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Links 9/28/2025

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AggreBots: Tiny living robots made from lung cells could one day deliver medicine inside the body Pys.org

Einstein Was Right Again: Ripples in Space-Time Confirm Century-Old Theory SciTech Daily

New Math Revives Geometry’s Oldest Problems Quanta

Why a study claiming vaccines cause chronic illness is severely flawed – a biostatistician explains the biases and unsupported conclusions The Conversation


COVID-19/Pandemics

Most people never fully recover their sense of smell after COVID Earth.com

US COVID declining after reaching peak CIDRAP

After the Pandemic ‘Reset Button,’ Downtowns Reinvent Themselves Bloomberg

Climate/Environment

China pledges to cut emissions by 2035: what does that mean for the climate? Nature

Fewer hailstorms but bigger hailstones: Climate change shifts Europe’s severe weather risks Phys.org

Earth fails another critical health check, but scientists say it’s not too late RFI

Rivers are heating up faster than the Air − that’s a Problem for aquatic Life and People The Conversation

South of the Border

US military ‘preparing to strike inside Venezuela’ in move that would mark major escalation Daily Mail

Poll: Majority of Americans Oppose Using Military Force for Regime Change in Venezuela ScheerPost

Argentina gets $20 billion in US aid, hands over control of economic policy Argentina Reports

China?


As Gold Keeps Setting New Highs, China Reportedly Wants to be Its Custodian for Central Banks CoinDesk

Trump’s trade battle with China puts US soybean farmers in peril AP

The Pentagon’s Missing China Strategy Foreign Affairs

More US tariffs? China’s ‘Furniture Kingdom’ says it’s already moved on Reuters

India

India and the Rebalancing of Asia Foreign Policy

India throws BRICS at the US wall Times of India

Africa

The Multipolar World Demands a New African Strategy  News 24

Why Does Africa Thrive More in Words Than in Actions? Modern Ghana

European Disunion

Europe Is Set To Be Plagued By Travel Disruptions In The First 10 Days Of October As Strikes In Greece, France, Italy, And The Netherlands Ground Flights And Cause Widespread Cancellations : What You Need To Know Travel and Tour World

An Election That Could Redraw Europe’s Map Persuasion

How is France’s budget crisis affecting the EU? Concerns mount over French instability France 24

Euromedicine is not for everyone: Medicine shortages reach record levels across Europe Euro News

Old Blighty

Budget blow for Reeves as UK’s growth forecast slashed The Independent

More than 1.6m sign petition opposing Starmer’s plan for digital ID cards The Guardian

Israel v. Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iran

Netanyahu admits using social media as weapon to influence US opinion amid Gaza genocide Andolu Agency

A year after losing its longtime leader, Hezbollah is beginning to regroup AP

Yemen : Israeli airstrikes on Sanaa leave 9 killed, 174 injured YemenOnline.info

New Not-So-Cold War

Where ‘Democracy’ Goes to Die: ‘Rule of Law’ Again Rears its Head in Hysterical Europe Simplicius

Hungary says Ukraine’s Zelenskiy ‘losing his mind’ after drone comment Reuters

Russian Strikes Pound Ukraine As Kyiv Disrupts Russia’s Major Pumping Station Radio Free Europe

Ukraine received Patriot system from Israel Euractiv

Ukraine and Russia Point Fingers After Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant Offline for Days The Moscow Times

The End For Kiev : NATO Backs Down, Ukraine Disintegrates | Col Douglas Macgregor AzizGaming, YouTube. Early on, confirmation of drone incursion into Poland as false flag. Downed drones had Swedish, Polish, other European SIM cards.

How to run an election, pro-EU edition: ban the party, jail the governor, block the observers RT

Big Brother Is Watching You Watch

Vitalik slams EU’s Chat Control: ‘We all deserve privacy and security’ Cointelegraph

Senate Bill Seeks Privacy Protection for Brain Wave Data Bank Info Security

Imperial Collapse Watch

FEMA Housing Assistance After Helene Pro Publica

Trump 2.0

Hegseth Mocked for Generals’ Meet: ‘Could’ve Been an Email’ Daily Beast

Lawfare Makes Us All Less Free Yascha Mounk substack

NPR-Ipsos poll: Americans don’t broadly support Trump’s National Guard deployments NPR

Trump orders troops to takeover ‘war ravaged’ Democrat-led city to handle ‘domestic terrorists’ Daily Mail

Why Donald Trump is obsessed with Portland Politico

Trump’s NSPM-7 Labels Common Beliefs As Terrorism “Indicators” Ken Klippenstein. A must read.

Trump asks Supreme Court to uphold restrictions he wants to impose on birthright citizenship AP

Musk Matters

Epstein calendar released by Democrats mentions Elon Musk, who denies visiting his island NBC News

Elon Musk gives update on Tesla Optimus progress Teslarati

Shooting for the moon. How Elon Musk’s SpaceX is faring Los Angeles Times

Democrat Death Watch

Democrats race to embrace swearing and angry comebacks – but will it work? The Guardian

Shutdown fight leaves Democrats with no good options The Hill

Immigration

In ICE Detention, Rising Deaths and Neglect: ‘They Wouldn’t Really Do Anything’ The Marshall Project

The real cost of Trump’s $100,000 visas Vox

Our No Longer Free Press

Hegseth calls mysterious meeting on heels of limiting press access. Coincidence? | Opinion USA Today

Column: Democracy dies when speech and the press are suppressed The Enquirer Journal

Mr. Market Is Moody

Dollar Retreats as Inflation Concerns Ease and US Consumer Sentiment Slips Nasdaq

The U.S Stock Market Cools as Earnings Season Looms and October Turbulence Looms TradeAlgo

AI


Oracle Stock Crashes 16% from Peak – Is the AI Bubble Finally Bursting? Technobezz

A Diverse World Of Sovereign AI Zones Noema

Beware coworkers who produce AI-generated ‘workslop’ TechCrunch

Sam Altman predicts AI will outsmart humanity by 2030 Straigh Arrow News

Hollywood Is Planning To Sign Their First AI-Generated Star Screen Rant

The Bezzle

At least 260 suspects in online romance scams arrested across Africa, Interpol says Euronews

‘I’ve never guessed I’d be duped like this’: Lovelorn dater loses $1.4 million in romance scam The Independent

Guillotine Watch

Antidote du jour (via)

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here

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220 comments

  1. none

    Einstein Was Right Again: Ripples in Space-Time Confirm Century-Old Theory SciTech Daily

    As renowned physicist Lenny Susskind likes to say, “they didn’t call him Einstein for nothing!”

  2. The Rev Kev

    ‘William Dalrymple
    @DalrympleWill
    Netanayahu’s government is trying to drive the Christian Armenians out of their quarter of Jerusalem’

    Being the Chosen People means never having to say that you’re sorry.

    1. DJG, Reality Czar

      Rev Kev:

      Or the famous rhetorical question attributed to Hitler:

      Who remembers the genocide of the Armenians?

      1. Birch

        “Who remembers the genocide of the Armenians?”

        System Of A Down.

        They have a bunch of songs about that event. Heavy stuff.

  3. none

    The Most Expensive Fruits In The World

    “The crisp, delicious flesh of the moonglow was extremely poisonous in its raw form. A single slice contained enough poison to kill a thousand beings within a minute, and there was no known antidote. … There was a unique, ninety-seven step method of preparing the moonglow which removed the poison and made it edible. A chef must have spent at least two years learning the technique from a Master Moonglow Chef before they could obtain a license to prepare it themselves…. All of this licensing and training was necessary because, if one step was omitted or performed in error, the entire process was forfeited. Improperly prepared moonglow might lead to anything from a mild stomachache to a hallucinatory coma, followed by death.

    “Because of its rarity and copious preparation, moonglow cost a thousand credits per fruit. Xizor prided himself on having enough wealth to be able to eat it at his leisure. He had the most respected moonglow chef in the galaxy on his payroll, and generally ate the fruit three or four times a month. ”

    https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Moonglow

      1. baguette

        I was about to write the same thing. It seems that Star Wars doesn’t have a single original bone in it, because this is just a lazy rewrite of fugu fish lore.

    3. ChrisPacific

      The pineapple thing is actually kind of interesting. They use a technique called pineapple pits, which are essentially a kind of sunken greenhouse that uses large quantities of fermenting manure to keep a consistent warm temperature. They date from several centuries ago, before refrigeration and steam shipping, and were the only way to enjoy tropical fruit in England at the time. They supposedly do not taste of manure, although I’m guessing it would be smart to leave them in the fresh air for a while after harvesting.

      Today they are raised by volunteers (horticulture historians?) as a community effort. They are never sold, but eaten by the workers as a reward for their efforts. The 15k figure was an estimate of what one might sell for at auction, but it seems that’s never been tested, probably in case the actual figure turned out to be disappointingly low.

      So guillotine watch for the 18th century perhaps, but for today not so much.

  4. Wukchumni

    Democrats’ wider embrace of swearing, trolling and scorched-earth comebacks is part of a broader mission to sound more like “normal people” and less like a party of poll-tested talking points and white papers. From campaign rallies to TikTok vent seshes, the characteristically buttoned-up Democrats are taking more risks – and punching back harder at Trump and his administration.

    “This is not the Democratic party of your grandfather,” Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), declared earlier this year. “This is a new Democratic party. We’re bringing a knife to a knife fight.”
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    (family-blogging A) the Donkey Show needs to show a little obscenity backbone, its obviously what has been missing from their game, never had been heard such degrading words, and the messaging is not cloudy all day.

    1. The Rev Kev

      ‘This is a new Democratic party. We’re bringing a knife to a knife fight’

      The Democrats do realize that the Repubs are playing by Chicago rules and are bringing a gun to that knife fight, don’t they?

      2. Chris N

        Indeed. I can’t see this as anything more than Democrats were doing a retrospective on their candidates who won 2020-2024, saw the success of Fetterman’s Senate race in PA, and decided that his messaging strategy was going to be the template to work off of for more of them.

        Nevermind that as soon as he openly embraced the typical policy positions, his approval tanked. I guess the party has decided that they need to prioritize winning once, and then they’ll do enough studies and focus groups to figure out how to win consistently. Baby steps.

    4. Roland

      Those silly Democrats still haven’t figured out that people voted for Trump in spite of his boorishness, not because of it.

      And don’t they realize that Harris lacked gravity?

      I know lots of people who freely employ foul language, but not one of them wants politicians to sound like that.

      The Democrats have been rudely insulting Trump every day, for nearly a decade. They still haven’t learned that there’s no point in slinging mud at a dungheap.

      2. Lefty Godot

        Being crass and obscene is now their new way of selling the same old neoliberal, pro-war, identity politics crap? Can they just die, please? What with the UK brownshirts and Starmertroopers harassing George Galloway, maybe we could entice George to come over here and start a real opposition party. The Democrats got lost sometime around 1985 and have kept getting more repellent ever since.

        1. chris

          Old Chuck Schumer: I entered this chamber to pursue policies that benefit the people of this country.

          New Chuck Schumer: I came here to take it up the a$$ from my donors and to eat a bag of d!ck$. And brother, I’m all out of hotdogs.

      3. hk

        (I could be a bit wrong about the history, but the gist is still the same).

        The first top US field commander in North Africa during WW2 was Lloyd Frendendall, a tough talking, cocky SOB who somehow convinced a lot of his colleagues and superiors that he was actually competent–his mannerisms, in fact, were rather similar to Patton’s. A big difference, of course, was that, once on the field, Fredendall proved very quickly that he was not only incompetent, but also a coward, enough that after making a mess of things, culminating the disaster ar the Kasserine Pass, he was sacked and replaced by Patton, who, for all his a*****ry, was competent, brave, and clear eyed–Patton was one of those who bought into Fredendall’s antics during peacetime and was supposedly surprised when ordered to replace him, but, once on the scene, he was quick to see what was going on and put things in order swiftly.

        The point: being a mealy mouthed tough talking as***le is no aubstitute for competence and genuineness.

    5. Laughingsong

      They still tinker around with what they are saying as opposed to actually, well, uh, you know, doing something . . . Sigh.

    6. chris

      Yes, eloquent speech in a formal diction wouldn’t be despised by us mere proles if there was something more than words behind it. It’s the fact that they have nothing to say, and will do nothing to support any promise to the electorate, that people find so awful.

      Do these fools need to be spoken to in Biblical verse? Perhaps if we turned our backs on them after spitting out after accusing them of being neither warm nor cold they would understand. The Democrats haven’t had a legitimate presidential primary process since 2012. They haven’t been a party of any significance since 2016. Why do they think vulgarity will repair the damage their elites have done to the country and their party?

  5. AG

    re: US armed forces demise – new damning GOA report

    The GOA published its latest findings on ground vehicles.

    Not unlikely that Hegseth summoned his people for this very reason and to make clear the dire state of their army.

    direct download link of GOA report 130 p.
    Government Accountability Office report, Weapon System Sustainment: Various Challenges Affect Ground Vehicles’ Availability for Missions
    https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-25-108679.pdf

    Or embedded
    https://news.usni.org/2025/09/25/gao-report-on-weapon-system-sustainment

    Just one example:

    “(…)
    None of the Army vehicles in our review met the mission capable goal of 90 percent in FY 2024. Five of six selected Army ground combat vehicles did not meet mission capable goals in any fiscal year from 2015 through 2025. In the same time frame, selected Army ground support vehicles achieved mission capable goals about 20 percent of the time as shown
    (…)
    Number of Years That Army Ground Vehicles Met Mission Capable Goals in FY 2015 through FY 2024
    (…)
    Abrams 0 out of 10
    APC 0 out of 10
    Bradley 1 out of 10
    Paladin 0 out of 10
    Stryker 0 out of 10
    (…)”

    one reason why there won´t be any WWIII

    1. Bugs

      I think you’re assuming that the Secretary of War™ actually pays any attention to real life, material details that would affect the strength of US military power in the face of an actual threat.

      His little pep talk to the brass is more likely about shiny belt buckles, proper sideburn length, ramrod posture and other traits of manly men aggressive alpha bro manliness. That Baffler article from the other day shows just what a mean, ugly fraud the guy is.

      1. AG

        Hegseth is an idiot and puppet. But he did say e.g. months earlier that the US is back in terms of war gear compared to RU. He has no clue what to do. But he is jingoist enough to at least pretend some pride to demand improvements. So GOA and your point do not necessarily exclude each other.
        Of course that´s just my speculation.

    3. hk

      Interesting since Russians judged that, of all the Western AFVs they captured, the only one that was any good is the Bradley (the only one thst’s not a 0 here…)

      1. Donaldo

        From what I’ve seen, they judge them all to be OK-ish. Bradley did have the most impact, because it was deployed in large numbers, along the M113. It’s not like making IFV/APC is rocket science.

  6. taunger

    Re AI workslop: my employer was using AI generated medical records summaries. They were horrible. AND they regularly hallucinated heart attacks that never happened. We made a big fit, and mgmt backed off, learning they were spending $30k month on the AI slop. We won, but this is actually pretty responsive org. I hope more thoughtful folks can be successful in their endeavors to beat back AI

    1. The Rev Kev

      Maybe management woke up to the fact that if somebody is injured with medical treatment based on hallucinated heart attacks in those medical record summaries, that it would they and not the AI that would be sued into the ground.

      1. paul

        You do have to wonder what liability insurance these scribble bot vendors have.

        Billable interventions for non existent conditions, though, must be attractive. Who cares about the ones that are missed.

        2. ChrisFromGA

          I can envision all sorts of catastrophic problems if use of AI for medical records becomes widespread.

          Disability fraud will become rampant … crooks would be smiling as manna from heaven comes down in the form of bogus records claiming that they have disabling conditions like heart attacks or brain damage.

          Life insurance could become “unobtanium” if nobody can trust medical records. Or prohibitively expensive, as every policy requires a thorough head-to-toe medical exam done by a private doctor.

          1. taunger

            I don’t know about disability fraud. We are a claimant side disability org. No one needs so to perform disability fraud, and if judges start seeing misrepresentation, it will get harder

    2. ilsm

      You ran the “application/acceptance” test for the SW which the vendor neglected.

      The vendor should pay you!

      1. Jesper

        User Acceptance? The times I have been involved with user acceptance testing then the one and only thing of concern was if the software crashed or not.
        If the software didn’t crash then management were ok with the software and if users argued then management issued orders to users to sign off that the application was ok. I suppose maybe it could be seen as ok, the applications were just not useful.
        Once the software had been created or bought then too much PMC-prestige has been invested so nothing for the peons to do but to accept it, deal with it and if necessary find workarounds for it.

        1. ilsm

          “Management” probably had no “use case” defining whaat tasks were being considered for improvement, and what better than now is worth the price…..

          In my experience I have heard too much “it’s better than now” with no regard for now or better.

          The AI fad will sell for a short time.

    3. schmoe

      “Re AI workslop: my employer was using AI generated medical records summaries. ”

      For what purpose (i.e, is your employer a health insurer, or a corporation that helps administer its own self-funded health plan)? If the latter, Isn’t that a HIPAA violation?

      1. Wukchumni

        When I was a teenager there was a real push for us to go metric by the Bicentennial, and needless to say it didn’t take as the public wasn’t all that interested.

        AI seems similar to me, nobody aside from cheating students is really all excited about the prospect, the difference being with metric in the 70’s and 80’s, all you had to do was make new road signs to replace the ones in km’s too, see how easy that was?

        It wasn’t as if the world economy was based on us coming through and having the same weights and measures… unlike AI, apparently.

        1. ChrisFromGA

          The difference is, I think, that we didn’t have billions and billions of capital invested in adopting the metric system.

          The tech bastards are going to try to force feed it down our throats.

            2. Polar Socialist

              For sure he’d refuse to use cents and dollars (metric), or buy bigger soda bottles or wines (metric), or read nutritional labels (metric). Or use any darn electricity with all those Watts, kiloWatts and megaWatts. Or amperes. Or ohms. Or any of the rest of that metric hogwash that’s impossible to understand.

              He’d retire and take photos using 35 mm film with 120 mm lens… no, wait…

  7. The Rev Kev

    “Argentina gets $20 billion in US aid, hands over control of economic policyArgentina gets $20 billion in US aid, hands over control of economic policy”

    According to the guys at The Duran, that $20 billion is a pretty substantial amount of money that is equal to the current reserves of the Argentine central bank so a really big deal. But hey, anything for a MAGA bro in need, right? But it does not help when all those American soybean farmers who voted MAGA know that Argentina is selling their own soybeans to China and pushing American farmers out of the competition-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59dnsYybt-o (10:27 mins)

    Make Argentina Great Again, right?

      1. Louis Fyne

        we live in a political system where it’s: socialism for globalist elites (with libertarianism for everyone else) versus socialism for nationalist elites (with libertarianism for everyone else).

        aka neo-feudalism

        1. mrsyk

          Yeah. I imagine there are more than a few people in, say, North Carolina or Detroit that wish that $20B was being spent domestically.
          As you point out, it’s an off-brand libertarianism that sends massive amounts of treasure offshore.

          1. Ken Murphy

            Seems to me the libertarian would be arguing that the government shouldn’t have that spare $20Bn lying about to largesse abroad. Rather, that $20Bn should have remained in the hands of the citizenry to allocate as they individually see fit. And if a bunch of the citizenry decide to collaborate and pool $20Bn to a foreign nation then bully for them.

  8. Ben Panga

    Re: Why Donald Trump is obsessed with Portland

    But a senior police official at the Portland Police Department, who was granted anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about police operations, said sending in additional federal forces would escalate the situation.

    “It will increase the number of protesters,” he said. When asked what the PPD would do if that happens, he added: “I truly don’t know.”

    Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on Saturday accused Trump of wanting to trigger chaos.

    “He wants to create a big problem that he can then, in turn, use to justify other expansions of authoritarian control,” Merkley said.

    This is the point as far as I can see. For the crackdown on “Antifa Marxist whatevers” to happen, they need some footage of rioters/ppl fighting with LEO.

    Millerites must calculate that Portland has the best chance of a big pushback against the Stormtrumpers.

    Agents provocatuer activated; Fog of disinformation incoming.

  9. AG

    re: Suharto coup Indonesia 1965

    From the intro of German JUNGE WELT daily

    “(…)
    In an “embarrassing mishap,” CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield told the New York Times in late July 2001, a copy of a State Department history book on the US role in Indonesia in the 1960s reached staff at the National Security Archive at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The archive’s staff posted the document, titled “The Foreign Relations of the United States 1964–1968. Volume XXVI: Indonesia, Malaysia-Singapore, Philippines,” on its website on July 27, 2001.

    The 570-page chapter on Indonesia provides a wealth of evidence of state terrorist mischief. For example, on November 13, 1965, the US Embassy in Jakarta forwarded information from the Indonesian police stating that “between 50 and 100 PKI members were being killed every night in East and Central Java.” The same agency cabled the following note to Washington on April 15, 1966: “We honestly don’t know for sure whether the actual number is closer to 100,000 or 1,000,000, but we believe it prudent, especially in case of press inquiries, to use the lower estimate.”

    Howard Federspiel, who served as an Indonesia expert in the State Department’s Office of Intelligence and Research in 1965, concluded after comparing US and Indonesian death and arrest lists at the end of January 1966 that the Suharto army leadership had destroyed the PKI. “Nobody cared,” Federspiel explained in an interview with journalist Kathy Kadane in May 1990, “as long as it was communists who were being slaughtered.”
    (…)”

    See entire German-language article
    Suharto’s Purge
    Sixty years ago, an unprecedented mass murder of Communist Party members took place in Indonesia.
    https://archive.is/9cn0j

    1. ThirtyOne

      Is Jakarta coming?
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jakarta_Method
      The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World is a 2020 political history book by American journalist and author Vincent Bevins. It concerns U.S. government support for and complicity in anti-communist mass killings around the world and their aggregate consequences from the Cold War until the present era. The title is a reference to Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66, during which an estimated one million people were killed in an effort to destroy the political left and movements for government reform in the country.

      1. Jonathan Holland Becnel

        It would if these political neophytes actually knew what Left meant and not some dumb idpol lib definition.

        Can’t go after the Class First Leftists because it would legitimize them (~us).

      2. Alex Cox

        Sadaam Hussein was tasked with a similar assignment when he was ‘our guy’ in Iraq.

        CIA provided Hussein and his Ba’ath party with lists of leftists to be killed. Several thousands died.

      3. Michael Fiorillo

        Well, since there is no organized Left in the US, I guess we have nothing to worry about, right?

          1. ambrit

            That depends on your definition of “Left.”
            I will not be surprised to see the Organs of State Security distribute an Enforcers handbook where ‘Left’ is defined as anyone you need to shut up on any particular day.

  10. JohnA

    I love spotting Kingfishers, especially if you see them dive into the water after a patient wait. However, it was somewhat deflating to hear one time BBC nature programme presenter Bill Oddie (also of the Goodies comedy prog if that crossed the Atlantic) saying ‘kingfishers are far more common than people imagine’. Yes they probably are, I have seen them in several parts of Europe, but still a thrill every time.

    1. Wukchumni

      I’ll admit to looking for some connection in the links above, Huey Long perhaps, or was that a Kingfisher in that oh so elaborately tiny music box?

      1. Marking Time

        I thought you were in Oz Rev ? Kookaburras are part of the Kingfisher family and they are definitely not afraid of man. Those in my yard follow us very closely when gardening or mowing as we uncover morsels for them. My wife used to feed them by hand until we realised how well they eat without our help. Quite a cacophony each morning at first light too.

        1. The Rev Kev

          We get Kookaburras around our place from time to time. Always a pleasure to listen too. But we are too far from water to see them in action.

    3. Revenant

      Kingfishers are a rare sight in the wild in the UK, at least here on the rivers in the southwest. I think I have seen them once on the River Otter and once on the Torridge, in fifty years. They are shy of man and you’d need to be a frequent birder to see them regularly.

      However, if you go to Japan, you are guaranteed to see them in the famous gardens at Kanazawa, which are crossed by multiple streams. The kingfishers seem entirely habituated to people and were flying up and down the streams, alighting on the bridge parapets and streamside trees. I remember the flashing kingfishers more vividly than the gardens, beautiful as they were.

    4. Acacia

      Just the day before yesterday, I spotted one on a river that passes through Yokohama.

      Never expected to see one in such an urban environment, but there he was.

    5. compUTerguy

      Goodies! Goody, goody, yum, yum…

      Can’t remember where nor when I watched them but it was wonderful! Haven’t seen it in forever but “Goodies and the Beanstalk” is an all-time favorite!

    6. Plutoniumkun

      The Common Kingfisher (there are many subspecies worldwide) of Europe and across Asia to Japan are fairly common and widespread as the name suggests (but still spectacular if you are fortunate enough to see one). The confusion over their rarity status comes from their importance as an indicator species of a healthy river and their popularity as a charismatic species. A river can be designated as requiring specific protection under the EU Birds Directive (it is an Annex I species – the highest priority) solely by having kingfisher breed and feed in it – a legal status not applied to arguably much more vulnerable birds. On strictly scientific criteria they probably don’t deserve a protected status, but charismatic species are important to gaining political/popular support to protect specific habitats, and as such, the Kingfisher is very important to conservationists when it comes to protecting river networks.

  11. Wukchumni

    This just in from a Confederate in the Hegseth loop…

    They’re calling it a: Ink Tank

    Apparently the all hands on meeting has a purpose in that the brass will all be requested to get a tattoo of either an old glory waving furiously, or something vaguely militaristic in a religious vein.

    1. The Rev Kev

      The Crusades seem to be very popular with Hegseth. He has a Jerusalem cross, also known as the Crusader cross, as well as the text “Deus Vult”, which translates to “God Wills It” in Latin, believed to be a Crusader battle cry. He also has the Arabic word kafir as well. These are not the tattoos of a normal person.

      1. GF

        “The Crusades seem to be very popular with Hegseth.”

        Maybe he could be talked into Crusades 2.0 to go save the Armenian Christians. After that quick mission, he could then save the Palestinians. All in God’s name.

        1. Basil

          You must be new to the Crusade thing. The Eastern Christians are targets. He is supposed to take on those heretics as “Deus Vult”.

  12. Louis Fyne

    Re. kids reading for leisure…

    I am convinced that our, otherwise very good, (but you can easily infer their politics) has shadow-banned sci-fi books from authors who should be in the “sci-fi canon” of any decent library (Larry Niven).

    Presumably not out of malice, in that the staff all skew towards certain demographics that historically are not stereotypically into sci-fi.

    Or it could be with malice…..as sometimes characters reflect gender relations from 50+ years ago and the exploration trope in sci-fi is often labeled as “colonialism in space”

    shrug.

    1. Ken Murphy

      I’ve been having a hard time finding sci-fi that I actually want to read. I have a personal focus on our Moon and cislunar space (while the genre generally focuses on Mars and beyond), but recent titles like ‘The Relentless Moon’ have been, for lack of a better way to phrase it, too ‘woke’ and girl-bossy for my taste. Then again, I’m sure at the time just as many folks were off put by Heinlein’s later works where he was getting weird with the kink stuff. I know I was when I eventually stumbled onto them.
      As for colonialism in space, I am seeing an attempt in the space community to shape the rhetoric into harnessing ambitions and tamping down on the idea of humans going into space. ‘Cause humans are bad, mkay. And they do bad things. So I guess we should only be allowed to do them down here in the gravity well. I’m sure that will work out well for the pro-‘let’s extinct humanity for the benefit of Gaia’ folks.

      1. The Rev Kev

        You should really consider reading Heinlein’s earlier books. Books such as “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”, “Tunnel in the Sky”, “Farmer in the Sky” and especially “The Man Who Sold the Moon.”

        1. John

          Second this. The scene in Harsh Mistress where Luna drops a rock on an “empty” field made me think “are people really that stupid?” That has now been answered in the affirmative, repeatedly.

        2. Ken Murphy

          Oh I have. Part of my Asperger’s is being a completionist. I’ve read everything he wrote (and ‘Farmer in the Sky’ is one that came to mind whilst writing the comment). And I agree his earlier stuff was brilliant, though I was never too fond of TMIAHM; the convenient smart computer was just a little too deus ex machina-y for my tastes.
          I wasn’t kidding when I said Moon-focused. I have over 300 fiction books set at least partially on the Moon in my Lunar Library, most all of which I have read. Also a couple thousand non-fiction books, in several languages.
          I’ve always tried to have a book about as I live life’s adventure for times when I have a bit of a wait. Current title is ‘Paris: Histoire d’une Ville’ by Marchand. I will admit that as of late I have been more virtue-signallingly obvious about reading books in public. I do consider it culturally important for us to be a literate society.

          1. Laughingsong

            I did enjoy John Varley’s “Steel Beach” moon-centric book. I especially liked the idea that if you had one too many you could mail yourself home via vacuum tube.

      2. jsn

        In “Seven Eves” Neil Stephenson Splits and Kesslers the moon which burns the earth after which, after a suitable time, he repopulates earth with genetically engineered spawn of seven women scientists who escaped the apocalypse through their various scientific specialties. Specialties that drive the various selection pressures the dispersed clades face.

        Not for the faint of heart.

      3. Roland

        Heinlein was often an intentionally provocative writer. I still remember my disgust, when as a boy reading Stranger in a Strange Land, to find that the book ended with the televangelist frauds actually being in heaven!

        Another example, Starship Troopers is a first-person account, narrated by a political naif, of a humanity ruled by an authoritarian militaristic regime, which has embarked upon a galactic war of extermination.

        It’s astonishing how many critics confuse the narrator with the author, even though Heinlein published The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Stranger in a Strange Land, and Glory Road around the same time, each with very different implicit politics. Of course, it’s also disturbing how many readers have enthused over Heinlein’s future-fascist dystopia.

        Heinlein’s take on the “girl boss” phenomenon, in Glory Road, is perhaps more interesting now than it was 60 years ago. The book begins as a heroic quest to save the universe, but ends as an existentialist study of male superfluousness. In between, Heinlein forecasts the American popular response to the Vietnam War (a decade in advance,) and how youth counterculture would devolve into consumerist complacency (two decades in advance.)

      4. Martin Oline

        Ian MacDonald wrote a trilogy of books about the moon that I read. The series are titled Luna: New Moon (2015), Luna: Wolf Moon (2017), and Luna: Moon Rising (2019). People compared it to Game of Thrones in space and the author compared it to the TV series Dallas. I was very interested in the first novel but became increasingly less satisfied as the series progressed. Maybe try your library?

        The Dervish House by the same author Ian MacDonald from 2010 was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2011 and ‘I think it was very good, much better than the moon books. River Of Gods, a sci-fi novel about India from 2005, took a bit to get into but it was also very good.

      5. hk

        There was a sci fi novel I read whose title or author I can’t remember for my life that had the moon crash into earth (it was not very strong on the “sciences.”) and prompted a world war (it was more of a politics tract). While many millions died, it was discovered that the new continent formerly known as the moon is rich in mineral riches so the survivors and what governments that remained go to war over it (along with commentary along the way about how bad planning led to poorly built shelters and needless deaths and such–yes, it’s that kind of sci fi). At least, if I’m remembering things correctly and not making things up in guise of recollection.

        Any clue as to what book this was?

          2. Acacia

            Interesting.

            To prevent widespread panic, world governments agree to conceal the truth.

            This same plot point appears in the British SF film The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961), which also concerns a catastrophic de-orbiting event. One twist in the film, though, is that it’s the Soviets that spill the beans whilst the Western powers continue to dissemble.

    2. Carolinian

      My main library has a sci-fi section, “graphic novels,” a teen room, and the traditional children’s section. They may be worried about door traffic. Indeed I may be one of the villains since I read so many ebooks and, ironically, sometimes have to turn to the new printed book shelf to find current titles. Whereas the ebooks that are listed on the website are grabbed up quickly.

      To all of which I say whatever works. We need and love our library and want it to continue.

  13. mrsyk

    Regarding Novavax,
    H and I were able to get the new Novavax vaccine at CVS yesterday here in SW Vermont. Here are a few things we learned which might be helpful for any fellow readers looking to receive this particular vaccine,

    It’s called Nuvaxoid.

    One can only get the vaccine as a walk-in. One cannot make an appointment to get it.

    Insurance will cover it even if you are under 65 if you sign a piece of paper that states you are in the “higher risk” category (good news, lol, everybody is). That list can be found here, CNN. It includes “mood disorders, including depression”, “former smoker”, and “physical inactivity”, so something for everyone.

    It has to be at least two months since a previous covid vaccination.

    Other than some brief soreness in the arm, no evidence of immediate side effects for either of us.

    Your results may vary. I hope this is helpful.

    1. Laughingsong

      Thanks! So far I haven’t been able to find it here in Willamette Valley Oregon (Eugene/Springfield/Corvallis) but I keep checking periodically…

    2. Xihuitl

      Got mine a couple of days ago at the Kroger pharmacy here in Houston. I asked for it and the pharmacist looked and was surprised that yes, they had it. Just came in. No side effects.

  14. The Rev Kev

    ‘Philippe Lemoine
    @phl43
    I’ve already mentioned it, but I really believe that people don’t fully grasp what a revolution this is going to be. You need to imagine a society where everyone is profoundly retarded and by that I mean a lot more than they already are.’

    By coincidence I stumbled across a video talking about this same point. How kids are arriving at universities, even elite universities, and when told that they will be expected in some courses to read one book a week, tell their professors that they can’t do it with at least one student saying that she had never been required to read a book from start to finish. Jesus wept-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3wJcF0t0bQ (11:03 mins)

    The comments for this video are also worth reading.

    1. griffen

      America the exceptional shining city on the hill, raising a young generation of children who will not read or learn really valuable math skills….what ever might go wrong? \sarc

      Starship Troopers, in 2055….FFS. Oh and SMH. Everything important and relevant to living a modern adult life has been contorted into the dopamine loop cycle of social media and sport betting apps ready with a few simple clicks.

    2. Wukchumni

      When you let that slim black rectangle in your hand remember everything for you, how can you remember what happened as you go along in a book?

    3. Polar Socialist

      I think Mr. Lemoine overeggs his indignation: even literacy wasn’t that popular in the “civilized world” before public schooling in the late 19th century, and the golden age of popular (pulp) literature had to wait until 1920’s. That’s a mere hundred years ago.

      “People” were not profoundly retarded before Burroughs wrote Tarzan and Mars books for them or Howard told the legend of Conan the Barbarian. Why would people become profoundly retarded after stopping reading them?

      1. Santo de la Sera

        Alexis de Tocqueville commented favorably on very high literacy rates in 1830s America, and I have seen estimates of a 90% literacy rate for white males in New England in the late 18th century, with a religious focus.
        The difference now is people are bombarded with a continuous stream of what we used to call sound bites, all day, everyday.

      2. jsn

        To your last question, because in the time stolen by addiction to their fondle slabs, flat screens and gaming consoles they’re being educated into a manipulative thought collective where the only relationship to reality is the ever more structured flow of money to the oligarchs pushing the tech.

        If the power goes out, on the other hand, I’m 100% with you.

      3. NN Cassandra

        In old times children were supposedly frying their brains by starring at TV and later by playing games in front of PC screens into 2em at morning. Wonder what happened to those pupils and what they would say today.

    4. Rolf

      Thank you Rev for the video link. Are we digging our children’s graves (and those of their children) by not reversing regressive educational “reforms” (NCLB et al.)? Diminished reading ability handicaps writing ability and associated skills — analysis, recognition of nuance, irony, etc. The U.S. Educational Industrial Complex and its incessant and highly profitable promotion of machine-gradeable standardized assessments, demands for “data-driven” teaching are all part of the same juggernaut. Given this trend, champion grifter Sam Altman’s expectation that AI will “surpass human intelligence by the end of the decade” may indeed be realized, simply by people’s inability to dwell long-term on complex ideas, understand what is happening to the world around them, or retain simple common sense. Mr. Postman would not be amused.

  15. Wukchumni

    Wow, those Chinese trick drivers~

    What a display of speed and timing!

    When I was in the coin biz, China was the sick man of numismatics, nobody had a pot to piss in, nor the desire to buy back their history.

    There were a few desirable coins, one of them being a 1928 Auto Dollar. For the 30 years I was pitching old metal, they were worth around $1,000 for an average condition example and maybe $2,000 for a nicer example.

    I bought and sold 3 or 4 of these for around those levels back in the day~

    The Auto Dollar (Chinese: 汽車錢; lit. ‘Automobile coin’, also known as 贵州汽车币; ‘Guizhou car coin’ or Kweichow Auto Dollar in English) is a silver one yuan coin minted by Chinese warlord Zhou Xicheng [zh] in 1928 to commemorate the construction of roadways in Guizhou province. The obverse of the coin features an automobile driving along a road, flanked by grass arranged to spell out Zhou’s personal name, Xicheng (西成).

    The coin became popular with coin collectors soon after its release. By the early 1930s, the coin had become increasingly scarce in circulation due to demand from international collectors. One of the coins, graded AU 53 by the Numismatic Guaranty Company, auctioned for US$192,000 in January 2022. In June 2023, this record was broken by an MS 62-graded example (the second-highest grade of any known Auto Dollar), which auctioned for US$336,000 at the Hong Kong International Numismatic Fair.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_Dollar

    1. Sue Victoria

      Captain Wuk

      Have you considered writing a book of your numismatic knowledge and experience?

      ‘I’ll buy that for a dollar’

      (who gets the reference. Hint, its tangental to the Starship Troopers comment)

  16. ISL

    The Russian refinery article by Radio Free Europe/Ukraine is unsurprisingly Ukraine friendly, and implies that the damage to refined products in RUssia is massive (a meme I have seen mentioned elsewhere.

    A more balanced view is that in some regions some grades are unavailable:

    https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/refinery-shutdowns-hurt-fuel-supply-several-russian-regions-russian-crimea-head-2025-09-25/

    Which, if it occurred in the US, would be a nothingburger. Oh wait, my anecdata is that it does occur often perhaps every 20 gas refuelings in S. California some pumps are blocked off with a Grade Not Available sign (probably due to California refinery closures in recent years), where I drive widely (~50,000 miles per year) to remote areas. Wondering if any Texarkana (where refineries have not closed) NC readers have similar anecdata?

    1. Maxwell Johnston

      As per RU media, the shortages are gasoline and not diesel; hence, largely irrelevant for military purposes. The gasoline shortages seem to be mainly in the deep south (including Crimea) and the Far East. The refineries getting whacked by drones has an impact, but a larger factor is the simple reality that it’s a huge country…..takes time to re-route the finished product.

      All this media talk of oil wars and Trump’s silly tweet about gasoline lines in RU did make me wonder, so (as I’m in Tuscany these days) I asked my wife what’s going on in Moscow. She replied that there are no shortages of gasoline or diesel in Moscow and its surrounding region, and that I should stop paying attention to anything the western media says about RU.

      I doubt that these deep strikes on targets deep inside RU are actually being launched from UKR. E.g., the attack on the pumping station in Chuvashia referenced by the article in question. It’s pretty obvious that these attacks are being carried out locally, by UKR agents using drones that are either transported into RU or sourced locally. RU internal security needs to up its game. Beria and Stalin, whatever their other faults, took internal security very seriously.

  17. Wukchumni

    I wouldn’t be surprised to see that $7k box of spendy macaroons remaindered in the candy aisle @ Grocery Outlet for $6.99.

    A wee bit cheaper than $350 per macaroon!

    They often get confectionery that are 1-shot-deals, you’ll never see it again.

    One of my favorite item was these delicious frozen French torte cakes, made in Tunisia and remaindered all the way to Visalia for $4.99 each. Everybody lost money on the deal except for Grocery Outlet.

    1. ibaien

      just in tunis with my folks last fall – lovely city, great medina and the bardo is truly a world-class museum. up in the bougie french expat neighborhoods they’ve got luxury grocery stores selling all sorts of made-in-tunisia french delectables. cheese, confitures, charcuterie, you name it. makes sense when your country produces great ingredients and has cheap talented labor, and a virtually worthless currency. surprised they don’t export more stateside except as job lots.

  18. griffen

    Sports Desk entry, ugly American golf supporters and fans of USA USA edition. Golf tournaments are held around the country and are usually sited at superb golf courses where snobs ( ala Caddyshack ) can sport their latest vehicle or describe their late wins in the stock markets. Golf this week is focused on the US vs Europe biennial match of both talent and witty banter, the Ryder Cup. A much younger version of myself would’ve desired to attend such an event but since circa 2010 corporate America has chosen to deny my further ascent up the ladder; so I content myself at watching comfortably at home. This golf fan fell into, or rather with the slobs category from the aforementioned Caddyshack…ha ha.

    It appears fan behavior at the host course, Bethpage in upstate NY, includes all manner of rude comments and insults to the European team players. Apparently this behavior is only serving to backfire after two days of team competition; Europe sports a commanding lead on team points, heading to the Sunday finale.

    It’s like the oxymoronic opposite of the siege and eventual surrender at Yorktown in October 1781. Military genius Lord Cornwallis had to at last concede that upstart nation of farmers and common rabble had managed to outlast the sheer will and vast numbers of the British military.

    https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/surrender-british-general-cornwallis-americans-october

    1. Screwball

      My PMC friends think it’s great. They want America to lose everything. Why? Because Trump. They even blame the late slide of the Detroit Tigers on Trump. It is quite wild to watch all this. At least the ones I know aren’t chugging Tylenol to spite him…yet.

      What a world…

    2. raspberry jam

      Hasn’t the Ryder Cup been rowdy for a few seasons at least now? I can’t do team sports but in order to communicate with my father I have had to find a handful of sport topics to follow (tennis is my preference but golf will do if needed – there is enough interpersonal drama to keep it sort of gossip-worthy) and I recall watching the Ryder Cup with him in 2022 where I think the US fans were taunting Cam Smith for his mullet. One of the only times I recall a player interacting with the fans on the green – the spectators were yelling at him to get a haircut – such a surprise compared to pro tennis and other golf where noise from the gallery is generally forbidden on pain of expulsion – I recall he turned to them while they were catcalling him about his hair and said, “I can’t hear you!” before walking off.

      1. griffen

        I can recall pretty well, the Sunday proceedings in 1999. To me, and ever since that singular memory of the US comeback, well it seems there’s a transition from a supposedly “feel good” test of skills and sporting behavior into the firm terrain of a big family siblings rivalry. Throw in drunken revelry with knuckleheads in attendance and the right to be a loud, vocal supporter of the home continent whether Team Red or Team Blue. I rather enjoy watching this brand of golf, but have generally skipped watching this event in a good while. Adding I really thought the host course was more an upstate NY location but that’s not correct.

        ” I’m rubber your glue, you smell like a donkey and look like one too…”. \sarc

        1. KLG

          The emcee on the first tee Saturday (second day of competition) at Bethpage Black apparently led a “Fuck you, Rory!” chant at Rory McIroy, the leader of the European team (I watched only about 20 minutes of the entire thing and am relying on media reports). She was not there today. Apparently the US captain Keegan Bradley had no problem with her behavior. The Americans mounted a comeback from a very deep hole today but the outcome was never in doubt. They got spanked and looked mostly clueless.

          The slide of the Ryder Cup into jingoistic decrepitude began in 1991 when the American side used GHW Bush’s First Iraq War as a prop to generate enthusiasm in the 1991 War on the Shore. Things have only gotten worse since then, but a lot of money is made now, so expect things to decline further into the muck in future years. Online betting parlors are likely to be the next big sponsors. Given that the American golfers generally come across as greedy twits, it is not difficult to pull for the Euros. Most of the European players make their living on the US PGA Tour, but they seem to have the team thing down. The Americans, not so much.

          Yes, this is a “First World Problem” of absolutely no significance, except as a perfect but prosaic example of the Ugly American.

  19. baguette

    Most Expenslve Macaroons Haute Couture by Pierre Herme – $US7,000 a kilo
    — Expensive Things (@MostExpenslve) February 1, 2015

    I wonder how much did Emmanuel Macaroon cost France, per kilo?

    1. AG

      The absurdity is that macarons are very very simple pastry.
      Egg whites whipped with sugar and then you add your flavour (add optionally powdered almonds)
      The most time-consuming part is creating halves which you place on the baking tray and then after baking just for a few minutes, glueing them together with chocolate, jam or something else that sticks. (how about semtax).
      So it´s not just a rip-off it´s a giant scam.
      It´s the equivalent of identity politics compared to Marxism.
      Pure talk and selling. Almost no manual labour and honesty.
      100% flavour 0% substance.

        2. AG

          hm it depends
          I shared your view for many years but when friends made some for me as Christmas cookies present – (to make cookies at Christmas is a thing in Germany called “Plätzchen”, I too used to make various kinds standing in the kitchen for about 1 week which was like doing a triathlon. I would loose several pounds in weight) – I changed my mind limited to those hand-made macarons.
          But I agree 1000% when it comes to that Hermes “Haute Couture” BS.

          p.s. remember “Grand Budapest Hotel” and Mendel pastries? (Despite me having some major issues with WA but thats not for here)

      3. MarqueJaune

        Ahahah!!!
        A scam indeed!

        Talk about manual labour and heavenly flavours…

        Traditional monastic patisserie
        In fact, just a few examples of some of the most known pastries…
        In portuguese (the english captions are not that bad…)
        Btw, after the looong process of extending the dough, it’s thickness is sub-milimeter, just a few tens of microns

        Enjoy!

        1. AG

          !!!
          reminds me of Grandma, RIP.
          Anthony Bourdain used to visit this kind of experts.
          In Germany there is an out-of-print book series dedicated to each region in Italy collecting rare or little known local recipes from mothers and grandmothers, naturally, many of whom however also were working in their own tiny local restaurants. Not dissimilar to what you have linked to.
          Unfortunately I have no time for that.
          I used to try a few things, such as cake from zucchinis or pudding from rosmary.
          But compared to your video that´s not even amateurish…

  20. Alice X

    Ringers all. The the thought-crime indictments roll in.

    >Trump’s NSPM-7 Labels Common Beliefs As Terrorism “Indicators” Ken Klippenstein

    The Trump administration isn’t only targeting organizations or groups but even individuals and “entities” whom NSPM-7 says can be identified by any of the following “indica” (indicators) of violence:
    • anti-Americanism,

    • anti-capitalism,

    • anti-Christianity,

    • support for the overthrow of the United States Government,

    • extremism on migration,

    • extremism on race,

    • extremism on gender

    • hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family,

    • hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on religion, and

    • hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on morality.

    2. JP

      We are about to have our fall festival in our small red town. I was thinking maybe a booth with Antifa sign up sheets. My wife cautions me to wear body armor if I insist on selling Kirk was a Jerk tee shirts. Now I have to come up with an immoral anti religious family poster. If there is violence who will be charged?

      3. ambrit

        I worked with a fellow years ago who was charged with “Assault of a Police Horse” during an altercation during Mardis Gras. He had been ridden down by the mounted copper.
        So, if history is any guide, you will be arrested for “Inciting Thoughtcrime.”
        A good “immoral anti-religious family poster” would be one I thought up years ago: “Jesus was a Communist.” (It happens to be a very defensible position.)
        Stay safe, and I echo your lady’s recommendation.

      4. ambrit

        You would probably be charged with “Inciting Thoughtcrime.”
        A good tee shirt to stir up the locals would be: “Jesus was a Communist.” (A very defensible position.)
        Stay safe, armour up early.

          1. ambrit

            A Dragon emoji! Now I know I am not AIing this. (I use AI as a reference to hallucinatory ideation.)
            Stay safe in the Big Easy.

      6. ChrisRUEcon

        #SeriousNote: Do be careful. And I mean that … one knows not the precise level of brain-addled-ness … anywhere … at anytime … anymore …

        #PlayfulNote: Write “Antifa” in Cyrillc (Антифа) and put the silhouette of an eagle over it … LOL

        If any one questions, simply say it’s meant to show that ‘Murica’s gonna git that Antifa good!

    3. ciroc

      QUESTION: After releasing your book 9-11, many reporters have said that you are anti-American. Others even suggest that you should pack up and move to another country since you believe America to be a leading terrorist state. How do you respond to such remarks?

      CHOMSKY: The concept “anti-American” is an interesting one. The counterpart is used only in totalitarian states or military dictatorships, something I wrote about many years ago (see my book Letters from Lexington). Thus, in the old Soviet Union, dissidents were condemned as “anti-Soviet.” That’s a natural usage among people with deeply rooted totalitarian instincts, which identify state policy with the society, the people, the culture. In contrast, people with even the slightest concept of democracy treat such notions with ridicule and contempt. Suppose someone in Italy who criticizes Italian state policy were condemned as “anti-Italian.” It would be regarded as too ridiculous even to merit laughter. Maybe under Mussolini, but surely not otherwise.

      Actually the concept has earlier origins. It was used in the Bible by King Ahab, the epitome of evil, to condemn those who sought justice as “anti-Israel” (“ocher Yisrael,” in the original Hebrew, roughly “hater of Israel,” or “disturber of Israel”). His specific target was Elijah.

      It’s interesting to see the tradition in which the people you refer to choose to place themselves. The idea of leaving America because one opposes state policy is another reflection of deep totalitarian commitments. Solzhenitsyn, for example, was forced to leave Russia, against his will, by people with beliefs very much like those you are quoting.

      https://chomsky.info/20021209/

    4. Jonathan Holland Becnel

      Let’s see here…

      I identify as:

      Pro America 🇺🇸
      Anti Capitalist
      Pro Jesus
      Support the separation of Wealth & the United States Government
      Pro Class Politics
      Pro Class Politics
      Pro Class Politics
      Pro Class Politics
      Pro Jesus Morality aka Debt Jubilees & Loving thy Neighbor & the Poor

        1. Alice X

          Thank you so much, very illustrative. I don’t mean to wear an ideology on my sleeve, though I have stated it from time to time. We must all be free to think for ourselves. Without coercion or manipulation.

    5. Kouros

      What happens if one comes with the argument that Jesus was anti capitalist and in fact the good word that he was bringing was the Year of the Lord, the Jubilee and the cancellation of debts, reason for why the priests/bankers wanted him dead?

        1. ambrit

          REcurious about this. My two comments that were eaten by Ye Internet Dragons, for which you showed me a Dragon emoji, thanks for the laugh there, on another comment were along the lines of “the Nazarene was a communard.” They both became byte sized gustatory items for the Fell Worms.
          The history of the First Century Christain churches of the Eastern Mediterranean shows the communard aspects of the “movement” plainly.
          Stay safe in Da Quarter!

  21. Acacia

    Re: Sam Altman predicts AI will outsmart humanity by 2030

    Sorry, no, though AI will likely outsmart Altman himself as he has little humanity ergo the bar is rather low

      1. Acacia

        Ah yes, Ray Kurzweil.

        I for one am looking forward to his next book, tentatively entitled: Trust me Bro, The Singularity Is Getting So Totally Near It’s Like Breathing Down Your Neck.

    3. ambrit

      Will we recognize the first AI Politico? Vote for it?
      We once worried here about ending up as a society living a version of the story, “With Folded Hands.”
      See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_Folded_Hands_…
      A lot of us now suspect that the near future will be more of a version of, “With Clenched Fists.” Sans the Velvet Glove.
      Be safe.

  22. The Rev Kev

    ‘Science girl
    @gunsnrosesgirl3
    fully autonomous bus in China, which operates without a steering wheel or a driver’s cabin, running 24/7 on urban roads,’

    This is what a high trust society looks like. I doubt that they are worried that a bunch of hoons will spray graffiti on that bus or perhaps wreck the interior cabin.

    1. Wukchumni

      You never really see much graffiti in Chinese photos or videos, perhaps few in the middle kingdom went to the Krylon School of Art?

    2. Mo's Bike Shop

      Or ride inside waiting.

      We had a driverless bus running on a 2 mile loop here. Still needed an attendant, no one was getting in that glass box to be alone with a stranger.

  23. Adam Eran

    In depth propaganda: Bibles supplied to Oklahoma schools have an appendix with the constitution…that omits the 13th amendment!

    Here’s the video short.

    Apparently that pesky “due process” is not blessed by G-d!

    1. Wukchumni

      Oklahoma, where the school bibles come with some restraint
      And the lack of the 13th amendment can sure smell sweet
      When the hard right raptures it like it aint
      Oklahoma, Ev’ry night another fright and I
      Sit alone uptight and watch a grim MQ-9 Reaper
      Makin’ lazy circles in the sky

  24. marcyincny

    Thank you very much. I expect it will be very helpful having the new name (which actually appears to have a ‘v’ in it, Nuvaxovid).

  25. The Rev Kev

    “Hollywood Is Planning To Sign Their First AI-Generated Star”

    People are not aware of it but the US already has its first AI-generated politician – Mitch McConnell. Proof of this was when he glitched out in public and could do nothing until his program could reboot.

    1. AG

      How many years ago already was it reported that some brands such as Tom Cruise were in fact already turned into virtual models stored on the internal hard drives in case somethings happens.
      The only thing that has changed is quality.
      In fact since you mention politicians – it would be fun to create fake videos with a Mitch McConnell suddenly stating sane views and making leftist demands!
      That´d be a great playing field for serious artists.
      Upsetting the entire media by creating honest HRCs, Obamas and Vances or Marco Rubio pledging his love for Socialist Cuba.

      1. Jonathan Holland Becnel

        I kinda want to make the Predator and Alien and Rambo say these types of things using AI.

    2. jsn

      That was more “Westworld” than AI/CGI, but at least Mitch does have a “body” even if it does have Intel inside.

      It was awkward that Microsoft chose that moment to install a patch, but they’re always doing that when I’m under time pressure on my Lenovo.

  26. Carolinian

    Re Klippenstein and NSPM-7–so is he Kirk assassination going to be Trump’s Reichstag fire or is the left’s conviction–or useful talking point–that Trump is Hitler threatening to turn him into that? And can Hitlers be conjured out of thin air or do they require a nation and culture accustomed to authoritarian leadership? Victimization narratives do create vengeance narratives–see today’s other post–so here’s suggesting that the right is not entirely wrong that certain parts of their opposition are out to get them by any means necessary. Plus it’s hard for cooler heads to prevail with Trump spouting every dumb thing that pops into his head on social media.

    But the hysteria didn’t start with him and Kippenstein’s article points to 9/11 when the vengeance cry was near universal among liberals and conservatives. Few were willing to entertain the idea that the Trade Center downing was a rare reprisal for all the mayhem the US had been spreading around the world.

    Here’s suggesting that cooler heads on at least one side need to prevail. Pretending Trump is something more than our accidental boob in chief may merely encourage the worst.

    1. MartyH

      Thank you. I wonder if someone is going to compile them all so we can see how similar they are in tone and over-comprehensive … or not. Hard to say this is an outlier without the compairsons, no?

  27. griffen

    Democracy dies when suppression of speech and the media is permitted. What if that censorship happened under a different regime or administration, you know like the one in command of the WH from 2021 to 2024? The most transparent blah blah in history…American freedom of speech and “pearl clutching” in 2025, given hindsight, well I just find this hilarious.

    Cue up some classic one liners on “Our Democracy!”. I can admit that Brendan Carr seems like the royal “prick” based of his comments last week. But then consider or counter that perspective, to what Sen. Teddy “huggable” Cruz added on the matter. If it was dangerous as hell in 2022 to 2023…still dangerous as hell today.

    Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert…go suck on eggs for all I care. You were, long ago, funny or hilariously satirical but then you get all serious about Trump and the “opening two minutes hate monologue”. Overpaid acolytes to Disney or CBS, and pharmaceutical advertisers. Johnny Carson and George Carlin is what is really needed….others mileage may vary.

  28. Jason Boxman

    From Oracle Stock Crashes 16% from Peak – Is the AI Bubble Finally Bursting?

    LOL, Oracle stock didn’t “crash”. This is normal behavior after such a huge run-up. Wake me when we have a 50% retracement.

    And this is meaningless

    The numbers tell a more nuanced story than Oracle’s executives might prefer. While the company did post respectable 11% revenue growth in Q4, with cloud services jumping 14% to $11.7 billion, the valuation has gotten completely divorced from fundamentals. According to Seeking Alpha analysts, Oracle now trades at a forward P/E ratio of 41-46 – compare that to the industry median of 29, or even Nvidia’s 50 (despite Nvidia’s 50%+ revenue growth rate).

    The stocks with the biggest run-ups throughout history had wildly out of whack PE ratios. This is what happens when earnings outpaces stock pricing by such a wide margin.

    Which isn’t to say there isn’t an AI bubble, there definitely is. But this entire article is just clickbait. Normal profit taking and reallocation from a huge win isn’t a crash. What happened to UNH stock: that was a crash.

    1. griffen

      Mid week of watching CNBC, usually before my daily schedule begins and those TPS reports are waiting my weary mind, I happen to check the trailing PE and also forward PE estimates. Stocks I track on such a valuation point of interest include Apple and Alphabet. Those ratios are indeed high but in reality there is a generally persistent earning stream to support those valuations.

      Alphabet in particular, went on a tear since end of July. I do think ( perhaps inaccurate ) that investors today use option strategies to hedge out their positions; so if say an Oracle stumbles by a moderate percentage as you suggest, it just isn’t a bloodbath. If the gravy trains, aggregated onto one locomotive, of the AI “super chips” movement and the data center build outs ever run off that rail, I expect a stock like Nvidia, easy example , is going to catch the brunt of any mass selling.

  29. Jason Boxman

    If you have to ask

    Is This L.A. Home the Solution to America’s Growing Energy Crisis? (NY Times via archive.ph)

    We have a growing “crisis”? You mean LLM garbage?

    U.S. electric grids are increasingly under strain and utility companies are spending tens of billions of dollars on upgrades — expenses that are driving up electric bills. At the same time, power-hungry data centers, electric vehicles and heat pumps are increasing demand for electricity.

    But adding new sources of power isn’t easy. Turbines for natural gas plants are scarce. Large wind and solar projects and the transmission lines to connect them to cities are often stymied by local opposition. New nuclear reactors are years away.

    One solution is to install more rooftop solar panels and batteries. Each such system is small, but collections of them can act like small power plants by supplying electricity to the grid when demand surges on, say, summer afternoons.

    I feel like this was “the answer” back in the 1990s even? I don’t know, did everyone get stuck in a time capsule or something and we just opened up and it is now 2025? Help? I did a “research” paper on this in public school, back when you had to actually go to a library and checkout books and go through microfilm. Sigh.

    1. neutrino23

      This describes my situation. I live in the SF Bay Area. We have 9kW of solar on the roof and a 13kWH battery. Because the battery and inverters can’t supply the full peak load for all parts of the house only some parts are backed up by the battery. This covers all of the refrigerators and microwave and lights. The heavy duty items like the oven, cooktop and HVAC are not powered by the battery.

      On an annual basis we supply more power than we consume so we pay nothing for electricity, but we do pay a monthly connection fee to PG&E. The battery charges during the day then powers some of the house in the evening. The computer has some sort of algorithm for this. We set it to not go lower than 20% for emergency backup in case of an outage at night.

      Utility companies should embrace rooftop solar. If people won’t pay for it then the utility should pay for it. Then they should put a grid-scale battery for each small neighborhood. I don’t know how to optimize this, but I suspect it would better to install batteries that would supply ~50 or so homes rather than giant gigawatt installations.

      We have had a few outages since this was installed and it was very comforting to have our own backup. The battery kicks in so fast I didn’t even see the lights flicker. This was great. No running out to get dry ice to preserve food in the refrigerator.

      The overlooked issue here is efficiency. Newer homes can be built with much better insulation, and LED lighting so that less power is needed. We use a split zone Mitsubishi heat pump for HVAC so we only heat or cool the rooms that are occupied, not the whole house as with central heat. Newer refrigerators are much more efficient than old ones.

  30. Jason Boxman

    Follow the money

    From Shutdown fight leaves Democrats with no good options

    “There’s no good option,” said one Senate Democratic aide, arguing that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) support for a GOP spending bill in March has put them behind the 8-ball in the current fight. “It took a lot of people in the caucus by surprise, so people now feel like they’ve got to make up for that and satisfy the base.”

    (bold mine)

    And why is satisifaction urgently required?

    Inside the DNC’s money problems (Politico)

    The Democratic National Committee has fallen far behind in the cash race.

    After a brutal 2024 election and several months into rebuilding efforts under new party leadership, the DNC wildly trails the Republican National Committee by nearly every fundraising metric. By the end of June, the RNC had $80 million on hand, compared to $15 million for the DNC.

    And the gap — nearly twice as large as it was at this stage in Donald Trump’s first presidency — has only grown in recent months, a POLITICO analysis of campaign finance data found, fueled by several distinct factors.

    Major Democratic donors have withheld money this year amid skepticism about the party’s direction, while the small-dollar donors who have long been a source of strength are not growing nearly enough to make up the gap. And the party has quickly churned through what money it has raised in the first half of the year, including spending more than $15 million this year to pay off lingering expenses from Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.

    The DNC has less cash this summer than it did at any point in the last five years.

    Oops. I guess Chuckles really screwed it up, didn’t he? Democrats can’t grift if there are no donors to fleece.

    And of course there’s pay to play

    Some Democrats attribute the slowdown among donors primarily to the need for a break after 2024, and the challenges of being the party out of power. Large donors would rather bump elbows with high-profile figures like a president or House speaker; Democrats cannot put on those kinds of fundraising events right now. The DNC also struggled for cash during Trump’s first presidential term, and that did not stop Democrats from taking back the House in 2018, or winning the presidency in 2020.

    Democrats currently lack any access to sell, ut oh.

    It is more of a DNC specific issue though

    Many of those biggest donors have continued to contribute to other Democratic groups and candidates, indicating they are still aligned with the party and willing to dole out cash — though often not as much, and not to the DNC.

    What a relief!

      1. Jason Boxman

        GOP leaders say Obamacare tax credit fight can wait until after government shutdown is averted (CNBC)

        Who blinks first?

        The Obamacare subsidies is a policy debate that has to be determined by the end of the year … not right now, while we’re simply trying to keep the government open,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

        His comments were echoed by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who called the ACA, also known as Obamacare, a program “in desperate need of reform.”

        “We acknowledge that there’s gonna have to be — hopefully there’ll be some steps taken that can address the concerns that Democrats have,” he said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” “But you can’t do this by Tuesday.”

        Their comments threw cold water on Democrats’ main sticking point just days before the government is poised to shut down.

        1. ChrisFromGA

          LOL … Republicans are just arguing about when they’re going to cave, not the fact that they’re going to cave.

          One of the things I read about a CR is that it tells agencies they can spend at last year’s budget levels. All the cuts to USAID may suddenly reverse! Will NGO’s go on a hiring spree? Perhaps some new color revolutions should be expected in October?

          I’m not a budget expert, so take that last one with a grain of salt.

  31. Wukchumni

    Leavitt to Believer

    This week’s episode is a continuation of last week’s escalations in sabots being intentionally deployed @ the UN. Karoline takes the ‘bad escalator’ to task with a perky smile flashed and a dangling cross around her pretty little neck.

    1. Carolinian

      I didn’t get all the escalator details. Did the corpulent Trump actually walk up the thing? Perhaps he needs a sedan chair when not on his golf cart. I think I’ve seen a rumor that he, like Biden, has some trouble getting onto his airplane. Do they make airplane boarding escalators?

      1. Wukchumni

        I think the mere suggestion that a ‘good guillotine’ (it brings you up head first) could have gone rogue, set him off.

        As far as making the rest of the arduous trek up the stairs, never saw confirmation.

      2. Wukchumni

        p.s.

        Don’t forget Benedick Donald got things rolling in June of 2015 by descending an escalator, imagine if the thing had stopped 10 feet in, he would have been forced to hoof it down, and that might have been the end of his chances.

  32. Jason Boxman

    So The real cost of Trump’s $100,000 visas engages in sophistry as you’d expect.

    We start with misdirection

    The fee before this was somewhere between $2,000 and $10,000, depending on the type of company and a variety of other things. As a result, I think it’s going to really constrain the use of the H-1B program, which is going to hurt the US economy and the American worker. We actually have a lot of evidence showing the positive benefits that H-1B workers and skilled immigrants more generally have brought to the US.

    (bold mine)

    But we aren’t talking about immigration generally. We’re talking about the H-1B program, specifically. Then she goes into some hagiography about immigration in general.

    We also know from research what happens when it’s restricted. I have a paper that shows that when the cap fell — there’s a cap, a limit on the number of H-1B visas that can be issued in any given year — when that was reduced, US companies actually responded by offshoring.

    No doubt, but that’s evidence of abuse of the program, and a good reason to restructure or eliminate it.

    And more misdirection

    There’s two general arguments that I’ve heard that could be driving this.

    One is this belief that H-1B visas are actually not about skilled labor. They’re about cheap workers who can undercut US labor. This is not really born out in the literature. For example, I talked about how lots of big firms are offshoring or even acquiring other firms in response to H-1B restrictions. That’s a lot more costly than hiring an American. Right? Even at higher wages. So that kind of response doesn’t seem likely if that’s true.

    Of course that’s a deflection. We can see literally from the salaries paid to H-1Bs that in general, they’re wildly underpaid relative to what you’d expect a domestic to be paid for the role. This isn’t even up for debate.

    But I think actually there’s sort of a more important underlying issue here, which is that it relies on this belief that there’s a fixed number of jobs in the US economy. People think there are a hundred jobs, and if an immigrant comes and they take one of those jobs, there’s only 99 left for everyone else.

    That’s not even an argument that anyone is making in the reformist camp. The argument is quite simply that that job can be filled with a suitable American candidate. And that this is not happening. And indeed existing roles that were filled previously with American candidates are being re-filled with H-1B candidates. Full stop.

    It’s always great when someone starts off their argumentation by incorrectly stating the position(s) of the opposition. You know you’re in for a fun ride.

    First of all, that has to do with how it’s allocated. There’ve been a lot of reforms proposed for how to change the system to try to deal with these kinds of abuses. None of those are proposing a $100,000 fee. The problem with the $100,000 fee is that it’s not targeted in any way, so it’s going to disproportionately hurt those startups who definitely can’t pay that fee. It’s going to hurt entry-level positions. It’s going to hurt universities who rely on H-1B visas.

    Wait, what? I thought these were jobs that no one else can do, but it is going to hurt “entry level” positions? Like, American workers cannot do these?

    So, actually, what we need is more H-1Bs!

    One big reform that’s necessary is just to raise the cap. It is way too low. I mean, I think it hasn’t changed since the ’90s with a little bit of a blip around 2000, but once you’ve increased the cap, then I think you have to do away with the current lottery system.

    In case there was any doubt just how in favor of H-1Bs Britta Glennon is.

  33. Tom Stone

    There have been several recent headlines about huge “Funding Commiments” to AI firms, one was for $100 Billion.
    If you read the full articles they are fine examples of “The large print giveth and he small print taketh away”.
    To those of us who have lived through a number of bubbles this is a “Tell”.
    Although bubbles can keep inflating long after they become obvious to those paying attention my guess is that this one will pop before the end of the second quarter of 2026.
    It will entertaining to see who the Grump administration blames it on.

  34. .Tom

    Reading Simplicius latest made me wonder if Europe is where Russiagate went to retire. Idk how many people in the USA vs in Europe still believe that Trump was first elected thanks to Russian election interference but the fact that he was reelected last year suggests that in the USA the hoax lost some of its power. The way Simplicius presents news reports in Europe makes it seem like it’s still a viable line there. Or is it just the flip side of needing to cancel a party that’s likely to get a plurality, the fact of which suggests at least that many aren’t too worried about Russian election interference.

    1. NN Cassandra

      Depends on for whom that line is still viable. For the population apparently not much, otherwise they elites would not need to engage in elections cancellation and parties banning left and right. But for the elites (and I guess some part of population that still votes them), it surely looks like good story to tell themselves, nicely explaining why they need to do all these things.

  35. Wukchumni

    Anybody have a good 6 Degrees of Separation story?

    Mine is with Adolf~

    Knew the owner of Patrick’s Roadhouse on PCH in Santa Monica and he was a coin collector. Had breakfast there oodles of times and back in the day it attracted quite the clientele for a dumpy kind of place it was, and said owner would often introduce me to Hollywood people and the like, and one time he introduces me to an elderly German fellow, and says ‘he was an ace-you know’ as he leaves me to him. I ask if he flew the ME-109, and he said ‘young man, the 109 was an extension of my body’. He was Gunther Rall, 3rd highest ranking ace of all time with around 275 kills, who had been personally awarded high honors by the fuhrer himself.

    1. hk

      One of my HS substitute teachers had an uncle, I think (a close relative, at any rate), who played accordion for General Alfred Jodl, the chief of staff at OKW (not sure before or during the war), basically, Hitler’s personal HQ.

  36. Wukchumni

    Commercial real estate-in particular office buildings, are in a tale spin, even though office workers could have worked from home since the turn of the century, it only dawned on them during the pandemic, to do it.

    The numbers these white elephants are fetching is simply financial bloodbath territory, deep discounts off of what said buildings were purchased for just a decade ago.

    Single Family Houses aren’t in the same league though, as we haven’t gone ‘live at office’ yet, but give it time. Many domiciles have become ‘office buildings’ though, as that’s where people work now.

    Most everybody’s wealth is locked up in their real estate holdings, what if everything was worth 40% of current values in a retrenchment based on market forces-not liars loans and the like?

  37. Alice X

    So, I was hoping to make a donation with Paypal, but their page has changed. I seem to be unable to find a page (previously accessible) showing what cards are linked on my account. If anyone has experienced that and found a resolution, I would be grateful.

    1. ThirtyOne

      From the PP homepage, on the right I see a section called Banks and cards. To the right of that text are 3 dots (vertical). Clicking that shows a list with Go to banks & cards. This shows me my linked bank and card.
      Firefox, MacOS.

      And F*ck Pete, btw.

      1. Alice X

        Thank you TO, I had already been there and all I get is link a new card. I’m on MacOS 10.12 (legacy, for sure) and Firefox 115.27 extended support. Since you verify it can be done, I have another computer with 10.15, and another with 12.nn, neither of which I use much, but I will try them. I don’t want to make a mistake with the wrong card, being a debt slave. Thank you again. If you mean PT, then yeah, the whole lot of them.

  38. Kouros

    On the issue of Moldova, hipocrisy is all around, from Moldovan elites, from Russian leadership and RT, from the West and Brussels and from Romania.

    Starting with this statement «Moldova, which is a former Soviet republic of about 2.5 million people sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine.» This is a half truth or even less than a half truth and it only serves to «legitimize» Russian point of view.

    The Republic of Moldova is in fact the eastern half of the historical Principality of Moldova. Not even the whole of it, since Budjeak, the southern part, was given to Ukraine after 1945, and Northern Bukovina was also given to Ukraine in 1945.

    Russia obtained the eastern part of Moldova in 1812. They wanted the whole principality, but Napoleon started his march to Moscow. The negotiations with the Ottomans, to which Moldova was a vassal state and not an actual administrative portion of the empire, were run by a Greek dragoman that was also secretly serving the Russians, and as such did not disclose the coming assault on Russia. So because the Russians were in a hurry, they accepted only the eastern half of Moldova to conclude the hostilities.

    In December 1917, Moldovans voted to reunite with what was now Kingdom of Romania. Even now, there are twice the number of Moldovans in Romania, compared to Moldova.

    However, nobody mentions the fact that Moldova and Romania should reunite, because they are the same people. The biggest traitors are the sold out elites in Romania (to the western interests) and Moldova (to western or Russian interests). Nationalism must be killed as an idea.

    1. slep

      If you want to annex all of Moldova, you will have to put more elbow grease to it. Rigging elections, and writing stuff on the Internets, just doesn’t cut it.

      1. Kouros

        You didn’t read my message and the fact that I am complaining about all parties with power involved in this political game in which NOBODY talks about reunification.

        Also, bear in mind that there are already about 1 million Moldovan citizens with Romanian citizenship as well.

        The fact that there are plenty of traitors in Romania is the cancellation of elections in Romania in 2024 via a judicial coup d’etat with the hated candidate now indicted and destined for some good years in jail. This is why nobody talks about re-unification in Romania or does something about it.

        1. slep

          You didn’t read/understand my message. No one really cares about your complaining. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but that’s the way world operates. It’s annexation, not “reunification”, or “democratization”, or other BS terms. By rigging elections, I ment those currently happening in Moldova. Lots of nasty things are going on there, and it’s not going to turn out good.

          My point is, talk is cheap. If you want to annex some land, you better get ready to fight a war. Change of borders don’t happen just like that. Which way the borders end up moving, once the guns start blazing, is another question. I don’t have a horse in that race, but I do have popcorn ready.

          1. Yves Smith

            Talk to another reader like that again and you will be blacklisted. You are completely out of line. You have no business censoring what other commenters say. I want to hear Kouros’ views and I imagine I not alone. So either shape up or GYOFB.

        1. ChrisRUEcon

          #Bet

          Find some more conservative podcasters! The #PodcastFBI will soon have the #PodcastJointChiefsOfStaff for company.

    2. raspberry jam

      One rumor I heard was that they were all being called on site to make a loyalty vow in person to Trump?! If that’s true it would make sense he would be there in person. Give him an opportunity to do his ‘You’re FIRED!’ bit to anyone who refuses. Ah, so great to be ruled by imbeciles, it’s not like there isn’t an endless list of real problems they could be focusing on.

      (I am trying to be an adult and not link the exact scene in Idiocracy you are referencing)

      1. ChrisRUEcon

        This dovetails with the “there won’t be another election” betting line. If Trump intends to pull a stunt like that, he’ll need to know whom he can count on if he chooses to declare a state of emergency (or some such) when the time comes.

    3. Louis Fyne

      all the pearl clutching by media is stupid….much more important things to worry about than a literal “all hands on deck” meeting of management
      sheesh.

      imo. ymmv.

  40. Wukchumni

    This sure sounds to me like a backlash crime against the Kirk ‘shooters’ dogma. Can’t remember the last time an LDS church was involved in a shooting, and to set it on fire too!

    Multiple people were shot Sunday during a packed service at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan, police said.

    At least 10 parishioners were shot, including one who was killed, Grand Blanc Police Chief William Renye said at a news conference. Renye said two other victims were in critical condition and that the gunman, a 40-year-old man, was killed in a gunfight with police.

    The church was deliberately set on fire by the suspect, whose name was not immediately released, Renye said.

    2. Ben Panga

      Iraq War veteran Thomas Sanford ID’d as gunman who attacked Grand Blanc LDS church, killing 4 and setting it ablaze (NY Post)

      https://nypost.com/2025/09/28/us-news/iraq-war-veteran-thomas-sanford-idd-as-gunman-who-attacked-grand-blanc-lds-church-killing-2-and-setting-it-ablaze/

      The deranged madman who killed at least four people and wounded eight others at a Michigan Latter-day Saints church is a 40-year-old Iraq War veteran who served in the US Marines, The Post can confirm.

      A Facebook post by Sanford’s mother says the gunman — who died at the scene in a shootout with cops — served in Iraq from 2004 to 2008

      The vehicle had two large American flags behind the cab and a set of deer antlers attached to the bumper

      BP: Let’s see them try to paint this guy as a blue-haired Marxist /s

      At least two dead and eight injured after shooting at Mormon church in Michigan (Guardian)

      The Grand Blanc shooting happened during a particularly violent weekend in the US. There had been multiple mass shootings – cases in which four or more people are shot or killed – reported in the US in public places heading into Sunday morning.

      Three people were killed and at least eight others wounded late on Saturday when someone opened fire from a boat into a crowd gathered at a waterfront bar in a coastal town in North Carolina, authorities said.

      Elsewhere, in south Texas, seven were shot – two of whom were killed – in a shooting at a casino early Sunday. And in New Orleans, one woman was killed and three other people were wounded in a shooting on the city’s popular Bourbon Street, also early on Sunday.

      I think this will get worse. People’s brains just exploding. Miller must be rubbing his hands together like a shiny-headed Palpatine.

      1. ChrisRUEcon

        Oh wow … thanks for the addendum on it having been such a violent weekend. Seems the NC boat shooter was also an Iraq vet. Not sure if that’s gonna turn out to be significant.

  41. none

    Eric Adams has dropped out of NYC Mayor race. IDK who gave him the final push. No idea if it brings Cuomo back into closing range.

    2. Alice X

      Bringing the C man back online is an active endeavor, given the circumstances. I’d negate the endeavor if I might.

      Might I have capitalized endeavor?

      1. ambrit

        Sure, and for s–s and giggles, spell it the English way, Endeavour.
        Cuomo is the “best” that the New York State Democrat Party can throw up? This is naked political power gaming on display. Cuomo should have stayed “dead and buried” politically, but the DNC Necromancers have chosen to summon his lich from out of the political grave to haunt New York yet again. That the Democrat Party “leaders” allow him to run as an Independent against the popularly chosen Mamdani is another sign of the basic disconnect between the Politico class and the public.

  42. Jason Boxman

    MAGA on the March sighting

    At Lowes. Christmas stuff out in full force like it’s all they sell. Huge display. Been up since the 15 of September I learned upon inquiry.

    America is going great!

  43. AG

    Did anyone here ever watch Disney´s fictional mini-series on the Oxy scandal and Sacklers´ giant scam, DOPESICK (2021)?

  44. ChrisRUEcon

    #Africa

    Africa goes nowhere with the descendants of colonial systems of governance in place. I used to think Africa would rise from the south (ZA, Angola, Namibia etc), but its appears that the Sahel is where the necessary degree of radical departure from colonialism is taking place. Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have been all over the news this year:
    • ICC Withdrawal (via LeMonde.fr)
    • Arms From China (vi SCMP)
    • Kicking out Western Mining Interests (via dw.com)

    To quote the Mandalorian: this is the way.

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