How to Make Your Dog Laugh Humor Science
‘What Everyone Gets Wrong About Our Generation’—According to 21 College Kids GQ (Adam H)
Climate/Environment
It’s a ‘Golden Age’ for U.S. LNG Industry, But Climate Risks Loom Yale Environment 360
Guest post: Fungal infections are adapting to climate change – and threatening public health Carbon Brief
Pandemics
Silent Invasion: COVID-19′s Hidden Damage to Human Organs MDPI
Measles outbreak growing in parts of Arizona and Utah, health officials say NBC News
Japan
Australia–Japan energy partnership needs a shared story East Asia Forum
China?
China Courts Foreign Gold Reserves to Boost Global Clout Bloomberg
Fertility Decline in China and Its National Military, Structural, and Regime Security RAND
India
S-400 deal on track for 2026, Russia proposes Su-57 production in India: Report India Today
Turkey Eyes Trump’s Consent to Produce Some US Jet Parts Locally Bloomberg
Africa
‘Killed us twice’: Families of US drone victims seek reparations in Somalia Al Jazeera. “In letters seen by Al Jazeera, US AFRICOM admits to killing civilians in air raids, but refuses ‘condolence payment’.”
Syraqistan
❗️ALERT❗️@gbsumudflotilla has been attacked 7 times in a short span! Boats hit with sound bombs, explosive flares, and sprayed with suspected chemicals. Radios jammed, calls for help blocked. Immediate international attention AND PROTECTION required!
Hands off the Flotilla! pic.twitter.com/huyNZxTp6o— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) September 23, 2025
Gaza: bridge between Africa and Asia and cultural genocide GeoPolitiQ
The Last Two New England Democratic Senators Unconditionally Supporting the Gaza Genocide Drop Site
💥An Italian state-owned TV channel – in a country ruled by a right wing party – expresses solidarity with the general strike in support of the population in Gaza, “subject to a military occupation, a daily massacre, and a mass deportation carried out by the Israeli government.” pic.twitter.com/RRNDeFy95a
— Paolo Mossetti (@paolomossetti) September 22, 2025
Ayatollah Khamenei Emphasizes Futility of Negotiating with US Tasnim
Trump special envoy Tom Barrack — who drew outrage in August for telling Lebanese journalists to stop acting “animalistic” and “act civilized” — today praised ordinary Iranians as “thoughtful, civilized, and educated.”
He said the regime, however, was “manipulative,” and Israel… pic.twitter.com/2jgO005lCA
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) September 23, 2025
Iran says deal with Russia will build eight nuclear power plants Iran International
China signs $2.5bn seawater contract to sustain Iraq’s oil output The Cradle
General Assembly
Trump declares war on the world at UN General Assembly speech WSWS
Cache of Devices Capable of Crashing Cell Network Is Found Near U.N. New York Times
France’s Emmanuel Macron calls Trump for help as he’s forced to walk through NYC to avoid UN traffic New York Post
***
This is insane…
As Trump arrived to the UN, the escalator stopped working the moment he stepped on it.
Then the teleprompter stopped working the moment he got up to the podium to speak. pic.twitter.com/XBTgfr6zJ8
— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) September 23, 2025
If someone at the UN intentionally stopped the escalator as the President and First Lady were stepping on, they need to be fired and investigated immediately.
The Times reported this on Sunday.👇 pic.twitter.com/NitsWbGYG0
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) September 23, 2025
European Disunion
Germany’s €80B rearmament plan sidelines US weapons Politico
A private equity firm’s secret strategy to crush German unions on behalf of sovereign wealth funds All-Source Intelligence
New Not-So-Cold War
Trump Claims Ukraine Can Retake All Territory Captured by Russia, May Be Able to ‘Go Further’ Antiwar. “…with the support of the European Union.”
BREAKING: Trump says that NATO countries should shoot down Russian aircraft if the aircraft enters their airspace. pic.twitter.com/EKynMymtYP
— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 23, 2025
Poland warns Russia not to ‘whine’ if its jets are shot down in NATO airspace Euronews
‘We cannot wait’: EU calls for drone wall to deter Russia after new incident in Denmark Euronews. ‘Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called the incident “the most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure to date” and said she could not rule out Russian involvement.’
“A Clusterf**k!”: Real Motive Behind NATO’s Dangerous False Flags Mark Sleboda (video)
The Great European Drone Panic, +US’ Sinister Venezuelan Buildup Simplicius
***
Ukraine Accepts IMF Forecast of Bigger $65 Billion Financing Gap Bloomberg
Han Yichen: Structural weaknesses behind Russia’s fuel crisis The East is Read. Han is an Associate Research Professor at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.
Poland to reopen border crossings with Belarus, PM says TVP
Moldova arrests 74 over ‘Russian plan to incite mass riots’ The Times
South of the Border
Drone Strike in Haiti Kills 8 Children at a Birthday Party New York Times. “In March, the authorities in Haiti hired foreign military contractors to operate armed drones to target gangs that terrorize the capital, Port-au-Prince. The contractors work for a company owned by Erik Prince…”
Our Famously Free Press
Sinclair, Nexstar won’t broadcast Kimmel’s show despite it returning to ABC Axios
As Jimmy Kimmel Becomes a Speech Icon, Alex Berenson Fights on Alone Matt Taibbi
YouTube to allow creators banned for Covid-19, election misinformation to apply for reinstatement CNBC
How Israel Captured TikTok American Conservative
Trump 2.0
Trump Administration Threatens Housing for Millions in “War on the Poor” Truthout
Concerns Arise About End of Paper Social Security Checks Government Technology
Trump’s GOP Blamed as Rural Health Clinics Begin to Fall Under Crushing Weight of Big, Ugly Bill Common Dreams
Ryan Routh found guilty of 2024 attempted assassination of Trump in Florida The Guardian
Trump cancels meeting with Democratic leaders, edging closer to shutdown The Hill
Weimar Republic
Top pro-Israel TPUSA donor terminated support for Kirk in days before death, sources say The Grayzone
Charlie Kirk And The 8th Front Mark Wauck
Police State Watch
ICE Can’t Stop Lying About Its Accomplishments Ken Klippenstein
Democrats en déshabillé
This mentality reveals everything that’s wrong with the current D leadership. pic.twitter.com/gBTNtIfll2
— Hal Singer (@HalSinger) September 23, 2025
Jon Stewart mocks Trump over acetaminophen pronunciation The Hill. If Liberals were so smart, you’d think they wouldn’t be so dumb…
It’s the Economic System, Stupid America’s Undoing
Biden/Harris Post Mortem
New Census Bureau data: Poverty and child poverty increased under Biden Stephen Semler
Harris says she lost to Trump because she ‘didn’t have enough time’ The Hill
Imperial Collapse Watch
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Our Age of Unreason Consortium News
Accelerationists
Chartbook 410: Malign coincidence – MAGA & the moment of hyperscaling. Adam Tooze
Elon Musk’s Father Accused of Child Sexual Abuse New York Times
Jeff Bezos’ Billionaire Dad Is Hiring a CEO to Run His Family Office WSJ
The Silicon Valley boomtown where it feels like the pandemic never happened San Francisco Standard
Economy
First Brands’ lenders race to rescue car parts supplier as debt woes rattle markets FT
Fed’s Powell sees ‘no risk-free path’ for interest rates after central bank’s cut last week yahoo! Finance
AI
Microsoft is reportedly building an AI marketplace to pay publishers for content Neowin
MAHA
Disgust, Horror, and “Elimination”: Trump and RFK Jr.’s Eugenicist Autism Conference Mother Jones
FDA Commissioner Flagrantly Misquoted Harvard Public Health Dean at White House Autism Event Drop Site
MHRA confirms taking paracetamol during pregnancy remains safe and there is no evidence it causes autism in children UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency
Use of paracetamol during pregnancy unchanged in the EU European Medicines Agency
Sports Desk
Groves of Academe
🚨 BREAKING: EVERY SINGLE High School in Oklahoma will now have its own Turning Point USA chapter, Oklahoma State Superintendent @RyanWalters_ announced
“Radical leftist teachers’ unions have dominated classrooms for far too long, and we are taking them back.”
LFG! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/YAfthyjxaK
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) September 23, 2025
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Healthcare?
New Analysis Reveals Health Exchange Plans Have Shifted Costs to Sicker Patients No Patient Left Behind
Antitrust
The Week America Woke Up to Oligarchy BIG by Matt Stoller
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Leavitt to Believer
In this week’s episode, Karoline escalates angst against walking up recently immobilized stairs, and feels certain that Eddie Haskell and/or Lumpy Rutherford was certainly behind the breakdown, thankfully Ward intercedes and the matter is all but forgotten, or was it?
The escalator immobilizers been reading Gene Sharp :-)
Although he had the name of a female impersonator, Dick Tuck is what it was all about when it came to clever cleaving, my favorite being this one…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Tuck
There was a President Gerald R. Ford joke in which he was on an escalator, it stopped, and he was stuck for hours.
Apparently, Trump passed the “stopped escalator'” test.
That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus
https://cybersect.substack.com/p/that-secret-service-sim-farm-story
HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45357693
Thank you. From my reading it could be as simple a thing as a for-profit social media account booster. I imagine there is significant demand for this kind of service.
Thanks for that. I smelled a rat from the beginning, as all the MSM were quick to blame “Chyna!”
Just about every media triumph story belched out by this administration, from ICE deportations to Venezuelan drug boat explosions to NY SIM farms, sounds amateurishly concocted and so unlikely to be true that only the narrow segment of Trump’s hardcore fans would believe it…so why bother? Noxious nonsense normalized…
“flood the zone with bullshit” works quite well(until it doesn’t).
betcha a quarter that Bannon has read Guy DeBord.
i also think that Sun Tsu would approve.
i also think that its akin to the Emperor’s Pet Chicken Fiasco(Honorius) Scenario, updated for the post-post modern age.
Camus would have a field day with all of this…as would Menckin.
Im not even looking for information anymores for what “our side” is doing, or gonna do…whats the point?
i find i pay much more mind to other world leaders…and mostly “our Adversaries(tm)”, at that…to get a better read on what the hell is actually going on.
Camus’ Absurdity, elevated to a platonic form, doesnt really do justice to this level.
i might need to locate and watch the entire Monty Python canon…or maybe Benny Hill is more apropos….?
“Ryan Routh found guilty of 2024 attempted assassination of Trump in Florida”
One of the weirdest stories of 2025. Hardly anyone was aware of his trial because it seems that the main stream media was barely covering it. Now they have found the sob guilty but the details of why he did it are kinda slim and some of us are still wondering about his connection with the Ukraine. Will there be intrepid reporters going down to his prison to conduct extensive interviews with him? I’m betting no and I expect Ryan Routh to be quickly memory holed.
Rather conclusive evidence that a pen is definitely not mightier than a sword…
He seems pretty disturbed. Or perhaps a fan of Benny Hill.
If Trump won, the president could execute Routh, the filing suggested. If Routh won, he said, he would become president.
Routh also requested a putting green for match practice and asked for “female strippers” to be present.
There is only one thing that you can say to a person like Routh-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT3Q85IvtDs
Only question is why he specified “female” strippers. Hmmmm.
In Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, a man condemned for “making gratuitous sexist jokes in a moving picture” was executed by naked feminists chasing him off a cliff.
MLB will use robot umpires in 2026 AP
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Take me out of the ball game,
Take me out with the Čapek;
Introduce a robot umpire that’ll cut no slack,
I don’t care if I never get back.
Let not root, root, root for the algorithm
If artificial intelligence wins, it’s a shame.
For it’s one, two, three strikes (after reviewing a called ball) you’re out,
At the old ball game.
Here’s how I interpret Trump’s speech to the United Nations. First, I read excerpts in Italian in today’s Fatto Quotidiano, which means that, as I read along, I realized how poetic Italian can seem. It is the language of Dante and Alda Merini. In my brain I had to back-translate the Italian excerpts into Trump’s vulgarity.
There is not much to parse. How to think of Trump? King Lear comes to mind. I don’t find King Lear to be tragic. He doesn’t have the flawed character of a tragic personage. Instead, Lear is self-absorbed and doesn’t know that actions have consequences. He divides his kingdom and thinks that, in his dotage, he will move with his entourage from court to court and eat his daughters out of their provisions.
The seemingly liberated gesture of willing his lands to his daughters is empty. The tragedy is what happens to those loyal to Lear.
Lear himself is an emanation of a phenomenon: There’s no fool like an old fool. And that’s where the US of A is with Trump. As well as with Biden, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, Les Wexner, and Lindsey Graham. They believe that their actions have no consequences, and years of being around yes-men and bag-ladies mean that they no longer see consequences.
The most insightful observation of Trump’s personality is from Yves Smith, who keeps repeating that Trump sniffs out other persons’ weaknesses.
There’s no fool like an old fool. So you have Trump-Lear, stumbling around stage, looking for gratitude, and you have Trump-Lear looking for weakness. How does one deal politically with such an eventuality?
The “bad” daughters may have a solution: Unity in political refusal.
PS: I sometimes wonder at the efforts to diagnose Trump as a narcissist. It’s a waste of time. Also, I find USanians diagnosing narcissism in other USanians to be a tad rich.
Going from one conceited vicious self enriching dementia patient President surrounded by yes men and beholden to special interests to another may be a sign that the end of Empire is nigh.
These are the days of sovereign nations acting in their own interests.
No action should be expected beyond that.
Or “what they perceive to be” their own interests. The point of King Lear is that humans are blind, but don’t know it. History ought to be a teacher but sadly isn’t. AJP Taylor’s The Origins of the Second World War shows instead that humans will be humans.
“History teaches, but has no pupils”-Gramsci
People learn from history how to make new mistakes. (AJP Taylor — I’m sure he actually meant “creative ways to repeat old mistskes.”)
Paul Scofield as Lear.
But there is one thing that sticks in my mind from “the great rambling” of the eve. He mentioned the US stock market.
“The stock market, as I said, is doing better than it’s ever done. And all of you in this room benefit by that, almost everybody…”
In that instance, he was addressing the gathering as individuals.
What about his insistence on using:
‘We have the hottest country…’
Are we talkin’ females or Fahrenheit?
My take…a reference to the hottest asset bubbles?
And is it a sign of “the peak”?
I’m a bit stymied by Bitcoin hanging in there so well, and you couldn’t hardly call it an asset, for its tantamount to Oakland in that there’s no there, there.
Historians in the year 2525 if man is still alive, might have issues finding the trigger bubble that Bitcoin was, on a lack of evidence.
Kind of similar to a imagined deity that caused many an empire to crumble back in the day when we were afraid of our shadow.
by then, all the FRN’s will be rotten away, too, and all of the digital…so they’ll be looking at coins…and thoroughly confused as to what the hell was going on right about now.
i mean, pennies are made of some die-cast pseudometal, with a copper-like coating,lol.
quarters feel a lot lighter than they did long ago(i have a mind for such things,lol), as do dimes.
nickles still have a familiar heft, at least.
As I understand it, the Bitcoin trade is very thin and the price can easily be manipulated by trading between different wallets of the same owner.
I think the Lear comparison perhaps lends an undeserved aura of royalty to the Donald, although I will admit to not being familiar with that particular play.
I’ve always seen him as more of an Al Czervik myself.
Always here for the Caddyshack reference.
Al Czervik may have been a vulgarian, but he had a kind heart – he wanted everyone to lighten up, have fun and to see Noonan get the Caddy Scholarship.
Trump would never yell “we’re all gonna get laid”, because it would mean taking joy in the happiness of others. Trump is terribly mean, and schadenfreude is his passion.
Haha I was going to say the same thing. One thing I’ll add, he also has a sense of humor, something Trump seems to be completely devoid of. And Czervik isn’t a cheat at golf. Lol
C’mon – I’m not sure whether the humor here was intentional or not, but Trump on sharks is hilarious!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL3UmTInva8
And remember when he told Jeb! that if his mother was such a great person, maybe she should run for president instead? Classic!
I do think his pronouncements have gotten much darker though in his 2nd term.
Au contraire — years ago, Trump more than once helped Saturday Night Live, for example, poke fun at himself:
https://news.meaww.com/resurfaced-snl-clip-of-trump-as-janitor-making-gay-dudes-joke-has-internet-lauding-his-sense-of-humor
Patrick Lawrence, Age of Unreason–
Compare and contrast:
From Lawrence:
From George Hanson in Easy Rider (perhaps screenwriter Terry Southern?):
Or as DEVO noted, freedom from choice is what you want.
Sartre:
“Man is condemned to be free; because once he is thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does”
Kristofferson: “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”
George also said “Here’s to the first of the day fellas. To old DH Lawrence [swig] yeeaahhh nik nik nik fa fa fa aaaahhh… Indians…”
Re: Tylenol causing autism
1) I wonder if anybody believes this.
2) Did Advil donate money to MAHA?
3) I do think an excess of fevers in pregnancy could lead to various conditions, that is discussed in Dr. David Perlmutter’s brainmaker. He stated the correlations with type I diabetes, ADHD, etc, over a decade ago I think.
…
4) Since Trump doesn’t want pregnant women to take Tylenol, he will surely approve mandatory greater sick leave for pregnant women. That’s good news.
/Sarc.
Tylenol released a statement on March 7, 2017 about Tylenol.
When I saw that there were pregnant women filming themselves taking Tylenol recently as a protest I was dismayed. That struck me as a self-indulgent vanity project that could potentially result in some health problems of whatever nature for their unborn children. :(
Perhaps now they will turn their vanity project into something useful by signing up for a study of autism incidence in their children?
Its almost as promising as when Trump demanded information in regards to Joe Biden’s mental health, you thought for sure it would lead to a larger focus on everybody aged ailing in such a fashion.
Naaaaaaah, who am I kidding.
Thanks Norton. Do you have a link or remember why Tylenol said that? I have a pregnant grand daughter. I can’t imagine they would admit to autism being caused by them, but perhaps some other malady. I understand they Tylenol can effect the liver, but curious what they said in 2017
You can probably find it searching on keywords Tylenol March 7, 2017. There are some news reports.
It could simply be they have never done extensive testing on pregnant women. It’s very hard to perform clinical trials woth pregnant women so a lot of drugs default to “do not use while pregnant”. It’s basically arse covering.
Acetaminophen is the greatest cause of death by kidney failure in hospitals (in the U.S.), or so heard a couple of years ago. A big part of that is the mixing of that drug into other prescriptions, plus just taking another one for pain.
nah, it’s ibuprofen that impacts kidneys. too much acetaminophen messes with your liver.
Making shit up…
Re: “YouTube to allow creators banned for Covid-19, election misinformation to apply for reinstatement”
“Will allow”? That just adds insult to injury. How about some accountability instead? You Tube could not even manage an insincere corporate-speak apology.
From the article, You Tube’s attorney admits “senior Biden administration officials pressed the company to remove certain Covid-related videos that did not technically violate YouTube’s policies.” [Emphasis added.] I think the best way forward are clear private rights of action against platforms like You Tube without platforms having recourse to arbitration clauses or forcing people harmed to litigate in bizarre forums. Let those wrongfully banned sue in their nearby courts and their cases be judged according to local values and practices.
I hate to tell you but YouTube is a private entity and it can censor any way it damned well pleases, which includes being capricious and arbitrary. YouTube’s “policies” are not a contract with said content creators. It is not accountable to content creators, who pay nothing, but to advertisers.
This is why we have repeatedly said, “If your business depends on a platform, you don’t have a business.”
I understand your point, but I am arguing that the law should be changed; thus I wrote “I think the best way forward […].”
Similarly, in Ithaca where I am a Legal Aid attorney, the law changed such that a landlord in certain types of buildings can no longer terminate a tenanacy without cause. It used to be that they could terminate for no cause, but my community looked at that idea, rejected it, and changed the rules to be more in tune with our values. If a landlord does not like it, they are free to exit the business.
With respect to You Tube, I think a platform that dominant with an impossibly high cost of entry for competitiors should be regulated. My position at the very least is that You Tube should have to promulgate regulations for removal of people, those regs should be content neutral, and removal based on those reg is contestable in a court local to the end user. Even better, make removal like an eviction: You Tube must go to court to get an order to remove the alleged offender, and the burden of proof is on You Tube. If Alphabet doesn’t like the rules, they are free to leave the social media business. I see no reason You Tube should not have to play by similar rules to an NYC, Ithaca, or Rochester landlord.
But again, I am arguing what I think ought to be.
Read Matt Stoller on the Judge Mehta on a Google antitrust case. The direction of travel is the opposite of where you would like to go.
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/monopoly-round-up-the-week-america
I read it. I thought the Microsoft remedy was weak back in the 90s; the Google case is barely a slap on the wrist. Still, advocacy starts by getting ideas out there.
But they censored at the behest of the Biden administration. The way I look at this, the government is using the idea that private entities can censor if they like as an end run around 1st amendment restrictions on itself. Same thing with Trump’s people putting fingers on the scale trying to get Kimmel fired. Isn’t there’s a distinction between a company censoring on its own, and doing so under government pressure?
I wholeheartedly agree that companies can censor whatever they’d like for any number of reasons, but it should be an independent decision.
They made it clear they chose to go along. In fact, that may even be an excuse. The top dogs at Google had been Dem leaning rather than Trump leaning. People in NYC and the big blue CA cities were true believers back then.
I’m not saying this was proper but that a lot of factors all pointed in the same direction back then.
That’s another sticky issue these days – with the revolving door between government and private business, where exactly do we draw the line between “government” actions and “private” actions?
Flexians are everywhere.
Let those wrongfully banned sue in their nearby courts and their cases be judged according to local values and practices.
“Banned in Boston” was a sales pitch in the day.
I can’t say I’ve seen or heard much about it, but as I understand it a side effect of a case of measles can leave you with a completely reset immune system – meaning you’ve lost all or a lot of your prior acquired immunity. One of the things that measles does is attach your long term immunity memory B cells. While most current measles cases are of those who were not vaccinated, I would suspect a fair percentage were likely vaccinated for other diseases as the MMR was the vaccine people avoided because of the false fears of autism. That said, we could have a growing group of youth who are now susceptible to other diseases they think they’ve been vaccinated against.
I grew up before there were vaccines for childhood diseases. I had mumps , chickenpox, and measles. Fortunately I survived without any long term effects. Back then parents would expose their children to someone with the disease so they would get it. I don’t remember anyone that caught these diseases to have any long term effects.
My mom related that my older sister and I both got Chicken Pox just before Xmas of 1964, and my other siblings were duly exposed-as was the fashion back in the day.
She told me that I was scratching myself so silly-that I had to be put in restraints, being a newly minted terrible three.
I got the Shingles shot in 2021, and my pharmacist asked ‘what are doing tomorrow’? and I told him I had no plans, and he tells me that it really knocked him out after his first shot, and the next day passed and seemed like any other.
Fast forward to a couple days post-shot and I’m going on a backpack trip to Willett and Sespe hot springs, and its 10 miles walk to Willett, and I’m struggling, so tired and we finally get to Willett and I put up my tent and fall asleep at 4 pm. The next day is a lesser struggle to walk 7 miles further to Sespe hot springs, but that first day on the trail was one of the hardest with really little in the way of altitude gain or loss-just felt like I was ridden hard and put away wet.
After 7 COVID shots I can say the 2 shingles shots (under the new regime) were definitely the most painful for longest and left me the most wobbly afterwards. None of the COVID shots (J&J, Moderna, Pfizer, Novavax) came anywhere close.
A house being quarantined for measels is a common comedy trope in English and American books and movies.
Do you remember that? Or remember looking at death rates country by country following a vaccine rollout?
A better way to look at that question is to look at historical statistics for measles (for example) before vaccine development. A quick search showed 48,000 deaths a year and 1,000 cases of encephalitis. Much worse outcomes in countries with lower levels of health care. That may not sound like a lot, but that’s nearly the total number of US deaths in the Vietnam war over multiple years.
I wear a seatbelt when I drive, even though I have never had a serious auto accident that benefited from wearing them.
China Courts Foreign Gold Reserves to Boost Global Clout Bloomberg
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Imagine the vault custodian always foaming at the mouth and threatening everybody constantly, wouldn’t you be anxious to get your karats out of the ground under Manhattan?
In steps the middle kingdom, snatch blade of bullion from weak hands, grasshopper.
“How to Make Your Dog Laugh”
Next step, how to teach your dog to dance with you-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxZ8SEQJIzM (5:23 mins)
Yes, learning the basic dance moves is great engagement and not hard.
In the interview Jess Erace seems spot on to me. I’m not used to calling these behaviors “making jokes” but it could work and I might try it myself. In off leash play with the shelter dogs I usually refuse a dog’s invitation to chase because I don’t want to rehearse dogs running away from their people. But Erace gave me some ideas how to engage the dog’s joke without that risk.
Since September 8, the numbers for Sea Surface Temperature have been highly erratic. Climate Reanalyzer showed this as a series of jagged spikes, but as of yesterday they chucked connecting the dots and just show the data points.
If this were a single instrument, you’d think there’s a calibration problem. But these are aggregate values, specifically the mean, and outliers should have smeared out. Curious.
Is this what would be expected if the amoc was about to collapse? You say this is a worldwide average, and the amoc is a North Atlantic phenomenon, right? You say it’s curious and I certainly agree, but I’d like to know where I’d could find some speculation about this specific fluctuations.
Press the ‘anomaly’ button and look at the map. Two areas are always interesting: one is AMOC, which has consistently run cooler in the North Atlantic, but is a massive blob now. The other looks like an equatorial von Karman wave to the west of South America, which is more disorganized. I don’t know cause on the latter, but I’ve watched the AMOC line change over the years. And I’ve never seen the spiking on the current chart, as far as I can tell it hasn’t happened before. AMOC collapse is usually modelled as a slow grind over decades, but that’s all extrapolation. So far, nobody credible has been willing to speculate.
I did some more research, and I found some very interesting things about the Earth’s magnetic field, the recent changes in the hole in the magnetic field over the South atlantic, where it’s apparently splitting into two, and the core of the planet reversing its spin direction. These stories are all within the last 2 months.
I put it all together in a comment, but that disappeared. Hopefully it will reappear soon, otherwise I’ll have to reconstruct it. In the meantime just search for Earth’s magnetic field and limit the results to the last month to find what I found and probably more.
The rotation of the earth’s core is related to the Earth’s magnetic field, and the Earth’s magnetic field is what shields the planet from a lot of the solar radiation, and solar radiation is one of the main drivers of ocean surface temperatures.
When i’m 64 being only a few months away, its quite something transitioning from a can do country to a can do no right country over 3 score and nearly 4, with what would have been a great headline writer for Pravda leading us down the primrose path to perdition.
As a country we’ve been living on past laurels for a long time now, with our leaders only capable of devising ways to divide us-not unite us, while we justify killing others around the world because there’s money in it.
That said, we’re an entertaining lot and so unpredictable in our actions compared to 4 legs good.
The Week America Woke Up to Oligarchy – BIG by Matt Stoller
The world is one big oligarch club.
That’s how their interests roll up on other countries.
Hard to imagine a half a lifetime ago, if you weren’t listed in the phone book, for all practical purposes you didn’t exist.
That’s profound!
Wow!
See Steve Martin character in The Jerk!
He saw his name in the phone book and became somebody! :)
The world is one big oligarch club…
…and you ain’t in it, as George Carlin used to say.
LOL, so after almost 4 years after submitting my claim, the BCBS settlement in finally paying out, but of course it’s impossible to tell if I’m getting what I’m owed. Of course.
How could I possibly know? The confirmation notice listing my premiums paid and dates is obviously completely opaque to me. The litigators involved in this seem to have done quite well, though. The body shop I worked at at that time took cash off the top to cover my premiums, so I doubt much I’m getting anything for that despite submitting evidence demonstrating this 4 years ago. Hooray!
re TikTok/American Conservative link
In the AC link, “…but the latest step to consolidate a foreign government’s censorship regime in America.”
Adding another detail re future of how Tik’s algo may be structured to -ahem- consolidate obedience among users compelling them to stick to approved lines of thought. The link from Cradle quotes a Bloomberg piece so apologies if this has already appeared at NC.
https://thecradle.co/articles/pro-israel-tech-firm-to-take-control-of-us-tiktok-algorithm
“Under the proposed agreement, owners of the US-based TikTok would, ‘lease a copy of the algorithm from ByteDance that Oracle would then retrain ‘from the ground up…Data from US users would be stored in a secure cloud managed by Oracle with controls established to keep out foreign adversaries, including China…Oracle, the U.S. security partner, will operate, retrain, and continuously monitor the U.S. algorithm to ensure content is free from improper manipulation or surveillance…’”
>Oracle, the U.S. security partner, will operate, retrain, and continuously monitor the U.S. algorithm to ensure content is free from improper manipulation or surveillance…
Only ‘proper’ manipulation and surveillance then. I’m sure glad we have the Ellisons to decide what’s proper /s
And
to keep out foreign adversaries
alrighty then.
I’m more worried about our “domestic” adversaries. Many more problems, especially since 9-11 and accelerated since 2007/08 are of a domestic origin. Not many adversaries have invaded from outside the borders for a long time.
My guess is that those overseers will not be able to refrain themselves and will end up being too heavy-handed in their censorship.
The result is that many youngsters will shift to alternatives — such as RedNote (also known as Xiaohongshu), a Chinese social network that enjoyed a sudden bout of popularity when Tiktok was briefly banned, eight months ago.
My medium-term outlook is that the USA will implement the equivalent of the “Great Firewall of China” to restrict access to only those social networks deemed acceptable (because under the control of agreeable corporations with the proper ideological attitude).
This because at some point the government will realize that it cannot win the game of whack-a-mole resulting from interdicting one new Tiktok (or X/Twitter, or Youtube, or whatever) alternative after another as people migrate to them in order to evade the “sanitized” versions Internet services TPTB want to impose on the populace. The UK and Australia provide enlightening examples of where things are going.
The Great Trumpwall of America
‘Nick Sortor
@nicksortor
🚨 BREAKING: EVERY SINGLE High School in Oklahoma will now have its own Turning Point USA chapter, Oklahoma State Superintendent @RyanWalters_ announced
“Radical leftist teachers’ unions have dominated classrooms for far too long, and we are taking them back.”’
Oklahoma republicans are really going off the deep end. The other day they mandated that-
‘every public university in the state to construct “a Charlie Kirk Memorial Plaza”, with a statue of the assassinated Republican activist and a sign calling him a “modern civil rights leader”, or pay monthly fines…and must include “a statue of Charlie Kirk sitting at a table with an empty seat across from him” or one of Kirk and his wife holding their children. Designs for the statue must be approved by the legislature.’
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/20/oklahoma-republicans-charlie-kirk
Does this mean OK public schools have to pay TPUSA for materials and statues and speakers and facilitators?
Will the kids have to pose in diapers?
Mid-term elections are coming. You expect them to run on the state of the economy?
Stardate 2026
Cap’n C. James* Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise orbiting the heavens above Enid.
* his real middle name
“It’s l̶i̶f̶e̶ fascism Jim, but not as we know it.”
…we all know what becomes of red shirts
Is the salad dog making a joke? She looks pleased with herself. :-)
When it’s stinking hot outside, you don’t care what it takes to cool yourself down. That is one smart dog that.
i’m wondering if its a photo of a sleeping
dog combined with a photo of a concrete tub filled with water.
It is the cutest image ever. But is sleeping
in a bath typical dog behaviour? Is the dog not going to be standing up splashing around?
Thanks Obama! Thanks Democrats!
Why Obamacare Bills May Double Next Year (NY Times via archive.ph)
Imagine, if you will, health care as a human right.
See Elysium where only the “the rich and powerful live on Elysium, an orbiting space station just outside Earth’s atmosphere, with luxuries including Med-Bays, medical devices that can heal any disease or condition.”
It’s a pretty solid allegory of USian health care, with Jodie Foster as Elysium Defense Secretary Delacourt, being the ruthless PMC Democrat ruler extraordinaire.
– ‘As Jimmy Kimmel Becomes a Speech Icon, Alex Berenson Fights on Alone’ – Matt Taibbi
Once again Matt insists on obfuscating our current dangers by fighting the last war. Of course liberals, the liberal media, and liberal Hollywood are hypocrites. But Berenson’s Team is in charge now. That they don’t care one iota for “free speech” is blindingly obvious. What they have been doing and saying blatantly is starting to make me reconsider my disdain for “lessor evil” arguments. And if Matt is going to keep posing as a pure free speech champion, he’d better start acknowledging the giant Zionist elephant in the room.
I noticed that Matt also amplified the Trumper’s claim that this was all about disparaging MAGA folks in reference to the shooter. I’m convinced that Trump was really pissed at the main joke itself, which used his own words to make him look like an insensitive jerk.
Given Donnie’s thin skin, I wonder if Anthony Jeselnik sleeps soundly. Hard to imagine 2025 Trump laughing along to this.
Jeselnik at Roast of Trump (2011)
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2macfw
The Michael Douglas line :)
So much hypocrisy, so little time…
Pick any of these TV personalities and they’ve all said something that was cancelable. The difference is, when Team Blue was in office, it was OK, and now when Herr Trumpenfuhrer is stalking the halls, it’s not. I agree with Taibbi’s earlier article stating that if Trump and his administration had let it lie, all of these shows and their characters would die from lack of viewers. I disagree that the likes of Berenson and Kimmel and Barr should be conflated. But Taibbi has had a rough time of it from what Biden did to him. I can’t blame him for finding common cause with Alex Berenson.
Well Taibbi did do a huge investigation of Twitter on his Racket site so the Berenson matter more in his wheelhouse than Russiagate.
As for Kimmel, reports say no apology or retraction last night of the “MAGA did it” statement which isn’t even a joke..is it? Is it all about barbs or punchlines?
The show was blacked out in 20 percent of the country including even Washington, DC. More background on the ABC/affiliate tussle.
https://deadline.com/2025/09/jimmy-kimmel-abc-nexstar-sinclair-local-tv-stations-1236553709/
“Once again Matt insists on obfuscating our current dangers by fighting the last war.”
I disagree with this approach. I think Taibbi is absolutely correct in not allowing Biden-era censorship to be forgotten. It absolutely should be addressed and there should be accountability (although I am not holding my breath). The Obama method of moving forward instead of looking back only serves to cement bad precedent.
Moreover, those who fought against free speech during the Biden era have no credibility now. Nor do I trust them to be reliable allies for free speech once they get back into power.
I, too, do not want Biden-era censorship to be forgotten, nor do I think its liberal proponents have any credibility. The approach *I* am disagreeing with is the one that ignores the current very serious threats to free speech posed by the Trump administration and its allies (especially its pro-Israel allies) while continuing to harp on those posed by the Biden Democrats who are no longer in power. As the other Chris says above, I understand his reaction on a personal level. As soon as he expressed the slightest doubts about Russiagate there was a coordinated liberal attempt to cancel him with a bogus “me-too” campaign. I get his bitterness at the hypocrisy (and that of Rosanne Barr as well). But you can’t be a legitimate advocate for universal free speech by ignoring what’s going on right now.
Of course you can turn that around and say it is unprincipled to be concerned about Trump threats of censorship while ignoring, not just the overt, but also the covert self censorship going on under Trump’s predecessor. I think the inconsistency charge especially applies to Professor Turley who is a “free speech absolutist” except when he isn’t. And have the Kimmel fans had much to say about the silencing of genocide protestors on campus? Some of them probably have, all of them almost certainly not.
I think this is a complicated topic for comment summarizing. Here’s a new article outlining the ways free speech has always been under threat in the USA.
https://scheerpost.com/2025/09/24/this-ridiculous-dangerous-antifa-order-is-mccarthyism-all-over-again-possibly-worse/
To be sure, there should be no illusions about the evolution of free speech in the United States. The current situation is by no means unique, and the First Amendment has never been as sacred as people seem to think. Despite its exalted status, the First Amendment has been “a dead letter for much of American history” and did not come to life until the early 20th century. And when it did, freedom of expression suffered some major blows, thanks to World War I, which created a wave of jingoism, and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, which gave rise in turn to an anti-communist alarm known as the Red Scare. In Debs v United States, the Supreme Court upheld Deb’s conviction under the Espionage Act of 1917. Eugene Debs, a leading member of the Socialist Party of America, was convicted for his outspoken opposition to US involvement in World War I and sentenced to ten years in federal prison.
Throughout the 1940s and the 1950s, the First Amendment was censored in the shadows as the suppression of political and social views became a widespread occurrence, spearheaded by a second Red Scare and the rise of McCarthyism. The Smith Act, which was passed by Congress and signed by President Roosevelt on June 28, 1940, was used to monitor immigrants and prosecute members of the Communist Party. In 1951, in a 6-2 decision, the Supreme Court delivered a massive blow to the First Amendment by upholding the constitutionality of the Smith Act in Dennis v United States. In 1947, the Truman administration initiated a loyalty program aimed at rooting out “subversives” and getting rid of homosexuals. Such programs were also established for employment in the private sector as well.
It shouldn’t be complicated: free speech is free speech. But, imho, when free speech gets “rules based,” ie “free speech for my side, but not your side,” things get complicated, mostly in course of concocting excuses.
That Harvard statement is a fun read.
Four weeks?
There’s a brief summary of the serious dangers of high fever and then a coda at the end suggesting RFK, Jr and others where involved in crafting the statement. That is, the statement is not a summary but a summary as discussed with loons.
People keep ignoring WHY autism is considered such a problem and WHY parents care so much. ANY perceived increase in risk is problem and people will attempt to minimize it because parents are 100% on the hook for all expenses if they lose the genetic lottery. If the US had anything like a functioning health care system and public social safety net, this wouldn’t be such a big deal. As it is now parents are terrified and easily whipped into safetyism over the stuff quacks dole out.
It boggles the mind to think the whole autism thingy started with the gentrified financial elitists, not medical studies, nada, only to bleed into the Ruby members of the upper class suburbs. Which in turn morphed into all vaccinations for these families kids. All spread like rumor control at Tupperware parties of old …. anywho YS noted a dinner party that sums it all up …
Best part about all this is … how it’s baseline is elitist baby’s being defective … hopes and dreams … DNA?
34 year old girlfriend in Sydney brother is autistic, father of German heritage is a retired E.O. of Dept of Science at a top Sydney University for decades, mother is from Hong Kong. She is a wee bit on the spectrum, hence her artistic abilities, her grandfather was an accomplished artist in HK as well. Yet last night she told me when she asked her brother on the phone about tylenol statement he said it was misleading and not true. So in that he has more cognitive abilities that MAHA sorts, yet forgets he has food in the microwave, so there is that.
In ending why is history so full of elitists having their heads sucked out with notions like Lamarckism/Heraldic superiority and anything that messes with that becomes a witch hunt …. everyone cops it …
Because the elites in any society failing are the ones who actually believe if they run a little faster than the next guy, they might make it all work and enter the promised land. They haven’t given up hope yet. They still think hard work, creativity, connections, analysis, etc. can get them through whatever mess is currently murdering the doors. Best fictional example being Poe’s “Mask of the Red Death”. If we hide in a place with food behind walls we can have fun and keep on living…
The other thing that gets left out of these articles is quite a few people with Down Syndrome, Autism, ADHD, etc. are profoundly disabled. In a society with no support for that, where people blame the parents for not being perfect enough to avoid the diagnosis, having a profoundly disabled child to care for their entire lives is a social and financial death sentence unless you are very well off.
Is it possible that Doctorow is a bit nuts? So far I have received 10 messages already (5 each from his two accounts.) And its not even dinner time.
Jacques Baud waits 3 months before he even says a word…
Here is a reading list, for those who like that kind of thing, from the number one author on substack Predictive History: https://open.substack.com/pub/predictivehistory/p/predictive-history-reading-list
I noticed today that simplicious was moving up in the sub stack and it is currently at number four!! Of course I was curious to see what the three above him were and that is how I found this substack, which apparently also has a YouTube channel
Thanks for sharing.
I see some novels on the list.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about “Elmer Gantry” by Sinclair Lewis.
‘Clash Report
@clashreport
BREAKING: Trump says that NATO countries should shoot down Russian aircraft if the aircraft enters their airspace.’
Trump is speaking with a forked tongue here. When he refers to NATO countries shooting at Russian planes, I doubt seriously he is talking about US aircraft doing so. And if there arises an aerial battle between Russian aircraft and NATO aircraft, I also seriously doubt that Trump himself would get involved but would let those NATO countries be hung out to dry.
And it won’t be over NATO airspace, although that will be the claim. Russsia will most likely win an air battle so it’s likely to be a groundbased missile, at which point the Russians will retaliate to make an example of the proxy country for attempting to attack Russia in international airspace. The Euros will go boo-hoo and sulk cowering in a corner and Trump will pretend it has nothing to do with him.
What I find amazing is Trump’s capacity to make enemies of powerful countries whilst continually overstretching the forces available to him, and he employs total fuckwits to run their mouths and further drive the point home.
I recall the classic film, The Aristocrats, which starts with Gilbert Gottfried at the Blackfriars Roast immediately after (within days of) the 11 September attacks. Gottfried begins telling the famous, and famously ribald, joke about an acrobatic troupe, with a mother, a father, a daughter, a son, whose act consists of…
I suggest reading both of the articles posted under Weimar Republic, above, which relate to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. The article by Max Blumenthal at The Grayzone is throughly written with many details. Blumenthal has been all over the “backstage” stuff going on with Kirk. The Wauck article in fact quotes Blumenthal but then adds more details.
None of it is pretty. We aren’t talking about a personality with a religious ethic. We are talking media whore.
As more embarrassing details come out, I suspect that all the fiery sermonizing about Charlie Kirk is going to die down fast.
He was being used by any number of people during his lifetime, and he has become of limited use to them now.
It’s hard to keep all of the names that Max Blumenthal comes up with organized in one’s head. Quite a cast of characters. And any “religious” story involving Laura Loomer is not likely to come to a good end — it isn’t as if she’s a discalced Carmelite.
PS: As reported in July 2024:
‘Charlie Kirk said Joy Reid, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Shiela Jackson Lee, and Michelle Obama used affirmative action because they “do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously” so they had to “steal a white person’s slot.”’
https://x.com/patriottakes/status/1679829904026730496?s=20
Ahh, the smirk that brought so many people to Jesus.
My friend in Phoenix says the big funeral left a huge pile of trash according to the nonstop TV news coverage. She had never heard of Kirk either even though his headquarters were in Phoenix.
As someone who had also never heard of Kirk, or watched Jimmy Kimmel for that matter, the hue and cry about the former’s death and the latter’s eviction from the media (later retracted) strikes me as very much like the artificial media conniptions over the death of Alex Navalny. Unimportant but self-important people given outlandishly inflated reputations by the media, for political purposes, that no one should care about. In a sane country, that is.
It’s really not about caring that Kirk was murdered. It’s co-opting the murder into a generalisation that those who support the current administration are the poor innocent victims, to support futher repression of those who argue against the current status quo.
“If you don’t agree with (some Donald rhetoric/posture/order), then you are happy that Kirk was martyred for USA”
Kirk the smirk’s comments in the link are a prime example of a bad faith argument: decontextualizing the statements made by the persons being criticized, and attributing to those statements a meaning that was pretty much the opposite of what was intended by the speakers.
re: ‘Charlie Kirk said Joy Reid, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Shiela Jackson Lee, and Michelle Obama used affirmative action because they “do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously” so they had to “steal a white person’s slot.”’
Sorry for asking but is it then possible that Taibbi and Kirn were whitewashing this one comment? They had the excerpt on the show, however without the “steal a white person’s slot” part I think.
It really bugs me to understand what this is, after all they were intending not to only defend Kirk´s right to speak freely they furthermore criticized a THE NATION editorial in particualr for misquoting and misinterpreting this one Kirk comment. But this is racist. Otherwise the comment makes no sense. Why deny that?
This is clear if you look at the whole quote as presented here and the fact that Kirk could have – in pure theory – named names by non-blacks. But neither Taibbi nor Kirn would want to support racist comments beyond 1st Amendment cases.
I don´t get it…
RIP Claudia Cardinale, truly one of the most beautiful actresses to grace the silver screen.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/claudia-cardinale-italian-1960s-screen-225533845.html
Here she is in the closing scene of Fitzcarraldo flashing her lovely smile.
And again in another closing scene from Once Upon a Time in the West.
lyman alpha blob: from the Yahoo tribute:
‘Her golden moment moment was 1963, when she played the siren in three movies that would become classics. Alongside 8½ came the epic period drama The Leopard, co-starring Lancaster and Delon and directed by Visconti, who was “precise, meticulous as if we were in the theatre, spoke to me in French and wanted me brunette with long hair,” she recalled. Every two weeks, switching between the sets, she had to undergo a drastic makeover. The third film she made that year was Blake Edwards’s The Pink Panther with Peter Sellers and David Niven, whom she thought “the perfect English gentleman”, and who, in return, described her as “Italy’s happiest invention after spaghetti”.’
Wow. Three masterpieces, and she played opposite some of the most talented actors of the time. Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon (among so many greats) in The Leopard. Marcello Mastroianni and that great cast in 8 1/2.
Acting opposite Klaus Kinski and emerging unscathed (as far as we know) is also quite an achievement.
Also, I really need to watch some Fellini – not really familiar with any of his films other than by reputation. Sergio Leone on the other hand… I have a copies of many of his movies and should rewatch Once Upon a Time in the West later. Although Cardinale doesn’t appear until later in the movie, the opening scene is a real classic
Isn’t the opening scene her being driven across Monument Valley to Morricone’s timeless theme? I forget. Should rewatch by turning to my movie shelf.
I’ve been to Monument Valley and can only say don’t take your good car. There’s a “John Ford point.”
I was thinking of the scene starting during the opening credits. Can’t seem to find the whole thing in one clip but the first part is here and the rest here. Might be some missing in between. The whole thing lasts almost 20 minutes if I remember right, with about 19 of those minutes just setting the scene for the last one. I can’t imagine anyone ever making that scene today – they’d be too afraid people would walk out due to boredom. But I love the part with the one gunman trapping the fly while waiting for Bronson to show up. It reminds me a little bit of the Breaking Bad episode that focused on a fly in Walter’s lab.
Thanks. Stand corrected.
Great character introduction – and a heart stopping long take to set the scene.
This may be the Monument Valley scene you’re thinking of.
The Morricone cue is titled “Jill’s America” and the whole sequence really is a kind of breathtaking “discovery of America” experience.
Fellini is great, a lot of the visuals really stick with you. 8 1/2 has a lot of beautiful scenes I think about regularly. The opening dream sequence and the panic attack near the end especially. One of those b&w films you don’t mind filling in the color as it is so lush regardless.
Of Italian films of that era, however, my absolute favorite is Divorce, Italian Style. Also with Mastroianni and, along with Kind Hearts and Coronets, one of only two movies ever made where you truly cannot help but root for the ‘bad guy’ given how awful everyone else and the circumstances are. Also it is very funny and the comedic timing is still good 50+ years later. Also a classic of the Italian film specialty of the last scene twist.
“Turkey Eyes Trump’s Consent to Produce Some US Jet Parts Locally”
Until they got the boot from the program, Turkiye used to manufacture parts for the F-35 and may want to start again. But the problem is that Turkiye purchased the Russian S-400 for their aerial defenses.-
‘Resolving the spat over the Russian S-400 missiles could lead to an unprecedented increase in defense-industry cooperation between the longtime allies.’
Supposing that Turkiye agrees to purchase the less-effective Patriot batteries to replace those S-400s, the current waiting list is about 7 years for them so about the year 2032. And with Israel already making noises against Turkiye, they may want to keep those S-400s especially after Israel hit Qatar. Israel’s ostensible reason was that there was a Hamas delegation in Qatar but that is true of Turkiye as well. And they probably do not trust the US to not turn off any Patriot batteries in case of an Israeli raid on Turkiye.
MAGA on the March
Seasonal retail hiring to fall to lowest level since 2009, signaling trouble for holidays, report says
We can’t stop winning!
Oops.
This is another arrow in the chest to the long-term unemployed.
Traditionally, those out of work could at least pick up a seasonal retail job to pull in some income around the holidays. Looks like that safety valve just got closed shut.
Cooooooooooooooooooooooooal! (with apologies to Andrés Cantor)
I first remember reading about this seasonal income in a story about retirees in RVs, driving around the country and taking seasonal jobs at Walmart, I think. I don’t remember where, but the flavor
Meet the CamperForce, Amazon’s Nomadic Retiree Army (Wired, 2017)
Double blow – now not only can they not find a job, but private equity jacked up the rent on the RV park where they were planning to hang out.
It’s almost as if they’re deliberately machine-gunning the lifeboats.
I can’t help but think that the people with all the money use amazon almost exclusively.
I can’t help but think that the large majority of people simply don’t have spare money.
I thought that was kind of implicit in the statement “the people with all the money”, I’ll try to be more clear in the future :/
Re; Imperial Collapse Watch– Age of Unreason
Unreason is often bad, but this article was not bleak enough for my tastes– let’s get totally neomedieval!
The dawn of the post-literate society
The big tech companies like to see themselves as invested in spreading knowledge and curiosity. In fact in order to survive they must promote stupidity. The tech oligarchs have just as much of a stake in the ignorance of the population as the most reactionary feudal autocrat. Dumb rage and partisan thinking keep us glued to our phones.
…
Without the knowledge and without the critical thinking skills instilled by print, many of the citizens of modern democracies find themselves as helpless and as credulous as medieval peasants — moved by irrational appeals and prone to mob thinking. The world after print increasingly resembles the world before print.
Personally, I don’t blame the rise of the “smartphone” in itself for the widespread self-confident ignorance that relentlessly asserts itself into our realities of the day– the smartphones merely facilitate this. To me, the answer lies more in the technologies utilized in a manor intended to affect the psychologies of the targets: as Facebook originally profited from harvesting and selling data, Meta and others profit by using this data and proffering the means to manipulate their users.
Long ago, training in media and propaganda conveyed upon me the power of pictures, images, to generate an emotional response instantaneously, and what we see we experience– personally– with our senses. But unlike the pre-literate middle ages, with special thanks to AI, we can experience nearly real-time fictional depictions or reinterpretations of realities such as the AI generated videos of Charlie Kirk saying things he never actually said that are now circulating throughout the internet as reactionary gospel.
I am one of those who don’t TikTok, Instagram, or anything like that, and I– like others here– generally stay away from videos. I suppose that this could make us, the dwindling population of readers, the strange creatures of a darkening age, where the written word itself may become viewed by many as heresy, and the literate veiled, cast with suspicion.
For like 69.977 years of our existence on this good orb, the key to homosapiens going forward was the ability to remember stuff, rote memorization is what got us here, and then we relegated it all to what some claim looks like the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
It’ll do it all for you!
How can you read a 200 page book when you can’t remember what went on the previous 191 pages before it came to an end?
But don’t forget a few centuries ago people were complaining that writing was ruining memory skills. With proper memory training a person could remember prodigious amounts.
And count. If IIRC, some Irish sage about 900AD was laughing at someone who could only count up to 200 on his hands. Any educated person should be able to count to 500.
Yes, we (readers) are going the way of the dodo, and so far the only ones able to make bank on postmodern society are the bad guys: the oligarchs and the plutocrats and the sociopaths involved in crimes they haven’t yet bribed legislatures to make legal. But the bad guys also got out ahead on modernism and were making bank on that while everyone else was just dragged along (sometimes kicking and screaming, like the Luddites). Any technological change that causes widespread societal realignment always gets sold for the good it’s supposed to bring, but gets implemented in service to the agendas of the most predatory forces with existing advantages. Smartphones are just the latest step in the makeover of society kicked off in force by mass adoption of television (though foreshadowed by earlier motion pictures and radio). The effects are just so large now that they’ve gotten impossible to deny any longer, even though we were warned about them from the mid-1960s on.
“Trump Claims Ukraine Can Retake All Territory Captured by Russia, May Be Able to ‘Go Further’”
President Man-Child announces that the Ukraine can take back all the territory they lost to the Russians, probably Crimea as well and maybe even go to the gates of Moscow. And he knows that this is true because both Kellogg and Zelensky told him so. Gawd, does he even listen to himself talk?
I dunno know how to break this to you mate, but the antipodes of Washington DC is Augusta, Western Australia, Australia.
Nobody is safe from Benedick Donald
Keep in mind that his approval ratings (job approval, not personal) are now at all time lows:
https://news.gallup.com/poll/692879/independents-drive-trump-approval-second-term-low.aspx
At 37% he’s in Biden territory. He seems determined to drive it even lower.
BTW this has real-world consequences. The mid-terms are essentially a year away. If Trump can’t get his approval ratings up (viagra needed?) then the GOP loses the House and he’s a lame duck as of Jan 2027.
Look for some republicans in tough races to start distancing themselves from him. Thomas Massie may start finding some allies, too.
That assumes congress decides to do anything, useful or otherwise, if control of the house changes. It also assumes that Trump will ask congress to support anything he’s doing. It doesn’t look like there’s a lot of support for either assumption these days.
The Donkeys would at least control all the committees in the House, which would allow them to run investigations into all the illegal acts by Trump over the past 8 1/2 months.
Of course, that assumes a functional Democratic party, which, as you point out, is quite iffy.
One real-world consequence is that liberal Democrats are proven correct, in that they need only bide their time and make oppositional noises, and shall be swept back into power on disgust at Trump’s bumbling presidency and the economic devastation that it has wrought. And this paves the way for another missed opportunity Democrat presidency in 2028.
Vote for us, we aren’t Trump, remains alive and well!
Interesting that no one brings up the re-rigging of congressional voting districts, which could decide who wins the house regardless of changes in support for Trump. Or perhaps I misunderstand the situation. At any rate I get to vote in California on their redistricting proposal. I’m leaning toward voting no.
Dem victory in Arizona provides the 218th vote for the discharge petition to force the release of the Epstein files:
https://x.com/DisavowTrump20/status/1970689222551179683
Mike Johnson has a big headache awaiting him when Congress returns from recess.
What Trump said: Europe and NATO can do it themselves (by buying US weapons).
What ppl heard: US is all in. Zelensky was gaga over this.
Did Trump mean US led NATO or European led Europe? Trump isn’t big on funding NATO.
I would call it a 360 degree shift… But Trump did all he could, but alas, all he can do is cheer the allies on.
Trying to decipher Trump is hazardous to your sanity
I try following the money and liked article on IMF est $65 B shortfall
My reaction was similar. Absent action, his delivery of this view is equivalent to me suddenly hyping the pennant chances of a team even though it’s 16 games out and it’s already late August.
Maybe he’s giving up on the Nobel Peace Prize and going for the Guinness Book of World Records -longest 24 hours of your life.
But he’s getting pretty desperate to not be blamed for losing that war.
“A Clusterf**k!”: Real Motive Behind NATO’s Dangerous False Flags Mark Sleboda (video)
IMO, Sloboda hits the target here with precision: the chihuahuas trying to call the attention of the Master with their hysterical barking. It is obviously a PR campaign now joined by Denmark. Problem is that Trump’s reaction can be exactly the opposite of what this PR campaign is intended to achieve.
By now I am convinced it is Trump trying to maneuver between the factions. Otherwise none of it makes sense.
So it´s all bluster but look at the meta to see what is going on.
Of course in order to keep as many cards in the game Neocons are not gonna give up pressuring.
In how far that will eventually serve their interests is a different question…
Occams razor sez … he’s clueless, in the grips of early dementia (see recent photos showing drooping on one side of face, possibly a minor stroke) and has no impulse control anymore.
Seems that we got Biden’s second term.
He was incontinent last week, amid pompadour & circumstance.
think so?
(I am not following visual media so I cannot judge for myself)
The boasting and self-aggrandizing at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service was totally inappropriate, and even for Trump, obnoxious and off-putting to the extreme. Plus, he followed the widow’s speech which was touching and called for restraint and some sense of dignity on his part.
He has no sense of what’s socially acceptable. I suspect some part of his brain has rotted out, perhaps the part that does impulse control. Very similar to Biden who couldn’t help blurting out stream-of-consciousness rants like “nobody wants to be Xi Jinpeng!”
Perhaps Trump will take up that affectation, ranting “nobody wants to be Vlad Putin!”
I think you’re both probably correct and I’ll add one more difficulty he’s facing – he’s clueless and trying to maneuver between different factions while avoiding being shot.
They will do absolutely anything short of declare war in their attempts to get Russia to take their attention off the progress of the SMO, this includes western Europe and UK. Russia just needs to keep their head down and concentrate on the main game here which is the forwards motion of their armies.
A few French troops in Odessa, taking Moldova without a plebiscite, these are simply bumps in the highway as long as they leave Transnistria and the Russian obligations there alone. That is how the SMO started and the armies can just keep going if Russian state concerns are ignored.
2 ICE detainees killed in Dallas shooting, 1 shooter found dead, sources say: Everything we know so far
https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/crime/dallas-texas-ice-facility-shooting-sniper-police-victims-updates/287-6a6f7006-3a7c-4358-abae-d6bdc3da0eaa
Sources told WFAA that the shooting happened during the loading or unloading of a bus of detainees. Two of the detainees were killed in the shooting, police sources said, and one other person was injured. More details about the victims were not immediately available.
No law enforcement agents were injured in the shooting
In a statement, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem confirmed there was a shooting at a Dallas ICE facility.
“Details are still emerging but we can confirm there were multiple injuries and fatalities,” Noem said. “The shooter is deceased by a self-inflicted gun shot wound. While we don’t know motive yet, we know that our ICE law enforcement is facing unprecedented violence against them. It must stop. Please pray for the victims and their families.”
Vice President JD Vance posted a statement to social media Wednesday morning.
“The obsessive attack on law enforcement, particularly ICE, must stop,” Vance wrote. “I’m praying for everyone hurt in this attack and for their families.”
But the targets (seemingly) weren’t ICE, they were detainees
JD is hoping to meddle in the obfuscating event @ Milano Cortina in the 2026 Olympics. he had the double lutz lie loop down pat.
“But the targets (seemingly) weren’t ICE, they were detainees.”
Indeed. They are swinging at their own shadows.
Then again….
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/24/dallas-ice-shooting-texas-immigration-center-latest
At a news conference on Wednesday morning, Joe Rothrock, the head of the FBI field office in Dallas, said that “rounds that were found near the suspected shooter contain messages that are anti-Ice in nature”.
One of the unspent shell casings recovered was engraved with the phrase “ANTI ICE”, according to a post from the FBI director, Kash Patel
Another curious incident that doesn’t add up.
Maybe the Feds/ICE have a mobile bullet-engraving machine? If so it’s getting plenty of use!
Not only since, but especially since the Luigi shooting, there has been this “thing” about shell casing engravings.
Apparently “engraving” is now a synonym for “scrawling on an object with a pen” if Kash Patel is to be believed – https://xcancel.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/1970877754221498599
Like the miracle fireproof Al Qaeda passport that survived a plane smashing into the World Trade Center, they are just daring us to say, “You’re lying!” 99% of us won’t even think it, and 99.9% won’t say it. So much of The Spectacle is like the Emperor’s New Clothes nowadays…
I wonder if it’s something that evolved from the politicians who signed messages to the Palestinians on the US bombs that were sent by the Israelis.
You think the Feds would have supplied photos of the supposed Kirk gunman’s inscribed bullets, but a search of the internet images comes up with bupkis.
Wukchumni:
Thanks. I, too, am wondering when the photos will turn up. Given Americans’ way with Italian, I want to make sure Tyler spelled Bella Ciao correctly.
https://x.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/1970874124454019204
Funny, That looks like a stripper clip from my Mauser 98. Has that become the weapon of choice?
Stripper clips look-alike. Does Mauser rifle chambered in .30-06 use Mauser or Springfield stripper clips?
Trump on Truth Social:
I have been briefed on the deadly shooting at the ICE Field Office in Dallas, Texas. It has now been revealed the deranged shooter wrote “Anti-ICE” on his shell casings. This is despicable!
The Brave Men and Women of ICE are just trying to do their jobs, and remove the “WORST of the WORST” Criminals out of our Country, but they are facing an unprecedented increase in threats, violence, and attacks by Deranged Radical Leftists. This violence is the result of the Radical Left Democrats constantly demonizing Law Enforcement, calling for ICE to be demolished, and comparing ICE Officers to “Nazis.”
The continuing violence from Radical Left Terrorists, in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, must be stopped. ICE Officers, and other Brave Members of Law Enforcement, are under grave threat.
We have already declared ANTIFA a Terrorist Organization, and I will be signing an Executive Order this week to dismantle these Domestic Terrorism Networks.
I AM CALLING ON ALL DEMOCRATS TO STOP THIS RHETORIC AGAINST ICE AND AMERICA’S LAW ENFORCEMENT, RIGHT NOW!
The Trump Administration is fully committed to backing Law Enforcement, Strong Borders, securing our Homeland, deporting Violent Illegal Criminals, and fully rooting out the Left Wing Domestic Terrorism that is terrorizing our Country.
Thank you for your attention to this matter!
‘What Everyone Gets Wrong About Our Generation’—According to 21 College Kids GQ
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Couldn’t get more than a paragraph in on what looked like juicy goods before running into the great wall of content, and I’m hep to how different generations are, my daddy-o thought the Beatles were the devil incarnate on account of their long hair blurring gender lines.
Tear down that paywall, Mister Gorbachev!
Seems like the author of the GQ piece doesn’t know any young men at community colleges or obscure branches of state universities. None seem to mention needing to work one or two full time jobs while attending college. And just what does a Swathmore grad with a degree in Enviornmental Policy do post graduation? Probably law school at somewhere like Stanford.
re: US armed forces
HARPERS
Mission Impossible
The sad state of the American armed forces
by Seth Harp
https://harpers.org/archive/2025/10/mission-impossible-seth-harp-trump-military-parade/
Is it possible that RESPONSIBLE STATECRAFT has become more critical of USA and empire in the last 1,5 years? I have this idea it could be connected with Kelly Vlahos rising in their ranks. Or am I making this up🤔
Harris says she lost to Trump because she ‘didn’t have enough time’ The Hill
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our time together with you being the standard bearer for the Donkey Show was all too brief, although it seemed an eternity.
Good luck wherever total obscurity finds you~
First Brands’ lenders race to rescue car parts supplier as debt woes rattle markets FT
factoring: invoice factoring or invoice financing as it is called is quickly coming front and center in the vast world sketchy/scamming finance.
Odd that FT doesn’t call it by name. They are usually pretty good spotting and calling-out the flea bags of finance, various shit-coins, PE covenant-lite and New-co scams for example. Hardly surprising that off-balance ops and private credit are prominently mentioned. Buckle up.
Do not forget reverse factoring — which led to the collapse of major financial player Carillion in 2018 (time flies…)
I have a few questions about the Kirk assasination.
I have watched the video of Robinson climbling down from the roof several times and don’t see a rifle.
It isn’t slung over a shoulder and it isn’t tossed on the grass.
A Mauser rifle with a 24″ barrel will be @ 4′ long and weigh between 9 and 10 Lbs, watch him climb and then jump, it ain’t in his pants ( He’s just glad to see you).
Also, how did he get on the roof carrying a scoped, 4 ‘ long rifle without being noticed…and if he was going to leave the rifle where he was sure it would be quickly found, why not leave it on the roof…
The official narrative does not make sense, as usual in American political murders.
Yes, nothing makes any sense, a solid thing such as a long rifle would definitely have ‘bounce’ once it hits the ground, but no evidence of that.
Back in the day we had the ‘magic bullet theory’ now we have the ‘magic rifle theory’.
We should definitely mention in a more proeminent way the general strike in Italy and its magnitude:
https://scheerpost.com/2025/09/24/million-strong-general-strike-blocks-italy-for-palestine/
Also, on the issue of Moldova and upcoming elections and the arests on the basis of Russian interference.
I don’t agree to quashing democratic opinion and I resent same thing happening in Moldova as in Romania last year.
I read RT and comment from time to time, especially when they write about Republic of Moldova, as a former soviet republic. My main points that I am trying to make and bring to people’s attentian are that for about 60 years, that is more than 2 generations, Moldovans were gaslighted that they were different from Romanians (and as such from their Moldovan brethren in Romania, who are twice in numbers), from a different culture, history and with a totally different language.
Also, that Russian leadership believes this thing, with Maria Zacharova, a sinologist for christ sake, expressing this opinion publicly.
And that after 1991, by rights, Romanians should have reunited, like the Germans, but Russia put a big wrench into the prospect, same as USians have torpedoed the reunification of Koreas.
And now, nobody wants to talk nationalism, not Brussels, not Moscow, not Chisinau, not Bucharest, with the Romanian elites being captured either by west or east, when the whole thing could be resolved by a simple reunification. But that would exalt the idea of nation, which is a no-no in Brussels, or Washington (except when is the USians), as well as in Moscow, which, with Transdnistria in NATO, they would really have to scuttle away, and not because of military weakness but because it would be impossible to justify to their population attacking a NATO country, one in which the rights of minorities are really respected, just ask the Hungarians in Romania.
It has been a long time since “Moldova” became a separate entity from Romania–in fact, much the same way Austria is no longer Germany and South and North Korea are different countries. Speaking of the latter, I actually found it refreshing that Kim Jong Un bluntly stated recently that North and South Korea are different countries, not to be reunited casually, at least, if ever (IIRC, he was much more emphatic about this.) It’s about time, I say, that everyone does away with that politically correct nonsense, that Koreans actually want reunification. In the same token, though, I should think that there are enough mixed feelings on both sides of Romanian reunification.
The statement that the whole thing could be resolved by a simple reunification leaves me a bit perplex, knowing that the process by which the FRG absorbed the GDR caused notable difficulties that, 35 years later, have not yet all been overcome.
And what would happen to Moldova would be indeed an absorption — just like the case of the GDR. If there are any regional characteristics, institutions, or traditions Moldovans cherish and wish to keep after a reunification with Romania, my advice is that they prepare for mourning their inevitable loss.
The western part of historical Moldova, which is in Romania and has more than twice the population of R of Moldova can easily absorb R of Moldova. There is no diference between them whatsoever. For the majority (70-75%) nothing to mourn.
1945 to be precise. Not that long time. Already almost 1 mil Moldovans have taken Romanian citizenship, including the President. That is almost half of the population. Likely not the elderly and those living in the countryside. So no longer than the time Germany was divided.
That’s literally the same year that the Koreas were divided and Austria stopped being part of Germany (since all these happened for the same reason–the end of WW2). And, now, except for a handful of people who stil lhave actual memories of the other side, I can tell you for certain that NOBODY in either of the Koreas even wants to reunify with the other side in actjuality, even if they might repeat politically correct mantra.
I suppose there is a big differenceL Romania is EU, Moldova is not. If so, Moldovans taking Romanian passports are NOT taking Romanian passport as much as a EU one. I wonder if that’s a sign of a strong desire to join their fellow Romanian brethren, any more than Koreans of either side wanting to be part of the other. I actually found more complex sentiments among the Austrians and Germans about the other than from the Koreans, for example)
This is like Macedonians taking Bulgarian passports – it’s really about access to the EU, not about sense of ethnic/national belonging. There are exceptions of course, but for most of those passport holders it’s about the EU.
Serbs were taking Croatian passports, and Ukrainians Russian ones. Albainans were taking all the passports. The whole passports/citizenship argument is nonsensical, and so are the fantasies of Romanian nationalists, especially on a forum like this one. I say, Vlachs deserve selfdetermination, and creation of an independent state. We need more passports.
Transnistria, and its defence from people who are sometimes referred to even here (in casual, unofficial contexts, naturally) as “Romanians”, is very popular among the same sizeable and vocal minority that supported the Donbass war and the SMO from the beginning. Whatever Romania’s actual track record and hypothetical approach to Transnistria, I think our government would have more difficulty justifying “scuttling away” than going to war to a population that has been exhorted for years to support a struggle for “Russians abroad” even at cost of risking a broader confrontation with the US.
And anyway – how would Romania justify going to war with Russia over Transnistria to its population? Because in light of the above, and of lasting resentment of “Romanians” in Transnistria itself (there was a fair amount of collateral damage at Moldovans’ hands during the war), they would have to take it by force, same as with Ukrainians in the Donbass. Which would be risky even while we are busy in Ukraine; and some day we won’t be.
Probably in the end, Romania on its own, wouldn’t go against an attacking Russia. But first Russia would need to get to Odessa. If Ukraine capitulates before Russia gets to Odessa, which will likely happen, please explain how will Russia get to transdnistria.
And for Romania, geting Transdnistria would be only fair, compensation for loosing Budjak and Northern Bukovina and Zmeyi Island that were inglobated in SSR Ukraine in 1945 and 1948 respectively.
We already have troops there, though not many; like Georgians in Ossetia and South Abkhazia, the Romanians would need those troops to stand aside peacefully to avoid a larger war, which they might not do. It seems like drones and rockets could reach Romania just fine as well. And if Ukraine capitulates, letting us impose terms, making them let us send troops and supplies over their territory seems feasible as well. It’s all wholly hypothetical of course, but I don’t think a war is inconceivable in that case (again, like what happened when Georgia tried to bring back its breakaway regions). Though for that matter, it does support your view that we would not let Moldova be reunited with Romania – that would create/increase the risk of an additional conflict we may as well avoid.
I’m sure that the people of Transdnistria would love some of that Romanian democracy with cancelled elections when the wrong candidate is winning and political arrests like is also happening in Moldova. What’s not to love? Bonus points for having the EU telling them what they can do and when they can do it – or else.
The can’t wait to get all of those EU values, and have already designated a place for big Ursula von der Leyen’s statue.
Today I learned:
If you have an Android phone and a Google account, every time you travel and have your cellphone on your person, your every move is tracked and can be seen in something called “Google dashboard.” This is also easily tracked by the police. No subpoena or warrant needed.
Now, I can hear some of you law abiding citizens saying, hey, if you’re doing nothing wrong, what’s the big deal-o?
And to a certain extent, I agree. It is also possible that such surreptitious tracking might prove useful to an innocent person falsely accused of a crime by the police, in providing an airtight alibi.
But for those of us who care about civil liberties, this is just another reminder that privacy is a thing of the past. If you ever do something that you might want to remain private, leave the cell phone at home or put it in a Faraday bag of known good origin.
Has anyone among the commentators here ever actually convinced someone of the truth about the Ukraine War, about NATO, CIA, MI6 e.g. training and using SBU for terrorism etc.?
Because I am not sure I have ever been able to achieve that with any one person who hadn´t already had inclinations to agree with my view. Eventually I sometimes come to think it makes zero sense to argue over this at all. Zero.
Apparently you cannot beat ideology. And it´s worse the better people believe they are educated.
Which is why – very sadly – the criticism of leftists is very often very true.
There have been studies that show people will not change their minds even when presented with plain logic and facts.
There’s too much social conditioning in that if you identify with a group you tend to keep with their beliefs and mindset. Group identity becomes more important than thinking outside of the accepted dogma.
I don’t bother trying to talk politics or world issues with anyone anymore.
Yeah, I know. Sigh.
Chomsky has been over this for literally decades. It´s what pushed him. And why Ed Herman´s death e.g. did hit him not only on a personal level. Herman being “the brain” behind MANUFACTURING CONSENT.
And I actually believe that Herman missing did account for some of Chomsky´s lack of a certain willingness to engage into odd and uncharted – conspirational – territory, as of late.
Herman did go there with all his professorial faith. Just like another early loss of Chomsky´s, David Noble.
I still am not willing to give into this futility of convincing others.
After all I too was able to really question many assumptions about history, geopolitics and so on. It´s of course not that I had been against Russia. I defended them from day #1. But many many things were very unclear, or allegedly clear and in reality very muddy and incorrect. Eventually outright lies. And it cost a looooot of time to clear paths.
But my complaint is not only concerning those who are Russophobe. The entire spectrum is beset with this.
Excellent example, abducted children.
You can observe the limits of the disposition to question oneself with such an excellent outlet as German leftist JUNGE WELT daily, which is on the surveillance list of German FBI. A fact not only absurd but an outright legal and intellectual insult to any thinking person.
Yet, JUNGE WELT writers would seriously struggle with much we are discussing about UKR here on NC.
I just don´t grasp how these brains are wired. I mean its their fucking job to question everyone including themselves. And they are seriously at the fringes of what is acceptable. So no need to fake anything.
Their disregard for Putin is genuine. Despite all the smartass scholarship and essays and Marxism and pre-Marxism and post-Marxism and whatever-Marxism they have studied, simple things just don´t reach them.
This used to be different in the old era. People were wiser. And I don´t understand why. After all I am not talking about 20somethings here. And hell, maybe, just maybe, the coming youth will be more savvy again. Who knows…
Nuland and rabid pack of Obama people trying to induce subsequent war, starting in 2014. They broke the USSR breakup era pledge by Bush 41 team about not advancing one inch toward Russia. Power hungry permanent war monger antagonists in league with MIC d-bags. A pox on all of them.
The SMO was an outgrowth of their groundwork, mixed metaphors and all.
https://musaalgharbi.substack.com/p/smart-people-are-especially-prone
I linked this before, but I believe this is relevant to what you’re talking about. Intelligent and well-educated people (by most practical measures of those admittedly vague criteria) are better-equipped to defend their existing views in the face of arguments and evidence to the contrary. Other factors are at play as well, of course.
In my experience, people mostly change their minds on their own, when something (a festering inner doubt or a particularly overwhelming contact with reality) makes them unusually receptive to other viewpoints. Persuasion can work then, though, at least by providing those viewpoints and speeding things along.
Thanks for the link. This article is from the author of We Have Never Been Woke, which I also learned about here at NC.
Has anyone among the commentators here ever actually won a fight with a windmill?
Nice nickname…
Heh. You win the internets today, Quixote ;)
Bad squirrel, bad squirrel what you gonna do when they’re wise to you?
re: Trump vs. antiwar
Trump’s Crackdown on Anti-War Activists (w/ CODEPINK’s Medea Benjamin)
Trump’s threatening to bring RICO charges against CODEPINK for their nonviolent, anti-war activism is only a symptom of the administration’s broader attack on freedom of speech and dissent.
Chris Hedges
Sep 25, 2025
38 min.
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/trumps-crackdown-on-anti-war-activists
since y’all have been with me through so much of my travails, already…i thought i might let it drop here, premptively, that our Eldest(Elijah Mountain Pinter), is to propose to his girlfriend(Estrellita)(Star)…this weekend, on the Navy beach in san diego, w his buddy(Navy Guy) takin pics.
he hasnt thought beyond the engagement ring, so i offered the wedding rings around my neck, just in case(they were my mom and dads, then Tam and i’s.)i offered him many quotes and snatches of poetry, for to make it memorable…and ended up sayin,”just do with some kind of flourish…even if it means carrying her into the Pacific…”
eres su soy tuya,
eris mio soy tuya
How sweet! Thanks for sharing amfortas
MLB will use robot umpires in 2026 AP
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was ease in Casey’s manner as he stepped into his place;
There was pride in Casey’s bearing and a smile lit Casey’s face.
And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,
No stranger in the crowd could doubt ’twas Casey at the bat.
Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt;
Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt;
Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip,
Defiance flashed in Casey’s eye, a sneer curled Casey’s lip.
And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,
And Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.
Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped—
“That ain’t my style,” said Casey. “Strike one!” the inhuman umpire said.
From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar,
Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore;
“Kill it! Kill the robot umpire!” shouted someone on the stand;
And it’s likely they’d have killed it ala Ned Ludd had not Casey raised his hand.
With a smile of Christian charity great Casey’s visage shone;
He stilled the rising tumult; he bade the game go on;
He signaled to the pitcher, and once more the dun sphere flew;
But Casey still ignored it and the robot umpire said, “Strike two!”
“Fraud!” cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered “Fraud!”
But one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed.
They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,
And they knew that Casey wouldn’t let that ball go by again.
The sneer is gone from Casey’s lip, his teeth are clenched in hate,
He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate;
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey’s blow.
Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,
But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out.
MLB will use robot umpires in 2026
MLB will use robot players in 2036
MLB will use robot audience in 2046
I gave up on MLB after the Barry Bonds/Mark McGuire steroid/PED scandal.
I really couldn’t tell you who is in first place in the AL East, although I have some vague notion that the Yankees are decent.
The pitch clock rule really seems stupid. Speeding up the game misses the point, I always thought the slow pace of a baseball game was part of the allure.
Yack it up, yack it up
Buddy gonna shut you down
It happened on the DC strip where the divide is wide
(Oooo rev it up now)
Two poor sports standin’ side by side
(Oooo rev it up now)
Yeah, the fool injected Donkey Show & Pachyderm teams
(Oooo rev it up now)
Revvin’ up their rhetoric and it sounds real mean
(Oooo rev it up now)
Yack it up, yack it up, yack it up
Buddy gonna shut you down
Declinin’ Presidential approval numbers at an even rate
(Oooo movin’ out now)
On account of one, hostilities accelerate
(Oooo movin’ out now)
Resistance is light, Chuck & Hakeem are startin’ to spin
(Oooo movin’ out now)
But the Pachyderm team’s really diggin’ in
(Oooo movin’ out now)
Gotta be cool now power shift here we go
A typical Schumer dodge is windin’ out in low
But the possibility of a shutdown is really startin’ to go
To get the traction he’s ridin’ a hunch
Same old same old is burnin’ that machine too much
Pedal’s to the floor hear the dual dorks think
(Oooo pump it up now)
And now the House’s lead is startin’ to shrink
(Oooo pump it up now)
He’s hot with indignation but it’s understood
(Oooo pump it up now)
When you’re the minority in DC hood
(Oooo pump it up now)
Shut it off, shut it off buddy now I shut you down
Shut it off, shut it off buddy now I shut you down
Shut it off, shut it off buddy now I shut you down
Shut it off, shut it off buddy now I shut you down
Shut it off, shut it off buddy now I shut you down
Shut Down, by the Beach Boys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCNUP3FnnFg&list=RDRCNUP3FnnFg
re: Russiagate
MSNBC: Former FBI Director Comey To Be Indicted
UndeadFOIA
Sep 24, 2025
MSNBC has just reported that James Comey is set to be indicted in the coming days, speculation is that it relates to September 30, 2020 Congressional testimony, regarding what Comey knew in 2016.
We will of course cover the indictment as it develops.
https://www.sleuth.news/p/msnbc-former-fbi-director-comey-to
related I guess
Ray McGovern with the Judge about Tulsi Gabbard allegedly fighting against the agencies to remain in office?
TC 16:00
https://raymcgovern.com/2025/09/23/deep-state-vs-tulsi/
I know several people whose jobs require both critical thinking and an appreciation of nuance whose ability to do either disappears when politics comes up.
It’s like flipping a switch, they go instantly to “Good Guys VS Bad Guys”, no doubts, no questions allowed.
It’s sad.
Up on the housetop after a short pause
Out of a helo jumps IDF serving cause
Down through the tunnels with lots of trepidation
All for the little ersatz fascist nation
Ho, ho, ho! Who wouldn’t go?
Ho, ho, ho! Who wouldn’t go?
Up on the housetop, click, click, click,
Down through the stairs with an Uzi at the quick!
First comes the sacking of where they dwell
Oh, dear god looks like they’re giving em’ hell
Give the civilians more reason to despise
A tally of 200 eyes for every lost Israeli eye
Ho, ho, ho! Who wouldn’t go?
Ho, ho, ho! Who wouldn’t go?
Up on the housetop, click, click, click
Down through the stairs with an Uzi at the quick!
Next comes the beginning of World War 3
Oh, just see what a powder keg the Middle East can be
Here is Hezbollah with northern attacks
Casting aspersions being Iranian backed
Ho, ho, ho! Who wouldn’t go?
Ho, ho, ho! Who wouldn’t go?
Up on the housetop, click, click, click
Down through the stairs with an Uzi at the quick!
Up on the housetop, click, click, click
Down through the stairs with an Uzi at the quick!
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-24/fight-for-compensation-for-covid-19-vaccination-injuries/105808630
Hello Yves and Conor
This is an article from Australia.
About someone with an Astra Zeneca mRNA injury entitled to compensation, and how hard the designated compensation system worked, to avoid paying.
Once upon a time winning a war gave you more territory and a buffer zone, not to mention all the wealth you could make off with, their women and livestock, it was a win-win.
Now winning a war really only produces expenses for the short duration you’re there, and there are seldom buffer zones. Said countries are often riddled with debt-nothing to take there, the infrastructure needed major improvements circa 1975 that never happened, and women aren’t hep on Laissez-faire fraternizing these days. You can have the cows though, ok?
It’s not the destination, it’s the journey. Fighting the war is what fills the pockets of the MIC, not winning it. Also, uncle Orwell explained how constant low-intensity war is excellent tool for controlling the masses.
Joe Rogan not buying the official Kirk story:
https://x.com/triffic_stuff_/status/1970591314103136590
8 min vid.
– The strange decoy who is now in jail and cannot be interviewed.
– The “Modern looking” rifle that was apparently from WW1 with no serial code.
– Dismantling the rifle: “They said that he took it apart and put it back together again…. ‘Shut the f*ck up.’ It makes no sense.”
– How was he not spotted on the roof? No drone footage?
– Was he even the shooter? Maybe a patsy?
– The official story: “This story is horsesh*t. None of these things make any sense to me.”
It has the feel of Rommel, the over the top funeral by the Reich and high praise, although they were complicit in his passing.
Older rifles sometimes get furniture replacement, which results in modern look.
What makes no sense is the explanation of the terminal ballistics of the shot, and the lack of coroner’s reports (not to mention the lack of the bullet itself).
Continuing to monitor media on the H-1B story, I still see no mention at all of the employment-based green card option. Everyone is continuing to push the false dichotomy of H1-Bs or no foreign workers at all.
I did find one article, a personal interest story on a South American woman who became a permanent resident (and later a citizen) after working on an H-1B for six years. The catch is that she did it through marriage:
Really? The company only just realized that, after six years of employing her as an H-1B? Awfully convenient for them.
I suspect this is de facto normal business practice in many industries, and employers’ interest in foreign workers extends only as far as the period in which they can be treated as indentured labor. They keep them on by dangling the carrot of green card sponsorship, and then yank it away at the last moment. The fact that so few of them are willing to even mention it as an option in the context of the current fee story seems revealing to me.
Ahem, it was the H-1B visa holder who just realized it. My impression as an American who has worked for big international cos with highly paid workers is green card sponsorship is rare. She should have been able to look around her and see a dearth of green card sponsorees.
It wasn’t stated in the article whether there was any kind of (implicit or explicit) promise by the company, or if she just made an unjustified assumption.
I was sponsored for a green card by my employer, which they regularly did in place of the first H-1B renewal. However they were an outlier even at the time (smallish company, founded by a small group of friends who had worked together at a big IT consultancy and had a vision of running a more employee-friendly operation). They treated their staff significantly better than most competitors did, so they didn’t really need the H-1B shackles for employee retention. This was also ~25 years ago and I think the employment climate was different then.
My knowledge of the process is also ~25 years old and it might have changed. It included demonstrating that you couldn’t find an American to do the job, which was done by running ads. A good lawyer could specify the job description tightly enough to guarantee that nobody but you would qualify. (That may have changed, but even if it’s scrutinized more closely now, if all the bleating about not being able to find enough local staff is accurate then it should be simple). My company expected you to cover your own legal fees, but would happily cooperate otherwise. At the time it was around $5K in legal work, which most employees were willing to pay.
Italy and Spain send Naval Vessels – Flotilla – Gaza – Trita Parsi:
https://substack.com/@tritaparsi/note/c-159549292?r=alrh1&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
In History as follows:
Kayfabe.
One year later, the Dutch newspaper NRC wordlessly shares the enduring suffering of victims in Lebanon caused by Israel’s exploding pagers:
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/09/17/het-leed-in-libanon-is-een-jaar-na-de-pieperaanval-nog-steeds-voelbaar-a4905697