeless unhoused

        If you call them that, they don’t get wet when it rains. /sarc

      1. jefemt

        Is that paradox, irony , or parody? Possible to be three things at once?

        Human kind. Hmmmm

      2. anahuna

        You do agree that we all belong to the human species, don’t you?

        Or are you going to insist that we stick with the Latin, homo sapiens, or “wise man”?

    4. ambrit

      I wonder how useful those computers would be if you could program in the ability to exclude all so called AI content. Would anything be left?

    5. flora

      MS pushed the installation of their Copilot AI to all their user apps recently. My Outlook email suddenly had a Copilot icon on the top bar. I turned it off by switching the default setting for Copilot of OFF in the program settings.

      There are online instructions for turning Copilot OFF for each program where you want it disabled. Looks like there’s a set of directions in this article from January this year down in the comments section.

      How do I stop the annoying copilot thing popping up on Excel, Word, and everywhere else it’s not wanted?
      Anonymous

      https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5417518/how-do-i-stop-the-annoying-copilot-thing-popping-u

      addendum: if your Office Suite is on Teams you might need the Teams manager to turn it off.

      Also, I use Libra and it’s pretty good. No problems opening ms docs,,, so far.

      1. cfraenkel

        Don’t forget they’re handing out your usage and metadata out to their 800+ partners – as revealed in their new EU mandated privacy policy disclosure that absolutely no one will ever read….

        (still salty they had to improve Word. System 7 version 3.1 is still the best writing tool ever. It’s been downhill ever since.)

    8. Samuel Conner

      > Libre

      libreoffice.org, I think.

      I stopped using it around the beginning of the pandemic as I was interacting with MS Office docs and sometimes there were issues in which my correspondent did not like the .docx files I was sending after they had passed through Writer.

      Poking around search, it looks like it may be possible to configure or turn off AI features in Office.

      1. Acacia

        This is how Microsoft keeps their monopoly going. They pretend to embrace open standards, but their apps never really work with others. E.g., you can save a MS-Word document as RTF but there are always nits in the formatting.

        So then you end up back using MS-Word because you need to do business with clients or companies that have fully drunk the M$ kool-aid.

        If possible I now just use my preferred apps and send PDFs, trying to avoid anything MS like the plague.

        2. hk

          The weirdest thing I ran into a while ago: f’ing .csv files generated for and by MS Excel had some sort of secret formatting that messed with normal stats software! Not sure that is still the case–I haven’t run into the problem for some time, but I’ve also become paranoid about saving files as the “correct” .csv format, too.

    9. Yves Smith

      You found out too late….NEVER subscribe to Microsoft. Buy a copy. They make it hard to do but it can be done. My experience is that you don’t need to buy another one for 5-8 years.

      1. Greg Taylor

        Excellent advice. However, when your employer is into Microsoft/Sharepoint and you need to use your personal device at home….it can be difficult to avoid getting sucked into their ecosystem. First time you need to pull up a Sharepoint file, you’ll end up downloading 365 and auto-replacing your purchased Office software before you realize what is going on. And now we know Sharepoint is a huge security risk.

        1. hk

          Yup. You can keep your personal copy on the computer that you do not use for work, but that quickly becomes a losing (and headachy) proposition.

    10. But What Do I Know?

      Libre Office works great! I’ve been using it for about six years now and not paying anything for a word processing program/spreadsheet/presentation program feels like — Victory! You can save files in other formats if you need to send them to the Monopoly product users.

    11. Vandemonian

      I can highly recommend Libre Office Word. For the things I’ve done*, it has delivered all that I would have needed from the MS version. It can save and open .doc and .docx files, although sometimes formatting is not retained. That said, I don’t use VBA or macros. They’re available in LibreOffice, but (apparently) don’t have all of the functionality of the MS version.

      Menus are a bit different, but the online help and support is a good way of finding what you need. Give it a try.

      *This has included a 300-page thesis, with integrated contents list, index, footnotes and citations.

      1. Polar Socialist

        I remember the time when IT support had OpenOffice just to convert users’ Word documents between Word versions. At the time it was better in it than Word was. Sometimes it was even able to restore a corrupted .doc (as one support person said to me, rolling his eyes, “the doc format saves the state of the universe in file, so they work properly only in an unchanging universe…”).

        I myself mostly use vim and gedit (plain text files), sometimes Google Docs (for team work/sharing).

    13. amfortas

      i use the apache openoffice thing for all my writing.
      never had a hiccup.
      and its free and open source.
      it also definitely doesnt talk back or scold me,lol

      1. cfraenkel

        Wordstar still exists!!

        (would never use it, honestly, but installed just for grins, and on a modern machine, the responsiveness was eye-opening. Like, it felt like it was responding before the keypress bottomed out. It felt like the program was mind-reading.)

    15. Ellery O'Farrell

      Just to supplement Flora’s link to how to turn off Copilot, here are MS’s instructions for doing it from Word itself: Go to File > Options > Copilot, then clear the Enable Copilot checkbox. Worked for me.
      They provide a long page of step-by-step instructions for other apps and Windows and Mac (search for “Microsoft support turn off copilot in microsoft 365 apps”)

  33. John Beech

    So India rejects the F-35 and is in the process of giving the nod to the Su-57 due to ready access to the source code. That’s their prerogative as the buyer.

    Thing is, they just paid a high price for putting confidence in Rafale against Pakistan’s Chinese J-10 (they were soundly spanked). So looking into the future, will Su-57 fare the same or worse with Pakistan’s J-10 (and J-20, subsequently, presuming Pakistan stay the course with Chinese-sourced fighters).

    Considering India’s most likely bones of contention will be formed with either China or Pakistan, then at worst they need parity if they can’t have superiority. So in a fight with China, will Su-57 be better than whatever the Chinese manufacturers make available for the fray? After all, and as a general rule; putting 2nd best into the fight is not a good strategy.

    Meanwhile, I fully respect their not liking America’s retaining the F-35 source code. I also grok their sense of the USA being a fickle partner. But decisions have consequences. This last being important because what’s yet to be determined is; what’s the price for being defeated by Pakistan once again (or by China) in the air?

    Me? I suspect the reason America can play hardball with the F-35 is it’s really the best there is. This brings to mind another good rule . . . you can’t eat pride. Seems being defeated by Pakistan once wasn’t enough to reinforce the lesson regarding fielding inferior weapons. It will be interesting to see how this plays out because that we can count on, proxy wars will continue.

    1. tera

      F-35 is really the best there is, and I’m the Queen of England. USA can play hardball with its vassals because they are vassals. Bully bullies the weak because they are weak.

    2. AG

      Under the danger of missing a note of irony, just pointing out that F-35 has a limited capability rate of 51,5%. Which means under duress and real conditions it´s abysmal.

      Air Force Mission Capability Rates Reach Lowest Levels in Years
      Feb. 18, 2025
      https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-force-mission-capable-rates-fiscal-2024/

      “An aircraft is “mission capable” when it is able to perform at least one of its several core missions. For example, the F-35A’s missions include counter-air, electronic warfare, ground attack, and data collection, so to be mission capable, an aircraft must be able to execute at least one of those missions. The Air Force does not disclose full-mission capable rates, which measure aircraft types’ readiness to conduct all assigned missions.”

      And this has been known for a few years now by all parties who are involved with assessing US military gear. So I have been seeing this all the time since 2022.

      It doesn’t mean you cannot fly it. It doesn’t even mean it is a bad plane as such. But any such standard capabilites are meaningless if the plane cannot take-off or is being shot down well before it in fact can take part in operations.

      German Leopard tanks were cool too. Until they had to fight a real enemy.

    3. hk

      F35 is the best there is for those who can’t look elsewhere. For reasons of politics, getting Russian or Chinese gear is not an option for US’s “allies.” Fwiw, India and, interestingly, Pakistan, are not US “allies.” (I remember SK considering Sukhoi-30 as a possible replacement for their Phantoms (they wound up getting F-15 instead–I did not think that was wise, as, I think, USAF was starting to phase them out around the time Boeing won the South Korean bid…). Strange times the oughts were…

    1. ambrit

      Give him a Gazaburger. You know the drill. S— and Sand between two sheets of cardboard. Let him eat nothing but that for a week and then ask him about “ethnic cleansing” in the Middle East.

  35. lyman alpha blob

    RE: The Unit That Didn’t Exist

    Most of that one is behind a paywall, but there is an error in that piece. This –

    “In an interview with the CTU, Rehman admitted to not only having a role in the January 2001 kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl…”

    – is incorrect. Pearl was kidnapped after the Trade Center bombings in January of 2022. Might be just a typo but thought it worth noting given the seriousness of the subject.

  36. Ignacio

    EU considers pooling demand from companies to buy more US gas

    The article states that for now “The Commission has said it will remain up to private companies to choose where they buy energy”. The Commission should have to break most of EU rules to force such thing so that was an obvious statement though expressing excessive overconfidence of the Commission on its own power and competences. But then, i think here comes the interesting bit; “”At the moment, we don’t have any decision on a dedicated Aggregate, but this can be done very speedily , if there’s a need and interest”.

    There is the trick. Some European companies might indeed develop an appetite for very expensive US LNG because this means higher energy prices. I think this is probably what the Commission wants to explore. Perverse incentives there.

  37. Mikel

    Inside the Silicon Valley push to breed super-babies – WaPo.

    This is what is going to actually happen: those babies will be put into environments that nurture their success and it will be called “genetics”.

    1. amfortas

      i predict that they will be insufferable chimps…and that all the $ behind them will be the real determinant of their “success” in later life.
      they might, however, be quite tasty…so theres that.

      one of my nephews was corraled by my aunt…former IBM executive, with that whole tude associated with that position…sent to exclusive schools, coddled and fawned over…and never spanked, of course.
      he ended up alright when he got to be 19 or so, and rebelled…ran off to be the hurtlocker guy in the US Navy,lol…as a giant middle finger to the aunt and his mom who allowed all that.
      prior to the rebellion, however, he was an entitled little brat.
      i imposed discipline upon him whenever i was left in charge of the kids…and he was bewildered,lol.

  38. AG

    re: Austria and neutrality

    GERMAN-FOREIGN-POLICY-BLOG

    machine-translation of longer interview:


    with Gerald Oberansmayr about Austria’s neutrality, its systematic weakening by the EU and the efforts to return to true neutrality

    “Back to true neutrality”
    https://archive.is/8y8TW

    LINZ – german-foreign-policy.com spoke with Gerald Oberansmayr about Austria’s neutrality. Oberansmayr is an activist with the Solidarwerkstatt Österreich (Solidarity Workshop Austria), which advocates for a “genuine policy of peace and neutrality.” As Oberansmayr reports, there is currently no such thing in Austria. Rather, Austria’s governments have systematically weakened the country’s neutrality, particularly since joining the EU in 1995 – among other things, through integration into EU military structures, participation in the EU’s massive rearmament program, and military cooperation with the German Bundeswehr, which was originally prohibited by the Austrian State Treaty of 1955. This cooperation is now close; some time ago, the Commander of the Austrian Armed Forces declared: “If you travel to Germany today, it is no longer a business trip abroad.” The Federal Republic of Germany is unceremoniously ignoring Austrian neutrality, reports Oberansmayr, who quotes a former German ambassador in Vienna as saying: “As long as you go to war with us, your status is irrelevant to us.”

  39. Jason Boxman

    Congratulations, Biden, Walensky, and Cohen!

    Childhood Vaccination Rates Have Dropped Again, C.D.C. Data Shows (NY Times via archive.ph)

    New federal data shows that vaccination rates among American children entering kindergarten fell during the 2024-25 school year, extending a worrying trend that began during the Covid-19 pandemic. The percentage of children granted exemptions from vaccines has also risen sharply over the past decade.

    The statistics, released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, provide a sobering explanation for the resurgence of childhood diseases across the United States. Measles has sickened more people this year than in any year since the virus was declared eliminated in 2000, in large part because of a multistate outbreak that began in West Texas and has led to three deaths.

    Mandating a non-sterilizing, experimental shot, that FDA played hide-the-ball with the data on, is a great way to engender trust in public health and vaccination in particular.

  40. Jason Boxman

    For more on de Gaulle, I recommend Allies at War (2001) by Simon Berthon, not the brand new book by a similar title that apparently just came out a few months ago. Apparently it relates to a BBC TV show. I found it at a used bookstore.

    The book of the BBC TV series. “We must divorce ourselves from de Gaulle because he has proven to be unreliable, unco-operative and disloyal to both our governments,” Winston Churchill to Franklin Roosevelt, 17 June 1943. In public, General de Gaulle remained the firm ally of Britain and America in the war against Hitler. In reality, his former sponsors were so appalled by him that they kept the Anglo-American invasion of North Africa secret from him. They cast about for an alternative leader to take charge of the Free French. Simon Berthon’s book reveals how and why the alliance turned sour, and how de Gaulle took revenge on Britain and America after the war. The TV episodes “Hero to Villain”, “Conspiracy in Africa”, “The Frenchman’s Revenge” accompanies 3-part BBC documentary to reveal how so-called “allies” hated and plotted against each other in secret.

  41. Tom Stone

    I’m sure no private parties or Nation States would tap into the always on microphones and cameras of new cars being used by very important people, that would be rude…

    1. Norton

      Software hygiene needs to be part of anyone’s periodic computer and phone chores.
      Examples include review of the growing settings and security tabs.
      There may be some unanticipated findings, like unknown software packages that may seem innocuous. If a miscreant can place a token on your system and another email package link, everything you send, receive and save becomes fair game. That operates in the background, unless you actively search out and remove those.
      Stay vigilant as you are the product as well as the user. Yet another instance of offloading bad things onto people, as if there weren’t enough risks in that benign, happy tool world already.

  42. 4paul

    RE: A Language Made of Blue Diary of a Deer

    That is a fantastic essay, thanks for including it Conor!

    Writers often turn to blue when there is nothing left to say. When emotion exceeds form.

    teardrop emoji…

  43. Jason Boxman

    Another bad merger I just got an email about,

    Monster and CareerBuilder to combine, creating stronger job board for talent and employers

    Randstad NV, the world’s leading talent company, has reached an agreement to form a joint venture combining its job board business, Monster, with CareerBuilder, a portfolio company of funds managed by affiliates of Apollo (the “Apollo Funds”).

    The combination of Monster and CareerBuilder brings together two strong, trusted and
    complementary brands to create a job board with greater scale and reach. As the world of work continues to evolve, this combination will allow both businesses to benefit from shared resources and solutions to deliver greater value and opportunities to both talent and employers. Together, both companies can more effectively respond to prevailing trends in the market to deliver enhanced growth.

    That sounds really nasty.

  44. AG

    re: Mearsheimer

    John Mearsheimer: Liberal Delusions & How NATO Led Ukraine Down the Primrose Path
    Glenn Diesen
    Aug 01, 2025
    56 min.
    https://glenndiesen.substack.com/p/john-mearsheimer-liberal-delusions

    Unfortunately Mearsheimer´s underlying argument makes no sense:
    Alleging that the US kinda did not want to contain Russia until SMO and was genuine in its attempts to democratize is so childish. I don’t understand this.

    There is no biased view here: Any sane person would come to the same conclusion the Russians did.
    But Mearsheimer is so much Americanized that he seriously argues, still, that this was a misunderstanding or misjudgement based on conflicting ideologies that were both justified from their particular POV.

    Some Nazis too believed genocide would do good and they did not see the evil in their program.

    Would anybody seriously defend Bob Kagan?
    Thought so…

    To discard objective POVs – beyond “realism” – but based on international law is a major error here…

    p.s. What I don´t get is how he makes fit into his view the entire US meddling in Ukraine 2014. That did not happen over night. Those were essential structures that had been in place for decades. What would he call those levers of power? mishaps?

    And to claim records of the 1990s would prove his point. Is no evidence either. Just look at RAND.hmmm.

  47. Jason Boxman

    This sh1t is lit

    Trump fires commissioner of labor statistics after weaker-than-expected jobs figures slam markets

    No subtleties here

    President Donald Trump on Friday fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, hours after the agency reported that job growth in the U.S. had slowed to a near-halt.

    In a Truth Social post that also directed even more fire at Fed Chair Jerome Powell, Trump accused BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer of being a political appointee who was manipulating jobs data.

    “I was just informed that our Country’s “Jobs Numbers” are being produced by a Biden Appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, who faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala’s [Harris’] chances of Victory,” Trump wrote.

    “We need accurate Jobs Numbers. I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified,” he added.

    CNBC has reached out to the BLS for comment. NBC News confirmed that McEntarfer has been fired.

    Markets will stop trusting government data entirely soon, if not already.

    America is going great

    “The Economy is BOOMING under ‘TRUMP’ despite a Fed that also plays games, this time with Interest Rates, where they lowered them twice, and substantially, just before the Presidential Election, I assume in the hopes of getting ‘Kamala’ elected – How did that work out?” Trump wrote. “Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell should also be put ‘out to pasture.’”

    I guess we’re seeing what state-collapse looks like in real time.

    1. hk

      The trouble is that there were already questions about Biden era numbers (inflation, employment, etc) that looked too good (remember Krugman accusing the discontented people of not understanding economic stats and instead looking at their own lives?) Not defending Trump, but if you were plausibly fudging numbers for one admin, then the another admin is not unjustified asking why you are not doing the same for them and your credibility is already shot to pieces anyways.

      Personally, I do think Krugman’s point is not totally invalid, but worth serious examination from a different perspective: if the numbers weren’t doctored, why were they at odds with popular perceptions? We needed a good answer to this question if gov’t stats were to be credible again, but no one official or prominent seriously sought to take on this question head on.

  48. XXYY

    India Officially Rejects the F-35. Military Watch Magazine

    Pity the poor sales team that has to induce foreign leaders to commit to the F-35. The plane itself is eye-poppingly expensive and underwhelming in performance, but also the US seems determined to impose the most arrogant and unattractive conditions on the use of the plane, frequently a mix of economic threats and open-ended restrictions on how the weapons can be used.

    In the case of India, the US seems to think it can also use the F-35 to exert general foreign policy pressure by restricting relationship between India and its northern neighbor, Russia, a country with which India has long-standing ties. (We had an Indian engineer in our group at work whose name was Stalin; he explained that names of famous Russians were quite common in his area of India and had been for some time).

    I would also make the side point that the F-35 is an extremely unattractive plane. This article has a picture of one along with a shot of a Su-57,
    it’s Russian counterpart. If you are buying strictly on looks, I would say there is no comparison. The US used to be a world leader in industrial design, but that seems to be one of our many fading skill sets.

  49. dish rag

    “President Donald Trump said on Aug. 1 he ordered two nuclear submarines to “appropriate regions” in response to Russia’s nuclear threats.”

    “Based on the highly provocative statements” of Russian spokesperson Dmitry Medvedev, “I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.”

    Provocations and upping the ante, old school style:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7Awv1n438I

    1. Munchausen

      The Bear is playing Trumpet like a fiddle. He is pushing all his buttons with ease, and made him tilt like a pinball machine. I expect those submarines to surface when they get to appropriate locations, so that we can all see that they are indeed there and that he didn’t chicken out this time.

      P.S. As far as upping the ante goes,
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTITiKGE8ig

  50. Jason Boxman

    Ha, used Shift4 (as linked from restaurant’s web site) to order a pizza, there’s a mandatory $0.60 online ordering fee (Shift4’s take, restaurant passes it on) and an obnoxious tip box, with no option for no tip, I had to manually pick “other” and put in $0. And to get this far, I had to play the Google self-driving car captcha game. And this is for a pick-up order, I’ve never done delivery, cheaper to just go get it. (No tip.)

    What a joke.

    They’ve got a big “We’re hiring” banner at the top; out here in rural NC many places can’t find workers. Not really a surprise, I guess, and with the hurricane a lot of housing options got destroyed, so what’s left is even more expensive.

  51. Tom Stone

    Here in Sonoma County a lot of shit jobs (29 Hrs per week, no benefits) have been done by immigrants and by the homeless (40-50% of the homeless are employed).
    Deport the immigrants and “Institutionalize” the homeless and you have a labor shortage.
    It’s not as bad as it could be because big spending foreign tourists are going elsewhere in droves, Canadians are at the top of the list.

  53. Jason Boxman

    OpenAI was gonna go bankrupt soon enough with its burn rate, so that date is temporarily pushed back

    OpenAI has raised $8.3 billion at a $300 billion valuation, months ahead of schedule, as part of its plan to secure $40 billion in funding this year, DealBook has learned. Back in March, OpenAI announced its ambitious funding plans, with SoftBank committing to provide $30 billion by year-end.
    The start-up raised $2.5 billion from venture capital firms that same month, with plans to raise an additional $7.5 billion by the end of the year. Instead, the fund-raising came much sooner — and over target.

    and

    The biggest investor was Dragoneer Investment Group, which committed $2.8 billion, an astonishing check from a single venture capital firm that may be one of the largest ever written.
    The investment casts a spotlight on Dragoneer, which made successful early bets on companies like Airbnb, Spotify and Uber but has largely stayed behind the scenes in Silicon Valley. Marc Stad, Dragoneer’s founder, is now taking a very public claim on what many in Silicon Valley see as the defining tech platform of the next decade. The investment represents about 10 percent of the firm’s funds.

    Guess that 10 percent is gonna go to zero in the future, well played! Not quite as dumb as the level SoftBank has funded at.

    1. Yves Smith

      I am a big Harlan Ellison fan. If he didn’t say this, someone did a fantastic job of channeling him. This is a must read. Nuggets like:

      Great things have come out of the Middle East, but stupidity seems to be your chief export—stupidity and violence are your cash crops, all you.

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