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Cheyenne Man Breaks Wyoming State Record With 2,085-Pound Pumpkin Cowboy State Daily

Dead Men Walking – Killing the Dead: Vampire Epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World Literary Review (Anthony L)

Your Next Phone Might Come Without a USB Cable Android Authority

Common opioid is not that effective for easing chronic pain, study finds CNN

‘Veggie burgers’ face grilling in EU parliament RTL

Autism Is Not a Single Condition and Has No Single Cause, Scientists Conclude Wired. Dept. of Huh? Scientists find what we call autism develops on two different trajectories with different symptom clusters, yet reject the idea of concluding that there is more than one condition?

Climate/Environment

Marine heatwaves disrupt crucial carbon storage processes in the ocean, new study finds Euronews

Climate pollution from inhalers has the impact of half a million cars per year, study finds CNN

Most of the world has recently set all-time heat records Climate Brink

Sicily’s warming climate pushes farmers to swap vineyards for exotic fruit Telegraph

Mexico’s aquifers in crisis: overexploitation and scarcity threaten these hidden water reservoirs Noticiasambientales

China?

In silicon wafers, China’s emerging local stars rattle global giants Nikkei

China’s central bank aids gold’s record-setting run with 11-month buying streak South China Morning Post

India

India Inc’s Q2 test begins tomorrow. Will earnings recovery fail its 6th attempt? Economic Times

UK won’t relax visa rules for India, Starmer says BBC

South of the Border

Brazil soy deal that curbs Amazon deforestation to be suspended in 2026 Mongabay

European Disunion

Live: Outgoing French PM hopes to have a budget by end of 2025, dissolution ‘looks more remote’ France24

France, in political crisis, risks having no budget Le Monde

French National Assembly rejects motion to impeach President Macron Anadolu Agency

* * *

US demands EU dismantle green regulations in threat to trade deal Financial Times

Mayor-Elect in Critical Condition After Stabbing in Western Germany New York Times

Old Blighty

Labour’s War on Protest Tribune

China ‘spies’ case was dropped after government failed to provide evidence of Beijing threat Guardian (Kevin W)

Israel v. The Resistance

Israel is fractured, isolated after two years of its war on Gaza: Analysts Aljazeera

The US Spent Over $31 Billion Aiding Israel in the Past Two Years Antiwar

* * *

Israeli Navy attacks Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla Coalition vessels with around 145 participants in international waters Anadolu Ageny

Live: Israel intercepts several Gaza-bound aid flotilla boats Middle East Eye

* * *

Iran Faces Unprecedented Water Crisis Worsens: 19 Damns On The Verge Of Drying Up WION

New Not-So-Cold War

A Video Update on the West’s Faltering TNT Production and Aerial Attempts to Provoke Russia Larry Johnson

Negotiations with Putin ‘Tougher’ Than Gaza Peace Talks, Trump Admits Kyiv Post

The FSB Thwarted An Attempt To Exploit The Palestinian Cause To Sow Inter-Religious Discord Andrew Korybko

World Bank downgrades forecast for Russia’s GDP growth to 0.9% in 2025 and to 0.8% in 2026 Interfax

Syraqistan

Protests erupted across Iraq’s southern provinces of Maysan and Basra on Monday over unpaid wages and worsening water shortages, with demonstrators staging sit-ins and blocking key roads Shafaq

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

FTC Surveillance Pricing Study Indicates Wide Range of Personal Data Used to Set Individualized Consumer Prices FTC (Robin K). From January, still germane.

Imperial Collapse Watch

The Cult Of Can’t Aurelien. Important. Aurelien gives a very generous shout out at the top, and then proceeds with a favorite topic, that things increasingly don’t work, no one seems to feel obligated to do anything, and the public is just supposed to suck it up as things decay. This is not universal; the New York DMV, its Financial Services Department, and the Alabama Department of Labor still seem to be well run. But when I had to contact them, I recall being very pleasantly surprised….which should not be my reaction. Things working should not be an exceptional event.

Christian nationalism’s godless heart Unherd

Emmanuel Todd – ‘The Defeat Of The West’ In Its Current Phase Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)

Trump 2.0

Federal workers erupt over latest White House threat to withhold their pay Axios

Five takeaways from Pam Bondi’s tense, partisan Senate hearing BBC (Kevin W)

“Hegseth Hostage Speaks Out” — MRFF Senior Active Duty Client Ordered to Hegseth’s Quantico Confab Paints a Grim Picture of our Military’s Readiness MRFF (Chuck L)

Social Media Provocateurs Charged with Threatening to Harm Federal Agent and His Wife US Attorney’s Office

Tariffs

China and Brazil are bankrupting American cotton farmers. Bailouts coming. YouTube (resilc)

Democrat Death Wish

‘These Mothaf*ckas Are Crazy!’ Kamala Harris Blasts Trump Admin as Book Tour Rolls On Mediaite

L’affaire Epstein

Charlie Kirk. This is still not going away…

Charlie Kirk leaked text confirms he was livid about ‘bullying’ Jewish donors: ‘I’m leaving pro-Israel cause’ Daily Mail (resilc)

Our No Longer Free Press

David Frum, Douglas Murray Secretly Drafted Speeches for Israeli Ambassador Drop Site

CBS News staffers react to Bari Weiss being named editor-in-chief: ‘It’s utterly depressing’ Guardian (resilc)

Economy

Without data centers, GDP growth was 0.1% in the first half of 2025, Harvard economist says Fortune

Borrowers head back to riskier mortgages, looking for any potential savings CNBC

Mr. Market is Moody

Gold Rally Points to Eroding Faith in Central Banks Worldwide Wall Street Journal

AI

SpongeBob SquarePants Cooking Meth and Fake JFK Speeches: How the Sora 2 Launch Went Sideways Rolling Stone (Kevin W)

Sora 2 Watermark Removers Flood the Web 404 Media

Spotify is Joining Forces with ChatGPT to Generate Recommendations Because We Live in an A.I. Generated Hellscape Metal Sucks (Micael T)

Deloitte to partially refund Australia for report with apparent AI-generated errors ABC Australia (Kevin W)

Cops: Accused Vandal Confessed To ChatGPT The Smoking Gun (resilc)

AI is already upending the US job market as predictions of a ‘jobs apocalypse’ multiply Le Monde

Recruiters Use A.I. to Scan Résumés. Applicants Are Trying to Trick It. New York Times (resilc)

Class Warfare

CEO of FPL defends company seeking highest shareholder profit in nation Tampa Bay Times

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See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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153 comments

  1. Paul O

    On Tramadol. I was given this on two occasions for piriformis syndrome. Even at double the prescribed dose it gave no perceivable pain relief. Paracetamol was far more effective.

    1. Koldmilk

      Tramadol was prescribed by my dentist for pain but I found the combination of paracetamol and ibuprofen much more effective, and didn’t make me drowsy like the Tramadol.

      1. TimH

        What works for after dental surgery is take a single hydrocodone+acetaminophen while walking out of the surgery, perhaps one more a couple of hours later, then move on to 500mg acetaminophen every 4 hours for the rest of the day. I always have hydrocodone+acetaminophen to hand because I use so little from a prescription. Also, and this sounds stupid, but analgesics work best (for me) by taking the minimum amount before the pain starts, rather than to fix the pain.

        I am very wary of opioids because I have no idea what my personal threshold for dependency/withdrawal is.

        1. Lefty Godot

          After dental surgery, the most effective relief came from whiskey. Lots of whiskey. No other painkillers. I don’t necessarily recommend that Rx to other people though. (And I was much younger then.)

        2. johnnyme

          It turns out you can skip the hydrocodone (and other opioids) all together and just go with a combination of ibuprofen and acetaminophen — there have been numerous studies released in the last few years which have shown that this combo is more effective (not to mention, much safer) than opioids. Here’s one published earlier this year:

          Nonopioid vs opioid analgesics after impacted third-molar extractions: The Opioid Analgesic Reduction Study randomized clinical trial

          Conclusions

          The ibuprofen and acetaminophen combination managed pain better for the first 2 days and led to greater satisfaction over the entire postoperative period than hydrocodone with acetaminophen. At no time did hydrocodone outperform the nonopioid.

          I used this combo after my last (non-dental) surgery and it worked much better than I expected it to.

      2. Roxan

        Tramadol is certainly not ‘potent’ when it comes to pain relief! Nor is it an ‘opioid’ of any sort. It worked some for my knee pain, but not enough to be worth the constipation. My liver specialist thought actual opiates were safer than either acetaminophen or NSAIDS.

  2. Wukchumni

    At + 1.5c, we are currently exactly on the flip side of this event in the Little Ice Age, when the coldest temps ever known were recorded in Europe.

    Everything of course is cattywampus, climate-wise. Those record high temps Yves keeps posting are par for our course, a bit hellish i’ll admit, but you go with the planet you have-not the one you want.

    The Grindelwald Fluctuation is a period (in a wider cooling phenomenon) when glaciers in Grindelwald, Switzerland, expanded significantly. Temperatures were 1-2 degrees Celsius lower than twentieth-century averages during this period, which is thought to have lasted from the 1560s to the 1630s.

    The Grindelwald Fluctuation occurred during the Little Ice Age, a period of cooling that occurred from the 13th to the mid 19th century; characterised by the expansion of glaciers in many parts of the world, including the Alps in Europe. It produced some of the lowest temperatures known to this holocene.

    In 1585, the Colima volcano in Mexico erupted. 10 years later in 1595, Nevado del Ruiz erupted. Then in 1600, five years later, the Huaynaputina volcano erupted in what is known as one of the most powerful explosions to occur in the last 2500 years. These back to back major volcanic explosions can cause long-term cooling by activating “positive feedback” in different parts of the Earth’s climate system.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grindelwald_Fluctuation#:~:text=The%20Grindelwald%20Fluctuation%20occurred%20during,temperatures%20known%20to%20this%20holocene.

    1. ocypode

      The Little Ice Age had its fair share of crop failures, civil upheaval, plagues and disasters. I wonder if we’ll be as lucky. There were a spate of crop failures just before 1789 and some of the coldest winters on record. As per a study:

      A key example of the significant intersection between climate disruption and political upheaval is the period up to the French Revolution of 1789 (Doyle, 1990). Climate pressure appears to have been the spark that ignited the flames of the revolution. (…) The harsh winter froze an already starving population. Winter’s deathly grip lasted for months, exacerbating the growing social crisis (Doyle, 1990). In the summer, the frustrated and enraged populace rose up to storm the Bastille, marking the onset of the French Revolution. The same summer, the Great Fear (July 22nd-August 6th, 1789) that struck the French countryside was likely triggered by drought, storms and flooding that destroyed much of the harvest. Subsequently, vast areas of France were ravaged by rural rebellions.

      1. Wukchumni

        Keep in mind the rest of Europe had just as shitty harvests as the French, but none were sitting on a powder keg in search of a lit fuse.

        I re-read Days of the French Revolution, by Christopher Hibbert a fortnight ago, and there are a lot of similarities, Stephen Miller is Max (Headroom) Robespierre, and although cooler heads prevailed largely among wealthier lines, plenty of nobody’s met the razors edge as well. Grudges were served cold.

        Great primer for those that don’t know much in the way of details or personalities during the epoch.

        1. TimH

          When guns and ammo start getting on short supply, t’will be a clue, Shirley. Although a lot of people stocked up on ammo during early-Obama, because he was going to ban everything firearms related…

        2. ocypode

          We’re just missing a good enough Mirabeau to play the dirty game and a Danton to get the “rabble” to agitate. Maybe in these digital days the replacement will come in the form of particularly rabid tiktoks or something. Blessedly, the role of Louis XVI is already fulfilled; incompetence seems to be the one universal invariant in history.

          Thanks for the recommendation; for those that aren’t as inclined to reading, Mike Duncan does a pretty good job in the Revolutions podcast (together with the Haitian Revolution, which was just as, if not more, important than the French one).

  3. ocypode

    ‘Veggie burgers’ face grilling in EU parliament RTL

    I know this isn’t how governments work, but don’t they, like, have more important things to do other than banning the use of the word “meat” for “meat-like” products? I wonder what names would be used to replace the more traditional ones: protein tube instead of sausage? Maybe some sci-fi sounding thing could appeal to a certain base.

    1. The Rev Kev

      Well, taking inspiration from “Yes Minister”, British sausages could be renamed “emulsified high-fat offal tubes”.

          1. The Rev Kev

            About half past eleven at night here, Vicky. I always feel out of sync because of that on NC.

    3. mass

      Differentiating between “meat” and “meat-like” products is as important as between “cheese” and “cheese-like”, or “chocolate” and “chocolate-like”, or anything-like-but-not-really things mimicking something else. If you need to disguise your product as something else, then it’s a crappy product.

      I propose that bug sausages are called buggers.

    4. ciroc

      Many people forget that the name “hamburger” comes from “Hamburg steak.” Only a beef patty between two buns should be called a hamburger. A “veggie burger” is a contradiction in terms and should be called a “veggie sandwich.”

      1. bertl

        What if a veggie burger is made and consummed in Hamburg, Salzburg, Augsburg, Würzburg, or even better, Burg bei Magdeburg, the home of the ultimate double burger? Sandwich is a town on the Kent coast so morally you should have to pay them royalties for the use of their name.

    6. hk

      This is a big deal for regulatory and, where applicable, tax reasons. There have been countless fights over defining fruits, vegetables, sugar, beer, liquor, and “human likeness,” all with millions or even billions of dollars as well as, in some cases, public health questions, at stake.

      1. Laura in So Cal

        I always thought no one would be drinking “alternative” milks if the Milk Industry had won their fight in court to define milk as coming from a mammal. Would people put “soybean juice” on their cereal or in their coffee?

        1. ocypode

          Very good point. Maybe it is a more important issue than I thought! After all, soybean juice sounds positively disgusting.

    8. GrimUpNorth

      During the Eighties as a student I used to buy the cheapest frozen burgers possible. They were mostly soy, onion, chicken? and slaughter house floor sweepings. Thanks to the horrors of CJD and EU regulation we have minimum meat content now. Although it maybe horse meat thanks to the way capitalism works lol.

  4. The Rev Kev

    “A Video Update on the West’s Faltering TNT Production and Aerial Attempts to Provoke Russia”

    I find it remarked that video of how an Su-30 was able to sneak up on an F-35 and look into its cockpit. I can only imagine that this meant that the Su-30 was flying over the F-35 inverted. At least that Russian pilot did not give the F-35 pilot the finger though you wonder if he snapped a few photos of the encounter on his mobile lest his colleagues back at base not believe him and call it ‘bullshitski!’ Bit insulting for the Russian pilot to cover his eyes as if to pretend that he cannot see the F-35. What can you say? Boys will be boys-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPxDoFbsvWA (2:42 mins)

    1. LawnDart

      Re; F-35

      US admits F-35 program failure after decades and trillions spent

      A new Pentagon report admits the F-35 will never achieve its promised capabilities, exposing a $2 trillion defense failure and shaking confidence in the US military’s weapons program.

      Looks like they’ve given-up trying to polish that turd. We can expect F-35 sales to go right where they belong– straight into the toilet. How are US allies who purchased this thing going to feel? And what are the alternatives?

      1. Wukchumni

        As one of the few in the line of ire some 11,325 feet below, I hear F(Edsel)-35’s caterwauling @ 12 o’clock high often, as recently as yesterday afternoon. So far-so good, with maybe a thousand sorties without incident, as in a crash.

        It’s more like 113 feet above the ground @ Star Wars Canyon in Death Valley~

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

      2. Steve H.

        Coram: Civilians unacquainted with the ways of the Building have only vague ideas about what it is the Pentagon does. They think the real business of the Pentagon has something to do with defending America. But it does not. The real business of the Pentagon is buying weapons.

        2. scott s.

          If by “Pentagon” is meant the physical building, then yes, the mission of the departments has always been to provide forces for prompt, sustained operations. The exception might be the Joint Staff, but even there it has been given responsibility for resource decisions.

          The responsibility for “defending America” rests with the combatant commands. Since Goldwater-Nichols these joint commands have increasingly become bloated.

          In the early 20th c. the navy struggled with the question of how best to define and set requirements. The result was to create a “Chief of Naval Operations” but over time the authority of the CNO has been whittled away.

          Now that the Navy is back in the War Dept from which it was removed in 1798 (due to the need to manage weapon procurement) we’ll have to see how that goes.

      3. ilsm

        Quietly suppressed, F-35 has a similar class A mishap rate to early years’ F-16 (some called F-16 lawn dart). Sadly, no one is talking about bringing the GE engine (iirc McCain helped kill it early on) into play as was done with F-16.

        For all we know, much of the F-35’s “functional baselines” have not passed “audit”, too unreliable to finish component on aircraft tests. Obvious since 20 years ago.

        GAO reports on aviation mission capability has not been complimentary to US aircraft, and F-16 is long in tooth bc USN/USAF went all in on F-35!

        “Acquisition reform” includes polishing turds. The long suffering V-22 not withstanding!

      4. Louis Fyne

        It’s fair to say that the post-1946 US model for weapons procuremnt is broken. (feature, not a big).

        Seemingly/arguably, the ” state design bureau” model is superior…

        oh wait, NASA is (arguably) a state design bureau. Maybe it’s just Americans that’s the problem

      5. ocypode

        It sure was a success from the point of view of those that got the $2 trillion. This much cash and all you have to deliver is a plane that falls out of the sky every other week? That’s a steal!

      6. Lefty Godot

        Judging by the West Asia dust-ups, the F-35 is superb at bombing apartment buildings and hospitals, setting refugee tents on fire, attacking military and civilian infrastructure that has no serious anti-aircraft defense, and doing stand-off missile launches against nearby countries. Was it ever advertised as having some other mission?

        1. thrombus

          Its main mission, to scare everyone into submission. It turnes out, guys in sandals are not impressed, not to mention the Ruskies. Maybe Tom Cruise needs to fly one in & out of Kremlin in Top Gun 35 first.

    1. griffen

      Well Mr AG Paxton is a real dyed in the wool “R” Republican. Such people are 99.99% always “right and righteous” in their ways. And too, that someone of his ilk just brings to mind the memorable quote by a 19th century SC lawyer and SC lawmaker.

      “South Carolina, too small to be a republic, too large for an insane asylum.”. And yes Texas is very much bigger geographically, and in population, as a state!

    2. Stephanie

      There are leftists out there – in Texas, no less – who can get it together enough to form an actual “cell”?

      1. The Rev Kev

        They have a meeting every second Tuesday night in an agreed upon telephone booth. I bet that that Ken Paxton is bitter that he was born far to late to take part in the Communist witch-hunts of the 50s.

          1. amfortas

            i havent seen one in 20 years…and not even a regular payphone in the rain, sans booth.
            but these 2 lots in the Old Barrio i’m clearing out for Tam’s Great Uncle has upon it an hundred year old outhouse…that i intend to run off with and make into a fonebooth somewhere here at the bar,lol.
            i’ll put my Ma Bell rotary in it.
            and an oystershell ashtray.
            and answer it in the manner of Lurch…and then maybe speak in that version of Tom Waits.

      2. Adam1

        I’d argue most Americans are leftists, it’s just that not all leftists are die hard liberals and the elite use that to divide us. I’ll also note that most American’s don’t know there is a difference between being a leftist and a liberal and hence it’s easy to paint all liberals as leftists to help with the division confusion.

        Texas elected Wright Patman to congress in 1928 and he was there into the 1970’s and he was a serious leftist.

    3. Jonathan Holland Becnel

      😂

      The replies are solid gold.

      They coming for the Left in Texas 🤣

      They couldn’t find the real left in a million years.

      1. amfortas

        i dont suppose that i’m all that difficult to find…although i am definitely NOT a “movement”, nor all that “organised”…nor do i have designs on power or rapine…nor even on “overthrowing the government”,lol
        i just want to quietly secede from all their works and feed my neighbors.
        i reckon that is what defines the actual Far Left, these days.
        Hunker Down.

  7. guilliam

    Regarding Aurelien’s mention of the problems making a payment for your fundraiser via paypal from the UK, I was similarly trying to give you a donation through paypal last night (btw I REALLY loathe the idea of giving paypal my phone number and email, so consider yourselves honoured that I was making the effort on your behalf!) but kept getting ‘this service is currently unavailable’ messages despite attempts via several browsers. Unless anyone’s got any better ideas, I’m going to give up on this now, but please let me know if there’s any alternative ways anyone else in my siutation can give a donation towards your excellent ongoing work.

    Also, just to add please don’t let this put off any other UK readers considering making a donation to you, I’m fairly sure think there’s probably something wrong with my setup since I know other people who’ve had no problems making international payments via paypal!

    1. PlutoniumKun

      Yes – paypal can be difficult for some. For some reason (they never explained), I’ve been blocked from using a Paypal account for years – but I can make a direct contribution directly using my card now via the Paypal website (previously I wasn’t allowed that option).

      1. tegnost

        I used clover this time as paypal hit my email with an update to conditions and that scared me away, I didn’t use it for anything other than NC donations…

          1. Irrational

            Used Clover too as I am anti-PayPal.
            Take a screenshot of the confirmation if you are concerned.

    2. Paul O

      Paypal worked fine for me from the UK. I don’t use it often, but I seem to be one of the lucky ones; it has been reliable over years.

    3. Ignacio

      I use PayPal almost exclusively for NC. So far no problems. But I understand others are facing some trouble. Very much like Paul O- Sorry I hadn’t read yours before commenting.

  8. Vicky Cookies

    “Veggie burgers face grilling”
    Love the headline. The story itself is reminiscent of Yes, Minister, a bit of manufactured rage-bait, cooked up for partisan tastes, and in the end (forgive me), a nothing burger.

  9. Wukchumni

    Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi!
    Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi!
    Oi! Oi! Oi!

    See us ride out of the sunset
    On your color TV screen
    Out for all that we can get
    If you know what I mean
    Weasels to the left of me
    And weasels to the right

    Ain’t got no gun
    Ain’t got no knife
    Don’t you start no fight

    ‘Cause we’re lacking T.N.T., dynamite
    No T.N.T., and Big Bad Vlad wins the fight
    No T.N.T., we’re a bit on the down low
    No T.N.T., watch us explode

    We play dirty, mean, and mighty unclean
    Nobody wants us, man (except you know who in the holy land)
    Public enemy number one
    Understand?

    So lock up soybean deals with others
    Lock up your sensitive exports
    Lock up your back door
    Run for your life
    #47 man is back in town
    So don’t you mess ’round

    ‘Cause we’re lacking T.N.T., dynamite
    No T.N.T., and Big Bad Vlad wins the fight
    No T.N.T., we’re a bit on the down low
    No T.N.T., watch us explode

    T.N.T
    Oi! Oi! Oi!
    T.N.T
    Oi! Oi! Oi!
    T.N.T
    Oi! Oi! Oi!
    T.N.T
    Oi! Oi! Oi!
    T.N.T
    Oi! Oi! Oi!

    No dynamite
    T.N.T
    Oi! Oi! Oi!
    And we’ll lose the fight
    T.N.T
    Oi! Oi! Oi!
    We’re a bit on the down low
    No T.N.T., watch us explode!

    T.N.T., by AC/DC

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhsK5WExrnE&list=RDNhsK5WExrnE

  10. Chris Smith

    Re: “Five takeaways from Pam Bondi’s tense, partisan Senate hearing ”

    I watched some of the Bondi videos on X while I admittedly should have been working. I have watched a few of these hearings over the course of my life, and I have always winced at their performative nature. The members always seem more interested in making speeches instead of asking questions. I do a lot of trial work, and know that if an attorney asked questions like that in a court proceeding the judge would hit them in the head with their gavel before censoring them.

    Of particular disgust to me was the constant refrain of “Epstein.” The Dems may as well have high-fived each other as they attempted to dunk on Bondi with “Epstein.” I kept thinking “so why didn’t Biden release those files/list/whatever when he was in power if it was so damning,” and “will the Dems release those files when they get back into power after making such a big deal about it now?”

    I do not like Bondi’s politics, but she won me over at least with respect to how she handled herself at the hearing – with a special appreciation for how she handled the loathsome Adam Schiff.

    1. Yves Smith Post author

      Pam Bondi is utterly despicable. She was singularly responsible in Florida for aggressively defending practices that allowed fraudulent foreclosures and ruined many lives. But you cheer her because you hate Congresscritters? Seriously? And you act as if Trump’s connection to Epstein is not a legitimate controversy? What sort of moral compass do you have?

      1. Chris Smith

        That is not what I said. To the point, I clearly stated that I do not like Bondi’s politics, or for that matter agree with much if anything she stand for. Nor did I say the Epstein’s blackmail ring was unimportant, I noted that I don not like the way the Democrats have use it for political games while being utterly unserious about it when in power. I am disgusted with US politics right now, and that applies to all sides. In particular, I have voted Democratic for the past 30 years and so reserve the right to criticize them for the near nothing they have accomplished while Trump goes full authoritarian.

        I can also walk and chew gum at the same time, so I can praise Bondi’s performance while thinking she should not be attorney general. I can praise her performance and condemn the Democratic response without supporting a damn thing Bondi did that you just listed. I don’t care if you own this site, that gives you no right to straw-man me or portray my comments in a false light.

        I do not appreciate being strawmanned

        1. Yves Smith Post author

          This was no straw man. The onus is on you to communicate your position and not on me to read your mind and infer things you never said.

          You praised Bondi for her performance as if that was all that mattered, as opposed to her substantial record. You did not utter a SINGLE criticism of her actions. You did not say, for instance, “Jeez, we know Bondi is awful, but WTF with these Dems grandstanding and not laying a glove on her?” You can’t retroactively depict that as your position when you said no such thing.

          Your own words, approving of her solely on this one hearing, indict you. You presented yourself as caring only about how she comported herself versus her interlocutors.

        2. ChiGal

          it’s not just her politics, she was despicable sitting there in her power suit spewing ugly lies. You are celebrating here a representative of the Executive refusing to be accountable to the Legislative branch. The little I watched of it made my blood boil. Calling her Attorney General reminds me of nothing so much as putting lipstick on a pig.

        3. Don

          I confess to some apprehension about posting this, but the above is what I took you to be saying.

    2. ChrisFromGA

      I’m a law student and I thought her performance was awful. It reeked of contempt for the Senators who were questioning her. Schiff may be loathsome, but Sheldon Whitehouse is a decent guy and deserved more respect.

      Congress has a legitimate oversight role over DoJ, and refusing to answer questions is not a good look. She went well beyond refusing to answer questions from the Democrats, though – IMO, she was rude, combative, unprofessional, and came across to me as a disgrace to the legal profession. Lawyers are supposed to be professional, and she appears to be the opposite of that.

        1. anahuna

          Yes. Greenwald emphasized the fact that her showing disrespect to Democrat senators was a minor issue; she was actually disrespecting the American public in depriving them of their right to information.

          In sum, he says, she believes (acts as if) her role is to be Trump’s personal lawyer, not the Attorney General of the US.

      2. Yves Smith Post author

        Having not had the tolerance for pain to watch Bondi again (I’ve seen her smarmy performances over the years) thanks for the reality check that she has not managed to up her game.

        Your comment raises an additional issue: that in the Trump era, there is a new fanbase for unjustified aggression, as if macho were somehow praiseworthy.

  11. PlutoniumKun

    The Cult Of Can’t Aurelien

    Outstanding essay, especially the analysis of why fighting ‘abstractions’ has become so much more important than actually changing things to so many on the progressive side of politics.

    And having spent the last 3 evenings trying to sort out an issue with a rental apartment and hire car, the reality of crappification of what were once simply things is becoming apparent everywhere.

    1. The Rev Kev

      It’s amazing that ‘progress’ used to be a major tenet of Western societies – and it worked. Think how things must have looked for middle-class Americans back in the 50s as things got steadily better and people actually followed science and scientists. That word has become so degraded now – like the word freedom – that it is not much talked about anymore. We are going back to the 19th century because we are told that There Is No Alternative but the fact of the matter is that it does not have to be this way. It is not hard to work out if a tiny elite is capturing the bulk of a society’s generated wealth with aims to capture even more, then that is not going to leave much for the bulk of the population. But that elite is not going to stop as they want it all. It is in their nature.

      1. Socal Rhino

        John Michael Greer has written along these lines for years. One of the signs of a civilization trending into its decline stage. One of his examples: when was the last time you viewed an update in a software product like Windows with hopeful anticipation rather than dread?

        1. The Rev Kev

          Been very much influenced by the writings of John Michael Greer, especially in his book “Retrotopia” where he shows that blindly following progress can lead you into a very bad place.

          1. Wukchumni

            Nobody knows how anything works, if your smartphone, computer, tv set or car died on you, good luck & goodnight.

            Its hard to imagine we we’re once encouraged to self-diagnose our TV set’s malady, by taking out tubes from inside the set and going to Thrifty Drug store to use their machine to see which tube was the culprit.

            But at least we had the capability…

          2. Camelotkidd

            Agreed. JMG is a treasure.
            “Retrotopia” is a great fictional deconstruction of the cult of technology

    2. Wukchumni

      If we consider how far our civilisation has benefited from clean drinking water, indoor toilets and bathrooms, a reliable system of waste disposal, safety legislation at work, the clean air legislation of the 1960s and simple vaccinations against mass killers like smallpox and polio, and then consider how far that civilisation has benefited from, say, Bitcoin, then we can see how far and how fast we have declined.

      Growing up in peak America, everything starts to go to shit the day after July 20 1969.

      It was a gradual process for sure, but for those of us playing along, there was an acceptance of sorts that things would never get better-so they didn’t.

      The idea perhaps that the country’s finances might be linked to Bitcoin is preposterous or was that post predator?

      1. TimH

        Looking at used houses in mid GA (not picking on GA, other regions with similar pricing the same), and am shocked at the very low build standards. Roof and siding with 25 years life when 50 is available for similar finish, minimal insulation, lowest efficiency HVAC.

        Saw a few videos from the guy in AZ who does new-build walkthroughs for buyers, and that was worse. Builders allowed to do their own inspection signoffs… what?

      2. Lefty Godot

        I think of August 15, 1971, as the date the decline really kicked off, with the Nixon shock, although it took a while to become obvious, with the OPEC oil boycott due to our one-sided support for Israel being the big accelerator. Before 1971 we had been teetering on an uneven plateau since the later part of 1966. It’s funny how those five or so years didn’t feel anything like our golden, peak era at the time. Oh, to be back in that time now though!

        Some people express disappointment that so little real science fiction is being written in this current tech-heavy time, especially non-dystopian science fiction. But science and technology haven’t brought us the stream of continual life improvements that we saw from the 1890s to the 1970s: automobiles, hot and cold running water, electricity everywhere, toilets and public sewers, refrigerators, antibiotics, washing machines, polio vaccine, even the first personal computers to delight hobbyists. Now most of what we are given and are told is better is either obviously really worse or has a number of very striking downsides. How can anyone feel the giddy faith in sci-tech now that people had in the 1930s and 1940s? Why would anyone write those kinds of stories now?

      3. amfortas

        aye, Wuk(and others).
        i got the sense of the spirit of the post war times, up to around when i was born(69), from my grandparents.
        from them i also inherited my doomerism…altho mine turned out to be more fully formed>
        they were in a sort of shock at the direction of things, post-1971, until the end of their lives. and they actually talked about such things with me.
        (they are on the walls, here at the bar, while my parents, etc are, notably, absent,lol–the latter were aloof polyannas and mefirsters who couldnt be troubled with their kids’ troubles…mom is the last of them)

    3. Ignacio

      I believe there is contagion, or shared ways of thinking, in our societies in a very wide sense. The competitivity thing is very damaging in and below the political landscape. I find it nauseating the EU all the time reducing things to “competitivity” no mattter how they decide “competitivity” must be defined. A Spanish philosopher (very much unknown except for a couple of books he wrote and became somehow popular in Spain) wrote something that got rooted in my brain. He said that some states like “happiness”, I add “competitivity”, are by-products of actions conducted for other purposes and cannot be themselves defined as goals or objectives. If your objective is to be happy or competitive it is almost certain you are going to fail.

    4. Fried

      I like reading Aurelien’s essays on the Ukraine war and about how stupid the EU is, but frankly, I find the more than occasional sniping at Islam, a topic the author doesn’t seem to know much about or have any interest in learning about, pretty tiresome.

      I am by no means an expert, and most of what I know about it comes from primary school textbooks because that’s the level of Arabic I’m reading at at the moment. But to suggest that Islam teaches that you shouldn’t bother with anything because everything is preordained anyway is frankly ridiculous.

      Here’s a hadith those Western teachers of Muslim students (who seem to be a particularly lazy bunch looking for an excuse) might want to acquaint their students (and themselves) with:
      It was narrated from Anas bin Malik that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said:
      “Seeking knowledge is a duty upon every Muslim, and he who imparts knowledge to those who do not deserve it, is like one who puts a necklace of jewels, pearls and gold around the neck of swines.”

      Also, some of the most religious Muslims I know about are the Islamic resistance fighters in Palestine and Lebanon. You can think what you like about them, but they’re certainly not sitting on their hands waiting for God to sort things out.

      And then there are the mostly Muslim students in Gaza, who despite the impossible situation they find themselves in, still try and finish their studies.

      Both the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic Ansarallah government in Yemen are busy trying to do what Aurelien thinks (and I think) our governments should be doing, which is to improve the material conditions of their people. You don’t hear much about that in Western news, of course.

      Yahya Saree, the spokesperson of the Armed Forces of Yemen, starts (almost) every one of his communiqués with a quote from the Quran that says “O you who believe! If you help (in the cause of) Allah, He will help you, and make your foothold firm.” Then he lists what it was that they have actively done (missile and drone attacks and stuff) and why they’re doing it (to end the genocide) and ends with “God is sufficient for us and the best disposer of affairs,” which seems to be a common thing to say among Muslims but he doesn’t seem to think it excuses them from taking things into their own hands.

      Also, in my endeavours to learn Arabic, I read a lot of primary school textbooks from all over the Arab World (basically everything I can get on the internet, and there’s plenty), and they all go out of their way to portrait the students as hardworking and interested, and if someone is lazy they’re there as a bad example. (Our textbooks probably tried to goad us into that, too, but it’s been a while and I don’t remember. If they did it wasn’t much use as far as I was concerned.)

      1. amfortas

        well said, Fried, and my experiences with Muslims are similar.
        however, i didnt get the same Diss as you did from Aurelian.
        that could have been worded better, but i think he was referencing the more hard core salafists, and progeny.

        every Muslim i ever met had a book to hand…and not some bs pulp fiction…but a real book, about real things.
        from convenience store owner, to his cousins working for him, to taxi drivers and even a waitress in the Pakistani place there in san antone.
        they all had a book they were hurrying back to, after dealing with the customer.
        i am that way, too….and almost all americans ive known are definitely not,lol…so i noticed.

    5. Mikel

      I also agree that there is much that can be done to improve the lives of people in the here and now (which is the best way for improvements to translate to subsequent generations).
      Too much reflection and deflection about things that haven’t happened to people that are not actually here in the now.

    6. Bugs

      It’s simply magisterial. There are some quibbles in the comments with historical points that he’s made but the social criticism is something of a beauty that I have not come across in a long time. That said, the ad hominem slight to Foucault is a reflection of one of his consistent faults, a lack of self reflection. It’s fine if you’ve got an opinion, and he does, but he sometimes lacks the philosophical chops to lay it out clearly without just attacking other thinkers for their personal foibles. Which strangely reminds me of Nietzsche, who I think would have a similar view of postmodernism, but from the standpoint of how it was even possible that anyone took it seriously as normative political philosophy. Probably part of the fault lies with Derrida, who could never quite get the courage to say what he really stood for, without resorting to metaphor.

    2. griffen

      Dad approved joke that one is. Ha ha \sarc

      Once upon a job several years back, we were searching for something interesting and also close enough to the workplace. I researched farms in nearby western NC for pumpkin catapults as an entertaining diversion. I’d think that would be a fun way to kill a few hours outside of the office and enjoying some autumn weather. Ready aim and launch the gourds!

      1. bertl

        He taught and composed at the Ospedale della Pietà for yonks, an institution that gave abandoned children a home and education to improve their prospects by giving the lads a trade and the girls, for whom much of his work was composed, a musical education to improve their prospects.

    7. Ken Murphy

      Agreed!
      Back when I was in grad school my then girlfriend took me to a performance of the Four Seasons at the Sainte-Chappelle in Paris. It was nice, but that antidote is beautiful, and its human spontaneity is wonderful. An example of why we should treasure and fight for the good things in this world.

  14. LawnDart

    Re; New Not-So-Cold War/frontline realities

    Haig Hovaness gave a great overview on the threat from above yesterday– Coffee Break: Armed Madhouse – Drone Evolution

    It seems likely that by 2027 drones, automated guided vehicles (AGV), autonomous mobile robots (AMR), and all types of sensors will be networked together with AI controlling the frontline show– the frontline itself entirelly unsurvivable for humans. And by 2030..?

    I think that logically it follows that the “frontlines” can only expand in depth, soon to where the entire Earth is a frontline, expanding into space, and perhaps even further inwards– into our minds.

  15. mrsyk

    Marine heatwaves disrupt crucial carbon storage processes in the ocean, new study finds, Yikes!

    “This research marks an exciting new chapter in ocean monitoring,”

    “Exciting” isn’t the first word I would use.

  16. Valiant Johnson

    I suspect that any reduction in hiring attributed to A.I. is actually because the economy is in regression.
    It’s not just young wannabe PMC people not being hired, it’s everyone.

    1. Wukchumni

      I don’t know how everybody does it these days, had a Colorado omelette @ IHOP in Godzone yesterday, and it was $17.99 and only included your choice of 1: pancakes, toast or hash browns. if you wanted 2 it was a few more bucks. Add coffee and tip and hello $25 breakfast.

      And yet the place was hopping on a Tuesday morning…

      1. ChrisFromGA

        In my vicinity the IHOP offers a 55+ menu. Two pancakes, sausage/bacon, toast and one egg for around $8.

        At least, that was the case as of July … your mileage may vary.

    2. Ken Murphy

      I have folks coming in all the time asking if we’re hiring, and I have a pile of applications on my desk.
      Sadly, where I’m at I have 160 per week for labor. Of that, I am 45 hours, and my Asst. Mgr. is 36-40 (no OT!). The remainder is distributed to my one Keyholder and 4 Sales Associates. Yeah, it sucks and no one is happy about it.
      Labor costs are to fall within the range of 12-14% of Gross Sales. Start going over that and I’ll be getting a call from my boss.
      I may get more hours for the holidays, but not yet. And do I use that to bring more folks onboard to increase my scheduling flexibility, or give the hours to my team? FWIW I always take care of my guys first. Also doesn’t help that no one ever quits, and they behave themselves just enough to stay out of trouble. I think I may need to be more of a dick manager.

  17. The Rev Kev

    “UK won’t relax visa rules for India, Starmer says”

    ‘But he said there were no plans to open up more visa routes to Indian workers or students.’

    Starmer may have a point here. How exactly would the UK benefit by having Indian workers push aside British workers to take their jobs. It’s not really working out in the US, is it. And how would Indian students displacing British students help the economy of the UK long term. I think that this is one can of worms that Starmer decided to let stay sealed.

    1. Felix_47

      Is endless population growth necessary for capitalism to function? Population replacement occurs when the natives do not expand their population enough to provide sufficient growth and profit at the top.

  18. Wukchumni

    No offense Mister President, but you’re no Fred Ramsdell, and thus immune to praise~

    Out on a digital detox in the western US backcountry, scientist Fred Ramsdell was startled when his wife let out a yell. He feared she had spotted a grizzly bear, only to discover a far better surprise – he had won the Nobel prize in medicine.

    The Nobel committee had been unable to reach the immunologist, whose phone was on airplane mode as he was on a hiking and camping trip, but finally got through to the couple early on Tuesday morning, Swedish time.

    “They were still in the wild and there are plenty of grizzly bears there, so he was quite worried when she let out a yell,” said Thomas Perlmann, secretary general of the Nobel committee. “Fortunately, it was the Nobel prize. He was very happy and elated and had not expected the prize at all.”

    Speaking to the New York Times from a hotel in Montana later on Tuesday, Ramsdell said he “certainly didn’t expect to win the Nobel prize”. The couple had been on a three-week trip that crossed the mountain ranges of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana.“It never crossed my mind,” he said.

    1. Jokerstein

      I used to work with Fred and Mary at Celltech in Bothell in the early 2000s when they did the work on FOXP3 which won them the prize. They were (still are?) lovely people, and also knew how to have a fun time at a bar or company outing.

      Mary is actually now a (lowly?) program manager at the ISB in Seattle, and I can’t help wondering if she can parlay this into a better position. Of course, she is now in her mid-60s, and may decide to retire to the speaking circuit.

  19. griffen

    Kamala Harris book tour rolling along, and coming to a city nearby. Well that’s a very interesting anecdote from the above article, how she lost in a close election. Well it was always shaping up after mid year to be a tightly contested race, especially after she took the pole position at the top of the ticket.

    Trump didn’t win in a landslide result like Reagan over Mondale. But the Trump election victory in 2024 was at a comfortable margin well enough. Is that really worth debating?

    1. Wukchumni

      Kamalalf (homage to Landon) is that canker sore on the roof of your mouth that finally goes away, but then reappears if only to taunt you.

    2. Pat

      It is very hard to keep up the idea that an election was stolen if it isn’t close. Harris might very well know that she was beaten comfortably but a significant portion of her “audience” deeply wants to believe otherwise.

  20. lyman alpha blob

    Update on America This Week just in case anyone is interested. I mentioned yesterday that I hadn’t finished the most recent podcast because that Kirn was starting on his “own the libs” schtick again at the beginning, which caused me to tune out. I have finished it now, and Kirn toned it down. The podcast starts with video of the anti-ICE protests in Chicago that one of Taibbi’s contributors took. After a discussion of the history of calling in the National Guard, the two of them went on a lengthy discussion about why limiting immigration is necessary from a labor standpoint, basically giving the same argument Bernie did, and it was quite good! I do wish that they could have done all that, and still mentioned that Trump’s tactics with ICE are abominable, but it’s not my podcast.

    The reason I find this interesting is related to Nat Wilson’s Turner’s comment a couple days ago suggesting that Tabbi may have been neutralized by contact with Bari Weiss. I sincerely hope that isn’t the case, since Taibbi is one of the best journalists out there, so I listen to what he says very carefully. Since I’m a long time reader, I take this as sort of a canary in a coalmine situation. Soi disant “liberals” have criticized Taibbi, Greenwald and others for years, falsely claiming they turned republican or some such nonsense. Taibbi does disagree with Kirn’s hot takes fairly often, although pretty quietly and politely. Based on a few decades of reporting, I’m pretty sure that Taibbi would be appalled if he found his only remaining audience were a bunch of Fox News diehards. But I do think that a conservative audience found him due to his criticisms of the Biden administration. Maybe the idea is not to alienate that crowd now, but to slowly bring them along to a different line of thinking? Whether it was deliberate on their parts or not, I do think that Kirn has toned down his rather awful rhetoric in several recent podcasts, not just this last one, and he’s become more like the guy I used to enjoy reading in Harper’s again. We’ll see if that continues.

    1. Expat2uruguay

      Thanks for the update, as I’ve quit watching. It’s good to hear that Kirn is toning it down, because that’s what I found most objectionable. Perhaps I’ll take a listen.

    2. tegnost

      I too still listen to ATW but sometimes I get uninterested by the hook, oh here goes kirn again, but I don’t mind not agreeing with some of the things people say, don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater as it were, its a decent format to have two voices that diverge, and like taibbi I choose to be polite to my own interlocutors which surprise surprise works really great. What I find notable in your comment is the bernie thing. The one and only greatest threat to the PTB is the great mass of ducks unlimited conservatives and those susceptible to bernie, can’t say “left” anymore (I recall many convos with trumpers who would have voted for bernie…he was a real threat ) and I call that group the belly of the beast. When you look at it the PTB want us divided left right because if it become top vs bottom heads will roll. I sense desperation at the top and they won’t go quietly.

      1. TimH

        Wait for the transcript, you can skim through finding the bits of interest. Sometimes I enjoy Walter’s pontification and use of language skills, sometimes I don’t. The podcast is fine for a listen during a long drive across country though when a time filler is appreciated…

        1. amfortas

          yeah, i enjoy reading Kirn much more than listening to him…but that might me my east texas aversion to northeastern accents.
          but whatever, i dont get as much of the “shallow near right asshat” from reading him.(in fact, i was sorta shocked that it was the same guy(had to go check) the first time i actually listened to them yammer on.)

      2. lyman alpha blob

        Indeed. The only book of Taibbi’s that I’ve read is Hate, Inc. which describes the attempts by the elite media to keep us at each other’s throats. When people are left to their own devices, they quite often find common cause against those out to exploit them. There was a very good argument in the book Railroaded several years back discussing how the concept of “racism” as we know it today was a deliberate construct by the PTB of the time. After Lincoln ended slavery, white immigrants and former slaves working in the railroad industry started putting their heads together to change their situations for the better. The railroad barons then brought in Chinese labor and managed to get all these demographic groups fighting amongst themselves instead of against the robber barons.

        Solidarity! – I do think that is what Taibbi is aiming for, and the rest of us should be too.

    3. nippersdad

      “Soi disant “liberals” have criticized Taibbi, Greenwald and others for years, falsely claiming they turned republican or some such nonsense.”

      Which reminded me of a recent Greenwald podcast in which he agreed with Charlie Kirk that people need to be shot so that the Second Amendment can remain strong. “It is just the truth!” Have to admit, my jaw dropped at that one. I refuse to believe that it is necessary to routinely shoot up schools, malls and churches for the Second Amendment to remain, what? viable?

      I will admit to an increasing amount of non-COVID related brain fog over the last few years, maybe I didn’t really get his point, but if one has to stretch that far to find agreement with someone like Charlie Kirk then one does have to wonder where his priorities lie. The guy was trash, and it is possible to just ignore him. This would have been a perfect opportunity to have done just that.

  21. The Rev Kev

    “Alexander Lee – Dead Men Walking”

    And to think that things would have gone much better if Europe simply cremated their dead like the Romans originally did. Hard to raise a vampire if he is already a crispy critter.

  22. The Rev Kev

    “Your next phone might come without a USB cable”

    Great, so how far do they intend to take it. Printers out of the box that have no cable to connect them to your computer. Maybe the same with monitors. It used to be that you would buy toys that would have the message on the outside ‘Batteries Not Included.’ So will we have things like computers, mobiles, tablets, etc. bearing the message ‘Cables Not Included’ now.

    1. griffen

      Maybe it’s the looming future of connectivity and so forth. In certain episodes from the recently completed Alien Earth TV series ( recommended, I’ll add ) two of the characters are basically machines or a man + machine cyborg result. Each one has features that either include a port in the forearm or the ability to transfer data logs via each side of the temple. It’s sci fi so this isn’t ground breaking in that sense.

      USB or comparable connectors might go the route of the buggy whip? In looking just now at my modest home setup for entertainment and interwebs connectivity I could see much of it going wireless with a two factor authentication to preclude someone else hitching a free Wi Fi ride.

    2. scott s.

      I have a box of probably 30 or so phone RJ-11 patch cords sitting here. As far as USB, yes you needed A to A, B to A, C to A, A to C and now C to C. That’s without all of Apple’s “improved” interfaces, and the crappy USB mini and micro formats.

      1. MicaT

        I don’t think it’s anything nefarious but actually something pushed especially by Europe. It’s why apple is now using USB-C, it’s the standard.

        Most everyone has extra cables around, why include extras when you probably don’t need them. It’s the advantage of universal cables.

        1. Pat

          Because cables die easily, IOW even with the older cables around a goodly percentage will need to buy new cables. And a lot of people will buy oem.

  23. Donald Obama

    So, that Guardian article “China ‘spies’ case was dropped after government failed to provide evidence of Beijing threat” mentioned something I had not heard of – six Bulgarians in the UK convicted of spying for Russia. Here is a BBC link: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2gx52xqqpo

    I mean, WOW! I had not heard of this at all, am I the only one? Those are some very elaborate plots, including kidnapping a journalist and taking him to the Russian embassy after burning his laptop? It’s the kind of over the top stuff you’d see in a bad spy novel. As far as I can tell, there is no proof that Russia directed any of it…

    Back to the Guardian article – reading it, one gets the impression that the Guardian is critical towards the UK government for not classifying China as a threat.

  24. ocypode

    Brazil soy deal that curbs Amazon deforestation to be suspended in 2026 Mongabay

    Economics is often an exercise in terrible alternatives. Brazil’s unexpected benefit from the tariffs is a loss for the world. Given the now vacant markets left by US farmers, how could they possibly stop the expansion of production? I wonder if we’ll see soon enough the collapse of the Amazon.

  25. lyman alpha blob

    RE: Christian nationalism’s godless heart

    That was a good take, and the author was correct to note that not all claims to Christianity have to do with actual religious belief – quite often it’s about politics or virtue signalling. I also thought his prescription for a more pluralistic religion rather than simply throwing the baby out with the bathwater was a good one.

    Coincidentally, I was just reading through Hobsbawn’s chapter on religion in the aftermath of the French Revolution yesterday, from his book The Age of Revolution, and he makes a very similar point. Religiosity was overall on the wane after the revolution, as Enlightenment ideals took over. But you’d see certain sectors of society switch to Protestantism to show their opposition to traditionally Catholic monarchs – they may not have actually believed in the miracles anymore, but this rising merchant class didn’t want to be seen as “filthy atheists” either. And Islam was seeing a resurgence at the time as well, not so much due to genuine belief, but instead as a protest against the capitalism of the white Western merchant class being spread via the revolution.

    Amfortas recommended a good one a while ago called The Enchantments of Mammon, which described how after the Enlightenment, traditional religiosity decreased, but instead of worship going by thew wayside, society replaced worship of a deity with worship of The Market. People do seem to want and need to believe in something. As I get older myself, I do feel the pull. I do prefer civil society to some libertarian law of the jungle hellscape with everyone for themselves, and society needs some sort of glue to keep it together. Personally, I’d rather live in a society where people look toward a nurturing Gaia or some such, even if it’s not “true” in the sense of being provable, than the technocrat amoral hellscape that’s being crammed down our throats, designed so a few can amass the almighty dollar and Lord over the rest of us.. In that regard, it’s not surprising that some sort of religion is making a comeback. The trick will be in steering any revival toward creating a pluralistic society with a sense of the common good, which we did use to have, rather than one where we want to excise the infidels.

    1. Anonymous 2

      Re post-Enlightenment developments, it is significant that Smith’s invisible hand of the market replaced the hand of God.

  26. Jason Boxman

    Wow, my idle Bank of America account just got hit with a $25 fee, 25% of the account value. They must have changed their terms or something. Stealing everything not nailed down, that’s our elite!

  27. Tom Stone

    What a wonderful time to be alive, when peacefully protesting a Genocide being committed by one group of Semites (Israelis) against another group of Semites (Palestinians) is both anti Semitic and an act of terrorism in that bastion of the enlightenment and Western Values, The UK.

    I’m looking forward to President Vance declaring the USA to be a Christian Nation, the wrangling over which Bible will be the official Bible will be delightful.
    I suspect that they will compromise on the “Reader’s Digest” version…with the “Book of Mormon’ as a secondary text.

  28. Mikel

    AI is already upending the US job market as predictions of a ‘jobs apocalypse’ multiply – Le Monde

    There are plenty of people that can do the plenty of things that need to be done. There is just more and more lack of desire to actually pay people to do them because of unrealistic (and maybe psychotic) ideas about profit margin “groaf”.

    1. Mikel

      And if there is a “certified” recession in the real economy, the faster they can use that to get to interest rate cuts to keep the bubbles afloat for as long as possible. It’s about the only point where the”real economy” and the “asset bubble economy” intersect.

  29. Jason Boxman

    Genocide finds a way to continue

    Israel assesses Hamas may not be able to return all remaining dead hostages, sources say (CNN)

    The three Israeli sources say Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet have known for months that Hamas does not know the whereabouts of some of the deceased hostages and may therefore be unable to meet that demand. CNN has asked the Israeli government for comment.

    …

    It is unclear how this uncertainty could affect the current round of crucial talks in Egypt. One Israeli source said that Israel’s official position is that Hamas is responsible for all the deceased hostages and the Israeli government expects all of them to be returned. The source said that Hamas might use the uncertainty over its ability to return all the dead hostages to draw out the implementation of any ceasefire arrangements, and to insist that it would not return all remaining hostages until Israel agrees to a full military withdrawal from Gaza.

    How many are forever buried under rubble from Israeli bombing?

  30. ChrisFromGA

    Rate Cut Obsession

    Sung to the tune of, “Obsession” by Animotion

    Melody

    You are an obsession (obsession)
    I cannot sleep (I cannot sleep)
    Can’t risk recession
    Or a stonk market defeat
    There’s no balance
    No dual mandate equity
    Be still; Wall Street rules over me

    I will have you, yes I will have you,
    I will find you Jay, and I will have you
    Like the FAA, and the EPA
    I will collect you and capture you

    [Chorus]

    You are an obsession, rate cut obsession
    How low do you want me to be? To sell more crud to thee?     2x

    I feed you, I drink you
    By day and by night
    I need you, I need you
    My debt is out of sight
    You protest
    You want to leave rates alone …
    Stay!
    Oh there is no alternative

    You debase the currency
    I see what you’ve done there
    But I see danger
    Buyer, beware
    Of Japanese circumstance
    In your naked greed
    Your debasement is not what it seems

    [Chorus]

    You’re an obsession, rate cut obsession
    How low do you want me to be? To sell more stuff to thee?     2x

    Rate cut fantasies
    Have turned to madness
    And now my fiat currency
    Has turned to badness
    My need for ZIRP has consumed my soul
    My power is crumbling, loss of Fed control

    I will have you, yes I will have you,
    I will find you Jay, and I will have you
    Like the FAA, and the DOJ
    I will collect you and capture you

    You’re an obsession, rate cut obsession
    How low do you want me to be? To sell more crap to thee?

    [Repeat chorus]

    1. griffen

      Nicely done, and that is some complexity to complete several stanzas in the original track. Been quite of em this week. I have odd and yet fond memories of that song as well as a few others in that era. For instance “Higher Love” was being played recently on some mash up FM radio station that plays a broad variety. Must be a youthful ignorance at what I neither knew nor was yet caring about.

      Rate cuts, rate cuts, roly poly rate cuts…\sarc

      1. ChrisFromGA

        The original lyrics were, at least in my interpretation, about obsessive romantic infatuation gone wrong, set to an awesome 80s power keyboard riff. I saw a parallel with Wall Street’s obsessive demand for rate cuts with the obvious end game of zero percent financing to come back … let’s party like it’s 2020, and damn the (inflationary) consequences.

        I miss the 80’s, the hair, the music … good times.

        1. griffen

          And since it’s October and all manner of horror films…there were some very bad horror film sequels released for public viewing…some in the goofy to see today 3D. Whether it’s a Jason or a Freddy Krueger movie, some of them were terrible!

          Halloween 3 or III was so laughably bad it makes me laugh out loud even or especially if I’m seeing it yet again. Couple of cringe Stephen King films as well.

  31. Tom Stone

    I suspect several members of the Supremes are regretting the Bruen decision, happily a declaration of martial law will take tare of that problem.
    As to the Charlie Kirk assassination I have recently spoken to two people who are firearms experts ( One a libertarian follower of Kirk, the other an old style Republican) and both agree that the official narrative is nonsense.
    I found their response quite interesting.

  33. none

    What is the deal about Stephen Miller telling CNN that Trump has plenary authority over the US military? Is it really a big important slip, or just same old same old? Apparently CNN edited it out of the video but some people archived it. It is also in the CNN transcript, at least as of a few minutes ago.

    Lemmy thread: https://vger.to/piefed.world/post/533841

    time.com: https://time.com/7324096/stephen-miller-plenary-authority-cnn-glitch-trump-national-guard-deployment/

  34. Mikel

    Israel is fractured, isolated after two years of its war on Gaza: Analysts – Aljazeera

    Let’s wait and see what happens with Iran and Lebanon.

  35. Alice X

    John Mearsheimer: West Destroying Itself in Ukraine & Gaza

    1:05:34

    With Glenn Diesen. Both segments dive deep. World leaders today are a woeful shadow of those that led before in the (post WWII) World 1.1 [moi: 1.1 was far from correct, the arc of history must be towards the many, and for all life on Earth].

    A Genocide out in the open.

    Liberal values? The hypocrisy is out in the open.

  36. raspberry jam

    Times of Israel on the Gaza ceasefire deal:

    Trump: Trump announces Israel and Hamas have reached deal, says all the hostages will be freed ‘very soon’

    Netanyahu (context: this week is Sukkot, everything is closed in Israel including government ): Netanyahu says government will meet Thursday to okay deal to ‘bring all our dear hostages home

    Hamas: Hamas demands mediators ‘compel the occupation government to fully implement’ Gaza deal

    Qatar: Qatar says details of Gaza deal to be announced later

    I have been traveling and due to the holiday haven’t had a chance to discuss with my colleagues but should be able to talk to them over the next couple of days. My big question is: how long does Netanyahu have in office now and who is likely to replace him? What coalition would be voted in now?

    1. Alice X

      My big question is: [1] how long does Netanyahu have in office now and [2] who is likely to replace him? [3] What coalition would be voted in now?

      I will enter into no prediction on 1 or 2, or 3.

      On 3, what coalition where? Societies in play are for genocide. One for certain and [A]nother by mis-leadership class.

    2. ChrisFromGA

      My guess is that as soon as the hostages are freed, Netanyahu orders an attack on Iran. As long as Israel is at war, he isn’t going anywhere.

      Another option if somehow he doesn’t want to risk the Iranian missile barrage that would surely come, is to pick on a weakling … Syria is an easy get, and nobody cares if the cosplayers claiming to be a government over there all die.

      Rolling the tanks all the way to Damascus would be like taking candy from a baby. And Israel gets a nice new piece of land.

      1. raspberry jam

        I think Netanyahu is very weak, possibly too weak to gin up more war. Ben Gvir was out doing provocations earlier (praying at the al-Aqsa mosque on the temple mount in Jerusalem for ‘victory in Gaza’) and it barely made the news given everything else, and multiple opposition parties have said they’ll hold Netanyahu’s government together to sign the deal if Ben Gvir and/or Smotrich try to kill it by quitting the government. Ben Gvir and Smotrich are the government linchpins for Greater Israel. Netanyahu is not blameless, far from it, but for the last 3 years they’ve had a lot of power over Netanyahu as they could collapse the government at any time if he didn’t meet their demands. I don’t think there is actually much appetite in the Israeli public for more war at this point.

        Earlier this year I had dinner with some visiting Israeli colleagues (all very well-connected) and at the time they were adamant that Netanyahu was going to bring about a Palestinian state. They were not angry about this or against it (the only other thing they were adamant about was that Hamas wouldn’t be part of the government). I think it is disgusting and dishonorable that the GITA plan is apparently how it is going to happen, and it is pretty clear that Hamas is not the only armed faction still active in Gaza so it is probably there will continue to be violence. Maybe a pardon for Netanyahu is buried in the deal somewhere? But I’m not up to date enough on the current state of the opposition politicians in Israel to know who would win an election and what the makeup of their government would look like post-Netanyahu.

        1. ChrisFromGA

          I think it depends on Trump … if he wants war, and offers the usual support, including B-2 bombing runs, and missile defense in the form of F-35’s shooting down Iranian ballistic missiles, Bibi will gladly follow.

          It’s impossible to know what is going on in Trump’s head …. there seems to be some evidence that his mental state is declining rapidly; he has blundered badly with his failure to put any pressure on Zelensky, and the obvious bluffing on firing federal workers and bumbling GOP incompetence with the shutdown makes him look weak and indecisive, at least on the home front.

          Of course, there will be plenty of boasting on the Gaza-Israel ceasefire deal, assuming it materializes, but will he go crazy mad with power like Al Pacino in “Scarface?” Say hello to my little friend … NSFW warning

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m_12SGXNKw

          1. raspberry jam

            I think Trump and his family stand to profit immensely from the current post war plan, and if there were functioning legal authority in the US or at the international level it never would have come about. But here we are. And because of that immense personal profit incentive, many other actors have gotten on board with pushing whatever faction they can effect as many others are also going to profit handsomely. This is what I mean by the peace being very dishonorable.

            As far as Iran. I just don’t know yet. Maybe he thinks he can send Kushner and Witkoff over there with the Qataris to bribe them with massive development projects involving the Gulf States too. I hear Tehran has water issues and the capital has to be relocated.

            1. ChrisFromGA

              Agree on the greed aspect … personal enrichment is always high on the list for all of the players in that den of sin and iniquity known as the Middle East, and la familia Trump.

              To what end, though, would bribing the Iranians serve, assuming they can even be bribed? Neo-con dogma maintains that Iran is close to developing a nuclear bomb, even if that is a whopper of a lie (the theocratic regime has consistently said that such an endeavor is inconsistent with Islam.) The failed Israeli war with Iran did real damage … now the Iranians don’t trust the IAEA. Why would they trust the non-agreement capable US?

              In other words, bribe them to do what? Give up a non-existent nuclear weapons program?

              With Trump, it is always about dominance, and the Iranians simply won’t bow to him. He’s already at risk of getting tagged as the guy who lost Ukraine … I think his macho and unhinged temperment will get the better of him, and he’ll order an attack, likely with Israel as the tip of the spear.

  37. DMK

    “Climate pollution from inhalers has the impact of half a million cars per year, study finds CNN”

    With 1.4 to 1.6 billion cars worldwide, i think we can live with climate pollution from inhalers.

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