Links 9/4/2025

Earth’s Seasons Are Out of Sync, Scientists Discover From Space Science Alert

A Rare Condition Made a Woman See Dragons Instead of Human Faces ZME Science

A Shocking Number of Kids Don’t Play Outside Gizmodo

Pandemics

State Plans to End School Vax Mandates, First to Do So MedPage Today

Climate/Environment

Earth’s capacity to store carbon could max out surprisingly soon Nature

Snowfall decrease in recent years undermines glacier health and meltwater resources in the Northwestern Pamirs Communications Earth and Environment

Catastrophic rains, floods to trigger food shortages in Pakistan, warns UN Dawn

Drought in East Africa: “If the rains do not come, none of us will survive” Oxfam

Wildfire devastates historic California gold mining town, homes burn in blaze caused by lightning AP

Trump Says America’s Oil Industry Is Cleaner Than Other Countries’. New Data Shows Massive Emissions From Texas Wells. ProPublica

U.S. Threatens Nations with Tariffs Over Support for IMO Net-Zero Shipping Deal Reuters

China?

America’s Wind Crusade Hands an Industry to China Bloomberg

China’s Military Is Now Leading Foreign Policy

Bill to sanction Chinese officials who avoid action on fentanyl passes US House South China Morning Post

***

Global Governance Initiative=UN Charter 2.0 Karl Sanchez

Tianjin: Back to the Future Julian MacFarlane

Vietnam’s bamboo diplomacy bends under US trade pressure East Asia Forum

ADB to fund Pakistan’s core Belt and Road project as China steps aside Nikkei Asia

Africa

BBC Media Action Exposed: Leaked Docs Reveal UK Government Funded Radio Drama ‘Story Story’ To Influence Nigerian Voters West Africa Weekly

Old Blighty

The UK Earns Status as a Censorship State Racket News

How the Zionist Shadow State is taking over the UK Vanessa Beeley

Syraqistan

Construction intensifies at site linked to Israel’s suspected nuclear program, satellite photos show AP

UN nuclear chief demands Iran resume uranium enrichment inspections ‘without delay’ The Cradle

Israeli Lawmakers Demanded Better PR to Conceal Gaza Famine. Google Obliged. Lee Fang

UAE warns White House that Israeli annexations could unravel Abraham Accords Axios. “Two Israeli officials claim Secretary of State Marco Rubio has signaled in private meetings that he doesn’t oppose West Bank annexations and the Trump administration won’t stand in the way.”

Retail giant Lush closes all UK stores in Gaza tax protest The National

76 prominent figures in Turkey reject ‘cosmetic’ Gaza resolution, urge sanctions on Israel Turkish Minute

European Disunion

EU sets military spending record, expects more growth in 2025 Defense News

NATO Warns of European Recruitment Crisis Despite Record Military Spending European Conservative

How France invented the censorship-industrial complex Thomas Fazi

Left pushes censure bid against von der Leyen Euractiv

New Not-So-Cold War

Ukraine’s Best Security Guarantee Is Finlandization Moon of Alabama

Trump pledges not to pull US troops out of Poland Politico

***

Russia and China sign MoU on 50 bcm/year Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline Enerdata

Power of Siberia 2: the EU’s greatest self-own Brian McDonald

L’affaire Epstein

Epstein victims say they will compile their own “client list,” demand accountability Miami Herald

South of the Border

Hegseth Doesn’t Rule Out Regime Change in Venezuela, Suggests More US Strikes on Boats Are Coming Antiwar

Experts Decry US ‘Summary Execution’ of Alleged Drug Runners Off Venezuelan Coast Common Dreams

Trump 2.0

Did Donald Trump Authorize Murder?… and Why is He Disrespecting China’s Role in Defeating Japan? Larry Johnson

Trump’s DOJ seeks election equipment in red state ahead of 2026 election WaPo

Exclusive: Leak Confirms Chicago Military Action Ken Klippenstein

Trump regime may launch military occupation of New Orleans NOLA

Weather Service, patent office unions sue Trump over order ending collective bargaining The Hill

Trump’s oldest sons’ American Bitcoin stake worth $1.5 billion in stock debut Reuters

“Liberation Day”

Trump appeals to the Supreme Court to preserve his sweeping tariffs NBC News

Police State Watch

A 22-Year-Old Palestinian Has Been Locked Up in ‘High-Security’ ICE Detention for 16 Months Zeteo

Democrats en déshabillé

Lina Khan? Chelsea Clinton? Who Might Run for Nadler’s Seat. New York Mag

Mamdani

Adams Campaign Denies Reports He’d Take a Job With Trump, Drop Out of Mayoral Race The City

Imperial Collapse Watch

Why does peace cost a trillion dollars? Responsible Statecraft

Microsoft rewarded for security failures with another US government contract The Register

Accelerationists

OMB director says Government Accountability Office “shouldn’t exist” Axios

Your government is breaking: EPA edition Can We Still Govern?

AI

AI Generated ‘Boring History’ Videos Are Flooding YouTube and Drowning Out Real History 404 Media

Our Famously Free Press

Paramount to buy Bari Weiss’ Free Press for up to $200M, give her senior editorial role at CBS News New York Post

Malcolm Gladwell Conquers Mt. Suck Matt Taibbi

Big Brother Is Watching You Watch

Automated Sextortion Spyware Takes Webcam Pics of Victims Watching Porn Wired

Guillotine Watch

All the Things That You Need a Billion Dollars to Buy Are Bad Hamilton Nolan

Mr. Market

Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack on the Risks Markets Are Missing Right Now Kyla Scanlon

US labor market softening as job openings hit 10-month low, hiring remains tepid Reuters

Class Warfare

Boeing Cuts Off 3,200 Striking Workers ‘ Health Insurance – VW Chattanooga Furloughs Workers – GE Aerospace Workers Dig in for a Fight Payday Report

Americans still haven’t recovered from the pandemic Stephen Semler

Why Do Americans Work So Many Hours? Conversable Economist

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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143 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    “UN nuclear chief demands Iran resume uranium enrichment inspections ‘without delay'”

    Grossi tells the Iranians that Israel and Trump are getting on his case and say that they need that new targeting data, errr, location sites for that enriched uranium. Asks the Iranians too if he can have a list of the new Iranian nuclear scientists so that he knows how to get in contact with them if need be. And that this has to be done in the ‘perhaps within a few days’. Iran still waiting for Grossi to criticize the attacks on nuclear sites as that kinda is part of his job description but are not holding their breath.

    Reply
        1. The Rev Kev

          Well if Annalena Baerbock can be made President of the United Nations General Assembly after her fiasco of a career, then I am sure that a place can be made for Rafael Grossi as UN General Secretary. It’s not only cream that floats to the top.

          Reply
          1. amfortas

            when annalena has an onlyfans account with freebies, only then will i pay her any mind, at all.
            and then, only briefly.

            Reply
        2. lyman alpha blob

          Good. Maybe having an obvious pro-NATO stooge as SecGen will finally finish off the UN. Nobody was using it anyway.

          Reply
      1. Eclair

        Yeah, Alice X. And they drag out the old “putting us in danger (defacing property, disrupting traffic, destroying precious art works, etc.) isn’t going to help their cause.” Gee, who is saying to Israel, “destroying Palestinian schools, hospitals, homes, people,” isn’t going to help your cause? Cause they obviously think it is.

        Reply
  2. The Rev Kev

    ‘Will Schryver
    @imetatronink
    ‼️ F-35 Combat Capability Is less than 10% After Four Years of Age ‼️
    The 2024 CBO report shows that combat-capability rates of F-35Bs and F-35Cs older than four years plummets to less than 10%. The US does not have a credible 5th generation fighter.’

    The Pentagon really should have gone with the extended warranty option.

    Back in WW2 after the fall of Poland, nothing much happened for the next 8 months with both sides staring at each other across their borders. It was called the Phoney War-

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

    The thought occurred to me that if China did this with the US after the commencements of hostilities, that after 8 months hardly any F-35s would be still fit to fly.

    Reply
    1. ilsm

      Small wonder.

      The testers could not keep the airplane flying enough during design phases to get a reasonable estimate of parts reliability.

      As far as I know none of the models have passed independent operational tests.

      F-35 works fine against terrorists.

      Anyone tracking F-22 combat readiness rates?

      Maybe F-47 and F/A XX will work?

      Reply
      1. Ozz

        This article made me remember the comment that the F-35 had never lost a battle for more money in Congress. They don’t ask if it really works!!! Every congressional district has suppliers that make parts or provide services to the manufacturer. There is a story there but it has been told many times.

        Reply
        1. Joe Renter

          Less than a mile away from my place there is a company that makes parts for the F-35 for the cockpit.
          This is in a community with less than 10k. The arms of the IMC are pervasive.

          Reply
          1. alfred venison

            I’ve followed Schryver for a couple of years now & check his feed daily. He has a knack for employing open sources, cross-referenced with the laws of physics (as he puts it), to produce startling results, often at odds with mainstream narratives.

            Reply
    2. ACPAL

      “The 2024 CBO report shows that combat-capability rates of F-35Bs and F-35Cs older than four years plummets to less than 10%.” – Will Schryver

      Mission capable rates are often mis-stated. Schryver doesn’t specify in his text but that chart says “Full Mission Available Rate,” whatever that is. Then he says “combat-capability rates,” whatever that is. The military actually uses “Full Mission Capable (FMC),” “Partial Mission Capable (PMC),” and “Non Mission Capable.” If the system can do all of it’s “core” missions then it is FMC. If it can do at least one then it is PMC. I won’t do a full tutorial here but anyone can look these up.

      My point is that “figures lie and …”

      Reply
          1. Wukchumni

            The F-35 is the loudest jet of them all, and flying over canyons here only exacerbates their exuberance. I seldom see them-but oh how I hear them.

            Reply
      1. Polar Socialist

        The terms used are all specified in the linked Congressional Budged Office document. They use slightly different (and more stringent) numbers than USAF, which is why they have different names for them.

        For example, USAF calculates the availability ratios against the number of aircraft at the possession of the squadron (so those on the maintenance depot or in transit are not counted), while CBO uses the number of all aircraft operated by the USAF (thus having a bigger denominator and worse, but slightly more truthful ratios).

        Reply
    3. ISL

      For reference (same report) the F-16 at 35 years of age has a 50% readiness level. I suspect that Israel’s F-35s are close to 0% readiness level – that age death of the frame (I call it self attrition) was for only 300 flight hours a year!

      Reply
  3. DoYouHaveAnExitPlan

    A bedrock of post-WW2 military order has been the belief in “refusing illegal orders”.

    Examining the headline “Did Donald Trump Authorize Murder?”

    Under John Roberts’ “Get out of Jail Free” card he conjured up for Tr_mp, there are no “illegal orders” when the (republican) president orders it.

    So anyone relying on “refusing illegal orders” is going to run into the buzzsaw of “It’s okay when a republican president does it” supreme court ruling. Though based on my interactions over the last two decades with the military officer class I have doubts anyone would question orders today.

    Reply
    1. lyman alpha blob

      Pretty sure that Supremes decision did not just apply to republican presidents. It was also already an implicit understanding. It was Democrat party stupidity in using lawfare to go against Trump that allowed it to become explicit.

      Reply
  4. FreeMarketApologist

    Re: “Automated Sextortion Spyware Takes Webcam Pics of Victims“:

    The cheap little camera connected to my PC has a sliding plastic part that can cover the camera lens. It’s always set to be covered (or I cover the lens with a bit of folded paper), unless I absolutely need to have my face seen on a video conference. This was a bit of practice that security gurus were recommending about 5 minutes after cameras were attached to PCs, what, 15+ years ago? Nothing new here, except the younger generation hasn’t learned it yet, and the stupider people get, the easier it is to fool them into downloading malware. 2-way web-based porn also has the risk that the person producing the porn might be recording all those watching, for potential future blackmail purposes.

    I assume lots of people are watching porn on their phones, with cameras that are much harder to cover up.

    Reply
    1. Neutrino

      Also disable the microphone capability when privacy is desired. Some use a cut-off dongle. Review settings for camera and microphone, and other features or bugs, each time your operating system is updated. There are always new aspects, beta, developer tool or otherwise, not all necessarily desirable or even fully understood by users.

      Reply
    2. hunkerdown

      Worse, the trend of young women in jeans placing phones in their back pockets with the camera unblinded and pointing directly backward, as if they mean to record what’s behind them all the time. How does one go about intervening against those kinds of everyday policy choices?

      Reply
      1. Wukchumni

        How come we don’t see yout’s with their iPhone rolled up in an upper sleeve on their t-shirt’s, like a 50’s cigarette smoker with a rectangular pack of coffin nails?

        Reply
    3. XXYY

      A very small piece, about 1/4 inch square, of electrical tape does a perfectly serviceable and largely invisible job of covering a camera lens on a PC or phone. Easy to peel off if you actually need the camera, but stays on reliably.

      In my opinion this is far superior to a software setting, since you can glance up there and verify that the block is in place.

      Reply
      1. ACPAL

        I don’t think it would be very hard to include a microphone in an otherwise innocuous looking component in everyone’s electronic equipment. I’m sure GPS is in everything. A video I saw yesterday described how DARPA uses search engines to find people who do similar lookups as you to identify your family, friends and co-conspirators. There are probably hidden cameras and microphones in all new cars. Any kind of snooping you can think of DARPA probably started using it 10-20 years ago.
        The Dark Side of DARPA | The Human Cost of Technological Supremacy
        Start at 25 minutes.

        Reply
    4. amfortas

      aye,lol.
      my laptop has had the gorrillatape over the little camera aperture for so long that i couldnt remove it if i wanted to, without strong solvents and a razor blade.
      not that i am blackmailable, in the least, of course.
      lol.
      i honestly dont give a damn.
      and have nothing to extort.

      Reply
  5. The Rev Kev

    “Did Donald Trump Authorize Murder?… and Why is He Disrespecting China’s Role in Defeating Japan?”

    ‘(President Xi,)Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America. PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP’

    Apart from the mild tinge of paranoia going on here I think that there is something else going on. Trump has a bad case of Parade Envy. It’s a common affliction with men his age. He just saw how Xi’s parade was bigger and longer than his own. Putin’s parade was bigger as well and more powerful and even France’s Macron has a bigger parade then Trumps whose own was kind of slack looking if not tired. No doubt he will tell himself that it is because those countries have huge open areas where they can show off their military and he only has Washington to work with. Well, unless he clears out and flattens one of those poorer suburbs in DC that is…

    Reply
      1. lyman alpha blob

        Well he authorized something. I don’t want to be one to doubt the veracity of what the President of the United States says (yes, that was sarcasm!), but so far at least, all I’ve seen is a grainy video posted by Trump.

        I haven’t seen any corroborating evidence – no wreckage has been recovered and I haven’t seen Venezuelan authorities condemning the breach of their sovereignty. As I was just typing that, I took a look at Venezuelanalysis to see if I’d missed anything and saw this prominently featured – https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/us-strikes-alleged-venezuelan-drug-vessel-killing-11-maduro-condemns-us-immoral-threat/ As Eclair notes below, we do have AI, and Venezuela is aware of that too. From the link –

        “Venezuela’s Communications Minister Freddy Ñáñez questioned the authenticity of the video showing the struck speedboat, warning that it could be AI-generated. Citing Google’s AI Geminis findings, he noted a lack of realistic details and “almost cartoon-like” explosion.”

        However even if this was just fake news by Trump, it’s still an execrable act that bound to lessen the already flatlining trust any other county has in the US.

        Reply
    1. Louis Fyne

      all the Trump pearl clutching cracks me up as the editors/writers (prob. editorial board too) of the NYT are just as ignorant as Trump re. WW2 history.

      A plague on both their houses!

      Reply
    2. SufferinSuccotash

      The real explanation for the crime “emergency” in DC: the failure of those ungrateful wretches in Washington to turn out for Donnie’s Big Beautiful Parade.

      Reply
    3. Erstwhile

      If trump would order that a parade of virile soldiers, snappily dressed in gold-tinged uniforms, each holding a single copy of the epstein files, and maybe the trump bible, march in single file down pennsylvania avenue , then that parade might well dwarf the Chinese one, passing the white house snaking through the rat-infested, burned down democrat city of baltimore walking across the ocean, and winding up in the bombed out ruins of gaza, the files then to be singly torched by mike johnson and the honorable hakeem jeffries , all to be saluted by trump’s soul buddy, bibi the butcher, as everyone would join in to heartily applaud as an old gazan woman gets one in the head for daring to beg for bread from god’s chosen people.

      That would be a swell parade for the malignant narcissist. THAT WOULD GET HIS JOLLIES OFF!

      Thank you for your attention to this matter.

      Reply
    4. Eclair

      Oh, pish tush. The US of A doesn’t need to put on a 19th century display of precision marching with jet plane flyovers expelling redwhiteandblue flatulence trails. Oh no, we have AI. We have Star Link. We have the CIA. We can monitor everything everyone says and where they say it. We (and our partner Israel) can assassinate heads of state and military commanders and, probably, presidents of universities if they get too uppity. And their families. We specialize in precision decapitation. And sanctions. And tariffs. It’s hard to get those tech bros and spooks to march in lock step; even harder to persuade them to salute!

      Reply
      1. Wukchumni

        I was forced to watch Fox News for an hour during my physical therapy session, and truth be said it could have been worse, as in the Mid Sahara Ladies Junior Championship from Chad, complete with lots of sand traps.

        For a Polish F-16 pilot who lost his life in an airshow rehearsal mishap in a random town named Radom last week, a 4 jet missing man formation was flown over the White House yesterday when the Polish President arrived, in his honor.

        …maybe I picked the wrong century to be an absurdist?

        Reply
        1. Henry Moon Pie

          I’m glad we didn’t have a crash here. Once a year, in some kind of strange way to honor “labor,” but really to nix that Red holiday, May Day, we have an F-16 nearly drive down our street. We’re less than a mile from the old Burke Lakefront Airport where the annual Cleveland Labor Day air show is held. Every year, except 2020, the Thunderbirds arrive about Tuesday to practice their routines, which include an F-16 at little more than treetop level flying down our street toward Burke. I was relieving myself this past weekend when came that time in the show, and the noise made me jump and look reflexively out the window where I was standing. There was the F-16 over a big tree across and a little down the street banking to the left on final approach.

          Then it was time to get out the mop.

          Reply
        2. amfortas

          “…maybe I picked the wrong century to be an absurdist?”

          again, Wuk, Dude!!
          when r u comin to texas?
          lol.
          Wilderness Bar and Now Grill beckons.

          i, for one, have always wanted to see he trees in yer part of the world, but sadly, such long distances are out of my ability.
          and i will not fly, no matter how much i am paid to.

          Reply
          1. Wukchumni

            I haven’t been in Texas since before the turn of the century. amfortas…

            You really ought to come out west instead, where the Brobdingnagians hang out.

            The tyranny of distance doesn’t stop the Amish from visiting, and they’ll never step on a plane either.

            Imagine a forest full of Sequoias all pretty much 15-20 feet wide at eye level, with some approaching 30 feet wide…

            You can only get that in one place, here.

            Reply
      2. bertl

        Yes, I’ve got to admit that there is a certain charm about a country whose military, and better yet, its military bands, seem to be to have been very, very effectively trained to appear as if they are completely incapable of precision marching in a formal public parade celebrating a great historical moment, not to mention the willingness of its elected representatives to display their genteel imbecility to the world at large: “Bill to sanction Chinese officials who avoid action on fentanyl passes US House” South China Morning Post.

        Reply
        1. Mass Driver

          Displayed marching (dis)abilities are nothing compared to combat performance against enemies that lack basic marching necessities (i.e. boots and paved roads).

          Reply
  6. LadyXoc

    “Narcoterrorism” has been a widely used term in LatAm for decades at this point. No doubt recently imported by a Spanish-speaking US official (Rubio et al.)

    Reply
  7. Wukchumni

    Wildfire devastates historic California gold mining town, homes burn in blaze caused by lightning AP
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Perhaps the most notable event in Chinese Camp’s history is the tong war that happened on September 26, 1856 at nearby Crimea House. A few days prior, a minor dispute occurred in which a large boulder rolled off a claim where six members of the Yan-Wo Tong were working and onto a claim where twelve members of the Sam-Yap Tong were working. It was decided that, in order to settle the dispute with honor, the two tongs would meet for battle. Local blacksmiths forged weapons and a few firearms were obtained. On the morning of the 26th, some 900 members of the Yan-Wo Tong and 1200 members of the Sam-Yap Tong met at Crimea House and went battle with one another while other miners took bets on who would win. Law enforcement quickly broke up the event, but not before four were killed and another four wounded. Nevertheless, honor had been restored.

    https://beyond.nvexpeditions.com/california/tuolumne/chinesecamp.php

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Can you imagine that, a tong war in California with 2,100 going at it~

    Reply
  8. The Rev Kev

    “NATO Warns of European Recruitment Crisis Despite Record Military Spending”

    There is a major reason why the lack of interest among young people in enlisting in the military in Europe – motivation. So let’s go to different countries and ask young people a simple question that will clear this all up-

    UK-
    Q: ‘Will you go fight and die for Prime Minister Keir Starmer?’
    A: !!???!!???

    Germany-
    Q: ‘Will you go fight and die for Chancellor Friedrich Merz?’
    A: !!???!!???

    France-
    Q: ‘Will you go fight and die for President Emmanuel Macron?’
    A: !!???!!???

    Members of the EU-
    Q: ‘Will you go fight and die for Ursula von der Leyen?’
    A: !!???!!???

    See! It’s just a matter of asking the right question.

    Reply
  9. Jason Boxman

    Just a note that the PMC dashboard makes some guesses to convert data to numbers of infected individuals, and this is gonna have a huge latitude to it, and it’s better to just assume that every day is dangerous and continue to protect yourself the same, always. This kind of quantification with the dashboard gives a false sense we have any idea how many people are infected at any given time; We have no idea sadly.

    Reply
    1. ACPAL

      IMHO, us against Covid is like Zelenski against Russia. We’ve already lost even though some continue to fight. Unless the medical industry finds a magic bullet that actually works like the polio vaccine we’re not going to win against Covid. And why would the medical industry try to find a true vaccine (or admit it if they stumbled onto one) when they are making a massive fortune treating people.

      I have accepted my fate to suffer and perhaps die of covid, and so many other things, regardless of how many false “vaccines” are offered. I would guess that a lot of other people have given up hope of a true vaccine and have accepted covid as they have accepted the flu.

      ‘Give me coffee to change the things I can
      ‘Wine to accept those that I cannot
      ‘And the wisdom to know the difference’

      Reply
      1. Yves Smith

        No, we can hold out. Zelensky’s options are more limited.

        Masking and nasal sprays or Neti pots are effective. I can get Covitrap, as in Covid nasal antibodies, in Thailand.

        Reply
      2. XXYY

        I remember reading, though have not been able to find again despite much trying, a study that found mice usually died after about eight cases of COVID. This has a certain gut level plausibility to me since we have seen how much damage to the body’s systems the COVID virus causes, though I certainly can’t prove anything one way or the other and humans can certainly be different from mice (and there may be a time component as well: getting eight cases one after the other may be different from getting one case a year for 8 years).

        Given this though, I think about how long it will take the average person to accumulate eight cases of COVID. Not long, I wouldn’t think, especially since about half of COVID infections are asymptomatic.

        Obviously we need all hands on deck on the matter of ridding the population of COVID. Time is definitely not on our side.

        Reply
      3. Jason Boxman

        I can certainly appreciate that. I know the population level statistics, and see even occasionally first hand what’s happening with coworkers, or (sadly) family, or on lectures I’m attending. And yet whenever I go out, which isn’t often, the world looks completely 2019 to me. It feels entirely futile to bother with protections.

        Nonetheless, the research and data demonstrate without any doubt what kind of dangerous roulette is being played here. It’s unfolding on a much longer timescale than I ever imaged, though.

        And we absolutely have all the technical know-how to overwhelmingly manage this; yes elimination is likely impossible now. But we know it’s airborne, and we know how to clean the air, how to test. Just recently I learned of a pilot project, commercially available, to detect SARS-CoV-2 in the air. It died a few years ago, though, acquired by a larger medical device company. Imagine if we actually did have an OWS style approach to developing these technologies?

        We could have NAAT tests widely available, and inexpensive. We could have natively manufactured N95s, including kid-sized, available inexpensively. We could have paid sick leave, generous leave. We cloud have effective treatments. The monoclonals seem abandoned due to mutations, but that doesn’t mean with proper funding these cannot be updated when necessary. We can do many, many things with adequate funding and imagination.

        So we can make the air much safer, much safer in general. It’s simply a lack of collective will. Too many elite are too culpable, and by and large, they’re all casually indifferent to the consequences of their actions on others anyway, for there to be any favorable resolution to this.

        And who wants to face Climate, with COVID-based damage to your body?

        This timeline is pretty lit.

        Reply
        1. amfortas

          but none of those things serve the objectives of our betters, sadly.
          many many people must die.
          its just numbers, you see?
          slower version of whats happening in Gaza…
          so the Masters can have their playground back, as God intended.
          someone’s AI has calculated just how many human slaves they will require.

          Reply
  10. Jason Boxman

    Wall Street’s Bet Against the Trump Tariffs (NY Times via archive.ph)

    More speculation.

    Andrew here. There’s a fascinating new conversation happening among C.E.O.s and Wall Street firms: Some of the biggest American companies getting hit by President Trump’s tariffs are being pitched to sell their rights to a refund, which would be especially lucrative if the Supreme Court ultimately decides to reverse the levies.

    Financiers are offering to buy the refund rights for cents on the dollar — and, given the costs and uncertainty of the legal fights in challenging the tariffs, many companies are considering those proposals. My colleague Bernhard Warner has a detailed breakdown. What do you think? Would you sell your refund rights up front now in exchange for cash? Let us know.

    (bold mine)

    Talk about financialization. What are the odds any small businesses can even utilize this, or will many be dead by then?

    Reply
    1. amfortas

      buzzards arguing over bones.

      i have observed this, from a remove, many times.(with real buzzards, who have more honor than any of these people)

      Reply
    1. The Rev Kev

      Gotta be careful where you send your kids outside. I read a coupla years ago where the cops came out and arrested this mother because her kid was playing in their front yard and was not under total supervision. The kid was placed with relatives or maybe foster care and the mother had to defend herself in court on charges of child neglect. Why yes, this was in the US.

      Reply
      1. Wukchumni

        I was born free range, free until suppertime
        Back when life was simple all the time, borne free!

        Unlike some I really kept at it and can’t wait to get off-trail again…

        99% of the visitors to Sequoia NP go to 1% of the park, and 1% of the visitors go to 99% of the park, and of that 1%… 99% never leave the trail

        Reply
  11. Steve H.

    > Earth’s Seasons Are Out of Sync, Scientists Discover From Space Science Alert

    >> One such consequence is that populations with out-of-sync reproductive cycles would be less likely to interbreed. As a result, these populations would be expected to diverge genetically, and perhaps eventually even split into different species.

    Where the glaciers stopped is apparent on the Land Surface Phenology map at the bottom.

    For our citizen scientists [National Phenology Network]:

    > Consider contributing to this valuable effort by tracking a cloned lilac (Syringa x chinensis ‘Red Rothomagensis’) or common lilac (Syringa vulgaris) in your yard. We are also interested in observations of cloned dogwoods; if you live in the southeastern US, a cloned dogwood might be best for you.

    Reply
    1. Wukchumni

      We had a big leaf drop on oak trees in August, they are mixed up as that usually happens a few months later.

      Another biggie smalls, is every summer without fail we get an ant invasion in the house and you have to be extra careful in not leaving anything out in the kitchen-1 drop of spilled Dr. Pepper on the counter might entice a conga line of 100 to gorge… and it gives you a chance to be a Terro-ist threat, the best indoors bait & twitch killer out there. (I hope PETA* isn’t listening in…)

      Well, this summer not only are there no indoor ants, outdoor ants are missing from their well made entry & exit cracks on my driveway asphalt.

      I can only assume these were evangelical ants, and presumably they all got raptured.

      * People for Ethical Treatment of Ants

      Reply
  12. Wukchumni

    BBC Media Action Exposed: Leaked Docs Reveal UK Government Funded Radio Drama ‘Story Story’ To Influence Nigerian Voters West Africa Weekly
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    “I am MR.XXX XXX, An Auditor at BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION DIRTY TRICKS (BBCDT). There is an account opened in this bank in 1980 and since 1990 nobody has operated on this account again. After going through some old files in the records, I discovered that if I do not remit this money out urgently it would be forfeited for nothing to the Crown. No other person knows about this account or any thing concerning it, the account has no other beneficiary and my investigation proved to me as well that his company does not know anything about this account and the amount involved is (USD$ 10M) Ten million United States Dollars. I am only contacting you as a foreigner because this money cannot be approved to a local bank here, but can only be approved to any foreign account because the money is in U.S. dollars and the former owner of the account is Mr. XXX XXXX is a foreigner too. I know that this message will come to you as a surprise as we don’t know ourselves before. Send also your private telephone and text number including the full details of the account to be used for the deposit. I want us to meet face to face or sign a binding agreement to bind us together so that you can receive this money into a foreign account or any account of your choice where the fund will be safe. And I will fly to your country for withdrawal and sharing and other investments. At the conclusion of this business, you will be given 25% of the total amount, 70% will be for me, and while 5% will be for expenses both parties might have incurred during the process of transferring.”

    Reply
  13. antidlc

    https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/04/business/health-insurance-premiums-cost-increase
    Why your health insurance copays, deductibles and premiums will probably surge next year

    Cancer care has been the top driver of employer cost increases for four years in a row, exacerbated by a growing prevalence of diagnoses and more expensive treatments, according to the Business Group on Health, which surveyed 121 larger companies.

    Hmmm…. a “growing prevalence” of cancer diagnoses. Gee, I wonder why.

    So let me get this right.
    1) Companies don’t let you work from home.
    2) They don’t provide adequate ventilation or let you mask. They don’t give PTO.
    3) Employees catch COVID
    4) Employees get cancer
    5) Health insurance premiums go up

    Did I get that right?

    Reply
  14. tegnost

    Re Hamilton Nolan…
    I have a fiction idea that a way to deal with the billionaires is to have a threshold amount, say a billion, and if one gathers that much money it is all given to the .gov, and after which said billionaire becomes a sort of monk…a chipped monk because wherever this person goes for the reminder of his/her days they can walk in any establishment and take anything they want, and the will activate payment, but said ex billionaire chipped monk will be forbidden any amount of cash on pain of death. This would inspire 900 millionaires to desperately give things away, very good for the economy, and it would also leave the embarrassed ex billionaire this person who just goes around taking things and thus gaining the ire filled attention of the other folks. In my fantasy world this would inevitably expose the baser nature of the one who couldn’t give anything away. Comedy ensues!
    I think this would fix it. :)

    Reply
  15. XXYY

    UN nuclear chief demands Iran resume uranium enrichment inspections ‘without delay’ The Cradle

    Yeah, right. Seems like the only people who would benefit from this are the paid workers reporting to the UN nuclear chief. Iranians have concluded that the UN is a spy agency bent on reporting information about Iran’s nuclear weapons program to the countries who will be targeting it in the next war. The Israelis don’t really care about the facts of the situation anyway, and will just bomb everything in Iran regardless.

    The whole thing stinks of hypocrisy and bad faith since other nuclear weapons countries don’t want the UN reporting on their programs; why should Iran be different?

    We can argue that countries having nuclear weapons is a bad thing, but that train seems to have definitely left the station and physical inspection is unlikely to change anything in the present environment.

    Reply
  16. Jason Boxman

    MAGA is working

    Labor market growth slows dramatically in August with U.S. adding just 54,000 jobs, ADP says

    U.S. private sector hiring rose less than expected in August and significantly cooled from the prior month, according to the ADP.

    Private payrolls increased by just 54,000 in August, well short of the 75,000 estimate from economists polled by Dow Jones and down from the revised gain of 106,000 jobs added in July.

    Thursday’s release adds to an already concerning picture of the labor market.

    Reply
  17. The Rev Kev

    ‘Aaron Rupar
    @atrupar
    military flyovers disrupt the Epstein victim press conference’

    Perhaps it was just a coincidence that those jets flew over that rally – twice. It could have been. But we are talking about optics here and what it looks like is Trump being so petty as to use the US military to divert aircraft over that rally to disrupt it. And Trump has said that he only wants to talk about how his eight months has been the most successful of any Presidency and does not want to talk about the Epstein files hoax. It’s not working.

    Reply
    1. Wukchumni

      Life imitates art, and we aren’t far off the plot of the recent decent movie Civil War as luck would have it.

      Just add a Kent State-like massacre by a National Guardsman with a twitchy trigger finger in one of our occupied cities-all heavily invested in the Donkey Show~

      Reply
      1. Henry Moon Pie

        Those Kent State Guardsmen didn’t have itchy trigger fingers, Wuk. They were given the order to fire. It’s on tape, and I listened to it personally at the little museum on campus.

        One old story is that Gov. Rhodes lusted to replace scandal-plagued Spiro, and wanted to impress Nixon with his bloodthirstiness. So the governor, whose name still hovers over Cleveland atop the CSU library, had the Guard appropriately briefed on the hyper-aggressive terms of engagement. Nixon and Haldeman later had a laugh about how effective the “kill a few” tactic had been.

        Reply
        1. Wukchumni

          My bad, HMP.

          Didn’t know that~

          I can tell you that the stock market laid a huge egg at the same time frame as the Kent State Shootings, and my dad was out of work for a few years~

          The first “Earth Day” was launched April 22, 1970. It was also Ross Perot’s “back to earth” day. Shares in his Electronic Data Systems (bought by Hewlett-Packard ( HPQ ) last year) fell $60 that day. On paper, Earth Day cost Ross Perot roughly $450 million, but he didn’t seem fazed by all those paper losses.

          EDS was not alone. Many tech stocks fell by 80% or more in the second quarter of 1970. Have you ever heard of that crash? No doubt you recall the tech stock crash of 2000-02 and the general 1973-74 crash — but few remember the 1970 crash. The S&P 500 fell 19% that quarter, and the Dow fell 13%. The core of the 1970 crash came in just five weeks — from April 20 to May 26 — when both major indexes fell 19%.

          https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/back-earth-day-tech-stock-crash-1970-2010-04-23-0

          Reply
    2. tegnost

      not to deny trump as a petty person, but the blue angels were in ft lauderdale yesterday and they fly the very same pattern, year after year, such that in seattle…every year…they fly over the same houses from the same direction…noisy and precise. Personally I like to be able to see the things we spend so much on and it’s just one weekend a year and those pilots are really something.

      Reply
      1. Wukchumni

        At the hot springs in Star Wars Canyon in Death Valley NP, is isn’t uncommon to get say 20 really low flyovers of F-16’s, F-18’s and F-35’s in a 3 day tour-a 3 day tour there. I’m talking 100 feet over your head @ 400 knots.

        I value them @ around $14 a flight in my head with the exception of the F-35 @ $86, in terms of what I pay in taxes and get out of it, from a MIC standpoint.

        …a taste of the action

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ski8nj9OdXw

        Reply
    3. neutrino23

      The flyover ordered by Trump kind of rhymes with the notion of “the banality of evil.” Trump is no supervillain. This was not him playing 3D chess. He is just a d***. Maybe it was also an admission of guilt.

      On a sadder note, I just learned two friends have come down with COVID. Stay safe everyone.

      Reply
  18. Donald Obama

    Glenn Greenwald is underselling the reach of The Free Press (though I don’t disagree that they are a propaganda outlet). Their main product is their substack newsletter, not their Youtube videos. Actually, I might be wrong – I believe people can listen to substack podcasts directly through substack, so it could even be that the podcasts are in fact popular. But the point is that Youtube views are not a valid measure of popularity in this case.

    In 2024 substack signed a deal with the Free Press: https://on.substack.com/p/the-new-media-powered-by-substack, and here are some numbers (which no doubt have grown):

    The Free Press in its current iteration launched on Substack in 2022 and has since accrued an audience of 1 million subscribers, including more than 135,000 paid subscribers. A recent funding round valued the company, which now has 50 employees, at $100 million.

    So anyway – The Free Press is definitely a pernicious force in the new media world (though I guess, they are melding back into the old world with this Paramount deal?),

    Reply
  19. The Rev Kev

    “AI Generated ‘Boring History’ Videos Are Flooding YouTube and Drowning Out Real History”

    ‘videos from Sleepless Historian and several similar-sounding channels like Boring History Bites, History Before Sleep, The Snoozetorian, Historian Sleepy, and Dreamoria.’

    This kinda makes me feel uneasy how there are so many channels like this. What if AI is told to slip in some subliminal messages as people are snoozing off or are actually asleep? It could happen so easy. Back in the 90s somebody noticed how in Simpson’s cartoons, they were slipping in subliminal messages in the form of images of American flags, the Statue of Liberty, etc. You had to slow down the tape to see it but your brain was seeing it. The show’s creator’s said it was all a joke but was it? Same could happen with those AI trash channels for people when they are at their most vulnerable.

    Reply
    1. Santo de la Sera

      The message I got from this article is that subliminal messaging works only when you want it to, and then only for about 30 minutes or so.
      Plenty wrong with these McGarbage AI channels on YouTube though. I’ve noticed them on a variety of different subjects.

      Reply
    2. Alan Sutton

      The thing that pulled me up the most about that article was how the guy said he chose the videos based on how suitable they were for him to fall asleep to…

      The right length, on the right subject etc.

      So, he needs to have a podcast on in his head via headphones (presumably) to get to sleep?

      Weird.

      Reply
    3. bertl

      All history is false when time and perspectives change. This is the one truth history teaches us. It is the primary lesson we need our children to learn if they are not to become the victims of one propagandist or another, incapable of determining which story, if any, bears the closest approximation to the most likely reality. Think of the competing, highly weaponised accounts of the origins of the conflicts in the Ukraine and Palestine and how very different they are, and the significance of these differences in influencing the course of events today and in the future.

      Reply
  20. Tom Stone

    I never expected to see the Clinton’s outdone when it came to either grifting or damage to the Country and the Trump Family is blowing past those records with ease.
    It is impressive.

    It seems inevitable that Trump will go totally berserk when reality makes its way past his sychophantic guardians and it would be interesting to see a poll of the commentariat guessing when that will be, by quarter.
    I see a good chance that will happen by the end of this year and a greater likelihood it will happen by the end of the first quarter of 2026.
    Kicking the can further down the road than that will take enormous effort by both
    Trump and his inner circle, which is possible but not likely.
    Stay safe and enjoy the show.

    Reply
  21. flora

    Latest from the New England Journal of Medicine, Sept. 4th.

    Reference 1
    Perspective
    The Corporatization of U.S. Health Care

    The Corporatization Deal — Health Care, Investors, and the Profit Priority
    Authors: Amitabh Chandra, Ph.D., and Mark Shepard, Ph.D.Author Info & Affiliations
    Published August 30, 2025
    N Engl J Med 2025;393:833-835
    DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2505258
    VOL. 393 NO. 9
    Copyright © 2025

    https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2505258

    Mostly paywalled. First para from the abstract.

    Corporatization represents a deal between medical organizations and investors and presumably benefits those entities. But the key question for society is whether it benefits patients and payers.

    Reply
  22. AG

    re: Germany elections recount

    via Fabio De Masi BSW
    https://x.com/Buendnis_SahraW/status/1963137466875187409

    “(…)
    Scientists call for a recount

    Prof. Eckhard Jesse (Chemnitz University of Technology) and
    Prof. Uwe Wagschal (University of Freiburg), editors of Statistics, Politics and Policy (SPP), were both chairmen of the German Political Science Association. Based on the numerous statistical anomalies identified in our election complaint, they are calling for a recount of the federal election, which is detrimental to the BSW, in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), as the federal government may currently lack a majority.

    They write:

    “Political science and
    legal scholarship remain strangely silent. But it’s about
    trust in the democratic constitutional state. The key question, not only for the party, is: Did the Federal Social Democratic Party (BSV)
    achieve a five percent share of the vote? Given the close outcome and
    many inconsistencies, a nationwide recount
    is not only sensible, but also urgently required.
    Should the result for the BSW continue to be below the five percent margin,
    its accuracy is beyond any doubt – there will then be no room for conspiracy theories. Otherwise, the result would be relevant to the mandate. The BSW would enter the Bundestag,
    and the CDU-SPD coalition would lose its majority. Whether you like it
    or not: an accurate count takes priority over all other considerations.”
    (…)”

    Said FAZ text appears to be only in the print edition. Judging from the screenshot on X interestingly it is not featured in the VIP section “politics” but “research and teaching” which is of course much less taken notice of.

    Reply
    1. Alan Sutton

      “ Whether you like it or not: an accurate count takes priority over all other considerations.”

      Hmm, I’d say that depends on who you are and what outcome you desire.

      Unlikely it would be the main priority of the government in Germany at the moment.

      Reply
    2. bertl

      When you throw something like this in the ring, sooner or later it will influence the fight and probably determine the outcome. It will take very little to bring down the current German government, and the only real question is, will Merz fall before Macron and Starmer?

      Reply
  23. Wukchumni

    When I was coming off my prior heroine addiction in the Palinstinian Movement, along came M T-G to fill in the gap when our doyen of the last frontier checked out, and I really thought she was of the same caliber-which is to say, ‘get out the limbo stick!’ was my thought, but here she is leading the charge to rid us of child molesters posing as politicians, imagine that.

    Reply
    1. The Rev Kev

      I guess her version of Make America Great Again also means getting rid of child molesters out of positions of power. That was never on my bingo card for her whom I had dismissed as a wingnut. When I think of it, I cannot recall politicians like Sanders or AOC getting vocal on that subject, even though Trump has his backside in the wind over this topic. Strange that.

      Reply
    2. bertl

      MTG is a political matryoshka doll who is capable of surprising us with her honesty. Looking back over some of her statements, most of which I disagreed with at the time, I think she functions on a combination of relatively consistent principles backed by real emotional strength and, for a politician, she is astonishingly open and has demonstrated that she has the balls to take real risks with her career unlike most of her depressingly/disgustingly (you choose) conformist peers.

      Reply
  24. AG

    re: Germany social welfare cuts

    via German-Foreign-Policy-Blog

    machine-translation

    From the turning point to the epochal break
    Merz announces the first dramatic social cuts in favor of military spending and envisions a “breaking point” or the end of the “Bonn Republic.” Poverty in Germany is already increasing significantly.

    https://archive.is/4Miok

    Reply
    1. Henry Moon Pie

      What does the “end of the ‘Bonn Republic'” mean? That’s pretty shocking. Britain, France and Germany are quite the Triumvirate. A race to the bottom.

      Reply
      1. AG

        Of course one could argue the Bonn Republic, more or less a sister term to the “Rhenish Capitalism”, was gone with Schröder´s “Agenda 2010” 25 years ago. Its enounciation now is offering media to propagate it better as it has now a concrete word for the things taking place. It´s like a post-factum justification for ending asylum, for ending social welfare, for ending (fake) European reconciliation with Russia and to the benign German industrial powerhouse whose elites thought they gotta do nice because it gives a nice moral sun tan. It´s not unlike the transition from DEMS to TRUMP in the US now. It´s the term fixating the final destruction of German society. Skol!

        Reply
    2. The Rev Kev

      If Merz has to take Germany to the IMF for a bailout eventually, will they let him keep his military spending? Don’t know what the poor guy will do if the Russians wrap up this war. His whole identity has evolved to how Germany must fight the Russian bear which is just nuts. he has a really big chip on his shoulder about the Russians and some people are wondering if it has to do with some past family history during the Nasty Era.

      Reply
      1. Mass Driver

        If Merz has to take Germany to the IMF for a bailout eventually, they will make him introduce conscription, increase military spending, and reduce wages. We’ve been down this road before. Russians couldn’t wrap up this war, even if they were to drive their tanks down the Bandera street in Kiev. Last time, Banderites kept on fighting even after tanks parked in front of Reichstag.

        Reply
  25. Es s Ce Tera

    I’ve just come across a theory called the River Theory which points to historical precedents for what is happening with Israel’s siege of Gaza, where a given society somehow becomes evil, is induced to engage in a taboo behaviour, in this case human and child sacrifice.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS9xidsyxXY

    The theory is Israel’s leadership has backed Israelis against a river where they have no choice, having committed taboo behaviour, to must go all in, against the world, or die. The equivalent of generals historically pushing their armies to a river where they have no choice but to stand and fight to the death or drown.

    It’s an interesting observation. Wondering what the NC crowd thinks of it.

    Reply
    1. raspberry jam

      I think there is a more direct explanation for why Israel’s leadership has gone through with genocide in Gaza and will likely annex the West Bank and attempt to annex parts of Syria and Jordan: the government coalition is held together by a Kahanist faction and prior to this government there were 5 elections in 3 years that fell, and following the events of 10/7 and 30 years of the Israeli electorate moving rightwards following the collapse of Oslo and the second intifada, the majority of Israelis believe the only way to ‘secure their safety’ is to let the Kahanists off leash for a while and damn the consequences.

      This article is a good overview of what Kahanism is and how it became entrenched in Israel’s government after it was barred from elections as a terrorist organization for 30 years.

      Reply
    2. Henry Moon Pie

      It reminded me of this account of soldiers and a river, a country and a President, delivered by Pete Seeger, the old blacklisted Red, on the Smothers Brothers Hour in spring of ’68. There’s quite a story about that performance, a pissed LBJ, CBS censors, and Pete.

      The moment for Pete, banned from most American media for nearly 20 years, must have been one where he got to use Dylan’s shovel for once instead of the usual teaspoon the system had restricted him to. Seeger’s a major character in the Dylan bio-pick, “A Complete Unknown.” Always hoping for a revolution of some kind, Seeger saw the reactions at the Newport Folk Festival to Dylan songs like “The Times, They are a-Changin’,” that prefigured the coming youth rebellion and thought he’d found its leader, but Dylan had other ideas. (At least, according to the movie.)

      Reply
    3. hk

      That was invoked by Ma Su (in the fictionalized history of the Three Kingdoms era–how true the events were, who knows?). What happened was not exactly what he had in mind: basically, half his army surrendered and the other half deserted. Maybe Israelis can’t exactly “surrender,” but they definitely can desert–I don’t think there’s anything keeping them from leaving and dooming the Israeli state to becoming a dump full of crazies in its last throes.

      Reply
  26. tiebie66

    “Construction intensifies at site linked to Israel’s suspected nuclear program, satellite photos show”
    I’d wager that Israel is planning to attack Iran with several nuclear weapons in the next round. I imagine they fear what Iran might do, and has promised to do, and will strike first and catastrophically.

    Reply
    1. lyman alpha blob

      If that is what the Zionist entity is planning, they better be damned sure that China or Russia won’t discontinue their forbearance of the ongoing genocide and turn Israel to glass.

      Reply
      1. hk

        It won’t be Russia or China: they have too much invested in Israel to do it themselves. But it will conpletely destroy nuclear arms control regime. Iran won’t be that badly hurt–it’s too big for that. But you can bd sure that you’ll see nuclear Saudi Arabia within a short time. Possibly, Turkiye might “reclaim” its nuclear weapons (I used to joke that Ukraine had nuclear weapons as much as Italy, Germany, and Turkey did during the Cold War…). Who else? Vietnam? South Korea? Myanmar? Egypt? South Africa? Mexico? Cuba? Venezuela? Boy, it’ll be a mess.

        Reply
  27. Wukchumni

    Trump suggests National Guard could go into New Orleans, a blue city in a red state (AP)

    Riding on towards the City of New Orleans
    Amtrak choo-choo, Monday morning rail
    15 cars and 666 restless National Guard riders
    Gonna stop the crime spree there and raise a little hell

    All along the odyssey, the train pulls out of DC
    And rolls along past houses farms and fields
    Passing aims that have no name thanks to a doddering man
    And the graveyards of rusted manufacturing

    Good morning occupied America, how are you
    Said don’t you know me, I’m your neighbor’s National Guard son
    I’m on the train going to the City of New Orleans
    I’ll be gone 500 miles when the day is done

    Dealing reigndeer games, with the old man in the White House
    Really no point ain’t no one keeping score
    Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
    Feel the wheels, rumblin’ ‘neath the floor

    And the sons of unemployed reporters, and the sons of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers
    Ride their fathers’ magic carpets, made of steel
    And some asleep, are rockin’ to the gentle beat
    And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel

    Good morning occupied America, how are you
    Said don’t you know me, I’m your neighbor’s National Guard son
    I’m on the train going to the City of New Orleans
    I’ll be gone 500 miles when the day is done

    Nighttime when we arrive in the City of New Orleans
    Patrolling streets in the Big Easy
    Staying @ a Motel 6, we’ll all be there by morning
    Through the Louisiana darkness, rolling down the street

    But all Democrat towns and people seem, to fade into a bad dream
    And the steel rail still ain’t heard the news
    The conductor sings his songs again, the passengers will please refrain
    This Democracy has got the disappearing republic blues

    Good morning occupied America, how are you
    Said don’t you know me, I’m your neighbor’s National Guard son
    I’m on the train going to the City of New Orleans
    I’ll be gone 500 miles when the day is done

    City of New Orleans, by Arlo Guthrie

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvMS_ykiLiQ&list=RDTvMS_ykiLiQ

    Reply
  28. Wukchumni

    My friend Wonderhussy giving us the skinny on Burning Man…

    Burning Man 2025: It Was Better Next Year

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmnSR1xGpJk
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    There was a fellow murdered at Burning Man this year, and to draw an analogy, when I was in high school through to my young adult years Westwood Village over by UCLA was the place to go and to be seen, so popular.

    And this happened, and nobody went there anymore so much…

    On January 30, 1988, 27-year-old graphic artist Karen Chikako Toshima was shot and later died in a hospital after she got caught in the crossfire between two rival gang members in Los Angeles, California. Toshima’s death signified the spread of gang violence outside the ghetto, as the shooting occurred in Westwood Village, a popular entertainment district. (Wiki)

    Reply
  29. Jason Boxman

    Some good news, perhaps

    Could a Pill Fix the Brain? (NY Times via archive.ph)

    Spoiler, possibly.

    In 2015, Dr. Alcino Silva, a leading memory researcher and colleague at U.C.L.A., was studying “smart” mice — mice with mutations that enhanced their ability to learn and remember. One day, he called Dr. Carmichael over to see a mouse that was smart for an unexpected reason: It was missing an immune gene.

    The gene coded for a receptor called CCR5, which, Dr. Silva’s lab had found, seemed to suppress plasticity, memory and learning. He wondered if it might play a role in recovery from stroke, which triggers the immune system to flood the brain with inflammatory cells.

    Dr. Carmichael was intrigued. In a healthy human brain, CCR5 was not present in neurons. But after a stroke or other brain injury, the receptor suddenly appeared everywhere in the brain.

    Reply
  30. Wukchumni

    I’m elated to announce the launch of AI BnB, where instead of having to think about anything, instead just rent knowledge.

    Reply
  31. ThirtyOne

    Trump suggests National Guard could go into New Orleans, a blue city in a red state (AP)

    There’s a brand old dance and I do know its name
    That people with great minds do again and again
    It’s big and it’s bold, full of tension and fear
    They did it over there and now I’m doing it here

    Fascism – Turn on the left
    Fascism – Turn to the right
    Ooh, Fascism
    We are the goon squad and we’re coming to town
    Beat-beat
    Beat-beat

    Listen to me – I listen to me
    Talk to me – I talk to me
    Dance with me – I dance with me
    Yes-Beat-beat

    There’s a brand new talk and it’s perfectly clear
    Oh shit
    My people from good homes are talking this year
    Oh shit, Fascism
    It’s loud and it’s tasteless and we’ve liked it before
    Oh shit
    You shout it while you’re cracking some heads on the floor
    (Ooh, shit, Fascism)

    Fascism – Turn on the left
    Fascism – Right
    Fascism
    We are the goon squad and we’re coming to town
    Beat-beat
    Beat-beat

    Listen to me – I listen to me
    Talk to me – I talk to me
    Dance with me – I dance with me
    Yes-Beat-beat – Beat-beat

    Oh, shit, do do do do do do do do
    Fa-fa-fa-fa-Fascism
    Oh, shit, do do do do do do do do
    Fa-fa-fa-fa-Fascism
    La-la la la la la la-la
    Oh, shit, do do do do do do do do
    Fa-fa-fa-fa-Fascism
    Oh, shit, do do do do do do do do
    Fa-fa-fa-fa-Fascism
    La-la la la la la la-la
    Oh, shit, do do do do do do do do
    Fa-fa-fa-fa-Fascism
    Oh, shit, do do do do do do do do
    Fa-fa-fa-fa-Fascism
    La-la la la la la la-la
    Oh, shit, do do do do do do do do
    Fa-fa-fa-fa-Fascism
    Oh, shit, do do do do do do do do
    Fa-fa-fa-fa-Fascism
    La-la la la la la la-la

    Fashion
    David Bowie
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0ZMVEBjcvs
    Check out Robert Fripp on guitar.

    Reply
  32. amfortas

    got lost in karl sanchez’ archives , due to one of the links, and came across, via another link, to Warwick Powell’s exegesis of Taiwan/China, and the history thereof, that is the best summation of the matter i have yet to read.

    the rub:”Coming off the sugar high of the 30 year unipolar moment, the U.S. political establishment is incapable of dealing with a multipolar reality.”

    its from more than a year ago, and is really long, but worth the time:
    https://warwickpowell.substack.com/p/dire-straits

    greeks, in ancient days, had a word for usa behaviour,lol…and it ends with a goddess of leveling coming after the perpetrator.

    Reply
    1. Alan Sutton

      Thank you very much Amfortas for that.

      Lots and lots of terrific stuff in that long article.

      I could go on and on but will just mention something from near the end:

      In that cut and pasted copy of the NYT Friedman interview with George Kennan.

      Right at near the end Kennan says “we are in the age of midgets”

      The boundless possibilities of the peace dividend that uncomplicated old pros like him saw after 1991 were hijacked by lunatics.

      That’s plain now. What a total shit show those fools unleashed after that.

      The article’s analysis of the Christian connection in all this vis a vis Taiwan is enlightening.

      The picture of Chiang Kai-Shek reading the bible is so embarrassing. So he thought that the towering achievements of the West were better than the (older) Chinese culture he represented?

      What a Quisling.

      Reply
      1. Daniil Adamov

        Pretty sure Quisling did prefer his own, though he had a somewhat expansive view of who his own were.

        Many people in early 20th century China thought the achievements of the West were objectively superior to either the sum of their heritage of what remained of it by that time, and sought the key to those achievements: whether in Christianity or in democracy or in social philosophies (such as Marxism) or some combination. To me this looks foolish – I wish to see the day Russia throws off all interest in the West – but it’s worth trying to understand how this came about, and to recognise that it was not purely a matter of being a Quisling, as well as certainly not limited to Chiang Kai-Shek who followed in the footsteps of many revered individuals in this regard.

        Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Chinese Republic who is still celebrated in both Taiwan and the PRC, was a Christian and a democrat, you might recall. Both his Christianity and his democratic thinking, though adapted to Chinese conditions, came from the West and were interconnected.

        Reply
        1. Plutoniumkun

          There is a long link between China and Christianity, although of course it was actively suppressed for many centuries. In the 19th Century, Christian ideas (if not necessarily active conversion) was very popular among radical minded Chinese of all persuasions as it was seen as a more dynamic philosophy than Confucianism/Buddhism/Taoism which was of course closely associated with what was seen as the rotten and failing old Imperial order. As you say, Sun Yat-Sen was a Christian, and Mao himself was an active supporter of him in his early days. For around a century from the mid-19th century onwards there was a very active ferment of interest in many seemingly incompatible ideas among the educated classes in China – with many peculiar (to Western eyes) permutations of eastern and western (religious and secular) ideas going mainstream. Both Sun Yat and Chiang Kai-Shek had beliefs that were quite complex hybrids, its often hard to say sometimes whether either or both were truly Christian or just had a strong interest in Christian beliefs, just as many Westerners toy around with Buddhism or other Eastern ideas without ever actually converting.

          While Chiang Kai-Shek gets a bad rap (mostly deservedly) for his later corruption, he was a far more complex and interesting individual than he’s usually portrayed – he was a very radical thinker in his youth – arguably he was just one who got mugged by political/military reality and as such opted for pragmatism, and he was nothing if not pragmatic in the end.

          There is also, of course, a very long tradition of Muslim influence in China, in particular in the non-Han inland regions. For obvious reasons, neither Beijing nor western powers have had any particular interest in highlighting its long and deep historical roots in China, albeit mostly outside the core Han lands.

          Reply
  33. Expat2uruguay

    Unbiased politics with Jordan Berman
    (a gorgeous blond female)
    https://youtu.be/MMd_oKeGDxk

    I don’t know if this channel has been posted here before, but this week features legal analysis of domestic events, from the time code description:

    Episode Format:

    1. CA Judge Says Deployment of National Guard was Unlawful (1:40)

    2. DC Sues Trump Administration Over Deployment of National Guard (10:15)

    3. Judge Says Alien Enemies Act Cannot Be Used for Deportations (13:15)

    4. Trump Administration Negotiates Deal with Guatemala to Return Unaccompanied Children; Here’s the Difference Between Repatriation and Deportation (17:39)

    5. Space Command Will Move to Huntsville, Alabama (22:27)

    6. Quick Hitters: FL to Do Away with Vaccine Mandates, US Strike Kills 11 on Boat, Epstein Victims’ Press Conference, More Epstein Docs Released, Judge Orders Harvard Grants Unfrozen, HHS Secretary RFK Jr. Testifies Before Senate, New ICE Detention Facility Opens (29:00)

    7. Rumor Has It: Is the Newest ICE Detention Facility Named ‘Camp 47’
    After the President? What’s Going on with the President’s Health? (33:03)

    8. Critical Thinking Segment (38:17)

    If you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a review and share it with those you know that also appreciate unbiased news!

    I would like to bring the reader’s attention to the final parts of the above quote: part 7 where she deals with rumors, part 8 where she has a critical thinking exercise and the final paragraph, which prompted me to share the episode here.

    But to be clear, Jordan Berman is not just a beautiful blonde, she’s packs a lot of information into this presentation and I learned a lot. AND she doesn’t do a lot of analysis or opinion, that’s kind of the point. Anyway, I thought this style of reporting was well-aligned with my understanding of the goals of this site.

    Reply
  34. Wukchumni

    It’s poultry in motion
    He turned his legal tender eyes to crypto
    As deep as a rock thrown in the ocean
    As sweet as any hegemony
    But he blindsided me by getting rid of science
    (he blindsided me by getting rid of science!)
    And failed me in climatology, hey (huh, huh, huh)

    Huh, huh
    When I’m watching close up far away
    (Blindsided me by getting rid of science, science)
    (Science!)
    I can smell his sulfurous way
    (Blindsided me by getting rid of science, science)
    (Science!)

    Now, but it’s poultry in motion
    When TACO turned his eyes to crypto
    As deep as a rock thrown in the ocean
    As sweet as any hegemony
    He blindsided me by getting rid of science
    (He blindsided me by getting rid of science)
    Failed me in climatology

    When he’s lying next, to me
    (Blindsided me by getting rid of science, science)
    (Science)
    I can hear the silent machinery
    (Blindsided me by getting rid of science, science)
    (Science!)

    Ha, it’s poultry in motion
    Now he’s chickening out again
    The Supremes are in commotion
    The Pachyderms in harmony
    He blindsided me by getting rid of science
    (He blindsided me by getting rid of science)
    And hit me with Silicon Valley technology

    She Blinded me with Science, by Thomas Dolby

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdSUnV2fJGk&list=RDwdSUnV2fJGk

    Reply
  35. Jason Boxman

    Time Is Running Out for Lebanon to Disarm Hezbollah, U.S. Officials Warn (NY Times via archive.ph)

    Lebanon’s leaders are running out of time to disarm the militant group Hezbollah before they risk losing U.S. and Gulf Arab financial support, and even a renewed Israeli military campaign, the Trump administration warned ahead of a key cabinet meeting in Beirut on Friday.

    The warning comes at what U.S. officials call a critical moment in Lebanon’s history, as the country’s cabinet considers a plan to force the decades-old Iran-backed group to surrender its weapons.

    The United States, Israel and the Gulf Arab states are pressuring Lebanon’s government to act decisively and not be intimidated by Hezbollah threats to incite violence.

    I guess Israel is gearing up for another offensive campaign, against a target that can’t hit back quite as hard.

    Reply
    1. raspberry jam

      I don’t think all the JDAM kits they ordered are just for Hezbollah though:

      WASHINGTON, June 30, 2025 – The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Israel of Munitions Guidance Kits and Munitions Support and related equipment for an estimated cost of $510 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress.

      The Government of Israel has requested to buy three thousand eight hundred forty-five (3,845) KMU-558B/B Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kits for the BLU-109 bomb body and three thousand two hundred eighty (3,280) KMU-572 F/B JDAM guidance kits for the MK 82 bomb body.

      When the previous round against Iran concluded I thought they would wait until after the Jewish holiday season (starting September 22, goes about three weeks across multiple holidays), maybe even after the new year, but more and more lately I’m thinking it is possible they kick it off while they have the current Gaza mobilization active.

      Reply

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