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Should We Start Demolishing Ugly Modern Buildings to Restore Beautiful Cities? Architecture and Tracition (Micael T). This does presuppose that replacements will be beautiful or at least way less bad. But I was just in NYC. JP Morgan managed to execute an redo (as opposed to teardown) of its building on Park just above the Grand Central terminal ZOMG it is even uglier and more authoritarian-looking than before.
And some once-hated buildings can get fans over time, see the brutalist Barbican complex in London. Our Richard Smith lived there for many years. The design of the units was very very good, very efficient and way more roomy-feeling than their actual size.
Sri Lanka: Death of iconic elephant raises habitat concerns DW
Almost every shallow-water coral reef on the planet faces ecosystem collapse by 2075, UN advisors say Guardian
Bangladesh’s climate migrants are arriving in cities unprepared to protect them Mongabay
Chemicals from phones and TVs found in Arctic and Antarctic soil Earth
EXTRAORDINARY HEAT IN CHINA 37 DEGREES OVER 1000m asl Thousands of records have fallen every day of this month and October records keep falling even at month end like today: 33.3C Shuangjiang 32.9C Menglian
November will break DOZENS OF THOUSANDS of records allover Asia.
— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) October 26, 2026
Indonesia records over 333,000 acute respiratory infection cases as fires rage in several regions Anadolu Agency
French roads suffer from cracks following summer droughts Connexion France
California’s oceans have become shockingly warm. And strange things are happening SFChronicle
Severe flooding in US west triggers rooftop rescues and evacuation orders Guardian
Loading the DICE Against Life Steve Keen
Chinese markets lose trillions as race for AI supremacy with US takes its toll Guardian
Why China’s stimulus keeps missing the mark Reuters
China’s consumer slump demands a Japan-style stimulus response CNBC
Chip Wars Update: China blows up ASML’s supply chain for EUV machines Kevin Walmsley
This is how they dispose of illegal fireworks in China
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 26, 2026
Eye on China: Japan reopens taboo debate over nuclear-powered submarines South China Morning Post
North Korea-South Korea tensions high as letters lodged with UN, howitzer spotted. Channel News Asia
India’s largest share sale could end cheap mobile internet for millions BBC
India tightens its grip on Pakistan’s lifeline Noon Report
Indonesia cuts gas exports to Singapore amid row over haze Independent
Africa’s Debt Crisis Deepens as AFRODAD Demands Overhaul of Global Financial System Africa Brief
War-ravaged Sudan on brink as El Nino fans new flames of hunger Daily Sabah
How Sudan’s RSF destroyed the survivors of its el-Fasher massacre Middle East Eye
Algeria approves army deployment to Niger in major shift in ties Middle East Online
Lula’s Historic Victory in Brazil — and What It Means Glenn Greenwald
Lula’s ‘Miracle’ Victory in Brazil ConsortiumNews
The Oligarchs Lose a Big One Paul Krugman
Lula faces a fiscal reckoning after Brazil’s market rout Financial Times. Capitalist enforcers clear their throat. Lead story. No archived version yet.
Western Media Accept Trump’s Plundering of Venezuelan Oil as Business as Usual Venezuelanalysis (Robin K)
Rubio warns Venezuela’s Machado: Street protests won’t get you democracy Axios
Rubio calls on Cubans to partner with CIA ‘to create positive change’ Aljazeera (resilc)
European governments need to ‘prepare systematically’ for scorching summers ahead Sustainability Online
How the next eurozone crisis happens – French collapse is contagious Unherd
French Students Are Revolting—and so they should be Steve Keen (Micael T)
The Israeli-American Wars in Eurasia and Europe’s Great Reset Pierre-Antoine Plaquevent (Micael T)
Good and bad Nazis – selective antifascism in politics and media Nachdenkseiten via machine translation (Micael T)
Sweden’s Terrible Nuclear Weapons Mistak e Mattias Forsgren (Micael T)
Don’t panic! Disaster preparedness meets the anti-bedtime brigade M. F. Robbins (Micael T). I beg to differ. Modern governments have persistently been in the business of discouraging preparedness because that level of vigilance will produce what they see as hoarding and panic buying. The UK is at real risk of food shortages and some households having to cut power use to very low levels over the winter. And the announcement specifically invoked the threat of the marauding Russian bear.
From potatoes to onions and carrots: How everyday vegetables are disappearing before our eyes Independent
Liz Truss’s new book is the most deranged thing I’ve ever read Telegraph. Colonel Smithers: “When one has lost the Telegraph…”
The horse that ushered in Manchester United’s 21-year tragic arc Guardian (Colonel Smithers)
🚨 BREAKING: Israeli forces are reportedly setting fire to displaced Palestinians’ tents in eastern Gaza, along the so-called Yellow Line.
The screams of terrified children and families echo across Gaza. https://t.co/6EfjS65tVP
— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) October 25, 2026
Biden’s Israel Catastrophe American Conservative. resilc: “I try to make sure all my Demo friends never forget this.”
Necro-Economics London Review of Books (guurst)
📰 My new report “Truth under the Rubble: Media in the Time of Genocide” is out
🔗 Available in all official UN Languages: https://t.co/D6whnBEhW4
🇺🇳 FOLLOW THE PRESENTATION @ the UN General Assembly, New York >Monday 26 October 2pm EST/ 7pm CET
Livestream details will follow. https://t.co/kJbI9wi1WC
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) October 25, 2026
“‘All hell is breaking loose everywhere.’” The Floutist. Hebron.
Israel’s Lobby vs US Democracy | A Special Roundtable John Mearsheimer, YouTube
Israelis Vote as Gaza Starves: Little Hope a New PM Will Be Different Ian Proud
Israel extends military barrier through farmland in southern Syria Anadolu Agency
Accused of robbing Europe for Zelensky, von der Leyen fled the European Parliament TopWar (Micael T). More of this, please.
Western Analysts Shocked: Previously Emptied Russian Armor Bases Quietly Filling Up Again Simplicius
Ukraine war pushes Russian oil to Arctic route Barents Observer
Russia likely to harden posture on Japan at least until Ukraine war ends Japan Times
Trump Talks Peace While the CIA Is Fueling the War in Ukraine Larry Johnson. Moscow is merely indulging Trump. Does anyone aside from paranoid Zelensky and his European backer think Trump repackaging the same “deals” Russia rejected amounts to anything?
“Musk’s satellites allowed Ukraine to massacre college teens – Moscow”
Elon Musk, a CIA and Pentagon contractor, squeezing more cash out of the Pentagon as his satellites enable murder of civilians:
SpaceX “certainly has the US government over the barrel….Elon Musk’s SpaceX pressured the Pentagon into paying higher rates for Starlink satellite connectivity used by US kamikaze drones during the Iran war…
…Starlink and Starshield remain closely intertwined, with Starshield relying on the broader Starlink network of roughly 10,000 low-Earth-orbit satellites, according to Reuter
— ⏳Towhee 🌏☮️ (@amborin) October 27, 2026
Brief Frontline Report – October 26th, 2026 Marat Khairullin and Mikhail Popov
McConnell: Latest Trump bid to end Russia-Ukraine war ‘certain to fail’ The Hill
Patient records exposed in Quest breach: What you need to know Malwarebytes
Inside the Pentagon’s doomsday plan to keep America fighting if global war erupts Fox
Are we sleepwalking into World War III? Financial Times
Civilizational State Values Versus Nihilistic Exceptionalism Karl Sanchez
Trump merchandise stores are shutting down across the country Independent (Dr. Kevin)
Trump’s Inflation Lies Collapse: The Numbers Expose His Economic Con Egberto
Trump Admin Posts Map of America With No Vermont Newsweek (resilc). So will he remove Michigan if El-Sayed becomes Senator?
The Trump administration moves to treat millions of mentally ill veterans with psychedelics Politico
Robert Barnes : Who Will Trump Blame? Judge Napolitano, YouTube. Great breakdown on polls, election prospects, and what comes next. Some genuinely hopeful news, as in big enough Republican margins of loss could lead Trump to exit the wars and break the control of the Israel lobby in Democrat Congressional leadership.
America’s Most Fascist Candidate, Brought To You By Big Oil The Lever
New book published today — STAND AND DELIVER – THE HISTORY OF PODCAST JOURNALISM John Helmer
Trump says the economy is better than ever but voters are being crushed Telegraph
Russia’s War on Ukraine Is Straining Food and Fuel Supply Bloomberg
Fuel Oil Becomes Asia’s Next Cost Shock OilPrice
What the US Movement Against Data Centers Can Learn From Everywhere Else Wired (resilc)
“Prediction” Markets Were Comically Wrong About the Brazilian Election Futurism. Prediction markets are pretty good only if their betters have good information about the matter at hand and are not reading that information through an ideological filter or other cognitive bias. Famously, with Brexit, betting markets predicted a 4 point win as opposed to the two point loss. Why? Remain wagers were disproportionately by the well-off, who put up on average 3x as much for each throw as pro-exit punts. But if you looked at the number of bets (a better proxy for votes), they favored departure.
Serbia shows the power of organised resistance Diem25 (Robin K)
The jaguar, exhausted, swims toward the boat, and the soldiers pull it out of the water. Beautiful kindness! https://t.co/UMQd6J4IZA
— The Figen (@TheFigen_) October 20, 2026
Falling in love. https://t.co/VtJ40XDxoY
— Larry Dean (@larry_mcwethy) October 19, 2026
don’t think people talk enough about how horses are basically giant goofy animals pretending to be elegant.
— Antidepressant Content (@depressionlesss) October 20, 2026
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here .
another day, another disaster, ho-hum or cassandra pissing her pants Chris Dover @ChrisDMacro I just got a call from my Uncle who’s a floor trader at the FOMC trading pit in Scranton I’ve never heard him this shaken before, and this guy has balls of steel He was a door gunner in the Peloponnesian War where their life expectancy was about 2 seconds after the battle kicked off So when he’s shook, I know it’s time to pay attention He called me from his graphene burner from the shitter there outside the floor Told me they just got done liquidating some massive funds and unwinding a bunch of leverage Their Scranton office is jam pack full of paper right now and Nashua and Utica branches aren’t helping out at all Said the Daddy Warsh is pissed and is going full Shock and Awe Wednesday to send a message Futures will go limit down and just stay lock limit all day Thursday, probably shutting NYSE, CME etc.. all day He said he’d call me Wednesday night before the meeting day to let me know the signal they’re going to use I’ll share what I can when I hear from him next Stay tuned
“Trump Admin Posts Map of America With No Vermont”
So maybe the AI that made that map knows something that we muppets don’t. Still, if the Trump regime doesn’t want Vermont, I’m sure that Canada can make room for an 11th province. It’s suppose to be a very beautiful State.
The New Hampshire state line in on the west bank of the Connecticut river. We can move it all the way to New York!
Not sure how that will “play” in Concord, NH or DC!
>The New Hampshire state line in on the west bank of the Connecticut river. We can move it all the way to New York!
Why not, go into any shopping plaza on the NH side of the Connecticut River and take a look at the incredible number of Vermont vehicles there, the owners doing their shopping in sales tax free NH.
“I’m off to steal a pick-a-nic basket.”
Is anybody else bothered by the sound on the second clip about the golden retriever and the kitten? It seems too loud and overly processed.
Ai or not, I thought it was fab. Had to share.
re: third John Kerry and a horse walk into a bar…
Some weeks ago, I saw a bear cub up in one of our pear trees stealing some ripe pears, he/she was so cute, it defused any irritation. The cute little fur ball scurried down and ran away.
A few days later, a large adult bear pretty much destroyed a couple of our apple trees by breaking off entire branches and eating the apples that fell. When I heard the branches breaking, I yelled and scared it off, but it must have come back later in the night. We have very few apples and pears this year. Even so, it is hard to be angry with them.
I didn’t get a chance to take a pic that time, but have some bear and other critter pics, I wonder if Yves would use them? Do readers submit critter pics?
Yes. In 2020 I submitted a pic of our late dachshund and she was posted as the antidote on the 1st anniversary of her passing.
“Summer drought leaves cracks in French roads”
There may be an opportunity here. They should throw up a map of France’s road network. Then overlay it with regions that rest on clay and noting reported problems. When that is done, overlay that with the old Roman road network. And for those overlapping modern/Roman roads, see if there are any major problems there. The Romans with their roads were very much into deep foundations and multi-layered with different materials-
I, for one, would be very interested in knowing how they are holding up.
I fully support this idea. You, anyone addicted to Roman history or indeed the French government may want to check this out: https://itiner-e.org/ Sometimes the roads are not shown entirely correctly if data is missing, but it is still fascinating!
Finland & Norway Just Broke Mainstream European NATO’s Political Isolation Of Russia https://korybko.substack.com/p/finland-and-norway-just-broke-mainstream
Finland and Norway Hold ‘Frank’ Call With Putin on Ukraine https://archive.ph/MrMGi
Sounds like they called and threatened Putin “frank”.
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/81097 ” Putin noted the EU and NATO’s confrontational policies which result in prolonging the hostilities.
Ensuring security in the Baltic Sea and Northern Europe were discussed as well. In this regard, both the President of Finland and the Prime Minister of Norway reaffirmed the importance of upholding international maritime law and the freedom of navigation.”
It’s interesting to see Stubb’s name come up. There is talk in the EU about who to appoint that can negotiate with Russia when this war wraps up. Ursula could never be trusted as she is just as likely to declare war on Russia. Kaja Kallas is a standing joke in the EU and cannot talk about the Russians without going into hysterics. But Stubb’s name has come up though he is all in on Project Ukraine. Perhaps the idea is that choosing him might get American buy-in as he is after all Trump’s golfing buddy. And sharing a border with Russia means that it would be in Stubb’s interest to cool things off before the country sends itself broke building fences and laying tens of thousands of land mines. So Stubb can work.
He is not a representative of the strategic Finnish interests. He is of the same ilk as Sanna Marin and the other idiots out there. Under Stubb the Finns did remove the ban on nuclear weapons so moving Finland closer to total annihilation and 10,000 years of unhabitable land.
I absolutely agree with you about all that you said. But in the EU it is his name that comes up as the pragmatic one to be the chief negotiator. Go figure.
There’s this nugget of vileness: “For all their professed expertise and political skill, Biden and his circle failed to truly grasp that the Israeli political establishment had no interest in a peace deal that might somehow lead to a Palestinian state.” How long have the Israeli elites been undermining the two-state solution? How many illegal settlers are in the West Bank?
I recommend that you read the article, just for the endless moral calamity that is Antony Blinken.
PS: These Bidonians were the same ones who wanted to cook up the Ukraine disaster, setting a smaller and wildly corrupt country out to take down the giant Russian Federation. So don’t expect any movement on Ukraine, Palestine, and Iran after the Dems / liberals whoop it up next Tuesday (if the Dems can even can eke out a victory, which is not guaranteed).
Glenn Greenwald, Lula’s History Victory.
Why can’t the US of A get along with its neighbors? Why is war the only recourse?
Greenwald: “Despite how it is often portrayed in American discourse — especially in some of the cruder factions of the current White House and State Department — Brazil is not a small, poor, or insignificant country.”
No self-control. Trump is the symptom, not the cause. And then there are endless robots like Antony Blinken and Hillary Clinton churning out the same crap.
Brasil is a topic that GG knows well, not only living there but his hubby (RIP) was in the government.
Biden and company should all be in jail for war crimes against humanity. I’d personally twist the key.
I think to Biden and company they are true Zionist believers, what happened in Gaza they were fine with. And Biden being the last of the cold warriors, actually held on to a similar position on Russia. Russia snd Putin were weak and now was the time it could and should be destroyed and broken up to the benefit of the west.
Biden will go down as one of the worst presidents in US history
Of course you have to ask yourself how it came to be that both Biden and Kamala, who were coming up as also-rans in the 2020 Presidential elections, were suddenly pushed to the front of the pack and everybody dropped back leading them to be elected. Neither of them were fit for office and yet it was all that was on offer by the Democrats and the donors.
Which leads to today and a similarly empty set. Think of it.In succession, Hillary Biden,and Kamala.in my reckoning a war monger, a Zionist apologist, and an empty suit. I don’t suppose the democrats can do worse but them from GWB we have had McCain, Romney,Trump, Trump, and Trump. Not much to cheer about there in my view. Buchanan had always been my choice for worst president with Wilson running a close second. Now the field of challengers is wide open.
The indirect winner of his election was Al Gore.
If Gore had been seated as president and in the aftermath of 9-11 had refused to take the USA to war in the middle east, his “in the wings” immediate replacement would have been VP Joe Lieberman.
Gore may have dodged a bullet by not being installed as US president.
He has accumulated a good amount of wealth after his defeat, estimated at $300million.
Gore was too untrustworthy to allow 9/11 to happen, they needed a vacuous druggie like dubya to make it succeed.
The Dems clearly wanted someone that could be manipulated, and who better than a senile old coot who hardly knew where he was and a daffy woman who appeared to be a drunk? Take your pick of who benefitted from that.
Seems so; Biden’s winter of death killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, because liberals “lost patience” with those that refused a non-sterilizing shot, which was only mandated after it was abundantly clear it was not sterilizing. Biden surely put the nail in the coffin of what was left of public health. And that’s just one domestic sin of his administration;
And then there’s the legitimate question of, at what point was Biden no longer cognitively functional enough to even be president, and who was running the country on our behalf?
You didn’t enjoy Maskless Mandy Cohen and her videos of CDC employees (also maskless) frolicking on the lawn as they went through HR exercises? Your taxpayer dollars at work! /s
Biden’s Israel Catastrophe American Conservative. resilc: “ I try to make sure all my Demo friends never forget this. ”
You must have different Demo friends than I. All the ones I know would never read the American Conservative to begin with, and would call this fake news in a heartbeat. There was no genocide in Gaza until Trump took over. Biden and the dems would never be a part of that.
But they are frothing at the mouth to wage more war on Russia for what Russia did to them – Russia and Putin gave them Trump – and he’s on Vladdies payroll (somehow). Get busy making some more Ukraine signs for their front yard, and $4.50 gas will be a small price to pay.
Were you being sarcastic about $4.50 gasoline? I will be surprised if that price point holds for long after the midterms. I certainly do not expect fulfillment of Trump’s promise of a sudden drop in the price of gasoline or diesel after the midterms.
Biden’s “pier” debacle was truly ghoulish, when Biden could merely have stopped supplying Israel with weapons, and demanded a land route to deliver lifesaving aid. Instead, the pier collapsed and no one even remembers it. How shameful. Democrats are as complicit in the genocide as Trump.
From 7 October 2023 to today there has been the intention … remember Bibi’s invocation of Amalek… of genocide, forced removal, ethnic cleansing of the people of Gaza. Indiscriminate bombing and the use of a well-armed military force against a militia, harrying civilians from pillar to post, c.75,000 acknowledged dead and how many other tens of thousands entombed in the rubble and now, once again, starvation as a tactic, burning tents as a tactic, enlisting of these real estate ghouls who look forward to the day when the land is cleared so the Gaza Club Med, or whatever they have in mind can be erected. Trump certainly has done nothing to put a stop to the it but both he and Biden had it in their power to threaten the cut off of aid or actually do it. Neither did a thing. Now Trump has compounded the folly with the Iran war and leaning on Lebanon to allow Israel to continue carving it up while creating a landscape of rubble in the southern third of the country. genocide it was. Genocide it is.
Not sure where you were from 10/23 to 1/25? Gaza genocide began an hour after the wall was breached. The vast majority of Gazans were slaughtered under Biden’s watch. As Jason said, in a matter of minutes, Biden could have stopped it by banning arms sales and intel. Instead, Thiel, Karp and Palantir got richer and perfected their AI algorithms while Palestinian children died.
Screwball indeed. Every single sentence is pure gold, to treasure for the awfulness implicit. Even the opening “different friends” oohoo get you, but it kicks in seriously with the ‘genetic fallacy’ or ad magazinem about The American Conservative as source. I’m just a regular anti-imperialist ex-liberal proto-communist, but I have to say in passing that magazine is super intelligent, often witty, light and dry as a bone. With its short and sharp article format, it always surprises me with its consistent quality, and consistently right calls on Ukraine, Israel and Trump. “would never read it” eh? And “would call this fake news in a heartbeat”? Sounds awfully familiar…
“There was no genocide in Gaza until Trump took over. Biden and the dems would never be a part of that.” That pair deserves slow, incredulous repetition. Simply that. Anyway someone else here has had the stomach/patience to respond.
The last full-scale paragraph raises the spectre of Hilary’s desperate 2016 campaign wheeze. Disinformation never dies, to hell with the court investigations, inquiries, reports. The telling qualification “(somehow)” to the assertion that Trump is on Putin’s payroll gives that extra kick (in the teeth). Screwball is not actually kidding. C’est impayable! / Priceless!
Absolutely right conclusion, though – “Funny how this stuff works.”
Of course I’ve spent too long on this, but Screwball’s entire comment is a perfect encapsulation of the vile, smug delusional sickness of US Democrats, and that’s important enough to measure out and savour just a little.
“Should We Start Demolishing Ugly Modern Buildings to Restore Beautiful Cities?”
It might be better to let nature take its course and simply replace these buildings with better buildings when these buildings get too old. So instead of spending the money to refurbish those modern buildings, it would be better to use the money for demolition instead. And it’s not like modern building are being built to last for centuries or anything so time would be on your side. So in the meantime planning can be done for what is to replace it which can be extended and refined over time.
They could cover them with advertising display screens for a Bladerunner vibe.
Except it being cold, dark and rainy it’s going to be hot, bright, and dry with occasional bouts of flooding deluges.
In an interview many years after the war, Albert Speer once commented half-jokingly that Hitler would have been very upset with him, because the buildings he designed for the Third Reich had not lasted One thousand years.
Or Silverstein could buy them for 1.6 cents on the dollar and have his Mossad friends blow them up.
Frank Lloyd Wright: “The physician can always bury his mistakes but the architect can only advise the client to plant vines.”
Who is going to be the arbiter of beauty? Trump? Chuck Schumer?
How many people really understand the value of natural light and ventilation?
How many people are willing to trade these things for a gingerbread facade?
– ‘McConnell: Latest Trump bid to end Russia-Ukraine war ‘certain to fail’’ – The Hill
The one issue that brings together Democrats and Republicans, liberals and (most) conservatives, CNN and Fox News, in unity and patriotic fervor is Ukraine – and “Putin!” So it is not surprising that it is also the one issue that can zap a near comatose Mitch McConnell to, um, “speak out forcefully” in the Wall Street Journal with eloquent moral outrage. I don’t suppose the media will call out this latest Weekend at Bernie’s stunt either. LOL!
Already certain to fail because it’s just a repackaging of things Russia already rejected repeatedly.
– ‘Serbia shows the power of organised resistance’ – Diem25
“Serbia offers a powerful example to people across Europe confronting democratic decline. Its experience shows that those who appear firmly established in power can be challenged when citizens organise, sustain their resistance and insist on a different future.”
I’m not sure what this “different future” will be for Serbia, but I think the effusive congratulations given the Student List by Ursula von der Leyen (noted in yesterday’s Links) might be a hint. Praise from a “future” model leader. I’m no particular fan of Vucic, and I’m sure many of these students were quite sincere in their belief in “democracy” and opposition to corruption. That just makes this bulls**t all the worse.
A week until midterms roll in, I am going to put my chips on the table.
Dems take the House, 235-200. Mike Johnson is sent back to the back-benches, or he falls on his sword and resigns.
Dems take the Senate, 51-49. Vance is left to play with furniture and attend state funerals.
The only thing that prevents a worse rout is a small uptick in consumer confidence, mainly due to GOP can-kicking (cutting the gas taxes in red states, the Iran war being frozen until after November 3rd.)
Final prediction: nobody is getting a $5000 check.
I’m a gonna bookmark this page for next week. If I can’t buy a vowel I’ll go for House 242 to 193 Senate 56 to 44 Medical emergency for Trump that will be treated somewhere without extradition agreements.
https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2026/10/25
I expect Democrats to narrowly take the House, but come up short at 49-51 in the Senate. I’ll be happy to be proven wrong though. Much as I despise 90% of the Democrats, seeing them be able to frustrate Trump and the Nerd Reichsters would make the next few years a little less unbearable. Whatever happens, I doubt we’ll see any change on foreign policy and the continued shoveling of fiat money into the gaping Moloch maw of the military industrial complex. Might be some minor wins domestically though.
240 – 250 dem house 55-56 dems senate Trump impeached, Vance does a ford to ease him out with blanket pardon before senate vote à la Nixon. Us retreats from east Asia (except takes over Russian naval base in Syria), stays the course on ukr (no troops), shifts a carrier to Philippines to keep enough warmongers on board.
I expect Trump to go Berserk on 11/4, he has made the midterms a referendum on his Presidency and he has convinced himself that his campaigning will turn things around for the Republicans. He is delusional, and being seen as a loser poses an existential threat to his Ego. Is it time for Afroman to come out with a sequel to “Lemon Pound Cake” entitled “Mashed Potatoes”? Whatever Trump does will be spectacular, and probably spectacularly stupid.
Don will be looking for scapegoats on 11/4, and it’s a target-rich environment.
Hegsdeath is good candidate, as is Mike Johnson. I’m sure we can all think of others.
You guys do know that if there’s no archived version of a link yet, you can quickly archive it yourself?
I am not being precise. The archived version is not of the article proper but a paywall of sorts. At the Journal and the Financial Times, you can nearly always get the article in 12 hours or so but a blocking entry before that.
Not always. Often it times out or I’ll get queued for so long it never gets the page. Been hit and miss the past six months. No longer the secret it was years ago to publishers.
Israel election: Why it could take weeks or even months to know who the next PM will be
Israel’s elections may take many weeks or even months to determine who will become the country’s next prime minister. There could even be another election.
When (and perhaps foolishly optimistically, if) the bombing of Iran resumes, Israel may once again in short order become more of an idea than territory– for a little while– leading me to wonder where the New Greater Israel may arise. No doubt wealthy Zionists in the present state of Israel have their vacation plans in place, just in case.
I cannot see Bibi conceding electorial defeat.
Musk specifically differentiated Starlink from Starshield. Berletic just isn’t very good
He tends to force-fit everything into a particular world view. I get annoyed because he sees color revolutions under every bed and effectively denies that people in developing and middle-income countries have agency.
Should We Start Demolishing Ugly Modern Buildings to Restore Beautiful Cities?
No accounting for taste, I guess. Lewis & Clark’s law school was described, architecturally, as “An auto showroom, as designed by Field Marshal Rommel.” Lots of glass, lots of concrete, and yet with zero natural lighting in the 1st year classrooms.
See further examples at the post-apocalyptic bunker complex that houses Salem’s municipal court and other dotgov facilities.
You wouldn’t think that Oregon would be so concrete-happy, and yet there it is…
For my sins I “did time” in both the University of Waterloo Math and Computer Science building and University of Toronto’s Robarts Library (aka “Fort Book”) — two of the more notable examples of Brutalism in Canada.
Regarding the execrable new JPMC Headquarters.
This is in fact an entirely new building by Sir Norman Foster, the line between knighted and benighted grows thin, well, actually always has been, it’s just becoming apparent again.
Natalie DeBlios, the first woman employee of Skidmore Owings & Merrill, was the designer of the previous building on that site, built as the Union Carbide headquarters in 1960. That building was SOMs most advanced forray into systems integration where power, lighting, ventillation and communications systems were all integrated into a modular interior system, demountable and reconfigurable (and strangely sustainable for its time). Natalie hired Florence Knoll to design and provide an equally integrated office furniture system, which contract more or less cemented Knolls position at the top of the Office Furniture food chain to this day.
While the more megolomaniacal LeCorbusier imagined capital “A” Architecture as “a michine for living”, this was a more limited machine for working. Which gets back to the link to which Yves comment was attached: the problem of Modern Architecture is a problem of incentives. Dresden was rebuilt to be a tourist destination in a country increasingly reliant on tourism. Natalie was building for a petrochemical conglomerate looking to command resources on multiple continents with a data compiler constisting of huge stacks of people, typewriters, carbon paper, coffee and nicotine (& liquor) arrayed vertically across 52 floors on a narrow lot.
Tourism has re-centered human experience as a cause to build, and most of the best in contemporary architecture benefits from this reality. This reality, however, has re-centered the locus of high design from museums and academic buildings, where the current model of University as “Hedge Fund with Academic Pretenses” or Museum as “Real Estate Development Loss-Leader” has defined levels of ambition, to “hospitality” where selling “experiences” to the timid spawn to the Epstein Class (that class having no problem manufacturing their own experiences) has fostered a competition of sybaritic excess: habitats for plutocrats.
The problem with architecture since industrialization has been who buys it, whether authoritarian governments in the Soviet block, private corporations focused much more on ROI than user experience, governments shamed by their oligarchs for spending on the public, or private individuals pursuing vanity. Even the best intentioned clients for buildings, say hospitals, will prioritize all the measurable features in a building ahead of human experience. Leaving hospitality and other habitats for plutocrats as the architectural paragons of the Neoliberal apotheosis we are living.
I had Natalie as a Professor at the UTSOA back in the 80s where she settled after passing up an offer for partnership at SOM New York when she quit from SOM Chicago. In my class with her, also, was the architect who headed the Department of Design and Construction for JPMC that tore down the Union Carbide Building.
She Worried About Cutting Her Medication Dose. ChatGPT Told Her to Push On. (NY Times; archive)
The chatbot helped a woman taper off a lifesaving drug and hide the plan from her doctors, advice that came with devastating consequences.
Horses antidotes. Years ago my daughter and I went to a field with a herd of about 20 horses. We were bringing some bread with us. When they [the horses] detected us [the bread loafs we were carrying] started running in our direction. Watching a herd of horses suddenly running at speed towards us was an experience. We panicked and left the bread there while running to a safe. My daughter and me we both love horses but we had quite a scare that day. The horses of course stopped at the bread loafs we had left behind. We were the least interesting part in the equation.
Regarding the FT, there’s a great way to bypass the paywall. Change https://www.ft.com to https://app.ft.com and it’s free. Don’t let too many people know about it though
The House Judiciary Committee Democrats have released a trove of evidence regarding allegations of sexual assault, including a new rape allegation, against President Donald Trump in relation to Jeffrey Epstein that the lawmakers say has been deliberately covered up by the Department of Justice.
Todd Blanche has explicitly that he works for Donald Trump, not the American People. I am puzzled at why the NY Bar has failed to pursue the ethics complaint about Blanche’s behavior, their excuse is that they referred it to the DoJ… Blanche is licensed in NY and he is subject to discipline by the NY Bar, that question has gone all the way to the Supreme Court and it is settled Law.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKGxtH4dw8A worth it. 36 or so min in, Astra says something about “Them” wanting to replace workers with robots…and im like, ” who will buy their shite?” same argument i had 40 years ago about walmart. penurise yer own customers doesnt sound like a bidness plan, to me. some metastases of feudalism is lookin more and more likely.
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/henry-wallace-cold-war/
By the time Truman left office his approval rating was 22 percent. Way to go Dems.
Fun part: Ken Paxton is the TX Attorney General.
Demolishing old buildings to restore beautiful cities
That is a nice idea but just replicating the old look with modern materials won’t work.
The first picture in that article from Frankfurt actually looked like a streetscape in Disneyland or some other plastic paradise.
I suppose over time they may settle in and get a bit weathered but I’m not sure those new buildings have the same quality as the old ones, whatever they look like.
The problem with the concrete housing estates ( like the Barbican in London and many others) is not that they are built out of concrete which, presumably, could be made to look quite nice.
It’s that usually they are filled with poor people and, over time in England at least, the marginal and mentally deranged. At a time of non neo liberal social inclusion these places were OK. But now with “Care in the Community” ie no care they are sinks of poverty and desperation.
Something that conspicuously did not happen with The Barbican which was always for the rich and the upper middle classes, and so never felt desperate or hideous despite its concrete construction.
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