Recent Items

Links 9/2/2025

Posted on by

‘We’re winning a battle’: Mexico’s jaguar numbers up 30% in conservation drive Guardian (signet)

A Single Mutation Made Horses Rideable and Changed Human History ZMEScience (resilc)

Inca-Quechua astronomy Rebelion via machine translation (Micael T)

Afghanistan earthquake: India sends aid as death toll crosses 800 — shocking photos tell story of destruction, misery Mint

At least 1,000 killed in Sudan landslide, rebel group says BBC

Climate/Environment

Key facts about the long-term impacts of extreme weather and disasters Stanford University

Drought-hit Morocco deploys floating solar panels to protect water reserves South China Morning Post

Victoria warned to prepare for ‘destruction’ with severe weather and snow forecast Guardian

Behind Pakistan’s repeated floods: Melting glaciers, depleted forests Aljazeera

New research has revealed how climate change is intensifying supercell thunderstorms in Europe Euronews

Octopus bloom devastates UK crab industry amid marine heatwave NZHerald

UK’s largest lake faces environmental crisis as rescue plans stall Guardian

Hong Kong sees record number of tropical cyclone warnings this year The Standard

SCO. See Wikipedia for members. No one in Southeast Asia is a member; Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are dialogue partners.

Xi proposes Global Governance Initiative Global Times. As we have repeatedly pointed out, global governance involved ceding sovereignity and is at odds with multipoliarity. How to square that circle?

A New Global Governance – But What Will, Or Can, It Do? Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)

Modi-Xi meet heralds shift to multipolar global economy Asia Times (Kevin W)

The SCO Finally Condemned The Pahalgam Terrorist Attack Andrew Korybko. Conor had many links on the SCO, and most of them were vastly less bullish that YouTube anti-globalists on India and China getting closer, pointing to many fundamental outtrades. One article noted that an Indian readout of a Wang Yi visit to India had the Indian side banging on about the importance of anti-terrorist operations, and the Chinese readout not mentioning that issue. This move looks like a start in China recognizing and taking at least some steps to address India’s concerns.

India blocks Azerbaijan’s bid for full membership to the SCO, citing strategic alignment with Pakistan pIndia (Micael T)

China?

China’s navy is expanding at breakneck speed – and catching up with the US BBC

Taiwan reports surge in Chinese military activity near its territory Business Standard

China property sales drop 17.6% in August, housing slump hits sixth straight month Trading View

China’s Factory Exodus Is Turning Vietnam Into the World’s Assembler Caixin Global

We have featured other clips from these projects, but I can’t get enough. However, the connection to the gender ratio is dubious. A big source of resentment of China across much if not all of Southeast Asia is Chinese men hunting for brides there.

Koreas

South Korea heads for record stretch of growth trailing inflation Chosun

India

Khalistani and Half Pakistani: With Donald Trump’s unhinged stand on India, read about the anti-India elements in his inner circle pIndia (Micael T)

Saudi and Iraqi oil giants suspend sales to Russian-linked Indian refiner: Report The Cradle (Micael T)

Africa

Islamic State massacres in eastern DRC: who are the insurgents and why are they killing civilians? The Conversation

Jihadists take control of strategic Mali town, trigger concern as they impose restrictions Arab Weekly

European Disunion

Europe’s deadly debt spiral Wolfgang Munchau, Unherd

Decline in prosperity in Germany measurable with official data Multipolar via machine translation (Micael T)

Voices from the Global South: “What are you afraid the far-right will do that you haven’t done yet?” Nachdenkseiten via machine translation (Micael T)

I can’t find this story on the English DW site:

Czechs Plan $14 Billion Deficit With Bigger Spending on Defense Bloomberg

Poland plans record defense spending of 4.8 percent of GDP Militaar Artuell

Old Blighty

Norway’s electricity crisis is about to hit Britain Telegraph

Tories pledge to get all oil and gas out of North Sea BBC

Israel v. The Resistance

In Israel, ‘animals in human form’ may be killed Mondoweiss

Aug. 31 resolution of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) Mike Hampton

Israel is not isolated: A global web of oil and complicity The Cradle (Micael T)

* * *

Belgium to recognize Palestinian state at UN General Assembly Arab News

Belgium announces sanctions against Israel RT

* * *

Iran, Russia, China FMs Reject EU3’s ‘Legally Baseless’ Move to Invoke Snapback Tasnim

Syraqistan

Druze Spiritual Leader Calls for Independence in Southern Syria Amid Rising Death Toll Kurdistan24

New Not-So-Cold War

Bessent says ‘all options on the table’ as Trump administration weighs Russia sanctions Anadolu Agency

Claim of Russian GPS blocking of von der Leyen’s plane false – Flightradar RT

EU works with allies on long-term security guarantees for Ukraine: Spokesperson Anadolu Agency. More circling the drain.

Russia’s Neighbours and Chances for Peace in Europe Valdai Club (Micael T)

America’s Top Aircraft Carrier Faces Russian Submarine Threat: P-8 Sub-Hunters Deployed to Respond Military Watch. Over my pay grade, but the reaction seems excessive.

Denmark gifts foreign ministers pen made from Ukrainian bullet cases YouTube. Micael T: “This is the kind of trophies psychos in crime series collect.”

Big Brother Is Watching You Watch

Not just under-16s: all Australian social media users will need to prove their age – and it could be complicated Guardian (Kevin W)

Imperial Collapse Watch

Monopoly Round-Up: Is There a Silicon Valley Plan to Subvert Elections? Matt Stoller. Important.

Ukraine War Leads to Global Shortage of TNT for Military and Mining Use New York Times

Should We Have Kept The American Empire? Maxwell Tabarrok

Trump 2.0

U.S. Warships Near Venezuela Trump Determined to Stop Maduro Drug Cartel Lt Col Daniel Davis, YouTube. IMHO, the part staring at 27:50 is noteworthy, where Davis discusses Trump’s plans to rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War and his enthusiasm for going on the offense.

Tariffs

Trump plans 200% tariff on imported drugs, raising risk of higher US prices and shortages Economic Times

Fed Survey Shows Manufacturers Don’t Know How to Price Anything Michael Shedlock

Rural America is suffering an economic crisis as crop prices plunge — ‘U.S. soybean farmers cannot survive a prolonged trade dispute’ Fortune

Trade War Pushes Canada’s Current Account Deficit to Record Bloomberg

Immigration

With Summer Almost Over, the Hamptons’ Largely Immigrant Workforce Worries About ICE Crackdowns Vanity Fair (Micael T)

Our No Longer Free Press

Are Bellingcat and the OCCRP ‘Independent’ Media? Lucy Komisar, The Realist Review. Most readers know the answer, but lots of juicy detail.

Economy

A downturn in international travel to the U.S. may last beyond summer, experts warn PBS.

Mr. Market Is Moody

Silver Nears Historic Levels, Supported by Investments and Global Tensions See

AI

The Big Idea: why we should embrace AI doctors Guardian (Kevin W)

AI has a hidden water cost − here’s how to calculate yours The Conversation (Kevin W)

How This A.I. Company Collapsed Amid Silicon Valley’s Biggest Boom New York Times

The Bezzle

Stablecoins could trigger taxpayer bailouts, warns Nobel laureate Financial Times. That’s a feature, not a bug.

Class Warfare

Rhode Island’s ‘Taylor Swift Tax’ on vacation homes of the wealthy is spreading to other states CNBC

Collapse for the 99% Luke Kemp, YouTube. This is fascinating except for Kemp’s efforts to be optimistic. We are way way way too far from many people practicing subsistence agriculture for collapse to produce anything other that mass starvation and disease.

Explosion at Louisiana Oil Plant Leaves Black Community Coated in Toxic Fallout CapitalB

Antidote du jour (via):

And a bonus (resilc):

A second bonus:

And a third:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Subscribe to Post Comments
138 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    ‘Volcaholic 🌋
    @volcaholic1
    Blue dragons close more Spanish beaches!
    Tourists banned from three Costa del Sol beaches (Cala Verde, El Payazo, and Cala Siret in Villaricos) after venomous Glaucus atlanticus sightings. Stings can cause severe pain, vomiting, and allergic reactions. Experts link the surge to warmer seas and shifting currents.’

    Maybe it is the blue colour that is associated with toxic elements for that species. Here in Oz we have Blue Bottles who are also, wait for it, blue coloured and you do not want to get stung by them. You see them in the water, you get out-

    https://australian.museum/learn/animals/jellyfish/bluebottle/

    Reply ↓
  2. Wukchumni

    Silver Nears Historic Levels, Supported by Investments and Global Tensions See
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Still almost $10 away per ounce from where the Hunt Brothers took it to in the wild silver bubble of 1979-80, my first real financial bubble ever witnessed as an adult and it was a doozie!

    They took silver from $6 an ounce in early 1979 to $48 by early January 1980, and were really the only end users as everything was being funneled to them, but with a twist…

    They wanted physical delivery and it all had to be in pure .999 fine 1,000 troy ounce bars that were Comex deliverable.

    It was easy to buy and sell .999 fine pure silver, but everything else had to be refined, which meant alloyed silver sold at a fairly steep discount off of the spot price as it surged late in the game because the few refiners in the country were hopelessly backed up, as everybody and their mother wanted to turn sterling silver et al into Comex bars to sell into the bubble.

    I knew a numismatist back east, who had been eyeballing the price of silver and when it hit the point where he could make money, he bought the entire inventory of the the Philadelphia Mint’s 1976 3 piece 40% silver Bicentennial commemorative coins they were selling for $9 (which contained a little over 1/2 an ounce in pure content) per set, we’re talking around 100,000 of these!

    They all went to the refiner~

    When it was over and silver settled down to being worth around $6 per ounce again, Nelson Bunker Hunt testified before Congress and a Congressman asked him if he knew that he’d lost billions in the scheme and with a Texas drawl baby-face Nelson replied acidly…

    A billion dollars isnt what it used to be.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      I too remember the time of the Hunt Brothers fiasco and it had a lot of unexpected knock-on effects. One was x-rays which somehow used a bit of silver in their production. Wikipedia says that chaos ensued when the three Hunt brothers were unable to meet the margin call-

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

      I wonder if that was the inspiration for this-

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4SRsGn14PI (58 secs)

      The Hunt brothers should have demanded that those machines be turned back on again.

      Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        Silver was needed not only in X-rays, but also all those reels of film too. Used to buy silver bars produced from X-ray film from a firm in LA that processed them back into ingots.

        It was a crazy time-the Hunt Bros Bubble, and a rare effort by the public in being right to sell anything silver into the marketplace. There were lines of argent provocateurs waiting to sell their wares in a few coin stores I was aware of late in the game, and in one of them I was behind the counter helping them as a man Friday pressed into action, and it was all sellers-no buyers.

        Reply ↓
        1. Wukchumni

          p.s.

          An ancillary Hunt Brothers bubble occurred simultaneously in that they wanted to corner the market on eastern Roman Empire Byzantine gold coins, of all things.

          Byzantine gold coins were always the cheapest ancient gold coins you could buy in the marketplace compared to Imperial gold coins of the Roman Empire prior.

          The Byzantine Empire only struck bronze and gold coins and no silver coins, as the fiasco with the Denarius being devalued drastically thanks to being able to silver-wash bronze coins to look like the real thing, was still in their minds.

          Anyhow, you could buy a gold coin that was 1,300 years old for a couple hundred bucks, versus more like 5 to 10x that amount for an Aureus of Nero.

          Similar to the Silver bubble, they went up in price and then went straight down.

          This is what they looked like:

          Byzantine currency, money used in the Eastern Roman Empire after the fall of the West, consisted of mainly two types of coins: gold solidi and hyperpyra and a variety of clearly valued bronze coins. By the 15th century, the currency was issued only in debased silver stavrata and minor copper coins with no gold issue.

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

          Reply ↓
          1. Joe Renter

            I remember this event as I was sucked into buying more than I should have, perhaps in the highest price in that market. I was young and pretty dumb not to realize it was a bubble. My Mother recently gave me a number of Silver Eagles. Not sure if they will hold their value. Maybe I can use them in a poker game with my tribe when we all are all living in vans down by the river

            Reply ↓
            1. ambrit

              Hang on to those Silver Eagles. The premium might not be recoverable, but the price of silver is steadily rising. If Comex or the LBMA ever default on delivery on contracts that “stand for delivery,” then it will be a Wild West out there for the metals.
              Stay safe down there by the rivers side.
              (I’ve lived in a van. Amfortas has lived in a van. One of the older commenters told of having to move into a van. It’s the coming thing! [Why do you think that the more “Gentrified” communities make van living illegal? Much less car living.])

              Reply ↓
        2. Dave in Sydney

          ‘argent provocateurs’
          Wuk you are so clever
          Are you like this all the time at home-
          does it drive your wife batty! :)

          Reply ↓
            1. Dave in Sydney

              it is very much a compliment!
              I was just trying to put shape to the idea of Wuk colouring his regular conversation all day with spritely complex word gymnastics

              Reply ↓
              1. Wukchumni

                The punisment will continue until the moral imperative improves somewhat.

                I’m less of a vocal punner than i’d like to be, my brother-in-law is the opposite-as per his 3rd place finish in the O Henry Pun-Off a few years ago, a farce to be reckoned with.

                Reply ↓
    1. Trees&Trunks

      That was quite a show. I wonder if The Amazing Mister Lifto at Jim Rose Cirkus Sideshow could have done something similar.

      Reply ↓
  4. The Rev Kev

    “Khalistani and Half Pakistani: With Donald Trump’s unhinged stand on India, read about the anti-India elements in his inner circle”

    ‘Pro-Khalistan advocate Harmeet Dhillon and half-Pakistani Omeed Malik are two such individuals who belong to the inner circle of the US president.’

    Trump does not need Dhillon or Malik to wreck US-India relations. That is what Peter Navarro is there for. The guy continues to take a flamethrower to India and when he saw Modi with Putin and Xi, said-

    ‘Shame to see Modi getting in bed – the leader of the biggest democracy – with two biggest authoritarian dictators, Putin and Xi Jinping. Not sure what he is thinking. Particularly since India has been in cold war, sometimes hot war with China for decades.’

    And just to stir some internal troubles in India, said-

    ‘I would just simply say to the Indian people, please understand what’s going on here. You’ve got Brahmins profiteering at the expense of the Indian people. We need that to stop’

    From where I am standing, this looks like a Trump attempt to bend India and turn them into a vassal state like he has done to the EU. And if India buckled to Trump, then Trump would seek to wreck India’s economy like he has done to the EU so that they could never be a competitor to the US. And I think that Modi finally, finally gets it. There is no path to negotiate with Trump that does not end in India’s vassalage. It took India centuries to get rid of their vassalage to Britain and I am sure that they have no wish to repeat the experiment-

    https://www.financialexpress.com/world-news/us-news/shame-to-see-modi-peter-navarro-says-india-needs-to-be-with-us-and-not-russia/3964387/

    Reply ↓
  6. flora

    Good Tucker Carlson episode. utube, ~1hr 50+

    SSRIs and School Shootings, FDA Corruption, and Why Everyone on Anti-Depressants Is Totally Unhappy

    Probably a fifth of the entire American population is on SSRIs. Psychiatrist Josef Witt-Doerring explains why that’s terrifying and dangerous.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnhT77W9mtQ

    Reply ↓
    1. Louis Fyne

      psych drugs as a causation of mass shootings hypothesis needs to be studied a lot more (eg, medical records of mass shooters, brain examinations of shooters, studies of people prescribed drugs, etc.). Compare/contrast mass shootings arising out of drug/gang disputes versus mass shootings on soft targets.

      not holding my breath.

      Reply ↓
        2. moog

          Bill and Melinda Gates want to help, themselves. As one of the billion people living with mental health conditions, I can confirm that existence of such people is one of the main triggering factors.

          Reply ↓
      1. flora

        per Wiki:
        Fluoxetine, which was FDA approved in 1987, is usually thought to be the first SSRI to be marketed.
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_and_discovery_of_SSRI_drugs

        So less than 40 years.

        It’s interesting the latest from Minneapolis is instantly politicized for other objectives.

        Example. The politicized “need” for pre-crime surveillance on everyone. From Dore, utube, 14+ minutes.

        After MN Shooting, Fmr IDF Agent Pushes AI-Based Pre-Crime Monitoring!

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqjbu-81-3Q

        Instead of looking into reasons, some people look for ways to make money and push their programs, imo.

        Reply ↓
    3. Geo

      Back in about 2004 I worked for Gary Null doing research for some documentary he was making about SSRI’s and school shootings. While there were quite a few school shooters on SSRi’s it felt like a “chicken or the egg” type situation. It’s reasonable to think that the type of person capable of committing such an atrocious act was probably unbalanced before that and the SSRI stuff was prescribed to address that – and was not the cause of the mental/emotional imbalance. Also, Null was a raging lunatic that makes RFK Jr seem like a rational intellectual so I pretty much discounted anything he believed as a delusional fever dream.

      Was only there for a few months but it was a fascinating peak inside the movement that now days is branded MAHA – a fusion of granola hippies, new age kooks, and reactionary contrarians all fixated on secret cures and conspiracies. As someone with a bit of a tinfoil hat complex I was initially intrigued but quickly found the whole thing to be more of a cult of personality than any sort of actual interest in learning or thoughtful questioning of official narratives. It was also the earlier days of the internet and my first foray into the “doing my own research” ideology and my realization that most people (myself included) aren’t smart enough to do their own research on such complex issues so far outside our expertise and are easily swayed by confirmation bias and smooth spokespersons making us feel like we have secret knowledge no one else is smart enough to figure out.

      Reminded me a lot of the fringe cults I used to join for fun in my early 20’s. Or, like an old buddy who was a “former white supremacist” said about his time in a northern Idaho compound: “Those guys were f’ing crazy!” His time in the compound pushed him away from the movement much like my time with the Gary Null operation made me deeply distrustful of health guru types with a reactionary contrarianism toward big Pharma.

      Reply ↓
  7. Mikel

    Khalistani and Half Pakistani: With Donald Trump’s unhinged stand on India, read about the anti-India elements in his inner circle – pIndia

    The parts about how these circles network made me think: they aren’t organizing online on surveillance platforms.
    And organizations or groups that are truly embattled with another power are not organizing online because it has becone a matter of life or death.

    Reply ↓
  8. Carolinian

    Re “animals in human form”–of course the great irony is that such beliefs reveal the Israelis to be typical and the same rather than special and unique since the dominators always believe this about the dominated. There must be some empatheic strain in our natures that has to be suppressed for power to exist.

    Here in the South–no stranger to racism–liberals used to view the prejudiced as victims of ignorance and poor bringing up. After all it’s really self awareness that separates us from the beasts, not some wave of the divine wand.

    So one might be tempted to view the ME nation as a pardoxical remnant of another time. The latest Alastair Crooke suggests that it may indeed be on the verge of doing itself in.

    https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/09/01/israels-new-violent-zionism-as-a-harbinger-of-imperial-geo-politics-of-submission-and-obedience/

    But even if that happens “power” will stick around and along with it the belief in “animals in human form.”

    Reply ↓
    1. ArvidMartensen

      The relationship between Israel and the US has been an enigma, who controls who?

      So now I think the best analogy is to say that Israel is the terrible-twos toddler child of the US.

      The US, as one of the reasons that Israel exists, feels it has full responsibility for feeding and caring for Israel no matter what. Israel is a progeny.

      And Israel? It proudly insists on doing what it likes, thinks it is the king of the world, wilfully puts itself in danger, thinks it owns everything, smashes siblings and bullies and hurts others to get their stuff etc etc. With no understanding of empathy or fairness.

      And the US secretly feels, ‘that’s my boy’.

      But if Israel oversteps an admittedly very indulgent line, and the US says Israel!! in a stern voice meaning business, Israel eases off for a while until the US stops looking. And then it goes on the rampage again.

      Reply ↓
  9. The Rev Kev

    “Tories pledge to get all oil and gas out of North Sea”

    They’ll want to hurry. At current rates it will be running out in about 14 years from now. At least all the money that came in from those North Sea fields over the decades was spent wisely. /sarc

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/11/bring-north-sea-oil-and-gas-under-greater-public-control-report-urges

    Frankly I wonder what they would do with any money made on those fields. Both parties are more likely than not to send it to the Ukraine and that is the truth.

    Reply ↓
  10. MicaT

    GPS blocking?
    Paper maps? No one uses paper maps.
    Nor paper charts which are the landing instructions basically.
    Forever pilots have used tablets called EFB which have all the maps and charts in them updated all the time and the planes themselves have all the same info. These devices are both independent gps/cell and linked to the planes internal gps and INS. And they also use GNSS which is separate satellite system. Not to mention the INS uses ground based radios for triangulation/location as well as its own internal guidance.
    The falcon 9000XL is a highly advanced airplane with all of the best and lastest avionics. To say they got lost is not possible.

    To have gps fail is not an issue and that’s why planes use multiple redundant systems.

    This whole thing sure seems to be completely untrue.

    Reply ↓
    1. Carolinian

      Surprisingly airplanes were able to navigate for decades without GPS. True in the early days they liked to find a highway to follow to be on the safe side. My onetime pilot uncle used to do this too.

      Reply ↓
        1. Wukchumni

          A friend is a pilot and uses IFR (I Follow Roads) and truth be said they are interstates, but that would ruin the acronym.

          Reply ↓
          1. Carolinian

            In Mesa,AZ east of Phoenix there’s a hillock with “Phoenix” on the side written in giant white letters and an arrow. This is probably a remnant of the Air Mail days when that area didn’t even have paved roads.

            Maybe East Europe govts needs to paint some mountains to help out the EU’s flaky GPS receivers.

            Reply ↓
              1. Carolinian

                I think I knew that it had been repainted.

                Of course now you locate Sky Harbor because it’s in the middle of a giant city.

                Reply ↓
            2. hk

              Ireland used to have “EIRE” in big letters at multiple locales during WW2 to warn military aircraft of combatant powers that they were entering neutral Ireland’s airspace. Much debate continues as to how much of Luftwaffe bombings of different Irish cities and towns were due to intent or mistake…

              Reply ↓
              1. Revenant

                And also distance numbers, either painted or set out in rocks. If I am remembering correctly, there is one at St. John’s Point in Donegal, on the approach to the coast between Donegal Town and Ballyshannon, where the UK (Fermanagh) was just a few miles inland of EIRE (there were Catalina and other flying boat squadrons on Lough Erne).

                Reply ↓
              2. PlutoniumKun

                Yes, they were scattered along the coast with reference numbers so they could be used for navigation. They were apparently considered invaluable by pilots at the time. There is a lot of local interest now in restoring them, along with other war features like this u-boat look-out post.

                There were a small number of Luftwaffe bombings – as you say its still a matter of dispute over the reason – I think its most likely they were the result of electronic jamming of the direction signalling used by the Luftwaffe. But they may also have been intended as a warning.

                Reply ↓
    2. OIFVet

      Thank God they had them paper maps aboard. It’s fire season still in Bulgaria, so smoke signaling the plane from the ground would have escalated an already dire situation. /sarc

      Reply ↓
        1. OIFVet

          Revival are certifiable nutjobs and Kostadinov himself is just a huckster and perpetual party nomad out to enrich himself. He runs Revival as a cult and this is his latest stunt to promote himself as “Mother Bulgaria’s savior.” He isn’t.

          Reply ↓
    3. ilsm

      Paper navigation aids….. to use the paper you need a sextant m and navigation certified chronometer.

      For years beyond INS, GPS and radar navigation Strategic Air Command kept navigators with time pieces and sextant. Cannot miss nuking bc nav out!

      The chart jet also lacks a nav tables and straight edges!

      The number of unnamed sources…

      Reply ↓
    2. fjallstrom

      Note that it is local elections in a state with a population of 18 millions and with 20 000 candidates. Note also that Germany as a rule uses list elections for the second vote, so even if these candidates were in a position to be elected (and not just down ballot fillers), all it means is that another person from AFD is more likely to be elected. I am not arguing that down ballot candidates are murdering top candidats to get a council seat, though they would have a motive. I think it is more likely that AfD recruited older candidates.

      From BBC, the state party leader doesn’t seem to have recieved the memo on the party line:

      However, asked about the rumours in his party, the AfD’s number two figure in North Rhine-Westphalia, Kay Gottschalk, acknowledged on Tuesday that “what I have in front of me – but that’s just partial information – that doesn’t back up these suspicions at the moment”.

      He told Politico’s Berlin Playbook Podcast that his party wanted the cases to be investigated “without immediately getting into conspiracy-theory territory”. He said they had to tread carefully with the families concerned as they had lost a family member.

      Police told Germany’s DPA news agency that the four initial deaths were either from natural causes or the cause was not being divulged for reasons of family privacy. The two further deaths have been similarly described.

      Reply ↓
  12. eg

    Even for Munchau (and that viper’s pit of neoliberalism which is the Unherd comments section), “Europe’s Deadly Debt Spiral” is shockingly bad.

    Not content merely with citing Reinhart and Roghoff’s execrable and discredited This Time is Different Munchau blithely asserts “The old trickle-down economic model worked well in the days of unbridled, global financial capitalism, a period that for the UK started in the mid-Eighties and ended in 2008.”

    Really? “worked well” for whom?

    In a just world, Munchau would be forbidden to publish any more of this dreck until he had read (and demonstrated an actual understanding of) Mark Blyth’s Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea.

    Reply ↓
  13. Mass Driver

    America’s Top Aircraft Carrier Faces Russian Submarine Threat: P-8 Sub-Hunters Deployed to Respond Military Watch. Over my pay grade, but the reaction seems excessive.

    From my pay grade this looks like a shipload of bollocks. It’s so poorly scripted that even Tom Clancy fans wouldn’t fall for it.

    Reply ↓
      1. Mass Driver

        American submariners say that there are two sorts of submarines – based on whether they receive commands over Trump’s Truth Social account or not.

        Reply ↓
      2. ilsm

        Hunt for Red October.

        A USN attack submarine or two are integral in a carrier battle group. It is likely using data from P8 if their sonar buoys find “Ivan “. I doubt chasing Ivan is keeping ground radar equipped US P8 from providing Kiev targets.

        USS Ford has the spec to be most capable aircraft carrier in USN if the EM catapult can reset as spec’ed and the elevators don’t shut down.

        800 km search radius…. Calling Tom Clancy …. RIP.

        Reply ↓
        1. scott s.

          Sounds like a return to my day. As a destroyerman, hunting Russian subs is what we did. Typically a battle group would have an SSN in direct support and from time to time a P-3 (before they transitioned to P-8). P-3s could lay down a line of sonobuoys to monitor what was in the area. Typically passive but if a potential contact they/we also had active ones. We also had organic assets, CV had SH-3 helos with dipping sonar and S-3s. We destroyers had SH-2F LAMPS helos. The LAMPS helos could relay raw passive data back to us to process onboard, looking for “signatures”. If you found something the air assets had tactics to use their MAD gear which would alert when they overflew the contact. They could drop a smoke on Datum and it was game-on.

          Sure, subs like to brag about “targets” during exercises. It always seemed to me drop a 46 torp in the water and those subs would be much more circumspect.

          As far as elevators, in my day weapons elevators on CVs and supply ships were always a problem, so I don’t see this as some big shock. The basic elevator problem is you have a ship that is twisting in the seas, but elevators prefer stability.

          Reply ↓
          1. thrombus

            It’s easy to “hunt” submarines in peacetime when no one is shooting back. It’s all fun and games until the missiles start flying. All the NATO tanks were successfully hunting Soviet ones during exercises (including the live fire one in the Sandbox, that some mistook for a proper war). Not so much when the real deal happened.

            Reply ↓
  15. OIFVet

    Russia and China sign agreement to build Power of Siberia-2 gas pipeline.

    Brian McDonald:
    Not sure people grasp how huge this is. With Power of Siberia-2 signed, the map shifts for good. Russia’s Arctic gas, the lifeblood of Western Europe’s factories for half a century, will now flow east to China through Mongolia. This is the loss of fuel that helped deliver consistent economic growth and underpinned Germany’s erstwhile status as the world’s leading exporter.

    For years Beijing was reluctant; wary of being too dependent on Russian gas. Something has shifted (perhaps renewed EU hostility, maybe Trump’s threats). Either way, Western Europe won’t see cheap reliable gas again. China gets it now. The game is over. And it will only be as time passes that consequences will be fully understood.

    Good thing the EU agreed to import American LNG 🥲 But seriously, solar and wind are A) unsuitable and B) unreliable and inadequate for the re-industrialization the EU bleeths about. I suppose that explains why the European Peoples Party is making noises about the return of coal, coupled with environmental deregulation. We will have to learn to say “I love the smell of burning coal in the morning!” if these eejiots have their way.

    The above is assuming that Europastan can even get its hands on raw materials necessary for industry and building stuff, because Russia Nad China are unlikely to keep selling them to us under our present course. There are precious few of those raw materials in Europe and where they are, people like me are fighting plans to extract them tooth and nail, as they happen to be either where there’s fertile land, unspoiled nature reserves or threaten already dwindling water supplies.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      Another reason why Beijing was reluctant to commit was because they wanted a direct Russia-China passage of that LNG whereas the Russians wanted to route it though Mongolia. Guess that the Russians managed to convince Xi that it is better this way.

      Reply ↓
  16. Vikas

    re: long term impacts of extreme weather, point 4: “Public disaster relief programs can save lives and money.”

    True, until back to back to back events drain the public coffers. At that point, the legitimation crisis will be the least of the disruptions.

    Reply ↓
  17. Mass Driver

    Ukraine War Leads to Global Shortage of TNT for Military and Mining Use New York Times

    Poland had been the Pentagon’s sole authorized supplier of TNT. But it has been sending much of what it makes across its border to Ukraine, which is using all that it produces for its own military purposes.
    That comes as two of the other main sources of TNT, Russia and China, have stopped exporting to the United States, the officials said.

    So, a global shortage means USA shortage.

    Judging by the frontline footage, Russian sappers have ample supplies of it. Countless videos of them destroying mines, and unexploded ordnance, and other things, with orange 200g bricks of TNT (probably made in USSR).

    Reply ↓
  18. Jason Boxman

    From Ukraine War Leads to Global Shortage of TNT

    I gotta tell you, our foreign policy is really really managed by stupid people

    But according to officials in the civilian blasting industry, those sources have dried up as the U.S. military has elected to keep older weapons in its arsenal since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

    Poland had been the Pentagon’s sole authorized supplier of TNT. But it has been sending much of what it makes across its border to Ukraine, which is using all that it produces for its own military purposes.

    That comes as two of the other main sources of TNT, Russia and China, have stopped exporting to the United States, the officials said.

    …

    In recent years, the Pentagon has relied on a single factory in Poland for TNT it has needed. But it appears that the Defense Department may have secured other sources of TNT as well.

    (bold mine)

    There aren’t any words. None. The total, abject disfunction of the United States in general, originating from hopelessly incompetent management, is so clear. Trump is exhibit A, constantly gratifying himself, with policies that simply serve no other purpose except delivering said gratification.

    America is going great!

    Reply ↓
  20. The Rev Kev

    “A Single Mutation Made Horses Rideable and Changed Human History”

    It’s more than just being ridable but also the ability of horses and humans to bond together so well. You see that across different eras and different cultures. Last night we lost our oldest horse here in our paddock. She was the daughter’s first horse and posted his death to FB. She has had dozens of people comment back saying how they remember that horse and told stories about him. You don’t get that with cars that are finally wrecked. He was a horse that did many sports and would do whatever you asked of him, even if there was a broken arm or two along the way. RIP.

    Reply ↓
  21. JBird4049

    >>>Four AfD candidates in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany died “suddenly and unexpectedly” before the September 14 vote — Welt

    My, that’s not suspicious at all! /s

    Really, my knowledge of German politics is minuscule, but what does it say that having suspicions about political assassination is not unreasonable? It would not shock me, if it was just happenstance because that is life, which can be very surprising, but I am not confident that any of the major Western governments and their security agencies are competent. I certainly don’t believe that they work for us. For the Americans and British, I do have some questions about their connections to reality.

    I know about the CIA’s history of assassinations (or at least what can be publicly known. And now the American-European-Russian-Ukrainian decade plus kerfuffle, which includes assassinations. Is the one American Empire is getting worried?

    Reply ↓
    1. Trees&Trunks

      The dead ones were fairly old 59-71 and some cancer thrown into the mix. One suicide which ls sort of common-place nowadays. Northrhein-Westfalen has a really high level of heart attacks.

      It such as sorry state of affairs that one actually think that it is not a coincidence. This both from the perspective of the ruling elite – they have shown that they love death (Ukraine and Gaza being recent examples of fast death, neoliberalism for slow mass death) so you can very well suspect until proven innocent them to murder people as well as from the growth of far-right parties and fascists for whom „the stab in the back“ bitterness is crucial. Of course they will promote ideas that old cancer people are dying not of natural causes but from something else.
      What shitty low-trust society Germany and the West has become.

      Six AfD candidates dead: What is known about the scary series

      https://www-focus-de.translate.goog/politik/deutschland/sechs-afd-kandidaten-in-nrw-tot-was-ueber-die-gruselige-serie-bekannt-ist_4608eabd-3ac3-400c-be70-9ff638565ff8.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp

      https://www.gesundheitsatlas-deutschland.de/erkrankung/herzinfarkt_akut?stateId=NW&activeLayerType=county

      Reply ↓
      1. none

        They ages of the original 4 candidates were easy to find, idk about the other two.

        “We are talking about 66-year-old Ralph Lange, 59-year-old Wolfgang Seitz, 71-year-old Wolfgang Klinger and 59-year-old Stefan Berendes. https://eadaily.com/en/news/2025/08/31/in-germany-four-candidates-from-the-afd-suddenly-died-shortly-before-the-election

        Of the other two, one was already sick and died of renal failure, and the other committed “suicide”. Their ages weren’t given.

        Reply ↓
  22. Jason Boxman

    ‘Who Am I Without Birth Control?’ (NY Times via archive.ph)

    As social media and wellness podcasters bombard young women with messages about the pill, many are questioning what they’ve long been told.

    and

    Earlier this year, a study by public health researchers at La Trobe University found that among the top 100 TikTok videos about reproductive health, just 10 percent were from medical professionals, and about 50 percent of creators made comments rejecting hormonal contraception. The top 100 most popular posts on TikTok about birth control had amassed some five billion views.

    In more than a dozen interviews with young women of different political leanings across the country, many said these TikTok videos and podcast clips were making them feel at turns curious and anxious, wondering whether to trust their doctors or the influencers promising greener, healthier pastures far from conventional medical guidance about contraceptives.

    (bold mine)

    Given how wrong medical professionals are about COVID, like, overwhelmingly, comically wrong (no it isn’t just a cold), there’s legitimate reason for skepticism sadly, on virtually any topic within the purview of the medical profession. What a sad place we’ve come to.

    Until recently, it hadn’t seemed like this moment — with influencers promising bliss and mental clarity post-birth control — was leading to any change in how women in the United States were using it. But last month, Trilliant Health, a health care analytics company, conducted an analysis for The Times and found a decrease in the use of hormonal birth control pills among some women ages 18 to 44. In 2019, 13.1 percent of women said they used the pill; in 2024, that number fell to 10.2 percent.

    Although, I do wonder if COVID plays any role here. Given its stark population level impact, it will forever be an open question going forward, one that will be strenuously ignored.

    And it’s well known that doctors often ignore women

    At the same time, the messaging on social media is resonating with women who feel as if they have been brushed off by their doctors when raising valid worries. Nearly a quarter of women between 15 and 49 either take hormonal pills or have an I.U.D., and many are prescribed birth control before they’re sexually active, to help with managing their periods, acne or symptoms of endometriosis.

    “They kind of want to throw birth control on people and not listen to every individual’s concern,” said Jaden Moretti-Leipf, 23, who works as a dog trainer in Rhode Island and earlier this year stopped using hormonal birth control. “I think they cover it up and say take this, and that’s the end of it.”

    Reply ↓
      1. Henry Moon Pie

        That was a blast from the past, Wuk. Rowan was so cool the way he worked in the counterculture. The bit about the Smothers Brothers and the CBS and NBC censors was a good example, as was the peace symbol he wore on his pocket.

        And Goldie.

        Reply ↓
    2. ArvidMartensen

      Family member has had two serious life threatening conditions in 8 years, one blocked arteries and one neurological. So I’ve seen a lot of blood test results and health indicators.

      Astounding to me that:
      Re the heart thing, triple bypass needed. Before the operation: cholesterol was normal, heart rate in low 60s, no diabetes. He did bushwalking and thought he was the fittest older man around. The only symptom was tiredness for a year and then finally chest pains. So much for the usefulness of all those blood tests we all have.

      Re the neurological thing. The hospital doctors misdiagnosed his first two attacks so no treatment. They put it down to dementia and one specialist told me we were completely unobservant for not seeing the signs of dementia (which it turned out wasn’t the problem). The third attack was a doozy, nearly fatal. Blood tests were all over the place, like a random number generator. But finally they diagnosed it and he has intensive treatment now for the rest of his life to keep him alive and functioning.

      So pile these experiences onto the Covid vaccine debacle ( what, you can get it after being vaccinated?), means my faith in doctors and blood tests and the like have plummeted in the last few years.
      And if people have been let down by the medical profession a few times, the word spreads.

      Reply ↓
  23. The Rev Kev

    “Norway’s electricity crisis is about to hit Britain”

    There was a similar article not that long ago along the same lines. The whole thing is so stupid however. So the Norwegian government was making big money sending energy to Great Britain, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. They could have turned around and used some of that profit to make energy cheaper for Norwegians who actually paid for all that infrastructure and kept them onside. Nope. Can’t do that. The government wanted all that money which meant that this whole issue became electoral poison and now that there is a water crisis in Norway, they are only now cutting those energy deliveries. This is one well that has been well and truly poisoned and the Norwegian government only has themselves to blame.

    Reply ↓
  24. QABubba

    Re: Xi’s Global Governance Initiative
    China firmly believes in the Westphalian model of a nation state. They firmly believe in International Law. They believe in the United Nations.
    What they don’t believe in is the foreign interference in the internal affairs of a nation.
    This is not a surrender of sovereignty. This is simply agreeing to abide by the law between nations. This may very well wind up being without the UN, since it has been so thoroughly corrupted, but with a UN type organization.

    Reply ↓
    1. Yves Smith Post author

      You should talk to people in Southeast Asia and get back to me. Few would agree to your views, starting with Myanmar. Loos and Cambodia are basically captives due to China’s control over the flow of the Mekong.

      Reply ↓
      1. QABubba

        I’ve been wrong before. Apparently, you know the countries that belong to ASEAN. As opposed to our SecDef, who couldn’t name one.
        As regards the Mekong, it is true that hydroelectric dams retard the flow of water, but cannot operate without the flow of water.

        Reply ↓
        1. Yves Smith Post author

          This is a handwave. You just made a clearly anti-Semitic comment and now you are arguing with no knowledge of the real issues, apparently to have the last word. You are already in moderation. You can’t afford any more troll points.

          Lambert wrote an entire post on the matter. I suggest you read it: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/07/the-mekong-river-water-wars-and-information-wars.html

          And the comments, such as from PluntoniumKun, who is extremely knowledgeable about both the region and water infrastructure:

          Thanks for this excellent overview.

          My first introduction to the Tonle Sap (a truly amazing lake) was encountering milestones on roadsides giving two different distances for villages depending on whether it was wet or dry season. The villages float – they are built on rafts – and move according to the pulses of the lake. The people of the lake are mostly ethnic Vietnamese and they suffered particularly badly under the Khymer Rouge so they tend to be pretty reserved around outsiders.

          There is little doubt that the Mekong is in deep trouble, but nobody has clean hands over it. The Thais (not just the Chinese) have been active in promoting dam building in Laos, which appears to have had as much an impact on water flows as those dams in China. The Vietnamese have allowed uncontrolled development, including massive amounts of illegal sand mining, along the delta, which is creating major potential for long term problems in the Delta, which is very much the breadbasket of Vietnam. The density of population, and the incredible fertility of the land there has to be seen to be believed.

          Whatever the truth about water flows from China, there is little doubt in my mind but that the Chinese both want control over the flows, and they want those downstream to know (or to believe) that they are capable of using this control over water as an instrument of power. So I doubt if they are too upset about the US exaggerating its impact. It certainly suits both the US and China for the Vietnamese to believe that China is a threat, albeit for differing reasons.

          Reply ↓
          1. QABubba

            I am not antisemitic. I am antifascist/genocide. I will try to respect your sensitivities. Again, there is a difference.
            However, as far as the river flows, floods are ‘bad, according to most people. However, they deposit silt from upstream, which makes the ground fertile (for rice, etc.). A dam interrupts this process, but doesn’t restrict the water flow, except for the evaporation of the lake behind it. Note that any silt deposited downstream was subtracted from the silt upstream. So this is a fertilization problem. One place to the next.

            Reply ↓
            1. Yves Smith Post author

              Sorry, your comment said otherwise. You stereotyped and smeared all Ultra Orthodox as opposed to the Zionist State. As I documented, there are major “Ultra Orthodox” rabbis (as in they and their male followers all in with the 19th century garb, the black hats. the peyot, the long jackets) who are firmly and loudly anti-genocide and anti-Israel. You engage in yet anther subtle attack on me by depicting objections to the factual inaccuracies in your statement, which indeed made it antisemitic, as “sensitivities” as oppose to you admitting to error or just dropping the issue. We are separately strict about accuracy and have low tolerance for efforts to defend Making Shit Up.

              You are also doubling down on your similarly inaccurate remarks about China’s ability to control the flow of the Mekong, which gives it life or death power over downstream nations. This refusal to drop arguments you have lost results in continued bad faith argumentation.

              I trust you will find your happiness on the Internet elsewhere.

              Reply ↓
      2. Polar Socialist

        They may not agree, but the fact is that the catchment areas in Laos (35%), Thailand (18%) and Cambodia (18%) all contribute more to the Mekong flow than China (16%).

        I’m sure China can be a difficult neighbor, but this in not one of the cards it holds.

        Reply ↓
        1. Yves Smith Post author

          While this is narrowly true, the Chinese dam network can and does constrain water flow during the critical wet season (see Lambert’s post on the importance of the river pulse), so the potential impact is greater than the numbers suggest. And even more important, it appears these downstream nations do fear China’s ability to constrain the Mekong.

          Reply ↓
    2. Socal Rhino

      I think we are headed toward spheres of influence with China a regional hegemon. What China appears to oppose is US global supremacy.

      As I recall, when McNamara met with Vietnamese leaders after the war and cited the US motivation for war being fear of Vietnam becoming a Chinese puppet, the Vietnamese were shocked and asked if he was unaware of hundreds of years of history of Vietnam resisting Chinese expansion. And while India has a history of friendship with Russia they remain distrustful of China for historical reasons. I am not well informed about politics in that region but I don’t think China is viewed as entirely benevolent.

      Reply ↓
  25. QABubba

    Re: Animals in human form
    One would do well to study the pronouncements of the Ultra Orthodox Jewish Rabbis. What is, and is not a sin (to pick a mild example, if a married women commits adultery in service of the state, is it a sin? I could go on about children, etc.).
    It might destroy your definition of what is a religion.

    Reply ↓
    1. raspberry jam

      As one of the commentariat’s resident Israel commentators, I try to avoid stepping into conversations that veer too closely to what amount to personal comments on Jewish faith issues, given some of what else I speak about here, it can sound too much like hasbara. People are going to believe what they believe and there are limits to what can be explained. THAT BEING SAID, this comment veers really close to Protocols crap. The problem with any religion is when their fundamentalists and ethnic supremacists gain political and/or ruling power over secular matters, as has recently happened in Israel, as I outlined a bit in this long comment a few days ago. Do some of the Ultra Orthodox say terrible things, do terrible things, justify terrible things? Yes, of course, I even provided a few examples in the comment I just linked. So do Americans and most cultures and religions. Try to avoid the trap of pinning the blame on a single group. Especially when it comes to applying fault in the terrible Israeli political/military/power landscape, it is more helpful to understand the role of Jewish supremacist views vs orthodox religious views. There are orthodox sects who are not only opposed to the Gaza war but opposed to Zionism as a whole. Paint too broad a brush as with your comment and you’d miss the role Kahanism and Jewish suprematism are playing in the current situation.

      Reply ↓
      1. Yves Smith Post author

        Yes, see Torah Judiasm as a prime example of orthodox Jews who are hard core anti-Zionists. They regularly stomp on the Israel flag.

        Reply ↓
        1. QABubba

          There simply is no such thing as a Jewish ‘race.’ Anymore than there is a Catholic race.
          And therefore their land claims are bogus.

          Reply ↓
      2. QABubba

        If you don’t want the ‘broad brush,’ perhaps it is time to solve your own damn problems. Genocide comes to mind.

        Reply ↓
      3. QABubba

        Simply come up with one, single, solitary ‘holocaust’ story, where ‘Jewish’ settlers have shielded a Palestinian family from the onslaught.
        You cannot, because there are none.

        Reply ↓
        1. vao

          This is a question that will haunt the post-Gaza world.

          Yad Vashem has a registry of the “righteous among the nations” who often risked their lives to protect or exfiltrate Jews during WWII — 27’921 persons in total.

          How many Jewish Israelis will have acted in a similar way regarding Palestinians in the on-going genocide? How many from NATO countries? from Egypt? from Jordan?

          Reply ↓
          1. QABubba

            Risked their lives and their families lives. And whatever the registry says, it was way more than that.
            (Hopefully this comment is not deemed antisemitic)

            Reply ↓
      4. Dave in Sydney

        Thanks for this Raspberry jam
        and for your comments generally.
        Its why state actor opponents (for example) refer to the ‘Zionist Entity’ and not Israel.

        Reply ↓
  26. Munchausen

    https://x.com/MyLordBebo/status/1962805580944355579
    🇺🇦🇷🇺 Tank Monster
    A couple of months ago, Ukraine published footage of a tank with a “tsar-grill” from the 4th brigade of the Russian Armed Forces, which, as reported, the Ukrainian forces managed to stop only after using 60 FPV drones.
    Kolyan, the commander of the tank battalion of the 4th brigade, said on stream that his tank actually withstood a swarm of Ukranian drones, and stopped on the battlefield due to an unfortunate technical failure – the gearbox broke down. The vehicle was already battle-worn – a captured T-72.
    The crew, by the way, managed to complete the mission – they delivered the infantry intact. The tankers were also unharmed.
    …

    Reply ↓
  27. QABubba

    Re: Bessent and Russian sanctions
    Again. The greatest gift that the West has given Russia is to force the Russian oligarchs to reinvest their money in a country with fully one third of the world’s resources, and pay taxes.
    It’s a win, win, win, win for Russia.

    Reply ↓
  28. Henry Moon Pie

    Thanks for the Luke Kemp interview on Planet Critical. Kemp takes an archaeologist’s approach to the issue of collapse and finds that historically, the Jackpot was bad for the ruling elites whose empire crumbled, but not so bad for the oppressed hoi polloi, at least based on the height of pre- and post- collapse skeletons . Kemp also did an interview with a German historian that covered much of the same territory, but the German guy way not quite so taken with Kemp as Rachel was.

    Perhaps this will revive the very interesting discussion around Richard Murphy’s article about neoliberalism and collapse from a few weeks ago.

    Kemp is doing the rounds for his new book titled: Goliath’s Curse — Past and Future of Societal Collapse. This adds “Goliath” to the growing list of terms for the mega-system driving us to the Jackpot: Superorganism (Nate Hagens); The Machine (Paul Kingsnorth and Dougald Hind in the Dark Mountain Project); and Moloch (Daniel Schmachtenberger). The idea behind them all is that humans have created a sort of Frankenstein that has moved beyond their control–and that’s before AI gets involved. Schmachtenberger says the humans’ top priority must be to bring down Moloch, a sentiment that even mild-mannered Matt Stoller toyed with in his post also included in Links:

    We saw something along these lines in December, when Luigi Mangione allegedly shot a wealthy health care CEO, to the cheers of a not-so-small number of Americans. And when a Blackstone executive was murdered a month ago, there was a similar, if more muted, popular reaction. The social contract isn’t just some abstract notion, it really does exist. And when the superrich are too aggressive, and provide literally no recourse, it causes a broad loss of faith in our system. People start to take the law in their own hands in a variety of ways, and their friends and neighbors, far from stopping them, cheer it on. We’re already seeing that sentiment reflected in polling on juries.

    Reply ↓
    1. Socal Rhino

      The thing is, that might prove true in the same way that the bubonic plague was a positive for labor: in the long run, and not so much for the masses who died.

      Reply ↓
      1. Henry Moon Pie

        Very true.

        Kemp does push back on Mad Max scenarios. In fact, he describes the State as not much more than a gun-toting, looting motorcycle gang. There’s some confirmation of that in the modern configuration of the State that we’re living under. When the State disappears in some circumstances, what arises is mutual aid like after Sandy in Staten Island. But then, armed, white gangs, “guarding” bridges out of New Orleans, is not so pretty.

        Reply ↓
  29. James McFadden

    Floating solar panels is probably not the best idea to reduce evaporation. The panels will absorb heat since they are not very reflective and transfer that heat to the water. It seems likely that heat absorption will be about the same as that of water since they have similar albedos. Evaporation keeps the water cooler, so reducing evaporation over covered portions will just result in a higher water temperature which will increase evaporation in the uncovered portions. If reducing evaporation is the goal, a reflective surface would be better. On the other hand, the solar panels floating on water will run cooler and therefore be more efficient at generating electricity.

    Reply ↓
  30. Tom Stone

    This is getting interesting, the Supremes are pissing away any legitimacy they still had, Trump has crapped all over Hispanics, Big Ag ( Soybean farmers in particular) and Veterans by gutting the VA while all the Dems have to offer is ” We promise to spit on it first, next time”.
    That leaves a huge political vacuum, which will be filled.
    In the meantime the antics are likely to be horrifying and hilarious.

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni

      Benedict Donald levied big tariffs on China in his first term with the Middle Kingdom going to other suppliers for soybeans-consequently ruining their market-although they were paid for losses that first bad season, and unfortunate cookie saying says:

      ‘Avoid pissing off your primary buyer, next time’

      Reply ↓
  31. Gulag

    As a populist (the people should somehow rule), it is disappointing to see missed opportunities for potential co-operation between portions of the populist right and populist left in conjunction with many individuals who now declare themselves independent of both major political parties.

    Mike Benz, of the MAGA populist right faction, is largely responsible for first presenting to the public all of the information contained in the article “Are Bellingcat and the OCCRP Independent Media?” An important part of the theoretical framework that launched Benz’s dive into this type of analysis comes primarily from the Left of the 1960s. As an example, Benz has many times referred to the “Yankee/Cowboy” power structure framework (first formulated by Carl Oglesby of SDS) as offering him key historical insights into the evolution of the American foreign policy power structure, that has included both the Republican and Democrat parties.

    It is time to dump the dangerous myth (that reinforces the present status quo) that the entire populist right is an enemy and to actually begin to think politically about what type of new and unusual coalitions may be possible in the future.

    Reply ↓
    1. Ben Panga

      I think arguing with neocons about Bellingcat, Syria, Douma, White Helmets etc was the last time the anti-globalist/anti-war left/right factions were really aligned.

      Those were the days before Tulsi crossed the tips of the horseshoe.

      Reply ↓
  32. chuck roast

    Stablecoins could trigger taxpayer bailouts, warns Nobel laureate

    But, stablecoins undergo annual financial audits, right? Wait…

    Reply ↓
    1. nyleta

      Stable coins linked to Treasuries is an attempt by Dodgy Bros Inc to take the first mover advantage from the national issue away from Banks. The so-called Cantillon Effect.

      Neither should be allowed to access the national issue directly, Banks should be forced to issue their own scrip again when creating fictitious deposits after a loan. Those wishing to swap bank scrip for the national issue should be able to do so in a free market, that way we would get real credit ratings. Same for stable coins, come to think of it Banks could issue stable coins to people after granting them credit and those wishing to swap their stable coins for the national issue could do so in the same market.

      Reply ↓
  34. ambrit

    As an addendum to the recent discussions on Abundance being Prosperity Theology in suits and ties, with obligatory Flag Lapel Pins, we received in the mail today a copy of a regional Mega Church monthly magazine. (Don’t ask, the story is well-nigh endless and convoluted.) On the cover is this month’s focus item: G–‘s Plan for Finances.
    They have evidently not read, or understood, the Gospels.
    Stay safe.

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni

      Where is that maverick among us who would dare wear an old glory lapel pin on the right hand side of their resplendent suit of armor?

      Reply ↓
  35. lyman alpha blob

    RE today’s Stoller article

    The link doesn’t work and has an extra “l” at the end – this is the correct one: https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/monopoly-round-up-is-there-a-silicon

    Anyway, another excellent article from Stoller – Silicon Valley going the AIPAC route and creating huge slush funds to smear any political opponents is definitely something to be concerned about. But when I read things like this –

    “So accustomed as we are to our system of checks and balances, peaceful transitions of power, and general sense of trust that the basic stuff – like electricity or not having cops rob you – will work.”

    – it makes me think Stoller needs to get out more. Yes, if you have an actual house/apartment, electricity is generally reliable. But take a trip to some remote lakes in my neck of the woods, and you’ll run across some people in derelict campers who are clearly living there, not just out for a weekend getaway. A teacher friend talks of students living in beat up old Airstreams with zero utilities. And of course, especially for people in certain parts of the US, the cops taking their stuff was and is considered routine. It was pretty big news abut a decade ago when civil asset forfeitures by the cops exceeded the value of reported thefts – https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/north_america/americas-current-economy/police-civil-asset-forfeitures-exceed-all-burglaries-in-2014/

    Reply ↓
    1. none

      An asset forfeiture of Elon Musk alone would probably exceed all the burglaries of 2014 and after. So it would depend on how it plays out in court.

      Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      Now that they sunk it, it cannot be proved that it was a drug boat and not just a fishing boat. And with that the whole region becomes unsafe for small boats.

      Reply ↓
    3. lyman alpha blob

      According to the alleged footage provided by Trump’s account, here’s what they blew out of the water –

      https://xcancel.com/TrumpTruthOnX/status/1962990073332539791

      Trump no longer has any business ridiculing Biden for scrambling fighter jets to take out a weather balloon.

      And as Rev Kev said, how do we even know it was a drug boat? Or even real at all for that matter?

      Real or not, drug boat or not, this is just wrong on so many levels.

      Interesting that in the Grauniad link, Maduro is calling out Rubio for the hardline anti-Venezuelan policy and publicly urging Trump not to listen to him.

      Reply ↓
    4. thrombus

      Shoot first, ask questions later. Wild West, but without horses and cool hats. All we got are modern day dunce caps with updated shape, color, and writing.

      Reply ↓
  38. ChrisPacific

    Re: Not just under-16s: all Australian social media users will need to prove their age – and it could be complicated

    I hadn’t realized what a dumpster fire this trial actually was. They’re trying to do it by age estimation from facial recognition! Yes, that’s right, the time-honored and famously accurate “look at a person and guess their age” methodology.

    Not to worry, though – if that turns out to be inaccurate they have some other ideas:

    There are also behavioural signs. Wells used the example of interacting on social media with retirees about caravanning being an indicator someone is older, and talking about Kpop Demon Hunters with 13-year-olds being a sign someone is a teenager.

    Bad news if you happen to be someone older who’s into Kpop, like Lambert was (or if you adjust your privacy settings so that social media sites don’t know absolutely everything about you).

    I had heard about this, but I thought they’d be approaching it sensibly using a federated digital identity or something, not some techno-magical hand wave.

    Reply ↓
  39. Jason Boxman

    Salesforce is, of course, a garbage product as well; I first used in back in 2006, and it was the most incompetent web-based garbage I’d used. Back in 2017 I’d hear rumors about how hard the party culture was among sales agents there.

    Salesforce CEO confirms 4,000 layoffs ‘because I need less heads’ with AI

    I think what Salesforce needs is less of the CEO’s head.

    Laurie Ruettimann, a human resources consultant, said AI is affecting jobs in several industries.

    “There have been layoffs all over America directly attributed to AI,” Ruettimann said, adding anyone who wants to stay employed or looking for work needs to learn new skills.

    “If your network could get you a job, it would have done it already. It would have done it yesterday,” Ruettimann said. “It’s on you to expand your vision, to expand your horizons and to meet new people.”

    (bold mine)

    Thanks, Laurie! Capitalism really is garbage.

    Nice to see that they quote Zitron:

    Analyst Ed Zitron said AI is being blamed by tech companies that over hired during the pandemic. The companies are now looking to lure investors by claiming to be more efficient, Zitron said.

    “It’s just a growth at all costs mindset,” Zitron said. “The only thing that’s important is growth, even if it ruins people’s lives. Even if it makes the company worse and provides an inferior product.”

    Sorta like tariffs are being blamed for price increases that are way in excessive of tariffs effects at the wholesale level.

    Reply ↓
    1. lyman alpha blob

      Thanks for this – as a regular user of Salesforce, I concur. And just wait until companies try to connect it with another crapified platform that also doesn’t work – it makes the work day absolutely glorious.

      I’ve heard the same rumors about the culture there – sales made by plying potential customers with hookers and blow and getting them to sign on the dotted line the next morning.

      Now that so many companies use it, apparently the needed groaf is to come from adding a bunch of “AI” bells and whistles as a justification for charging more for a crappy product.

      Recently noticed Microsoft humping the new “AI” features in Office. I’ve also noticed their warning telling people not to use it if they need a correct answer. This really is the stupidest timeline.

      Reply ↓
  40. Jason Boxman

    Azelastine Nasal Spray for Prevention of SARS-CoV-2 Infections

    Design, Setting, and Participants A phase 2, double-blind, placebo-controlled, single-center trial was conducted from March 2023 to July 2024. Healthy adults from the general population were enrolled at the Saarland University Hospital in Germany.

    Interventions Participants were randomly assigned 1:1 to receive azelastine, 0.1%, nasal spray or placebo 3 times daily for 56 days. SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen testing (RAT) was conducted twice weekly, with positive results confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Symptomatic participants with negative RAT results underwent multiplex PCR testing for respiratory viruses.

    You can get azelastine OTC in the United States, but at a 0.15% concentration. The 0.1% is for whatever reason prescription-only. Not sure how relevant that is.

    This is at least a real study, done independently of any spray manufacturer.

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisRUEcon

      Yep. Someone at work shared this yesterday as well. Been saying this since Lambert graced our presence. Nasal interventions work. I still use HOCL.

      Reply ↓
  41. Ben Panga

    Forgive me if this was already posted and I missed it…

    ‘Trump economic zone’ for Lebanon calls for occupation, forced displacement: Report     (The Cradle)

    “Land will be seized from 27 towns. There are Shia villages and all Sunni towns in the western sector (Dhaira, Yarin, Al-Bustan, Marwahin, and Al-Zaloutieh), as well as Christian towns in the central sector (Qawzah, Rmeish, Debel, and Ain Ebel), whose residents will be displaced from their homes in exchange for attractive financial compensation,” the report said.

    “This area will be under American security management. Between 1,500 and 2,000 soldiers will oversee its daily operations and communicate with Lebanese and Israeli security agencies. Israel The latter will have the right to erect dozens of observation posts along the border to reassure settlers in the north. Israeli army units will be given the freedom to enter, when necessary,” it went on to say. “An eight-kilometer strip will be cut off along the southern border towns with Israel.”

    He’s like an Oprah of war crimes “You get forcibly displaced….and YOU get forcibly displaced.”

    Slum landlord with an army.

    Reply ↓
  42. Ben Panga

    Further to the above, in a competing psychopathic plan, Israel may just annex all of the West Bank because Belgium and others recognized Palestine.

    No, I cannot see the logical link between the two things either.

    Netanyahu to hold talks over West Bank annexation in response to Palestinian state recognition
    Prime minister convenes high-level talks on extending Israeli sovereignty in West Bank after France and others recognize a Palestinian state, officials say    . (Jerusalem Post)

    Reply ↓
    1. raspberry jam

      The connection between the Lebanon and West Bank annexation plans + France recognizing Palestine is that Netanyahu’s government is currently being propped up by Kahanists. What do they believe?

      Kahanism is a religious Zionist[17] ideology that denotes the controversial positions espoused by Rabbi Meir Kahane. Kahane proposed that the State of Israel should enforce Jewish law (Halakha), as codified by Maimonides,[citation needed] under which non-Jews who wish to dwell in Israel would have three options: remain as “resident strangers” with all rights but national ones, which would require non-Jews to accept resident-stranger status with all rights but political ones. Those unwilling to accept such a status will be required to leave the country with full compensation and those who refuse to do even that will be forcibly removed.[18]

      Kahanism’s central claim is that the vast majority of the Arabs of Israel are and will continue to be enemies of Jews and Israel itself, and that a Jewish theocratic state, governed by Halakha law, absent of a voting non-Jewish population that includes Israel, Palestine, areas of modern-day Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, should be created.[19]

      If enough countries recognize Palestine, Eretz Israel may be prevented. Ben Gvir and Smotrich don’t have enough power on their own to form a government without Netanyahu, Trump is telling reporters the war in Gaza needs to end – Smotrich published a statement last week that he expected the war in Gaza to end next year. Can they hold out that long if Trump recognizes Palestine? The only leverage the Kahanists have over Netanyahu is that they can quit his government and force new elections, which could put him in jail. Netanyahu has not shown the ability to resist them so far but he is great at stalling and obfuscation.

      Reply ↓
    2. Daniil Adamov

      It’s the simple logic of retaliation. It humiliates the recognising countries, because Israel acts to spite them and suffers no immediately apparent consequences. To not retaliate in some way would look “weak”. And of course, I’m pretty sure that’s what they wanted to do anyway, but this meant they could both advance their plans and retaliate to a slight.

      Reply ↓
  43. ChrisRUEcon

    #XiProposesGlobalGovernanceInitiative

    > As we have repeatedly pointed out, global governance involved ceding sovreignity and is at odds with multipoliarity. How to square that circle?

    I watched the GGI section of Ben Norton’s video on the SCO read out (cued via YouTube from the 4:48 mark), and the framework seems to articulate – I know, “words are wind” to some degree – the idea of an equal seat at the table regardless of nation size, wealth etc. A believe this (via fmprc.gov.cn) is a copy of that report. Excerpt from Section II (Core Concepts), Item 1 (Staying committed to sovereign equality)

    This is the foremost premise of global governance. Sovereign equality is the most important norm governing state-to-state relations, and the foremost principle observed by the U.N. and all other international institutions and organizations. The essence of sovereign equality is that all countries, regardless of size, strength or wealth, shall have their sovereignty and dignity respected, their domestic affairs free from external interference, the right to independently choose their social system and development path, and the right to participate in, make decisions in and benefit from the global governance process as equals. Greater democracy should be promoted in international relations to make the global governance system better reflect the interests and aspirations of the majority of countries and to increase the representation and say of developing countries.

    So … at least on paper? A.k.a. they’re saying the right things. I’d like to think there are innovative ways to square that circle that aren’t tantamount to merely replacing the dollar with the yuan (swapping one hegemon for another), and yes, I have thoughts (via NC comment) … :)

    Reply ↓
    1. Yves Smith Post author

      I think you are missing some key issues:

      1. Having a seat at the table = conceding sovereignity to another body. The reason the UN and NATO are weak organizations are that countries are loath to do that.

      2. The idea that all countries can be equal is fallacious. A country that theoretically has an equal vote but regularly crosses a bigger power or one that otherwise has leverage (as in controls critical supplies or routes) will be able to punish countries in its sphere of interest.

      So that equal vote does not operate in practice.

      Reply ↓

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *