Links 8/18/2025

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1. The Rev Kev August 18, 2025 at 7:12 am

   ‘sarah
   @sahouraxo
   Israel is literally shooting pregnant Palestinian women in the uterus.
   “An exploded fetus with a bullet through its neck — that’s not something a human should ever have to see.”
   —American doctor, Aziz Rahman, upon returning from a medical mission in Gaza’

   Not surprising at all. NBC News reported that Israeli soldiers at the ending of training courses would receive a t-shirt showing a pregnant woman in cross-hairs and the slogan “1 Shot 2 Kills.”-

   https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna29837969

   And that story was from way back in 2009. It’s who they are and what they do.
   1. Geo August 18, 2025 at 8:29 am

      Had to look it up. Not because I didn’t believe you but it’s just hard to wrap my mind around such a thing. The Haaretz article is paywalled but screen grab here for anyone wanting to see it as well: https://x.com/8zal/status/1950909818811638158?s=46

      I have no words for it, only disgust, but it does conjures in my mind the words of DH Lawrence (and his pessimism about humanity) in his book Apocalypse:
      “Society consists of a mass of weak individuals trying to protect themselves, out of fear, from every possible imaginary evil, and, of course, by their very fear, bringing the evil into being.”
   2. QABubba August 18, 2025 at 11:50 am

      Again. If you can’t protest genocide and ethnic cleansing, there is no such thing as ‘Freedom of Speech.’
      As an aside, I was banned from ZH. Don’t know if it was the link I posted from NC about the ‘nazification of Israel’ or pointing out that our Secretary of Health had a conviction for possession of heroin.
2. Ignacio August 18, 2025 at 7:57 am

   “Avoid sharing towels and razors” Is this the best advice we can take from the media?What is needed, and the resources are readily available, is a comprehensive analysis of MRSA prevalence (and E coli BLEE) in all kinds of environments. This goes well beyond supposed increases in susceptibility.
   1. Wukchumni August 18, 2025 at 9:19 am

      I feel confident my used razor blades won’t be shared with any humans as i’ve repurposed them as the leading edge in my arsenal of gerbil guillotines.
   2. Acacia August 18, 2025 at 9:43 am

      “I think if surgeons just wipe their hands on their shirts we should be good to go.

      Let’s live life.”

      https://twitter.com/jmcrookston/status/1676663842892382209
3. The Rev Kev August 18, 2025 at 8:03 am

   “US-India trade talks scheduled for August called off”

   ‘Trade talks between New Delhi and Washington collapsed after five rounds of negotiations over disagreement on opening India’s vast farm and dairy sectors and stopping Russian oil purchases.’

   I would imagine that for the US negotiating team, who would have received their brief from Trump, that those two demands are red lines for the US and that India must comply with them.

   Now consider how it looks to India. If they complied with the first demand, the entire agricultural sector in India would be thrown into chaos with tens of millions of farmers & their families losing their farms. You would find higher prices, farmer suicides and the support base for the Indian government would collapse, simply so that some US Big Ag corporations could make a few more bucks.

   The second demand would wreck a major revenue source for India throwing their budget into disorder. In addition, countries like the EU that receive that oil would also have economic meltdowns but Washington could hardly care. So I imagine that at this point India has given up and is now calling countries like China and the rest of BRICS.

   It takes a Trump to drive India and China together.
   1. Geo August 18, 2025 at 8:31 am

      He truly is the great uniter. /s
4. Wukchumni August 18, 2025 at 8:40 am

   ….only 129 days until xmas

   Slay bells ring, are you listenin’
   In the lane, bodies are glistenin’
   A horrific sight
   There’s less of us tonight
   Woking in a nuclear winter wonderland

   Gone away is the old world
   Here to stay is a new radioactive swirl
   It sings a fallout song
   As we go along
   Woking in a nuclear winter wonderland

   In the meadow we can build a snowman even in August
   Then pretend that Santa Claus will adjust
   He’ll say: Have you been naughty-not nice?
   We’ll say: No man
   But you can expect i’ll be back on the job
   When you’ve rebuilt chimneys-yeah that’s the plan!

   Later on, we’ll conspire
   As we dream of finding survivors
   To face unafraid
   The plans that we’ve made
   Woking in a nuclear winter wonderland

   In the meantime we can build a strawman
   And pretend that he’s that Leo Szilard clown
   We’ll have lots of fun with mister strawman
   Until the other survivors knock him down

   When it snows all the time, it won’t be thrillin’
   As everything you try to grow gets a chillin’
   We’ll frolic and play, the Eskimo way
   Woking in a nuclear winter wonderland

   Woking in a nuclear winter wonderland
   Woking in a nuclear winter wonderland
5. Geo August 18, 2025 at 8:40 am

   “Hillary Clinton praises Donald Trump’s foreign policy.”

   Funny that just a week or so after he got Ghislaine on his side to see the Clintons suddenly find reason to compliment Trump.
   1. t August 18, 2025 at 9:08 am

      Good point. I was hoping she’ such a has-been she had to come up with something novel get press coverage.

      Maybe if both Clintons go to jail they will finally go away.
      1. Geo August 18, 2025 at 10:36 am

         Would be a sweet reunion for Hillary and Ghislaine to have in prison. Not gonna hold my breath though.
   2. Wukchumni August 18, 2025 at 9:51 am

      Be great if somebody could dredge up a Kodak moment with Hillary and Ghislaine…

      ‘I’m With Her’
      1. Wukchumni August 18, 2025 at 10:00 am

         Turns out there’s a bunch…

         https://openart.ai/discovery/sd-1007051261041983629
   3. Lefty Godot August 18, 2025 at 10:48 am

      I’m still waiting for Trump to “lock her up”—maybe the threat of that has gotten more real with all the Russiagate hoax material being released, so HRC is suddenly playing nice with the Don so as to remain an “unindicted co-conspirator” like Nixon. I am still hoping to see some of the blobsters like Comey and Clapper get indicted, but it would go completely against the guaranteed lack of legal consequences that all the DC power players have had so far in the 21st century.
   4. The Rev Kev August 18, 2025 at 10:52 am

      When you find yourself in a position where a person like Hillary Clinton praises you, then it is time to go home and examine your life choices.
6. Wukchumni August 18, 2025 at 9:01 am

   Erin go Bahamas

   It’d be something if we on the left coast were to have a 3 day out idea of what kind of earthquake is forming, is it a Cat 5 or a Cat 8 on the Richter scale?

   We could do without the hazy part of where a hurricane is going to strike, that would be maddening.
   1. griffen August 18, 2025 at 12:06 pm

      Growing up on the east coast in North Carolina, we lived about 100 or so miles from the Outer Banks and cities like Nags Head or Kitty Hawk. Hurricanes were just a part of life…to phrase it in terms even Forrest Gump will comprehend. Fortunately I only recall a handful of local weather disasters averted into my teenage years, but well remember the aftermath of a Hurricane Hugo hitting Charleston or even Andrew hitting Homestead and south Florida. Hurricane Fran in 1996 will forever hold a place in memory, a category 3 stormed through Orange and Durham counties of NC, and let’s say the authorities weren’t exactly prepped

      It’s a mere folly of man to toy with this earth, so when bad weather strikes it’s best to have a plan. Republicans who decry climate change must still believe in a flat earth?… Sorta LoL. ” Rock you like a hurricane” by the Scorpions would sound much different with a substitute climate disaster!

      Added…on the Outer Banks hwy 12 is basically the primary route going south, or away from Nags Head towards Hatteras. On very frequent occasions I think that the strip of asphalt is no longer “just above” sea level…
7. The Rev Kev August 18, 2025 at 9:05 am

   “SFPD to replace pistols said to fire without the trigger being pulled”

   Yeah, I’ve read reports of those Sig Sauer P320 pistols going off, even when they were not even being touched. Is it that hard to design a pistol that does not do this? It’s simple mechanics with no electronics or software and only about 60-70 parts so how hard can it be? Maybe they should go back to an oldie but goodie until Sig Sauer can get it’s act together-

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1911_pistol
   1. Wukchumni August 18, 2025 at 9:14 am

      Harry Callahan: [to Killer] Uh uh. I know what you’re thinking, punk. You’re thinking “Did he fire six shots or only five?” Now to tell you the truth, I’ve forgotten myself in all this excitement. But being this is a Sig Sauer P320, the gun most prone in the world to fire without the trigger being pulled, you’ve gotta ask yourself a question: “Do I feel lucky?” Well, do ya, punk?
      1. Mikel August 18, 2025 at 10:26 am

         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBBni_-tMNs/
         1. Wukchumni August 18, 2025 at 10:57 am

            {golf clap}

            Saw that movie @ the late great Hastings Ranch theater with enormous screen in LA, it about blew my mind.
   2. Mass Driver August 18, 2025 at 10:02 am

      Is it that hard to design a pistol that does not do this?

      You know very well that enshittification has nothing to do with engineering. Speaking of enshittification, they need to add Wi-Fi to pistols, and DRM to bullets.
      1. vao August 18, 2025 at 11:42 am

         The SIG pistol is not the only one affected by this defect.

         Another infamous case of handguns that intempestively discharge without the trigger being pulled was the line of pistols by Brazilian manufacturer Taurus. If you find them as cheap second-hand offerings, stay clear from them!
   3. ciroc August 18, 2025 at 10:14 am

      The M1911 is too heavy. Back pain is a common occupational hazard for police officers because of the weight of their duty belts. Consequently, officers seek the lightest possible pistols. One popular option is the Glock 19, which weighs about half as much.
   4. Skip Intro August 18, 2025 at 10:22 am

      Sig Sauer should just claim the self-firing pistols were AI guns, and promise a software update.
   5. Geo August 18, 2025 at 10:41 am

      That’s not the gun Jamie Lee Curtis dropped down the stairs in the movie True lies, is it? If so, would make that scene much more plausible.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQtSEqWceyM
      1. Wukchumni August 18, 2025 at 10:59 am

         No, it was the gun in the briefcase in Pulp Fiction.
   6. Polar Socialist August 18, 2025 at 2:24 pm

      Considering how often you are in the occasion to drop, bump or whack your gun versus how often your life depends on getting a shot out within the extra second, I’d say my dad (and later the government) was smart to teach me never to chamber a round if I was not about to shoot.

      No weapon can accidentally go off, if there’s nothing in the chamber. I really don’t get the modern worship of everything “tactical”, it often reminds me of the samurai and the janissaries, those so called warrior classes that during a long peace developed more ceremonial than effective fighting styles.
      1. principle August 19, 2025 at 7:45 am

         All those tacticool people have fantasies about becoming heroes and shooting the bad guys like in some movie or video game. Clint-Eastwood-wannabes need to always be ready to draw fast, and shot first, in their own foot. Oldschool people would recommend Garand thumb over Glock leg. :)

         P.S. Open bolt weapons can accidentally go off if there’s nothing in the chamber. You don’t want to be dropping an MP 40. :)
8. t August 18, 2025 at 9:14 am

   The Israeli government official arrested in Nevada for preying on children has other crime as well, like this quoted from his LinkedIn page:

   “The key takeaway? The future of cybersecurity is being written in code, and it seems a significant part of it is being authored in #TelAviv and powered by LLMs. An exciting time to be in the field!”
   1. The Rev Kev August 18, 2025 at 9:44 am

      ‘Stop! You are under arrest for trying to fiddle with kids.’

      ‘Wait! I’m an Israeli government official.’

      ‘Somebody get this man a plane.’

      The guy didn’t even have to offer them a bribe or claim diplomatic immunity. This suggests that there must be an “understanding” going on here.
      1. Wukchumni August 18, 2025 at 10:15 am

         …you can’t abbreviate America & Israel without using AI
9. Mass Driver August 18, 2025 at 9:25 am

   New Chinese drones scramble naval power in Pacific, and maybe everywhere else Kevin Walmsley

   A drone carrier is an aircraft carrier. What makes aircraft carriers obsolete (or partially obsolete) are advances in long-range anti-ship weaponry, and those weapons do not care if your ship is carrying regular planes or not.

   Big drones suffer from the same problems that regular airplanes do, and their flight capabilities are worse by default (as of now). A magical Chinese VTOL jet drone can not exist. It’s just yet another drone, with its drawbacks and benefits.

   Mentioned “Operation Spiderweb” was done with short-range small-payload drones, and those are completly useless on the open sea. Author should have mentioned kamikaze boats, but I guess that could be an argument against flying drone carriers.
10. t August 18, 2025 at 9:43 am

    MRSA was once a hospital acquired infection and related to antibiotic resistance from poly-antibiotic use.

    See also the jails of the LARPing tough guy who promoted himself as “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” Joe Arpaio. Staff and visitors, like law clerks delivering papers, were also infected.
11. The Rev Kev August 18, 2025 at 9:56 am

    “White House envoy claims Russia agreed to ‘Article 5-like’ security guarantees for Ukraine”

    As has been pointed out, there is only one country that can give a security guarantee to the Ukraine and that is the Russian Federation. Giving the Ukraine an ‘Article 5-like’ security guarantee means that in effect that the Ukraine is part of NATO. Furthermore, that would give the Ukrainians the incentive to set up a false flag attack to blames Russia with such as blowing a hospital or children’s school. And with that the NATO nations could find themselves on the verge of a full scale war with the Russian Federation, simply on the say so of Zelensky and the ultra-nationalists.
    1. moog August 18, 2025 at 10:14 am

       What Zelensky really wants are security guarantees for his own rear end, but it seems like no one is offering anything ‘Article 5-like’.
    2. Skip Intro August 18, 2025 at 10:28 am

       Article-5-like is great sleight of hand. ‘Some countries will consider action in case of an attack on Ukraine’. Maybe they will be China and or DPRK. Ukraine has de-facto NATO protection and it is losing badly, getting even weaker guarantees from even weaker EU ‘allies’ does not seem like a rescue.
12. Wukchumni August 18, 2025 at 10:10 am

    Confessions of sparkling water addict…

    I’m in it for the bubbles-certainly not protein, and the only kind that gives you that true cola burn on the roof of your mouth when you imbibe, also comes with a caution on the label:

    ‘Handle with care, product has high carbonation’

    I’ve been drinking Topo Chico for decades now~
13. Jason Boxman August 18, 2025 at 10:14 am

    And Wildfire Fighters, Unmasked in Toxic Smoke, Are Getting Sick and Dying has parallels to the Pandemic.

    So to be clear, the same is happening with healthcare workers. And the general American public. With regard to the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.

    Internal records, studies and interviews with current and former agency officials reveal another motivation: Embracing masks would mean admitting how dangerous wildfire smoke really is.

    That could lead to a cascade of expensive changes. The agency, already underfunded and understaffed, might have to add crews to allow for more breaks, or pay for them to sleep in hotels. Recruitment for the grueling, low-paying jobs could become harder. Spending could increase on an extensive range of health issues among workers and veterans.

    The concern was evident, for instance, in a 2014 Forest Service internal presentation that listed pros and cons of masks. At the top of the pros: “Protects respiratory system.” The con list began: “Heat stress/work reduction” and continued, “20% Work Reduction.”
    Image

    (bold mine)

    America is going great!

    I can breath as easily in my P100 as without, because of the exhaust valve. Granted, if you’re in a heavy smoke and particulate laden area, it’s probably harder, but that means it is working and saving your life!

    And I wonder if the penal labor force that Harris was so excited to retain to fight California wildfires, I wonder if they’re afforded N95s when fighting fires?

    Over the years, Darren Clifford, a firefighter from Wyoming, kept coughing up blood and landing in the hospital with pneumonia and pulmonary embolisms. His doctor told him to give up firefighting, but he needed the money.

    Capitalism. It’s working!

    You’ll note the parallels between this fire service and our Americans serving in the military; While the pay is probably higher, the dangers beyond combat are greater as well. So many examples, be it burn pits in Iraq, or cleaning up after Broken Arrows, or firing artillery shells so frequently into Syrian as to cause brain damage. The list goes on.
    1. Wukchumni August 18, 2025 at 10:30 am

       I’ve had F-35’s cavorting overhead the past few days, so they can still get it up…but what a waste when we should be putting the lions share into firefighting aircraft, helos & drones, not into last generation jets.

       I don’t think we became incompetent all at once, but here we are.

       On the plus side locally, thanks to 4 wildfires in the last decade, there is only about half of Sequoia NP left to burn, in a time when we might not have the on the ground capabilities we once had due to attrition and the dangers of the job.

       In regards to masks, they’re wearing full Nomex suits and here in Hades-adjacent, it can be in the 80’s to 90’s where conflagrations have occurred previously, they’re probably not a good fit under the circumstances.
    2. mrsyk August 18, 2025 at 3:29 pm

       Thanks. This article been on my mind all day.

       Online forums for wildfire workers are crowded with appeals to help fund chemotherapy and radiation for young firefighters. These messages are often updated months later with death announcements and funeral details.
       It seems the Times is not hyperventilating here as they provide numerous examples. (It’s a long read, well worth it.)

       This paragraph,
       But year after year, the Forest Service sends crews into smoke with nothing to prevent them from inhaling its poisons. The agency has fought against equipping firefighters with masks. It issues safety handbooks that make no mention of the long-term hazards of smoke exposure. And its workers are not allowed to wear masks on the front line, even if they want to.

       Read those last two sentences again.

       The cultural toxicity of masks is given a mention as well.

       And that part you emphasized in your quote, I figure expense and liability won’t be limited to the Forest Service.
    3. Old Jake August 18, 2025 at 5:01 pm

       Eventually we’ll have to let them burn. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.
14. griffen August 18, 2025 at 10:21 am

    Protein drinks and their nearest of kin, the Red Bulls as well. Count me in as a dubious consumer of what daily consumption of these beverage options truly means in the long haul for one’s personal health.

    I once upon a time would purchase a Starbucks cold “coffee/energy drink blended 15oz can…loaded with sugars those things were. And an ingredient I learned later was seemingly in a lot of packaged convenience food and beverages, Maltodextrin. But yeah for capitalism I’m sure of it all is good and approved for adults…
    1. Jason Boxman August 18, 2025 at 11:04 am

       See also: America’s Protein Obsession Is Transforming the Dairy Industry

       Whey, the liquid byproduct of cheese making, was once considered waste. Now it is a key ingredient in the protein powders that Ozempic users and weight lifters are downing in ever-greater amounts.

       There’s an arms race to get protein into everything now.
       1. Grateful Dude August 18, 2025 at 12:54 pm

          Whey is a rich source of branch-chain amino acids. I believe these are precursors for the cortical steroids that support muscle growth. They’re especially useful for geriatric exercisers and victims of cachexia and sarcopenia.
       2. vao August 18, 2025 at 1:09 pm

          “Whey, the liquid byproduct of cheese making, was once considered waste.”

          Not in Italy, or German-speaking countries, or Scandinavia, and possibly other places as well.
          1. Basil August 18, 2025 at 1:16 pm

             Considereding food a waste is USA invention. Drinking whey was considered a therapy for some health issues in some parts of the world (I forgot the details).
       3. lyman alpha blob August 18, 2025 at 2:12 pm

          Capitalism always manages to turn s*it into gold for some select few.

          I’ll stick with lard where I can find it, thank you.
    2. Wukchumni August 18, 2025 at 11:05 am

       Some things are sacrosanct for yours truly such as the straight unflavored mineral water-versus flavored, used to be you could only buy salted sunflower seeds in the shell, now there’s trout ala mode flavored seeds, supreme pizza flavored seeds, dill pickle flavored seeds, and more arghhhhhhhh!
       1. cfraenkel August 18, 2025 at 12:35 pm

          We have a lemon habit, as a squeezed slice is what flavors our water.

          Seems like there’s a compulsion to have ‘someone else’ make our stuff, even if it’s perfectly free and easy to diy. We’ve become so conditioned to consume that we prefer paying for something that’s free, because it’s ‘better’, somehow.
15. OIFVet August 18, 2025 at 10:21 am

    Re “Mucking through local democracy,” Working Class Storytelling

    I am part of an effort in BG to help teach and organize people fight for their communities at the local level using the available legal instruments and rules. We often run at the same problems and recalcitrance with local government as the ones described in the article. Still, given that up until now such citizen involvement was mostly unknown outside the big cities, local governments are beginning to take note. Some choose to double down on combativeness and intimidation, others choose to at least try to appear open and accommoding to their voters. In any case, the issues and causes of democratic deficits, and the solutions for it, appear to be universal – you start building horizontally at the local level before building vertically from the bottom-up. It’s hard and it’s very frustrating at times, but that top-down model has long since been captured by special interests and needs to be challenged if we are to have any hope of changing anything, be it in Bulgaria or the US.
    1. Carla August 18, 2025 at 12:03 pm

       I have been involved in much the same work in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. A (successful) battle to stop the appointed City Manager and a compliant elected City Council from privatizing our water led to many public records requests that brought about greater transparency from both the administration and the council. Ultimately, a citizens’ movement successfully changed our form of government to elect a mayor as the executive of our town, vs. having a manager accountable only to council. Our first mayor has been a disaster but did not qualify for the ballot to run again. Our city council worked effectively together to prevent some of the mayor’s worst abuses, and this time around, we have better mayoral candidates.

       Thank you, OIFVet, for letting us know that local democracy work is similarly, and similarly important, in Bulgaria. Solidarity!
       1. OIFVet August 18, 2025 at 3:39 pm

          Thank you, Carla. In the last municipal elections in 2023 we ran a slate of citizen candidates for municipal council and mayor, with no party affiliation and backing. We managed to wrest control of the council and came within less than 500 bought votes to unseat our corrupt mayor. Either way, controlling the council has mostly tied his hands and forced him to actually start addressing the pressing issues we ran on.
    2. Tati Pirati August 18, 2025 at 1:29 pm

       Could you name the effort and possibly provide a website with more info about it? Do you have a branch in Haskovo?
       1. OIFVet August 18, 2025 at 3:33 pm

          Look up civil association “Ti Reshavash” on FB and drop a message if you would like. We got started in Pavlikeni fighting off Rumen Gaitanski’s plan to build an incinerator and burn 440,000 tons ot trash annually. I know you guys have lots of issues in the Haskovo region, will be happy to connect and talk.
    3. Jonathan Holland Becnel August 18, 2025 at 9:11 pm

       Trying to do the same down here in Metairie/NOLA.

       Keep up the great work!
16. Mikel August 18, 2025 at 10:36 am

    Putin’s Positive Readout Following the Alaska Summit, While Western Propaganda Pushes the Meme that Russia Faces Economic Turmoil at Home – Larry Johnson

    About the propaganda about Russia’s economy…I had one of my wild notions the other day:
    The West’s plan for hurting Russia’s economy by increasing sanctions was always ass-backward.
    When they had oligarchs and foreign companies taking profits OUT of Russia, that was doing a better job at stagnating the economy. Now Russia just has to carefully manage which sections of the economy to grow faster or need to grow faster.
    Just spitballin’…
    1. Wukchumni August 18, 2025 at 10:41 am

       A year ago a 71 year old Dartful Codger in our over the hill ski group, confidently told me the Russian people were on the verge of revolt as Putin was so unpopular.

       I asked what he thought Biden’s national approval rating was at?

       He said around 40-45%

       And then I mentioned what Putin’s national approval rating was, which is closer to 80%, and asked again where this here revolt was going to occur?
       1. Mikel August 18, 2025 at 11:00 am

          I had another wild notion about the USA economy. People think all the military interventions are a drain, but I have to wonder if many investments flow only as long as the USA intervenes for the benefit of so many special interests from the worst actors (foreign and domestic).
          1. Wukchumni August 18, 2025 at 11:14 am

             We’re a rollin’ stone, all alone and lost
             For a life of entanglements, we have paid the cost
             When we pass by, all the people from other countries say
             Just another empire on the lost highway

             Just a deck of a Ford class, and a changing battle line
             And a empire’s lies makes a life sadly sublime
             Oh, the day we met infamy in the islands, we went astray
             We started rolling down that war at any cost highway

             It’s a real Catch 22
             Neither good nor bad, just a ploy to get you through
             And now we’re lost, there’s hell to pay
             Blowback is a bitch on the lost highway

             Now boys don’t start to ramblin’ round
             On this road of thermo nuclear has bins, are you sorrow-bound?
             Take my advice or you’ll curse the day
             Bombs started rollin’ down on that lost highway

             Lost Highway, by Hank Williams

             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92dezZCxer8&list=RD92dezZCxer8
17. The Rev Kev August 18, 2025 at 10:36 am

    “Why Did Hollywood Stop Making Comedies? A Statistical Analysis”

    If Hollywood were healthy, it would be producing a wide variety of films like comedy, Scifi, action, drama, etc. Instead, the beancounters have taken charge and they are only going with the safest choices – such as “Transformers 24” or “Star Wars: the Sequel of the Prequel of the Remake”. Hollywood nowadays is a place where originality goes to die. But for comedy, is it partly a case where these producers take themselves too seriously? And comedy makes then nervous because somebody is always going to be offended by a joke. Comedy films should be seen as good business. So that way, when a film studio comes out with a colossal, big budget film but which quickly dies a horrible death at the box office because everybody hates it, then at least one film is making money for that studio. But there has been so many box office bombs over the past few years and yet the studios still refuse to learn from their mistake.
    1. Wukchumni August 18, 2025 at 10:50 am

       Comedy is easy to come by these days-it often writes itself unintentionally, and fashioning yourself as a sit-down comic online seems easier than trying to have broad appeal on the sliver screen.

       Could you make Blazing Saddles, Airplane, Caddyshack et al these days?

       I currently have no life, and that’s my excuse for watching the complete run of Laugh-In, and i’m only in the first year or so, and its amazing what could be said on television back in those days of very much being censored, check it out!

       My parents would invite the neighbors over (we had a color tv, bay-bee) and everybody would get fairly plastered drinking Daiquiris & watching Laugh-In.
    2. griffen August 18, 2025 at 11:40 am

       One of the newest film entries, ok it is the most recent film, in the Planet of the Apes franchise is premiering tomorrow evening on a major US cable channel. I’ll probably tape it for watching later…or not. I’m just never too excited about the latest this out of MCU or whatever project the seemingly ubiquitous Taylor Sheridan is cooking up for the Paramount channel or their streaming platform.

       Yellowstone was a big hit no doubt….why not go back to the real OG characters in the Old Testament….Noah builds his Ark on the precursor to the Dutton ranch…

       Comedy film classics like Caddyshack or Trading Places still hold up. Then many years forward Hollywood churned three of the Hangover movies in quick succession based on a single premise…omg US males are fools to get drunk, and maybe get drugged or kidnapped either in Vegas or in Bangkok. Someone long ago accused me of similarities to the dude who got his face tattooed in the 2nd movie…maybe not but it seemed like a funny opinion.
       1. Carolinian August 18, 2025 at 12:15 pm

          Taylor Sheridan is a menace. He’s a minimally talented doofus riding the coat tails of stars like Costner who, while no Einstein, is a lot better than he is.
       2. lyman alpha blob August 18, 2025 at 2:16 pm

          I bet the new Planet of the Apes is nothing like the original which would have a hard time getting made today. A good portion of it is philosophical discussion and courtroom drama. I loved it.
    3. Carolinian August 18, 2025 at 12:13 pm

       Comedy post the silent era tends to be very verbal whereas the many distractions of our current era mean that Hollywood wants to be international. So action movies are a better money making bet than movies that tell jokes that other cultures may not get. Gross out comedies still get made by taking the low road. The Lubitsch Touch is out.

       All of which is to say that the intensely American comedy golden age of the 1930s applied to an era when Hollywood was everything culturally rather than just another thing (and fading fast).
       1. Dr. John Carpenter August 18, 2025 at 12:22 pm

          Yep. I though it was known for a while that English based comedy doesn’t sell in China and in modern Hollywood, that’s what matters. I’m pretty sure I’ve read some unnamed insider confirming as much.
    4. AG August 18, 2025 at 8:27 pm

       I understand the qualms and it´s constantly being discussed among filmmakers.

       However it is not that easy to do these films without reproducing already established formulas, aesthetics, narrative approaches. Which means to say: The filmmaker community also struggles to renew the medium a challenge any art has to face.

       This additionally to the political fallout. But the decline preceded the age of woke.

       I assume it first became noticeable with such titles as 1996s THE BIRDCAGE and using gay stereotypes.
       There was also a then famous essay titled “The end of romantic comedy”. And that was 30 years ago.

       The comical approach e.g. becomes ever more divided into small entities – in a social sphere where all members of society are equal the idea of making fun of one – lets say minority – is old-fashioned and appears outdated. Just to address one of the most common methods of creating comedy.

       I would argue that e.g. one reason for the rise of period features and series is due to this problem. With period pieces you don´t have to reconfigure the gender question on uncharted territory. In a Tudor age feature it is much easier to spread your chess pieces and recombine the known narrative tropes within a framework that needs not be questioned because it´s the past which is well established – 1500 there was no women´s suffrage. So that is out of the way. And same is true for almost all other everyday actions between the sexes that make up the world of a film narrative. The genre sets the rules. That makes it easy to produce and navigate. Because in film most often then not the question of quality depends on the “how” not the “what”.

       Maybe some cinephiles are gonna watch movies from the 1960s. But you are not going to finance an entire multi-billion industry on such movies today because your usual audiences will not watch movies selling the same social tropes that reflected political realities 60 years ago. That´s simply social progress. And as such there is nothing to criticize about that development. Question is however is the art up to the task to tackle that problem.

       An ill-fated blockbuster like “The Marvels” gets eventually squeezed in between this and the necessity to create a political message above all and there goes overboard your narrative coherence.

       Film narratives are not novels, no essays, no studies. They are very simple and primitive vehicles of mass entertainment and their formats of 105 minutes running time will take you only so far in addressing certain issues and contending with certain political realities. In how far this crisis today is also rooted in the PC/woke phenomenon remains to be seen.

       I somehow doubt it. The problems reach deeper.
       1. witters August 19, 2025 at 3:35 am

          I quibble at “That´s simply social progress”

          You know what I mean.
          1. AG August 20, 2025 at 10:52 am

             Yes and no.

             I wouldn´t discard the fact that 50%+ of cinema audiences are female or traditionally that half in a couple which is urging to go to the movies beyond the narrow action flicks which are (maybe even falsly) mostly attributed to male audiences.

             Women today – of all cohorts – do have an understanding and preparedness and most importantly genuine need and feel over contending with much of the misogynist stance of some film traditions or the general reproduction of women being inferior until rather recently.

             This ancient difference of gender roles play into all parts of the medium.

             And since entertainment film is usually the attempt of creating verisimilitude and make money with that it usually rather tried to affirm outdated role models than question them. Until that changed shifting the subject of the conflict which the film examines.

             Now questioning the role models became inherent to the conflict. But for that again you need to present the villain, impersonated by outdated role models of whatever representation.

             And what else is that change in perception and film politics but social progress (this far as to my above “no”.)?

             On the other hand it´s of course cmplete nonsense to claim that for instance a “Wonder Woman” (2017) showcased the first heroine in big cinema.
18. Bill B August 18, 2025 at 10:45 am

    AI: does not inspire confidence.

    Relying on AI in Colonoscopies May Erode Clinicians’ Skills https://www.medpagetoday.com/gastroenterology/coloncancer/116968
19. Jason Boxman August 18, 2025 at 10:50 am

    It would be funny as hell if it takes Trump to fix elections.

    Donald Trump said on Monday he would sign an executive order ahead of next year’s midterm elections, saying he would lead “a movement” targeting mail-in balloting and voting machines across the country.

    I doubt he’ll make election day a national paid holiday, though, because we can’t have the poors voting, can we?

    Being rid of electronic voting machines would be a thing of beauty, though.
    1. Dr. John Carpenter August 18, 2025 at 12:24 pm

       They’ll just come up with something worse. The cheating is never the problem as long as your side controls it.
    2. flora August 18, 2025 at 1:07 pm

       Hand marked paper ballots hand counted in public.

       Now where have I read that before? / ;)
20. Jason Boxman August 18, 2025 at 11:01 am

    COVID, is that you? We know it causes brain damage.

    What My Daughter Told ChatGPT Before She Took Her Life (NY Times oped via archive.ph)

    Her open book turned out to have a hidden compartment. In July, five months after her death, we discovered that Sophie Rottenberg, our only child, had confided for months in a ChatGPT A.I. therapist called Harry. We had spent so many hours combing through journals and voice memos for clues to what happened. It was her best friend who thought to check this one last thing, the A.I.’s chat logs. Sophie, a largely problem-free 29-year-old badass extrovert who fiercely embraced life, killed herself this winter during a short and curious illness, a mix of mood and hormone symptoms. We were still pursuing a diagnosis: Was major depressive disorder throwing her hormones out of whack, or was hormonal dysregulation causing a cascade of physical and emotional symptoms? She didn’t wait to find out.

    (bold mine)

    We’ll never know, and it will never be considered.

    Instead, the thrust of the oped is that ChatGPT should be programmed to alert the relevant health authorities if someone is at imminent risk of self harm.

    In clinical settings, suicidal ideation like Sophie’s typically interrupts a therapy session, triggering a checklist and a safety plan. Harry suggested that Sophie have one. But could A.I. be programmed to force a user to complete a mandatory safety plan before proceeding with any further advice or “therapy”? Working with experts in suicidology, A.I. companies might find ways to better connect users to the right resources.

    COVID or not, suicide is always tragic. America is not a healthy place to live. Not even for the elite with lifespans shorter than in other countries.
    1. griffen August 18, 2025 at 3:09 pm

       That is a tough reality to sort through, unfortunately after the fact. Dating back to a pre Covid world, I would frequently read these articles describing an increasing trend among teenagers to young adults, whether that was being involved with opioids or instead being so very pressured to “get” the right college, to get the right acceptance letter to the only dream school. I didn’t really face a comparable level of pressure until well into my middle 20s, and finally in a profession I grew to thoroughly enjoy. Citing my own high school experience, there wasn’t really a sufficient level of competition ( with hindsight it was easier than I needed ) or even the right courses.

       ESPN has in recent months, run a few of these stories linked to athletes, and one example from a high achieving female soccer player in her final year at Stanford.
21. Wukchumni August 18, 2025 at 11:08 am

    Mike Pence had fun once, but now deeply regrets it.
22. flora August 18, 2025 at 12:22 pm

    re: Germany wants to become the EU’s military power house.

    First para from the Politico article:
    “BERLIN — Friedrich Merz wants to turn Germany into Europe’s leading military power. But China still holds the reins thanks to its control of critical minerals needed by Europe’s defense industry.”

    True. Lithum and other minerals are needed for modern guidance and communication systems. There’s more to the picture than that though. A strong industrial manufacturing base is also needed.

    The EU, Germany, UK have destroyed their manufacturing energy base by shutting down coal and nuclear energy plants before the renewables promise is ready to pick up the load at an affordable price. Their leaders believed with blind faith in the promises of the new-tech pitchmen. Less faith and more shrewd pragmatism (aka due diligence) would go a long way to help the EU’s leaders, imo. Renewables are great, but reducing energy production capacity to fit ‘the narrative’ instead of a pragmatic approach to energy needs reality is a losing proposition. It’s hollowed out countries manufacturing capacity and the middle and working classes economics. Dogma kills.

    So Germany wants to become a war power based on what? On buying stuff from China? On fielding troop divisions composed mostly of recent young men immigrants from the ME and N.Africa?

    Yes, I do sound cranky and grumpy. I am exasperated with the disconnect between the dogmatic faith in the promises of high-tech salesmen by the PMC classes and neoliberal pols that seems disconnected from the real world.
    1. Polar Socialist August 18, 2025 at 2:41 pm

       I guess this means Europe will rise again, as both Poland and Germany have said they will compete with Russia for the title (and Russia is the global #1).

       Or, more likely, Europe will tear itself apart – again. Only this time nobody else really cares anymore.
23. flora August 18, 2025 at 12:44 pm

    an addon to my earlier comment about China’s control of minerals, like rare earths like lithium:

    Rare earths are not that rare. Rare refers to their place in the periodic table.
    The US once refined the most lithium from deposits. It’s a dirty refining process, and the EPA wanted US manufactures to clean up the refining process and residues, at expense to the refiners. In the neoliberal US world outsourcing refining to China, where there is no EPA, no added manufacturing cost, and cheap labor made stock market sense. Stock price over all other considerations.

    Several years ago I contacted my US senator to say leaving China as the nearly sole source of these materials was a national security issue. He seemed open to the idea. But of course, in the neoliberal US stock market prices and shareholder value dominates everything. / sigh.
    1. Wukchumni August 18, 2025 at 2:09 pm

       Tungsten is a must have component in a lot of military stuff, and the top producer is China @ 80%, rounded out by Vietnam, Russia and North Korea.

       If you’re the Chinese and barking dog-silent liar across the Pacific is making war noises, you cut ’em off of Wolfram, Jack!
    2. MicaT August 18, 2025 at 3:10 pm

       Lithium is not a rare earth.

       Yes rare earths actually describe that they are rarely found in concentrations high enough to be economically recovered. See Ukraine as an example
24. John Beech August 18, 2025 at 12:59 pm

    Air Canada flight attendants refusing to go back to work is the canary in the coal mine, in my opinion. No clue what their CEO pays himself and the rest of the C-suite but I suspect becoming more French in attitude (the French make striking something of a sport) will be what’s called for to attain a better work/life balance.

    Nobody, least of all me who heads a private company and pays myself what I please, begrudges a CEO a good paycheck but I find it obscene to learn there are CEOs of publicly traded companies remunerating themselves in in the tens and hundred of millions, for example. This is dirty pool and should be regulated. Private companies? Sure, pay yourself as I do, what I please, but not publicly traded companies.

    And the worst example in America is Walmart because they have untold thousands of employees collecting assistance from the government, e.g. you, and me, and ‘our’ taxes, due entirely to how poorly they remunerate ‘associates’.

    Sign me the capitalist who believes anyone working 40 hours needs to be paid enough for a place to live, food to eat, plus the necessities that are life as an American, e.g. wheels, insurance for same, cell phone, etc.
    1. .human August 18, 2025 at 2:27 pm

       I’m a die-hard socialist. Imagine the energy savings a world would experience if the wages of only one household member were needed to cover expenses with some to spare.
    2. You're soaking in it! August 18, 2025 at 2:36 pm

       Why you, you, . . .hmm . . . what did they used to say, oh, yeah!

       Cl*ss tr*itor you.
    3. Cancyn August 18, 2025 at 5:17 pm

       “… anyone working 40 hours needs to be paid enough for a place to live, food to eat, plus the necessities that are life as an American, e.g. wheels, insurance for same, cell phone, etc.” Indeed. Not to mention that they should actually be paid for work that they do. Air Canada Flight attendants are not paid for the boarding procedure, only for the duration of the flight. Their contract was 10 yrs old, I have no idea why they agreed to such terrible conditions but they’ve had 10 long years to realize things need to change. I am totally on their side, I hope they stick together and stay out on strike.
    4. cfraenkel August 18, 2025 at 7:04 pm

       As become the norm, satire steps in to fill in for our missing press corps:
       Air Canada consoles stranded passengers with pictures of their executive bonuses
    5. jrkrideau August 18, 2025 at 9:12 pm

       Air Canada’s president, Michael Rousseau, is working for a pittance; he made a mere $12.08 million in the 2023-2024 fiscal year.
    6. Anthony Noel August 18, 2025 at 11:33 pm

       Air Canada’s CEO Michael Rousseau earned around 12.10 million dollars. While he is currently complaining about the Union refusing to take their offer of, according to him, a 38 Percent increase in wages and benefits, back in 2022 after an agreement freezing executive pay raises due to taking government funding ended, the entire executive suite gave themselves raises, the low-end being at about 100 percent increases to Mr. Rousseau who gave himself a 233 percent raise.
25. Munchausen August 18, 2025 at 1:05 pm

    In today’s clown world:
    https://x.com/olddog100ua/status/1957316360284901555
    We will not surrender to Putin, We most certainly will not surrender to Trump.

    P,S, Shaun Pinner is the guy that surrendered to Russians, was sentenced to death, and then exchanged.
    1. witters August 19, 2025 at 3:46 am

       In Australia he would have a name change. He’d be Wayne Kerr. You know, Jack Off’s cousin.
       1. The Rev Kev August 19, 2025 at 4:15 am

          You sure that here in Oz he would not be renamed Richard Cranium?
26. Jason Boxman August 18, 2025 at 1:59 pm

    Why Haven’t Tariffs Boosted Inflation? This Theory Is Gaining Traction (WSJ via archive.is)

    The highest tariffs in almost a century haven’t caused inflation to surge. The phenomenon has puzzled economists, some of whom suspect that companies have so far simply been reluctant to pass along the extra costs to their customers.

    But another argument for the limited impact is gaining traction: that tariffs being paid by importers are lower than advertised.

    Interesting, if true.
    1. Neutrino August 18, 2025 at 3:04 pm

       Product cost subject to tariffs is only one component of the final price paid by consumers. Add in the rest of the stack, like retail markups, transportation and other minimally changing items, and that tariff piece gets smaller, so less overall impact in the profit waterfall.

       That provides some flexibility in final pricing along with how much the various companies in the chain of custody may be willing to eat to maintain volume, at least in the shorter run.
       1. Jason Boxman August 18, 2025 at 4:46 pm

          In my conversations today, the local bagel place’s distributor has red dots by items that reflect tariff pricing, which isn’t every item. They’re having particular trouble sourcing individual sugar packets, for reasons unknown.

          The local kids toy store has trouble sourcing Pokemon cards. For the rest, I don’t know, the worker wasn’t responsible for purchasing decisions.
27. Tom Stone August 18, 2025 at 2:27 pm

    I have permanent damage from the Tubbs and subsequent fires.
    So do many, many others.
    When cars and houses burn you breathe everything that was in them.
    My now retired cadiologist Patrick Devlin told me he was seeing people “The ones that make it” five years earlier than he would have expected before the fires.
    This was in our first conversation, in cardiac ICU.
    Patrick Devlin was one of the finest Doctors I have ever encountered and i have met more than I would have liked during my 72 years.
    1. Neutrino August 18, 2025 at 3:08 pm

       A friend’s son is a wildfire fighter in California. The lead testing results on firefighters is shocking, not only from all the burned EVs but other sources that people wouldn’t normally suspect. There is much lead lurking around even recently constructed homes. Where else is it coming from?

       Firefighters of all types need breathing PPE, to add to their 70+ pounds of turnout gear. Add on an oxygen tank and that extra weight reduces mobility and endurance. Then consider breathing impacts and practical steps like taking off the mask to catch a breath. :(
       1. hunkerdown August 18, 2025 at 5:16 pm

          In fact, being electrical equipment and in California, and also designed with weight efficiency in mind, EVs should be substantially lead-free today.
          1. MicaT August 18, 2025 at 5:29 pm

             The only lead that I’m aware of in a a massed produced EV is the 12v accessory battery. Like in any car.
28. MaryLand August 18, 2025 at 3:31 pm

    Trump’s looking worn out. Like a hangover or the morning after an hours long fight with his spouse. It could be his age plus his recent flights, but he looks ragged.
29. bertl August 18, 2025 at 5:18 pm

    Just watching the White House press meeting and it is clear that the Eurocrets have no intention of demonstrating even the pretense that Russia has security concerns which deserve consideration. It looks as if Russia will have to continue to fight the war it has already won until it ends in an absolute dominance of every square inch of Ukraine.
30. Tom Stone August 18, 2025 at 6:09 pm

    SIG’s recent pistols have both serious design flaws and poor quality materials and workmanship.
    Both the US Military and cop shops would have been much better off buying Glocks.
    The manual of arms for a Glock is as simple as you can get, and they work.
    Add a striker control device and decent fixed night sights and you have the best service pistol available.
    If you want to go further the Glock has been around for nearly 50 years, the number of aftermarket “Improvements” is nearly infinite.
    FD, I do not own a Glock, I started shooting pistols before Glocks came out and I will stick with the 1911’s I have been using for better than half a century.
    If I were starting off today I would buy a Glock, because they work.
    1. Late Introvert August 18, 2025 at 11:30 pm

       That’s what my brother told me as well. So I’ve held off on getting a handgun for two reasons. I can’t imagine going to a shooting range to practice, and also it scares me!
    2. principle August 19, 2025 at 8:05 am

       All guns work, except the chosen few that don’t, of course. It ain’t rocket science. Buying a Glock “because they work” makes sense as much buying any other gun “because they work” (except the chosen few that don’t, of course).
31. Acacia August 18, 2025 at 9:52 pm

    Re: “AI”

    We see innumerable examples of so-called “AI” (yes, scare quotes lol) not working or generally crapifying our Internet experience, but there are also many people claiming that it’s really helping to accelerate application development, as well as more recent research disputing such claims.

    Relatedly, this article has been trending on stackoverflow since last week:

    A new worst coder has entered the chat: vibe coding without code knowledge
    https://stackoverflow.blog/2025/08/07/a-new-worst-coder-has-entered-the-chat-vibe-coding-without-code-knowledge/

    It’s a first-person account of a guy with no comp sci knowledge who used “vibe coding” (i.e., relying on AI tools to help write code) to write a simple app. TL;DR:

    This, I think, is the real promise of vibe coding tools—that you can learn how to code without a CS degree. There is no one in the world who would say my friend isn’t intelligent enough to code, but the issue was that he had no experience. And after five years in the Stanford physics department, there was no way he was going back for another degree. Vibe coding tools were giving him the support and knowledge he needed, so he could learn these skills himself.

    Reading this, what strikes me first is that there are countless books on programming languages, tools, coding, algorithms, etc. You can find tutorials and guides online to write a basic “Hello World!” app and more in just about any language. You can find tons of information and get support on forums, to deal with pretty much any common problem and question. It’s all out there, just a web search away. You can post questions about programming challenges and get thoughtful answers from real people.

    And I would think a Stanford grad with a degree in Physics already has at least some experience with coding (e.g., simulations), and even if he somehow never learned anything about it, with that kind of education it should not be so daunting.

    It is true that many coding environments kind of suck. Config files, .gitignore, YAML files, JSON files, npm, etc. etc. Jesus, what a mess. But is a CS degree needed to navigate this? I would say “no”. A degree in computer science is about much more critical things like algorithms, applied math, performance, systems design, engineering methodologies, etc. And there are programming environments that make it much simpler, too. Not all environments suck.

    Is the current state of software development really so awful that a Physics grad needs another four-year degree, just to “learn to code”? I don’t believe it. Where did this idea even come from? Why does the author believe this?

    The “vibe” I’m getting here is that the person writing this article doesn’t want to read a book or even an article. He wants an app that will hand-hold through the whole process, and “explain it to me like I’m five.” It’s this odd “I made no effort and look what I was able to do!” attitude.

    Where this is actually coming from, idk.
32. Dave in Sydney August 18, 2025 at 11:15 pm

    Conor, Yves, Haig, a link for you.

    Guardian
    Australian immigration minister cancels visa of far-right Israel politician attempting speaking tour.

    .
    Minister cites its in the same context as why he banned Kanye West from entering.

    NB Kanye West had his tourist visa cancelled, which according to minister was unprecedented. He said usually a cancellation is only when someone is on a working visa for example with intent to influence the public

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/18/far-right-israeli-politician-barred-from-australia-ahead-of-speaking-tour-ntwnfb

    Further to Conors post:

    ‘ Former IDF General Calls Palestinian Death Toll in Gaza ‘Necessary’ in Recording Haaretz’

    That story also appeared in The Guardian yesterday. Mentioning, given the mainstream status of the Guardian

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/17/israeli-general-aharon-haliva-palestinians-7-october-gaza
33. Ben Panga August 19, 2025 at 5:28 am

    ‘Coalition of the Willing’ debriefs after White House talks (Guardian blog)

    The “Coalition of the Willing” will meet virtually today to debrief after last night’s talks at the White House, it emerged.

    A spokesperson for the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said he would take part in the midday call (11am BST)

    Later today, EU leaders are also set to take place in a virtual European Council, at 1pm Brussels time (midday BST).

    09.52 BST

    Ukraine live updates: Starmer and Macron to co-chair ‘coalition of the willing’ debrief after White House talks

    We now have a further confirmation of the meeting of the “Coalition of the Willing” this morning, coming from the German government and the Élysée Palace in France.

    The meeting will be co-chaired by UK prime minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron, Élysée said.

    BP: Is there a collective noun for impotence?

    Coalition of the wilting?
    1. Yves Smith August 19, 2025 at 8:11 am

       The EU types used that expression the first time the idea of EU peacekeepers came up. Yours truly pointed out what you noticed, that that label is not at all auspicious.
       1. bertl August 19, 2025 at 9:58 am

          The Russians have been carefully listing the acts of war conducted by various EU/NATO members, and this Coalition of the Willing but Incapable provides the basis of yet another casus belli, the evidence of which is already on the ground in the Ukraine and its immediate environs. President Putin is patient and he will attempt to resolve this conflict to Russia’s advantage. If the Coalition if the Incapable continues to play silly buggers, he may feel he has to take onboard some of the less moderate views in Russia and give some of these Toytown adversaries – particularly the two nuclear states and Germany a very good kicking. For the crime of economic warfare he could do the rest of the world a favour by the precise targeting of aesthetically distressing Europa building in Brussels if only as a performative act to demonstrate his recognition of the EU’s role in the coup and the subsequent war crimes against Russians attempting to live their live their lives and enjoy their religious, political and language freedoms without threat throughout the Collective Westand, in particular the Baltic states. The trouble is, the creatures who pass themselves off as political leaders in the CW seem unable to understand that anti-Russian European rhetoric and European support of anti-Russian causes will never be easy for Russians to forget and many feel the need to reciprocate in a way that cannot be forgotten less easily.

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