What Amish Country Can Teach us About The Future of Rail The Transit Guy
Wars trigger $12bn venture capital rush into defence tech FT
Climate/Environment
European countries close schools, cancel trains as heatwave set to intensify Channel News Asia
45°C (113°F) is possible Monday/Tuesday in parts of western France. That’s hotter than the current forecast for Phoenix, Arizona.
France is enduring one of the country’s worst heatwaves ever, due to its unprecedented duration, intensity, and extreme temperature anomalies. pic.twitter.com/5jl9thFAKZ
— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) June 22, 2026
Utah wildfire forces evacuation of small town as extreme heat roasts US west The Guardian
What does it cost to air-condition a World Cup? Politico
Comprehensive national climate damage assessments framework applied to the UK Nature
Climate Migration is No Longer a Future Crisis, But Bangladesh’s Current Reality Pressenza
Ebola
Confirmed Ebola cases in DR Congo cross 1,000 as new infections recorded Anadolu Agency
Japan
Japan seeks G7 price floors to break China’s rare earth grip Asia Times
China?
China strikes back: Export controls hit 10 US firms, procurement ban expands to 46 companies First Post
Chinese Oil Imports May Never Fully Recover From Iran War Bloomberg
China Caught In “High-Technology/Low-Productivity Trap” Japan Economy Watch
Southeast Asia
Three reasons why a food-supply shock may be coming to Southeast Asia: Goldman Sachs CNBC
India
As India Gets Hotter, Clothing Adds a Layer to Caste Inequality The Wire
Syraqistan
Iranian delegation walks out of Switzerland talks after Trump’s latest threats The Cradle
In Switzerland, US-Iran agree on 60 day roadmap for final deal The New Arab
Israeli army won’t withdraw from occupied territory in southern Lebanon, defense minister says Anadolu Agency
Even If the Strait of Hormuz is Open, it Ain’t Open Larry Johnson
Are You Serious? You STILL Buy the “Trump vs. Bibi” Soap Opera? BettBeat
Graham on Iran deal: ‘I think it’s going to fail’ The Hill
Why Were Army Chiefs Of Lebanon, Bahrain, Turkey In Pakistan Days Before MoU Signing? Kathy Gannon
Massive explosion at Qatar industrial plant leaves dozens injured and missing TRT World
Old Blighty
Britain’s Energy Crisis Is Driving Manufacturing Offshore Oil Price
Trump says Starmer ‘will resign’ as he failed on energy, migration DPA International
Tweedledee New Left Review
European Disunion
Chartbook 452 Europe’s Machiavellian moment? Adam Tooze
The AfD Co-Leader’s Demand For Ukrainian Reparations To Germany Touches On An Important Point Andrew Korybko
🚨🇦🇱 BREAKING: Albanians tore down barriers at Kakome Beach in southern Albania, declaring that the country’s beaches belong to the people, not oligarchs
✊️🇦🇱As opposition to the controversial Kushner-Trump resort project intensifies, public anger is spreading over the… pic.twitter.com/GqSvlRmT8Z
— Anonymous TV 🇺🇦 (@YourAnonTV) June 21, 2026
Italy’s mafia problem has a new look, and it isn’t Italian Euractiv
UN Human Rightsghts Chief Opposes EU’s Decision To Dump Migrants Onto Return Hubs In Third Countries Tanzania Times
Africa
The Lucky Country
Australia signs $1.8bn radar export deal with Canada Al Mayadeen
O Canada
Please Advise! Why Did a BC Mining Company Hire Kristi Noem? The Tyee
New Not-So-Cold War
Ukrainian Drone Attack Kills Four Civilians in Crimea, Governor Halts Gas Sales Antiwar
Russia expects not implementation of Anchorage agreements, but victory — Kremlin TASS
US treasury chief urged Trump not to host ‘Mr Bean on crack’ Zelenskyy, book says The Guardian
South of the Border
Far-right millionaire wins Colombia’s razor-tight presidential election The Guardian
The Bautista brothers are convicted fraudsters who own the private off-shore company that manages Colombia’s voting software
Their company botched Colombian elections in 2014 and 2022, when 400,000 votes for Petro’s party went missing
Before any official tally, Trump and… https://t.co/DDxgXtxGOt pic.twitter.com/EMPrNWlrTt
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) June 22, 2026
US military attacks another vessel in Caribbean, killing two Press TV
Trump 2.0
When the Trump administration cracks down on Anthropic, who benefits? TechCrunch
How the Trumps seek to expand their real estate empire in Europe El Pais
Tulsi Gabbard, her guru and the mysterious messages that helped shape her political career WaPo
Democrats Suck
Liberal Elites Promote ‘Abundance,’ But Democratic Voters Want Socialism The American Conservative
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
A city’s push for facial recognition on public buses ignites debate over security and privacy AP
The Accelerationists
Enough people have asked me about the Peter Thiel-Dialog story that I think it’s worth saying what it is, or at least what I saw it to be. So:
–Dialog is a conference. I went once in 2018 and once in 2022. No one ever asked me to keep it or my presence a secret.
–My…
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) June 20, 2026
Agriculture
Supply Chain
Aluminum’s War Shock Blunted By Dark Transits And Chinese Supply Bloomberg
Competing great powers, sanctions and the dark fleet Seatrade Maritime
Sports Desk
Iran hold Belgium to goalless draw as World Cup campaign gains momentum Press TV
Casino Nation
They looked like they were getting rich on Polymarket—but none of it was real WSJ
AI
Stop Saying Half of 2026 US Datacenter Capacity Is Canceled Semi-Analysis
Tesla plans to sell modular AI data center hardware called ‘Megapod’ Electrek
Daters say AI dependence gives them the ick Fast Company
Class Warfare
Congress is finally set to pass a housing bill: Here’s what it would do The Hill
Report: The States Where Corporate Landlords Own the Most Housing Governing
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
“A city’s push for facial recognition on public buses ignites debate over security and privacy”
It must have been twenty years ago that I read that some American cities were installing open microphones in public buses. Why? Don’t know. But back then the Bush regime wanted to spy on everyone. This is just more of the same. New cars already heavily spy on their drivers and passengers and rat them out so perhaps the organs of security felt that there was a gap in coverage with those that used public transport. Enter cameras with facial recognition.
“What Amish country can teach us about the future of rail” is an interesting article. It shows an inexpensive way to improve rail travel in the USA. However, “the Lancaster model” failed to mention another reason why ridership is so high in and out of the Lancaster station.
Amish people love trains. Their religion and culture discourage automobiles and airplanes, but trains are OK. My wife and I have made many long-distance train trips and observed many Amish passengers. They are all dressed in black but they go for flashy suitcases, especially hot pink and metallic blue. They stick to themselves but we have managed to engage in conversations with some of them over the years. We learned that many Amish go to Mexico for winter vacations.
The electrified Keystone Service in Lancaster has been in place for nearly a century; the huge CapEx was made in the depression by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Intercity electrified passenger rail doesn’t exist elsewhere in the US outside of the Acela corridor and the Philly- Harrisburg line. I am all in favor of electrified freight and passenger rail, but with private ownership the issues of train frequency, speed and electrification are enormous barriers. California electrified the 51 San Francisco-San Jose commuter line for $2.4B, but there have been no other major electrification projects since Amtrak’s Boston – New Haven 30 years ago. Brightline in Florida (Miami- West Palm-Orlando, 235 miles) is the only recent “greenfield” passenger rail development in the US. It has high frequency and ridership and “higher speeds” (79-110 mph). It is diesel powered. But it is nearing default on its $5.5B in debt. So passenger rail requires “takings” from private railroads, huge public investments and operating subsidies, but they are not forthcoming.
Speaking of trains. A few weeks ago we were lucky to have the Big Boy steam train go through our area, with a stop here and there along the way. I’m sure many heard about it. Every crossing and parking spot along the route was packed with people. It was part of the 250 year celebration for those who do. Once (or twice as it comes again in July the opposite direction) in a lifetime thing. I’m glad I saw it.
I enjoyed seeing the locomotive, too. I saw many of them on the same set of tracks back before diesels took over. I was a bit surprised to see the two diesels behind Big Boy and figured they were there just in case. Later, though, I was told that the diesels were doing the pushing and pulling because the locomotive doesn’t have the safety features necessary to allow it to be fully operational. So while there was some steam, there was only about enough to blow the steam whistle. Hearing it was kind of cool.
Other than the NEC, most passenger rail in the US goes over freight lines and is subject to delays due to freight priority. That’s besides the typical delays due to trespassers, track conditions, environmental effects, etc.
So nominal travel times need to be adjusted based on real-world performance/use of bus service through Trailways etc.
Will have to see how new service like the New Orleans–Mobile route fare.
Mardi Gras service, as it is called, is doing well. CSX held the New Orleans-Mobile service hostage from the time of Katrina until last year… 20 years! There is a limit of 2 trains per day. Service cannot extend beyond Mobile. Taxpayers paid a ransom of $200M to pay CSX to extend old sidings so Amtrak and their 15,000 foot freight trains could pass one another. Freight railroads restrict speeds and frequencies of passenger trains.
BTW, Amtrak trains have statutory authority for preference over freight trains going back to the 1970s. This authority is seldom exercised and freight railroads continue to obstruct passenger operations without penalties; they have armies of lawyers and lobbyists. If the federal government was serious about passenger rail, they’d be suing the railroads big time.
Also because of the state of the rails from running massive freights over them. Anything resembling high speed is out of the question on those tracks
Alan Greenspan, Fed Chairman Through Prosperity and Crisis, Dies at 100 (NY Times)
A great believer in the fantasy of efficient markets self regulating. Greenspan did quite a lot of damage to Americans over 100 years. No more. But these ideas live on.
We have to remember that Greenspan was personally devoted to Ayn Rand and was part of her inner circle. You wonder how many of her ideas found expression through Greenspan’s career. Yeah, Greenspan caused a lot of damage but on balance, I think that Ayn Rand’s ideas caused more damage to American society.
Yeah, but I would still put Milton Friedman ahead of both as far as damage done. Shareholdermaxxing Uber Alles is hollowing out our economy, while the “Greed is Good” mantra mistakenly ascribed to the Objectivist philosophy of enlightened self-interest merely serves as convenient cover. Everyone always drops the enlightened part and goes straight for the self-interest. But what is self-interest in a social framework? Ya gotta put some thought into it, which most skip.
Never was a fan of Greenspan while I was a banker in NYC back in the 90s. He always struck me as more an enabler of the market nonsense going on than a referee thereof.
Milton Friedman designed the income tax withholding scheme during WWII when a competing economic system as about to defeat us.
Also irrational exuberance and the punch bowl metaphor.
This guy on twitter posted a group photo in the oval office with Gerald Ford, Alan Greenspan, and Ayn Rand.
https://x.com/ianbremmer/status/2069062989605466492
Greenspan gave us the “Greenspan put”, the notion that the Fed would always bail out Wall St. He also fathered the housing bubble of 2003-2007. Which led directly to the 2007-2009 financial crisis, TARP, sub-prime mortgages, and other evils. Helicopter Ben gave a big assist, but it was Greenspan’s ideas that were the most dangerous and still live on today, as you pointed out.
We all go. Some too soon, others not so much.
So long, Mr. Andrea Mitchell.
He was an Ayn Rand acolyte. From The Atlas Society, an Ayn Rand society. His devotion to Rand’s ideas explains a lot, imo. They certainly aren’t giving up their ideas.
The Alan Greenspan Confession
https://www.atlassociety.org/post/the-alan-greenspan-confession
“The crucial moment came when Waxman asked Greenspan, “You found your view of the world, your ideology, was not right, it was not working?”
“Absolutely, precisely,” Greenspan replied, going on to say: “You know, that’s precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going more than 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working considerably well.”
Was Ayn Rand’s most famous and powerful follower brought low by objective evidence that the politics of Objectivism are wrong? Admittedly, a number of Objectivists have viewed Greenspan as a “fallen” Objectivist who long ago abandoned his principles to become a garden-variety statist. But more importantly, as the knee-jerk leftists in the media didn’t notice, the credit crisis was no indictment of Objectivism at all.
The Deadly Rise of Giant Trucks and S.U.V. (NY Times)
I loathe these monstrously large vehicles. At the lake, I call it backup roulette, because in my smaller regular 4 door sedan, I can’t see backing up, so I’m forever at risk of having someone drive into me as I back out. Whatever I do, however I park, sure enough, when I get back to my car, I’ll have two big trucks or SUVs on either side of me. (And each parking section has like 12 spot groupings, so I’ll park with like 4 empty spaces on either side; best bet is parking next to a tree if I can and taking up two spots.)
I hate it here.
Reverse into the parking slot instead. Lots of people don’t have confidence doing this, it just takes practice. Easier with a space on the driver’s side, trivial with a space each side.
Yes, TRK, not allowed in much of Oz.
When I worked for the USPS in the early days of the Neoliberal Dispensation, we were trained to park front out, backing into the parking slot. (Yes, they used to train you on procedures and methods back then and pay you for the time too!) I still do so today, many aeons later.
Doesn’t matter. If you’re hemmed in by two lifted trucks or tank-sized SUVs, situation is the same as a street corner with a five-foot hedge – you have to stick your nose out to see around the corner.
Always comforting, as well, to walk to the grocery store passing vehicle after vehicle with a hood at about my eye level. And I’ve been I in these brodozers and am well aware that, despite all kinds of cameras, they have many blind zones.
“…situation is the same as a street corner with a five-foot hedge – you have to stick your nose out to see around the corner.”
https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/walk/pedestrian-improvements-toolkit/daylighting
In my neighborhood I have yet to see parking tickets issued for those who break this very sensible new law. As for the prohibition of hedges and other visual obstructions near corners, we have had a municipal ordinance in effect and enforced for years now.
I tried; This does not help really. These vehicles are so huge, I cannot see past them facing forward, either. It’s the same game. It would help if I were driving a mid-sized SUV though. But I am not. Big extended cab trucks, huge SUVs, Expeditions, Excursions, whatever it is people have these days, Escalades.
If you are pulling out forwards, the distance you drive is shorter before you get side visibility than reversing. So your window of time of danger is shorter.
You could also put your hazards on.
Back up cameras make backing out to me much safer, as I don’t have front cameras.
I would also add as a question, now many of these pedestrians injuries and deaths due to not paying attention IE cell phones.
I use the left turn rule. If you’re at a 2 lane intersection with a large SUV or truck making a left turn blocking your view, while you’re making a right turn. I’ll wait until the large vehicle starts its left turn then proceed to make my right turn simultaneously. Sort of like a blocking fullback, if a vehicle approaches it will hit the large vehicle first. Nothing annoys me more when the large vehicle operator edges out and fully blocks my view even though they don’t have a clear opportunity to go. It just comes off as passive aggressive behavior.
Not just in parking lots. If I am in the right lane about to make a right turn on red I find that my line of sight to traffic coming from the left is often obliterated by one of those monsters.
And I have always wanted to ask the Madison Avenue types why their TV commercials only show these oversized toys charging through riverbeds, up the sides of cliffs or across deserts, but never in their most common common environment — suburban streets and driveways.
Just how do you expect “nature lovers” to drive up and down creeks (not just through them)? That’s the sine qua non of “freedom.”
In the ’90s I had a Honda CR-X, a nifty little two seater which got 60 mpg without trying. Increasingly I’d be surrounded on the highway by these behemoths which could have rolled right over me and would have keep going cause they’d thought they had run over a gnat. It scared the bejeezus out of me.
Despite their utilitarian nature, cars have always also been a fashion statement for the buyers who can afford to indulge their whims. Yes, there’s a need for farmers and building contractors and some other types of laborers to have a big pickup truck, but I’d bet more than half the ones you see on the roads are just fashion-conscious would be macho types signaling their aspirational image, or even protective coloration (after all, are you going to be the only male in your neighborhood not driving a big pickup?). Of course, the ugliness and sameness of all the passenger cars nowadays (including the look-alike SUVs) makes the pickup stand out even more, and you even see them in bright colors sometimes, instead of the usual automobile gray, white, black and sand tones that predominate. But I wish they still made the smaller pickups you could get from Nissan and Toyota (and even the Chevy S-10) back in the ’90s. Too big now.
I had a low-end Chevy S-10 that could carry 4×8 flat in the bed– perfect! At the time I was doing a lot of remodeling work in the hours around my pursuit of technical certifications so it was a lifesaver, but it was cheap in all senses of the word and met its end around the 100k mark with multiple issues that would have cost more to repair than the truck was worth.
Still, a compact truck makes a useful tool, especially when you’re patching together random jobs to get by. It’s really too bad that American auto manufacturers don’t market an inexpensive and reliable work vehicle in this country anymore.
And the used truck market is wild! My ’93 Dakota, one I bought new off the lot for eleven thousand dollars, finally bit the dust last year.
After looking at literally about six hundred trucks, I finally winnowed them down to five. Two couldn’t be contacted, two would not respond to contact and one of them looked pretty good….until I got it into the shop.
So, I found a truck that is four years younger than the Dakota, with two hundred thousand less miles (it still has nearly two hundred thousand miles on it) for about two thirds of the Dakota’s initial price once the front end and brakes are replaced.
Point being, what you describe is unusual even in the used truck market, and they are only getting even more rare. I was seeing old base trucks that did not have engines and transmissions with an asking price of five thousand dollars! Old ones that had been completely reconditioned were ten or fifteen and restored ones were thirty.
Renting one from the Home Depot to take the lawnmower into the shop is starting to look pretty good. I guess this is how the “You will own nothing and be happy” crowd is going to get their wishes fulfilled.
If you have a bit of outdoor space for storage a small utility trailer is a good option. I have a roughly 4 foot by 7 foot plain utility trailer (from Costco) which came in a box. Low-end Chinese quality (straight from the box with spots of rust and peeling paint). Says it will carry 2,000 lbs (I got close one time and it was a scary experience). But it’s easy to hook to the back of the 20 year old Subaru when I need plywood or other stuff that I don’t want to put in the car or is too big to put in the car.
Arguably the best $1,000 I’ve spent in 30 years.
They just don’t make smaller utility vehicles anymore. 2 years ago I looked for a vehicle to tow a trailer. The only mid-sized SUVs with capacity for towing a camper or a boat were jeep Cherokee and dodge Durango. Everything else was a monstrosity. (And they aren’t small by historical standards).
Ironically I know a guy that bought a monster truck ‘to feel safe’ after almost getting killed being hit on his motorcycle. Selfish behavior has few bounds and can evade reason.
Not intending to mitigate – I have been against SUV culture and growing car size for decades –
so just for comparison as per 2024 firearms caused 44k deaths altogether: 27k suicide (I am surprised) and 15k homicide.
The rest: law enforcement and accidents.
Doesn´t bring back to life those 400 pedestrians of course.
I assume the size issue became worse also due to the increasing demise of public transport in Germany e.g. and increasing number of flights in general as competition to car travel.
So eventually with individualization of transport (“my car is my castle”) we witness another symptom for privatization of life and profits.
Silly me. I thought the war in the Persian Gulf was supposed to fix this by raising the price of gas to about ten bucks a gallon and make diesel unavailable. That’s the best way to eliminate the oversized monsters. Your opinion may differ.
Indeed, it may (almost certainly barring some extreme intervention) come about. Which is why I finally pulled the trigger on an electrically assisted road bike. With a pannier and a trailer and being only a mile of semi-country road from Costco I anticipate needing my car much less than before.
Pedestrian fatalities go up here very year. Our city council has used it as an excuse to install speed cameras, traffic light cameras, and license plate readers along most of the roads in the city.
Fatailities still up.
Maybe they should have invested in affordable housing and services for the unhoused instead. Or maybe they will use the revenue from traffic violations for that purpose…or maybe they will use it to purchase another APC.
re: screen vs. paper
from fb-feed but the study quoted is from 2019:
paywalled
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9817.12269
summary:
“(…)
When was the last time you read printed or paper material?
Now that screens are everywhere, digital reading has become the default for many of us. Paper reading, once the normal mode of academic reading, is slowly becoming something we do less often, or reserve for special kinds of reading.
But does the medium make a difference?
In her systematic review and meta-analysis, Virginia Clinton (2019) examined experimental studies published between 2008 and 2018 comparing reading from paper with reading from screens.
The goal was to see how reading medium affects comprehension, reading time, and readers’ judgments about how well they understood what they read.
Here are some of the main ideas.
1. Reading performance.
Reading performance refers to how well readers understand a text after reading it. This is usually measured through comprehension questions, recall tasks, summaries, or other tests of understanding.
Clinton found that readers performed slightly better when reading from paper than from screens. The advantage was small, but statistically significant.
Within reading performance, she also looked at two types of comprehension: literal and inferential.
A. Literal understanding refers to information directly stated in the text.
B. Inferential understanding goes beyond what is directly stated. It requires readers to connect ideas, draw conclusions, interpret meaning, and make sense of implications.
Interestingly, Clinton found a paper advantage for both literal and inferential comprehension. This means the difference was not limited to complex interpretation. It also appeared in readers’ ability to remember and understand directly stated information.
2. Reading process.
Reading process refers to how reading happens. One important part of this is reading time. Clinton found no reliable overall difference in reading time between paper and screen reading. Readers did not consistently spend more time with one medium than the other.
This finding is important because paper readers often understood slightly more without spending more time. In that sense, paper may support more efficient reading, especially for demanding texts.
3. Metacognitive calibration.
Metacognitive calibration means how accurately readers judge their own understanding. In simple terms, it asks: Do readers know how well they actually understood the text?
Here, Clinton found that readers were better calibrated when reading from paper. When reading from screens, readers were more likely to overestimate how well they understood what they read.
This is especially relevant for students. If students think they understood a digital text better than they actually did, they may stop too soon. They may not reread, annotate, check their understanding, or ask questions. Screen reading can create a false sense of comprehension.
4. Memory and information retention.
Clinton’s analysis suggests that screens may make it harder for readers to retain specific details from a text. Some readers may still grasp the general idea, but paper seems to help more with remembering details and monitoring understanding.
Another important finding concerns text genre. The paper advantage was stronger for expository texts, such as textbooks, scholarly articles, reports, and academic essays. For narrative or fictional texts, the difference between paper and screens was not reliable.
The study has limitations. It included only studies reported in English, only native-language reading, and only readers without reported disabilities or visual impairments. Some studies also had small samples or did not report reliability information for their comprehension measures.
Still, the findings are useful.
They do not suggest that screen reading is bad or that teachers should avoid digital texts. That would be unrealistic and unnecessary.
The message is more measured.
Paper appears to offer a small advantage for reading comprehension and metacognitive accuracy, especially for expository texts. Reading from screens is not inherently ineffective, but it may require more deliberate support.
(…)”
Not true for me. I scan read each page of a novel, which means dancing through the paragraphs a few times to unconsciously decide which sentences to assimilate in detail. That doesn’t work for me using a tablet.
Unmentioned is that unless you use blue light filtering glasses or use a warmer nighttime mode for your screen, using the screen for your evening reading can mess up your sleep cycle
Thank you! Anecdata: I will add a third mode, but for the first two, I believe that I absorb information with either screen or paper. Screen allows annotations (transferred from browser, or wherever), paper allows some comfort of propriety of ownership (the screen won’t go down, if only I had a reading chair).
To the third mode: Most textual information I absorb is with my computer reading it to me, as in I found your comment to which I reply. My absorption is less than with either of the first two modes.
I weigh that with my bandwidth, which is stressed by the local and most grimly, the world at large.
I mostly read nonfiction exclusively, and except while travelling (when the e-reader reduces bulk) I will always choose paper because of my lifelong habit of annotation — so no library books for me either, sadly.
JACOBIN ( I assume they also allude to the Classic movie title “Young Mr. Lincoln”)
The Young Ho Chi Minh
By Ian Birchall
Ho Chi Minh emerged from the world created by the Age of Revolution and demanded that republican ideals apply beyond Europe.
https://jacobin.com/2026/06/the-young-ho-chi-minh
So. Farewell then Kier Starmer. You were
another Thatcherite.
To be replaced by
Andrew Burnham,
yet another Thatcherite.
It is almost certain that this new Neoliberal in charge will pave the way for Farage. From Guatemala to Guatepeor, from Carlsbad to Carlsworse. From the frying pan to the fire.
Endless neoliberal centrism is nothing but a vortex to the watery depths.
A classic!
Plus, Josh Simon (LFI, Genocide Groupie) must have come to some arrangement with Burnham to continue supporting Apartheid Israel, or why would he give up his seat?
WaPost article on Gabbard and the emails (sent to others not her?) was something I’ve been waiting for. Curious that it was written in first-person narrative, as much a story about the reporting efforts as it was about Gabbard.
The bottom line is that she’s controlled by a cult, or at least that’s the assertion. IF every word of the cult allegations are true, Gabbard is at least half as crazy as Mike Huckabee, which makes her twice as sane as the current and previous POTUS, and is proof of actual moral standards, something most of Congress lacks.
In these United States of America, any anti-Duopoly political effort will of necessity be drenched in secrecy in the wake of the J6 persecutions. Protest openly and transparently and you will go to prison, take the high ground and use your bully pulpit and you will be smeared and forced out (first from the insider-run DNC and then from Trump’s administration).
#HinduCult doesn’t scare me half as much as #MoreOfTheSame, #ThirdWay, #Fauci, #Zionism, #Etc.
Gabbard was ostracized and demonized by the Democrat Establishment for her past apostasies – which included telling the truth about Syria, Ukraine, Hillary Clinton, and the DNC among other things. Given her policy positions she would never be accepted by regular Republicans. But she did appeal to a number of populist, anti-war, and anti-establishment types. This was her appeal for the Trump administration as well: as window dressing for those anti-establishment MAGA voters. Once in office, Gabbard had no power or influence whatsoever – a “Director of National Intelligence” who had no say in foreign policy. So when she inevitably left (or was pushed out), she was a complete political orphan. One would expect her to just fade away.
So one must ask: why does the Washington Post publish this massive hit-piece on Gabbard now? Moreoever, it is a hit-piece that omits nearly all of the significant political history that would actually explain Gabbard’s career trajectory, instead recycling the old story of Tulsi as some sort of Manchurian candidate controlled by the leader of this mysterious Hindu cult. There is so much to say about this, but for now I’ll just repeat my question: Why this? And why now?
Agreed. The timing is obvious.
Gabbard’s release of biolab information. Any discussion of our prolific support for biolabs in multiple countries has got to be nipped in the bud. I remember Victoria Nuland’s Congressional testimony shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine wherein she fretted over our biolabs in Ukraine being seized by Russia, but that eyebrow-raising statement was quickly memory-holed.
This was on Naked Capitalism’s links a couple days ago:
https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/press-releases-2026/4163-pr-10-26
For at least the MAGA I follow, Tulsi has all been about the battle with the Intel Community (IC) mainly CIA and FBI. Since WaPo and NYT are considered mouthpieces for the IC, the timing is viewed in MAGA as part of the IC counterattack. Of course the Fauci stuff is red meat for MAGA. But overarching battle as seen by MAGA is using ODNI as a way to force out stuff the IC (and that includes the “gang of eight”/SSCI) doesn’t want revealed, in particular use of Sec 702 and FISA to justify intel collection against Americans. As we saw with J6, that collection can and will be used as part of the “six ways from Sunday” that the IC will use to come after you.
ODNI has also taken over the preparation of intel for the White House, cutting out CIA and FBI.
This story is being rapidly amplified through the liberal media echo-chamber: MSN, Daily Beast, Mediaite, Raw Story, etc. That some MAGA folks are calling it out for the obvious hit-piece that it is will just be further “evidence” that the story must be true. For me, such transparently ridiculous bulls**t makes me want to really dig to find out why the Establishment is so afraid of her. I guarantee you it is not the influence of some obscure “guru” in Hawaii.
My PMC friends said it wasn’t a guru guiding her, it was Putin. Of course they think Putin is controlling the entire Republican party including Trump so this isn’t a shock.
I find the both the liberal media version and this PMC version of the Tulsi Gabbard Story very ironic.
Gabbard was an unknown political novice from Hawaii. All of the sudden, in relatively short order, she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum; she was given a sponsored membership in the Council on Foreign Relations, and she was appointed to the second spot at the Democratic National Committee. I don’t know much, but I do know that some obscure “guru” in Hawaii almost no one had heard of had *nothing* to do with this rapid advance. Rather, some very powerful people saw that this intelligent and attractive young woman had political promise and began grooming her for Great Things. I also know that if some obscure guru in Hawaii (or Putin?) wanted to get his Manchurian candidate disciple into the higher circles of power, the last thing he would want is for her to completely BLOW UP this rapid career trajectory and elite contacts by exposing our “humanitarian” foreign policy establishment and our “democratic” electoral process for the hypocritical frauds they are. This is what Gabbard did, and this is why I became interested in her political career.
I became disillusioned with Gabbard later as she pandered to the Right in what seemed to be a calculated plan to get back into politics. And she allowed herself to be used as cover by the Trump administration. Still, though of course I can’t be sure, I believe she *thought* she could do some good as an “insider” and perhaps expose some truths to the world. I do not believe her actions were completely motivated by self-interest, otherwise why would she have sabotaged her earlier political career? One thing I am sure of: the Establishment and the intelligence community really hate her. And the neocons in the Trump administration were never going to let her have any real influence. Whatever her faults, with enemies like these there must be something good about her.
One guy told me Hillary had her figured out long ago. And didn’t Harris go after her about Assad? All the right people hate her, including those two. That tells a lot.
Hillary was indeed prone to calling her a Russian asset, without evidence. She did it a lot during the 2020 primary. Practically everybody in the Democrat party hated her at that time, ostensibly because she met with Assad and contracted the Terrorist Cooties from him (really because of her anti-war stance and the other things you mention, but they couldn’t admit that out loud).
I was disappointed with her following her embrace of the Republican party, but she did have plenty of reason to leave the Democrats.
Albanian resistance–
Woody Guthrie, “This Land Is Your Land“
The era that brought the honorable Woody is coming again. Hopefully with even more can-undo-capitalism resonance.
hey Ax –
he ain’t jazzy but definitely some in-your-face lyrics – been compared to Woody – Jesse Welles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLYFp__uzeY
Thanks JB, they certainly set an ethos though I couldn’t follow much of the lyrics.
“Major Rupture Between US-Israel as Trump Grows Exasperated With Netanyahu’s Uncontrolled Bloodletting”
Unlikely. Trump was just saying ‘Iran must immediately stop their… proxies in Lebanon from causing trouble.’ That means for Hezbollah to stop fighting the Israeli invasion. In other words, he is all in on what Netanyahu is doing in Lebanon for a start.
Maybe he just prefers slightly more controlled bloodletting. I read his advice to Netanyahu as “can’t you go about half throttle for a little bit while we do this deal?”
We haven’t seen yet the limits of immorality/amorality of that couple.
-Mass killings and mass deportations as their motto.
-They don’t care about global depression
-Elections are cancelled or modified to their favour.
– … (other fascistoid stuff awaiting for us to notice)
June 22, Barbarossa day. “Barbarossa” is “red beard” and the nickname of a famous Prussian king. Operation Barbarossa, Hitler’s great push to the East, began 6/22/41 and its failure became clear within several weeks (as Big Serge tells it), though it took another nearly 4 years, and immense sacrifice, for the Red Army to reach Berlin.
Perhaps the US military endeavor that began in late February 2026 will in future tellings be known as ‘Operation Blond Comb-over’.
Or perhaps the Uncrafty Comb-over
Friedrich Barbarossa (1122 – 1190) was famous but he was not a king of Prussia. He was the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (which was neither holy nor Roman). He had two other titles (king of Germany and king of Italy). The Kingdom of Prussia was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.
‘Ezra Klein
@ezraklein
Enough people have asked me about the Peter Thiel-Dialog story that I think it’s worth saying what it is, or at least what I saw it to be.’
Looking at that image there of Peter Thiel, why does the guy always look like death warmed up on toast? The guy is a billionaire and can afford the best of healthcare and even plastic surgery if he wants. Is it that being infused with all those young people’s blood ended up disagreeing with his system? At the very least he should let his hair grow out a bit. Yes, this is a personal attack on him but the guy deserves it.
Let’s say it’s a personal attack on his at this point seemly deliberate and calculated effort to not use his vast wealth and resources to avoid looking like a boiled demon weasel.
If you can afford a blood boy, you can afford a shampoo boy.
Every day on the bus, you see well dressed people keeping it together in all kinds of weather during a long commute and a long day at work and still looking spiff on the ride home.
He looks foul-smelling and sick on purpose.
Ostentatious disregard of the opinions of others is, arguably, one of the privileges of great wealth.
And the descriptor of the day award goes to “boiled demon weasel”.
I think he looks like Gollum with a hair transplant…
“Liberal Elites Promote ‘Abundance,’ But Democratic Voters Want Socialism”
“Abundance liberals want Democrats to come to terms with the market rather than declare war on it. They want to deregulate and to encourage businesses to thrive. Of course, they haven’t given up on social liberalism. An abundance-centered Democratic Party would still advocate for open borders and Pride Months, but as part of an agenda that aims to eliminate government bloat and champion capitalism.”
Kill. It. With. Fire.
So Abundance Democrats are Reaganites. But we already knew that.
“Kill. It. With. Fire.”
Shout out to Lambert…wherever he is.
Lambert’s blog: (I can link to it here, no?)
https://thejackpot.blog/
Thanks.
Right? The entire article was celebrating the market liberal center right Dems as “approaching the center” and calling the democratic “socialists” far left. They keep moving that ratchet right soon the fascists will be center.
Since the large companies using Italian and Pakistani mafia for labour exploitation, the EU won’t do anything. If these people would have protested the senseless war in Ukraine, the EU-tards would be all up in arms (pun intended).
Re: “China Caught In ‘High-Technology/Low-Productivity Trap'”
China just can’t win, it seems.
Is it really a mystery that the most productive sector of the Chinese economy–which is highly automated, and becoming more so every day–employs fewer people than other sectors? How many Earths would be required to consume the output of all the dark factories that China would need, to employ all those backwards, inefficient farmers as super-productive security guards?
It’s almost like economists treat their treasured metrics as imperatives that override human interests and material reality.
I wonder how many “Important People” are driving around in newer cars that record and broadcast every word they utter, without giving it a second thought?
Jaime Dimon comes to mind, and how about our Tech Bro overlords?
Apparently Iran has a 40 page form that people are filling in to transit the strait.
https://houseofsaud.com/iran-pgsa-vessel-declaration-hormuz-transit-fee/
You’ve heard about the D.C. Reflecting Pool Problems.
From Breaking Points. Trump Melts Down Over Reflecting Pool Chaos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA3joghDSgM
Well, here’s yer problem. Swimming too soon before the pool was ready. Too much sunscreen or something in the water. / ;)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-shares-ai-image-of-himself-and-cabinet-in-reflecting-pool/ar-AA22f1ho