Author: nick

[ad_1] Photograph Source: The White House – Public Domain Ceasefires in the Middle East seem especially susceptible to revision, alteration and contradiction.  Missiles still get fired; airstrikes initiated.  Destruction to infrastructure, and death, follows.  Yet despite the misunderstandings, the sniping and the harrying, these odd understandings are often described by those funny political coves as “holding”.  In the case of the ceasefire between Tehran and Washington, articulated with some fanfare with a Memorandum of Understanding, only the most piously delusional would claim it was holding in any way. The June 18 MoU stipulates from the outset that the US, Iran and their allies “declare the…

[ad_1] Lindsey Graham on Meet the Press. (Screen capture from video posted to X.) Lindsey Graham said he would die with Israel and it has come to pass. One of the weirdest characters in US politics, Graham’s career was consistent in only one respect: war was his solution to any diplomatic problem. He had the mentality of a red-scare Cold Warrior in a time when the Cold War had ended. But Graham couldn’t relinquish his toxic animus for Russia, even as Russia embraced US-style gangster capitalism, imperialist ambitions and religious prudery. As a political figure, Graham was a senator in…

[ad_1] Belated happiest of birthdays to cryptozoologist Loren Coleman! What is ‘de-extinction’ really for? Efforts to revive the thylacine and woolly mammoth are forcing conservationists to face a long-overdue debate over what kind of natural world we want to build. Pentagon releases new batch of UFO files: “Unlike anything I had seen”. The myth of the fragile public: Why UFO disclosure (most likely) won’t break society. Scientists analyse the ‘witches’ marks’ on the walls of old English buildings – and finally reveal the meaning behind the mysterious symbols. Some near-death experiences seem impossible to explain – this ground-breaking tool could…

[ad_1] As the United States commemorates the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the nation is set to abdicate its independence 250 years later. The U.S. Congress is slated to pass the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) – “must-pass” legislation that determines military spending and outlines defense policies for the fiscal year. Consistently over 3,000 pages, the massive funding bill is rarely scrutinized and passes with little or no opposition.  This year, the Trump administration has asked for an historic $1.5 trillion in total defense spending. Buried in the pending NDAA, is a gravely consequential proposal to create permanent…

[ad_1] Donald Trump has made reducing the trade deficit a centerpiece of his economic agenda. As he has put it, the deficit means foreigners are ripping us off. Trump’s whole “Liberation Day” story was about putting an end to the rip-offs. We can debate the extent to which the trade deficit means we are getting ripped off, but even accepting Trump’s claim, he is not doing a very good job by his own metric. On Tuesday, we got data from the Commerce Department showing that the monthly trade deficit jumped by $23 billion in May to $77.6 billion. The deficit…

[ad_1] My computer’s wallpaper shot, the picture that comes up whenever I turn the computer, changes regularly, at whose or what’s instigation I know not, but certainly not at mine. I suppose that it—or is it they?—must have some inkling of my taste, for never does anything visually offensive to me appear.  Recently, a panoramic view of the Bavarian town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber came up. The town was picture-perfect: not a parked car in sight, nor (come to think of it) any human being, human beings being so messy. At first I took the picture to have been…

[ad_1] River Page went to the much-hyped anti-tech conference, where everyone was wondering: How do you give up apps in a modern world that assumes you have them? [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] The Apocalypse That Isn't Coming [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] The United States and Iran traded new attacks overnight into Thursday, intensifying an exchange that has threatened the collapse of their agreement to end the war. According to President Trump, the ceasefire between the United States, Israel and Iran was “over.” The deadly exchanges included reported U.S. strikes against Iranian military-related targets, Iranian retaliation against U.S. interests and regional partners, and continued Israeli military operations. It’s a familiar pattern in U.S./Israel-led regional conflicts. Ceasefires may temporarily interrupt hostilities, but absent an accompanying political framework they fail to resolve the structural drivers of conflict. The renewed confrontation has expanded beyond…

[ad_1] I watched the New York Pride Parade on livestream. The parade is a major event in NYC, attended by well over a million people. Today, 11 years after Obergefell v. Hodges legalized same-sex marriage, the movement that once celebrated equality alongside most Democrats looks very different. The near-complete embrace of trans rights as seen in the parade, especially as it affects children, is likely to harm the Democratic Party in coming elections. (FYI, I’ll use the word “gay” as shorthand here for the various constructions, the most complete of which is the unhandy LGBTQQIP2SAA+.) One of the most noticeable…