When “Creep” Learned to Sway: Haley Reinhart and Postmodern Jukebox Reimagine Radiohead World Defined
Climate/Environment
Rising Sea Ice Loss in Antarctica Signals Climate Tipping Point, Scientists Warn of Irreversible Global Impacts Outlook Climate
Trump admin strips ocean and air pollution monitoring from next-gen weather satellites CNN
For CSIS @karlbykarlsmith had it at almost 4 trillion through 2030. Morgan Stanley playing catchup. https://t.co/MBN1bK9w7F
— Joseph Majkut (@JosephMajkut) August 19, 2025
Water
How Does the US Use Water? Construction Physics
Pandemics
According to a new study, SARS-CoV-2 virus hijacks the machinery of testicular cells that produce the hormone testosterone in order to replicate.
It also appropriates the metabolic pathways of these cells and cholesterol, a precursor of testosterone, thereby altering lipid… pic.twitter.com/j6Or9DDe2R
— Vipin M. Vashishtha (@vipintukur) August 22, 2025
India
Govt plans factory clusters, big reforms to boost economy amid US tariff jolt Mint
Apple Expands iPhone Production in India for US-Bound New Models Bloomberg
China?
Analysis: Record solar growth keeps China’s CO2 falling in first half of 2025 Carbon Brief
Chinese semiconductor shares surge after DeepSeek gives boost to homegrown chips FT
Nvidia looking to halt H20 chip production after China cracks down on purchases, reports say CNBC
US-made Patriot II missile exploded seconds after launch during a live-fire drill at Taiwan’s Jiupeng base.
Taiwan is shifting to PAC-3, but most stock is still PAC-2.
Investigations are underway as experts cite outdated tech and limited maintenance capacity. pic.twitter.com/W4c3vzQHgE
— Clash Report (@clashreport) August 21, 2025
Africa
How to get the International Monetary Fund to think Peoples Dispatch
Old Blighty
UK declines to share stance on Britons fighting for Israeli army Middle East Eye
Corbyn is irredeemably weak.
This after two years of genocide is just pathetic.And is this not blatant lying? The battle over the IHRA took place in 2018. The ‘Jerusalem Declaration’ (also a Zionist definition) was proposed in 2021. Don’t take us for fools, Jeremy.
Also,… https://t.co/CvWMhgd5hH
— Ammar Kazmi 🇵🇸 (@AmmarKazmi_) August 21, 2025
Syraqistan
‘All Eyes On Gaza City’ as Israel Ramps Up Campaign of Conquest and Ethnic Cleansing Common Dreams
Exclusive: Hamas Offered Major Concessions in New Gaza Ceasefire Proposal Dropsite
On Murdoch-owned Sky News Australia, ICC war crimes fugitive PM Netanyahu vowed Israel will “take over Gaza” regardless of what happens with the partial ceasefire proposal now in discussion. “We’re going to do that anyway,” he said, likening Hamas to “the SS in Germany” and… pic.twitter.com/novA7lyEVE
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) August 21, 2025
Israeli army database suggests at least 83% of Gaza dead were civilians +972 Magazine
Netanyahu puts out propaganda video directed towards Americans that their algorithms must be changed to hide the photos of starving childrenpic.twitter.com/3fhVmtvpD9
— YourFavoriteGuy (@guychristensen_) August 21, 2025
🚨IMPORTANT:
Palestinian prisoners’ rights groups released a new report today based on testimonies provided to lawyers visiting Gaza detainees held in Israel’s underground “Rakevet” section of Ramla Prison and the “Sde Teiman” military camp — both notorious sites of torture.
We… pic.twitter.com/Xs6HMJNf4f
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) August 21, 2025
State Dept. fires official after internal debates over Israel WaPo
225 Jewish settlers from Canada and the U.S. arrived in the occupied Palestinian territories today, moving into homes and land taken from Palestinians. pic.twitter.com/qkoyeA6JFa
— Clash Report (@clashreport) August 20, 2025
***
Trump Boasted of an Oil Deal with Pakistan. Is it a Pipe Dream? Inkstick
***
US imposes new sanctions on Iran’s oil trade Anadolu Agency
In Iran, Reformist call for broad policy U-turn sparks fierce backlash Amwaj
Iran stages missile drills, warns of stronger response in any new war with Israel Iran International
European Disunion
EU, US release long-awaited trade statement setting 15% all-inclusive tariff on EU goods Euronews
The EU likes to call China and Russia adversaries, yet leans on them like crutches for the minerals that keep its high-tech dreams alive. In 2024, 46% of rare earths came from China, another 28% from Russia. That’s nearly 75% of the whole supply chain balanced on the goodwill of… https://t.co/i7TDGTCez0 pic.twitter.com/PNw2JFtiAp
— Brian McDonald (@27khv) August 20, 2025
German economy shrank 0.3% in second quarter as US tariffs slowed exports Reuters
Germany pushes radical loosening of crisis-era rules for smaller banks Politico
EU speeds up plans for digital euro after US passes stablecoin law FT
New Not-So-Cold War
It’s as if Trump met with Putin for a big photoshoot and some smiles.
The messaging from Trump’s cabinet and Euro vavasours is completely contradictory from the Kremlin messaging. It’s like a blind talking to a deaf.
Back to business as usual.
Interesting times ahead indeed. pic.twitter.com/IqrrZoiTc4
— Olga Bazova (@OlgaBazova) August 21, 2025
SITREP 8/22/25: Peace Talks Unravel and the March Goes On Simplicius
Trump says Ukraine-Russia peace prospects to be known ‘within two weeks’ Anadolu Agency. Two weeks!
Exclusive: Putin’s demand to Ukraine: give up Donbas, no NATO and no Western troops, sources say Reuters
Zelensky Says He Wants Security Guarantees Before Meeting With Putin Moscow Times
Kiev Regime’s Counter Attacks & Failed Provocations/Western Bedlam & Continued Denial of Reality. Mark Sleboda (Video)
Ukraine Aims To Build Thousands Of Flamingo Long-Range Cruise Missiles A Year The War Zone
Flamingos II
The Ukrainian company claims they aim to produce 8 Flamingos per day in October. This raises a red flag for me, suggesting they are probably not manufacturing any missiles but rather assembling kits that arrive pre-made, in an effort by European countries to evade… pic.twitter.com/z7Bf7S8LMr
— Patricia Marins (@pati_marins64) August 21, 2025
Ukraine’s Future – A ‘Steppe Corridor’ – A Neutral, Transit-oriented State Moon of Alabama
Ukrainian held in Italy over Nord Stream gas pipelines blast mystery BBC
***
US reaffirms Turkey cannot rejoin F-35 program without giving up S-400s Turkish Minute
Poland has torn down another communist statue
“Polish-Soviet Brotherhood in Arms” in Ploty is no more
Poland is tearing down monuments glorifying communism across the country after the introduction of a new law that bans communist propaganda pic.twitter.com/p9NoKcA2gv
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) August 21, 2025
Caucasus
Azerbaijan demolishes 25 Soviet-era monuments in Nagorno-Karabakh Harici
Russia Again Strikes SOCAR Facility in Odessa; Bilateral Cooperation Between Kyiv and Baku Strengthened After Attack Caucasus Watch
Now, all oil exports from Kazakhstan have been routed through Russia. Astana has decided to route all its export flows through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which is located in Russia, temporarily abandoning its supply through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
🧵 pic.twitter.com/v31AAADcAq— Neznakomaya❤🇷🇺 (@TomatkaP) August 21, 2025
South of the Border
Pentagon Confirms My Story on Mexico Attacks Ken Klippenstein
US Threatens Venezuela With Southern Caribbean Sea Troop Deployment; Maduro Mobilizes People’s Militia Venezuelanalysis
Venezuela: US Empire’s Accusations Against President Maduro a Sign of Desperation Orinoco Tribune
“Liberation Day”
Consumer Resilience to Be Tested as Tariff-Fueled Price Increases Brew Bloomberg
ICEing the U.S. Economy Paul Krugman
Trump 2.0
Trump Reportedly Spares TSMC, Micron from Equity Grabs after Chipmakers Ramp U.S. Investment TrendForce
President Trump says he will patrol DC streets with police, military on Thursday USA Today. Perhaps some DC readers spotted him last night.
Police State Watch
Military lawyers to handle civilian crimes in DC The Hill
Pentagon Asks Its Civilian Employees If They Want to Work for ICE 404 Media
Trump administration to begin continuous police-state surveillance of 55 million US visa holders WSWS
Democrats en déshabillé
Gavin Newsom’s redistricting plan is on its way to voters. What you need to know Cal Matters
The Democratic Party Faces a Voter Registration Crisis New York Times
Wesley Bell ousted Cori Bush thanks to enormous support from AIPAC and is now siccing thugs on Gaza protesters https://t.co/1qiDDdW88W
— Obamna (@lib_crusher) August 21, 2025
Dem strategist expects Brown’s U.S. Senate campaign to focus on Ohio workers Ohio Capital Journal
a gentle way of saying “they spent $40m against me last time and I’d like to get back into office somehow” https://t.co/u4qPZMVV3U
— Jacob Silverman (@SilvermanJacob) August 21, 2025
Kamala Harris announces international book tour for ‘107 Days’ NBC News
Eric Adams Advisor Winnie Greco Handed a CITY Reporter Cash Stuffed in a Bag of Potato Chips The City
Eric Adams’ Close Advisor and Associates Indicted in Wide-Ranging Influence Schemes The City
Monthly evictions in New York City reach highest rate since 2018 Gothamist
The Uniparty
Watch as an Atlantic Council fellow is speechless in response to a simple question about the organization’s funding from weapons manufacturers: pic.twitter.com/obAckpfP4N
— Nick Cleveland-Stout (@nick_clevelands) August 21, 2025
MAHA
Healthcare?
Junk Plans Are Bad. Sadly, POTUS is Bringing Them Back. HEALTH CARE un-covered
Nonprofit hospital CEO, employee pay gap widens: Study Beckers Hospital Review. “The researchers also found a trend toward the “financialization” of nonprofit health systems, in which they adopt business practices and governance philosophies resembling those of publicly traded corporations and financial firms.”
1,000 UPMC Magee Nurses Voting on Union This Week Despite Trump Delays Payday Report
AI
Your Face Tomorrow Harper’s
Imperial Collapse Watch
US military seeks to stockpile cobalt for first time in decades Mining.com
Accelerationists
Sorry to disappoint but already sold out:
Peter Thiel is doing a four-part lecture series on the Antichrist, per @traestephens announcement. pic.twitter.com/Qg4mTPuHH8
— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) August 21, 2025
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
SFPD surveillance unit’s close ties to crypto billionaire 48 Hills
Class Warfare
Ring of Fire The Baffler
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Re: Microsft’s Copilot article
This would almost be farcically funny, but it really tells us that what is being called AI is snake oil.
Agreed. It’s like something out of “Idiocracy.” How do they even sell it?
‘Hey, we’ve jammed Copilot into Microsoft Excel because we figured you would ask for it soon or later. Just don’t use it for important stuff like business or accounting, OK? It tends to make stuff up and maybe don’t even us it for simple maths either. You’re welcome!’
Working on a new version of Windows that has many odious features, and certain settings are “managed by your organization,” but I can still dissappear copilot.
The weirdest thing is that it wants to be in dark mode and many settings cannot be adjusted outside of dark mode – so far.
You know, the root of artificial is “artifice.”
The artifice intelligence we’re really grappling with here is the glut of immoral tech adjacent MBAs in the U.S.
Deception for dollars is right up there with baseball and apple pie to what it means to be an American.
Spreadsheets are amazing easy to misuse as it is. Adding AI looks like a good way to destroy civilization. Microsoft Excel’s bloopers reel: nearly 40 years of spreadsheet errors.
Scientists rename human genes to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates
“Trump admin strips ocean and air pollution monitoring from next-gen weather satellites ”
Must be Trump’s idea if that you don’t do the measurements, then you will find no problems. Gah! It looks like that if you want accurate weather and climate satellite data, that you will have to look to the Chinese or any other country that is not stripping capabilities from their satellites. Maybe Trump should keep those capabilities in US satellites. That way, if you want access to the stuff the plebs won’t be allowed to see, corporations can just take out a special subscription or something.
“If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any.” – Trump on Covid in 2020
That’s exactly what I was thinking about. A sort of ‘Don’t ask. Don’t find.’
This dictum that it is impossible to beat an opponent unless you invade the invader seems a bit ahistorical. Did Vietnam invade us? Did the colonies invade England?
So here we are. Trump is invading DC and LA. Because black and brown are the enemy horde. And he’s going to vet all the visa holders and get rid of any of them that aren’t Melanias. What a mess of a mind. And there are so many sycophants and willing enablers.
Or he is just picking up new skills from his Zionazi masters and using them on the rightful inhabitants of DC, the new Gaza, so he can build a few more f*cking hotels.
No, I don’t think that’s what’s happening here at all. This is Hunger Games level thinking. Trump and his admin are doing this to show us that they can do it. And if they are allowed to get away with it, they will do more.
I don’t think Trump has any coherently formed racist positions. I don’t think he hates black and brown people. He would probably tell you there are very many beautiful black and brown skinned woman that he admires.
To the extent the people in his administration are supporting these actions it is because they want control. LA and DC are important places in the US. If you control them, then you control a lot.
A bit of both, perhaps? Some people in the Trump administration are racists who want to get rid of “them” and some are power hungry, but have no particular hatred, like Trump.
It might not be “coherent”, but at least from the time of his loud intervention in the Central Park johger murder it’s been clear that he holds bog standard stereotypical racist views about young blacks.
At first I thught I heard Jesus weeping over this: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/aug/22/fears-grow-over-impact-of-ons-data-reliability-on-rachel-reeves-budget
I now believe the tears are falling to earth because Netanyahu’s feelings, like all good Zionazis, are hurt because normal people might be upset by seeing the babies the Zionazis are murdering by the famine conditions the Zionazis have created to ensure no future generations of people with right to the land stolen from them with Canadian settlers taking their place – the very definition of genocide and the cause of the new Blood libel.
I heard that one of the murdered journalists in Gaza had a hangnail, so it wasn’t as if he didn’t have one foot in the grave already.
Well, I now know for sure. Newest variant COVID is here in Nottingham. Someone close to me diagnosed this morning (and I knew it was in Manchester area over 2 weeks ago). I am back from a trip to acquire 70+% alcohol hand sanitiser (yes, of course I was wearing FFP2 mask, have been for weeks now since NC alerted us to it cropping up in USA).
Can’t get it anywhere round here because, didn’t you know, the pandemic is long over! /s
One of my less liked online retailers will be the next port of call, and for a new batch of masks.
When out in local suburb the coughing among 40% of people I came near was ridiculous. Plus so many didn’t even try to cover their mouth. Yep it’s gone exponential round here. Yesterday someone told me in a meeting that swathes of NHS and social support workers are currently off work with a mystery virus. Sometimes I think “yep, the human race absolutely deserves to go”. Now I’m gonna see if the next episode of South Park has dropped on UK version of Paramount Plus. Dark humour suits me at the moment.
Peter thiel doing a seminar on thr Anti-Christ… how quaint. I suppose he just has to look in the mirror and read any of his diaries to gain insight. Or , more accurately, he should lecture on ‘The Beast’, who shall demand that all men shall carry the number of the beast on their forehead or their hands (chip implant)…
I guess it is more of a show-and-tell than a lecture. All he needs to do is to stand there himself and say – here you have one of the Anti-Christs. Maybe he could ding-a-dang dang his dang-a-long-ling-long for entertainment and humiliation value for the schmucks who pay to listen to him.
My initial reaction, I thought it was a satirical post by the Onion ( which I’m never sure if they publish satire anymore, but possibly not ). That it’s a real lecture series just speaks volumes about culture in 2025.
Yeah, Thiel checks the boxes as a prototype executive straight from the pages of an Orwell or a Huxley novel; so he will opine on the varied visions by the prophet Daniel or from the Book of Revelation. You could say Peter Thiel is more akin to the Alien parasite “perfect organism” than a real human. Ellen Ripley to corporate sleaze Burke, ” … you don’t see them fu*king each other for a GD percentage…”
Added, I want some money upfront by a state or national government before just forking over all of my financial and biometric information…We have a few commenters who can add lengthy insight, given their training in such history of future revelatory projections ( Biblical or otherwise ).
He has a reflection in the mirror?
And a painting in the attic
No way.
It is a well-known fact that Peter Thiel has been sucking in blood from young people for a long time in order to remain young himself.
And it is a second well-known fact that vampires cannot produce any reflections on mirrors.
As Sam Altman has no reflection either, they meet daily so that each can shave the other.
The Thiel tidings are of a piece with the data hamstringing of satellites. What we have here is a turn on the three wise monkeys who see, hear, and speak no evil. The philosopher-king Thiel asks not-so-Socratically: what is evil? His answer: whatever limits the power of the sovereign. Who would be … [pauses to check notes] ME!
We control the vertical; we control the horizontal. Outside the atmosphere, nothing that contradicts the narratives allowed in; inside the atmosphere, nothing that contradicts the narratives allowed out. It’s the full Poindexter in an improved version 2.0, adding unawareness to awareness. Never say the U.S. has forgotten how to innovate.
“thy hand, great Anarch, lets the curtain fall…and Universal Darkness, covers all…”
from Pope’s Dunciad, one of my very fave poems since i went full on Doom.
Thiel thinks Swift’s ‘Modest Proposal’ is an instruction manual.
I pray to antichrist this ends up on the u tube.
James Dobson thought that “Suffer the little children” was mandatory…
Aren’t those knives that are supposed to be used to kill the Antichrist hidden in some dank grotto in Old Jaffa? It all makes sense.
I guess he’s also a big fan of The Omen franchise.
“US reaffirms Turkey cannot rejoin F-35 program without giving up S-400s’
Ooh, that’s a toughie for Turkiye to solve. Let’s see. They can get rid of those S-400s, which is probably the only thing protecting them from the Israelis, in exchange for F-35 fighters which the US can shut down remotely if they get into a scrap with Israel. Or they can keep those S-400s and supplement them with Chinese or Russian fighters that will help keep their skies secure. And it’s not like there aren’t already people talking in Israel how Turkiye has to be brought down in order for them to “feel safe.” What will the Turks do, whatever will they do.
Well, if I were Erdogan, I’d stick with the S-400s and tell Uncle Sam to go pound sand. The question though, is what’s next.
The empire always strikes back. Maybe the Kurdish SDF that controls the oil in E. Syria suddenly gets an influx of weapons and ISR, and starts pounding that joke of a “government” that Erdogan set up (HTS.)
Or maybe Don makes a phone call to Bibi, and Israel resumes bombing Damascus.
But then there are counter moves for Erdogan, too. Like triangulating back to Russia, stopping the flow of Turkish weapons to Ukraine, etc., or bombing the Kurds, always a go-to move for Turkey.
What a tangled web …
Erdogan is slippery as an eel and a double dealer extraordinaire.
It’ll be interesting at least…
Nope. Oil pipeliene going from Turkey to Israel is more powerful than any weapon they have.
Until the Israelis get those off-shore fields that they are stealing from the Gazans going that is. Then they won’t need the Turks.
Even if there is enough oil there for Israel, it will take many years to get rigs built and commissioned. So theybwill still need the oil that comes via turkey for quite some time.
Netanyahu, why don’t you come to your senses?
You’ve been out killin’ Gazans for so long now
Oh, you’re a hard one
I know that you got your reasons
These things that are pleasin’ you
Can hurt you somehow
Don’t you draw the wrath of hubris, boy
It’ll beat you if it’s able
You know that genocide is always your best bet
Now it seems to me, some fine things
Have been laid upon your table
But you only want the ones that you can’t get
Netanyahu, oh, you ain’t gettin’ no younger
Palestinians pain and your hunger, you want to take their home
And freedom, oh freedom well, that’s just some people talkin’
Your prison is walking through this world all alone
Don’t your conscience worry you over time?
The world wants you where the sun won’t shine
It’s hard to tell the night time to go on your way
You’re losin’ all respect on this orb
Ain’t it funny how the feeling goes away?
Netanyahu, why don’t you come to your senses?
Come down from your high horse, await your fate
It may be rainin’ Iranian missiles, but there’s an Iron Dome above you
You better let somebody replace you
(Let somebody replace you)
You better let somebody replace you before it’s too late
Desperado, by the Eagles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q93wc3-deU&list=RD-q93wc3-deU
Re testosterone and COVID. I said nothing as just anecdote but now we have harder data (I swear I wrote that without intentional pun) I’ll chime in with “big fat yep”. I saw sequelae that were often associated with testosterone issues (direct and indirect) from 6 weeks after first infection in Q1 2020.
I won’t get to TMI but I wondered “WTAF?” and thanks to my specialist psychiatrist and the little blue pill, I at least established that things “can” work properly, even after netting out the confounding factor of my antidepressant……they just have zero desire to without me consciously “doing a test”. The Long COVID service hasn’t set up MS Teams Calls to help people with this issue (yet)…..I await their introduction with amusement to see how their specialist nurses deal with this and what “homework” they’ll give. Sorry, today I very much have the mind of an 8 year old boy.
‘Middle East Eye
@MiddleEastEye
In this one on one with Jeremy Corbyn, the independent MP responds to criticism from his colleague Zarah Sultana, who said Labour under his leadership was wrong to have adopted the controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism.’
The guy continues to disappoint and keeps folding like a cheap lawn-deck chair while his political positions seem to wobble like the coffee cup he is holding here. Give him a teaching position somewhere but leadership has to come from somewhere else and not from him. Sad that but true.
Just like Bernie…completely incapable of summoning the required level of anger and bravery and hatred of the political elites that have nothing but contempt for you.
Rev Kev – Must disagree mate.Corbyn offers hope and decency and has a long and honourable C.V. from apartheid onwards – one reason why 600k plus have joined.
Totally agree through with leadership/change ability.Should really have done a Lenin vis.re-selection.Once you get the boot on their throat don’t let it up
Rev Kev – Sorry to disagree mate.Corbyn offers hope and optimism as the mounting number of interested in a new party ( 700K plus) shows.
His political CV is impressive, generally early to the just cause and always the outsider from apartheid, Ireland, Iraq etc, onwards.
Do agree with his management skills – should have done a Lenin via for example deselection.
Once you get your boot on their throat – and remember you only get one chance, if you are lucky – make it pay.Still of course he would not have been Corbyn if he had done this would he?
Well this just brightened up my day:
John Bolton’s home raided by FBI, search warrant signed off on by court
Is it too early to start breaking out the scotch?
Thanks for that. I got a good chuckle out of it and startled the dog. I see that CNN used a seven year-old image of Bolton in that article. Saw him in an interview recently and he has aged rapidly since then.
The “two weeks” Trump referred to could mean that we see arrests of Bolton, Clapper, and others related to Russiagate over the coming weeks. Then Congress comes back, and all Hell breaks loose.
No worries. I plan of stocking up on popcorn this weekend to be ready. Couldn’t happen to a nicer group of people.
I will celebrate by visualizing Lindsay Graham frantically calling his lawyer. And suddenly forgetting all about “bone crushing sanctions” as he has more important things to focus on, like how people of his type don’t do well in prison.
Oh and I made an error, I think it is Brennan not Clapper who should be really worried right now. Obama has executive immunity. So the Wizard of Kalorama should be OK. And then, there is Hillary …
I’m still holding out hope for a similar, serious fate for Satanyahu.
What role did Bolton play in Russiagate?
Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.
CNN now, apparently, has a place for former ABC news reporter Terry Moran. Oh and I saw as well, noted political “savant” and potential 2028 Presidential candidate, Rahm Emmanuel, on the channel last week ….
Birds of a feather. It’s a damn shame about Mr. Bolton, a noted expert on foreign policy…
a reprise…
I am he as you are he as you are me
And we are all neocons together
See how they run like Quakers from a gun
See how they fly
I’m crying
Standing on a soap box
Waiting for the big war to come
Corporation advert, stupid bloody Tuesday
Man you’ve been a naughty boy
You let your whiskers grow long
I am the egg it on man
They are the egg it on men
I am the walrus mustache
Goo goo g’joob
Mister global policeman sitting
Pretty little global policemen in a row
See how they fly when Lucy grabs football on the sly, see how they run
I’m crying, I’m crying I’m crying, I’m crying
Yellow matter uranium cake custard
Dripping from Colin Powell, aye
Iraqi warwife, scornographic priest test
Boy, you’ve been a naughty ploy, you didn’t let your backers down
I am the egg it on man
They are the egg it on men
I am the walrus mustache
Goo goo g’joob
Sitting in a sink tank garden
Waiting for more war to come
If the war don’t come you gotta fan
From standing on the sidelines with refrain
I am the egg it on man (now good sir)
They are the egg it on men
(all rich man, made tame to fortune’s blows)
I am the walrus mustache
Goo goo g’joob, goo goo goo g’joob (good pity)
Expert, textpert choking brokers
Don’t you think the joker laughs at you
(ho ho ho, hee hee hee, hah hah hah)
See how they smile like pigs in a sty, see how they snide
I’m crying
Seminal plasma miasma
Climbing up the ivory tower
Elementary penguin singing I have more war wisha
Man, you should have seen them kicking for more MIC dough
I am the egg it on man
They are the egg it on men
I am the walrus mustache
Goo goo g’joob, goo goo goo g’joob
Goo goo g’joob, goo goo goo g’joob, goo
Joob, joob, jooba
Jooba, jooba, jooba
Joob, jooba
Joob, jooba
Umpa, umpa, stick it up your jumper (jooba, jooba)
Umpa, umpa, stick it up your jumper
Everybody’s got one (umpa, umpa)
Everybody’s got one (stick it up your jumper)
Everybody’s got one (umpa, umpa)
Everybody’s got one (stick it up your jumper)
Everybody’s got one (umpa, umpa)
Everybody’s got one (stick it up your jumper)
Everybody’s got one (umpa, umpa)
Everybody’s got one (stick it up your jumper)
Everybody’s got one (umpa, umpa)
Everybody’s got one (stick it up your jumper)
Everybody’s got one (umpa, umpa)
I am the Walrus, by the Beatles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws5klxbI87I&list=RDWs5klxbI87I
Play that one loud while he gets fitted for an orange jumpsuit.
Good one! The Beatles rap.
Peter Thiel, America’s undesirable alien, or the immigrant who thinks that the United States of America exists so he can be successful in cultivating his delusions. See: Zbigniew Brzezinski.
First, it seems that he has already delivered this lecture series at three universities, Harvard, Oxford, and the University of Austin.
So ole Peter is traveling the world delivering a so-so-so deep TedTalk. (And have I mentioned that any person in his position with skin as bad as his is has to be eating a truly lousy diet? Lay off the Red Bull, Peter! Meow.)
Earnest writers at UnHerd, that famous voice of dissidence, can’t even figure out what Thiel’s ideas are about.
Is it eschaton, that is, the revealed end point and ending of history?
https://stage.unherd.com/2025/05/peter-thiels-visions-of-apocalypse/?edition=us
To wit:
While the past displays a seemingly endless cycle of civilisational rises and falls, Thiel believes that modern science and technology have turned history into a linear progression, as the Bible teaches, with a beginning and a final, irreversible end.
A dubious claim indeed. Yes, I’ll admit there’s that redemption business. Yet history in the Mediterranean world was not perceived of as linear.
Or just the fun of a good apocalypso:
Whatever role Trump plays — katechon or Antichrist or both — Thiel’s main concern is in revitalising apocalyptic thinking, something late modernity has largely rejected. But not entirely. “I think many people, including within the Catholic world, are thinking in apocalyptic terms, but admitting it remains taboo,” he said, explaining his almost mystical fascination with Benedict XVI.
https://unherd.com/2025/07/who-is-peter-thiels-antichrist/?us=1
I find myself somehow resisting the temptation to have a mystical fascination with Benedict “Ratsy” XVI, although he did wear snazzy vestments.
Not to keep you in suspense, but this TedTalk philosophizing is crap. Yes, many institutions and movements have lost all moral authority since the triumph of neoliberalism and dismantling of the social state, beginning in the 1980s. Filling the gap in ethics with the book of the bible that nobody can figure out isn’t going to help matters.
David Sirota dispatches these pretenses in his wonderful essay on Ayn Rand:
To wit:
Since I first met Objectivists (read: libertarians) in college, my Unified Theory of Rand Groupies posited that they all probably fit into at least one of three groups: those who 1) never grew out of the usual “the world is persecuting me and doesn’t see my true genius” phase that momentarily afflicts the typical high schooler 2) think saying “Ayn Rand” in any context makes them sound intelligent, even though they’ve never actually read her work or 3) have read Rand’s work, don’t genuinely believe in her ideology as evidenced by their lifestyle/politics, but still say they love her because it serves to make them feel good about their own avarice.
The bold is mine. So we now see people trying to cover their insatiable greed with the figleaf of libertarianism and René (I think, therefore I might have been wrong about a lotta things) Descartes.
Ayn Rand Is for Children:
https://www.salon.com/2013/01/19/ayn_rand_is_for_children/
The funny thing is that if Carl Schmitt were alive, he would consider Thiel the Antichrist …
A search of the Commonwealth Club San Francisco website has no mention of this lecture series on it’s calendar of events. Just wondering if this is real?
Always late to the party am I. I’ll see your Salon Rand and raise you an Esquire Rand penned by no other than the suave wordsmith Gore Vidal in 1961:
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a4595/comment-0761/
The Rand Roast begins at paragraph 7.
Rand Fun Fact: Before fleeing the Bolsheviks and becoming Nansen Wanderers, a certain Nabokov family lived at St. Petersburg. Vladimir’s N.’s younger sister Olga attended the Stoiunina Gymnasium’ where she befriended a certain Alissa Rosenbaum aka Ayn Rand. Small world.
Ring of Fire The Baffler
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I went to NYC for a coin show every year from 1978 until the mid 80’s, and I remember being shocked by the maggoty Big Apple I saw at the time, with many buildings burnt out and abandoned.
It bore no resemblance to LA, it had the feel of a fallen city, but in dribs and drabs. I remember walking around the perimeter of Central Park, and about half of the properties were derelict and vacant, if memory serves.
It wasn’t uncommon to see carcasses of cars parked on streets, stripped of anything of value, quite illuminating for a not quite adult to glimpse.
Stationed in Governors Island in ’79. Yes, it was everything you stated but that’s why I loved it (it was the anti-California) and glad I was able to experience NY before it became Disney’d.
I distinctly remember how tawdry 42nd St was, twas a ‘porn-a-rama’ and I haven’t been back in ages, but understand that Disney ratted them out.
I stayed at the Commodore Hotel on 42nd St in 1974. It was everything one could imagine and worse. In the 80’s I rarely ventured above 14th St. ‘Colorful.’
NYC taxi drivers back in the day were an interesting study.
We’d have pretty heavy briefcases full of coins, and insist on handling it ourselves, but at least a couple times they were too quick on the draw and the taxi driver says ‘my gawd, whaddya got in dere?’ and we’d have to resort to the useful lie of being brick salesmen and each briefcase was full of samples~
One time a group of maybe 8 coin dealers were going to dinner @ a restaurant in Little Italy, and the guys in the first taxi hadn’t told us the name of the restaurant as we watched them go-not quite in the 2nd Taxi yet, and for the first and only time in my life, I practically screamed…
Follow that Taxi!
And unleashed from just another fare, our man Friday @ the wheel almost lost their trail a few times, but in the end we all prevailed.
Mission Cacciatore Accomplished
Another Taxi driver related that his life achieving goal would be making something like the equivalent of 19 stoplights in a row on the green somewhere in NYC, and his best was 13 so far.
That’s all I got, my last Big Apple visit was about 1990, so in my mind it hasn’t changed a bit!
I remember visiting the men’s bathroom in Grand Central Station. All of the stalls were gone. There was one single toilet standing like a throne in the middle of the floor. I don’t know for sure, but I assumed that it may have been related to the massive public sex wave then sweeping across Manhattan.
The “Exclusive:” label made me LOL. This is the most water-is-wet news one can write about the conflict. Thanks for the laughs to “three sources familiar with top-level Kremlin who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters”. :)
There’s an interesting post from a liberal Russian journalist talking about the view from Russia on the summit. It seems to be the same source inside the Kremlin. I follow them and it’s occasionally interesting, a view we don’t get much of. Latest post is the one. Had some trouble with the link.
https://faridaily.substack.com/
Solar and China. It’s great to see the progress they are making and showing the world how it is done. Top on my list is that more solar was installed in the first 1/2 of 25 than the US has in total.
These articles still have this odd hit piece mentality about China which is unfortunate. Yes they are installing new coal plants but as only an aside the article almost as an afterthought says total coal powered energy is declining. As many have said the new plants are much higher in efficiency and lower in emissions.
And yes they will miss their emissions targets by a small margin but when you think they are expanding their energy production yearly by a huge degree and are still lowering emissions, it’s a huge success story. The US is so behind.
CATL the big battery maker announced a week or so ago that they are selling sodium batteries at $10 per kWh. Which is between 5 and 10 X lower than any other chemistry. A true game changer. At least some good news amongst all the terrible stuff.
UK Uncompetetive Energy Pricing
———————————————
Here’s Ambrose today – https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/08/22/ed-miliband-shows-us-how-to-wreck-net-zero/
Mega dosing of “Wishfull Thinking”, again?
“Ukrainian held in Italy over Nord Stream gas pipelines blast mystery”
‘The man, identified only as Serhii K, was arrested in the province of Rimini and was part of a group who planted explosives under the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines from Russia to Germany, federal prosecutors say.’
The guy’s name is actually Sergey Kuznetsov – code name “The Skipper” – and here is his image-
https://xcancel.com/LaStampa/status/1958668070651929037
To believe that that pipeline was blown up by a bunch of people on a yacht is the same as believing Netanyahu’s claim that all those demolished buildings that you see in Gaza were caused by Hamas booby traps. They are not even bothered by the bs claims that they make up anymore.
Interestingly the story has so far very little resonance in German print media.
Obviously the guy is a patsy in some form. Maybe this is just a prestige project by the GA in charge (I don´t know which department in Germany is responsible for NS2, I would assume Hamburg ). As there is nothing to gain from this for any major party affected by the destruction.
Can you imagine when it gets to a court and the prosecution has to prove that such an operation could be mounted by a small civilian yacht in deep waters constantly patrolled by NATO? Which it can’t. Meanwhile on the TV news here in Oz they were suggesting that Putin blew up his own pipelines and not once was Biden ever mentioned.
So that´s why it´s titled “Wizard of Oz”?!
Indeed a funny court spoof comedy. Actually 20 years ago NS2 would have been a major cinema event.
Insane it isn´t today…dire times.
Can’t wait for the movie about NS2 to come out. Steven Seagal would have been ideal for his movie but he is too old now and actually lives in Russia. So maybe Sean Penn?
Sean Penn
😂
p.s. Currently TV is streaming Luc Besson´s early “Le Grand Bleu”. That´s not Penn but Jean Reno.
Maybe Reno would play the plotter and Penn the upright reporter who finds out it was the Russians, disguised as Ukrainians, wearing Polish uniforms, on a Maltese ship with Swiss equipment all paid for by a North Korean billionaire. Only an Iran element missing…
Thanks for that Rev. The Skipper, huh? I feel a song coming on. . .
Next they’ll arrest Gilligan.
I’d say that it’s more likely that Thurston Howell lllrd had a link to it. Probably has money in fracking.
‘Lovey Darling, what’s Bitcoin at this morning?’
The Skipper Kuznetsov, not to be confused with the Admiral Kuznetsov.
image
re: China / energy question at large
from German NACHDENKSEITEN (all easily translatable)
short take by Jens Berger
Hydropower superlatives in Tibet – the Chinese century gathers momentum and the lights go out in Germany
https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=137807
There are several hyperlinks included to older articles by Berger on various aspects of the energy transition à la “Germany vs. the world”
re: Alaska Russia US
The latest from today´s Glenn Diesen larger round with Mearsheimer and Mercouris.
I share their scepticism heavy with doubt – why should the D.C. swamp just go along with Trump?
Also the phrase “security guarantees for Ukraine” is purely Orwellian to me.
End of the Line for Diplomacy with Ukraine
John Mearsheimer, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen
72 min.
https://glenndiesen.substack.com/p/end-of-the-line-for-diplomacy-with
The coming invasion of Venezuela may dim Trump’s prospects for the Nobel Peace Prize but his lates snit toward Putin makes him a lock for the Can’t Take No For an Answer Nobel. They may have to add that one just for DT.
Perhaps one could make a corollary to our great nation from hemingways going bankrupt…
“slowly, then all at once…”
He’s definitely rounding into Nobel Prize Medal form and you’d almost expect him to be up on the podium, making his country proud of him-draped in the flag and bearing a cross to bear…
next stop:
Mt. Rushmore
“In Iran, Reformist call for broad policy U-turn sparks fierce backlash”
‘Notably, the text also called for voluntarily suspending uranium enrichment under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in exchange for full sanctions relief and direct negotiations with the US.’
I doubt that most people in Iran would be listening to that group. They are suggesting things like to put their trust in the IAEA, to trust any agreement with the US if they are even inclined and how getting rid of uranium enrichment would solve their problems. Most Iranians living under the recent bombing attacks would disagree with them and know that if uranium enrichment was given up, the US and Israel would still attack Iran and keep on attacking them until they are turned into another Syria.
As I understand it, stopping uranium enrichment is a necessary, but insufficient condition for Israel and the USA (and most probably the EU-3 — France, Germany, UK) to provide any kind of relief to Iran.
The Iranian missile programme is explicitly targeted as well — the USA making the abandonment of that form of weaponry by Iran a requirement for a revived JPOA — and I would not be surprised to see demands that Iran gives up its drone and its space programmes as well.
In other words: just like the 10-points ultimatum by Austro-Hungary was designed so that Serbia would necessarily refuse to meet some of the conditions for avoiding a war, so are the requirements for sanctions relief structured in a such a way that Iran can only largely reject them if the country wishes to keep any kind of sovereignty and deterrence against its foes.
I’m shocked how offended I am to see post modern jukebox on NC. The music community I am a part of find them so tedious. I associate them with NPR listeners. There are so so so many terrific covers of Creep. This isn’t one of them. I’ll be amazed if PMJ ever astounds.
Thank you for listening. I’m off to shake my fist at clouds now.
I listened out of curiosity. For fifteen seconds.
That arrangement is bad jazz or torch song or whatever genre it’s heavy-handedly trying to be
i dont mind it…im just glad people are still doing that kind of music.
depending on the mood, 30’s-50’s jazz plays out here all the time.
as for more modern “covers” of those old standards, i reckon Winehouse was a lot better…and Linda Ronstadt’s toying with that genre, too(but i always had a thing for her,lol)
I know the song well and own their (. Radiohead ) first 3 albums. The singular album of their’s I like the best is Ok Computer but honestly The Bends was an incredible album as well. Fake Plastic Trees was incredible; both the song and the video….
A song like Creep grew to be so very popular, that any station playing a Radiohead track pretty much adheres to that song only… moderately irritating.
“Kamala Harris announces international book tour for ‘107 Days'”
Yeah, they had to team her up with an experienced writer by name of Geraldine Brooks to get that book out. Can you imagine what would have happened if Simon & Schuster decided to save some money and told to Kamala write that book in her own words?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geraldine_Brooks_(writer)
The tour by the one time Presidential contender who was not ( or never ever close ) the leading choice for her party nomination in the 2020 election….nor did she win any primary votes when Joe Biden was top of the ticket in 2024. Yet Democrats bewail and bemoaning about “Our Democracy!”.
“Unburdened by what never is or never was.” It is not nearly the noon hour, yet a whiskey or scotch might actually be on the beverage menu after all! I’ll pile on to include one more observation, but Harris probably doesn’t need to work another day job; unless she possibly partners with those good lawyer buddies, oh say an Eric Holder. SMH.
No doubt aipac and the atlantic council have purchased the entire first printing…
kaching.
107 is a prime number. Backwards it is 701, also a prime number. 701 is an area code in North Dakota.
Now you learned more than you would have by reading this book.
Interesting Construction Physics on US water use. He says we use more water growing cotton than on server farms.
Lots of charts.
It could be argued that cotton is far, far more useful, relatively speaking, than server farms.
‘Olga Bazova
@OlgaBazova
It’s as if Trump met with Putin for a big photoshoot and some smiles.
The messaging from Trump’s cabinet and Euro vavasours is completely contradictory from the Kremlin messaging. It’s like a blind talking to a deaf.
Back to business as usual.
Interesting times ahead indeed.’
The reason that Trump has a red a** over Russia right now is because the Russians destroyed an American-owned factory in a place by the Hungarian border that was doing electronic parts for drones. It was owned by the American Flextronics corporation but now the place has been turned to ash. I guess that he thought of American facilities in the war zone of the Ukraine were safe from attack or something because he’s the Prez. His Truth social post would suggest that he is going to enable the Ukrainians to do a big news attack on Russia to teach them a lesson. Trump takes everything personal, including the affairs of other countries when he needs instead to take a chill pill and look at things more dispassionately.
Zelensky said that the factory was producing coffee machines, in three shifts. Trump getting up in arms about a hot cup of coffee is the first relatable thing about him. ☕
Mother’s milk for the market:
Powell Sends Strongest Signal Yet That Interest Rate Cuts Are Coming (NY Times via archive.ph)
Trump the victor, by smash the economy? But
Trump says he’ll fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook ‘if she doesn’t resign’
SPY back to almost ATH again.
As I type this, the market is;
Dow 45,730.15 +944.65 +2.11%
S&P 500 6,477.95 +107.78 +1.69%
Nasdaq 21,541.01 +440.69 +2.09%
All time highs or close on all indexes and these clowns want to lower rates? Really? This might be the bubbles of all bubbles and they can’t see it?
We can all starve to death because we can’t afford to live but the markets will be rocketing higher. What’s not to like?
We are a piss poor excuse for a country and the clowns running it are even worse than that.
Always more noise about who is buying than who is selling.
John Kenneth Galbraith
I nicknamed today’s rally “the rampage.”
It has that reckless air of a gang of hooligans ransacking your local shopping mall, taking anything they can get their hands on, and breaking things just for shizz-n-gigs.
I agree totally with your sentiments, Mr. Screwball.
Good grief, the Adams-Winne Greco story is an empty suit. Does anyone seriously think 100 bucks is a bribe? Look at the totality, red envelope, small sum, heritage of the gift giver (Chinese), and draw the reasonable conclusion; the reporter has mistaken the lai see envelope (used for hóngbāo) with a bribe. This, because the cash itself isn’t the big deal, it’s the red envelope! It merely represents good luck and prosperity in east Asian cultures.
So what we have here is an ignorant reporter, who has basically offered up a nothingburger. Worse, NY’s leftwing-media (defined nicely by the work of http://www.thecity.nyc), but now picked up more widely because the left is desperate for a smear story against Mayor Adams, are now running with it.
Thing is, anybody even slightly in the know, (by this, meaning cultured in the least), is laughing their hind ends off. Me? I predict this backfires against the forces presenting Mr. Mamdani as a candidate for Mayor before it’s all said and done.
The NY Post has had Winnie Greco splashed all over the place since this broke. The Post is left-wing media now?
And the idea that anybody is “desperate” for a “smear story” against Adams when he and his cronies can’t seem to let a week pass without another egregious example of malfeasance is preposterous on the face of it.
The takes on this are extremely pathetic:
Yeah, those PAC-2s always blow up. Just wait until we get the PAC-3s! Also, they are really backed up at the Patriot repair shop now. That should clear up after the next war.
A very good article from Adam Tooze on the Gaza front:
https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-405-bulldozing-gaza-thanatocene
Chartbook 405 Bulldozing Gaza: (Thanatocene mini-series #4)
Reporter gets handed an open bag of potato chips, oh look here is some cold hard cash instead of the salty tasty chips! What is it with these amateurs or simple functionaries for political campaigns. Mere pikers when it gets to the $100 hand shakes that were so laughably easy to prove in the US and it’s so called college football and men’s college basketball. Examples are just unlimited dating back to betting and point shaving scandals…so I picked a funny anecdote that is from the middle 80s.
Kentucky coaching staff were allegedly shipping envelopes stuffed with cash to recruiting targets and their families. The history of the NCAA cracking down on these schemes is hilariously, if not comically inept and always long after the fact. Then from more recent college sports scandals circa mid to late 2010s, Louisville men’s basketball was luring recruits with much more than money ! Never fear, that history doesn’t exclude the men’s basketball coach from landing another job in the profession.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-10-28-sp-11801-story.html
UNC basketball tops the list
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_North_Carolina_academic-athletic_scandal.
The NCAA does not have the jurisdiction over academic programs. That said yes these were egregious to say the very least. It isn’t for nothing to also state that UNC-CH lawyered up and fought the NCAA, which is also what Penn State did following the Sandusky revelation.
SMU outright in the early 80s had a payroll to pay the football players. Warned once to stop it they roared into the NCAA cross hairs a second time and were summarily shut down. There is a veritable treasure trove of cheating and stealing another team’s prized recruit with the lure of a new Mustang or Trans Am in the heyday of the then Big 8 football conference.
Baylor basketball had a scandalous period where an actual player was murdered. The list could go on, and go on. To be honest giving out a free pass on earning grades to move ahead, we’ll shut it all down as the Bob Knight’s once contended. Never did except in the case of SMU football, but I don’t have all the NCAA history of enforcement saved in my noggin.
100% vacuous article from The New York Times. Policies are not mentioned even once, and the article could with almost no changes have been written about selling toothpaste or farm equipment.
Classic. The party is not letting voters down, the stupid, ignorant voters are letting the party down!
Never change, Democrats.
Thankfully Dems who unconsciously, or not, regard black and brown voters as NPCs are showing themselves all over social media.
Jeez…looking at the links and all I can think is that there is commitment to more war and greater inequality and not much else.
Mic drop
What to Know About Plague After a New Case in California (NY Times via archive.ph)
(bold mine, because NY Times thinks you’re stupid, and need to be told what’s written is knowledge you need to know, stating the obvious.)
COVID immune dis-regulation is going great!
Trajectory. The only thing that matters is the trajectory. It surprises most people that in the 1870’s, there were Congressman arguing for Native American Rights. ‘Freedom of Speech/Press?’, think Julian Assange. ‘Freedom for Americans?,’ think the takeover of American cities by the military. ‘International Law?’, think smiling ‘settlers’ arriving to occupy stolen land and homes.
Simply fascism (a word I personally do not think is overused, they just tell you that) on the march.
Relatedly this is from the Pillars of the Earth series, historical fiction, in the 14th century.
And you’ll note that in the 21st century, public health doesn’t know how disease spreads either apparently. What a stupid timeline. Miasma theory is more correct than droplet dogma. We’re in a era of willful ignorance.
Jackson Hole thoughts:
The idea that a trained baboon could work for the mouse clique, banging away on a keyboard creating money, gives me cold comfort that the Fed has been doing the right thing all along.
The dream I had last night has been related as it came
As for interpretation, well, it’s really very plain
Would you rather have a monkey up in Washington, D.C
Or have those people making monkeys out of you and me?
The Monkey That Became President
Tom T. Hall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-xuvzht5WM
I would have never thought Trump would go after Whites, but I don’t know Jack.
Games.
The Sega Dreamcast Was the ‘What if?’ Console (NY Times via archive.ph)
My last console was the SNES. Star Fox for the win!
My oldest nephews had a PS console in the middle to late decade, I’m thinking circa pre 2009 or so but I was so very much out of my league trying to play or merely muddle through. It was laughable then how those games advanced whilst my gamer skills moved into the dustbin.
True story, I still posses a childhood artifact. An original Pong console; best I can tell it’s the Kmart version so nothing unique about it. Oh yeah, the memories of an Atari 2600….Pitfall was a weirdly unique game I thought.
I don’t like Facebook but all the COVID groups are there. Saw this by accident. COVID is that you?
Tragedies happen, but really?