400-mile chain of ‘fossilized volcanoes’ found buried deep under South China Interesting Engineering
This Millipede’s Secretions Could Help Target Brain Disorders, Scientists Say StudyFinds
Climate/Environment
Sea Level Mis-information from DOE Open Mind
How the DOE and EPA used and misused my researchThe Climate Brink
Heatwaves test Europe’s electricity system as air conditioning use soars FT
Bear trouble in Sierra Madre: After the Eaton fire, home invasions rise sharply Los Angeles Times
Pakistan monsoon rains death toll rises to 299, including 140 children Anadolu Agency
Kerr County emergency coordinator says he was sick and asleep when floods hit Texas NBC News
Pandemics
Study Shows a Need for Vigilance When Observing Long COVID Symptoms in Younger Children Rutgers Today. Commentary:
2/
but their symptoms often differ from older children.
Symptoms like fussiness, poor appetite, difficulty sleeping, and coughing were more common in the youngest group, making it easy for clinicians & caregivers to miss the diagnosis. #PublicHealth pic.twitter.com/oblp0xMcN6— Roger Gustafsson WHN|bsk.social (@RogerGustafsso2) August 2, 2025
Absolutely wild end of term marketing in a Boots chemist near me.
“Thank you teacher!
*cough*
For letting our kids infect you *cough*
& your family over the last year.
Have some Benylin.
*cough cough*
You’re great!”Great teachers (& kids) deserve clean air not cough syrup. pic.twitter.com/rbzUVYIcrq
— Augusta Lees (@AugustaLees) August 1, 2025
Now why do you think trials are starting into using HIV antivirals to treat people infected with SARS-CoV-2?
See below.
Could it be that both viruses have similar impacts on human health? https://t.co/pCCx4Ebnat
— Alan Barnard (@alanbarnard1) August 1, 2025
City doctors blame ‘long Covid’ for severe viral infections that have laid Kolkata low Times of India
Neuropsychiatric Risks Linked to COVID-19 Revealed Bioengineering.org
China?
China Is Choking Supply of Critical Minerals to Western Defense Companies WSJ
America’s Monopoly Crisis Hits the Military The American Conservative. From 2019, still germane.
How Russia Made China’s J-20 Stealth Fighter A ‘Powerhouse’ National Security Journal
Stop Crying Over the China “Trap” Pekingnology
China after Communism: Preparing for a Post-CCP China Hudson Institute. From a few weeks ago, but a useful glimpse at US delusions.
How Robust Is China’s Energy Security? Cener for Strategic and International Studies
China’s first compact nuclear reactor now powers 500,000+ homes Glass Almanac
China state media asks Nvidia to prove H20 chips are secure Business Times
India
India To Maintain Russian Oil Imports Despite Trump Threats Reuters
Top Trump aide accuses India of financing Russia’s war in Ukraine Straits Times
To further tech manufacturing, India rethinks China blockade The Indian Express
Africa
US Launches Airstrikes Against al-Shabaab During Major Battle in Somalia Antiwar
Cholera kills 80, infects over 2,100 in Sudan’s Darfur: UNICEF Anadolu Agency
Old Blighty
Asylum hotel protests are spreading. Who’s really behind them? The Big Issue
Revealed: How foreign billionaires pump millions into British politics Democracy for Sale
Syraqistan
All these genocidal monsters are putting out the same tweet painting the holocaust regime as the victim and demonizing a people fighting for their lives. It’s all a coordinated campaign to justify the Zionist regime’s Final Solution https://t.co/9LTRW9POzc
— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) August 3, 2025
Sixteen More Palestinians Starve to Death in Gaza in Three Days Due to Israeli Siege Antiwar
Today was the largest invasion of settlers into Al-Aqsa since 1967.
There’s been almost complete international silence about the decimation of the status quo in Hebron’s Cave of the Patriarchs. Same about the growing erasure of Al-Aqsa’s status quo. I’m afraid we’re heading… https://t.co/pZQggNhLe1
— B.M. (@ireallyhateyou) August 3, 2025
;
Mike Johnson at the Kosel: ‘May America Always Stand with Israel’ Matzav
To recap: Israeli settler murdered a Palestinian on camera
Israel then took hostage the body of the dead Palestinian, kidnapped his relatives & exonerated the Israeli shooter!
Reminder: Israel’s conviction rate of Palestinians is 99.74% & the conviction rate of settlers is 1.8% pic.twitter.com/dXClP62U3r
— Muhammad Shehada (@muhammadshehad2) August 3, 2025
American Nurse Who Tried to Save “No Other Land” Activist Was Detained and Deported by Israel The Intercept
Israel Activates Its Cells Consortium News
What Can Be Done to Stop the Genocide of the Palestinians? Larry Johnson
***
Examining the Mistrust Between Iran & Pakistan The Asia Cable
Iran, Pakistan ink 12 cooperation deals to boost trade and regional connectivity The Cradle
European Disunion
It is not enough to leave the EU: it must be destroyed GeoPolitiQ
Ai Wei Wei was commissioned to reflect on Germany for Zeit Magazine, but they seemingly didn’t like his reflections and killed the article. He shared them: pic.twitter.com/zO0Pot8Mi4
— James Jackson (@derJamesJackson) August 1, 2025
New Not-So-Cold War
Ukraine urges Trump admin to ‘strangle’ Russian economy amid nuclear tensions ABC News
Ukraine says multiple officials detained in drone corruption probe Anadolu Agency
Germany Announces Urgent New Patriot Missile Deliveries to Ukraine ‘Within Days’ Military Watch
SITREP 8/3/25: Trump’s Sub Scare Can’t Eclipse Ukraine’s Pokrovsk Collapse Simplicius
L’affaire Epstein
Ghislaine Maxwell Seems to Have New Friends in High Places Common Dreams
Spook Country
Kash Patel’s girlfriend slaps down conspiracies that she’s a secret Israeli ‘honeypot’ agent Daily Mail
What happens when a cutout is cut out All-Source Intelligence
Trump 2.0
‘Unfit and Unqualified’: Senate GOP Confirm Pro-Trump ‘Attack Dog’ Jeanine Pirro as US Attorney Common Dreams
Trump to announce new Fed governor, labor statistics chief this week Axios
Democrats en déshabillé
Two-Party Duplicity ZZ’s Blog
Texas House Democrats flee the state in bid to block GOP’s proposed congressional map Texas Tribune
The Supremes
Umpires No More New York Review of Books
Police State Watch
Bush Lawyers’ Legal Arguments for Guantánamo Bay Paved the Way for CECOT Truthout
Guess Who’s Eligible for Student Loan Forgiveness: New ICE Agents The Intercept
Accelerationists
In case you missed it, the sovereign nation of Iran is not allowed to enrich uranium because it can’t be trusted.
But private corporations, WHICH ABSOLUTELY CAN BE TRUSTED, will now be able to. pic.twitter.com/Kwv4AhidfF
— Greg J Stoker (@gregjstoker) July 31, 2025
Imperial Collapse Watch
Microsoft Used China-Based Engineers to Support Product Recently Hacked by China ProPublica
U.S. Navy Battleships Won’t Ever Make A Comeback National Security Journal
A Christian Nation Phantom Heresy
War Is a Global Health Catastrophe MedPage Today
Our Famously Free Press
Corporation for Public Broadcasting says it will shut down after Congress cut money NBC News
The destruction of the CPB won’t get rid of NPR and PBS
It will make them more dependent on the sources of funding that ruined them (NGOs and the tech sector)
They will survive and become even worse
— Benjamin Studebaker (@BMStudebaker) August 2, 2025
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Guillotine Watch
How Flying on a Private Jet Became the No. 1 Marker of Real Wealth WSJ
The Bezzle
The AI bubble is so big it’s propping up the US economy (for now) Blood in the Machine
AI Agents have, so far, mostly been a dud Gary Marcus
Class Warfare
Boeing defense union poised for its first strike since 1996 Seattle Times
WE CAN’T ARREST OUR WAY OUT OF HOMELESSNESS Other Words
Some Problems Won’t Be Solved HOGELAND’S BAD HISTORY
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
80 comments
Comments are closed.
‘Ali Abunimah
@AliAbunimah
All these genocidal monsters are putting out the same tweet painting the holocaust regime as the victim and demonizing a people fighting for their lives. It’s all a coordinated campaign to justify the Zionist regime’s Final Solution”
This is all crazy. Israel the US, France, Germany, etc. are going nuts at the sight of emaciated Israeli hostages and are outraged at the ‘inhumanity’ of Hamas and calling it ‘vile’, ‘sickening’ and ‘inhumanity without bounds’. Hamas is pointing out that those hostages are eating what everybody else is in Gaza meaning that they won’t starve to death a coupla dozen people to ensure that those hostages stay fat. But Netanyahu won’t do anything and is saying that the solution will be total victory in Gaza whatever that means but we know he will get the needed cover-
Caitlin Johnstone
@caitoz
Western officials: Israel is defending itself
Israeli officials: We’re doing genocide
Western officials: They’re following the laws of war
Israeli officials: We’re gonna do way more genocide
Western officials: It’s a measured response to 10/7
Israeli officials: Yep, kill ’em all.
https://x.com/caitoz/status/1718404679644905877
This is from 2021 and these days, Slotkin is more accurately a Likud Democrat.
Sorry, am removing from Links.
Ghislaine Maxwell has friends in high places. Will her new friends, that she eventually or hypothetically make share in their steak and lobster evening meals ala the Henry Hill scenes out of Goodfellas? \sarc
American justice system 101. So it goes, the Tallahassee facility just sounds ” so inviting ” for a prison sentence.
I wouldn’t want to be the insurance company that has the policy on Ghislaine Maxwell’s life. If “something” happens to her they will claim that she topped herself and as proof they will say how she was influenced by so many people in her life self-deleting. Her father, her “business” partner and even a chief witness against her here in Oz. It all proved too much for her and one night in despair she threw herself to her death from her ground floor apartment. And after, her body will be taken straight to the crematorium because of “family wishes.” Such a tragic victim.
Actually, that might be why these suicides keep being the MO of elite hits…to protect the insurance company, who would have to pay out for, say, mysterious drownings.
Here’s a companion piece for today’s second Epstein article. From Wired, 2008, Two AI Pioneers. Two Bizarre Suicides. What Really Happened?.
The two pioneers were Push Singh and Chris McKinstry.
Hot take? AI is bad for your health.
…how does one drown in a jail cell?
I was thinking about the Boeing whistle blower, as well. Point was make sure cause of death is a policy exclusion.
Toilet water?
Hollywood has all manner of low quality to better than anticipated entertainment answering such questions, after all where would find ourselves in October without the works on film by a Wes Craven or a John Carpenter?
Think of those headlines a few days before Halloween….Maxwell suddenly finds herself in the after life and it’s not in a Rob Zombie reboot …
…and landed on an exploding bomb!
Admittedly, Chancellor Merz is a signal as to why Germans should never be issued guns, yet this quote from the TwiXt above is worth highlighting:
I am appalled by the images of Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski. Hamas is torturing hostages, terrorising Israel and using Gaza’s population as a human shield. The images show that Hamas should have no role in Gaza’s future.
How many times have Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris gone on about Hamas as a terrorist organization?
Merz may have come up with the famous quote about Israel doing the West’s dirty work. The glitch is that Merz and Clinton and Harris and others in the liberaloid class and their dirty little minds have now produced the first filmed genocide, with daily, hourly reports, all the while protesting their own innocence.
Chancellor Merz is a signal as to why Germans should never be issued Germany. :)
I think we’ve mised this GOP tweet (that could be filed under GOP Clown Car).
https://x.com/GOP/status/1951060331888889869
The One Big Beautiful bill will drive the return of the great American car.
🇺🇸🇺🇸
You’ll have to click-trough to see the image of a car, and guess the model. 🚗
Ooh, ooh! I know. Let’s just say that his team was very LAckaDAisical in finding up just the right car for that image.
Looks like a 1980 Lada to me….
It’s possible that Trump sold the Russians the right to advertise their products.
It is not enough to destroy the EU: The Boss Union from the other side of the pond need to be dismantled too
“U.S. Navy Battleships Won’t Ever Make a Comeback”
The author is quite correct. Without a role, what would be the purpose of spending billions if not tens of billions of dollars overhauling and revamping them. Also, those things need a crew compliment of about 1800 people. The US Navy is getting hard pressed manning the present fleet so how would they be able to shake out 1800 people to man just one of them? I don’t say to scrap them as they now make great museum ships. And you just never know when you will need one to fight off an alien invasion-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCqDdsZY7RA (10:19 mins)
I thought this was The Onion material at first. The author should do a follow-up piece about triremes not having a comeback too. Also, bayonet charges.
A thought experiment, if you will:
South Carolina class from 1939 had one AA gun per 1.2 meter of hull length and 30-40 cm steel armor covering vulnerable areas while Arleigh Burke class from 1980’s to present has an AA gun per 51 meters of hull length and no armor to speak of.
Which one has more staying power* in a modern naval warfare environment?
* capability to keep shooting at the enemy while receiving hits
AA guns on South Carolina class from 1939 used mark 1 eyeball for guidance, and large numbers are a necessity for spray & pray to work. Main guns require coming close to the enemy before even firing a shot in anger. If one was sent towards Iran to bombard some coastal city, it would be a one way trip similar to the one Yamato took, and something worth watching on pay-per-view. :) Arleigh Burke class could fire a salvo of missiles from a distance, and bravely run away. Less entertaning, but probably more combat effective.
It’s an overstatement to say that only the naked was used. The battleship is obsolete, but not as much as that. Magnification was used before the Second World War and radar during the war. And we are talking about over the horizon shooting with the main guns.
The New Jersey is happy moored in the Delaware between Camden and Philly. It has a decent restaurant aboard and makes for a fun tour.
It gets to flirt with Dewey’s Manila Bay flagship, the Olympia, moored on the Philly side.
Retiring from service and becoming a Youtuber is not uncommon career path. :)
https://www.youtube.com/battleshipnewjersey
It was not clear from the article who is suggesting this or making the argument the article tries to debunk. All that’s mentioned is ‘a certain type of person’, hyperlinked, but the link takes us to another article about why battleships are a bad idea that also doesn’t name any names. (Curiously it covers all the same ground as the article that links it, which doesn’t seem to add anything new).
The author apparently writes a daily column for the National Security Journal, which must create a bit of publishing pressure. I guess that if he’s ever short of ideas in future, he can rewrite this column again with a link back to the current one and cross off another day.
That means that the article about triremes is not that far fetched. :)
Pros:
– price
– low carbon footprint
– resistance to magnetic mines
– job opportunities for illegal immigrants
Cons:
– everything else
Isn’t the situation similar to the battleships @ Pearl Harbor on that fateful day?
They were all of 1910’s vintage for the most part-ancient by then current standards, with the difference being that brand new state of the art North Carolina class battleships were being built as the Pacific fleet sunk into the sea.
We don’t have any backups though~
Marine Corps’ obsession with having naval gunfire support would be hilarious if it didn’t cost US taxpayers 10’s of billions and compromised US naval ship design for the last 40 years. They could have built arsenal ships carrying hundreds of missiles for a fraction of the cost, but there is blind insistence on gunfire as if gun ammo is somehow unlimited. All this in case US Marines need to conduct a contested seaborne invasion, which they last did in Korea.
In the 1970s, the Royal Navy believed exactly this, and designed the Type22 Frigate without a gun. Then came the Falklands. Whoops. Now RN frigates have guns. Shells are cheap and simple. Missiles are complex and expensive.
More generally, it’s clear from Ukraine that we are going back to an era of armoured combat again. Soldiers increasingly resemble knights in armour and heavy physical protection is built into everything. Since you can’t shoot down anti-shipping hypersonic missiles, the best solution is to armour the targets.
This is different though. All US warships have a 5″ gun, but Marine Corps decided that this gun has insufficient range and hitting power for naval support. This forced the development of the overly complex Advanced Gun System (6″ guns) on the Zumwalt class with special long-range ammunition, whose shell cost as much as a cheap missile.
This plus insistence on each Zumwalt carrying 2 guns (instead of usual 1) made them much less capable than comparable ships in every other role, while inflating the cost to $1+ billion per ship (plus $10 billion development cost). For example, Russia’s original Buyan-class corvettes fulfills the same role on a 400-ton hull by mounting a 100 mm gun and a Grad rocket launcher.
Protection against modern missiles requires extraordinary amount of armour and certain key systems (radars, missile launchers) cannot be armoured for operational/safety reasons. SO, I think the future of naval combat will follow what we’ve seen in ground combat, where tanks and APC have been supplemented with smaller, unarmoured platforms (bikes, ATV’s, smaller mobility vehicles) that are used for higher risk tasks, shielding more valuable platforms. In naval combat I expect to see proliferation of mass-produced merchant-grade vessels that carry containerized weapons (drones/missiles) and sensor solutions. For example, a speedboat or a fishing vessel armed with Shaheds or S8000 Banderols, or small container ships (feeders) that are ~$5 million and can carry a few hundred containers.
My understanding of the “2 x 155” armament was that with multiple-round simultaneous arrival firing, a single DD could land the 12 round simultaneous arrival salvo of an artillery battalion firing single rounds from all tubes. I suppose that would be easier (and cheaper) than doing the same with multiple warships armed with single guns firing for simultaneous arrival.
<"All US warships have a 5″ gun"
The Perry class (FFG-7) had a single Mk 75 76mm "main" gun and the upcoming Constellation (FFG-62) class a small gun (Mk110 57mm).
<"each Zumwalt carrying 2 guns (instead of usual 1)"
The Spruance DD-963 class was a double-ended gun ship, with design margins for an 8" gun. The previous Forrest Sherman class had 3 5" guns (and secondary 3"), though one was later removed to install anti-sub rocket-launched torpedo (ASROC).
No modern navy has much convoying capability which is now going to be the determining factor in the world wide hybrid war that is looking likely. Cheap ASW corvettes with long range will be at a premium.
They will try to fudge it with drone equipped converted merchant ships but escort carriers are out of the question this time.
A couple of Poseidon’s on Suez and Panama canals will drive the point home.
My service was Air Force, I do very little with naval affairs. Gen Billy, 1920 something, Mitchell proved aerial bombing is end of battleships. Japanese proved you need to sink battleship at sea. Pearl Harbor with dry docks was worst place and many ships raised .
IIRC USS Texas was raised after Dec7 and was in battery fires at Normandy.
Two reasons for battle ships, fight other big guns and shore bombardment.
No one else has big guns and overhead of battle ships too much for bombarding places so poor as to be safe for the bombarders.
That does not prevent political persons….
Deck guns on smaller ships might on rare occasions has a mission, I.e. use. But cost benefit risk make it obscure.
<" Gen Billy, 1920 something, Mitchell proved aerial bombing is end of battleships. Japanese proved you need to sink battleship at sea. Pearl Harbor with dry docks was worst place and many ships raised "
Mitchell proved you could hit a stationary target at sea with no defensive capability. The Japanese proved that air-delivered torpedoes could hit stationary targets, other than what could be considered a lucky bomb hit on Arizona. Coast Artillery largely relied on 15" mortar batteries as it was known decks were more vulnerable than side armor.
I don’t think anyone is really considering this. More the point is the debate over the gun weapon system for the follow-on to the Burkes. The “bigger-is-better” school I think would like something more like a 155, which is also in that category of “antique weapon system with no use in the missile age”.
That article was factually incorrect in stating the Iowas burned “black oil”. During their 80’s conversions they were transitioned to Navy’s standard diesel fuel (NATO F-76). But unless the propulsion plants were properly laid up I doubt they are in the least part serviceable at this point. We still have steam snipes in the Wasp LHD-1 class and the Blue Ridge.
I love the accompanying images. :-)
Image 1. Launcher From German Air Force Patriot System
Image 2. Cluster Warhead Explosions From Iskander-M Strike on Patriot Batteries
Image 3. Ukrainian Patriot System Milliseconds Before Iskander Strike
Private jets–
So I looked for a few words in that WSJ article about how it was super cool to fly private (and dogs love it too!). Here are words I couldn’t find in the article: climate; carbon; emissions; pollution. Now here are a few facts about this latest exercise in conspicuous consumption:
And this:
Even better news: the Big, Beautiful Bill restored a 100% write-off of private plane purchases, eliminating the need to depreciate such acquisitions over time.
Humans managed to survive for tens of thousands of years by casting out anti-social individuals whose selfish behavior endangered the group. In the 21st century, we give them tax breaks.
Who would have thought that Eisenhower had such foresight: 90% tax rate as an effective carbon tax? (And curtailing the MIC would also reduce damage to the climate – that is real conservatism.)
The Jackon “A” Hole Airport is overrun by private jets during events and the ski season. Sun Valley is another popular private jet destination.
When you’re in a private Jet
You’re in a Jet all the way
From your first $50 million
To your last dyin’ day
When you’re in a Jet
Let them do what they can
You got your own airports around
You’re an influential man
You’re always alone,
You’re never disconnected
You’re home with your own—
When privacy is expected,
You’re well protected!
Then you are set
With a capital J
Which you’ll never forget
Till they cart you away
When you’re in a Jet
You stay
In a private Jet!
Jet Song from West Side Story
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9z33lasnkU&list=RDc9z33lasnkU
Good news: Greenhouse gases are no longer bad for us. Gonna go breath in a tailpipe to celebrate.
“EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said he’s issuing draft plans to overturn the agency’s 2009 scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten human health and welfare”
https://www.axios.com/2025/07/29/epa-cancel-climate-regulations-trump
“China after Communism: Preparing for a Post-CCP China” is quite a hoot.
You can pretty much swap out “China” and “CCP” for USA and US Government and it becomes a more likely scenario. Perhaps the PLA Special Ops Forces will need to intervene in the convulsive post-Constitutional USA to help stabilize restive areas and protect innocent civilians.
Re: ICE Student Loan Forgiveness
«… but loan forgiveness has been the agency’s policy since the Biden administration, which expanded repayments in an effort to attract new agents.»
On kids and COVID, even if the fantasy that kids are immune were true, eventually kids become adults, or at least that’s what I’m told happens.
What then?
This timeline is stupid.
“China Is Choking Supply of Critical Minerals to Western Defense Companies”
Apparently the Trump regime is driven to distraction by the whole issue because they can’t do anything about it and can’t bully China into bending the knee. The guys at The Duran were saying a day or so again that in negotiations with the Chinese, that the US negotiators were demanding that they open up all sales of rare earths with absolutely no restrictions at all. And if I heard right, that the US negotiators were also demanding that the Chinese also let the US get directly involved in those mining sites. I bet that that went down like a fart in an elevator. The only question is whether that was the US negotiators doing this on their own or whether it was someone like Bessent telling them to make those demands.
LOL, US negotiators should also demand that South China Sea is renamed to Far West American Sea, while they’re at it. Also, demand them to sell all their aircraft carriers to USA for 1$ a piece.
You were the atom that changed the world
You were redemption for we
You lit the fuse, we stand accused
You were the first atrocity
But you turned me out Little Boy (you dropped a bomb on me)
B-29, you dropped a bomb on me
But you turned me out Fat Man (you dropped a bomb on me)
B-29, you dropped a bomb on me
You were my Los Alamos thrills, you were my jagged little pills
You dropped a bomb on me
You turned me out, you turned me on
You turned me loose then you turned me wrong
You dropped a bomb on me
B-29, you dropped a bomb on me
But you turned me out over Hiroshima (you dropped a bomb on me)
B-29, you dropped a bomb on me
Just like Adam and Eve
Said you’d set me free
You took me to the sky, I’d never been so high
You were my jagged little pills, you were my thrills
You were my hope, you were my fire & smoke
You dropped a bomb on Nagasaki (you dropped a bomb on me)
B-29, you dropped a bomb on me
But you turned me out, Manhattan Project (you dropped a bomb on me)
B-29, you dropped a bomb on me
You dropped a bomb on Nippon (you dropped a bomb on me)
B-29, you dropped a bomb on me
We were in motion, felt like emotion
You were the bomb for me
You were the first explosion trained on compulsion
You were the first for me
You Dropped a Bomb On Me, by the Gap Band
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVWERU_xY6I&list=RDkVWERU_xY6I
“At 101 years old, last original client of Frank Lloyd Wright attributes good health to his Usonian home’s design”
Wright was an interesting architect but personally speaking, I have always had a soft spot for Fallingwater ever since I was a kid-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8dcnh-4I6g (14:20 mins)
There is a place in Sequoia NP on the middle fork trail @ Panther Creek a little off-trail up the creek that is Mother Nature’s version of Fallingwater, in that the campsite is right next to Panther Creek, and there are 6 or 7 waterfalls above and 3 or 4 below, with a view of Castle Rocks in the distance, pretty magical and only a 4 mile walk from the trailhead. We’ve stayed there maybe a dozen nights in total over the years, magnificent!
I’ve visited Fallingwater several times. The tour guides always explain that FLW built the home so that people inside had to got to a certain spot to look at the waterfall. The reason given was that if you could see it easily all the time, by looking at it from the living room couch for example, your mind would get used to it and you would no longer experience it as special. Not sure if that was the real reason, but our minds do acclimate to what is our everyday milieu.
His extreme longevity (especially for a man) put me in mind of another long liver, Jacques Barzun, Columbia professor of history for many, many years. He finally died at the age of almost 105 in 2012.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Barzun
At the age of 93 he wrote what is considered his opus, an historical overview of the past 500 years of Western history called “From Dawn to Decadence”. Highly recommended for history buffs.
Regarding his uncommon longevity he remarked, “Old age is like a job—one for which you have no experience.”
Also via Antiwar.com, the slippery genocide supporers at Boston Consulting Group.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/why-are-people-protesting-boston-consulting-group
Larry Johnson gives a list of people and organizations and countries to blame for the open barbarity against Gaza. Take away their respectibility because unfortunately, in our increasingly decadent time, it really is “all about the pr.”
Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you
I only want you to have some fun
I was dreamin’ when I wrote this
Forgive me if it goes astray
But when I woke up this morning
Could have sworn it was judgement day
The sky was all purple
There were people runnin’ everywhere
Tryin’ to run from the destruction
You know I didn’t even care
‘Cause they say
2025, party over, oops, out of time
So tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 1945
I was dreamin’ when I wrote this
So sue me if I go too fast
But life is just about nuclear parity
And parities weren’t meant to last
War is all around us
My mind says, “Prepare to fight”
So if I gotta die
I’m gonna listen to my body tonight
Yeah
They say
2025, party over, oops, out of time
So tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 1945
Yeah, yeah, shh
Lemme tell ya somethin’
If you didn’t come to party
Don’t bother knockin’ on they have
a device door, oh
I got a missile in my pocket
And baby it’s ready to roar, yeah, yeah
Everybody’s got a bomb
We could all die any day, oh
But before I’ll let that happen
I’ll blog my life away
Oh
They say
2025, party over, oops, out of time
(We’re runnin’ outta time)
So tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 1945
So tonight we gonna, we gonna, oh
Say it one more time
2025, party over, oops, out of time
No, no
Tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 1945
So tonight we gonna, we gonna, woo
Alright, 1945
You say it, 1945
Ooh, 1945, oh, 1945
Don’t stop, don’t stop, say it one more time
2025, party over, oops, out of time
Yeah, yeah
Tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 1945
So tonight we’re gonna, we’re gonna, woo
Yeah, 1945
Don’tcha wanna go? (1945)
Don’tcha wanna go? (1945)
We could all die any day (2025)
I don’t wanna die
I’d rather dance my life away 2025
Listen to what I’m tryin’ to say
Everybody, everybody say, “Parity”
C’mon now, you say, “Parity”
That’s right, everybody say “Parity”
Can’t run from the revelation, no (Parity)
Sing it for your nation y’all, “Parity”
Tell me what you’re singin’, baby say, “Parity”
Telephone’s a-ringin’, mama (Parity)
C’mon, c’mon, you say, “Parity”
Everybody, two times, “Parity”
Woo, work it down to the ground, say, “Parity”
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh (Parity)
Come on, oh, take my body, baby (Parity)
That’s right, c’mon, sing the song (Parity)
(Oh) (Parity)
That’s right (Parity)
Got a missile in my pocket mama, say, “Parity”
Oh, and he’s ready to roar (Parity)
Ah
Mommy, why does everybody have a bomb?
Mommy, why does everybody have a bomb?
1999, by Prince
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWC4X_rTRsA&list=RDUWC4X_rTRsA
“What Can Be Done to Stop the Genocide of the Palestinians?”
Since governments not only refuse to stop them but continue to arm and supply them, it will have to be done on a lower level. Boycott anything that is made in Israel and teach people how to identify their goods. They can’t pass a law to make you buy Israeli goods. Protest Israeli tourists, sportspeople and other notable figures when they travel overseas. Is this unfair to ordinary Israelis? Yes, but ****fair. Do to them what was done to South Africa and make them the pariah nation. Put out a list of IDF personnel that are war criminals. This is easy as they often post their war crimes to social media so have already outed themselves. Protest corporations, think tanks. institutions that support Israel to show them that there is a price to be paid for that support by outing them. But no violence and no antisemitic crap either as that helps nobody.
Better hope we never need any government assistance.
“US links $1.9 billion in state disaster funds to Israel boycott stance” https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-links-19-billion-state-disaster-funds-israel-boycott-stance-2025-08-04/
I wonder what other ways any actions in protest of Israel will be punished in the coming months. Show up in job interviews? Oh, right, already happening.
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2024/05/27/employers-avoiding-hiring-college-grads-over-palestinian-protests-survey.html
I totally agree with your ideas offered but also totally understand those who are too timid to stand up for Palestinians. As someone who works in media/entertainment I don’t have enough clout to do much publicly and can only do what feel like impotent personal boycotts and protests.
I’ve mentioned before seeing the makers of No Other Land at the Oscar after party being totally shunned. We’ve all seen stories of famous actors dropped from roles for speaking out. And that’s how people with clout are dealt with. For those who don’t garner headlines it’s much easier to torpedo careers and no one ever knows about it.
As one who has been vocal about our wars my entire adult life it’s humiliating that I feel scared to speak out on this one but even the few times I did early on got me in some situations where I’m pretty sure I’ve been shunned from certain circles. So, I gotta be cautious for purely self-preservation reasons.
Re: Genocide News;
Last two days when watching YouTube videos most of the adverts turned out to be the ones advising that the photos of emaciated kids from Gaza, were actually showing kids suffering from bulimia and anxiety and nothing to do with IDF’s systematic prohibition of food and water reaching the starving people, according to “lies” deliberately peddled by CNN and BBC and such like “news organs”.
Strangely, these have now dissapeared and YT is now back to normal ads, for example a stockinged girl prisoner being feathered suggestively in the Game called “Sea of Conquest”.
Bear trouble in Sierra Madre: After the Eaton fire, home invasions rise sharply Los Angeles Times
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tiny Town (not so tiny @ 44 sq miles-kinda similar to how a 6 foot 9 bouncer that weighs 245 is called ‘Tiny’) has pockets of bear trouble-most related to short term vacation rentals, but also highly territorial in terms of break-ins of dumpsters or homes.
The terror of Tiny Town is a bruin named Bernie who weighs in at around 400 pounds and he takes 2 yard containers and the bigger ones and throws them around in an effort to get to those upper crusts left over from the Pizza Factory here in town.
His haunts are on lower Mineral King road about 20 miles from my cabin, and I was talking to the manager of the Silver City resort in Mineral King, and we’d be sitting ducks were Bernie to go on a road trip, but thankfully as mentioned-bears are territorial in nature-so far.
October 7 seems to have been heavily suported by the Israeli government, testimonies from soldiers reveal:
https://thecradle.co/articles-id/32277
How did NYC shooter, with past mental-health holds, legally buy gun in Nevada?
Under Nevada law, being placed on an emergency mental health crisis hold in a psychiatric hospital is not enough to prevent you from being able to purchase a gun in the future.
https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-las-vegas/emergency-mental-crisis-holds-wont-stop-gun-purchases-in-nevada-
I am seeing a lot of ventilation about innumeracy on the part of DJT with regard to drug price reductions, such as language about “1000%” price reduction.
In another example, Dmitry Orlov landed some tart blows in a recent Dialogue Works conversation. Nima yucked it up with him.
The critics sensibly point out that a price reduction of more than 100% would amount to a negative price, i.e. drug sellers paying customers, rather than customers paying sellers.
This is taken as evidence of innumeracy or cognitive decline.
But it seems to me that this is almost willful incomprehension. 1000% is 10-fold; in DJT’s careless rhetoric, a “factor of 10”, or “10-fold” price reduction (ie, 90% reduction) is called “1000%” because “1000%” is “10-fold.” This is not difficult to discern.
I have no sympathy for the President, but it seems to me that on this point, the critics are “straining at gnats” (while “swallowing camels” in other areas).
(Wiki)
Treatment for depression is a scandal?
It was then. It was stupid even then, but there was a stigma surrounding mental health and as with most politicians even the hint of something upsetting to the upper middle class society had them quaking in their boots.
Reminds me of This is Spinal Tap’s famous scene of the guitarist trying to explain how amazing it is his amp goes to eleven.
Considering the guy defunding the research programs of one of our nations top mathematicians doesn’t know how numbers work I think some petty jokes about it are fine.
https://x.com/reimurasame/status/1951748439785848852?s=46
Also, the only reason any drug prices are dropping is due to the Inflation Reduction Act (at least from my reading) and Trump’s executive order demanding lower prices sounds about as bold as Hillary telling Wall Street to “cut it out.”
So, overall it’s good people are paying attention to how dumb his drug price plan is, even if the focus is on how dumb he is personally and not on the big picture.
“Asylum hotel protests are spreading. Who’s really behind them?”
The people responsible for these protests are the “asylum seekers” who continue to rape and sexually assault women and girls in the UK at astronomical rates. Those in charge of the UK’s “asylum” program also bear responsibility for the civil war likely to break out some time in the next couple of years.
On “What can be donne to stop the genocide of Palestinians”
“On the international front, there is much that the UN can do, starting with expelling Israel from the UN unless it stops killing civilians and it allows unfettered access by UNRWA.”
Only yesterday I was considering if walking over to the UN headquarters with a board asking to expell Israel AND the US from the Security Council is an option. (I live one street down from the Geneva UN buildings ) I wonder if police would try to carry me away ?
Also, small children must be touched by some images because, also yesterday, I overheard a small boy (around 6 years old) saying to his father verbatim: “I have a doubt. I don’t think we’re going to take the plane because yesterday it was the Third World War.”
I am touched. We should be ashamed, If only for what was pointed out by Ai Wey Wey – the silent complicity. In a treaty on the Psychology of communism, the author says that people who disagree with the regime, but stay passive, are contributing to its power and conservation in the same way as If they were supporting it. Makes no difference. (Jindrich Kabat, I wonder If there is an english version ? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13282374-psychologie-komunismu)
re: Russiagate
SLEUTHNEWS
Breaking: AG Bondi Begins Russiagate Grand Jury
Aug 4
Few details are available at this time, but FoxNews is reporting Attorney General Bondi is opening a grand jury investigation into Russiagate.
Stay tuned and we will update this post with details as they become available.
ffs
Bird Flu May Be Airborne on Dairy Farms, Scientists Report (NY Times via archive.ph)
18 months later. They tell us.
and
(bold mine)
This year is so lit.
re: US submarines ordered by Trump
It´s not really of relevance. I agree with most of what Dmitry Stefanovich said on TWITTER on Aug. 2nd see below, except that notion of RU Navy being in bad shape – huh? Sure he doesn´t have to just repeat Putin´s recent announcements as to the build-up (although those allusions by same Putin to new missile technology some 15 years ago turned out to be correct) – but to phrase it in this manner is just inadequate.
On the same topic also Andrei Martyanov:
TC: 11:15 – 21:15
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2025/08/united-states-of-israel.html
Stefanovich:
https://nitter.poast.org/KomissarWhipla/status/1951547168378290500#m
“(…)
So, new nuclear crisis for the weekend? Some thoughts.
1. “Nuclear submarines” can refer to any type of nuclear submarine based on American terminology – SSN, SSGN, SSBN.
2. There is no need to worry too much about Trump’s statements. After all, in 2017, for example, he also claimed that he had sent two nuclear submarines to the Korean peninsula in connection with Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile activities. Perhaps he is laying the groundwork for a summit with Vladimir Putin.
3. The main problem here is the continuing practice of sending nuclear signals via social media. This is a highly questionable approach, but unfortunately, it has already become established.
4. The analogy with the Caribbean crisis is inappropriate here, primarily because, regardless of the relative positions of one, two, five or even ten nuclear submarines, the United States and Russia remain in a state of mutual vulnerability and mutual nuclear deterrence.
5. Speaking of the submarines l, the main question is what kind of ships we are talking about. Ohio-class submarines can reach Russia from virtually anywhere, and perhaps Trump’s signal is that there will be several more of them on combat patrol. Which, by the way, is a more traditional method of sending nuclear signals.
6. The most provocative action could be the deliberate and overt positioning of American SSBNs in locations from which they could strike Russian territory along a so-called depressed trajectory with minimal flight time.
7. As for SSGNs, it is possible that we are seeing a kind of “reverse” scenario, similar to the Russian leadership’s announcement of Russian hypersonic weapon platforms patrolling near the American coasts in response to the threat of US INF-range ground-based missiles appearing near our borders. At the same time, Trump is unlikely to actually consider a strike with precision long-range non-nuclear weapons on targets in Russia.
8. We cannot rule out the intensification of American SSN activities to detect and track our SSBNs directly by the bases of the Northern and Pacific Fleets.
9. Overall, the Russian Navy is not in the best condition, and a few additional American nuclear submarines will not change anything.
10. The impact on strategic stability can be assessed after understanding what has been sent and where, but in general, it is unlikely that there will be any critical consequences.
11. How much time will it take to fulfill the announced actions, again, the question is what exactly Trump wants. In principle, he can simply order several Ohio-class submarines to surface in designated areas and remind everyone that they are there and ready.
12. Let me repeat and emphasise that all these actions can hardly be called unique; rather, it is the reason for them that is surprising.
(…)”
p.s. INF treaty adios – via Martyanov
Russia ‘no longer considers itself bound’ by nuclear treaty with US
Conditions for maintaining a “unilateral moratorium” on the deployment of intermediate-range missiles have “disappeared,” the Foreign Ministry in Moscow has said
https://www.rt.com/russia/622483-moscow-inf-nuclear-treaty-us/
And his brief mockery of Typhon
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-us-abrogated-inf.html
Some thoughts.
1. Trump didn’t order anything. He makes stuff up all the time, in order to impress idiots that still believe him.
2. That’s it.
perhaps in a nutshell
on the other hand I´d rather have his bluster than the incompetent and insanely dangerous aggressiveness of Blinken and friends.
(Blinken who had forgotten that he himself as deputy secretary of state had cautioned Obama to not meddle in Ukraine because Russia would be building two, three, four bombs for each bomb the US would send to Ukraine.)
You may be interested to know, Julian Assange was at the head of the pro-Palestine protest across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday. Here is a video showing Julian at the head of the march
Also with other interesting commentary including a profile on the organiser – the man who went to court for the right to stage the event. It has a former state Premier interviewed, being very vocal on primetime TV about his digust for the genocide. I think it was a very successful event.
https://youtu.be/ayd-RVOQei8?si=0xuCRDNoqxqG4lrT
The official reports (as in, not from organisers but from media) were of 90 to 100,000 people attending. And, on an unusually heavy weekend of rain. Sydneysiders are usually spolit with good weather year round, so they’re not weather hardened like many of you :)
Youtube has heaps more news footage.
Oh: no arrests and no injuries. According to the police.
re: long demise of FCAS joint fighter project
via TWITTER
Clemens Speer
Aug 1
Dr. Michael Schöllhorn CEO Airbus Defence & Space, an den Bundeskanzler:
„In Summe sehen wir keine Grundlage mehr für eine weitere Fortsetzung von FCAS – außer bei Rückkehr zu und dem tatsächlichen Umsetzen der vereinbarten Grundlagen.”
/
“In summary, we no longer see any basis for a further continuation of FCAS – except for a return to and the actual implementation of the agreed principles.”
Quelle: griephan Briefe 031-034/25
1,642 days is how long they’ve been doing rig support in Oblivion.
The Pandemic has been going on longer than this. Never thought that when I watched this in 2020 dozens of times. My taste in movies.
It’s gonna get us all eventually.
There’s this: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-14964069/reason-steep-increase-colon-cancer-young-people.html. It is supposedly due to more testing. The steepness of the increase is shocking.
and then this (from reddit/collapse (foxwaffles; 5d ago; Location: NC, USA)
“Panleukopenia rates have skyrocketed locally. Cats and kittens dying left and right. Rabies cases are up, the vet who works for the shelter told me there have already been more cases than usual of confirmed rabid animals attacking people. He also told me that the parasite and disease load of animals is much higher than usual, insects like fleas, flies and their larvae (aka, maggots) are flourishing and multiplying like crazy, and the heat stress has simultaneously led to weaker, sicker animals.”
I’m sure the heat stress doesn’t help, but I think that wildlife and feral cats are being infected with covid over and over again and that it is affecting their immune systems.
Mum’s hairdresser just called to cancel. Has a mystery virus. Worse than a cold but not flu. So Nimbus just as I predicted has marched from northwest England (friend had it) to the Midlands.
(Why did they call it that? I instantly think of the Rick & Morty episode)
A schoolteacher I know here in CA just said that her family were all sick this past week. No-one is testing now so she didn’t say what it was.
To my surprise, a friend who has had breast cancer at least seemed glad to get the info re covid awakening cancer cells from dormancy. She is going to mask more during the surge that is going through our area.