Dogs protect us if we go to Hell. That’s why we worship them The Times
Where do your pumpkins come from? Illinois keeps the crown Investigate Midwest
Why is Halloween starting so much earlier each year? A business professor explain The Conversation
Cocoa prices are high: How can consumers save on Halloween candy? Yahoo! Finance
How Vampire Bats Keep From Starving Laughing Squid
Private equity spies opportunity from states’ push to secure critical minerals FT
Climate/Environment
One dead after rare tornado topples construction cranes near Paris AFP
Brazil approves oil drilling near mouth of Amazon River DW
California’s ‘zone zero’ fire rules clash with LA’s need for shade LAist
Microplastics May Be Tied to Vascular Dementia Cases, Review Finds Science Alert
A new era of treatments for microplastics is emerging. Here’s what to know. WaPo
Pandemics
Post-Pandemic COVID-19 linked with high numbers of workforce absences and exits Yale School of Public Health
Africa
Madagascar erupts, Indian Ocean power dynamics in flux The Cradle
Japan
What to expect for Japan’s economy under Sanae Takaichi, its 1st female prime minister AP
Japanese family businesses are facing a succession crisis. That is fueling a private equity boom CNBC
China?
A Troubled $140 Billion Bet on China Property Gets Even Worse Bloomberg
Forever Xi Jinping? Perhaps Not Sinocism
PLA Purges ChinaTalk. The view from Langley.
Trump Expects Taiwan on Agenda for Xi Meeting, Predicts Trade Deal Bloomberg
China’s crude oil imports from Russia rise in September despite US pressure South China Morning Post
China’s rare earth magnet exports to US plunge 29% as tensions simmer South China Morning Post
US and Australia sign critical-minerals agreement as a way to counter China ABC News
Despite US push, China poised to dominate rare earths for years Al Jazeera
Has China Put America Into the pre-WWII “Japan Trap?” Ian Welsh
Old Blighty
A tale of two chants: Why Starmer now casts even the British police as antisemitic Jonathan Cook
36 Minute Trials and No Jury – Starmer’s Fascist Mass Courts Craig Murray. From a few days ago but not to be missed.
Syraqistan
The Burden of Imprecision: on the limitation of statistics Mondoweiss
‘Guardian of animals’: Fears north Gaza’s only vet has been killed by Israel forces during truce New Arab
Gaza government says 986 aid trucks entered Gaza Strip since ceasefire, far short of agreed total Anadolu Agency
Leaked Al Jazeera Report Names 30,000 Israeli Air Force Personnel Tied to Gaza War Crimes TeleSur
One target at a time: The logic that helped Israeli liberals commit genocide 972 Magazine
Official figures show record number of Israelis emigrating abroad Anadolu Agency
***
EU criticised for pausing sanctions on Israel in response to Trump Gaza efforts The Guardian
***
US envoy renews threats against Lebanon as Israeli warplanes strike south The Cradle
US To Keep Troops at Ain al-Asad Air Base in Western Iraq, Reversing Withdrawal Plan Antiwar
Russia prepared to expand cooperation with Iran ‘in all areas’: Kremlin The Cradle
European Disunion
German banks push private equity funds to retail investors FT
EU plans next Russia sanctions, while current package is blocked Euractiv
Massive explosion, fire, and black smoke at oil refinery near Budapest – videos and photos Daily News Hungary.
New Not-So-Cold War
Trump’s hope for quick second summit with Putin may be stalled as pre-meeting tabled for now CNN
Media Reveals Trump’s Private ‘Inversion’ of Ukraine War Beliefs Simplicius
Britain and Poland plan treaty to deter Russia and cut migration The Times
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Desperation Row Consortium News
***
Russia, China sign off on Northern Route shipping deal to slash global freight times Intellinews
The Bering Strait Tunnel Will Likely Remain A Pipe Dream Andrew Korybko
South of the Border
Bolivia to restore US ties cut nearly two decades ago, says Paz Buenos Aires Times
Colombia Recalls Ambassador to U.S. Amid New Diplomatic Rift Over Petro-Trump Dispute TeleSur
Trump 2.0
“No Kings” Is About More Than Trump Ken Klippenstein
“No Kings” Redux: Necessary But Insufficient (and Somewhat Misdirected) Counterpunch
US appeals court lets Trump send troops to Portland USA Today
CHICAGO MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON HIGHLIGHTS THE ‘ANCESTORS’ IN PUSH FOR A GENERAL STRIKE Black Enterprise
***
What You Should Know About Russ Vought, Trump’s Shadow President ProPublica
AG PAM BONDI CLEARED THE WAY FOR ISRAEL’S FOREIGN INFLUENCE OPERATION
On her 1st day, newly appointed AG Pam Bondi, disbanded the Foreign Influence Task Force, the DOJ office responsible for enforcing FARA. The change specifically limits DOJ prosecutors from criminally charging… pic.twitter.com/gm2XzkZeCZ
— GenXGirl (@GenXGirl1994) October 18, 2025
Donald Trump DEMOLISHES part of the White House to make way for his new golden ballroom Daily Mail
Weimar Republic
ICE Agents Can Now Be Arrested in Chicago Migrant Insider
Exclusive: FEMA Workers Improperly Collected Data About Politics of Disaster Victims Matt Taibbi, Racket News
Why We Must Protect Both Turning Point and Mark Bray Jonathan Turley
Police State Watch
ICE boosts weapons spending 700% Popular Information. “…there have also been significant purchases of chemical weapons and “guided missile warheads and explosive components.” Seems rather important.
Denver quietly signs deal with Flock to fly AI drones for police calls KUSA-TV Denver
Our Famously Free Press
Independent newspapers disappear as private investment firms take over Axios
Accelerationists
Now this is a proper novelty. pic.twitter.com/a0uRsOkwo0
— Adrian (@blagojevism) October 19, 2025
Imperial Collapse Watch
US army taps private equity groups to help fund $150bn revamp FT
How military’s ‘safe’ plan to fire munitions over Interstate 5 went off the rails with CHP cruiser hit Los Angeles Times
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Hackers Say They Have Personal Data of Thousands of NSA and Other Government Officials 404 Media
DHS Asks OpenAI to Unmask User Behind ChatGPT Prompts, Possibly the First Such Case Gizmodo
Healthcare?
The Secret Campaign to Silence Critics of a Hospital Real Estate Empire Mother Jones
Private equity takeover of hospitals led to rise in Medicare emergency patient deaths, says study The Guardian
Democrats en déshabillé
Of course the DNC is trying to torpedo his campaign:
You shouldn’t have to fight in stupid foreign wars, get injured, and watch your friends die to be lucky enough to get health care and support.@grahamformaine just gets it man. There’s no other way to say it. pic.twitter.com/ujLeQVekU6
— Maine (@TheMaineWonk) October 20, 2025
Antitrust
AWS outage exposes Achilles heel: central control plane The Register
AI
FTC Disappears Lina Khan’s Thoughts on AI Gizmodo
The legal battle over AI continues: AI artist files lawsuit seeking copyright protection Yahoo! News
Meta Employee Creates AI App That Deepfakes the Dream Vacation You Couldn’t Afford Futurism
Fashion
This man simply walked into the fashion show wearing a garbage bag – and no one thought it was strange until security found him
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) October 20, 2025
Zeitgeist Watch
Google Has a Bedbug Infestation in Its New York Offices Wired
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
120 comments
Comments are closed.
Re today’s Antidote du jour. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
How military’s ‘safe’ plan to fire munitions over Interstate 5 went off the rails with CHP cruiser hit Los Angeles Times
~~~~~~~~~
When your army shows you it can’t march correctly or fire aimed weaponry, believe the message they are trying to portray.
The article buries the important bit: the 20% failure rate.
Accident ….. or practice?
Spent an interesting afternoon at a Ft. Riley range calling in mortar fire.
Or trying to.
Instead of hitting the junked vehicle targets, our adjustments kept actually bringing the rounds closer to us.
Ceasefire!
Turns out that the platoon leader was calculating the aim, just like the platoon sergeant, but his board was off by more than a few degrees and he was simply using his numbers instead of questioning the difference….
“Why is Halloween starting so much earlier each year? A business professor explain”
LOL! I can’t say that I’ve really notice Halloween starting drastically earlier than in the past, but damn, aren’t the stores full of Christmas crap right next to the Halloween stuff and Halloween is still 10 days away! Christmas is more than 2 months away!!!
Halloween is the truer potlatch of the 2 consumer holidays, as nothing is expected in return when one is given a HFCS laden gotten gain.
Article could have just as easily been written about Christmas, merchandise for both are put out earlier and earlier every year. I have neighbours who have had their Halloween decor up since the end of September, which morphed from their Thanksgiving display which was put up in mid-September. Their Xmas stuff will go up the first week in November. When I was a kid, we didn’t decorate for Thanksgiving, we carved a pumpkin a few days before Halloween and we put up our Christmas tree the weekend before Xmas. I guess, as with many things, follow the money is the answer, both holidays are responsible for billions of dollars spent.
We’ve had Halloween junk for sale in our stores for over a month now – and we don’t really celebrate Halloween here in Oz.
Speaking of Halloween: This video–Trump’s response to No Kings–needs to be shown to every other leader in the world.
https://youtu.be/nWHDKDwnJZs?si=9MJ2z4H-6NqmMNkC
Everybody ordered their Christmas crap during a TACO break in the tariff battle a couple months ago. You don’t expect them to rent a warehouse to store all that stuff, do you?
Adam1:
It seems to me that people have to stock up on Halloween candy so that it reaches that point of staleness that is the essence of Halloween.
Circus Peanuts, there’s that level of toxicity that they have to reach for true deliciousness. (Likewise, Peeps.)
MaryJanes. If they don’t break a tooth, it isn’t Halloween.
Candy corn. No comment. Is candy corn a trick or a treat?
And will the candy corn nuggets that survive the trip through your gastro-intestinal system germinate to grow marzipan maize?
They don’ t stock up, they have to buy it three times as two batches get eaten before Halloween. Are you really just going to look at it for six weeks?
Back to School selling season starts in July. Really you need an advanced degree to understand why?
Yes and the marketing story is the following (for Christmas stuff, heavily seasonal). They try to expand the narrow selling season, so they first introduce the stuff by mid October a the highest target price they consider achievable every year. When Christmas time arrives (finally!), if the sales targets weren’t met, the price goes down. Unsold material won’t last in storage for more than a year. Buying in advance is not a saving trick, on the contrary.
Yes, I was at Lowe’s on or about 1 October, and the Christmas exhibit was up. An employee agreed with me that it is troubling indeed to see it this early, at least wait for Halloween.
I don’t think you necessarily have to assume any malign intent from stores who are putting out holiday wears earlier and earlier each year. I think they are just ordering all this crap from China, and as the supply chain gets more and more screwed up every year, they are ordering it to arrive earlier and earlier just in case.
Most outlets don’t have a big warehouse where they can store stuff for two or three months until the Christmas season arrives. They just put it out on the floor as it comes off the truck.
i dont frequent wally whirled, but went into one a couple of months ago for mom(in the podunk dying town up the road)…and they were apparently covering up the empty shelves by removing the shelves and unboxing and setting up some of the larger crap furniture pieces in rather elaborate settings…reminded me of the old department stores from my youth.
the one in fredericksburg(more rich folks) had similar problems, just not as drastic…only 2 blocks of shelves were removed, and less furniture unboxed and set up.
looked fancier, too…with a nice throw rug and a floor lamp or two….even a sort of false wall with walmar art framed and hanging almost straight.
lol.
ive never seen this before, even during the GFC.
feels like an indicator, to me.
Not a problem for me, because like the awakened scrooge, I celebrate christmas all year long. And I just heard on the radio, one of my favorite christmas songs, the twelve weeks of christmas! Life doesn’t get any better than this.
We had Halloween stuff out in stores in August in the blazing heat. These days it’s pumpkin patches, fall festivals, trunk or treat and huge neighborhood block parties not just trick or treating.
Where do people store this stuff? There was a giant half skeleton at Costco that was almost as tall as my 6’0 son and three feet across.
Halloween and 4th of July are the two dumbest holidays.
Luckily my boys are now too cool for Halloween costumes. Our neighborhood closes down a lot of the streets so the kiddos can go around to different houses and flirt with the gals at the girls school next door to their boys school.
In my area we often run across several homes in close proximity that keep very large 10′-15′ skeleton decorations up all year long. It feels like there must be some other significance to this than just Halloween, but maybe it’s some newly developed microculture between neighbors. Has anyone else seem these permanent skeleton displays?
There’s one year-round in Yachats, OR. And many temporary ones.
I, for one, welcome the HallowThanksMas season, filled with joy and beribboned turkeys stuffed with candy corn and delivered by the Red Suited Puritan and his sleigh drawn by eight tiny jack-o-lanterns!
Capitalism isn’t undermining democracy…..
it’s the neo-feudalistic hyper-skewing of assets to one tail, caused by a bipartisan, multi-decade pro-oligarch tax policy, immigration policy, fiscal, and anti-trust policy.
Bill Clinton and W Bush saw Reaganism and said, “hold my beer”
PS, add years of negative real interest Fed rates (instead of old-fashioned fiscal stimulus—food stamps, unemployment aid, infrastructure) as the icing on the dumpster fire
So-actually existing capitalism.
>Why is Halloween starting so much earlier each year? A business professor explain
I remember working in a warehouse job in the summer to pay through school during the off term from May to August
If I remember right about June or so, we would already start picking orders to ship out for stores putting in their orders for Halloween items, wonder if it’s going to get even earlier
I was shopping (5 Below?) early Summer. The shelves wete packed with Holloween products.
The Burden of Imprecision. On the limitations of statistics.
Here is the first paragraph: “The Zionist entity has killed between 65,000 and 680,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 7. The range is staggering, although the larger number is not necessarily the ceiling; it is simply the one we know of.”
The first figure is an old and obsolete figure released by the barely functioning Gaza Ministry of Health. It is the figure that has been repeated endlessly for over a year. Why? Because doing so allows media workers to pretend some concern. This obsolete figure allows endless debate on genocide.
Only 65,000? Is it genocide yet?
So let’s halve that larger figure: 300,000 dead among a population of 2.2 million. Does that get your attention?
Then, 650,000 in a population of 2.2 million. One person in four. Do I have your attention?
The issue isn’t the slipperiness of statistics. The issue is the moral lapse of the West into the swamp of cruelty that the elites and their hangers-on so adore.
It goes back to the old saying, “Liars can figure and figures can lie” which more aptly could be said as figures can be made to fit the lie.
Whatever supports the propaganda machine is what they go with.
“Donald Trump DEMOLISHES part of the White House to make way for his new golden ballroom”
Trump knows what we is doing with this one. Everybody who is everybody in DC will want to make sure that at least one time they get to wangle an invite to the golden ballroom which Trump will be able to hold over their heads. Play ball and you get a ticket. Can you imagine how fierce the competition is going to be for the very first Inaugural Ball held there? Many will want to go there. Few will be selected.
The Monsters’ Ball.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbebXrdT8EY
The crazy or funny thing is that DC has some very strict building code rules around building height, at least in the inner parts of DC. This new ballroom, per sketches, is going to basically dwarf the original White House. It’s 90k square feet or almost 2/3rd bigger than the 55k sqft White House. Someone missed that in the 1910 building act; not that Trump would have followed the law.
I’m sure Democrats are planning for there to be a big fat contract funded when President Newsom calls for the new ballroom to be demolished and the White House restored to its historic configuration. The American people want to see big money spent on this. /s
Newsom? Nah. Demolish the ballroom? Yup. Get the gilt out of the oval? Absolutely. Reduce the DHS budget by 75% immediately, then 5% a year until it is gone? Obvious. Get Congress off its collective fat ass to fulfill it constitutional obligations? Nice idea but needs an entirely new cast of characters. That would be a modest start.
or, maybe, build a big beautiful wall around the dern place…maybe 40′ high, to be used as a foundation for a literal iron dome(the bestest, of course)
just make sure theyre in session…
and yeah…i was born in falls church, va(but left at 6 weeks old), but i went to DC when i was like 12…Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln’s and the Smithsonian’s various buildings and environs were coolness itself… perhaps those sorts of actually valuable things could be removed to Knoxville, or somewheres.
I was thinking that symbolic architectural changes could be a new way to stage big media conflict scenes, to show how deeply divided we are about which flavor (blue or red) of AIPAC service, bombing of poor people, and billionaire theft of our children’s patrimony we want to vote for. Maybe each party, upon winning control, could blow up Mt. Rushmore and put its own chosen set of faces on a new version of it. And symbolic gestures like those could just be the start! Many more opportunities are out there to avoid being real.
They should convert it into office space or move the residence there and convert the rest to office space. I don’t really care. But it should totally be office space.
Be pretty cool if he pulls an Andy Jaxson and invites us plebs to come party with him 😂
re: chaotic Germany warplane acquisition
German antiwar NGO IMI in Tübingen sums it up:
Fighter jets: confusion
https://www.imi-online.de/2025/10/21/kampfflugzeuge-verwirrung/
Oct 8th: 20 new Eurofighters ordered
Oct. 15th: deal is signed over 3,75B Euros
shortly after: additional 15 F-35 ordered for 2,5B Euros (SPIEGEL)
Oct. 20th: no official confirmation of F-35 purchase (Deutschlandfunk ie public radio)
The media involved German SoD Pistolero in this, making him the guy calling out the F-35s. Then the ministry the following Monday officially declined to confirm.
SPIEGEL being the warmonger here, while DF reporting the correction the next day.
My 2 cents: Most likely as often the reporters are pushing the purchase.
It´s one thing to push actors, bad series or even corrupt politicians.
It´s another matter entirely to push for purchases of arms to increase WWIII danger, which above all impoverish 80% of the population (those who cannot afford buying shares of the manufacturing companies.) Apart from the tiny fact that the planes are completely useless.
I do assume that public outcry also by commenters like us (or letter writing folks like myself) did reach some MPs. Since early October for a short moment MSM did report about “some” poblems with the F-35.
That is a monumental admission considering the insane state of mind around here. Of course the news immediately disappeared. But it can only mean that DoD has understood something is wrong, not least I would speculate due to their Spanish colleagues who were more prominently displayed in the media about their unwillingness to burn even more money on a plane that´s as useful as a leaking can.
I don’t know the share of EU companies supplying F-35 production. But I guess those too are having their lobbyists lobby. It’s fascinating that that has not been reported by anybody in Germany to my knowledge.
No Kings.
Klippenstein goes to Madison, Wisconsin, and finds the crowd to be activists. Heck, it’s the Great Lakes States. It’s Wisconsin. They can smell the tear gas emanating from Chicago and Broadview, Illinois. Next, he’ll discover cheddar cheese.
Knapp goes to Gainesville, where the crowds are out of practice in this citizenship business, which means being easily misled by Democrats and liberals.
As esteemed commenter “matt” mentiond a day or so ago: Some of demonstrating is social. For many of these demonstrators, this is their first outing. They are the kinds who tend to run down demonstrating — oh, it doesn’t do anything anyway. Hmmm. Tell that to those who participated in the lunch-counter sit-ins.
As someone who has demonstrated more or less regularly for years, I can assure you that demonstrating is up there with showing up for jury duty. One does it, or one is half a citizen.
And one needs the practice, the baby steps, as matt called them. I have graduated to the point at which the contingent of members of ARCI (the Italian commie-founded association of associations, arts organizations, advocacy groups,….) decided I am reliable enough, or cranky enough, to carry an ARCI flag (and wave it around) during the May Day parade earlier this year.
There are compensations.
PS: Nevertheless, the gaping hole in No Kings is the lack of demands. I especially appreciate the demos I was at for the Global Sumud Flotilla. We offered solidarity. We shut down the street. And the dockworkers had already threatened to shut down the ports. So we *had* to have a general strike.
—USanians? Ready to give it a try?
thanks for the assessment
ps: any encounter with the daily protesters in front of the government buildings in Rome against the genocide?
Apparently there is a move afoot to get 11 Millions USanians to commit to a general strike. Sign up by snail mail, txt, social media, email. Now THERE is a mailing list with value!!
11 Millions—that is the magik 3.5% threshold .
No better time than the waxing Xmas GDP ‘play’. Or the extended govvy shutdown. Or the ACA/ Medicare sign up period. The time has come, the Walrus said….
Heck, can lightning strike twice — do BOTH a boycott / black Friday AND a General Strike?
I have never seen a general strike occur in the US in my six decades. I’d be delighted.
Withhold the cash and the wallet, watch merchants squirm and policies change?
I heard more than one person murmur about not paying federal taxes at our local No Kings meet-and- greet. Rumblings of Tea into the harbor. I’m pretty convinced federal income tax revenues come nowhere close to the federal expenditures— no one would notice a collective self imposed Federal tax holiday.
Are these just the traps King Donald lays, so to declare Martian Law with Elon and have a True Federal Emergency? Time to stay home, cower, and watch Dancing with the Master Chefs on the NFL Network?
I’m waiting for the premiere of the opera, “Xi in America.”
I’ll particularly take note of the musical interlude, “The President Dances.” As is usual with Hair Fuhrer, the concepts promoted will be multifarious and contradictory.
Taking a concept from Chaplin’s film “The Great Dictator,” we will see Hair Fuhrer playing with a copy of the Constitution as he pulls out one Amendment after another and sings, “You’re fired, and you’re fired and you’re fired!”
A wonderful time will be had by 0.01%!
Stay safe until the next plenary session.
If there was a Pho Kings march in Westminster, Ca. i’d be all over that. Didi mau.
Will it be a Peking opera? There are quite a few interesting rules and conventions that would be very amusing if applied to this context.
Saw that on the Indivisible Facebook Posts from some of their members.
I would love for them to start a new party using economic populism or even them just mass educating everyone about the political economics of their area, but FUCK YEAH LETS GENERAL STRIKE IF NOTHING ELSE!
The general strike still can’t be sold door to door
If they can connect it to worker demands – say hey I’ll sponsor a Louisiana worker for missing one day of work if he/she walks out of work and educate them on their class position…
“the gaping hole in No Kings is the lack of demands”
Thank you DJG
My suggestion for demands would go back 80 years to FDR’s demand for a Second Bill of Rights.
We could use the first one back again!
I wish there were something like the flotilla protests here in the US. I was right in the middle of downtown Seattle in 1999 and smelled a lot of tear gas, but didn’t participate in the protests myself. There was a righteous labor march near the beginning of events, but after that, things seemed to devolve into less of a protest with demands for justice and into more of a low level drunken riot.
I did participate in protests in the runup to Shrub’s war. There was a demand there. It failed. And also against some neo-nazis who showed up in Maine – again, a demand that they leave. They did – a win!
Remember the Free Speech Zones proposed under Bush? They officially went away after a short period, but I believe they are unofficially still here. That’s why I have a problem with more recent protests that are organized by NGOs with suggested slogans, or suggestions of things to NOT talk about, like Gaza, which Aaaron Mate reported recently was a request of the No Kings organizers. Then there are the beginning and end times for these protests – over the weekend everyone was gone by around 2:00 PM. Why those times? – because that’s what the cops OK’ed? Organization is 100% needed in protest movements, but it shouldn’t be dictated by what’s convenient for the powers that be. Lately it feels like it is though, and if that’s the case, it isn’t really much of a protest.
We need a general strike yesterday. One of the reasons the general strike in Seattle in the early 20th century was shut down was because it was succeeding – people were organized, provided for the basic needs of their neighbors, and it became quickly apparent that nobody really needed the PMC of the day to run things after all.
As many millions as possible in the streets standing silent, arms folded before every DHS/ICE/whatever other three letter whatsis that is part of the masked-men-with-guns outfit office, building, facility, jail etc. Just stand there. Preferably all wearing the same color shirts. No taunts. No signs. I would find that unnerving. Even better if it could be repeated every day. If wherever they go there are silent watchers. Would take a lot of discipline.
That I could get behind – good idea.
Remember Remember the 5th of November….
You all act as if a mass protest by Joe Sixpack and his fetching better half Jane Chardonnay will divert Benedick Donald from his empathyless ways and turn a new leaf…
There’s some pre-code hope for you, from 1933
Gabriel Over the White House
if 1/6 of american households went out and bought a pitchfork each, on the same day…would it register?
The pike was the commonest ad hoc weapon in the French Revolution, and I get it-long distance poking versus close-in action with a pitchfork.
And a torch.
> Russia, China sign off on Northern Route shipping deal to slash global freight times Intellinews
>> the pact reduces shipping distances by 7,000 to 10,000 kilometres, cutting fuel costs by over 20% and transit times by nearly 40%.
The ‘Madagascar erupts’ article has a map including Arctic shipping routes. That Northern Sea Route line seems rather generous to the Baltics. See Murmansk.
What’s the state of port and other transportation infrastructure at (and to and from) Archangelsk?
Archangelsk has the Northern Railway, but Murmansk has the icebreakers, and about ten times the tonnage throughput. Both are good sites, and we can expect them to be expanded further.
Re: Government shutdown:
One GOP cave, coming up!
GOP leaders map out potential Obamacare extension as hard-liners warm to health talks
So, if Republicans are going to cave and give in to Democrats demands on health care, what exactly was the point of the shutdown?
as always, the devil is in the details. I am anticipating “cave” will be liberally applied to both sides actual positions once negotiations are done, such that each can claim victory, and once again it is the constituents that get the losing part of the deal.
I am calling this the “Seinfeld” shutdown – a shutdown about nothing.
Both sides seem to be in no mood to be Grinches, stealing the kids Obamacare presents right before Christmas. But if they both know that they’re going to end up playing policy Santa Clauses, what is the actual point of subjecting government employees to further harassment, degradation, and humiliation?
It seems that it is all about posturing for the mid-terms. The Donkeys can’t be seen as “weak” and Schumer in particular is afraid of getting rolled, though how a 2-month CR that funds the government at Biden-era levels and restores funding for USAID and other spending that Elon Musk supposedly “wood-chippered” back in February, is “getting rolled”, is beyond my ability to comprehend.
The Republicans are once again lining up to kick a field goal with Lucy as the holder … having wasted the entire year when they could have been passing appropriations bills, they stumbled into a situation where they gave the Dems a political opening to play the role of the fun parent. The usual suspects for fiscal sanity seem to all have been hunted to extinction, with the exception of Thomas Massie who has pointed out the insanity of a CR that brings USAID back to life like zombie from your favorite Halloween thriller.
And then there is the swamp character Mike Johnson, who managed to shut down the entire House for going on a month now, in a pathetic attempt to stall the Epstein files discharge petition from getting the 218th vote, which is inevitable once Adelita Grijalva gets sworn in.
America must be under some sort of curse, to have been punished with these men and women.
USAID was funding significant humanitarian assistance to Gaza and countries around the world so its revival would be a good thing for that reason, anyway.
I suspect that that’s not goung to be the part that’d be brought back, unless it was/will be an Israeli spying operation, in which case net value would likely be negative…
I hope you’re wrong, since USAID was providing significant humanitarian assistance around the world, and people are suffering and dying due to that aid being cut off.
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/07/us-government-fuelling-global-humanitarian-catastrophe-un-experts
That’s part of the story. Another part, cas Latin American and Caribbean activists have been pointing out for decades, is that for governments there receiving aid from USAID was conditional on following IMF and IADB guidance on the micromanagement of their economies, which closed off the possibility of following any strategy that might eventually reduce or eliminate the newd for USAID assistance. So less Manna than bait
Chihombori-Quao: USAID was ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothing’ in Africa | The Bottom Line
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mFSRb5dUOM
Far from being a tragedy for Africa, the demise of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) at the hands of President Donald Trump’s administration should be cause for celebration, argues Arikana Chihombori-Quao, the former ambassador of the African Union to the US.
Chihombori-Quao tells host Steve Clemons that USAID doesn’t have much to show for its decades of education and healthcare projects in Africa and often destabilised countries under the guise of environmental, human rights or social justice agendas.
thanks
just listening
But the question is mostly already answered in the beginning when you hear those laughable sums:
1,3Bn for Congo, 1,2Bn for Ethiopia, 800 Mn for Sudan? They even dare to quote these embarrassing figures.
😂But at least the anchor looks like a “down-sized” version of US actor John Goodman.
There are also people living and thriving due to not being on the receiving end of certain types of USAID’s “aid”.
USAID is spooks. If the US government wants to do something nice for the rest of the world, maybe it can find some non-compromised charitable organization to donate to that sends food and medicine without any regime change thrown in as a bonus.
USAID providing “significant humanitarian assistance” is commonly known as a cover story, a ruse. All the imperial stuff USA does is justified by “humanitarian” reasons.
Whats more bizarre is I’ve seen no mention in the coverage of this issue, that Republicans can simply eliminate the filibuster in this case and simply reopen the government. So it seems they neither want to nor does the Establishment media particularly care if the government reopens or not. It’s perhaps more important for people to remain ignorant about the filibuster.
i keep forgetting that they’re shut down…and when i peruse the newts, am sorta surprised.
NWS still functions, altho theres a banner at the top that says theyll keep on keepin on during the shutdown.
otherwise, theres been no change in my little life.
“‘0% malfunction rate,’ until now: How military’s plan to fire munitions over I-5 went awry”
So if they want to show off firing those M777 howitzers, maybe it might be an idea to fire blanks?
I’d be OK with using live ammo so long as we can make sure that next time JD and Heggsie watch from the artillery target range where they can better see the explosions ;)
…can we discount the possibility that an illegal Immigrant got into the arsenal and switched out a ‘low rider’ shell?
If only Fred Trump had…
For the guillotine watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KflMqooMzF8
It doesn’t matter but the antidote picture today looks fabricated.
This might just be an American thing but it is a typical holiday thing for ‘pumpkin patches’ to open in the autumn so parents can bring the kids in to select a pumpkin for carving. When I was a kid they were at actual farms where the pumpkins were actually still growing on the vines and we’d take a hayride (large cart hitched to a tractor filled with hay bales for the kids to sit on) out to the patch with farm workers who had the shears to cut our choices off the vine for us. Now they’re commercial affairs in empty lots off busy city streets and the pumpkins are brought in from the field, already washed and trimmed, so they can be ‘picked’ easier. The field the cutest lil pumpkin is in looks like one of these operations, they are very fake but not in the AI sense.
ok!
But you do get my POV.
Them pumpkins and leaves look – as we used to say in the old days – “photoshopped” – too fairy-tale-like/plastic.
Also the way they´re arranged. (sure they can actually be arranged for public purpose.)
And something is off with that dog sitting there. I dunno.
Maybe they inserted the dog.
Also it being a sunset would make the fabrication easier to hide.
But just my initial over-reaction.
p.s. My better half hates pumpkin. So that´s that. But there are some good things you can do like pumpkin potato curry, or some pumpkin cake, pumpkin soup…reminds me of Mel Brooks´s “rat” joke in The History of the World, French Revolution segment:
TC 00:30-00:45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4uvLXCUhVg
But seriously now, enjoy.
Last year Ignacio was asking for turkey recipes here if I recall correctly which seemed to have turned out alright.
i like the not-so-sweet pumpkins(and squash).
that pimpled french heirloom(ill mispell it, bc i dont feel like digging up the name) gallieux d….something,lol.
makes excellent persian stuffed pumpkin(lamb, dates, a persian curry, veg, rice…w homemade harissa)
sadly, the july 4th rain event got most of my curcurbits.
the storable squashes are part of my disaster plan…loaded with vitamins and such…and if you have a closet, are easy to keep all winter(i ate the last of last year’s trombocino zuke in may).
grill em like steak, or dice and add to fill out soups/stews, etc.
and as ive said, i grow such things up into trees, and generally thereby avoid squash bugs and powdery mildew and whatnot(airflow keeps em dry)…pick em with a polesaw and someone with a big net.
I hope it is. No dog deserves to be humiliated like that.
In my experience, pumpkin fields are dirt, not grass. The mixture of cut pumpkins and those still on the vine is also suspect, as is the uniformity of the pumpkins. If the pumpkins were all cut, then the grass could just be where the farm has placed them for easy access, but some are still on the vine. Pretty picture, none the less.
“Russia prepared to expand cooperation with Iran ‘in all areas’: Kremlin”
Russia has been already sending aerial defenses to Iran as after the 12 day war, Iran realize that they needed the help. Of course Netanyahu is flipping about this as how is Israel suppose to attack Iran if they have a much more effective defense network for the second Israel-Iran war? So of course Netanyahu is saying that he is sending military equipment to the Ukraine in revenge but the Russians already know that Israel is on the Ukraine’s side so it won’t make any difference. Naturally this complicates things for the Arab states which the US has been recruiting to go against Iran. If attacking Iran is going to be seen as a losing proposition, then they may pull back their support here. Trump may think about sending his super-duper bombers over Iran but if there is a danger that they may be shot down, he is not going to risk his political career on that happening.
Is it too soon to stop talking about political careers and start talking about political dynasties? I know the Clintons tried it and seem to have failed there. But Trump and his extended ‘family’ could give it the old college try as well.
AWS outage chaos
Alas, there is no comprehensive solution to Master redundancy other than a vote by the Masters for an answer, which, in itself requires communication amongst them!
Here’s the other article at The Register speculating on how this happen:
Today is when the Amazon brain drain finally sent AWS down the spout
https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/20/aws_outage_amazon_brain_drain_corey_quinn/?td=rt-3a
I sure cannot speak directly to Amazon, but I certainly saw similar events where I worked. But here’s the one that’s most amusing:
AWS outage turned smart homes into dumb boxes – and sysadmins into therapists
https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/21/aws_outage_aftermath/
I would never have expected so many people to rely on cloud based services at such a level in their homes.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/legal-battle-over-ai-continues-205446631.html
2024, Conor. Anthropic (makers of Claude, not a mere NGO) should be paying NC for such faithful repetition of their talking points.
“US and Australia sign critical-minerals agreement as a way to counter China”
They are really making a big deal about this but it is not so simple. So after the first boatload of rare earths arrives in the US, Trump will probably ring glorious leader here and say thanks for the quick shipment of rare earths but that these are not refined rare earths. Trump will say that he needs for them to be refined in order to use them and can’t they do it in Oz? Glorious leader will have to explain that we don’t have the technology but in the past, we would ship those rare earths to China who would then refine them before sending them on to the US. D’oh! I have heard that if the US wants to get into the refining of rare earths game, that it will need about 30 years – providing nothing goes wrong. This is just to catch up to where the Chinese are now. But by the time the US catches up to them, the Chinese will be 30 years even more further ahead. I have also heard that in US-China negotiations, that the US has been demanding that the US go into China and set up shop where that refining is taking place so that they can steal, err, learn all about it.
This “post Pandemic” nonsense is going to be the end of us all.
(bold mine)
“during”.
Remember when Biden nuked OSHA’s proposed workplace safety rules for COVID?
Meanwhile, the paper itself has a very easy to read graph, with huge spikes on it through 2024, which are COVID wastewater levels. Where is the “post” in this graphic?
So here’s a thought :-
Many people that could exit the labor force at this point, likely have. People close to retirement, for example. But look at the state of Trump’s (and Biden’s) economy. How many people are going to be exiting the labor force anymore if there is any possible way to keep working?
In any case, the conclusion is pretty blunt, thankfully
And as always, the St. Louis Fed. We’re not post-anything, as disability continues its ongoing uptrend in the labor force
Civilian Labor Force – With a Disability, 16 Years and over (not updated still, due to Trump’s shutdown lol)
Re: Cocoa prices are high: How can consumers save on Halloween candy?
I am unfortunately a chocolate lover. Switched to dark chocolate to avoid milk due to lactose issues. And right there another, bigger, problem arose- the high levels of cadmium and lead ALLOWED by the FDA in such foods. There are very expensive makers who will advertise they are as metal-free as they can be (it very much depends on the batch and soil/climate conditions), but my advice from all this is – avoid chocolates until some guaranteed elimination of metals is found. Candy of any sort is mostly a cavity source, but these concerns add what should be a fear for parents.
The fact that a material percentage of chocolate is sourced via the employ of child/slave labor should be reason enough
The legal battle over AI continues: AI artist files lawsuit seeking copyright protection – Yahoo! News
The music world has a way of dealing with such productions.
The master recording of the newer artist can have copyright protections different from the publishing rights, which meant that the original songwriter(s) also got paid and credited. That’s a system designed more for “sharing” than this bezzle now being presented.
But also note that sampling is treated differently from remakes in this system.
reading the first link explains why doG spelled backward is God – and understanding that i live with Gods!
https://www.thetimes.com/world/asia/article/nepal-kukur-tihar-festival-of-dogs-rabies-g5xrcmj73
Media Reveals Trump’s Private ‘Inversion’ of Ukraine War Beliefs Simplicius
After this, the Europeans have come to the inevitable conclusion that further support to Ukraine depends almost exclusively on them. That is why the Coalition of the Willing will meet next Friday in search of solutions having ruled out the Tomahawks. Of course the last bullet in EU’s revolver is that of the Russian assets, which solves nothing but pushes the can down the road for a while. According to an article at El País (in Spanish), everybody apart from the Belgians (asset holders), Hungarians and Slovaks support the confiscation of the assets. That, if passed, will be the last shot of the EU in it’s own foot. Will see next Friday!
It’s a good time to recall this short article from Responsible Statecraft that makes clear how European diplomacy on the issue of the Russian assets has been confided to incompetent fools: https://responsiblestatecraft.org/europe-ukraine-russian-assets/
California’s ‘zone zero’ fire rules clash with LA’s need for shade LAist
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not sure a 5 foot exclusion zone is going to stop nearly hurricane strength winds from burning your house down…
I found it eerie and interesting how many trees with greenery survived not all that far away from homes now only represented by cinders in the aftermath of the LA Infernos.
The young guy clubbing the old woman should be wearing a white cloth mask. From twtr-X
‘A horrifying video shows masked Israeli settler terrorists assaulting an elderly Palestinian woman during the olive harvest season in Turmus Ayya, near Ramallah. They beat her with clubs; she lost consciousness and was rushed to the hospital.’
https://x.com/IhabHassane/status/1979881738429157461
I don’t want to get my hopes up only to be disappointed once again about a political candidate, but I’d really like to think that Schumer and the DNC messed with the wrong guy in Graham Platner.
That dude is getting a lot of positive publicity in Maine because he is out talking to people. He does not come off at all like a stereotypical liberal wuss. Polls for the general election showed him wiping the floor with the “moderate” old fossil Susan Collins. But he wants healthcare for everybody, is an unabashed anti-Zionist, and thinks people should be paid a decent wage for a day’s work and we can;t have that now, can we, so Schumer has to try to shoehorn in an even older fossil than Collins with current governor Janet Mills. As I mentioned previously, this is not going over well among my group of Democrat friends who are squarely in the Mills demographic – hopefully this is a trend that continues.
Due Dissidence had an excellent and entertaining video on Platner and the Democrat attempts to thwart him recently that is well worth watching – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg1MSQ4A0uI
I am probably older than the “Mills demographic.” I would vote for the guy. He has his head on straight. Oh, and no one should ever listen to anything Schumer says. That may be a bit extreme, Schumer, like a stopped clock, could, maybe, just possibly, be correct every now and then.
Latest smear against ya boi in Maine:
https://x.com/lhfang/status/1980719403739328778
Ya know…I was in the service once…but instead of getting a skull tattoo I got a rainbow colored Italian Peace flag on my Left Bicep 💪.
Sure most people think the rainbow coloring means it’s the gay flag but I got gay cousins so I like to think it supports them too.
FFS. As Fang alludes to, it’s funny how according to mainstream “liberals”, there are no nazis in Ukraine no matter how many pictures you show them of dudes covered in black suns and swastikas standing in front of Bandera statues. Now, suddenly, they can make a connection.
As a reminder of who these asshats really are, here’s another showing of the Canadian parliament under the “liberal” Trudeau giving an actual Nazi a standing O – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsilnLnyWCA
Platner looks like he could rip Schumer’s head off with his bare hands. With all the blood on Schumer’s hands for his support of the Zionist entity and this kind of oppo tactic against someone who seems like a decent human being, it gets harder not to wish for sanguinary feats of strength from Platner….
And damn, a quick search shows that story showing up in Axios, The Hill, Jewish Insider, Time, etc.
And then there’s this from Politico from earlier today where he apologizes for some old social media posts and says there’s nothing else to find – https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/20/maines-platner-says-the-worst-is-behind-him-00616216 Hours later we get the skull tat story. These Democrats are really something.
that nazi crap is quite worrying…but(lol), there’s likely video of me doing and saying quite insane things.
and i have regularly advocated for either eating the rich, ourselves…or feeding them to the poor(i even have recipes–any pork recipe will do, however).
am i advocating cannibalism of “Our Betters” in a serious manner?
am i a leader of some non-existent cannibal faction of the non-existent antifa?
should i be whisked off to gitmo?
no. Because the goddamned First Fucking Amendment gives me just as much of a Right to say shocking things in public, as it does to trump, miller, and the rest of the clown rodeo.
which “America” are they supposedly “defending” or “saving”, here?
long ago, i stood up for the Klan’s right to march and speak in one of my hometowns…and was pilloried for it(on top of all the other indignities visited upon me for doing the right thing.
now the Klan has lost their hoods…and are attempting to silence outspoken people they dont like.
such gratitude,lol.
but i still would do it, again.
“the smallest dog can lif its leg on the highest building”_Jim Hightower
and
“upon the loftiest throne, still sits an ass”-Montaigne
Facts bro
And forgive us our debts…
If Platner is for the working class against the Rich idgaf what tattoos he has.
I used to doodle swastikas in my elementary notebook as a young child during school.
Obviously I draw the 🔨 & Sickle now 😉
MURICA
🇺🇸
LONG LIVE THE FIRST AMENDMENT
Apparently one of the terrible things he posted one time years ago was that he was a “communist”, a position he has now disavowed. So we’ve got that litmus test out of the way.
Stupidest timeline indeed, and it’s losing gorms by the second.
and i want to thank the NC commentariat for turning me on to this woman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4XM-mQgRO0
French intelligence officials reveal that Taiwan has quietly conducted secret talks (in the midst of a genocide) at the vice ministerial level with the IDF to construct an Iron Dome system in Taiwan (paywall).
Following the recent promise by the Taiwan government to fund illegal settlements in the West Bank, this new disclosure of direct government collaboration with the immediate perpetrators of the Gaza genocide takes Taiwanese complicity and moral bankruptcy to a new level.
With the early fall rains, native grasses are perking up and areas that you weed whacked will look like manicured greens in a fortnight or so, Fore!
Some of those grasses topped out at 7 feet in the spring, and we had NBA scouts here looking to sign a center or 2, with lucrative deals based on performance on the parquet floor.
Its also the perfect time to go at a fresh batch of oak trees on the all cats and no cattle ranch heretofore untouched, dead limbs like so much ready-to-burn firewood, pole-saw @ the ready, silently screaming-put me out of my misery, the tree itself glad to be rid of a freeloader that it cut off years ago.
3 wheelbarrows worth today, burned later at my leisure-not Mother Nature’s haste.
Official figures show record number of Israelis emigrating abroad Anadolu Agency
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‘Samsonite Option’
Never fear, the spooks are here to save the Democrat Party, according to Thomas B. Edsall.
Can These Two Women Turn It Around for Democrats? (NY Times paywalled but who would care?)
They’ve learned nothing…
“postal inspector and C.I.A. officer.”
!!!
Anybody at the NYT? ANYBODY?
I believe John Kiriakou once talked extensively about that “relationship”.
Dogs protect us if we go to Hell. That’s why we worship them The Times
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I met Dusty the Adventure Dog-I was smitten with him, and related to his human handler that if anything occurred where he couldn’t continue in the way Dusty had become accustomed to, I would gladly step in.
That was 3 years ago and 41 unsolicited offers later mostly from complete strangers also taken by the wonderful one’s ways, inquiring if he was available, which is pretty cheeky, but Dusty is a human magnet.
My ace in the hole is that i’m #1 on the list.
Sports Desk:
Finally a World Series that involves another country in the world, after 30 years no less…
Torontosaurus Rex (birds are the closest thing to dinosaurs) versus the LA Dodgers~
I’ve mentioned it before, but my dad worked with Peter O’Malley (the LA Dodgers owner’s son) in the stock biz in the early 60’s, and we’d get dugout seats on occasion-all wasted on a toddler-the tyke in question being me.
I suppose I saw Koufax pitch or Wills steal, not that I remember anything.
re: on Trump as public politician in general
I for the first time seriously listened to Alex Krainer with Nima and found many good things so far.
(is it sincere though to categorize the Lusitania’s sinking as “false flag?)
4 days ago
https://rumble.com/v70eta8-alex-krainer-iran-russia-and-chinas-massive-military-comeback.html?e9s=src_v1_cbl%2Csrc_v1_ucp_a
Anyhow.
Krainer muses over Trump possibly communicating like any other entertainment person.
Meaning: Whatever he says in one given moment – it is only relevant for that one given audience.
We do not learn what really his plan is.
To me as someone who spent most time in entertainment biz this is not just an assumption but given.
Trump is very clearly doing just that.
It in fact is meaningless to try to decipher what he says in public.
Of course others here may disagree but what is constitutive about any art community imo – be it literature, music, film, theatre, painting – any place in the world – you can be sure that any statements, views, conversations that are conducted in public, like a press conference but especially parties, meetings in a cafe, going out on a friendly basis but not being close friends – are lies.
Or more precisely: In the entertainment world its members do not speak in order to utter the truth but to make business one way or the other.
Either to attract attention, convince people you need (funding, politics, permits, talent), often to harm people (beware of those who are nice), to simply keep the vibe of good mood going – it’s always to perpetuate an illusion not for itself but to ensure that the next project can be realized.
This is not just true for single events as I described. It is formative for everday life itself.
In the ideal case all aspects of an artist´s life serve the art (here I mean all forms of the Classic art forms + movies + comic + AI art).
So if you have an affair you better have it with someone who either promotes your work or if it´s a serious relationship it is someone who you collaborate with in some form or who works on the other side of the fence as an ally (critic vs artist, actor vs. director, producer vs. director, artist vs. promoter, musician vs. musician/promoters and so on.) Same goes for friendships – rule#1: in the entertainment industry there are no friends.
Art life is the wet dream of neoliberalism because every aspect of your life is designed, conducted, controlled to serve economic necessities. The economic part is not the very end only the means. But without the economics worked out you have no art and without the art you are nothing.
And in this totalitarian utilitarian sense whatever you say in public does not matter. Only what it might lead to in form of actions and deeds.
That is not arbitrary but lies in the very nature of art as it offers zero objective criteria.
So what you do 24/7, you try to convince others/the rest of the world that your art is worth to be produced for whatever reason which however cannot be assessed independently.
You are lying, making up things and so on with the only goal to manipulate your environment.
Or to quote the famous Neocon phrase “we now create our own reality.”
To get back to Trump and geopolitics – eventually one could argue that in the most existential, normative sense US and RU conduct are similar – both parties reveal their true interests in their actions. The difference is that the RUs do what they say the Americans do not.
But since this is eventually a material world only deeds matter. And Trump being materialist and thus much, if not liked, certainly understood by almost all everyday Americans is doing this in an almost instinctive manner.
This goes well beyond some Trump-specific “deal-making” culture or transactionalism.
No, this is very mundane American way of life and modus operandi. It´s US normalcy.
And the Dems know this, since they are made of the same flesh.
Just a bit of levity, but when I looked at the article, I imagined a journalist voiceover like in an old movie: “LaRouche’s ghost foiled again! World-land-bridge postponed for another saeculum!”
re: EU war with RU Naryshkin statement
RIA Novosti
(it´s not revealing anything new of course but the reality can be summed up quickly as Naryshkin proves)
kinda Engl. machine-translation
The head of the SVR revealed details of NATO’s preparations for a war with Russia
https://archive.is/gL48e
For those using VPNs
https://ria.ru/20251021/voyna-2049501053.html