Thieves steal 8 objects from the Louvre in daring daytime heist France24
Cooperative meerkats, guide ants, and dining-room monitor hens: Animals can teach, too El Pais
Climate/Environment
World’s oceans losing their greenness through global heating, study finds The Guardian
Trump’s planned Fannie and Freddie IPO and the climate elephant in the room Moving Day
‘It’s effectively a bailout’: Edison benefits from fine print in Newsom’s last-minute utility legislation Los Angeles Times
Pandemics
As the Flu Surges in Asia, Could Getting Sick Year-Round Be the New Normal? TIME
Water
Water reveals superpowers hidden at the nanoscale University of Manchester
Water Level of Armenia’s Lake Sevan Falling Rapidly Threatening Economy and Population Window on Eurasia
China?
China’s emerging export control regime High Capacity
TACO, Nexperia, and what exactly does Europe want from China? China Translated
China Is Already Winning the Trade War America Wanted Bloomberg
Chinese tech giants pause stablecoin plans after Beijing steps in FT
Why Xi’s Military Purges Are Really Happening And Why They Always Happen This Way
What’s unfolding in China right now, the expulsion of top generals and a sweeping military purge is part of a recurring pattern in Chinese power politics, when the leadership feels internal… https://t.co/A2sGhQGETZ pic.twitter.com/pwHqdXLhRq
— EndGame Macro (@onechancefreedm) October 18, 2025
Support for government in China: is the data accurate? Jason Hickel
Pakistan-Afghanistan
Pakistan, Afghanistan agree to ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Qatar talks Channel News Asia
Friends Or Foes: The Conflict Of Interests Between Pakistan And The Taliban In Containing Tehrik-I-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) – Analysis Eurasia Review
Syraqistan
Israel heavily bombs Gaza in major ceasefire violation Middle East Eye
Soon after the explosion in Rafah, I’m told by a source familiar, the White House and Pentagon knew that the incident was caused by an Israeli settler bulldozer running over unexploded ordnance — contradicting Netanyahu’s claim that Hamas had popped up from tunnels.
After… https://t.co/Xwy63sEL3M
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) October 19, 2025
Israeli army says Gaza ceasefire back on after day of deadly attacks Al Jazeera
🚨Israel’s plan for Gaza: divide it with a Berlin-wall like deadly line; symbolic & limited PR “reconstruction” only in areas fully controlled by the IDF & run by criminal gangs & collaborators; rest of Gaza will be kept a wasteland regularly bombed by Israel & raided by gangs… pic.twitter.com/l8jzr8ZYWG
— Muhammad Shehada (@muhammadshehad2) October 17, 2025
***
October 19, 2025. On the first day of the olive harvest in Turmus’ayyer, the Israeli Defense Force leads a group of farmers directly into a brutal ambush by armed settlers. These people need to be in prison by tomorrow, and the people of this village, and all across Palestine,… https://t.co/i4PbG9jn4j pic.twitter.com/i67CjLB2gg
— jasper nathaniel (@infinite_jaz) October 19, 2025
Zionism’s Cultivation of a Closed Heart Countercurrents
***
LNG tanker on fire off Yemen coast after explosion Al Jazeera
***
US envoy says Syria ‘back to our side’ after joint raid with extremist-led govt forces The Cradle
***
Iran, China, Russia Declare UNSCR 2231 Expired Tasnim
‘Strategic regret’ about avoiding nukes puts top Khamenei aide in spotlight Amwaj
Old Blighty
UK calls up Armed Forces veterans for digital ID soft launch The Register
Boris Johnson confesses: He’s fallen for ChatGPT The Register
Labour is betting on bubble economics Counterfire
European Disunion
New EU members could join without full voting rights Politico
German Federal Office of Civil Protection publishes guide removing war as an ‘unlikely’ possibility Euronews
New Not-So-Cold War
Trump urged Zelenskyy to accept Putin’s terms or be ‘destroyed’ by Russia FT
Is Trump Attempting A Regime Change Op Against Putin? Mark Wauck
TPP STANDS FOR TRUMP-PUTIN PEACE AND THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING –ANTICIPATING THE MENU AT THE BUDAPEST SUMMIT John Helmer
The American superweapon that scared Putin so much he may make peace in Budapest Daily News Hungary. Lol.
***
Giant Russian Gas Plant Suspends Intake After Ukrainian Drone Strike Reuters
EU countries set to agree 2028 deadline for Russian gas ban Euractiv
EU Seeks Maritime Declaration To Inspect Russia’s ‘Shadow Fleet’ Reuters
China Joins Russia’s Shadow Fleet with First-Ever Dark LNG Ship-to-Ship Transfer gCaptain
“I did not blow up Nord Stream,” says suspect in first interview after extradition ruling Notes from Poland
The Caucasus
Analysis: Mehdiyev arrest points to lingering Azerbaijani-Russian tension Eurasianet
L’affaire Epstein
South of the Border
Exclusive: US returning Caribbean strike survivors to Colombia and Ecuador, Trump says Reuters. Wait, I thought these were dangerous narco-terrorists who required summary execution.
Rubio promised to betray U.S. informants to get Trump’s El Salvador prison deal WaPo
Trump Baselessly Calls Colombia’s Petro ‘Drug Dealer’ as US Bombs Another Boat Common Dreams
Rodrigo Paz to take power as Bolivia grapples with deep economic crisis Anadolu Agency
Trump 2.0
“No Kings” Protest (and Arrests) Have Begun Ken Klippenstein. “NSPM-7 is already being used to detain protesters over speech.”
A No Kings Related Note Karl Sanchez
Unfettered and Unaccountable: How Trump is Building a Violent, Shadowy Federal Police Force ProPublica
Trump isn’t sending troops to cities with highest crime rates, data shows Kansas Reflector
***
Secret Service finds hunting stand with line of sight to Trump’s Air Force One in Florida Axios
***
Federal agency overseeing US nuclear stockpile will furlough most of its workforce starting Monday CNN
Democrats en déshabillé
The Congressional Black Caucus’s Silent Partnership With AIPAC The Nation
Police State Watch
Exclusive: Report Finds Systemic Atrocities in Colorado Immigrant Jail Migrant Insider
Writer Who Survived ADX Supermax Prison Describes How It “Entombs” People Truthout
Imperial Collapse Watch
Hitlerism, Trumpism, Netanyahuism, Le Penism, Macronism Emmanuel Todd
Groves of Academe
Abbott: ‘Texas is targeting professors’ over ‘leftist ideologies’ The Hill
Antitrust
Monopoly Round-Up: Does the Left Have Trouble with Making Things in America? BIG by Matt Stoller
How I Became a Populist The New Republic
Healthcare?
Downcoding is Back From the Dead: Insurers Resurrected a Scheme to Pay Doctors Less That the Courts Banned HEALTH CARE un-covered
“Liberation Day”
The Auto Industry’s Bruising Year of Back-to-Back Supply-Chain Snafus WSJ
Crapification?
The Zipper Is Getting Its First Major Upgrade in 100 Years Wired
Qualcomm Buys Arduino, and the Open-Source Community Is SkepticalIEEE Spectrum
Tech Workers Versus Enshittification Communications of the ACM
Class Warfare
The AI revolution’s next casualty could be the gig economy Business Insider
New York City Nurses Confront an Austerity Avalanche Dollars & Sense
Dollar Store Workers Fight to Improve Jobs, Even Without a Union Capital & Main
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
‘It’s effectively a bailout’: Edison benefits from fine print in Newsom’s last-minute utility legislation Los Angeles Times
I believe that Cali “enjoys” amongst the highest power electricity rates for households in the US. Now, add this, while sporting a “cut utility bills” slogan. Oh Newsom, Newsom. Is it true that AI Data Centers are the reasons behind higher bills in the US as most of the MSM claims?. California shows quite a different thing. You must know where Newsom interests reside.
Whether or not it is, all the AI regulation under consideration ultimately reduces to a pro-censorship, pro-war-sl*t position. Effective Altruists will give you free room and board for joining the “anti-“AI (actually pro-militarization) astroturf movement and spreading pro-regulation gospel. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/fhiXNB4RS3h5BpQLF/pause-house-blackpool
Who knows what to make of Gavin, he’s been busy mocking the Donald-as his faithful sideclick online, but you get the idea it’s the 20 or 30 something year olds behind it, not dissimilar to Fetterman’s efforts.
“Is Trump Attempting A Regime Change Op Against Putin?”
‘Putin offered to exchange Russian-controlled Kherson and Zaporozhye for Ukrainian-controlled Donetsk and Lugansk – The Washington Post’
Soon as I read that Putin wanted Ukrainian-controlled Donetsk and Lugansk I knew that it was bogus. Several weeks ago I heard that Russia already has all of Lugansk except for a few villages so no gain there. And Donetsk? The Russians have cauldrons up and down that front filled with trapped Ukrainian soldiers and Pokrovsk about to fall which is the big one where Zelensky is sending the best of the troops that he has left. As that all collapses, the Russians will just roll up the rest of Donetsk. So he is not going to trade that territory for Kherson and Zaporozhye and you can be sure that they are next up. Still, this is a story by the Washington Post and that is as good a coming from the CIA so just a psyops post.
IIRC the Zaporozhye Oblast includes the land connection to the Crimean peninsula. There’s no way Russia is trading that away.
“Thieves steal eight objects from Louvre in daring daytime heist”
There has been talk about how that jewelry may be disassembled and the gold melted down but I don’t believe that at all. What I suspect is that some billionaire saw that jewelry and wanted it for themselves. As they could not buy it, no matter how much money was offered, that through various criminal connections a professional team was recruited to do this snatch and grab. I know that it will shock some people that billionaires have contacts with criminal elements but that is the world that we live in. So some narcissist now has this jewelry. They can never show it but will take keen pleasure in knowing that it is theirs now and nobody else’s.
can you even be a billionnaire without being neck deep in organised crime?
Rev Kev: Likely.
There is a shadow world of the arts — Swiss warehouses with mysterious comings and goings, disappearances of pieces from Italy, art from looted archeological digs ending up discreetly sold and discreetly hidden.
Here, a current simmering scandal is the Agnelli family’s collection of paintings — 300 or 400 works by major artists that are somehow “lost.” There is the remarkable saga of a Monet that was sold at auction by the family, but that may now be a copy. Oh, and there is at least one more copy floating around, as well as the original, which may be in Portugal with an heir to the Glories of Exor and Stellantis.
https://www.open.online/2025/10/13/famiglia-agnelli-dipinto-monet-scomparso-indagine/
I reckon “loot” and “treasure” are bonded at the hip from a colonist’s viewpoint. To begin with, the emeralds, diamonds, silver, and gold used to fabricate the neckless were likely “appropriated”. From a western cultural perspective thieving treasure is ok. We are taught this from our leaders (Gaddafi’s gold, Venezuela’s oil) again and again.
you don’t need to be a billionaire to accomplish that heist.
The perps did not use some “Mission Impossible” tactics and widgets.
Probably some drug or organized crime lord. Helped by incredibly complacent security
Pictures I saw of gotten gains were pretty fugly, but most older jewelry such as Napoleon’s goods, tend to be that way.
If you parted it out, all of the diamonds would have to be recut from miners cut to a modern cut, losing a little bit in the process, but you’d never know where they had come from prior.
The goods would be worth a ton less if you part them out, anything Napoleon is worth the big bickies,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon%27s_penis
LOL! You’re right. Who steals gold from the Louvre to melt it down. There will at least be a temporary world manhunt for these perps. You’d have an easier time knocking off a few mom and pop jewelry stores and not getting caught if all you wanted to do was melt down the gold.
re: Russia – Gilbert Doctorow mini-debate
Doctorow caused some ruckus recently.
Even Andrei Martyanov cared to link a longer article on this “discussion”:
When an “Expert” Loses his Footing
Gilbert Doctorow—self-proclaimed Russia expert—is maneuvering himself into the sidelines with unsubstantiated and confused theories.
by Denis Dobrin / Peter Hanseler / Andreas Mylaeus
Sun 19 Oct 2025
https://forumgeopolitica.com/article/when-an-expert-loses-his-footing
Intro:
“(…)Gilbert Doctorow, who calls himself a “Sovietologist” and considers himself the only real Russia expert in the independent media, has been peddling theories for several days that leave even hardened political commentators speechless.
In an article published in his “Armageddon Newsletter” on Substack on October 1, 2025, he went so far as to claim that a palace revolution was imminent in the Kremlin in Moscow and that Russian society increasingly viewed Vladimir Putin as a hated Gorbachev 2.0. He also makes cheap suggestions for a successor to the Russian president, whose government ship has now accumulated too much barnacle growth and become too cumbersome.
(…)”
Interesting comments section where Doctorow himself, Dmitry Orlov and other bloggers also comment, along several German readers in German. So they are actually bi-lingual
(Originally a German-Swiss site as far as I understand I didn’t know this blog.)
Doctorow wrote again here, today:
Does the Vladimir Solovyov talk show speak for President Putin?
20 October 2025
https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2025/10/20/does-the-vladimir-solovyov-talk-show-speak-for-president-putin/
On the one hand we need discussion as much as clean air. On the other I welcomed John Helmer´s reminder that we, the sane, who want a decent world and end to this war, Russophobia and those endless lies, are few in numbers in the West. Therefore we better avoid infighting.
This Gilbert Doctorow always seemed to me to be a very careful man. I don’t quite understand why he’s being attacked like this right now…
Ego, maybe resentment?
Thanks for the links, AG– the stories were worth the comments as well.
re: UK´s slide to authoritarianism
Much more important than Doctorow´s case is this piece by Craig Murray:
36 Minute Trials and No Jury – Starmer’s Fascist Mass Courts
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2025/10/36-minute-trials-and-no-jury-starmers-fascist-mass-courts/
“Those charged with terrorism for supporting Palestine Action will have no jury in trials limited to 36 minutes each, with prison sentences up to six months. These are the plans for Starmer Courts for mass trials of anti-Genocide protestors.”
Also: Murray has set up a donation fund to support the cause of Palestine Action and making a legal case against the government´s abuse of power.
“I have started legal action in Scotland against the UK government over the proscription of Palestine Action, in coordination with Huda Ammori and her team in England. The petition has been accepted by the Court and served on the Solicitor General. They now have 16 remaining days to respond.”
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2025/10/fight-the-proscription-of-palestine-action/
Kansas Reflector does an excellent job in its article on “Trump isn’t sending troops to cities with highest crime rates.”
The issue is crime rates. The issue is crime rates over time. The issue is crime as propaganda for the “law ‘n’ order” crowd, and propaganda about crime in the US of A always has racial undertones.
As the Reflector points out: “The cities with populations of 250,000 or more with the highest violent crime rates were, in order: Memphis, Oakland, Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, Kansas City, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Albuquerque and Minneapolis, according to Stateline’s analysis of FBI data.”
Hmmm. So why are Portland and Chicago being targeted? Does Trump have a grudge against Portlandia? The episodes shot at the feminist bookstore?
Did Trump have too much “Chicago-style pizza,” which is a very dubious comestible indeed? (I won’t eat it.)
The question to discuss is this: What is Trump (plus Miller, Vought, Noem, and Vance) trying to prove? Why would Trump choose Chicago, a city occupied more than once by federal troops and a history of resistance to said occupations? See: the Pullman Strike of 1894. And then the Republic Steel Strike and the 1937 Memorial Day Massacre.
Likewise, Portland isn’t a “natural” target for crime-fighters like Trump and Kristi “Pooch Magnet” Noem.
Shouldn’t any discussion center on the questions: The Department of Homeland Security, as we all knew, is now Frankenstein’s monster. ICE is engaged in raids that remind me of U.S. history and slave catchers. TSA has always been a mess, and the FBI is an even older stinking mess. Isn’t it time to rein in these entities? Or would that require more political will than MAGA, BlueMaga, and liberals can ever muster up?
I think that that Reflector article also nips some of the skirmishes here about gross numbers and rates.
For those still unable to understand rates: In 2021, Japan had 263 murders. Dallas, Texas, had 212 murders. Obviously, Dallas is safer than Japan.
> “Chicago-style pizza,” which is a very dubious comestible indeed?
Wow, Uno‘s catchin’ strays…
interesting articles on the Russia-Ukraine ceasefire offers. I tend to lean towards Wauck’s assessment about these being unrealistic and not in Russia’s interest, but Helmer, who has a lot of credibility in my view, gives the talks more weight. It may be that Russian plans are to draw talks out while changing reality on the battlefield. With winter imminent, it could be a costly strategic blunder to let the enemy rearm and take pressure off their energy grid, despite the hardships to Russia’s own troops if the objectives of the SMO are not achieved.
why have talks? (rhetorical Q) Russia’s/the Kremlin’s political demands have been in the public seemingly forever
you only negotiate if you have something to trade (or delay if it’s politics)
I deleted it from my original paragraph, but I wrote about how Russia may just want to stall the talks out in order to delay any decision on Tomahawks or stealing assets long enough to prepare for them. Engaging in talks may be a signal to the US (and BRICS) that Russia is not intransigent in its demands. The pressure on oil exports, both over land via sanctions and by sea via piracy of its shadow fleet, are real.
> Water reveals superpowers hidden at the nanoscale University of Manchester
>> The discovery required the team to develop ultrasensitive measurement techniques capable of probing water layers much thinner than the skin of a virus and track their electrical response across frequencies from kilohertz to gigahertz—spanning six orders of magnitude.
In his work on exclusion-zone water, Gerald Pollack gives great credit to Gilbert Ling for the microprobe he developed. The perceptual advance allowed observations which expanded theoretical possibilities.
From the underlying paper:
> For quasi-2D water, in which the water becomes layered across its entire thickness (h ⪝ 2 nm), we observe a pronounced extra peak in conductivity.
Pollack’s work involves charge difference perpendicular to the layered planes of the liquid crystal. The conductivities in this work are equal to or greater than layers provoked by the nafion that Pollack works with.
The underlying mystery that structured water tantalizes is that a charge separation can be leveraged for life to piggyback on, a large mystery indeed. This work hints at something like superconductivity parallel to the layer planes. A vast increase in evolutionary potential space.
Yes, water is amazing. Water also has memory and can accept, store and transmit information. Here’s a couple of short videos regarding water’s power: (Water) Influenced With Sounds & Intent!
And my favorite studies on water’s memory were done by Japanese scientist Dr. Emoto. Here’s a short video (the music is overly dramatic, but muting helps)
Water Has Memory! Dr. Masaru Emoto’s Water Experiment!
Have a sip :-)
“Windows 11’s October update just broke the Windows Recovery Environment — USB keyboards and mice unusable in Windows RE after latest bug hits”
How can Microsoft screw up so bad repeatedly? And on core elements of the operating system as well? As far as I am concerned, I wouldn’t touch Windows 11 with a 10 foot barge pole.
re: European Disunion
2x German BERLINER ZEITUNG
use google-translate
1) (also see NC ´s POLITICO link above which is the original source)
For Ukraine’s accession: EU forges plans to restrict voting rights of new members
The EU is planning new accession rules. Future members are to start without veto rights. But one country continues to block Ukraine’s enlargement.
https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/news/fuer-ukraine-beitritt-eu-schmiedet-plaene-stimmrecht-neuer-mitglieder-zu-beschraenken-li.10001626
Mainly quoting German Green bigwig and major idiot, Anton Hofreiter (originally a decent and peaceful Bavarian farmer and biologist turned clueless warmonger and propaganda puppet). Those EU nomenklatura supporting this (French, Dutch seem to oppose) trying to play off smaller countries like Montenegro against Hungary.
2) EU takes action: Hungary and Slovakia should no longer receive Russian gas (POLITICO again)
The EU wants to completely stop Russian gas by 2027. Hungary calls it an attack on its energy supply. Gas prices could rise by up to ten percent.
https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/wirtschaft-verantwortung/eu-greift-durch-ungarn-und-slowakei-sollen-kein-russisches-gas-mehr-bekommen-li.10001622
“(…)
The European Union is close to deciding to completely ban Russian gas from the internal market – for the first time without unanimity among member states. According to information from the US magazine Politico, energy ministers are expected to approve a new law in Luxembourg on Monday that will gradually phase out Russian gas imports by 2027
(…)
Until now, sanctions in the energy sector had to be passed unanimously. This time, Brussels is resorting to a different legal instrument: the gas ban is to be implemented as a trade measure
(…)”.
“Boris Johnson confesses: He’s fallen for ChatGPT”
A libertine narcissist matched up with an erotic ChatGPT telling them everything that they want to hear? Sounds like a match made in heaven to me.
Boris: “Drinking heavily. I lost the election again. Where is the nearest bridge higher than 30 meters?”
ChatGPT: “Sorry to hear of your loss. There are no bridges of that height in Oxfordshire, but may I suggest the splendid Queensferry Crossing whose deck is 60 meters above the river?”
“Trump urged Zelenskyy to accept Putin’s terms or be ‘destroyed’ by Russia”
Putin’s talking points, Putin’s talking points, Putin’s rhetoric, Putin’s arguments. Ye gods the mindless repetition … 🙄
“China Is Already Winning the Trade War America Wanted”
Hal Brands might benefit from a little reflection upon what 300+ years of interaction with “the West” has taught China.
“No Kings” Protest (and Arrests) Have Begun”
Can’t say that I was impressed with this and to tell you the truth, the whole thing sounds like an establishment psyops set up by billionaires and the Democrats. Consider. What does the slogan ‘No Kings ‘even mean? It’s like saying ‘Bleh!’. It’s just a backhanded way of saying ‘I Hate Trump.’ Trump let his own feelings be known here-
https://x.com/LauraLoomer/status/1979754846090834014 (19 secs)
So the net effect is that the protestors had no focus and Trump proved once more that he has no gravitas. So here is the thing. Supposing, just supposing, that all those people were instead demanding healthcare for all and it was not a one off thing but a continuous rolling affair? Anybody remember when that healthcare for all was a thing a coupla years ago – but that nobody talks about it anymore. Strange that. So instead of getting people out onto the street for real issues that effect people’s lives, instead they have been funneled into what amounts to performative theater.
A lot of ‘see me-dig me’ going on as of late…
Wasn’t surprised to see the performance theater going on in Portland, as proportionately, I think more Portlanders go to Burning Man than any other big city, and there’s a fair bit of performance theater going on at the burn, i’ll tell you what.
I attended a Black Rock City high pressure time-share presentation once, oh and the way it got twisted around was magical.
No Kings? The US already did that 250 years ago. (Maybe they could take the protests to England or one of the Commonwealth countries.) / ;)
Nice weather for a big outdoor party, though.
I’m shocked at the scorn for No Kings on NC. For heaven’s sake, it was 7 million people getting off their butts to gather and say ‘No, this wrecking of America and drive toward fascism is not ok’. That’s a damn good thing.
No, it is not a solution in itself, but it’s better than hopeless passivity, simply doomscrolling and saying ‘did you hear what insane stuff happened today?’.
“EU Seeks Maritime Declaration To Inspect Russia’s ‘Shadow Fleet’ EU Seeks Maritime Declaration To Inspect Russia’s ‘Shadow Fleet’”
Pretty sure that any “mandate” by the EU does not extend to international waters. For that they would have to go to the United Nations but know that the UN would never go for that. And it should be mentioned that ‘inspection’ is only one step away from ‘confiscation’. The Russians could take this to the UN as out and out piracy but I believe that they are already escorting those tankers through the Baltics as they know that the countries bordering this sea are reckless enough to try something stupid. And it would be tough if any troops that try to board that ship are met by a squad of Russian Marines fresh from the Ukrainian front. Those other countries may issue orders for those Russian ships to leave international waters and sail into their own waters but they are already ignoring such orders as it is.
This marine side of the war has an uncomfortably inevitable feel to it. This, and the potential destruction of Turkstream.
eg: Hal Brands might benefit from a little reflection upon what 300+ years of interaction with “the West” has taught China.
In the brief scope of a piece of opinion journalism done for an apex MSM outlet like Bloomberg?
In that context and at that length, it was quite intelligent and truthful. Intelligent enough that Brands likely has thought about that 300+ history, but decided there’s no point writing something that the copy desk and editors will certainly rewrite out.
Conor knows how that works.
So Trump’s continued liberal Democrats “state of exception”, as I think Lambert put it, but in this case it’s the Marxists and wokeness, that are destroying America and threatening democracy, instead of Trump. (And there’s no Marxism in evidence, but conservatives love to equate liberals with actual Leftism and beyond.)
At every step of the way, liberal Democrats made Trump inevitable, from Obama’s failed two terms, to Democrat persecution of Trump as a state of exception, to Biden’s failed Pandemic response, to endless condescension. Talk about blowback.
The Olympic World Championship in artistic gymnasts is this week in Jakarta, Indonesia. Israeli athletes denied visas to participate. From BBC.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/gymnastics/articles/c1m30mj59yko
Current scores from the competition.
https://www.olympics.com/en/news/gymnastics-2025-world-championships-full-schedule-all-results-scores-medals-complete-list
EndGame Macro:
“When defense procurement stalls or funds disappear, Beijing reads it not as simple mismanagement but as a national security risk. Xi’s recent ouster of generals linked to the Rocket Force and defense logistics suggests he’s cleaning the chain of command ahead of potential crises in Taiwan, the South China Sea, or confrontation with the West.”
So where is Xi wrong here? How much better off would the US be if Generals didn’t retire into procurement sinecure pork? And the inevitable, if China is doing it it must prove weakness closer:
“The irony is that the more the regime tightens, the more brittle it may become. Xi is trading technical competence for personal loyalty, the same trade off that weakened the late Soviet Union. Yet for now, the logic makes sense from his perspective because a fragmented or corrupted PLA is a far greater risk than an obedient but less dynamic one. In Beijing’s calculus, purity beats performance when the stakes are existential and Xi’s actions suggest he believes that moment is close.”
Or maybe not, the US has entered every major war with incompetent generals and the last one we won (WW2) is no exception: FDRs willingness to promote those who were effective matched Lincoln’s promotion of that drunkard Grant. It’s “leadership” here, “a sign of weakness” there. I hope the morons running things don’t bet the house on Chinese weakness like they got the EU to do on Russian weakness in Europe.