[A monthly link list of recommended articles, videos, podcasts, photos, toots … you name it]
[Videos]
what if everything we thought we knew about disease spread is wrong? [.youtube] – Spread this far and wide, please. It is such a huge scandal that airborne transmission continues to be downplayed. If it was finally accepted it would have huge repercussions. But capitalism must go on.
For the Record: An Incomplete History of Music [.youtube] – In nine episodes!
[Music]
Saul Williams – Robot Slave [youtube.]
Danger Dan – Keine Angst [.youtube] – I hesitated to link to this song, because Danger Dan is also part of Antilopen Gang, who released a horrible antideutsch-zionist song a while ago.
[Podcasts]
Death Panel: Trump’s New Red Scare w/ Vicky Osterweil [.soundcloud] – “Beatrice speaks with Vicky Osterweil about the Trump administration’s recent statements declaring a renewed red scare, painting the left as “deformed,” a “fatal cancer to civilization,” and a threat to “normal, healthy, ordered living.” Just a 22 min. teaser so far, but if you can’t access the whole episode now, this is one to look out for if it ever gets a release in the public feed. Excellent analysis.
What can professional athletes teach us about Long COVID and rest? [the sick times] – “Oonagh Cousins was preselected for the Tokyo Olympics as a professional rower on the British team — until Long COVID derailed everything. In this episode of Still Here, co-hosts Miles Griffis and Betsy Ladyzhets talk to Cousins about developing severe Long COVID at the start of the pandemic, her years-long attempt to return to elite training, and the relapse that ultimately forced her retirement in 2022.” All you ever need to listen to, if you have questions about the brain retraining approach to Long COVID treatment. Oh, and of course Long COVID: Think yourself well? from a few years ago.
[Toot Threads]
[Pandemic Roundup]
Ever since the age of the pandemic, or pandemicene, is upon us, this has been and continues to be a must-read every week. Thanks so much Violet!
Pandemic Roundup: July 30, 2026
Pandemic Roundup: July 23, 2026
Pandemic Roundup: July 16, 2026
Pandemic Roundup: July 9, 2026
Pandemic Roundup: July 2, 2026
For your critical World Cut Wrap Up
World Cup: a Poisonous Cocktail of Spectacle, Kitsch and Patriotism – “The World Cup is a photographic image of the world, but it is overexposed. It is blurred though the filters of nationalist propaganda and individual heroics. At play are all the features of geopolitics: power games, big money, troubles with AI, competition at all costs, threats, animosities, and mistrust.” Totally this. But i have to admit i kind of enjoyed reading a somewhat more appreciative article as well: The Fan Zone
Brazil Fizzles Again: the Capitalist Rot at the Heart of Brazilian Football [counterpunch] – “Prosperity gospel indoctrinates its followers into believing that all of the success and failure in their lives is the result of an individual relationship with God, as opposed to traditional Catholic and Afro-Brazilian values of the importance of working with others to improve the World. This has resulted in narcissistic players who believe they are famous because they are more special than commoners, more holy than lesser players. It’s not very good for teamwork and this was exemplified by Neymar’s individualist histrionics when he came onto the pitch after the mandatory corporate advertising break in the second half of the game against Norway.” If you ever wondered, as i did, why Brazilian football now sucks, these are the reasons.
World Cup propels surveillance to new heights [theconversation] – “AI-supported autonomous software allows drones to monitor areas, track movement and gather intelligence. The drones can be powerful enough to scan entire cities or zoom in and read a milk carton from 60,000 feet (18,288 meters). They can carry technology that allows them to function like a cellphone tower, permitting law enforcement to determine your location or intercept texts and phone calls. Citywide drone networks could become the new normal.” No, i don’t need more arguements to hate FIFA and uspol. But hey.
Zwischen Fussball, Rütlischwur und Nationalismus [daslamm] – “Der Schweizer Nationalstaat vertritt nicht die Interessen seiner breiten Bevölkerung. Er organisiert ein Wirtschaftssystem, von dem nur die wenigsten profitieren, während der Rest im Hamsterrad rennt und für den Reichtum Anderer arbeitet. Die staatlichen Dienstleistungen – Infrastruktur, Spitäler, Sozialleistungen und so weiter – werden nicht aus Nächstenliebe bereitgestellt. Sie sind die notwendigen staatlichen Erhaltungskosten, um den Wirtschaftsstandort am Laufen zu halten.” I suffered every minute of the nationalistic fervor taking hold of this nation. This was weeks after millions had voted yes on yet another xenophobic initiative by the SVP (10 millions), and now everyone started to cheer for this team, made up of mostly of people with a migratory background, many of whose asylum applications were fast-tracked because they are good footballers. This is not, never was, never will be a symbol of a “successful integration”. Always ask, integration to what? When Swiss fans chant “Schwiizer nati” it always sounds like nazi. Upon their return they were celebrated like war heroes, because they *checks notes* reached the quarter finals?! The team was wearing a red and white shirt that said in bold letters HIS – TORY, as such making sure to put masculinity back into history. One can hate on Argentina for many reasons in this tournament, but i will forever be grateful that they kicked the over-rated Swiss team out. Now stfu about them.
Le FOOT c’est politique ?? | ragekit [.youtube]
[Articles English]
The Fight Against ICE Has Entered a New Phase | Kelly Hayes – “Oversight mechanisms have been completely stripped away, and there is also a psychological mandate from this government to dehumanize people in detention even further. You are seeing the scale of violence go up and up and up. That is why more people are dying in detention and more people are dying by suicide. It is also why people are that much more afraid of being detained. They might not get the medical care they need. They might not get food or clean clothing. They might be sleeping on floors. The conditions are horrifying.” The interview is especially strong when new tactics of resistance are discussed.
Leaked Document Shows the Surveillance Tech at ICE’s Fingertips – “A leaked document shows the spread of surveillance and investigative capabilities that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have access to agency wide, from location data harvested from smartphones, to facial recognition apps that can reveal someone’s identity, to tools that let the agency stay anonymous online and approach people undercover. The document covers everything from monitoring social media to tracking the movements of vehicles.” Paywalled, summarized here: techdirt. Shocking stuff.
Being a Luddite Is Fun Again [404media] – “This time, the protest isn’t a one-off. It’s part of the “Summer of Ludd,” a week-long festival of free public events organized and advertised entirely off of tech platforms and social media. The Summer of Ludd doesn’t have a website, but you can call a phone number to get a run-down of the events happening each day around the city. The schedule includes everything from an “offline rizz” workshop designed to help you ditch dating apps, a phone-free rave called “Let’s Get Off Together,” internet piracy 101 skill-shares, and an outdoor play that retells the story of the original Luddites.” I especially love the way they mobilize for protests without using any tech.
‘Dread Beat an Blood’ Set Black Londoners’ Struggle to a Groove [nyt] – “Over the past 25 years I’ve had one ambition: to make an instrumental album of my own musical compositions and play the bass myself. I’ve completed that [an album titled “[Speechless]”]. Dennis Bovell helped me to arrange the music and he mixed it. I might release it as a limited edition next year, or maybe it will be released posthumously. That was my big thing, so I don’t have any artistic ambitions anymore.” A LKJ instrumental solo album? Sounds brilliant. Gief.
She’s charged with killing her twins. The anti-vaccine movement made her a martyr. [motherjones] – “The case has already generated nationwide press coverage and offers an unusually detailed look at how the anti-vaccine movement recruits parents and then uses those parents to market its claims to the public. Less than a week after their twin toddlers were discovered lifeless in bed, Andrea and Nathaniel sat for an interview with Children’s Health Defense (CHD), the anti-vaccine organization previously chaired by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.” The article almost makes too much of a case for the accused at times, but overall, what a story.
Our Plastic-Surgery Nightmare [new yorker] – “The vibe, over all, is a kind of internet-invented nonsexuality: putative straightness is only the pretext for various broadcast demonstrations of dominance and submission, in perpetual psychological reference to other putatively straight men. Women are called “foids” in the looksmax lexicon, short for “female humanoids,” and they are sliced and diced, worshipped and denigrated, in the same coldly unfeeling way.” This makes me sad.
the lilith fair to bimbo pipeline. – “To counter these ultimately reactionary positions, [Sophie] Lewis proposes a femme-inist politic that draws on queer femme lineages of embracing femininity with a simultaneous commitment to abolishing patriarchy, capitalism, white supremacy (and other oppressive forces). A femme feminism is TERF- and SWERF-proof because it is not invested in any categorical or biological “naturalness” nor does it view sex as always already a form of violence.” Femme-inist 😉
In the Twilight of a Nation | Alison Rose Reed [substack] – “We humans walk around with wounds—hidden in hips or clenched fists, or leaking light through hollowed hearts—our chests windows we never wanted, backlit by the smashed glass of a rearview mirror. But we keep walking, feeling a strange lightness tugging us forward, and retracing our steps, weaving toward a new center as invisible magnets glued to the soles of our shoes guide us. So we keep walking.” We keep walking. But i would like to stop, crouch down and rock myself to sleep–eternally.
A Letter to Carlo Giuliani [crimethinc] – “For years and years, as long as I could, I made sure that every July 20, we directed the rage that we carried for you in our hearts against our enemies. In the random cities of whatever country I happened to find myself in, we made sure that Molotov cocktails lit up the night, that it rained stones in the dark against banks, that we ambushed cop cars, that we etched your name upon the walls of Boston, Goettingen, Paris, Berlin. Sometimes, to celebrate your life and not your death (as well as to throw off the cops), we chose to avenge you on your birthday, March 14, rather than the day of your death.” Carlo should never have died, but has also been the target of many projections. This book excerpt does him justice.
Ghost Town, At The Club & Britain’s Summer of Discontent [quietus] – “A disintegrating Specials were part of the sound of July 1981 as unrest flared up in Handsworth, Toxteth, Southall, Moss Side, Hyson Green & Brixton, as Ghost Town hit no. 1 45 years ago today, writes Wrongtom” As if we needed more reasons to love The Specials more.
Then They Came for the Anarchists: Prairieland Defendants Sentenced to 562 Years [unicorn riot] – “On July 1, 2026, Rowan Gibson and Rebecca Morgan received 15 year sentences after non-cooperating guilty pleas. In exchange for testifying against their former friends, Lynette Sharp, Seth Sikes, Nathan Baumann and John Thomas received prison terms of between 22 and 110 months. The only defendant to admit to committing acts of vandalism at Prairieland, Nathan Baumann, received the lightest sentence of just under two years after cooperating with the federal prosecution. Susan Kent was sentenced to six years on Monday, July 6, after cooperating and pleading guilty to one count of providing material support to terrorism.” Never cooperate with the state. Never ever cooperate with the state.
Maja T interview: I resist in the cage of isolation [freedom news] – “After the verdict, I felt disoriented and confused because I didn’t know how to fight. I feel the need to, yet I don’t have the ability. Now I’ve learned that fighting isn’t always a matter of speaking out loud; you can fight with the little things. I continue to write letters describing what’s happening here and trying to understand the prison system and the authoritarian system in Hungary. For me, fighting means finding ways to share my resources with other inmates, too, because I see the ways in which our humanity is being stolen.” Translation of the interview in French bellow. Originally published in Italian. Babylon.
Global Climate Report | June 2026 [ncei] – “The June 2026 global surface temperature was 1.09°C (1.96°F) above average—the second warmest June in the 177-year record. This value was 0.09°C (0.16°F) below the 2024 record and only 0.02°C (0.04°F) above June 2023, which currently ranks as the third warmest June on record. The 10 warmest Junes on record have all occurred since 2015, with each of the last eight years (2019–2026) ranking among them. Additionally, this month marked the 50th consecutive June with global temperatures above the 20th-century average; the last below-average June occurred half a century ago in 1976 (-0.05°C / -0.09°F).” Nothing to see, right? Right??!!
Independence Day Hangover | Peter Gelderloos [substack] – “Prior to 1775, there had been numerous rebellions by a mix of Indigenous, lower class European, and diasporic African peoples, often working together and creating their own societies of resistance and solidarity at the edges of the colony. At their best, these were rebellions against white supremacy, capitalism, and state authority. And the Founding Fathers, their parents, their grandparents, and their great-grandparents, took the side of profit, law, and whiteness, helping to repress these rebellions. Multiple historians, like Rediker and Linebaugh, argue that they launched their own political revolution to prevent the social rebellion that was brewing amongst the oppressed.” Thanks Peter. Independence for who?
Those in Charge Have No Plan | Peter Gelderloos [substack] – “Still, every major world government, whether they call themselves communist, democratic, nationalist, or what have you, is pushing the fantasy of green growth and the climate movement itself—an interlocking machine of big business, non-profits, media, research institutions, and middle class activists—are pushing the entirely false idea that industrial scale green energy and carbon capture can become adequate responses to the problem.” A greener capitalism is still capitalism. And what does green even mean at this point.
Not Your Straw Man | Alison Rose Reed [susbtack] – “People hate femmes and thems who flaunt their beauty like walking artistic statements, fluid and joyful in spite of the sharp statistical edges of the evil empire, which tries to obliterate them in the classed crosshairs of misogynistic, transphobic, whorephobic, ableist, xenophobic, colonialist, racialized sexual violence. I know this non-exhaustive list is a mouthful, but I value the precision of language as much as its poetry. […] So I refuse to be ashamed of a job that has helped me survive in a world that extinguishes the light in people’s eyes on purpose. And I refuse to stop searching for that light, everywhere and in everyone, too.” <3 Alison.
The Music of Destruction | Mathias Fuelling – “This music of destruction sounds strangely like the factory’s peacetime work. It could be the sounds of riveting, or steam hammers flattening pig iron, or scrap metal being broken up in the pile-driver workshop to feed the Marten furnaces. The light now flickering on the young Volga ice could be the pink glow of liquid steel streaming into giant scoops.” Only for that quote. Pure poetry.
[Articles German/French]
Tout arrêter pour pouvoir continuer [conter-attaque] – “Ce sont les chiffres d’une guerre. Les autorités appellent les entreprises à fournir en urgence des tractopelles et autres engins de terrassement. Le ciel est orange au dessus des plages, et rouge au crépuscule à Bordeaux. Les forêts de braises recrachent des biches terrifiées. Et puis il y a l’inconnu : un «orage de feu» ou «pyrocumulonimbus», qui s’est formé le 24 juillet : un phénomène jamais vu en France, qui survient lorsqu’un incendie est tellement massif qu’il génère son propre système météorologique.” Context on the recent fires in France.
Fifty Shades of queerfeindliche Gewalt | Jessica Jurassica [substack] – “Ja, queere Leben sind oft tragisch. Aber die Tragödie ist nicht in unseren queeren Körpern eingebrannt, sie kommt von ausserhalb. Von der historischen Gewalt, den ausgelöschten Generationen. Den Lücken in den Archiven. Sie ist auch die alltägliche Gewalt, die strukturelle und symbolische. Aber das Alltägliche, das Banale interessiert in der Regel niemanden. Wenn die Gewalt aber öffentlichkeitswirksam tragisch ist, dann sind queere Leben plötzlich etwas wert, dann macht man auch mal die Deutschland-Fahne auf dem Bundestag für ein paar Stunden auf Halbmast.” On the recent attacks of a pride event in Berlin.
Free All Antifa – Interview de Maja T. [renversé] – “Maintenant, j’ai appris que la lutte n’est pas toujours hausser le ton. On peut se battre à travers de petites choses. Je continue d’écrire des lettres dans lesquelles je décris ce qui se passe ici, et j’essaye de comprendre le système carcéral et le système autoritaire en Hongrie. Pour moi, la lutte signifie trouver des moyens de partager mes ressources avec les autres détenus car je vois comment on nous vole notre humanité. C’est difficile, je me sens souvent sans espoir.” Full solidarity with Maja T. still in prison in Hungary, despite the “regime change” (the jury is still out).
[Older articles, still great]
The Highly Sensitive Person is Autistic Autistic Autistic [freedium] – “The Highly Sensitive Person is an illusion and its marginal acceptance in psychological spaces does not make it valid. The practitioners and researchers who believe that HSP is a thing in and of itself are using a very outdated model of autism with which to compare and contrast.” We do not need a new label for autism.
R.I.P.
Roland Collombin (loved him as a kid)
And too many in Gaza, Iran, Sudan, Ukraine and all the other stupid wars.
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Header Photo: In a field of fave a single sun flower resists the hegemony