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Links 9/27/2025

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Field in the frame: face to face with harlequin toads Nature (Robin K)

Tiny stones rewrite Earth’s evolution story ScienceDaily (Kevin W)

Papering Over History JSTOR (Micael T)

Influencers and Multipliers reinforce political Polarization Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Paul R)

David Foster Wallace Tried to Warn Us About these Eight Things Honest-Broker (Chuck L). On the impact of screen technology

#COVID-19/Pandemics

Climate/Environment

Where ‘day-zero droughts’ could happen as soon as this decade CNN

Russia’s Wheat Woes: Diesel Costs and Dry Weather Impact Sowing DevDiscourse

How war and drought have resulted in Lebanon’s worst water crisis in decades Arab News

Turkey facing worst drought in over 50 years France24

Japan sets new record for heat-related ambulance transport incidents Manichi

Ocean Acidification officially breaches Planetary Boundary Oceanographic

China?

China launches sweeping probe into Mexican tariffs as trade war widens Financial Times

Why China’s Belt and Road leaves Turkiye in the sidelines The Cradle

Koreas

South Korea resists Trump’s US$350 billion trade demand amid financial crisis fears South China Morning Post

Important:

‘Could collapse entirely’: Bangladesh’s financial system in deep crisis as defaults mount Business Today

Africa

‘In Sudan, it is as if a congenital curse is at work. And the worst is yet to come’ LeMonde

Madagascar imposes curfew after violent protests against water, power cuts Aljazeera

South of the Border

Argentina’s financial crash is the first big defeat for Trump’s global Maga movement Telegraph

European Disunion

German business sentiment unexpectedly drops: Is the ambitious fiscal plan at risk? Euronews

Jail time for Sarkozy: Why the unprecedented sentence over Libya financing? France24

Wasted Capital – How Child Poverty Blocks Talent and Wastes Billions Nachdenkseiten via machine transaltion

Klingbeil calls for “Buy European” – EU remains hesitant Markoskop via machine translation (Micael T)

The Finnish resort of Imatra found itself in millions of dollars of debt after closing its border with Russia Vzgylyad via machine translation (Micael T)

The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise recognizes 5,000 lobby meetings per year Klagget via machine translatoin Micael T)

Old Blighty

Borrowing costs jump again as investors snub UK Government bond auction This is Money

Migrants are eating SWANS and carp stolen from UK parks, Nigel Farage claims The US Sun. resilc: “He’s to up his game to eating children.”

Terrorism case against Kneecap rapper thrown out due to technical error ABC Australia (Kevin W)

Israel v. the Resistance. IMHO a new sign of Israel desperation. I had my VPN set to Chicago. I got a YouTube ad advocating to “buy Israel,” how important it was to Israel businesses and families.

Dozens walk out as Benjamin Netanyahu begins UN speech BBC and Netanyahu vows to ‘finish job’ in Gaza during UN speech as delegates walk out Guardian

US to revoke Colombian president’s visa for remarks at pro-Palestinian protest in New York Anadolu Agency. Childish.

Microsoft revokes cloud services from Israel’s Unit 8200, following +972 exposé +972 Magazine

Amb. Chas Freeman: Al Qaeda Gets a Seat at the UN?! Dialogue Works, YouTube. Important discussion at 6:10, that the recognition of Palestine is the recognition of the Palestinian Authority, which is a quisling regime and did not win the last elections held in Palestine.

Tony Blair proposed as chief of Gaza transitional authority, reports say Middle East Eye (resilc)

Iran sanctions look set to return after last-ditch UN vote France24

New Not-So-Cold War

If NATO downs Russian plane, there will be war — ambassador to France TASS (guurst)

Angry Russia Rejects Europe Threats Tense Moscow Talks; US Calls Military Chiefs; Kiev Fronts Crisis Alexander Mercourist, YouTube. Opening section discusses a dustup reported in Bloomberg.

Crisis Escalation Becomes Euro-Cabal’s Final Meal Ticket Simplicius (Kevin W)

Is Ukraine Preparing a False Flag? Larry Johnson

Nawrocki Proposed A Creative Solution To The Polish-German Reparations Dispute Andrew Korybko

Another Crazy Idea On How To Steal Russia’s Assets: Make EU Taxpayers Pay For It Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)

Moldova bans another opposition party on the eve of elections RT (Kevin W)

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Anything but safe: Using VPN can bear immense risks DW

Imperial Collapse Watch

What Declines in Reading and Math Mean for the U.S. Work Force New York Times. Resilc: “40 years of underfunded skoolz+, but endless warzzzz everywhere. How does bombing Somalia for 30+ years help???”

A role-playing game at the end of the world: Nihilism and misanthropy Doomscroll via machine translation. Important. This ties into Nat’s recap of communities with far right youth, such as groypers and blackpillers, and their heavy and layered use of irony.

The dawn of the post-literate society James Marriott (Anthony L)

An American divorce will not be peaceful The Hill (resilc)

Trump

The Road to the Camps: Echoes of a Fascist Past Counterpunch (resilc)

Trump moves toward deal to give US an equity stake in company developing Nevada lithium mine Associated Press

Supreme Court allows Trump to withhold $4 billion in foreign aid funding NBC

The gaping hole in the James Comey indictment/a> Vox

MAHA

Harvard’s Public Health Dean Was Paid $150,000 to Testify Tylenol Causes Autism Harvard Crimson

DOGE

The Story of DOGE, as Told by Federal Workers WIRED (resilc)

L’affaire Jeffery Epstein

Who Helped Jeffrey Epstein? Emails Detail His Private Support Network Bloomberg (Chuck L)

Charlie Kirk

U.S. Threatens to Bar Foreigners Over Remarks About Charlie Kirk New York Times

Nexstar, Sinclair to end blackout of Jimmy Kimmel The Hill. Surprised that Sinclair backed down.

Economy

Global debt hits record of nearly $338 trillion, says IIF Reuters

The next big financial crisis may be brewing. Warning signs are already there Guardian

Fed Study: Big Banks Riskier Now Than Before 2008 Crisis NAI 500

US debt investors raise alarm over lending standards Financial Times

AI

Regulating AI hastens the Antichrist, says Palantir’s Peter Thiel The Times (resilc)

Game over for pure LLMs. Even Turing Award Winner Rich Sutton has gotten off the bus Gary Marcus

Many employees are using AI to create ‘workslop,’ Stanford study says The Register

OpenAI shows off massive data center Associated Press (Robin Kash)

The Bezzle

Radio Shack Rebirth May Have Gone Awry In Alleged Ponzi-Like Scheme Hackaday (Paul R)

Guillotine Watch

The Forbes 400 List 2025 – The Richest People in America Ranked Forbes (resilc)

Passenger Awarded $11 Million After Suffering 2 Strokes And American Airlines Failed To Divert Flight Jalopnik (resilc)

Class Warfare

Las Vegas Is Only For Rich People Now. No Wonder It’s Empty. YouTube (resilc)

Laid-Off Tech Workers Say H-1B Crackdown Won’t Help Them Get a Job Wall Street Journal

Government Benefits Are Now 19 Percent of Total Personal Income Michael Shedlock

Writing Their Prison’s History New York Review of Books (Robin K)

Antidote du jour. John U: “Dusty the Adventure Dog in Utah”

And a bonus:

A second bonus:

And a third:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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25 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    “Tony Blair proposed as chief of Gaza transitional authority, reports say”

    Wait – that Gaza transitional authority. Is that a reboot of Iraq’s Coalition Provisional Authority? As Paul Bremer is now in his mid-80s he is no longer available for this post so they chose one of the most popular people about – Tony Blair. For the first coupla year he won’t even go to Gaza but will base himself out of Egypt instead. And when a multinational force eventually goes into Gaza, Blair will hitch a ride in the baggage train to take charge. This whole thing already has cluster**** written all over it and the only decisions that Blair will make will be those that financially benefit himself.

    Reply ↓
  2. Wukchumni

    ‘Lead me to your takers…’

    Was the first communication between 31/Atlas and the green glow of dead Presidents (only 72% on FRN’s qualify), fins, semollians, sawbucks, double-sawbucks and/or Benjamins.

    From across the universe they had heard of this place where money was conjured out of thin air, and although they had figured out interstellar space travel-this was beyond their ken.

    Reply ↓
  3. Louis Fyne

    >>Germany’s Robert Bosch ….

    the top-level holding company for Bosch auto parts companies is a foundation set up by the founding family long ago. Much like a large part of German industry, the companies are privately held and were generally able to ride out the whims of quarter to quarter market vagaries. (compare/contrast to something like publicly-held Siemens).

    If it’s gotten the headline dislocations have gotten this bad, it’s even worse underneath. ironically one of the beneficiaries of Brussels’ war on Russia is relatively low-wage USA southern right to work states

    Reply ↓
  4. The Rev Kev

    “Many employees are using AI to create ‘workslop,’ Stanford study says”

    I’ve read that some employees are going around using AI to create workslop to make themselves look good to management, and are then having junior employees run around cleaning up all the messes in that AI generated workslop.

    Reply ↓
  5. hayrake

    “… US an equity stake in company developing Nevada lithium mine.”

    An interview on “The BREAK-Down” with Thea Riofrancos about her latest book ‘Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism’ which focuses largely on lithium, but also reference several other minerals—copper, cobalt, yttrium—all of which fall within various designations like “critical” or “strategic” or “rare earth”.

    The interviewer asks this question:
    “At the moment, we’re seeing Trump both receding from any effort to have a leading role in the manufacturing of green technologies, effectively trying to undo everything that came through the Inflation Reduction Act, and at the same time, using increasingly overt military means to secure minerals—not just in Ukraine, although that is obviously the most headline grabbing example, but in the DRC and Yemen and Somalia—manhandling them into signing away minerals in order to secure aid or military support from the US.”

    And part of the answer was:
    “But what then makes me crazy is that there’s a simultaneous
    effort to dismantle the rest of the supply chain. At Trump’s insistence, the latest legislation out of Congress dramatically reduces government support for EV manufacturing and consumption. Growth in both is still going to happen, a lot of EV and battery plants are already built and in operation, but the administration are purposefully undermining future growth of EVs. We’re going to extract a lot—but for what?”

    https://www.break-down.org/where-capital-and-nature-meet/

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni

      One domestic EV i’ve seen scant few of on the road, is the Ford F-150 Lightning. and I read that Ford lost $37k on each and every EV they produced domestically last year.

      Yeah, we need the capability to build more of them, that’s the ticket.

      Reply ↓
  6. Mikel

    — James Wood 武杰士 (@commiepommie)

    “…And waiting in the wings? The Duterte family, who favour independent foreign policy and pragmatic cooperation with China. Exactly what Washington fears most: its South China Sea “chessboard” collapsing overnight.

    👉 This is bigger than the Philippines.
    The riots are a mirror exposing the structural weakness of America’s alliance system. Washington gambles everything on compliant families and strongmen, but when they fall, U.S. strategy crumbles with them….”

    That’s his only take on the situation?
    Seems like only yesterday that climbing into bed with Duterte was presented with all the controversy and problems that entailed.

    A sampling:

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41964930/

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-18/marcos-duterte-family-feud-philippines/105048194/

    Reply ↓
  7. Norton

    The Mike Benz information about Obama and USAID bears further research and documentation. There have been rumblings about how that umbrella designation program was used for camouflaged or surreptitious political purposes. The standard view of helping starving and underprivileged people only presents a public relations image. Programs funneling cash to domestic uses may fit into Obama’s vaunted community organizing image, but that looks like dishonesty after the fact.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      When you have someone like Samantha Power being put in charge of USAID, you know that something is seriously off about that organization.

      Reply ↓
  8. Mikel

    Why China’s Belt and Road leaves Turkiye in the sidelines – The Cradle

    It would have been interesting to include more explanation from actual officials in Turkiye’s government.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      If there is one thing that the Chinese are, they are business people first and foremost. As such, they would value predictability and reliability. That is why they have such a great relation with Russia. But Erdogan is a loose cannon at the best of times and there is no way that he would make a reliable partner as he cannot resist the urge to play funny buggers. The fact that Turkiye has such a close relationship with Uyghur separatists must make China worry that they will use them to commit terrorist attacks in China. Add to that Turkish designs for a Greater Turkiye that would spread all the way east and into China proper and the Chinese probably decided to not go with Turkiye too far so that they can cut their losses if need be. But at least Erdogan has those Uyghurs.

      Reply ↓
  9. Louis Fyne

    >>>Radio Shack Rebirth

    Mitt Romney won…..corporations are people, folks even in the lexicon drafted by presumably “left-of-center” journalists.

    Pet peeve on this topic…..A corporation can’t be reborn. “Radio Shack” is a name slapped onto a widget that has zero linkage to a 1982 Tandy Computer, except for the name. Same with bankrupt GM and current GM.

    The cultural “parasocial” relationship brand names is wild. Is our society so shallow that we need to find meaning in Toys R Us, Chevy, Starbucks?

    spoiler alert: yes! because it’s a thing I know, and I clap when I see something I know like Pavlov’s seal

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni

      Radio Shack to yours truly circa 1972, was the place you redeemed the coupon for a free flashlight that required 4x D batteries (not included).

      Reply ↓
  10. Wukchumni

    A high-stakes poker game being played out in Washington, D.C., could not only shutter the National Park System on October 1, but also see most National Park Service employees fired due to a lack of funding.

    With Congressional Republicans and Democrats far apart on the makeup of a Continuing Resolution to keep the federal government operating while negotiations continue to seek a Fiscal 2026 budget agreeable to both parties, the Trump administration is suggesting governmental agencies that rely on federal appropriations to operate shut down next Wednesday, the start of the government’s new fiscal year.

    “With respect to those federal programs whose funding would lapse and which are otherwise unfunded, such programs are no longer statutorily required to be carried out,” reads a section of a memo sent from the Office of Management and Budget to federal agencies. “Therefore, consistent with applicable law, including the requirements of 5 C.F.R. part 351, agencies are directed to use this opportunity to consider Reduction in Force (RIF) notices for all employees in programs, projects, or activities (PPAs) that satisfy all three of the following conditions: (1) discretionary funding lapses on October 1, 2025; (2) another source of funding, such as H.R. 1 (Public Law 119-21) is not currently available; and (3) the PPA is not consistent with the President’s priorities.”

    https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2025/09/update-national-park-service-federal-agencies-face-prospect-widespread-firings
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    When I was a kid, RIF stood for ‘Reading Is Fundamental’

    Reply ↓
  12. The Rev Kev

    ‘Science girl
    @gunsnrosesgirl3
    Sep 25
    Wow
    the successful test flight of the S1500, an airborne wind turbine capable of generating one megawatt of power by harnessing high-altitude winds, which are stronger and more consistent than those at ground level’

    I wonder if a coupla of these things could be parked over each AI center to take off some of the strain on the electrical grid.

    Reply ↓
  14. The Rev Kev

    “The Finnish resort of Imatra found itself in millions of dollars of debt after closing its border with Russia.”

    So much winning. /sarc

    So what happens if NATO decides to make the Finnish-Russian border a “second front” one day.

    Reply ↓

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