Podcasts, videos, books and tweets of the week 87

Two pieces of good news:

We got a nice review of our book:

Will stand the test of time much in the same way as Ken Burns' iconic series on the American Civil War.

Hopefully Phil’s father will have proper care in the UK now.

But…

The news from Ukraine is terrible. See Konrad Muzyka who says in Polish that the situation is the worst it has been since March 2022. This is the heart of darkness for Ukraine, not a hopeful spring like last year.

And the Russians have quality on their side because the best Ukrainian troops are dead, crippled or useless from exhaustion. Something I’ve warned about.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but, in general, I think that currently Russians are better trained. Constant recruitment and mobilisation deliver steady numbers, which cover losses AND allow for training troops for new/existing units deployed in the rear.

See how Ukraine has recently been desperate for troops, even at the risk of its future aka recruiting young men who are more valuable than gold thx to Ukraine’s post-Soviet birth rate collapse and massive emigration.

Russian turtle tank

Those stupidos Russians losing all the way to victory every war. Use auto-translate. This is an excellent channel BTW

The Middle East is always on a cliff.

Too important and too underdeveloped and too rich and too undemocratic and too populist for its own good. The fossil fuel transition will cause unspeakable chaos in the region as petroarmies are unleashed as the imbecile grandchildren of desert bandits try to solve their problems with genocide.

The Middle East totters on the edge of a cliff

The Turbulent World with James M. Dorsey depends on the support of its readers. If you believe that the column and podcast add value to your understanding and that of the broader public, please consider becoming a paid subscriber by clicking on the subscription button at

The Turbulent World with James M. Dorsey

America and especially America’s women and minorites suffer under corrupt fascists who talk about sticking to the text of the Constitution but make up whatever they want when they need.

The Neofascist Five Supreme Court Justices: America's Downward Political Spiral Continues...

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. & the rest of us are doomed to repeat it with them...

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality

Greg brings more good cheer

At the Top of the Ticket, a Criminal Defendant

Yesterday, open statements were heard in the case of The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump. The defendant—a fixture in the New York tabloids for decades, a former reality TV star, and, improbably, the 45th President of the United States—is accused of “the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal La…

PREVAIL by Greg Olear

Mega episode

On this edition of Parallax Views, Middle East scholar Prof. James M. Dorsey of The Turbulent World w/ James M. Dorsey Substack blog returns for another update on the situation of Israel/Palestine and the broader Middle East. This hour and a half conversation delves into many different areas including:

- The Gaza War

- Violence in the West Bank

- The past month of tensions between Iran and Israel starting with Israel's attack on an Iranian consulate compound and Iran's strike in response; the Biden administration's response to the Iran attack; the 7-year-old Bedouin girl injured in the Iranian strike

- The U.S. foreign policy establishment and Iran hawks

- The Gaza protests at Columbia University and other campuses around the U.S.

- Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his policy on Palestine, and related matters related to Bibi

- Will the situation of Gazans really fundamentally change in a post-Netanyahu Israel?

- Khan Younis mass graves allegations

- UNRWA situation and Israel's information war (which Dorsey argues Israel is losing)

- The different flavors of both Zionism and anti-Zionism; militant anti-Zionism vs. conciliatory anti-Zionism

- The genocide discourse, legal definition of genocide, and war crimes/human rights violations

- Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Hamas, and the Arab street

- Nancy Pelosi's conspiracy theory about Gaza protests being tinged by the influence of foreign powers

- Personal anecdote from James about an experience he had involving Zbigniew Brzezinski and Iran

- Extreme rhetoric within Israel, especially amongst elements in Israel's army and amongst religious leaders; Rabbi Mali's comments suggesting the Israel kill Palestinian women to prevent the births of future Palestinian boys

- And much, much more

The Western Way of war?

I have comments to this video which I won’t go into here.

ISBNs and more

Understanding Book-Classification ISBN Numbers & the Current Limits of MAMLMs

My view: MAMLMs—Modern Advanced Machine-Learning Models have significantly less in the way of parsimonious truth-based internal representations of the world than their boosters claim...

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality

Hogan lies so much he should work for Putin. Or the Tory party.

Our book is still out

Phil has a new book coming out soon