Stomach-brain communication predicts emotional symptoms and well-being, study finds Medical Xpress
‘Cortisol Cocktails’ Are The Latest Stress-Busting Trend. Here’s The Science. Science Alert
Our Preoccupation With Protein Intake Eric Topol
The real reason so many people in the US have unhealthy diets 48 Hills
Powerful earthquake in Afghanistan kills 800, injures 2,800 Straits Times
Climate/Environment
Earth’s oceans keep getting warmer – and (duh) that’s not good Balanced Weather
In the Land of the Eyeless Dragons Nautilus
Old Electric Vehicles Contribute to New Pollution Problem in Southern Africa Earth Island Journal
Pandemics
Disability data reveals hidden global burden of long COVID News-Medical
The crisis is “expasperating”: Long COVID compounds economic hardship in Argentina The Sick Times
Top FDA official demands removal of YouTube videos in which he criticized Covid vaccines The Guardian
I am a Private Citizen Seeking to Hold My Government Accountable. Dr. Vinay Prasad, a Government Doctor, Killed My YouTube Channel. Science-Based Medicine
Japan
US to deploy Typhon missile system to Japan for first time for September drills Stars and Stripes
Shanghai Cooperation Organization
‘Strategic Autonomy, Partners Not Rivals’: Modi, Xi Meet Amid Tariff Tensions The Wire
The Dawning of a New World Order Larry Johnson
Full text: Toast by President Xi Jinping at welcoming banquet of SCO Tianjin Summit Global Times
Views on/from India-China Indialog
Liu Zongyi: India’s Disruptive Role Threatens the SCO’s Future Sinification
Vladimir Putin’s Written Interview to China’s Xinhua News Agency Karl Sanchez
China?
China still waiting for factory activity lift-off as US wields new tech curbs South China Morning Post
China’s Political System Makes Consumption-led Growth Impossible The Diplomat
Old Blighty
Norway Selects British Frigates In $13.5B Defense Deal Reuters
Syraqistan
Gaza postwar plan envisions ‘voluntary’ relocation of entire population WaPo
Israel’s President Herzog May Pardon Jewish Terrorist to Ease Right-wing Opposition to Hostage Deal Haaretz
Global Sumud Flotilla sets sail from Barcelona in bid to break Gaza blockade Anadolu Agency
Israel hatches plan to throw Greta Thunberg in terror cell The Telegraph
Germany blocks EU push to sanction ‘Israel’ over war on Gaza Al Mayadeen
Israel weighs West Bank annexations in response to Palestine recognition push Axios
U.S. Suspends Visas for Palestinian Passport Holders, Officials Say New York Times
***
Egypt to invest $400m in Israel gas pipeline Globes
Houthi Leader Vows Attacks on Israel Will Continue After Israeli Killing of Yemeni Prime Minister Antiwar
targeting the civilian government of a state is illegal under international law. It’s a blatant war crime. The Israelis couldn’t get at the military leaders of Yemen’s Houthis, so they decided to mass murder their civilian ministers instead. Pure genocidal death-cult depravity.… pic.twitter.com/S5fqKCYgHo
— ☀️👀 (@zei_squirrel) August 30, 2025
***
Ditch NPT or embrace diplomacy? Snapback sanctions widen Iran’s postwar rift Al Monitor
European Disunion
Finland removes swastikas from air force flags to avoid ‘awkwardness’ The Telegraph
Sahra Wagenknecht: Europe Subjugated & Propagandised for War Glenn Diesen
🇪🇺🇵🇱🧱🇧🇾 In a surreal performance, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen gave a speech through the fence to Belarusian border guards.
Flanked by PM Tusk, she preached “European values” to cameras and uniformed men on the other side, who probably wondered wtf was going on.… pic.twitter.com/ZNhuabNXk0
— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) August 31, 2025
New Not-So-Cold War
Europe has ‘pretty precise’ plan to send troops to Ukraine, von der Leyen says FT
Germany backs out of sending troops to Ukraine – Bild Euromaidan Press
A dark theory for the evening. Let’s talk about Russian strategy in Ukraine.⬇️
Looking at developments lately, specifically: (1) the Ukrainian casualty leak showing an astronomical 1.7M KIA/MIA; and (2) the Ukrainian collapse north of Pokrovsk – I thought should revisit a dark… pic.twitter.com/uOvB2gJEvX
— Armchair Warlord (@ArmchairW) August 29, 2025
Killing Ukraine softly? Julian MacFarlane
‘A Shot to the Heart of Ukraine’ Bandera Lobby Blog
New Ukrainian Missile Threat: Another Empty Hype-Train? Simplicius
Plane carrying EU’s top leader targeted by alleged Russian GPS jamming CNN
Russia’s size is its Achilles’ heel as Ukraine targets its oil infrastructure Intellinews
Lithuania has installed so-called ‘dragon’s teeth’ on the border with Russia Euronews
A Breakdown That Could Lead to an Ecological Disaster High North News
South of the Border
A Summer of Discontent in Mexico City Art Review
“Liberation Day”
US trading partners ‘dazed and confused’ after tariff court loss Business Times
Trump 2.0
Trump’s New Plan for Medicare: Let AI Decide Whether You Should Be Covered or Not Gizmodo
Imperial Collapse Watch
‘We Need to Terminate Treatment’: VA Mental Health Providers Say They Are Under Pressure to Limit Care The War Horse
Peace and Economic Democracy as Preeminent National Interests Un-Diplomatic
The Uniparty
California’s Democratic Governor leads the charge in expanding state repression WSWS
Immigration
NYC immigration arrests and deportations surge after slow start, data shows Gothamist
AI
Humans are being hired to make AI slop look less sloppy NBC News
Is the “A.I.” “bubble” “bursting”? Read Max
Accelerationists
Broken $100-billion dream city becomes refuge for tech utopians Los Angeles Times
Palantir CEO Alex Karp laughs about profiting from killing Palestinians using AI.
He calls them ‘Hamas’ ‘useful idiots’ and ‘mostly terrorists’.
But there is only one terrorist here, Palantir are war criminals.pic.twitter.com/IVL0JEHzil
— BladeoftheSun (@BladeoftheS) August 30, 2025
Groves of Academe
This Is the Group That’s Been Swatting US Universities Wired
Guillotine Watch
Bitcoin boom sees newly wealthy splurging on luxury travel FT
Zeitgeist Watch
Screaming, Crying, Throwing up: The Medieval Art of Fandom Mixed Feelings
In a first, X-rays capture the invisible swirls that shape the flow of sand and snow Interesting Engineering
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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Comments are closed.
“Norway Selects British Frigates In $13.5B Defense Deal”
Now if Norway intends to use those British-built ships in the local waters of the North Atlantic, they should be fine. But if they sign up to some idiotic idea to send them to the Indio-Pacific to confront China with as part of a NATO squadron, then maybe they should test them in warm waters first-
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/07/destroyers-will-break-down-if-sent-to-middle-east-admits-royal-navy
And don’t forget, in the revolving door so lucratively employed by weatern politicians, the Finance Minister of Norway is a certain Jens Stoltenberg.
Having said that the Norwegians could well need to use these new naval toys to prevent aggression from the US rather than Russia, with whom they used to have very friendly relations. Norway namely recently announced they would withdraw investment from US companies heavily involved in the Israeli genocide. Quick as a flash, Lindsay Graham started spouted off about how dare they and threatening sanctions and worse against little Norway. What larks.
Lindsay Graham really flipped out about this one. Norway’s Prime Minister had to tell him that the government does not control that fund or who they invest with because capitalism-
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/senator-lindsey-graham-threatens-norway-wealth-fund-divests-caterpillar
Alex Christoforou is right. Lindsay Graham really does act like he is the Foreign Policy President of the United States.
I saw a Lindsay Graham ad the other day. He must have a serious primary opponent. The operative words above: really does act. He is in his glory. The scold, the shill, is finally getting the recognition he thinks he has deserved all along. The man is pathetic. He leads a parade of the well compensated equally pathetic. But while professing undying loyalty to Donnie, Lindsay knows he is easily rolled.
Y’all are paying a lot more attention to Lindsey than I am. Don’t forget that his predecessor was Senator Strom Thurmond (as a tyke I sat on his knee in the Capitol subway–scarring) so perhaps trading hostility toward Civil Rights for Russia bashing is a step up. When Graham appeared with Trump at a rally here he was booed but his hawkish stances do gain him a hefty campaign war chest which other Repubs can’t match. It’s all about the TINA.
We’d love to be able to ignore Lindsey, but, as it turns out, he’s been put in charge of running US foreign policy.
Then your problem would be with the Big Guy although it’s hard to know what he thinks from one day to the next. Perhaps it depends more on Fox News than L.G.
Seems the intercooler on the gas turbine has some sort of design failure. The fix was to increase the diesel generator output power to reduce load on the gas turbine. Brits should have stuck with the RR MT30 like they have on other ships (also the US).
Re: Gaza postwar plan envisions ‘voluntary’ relocation of entire population (wapo)
This is some sociopath stuff, reported as if it is normal. It’s a f******* war crime added to the other war crimes. It’s not an attractive real estate plan. It’s sick.
A catchy song provides the soundtrack. “Donald’s coming to set you free/ Bringing delight to all you see. No more tunnels, no more fear/ Trump Gaza is finally here.”…
….The plan talks of Gaza’s location “at the crossroads” of what will become a “pro-American” region, giving the United States access to energy resources and critical minerals, and serving as a logistics hub for the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor that was first announced during the Biden administration but derailed by the Israel-Gaza war….
…Those who own land would be offered a digital token by the trust in exchange for rights to redevelop their property, to be used to finance a new life elsewhere or eventually redeemed for an apartment in one of six to eight new “AI-powered, smart cities” to be built in Gaza. Each Palestinian who chooses to leave would be given a $5,000 cash payment and subsidies to cover four years of rent elsewhere, as well as a year of food….
Voluntary my a**
Forced displacement is governed by international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law, which prohibit forced population movements during armed conflict and in peacetime, respectively. Key instruments include the Geneva Conventions, which ban forced transfers and deportations in occupied territories, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which classifies forced displacement as a war crime or crime against humanity. International human rights law permits forced displacement only in exceptional circumstances, requiring it to be lawful, necessary, proportionate, non-discriminatory, and consistent with other legal obligations
Yet such laws do not apply to Israel. In fact no laws or international conventions apply to Israel. Mindboggling.
International law is basically useless because it’s relying on sociopaths to play nice.
Anyone who has ever dealt with a sociopath or narcissist knows that they occasionally play nice to lull someone into complacency, just before they attack in some way. Decapitation in Iran during peace talks comes to mind.
So of course the US has opted out, and so has Israel.
The only thing that is going to matter in this new, savage, world is military power, or sucking up to the baddest meanest dudes bristling with weapons and with no limits to using them.
Say like Europe. But unfortunately they might have picked the losing side. As Kissinger said, the US doesnt have friends, just interests.
‘DD Geopolitics
@DD_Geopolitics
🇪🇺🇵🇱🧱🇧🇾 In a surreal performance, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen gave a speech through the fence to Belarusian border guards.’
I think that those Belarusian border guards missed a once in a lifetime opportunity here. You could have had a coupla of them turn around, drop their daks and started to moon Ursula while she was talking and being filmed. Would they have been punished for doing that? Probably, though Lukashenko would likely order that they be firmly slapped on the wrist by their officers instead. But how many Belorussians would like to buy the guys who mooned Ursula a coupla beers? Worth it!
This Iron Curtain 2.0 looks really low-budget. She must have redirected funds into hairdressers and AI speech generators.
An empty show from an empty pantsuit, unelected, not particularly competent, and probably corrupt. How many divisions has Mrs. van der Lyen, exactly?
64 billion dollar question
It has electrolytes!
Re Maxread on twilight of the AI
There is a pervasive suspicion among A.I. skeptics (many of whom were and are also crypto skeptics) that the A.I. boom is a redux of the crypto boom–which is to say, effectively, a grift forced on consumers and abetted by unwitting journalists and other eager marks. And this suspicion can be converted by the more cavalier A.I. haters on Bluesky into a kind of fantasy of righteous vindication: When the A.I. bubble pops, “A.I.” will be revealed as a scam and a waste of time, and “all come crashing down.” Financial ruin for bad actors, eternal shame for duped boosters, and a rollback of all stupid L.L.M. implementations online and at the workplace.
Amen?
One imagines a Disneycorp updated remake of The Graduate where the party guest buttonholes the hero by the pool. “One word Benjamin–tulips.”
USAF is treating AI like it treated “Zero Defects”, “TQM”, “Six Sigma”, “lean”, “Acquisition Reform”….. all of which were lip service.
Indeed, applying AI to the “work place” suggests doing something like “Lean-Six Sigma” to develop a life cycle justified “use case”. Something USAF (an example entity) has failed at for near 40 years since they had me read W Edwards Deming.
The USAF and MIT now have an Artificial Intelligence Accelerator. Published a 48 page guide book, which I may begin reading, once I go through my files an a similar MIT-USAF guide I worked with in the early 2000’s.
One line in this guide refers to DoD guidance from 2018……. AI in DoD is so important it is in the NDAA! Top down push?
AI in the work flow suggests we teach the robots to do DMAIC since we have never gotten humans to do it…..
AI is the DHS/Oligarch dream for real time universal access to image recognition and population control.
W Edwards Deming.
The memories….
I was in a corporate obedience class years ago, and we were going over Deming’s 4 quadrants of efficiency, or some thing like that. Quad 1 was everything running smoothly with no problems (collected data as proof). Quad 2 was showing some data outside the bell curve but manageable and within specs. Quad 3 was red light time – the data shows you have a problem and you must fix it right now. Quad 4 was called the “state of chaos” and everything is all f’ed up.
They told us how to measures things, how to predict things, how to change things, etc. The goal was to stay in Quad 1 and 2 and not get into Quad 3 and never in Quad 4 – the state of chaos. When finished I said I have a question. Yes, please, they say. Well, we pretty much spend our days putting out production fires so I would say we are, most of the time, living in Quad 4 – the state of chaos. How do we get out?
Crickets. Imagine that.
I thought Deming’s works was pretty solid if only the clowns in corporate America listened. I certainly don’t miss it.
Corporate America was always big on talk and PowerPoint slides, but they never wanted to actually do what Deming and TQM were requiring. Management are people too, and like everyone else at that level of the organization they are fad-hoppers and parrots of the latest buzzwords, but it’s all irrational tribal flag waving. And everyone at lower levels knows the shtick and just nods yessir and does the minimum. Maybe it was different in the ’30s and ’40s, but since at least the late ’80s it’s been like that.
As with most recent western society, it’s rules for you, but none for me. To get out of Screwball’s Quad 4 requires discipline, planning and consistency (and sacrificing ‘wins’ in the short term to make breathing room) from the top down, so that’s obviously a non-starter.
There was also an element in Deming of bottom-up improvement initiative that was just anathema to American executives. Some of that I actually did see working in a smaller manufacturing firm, but in bigger corporations it was all just “send us your suggestions” (so we can dispose of them in the circular file) and inclusive language (about how “we” were meeting our metrics). Giving decision-making power to line workers was somewhere down near becoming communists on the desirability scale, as far as top managment was concerned.
North America doesn’t like LEAN at all, they just pretend to, ehen the idea comes up.
I’ve lived through all those quality trends and was directly involved in an “implementation” of six sigma and lean six sigma within a TBTF bank. Nothing wrong with the methodology itself which recycles tools from Operation Research. The slight problem with our attempt was that leadership wanted benefits without actually buying into doing the work. Despite that we did successfully conclude a few meaningful projects mainly by ignoring executives. Hard to imagine it succeeding broadly at any large institution. Most areas, projects already in the pipeline were rebranded as six sigma/lean projects so victory could be declared.
Early oughties I was on a “service” level action group staffed by representatives from numerous centers who would implement.
We had Beltway bandits training and facilitating the lean six sigma approach.
We traveled a lot met with a lot of people.
In the end a group of us “graybeards” brainstormed and researched and came up with a “toolkit”. No tee shirt, but I have the lapel pin!
I have been remembering the evolution of the USAF retail supply system. By late 1980’s the guy on the flight line did the ordering like on Amazon….
Not many humans there for AI to replace.
If you have done DMAIC, one of the integration forms is almost identical to a process used in safety and reliability design trade offs.
Wait. Wait. The Disney remake would have the script say: “One word Betina, DEI!”
‘Armchair Warlord
@ArmchairW
A dark theory for the evening. Let’s talk about Russian strategy in Ukraine.⬇️’
With the rate of Ukrainian casualties and the demands of the US, EU and the Ukrainian nationalists to continue the war, what exactly is Ukraine’s fate after the war? Demographically I mean. At least 1.7 million men are gone and millions of men and women – and their children – have fled the country and most of them will never return to the Ukraine ever again. How will they generate the numbers for a workforce? Maybe as they really no longer have an economy, that that is a moot point. They will be hard pressed to try to raise another huge army too but likely they will not be allowed to do that. Once the war is over the west will walk away as if they were a one-night stand and they will take their money with them as well. They won’t be in NATO so will not be able to trigger a NATO/Russia war and they won’t be in the EU so will not be able to flood them with cheap, farming produce and Ukrainian workers. Add in the fact that the Oblasts they they are losing generated about 80/90% of that countries GDP does not leave much left. The really sad thing? It was all their own fault – they believed western promises.
Armchair Warlord fleshed out something I’d been thinking about on/off for quite a few months. We were all slightly puzzled when Putin originally said, “de-nazification” and “de-militarization”. Now, that particular post is fleshing out the grim reality of what it means for the Russians to actually implement those policies. It’s clear Russia’s definition includes anyone who’s willing to sit in a trench and hold a rifle for this Ukrainian regime (and yes, sadly, that includes those who do it under duress). My only quibble is that this doesn’t end with a humiliating surrender, Putin isn’t expecting a moment like that. Zelensky and the top brass will set up a ridiculous ‘government in exile’ as they’ve described on the Duran. He’ll be the new Juan Guaido. He’ll get a plumb job, mostly a no-show job, as a university lecturer, if he wants it. Or maybe he’ll just hang out in Miami or Monte Carlo with his stolen millions?
“It was all their own fault – they believed western promises.” — As for this, it ends up being victim-blaming, Rev Kev. The maniacs running the Ukrainian government wouldn’t be there if they didn’t ‘believe’ western promises. The NYT laid out a big article awhile back with tons of CIA sources, bragging about how they built an entire Ukrainian ‘deep-state’ of intel agencies after the 2014 coup. Alexander Mercouris pointed out that Ukraine’s biggest intel agency is as big as the FBI in the US (a country with 10 times the population).
By the time voters got another shot at voting, they voted for the guy who promised peace, but lied to their faces. Now they’re never getting another shot at correcting their mistake. They’re stuck with big Z, and he’s not letting go until he’s run that country completely into the ground, and salted the earth so nothing will ever grow.
““It was all their own fault – they believed western promises.” — As for this, it ends up being victim-blaming, Rev Kev. The maniacs running the Ukrainian government wouldn’t be there if they didn’t ‘believe’ western promises.”
On the other hand, they were adults with intelligence and freedom to choose. It was a choice at least at the beginning — in my view, they chose the side that was more powerful and better able to pay. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, which took place in Moscow, Russia looked weak and poor — a finished rump. They should have probably looked up history. They could have undertaken a more independent development. But my guess is that in the midst of the Soviet collapse, the West looked like the best option. Going back to now, by some accounts (don’t know how true), the Ukraine (including state employees’ salaries and payments to the families of the perished in the war) is fully supported by the EU or USA…
In 2020 there were roughly 10,000,000 million men within the conscription age of 25 to 60. A report from sprinf last year said 650,000 men of fighting age have left the country. By the time those unfit to fight or in reserved occupations are removed what would be left? 6 million maybe? If they have actually lost 1.7 million that is catastrophic.
This snippet should be required watching for anyonw contemplating dealings with the US.
Country Area (Kmsq) Population
Mongolia 1,564,116 3,500,000
Ukraine 603,628 32,862,000
Ukraine still has a long way to go to the bottom yet.
You should not believe everything you see on the Internet. That number for Ukraine includes Donbass and Crimea (and dead, and some that ran away). The Zelensky rump is more like 20M or so, if not less. And that includes those hoping to be part of Russia again.
https://xcancel.com/ArmchairW/status/1962567671645659251
When Russian hackers announced on August 20th that they’d extracted the AFU’s casualty database and discovered a total of 1.7 million Ukrainian personnel killed and missing, brOSINT rushed to criticize the claim as “absurd.”
It’s actually confirmed by the Ukrainians’ own data.⬇️
…
no fewer than 120,000 wartime amputations in Ukraine as of early 2025
…
Very true, many believed western promises, though it’s worth adding that there were also Ukrainian cheerleaders for those promises.
It’s interesting to revisit the position of Oleksiy Arestovych, the former advisor to Zelensky, who in 2019 was predicting the conflict with Russia as “99.9% certain”, even predicting the devastation of the Ukraine, but thought that the coming war with Russia was the “price” to join NATO and the West. He also believed that Russia would assuredly lose the conflict, because NATO would doubtless rush forward to commit not only weapons but boots on the ground.
Fast forward to 2025, and the same Oleksiy Arestovych now concedes that Russia very much has the upper hand. He is now considered a critic of Zelensky, as he speaks out against the policy trying to recruit troops using “repressive” means. Instead, he thinks that Ukraine needs to present “a positive motivation to take arms”, though he goes vague on what this might entail. Arestovych is outspoken about this, despite the fact that he has fled to the US because he is now under investigation in the Ukraine on criminal charges.
In 2019, Arestovych thought that 40 million Ukrainians would be of great interest to the EU, that this alone would be reason enough for the EU to enter the fight for Ukraine. Yet in 2025, Arestovych laments that Ukraine had about eight million men of “fighting age” and half of them — about 4.5 million — had deliberately evaded registering for recruitment.
The numbers look pretty bad, and they’re only getting worse.
At whom exactly do they plan on firing those HIMARSes?
TSMC
Old EV/Africa.
This just doesn’t jive with my experiences in Africa which is incredibly creative at converting old into working new.
Oh I can believe poor old EV’s have been sent there to die.
But no way they are just binning all those parts. Electric motors, controls and importantly the batteries. Those batteries will be disassembled and reassembled into working units for offgrid power.
It would be interesting to track the ‘cast-off’ flow of old goods in the “European north” to the African or Asian south, as well as from North America to Central/ South America.
I recall, when living in southern California, that there were a lot of pick up trucks and trailers heading south into Mexico of perfectly serviceable cleaned lumber, repairable motors, towed cars, etc.
And I have no data to back it up, but I would swear that Trump/ Noem’s voluntary self-deport has prompted a lot of long-game long-view used car purchases accompanying the exodus.
Try to find an 88-96 Ford pickup 6 cylinder, with a manual transmission., or 2000’s Toyota or Honda with a manual.
Maybe most have been gobbled up by Americans, but, maybe Americans have turned a blind eye and bypassed the ‘golden age’ of used cars, as beneath them and too old, and others with a different view toward economy, worth, and value, are snapping them up as opportunities.
‘BladeoftheSun
@BladeoftheS
Palantir CEO Alex Karp laughs about profiting from killing Palestinians using AI.
He calls them ‘Hamas’ ‘useful idiots’ and ‘mostly terrorists’.
But there is only one terrorist here, Palantir are war criminals.’
Going to have to get personal here. There was an image of Pete Thiel several weeks back and the guy’s face looked like hell. It was so weird that you had to really look hard at that image. And here we have his partner in crime Alex Carp and he looks like hell as well. Is it the work that they do that does this to them or something? Read Alex Carp’s Wikipedia entry too and note it has all sorts of red flags in it-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Karp
If you think they look bad, you should see the portraits of themselves that they keep in their attics.
Dorian Karp?
LOL!!
My Thiel take is whatever experimental longevity immortality treatments he’s had have had side effects. That, or the demonic entity that lives inside him is trying to get out.
Karp “formerly” enjoyed a very liberal period in the German nightclub scene – drugs and sex stuff – which he’s alluded to often enough.
Or maybe being evil is bad for the skin?
He seems to be somewhat obsessed with yhe anti christ. However, when you listen to him talking about him, it’s very hard to tell if he is referring to himself or not.
I have had very similar thoughts David. Usually he says something like “we need to be watchful for the antichrist; there are many signs that he’s coming; I’m not sure who it is but I think it’s the globalists; it might also be a US president”
If I was making the movie the next scene would be him looking at himself in the bathroom mirror.
Also, that the evil sociopath techlord who is in the process of taking over the US is also obsessed with apocalyptic Christianity is worrying.
That was my first time viewing Karp, a seemingly despicable human, and proud of his stance. I was glad to quickly scroll and see the cat. That might have prevented me from losing breakfast. Thanks for both of them.
Is the weirdest part that these d bags think they’re going to live to 150…not if you keep sitting in your chair like that pal, they can give you new knees but spinal replacement? That’s a high bar, but yeah ai will make it possible. Sure it will. Keep sitting twisted Alex, like all the rest of us, your days are numbered…
File under “Hillary Clinton once landed in Bosnia under sniper fire: Ursula von der Leyen’s plane hit by suspected Russian GPS interference – FT.
“After circling the airport for an hour, the plane’s pilot took the decision to land the plane manually using analogue maps…”
This part of the story set my senses tingling, because it makes no sense to anyone with even passing knowledge of airplane systems and airport landing systems. First, airplanes have redundancy in all systems. In the case of navigation, that redundancy is the Inertial Navigation System, which is not GPS or paper map dependent. In the case of airports, the one in Plovdiv is equipped with Instrument Landing System, which also is not dependent on GPS or paper maps.
I went to Flight Radar 24 to see what I can find. While the flight paths of airplane in question are hidden at the request of the EU, the flight log is not. What we see is that VdL took off from Warsaw 67 minutes after the scheduled departure time and landed in Plovdiv 76 minutes after its scheduled time of arrival. Even assuming that the pilots tried to make up some of the delay while en route, it is an impossibility that the plane circled Plovdiv for an hour while they refreshed their familiarity with paper atlases.
In short, while I have little reason to doubt that GPS jamming took place, the narrative has been senensualized to serve other narratives and make Ursula seem all the more VdL all the more heroic for her statement after that “harrowing” landing: “Putin has not changed, and he will not change,” … “He is a predator. He can only be kept in check through strong deterrence.”
However, there’s more to be cynical about in regards to the timing and the sensationalism of this story. The eminently corrupt VdL was greeted and escorted by the eminently corrupt Boyko Borissov, former PM and current shadow PM of Bulgaria, and Ursula’s fellow European People Party heavyweight. Borissov is both controllable and very compliant to Brussels’ instructions, including on Ukraine. Borissov and his corrupt elements are currently embroiled in a bitter battle with the President, Rumen Radev, for control of Bulgaria’s security and spy agencies. Radev is a prominent doubter of the war in Ukraine and EU’s doubling down on it. So immediately after the FT published its story, Bulgarian media and various influential figures began to talk about how the GPS jamming proves that the security services have been compromised by Russia and VdL’s life had been in danger because of it. While that shows rather dubious understanding about how GPS jamming is carried out, the calls to “clean out the agencies of its Russian agents” is de facto call to clear them out of any personnel which hinder the scope of the graft or can expose Borissov’s hand (and others) in it. That’s particularly important because A) the President has the power to appoint and to veto appointments in those agencies, B) the EU’s push to rearm provides so many lucrative opportunities for graft, and C) Radev and his loyalists in the services are seen as the last hindrance to the complete takeover of the country and its apparatuses by the corruptioneers.
Given VdL’s priors and the EU’s turn to authoritarianism, we simply cannot afford not to be cynical about such things, no matter how far-fetched they may seem. And to me, this story smells of BS on too many levels.
I do have some reasons to doubt. It’s not like Russians have facilites in The Balkans that could cover that area. There have been maps online showing that regions with strongest GPS jamming are Baltics and Middle East, which makes sense considering what’s going on. According to the article she flew over Latvia, Finland, and Estonia with no problems whatsoever, and the troubles only started when she entered the Plovdiv Triangle. Maybe Baba Vanga was directing the gremlins, according to the instructions from the Kremlin(s).
No way to know what long-range jamming technologies might be available to them. Regardless, notice how a lot of the things I wrote about are beginning to bear out: suddenly the government released the info that the pilots simply switched to ILS landing, a rather routine and straightforward adjustment, and that there are calls to replace the head of DANS, including from the so-called “democratic opposition”.
About the only thing that’s unclear as yet is whether Ursula kept the plane flying by vigorously flapping her arms while the pilots adjusted their landing plans, or whether she lit a candle for Baba Vanga 😄
There is a way to know what long-range technologies might not be available to them, because physics. Lower frequencies can folow Earth’s curvature (eg. Murmansk-BN), higher not so much (eg. Krasukha). Why would they even bother with that specific airport in the first place, and how could they affect only that plane and not everyone else arround? If there were GPS problems in the region everyone with a smartphone would have noticed it, and made TikTok video complaining about it.
The WItch kept the plane flying by getting on her broom. 🧹
Regardless, we can already see that it’s achieving its objective to target the security agencies for a takeover and a thorough purge. It’s effing insane to watch the stupidity unfolding in certain quarters which otherwise pretend to be very smart and pretty.
It’s the old fable of the one-eyed king. As long as the press and everyone else around them is even stupider (or acts that way), their stupidity passes for as normal.
Here’s one of the GPS jamming maps I mentioned, if anyone’s interested.
https://gpsjam.org/
I have a comment in moderation discussing this link, and also this one: https://x.com/flightradar24/status/1962565122326700178?t=QJ-RIBdDl3MN8_sDYwLtVw&s=19
There’s some serious ‘splaining to do by some.
We onetime MS Flight Simulator fans know all about how airliners work and you are of course correct. Even small planes are supposed to have radio beacon equipment these days and strange as it may seem pilots once landed by simply flying past the runway and checking it out.
Airliners do use GPS but don’t have to do so.
But that doesn’t appear nearly as heroic as Ursula surviving a dastardly attempt on her life and answering with Churchillian defiance. They lap this sh!t up in the warmongering EU community!
plus is she not flying in a plane piloted by a highly trained military pilot? It’s not a fedex cargo plane after all…
Seems like Occam’s Razor says that our fearless wartime Queen Ursula was running late and needed to blame it on somebody.
There’s only one convenient and repeatable scapegoat for the EUrocrat nincompoops and we all know who that is.
Or as my grandad would have put it “the wifie is awa in the fuk’n heid”.
Supposedly the ILS at LBPD is unserviceable per NOTAM, as is the DME at the associated VOR (PVD) – so the only published approach available was an NDB non-precision approach to RWY 12.
Not sure why GPS would prevent use of approach chart on an EFB, but I imagine you just break out your Jepps or equivalent, brief the approach, then bring it in.
The METAR — LBPD 311400Z AUTO 28006KT 240V010 9999 FEW059/// 28/13 Q1009 NOSIG — suggests they could have done a visual.
I would think just another day in the office for that crew.
Makes me think of this…
According to LiveATC, ILS is working and the pilot was given two ILS options to choose from, revered to as X-Ray and Whiskey. He chose Whiskey. That ILS landing was performed was also confirmed by the Ministry of Transportation.
Regardless, routine for any qualified pilots, certainly not the drama described by the FT.
Flightradar24 is stating that according to their data the flight took 9 minutes longer than scheduled, and that the GPS reception was good at all phases of the flight.
Not an expert in any way or form, but wouldn’t any pilot rather use ILS than GPS for landing, as the first one is optimized high-precision system based on the optimal glide path for the runway in question, whereas the latter merely tells you at best where you are related to a location of your choosing.
Thank you for “Our Preoccupation With Protein Intake”. As someone who has insomnia if I eat more that half the RDA (specifically high methionione protein) and a family history of early heart disease (<50yo), it frustrates me to see these influencers peddling the idea not only of a high protein diet, but also the fact that we should all be eating the same diet. I will be distributing it widely.
The chart with the high leucine is important. Leucine is a branched chain amino acid that needs Vitamin B6 to be broken down. High leucine (and most amino acids) will deplete B6 and that will lead to high homocysteine among countless other metabolic imbalances.
This is why I constantly tell my patients on these type of diets, which I discourage, to take every single day a Super B Complex Vitamin. The homocysteine issue is all too real. Just as real are the kidney and liver issues that can occur especially in the huge numbers out there with metabolic syndrome.
I have the privilege in life of having been surrounded by multiple elders up to 100s year old and multiple patients all my life. Their diet was very simple – eat real food which you like and your body tolerated. Even better, grow and preserve your own. Learn chicken raising and eggs. Garden. Honeybees. Almost to the one, they avoid processed food. They make all of their own stuff. They are outdoors. They sweat. They read a lot. They are social. Constant movement. They eat protein but not “so many grams daily”. They have not eaten colostrum all their lives. They do not know a thing about all this crazy stuff online. They make things constantly.
I have learned by watching them. I do not know how to broadcast it. Our entire society, especially the Silicon Valley boobs, have no concept of any of this.
Thanks. Where I live it’s hard to find a real chicken to behead these days although my mom used to do it on her family farm.
So I do eat processed food although I mostly avoid fast food like the plague. The time I save in the kitchen I spend walking every day so that’s one plus at least. This morning I was walking on our just opened trail section and tons of other people. Maybe USian lifestyles are improving a bit even if the city sees walking trails as a real estate promotion.
Thank you for your response and also to know that genetics makes a big difference in those of us who even eat a healthy diet, but have serious health concerns. I have an HSP70 insufficiency which makes my body not respond well to stress. That stress include heat stress, oxidative stress, psychological stress, etc.
This is a mutation in my humble opinion that has come from my Y DNA lineage. I belong to the K1 haplogroup which is from the people who lived during the last Ice Age. So it makes sense that a heat shock protein would be much different from the people during the ice age. In cold climate, you definitely want a more extreme reaction to any heat you get.
But this has led me to severe mood disorder, and in the rest of my family, early heart disease deaths.
So eating chicken and eggs, definitely off of my menu. I do eat a lot of shellfish which are high insisting and lower methane, however. But definitely less protein overall.
re: Trumps new Medicare Plan
and
VA Pushed to Limit Treatment
um… just a thought here… maybe they are trying to kill us?
Remember this guy – Zeke Emmanual, Rahm’s brother? The guy who wrote people shouldn’t really want to live past the age of 75 because quality of life begins to fall. Follow the money.
From Jessica Rojas on twtr-X:
Jessica Rojas 🇺🇸💪
@catsscareme2021
UPDATE: They tried to hide it. I FOIA’d it. They gave me the secret link.
Page 180 of the FY2024 U.S. Financial Report showed how much money the government saves if you die younger.
Then it mysteriously disappeared.
So I filed a FOIA request and guess what?
They confirmed it.
They gave me the new buried link.
The depopulation math is STILL THERE , just harder to find.
They didn’t delete it because it was false.
They buried it because it’s true.
I’m not letting them get away with it.
We paid for that report and we’re taking it back.
https://x.com/catsscareme2021/status/1958104714215641310
Looks like there’s a financial incentive. Just look at the first bullet point in the FY 2024 Required Supplimentary Outlook – Fiscal Outlook page, attached.
Maybe they should just encourage people to be heavy smokers. Most of them won’t live to be of retirement age.
No maybe about it IMO flora
“Lithuania installs ‘dragon’s teeth’ fortifications along its border with Russia’s Kaliningrad’
For Russia, it must be like living in a neighbourhood full of crazy people. So you go out to your verandah to sit in a chair and drink a beer and watch what is happening in the neighbourhood. On one side you see your neighbour boarding up all his doors and windows thinking that you might try to get in – while forgetting about trying to get out in case of a fire. On the other side, that neighbour is ripping up his lawns and gardens so he can plant spikes and dig tiger traps turning the place into a muddy mess. Shaking your head, you look across the road to your other neighbour who is building a Besser block wall all across the front of his property facing you. You realize that he will not be able to get his car out but remember that it is not your problem. You sigh but then remember that at least your beer is normal.
I see your ‘chihuahua teeth’, and I raise you ‘swamps’.
https://xcancel.com/MyLordBebo/status/1962154036741685528
🇱🇹 Swamps against Putin!
Lithuania is considering restoring previously drained swamps on the border with Belarus as a security enhancement measure, said Nerius Zabliatskis, director of the Swamp Restoration and Protection Fund.
According to estimates, there are about 60 thousand hectares of swamps in this border area, but more than half of them have been drained.
Restoring such an area of swamps “will take a decade,” and the cost of restoring one hectare ranges “from €500 to €2000 or more.” so €30 to €120 million.
4 US soldiers disliked this post. :)
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/04/02/4-us-soldiers-who-died-lithuania-swamp-when-their-vehicle-sank-are-identified.html
At least it would be good for the wildlife and would be a form of rewilding.
It makes it much harder for the oreshniks to walk there. These tricky Lithuanians think of everything.
File under Dem Party collapse, from Wired Magazine:
A Dark Money Group Is Secretly Funding High-Profile Democratic Influencers
An initiative aimed at boosting Democrats online offers influencers up to $8,000 a month to push the party line. All they have to do is keep it secret—and agree to restrictions on their content.
https://www.wired.com/story/dark-money-group-secret-funding-democrat-influencers/
thanks!
re: review of Tim Weiner´s CIA book
Tom Griffin´s Blog
Book review – The Mission: The CIA in the Twenty-First Century
https://intelligencehistory.substack.com/p/book-review-the-mission-the-cia-in
I posted my own warning about Weiner’s biases a week or two ago. Although there is not a lot of detail in this review, the following passage caught my eye:
“Under Obama, a move away from the Bush-era legacy of torture and rendition was initially facilitated by an expansion of drone warfare. Only with the advent of John Brennan as director would there be an attempt to refocus the agency away from becoming a paramilitary organization.”
“By this time, older pre-occupations were re-emerging in the shape of counterintelligence threats from Russia and China. Weiner’s chapters on Trump’s first term portray a President sympathetic to Vladimir Putin and locked in a profound antagonism with his own intelligence community.”
“The early Biden years brought one of the CIA’s high points with an intelligence warning that enabled Ukraine to resist the Russian invasion of 2021…”
Etc.
Weiner pushes the whole Trump/Russiagate/Ukraine narrative for his CIA buddies. And note the portrayal of Brennan in this short segment; anyone who knows much about Brennan and his actions during this period can only laugh (I assume Brennan is a major “insider” source). As I’ve said before, given Weiner’s connections I’m sure there is useful information in this book, as there was in his first one. But though I haven’t yet read it, I’m certain that it will be anything but objective and unbiased.
…ditto
thinking of how Weiner by now behaves, he is probably in an age where promoting his legacy is more important than scrutinizing it. If scrutiny ever was of that significance with him. I don´t want to be unjust not knowing Weiner´s work enough also in comparison to other CIA historians. But his encounter with Maté made enough of a point in every direction, whether critical or laudatory.
Some tangential agency info in this article that is way above my pay grade. Is there anything straight or truthful in Washington?
re: Comprehensive study on German media double standard on Gaza
important
Of course one can always demand more but at least this work has been done:
Proving the German Media Bias Against Palestinians
By Fabian Goldmann
Translation by Oscar Davies
German reporting on the Middle East has long been criticized as one-sided. Our exclusive analysis of 5,000 headlines from leading German media outlets since October 7 shows the bias is even worse than suspected.
https://jacobin.com/2025/08/germany-media-bias-gaza-israel
Ah, that must be the Lügenpresse that you are talking about.
“China’s Political System Makes Consumption-led Growth Impossible”
Obviously not an economist here but is having growth for your economy come from consumption a good idea? Most consumption is wasteful and about twenty years ago I read of a survey done in the US. It calculated that at least 95% of purchases in the average US home was no longer present in that home 6 months later. At the turn of the century the US alone must have become very dependent on consumption in the economy. Does anybody remember what George Bush told his fellow Americans after the 9/11 attacks? He told them to keep on going shopping. It was bizarre back then and it is still bizarre now. So maybe China might be wise not to have their growth come from consumption but diversify instead.
The US seems to have jumped on the accelerating consumption-driven growth wagon after World War II, when the leadership was very scared of the country falling back into another Great Depression once all the war-related spending washed out of the economy. The two solutions: the Cold War (keep spending high for a permanent war that might not have to be fought at massive scale all at once) and mass consumption of new products with planned obsolescence built in and incessant radio and television advertising egging everyone on. I haven’t come across any books or articles that describe what a better course would’ve been, although it seems likely there were some possible ones (it didn’t sound like FDR was planning for a Cold War, so he must have had some other vision for how to keep prosperity going).
But “diversifying” into consumption would have to ba part of that. As it is now, China’s plan is to run a trade surplus with the entire rest of the world. And the ROW is starting to object to it.
I think Armchair Warlord may be onto something about Ukraine, whether or not you accept the figure of 1,7M casualties to date.
The problem for the Russians is less winning the war, which they’ve largely done, or even defeating the West, which they are well on the way to doing, but rather making sure that Ukraine can never be what they would see as a threat ever again, or at least for the foreseeable future. Every country has to go through a recovery process after a war on its territory, and a process of demographic recovery after military and civilian deaths. The longer the recovery process in Ukraine takes, obviously, the less of a threat the Russians will consider the country to be. But it’s more than that. If the sector of the population of military and reproductive age (essentially males between 18 and 50) can be reduced below a certain level through death, serious injury or emigration, then the country can never recover its population base. Even if it can generate a workforce of sorts, it won’t be able to generate a military as well, and no amount of foreign money and equipment (assuming that continues, which I doubt) can make up for a sheer lack of people. In addition, in such conditions, stillbirths and infant mortality raise sharply, as they did in the 1990s.
So I think AW may be right, that Russia is deliberately spinning out the war to inflict the maximum casualties on Ukraine, and to destroy as much as possible of the social structures and to some extent the infrastructure of the country. The object is to destroy the country’s recovery capability such that it can never be a functioning country again. And of course there’s a hidden warning to other countries: we can do this to you too.
There are actually sort-of precedents for this from the Cold War. There were indications that the Soviet leadership considered that a war with NATO would inevitably go nuclear, and took steps to ensure that Soviet society, industry, infrastructure etc. were as robust and protected as possible, so that the country would eventually recover. After all, the argument went, if your country takes twenty years to recover, but your enemy’s takes thirty, then you’ve won, for some definitions of “winning.”
But it’s more than that. If the sector of the population of military and reproductive age (essentially males between 18 and 50) can be reduced below a certain level through death, serious injury or emigration, then the country can never recover its population base.
In the thrall of my eternal cynic I felt the justification for letting the 18+ crowd get out of dodge was to maintain population capacity to assuage your point and it can’t be ruled out that this demographic can be the guerrilla army after the fall.
One wonders how many North Americans of the Banderite diaspora actually joined in the fighting in Ukraine. If the 18+ contingent leaving Ukraine now doesn’t want to fight and die, will they want to later, or breed children who will? Seems unlikely to me.
Maybe they let that group leave the country because they were just the sort of young guys who’d try a Maidan of their own rather than become cannon fodder for their rotten government. Or things are a lot worse than we know, the Rada is planning for a govt in exile soon and are letting their supporters own sons escape first. The nightclub scene in Kiev may feel a loss.
Z just lifted the ban on the young people leaving the country. I had the notion that they just (?) realized what Russia is up to. The only counter for is to set aside the seedstock of the future Bandera movement in the West.
I also commemted, in another post, that the clueless West sends them back…
Yes, I think it’s called an overly dynamic situation
The North American Banderites seem to have spent their energies instead on co-opting the US and Canadian governments. (unfortunately for the rest of us)
Russian FM Lavrov’s response to “security guarantees “ for Kiev is “Russia wants two sided guarantees” not the one sided proposed by Zelensky and his euros in the Oval Office.
Rational countries might negotiate this, the neocon cabal not.
Well, there are somewhere between 4 to 12 million Ukrainians in Russia, of all ages, and many of them even ethnic Ukrainians. There’s also the population of Donbass, where according tom Ukraine now live around 2 million people and according to Russia 4.5 million people – and it’s expected to rise to 10 million when the war ends.
Half of the pre-war Ukraine reported having relatives in Russia. So, there’s plenty of recovering capability for a version of Ukraine that doesn’t define itself as hating everything Russian.
I think that is the point: Russians are engaged in, if you will, a sort of extremely brutal (if “clean”) social engineering. They are looking to completely “remake” the Ukrainian nation by curling the anti-Russian component thereof. Whatever Ukraine that remains will still be “Ukrainian,” by culture and ethnicity, but they will also be “Russian” by inclination and affinity–based on the “Russian Ukrainians” in Russia and the Ukrainians who already have joined Russia. Russians, fwiw, have always been keenly aware of hte demographic realities of international conflicts–whatever happeened to the Baltic Germans, Sudetens, and the Germans from Posen, Pommern, and (most of) Silesia? So we are wrapping up the unfinished demographic issues of the last Great War….
“If the sector of the population of military and reproductive age (essentially males between 18 and 50) can be reduced below a certain level through death, serious injury or emigration, then the country can never recover its population base.”
That is a supposition that intuitively seems to make sense, except that the level to which a population must be reduced is, based on the few historical relevant cases, exceedingly low — basically at genocidal levels of extermination.
Paraguay lost half of its entire population during the Paraguayan war, and the survivors had a completely lopsided male-to-female ratio of 1 to 3 or 4.
However, the population progressively recovered, reaching its pre-war level at the turn of the 20th century. And it was not because of immigration: from 1881 to 1929, Paraguay registered a bit over 25’000 immigrants — amounting to about 10% of the immediate post-war population.
To prevent the Ukrainian population from recovering, the killing would have to be a full order of magnitude larger than what it is now. I doubt that the Russians are either willing or capable of achieving this — just for the fact that many “males of reproductive and fighting age” have left the country.
There is a counter to this: Russia is not looking to destroy Ukrainian population, but to replace much of the current mix with pro-Russian ones, including those in pre 2014 as well as the “new” Russia. The latter are still “Ukrainian,” whatever that means. Where they formerly might have made up maybe 30-50 of the appropriately aged males, they’ll now make up 80% or more and will pass on their sociocultural leanings, barring catastrophic family issues, to their descendants.
Yesterday I dropped by the Village Bakery to pick up a loaf of sourdough and a sign on the door said “We are closing at noon this Saturday due to staff Illness”.
Earlier Sunday I read in the local fishwrap the the new strain of Covid is spreading rapidly throughout the SF Bay Area, that article recommended handwashing as the best means of stopping the transmission of an airborne virus.
I see that recommendation frequently and sometimes wonder if the people who promote this approach would benefit from sniffing a better grade of airplane glue.
Coming to America, if Trump has his way?
With Drones and I.E.D.s, Mexico’s Cartels Adopt Arms of Modern War (NY Times via archive.ph)
The cartels have an astounding amount of wealth, I recall an article in the WSJ in the mid eighties that claimed the fed had added 12 trains per day, not carloads, trains, running cash from Florida to Chicago.
That was 40 years ago, these days they are moving Cocaine in 40,000 Lb lots.
Which requires substantial infrastructure to move both product and cash smoothly, which the cartels clearly have.
Plenty (70% according to CBS) of the “Aid” sent to Ukraine, including weapons, has been diverted and
sold on the black market.
Shipping might be a complication, but covert shipping is one of the skillsets of every Cartel.
If Trump is stupid enough to go after the Cartels there will be serious blowback and the brilliant minds surrounding Trump have outraged every person of Hispanic heritage in the USA and plenty of Anglos as well.
If the Cartels played their cards right by choosing their targets carefully things could get very interesting because this administration is likely to go completely berserk.
Exceeding the prior administration in stupidity and brutality is quite a feat, however I am confident that this administration can do it without breaking a sweat.
Ukraine has shown the way in how to infiltrate a belligerent sharing a land border with explosive-laden drones. Anywhere in the continental US is a target. And the cartels are adept at smuggling into this country, so I expect getting in munitions for drones commercially bought and modified in the US won’t be a problem. I believe Iran faced this very issue just recently. There’s plenty of precedent here that Trump can unleash. I wonder if the response might be as catastrophic as that of 9/11?
We might find out.
MAHA is on the March
Salmonella Outbreak Linked to Eggs Sickens 95 People (NY Times via archive.ph)
In light of China continuing to seethe about losing Formosa to the forces of Chiang following the Great Retreat, what’s the game plan after Russia completely depletes the supply of antique T-72A, which they are refurbishing for use in Ukraine? Or does anyone think China forgot how Russia took control of Outer Manchuria from the Qing? Color me idly wondering; will they still be best friends? Or put another way, what’s the purpose of the huge buildup of forces beyond the blue water navy with which to challenge the USA?
Given the need for *a* competitive military force (ie the obvious counter to the US Navy), the old iron law takes over. What’s the purpose of a strategic bomber force once you have a fleet of Minutemen? (as the saying went – ‘make the rubble bounce’) What’s the purpose of multiple armored divisions when there is no conceivable future scenario you could use them in? Why have a Marine Corps if they need to ‘redefine’ their mission every 10 years or so? What’s the purpose of spending $1T+ on ‘defence’ every year?
After Russia completely depletes the supply of antique T-72A, they will move on to T-72B.
Re VdL’s plane coming under GPS jamming attack.
Flight Radar has just released its data on the flight and reports that the plane was 9 minutes late (as I already wrote), and that “The aircraft’s transponder reported good GPS signal quality from take-off to landing.”
Moreover, GPS Jam website provided a map of the levels of GPS interference over Bulgaria yesterday and Plovdiv was in the green.
The Financial Times, VdL and the BG gubmint have some serious ‘splaining to do.
In the meantime, the attack against the acting head of DANS (State Agency For National Security) is reaching a crescendo because of this alleged jamming. As I explained earlier, VdL and the EU have no problem being in bed with corrupt actors in BG because they comply on EU war policy in Ukraine. The acting head of the agency is seen as close to President Rumen Radev, a prominent skeptic of the narrative and opponent to the escalatory policies of the EU.
From this, it appears that this could be a made up or false flag to serve as pretext to curb the power of the President, not that he’s much more than a figurehead by the constitution, and to consolidate the power of the corrupt but compliant supporters of EU’s warmongering policies.
It’s fricking nuts, but at least my spidey sense has been proven to be in fine working order.
Audio from LiveATC on approach of VdL’s plane. The pilot informs the tower that he’s lost GPS signal and requests ISL approach. He’s given two ISL approach options to choose from. The conversation is purely calm and professional, nothing dramatic.No emergency is declared and the plane lands safely a few minutes later.
OIFVet: Thanks for your reports.
Fatto Quotidiano in its updates mentions that Dimitri Peskov, Russian spokesman, says that the Financial Times has its facts wrong.
Question: You pointed out that the plane left Warsaw 76 minutes late, which I ascertained through your link.
–Did Ursula hold things up by asking for seconds on the kielbasa and sauerkraut at lunch?
–Is it possible the plane was diagnosed with some mechanical problem in Warsaw?
–Surely (as indicated by some comments above), they didn’t decide to blame the Russians just because she couldn’t get her ass to the airport on time?
–I doubt that this was staged to promote a dustup in the Bulgarian government. She just isn’t that brilliant — so I’m leery of the idea of a false flag.
Have we reached terminal self-stupefaction? She turns up late and “it’s Putin’s fault.”
Oh, I’m saying that the local actors are perfectly capable of using the incident for their own end, with or without her knowledge. The original article by the FT makes it sufficiently clear, that it’s sources are Bulgarian or Bulgarian-adjacent and trust me, those fockers are plenty capable of all sorts of dirty games and tricks. Think the infamous “Bulgarian umbrella”.
Regarding the loss of signal, two likely possibilities:
1. Technical malfunction in the on board equipment. It happens. Data from the plane and maintenance logs would tell us a lot, but I doubt we will ever see them
2. Nearby there’s a military airport, which also hosts NATO forces and equipment. False flag? It’s not outside the realm of possibilities.
3. Russian jamming? I still think that’s a possibility as well.
Regardless, the incident appears to be very routine, but the coverage and narratives certainly aren’t – fhey are sensationalist and made of the usual calls about the evil Russians attempting to assassinate the comically incompetent VdL and the need to respond to this “attack”.
That the local repercussions are second fiddle is beyond argument, however it’s important enough given the situation in country. Lots of unhappiness and economy about to enter a Greek debt spiral. It’s a mess and control over security services is important for the survival of the corruption wing. Radev’s term expires next year and being the most popular and trustworthy public figure, speculation is ripe that he will create his own party and enter parliamentary politics. This is a food opportunity to deny him a useful tool and use it as an oppressive instrument instead…
Larger planes don’t land via gps. They use the land based ILS. It’s more accurate and reliable.
They can use the gps to get from point A to B, but not landing.
They also have INS inertial navigation system which doesn’t rely on satellites
The plane’s navigation uses both so the loss of 1 doesn’t mean loss of location.
Something about all this doesn’t make sense.
Thanks for the reporting on SCO and BRICS. I’m seeing more reporting on this in America’s MSM, but the context for that reporting is all “Cold War 2.0”. I see much of what’s happening now as the logical continuation of W’s foreign policy although I do realize the NATO aspects in eastern Europe go back even further. But I cannot help but feel that much of Trump’s tariffs actions amounted to pouring gas on a smoldering fire – an accelerant of global relations.
Looks like Schrodinger left his cat in a box of nibbles.
And that look: What!?
Re: Greta
“Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza’s waters to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Hamas and other terror groups.”
No. There has always been a blockade ever since Hamas won the election back in 2007, if I remember right. The goal was to “Put the Gazans on a diet,” if I remember right. The goal was 900 calories/day, same as the concentration camps of WW2, if I remember right.
There are clues in articles as to who writes them.
But at the same time, remember Julian Assange.
No Making Shit Up. Please use a search engine rather than make me do so to assure information integrity. I will NOT approve future comment like this one.
It was 2300 calories a day, which works only if you are good at equal distribution and have no/little waste.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/17/israeli-military-calorie-limit-gaza
Thank you Yves, thank you Conor.
Here are two links for you regarding Zionists. The first is 4 months old, the other 3 August 25.
10 Britons accused of war crimes fighting in Gaza
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2025/apr/07/ten-britons-accused-of-committing-war-crimes-while-fighting-for-israel-in-gaza
Zionist war criminals hosted on rejuvenation holidays in England, with all expenses paid.
The piece has a lot of information on the donors, and photos of the recipients.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/08/03/752369/meet-zionist-charity-brought-over-5000-israeli-war-criminals-britain
NB. The latter article has a reference to the Chabad strain of Judaism. The wealthiest postcode in all of Australia (per Australian Tax Office) is Double Bay in the inner East of Sydney. It has a Chabad centre right in its centre, and it and adjacent suburbs such as the famous Bondi, and Rose Bay, have an overwhelming percentage of Zionists
China to show off military might in parade attended by anti-west leaders (Guardian)
Only adding this as the framing is infuriatingly stupid
Re: Broken $100-billion dream city becomes refuge for tech utopians
Forest City sounds like a kind of wannabe version of J. G. Ballard’s Eden-Olympia technopole.