Links 8/27/2024

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1. The Rev Kev August 27, 2025 at 7:16 am

   “Prosecutors Fail 3 Times to Charge Woman With Felony Assault of F.B.I. Agent in D.C.”

   There are laws against double jeopardy as a legal principal. Nobody said anything about triple jeopardy.

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   1. Jackiebass August 27, 2025 at 8:08 am

      Only applies if a person is actually tried and found innocent.

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      1. The Rev Kev August 27, 2025 at 8:16 am

         Still, three goes at her over the same incident? That is how the State sends people broke that oppose their actions. Have them run up huge legal bills defending themselves over the same thing.

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         1. Fred1 August 27, 2025 at 8:52 pm

            The vast majority of those charged would qualify for court appointed counsel under the Criminal Justice Act. These attorneys are private attorneys who have intentionally qualified for and joined their local CJA panel. There are also Federal Public Defenders offices.

            Some defendants would want to hire their own attorney. If they can afford it, then they should go for it. It’s no one else’s business.

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            1. Fred1 August 27, 2025 at 9:27 pm

               More importantly, this could be the beginning of the end of the immigration round-ups.

               Every jurisdiction has statutes of some sort which punish assaults on law enforcement officers more severely than assaults on regular people. Usually this takes the form of mandatory minimums.

               But to convict usually there must be evidence of bodily harm and/or intent to inflict bodily harm, which can include spitting and flinging bodily fluids. Mere scuffling with a police officer is not enough.

               But customarily any citizen who scuffles gets charged with the felony. The prosecutor is usually more than willing to reduce the felony to misdemeanor assault, unless the defendant is an a**h*le.

               However, now the AG will take this discretion away, if she hasn’t already done so, from the US Attorneys. The choice given to the defendants will be to plead guilty to the felony with the promise of a lenient sentence or plead not guilty and go to trial and risk a much harsher sentence if found guilty. This will be choice even for defendants who did nothing but scuffle. But for this to work, grand juries must return felony indictments.

               It’s past my bedtime. I have a little bit more to say but it will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon.

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               1. Fred1 August 28, 2025 at 5:37 pm

                  To pick up where I left off. So even if the grand jury won’t return a felony indictment, the citizens will still have to be charged with something. The easiest path is for the US attorney to file an information charging some type of misdemeanor. A grand jury is not needed. See Rule 58 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the most important part for this discussion is the right to a jury trial.

                  The Federal criminal justice system is not set up to handle a large number of jury trials much less misdemeanor jury trials, particularly because there are not enough prosecutors or judges or courtrooms or probation officers. The system is intentionally designed to discourage jury trials. There is such a thing known as the jury trial penalty, where a defendant who pleads guilty almost always receives a sentence that is more lenient than a defendant who pleads not guilty and forces the prosecutor to prove it.

                  Of course there will be a handful of cases where a police officer suffers a serious beat down, but the vast majority of the cases will be nothing more than regular people either scuffling with the police or not listening/obeying them.

                  Remember how slow it was taking to work through the J6 cases. The immigration round-ups are going on all over the country and not just DC, and will continue to go on for a while longer. The trials will last well after the 2028 election, maybe even longer.

                  There will be some convictions. But the vast majority will be not guilty verdicts, judgments of acquittal, or dismissals with prejudice for violations of the Speedy Trial Act.

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   2. chuck roast August 27, 2025 at 11:46 am

      A Grand Jury in DC is a far different creature than a Grand Jury in Virginia. DC voters know a star chamber when they see one, and prosecutors are not inclined to bring sketchy political cases before the locals…that’s what Virginia is for…where the locals are viewed as much more supportive of the suits. Recall that it was in the Eastern District of Virginia where the indictment of Julian Assange was handed down, and where they were warming a cot for him in the can.

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   3. scott s. August 27, 2025 at 3:45 pm

      Did a year on our state (county) grand jury. There were actually 6 panels so each one only had to meet every-other week. Common practice was if the deputy prosecutor didn’t get a “true bill” from one panel they could try with another one.

      My panel was also designated to handle state cases from the AG (welfare/insurance/tax fraud) but the AAG presenting the cases was always well prepared and I don’t think we ever refused to accept the indictment.

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2. Expat2uruguay August 27, 2025 at 7:36 am

   Details on Burkina Faso’s recent purchase of advanced weaponry from China. https://youtu.be/8_9vjzdSj2M

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   1. Expat2uruguay August 27, 2025 at 8:02 am

      Includes delivery of VN22B PLL05 and SR5 and @10:56 this quote describing WHY buying from China: “…the reasons are clear. China offers what the West will not. It’s weapons are cost-effective. It’s delivery is prompt. It’s financing terms are flexible, accommodating cash strapped governments. But above all, trying to bring something that the West refuses engagement with no political strings attached… “

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      1. mrsyk August 27, 2025 at 9:53 am

         Parts, maintenance, training, upgrades, future purchases, all these things imply allegiance which would be a form of political attachment, no? Not disagreeing with your point on who offers a better deal.

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3. Bugs August 27, 2025 at 7:38 am

   Re Trump tarifs, I got an email this morning from La Poste, the French postal service, informing me that all shipments to the United States are suspended until further notice, except for documents and gifts worth less than $100, based on their interpretation of an executive order and the lack of guidance and coordination from the American postal authorities. I’ll forward it on to the site owners here.

   Insane stuff.

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   1. The Rev Kev August 27, 2025 at 7:54 am

      Australia Post is also halting parcel deliveries to the US-

      ‘Australia Post won’t send anything to the US for now, except for letters, documents and gifts worth less than $150. It’s the same deal for items going to Puerto Rico, which uses the same postal network as the United States.’

      https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-27/why-does-auspost-halts-parcel-postage-to-us-explainer/105699712

      The article mentions that the same is happening for Norway, Sweden, Denmark & Belgium and there are others.

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   2. Wukchumni August 27, 2025 at 8:23 am

      Then: Going Postal

      Now: Not Going Postal

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   3. DJG, Reality Czar August 27, 2025 at 8:33 am

      Bugs and Rev Kev: Same in Italy. It appears from the article that it is all packages, because the Poste Italiane don’t want to have to deal with packages returned for nonpayment or refusal to pay customs duties. So from Italy and the Italian post office, it is only letters and documents (flats) that will go through.

      https://www.economymagazine.it/dal-29-agosto-poste-italiane-dice-stop-ai-pacchi-per-gli-stati-uniti-ecco-cosa-cambia/

      The article mentions that DHL also has put a stop. UPS has a presence in Italy. I’m wondering what UPS plans to do / can do. In the past, to send gifts to the niblings, I used DHL, because they get the customs paperwork Germanically correct.

      PS: For some time, it has taken weeks, typically three, sometimes four, for a letter to go from the Chocolate City to addresses in the U S of A. I have come increasingly to suspect that the mess is in the States.

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      1. lyman alpha blob August 27, 2025 at 8:58 am

         USPS delivery is extremely spotty and has been for years now. Sometimes it does take weeks for a letter to arrive. Just had another customer yesterday tell me they mailed a check in late July and it hasn’t arrived yet – this situation is very common now. It’s all part of the deliberate attempt by the US Congress to hamstring the USPS so it can eventually be sold off for parts to the likes of Amazon, FedEx, etc.

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      2. BillC August 27, 2025 at 11:52 am

         I agree with your Italy-to-US transit times, but it could be worse. This April, I had a registered letter from Modena to Raleigh NC (a tax payment) get stuck in an Orlando-area USPS distribution center for about 6 weeks until I was in the US and able to personally escalate it to the postmaster in Hendersonville to get it un-stuck. USPS tracking clearly showed the piece’s “stuckness,” but apparently raised no alarms. A disturbing failure of registered mail accountability, and the tracking data clearly show the problem was on the USPS side. How easy it is to prove “government doesn’t work” if that’s what you set out to do!

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         1. Wukchumni August 27, 2025 at 2:36 pm

            I propose a latter-day Pony Express

            You take all those unsold Mustang Mach-E’s and repurpose them by using them in a series of E-Pony Express stations where they are fed oats in the form of electricity, and deliver the mail cheaper and quicker.

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   4. scott s. August 27, 2025 at 3:59 pm

      It’s a big deal in the bicycling world, as a lot of stuff from whole bicycles to various parts are only available in the UK/EU and retailers there have taken advantage of it by marketing to US consumers.

      Hit first in China where most bicycle frames are wheels originate.

      The US has approx four wholesale distributors that supply to bike shops, and they do a good job at keeping prices high. (Bicycle Retailer and Industry News aka BRAIN is a good source for info on this market.)

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4. AG August 27, 2025 at 7:41 am

   re: European Left 1970s

   JACOBIN

   The Defeat of European Socialism Was Far From Inevitable

   An interview with Matt Myers

   Contrary to popular belief, the 1970s was a period in which the European left was at its strongest. Unions were powerful, and socialists felt confident that the changing economy could benefit them. So why was the Left defeated a decade later?

   https://jacobin.com/2025/08/european-socialism-left-1970s-defeat
   
   Matt Myers teaches history at the University of Oxford.

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   1. JohnA August 27, 2025 at 8:38 am

      There have been numerous conterfactual history books written. Not sure if that includes the below, but definitely could be.
      In Britain, had James Callaghan called a general election in autumn 1978, he would most probably have won, if opinion polls and popular sentiment at the time were correct. Instead he delayed, and the right wing press went on an extremely exaggerated rampage about various strikes over the following months, – the so-called winter of discontent – portraying the country as in the grip of anarchy that would destroy everything. When the election came, this propaganda proved its worth and Thatcher was elected and neoliberalism there is no alternative, took hold.
      If Callaghan had won in 1978, however, the Conservatives would have ousted Thatcher, who was deeply unpopular at the time. Labour would have used the coming North Sea oil bonanza more like Norway has done and benefitted the entire population. Thatcher instead, used the North Sea oil to pay for extravagent tax cuts, crushing unions and massive unemployment as she laid waste to British industry. The oil money is gone, but a gutted country remains, everything that could be privatised for pennies on the pound and an impoverished nation with only more of the same ‘there is no alternative’ mantra from ‘new’ Labour aka old Tories awaits.
      So yes, if Callaghan had kept his nerve, the left would not have been defeated. At least not then.

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      1. Hastalavictoria August 27, 2025 at 11:29 am

         I was very active within the UK TU movement in the early 70s with the successful miners strike of 73 the highwatermark of the left.From then on we lost.Our economic models could not defeat the then new neo-lib model which successfully conquered most Western democratic countries – among the general public at least – and has held sway ever since.

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         1. JohnA August 27, 2025 at 11:55 am

            Had Callaghan called the election in 1978, he would certainly have been more right of centre than socialist, especially with Healey as finance minister who sought IMF loans in the mid 70s with all the strings attached, but Thatcherism would never have happened and the North Sea oil bonanza would have buoyed the economy and kept austerity at bay.
            All of course what ifs, and we will never know.

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         2. AG August 27, 2025 at 12:16 pm

            I assume one could fill several books with your stories…

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      2. AG August 27, 2025 at 12:11 pm

         Wasn´t James Callaghan aware of the threat/danger?
         After all this whole lot is in contact whether Labout or Tories, they see each other in clubs, lobbies, hotel rooms, golfing.

         I know this is off: But it reminds me a tiny bit of the story (mentioned here in spring) about how French right AND left undermined the 3rd Republic in its effort against Germany in 1940, preferring German domination of EU.

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         1. JohnA August 27, 2025 at 1:37 pm

            Certainly Callaghan and Healey were more determined to keep socialists the likes of Tony Benn and Michael Foot away from power rather than keeping the Tories out of power. Shades of new Labour Blairites and Starmer sabotaging Corbyn a generation or so later.

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            1. AG August 27, 2025 at 5:29 pm

               … or DNC vs. Bernie, or German SPD keeping Lafontaine and Wagenknecht and Gysi at bay from power. What has changed since Weimar Republic?! (“Wer hat uns verraten? Sozialdemokraten!” – “Who betrayed us? – Social Democrats!”)

               Is there recommended reading for this part of British history?

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   2. Roland August 27, 2025 at 6:51 pm

      I can venture to say what happened to the once-powerful Canadian labour movement.

      The high inflation of the 1970’s meant that workers and unions constantly had to fight contract battles with employers, simply in order to keep up.

      Because organized labour was quite strong in the 1970’s, workers did keep up, sometimes with a marginal gain. But ordinary life turned into a series of fights, and fighting means suffering and uncertainty. Workers suffered from all the disruptions–from their own labour disputes, and from all the other labour disputes going on around them.

      As things went on, battle fatigue took its toll. The working class is not a warrior class; workers don’t live for the sake of battle and glory. Workers would rather just do their jobs, and live their lives. The high inflation of the 1970’s became like trench warfare, a struggle of attrition.

      My parents were very much union people. My father had helped found a union, and was its president through its first contract, its first lockout, and its first couple of strikes. My mother attended big rallies, sometimes taking child Roland along with her.

      But after a decade of hard combat against the expanding money supply, they got burned out. By the early 1980’s, they had become receptive to some of the messaging from the likes of Thatcher and Reagan (or the watered-down Canadian version, Mulroney.)

      My father grew disgusted with the sort of people who gravitated to the union executive during this period of frequent disputes. “They enjoy all this crap, so they cause more of it.” He hated the atmosphere of hostility and distrust that settled over the workplace. Management and union alike became more concerned with the latest fortunes of the conflict, than with the overall progress of the enterprise. Wars get to be like that.

      There was a strong, popular, working-class Left in Canada, but the energy that could have scaled mountains was squandered on the treadmill of inflation.

      Anybody who wants to understand what happened in the ’70’s must consider the demoralizing effects of high inflation. It doesn’t matter if you manage to come out of it up a point or two. Workers don’t live for the sake of fighting all the time. Those who would despise the working class because of this, might be happier on the right wing, rather than on the left.

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5. AG August 27, 2025 at 8:10 am

   re: Germany vs. protest
   
   In Cologne last week an anti-Rheinmetall protest/camp was prohibited.

   It may appear to be only local politics but that´s of course the trick. As protesters are usualy local networks the ripple effect is intended. And “no” local organizing undermines national networks.

   The police/court justification is hair-raising.

   German-language (use google)

   Dangerous camping ban
   The ban on the Rheinmetall Disarmament Camp is an attack on fundamental rights.
   Aug. 19th
   https://www.imi-online.de/2025/08/19/gefaehrliches-campverbot/

   “(…)
   “a series of absurd constructions and accusations” were used as justification to accuse the camp participants of “unpeaceful behavior,” which is why the camp is now temporarily banned.”

   To this end, the Cologne police are using the slogan “War on War,” which, as the organizers criticize, “has been used by the anti-militarist movement for over a hundred years, originated in the First World War, and was popularized by Kurt Tucholsky’s poem of the same name,” to construct a seeming announcement that they intend to counter rearmament with “warlike means.”
   Are the police trying to claim that the anti-militarists want to arm themselves and attack the local arms industry, instead of drawing attention to its murderous business through demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience, as they have done in recent years?
   (…)”

   Same is the case with Palestine solidarity.

   “(…)
   Other peaceful anti-militarist groups are also currently facing restrictions on their work. For example, a screening of Shut Elbit Down in Darmstadt was banned at almost the same time as the camp ban. The film in question is the film To Kill a War Machine, which documents the direct actions of the group Palestine Action, known for defacement and sabotage at the facilities of the Israeli arms company Elbit Systems and its service providers.(…)”

   Press release of the city of Darmstadt ordering to not show the film:

   Mayor Benz has asked the operator of the Theater im Pädagog to cancel the screening of the controversial film “To Kill a War Machine” planned for August 17.
   https://www.darmstadt.de/presseportal/pressemitteilungen/einzelansicht/geplante-filmvorfuehrung-to-kill-a-war-machine-im-theater-im-paedagog

   And this is a cultured country?!
   Fuck me.

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   1. Ignacio August 27, 2025 at 12:47 pm

      The so-called leadership in Germany is so bound to please the Empire (and also see if they can take some NG from Mediterranean shores) that they will do their best to silence all protests. If they believe they need to cancel culture, and carelessly witness, or even help silently, a genocide, so be it. Their goals may crash with after WWII realisations that war is no good but they don’t care. The idiots learnt nothing and forgot nothing. What the hell is culture? Nothing worth to defend they “think”.

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      1. AG August 27, 2025 at 12:55 pm

         “The idiots learnt nothing and forgot nothing”

         Phrase of the month!
         Hand out 700 leaflets in Bundestag with that.
         But I guess we would get arrested…

         p.s.: 20 years ago there used to be a soccerfield in front of the Bundestag building on the lawn where leasure time teams were playing regularly.

         MPs eventually managed to ban the soccer-playing because they deemed it inappropriate there That was the moment when all the rhetoric about the “Berlin Republic” and democracy revealed itself as fakery.

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6. Wukchumni August 27, 2025 at 8:12 am

   Goooooood Moooooorning Fiatnam!

   To claim credit for intervening in a logo dispute over Cracker Barrel, the Waffle House on 1600 Pennsylvania Ave called upon it’s topical expert Lindsey, who wisely advised the beleaguered eatery to change it to merely Cracker, problem solved.

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   1. The Rev Kev August 27, 2025 at 10:00 am

      Will Trump be able to claim a Nobel prize over this?

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      1. ambrit August 27, 2025 at 12:17 pm

         I dunno, but it looks like Mz. Lindsey has Trump over a Barrel.
         The problem with the suggested new name, Cracker, is that it is too much of a regional term. Not like the “n” word, (n—-r,) or the “D” word, (D——t.)

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         1. Wukchumni August 27, 2025 at 3:01 pm

            The problem with using merely Barrel, is many of my fellow citizens are over one, and can relate all too well.

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         2. rasta August 27, 2025 at 4:22 pm

            Could you put more letters in the “D” word, for us that are not English native?

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            1. Ben Panga August 27, 2025 at 6:59 pm

               ‘Democrat’ I believe

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         3. Henry Moon Pie August 28, 2025 at 1:17 am

            “The problem with the suggested new name, Cracker, is that it is too much of a regional term.”

            We heard it yelled a few nights ago up here in Cleveland when one neighbor yelled at another to turn down the music at 3 AM. “Shut up, cracker!,” was the response. It kind of concerned me at the time because the “cracker” in question is a well-armed ex-Marine with PTSD and a tendency toward delusions, but things did not escalate.

            Best thoughts for Phyl, ambrit.

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   2. Jokerstein August 27, 2025 at 7:29 pm

      FWIW, the company was founded as recently as1969. It’s NOT a good ol’ boy traditional Southern tradition.

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7. AG August 27, 2025 at 8:18 am

   re: Venezuela US Chevron
   
   US non-profits ‘in the tank’ for Exxon, Chevron over Venezuela oil

   As US sends warships to the region it’s important to note that lobbyists and think tanks that get big bucks have been fanning the flames right here in DC

   by Joseph BouchardNick Cleveland-Stout
   Aug 25, 2025
   https://responsiblestatecraft.org/venezuela-oil-us/

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   1. Carolinian August 27, 2025 at 9:40 am

      That’s an interesting article. Gunboat diplomacy is back.

      Rubio is a menace, along with his boss.

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      1. ilsm August 27, 2025 at 10:57 am

         Rubio said Maduro is illegitimate…..

         While Zelenski maintains power with wretched interpretation of Kiev constitution and Nazi backing…..

         Recognizing HTS aka ISIS in plain wrap….

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      2. eg August 28, 2025 at 5:18 am

         Gunboat diplomacy never went away.

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8. The Rev Kev August 27, 2025 at 8:19 am

   “Not only the EU and the USA continue to buy oil from India, but also Ukraine”

   It’s actually more complicated than that. Right now, the top buyers for Russian oil are – drum roll – Saudi Arabia and India. I have heard no threats against Saudi Arabia by Trump for doing this but there is plenty against India. Foolishly they reduced the amount of oil they buy from Russia, probably under the assumption that Trump may back off against them. Yeah, I wouldn’t bet your economy over it-

   https://thecradle.co/articles/india-to-reduce-acquisition-of-russian-oil-as-modest-concession-to-trump-report

   You already have Trump’s trade advisor Peter Navarro calling India a “laundry” for the Kremlin and also saying ‘India doesn’t appear to want to recognize its role in the bloodshed. It simply doesn’t. It’s cozying up to [Chinese President] Xi Jinping.’ Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar got jack of the whole thing and said ‘If you have a problem buying oil or refined products from India, don’t buy it. Nobody forces you to buy it. Europe buys, America buys, so you don’t like it, don’t buy it.’ He’s got a point and even Oz buys “Indian” oil.

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9. hazelbee August 27, 2025 at 8:24 am

   mmmm. an article on beer.

   but then…. on reading it is terrible. the authors of the ars technica article don’t know about beer fermentation. some howling mistakes in there.

   They talk about single, double and triple fermentation. which is a nonsense.

   the beers in question in the linked research are Belgian ales – things like Westmalle Triple, Westmalle Dubbel, Triple Karmaliet. All great beers, but all single fermentation then possibly bottle fermented for release ( I dont’ remember which are bottle and which are carbonated pre bottling).

   so they confuse the naming around strength with the number of fermentations.

   Any publican or homebrewer would do a better write up.

   Secrets to good foam / head retention? Properly clean glasses, no residual cleaning agents that kill head retention, and decent beer to start with a variety of longer chain residual sugars and proteins. Its why they see the good foam in the stronger beers.

   and the original paper has missed out some of the strongest foam producing beers out there… Where is the wheat beer in the mix! a Hefeweizen will give you a large thick head by design that lasts to the end of the glass.

   this is me speaking as someone that has spent 5-7 years trying to get the perfect home brewed beers – pales, stouts, belgian, farmhouse tried them all. a hefeweizen is the easiest to get authentic . the secret is in the yeast for that style

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   1. The Rev Kev August 27, 2025 at 8:45 am

      When civilization collapses, it will be people like you that will never be harmed but be protected by the new age war lords. Nobody wants to be the person that harms the person that knows how to brew a good beer. :)

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      1. hazelbee August 27, 2025 at 3:53 pm

         Thanks. :D

         I did take it too far though. always do.

         I grow my own hops.

         Even did a yeast capture experiment – from rosehips, damsons, flowers, you name it near me. stepped them up, a few refinements to get the ones that actually brew palatable beer…

         then did a comparison . same wort, split five ways using yeast wrangled myself. because sometimes you have to. and hobbies need no explanation. and taking things too far occasionally is good.

         although from the new age war lord point of view maybe I would be persona non grata. No profit if you can just get the yeast from the earth, wild hops and grow the grains yourself is there? where is the rental model in that?

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         1. Henry Moon Pie August 28, 2025 at 1:11 am

            I grow hops as well, but for shading on the west side of the house. By Memorial Day, they’ve covered the first floor windows. Two weeks later, they’ve shaded the upstairs windows.

            I don’t do beer, but I did plant wine grapes and made wine for a while. Now the spotted lanternflies have arrived and are sucking the juice out of the grapes, the hops and a maple tree. Quite the plague. Wherever you look, there are lanternflies. Wherever you walk, they’re jumping in front of you or landing on your head as you walk under the grape vines on an arbor.

            Globalization is such a bad idea.

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   2. nap August 27, 2025 at 12:56 pm

      A supermarket chain in the UK plans to start selling Palestinian beer.

      The Coop also recently decided to boycott Israeli goods. It already blacklists numerous other countries on human rights grounds.

      https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/08/co-op-launches-palestinian-beer-amid-israel-boycott/

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   3. skippy August 27, 2025 at 3:28 pm

      Hefeweizen Naturtrub[!!!!] … Kombaucha of beers …

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      1. hazelbee August 27, 2025 at 4:01 pm

         It is one of my favourite beer styles.

         Summer and a cracking wonderful tall cold glass of hefeweizen.

         A wheat heavy grain bill has more protein – leads to a different mouthfeel and better head retention.

         it was one of the first beer styles I did that I thought “that is as good as or better than pub beer”. The other style was porter. Both are good early styles to try vs , say, lager or a new england IPA where you must control temperature or oxygenation respectively.

         A hefe is very forgiving – high temperature fermentation so less in the way of temperature control needed. I had to heat mine. Quick ferment. Two weeks maximum from mashed grains to drinking. and drink young – two weeks after bottling and its aged too much really.

         in a similar vein is Berliner Weisse – so refreshing. Like sour sweets.

         Now I am thirsty. :D

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10. Mikel August 27, 2025 at 8:25 am

    Trump Pentagon weighing equity stakes in defense contractors like Lockheed, says Lutnick – CNBC

    Hmmm…still a good distance away from supplying a military like it could be with an economy like this:

    https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/story/Article/2128446/during-wwii-industries-transitioned-from-peacetime-to-wartime-production/

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    1. The Rev Kev August 27, 2025 at 8:37 am

       So if the US government wants to boost revenue down the track, they could do so by goosing a brand new war and reap the winnings from the equity stakes in those defense contractors as their value increased. I could see Trump thinking this way.

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       1. Mikel August 27, 2025 at 9:04 am

          Palantir, lookout?

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          1. Ben Panga August 27, 2025 at 7:04 pm

             I believe Anduril is the preferred slush fund, and happily still privately held by the Palantir/a24z guys.

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       2. Mikel August 27, 2025 at 9:48 am

          Mr. Magnets is not sitting around coming up with plans.

          It would be interesting to know who sold this idea to him to promote.

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          1. The Rev Kev August 27, 2025 at 10:11 am

             When you want to sound smart, then saying “Magnets!” is the ideal solution-

             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE2cdmJP1bc (49 secs)

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          2. mrsyk August 27, 2025 at 10:12 am

             I agree.

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             1. jsn August 27, 2025 at 1:41 pm

                Lutnick.

                They guy is an insider thug moron of the worst order, has always operated much as Trump does.

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11. Mikel August 27, 2025 at 8:31 am

    Mark Zuckerberg gifted noise-canceling headphones to his Palo Alto neighbors because of the nonstop construction around his 11 homes – Yahoo

    Cult compound?

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    1. Bugs August 27, 2025 at 8:52 am

       There was an NYT article a few weeks back on what he’s doing to that neighborhood and it indeed resembles a cult operation. They’ve got their own “school” for the spawn in their elite circle and have a constant state of movement to and from the compound. Private security questions people who are on what are ostensibly public sidewalks, minding their own business, but are apparently too close for broligarch comfort.

       https://archive.ph/2025.08.25-200321/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/10/us/mark-zuckerberg-palo-alto.html

       Reply ↓
    2. Michael Fiorillo August 27, 2025 at 10:55 am

       Cult, indeed: the recent Times article on the subject described a life-size statue of his wife on the property.

       As for The Zuck itself, give credit to the nimbleness of the programmers and engineers at Meta: while still needing tweaks, its resemblance to an actual flesh and blood human is improving all the time.

       Reply ↓
       1. JMH August 27, 2025 at 4:40 pm

          I still think they are the mole people in disguise.

          Reply ↓
          1. thrombus August 27, 2025 at 5:47 pm

             They are the mole-st people, no disguise.

             Reply ↓
12. flora August 27, 2025 at 8:32 am

    re: Cracker Barrel rebrand. From John Leake on substack:

    Jaguar’s Rebrand Still Worst Ever By 10X
    With Cracker Barrel making the latest foray into corporate self harm, a look back at Jaguar’s apotheosis of brand suicide.

    https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/jaguars-rebrand-still-worst-ever

    The first comment is pretty interesting about the source of advertising guidance.

    Reply ↓
    1. flora August 27, 2025 at 9:34 am

       Another guy has a long utube speculating that these serial advertising disasters were planned DEI focuses ads (unbeknownst to the useful idiots in the CEO job) to tank the stock prices temporarily to open a profit opportunity — by shorting or clever put options placed just before the ad campaigns aired. A new form of stock market manipulation: wrecking company stock value (temporarily at least) for profit. Creating PR disasters for profit. Makes sense. Don’t know if it’s correct, but it makes sense.

       Reply ↓
       1. Louis Fyne August 27, 2025 at 10:19 am

          I’m (almost) always in the camp of: Idiocy is the first place to look versus 4-D chess.

          And having suffered through countless dumb, generic, Overton-Window-safe happy hour conversations with very credentialed people, I wholly believe that the CEO of Cracker Barrel loved the smell of her own, and her team’s, arrogance so much that she thought that “Year Zero”-ing Cracker Barrel, and dragging those old-fogie plebs into the 21th century, was an excellent idea.

          Reply ↓
          1. Norton August 27, 2025 at 12:29 pm

             Deep-dish State?

             Reply ↓
    2. JohnA August 27, 2025 at 10:29 am

       And here was me thinking Cracker Barrel was a small block of packaged cheddar cheese that was once heavily advertised in Britain but somehow seemed to have disappeared from supermarket shelves many years ago.

       Reply ↓
       1. Mikel August 27, 2025 at 12:26 pm

          Every time I hear “Cracker Barrel”, I think of this iconic movie:
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su3qmvCkvtE/
          “Good night, you stupid people!” clip from A FACE IN THE CROWD

          From a synopsis of the film:
          “As a “Cracker Barrel” broadcast ends, Rhodes is shown, with sound off and an announcer doing a voiceover, smiling and waving to the camera as he speaks contemptuously of his audience.”

          Reply ↓
          1. .Tom August 27, 2025 at 4:36 pm

             Great movie.

             Reply ↓
    3. Bugs August 27, 2025 at 2:42 pm

       The marketing arm of Accenture, the multinational outsourcing firm, “Song” (who came up with that name?) did the Jaguar rebrand. The MD running that op left the firm after the dust up. Looking forward to Jaguar abandonning that nonsense and making a sports coupe. But I wouldn’t count on it. The Western Elite have no shame, no memory and no reverse gear. Perhaps they’ll take those off the Jaguar trans-mission as well.

       Reply ↓
       1. moog August 28, 2025 at 7:07 am

          who came up with that name?

          Probably the same people that did the Jaguar rebrand. :)

          Looking forward to Jaguar abandonning that nonsense and making a sports coupe.

          You mean puting their brand on a sports coupe made by someone else.

          Reply ↓
13. Henry Moon Pie August 27, 2025 at 8:41 am

    African farmers and pastoralists–

    I found it interesting that it’s a matter of timing. In periods of adequate rainfall, the herders don’t arrive at the farmlands until after harvest. When it happens that way, the farmers are happy to let the herds into their fields to graze the remainder and leave behind their fertilizer just like Gabe Brown would recommend. In times of drought, the herdsmen get desperate for food for their animals and arrive just before harvest–hence, conflict.

    While climate change may be making the problem more frequent and intense, conflict between the farmer and the herdsman is anything but new. Remember Cain and Abel?

    Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground.

    Genesis 4:1 (NRSV)

    When the first two brothers brought offerings from their labors to the LORD, YHWH had a clear preference:

    In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.

    Genesis 4:4-5 (NRSV)

    I had never run into a convincing exegesis of this story. The best offered was an appeal to YHWH’s foreknowledge that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob knew Cain was destined to be a bad boy, and that’s why he rejected Cain’s offering. It wasn’t until I read Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael 30 years late that I came across a better interpretation.

    Quinn says this myth is about conflict between pastoralists and farmers told from the pastoralists’ perspective. I found Quinn’s take quite persuasive since historically, YHWH was the god of the sheepherders who ranged outside the cities of the Levant, places like Ugarit that practiced a polytheism closely related to their farmers’ concerns about weather and rainfall. Quinn goes on to describe this as a conflict between the Taker farmers, who treated land as a possession, and the Leaver pastoralists whose flocks ate and then left the land so that it could recover. Quinn says that the story stands for the proposition that Leavers are to be preferred morally.

    Personally, I believe the farmer and the cowman should be friends.

    Reply ↓
    1. amfortas August 27, 2025 at 10:59 am

       and ideally, the farmer is also a rancher.
       because it goes together.
       if i can borrow that dumping trailer(my back says please, please, please.)…my holy roller, bring yer horse to church as we rope for jesus neighbor has a great big pile of cow and horse manure.he’ll come get eggs…or his wife will come get veggies or fruit.
       it works out.
       and, as for cain and abel…yep…Joseph Campbell related the same general hypothesis in Primitive Mythology(part 1 of Masks of God)

       Reply ↓
       1. Henry Moon Pie August 27, 2025 at 7:01 pm

          Gabe Brown would second that. That’s the way my grandparents farmed. The cow lot was next to the garden and orchard. Cleaning the shed accomplished two things at once.

          Those relationships you’re building might come in handy some day.

          Maybe that’s where Quinn got the idea. It might have been some old material that came down orally to Ezra and the boys, a legend from the very distant past whose underlying meaning may not have been completely clear to the editors who included it. Quinn using it as a tale about the ravages wrought by the Takers, primarily western Europeans and their descendants, against the Leaver aboriginal peoples struck me as insightful and powerful.

          Reply ↓
       2. Giovanni Barca August 27, 2025 at 10:09 pm

          And Occidental Mythology if memory serves, where he digs up (or makes up) a Sumerian precursor where the Goddess prefers the farmer to the shepherd.

          Reply ↓
    2. vao August 27, 2025 at 2:35 pm

       Tangentially related to the issue of farmers vs. herders, and “pastoralists whose flocks ate and then left the land so that it could recover”, I just read the following, utterly dispiriting bit of news at the London Review of Books: The World’s Largest Deforestation Project.

       We are truly doomed. Seriously, how can one keep hoping that the right thing will ever be done somewhere in this world?

       Reply ↓
       1. Henry Moon Pie August 27, 2025 at 7:16 pm

          Ironic that they would cut down forests to make biofuel from sugar grown at a plantation. When single-mindedly pursuing a stupid goal, we can be amazingly blind.

          That’s why some people have taken to calling “it” The Machine or The Superorganism or Moloch. The momentum seems superhuman. I’d say it’s the power of culture/worldview.

          It may not be someone doing the right thing, but I do take solace when the fools are exposed. I found this Youtube interview was the best explanation I’ve heard of how LLMs are trained and the recent explosion in demand for data centers. Reassuring was his verdict that LLMs had hit a wall, and it would be necessary to pursue AGI by other paths. Alert: the guy is a full PMC with a Ph.D from MIT with a just-published article in The New Yorker.

          Reply ↓
14. Neutrino August 27, 2025 at 8:44 am

    After the Telegraph article about English revolution, I came across another item about mass migration in the Claremont Review of Books.

    What are English and other readers about current events and trends in the UK?

    Reply ↓
    1. principle August 27, 2025 at 4:43 pm

       What are English and other readers about current events and trends in the UK?

       It’s coming home. Not football, but empire. It couldn’t have happened to more deserving chaps.

       Reply ↓
    2. Ben Panga August 27, 2025 at 7:07 pm

       Post-colonial identity crisis meets uncompetitive miserable dystopia hole. Am not considering being able to live there again.

       Reply ↓
15. Wukchumni August 27, 2025 at 8:56 am

    ‘I don’t have neighbors anymore’: How short-term rentals upended a Calif. gateway town

    When George Tomi came to Three Rivers in the early 1970s, the biggest local conflict he noticed were scraps between hardened cattle ranchers and a tie-dye-adorned wave of newly arrived hippies. Tomi himself came to town on that wave, hoping to live somewhere slow paced and surrounded by nature.

    There aren’t many hippies left, Tomi said. In fact, there aren’t many people left in general.

    “I was riding my bike the other day, and I said to someone, ‘Hi, neighbor,’” Tomi told me from behind his desk at the town’s museum, where he volunteers. “She said, ‘I don’t have neighbors anymore. The next five houses down are all Airbnbs.’”

    If you look up Three Rivers on Airbnb, hundreds of listings, ranging from backyard canvas tents to 11-bedroom riverfront mansions, appear. The town sits a few miles down Highway 198 from the entrance to Sequoia National Park, and for years has been a weekend hotspot for tourists hoping to stay as close to the park as possible while still having access to restaurants, stores and air conditioning. While the town’s proximity to the park may be what draws visitors, its own striking beauty — namely the roiling, boulder-strewn Kaweah, surrounded by hills that turn green and flowering in springtime — makes Three Rivers a destination of its own.

    Three Rivers had about 250 school-aged children in town when she first moved there, Brunson said. Now, she estimates that there’s about 70. Kids go to school in Three Rivers until eighth grade, then are bussed half an hour to the Central Valley town of Woodlake to attend high school.

    “It changes the nature of a class tremendously, because the smaller the group of kids, the less diverse of an experience they have,” Brunson said, adding that the school system canceled its yearly field trip to San Francisco for the first time this year because not enough students signed up for it.

    https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/three-rivers-california-airbnbs-21016420.php

    Reply ↓
    1. Carolinian August 27, 2025 at 9:37 am

       Clearly you need to join other NP gateway towns and put in an IMAX theater. As for AirBNB there were claims in NYC they were renting out the backs of parked vans and in SF even a crawl space. Ain’t capitalism great?

       Reply ↓
       1. Wukchumni August 27, 2025 at 9:46 am

          That’s the thing that has set us apart from overdone NP gateway towns, no fast food, no IMAX, no corporate anything really aside from gas stations-and it’s difficult to find independent ones, ha.

          Reply ↓
       2. Henry Moon Pie August 27, 2025 at 10:37 am

          We’re still incredulous that there’s an Airbnb across the street from us here on the East Side of Cleveland. An old shotgun house that sold for $10,000 has been sliced into three units that rent for $250/night/unit, and unknowing out-of-towners are actually renting it. We remember it from a few years ago as the place where the EMTs went once a month on average to rescue a woman prone to overdoses. “It looked so nice in the pictures.”

          Reply ↓
    2. ilsm August 27, 2025 at 11:03 am

       “Camps” in vacation area used to be family owned and the wife and kids stay all summer.

       Many have been sold to investors are Airbnb and the local stores/restaurants no longer have summer help.

       Local pay more for help and tighten their belts

       Reply ↓
    3. Trees&Trunks August 27, 2025 at 12:16 pm

       How do you formulate a law that effectively bans AirBnb and similar services?

       Reply ↓
       1. Swamp Yankee August 28, 2025 at 12:50 am

          Good question Trees & Trunks. This is likely to vary widely by jurisdiction. In my New England state, local, municipal zoning powers are pretty extensive. Each town/city has its own zoning by-law or ordinance, and a Zoning Board of Appeals that is a municipal adjudicatory body. In my town, short term rentals are already illegal — if one wants to start a bed and breakfast or a hotel, there is an actual legal process to doing so. This has not stopped numerous people from running illegal AirBnbs in this pretty touristy area, outside the by-law.

          Indeed, one of them, who was particularly egregious, tried to basically retroactively legalize his extensive lawbreaking by making the running of an AirBnB a “by right” activity in every residentially-zoned area in the town, thereby rendering them commercial areas de facto and even de jure. Economists Barron et al. estimate significant upward pressure on rents/housing prices from short term rentals. The advocates of the Ayn Rand/Millei AirBnB bylaw got trounced at Town Meeting — we beat them by a huge margin, 50 in favor of their article (bill), 840 opposed (Town Meetings are directly democratic in New England, the legislative branch of the New England Town).

          Not a lawyer, though I am in law school. Some key features of a local anti-short term rental by-law might be:

          a) Just outright banning them in your municipality. Whether this is possible likely depends on state/provincial law.

          b) Placing restrictions on them like: (i) AirBnBs may only operate with a proper permit from the relevant municipal authorities; (ii) the owner must reside full time in the dwelling; (iii) stays of shorter than 30 days are prohibited outside of properly permitted hotels; (iv) no individual with violations of any municipal bylaw may operate a short-term rental (this is useful because frequently these rentiers are scofflaws and this provides the municipality with lots of leverage — you violated the Conservation Commission’s order, here; you violated the noise ordinance, on such and such a date, etc.; therefore, no permit for a short-term rental).

          c) You can allow them and tax the living daylights out of them, again, consistent with state/provincial law.

          Some thoughts from this neck of the woods.

          Reply ↓
16. Carla August 27, 2025 at 9:00 am

    WSJ: There Is Now Clearer Evidence AI Is Wrecking Young Americans’ Job Prospects

    https://archive.ph/RWNBe

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev August 27, 2025 at 9:06 am

       Thus driving down wages. Everything’s going to plan.

       Reply ↓
       1. vao August 27, 2025 at 12:59 pm

          The conclusions of the original article portend potentially disastrous consequences in the medium to long term:

          • First, we find substantial declines in employment for early-career workers in occupations most exposed to AI, such as software development and customer support.
          • Second, we show that economy-wide employment continues to grow, but employment growth for young workers has been stagnant.
          • Third, entry-level employment has declined in applications of AI that automate work, with muted effects for those that augment it.
          

          Without entry-level jobs where people can learn the ropes, the ranks of experienced mid-career people (those who do most of the work), and those of the highly qualified specialists will whittle away, which will in due time jeopardize the activities of the sectors that successfully managed to rely heavily on AI.

          Something like that happened in countries that started early resorting to Indian firms for software development. It is one thing to offshore simple programming tasks, testing chores, and tedious maintenance work while keeping project managers, software architects, and specialist engineers in house. But all that highly qualified, “value adding talent” began precisely by performing those tasks in entry-level positions.

          The counter-point is that AI will eventually take over those other highly qualified responsibilities. But while those early outsourcers ended up having to rely on — no longer inexpensive — Indian project managers and software designers, I am a bit more sceptical about the capabilities of AI for complex tasks involving elicitations of requirements and negotiations with customers…

          Reply ↓
          1. marku52 August 27, 2025 at 3:40 pm

             No more short sighted than shipping all your industries overseas

             Reply ↓
    2. Acacia August 27, 2025 at 6:56 pm

       From the article:

       While much of the focus on generative AI and the labor market has been on what jobs the technology might replace, AI could also help some workers do their jobs better. AI might help medical professionals make accurate diagnoses more quickly, for example.

       Lol. No comment.

       Young workers in occupations where researchers have found AI could act as a helper, rather than a replacement, actually saw employment growth that exceeded overall employment, the economists found. That wasn’t enough to offset the weakness in occupations where AI automates tasks workers do, but it does raise the hope that AI could be harnessed to augment workers’ skills, ultimately helping them do their jobs better and making them better off as a result.

       Do the researchers know these jobs aren’t about training AI, which is a short-term “investment” in labor with the longer-range goal to stop hiring humans?

       —-

       Also, since we’re on the subject of AI, jobs, and young USians entering the market, allow me to point to a recent NYT Op Ed that I believe hasn’t appeared at NC:

       Students Hate Them. Universities Need Them. The Only Real Solution to the A.I. Cheating Crisis
       https://archive.is/A9iUQ (de-paywalled)

       My take: NYU encouraged “engaged uses of A.I.” in writing courses and then they were surprised that students were lazy and just cut-and-paste the A.I. output. They tried asking students to use A.I. and then critique what it wrote — the students didn’t, perhaps because they couldn’t. Upshot: NYU’s “A.I. strategy” failed.

       Shocker. Who coulddanode? Are these people for real?

       The philosophy professor cited in the Op Ed says he knows his students are using A.I. tools to cheat, but there is no mention of disciplining those students — the words “plagiarism” and “punishment” are not mentioned even once in the whole Op Ed.

       The discussion of a return to blue books and oral examination makes a fair bit of sense.

       Until: “this shift to extemporaneous and oral performance means losing the ability to give students moderately complex goals that they have to wrestle with on their own.”

       Oh.

       So… what are the new goals of higher education, if colleges and universities are no longer able ask students to handle “moderately complex goals” on their own?

       And, by extension, if schools can’t ask students to handle “moderately complex goals” and if higher ed is giving up on learning to write and returning to some neo-medieval vision of recitation and oral culture (good luck in a 60-seat lecture, BTW), what will be the point of paying high tuition and taking out student loans?

       Reply ↓
       1. AG August 29, 2025 at 9:46 am

          Thanks!

          Have yet to look into NYT
          This is a very huge problem. To a certain extent it could be called “ontological”.

          Prohibiting anything won´t do the trick.

          People/students for the first time have to actually love what they do. If that´s the case they will not want to use AI to cheat. But only then.

          fwiw I know what it felt like to reject any help simply out of pride and passion maybe even obsession over my particular projects. But I also remember to belong to a minority at school with that attitude and conviction.

          And for that “onotlogical” moment to solve society at large has to transform the entire foundation of “how” and “why” education and how the economy and wages etc. play into that (including the notion of grades)…it´s a task of a century.

          IMHO only abolition of private property on a large scale will be the solution. We will have to go back to Marx. If society guarantees for all necessities in life, if the work that needs to be accomplished (caring for children and the old, cleaning offices and taking care of garbage and waste etc.) will be shared by all members of the entire community. i.e. it all has to be solved in a Parecon way, then there is a viable future.

          I know the criticism of Parecon. But a new paradigm needs to be developed instead of the division of labour.

          Reply ↓
    3. ilsm August 27, 2025 at 7:18 pm

       I briefly checked on US DoD and AI.

       Their think tank reports are selling AI big time, but to me not convincing. There is USC (DHS, something about spooking AI to effect elections?) for AI adaption and planning for in house AI expertise in hiring. There is a big section on AI in the FY 2022 National Defense Authorization act. They are “authorizing” AI like they “authorize” aircraft inventory*!

       One area I found in my quick web search was using AI to write contracts.

       Ever since word processing and storing contract language on computer files contract writing has been cut and paste. AI contract writing is not much more efficient, and dropping word docs….. Someone has to check the AI!

       I found the term “data analysis” come up frequently. Companies that do data analysis well with orderly file sets could get less than marginal productivity gain and not much labor reduction.

       Concerns are “pedigree” of data, access to data, network access, etc. Inputs to time sensitive data are concerns. Do you want your business data in a data center? See DHS USC.

       Early adapters may find the cost of AI higher than the margin improvements.

       Nvidia’s data center sales for Q2 are up but marginally below estimates. The rest of the report beat. EPS 1.05 on 181.00 stock price.

       *Not reassuring when you know how many F-35 are authorized!

       Reply ↓
       1. JP August 28, 2025 at 7:13 pm

          Contract writing was always cut and paste. That’s what file cabinets were for.

          Reply ↓
17. Munchausen August 27, 2025 at 9:09 am

    Ukraine admits Russia has entered key region of Dnipropetrovsk BBC

    This has only symbolic significance. Military operations don’t care about some administrative borders that appear only on maps. Russians entering that region was just a question of time, and it doesn’t change much. I think they may have entered it three years ago form nothern Kherson. They also entered Nikolaev region, and annexed a few villages too (held referendum and pronounced them part of Kherson, and hence Russia)

    Reply ↓
    1. nyleta August 27, 2025 at 4:51 pm

       Looks like they are establishing control over all the watersheds east of the Dnieper this year, no doubt to get a reliable water supply for the Donbass. Quite like Wellington’s Peninsular campaigns…….and suddenly one year you are in Paris.

       Reply ↓
       1. Munchausen August 28, 2025 at 7:28 am

          Water is indeed a big problem in the region. Yet another indicator of the importance of the Dnieper river (and the infrastructure around it).
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8wDYzmRkKg

          Reply ↓
18. Wukchumni August 27, 2025 at 9:11 am

    The best we can hope for with Benedict Donald, is that he kills off playing golf in the USA for at least a couple generations through guilt by association.

    Reply ↓
19. moog August 27, 2025 at 9:11 am

    Ukraine to allow young men to leave the country Financial Times

    It’s a trap!

    Reply ↓
20. Munchausen August 27, 2025 at 9:16 am

    Woody Allen rebuts Ukrainian condemnation over Moscow film festival appearance Guardian (resilc)

    Here’s an older video of him confirming that he loves Russia.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpQEumX-NGc

    Reply ↓
21. Carolinian August 27, 2025 at 9:29 am

    Re The Hollywood Reporter story–it’s about whether you “own” a movie or are merely renting someone’s IP. One would think it would be obvious that if you pay for streaming rights on Amazon those might not be in perpetuity but the dispute is whether the ever shifty Amazon made that clear enough.

    One should say though that H’wood thinks you also have limited rights to your DVDs and if you try to copy them or conduct a public performance you are in big trouble with the FBI. Doubtless these stern warnings are preventing all such behavior.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev August 27, 2025 at 9:43 am

       I can easily see a situation down the road that after you play a new DVD ten ties, that it will self-delete. And the fine print will say that when you purchased that DVD, that it was only to play it a set number of times.

       Years ago in court, John Deere tried to make the point that people can license things but only corporations actually own them. And this was years before ‘You will own nothing…’

       Reply ↓
       1. Carolinian August 27, 2025 at 12:28 pm

          The DVD spec has been set in stone pretty much since the beginning of the century. The discs have to be backwardly hardware compatible to support the “you own it but only you” sales pitch used to sell them.

          Of course initially Hollywood hated all home video and sued to outlaw Betamax. Then they decided that home video and Blockbuster stores had saved them. Now it’s streaming but less saving. Streaming makes it a bit harder for the hackers but not that much apparently.

          Better and perhaps cheaper movies could be another way to go.

          Reply ↓
       2. Acacia August 27, 2025 at 8:23 pm

          There is something similar to what you describe, which concerns region codes.

          Idk if this is still common, but there have been quite a few DVD and Blu-ray players that only allow you to switch regions a couple of times. After that, the player is stuck in one region only. Good luck if you have a collection of movies from different regions. There are region-free players, or players that can be “upgraded” to become region free, though the latter is also a bit of a scam. Region coding is of course about carving up the global market to extract as much money as possible. Fortunately, VLC and MakeMKV can help get around this nonsense.

          The main thing that sucks about “streaming rights” is that the vendor can decide at any time to cease availability of a film. It feels a bit like bait and switch. I have seen this a number of times myself, e.g., I would like to watch part of a film again or recommend it to a friend but Amazon decided they no longer wanted to pay the distributor. Or there are platforms like MUBI, which I gave up on, because they seem to have a vast catalog of films that aren’t actually available “in your region”. Of course, VPN is possible, but at a certain point it feels more like playing whack-a-mole than actually watching/enjoying a movie.

          Reply ↓
          1. rasta August 28, 2025 at 7:34 am

             vendor can decide at any time to cease availability of a film.

             Same with video games. It’s the planned obsolescence spreading onto everything.

             Reply ↓
    2. scott s. August 27, 2025 at 4:20 pm

       The DVD format is dead. Physical media is typically aimed at the collector market with offerings of UHD/BD/Digital in a so-called “SteelBook”.

       I guess you can go to a Walmart/Target and get a bargain bin DVD with a crap transfer but I doubt Hollywood is going to worry too much about what you do with it.

       Reply ↓
       1. Carolinian August 27, 2025 at 9:00 pm

          My library still gets them (and Bluray). I still watch them. Not dead.

          Of course you will need an optical drive to read them but those are still available too. Myself I watch almost all movies (on whatever screen) via my computer.

          DVD is a lower resolution than most people expect nowdays but the discs are now mastered from hi def blu ray transfers so with a little sharpening (in the above computer) they look crispy.

          However I believe a lot of streaming content is not released to disc so it’s undoubtedly true that home video access including at the library is diminished. However they get almost all major studio theatrical releases to the extent those still exist. It’s the movie theaters we have to worry about.

          Reply ↓
          1. Alex Cox August 27, 2025 at 10:31 pm

             DVD is very useful longish-term – but you also own a download, stored on your own computer, whereas you never own anything you ‘access’ via a ‘stream’ aboard ‘the cloud.’

             Reply ↓
             1. AG August 28, 2025 at 7:21 am

                which with the young now appears to not bother anyone…or am just too old to know better?

                Reply ↓
22. The Rev Kev August 27, 2025 at 9:30 am

    “Ahead of Gaza City Conquest, Israeli Ground Troops Say They’re Treated Like Cannon Fodder”

    Actually that’s a fair assessment. They really do not seem to care about how many casualties the IDF experiences and I have wondered why. The only thing that comes to mind is that Israel right now is being run by hard-right religious wingnuts who are determined that young Haredi not put their valuable lives on the line by fighting with the IDF. So I now wonder that the reason that they do not care about IDF casualties is because most of them are secular Israelis. Is it that simple?

    Reply ↓
    1. JohnA August 27, 2025 at 12:01 pm

       And presumably like the Ukrainian elite whose offspring are partying around the Med, the Israeli elite offspring, like Bibi’s son is enjoying life in Miami far from the front line.

       Reply ↓
       1. raspberry jam August 27, 2025 at 6:51 pm

          Both of you have part of it right but it’s more than that. Each faction holding together Netanyahu’s governing coalition knows this is their shot at accomplishing what they want most. For brevity I’ll just focus on the two factions you both mentioned:

          – Netanyahu wants to stay out of jail and if not in power, fully pardoned so that he doesn’t have to worry about jail going forward. Jail would be for corruption related offenses and now potentially war crimes or other issues related to the post-10/7 wars.
          – Ben Gvir and Smotrich want “Eretz Israel”, the hyper Jewish Supremacist settler fantasy of expanding Israel’s borders from Egypt to Iraq and north to the Litani in Lebanon. They’re both settlers but they’re from different political parties and it’s questionable which one is ‘worse. Ben Gvir’s party is called Jewish Power and is the successor to Kach and the Kahanist movement. This is not explicitly religious as much as simply Jewish supremacist. It’s also very violent. Smotrich is from the Religious Zionism party and they are religious. They are also hardliners on the supremacy issue and advocate for deporting non-Jews (especially Arabs, regardless of citizenship status) from Israel. They think non-Jews in Israel should not have voting rights, like the Kahanists. These two and their faction are the biggest linchpin keeping Netanyahu’s government in power.

          Ben Gvir is generally considered to be the strategic power whereas Smotrich has a lot of pull with the settlers, especially the West Bank settlers. But combined their parties don’t hold any kind of majority in the Knesset and it was only recently that they even gained enough to be seated. Over the past decade there has been huge waves of recruitment among diaspora Jews to join these settler-adjacent groups. In the US I know several people from the NYC/NJ area who went from being very normal semi-religious-mostly-secular who have gone off the deep end into the stuff either for business/social reasons or just basic cultural radicalization thanks to the incessant propaganda emitted by these organizations. They went from normal Americans to being hyper Israeli partisans to being settlers and these were like, upper middle class or better people in the US – they absolutely did not ‘need’ any of what they’re stealing – but they’ve been convinced this is what they have to do to retain Israel. That Israel’s existence is necessary for their existence. It has a lot of parallels with the dispensationalist and millenarian end of evangelical Christianity in the US, the people who found militias and do literal interpretations of the bible and demand 20% tithes to the organization. Completely unsurprising they have formed a political alliance in the US.

          One of my former bosses, a very grandfatherly orthodox Jewish man with the same approximate accent as Bernie Sanders, cheerfully told me he would be happy to ‘solve the Gaza problem’ with five minutes alone with the football. And this guy was quick to point out that among his compatriots he was considered a dove, a peacenik. He wasn’t a settler, he could afford to buy multiple properties in the nicest part of Jerusalem. He was a supporter and a Kahanist though and open about it. The entire settler movement is a business that preys on these supremacist beliefs! And the business cannot continue without the con/myth of Eretz Israel.

          So it’s not entirely true the IDF is being sacrificed ‘because’ they’re secular: they’re being sacrificed because anything in service of Eretz Israel is justified. They know this is their only and best chance. Once Netanyahu falls, they fall too, or at best, they’ll remain a minority party. Netanyahu hitching his wagon to these psychos was the best thing that ever happened to them, and as long as Netanyahu keeps the war on and advancing their aims, they’ll keep him in power and out of jail. But all bets are off as soon as a viable contender in the elections appears, or the US withdraws military support, or Iran strikes actual life support systems and brings the actual day to day life in Israel to a halt for longer than a few weeks.

          Reply ↓
23. upstater August 27, 2025 at 10:18 am

    Re. Abundance Cultists Don’t Get How Infrastructure Can Screw Black People New Republic

    The point are all well taken; there no doubt that putting freeways through cities ruined cohesiveness and became de facto segregation. More significantly interstate highways and the reliance of automobiles was pouring gasoline of the FIRE sector. Without it, suburban sprawl wouldn’t have happened.

    “Reconnecting Communities” however is a handful of bandaids being tossed into a war zone of mortally wounded communities. Locally, I-81, which bisects Syracuse on a viaduct, is shifting to I-481 that loops around the city. The remnants get stub-ended and then dumps traffic on to city streets. If one believes the NYS DOT propaganda, the $2.5B project will reunite the city, ignoring that I-690 bisects the city east-west. I would expect some Reconnecting Communities money is involved here. This will not undo the 75 year old development patterns, etched in concrete, of the interstate highways.

    It was interesting to note in South Africa how freeways apparently served the same segregation purposes. They are effectively walls off the townships and stitch together the beautiful suburbs. Many of these freeway corridors were laid out during apartheid. The suburban rail network has collapsed and minibusses choke the roads.

    Reply ↓
    1. AG August 27, 2025 at 8:38 pm

       thanks for this bit

       Reply ↓
24. Roxan August 27, 2025 at 10:28 am

    Cat driving his wheel made my day! He even knew how to adjust his steering to get through the door. Smarter than a lot of people.

    Reply ↓
    1. cfraenkel August 27, 2025 at 11:44 am

       The back of the wheel was conveniently too close to the camera to be able to assume it was the cat making the steering adjustment.

       Reply ↓
       1. JBird4049 August 27, 2025 at 1:59 pm

          It would not surprise me, if someone was hiding behind the wheel and manipulating it, but I have seen some smart cats.

          Reply ↓
       2. Yves Smith Post authorAugust 27, 2025 at 2:42 pm

          Cat might get out of wheel with external change in direction.

          Reply ↓
    2. Mass Driver August 28, 2025 at 8:14 am

       Not really. This discussion made me do a thourough inspection of the video. First thing to notice is that the wheel is perfectly aligned with the corridor. That means that a hooman put it there for the purpose of filming a viral video, and tested to see if it rolls straight. Cat is doing the same thing it did when the wheel was in its proper place, and is curious about thngs being different now. Of course the cat is not changing direction of the wheel, because physics. It is done by the left hand of the cameraman. What the cat is doing, is trying to roll forwards (because that’s what the wheel is for), and is wondering why it has stopped, and what makes it rotate aroud wrong axis. The video ends abruptly, probably because the cat got out after figuring out that the wheel is broken, and demanded to talk to the manager.

       Sincierely,
       Sherlock Jr.

       Reply ↓
25. JohnM_inMN August 27, 2025 at 10:29 am

    According to the NewArab report (in yesterday’s links) on the attack on Nasser hospital, initial word from Netanyahu’s office was that it was a “tragic mishap” which would be investigated. Apparently the investigation didn’t take long. They remembered the magic word, then the mainstream Western press complied. Here are a few examples of headlines:

    AP – Israeli military says strikes on Gaza hospital targeted what it says was a Hamas camera.

    CNN – IDF’s initial inquiry into Gaza hospital strike claims troops identified Hamas camera.

    Reuters – Initial inquiry says Hamas camera was target of Israel strike that killed journalists.

    NYT – Israel Links Deadly Hospital Attack in Gaza to Hamas Surveillance Camera.

    The “H” word excuses all war crimes.

    Reply ↓
    1. Screwball August 27, 2025 at 10:39 am

       It makes one wonder what it is like in these newsrooms where this word salad is manufactured, and how can these people sleep at night?

       Reply ↓
       1. The Rev Kev August 27, 2025 at 10:51 am

          I’ve wondered the same myself when I watch the newsreaders when they tell the most outrageous lies. I don’t know if they believe what they say or just go with the flow. I actually suspect the former.

          Reply ↓
       2. JohnM_inMN August 27, 2025 at 12:24 pm

          Couldn’t even bring themselves to name the hospital. Had to keep it as vague as possible.

          Reply ↓
    2. The Rev Kev August 27, 2025 at 10:46 am

       The hospitals are Hamas. Reporters are Hamas. Doctors and nurses are Hamas. Apartment blocks are Hamas. Palestinians are Hamas, including the babies. Nations not loyal to Israel are Hamas. Anybody that does not support Zionism is Hamas. And Israel is only defending itself from Hamas. Glad that we got that settled.

       Reply ↓
       1. Mikel August 27, 2025 at 11:54 am

          Spartacus is Hamas…

          And wait for it…because it’s been alleged that there was a time when Hamas was supported over the PLO by the Israeli govt…

          Reply ↓
          1. JBird4049 August 27, 2025 at 1:49 pm

             Israel funded the creation of Hamas because it wanted to have the Palestinians split into separate, competing factions as in the old divide and conquer. It was hard for me to believe it when I found out, but it does make sense.

             Reply ↓
             1. Ben Panga August 27, 2025 at 7:10 pm

                You’re saying Israel is Hamas?

                Reply ↓
             2. The Rev Kev August 27, 2025 at 7:15 pm

                Israel was also funding the PLO at one stage. They always need credible enemies as after all, can anybody see an Israel that is happy to be at peace with their neighbours? No, neither can I.

                Reply ↓
    3. ilsm August 27, 2025 at 11:07 am

       Did their AI run kill chain learn to “double tap”?

       Reply ↓
       1. gf August 27, 2025 at 3:45 pm

          No.
          There is plenty of stolen literature with these concepts.

          Reply ↓
    4. lyman alpha blob August 27, 2025 at 12:39 pm

       I read the AP story earlier. In the article, it does at least question the official Zionist narrative this time – better late than never – but of course many people just see the headline.

       I won’t hold my breath waiting for the corporate media to admit Israel lied about mass rapes and slaughtered many of its own citizens to prevent hostage taking.

       Reply ↓
26. Ghost in the Machine August 27, 2025 at 10:37 am

    My middle school child brought home a book for a class: After the War by Carol Matas. This is the description:
    “Didn’t the gas ovens finish you all off?” is the response that meets Ruth Mendenberg when she returns to her village in Poland after the liberation of Buchenwald at the end of World War II. Her entire family wiped out in the Holocaust, the fifteen-year-old girl has nowhere to go.
    Members of the underground organization Brichah find her, and she joins them in their dangerous quest to smuggle illegal immigrants to Palestine. Ruth risks her life to help lead a group of children on a daring journey over half a continent and across the sea to Eretz Israel, using secret routes and forged documents — and sheer force of will.
    This adventure will touch readers, who will marvel at the resources and inner strength of mere children helping other children to find a place in this world in which they can belong. Carol Matas, one of the foremost authors of historical fiction, brings the desperation and passion of this remarkable journey to life.“
    I wouldn’t have thought much about this a few years ago, but now I’m wondering if it’s hasbara/holocaust industry stuff. Anyone know about this book? I’m going to try to read it as well.

    Reply ↓
    1. Ben Panga August 27, 2025 at 7:15 pm

       The book is first on the list on the CAMERA Education Institute
       (“Fighting Antisemitism and Anti-Israel Bias in Education”) website.

       What We Offer
       Based on extensive experience and through a variety of approaches, CAMERA can assist and support educators, parents and students:

       Expertise in Middle East and Jewish issues
       Experience in K-12 and higher education

       Extensive knowledge of current education challenges

       Expert educators on staff

       Strategies, support and resources for parents

       Guidance in organizing efforts to counter bias

       A curriculum on Israel’s history and society

       Support and resources for teachers, professors, administrators, and union members.

       Reply ↓
       1. Ben Panga August 27, 2025 at 7:18 pm

          Oh, they feature the Zionist Dream sequel as well:

          A sequel to Matas’ book, After the War, The Garden follows sixteen-year-old Holocaust survivor Ruth Mendolsohn as she settles into her new life working on a kibbutz in Palestine. Ruth and her fellow survivor friends who immigrated together to Israel have joined the Haganah and attempt to defend Jews from violence at the hands of local Arabs rioters and snipers

          Reply ↓
27. QABubba August 27, 2025 at 10:40 am

    I maintain that Neanderthals are still with us.

    Reply ↓
    1. ambrit August 27, 2025 at 12:32 pm

       I too stand in solidarity with the oppressed Neanderthal minority.

       Reply ↓
       1. herman_sampson August 27, 2025 at 2:12 pm

          That might be the only reason to get my DNA analyzed. Still, hacking and/or government surveillance make me reluctant to do that ( I over 65 with trad. Medicare so health insurance is not an issue).

          Reply ↓
28. Jason Boxman August 27, 2025 at 10:41 am

    Sounds healthy

    The A.I. Spending Frenzy Is Propping Up the Real Economy, Too (NY Times via archive.ph)

    It’s no secret by now, as investors await an earnings report on Wednesday by the chip behemoth Nvidia, that optimism around the windfall that artificial intelligence may generate is pumping up the stock market.

    But in recent months, it has also become clear that A.I. spending is lifting the real economy, too.

    Fake growth in a fake country; sounds good.

    Reply ↓
    1. JBird4049 August 27, 2025 at 1:56 pm

       >>>Fake growth in a fake country; sounds good.

       Followed by real pain once the bubble pops.

       Reply ↓
       1. JMH August 27, 2025 at 4:52 pm

          The bubble pops. Then we hear, “Who could have known?”

          Reply ↓
    2. ilsm August 27, 2025 at 7:34 pm

       NVDA. Seems China has purchased no H2O devices, maybe the Trump tantrum, maybe not. NVDA did not comment on China sales going forward.

       Reply ↓
29. Jason Boxman August 27, 2025 at 10:54 am

    On Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: on the faultline of Trump’s divided America

    Bethlehem’s Democratic mayor, J William Reynolds, said it was the result of “decades of a lack of trust and faith in government, in the public sector and in what is possible for communities when people are working together”.

    Local Republicans say the answer is simpler: Democrats abandoned blue-collar voters and Trump promises to make their lives better.

    …

    If Democrats are to break Trump’s power — and reverse his policies on everything from immigration to tariffs and Medicaid cuts — they will need Pennsylvania, which backed Joe Biden in 2020 but swung decisively to the Maga champion last year.

    The Financial Times visited Bethlehem this summer to try to understand what is at stake in a city whose rightward drift, demographic make-up, industrial history, political divisions, and ambitions offer a sense of the mood across America’s electoral battlegrounds.

    (bold mine)

    It’s interesting that COVID doesn’t show up even once in the story, but there’s justifiable rage against the Democrats for mandating non-sterilizing experimental COVID shots, with the penalty in many cases of losing your job, or at the very least, being demonized in the press.

    It’s hard to believe there isn’t still justifiable rage in regards to this.

    But who knows, no one seems to ever care to ask and publish the results in the inquiry.

    Which isn’t to say that liberal Democrat policies aren’t an abject failure to working class Americans everywhere.

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisFromGA August 27, 2025 at 2:50 pm

       Speaking of non-sterilizing experimental COVID shots, RFK Jr. just ended the emergency authorization for them:

       https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5473277-covid-vaccine-emergency-use-fda-rfk/

       Note that this doesn’t mean you can’t get the shots anymore, as long as your doctor recommends them.

       It just means that there is no longer an emergency authorization. Perhaps others wiser than I can offer a bit more insight into the ramifications.

       Reply ↓
       1. Jason Boxman August 27, 2025 at 4:35 pm

          EUAs are granted to medical products by the FDA when no approved, alternative product is available. The COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna were both made available through EUAs prior to receiving full FDA approval in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

          As I understand it, the outstanding EUAs were for use in particular age ranges for children, for which full FDA approval had not yet been achieved.

          Reply ↓
30. flora August 27, 2025 at 11:10 am

    More on Private Equity. CalPERS receives special mention. utube, ~27+ minutes.

    How Private Equity Will Break America’s Housing

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8SnRzbg6rE

    (My longtime, local dental practice was bought by PE. The fees have gone through the roof.)

    Reply ↓
31. IM Doc August 27, 2025 at 11:31 am

    The link above – Why the Democrats are losing post-industrial America

    I am a Democrat from a long line of Democrats – working class, LBJ New Deal Dems.

    Yesterday, I learned that we opened the DNC Summer meeting in Minnesota with a land acknowledgement. That American settlers had stolen the land of the native tribes in Minnesota, the Dakota, who had lived in happy harmony with nature for thousands of years. This was literally the very first thing done at that meeting – almost like an opening prayer or Pledge of Allegiance was done in my youth.

    Since I no longer take anything done or said by this party at face value – the lying, dissembling, exaggerating, distorting, virtue-signalling, etc has become too much and affected the lives of so many around me – I did a little research.

    The woman chosen to do this land acknowledgement was named Lindy Sowmick. Although she mentioned the Dakota tribe in passing – I did a bit of research and noted that she was from the Chippewa-Saginaw tribe which is basically in Michigan. The way this Chippewa tribe is referred to in some quarters today is the Ojibwe. I learned a lot about the Ojibwe from the website of the actual Minnesota Historical Society –

    https://www.mnhs.org/fortsnelling/learn/native-americans/ojibwe-people

    The Ojibwe were apparently one of the most populous tribes in North America all over the Northeastern Seaboard hundreds and thousands of years before there were any European settlers. Again, this woman, Mrs Sowmick, was a member of a branch of this tribe. I will reprint below the first paragraph of the website from the Minnesota Historical Society –

    The ancestors of the Ojibwe lived throughout the northeastern part of North America and along the Atlantic Coast. Due to a combination of prophecies and tribal warfare, around 1,500 years ago the Ojibwe people left their homes along the ocean and began a slow migration westward that lasted for many centuries.

    Upon further research on multiple other websites, one learns that the Ojibwe were actually one of the most violent of tribes in North America. They were propelled by some kind of apocalyptic religious animus – described in the website above as “prophecies” – and it was the Ojibwe themselves that drove the Dakota out of their ancestral home and into the Northern Great Plains – centuries and centuries before there ever was a European settler to be seen. This woman, highlighted by the DNC, is actually a member of the actual tribe that displaced the Dakota from Minnesota.

    The sad fact for the Democratic Party who continue to make this land acknowledgement an issue is that land displacement, war and forced moving is a part of human history in every corner of this planet. It is in our DNA. Maybe, just maybe, one day we will evolve and not engage in this behavior. But having judgmental and virtue signalling about it centuries after it happened – and then having a member of the perpetrating tribe be the one doing the scolding is the very definition of lunacy.

    When the Democrats start paying to attention to real issues affecting real people in this country, this Dem will start paying attention again. Until then – it is a better show than the clowns in the circus. And that is tragic. We really need some kind of counterweight – but that is certainly not to be had with this group.

    Reply ↓
    1. upstater August 27, 2025 at 1:07 pm

       Then there was this:

       Democratic Party Scraps Resolutions on Israel and Gaza After Fraught Debate NYT

       “There’s divide in our party on this issue,” Ken Martin, the D.N.C. chairman, said. “We have to find a path forward as a party and we have to stay unified.”
       …
       A Gallup poll released late last month found that just 8 percent of Democrats approved of Israel’s actions in Gaza [seems like unity to me!]
       …
       One measure, backed by a number of younger D.N.C. members including the leaders of the College Democrats of America and High School Democrats of America, called on Democratic elected officials to endorse an arms embargo and the suspension of military aid to Israel, and to recognize Palestine as a nation.

       The other, supported by Mr. Martin and his allies on the Resolutions Committee, sought to chart something of a middle course. Their resolution urged an influx of humanitarian aid to Gaza, an immediate cease-fire, the release of hostages taken captive from Israel during the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023 and “a credible, negotiated pathway toward a two-state solution” for Israelis and Palestinians.

       Reply ↓
       1. Acacia August 27, 2025 at 11:19 pm

          Sure. They will “stay unified” around the feeding trough from the donors.

          Reply ↓
    2. Louis Fyne August 27, 2025 at 1:19 pm

       Reminds me of the 80’s Billy Joel song, “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” Except today’s culture wants to perpetuate the fire instead of saying: the cycle stops with me.

       Reply ↓
       1. moog August 28, 2025 at 8:28 am

          We didn’t start the fire, but we’ve been putting out the fire with gasoline. Courtesy of David Bowie.

          Reply ↓
    3. CanCyn August 27, 2025 at 2:29 pm

       I have a lot of beefs with the Democrats but I gotta say that whether or not or why they do a land acknowledgement at the start of their convention isn’t one of them. Having worked in academia (albeit at the lowly community college level), I have been familiar with the land acknowledgement for a long time, colleges and universities in Canada were early adopters. Many of the indigenous people I worked with recognized the land acknowledgement for the pretty much meaningless virtue signalling that it is. As for the violence of the Ojibway, that doesn’t take away from the appalling way that Europeans took over North America and the ill effects on indigenous peoples that cause problems to this day.

       Scrapping a resolution on Gaza, now that’s a huge reason for consternation. It really is like they never want to be elected again. But, when people show you who they are, you should believe them. The scales fell from my eyes after Obama’s election. And got me looking closer at our Liberals and supposedly left NDP here in Canada. I have long felt that I have no one to vote for.

       Reply ↓
       1. IM Doc August 27, 2025 at 4:48 pm

          I guess I would say it is my entire problem in a nutshell.

          We have the DNC starting their convention off yesterday with facts inconsistent with the historical record. It all is about driving people off their native land – an activity practiced by Homo sapiens since the dawn of time. The selection of the presenter was a slap in the face to reality, to the actual victims hundreds of years ago, and it was done in the usual sanctimonious condescending manner.

          Complete and total self righteous virtue signalling. With a complete lack of any appreciation of historical facts. That is very consistent with who these people have become – EVERYTHING – every fact, every historical event is always distorted in the lens of their dogma.

          Why would anyone with a brain trust a single thing these people say?

          Meanwhile, we have these morons DECRYING GENOCIDAL EVENTS IN THE PAST WHILE AN ACTUAL GENOCIDAL EVENT IS HAPPENING BEFORE OUR VERY EYES IN GAZA, AND THEY HAVE NOTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT.

          It is the classic definition of absolute scum. It is very difficult for me to see any sunlight between them and the other side. At least the other side seems to be able to tell you to your face where they stand.

          Dems, I would like to say I am the Lone Ranger Dem who cannot stand the sight of you. Nothing could be further from the truth. You sanctimonious morons would likely be horrified by what I hear every day from people previously on your own side.

          I always wondered what it would be like to live in a time of complete political collapse. I no longer have to wonder.

          Reply ↓
          1. JMH August 27, 2025 at 5:10 pm

             My only question about the democrat party is will it disappear like the Federalists or like the Whigs, that is fade into the sunset totally discredited or absorbed with other rags and scraps into a new party that actually has ideas, goals, a program. I well remember when the Democrats were a coalition of disparate elements that existed only by horse trading compromises, back room deals, and different elements holding their noses to shut out the unpleasant odor of those with whom they disagreed on maybe all but one thing. And yet it worked in different versions from the Age of Jackson until the advent of the New Democrats or “Republican lite.” Look at the more recent presidential election maps: coastal reefs and scattered islands. Tells me you are doing something wrong

             Reply ↓
          2. Jason Boxman August 27, 2025 at 9:05 pm

             Heh. Echos what I’ve been saying for years, right down to scum and Republicans at least being honest about their intentions. Democrats prefer to knife you in the back.

             Reply ↓
       2. Roland August 27, 2025 at 8:54 pm

          One big problem with the land acknowledgements is the implication that some people owe other people, simply because of what they were born as.

          Does an infant in the maternity ward need to turn to the one beside her, and acknowledge with regret that she has been born on the other’s unceded land? Maybe she should recite the formula before each meal, for the rest of her life, as if giving thanks to her gods?

          CanCyn, I understand why you think it’s not a big deal. Like you, I worked at a Canadian university for years, and I treated it as just more of the usual sort of boilerplate. Mumble, eyeroll, click OK to continue–it’s how we all live nowadays, right?

          But I was never okay with it. We spent generations trying to end distinctions based on birth. Why return to the old vomit of the reactionary “Whites” ?

          The Red in me sometimes wanted to cause a bit of drama in the department seminar. “We are workers. We were not born wrong. We beg no pardon for coming to work.”

          If we must preface every public gathering with an empty formal acknowledgement, why not at least give it to the workers, without whose efforts little in our lives would be possible?

          I should add that none of this has much to do with the aboriginal peoples. It’s mostly about the make-work, careerism, and status-mongering of the petty bourgeois PMC, who make their bastion in the academic sector.

          Then, when I get bitter, I remind myself that most of those poor PMC bastards are themselves scared and in debt, enslaved to ambitions they can no longer escape, but at the cost of everything they have.

          Reply ↓
    4. Giovanni Barca August 27, 2025 at 10:40 pm

       Your point is well taken. Empty performance art. Helps no one, certainly not the various indigenous poor in the cities or on the rezzes.

       I don’t know where the Minnesota historical folks get their info but there are many versions of the origin and migration stories of the various “first nations.” Ojibiwe and Chippewa are variations of Anshinnabe(g), an endonym common to these folk and to the Potawatomi, both of whom share(d) a language with the Odawa/Ottawa. These last are thought by archaeologists to have been on the shores and islands of the great lakes since the late first millennium and were part of a trading network with their Iroquoian (Huron/Petun) neighbors east of Lake Huron for which they supplied fish in exchange for tobacco and maize. The Algonquian languages of the Atlantic coast are more distant from that of the “three fires” than are other Great Lakes/Old Northwest peoples like the Illinois and Miami (who in the main also shared a language) or the Mascouten, etc

       Reply ↓
32. Mikel August 27, 2025 at 12:06 pm

    https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/08/27/mythic-trump-the-incendiary-narcissus/

    Ignoring the parts making Mr. Magnets the center of the problems, this article is most notable for the scathing indictment of the former British Empire:

    “A ghastly Ariadne’s thread connects the current, appallingly mediocre European political elites – aspiring mini-Minotaurs lost in their own labyrinth. The BlackRock Chancellor in Germany comes from the British occupation zone of Germany, the grandson of a Nazi. The Nazis were successfully built up by Britain to position Germany as its proxy in a perpetual war against Russia.

    The appalling Toxic Medusa in Brussels also comes from the British occupation zone of Germany: a noble family with Nazi background. Her “noble” husband is even worse, descending from war criminals.

    Le Petit Roi in France, universally despised, is a lowly messenger of Banque Rothschild, financier of British kings and queens since the 18th century.

    The Intermarium – Poland, the Baltic dwarves, Ukraine – always had governments staffed and controlled by Britain.

    As for the opposition to the war on Russia in Romania, it was couped away.

    The bottom line is that the Brits are on Totalen Krieg against Russia, on steroids, so they can snatch the Big Prize, unemcumbered: total control of Europe, or dismissively, “the continentals”. Their 18th century mindset imperial/feudal planners are looking way beyond rump Ukraine, towards a Forever War to weaken and tighten their total control over a discombobulated Europe.”

    Reply ↓
33. lyman alpha blob August 27, 2025 at 12:42 pm

    So Macron is battling “Russian interference” in Moldovan elections by traveling to Moldova and telling them who they should be voting for. That’s not interference at all – he’s just lending a helping hand to the ignorant Moldovan rubes who are unable to think for themselves!

    Reply ↓
    1. moog August 27, 2025 at 4:52 pm

       Figting (non existing) fire with fire.

       Reply ↓
34. ciroc August 27, 2025 at 1:21 pm

    >Higher Education: What Trump Hath Wrought

    As for “existential terror,” there is simply no precedent in American history for the way Trump has turned the full force of the federal government against elite universities. The parallels with Trump man crush Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine strategy are striking: a surprise despite months of clear warning signs only because people couldn’t bring themselves to believe anyone could be so evil; an utter disregard for the law; a bumbling overconfidence that instantly turned to outrage at the first signs of resistance; a decent long-term chance of success nonetheless because there’s no power like the executive leadership of a nuclear state enabled by a servile legislative branch; and massive damage to infrastructure and human potential that will be felt for decades to come.

    Many people are eager to draw parallels between Trump and Putin, but I believe their differences outweigh their similarities.

    Reply ↓
    1. moog August 27, 2025 at 4:55 pm

       Both wear suits, and like Slavic women. That’s where similarities end.

       Reply ↓
35. Carolinian August 27, 2025 at 1:26 pm

    This is good.

    https://scheerpost.com/2025/08/27/how-does-chinas-system-really-work-renowned-scholar-zhang-weiwei-explains-the-china-model/

    Sampler

    ZHANG WEIWEI: You know, I challenged, many, many years ago, this whole paradigm of so-called “democracy versus autocracy”, “democracy versus authoritarianism”.

    The problem with that paradigm, or old-fashioned paradigm, is that it is defined by the West. It’s like, you know, the West, for one reason or another, first registered this particular brand.

    So in China, you can explain whatever, it does not make much of a difference. You’re always defensive.

    So I said we need to have a paradigm shift. What I advocated is a paradigm of good governance versus bad governance.

    The people who challenged me said, “Well, why do you not discuss democracy?” I said, no problem, because we divide democracy into procedural democracy and substantive democracy.

    So when you talk about a regular election; a multi-party system; one person, one vote; that’s procedural democracy, or democracy in form.

    What we should discuss more is, first of all, democracy in substance, the very purpose of democracy.

    Of course the social context of the two countries is different and China is ancient while America has at least the myth of pioneer individualism. That last has curdled to the point where Donald Trump thinks the United States is all about him!

    Reply ↓
    1. Alan Sutton August 28, 2025 at 3:59 am

       This is an inter3sting video from a YouTuber I first noticed a few years ago.

       He is Canadian but lives in China and speaks Chinese (not sure which sort!).

       This video is a discussion about the differences between China and Canada after he went back home for a visit after 7 years away.

       It isn’t just just about politics, far from it, but about 3/4 through he does discuss the differences between between the two systems of “democracy”.

       He says in America/Canada you get a choice between parties but the policies remain the same. In China the party is the same but you can change the policies.

       Quite interesting: https://youtu.be/KgshDeO55yc?si=_SAl77tKm5rOAYj6

       Reply ↓
36. mrsyk August 27, 2025 at 1:34 pm

    To be filed under velocity

    Trump extends control over Washington by taking management of Union Station away from Amtrak, wtop.

    The photos of Duffy are worth the click.

    Union Station, the secretary said, has “fallen into disrepair” when it should be a “point of pride” for the city. He said taking over management of Washington’s main transportation hub, which is walking distance from the U.S. Capitol, would help beautify the landmark in an economical way and was in line with Trump’s vision.

    As opposed to investing public spending on it.

    Reply ↓
    1. MaryLand August 27, 2025 at 2:09 pm

       More gold on the ceiling? More gold, more gold! More is more! On the ceiling so it can’t be pried off by thieves—or maybe just station more National Guard in there to guard the gold.

       On second thought, the peons don’t need real gold, just use gold spray paint. Spray the walls generously so peons need to wear sunglasses. Save the golden icons for the airport areas where the elite fly in on their private planes.

       Reply ↓
       1. Wukchumni August 27, 2025 at 2:48 pm

          …our Teetotalitarian Leader is on a gilt-trip

          Reply ↓
       2. chuck roast August 27, 2025 at 8:13 pm

          “More gold, more gold!” Donnie certainly is a gold bug. Every time I see the Oval Office I go, “He can’t possibly stuff any more gold stuff in there.” It’s looking very tacky…kind of like an Italian whore-house. Or like Mar-a-Lago. Really a no-class guy.

          Reply ↓
          1. Roland August 27, 2025 at 9:42 pm

             From Barack Obama to Baroque-O-Rama.

             But that’s Trump’s kind of sophistication: a visual narrative of ideal American tastelessness, an impish self-portrayal of the crass billionaire. Every bit of it is calculated.

             Don’t underestimated that guy. He is formidable.

             Reply ↓
37. Trees&Trunks August 27, 2025 at 2:03 pm

    Let‘s see if Trump really will throw Soros in jail.

    Hang‘em high!

    https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115100792784831675

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisFromGA August 27, 2025 at 2:51 pm

       What if, by fate, he ended up in the same jail cell as Bolton?

       Reply ↓
    2. thrombus August 27, 2025 at 5:01 pm

       He will make a deal with them. This is how he negotiate. The art of the deal, and all that jazz.

       Reply ↓
38. ciroc August 27, 2025 at 2:10 pm

    >Blood and Taxes: Why Revolutions Start with Real Estate
    Unlike 18th-century French nobles, today’s billionaires don’t earn income from land ownership. They can flee anywhere in the world at any time via private jet, so revolution is not a concern for them.

    Reply ↓
39. XXYY August 27, 2025 at 2:25 pm

    From Foreign Policy, quoted by Moon of Alabama:

    Regardless of whether Iran resumes uranium enrichment, Israel is determined to deny it time to replenish its missile arsenal, restore air defenses, or deploy improved systems. That logic is central to Israel’s “mowing the grass” strategy: strike preventively and repeatedly to prohibit adversaries from developing capabilities that could challenge Israeli military dominance.

    This “mowing the grass” strategy seems like something somebody made up back in the good old days when Israel had unquestioned military superiority and only weak opponents.

    Israel is now in encircled by technically competent opponents backed by Russia and China. Iran has a gigantic stockpile of weapons capable of reaching anywhere in Israel (most of them stored deeply underground), as well as a formidable air defense system.

    Israel on the other hand is currently engaged in about five simultaneous wars, is running short of weapons, money, and soldiers, has a porous air defense system, a collapsing economy and fleeing citizens, and is well on its way to be coming a pariah state boycotted by every civilized country.

    When you are hanging on by your fingernails, it’s stupid to wave your arms around.

    Reply ↓
    1. Alan Sutton August 28, 2025 at 4:11 am

       Thanks for that last sentence.

       Highly amusing image.

       And (editing) I think we should all be on the look out for the next attack on Iran.

       The Govt. here in Aus just kicked out the Iranian Ambassador in response to some dubious “intel”.

       Something is being prepared.

       https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/08/australia-breaks-with-iran-sign-of-a-new-war-coming.html

       Reply ↓
40. Wukchumni August 27, 2025 at 2:59 pm

    Now I told you, so you ought to know
    It takes some time for our feelings to grow
    You’re so close now, I can’t let you go
    And I can’t let go

    (With you I’m not shy) To show the way I feel
    (With you I might try) My secrets not to reveal
    For you have magnets, and I want to deal

    I hope that you don’t hold you for long
    You’re a country next to Hong Kong
    But the feeling-out process that I feel is so strong
    It can’t be wrong

    (With you I’m not shy) To show the way I feel
    (With you I might try) My secrets not to reveal
    For you have magnets, and want to deal

    (With you I’m not shy) To show the way I feel
    (With you I might try) My secrets not to reveal
    For you have magnets, and I want to deal
    You are have magnets, and I want to deal
    You are have magnets, and I want to deal
    You are have magnets, and I want to deal

    I want to deal…

    Magnet and Steel, by Walter Egan

    Reply ↓
41. Jason Boxman August 27, 2025 at 3:11 pm

    Doctors Find Early Success With Partial Heart Transplants (NY Times via archive.ph)

    Owen is one of fewer than 50 people who has undergone this operation, a new way to repair various life-threatening heart defects with living tissue. Most have taken place at Duke, and a new study, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, offers the first systematic analysis of partial heart transplants, tracking Owen and 18 other patients who range from two days old to their early 30s.

    And we’re gonna kill them all of with COVID, which is a vascular disease. Good job, Biden!

    In the United States, more than 2,000 children and 100,000 adults are on the transplant waiting list. Donor organs are scarce, and many are discarded because they’re not suitable for a full transplant — an issue that’s gotten worse, as The New York Times previously reported.

    So, they’re immuno-compromised, you say? Too bad liberal Democrats left the immune compromised to die back in 2023, when it was inconvenient to be bothered, and then Evushield stopped working, and oh well, so sad, brunch time!

    All transplants come with trade-offs. Organ recipients need lifelong drugs to suppress their immune system, and these medications can lead to serious infections and kidney damage over time. With partial heart transplants, the team at Duke was able to wean patients down to roughly a quarter of the usual amount of immunosuppressant drugs, Dr. Turek said. He believes the level is too low to trigger many of the complications.

    Fun

    Owen’s valve is still growing with him. He is now a healthy 3 ½-year-old, “thriving and living his best life,” Ms. Monroe said. He loves to stack towers of blocks over and over again, wrestle with his father and run around the house screaming. On Monday, he officially started preschool.

    (bold mine)

    From what I’ve seen, kids sure get sick a lot in preschool. Good luck with that I guess. Clean the air?

    Reply ↓
42. JMH August 27, 2025 at 4:27 pm

    If the DNC does not favor stopping the shipment of arms to Israel then the DNC as an organization is complicit in the genocide in Gaza.

    Reply ↓
43. AG August 27, 2025 at 5:34 pm

    re: USA and Jihadist Proxies

    highly recommended

    Seyed Marandi: America’s Long History With Jihadist Proxies
    Glenn Diesen
    Aug 25, 2025
    61 min.
    https://glenndiesen.substack.com/p/seyed-marandi-americas-long-history

    Reply ↓
44. AG August 27, 2025 at 5:37 pm

    re: Craig Murray Palestine Action and the Claim of Right

    important

    Palestine Action and the Claim of Right
    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2025/08/palestine-action-and-the-claim-of-right/

    “In late November, a judge in the High Court of England and Wales will hear a judicial review into the legality of the proscription of Palestine Action.

    That court has no jurisdiction in either Scotland or Northern Ireland and does not take into account the law of either place, which is different to English Law.

    Yet the proscription of Palestine Action applies to the whole UK and the result of the English judicial review will apply to the whole UK – which is a direct violation of Scottish legal rights.

    My attempts to raise this point in London have been met with a haughty colonial arrogance, which amounts to “so what?”

    Two grounds have been granted for the judicial review in English and Welsh law. Firstly the judge will consider whether the effect of proscription is contrary to the rights of free assembly and free speech protected by the European Convention on Human Rights Articles 10 and 11.”

    Reply ↓
45. Ben Panga August 27, 2025 at 6:30 pm

    Denmark summons US diplomat over alleged Greenland influence campaign (Guardian)

    “…incoming US ambassador, Ken Howery… a co-founder of PayPal…”

    I keep saying that the Thielites want Greenland.

    Reply ↓
    1. hamstak August 27, 2025 at 6:58 pm

       Is your thinking along the lines of:

       1) cold
       2) plenty of water
       3) AI data centers

       ?

       Reply ↓
       1. Ben Panga August 27, 2025 at 7:22 pm

          Wearing my best tech-sociopath hat:

          1. Separate and defensible by a large drone force without needing untrustworthy humans
          2. Has water
          3. Will be survivable climate change-wise with tech help
          4. Far away from the jackpot-afflicted poors as they die off/rip each other to shreds
          5. Did I mention the cool drone army?

          Reply ↓
          1. Ben Panga August 27, 2025 at 7:38 pm

             It fits very well with the (Thiel-funded, Patri Friedman run) Sea-stedding movement and other libertarian ideas of 15 years ago.

             https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/06/patri-friedman/beyond-folk-activism/

             Greenland = imagine Weyland Yutani and Mr Lee’s Greater Hong Kong had a baby

             Reply ↓
          2. Ben Panga August 28, 2025 at 12:20 am

             There is evidence for this. For example

             Cybercity of the future: How an ambitious 29-year old plans to build Praxis, a stateless tech utopia (NY Post)

             Brown wants Praxis to be self-governing and completely independent of any other country or state and he claims he is in the advanced stages of talks to secure the land where he plans to found his new colony.

             Although Brown’s ideas may sound far-fetched and idealistic to some, he’s managed to get investors to buy in and claims to have a $500 million line of credit to get Praxis started.

             One of them, indirectly, is Peter Thiel. According to Brown, Thiel is an investor in Pronomos Capital which has invested in Praxis, although he adds, “beyond that, I can’t comment.”

             Brown has previously mentioned the Mediterranean and did reveal to Tech Crunch, “I went to Greenland to try to buy it,” before the US government registered its own interest in the Danish territory earlier this year.

             As to what makes Greenland, which has a population of around 56,000, so attractive for Praxis, Brown said, “We’re a group of people who find the frontier to be exciting, who want to take on heroic challenges, who think there’s spiritual worth to doing hard things. Building a city on a sheet of barren ice is a big test of the will.”

             Reply ↓
             1. The Rev Kev August 28, 2025 at 1:01 am

                They also don’t want to pay anybody any taxes. That is why they want a place completely independent of any other country or state.

                Doesn’t mean that they won’t demand government subsidies however.

                Reply ↓
    2. The Rev Kev August 27, 2025 at 7:12 pm

       Obviously Trump should set up a few thousand NGOs like happened in Georgia. It’s the traditional way to undermine and wreck a country for fun and profit.

       Reply ↓
       1. Ben Panga August 27, 2025 at 7:25 pm

          There’s only 56k people. Just buy them out completely or pay them to cooperate. At least until the hooks are in.

          Reply ↓
          1. The Rev Kev August 27, 2025 at 7:28 pm

             They should know. You get your candy before you get into the van.

             Reply ↓
          2. Alan Sutton August 28, 2025 at 4:24 am

             You can’t buy them all out.

             Where will the cleaners, waiters, cooks, gardeners come from?

             OK, maybe buy out the original people then import, what, slaves?

             Robots?

             Reply ↓
             1. Ben Panga August 28, 2025 at 6:01 am

                From the same NY Post article I linked up thread:

                “If AI and robotics come along, then we don’t need huge workforces,” Sam Hammond, chief economist at the Foundation for American Innovation, told The Post, speculating on Praxis. “We could have a modernized city with fully self-driving cars and robot cops. It would be the high-tech version of a new world where you could start from scratch.”

                Schools would be moot. Education, in Hammond’s vision of Praxis, would be done by AI and food preparation would also be handled by robots. “You could have a 3D printer printing out food,” Hammond said. “You get to adopt and integrate new technologies before anyone else in the world.”

                The wage-slaves on Praxis, as per Brown, will also not necessarily be human: “Maybe in the future, people don’t work anymore and AI does all the work. We want the city to be designed for a post-work future; we want the city to be able to absorb a new kind of social dynamic. Like, we’re going to find the most talented artists in the world and give them grants and bring them to Praxis.”

                Also some kind of Emirati style indentured (non-sovereign, non-citizen) labour on temporary contracts would work.

                [Yes, I realize they are deluded idiots]

                Reply ↓
                1. The Rev Kev August 28, 2025 at 6:18 am

                   Robot cops? You mean like an ED-209 on each street corner? What could possibly go wrong-

                   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYsulVXpgYg (3:02 mins)

                   Reply ↓
                   1. Ben Panga August 28, 2025 at 8:44 am

                      It would be a crying shame if the sociopaths were killed by their own creation.

                      Reply ↓
             2. thrombus August 28, 2025 at 8:45 am

                Import migrants, refugees, prisoners, etc. So, yea, slaves. I bet Trump would love to relocate there whole of Gaza, and demand bonus Nobel Peace Prize just for that.

                Reply ↓
    3. Henry Moon Pie August 28, 2025 at 1:22 am

       “I keep saying that the Thielites want Greenland.”

       Are you sure they’re not planning to take the rest of the world while putting all of us on Greenland?

       Reply ↓
       1. Ben Panga August 28, 2025 at 8:46 am

          >>>putting all of us on Greenland?

          Only as compost

          Reply ↓
46. Kouros August 27, 2025 at 6:49 pm

    China flips the script on US FONO.

    Something that Peter Lee, the Chinahand quite some time ago predicted China will do and likely start closing the Taiwan Straight to foreign military vessels.

    Reply ↓
    1. ilsm August 27, 2025 at 8:01 pm

       FONO is made up.

       There is no law of the sea that establishes international waters much less rights.

       The fall back law of the sea is: the ship with the biggest guns and aircover makes the rules.

       If USA decides to FONO China again I hope they send a LCS (little crappy ship), that the USN has no use for……

       China would be wise to sink an Arleigh Burke Aegis ship on FONO. You cannot tell if the vertical launcher has a regular or nuclear Tomahawk….

       Reply ↓
       1. Alan Sutton August 28, 2025 at 4:27 am

          LCS is good. 😊

          Reply ↓
47. The Rev Kev August 28, 2025 at 12:12 am

    The Republicans in Texas find themselves another wingnut-

    ‘A Texas Republican congressional candidate has set fire to a copy of the Quran in a campaign ad, igniting a furor on X.

    Valentina Gomez, a self-styled ‘MAGA America First’ political hopeful, published the video on Tuesday, asking for help in getting elected to the US Congress.

    “Your daughters will be raped and your sons beheaded, unless we stop Islam once and for all,” Gomez declared in the video, before stepping back and letting loose a stream of flame at a copy of the Muslim holy book. This was accompanied by a recording of a song by controversial rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.

    “America is a Christian nation, so those terrorist Muslims can f*ck off to any of the 57 Muslim nations. There is only one true God, and that is the God of Israel,” she said.

    “I will end islam (sic) in Texas so help me God…” Gomez wrote in her X post, asking for support for her campaign to “get to Congress.”’

    https://www.rt.com/news/623600-gop-candidate-burns-quran/

    Reply ↓
    1. Ben Panga August 28, 2025 at 1:06 am

       Is Texas wingnut Victoria Gomez the same as Missouri wingnut Victoria Gomez?

       GOP Secretary Of State Candidate Literally Burns Books In Twitter Post (HuffPo)
       Valentina Gomez, who said she believes books with LGBTQ+ themes are “grooming” kids, would oversee Missouri’s public library system if she wins.

       I can’t find a link just now but I think she’s also the same wingnut that posted a “shooting a pretend immigrant in the head” election video in 2024.

       Reply ↓
       1. The Rev Kev August 28, 2025 at 1:24 am

          When I was younger, they would send a van to pick up a person like that crewed by nice, polite men in white jackets and carrying butterfly nets. Now such people stand for office and all too often succeed.

          Reply ↓