Links 8/14/2025

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1. ChrisFromGA August 14, 2025 at 7:05 am

   Goon Light

   Sung to the tune of “Moonlight” as performed by Starbuck

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYnQsvtfEsQ&list=RDHYnQsvtfEsQ

   [Verse 1]

   The wind blew some luck in my direction
   I caught it in my hands today
   I finally made a tricky SCOTUS Connection
   They winked and gave me their OK

   I’d take you on a trip beside the ocean
   And drop you off in Gitmo Bay
   Ain’t nothin’ like some new confinement potion
   ICE Barbie sends you on your way! (ha ha ha)

   [Chorus]

   Goon light
   Third Reich
   Our might
   Makes right

   [Verse 2]

   We’ll lay back and observe no constitutions
   And bash some skulls with truncheons — right!
   We’ll deport some folks to random nations
   When ICE comes in the dead of night

   You say you came to Baltimore from Los Mochis
   A class action might save the day
   Kristi’s glove looks ready for a wet kiss
   To make the Third Reich rise again!

   [Chorus]

   Goon light
   Third Reich
   Our might
   Makes right

   [Marimba solo]

   [reprise]

   I’d take you on a trip beside the ocean
   And drop you off in Gitmo Bay
   Ain’t nothin’ like some new confinement potion
   ICE Barbie’s gonna send you on your way! (ha ha ha)

   [Chorus]

   Goon light
   Third Reich
   Our might
   Makes right

   [Verse 3]

   We’ll see the sun come up on Sunday morning
   And chase some more brown folks away
   I guess you won’t get a Miranda warning
   Cause Kristi Noem ain’t here to play

   I’d take you on a trip beside the ocean
   And drop you off in Gitmo Bay
   Ain’t nothin’ like some new confinement potion
   ICE Barbie’s gonna send you on your way! (ha ha ha)

   [Chorus]

   Goon light
   Third Reich
   Our might
   Makes right

   [Bonus verse]

   The IDF is rolling into Gaza
   It’s Bibi’s time to ground and pound
   Back home, the kids run riot on the plaza
   The cops have got a junkie on the ground

   Goon light
   Third Reich
   Our might
   Makes right

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2. The Rev Kev August 14, 2025 at 7:15 am

   “Trump vows ‘ very severe consequences’ if Putin doesn’t agree to end war’

   Absolutely. He’ll huff and puff and blooooow the whole Russian economy down. Read that Trump was saying that after his summit meeting with Putin, that there should be a quick mini-summit between Putin and Zelensky which he might be gracious enough to take part in. Trump is so transparent. The only purpose of that would be to establish that Zelensky is still the “legitimate’ leader of the Ukraine because Putin met with him and for no other reason. There are still demands for a conflict freeze but Putin and the Russians are in no mood to sign up for a Minsk 3 and Trump is in danger of meeting with a leader that says ‘no’ direct to his face.How will he cope?

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   1. ChrisFromGA August 14, 2025 at 7:18 am

      I predict double-secret probation!

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      1. t August 14, 2025 at 8:35 am

         Two bangers in a row!

         Reply ↓
      2. Neutrino August 14, 2025 at 8:57 am

         Will there be pinky-swearing?
         Asking for a friend.

         Reply ↓
   2. jsn August 14, 2025 at 9:08 am

      Mafia Don assumes all the other rackets run the same way his does.

      It’s always worked for him before…

      It’s the “Peter Principle” in neon for the world to behold.

      Reply ↓
3. .Tom August 14, 2025 at 7:20 am

   > Our Culture is Addicted to Validation – Freddie deBoer

   You’re absolutely right. ;) https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/3382

   Idk if Deboer is right that this is much of an indicator of something in our culture but it is certainly the case that chatbots are abject suck ups.

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   1. CanCyn August 14, 2025 at 8:19 am

      Something about DeBoer’s worries struck a chord in me. I’ve been out of the workplace for a long time but I remember being uncomfortable with the need for all the niceties and compliments required in meetings and email communications. It had become almost impossible to disagree with or criticize an idea or direction or policy, however respectfully or constructively done, even if you could provide good reasons for doing so. Upper level admin really did thrive on sycophancy. And there is all this manifestation stuff going on now. Just how the hell is anyone believing that wishing for something will make it happen. And if it is true that good things happen because we deserve them, is it not also true that bad things happen because we deserve them? A helpful notion for those who think they only need to take care of themselves… Those poor homeless losers brought it on themselves, right? Our misconstrued ideas over masking during a pandemic being but one example of poor consequences of such focusing on one’s self.

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      1. GramSci August 14, 2025 at 8:26 am

         Freddie kind of hits the nail on the head for me, too. It’s what I’ve been calling “the banality of empire”: the greater the inequality — at every level of the imperial hierarchy — the more we are all transformed into narcissists and sycophants. It has never ended well.

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      2. Neutrino August 14, 2025 at 9:01 am

         That validation played out on arrogant strivers, turning up the narcissism and tuning out remaining any sense of guilt, shame or decency. Others become speed bumps, collateral damage, irritations on that glorious road to fame and fortune. /:

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         1. jsn August 14, 2025 at 9:17 am

            It’s the perfect selection methodology for promoting sociopaths!

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   2. hazelbee August 14, 2025 at 8:56 am

      They are all like sunny state happy Americans, Californians perhaps. Eager to please. Like digital puppies hairing off into the distance based on one request. and there I am thinking “I havent finished asking for what I want yet, you don’t know what I want, just stop, ask me more clarifying questions”…

      I want a dour, cynical, terse Scandinavian version. Or viking. Or some other european stereotype.

      Telling me when idea X is doomed or asking me why I am bothering with idea Y… or perhaps occasionally saying “No, not doing that. total waste of energy, do it yourself”

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4. Wukchumni August 14, 2025 at 7:34 am

   First Lady Melania Trump has threatened to sue Hunter Biden for more than $1bn after he claimed she was introduced to her husband by sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

   Lawyers acting on behalf of the first lady, who married US President Donald Trump in 2005, described the claim as “false, disparaging, defamatory and inflammatory”.

   Biden, son of former US President Joe Biden, made the comments during an interview earlier this month, in which he strongly criticised the president’s former ties to Epstein.

   Donald Trump was a friend of Epstein, but has said the pair fell out in the early 2000s because the financier had poached employees who worked at the spa in Trump’s Florida golf club.

   A letter from the first lady’s lawyers and addressed to an attorney for Hunter Biden demands he retract the claim and apologise, or face legal action for “over $1bn in damages”.

   It says the first lady has suffered “overwhelming financial and reputational harm” because of the claim he repeated.
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~

   Benedict Donald filed in excess of 4,000 lawsuits over his storied career of being that guy that not only sez he’ll sue you!, but he always goes through with it, which makes this caper a little weird, in that all Hunter has to do is make a Billion Dollar apology, hmmm.

   So between the $10 Billion lawsuit against the WSJ over birthday card greetings and a potential $1 Billion lawsuit over how Melania and he met, it goes to 11.

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   1. GramSci August 14, 2025 at 8:31 am

      Aye, so there was a kind of poetic justice in the Dem’s law fare against Trump…as if one can find poetry in lawfare.

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      1. Wukchumni August 14, 2025 at 8:37 am

         …there’s something awful about a filthy sewer overflowing with threats

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   2. The Rev Kev August 14, 2025 at 9:17 am

      ‘First Lady Melania Trump has threatened to sue Hunter Biden for more than $1bn after he claimed she was introduced to her husband by sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.’

      This is obviously a rubbish claim this. Melania was about 35 years-old when she married Trump so would have been far, far too old for someone like Jeffrey Epstein to know.

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5. The Rev Kev August 14, 2025 at 7:37 am

   “U.S. MQ-9 Drone Just Flew A Mission Deep Into Mexico”

   ‘The drone was operating at the behest of the Mexican government, according to the head of that nation’s Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, Omar García Harfuch.’

   This reminds me of the guy that says that he is boss of the house and whatever he says goes – and he has his wife’s permission to say so.

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   1. ChrisFromGA August 14, 2025 at 7:57 am

      Who wants to bet that some of the Colombian mercs that are fighting in Ukraine make it back home and sell some of their services to the cartels?

      Having a MQ-9 shot down in your own backyard might be … embarrassing, to say the least.

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      1. The Rev Kev August 14, 2025 at 8:03 am

         At thirty million dollars a pop, one of them being shot down would be more than embarrassing. I had this vision of some Cartel strapping machine guns to the wings of an ag crop plane and using it to shoot down a Reaper by following it location on that plane tracker. Can you imagine the reaction?

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         1. ChrisFromGA August 14, 2025 at 8:25 am

            One has to factor in that these guys are likely to be motivated by a sense of betrayal. They were promised a “safari” to hunt Russians, and instead they got no air cover and a meat grinder.

            Not to mention that the Ukrainians have a bad habit of not paying salaries.

            Blowback – it’s what’s for dinner!

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6. Ben Panga August 14, 2025 at 7:55 am

   Re: How the unraveling of two Pentagon projects may result in a costly do-over

   Donald Trump’s Navy and Air Force are poised to cancel two nearly complete software projects that took 12 years and well over $800 million combined to develop, work initially aimed at overhauling antiquated human resources systems.

   The reason for the unusual move: officials at those departments, who have so far put the existing projects on hold, want other firms, including Salesforce and billionaire Peter Thiel’s Palantir, to have a chance to win similar projects, which could amount to a costly do-over, according to seven sources familiar with the matter….

   …Costello, who has since retired, was reacting to pressure from other Air Force officials who wanted to steer a new HR project to SalesForce (CRM.N), opens new tab and Palantir (PLTR.O), three sources said….

   Thiel/Palantir was started with CIA money, and only had the CIA as a customer for years. Subsequently it has got it’s tentacles throughout the gov and military. Thiel has captured a lot of generals and bureaucrats over those years. Good for pork, good for his fascist takeover.

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   1. t August 14, 2025 at 8:39 am

      Was going to comment on this, but not as smoothly.

      Scrapping the existing government wholesale for the savings of craptacular tech garbage that, at best, will only serve to surveil us.

      (Bonus savings for axing existing working space projects while we pretend to build a nuke on the dang moon.)

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   2. griffen August 14, 2025 at 8:51 am

      The trough is deep and plenty of room for old hands and new firms alike.,,I didn’t expect that article to feature the planned or ongoing overhauls of HR, payroll and HR management software but it reads much like why the Air Traffic safety systems are so very outdated and behind on progress. Plenty of money to go around but they, meaning our “trusted US government”, can’t fix a damn thing or get it right on the first go around.

      The article also serves as a reminder of our vaunted Space Force. \sarc

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   3. ilsm August 14, 2025 at 9:10 am

      Navy/AF HR systems cannot be shutdown and a new just system started. They need to run in parallel.

      The SW projects probably paid for a lot of “support contractors” to run the legacy HR systems.

      They are called Advisory and Assistance Support, and often replace civil servants and soldiers. IT contracts often cover for A&AS contract personnel dong for the customer.

      Changing systems is overly hard for DoD. The rest of the federal gov’t as well, but outside DoD plunder is small waste.

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7. The Rev Kev August 14, 2025 at 7:59 am

   “Man who threw sandwich at officer in DC charged with felony”

   Where’s the beef? That is what I want to know. Where’s the beef? They really want to charge a guy with felonious assault by a sandwich? Sounds like a lot of baloney to me. But then Jeanine Pirro, AG for DC, spoke up-

   ‘He took a Subway sandwich about this big and took it and threw it at the officer. He thought it was funny. Well, he doesn’t think it’s funny today because we charged him with a felony, assault on a police officer, and we’re going to back the police to the hilt. So there, stick your Subway sandwich somewhere else.’

   Maybe that guy can ask that Pirro herself be charged – for making sexual threats to him.

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8. Wukchumni August 14, 2025 at 8:17 am

   Retail investors fight for right to bet on natural disasters FT
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   All of these assorted sordid financial bubbles have turned many into mad punters for a little piece of the action, not content merely to wager on the next pitch in a meaningless baseball game, they’re looking to parlay a heat wave into a hurricane with resulting loss of tens of thousands of homes.

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   1. The Rev Kev August 14, 2025 at 8:58 am

      Can you imagine a tsunami sweeping over The Hamptons and some guy cheering on Wall Street? And when his fellow investors point out that his family, his home, in fact his entire neighbourhood is now just plain gone, would reply ‘Yeah, but I made a big play on something like this happening and now I won!’

      https://www.youtube.com/shorts/moeiNE_mspo

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9. DJG, Reality Czar August 14, 2025 at 8:18 am

   Mouse Farm, by Bucklee and Fitzgerald. With some great photos of charismatic field mice.

   Yesterday, we had a discussion in the comments of the article about not anthropomorphizing animals.

   To wit: Indeed, from the author Miriam Bahagijo: “Instead of anthropomorphizing, we should try to understand animals based on how they experience the world with their own senses.”

   When I mentioned that I recalled the days when dogs were dogs, I meant the same sense of an animal that Bucklee (who seems to be the main voice and who seems to have severe long Covid) describes in his interactions with field mice.

   I recall a time when a dog was a familiar in the house (like Saint Luke’s ox) but wasn’t overwhelmed by the emotional neediness of the owners — which which doesn’t mean that I advocate indifference or cruelty toward dogs, just as Bucklee is exercised about how not to be cruel to his (unintentionally welcomed) mice. When I think of taking animals on their own terms, I think of those wonderful videos (and there are many) of people who feed crows and discover that crows leave gifts in return. Just as taking a dog on its own terms means learning that dogs have a sense of humor (although not always about themselves — there is a dog’s pride). Which you are not as likely to discover if you are carrying an overbred teacup poodle in your handbag.

   The essay has much to say about trying to repair things (what to do with the little intruders?), the delicacy of health, and our interaction with animals. Recommended.

   PS: The wonderful detail of the article is also a kind of reminder that when thinking of divinity, one must think of gods as immanent. That leads to Apollo of the Mice, one of Apollo’s nicknames. Immanence leads to the common idea in the ancient Mediterranean world that there is a god in a flower.

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   1. The Rev Kev August 14, 2025 at 9:07 am

      I was just thinking of something that British author Jerome K. Jerome pointed out when you were talking about dogs. He said that some people gush over dogs and some families make the family dog the center of attention and a dog will lap it up and enjoy it. The more the better but it will end up corrupting a perfectly good dog.

      A cat, on the other hand, will not tolerate such nonsense.

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10. griffen August 14, 2025 at 8:30 am

    98 years old and continuing to play her piano. Bit of an eye opener this morning but in a rather pleasant or soothing way, just my opinion. I was looking at generation distinctions last weekend just to randomly look; this Japanese woman was, like my late parents, a part of the Silent Generation born between 1928 to 1945. Let’s see welcome to the world and voila it’s The Great Depression.,,the Dust Bowl… Of course WW2, the very dark Fascism of Hitler, Mussolini, the iron rule by Stalin. Calamitous eras of history in the US and the world.

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    1. Judith August 14, 2025 at 8:46 am

       Traumerei was played on Moscow radio May 8, 1945, in memory of the victims of the Soviet Union’s war against Nazi Germany.

       https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/schumanns-kinderscenen-op-15-no-7-traumerei/

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    2. Wukchumni August 14, 2025 at 8:48 am

       Really thought my mom would make it to 100, but 98 was plenty good enough. She was a super ager with an exceptional memory, which she passed on to me in her will.

       I remember watching Earl Wild playing the piano quite masterfully in his 80’s @ a concert at the Hollywood Bowl, but don’t try and be a pro athlete later in life, Joe Montana as QB at 69?

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11. DJG, Reality Czar August 14, 2025 at 8:36 am

    Here I am, appearing once more as your friend M.P. Cato. From the article by Jonathan Cook, The West Is in a Panic…

    [Tell me when these jamokes aren’t in a panic.]

    To wit:
    Starmer’s government, for one, knew this was coming. Flight data shows that the UK has been constantly operating surveillance missions over Gaza on Israel’s behalf from the Royal Air Force base Akrotiri on Cyprus. Downing Street has been following the enclave’s erasure step by step.

    Underlying story at The Guardian: Note the “funny” business with the transponder…

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/aug/07/uks-surveillance-flights-over-gaza-raise-questions-on-help-for-israeli-military

    Akrotiri and Dhekelia must be taken out.

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12. The Rev Kev August 14, 2025 at 8:41 am

    ‘NewsWire
    @NewsWire_US
    Lindsey Graham: “If America pulls the plug on Israel, God will pull the plug on us.” ‘

    Please dear Lord, pull the plug on Lindsay Graham. Your choice how. Maybe just let him suffocate in his closet or something.

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    1. DJG, Reality Czar August 14, 2025 at 8:53 am

       Rev Kev.

       “If America pulls the plug on Israel, God will pull the plug on us.” ‘My attitude: Sic transit gloria mundi.

       Bad religion, bad foreign policy, bad economic policy. What could go wrong?

       And yet: Have you noticed that Lindsay Graham looks more and more like Divine, except without Divine’s many redeeming qualities?

       Sooner or later, Graham is going to stumble over his cha-cha heels.

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13. DJG, Reality Czar August 14, 2025 at 8:50 am

    DropSite: Important.

    “Hundreds of Former Israeli Spies Are Working in Big Tech…”

    First, I kept wondering why Epstein stuck to money-laundering and influence peddling. It may have been that he and Ghislaine Maxwell (whose father was pretty much a full-out spy) had their hands full dealing with the avarice of the upper crust of the Anglosphere. After all, the avarice was bad enough and complicated enough, but it is seldom a crime — so they had to keep their charges under control and under wraps by abetting them in engaging in rape and sexual trafficking of minors.

    But as the DropSite article notes, “The presence of current or former intelligence agents from foreign countries in key industries in the U.S. is generally considered a source of concern due to counterintelligence and industrial espionage threats. For decades, Israel has been identified as a major counterintelligence threat in the U.S., particularly for the targeting of industrial and technical secrets.”

    Evidently, or maybe we just don’t know yet, Epstein and Maxwell weren’t as helpful when it came to industrial espionage. The industrial espionage by Israelis has been an open secret for years. I don’t want to get all paranoid — a natural development? Or is their an Epstein-figure behind this invasion of Silicon Valley?

    PS: The size of this suborning of U.S. enterprise is another reason why the US of A is immobile on Gaza and the West Bank. All trussed up and nowhere to go. Except down.

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    1. Neutrino August 14, 2025 at 9:16 am

       Big Tech is a big target, sighted in by numerous countries for various purposes. Some are commercial, or industrial, or some combination, including the occasional espionage.

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14. Ghost in the Machine August 14, 2025 at 9:20 am

    Thyssenkrupp allowed to deliver submarine to Israel Taz (machine translation)

    This is insane given the Sampson option. When Is. starts collapsing, which some commentators suggest is happening now, countries could get nuked that simply do not prop them up enough. This psychotically genocidal country has implied before, if they go down, for whatever reason, everyone goes down, even allies. If I was the leader of a world power (Russia, China, US, even European countries) it would be a priority to track these subs with attack subs to try to prevent this apocalyptic insanity. Maybe even have standing orders to sink them if a situation arose where there was plausible deniability. But, instead, they provide more. The rulers of the west will kill us all. Israelis that have fled presumably have resources and want to survive. Many are in cities I bet that might be targeted. I wonder if they have discussions about this with those in their new locations. Does the average Israeli even know the extent to which the nuclear threat has been made, the Sampson option.

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15. Mikel August 14, 2025 at 9:23 am

    “This is, without exaggerating, one of the most extraordinary things a US Treasury Secretary ever said…”
    @Arnaud Bertrand

    Bessent should have really made people’s heads explode and called it “capitalism with Chinese characteristics”.

    Click to Edit – 

    

    "This is, without exaggerating, one of the most extraordinary things a US Treasury Secretary ever said..." @Arnaud Bertrand Bessent should have really made people's heads explode and called it "capitalism with Chinese characteristics".

    SaveCancelDelete

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