The Vanishing Art Of Building Sacred Spaces Noema
Spider uses trapped fireflies as glowing bait to attract more prey British Ecological Survey
The Fascist History of Yoga Lit Hub
Compassionate Kayakers Push a Stranded 3,500 Pound Beluga Whale Safely Back Into the Ocean Laughing Squid
Climate/Environment
The risk that really matters isn’t on Wall Street Moving Day
Collapse of critical Atlantic current is no longer low-likelihood, study finds The Guardian
IT’S GOING TO BE HARDER TO AFFORD HOT SUMMERS Atmos
Extreme Heat Will Change You Nautilus
When bison have room to roam, they reawaken the Yellowstone ecosystem Phys.org
Pandemics
White House Picks RFK Jr. Deputy and Thiel Ally to Lead CDC: Reports NOTUS
Beyond Broken: What The CDC Crisis Tells Us About Public Health Jessica Wildfire
REVIEW: Everyone Else is Lying to You by Dr. Jonathan Howard, MD Pandemic Accountability Index
Water
Undersound: The Secret Lives of Ponds and the Mysterious Musicality of the World The Marginalian
South of the Border
From zero to a diverse arsenal: A look at Venezuela’s military drones Miami Herald
End of Bolivia’s leftist era leaves Chinese and Russian lithium deals in limbo Intellinews
GREEN CAPITALISM IN THE AMERICAS: FALSE SOLUTIONS, REAL THREATS Nacla
Brawl erupts in Mexico’s senate after debate over US military intervention to fight drug cartels The Guardian
Mystery surrounds $1.2 billion Army contract to build huge detention tent camp in Texas desert AP
Thailand- Cambodia
Thailand’s Constitutional Court sacks PM Paetongtarn for ethics violation Bangkok Post
India
Exclusive: India’s Russian oil imports set to rise in September in defiance of US Reuters
Syraqistan
All UN Security Council Members, Except US, Say Famine In Gaza Is ‘Man-Made Crisis’ DD News
New video reveals third strike in deadly ‘double-tap’ attack on Gaza hospital CNN
Israel is not isolated: A global web of oil and complicity The Cradle
***
Riyadh’s De Facto Boycott Drains Lebanon’s Economy, the State Bows Al Akhbar
***
Iran to Respond Appropriately to EU3’s ‘Illegal, Unjustified’ Move to Trigger Snapback Mechanism Tasnim
Why Europe’s ‘snapback’ miscalculation risks war, not diplomacy Amwaj
Dancing to Zionist tune: Australia’s diplomatic fallout with Iran on bogus anti-Semitic claims Press TV
Dr. Ebrahim Motaghi – associate of Ali Larijani:
Confirms the Shahid Rajaee Port incident in Bandar Abbas was the result of an Israeli attack.
Motaghi pointed to the strike as timed sabotage, 38 missiles fired at containers in Bandar Abbas just hours before the third round of… pic.twitter.com/d53T6orEMs
— Thomas Keith (@iwasnevrhere_) August 28, 2025
O Canada
Canada Considers Anti-Immigrant Bills as Haitian Immigrants in the US Flee North Truthout
European Disunion
EU moves closer to using Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine Politico
Hungary sues E.U. over decision to use frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine Meduza
Hungary Bans Ukrainian Commander over Druzhba Pipeline Attack Hungarian Conservative
Fascinating to watch someone else attempt to engage in diplomacy and reasonable dialogue with those people and become increasingly frustrated https://t.co/wpRq22J4lb
— Russians With Attitude (@RWApodcast) August 28, 2025
New Not-So-Cold War
Peace deal dead, new war drums beating for Ukraine Asia Times
It’s astonishing to me the number of Western manufacturers who’ve just waltzed into Ukraine in the last couple years to set up shop and expected their operations to be sacrosanct.
The Russians waited until this plant was done, with all investment complete, and then destroyed it. https://t.co/GvPtYU19np
— Armchair Warlord (@ArmchairW) August 28, 2025
Rheinmetall to invest over €1.5bn in Balkan munitions factories Intellinews
Kosovo, Albania and Croatia boost defense through purchases from the US Gazeta Express
‼️🇵🇱🇺🇦 Exit queues: Checkpoints are jammed after the border opened for men aged 18–22
▪️Eyewitnesses report that kilometer-long queues have already formed at all crossing points into Poland.
▪️After Kyiv’s decision to allow the “young generation” to go abroad, there were more… pic.twitter.com/HeHkDF2pqr— Zlatti71 (@Zlatti_71) August 28, 2025
Mass return of Ukrainians expected no earlier than 2027 — NBU Humanitarian Media Hub. From a few weeks ago, still germane?
Medvedev on Austrian Neutrality: “NATO’s Anschluss” Karl Sanchez
Russian Su-35 Intercepts U.S. Navy P-8 Recon Plane with Secretive New Radar System Military Watch
“Liberation Day”
US ends tariff exemption for small packages shipped from abroad, citing narcotics France24
Trump 2.0
A fresh executive order aims to ban unions at more federal agencies Government Executive
The Markets Won’t Save the Fed From Trump The Atlantic
Lisa Cook hints ‘clerical error’ to blame for any mortgage application discrepancy CNBC
Technocrats as handmaidens to authoritarianism – Pt 1 Ann Pettifor
Trump Is Running the Standard Purge and Control Playbook To Install Decline Ian Welsh
The best way to understand the Trump Administration’s foreign policy is to assume that there are different factions taking turns advancing their incompatible visions (or even doing so simultaneously) rather than to look for some hidden coherent master plan.
Here for Venezuela: https://t.co/lFXYJvnF4J
— Michael Hasin (@novussubsole) August 28, 2025
GOP Funhouse
GOP Investigation Pressures Wikipedia to Reveal Identities of Editors Accused of ‘Bias’ Against Israel Common Dreams
Democrats en déshabillé
A Dark Money Group Is Secretly Funding High-Profile Democratic Influencers Wired
Gates Foundation Quietly Cuts Ties With Firm Linked to Democrats New York Times
Police State Watch
ICE will ‘ramp up’ immigration raids in Los Angeles, other ‘sanctuary cities,’ border advisor says Los Angeles Times
ICE Continues to Detain Award-Winning Journalist Who Filmed Immigration Raids Truthout
Obama Legacy
Obama highlights ‘dangerous trends’ in police federalization, militarization The Hill
Always worth a reminder that Obama inherited ICE as a fledgling agency, increased its budget 300%, established a nationwide network of detention centres and expanded the ‘secure communities’ enforcement program from 14 counties under Bush Jr to all 3,181 jurisdictions in America https://t.co/eHEJy7UlH0
— Nate Bear (@NateB_Panic) March 16, 2025
Detailed Report Exposes Serious Threat of the Neoliberal, Trump-Lite ‘Abundance’ Agenda Common Dreams
Thanks, Obama! pic.twitter.com/cHxDEVIr4q
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) August 27, 2025
Mamdani
Zohran Mamdani Is Winning the Battle. Here’s How He Can Win the War. The Nation
Antitrust
Biden’s Antitrust Agenda Has Catalyzed the Rise of a New Legal Vanguard Law and Power
Imperial Collapse Watch
The multi-front war of the West against the Rest (of the World) GeoPolitiQ
Exclusive: Electromagnetic weapon zaps drone swarm in seconds Axios
Accelerationists
The Big Tech and Crypto War on State Law and Taxpayer Dollars Boondoggle
Sports Desk
Field of Dreams game is a good deal for Major League Baseball, even as MLB mistreats Iowa baseball fans Along the Mississippi
Class Warfare
UAW claims narrow win in BlueOval SK union vote ― but historic outcome is contested Louisville Courier Journal
Small Things, Big Waves Working Class Storytelling
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
“Mystery surrounds $1.2 billion Army contract to build huge detention tent camp in Texas desert’
Can’t they just reactivate the Internment camps that they held Japanese civilians in back during WW2? Surely there must still be a few still standing-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans#List_of_camps
Might be hard now to find cheap labour to refurbish those camps now as a lot of them would be internees.
Just get the detainees to build them instead of sitting there getting a suntan at the taxpayers’ expense .
You can pay them in food and phone calls.
Paul
Your suggestion sounds like way inmate Paul Rassiner described how the Nazis used the inmates at Dachau. Once they got the camp up and running they would use the inmates to build a satellite ‘camp’, Rinse and repeat. Was apparently used at all the Nazi work camps.
Then in 40 years we pass a pathetic reparations bill and build some memorials.
Manzanar in California is now a National Historic Site.
https://www.nps.gov/manz/index.htm
You can see it from the highway with the Sierras in the background. Ansel took pictures.
No alligators.
I’d imagine undocumented prisoners would rather enjoy one of our Japanese-American internment camps compared to the ad hoc prisons they are in now, as said concentration camps were largely self-ran, with a school, sporting activities, church, gardening, library, food warehouse, and more.
Buildings were wood and tarpaper construction, a bit cold when punishing winds came through the eastern Sierra in the winter, but probably would cost around $10.2 million to construct today, not $1.2 Billion.
All those near empty malls sitting around the country are perfect venues for the “FEMA Experience.”
It would also go a little way towards easing the severity of the commercial real estate mortgage crisis.
Then, since the ‘target demographic’ is “illegal,” and thus have no rights, the “guests” can be coerced into performing the labour of doing the needed “upgrades” to the facility.
What’s not to like?
Mantenense seguridad.
In said reimagined malls…
Would the food court lay down the law in who gets to eat that day?
LOL they literally are:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-ice-detention-site-migrants-japanese-internment-camp-1235414442/
“Japanese American groups blast use of Fort Bliss, former internment camp site, as ICE detention center”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/fort-bliss-japanese-americans-internment-camp-immigrant-detention-rcna226044
Lisa Cook hints ‘clerical error’ to blame for any mortgage application discrepancy CNBC
*******
I been trying to get a mortgage recently. They ask *a lot* of questions, some of them over and over again, and do a lot of redundant verification. Absolutely everything needs to be done exactly right in a specific way, and there are lots of questions. And it becomes exhausting if one applies for a few different mortgages to compare rates.
It is also the case that some of the boutique bankers that work in this area are not the sharpest tools in the shed, and they too make mistakes.
So I can see mistakes happening.
Advice: the best way to get a mortgage is if you have no debts, a high credit rating, $30,000+ for down payment, closing costs, and prepaids, and you have a single job that pays the same salary every single year with no bonus structure, and you have been at the same job for a long time.
Follow-up: it seems she referred to both her Atlanta home and her Michigan home as primary properties rather than investment properties. They can’t both be primary residences, and that would come with better mortgage terms, so big no no. An investment property typically requires a higher down payment, and lower debt to income ratio.
But, I can’t find if she signed those mortgages at different times. It may be that they were both primary residences when she got them, if she moved. The articles I’m seeing lack information.
What if she claims that her Michigan home is her summer home while her Atlanta home is her winter home. That way, they would be both primary residences.
I always associated having both a Summer residence and a Winter residence to old-time monarchic aristocracy (just look at the long lists of results that pop up in Wikipedia when looking for those terms).
The fact that Mrs Lisa Cook is totally oblivious of the impression she gives by claiming her “Winter” and “Summer” dwellings as primary residences makes her the typical aloof — even weltfremd — aristocrat.
I’ve got a winter home and a summer home, just as the Wukchumni did it back in the day.
Anybody with a home in SD. LA or SF could have pulled it off too, selling their spendy garage mahal in the Big Smokes and moving here, but nobody I know of did it besides me.
Plenty of snowbirds have an old paid off home up north and a trailer in the sunbelt where they spend 6 months. Not exactly the aristocracy.
I was in southern Spain one winter in the 80s and you could see swarms of northern Europeans arrive like clockwork in December to escape the cold of the north, not to return home til the arrival of spring. They mostly appeared to be older middle-class.
The semantics that you describe, even if legal, are why a lot of peeps hate the Dems.—-it’s just a different form of antipathy than the one the same people have directed at the GOP.
Pundits debating about how many primary homes can one disclose while folks recoil at their utilities or insurance bill cuz diversity
Not too many “have-nots” are going to shed tears for ms Cook. I’d say she’s toast.
Imo, the main issue here is using “fishing expeditions” to clear the way for political purposes. How many of our public figures have crystal clean records? The long standing bipartisan tolerance for corruption (e.g. insider trading) has created a well stocked fishing ground. I imagine few public figures would survive scrutiny.
“Weeding out corruption” has a lot of public support. Easy to see weaponizing it in order to rid the field of political foes with little public pushback. “Selective weeding”, this is what makes me nervous.
Or you work in one place and live in another with your partner then both properties can have the function of a primary residence.
Live by bullshite Lawfare – Stormy Daniels, the loan case just thrown out by the NYS Court of Appeals, etc – die by bullshite Lawfare.
When purchasing a 3 season cabin up in Maine as a vacation home 35 years ago, while having a primary residence in MA, I had to get a loan from a local bank for a second home that was 1-2 points higher in interest (20 years at 9.5%). Instead of Disneyland we took the kids to Maine. Eventually I was able to pay off the second home loan by refinancing my primary home with cash out to payoff the higher rate loan. The rules are simple for what constitutes a primary residence, she just fibbed.
States can be aggressive in assigning “residency” for income tax purposes, so you need to be a bit careful in what you claim.
17 years in mortgage banking and mortgage fraud investigations after the GFC. The 3 options on a mortgage application are primary residence, secondary residence or investment property. And it’s often the mortgage broker or lender that fills out the application for the borrower and borrower signs at closing. Many brokers will attempt to get their client the best possible terms as well to secure the business and they will often choose primary. BTW texas AG Ken Paxton has 3 primary residence applications. It happens often, and is rarely prosecuted.
That is not what Adam Levitin said and he is a top, arguably the top, US expert on mortgage securitization and security instruments.
The designation on the security instrument is principal, not primary residence. From his latest post:
https://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2025/08/that-mortgage-document-doesnt-say-what-you-think-it-says.html
A perfect example of a distinction WITH a difference. Thank you Yves.
Sorry, I have absolutely no sympathy for Ms. Cook.
When we made the last move, I had a mortgage on the house in which I was living in another state, and the mortgage on the new one. Both of which were listed as my primary residence – because this was a true statement. The difference for me is that we were moving and I was selling the old home as soon as I could. I had to fill out all kinds of affidavits, provide documents, etc at both closings to ensure that I was not making this up. My own experience in this type of matter makes it abundantly clear how farcical the whole “clerical error” excuse is.
This reeks of some kind of sweetheart loan deal for return of favors. I have no sympathy for that in our current environment given how hard it is for young people to afford homes. I certainly have no sympathy for this from someone who is going to be tasked with interest rates.
It is just another sign of the total corruption of every institution in the land.
The IRS has several metrics for determining things like primary residence. They will ask you to state how much time you spend in each place. They will ask where you are registered to vote. Even if you split your time between between multiple places that you own, one must be a primary if you’re claiming things related to a primary residence.
And as others have said… it’s the corruption stupid. It’s allegedly poorly paid public servants with multiple houses. It’s senators and others who earn a salary well above average with millions and millions in property assets, saying they need more. It’s Obama demolishing a black neighborhood and then saying “Abundance” is on his reading list. It’s the Abundance Bros claiming the problem we have is NIMBYism and a lack of construction when we’re swimming in houses right now. And we had lots of housing before! Just not where there were jobs.
These people take for granted that their misdeeds shouldn’t be the subject of scrutiny and then they throw bizarre stuff at Trump. Which fuels not only his persecution complex, but the authoritarian turn against institutions. The People hate the Government because the Government abuses the People. The Government takes advantage of things that are considered illegal when the People do them. Which is why there is no pity when people in the Government are torn down like this.
“White House Picks RFK Jr. Deputy and Thiel Ally to Lead CDC: Reports”
The guy is older than he looks in that photo as he was a speech writer in the George Bush era. He is also a biotech investor with no scientific training or medical degrees. Yessiree, sounds like he will fit in perfectly under RFK Jr.-
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/28/jim-oneill-cdc-profile
And when RFK Jr. wants his opinion, he will be sure to tell O’Neill what it is.
Imagine the money to be made in biotech when products can be put on the market with no oversight beyond Brain Worm says yes!
How is he a biotechnology investor, tho? His Wikipedia page has been refreshed for his new appointment so maybe not reliable. Main med investment seems to be vampirism and harvesting Adrenochrome from babies. Paywalled sourced put most of his investments in “productivity” software, systems, and software as service.
Looks like a loathsome weasel. Although you never can tell with photos.
Or beyond the oversight of, you know, the US military.
From Sasha Latypova.
https://sashalatypova.substack.com/cp/172229283
Re: the Common Dreams piece about Klein and Thompson’s ‘Abundance’:
Those quoted, from the Revolving Door Project and elsewhere refuting the ‘Abundance agenda’ took, I think, too long a route in their criticism. They might have simply taken some quotes from 80’s ‘conservatives’ and compared them to Klein’s scribblings. For example: Who wore it best? “Extreme taxation, excessive controls, oppressive government competition with business, frustrated minorities and forgotten Americans are not the products of free enterprise. They are the residue of centralized bureaucracy, of government by a self-anointed elite.” That’s Klein & Thompson, right? Nope, Ronald Reagan. Ok, how about: “Only [an Abundance] government will cut out the red tape, the bureaucratic interference, the lethal taxes which have so poisoned the business atmosphere of this country.” Our friends, right? Well, no, that was Margaret Thatcher.
Last night, I was reading a book called “The Yes Men: The True Story of the End of the World Trade Organization”. It is the story of a couple of guys who, on the basis of having created some convincing satiric websites, were invited as speakers representing the WTO; hilarity ensued. One aspect of their tale which is relevant here, although I’d recommend the book to all, is that despite the obvious satire, their audiences never seemed to grasp what they were doing and took them for serious WTO spokesmen, even as they complained that the American civil war disrupted efficient markets in the “industrial machinery” of the South and delivered presentations on how world hunger is essential to rationally functioning capitalism. I have often wondered how far one could get with such a project, if one were to deadpan it the whole way. I wrote a short story about it last year, but, again, reality puts the satirist to shame. No one could make up Klein and Thompson’s shameless, stupid act. Difficult to deal with the fact that we have such low-effort propaganda to parse.
I spent a dollar yesterday on an earlier 2012 book “Abundance – The future is better than you think” by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler.
Apparently Klein and Thompson are rehashing a theme that sells books.
Vicky Cookies:
There is some satire in the article. Note this quote from the report critical of “Abundance.”
Ahh, yes, let’s insist on many new houses in Winnetka, Fox Point, Lake Forest, and Wilmette. Apartment buildings, too, of six or eight stories. Like the privileged residents are going to allow that. Do I detect trolling?
The basic problem of the Abundance peeps, as I read the essays and articles that the Abundance “movement” is spawning, is that true abundance would examine the disastrous Gini coefficient of the U S of A and look for the underlying causes of the seriously skewed slicing up of the pie there.
True abundance means ending the endless wars, ending the war profiteering, and demilitarizing the U.S. police forces, for starters.
So the movement isn’t about abundance. As the Richard Kline essay archived here at Naked Capitalism points out, liberals don’t want change but they enjoy legalisms.
As to satire, no, satire truly does win out. The Abundance scam is the same old stuff that Sinclair Lewis satirized. Klein and Thompson are new, liberal Babbits. Social media, with the constant barrage of opinions, just tends to make the fog of endless opinion and the fog of delusion harder to cut through.
Hmmm. Fancy-shmancy antidote. I am getting “Venezuelan poodle moth,” or more Linnaean, Artace cribarius:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artace#“Venezuelan_poodle_moth”
Which ties in very neatly with Nick Corbishley’s post on the “coalition of the willing” for Venezuela.
Lepidopterous Easter egg?
Or: The U S of A is looking for poodles for big adventures in the Gulf of America, which I call the Gulf of Shrimp, because they are the original inhabitants. It’s a culinary land acknowledgment.
“The Winged Ones” came to mind.
‘Zlatti71
@Zlatti_71
‼️🇵🇱🇺🇦 Exit queues: Checkpoints are jammed after the border opened for men aged 18–22
▪️Eyewitnesses report that kilometer-long queues have already formed at all crossing points into Poland.
▪️After Kyiv’s decision to allow the “young generation” to go abroad, there were more than enough people wanting to check if the Cabinet’s resolution is working.
– RVvoenkor’
There will be people in the US and the EU tearing their hair out at this sight. They have been demanding for months now that Zelensky lower the conscription age so that those very same kids could be sent to the front as cannon fodder. And now they are getting away! Somebody stop them!
It’s gonna be a good week to be a sheet rock repairman in Lindsay Graham’s home town.
Kyiv putting pressure on NATO countries to put up or shut up.
It’s a mess.
A kilometre-long queue (of motor vehicles) is not so very long — until recently, a normal occurrence at US/Canada borders on long weekends.
Or the line at Mukilteo Ferry terminal in WA
They had a much longer queue north of Kiev in 2022, but it was inbound.
Interesting Construction Physics this week on Ford and the Model T.
https://www.construction-physics.com/p/ford-and-the-birth-of-the-model-t
Duly bookmarked for reading in a quieter moment. Thanks for that.
Fordham ~ Taylorism. Understanding the industrial development and the technology and efficiency gains is interesting. But Potter barely mentions the human aspects of Ford’s factories; they were hardly enlightened workplaces. The sweatshop aspects of factories, even today, are reminders of who controls the means of production and the surplus value of labor.
re: A Texas Congressman Is Quietly Helping Elon Musk Pitch a $760M Plan to Build Tunnels Under Houston to Ease Flooding – ProPublica
From the highlights:
“The Boring Co. has pitched building tunnels that are far smaller than what most studies have indicated the region would need to address its ongoing flooding issues.”
It’s all about the grift. / ;)
Speaking of which, Frontline looked into govt backed flood insurace provided by private insurance companies.
The Business of Disaster, broadcast in 2016, utube, ~1 hr.
Business of Disaster (full documentary) | FRONTLINE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZtXYXBEIn4
adding. Frontline had an episode about hurricanes and mitigation projects that aired this spring. One part was about the Houston flooding in Harvey. From watch that part, it looks like the Army Corps of Engineers built two large dams within the city to protect the surrounding areas.
However, developers were allowed to build within the dam reservoirs’ footprints, were allowed to build and develop within the reservoir. (In what world does that make any sense?) When Harvey and other big rains hit the reservoir filled up and then backed up into these new developments. The dam held but the water flowed out the back end of the reservoir.
I started this utube clip at the point where the talk is about Houston. It’s about 9 minutes long. (I don’t know how to stop utube clips, so know that the Houston segment ends after the correspondent talks with environmental lawyer Ken Blackburn and the screen goes to clouds in the sky.)
Hurricane Helene’s Deadly Warning (full documentary) | FRONTLINE
https://youtu.be/7P1qTwlGeuY?t=1973
Now Musk is proposing building tunnels that are too small. right….
Elon aside, Other cities have done this…
it isn’t as simples as: dig big holes, water go down.
America can’t do big infrastructure on-time, on-budget; not even St. Elon.
Capacity is a function of cross sectional area and slope of the pipe.
Pi times radius squared.
One 40- foot pipe carries more than 11 12- foot pipes.
Pi cancels so it’s (40/2)^2 / (12/2)^2, or 400/36=11.11.
People don’t understand math, and Musk is a moron.
See Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition by Bent Flyvbjerg, Nils Bruzelius. Big projects very often go over budget (see California’s “High-speed rail,” or Boston’s “Big Dig”). One correlation with bigger budgets: the promoters of the project profit from it. The bigger the budget, the bigger the profit….something the MIC has discovered too.
You got me runnin’, goin’ out of my mind
You got me thinkin’ that I’m wastin’ my time
Don’t bring interest rates down
No, no, no, no, no
Ooh-ooh-hoo
I’ll tell you once more before you kick me out the door
Don’t bring interest rates down
You wanna lower it with your hedge fund friends
I’m tellin’ you, it’s gonna to be a bitter end
Don’t bring interest rates down
No, no, no, no, no
Ooh-ooh-hoo
I’ll tell you once more before you kick me out the door
Don’t bring interest rates down
Don’t bring ’em down, groos
Don’t bring ’em down, groos
Don’t bring me down, groos
Don’t bring me down until 2026
What happened to the first term Trump I used to know?
You let your mind out somewhere down the road
Don’t bring interest rates down
No, no, no, no, no
Ooh-ooh-hoo
I’ll tell you once more before you kick me out the door
Don’t bring interest rates down
You’re always talkin’ ’bout your crazy executive privilege rights
One of these days, you’re gonna take it to crazy heights
Don’t bring interest rates down
No, no, no, no, no
Ooh-ooh-hoo
I’ll tell you once more before you kick me out the door
Don’t bring interest rates down
You’re lookin’ good, just like a snake in the grass
One of these days, you’re gonna have your last grasp, asp
Don’t bring interest rates down
No, no, no, no, no
Ooh-ooh-hoo
I’ll tell you once more before you kick me out the door
Don’t bring interest rates down, down, down, down, down
I’ll tell you once more before you kick me out the door
Don’t bring interest rates down
Don’t Bring Me Down. by ELO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rD-0tlGGPo&list=RD-rD-0tlGGPo
Making money cost more than virtually nothing could stop PE in its tracks.
“The Vanishing Art Of Building Sacred Spaces”
I don’t think that it ever vanished but morphed. Just look a those sacred spaces in those huge shopping malls. Some of them have massive open spaces several stories tall-
https://estatematee.com/evolution-of-shopping-mall/
And mammon is sacred, right?
The thing with sacredness is that it’s culturally defined (as can be seen with the bewildering variety on taboos and the like that anthropology has documented). I would concur that what is missing is not the “art of building sacred spaces”, but the recognition that what is sacred to this age is not what was sacred for ages past or different cultures. Is a ritual such as the chaos induced by Black Friday sales different in principle from, say, any particular religious expression of ecstasy?
That said, I wonder what are the theological implications of dead malls (which of course are a response to changing economic circumstances; but when isn’t the spread or decay of religion related to economic circumstances?) Is the people’s faith in the purchase and sale of goods wavering? Or is shopping on Amazon the final form of commodity-worship?
If you want to push it, you could say that today’s Sacred Spaces are actually Digital Sacred Spaces.
An example of a modern day sacred space would be these giant rave festivals such as Beyond Wonderland @ The Gorge in Washington St.
Everyone that camps there over 4-5 days and does hella drugs like Mollie, Acid, Shrooms, Ketamine, Coke, Weed, Uppers & Downers.
The altars are some of the latest and greatest visuals that would raise the bar even for James Cameron.
I like to believe that everyone believes in the sacredness of PLUR (Peace Love Unity Respect) but most of those attending are rich trust fund tech kids that build & maintain the Empire.
Thank you for the article, NC. I remember going to a Benedictine Monastery on one of those Grecian Hills and was like Holy Amazeballs Batman this is AMAZING!
Re: Exclusive: Electromagnetic weapon zaps drone swarm in seconds (Axios)
Puff piece for a company called Epirus. Although a pretty good seeming drone defence product.
The typically short Axios piece contains the line “Domestically, the Northeast’s drone madness late last year underscores how ill-prepared the U.S. is for a real overhead incursion”
Remembering my suggestion at the time that the drone madness was a Palantirish scheme to spur drone defence spending I looked up Epirus.
Founder is Joe Lonsdale, who co-founded Palantir with Thiel.
They are not subtle.
Agreed. The key sentence was where the CEO said ‘This platform is going to be needed at stadiums and at ports and at airports. The list goes on and on.’
Ka-ching!!
Which fits almost exactly with the ballyhooed December 12th hearings about the NJ Drones which helped change the legal framework.
https://homeland.house.gov/2024/12/12/unexplained-sighting-doj-fbi-cbp-witnesses-testify-on-ongoing-threats-posed-by-drones-discuss-current-counter-drone-authorities/
In the hearing, the DOJ and FBI witnesses left Congress and the American people with few answers on the mysterious sightings over New Jersey. However, it is clear that in the wrong hands, drone technology has the potential to negatively impact the essential mission of law enforcement agencies, disrupt our critical infrastructure or mass-spectator events such as NFL games, and even surveil sensitive U.S. military sites. This is especially true in the event that state and local law enforcement do not have the authorities needed to swiftly mitigate the threat. Earlier this year, the House Homeland Security, House Transportation and Infrastructure, and House Judiciary Committees introduced the bipartisan Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act of 2024, Congress’ strongest effort, to date, to build a counter-drone framework that will empower federal, state, and covered local law enforcement agencies to swiftly detect, track, and mitigate hostile drone use.
Imagine when Deputy Dufus has Gaza tested drone tech…
There is certainly nothing magic to electromagnetic anti-drone measures. This seems like a brute-force overdriving of the drone receiver front end using high intensity radio transmissions. In reality, you don’t even need to drive the radio front-end into compression. All you need to do is subject the drone to an incoming signal a bit higher than the expected signal from the control unit. The drone receiver automatic gain control will adjust to the stronger signal and the weaker control signal will drop out.
Drones typically operate on ISM bands: 433MHz, 2.45GHz and 5.8GHz. Control unit transmitters for commercial drones on 433MHz are limited to 10mW. On 2.45 and 5.8GHz, 100mW, so the signals that an anti-drone system need to overcome are not all that strong. Of course, “hardened” drone systems used by the military that have to overcome electronic warfare techniques rely on transmitters that are much more powerful and use spread-spectrum techniques to reduce interference and probability of signal interception.
No surprise about the Palantir connection. There is room at the trough for Mr. Lonsdale as well!
It seems that in Ukraine the really hardened drone systems (that don’t use fiber optics) engage AI control when they loose the control signal. I’m not sure, but think it actually originated from attempts to solve the problem of losing control when the drone dives under the radio horizon seconds before the hit.
I’ve also heard claims that some actually lock onto the incoming disruptive signal and turn themselves into Anti-Radiation Drones.
AI-enanced terminal guidance is done both because of radio horizon reasons, and jamming. Fiber optics fix both problems. Using another drone as a relay fixes radio horizon issues.
The radar looking devices (that could actually be repurposed radars) in the article are EMP weapons frying the electronics of drones that fly “too close to the sun”, and can’t have a range worth writing home about, because physics. It goes without saying that turning them on would instantly give position and attract enemy fire. I would rather take a laser, or something more conventional.
I’ve been assuming the “drone madness” was beta-testing some roll top cargo containers and psychoanalysis of ignorant public response via 911calls or direct action in order to finalize the design of the drone attacks in Russia and Iran.
The timing is right, and Trump said he knew what it was about but couldn’t say during the campaign.
Speaking of Palantir:
“Fox News guest Aaron Cohen pitched America’s “first-ever AI threat detection platform” for law enforcement. “It scrapes the internet 24/7 using an Israeli-grade ontology to pull specific threat language and then routes it to local law enforcement,” said Cohen, an American-Canadian actor and former Israel Defense Forces operative.
He also took to X to note that his “elite engineering team” includes those formerly with billionaire Peter Thiel’s Palantir, which the Trump administration has reportedly tapped to compile a database of Americans’ personal information.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fox-news-aaron-cohen-ai-threat-detection-mass-shootings_n_68afe3d8e4b0d635adb3e202?origin=bottom2-recirc
Kinda full circle back to Palantir’s roots pretending their software caught Bin Laden
As the Man says, “But to live outside the law, you must be honest”.
Palantir showed up in a random article along with many other tech companies. The concept of Continuity of Government is a new rabbit hole, and so are the Executive Orders and asset forfeitures.
Is there some shadow operation going on that is hidden from the public? As if there aren’t enough problems in the world.
I tried that article but my brain couldn’t get past the chatgpt style writing.
You’re as cold as iCE
You’re willing to sacrifice our laws
You never take advice
Someday you’ll pay the price, I know
I’ve seen it before, it happens all the time
You’re closing the door, you leave the world behind
You’re lusting for power, you’re throwing away
A fortune in feelings, but someday you’ll pay
You’re as cold as ICE
You’re willing to sacrifice our laws
You want paradise
But someday you’ll pay the price, I know
I’ve seen it before, it happens all the time
You’re closing the door, you leave the world behind
You’re creating a police state, you’re throwing away
A fortune in feelings, but someday you’ll pay
You know that you are
(Cold as ICE) As cold as ICE to me
(Cold as ICE)
You’re as cold as ICE
Cold as ICE, I know (you’re as cold as ICE)
Yes, I know
(You’re as cold as ICE) You’re as cold as ICE
Cold as ICE, I know (you’re as cold as ICE)
Oh, yes I know
Cold as Ice, by Foreigner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySb1f9zWJkQ&list=RD-rD-0tlGGPo
“Exclusive: Electromagnetic weapon zaps drone swarm in seconds”
Axios
https://archive.ph/zUz4x
Wonder if this would have changed any of the conclusions from the recent Coffee Break article
Sure some of these drones and what not may have AI but can they work when the electronics are fried? I have some doubts that Andruil or Palantir ever considered this
I believe the Russians are still way ahead of this in this part of electronic warfare as well
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/08/coffee-break-armed-madhouse-the-vanishing-soldiers.html
There’s several orders of magnitude between jamming a control radio link and ‘frying electronics’ to where an AI autonomous software would be affected. Think along the difference between a (literal) fly swatter and an artillery shell. ‘Frying electronics’ is normally associated with nuke generated EMP. If nukes are flying, AI controlled drones are not going to be high on your worry list.
“EU moves closer to using Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine”
Kaja Kallas thinks that this is a great idea so that should be all the warning that you need. What would be the consequences if the EU did this? Well the EU could kiss the Euroclear goodby as who would entrust them with any money transfers. It would be like storing your gold in the Bank of England. Then there would be a slow, steady whooshing sound as people pulled their investments out of the EU as it suddenly become a high-risk place to keep your money. Russia would sue the EU into the ground as the law would be on their side but they may first seize all EU assets in the Russian Federation which I believe adds up to more than what the EU will seize. I know what the EU is thinking. They think that if they give Zelensky that $280 billion for “reconstruction”, that he will kick a huge chunk of it back to EU construction firms who have ties with certain parties. Von der Leyen Construction Corporation anybody? But then I spotted this bit in that article-
‘As a compromise, G7 countries in 2024 agreed to funnel a total of €45 billion in profits generated by investing the assets to Ukraine, while leaving the underlying assets untouched.’
Those frozen assets are probably only generating two or three billion annually so are they calculating the interest over the next twenty years or so? Using the original $280 billion as “collateral”? As a wise man once said, numbers are sharp things and when you attempt to juggle them that is when you can cut yourself up.
They have been moving closer and closer since forever, but never seem to get there. Sounds like the EU version of Zeno’s Paradox of the Tortoise and Achilles, as understood by Annalena Baerbock.
It strikes me that the Eurocrets have been running around saying that, after the Ukraine SMO, Russia will come after them, and their repeated criminal behaviour is likely to make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. Maybe the Russians will be satisfied by spiriting away the key politicians and officials, military and otherwise, who deliberately set the murderous events in of Maidan in train and bringing them to trail in Russia and the Ukraine. This will also have the advantage of relieving the people of Europe from the incompetent élites who play their expensive, spiteful and tragic little games, like Wagner’s greedy and opportunistic Gods, mindful only of their own interests, and repeatedly, selfishly and stupidly refusing to consider the peace terms offered before the SMO began, at the expense of all the peoples of Europe, and not least those of the Ukraine and the Russian Federation.
Perhaps if the Russian were to march through Berlin and re-enter Paris again, some rather more sensible European politicians might see the benefits of creating a security architecture which takes the interests, not just of Russia seriously, but the interests of all the peoples Europe by enabling each village, city, region and state to focusing on providing free education and training, adequate quality food for everyone, much of it grown locally, free healthcare and nursery provision, full employment with good conditions and a decent and regular wage with local businesses meeting local needs wherever they can, and effective social security systems for the ill and disabled, pensioners and the unemployed in a war free Europe. Then we might see a real boost in productivity, prosperity and contentment. And if that’s not enough, we can always throw in hanging the rich.
Someone should tell musk Houston is only 79′ above sea level
With a very high water table, and a subsidence problem. The pumps alone that would be needed for this system would have sky-high costs to build and maintain. A lovely challenge and a fat contract for the boring company, but, really. Musk should get his ADHD under control and stop looking for new projects.
Don’t know that it is much different from the New Orleans water control, except New Orleans is all surface/canal. Just from eyeballing the pump stations I would estimate the lift to be around 25 feet. Here on Oahu they bored a 5 mile, 10 ft diameter tunnel to connect two sewer stations.
“Dancing to Zionist tune: Australia’s diplomatic fallout with Iran on bogus anti-Semitic claims”
Yeah, this was a fiasco of our PM’s making. A coupla days ago there were huge pro-Palestinian demonstrations all around Oz as everybody can see what Israel is doing no matter what spin the media put on it. At the same time our PM was having a bun fight with Netanyahu and the gist seemed to be that for Bibi, Oz was not being loyal to Israel even though we are still shipping military gear to them such as F-35 parts. So our PM did the only thing that he could. He rolled over and exposed his belly. Made up a bs story of how Iranians were doing vandalism in Oz against Jewish people and so bravely kicked out the Iranian Ambassador. And the proof our PM offered was intelligence reports but they were so secret that we can’t be allowed to see them. Now most people are realizing the real reason is that these were Mossad reports and that we just burned our relations with Iran just so our PM could demonstrate his loyalty to Israel in spite of Aussies despising them. Our PM is just another gutless wonder.
Most people are surprised to learn that Tehran has a population of about 20000 of the Jewish Faith (not race, there is no such thing), with four Synagogues, and live in peace as ‘People of the Book.’
The article does not mention that the commander in question is infamous Magyar (meanig Hungarian), that came into limelight because of chemical weapons.
P.S. I tried posting a link to a video, but it doesn’t budge.
“Exclusive: India’s Russian oil imports set to rise in September in defiance of US”
For some reason, there sees t be a lot of people in the Trump regime that have a bee in the their bonnet over India especially Peter Navarro. Forget the fact that the US has spent the past twenty years trying to ally with India against China. Navarro was saying ‘I mean, it is essentially Modi’s war because the road to peace runs, in part, through New Delhi’ as India is still buying Russia’s oil. He went on to say that if India stopped buying Russian oil, then the US would graciously drop tariffs from 50% to “only” 25%. He made no friends in Delhi when he called India a ‘laundromat for the Kremlin.’ And just to put the boot in, he told Bloomberg TV ‘What’s troubling to me is that the Indians are so arrogant about this. They say: ‘oh, it’s our sovereignty, we can buy oil from anyone when we want. I’m puzzled, ok? Modi’s a great leader… this is a mature democracy with intelligent people running it, and they look us boldfaced in the eye… they say: ‘we’re not going to stop buying Russian oil.’ Since Trump is not yanking the leash on people like Navarro, then you can assume that he is going along with it. At the next meeting of AUKUS, will India even bother turning up? Or will we start to see the Indian and Chinese navies drilling together in the Pacific-
https://www.rt.com/india/623649-indians-arrogant-trump-trade-aide/
It, the Kievan scheme is US against BRICS!
80th anniversary of VJ is ignored in US. 3 Sep Xi, Putin and Kim will celebrate with big parade in Beijing.
That day Trump will probably demand the fed cut rates into very strong PCE for July.
It remains to be seen whether appointing morons to high positions will pay off.
My guess is no. But I’ve been wrong many times.
re: Craig Murray on Novichok and Salisbury
seems like a must!
The Salisbury “Novichok” False Flag
Here are Tim Norman, Patrick Henningsen and myself discussing the Skripal charade, at the Beautiful Days Festival near Exeter. At the start 90% of the audience said they believed the official narrative. At the end 80% had changed their mind.
76 min.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2025/08/the-salisbury-novichok-false-flag/
Thanks for the link AG. It’s a gem.
Just what old Helmer was saying for the last so many I lost the number years.
I will counteroffer with Murray’s another gem, on how the venerated U.K. courts lubricate the Gaza genocide by suppression of free speech. With Court of Appeal, no less, on standby.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2025/07/we-accept-of-course-that-it-is-draconian-and-deliberately-so/
Thanks for highlighting!
Can´t always keep up with new posts.
I wish I had seen Craig Murray was at the local festival. I’d like to buy that man a drink and swap Novichok jokes.
Am still angry with myself for not attending Craig´s visit to Berlin during his film tour for the Assange documentary.
Re GREEN CAPITALISM IN THE AMERICAS: FALSE SOLUTIONS, REAL THREATS
The same processes and methods are applied to the EU periphery. Local communities are increasingly organizing and networking in order to fight back, but often it’s an uneven battle.
“It’s astonishing to me the number of Western manufacturers who’ve just waltzed into Ukraine in the last couple years to set up shop and expected their operations to be sacrosanct.
The Russians waited until this plant was done, with all investment complete, and then destroyed it.” https://t.co/GvPtYU19np
What’s the insurance fall out in all of this?
Most private insurance policies explicitly deny claims for damage resulting from acts of war.
Now, if those foreign firms had a sweet deal, mediated by lobbyists, with their country’s public investment guarantee fund…
That is the way to do it. Wait for the other guy to spend all his money kitting up the joint and then set it on fire. Costs of construction v destruction 100:1.
Flex last week, Baryaktar today.
Rheinmetall is still under construction so let’s all watch this space in about six months.
Most telegram channels indicate that this 5he 4th time the Russians have hit that work in progress.
Interesting the US Navy P-8 doing ground surveillance, moving target and synthetic aperture imaging radar missions.
These missions were done by USAF E-8C with much older technology.
The P-8 with newer radar probably does the mission better.
One technical note from the article. The radar antenna assembly is lowered from its stowed position for landing and take off. This is because the B-737 off the shelf aircraft’s fuselage is too short for the antenna designed to do the radar missions, The engines restrict the width of the radar scan unless the antenna is below plane of engines. This is from short fuselage (you cannot move the nose wheel forward)….. and engine placement and size. E-8 was B-707 much longer fuselage and relatively smaller engine diameter.
USAF should let the US Navy do the E-8 mission.
That’s useful info. I saw the video, and got interested by donward protruding antenna, but could not see images of it on Wikipedia page. Russians have “under the belly” anntena on a helicopter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Russian_Navy_Kamov_Ka-31.jpg
A bit more research.
The subject new radar on P-8 is AN/APS 154.
It has a predecessor AN/APS 149, ground surveillance radar which was installed on P-3C late 20000’s. Both are application of newer radar technology with better transmit receive functions and steerable beams, etc.
P-3 engine is propeller, and the antenna on P-3 does not have to be lowered.
Image if the P-8 extended antenna failed to stow before landing….. These antenna are quite costly.
P-8 have been roaming the Black Sea lately, suggesting US is providing intel….
What’s amazing to me is how the American MIC can spend so much on surveillance to learn the “real” facts on the ground, but somehow America still ends up with multiple Presidents that seem stuck in 1992. Just what kind of briefings are they getting?
Trump says it may be better to let Ukraine and Russia ‘fight for a while’
https://www.npr.org/2025/06/06/nx-s1-5425195/trump-ukraine-russia-putin-merz
The same Presidential advisor that told Trump to say that inanity probably tells his children that he gave the sun permission to come up tomorrow morning. His kids know he’s lying.
First one is tactics, and second is strategy.
Israel is not isolated: A global web of oil and complicity – The Cradle
And, if push comes to shove, China seems prepared to deal with a Greater Israel in the region.
Re: Tent Camp in Texas.
This is the most transparent administration in the history of the US.
How do we know that? Because they said so.
re: “Everyone Else Is Lying to You”
“Liars do not fear the truth if there are enough liars.” -Fox Mulder, The X-Files
I hadn’t heard that quote before but I’d like to have it on a bumper sticker…
“A liar always knows he is lying, and that is why liars travel in packs: in order to be reassured that the judgment day will never come for them. They need each other for the well-being, the health, the perpetuation of their lie.” – James Baldwin
You could substitute PMCer for liar in that quote and not change the meaning one iota!
Re: CDC
He had his hand on the Bible, so it must be all good.
Re: Democrats en déshabillé
The Weimar Democrats will not save you.
But they’re all in for Cabaret 2.0!
Tickets may need to be discounted.
I just love those fuzzy moths in the antidote! Delightful little creatures. Those antennae look like they could pick up wifi and radio signals
You don’t know that they aren’t.
In GHz range.
I worried they were made up. So glad to know they’re real creatures. Adorable! And here’s hoping they receiving some good tunes with those antennae.
I think they may be flannel moths based on the antennae shape but there are multiple species of cute fuzzy moth. a commenter above mentions the venezuelan poodle moth as another possibility but there is a lot of dispute online about whether that is ‘real’ or just an Artace genus subspecies. The big antennae shape is a feature of Lasiocampidea family.
Strange and comical that European countries, at the behest of Israel, are setting the stage for another attack on Iran.
We learned vividly in the last Israeli attack on the country that no one is in a good position to use military force against Iran. European countries have let their own militaries decompose into virtual nothings over the last several decades, and Israel itself is facing multiple military crises, a collapsing economy and shortage of military personnel. Iran was revealed to have a vast network of storage facilities deep underground where missiles and nuclear facilities have been relocated and which are beyond the reach of even US “bunker buster” bombs, which in any case turn out to be in very short supply. Iran also demonstrated a vast missile armory, including hypersonics, which can reach anyplace in Israel or any US military base in the region, and the US military has shown it cannot even thwart attacks from the Houthi, let alone the vast and heavily populated country of Iran.
Israel, a tiny country wide open to the sky, should thank it’s lucky stars that the Iranians did not carry out an effort to seriously damage the country. Israel is only a few power stations, desalination plants, and shipping ports away from looking like Ukraine and has few friends that will come to its aid. It should hunker down and keep a low profile rather than encouraging the remainder of its citizens to emmigrate and it’s high-tech industrial base to flee. The IAEA has been completely discredited, feeding much of its information to Israel and the US for targeting, and Iran has no motivation to take steps to restore the JPCOA treaty terms.
For everyone’s sake, I hope cooler and more sensible heads will prevail before another attack triggers widespread destruction in the region.
We have no ‘cooler and more sensible heads.’
For what it’s worth Russia considers Europe’s “snapback” illegal:
Meanwhile, Russia and China are pushing for UNSC resolution for a 6 month “technical delay” on Resolution 2231.
More like a snapback calculation in preparation for war.
And they busy themselves trying to get another front open on Russia:
“The multi-front war of the West against the Rest (of the World)” GeoPolitiQ
Finally, moving to the Caucasus and, more specifically, to Georgia, Kakha Kaladze, former football player and now mayor of the capital Tblisi and secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia party, accused Western countries to keep trying to open a second front against Russia in the region. Citing Georgian Pirveli TV channel, Russian news media outlets Izvestia and TASS quoted him as saying:
“The office of the Prime Minister of Georgia received direct threats, blackmail, and insults – all aimed at coercing the country into opening a “second front”. They assured us they would provide everything, including military equipment and assistance.
He also said that Georgian authorities are ready to disclose details of these “negotiations”, to substantiate their claims, but he added that…
However, considering the country’s best interests, it is preferable to keep these matters confidential for now…”
Division of labor.
And if Georgia had agreed to set their country on fire to fight the Russian bear, where would all that Western ‘military equipment and assistance’ come from? They don’t even have enough to send to the Ukraine. Once more Georgia would be left spinning in the wind.
Re: AMOC
Worth reading up on. Essentially, the waters circulate up the East Coast from the Bahamas, which allows such things as swimming in New York and Coney Island (as opposed to the frigid waters they have on the West Coast from Alaska, which cool SanFran). The water evaporates, but leaves heavier salt water, which forms a ‘whirlpool/depression’ which can be seen from satellites. Then it continues down across Africa and into the Pacific.
And yes, if it stops, Europe and the UK will freeze.
Re Obama reaches for the “Abundance” pony:
As I used to tell my congresscritter when I cornered him at the county Democratic convention each year, “There will never be widespread, generally shared prosperity, until you destroy Wall Street.”
He never was interested in discussing how the entire economy had become subject to rent extraction usury, and speculation.
That is not an economy. That is simply looting.
RE:
Kevin Walmsley‘s comparison of 70b for Chinese built railway in Brazil v 70b in NY, 70b in UK and 86b in CA.
I happen to have professional interest in the UK spending the £70b it doesn’t have on a flawed railway project. This one is a testament to government’s stupidity, largesse with taxpayers money and most gallingly, total absence of strategic thinking. Or worse of course.
While some engineering elements look very nice (beautiful sequence of bridges around Denham for example), the whole concept is wrong. Instead of reconnecting two already well connected cities (London and Birmingham), the UK engineering community is in unison that this money would have been much better spent connecting properly east to west, this is Liverpool to Manchester to Leeds to Hull, with future links going north to Newcastle and Scotland.
I don’t know enough about NY and CA projects and it would be very interesting to hear some US based engineers’ views.
Having seen photos and technical reviews of numerous infrastructure projects that Chinese built over the last 10-15 years, I have no doubt the Peru – Brazil link will be another art piece.
Agreed. HS network should have run north-south up the flat arable land of East England.
– London-Peterborough-Leeds-Newcastle-Carlisle with branches north to Falkirk (For Edinburgh and Glasgow) and Inverness and west to Stranraer and Belfast (Boris bridge!).
With cross-lines:
– Liverpool-Machester-Leeds-Hull
– Birmingham-Peterborough-Norwich
And a connection at London to Eurostar.
It should never have run through the Home Counties and the SE-NW hill spine of the UK. It should have minimised journey time between.UK extremities and east west and connected London to Birmingham and Manchester via longer routes (because their journey time would not be much longer, it is high speed after all, the capacity would be equally increased, and the route would make national and not local sense).
I had a professional interest in HS1. In my opinion much of the problems stem from the failure at the time to think clearly about how the line would run north from Kings Cross/Euston Station. It was clear that something should have been constructed at the time to allow for a tunnel north, but nobody had an interest in paying for it. Much of the problems and projected high cost comes from there being no clear easy option to connect the two, which was supposed to be the whole point of it.
As for the route – it’s pretty clear that there wasn’t enough strategic thought given to how to create a new network – as. you say, it essentially replicates an existing route. The whole point of a well designed HSR should be to release capacity on existing lines to improve the entire system. HS2 also suffers from some of the issues with HS1, in that it was designed as an alternative to business class flying, rather than as a real high capacity transport link. To this day, it is still grossly underused due to poor operational thinking.
The Brazil Peru proposal, btw, is purest BS. It makes no financial or economic sense, and would be an environmental catastrophe for the Amazon. There is a logical way to improve South American lines and that is to link existing Argentinian networks to existing (very substandard) lines in Peru and Chile – this could be done at a tiny fraction of the cost and would actually make some sense, as it links existing nodes and harbours and the copper/lithium of the Andes high plains. The Brazil line is essentially a mechanism for the Chinese to get the Brazilians to pay them to build something that benefits China. A good trick if you can do it, but it makes no sense for Brazil or Peru.
Just announced by the Trump administration…
All expectant mothers who give birth this September 1st will be given a $10,000.00 bonus in the ‘Make it a Labor Day to Remember’ sweepstakes.
Chapter 22:
Spirit Airlines files for bankruptcy again (second time in the past 2 years)
Goin’ on up to the Spirit in the sky
Spirit in the Sky
When I die and they lay me to rest
Gonna go to the place that’s the best
When I lay me down to die
I’m off to see the Judge and like Spirit I’ll still fly
Chorus:
Goin’ up like Spirit I’ll still fly
To bankruptcy court where equity dies (equity dies!)
When corporate citizens die and they lay ’em to rest
You’re gonna go to that place shareholders detest
Prepare yourself, you know it’s a must
Gonna have a reorganization
So you know that when you die
Your business gets rightsized while the shareholders get fried
[Chorus]
[Musical Interlude]
I’m a Wall Street sinner, my balance sheet sinned
I’ve got a friend in USC Chapter Eleven
So you know that when I die
The judge’ll fix me up so like Spirit I’ll still fly
Oh set me up with a haircut for bond guys
To bankruptcy court where equity dies
When I die and they lay me to rest
I’m gonna go to that place you”ll detest
Most Trump tariffs are not legal, US appeals court rules
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/most-trump-tariffs-are-not-legal-us-appeals-court-rules-2025-08-29/
I think some judges are gonna get fired.
re: 2 film reviews of Sy Hersh doc by Poitras / Venice
‘Cover-Up’ Review: Laura Poitras’s Enthralling Portrait of Seymour Hersh Makes You Ask: Where Have All the Investigative Reporters Gone?
Fifty years later, the stories that Hersh reported — like the My Lai massacre — now look iconic. But the documentary captures how uncovering corruption is always a mountain to climb.
https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/cover-up-review-seymour-hershlaura-poitras-1236500545/
+
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/cover-up-review-laura-poitras-sharp-doc-seymour-hersh-1236344685/
SHTF across Indonesia
Parliament building in Makassar torched. Police stations attacked.
Indonesia Protests Surge Overnight, Leaving at Least Three Dead (Bloomberg)
https://archive.is/lhO9Y [de-paywalled]
Three killed in fire at Indonesian government building blamed on protesters
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/30/three-killed-in-fire-at-indonesian-government-building-blamed-on-protesters