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Links 9/18/2025

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Why I Became a Birdwatcher Nautilus

Ostrich and emu ancestor could fly, scientists discover Phys.org

Climate/Environment

Only a third of world’s river basins experienced normal conditions in 2024 The Guardian

Increased emissions threaten solar infrastructure in India: Study Down to Earth

This Brick Is the World’s Most Boring Climate Solution Atmos

Pandemics

CDC ends telework for employees with disabilities, union says Government Executive

How do you get people to care about COVID-19? Here’s what I’ve learned as an organizer. The Sick Times

India

India Makes Waves: Navy Joins 40-Nation South China Sea Drill With US, Japan India Narrative

US-India Move Toward Mutually Beneficial Trade Talks India Narrative

China?

Trump’s China trip many hinge on Boeing and soybean deals, sources say South China Morning Post

Taiwan pledges US$10 billion in U.S. farm product purchases over four years Focus Taiwan

China drops Google antitrust probe during US trade talks FT

AI firm DeepSeek writes less-secure code for groups China disfavors WaPo

From Research Academy to State Venture Capitalist: The transformation of Chinese Academy of Sciences Sinocities

Will China be the first to bring humanoid robots into the home? Think China

Flying cars crash into each other at Chinese air show BBC

Syraqistan

Israel using booby-trapped vehicles to displace residents and destroy central neighbourhoods in Gaza City Euro-Med

‘Will Blow Up in Our Faces’ Israel Using Gazan Militias for Military Operations in Exchange for Pay and Territory Haaretz

Smotrich says a Gaza ‘real estate bonanza’ as stock market tumbles over Netanyahu ‘Super Sparta’ speech New Arab

Bernie Sanders becomes first US senator to say Israel committing genocide in Gaza The Guardian

In wake of Charlie Kirk Assassination, the Genie of ‘America First’ vs ‘Israel First’ is out of the bottle Conflicts Forum (Video). Danny Haiphong interview of Alastair Crooke.

House seeks to expand secretive arms stockpile used in Gaza war Responsible Statecraft

‘United States of Israel’: Bipartisan US delegation draws backlash for largest-ever foreign trip Middle East Eye

Families of US citizens killed by Israel say Trump administration refuses to investigate Middle East Eye

Following U.S. request, Japan won’t recognize Palestinian state Asahi Shimbun

BCG to train staff on ‘humanitarian principles’ after Gaza outcry FT

Old Blighty

Trade, Ukraine, Gaza: Starmer pleading for concessions from Trump Euronews

GSK pledges $30bn US investment as UK’s pharma woes deepen BBC

US tech giants pledge $42 billion in UK investment as Trump tours Blighty The Register. Data centers galore.

More than a quarter of children in the UK are growing up hungry, research finds The Independent

European Disunion

Over 800,000 expected to join French protests against budget cuts Euractiv

In Praise of Small Things. Aurelien

New Not-So-Cold War

Germany Backs Further Use of Frozen Russian Assets for Ukraine Bloomberg

Polish military delegation to visit Ukraine to study air defense experience Kyiv Independent

Ukraine to receive Patriot, HIMARS missiles, Zelensky says Kyiv Independent

Europeans still waking up to the same ‘Groundhog Day’ soundtrack by Sonny and Cher Ian Proud

Dead Bodies Don’t Lie — The Truth About Ukraine’s Military Casualties Larry Johnson

Trump’s Ukraine Envoy Says the US Could ‘Kick Russia’s Ass’ Antiwar

Russian team comes dead last in Hungary’s annual grave digging contest Intellinews

***

Poland’s border closure risks choking EU-China trade Politico

GREAT MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF CHRYSTIA FREELAND’S FAILURE TO HAVE ACHIEVED MORE FOR UKRAINIAN FASCISM (2013-2025) THAN HER GRANDFATHER ACHIEVED AS HITLER’S PROPAGANDIST AND SPY (1939-45) John Helmer

L’affaire Epstein

South of the Border

Pentagon Lawyers Raise Concerns Over Trump’s Strikes on Alleged Drug Boats WSJ

Tens of thousands protest Dundee’s Ecuador mine project near key water reserve Reuters

Our Famously Free Press

Note on Jimmy Kimmel Matt Taibbi

Trump 2.0

The Pendulum Swings: Free Speech Falls Under Tread of Prophecy Simplicius

Trump says designating anti-fascist Antifa movement a ‘terrorist organization’ France24

***

Police State Watch

Republicans eye a crime bill for Trump, and for the midterms Semafor

Defense Bill Opens Door To Guns-For-Hire At The Border The Lever

Airlines Sell 5 Billion Plane Ticket Records to the Government For Warrantless Searching 404 Media

Weimar Republic

Charlie Kirk shooting: Kash Patel grilled at hearing, classes resume at UVU USA Today

After Charlie Kirk’s Murder, Elite Arrogance Still On Full Display Matt Taibbi

Healthcare?

Doctor who left patient during operation to have sex with nurse allowed to practise The Guardian

Surgeon General pick had supplement company deals Axios

AI

Meta launches new Ray-Ban smart glasses in step towards ‘superintelligence’ The Independent

OpenAI says models are programmed to make stuff up instead of admitting ignorance The Register

Delegation to AI can increase dishonest behavior Phys.org

After child’s trauma, chatbot maker allegedly forced mom to arbitration for $100 payout Ars Technica

Anthropic irks White House with limits on models’ use Semafor. The AI Bluesky?

Screening Room

Kneel Before Zod The Baffler

Guillotine Watch

Most Of Billionaires’ $7.6 Trillion Has Never Been Taxed Americans for Tax Fairness

Mr. Market

Fed’s rate cut comes with caveats, leaving investors lukewarm Reuters

Funds Shifting Away From US Assets Due to Trump, Mercer Says Bloomberg

Class Warfare

The Moral Decay of Debt Charles Hugh Smith

FACE TO FACE WITH THE SCALE OF THE COSMOS IEEE Spectrum

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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173 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    ‘Mambo Italiano
    @mamboitaliano__
    St George’s Hall at Windsor Castle will provide the incredible setting tonight for the State Banquet, with a 165-foot-long table, as King Charles III and Queen Camilla host President Donald J. Trump, First Lady Melania, and 160 other guests 🇬🇧🇺🇸’

    The British would have studied his psychological profile and are playing up to it. Treating him as royalty, the honours given, travel in traditional horse carriages, dinner in that Hall with gold bling on display, military parades in his honour that he could only wish would happen in the US, being treated as ‘one of them’ instead of the outsider that he experiences at home. And you can bet that the people that sat down near him were all especially selected. And with a person like Trump, it might just work. It never hurts to tickle his ego.

    2. DJG, Reality Czar

      The Rev Kev: I offer a translation.

      Or, nobody does anachronistic feudalism with fancy titles and groveling like serfs the way the English do.

      And all a-google-eyed, the USanians, brought up on Downtown Abbey, think that the inherited kitsch is pretty darn classy, even better than the photographs on Zillow.

      Meanwhile, putting on my toga of Cato:
      Akrotiri and Dhekelia must be destroyed.

      1. The Rev Kev

        It all works. A century ago in Britain there was not a group of women more determined and adamant in wanting to be ‘introduced at Court’ than American Republic women. For so many elite Americans, there is a sort of moth to the flames quality about the British Monarchy and its social setting. Many were the marriages between American heiresses and debt-ridden British nobility and Winston Churchill was the result of one such union. Here Trump is where he wants to be. The center of attention of a lot of important, powerful people.

        1. DJG, Reality Czar

          Rev Kev:
          As portrayed in The Buccaneers, the last novel of the wonderful Edith Wharton.

          Who knew? There is a streaming series of the novel now going on. From a July 2025 article at the web site of Town & Country (well, well):

          “[Wharton] died before she could finish her final work: The Buccaneers, a tale of a group of American debutantes who sail to England to trade their inheritances for titles, loosely based on real life counterparts like Consuelo Vanderbilt, Jennie Jerome, and Nancy Astor. Wharton’s characters live on through modern adaptations, most recently Apple TV+’s The Buccaneers, returning for its second season this week.”

          The buccaneers had plenty of money and weren’t quite so in-bred. A win-win situation, I’d say.

          1. The Rev Kev

            I tend to agree. The British got the money for their Estates and the Americans got the Titles which they were able to trade heavily on socially. Adding in fresh blood was a bonus.

    3. Wukchumni

      Americans would be wowed by an east end accent, not really knowing any better. Every Brit’s IQ goes up 10 points when on vacay in the USA, at least in estimation by my countrymen.

      My buddy who runs sightseeing tours in Sequoia NP since the turn of the century, is married to an English lass, and she takes calls and does all the booking side, and having her voice on the other line, instantly injects a bit of highfalutin posh, ‘I wonder if she knows any royalty?’ drifting through their minds, perhaps.

    4. JP

      When I saw the table I had to wonder about the seating chart, knowing that I would be seated at the long end with the persons who had to be invited but couldn’t be trusted to play along.

    5. Eclair

      And, sly Conor follows that link detailing the gold plates and servants and multiple-course meal, with the article on “More than a Quarter of Children in the UK are Growing up Hungry, Research shows.”

      Perhaps the Castle staff can distribute the leftovers to the hungry children gathered at the back gate, like the Lord of the Castle would do in more enlightened times.

    6. Anonymous 2

      Can’t resist adding a story.

      The Japanese Emperor was coming to the UK on a State Visit. The Lord Chamberlain was warned that the Emperor could not handle very hot food.

      Came back the reply: ‘Splendid. The food at the Palace is always stone-cold’.

  2. Nikkikat

    The photo of the bird above comment section is just beautiful! Does anyone know what the name of this bird is?

    1. The Rev Kev

      The ‘via’ link says-

      ‘a male Himalayan Monal (棕尾虹雉,Lophophorus impejanus), in Xizang (#Tibet) autonomous region. It is under top-class state protection in #China, and is the national bird of #Nepal. ❤新疆雄鹰’

      Here is a Wikipedia page on that bird and it seems that the females luck out on the colours-

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_monal

      1. Retired Carpenter

        re: ” the females luck out on the colours-”
        Rev,
        In avian society that is usually the case; plumage of ducks and drakes come to mind

    2. Stephen V

      According to ‘via’ link above on Twitter:
      male Himalayan Monal (棕尾虹雉,Lophophorus impejanus), in Xizang (#Tibet) autonomous region.

  3. Wukchumni

    Goooooooooood Mooooooorning Fiatnam!

    The platoon was on duty patrolling the mean streets of the nations’ capitol, when larger than life what many in the unit mistakenly took for a 12 foot high lawn jockey made out of salted butter, turned out to be a tribute in how to waste gotten Bitcoin gains, I mean why not also buy a fur sink and a bidet that splashes Prosecco into the nether regions, in redoing that bathroom more to your image?

    2. mary jensen

      Meret Oppenheim’s “Le Déjeuner en fourrure” is way beyond The Donald’s ken and as for a Prosecco jet bidet you’ve overlooked The Donald’s life long aversion to alcoholic bevvies: “Never trust a man who doesn’t drink”.

        1. Jeff H

          I’ve been known to say sobriety is highly over rated, Perhaps rigid sobriety distorts perceptions as well?

    3. JMH

      Graustark comes to DC? Hail Hail Freedonia. Land of the brave and the free. Where is Groucho when we need him? South Park may have some fun with “a 12 foot high lawn jockey.” But take a step back. The president of the United States as a golden statue holding crypto? What is the message here? Appallingly bad taste or public relations, which as we all know also spells crap built on lies? Crypto: its uses are, that last I heard, are money laundering, tax evasion, and illegal transactions. Are the others? Sucking up to he-who-is-depicted-in-gold?

    1. mary jensen

      Much to the chagrin of the USA’s “Christers”, the US never actually appears in either ‘Testament’ of their Holy Book so I suppose one would have to say Israel comes first …

      2. steppenwolf fetchit

        Johnson’s problem with the “isolationist” Republicans is that they threaten to throw off the Timeline to Armageddon, the End of the World, and the Triumphant Return of Christ to rule the Earth for a Thousand Years.

        AIPAC and the “Jewish Leaders” think they are playing the “gullible Christians”. Meanwhile the Rapturaniac-Armageddonites ( and separately the New Apostolic Reformationists) think they are playing the “gullible Jews” who will find out how disposable they are when the time comes to trigger off World War Thermonuke starting at Har Megido ( Armageddon).

        Who is actually playing whom? Time will tell. I myself think the various flavors of National Christianists and Rapturgeddonites and etc. are the better long-term players in this game.

        Perhaps as this all becomes ever more clear, growing numbers of non-rich no-account Jews in the field will start to go DILABH on Israel.

        What is DILABH? ( Pronounced ” dye-lab” ). Its an acronym. It stands for Drop Israel Like A Bad Habit.

  5. The Rev Kev

    “Trump says he will designate anti-fascist ‘Antifa’ as a ‘terrorist organization’Trump says he will designate anti-fascist ‘Antifa’ as a ‘terrorist organization'”

    Say, what about these guys then. Do they get a ban?

    https://edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2021/12/06/white-nationalists-march-lincoln-memorial-newday-jarrett-avlon-vpx.cnn

    Oddly enough, not a beer gut to be seen in the entire lot. They are all young and healthy and look like a group straight from Quantico.

    3. t

      other Anti-Genocide Left-Wing Orgs

      A call to investigate anti-genicide organizations?

      Once again, possible Onion or New York Times Pitchbot lose out to the actual news.

  6. eg

    Re “The Moral Decay of Debt”

    Begins with “Let’s start with a household analogy.”

    Ugh. Let’s not. It’s one of the most persistent, pernicious fallacies of macroeconomic public discourse.

    Followed by the less than useless “debt to GDP” metric of Reinhart and Rogoff infamy.

    Feh …

    1. La Peruse

      What bugs me most about this is that the erroneous framing of the economic relationship (between debtors and creditors) perpetuates the system the author is critiquing. This is bleeding heart liberalism, with no solution and real-world consequences. To whom are the children indebted? The children of the creditors? There is a solution for that problem that may be understood as that which ensues when politics has failed.

    2. JCC

      I thought the same but on the other hand he also covered Steve Keen’s point that between public debt and private debt we have problems.

      What can’t be paid back (private debt) won’t be paid back.

      Am I missing something?

      1. ambrit

        You missed that with the “new” laws precluding the discharge of Student Loan debts in bankruptcy, America has re-introduced formal Legal Debt Servitude. Another term for which is Bondage. Coming up, the reintroduction of females as “chattels.” (The Epstein Organization has acted as a “Leading Indicator” here.)

    3. thrombus

      Let’s start with a household analogy is used exclusively by people that don’t know the price of milk, nor how to use washing machine.

      1. ambrit

        “They” have “people” to manage those tasks for them.
        The rest of us aren’t even ‘people’ to this lot. To them we are “consumers.”

  7. Ben Panga

    I wonder when Taibbi will stop fighting the last war and figure out that (like his former podcast’s title) he’s fulfilling the role of Useful Idiot.

    Yes the old system needed to go. But I don’t think he’ll like what he sees when he finally wakes up.

    1. Basil Pesto

      There will be no figuring out or waking up. He’s played the Altstream media market and now he’s rich writing digital pamphlets from his mansion to loyal paying subscribers. It really is that simple. He may, of course, need to pivot if that income stream threatens to dry up. No sign of that as yet but he appears to be a skilled triangulator so I’m sure he’d manage.

    2. pjay

      It is quite striking to compare the lessons Taibbi draws from the Charlie Kirk murder with those being drawn by Tucker Carlson. It’s like some sort of Freaky Friday exchange has occurred. I wonder if Matt has any idea how rapidly he is discrediting himself among those of us who supported him a few years ago. I don’t quite agree with Basil Pesto’s comment above that implies that he is just a cynical manipulator for money. Staying with the liberal mob would have been more lucrative for him a few years ago. I think “useful idiot” (ironically) fits more here.

      1. Ben Panga

        In fairness, I can see how the amount of crap he got over Russiagate from the previous regime could send someone a bit….irrational.

        1. Michael Fiorillo

          And he’s no doubt been subject to years of flattery and seduction from conservatives, and succumbed.

        2. lyman alpha blob

          There was this from his most recent piece –

          “It will be the mother of all disasters if Republicans take the cheese and try to appropriate this machinery for themselves. The political gains will be temporary, but the tools for a crackdown will become permanent.”

          Seems pretty clear he’s chastising Republicans for their own attempts at censorship, just as he criticized Democrats earlier.

          Also, I do think he is trying to be less dramatic in his criticism of conservatives and not going for the clever laugh line like he once did. He has publicly chastised himself for being part of the problem with our civic discourse. I’d say his rhetoric was not all that inflammatory, but for whatever reason he did make a deliberate attempt to change. I don’t think he went out to attract a conservative audience, but they did notice when he criticized Biden and seem to make up a good portion of his audience judging by the comments. Maybe it’s possible he’s trying to bring some of them along to seeing his point of view?

          Walter Kirn though, that’s a different story. I have no idea what he’s on about these days.

      2. hk

        Carlson is quickly becoming a real American hero (I really mean this.) Something that I’d never have expected a decade or even three years ago. If he really fies channel middle America as well as I think he does, that’s a hopeful sign.

  8. The Rev Kev

    “Flying cars crash into each other at Chinese air show”

    And that is the problem with flying cars. They are like regular planes and helicopters in that when they fall out of the sky, they have to hit the ground somewhere. And here we have two flying cars falling out of the sky. If there are a lot of these things flying around, they may have to organize air corridors that go over areas not so heavily populated. Maybe have them, when possible, over rivers and maybe harbours too.

      1. Wukchumni

        Yes, both had no-vault coverage, and judging from the fireball, it’ll be a closed casket.

        Would the unlucky pilot be the Thomas Selfridge of our times?

        Saw his tombstone in the cemetery @ West Point.

        Thomas Etholen Selfridge (February 8, 1882 – September 17, 1908) was an American first lieutenant in the U.S. Army and the first person to die in an airplane crash.

    2. LawnDart

      These vehicles appear to have collided due to pilot-error– the cause of most aircraft mishaps. They were supposed to be operating under “see-and-avoid” visual flight rules, but obviously that didn’t happen.

      The CAAC (China’s FAA) is puting a lot of effort towards ensuring the integration and uniformity of air traffic management systems throughout the country: China has successively issued the “Smart Civil Aviation Construction Roadmap” and the “Unmanned Aviation Development Roadmap”, and is drafting the “Urban Air Traffic Operational Concepts and Development Roadmap”. Other countries are making similar efforts, but it appears that China has taken the lead on this.

        1. LawnDart

          And they would be correct:

          “Pilot error continues to be the leading cause of general aviation accidents, with 69.1% of all general aviation accidents in 2020 caused by pilot error.”

          Overall, pilots are still significantly less accident-prone than the general population:

          “Studies reveal that a staggering 80-90% of all workplace and off the job accidents are linked to human error.”

          You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.
          Harlan Ellison

            1. LawnDart

              No, the comment wasn’t wrong– I wouldn’t put it past those bastards as something they’d bring up in the immediate aftermath of a crash, something to muddy the waters and buy time, even if it wasn’t true.

  9. DJG, Reality Czar

    50 States, One Israel. The two-hundred-fifty U.S. state legislators wandering around Israel, eating the macadamia nuts out of the minibars at the hotel and hoping not to see some angry Palestinian (they’re all so darn crazed, those Palestinians).

    Only Wikipedia seems to be doing the work of compiling a list, because I can’t find a list in any news article after several searches with DuckDuckGo.

    Here’s a preliminary list:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_States_One_Israel

    1. John Wright

      I had the same reaction, why not provide a list of the proud/bought attendees?

      Did not see my USA CA Congressional rep on the list, but the list is not complete.

      Imagine the uproar if 250 USA representatives attended a Russian sponsored event in Moscow.

    2. elissa3

      The thought occurred to me that a truly incendiary and subversive new product would be a flag of the USA with the 50 five-pointed stars replaced by 50 six-pointed stars. Who could object? It would drive several partisan groups crazy. But, hey, free speech.

      1. chuck roast

        Can’t find any names from tiny-state. Just e-mailed a couple of my local Reps and local Sen asking for a name or names on the US/Israel solidarity junket since at least one of our 50 is missing as we used to say in New Mexico. I told them if this was a secret mission that I, being a patriot, would keep mum.

        One of my Reps replied that she knows nothing. This may be the Sgt. Schultz defense…or not. I sent a rejoined asking her to please find the names for me. I’m guessing that after the UN Report they may be trampling one another in the rush for the exit…or not.

  10. mrsyk

    Testing Humanoid Robots to the Limit. Notes,

    The robot is capable of regaining its feet very quickly.
    The robot lost a piece when it slipped and fell.
    The robot didn’t seem to notice when the man slipped around and behind it.
    The man (is careful to?) only kicks it on the upper body area.

    Give the young man a pry-bar or a baseball bat and let’s see.

    1. griffen

      Shades of the Robocop test scene for that robotic enforcer…you have 15 seconds to comply! \sarc

      It can be difficult to take these human like robotics all that seriously I do confess. Feels a bit like “Skynet” or “I, Robot” futuristic AI robotic pron, others mileage may vary!

      2. mary jensen

        Back in the halcyon days of San Francisco ‘punk/new wave’, I dated Mark Pauline known for his surreptitious rearrangement of large advertising billboards (Telly Savalas: “Feel the Pain, baby) and later founder of “Survival Research Laboratories”:
        https://www.sfgate.com/performance/article/Mark-Pauline-fiery-showman-now-into-machines-3510577.php
        and very noisy
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj0w1N2dcdg&t=15s&ab_channel=KVUE

        Now those are some robots.

        1. Martin Oline

          Oh, that brings back memories! When I lived in the area I always wanted to see a exhibition of the Survival Research Laboratories. I was a mold maker but also built equipment for automated assembly equipment. That stuff fascinated me but I never saw a poster for a show that wasn’t weeks old. I later returned to the Midwest where I took a 2 year High-tech Automation and Robotics course, probably because of what I had heard about Mark’s work in SF.

          1. mary jensen

            Martin, this is late of me but perhaps you’ll see it; Mark would be about 72 years old now but if you were to contact him at SRL with a serious inquiry I’m certain he’d respond. Mark is that rare bird: a consummate gentleman.

            Survival Research Laboratories was conceived of and founded by Mark Pauline in November 1978. Since its inception SRL has operated as an organization of creative technicians dedicated to re-directing the techniques, tools, and tenets of industry, science, and the military away from their typical manifestations in practicality, product or warfare. Since 1979, SRL has staged over 45 mechanized presentations in the United States and Europe. Each performance consists of a unique set of ritualized interactions between machines, robots, and special effects devices, employed in developing themes of socio-political satire. Humans are present only as audience or operators.

            SURVIVAL RESEARCH LABORATORIES
            839 N. PETALUMA BLVD
            PETALUMA, CA 94952
            Map
            PH (707) 781-9824 / e-mail:

    2. SteveW

      It seems that it will enhance its capabilities as it engages in more fights. Obviously it can be equipped with rear sensors to cover all angles. The fact that it is not probably means that the inventor wants to test it under adverse conditions. Also It does not have to adhere to human dimensions and structure so can have longer or more limbs. Scary.

  11. DJG, Reality Czar

    As DropSite News reports, Comer and Luna want you to know that it is indeed Scoundrel Time.

    I have no idea why these people keep referring to the Communist Party of China (CPC) as CCP. But then they are heirs to the famous tapes found in a pumpkin.

    Brethren and sistren, they’re naming names!

    From the underlying tweet.
    The letter alleges that Singham acts as an “agent for the CCP” and finances groups that “spread disinformation,” “sow discord,” and “promote pro-CCP talking points.” Citing NYT and pro-Israel think-tank reports, it claims nearly $1.8M in funding has gone to U.S. leftist organizations, including:

    ▪️ Party for Socialism and Liberation
    ▪️ Code Pink
    ▪️ No Cold War
    ▪️ Tricontinental
    ▪️ People’s Forum
    ▪️ ANSWER Coalition
    ▪️ Palestinian Youth Movement
    ▪️ BreakThrough Media

    So they want to ban a political party? And the esteemed Medea Benjamin and Code Pink? Tricontinental includes the excellent Vijay Prashad. And I demonstrated under the auspices of ANSWER for years — I recall going to demos against the Iraq War (II) sponsored by that coalition.

    PS: Pumpkin Papers pumpkineer Whitaker Chambers was described by George Will (who has his own problems with snobbery) thus. Sound familiar?
    “Witness became a canonical text of conservatism. Unfortunately, it injected conservatism with a sour, whiney, complaining, crybaby populism. It is the screechy and dominant tone of the loutish faux conservatism that today is erasing [William F.] Buckley’s legacy of infectious cheerfulness and unapologetic embrace of high culture. Chambers wallowed in cloying sentimentality and curdled resentment about “the plain men and women”—”my people, humble people, strong in common sense, in common goodness”—enduring the “musk of snobbism” emanating from the “socially formidable circles” of the “nicest people” produced by “certain collegiate eyries”.[57]”

    1. caucus99percenter

      Reminds me of the “PropOrNot” smear campaign, that time when the Washington Post accused this very site of being a channel for Russian propaganda.

    2. Vicky Cookies

      The NYT article referenced in the letter to the Treasury picked my ears up at the time; having failed at brown-baiting dissent re: Ukraine, the mainstream was now red-baiting it. The other footnotes are of interest, too. The Network Contagion Resrarch Institute, per Wiki, recieved funding from the Israel on Campus Coalition, which should itself interest the FARA-reaching minds rooting out fifth columns.

      Some insight, also, into the parties named. The PSL has a “critical support” line on the CPC, which in practice means little to members on the ground. Its a democratic centralist organization, however, and so the alignment of national leadership and their dependence on donors could make life more difficult. I’ve written before that communist parties in the US, historically, are expressions not of the labor movement, but of what Peter Turchin calls “counter-elites”. After the collapse of the USSR, left movements here, like the Battle for Seattle or Occupy seem to reflect more of an anarchist bent. Interestingly, then, as a bit of a mirror image of Obamas “pivot to Asia”, we begin to see a resurgence of party socialism. Not that the current administration would know any of that.

      The man in question is married to a Code Pinker. Seems like a bit of a clown to me. He’s given much more than 1.8m; that’s the number alleged to have been given to a Chinese media institute. He probably paid for The People’s Forum’s rent in the Garment District by Madison Square Garden; they are now looking to buy the building. TPF, ANSWER, and BreakThrough are all PSL, a split-off from Worker’s World, a Trotskyite party following Sam Marcy and Harry Haywood.

    3. ThirtyOne

      It’s scoundrel time—that’s what The Donald told me
      If you can’t stroke me, boys, you might get put on leave
      It’s bruisin’ time—that’s what The Donald told me
      If you can’t bend the knee, you might get put on leave
      Now, he said he don’t want me marchin’ in the street
      Don’t want me going ’round singin’ old Pete*
      Hanging out on Main Street is not his stick
      Waking up at 3 AM is not his kick
      Wants me to please him all the time
      Wants me to shaddap!** on late night
      That’s what he told me
      If you can’t do it, boys, you might get put on leave
      Baby, It’s scoundrel time—that’s what The Donald told me
      If you can’t stroke me, boys, you might get put on leave
      Said he don’t want me shootin’ my mouth
      Running in the street, sayin’ the country’s headed south
      Said he just wants me to stay at home
      Just tend to my business—leave his business alone
      Said he don’t want me hanging in them left clubs
      All them pinko commie, fakey news clubs
      That’s what he told me
      If you can’t stroke me, boys, you might get put on leave
      It’s scoundrel time—that’s what The Donald told me
      If you can’t stroke me, boys, you might get put on leave

      Groovin’ Time
      Otis Redding
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuB-ojRrN6s

      *Seeger
      **A good, loud Mel Blanc in-his-prime Ah Shaddap!

  12. Wukchumni

    It is amazing the ‘knee-Kirk’ reaction in our not so brave new world… Kimmel didn’t say anything inflammatory, mostly he let Trump provide unintentional humor in a lacks empathy vein, perfect when you consider Charlie thought empathy was a made up new age term, as if it never existed prior.

    1. Louis Fyne

      Kimmel spread flat-out disinformation re. the shooting during the monologue that got him fired.

      Blowback. Again. where the “Left”‘s favorite weapons gets weaponized against them. Color me unshocked

      1. Norton

        Nexstar and Sinclair are two big ABC station owner affiliates, with 80% or so of the total. They said no more Kimmel as the show was no longer fitting with their audiences, paraphrasing.
        Grass roots pushback, so maybe they can work on new projects for more watchable programming.

        1. johnnyme

          There is also this nugget:

          ABC suspends Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show indefinitely over his remarks about Charlie Kirk’s death

          Both Disney and Nexstar have FCC business ahead of them. Disney is seeking regulatory approval for ESPN’s acquisition of the NFL Network and Nexstar needs the Trump administration go-ahead to complete its $6.2 billion purchase of broadcast rival Tegna.

          For both companies, reinstating Kimmel after a suspension would risk the ire of Trump, who has already claimed that the show has been canceled.

  13. Alice X

    >Kimmel

    It wasn’t the comment on Charlie Who, but the likening of Hair Furor’s response to a four year old that did it, imho. So we get a governance of, by, and for four year olds.

    1. JP

      Maybe that’s not it.

      It seems obvious that the GOP had a plan to crack down on, and I hate to use the word liberal because that’s now just a bulls##t label, their opposition to power. That plan has been loaded and ready to deploy for some time. They just needed a trigger. Kimmel’s comment that the killer was one of their own was reveling that intent.

      They couldn’t have that out there.

  14. Munchausen

    Polish military delegation to visit Ukraine to study air defense experience Kyiv Independent

    Russian military promised to help with the studies, if coordinates of Polish military delegation are provided.

  15. The Rev Kev

    “Germany Backs Further Use of Frozen Russian Assets for Ukraine”

    ‘Momentum is building in Europe to expand the use of frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine, following new pressure from US president Donald Trump and a shift in Germany’s stance.’

    They really do want that money. It is so close that they can almost taste it. If it can be outright stolen then there will be a great number of officials who will be able to wet their beaks here which is a major reason why they want it. Only problem is that it would be totally illegal and after three years or more, their trained-seal lawyers still cannot find anything in the law that will enable them to do it. Sooner or later the Russians will come for their money and all these dodgy schemes being constructed will mean that the EU will be on the hook for a lot of that money raised. In other news, I got a coupla hundred thousand dollars from my bank today using my neighbour’s house as collateral.

      1. The Rev Kev

        The guys at The Duran agree with you. That when the Russians go for their $300 billion, all that will be there will be a bunch of IOUs, the EU countries having spent it all.

        1. John Wright

          When one views resources by region, Russia swamps Europe.

          When Europe needs oil, metals, food from Russia, the clawback of the $300 billion will happen over time.

          Europe can’t “spend” this money without consequence, as the Russians hold the resources the Europeans will want in the future.

      2. Ignacio

        The frozen assets will be less consequential to the course of war than toilet paper in a suitcase spent in Ukraine. Consequences elsewhere might not be that desirable.

  16. Ksum Nole

    A 12-foot golden statue of Donald Trump holding a Bitcoin is displayed outside the U.S. Capitol as the Federal Reserve announces an interest rate cut, September 2025.
    — Future Adam Curtis B-Roll (@adamcurtisbroll) September 17, 2025

    This is US Empire’s equivalent of Venus de Milo, or David. Archeologists of the future will study this, and think:”WTF?”

    1. Wukchumni

      The funny thing with Bitcoin, is a physical rendering of it is always needed for a visual of the emperors new chain mail.

    2. The Rev Kev

      What if future archeologists dig up that statue but, like the Venus de Milo without arms, then the arm holding that coin giving context to that statue would be gone

  18. Alice X

    Chris Hedges Report:

    We Are All antifa Now

    The designation of the amorphous group antifa as a terrorist organization allows the state to brand all dissidents as supporters of antifa and prosecute them as terrorists.

    2. Lefty Godot

      The benefit of going hard after a nonexistent “organization” is that anyone can be accused of belonging to it, supporting it, being a “fellow traveler” or sympathizer, etc. The very unreality of the target group makes it that much harder to prove that you’re not somehow affiliated with it.

    3. LawnDart

      Antifa is not a group, it’s a political viewpoint, i.e., one who is opposed to fascism (I believe that this would have included a majority of “The Greatest Generation,” but times were different back then, I suppose).

      That one’s opinion on an issue is enough to make one subject to arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment… what more is there to say? Lucky ones get the gulag, and others, maybe Killing Fields.

  19. Carolinian

    Re Taibbi on Kimmel–I didn’t watch Kimmel’s show but do think there’s some merit to booting people like Kimmel and Colbert who pander to one political segment in order to bolster the struggling late night business model. The air waves are owned by all.

    And here’s suggesting it was all business. Millionaire comedians make dubious populists.

    Of course there is considerable irony when Repubs go all Fairness Doctrine after doing so much to undermine. Maybe somebody should make a joke.

    1. Some Guy

      You think there is merit to a system where if a prominent person criticizes the president, the president intervenes to get them fired? I have to tell you, they have that system in a lot of places, but it doesn’t usually seem to work out too well in the end.

      It was kind of nasty (but deserved) for NC to link to Taibbi in particular on this topic. You could almost pity the sight of him trying to fit an inconvenient fact into his carefully curated worldview…

    2. Alice X

      A Public Access Comedy Channel? – Or maybe a Public Access Tragedy Channel would be more like it. Tragedy ‘r Us could be a moniker.

    3. JP

      Populism: a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.

      Colbert viewers are team supporters. Probably Kimmel also but Kimmel manages more of the satire that John Stewart was good at. Satire and sarcasm are very important tools in any fight against tyranny, something you might notice is completely missing over at Fox. Both these programs have the support of elite groups. Those groups are currently out of power and if the current administration has its way they will soon be illegal.

      Outside of that I’m not sure what ordinary people are nor have I ever known anyone who might be normal.

      1. thrombus

        Ether is a common good. We don’t owning sh— per cent of it, does not mean that someone should pretend to own 100%.

  20. AG

    re: Antifa “terrorist” label

    We Are All antifa Now
    The designation of the amorphous group antifa as a terrorist organization allows the state to brand all dissidents as supporters of antifa and prosecute them as terrorists.

    Chris Hedges
    Sep 18, 2025
    https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/we-are-all-antifa-now?r=1i81oo

    To offer a quote as opposing as it can be, Andrei Martyanov ending here with Hunter S. Thompson:

    “(…)
    The cries from justly fired nutjobs (remarkably–all democrats) about Charlie Kirk being a “fascist”–none of the American knows what fascist or fascism is, let alone Holocaust industry shysters and their media whores who know nothing about the world outside and its history. I don’t like Trump, you know my attitude towards him and treasonous GOP, but I definitely enjoy a squealing sounds from the environment which distinguished itself only as perverts, ambitious ass-holes and downright propagandists for homicidal owners of their outlets for:

    …a gang of cruel faggots. Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits—a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage.
    (…)”

    Indeed one may argue no American knows the true nature of “fascism”. Which is a point I often try to make.

    However Martyanov is too much in his own reality or simply forgot that it was antifa (admittedly I am not sure what that entity is) protesting and resisting the post 9/11 madness at home and in form of those wars getting killed 6M people in a dozen countries 10,000 miles away.

    And just because “Gonzo” was using bad language it doesn´t automatically make it “valuable” (in fact Martyanov here in an inversion falls prey to his own criticism of cultural snobbery because “Gonzo” of course did what he did with all the intent and calculation media “whores” are known for – man needs to eat and some groupies too).

    Fwiw: the demonization of Antifa in the US is not new.

    I assume this might make it easier for the likes of Mamdani on the level of gathering supporters? Which could be a good side effect. Of course under the explicit opposition to “political violence”. (I wonder how that works with the Gaza discourse, though.)

    Allow me this speculation as someone from a country far away where almost no one had heard of Kirk until a week ago:

    All of this would open paths to theories which call the lad who shot Kirk (I like “assassin” be reserved for Ninjas and people who are real professionals as in movies or at least a Ramírez Sánchez) an “antifa” or a rightwing puppet. So the murder could possibly serve both uniparties, if we take up stupid 4D-chess second-guessing. Although I don´t believe that. It´s too complicated.

    1. Alice X

      Hedges holds that antifa is a non-entity (I agree), but then says that black bloc is an entity, and is affiliated with antifa.

      I’m using lower lower case here because I’m skeptical. We’ve seen time and again police mobilized against antifa while blocks away people associated with them were committing violence against property without intervention.

      There is a plane of comprehension that is missing.

      Still, such a designation against such an amorphous group as antifa could prove diabolically useful.

      What this all will lead to is beyond me. But it is not good.

        1. AG

          That “thought” really was or is a problem with organizing within these groups.
          See also Chesterton´s Man Who Was Thursday

      2. AG

        The planes which are missing is an important note.

        Frankly I would hold that against Hedges too, in some cases.

        Early 2022 he painted hellish Chechnya style destruction on the wall for Ukraine because that´s what he had witnessed not understanding and not caring for various forms of conducting war. Also there is his view of Serbia and Srebrenica and that of a Diana Johnstone or Edward Herman. And in his introduction of Raz Segal and Holocaust Studies Hedges seriously spoke about the Holodomor in Ukraine. And as well as he may be informed on Gaza and Israel in that seminal interview with Alastair Crooke he obviously had bought into IDF PR on its performance over Iran. During that show Crooke corrected him and Hedges understood that. Which on the other hand makes him an excellent interviewer, I thought.

        So, to quote Some Like It Hot, “Nobody is perfect”.

        I remember black block having this odd and very dubious aura. However I never got deep enough to really assess that myself. The block did make a name for itself before 9/11 like in Seattle and Genoa.

        So the fact that black block became a proverbial “blackness” only later might be directly connected – on whatever level – with the era of the security state´s rise of the Bush Jr./Cheney era.

        We will see how this will play out.
        Depending on how weak the victims traditionally are in the US (immigrants have always been targetted, Ivy Leagues not, the media sometimes, think Murrow) Trump´s threats turned out to be of varying degree of “sincerity”.

        1. Lazar

          Everything I saw Hedges write about Balkans is criminal. Al Jazeera should give him some medal of merit for his jihad efforts. Him being right about some other things, looks more of an accident than method. I can not understand why people give him so much attenion and credit, considering that there are so many others out there that are not obviously compromised.

          1. AG

            “Everything I saw Hedges write about Balkans is criminal.”
            In how far?
            tbh I did not follow him when he was active. Only now when he is a commentator.

            I usually never trusted war reporters entirely. But that is installed in their work.
            Very seldomly you have war reporters as far as I can assess who would reflect onto their own fallibility.
            To Hedges violence is an enemy regardless by whom and to what extent.
            That is not entirely wrong as a philosophy.
            Like human rights lawyers. Those too do not make differentiations like we do here over a war as e.g. in the SMO by Russia.

            I also remember Hedges hailed the Ukraine documentary on Mariupol. This kind of movie in general I find awful. Which shows that when it comes to certain media and topics the highly intellectual individual buys into lower fare. Also he would not question the honesty or accuracy behind what was shown and spoken. (i.e. te protagonists. Even though he should be aware that of all media film is the least trustworthy).

            1. AG

              p.s. This also being a reason why so many professionals even if not naive partially at least buy into the hoax of RU abducting children. The sanest of people are saying, well, you never know. It´s the Russians after all – ?!
              On that basis you can as well follow Russiagate. Which eventually puts us into a very difficult epistemic spot…
              In a way we have never been freed from sacred religious ideology or magical thinking. Not without justification Angleton and friends regarded the CIA as “church” as the entity again defending the herd.

      3. Alice X

        Except, of course, that there are indeed… malevolent undercurrent power elite threads whose naming might best be encrypted.

        Wake up to the Oligarchy.

  21. The Rev Kev

    “Trump’s Ukraine Envoy Says the US Could ‘Kick Russia’s Ass’ ”

    Yeah, that would be Keith Kellogg saying this as he gets all his facts from Zelensky and repeats them to Trump as his own observations. So he will say that the Ukrainian army is great and there is no emergency in the Donbass while the Russians have suffered a million dead and wounded. Yeah, the guy is an arrogant old fool but it was Trump that put him in place there and keeps on listening to what he says. So if Trump is badly informed about what is going on in the Ukraine, it is all on him.

    1. hk

      Sometimes, feet get broken while kicking asses. Some asses are very tough and foul tempered, and kick back hard when kicked.

    1. Ignacio

      Today i had a weird mixed feeling. Was hearing UB40 music, their version of ‘got you babe’ amongst others, and at the same reading about all that crap that American and European leaders produce. Having a simultaneous high and low moment for a while.

      Please, do not try it! It is really weird!

    2. AG

      re: GROUNDHOG DAY and IAN PROUD

      Unfortunately Danny Rubin, the creator and screenwriter of GROUNDHOG DAY, did become rich (it was adapted twice to my knowledge, first came an unknown TV version) but he was never able to land another real decent writing job again. The usual answer when he suggested something new, “give us another GROUNDHOG DAY”. Eventually that can be poisonous and a serious curse to any professional. It could also be that his stuff was way to artsy or not mainstream enough after the hit.

      Wiki has a chapter where the influence on the final sreenplay by co-writer and later the director Harold Ramis is documented. In how far this is 100% true or Ramis is white-washed is difficult to assess. But considering how differently individual creative minds work and details are everything it´s believeable.

      See “Writing”
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day_(film)

      “(…)
      Rubin delivered a fresh draft on February 2, 1991.[3] He was contractually permitted to write another draft, but the studio had Ramis take over, bringing Rubin’s involvement to an end.[17] Ramis took Rubin’s new draft and began his solo rewrite.[4][3] He found the sentimentality and sincerity completely opposed to everything he had learned to do as a comedian, and deliberately tempered the sweeter moments with a cynical and grouchy tone.[12] Ramis reorganized the script into a mainstream three-act narrative.[18] He emphasized Phil’s smug attitude as a means of distancing himself from others, giving him a defined story arc as a classic comedic lead character deserving of his punishment.[7][11] Ramis liked Rubin’s concept of starting with the loop in progress, but associate producer Whitney White suggested starting the film before the loop begins because she thought it would be more interesting for the audience to see Phil’s initial reaction to his predicament.
      (…)”

      I am not sure in how far Ian Proud really believes that the EU is in this war involuntarily (like the Bill Murray character in the movie). He does imply that which would confirm my partial criticism of Proud in general (he likes to at least use cliche pictures of the Russians as e.g. the bogeymen) on the other hand during the conversation with Glenn Diesen in an aside Proud says something like “whether or not they believe that RU threat is a different question”.
      So to be overly critical the movie is not perfect as a coice.
      Of course that is besides the funny point and I am being a real spoil sport here.

  23. Wukchumni

    Leavitt to Believer

    In this week’s episode, Karoline invokes the Marilyn Monroe Doctrine, demands are a blonde’s best friend!

    Eddie Haskell from AP was chastised in such fashion.

  24. Wukchumni

    State sanctioned buffoonery can’t go on forever like some perpetual notion machine, and we seem to be cruising to a conclusion, but how does the end game go?

    1. lyman alpha blob

      Two??!!?? I saw one mentioned yesterday and authorities said there was no foul play. Then saw this today with the family questioning the official story – https://www.yahoo.com/news/article/family-of-trey-reed-21-year-old-found-hanging-from-a-tree-at-delta-state-university-calls-for-an-independent-investigation-into-his-death-174916851.html

      I tended to believe that it was a suicide, but now there are two? I still haven’t seen anything on a second death.

      Edit: the link I posted does mention the 2nd death near the end but with almost zero detail.

  26. Jason Boxman

    In Texas, Parents Fighting Vaccinations Say Their Movement Is Winning (NY Times via archive.ph)

    Our post Public Health period continues.

    Before the Covid pandemic hit in 2020, public health experts would often say that vaccines had been victims of their own success.

    People had simply forgotten how polio and measles could wreak havoc on Americans’ daily lives. If these diseases started surging again, experts said, parents would be scared straight.

    This year, that prediction proved wrong.

    Few minds were changed, even after the largest measles outbreak in the United States since 2000 hopscotched through unvaccinated communities, infecting hundreds and killing two young girls in Texas.

    Why? We normalized repeat COVID infection, why not other infectious disease?

    We’re gonna need a lot, lot more deaths and disfigurements before there’s enough fear to possibly reverse course.

    1. Geo

      “We’re gonna need a lot, lot more deaths and disfigurements before there’s enough fear to possibly reverse course.”

      After what we saw during Covid (are still seeing) I’ve come to believe the only way our narcissistic society will take an illness seriously is if it visually impacts them (boils and cysts type stuff). The invisibility of Covid made it easy to ignore. But an outbreak of lesions would be a serious threat to our Instagram vacation photos.

      1. Jason Boxman

        Precisely why I included the italicized portion; we’ll need a resurgence of disease that very visibly disfigures, for this shall cause ostracism, much the same as “masking” did. And we can’t have that. But it’ll need to be visited upon the elite as well to expect much in the way of any course correction.

  27. Jason Boxman

    You’ll get “AI” and you’ll love it

    Google adds Gemini to Chrome for all users in push to bolster AI search (CNBC)

    Google is adding more artificial intelligence into its Chrome browser as the search giant tries to fend off burgeoning competition from AI startups OpenAI and Perplexity.

    In a blog post Thursday, Google said it’s rolling out Gemini in Chrome to users of Mac and Windows computers in the U.S. as well as to mobile devices. Users will be able to ask Gemini for help understanding the contents of a particular webpage, work across tabs, or do more within a single tab, such as schedule a meeting or search for a YouTube video.

    “We are evolving the browser to help you get the most from the web – in ways we didn’t think possible even a few years ego,” said Rick Osterloh, Google’s senior vice president in charge of platforms and devices, in a statement. “And we are doing it while keeping the speed, simplicity and safety of Chrome that so many people love.”

    Talk about the end of the Open Web. With Google appropriating content and authors getting nothing, what kind of content is even going to be left out there?

    1. ChrisFromGA

      Thanks, I’ll be removing Chrome from all my devices tonight. It’s Firefox or Safari for me.

      I wonder if the “-ai” flag (disables AI from search) will still work?

      1. Jason Boxman

        Maybe Firefox is finally faster now, I don’t know. I couldn’t overcome the performance issues ages ago and it’s such a hassle to switch browsers, I haven’t tried again. After Opera sold out to a bizarre Chinese billionaire and I caught them sending my browsing data to Facebook, I decamped to Vivaldi, which ultimately had bizarrely broken tab switching for years and they refused to acknowledge or fix, and finally landed on Brave, which at least has predictable if not idea tab switching behavior.

        Chrome has always had garbage tab handling, and there was a bug open for like 20 years where a Chromium developer basically said bite me in response to pleas to add most-recently-used tab behavior, like every OS has, and every other browser had 20 years ago, except Chromium-based Google Chrome.

        What I like about Brave is I setup a shortcut, bound to CMD-E, and if I type a web page title, I can get to it immediately. No more playing “which of 50 tabs is this?”, not for years and years now. When I’ve mentioned this at work, people are always resistant to embrace browsers that support this, and continue in every meeting mentioning how they can’t find that tab they’re looking for. *bangs head on wall*

        I’ve never come across a browser that allows one to block all auto-play videos by default. There is nothing I despise quite like web pages that immediately start playing TV at me; I’d go watch TV if I wanted to see videos on my web pages. Ugh. I hate this with the fire of a billion stars.

        1. Jason Boxman

          I love this; I’ve been paying monthly for Kagi Search just because they don’t track, I’m not the product. Their Orion browser (for OS X) isn’t bad either.

  28. Wukchumni

    Loved the $15 Billion lawsuit Benedick Donald filed against the NYT, its all he really has left, the ridiculously large lawsuit that gets dropped many months later on a busy news day, when its hoped nobody notices.

  29. Jason Boxman

    Obesity Is Killing American Men (NY Times via archive.ph)

    Also a risk factor for many things, which themselves are risk factors for worse COVID outcomes.

    Eric Reed always thought of himself as a “little heavy.” But he really started to gain weight around 2018, after a back injury in Army training and a messy divorce left him struggling emotionally. The pain made it difficult to exercise, and within two years of leaving the military, he put on another 50 pounds.

    “I just drank all the time, at least a 12 to 24-pack a week. I was constantly ordering pizza, eating way too much food,” said Mr. Reed, now a 41-year-old medical imaging specialist living in Fairmont, W.Va. At his heaviest, he weighed 358 pounds.

    Out here at the golf course in western NC, when I walk by, which I do frequently on “walks”, more like hikes, at least 50% or maybe as many as 75% of the men out here playing are either visibly overweight or obese, from a distance of at least 25-100 ft. Granted this is Appalachia, but people of means travel from the region to vacation and golf here as well.

    Recent data suggests that around 40 percent of adults in the United States have obesity, which sets the stage for high blood pressure, various forms of cancer and some 200 other complications. Men have similar rates of obesity as women, but they are less likely to seek medical care, making up only about 20 percent of bariatric surgery patients and around 22 percent of people on anti-obesity drugs. If men do take GLP-1 medications, a recent study suggests that they are also more likely to stop using them.

    (bold mine)

    A contributing factor to America having the worst COVID deaths of industrialized nations?

    Visceral fat is particularly dangerous. It produces inflammatory molecules and a steady stream of fatty acids, bathing the liver with these chemicals, said Dr. Aronne. Over time, this can lead to blood clots, insulin resistance and arterial plaques, which may help explain why men have an increased risk of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and other obesity-related complications.

    Written by someone that’s never been on a dating app

    It’s hard to pinpoint one reason for the obesity treatment gap, but women generally face more rigid beauty standards, said Dr. Juliana Simonetti, director of the obesity medicine program at University of Utah Health. Because of this, women may feel more pressure to seek obesity treatments. But men are less likely even to recognize that they have obesity.

      1. Lazar

        “Obesity treatment gap” does sounds like bomber gap, missile gap, and all the other gaps that can only be filled with copious amounts of money.

  30. AG

    When CIA mouthpiece Spytalk Substack comes up with a comparison you know it is inadequate: Here Germany 1942. So much for fascism and Weimar.

    A 1940s German Novel that Speaks to Today
    Stefan Zweig’s The World of Yesterday warned of complacency in the face of creeping authoritarianism
    https://www.spytalk.co/p/a-1940s-german-novel-that-speaks

    Zweig took an overdose. Any current US writer of comparable fame today who would kill him or herself over our time and the fate of his or her fellows (Jews in Zweig´s case) being mass-killed?

      2. Daniil Adamov

        Perhaps they think that any sufficiently long and artfully-written book is a novel (or that their readers would consider it one). I’ve seen that confusion before.

  31. amfortas

    in the Dark Sky in Chile thing:
    “When I hear such numbers, I can’t do much but nod. And that’s okay. To stare into the sky unable to grasp what you see, the numbers and distances bending your brain beyond its reach, is part of what makes this experience so valuable—a reminder that we are not in control of everything, our anxieties are small, our lives brief, and all the more reason to savor what we see, now and here. Rather than feeling overwhelmed, seeing these distant objects causes me to feel connected to something incomprehensibly larger than me. And from this a wonder at being alive, and the welcome thought that I get to exist in a universe where this exists, too.”

    thats what the Greeks called Thaumazein…”Wonder” or “Awe”.
    its one of my favorite words, after Eudaimonia,lol.
    i enjoy relatively dark skies, out here…the whole sweep of the Milky Way is plainly obvious.
    city folks who come out here…even from the tiny nearest town, are always amazed when i tell them to step out into the dirt road and look up.

  32. AG

    re: Trump assassin Ryan Routh + Tyler Robinson / Azov

    Garland Nixon – Mark Sleboda

    TC 15:00-15:42
    According to Garland Nixon the trial against Routh is being “white-washed” from the News and No. 2
    prosecution requested that the evidence against Routh may be presented as “private and classified” because it could “create a grave danger for US national security.” The judge complied.

    TC 14:00-14:40
    Also Sleboda quotes a story that allegedly the Kirk shooter´s uncle fought with Azov in Ukraine and the uncle learned shooting there.
    Sleboda doesn´t claim that there is a proven connection there but Azov pops up all the time…

    WEST HIDES UKRAINIAN FASCISM – ZELENSKY LOST TOUCH WITH REALITY
    My latest geopolitical soapbox rant with Garland Nixon 18/09/25
    54 min.
    https://marksleboda.substack.com/p/west-hides-ukrainian-fascism-zelensky

  35. Jason Boxman

    LOL.

    Since Leaving Washington, Elon Musk Has Been All In on His A.I. Company (NY Times via archive.ph)

    Mr. Musk spent the summer at his artificial intelligence start-up xAI, trying to match the runaway success of OpenAI. The result was chaos.

    Wowzers, that’s a scary future

    Using the lofty language that has typified Mr. Musk’s A.I. dreams for more than a decade, he told employees that he wanted to build systems that were “maximally truth-seeking” while previewing plans to build a Microsoft competitor called Macrohard.

    “We are the only company where the mission is truth,” Mr. Musk told his workers as part of an hour-and-a-half presentation that was listened to by The New York Times. “If you force the A.I. to lie or believe things that are not true, you’re at great risk of creating a dystopian future.”

    (bold mine)

    You gotta admit, this guy is running a way better con than even the WeWork dude did

    Mr. Musk’s focus on xAI raises questions about how much time he is spending at his other companies, and comes as Tesla’s board of directors has been pushing to give him a trillion-dollar pay package, which they say will motivate him to improve the car maker’s performance. On Monday, Mr. Musk posted on X, “Daddy is very much home,” and detailed his schedule, which included 12 hours of meetings at Tesla and a visit to xAI’s data center.

    I guess it needs more 4Chan posts

    When the founding team — 11 employees plus Mr. Musk — met at SpaceX headquarters in Texas in 2023, Mr. Musk said ChatGPT, which dominated the market, was too “woke.” He wanted to build a competitor that was aligned more closely with his own political views.

    …

    In May, Mr. Musk told more than 100 employees in a group chat that Grok was too woke, according to three people familiar with the discussion.

    What a train wreck

    In July, after a code update, Grok spewed antisemitic remarks, praising Adolf Hitler and suggesting that people with Jewish surnames were more likely to spread online hate. The chatbot referred to itself as “MechaHitler.” Company engineers changed the code to prevent that behavior from happening again.

    A few weeks later, the company began offering its latest A.I. technology to customers via a $300-a-month service called SuperGrok Heavy, and debuted a pair of cartoonish A.I. bots designed for virtual romance.

    The story goes on at length chronicling more bizarreness.

    This guy in unbalanced

    Mr. Musk did not discuss the company’s revenues. But he reiterated his commitment to creating a competitor to Microsoft cheekily called “Macrohard” that would use Grok to create software as well as an A.I. product for children ages 2 to 12 called “Baby Grok.”

    1. Lazar

      “Maximally truth-seeking” sounds more Orwellian than “The Ministry of Truth”, which is an achievement worth an award.

  37. Glen

    Uh oh, here’s some local news reporting from Texas about potential SK industrial investment issues:

    ‘It was a big setback for us.’ Georgia ICE raid looms over South Korean tech delegation in Elgin
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuXNJMv6zaQ

    Hmm, the big three in high end chip manufacturing are Intel, TSMC, and Samsung. Intel is not doing too well, TSMC was having issues bringing it’s new AZ fabs on line and now potential Samsung issues in Texas? Bummer!

    The TSMC story could get a little tricky:

    TSMC delays second Arizona chip plant to 2027 or 2028
    https://www.manufacturingdive.com/news/tsmc-delays-second-arizona-chip-factory-to-2027/704937/

    Absolutely fabless: Trump derails TSMC’s China chip-building effort
    https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/03/trump_tsmc_china/

    How long will TSMC ignore the fact that the current and future growth market is a little to the east of Taiwan? And what lies to the West? Lotta stick and no carrot?

  38. ChrisRUEcon

    #AmericaFirstVsIsraelFirst

    Yes. Yes. This is real.

    I’m letting the various algorithms drag me down the rabbit holes, and they are deep. When YouTube starts recommending videos by Christian fundamentalist Trump voters making shorts against Zionism, it really makes one wonder how this will impact elections. I think the next wave to take over the GOP will be an AntiZionist one. Trump’s legacy is done. He’s not only a lame duck, but now he is going to leave the GOP rent in twain. My duopoly bingo card is wrecked …

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