Rescued Bunny Who Was Raised for Meat Greets His Devoted Human at the Door Like a Dog Laughing Squid
Scientists Just Remapped the Entire Roman Road System. All 300,000 km of it ZME Science
The Busiest “Rail Line” You’ve Never Heard Of Is In the Suburbs of Atlanta The Transit Guy
Climate/Environment
Significant tornado causes heavy damage to Brazilian city, while eastern US deals with first big taste of winter. Balanced Weather
Water temperatures in Amazonian lakes rise to unprecedented levels, killing wildlife Phys.org
Crop water origins and hydroclimate vulnerability of global croplands Nature Sustainability
Stratospheric aerosol climate intervention could reduce crop nutritional value Environmental Research Letters
Pandemics
Clinical and cost- effectiveness of diverse posthospitalisation pathways for COVID- 19: a UK evaluation using the PHOSP- COVID cohort BMJ Open Respiratory Research
Thailand-Cambodia
PM suspends peace pact, captives’ release, with Cambodia Bangkok Post
Africa
RSF burning, burying El Fasher dead in mass graves: Sudanese Doctors’ Network The New Arab
China?
China USD Bombshell Cancels U.S. Treasuries As U.S. Chip Giant Admits Defeat To Beijing Sean Foo (Video)
China exempts chips used by carmakers from export curbs BBC
Visiting China During the Age of AI Sinocities
Zhao Yushun: the last generation of Chinese smallholder farmers The East is Read
Old Blighty
Thousands of pensioners evicted from care homes and put at risk of homelessness: ‘It’s so cruel’ Big Issue
UK deploys anti-drone specialists to Belgium after string of incursions Euronews
Syraqistan
In an interview with @AJEnglish @AJArabic , Dr. @GhassanAbuSitt1 revealed medical evidence indicating that vital organs — including hearts, lungs, kidneys, and corneas — were surgically stolen by the Israeli occupation from Palestinian martyrs in #Gaza.
He noted that the chest… pic.twitter.com/yu18JeQb7M— Sahat English 🇵🇸 (@sahatenglish) November 7, 2025
U.S. steps up Gaza aid role to support fragile ceasefire WaPo
Israel opens a new front: War with Hezbollah is back on the table RT
***
The eugenist history of the Zionist movement Zachary Foster
YouTube (and probably other occupied platforms as well) claims that Zionists are ‘a protected group’. What in Zionism, precisely, makes its members a protected group? What other political ideology or organization gets a protected group status?
Zionism is not an identity; it is… pic.twitter.com/nn7Kb5Z4Vh
— Alon Mizrahi (@alon_mizrahi) November 8, 2025
Victors’ History New Left Review
***
🇸🇾 Mass anti-Shiite protests have erupted in Syria, aimed at pressuring the HTS-led authorities to expel the Shiite population.
Gunfire has been reported in the Sayyida Zeynab district of Damascus, a predominantly Shiite area, as demonstrations spread through the city.
The… pic.twitter.com/rmjjgpEfT6
— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) November 9, 2025
The Dangerous Stalemate Over Iran’s Nuclear Program New York Times
Dam Reservoirs Plunge Below 3% In Iran’s Second City: Media AFP
Will Climate Change force Tehran to Evacuate? Informed Comment
***
Yemen Reports Dismantling of Espionage Network Tied to US, Israel and Saudi Arabia TeleSur
Saudi Ex-Intelligence Official Seeks American Help Spilling U.S. Secrets New York Times
New Not-So-Cold War
THE ELECTRIC WAR GATHERS MOMENTUM — EXPLAINER John Helmer
War end– 2026? Julian Macfarlane
Lavrov Reaffirms Russia’s Demands to End the War as Ukraine Crumbles Under Withering Attacks Larry Johnson
During Zelensky’s interview with The Guardian at the Mariinskyi Palace, the electricity went out. pic.twitter.com/iUtjrp4iYo
— Clash Report (@clashreport) November 9, 2025
***
Legalising the theft of Russian assets Ian Proud
EU’s 20th sanctions package against Russia to be prepared ‘within a month,’ Zelensky says Kyiv Independent
South of the Border
U.S. Examining Sites To Send Additional Military Assets To Caribbean The War Zone
Millions of Venezuelans Join Volunteer Militias as US Attacks Continue Orinoco Tribune
What A Wider War in Venezuela Would Bring Larry Johnson
“Liberation Day”
Trump says Americans will receive $2K each from tariff push The Hill
Bessent Says Trump’s $2,000 ‘Dividend’ May Come Via Tax Cuts Bloomberg
Trump 2.0
WHAT CONNECTS CONVENTIONAL WISDOM PROCESSORS, AI AND THE SECOND TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS? PART TWO Notes on the Crises
The Intra-MAGA fight over AI NonZero Newsletter
Infighting at DHS Is Complicating Trump’s Deportation Push WSJ. “A few weeks ago, [Noem and Lewandowski] ordered ICE officials to buy 10 737 jets from Spirit Airlines that they said would be used to boost deportation flights—and for their own travel…Once officials looked into the proposal, they learned that Spirit, which filed for bankruptcy for a second time in August, didn’t own the planes. The planes also don’t have engines…”
Unions Slam Trump For Giving China A Pass On Shipbuilding Bloomberg
ICE Targets Louisiana Shipyard in Major Immigration Enforcement Operation gCaptain
1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/1ot3vXEVOw
— ChrisO_wiki (@ChrisO_wiki) November 9, 2025
Shutdown
Senate votes to advance proposal to end 40-day government shutdown The Hill. “Centrist” Democrats cave and throw Obamacare overboard. “Thune agreed as part of the broader deal to schedule a vote later this year on legislation to extend the enhanced health insurance premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that are due to expire in January. The Senate GOP leader, however, did not guarantee that any bill to extend the subsidies will pass the Senate or — if it passes the upper chamber — get a vote in the House.”
Travel misery at airports as FAA cuts lead to thousands of cancellations and delays NBC News
The US air traffic control system is in desperate need of improvement. Would privatization help? CNN
Trump Admin Threatens to Penalize States That Don’t ‘Undo’ Full SNAP Payments Common Dreams
WATCH: Long lines stretch outside a Cleveland food bank after federal SNAP payments are paused due to the ongoing government shutdown. pic.twitter.com/QiJYnz1q2m
— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 8, 2025
US could see negative Q4 GDP growth if Trump can’t reach deal to end shutdown: White House adviser Firstpost
Democrats en déshabillé
Liberal Elites Kicked the Door Wide Open for Trump’s Flagrant Corruption The Intercept
Biden Discussed Potential Israeli War Crimes In Gaza. He Kicked The Can To Trump. Huff Post
Police State Watch
Masked ICE agents put damper on Oak Park Girl Scout food drive: ‘It’s heartbreaking as a mom’ Chicago Sun-Times
Mamdani
Chartbook 415 Zohran Mamdani, New York City and the promise to revive social democracy in America. Adam Tooze
Mamdani’s First Loss Ken Klippenstein
Republicans push to strip Zohran Mamdani of US citizenship. Is it possible? Al Jazeera
Our Famously Free Press
BBC bosses quit amid scandal over doctored Trump speech RT
Bari Weiss Crosses Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Picket Line Payday Report
AI
Debt Has Entered the A.I. Boom New York Times. The deck: “To fund heavy spending on infrastructure for artificial intelligence, companies have leveraged a growing list of complex debt-financing options.”
Mr. Market
50-year mortgage: Housing director calls Trump’s idea ‘complete game changer’ Fox13
Is This the Last Bubble? Charles Hugh Smith
Imperial Collapse Watch
BRICS to introduce multipolar carbon markets Edward Slavsquat
The Mamdani Mirage, Trump’s Wars & Russia’s Realpolitik: Political Reality TV vs Empire Wars Fiorella Isabel and Vanessa Beeley
Groves of Academe
New York school phone ban has made lunch loud again Gothamist
Boeing
Lawsuit accuses UPS, General Electric and Boeing of negligence in fatal plane crash in Louisville WDRB
Boeing celebrates $1B factory expansion project — in South Carolina Seattle Times
How Airbus took off Works in Progress
The Bezzle
Pluralistic: Facebook’s fraud files Cory Doctorow
Coinbase Failed To Screen 30M Transactions Worth €176.5 billion Fintech Business Weekly
Accelerationists
Genetically Engineered Babies Are Banned. Tech Titans Are Trying to Make One Anyway WSJ
Palantir CEO Says a Surveillance State Is Preferable to China Winning the AI Race Gizmodo
Can Narcissists Actually Change? The Conversation
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
MD11.
The engine and pylon both came off. The wing stayed on
They don’t know yet the sequence of events.
Did the pylon fail taking the engine with it or did the engine fail causing the pylon to break at the wing attachments.
Or is there some other explanation.
just let the experts at the NTSB do their job and they will have an answer.
Rushing to conclusions let alone a lawsuit is sad and inexcusable
yes. but as people will want to gnaw on something…..
MD11 was first problem child of the Boeing – McDonnell merger. with problems similar to the 737MAX—-love of reusing an aging design versus creating a new (more expensive) clean-slate design
but for the crash, it is unlikely that the age of the plane was a factor (versus maintenance mistakes, factory mistakes, etc)
Well, the name alone, MD – McDonnell Douglas, lets one know that the airplane predates the Boeing – MD merger. It first flew in 1990, and was a follow on to the DC-10, and that model had an infamous accident involving a pylon failure:
American Airlines Flight 191 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_191
After the Boeing – MD merger in 1997, it was a tri-engine jet in a world which was switching to twinjets so it was not going to see further significant development. The last DC-10/MD-11 used for passenger service retired in 2014, but it is still being used for freight, and the Air Force is still flying KC-10 tankers.
I did work with an engineer that was working for Douglas during the McDonnell Douglas merger. He had some pretty interesting stories about the merger.
Last Air Force KC-10 flight was in September 2024. Have a good friend who retired from FedEx as an MD-10 captain. MD-10 is a DC-10 that had its front end cut off and an MD-11-style electronics/cockpit installed. I don’t think he had any particular issue with the aircraft, though he had come over from being a long time B727 pilot.
A significant effect of “age” on heavy aircraft is cost of chronological inspection visits, and downtime/duration of visit and correction actions.
I have been out of the business all this century. But, FAA requires isochronal inspections. Used to be three types. The longest spread was 5 years for a major structural inspection.
The design goal of maintenance is to restore the aircraft to specified performance including safety margins.
The decision to operate an aged aircraft type is basically financial.
That said the inspections and resolutions must be successful. Crashes involve going into every record of inspection and repair, including engineering releases associated with repair.
Airborne ambulance chasers.
‘ChrisO_wiki
@ChrisO_wiki
1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission.’
This is so slack this. The whole thread is worth reading-
https://xcancel.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1987450443643986224
So what happens next? Will the Heritage Foundation demand that the black and Hispanic soldiers be removed from the Vietnam war Three Soldiers Statue? Maybe claim that the WW2 Red Tails fighter squadron was only a Democrat hoax? Meanwhile the town of Limburg near that cemetery are thinking about erecting their own memorial to US black soldiers for WW2-
https://www.dutchnews.nl/2025/11/calls-for-permanent-memorial-in-limburg-to-black-us-liberators/
It’ll be like that one picture of Stalin and three other guys at a table slowly being updated until it’s just Stalin at the table.
,rades,
Those who control the past-control the future tense, battles fraught with forgetting on purpose.
I think their next push will be to erect a memorial to all those freedom loving lebensraum enthusiasts , and to remind everyone of the anti fascist terrorists who are attempting to destroy the world today. And harp on the fact that being an anti fascist is a crime in trumpworld.
Regarding the resolution, via Senate D cooperation, of the shutdown, I wonder whether this might be a tactical move to very explicitly pin blame for the ACA premium hikes on Senate and House Rs when the promised future Senate vote on the matter either does not take place or is defeated (and the matter is suppressed in Committee, or defeated on the floor, in the House).
It has been repeatedly noted that the Ds seem to prefer being in opposition to governing. Perhaps this is another instance of that.
It is all so strange. The premium hikes have nothing to do with the enhanced subsidies. The enhanced subsidies don’t actually help that many people. The entire architecture of the ACA is a give away to the insurance industry. No matter what happens the insurance premiums for policies that people can barely use will increase and the economic climate in the country will continue to drive people into bankruptcy if they need medical care. This is such a trivial fight.
Scrap Obamacare. Give us Medicare for all. Make it apply to everyone in the country, regardless of citizenship, because last time I checked, the flu doesn’t ask to see your passport and TB coming from an illegal migrant will still infect a citizen. That is a fight worth having. This current mess is stupid.
no thank you.
I’d rather seethe about (checks my inbox), XYZ Culture War issue.
/sarc_end
IIRC, early in first term, during discussions about how to repeal/replace ACA, DJT mused out loud in a meeting, “why not just enroll everyone in Medicare?”
Perhaps things will get so bad politically that this will become attractive to him. If he were actually to push through M4A, he would elevate his stature from (IMO) somewhere near James Buchanan to something nearly Rooseveltian.
Just dreaming, of course.
JM Greer predicted recently that trump would be added to Mt Rushmore, which I thought was eye rollingly stupid. But if he pushed through M4A maybe that could happen.
Sarc, mostly
I agree with you about most of this, but the subsidies were actually pretty substantial for those of us living on what used to be an upper middle class income from self employment. We are not a majority but I suspect we are a politically important and volatile group right now.
My wife needed surgery this year. The Obamacare policy was a nightmare to deal with and they did not honor the out-of-pocket maximum, but I am pretty sure we would have been billed another $100K or so if we did not have the Obamacare policy, mainly due to the difference in hospital system billing rates for the uninsured.
Without the ACA subsidy for household incomes greater than 400% of poverty, my wife’s ACA premium will go from $1106 (subsidized) to $1860 (unsubsidized) next year. Nobody should have to pay $9048 more next year for health insurance!
People in Rochester MN, home to monopolist Mayo Clinic, are getting ripped off. My wife’s premium will be much higher than those in the Twin Cities. For example, she could get the lowest cost gold plan in Richfield MN for $934/mo but in Rochester this would cost $1516/mo. Even the lowest cost bronze plan in Rochester would cost $1178/mo. She wouldn’t even need a subsidy if we lived in Richfield.
I live in the UK. The NHS saved my life 6 months ago and is treating me still, and very well, for free! Well of course except for the portion of taxes I have paid for 50 years that goes to the NHS! But I wasn’t presented with any bills. No money worries. The NHS is underfunded and Starmer and cronies (especially the odious Streeting) want to privatise it by creep, but still, just about everyone in the UK desperately wants to keep it, and improve it. Who wouldn’t hearing of those health insurance premiums. I thought at first those figures were per year. A month, my god! And then there can be ‘Co-pays’ on top. YouTube has many videos or Mercans in Yurp, including UK, astonished at universal healthcare.
Off topic, my stay in hospital also forcefully demonstrated that the NHS would collapse without ‘immigrants’ from all over. The opposite of Reform’s noxious lies. They tell people demand from ‘immigrants’ is destroying the NHS, feeding off UK voters’ fear about the future of the service.
Jeezus. For 3-6 months of just your monthly plan costs, you could afford plane tickets for two to (for example) Kaunas, plus living expenses for a month, plus the grossly-inflated prices any one of the clinics in the area charge to foreigners for surgery and pre/post services.
It’s not a question of socialized medical care at all. Even for-pay, you guys are getting screwed. I dropped money on a private neurosurgeon for a neck vertebrae issue this past summer – just because it was quicker than waiting for my ‘system’ neurologist to get back from her summer holiday. Cost me 118eur total for a half hour of his time, that little extravagance. A foreigner might drop as much as 4-5x for the same thing.
I’m sorry to hear that. I’m sorry for all the people in this thread who have few options and what choices they do have are barely affordable even with the subsidies.
It really is amazing how much this stuff costs even when you use it very little. We’re going through open enrollment now like the rest of the country. We typically get our family insurance through my wife’s employer. We looked at the options today. We’re going to pay about $500 per month. Her employer subsidizes the plan we chose to the tune of $2400 per month. So we have a plan that would cost $2900 per month without subsidies. And it’s a high deductible plan too. It is all so expensive it’s difficult to believe.
Unfortunately, what we are going to get:
1)Health savings accounts
2) High risk pools
Sen. Scott is writing the bill.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/08/senate-republicans-trump-obamacare
He mentioned in a hearing about going back to high risk pools
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hONgILVw5LE
Rick Scott writing the bill is poetic. The lunatics are running the asylum.
“Scott’s company, Columbia/HCA, was fined a record $1.7 billion for defrauding Medicare recipients and military families while he was CEO. Scott invoked the Fifth amendment 75 times and was forced to step down while still receiving a massive $300+ million golden parachute.”
One of my prime examples that there should never have been an exemption allowed to filing criminal charges for CEOs whose companies violate the law is Rick Scott. I find it ironic that a state that was filled with seniors voted in a Medicare fraudster as both Governor and Senator. In my world that would never have happened as he would have spent about ten years in prison, and his entire golden parachute and most of his fortune would have gone to the government for fines levied for his theft of government services. (And yes, that should have happened.)
It is my understanding that the subsidies are some kind of tax-credit applied or applyable to the price of the premiums. If I am right about that, then the disappearance of the credits-subsidies will mean that the entire price of the premium will fall upon the holder of the insurance plan. So the price TO THEM would rise by the amount of the missing subsidy on top of whatever other rate hike would have happened anyway.
If that is correct, then we will see just how many people, or millions of people, this will be a non-trivial fight to. When we find out, then we will know.
“If I am right about that, then the disappearance of the credits-subsidies will mean that the entire price of the premium will fall upon the holder of the insurance plan.”
What is at stake is the enhanced credits that were made available under the American Rescue Plan.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/10/aca-enhanced-subsidies-expire-obamacare-premiums-rise.html
https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/early-indications-of-the-impact-of-the-enhanced-premium-tax-credit-expiration-on-2026-marketplace-premiums/
The original Obamacare subsidies would still be available to those who qualify. The enhanced subsidies are the ones that are going to expire at the end of the year.
My understanding.
There may have been another factor that had both sides wanting to end the shutdown – it was badly affecting weapons shipments to the Ukraine and here you are talking about $5 billion worth-
https://www.rt.com/news/627536-us-shutdown-stalls-arms-ukraine/
Thanks for this Rev.
I was coming here to say that it seemed odd to me that, just when things were getting to the point that Trump might have to make some concessions, the democrats caved. In the sense that normally, that should be the point to hold on a little longer. Maybe I’m not understanding the full picture but it feels like they’ve just clearly demonstrated to Trump how they’re toothless. It feels like not only was the last month or so an unecessary pain for everyone now, but there isn’t even anything to show for it. Worse, there’s no reason for Trump to take any future threats seriously after this.
Apologies if I really am missing something but, seeing the way The Hill practically begged the reader to believe that, worries for persons on SNAP and persons having complaints at airports was what moved the hearts of the wonderful centrist and retiring Democrats was just the icing on the cake. Give me a break.
On the theory of “would rather oppose than govern”, compelling the Rs to compromise in late 2025 removes the “Rs made your health insurance more expensive” argument for punishing them in the mid-terms.
It’s just a theory, but I think it fits the evidence.
On MAGA sites you read the exact mirror opposite, that the Rs prefer to be the minority opposition.
I remember some years ago. Bernie sanders was interviewed about various subjects.one that came up had to do with congress capitulating to the airlines all the time. Bernie stated that all of Congress flies for free. Among other concessions. When I saw that the airlines stood to lose a couple of bucks, I told my husband the shutdown was about to end. It certainly did. They just needed a little pressure from the airline lobbyist. The airlines have not lost a Buck ever. These Dems that capitulated of the most lame useless jack asses that we have in Congress. Most didn’t care because they aren’t running for office again. Stop voting for these useless numb skulls pretending to care. They will have health care for the rest of their
Lives, what do they care about you and me.
I think the US will sooner have food riots than enough people finally refusing to support the duopoly so as to create a legitimacy crisis.
Hence I don’t see either party change tactics in a major way – they know they can count on enough people voting to keep the “democracy” charade going.
Axios and other sources were reporting similar details. So it’s not just RT.
This makes the most sense. They were alright with starving people. They were fine eith airport chaos. Forcing federal employees to go without pay wasn’t a big deal. But to risk endangering Project Ukraine? Perish the thought! Those patriots need our indirect assistance as soon as indirectly possible…
The ACA was a bandaid on a bursted artery. Ripping off the band aid not a good idea. The upper crust is convinced that people actually are sitting on lots of money they are withholding from the scoundrels. A crash due to an collapse of money flows , and it’s happening everywhere you look, is not out of the question.
Furthermore, the ACA is heritage foundation.
Obama, worst president ever.
Of course, he inherited a collapsed economy from bush 2 and it worked out pretty nicely for him so they are undoubtedly hoping for a repeat.
Seeing how it came just on the tail of state election victories, my first reaction was that they got afraid of the current politics being succesful and decided to avoid such horrors.
Schumer thought he’d get a string of Spook-Spans.
Instead, Mamdani picked up the courtesy phone. And I bet Schumer got an earful from the executive teams at Goldman Sachs and Skadden.
And so far (which isn’t much), Mamdani looks like he won’t be co-opted by the DNC like AOC, lmao
I shouldn’t be surprised that the D’s caved, although I tend to agree that strategically it is wiser for them to let the premium hikes and expired subsidies happen, and pin it on the pachyderms.
Mike Johnson will have to bring the House back into session this week to vote on whatever comes out of the Senate, so we will get Adelita Grijalva sworn in, and she’ll put the Epstein files discharge petition over the finish line. That should give the Democrats some wind behind their sails, but don’t underestimate their ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
I’m just glad the whole shutdown debacle appears to be ending … what again was the point of the entire thing other than making the man in the street suffer?
Mikenocchio has so gotten used to passing the buck and playing stupid, you wouldn’t if its habit forming.
Had dinner with the park Superintendent the other day and asked if we had any reports of paragliders or base jumpers leaping off of Moro Rock in Sequoia NP during the shutdown, and ixnay on that.
Its not as sexy of a leap as you don’t end up in Yosemite Valley, but likely a steep slope somewhere in the foothills.
NPS was spread thin, but we’re in the shoulder season where visitation is on the down low anyhow.
The only positive to come out of this, I think, is that Trump showed his resolve, and Democrats capitulated as usual, so that’s probably the end of the Shutdown Game ™ for the next three years. Hopefully. It punishes too many people without useful effect.
I still recall when Liberal Democrats punished people with the Shutdown Game ™ to stop The Wall funding that Trump wanted. And then Biden went on to continue building parts of The Wall anyway. What a joke.
“what again was the point of the entire thing other than making the man in the street suffer?”
The pleasure in complete domination over another person is the very essence of the sadistic drive. Another way of formulating the same thought is to say that the aim of sadism is to transform man into a thing, something animate into something inanimate, since by complete and absolute control the living loses one essential quality of life – freedom.
There is no greater power over a person than to make him suffer, to force him to endure pains without resistance. – Erich Fromm, The Sane Society
From George Orwell’s “1984”-
‘O’Brien: How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?
Winston: By making him suffer.
O’Brien: Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation.’
In other countries, the governing body running into fundamental disagreements it can’t work out automatically triggers new elections while the government continues to function.
In the US, the government not only lies about the self-inflicted wound of supposedly running out of money (fix your idiotic rules already), it also uses it as an opportunity to hurt people. And it’s all seen as respectable and normal.
Exceptional, indeed.
Why would anyone negotiate with the Democratic party when they give away the hen house so cheaply? After saying for weeks this was about the ACA subsidies, they reneg on it right before the moment were a government shutdown would hurt the Republicans. Thanksgiving weekend was setting up to be a disaster.
Where’s the football Charlie Brown?
I cannot wait for the “Centrist” Democrats aka 1990s Republicans tell me that this is a good $#@% sandwich to eat.
Democrats had a weak hand, and played weakly. As is typical.
Procedurally, they didn’t have much to stand on, refusing to pass a clean CR. And then their demand is naturally only geared towards middle and upper middle class voters, not the poors that are going to suffer regardless from cuts to Medicaid and new work requirements. But the poors don’t vote, so Democrats do not care. And these same people suffered through the Shutdown Game ™, for Democrats to meekly try to rescue subsidies that mostly help those with greater incomes.
The whole incident has been a big debacle for those with the least, as usual. And Democrats couldn’t even deliver a temporary one year extension. Just empty air, for empty bellies.
That’s our Democrats!
They don’t represent people, only interests. Just as our founding fathers wanted.
Franco called that “organic democracy”.
“Millions of Venezuelans Join Volunteer Militias as US Attacks Continue”
Trump may have put himself in check here. He sent a large military force south under the assumption that Maduro would break and flee the country. And at that point Machado would step into his place and proceed to have a fire sale of Venezuelan assets, especially all those oil fields which Trump lusts over. But of course there was no Plan B because Plan A would work for sure.
Well it didn’t. Maduro stood firm and mobilized the nation including these militias in this article. And when a Russian Task Force turned up in their waters it was all over. Trump could pull those warship back home but it would be a huge L for his ego and all those attacks on those speed boats would be seen as political theater. The only out I can see is if he made a deal with Maduro based on Maduro’s initial offer so that he could get a great oil deal and claim victory as well as solving his 9th war. Who knows? Maybe Maduro will nominate him for a Nobel Peace prize afterwards.
Part nouveau Trump terminology: ‘Peter Out Principle’
>‘Peter Out Principle’
This was what caused the downfall of Gawker ;)
…it also resulted in a nice settlement for Stormy
It will be a bigger win than against Yemen. They haven’t lost a single jet, yet.
…attacks on those speed boats would be seen as political theater … Theater? You are not serious. You misspoke. Remember this? Though boys throw stones at frogs in sport, the frogs do not die in sport but in earnest.
Those in DC know it is political theater and don’t care at all about who gets killed. It is irrelevant to them. They know that none of those boats have nowhere near the range to get to the US but bomb them anyway and don’t even know who is in those boats. Call it casual cruelty.
If any US plans are serious the incompetence in D.C. must be blinding.
Simply by the fact that this is traditional US “hemisphere”. Very much unlike Iran or Ukraine.
Still they appear to understand nothing about Venezuelan society.
preview on CIA station history in Caracas by Tom Griffin:
Caracas CIA Station
https://intelligencehistory.substack.com/p/caracas-cia-station
“(…)
When Joseph Burkholder Smith became Venezuelan desk chief at CIA headquarters in August 1961, the country was regarded as a key target for Cuban subversion because of its oil exports, but Smith despaired of the agency’s local assets. The Caracas station had been close to the security police of former dictator Pérez Jiménez, and the station chief regarded the elected president, Romulo Betancourt, as a crypto-communist.1 Western Hemisphere Chief J.C. King took a similar view although others in the division felt differently.2
According to Burkholder Smith, most of the station’s assets were Americans, and its major covert action project was a subsidy to the American Chamber of Commerce. The exception was a group of Basque refugees from Spain who had infiltrated the Communist Partytflix.
(…)”
p.s. related film recommendation on Cuba and spy war, French director
Olivier Assayas “WASP NETWORK”
Netflix Trailer, (2019)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVKmCncjydY
Q&A at Lincoln Center 2019
Olivier Assayas, Penélope Cruz, and Édgar Ramírez on Wasp Network
20 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cor23oys90o
Master of the White House, doling out the charm
Ready with a handshake and an open palm
Tells a saucy suspicious tale, makes a little stir
In theory the electorate appreciates a bon-viveur
Glad to do a friend such as Darryl Strawberry a favor
Doesn’t cost me to be nice
But nothing gets you nothing
Everything has got a little price!
Master of the White House, keeper of the zoo
Ready to relieve them of a sou or two
Press paying him protection proceeds, an exorbitant rate
Pickin’ on ’em as Fake News when they can’t see straight
Everybody loves a Billionaire
Everybody’s bosom friend
I do whatever pleases
Jesus! Won’t I bleed ’em in the end!
Master of the White House quick to catch yer ire, oh my
Never was an opportunity to ever pass him by
A boor’s boor, zealous user of the word great
Comforter, philosopher, and lifelong Epstein mate!
Everybody’s boon companion
Everybody’s reasoned tone
But lock up your valises
Jesus! Won’t I skin you to the bone!
Food inflation beyond compare
Food inflation beyond belief
Mix in cutting off SNAP and pretend it’s the Donkey Show’s beef
Par for the course, so many ways to skin a cat
Filling up the assortment of lies with this and that
Consumers are more than welcome
Why $2k to your taxes can be applied
Reasonable charges
Plus, some little extras on the side!
(Oh Santa!)
Master of the White House? Isn’t worth my spit!
Comforter, philosopher and lifelong shit!
Cunning little brain, regular theory Saussure affair
Thinks he’s so admired but there’s not much there
What a cruel trick of nature landed me with such a louse
God knows how I’ve lasted living with this bastard in the White House!
Les Miserables – Master of the House 10th anniversary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VALfpc-dJ7s&list=RDVALfpc-dJ7s
Visiting China During the Age of AI, This is a fascinating essay, thank you. Readers are reminded that Chinese society’s technological utopia was built and is sustained by China’s 996 culture, that is working nine to nine, six days a week. That’s a 72 hour work week.
This paragraph notes common themes between east and west,
“Just as with Silicon Valley techno evangelists, the idea that more technology is the answer to the global loneliness epidemic, which has itself been fueled by social media and solipsistic tendencies of phone addicted youth, is alive and well in China’s AI age. Solving the loneliness epidemic of modern life is like fighting poison with poison (以毒攻毒). Meanwhile, both societies don’t have good answers for the really hard questions—what should unemployed graduates should do with their lives, and deeper questions like what kind of life is worth living when work is no longer the main purpose of our existence? On the other hand, many of the products I saw are market responses to the reality of China’s ageing population. In a country long defined by filial piety, how do children make sure their elderly parents living far away are taken care of?”
Do we even talk about loneliness in the west? Or meaningful work? “Filial piety” may not be a hallmark of western civilization, but I’m pretty sure it’s ingrained in most of the west’s population. The author questions (but doesn’t dismiss the idea) how AI can help with these things. I’m left with the impression that modern Chinese society is not so different from that here in the US, but with one big difference being China is more focused on preserving and improving life experience around the edges for the masses.
All life we work but work is a bore,
If life is for living then what’s living for.
The Kinks, Oklahoma
We only move forward.
Negative q4 gdp growth would have toasted trump, indeed we’ll be lucky to make it out of this crap show whole, and it all could have been laid in trumps lap, but for right wing dims.
Republican lite while there are metaphoric burning bridges everywhere you look.
Pathetic.
Thanks for reminding this life long dem to never vote for them again.
Tonight on ITV in the UK, a documentary called Breaking Ranks. Surprising, but good that it’s on a major network. (For those outside the UK, it can be viewed using a VPN and signing up with some fictional details.):
Israeli soldiers speak out on killings of Gaza civilians (Guardian)
[Excerpts]
Israeli soldiers have described a free-for-all in Gaza and a breakdown in norms and legal constraints, with civilians killed at the whim of individual officers, according to testimony in a TV documentary.
“If you want to shoot without restraint, you can,” Daniel, the commander of an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tank unit, says in Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War, due to be broadcast in the UK on ITV on Monday evening….
….The programme also provides evidence that such views have been propagated by some rabbis in the ranks. “One time, the brigade rabbi sat down next to me and spent half an hour explaining why we must be just like they were on October 7. That we must take revenge on all of them, including civilians. That we shouldn’t discriminate, and that this is the only way,” says Maj Neta Caspin….
….The soldiers giving their accounts in Breaking Ranks also confirm consistent reports throughout the two-year conflict of the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields, a practice informally known as the “mosquito protocol”.
“You send the human shield underground. As he walks down the tunnel, he maps it all for you. He has an iPhone in his vest and as he walks it sends back GPS information,” says Daniel, the tank commander, says in the documentary. “The commanders saw how it works. And the practice spread like wildfire. After about a week, every company was operating its own mosquito.”…
…Another soldier, identified in the programme only as Eli, says: “Life and death isn’t determined by procedures or opening fire regulations. It’s the conscience of the commander on the ground that decides.”
In those circumstances, the designation of who is an enemy or terrorist becomes arbitrary, Eli says in the documentary. “If they’re walking too fast, they’re suspicious. If they’re walking too slow, they’re suspicious. They’re plotting something. If three men are walking and one of them lags behind, it’s a two-to-one infantry formation – it’s a military formation,” he says.
Eli describes an incident in which a senior officer ordered a tank to demolish a building in an area designated as safe for civilians. “A man was standing on the roof, hanging laundry, and the officer decided that he was a spotter. He’s not a spotter. He’s hanging his laundry. You can see that he’s hanging laundry,” he says….
—-
BP: Too little too late, but still something
What’s the bet that those mosquitos were liquidated after their usefulness was over so that they could not give testimony about what they were forced to do later on. In any case, I have read about the IDF using mosquitos years before the war began and in one case was a kid woken up at night and taken from his home to do this ‘duty’.
>liquidated
I prefer the term “murdered”. The whole thing is just murder, obscenity and crime layered on top of murder, obscenity and genocide.
Yeah, this is total BS. ITV is local syndicated and public access, not a reliable source. Sounds grim, get in your twenty minutes of hate, but no. GPS and radio communications don’t work in tunnels. Total darkness. Night optics don’t work, either. They rely on ambient light. This whole tunnel / mosquito mapping thing is a fabrication. The “mosquito” would just reach a door and lock it behind themselves. Or forewarn the terrorists. Some tunnels are rigged to explode with buried explosives — Drones, dogs, then soldiers. Would you trust a stranger with your life?
The tunnels themselves soon became a huge liability for the terrorist. Surface observers, at first, would notify the terrorists when the IDF were in the area. However, after the first month or two, the IDF specialists started entering tunnels surreptitiously, and, lo and behold, they would be led right to the barracks, catching everyone unawares. It’s how the lesser Sinwar got cornered under a hospital. Engineers only do their boom-boom to collapse the tunnel junctions to prevent re-use long after an operation has ended.
Side note: the tunnel-saturated sand makes safe construction impossible in Gaza. Something to think about next time Hamas wants to commit a massive war crime by building under civilian infrastructure.
Wow. Who knew that “local syndicated and public access” is a synonym for “not reliable news”.
As for the rest, I we only a confused tangle of bare assertions. Several of which don’t pass the lol test.
Cite some sources for your claims
“Hamas wants to commit a massive war crime by building under civilian infrastructure”
Tel Aviv is riddled with the military infrastructure of modern Israel’s occupation. Is it a massive war crime that it’s there? Are the US’s military structures buried under Washington DC massive war crimes? The HQ of France’s military is spread across the most densely populated civilian part of the country. Is that a war crime? Is MI6 a war crime, being in Whitehall?
Who the (family blog) are you to spread such nonsense here.
Didn’t Iran bomb a major Israeli HQ during that brief war – and it was located right in the middle of Tel Aviv?
Which was, iirc, surrounded by layers of civilian buildings, apartments etc. And the Iranians hit the military building squarely with minimal harm to the civilians, I believe.
They hit a luxury residential tower next to the Kirya according to this France24 documentary. You can see where the military zone is within the very tony Sarona Market area in Tel Aviv in this video – it will start staring from across Kaplan Street at the center of the military cordon – after about 2 minutes of walking you’ll see the luxury tower that was hit. This was shot in the week after the cessation of hostilities.
The word ‘terrorist’ shows you’re doing the bidding of the genocidal maniacs.
There are tons of videos showing human shields being used by IDF, like being tied on the hood of a jeep, or marching a front of a group of soldiers. And too many of those human shields have been found after being executed.
Also, the Iranian bombings have shown that it is IDF that builds under civilian infrastructure. The world is still waiting for proof that Hamas did the same.
>”ITV is local syndicated and public access”
A totally incorrect assertion, which serves as an appropriate opener to your string of Hasbara bile.
ITV is the UK’s longest existing private TV company, and could not be more mainstream.
Were you really expecting truth?
The Breaking Ranks documentary is now available view on demand on ITVX.
https://www.itv.com/watch/breaking-ranks-inside-israels-war/10a7329a0001B
If you’re outside the UK, a VPN, an email address and any UK postcode will get you free access.
There’s also a radio interview (that I haven’t listened to) the filmmakers did with LBC here:
https://youtu.be/23WRzMR7mk4
“Scientists Just Remapped the Entire Roman Road System. All 300,000 km of it”
A fascinating overview of the Roman transport system. The Roman Legions may have held that empire together but it was the profits generated by those roads which paid for them. It may be that being connected to this transport network led to the empire inhabitants deciding to maintain their loyalty to the empire due to the advantages it offered.
I recall reading years ago that Roman roads were made for use by foot soldiers; that they were often too steep for wagons or other commercial traffic. Looks like that idea is turning out to be wrong. Great article.
It’s a blowout looting maneuver. Switching to 50 year mortgage instantly balloons the asset sale price, allowing private equity firms in the housing business to flip and walk out with a bonanza. Banks and new buyers left holding the can. By the time the inflation from new loans kicks in, the PE lobbies will be well into getting the White House to sign off on the next scam
America has entered its post-Soviet looting period for real. That it is happening with more bank loans and less factory gun battles dies not change the essential character. The rotten system is being picked clean.
“America has entered its post-Soviet looting period for real.”
Yesterday I wandered through some old abandoned homes on the edge of the coastline soon to be absorbed by ocean erosion. Inside the places had been stripped of wiring and pipes, walls torn apart, and graffitied tags all over.
Walking through those rooms felt much like walking through so many places in America from small heartland towns to inner city slums. Places where pawn shops are ubiquitous and dollar stores are for the well-to-do.
One room had large block letters scrawled reading “GOD IS GONE”. This summed it up. No one is watching over us anymore as they strip our nation for salvageable parts and leave us to be swept away by the ocean.
It’s better to strip your own nation for salvageable parts, tnan the nations of others.
Thailand-Cambodia
PM suspends peace pact, captives’ release, with Cambodia Bangkok Post
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hmong among us in our cemetery number around 25, and we’re the perfect resting place for them, as ideally they want to be planted on the side of a mountain facing west, and that’s the orientation. I went to an oral history presentation in Tiny Town yesterday, with about half of the audience Hmong, mostly from Fresno.
They’re all Laotian, and not one Hmong lives here, and their tombstones are so much more grandiose than any locals, so it’ll be interesting in a few centuries from now, it’ll appear that the Hmong were the most prosperous and upstanding citizens around these parts.
Check out the unintentional funny (the best kind!) in the first photo with our cemetery sign, juxtaposed innocently enough on the right by a county sign exhibiting condensed language to get you to the same place…
https://hmongdailynews.com/three-rivers-cemetery-it-might-have-something-to-do-with-the-mountains-p896-189.htm
So the 50-year mortgage will provide negligible savings in the short term. About a couple hundred a month on a typical home. The net effect will be that people will just bid a couple hundred a month higher, and housing prices may rise another 5-10% before having a long bear market.
Some things they could actually do:
– force some states to reduce closing costs.
– find out what mortgage insurance actually does.
– increase the property tax rate on companies like Blackstone.
At most #1 will happen.
Didn’t we have infinity-years interest-only mortgages back in 2007?
Returning PE inventory to the market would bring down prices. As you point out, it might be done via increased taxes. Regulating the asset valuation process of their portfolios might be a better alternative.
Regulating Air BnB business and rent algo schemes would be another avenue to reducing rents. This would lower real estate prices too as it would eventually increase inventory. Yves pointed out that this is something Lina Khan may attempt to do in NYC.
you will own nothing and be happy! whether Trump or Biden is president.
welcome to neo-feudalism, masked as neo-sharecropping, lmao.
(if you really want to make housing affordable, 2nd-3rd tier cities need robust job markets, and all migration needs to be curtailed and shifted to a points-based system. The USA needs to add >1 Indianapolis’s of housing stock every year, even with legal migration. not holding my breath).
Considering expected decrease in life expectancy, I expect expansion of mortgage-for-toddlers niche.
re: Trump
As noted in recent months, am not a fan of preaching…
Is equaling Trump with presidents who killed 200k in Guatemala, or 60k in Haiti helpful?
Obviously Trump is what he his but Trujillo owned 80% of the Republic.
Do we draw lines to distinguish between the dead we cause abroad and at home?
Do we draw lines to distinguish whether 4000 billionaires own the country or only 1?
These are not rhetorical questions.
So I don’t know.
On the other hand, the 6M dead since 9/11 caused directly and indirectly by the US War on Terror was carried on by 4 US presidents.
CHRIS HEDGES
America is a Banana Republic
El Presidente Donald Trump is the gringo version of brutal and corrupt dictators foisted on Latin American countries by their oligarchs and Yankee imperialists.
Chris Hedges
Nov 10, 2025
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/america-is-a-banana-republic
They should send Captain Jack Sparrow.
They could send Keith Richards…maybe Venezuela surrenders for a free concert tour.
Venezuela is more into reggaeton than rock ‘n’ roll, so USA could deploy Bad Bunny. Keith Richards could be royal secret weapon kept for the Falklands.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ya5hMPkSnk
…only cause Richards was role model for actor Johnny Depp when developing the looks and ticks of the Jack Sparrow movie character which he is playing in the franchise. ;-P
“China exempts chips used by carmakers from export curbs”
China almost killed the chicken to frighten the monkeys – but then they stopped and showed mercy. It does not matter really as all those players now know what China is capable of if pushed too far. And they will remember. FAFO
Say it ain’t so, zapato-less Joe!
That these 2 MLB players would wreck their careers for $12k, with one of them almost making $5 million a year, is indication that they weren’t in it for the money.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/nov/09/emmanuel-clase-luis-ortiz-gambling-allegations-baseball
Re: Mamdani
This take is pretty good:
Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani
https://lithub.com/maybe-dont-talk-to-the-new-york-times-about-zohran-mamdani/
It’s a great article. And hilariously, the (once upon a time always mentioned in the same breath as the NYT} Washington Post just ran an editorial board editorial about Mamdani “dropping the mask” about the class war he’s going to unleash. With a level of florid unhingedness that I would once have associated with the New York rather than Washington Post I learn how perilously near we now are to having gangs of Bolshevik thugs roaming the streets of NYC knocking over mom and pop soda shops. Good grief.
On 50 year mortgages and fighting to stop people from getting SNAP benefits: It’s pretty clear that the administrations angle here is to do everything they can to drive people back to work or to work more.
An attempt to return to the glory days of ’97 when Greenspan said: “Atypical restraint on compensation increases has been evident for a few years now and appears to be mainly the consequence of greater worker insecurity.”
East Bay earthquake swarm up to almost 50 in the last 24 hours localized around San Ramon
I’m not really a local quake buff but I think this is the Calavaras fault. I am headed back on the road later this week so if the big one rips while I’m gone others will have to enjoy without me. Glad I have no pets to worry about.
Not far from the Hayward Fault, and the concern there would be a big enough quake wrecking the levy system in the California Delta and allowing salt water intrusion among other nasties.
Book tip:
A Dangerous Place: California’s Unsettling Fate was Marc Reisner’s final work before he passed away. He also wrote the seminal Cadillac Desert.
It’s actually the Hayward/Roger’s creek fault and the last time it let go (1868) it destroyed 90% of Santa Rosa.
Look at the routes of the Natural Gas pipelines to get an idea of how many fires will be started…
How about a new slogan for California-
‘California – beautiful one day, trying to kill you the next.’
So when I couldn’t sleep last night, a cheeky idea for generative AI impersonations came to me; it would be fitting if someone created videos of these CEOs, like Boeing and United Healthcare, admitting to causal murder, and asking to be prosecuted. Needless to say, anyone that did this would be legally nuked from orbit.
But it would at least be truth in advertising, to have capitalists’ likeness explaining the horrors of capitalism and their own culpability.
The DHS plan to buy ten 737 jets that don’t have engines from a company that doesn’t own them…
It’s never a bad day to stop sniffing glue.
Small miracles!!
Yes, libraries
Federal Cuts, Immigration Raids and a Slowing Economy Hit Rural Libraries (NY Times via archive.ph)
archivey link for
Liberal Elites Kicked the Door Wide Open for Trump’s Flagrant Corruption (Intercept)
Thanks liberal Democrats, for normalizing egregious behavior once again, but then Pelosi has been insider trading for decades, so this is par for the course truly.
File under Social Security this article from 2013.
Ronald Reagan and The Great Social Security Heist
The author says that the Social Security amendments passed under Reagan’s presidency laid the foundation for 30 years of embezzlement of the trust funds.
https://www.fedsmith.com/2013/10/11/ronald-reagan-and-the-great-social-security-heist/
From the article:
The payroll tax hike of 1983 generated a total of $2.7 trillion in surplus Social Security revenue. This surplus revenue was supposed to be saved and invested in marketable U.S. Treasury bonds that would be held in the trust fund until the baby boomers began to retire in about 2010. But not one dime of that money went to Social Security.
Interesting article. Thanks for the link.
Call me wild and crazy, but I think the biggest result of huge premium hikes and the elimination of so many subsidies for health insurance will be that once again that more and more people go without insurance. Trump did away with the ‘fine’ in his first term so they have no stick anymore. It won’t help the public hospitals who will have more unpaid ER visits, so they will also go under, yet another bad result for the great Obama Insurance Bail Out. I will also opine that as more and more of ACA is chipped away, the next huge blow coverage will be the employer mandate. Because even for those not hit by the return of the high risk pools , the premiums will be too onerous for more and more companies. People forget that one of the big drivers of ACA was that businesses were dropping coverage, which totally endangered insurance companies.
I might want for profit medicine to end, but watching the destruction of American healthcare is really disheartening. And all of this could have been avoided and although the route might not have been clear, the result of the lackluster reforms of 2009 were logical and obvious from the beginning.
Real estate is a “what the market will bear” business. A 50 year mortgage will raise housing prices. Mandating a 10 year mortgage would lower them. That’s what I think.