Pilot captures jaw-dropping northern lights show from 36,000 feet (photos) Space
Climate/Environment
N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency So Poorly Managed That State Auditor Couldn’t Determine Full Extent of Waste Inside Climate News
Whose transition is it anyway? Africa Is A Country
Water
How a billionaire’s plan to export East Texas groundwater sparked a rural uprising Grist
Japan
Takaichi’s Mistakes Regarding China Karl Sanchez
China?
Netherlands to give up control of Nexperia in China dispute DW
China’s Data Center Boom: a view from Zhangjiakou Sinocities
As China touts openness in latest policy signals, is rhetoric truly matching reality for foreign firms? Channel News Asia
Syraqistan
Israel Commits Massacre in Palestinian Refugee Camp Al Akhbar. Lebanon.
At least 25 Gazans killed, 77 injured in Israeli airstrikes despite ceasefire Anadolu Agency. Gaza.
With UN blessing, the US and Israel impose the master’s plan Aaron Mate
Why did China and Russia abstain at UNSC and sell out Palestine to the Trump peace scam? Vanessa Beeley
Damascus condemns visit by Netanyahu, top Israeli officials to southern Syria New Arab
“‘The post–9.11 Method.’” Patrick Lawrence, The Floutist
U.S. Mercenary Firm Tied to Notorious Aid Scheme Is Recruiting for New Gaza Deployment Drop Site
Iranian dam effectively shut down due to ongoing drought Intellinews
Dreaming the Ummah Hashiya. “Science Fiction and the Possibility of Islamofuturism.”
European Disunion
‘Worthy of Game of Thrones’: The EU Commission’s battle for control of diplomacy Le Monde
German Social Democrat leader warns of coalition risk over pensions DPA
Old Blighty
This is astonishing. The article makes plain that by “British waters” it means the 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone.
Russian vessels, including military vessels, have every right to enter the EEZ.
British military vessels enter Russia’s EEZ all the time.https://t.co/qOZIVkW3cU— Craig Murray (@CraigMurrayOrg) November 19, 2025
New Not-So-Cold War
Pentagon officials arrive in Ukraine to discuss military tech, explore peace efforts CBS News
Scoop: Trump plan asks Ukraine to cede additional territory for security guarantee Axios
Trump’s 28-Point Peace Plan for Ukraine is Dead On Arrival Larry Johnson
Kiev Coup Poker Update Gordon Hahn
Escape From Kiev Venik
Yermak must go? Events in Ukraine
Ukraine’s Corruption Scandal Might Pave The Way For Peace If It Takes Yermak Down Andrew Korybko
***
Russian S-400 Air Defences Intercept Unprecedented ATACMS Attacks: Ukrainian Launchers Located and Destroyed Military Watch
Germany says Ukraine to get long-range missiles Anadolu Agency
***
Ukraine’s Black Gold Julian Macfarlane
Chevron & Exxon Eye Lukoil’s Global Assets in High-Stakes Pivot Yahoo! Finance
Instead of using “human rights” as imperial cover like Biden, Trump uses “peace” as cover for donor-enrichment
(according to Trump Treasury’s press release, LukOil was sanctioned “as a result of Russia’s lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine”) pic.twitter.com/2557KA2Wc5— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) November 19, 2025
L’affaire Epstein
Why the Epstein files won’t be released as soon as the law is passed Axios
South of the Border
Is Trump planning a covert Venezuela operation while talking to Maduro? Firstpost
The Netherlands Colonizes the Antilles for Venezuelan Oil Venezuelanalysis
Africa
Trump says he will intervene in Sudan war at Saudi leader’s request Middle East Eye
Trump 2.0
The Trump Administration Wants to Impose New Restrictions on SNAP NOTUS
Trump administration shares new moves to dismantle more of the Education Department NPR
Trump’s Data Deletions Will Make It Harder to See How His Policies Harm Children Common Dreams
Saudi crown prince seeks to burnish image with Corporate America’s top executives Reuters
“Things Happen” The Sense of an Ending
Plastic surgeons wrestle with requests for ‘Mar-a-Lago face’: ‘You’re going to look like Maleficent’ The Guardian
Democrats en déshabillé
FBI intercepts communications of Newsom administration officials, California political players Los Angeles Times
Could the Destruction of the ACA Force Democrats to Champion Medicare for All? Truthout. Ha!
Healthcare?
A record number of Americans are anxious about health care costs going into next year NBC News
How can health insurers rake in billions of dollars in profits, even when medical costs go up and more people drop their coverage?
Wendell Potter, the former VP of Cigna, exposes their scheme. pic.twitter.com/FNJDNb5lNj
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) November 18, 2025
Police State Watch
Man Detained by ICE Found Dead, Hanging With Hands and Feet Tied—Attorney Newsweek
TRIGGER WARNING: Here’s how Elevatus architects and Okland contractors — everyday Americans — talk about building a firing squad execution chamber.
“They would like a floor drain… It’s OK if they have to mop/squeegee [bodily] liquids into the drain.” pic.twitter.com/BBR6m4p0bV
— Worth Rises (@WorthRises) November 19, 2025
Mamdani
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to meet with Trump in D.C. on Friday Gothamist
This is a horrible move by Zohran Mamdani. Jessica Tisch is a fervently pro-Israel billionaire heiress, a plutocrat, nepo baby, & advocate of the surveillance state. Plus, her rich family spent piles of money trying to keep Zohran out of office. And the cops will STILL hate him. https://t.co/LW3HKb1OUA
— Ash J (@AshAgony) November 19, 2025
Our Famously Free Press
Olivia Nuzzi’s Nine Lives Discourse Blog
Marion County agrees to pay out $3M for newspaper raid, expresses regret Kansas Reflector
Fmr Obama speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz laments to Jewish Federation that people are finding content from “Al Jazeera and Nick Fuentes” on social media and seeing videos of “the carnage in Gaza.”
Holocaust education has backfired in part as people see Palestinians as Jews’ victims,… pic.twitter.com/YQCkjHREVP
— Chris Menahan 🇺🇸 (@infolibnews) November 18, 2025
Accelerationists
Silicon Valley Can Befoul Anything, Even Death Edward Ongweso Jr.
USA Founders: ‘Natural Aristocracy’ Protects Freedom Joe Lonsdale. Aristocrat makes case for aristocracy.
Economy
You’re Not Bad At Job Hunting—30% Of Job Postings Are Fake Forbes
Mr. Market Breathes Sigh of Relief
Stock futures higher as Nvidia’s strong forecast reignites the AI trade: Live updates CNBC
AI
OpenAI strikes deal with Intuit to plug personal financial data into ChatGPT FT
Anthropic is at the heart of the latest billion-dollar circular AI investment bonanza The Register
US pumps $1B into Three Mile Island nuclear plant reboot to keep AI datacenters fed The Register
US Faces Winter Blackout Risks from Data Centers’ Power Needs Bloomberg
You May Have to Move to Minnesota to Escape the Data Center Epidemic Gizmodo
VoIP Brings Back Old-Fashioned Pay Phones to Rural Vermont IEEE Spectrum
Imperial Collapse Watch
Maryland more than doubles cost estimate on rebuilding collapsed Baltimore bridge AP
MAHA
RFK Jr. suggests vaccines linked to peanut allergies. What the science says. USA Today
Sports Desk
Wall Street Is Paywalling Your Kids’ Sports The Lever
Everybody Stand Down: New Yorker Columnist’s Child Doesn’t Care About Sports Gambling Defector
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Vaping Is ‘Everywhere’ in Schools—Sparking a Bathroom Surveillance Boom Wired
Class Warfare
Ontario Autoworkers Threaten Plant Takeover If GM Moves Machines Out Payday Report
How Wall Street Killed Single-Family Home Building The Economic Populist
How do you fire someone into the Sun? The Conversation
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
125 comments
Comments are closed.
> Antidote
Caracal kitten
Thanks! It’s working.
“Israel Commits Massacre in Palestinian Refugee Camp”
This headline could be true of any day over the past two years and only the location changes but in this case there is an interesting twist. So the Lebanese Army Chief actually criticized Israel for bombing his country which is kinda reasonable? Not in Washington DC-
‘A scheduled visit by Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) commander Rudolphe Haikal to Washington was canceled over a recent army statement condemning Israel for its violations and attacks, Lebanese media outlets reported on 18 November.
Lebanese news stations Al Jadeed TV and MTV said the US abruptly canceled all of Haikal’s meetings in Washington, adding that the Lebanese embassy also canceled the official reception.’
https://thecradle.co/articles/washington-cancels-lebanese-army-chiefs-visit-for-condemning-israeli-attacks-report
In the article DC makes all sorts of threats and demands over this guy but seriously, was he supposed to thank Israel for bombing his country? In Washington, the answer is YES.
This is just more confusing antisemitic propaganda that former Obama speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz is warning about in the tweet above. You see, our “Holocaust education” backfired. When we said “never again” to genocide, our young people apparently thought this applied to *all* genocides. This piece apparently thinks all bombings of refugee camps are equally wrong as well.
Caitlin Johnstone provides more commentary on this example of stunningly oblivious impunity:
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/11/19/caitlin-johnstone-zionists-coming-un-spun/
She examines Hurwitz’s longer address just in case the viral clip making the rounds was somehow taken out of context. It wasn’t.
Here’s a idea.
Whenever anybody asks anybody a question regarding Israel/Palestine/antisemitism/Gaza/Zionism, the answer should be this:
“Israel should not be comitting genocide.”
Repeat for any followup questions.
Make it become a meme.
The repetition of this simple statement is impossible to counteract.
It’s just sick. I’m at a loss for words. Only hope is for the international community to grow a spine and push back against us because we clearly are too far gone to redeem ourselves at this point.
The GWOT has been going on my entire adult life – unofficially my entire life if we include the Iran/Iraq War, Desert Storm, and all Bush Sr shenanigans as the prelude to the Bush Jr fiasco. It’s somehow both better than the Dubya years and yet worse in how callously blatant and evil it is.
Makes me sick that I long for the days when our leaders at least lied and covered up this kind of stuff. Pretended to be “bringing democracy” or whatever instead of just being brazenly murderous and proud of it.
It’s like in a movie when the villain story arc reaches its apex – they’d done bad things up to that point but now they’ve embraced their evil ways and made it who there are – their mission. We’ve shed our “shining beacon” illusion and accepted who we really are.
A clue was a while ago when Google dropped the do no evil rule. There wasn’t an uproar.
According to Laith Marouf on the Jamarl Thomas podcast, the head of the Lebanese military was ordered to attack Hezbollah and refused.
https://x.com/hirox246/status/1991170539227066512
I believe Mr. Hiroyuki Nishimura is actually the current owner of 4Chan, which makes this extra interesting where he is going to speak with Global Times of all places as a voice for peace
What a world
Also what a polite description for the owner of 4Chan “Social Media Influencer” lol, it might have been more honest to have said imageboard administrator
“Russian S-400 Air Defences Intercept Unprecedented ATACMS Attacks: Ukrainian Launchers Located and Destroyed”
Military Watch is only giving half the story here and just says that the launchers were located and destroyed and not much more. RT gives a little bit more detail-
‘Aerial reconnaissance by the Russian Army located the ATACMS launch site in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region shortly after the attack. Two MLRS launchers were found near the village of Voloskaya Balakleya.
An Iskander-M missile crew struck the position, destroying both launchers, their ammunition, and up to ten personnel, the ministry said. It released photographs of the missile debris.’
https://www.rt.com/russia/627976-russia-counterstrikes-ukrainian-missile-launchers/
I wouldn’t bet that shooting down ATACMS with S-400 is a good economy. Military Watch says that S-400 flies at Mach 14 (really? that’s astonishing to me) so they must be very fancy, expensive, and not mass produced. But if the ATACMS launch systems can be destroyed quickly like this then that probably helps balance things out.
On the political side, Military Watch says this is an escalation. Ukraine shooting at Voronezh with weapons that it cannot independently operate crosses one of the red lines Russia has talked about a lot.
Yes, that article is dubious. There is no way any missile used by the S-400 achieves that velocity – that is well above hypersonic speed which means that if used within the atmosphere any electronic guidance would be unusable due to thermal distortions. I really wonder how a statement like that got through an editor with any technical knowledge.
As for cost – the ATACMS is a ‘relatively’ cheap and simple tactical missile, so using S-400 systems to shoot them down would probably not be sustainable, even for Russia. Usually, they’ve used much cheaper and simpler point defence systems to defend against this type of attack, but for these to work, you have to base them near the target. But for one off attacks, it does make sense if the alternative is having one hit a refinery.
I too was surprised at that speed, but even wikipedia agrees (and gives details) that they can reach Mach 14. I wonder if that is a last kilometer speed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-400_missile_system
That’s the maximum target velocity, no the missile’s max velocity. Fastest missiles can do almost mach 6.
Now we know how Military Watch got their data. :)
ATACMS cost about $1.5 million, while the cheaper end S-400 missiles are way below $1 million. 9M96E is estimated at around $350k (give or take a 100k) and 9M96E2 around $750k.
In any case, ATACMS couldn’t be used to erode Russian AD systems or it’s economy as these are no longer being made and in very short supply. (Is it possible to consider that in PPP terms S-400 missiles are more expensive than ATACMS?)
In my opinion this attack had all the prints of Trump decision-making ways. Yes an escalation intended to win some leverage just before trying to resume peace talks. If so, it failed miserably.
Unit cost per missile is one thing but, one must also consider launchers/support vehicles, and most importantly the skilled personnel to operator it all as a team. Per se if the link Kev submitted is correct and 10 personnel were taken out they will be harder to replace than the other stuff i.e. pilot dilemma.
Back too the cost factor thingy. Russian/China MIC operates on a completely different economic model e.g. non profit and not investor driven w/state oversight. Hence why they can scale so much quicker and efficiently than the collective West. Not to mention education systems to supply the whole thing with the people need.
It’s disconcerting to me that as near as I can tell the marketing and pricing of American arms is the same as used by Hermès:
Price of Prestige: Why Hermès Birkin Bags Are So Expensive
https://rare.gallery/en-tl/blogs/our-journal/why-birkin-bags-are-expensive
America –
The Arsenal of FreedomThe MIC Ripoff Welfare QueensI would suggest that what works for Hermès may be a bad idea for national defense. Where does all that money go?
Where does all that money go?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBRrCY5uhWY&t=38s
One of the things we’ve seen a lot of in the Ukrainian War is the tactic of using fired projectiles to locate the launching system. Commonly, after firing something you will find that you yourself are being targeted in very short order, often minutes. This seems to be the culmination of a lot of radar and artillery system improvements.
The upshot is that a “shoot and scoot” approach is the only way for artillery batteries to be effective: Fire a few rounds or missiles, and then get the hell out.
I’m not sure what this all means, but it sure is different from the artillery battles in other wars that one reads about, where artillery battalions were laboriously dug in and spent days pounding their opposite numbers.
In the (remote) past, horse artillery attached to cavalry units was used in a way very similar to “shoot and scout”.
The cannons were of lighter calibres, could be moved, deployed, and taken away rapidly, and the units were very mobile. Scouting and hounding enemy troops was the prime role of cavalry anyway.
Cavalry with organic artillery units was a tactical element favoured by Napoleon.
So shoot and scout was already an approach popular amongst artillerymen of yore, it is just that technology, tactical considerations, and a battlefield environment dominated by entrenched, fortified defence made it less suitable for a while, especially during the 20th century.
As they say, there is nothing new under the sun. These were loads of fun in Rome: Total War.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroballista
Carroballista was an ancient, cart-mounted ballista, a type of mobile field artillery.
I thought the same thing a few years ago. As it turned out, the realities of war have shown that towed artillery still has its place on the battlefield (a well entranched and camouflaged place, that is*).
Also, it should go without saying that artillery batteries are dispersed, just like everything else.
As countless videos have shown, an SPG on the road is an easy prey for a kamikaze drone, if there is one around. In that regards MLRS has an advantage over a howitzer, because it can fire all its load very fast. Grad can empty the whole package (of 40 rockets) in about 20 seconds, and GTFO fast (as long as it’s on the proper road). A tracked howitzer would spend more time in place shooting, and would be less nimble scooting.
This also explains ample use of low flying airplanes and helicopters firing rockets “upwards”. They are ultimate shoot-and-scooters (though not very effective, because of limited throw weight) .
*Patrick Lancaster have done a few videos from those stationary firing postions. Here’s one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-v0IggFWyw&t=810s
USA Founders: ‘Natural Aristocracy’ Protects Freedom Joe Lonsdale. Aristocrat makes case for aristocracy.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Didja hear that Cristiano Ronaldo had dinner with Barron Baron the other day?
He was at a distinct disadvantage in that he couldn’t use his hands to eat…
Greeks never bothered with royalty on coins, but once the Roman emperors started going everybody wanted their mug on them and almost always a side profile, except in the Dark Ages when a roundish lump of metal with minimal design and no hint of a ruler was about as good as it got for 500 years of truly uninspired work as far as the die engravers were concerned.
Coins would have been the way the subjects knew what their King or Queen looked like, even if it was common practice to make their likeness more attractive in a pre-plastic surgery world where paparazzis weren’t an issue.
The idea that TOFU wants his face on a coin is very much in line with say the UK, which switches the side profile of it’s monarch with every new one.
Once one hears/reads The Aristocrats joke, one will think of it every time someone mentions aristocracy. I surely do. :-)
Same here.
From wikipedia,
“The Aristocrats” is a taboo-defying, off-color joke that has been told by numerous stand-up comedians since the vaudeville era.[1] It relates the story of a family trying to get an agent to book their stage act, which is remarkably vulgar and offensive. The punch line reveals that they incongruously bill themselves as “The Aristocrats”.[2] When told to audiences who know the punch line, the joke’s humor depends on the described outrageousness of the family act.[3][4] Because the objective of the joke is its transgressive content, it is most often told privately,[5] such as by comedians to other comedians.[6]
The joke came to wider public attention when Gilbert Gottfried told it during the Friars’ Club roast of Hugh Hefner
Long time readers may remember Lambert posting the Gilbert Gottfried version.
I look forward to the extraordinary moment when creative people discover what you can do with Trump coins and a low-cost laser etcher.
>He was at a distinct disadvantage in that he couldn’t use his hands to eat…
Used to be the other way around–the aristocracy (and most especially the king) were above the use of gauche tools like the spoon and fork. Fernand Braudel writing of the court of Louis XIV: “When the Duke of Burgundy and his brothers were admitted to sup with the king and took up the forks they had been taught to use, the king forbade them to use them.”
I suppose we’ve come full circle in a way, though it requires a lot less skill to get through a double quarter pounder with cheese without spillage than the chicken stew Louis was famous for eating with his fingers.
File under AI data centers vs states:
Why MCEA filed Minnesota’s first lawsuits challenging data center’s environmental review
https://www.mncenter.org/data-centers-lawsuits
This and others like it will eventually end up in the Supreme Court, imo.
‘“Data center companies appear to be pitching this secretive, corner-cutting strategy in city after city,” Luke said.
The lack of transparency shrouding hyper-scale data center proposals advancing across the state and the repercussions it has for accurately assessing the impacts this novel industry could have on Minnesota’s water supply and electricity demand compelled MCEA to file two data center lawsuits this month. ‘
From Wired magazine:
Trump Takes Aim at State AI Laws in Draft Executive Order
The draft order, obtained by WIRED, instructs the US Justice Department to sue states that pass laws regulating AI.
https://www.wired.com/story/trump-prepares-executive-order-challenging-state-ai-laws/
I plan to, but haven’t read the actual suit, but all the MCEA information casts this as a local and state fight. I don’t see any mention of federal statutes or federal oversight or the possible interstate nature of the data center companies. The path to Supreme Court action seems limited because of the nature of this litigation. But maybe they are making a strategic decision to stay within the state court system to possibly increase their chances of a favorable outcome and avoid a precedent setting loss in the federal court system. Of course the feds are making a lot of noise about taking away the regulatory powers of state and local governments regarding these data centers, so that may eventually morph litigation efforts like this.
I walked through a data center under-construction—-it was wild, a cross between a sanatorium and cathedral, your entire field of vision with either aisles or server racks, like the secret warehouse where the Ark of the Covenant is stored.
unsettlingly sterile, and what I imagine the bowels of the USS Enterprise to be like. lmao
And yet, many Silicon Valley data centers are still so under powered they sit idle. The California energy grid can’t handle the extra load. From the LATimes, no paywall.
Data centers in Silicon Valley stand empty, awaiting power
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-11-10/data-centers-in-nvidias-hometown-stand-empty-awaiting-power
The stories bullet points:
”
Data centers completed in Silicon Valley sit empty for years — unable to power up because the local utility lacks capacity to supply them with electricity.
AI computing will more than double electricity demand by 2035, but aging infrastructure and permitting delays are preventing data centers from going online nationwide.
Santa Clara’s utility won’t complete upgrades until 2028, forcing developers to shift billion-dollar projects to Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico for more available power.”
—
This move to build unregulated and unrestricted data centers in the center of the country strikes me as an effort to build where there’s more electricity generation and cannibalize those states’ and municipalities’ electrical power sources. / my 2 cents.
adding to a comment I made just above this one:
What do you guess will happened to the electricity bills homeowners and local businesses will receive one these projects go online? (rhetorical question)
And adding, because I remember what happened to the central Midwest’s electricity energy grid, power pool, consortium energy supplies and the rolling blackout/brownouts in the upper Midwest to feed electricity to Texas these years ago when the Texas energy grid went down in freezing weather. Just adding this as a reminder. From Scientific American:
Why the Deep Freeze Caused Texas to Lose Power
Issues with natural gas supplies and the grid’s isolation both factored in to the massive outages
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-the-deep-freeze-caused-texas-to-lose-power/
I very much remember this. No one wanted any state to freeze. Of course not. On the other hand: why were any states put in this position because one state decided to go-it-alone with its energy policies?
https://www.syracuse.com/micron/2025/11/over-150-people-pack-clay-hearing-to-fight-eviction-of-91-year-old-widow-for-micron-project.html
CHIPS project that Micron still hasn’t put any money into. Huge subsidies and zero on the ground. Opening of the plant was recently pushed from 2028 to 2030. No construction yet.
Town, county, state and feds all putting money into it already. Nothing from Micron. They put a sign on a building that was already built.
Here’s another article on the sky-rocketing estimates for replacing the Francis Scott Key Bridge, Key Bridge replacement costs soar as high as $5.2 billion, opening delayed to 2030, Maryland Matters.
I strongly doubt the bridge will be rebuilt.
They could always give the contract to a Chinese bridge building concern. Pretty sure that they can rebuild that bridge quicker, stronger and cheaper than current estimates. They could set up a website showing the schedule, the materials being used and also showing exactly where every dollar is going. Yeah, I can really see that happening. /sarc
Despite your proposal being reasonable, not going to happen because the US of A would rather regress to the dark ages than swallow a bit of pride and join a multi-polar world.
Gee, so expensive, better make it a toll road
It’s the new normal.
https://wsdotblog.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-time-has-come-new-tolling-rules-on.html
Extrapolating recent trend lines suggests we may regress to the dark ages within my life time and get a Chinese civil engineering firm to build our new bridge.
I just did a google on the Crimean (Kersh) Bridge.
Contract Awarded January 2015
Construction Begins February 2016
Inaugurated 15 May 2018
It was not complete but handling car traffic by May 16. Trucks came later and the railway bridge did not open until 2018.
What is Maryland doing?
Selling the bridge without rebuilding it, is how one maximizes the profit.
This is enraging. What is the point of any UN security resolution in the middle of a warzone if there isn’t a UN lead plan for humanitarian aid? These criminal gangs have no business being anywhere near a gun or a truck, let alone near starving civilians they have a documented history of shooting.
Hired murderers and concentration camp commandants. If the ICC wasn’t a fraud they’d file charges. I’d settle for an airstrike myself.
I don’t think the ICC can fire a charge until a member country files a complaint.
Maybe South Africa will step up again.
The ICC files charges when an indicated state fails to prosecute actions by individual persons. State to state actions are taken up by the ICJ.
It was like that for as long as I can remember, but we did not have the Internet enhanced ability to “yell at the TV screen”. Freedom of screech.
P.S. Some African politician said that war crime courts are made for Africans and Slavs.
The ICC has no enforcement capability so they can file as many charges as they want. It’s meaningless.
The enforcement capability comes from the signatories to the treaty. If some ignore its requirements, it’s not meaningless, it then suggests condemnation by the remaining adherents.
From WaPo:
Towns are saying no to AI data centers. One got sued over it.
A developer sued a Michigan township after it voted against a data center proposal. Cities in Ohio and Missouri have explored data center bans.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/10/13/data-center-bans-lawsuit/
and from WaPo;
White House drafts order directing Justice Department to sue states that pass AI regulations
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/white-house-drafts-order-directing-justice-department-to-sue-states-that-pass-ai-regulations/ar-AA1QLYMF
This will end up in the Supreme Court, imo.
So it looks like we have two mostly separate issues which have not yet converged. We have localities that are fighting data center proposals on a local/state level, so far without federal involvement. And we have Congress and the President who are trying to take complete control over the training and operation of the actual AI “product”, seemingly separate from the data centers themselves.
This will most likely go the way of Fracking Bans. Some states like TX banned local counties and cities from enacting fracking bans. Only this time, it will be at a national level to ban states, counties or cities from enacting any data center bans. Because…. National Security!!! The big bad villains of the world will take over the world if we don’t waste the water and electricity in your town to fuel a bubble. I thought crypto was like the tulip mania, but the data center bubble seems to be way bigger.
I often wondered how great civilizations disappeared in the past … no longer, it’s happening right in front of us.
What I wrote as a comment in Facebook [yes, I KNOW…] re The Floutist article titled “The Post 9.11 method” [a takeoff of the book “The Jakarta Method”]
“Killing prisoners labelled terrorists (New legislation in Israel, what the US does since 9/11, what Trump does to Venezuelan fishermen
Supporting genocide throughout “The West” without shame
And genocidal maniacs with nukes…
Has “THE WEST” hit its Wansee Conference [when The Final Solution was decided] moment? Extermination as POLICY?
Analogies are bad history, but… OPENLY supporting GENOCIDE throughout The West: it must mean SOMETHING…”
I am mentally juxtaposing this to the NC article Why did Russia abstain from the latest UNSC resolution on Gaza instead of vetoing it
Why China sees the need to invest in Israel I do not know. But confronting a homicidal delusional empire (with nukes) with caution does seem called for. I remember accounts of the Cuban missile crisis, where JFK had to hide negotiations over a deal because of the insanity of the MIC and their Kongrisss Kritters.
The Hitler-Stalin pact caused a crisis on the US Left. IMHO, after the fact it has become clear that a chunk of Western elites wanted what Truman wanted: the Nazis and Soviets to exhaust each other in a war.
So China investing in Israel? Well, they invest in the US, so in the dog that wags the Israeli tail.
I am all for openly criticizing the BRICS leaders China and Russia. Just blindly following what used to be called “the party line” helps no one. But I’m also open to the idea that we don’t actually know the utter insanity of our rulers. OTOH maybe China and Russia are screwing up on this. All possibilities, we can speculate and hypothesize, and try to make sense of it, now, in advance of having all the historical gory details.
“”
“Trump’s 28-Point Peace Plan for Ukraine is Dead On Arrival’
That about sums it up. Aren’t there only 20 points for the Gaza plan? This 28 point plan includes things like the US and several European allies recognizing both the Crimea and the Donbass as Russian territory. That means nothing. Apart from the fact that Russia is about to take the last occupied bit of the Donbass, as soon as there is a new US President elected that President can then totally reverse that recognition and the European allies would follow in lockstep. As the Russians overrun the Donbass, the idea seems to be to not only freeze the contact line in Zaporhyzhia but also Kherson – places where the Russians are making rapid advances. Say, does anybody remember how back in January 1945 Nazi Germany suggested freezing the contact line on both the eastern and western fronts? No, neither do I. Also Russia is supposed to hand back other territory and getting nothing in return for it. Doesn’t really matter as the Ukrainian nationalists will never accept this plan and will only accept a Ukrainian victory over Russia. Good luck with that, bro.
Additionally, I see no mention of denazification. If the “peace plan” was serious it would be written to address the three issues Russia claims as the impetus for the SMO. Instead, this appears an act of desperate political theater aimed at buying time in the face of Ukraine’s crumbling defense.
Further, as you point out, the US of A, and the “west” by extension are not agreement capable. So yeah, DOA.
The fact that it´s 28 (!) points already tells you it´s a dud – Trump would never be able to remember 5 points, let alone 28…
Well, its exactly double Woodrow Wilson’s 14 points. Maybe somebody’s sly sense of humor?
🎃😜
the idea seems to be to not only freeze the contact line in Zaporhyzhia but also Kherson
Idiot idea. Both oblasts are officially Russian entities. Legally, Russian must recover all of their territories. Whoever wrote that plan seems to know as much about the recent history of the area as my cat and he’s more an Egyptian specialist.
Very educational (for me) story on the Dutch involvement in Venezuela. Thanks as always to Conor for unusual links.
Agreed, eye-opening
“Plastic surgeons wrestle with requests for ‘Mar-a-Lago face’: ‘You’re going to look like Maleficent’”
I think that the key quote comes at the end of this article-
‘But, just like trends, administrations ebb and flow. Mar-a-Lago face won’t last forever – literally. “Nothing in plastic surgery is permanent,” Bolden says. “Filler goes away. Most people will say you get a good eight to 10 years out of a facelift. Everything has a lifespan.” ‘
I have linked to this before but here is an image of notorious nut job Laura Loomer who must have had several procedures done already. Laura Loomer, who was 31 years old when this photo was taken, shows what can go wrong with this look-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Loomer#/media/File:Laura_Loomer_2024_(3x4_cropped).jpg
I tell ya, these women are going to age like milk.
Speaking of plastic surgery, isn’t there some way of transferring bone from a politician’s head to his back.
Well, at least we’ll be able to tell from a distance who these people are.
Also, they’ll always look to me like victims of the Joker inthe firstBatman movie.
Why the Epstein files won’t be released as soon as the law is passed….
“Somehow, when congress voted to release the Starr Report, it was online in 48 hours… if not less.” – Monica Lewinsky
https://x.com/monicalewinsky/status/1991315359165812850?s=46
Starr? As in Ken Starr? Just saw a chart today with the people that were linked to Jeff Epstein and Ken Starr was one of them. Small world at the top.
He’s got quite the resume:
– Trump’s lawyer in 2020
– Epstein’s lawyer in 2007
– Former Independent Counsel in Bill Clinton/Watergate investigation (1994-1998)
– Fired for mishandling sexual assault cases at Baylor University
– Wrote letter of support for convicted child sex abuser Christopher Kloman
Starr said after then-US attorney Alex Acosta made the plea deal for Epstein that Acosta was “a person of complete integrity,” adding that “everyone was satisfied” with the agreement.
He’s one more example in a long list that supports my theory that anyone who preaches “family values” shouldn’t be allowed with 100 yards of anyone’s loved ones.
Related to CV Starr of AIG fame 2008 blowup fame. Also, very likely a spook.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Vander_Starr
Ken Starr was his grand nephew
re: Gaza
Speaking of screwing Gaza – the Venice premiered movie ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ cannot find a US distributor.
Interview with the director Kaouther Ben Hania who btw is not an unknown name on the international movie circuit:
https://variety.com/2025/film/global/voice-of-hind-rajab-director-opening-doha-us-distribution-struggle-1236583730/
“Q: There has been a lot of talk about the film struggling to get U.S. distribution. Talk to me about that challenge.
A: Yeah, we’ve had a hard time in finding a big distributor for the film. As you know, it started out very well at Venice, so we could have been picked up by a major distributor. But that hasn’t been the case. They all passed. So it’s being distributed by WILLA, which is our executive producer. The movie is also representing Tunisia in the international Oscar race. I hope that American audiences will watch it, and also do something about it. Because it’s not a movie where one can say, “Enjoy it, and go home!” So we’ll see [what happens] through the Oscar run and the release, which will be on Dec. 17 in the U.S.”
“This is a horrible move by Zohran Mamdani. Jessica Tisch is a fervently pro-Israel billionaire heiress, a plutocrat, nepo baby, & advocate of the surveillance state. Plus, her rich family spent piles of money trying to keep Zohran out of office. And the cops will STILL hate him.”
I don’t see a good option for him. More of a choose your battles decision. As the tweet says, the cops will hate him no matter what he does. Probably trying to avoid the outright belligerent protest the NYPD held the entire DeBlasio term.
Taking on the NYPD and Tisch dynasty would require much more institutional leverage than Mamdani currently has. Hopefully he’ll be able to achieve some of his goals, build a coalition, and be able to fight that battle down the road.
Mamdani can fire Tisch at will. According to the NYC Charter,
Section 431.
§ 431. Department; commissioner. a. There shall be a police department the head of which shall be the police commissioner who shall be appointed by the mayor and shall, unless sooner removed, hold office for a term of five years.
b. Whenever in the judgment of the mayor or the governor the public interests shall so require, the commissioner may be removed from office by either, and shall be ineligible for reappointment thereto.
c. Whenever a vacancy shall occur in the office of police commissioner, a police commissioner shall be appointed by the mayor within ten days thereafter.
My take is Mamdani is “tabling” NYPD reforms for more achievable goals during the opening of his term.
An alternative theory is that Mamdani has yet to successfully recruit the right person for the job.
Could be. It’s possible the NYPD would actually prefer new leadership, given that Tisch is a billionaire’s daughter with no police experience. I would think they’d prefer one of their own as commissioner. I haven’t seen anything about how popular Tisch actually is with the rank and file cops – maybe she isn’t.
With this cast of characters, all ya need is an intriguing corruption scandal, some kinky sexual shenanigans, a few suspicious deaths and we got a great neo noir New York cop movie. Bring me some popcorn. Finally some decent entertainment.
Plastic surgeons wrestle with requests for ‘Mar-a-Lago face’: ‘You’re going to look like Maleficent’ The Guardian
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Looking like each other
Trying so hard to stay young
That first year of the 2nd term together
Lying when it’d be easier to tell the truth
Watching those old movies of what they used to look like
Falling in love so desperately with plastic surgery
Honey, Donald was your hero
And you were his leading ladies
We had it all
Just like Ivanka, Kristi et al
Starring in our own late, late show
Saving face ala Mar-a-Lago
Here’s lookin’ at you kid
Messing up all the things Mother Nature did
We can find relevance once again, I know
Saving face ala Mar-a-Lago
Honey, can’t you remember
When they rearranged all the parts
That sweet scene of surrender
When plastic surgery gave me a fresh start
Please say what you will
Play it again
Cause I love my lip augmentation-a big thrill
I hope with Epstein this can’t be the end
We had it all
Just like Lara, Laura, et al
Starring in our own late, late show
Saving face ala Mar-a-Lago
Here’s lookin’ at you kid (here’s lookin’ at you kid)
Messing up all the things Mother Nature did
We can find it relevance again, I know
Just like what they did with my face, ala Mar-a-Lago
We had it all (we had it all)
Just like Melania, Kimberly, et al
Key Largo, by Bertie Higgins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqJqwjdYh-A&list=RDQqJqwjdYh-A
re: new EU Digital Services Act attack
SIGNAL repeated their intention to leave EU if these surveillance regulations will come into effect.
German blog NETZPOLITIK
use google translate
On a crash course with digital fundamental rights
The promised reform package is here, and the EU Commission remains on a collision course: Instead of simplifying data protection, it is eroding fundamental rights. Instead of helping European companies, it is pandering to Big Tech. A commentary.
https://netzpolitik.org/2025/digitaler-omnibus-auf-crash-kurs-mit-digitalen-grundrechten/
“Drafts published by us had fueled fears that the EU Commission was planning “the biggest setback for digital fundamental rights in the history of the EU ,” particularly regarding data protection.
These concerns are now largely confirmed. Even if a few fewer rules fall by the wayside, the digital omnibus is indeed on a collision course with fundamental digital rights.”
“‘Worthy of Game of Thrones’: The EU Commission’s battle for control of diplomacy”
Ursula seems to be on a power trip where she is trying to concentrate all power in her own office-
‘Von der Leyen is steadily concentrating authority in her office at the expense of Kallas’ European External Action Service (EEAS) by creating new units such as the Directorate-General for Defense Industry and, reportedly, a spy unit, despite the existence of parallel bodies inside the EEAS, noted Le Monde.
Officials at the Intelligence and Situation Centre (INTCEN), which operates under Kallas’ EEAS, fear von der Leyen’s new spy agency will duplicate existing functions and weaken the foreign service, FT reported earlier this month.’
https://www.rt.com/news/628031-von-der-leyen-kallas-confrontation/
It seems that Ursula is imitating Trump by trying to convert her office into an American-style Presidency where all power will be concentrated but with no checks or balances.
All cheques and balances, some might say.
This so called trump gaza peace plan is another trick being played out on the palestinian people its not a peace plan at all its a takeover as planned all along with tony blair coming in to soft soap everyone while the gangster american businesses rebuild and exclude palestinians from their newly built holiday resort.
To say that the Palestinian Authority welcomes the plan is just a sick nonsense because they were installed by the USA and act as a military outfit carrying out orders from the USA that fit in with Israels genocide and clearance.
USA Founders: ‘Natural Aristocracy’ Protects Freedom Joe Lonsdale.
This guy sure knows how to twist meanings – smarmy little tw&t.
“The result was an explosion of wealth, with GNP increasing by 230% between 1870 and 1900,” (pretty easy to increase the GNP after that little thing called the civil war – reconstruction, I think does that) “as the free market was allowed to flourish.”
“Monopolistic distortions of competitive markets were later destroyed by men like Teddy Roosevelt, who, like Churchill, was born into the aristocracy.”” These leaders understood that American success depended on the capitalist system” (finance or industrial capitalism?) “and worked to protect it so it could benefit everyone.” –
What were these leaders protecting the capitalist sytem FROM?
from whom?
as it certainly wasn’t what this author implies it to be— so to answer that question we should look to Teddy’s (Trust busting and robber barrons) and Teddy’s nephew Franklin for a more complete answer the question of protection against who….and it was the same stuff Ben Franklin and Tom Jefferson were up against/warned against
“We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace–business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.
They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.” Election eve speech at Madison Square Garden (October 31, 1936)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
So this neoliberal defender of the free market – wants to convince you that because financial monopoly billionare = natural aristocracy
“men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties. 1. those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes. 2dly those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them cherish and consider them as the most honest & safe, altho’ not the most wise depository of the public interests. in every country these two parties exist, and in every one where they are free to think, speak, and write, they will declare themselves.” -From Thomas Jefferson to Henry Lee, 10 August 1824.
“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.” Thomas Jefferson
“It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.” -James Madison
Sorry to rant when “Aristocrat makes case for aristocracy.” does a better job of summation.
But , somehow, these smarmy tw&ts get their big money enabled distortions into the mainstream… I guess thats what a prostitute does – like Trump — anything for money…
It just gets under my skin …well, on to some healthy mentaly and physically challenging mechanical fixes, and projects coming off the shelves.
This the best site eva
Great comment. Thanks. A neoliberal distortion of history, indeed.
Interesting Hedges.
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-palestine-laboratory-exporting
So, in other words, the class war extends even to the ME but with killer drones looked to for the dominance rather than a debtocracy. And with robots doing the killing the imperialists don’t even have to risk their own skins as Churchill once did as a young man fighting for the empire.
What can go wrong? Everything….we hope.
Huh? When what Mohammed Marandi calls “family dictatorships” as in suddenly rich oil states, needed help as to how to set up and run bureaucracies, they brought in Palestinians. Palestine and Lebanon were the two countries in the Middle East with an educated elite. Think Edward Said.
Edward Said was born a US citizen, raised Protestant, and left Jerusalem when he was a boy, lived in Egypt and the United States, and returned to Jerusalem to visit at age 63. The Arab Gulf States needed individuals with Western expertise and Arabic fluency. The problem with Palestine was it attracted a whole lot of nutters and exiles who got stranded trying to fight whomever.
Take a look at the Palestinian flag. It’s just the Arab Legion flag. The Legion was commanded by British officers (lead by “Pasha” Glubb) until 1956 protecting the Trans Jordan Emirate. A Palestinian would not exactly be trusted to be anything but a British or Hashemite spy.
Palestine has always been a garrison for powers in the region. A place to park an army and tax pilgrims to buy bullets.
Actually Jordan, Syria, and Iraq had their own bureaucracies, at least a century old, by the Post-War re-alignment. In fact, Iraq’s bureaucracy was so impressive, their security so well-briefed, Western inspectors could not understand why Saddam’s dismantled weapons program did not have a paper trial documenting as such. They saw a gigantic magnet and thought it was being hidden rather than being a pain in the tuckus to move, let alone salvage, and just abandoned. But I digress.
Said was from a wealthy Palestinaian family. Palestine was a sophisticated and educated place, like Lebanon, when Said was young. Said was a leading voice of Palestinian grievances of his day. From a Kagi search:
He might not be radical enough for contemporary tastes.
My point was not to suggest that all Palestinians are peasants but to suggest that the Saudis and others want to use Israeli tech to suppress the many in their countries holding them back from a full embrace of Israel. And those others could be middle class since these days the elites seem to be warring against all classes other than their own.
“And those others…”
They, them and those guys. Always.
While Said was part of a classically educated and posh British elite public his life and work were much concerned with Palestine even to the extent that he participated in negotiations and counseling in high diplomatic circles in Lebanon and Palestine (a bit like Rashid Khalidi today I assume although with more reach).
As far as I remember Lebanon was the centre of publishing in the region and Gaza had a high school educational rate of 70% before the genocide.
Palestinian illiteracy falls by 84% over past two decades
Sept. 7th 2023
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230907-palestinian-illiteracy-falls-by-84-over-past-two-decades/
In contrast:
“The illiteracy rate among individuals 15 years and over in West Asian and North African countries was 19.5 per cent in 2020, according to data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. The rate was 25.1 per cent among females compared with 14.2 per cent among males.
In the same year, the global illiteracy rate among individuals 15 years and over was 13.3 per cent, with a rate of 16.7 per cent among females, and 9.9 per cent for males.”
p.s. Another much to be recommended scholar on the region, Pakistani Eqbal Ahmad. He did not leave a huge closed body of work, mainly interviews and essays. Heavily involved with the PLO as advisor and highly regarded by Said and others. Sort of operating at the cross section of power politics and scholarship.
p.s. on the other of course in the history of the conflict Palestinians and their Arab Allies completely failed in unterstanding how to treat, operate, engage with and manipulate the Western agents in what was actually their most important cause, defending Palestine as a viable state/region.
Rashid Khalidi is extremely critical of their ineptitude compared to the Zionist lobby which European bred and centered had a majore advantage in pushing their agenda
E.g. Netanyahu is MIT and former Boston Consulting (where allegedly he became friends with Romney). Most of the Israeli political and intellectual elite was closely associated with the Anglo-Saxon.
Edward Said is gone and the situation of the Palestinians has deteriorated greatly since he was around.
So I believe the interviewee is talking about now rather than then. But many say the Arab monarchs have never offered more to a Palestinian state than lip service.
Queen Rania of Jordan is from a Palestinian family.
As an aside, when I was working is Saudi Arabia in the late 1980s we seemed to have quite a few Palestinians around.
🤡
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/11/19/us-russia-secret-28-point-peace-plan-gaza-model/
Ukraine told to accept cash-for-land deal with Putin
Russia would keep control of Donbas region in exchange for rental fee under US plan
Jumpin’ Jehosaphat, what part of “you lost the war” do these clowns not understand?
Putin is going to laugh himself to death.
Connect this with the story from one from Julian McFarlane on Blackrock, Cargill, and other multinationals losing their farmland. Could they be desperately trying to create a legal fiction that they still “own” occupied lands? That way, they don’t have to default on loans? More “extend and pretend” nonsense?
Edifice Wrecks are the same as farmland as the Ukraine War.
Make believe, why can’t you be true?
Stages of grief:
1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining ⬅️ you are here
4. Depression
5. Acceptance
I’m going with the three stages of drinking,
1, I’m attractive
2, I can sing
3, I’m invisible
The article mentioned (excruciated ) by Craig Murray:
Russian spy ship enters British waters and shines lasers at military pilots
OK, it is not as if the Guardian’s writer doesn’t know the difference between international waters with exclusive economic rights for the coastal country (max. 200 nm from coastal baseline) and territorial waters (6 nm from baseline). The author is non other than the “Policy editor” for the Guardian and it is almost certain he knows better. The article inside says it correctly, the Russian ship was navigating the EEZ. In informal talk, when one says British waters, this refers to British territorial waters not the EZZ. So, the trick here was incorrect translation of EEZ as correctly stated in the article settled in the headline. If someone like Murray protests they do nothing but if many more protest they can say Oh! a mistake in the headline, let us change it for correction.
Besides the territorial waters, there is a space reaching 12 nm from baseline where the coastal country has policing rights. Beyond that, the UK can follow and survey ships but cannot (legally) police them (inspections of fishing vessels can be done when there is an .agreement with the flag-country of the vessel).
The false headline is then followed by a thermal image of the Russian ship which helps to reinforce the idea of “shadow fleet”. Isn’t it childish? Yes the Guardian plays childish warmongering games with Russia.
Squirrel meat aficionado and “pastor”, Ambassador Mike Huckabee, met with Jonathan Pollard, the Israeli spy who spent 30 years in US federal prison. He kept it off his official schedule but Pollard was happy to talk about it with NYT steno dudes Rasgon & Odenheimer.
“Mr. Pollard said he did not regret spying for Israel, claiming the United States had cut Israel out of intelligence sharing. And he castigated Mr. Trump, calling him a ‘madman who has literally sold us down the drain, for Saudi gold’.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/world/middleeast/huckabee-pollard-spy-israel.html
I don’t know what rubric this comes under. Could be many, lol.
You mean “convicted traitor” Jonathan Pollard.
Seems to mean as much as “34 Times Convicted Felon”.
Nvidia Calmed Fears About A.I. How Long Will That Last? (NY Times via archive.ph)
I notice we’ve given back all our gains from the overnight session, we’re currently on the S&P at about the lows of the 18th.
NVDA enjoys high margins, Almost monopoly. Competition is emerging, as are alternative schemes for models, training, and inference loads.
IOW NVDA customers will never pay off the debt used to create NVDA margins, and top line.
How much can buyers borrow next half.
From Vaping Is ‘Everywhere’ in Schools—Sparking a Bathroom Surveillance Boom
But not for COVID. Kill me.
I guess we found money for this, though.
(bold mine)
I hate this timeline.
Also. Some suffers from Long COVID find nicotine patches help brain fog. How many kids might be using for relief?
That ACA story on Truth out is a good example of why I never read that site. Along with Common Dreams they have good reporting but its always “the democrats will save us” and I think how many times do the dems have to sell out before they get it?
I notice there isn’t a comment section so you can’t push back either.
I think it represents a larger problem for the “real” left in that sites feel like they have to push some hope so that readers aren’t turned off by too many depressing stories (they have to make money after all).
I saw this with The Nation, I subscribed for many years in the 80s 90s but they got to a point (the Iraq war i think) where they had a full cover page accusing the dems of being fake opposition, but then went right back to hopey-changey talk.
I don’t know how we get past that, telling people both parties suck doesn’t pay but the truth is the truth.
Used to subscribe to The Nation years ago and my better told me this week that they sent a missive asking me to re-up. I told her they could have my money again once they stopped advising to vote for corrupt Democrats every election cycle.
Back in the early ’00s I had sent in my re-subscribe card when I finally got fed up with their awful politics and canceled my subscription. The fine leftists at The Nation then sic’d a collection agency on me for the unpaid bill. I offered to pay for the one issue I had received, and that they could shove the rest of it. Nice folks.
Explosion and subsequent fire at Venezuela’s PDVSA Petrocedeno facility.
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Massive-Blaze-Erupts-at-PDVSAs-Petrocedeno-Facility.amp.html
Obviously an accident due to poor maintenance. /sarc
This is not even vaguely subtle. Trump loudly proclaims “covert” action and the next thing we know things go “boom”.
If this happened to a US facility, it would be trumpeted as terrorism.
Right on cue, Massive US Marine Buildup in Caribbean Just 7 Miles from Venezuela’s Coast, military.com
The U.S. military has deployed one of its largest forces to the Caribbean in decades, placing thousands of Marines and the world’s most advanced aircraft carrier right on Venezuela’s doorstep., more,
The USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group entered the Caribbean Sea on November 16, 2025, after crossing into the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility on November 11. The Ford, the Navy’s newest supercarrier, brings F-35C stealth fighters, advanced radars, and a full air wing.
The buildup includes the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) embarked. This adds more than 2,200 Marines, MV-22 Ospreys, CH-53E helicopters, and landing craft. In total, nearly a dozen warships and around 12,000 sailors and Marines now operate in the region.
The PDVSA communiqué says that the fire has been controlled and the operations by Petrocedeño won’t be interrupted. No one reportedly hurt. They will analyse the causes of the accident (an explosion was heard before the fire) and “rule out if enemies of Venezuela” were implicated.
I wouldn’t rule out failures in the operation/maintenance. Another fire was reported not long ago in a petrochemical complex not far from this one. Somehow the statement talks about an accident. I find the statement slippery.
Pilot captures jaw-dropping northern lights show from 36,000 feet (photos) Space
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I caught the first night of the solar storm and then snoozed and losed out on the second night.
It was the first time i’ve ever seen the northern lights in Cali in 23,350 nights on this merry orb, twas memorable.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQzIRG2D5Bu/?igsh=bHA5em12bjk5eGRo
https://www.syracuse.com/crime/2025/11/see-drone-video-of-firefighters-battling-blaze-at-novelis-aluminum-plant-in-oswego-county.html
Second fire here. Giant fire here in September caused a 1 billion hit to Ford. Now, during reconstruction, another huge fire.
Pickup truck prices going up again….
Progress towards American foreign policy reality is made one neocon resignation at a time?
Trump’s Ukraine envoy Gen Keith Kellogg quits after leaked US peace plan
https://www.wionews.com/world/keith-kellogg-resignation-us-ukraine-secretive-deal-1763631146600
Alexander Mercouris goes into much more detail on this in his latest video:
Kiev Defeats Force US U Turn Accept Istanbul Plus; Kellogg Quits; Kiev/EU Stunned Say NO; War Crisis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8ldFIMPrx4
Hopefully somebody can point out to Trump that the same people that were adamant that Ukraine was going to win “any minute now” are the same group of people that want to invade any number of countries in South America.
This timeline is so fun
Trump accuses Democratic lawmakers who urged military to disobey illegal orders of ‘seditious behavior, punishable by death’ (CNN)
File under: Trump is losing it?
Outrage after Trump accuses Democrats of ‘seditious behavior, punishable by death’ (Guardian)
On Thursday morning, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL.”
In another post, he wrote: “This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP??? President DJT.” In a third post, he added: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” He also reposted a statement that said: “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!”
[DJT was responding to:]
The video, released on Tuesday, features six Democratic lawmakers who have previously served in the military or in intelligence roles, including senators Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly, and representatives Maggie Goodlander, Chris Deluzio, Chrissy Houlahan and Jason Crow.
“Like us, you all swore an oath to protect and defend this constitution,” the lawmakers said in the 90-second video. “And right now, the threats to our constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home. Our laws are clear, you can refuse illegal orders, you can refuse illegal orders, you must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our constitution.”
I love our national security state Democrats! Yay. Moar wars please!
This issue of illegal orders is bigger and more complicated than it appears. People such as Douglas Macgregor and Scott Ritter say (I paraphrase) that when an officer receives what he believes to be an illegal order, it is his moral obligation to refuse to carry it out, even if that leads to disciplinary action or even resigning his commission. These democratic lawmakers’ saying ‘you can refuse illegal orders, you must refuse illegal orders’ may sound good in theory but it altogether ignores the practical reality of military service.
Especially at the pointy end, where it’s even more fraught. Enlisted personnel are taught from day one of basic training that all orders must be obeyed immediately and unquestioningly. ‘If you don’t, you or others will die in combat.’ We had one class, once, where there was one minute of … mumble mumble … Nuremberg … mumble … no excuse… . The instructor was presumably required to tell us this but he clearly did not like doing it and it was obvious that no questions on that topic would be entertained. The thing is, an enlisted man is never in a position to resign in protest. When the squad leader says ‘waste them gooks’, how many are not going to obey, immediately and unquestioningly? It’s that or the brig.
When a particularly egregious incident becomes public knowledge and can no longer be covered up / ignored, the perpetrators are usually explained away as rogue actors and/or given a slap on the wrist. Now, compare that to the determined persecution of someone like Chelsea Manning.
re: frm CIA sentenced to prison
Former CIA Paris chief of station sentenced to one year and one day in prison for mishandling classified information
Dale Bendler was sentenced to two concurrent 12 month and 1 day sentences on Thursday afternoon, for mishandling classified information and surreptitiously working on behalf of foreign governments.
https://jackpoulson.substack.com/p/former-cia-paris-chief-of-station
something I had forgotten:
“Bendler’s counsel had argued during the case that his punishment should follow that of former U.S. national security advisor Sandy Berger and former CIA director David Petraeus, who were each sentenced to two years of probation — in 2005 and 2015, respectively — for their own mishandling of classified information. The specific U.S. law behind the charge, 18 U.S. Code § 1924, was noted by Ms. Schmidt to have been upgraded from a misdemeanor to a felony since the prosecution of the two senior officials.”
There is a big shout out to NC in the latest episode of Multipolarity:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fubFweMaacM
Federal Government Job Cuts Still Hitting Employment Data: The Labor Market by Major Industry in Charts
Wolfstreet
Lunacy given population growth.