Archaeologists in Mexico Discover Long-Lost City Inhabited by Maya Rebels Who Resisted the Spanish Conquest Smithsonian (Chuck L)
Exposure to some common Pfas changes gene activity, new study finds Guardian (resilc)
Scientists may have found the tiny DNA switch that made us human ScienceDaily (Kevin W). Lordie. They can’t bring themselves to say “mutation” in the headline?
Something Inside Your Gut Could Be Like a Natural Ozempic ScienceAlert (Chuck L)
Today’s Weed Is 5x Stronger and the Mental Health Risks Are Rising SciTech Daily (Chuck L)
Effects of international sanctions on age-specific mortality: a cross-national panel data analysis Lancet Global Health (resilc). Sanctions kill!
COVID-19/Pandemics
🔬New study shows SARS-CoV-2 causes direct damage to heart cell mitochondria – even months after recovery – helping potentially explain Long COVID heart symptoms like chest pain, palpitations & fatigue.
Been waiting to have time to read this paper. Let’s break it down. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/GFDi8xI20s
— Jack | amatica health (@JackHadfield14) August 15, 2025
Note that a pre-Omicron study, IIRC based on VA data, found the odds of getting Long Covid rose to 39% after 3 infections
Based on a meta-analysis of 429 studies, an estimated 36% of all people infected with SARS-CoV-2 develop Long COVID.
The condition affects the entire body, with fatigue, respiratory issues, and psychological symptoms being the most prevalent clusters.https://t.co/8cnA9AbDxR pic.twitter.com/KEusbQqFPm
— David Lingenfelter, PhD (@dlingenfelter) August 15, 2025
Climate/Environment
Clear-Cutting Triggers 18x More Floods, for 40+ Years SciTech Daily (Chuck L)
Glacier Outburst Floods: Mendenhall Glacier StoryMaps (Chuck L)
Lithuania declares agriculture emergency after crops damaged by rain Reuters
How heatwaves are ruining British roads Telegraph
MIDDLE EAST HEAT WAVE
Another record day in EGYPTHellish day in Asswan:
min 34.3 max 48.6
Hottest day and hottest night ever recorded in August and 0.1C from Egyptian August hottest night (it can fall tomorrow)Min. 29.2 Port Said- Hottest night in history pic.twitter.com/BLykUJxLNU
— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) August 15, 2025
Thousands Flee Wildfires Across Greece as Heat Withers Crops Insurance Journal
Iraq’s Tigris and Euphrates near collapse as water crisis deepens Shafqq
The Amazon Rainforest Approaches a Point of No Return Yale 360
Climate models reveal how human activity may be locking the Southwest [US] into permanent drought PhysOrg
China?
Taiwan and the limits of American power Asia Times (Kevin W)
China’s economy lags in July under pressure from tariffs and a weak property market Independent
China’s mega dam Xiluodu stops using Western industrial chips over security concerns South China Morning Post (guurst)
India
Worse than Sub-Saharan Africa, Pakistan’: Financial planner warns of income crisis in India Business Today
Africa
Sudan loses over a third of power output as war plunges cities into darkness New Arab
Mali junta accuses ‘foreign states’ of attempted destabilisation plot France24
Antipodes
New Zealand’s population exodus hits 13-year high as economy worsens Reuters
South of the Border
Exclusive: Trump ally Erik Prince plans to keep personnel in Haiti for 10 years to fight gangs and collect taxes Reuters. resilc: “He could be our next dictator after Trump.”
US Military Deploying Forces to Southern Caribbean Against Drug Groups US News
European Disunion
German Russia policy has shattered due to its denial of reality Nachdenkseiten via machine translation (Micael T)
French borrowing costs close in on Italy’s as investors fret over debts Financial Times
Davos founder Schwab cleared of misconduct by WEF probe Agence France-Presse
Old Blighty
Bond traders know that Britain’s in trouble CAPX
Young people are becoming increasingly authoritarian Spectator
Israel v. The Resistance
Please click through for full text:
this is a moment for the history books. It tells us so much about the Israeli psyche.
After failing utterly to defeat a tiny resistance force of lightly armed native warriors in a tiny strip of land, over a period of two years, and after detonating the equivalent of seven… https://t.co/nbaPzEBMak
— susan abulhawa | سوزان ابو الهوى (@susanabulhawa) August 15, 2025
UN Gives Israel Pass to Rape Palestinians BettBeat
* * Norway’s $1.9 Trillion Sovereign Wealth Fund Sells Off Israeli Assets YouTube
Italian dockworkers block passage of Saudi ship carrying arms for Israel The Cradle (Chuck L)
IDF troops given the heads up to prepare for Gaza offensive YNet
Not a single national news outlet has even mentioned the fact that a high ranking Israeli official was arrested in a child sex crime sting by the @FBI.
Then released and sent back to Israel. https://t.co/Cnasr2aFUv
— Shaun King (@shaunking) August 16, 2025
Putin-Trump Summit
Historic Summit: An Empty and Underwhelming PR Spectacle, But Still Good For Relations Simplicius
The Putin Trump Summit: A Triumph for Putin, A Disaster for the Neocons Larry Johnson
Trump leaves Alaska summit with Putin empty-handed after failing to reach a deal to end Ukraine war Associated Press (Kevin W)
USSR sweatshirt and chicken kyiv: Russia dials up trolling before Alaska summit Guardian (resilc)
Trump Calls Russia and China ‘Natural Enemies’ Vzgylad (Micael T)
New Not-So-Cold War
“The Ukrainian Soldier … is just not there.” Moon of Alabama
Experts say rural emergency rooms are increasingly run without doctors CNN (resilc)
Imperial Collapse Watch
Under the Sea: China’s Digital Silk Road and the Middle East Juan Cole
Transformer supply bottleneck threatens power system stability as load grows Utility Dive (resilc)
Trump 2.0
DC attorney general sues Trump over police takeover efforts The Hill
Roaming Charges: From Police State to Military Police State CounterPunch (resilc)
* * * Trump reportedly called Norwegian minister ‘out of the blue’ to ask about Nobel prize Guardian (Dr. Kevin)
US sanctions Brazil health officials over Cuba’s overseas medical missions Aljazeera (Kevin W)
Kristi Noem is living free of charge in Coast Guard commandant’s home Washington Post (resilc)
Draft of ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Report Suggests RFK Jr. Won’t Push Pesticide Regulations New York Times (resilc)
Trumpists against Trump London Review of Books (resilc)
DOGE
A DOGE AI Tool Called SweetREX Is Coming to Slash US Government Regulation WIRED
Democrats en déshabillé
This Could Be the End of Chuck Schumer’s Political Career PJ (Chuck L)
Mamdani
Norman made the same point: https://t.co/LwH5EbQqxi Why is Obama calling him and getting his genocidal Zionist crew of David Axelrod and other scum to worm themselves into Zohran's inner circle? Why are Time Magazine and the other liberal genocidal Zionist rags doing fawning…
— ☀️👀 (@zei_squirrel) August 14, 2025
Mr. Market is Moody
The global bond glut: a doom loop of financial repression OMFIF
AI
AI and The Modern Tower Of Babel indi.ca (resilc)
Does Generative AI Facilitate Investor Trading? Early Evidence from ChatGPT Outages ScienceDirect
Class-action suit claims Otter AI secretly records private work conversations NPR (Kevin W)
Musk, a Guillotine Watch Special Feature
Elon Musk’s SpaceX Most Likely Doesn’t Pay Taxes New York Times (resilc)
Apple (and everyone else) tells Elon Musk he’s wrong about app favoritism MacWorld
Guillotine Watch
Giving Pledge is falling far short of its promise, report finds | Philanthropy news PND (resilc)
Class Warfare
>Money Can’t Buy Life: The Richest Americans Die Earlier Than the Poorest Europeans Vice. From earlier this year, still germane. We wrote about this first in 2007, that highly unequal societies exact a lifespan cost even on the wealthy.
121 College Towns Examined: Is Buying a Home Cheaper Than Campus Housing? Globest (Robin K)
The Vanishing White Male Writer Compact (Chuck L). Hhhm.
Inside the automated warehouse where robots are packing your groceries The Verge (resilc)
Antidote du jour (via):
A bonus (Chuck L):
The laws of physics don't apply to mountain goats… pic.twitter.com/NiJX2pIEy9
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) August 12, 2025
A second bonus (Chuck L):
Puma touched the swing and suddenly discovered physics. pic.twitter.com/ejUPltfbNw
— The Figen (@TheFigen_) August 12, 2025
And a third (Chuck L):
The monkey’s reaction.. 😂 pic.twitter.com/aq9NGg33rj
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) August 10, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Should that be “mutation” that science daily are unwilling to say?
Thanks. WP’s spell check was supposed to help catch that…
“USSR sweatshirt and chicken kyiv: Russia dials up trolling before Alaska summit”
Lavrov being the boss and giving zero *****. ‘Earlier, the editor-in-chief of RT, Margarita Simonyan, wrote that the Russian press corps flying to Alaska had been served chicken kyiv cutlets.’
Somebody in the Trump regime has a grudge against Russian journalists. Here is a longer video clip by one of the reporters and he mentions that even the pilots of Putin’s plane are camped there. I bet that even the lowliest SS agent is not living like this-
https://xcancel.com/ferozwala/status/1956251862392521170
So what happens if when Trump goes to Moscow, the American media are housed in one of the stadiums there? After all ‘what goes around, comes around.’ But would anybody care in America if this happened to American media types?
The above Larry Johnson has a summary of the NYT summit kvetching by their star reporters, including that they had to fly all the way to Alaska for the symbolic meet up.
A spell of camping might be character building for this lot.
“A spell of camping might be character building for this lot.”
👍😂
Just set them up to be treated like the average citizen in Gaza to give them an education on that experience at the same time as well.
US media should be housed in a POW camp, because they are enemy combatants in a hybrid war.
If you want to roll back the Empire of Lies, you must shut down the Lie Factories (Fox, NYT, CNN, WaPo, OANN, MSNBC, WSJ, etc.). “By any means necessary,” as Malcolm X said. But it would be satisfying to have a Nuremberg tribunal just for them.
The CW media trying to convince us all that Ukraine is doing well, finishing with Russian energy infrastructure and that the integrity of former Ukraine is non negotiable and all that crap and here we see Lavrov undoubtedly trolling the CW which is a sign of confidence. Apart from the enragement Western media is unable to grasp the reality.
Had one story on the news last night about how the plucky Ukrainians are fighting back against the evil invaders with a few interviews with (younger) ones. No mention of how the whole eastern front is starting to collapse right now. Not newsworthy I guess.
One thing Russians are not, is petty. But they do have long memories. One very telling act by Putin in Alaska was to visit the graves of Soviet pilots buried there, and to pointedly thank the manager of the cemetery for keeping the graves in such good condition. A stark contract with Ukraine, and to an extent the Baltic states, where war graves of Red Army soldiers killed there in WW2, are increasingly being desecrated.
Funnily enough, at the time a hotel in Kiev innovated* the chicken kyiv, over 80% of Kievans identified as Russian (15% were Jews and less than 5% Ukrainian). And it was a Soviet cook book that made it actually famous. Just saying.
As for the lodging arrangements, I did see the British complaining that they were lodged right next to the garbage dump of the base. So, the chances are that the actual barracks are in too bad condition to be shown to the foreign correspondents…
* a similar dish from minced chicken has been know to most Slavic people since forever. My grocery actually sells that as Chicken Kiev
Re: agriculture in the Baltics this summer
Not just the damage from heavy rainfall this year. Also, (at least the Kaunas region) tomato blight is freaking rampant. People are losing entire crops before even a single fruit starts to ripen. It’s got to be hitting the cannabis crops, too – the two plants share lots of fungal weaknesses..
Vine and tree stuff are about the only things doing well. And a lot of apples got lost when the February warm spell got them blooming right before the cold came back in March.
If only Lithuania were located near an agricultural powerhouse that could supply all their needs for a fair price and all that food could be quickly transported there.
Lithuania sacrificed billions in agricultural exports to Russia starting in 2014. I recall poultry and dairy were huge exports. Not to worry for Lithuania, they can import exorbitantly priced EU food!
IDK, just reading the climate/environment headlines here every morning gives me an uneasy thoughts concerning future global food supply.
Hunga Tonga is hitting hard…
Here’s what a similar volcano eruption did to Russia around the turn of the century, once upon a time~
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_of_Troubles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_famine_of_1601%E2%80%931603
How long to go before the Hunga Tonga water-vapor pulse works its way back out of the global surfacespheric system?
And how would we know?
Too true. All that, plus cheap gas and cheap, reliable electricity too.
And as far as local manufacturing – Kaunas sits right roughly in the geographic center of Europe. At least, until a line got thickened in on our eastern edge. Now we are just an isolated remote corner.
But it gets better! All of six years ago, China was developing Vilnius as a main distribution hub for rail cargo entering Europe on the northern entry of Belt-and-Road. And planning significant investment in Port of Klaipeda as the closest sea node.
But what we got in exchange! Ukrainian nazis and leeches (sometimes in the same person)! German soldiers on permanent occupation duty inside our lands again! The pretend president of Belarus living and working here at taxpayer expense!
Condos in Ohio for every single Lithuanian politician! It’s great to be so affordable!
121 College Towns Examined: Is Buying a Home Cheaper Than Campus Housing? Globest (Robin K)
*********
Renting for four years has an expected cost of $48,000 assuming $1000/month rent (which is conservative); and rising rapidly, and more in more expensive college towns. It’s obviously better to buy an investment property if you can afford it.
I had a classmate at Penn State (early 1990s) whose dad bought a modest three bedroom house in State College not far from campus.
My classmate was the youngest of three who went to school there. Rent from roommates paid the mortgage and after my classmate graduated they sold the house.
10+ years of almost free housing and then what was likely a nice profit on the sale.
Business model in many college towns. In Bozeangeles del Caleeforneyyah Norte, the added bonus ins that the ‘rents come visit and fish-hunt-ski.
Its a mixed-race marriage, and towns like Durango and Bozeman are inundated with
Trustafarian Fishhuntskis.
Similar here in Canada. Student’s parents buy house, add three roommates and student graduates possibly with a profit.
File under when State Universities were privatized.
Sergei Lavrov’s pop-cultural references.
The Guardian is aghastoskaya. “In a not-so-subtle act of trolling, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, arrived in Alaska on the eve of the US–Russia summit wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with “CCCP”, the Russian initials for the USSR.”
Come on. Everyone knows that Seryozha is a fan of the Italian punk / rock / essential-listening group CCCP.
Alessio Marasco wrote for Radio Capital: “I CCCP hanno introdotto una commistione inedita di punk rock, folk russo, musica industriale ed elettronica, accompagnata da testi fortemente politicizzati e performativi. Questo mix ha rotto gli schemi del rock italiano, trasformando ogni concerto in un atto di sovversione culturale e arricchendo il lessico musicale con riferimenti ideologici e filosofici.”
Last summer, CCCP reunited for its first tour in something like thirty years. I went out to Collegno, an old city that shares a border with the Chocolate City. The concert was astounding, particularly because the all-ages (and we’re talking all ages) audience sang along with CCCP. It went on for something like four hours. Damn those singing commies.
For your revolutionary listening:
Curami (“take care of me,” revolutionary romance):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-CPpN3VYR0#ddg-play
With the immortal bridge that even I can sing:
Sono una terapia sono una terapia sono una terapia sono una terapia
Sono una terapia sono una terapia sono una terapia sono una terapia
Sono una terapia sono una terapia sono una terapia
Sono una terapia sono una terapia sono una terapia
Plus, Sto Bene (“I’m just fine”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktXXLF4pepU
Here in Italy, a CCCP t-shirt would not cause panic. Why are denizens of the Anglosphere so darn panicky? Bad faith? Guilt bubbling up through what remains of their conscience?
The Evil Empire is on the march again. Or at least we have a wannabe Reagan trying to resurrect Gopper glory days.
Last night watched Path to War, the 2002 HBO show about Vietnam with the great Michael Gambon as LBJ. Perhaps Lavrov was trying to remind us of all that rhyming history and not just a music fan.
Of course Reagan also summited wtih a Russian leader so yesterday was all part of Trumpian deja vu.
Putin’s Posse, starting with Lavrov, have great humor and sharp wit.
Trump, stuck in MAGA mind, keeps thinking of 45 years ago pal Mike Eruzione and the Miracle on Ice.
Jim Craig was delighted to have friendly goal-posts that game. Goalies’ best friend.
We’re not in Kansas any more…
Did anyone notice this: https://unn.ua/en/news/putin-awarded-the-order-of-lenin-to-a-cia-employee-whose-son-died-fighting-for-russia
Putin has a rather dry sense of humour but this was classic. And not nice. He seems a bit annoyed with the USA.
Young people are becoming increasingly authoritarian – Spectator
What in the silly season is that article?
I’m not denying people’s problems are real.
But I want to burst out laughing when it’s all blamed on business taxes and regulation. Don’t get me started with the contradiction of youth seeking authoritarianism because they are rejecting a perceived authoritarianism.
It’s non class conscious faux populism.
.
I believe this is the beginning of a UK MSM effort to shepard younger people into voting for Farage over Corbyn.
Unless Corbyn outlines a concrete programme of material benefits better than Farage’s, they will vote Reform….
At the moment both challenger parties are like the South Sea Bubble, “a company for carrying out an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is”.
“This Could Be the End of Chuck Schumer’s Political Career”
From your mouth to God’s ears…
Article claims the turning point was his vote to continue funding the government, and is a bit light on serious analysis. I’d suggest it could have been at any number of points since the election. (lots of odd things at that PJ Media site).
It’s an opinion piece from a rightwing site but doubtless the quotes from the polls are correct.
I think the last time I saw Schumer he was literally singing with joy at the Dem convention over how Kamala was going to trounce Trump. Evidently the Dem plan is for Trump to self destruct so they can continue their superannuated business as usual.
If recent history holds forth on national leaders and elected officials in the Congress, they’ll die first like Sen Feinstein or be so irredeemable they’ll get busted at last with cash and stacks of gold bars like Sen. Menendez of New Jersey. Orange looks good on you Robert!
Chuck is getting on up in age, Mitch McConnell’s probably closer to the Kentucky dirt on his coffin as well. Only two examples of quite a few, it’s jarring I tell ya. They ain’t buying green bananas!
‘Khaled Shalaby
@KShalabyNews
🚨 NEW: Israeli minister Itamar Ben Gvir filmed threatening Marwan Barghouti, the most prominent Palestinian prisoner, during a prison visit.
“Whoever murders our children… we will obliterate them.” ‘
Well, except for that time in 70 AD and the Romans that is. They effed around with the wrong empire and found out. I have no doubt that that video clip played well with Ben Gvir’s base which is why he did it. It’s not like the guy is going to grab a helmet and flak vest and see what the situation in Gaza is like for the troops on the ground fighting there. That would be beneath his dignity.
Re: “Today’s weed is 5 times stronger” than 2005 weed
I call BS. This has been a prohibitionist meme since cannabis legalization began in the late 90’s. And from personal experience, Cali, Oregon, and WA weed has been super duper since prior to legalization.
Yes there is a link between chronic cannabis use and adolescent psychosis in a few cases. Any psychoactive can and will be abused. The solution is not more prohibitionist BS but rather mental health treatment for troubled youth.
Cannabis was prohibited in 1937 during the regime of the sainted FDR. It was an act of evil, a dirty deed by a coalition of self-interested actors – Cotton State Dems; Dupont needing protection for nylon; Hearst and his wood pulp and paper empire; and the police who wanted laws they could impose on “undesirables” (brown people and communists) with very low risk. That this evil prohibition is STILL IN PLACE clearly shows we live under a regime controlled by the forces of evil. Utter filth. The enemies of humanity.
It’s not bullshit. I have had NUMEROUS smokers tell me how much more potent it is today than decades ago.
Louis CK even made a routine about it. YouTube weirdly won’t let you get the underlying video but the key part is at the top of this reaction video. And the pair reacting strongly affirms Louis CK’s description:
Hey Yves!
To counter those points, I’d suggest you look into the work of Trent Hancock out of Montana.
He is a long time dispensary owner and advocate for better testing in cannabis (mainly for pesticides)
Most of the THC content is inflated and not real, unless you are talking about concentrates.
It’s all marketing and it becomes very much a placebo effect.
I’m a frequent smoker and I’ve had more potent experiences 15 years ago compared to what I’m getting at dispensary’s today.
Long term cannabis users develop tolerance, so your subjective experience cannot correct for that
The purported four percent THC levels from two decades ago are preposterous, especially since we were already beginning to hear the “today’s-weed-is-orders-of-magnitude-more-powerful” mantra by then.
I recently celebrated my Golden Anniversary as a stoner, and I can attest that the flower (I can’t comment on edibles and concentrates) today is stronger than in the past, but not on the “Let’s All Agree to Panic” level being promoted here. I think anyone with memories of Thai Stick, Acapulco Gold and the like from back in the day could confirm that. The generic “Mersh” (commercial-grade Colombian or Mexican flower) from back then was stronger than four percent, so this piece transacts at a very high discount.
THC levels in the cannabis flower I see at dispensaries in NY and New England range from seventeen (moderate) to thirty percent (high). Supply seems to be up, prices are declining, and, while heavy cannabis use can’t be good for young people prone to psychosis, this article is familiarly overblown.
On the other hand, I can also attest that emergency rooms are seeing increased visits from a subset of cannabis users suffering from hyper emetic cannabinoid syndrome, a
form of cyclic vomiting.
It would be helpful to see IM Doc weigh in on this topic.
Had a scrommiting attack a few years ago. Really, really not a fun experience. At this point I’m convinced that it was a result of pesticides on the cannabis. Why? Because I still smoke KGB (kind green bud), at about the same rate and have no issues. And you just don’t hear about it the way you used to. But as others have noted, this is just anecdata.
Agreed, although my experience before Acapulco Gold, Panama Red, and Thai sticks varied between your “stronger than 4%” and “swept off the rope maker’s floor”.
I agree that overall cannabis strength has increased (we’re actively breeding it for strength after all), but that started ever so much earlier than 2005, at least out here on the west coast.
I will say, though, that as it’s become stronger, we just. . . smoked less. And less often. I had my Golden Anniversary 4 years ago so I and many others in my life have long experience with this substance.
Do some people not moderate and therefore experience mental illness? I have not known anyone personally doing that, though I’ve had friends give it up due to their reactions changing over time in an unpleasant direction. So as a psychoactive substance that’s getting stronger through breeding it makes sense that some will react badly. But I don’t think it follows that large numbers of smokers will become mentally ill as most people do moderate their intake.
Now vape pens are another story, at least in my personal experience. Them t’ings is nasty-strong and I find them entirely untenable.
Many years ago a college friend from CalPoly SLO (learn by doing) took his degree in Plant Science to Kawaii, bought some land and a tractor to till the soil. (Hawaiian soil is more acidic than soil on the Mainland US.) He used is Ag degree to overcome the limitations of the soil to grow Pot plants that were super potent (in THC). The pot plants were interspersed with other plantings to obscure their presence. Over time he developed a plant cultural method of pinching the plant flowers at just the right time to increase THC potency while not diminishing plant vigor. The tractor had reverse rainbow swirls painted on the large rear wheels, yet the Hawaiian authorities never came to suspect how this Howlie came to live in one of the larger estates on the island. (This was back when a college degree was meaningful)
Anecdotal. As is my view, admittedly. Even if it is true – and probably for many retail buyers in the illegal market, the quality was lower prior to legalization – it’s all about titration and variety. Different varieties have different cannabinoid profiles. It’s not just about THC-A – which I generally source flower in the 15% range, with good mix of other cannabinoids, especially CBD-A. Breeders have developed varieties with THC-A in the 30% range, but I find them like hitting my head with a hammer.
SO it’s complicated – SOME varieties are stronger than back in the day. Not “shock horror the new super pot causes psychosis!”. This is pure prohibitionist hysteria.
If anecdata is close to pervasive (I have heard this from literally every cannabis user that I know, including ones who started smoking in the 60s), it enters survey result terrain.
Even when I was smoking weed in the 80’s it was obvious some batches and varieties were considerably stronger than others. You’d roll the same joints, with the same amounts, but some would give you a nice mellow and enjoyable buzz where you feel the love and connect with everyone and your mind was still active, whereas other varieties would zombify, wipe you out, put you into a vegetative non-thinking, non-interactive state.
So from this we know, without even scientifically measuring and quantifying, let’s call it through phenomenology, that yes, it’s possible that different varieties and strains can have different impacts. What Louis CK describes is obviously the zombie version.
The question then becomes has modern weed become predominantly the zombie version? I don’t know, but one thing I do know is that in the old days we went to a lot of trouble to separate the male from the female plants, keep the males from seeding the females, because it reduced potency, and nowadays plants are mostly feminized, genetically modified so all or most seeds are female to begin with. I remember we would often buy weed with lots of seeds to begin with, I’m not sure that’s true anymore, but I wonder if those were the mellow buzz kind.
Another thing I know is in the 80’s there were vastly more varieties in play, compared to nowadays. Given weed was not produced industrially or commercially, I think there were many more sources and varieties and strains and cultivars.
Nowadays most weed smells to me like the skunkweed I used to hate in the 80’s, it smells like skunks everywhere, and then I bump into people who smell like they’ve been skunked. However, every now and then I’ll be walking down the street and will get a whiff of something truly unique and that’s how I know it didn’t come from a cannabis store or industrial/commercial operation. It’ll remind me of the 80’s, but I don’t know enough to know what strain or variety or cultivar it is or what the potency is, what turpenoids, what sativa level, whether CBD A, B or C, or whatever.
It doesn’t answer the question but I think these might be clues. And by the way, I strongly suspect the turpenoids, sativa levels, CBD A, B, C, etc., even the described effects, is just pure marketing to sell product.
Curing/freshness is a big factor. Thc degrades to cbd. Most research shows that a thc cbd balance is key.
If excessive strength is the concern, I would think the hemp-derived products that must meet a maximum THC level to be legal under the Farm Act probably adhere to those limits. The gummies I’ve seen are marketed as containing 10 mg of THC each.
I don’t have a dog in this fight, but I know a few seniors who consume gummies so I looked into it briefly.
Most people just smoke less… Just as you dont find many people drinking pints of vodka. Life sucks for most. People self medicate. Weed is probably one of the least negative coping mechanisms. I would suggest that there is far more correlation with people using/abusing weed to cope with existing issues as opposed to healthy people losing it primarily because of weed.
In my experience people select stronger strains as their tolerance increases. Strong strains have been around since the late 80’s. Concentrates are narcotic and debilitating in a way which the user is often unaware.
Re. Today’s Weed Is 5x Stronger and the Mental Health Risks Are Rising SciTech Daily
More hard evidence that weed is not benign, especially the high potency varieties heavily marketed. From the primary reference Canadian Medical Association Journal:
More potent and legal cannabis sends some to hospital: Central NY leads state in ER visits syracuse.com archive
Do some math here… 13,000 ER admissions in Syracuse almost certainly have a minimum cost of several thousand dollars each. We’re talking about tens of millions in local healthcare costs. IIRC, cannabis tax receipts statewide are $200M.
Further, the link to psychotic disorders like schizophrenia are clear. Schizophrenia is is disabling disease that hits at a young age. The societal cost of a lifelong disability are millions per individual.
Not every person that drinks alcohol ends up with cirrhosis or every person prescribed an opioid becomes an addict. Not every cannabis smoker ends up in a psych ward. But cannabis legalization has been carelessly done; 25% high potency buds or 95% THC vape oils are simply dangerous products and should be banned.
Lastly, a stoned public is a docile public. Heavy users of mind altering substances (legal or not) are not going to be leaders (or even followers!) for meaningful change. This is why it became legal.
Is Ketamine a mind altering drug?
Greek moral whining has killed more than any plant ever has. If anything, we need to start treating religion (specifically Christianity) as a mental illness and throwing some real research at preventing all parts of the disease cycle.
Should hashish, around for millennia, also be illegal?
A couple observations.
Edibles are a problem because of the time lag between consumption and high. Someone with a slow metabolism or shortage of patience could easily over-consume before feeling high. The high from eating weed lasts much longer than from smoking.
The hash oils/dabs are stupidly strong and should be outlawed. If that was nicotine it would kill you.
I imagine there are few visits to the ER from smoking straight, unadulterated flower/bud. Today’s version is certainly stronger than grandpa’s weed, but the difference in strength (to me) is significantly less than the numbers imply.
Not only all that you said, but the habits that have developed….ie, getting as stoned as possible.
I see this as a reaction to the growing doomery and malaise of modern life.
Similarly to the opioid and fentanyl thing
Perhaps similar to the reputation that Irish had with whiskey in the 19th century? There was a lot of malaise and misery in life in Ireland back then leading millions to leave. In modern day America, there is no venue for mass emigration for a better life in another country which may explain the opioid and fentanyl problem.
This being one of the few topics I have the experience to comment on, I have to say that I agree wholeheartedly with both yours and mrsyk’s observations. There’s a great deal of hysteria around the whole subject, but there’s also a lot of underplaying of the drawbacks of excess over moderation when using what can be a useful and pleasurable substance.
I couldn’t smoke a whole joint of 25% THC bud, only a few tiny pieces in a bowl (I quit my experiment because it induced AFIB). 50 years ago it took a full joint of 4% Mexican to notice a buzz.
As the parent of a disabled 34 yo schizophrenic, and involved with multiple mental health agencies, cannabis has been a disturbing common thread. To think that extended use of powerful psychotropics (prescription, cannabis, alcohol, etc, etc) don’t alter brain chemistry is silly and naive. Denialism.
As always, the enthusiastic potheads ignore hard data and scream prohibition, not bothering to fully read my concluding 2 paragraphs. Happens every time.
“Lastly, a stoned public is a docile public. Heavy users of mind altering substances (legal or not) are not going to be leaders (or even followers!) for meaningful change.”
“enthusiastic potheads ignore hard data and scream prohibition”
You mean this totally unsubstantiated (and wrong, IMHO) assertion? Where’s your hard data, sport? Sounds more like hysteria.
“Happens every time.” Yup – prohibitionists lie. Every time.
As do persecutionists. Every time.
I agree with pretty much everything you’ve written here. Regarding the common thread observation, correlation is not causation and I think amfortas is on to something with his observation. As for why weed is now legal, I would offer that profit is the primary motivation, just because that seems to be the American way.
I’m sorry to hear about your son. Our 33 yo younger son is wrecking himself on “dabs” along with other recreational drugs. The biggest heartbreaking takeaway is that he has consciously given up any idea of a “future”. We talk about it. His older brother has as well, but he has a different self destructive manner in dealing with it.
Peace.
I wonder what the potency of the weed that a renowned stoner was enjoying back in the day?
https://www.organism.earth/library/document/mr-x
Cannabis and Tylenol got me through a lot of pain without resorting to opioids after any of four surgeries. I went 35 years without smoking pot, so you’d think I’d really notice the difference, but I can’t say that today’s weed has that much more powerful an effect on me. Maybe I’m just pretty “out there” to begin with. ;)
Are the stronger strains also more addictive? That would be a reason for the ”product development”
Maybe the American axiom “Bigger is better” is the marketing reasoning here.
The concentrates are the issue, not the bud.
Any weed that is advertised as like 30-40% THC is a complete lie.
Labs are give false results because consumers have been marketed that they need high % and higher % means better.
The bigger issue is lab testing for cannabis, it’s not very regulated and constantly labs are being found to inflate numbers or gloss over true harms within the bud, like pesticides
There have been alerts to that effect here in Ohio.
If today’s weed is ” 5 X stronger”, then just use 5 X less.
Its so simple. . .
Well most people who don’t smoke a lot that’s what they do.
What old people did 15 yrs ago like smoke a whole joint, no way today.
And yes it is absolutely true, %’s really are that high.
Pun intended.
Should Spirytus, a Polish vodka with an alcohol content of 96%, be banned?
Plus that old American standby, Everclear.
“The lifetime occurrence of cannabis-induced psychosis symptoms is estimated to be 0.47% among people who use cannabis”
So you think that we should prohibit stronger cannabis for the 99.53% of cannabis users for whom it is NO Problem to protect the teeny proportion for whom it is? That’s exactly the argument that alcohol prohibitionists used and we know how well that turned out. And alcohol is an order of magnitude more likely to cause addiction than cannabis: “According to the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 28.9 million people ages 12 and older (10.2% in this age group) had AUD in the past year.” (AUD = Alcohol Use DIsorder).
Yes. What is the justification for a product with a risk profile like that, when people for generations consumed less potent weed? You can see the clip I featured. Even users are saying the more potent weed is too strong.
See additionally:
https://news.cuanschutz.edu/news-stories/largest-study-ever-done-on-cannabis-and-brain-function-finds-impact-on-working-memory
THC is fat soluble, so it persists in your system.Some content that if a heavy marijuana user abstains for a month, his cognition goes back to normal.
CDC: Cannabis is the most commonly used federally illegal drug in the United States; 52.5 million people, or about 19% of Americans, used it at least once in 2021.
0.47% of 52.5 million is almost 2.5 million people. This is not a “teeny proportion”, it is millions of real people. Having an additional million people with cannabis-induced lifelong disability costs billions per year.
Nobody mentioned prohibition. But high potency cannabis should be illegal.
“Having an additional million people with cannabis-induced lifelong disability costs billions per year.”
Now you’re just making stuff up. Your 0.47% is a lifetime experience of symptoms of psychosis in cannabis users. You are simply not allowed to convert this to a “lifelong disability”. Stop taking cannabis, and if it’s really inducing psychosis, it will go away.
The more interesting statistic is this: “Approximately 3% of the population will experience a psychotic episode at some point in their lives.”
SO cannabis users do better than average – over six times better than the general population. Your whole argument is a sham.
0.47% of that is almost 250,000 people. So an order of magnitude less than your value. Also that says have used cannabis at least once in a year. I’d assume those who do it once or twice can probably be discounted.
“Lastly, a stoned public is a docile public. Heavy users of mind altering substances (legal or not) are not going to be leaders (or even followers!) for meaningful change. This is why it became legal.”
Same thought went through my mind except that protests in legal weed states seem to have higher participation than those in illegal weed states. Total anecdata, I know, but, that’s all I got
Look up ‘Spice’. A synthesised analog that is a full antagonist. That stuff ruins people wholesale.
I think there are factors outside of cannabis consumption that determine whether you are on the road to becoming a beatnik or a ‘dude wheres my car’ type.
Vanishing White Male Writer.
It has to do with a culture of credentials and marketing, endless and pointless marketing.
At one literary magazine, the submissions page wanted me to list sexuality, pronouns, and racial category. To submit a short story. What is the purpose of such data collection?
This is part of the bullshit and a kind of misunderstanding of gatekeeping: Quote from essay >
“In part because I don’t know the editors who are open to hearing a story of the sort of middle-to-upper-middle-class white male experience. The young agents and editors didn’t come up in that culture.”
Absolute bullshit. I have been corresponding with literary magazines and literary agencies. As ever, a remarkable number of literary agents have names like Tiffany Compson and degrees from Stanford. So spare me the cultural differences – literary agencies are part of a capitalist structure. They do not want the embarrassment of posting a picture of Agent Ahmad X on their elaborate and opaque web sites.
Another quote: “The antiseptic legacy of Obama-era MFA programs hangs over this generation (all three of the above authors graduated from Iowa). Workshopped to death, shorn of swagger and toxicity “
Also known as development hell.
In fact, the fiction of emerging artists who are guys may be better off without all of these tender literary Taylorized attentions.
And have you seen acknowledgments now? With dozens listed in the back of the book? Because what says social media more than a novel? At this point, in the zero-sum game that is U.S. culture, the author is no longer required.
Send anyone to The View. Aren’t memoirs of Albanian nuns living in female-identifying monasteries the flavor of the week?
Here in the US hinterlands it’s done harder and faster to congenital oppressors. The gatekeepers have to be seen to keep current. A friend who publishes poetry books wrote to me, “Keep on keepin’ on. It annoys the bastards.”
I’m surprised all white male writers are vanishing from the notice of the upper crust magazine and publishing company gatekeepers. I would’ve thought gay white male writers might still be recognized. But maybe there are enough gay male non-white writers to tick all the required checkboxes without having to contaminate the selection process with white ones? If you look at literary prize winners and end-of-year notable book lists from years past, you realize that most of the selections of the artistic clerisy are soon forgotten, if they were ever actually read (versus just oohed and aahed over) to begin with.
Two of my favorite writers, both writers mainly of genre novels, are Gene Wolfe and Ursa Le Guin. I reread them every few years.
The main issue that I have with most of what’s being written, literary or otherwise, is quality (as I perceive it obviously, YMMV). I will try a recommendation now and again but I think there’s likely more bang for my buck in trying someone like Jane Austen who I know about from the culture but never go around to reading. Those Lindy novels, to use Taleb’s phrase.
A reminder:
“In part because I don’t know the editors who are open to hearing a story of the sort of middle-to-upper-middle-class white male experience. The young agents and editors didn’t come up in that culture.”
Except that upper-middle-class England is Rachel Cusk’s territory, and she is much lionized these days.
Curious.
PS: Here in Italy, more than one person has asked me why Elena Ferrante is lionized in the U S of A. I myself am not sure, having read only Days of Abandonment, in part because the novel is set in the Chocolate City. In Italy, Ferrante is one of many, and she certainly is not among the best women writers here.
Curious.
I focus on mysteries and flights of romantic fancy such as the westerns, the latter being absolutely ruled in cinema by the great Sergio Leone. I had a conversation with another bookish sort this weekend comparing Andrea Camilleri and Donna Leon with my opinion being that Brunetti is a masterful character with legs much longer than Montanlban blaming possibly the tv series. Granted, this is a male v. female and I’m not huge on this distinction but one might write an omnibus of dissertations exploring said subject. Could you suggest one or more authoress’ whom you consider to be among the best currently?
tegnost: I don’t know much about Donna Leon, although I’d warn you to be careful about U.S. authors who are filtering Italy through their preconceptions.
Camilleri is still highly regarded in Italy — but then Italians are addicted to “gialli,” mysteries, police procedurals. Is Camilleri in the literary pantheon? Well, no.
One of the finest writers in Italian is Melania Mazzucco. Her novel Vita was published in English years back and sank without a trace into the Anglosphere. There may also be a translation of her novel A Perfect Day (if not, at least take a look at the film made by Ferzan Ozpetek from the novel).
I will also recommend a group, Wu Ming, who started out as five men, but are now down to three men. Yes, a cooperative. This is not all that unusual for Italy, but in individualistic U.S. culture, it is unheard-of. Try their novels Q (sometimes also attributed to Luther Blissett, the group’s original name) and its sequel Altai.
Thanks,
Oh yes, how silly of me Donna Leon being American.
Thanks for the recommendations, I will look at those
“Kristi Noem is living free of charge in Coast Guard commandant’s home”
But to help Kristi Noem cope with all the stress in her life that she has been experiencing, a local pet store has been contracted to release a dozen puppies on the grounds of the Commandant’s home each and every day-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD4EE6qVIBI (2:16 mins)
She’s from South Dakota, land of the shotgun and pheasant.
“Pull”
file under AI: Taibbi and Kirn, ATW, 30-minute public excerpt.
America This Week, August 15, 2025: An Avalanche of Russiagate Revelations, and Walter Prepares for Real Time
https://www.racket.news/p/america-this-week-august-15-2025
Did you see Maher apparently mocking Kirn?
Taibbi mentioned it today…
Maher obeys the commands of the hand that feeds him . . . HBO, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.
Big media bet all their chips on that story for years. They aren’t backing off now. Bill looks kinda scared during his rant. Like, ‘ have I pleased my masters who sign my paycheck?’ / imo.
It’s a feature, not a bug.
Something is missing here. It does not say that they blame Russians. Putin weaponizes rain.
Puzzling
“The Putin Trump Summit: A Triumph for Putin, A Disaster for the Neocons”
I often mock what passes for the TV news here in Oz. Tonight will be no different. They showed Putin walking down that long red carpet to meet Trump and at one point you saw some parked fighters. Now the reality. The reason why that red carpet was long because the F-22s that escorted Putin’s plane landed and were parked with two of them on each side of that red carpet which is why it had to be so long. And as Trump & Putin met you had a B-2 bomber fly overhead with two F-35s on each side which must have made a helluva racket. I guess that Trump thought that this would overawe Putin or something. Putin was probably calculating how many minutes all that gear would last over the Ukraine. Regardless, the TV news showed none of that which I find to be a very strange omission-
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TnPqzEvpkZI
I think the vids are AI.
F-35 is at Eielson AFB near Fairbanks roughly 400 miles away. F-22 are at Elmendorf-Richardson.
Getting 4 F-35’s up at once and keeping the 4 in the air for that long……. is a feat.
Same for B-2 the trip from Missouri is froth with chances to have something important break.
The F-22 fighter jets are certainly real because there is footage of them escorting Putin’s plane in to Alaska and back to Russia again from inside Putin’s plane itself-
https://www.rt.com/russia/623045-f22-escort-putin-plane/
I understand your doubts about the B-2 and the F-35s but you have to remember the US government’s obsession with optics whether Republican or Democrat. It does not matter what is real for them but the narratives and the optics that can be spun. At any rate, you can find lots of videos from main stream sources on YouTube about that flyover.
We send B-2s all over the country for flyovers at football games, Fourth of July celebrations, and various other events that lend themselves to militarized patriotism displays. So I have no doubt we would risk such a photo op here.
Johnson’s summary of NY Times reactions was similar to mainstream network news coverage in real time. NBC had their team of talking heads laying out the usual Evil Putin/Russian aggression narrative prior to the news conference – Michael McFaul was their main “expert.” After that set up, they were all aghast at what a “victory” Putin had won after the public remarks, since there was no announcement of an immediate cease fire — an only slightly more subdued version of the Fox News coverage judging by Larry’s comments (we’re all neocons now!).
Interestingly, there was one slightly positive spin put out by NBC correspondent Richard Engel, who I think was reporting from Kiev (I mean Kyiv – as in “chicken keeeve”). He said that the Ukrainians (and Europeans) would be relieved at the nothingburger, since they were afraid of Trump and Putin reaching some sort of bilateral agreement without them. So there’s that.
Well apparently it’s not just the US press corps that is incapable of using their own two eyes: those are clearly F-35s in the videos on RT, not F-22s.
Xi Jinpeng didn’t get a flyover with F-22s. He must be jealous!
But even Putin didn’t get the full Super Bowl treatment with a giant flag plus flyover. Now that’s patriotism!
Xi Jinpeng didn’t get a flyover with F-22s, because they are full of Chinese “rare earths”, and he knows it.
“A disaster for the neocons.” ? Then something good came out of the meeting? / ;)
Gotta love the swinging puma!
Agreed. It does not matter the size, a cat is always going to be a cat.
Yes, it seems that the “busy paw” syndrome is not just for housecats.
True proof would be to leave something on that swing and see if that Puma pushes it off with his paw. Said before that cats are proof that we do not live on a Flat Earth. If we did, cats would have pushed everything off the edges long ago.
Lol, true that! Let’s put this Steuben crystal vase on that swing….
“This Could Be the End of Chuck Schumer’s Political Career”
Frankly does anybody care anymore? What really defined him for me was a video clip that I saw several years ago. He was talking about American – Israeli relations and came out and said that so long as two bricks were leaning against each other in America, that they would still be supporting Israel. I thought at the time that if he were only so loyal to America. And just now scanning his Wikipedia entry, I find that his ancestors came from – wait for it – Galicia in the Ukraine. How about that-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Schumer#Early_life_and_education_(1950%E2%80%931974)
Schumer should be in Kyiv, with his buddies in Azov, hating on the Russians. Or on the ground in Gaza, living the results of his sponsorship of genocide. There are others, probably worse, but Schumer is for me an icon of what utter scum run the Democrat party. Servants of a foreign power. Traitors.
Chuck’s numbers have been underwater, in the low 30’s iirc, for some months, ever since the 2024 election. Even Jon Oliver has started poking fun at him and his imaginary friends, the Bailey’s. on his show. utube, ~3 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VJAIChXYQVk
““Delivery of a new transformer ordered today could take up to three years,” said National Association of Electrical Manufacturers,”
Thanks to Jack Welch, who destroyed General Electric’s manufacturing ability with parasitic financialization. “Neutron” Jack, the role model for the treasonous scum who destroyed the US industrial base for short-term profits and personal gain. They ate the seed corn, the traitors. And the only penalty which will work to rid us of these hostile demonic elites is to strip them of all their stolen wealth and make them poor and homeless, sick unto death.
Duke laid the underground lines for my neighborhood’s transition to buried power and then had to wait many months to get the transformers to make it all work. Haven’t checked for Made in China stickers on the installations but they do at least say “No PCBs.”
The onetime “Arsenal of Democracy” is now the arsenal of AI.
Wouldn’t that put a spanner in the works of those AI “geniuses”‘ that want to build AI data centers coming out the kazoo? A lack of transformers? Have they given any thought about the rickety electrical grid that all their plans rest on which would need sufficient transformers?
Increasingly strong case for rooftop solar + battery if you can make the financials work.
Schwab…
A group of rabid foxes convened to consider the case of one of their high ranking members getting into the coop and killing all the chickens. It was clear among this group that their dear leader senselessly killing all the chickens was necessary to ensure they don’t come home to roost.
Successor ‘leader’ is Larry Finck. Right out of Dickens- really, you can’t make this s#*t up.
“Money Can’t Buy Life: The Richest Americans Die Earlier Than the Poorest Europeans”
I find this very difficult to believe. I mean, when you get down to it rich Americans have easy access to the American healthcare system. Oh…
Transformer Supply Bottleneck article is from February 2025; may well still be germane.
Connecting some dots here to Yves article about ChatGPT sucking up all the juice. What if some angry rural types started shooting out transformers? It already happened once in NC, during COVID I think.
Or how about a cheap drone putting a block of tannerite atop some electrical gear and a rifle using a telescopic sight is used to set it off.
With the recent 50% tariff on copper, I wouldn’t be surprised if straight up theft of transformers becomes a thing similar to what’s been happening in Kenya:
Government lost Sh670 million in theft of transformers
There was a spate of them before Covid. I think in california but I can’t remember for definite.
RE: Scientists may have found the tiny DNA switch that made us human, and ” Lordie. They can’t bring themselves to say “mutation” in the headline?”
Juts to nitpick, we do not know yet if, by definition in genetics, this was a “mutation” or a polymorphism. Mutations are changes that happen in less than 1% of the population. Polymorphism are anything higher than that. Most likely it was a polymorphism since the change was able to survive and thrive.
Or it could have been the aliens.
The article starts about gene called SMG6, which contains two Human-Accelerated Regions (what makes us different form other primates), one of which is HAR123, a 442 nucleotide long sequence. It’s very ancient (170 mya), since all mammals and marsupials have a HAR123 region. It is a “switch” that controls the growth of nervous system. Or more precisely, it’s a noncoding DNA in the gene it resides, meaning it’s not translated into a protein, but is (as RNA) enchancer of braincell transcriptional activity.
There is 9 nucleotide difference between human HAR123 and Chimpanzee HAR123, and the researchers think that this small difference causes human brains to be much more malleable and thus able to grow more slowly and into much more complex network. It seems to be why humans have more developed forebrains than chimps.
So, all and all nine mutations between chimp and human, and apparently (the article is quiet about this, but says it’s well-preserved) no polymorphism among humans. It’s a noncoding DNA in the gene it resides, meaning it’s not translated into a protein, but is (as RNA) enchancer of especially forebrain transcriptional activity.
It was the pigs actually.
“China’s mega dam Xiluodu stops using Western industrial chips over security concerns”
‘Shift from Siemens and Schneider reflects concerns over industrial control system vulnerabilities, including computer worms like Stuxnet’
So I guess that Siemans is still experiencing blowback for helping Israel and the US to launch Stuxnet against Iran way back in 2010. I wonder how many other countries took a second hard look at Siemans and what they sell since then.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet
re: Russia
Natylie Baldwin interviewing Richard Sakwa
Interview: Richard Sakwa on Russia Since Perestroika
August 15, 2025
Natalyie Baldwin asks the British author about the Soviet collapse, the 1990s, Vladimir Putin’s governance, the rise of a new cold war and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/08/15/interview-richard-sakwa-on-russia-since-perestroika/
+
German commentary on Alaska meeting by Russia correspondent Ulrich Heyden.
German-language (use google)
Summit in Alaska – gestures of reconciliation, but no deal
https://overton-magazin.de/top-story/gipfel-in-alaska-gesten-der-versoehnung-aber-kein-deal/
To my knowledge this is almost the only sane reaction published in writing in a German publication with decent circulation.
I might wish that the end was nearing for Schumer, but three years is a very long time in politics (and for a seventy four year old). Honestly I believe that age and health will take out Chuck before his despicable job performance as a representative of the residents of NY.
I am sure Democrats are shocked to discover that more and more people notice when you don’t really fight like you promised. But they were very careful in their choices for that vote which allowed Trump’s destructive bill to get a vote. There is plenty of time for new sacrificial Dems to take the hit for future actions allowing bipartisan oligarch approved destruction of the public good. If it will still hurt Schumer for 2028 will be determined by whether enough people get that Schumer has tools at his disposal to stop or punish Senators for enabling actions. If we see actual primary runs in early 2028 then it might be time to hope.
(This arse has almost made me nostalgic for D’Amato. Both are despicable but I am pretty sure Al managed to direct more government largesse to the state of NY. )
archive.ph available version
Inside the automated warehouse where robots are packing your groceries (Verge)
Not sure who’s gonna be able to afford all this food when no one has a job anymore? putting yourself out of business sale.
With Climate damaging our transportation infrastructure, I was curious. Growing up in Orlando, I-4 was concrete and it seemed solid. Asphalt always seemed like a poor choice. As it happens there’s all kinds of chemistry involved in roads, whatever they’re made of.
How Roads Fail… And Why They’re Set To Get Worse (Forbes)
If only there was some way to transport large masses of people efficiently, rather than individually in automobiles.
Sigh.
Just had the first real earthquake in south east Queensland for 50 years. The bridge on the Maryborough to Hervey Bay road fell apart like a lego set. No way buildings in Qld are built to an earthquake standard at all.
Going to need a real Civil Defence organisation instead of the colonial hotchpotch we have now .Every year the maintenance deficit from previous disasters grows. We can’t fix stuff and maintain the illusion of growth at the same time anymore but not many are noticing yet.
Asphalt has some big advantages. The most important is that it offers better grip for tyres. It is also cheaper and easier to repair. But it also needs repaired far more often and won’t last as long. So pluses and minises to both.
There’s a lot to undress in this Israeli AI Major Major Major Majordomo child-predator sting and then ‘catch & release’.
Have we developed our very own Epstein in order to catch sexual scofflaws from the promised land?
I find “liberals” obsession with Gunz puzzling, we have the data.
The last time I checked ( I’m a year out of date) rifles of any kind, from .17 rimfire to 56-52 Spencer had been successfully used by murderers a total of 394 times.
There are more than 20,000,000 AR15’s in the USA, @ 5,000,000 AK variants, mini 14’s, marlin camp carbines, HI Point carbines… some where north of 30,000,000 semi auto rifles with detachable box magazines.
Bruen happened several years ago and we now have 29 “Constitutional carry” States where no training or licensure is needed to carry a concealed firearm.
Gunfights over parking spaces have not become common and there aren’t small wars when a little league umpire makes a bad call.
There has been a small but significant drop in rapes, that’s about it.
Most people don’t see a need to slip a Glock into their Thunderwear ™ before heading out to Mom’s cafe for a scrumptious brunch and most of the time they are right.
The right to bear arms is about Class and it always has been, here in Sonoma County it will cost you between $3,000 and $5,000 to obtain a concealed weapons permit, in neighboring Lake County it costs you $300, an order of magnitude less.
“Sensible Gun Laws” are about keeping the rabble in line at a reasonable cost, no more and no less.
All those guns, and still no (well organized) militia to protect the people from the government that has gone completly bonkers. The only statistically significant thing they are used for is suicide (not counting the obvious penis-size-deficency-making-up purposes).
New Zealand’s population exodus hits 13-year high as economy worsens Reuters
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NZ has the most extreme housing bubble in the English speaking world, most everything is NZ $1 million in the Big Smokes, and even in the hinterlands housing is dear.
Such a beautiful country-but making a living requires so many to cross the Tasman in search of opportunity.
Funny that it all started with Anglophones looking for a safe[tm] place from terrorists once the ME wars got rolling hot …. Banking, Finance, and Developer types had a HUGE party …
Old NC poster Richard Smith unpacked all the international money flows associated with it.
Now some think lower prices are a good thing but, don’t understand without a economic replacement it means less money in the economy …
>Roaming Charges: From Police State to Military Police State
Kidnapping is becoming a business in the United States.
On the covid front: here in California, I have a neighbor who is in her late 70s; an extremely smart person originally from overseas. She has had every covid booster available, and takes no precautions to avoid catching covid (it was a reasoned decision on her part; she told me she didn’t want to miss out on what life still had to offer). She has had covid a few times, most recently last month. Since her last infection I am seeing that she now has cognitive problems. I sent her an email about having our annual potluck and she sent back an email how we might arrange the spring tea that I was suggesting (?????????).
I have another neighbor who is in that age range who is (was?) also exceptionally smart; she too has had every booster and is also taking no precautions (that is the norm around here). She has been having cognitive problems for at least six months now.
I have a very much older relative who lives with us; he has had 2 shots and 2 boosters but we keep him sequestered other than his daily outdoor walk; daily Xlear since the start of the pandemic and we put an Airtamer and mask on him if someone has to come into our place (e.g. his visiting doctor). He has not caught covid. He is totally sharp; he still follows chess games online and pays his own bills.
Re AI: I can’t believe that after a restorative nap I spent 15 minutes arguing with grok which had results on me that were CLEARLY manipulated (unlike ChatGPT, which at least got “top level” stuff correct, even if the 2nd level etc stuff got quite dicey).
Grok concatenated info on “Terry Flynns” it found. W. T. F. ? I’m lucky it only added the Professor of marketing at a minor Canadian Uni and not the person who leads a minor branch of a society round here who thinks weird moustache man was good….or the weirdo priest in South Wales…..
I pointed this out on Twitter…..then got a response! At least it recognised its mistake and clarified what it should be scraping from the internet about me……but then (because my Twitter handle is not my name but fave film) it wanted to discuss favourite films. I asked it whether if I’d announced I’d taken a monumental dump this morning would it want to discuss that? Then I realised the insanity of this conversation and signed out. But at least I know that that particular AI *IS* being tweaked by humans. Concatenating the 4 Terry Flynns WITHOUT the “certain one” shows some recent attacks have struck home…….FAFO.
welp…heres a postcard from the wilderness:
im broke, here at the middle of the month…so i gathered all my fruit and veggies…made more sourdough(wildcaught!)…thawed out those sweet corn and brown sugar dessert tamales, and threw it all in the truck and went and sat on the side of the highway.
the couple that owns our very own local distillary bought a bit…then eldest came by to give me dogfood for his dog that lives with me..and then this guy, Mexican American, with hair longer than mine stopped…all smiling.
shook my hand, bought 3 pears, and said, sheepishly, that God had told him a while ago to blow the Shofar, today…and that he didnt really know what God had in mind until he saw me.
so he asked if i minded…and i said, no, sir, i dont mind at all.
so he goes to his truck, and pulls out a 4 foot rams horn(!)…strikes a pose similar to saruman calling down the mountain, and yells a bunch of gibberish into the woods, waves his hand and the horn over my truck while mumbling more glossolalia, then blow the horn 3 times.
I thanked him…and he said god bless you as i shook his hand, and he left.
not ten minutes later, a couple came by and bought all my stuff, got my numbers and said they wanted whatever i produce, including all the trees i grow in pots.
sold out just before the rains came.
lol.
so i suppose the shofar and all the glossolalia worked,lol.
i’ll take it.
Hell yeah bro
Surprised it worked. Round here you have to blow the horn 4 or 5 times.
lol.
its more of a testament to my patience with other peoples’ insanity, i reckon.
long practice with my mother and my aunts.
post hoc, ergo propter hoc, tho,lol.
one of the stranger non-mom things ive experienced in a while.
dude was friendly…very polite…didnt want to bother me with his weird religion…asked if he could anyways…and i said, sure! why the hell not?
what i didnt do is give him my number,lol.
i got a pic…altho i thought i was taking a vid…sad…because he was really good at blowin that ram horn.
pic remains sideways, and i cant figger out how to right it…let alone how to get it on NC.
i wont put it on my faceborg, because dudes face and lic plates are visible…and i dont know how to blur, etc.
what a strange time ive had in this world,lol
The driving is getting more creative here as time passes, last thursday I ran a few errands and saw 5 people run red lights while doing so.
Five stops, 11 miles, five red light runners.
My previous high was 4 in one day during July of this year.
re: Philippines – US missiles
THE INTERCEPT
The Philippine Missile Crisis: U.S. Deployed Arms to the Philippines and No One Noticed But China
It was a massive escalation that angered China — and there was no congressional debate, no televised announcement, and no vote.
by Aída Chávez
July 30 2025
https://archive.is/xJKUK