Links 7/21/2026

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1. The Rev Kev July 21, 2026 at 7:21 am

   “Spain Humiliates Trump After He Refuses to Get Out of Victory Photos”

   Pretty sure that Trump would have been backing Argentina – as was official Israel. But it is kinda sad that he has to hang around a winning team to try to share in the glory here. Maybe Spain was resentful too how Trump has been putting his stamp on these games. Not only by interfering with coaching decisions, screwing around with the Iranian team but also doubling the length of the half time show for more razzle dazzle for TV networks and playing the US national anthem which was a first for a hosting nation. Wonder what the 2028 Olympic games in Los Angeles will be like. Two years will go by quick.

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   1. Dr. John Carpenter July 21, 2026 at 10:03 am

      It was fun watching in real time as Trump was displaying chumpy, little brother energy, desperate to hang out with the cool older kids. Most of the players were clearly trying to avoid him and have as little to do with him as possible while he was interjecting himself as much as he could. Sad!

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2. vladimir July 21, 2026 at 7:42 am

   For the AI, here’s a good short video comparing ai bubble to the dotcom and crypto bubbles https://youtube.com/a3-vf78ZwTc?is=erVvnH01XCbhETCW

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   1. vladimir July 21, 2026 at 7:51 am

      Sorry, something wrong with the link. It’s the video “No, AI is NOT like the DotCom bubble” by InternetOfBugs

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3. The Rev Kev July 21, 2026 at 7:58 am

   “US, ROK and Japan military chiefs reaffirm North Korea denuclearization goal”

   And after they made this announcement, they all mounted their magical ponies and each rode off into the distance. North Korea will never give up their nukes. If Libya wasn’t a big enough lesson to them – which John Bolton pointed out – then what is happening with Iran is the clincher. The US never talks about attacking North Korea anymore and it is only because of those nukes.

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4. lyman alpha blob July 21, 2026 at 8:12 am

   The ratf**king begins anew! Troy Jackson overwhelming wins the race to replace Graham Platner, who had overwhelmingly won to begin with. Now we find that Jackson is a mean old angry man, and the story ciomes from fellow Democrats. They do have form!

   https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/maine-democratic-senate-frontrunner-faces-005829803.html

   “Critics say his brash conduct, particularly with female colleagues, raises alarm bells about his temperament as the nominee for a key Senate race.

   “It felt like he was using his body and his voice to make people fearful,” said the former colleague who described recording meetings with him. “I was in a room multiple times where he escalated the situation with both the intent and natural ability to really intimidate using his physical presence.” (She said she did not ultimately keep the recordings because Jackson did not exhibit any concerning behavior in those meetings.)”

   And so on. These “fighting for” Democrats really don’t like it when somebody actually puts up a fight,do they?

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   1. The Rev Kev July 21, 2026 at 8:29 am

      Funny how so many people went ballistic about Platner’s tattoo – but gave Hegseth multiple questionable tattoos a pass. So those 11h hour women that accused Platner of all sorts of misdeeds. Have any gone to a police station to make a formal statement so that he can be charged and defend himself in court against them?

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   2. DJG, Reality Czar July 21, 2026 at 8:34 am

      Uh, oh. Platner was “unsettling.”

      Jackson is “gruff” and “brash.”

      We certainly don’t want to win elections, if winning an election is going to make some bourgeoise “uncomfortable.”

      Not with these profiles in courage: “All five people who described the thrown water bottle were Democrats involved in local politics who requested anonymity for fear of retribution.”

      Ahhh, yes, mayhem by brash water bottle.

      My question is: Why now?

      Why do these accusers never state why this moment is the appropriate moment to make some accusations?

      Does anyone recall where all of these nice-lady tattlers were when Kamala Harris was yelling “I’m Speaking” in Michigan at Americans whose families had be slaughtered in Gaza and on the West Bank?

      https://www.newsweek.com/kamala-harris-palestinian-protest-israel-michigan-1936333

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   3. pjay July 21, 2026 at 8:40 am

      Originally reported by CNN, which in turn is echo-chambering a story from the Washington Post.

      There is one cause that the Democrat Establishment is guaranteed to fight for. That is keeping actual populists out of office.

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      1. JMH July 21, 2026 at 9:23 am

         Maybe they can keep it up until they have there preferred candidate who will go fight and fight and fight and lose to Susan Collins. The democrat party is hopeless. It is going to fade away like the Federalists.

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      2. jefemt July 21, 2026 at 9:37 am

         Mike Drop.

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5. DJG, Reality Czar July 21, 2026 at 8:21 am

   Classic Literature: Camus.

   I recommend reading the article. The author of the article is correct in that Camus somehow emerged with remarkable moral authority, which he has managed to retain.

   (The left/right stuff is weak, in that Sartre was a radical communist, and Camus, malgré tout, fits well into French leftist thought. Pier Paolo Pasolini has a similar status here in Italy — a writer and artist who refused to be controlled or forced to obey.)

   There are two collections of Camus’s essays in English that are worth seeking out:
   —Resistance, Rebellion, and Death
   —Lyrical and Critical Essays

   During our confinement to quarters during the first waves of Covid, I sat on the back porch and re-read La Peste in a copy that I had retained from college. If you can read it in French, you will appreciate his severe, insightful, and inviting style. Otherwise, try The Plague in English with a translation that isn’t fusty.

   Camus never babies his readers, which is why La Peste is so disturbing. Dr. Rieux carries on even though his own wife is up at a tuberculosis sanatorium in the mountains. His description of the death of the son of the judge shows no mercy toward the reader, because we as human beings have to know how unimportant we are. And at this point in the staggering collapse of the Empire, a book like The Plague, which shows mercy toward the weak and eccentric but not toward the reader, may be the antidote that is required.

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   1. The Rev Kev July 21, 2026 at 8:52 am

      It occurred to me in reading that article that if Camus was alive and in his prime right now, the right and the left would still be attacking him and having him cancelled. It might even be that he would have to flee to the Russian Federation in fear of what might be done to he and his family.

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      1. DJG, Reality Czar July 21, 2026 at 9:08 am

         Rev Kev: I’m not so sure that he’d have to go anywhere, given that he didn’t take orders well.

         I mentioned Pasolini because the right is trying to claim him in Italy, with amusing results.

         Recently, Dacia Maraini, a well-known writer, gave an interview and blunted it all by saying something like, “Are you nuts? I knew him well. He was a dissident, a homosexual, and definitely not a man of the right.” Some of the righty assertions have died down.

         I have a feeling that Camus would get more support now in France, particularly because Sartre and his Maoist / conformist wing of communism have fallen apart in France. And the Russian Federation is no paradise for dissidents. Even the Russian scholar and “divulgatore” Paolo Nori admits that the translations of his own books from Italian into Russian have been censored, yet he’s willing to continue a dialogue.

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   2. JMH July 21, 2026 at 9:49 am

      I have read Lyrical and Critical Essays, but not Resistance, Rebellion, and Death. I must get a hold of it. I much admire his unstinting honesty, his refusal to sugar coat … I doubt it ever occurred to him. I first read Camus in college, in the 1950s, and I have circled back to him repeatedly through the years. Aurelien in a pair of essays two or three years ago called his a Philosophy for Really Hard Times suggesting that the present was a moment for it. I concur. I read The First Man two weeks ago. Camus had hard times bred in the bone. There was no room for gilding the lily in the world of his youth, nor was the world in which he matured all that forgiving. I reading that Primo Levi in Auschwitz was sucking on an icicle. A guard took it way from him. Levi asked why. The guard replied, “Hier is kein warum.” (Here there is no why.) Camus replying to the question if life has no meaning why not suicide, rejected it. He responded, Live. Without hope but without despair. You just go on. That can seem bleak. I find it a comfort.

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6. raspberry jam July 21, 2026 at 8:41 am

   The Made-in-China Anxiety Gripping America’s AI Industry Bloomberg
   OpenAI Exec Laments That China Is Giving Away Models So Good That For-Profit Companies Won’t Be Able to Compete Futurism

   I commented a bit about this over the weekend in the thread starting here:
   https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/07/links-7-18-2026.html#comment-4444986

   Of particular interest note the (poorly-formatted, sorry) table of current model charges per 1 million token by the latest class of model.

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7. flora July 21, 2026 at 8:58 am

   File under AI :

   From Cal Matters.

   Kaiser nurses say technology is making their jobs — and patient care — worse

   https://calmatters.org/economy/technology/2026/07/kaiser-nurses-workplace-surveillance-ai/

   Opening three paras:

   “Kaiser Permanente nurses who answer advice and triage calls say their duty of care for patients is being increasingly threatened by workplace surveillance.

   “Seven current and former nurses told CalMatters that those who spend more than 15 minutes on a call with a patient routinely face criticism from Kaiser management or get called into performance evaluation meetings. Call time, they said, factors into monthly performance scores they receive.

   “In addition to tracking call length, they said Kaiser uses software that tries to predict on a daily basis whether they’re being unproductive or failing to answer calls quickly. Artificial intelligence systems have also been used to rate their empathy and tone of voice.”

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8. DJG, Reality Czar July 21, 2026 at 9:02 am

   Andrew Korybko. Germany Borrowing 800 Billion Euro to Do Stupid Things.

   I recently read an article by Pino Arlacchi (always worth reading) in Fatto Quotidiano. It turns up now in AntiDiplomatico, which I will paste in below.

   According to Arlacchi, the supposed rearmament isn’t even economically viable. It’s just suspension of EU budgeting rules, resulting in nothing: “E i risultati? Tra gennaio e febbraio di quest’anno la Commissione ha approvato i piani nazionali di spesa Safe: sommandoli tutti, si arriva a circa 150 miliardi. Meno del 20% della cifra annunciata, e interamente sotto forma di debito. Il resto è rimasto ciò che era fin dall’inizio: una simulazione di eurocrati, un atto di propaganda.”

   Yes, it is in Italian, so if you read Italian it isn’t a long read. Others may want to try copying it over into a reliable translation program (if such a thing exists).

   https://www.lantidiplomatico.it/dettnews-riarmo_europeo_un_grande_bluff_di_pino_arlacchi/45289_68119/

   More details than Korybko provides, with a deeper critique of the foolishness and bravado.

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   1. The Rev Kev July 21, 2026 at 9:09 am

      Yandex Translate comes up with this-

      ‘And the results? Between January and February of this year, the Commission approved the national Safe spending plans: adding them all up to about 150 billion. Less than 20% of the announced figure, and entirely in the form of debt. The rest remained what it was from the beginning: a simulation of eurocrats, an act of propaganda.’

      Yandex Translate also awards those eurocrats five Pinocchios.

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   2. .Tom July 21, 2026 at 10:54 am

      Pace Korybko, I’d say the basic motivation of Europols in pushing the Russia threat is it’s the only thing they have left to offer voters. That they and their pals get their beaks wet is certainly also a factor but frightening populations into supporting the current leaders hardly a novel idea.

      Click to Edit – 

      

      Pace Korybko, I'd say the basic motivation of Europols in pushing the Russia threat is it's the only thing they have left to offer voters. That they and their pals get their beaks wet is certainly also a factor but frightening populations into supporting the current leaders hardly a novel idea.

      SaveCancelDelete

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9. flora July 21, 2026 at 9:20 am

   File under AI: From Cal Matters.

   Kaiser nurses say technology is making their jobs — and patient care — worse

   https://calmatters.org/economy/technology/2026/07/kaiser-nurses-workplace-surveillance-ai/

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10. motorslug July 21, 2026 at 9:29 am

    https://ips-dc.org/meet-our-new-private-jet-tracking-initiative/

    “We are excited to announce a new tool from the IPS Private Jet Accountability Project, what we are calling the “Private Jet Emissions Tracker” (PJET). The first tranche of data will be released under the banner, “Red Card for Private Jets at FIFA World Cup.” We will be releasing data for the semi-final matches and final match in New Jersey this week.”

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11. flora July 21, 2026 at 10:00 am

    re: Report: Pentagon develops options for striking Cuba – Miami Herald (Robin K)

    Why? Do T and Miriam envision setting up new casinos there?

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12. Tom Stone July 21, 2026 at 10:05 am

    The timing of the release of Kimi is interesting, it ahowed up just as a large number of corporations that went all in on AI are starting to choke on the cost of tokens.
    When pointy headed bosses realize that they can get the same shoddy, unreliable results from Kimi that they do from OAI or Anthropic at a fraction of the cost they will jump on it.
    Without a condom.
    Add the insatiable demand for capital from OAI and Anthropic as liquidity dries up and the Bubble looks ready to pop.
    My guess is by Labor day, the first week in September.
    Stay safe and enjoy the show.

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    1. The Rev Kev July 21, 2026 at 10:12 am

       Are you sure that OAI and Anthropic just won’t run to the Feds and have all Chinese AI banned on the grounds of “national security?” That’s how they grabbed control of Tik-Tok and handed it over to the Zionists.

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13. flora July 21, 2026 at 10:14 am

    File under No Longer Free Press:

    Ken Klippenstein’s substack with a list of the named terriorists. That’s quite a list. It will probably grow and grow. / ;)

    https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/after-political-terrorism-event-us

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    1. Screwball July 21, 2026 at 10:35 am

       This looks to be from the State Dept. and Rubio.

       Who would have thought Rubio would be so truly awful in so many ways? Well, I did, for one. The guy was always a slimy POS and it was easy to tell he was a slimy POS because he proved all the time he was a slimy POS. But what do I know?

       Of course the other slimy POS (plural) in DC voted the slimy POS into the cabinet position 99-0.

       Pardon me while I go play my tiny violin.

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14. Jason Boxman July 21, 2026 at 10:49 am

    Oil Buyers Battered by the Iran War Energy Crisis Race to Build Buffers (NY Times)

    Rodela Romero was attending an event at her church in northern Manila when her phone rang. It was a local reporter asking her to comment on what was being described to her as a nightmare scenario.

    Ms. Romero, who oversees the oil industry at the Philippine Department of Energy, had been following news of the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran that day in late February. Now, the reporter told Ms. Romero, the Strait of Hormuz — the vital maritime choke point through which the Philippines imports enormous amounts of crude oil — had been shut.

    “We import almost 100 percent of our petroleum products,” said Ms. Romero, 64. “We’re so vulnerable,” she recalled thinking at the time.

    In the ensuing weeks, government officials scrambled to secure supply from alternative producers, at great cost. Gasoline prices doubled and diesel prices tripled, triggering transit strikes in Manila and a sudden spike in inflation that experts warned could push more than a million Filipinos into poverty.

    Washington forgets or doesn’t know that much of American goods and plenty of services come from abroad, like call center outsourcing to the Philippines. There’s going to be all kinds of blowback from Trump’s War.

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