Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.

1. Atlantic current collapse a “national security threat”

The Icelandic government has designated the potential collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation — the currents which bring warm water to the north Atlantic – a national security threat.

To quote Reuters, with added emphasis:

Iceland has designated the potential collapse of a major Atlantic Ocean current system a national security concern

…...

Read full article ...

https://off-guardian.org/2025/11/17/this-week-in-the-new-normal-109/

“The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls. They got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear… They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying.

…...

Read full article ...

https://off-guardian.org/2025/11/17/who-really-owns-america-the-banks-the-billionaires-and-the-deep-state/

“If sleep is the apogee of physical relaxation, boredom is the apogee of mental relaxation. Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience. A rustling in the leaves drives him away.”
Walter Benjamin“The Storyteller,” 1936

Today’s rustlers are stealing the silence needed to allow stories to percolate in our minds. They are noisy speedsters, gunning down the highway of regret, constantly pushing us to abandon any sense of living deliberately and relaxed for the bait of faster internet speed and 24/7 lives in which no one is ever “off.”

Like our machines, we are…...

Read full article ...

https://off-guardian.org/2025/11/16/out-of-time/

Donald Trump’s threat to sue the BBC for one billion dollars is yet another fake division intended to prop up the make-believe “sides” in the political debate.

That’s the short version. Here’s the backstory.

Last month, the BBC’s flagship anthology documentary series Panorama aired an episode on the January 6th “insurrection” which “accidentally” edited together two speeches by Donald Trump, making it seem he explicitly ordered people to attack the Capitol (he did no such thing, but that’s old news).

Under public pressure from the Trump administration, the BBC have now admitted the “error” and both the Director General…...

Read full article ...

https://off-guardian.org/2025/11/12/trump-vs-the-bbc/