Links 8/30/2026 | naked capitalism

“Seneca Nation requests reversal on ‘Lake America’ executive order’

Trump declares Seneca Nation to be a supporter of terrorism with links to Iran and Cuba. Will have the DoJ investigate them.

Musk’s SpaceX puffing–

And they’re going to explore Uranus by 2030. (No worries here. Nothing to explore.;) )

Pervert glasses should be called “Toms” as in peeping.
“Tiny Houses” rarely have the amenities included in a trailer of equivalent cost. They will only be useful in places where the NIMBY vote keeps out new trailer parks.

Re: Trump’s Ill-Gotten Gains — archived access:

https://archive.ph/38KFs

“Meta addresses ‘pervert glasses’ reputation with a privacy fix and a new marketing campaign”

One mob called Everyone Hates Elon and inspired by the film “They Live”, set up a bus stop sign near Meta’s headquarters in London which features Kylie Jenner who actually advertises these glasses-

https://www.instagram.com/p/Da3YbsZFapm/

So Iceland voted “no” to trying to join the EU.

A valid reflection of citizens democratic wishes? Perhaps due to the many issues EU membership causes it’s current member states? Maybe a complex causality with different concerns from different voters?

Not according to the Guardian, who tell me it was down to misinformation and an unfair question.

The question was “Should Iceland resume accession negotiations with the European Union?”. which seems clear enough to me.

Definitely no or maybe yes: what tipped the Icelandic referendum

Opponents had criticised the no campaign as fearmongering, its tactics compared by some to those deployed by Brexit activists in the UK’s 2016 referendum. Its depiction of fishing and farming, two issues inextricably tied to Icelandic national identity, as threatened by EU membership were central to its success. Results showed a big split between voters in the capital region and the rest of the largely rural country, where among some there is a sense that national identity is at risk of being forgotten.

But it was perhaps also the question on the ballot paper that, despite the allure of a closer relationship with Europe at a time of global volatility and an erratic US president threatening Iceland’s larger neighbour, Greenland, helped the no voters win the day.

The question Icelanders were asked was “Should Iceland resume accession negotiations with the European Union?”. A second referendum was to be held once a deal had been reached.

This meant that a vote yes would have actually been a “yes, maybe”, whereas a no vote was always a clearer, more decisive move. One of the “yes, maybe” campaign’s slogans was “Já til að sjá” (“yes to see”), which felt vague in comparison to the bullish claims of the no campaign.

Maybe, and perhaps I’m just a crazy tinfoil guy, but maybe it was just a majority of people not wanting to join the EU that was the reason?

These EUphiles will never learn, and will never accept that not wanting to join the EU is a valid position for someone to hold.

Prediction: within a week the Guardian will run a story about the referendum with “Putin”/”Russia” and “Iceland referendum” in the headline.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day and the NYT has William Dalrymple on the East India Company, drawing parallels with today. Strongly recommended —

What It Took to Dismantle the Most Powerful Company in the World
https://archive.ph/qLdoL
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/28/opinion/ai-power-lobbying-military-britain-east-india-company.html

‘…As Tolstoy later wrote in a letter published by Gandhi, “A commercial company enslaved a nation comprising 200 million people….”

And something you never thought you’d see in the NYT, approval of the CCP cracking down on capitalist corporations: –

‘China, reverting to its traditionally Communist approach to business, recently did something similar with its big corporations. A decade ago, many believed Alibaba and Tencent were the coming corporate kings. Today, China’s economy may yet overtake that of the United States, but its corporations will not, because President Xi Jinping decided they would not. In October 2020, Jack Ma, a co-founder of Alibaba, criticized China’s financial regulators for their “pawnshop mentality.” Within days, the over $310 billion flotation of Mr. Ma’s financial services unit, Ant Group, which at the time would have been the largest in history, was canceled two days before trading was set to begin.

‘The most sweeping regulatory assault in the history of corporate China followed. Alibaba was fined $2.75 billion, Ant was forcibly restructured, and parallel campaigns were started against whole sectors of the Chinese economy. Mr. Ma, the highest-profile casualty of the crackdown, largely disappeared from public life in China, resurfacing in February 2025 to shake Mr. Xi’s hand at a televised symposium of chastened entrepreneurs. Whereas Starlink is one man’s company, China’s answer is Guowang, run by a state enterprise reporting directly to Beijing, alongside the Shanghai-backed Qianfan. They plan to have over 27,000 satellites between them.’

PATTAYA POLICE, SOCIAL WORKERS DETAIN 25 IN PROSTITUTION CRACKDOWN AHEAD OF US NAVY VISIT (KhaoSod)

More than 200 police officers and social workers raided beaches and public areas in Pattaya on 29 August in a crackdown on suspected prostitution ahead of an expected visit by around 5,000 US military personnel next month….

Preparing for the Lincoln’s arrival. That this is a serious “crackdown” on Pattaya’s infamous prostitution is laughable.

I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near the area when these stir-crazed sailors land.

‘@sciencegirl
Science girl
@sciencegirl
The way a newborn reacts when their mother gives them their first kiss.’

I know that it is cute watching such a life changing moment but the cynic in me tugs my sleeve and reminds me that in the US, that mother will then be charged a $40 fee for that contact. I wish that I was joking.

I’m sure America’s swabbies will be happy to forgo a few Months’ pay in order to defeat the evil Iranian regime!
Yes, we must all be prepared to make sacrifices in order to protect our FREEDOMS!

“rural?” According to Italian Wikipedia, half the population lives in Metro Reykjavik. I s’pose the rest are talking to penguins.

Or is it puffins?

About 53 percent voted no:

Early report on Iceland from Italy:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9TJ3YJssxgY

People are fed up with being sold a bill of goods. The professional class wants to send around crappily written executive summaries and inept PowerPoint presentations. It isn’t hard to see through the deceptions.

Here in Italy, the current government lost the referendum this spring on reform of the magistracy. The no vote here was also about 53 percent. The law involved was badly written: Like so many in government these days, they don’t want to govern. They don’t know how to write a bill and enact it into law. But they like clicks.

In Italy, a bunch of scandals broke and embarrassed the governing coalition. I’d expect the same in Iceland. Somebody is out of touch with the puffins.

– ‘Provoked: How Decades of American Policy Set the Stage for Catastrophe in Ukraine’ – The Peacemonger substack

This review and interview with Scott Horton is on Horton’s book ‘Provoked.’ I take every opportunity to recommend that book to anyone who wants to understand the Ukrainian war. It is the best referenced and most comprehensive source I know on the “provocative” US actions in the history of that conflict, covering not only Ukraine but going back to our role in the dismantling of Yugoslavia, the Chechnyan war, Georgia, etc. An invaluable reference source.

Re: CNBC “Tech backlash” story — It’s sickening the way CNBC, NYT, and all mainstream propaganda outlets insist that the $17 bil settlement with Meta was something. As has been pointed out here at NC, it was less than nothing: it was a slap in the face of every American. The MSM screed otherwise is another series of slaps — whap, whap, whap. Whiplash.

But thank you, Haig, for the lovely antidote. I needed it today.

Nepal and elites–

We watch, more or less helplessly, as Western elites seem to display suicidal impulses. They threaten and insult better-armed nuclear powers. They start wars that they can’t win and that will bring down their economies. They’re even stupid enough to mistreat their own militaries.

But the elites’ stupidest play over the last 30+ years has been their refusal to drop their obsessions with growth, profit and accumulation in the face of the growing evidence that we were transforming our planet from a home that provided everything we need into an implacable and unimaginably powerful enemy who destroys the products of Homo faber the way humans swat a mosquito. As the raging Earth makes Business As Usual impossible, the elites will no doubt turn to ever more reckless Hail Marys, doubling down on human exceptionalism and “progress” until one of their Acme schemes finally finishes off human civilization.

The elite of the elites, our beloved TechBros, believe they can hide in their oversized man caves while Gaia, whom they’ve poked and prodded relentlessly, lets loose on the rest of us. In ancient times, when a nation or a people found themselves powerless against a foe that oppressed and abused them, a prophet would arise who would point out the moral faults of these elites and declare that the “day of YHWH” was coming:

See, the day of the Lord is coming,
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the earth a desolation
and to destroy its sinners from it.
For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
will not give their light;
the sun will be dark at its rising,
and the moon will not shed its light.
I will punish the world for its evil
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant
and lay low the insolence of tyrants.
I will make mortals more rare than fine gold
and humans than the gold of Ophir.
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will be shaken out of its place
at the wrath of the Lord of hosts
in the day of his fierce anger.

Isaiah 13:9-13 (NRSVU)

I fear the worst of the prophets’ dire projections will pale in comparison to what Gaia is going to deal out to our children and grandchildren. As these Nepal videos demonstrate, we are but little, easily crushed and drowned ants when Gaia goes on a rampage. And there will be no place to escape, not even a bunker in New Zealand.

I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

Bob Dylan, “It’s a Hard Rain A-Gonna Fall“

Only one more day until September. And the GOP’s nightmare is right around the corner:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2026/08/30/republican-party-midterms-trump-01055934

We roll into the Labor Day weekend with $4 gasoline, a forever war that wasn’t on January 1, zero legislative accomplishments for the GOP, and Mitch McConnell’s whereabouts still unknown.

Eat horse flesh, voters!

‘@clashreport
Clash Report
An NBC News team was attacked and beaten by Israeli “settlers” wielding clubs in the West Bank.’

Pretty sure that if you asked Trump about this incident, that he would claim that it was ‘fake news’ by the fake, losing media. And if you told him that there was actual video of this incident, he would claim that it was all AI.

Finally an article in Links about Cuba that tells at least a little about what the Cuban people are doing to counteract the blockade.

Meanwhile, it turns out foreigners are still visiting Cuba. I was unable to post just the link to this short article from Prensa Latina but I think the whole story is worth it.

Havana, Aug 10 (Prensa Latina) Cuba received 699,878 travelers through June, representing 51.3 percent of the figure for the same period in 2023, the National Office of Statistics and Information of the Republic of Cuba (ONEI) reported.
August 10, 2026
10:54

This figure represents a decrease of 664,522 travelers, the source noted.

Of the total travelers, 387,591 international visitors arrived in the island nation during the period, accounting for 39.3 percent of the total.

This amount represents 598,015 fewer international visitors equal to last year, ONEI highlighted.

The most notable declines happened among travelers from Canada (down 301,181), the Cuban community abroad (down 45,799), the Russian Federation (down 42,775), and the United States (down 36,085).

According to the report, a traveler is defined as any person moving between two or more different countries. If a person travels outside their country of residence, they are considered an international traveler, regardless of the reason for the trip or the mode of transport.

Likewise, international visitors are defined as those traveling to a country other than their usual place of residence for a period not exceeding one year, primarily for leisure, recreation, business, or personal reasons, rather than to engage in paid activity in the country visited.

jdt/dfm/abm

#arrivals #Cuba #drop #taveler

The article on Meta’s settlement shows governments eager to replicate the policy changes in the U.S. settlement, but doesn’t mention the agreements’ core feature, which is the back-dooring of digital ID through age verification, ostensibly for the protection of children. Coverage of the settlement reminds me of the issue of police body cameras. Police unions lobbied for body cameras for years, but couldn’t get them rolled out at scale due to budgetary reasons. Then they are repackaged as somehow being tools for police accountability, for the protection of the public. Of course they don’t work that way; they were never intended to.

Meta lobbied for this, but is now getting it in the states party to the settlement, without legislation, avoiding state legislatures where interests can vary, and where there are more people to buy off. I’m still glad about the screen-time restraints, and the removal of the, frankly evil “beauty filters” aimed at showing little girls how they’d look prettier if they weren’t themselves. One hope I hold out, inspired by the jury awarding the plaintiff $6m in the suit against Meta and Google, is that the plaintiff’s bar will be able to step up and turn these social media companies into the new asbestos manufacturers and bleed them dry, winning life-changing money for those affected.

I have, to my regret, had to deal with two elderly men with dementia.
One was a dry alcoholic with narcissistic tendencies, one was just an asshole to start.
Their decline was not linear and they both created a lot of pain for those who had to deal with them.
EVERYTHING is personal to a narcissist and as their decline progresses ANY percieved slight or opposition provokes a reaction that is disproportionate and sometimes violent.
Increasingly so as time passes.
I am deeply concerned about how Donald Trump will react to setbacks in the courts and the probability that the Mid Terms will not produce the results he wants.
There is also the high likelihood that the economy will continue to decline and that Iran will provide an unpleasant “October Surprise”.
Is a Nuclear strike on Iran possible?
Yes.
Will Trump do something on the home front that would have been inconcievable three years ago?
He already has, and he has no filters and acknowledges no limits to his power.
Read NSPM7 for the outline of what his administration wants to do, and what it is likely to try to do over the next six Months.
It’s gonna be lit, with a flamethrower.

Something concrete out of Iran (via FARS)

Iran’s explicit warning to Zionists about southern Lebanon

🔹The Univision news agency reported that Iran has warned the Zionist regime against expanding military operations in southern Lebanon, explicitly stating that this will result in widespread Iranian missile attacks on the regime’s airports and garrisons in the north of the occupied territories.

🔹Accordingly, Iran stated in its warnings that it will not allow Washington to violate the first clause of the memorandum of understanding regarding the end of the war in Lebanon, namely the end of the occupation and the withdrawal of the Zionists, and that this clause will remain in force even if violated by the United States, and Iran is steadfast in its positions in supporting the resistance of the Lebanese people, and Israel has no choice but to retreat.

NYT Opinion piece.

King Donald Is Dethroning the Dollar

https://archive.ph/mCxFP

Sure seems like it.
Leah has the receipts. A scam to dethrone the dollar in order to loot the US Treasury for vast family profits?

THE CURRENCY KILLER: SCOTT BESSENT
He broke five currencies and made billions. Then, he got the keys to the USD. All while having connections to Epstein and Ehud Barak.

https://theleahfiles.substack.com/p/the-currency-killer-scott-bessent

re: Peacemonger – Horton

Anybody read the book by now?
I am divided on Horton and didn’t take the time.

I´m also not sure it contains that much an NC-reader wouldn’t already know.
But Horton´s limited understanding of “Russia” and clichéd concepts when it comes to places not the US in general is sometimes a bit offsetting to me…🙄

But won´t change the fact he has done some seminal work with his other research and interviews in general.

And for all those who are not NC-hardened it´s very good if they do read “Provoked”. That´d certainly help a lot.

Clashes Cloud Shawn Fain’s Re-election Bid at U.A.W. NYT archive

Gotta head off the May 1, 2028 General Strike. How dare anyone compare zionists to nazis! We need union leaders like George Meany and Lane Kirkland.

the archive site is taking more time to load, almost everything on NYT is now paywalled. They should pay us to read propaganda and harvest our data for resale.

Fake hospices in the thousands:
Embarrassed politicians wrote a special law to make online reporting of these a felony in California. Newsom signed it into law under the guise of “Protecting immigrant service providers…” like the Armenian mafia running dozens of these fake hospices in the San Fernando Valley?

https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/sacramento/nick-shirley-rallies-at-california-capitol-against-new-law-aimed-to-protect-hospice-workers/

Prof. Bill Black about crypto on utube last year. From the Mark Thompson Show

Crypto: The New Political Corruption Pipeline, Dr. William K. Black Professor of Economics and Law

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuVLs0c3dwE

This is a great explainer of the crypto grift.
“And the other route you use is politicians.” Right….

re: Germany politics BSW AfD

For German-speakers (or those who are willing to copy&paste in case a google-transl. isn´t possible)

German publicist Ingar Solty´s fb-page has a new post up with some comments and discussion involving him:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10163823229582061&set=a.463708447060

He has been argueing for some time now that Wagenknecht´s course to not exclude AfD totally from action and public discourse is hurting BSW and pushing away voters instead of attracting them.

I am still not sure in how far the internal fights of BSW were errors committed by the leadership.

What I do know is that Solty is committing the mistake to not address the total opposition of mainstream to BSW and using AfD scaremongering against BSW via linking both parties due to proximity to Russia and their criticism of migration (even if both parties are rather different on both subjects if looked at closely).

So he sort of focuses on the second order of causes only instead of addressing at least both levels.

What I concure with and I voiced it before:

The BSW´s migration discourse hurt it immensly with left voters who were turning away from DIE LINKE and flirting with BSW. To eventually return to DIE LINKE or abandon both.

(However this is a pickle as one must acknowledge that the BSW´s potential electorate did have some issues with migration but those can be addressed in various forms. Altogether I know it is a very difficult sit. and my admiration to BSW who hold steadfast.)

Gaza also might have helped here DIE LINKE which makes appear their intense advocacy in part a calculated move.

But all of that fallout was of course increased by establishment and potentially secret service agitation in the background.

Solty seems to totally forget that ALL PARTIES have internal fights. And if they do not that is not a good sign.

Unlike with BSW those fights are either not reported or treated as – a good sign by MSM ;-P

Considering that Solty is a real outliar among those leftists who have a regular voice in the media this is a sure sign of how far off the serious discussion in the FRG is.

And this will not change for decades. Regardless of whoever will be the next Chancellor.
It is of no importance but Weidel will never be. Rest assured…the hysteria among West German educated is too huge.

Germany´s features as class society are way too powerful to allow for a genuine shift. Only when a generation will have grown up without the wealth the FRG was always associated with will the country be humbled and sane enough.

But by then it will be too late to cover for the staggering economic losses that will go on hitting this country for another 20 years.

Taco’s got a brand new grift!

https://mishtalk.com/economics/trump-claims-he-will-fill-strategic-petroleum-reserves-with-venezuelan-oil

Venezuelan “oil” that won’t exist for 10 years, and will require subsidies and loans that create yuuuuuuge opportunities for the Trump family to grift off of. Yay!