Elephant saving a Gazelle
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) September 5, 2025
Webb Telescope Spots a “Blob” Near a Star, but Is It a Planet? SciTech Daily
Bathroom doomscrolling may increase your risk of hemorrhoids Popular Science
When Is Food Not Food? Thomas Neuburger
The Other Mark Zuckerberg Has Had Enough: Bankruptcy Lawyer Sues Meta Over Identity Mix-Ups technobez
First CRISPR horses spark controversy: what’s next for gene-edited animals? Nature
COVID-19/Pandemics
XFG ‘Stratus’ COVID Variant Spreading Rapidly in US as Cases Rise. Know These Symptoms Today
New Ebola outbreak in DR Congo suspected of causing 15 deaths CNN
China battles mosquito-borne virus with Covid-era methods as U.S. issues travel warning NBC News
Climate/Environment
Air pollution directly linked to increased dementia risk Nature
China?
NASA’s acting chief “angry” about talk that China will beat US back to the Moon Ars TechnicaThe main problem with this analysis, in my view, is the assumption that any single US administration is truly capable of executing a coherent “grand strategy” — particularly one that would challenge the immense gravitational pull of America’s entrenched imperial inertia. Just as… https://t.co/5jAqK4Lo75
— Thomas Fazi (@battleforeurope) September 6, 2025
‘It’s Europe vs China’ as Chinese brands crowd Munich car show Reuters
China’s New Sword: The ultimate hypersonic and nuclear deterrent CGTN
China closes biotech gap with US as new drugs, R&D pipelines top 30% of global total SCMP
India
India seeks closer ties with China as tensions with US rise over tariffs Andolu Agency
India reaffirms commitment to Russia friendship as Trump blasts their ties to ‘darkest China’ Cryptopolitan
As Trump rebuffs India, the European Union nudges closer Euronews
South of the Border
Hegseth Doesn’t Rule Out Regime Change in Venezuela, Suggests More US Strikes on Boats Are Coming Scheerpost
Is Venezuela the big cocaine menace Trump claims it to be? Al Jazeera
US, Mexico agree to increase cooperation in fight against drugs The Hill
Africa
Here comes the sun: Africa bets big on solar energy Andolu Agency
A year later, Africa’s Gen Z uprising is only more emboldened Waging Nonviolence
Ford, Glencore Cut Jobs as South Africa’s Economy Stagnates Bloomberg
European Disunion
Ignoring Trump threats, Europe hits Google with 2.95B euro fine for adtech monopoly Ars Technica
German chancellor laments Europe’s diminished global role Andolu Agency
French air traffic control strikes to bring CHAOS for millions across Europe Daily Mail
Old Blighty
Starmer carries out major reshuffle after Rayner resignation BBC
More than 425 arrested as protesters defy ban on Palestine Action in London Guardian
Starmer Weighs UK Digital ID System, Drawing Civil Liberty Backlash Reclaim the Net
Israel v. Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iran
Just now in #Gaza City: the last remains of a residential building were crushed on top of a defenceless population. Israel’s barbarity defies words — and the world’s inaction is nothing less than complicity. pic.twitter.com/0jJPDSMzOi
— Husam Zomlot (@hzomlot) September 5, 2025
Another building goes down in Gaza City 🔥 pic.twitter.com/CRJdvTOtFR
— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) September 7, 2025
LEAKED: Israel Is Considered a “Genocidal, Apartheid Country” Abroad, According to Israel’s Own Research Drop Site NewsIsrael destroys dozens of buildings in Gaza City as new offensive intensifies BBC
Escalating Israeli offensive in Gaza City will have catastrophic and irreversible consequences for Palestinians Amnesty International
U.S. Nonprofit Fundraising to Buy Drones for Israeli Military in Gaza Genocide Drop Site News
Israel vows to inflict biblical plagues on Yemen’s Houthis The Business Standard
New Not-So-Cold War
Putin warns Western troops in Ukraine will be ‘legitimate targets’ for Russia Politico
Trump puts onus on Europe to pressure Putin in Ukraine conference call Axios
U.S. Innovation Hurries New Cruise Missile To Ukraine Aviation Week
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Jury orders Google to pay $425 million for violating user privacy The Verge
OpenAI, Google and Anthropic all just quietly backtracked user privacy settings: Is your company’s data now exposed? Editor & Publisher
Imperial Collapse Watch
Homeless organizations note uptick in homeless families living in cars Spectrum News 13
Why Mississippi declared infant deaths a public health emergency The Hill
Trump 2.0
Trump changes the Department of Defense’s name to ‘Department of War’ Al Jazeera
Let’s be totally honest, it should be the ‘Department of War’ Responsible Statecraft
Broadcasters told not to air any booing of Donald Trump at US Open men’s final Guardian
‘Wipe them out’: Trump weighs sending feds to quell Portland protests The Oregonian
Immigration
South Korean President vows support to Koreans arrested in US immigration raid Reuters
Trump’s radical agenda will ultimately reach a supreme court stacked in favor of conservatives The Guardian
Musk Matters
Tesla proposes $1 trillion pay to Musk expanding his voting power Cryptopolitan
SpaceX Valuation to Hit Around $400 Billion in Share Sale Bloomberg
Democrat Death Watch
Democrats can’t escape their toxic co-dependency with Trump The Hill
Texas Legislature’s long summer ends with Democrats marginalized, Republicans triumphant and unified The Texas Tribune
Immigration
Georgia’s Historic Worksite Raid Underscores the Chaos Fueled by Trump’s Immigration Agenda American Immigration Council
Pentagon authorizes up to 600 military lawyers to serve as temporary immigration judges AP
Our No Longer Free Press
Recording police is not ‘violence’ Freedom of the PressFoundation
European Legal Expert to U.S. Congress: “Protect Free Speech from European Censorship” ADF International
Mr. Market Is Moody
The U.S. economy is in real trouble — just look at the latest jobs report.
With 300+ million people, the U.S. historically added about 150,000 jobs a month, roughly in line with population growth.
1/n pic.twitter.com/XfbwJLJPS0
— Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@rshereme) September 6, 2025
Treasury bonds aren’t the safe haven they’ve been in the past — and taxpayers will pay a price Market Watch
AI
The NeuroSpot AI module tracks barista productivity and customer visit duration to optimise coffee shop efficiency.
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) August 15, 2025
We risk a deluge of AI-written ‘science’ pushing corporate interests – here’s what to do about it The ConversationPresident Trump, Tech Leaders Unite to Power American AI Dominance The White House
AI firm plans to reconstruct ‘lost’ footage from Orson Welles’ ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’ NBC News
Church’s voice ‘vital’ in guiding AI’s future, symposium experts say Catholic News Agency
The Bezzle
Historians Found a 600-Year-Old Document Declaring the Shroud of Turin a Fraud Popular Mechanics
Trouble in paradise: Florida ranks in Top 10 for romance scam losses per capita Islander News
Guillotine Watch
The 5 most expensive motocycle in the world #top5 #motorcycle #expensive pic.twitter.com/GNSjPxptyn
— Top5expensive (@top5expensive) August 24, 2025
This flying bike that just went on sale in Japan is selling for $500k a piece pic.twitter.com/VlBrZOcM7X
— Vitamvivere_1 (@Vitamvivere_1) September 3, 2025
Antidote du jour (via)
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here
“Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain chip implanted into 2 quadriplegic Canadian patients as part of clinical trial”
After surgery, their first words reportedly were that they should totally let the US annex Canada and make it the 51st state.
Did they then start singing, in harmony no less, that New Standard Gospel hymn, “Elon loves me?”
“Elon loves me, this I know.
Cause the brain chip, tells me so;
Lesser minds to him belong,
Our wills are weak, his tech is strong.”
“Yes, Elon loves me!
Yes, Elon loves me.
Yes, Elon loves me!
My brain chip tells me so.”
Dad brought COVID into this house 2-3 weeks ago. Positive test but symptoms much more consistent with Stratus than Nimbus. So I, already alerted by NC as to new variant spread, was FFP2 masking….but then had to at home too and avoid common areas…..no fun.
Think I dodged that bullet but he was ill for 10 days. Masking plus big well ventilated house probably protected me. On my trips to buy groceries for mum I noticed 50% of people were clearly ill and loads of staff shortages due to illness. Everyone has a “summer cold” – rolls eyes.
https://www.thecut.com/article/undetectable-facelifts-trend-popularity-deep-plane-face-lift-vs-smas.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=ten_tabs&utm_campaign=FIREFOX-EDITORIAL-TENTABS-2025_09_05&position=3&category=fascinating_stories&scheduled_corpus_item_id=7eb631f5-ebb8-4c9a-a00a-40d6f9ba091b&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thecut.com%2Farticle%2Fundetectable-facelifts-trend-popularity-deep-plane-face-lift-vs-smas.html
Something to add to the guillotine watch
For what its worth, with a link like that just cut of everything from the question mark onwards and the link still works.
Ok, thx. Didn’t know that.
John: and the main reason for paring down the link is that the string of coding after the question mark identifies how your computer linked to the article.
Not that I can pinpoint you. But it is information specifically about you that you don’t want out there.
Damn, didn’t know that either. I know just enough about the intertubes to get into trouble
You can get browser extensions that will trim all that crap off when you copy the link.
Search for “copy clean link”. BTW, some don’t work with URLs that have html at the end, like the one posted above, so make sure you test them. However, as the Rev says, you can always manually trim everything everything after the “?”.
Again, thx. Much as I love the internet, I think it was a devil’s bargain
The Cut is paywalled at my ISP.
The article is pretty good. No paywall archive link.
the problem with plastic surgery, is that just like any dopamine hit—-a lot of people can’t stop with just one
When I lived on Da Nang, everyday I’d drive past a plastic surgery office with a badly-maintained sign.
I often reflected that “Plastic urgery” was a more honest description.
Jim Gaffigan is a comedian, and I suggest his acts are rare or the art form; he does not swear that I can recall. He has hilarious takes on food and restaurant chain Waffle House… Waffle House became a road trip standby in the South initially, with their small locations dotting the landscape on major US interstate roads. Netflix has a few of his shows.
“If the sign is lit up but the W is not lit, or can’t be seen, it reads Awful House….”. The restaurant is a real southern icon for breakfast on serve 24/7/365 ! Snobs might not agree though, so to each his own.
I can testify from first-hand observation that all the local ‘heads’ and ‘gangstas’ patronize the place. Usually around three or four in the morning. (Don’t ask, don’t tell.)
Basically, a short order diner.
I love Waffle House. When I was living in Asheville NC and working at night in Greer SC, driving home at 2:30 am, Waffle House was always there for me. The ladies working 3rd shifts had every right to be sour, but they were always sweet to everyone. And in fact I rather enjoyed seeing the many and varied examples of the human condition who were the clientel at that hour.
The idea that it appears as if Nancy Pelosi had $38,566 too much worth of work done on her mug, notwithstanding.
Wukchumni: Such a specific dollar amount. Do you have a new sideline in the cosmetic arts?
“Nancy, you’re soaking in it!”
The It being unspecified
Didn’t Nancy do a cameo in the film “Brazil?”
She’s doing it as we speak.
So after glimpsing incredibly precise marching where the gait was changed mid-march just to make it trickier, and the array of James Bond’ian gee whiz armaments. also crisply assembled and in perfect order…
…made me go watch 10 minutes of our military parade in July
The GI Joe holding a small drone aloft in his outstretched arm while trying to keep up on the parade route was my favorite.
I watched some of it live, and remember the sloppy marching in particular, and if anything it was worse than I remembered-especially so after devoting 23 minutes of my life to watching the Chinese go through their paces.
p.s.
Both the Chinese and the USA are sporting Stahlhelms now…
Been watching a few clips from that Chinese parade too-
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qafVXP7S8OQ
And you can bet that those rifles are not just props and they know how to use them.
The other thing is the future is here. Lasers mounted on vehicles and truly weaponized to melt things. Crew-less ships. Hypersonic missiles are more and more common. Those little tracked vehicles with simple weapon mounts will be very common in urban environments.
I’d still say we need 15-20 years before the first bipedal death bots show up. Combat effective enough that is.
They had better be hardened against an EM pulse or else they will turn into junk. Rifles and bullets will work just fine however.
Your point would be valid if these ‘deathbots’ will be used mainly against other soldiers. But I suspect that the wars of the future will be much more like that in Gaza than WW2 and WW1: in other words, they will involve vast amounts of high-tech gadgetry against mainly civilian populations with a view to achieving civilian death tolls previously only thought possible via the use of H-Bombs. In other words, don’t think of new tech as being primarily used for specifically military purposes. Instead think of drones, AIs etc, as being, so to speak, de facto Hydrogen and Atomic bombs, causing equivalent *civilian* death tolls, without the ‘stigma’ of using nukes.
After all, we all know that what happens in Gaza won’t stay in Gaza.
First thing I’d say is that as impressive as all that fancy looking equipment was, it can be guaranteed a good chunk of it won’t actually work in a war, at least not the way it was hoped to. That’s pretty much guaranteed for a lot of military equipment that is designed in peace time. People sitting in rooms come up with bright ideas and implement them. But when the reality of war comes along the comabt experience is different than planned for. Fancy weapon systems turn out to be impratical. And so on.
As for precise marching. It looks great, it implies a certain pride in what they do. But precision marching has not been a useful battlefield trait for quite some time now. The term that used to be used to describe excessive marching, polishing of kit, etc was Bullshit Baffles Brains. It is the ultimate busy work. It does not help make great soldiers beyond a certain point.
So yes the Chinese military has come a long way in the past decades. But until they are actually in a real war who knows if it has been to great effect. hopefully we don’t ever have to find out though.
And as Sun Tzu said “Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak”. A lot of it could be smoke and mirrors.
Precision marching is team building 101. If troops can’t even walk as a team, they surely won’t be fighting as one. Combat record of US Silly Walk troops (reinforced with allied Haka dancing ones) consists of losses from guys in sandals. Chinese military did not engage in a real war, but Russian and Northern Korean did, against NATO trained forces nontheless (including aforementioned Haka).
As far as Sun Tzu goes, Western generals probably think that it’s some Chinese takeaway restaurant chain, since everyone is mentioning that name so often. Telling soldiers to walk like idiots in order to appear weak to the enemy sounds like a Monty Python sketch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2jgrGtiYHE
Watching China’s military parade made my (very real) OCD very happy. Rumor was that Hitler had OCD, and the same rumor is true for Trump, that he has contamination OCD. I am not saying having OCD makes you a dictator, but having OCD myself (contamination/checking) my partners have always thought I was somewhat of a dictator when it came to my needs. Unlike dictators though, I know I have a disorder.
More sympathetically, perhaps one could interpret the President’s B-day parade as exemplary “break step” marching. They won’t make any bridges collapse.
Perhaps it was done intentionally out of concern for the state of DC’s surface transport infrastructure.
Their “soft step” marching is also easier on the knees. I bet their health insurance doesn’t cover those.
Not only were the high steppers in sync, the guys that jumped into vehicles also closed their doors in sync. And they jumped in with such gusto.
I rather liked Xi’s choice of dress for the occassion.
I rather liked Xi’s choice of dress for the occasion.
Old School.
“Starmer carries out major reshuffle after Rayner resignation”
Of course there is an obvious solution. Even though Starmer’s government was imploding and the economy of the UK is swirling around the toilet, Starmer had other priorities – meaning that he was off in Paris with the Coalition of the Willing plotting the downfall of Russia because of course he was. The UK? Where’s that? So I have an idea. Make Lammy the Prime Minister and then make Starmer the Foreign Minister. Will Lammy make things better in the UK? Let’s not kid ourselves but Starmer will be off in Europe playing his little games of intrigues and out of the hair of the long-suffering British.
If the answer is Lammy I hate to think what the question might be ….
Equally, here in Scotland, if Douglas Alexander is worthy of replacing Ian Murray then the race to the bottom has become a Starmer sprint towards the end of his career.
SKS is the architect of his own downfall, let alone assassin.
Problem is the bunch of less than mediocre centre right apparatchiks who might succeed him.
Yes Lammy, on a celeb TV quiz on general knowledge, to the question which “Marie” based in Paris won the Nobel Prize, answered ‘Antoinette’ and to the question name the French castle from which prisoners were freed at the start of the French Revolution, answered Versailles. Among other idiotic answers to pretty basic questions.
Lammy is the classic case of overpromotion, a sort of male VdL, likely with the same distrastrous results for everyone but themselves.
Starmer has invited the president of Israel for a visit to London this coming week. Just a few days after he came out of the closet as being Jewish himself, rather than just married to a Jewish woman and his children Jewish.
The man is completely and utterly tone deaf. Of course, anyone protesting will be ‘supporting terrorism’ and face immediate arrest.
The story of the 3 arsonist Ukrainian models/actors/rentboys/whatever and their links to Starmer have been airbrushed out of mainstream media history now. Funny that.
Where did Starmer say he was Jewish last week? I missed that bit!
What I can’t understand is why Rayner didn’t decide to leave it up to HMRC to make a determination whether, in the circumstances, her son’s home had become her second home and her apartment in Hove was now her first home. True, the circumstance likely to have been truly emotionally difficult for her, just as it would be for any broken family with the continuing mutual responsibility for bring up their children, but I am sure a competent account or tax lawyer could make that case effectively to the HMRC and, if need be, to ask for a Review and, if the outcome is unfavourable (which I doubt it will be because she clearly made a tax confession), for a decision to be made by a Tax Tribunal.
She seemed to be very badly advised at a very difficult time whilst under attack by the rapidly declining British mainstream media, and the ready acceptance of her resignation not only made clear the weakness of Starmer’s own position and his moral cowardice and contrasted very badly with the way Nigel Farage’s blew away his own housing arrangements and carried on business as usual. It leaves the present government even weaker than it was after it was first made absolutely clear that it is totally complicit in the Gaza genocide and the obscene behavior of the West Bank colonisers.
No wonder Your Party is receiving growing support day after day after day.
I saw a comment, under one of The Duran’s Youtube videos, that readers here may find worth checking out. I don’t know how to link to a comment directly (or if it’s even possible), so I will leave a link to the video itself, and copy-paste only a part of the comment here (because it’s rather lengthy).
Vucic and dangers of EU in Serbia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cQCrMlQbOI
@Hladovina 9 days ago (edited)
There is a lot of info missing in this video.
Vučić was installed by Angela Merkel and the British establishment within the EU at that time. His main advisor for many years was Tony Blair. (Google it.)
There was never a real plan to integrate Serbia into the EU, which is why he was chosen in the first place. He came from the Serbian Radical Party, which is deeply hated in Muslim/Croat parts of Bosnia and in Croatia. That’s why the EU never truly supported the pro-EU opposition inside Serbia – they didn’t want Serbia in the EU. The British in particular wanted Serbia to remain outside of both the EU and NATO for money laundering, resource theft, talent extraction, various business schemes, and most importantly as a future open front against Russia once the Ukraine war is over.
This is not a color revolution; he is simply being fired from his job by the West. It’s regime change, definitely, but not a color revolution. He delivered everything he could to the West, but now he is stuck and needs to be replaced.
He did everything possible to sell out Serbia, devastating the cultural and media space with hatred and division. The opposition (also British-funded), especially media companies such as United Group, did the same – spreading more hatred. Both sides did a phenomenal job in destroying any real patriotic opposition.
He sold weapons to Ukraine and bragged about it, sold weapons to Israel and bragged about it, and recently bought $1.3 billion worth of Israeli weapons systems. Not Russian, not Chinese – Israeli. (Google it.) The “opposition” media used this against him but they also supported Ukraine all the way in their news coverage.
Trump hates him, Putin hates him (but tolerates him because there is no alternative in Serbia), and China is in the same position. The EU adored him until recently, when it became clear he had hit a hard limit with his style of incompetent rule.
…
(check out the comment section of the linked video for the rest)
It reads like an identikit piece of lamentation for the eternally suffering Serbia (“we are the victims of history.”) In fact, supporting what were seen as the “pro-western” opposition parties in Serbia was a major preoccupation of western governments in the 1990s. Radio B92, the “opposition” radio station, was funded by the West for example. Joy was therefore unconfined when Milosevic was toppled in 2000 and the new government appeared interested in better relations with the West. Unfortunately, and to the consternation of western governments, Kostunica the new President turned out to be a Serb nationalist (who would have guessed, given his past?). Another in the endless series of Ruritanian tragicomic blundering attempts by the West to fashion governments in the Balkans to its liking. If you’re interested, Tim Judah’s book on Serbia is a good basic introduction to the story, and to the masochistic Serbian national myth of suffering and betrayal.
That said, whilst it’s a few years since I was last in the region, I have the impression that the West is pretty close to running out of patience after thirty years of getting nowhere, and they increasingly care less about politics there. All the EU is really interested in is organised crime and immigration, and of course the link between the two. In my experience, the Serbs tend to give themselves an importance in the eyes of other governments they simply don’t rate. They are just not that important any more.
Spoken like a true British aristocrat. Perfidious Albion at its best. Those lessers are so lesser and so unimportant, that I just had to write a couple of hate-filled paragraphs about disdain I feel for them, and how they are just not that important to me any more. I have been going there for decades in order to personally tell them all how not important they are. I could never get off my high horse, though, because of all the filth. I tried to civilize them, but they just wouldn’t budge. They are not like us.
You forgot the /s tag at the end but, yeah, I agree.
And all the Serbs are interested in is that their sovereignty be respected once Kosovo has been recovered.
Thanks for the take.
“All the EU is really interested in is organised crime and immigration, and of course the link between the two.” Is that covered in Judah’s book too?
Long time ago I had a project in mind – not realized – about Kosovo being installed by US as a trigger for insecurity in EU via drug routes from Afghanistan rerouted away from Turkey and through Europe/Kosovo (Camp Bondsteel) instead. But when that project stalled I had to put my focus elsewhere…
Any recommendations beyond Judah?
And what about Diana Johnstone?
I once wrote her and she was very kind and helpful and I felt there is some huge knowledge there beyond the books published most of which I didn´t have time to look into seriously except for the European Greens so far.
The flying bike: one genre of youtube videos I like is the „luxury car crash“. I just can‘t get enough of watching rich kids crashing their cars in the most stupid ways. I look forward to the flying bike version of it. Also, since the elites are now open with their eugenics on the common people, I also hope that these rich kids crashing flying bikes also will be a sub-set of the Darwin Award category
C’mon, man. That flying bike is the closest thing to the flying cars that we were promised all those decades ago – along with personal jet packs.
But is intended as Star Wars mock-up. Only thing Ewoks missing. But maybe they can gene-edit those too.
The flying bike is more like I-made-this-in-my-garage genre of youtube videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soxxPyaAT1k
@The Rev Kev
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QCZTACuHYc
There’s a man who leads a life of danger
To everyone he meets, he claims Epstein was a stranger
With every move he makes
Another chance he takes
Odds are he won’t live to see tomorrow
Secret Agent Man
Secret Agent Man
They’ve given the Epstein stoolie a number and taken away your name
Beware of implications of pretty young faces once upon a time
A pretty young face can hide a digital photo mine
Oh, be careful what you say
Or you’ll give yourself away
Odds are you won’t live to see tomorrow
Secret Agent Man
Secret Agent Man
They’ve given the Epstein stoolie a number and taken away your name
Clark Kent proclaiming you an FBI Informant
And now you’ve got an alibi
Oh, don’t you let the wrong words slip
While dissing persuasive lips
Odds are you won’t live to see tomorrow
Secret Agent Man
Secret Agent Man
They’ve given the Epstein stoolie a number and taken away your name
Secret Agent Man, by Johnny Rivers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iaR3WO71j4&list=RD6iaR3WO71j4
👍
great midnight vibe for me in moonless Germany – even though the moon shines bright where I am sitting right now
Military strategy alone may buy the USA some time, but it seems inconceivable that it will amount to much without an economic strategy.
And it’s hard for me to see how TPTB can fail to realize that.
Perhaps they’re coping, and assuming that since they’re going to beat China in AI and Quantum Computing (based on what?) that they’re going to win overall.
I don’t think we have much of a military “strategy” as such. A bunch of med to long term desirederata of varying connections to reality, short term expediencies, and hoped for dirty tricks.
I have a large and imposing tree on my place. But the inside is riddled with an insect infestation. The core of what made the tree grow tall and strong is slowly disintegrating. It’s glory days are well behind it.
The bark and wood that were laid down while the tree was actually healthy and strong is still intact, so it appears to be a grand tree from the outside. But don’t stand under any of its branches I say. Fortunately I can cut it down before it kills anybody.
The US is that tree. One day it will fall, and that day might be soon. How do we protect other people from a falling behemoth of a country? One riddled with an infestation of mendacity and short-sightedness and stupidity at the highest levels. And poverty and drugs and mental illness at the lowest levels? Oh, and the highest levels control nuclear weapons.
Pentagon prioritizes homeland over China threat, heh heh. I’ve watched a few videos of China’s recent military parade too.
I’m reminded of the ‘08 Beijing Summer Olympic opening ceremony and the reactions that followed.
“When Is Food Not Food?”
You can see this when you leave fast food on the ground and even the ants won’t touch the stuff. They don’t recognize it as food which means that they are much smarter than us. There are these Aussie guys who got a MacDonalds burger back in ’95 when Bill Clinton was President and it is still intact to this date. Even rats wouldn’t touch it-
https://nypost.com/2024/05/24/lifestyle/mcdonalds-burger-from-1995-still-perfectly-intact-even-rats-wont-eat-it/
Re; Immigration
Trump warns of ‘Chipocalypse’ as peaceful crowd protests planned federal deployment
“I love the smell of deportations in the morning.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson might go Bro Chi Minh on the Crown Clown, his ICE queen, and their posse of flying monkeys: if Latino gangs (of which there are many) and others get riled-up and decide to “protect their people,” Johnson might have little choice– it’s either the brown people or the wonderbread wonders known as feds…
This meatheaded foray into The Jungle, Back of the Yards, or elsewhere in ChiTown could quickly turn very nasty, especially if family is threatened.
Saw some quick takes this morning about Chicago on ABC news and the reports are that the crime stats are down from last year. I trust the media and people reporting such numbers about as much as I can trust a Paul Krugman or a Noah Smith take on the US economy and real inflation during the Biden administration. SMH. I’m gonna look around this week for myself on actual versus reported murders, felonies and crime stats.
I grasp the reasoning behind the mayor and also governor Pritzker wanted to truly stonewall such an imposition by the Federal government. Are they, aka Mr. Mayor , really onboard with their fellow Chicago or IL citizens continuing to die or be shot as innocent bystanders? That’s the angle I’ve begun hearing….ok fewer people are being murdered but the trend is down so we’re all good on that? Weirdness.
How could that not be the hoped for reaction? They would love a Horst Wessel to yodel about.
Re Magnificent Ambersons–just to be clear this is a stunt by an AI company and not sanctioned by the rightsholders for the film which in this case I believe would be Warner Brothers.
https://variety.com/2025/film/news/orson-welles-estate-blasts-ai-magnificent-ambersons-ending-1236509523/
There have been other attempts in the last few years to revive dead people or younger live people in movie releases. Dead Carrie Fisher in Star Wars sequels would be an example. Myself I find the whole thing a bit creepy.
As for Ambersons, Charles Higham made much of the fact that Welles was partying on a goodwill USG trip to Brazil as RKO was recutting his movie. People like to scold the art versus commerce philistinism of the studios but when Picasso turned out a painting it didn’t cost thousands or millions of dollars to do so. Most personal, indie filmmakers keep their canvas small. Welles cultivated a larger than life persona and paid the price.
I liked the estate agent’s comment about the project that was included in the article.
Also, for some giggles, here is a short video of unused takes of a commercial which featured Welles.
These takes could have been the best commercial about drinking ever made.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFevH5vP32s/
Original Takes for Orson Welles Wine Commercial
Heh heh, that was well worth the click, thanks. Mr Wells appears to have been sampling the wares.
Wasn’t Welles making propaganda films in Latin America at the request of FDR? I’m sure there was partying as well, but I think he was supporting the war effort.
So naturally the Hollywood studio sabotaged his film while he was patriotically engaged. The unfinished Latin American project exists under the title It’s All True.
Your version is the more correct. I read that Higham book a long time ago. Robert Wise, who later directed The Sound of Music, did the re-editing and claimed Welles as an influence.
But arguably Welles shouldn’t be completely off the hook and RKO did give him free reign to make one of the finest of all American movies for his debut. Pauline Kael gave him high praise in the essay I linked here a couple of weeks ago but was more measured when she got around to her book on Citizen Kane which she called “a shallow masterpiece.” Welles himself suggested he might be accused of “dollar book Freud” and tried to claim too much credit for the script but the bravura technique astonished at the time and is hugely entertaining. Movies don’t have to be profound to be great. He had collaborators but no Welles, no great.
Anyone watched Fincher´s take “Mank”?
The other perspective so-to-speak
Although the US-American critics´ obsession with Kane frankly I find more than objectionable.
Yeah in my fainted memory too, Welles was a big FDR man, I think he knew him personally, and he also was a front entertainment man like Marlene.
However he was original enough to point out that the real Futurists in fascist Italy around Marinetti were no real Fascists. He defended them by making a difference between people who would articulate aesthetically radical statements and demands and those who were actually killing people.
Where I – in a Matt-Taibbi- kinda way – agree completely. (Maybe more than even he would.)
But in doing that I might well be alone today. (Deeds vs. words.)
I also liked his defense of bullfighting while he would at the same time acknowledge that it was anachronistic and its abolition would be justified and right.
I’ve seen Mank which is like the movie version of The Citizen Kane Book and also out to steal Welles’ thunder.
But that doesn’t make it wrong or right. Guess we’ll never know how much of the Kane script Welles contributed but the well crafted dialog is only part of the film’s innovative zing. Clearly though Mankiewicz was the one who knew all the dirt about Hearst that got Welles into so much trouble.
I am the last one to reduce any such film onto its dialogue.
But since Kane still pops up now and then in discussions in general I am surprised how quickly “Mank” in contrast got forgotten once it had been presented as Netflix´s showcase item “we can do it too” even though it was part of the “Kane” universe and “legend”.
p.s. I suspect there is still a mini-series on this matter to be made along what you´re alluding to.
This gave me a startup business idea. Alas, quick Internet search says that I’m a day late and a dollar short, because someone already claimed the title of “the first app for hemorrhoids detection and management“. :-)
Who the heck brings their phone with them to the bathroom? Hemorrhoids would be the least of my worries after bringing that Petri dish in there then taking a call and pressing it to my face.
“Airborne particles ejected from the toilet traveled at speeds of up to 6.6 feet per second and reached 4.9 feet above the toilet within eight seconds, the scientists found. And, once airborne, smaller particles measuring less than 5 microns hung in the air for more than a minute.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/heres-what-really-happens-when-you-flush-the-toilet-180981278/
Reading books of phylosophy and ethics on the toilet may increase your risk of hemorrhoids as well. It is the time spent on the throne that does it, not the quality of the reading material.
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=impotent+rage
‘I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.’ – J F Kennedy in 1961
‘I’m committed to getting us back to the Moon before President Trump leaves office.’ – NASA’s interim administrator, Sean Duffy
One of these statements is not like the other. I love this thought though-
‘One way in which NASA might speed up a lunar landing is by cutting through some of the agency’s safety culture, which has multiple layers.’
Yeah, cutting corners and dumping backup systems. What could possibly go wrong?
Did not say anything about getting “us” back to Earth
Duffy is committed to getting back to the Moon, not to returning safely to the Earth. He plans to send Bugs there. :)
I vote for sending Elmer Fudd.
Does it count as a race against China if the latter never actually says “ok, game set match”?
“Broadcasters told not to air any booing of Donald Trump at US Open men’s final”
That won’t be hard to do. All they have to do is show footage of that crowd earlier in the day and not when Trump was present. Not the first time that broadcasters have done creative editing.
I’m sure this will inspire a flood of entertaining iphone videos, I would ask “how stoopid are these people” but…
His walk out music should be a classic rock tune which opens with an epic guitar riff…
AC DC and “Thunderstruck”….\sarc
“Let’s go, Brandon!” becomes “Suck Camel’s Hump!”?
No boos for Teetotallitarian leader!
Secretary of War declares war on civillian boats. If the USA manages to lose this one too, next in line will be war against surfers, and then toddlers in swim vests.
America, F*ck Yeah!
Or was the timing of the attack meant to be a message for the countries meeting in China for the SCO?
Re China versus USA to the Moon
To actually land on the Moon with Artemis III, NASA will need SpaceX to deliver a human-rated Starship vehicle, Axiom to complete spacesuits, and its own engineers to piece together and sign off on a complex plan that will be fraught with risk. The current, nominal target for such a mission is 2027, but no reasonable observer believes that is possible. For Duffy to make good on his promise of “getting us back to the Moon” before the president leaves office would require a landing by January 2029 or for Trump to violate the 22nd Amendment.
So multiple forms of suspense. What fun.
Of course Trump can once again imitate Reagan and insist on a risky launch producing a Challenger style result. Or there’s plan B where the country itself crashes.
To quote from some space themed fiction: beam us up Scottie.
Carolinian; ‘To actually land on the Moon with Artemis III, NASA will need SpaceX to deliver a human-rated Starship vehicle…’
One of the comedic aspects of Musk’s hubris is that SpaceX launchers can only reach LEO — Low Earth Orbit.
The man who was SpaceX employee #1 and designed the Merlin, Draco, Super Draco and TR-106 rocket engines, Thomas Mueller, got tired of Musk’s cr*p and recently left and formed his own company, Impulse Space, to build rocket engines and space tugs to move satellites into higher orbits, and planetary landers to deliver payloads to Mars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mueller
https://www.impulsespace.com/
https://www.impulsespace.com/helios
https://www.impulsespace.com/mira
The mission plan calls for a Starship launch vehicle to launch a Starship HLS into Earth orbit, where it will be refueled by multiple Starship tanker spacecraft before boosting itself into a lunar near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO). There, it will rendezvous with a crewed Orion spacecraft that will be launched from Earth by a NASA Space Launch System (SLS) launcher. A crew of two astronauts will transfer from Orion to HLS, which will then descend to the lunar surface for a stay of approximately seven days, including at least five EVAs. It will then return the crew to Orion in NRHO.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_HLS
So the Musk lunar lander will be sent up without passengers who will arrive via the non Musk rocket.
Oh, I knew that’s the stated plan. But —
[1.] I’ll believe when it happens in all its ludicrous Rube Goldberg over-complication.
[2.] Other than the Earth-to-LEO launcher, it’s all vaporware in Musk’s hubristic brain right now.
Actually sending a lander mission up in pieces make make more sense than building a giant Saturn 5 to do it all at once–assuming a new moon mission makes sense at all.
When we had to beat the Russians instead of the Chinese the effort had nuclear brinksmanship implications. Now it’s more of a vanity project. And the cost of Apollo met with a lot of opposition back in the day.
‘sending a lander mission up in pieces’
Hopefully Ikea is not involved with this idea.
I believe there is some sort of long term plan to build a space station orbiting the moon. Perhaps in an homage to Kubrick it will have sponsors. Sadly PanAm and Howard Johnson’s no longer available.
Speaking of films in the 2019 Ad Astra both the US and Chinese have bases on the Moon and are shooting at each other. It’s an inventive if rather bleak movie.
Or the Apple TV series “For All Mankind” where the US and Russia get into a shooting war on the Moon. Juvenile stuff.
There is interesting essay about this: The Lunacy of Artemis
Interesting–and convincing.
We had a discussion here the other day about the difference between civil servants and bureaucrats. NASA is populated with bureaucrats. It’s also closely tied to the MIC–more bureaucrats. In Apollo time the aerospace sector may have had a lot more mojo.
Here’s betting none of this ever happens and especially not involving rocket dilletante Bezos.
In the first act in war against homelessness, Trump will sign a decree declaring that cars legally count as homes, and that carless people don’t count as people. Make Cars Great Again.
For the post office, will a license plate count as an address?
Your address is already your phone number. Home is Where the Phone Is …
How the genocide and war crimes from
Israel are just treated ho hum by Dems just is something I will never get over.
Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran.
The lack of morals and ethics from them or maybe they really truly believe what happening is right ( well some yes but most no, which is worse?) is hard to fathom.
I want to hope there will be some kind of major fall out that will push things in a better direction. But it’s a very small hope.
Previous (imo) to the term “accelerationism” was coopted by the techie bros I believe that it was earth firsters who noted that the collapse of western society is the only hope, and the faster it happens the better, I watch the buildings being blown up and wonder what and where the blowback will hit. The political class is fully on board with this might makes right bs and the sooner it collapses the better. I’ve long viewed the marching white settlers in al aqsa mosque as blatant white supremacy un matched by the Ku Klux Klan. Taking over the world! is low grade psychodrama…
It’s also like they co-opted futurism, but without the reverence for art or artistic sensibilities.
I find it hard to fathom that people continue to vote for them, given their terrible track record.
Re: Treasury bonds aren’t the safe haven they’ve been in the past — and taxpayers will pay a price [MarketWatch]
This bit had me raising my eyebrows and making the confused Scooby-Doo sound:
This is the first I’ve heard of SOFR swap rates, and I’d always assumed that the Treasury rate was risk-free rate, by definition. It’s above my paygrade, to be sure, but if anyone with a better understanding wants to chime in, I’d be interested to hear it.
Well it’s basically the driver of nearly all investment approaches and investment analyses I’ve ever read , studied or performed as a younger analyst. The risk free rate of the UST yield curve and maturity interpolation were a key comparison to measure an expected return, this is mostly on investment grade fixed income securities, over a specific time horizon or theoretically, out to a final maturity. I woulda and coulda passed the CFA but I didn’t persist very well after real life events intervened.
I’d argue the author , whose name i recognize but it’s been a minute , is looking at a resultant or possibly an expedient comparison to make his point. Yields are higher, and the ending of a ZIRP market environment is now demanding a much bigger chunk of Federal deficits. There’s also an argument for or, in favor of the MMT but I’m not equipped to describe it properly.
Ok yeah, I submit it’s a problem but it didn’t just “begin anew” after January 2025. I do think or have read that Secretary Yellen focused too closely on the issuance of shorter term debt, but that was likely true as well under Steve Mnuchin. A lot of things would fall apart quickly in the markets, especially before or after some wild occurrence where the UST government debt actually became more risky in the real terms of buyer beware.
Regarding events in Israel, which because of living my own life leaves me relatively uninformed, so I’m wondering 3 things;
1. Didn’t this begin with Hamas taking of hostages?
2. Has Hamas released these innocents?
3. Won’t releasing them lead Israel to cease the destruction?
. . . anyway, I cannot fathom the anguish of the Israeli parents and spouses. The closest I can come is to remembering how we in America felt during the end days of President Carter’s administration. I remember how sad I felt upon the news the rescue mission had failed.
It also led me to vote for Ronald Reagan, a decidedly strange and unintended consequence, which for decades has subsequently shaped America, and still is.
No, it began with Israel’s ethnic cleansing, notably the Nakba, in 1948.
Desmond Tutu in 2012 said the apartheid in Israel was worse than that of South Africa.
And since Israel has been committed to ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians since its inception, no, releasing hostages would not make it stop.
Ilan Pappé:
A Very Short History of the Israel–Palestine Conflict
It’s only 150 pages, even ten times that number wouldn’t tell one all there is to know, but it is a worthwhile start to alleviate being relatively uninformed, a phrase that is quite a low bar.
On 6 October 2023, most every person in Gaza shared a common plight: they had been born in a concentration camp, they languished there and they would die there. The world had forgotten them and what was there to do. Years of Hasbara had led to that.
Thank you, Alice X.
This is not a topic one can casually wade into, you need to have a basic primer before you go deep. This is a very ‘top level facts only’ summary from the BBC from last month that covers the history. It just provides an outline of the shape of the history of the conflict prior to just this current era of the conflict. The questions you’re asking really get deep into something else, namely ‘which side will you choose to believe’ and ‘what is a good-faith argument’. Once you’ve read the primer perhaps think about why US has aligned with the most hardline Israeli position on Gaza and why Trump has proposed the US to take over Gaza following a ceasefire. You mention the anguish of the Israeli parents and spouses, but since you’re asking if Hamas will stop, consider the anguish of the Palestinian parents and spouses.
Yves and AX are correct – do a quick search for zionists “mowing the grass” – their despicable-ness knows no bounds to the depth of depravity they will descend to glorify the horror they have inflicted upon the Palestinian people – and our tax dollars have assisted all along the way since 1948 – as Dylan ended Masters of War seems applicable to me when thinking of the zionists –
And I hope that you die
And your death will come soon
I’ll follow your casket
On a pale afternoon
I’ll watch while you’re lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I’ll stand over your grave
‘Til I’m sure that you’re dead
About that Carter-era hostage crisis and your vote for Reagan:
“Ben Barnes went to the Middle East with John Connally to delay the release of American hostages in Iran – and potentially help Ronald Reagan win the presidency.”
https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/ben-barnes-john-connally-iran-hostages-jimmy-carter-ronald-reagan-october-surprise/
Additional excerpt:
“In July of 1980, Reagan ally and Texas political giant John Connally took a trip to the Middle East with a message for heads of state: Iran will get a better deal for the hostages with Reagan than with Carter, so it would be wise to wait until after the election to release them. And that’s what happened. Minutes after Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in 1981, the hostages were released.”
Also, that vote for Reagan brought us the people who orchestrated the Iran-Contras operation (and funded/backed the Mujahideen and bin Laden). Elliott Abrams, Regan’s Assistant Secretary of State, was convicted of “unlawfully withholding information from Congress” for his role in the Iran-Contras affair but was pardoned by President George H. W. Bush along with five others. Abrams later became Bush Jr’s Deputy National Security Advisor where he was was instrumental in the GWOT/Iraq War fiasco.
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1224.html
Sorry the failed hostage rescue attempt made you sad but you got played by Reagan. And, it’s not like there wasn’t already a precedent for that type of backroom betrayal. Nixon did much he same thing decade before with disastrous consequences for all:
“In 1968, the Paris Peace talks, intended to put an end to the 13-year-long Vietnam War, failed because an aide working for then-Presidential candidate Richard Nixon convinced the South Vietnamese to walk away from the dealings.”
and:
“Once in office he escalated the war into Laos and Cambodia, with the loss of an additional 22,000 American lives, before finally settling for a peace agreement in 1973 that was within grasp in 1968.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/nixon-prolonged-vietnam-war-for-political-gainand-johnson-knew-about-it-newly-unclassified-tapes-suggest-3595441/
I’m reminded of the maxim found in the 1907 “Mrs. Goose, Her Book” by Maurice Switzer:
Variations of “this all began with Hamas” are the most pathetic, self-deceiving, manipulative, desperate attempts to legitimize the mass slaughter of civilians, AKA genocide, ever devised. Please stop”
Since Israel was involved in the creation of Hamas, and replacement of PLO, all the roads still lead to Rome, I mean Tel Aviv.
Not meaning to pile on, but here’s an informative post by Caitlin Johnstone on the subject:
https://substack.com/@caitlinjohnstone/note/c-147885325
and Norm Finkelstein has something to add to this thread – shredding Bill Maher in the process –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxcrqkwQYmE
We are all trying to lead our own lives, but any sincere effort to understand the world requires seeing that world as viewed by others living in it.
1. Didn’t this begin with Hamas taking of hostages?
2. Has Hamas released these innocents?
3. Won’t releasing them lead Israel to cease the destruction?
Twas amused at 3pm UK govt text to the population to test its emergency warning system.
Some govt toadie thanked people on Twitter. I re-tweeted it commenting “should have alerted us night before 1979 general election”. Confidence motion lost by ONE VOTE thanks to David Steele. Never trust the Liberals/LibDems
“First CRISPR horses spark controversy: what’s next for gene-edited animals?”
‘Some scientists, however, welcome the CRISPR horses. “It’s cool to show that CRISPR works and you can create CRISPR-altered horses,” says Molly McCue, a veterinary clinician scientist at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.’
Yeah, it’s “cool” alright but as has been said-
‘Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should’ – Dr. Ian Malcolm
Actually I will give a fuller quote because I think that it describes what is going on here-
‘You know what’s wrong with scientific power? […] It’s a form of inherited wealth […] Most kinds of power require a substantial sacrifice by whoever wants the power. There is an apprenticeship, a discipline lasting many years. Whatever kind of power you want. President of the company. Black belt in karate. Spiritual guru. Whatever it is you seek, you have to put in the time, the practice, the effort. You must give up a lot to get it. It has to be very important to you. And once you have attained it, it is your power. It can’t be given away: it resides in you. It is literally the result of your discipline. Now, what is interesting about this process is that, by the time someone has acquired the ability to kill with his bare hands, he has also matured to the point where he won’t use it unwisely. So that kind of power has a built-in control. The discipline of getting the power changes you so that you won’t abuse it. But scientific power is like inherited wealth: attained without discipline. You read what others have done, and you take the next step […] There is no discipline lasting many decades. There is no mastery: old scientists are ignored. There is no humility before nature. There is only a get-rich-quick, make-a-name-for-yourself-fast philosophy. Cheat, lie, falsify – it doesn’t matter. […] They are all trying to do the same thing: to do something big, and do it fast. And because you can stand on the shoulders of giants, you can accomplish something quickly. You don’t even know exactly what you have done, but already you have reported it, patented it, and sold it. And the buyer will have even less discipline than you. The buyer simply purchases the power.’
There may be some confusion between science and technology here. Sure, there’s no sharp boundary between, but there are important differences between the internal cultures of natural science and that of engineering. I can see some (and only some) corners of tech-culture behaving like the above, but natural science, less so.
(I’ve had a foot in both camps—I come from an engineering background, but went on to grad school in physics, a million years ago. I sometimes describe myself as a refugee from engineering.)
Interestingly, there is something similar in social sciences, too, except we don’t have the science vs engineering divide like the real sciences (well, I did technically start in physics originally). There’re a lot of people interested in using their “soc sci” knowledge to “change the world” (not just for what they think is “greater good” either, except, I guess they might think self enrichment is greater good.) in soc sci grad programs without a thought about the big picture.
I saw this. Having come from economics maybe I was more attuned to this phenomenon.
Mixing with math psych and academic marketers opened my eyes.
So, a mathematician, physicist, and engineer enter a bar…
See a philosopher, and leave.
I want CRISPR fried chicken.
“LEAKED: Israel Is Considered a “Genocidal, Apartheid Country” Abroad, According to Israel’s Own Research”
‘The median response in the U.S. and Denmark estimating the number killed by Israel was just 10,000’
What the hell is wrong with Denmark? Do they have an AIPAC as well? The Israelis may want to improve their image through propaganda campaigns but it does not matter how many sprinkles and cherries they put on top of this turd Sundae, nobody is going to want to eat it.
Can’t speak for Denmark but it’s always shocking to have conversations with my CNN-watching friends about this subject. Not as jarring as when talking to my Fox News-watching friends. At least the CNN-watchers mostly think the Palestinian deaths are a bad thing and don’t get a sparkle in their eye at the thought of a genocide that will bring about the Biblical End Times.
The disconnect between MSM watchers and reality in Palestine is crazy. Latest numbers:
“Gaza’s Health Ministry said that 64,231 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war. The latest update includes around 400 who were presumed missing but whose deaths it says have been confirmed.”
And as that article stated: The missing aren’t counted. Nor are deaths caused by issues exasperated by the war. As a Guardian article explained: “The number of indirect casualties often vastly exceeds direct ones. In East Timor, about 19,000 people were directly either killed or disappeared between 1974 and 1999. But that count doesn’t come close to capturing the full human cost: an estimated 84,000 additional people eventually died after an Indonesian campaign of mass displacement and starvation. That’s four indirect deaths for every direct death.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/12/gaza-death-toll-indirect-casualties
Trying to explain any of this to CNN-watchers is like trying to explain the value of sofa upholstery to my cats. “But the numbers are fake” and “Oct 7th” and “release the hostages”. Try bringing up the “Great March of Return” in 2019 where Israel killed a total of 223 Palestinians peacefully protesting and you’d think you were trying to tell them about lizard people running the New World Order.
Anyway, yeah, it’s frustrating. Thing is, the only reason there’s been a shift in CNN-watcher’s views on Palestine (in my opinion) is because Trump is doing Israel’s bidding now. Back when Biden was doing it they weren’t questioning the war at all. Reminds me of how the anti-war movement died when Obama was elected. The way so many’s views on life & death issues are so malleable based on political winds and partisan nonsense is truly disheartening.
Years ago I read a book of poems by D.H. Lawrence. He wasn’t the greatest poet by a long shot but one stuck out to me and I think about it almost daily. It’s one I wish would be made mandatory study for everyone.
“Truth”
Search for nothing any more, nothing
except truth.
Be very still, and try and get at the truth.
And the first question to ask yourself is:
How great a liar am I?
The Gazan Health Ministry, in shambles itself, reports numbers issued by hospitals and morgues, both barely, if functioning at all. What the GHM could hardly want to broadcast is the complete numbers, even if they could be known, as it would reflect so poorly on them. Estimates range in the many hundreds of thousands. I think that is more the case.
I’m trying to understand your comment – why would it reflect badly on them? They are not working in ideal conditions to say the least. Given your other comments I don’t think you meant it as such but without knowing better I would think you are blaming the victims.
Sorry, I didn’t see this before I wrote below. I hope it helps.
And by as it would reflect so poorly on them. consider what has been said to denigrate their otherwise heretofore conservative reporting.
To complete the lost edit: Hamas in 2018 already conceded the internationally described two states along the 1967 borders. Like the PLO in 1982 who had become too moderate in acceding to those borders, when then the Zionists invaded Lebanon to slaughter ≤ 20 thousand Palestinians and drive the PLO out; Hamas had to be driven out. Their crime was to accept 20% of their historic homeland as the final word. Unlike 1982, they are on their own land. Hamas will continue until all of the Gazans are gone, or dead.
RE: Immigration (ICE?) raid on Georgia Hyundai battery facility under construction with arrest of almost 500 ‘illegal’ workers.
There goes my head exploding again. 500 South Korean workers, trying to make a living, now thrown into a detention facility (soon to be rescued by their Government, phew!). 500 US workers never hired because ….. they did not have the skills?
Walk around Seattle’s South Lake Union area at lunch time and watch all the East Asian workers, here legally on H-1B visas, I assume, pouring out of the Amazon and Apple buildings to lunch at the yummy Asian food trucks on each corner. Visas necessary because US workers don’t have the necessary skills. How about investing in US education … math, science, etc., ? Lowering cost of college, providing scholarships. Because then Amazon/Apple would not have a compliant work force who could be cut loose at the first sign of discontented mutterings?
ICE raids on California farms and mid-West chicken processing plants. Terrorizing poor immigrants who only want to work and throwing them into what are essentially concentration camps. Because native-borns won’t do the work. Well, duh! How about paying more, making the work conditions better. (Because the increases food costs would make it impossible for half the population to eat?).
Workers are getting trampled on no matter what they do. The US-borns are locked out of the market because they don’t ‘have the necessary skills” or the working conditions are one level above serfdom. Imported workers are now being terrorized, fearful of being grabbed off the street by masked ICE agents and thrown into a gulag. Meanwhile, CEO compensation is soaring, tech stocks are booming, and our chief immigrant, Elon Musk, is on track to become the planet’s first trillionaire.
“How about investing in US education … math, science, etc., ? Lowering cost of college, providing scholarships. Because then Amazon/Apple would not have a compliant work force who could be cut loose at the first sign of discontented mutterings?”
Also, it looks like the administration apparently didn’t give any consideration to the corps doing training as part of the deals. I’ve always suspected that decades ago, when the Western corporations were outsourcing manufacturing, they probably did a considerable amount of training. Maybe somebody can chime in. But that’s my suspicion.
At least the South Korean government isn’t waiting for the people to potentially get shipped off to some grimy detention center in another part of the world. Until this all gets worked out, they are sending chartered planes.
This is what wage suppression looks like. It has nothing to do with akills.
I remember very clearly when Korea started Making vehicles here. They could not find any workers that could read and comprehend the manuals required for their jobs.this is why so many foreign workers are required. I would assume the refrigerators and other appliances made by LG also required foreign workers. It’s why I like a foreign doctor over an American. They are just better educated. Period. I worked for a Japanese company. The Japanese that brought their families here complained about how poor the education system was here. Children went to school much less hours per day and the math and science was poor. Subjects were just dumbed down. This country doesn’t invest in its people. That will lead to our ruin.
I concur – this country is correctly called a colossally callous, criminally corrupt corporation. With nukes.
To clarify, like the typical US short-term oriented corporation the US has been increasingly expecting / relying on other entities (countries in this case) to educate its workforce, so it sees no need to invest in it. Plus, that workforce is easier to control, as has already been pointed out.
Apologies if that wasn’t clear from my rhyming comment.
And it looks like this is about construction jobs.
Clearly, immigrants from South Korea do not pose a threat to the United States. The crackdown was evidently in retaliation for Seoul’s attempt to regulate the activities of American technology companies in South Korea.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/03/trumps-digital-regulation-warning-was-aimed-at-this-country-00540363
I was reading this the other day-
‘Right Angle News Network
@Rightanglenews
BREAKING – It has been revealed that the Hyundai battery plant raided in Georgia, being operated almost entirely by illegals, is the same facility built with $5 billion as part of a Biden administration investment to bring jobs back to Americans.’
https://xcancel.com/Rightanglenews/status/1964065658041217507#m
So are they going to arrest the owners of that plant for hiring illegals? Let us not jest.
Bribe Back Better, the Biden motto. lol
The us avoids boots on ground in part by bribing elites. But China has similar potential influence, certainly on tech sector, maybe others. Boeing, chips, etc. plus us is finding growing resistance from global south. And pretty extended around the world.
Sure, evangelicals are scary, but why not hope we avoid ww3?
AI “science”…
In general, the current system seems ill-equipped to cope with the deluge of papers that AI will precipitate. Reviewers need to invest time, effort and scrupulous attention checking preregistrations, specification curve analyses, data, code and so on.
And so it continues, AI will be trained on AI and will be gibberish.
So, all the science will be like social science.
re: Moldova USA
Never sure of this “pranksterism”
but fwiw:
COVERTACTION MAGAZINE
Former USAID Director Samantha Power Admits to Massive U.S. Covert Interference in Moldova
By Jeremy Kuzmarov
September 4, 2025
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2025/09/04/former-usaid-director-samantha-power-admits-to-massive-u-s-covert-interference-in-moldova/
https://x.com/I_Katchanovski/status/1964570790675824928
Russian attack this night with reported 805 drones & 13 missiles was largest in this war. 2 civilians are reported killed. Strike hit primarily industrial plants, critical infrastructure & undisclosed targets in Kyiv, Kremenchuk, Odesa. Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia & other locations.
[image]
TWO civilians dead!! Brutal, unrestricted, indiscrimate attack on civilians! (/s)
Don’t mean to downplay this too much, but how comments on such things compare to the “unfortunate but humane” deeds by the “world’s most moral” ™ batch of mass murderers in Gaza never ceases to amaze me.
Crime pays
The Spectacular Comeback Tour of a Crypto Overlord (NY Times via archive.ph)
Heh, way bigger than those 6 Jan peeps. Of course there’s a storied history of presidents pardoning crooks.
Thanks for this link! One heck of a read. The whole time I heard Coffeezilla’s voice saying “Crime is legal now.”
You have to be pretty brain dead not to realize, or at least remember, that the War on Drugs is 100% pretext for anything the US wants to do for political or imperial reasons. The ever shifting cast of “narco-menaces” is more than enough proof of this, in addition to the fact that whoever the current “menace” is is invariably a country that the US wants to attack for other reasons. “Menaces” can appear or disappear in a week, with the ever-compliant US press faithfully cheerleading, especially if an actual war or invasion is in prospect.
The hardest thing here to believe or accept is that there is even one person inside the United States who finds any of this credible.
You’ve just described nearly the entirety of the Establishment Press in America.
“The hardest thing here to believe or accept is that there is even one person inside the United States who finds any of this credible.”
Not that hard to believe. We are the same people who overwhelmingly believed that Saddam was using RV’s as mobile biological weapons labs.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/8038/seventytwo-percent-americans-support-war-against-iraq.aspx
And “52 percent said they believe the United States has found clear evidence in Iraq that Saddam was working closely with the al-Qaida terrorist organization.”
https://www.michigansthumb.com/news/article/Poll-Says-Most-Believe-Saddam-9-11-Link-7364919.php
Yes, and I am waiting for Canada to be also attacked that way one day. Mexico is much safer from US interference than Canada, where the Canadian elites would ultimately surrender the country with no shot fired.
Agreed. Just like the “Global War on Terra”, which was / is being used as a similar pretext.
This is one of the reasons I think 9/11 was either MIHOP or LIHOP – it was just too convenient.
You forget all the FOX news watchers. They’ll believe anything on their favorite channel. On all day droning on and on about immigrants, crime and illicit drugs……from countries we don’t like. Basically the entire Trump, Biden, Clinton, bush I and BushII agenda.
I saw this. Having come from economics maybe I was more attuned to this phenomenon.
Mixing with math psych and academic marketers opened my eyes.
Treasury Secretary Bessent warns of massive refunds if the Supreme Court voids Trump tariffs (CNBC)
Oh noes!
Bertrand: “but he may be remembered for making America realistic again – forcing it to accept its place as one power among many.”
the verb” making” might be confused for acting strategicaly, which imo is far fetched coming from Trump. Unless it is a byproduct of some way to enrich himself and his cronies.
another thoughtful bit…this one a blast from the past… https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/sympathy-for-the-devil-faust-the-60s-and-the-tragedy-of-development/
very, very long…and the intro from an editor or something from DissentMag, is poignant, as well…
all this, while im cooking at the wilderness bar and grill, listening to blues and jazz and ink spots and such.
speckled trout munierre, and grilled cajun shrimps, skewered on rosemary stems…with an orzo pilaf that has proved to be very good…and very sinus-clearing, as well.
now, if only folks would show…
I like the rosemary skewers. What an idea. Orzo is my favorite prey when I am prowling the supermarket aisles for BOGO or sales. I love it with good chicken stock. If they don’t show you can eat it all!
Thank you very much for that link Amfortas.
An impressive essay. Interesting and enlightening.
COVID, is that you?
Why Are More Older People Dying After Falls? (NY Times via archive.ph)
Granted, this has been increasing since 1990; But remember Bob Watcher smashed his head into a trashcan (lol) during his acute phase with COVID. (Deservedly so. May all minimizers suffer thusly.)
Moon?
Fly Me to the Moon — Official Trailer | Apple TV+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0k04aH71UA
But was rather disappointing…
Anyone remember when Chinese were still allowed to be of help to NASA in a US movie?
Ridley Scott´s MARTIAN
“Crucial Scene Translated from Chinese – Taiyang Shen – The Martian 4k”
1:48 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i4bzg7tlMk
It was because they were targeting Chinese market with those movies. No love has been lost.
Re the “wave of youth-led movements in Nigeria and Kenya that exploded last year”
Any movement that springs fully formed from nowhere brings to mind Athena of Greek mythology, goddess of war, arriving in this world in a violent way, fully formed and fully armed. Born as the result of deceit, suspicion, power struggles. From the head of Zeus.
You could almost imagine that USAID money, using US created technology, targeted at a young technology obsessed population, is indulging in deceit and power struggles.
In most cases, could it be that the governments that the African youth are rebelling against, are the very same African governments that the US wants to overthrow for monetary and strategic gain?
The science of economics: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-07/rba-inflation-targeting-and-problem-with-property-prices/105731152
So how was the inflation target decided, that one that the Australian central bank uses to crush working people with interest rate rises?
Australia copied New Zealand Central Bank in having one because “We knew them all well and liked them” but ““They were also, we thought, ‘inflation nutters’ in that they thought inflation was the only thing that mattered.”
So Australia “We thought to mention 2 [per cent], which by then some other central bankers were talking about, and of course was the top of the New Zealand target.”.and “”We just wanted people to be saying: well, if we had a number starting with 2, most of the time we would regard that as a satisfactory outcome.”
While they didnt really think they would reach 2% inflation, they didnt want to attract criticism from other central banks like NZ, which was run by “the Governor Don Brash − they had the very strongly free market, sharp edged view that inflation was always caused by money “.
So, the Australian boffin economists were just trying to look as if they were doing something. And to fit in with their mates in other central banks. Very human really. We all try to look like we’re doing something at work, and we like to fit in.
So that’s how, it seems, economics really works, Virginia.
Regarding falls–if I took all the blood pressure meds my doctors want, I would also fall. My GP friend says to be careful about mentioning falls to your doctor as you will be pressured to move into a nursing home for your ‘safety’.
Donald Trump built his political career pushing tough immigration policies… but here’s the twist — his own family history tells a very different story. From Melania Trump’s controversial visa past to the Trump family’s immigrant roots, we break down the jaw-dropping double standard. This isn’t just politics — it’s personal.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rs0YuD7oI78
Same goes for Elon and many more …
Donald Trump built his political career on kayfabe… but here’s the twist — voters believe it’s all for real.