Three wild dogs have traveled farther than any African mammal Science
Network science reveals the structure and lasting impact of the Roman road system Nature Communications
Where I’ve Been Streetsblog USA
Climate/Environment
Analysis: Global fossil-fuel emissions set to fall in 2026 amid Hormuz crisis Carbon Brief
Heatwave triggers potato shortage in Europe FT
The Half of the World That Has Only Begun To Be Hit Yet: El Niño Reaches Asia 4hunger.org
El Niño Is Not Just a Monsoon Problem. It Is a Whole-Economy Risk Open Magazine
The South Can’t Shake This Record-Breaking Heat. Here’s Why Gizmodo
Pandemics
Measles Is Winning The Atlantic. On what’s likely an “enormous” outbreak in Pennsylvania.
These data are from Friday’s CDC update. We previously noted rising levels in the NYC area on Sep 7. We have been warning of the 13th wave for months and the role of COVlD in geopolitical instability for years. https://t.co/SE9H4AFAnu pic.twitter.com/kCC7Ynvu0v
— Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA (@michael_hoerger) September 16, 2026
China?
China’s top diplomat holds talks with Iranian FM Xinhua
Scott Bessent to meet He Lifeng in New York ahead of Trump-Xi summit FT
India
India stands firm on Russian oil amid US tariff threat Hindu Businessline
Syraqistan
As World ‘Pretends There’s a Ceasefire,’ Israeli Minister Doubles Down on Gaza Expulsion Plan Common Dreams
Why Israel Wants More One-Ton Bombs From the U.S. and Why the Sale Is Controversial New York Times
Footage from Beirut shows the destructive force of the U.S.-made Mark 84 bomb as Washington moves forward with a $2.8 billion weapons package that would provide Israel with 40,000 heavy bombs. pic.twitter.com/oGQNRGFBU3
— HatsOff (@HatsOffff) September 16, 2026
Ranking Member @RepGregoryMeeks announced he will not clear the Trump administration’s proposed $2.8 billion sale of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel due to concerns that those munitions would not be used in accordance with U.S. and international law. pic.twitter.com/g6mwNvUTOF
— House Foreign Affairs Committee Dems (@HouseForeign) September 16, 2026
Netanyahu announces he will propose laws to revoke citizenship of people ‘smearing’ IDF Jerusalem Post
***
U.S. officials met Iran-backed Houthis in Oman over the weekend, sources say Reuters
Trump says Iran contacts US directly, wants to make a deal TRT World
Makkah Joint Defense Agreement: Has Pakistan Quietly Activated Pact? Kathy Gannon
More goading of Turkey to enter a war it didn’t start. Of course, you may say what was @RTErdogan thinking when he signed a mutual defense pact in Mecca in the midst of a regional war? The idea that 🇹🇷 can’t act w/out parliament’s ratification is a joke. Since when did Erdogan… https://t.co/hEPmsgtfV9
— Amberin Zaman (@amberinzaman) September 16, 2026
Africa
Is The US Planning To Invade The AES?
Is the United States planning to invade the Alliance of Sahel States (AES)? Is a recent letter by a certain US Congressman to the US Secretary of State a precursor to this invasion? Do recent developments in Washington and the relentless… pic.twitter.com/sdaguZd8DY
— The Spearhead (@Spearhead_Af) September 16, 2026
Somaliland’s president puts everything on the table for Trump Semafor
European Disunion
Europe is “surrounded by enemies” and must rearm, invest and innovate – von der Leyen Intellinews
Michael von der Schulenburg – The significance of the enemy states clause for Germany BRAVE NEW EUROPE
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Swiss Neutrality & its Enemies Consortium News
What NATO leaves behind as it pulls back from Kosovo Responsible Statecraft
Pierrakakis to Handelsblatt: Greece’s experience can inspire Germany Parapolitika
German Hospitals Prepare for War, Drones and Mass Casualties Bloomberg
Ursula von der Leyen points to Hungary as proof democratic decline can be reversed Daily News Hungary
O Canada
Trump calls EU offer to Canada of associate membership ‘laughable’, while threatening tariffs The Guardian
Gulf billionaire dictators are looking to cash in on Mark Carney’s investment bonanza The Breach
Carney’s airport privatization is a looming disaster: ‘Highway 407 of the skies’ Canadian Dimension
New Not-So-Cold War
House passes Russia sanctions bill named for Lindsey Graham, sending it to Trump NBC News
Russian wheat exports are expected to “collapse” by around 60% in September compared with the same month last year, agricultural analyst Nikolai Lychev has told RBK.
Lychev claims grain shipments have increasingly been redirected towards Baltic ports, but transporting grain… pic.twitter.com/tO9VbBQzqC
— Brian McDonald (@BrianMcDonaldIE) September 17, 2026
Zelensky’s sanctioned former press secretary barred from entering European Parliament Kyiv Independent
EU ambassadors advance major defense projects plan, with Ukraine featuring prominently Kyiv Independent
L’affaire Epstein
Epstein had huge cache of child sex pics; victims sue to find out who’s in them Ars Technica
US House holds billionaire Epstein associate Leon Black in contempt of Congress France24
Judge Warns Blanche of Possible Contempt Charges Over Epstein Files Washington Sun
The Fed
‘Working Families Foot Trump’s Bill Twice’ as Fed Hikes Rates Amid Worsening Affordability Crisis Common Dreams
Trump slams the Fed rate hike, says he told Warsh ‘you might as well vote with the board’ Yahoo! Finance
Fed’s Hawkish Hike to Pressure Asian Currencies, Strategists Say Bloomberg
Treasury yields move lower after Fed kicks off hiking cycle CNBC
GOP Funhouse
US billionaires line up to bankroll Republicans’ election push FT
House to adjourn early, stave off Hegseth impeachment vote CNN
House Republican Meeting Turns Into Shouting Match: ‘This Is Fucking War!’ Washington Sun
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera. Its Data Shows How the System Really Works Wired
BRICS
Xi Jinping health rumours swirl after Indian PM Modi ‘saw Chinese leader looking uncomfortable’ and interrupted speech to ask ‘is it ok?’ Daily Mail. Looks to be the usual unfounded Xi rumors.
Cyril Ramaphosa booked off sick after trip to India The South African
Economy
Sky-high crude and diesel prices are fuelling protests worldwide CBC
Immigration
A New Economic Boon for Rural Areas: Immigrant Detention Governing
Predictors and prevalence of support for white nationalism in the United States Nature
AI
NVIDIA’S AI Climate hoax – report Ketan Joshi
They are titans. They may also be criminals. Early Warning
Very important point, that hasn’t made it into mainstream media coverage of AI. These agents “collaborated” because they were trained to do so. https://t.co/U00ClSpZUm
— Melanie Mitchell (@MelMitchell1) September 16, 2026
This shit is so wild. They generated 51 robot economists and they concluded “Free health care, housing, and transportation don’t provide the same kind of meaning and human value as an Earned Income Tax Credit” great work guys https://t.co/fTF5mFRIpS
— Malcolm Harris (@BigMeanInternet) September 16, 2026
The Bezzle
See The Algorithm’s Dark Gleam In The Hunter Biden-Andrew Callaghan Crypto Scam Email Whoopsie Defector
Class Warfare
The Salary You Need To Afford America’s 50 Biggest Cities While Paying Off Debt MoneyLion
Short-Staffed Slate
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Warsh to Bessent: let me show you how it’s done
> Ursula von der Leyen points to Hungary as proof democratic decline can be reversed Daily News Hungary
I guess she’s right. If Hungary can get rid of Orbán, then Germany can get rid of von der Leyen.
In von den Leichen’s idea of “democracy” unelected, unaccountable transnational bureaucrats can by definition never be anti democratic, thus a lack of a mechanism to get rid of them can also never be a problem.
Together with the corporations the transnational bureaucrats ARE the souvereign demos in “their democray” after all.
Last time I checked, Magyar, the new guy, was trying to fire judges on constitutional court and cripple Fidesz by barring senior politicians from serving in parliament (all under the guise of introducing age limits). So democracy at its finest.
“Trump says Iran contacts US directly, wants to make a deal”
Yeah, we’ve seen his before-
https://x.com/IrnaEnglish/status/2036837972985958788
It’s getting really old now.
We need a new concept of getting old. It’s more than a tired trope. Even if it is just to stall and not a sign of dementia, it’s utterly sad.
How about “it’s gone pear-shaped”, which logically follows from Trump’s Doordash Micky Ds fixation.
By the way @Rev
By “tired trope” I didn’t mean your usage of the expression, I meant I was looking for “something stronger than tired trope” to express where we’re at.
I like “rancid”
Never Fear[?????] …
JUST IN: Australia and New Zealand Could Also Become EU “Associate Members”
https://x.com/europeanhorizon/status/2100584136234713306
Re: This shit is so wild. They generated 51 robot economists and they concluded “Free health care, housing, and transportation don’t provide the same kind of meaning and human value as an Earned Income Tax Credit” great work guys
***
It sounds like the AI did an excellent job of emulating human economists.
It would have brought a tear to Milton Friedman’s eyes.
I really want to see the entire think tank and lobbying industry put out on the streets by AI. All the rarted little petty-aristocrat moralists in their little oligarch petting zoo can be put to hard labor. If I want to hear how property feels I’ll just ask a clanker.
I had the same thought. Oligarchs could save a lot of money by not having to launder their ideological crap through real human lackeys in actual “think-tanks” and “research institutions.” This just follows the general trends in education and the media as “AI” makes real people irrelevant. Billionaires are already cutting out the middle-men in politics by running for office directly themselves. They don’t need no stinkin’ humans to achieve Total Information Control.
Of course they may feel differently when their AI servants decide they don’t need no stinkin’ human billionaires any more. I feel that way already; how long will it take for “AI” to reach this conclusion?
When it processes that a medium and a store are not synonymous.
Ask a doctor if blood and fat are the same.
As a contract, storing the asset side of the ledger requires a debt on the other side. The secret sauce of capitalism is public debt backing private wealth.
“The real money is in bonds.”
“Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician, and I’ll show you a crook.”
― Harry Truman
/ ;)
Many a fortune has been made from ‘serving’ in public office.
GIGO
Garbage in, gospel out?
The writers of the source material that informed that LLM were, if not themselves hallucinating, thinking about a world that doesn’t actually exist.
Excellent commentary. Imagine the training! Biased training? Nooo, as a matter of fact TINA to Neoliberalism.
re: Hungary – closing of the “House of Terror” – history politics
Andrea Petö, Hungarian Cold War historian and Soros-product (not all of her work being bad but one has to always keep her bias in mind) in a short text about the closing of the Hungarian House of Terror. Which I have never bothered to visit. Its´ nonsensical nature was too obvious from day #1.
However apparently on a Disney-ish level it was pretty successful.
Petö now argues that this is a chance to create a new narrative. One that won´t spread the disinfo the House of Terror would drawing a lot of attention of the public away from serious critical scholarship.
While I cannot judge it professionally – the Orbán-style hatred of Socialism (the actual system that made him just like Kallas and the entire post-Communist nomenklatura ffs) has always been deeply dishonest and annoying.
A Historical Moment: After the Closure of the “House of Terror” Museum in Budapest
https://andreapeto.substack.com/p/a-historical-moment-after-the-closure
Andrea Petö CV
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Pet%C5%91
I visited the Lithuanian Genocide Museum in Kaunas in 2000 and 2002. It had expansive coverage of atrocities and deportations during Soviet rule pre- and post-WW2. The extermination of Jews, socialists and the disabled was relegated to a tiny area. Needless to say, the role of Lithuanian collaborators was unmentioned. The Ninth Fort museum where 40,000 were murdered was more complete, but my cousin said some more graphic exhibits of the Nazi depravity had been removed by the independent government.
Do you think there is a difference in viewing these matters between the community of professional state-aligned historic scholars and academic propagandists who build these narratives and institutions and the average population?
Official records of whichever government is/was in power should be completely transparent. Then people can make informed decisions.
What kind of representation do you have in Congress if your congressperson is literally spreading a level 3 biohazard in your district? I guess killing your constituents is one approach to representation? AOC’s approach aligns with what constitutes most of “the left”, in that virtue signaling is far more important than actually supporting the working class. The upshot, perhaps she gets long COVID and it downs her for good; I’m tired of hearing about her and other so-called leftists in the Democrat party.
Jason Boxman: The Italians still use a term that may have less currency in the U S of A: radical chic
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_chic
The Italian entry is enlightening for its definitions and examples of the term in use. The English-language entry seems not to get the politics involved and Wolfe’s own politics. The entry rambles, but that is Anglosphere style these days.
From his Wiki entry in English. Get out your saltshaker:
In 2016, Wolfe described Donald Trump as a “lovable megalomaniac…The childishness makes him seem honest.”[62] Wolfe later compared Trump to literary character Jay Gatsby.[58]
Oh.
Italians sometimes use the term “caviar leftist,” which is in that list at the bottom of the Italian entry, The entry indicates that the usage is from Portugal or Spain.
The problem with AOC is that she is increasingly mediated (freezing those eggs in public) and less political in the sense of writing legislation and working the crowds. The extreme case of unsuccess as a media creation is Hillary Clinton, whose career for the last 138 years consists of sitting for fawning interviews and thinking that she has influence over events.
AOC seems to be an early pioneer of being a “social influencer”, and perhaps supporters confused pronouncing support for leftist sounding policies with intent to work towards implementation.
Instead she’s just another empty vessel, soulless. Another vacuous product of an elite education. A selfish narcissist.
Italians sometimes use the term “caviar leftist,” which is in that list at the bottom of the Italian entry, The entry indicates that the usage is from Portugal or Spain.
My understanding is that this expression is also well-established in France (as “gauche caviar”).
in the UK the term is “champagne socialist”
In Germany the term is either “Salonbolschewist” (“salon bolshevik”) or “Salonkommunist” (“salon communist”)…
I was told that the term “parlour pinks” had some currency in the UK during the early 20th century.
You misunderstand the arrangement. The representative represents the state to you. Also, according to some Third Way diversity hire pocket-p, the defining characteristic of a “real person” is promoting bourgeois property. “Subjects” are still only objects and properties of the state. (Yeah, it’s the God Object antipattern made real.)
“House Republican Meeting Turns Into Shouting Match – The Washington Sun”
I guess that this is a sign of the tensions building up as the Midterms come closer and are now only *checks notes* about 47 days out. There must be some Republicans wondering if they will lose their seat then and know that the clowns in charge won’t change course to give them a break. Doesn’t help the cause when Trump says that he doesn’t care about things like gas prices-
https://www.tickcounter.com/countdown/6532501/countdown-to-us-midterm-elections
GOP House members facing defeat are surely angry, realizing that they might have to get a real job. I keep an eye on RealClearPolitics, and it has shown the polls breaking hard for the Donkeys since Labor Day.
M T-G has a media/influencer career to fall back on, as does Massie, but most of these chumps will have to go back to running a car dealership or some other job that requires actual attendance.
Early voting begins in my neck of the woods on October 12, that’s 25 days away.
Minor quibble… the businessperson-becomes congresscritter- in my experience as a line worker bee–has very little to do with day-to-day ops….
She might run the cash register tape at 5 pm to guesstimate cash flow, but otherwise it is off to
(fill in the blank— golf, ski, tennis, fish, hunt, diddle the side project…)
Great training for congresscritters… what , anoter seven weeks off, paid, with benes?
Three wild dogs cross more of Africa than in any other recorded migration. Science.
–The description of what happened to the four sisters is disturbing, although it seems that two of the sisters survived and cannot be tracked further.
–The three ragazzi kept wandering around. They have ended up far away from their birthplace.
–I am reminded of many stories of wolves that I have read. Wolves are great travelers. Back when I still lived in Chicago, I recall stories of wolves turning up unexpected in parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and even Illinois that they hadn’t inhabited in years. Here in Italy, the resourceful population of wolves by necessity has traveled extensively over the course of its long history of dealing with human beings. (And golden jackals have arrived in the Veneto… our answer to coyotes.)
–And this datum is worth contemplating: “Then in September 2025, something remarkable happened. After both groups had moved more than 1000 kilometers from their home range, the Mayukuyuku siblings reunited for a single day, only to split up again.”
–To pick up a term from a comment made yesterday by Samuel Conner, the machine / bourgeois world is offering “simulated intelligence.” The dogs and their sociability and their knowledge of terrain are real intelligence. It occurs to me that this blatant intelligence — this fateful consciousness — is what scares humans in dealing with wolves, coyote, and jackals. And foxes, of course.
All in all, a refreshing story, with its canine perspective: You can read it as a break from news from Trump (the least canine of human beings).
For more reading on wolves: The Alpha Wolves of Yellowstone Series by Rick McIntyre, perhaps the most canine of human beings.
The so called “wild dog” is in reality a lycaon, licaón (Sp), licaone (It), Lycaon pictus more distant to the dog than wolves themselves. Though well, lycaon means dog and Lycaon pictus would mean spotted dog. The name comes from the mythological Greek character who was turned wolf and i like it much more than this “wild dog” vulgarity. Agreed. The article is a good read and today’s antidote is beautiful.
Ignacio: Their binomial means “Wolflike painted.” Italian Wikipedia: “La radice del termine Lycaon la troviamo nel termine greco λυκαίος (lykaios), il cui significato è “lupesco”. L’epiteto specifico pictus deriva invece dal latino “dipinto”.[6]”
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycaon_pictus
Fascinating: The Italian site says that females normally leave the pack and males remain. So what are those three ragazzi in the article up to?
Also, the article mentions how many pups they have and how good they are at parenting. Italian site: “È classificato dalla IUCN come specie a rischio, a causa della scomparsa da gran parte del suo areale storico. La popolazione attuale è composta da circa 39 sub-popolazioni costituite in totale da 6.600 adulti, di cui solo 1.400 sessualmente maturi[3].”
The vast majority of them are “kids.” And the disconnected habitat means serious decline, unfortunately.
The Roman Roads piece includes “via maritime, riverine and terrestrial means”.
In English we’d say “by sea, river, and road.” Why do the referees at Nature allow such long-winded pseudo-English to be used? No wonder the layman begins to suspect many “scientists” of being pompous asses.
If they want to be pompous asses for a living they should do it the honest way – stand for election to Congress.
It’s nice to see Blanche catching a little flak over Epstein, however the NY Bar has been sitting on an ethics complaint signed by 100 retired judges for more than a Month.
The same can be said of Pirro…
Both of whom face disbarment if those complaints are upheld.
It’s not a good look, perhaps they aren’t a pack of cowards but I can’t think of any other plausible explanation.
This morning, for the second time, Moon of Alabama website gave me an expired SSL certificate warning. Is anyone else getting this message? And, should I just ignore it and click through? Not surprised that ‘b’ is having website problems.
Same here, also wondering about the risk of ignoring the warning…
Looks like their DigiCert hasn’t been update, if this certificate info is right. The last line has the important expiration date.
“Issuer Name
Country
US
Organization
DigiCert Inc
Organizational Unit
http://www.digicert.com
Common Name
Thawte TLS RSA CA G1
Validity
Not Before
Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT
Not After
Tue, 15 Sep 2026 23:59:59 GMT “
Also, looks like today is a large virtual security testing day, per Digicert. Usually a cert warning will let you proceed anyway.
But not this time, today, at least not to MoA. Maybe part of the test. Just a guess.
https://www.digicert.com/
Correction:
I can forward to MoA after overriding the warning.
I just checked and clicking Advanced on my Brave Browser let me through to the site. The certificate expired. Not a danger. Use a secure browser and a proxy/ VPN if worried.
Thanks everyone! I clicked through and all is well.
Re: The Flock camera hack: “Its computer-vision software also sometimes isolated bumper stickers and other graphics, including, in one case, an American flag patch on a motorcyclist’s saddlebag.”
Even Snowden’s fears of “turnkey totalitarianism” weren’t fully calibrated to what’s coming.
“PATRICK LAWRENCE: Swiss Neutrality & its Enemies”
Those in the Swiss government have really been trying to push the country into both the EU and NATO to the point that Russia has virtually declared Switzerland to be an enemy country. For a country famed once for its neutrality and ability to host peace talks, that is quite an accomplishment. By how the sentiment about No War is common, I bet that the people see how their glorious leaders wan to send Swiss military equipment plus billions of Swiss francs to the Ukraine so that those same leaders will get a pat on the head by Brussels. I think the Swiss had a preview of their future when there was going to be a referendum on the purchase of US F-35s but the government quickly signed those contracts to stop it. If Switzerland went into the EU and NATO – or do I repeat myself? – without a doubt they will be told that they will have to scrap their Constitution as too restrictive. The Swiss I knew a long time ago were all very conservative so I hope that they win having put neutrality in their Constitution lest it be the last Referendum that they are ever allowed again.
Chris Hedges and guest look back at the Woodrow Wilson period and how it is like now–liberals betraying their cause, the true believers repressed by censorship, fascist organizations like the Klan (an earlier ICE) roaming free and not just in the South.
https://consortiumnews.com/2026/09/16/hedges-report-the-cartoonist-dissidents/
The surge of capitalist triumphalism fell apart with the Great Depression and that may happen again. But there’s some small comfort in how it illustrates how intellectual and cultural trends wax and wane. That which cannot continue will not.
‘fascist organizations like the Klan (an earlier ICE) roaming free and not just in the South.’
Yeah, you wanna believe that. Didn’t even bother wearing their hoods down-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XuQfNaxp58 (4:44 mins)
Woodrow Wilson would have been proud.
Thanks.
Good observation.
The pointed manner Hedges is known for – certainly also due to his graduating the seminary and its rhetoric traditions – may mark both strength and weakness of his speeches and arguments.
Of course when he expands in his Q&As he happens to be much more analytic and factual.
I was always wary of this politics of exaggeration for the greater cause.
Nuance is not to undermine truths but it matters to develop independent analysis for each single person trying to do something meaningful. Instead of parroting “role models”.
KKK would be the fascistic side of US politics by 1920-30. There they couldn’t gather the same strength as in Europe where WW1 marked the political success of fascism in various countries. Some say it never disappeared but was diluted within a more tolerating society. Today, they are gaining strength again as the natural effect of rampant Neoliberal policies. Allow me here some needed propaganda:
The Working Class Struggle Against the Far Right
thanks for the links
“The Working Class Struggle Against the Far Right” – still completely under the radar in Germany.
If Chris Hedges´s main demand is a general strike – that demand is unthinkable in the FRG today, still.
So while they are whining about AfD´s rise to a 4th Reich, interestingly they draw absolutely no conclusions from that which would be expected if their warnings and claims re: fascism redux were genuine.
Instead ban parties, ban views, ban everything. That´s a really lame PMC way of dealing with matters without actually dealing with them.
Sigh.
p.s. Apparently a RU member of the OSCE reported last year that internally EU was bragging that if necessary they could use dogs to silence public resistance. I forgot to look it up again as it was RU only. I think that was on Eastcalling Substack.
But it certainly fits this mindest.
Just taking a step back and looking at what kind of things have been happening in Europe since 2021 without the slightest outcry or resistance by the educated and intellectuals.
It´s just staggering…how could I take them then seriously in their PR re: AfD?
I know how immigrants and refugees were treated in this country 25 years ago.
The more I think about it all the more I am likely to give anybody the finger if they press me on this subject.
Wilson was really (surprisingly to me, given the great rep he had when I was in public school) worse than Nixon, Bush Junior, and Trump (so far, that is). In fact all three of the later presidents have tried to edge the country toward permitting the widespread abuses of power that Wilson was not just allowed but encouraged to perpetrate by his Congress and the courts. That was a very dark time. My parents were growing up then but they never talked much about it (other than about the great flu pandemic).
“Wilson was really (surprisingly to me, given the great rep he had when I was in public school) worse than Nixon, Bush Junior, and Trump (so far, that is).”
It would be interesting to hear what Hedges would have to say to such a question for instance during his Q&As because he addressed the dire state of affairs during Wilson repeatedly. But would he agree that it was worse then than it is now? I believe he once said something to the opposite. But I may well have a false memory.
Interesting indeed… thanks.
After the wild dogs story I clicked this link about scientists challenging Trump’s NIH on First Amendment grounds: https://www.science.org/content/article/researchers-file-first-amendment-challenge-nih-grant-screening
Don’t know what will come of it but always glad to see pushback.
House passes Russia sanctions bill named for Lindsey Graham, sending it to Trump NBC News
“Some top House Democrats criticized the bill, fretting that it would grant broad tariff authorities that Trump could abuse.”
“Fretting”
Russian grain exports to Collapse by 60%- I guess the Russians will have to come up with a way to consume all that food on their own. which should cause some House Democrats to fret a bit
Those 2,00 pound bombs should clear the way for Trump, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff’s plan for property development and obliteration of the physical evidence of genocide… while some House Democrats fret some more.
Automated warfare – easier to do because, a total domination of the geo-location informational space will allow the destruction to go on in privacy…. saving folks from the mental hardship of atrocities committed in their name….. well, aside from a little fretting from house democrats
And even with all the fretting, the repub side of the duopoly don’t bother with fretting… they just get on with project fascism and bringing on the end of times.
If India and China are not “sanctions-proofed” by now, shame on both of them. They’ve had plenty of advance warning, and I’d be surprised if China in particular is not able to transact with Russia and Iran in a manner completely opaque to the likes of Bezzle-cents.
BTW, Xi is allegedly going to come to the US next week, I am sure he will remind Donald Trump about the Chinese ability to retaliate with rare earth export tariffs in a reciprocal fashion.
“71% of Americans Say They’re Completely Exhausted”
I cannot say if this is true or not but I will note one thing. Earlier this year I watched two different videos by American expatriates that had to return home temporarily. They each stated that it was more stressful being back home again and they found themselves constantly on guard as soon as they went out the door. Not for muggers or anything like that but just life there in general. And then they compared it to how they behaved in their new countries where they just walked out the door and casually walked though town. They made it sound like people who were raised in a discotheque and getting the chance to go outside where everyone else is.
USians have been subjected to years of bad administrations, a bad economy for most, and intense govt fearmongering, imo. What’s the color code today, Kenneth? …. / ;)
No flock cameras watching their every step in their expat country? / ;)
We observed in 2010, coming back to the States after several years living elsewhere, the ubiquity of fear as the baseline environment in the ol’ land of the free. It’s definitely not just an ‘earlier this year’ thing.
My useful memory only goes back to the late 80s, but I can’t say, within that window, that life in the US-of-A was ever meaningfully different. At least, looking over in hindsight. Just… you can’t see something that has been all around and inside you your whole existence. It takes the experience of going-out, then coming-back.
I say this somewhat in jest, but the nurses in the Short-Staffed article are eating good and don’t know it. I’ll also reiterate that ya’ll’s healthcare/insurance system is seriously weird. Down here, docs get paid by the hospital just like nurses, so I’m used to the docs suffering just as much (with belligerents on boths sides, who make their side look bad while making everyone’s jobs harder).
I don’t think the US could truly run out of nurses, even if AI was eliminated, while job conditions remain the same. The scenario described at the start of the article would be “a good day” elsewhere, I’m not even being sarcastic. Only having a twenty minute delay in giving the patient their meds? I’ve worked at ‘good’ hospitals, by my country’s standards and it is not newsworthy that pain med administration is often delayed by four hours, not to mebtion antibiotics and a host of other basic care.
The hospital admin, for the same reason given in the article, is the cause, but it’s only exacerbated by nurses who seem to take pleasure in defying “the system” by ignoring the patients. There’s a roughly one-hour handover procedure when nurses switch their shift and it is made to seem anathema to ask them for anything during this (at least twice daily) period, as well as every four hours when they’re serving medication. Doctors then don’t help this by being horridly rude to the nurses (especially the ones who actually are breaking their backs trying to help the patient) for no reason, or making ridiculous demands that waste everybody’s time. Then, when well-meaning doctors do request things, the nurses take that pent-up frustration out on them, and everybody blames the other for why the patient didn’t receive x or y in time. Ofc, the hospital will just push out a memo “reminding everyone” that patient care is our number one priority, etc., and sweeps it under the rug.
Nurses here don’t do any kind of blood-letting, and rarely ‘have the time’ to take patients to get anything done outside of the ward. A common situation in the afternoon for a doctor is coming onto the ward and trying to ignore the sounds of patients ‘in the back’ wailing (whether because they soiled themselves/haven’t had their food delievered/are in unrelieved pain, for hours), sidestepping the urine/vomit spills that haven’t been wiped up because the ancillary staff, like the culinary staff, is also overworked and under strain, explaining to an angry relative why it took you eight hours to give them an update because there was no one else to assist, and you had to excuse yourself from clinic to go do CPR on one of your patients on the ward, who then needed to be taken to radiology/OT, and there were no nurses available, so you had to tag along and wait beside them yourself, only getting back to clinic four hours later, because radiology/anaesthesiology is also short-staffed.
At clinic, you still have 80% of your ‘normal’ patient load to see because all your other colleagues glt called to the ER/similar urgent situation/had a class to teach or something. Of course, you don’t want to rush and miss critical information with the clinic patients, worse after they’ve waited so long (assuming they were able to skip work that long and even stay), but you still get interrupted around twice an hour by calls froms nurses saying that Mr. So & So with sepsis will be missing his antibiotica today again because his IV is again, down, and they need a doctor to replace it, oh and by the way, so and so is getting angrym wondering when you’re coming to talk to them because it’s been four hours since they asked to see you about questions you need to answer, regarding their relative, and you should probably come now. Of course, you can also hear the patients in the waiting room cursing at you for taking so long to come to them, so you can’t move until four hours later when, all being well, if nothing else happens – like another patient crashing, etc., you can go and talk to xyz… sometimes, to hear that they’ve been waiting all this time to find our why the nurses have not been giving their relative his medication on time.
(NB, some doctors do skip clinic to go to the mall to post to their food blog when they can, and some nurses (and doctors) do have it just as bad, if not worse).
My point of all of this is that, nurses here, and in many other places, think of nursing in the US as heaven for this exact reason. Similarly, hard as it still is for me to believe, we have nurses and doctors coming here from other countries talking about how we don’t know how good we have it. At the end of the day though, at least PE and neoliberalization wins.
Sorry for any typos (I’m sure there are many) but if I take any longer I will be late for my clinic…
Just tiny samples, but the nurses I’ve known personally all left hospitals for private nursing because of hospital nursing conditions. Including foreign born nurses.
Re: The Salary You Need… Very interesting. The 8th lowest cost city is Columbus, OH and the lowest cost is Memphis, TN. In each of these 8 lowest cities, one requires a higher salary to RENT a home than to OWN one. In Memphis, the disparity is greatest: Renters’ minimum salary needed: $94,931; Homeowners’ minimum salary needed: $77,970.
Remember: you will own NOTHING, and you will be HAPPY.
Everything’s going according to the billionaires’ plan, just like clockwork.
Those billionaires should remember. Owning nothing means that you have nothing to lose.
Singapore has a mandatory savings program for workers, and permits workers to purchase houses at cost on government owned property (or I guess assignable 99 year leases in the same). I believe the housing is intentionally integrated to reflect Singapore’s racial balance so that there are not a bunch of ethnic neighborhoods. In its early days, there were a number of nasty race riots, and LKY noticed that people who own their own homes tend not to riot and burn them down.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_housing_in_Singapore
Obviously, the WEF knows better that LKY. After all, you can’t have real neo-feudalism without homicidal peasant revolts and counter-massacres.
From 71% of Americans Say They’re Completely Exhausted
Hello, COVID, is that you?
Ignoring the ongoing Pandemic might prove to be the biggest public health debacle of all time, particularly given the science is known and the mitigations are known, and were available in January, 2020. They worked and would continue to do so.
Instead, to quote Saruman in Fellowship:
Re the Swiss neutrality referendum: For an unappetizing buffet of equivocation, rationalization, obfuscatory legalese, and selective application of principles, drop by the interview with former Swiss president Micheline Calmy-Rey on Neutrality Studies. I especially like her advocacy for marching in lockstep with the EU on Russia sanctions because otherwise Switzerland might have an “unfair advantage.” So an unsought advantage because of a bloc’s sanctions, in violation of UN jurisdiction and based on unceasing propaganda, trumps neutrality. All righty, then. At least it’s not about lucre and the EU club’s dress code [cough]. Also savor her brushing aside the Gaza genocide as an internal matter, which places it beyond the scope of Swiss neutrality law or sanction. It’s a masterpiece of “This is different, you don’t understand.” Our heads are round so that our claims can move in circles.
Pretty clearly she’s not a yes—if the referendum passes it might limit the options of politicians like her!—but she’s too wriggly-squirmy to say she’s a no. Inspiring stuff, delivered with a tic-like smile.
More on the ‘Ursula does Bussels’ story. From Euractiv:
EXCLUSIVE: Von der Leyen to call for ‘European Security Council’
The potential rival to NATO will come with a call for an ‘Alliance for the future’ with Canada, according to a draft
https://www.euractiv.com/news/exclusive-von-der-leyen-calls-for-european-security-council-in-soteu-text/
I should imagine when the remaining nations of 2013 wrest themselves away from an EU that has no real sense of purpose apart from mindless territorial expansion and attacking Russia (be interesting to see how that one turns out), and leave the demonic economic confines of the euro, it will be a purely military alliance composed of the Baltic, the Scandinavian and those East European states once occupied by the USSR who have democratically elected the thickest amongst them as their leaders.
There was a time when I was able to tell the world, with considerable pride, that I was a Scottish-Lancastrian and a European. Later I was able to declare myself a Scottish-Lancastrian Londoner and European. Now, I’m just British.
After spending my early years fighting to join the Common Market, and my middle and later years supporting our membership of what is now the EU – and, living in France at the time, voting Remain – I thank God for Brexit.
I suspect my journey is typical of what is now taking place in most of the other 2013 nation states.
The EU left the real day to day interests of its people behind a long time ago and it has become obvious that it was an organisation built for grifting and failure, and is little more than a pseudo-governmental Enron.
Re: Global fossil fuel emissions set to fall in 2026 amid Hormuz crisis.
Maybe we’ll see a posting such as:
“Environmentalists, liberals, tree huggers and Democrats have been concerned about fossil fuel emissions for many years.
But they never succeeded in doing anything about emissions other than hold conferences and pass toothless legislation.
I, President Donald J. Trump, the greatest president ever, have actually SUCCEEDED in decreasing fossil fuel emissions during my leadership.
Take note Greta Thundberg.
Thank you for your attention.
President Donald J. Trump.”
Nothing would do more to reduce carbon emissions and the other “externalities” visited upon us by the Great Invisible Hand than a crushing, worldwide depression. Degrowthers advocated a planned reduction in throughput that would actually improve the lives of most people, but a crash will make lives now precarious into a struggle for day-to-day survival.
The core issue is that the developed world has configured itself to require a high level of hydrocarbon consumption.
The design of USA suburban living and cities such as Los Angeles and Las Vegas don’t have much degrowth potential without a lot of pain.
I have suggested that it is not impossible that climate change concerns will be effectively addressed, but it seems implausible, given the lifestyle disruption for all income classes if degrowth is really pursued.
In my view, too many disparate groups, with actual power, would have to push for degrowth for degrowth to succeed.
But that doesn’t suggest one should simply “party hardy” and continue a high consumption lifestyle.
As I see it, change will come but it will be largely forced on society by mother nature.
Julian Assange says he’s back
https://twitterviewer.net/JulianAssange
It strikes me that the Zionists might have been wise to leave Massie alone, inside the tent, pissing out.
Instead of being a minor irritant with primarily local influence Massie is now a prominent National figure, out side the tent, pissing in.
And he has a large, very full bladder.
I was just wondering if Trump was sorry he had not endorsed Massie.
File under GOP clown car.
From Breaking Points.
JD Vance Midterms Beg: ‘GIVE US ANOTHER CHANCE”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFbNWGKeTXA
All we are saying … is give WAR a chance …
Bernie Sanders appears to have lost it intellectually if his AI rant is any indication.
I lost all respect for Bernie when he rolled over for Hillary in the 2016 Primaries, particularly in California.
Hillary “Won” California because the California Secretary of State ( Now US Senator) Alex Padilla decided not to count the votes done with provisional ballots
3,000,000 votes.
Mine included.
Because they are counted, or not, at the discretion of the Secretary of State…who must count those ballots unless, in their opinion,counting those votes would not effect the outcome of the election.
I had no party preference “NPP” and in every prior election when I had No Party Preference I had been given a “Crossover” Ballot which is counted..
If Bernie had filed a lawsuit which demanded that those ballots be counted he would very likely have carried California.
If Bernie had been Nominated he would have beat Trump, IMO, instead we got Hillary.
A woman widely despised for good reason who ran an inept ( to be nice about it) campaign.
When Donald Trump looks like the better choice…
Seriously, how do you manage to Nominate someone is so bad that they LOST TO DONALD Trump?
Twice.
The 2016 Democratic Party Primaries were the most overtly rigged of my lifetime and I have been paying attention to politics for 60 years.
“The 2016 Democratic Party Primaries were the most overtly rigged of my lifetime and I have been paying attention to politics for 60 years.”
They topped even this disgraceful episode by dispensing with a primary altogether by coronating the empty pantsuit Kamala, did they not?
Pierrakakis to Handelsblatt: Greece’s experience can inspire Germany.
The irony(and maybe also karma?) it burns..
So the current greek minister of finance and apparently the Euro group’s new president, claims that Germany, Europe’s once industrial powerhouse and the one country which always showed contempt, disgust and pillaging ambitions for Greece,
can now become as well an economic black hole, due to severe fiscal austerity that loses 25% of its GDP, impoverishes and forces its young population to mass migrate, while playing geopolitical games with the Turks and Israelis with no substantial national or sovereign benefit.
Let’s see what the Germans have to say about this.
It seems very inspirational, right?
File under GOP clown car.
From Due Dissidence, hilarious, and not safe for work.
Kash Patel DEFENDS Human “Victims” of BESTIALITY in BIZARRE Testimony
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDo9wjSF5Ds
File under antidote du jour:
https://x.com/Messia367558/status/2100266950924661232/video/1
Watch to end for money frames.