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Links 8/21/2025

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In the Image of God: John Comenius and the First Children’s Picture Book Public Domain Review

‘Deeply concerning’: reading for fun in the US has fallen by 40%, new study says The Guardian

It-girl literary heroines are all cannibals now The New Statesmen. Quite the lede.

Climate/Environment

Enormous Erin Growing Larger: Violent Seas, Dangerous Waves, and Treacherous Surf Expected Along the U.S. East Coast Eye on the Tropics

Major heatwave to bring increased wildfire risk, and (finally!) a substantive monsoonal surge to California & Southwest Weather West

Melting on the Arctic’s Svalbard Islands Shows the Climate Future Is Now Inside Climate News

Europe’s record mosquito-borne disease activity could signal new normal CIDRAP

NJ resident infected with malaria, possibly from local mosquito, a rarity here Northjersey.com

Pandemics

Brainstem Reduction and Deformation in the 4th Ventricle Cerebellar Peduncles in Long COVID Patients: Insights into Neuroinflammatory Sequelae and “Broken Bridge Syndrome” medRiv (preprint). Breakdown:

A Remedial Class in Basic Leadership Pandemic Accountability Index

Japan

Defense Ministry to seek record 8.8 trillion yen for fiscal 2026 Asahi Shimbun

Okinawan rights ignored as military crimes persist East Asia Forum

Fire Breaks Out on USS New Orleans Off Okinawa gCaptain

India

Press release on Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s upcoming talks with Foreign Minister of India Subrahmanyam Jaishankar The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. “The meeting’s agenda will focus on facilitating the emergence of transport, logistics, banking and financial links and chains that would be immune to any adverse pressures from unfriendly countries, while also increasing the use of national currencies in their mutual settlements.”

India test-fires nuclear-capable ballistic missile, with eye on China Straits Times

China?

Why is the US sparing China, but not India, for importing Russian oil? Al Jazeera

As US tariffs bite, China and India need each other more than ever Think China

China turns against Nvidia’s AI chip after ‘insulting’ Howard Lutnick remarks FT

Africa

US Bombs al-Shabaab, Marking 58th Airstrike in Somalia of the Year Antiwar

Syraqistan

Inside the IDF’s plan to relocate 1 million Gazans Israel Hayoum

Israel approves E1 settlement to ‘erase’ Palestinian state with ‘actions not slogans’ Middle East Eye

MAGA erupts after Israeli official charged in child sex ring flees U.S. Axios

A leak within a leak: extradition requests with Israel as of May 2022 All-Source Intelligence

US To Fund $500 Million Boeing KC-46 Tanker Aircraft Deal for Israel Antiwar

Pentagon Eyes $3.5 Billion Restock Costs From Israel Operations Bloomberg

Old Blighty

The police pulled over my car. The lack of a reason should worry us all Jonathan Cook

Sally Rooney: I support Palestine Action. If this makes me a ‘supporter of terror’ under UK law, so be it Irish Times

UK warns Sally Rooney after novelist pledges to fund Palestine Act Al Jazeera

Concern as MoD reportedly poised to hand £2bn training deal to Elbit, Israel’s largest arms firm Action on Armed Violence

European Disunion

The controversial ‘wine queen’ who rules Germany’s parliament Euractiv

New Not-So-Cold War

Russia says it must be included in any Ukraine security guarantees FT

Pentagon says US will play a minimal role in Ukraine’s security guarantee Politico

Alaska was entertaining, now back to the war… Mark Sleboda (video)

Alastair Crooke: Trump’s Bold Gamble Dialogue Works (video)

Trump’s Gambit to Weaken BRICS Backfires… Is He Still Trying to Woo Russia in a Bid to Defeat China? Larry Johnson

Trump Has No Idea How to Do Diplomacy Stephen Walt, Foreign Policy. Does anyone in the US?

Beyond Ukraine: The Alaska Summit of Shadows Signals Hidden Economic Agenda Between Washington & Moscow Fiorella Isabel and Vanessa Beeley. A different take. Helpful summary below video.

Power as Translation Warwick Powell

“Liberation Day”

Tariffs Don’t Fix Trade – Capital Flows Do Andre Chelhot

Trump 2.0

Military Preparing Attacks on Mexican Cartels Ken Klippenstein

Selling Freddie and Fannie – What’s the Real Point? Racket News

GOP Funhouse

Texas House approves GOP congressional map after two-week delay from Democrats’ walkout Texas Tribune

Democrats en déshabillé

Obama applauds Newsom’s California redistricting plan as ‘responsible’ as Texas GOP pushes new maps AP

Second Whistleblower: Receipts Attached. The NSA Audited the 2024 Election. Kamala Won. This Will Hold. Commentary:

The Uniparty

The mirage of the antiwar right The Anti Empire Project

Antitrust

Data Centers Aren’t the Main Villain Behind Higher Electric Bills BIG by Matt Stoller

BlackRock’s bid for Minnesota Power worries consumer advocates Minnesota Reformer

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins Takes Steps to “Protect Farmland”. . . From Farmer-owned Solar Panels??? The Cocklebur

Immigration

Trump administration vows to ‘come after’ sanctuary states and cities, despite court setbacks Ohio Capital Journal

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

New zero-day startup offers $20 million for tools that can hack any smartphone TechCrunch

AI

Is this the moment when the Generative AI bubble finally deflates? Gary Marcus

Report: States like Michigan ‘simply not prepared’ for data center water demand Bridge Michigan

Police State Watch

Military vehicle crashes into car in DC as states send more national guard troops The Guardian

‘Psychological warfare’: Internal data shows true nature of Alligator Alcatraz Miami Herald

CoreCivic, Leavenworth await appellate court hearings on prison reopening Kansas Reflector

Imperial Collapse Watch

The twilight of tech unilateralism Programmable Mutter

The End of International Relations As We Know It… Un-Diplomatic

Accelerationists

Technofeudalism versus Total Capitalism American Affairs Journal

Our Famously Free Press

Influencerism is the highest form of capitalist realism Yasha Levine

Shari Redstone hoped Trump’s ‘60 Minutes’ suit would root out anti-Israel bias at CBS News — and she sold Paramount partly over Oct. 7 New York Post

Bari Weiss’s Free Press Wants You to Know Some Kids Being Starved by Israel Were Already Sick The Intercept

Groves of Academe

Race Over Numbers, Donors Fuel K-12 Blitz to Remake Math Education Lee Fang

Class Warfare

Three Crises of Labor Hamilton Nolan

Appeals court says NLRB structure unconstitutional, in a win for SpaceX TechCrunch

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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129 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    “Why is the US sparing China, but not India, for importing Russian oil?”

    Does it have to be said? Trump can punch down on India and there is only so much they can do to hit back. But Trump tried to punch down on China earlier this year but who pushed back hard enough to make Trump’s economy go wobbly. Plus right now China still has Trump by the short and curlys over refined earths. And the lesson is that bullies only punch those weaker then themselves, not those stronger than themselves as they are at heart cowards. And he can’t sue his way out of this dilemma.

    Reply ↓
    1. Mikel

      I wouldn’t underestimate the influence of the oil and gas industry on USA administrations.
      This part was popcorn worthy:
      “Speaking to CNBC news on Tuesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended Washington’s decision not to impose secondary sanctions against China, saying Beijing purchased 13 percent of Russian oil before the Ukraine war, which has now increased to 16 percent. “So China has a diversified input of their oil,” he said.

      He added that China had not engaged in the kind of “arbitrage” undertaken by India.

      But Bessent accused India of “profiteering”. He pointed out that before the Ukraine war, India’s import of Russian oil was less than 1 percent. But “now, I believe, it’s up to 42 percent,” he said. “This is what I would call the Indian arbitrage – buying cheap Russian oil, reselling it as product,” he told CNBC.

      “They’ve made $16bn in excess profits – some of the richest families in India.”

      Are they saying China may be helping Russia a lot with purchases, but they aren’t messing with the global markets the same way as India?
      Would there be other global oil players quietly all for the move the USA is talking about making?

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        I think that what Bessent is saying that India is doing arbitrage – and that’s our job. I’m surprised that Trump has not told the Indians that he will permit them to buy Russian oil and then sell it on so long as India pays him 10% of the profits. it would be just another shakedown.

        Reply ↓
        1. Mikel

          India isn’t in OPEC either…
          All of the countries seem to compartmentalize issues – depending on what special interest is exerting the most influence at the time.

          Reply ↓
    2. tyaresun

      Jaishanker comments after meeting Lavrov:
      “We are not the biggest purchasers of Russian oil; that is China. We are not the largest purchasers of LNG; that is the European Union. We are not the country with the largest trade surge with Russia since 2022; I think there are some countries to the south,” he said, responding to a question about US tariffs on India at a joint press briefing with Lavrov.

      “We are a country where the Americans have, for the last few years, encouraged us to stabilize the global energy market, including by purchasing oil from Russia. Incidentally, we also buy oil from the US, and that amount has increased. So, honestly, we are very perplexed by the logic of the argument you (the media) referenced,” he added.

      https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/jaishankar-meeting-lavrov-eam-jaishankar-perplexed-at-logic-behind-us-additional-tariffs-despite-india-not-being-biggest-purchaser-of-russian-oil

      Reply ↓
    3. Glen

      India is certainly going to seek stronger ties with China and Russia.

      Maybe Trump wants to get the Nobel Peace Prize for making peace and a strong alliance between all the BRICS nations? /sarc

      This seems to be a thru line in American elites foreign policy, a complete miscalculation of what their efforts will actually do. Biden (via Nuland and Ukraine) was very successful at driving Russia and China together, and Trump has been very successful at driving what was considered bedrock Western allies to seek better ties with China:

      Japan, China and South Korea discuss trilateral cooperation https://apnews.com/article/japan-china-south-korea-foreign-ministers-313665d1a611abeb42180245d7e167f1

      Pair up these delusional foreign polices with no real effort to do America First, and one has to wonder – who voted for this?

      Reply ↓
  2. Victor Sciamarelli

    Perhaps AI with its data center water and power demands, as well as being a potential bubble, should be discussed together with global warming.
    The staggering level of investment in AI by US companies, I’m estimating ~$1/2 trillion and counting, is hard to appreciate because I haven’t heard a compelling explanation about what we’re actually going to do with it. China’s AI investment is a far distant second to the US.
    Supposedly, markets know best. Yet, it should be obvious that global warming is a more pressing problem than the AI race, and China is out front with their electric cars, solar panels and such.
    Even if Americans remain safe indoors from the rising temperatures, plant life can only tolerate so much heat stress and sustained temperatures in the 35C-50C (95F-120F) range will kill or diminish food crops, trees, and other plant life. It’s getting harder to defend the so-called market and remain excited by the AI race.

    Reply ↓
        1. Ben Panga

          We are seeing unregulated capitalism v directed capitalism play out and the Americans are only falling further behind.

          I do not see how the US can rival China’s ability to create large infrastructure, sector development etc. There is just a huge structural and institutional difference.

          Reply ↓
    3. upstater

      Re. Data Centers Aren’t the Main Villain Behind Higher Electric Bills BIG by Matt Stoller

      I think Stoller is missing the deregulated elephant in the room. His argument that rate of return is driving residential electricity rates is only partially true. But since Carter and Clinton era deregulation electricity supply (from generation) and delivery (transmission, substations and distribution) have been unbundled for most investor owned utilities. (Public power agencies, municipal and coops are often shielded from the deregulated monstrosity).

      The delivery component is where the rate of return on the physical assets including capital, operations and maintenance accrue. Delivery is a natural monopoly and is regulated. Supply is largely deregulated; multiple utility and non-utility generators “compete” and are dispatched based on price. Prices for consumers or small business are set on the margin. The price for all generators is set by the highest cost last entrant. This is where the worst financiaization and speculation occur. Thus, on the hottest or coldest days marginal prices are many multiples of base load; ultimately high marginal rates are passed through to small customers in some manner. Large industrial and data centers almost always have contracts at fixed price base load rates. That difference is enormous.

      It should also be noted that the huge investment in transmission and substations is often necessary to support the largest industrial users. Residential and small businesses account for only part of the system. But these costs are socialized across all customers.

      Reply ↓
      1. MicaT

        The problem is the investors class. They have just figured IOU’s are money printing machines. The IOU’s forgot their first and only job was to provide inexpensive reliable power.

        Look at PG&E in Cali. Number donor to gov Gavin. Of course he was never going to take over PGE. If he had he would have been a hero, instead zero.
        Lots of people have written about the totality corrupt ways things are done all to increase the line that is the 10% multiplier. But almost always not the most effective or effective or least productive way. It’s why the costs in most Cali IOU’s are so much higher than other ones. Even smud ( not an IOU) is in California but is significantly less expensive.
        Oh well guess it’s got to get worse.

        Reply ↓
    4. Martin Oline

      I have read from a 2022 book Survival of the Richest that new entrepreneurs are striving to plan for no employees whatever. Every dollar made after the initial IPO is a dollar of profit. If you have employees they have to be compensated. If you staff your enterprise with magical beans IA, you will become the next Zuckerberg. This mindset has led to the new “madness of the crowd” when it comes to AI development.

      Reply ↓
      1. Ben Panga

        “There were even occasional rumors, probably started by the traders, that all the salespeople were going to be fired, and the firm would simply trade in a blissful vacuum. Who needed the f***ing customers anyway?”

        From Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis

        Reply ↓
  3. griffen

    Whistleblower report from ex CIA. I can’t even and it’s early yet….So every polling indication on election night 2024 was polling well outside any margin of error? Not a polling statistician myself but I can follow most math….seems like she Did Lose and it just wasn’t too close on the electoral college. Desperation on delay it appears, and I never accepted this crock of shite from Trump in early 2021.

    “Losers whine about their best….winners go home and date the prom queen”. The Rock, film version circa 1996…in that excellent tone and delivery by Sean Connery.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      You and I remember that quote very differently. With that film “The Rock”, I wondered at the time if Sean Connery played the John Mason character as if it was his earlier James Bond character that had been in prison all that time.

      Reply ↓
    2. Revenant

      I think the “whistleblower report” is a misnomer for NSA salting the databases with “evidence” that Kamala won. As the article itselfpointed out, a paper ballot recount is a very different thing from a cyber security audit. And guess which one the NSA did here….

      Reply ↓
    3. Acacia

      I’ll stick with Heidi Moore’s take on Harris’s Coconut Speedway endo:

      She lost because she armed and funded an unpopular genocide. It’s really not much more complicated than that.

      There were 40+ million Gen Z elligible to vote last year, and 70% of them polled saying that would not support pro-genocide candidates.

      As usual, the Dems stuck with pleasing their donors — which meant keeping Harris in line w.r.t. genocide — not with actually winning an election.

      Indeed, I think we can say it’s really not much more complicated than that.

      But spooks gonna spook.

      Reply ↓
  4. Henry Moon Pie

    City of prisons: Leavenworth KS–

    I grew up across the Missouri River from Leavenworth. The town and its suburb, Lansing, house the famous Federal Penitentiary, the largest of Kansas’s state prisons for men and the Army’s DB at Fort Leavenworth. What can one more hurt? /sarc

    My spouse’s relatives are big in politics locally with a brother who’s been mayor and a nephew who’s sheriff. Big Trumpers all.

    Reply ↓
    2. griffen

      I got a bit curious about the national private prison company named in that article, Core Civic, so checked them out on CNBC. Over the long term it seems like a “sub-optimal” investment except during a spike in the equity price in the late 90s….the spike lasted over a period of several years then a basic downhill trend into sort of flattening out.

      For what that’s worth and granted that doesn’t really mean much, other a for profit prison complex just seriously reflects where the US priorities lay. To quote the Warden speaking to Andy, while in Shawshank prison, ” the best way to spend money is more walls and more guards, but you write your letters if you want..”

      Reply ↓
  5. OIFVet

    Seems to me that Stephen Walt is guilty of some of the same things he decries in his article, namely, lack of realism about the mechanism by which continuing to provide material and financial support for Ukraine to prosecute the war will achieve more favorable peace terms for it. Spilling more Russian blood using US money and weapons has so far resulted only in Russia escalating the costs of peace it wants to impose upon Ukraine and the West. All in all, he could have saved himself falling into the sunk-cost fallacy. It’s exceedingly obvious to anyone with two brain cells to rub together that Trump and his team’s are amateurs and that he’s a terrible negotiator to boot.

    Reply ↓
    1. Carolinian

      Being a veteran you no doubt fume at Trump declaring himself and Netanyahu “war heroes” for taking on imaginary enemy Iran. It might be interesting to look at how many wars in the modern era are promoted by those who never did any fighting themselves. My state’s senior senator would be another example although was in the military as a JAG lawyer.

      Of course these non veteran politicians find support for their wars from a public that is often ex military. But perhaps it takes the detachment of past non involvement to order up mayhem for the benefit of the ruling class. Obama allegedly said “turns out I’m very good at killing people”–from the safety of the White House basement.

      Reply ↓
    2. pjay

      Yes. The “realist” Walt is often linked to Mearsheimer because of their joint work on the Israel Lobby. But this is nothing but the despicable Atlanticist program to keep the fire burning until the last Ukrainian is consumed:

      “… the best way to get the best deal possible is by the following: the United States maintaining a united front with Europe, NATO continuing to provide Ukraine with generous military support, and Ukraine and the United States pursuing serious and well-prepared negotiations with Russia based on a realistic assessment of each side’s bargaining position.”

      What is the “realistic” assessment of Ukraine’s bargaining position today, and how will continued conflict affect that position? Even more telling is his comment that HARRIS would have done a better job, because “she would have replaced Biden’s team with other well-qualified advisors, told them to push for that outcome, and continued to back Ukraine to get the best deal possible in a bad situation.”

      If anyone wants to know how Democrats define “diplomacy” or foreign policy “realism” today, just read the tweet by the disgusting Michael McFaul that Conor helpfully places right after Walt’s miserable advice. I’d like to know who these “well-qualified advisors” would have been, and what Walt would define as “the best possible deal” in his fake-realist fantasy.

      Reply ↓
      1. tegnost

        I had high hopes for walt when yves/NC linked a video of him at a conference so I watched it only to see a classic version of the eyeroll and typical PMC exhausted exclamation of”bernie” like he was this abomination that only stupid people(read non credentialed) relate to. Not the barely left of center politician that he actually is (hey, barely left of center is better than any of the other options so bernie is a mensch), so scratch one realist and uncover a fabulist Nothing insightful, just standard PMC claptrap. Disappointing, but what can one expect from the “smart” people other than not very much.
        Very possible/likely that Mearsheimer feels the same way, but it doesn’t bleed into his analysis, which imo can be accurately dubbed realism as it lays out the details and attempts to let the viewer decide. Happy to be disabused if I’m wrong.

        Reply ↓
        1. pjay

          The essay in today’s Links, ‘The End of International Relations as We Know It,’ is relevant here. The essay itself is well-worth reading for its depiction not just of IR, but of academia in general. But this passage seems especially applicable in this case:

          “… In IR, relevance is almost always defined as insider access to foreign policy elites or militarist “bridging the gap” initiatives meant to translate theoretical and empirical insights into push-button answers for war-minded policymakers who will only pay any attention to the insight if it provides confirmation bias. Traditionally, to be an IR scholar seeking policy relevance is to work for ruling-class interests and on behalf of American power-hoarding in the world-system.”

          Walt is “the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of international relations at the Harvard Kennedy School.” (Wikipedia) I can’t think of an institution where the above description could possibly be more accurate.

          Reply ↓
          1. tegnost

            Thanks, I made it to walts argument and it had elements of realistic thinking with a fair bit of fabulism. An overall cogent appraisal from the atlanticist perspective as noted above, as long as one is willing to accept, as you noted, the ruling class perspective and acceptance of the natural state of western superiority and manifest destiny as the hegemon.
            Just ask yourself: Is there anything Trump got for the United States, its allies, or Ukraine when he met with Putin in Alaska? Did Putin give anything up? For that matter, what concessions did Trump get from those European leaders who showed up to persuade him not to abandon Ukraine?
            Um…I think just doing the meeting is a win, and larding it up with professional diplomatic conditions would certainly have gotten nothing.
            The uncomfortable reality is that Moscow has been willing to put its economy on a war footing and sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives to achieve its goals, and Ukraine’s Western supporters have not and will not.
            Here Walt misstates the problem, that being (per berletic most consistently) Western weapons manufacturing is for profit first, as well as a patent farm for gadgets and gizmos, while RU runs its manufacturing in house. It’s one of those “its so simple its complicated” things.
            The to articles go together well (IR and diplomacy) but don’t inspire confidence.

            Reply ↓
            1. tegnost

              adding that the whole
              “kamala would have done xyz” is ridiculous fantasy and projection.
              It would have been more of the same from a different angle

              Reply ↓
    3. Aurelien

      I’m not sure that Walt, in spite of his posturing, knows anything much about diplomacy at all. He’s right about the Trump team’s amateurism, but only in the sense that any football fan can tell when their team is playing badly. Diplomacy is fundamentally about making agreements and getting things done, at which I think Trump was quite successful at in Alaska. It’s not an all-in wrestling contest.
      I thought the placement of Walt’s essay next to the Un-diplomatic lament for the for the decline of International Relations was quite piquant. It’s never been clear to me that IR as a discipline has any interest whatever. It doesn’t inform government policy, because practitioners aren’t interested in it, and it doesn’t inform the public because, for different reasons, they are not interested either.

      Reply ↓
      1. Ignacio

        I found your last para depressing as my daughter is now pursuing a career in IR. Most of her learning work is about policy. She is trying to focus on energy policy and sustainable development. I hope she does not read your commentary!

        Reply ↓
        1. pjay

          Ignacio, it is depressing to me as well, because there are few areas of inquiry that are more crucial from a world-historical perspective. Is she studying in the US? If not, then the situation may well be different. Here (the US), I would have to agree with Aurelien’s comment, though probably not for the same reasons.

          When I was in grad school (in the 1980s), it was commonly accepted that “international relations” in the US was the academic discipline that studied relations between nations *while avoiding ANY of the key questions asked by Marxists, neo-Marxists, or those informed by any “Marxian” type of understanding of global political economy.* That meant that IR and any form of Marxian dependency theory, World-Systems theory, etc., and the types of questions asked by these approaches, existed in two separate academic worlds. This left it both myopic as a discipline supposedly studying “international relations,” and (for similar reasons) the home to much ideological justification for Western assumptions about political “modernization” and “development.” I disagree with part of Aurelian’s comment though. As “The End of International Relations” quote I cite points out, “practitioners” were indeed interested in IR work – to the extend that it justified their own interests, world-view, and policy prescriptions.

          Over the years I met many good people studying “IR.” Many of them were not working in the US. A few were – but I guarantee you they would not have had positions at the Kennedy School. As I say, in my opinion there are few topics more important, though I have to agree with the last part of Aurelian’s statement that the public is rarely interested i these issues. That goes double, triple, quadruple, for citizens of the US.

          I wish your daughter all the best.

          Reply ↓
        2. Alan Sutton

          My daughter is doing that too, in Australia where International Relations have been hijacked since the Whitlam coup into being justifications for supplication to the US.

          The young people I know who have an interest in studying international politics here (including a nephew and next door neighbour in the army) all have a very pro US and anti China point of view.

          Hard not too when the media is as saturated with propaganda as it is here.

          Reply ↓
    4. bertl

      This is wilful nonsense on Walt’s part which contradicts the one solid point he makes in this article and can only be explained as a whimsical payment for his continued license to be taken seriously by the US foreign policy establishment:

      “Even if some of Putin’s demands will have to be acknowledged in a future peace agreement, others should be summarily rejected, like the demand that NATO withdraw its forces from some of its member states, or that Ukraine be “de-Nazified” and partly disarmed. If Russia insists that it needs to be protected from external forces that it fears might one day be stationed in Ukraine, then Ukraine must be protected from renewed Russian attacks and be allowed the means to defend itself.”

      And the solid point:

      “Nothing has been more damaging to the Western position on this issue than its foreign-policy elite’s head-in-the-sand refusal to acknowledge that open-ended NATO enlargement—and especially the 2008 invitation to Ukraine and Georgia to prepare applications for future admission—was a strategic blunder. That is the most important of the “root causes” that Putin has claimed must be addressed in a peace deal, and the one that the Western apostles of expansion have been most vehement in trying to deny or ignore. None of this justifies Putin’s illegal preventive war, but it’s hard to end a serious conflict if no one acknowledges and addresses the reasons that it started in the first place.”

      (Apropos the last sentence, given the treatment of Russian and Hungarian minorities after the 2014 coup, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities could be mentioned as a possible justification at this point – particularly as the members of the other Parties with the greatest interest in the matter, NATO and the EU, did not raise their voices against it when the Declaration was accepted without objection as Resolution 47/135 on 18 December 1992 and nor did they ensure that the Ukraine made serious efforts to comply with the Declaration, which raises many issues which few have given voice to.)

      I think it was Palmerston who made the point that when making war, looking at a map may not be the ideal preparation for the terrain on which military forces will be forced to engage but, again in contradiction to Walt’s main point, he manages to restate it in much more specific terms, which no doubt has Sun Tzu spinning in his grave with laughter:

      “The uncomfortable reality is that Moscow has been willing to put its economy on a war footing and sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives to achieve its goals, and Ukraine’s Western supporters have not and will not.”

      Funny old world, innit, OIFVet?

      Reply ↓
  6. DJG, Reality Czar

    Heidi N. Moore, natch, is on the mark.

    A bigger question: What is causing the breakdown of trust in electoral results in 2016, 2020, and 2024 in the U S of A? Is it that the U S of A, which never was a high-trust culture, is now drowning in zero-trust culture?

    Is it that politics as a team sport, which is now the dominant metaphor / process in the U S of A, has wrecked politics?

    Is it caused by too much media and its effects? “Here comes everybody,” with everybody having a “theory” and announcing “kabuki” and opining on social media and “doing their own research.” I have nothing against research, having done scads of it for many projects, but when Candace Owens is “doing research” to prove that Brigitte Macron, who has borne three kids, is a man, one wonders if USanians simply cannot think rationally anymore.

    Yet having watched that clip of the execrable Dorothy Shea posted here a couple of days back, I also see that USanians have very flexible principles, easily corrupted.

    The article at This Will Hold, “Receipts Attached,” contains this big load of bullshit:

    “In December 2024, I was personally involved in an NSA‑authorized forensic audit of the 2024 election. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz won—by a wide margin. Trump lost dramatically. There are multiple layers of complexity to this cover‑up, including transnational organized crime syndicates that extend far beyond the United States and our elections. To that point, I work in the human trafficking sector, which intersects with the stolen election(s) and has ties to Trump and Epstein—not to President Biden, Vice President Harris, or Governor Walz, but to the Democrats and other allied interests responsible for burying the audit.” — Adam Zarnowski, ex-CIA agent and author of Jörmungandr

    It’s important to distinguish between public hand-counts and cyber forensic audits: the first verifies paper ballot accuracy, while the second examines digital pathways that could compromise election outcomes.
    Again, this was not a “hand-count”—it was an NSA-authorized audit

    Former “paramilitary operations officer” for the CIA. If you believe the method and the results, you’ll believe anything.

    Reply ↓
    2. Skip Intro

      What is causing the breakdown of trust in electoral results in 2016, 2020, and 2024 ?

      It may have something to do with the elections of 2000 and 2004. More likely, someone has found another line for hawking hopium to dem dead-enders. They need to replace russiagate fever dreams with something equally obsequious to its ‘intelligence community’ authors.

      Reply ↓
      1. mrsyk

        We’ve seen a rabbit pulled from a hat enough times to reflexively question The Turn. This, of course, spoils The Prestige.

        Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called “The Pledge”. The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course… it probably isn’t. The second act is called “The Turn”. The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you’re looking for the secret… but you won’t find it, because of course you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn’t clap yet. Because making something disappear isn’t enough; you have to bring it back. That’s why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call “The Prestige”.

        Christopher Priest, The Prestige

        Reply ↓
        1. paul

          I think wall st & silicon gulch are happy with just the first two.
          Making opm disappear into their bunkers.
          They’ve got plenty of pr flunkeys to deliver the prestige

          Reply ↓
    3. Carolinian

      CIA, NSA….isn’t the “left” supposed to be against these people?

      Perhaps the most depressing thing about our era is too much trust placed in the MIC by certain parties. Bring back Marlon from the supposedly mirror image fifties.

      Young girl: “What are you revolting against?”

      Brando:”Whatdya got?”

      Reply ↓
  7. Wukchumni

    Major heatwave to bring increased wildfire risk, and (finally!) a substantive monsoonal surge to California & Southwest Weather West
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Daniel Swain-the majordomo of Weather West is quite simply a weather savant, and I mean that in the nicest way possible.

    I’ve never seen a weather forecaster anything close to him, and although its pretty much California-centric, what makes his blog even more valuable is the comments section which is full of like-minded weather geeks, who are only too happy to share their takes on what’s what from all corners of the state and beyond.

    The oncoming heart wave is more of a pinner, only supposed to last a few days, no biggie.

    Reply ↓
    1. Leftist Mole

      Yesterday it finally hit 75 in our little central coast town, we broke out the shorts and polos. However a few miles inland hit 107.

      Reply ↓
  8. griffen

    Shari Redstone wanted out of Paramount much the same way a wealthy elite American wanted to get off the sinking HMS Titanic. Screw optics the rich bail in a way that suits them…Rules are for someone else lower on life’s totem pole as sorted by who owns the gold and who doesn’t.

    CBS news used to be a real standard bearer, it seems, in those eras that feature a Murrow or a Walter Cronkite but those days are a long time ago. To bang on a drum but most of US major media outlets were not covering the Biden administration but rather they were employed as it’s stenographers and lackeys. I can’t turn the TV on a single day in 2025 and a Trump appearance is nearly a constant. Could not make the same statement for Joe Biden in oh 2023.

    Former reporter and journalist at CBS, one Scott Pelley, can go suck a rotten egg.

    Reply ↓
    1. Carolinian

      Pelley was horrible. I’m not sure I should opine on this since I stopped watching network news years ago. But plumbing the mists of history one should point out that network news was once regarded as a kind of money losing public service that became more culturally important with Vietnam and then Watergate. This helped fuel the huge popularity of, yes, 60 Minutes back in the Mike Wallace era and that in turn led the network suits to see news as a profit opportunity. Perhaps the turning point was when William Paley replaced Cronkite–who didn’t really want to retire at 65–with the self promoting Dan Rather instead of Cronkite’s chosen successor, Roger Mudd.

      The over the air networks are vastly less important now with cable, streaming, Youtube and the web itself stealing away their audience. To me it won’t matter who owns CBS because I still won’t be watching it. When I did watch NBC News was worse. Surely Galbraith’s entropy is to blame for it all. We even have Donald Trump as president. But the great news dumbing down was a slow boil, not a sudden change.

      Reply ↓
      1. Screwball

        But plumbing the mists of history one should point out that network news was once regarded as a kind of money losing public service that became more culturally important with Vietnam and then Watergate. This helped fuel the huge popularity of, yes, 60 Minutes back in the Mike Wallace era and that in turn led the network suits to see news as a profit opportunity.

        I’m old and I’m not sure about my memory, but I remember an interview years ago with Ted Koppel. I think after he retired. He talked about the transition of network news from a “service” to a profit center, and how it wasn’t really good for the dissemination of said news. Imagine that.

        Now it’s a sewer. I always kind of liked Ted.

        Reply ↓
    1. Judith

      Yes, the Monk is quite nice. His life was troubled; somehow, his music makes me smile.

      I scrolled through that twitter and found a clip of Hendrix playing acoustic guitar that is also fine

      Thanks.

      Reply ↓
    3. Mikel

      “I was a kid, and thought his name was The Loneliest Monk” – YouTube comment on ‘Round Midnight post.

      Kind of sweet.

      Reply ↓
  10. kriptid

    Just a few words on how the MAGA battle is playing out on Wall Street…

    Yesterday, Jerome Powell came under direct fire from one of the presumptive candidates for a seat on the Fed, David Zervos, on CNBC. Mr. Zervos indirectly asserted that Mr. Powell has politicized the Fed and that he has secret left-wing allegiances that are causing he and others to maintain artificially high interest rates.

    Mr. Zervos is Chief Market Strategist at Jefferies, a mid market investment bank that has been on the relative come-up in the time since the Fianancial Crisis. Jefferies and Cantor Fitzgerald (the firm linked to Trump favorites Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessent) are alike in the sense that they are both smaller, scrappier banks that serve non-blue chip companies and companies in riskier sectors than the traditional bulge bracket banks.

    For those who may not be up on lingo, the so-called bulge brackets are akin to the TBTF banks: think Citi, Bank of America, JP Morgan. These banks, whether by virtue of size or connections, have always been at the political forefront (recall the role Citi played in choosing the Obama cabinent?), but we are seeing something different in the current Trump regime. Recall Trump’s recent claims that both JPM and BofA refusing his business…

    This is another element to the MAGA/Trump movement that has yet to be fully appreciated by a wider audience or media, but it’s a component that I thought the erudite NC commentariat would find interesting, and is something to be mindful of as the Fed drama plays out…

    Reply ↓
    1. griffen

      Earlier in the week I had a less than ideal thought ( see below ) on the ongoing theatrics on display, almost daily especially on CNBC, surrounding the Next Fed Chairperson. I expect Mr. Zervos to keep his day job as an interest rate guru, or rather he continues this “guru-ing” next year just not as Fed Chair. It’s apparent in these developments this year, somewhere in the WH a TV is tuned into a cable channel that isn’t Fox News or even Fox Business. A lot of these daily or weekly fluctuations are merely noise instead of a real signal. But hey it’s akin to the reporting on ESPN for all things in the NFL by Adam Scheftter.

      Rather than a Fed dual mandate, should they run a reality show approach instead to weed out the ones deemed unworthy? Call it Fed Duel Mandate! Or Fed Chair Thunderdome! Two candidates enter, one leaves. \sarc

      Reply ↓
        2. griffen

          Yes, I caught much of an interview yesterday with said above regulator, Bill Pulte, and one CNBC anchor threw out some interesting nuggets of info. As in that is believed or supposed that Texas AG Paxton is a known, it’s alleged, offender of the mortgage documentation as well. For context the state AG Ken Paxton is a walking contradiction even by Texas political standards.

          I forget which Fed bank President on air this morning suggested “maybe we should take a closer look at all the required documentation in the mortgage process…”. Yeah let’s do that then what will the lawyers think ? “Sign here and commit your future earnings to meet all that this mortgage demands of you!”.

          The optics of the FHA regulator himself acting on this information seems, IDK a bit unusual or possibly not standard procedure but I’m just a simpleton.

          Reply ↓
  11. Lina

    Re reading. I’m an avid reader. My work team knows this. We were on a team call and talking about what we’ve been doing this summer. I brought up a couple books I’d recently read. Each person on my team, all women over 50, said they don’t read.

    I was surprised, but then not so surprised when I thought about it. They are among the least creative or insightful people I’ve ever met. Lol.

    Reply ↓
      1. mrsyk

        I used to be an avid reader, but as of recently I rarely pick up a book. My attention span is shot through. I’m thoroughly distracted by the reality of my surroundings. It sucks.

        Reply ↓
      2. Leftist Mole

        I was an avid reader as a kid and high schooler. Then as a working artist I’d listen to books on tape while I painted. Now I just read Naked Capitalism and listen to geopolitical talk on YouTube. Reading that article about it girl cannibalism novels was just as depressing as our politics. However my creativity is still running strong.

        Reply ↓
    2. .Tom

      The article says “The definition of reading in the survey wasn’t limited to books; it also included magazines and newspapers in print, electronic or audio form.” so I guess the drop in reading for fun includes audio books, production of which has ballooned over the 20 years the survey covers.

      I suppose pop lit, i.e. reading for fun, is a cultural and commercial format that had its moment as the supreme technology and is being replaced, like radio drama. Paperbacks were cheap, fit in your pocket, provided distraction while waiting, on the bus, between tea time and bed time and so on. There’s many other ways to fill those spaces now.

      Reply ↓
    3. Alice X

      When I was young, I read for pleasure, novels, (science) fiction etc. And nonfiction.

      Today I only read for hard information, the last four books I have read (several still in process):

      •Ilan Papé: A Very Short History of the Israel/Palestine Conflict

      •Omar El Akkad: One Day Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This

      •Paul Cockshott: How the World Works (still in progress, available online, communists often just give their stuff away)

      •Amy Kaplan: Our American Israel (most astute)

      •Mariah Blake: They Poisoned the World (still in progress, on PFAS, we’re doomed)

      Well, actually that’s five, but none for pleasure per se, they are all bracing at least or downright chilling.

      And many current event pieces, primarily on Palestine, from which I will not diverge (by much).

      The Guardian piece says the US literacy rate is estimated at 79%/ 36th globally. MAGA, where are you at?

      Reply ↓
      1. Alan Sutton

        Me too Alice.

        I am reading more and more economics, history etc. Mainly economics.

        Used to be a lot more novels, now virtually none.

        Although I just started Fitzgerald’s “Last Tycoon” which, so far, is great and has the added advantage of being short.

        Reply ↓
  12. The Rev Kev

    “MAGA erupts after Israeli official charged in child sex ring flees U.S.”

    ‘an Israeli official who was arrested in an undercover child sex sting in Nevada’

    No wonder MAGA hit the roof. I have not seen it mentioned anywhere but these were American children that creeps like this were preying on and at heart MAGA is about protecting their fellow Americans. I will give them that. The guy went to court but was let out with no restrictions, no having his passport seized or even a tracker ID put around his ankle in spite of the guy saying that he had to get back to Israel. And of course he shot through and there is zero chance that the Israelis will ever return him for a court appearance. Special rules for special people. So of course MAGA people are linking it to Trump and the Epstein files.

    And at the same time Trump cracked down on wounded Gazan children coming to the US for treatment because Trump supporting wingnut Laura Loomer freaked out when she saw videos of those children getting treatment in American hospitals and had a meltdown-

    https://archive.vn/FiIlH#selection-1503.45-1503.57

    As Caitlin Johnstone put it and as MAGA supporters would probably agree-

    ‘Things are so f***** up that the only way to get wounded Palestinian children in and out of the United States for medical treatment these days would be to disguise them as Israeli pedophiles.’

    Reply ↓
    1. Ben Panga

      Rev, you might be interested in the 4-part Epstein related Whitney Webb thing that Mrsyk posted yesterday.

      Part1: https://www.mintpressnews.com/shocking-origins-jeffrey-epstein-blackmail-roy-cohn/260621/

      Webb has very well documented a sprawling child-sex-for-blackmail network going back to J Edgar Hoover and Meyer Lansky. Runs through the Reagan admin to Epstein and who knows who now. Dark dark stuff.

      My point I guess, is that this has long been normal.

      Reply ↓
      1. Mikel

        Some juice here:
        “Though it is unknown how long the sex ring at the Plaza Hotel continued, and whether it continued after Cohn’s death from AIDS in 1986, it is worth noting that Donald Trump purchased the Plaza Hotel in 1988. It would later be reported and confirmed by then-attendees that Trump “used to host parties in suites at the Plaza Hotel when he owned it, where young women and girls were introduced to older, richer men” and “illegal drugs and young women were passed around and used.”

        On a related note, the movie The Departed (a remake of a South Korean film) is always a good watch.
        Whoever stays out of jail while so many around them see convictions and other punishments…
        (sniff, sniff…smell a rat)

        Reply ↓
        1. Ben Panga

          Agree except it was a Hong Kong film called Infernal Affairs. True story,: I’d seen the HK version before the Departed. I saw The Departed without knowing it was a remake and was confused by my deja vu all the way through. The penny finally dropped during “the roof scene” near the end.

          On the Webb report: So much juice in there. Disgusting and pretty open crimes. And the random seeming bits like Estée Lauder being the main sponsor of Netanyahu?

          What she writes about seems so important, but she gets very little attention.

          And to expand on your Trump specific bit: it seems inarguable that he’s connected to this. Ignoring the Epstein connection, the Cohn stuff alone is suggestive.

          Reply ↓
          1. Mikel

            That’s right – Hong Kong…the South Korean films have been in the spotlight so much lately, slipped my mind.

            Intelligence agencies and their informants…

            Reply ↓
      2. elviejito

        Lets draw a flicker of attention to The Franklin Credit Union Scandal which blew up in sleepy Omaha, Nebraska in the late ’80s and went to the highest levels of government. Judged by the MSM as a simple hoax perpetrated by a group of dead-ender teens, it featured assassinations, plane loads of children flown to Washington DC for late night private tours of the Capitol, and a Republican operative who took the fall. Interesting reading for those who still enjoy reading.

        Reply ↓
  13. hemeantwell

    Awash as we are in crimes and disasters, angst over “It-girl literary heroines are all cannibals now” might seem misplaced, but it’s still worrisome.

    For grins we could file it under Yves’ occasional observation that young people have lost the ability to flirt, but there is actually some truth to it. A scan of the psychoanalytic literature reveals a consensus that patient fantasies of cannibalism usually reflect an intense desire for a relationship coupled with an intense fear, resolved by taking absolute control over the desired object as well as eliminating from oneself all of the more refined needs one might bring to a relationship, which we could loosely sum up as a kind of recognition, both “interpersonal” and sensual. They are food, you are just hungry. It’s the baby at their most undeveloped state, before they acquire concern for the mother. The scrupulous routines of sadomasochism, which in spite of everything do preserve the object, are out the window. If you wanted an exemplar of regression, both personal and social, this would be a contender.

    It’s hard to tell how much this has been “explored” in the arts over time. There’s been a niche literature, and it’s likely McCarthy’s novel “The Road” comes to mind. When it does, however, you’ll recall that his treatment of it was fairly veiled, shrouded in darkness, hardly affirmed as a delight. And Hannibal Lecter was a psychotic horror. So this stuff seems different, and in a very bad way.

    Reply ↓
    2. dingusansich

      Very nice (perhaps “nice” is not the word) analysis. I will add another to the pot, coming off the origins of the dog-eat-dog idiom, a 19th-century reversal of the Roman adage Canis caninam non est. A quote from the linked etymology:

      All the trade and commerce we are to have is among one another: if any body makes money, he must make it, not by his enterprise in foreign commerce, but out of his own countrymen. “Dog eat dog,” is now our commercial motto and practice; no duties being collectable from foreign commerce, it is very clear, that all the money wanted by government must be produced by taxes.

      Put you that a historical, if not hysterical, rhyme, borrowing from Michael Hudson et al., might be that in a post-productive, financialized economy, as the parasite devours the host through asset stripping and offshoring, debts and bubbles, the aberration becomes the norm. Cannibals “R” Us.

      Reply ↓
    3. Bugs

      It’s funny because when Jean de Léry and Michel de Montaigne wrote about actual cannibalism as practiced in the New World, they took pains to note that there was no barbarism involved in it – the male victim was adopted into the cannibalistic society, and oftentimes took a wife during the period before the ceremonial consumption. There’s none of that going on in this postmodern literature. It’s a strange bend in our culture and I don’t know what we can attribute it to. I’d like to say the Internet and neoliberalism, but that seems simplistic. Perhaps we’re just very ill.

      Reply ↓
    4. Lefty Godot

      Maybe I am just a washed out ’60s leftover, but when I see phrases like “female rage” in a a laudatory book review, I want to immediately see how changing it to its opposite would sound. Like how many books featuring “male rage” would get praised? And we’ve already decided that “White Power” is evil racism but “Black Power” was good and liberating, while women’s liberation was an authentic societal breakthrough but men’s liberation was gross and misogynistic. This “inequality but favoring our side” bit seems to have slithered out of the latter ’60s into the world assumptions of the PMC and be in direct contradiction to what Martin Luther King and other freedom fighters were arguing for in the earlier half of that decade.

      Reply ↓
    5. hemeantwell

      I came across this analysis of the cannibalism lit that illustrates the sort of empty-headed standpoint that much post-something or other cultural criticism takes up. It drives me through the roof:

      The analysis investigates the representation of cannibalism as a subversive act that challenges established norms and hierarchical structures of gender, sexuality, and disability, revealing the ways in which the dehumanized other is made comestible, both to the horror and delight of the reader.

      Contrast it with the guiding parameters of a Marxist critique: Marx’s proposal to “ruthlessly critique everything existing” did so in the service of breaking through reified institutions to enable the universal availability of fairly mundane forms of the good life. This guy looks at a literature in which some characters undergo the most thorough form of instrumentalization imaginable, getting murdered and eaten, and slaps on a congratulatory boilerplate, lauding its “subversive” quality. That this subversion might be extremely perverse, not in the sense of “deviant” but in the sense that something good is being destroyed, doesn’t occur to him. It’s as though he’s afraid of looking like a stodgy pearl clutcher if he worries about another leap over the limits of human destructiveness and so embraces, at least for the space of his essay, nihilism.

      Reply ↓
    6. Zephyrum

      I don’t think it’s complex. Everyone involved from the writers to editors to publishers are sick, deranged people. Or perhaps they are depraved. Or both. It’s hard to escape the conclusion that this is a symptom of accelerating societal collapse.

      Reply ↓
  14. Ben Panga

    Re: Israel’s minister of national security Ben Gvir placed a photo of the large scale destruction of Gaza in a prison so Palestinian prisoners see it every time they pass by

    So inventive in their sadism. Speaks of such deep hate. And makes me very sad.

    Reply ↓
  15. The Rev Kev

    “The police pulled over my car. The lack of a reason should worry us all”

    The guy still hasn’t worked it out yet. It has nothing to do with him being near a RAF base or not. It is all about the government intimidating somebody that does not agree with them. Like when they will send around two or three police because somebody is flying a small Palestinian flag from their home. Been thinking about it today and am now wondering about something. Israel has been training US police, right? Because the US it totally unable to train their own police or something and needed the help from a county that has the population of the State of Michigan. So what if the Israelis have been providing training in intimidation tactics to British police. It would make sense.

    Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        Isn’t that the Israeli martial arts that they teach IDF soldiers so they know how to beat up 70 year-old ladies?

        Reply ↓
      1. mrsyk

        Oh indeed! From your link, the lede,

        The media are legitimising Israel’s murder of journalists — and they are doing it because they are racist propagandists for a system of Western colonial control in the Middle East.

        Let us remember the treatment of Craig Murray.

        Reply ↓
  16. The Rev Kev

    ‘Michael McFaul
    @McFaul
    Aug 18
    We didn’t ask for Stalin’s permission to create NATO in 1949. We didn’t ask Khrushchev’s permission to bring West Germany into NATO in 1955. We didn’t ask for Yeltsin’s permission to expand NATO in the 1990s or Putin’s permission in the 2000s. & after these events, Moscow did not invade NATO members. So why are we asking for Putin’s blessing now? Illogical.’

    Still a hard-right maximalist, Neocon. He was once the US Ambassador to Russia and just after arriving, started to have meetings with opposition leaders in the US Embassy as if it was still the 1990s. Just browsing through his account shows you what he is like but here is a Wikipedia link about his time as Ambassador-

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_McFaul#Ambassador_to_Russia_(2011%E2%80%932014)

    You’d think that he was a Trump appointee but was actually an Obama one.

    Reply ↓
    2. John Wright

      McFaul is akin to a manager who maintains that “we leaned on the labor union 10 years ago and they didn’t strike, we leaned on the union 5 years ago and they didn’t strike so they won’t strike this time either”.

      Then the union launches a long, devastating strike.

      What does it say about the quality of the US State Department that McFaul was EVER significant and still has some prominence?

      Reply ↓
      1. hk

        McFaul was a Stanford poli sci prof (at the same time as Condi Rice, in fact.) Says all you need to know about “academics” who meddle in policymaking

        Reply ↓
  17. Wukchumni

    So many evangs-so few lions
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Empathy is usually regarded as a virtue, a key to human decency and kindness. And yet, with increasing momentum, voices on the Christian right are preaching that it has become a vice.

    For them, empathy is a cudgel for the left: It can manipulate caring people into accepting all manner of sins according to a conservative Christian perspective, including abortion access, LGBTQ+ rights, illegal immigration and certain views on social and racial justice.

    “Empathy becomes toxic when it encourages you to affirm sin, validate lies or support destructive policies,” said Allie Beth Stuckey, author of “Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion.”

    Stuckey, host of the popular podcast “Relatable,” is one of two evangelicals who published books within the past year making Christian arguments against some forms of empathy.

    https://apnews.com/article/conservative-christians-sin-of-toxic-empathy-c9ab96faf99605e010f487df61d92d8f

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      In Allie Beth Stuckey’s version of the Bible the good Samaritan, when passing the beaten up Jewish guy laying by the side of the road, would have turned to him and shouted “Get a job!”

      Reply ↓
      1. JohnA

        Or as Margaret Thatcher (no such thing as society) put it “No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions. He had money as well”.

        Reply ↓
  18. The Rev Kev

    “Bari Weiss’s Free Press Wants You to Know Some Kids Being Starved by Israel Were Already Sick”

    Bari Weiss. A perfect example of the banality of evil. Caitlin Johnstone talks about it here-

    ‘Bari Weiss’s media outlet The Free Press has a new genocide apologia article out noting that twelve of the emaciated children we’ve seen in photos distributed by the mainstream press have had preexisting conditions like “cystic fibrosis, rickets, or other serious ailments.”

    This argument is exactly the same as starting a fire in a crowded building and then claiming you can’t be guilty of murder by arson because many of the people who died in the fire were handicapped and elderly individuals who couldn’t escape quickly enough. Everyone knows the people who suffer first and worst in a famine are small children, the elderly, and the sick.

    As others have pointed out, it really shows how desperate the Israel spinmeisters are getting that they would cite “rickets” as a pre-existing condition in their argument to dismiss concerns about starvation in Gaza, given that rickets is a condition caused by malnutrition.’

    Once upon a time she did not understand the word ‘toady’ even though she used it in a sentence and Joe Rogan challenged her on it. Nowadays she is a toady to the rich and powerful.

    Reply ↓
    1. gk

      Bari Weiss presumably thinks that the Nazi’s Aktion T4 was fine (unless they killed some people who were not sick, by mistake). If Weiss had been around, would she have testified for the defense in the Nuremberg trials?

      Reply ↓
    2. JohnA

      Many very young Palestinian children with health problems gloating zionists want to blame on problems that were pre-existing starvation by the Israelis, actually have those problems because their mothers were starved and ill-treated during pregnancy which had knock on effects on the fetus in the womb not getting sufficient nutrients from the mother.
      Beyond evil is a very strong concept. But the ongoing events in the Middle East can only be described such.

      Reply ↓
  21. Don

    So the unacceptable 60 Minutes episode relied upon “misguided information” — instead of properly guided information I presume?

    Reply ↓
      1. AG

        “Captain AI” sounds ike the next original content series!
        (yeah who knows what they are utilizing to cook up the next box office failure…)

        Reply ↓
  24. Jason Boxman

    These two charts show Walmart and Target’s front-loading strategy (CNBC)

    With the threat of tariffs looming, retailers such as Walmart
    and Target
    raced to ship popular items into the U.S., container data from ImportGenius shows, illuminating various front-loading strategies.

    Information from the bills of lading, the digital receipts of shipping containers, shows a wide array of items ranging from Halloween costumes and decor, holiday decorations, air fryers, Barbies, Squishmallows and Mario Kart characters were pulled forward ahead of the tariffs and in the window when tariffs were paused.

    and from chart

    U.S. imports for both Target and Walmart plummeted some 85% between July and August

    Reply ↓
    1. nyleta

      If you go to bis.gov they just dropped a list of 407 categories of the extended steel and aluminium tariffs, these will drive up construction and transportation costs in the US for the foreseeable future. They seem ever more determined to drive the world into another Kindleberger Spiral. How they intend the US to profit by this in its present state is a mystery.
      More signs of stagflation in today’s economic figures and financial repression seems the plan for the next 20 years as Mr Bessent turns the US Treasury into the world’s largest hedge fund. They are trying to force feed the post WW2 experience of the US economy without the GI plan, using robots and AI no doubt.
      They seem to be going tokenise every financial transaction as well, another use for those data centres.

      Reply ↓
  25. Tom Stone

    The Trump administration’s decision to send that Israeli kiddie diddler home instead of prosecuting him is a PR disaster, it brings the Epstein matter front and center again.
    For some reason a lot of conservatives disapprove of raping children unless the perp is a member of the most moral army in the World.

    Reply ↓
    2. leaf

      Sigal Chattah’s crashing out didn’t help either, especially once people like Max Blumenthal provided more context into her background

      Reply ↓
  26. Mass Driver

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-strikes-global-business-major-ukraine-air-attack-accuses-kyiv-blocking-2025-08-21/
    KYIV, Aug 21 (Reuters) – Russia targeted a U.S.-founded electronics manufacturer near Ukraine’s border with the European Union …
    “It was a regular civilian business, supported by American investment, producing everyday items like coffee machines. And yet, it was also a target for the Russians,” Zelenskiy wrote on X.
    Mukachevo mayor Andriy Baloha said the damaged enterprise belonged to the U.S.-listed company Flex Ltd. The corporate headquarters of the company, a global technology, supply chain and advanced manufacturing solutions partner, is in Austin, Texas and its registered office is in Singapore.

    https://flex.com/careers/ukraine-en

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisFromGA

      Seriously, I think some population loss would do this country good.

      I am sick of the endless growth mentality. It’s too bad that the immigrants are getting the brunt of it, but if that is what it takes to stop another subdivision going up and killing off all the frogs, snakes, birds, etc. then I’m cool with it. There is no right to immigrate here.

      Reply ↓
        1. ChrisFromGA

          The Pelicans, panthers, alligators, and diamondback rattlesnakes will make up for the population loss. They might even vote more intelligently.

          Reply ↓
  28. Wukchumni

    Might the Edifice Wrecks be a Baedeker to show the way how single family homes might crash in value?

    The retail portion of The New York Times’ former building has a new owner a year after the Kushner Cos. lost it to foreclosure. The undisclosed buyer — a high net worth individual, according to sources familiar with the deal — acquired the asset for just $28M, according to a press release. The price is less than a 10th of what Kushner paid for the multilevel Midtown Manhattan retail condominium less than a decade ago.

    https://www.bisnow.com/new-york/news/retail/lender-sells-former-nyt-building-retail-it-seized-from-kushner-at-342m-loss-130653

    Actually, it ‘scooped up’ for 6% of what it sold for previously ($467 million) and the Kushners walked away, how interesting.

    Reply ↓
  29. Jason Boxman

    Liberal Democrat lawfare continues to unravel

    Court Overturns Trump’s Half-Billion-Dollar Judgment, but Upholds Fraud Case (NY Times via archive.ph)

    The ruling handed the president a financial victory, and some legal validation, as New York appeals judges agreed that the fine in his civil fraud case was excessive.

    Not that Trump needs the money; his crypto grift has been incredibly, wildly effective, apparently. In a functional country, he’d be impeached. But this timeline is stupid, and Republicans in Congress are probably wondering how they can get their own crypto-fraud going. (And Democrats as well.)

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    1. griffen

      Ordinarily I would not sing much praise for the German based Deutsche Bank but in this instance, the bank in it’s lending capacity did their job. Compliance and regulations have certainly increased, and KYC policy keeps the borrower profile refreshed in their files. This was only ever a phony Baloney case brought against the Only Real Estate Developer in the Country to goose higher their own valuations on buildings and property. FFS.

      *Know Your Customer…among a myriad of all manner banking and finance industry terms, and alliterations without end…

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  30. Wukchumni

    Selling Freddie and Fannie – What’s the Real Point? Racket News
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Got rid of my stocks in 2007, and one of them was Fannie Mae which I sold for $59 a share. It has been as low as under a buck fairly recently in the past year, and now is $10-quite the move.

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  31. Jason Boxman

    The precariat economy; Maybe we can call them precariat-preneurs. From a newsletter I forgot I signed up for, which covers service business ideas:

    The Real Secret Sauce:
    Want to know why this works so well? It solves a real problem for people who can’t afford the solution.

    56% of Americans don’t have $1,000 saved for emergencies. A washer/dryer set costs more than that. So they spend $100+ monthly at laundromats instead.

    Kyler charges $60-85 monthly for the convenience of having machines in their apartment. Free delivery, free installation, free maintenance.

    A lot of times, it’s cheaper than laundromats. Way more convenient than hauling clothes across town. And available month-to-month with no huge upfront cost.

    This works in part because the units are recycled

    Kyler found a guy who collects washers and dryers for scrap metal. The guy texts him photos daily. Most still work perfectly. Kyler pays $25, fixes one small part, and has a unit worth $200.

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  33. Wukchumni

    We are at an interesting juncture in Housing Bubble part deux…

    Vast oodles of inventory is coming onto every market across the country, and you’d think a bunch of them would have been bought at much lower interest rates-but there’s a sprint to the exits, and the one thing that can fix things individually is to lower your selling price-which turns into a race to the bottom against other would-be sellers.

    In 2007 it was liars loans that shook the system and crashed the market, this one looks to be good old market forces calling the shots.

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  35. Procopius

    August 23, 1305 Thailand (Bangkok) Time, I get Access Denied on the link:
    ‘Psychological warfare’: Internal data shows true nature of Alligator Alcatraz Miami Herald

    Reply ↓

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