Links 1/11/2026


A Disrupted Body Clock Is Linked to Higher Dementia Risk SciTech Daily

I met a lot of weird robots at CES — here are the most memorable TechCrunch

People Who Go Off GLP-1s Are Experiencing a Sudden and Terrible Hunger Futurism

From Noriega to Maduro: The Long US History of Kidnapping Foreign Leaders ScheerPost


COVID-19/Pandemics

COVID Levels Are “Very High” and “High” in These 13 States BestLife

Viruses Experts Are Watching in 2026 Tickernews

Climate/Environment

Australia declares state of disaster as bushfires rage Phys.org

‘Profound impacts’: record ocean heat is intensifying climate disasters, data shows The Guardian

As the Arctic warms up, the race to control the region is growing ever hotter The Conversation

South of the Border

Guerrillas and gangsters on the Venezuelan border UnHerd

A battered Cuba braces for aftershocks as US seizures of oil tankers linked to Venezuela surge AP

Mexico’s president downplays Trump’s threats Le Monde

Petro says Colombia cooperating with US ‘despite insults, threats’ Al Jazeera

China?


China’s ‘artificial sun’ breaks nuclear fusion limit thought to be impossible The Independent

I Came to CES to Check Out Energy and Solar Power Innovations and Found That China Is Running Laps Around Us PC Magazine

The end of China’s one-child policy, 10 years later Taipei Times

YJ-20: Meet the Chinese Missile Built to Break the US Navy The National Interest

India

Watched, scared and trapped in an Australian visa nightmare, Kiran is one of India’s ‘abandoned brides’ The Guardian

Trump’s 500% tariff pressure & global crude supply shock risks: Where does India’s oil security stand? Times of India

India moves toward major Rafale fighter procurement Defence Blog

Africa

South Africa’s strained ties with US face new test – war games with China, Iran and Russia BBC

Africa decides keeping Trump happy isn’t that important Politico

Ethiopia Breaks Ground on $12.5 Billion Mega-Airport to Redefine Africa Sri Lanka Guardian

European Disunion

The EU-Mercosur Trade Deal May Not Be the Big Win Some in Europe Think Foreign Policy

Trump is right. Europe is in crisis Al Jazeera

How can Europe prevent a Greenland grab? Financial Times

Old Blighty

‘Spineless Starmer is turning UK into military pygmy’: Farage blasts PM as Iran’s leader in exile pleads for British support and top brass warn of funding crisis Daily Mail

Two-thirds of UK voters wrongly think immigration is rising, poll finds The Guardian

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

Israel, Hamas ready to resume war in Gaza as Trump’s peace deal stalls: report NY Post

Israel moves to launch settlement project east of Jerusalem, issues 45-day notice Andolu Agency

Israel tapering off US military aid within the decade ‘in progress,’ Netanyahu announces Jerusalem Post

New Not-So-Cold War

Ukraine scrambles to repair ruined Kyiv power grid after latest Russian attack CBC

Russian oil depot fire after Ukrainian drone strike – as UN to meet over hypersonic missile attack Sky News

US and Ukraine plan to sign $800 billion deal at Davos The Kyiv Independent

Big Brother Is Watching You Watch

ACLU Fights DOJ Overreach to Protect Voter Privacy and Sensitive Data ACLU.org

Worried about surveillance, states enact privacy laws and restrict license plate readers Stateline

Imperial Collapse Watch

Americans Aren’t Traumatized Enough by Gun Violence Fair Observer

Mobile homes already have huge utility bills. Congress may make it worse. Grist

Trump 2.0

Trump’s call for Collins ouster throws wrench into Maine Senate race The Hill

Greenland leaders push back on Trump’s calls for US control of the island: ‘We don’t want to be Americans’ Fox News

‘This is what a cover-up looks like’: Fury as Trump administration kicks local investigators off Renee Nicole Good ICE shooting probe Daily Mail

Trump Lays Out a Vision of Power Restrained Only by ‘My Own Morality’ NY Times

Musk Matters

Musk’s SpaceX get green light to fire 7,500 new Starlink satellites into orbit Cryptopolitan

Musk says X outcry is ‘excuse for censorship’ BBC

Humanoid robots or human connection? What Elon Musk’s Optimus reveals about our AI ambitions The Conversation

Democrat Death Watch

Column: Apart from Trump derangement, what do Democrats stand for? Yakima Herald-Republic

Why Democrats keep losing support even as Trump falters badly Boulder Daily Camera

Immigration

Minnesota launching investigation into fatal shooting by US immigration agent Andolu Agency

JD Vance Says Americans Should Actually Thank ICE Agent Who Killed Renee Good Truthout

Judge signals blocking Trump move to end protections for Latin American migrants The Hill

Protests against ICE spread across U.S. after shootings in Minneapolis and Portland PBS

Our No Longer Free Speech

New Texas A&M policy sparks free-speech fight after Plato readings pulled from course Austin American-Statesman

This Tribal News Agency Shows How to Defend a Free Press at the Grassroots Truthout

Mr. Market Is Moody

Gold Is Muscling Out Treasuries as a Foreign Reserve Asset Barron’s

The mounting economic challenges weakening the job market PBS

From housing to groceries to energy, Americans say the economy is doing poorly Scripps News

AI

Furious AI Users Say Their Prompts Are Being Plagiarized Futurism

Most devs don’t trust AI-generated code, but fail to check it anyway The Register

AI slop and brainrot content now make up 1 in 2 YouTube Shorts recommendations, study reveals Mashable

Physical AI Made Waves At CES 2026. What Is It? Forbes

Multiple products enter late-stage clinical trials; has AI-driven drug discovery emerged from the ‘valley of death’? Futubull

The Bezzle

Florida deregulated nursing schools. Scam colleges and failing students followed Orlando Sentinel

Treasury, IRS ramp up investigation into Minnesota fraud Michigan Now

Billions in healthcare fraud discovered in California, Minnesota ‘pales in comparison’: Dr Oz NY Post

Guillotine Watch

Antidote du jour (via)

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here

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76 comments

  1. Wukchumni

    I read the news today, oh boy
    About an ICE man who made the grade
    And though the news was rather sad
    Well, I just had to gasp
    Another brawn shirted psychopath

    He blew her mind out in a car
    She didn’t notice that her rights had changed
    A crowd of people stood and stared
    Nobody had seen his face before
    Everybody recorded it as if to keep score

    I saw the video today, oh boy
    The occupying army had started the war
    A crowd of people turned away
    But I just had to look
    Another life they took
    I’d love to have them turn on you

    Woke up, fell out of bed
    Dragged a comb across my head
    Found my way downstairs and drank a cup
    And looking up, I noticed the hour was late
    Found my voice and petted my cat
    Made up new lyrics in seconds flat
    Found my way upstairs and had a smoke
    And somebody spoke and I went into a dream

    I read the news today, oh boy
    A few holes in Renee Good
    And because the entry holes were rather small
    They had to discount them all
    Now we know nobody is going to take the fall
    I’d love to have them turn on you

    A Day in the Life, by the Beatles

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYeV7jLBXvA&list=RDUYeV7jLBXvA

    Reply
    1. JohnA

      I understand the original Beatles song was inspired by a newspaper report about a guy who committed suicide in his car. It cannot be too long before Trump starts spouting that Renee Good suicided herself.

      Reply
    2. The Rev Kev

      Renee Good had a big, black dog in the back of her car. It is a good thing that Kristi Noem wasn’t on the scene or she would have ran over to shoot the dog as well.

      Reply
    3. tennesseewaltzer

      The path of Good’s car after she was shot, veering hard off to the right, supports the claim she was trying to avoid the officers. It does not support the narrative that he, to the car’s left, was in danger.

      Reply
      1. KD

        If you watch his feet in the slow-mo video on the TYT, you can’t see his front foot until she veers with the car to the right. It is only after she veers to the right, and you can see his foot, that he fires the first shot. The front of the car had cleared him, and the car was headed off. Any argument that he was in danger from the car at the time of the shot can be dispelled. He was to the side of the car, he fires into the windshield from the side of the car, and then it looks like he fires two more shots through the driver’s side window as the car drives away. Then there is his comment after the shooting, not exactly the words of a man in fear for his life.

        Its a straight up assassination. We don’t even have to get into whether it is a lawful seizure, and resisting arrest–you are not entitled to use deadly force when someone unlawfully resists arrest. You can ask former Officer Chauvin of the Minneapolis PD.

        Reply
    4. lcm

      Perfect, Wuk!

      “The agent who shot Good was a member of a specially trained tactical unit within ICE, a senior Department of Homeland Security official told CBS News.”

      So highly trained that he recklessly stuck his arm in a car that was not under his control and was so traumatized by that event, that months later he stood in front of another vehicle not under his control and chose to shoot someone dead rather than step farther to the side when she was clearly turning the car away from him.

      Reply
  2. Wukchumni

    Gold Is Muscling Out Treasuries as a Foreign Reserve Asset Barron’s
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Book tip:

    Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World, by Liaquat Ahamed

    Winner of the 2010 Pullitzer Prize for history…

    Just the exact opposite in the tome is occurring right now, for those of you keeping score at home~

    Reply
  3. The Rev Kev

    “As the Arctic warms up, the race to control the region is growing ever hotter”

    Just waiting for Trump to announce that the US will be taking over the Arctic ocean and he will personally be administering its resources, especially the oil reserves. Just waiting for this prediction to happen in the next three years.

    Reply
  4. mrsyk

    “Artificial sun”, the last thing we need. Good news for the data center crowd, I guess. Also solves the sharks with ray guns problem.

    From the Guardian piece on ocean heat,

    “Global warming is ocean warming,” he said. “If you want to know how much the Earth has warmed or how fast we will warm into the future, the answer is in the oceans.”

    That sounds correct to me.

    Reply
    1. sarmaT

      I would say it’s not even second to last, beaten by “artificial intelligence”, “artificial meat”, and many other artificial things.

      Reply
  5. Wukchumni

    From housing to groceries to energy, Americans say the economy is doing poorly Scripps News
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    …as it goes in these times dept:

    Now that i’m a randy sexagenarian I have to do it more frequently, and was in Smart & Final (supermarket & wholesale lot food service market-since 1871) in Visalia (146k pop), when the urge became omnipresent, practically sprinted towards the rest room in the back of the store that requires a 4 number code for entry, so very blocked, and another sprint to the front to find an employee, and there he is, ‘hey what’s the code for the bathroom?’ I plead, to low avail as he doesn’t trust me not to give out the combination to homeless lurking on the outside looking in every city in these not very united states, then escorts me to the promised land and keys in ****, but my moment had already passed.

    Reply
    1. Norton

      Time for labs to get a PSA update. Symptoms often go together.

      In other health news, don’t get the flu! Nasty bug that goes around a few times in offices, families and other gatherings. Take precautions.

      Reply
      1. Wukchumni

        I’m glad I invested in NyQuill (NYQ) stocks in particular, as i’m in the home stretch of this awful flu that has hit Tiny Town hard, by all accounts. I’ve been at it over a week and only got my appetite back a day ago. I’d prefer to jab myself with a GLP-1 instead if I wanted to lose weight.

        You know that saying ‘he can pee like a racehorse!’, for me, its all that Lasix i’ve been taking.

        Reply
    1. ISL

      Thanks for the link. From the article “But the chances are slim of aligning EU capitals behind retaliation that many will regard as cutting off your nose to spite your face.”

      Logic of paying off the bully. Strange the FT doesn’t understand the moral hazard when it is against the US.

      However, some interesting ideas like threatening to kick the US out of military bases it needs for intel on Ukraine or treatment for injured US soldiers, or refusing to provide ice-breakers (killing Trump’s Arctic dreams).

      Here is an idea, threaten to charge the US leader with genocide, so that Trump will be unable to go in person to pick up his nobel peace prize.

      Reply
    2. jrkrideau

      I was watching a video, which of course I forgot to bookmark which pointed out that if it came to actual combat, the Nordic nations and Canada could inflict a huge amount of damage on US forces. They could not outright defeat the US but they could inflict a lot of pain.

      The rationale? Those countries have cold weather troops. Cold weather fighting, well even surviving, is a specialized skill. Troops accustomed to fighting in 40℃ are going to be in a bit of shock fighting in -40℃ weather.

      For that matter how long would it take to winterize equipment? From my own experience, at -40 to -50℃ lubricants start to congeal. Heaven knows what happens to hydrophilic fluids. I remember a heavy equipment operator in the Alberta oil patch telling me that you turned your diesel engine on in September or October and shut it down in April or so.

      The Germans on the Eastern front in WWII, in winter, were fighting in comparatively tropical conditions.

      Reply
  6. Wukchumni

    Regarding deer vs rhino

    Jay Bruce was the official California State mountain lion hunter for about 30 years, and using hunting dogs dispatched 669 of them.

    Any mountain lion could easily dispatch a dog in 2 swats flat, but there is something about dogs that freaks out much larger prey.

    I asked my friend Molly how many black bears has diminutive Dachshund Gus treed in Mineral King in his storied career, and 2 bruins have been so captured on high by his vocal demands, and he is the only cur i’m aware of that took out an extended warranty on his vocal cords, a 9 inch high 2 & 1/2 feet long barking machine.

    This video of Jay Bruce is from around a century ago with commentary added later by Jay.

    I learned so much about mountain lions, and let me just say, that when they coined the word indefatigable, they had Jay in mind.

    FD: A number of mountain lions were killed say 103 years ago in the video~

    Jay Bruce-Lion Hunter

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pagxtJB50Yc (40 minutes)

    Reply
    1. Lee

      I have never seen a rhino behaving playfully, quite a treat.

      As to bears and cougars fearing dogs, let me speculate. There is a tendency, even among fierce predators, to avoid even non-lethal injury as they may result in infection and eventual death except when food, mating, or being cornered are involved. Even so, I once observed a group of coyotes drive a grizzly off a carcass. He got tired of getting nipped in the butt while going after others that were dancing tauntingly in front of him. Also, dogs, like their wolf forbearers are pack animals, so where there’s one there may be others. And finally, black bears tend to retreat in the face of possible aggression. According to Herrero they evolved in forested habitats and prefer going up a tree to avoid danger. Grizzlies on the other hand evolved in the open plains where, with nowhere to hide, aggression was the better means of survival.

      Herrero’s book Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance is really worth reading for those who live in or intend to spend time in bear country.

      Reply
    2. Bugs

      If I were a cougar, say 30,000 years ago, one of my biggest fears would be to cross a canis lupus, knowing that a pack might be nearby, ready to support their own. Perhaps that explains the fear of human’s best friend.

      Reply
  7. .Tom

    I lead a sheltered life. No TV for example. No social media apps. For me doomscrolling is NC and a couple of specialist discussion forums. And since Snowden my web browsers are crippled so most web sites are broken one way or another. One breaking add-on is called Cookie AutoDelete which has all sorts of consequences including that when I go to youtube I get a blank page with a search field so I don’t see much that I don’t ask for. In this context I read

    AI slop and brainrot content now make up 1 in 2 YouTube Shorts recommendations, study reveals Mashable

    and wonder, what is brainrot? I want to see some brainrot on YouTube.

    Well, that can be arranged. Mashable is quoting an article by Liam Curtis including what looks like some real research published by Kapwing, a maker of video production software tools. It includes a short text definition of brainrot but it just raises questions for me. Turns out Kapwing has a short tutorial video on the topic that I found quite helpful: How AI Brainrot Took Over The Internet (6 min). I remain a little unclear on the distinction between brainrot and Italian brainrot but maybe I don’t need to know.

    Reply
  8. Balan Aroxdale

    The EU-Mercosur Trade Deal May Not Be the Big Win Some in Europe Think Foreign Policy

    What is the point of EU agricultural and labor standards if countries without them can simply sell their goods anyway? This deal is just regulation arbitrage, an officialdom stamp of approval for what was once called ‘smuggling’. Honestly, the PMC technocrats are increasingly morphing into mafia accountants.

    In completely unrelated news, IDF hand grenades are being used to start fires in Patagonia forests soon to be prime farmland. This is getting really tiresome.

    Reply
  9. The Rev Kev

    “Greenland leaders push back on Trump’s calls for US control of the island: ‘We don’t want to be Americans’”

    If I were a Greenlander, I wouldn’t worry about that. The Trump regime will never let the people there have American citizenship as that means representation in legal courts. You might find that in a year or two, they will ship in ICE agents to round up all the “illegals” living in American territory and shipping them to regions where they will feel at home – like Argentina or Somalia or maybe Nigeria.

    Reply
      1. mrsyk

        If I were a Greenlander
        And you Greg Bovino
        Would you marry me anyway
        And move to Mendocino

        If I were a Greenlander
        And you Joseph Edlow
        Will you restore my integrity
        Can my mom and dad go

        If I were a Greenlander
        And you, Kristi Noem
        Would you marry me anyway
        Will you write me a love poem

        Reply
        1. Laughingsong

          “And move to Mendocino”

          Major LOL! Boy did I need that belly laugh, thanks!

          Paraphrasing Edward I from Braveheart:

          “The problem with Greenland is that it’s full of Greenlanders.”

          Reply
  10. Carolinian

    Dogs have attitude whereas cats love stealth. Clearly it’s a personality mismatch. Small dogs have even more attitude.

    And re J.D.’s trash talk–Usha Vance seems like a nice person and should probably seek a more compatible mate.

    Reply
    1. Sam Culotte

      If she were a nice person she wouldn’t have married JD. If she were a nice person, she wouldn’t be willing to do “missionary work” on his behalf.

      From Wiki: In March 2025, she went on a visit to Greenland, which caused a diplomatic spat. Prime minister Mute Egede called the visit “a provocation”, and said she is not welcome in Greenland, noting that “until recently, we could trust the Americans, who were our allies and friends, and with whom we enjoyed working very closely, but that time is over.”

      She’s not a nice person. She’s another DC sell-out, where it’s all about status and position. I confidently predict that America’s “Second Lady” will never divorce her “Second Man”. A woman with a conscience might. Not her.

      Reply
    2. .Tom

      Some dogs are stealthy enough to catch squirrels and rabbits but it’s not common. Most of them are rubbish hunters, noisy, crashing around like idiots, which can be useful to a human hunter (also to a herder) but not so much on their own.

      The Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever is an interesting example. It’s job is in two parts. The first part is duck tolling: it goes to the water’s edge and plays around like a fool to attract the attention of ducks. The ducks need to evaluate the risk and to do so they sail towards the dog to investigate. The hunter shoots one or more of them and the dog does the retriever part. So the breed spec actually includes the attitude you mentioned, taunting (tolling) ducks. Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers are fashionable and expensive and the two I have known were lovely, wonderful dogs.

      I thought this all so funny that I invented a related dog breed for Lucy. She’s really a Georgia Pound Mutt but if you ask me what she is I may tell you she’s a Prince Edward Island Goose Impersonating Retriever.

      Seems unlikely to me that Usha is in fact a nice person given that she has had and continues to have choices. If she wants to be FLOTUS then sticking with Jimmy is surely her best bet.

      Reply
  11. AG

    re: Germany ROSA-LUXEMBURG-CONFERENCE

    JUNGE WELT daily has several online items on this annual event
    see their homepage

    usually translatable via google

    https://www.jungewelt.de/

    For instance this piece

    Main purpose: return
    Reducing bureaucracy while simultaneously demanding a state-run war economy: Neoliberalism has many faces. Its starting point, however, is always the alleged inequality of people.

    By Jörg Goldberg
    https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/513281.neoliberalismus-hauptzweck-rendite.html

    Reply
  12. Hank Linderman

    Re Rihanna’s headphones – might they be for stage use?

    In-ear monitoring is common in music performance, headphones less so but they do get used. High end in-ear monitors can cost $3k. (Mine cost me $1200 about 10 years ago. There are less expensive options now; I’m currently using some that aren’t molded to my ears for about $60.)

    So, these make sense to me as a stage device. The glitz is part of the show. Not sure where else they make any kind of sense at all.

    Best…H

    Reply
    1. Dr. John Carpenter

      I can’t imagine using over ear headphones for monitors on the stages I play. Scale that way up to Rihanna’s level and I just don’t see how that could work, especially assuming there’s some kind of dancing or movement going on as well.

      Reply
  13. Windall

    Trump is right. Europe is in crisis Al Jazeera

    Doesn’t he understand that discrimination against ethnic minorities is one of the most important European values there is?

    We’ve got the Roma, the Russians and I ‘m sure there are a lot more.

    Reply
  14. AG

    re: Germany BSW

    After the local government coalition in the state of Brandenburg fell apart fingers of course are pointing at BSW instead of trying to understand what really is going on.

    Therefore this quick summary of an interview with Fabio De Masi by BERLINER ZEITUNG

    machine-translation

    “Arranged weeks ago”
    BSW CEO Fabio De Masi accuses Crumbach of lying and announces a change in BSW strategy.
    Following the collapse of the coalition in Brandenburg, BSW leader Fabio De Masi accuses the Brandenburg SPD of deliberate deception. His party is to pursue a new strategy in the future.

    https://archive.is/1aN83

    It is obvious that all is part of a larger tacit understanding entrenched in elite FRG ideology.
    In a way nothing has changed since the advent of the First International and the elite´s war against it.

    Reply
  15. 123abceng

    >> 13 kg deer takes on 1.7 ton rhino

    People who can’t understand body language: AFP who posted that.

    How those posters can be trusted if they even can’t discriminate between fight and friendship?

    Reply
  16. Antifaxer

    Hospice care fraud has been a known issue, across the board, for years. The fact they are circling California just proves this is political retribution, not genuine interest in combating fraud.

    Reply
    1. Sam Culotte

      Fraud is a serious issue and should be combatted, regardless of locale. No need to put the race card in play. A crime is a crime and the rest of us feel like chumps when it is not treated as such.

      I remember watching a true crime show a few years ago. The case involved a Somali couple in America who had allegedly murdered their daughter because she had chosen the “wrong” boyfriend.

      They were under investigation for her murder and consequently their communications were being monitored. Here’s what one of them said on tape (paraphrased): “I love America. It’s so easy to rip off.”

      Of course this is not strictly the attitude of Somalis or any other immigrants for that matter. I am sure that many native-born Americans share the sentiment, including many corporate CEO’s.

      The solution is to stop America from being “so easy to rip off”.

      Reply
  17. flora

    re: ‘This is what a cover-up looks like’: Fury as Trump administration kicks local investigators off Renee Nicole Good ICE shooting probe – Daily Mail

    Yes, it looks like a cover-up. ‘Cover-up Kash’ – Patel’s new nickname.

    Did anyone else look at the included photo of T. If it’s not doctored then T is wearing an American flag lapel pin, of course. Right below the flag pin he appears to be wearing a … wait for it… a Donald Trump lapel pin. “L’État, c’est moi.”

    Reply
      1. Carolinian

        From The Hill article

        Senate GOP leaders have long been protective of Collins, a Maine centrist who has frequently drawn Trump’s ire, given what both sides readily acknowledge: Collins is the lone Republican who can win the seat next year. Without her, the seat is likely lost for good, similar to what Democrats experienced in Montana and West Virginia in recent years.

        That extended to recent days after a furious Trump said that Collins and four colleagues “should never be elected to office again,” prompting top Republicans to rush to her side to give her backup in the midst of the latest dust-up. Trump also went so far as to call Collins directly to voice his displeasure in what was described as a “profanity-laced rant,” according to two sources.

        When not doing the Sun King Trump also like Patrick Swayze in Road House: “my way or the highway.” As the flabby Trump lacks Swayze’s intimidating physique he prefers to let the Dept of War perform his bouncer duties if his potty mouth isn’t enough.

        Reply
  18. pjay

    – ‘Spineless Starmer is turning UK into military pygmy’: Farage blasts PM as Iran’s leader in exile pleads for British support and top brass warn of funding crisis’ – Daily Mail

    LOL! I clicked on this story solely to determine who “Iran’s leader in exile” was in this story. Though I suspected, I thought surely even the Daily Mail would not refer to “crown prince Reza Pahlavi” as “leader in exile.” In what world, and in what sense, could he possibly be considered Iran’s “leader”? And by whom? David Rockefeller and Barbara Walters are dead, so …

    Iran faces a lot of serious problems, and some complicated political divisions. But one way to unite the population would be to try and foist Reza Pahlavi onto the Iranians as “leader.” So I assume this is simply for the consumption of ignorant Westerners. On the other hand, I also assume that chaos and civil war would be just fine with Israel and US neocons, so who knows what these crazies have in mind.

    Reply
    1. flora

      I watched a few minute’s of CBS’s Face the Nation TV program this morning. The guest they had was all pro attack Iran to save the Iranians. He didn’t exactly say ‘we had to destroy the village to save it.’ I tuned out after only a few minutes of his gungho ‘save the Iranians.’

      “They plunder, they slaughter, and they steal: this they falsely name Empire, and where they make a wasteland, they call it peace.” — translation Loeb Classical Library edition
      -Tacitus

      Reply
  19. Louis Fyne

    >>>Why Democrats keep losing support even as Trump

    because the Dem. activist base are an innumerate herd of cats who would play with shiny culture war things than dealing with finance, the MIC, anti-trust/oligopoly, health care.

    and (elephant in the room) they have destroyed class solidarity by pushing defacto open borders which destroys the wages of the multi-identity bottom 51% (see the Morlock warehouse/logistics workers, abbotoirs, back-of-the-house service industry, etc.)

    Reply
    1. tegnost

      While the power base are a coordinated phalanx of scoundrels making bank on finance, MIC, monopoly/oligopoly and health industry. I still 100% blame these people for trump and I doubt they mind what he’s doing in the least, and also miga…the whole lot of them, because america is already great

      Reply
    2. Pat

      The Democratic activist base….OR is it really the Democratic Power Base who pursues that?

      I think the Democratic Party is losing support because they support little or nothing important to any of the different aspects of the base because what the base wants is antithetical to the wishes of the donor class. The base is not the herd of cats you describe. They aren’t distracted by the shiny culture war things, the Democratic power base only wishes they were. They were the ones waving those flags. Their support has largely come down to lesser of two evils for close to two decades. And their uselessness is destroying even that.

      Reply
      1. Louis Fyne

        lmao, chicken or egg…

        i prefer to see it as a form of emergent-systems survivorship bias, but reasonable arguments can be made for a number of explanations….

        but where ever there is money, there will always be useful dolts!

        Reply
  20. ISL

    Virus to watch by Patrick Jackson, Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases, University of Virginia, and recipient of Pfizer funding, somehow neglects to mention covid19. It is unlikely he doesn’t know that COVID is currently killing orders of magnitude more than the viruses to watch (H5N1, etc.), and yet, not worth watching.

    I think he is signaling the overall governmental virus funding priorities to watch rather than actual viruses to watch. Way to go team human!

    Reply
  21. Tom Stone

    IMO Corinne Machado should give her Nobel to Trump, publically.
    Along with a statement along the lines of “However much I treasure this prize it truly belongs to another who was only denied it due to political pressure brought by extremists, Donald J Trump, the GREATEST American president in history.”
    Trump rewards world class suckbutts…

    She should not mention Julian Assange’s recently filed lawsuit against the Nobel committee.

    Reply
  22. LawnDart

    I am currently caring for a Chihuahua-Corgi mix that is the bane of the local black bear population. Strangely, the dog seems to think rabbits and squirrels are beneath her, not worth the time, and will ignore these even if they’re within feet of her snout, but give her a bear and it’s game on– she’ll chase the sucker for a quarter-mile or more.

    Deer? There was one who’d regularly emerge from the woods during her walks to greet her in a game I call “teasing the wolf”:

    https://youtube.com/shorts/KtuWnafsNv0?si=nrgh7ir-t-fK_N_E

    [Oops, meant as a reply to Wuk]

    Reply
  23. KD

    JD Vance Says Americans Should Actually Thank ICE Agent Who Killed Renee Good

    That’s going a little far, I would say Americans should actually ask that the ICE Agent Who Killed Renee Good, if he goes down on a capital murder conviction, that his sentence be commuted to life for the benefit of his children, not that he offered the same mercy to his victim.

    If I were a firearms instructor, I would play that video as a demonstration of the unlawful use of deadly force. I can’t believe the right is trying to sell this as the lawful exercise of deadly force.

    Digressing, I also think that instead of masks, maybe the DOGE boys could save some money and buy up some white hoods for all these ICE Agents.

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  24. Rabbit

    I think fusion energy is far from producing more energy than it uses. Of course progress is good but the dream is still a long way off.

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