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
Has it seemed particularly humid to you? A staggering 18 states and D.C. have experienced record-breaking humidity during July.
This map shows how average dew points ranked in each state, compared with that state’s historical data.
🧵 Where and why it’s been so sticky pic.twitter.com/UZyF2f3bTv
— Ben Noll (@BenNollWeather) July 31, 2025
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
She’s an icon
She’s a legend
And she is the moment✨ pic.twitter.com/MDkIj71JZf— U.S. Department of Energy (@ENERGY) July 31, 2025
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
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… https://t.co/BaPYqUJbnf
— David Hundeyin (@DavidHundeyin) July 30, 2025
Syraqistan
Anthony Aguilar gives a heartbreaking firsthand account of a child who “walked 12km to get food, got nothing but scraps, thanked us for it, and died,” in an interview with @UnxeptableD.https://t.co/usFDM9Dewh
— Katie Halper (@kthalps) July 31, 2025
These lawyers include Lord David Pannick, patron of UK Lawyers for Israel, a fact neither the BBC nor the Times mentions anywhere in their reporting.
Totally irresponsible journalism presenting lobbyists as neutral actors. https://t.co/aCWXxOTqPd
— Rivkah Brown (@rivkahbrown) July 31, 2025
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
When you stand for justice, defend humanity, and choose the right side of history.
The Iron Lady. pic.twitter.com/hb8qVGV6r2
— Zohran Mamdani (@zohranmamdani) July 31, 2025
***
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
Footage of Russian strikes on Kiev published by Reuters/ABC News.
No one’s afraid of Trump. pic.twitter.com/81g5qb8pSy
— Gabe (@GabeZZOZZ) July 31, 2025
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)
‼️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… pic.twitter.com/i7poKPs4qv
— Peacemaker (@peacemaket71) July 31, 2025
Sorosites and Banderites Bandera Lobby Blog
As Marco Rubio’s State Department acts vigilantly against Israel’s critics on the pretext of “combatting antisemitism,” his department continues to support *actual neo Nazis* abroad
Ukrainian scholar @I_Katchanovski explains how: pic.twitter.com/JzETgimFiW
— Harrison Berger (@BergerPosts) July 29, 2025
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
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… pic.twitter.com/NopEkpC8a6
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 31, 2025
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
Also, what always happens with CIA/FBI crimes and misconduct is happening now:
Those who point it out when it’s happening are called crazy because (most of) the evidence is hidden.
When the proof is finally revealed, we’re told: why focus on this? It was so long ago!
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 31, 2025
Democrats en déshabillé
Democrat Touts Opposition to Starvation in Gaza — But Blames US Protesters Truthout. CIA Slotkin.
Senator Slotkin missed the vote on banning arms sales to Israel yesterday. Instead she went on the Colbert show, where she called for aid to Gaza (to thunderous applause): pic.twitter.com/PzU79Ll0sl
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) July 31, 2025
More if you can stomach it:
Senator Slotkin says of the CIA: “These are good, corn-fed people who just want to help their country.” pic.twitter.com/ApFhXE4E3J
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) July 31, 2025
***
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:
I’m baffled by @DKThomp‘s piece on Dallas housing.
He claims that Dallas builds so many houses that there can’t be an oligopoly fostering a lack of housing.
He also claims Dallas doesn’t build enough houses because of zoning choices.
Which is it? https://t.co/aesE8ki4jl
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) July 31, 2025
Will Democrats defend society? Unherd
The Démodé Party Harper’s. From 1970, still germane.
GOP Funhouse
there’s the funders of the anti Massie super PAC. Miriam Adelson’s PAC, John Paulson and Paul Singer. pic.twitter.com/qLpeIHIwed
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 31, 2025
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
Accelerationists
IOM=UN International Organization for Migration
🧵 THREAD: Layoffs, Loyalty, and Optics at IOM under Amy Pope
1- 6,000+ IOM staff have been laid off citing budget constraints making field programs suffer, & migrant services being disrupted.
Amid this, several senior leadership appointments have continued, including close… https://t.co/oeoiQDTtno pic.twitter.com/oSpKoGUWli— Hala Jaber (@HalaJaber) July 30, 2025
You can’t fight enshittification Cory Doctorow.
Eugenics
Sentiments like these are eugenics and should have no place at government health agencies, whose mission is to protect the health of all people regardless of anyone’s circumstances. pic.twitter.com/HF8iWU1EQ1
— Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran) July 31, 2025
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. pic.twitter.com/uFyPwFbh11
— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) July 31, 2025
The latest embryo selection company is live, and guess what:
They’re publicly letting people select for IQ!
If you want to see what they can do for your family for a variety of traits, go check out their website where they’ve got a calculator app available. https://t.co/zaGbuIpSEz pic.twitter.com/LuIZFUY1dj
— Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil) July 30, 2025
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
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.
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
Steve Witkoff and Huckabee (evang fave) are visiting these GHF ghouls right now.
“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?
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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?
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)
The F35 I saw had tail number 1 S L I C C 1
There is precedence, in that during the 1969 Soccer War, El Salvador pitted P-51 Mustangs against Honduras F4U Corsairs, hmmm.
for the same reason I don’t want a 1971 pinto?
What if they offered you a free tank of gas to go along with it?
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.
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.
The IVF companies should have another selector that says “Right-wing authoritarian” – “Neoliberal” – “human being”
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.
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!”
Or a nice rack?
Pretty sure we have seen a glimpse of where this is heading-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1XGCrSBJnY (3:21 mins)
re: naming. They seem to have forgotten or be ignorant of how poorly Hera treated most of her stepchildren… .
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.)
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.
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.
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.
100 time this:
“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.
Putin, Xi, Modi, and Lula will not hear his ridiculous demands. He’s a madman King, raging in all-caps from his throne.
Covered in gold paint, IQ=10
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
Melody Alice in Chains
Diversions.
It takes the heat for the DC deep state off Epstein. The cover up is rooted in the bi-partisan cabal,
Is the sparkly pony’s name Nobel?
Should we make a bet? Which one falls first:
– Kupyansk
– Seversk
– Kostyantinivka
– Pokrovsk
– Zelensky
Put me down for Pokrovsk. Little wonder that Trump hit the panic button.
Zelensky is my bet (no real money, of course)
No real money, bets are in hryvnias only.
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.
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.
You know where else there’s dry heat?
My oven…
Gaza. Dry heat courtesy of Zionodevils. Dry heat equipment courtesy of Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Palantir, and various “Conflict Management NGOs.”
Some of us think air you can lean on is good. That dry stuff is awful, IMO.
How about air so thick that you need a machete to hack your way through it.
…that’d be LA smog in the early 70’s
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!
I think I am the way I am now on account of dreadful LA smog growing up, it made me pine for vowel movements.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
…doesn’t the Nickel City have a Lag Effect economy?
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.
Although suffering from PTSD (post traumatic season disorder) i’m ready to suit up and be a made man in the Mafia, running numbers.
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?
Well, when I say running numbers, of course that means generally an Allen curve or straight ahead run.
Fellow Chris Berman (ESPN): Oh and it’s Allen to Gabe “I can run for miles” Davis!
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.
in the 80s we used to drive up to canada from ratchesta for the labatts extra stock…
mmm mm
Any Brador fans from back in the day?
I don’t recall that one, but it was a cornucopia of choices and was really great
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!’
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.
My dad was an “OV” Old Vienna fan but, I do remember bringing back some Molson? Brador on trips back from Toronto.
Wow, Brador. Thanks for the madeline. Brings back memories of unnecessary trips to Canada just for that.
Honolulu’s not a “major city”?
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.
“It ain’t the heat, it’s the humanity.”
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
Another day, another shroud of aghastitude…
Can’t run, can’t hide…
You know what else is corn-fed? Pigs and chickens 🐷 🐓 🐷 🐓
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 –
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 –
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?
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.
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.
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.
Reminds me of the quote from George Hunter White, a goon associated with MKULTRA – –
Corn-fed Intelligence Agency (CIA), a.k.a., “the good guys”
Republic of China. As in: Taiwan.
“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
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.
ISO-1366 (used in computing as a standard) says Taiwan (Province of China).
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.
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…
‘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.
‘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.’
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.
Sounds like regular peacetime military to me. SNAFU is a military term that applies universally.
Republic of China is Taiwan. They have conscription army. It’s not taken as seriously as it used to be.
Cooooooooooooooooooooooooal! (with apologies to Andres Cantor …)
Everybody sing along now!
“But I’m going to be a diamond some day!”
Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear before there was an EPA…
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 –
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?
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.
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. .
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.
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.
Knock knock
Who’s there?
For
For who?
Formosa-not Taiwan.
“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?
Abu Dhabi company plans data centers in space –
hope it fails – don’t need more space junk littering the heavens – bad enough already –
https://www.space.com/kessler-syndrome-space-debris
Icarus comes to mind on that one
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.
Unlike the continual exposure of the barbarism of our ally Israel which is become normalized.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The word Dollar comes from the Czech town named Joachimsthal, where silver mines were, and silver Dollar sized coins thenceforth in Europe were called Thalers, and my favorite were the ones from the German state of Brunswick-Luneberg which featured a Wildman who was scantily clad and typically holding an uprooted tree.
These were issued in the 17th century for the most part~
https://stacksbowers.com/the-wildmen-and-the-robert-c-knepper-collection/
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.
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…
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…
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…)
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.
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.
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.
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.
‘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.
If the puppet masters of the world could feel things like humiliation, regret, or anything considered humane, none of this would be happening.
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.
‘U.S. Department of Energy
@ENERGY
She’s an icon
She’s a legend
And she is the moment’
Coal? Its just coal? But as somebody replied in comments, here is a great moment in Australia Parliamentary history starring, who else, Scotty from Marketing-
https://xcancel.com/WokeCapital/status/1950938752504705401#m
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/
that’s delicious!…thanks!
Taibbi and Kirn, ATW, 30 minute public excerpt.
America This Week, August 1, 2025: “Durham Declassified: History’s Stupidest Political Conspiracy Unmasked”
https://www.racket.news/p/america-this-week-august-1-2025-durham
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.
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.
Clippy 2.0
Does it suggest substitutions? I’m curious what it wants to replace homeless and ill with. Or leper, for that matter.
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
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.
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…
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.
Good catch. That would tell us the driving ideology of the programmers, or their Lords and Masters.
Know your enemy.
homelessunhousedIf you call them that, they don’t get wet when it rains. /sarc
I have preferred “humankind” for decades, for reasons that seem obvious to me.
Is that paradox, irony , or parody? Possible to be three things at once?
Human kind. Hmmmm
Aspirational, and that’s OK.
Absolutely!
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”?
I only use Homo sapiens in quotes, thusly: Homo “sapiens”
Or “humanity”. One letter shorter, fwiw.
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?
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.
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.)
Even AI bots can search the web, find an article on HowToGeek called How to check for inclusive language in Microsoft Word, and unckeck the boxes they told you to check…
Also try OnlyOffice. Many people find it superior, esp. the spreadsheet.
> 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.
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.
With Microsoft and standards, the philosophy was always ‘Embrace, extend, and extinguish’-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
Here’s another recommendation for LibreOffice.
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
WordPerfect still exists.
Know pAIn-no gAIn
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.
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.
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.
Zionist can not has cheeseburger (or pierogi either) –
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2025/07/31/alan-dershowitz-vendor-denied-pierogi-marthas-vineyard-farmers-market/
Being a petty man with questionable morals, he is, or course, considering suing.
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.
Why they didn’t just beat him like every other chomo is a question worth asking.
Looks like the Dersh won’t be strutting on Lucy Vincent Beach clutching his Pierogi.
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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.”
Congratulations, Biden, Walensky, and Cohen!
Childhood Vaccination Rates Have Dropped Again, C.D.C. Data Shows (NY Times via archive.ph)
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.
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.
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…
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.
RE: A Language Made of Blue Diary of a Deer
That is a fantastic essay, thanks for including it Conor!
teardrop emoji…
Another bad merger I just got an email about,
Monster and CareerBuilder to combine, creating stronger job board for talent and employers
That sounds really nasty.
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.
I don’t recognize her. Any help?
It should be Margaret Thatcher, but replies say Francesca Albanese.
FWIW – the tweet from “Zohran Mamdani” is from an X account unrelated to him.
This sh1t is lit
Trump fires commissioner of labor statistics after weaker-than-expected jobs figures slam markets
No subtleties here
Markets will stop trusting government data entirely soon, if not already.
America is going great
I guess we’re seeing what state-collapse looks like in real time.
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.
“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
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
Must be time to light another match??!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2E8wW-YGBA
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.
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.
A powerful interview with Gabor Maté:
Israel, Gaza, and the Empire of Lies: Dr. Gabor Maté on Truth and Trauma
Francesca is not an iron lady as such, she is an avatar of truth.
All hail truth!
OpenAI was gonna go bankrupt soon enough with its burn rate, so that date is temporarily pushed back
and
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.
The problem is even if goes into bankruptcy, filing for Chapter 13 would allow OpenAI to continue to operate.
Not sure if this is real or not. Like others, Harlan Ellison is aggravating.
Harlan Ellison’s Solution for Palestine and Israel
Tom Servo:
[gasping] They arrested Harlan Ellison.
Joel:
Good.
Still not sure if this Harlan Ellison interview was real: The Blog of Clifford Meth: Part III of my Harlan Ellison interview, in which Harlan refuses to solve the problems of the Middle East but solves our problem with the Middle East…
Transcript
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: