Scientists Create New Form of Ice, Known As Ice XXI Popular Mechanics
#COVID-19/Pandemics
In 2025, we are losing our measles-free status, just 25 years after we eliminated measles from the US because of vaccines.
It’s not because our sanitation systems have been eliminated.
It’s because people aren’t getting vaccinated.
— Andrea C. Love, PhD (@dr_andrealove) October 18, 2025
The #measles website at CDC continues to be updated. Cases continue to increase as outbreaks in multiple states continue to advance. 1596 cases as of October 15. MMR is the best way to prevent measles and its occasionally severe outcomes. Measles should not be a part of our… pic.twitter.com/ElvQ1ZdquX
— DrDemetre (@dr_demetre) October 17, 2025
Climate/Environment
When your year runs from September to October, this is what annual temperatures up to 2025 look like.
We are reaching the point that anyone eyeballing graphs can see acceleration of global warming.
No more statistics and natural variability corrections needed. pic.twitter.com/hZfznhtPMn
— Leon Simons 🌍 (@LeonSimons8) October 15, 2025
Thirsty AI mega projects raise alarm in some of Europe’s driest regions CNBC
US hyperscalers to guzzle 22% more grid juice by end of 2025 The Register
China?
China says it expelled Philippine planes from disputed South China Sea reef South China Morning Post
China’s burgeoning undersea sensor net aims to turn the ocean transparent Defense One
* * * Netherlands mocked as ‘pirate’ after taking over China’s Nexperia Asia Times (Kevin W)
China Forces Scott Bessent to Embrace Anti-Monopoly Tactics Matt Stoller
What Surprised Me Most on Our Deep Tech China Trip Rui Ma
China’s property slump hits economy as trade tensions with US heighten Irish Times
Koreas
South Korea to deploy powerful Hyunmoo-5 ballistic missile amid tensions on Korean Peninsula TRT World
India
India’s Russian oil saga is indeed ending Indian Punchline (Kevin W)
Families Flee Delhi as Toxic Air Forces ‘Pollution Refugees’ to Relocate Daily Times
Africa
No, Trump did not ‘end’ the war in the Congo. It’s as bloody as ever. Responsible Statecraft (resilc)
Trade is shaping new global power relations: what this means for Africa The Conversation
O Canada
South of the Border
Displacement in Haiti hits record as 1.4M flee gang violence: UN agency Anadolu Agency
The Death Toll Is Rising from Ecuador’s Crackdown on Protesters Inside Climate News
European Disunion
S&P hands crisis-prone France surprise downgrade Reuters
Europe’s weak economy risks ‘fuelling more riots’ Telegraph
Europe’s retail distress now exceeds 2009 financial crisis levels Bloomberg
The Second Wave – How AI is Changing Germany’s Security Apparatus Nachdenkseiten via machine translation (Micael T)
Germany’s Merz aims to slash red tape on banks to boost economy, sources say Reuters
Real estate: the threat of a financial crisis is growing among French developers Eurasia Business News
Greece adopts law extending working hours despite protests Reuters
Serbia braces for energy crisis as US sanctions its only oil refinery. WorldECR
Old Blighty
UK economy sleepwalking after yet another lackluster growth update CNBC
Banker bonuses to be paid faster after UK regulators loosen rules Guardian
Israel v. The Resistance
Israel’s exploding robots still terrorise Gaza neighbourhoods Aljazeera
Clear evidence of brutal torture: Condition of Palestinian bodies released from Israeli prisons demands urgent int’l investigation Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor (guurst)
Only Israel can do this 50,000 times and have all the establishments in the West fight for its right to participate in and watch football in Europe
They will all go down with Zionism https://t.co/WlwTU1sKyL
— Alon Mizrahi (@alon_mizrahi) October 17, 2025
* * * Trump had to choose between Israel and Qatar. He chose Qatar Financial Times
* * * Iran faces critical water crisis after driest year in five decades Intellinews
New Not-So-Cold War
Trump backs away from Tomahawk missiles offer in meeting with Zelenskyy Financial Times. ZOMG, the photo.
Notice how the animals of the Trump regime did not even bother to welcome President Zelensky.
The hero of the free world was met by the stuff of the Ukrainian embassy.
This is how America's allies are being treated. pic.twitter.com/qWpvOmxq7P
— Astraia Intel 🎖️ 🇺🇦🇺🇸 (@astraiaintel) October 17, 2025
🇺🇸 President Trump let Zelensky wait and delayed the meeting to meet with Andrea Bocelli in the Oval Office while listening to Andrea Bocelli!
Zelensky waited while they did this. pic.twitter.com/JJMovL5fJM
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) October 17, 2025
Pentagon chief wears tie in Russian flag colors to Trump-Zelensky meeting TASS. The tie was not subtle:
Pete Hegseth decided to wear a Russian tricolor flag tie at to the White House meeting with President Zelensky.
I don't believe for a second this is accidental or that "he was actually wearing the colors of the US flag".
For once, Hegseth knew very well what he was doing. pic.twitter.com/fpaUdRz5xv
— Daractenus (@Daractenus) October 17, 2025
* * * How the West is redirecting famine relief into arms deliveries for Ukraine Anti-Spiegel via machine translation (guurst)
Think-Tanks Wrestle with Russian Strategic Dilemma Simplicius
Dmitry Polyanskiy: Tomahawks, Nuclear War & Failure of Diplomacy Glenn Diesen, YouTube
Syraqistan
Syria’s ticking time bomb. Responsible Statecraft
Trump 2.0
Trump says he has commuted sentence of George Santos in federal fraud case Guardian
University of Virginia rejects Trump administration’s ‘academic excellence’ compact Anadolu Agency
John Bolton INDICTED Glenn Greenwald. Key factoid: the case against Bolton was started under the Biden Administration.
Shutdown
Army Corps of Engineers pausing $11 billion in projects over shutdown, Trump budget chief says CNBC
Immigration
‘We’re Under Siege’: Rep. Delia Ramirez Slams Trump’s ICE Invasion in Chicago Zeteo
Two men arrested by federal agents outside Midtown migrant shelter, feds say Gothamist
GOP Clown Car
New York GOP shuts down state’s Young Republicans over group chat The Hill
Democrat Death Wish
“No Kings” — Another Chapter in the Quest for an Empire without an Emperor Sam Husseini
Charlie Kirk
Charlie Kirk Shooting — They Knew BEFORE It Happened?! YouTube (Chuck L). Yours truly has not listened and so has no point of view on if this makes any sense. The point is that the controversy over Charlie Kirk’s murder is still every much alive.
Police State Watch
Miami Is Testing a Self-Driving Police Car That Can Launch Drones The Drive
Our No Longer Free Press
The Power Behind the Curtain: How the Establishment Creates Popular Figures Neoliberal Feudalism (Chuck L)
Mr. Market Is Moody
Flying Nearly Blind, Fed Almost Guaranteed to Cut Interest Rate this Month Michael Shedlock
Economy
The Trump Boom: A Legend in His Own Mind Dean Baker
Auto Loan Delinquencies Jump 50% as Car Prices Reach New Heights Bloomberg (resilc)
AI
Wikipedia Says AI Is Causing a Dangerous Decline in Human Visitors 404 Media
Moderators call for AI controls after Reddit Answers suggests heroin for pain relief EndGadget (Kevin W)
The Bezzle
Crypto crime scene CNN. Crypto ATMs.
Bitcoin hits 15-week low under $105K as US regional bank woes echo 2023 CoinTelegraph. I do not understand headlines like this. A decline over a period 15 weeks ago is nada.
Windows 11 update breaks localhost, prompting mass uninstall workaround The Register
Class Warfare
Only 40% of Workers Have High-Quality Jobs, Gallup Finds Gallup
Walmart looks to tighten its grip on the beef supply chain Investigate Midwest (Robin K)
Luigi Mangione makes damning claim about cops that could spare him death penalty if found guilty Daily Mail (Li)
Chomsky and Robinson: ‘National Interest’ Is a Euphemism Thomas Neuburger
Antidote du jour (via):
A bonus (guurst):
Субботушка. pic.twitter.com/z58ERTTjm4
— Serёжik Zaйkin (@serezhikzay) October 11, 2025
And a second:
Hikers encounter a majestic Mountain Goat on trail!
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) October 17, 2025
And a third:
When the postman is your best friend 🐕💖 pic.twitter.com/QOQB4jsUR3
— Love Music (@khnh80044) October 17, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
“Prince Andrew gives up his title as Duke of York”
So what. The guy has enjoyed using those titles all of his life and now at age 65 it is really going to worry him that he is giving them up? Seriously? He is still a Prince, still has the use of the Royal Lodge mansion in Berkshire for the rest of his life, still has the money that he has accumulated over a lifetime trading in on his titles, has never been called to account, has never had to attend court to answer some very heavy questions about his past and activities and has never seen the inside of a police cell. At his age he could care less about having to give up those titles. The guy is a grub.
And the same goes for Bill Clinton too.
>At his age he could care less about having to give up those titles
He is known to care very much about status. Agree with everything else you said though. He has not paid a significant price.
Virginia is dead; Andrew continues his life of luxury.
Windsor, Clinton and many more. “Important” men do not have consequences. Windsor is only losing his titles because it makes his family look had to the serfs.
Over here in Oz we would call it a Clayton’s punishment. The punishment that you get when you are not really being punished-
https://slang.com.au/c/claytons/
It was the lead story at BBC, and the non-UK edition to boot.
It must have been important to lead ahead of the ridiculous overblown saga of banning ultra violent and racist tel aviv football fans from a match in England. Hooligan bans go hand in hand with football and have done for decades. Suddenly Starmer thinks it was antisemitic. If he overturns the ban, this will effectively outlaw any football fan bans in future.
I watched the whole football fans story from the BBC just to see if they dropped so much as a hint that the Tel Aviv fans might bear some responsibility for the violence in Amsterdam. Absolutely nothing.
It’s quite obvious that the BBC is under government diktat for coverage of all Israel-Palestine related matters. You might as well have read Pracda and Izvestia for honest coverage of the 56 intervention in Hungary.
Starmer really knows how to commit political suicide bigtime. Not only is Paul Holden’s book, “The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney, and the Crisis of British Democracy”, coming out on 13 November, Starmer has demonstrated a wholly unacceptable level of support for a pack of psychpathic football hooligans who leave a trail of violence and mayhem in every country they travel to, insult and assault the locals, and most of them are either members of the IDF or settlers which immediately raises the question of their role in the genocide and settling on stolen land in the Occupied Territories.
Starmer has called people antisemites when they do not want the f*ckers anywhere near their patch beecause they do not want their lives disrupted by a feral pack of Zionist dogs. Starmer must really believe the f*ckers really are God’s Chosen People while the common folk of Britain have been consistently disregarded by Labour’s confederacy of clowns, bums, stiffs and deadlegs.
We have a pretend government with an artificial majority in the House of Commons with neither legitimacy nor authority. We do have police forces who are fully capable of arresting anyone who raises the suspicion that the have committed war crimes in the Occupied Territories, which pretty much means any ‘supporter’ of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s ragtag and bobtail of a football team.
At least Your Party has sent out its Draft Founding Documents for discussion and decision by what has become the largest political party in Europe. It may be that we will face an election in the early months of next year and, subject to local agreements and national alliances with the Greens and established Independent candidates, the party will have a candidate in every constituency to make sure that Labour’s brand of autocratic broken down Thatcherism is finslly given the death it deserves.
@The Rev Kev — I can’t stand Bill Clinton, but at least he didn’t inherit his right to be an a-hole. He developed it all on his own without a monarchy to support it — credit where credit is due.
But the important thing is without a Duke of York the 10,000 men will now be a bit more decisive, right?
Is there anything less surprising than an aristocrat who is a creep?
yes and Dershowitz, Black, Woody Allen hundreds of others, will we ever know the extent of Epstein’s web?
Re: Scientists created this new phase of ice—known as Ice XXI
Kurt Vonnegut wrote a novel featuring something like this, as I recall, and things didn’t work out well for the world.
Had the same thought myself. You are thinking of Ice-Nine which appeared in his 1963 novel “Cat’s Cradle”-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice-nine
Yup. Ice-9. It did not float. That’s a problem. What have they wrought?
the google info handling systems tell me:
Ice IX (The Real Substance)
Ice IX (Roman numeral nine) is a real, high-pressure, low-temperature crystalline polymorph (form) of ice.
Formation and Stability: It is created by cooling Ice III (another high-pressure ice form) to a temperature below about −140∘C (around −220∘F) at pressures between 200 and 400 megapascals (MPa), which is 2,000 to 4,000 times the normal atmospheric pressure at sea level.
Properties: It’s characterized by its hydrogen-ordered molecular structure (meaning the hydrogen bonds are fixed in position) and is not stable under normal atmospheric conditions. It has none of the catastrophic properties described in the novel.
“Ice-nine” (The Fictional Substance)
The substance with the dramatic, world-freezing properties is fictional and appears in Kurt Vonnegut’s 1963 satirical novel, Cat’s Cradle.
Properties in the Novel: The fictional “ice-nine” is described as a crystal of water that is stable at room temperature and melts at a much higher temperature, 45.8∘C (114.4∘F). The terrifying aspect is that any seed crystal of “ice-nine” can cause any liquid water it touches below its melting point to instantly crystallize into more “ice-nine,” leading to a global freezing catastrophe.
Inspiration: Vonnegut based his idea on a real-life concept suggested by Nobel laureate chemist Irving Langmuir, but the specific properties of the novel’s substance are entirely science fiction.
There’s a story that after the novel was published, Vonnegut was at a party where another attendee was a chemist. He asked Vonnegut to explain Ice-9, thought about it for a while, and told Vonnegut “Nope”.
I was wondering if the researchers had read the book. Certainly, someone mentioned it to them during the course of their work.
Good ol’ Kurt Vonnegut, who is somehow not a science fiction writer because people who sneer at sci-fi think he’s a real writer and important. The sci-fi equivalent of “Elevated” horror.
Vonnegut’s brother was an atmospheric scientist (the discoverer of cloud seeding to cause rain) who was at the time researching ice formation in the upper atmosphere and certainly was aware of the 8 (then) known phases of ice (called Ice I – VII and LDA).
I remembered it as sinking. Read the novel a long time ago. Whatever it did it was not good and I’m with Vonnegut. I have an explanation for Ice-9. Give it a tale tellers explanatory hand wave. It’s the metaphor that counts.
whoever isin charge for the “No Kings” events needs to tone it down—-in that I wake up and I see a Scripps headline that “millions” of people will turn out for it. My work app had an emergency notification of possible civil disruptions, too.
lmao. no way…..Normies do not want to touch either side with the proverbial pole. and any sympathetic Normie is now definitely show up if indeed the organizers’ forecasts are correct and millions will turn out.
Maybe. In my own circle of acquaintances I know several who will be participating.
my hypothesis is that people are so silo-ed in their social media bubbles that they may have a good faith expectation that there will be a trans-class, trans-identity mobilization today.
but it’ll look more like a NPR tote-bag-drive…..at least in my neck of the woods.
a plague on both their political houses is the real zeitgeist
“a plague on both their political houses is the real zeitgeist”
Sign me up for that march!
;-)
There’s an enormous rally in my neighboring tinytown of Bennington, four or five hundred people anyways, and yeah, it looks like a NPR sponsored picnic, but that’s ok by me.
I’ve never seen more than 40 people at any previous demonstration here. Turnouts are going to be healthy today.
Just returned from the demo in the mid-Hudson Valley in New York State and, as per local demographics, it was very much a Bougie, vote-Blue-no-matter-who crowd.
Good turnout, and a member of the postal workers union was there to warn about privatization, but that was the only labor participation. There was one weasely and perfunctory mention of Gaza, not a word about Venezuela, and when the MC did a call-and-response thing about everything “we” love, the loudest cheers were for, and I kid you not, DEI… a “free Ukraine” also got a big cheer.
I know that you need a Popular Front to fight fascism, and that includes liberals, but oww, the moral vanity, it hurts…
The self-righteousness … it burns. Alternatively, as John Randolph of Roanoke said, “Like a mackerel in the moonlight, it stinks and shines.” I look for occasions to use that quote or maybe it is just quote-ish.
No kings, No absolutism. No masked men (Are the afraid to show their faces, wear name tags, identify themselves?) Looks that way when you slap around and arrest people for walking down the street while looking Hispanic or being brown or some other heinous crime. Did no one protest that? No response to Gaza? Must love genocide. Clearly are at least 98% ignorant about Ukraine. Were I the object of their “wrath”, I would be thrilled. They are no threat. Calls to mind what John Nance Gardener said about the value of the vice presidential office. “Not worth a pitcher of warm … you can look it up.
No message. It’s so team blue. When’s brunch?
Here I must confess that H and I ducked out of both the women’s march and the science march for just this. I’ve a weakness for raw oysters and Bloody Mary’s, so sue me.
If your definition of “normie” is “a person who is completely turned off by or indifferent to politics” well, yes, normies won’t be there, by definition.
But despite the Administration’s efforts to paint this as extremist and their unconcealed threats of infiltration by agents provocateurs, my 93-year-old father is determined to attend the demonstration in his (relatively conservative) small midwestern town. He was favorably impressed by the news reports of the previous No Kings protest. (My 90-year old mother, citing her unwieldy walker, will be visiting a sick neighbor instead.)
A childhood friend of my husband’s who happens to be visiting us in DC—he’s a recently retired engineer from Peoria—has made it clear that he is determined to participate in our demonstration on Pennsylvania Avenue. We’ll be meeting up with him soon.
But I guess they aren’t “normies.”
Of course there will be people infiltrating the demonstrations. If you see people trying to provoke the crowd to violence, those are not antifas, they are cops.
Here in Outer Pentagonia, I went reluctantly with Juana. I carried a sign saying “No Kings, Empires, Oligarchs, or Colonies.
One person stopped to seemingly approve of my sign and asked to take a picture. She was wearing a Spanburger button.
I told her the CIA already had my picture. She took it anyway. Probably paid by the mug shot :-/
Mississippi Georgia
Tennessee Alabama
USC Notre Dame
Utah BYU
look to me like they will be the big show today.
How come college gridironists are allowed to show a lot of nekkid leg, while lower leg nudity is strictly forbidden in the NFL?
Husseini’s article brought to the fore the discomfort I felt at the first march. If it were a No Oligarchs march, I’d be there in a heartbeat.
Indeed. I just went through our local protest while running some errands. I’d say it was medium sized given the area – much bigger than the handful of anti-war protestors you see at the street corner on a fairly regular basis (and who I greatly respect since they are not dependent on some branded, scheduled protest to make their opinions heard) but not big enough to cause anyone much bother. Didn’t even slow traffic down.
When I saw some people walking through the park with their ‘no fascism’ signs, I had half a mind to stop and ask if they were against all fascism or if they only objected to it when the Republicans had the presidency, but since it is a nice sunny fall day with protesters in furry costumes running around, I figured I’d let them have their fun and save my turd in the punchbowl routine for another day.
Here in Hawaii it’s being called “No Dictators”, since some people favor restoring the Hawaiian Monarchy which was overthrown in 1893.
My work app has these for major sports events, fun runs, and holiday parades.
Calm down.
normally i just see old people holding no kings signs. i assume they are retired and holding signs is their hobby. i was talking to my coworker the other day about his good for nothing stepdaughter who has no job but goes to all the no kings events. (her stepfather pays for just about everything in her life.) my coworker is of the opinion that everyone at the protest should just get a job. he voted for trump and we used to discuss the election a lot last year. unfortunately now we also have a bunch of latina women in the kitchen who get really distressed every time trump is brought up.
there are definitely no kings protests going on in my area but there’s probably a lot more people going to the football game instead.
Quite a piece, it will take some work to process this, and its number of seeming contradictions. But some interesting quotes. One that stood out:
From the enigmatic
I’ll come back to it.
I do enjoy NeoFeudalReview’s paranoia and narrative coherence! I’ve read most of his reference material from this article, so no real surprises. “Conjuring Hitler” is definitely worth a read and proposes something more like a flex-net rather than the jewish cabal he postulates with his list of prominent bankers: Vatican restrictions put that ethnic group in that position, so, who’s conspiracy is this anyway? And Popes are still in the game, between Operation Gladio and the Balkan wars (still ongoing at a low level). The Orthodox Church has a very different story to tell, one more aligned with Michael Hudsons’ latest book about the Crusades, which kind of echos these days.
From my perspective, Neoliberal Feudalism is giving to much weight to individuals generally. Finance is a flex-net with very substantive data bias. It also has massive feedback biases that self perpetuate it as a very granular form of control and value prioritization. But at key moments the individuals do matter, it’s not just a system, so paranoia is in order!
From my perspective, the systemic enemy here is Capitalism, or, beneath that the metonymy that inevitably conflates money and wealth causing our social systems to be set up to give money absolute primacy, and with it all property relations. Banking is the cold hand through which this is managed, but, like money its just another social convention we could re-write. As it is, the system attracts and promotes psychopathic and sociopathic behavior which then empowers a kakistocracy leading to systemic failures like the one we’re living through where the nuts in charge no longer understand the systems they’re in charge of.
That said, the flex-net through which “elites” operate in this mathematical system ends up pursuing class interests that align pretty tightly with the names the author lists. All the CIA, Ford, Rockefeller, Carnegie Foundation stuff is very well documented. Malcolm Harris has added Hoover and Silicon Valley generally to this flex-net with his (in my opinion) great “Palo Alto”. But this stuff goes way way back to Queen Elizabeth I and the East India Company where private and public power provide one another cover for various exploitations, rapaciousness, and other great things to read about and dread getting caught up in!
Can anyone tell me who is behind ‘The Neo-Feudal Review’ substack?
I have seen several posts from this source. Your noting its “seeming contradictions” is quite accurate in my view. Its long articles combine some very interesting and relevant history with some ridiculous “conspiracy theories” (and I’m not usually one to shy away from such arguments). I can’t get a handle on where this site is really coming from. Some of it – like positing a vast global conspiracy between the capitalist West controlled by “Rothschild” bankers and the communist USSR, one which apparently pushes “radical egalitarianism” – sounds like the looniest anti-Semitic/anti-Jewish Commie Right-wing crap from the 50s and 60s. Yet it also includes accurate and informed observations about our increasingly concentrated – indeed “feudalized” – neoliberal global order.
For me, the writer (writers?) seems too informed to be a simple-minded Bircher-like conspiracy theorist. He (she?) is right in this piece about the Sauders book; it is both very informative and a limited hangout. The observations about elite interest in permanent war and the MIC are also accurate. But the “Big Picture” history laid out here is strange. Someone with a “conspiratorial” bent could almost see this as part of an Israeli psy-op to prove that Elders of Zion-type anti-Semitism is alive and well – and linked to by Naked Capitalism! Again, if anyone can tell me who is behind this substack I’d really like to know.
That is a necessary question for which I have no answer, I searched but nothing.
The content description also applies to the U – z review and, on occasion, ZH.
Sort of Left Unz. Is that contradictory enough?
They’re all so fetch!
Revealing. Ye shall know them by what they
dosay…“Political blackpill” indeed. This is my first encounter with The Neo-Feudal Review, so I’m feeling a bit dizzy.
Just to take one passage: the author asserts that members of the C*A “were up to their eyeballs in pushing the COVID fraud”.
No sources for that claim, alas. What to make of it?
“We can also see this process play out in the United States, which transitioned from a European-derived Protestant nation to an empire after World War 2 with a new ideology centered around free market capitalism and elite-controlled false “democracy”.
There is an omission that is quite telling.
disambiguation following…
“Germany’s Merz aims to slash red tape on banks to boost economy, sources say ”
Says the man who cannot be bothered dealing with Germany’s economic problems as he is too busy thinking about anther country instead. Rolling back banking regulations and lowering standards for banks? We’ve been here before-
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hVOMgZ-UjOA
Charlie Kirk shooting, more weirdness. utube. Jimmy Dore.
Charlie Kirk Crime Scene PAVED OVER & SCRUBBED! w/ Ian Carroll
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8UKjN5cjvw
Kirk’s death looking to be at least a 7 on the Epstein Scale
I still remember the death of Dr David Kelly the British weapons inspector and source of the “The Iraq dossier is sexed-up” story. The man with the most ability to undercut Blair and Bush’s proposed war who “conveniently killed himself while alone on a walk”. There was no inquest into the death. An inquiry by the UK government found there was nothing to see here.
I’m wary of making definitive statements about anything. Like a poker player I try to think in probabilities or how confident I am of my conclusion.
We can never be 100% sure Kelly (or Barnett, or even Epstein) was murdered – I think they sit on a scale of “confidence that person was murdered and it was covered up”. I might call it The Epstein Scale :)
At one end of the scale would be Epstein who I think most of us are fairly confident was murdered.
Kelly would be high on the scale for me, but below Epstein.
In the middle would be James Le Mesurier the White Helmets founder who “fell off a balcony” and Labour leader John Smith who also “died on a walk” paving the way for Blair to be PM.
Lower down would Princess Di
A murder plot that relies on making sure your victim doesn’t wear a seat belt is not a solid plan.
If I was gonna murder someone with an eating disorder, I’d plan around that. Even recovering anorexics can be at high risk for heart problems and other dangers.
And Robin Cook, who resigned as foreign secretary over the Iraq invasion, then had a heart attack in the middle of nowhere in Scotland. And the files on David Kelly are to be kept secret for 50 or is it 70 years to ensure everyone involved will be long gone by then.
> And the files on David Kelly are to be kept secret for 50 or is it 70 years
70 years, following the traditional British method for covering-up elite malfeasance: An inquiry led by a Lord.
The Hutton Inquiry was extra shady as it turned reality on its head and ended up as an attack on the BBC and was basically the point at which the broadcaster had it’s balls cut off.
My first memory of these was the Scott Inquiry sparked by the early 90s Iraq Supergun affair
A lot of troublesome pols got wellstoned for that war.
– ‘Syria’s ticking time bomb’ – Responsible Statecraft
Connor Echols is shocked, shocked I tell you, at the lack of “transitional justice” under the current Syrian regime. I know the Quincy Institute is limited in its “realism,” but is this guy serious?
To answer my own question, yes he apparently is. You see, during Syria’s “brutal 14-year civil war” it was the Assad regime “that often inflamed sectarian divisions in order to bolster support for it among minority groups,” using “barrel bombs and chemical weapons attacks” and such to terrorize the Sunni majority. Of course the current massacre of Alawites is bad, but we should remember that “Assad’s military and government employed a disproportionate number of Alawites, some of whom contributed to the regime’s horrific human rights violations, including the torture and killing of thousands of prisoners both before and during the civil war.” Further,
“A State Department official told RS in a statement that the U.S. is pushing for the protection of all groups in Syria. “We support Syria’s national unity and a peaceful and inclusive integration of all its constituents, including religious and ethnic minorities,” the official said.”
See, can’t everyone just get along? That’s what we want, after all. It’s just really surprising and frustrating that the ISIS and al Qaeda affiliated salafists in charge are allowing this to happen. Who could have anticipated this when we were supporting them against the previous secular and multi-ethnic Syrian government – I mean, against the Demon Assad?
‘Andrea C. Love, PhD
@dr_andrealove
In 2025, we are losing our measles-free status, just 25 years after we eliminated measles from the US because of vaccines.
It’s not because our sanitation systems have been eliminated.
It’s because people aren’t getting vaccinated.’
Those numbers really start skyrocketing in 2024. Hard to account for that unless it was the enormous numbers of people let into the country from countries that may not have a robust vaccination program. One person replied to this tweet with an interesting question when they asked-
‘Since the measles vaccine is a 3 in 1 vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella, why isnt there a rise in the number of cases of mumps and rubella?’
I think that US may be tending in the direction of becoming a country without robust population-wide vaccination. Perhaps the measles problem is due less to immigration than to the damage to the credibility of the public health system that attended the flawed SARS-CoV-2 response.
I believe that measles is more contagious than the other viruses that MMR addresses. It would be the first to “break out” in the event that MMR vaccination rates fell.
Good point that. So you are saying that we can expect to see spikes in mumps and rubella down the track.
I think it depends on what the vaccination rate is to produce herd immunity in the population. The more infectious the virus, the higher the vaxx rate needed to produce herd immunity.
On the hypothesis that the measles outbreaks are due to reduced compliance with MMR recommendations (perhaps this is regional or cultural, limited to groups rather than the general population), it’s conceivable that MMR uptake will remain high enough to keep mumps and rubella suppressed, even if measles is not suppressed everywhere.
Yes, this. Measles is *wildly* contagious. An R (reproduction number, if you slept through the Pandemic That’s Over) of c. 18. It is spread by aerosols….
“Herd immunity” threshold for vaccination incidence is proportional to 1/R, if I remember correctly, so you need 90% vaccination rates to suppress measles from endemic to merely sporadic.
Mumps and rubella are much less contagious, so “herd immunity” effects will hold as vaccinations decrease below the point that measles will break out.
Over the past year or so I have been seeing articles reporting on outbreaks of rubella that are above what has been the norm in the past. So that is probably just over the horizon.
Opening borders for all comers with who knows what health/vax status will do that. / ;)
Are you suggesting we shut down all our airports and transnational flights??? Surely you jest
That’s not such a bad idea. I suggest that the ‘shutdown’ be timed to happen just after the oligarchs fly off to Davos next year. Let them stay in the Alps.
Measels is one of the most contagious airborn viruses out there, moves like savannah fire.
The importation of the measles virus is indeed the cause of recent outbreaks. Many of the importation cases involved U.S. citizens who traveled abroad and contracted the virus and brought it home. From the CDC report on U.S. measles outbreaks from January 1, 2020–March 28, 2024:
“Among all 338 cases, 326 (96%) were associated with an importation; 12 (4%) had an unknown source. Among the 326 import-associated cases, 200 (61%) occurred among U.S. residents who were eligible for vaccination but who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown. Among 93 (28%) measles cases that were directly imported from other countries, 34 (37%) occurred in foreign visitors, and 59 (63%) occurred in U.S. residents, 53 (90%) of whom were eligible for vaccination but were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown.”
Here is one foreigner ICE will have a very hard time trying to deport. Unbelievable what this man did last night – https://www.yahoo.com/sports/mlb/breaking-news/article/mlb-playoffs-2025-shohei-ohtani-named-nlcs-mvp-after-3-hrs-10-ks-in-all-time-game-4-performance-011033993.html
Baseball has been around for 150 years or so and nobody has ever done anything remotely close to what Ohtani accomplished yesterday.
Wish I could have watched it free on TV like the playoffs had always been, but somebody has to pay Ohtani’s salary (worth every last Yen and then sum) and I’ve been the designated hittee.
{leaves a pint of B- Dodger Blue blood}
In post season games:
26 times a pitcher threw at least 6 shutout innings giving up no runs and 2 or fewer hits, while striking out at least 10.
12 players have hit 3 home runs in a game.
Ohtani just did both in the same game.
Incredible stuff.
Reggie Jackson combined with Sandy Koufax. Only Babe Ruth and Robert Redford are comparable.
Back in 1968, Mickey Lolich of the Tigers won 3 games in the World Series, and even hit a home run in game 2. He wasn’t known as much of a hitter. All three wins were complete games. Incredible at the time, but nothing like what Ohtani has done.
In that same 68 series, the Cardinal’s Bob Gibson won game one striking out 17 batters, and only giving up 5 hits in a complete game victory. He threw 159 pitches. That’s incredible too, and I’ll bet the gazillion dollar arms of today will never get anywhere close to that kind of pitch count.
True. But Ohtani should be on the disqualified list with Shoeless Joe Jackson and Pete Rose. There is no way his “interpreter” was using Ohtani’s money to make his bets without Ohtani or his financial people knowing that much money was disappearing from his accounts. Occam says Ippei was making the bets for Ohtani. In this case Occam is likely to be correct but there was no real investigation. Now we know why the Commissioner of Baseball was so insistent on protecting Ohtani, the Seven-Hundred-Million-Dollar Man (most of that deferred).
I think LA should be forced to trade him to the Brewers for a couple minor league players. That would settle the gambling allegations well enough for me.
“Thirsty AI mega projects raise alarm in some of Europe’s driest regions”
I know that this article is all about the problem with sourcing sufficient water for those AI mega projects but what I want to know is where exactly is Europe going to get the massive amounts of energy that they will be needing. Cheap, reliable energy for Europe came to an end in early 2024 and so far, all other sourced energy is much more expensive. In fact, energy will be the bottleneck for any of these AI mega projects in Europe and I cannot see a solution here.
Iceland. Coming soon to an EU near you.
Maybe Trump and his SB chums got icy Greenland confused with Greener Iceland?
Would explain their desire for it.
And here’s to you, Tyler Robinson
Bibi loves you more than you will know
Whoa, whoa, whoa
God bless you, please, Tyler Robinson
Zionism holds a place for those who prey
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey
We’d like to know a little bit about you for our files
We’d like to help you learn to help yourself
Look around you, all you see are sympathetic eyes
Stroll around your cell until you feel at home
And here’s to you, Tyler Robinson
Bibi loves you more than you will know
Whoa, whoa, whoa
God bless you, please, Tyler Robinson
Zionism holds a place for those who prey
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey
Hide it in a hiding place where no one ever goes
Leave engraved bullets with a Mauser
Put it in a wooded area off-campus
It’s a little secret, just Tyler Robinson’s affair
Most of all, you’ve got to hide it from the Feds
Coo, coo, ca-choo, Tyler Robinson
Bibi loves you more than you will know
Whoa, whoa, whoa
God bless you, please, Tyler Robinson
Zionism holds a place for those who prey
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey
Sitting on a roof on a Wednesday afternoon
Going to the campus debate
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you’ve got to choose
Every way you look at this, you lose
Where have you gone, William Shatner?
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you
Woo, woo, woo
What’s that you say, Tyler Robinson?
Kirk has left and gone away
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey
Mrs. Robinson, by Simon & Garfunkel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C1BCAgu2I8&list=RD9C1BCAgu2I8
Wuk, you’ve done it again!
Thanks for the kudos gras~
Ouch! Bravo!
11 out of 10!
– ‘Charlie Kirk Shooting — They Knew BEFORE It Happened?!’ – YouTube (Chuck L).
I have no idea if the data and arguments of this Baron Coleman guy are legit. But he has presented other “interesting” Google search information in some of his other videos. I have not taken the time to watch his long posts myself, but my son showed me one of them tracing similar significant prior searches regarding the hospital where Charlie Kirk was treated and the surgeons at that hospital. Not only was there a significant blip from DC, but there was an even larger one originating from IP addresses in – drum roll please – Israel. Coleman asked some very relevant questions about the autopsy, and also stated that it was puzzling that Kirk was taken to this hospital rather than one that was closer and had the relevant trauma center.
There are many reasons to take such information with many grains of salt until verified. But add it to the growing pile of questions about this strange event that has already disappeared from our ever-incurious MSM.
I’ve been relying on Max Blumenthal to sort through claims that Israel was involved and that Robinson has been patsied. MB is anti-Zionist and had a fairly good track record before the assassination. Can you recommend anyone else?
For me, too, Max and the Gray Zone are probably the sources I’d trust the most on this. He has been careful not to claim Israel actually “did it,” but he has been good on a lot of the key unanswered questions about the assassination, and on Kirk’s late resistance to his Zionist funders. The Due Dissidents guys have been good as well, relying especially on Candice Owens. Owens has her own insider contacts within the conservative movement and TPUSA, and her observations seem to be pretty relevant to me so far. I expect much speculative misinformation and purposeful disinformation on an event like this, especially when so many of the *obvious* relevant issues are not addressed at all by “official” sources – starting with the autopsy. So I’m pretty cautious about internet commenters with whom I’m not familiar.
Luigi Mangione makes damning claim…
I have to admit that his main lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo has been doing an excellent job of whittling away the charges. There are way too many charges against him, which indicates an elite that is lacking in confidence, as Yves Smith often writes.
Noting, from the article, “He still faces one count of murder in the second degree, which is now his most serious charge.” New York charge.
Evidently at the federal level, they have a charge against him that carries the death penalty.
Admittedly, a defense like this costs a lot of moolah. But it is informative. Will Tyler Robinson get the same largesse? And whatever happened to Jack Teixeira? Not pretty. Even his defense lawyers were trying to put him in prison.
https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-espionage-teixeira-national-guard-secrets/33199736.html
Ahhh, the Fourth Amendment, Fifth Amendment, Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Rights are so darn pesky.
Funded rights, yes, they’re pesky.
Un-funded ones, not so much.
Check your bank account before you go to that march…
Goooooood Mooooooorning Fiatnam!
The order had come down from on high, we were to start deploying Artificial Idiocy among the platoon posthaste.
Frankly it was wasted on Pfc Jones, who needed more idiocy like a penguin needs more ice, but there was big stock money at stake, so we dumbed him down even further than thought possible.
“No Kings” Sam Husseini. Husseini makes some good points, but here are the problems of “No Kings”:
–Even though Woody Allen told USanians that 90 percent of life is just showing up, a demonstration is more than just showing up. Frederick Douglass: One must make demands.
–The esteemed Lady Bunny has been on my FacBk feed inveighing against the pointlessness of No Kings. And Lady Bunny, as ever, is right. No demands, no bite, no purpose.
–What I learned from the five (yes, cinque) demos I attended in September and early October in Italy in support of the Global Sumud Flotilla: Fine sentiments are not enough. The government only budged (slightly, ever so slightly) when people walked out of work, flooded the train stations, and blocked the streets.
–In typical U.S. fashion, No Kings is going to be feel good, with nary a thought about the disastrous Democratic Party and Republican Party and how to dismantle them. Then everyone will go to their favorite taqueria and consider it a sign of solidarity.
–At this point, with the rich looting the U S of A at a furious and furiouser pace, the only viable option is withholding one’s work — for days on end — and disengaging from consumer culture — no more artisan hummus from Whole Foods! General strike.
–A demonstration with no demands has a strong whiff of a central problem in U.S. life these days: You have one group of gatekeepers fighting with another group of gatekeepers over who gets the goodies. Which excludes you.
–PS: And don’t count on the U.S. Supreme Court for a damn thing. The sooner the populace disengages from the nine miscreants, the better.
–PPS: Let justice be done even if the heavens should fall.
Out of millions of posters that have been thoughtfully printed on cardboard, I doubt there will be a handful which pleads for the Democrats to not suck so much.
As long as the D’s are thought to be innocent saints, then Trump voters are ignorant bigots, not people with a justifiable anger or legitimate grievance. I’m not suggesting anger leads to the clearest thinking or best outcomes, but understanding rather than condemning MAGA-ites goes a long way toward undoing the divide and rule politics now in play.
I hate performative mass demonstrations that consist entirely of tired chants and everyone shaking their tiny fists.
That said, No Kings II is a fascinating sociological experiment, in real time. The fundamental tactical goal is to get 3.5% of the U.S. population visibly out on the streets, at which point, in theory, everything changes and more serious resistance like general strikes become plausible. There’s a pretty good chance that will happen today. We are about to find out if it matters.
A friend born in 1950 related to me about the Vietnam War protest he was involved in, circa 1970 @ Cal State LA.
The student body fanned out onto the 10 freeway, stopping traffic for hours. I wonder if they had cute signage and were dressed up?
Dressed up in their newer Levi 501s and a cleanish t-shirt. Casual of the day.
How did they do that without NGOs branding the protest and telling them what to do?
If protests made any difference the iraq war 1 would not have happened.
Leave your phone at home, both parties have enabled an ever expanding surveillance structure.
Agreed, DJG. If you think of elite power as a parasitic exploitation of cooperative sociability, non-cooperation emerges as a collective check to modify elite behavior not dependent on substitution via largely empty and captive democratic processes (i.e., meet the new boss) or forms of confrontation elites can exploit to justify further repression. While the diffusely expressive may be useful in itself as a signal of discontent, repeated non-cooperative action with clearer demands seems likelier to elicit concessions and alter behavior. In WEIRD societies demand-side moratoria (i.e., consumer strikes) may show promise inasmuch as they can be fluid (shifting alliance collectives delinked from party affiliation), de-centered (fewer opportunities for leadership coercion), and disruptive (causing slowdowns). To put this another way, because of various contingencies of natural selection and culture, like it or not, kings exist. While non-cooperation is neither foolproof nor a panacea, it seems closer to a bottom-up response, an assertion of collective interests and preferences, than excessive reliance on intermediary representation and wing-and-a-prayer hopes of systemic sufficiency (e.g., checks and balances, various state structures), and without anarchist flat-earth fantasies (no hierarchies!) or fatalist resignation—tempting as they may be! ’Tis a thought.
I’ll add to my note above on our local protests that when I went out a couple hours ago, I did see a number of people in groups of two or three who looked to be breaking off from the main group and heading away from it, likely on their way to go grab a bite. Overall, the group did not seem serious.
About to go through town again – we’ll see if things are picking up or it they have all dissipated after a couple hours of waving signs and back patting.
“You have one group of gatekeepers fighting with another group of gatekeepers over who gets the goodies.”
That’s the way I see it, DJG. Let the two playground bullies duke it out for as long as they like. Then will come the time to reappraise the situation. Above all, don’t let yourself become cannon fodder by trying to stand between or with them. I’m getting Bondi vs. Bolton. I want Miller vs. Brennan. Then comes… (Hard to believe that movie’s 40 years old.)
Here, where we celebrate King Kamehameha and Prince Kuhio with state holidays, “No kings day” has a bit of a problem. I guess they prefer “No dictators”.
…wasn’t No Kings day held there in 1893?
“China Forces Scott Bessent to Embrace Anti-Monopoly Tactics”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent strikes me as the sort of character that does not care about monopolies developing in the US as the guy after all has done heavy lifting in financing. He might even welcome it in fact. So it must irk him no end that he is now on the receiving end of foreign monopolies and there is not a damn thing he can do about it.
Was reading up on his background and the guy is a real chameleon-
‘In 2000, Bessent hosted a fundraiser for Al Gore at his home in East Hampton, New York. That year, he also donated $1,000 to John McCain. In 2007, he donated $2,300 to Barack Obama and in 2013, he donated $25,000 to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. At that time, he was described as a Democrat who supported liberal causes. After Trump was elected president in 2016, Bessent donated $1 million to Trump’s 2017 presidential inaugural committee. In 2023 and 2024, he donated more than $1 million to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Bessent
I guess it’s Stoller’s beat, but trying to shoehorn the China situation into monopoly framework doesn’t seem to work. For starter, monopolies, after achieving their supremacy, are supposed to rise prices, squeeze the customers with enshittification and all. Yet this is not the case with China, where westeners are still complaining that things are too cheap and too good. Even with the rare elements, the curbs came only after unending string of provocations from West and only for military applications. I don’t remember US shipping chips to USSR so it could put them into missiles, or for that matter USSR whining that that is proof of US duplicity.
And generally speaking, US comprises something like 5% of world population. That it was once superpower and made half of world economy was result of the rest of the west being decimated by two world wars and the rest of the world just starting to break free from colonialism. When things finally equalize, US can hope to have like one or two world leading firms, but they will not be able to dictate to the rest of world the terms of trade or how they should structure their economies. So if US thinks Chinese (and perhaps in future Indian) firms are too big and should be broken up, they will be ignored just as for example country like Spain would be in the eighties if they tried to tell US how to run Silicon Valley.
Stoller still speaks Democrat, so there are a lot of reality translation issues.
Heh, I protested some weeks ago that Democrats are not the left. He replied that in the US today, Democrats are the left. I said that was a category error, but here in his post today he seems to clearly understand that Democrats and the Left are different. Strange. It’s so self evidence, when people cannot see it, it’s odd.
Keep up the good work, other JB!
I’m educating these academic dumbasses myself too!
A common one I use all the time in drive by Twitter shootings by moi: “LIBERAL NOT LEFT.”
It’s working.
I believe it’s working because it’s literally the best way and maybe the only way.
History rhymes and remember we are the humanities experts and liberal artists so we gotta outsmart the lame ass calculated moves from the Rich like blaming immigrants and selling out the state.
It’s literally all they have.
BUT WE GOT THE FUN, YESSSIR
They want monopolies. Here’s one of America’s current elites lecturing on free market competition:
Peter Thiel on why competition is for losers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3D8Vo9hRyw
I don’t see his attitude as very unusual among American oligarchical elites. They don’t want “free markets”. They don’t want competitors. They buy out or crush competition. And yet at the same time, they are not allowed to fail. They have bought the government so when $hit happens, they are bailed out and propped up. Regulations changed overnight:
FDIC Acts to Protect All Depositors of the former Silicon Valley Bank, Santa Clara, California
https://www.fdic.gov/news/press-releases/2023/pr23019.html
Real competition with companies coming out of China? These pampered American billionaires cannot compete with that. I fear they will double down on what they’re good at – shooting fish in a barrel, and the American public is the fish.
I haven’t seen it yet, but we have a huge Tule Elk with a radio collar, circulating around Tiny Town.
When white man showed up, they reckoned there was 500,000 of these in the Central Valley, by 1870 they were thought to be extirpated.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DPrj39lkjTE/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tule_elk
Hegseth’s tie: a poor performance. Playing with symbols in an intellectual vacuum. That is. Childish.
“Vacuous is as vacuous does” – Forrest Trump
Probably wants a Czaring role, for Pete’s sake.
The constellation of news about Zelensky is striking. Within the context of all that Tomahwk missile discussion, which Zelensky had invested in:
1. Trump talks to Putin on the phone
2. Trump says he’s backpedaling on Tomahwk missiles
3. No US officials meet Zelensky at airport
4. Trump puts on a big show of making Zelensky wait while he hosts Andrea Bocelli
5. Hegseth wears that tie
6. Zelensky proposes ceasefire at current lines
Idk what to make of it.
From your summary, it rather looks like the US is overtly snubbing Zelensky, probably to soften him up for a “deal” with Putin that involves Z being compelled to make more concessions. Trump is still gunning for that “peace” prize.
I don’t fucking believe it for a second.
We’ve been here before and this whole show is all for gaming the stock market.
MAXIMUM PROFIT 24/7/365 WITH THESE CLOWNS 🤡
Ignacio:
Indeed. “Legible” tie. Stars-and-stripes pocket square. Some kind of lapel pin, meaningful, in his eyes.
We are not dealing with an alpha male.
He looks like an old fashioned cop near retirement. An alpha old and outdated male. Delta brain.
I’m never seen as buggy of a country as India, its almost the antithesis of aureus action here…
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3vnk3w0z69o
I have spoken to five people about the the Charlie Kirk murder who are familiar with firearms and who have been paying attention as the details come out about his assassination.
None of them believe the official narrative.
Five out of five.
One Dem, three republicans, one libertarian long time fan of Kirk.
I don’t believe it either.
Tyler Robinson is the Marinus Van der Lubbe of the Trump era.
Could you go into detail on the reasons? I’ve fallen far behind on the narratives.
ACA premiums
the article manages to overlook the rightwing origins of the “competitive marketplace” self regulating better of course that actual regulations and calls for everyone to nail down the ACA permanently as it is creaking under the burden of it’s corporate socialism design, guaranteed profits from guaranteed customers, similar to student loans in that one pays forever, while the other collects forever.
Small businesses and gig workers will face impossible choices between paying premiums or paying rent.
Adding to the despicable nature of the reagan dem apologists is that those amazon drivers whence you are gleefully subsidising the replacement of postal workers with giggers makes things cheaper for the prime members and impossible for the workers, and also that “small business” means uber driver. The class of upper caste professionals should be embarrassed at what they have wrought, but no.
They can only be failed.
For those interested in private equity:-
The always informed (with very dry humour) Patrick Boyle has a YT take on the current shaky state of the industry.
The word “democratization” flowing from the mouths of establishment figures is always a flag.
Private equity, I suspect this firms will be very much in the centre of the next financial crisis,
Also, notice how the animals of the Ukrainian regime wore hoodies to meet with the president of the United States. I find it strange that this is rarely commented on.
NY Times continues its drum beat on Epstein, paywalled link because I can’t get around anymore
Money, Women and Taxes: Jeffrey Epstein’s Fiery Friendship with a Wall Street Titan (loads w/o JavaScript enabled)
Heh, must have been nice to get paid a phat stack like that.
>paywalled link because I can’t get around anymore
I’ve noticed in the last week that a lot less NYT stuff is archived. Alice X’s link below also.
Hop
Yep, the archive.ph log output shows 403. So NY Times is now blocking them at the server level. I’m really shocked they hadn’t done this like 5 years ago. I guess the secret is out. The no JavaScript trick works sometimes, but not others.
Twilight for the Pyrite Billion?
The countries that matter in the Pyrite Billion all seem to be going TILT!, one way or another, woes a plenty now or on the immediate horizon, something is in the air-you can feel it.
We held sway for about 500 years, effectively calling the shots.
If the mutually shared housing bubble were to suddenly drop like a rock as market forces were allowed to call the shots, that’d be one way to get there.
Foreign wars of occupation come home
Unfettered and Unaccountable: How Trump is Building a Violent, Shadowy Federal Police Force (Pro Publica)
(bold mine)
We seem to have escalated since Portland under Trump and Occupy under Obama.
Time is ripe to promote class Unity amongst my fellow man!
Looks like we’re bringing the good news back irl FINALLY!
Looking at the groupings of countries where the Nimbus COVID strain predominate and where the Stratus COVID strain predominate makes it look as though the world has already parted into two armed camps again. NATO has Stratus and China has Nimbus.
If this is because of on the ground travel patterns spreading these strains it means economic groupings are forming ahead of official political groupings. Businesses know where there bread is buttered without being explicitly told.
NYT, so they weren’t traffickers after all? These attacks are premeditated murder, but when they miss, everything is OK, right? Right? I link the NYT raw since that’s all I have, for now.
What the hell is a semi-submersible, a flooded speedboat?
On this particular model of boat the lower 7 or 8 inches is is submerged under the water, :/
You jest, but this is a real thing. These are considered low-profile ships. They’re talking their book, but nonetheless
Semi-Submersible Ships: Engineering Marvels of the Maritime World
Which doesn’t mean the Trump administration should be murdering people that they claim are drug smugglers. But the ship configuration might indeed be true. And we do know that smugglers do use submarines as well.
If rapacious capitalism wasn’t so hellish, people might feel less the need to get high, and we’d be able to tackle some of the huge demand problem that the United States cultivates among the working class and poors.
I wonder if things collapse slowly then suddenly if we’re entering the realm of suddenly. Republicans can literally open the government any time, by eliminating the filibuster. Meanwhile Trump is nuking the government from orbit, brazenly ending any funding for supposedly Democrat programs, because transportation or public health are Democrat lol. There’s no useful push back and Trump can defy the courts if and when he wishes. Tariffs and deregulation of more finance gonna break the economy for anyone not rich, and if the AI trade dies so to goes spending by the wealthy that keeps things going now more than ever. And we have a violent masked police force. Does it start with immigrants, the Other? Trump claims to want to unleash the national security state upon so called leftists, as if we have any in America, as terrorists. What’s next?
MAGA is going great
Oh-ho-ho-ho
Oh-ho-ho-ho
Oh-ho-ho-ho
Oh-ho-ho-ho
Everybody was crypto buying
Those bits were fast as lightning
In fact, it was a little bit frightening
But they bought with expert timing
There were funky China men from funky Chinatown
They were chopping our treasuries up, they were selling them down
It’s an ancient Chinese art and everybody knew their part
From a feint into a slip and a kicking from the hip
Everybody was crypto buying
Those bits were fast as lightning
In fact, it was a little bit frightening
But they bought with expert timing
There was funky cryptophants and little Scott Bessent
He said, “Here comes the big Bitcoin boss (huh-ha!), he’s heaven sent”
We took a position and made a stand, started swaying with the hand
A sudden motion made me skip, now we’re into a brand-new trip
Everybody was crypto buying
Those bits were fast as lightning
In fact, it was a little bit frightening
But they bought with expert timing
Oh-ho-ho-ho
Oh-ho-ho-ho
Oh-ho-ho-ho
Oh-ho-ho-oh
Everybody was crypto buying
Those bits were fast as lightning
In fact, it was a little bit frightening
But they bought with expert timing
Crypto buying
Fast as lightning
Crypto buying
Fast as lightning
Crypto buying (keep on, keep on, keep on)
Fast as lightning
Crypto buying (everybody was crypto buying)
Fast as lightning
Kung Fu Fighting, by Carl Douglas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g75QS0nNldA
Pundits in Canada only know started acknowledging that the tariff situation is bad and that it looks and it looked for some time that US wants to re-patriate all the auto manufacturing in the US.
Some would then argue that better to join US politically as well…
Why not have some Chinese factories built and tariff US cars (not parts) instead. Why to buy US cars then, which will innevitably be more expensive? Mexico would be in the same boat. So, in a blink, the US car manufacturers would loose a market of over 170 million. Trump is an idiot.
Relatedly, I recall hearing that Canada was a favorable location for North American auto production in part because there is national health care. In the US, by contrast, the automakers have to partly cover the costs of private insurance to workers, thus reducing their profit margins.
Of course, compared to the effects of the current tariff insanity, these health care costs might be the least of their worries.
Is streaming broken? I have 5 shows with no new episodes this year. Maybe it’s just me. I never did much with shows still on air. Too often they seem to get bad endings. Don’t want to invest.
Arms-dealer, and ex military contractor Florida Congressman Cory Mills seems like a very unpleasant man:
Per Dropsite News
Lindsey Langston, a Florida Republican state committeewoman and the reigning Miss United States, has filed a restraining order against Florida Republican Rep. Cory Mills, after reporting him to local and state law enforcement for harassment, threatening to release sexual videos, and to harm future boyfriends.
Over the next several months, Mills ignored Langston’s requests to be left alone— alternately declaring his ongoing love for her, insulting her, trying to rekindle their relationship, and threatening to attack future boyfriends.
In February, a separate girlfriend reported Mills to police for bruising her at their Washington, D.C., condo, though she later recanted those allegations.
Three other former romantic partners of Mills shared similar anecdotes and observations, telling Drop Site they believe Mills is frightening, disloyal, and unstable. Mills has threatened multiple women to deter them from speaking about him publicly, according to five people with knowledge of the threats.
“He’s a legit psychopath,” one ex told Drop Site, adding that the ease with which Mills lies, manipulates, and veils his threats still frightens her.
Another former romantic partner also independently described Mills as a “psychopath.”
On at least one occasion, Mills sent a woman to a male friend’s home—a male friend this woman had never met—to have sex, according to texts and audio messages obtained by Drop Site. The male friend described his experience as humiliating, likening his role in them to “sex slavery.”
Langston also raised questions about how Mills receives his income. “There were many times where I personally saw people from his company give him sacks of cash.” One such incident took place last June, Langston recalled, when she and Mills had dinner in D.C. with two officials from his weapons company, PACEM. Langston said the conversation at the table never veered into business, but, after dinner, one of the men handed Mills a bank pouch full of cash.
Another ex-girlfriend independently told Drop Site that Mills would “show off” these bank pouches, which he would sometimes claim carried as much as $100,000.
Those with good memories may remember Mills as the guy who gave hand grenades to colleagues when he joined Congress.
Ironically for such a Trump cheerleader, Mills is married to an Iraqi refugee.