Links 9/7/2026

How the brain of a fly may help explain human behaviour BBC He Was a Washed-Up Pop Star. Now He’s Selling Out Stadiums Hosting Baby Raves. WSJ He Was a Top Lawn Care Influencer on YouTube. Then Everything Went Haywire. New York Times Magazine What Influencers Owe Us New York Magazine Climate/Environment Wildfires, heat waves threaten global efforts to improve air quality: WMO Anadolu Agency Thousands still without power after tornadoes rip through the Detroit area KYMA Detroit NWS suffers another nationwide comms outage during active thunderstorms Balanced Weather Indonesia on fire as four volcanoes erupt in 24 hours Intellinews El Niño will peak around 4°C in December, according to brand new ECMWF seasonal guidance. After months of increasingly intense forecasts, predictions have finally leveled off — but at a record-smashing level. pic.twitter.com/NJg9WKqGGd — Ben Noll (@BenNollWeather) September 5, 2026 Pandemics The real covid-19 scandal is still unfolding The Economist Water You Don’t Have a Right to Safe Drinking Water, US Court Rules Mother Jones Japan Japan Likely Sold Treasuries to Fund Record Yen Intervention Bloomberg China? Why Won’t China Cut Ukraine Off From Drone-Related Sales? Andrew Korybko In rare flurry of trips, Xi pitches China as stable alternative to U.S. under Trump WaPo Why China’s Football Problem Is an Economic Problem | Li Xunlei Sinification Syraqistan Remains of 70 children among 100 Palestinians laid to rest in mass Gaza funeral The Cradle The universe has served up more justice to Apartheid Israel than all international legal institutions combined. 5 out of 6 desalination plants in Israel have been shut down due to a sudden, massive algal bloom in the Mediterranean Sea. It was brought on by the large amounts of… pic.twitter.com/s0pYOREOA6 — Zachary Foster (@_ZachFoster) September 4, 2026 US envoy Kushner calls Israeli government ‘a little irrational’ over Gaza TRT World *** Trump official says ‘there may not be a nuclear agreement’ with Iran Al Jazeera Iran to declare new ‘restricted zone’ beyond Strait of Hormuz, SNSC secretary says Press TV *** 6 killed as IOF pound South Lebanon, destroy hospital, strike vehicles Al Mayadeen *** Toll from Yemen clashes passes 300 as civilians flee homes AFP *** Turkish spy chief makes secretive visit to Greece amid rising tensions with Israel, report says Middle East Eye Africa ECOWAS, THE UNCONSTITIONAL CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT IN TOGO AND WHY AN AES UNDER ITS CURRENT LEADERSHIP, WILL NEVER RETURN TO THE ECOWAS David Asante-Darko Old Blighty Black-clad Dover vigilantes will return if police do not act, say campaigners The Guardian European Disunion AfD victory in Saxony. What will the Europhiles invent next? Il Petulante ‘Rain man’ to the rescue? France’s ex-president Hollande plots unlikely comeback France24 Kallas scraps new high-level European defense group in fresh blow to her leadership Politico Jared Kushner can’t conquer the Balkans New Statesman The Lucky Country The US now has access to more than half Australia’s military bases – could it drag the country unwillingly into war? The Guardian New Not-So-Cold War ‘The war will continue’ — US peace push fails to achieve deal after Witkoff, Kushner’s first visit to Kyiv Kyiv Independent Dmitriev & Kushoff celebrate world’s biggest bribe — $100B of Rus Central Bank reserves to be privatized for “Ukraine reconstruction fund” with fees and 50% profit to the US “investors” – Kremlin calls it “Economic issues, including the prospects for major Russia-US projects.” pic.twitter.com/31CS4zkypn — Dances_with_Bears (@bears_with) September 7, 2026 Missile War Monitor: Russia spares Kyiv for three days and hits everywhere else Intellinews In Ukraine, Fraud and Waste Are Rewarded With More Weapons Contracts New York Times Germany plans anti-drone shield over Leipzig attack — report DW 🚨Le drone de Leipzig Voilà, le réel rattrape tout le monde une fois de plus : un homme de 48 ans, Daniel V., médecin diplômé inscrit à Gevelsberg, a envoyé des lettres manuscrites de revendication à la taz (et d’autres médias). Il dit avoir agi seul, contre « le crime » de… https://t.co/CSBiL8SYlK — Didier Maïsto (@DidierMaisto) September 5, 2026 Do Europe’s elites want war with Russia? End of an age Lavrov Shared Some Interesting Tidbits About Russian Policy In His Recent Interview Andrew Korybko South of the Border The economic “miracle” of Bukele’s family and friends Diario Socialista (Ignacio) Trump 2.0 Republicans might still lose half the seats they gerrymandered to flip Politico Voting Rights Groups Are Preparing to Confront ICE at the Polls Truthout Democrats Suck Joe Biden’s Three Genocides in Four Years, Part 1: COVID Nat Wilson Turner Hunter Biden: ‘I may have to’ run for president in 2028 The Hill Economy Blind Guesses New Left Review Here’s a list of Scott Bessent’s wrong predictions and/or promises that didn’t happen: February 5, 2025: Long-term interest rates would come down as Trump’s economic policies took effect. Spring 2025: The federal deficit would move toward 3% of GDP. Spring 2025: Trump’s… https://t.co/5AGGGckJ6C — MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) September 6, 2026 Healthcare? AI Sad to see Jensen Huang claim that AGI has arrived, with no evidence and no definitions Gary Marcus Nvidia is the central bank of AI The Economist SpaceX building turbine blade foundry for AI data centers Quartz The real AI jobs apocalypse Blood in the Machine MAHA Docs Alarmed by NIH Plan to Redirect Medical Research $$ to Pentagon MedPage Today Imperial Collapse Watch The Israelization of International Relations: A View from a Small Country Biljana Vankovska Senior Fellow for Mass Murder and Colonial Relations Un-Diplomatic Immigration Immigration enforcement tightens squeeze on homebuilders’ job sites Housing Wire Tech Over 170,000 Nonprofits Lost All Their Data. Is Microsoft to Blame? Slate. (John C): “If your business depends on a MS platform…” Sports Desk Mind games and a ‘toss master’: world stone skimming contest returns to Scotland after cheating scandal The Guardian Zeitgeist Watch This is a Costco door, and it’s increasingly standard in new build construction in the suburbs Developers know their customer very well. https://t.co/i6vfgrMibv — The Mind Scourge (@TheMindScourge) September 2, 2026 The Bezzle Almost Anyone Can Make Money Selling Electricity With AI and Batteries Bloomberg Class Warfare Bond bust Michael Roberts What being Mormon taught me about organizing Free Market Moralism An elderly man living alone in Manchester wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, since the ground was hard His only son, Paul, who used to help him, was in prison (strange ways) . The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his… pic.twitter.com/0mKXdWEZdo — FeelGoodThoughts (@feelgoodtale) September 4, 2026 Antidote du jour (via): See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here. ‘@feelgoodtale FeelGoodThoughts @feelgoodtale An elderly man living alone in Manchester wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, since the ground was hard. His only son, Paul, who used to help him, was in prison (strange ways)’ That’s like the story of the old farmer who told his sons that there was a treasure buried in their fields – but that they would need the plow to dig it up. The same joke made the rounds in Northern Ireland during the Troubles (1968-1998). The elderly farmer writes to IRA son who was imprisoned about his potato field. Son writes back “On no account dig the field. Arms are buried there” Police and British Army dig it over perfectly! Farmer seeds his potatoes! PS if you want to know about the latest anti- Catholic, anti-Irish activities of the Orange Order in Northern Ireland, have a look here https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2026/09/06/drumcree-2-0/ Puff! They cannot help themselves. Could in proper English be said that “the time has come to turn the page” or am I translating from Spanish in a too literal fashion? no, not at all Ignacio. Others have said “Let sleeping dogs lie” – after 28 years relative peace and no more deaths, that’s all the local residents want Makes no difference to the Orange Order/Unionists/Loyalists in Northern Ireland. They have to be “top dogs” Or Else . . . They’ll threaten to huff and puff and blow the house (the GFA Agreement) down! re: Economist, Covid deaths in the US. No mention of early treatment (or lack of same) or of treatment in general. Odd. “ the covid-19 vaccine—was highly successful and helped save millions of lives,” declared the committee created by the House to investigate covid in 2024, summarising two years of work. The very next sentence reads: “Contrary to what was promised, the covid-19 vaccine did not stop the spread or transmission of the virus.”. Both statements are true. Fauci and many others oversold the vaccine’s ability to prevent infection and stop the spread. Remember “breakthrough infections”. They knew or should have known (“follow the science” right?) that the vaccine was non-sterilizing, which means it does not stop infection. This became abundantly clear during Omicron. The number of American deaths due to Covid will remain unknown, as each local jurisdiction had a different way of determining whether a death was due to Covid. There is plenty of blame to go around but most of it belongs to Biden, who promised an intelligent and robust program to fight covid and rebuild public health infrastructure. He had a mandate and an opportunity, but squandered it, then prematurely declaring the pandemic over and redirecting funds for public health into law enforcement in time for the 22midterms Birx came out and admitted they knew when they released the vax it wasn’t sterilizing, but they still “hoped it might work.” What was successful? Despite all the jabbing, the US still had arguably the worst results in the world with millions dead. I’m still waiting for an explanation as to why this did not happen in Africa, where a much lower percentage of the population was vaccinated. Nothing to do with the fact that the drug that must not be named was already in widespread use in Africa for the treatment of several parasitic infections so was readily available. There’s probably a myriad of reason, but surely telling people they can’t get infected (because of the jab) encouraged reckless that wouldnt be seen elsewhere Of course. But if you remember back in 2020, there were far too many people that wanted to go back to eating in restaurants, to go to concerts, to travel overseas again, to keep their businesses open. The same sort of people that objected to wearing masks or even other people to wear masks. So they took the jabs and believed government assurances that they were golden now. Also, back in 2020 in my opinion there was no reason for most people in the US to doubt the govt when it said it had a working vaccine. After all, the govt had the polio vax and other vax that proved effective. (Few noticed the govt had changed the definition of vax effectiveness just prior to the c19 vax rollout.) People believed the govt and acted on that. There was no reason not to, as so many thought then. / my 2 cents. To this day I know a bunch of people who think if they got the jab they are protected. If you told them the jabs did not stop the spread they would call you an anti-vaxxer and science denier. Go figure. Someone I’ve know a long time called me a Trumper. wth. The pr or propastuff was effective. “Highly successful” against what specification and what are the beta and alpha risks about that “inference”? I was compliant and even volunteered for a vax trial…. My position since 2022, “statements” in print about “effective” response are false until proven! Has FDA “approved” any mRNA jab? Now I am a cynic! According to a web search, full approval – not just Emergency Use Authorization – has been granted to 2 COVID vaccines, from Pfizer-BioNTech and from Moderna, and most recently, a flu vaccine – “mFLUSIVA (mRNA-1010, Moderna) – Received FDA approval in August 2026 as the world’s first mRNA-based seasonal flu vaccine. It is approved for adults aged 50 and older (with regular approval for ages 50–64 and accelerated approval for ages 65+).” It was highly successful in 2020-2021, when clinical trials were conducted, albeit at an accelerated rate, and when the difference in hospitalization and death rates between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated was literally an order of magnitude (almost exactly 10 times). When Biden came in, three things happened. One, the virus continued to mutate. Two, clinical trials of anything (either vaccine boosters or Paxlovid/Molnupiravir) stopped entirely or did not make it past Phase 2, which, coincidentally, means no real effectiveness data except as some post-facto studies by the Cleveland Clinic or whatnot. Three, all other protections were proactively removed (except at places like Davos). So instead of building on the initial success, we actively flushed it down the drain, while also completely debasing vaccines in general (not just Covid) in the eyes of a big chunk of the population. It did not help that vaccines turned into a tribal badge between republican and democrat voter bases. The end result is that significantly more people died in the Biden phase of the pandemic than should have done, had we actually done a robust anti-epidemic response, including, yes, clinically tested vaccines to the extent these produced actual results rather than more transfers of public money to Pfizer/Moderna. Thank you. Indeed, Biden’s Winter of Death is squarely on Fauci and public health, and Biden, and Walensky. Getting people killed is sure a funny way for Fauci to earnestly want to save lives. The problem here is, as usual, Republicans don’t care about facts, so they have one of the right targets, but the wrong scent. ” They knew or should have known (“follow the science” right?) that the vaccine was non-sterilizing,” We knew here in NC Comments. Minutes of the EUA approval meeting noted that Pfizer was asked if the vax was sterilizing and answered that it wasn’t designed to be and therefore that wasn’t tested. Information i had from being an NC reader that made some of what happened next infuriating. Due Dissidence guys interview Dennis Kucinich. Interview: Dennis Kucinich on PRESSING FOR ANSWERS on 9/11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXZZQwk7Ir8 ‘@_ZachFoster Zachary Foster @_ZachFoster The universe has served up more justice to Apartheid Israel than all international legal institutions combined. 5 out of 6 desalination plants in Israel have been shut down due to a sudden, massive algal bloom in the Mediterranean Sea.’ The best reply to this tweet was immediately below when it said- ‘The dildo of consequences rarely arrives lubed.’ That comment is still featured at the top, lol. Sadly, Israel is not the only country with a government more than willing to shit the bed if it facilitates remaining in power. Happy Labor Day all. So now more people will suffer and the occupying forces will probably move to take or destroy more Palestinian wells. What an awful situation. Using a natural consequence of stupid violence to drive more violence is consistent with the insanity of everyone involved on “our” side though. Huckabee is so crazy I can’t even think of a sane way to ask him why he believes what he says he believes. I guess it makes sense from the perspective of someone who governed in a place called Arkansas but had nothing to do with native peoples. But then no one when he was governor suggested that the citizens of the Natural State return to living under indigenous law from several thousand years ago. Have we heard any one from the current Zionist administration propose where this ends? Can we ask Zionists what kind of APR they got on the mortgage for this land? Who was their title company? If artifacts from another religion turn up when excavating mass graves for dead Palestinian children, does that mean another people have a better claim to this land? And have any observers compared the behavior of the Jewish settlers in the West Bank to the 90s gangs who would claim territory? Because when I see videos showing settler teens going around with sticks and dead stares threatening people, I’m reminded of the kids who were trying to be hard a$$ g’s back in the 90s when some one they were told not to like stepped up on their street. Here’s a humble Labor Day brag. I’m being paid by two employers not to work today – once by my current employer and a second time by the company that laid me off a few months ago and is still paying me severance. After being laid off at least in part for refusing to use the clanker, it feels pretty good today! Instead of working for the man, I’m helping my elderly folks out, splitting some wood with my dad and cooking up a storm for my mom, who’s been laid up recently. The most valuable and meaningful work is often that which we aren’t paid for. Happy Labor Day everybody. And Solidarity! Chopping wood warms you twice. When it also warms your heart you win the trifecta! Big Brother Is Watching You Watch Really appreciated the links on AfD victory and ECOWAS/AES. “Autocratic democracy” is a term we will be hearing more often. What happened to the term “muscular democracy”? Russia Today had a surprisingly leftish critical piece on Afd yesterday. ‘They support plutocrats, not the working class,’ etc. “Jared Kushner can’t conquer the Balkans” After thoroughly reading through that article, I think that there is an obvious connection to be made between such two disparate countries like Albania and Serbia – both of them hate Jared Kushner’s guts and everything that he represents. And who am I to disagree with them? re: Hunter may have to run for pres in 2028 “because the crime syndicates need better protection”…. Wait, that’s NOT what he said. (Where’s the copy editor?) / ;)We all know who Hunter Biden is and all about his past but it should be said that, compared to the current and previous President, that as a President himself he would bring more dignity to the office in comparison. And if you have a bunch of hookers and snow going in and out the White House, at least he would be more honest about it. Looks like the GOP is getting ready to retire T and install JD for much the same reasons you mention: “bring more dignity to the office in comparison.” Not that a single thing will change. Another pol talking out of both sides of his mouth. / ;) From Due Dissidence: Is JD Vance Getting Ready To REPLACE TRUMP After Midterms? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWaUoq1E3sM I’ve been predicting a version of this since December ’24 (although I expected to be a kinetic exit) We should be nervous of more competent fascists getting the keys. The only way that Trump would leave the White house would be bellowing and screaming as his Secret Service detail carried him out to a chopper. The plan might be to install JD but you can be sure that there would be a lot of people in Trump’s Cabinet who would try to grab his job – like Hegseth or Bessant or Rubio, Constitution be damned. “…would be bellowing and screaming as his Secret Service detail carried him out to a chopper.” By “chopper,” would you mean Madame La Guillotine, the head chopper? Just asking for about 200,000,000 friends. One thing we know for sure – T will not be proclaiming “I am not a crook” like Tricky Dick. He probably still has some cached in the building somewhere. Not the hookers. Come on now. We all know that the coterie of “advisors” surrounding the Chief Executive in the White House are mainly shameless “persons of negotiable affection.” Honest whores work on their backs while political whores work on the backs of others. Stay safe. Remain upstanding. I know quite a few people who are thrilled about this. They wanted him to run a long time ago. I don’t get it. The establishment hates the idea of mass voter representation. They want to stop all this serving the interest of the public. They will continue to put forth vile criminals, conmen, dunces, alleged “reformers” that will not ultimately challenge the system, etc until the desire for democracy is drained from the last citizen. They don’t want ro continue having to define “oligarchy” as “democracy”. That’s too much kow-towing for them. The establishment does not have to kow-tow anymore because they have no sustained conflict or resistance to looting and neo-liberal economics. No friction. It’s especially of note that it’s the Pres race. The executive branch. Foreign policy. They also are matching a global criminality that is out of hand. Have you heard Hunter talk about his love for crack? It’s almost enough to humanized the wasted princeling. Anyone who can say he loves a thing that much is at least capable of emotions I can potentially relate to. Of course, it also means he would be even easier to manipulate than Trump. With Trump, his handlers had to work on his ego, money, and likely compromising information from various sources over the years. With our dear prince, our leaders would only need to get him back on the train and tell him what to do to secure his next fix. So much more efficient… Yeah since he’s been making the rounds, I’ve been waiting for the announcement. Please do, Hunter. I’m sure it will be entertaining. (And since I’m long past expecting anything from electoral politics, I can already least ask to be entertained.) The Democrats would be better picking a random homeless person off the street to run for president than any of the names floated by party shills of one faction or another (including ancien régime family members). Seriously: Newsom, Buttigieg, anyone named Biden (or Obama), Pritzker, Shapiro, Antoinette Of Color, Mark Kelly, Kamala Harris V. 2, Rahm Emanuel ffs! These people are repulsive, a whole political generation of fake, corporate, pro-war stooges with an occasional throw-in spouting odious identity politics for supposed variety. Go to a union convention and grab the first person you see who has had an actual job doing real work and you would be way better off. Who is more delusional, Hunter Biden or Scott Bessent? Hunter Biden spent a lot of time being the most drug addicted drug addict ever and now he’s the most sober former drug addict ever because he’d always the most. It’s a type I have no stomach for. I was asked to write a report on how we could use AI in my department (Technical Publications). I wrote that we need to hire 2 more people to make our content AI-ready, and that the best comparable implementation so far is 68% reliable, according to trade journals. Higher costs for less reliability, what’s not to like? 68% confidence rates are the new black. Re nonprofits having their data disappeared in the MS Office cloud–uh, Linux and open source, hello? Beware Bill Gates bearing gifts. Why would you trust Microsoft for anything? There was a time in computer history when Microsoft seemed necessary, but that time is long gone. Why are they even still around other than to make a lot of money on video games and rent extraction via their antique office products? I think that it was Google cloud that deleted all the files of a major superannuation company here in Oz, including all the backups. Luckily their IT guy was smarter than the average bear and already had those files back up to a different company altogether so was able to quickly retrieve and install them. But your files are not safe in any cloud as corporations will want to clear space for more AI operations. The high cost of nearly free cloud storage. / ;) Hey, we got rid of our IT department personnel and hardware costs. We gave our data to the cloud to manage. Big savings! aannnd it’s gone. / ;) https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jEBnrzNuUSA Wonder if MS AI trained on the data then ‘shredded it’ like a book? / ;) It continues to amaze me how many people and orgs have their important data stored only as a single copy on someone else’s computer. The pathetic gist of this story is that MS has trained the non computer public to see the web as a jungle with great white hunters like the tech giants needed to protect them. Whereas–correct me if I’m wrong–you are more likely to be hit by ransomware because of some bug in Windows. The techies sell a protection racket from them. Of course that’s easy for me to say since I refuse to do financial things on the internet at all. I even get my bro to order on Amazon although I could do it myself. But surely people don’t really have to have MS Office at this late stage. I do order items online but do so using a dedicated account at the bank. Initially I had to go down to the bank in person and demand that this account be firewalled off from the rest of the accounts. “No! I do not want the ‘convenience’ of overdraft protection. If I cannot continue to personally keep track of my income and expenses, then I will close the account. Period.” “But, but, it’s best practices Sir.” “Best practices for who? Not for me.” “It makes your life easier Sir. Everyone says so.” “Easier is not automatically better.” “Well, all right, if you insist on doing this.” “Indeed I do. Thank you.” “Have a nice day Sir.” “Thanks again. Things are already looking up.” Back before the cloud was even a thing I used to build or buy RAIDs (redundant array of inexpensive drives) for my data backups. They weren’t difficult or expensive, the whole point was if one drive failed, you simply replaced it with no loss of data. The data was housed on your own premises. It was usually sitting on my desk. I suppose one risk might be if my desk caught fire or was caught in an earthquake or flood, or if our building lost power. I recall that was the argument for using the cloud – that data centers were built and located to address these concerns. But with so many companies now losing their cloud data like it’s the most normal thing in he world, it seems the math around that risk should be revisited and reconsidered. I thought companies that were audited (by official auditing people, I mean) had to have a disaster recovery plan for just this contingency, destruction of their main servers and all data. A plan that would usually involve taking backups maintained at a geographically separate location and standing up new servers at a different data center to restore the backups to. And the plan had to be periodically tested to be sure it would work (I participated in one such test almost forty years ago). Does using the cloud somehow absolve the corporate IT department from a duty to be able to continue operations in a disaster scenario? It’s debatable how much money they’re making on video games. Between high profile studio purchases, a tumultuous subscription service and a disastrous last generation, there’s a lot of speculation that MS might need to move to just publishing games to try to keeep up. It’s debatable how much money they make from any personal use sales. Found out last week that a giant clunky tool we use, which I thought was a unique 3rd party, is also part of MS. Which I suppose explains why it’s so badly integrated into the MS environment we have for basic office and intranet and web stuff. Indeed, Microsoft only got Fedramp approval through outright corruption. Federal Cyber Experts Thought Microsoft’s Cloud Was “a Pile of Shit.” They Approved It Anyway. Meanwhile this should be provided as part of the public commons; Not through a rapacious capitalist enterprise. RE: The Israelization of International Relations Well worth reading that one in full. The way “leaders” debase themselves for this tiny, vicious and genocidal country is truly astounding. From Macedonia’s foreign minister quoted in the article – ‘There are many things that we can learn from you. There are many common values that we share, both on a domestic as well as international level. And in that sense, since the formation of our government, we have made the bilateral relationship with Israel one of the priorities of our foreign policy.’ Is there anything the Zionist entity could learn from the rest of the world?!!?? Why the bootlicking? Must one be an abject masochist to become a Western “leader” now? The author also notes 19 daily flights between Athens and the Zionist entity and adds – “It is fair to say that the Israeli tourists are not quite welcomed these days. Incidents and protests by local populations are increasingly reported, with people openly waving Palestinian flags to signal that Israeli tourists are not welcome.” I’ve mentioned before that when I was in Crete last year, a series of bridges over the highway were tagged with anti-Zionist slogans. Protesters have blocked Zionist tourists on cruise ships from disembarking. And yet Greece continues to make military partnerships with the Zionists despite this being extremely unpopular with Greek citizens . If Greek politicians really think the Zionist entity will protect them from Turkey, maybe it’s time for them to brush up on their Aesop. Here’s hoping the Greeks show Mitsotakis the door in next year’s election. I’m also quite sure the usual suspects will be hard at work to give Greece the Romania treatment should any opposition candidate arise who does not support the EU genocidal status quo. “Must one be an abject masochist to become a Western “leader” now?” No, they also have the option of choosing sadist. Sidenote: The “West” can only continue to move in the world the way it does as long as they have cooperation around the world. They have plenty of that cooperation with pockets of governments and regimes struggling for legitimacy often being confused with opposition to the overall Western global structure. This article expresses a feeling I have had for quite a while, whenever I read the assertion that “Israel is becoming a pariah state”. On the contrary, ever since October 2023, a growing number of countries have been seeking closer relations with Israel: boosting trade, acquiring Israeli weaponry, inviting Israeli advisors to train security services, welcoming an Israeli military basis even, or the summum: embedding the Israeli security apparatus in the national military (see USA). Photo shooting with Netanyahu? Of course. A speech about shared values? Naturally. A visit to the Wailing Wall complete with kippa wearing? Obligatory. Sneering at the IJC and the ICC? Obviously. Transferring the embassy to Jerusalem? Why not? Argentina and Greece. Azerbaijan and Chile. India and Ecuador. UAE and Macedonia. Morocco and Columbia. Somaliland and Hungary. All the while, long time traditional partners have gone full zionist goon squads, crushing any kind of dissent about Gaza while selling as many weapons, and sending as much military they can to prop up Israel: Germany, the USA, the UK, France… Obviously, countries all over the world are actually thrilled by the “best practices” Israel has developed to reduce rebellious populations to abject submission (which is of much interest to Morocco because of the Sahrawis, or India because of the Kashmiris), or to deploy full-spectrum surveillance of a restive populace (of interest to everybody). Dockers may refuse to load ships bound to Israel, restaurants may deny service to Israelis — so what? Dissenters will later feel the full might of the State when they get hauled in front of a court for antisemitism. Israel is not becoming a pariah state, but rather the new darling of authoritarian and would-be-authoritarian states all over the world. Globalist authoritarianism? Now, imagine when Israelite tools start to be applied more massively in an AfD-governed Germany or a RN-governed France against the “other populaces” hmmmm I can see people salivating. When nationalists turn globalists in some aspect. This is purely speculative, but I wonder if Jewish billionaires like Epstein serve as unofficial diplomats by creating secret pro-Israel networks within various governments. Re: “Almost Anyone Can Make Money Selling Electricity With AI and Batteries“: Well, sure, although that perky Bloomberg article doesn’t mention the upfront costs of battery storage, grid connection hardware, and computing. Curious to see what his total investment cost really was, along with the period to recoup it. Also, the entire setup is reliant on a cost / payment arbitrage, which, as that trade becomes more crowdedm will narrow if not outright disappear. Sounds like a complete hellscape, we can all become our own electricity wholesalers! As long as you can afford the computer equipment and understand how to manage your arbitrage risk. No thanks. I could do this if I had the equipment and don’t even want to bother. What a giant step backwards. Maybe we can all start managing our own generation equipment too. Ideas to make money through arbitrage are a pathway to various ponzi schemes and fraud. “You Don’t Have a Right to Safe Drinking Water, US Court Rules” ‘A Trump-appointed judge also said Americans have no “constitutional right to truthful information” during a public health crisis.’ If that Trump Court found that a government does not have the duty to inform it’s citizens that their water is seriously contaminated with lead and was not liable for advice that made the situation even worse, then that ruling has set a precedent. So a governemt can authorize a vaccine in future that has known serious side-effects including early death but that citizens would have no “constitutional right” in a public health crisis to know this and can take no action against the government over this. I can see how the next pandemic will play out. 2. Go die. So, that does mean in NY there’s an opening to sue the state, for not providing a healthful environment by repeatedly infecting NY residents with COVID. That would be a fun case; The science is overwhelming. This looks like it is going to be a very interesting El Nino Winter, will we get an ARK storm in California? That would liven things up quite nicely… It could be a disaster of biblical proportions. Real wrath of God type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes, The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria! re: Germany architecture – historic preservation in Saxony There is much coverage of AfD´s campaign against the Bauhaus heritage in the FRG. I haven´t looked into it. So I can´t judge. (This Bauhaus conflict is an important talking point in the general Anti-AfD stance of the cultured class in Germany. They drop it often to prove the menace AfD poses to culture. And as Russian Centre in Berlin showed, we LOVE culture…) I can only assume that AfD contentions over Bauhaus are different to the one´s I would have and others here on NC who too articulated critique when it came to architectural histories. But fwiw today BERLINER ZEITUNG brought a piece about the dangers to architectural heritage in Saxony (NOT Saxony-Anhalt!) due to a new provision by the CDU. Not the AfD. It is of however likely that AfD will or would pick up on it. The interesting thing is that while Bauhaus is pictured under attack in the MSM – it is in fact among the most caressed items in German cultural heritage funding and public cheerleading (which is pretty annoying.) By comparison GDR buildings have been regularly torn down and destroyed with almost no (West) German legacy media smartasses give a shit (sorry my French) for 35 years now. Historic preservation in Saxony: Planned legislative change jeopardizes cultural heritage A planned reform introduces new categories and responsibilities. There are concerns that the protection of valuable historical monuments will be weakened. machine-trsl. https://archive.is/i6Ist A great piece about playing with lego, her grandson and labor, for Labor Day, from Anne Lamott, who I had not known until someone sent this to me today. (it is on her Substack, so I don’t know if the link will come up for you, but worth tracking down, it will make you laugh, in a good way). https://substack.com/home/post/p-214431141 Just a day late comment on Witkoff and Kushner. Witkoff an’ Kushner = WanK .Wank is a very common British noun,verb or noun adjective used to describe the useless mess created as the result of an act of male onanism. Thus, the ultra dismissive colloquial term much used on British factory shop floors in analysing an idea -“That is a load of wank” is not a compliment,but very helpful – especially when you remember who the wanker is. Mnemonics work really well sometimes. I’m seeing a lot of criticism of Israel and the IDF these days and I can assure you that when the Israeli’s destroy hospitals, universities, water and sewage treatment plants and so on that they are doing so in the most Moral way possible. It’s God’ Swill. And the IDF? When they deliberately shoot small children in the head or use dogs to rape prisoners it is simply more evidence that they are the “Most Moral Army in the World”. Anyone who disagrees with this is clearly a Terrorist Sympathizer or worse, a socialist. This is a fun post. https://scheerpost.com/2026/09/07/un-wants-to-right-size-maps-would-it-have-saved-trump-from-iran-catastrophe/ Taking a 2″ square of duct tape, sticking it to my shirt. Fashion accessory or political statement? Let the viewer decide. Just logging off for the night but before I do. Has anyone seen the Trump approved new designs for the US Space Force uniforms? The image actually says ‘Inspired by the discipline and functionality of the Starship Troopers uniform.’ https://ca.news.yahoo.com/trump-mocked-over-design-space-235508175.html It’s got that Nazis in Space vibe to it. It’s got that Nazis in Space vibe to it. Totally. While Starship Troopers is a hilarious parody of fascistic Hollywood US Empire worship, I doubt these uniforms are intended ironically. Trump and his court brownnosers are a bit short on irony. Some posts online talking about new mods for Wolfenstein just dropped. But hey, now that the US owns the Moon, we need boots on the moon dust. The corrosive, relentless moon dust. re: Otto Preminger Arguably one of the best directors around in the “old” era never doing “old” work. (Preminer died on April 23rd, 1986) via fb there is a nice very long text about Preminger and his films It´s a text originally from MOVIE MAGAZINE in 1962 https://www.facebook.com/wt.solley.7/posts/pfbid0toz4D2crAfi8f2YYatHdCfB3DMkreipLqjqoaB9czjsf9dHLidmC2LEV8NRtYDpBl Lynx links antidote? Happy Labor Day to those in the US. Start or join a union. From He Was a Top Lawn Care Influencer on YouTube. Then Everything Went Haywire. So the real story here, NY Times ignores, is Google’s rapacious thirst for engagement to collect those advertising dollars. Well, Google knows where this content came from; We could know why. YT gave us slop before we had AI slop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opxmdhCca5M/ Raisi’s BRICS Legacy Shapes Iran’s Future as War Resumes (The Duran) Interesting that during the return of Witkoff/Kushner to Russia, there is a bit of an attempt to manage their audience’s expectations about Iran and the outcome of that war. >Why Won’t China Cut Ukraine Off From Drone-Related Sales? Beijing is weaponizing access to Chinese products. In other words, any country that does not openly oppose China is allowed to purchase Chinese goods. Damn, no one beefing about gas prices today– I must change this: Harvest Squeeze: Record-High Diesel Prices Negate $6 Corn Driven by global refining tight spots and overseas infrastructure attacks, a record-breaking $5.85 fuel spike forces farmers to bite the financial bullet just as combines hit the field. Probably should have posted this under the comment about the “no lube” remark… thinking about it “no lube” might make a pretty good catagory for Links ’cause who here ain’t feeling the shaft these days? As Gas Prices Soar, These Drivers Squeeze Every Mile From Every Gallon (NY Times) America is going great. I’ve never been one myself to floor it out of a light; never cared. That doesn’t mean I ain’t going faster than everyone eventually, just not right away. I’ve always been amazed how quickly people start their cars, too. I get in, seatbelt up, gently turn the key. People are rolling before I even get my car started.