Scientists Strip Cancer of Its “Superpower” To Outsmart Drugs SciTech Daily (Chuck L)
Alzheimer’s Genetic Risk May Be Effectively Countered With Diet MedPage Today
Exclusive: U.S. confirms nation’s first travel-associated human screwworm case connected to Central American outbreak Reuters. resilc: “Brings back my Peace Corps aggie days PTSD.”
#COVID-19/Pandemics
Trump and RFK Jr. to Ban COVID-19 Vaccine ‘Within Months’ Daily Beast. Get your Novavax while you can.
Climate/Environment
This is not Autumn. This is drought distress in Islington, London
Trees shed leaves to reduce water intake. It’s happening all over England pic.twitter.com/SgHJ43gqpq
— The English Oak Project (@TheKentAcorn) August 23, 2025
China?
Taiwan referendum on reopening last nuclear plant fails Guardian
China decouples from US energy as key exports crash to zero Kevin Walmsely
More continuity of policy, of the “They have learned nothing, they have forgotten nothing” sort:
🇺🇸🇨🇳 US President Donald Trump says that People's Republic of China must supply USA with Magnets or it will face crippling tariffs:
"They have to give us magnets. If they don't, we have to charge them a 200% tariff or something… Nobody needed magnets until they convinced… pic.twitter.com/siXlaCVkdR
— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) August 25, 2025
Tokyo reportedly asks countries not to attend China’s V-day events; potential narrow-minded move undermines correct view of history: experts Global Times. Tacky!
Koreas
Trump’s South Korea Outburst Daniel Larison
Exclusive: Korean Air makes airline’s biggest-ever Boeing jet order amid Trump-Lee summit Reuters (Kevin W)
Kim Jong Un supervises new missile tests as North Korea boasts advances with ‘unique technology’ Independent
Africa
Is South Africa sleepwalking towards prolonged violent upheaval? Mail & Guardian
Congo prosecutor seeks death penalty for former President Joseph Kabila Africa News
Nigerian airforce kills at least 35 jihadists near border with Cameroon France24
South of the Border
U.S. Deploys WARSHIPS Near Venezuela + Israel BOMBS Journalists in Gaza Hospital Dimitri Lascaris on Rachel Blevins, YouTube. Larry Johnson has pointed out that Venezuela would be hard to subdue. Caracas in a valley in a mountain range.
🇻🇪🇹🇹 Washington’s Caribbean pawn moves into position.
Trinidad & Tobago just announced it will hand over its territory to U.S. forces if Venezuela moves on Guyana, a “drug cartel” pretext masking an open military pledge to guard ExxonMobil’s oil claims in Essequibo.
This is the…
— Thomas Keith (@iwasnevrhere_) August 25, 2025
🇨🇳🇻🇪 Beijing just moved another chess piece into the Western Hemisphere,
not with a state oil giant, but through a private Chinese firm.China Concord Resources Corp has signed a rare 20-year pact to develop two Venezuelan oilfields, investing $1B+ to pump 60,000 bpd by 2026.…
— Thomas Keith (@iwasnevrhere_) August 25, 2025
Putin To Place Oreshnik Hypersonic Missile In U.S.’ Backyard As Trump Sends Warships To Venezuela? Hindustan Times, YouTube
Trump’s “Weapons of Mass Migration” Explains Targeting of DC, LA, Mexico, Venezuela Ken Klippenstein
European Disunion
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said tackling the country’s economic challenges is proving to be a far greater undertaking than he initially anticipated. Bloomberg. BWAHAHA
Federal Government: Welfare state no longer financially viable, but generous with billions in aid for the Ukraine war Overton via machine translation (Micael T)
French premier to seek confidence vote in September Anadolu Agency
Numerous explosions at burning "warehouse" in Hamburg Germany.
I wonder what was kept there? pic.twitter.com/IB8jf1cD8v
— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) August 25, 2025
As Europe’s fear of war grows, French join military reserves DW
Stoltenberg’s effect on the election shocks Norway Aftonbladet via machine translation. Micael T: “Is this for real? Stoltenberg as James Bond and bumps Social Democrats with 20%? Are the Norwegians mad or do they really prefer fools?”
Old Blighty
Rachel Reeves ‘heading towards IMF bailout’ Telegraph
Farage’s mass deportation plan Telegraph
UK police arrest Ken Loach screenwriter Paul Laverty for anti-genocide t-shirt Middle East Eye
Israel v. The Resistance
⭕️ Residents in Sheikh Radwan, Al-Jalaa, and Jabalia Al-Nazla neighborhoods north of Gaza City have been urged to cover their faces with water-soaked masks after the Israeli occupation detonated booby-trapped robots, releasing gases and foul odors that are causing burning… https://t.co/ENDVPZqU5W pic.twitter.com/Bzs6p4LtJn
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) August 24, 2025
Israeli airstrike on southern Gaza hospital kills 20, including journalists Arab News
Not enough reporting that this was a “double tap” and hence very clearly targeting medics and journos:
Dismantle Nazi Israel TODAY https://t.co/Y5R22HXB9P
— Alon Mizrahi (@alon_mizrahi) August 25, 2025
Trump says he is ‘not happy’ about Israeli strike on Gaza hospital as anger spreads Times of Israel
It took me a minute to realize this was not an AI-generated Groyper video
Turns out this is the true face of diplomacy in the Zionist-controlled Trump administration pic.twitter.com/1tp9mnvLuT
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) August 25, 2025
An Extremely Important Excerpt From Today’s Crooke–Judge Napolitano Chat Karl Sanchez (Chuck L). I’ve seen the segment and agree Crooke has an important observation. Here is the clip from the movie Patton he references. Crooke’s depiction is inaccurate save for the punch line.
Marjorie Taylor Greene Gives Megyn Kelly A REALITY CHECK On Israel The Young Turks. From a coupld of days ago, still of interest. As Larry Wilkerson said of an earlier MTG anti-Zionist speech, “Looks like that lady took some smart pills.”
>* * Israel Offers to Support Hezbollah Disarmament, May ‘Consider’ Reducing Troop Presence in Lebanon Antiwar.com (Kevin W)
Syraqistan
Syria hails decision to remove its name from sanctions lists under US federal laws Anadolu Agency
Syria and Iraq, ISIS Creation Timeline: 1992 – 2015 Vanessa Beeley
New Not-So-Cold War
“Stolen Children” Putin’s war machine snatches 1.6 million Ukrainian kids Express. resilc: “Para los ninos….trying hard…then they eat them next?”
Gathering Escalation Olivier Boyd-Barrett. Readers invited to opine on his view of the effectiveness of the current US-EU last ditch efforts. Regardless, the intent and effort does seem to be there.
Ukraine – Zelenski Rejects Giving Land As Fascists Promise To Kill Him Moon of Alabama
Catastrophe! Why Europe & US War Against Russia Is Near Inevitable/Oreshniks In Venezuela!? Mark Sleboda with Jamarl Thomas. See more on Venezuela above under South of the Border.
Another Conversation with General Evgeny Buzhinsky… How Did the Russian Military Survive the Collapse of the Soviet Union? Larry Johnson
Caucasus
Russia blocks Armenian agricultural exports amid renewed tensions Azernews
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Palantir’s tools pose an invisible danger we are just beginning to comprehend Guardian (resilc). One advantage of being here is GPS is so bad, phones don’t know where you are. Seriously. You order a ride share (yes I know not at all preferred but barely any street hails here). App puts me at a goofball location. I type in where I am. It does not believe me and asks if I am ordering the car for someone else.
Imperial Collapse Watch
How ‘Human Rights’ Became Western Weapon Kit Klarenberg. Important.
The US Needs to Take Ukrainian and Russian Drone Operations Seriously Stephen Bryen (Chuck L). Good despite some sour notes like saying Ukraine has the most advanced drone program. Counterevidence: 1. Fiber optic droned were a Russian invention; 2. Russia has large scale drone production, Ukraine is producing them in workshops and I further infer there is not mass production type design standardization.
Trump 2.0
Trump wants nuclear arms deal with Russia and China RT (Kevin W)
Trump Doctrine 2.0: a half-year economic autopsy Asia Times (Kevin W)
FEMA staffers warn Trump administration policies weakening disaster response The Hill
Trump Has No Idea How to Do Diplomacy Foreign Policy. Misses the point a bit. Trump has no idea how to “do diplomacy” because he sees no value in it.
Fedwatch
Trump Fires Fed Governor Cook, Escalating Attack on Central Bank Bloomberg
Lisa Cook Says She Will Not Step Down From the Fed New York Times
Tariffs
Few commentators have pointed out that to the extent that manufacturing comes back to the US, it won’t generate many jobs because the production will be highly automated:
I saw a photo of a new U.S. reshoring factory.
The #1 robot brand powering Trump’s
“Make America Great Again” revival isn’t… American.It’s Japanese.
That sent me down a rabbit hole….
What I found is a 40-year silent invasion that reshaped American factories while almost… pic.twitter.com/3c0W0uLRqk
— Ilir Aliu – eu/acc (@IlirAliu_) August 24, 2025
Trump shocks UK business with stealth tariffs on 400 products The Times
Immigration
Roaming Charges: From of the Mouths of Madness Counterpunch (resilc)
Trump Is Holding Immigrants at a Former Japanese Internment Camp Rolling Stone
Why The White House Thinks Ford Mustangs Can Help Solve ICE’s Recruitment Crisis Autoblog (resilc)
Economy
Church Construction Is Booming as Religious Spaces Add Child Care and Coffee Shops Wall Street Journal. resilc: “Pole dancing could help too…..”
AI
How To Argue With An AI Booster Ed Zitron
Class Warfare
State Poverty Rates Barry Ritholtz (resilc)
U.S. Retirement Crisis: More than Half of Americans Have Less Than $10,000 Saved While Only 0.1% Hold $5 Million Plus 24/7 Wall Street
Surging Car Prices Push Buyers to Take Out Longer Auto Loans Bloomberg (resilc)
Bernie Sanders rallies hundreds in Davenport Cedar Rapids Gazette (Robin K)
Antidote du jour (via):
And a bonus (Chuck L):
This guy Feeding the birds and then this happened… pic.twitter.com/vCbJDtSaIJ
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) August 25, 2025
A second bonus:
Watching Tom & jerry pic.twitter.com/29YJYLCBDz
— Cats with pawerful aura (@AuraWithCat) August 23, 2025
And a third:
An octopus in a hurry.. 😅 pic.twitter.com/uO4TGrCSg2
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) August 24, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
‘Chay Bowes
@BowesChay
Numerous explosions at burning “warehouse” in Hamburg Germany.
I wonder what was kept there?’
Ukrainian coffee-makers? Like what was in that American factory that the Russians blew up in the Ukraine?
A burning car and gas cylindrrs according to Zeit
Will Putin be blamed?
https://www-zeit-de.translate.goog/news/2025-08/26/grossbrand-im-hamburger-hafen-loescharbeiten-dauern-an?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Yeah, I get it. Nothing to see here. Move along-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKnX5wci404 (48 secs)
Chinese magnets?
I have a garage full of magnets and I feel like such a fool now. Must have been all those TikTok CCP videos about magnets that convinced me to buy them.
Re: UK police arrest Ken Loach screenwriter Paul Laverty for anti-genocide t-shirt
Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said in July that the UK’s decision to proscribe the campaign group as a terrorist organisation was “disproportionate and unnecessary” and called for the designation to be rescinded.
He said: “UK domestic counter-terrorism legislation defines terrorist acts broadly to include ‘serious damage to property’.
“But, according to international standards, terrorist acts should be confined to criminal acts intended to cause death or serious injury or to the taking of hostages, for purpose of intimidating a population or to compel a government to take a certain action or not.
“It misuses the gravity and impact of terrorism to expand it beyond those clear boundaries, to encompass further conduct that is already criminal under the law.”
Pariah SStates abound
“Tokyo reportedly asks countries not to attend China’s V-day events; potential narrow-minded move undermines correct view of history: experts”
I’ve got an idea. The Chinese are having their VJ celebrations on September 3rd in Beijing, right? So maybe Japan can organize their own event on that date but in Tokyo.They could invite all the former nations of the Japanese Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere to attend celebrations and make speeches how great it was for those countries. They could invite Trump over and tell him that the GEACPS was just their own version of the Monroe Doctrine. It’ll be great and all those countries would be able to share heart-warming stories about those times-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_East_Asia_Co-Prosperity_Sphere
Why The White House Thinks Ford Mustangs Can Help Solve ICE’s Recruitment Crisis Autoblog
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was under the impression that all Ford made now was those incredibly ugly e-Mustangs that look like the automotive form of couch potatoes. Compare a 1965 Mustang and it’s clean lines to the bulbous mess of it’s 2025 counterpart.
Never been a car guy myself but the story of it’s development is an interesting one-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Mustang_(first_generation)#Design
As interesting as the development of the first P-51 Mustang-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_P-51_Mustang#Design_and_development
German-born (and immigrant via Brazil) chief designer? Independent company design in response to British request (to produce more of underrated, but still mediocre P40s)? Finally became excellent via adopting British engine? More flaws (like balance issues caused by packing too much fuel) and weird features (like paper drop tanks) than people think?
I was watching a “Midsomer Murders” (German “Inspector Barnaby”) episode last night.
Wow, everybody drove a sports car.
So you had scenes where in shot #1 a character would come up the driveway in a Cobra (yesss!), shot#2 another character would leave in a Jaguar X convertible, and in shot#3 another character would run past the camera in a red Porsche 911 convertible. All in the same village.
And the most amazing thing: They were all living alone on huge estates, with giant libraries, and villas that must cost a fortune to heat in the winter. So I guess that is why they are all wearing those countryside coats and trousers and carrying heavy shotguns so they stay warm.
England must be a beautiful country!
Yesterday I saw a couple of videos that I would like to recommend to the audience here (and everyone else, for that matter). They nicely represent Russian point of view (that one may, or may not, agree with, but should surely pay attention to).
First one is geopolitical analysis from the Kharkov trenches. Patrick Lancaster does his thing, and lets Batya tell it like it is. The interesting part starts at 19:48 (timestamp is in the link). Make sure that subtitles are on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9iXZwjnDvE&t=828s
Second one is longer but is in English, and can be listened in the background while doing something else (increased speed optional, and recommended). Levan Gudadze is a Georgian-Russian journalist that has appeared as guest on The Duran. Stanislav Krapivnik have also been on The Duran, and some other places too. He was born in Donbass, have lived in the USA and served in the US military (on Abrams tanks), and came back to Motherland some time ago. They talk about many thing (past, present and future), but don’t dwell on anything. That gives the talk nice dynamic, and made me listen to it in one go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEydjPeYkjI
Interesting!
There are people in US who see the only safety for US is doom for any potential opponent. Tort of the Thucydides principle.
There are similar people in Russia and maybe China.
I suspect the difference is one is excusing empire the other has reason to expect US is out to dominate them.
“No more Pearl Harbors” has become the reason for empire.
I am retired USAF. I am pacifist, with reasons! No US war on the “table” is just!
W.r.t. what Batya said, and repeating a point I’ve often made here, the Western and especially European political class and its cartel neoliberal mismanagement is facing a crisis of legitimacy. They will not be able to hold on to power democratically. But they will be able to do so as Zelensky and Netanyahu do. When they are at war with Russia they will suspend elections and control the population by force. As Batya describes, the preparations are quite obvious.
And as we see from other sources, Russia is preparing for it too. Given that Russia knows that it cannot trust any agreement with the West as it is currently organized (NATO and EU under US leadership), it can only pursue its interests through force and threat. [It’s maybe another topic but the threats will have to be nuclear.]
What interests me most is the cost advantage to Russia. In the NATO states weapons are developed and produced partly to be useful in war but mostly as a way of moving money from public to private accounts. So the weapons are not always very useful, they are expensive, governments have limited grip on procurement and R&D and they beggar the public purse. There’s also the overall economic situation in Europe and the US. And the social and political trends are clearly towards less democracy and more social upheaval. So from the Russian perspective, a long New Cold War could be just the ticket. 10 years or so on the current trend lines and where will we be?
Batya is a warrior but I’m not sure the Russian flag over the Richstag in Berlin in 2027 is really within reach or desirable for Russia or necessary. Russia can push the buttons of Europe’s illegitimate and corrupt political class into suicidal policies. Kinda looks like they already did.
“the Western and especially European political class and its cartel neoliberal mismanagement is facing a crisis of legitimacy”
There’s not a country that dabbled in neoliberal mismanagement, past or present, that hasn’t experienced a crisis of legitimacy. And war is still too often the pathway to consolidate power.
I worked for a Norwegian firm for six years, they definitely prefer fools.
“The Square” is a docu-drama filmed in Sweden about Norway as best as I can tell.
There’s a sauce…
The Square is a witty takedown of the fine art scene. One of my favorite movies.
Not sure how you can claim The Square is a Swedish film about Norway. The main character is Danish and the film is set in Stockholm and a satire on the art scene and collectors. It is a few years since I saw the film but can’t remember any real references to Norwegians. At some point the American actress who played Peggy in Mad Men has a small role about disposing of a condom after sex with the Danish guy.
I think you have confused Danes with Norwegians.
It certainly captured the cultural milieu I worked in, architecture though, not fine arts, but the cast is nearly identical. No confusion, borders don’t matter to the salient content.
They have to give us magnets. If they don’t, we have to charge them a 200% tariff or something… Nobody needed magnets until they convinced everybody 20 years ago ‘Let’s all do magnets.'”
I pause and wonder…
Magnets. How do they work?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMbnJzHhoBI
Heh heh, I like the clown.
For clarity, I’m pausing and wondering over Trump’s intellect.
In Trump’s intellect there is a clown wondering how do those magnets work? 🤡 Also, why does the USA buys them from China, when USA has the best magnets in the World. The greatest magnets. MAMA, Make American Magnets Again.
Magnets? Nobody needed magnets? Let’s all do magnets? Do he know nothing? From the mouth of an other you would dismiss it as baffle-gab. Here? Indeed, pause and wonder … and ponder how one survives three years and five months more of such “wit and wisdom .”
Leavitt to Believer
In this episode Eddie Haskell is deluded by Karoline into thinking she is being truthful with him and not playing around with misconceptions, er lies. It’s all good though as long as she has a swaying cross dangling from her pretty little neck.
“China decouples from US energy as key exports crash to zero”
Saw Kevin Walmsley’s video earlier this evening and it paints a grim picture for the US. It may be that the Chinese are decoupling from the US right across the board to not only damage it but to reduce their attack area as well so that the US will find it harder to damage China. But in a way, it is a double decoupling. Take soybeans for example. The Chinese will no longer buy soybeans from the US which Washington never predicted. But then you have Brazil. They are being attacked by Trump’s tariffs as well so now it will be them sending their soybeans to the Chinese. Same with coffee. When Trump’s tariffs on Brazil were announced, you had a huge contingent of Brazilian coffee growers jump on a plane to China where they were warmly welcomed. Nobody could ever have predicted that. /sarc
And now the same thing is happening with energy. The US is being isolated from a large chunk of the energy market as sanctioned countries are coming together to make trade deals. I really find it hard to understand the thinking in Trump’s Cabinet. If China needs energy and is being sanctioned then of course they will buy it from countries like Iran and Russia who are also being sanctioned. It’s Markets 101. And every country that the Trump regimes sanction will also reconsider their trade with the US and seek alternate markets to make them less vulnerable to Trump’s whims. It may be that Trump is the best thing to happen to encourage the development of BRICS.
When your “China experts” are Gordon Chang and Rush Doshi, and you no longer have people of the caliber of Chas Freeman in office, you can delude yourself into almost any narrative about China
Except for the fact that they are winning by not losing. There is that. They are not folding to Trump’s threats and punitive tariffs on them had to be quickly abandoned causing Trump to be nicknamed TACO. I’m sure that Chas Freeman would say the same.
I initially misread this as saying our China expert was PF Chang.
Couldn’t possibly be worse, given the other Chang’s track record.
Not Changstein? (Seinfeld ref…)
Well, “whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad” is as good an explanation as I can find. Classical hubris?
The more Trump smashes his toys together, the more trade deals slip through his fingers.
My yardstick for how well BRICS will work out as more than away for elites and corps in those countries to avoid sanctions and be everything it can be to the citizens in those countries is just going to upset people.
I wonder if anybody can guess?
Kevin Walmsley has become required viewing for me.
He is on the spot, does a couple of videos a day, all of which are less than 10 mins.
He’s pretty good. And, I like the prayer stuff at the end. Even if I don’t have time to listen to it.
I wonder what the deal is with him? You’d think that his religious attitude would bias him against the Godless Chinese.
But he seems to admire them a lot. And that is an understatement.
Leaves are also falling rather prematurely on oak trees in the Sierra foothills, and we’ve had the mellowest of summers where maybe we’re up to 10 days of 100 degrees or more, which is nothing.
I think the trees are flummoxed by climate change and patterns are way off.
Back east, we are in a nice cool pattern. The usual late August stank of hot, humid air has been replaced with a fall-like breeze reminiscent of Canada.
Such a pattern, if it persists into September, will steer any tropical systems away from the Eastern seaboard, a.k.a. “Fish storms.”
The media would love another Helene to jack up their ratings, but this year might be a dry hole for them. We still have to make it through September. I agree that things seem a bit “off”. We’ve had a very wet August which isn’t normal for the deep South. It should make for good colors when the trees turn in October, though.
I’m in that same weather pattern in the North East, and the problem is the cooler, fall-like temperatures come with zero rain. My garden went from pretty successful to dried up and non-productive. Watering from a hose just isn’t the same as rainwater. Cucumbers that looked great suddenly dried up as they stopped taking in water. My father in VT reported the same thing.
Meanwhile, we SF bay area weather wimps continue to bask under muted morning sunlight filtered through our still dependable marine layer, a gray blanket of low clouds, followed by full sun in the afternoon with gentle cooling breezes off the bay. If it hits 80 degrees here it’s a heat emergency. Alas, all that lovely water currently flowing from our taps and garden hoses is dependent upon the gradual snow melt from the Sierras. If all that snow becomes rain due to climate warming, which it appears it might, our moderate ambient temperatures won’t count for much in terms of survival.
Why liberal thinking is untrustworthy: How “Human Rights” Became a Weapon.
Kit Klarenberg seems to be unwilling to recognize that there have been, indeed, many problems with violations of human rights (as in those rights listed in the U.S. Bill of Rights). It isn’t so much that “human rights” became a weapon. It was that neoliberalism undermined human rights and colonized many countries.
I recall working for Amnesty International on letter-writing campaigns that involved people imprisoned by the colonels’ junta in Greece, the disappearances in Argentina (citizens dropped into the ocean from airplanes), and Uruguay, yes, even Uruguay, where the government was dragging people to the naval officers’ school and torturing them.
Charter 77 is a good example of a group that was asking the Czechoslovak government to guarantee rights listed in the country’s own constitution.
To wit, from the article:
Charter 77 as well as the democratization movement after the death of Franco in Spain are good models for discussing human rights.
But for the depredations brought about by colonialists and imperialists, The Shock Doctrine is the diagnosis. And you’d be hard pressed to find Naomi Klein trying to implicate Amnesty International in the looting of Russia, Latvia, Guatemala, and Libya.
I do think he makes a key point in that article, which I was not aware of before –
“The Accords were formally concerned with concretising détente between the US and Soviet Union. Under their terms, in return for recognition of the latter’s political influence over Central and Eastern Europe, Moscow and its Warsaw Pact satellites agreed to uphold a definition of “human rights” concerned exclusively with political freedoms, such as freedom of assembly, expression, information, and movement. Protections universally enjoyed by the Eastern Bloc’s inhabitants – such as free education, employment, housing and more – were wholly absent from this taxonomy.”
Amnesty existed before the Accords and they and other NGOs have done a lot of good work. I don’t know much about them specifically, but I suspect it is as you mentioned – many of these NGOs that once tried to uphold universal values became corrupted by neoliberalism and became tools of Western imperialism, or worse, tools of one faction of Western imperialism. The ACLU comes to mind. I was once a card carrying member, but wouldn’t donate today if you paid me. There are few left anywhere with the ethics of Ira Glasser.
Let me add this passage from Klarenberg:
“(…)
As legal scholar Samuel Moyn has extensively documented, the Accords played a pivotal role in decisively shifting mainstream rights discourse away from any and all economic or social considerations. More gravely, per Moyn, “the idea of human rights” was converted “into a warrant for shaming state oppressors.” Resultantly, Western imperialist brutality against purported foreign rights abusers – including sanctions, destabilisation campaigns, coups, and outright military intervention – could be justified, frequently assisted by the ostensibly neutral findings of “human rights” defenders such as Amnesty International, and HRW.
Almost instantly after the Helsinki Accords were signed, a welter of organisations sprouted throughout the Eastern Bloc to document purported violations by authorities. Their findings were then fed – often surreptitiously – to overseas embassies and rights groups, for international amplification. This contributed significantly to both internal and external pressure on the Soviet Union, Warsaw Pact, and Yugoslavia. Mainstream accounts assert the conception of these dissident groups was entirely spontaneous and organic, in turn compelling Western support for their pioneering efforts.
US lawmaker Dante Fascell has claimed the “demands” of “intrepid” Soviet citizens “made us respond.” However, there are unambiguous indications meddling in the Eastern Bloc was hardwired into Helsinki before inception. In late June 1975, on the eve of US President Gerald Ford signing the Accords, exiled Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn addressed senior politicians in Washington, DC. He appeared at the express invitation of hardcore anti-Communist George Meany, chief of the CIA-connected American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). Solzhenitsyn declared:
“We, the dissidents of the USSR don’t have any tanks, we don’t have any weapons, we have no organization. We don’t have anything…You are the allies of our liberation movement in the Communist countries…Communist leaders say, ‘Don’t interfere in our internal affairs’…But I tell you: interfere more and more. Interfere as much as you can. We beg you to come and interfere.”
(…)”
Of course that´s where the alternative media and “revisionist” economic and historic scholarship of the Cold War era comes into play – they attempted to shed some light into those very very very dark spaces of “empire” that made most of what happened in the satellites look benign.
Or as Latin American writers visiting the East used to say: Where they put you in prison or ban your writings we are being tortured and then killed.
However this reporting and research never reached serious masses of either public or academia.
So in a way the situation of alternative media today might even be better than 40 or 50 years ago.
This has to be understood today – leftist social analysis was not a mainstream matter. Most people thought it´s fifth column or simply didn´t give a damn. Which doesn´t mean society (Germany e.g.) was as cold as it is today. It was not but that´s easy in affluence and being heralded as the showcase country of capitalism…
In that literal sense of “framing” views Helsinki WAS a tool of propaganda, shaping opinion and ideology by leaving out the ugly bits.
Yes it is double-edged which made the Cold War discussion so difficult and today its even worse.
Frankly today has led us to a path which I very much disagree with – equalizing Bolsheviks of the first hour and calls for international workers´ solidarity, with instrumentalization of human rights by the capitalist classes of the kind Klarenberg criticizes and eventually the notion to even compare Neocons with Trotzkyists.
This recreates an elitist understanding of the Soviet and left experience as it was propagandized in postwar scholarship – focusing mostly on the plight of the elite minority, i.e. on the representatives of the very class those scholars writing the history belonged to. The circular contradictory logic is evident in this backlash.
Even though Klarenberg for sake of making a point sometimes might tend to simplifications, as far as my reading allows me to say, he always contains helpful hints such as these links on Samuel Moyn:
The Breakthrough: Human Rights in the 1970s
Jan Eckel
Samuel Moyn
Series: Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights
2014
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46nq77
his podcast on Soviet Georgia
Reimagining Soviet Georgia
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reimagining-soviet-georgia/id1555761205
article for THE NATION 2018
Human Rights Are Not Enough
We must also embrace the fight against economic inequality.
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/human-rights-are-not-enough/
this one starts with Tominová´s story…
his 2019 Harvard study
Not Enough
Human Rights in an Unequal World
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674241398
p.s. Only related but since you are an Italy expert among other things:
Doug Henwood recently in his podcast also had a conversation about the Italian tradititon in cooperatives with German-based scholar Jerome Nikolai Warren:
part 2 of this show
August 14, 2025 Aaron Benanav, author of this article, outlines possibilities for a democratically planned economy • Jerome Nikolai Warren on the possibilities for cooperatives
https://shout.lbo-talk.org/lbo/RadioArchive/2025/25_08_14.mp3
Starting with the new fiscal year on Oct. 1, traveling to the United States will become much more expensive for millions of people. And while that should be central to conversations about tourism, it has barely been mentioned.
Congress recently passed legislation known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which adds a $250 fee for non-immigrant visa applications. That cost is on top of the current $185 fee for a tourist visa (B1/B2), raising the total to about $435 per person, depending on the country — a more than 135% increase. The hike does not apply to travelers from countries in the ESTA program, who do not need visas to visit the U.S.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/columnist/2025/08/22/esta-tourist-fee-implications/85776011007/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Israeli tourists probably get $250 each for entering the USA
You don’t suppose that Trump has a chip on his shoulder about overseas tourists from his New York days, do you? He tends to take things personal.
Tends? Do I detect sly drollery? When did Donnie not take everything personally?
Israeli tourists probably get $250 each for entering the USA
Nope they do ESTA
The Beverly Hills Unified School District’s Board of Education will vote Tuesday night on a proposal to display the Israeli flag on all campuses and district facilities to recognize Jewish Heritage Month in May.
The proposal is part of a resolution to combat antisemitism that also calls for educating students about Jewish history and commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah), International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and Oct. 7 as a Day of Remembrance of the 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-26/beverly-hills-public-schools-to-consider-displaying-israeli-flag-on-all-campuses
Not April Fool’s Day. Wow.
All Fools Day?
Doubling down on holocaust reminders, as the ersatz fascists in Israel are committing genocide~
How about adding a month of mourning for the victims and victims to come of the genocide in Gaza.
I think Huckabee got it totally right about anti-semitism – anti-semites hate God! So simple, so true! If you hate us, the Chosen of God, you must hate God.
Jesus save us from the likes of Huckabee who claim to act in your name but serve the AntiChrist.
“In particular, they changed phrasing saying that the purpose of displaying the Israeli flag is to signify support for the Jewish state to saying the purpose is to signify support for the Jewish community.”
Yeah, you’re not fooling anyone.
Israel seems to be Schroedinger’s Ethnostate – one cannot conflate the actions of Israel and Jewish people generally as that is antisemitic. Yet, criticizing Israel alone is also an act of antisemitism.
Upside-down world.
Situation in Germany: “Money for welfare – nein! Money for warfare – jawohl!!!”
As everywhere else these days:
“National Security forever, Social Security – Never!”
Indeed. However, that’s a relatively recent thing in Europe and gives off pretty unpleasant associations in Germany’s case in particular, given its relatively recent history.
For a sec, I thought I read National Socialism forever, (Democratic) Socialism never.
When you think about it, Germany’s Merz and the UK’s Starmer have a lot in common. They literally could not care about the situation in their own countries and will send them into debt, just to cough up a coupla more billion for Zelensky. It has been said that they act more like foreign ministers than the actual leaders of their own countries. The Duran put out a video the other day about Merz’s Russian obsession-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQEIa3YYkZA (20:54 mins)
“How To Argue With An AI Booster”
With a cricket bat? Came across a story a day or two ago that demonstrated to me that AI is acting like a virus on the internet and degrading it. Readers might remember Rick Beato’s videos on music which have been featured on NC a coupla times. He has 2,000 videos and five million subscribers and knows his stuff about music. So he was looking over recent videos that he had posted to YouTube and they kinda looked ‘off.’ His hair looked different as did his skin as well as other parts of those videos. He noticed the same with a friend of his named Rhett Shull that also had his videos looked kinda off. Turns out that YouTube has been making AI “enhancements” to videos without telling users or asking permission. Seriously? The videos are now a degraded version of the original es posted and luckily they have not tried to ‘enhance” the music-
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250822-youtube-is-using-ai-to-edit-videos-without-permission
And this sort of thing is happening in other areas as well as noted in this article. Can’t wait for AI to make “enhancements” on text stories as well.
Hmm . . . for what purpose would YouTube change videos with AI ?
Are they trying to change the copyright ownership?
Google is an advertising company. I guess the motivation lies somewhere there.
I have read speculation that they are doing it to save bandwidth and storage costs. Since this practice is limited to Shorts, my guess is they figured to be able to slip some good ole crapification under the radar on content where viewers aren’t paying close attention.
Looks like they didn’t count on the content producers having pride of ownership or any sense of quality control over their brands.
>>>Looks like they didn’t count on the content producers having pride of ownership or any sense of quality control over their brands.
Which indicates just how clueless or just plain stupid the YouTube management is. Or would that just come from having a neoliberalized soul?
It is not as if a friend or acquaintance, even just a commentator would not notice and tell the artist about the changes. And presenting something as the original, unchanged work when it is not would obviously make the creator angry.
Afaict, this is an overwrought reaction to using AI in up-scaling and frame interpolation. It’s kinda like using AI to squeeze a bit more out of a compression model. The results are a bit gross, like a excessive noise reduction in the old days. Compared to the more sinister uses of AI we know of and were discussing just yesterday in the coffee break, I can’t get very excited about it.
I was thinking Negan’s baseball bat from “The Walking Dead.”
“Oh, you say that your AI-powered thinga-ma-jig can save my business $ by firing all the workers and replacing them? Meet Lucille …”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFL8OPWE00E
I’ve been watching a lot of zombie films lately. For some strange reason, I’m finding them a soothing break from the actual horrors of the real world. There is a notable difference between the U.S. Walking Dead zombies that slowly shuffle along (rather like Biden) and the Korean Train to Buson and U.K. 28 Days Later variety where “die Todten reiten schnell”.
From the article –
“…the company has finally confirmed it is altering a limited number of videos on YouTube Shorts…”
I don’t know where these “shorts” came from, but they are an abomination and I’m tired of having them shoved at me. Even without clicking on them, they have the look of something being off about them. Know I know what it is. I wish I could figure out how to make them go away.
This is why when up grading my video card on my PC, after nearly 20 years of using Nvidia, I bought a RX 7800 XT AMD Radeon. First and foremost due to it having no forced A.I. enhancement, everything new Nvida has it – no option. Next is its 16 GB, less power = less heat, and better control panel.
Only thing worse is Grok …
Good to know.
This reminds me of Trump saying that stopping the war in the Ukraine turned out to be a far greater undertaking than he initially anticipated. :)
“I can not get out of Vietnam, John. My friends are making too much money.” – President Lyndon Johnson, to his CIA Vietnam briefer Col. John Downie in 1966. As quoted by William Pepper in The Plot to Kill King.
Is he that stupid or is he just trying to condition everyone for more austerity?
My initial reaction to that was “Duh!”
Obvious to every other intelligent observer when Nord Stream was destroyed and you went along with it.
That figure of (was it) 60% reduction in the last quarter for Volkswagen earnings was pretty full on. Maybe it was 40% but even so….
Oh, boy.
Could an AI Barbie Stunt the Emotional Growth of a Generation?
A partnership between OpenAI and Mattel raises sobering questions
https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-barbie-dolls
This dovetails nicely with NWT’s post from yesterday, thanks.
But what happens when a child’s imagination no longer has to do any heavy lifting because their toys actually talk back?
If we are graced with enough time we are going to find out.
Whenever I see a kid (sometimes a toddler) with an iPad in their hands, staring blankly at it, I worry about what the next generation is going to look like.
We did not give our kids digital crack until they were teenagers, and regret not holding out longer.
I held out until the week before 7th grade when my daughter actually cried about it. I told her later and she was all I wish I knew that was all I had to do!
Dads struggle with the whole Opening Pandora’s Tissue Box.
From Spectrum article’s concluding paragraph:
I guess their team of psychiatrists missed this one:
A Teen Was Suicidal. ChatGPT Was the Friend He Confided In. NYT archive The smoking gun:
COVID, is that you? We know it loves to attack the gut. If you already have IBS, it certainly isn’t going to improve the situation.
Also, American culture is destructively superficial.
Ugh, there is no “AI”. Sigh.
Great way to short circuit curiosity in a growing child and hamper their imaginations. And who knows what words AI Barbie will be telling those children.
Syria and Iraq, ISIS Creation Timeline: 1992 – 2015 – Vanessa Beeley
And this viewpoint from one former resident of Syria:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rekk8xqrgJw/
Syria’s Red Line: From Resistance to Capitulation to Israel | Syriana Analysis
Note: post not meant to place here…
Is there Moms for America money behind this?
Are the five board members supporting the proposal from Moms for America?
Putin’s war machine snatched every single child in Ukraine, and then some. And then returned all but 300+, because that’s how many were on the list Ukrainians made (including those that ended up in Germany for some reason).
With the site admins indulgence. A question for the medically savvy in the Commentariat.
Phyl had one of her very infrequent medical appointments last week. She didn’t sleep the night before and couldn’t get up enough to make the trip to the clinic. I called in that morning to reschedule. I was told that calling in the day of a scheduled visit was considered a “No Show.” Fair enough that. Then I was told that two no shows under any circumstances would preclude her from ever utilizing the clinic for any reason ever again.
Is this now standard practice? This clinic is a satellite facility of the big hospital in town. It is not the only game in town but is pretty close to that status.
Call me confused.
Thanks in advance. Stay safe.
Has the hospital been bought by Private Equity?
There’s an interactive map in this article locating hospitals owned by PE.
https://pestakeholder.org/private-equity-hospital-tracker/
Thanks for this. It is a good resource.
Alas, our local Hospital Corps is not PE owned. So, I must chalk this up to the general crapification of health care in America.
As an added bonus; I noticed today while wheeling Phyllis around the clinic that most of the examination rooms had small electronic timers mounted on the outside of the door frame. All were set to count down from 15 minutes. Talk about Metrics!
Wish us luck. Phyllis had a small stroke two weeks ago. It basically affected her ability to communicate. Everything else was not evidently affected. She is slowly getting better and is much more comprehensible today when compared to two weeks ago. Being industrial medicine averse, this is the first time I could convince her to go and see about it. A brain scan is set for Thursday at 8:00 AM. (No Gadolinium, thank you very much! She has a history with that evil material.)
Stay safe!
I wish Phyllis well and I am sure that she has a lot of people here rooting for her. Hope she gets better soon.
Thanks. She may have slurred speech right now, but she is all there inside.
She doesn’t suffer fools well, which makes you wonder why I have been allowed to hang around for so long. Ah well, such is life.
A light interlude.
David Allen Coe “You Never Even Called Me By My Name”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4pZFsEdP3Y&ab_channel=DavidAllanCoe-Topic
“…and I’ll hang around as long as you will let me…”
Best wishes to Phyllis for her recovery.
Thank you for being a caring human being. This is not as common as you might expect. Even my Mr. Cynic is sometimes surprised at the lack of human empathy in our society today.
Stay safe.
I add to that.
Very bad stuff all this.
Thanks and you are correct that not all of the Miracles of Modern Medicine are beneficial to the health of the patient’s body and mind.
Be safe.
I’m doing some work on gadolinium contrast agents. All the macrocyclic chelators of Gd are much safer but the latest agent (gado-picolinol) from Bracco and Guerbet has an excellent safety profile.
The early Gd agents, with linear chelators of Gd ions, are banned in EU. They led to a specific type of kidney damage and many Diverse events. Sadly these are still available in the US and instead all Gd agents must carry a black box warning….
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Phyll’s “experience” with Gadolinium contrast agents was seven years ago when her cancer ordeal began. When did the change over from linear chelators to macrocyclic chelators happen? I ask because Phyl’s micturition frequency exploded after the early series of MRI scans with the Gadolinium contrast agents. It is still a big problem for her.
A surge in micturition frequency is the main reason for my being able to get her to the doctor.
Thank you very much.
I’m very sorry about the stroke. I hope Phyllis improves quickly.
Thanks. She improves slowly but steadily. [She still cooks wonderfully. It’s a lesson to me concerning the ‘particular’ nature of the damage strokes can cause.]
You take care too. {Phyl waves.}
NC surely has the best Commentariat!
ambrit: Good news, at last: Cooking is a higher-order skill, which means that the other symptoms will abate. It takes time for the body to rally and repair.
I’m wondering about the curative powers of a good dish of spaghetti.
All the best to you and Phyl.
Thank you over there in that Undisclosed Region.
One of Phyl’s Grandmothers was an Acadian Frenchwoman and an excellent cook. She is who Phyl learned cooking from. Phyl states that she started ‘helping’ her Grandmother in the kitchen when she was as young as six. She distinctly remembers helping Grandmother hang up freshly made spaghetti noodles to dry on a cloth line strung across the screened in porch. The dough used was made from scratch of course. To this day, Phyllis will use nothing out of a can in her cooking.
You be safe and thanks for the encouraging information.
Get your Novavax while you can.
Yeah, but where? The link to find it using a ZIP code no longer functions. And when I asked at my local pharmacy, all I got was a shrug and ‘Sorry, we don’t know.‘
Per the Beast article, it’s the MRNA vaccines, with their 16% adverse reaction rate, that are proposed for banning. Novavax does not use MRNA technology.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novavax_COVID-19_vaccine
Anyway, plenty of time to get your boosters on a few more times.
It is not mRNA tech, but still uses spike protein which seems to be toxic
https://biologyinsights.com/long-term-effects-of-spike-protein-on-the-body/
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/drugs-health-products/covid19-industry/drugs-vaccines-treatments/vaccines/novavax.html#a4
John, I got my Novavax shot at Costco last year. This year, the website says to check back in Sept/Oct for availability which I plan to do.
For a pole dance in a church, you would have to come to Europe. ;)
Some observations from Georgia. A lot of smaller churches around here have died out, and sold their buildings or leased them to other larger churches looking to expand their footprints. Coincidentally, as a regular attender of a local church, I have detected a shift in mentality from the leaders to run these non-profits more like businesses.
It’s not just the coffee shops and child care. The bigger churches all seem to have gone ‘metric’ crazy – number of baptisms, mission trips, and weekly attendance are tracked like a Fortune 500 company watching profit margins.
Seems to me that a wave of consolidation is happening, and much like the business world, it’s “go big or go home.”
TL;DR: THE CHURCH IS BEING RUN LIKE A BUSINESS, BUT JESUS DID NOT COME TO EARTH TO BE A BUSINESSMAN!
I thought that non-Orthodox Christianity was always being run like a business. :) Maybe you should try churches in the other Georgia, for comparison. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvRFTn91ZT8
You could look at the non-commercial aspects of the expanded services. One-stop combined activities are in a safer environment, catering to needs of attendees. Typical church operations include many volunteers and lower pay for staff, as budgets don’t have room for market expenses.
Our middle daughter, the one who just got her teaching degree, works as a daycare “surrogate mommy” for the tinys during church services on Wednesday and Sunday at the Evang church she occasionally goes to. She doesn’t get paid very much, but she likes small kids, so there is that. Now she will be thrown to the Fifth Grade wolf cubs. A new horizon of ‘service’ beckons.
We had a evang/militia/tax evader house of worship here called Church at Kaweah, they hightailed it for Idaho (Idaho’s gain is our gain too) and their chirch has been for sale for years, and comes with its own shooting gallery in the back. (I kid you not)
https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/church-kaweah-spreads-hateful-militant-christian-views/
Gee, and I thought I was crazy when I suspected Nelson Rockefeller of being ‘aligned’ with the “New World Order” way back in the late sixties, early seventies.
Oh, wait. The Powell Memo. The Club of Rome. The Davos Coven. The Bohemian Grove conclave. FEMA.
Time to take my Thorazine.
Stay safe.
Polka Service!
I’m more of a drum ‘n’ bass service type.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_JmXCNPs6Y
Hmmm… What church would I have to visit to experience the transcendent ecstasies of a Lapp Dance? Church of the Midnight Son?
Church of the Holy Ecstasy?
Hmmm… Where Immanence is Transubstantial? A G–s level version of “Look but don’t touch?”
(I do know for a fact, [ask me not how] that most mega churches have a corpus, almost a Freikorps, of bouncers.)
This year is so lit
DOGE Put Critical Social Security Data at Risk, Whistle-Blower Says (NY Times via archive.ph)
And Chuckles stood down on the one opportunity Democrats had to force any kind of concessions out of the Trump administration earlier this year. Well played, Democrats!
Looks like this keeps happening a lot
A Teen Was Suicidal. ChatGPT Was the Friend He Confided In.
This world is truly on an uncontrolled fight into terrain. Full stop.
Trump’s “Weapons of Mass Migration” Explains Targeting of DC, LA, Mexico, Venezuela – Ken Klippenstein
Whether or not anyone can be convinced of this or that, the more the global conflict heats up, the more the USA would have to worry about assymetrical or various unconventional tactics.
The creators of operation’s like Spider’s Web and Rising Lion also realize the can of worms they have opened.
And there was totally wild sh– happening with crossings into America. The states were at each others throats because it was so fast and sudden. That was real.
Now, many countries are tightening the checks on border crossings and doing deportations. Much of it because the global conflicts rising could be a sign that, as they say in streets, “it’s about to go down.”
Borders and sphincters tightening up.
Relocating a misplaced post:
Syria and Iraq, ISIS Creation Timeline: 1992 – 2015 – Vanessa Beeley
And this viewpoint from one former resident of Syria:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rekk8xqrgJw/
Syria’s Red Line: From Resistance to Capitulation to Israel | Syriana Analysis
Re: Novavax — https://www.webmd.com/drugs/updates/fda-approves-novavax-covid-vaccine-with-restricted-use
According to the above link, dated May 19, 2025, Novavax newest Covid-19 vaccine, Nuvaxovoid, should be available for over-65’s and certain others before the fall vaccine “season.”… but it is NOT. After being unable to find it information about its availability online, I called the company. They could tell me NOTHING. Here’s some info from the above link:
“The FDA has approved the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine, a protein-based alternative to mRNA shots, with some limits on who can get it.
The vaccine, called Nuvaxovid, is mainly intended for adults 65 or older. But people ages 12 to 64 with medical conditions that increase their risk of serious illness from COVID can also get the shot. It offers an alternative to the mRNA-based technology used in the most common COVID vaccines and has been used under emergency authorization since 2022. The new FDA decision grants its full approval for broader commercial use, but only for these specific eligible groups.”
On Twitter there are claims that Costco will have it:
https://www.costco.com/pharmacy/adult-immunization-program.html
Don Ford says it’s coming:
https://x.com/DonEford/status/1959409441067200996
Novavax. Sigh. Up until recently it was available by special request here in British Columbia. Last year the ministry went all-in for MRNA and “we’re sorry.” Oh, phooey and other family friendly comments. Since the pandemic started I’ve had I think at least one jab from every formulation they had for us. Of all of them, Novavax gave me the fewest problems afterward. As in “none.”
Now they say we only need one a year, “…just like a flu shot. In fact, it’s the same shot!” More phooey. I take them separately. On the upside, five years in and still (knock on head) not had it, but I always feel like there’s a statistical crosshairs on me. I take a lot of precautions: isolation, masking, vaccination, various useful preparations. Living with someone whose immune system appears to be purely decorative, I have to do what I can in hopes of protecting them.
It’s a losing battle, of course, but I can only keep swinging until it’s over.
Assuming Novavax 2025-26 becomes available at a few pharmacy locations in Sep/Oct, can the18-64 cohort “self-attest” to a “serious medical condition” to get the Novavax?
Or will we 18-64 need a gatekeeped PCP physician prescription for Novavax?
I assume Novavax for 18-64 cohort will not be covered by ACA insurance, I will pay out of pocket if need be.
I am frustrated with these media articles on this topic not addressing
1 the 18-64 cohort issue of self-attestation vs PCP prescription
2 only mentioning the mRNA vaccines, as if the protein subunit Novavax does not exist.
Not only that, but Venezuela has a militia force they can call up consisting of over 5 million people. The US has an active military force of only 1.3 million people.
You can play games with these numbers, but clearly the US would be at a huge disadvantage in trying to “subdue” Venezuela. The US would have to send troops and materiel by sea, presumably (recall the US Navy could not even defeat the Houthis in a recent conflict). The Venezuelans would be playing defense, and their military, weapons, and soldiers are already where they need to be.
Sounds like a fool’s errand.
well our government has no shortage of fools……
For anyone wondering what the Andalou story concerning a vote of confidence in the French Parliament is all about, here’s a quick guide.
The elections of 2024, called by Macron in a fit of pique, produced a hopelessly divided Parliament in which no bloc could claim a working majority. Since a government led either by the Rassemblement National or by the loose “Left” is impossible, since no-one will ally with them, the result has been a government led by figures of the Centre-Right, cobbled together from their own forces, Macron’s enfeebled alliance and various independents. But such a government has no majority, and has to survive through ad hoc deals. The first iteration, led by the respected Michel Barnier (yes the Brexit man) fell at the end of last year after it lost a vote of censure. The current government, led by François Bayrou, was heading for the same fate because of its budget proposals. However, Bayrou has taken the very unusual step of asking for a vote of confidence on the general policy of the government, which is only usually done at the start of its tenure, and not always then. The arithmetic works differently, because whereas a motion of censure requires a majority of all members of the Assembly, a motion of confidence can be defeated by a majority of those who actually vote. As things stand, it looks as though the motion will fail and the government will fall.
Why did Bayrou do this? The general feeling is that he realises the government is doomed, and wants an exit under controlled conditions. He doesn’t want to go down in history as Macron’s second Prime Minister to fall because he couldn’t get the budget through. He will leave that poisoned chalice for his successor.
What happens then? Well, defeat doesn’t mean elections, still less a threat to Macron. It just means some other poor sod will have to be found to do the job. In the meantime, Bayrou will stay on to manage “current business” until that happens. And of course a government that has lost a vote of confidence can’t then be censured. It all makes sense of a kind. There is a Day of Action against the government planned for 10 September, which might or might not produce anything. n his corner, Mélenchon is still dreaming of a popular uprising that will bring him to the Elysée.
So the guilloutines aren‘t coming out yet, are they?
In Germany it is about time, I would say, but the Germans would only ask where you can buy tickets for the revolution so one can‘t really count on them.
Mass migration is a national security issue? Correlation is not causation. I say again correlation is not causation. The term national security has been flung about with such abandon that whenever I hear it, I assume it is used to stifle dissent, protest. It does n ot do that. It does foster incredulity. Hey guys, this is serious. It’s a matter of national security. Ever hear of the boy who cried wolf. Have you big brains not figured out that the existence of a a National Security State demands the production of an endless string of enemies to justify said existence? Look how far down the slippery slope with police state at the bottom we have come. Does not masked, unidentified goons tricked out in tactical gear carrying guns grabbing people on the street send a message? Well yes, Sparky, it does.
All those people crossing the border to get construction jobs were sent by whom to do what? Is fentanyl a huge problem? Of course. So is heroin. So is cocaine. Maduro is behind it? Well, you dummies, of course he is. What else would you expect from the president of a country with the largest oil reserves on earth, which our president, Donnie, DJT, has quite openly said he wants to control. Why? Because passing out oil concessions to favored ones is like a monarch flipping rubies to groveling toadies. Excellent fun and pumps up the old ego. But I stray into whimsy and sarcasm. I have heard that reality is forbidden to cross the virtual borders of the DC Bubble and echo Chamber.
“Mass migration is a national security issue?’
During war. And it’s a sign of preparation for war.
When there is perpetual war being created, it makes it a national security issue. The world arming itself and different wars breaking out every time people turn around is not a figment of the imagination.
It may be a self-fulfilling prophecy or however you may want to call it.
No one may like how it’s all being created, but there will be manifestations.
Blowback is real.
EX: The creators of operations like Spider’s Web and Rising Lion also realize the can of worms they have opened.
“And it’s a sign of preparation for war.”
To make sure this is clarified: the increased concern happens with preparations for war.
“All those people crossing the border to get construction jobs were sent by whom to do what?”
What about all the pics of the ones living on the streets without a job? Or was that imaginary?
Not saying that means lock them in a hellhole for profit, but there weren’t exactly “plenty of jobs waiting.”
So Donnie has been preparing for war since forever? Actually he has been going on about immigration for ever or maybe it just feels that way. Mass migration is a sign of a lot of things and war could be one of them so could climate change. A few years of drought and too little to eat makes walking a few hundred miles to a place where you have a chance for something better doesn’t look so bad even if you have to deal with some blood sucking sleaze to get you across the border. But at the moment there is no mass migration into the US or so I read and that can mean that the chickens don’t get slaughtered and the fruit isn’t picked or so I read. Maybe there are sinister geopolitical forces that are pushing fentanyl into the US to make the nation easy prey for nefarious and sinister enemy, but personally I vote for guys/gals who are making a f–k ton of cash as the prime movers. Might they fight to keep the market lively? On the scale of the street pushers, do you remember the crack cocaine wars of the 1980s? Those guys were making money and their alternate employment was either McDonald’s or muscle for the guys supplying the street pushers. So they fought to keep their piece of the action. And Venezuela does have the largest oil reserves and until last week I had not heard that Maduro was a “drug kingpin.” And I see reports that he has signed up a militia that makes 4,000 marines look like not quite enough.
“So Donnie has been preparing for war since forever?”
During his first administration he was arming Ukrainians and targeting leaders in the Middle East.
Countries all over the world right now involved in conflict are scrutinizing and controlling borders.
I’m not paying attention to the jabber-jawing about drugs.
They’ve created enough chaos in the world to know that blowback is real.
The version of this I saw said they want to ban mRNA vaccines, i.e. that wouldn’t affect Novavax. Who knows.
“Stolen Children”
Before eating them, I believe Putin would harvest their organs. After consuming the flesh, Putin would have the bones and remaining parts ‘processed’ to produce nutrients to enrich Russian soils and improve the flavor, quality, and nutritiousness of Russian farm and garden produce.\s
Anything to solve the potato price crisis. /s
😂👍
How terribly grimm.
Fits Mr. Grimm and Grimms´ Tales…🤔
>>>What I found is a 40-year silent invasion that reshaped American factories while almost nobody was watching
On the use of robots in factories, while the increase in American factory workers will very modest, it will still increase and it would be good for the country to be an autarky again. The reshoring of production and especially the knowledge base required for this will be good.
So here’s a fairly current list of the biggest industrial robotic companies, and what you’ll notice is there are no American companies on this list:
Top 10: Industrial Robots https://manufacturingdigital.com/top10/top-10-industrial-robots
The big three I have worked with are Kuka, ABB, and Fanuc. What little of the American industrial robotics companies there were pretty much stopped at about the same time the large American CNC companies were going under in the 80’s (Cincinnati Milacron) so by the time I was even working on robotics projects, there were no American industrial robotics companies.
Whereas, some countries that have reality based industrial policy seem to be working hard to ensure their robotics companies grow:
America Is Missing The New Labor Economy – Robotics Part 1 China’s Dominance Playbook, General Purpose Robotics Is The Holy Grail, Robotic Systems Breakdown, Supply Chain Hardships, The West Is Positioned Backward And Covering Their Eyes, China’s Clear Path to Full Scale Automation, Call For Action https://semianalysis.com/2025/03/11/america-is-missing-the-new-labor-economy-robotics-part-1/#
If America was serious about getting back into robotics, it should form much closer ties with the countries that are currently in that top ten like Japan, or Sweden, or Germany. But instead, American tariff policy is actually doing what I thought was almost impossible – it’s worsening those ties, and in some cases it’s contributing to those countries de-industrializing.
So, I just don’t see any real effort to get America back into state-of-the-art heavy manufacturing. It’s almost as if American high tech elites think we’ll get AI that will miraculously invent a Star Trek “Transporter” type device that can be used to just beam stuff into existence. It is, I guess, our current Tulip mania.
Just saw this on the Guardian. The hypocrisy and BS are off the charts: The US/UK and Israel are perpetrating some historical atrocities as we speak, and this “journalist” drums up a hit-piece on Iran and leaves out truckloads of context, and loads it up with BS. Is Jason Burke an MI6 asset? I would bet yes, as I have no other explanation for this transparent nonsense.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/26/iran-has-a-long-history-clandestine-attacks-abroad-to-further-its-ends
In my opinion, the Alastair Crooke discussion of the current unleashing of our most dangerous and deep psychic impulses across the geo-political landscape (Israel, Iran, Europe, U.S. etc.) couldn’t be more profound and disturbing. (Crooke becomes one of my heroes, for bringing up this topic).
The awakening of these mythic impulses( like blood-lust) raises the issue of whether there exists any containment strategies on a personality or nation-state level.
This topic is far beyond the endless and from my perspective, increasingly shallow discussions of Left vs Right.
Do our respective cultures still have the capacity to mobilize internal restraints against these types of impulse?
File under Big Brother, AI, and private companies:
Home Depot sued for allegedly using facial recognition at self-checkout kiosks without consent
https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-news/home-depot-sued-for-allegedly-using-facial-recognition-at-self-checkout-kiosks-without-consent/
“Working tirelessly for a cease fire”
Democratic Party Scraps Resolutions on Israel and Gaza After Fraught Debate (NY Times via archive.ph)
(bold mine)
You’ve got to be kidding me; If Genocide isn’t a redline for your party, your party is worthless and you should all quit and go home. You have no place in civil society, or in charge of any levers of government, anywhere.
The only “unified path” must be full throated condemnation of Genocide and the cessation of all material support to the Israeli regime, at once.
and
(bold mine)
What’s left to debate? How to satisfy those that support human rights, without actually materially impacting the ongoing Genocide. (Or stopping the dollars flowing into Democrat coffers from supporters of Israel.)
The “fraught subject” probably had more to do with how best to please their donors than the demands of conscience.
The false flag anti-Semitic attacks in Australia which our gov are blaming on Iran were obvious Mossad ops in the world wide effort to get Israeli citizens some special status, this was shown in the one in NSW some time ago. The meeting between Patel and Tony Burke lately was probably to arrange the pantomime yesterday. ASIO is deeply compromised.
In conjunction with the US hastily removing it’s most exposed tripwire forces in Iraq and Russia removing most of their diplomats from Tel Aviv last week it looks like another attack on Iran is imminent.
Here in Oz there was an ambush of a police team serving a warrant and two police were killed and one wounded. The guy is still on the run and was described as a ‘sovereign citizen.’ Such incidents are a rarity here thankfully. But instead of that being the lead story, it was this made-up story probably set up by the Mossad which had the Oz diplomatic staff withdraw from Iran and the Iranian Ambassador to Oz kicked out. The basis of all this was the word of Oz spooks who, like all other spooks, are trained to lie their faces off. Your truly was pissed no end on what story was judged more important.
Scoop: Dialog, a secretive forum, plans D.C.-area campus (Axios via archive)
Dialog — a secretive, invite-only network founded two decades ago by Peter Thiel and Auren Hoffman, the star investors and entrepreneurs — is preparing a major expansion, including a real estate purchase to build a campus in the D.C. suburbs…
…Given declining trust in institutions and anti-establishment fervor,” this source added, “the group actively keeps its inner workings secretive and hidden from public scrutiny,” the source said — adding that the group’s “secretive nature allows participants to share controversial and concerning ideas that they would not be comfortable sharing elsewhere.”….
…A given session could have the likes of Reid Hoffman, Ted Cruz, Jared Polis, Lori Gottlieb, and Eric Schmidt discussing AI’s energy demands, the future of health care, and political realignments...
Hmm, I’m remembering Trump threatening to bulldoze the “ghettos” of DC. What a coincidence.
Indeed.
God knows what nazi insanity they talk about. Plans for the future I guess.
Apropos of nothing here a 90s flashback:
Another African American student, Julie Lythcott-Haims, confronted Thiel about his pro-apartheid stance, knocking on the door of suite 240 one night and asking him to clarify. Thiel looked at her blankly and, according to Lythcott-Haims’s account, told her that South Africa’s systematic denial of civil rights to Black people was economically sound. Any moral issues were irrelevant. (Chavkin’s The Contrarian)
Where in D.C. is AIPAC headquartered? That site definitely qualifies as a “ghetto.” Send the bulldozers there first.
re National Labor Relation Board and Fed Court decision
May be of interest here at NC folks who can comment and add to the possible future of the NLRB based on a US Circuit court decision. IMO looks like yet another path followed by rightists who label “pro-worker anything” as un-USAian.
The link below includes a comment that the NLRB would not be forced to close shop, only that its functions/staff would be at the political whim of whomever resides at 1600 Penn Ave.
The legal filing tech spec: Space Exploration Technology Corp. v. NLRB, No. 24-50627 (5th Cir. 2025) (“SpaceX”)
Read about it first at Prospect.org, but quick search led to this article in National Law Review:
https://natlawreview.com/article/federal-appellate-court-enjoins-nlrb-proceedings-concluding-nlrbs-structure-likely
“…Court concluded that because those protections shielded the Board Members and ALJs from Presidential oversight, the NLRB’s structure was likely unconstitutional. In other words, because the President cannot remove either Board Members or Admin Law Judges at will, they are too unaccountable to wield “executive power” under Article II of the Constitution…[The NLRB] may become more political. Board Members serve terms during which they are protected from removal, and ALJs are career employees. If the Fifth Circuit or Supreme Court finally concludes that the NLRB’s for-cause removal structure violates the Constitution, the agency will likely become more political and its priorities may shift from administration to administration.
Private Equity is buying up utility companies. Hold on to your wallet.
Jimmy Dore, utube. ~17 minutes.
Corporate Vultures Are SNAPPING UP Public Utilities & Electric Bills To SKYROCKET!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3Duffpz-HM
I remember the ENRON years and Grandma Millie.
Here’s a 2006 column about Enron by the late, great Molly Ivins.
Closing the Book on Enron.
https://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/30/ivins.enron/index.html
re: Stoltenberg’s effect on the election shocks Norway
The smaller the country the bigger the madness it seems
Sweden 10.5M
Denmark 6M
Norway 5.5M
Finland 5M
Lithuania 3M
Latvia 1.8M
Estonia 1.3M
The smaller they are, the cheaper the price to co-opt their government and leadership class. And, ultimately, to manipulate their media and education systems.
Decades of US “attention” leaves a deep mark on the small guys.
It’s a corruption bargain bin. Pay one, get one for free. If a country is too big, balkanize first.
The PayPal Presidency Part IV: Teaching Technocracy with John Klyczek (Unlimited Hangout Podcast with Whitney Webb)
Whitney and John Klyczek discuss how Big Tech, led by the PayPal Mafia, and neo-conservative think tanks are converging to influence Trump administration education policy and education financing.
00:02:33 – School Choice
00:10:12 – Libertarians, Neoconservatives and Trump’s Education Policy
00:18:13 – Wearables
00:20:16 – Rebuilding Trust
00:25:06 – Trump pledge to make the US the World Capital of Crypto and AI
00:32:37 – Digital ID
00:46:22 – Milei
00:57:55 – Trump crackdown on Woke Idealogy
01:02:46 – AI and Predictive Policing
01:04:39 – AI in Schools
01:25:57 – Closing
New episode :)
This is Reader´s Digest for East Coast Blue Bloods.
Spy Thrillers for the Beach
My week off has been enriched by these three great books
Jeff Stein
https://www.spytalk.co/p/spy-thrillers-for-the-beach?r=1i81oo
Good God…paywalled however
Looks like Woody Allen has got himself added to the Ukraine’s kill list for taking part in a Russian film festival-
https://xcancel.com/I_Katchanovski/status/1960046125517619586
There is an older video of him confirming that he loves Russia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpQEumX-NGc
The CNN article on nuclear explosions is paid only.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has a map and information on the 2000 nuclear explosions:
https://www.nucleartestimpacts.org/
Anyplace near where you live?