Shedding the clutter Ken Neubecker
Why Are Dead Malls a Thing? Arbitrary Lines
Climate/Environment
Future Projections of Burned Area in Europe Highlight the Importance of Human Action Global Change Biology
Fall 2026 Forecast Update: Super El Niño Builds a Split-Flow Pattern Ahead of Winter 2026/2027 Severe Weather Europe
Pressure Increases for Texas to Allow Treated Drilling Waste Into Rivers and Rangeland Inside Climate News
Are wasps losing their rhythm? The Ecologist
Pandemics
Yes, COVID Is Still a Thing Unbiased Science
Did you know those “Covid masks” are good for more than just Covid? M (is) Living with Long Covid
The Koreas
Pyongyang dismisses Trump’s ‘goodwill gesture,’ says military drills with Seoul ‘still provocative’ The Cradle
Japan
Japan faces ‘nightmare scenario’ as it struggles to defend ICC judge South China Morning Post
China?
Exclusive: China slows exports of key optical, aerospace metals to Taiwan Nikkei Asia
The Urban Mining race: US and Europe already a decade behind, and probably cannot catch up Kevin Walmsley
WATCH: A humanoid robot training for the “Robot Olympics” in Beijing runs too fast, fails to stop, slams into a safety cushion, and breaks at the waist pic.twitter.com/WEHdYCiPlO
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) August 20, 2026
Robot malfunctioned at Beijing’s World Robot Conference, displaying seizure-like movements as operators fought to disable it after control failure. pic.twitter.com/zGbwltCoho
— Jungle Journey (@JnglJourney) August 20, 2026
India
Coping with 54C heat: Delhi slum diaries detail living in extreme temperatures The Guardian
India’s sweltering nights expose power crunch FT
India adds AI data centers in water-stressed regions as residents dig 1,000 feet for water The Cool Down
Syraqistan
Netanyahu Rejects International Force, Rebuilding Gaza Antiwar
Israeli settlers torch Palestinian homes amid record year of settler terror in West Bank New Arab
Israeli occupation intensifies attacks across southern Lebanon Al Mayadeen
***
Bessent Doubles Down On Economic Pressure Against Iran, Says It Likely Means No ‘Large-Scale Kinetic Restart’ International Business Times
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent: “We got a spike in oil prices today that I don’t really understand.” pic.twitter.com/r3AaEwZPZL
— CSPAN (@cspan) August 20, 2026
European Disunion
Blackout Europe: The Coming Winter Energy Crisis Multipolarity. “As the financial press frets about whether the EU will hit its storage targets by November, the numbers show a crisis is already baked in.”
Europe AI data centres seek cheaper, quicker energy and land Reuters
Why Europe can’t escape the fallout from $40 trillion US debt woes Politico
Ursula keeps her eyes on the prize:
Today, Romania destroyed a naval drone carrying explosives near its Neptun Deep platform in the Black Sea.
An escalating campaign of threats is underway, unsettling our citizens and seeking to divide our Union.
This is hybrid warfare.
The founding mission of our Union is to…
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) August 20, 2026
New Not-So-Cold War
When the Ukraine War Reaches the Supermarket Shelves The Duran
“It’s worse for the #wheat market than Hormuz was for crude.”
That’s how I put it to the FT this week.
SovEcon expects Russia to export about 2.2mn tonnes this month [this was last week’s forecast — will be revised lower this week], down from about 4.6mn tonnes in August 2025,… pic.twitter.com/MYoiimrspS
— Andrey Sizov (@sizov_andre) August 20, 2026
Missing in action: Ukrainian soldiers reportedly desert during training in Germany Euronews
Nord Stream attack suspect arrested on set of Hollywood movie about blasts AFP
South of the Border
US Imposes 10th Round of Cuba Sanctions This Year TeleSur
How “Argentina’s Elon Musk” Is Bringing Technocracy To Patagonia Unlimited Hangout
US MEDDLING IN BRAZILIAN ELECTIONS, PREPARING FOR POSSIBLE MILITARY INTERVENTION Mint Press News
The US and others turn to Brazil for rare earths, raising environmental concerns AP
U.S. to send hospital ship to Peru as El Niño threat looms NBC News. Hmm.
Spook Country
Covert action diplomacy All-Source Intelligence
Trump 2.0
Trump’s food assistance cliff Stephen Semler
Longtime publisher of Stars and Stripes publication retires amid Pentagon clash over USS Lincoln The Independent
Resurrecting Keystone XL: Pipeline Politics in the Age of Trade Warfare Energy Geopolitics & Statecraft
Does the U.S. dominate global energy? Warwick Powell
“Liberation Day”
Target received a $1 BILLION tariff refund from President Trump’s rescinded tariffs. Amazon got $600 million, by the way. So basically companies got to raise the prices on working people and then got to cash in on the refunds that were promised to working people.…
— SEIU (@SEIU) August 20, 2026
GOP Funhouse
Republicans scramble to remake their stance on data centers Semafor
Obama Legacy
All the Change in the World Thomas Frank, Harper’s
Healthcare?
Hospital Prepayment Rules Add New Wrinkle to Patients’ Financial Responsibility MedPage Today
every year the US ruling class kills 100,000 Americans and levies a $1 trillion tithe because the healthscam system they’ve imposed on us works for them. It’s like a civil war, but only one side, the rich, are doing the killing pic.twitter.com/rGT8fAuoQU
— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) August 20, 2026
Link to Yale School of Public Health study.
Imperial Collapse Watch
As Empires Collapse, the Circle of Beneficiaries Narrows The Duran
Why would the Pentagon want to hide weapons testing results? Responsible Statecraft
AI
Subtlefakes: Slightly Altered Nonconsensual AI Images Are Taking Over X 404 Media
AI Invades Religion Books on Amazon Publishers Weekly
OpenAI is becoming a surveillance company Gary Marcus
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
“The emperor is a fan of Flock, and we must continue utilizing Flock technologies so that we can follow and surveil the rebel scum,” pic.twitter.com/PUVlmK2WAM
— Jason Koebler (@jason_koebler) August 20, 2026
Agriculture
Domestic Beef Supply Chain on Road to Ruin Morning Ag Clips
Sports Desk
How do the Dodgers carry an unlimited payroll?
Filings uncovered by @NickNemo17 show roughly $1.45 billion in debt for American Media Productions, the entity behind SportsNet LA and the Dodgers’ 25-year, $8.35 billion Charter deal, sitting on the balance sheets of 5 life… https://t.co/TDWIARMmdY
— Jake (@EconomPic) August 18, 2026
Police State Watch
This Electric Shock Glove Was Invented for Police in the 1930s to ‘Incite Fear’ Gizmodo
Class Warfare
Union-Busters Are Using ICE to Intimidate California Wine Industry Workers Truthout
Who’s most at risk in the cyclospora outbreak? The farmworkers on the front lines. Grist
Court Ruling in Kroger-Albertsons No-Hire Case Could Give Employers Immunity to Collude Against Striking Workers Food & Power
Samuel Adams Brewery Workers Declare Intent to Unionize The Daily Pour
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
‘CSPAN
@cspan
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent: “We got a spike in oil prices today that I don’t really understand.”‘
Such a goofball. I was going to make a guess why this is but a guy in a reply to this tweet explained it better-
‘A Beautiful Mind
@vsIMF
Replying to @cspan
Oh, you don’t understand? Let me explain. At the beginning of the war, you unsanctioned Iranian oil to bring down oil prices. Now that you’re doing the opposite & applying unprecedented sanctions, obviously oil will also do the opposite and go up.’
The military struck out so Hegseth is on the backbench. Now Trump is going to try financial means so Bessent is up front.
(Adjusts tinfoil hat)
Regarding “…I don’t understand”, it occurs to me that Bessent was expecting market manipulation that didn’t occur, and that was a message to the person(s) who failed to deliver.
Bassett tried all the usual buzzwords and Mr Market algos didn’t bite. So he’s confused.
Related:
“When the Ukraine War Reaches the Supermarket Shelves”
Joe Biden proclaimed that Americans would pay more for food when he imposed the sanctions on Russian grain, oil and diesel, plus fertilizers, way back when.
Have people forgotten that?
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-warns-americans-food-shortage-gonna-be-real-following-sanctions-russia
Ursula von der Leyen, making herself all too obvious:
Our Readiness 2030 agenda is mobilising up to EUR 800 billion.
With the European Drone Defence Initiative and the Eastern Flank Watch, we are scaling up production in Europe to deliver capabilities Member States need.
This is policy by clicks and for clicks. Also, too, Ursula von der Leyen writing about war and peace is about as credible as a fish describing a bicycle.
With that lot, every accusation is a confession.
With that lot every action is designed to institutionalize graft.
Alan McLeod, a highly reliable journalist, describes U.S. Meddling in Brazilian Elections. An on-going project.
Keep in mind that if the U S government forces some kind of coup in Brazil, it would be of a country with more than twice the population of Iran. However, it would be the third or fourth intervention — the generals’ coup against Goulart, the kangaroo court & imprisonment of Lula, and Dilma Rousseff all come to mind.
Dilma Rousseff gets a passing mention in McLeod’s essay, but she is someone you should know. She was tortured under the generals’ regime (which went on way too long). She is a long-time activist. She was the first woman to be elected president of Brazil (and only one, so far). And her impeachment and removal were a kangaroo court, with U.S. paw marks all over the place.
I suppose the reason that the U.S. government thinks that it can wreck things in Brazil again is that the U.S. has wrecked things there before. And wrecking things is the only tactic the U.S. elites have left. Generalissimo Marco Rubio also likely thinks that he speaks Portuguese, too.
Yet Pino Arlacchi has described the U S of A as a predator that no longer has prey. We can see what’s going on im Iran. And there’s Mexico, not exactly compliant. And it is not clear at all what kind of mess the U.S. has caused in Cuba. The U.S. elites now consist of a whole lotta braying jamokes and jamokesses with overly curated hair, and not much else.
“whole lotta braying jamokes and jamokesses with overly curated hair”
And don’t forget the perfect teeth.
Shawnee Mission East grad Thomas Frank has some fun with one of those jamokes in a piece about Obama’s temple in your old hometown. I enjoyed Frank’s scalpel work in this passage:
Of course, if you were involved in Occupy at all, you will always remember how Obama treated those who tried to “make him do it.”
I suppose people need their heroes, but even a Plouffe can’t puff up Obama as another FDR. If I remember correctly, it was Reagan he admired.
Henry Moon Pie: The tell with regard to Obama is that he has four houses. That is all you have to know.
Neither Jefferson nor Washington had four separate residences, even if they were representatives of the slaveocracy.
A further problem of the hermeneutics of Obama (bear with me) is this: Can you quote him?
We have gone from FDR and “nothing to fear but fear itself,” still good advice.
To LBJ and “inside the tent pissing out,” still savvy political advice.
To “eat your peas,” paternalism in a baggy suit. And Obamacare, crap masquerading as health care.
And now he has produced the Wisconsin Dells of politics, the ziggurat of Jackson Park. He couldn’t care less about the geology.
And I have a lingering memory of Ishnala.
Frank’s article about the O library and O’s evasions is great.
This bit made me realize something:
‘These may be noble sentiments, but think about them from a different angle and you realize they are also a form of evasion. It is somehow up to us, not the president, to get working and get it done. We, the public, have to earn our change by staying eternally mobilized or deserving of it in some way. We have to “make him do it,” as the popular liberal saying from 2009 had it. For progressive groups to use that line to raise money is one thing. For administration officials themselves to repeat it, as Vice President Joe Biden once did, is an excuse.’
Reading this, I realized exactly how the T admin, with its energetic executive action changing the country’s domestic policies and foreign policies course (not for the better, btw), made everyone realize the presidency is not an inherently weak office. That O’s evasions were simply evasions from what he could have done. What the Dem party in power in both the WH and Congress could have done.
And that, I think, is what has energized the DSA movement in the Dem party. No more, “oh we’d like to but we just can’t because reasons….” The T admin has put the lie to that longtime Dem party excuse. / my 2 cents
flora: Obama and “make me be Reagan.” Then Hillary and her diehards and incremental change. Then Biden and senility. Then Harris braying about the 24 / 7 effort for a ceasefire in Gaza.
They don’t want to govern.
They want four mansions for their trouble.
Please exit through the gift shop.
Flora-
Re: O’s evasions were simply evasions from what the Dem party in power in both the WH and Congress could have done. And that, I think, is what has energized the DSA movement in the Dem party.
Well said. I remember during O – many Dems argued that there was nothing they could do because of the filibuster so why even try. The Dem’s learned helplessness has fed the rise of the DSA.
So what about those rumors that Obama didn’t even write his books?
Dubya gave us Obama (along with Plouffe’s marketing) and Obama gave us Trump not to mention Biden. It’s been a bobsled to hell.
Obviously there’s the one memorable quote that really sums Obama up, as quoted by politico:
“My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”
‘Jungle Journey
@JnglJourney
Robot malfunctioned at Beijing’s World Robot Conference, displaying seizure-like movements as operators fought to disable it after control failure.’
Just using some out of the box thinking here. Perhaps it would be a good idea to put an off switch on those things. Preferably on a shoulder so you don’t have to go near those kicking legs. Might be a good idea if there was ever a robot rebellion. Can you imagine a Terminator – but with an off switch?
Watching that video made me uneasy. It’s the short answer to the often snarky question “What could go wrong?”.
That there isn’t an “off” button should clarify the purpose that these things are designed for.
Uneasy? It just expanded my horizon of empathy. I couldn’t easily stop myself from feeling sorry for it.
On tariff refunds… Costco announced a few days ago that they will find a way to reimburse members. Since Costco and Sams Club are member only retailers, they know exactly who bought what, so a class action would kill them.
For these member only clubs customer refunds seems like a task easily accomplished with AI. There’s probably other ways to do it, but I reckon at considerably greater cost and time to completion.
A simple database query with report generation and customer credit created!
What is the use of this AI that seems only to assist those not knowlegeable in the arts and methods outside of their expertise other than reduction of the human workforce and consequent addition of labor to those who remain?
People love AI until they use if for something they actually know well. Was working on a video project recently and the director is also the lead actor. He wanted to use AI to “enhance” and change some shots in it. He’s a big AI evangelist and thinks it’s great… until he saw the shots of himself and thought they all looked fake. As an actor the one thing he know is what he looks like and seeing AI’s version of him was what it took for him to see it’s flaws.
Of course, that didn’t change his views on its overall lack of quality. But, it was a prime example of why people who don’t know much about something are enamored by AI.
My biggest fear of AI is not that it will be better than humans but that human intellect and taste will continue to deteriorate to the point that mediocrity and subpar output will seem like genius to them.
You and me both.
That is the worst type of crapification.
To be clear, I am hard anti-ai for environmental reasons. I also have pretty strong anti-tech priors. Geo, your last point seems like a feature, not a bug, from certain unsavory perspectives.
I’m against it for environmental reasons as well. But, I’ve head three projects in the past few months that have insisted on its use. After these experiences with it I’m against it for pretty much all possible reasons. A short list:
1. As a creative it turns me from the artist into a middle man. The AI is the artist, I’m just giving it prompts. No different than a client telling me what they want and me creating it, except now the AI creates it instead of me. No one who uses AI is an artist, they are the client. Maybe one day AI will create art of its own but any human who uses AI for art is lying to themselves and us.
2. It turns everything into mediocrity. I can feed the most artistic images I’ve created into it and it will output something that looks like stock video with a “remove all impurities” filter to it. Yet, while everything has a perfect sheen to it there are always numerous glitches of warped unreality in the details. Relatedly, a production coordinator just did a job where production gave him AI-generated schedules for the project and he tossed them in the trash. Just a quick skim and he could see they were useless.
3. All AI is theft. Anyone with any specialized knowledge can not only see the errors in AI-generated items but also spot the data it pilfered to generate that item.
4. It makes me dumb & lazy. After just a few uses of it my brain feels the allure of using it to generate ideas and concepts. It’s so easy to put in a prompt and get back a facsimile of what I was imagining. But, not having done the work to create that I’m removing the most important stage of creativity which is the stage of taking an idea and figuring out how to make it tangible. Without that stage I don’t actually know my own creation. It’s like wanting a child but letting the computer birth and raise it. I just named it and called it my own. I can only imagine how a constant reliance on this would atrophy the brain’s ability to create. Ideas are easy. Everyone has ideas. The ability bring them to life is what being an artist is all about.
For client work I sadly don’t have much choice anymore on whether I sue AI or not. But, on my own personal art I’ve gone from “not interested” to “never ever in a million years if my life depends on it will I tarnish my creative process with that godforsaken curse of AI.”
Thanks Geo for taking the time to write this, and from your own firsthand experiences, that’s gold standard. For someone like me who has no use for ai, the discussion is academic which has its own biases.
I learn so much on these pages.
Not to stan for a store but, Costco seems like one of the “better” ones out there. From what I know of them, I would assume this was not done for any reason other than it being the right thing to do. I would expect fear of lawsuits to motivate the others, assuming such lawsuits were even possible.
They have all the data to do complete refunds. No excuse not to do so, and it is the member’s money.
“Coping with 54C heat: Delhi slum diaries detail living in extreme temperatures”
Not a lot that you can do when temperatures hit that high. Saw in Greece how in the summer, people headed up to the flat roofs and slept under the stars as it was a lot cooler. You quickly learned to sleep by a wall so that the first hot beams of sunlight would not hit you first thing in the morning as you were in shade. Gave you time to wake up and head back inside..
Peggy Noonan has now written back-to-back critical pieces on Trump in the WSJ. I believe these are probably behind a paywall. Yesterday it was “The Art of the Self-Deal” where she began with:
“A [Reuters/Ipsos] poll reported that 69% of respondents see [Trump’s] personal business interests as influencing presidential decisions. Two-thirds of independents, half of Republicans and 9 in 10 Democrats shared that view.
Republicans, God bless them, were split on whether graft under Mr. Trump has gotten worse or better or stayed the same, which makes that polling question a case study in how bright people are capable of not seeing what they don’t want to see.”
Last week she wrote “Trump is Starting to Look Precarious” with the tag line: “An insurgency that becomes a government is eventually responsible for conditions.”
I should note that comments were not enabled on either column, I suspect she has a personal security detail.
‘The walls are closing in’ on us.
The other shoes are dropping on our heads.
From Noonan’s site, no paywall:
Trump is Starting to Look Precarious.
https://peggynoonan.com/trump-is-starting-to-look-precarious/
Nooners is always worth a read.
I have lately been paying attention to which NYTimes articles, both news and opinion, have comments enabled. They seem to allow comments on topics that stimulate liberal red blood but not on topics that are specifically slanted in a direction the editors don’t want contested. I have to keep reminding myself that they are just selling something.
“Why Are Dead Malls a Thing?”
This is an article very much worth reading. It seems that a lot of malls are still there and fossilized because of agreement that were made way back in the 70s and which are being used to halt any redevelopment unless the appropriate parties get to cash out big time.
Agreed. Great article. And it’s particularly relevant here in the US where malls once seemed an inevitable part of our lifestyle (and in many cases a not unattractive one) and now are dropping like flies. The mall in my town still has, yes, a Penny’s and a more local dept store but utterly lacks the former crowds because even the anchors that remain have downsized their offerings. I never go there any more because it’s so obviously a depressing shell.
And malls replaced downtowns and got people out and walking whereas now customers sit in front of a screen and order from Amazon and even Walmart which allows them to pick up goods in the parking lot. No wonder Americans are so fat. There’s a “new urbanism” movement–here in the South too–with trails and parks to get people walking again. But in most of the country Walmart and Amazon seem to dominate when it comes to general merchandise.
I think it depends on the kind of mall, where and for whom it is designed. In Seattle for instance we have the University Village Mall, in the University District, which is basically an upscale outdoor mall with lots of restaurants, a Tesla and Rivian showroom, more expensive shopping, etc. No Penneys, no Orange Julius. And it is always jam-packed.
Right. There’s one like that in Charlotte, NC that has a Tiffany’s.
But the middle to lower middle class malls undone by Walmart and Amazon and strip centers.
Honolulu’s major mall (Ala Moana) was largely controlled by Sears, but they eventually sold their interest to the REIT operator who owned the rest of the mall. The mall went heavily into high-end retail for Japanese visitors. That market cratered during Covid, and given the yen-dollar relationship can’t see visitor numbers coming back any time soon. So not sure how all those stores can continue. The mall, though, has been building high-end condos over the parking lot, at least on the ocean-facing side.
“Pyongyang dismisses Trump’s ‘goodwill gesture,’ says military drills with Seoul ‘still provocative'”
Seems that Kim is smarter than the average bear. Trump may say great things about him but Kim is watching what Trump is doing which is letting the annual exercise continue to practice invading North Korea. And after watching Trump’s words and actions the past yea, Kim would have plenty of reason to mistrust Trump and would not put it past him to do a decapitation strike.
re: Pressure Increases for Texas to Allow Treated Drilling Waste Into Rivers and Rangeland – Inside Climate News
Drilling waste, aka Drillers Mud
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drilling_fluid
Using “Pressure Increases” heading a comment about oil and gas drilling wins you the Tom Stoppard Award for the day.
Stay safe. Watch those dials and gauges closely!
Thomas Frank in Harper’s is pretty good, compares the “plutocratic populism” of both Obama and Trump in the shadow of the former’s new ‘library’. Frank’s image of Obama is still more generous than many I know on the left; he imputes much of the 08-16 decision making to scared, conservative impulses, rather than class partisanship.
I agree Obama was scared and conservative, and I don’t think he was capable of showing solidarity with anyone outside his personal class of one.
But I think it is important to remember that Obama enjoyed killing people. It seems plausible he also enjoyed economic treachery for its own sake.
Conor, thanks for the link to the article on the collapse of domestic beef production — that is the real story about what has been happening out in Cow Country, a big part of the economic infrastructure of the rural US.
R-CALF’s perspective on ranching is always worth checking out. They have faithfully represented the interests of domestic cattle producers, keeping the spotlight on antimonopoly action against packers and mass cattle imports. They have been a fishing ground for right wingers from time to time, just like ranchers are. They have gotten themselves into trouble for pointing out that it is not in the interest of US ranchers to support neoliberal policy in Central America that incentivizes the formation of large ranches there for export production that immiserates and disperses local people. During the 00’s a political split in the organization was organized by what sure looked like Big Ag agents, but they did not succeed in taking it down.
Thanks for this info.
Appreciate the background, Cat Burglar. Another example of why the NC commentariat is the best!
re: Why would the Pentagon want to hide weapons testing results? – Responsible Statecraft
The Pentagon has been hiding weapons testing results since at least the 1980’s and Reagan’s Star Wars missile program.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative
Why would they hide the results? Because the weapons don’t work as advertised? Because of MIC grift? who knows? / ;)
‘Tis a mystery…
Dog lovers: “What Dogs Reveal About the Metacrisis.” Bring some tissues.
What a maroon I am. Here’s the link.
From Jimmy Dore.
The Video Netanyahu DOESN’T WANT You To See!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O4Jr8W6GDI
adding from UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese :
Israel, Karim Khan & The ICC: IT’S WORSE Than You Think | Francesca Albanese
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5n1-9Zwxok
thanks
re: Ukraine War
Excellent post by MOON OF ALABAMA on Aug. 19th
recommended:
Broken Ukrainian Family Tells Weird ‘Rescue’ Story
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2026/08/broken-ukrainian-family-tells-weird-rescue-story.html
In my abbreviated reading:
A UKR mother who claims her son was kidnapped by RU forces in early 2022 turns out to be a former medic for a Nazi unit, which committed war crimes during the Donbas War, and apparently said son – disgusted over his mother´s political choices – joined the RUs.
That´s of epic narrative quality.
wow!
For those following the rare books mass extinction event, I know there have been some posts but this has more and additional detail than I’ve seen anywhere:
https://downtownbrown.substack.com/p/all-the-companies-destructively-scanning-books-for-ai
This is exactly what (covertly Anthropic’s) AI doom astroturfers asked for when they whined like spoilt children about “stolen” intellectual property. Zero familyblogging sympathy for anyone who aligns themselves with a corporate chorus.
Going a bit off topic here but currently depressed about my own real-world community (and grateful for the NC community here that helps me feel like there’s some sanity left in the world even if it’s just our small corner of it).
Had a meeting yesterday with a fellow creative to go over some videos we’ve been working on and while in conversation he went off unprompted about how DSA is a communist movement destroying the Democrat party. Guy was a Bernie voter in ’16. Now, thinks the Dems are evil (to which I agree) but that DSA are literal Stalinists proposing take overs of private property and bringing about totalitarianism.
My neighbor went hysterical at the name of Nithya Raman calling her a radical communist. Nithya has her flaws but this wasn’t an issues thing, it was just she’s an evil commie.
Invited a woman I’d met to a concert a friend was playing to raise funds to help immigrants with legal representation. She replied back with a wall of text about the evils of immigrants. By the end it drifted into anti-trans and anti-black topics as well. Sent me links to Nick Shirley videos I “need to watch”. Prior to that briefly dated a woman who spent 3 hours telling me how ignorant and phony I am because I am OK with trans people and even have trans friends.
Another old friend who at one point years ago was a leftwing activist and a Bernie supporter in ’16 went down the Jimmy Dore pipeline then to the right and now thinks anyone to the left of Catturd is a Marxist.
On the flip, a few of my CNN-watching liberal friends still think AOC (of all people) is too radical and is driving moderates away from the party. Getting them to even consider the newer crop of DSA-aligned candidates is out of the question.
It’s wild how prevalent this total hatred for anything coded as “left” has become. If everything was going great under the leadership of centrists and the right I could understand it but considering the state of the nation right now it’s baffling that the one group with little influence at the moment, and the only group that proposes building communities and fighting oligarchs, is the hated group by so many.
Anyway, just needed to rant a bit. Thank you to all here at NC for reminding me that there are some people who haven’t gone totally mad. And to the NC team for creating this space for thoughtful dialogue and real news.
Just tell them you’re not giving out SAG cards for their crappy script reading, and to keep their larpy posturing to a venue that cares about theater more than protein.
Geo: It isn’t a rant. It is where things stand. From my perch here in the Undisclosed Region, I have weekly calls with a collaborator in NY and a collaborator in Chicago. Here’s what I have learned:
Usonians are afraid. Usonians fear change. Racially, white Usonians don’t want to be treated the way black people have been treated in the U S of A, which is an eventuality.
In the arts, I am seeing that people are engaged in self-censorship and censorship of others. My collaborator in NY, a writer, sees this. My collaborator in Chicago, a composer and chanteuse, sees this.
It isn’t pretty.
I come from a leftist family, with a father who was a unionist during his whole career as a printer. My mother used to sort the medical bills and send them to “health & welfare,” the department at the union that dealt with the insurance that the union offered. So I am used to the horror of being a leftist — note that in the film “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?,” she didn’t bring home a socialist. That would have been too much.
My writing partner in NY and I wrote screenplays for a “streaming series,” which has now been in Development Hell for some ten years. Maybe more. Who can remember? Skim the sites of the various agencies — it’s art reduced to the needs of a bunch of agents who want commissions and a chance to blather about “passion” for cinema.
As to the two women who brushed you off, well, they don’t know what they are missing. Because they no longer care.
Although when I read your paragraph on the two women, what sprang to mind was Matt and Dan, Episode, Sex Notes. Look them up on YouTube. It is two guys, and it is the proverbial NSFW. But it shows you where eroticism is in the US of A these days.
But as someone who writes, I’ll tell you: Your worth as an artist has little to do with the marketing department and its marketing fantasies or with the various neurotics who are now so evident in U.S. life.
Also, too, have a nip of cognac.
Thank you to all here at NC for reminding me that there are some people who haven’t gone totally mad. And to the NC team for creating this space for thoughtful dialogue and real news.
Indeed. I read a comment elsewhere, ‘The larger the vibe, the smaller the tribe.’
Regarding “Trump’s food assistance cliff” and Biden’s cuts, the thing that makes work requirements insidious is that if you work too much (as your new employer demands, perhaps) your income goes up above the ridiculously low “poverty line” and then you become ineligible for many benefits, most critically Medicaid. So the goal of work requirements is not to make people work, for their own alleged moral uplift, but to force people to disqualify themselves for benefits while keeping them mired in poverty. And the PMC of course benefits from more jobs hall monitoring the process and checking permission slips. When Republicans are in power we get the moral argument for preventing people becoming dependent on the system, because being independent and working for your betters is a moral good. When Democrats are in power we get the fiscal argument that we all have to tighten our belts for the common good and practice responsible spending. The lies change with which party gets to raise its boot and stomp on a human face forever, until the day when they no longer feel they have to bother offering an excuse for it.
Cutting food assistance on the eve of a global food shortage crisis also seems like a terrible idea (or a great one if you want massive population decreases and an exponential increase of war).
“JPMorgan warns a global food crisis could hit next year, and unlike oil, there’s no backup plan for fertilizer”
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/commodities/articles/jpmorgan-warns-global-food-crisis-183000431.html
From Trump’s food assistance cliff
I’d say this is a must read because it quantifies how Biden devastated working people, and worse than Trump
Thanks Biden! Thanks Democrats!
Discounting the joy in abusing the poor and helpless, these cuts help keep the Bougies in line, kicking down.
Both because it’s fun to kick down and as a way of emphasizing that they are not ‘One of those people” and thus worthy of the crumbs that fall off the table.
The PMC both fear and despise those that are lower than them on the economic scale.
Future Projections of Burned Area in Europe Highlight the Importance of Human Action Global Change Biology
Their projections unsurprisingly, suggest worsening conditions with climate change. They conclude that:
Why don’t they then examine land management with an eye on prevention? Because it is impossible under our Neoliberal framework?
re: Germany vs. Dogru and freedom of speech
BERLINER ZEITUNG
archived
– so in case translate manually –
In essence it says that EU/FRG deny any information to Dogru´s legal defense team about the grounds for sanctioning Dogru because national security and NATO. In particular allegedly touched are the interests of an undisclosed “close partner state” of NATO. ie NOT EU.
This game is old. What is not so old is the total lack of media criticism and awareness. With Assange and Snowden at least all eyes were on them and the story.
Now they are willing to even abandon material for a bestselling news story out of cowardice and complicity with the security services. Business-wise that makes no sense for a news corp.
I am not getting into implications of moral and ethic standards of reporting.
Accusations made in public, alleged NATO evidence kept under wraps: The double game in the Doğru case
Four reasons for secrecy, zero transparency: The German government completely blocks the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the lawyer of the EU-sanctioned Doğru – and refers to secret NATO findings.
by Florian Warweg
Aug 21st
https://archive.is/BSfoe
p.s. NATO´s argumentation either makes no sense or it should be regarded by media as infinitely embarrassing.
What NATO claims:
Their secret intelligence gathering about Dogru was on such a sensitive level that revealing any information about those interior processes would endanger national security. But if that were true why was Dogru not indicted for spreading highly secretive intelligence the way Assenge/Snowden did?
Obviously he was not, i.e. that the things he said were of no real importance. But if that is the case then what does it tell you about the lack of professionalism of intelligence gathering within NATO? Then obviously NATO needs top-level intelligence gathering operations to find out things about Dogru every school kid with a computer could find out in a few minutes.
Either you are indicted as guilty of spreading national security state secrets (which as such is not automatically a crime) or you are not.
Instead the governments claim that Dogru was voicing opinions which are however so harmful that he has to be silenced without risking involving courts and due process. But those opinions are obviously nothing secret. They are public (otherwise Dogru wouldn´t been sanctioned.) But then why do you need secret intelligence to investigate publicly stated opinions???
The other argument of nefarious finance sources of Dogru ends on the same note: If the structure of Dogru´s finances were so incriminating (e.g. Mafia or money-laundering etc.) those could have been the grounds for indicting him. But there too, nothing.
An insane dance of nothingness and stupidity by the same organisation that is responsible for 2M+ killed AFU.
“Shedding the clutter” is what we’re doing after decades of cluttering the shed.
From Useful Idiots.
Trump “Afraid” After Iran Plans New Attacks, Teams with China
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1Ny8OUvQ0k
Starts off with Angie Nixon’s win in Florida.
The Dems need to step up their game if they hope to beat Trump in ’28 ( Yes, I do expect him to run).
They need candidates that can rouse passion with Gen Z!
Candidates that have a history of fighting the good fight on behalf of America’s downtrodden!
Buttiegig/Harris.