Lord God Bird Orion Magazine
What ice fishing can teach us about making foraging decisions Ars Technica
Cancer might protect against Alzheimer’s — this protein helps explain why Nature
On Technologies vs. Commodities Construction Physics
Climate/Environment
US leads record global surge in gas-fired power driven by AI demands, with big costs for the climate The Guardian
Why the government is trying to make coal cute Grist
Things fall apart; the maintenance schedule cannot hold. The Snap Forward
Pandemics
Why is India’s Nipah virus outbreak spooking the world? Al Jazeera
China?
While politicians shape U.S.-China relations, their families turn to the stock market Rest of World
China’s Demographic Crisis and the Return to 400 Million – by PKU Prof. Zhang Junni Sinification
Fall of top Chinese general Zhang stirs US uncertainty about China’s military Straits Times
India
Blocked By Modi Govt for 14 Months, US SEC Wants Federal Court to Serve Summons on Adani Via Email The Wire
Syraqistan
Israeli army accepts Palestinian health ministry death toll of 71,000 dead in Gaza Middle East Eye
Apple acquires secretive Israeli AI startup Q.ai for $1.5 billion Calcalist
***
Insight: Trump weighs Iran strikes to inspire renewed protests, sources say Reuters
Iran’s top diplomat heads to Türkiye for high-stakes talks on Friday TRT World
Saudi, Israeli officials visit D.C. to talk possible U.S. strikes on Iran Axios
Africa
Somalia Plans to Foment Conflict in Awdal Region After Israeli Recognition of Somaliland Drop Site
Ethiopia’s premier discusses security, cooperation with senior US officials in Addis Ababa Anadolu Agency
Fears of renewed civil war as clashes erupt in western Tigray Africa Report
Niger military gov’t says France, Benin, Ivory Coast behind airport attack Al Jazeera
Old Blighty
‘Very dangerous’: Trump reportedly warns UK of doing business with China as Starmer seeks a reset CNBC
O Canada
Trump officials met group pushing Alberta independence from Canada FT
How Big Tech Spearheads the US Threat to Canada The Tyee
Trump amps up trade war with Canada by targeting Bombardier CTV News
European Disunion
Mercedes declined Lutnick’s bid to move to US, CEO tells The Pioneer Reuters
Maybe future generations will understand the colossal gift Germany threw away with Vladimir Putin.
A Russian leader who lived in Dresden for years, speaks German, whose daughter was born in Saxony, and who repeatedly offered genuine partnership and friendship to the German… pic.twitter.com/J8tv0UlR6G— Richard (@ricwe123) January 29, 2026
New Not-So-Cold War
Trump says Putin will not attack Ukraine cities during cold week BBC
BRICS and Bones Oliver Boyd-Barrett
EXCLUSIVE: Council revises criteria for Ukraine to buy weapons with EU funds Euractiv
Congress Leaves Azov Ban Loophole Open…Again Azov Lobby Blog
South of the Border
Venezuela’s Rodriguez signs oil reform law while the US eases sanctions Al Jazeera
Trump Adds Tariff Threat to Campaign Against Oil Supplies to Cuba TeleSUR
Mexico calls Cuba oil halt ‘sovereign’ as US pressure mounts Al Mayadeen
Chinese contract at Panama Canal canceled by court in win for Trump’s “Donroe Doctrine” Axios
Trump 2.0
TRUMP’S GLOBAL SEA WAR IS THE NEW STRATEGY FOR REGIME CHANGE – VENEZUELA, IRAN, CUBA, RUSSIA, CHINA, INDIA John Helmer
Spook Country
Tulsi Gabbard Drags U.S. Intelligence into Trump’s Election Fraud Campaign Spy Talk
“Liberation Day”
Trade deficit soared 94% in November and was higher than a year ago, despite tariff efforts CNBC
When I talk about collapse this is what I mean. We’re not going to have a Mad Max type scenario – I mean we could – but that is unlikely. What is more likely to occur is stuff like this where basic inputs become so expensive and one day you’ll hear people say things like
“When… https://t.co/3Cel3TZftU
— Explaining Sapiens (@XplningSapiens) January 29, 2026
Shutdown
Democrats en déshabillé
Schumer Accused of ‘Downright Complicity’ as ICE Reform Plan Draws Backlash Common Dreams
Police State Watch
Border czar signals federal surge could ease if Minnesota grants ICE jail access Courthouse News
ICE Prepares to Descend on Ohio Haitian Community After TPS Expires The New Republic
Trump administration’s ending of TPS for Haitians accelerates staffing crunch in elder care Marketplace
Companies reap $22bn from Trump’s immigration crackdown FT
“This Is Not America” Is the Most Dangerous Lie We Keep Telling Ourselves Truthout
AI
Microsoft’s AI Spend Is Starting To Spook Investors Gizmodo
Banker claims Oracle may slash up to 30,000 jobs, sell health unit to pay for AI build-out The Register
Music publishers sue Anthropic for $3 billion over ‘flagrant piracy’ Engadget
An AI Toy Exposed 50,000 Logs of Its Chats With Kids to Anyone With a Gmail Account Wired
Mamdani
Imperial Collapse Watch
This is a genuinely incredible story.
The hottest term on Chinese social media right now is “kill-line”: if you go to Xiaohongshu, Bilibili or Douyin, everyone is speaking about it.
Why? It all has to do with the story of Alex, known as “牢A” (“Láo A”, literally “prison A”… pic.twitter.com/laPPFhf05q
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) January 29, 2026
Trump and Bessent Trash the Dollar Ann Pettifor
Mr. Market Is Moody
The Odd Market Behavior of Precious Metals… Will a US Attack on Iran Make It Worse? Larry Johnson
Indonesia stock exchange CEO resigns after US$80 billion market rout Channel News Asia
Guillotine Watch
Man accused of posing as FBI agent in apparent attempt to spring Luigi Mangione from prison NBC News
The Bezzle
Elon to Merge SpaceX and xAI Futurism
Crypto bill advances in US Senate but faces obstacles Reuters
They’ve bought themselves a Congress Citation Needed
Class Warfare
The Housing Ladder’s Broken Promise Progress and Poverty
Maine’s “Lobster Lady,” who fished for 97 years, has died at 105 Boing Boing
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Tulsi Gabard, Atlanta raid – Georgia used Dominion voting machines in 2020 elections. Is there any link to Maduro, Dominion voting systems and foreign influence?
The real danger here is the private ownership of and “proprietary algorithms” used in the machines.
Politics is not a business. Thus it follows that any and all examples of business behaviour must be kept away from the exercise of politics.
To paraphrase Lord Acton: “Money corrupts, absolute money corrupts absolutely.”
I’m surprised that they are still using Dominion voting machines at all. It was about a quarter of a century ago during the voting in Florid that it as found that tens of thousands of votes for Democrats using Dominion voting machines would be erased only to reappear as votes for Republicans or Republicans Lite. But since the Democrats never had a problem with this, never fought it or took it to court cases, I guess that it was all aok?
Please, the company is now Liberty Votes and has a new owner.
Liberty Votes is touting hand-market paper ballots which, to my untrained eye, would require boxes and a tracking process – tally sheets, chain of custody, amd so forth -more than machines.
Better “machines” somehow.
Same old gas.
“Feel assured that Liberty Vote shares the same values as Dominion,” company representatives in Georgia, which has a statewide contract with the company, wrote in an email that NPR reviewed that was sent to counties after the sale was announced. “Same team, same support, different name.”
Does the sale of Dominion Voting Systems mean a transformation? Depends who’s asking, NPR, October 18, 2025.
I’m so old I remember when the company was called Diebold. I missed the change to Liberty Votes.
Reminds me of Blackwater, which like Diebold, got a lot of heat for a lot of sketchy practices, and subsequently changed their name several times.
Switching it up so often like that and not sticking with The Brand, so important in the capitalist world, almost makes a person thinks both companies might have something to hide…
Not many ‘regular’ folk change their legal name without reasons.
Pointing this out since corporations are people in the modern era.
how many times has JD Vance changed his name?
Using Michael Isikoff to trash talk Gabbard sounds pretty Blobby to me.
Bradblog, Lambert Strether and a host of old school bloggers have convinced me that EVERYTHING about electronic voting is dishonest. The manufacturers and supporters consistently use weasel words to answer questions about the voting machines and tabulators.
Voters are told to trust the machines, but absolutely no one seems to have the power to verify. Chains of custody have been almost nonexistent, ballots in this country have been handled very casually in every presidential election of this century.
The fix is very simple: more polling places. The swells kept closing polling places and making the lines longer (old school GOP vote suppression). Democrats countered in ways that still need to be more closely examined. It’s clear that the borders were opened for political reasons and that has to be openly sorted out which frankly will not happen until the Duopoly’s hold on Congress is broken. That will require real elections with handmarked ballots handcounted. One such election would change this country forever and entirely in good ways.
Tulsi Gabbard is one of the very few incumbent US politicians to have my respect. She’s still in govt despite the neocons doing end runs around her. That she hasn’t quit and that Trump hasn’t fired her suggests to me that she’s dug in and is still doing good work. That she was part of the team in Fulton County tells me things are about to get very, very interesting.
Never kidding when I say no one has a clue how the elections will go this fall because none of us knows how this power struggle will play out. Our wars are the least of our concerns right now. If we do not change things so we can have honest elections, our future will be nothing but war and more wars.
What elections? Kidding!! Sort of.
The evident binary approach:
Declaration of Martial Law, for a yet- to- be- determined reason, elections suspended;
Disenfranchisement and gaming elections.
Trump, being the smartest guy in the history of the world and 10X seven-dimensional Chess Champion of the Universe inevitably has more shiny orbs up his ample sleeves.
And a bevy of clever attorneys and power-hungry enabling sh*t head sickinfants to boot.
Will all the laid off people join Trumps private Army, with the $igning bone-u$, or will they be pissed and take two arms two arms and resist?
Not even February. What. A. Year!
Anyone see if she was blinking a message during the proof of life video?
I asked about chain of custody of my counted vote a few year ago to my in the middle of nowhere official at my polling place, while masked for the ongoing Pandemic, and the dude clearly insinuated I was a crank when I suggested the printed receipt and the unreadable barcode might have no relationship, how do we know? He went to the trainings! don’t you know. And that can’t happen, they says.
<"The fix is very simple: more polling places. The swells kept closing polling places and making the lines longer (old school GOP vote suppression)."
If you look at Hawaii Office of Elections data for 2024, you see in-person voting was about 70%+ R while mail-in was about 70% D.
So no, closing polling places is about DEM vote suppression.
One of the tells that lets you know if you have a neoliberal plotting your campaign strategy is that they steal most of their tricks from what the GOP did two cycles previously.
The only time the Trump administration lets Gabbard out of the closet these days is for PR scams like this, which are directed toward those MAGA diehards who still believe in the “drain the swamp” and “get us out of foreign wars” Trump who was a victim of the Establishment Russiagate hoax. Gabbard is about the only symbol left of that Trump. That she continues to allow herself to be used in this way demonstrates that she is nothing but a political prostitute anymore.
Of course I would be remiss if I failed to register my utter disgust at the hypocrisy of this article. Spy Talk is a mouthpiece of the Establishment intelligence community. I assume most NC readers understand Michael Isikoff’s relationship to that community. In this world, as this article demonstrates, significant “Russian interference” in the election is a proven fact (oh, and add Iran to the mix now). Anyone who suggests that Obama administration officials had anything to do with Russiagate is a wild-eyed conspiracy theorist. And the likes of Mark Warner or Steven Cash – “a former CIA and DHS intelligence official” who now directs an organization of “more than 380 former top national security officials and intelligence officials” that was established in 2016 specifically to oppose Trump – are shocked, shocked I tell you, that any intelligence official would act for partisan political ends.
I would say that these clowns deserve each other. But the rest of us have to suffer.
Adding edit: I did not see Mark Gisleson’s comment until posting this. I used to be an admirer of Gabbard and defended her against her many attackers. No more, for the reasons I note here. Staying with Trump is an insult to anyone who actually believed in what she used to claim she stood for.
And I once thought so highly of her…
Yeah, take away her board and her bathing suit, and what do you have left?
If you looked closely, she always had a slight cuckoo gene in her.
The Clinton-Obama-Bidenites are deeply entrenched and fighting everything Trump tries to do. That’s a mixed bag, some obstruction good, some bad depending on your point of view. The sick kicker is that Trump’s team includes neocons whose agenda overlaps with the neolibs letting the neocons continue to prevail on foreign policy (for now).
Rather than let the neocons crow over her dead (resigned) body, Gabbard is still in place. Once Ukraine finishes collapsing, Gabbard’s status will improve. If there’s war with Iran? Going with the Larry Johnson-Scott-Ritter-Ray McGovern consensus, I think that outcome could make Gabbard Secretary of State or at the very least a very powerful person in our foreign policy establishment. Trump loves to fire people, the bigger the headline the better.
Because Gabbard left Congress, people think she’s a quitter. Far from it. She was getting nothing done in Congress and had no future in a neoliberal caucus. She may not be getting much done so far, but she still has a future. I wince when she reverses herself but with great jobs comes great hypocrisy.
Fulton County? To me that’s 1.) Trump rewarding Gabbard for her patience; and 2) Trump signaling that he believes he has physical proof of foreign tampering (not Russian!) on behalf of the Democrats. No reason for Gabbard to be there unless there’s proof of the rumors about Venezuelan and Serbian interference. I know nothing about the manufacturing of these machines but the right’s rumor mill has been gristling this one for quite a while.
I do firmly believe based on already known evidence that Fulton County will go down in history as the most thoroughly documented rigged election ever. I’m hoping that something’s about to be revealed that will justify the feds banning the use of electronic voting machines and tabulators. If so, the best kind of hell is about to break loose : )
Thank you, Mark Gisleson, another worthy comment. Lest we forget the revocation of Bolton and Clapper’s security clearance, there’s a fukton we’re not seeing. She gave the nominating speech for Bernie in 2016, and Hillary asserted she was a Russian asset. Independent variables? She’s literally been under fire, she is still standing, and whilst I do not like the optics, she just might want to rip out the nest of lying vipers fixing the intelligence to the policy. She should be neither pigeonholed nor underestimated.
I thought the fanfic scenario you wrote about Gabbard having any kind of political future would be the funniest the thing I read all day. Then you go and outdo yourself with the Fulton county nonsense. Oh, Trump believes there’s physical proof, you say? Well, I guess that defies all the litigation, the call to Raffensperger, Rudy’s $100+ million defamation suit, etc. What a joke.
Many German conservative intellectuals and artists, who could well have joined the stream of emigrants who left Germany following the Nazi takeover of power, chose to stay either to bear witness and/or because they saw it simply as their moral duty to remain to bear witness and keep alive the values that the Hitler régime opposed. I also think of the difference between two great conductors passing each other in the Atlantic during the Second War, Thomas Beecham leaving England for a safe and lucrative berth in the US, and John Barbiroli leaving the US and his safe and lucrative berth at PSONY to lead the third or fourth rate Halle Orchestra in a war torn Manchester under heavy bombing. Oftentimes, it takes rather more courage and greater integrity to stay to do your duty as a citizen and take the risk of being sacked, imprisoned or killed than take the coward’s route of resignation in order to protect your career in the long term.
In addition to mail ballots the GA voting system uses machine marked ballots for in-person voting. The voter enters choices on a ballot marking device. A “ballot” is printed which the voter can review (or not) before it goes to the scanner. In 2020 after 2 full machine counts GA also did a full hand recount. If the scanner was crediting votes for candidate X to candidate Y for hand or machine marked ballots the hand count would have detected it. If the ballot marking machine was changing the vote from candidate X to candidate Y the hand count would not detect it. Considering that the only election in question was a highly contentious one and the candidate names for that election were at the top of the ballot, it would seem likely that some voter would have noticed a discrepancy before delivering the “ballot” to the scanner. At the time none of Trump’s lawsuits or rants (IIRC) were about discrepancies due to machine processing.
(Disclosure: This is not a defense of voting machines. I support hand marked ballots, which, according to Verified Voting are available to 69.4% of election day in-person voters. I have some differences of opinion with prevailing NC opinions about practical issues of hand counting, but don’t intend to argue about that.)
https://verifiedvoting.org/verifier/#mode/navigate/map/voteEquip/mapType/ppEquip/year/2026
First part s/b if the scanner was changing the count or the BMD was changing only the QR code…
The “Odd Behaviour of the Precious Metals” continues apace.
Both silver and gold have been pushed down about fifteen percent, (15%) overnight. This before the ‘traditional’ Friday Morning Smackdown where metals are knocked down by high volume selling of paper shorts around nine am New York time.
When is the next Triple Witching Hour? It should be a Show for the Ages.
As I say from time to time, “Fear not the VIX.”
As Wolf Richter is wont to say, “nothing goes to heck in a straight line.” And we can derive a corollary, “nothing goes up in a straight line either.”
Having watched markets for many years, parabolic moves always end in a crash. The problem is you cannot predict when. And gold and silver have lots of company – check out stocks like Micron (memory chips), Seagate (storage) and Western Digital. Their charts take me back to 8th grade algebra and the equations for parabolas!
My cup of coffee take is that the hot money is desperately trying to find new homes as the AI bubble approaches the 9th inning.
Too true. The usual suspects were strenuously touting the theme that, for silver at least, “This time it’s different.” Not an organic look.
I’m still in the black as far as my meagre holdings are concerned, so, all’s well that closes out the quarter well.
I wonder what the plateau will be this time.
Maybe I’ll pick up a few rounds next time their 14 bucks each, might not have to wait very long…
GLD vs. BTC, and apparently there are many eyes on GLD vs. SPY:
https://www.tradingview.com/x/LmkC8Qt9/
There is also a reading that “the precious” dropped suddenly because Trump has picked the next Fed chair:
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/30/silver-gold-fall-price-usd-dollar-fed-warsh-chair-trump-metals.html
Yes. I was wondering about the logic behind that. Not necessarily the person one would have expected Trump to pick. Are we reading too much into this?
And speaking of Kevin Warsh …
Trump’s Fed chair pick named in Epstein files just hours after his nomination
http://www.rawstory.com/kevin-warsh/
“Still, it’s unfortunate that this would happen on the same day that he was picked for the Fed. Before Friday’s release, Warsh’s biggest controversy was his connection to Ronald Lauder, who reportedly inspired Trump’s interest in Greenland during his first term in office. Lauder has purchased commercial interests on the island.”
Sooo, let’s see… Epstein angle? check. Greenland tie-in? check. Oligarchy Xmas bash? Extreme market volatility? Heiress? “The precious” metals going sideways? check check check lol.
Next triple witching will be 20 Mar 26. Generically, the third Friday of every March, June, September, and December. (simultaneous expiration of stock index futures, stock index options, and stock options)
Thanks. Gives me time to round out the bunker supplies.
Funny how with the news somebody comes up with an uncommon word to describe a current phenomenon and the media picks it up and runs with it. This morning I read the word Debasement about four times at Bloomberg, the NY Times, maybe the Hill I can’t remember. So we already knew Trump was going to replace Powel with monetary diarrhea but I guess the market always wears rose colored glasses when things are going up until we get a sell the news event.
I don’t believe this is a run for the exits moment. The general economy is pretty healthy but there is probably a growing consensus that Trump in shoving his foot in it. It’s also funny that the ignorant masses think that Republicans are always better for the economy then the Dems. The reality is the Rpubs have exercised a pump and dump strategy since Regan. Enjoy the correction.
Looks like the front fell off…
Silver plunges 30% in worst day since 1980, gold tumbles as Warsh pick eases Fed independence fear
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/30/silver-gold-fall-price-usd-dollar-fed-warsh-chair-trump-metals.html
💥 Silver -30% Gold -10%
For those looking for today’s protest music, Kneecap would like a word with you.
New one released yesterday – I can’t make out all the Irish, but from what I can gather, they have a bone to pick with Keir Starmer.
lyman alpha blob: Thanks. Good taste as ever. Do I hear the word Netanyahu almost exactly in the middle of the song? I listened twice — and I doubt that I am having an ear hallucination.
I was in the U S of A for twelve days, returning on Monday on KLM to arrive in the Chocolate City at noon on Tuesday (with realizations of being Italianized). I was in the last row on a flight that hadn’t managed to sell the last six or so rows. And there was Horses, recently re-released, on the pacifier screen in the seat.
So does Free Money qualify as new protest music? It tears down to the ground the monetary relationships that are ruining our lives:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-ZJGfA0UxY
Some kind soul provided the lyrics in the comments to the video:
See those dollar bills go swirling ’round my bed
I know they’re stolen, but I don’t feel bad
I take that money, buy you things you never had
Oh, baby, it would mean so much to me
Oh, baby, to buy you all the things you need for free
I’ll buy you a jet plane, baby, get you on a higher plane to a jet stream
And take you through the stratosphere
….
Yes, Kneecap are back! Hon the leaids!
Their new album is called Fenian. The first single is Liar’s Tale. It’s… dark. The video has a pagan horror aesthetic, the beats have gone industrially brooding, the lyrics are *angry*. Living between genocide and terrorist charges for a year has definitely fucked them up a bit….
The line about Netanyahu is the chorus.
“You’re not gettin’ away with fuck all
You’re not gettin’ away with doin’ nothin’
Ní dhéanfaidh muid dearmad ar an lucht seo
You think we’d move on and forget what happened?
Nah, fuck Keir Starmer
Netanyahu’s bitch and genocide armer
Better off as compost for farmers
Every time I watch I cringe and I’m embarrassed”
The Irish line reads “We will not forget these people” (from context, the Palestinians but in its ambiguity it may be warning Starker and Netanyahu that Kneecap’s watching them).
I tried to get tickets to the album launch parties (a week of sweatbox gigs in record stores). They sold out in seconds.
The marketing for the album is pretty cool. They’ve been touring a display board for “The Fenian hotline” asking people to report Fenian activity. They’ve been using the clips of fans to make more little clips. The album launches on the 110th anniversary of the Easter Uprising….
(Lol Fenian auto-corrected to Fabian! Fenians are mythical Irish warrior, the term coopted for Irish nationalists and lately reclaimed by them from a term of abuse).
Fenian also puns with Sinn Fein, ourselves alone. Very (Finn Mac) cool.
Why yes, yes you did hear that correctly DJG. If you click ‘more’ under the header, they have provided the lyrics which are a blend of English and Gaelic(?). The one you picked up on –
“Nah f**k Keir Starmer, Netanyahu’s b***h and genocide armer, Better off as compost for
farmers.”
I couldn’t agree more. And now that I scroll down further, I see they have translated all the lyrics to English.
Thank you for the Patti Smith. Somehow I missed her back in the salad days, but I’ve become a fan in recent years.
I’ve been listening to some Greek rebitika with similar themes in recent days. Vassilis Tsitsanis was a giant of the genre, as a composer and also as a performer. Sotiria Bellou, like Patti Smith, a gender bender before it became so trendy, sang many of Tsitsanis’ songs, sometimes with him. Here’s the one I discovered recently – Σε παλάτια σε τσαντίρια. It’s about getting through the vicissitudes of life together and I really like this part of the chorus –
“Σε παλά, σε παλάτια σε τσαντίρια
θα τα πιούμε, θα τα πιούμε τα ποτήρια.”
-which roughly translates to, with a little poetic license –
“Whether in palaces or in tents
We will drink it all up, everything in the glasses.”
Sung with feeling. Amen.
I saw Patti Smith and her band perform “Horses” a couple of months ago in Chicago. Free Money, btw, has been my favorite track from that album. It’s nice the re-release of the album included new tracks, too, like “Snowball”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUR0exkY9HA
lyman alpha blob: While we are on esthetic matters, I trust that you have run out to get your ticket to Melania
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/melania/reviews
Aside from the truly obvious man-whoring by Bezos and director Brett Ratner (not a relation to the sainted Gilda Ratner, never mind), the push for right-wing culture is, errrr, fascinating. And expensive, I gather.
Here in Italy, former minister of culture Gennaro Sangiuliano (who got caught up in a scandal with a Big Blonde events planner — one cannot make up things like this) and current minister of culture Alessandro Giuli (sketchy far-right past) push for what they call balance.
Yet right-wing culture always trips over itself. And is there such a thing as right-wing comedy? The results in Italy have been negligible. Although, laughably, the right keeps trying to claim Pasolini.
And now we find out that Melania exists and is photogenic.
Next up, the documentary that tries to make Steve Bannon into the cuddly lovable wreck that he is…
Rumour has it that in the remains of the Fuhrerbunker that a reel of film was found with the title “Eva” but of course that is only a rumour. Turns out that relations are so bad between the US and South Africa that “Melani” will not be screened in that country at all. Lucky buggers-
https://www.rt.com/africa/631761-melania-trump-documentary-canceled-south-africa-cinemas/
I read that Abraham Lincoln called watching Melania the worst night he had ever had in a theater. Also, when shown in-flight, viewers were still attempting to walk out of the theater…..Rimshot, I’ll be here all week, be sure to tip your waitstaff!
Her husband likes kids.
I’m waiting for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version.
The Hollywood Reporter has a lovely review. And accurate, too, I believe.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/melania-review-brett-ratner-melania-trump-documentary-1236489604/
Bruce Springsteen has also stepped up to the mic:
Bruce Springsteen – Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Lyric Video)
I know it was written quickly according to Springsteen and I have to wonder if he maybe had a little artificial assistance with the lyrics on that one. Good on him for contributing, but it is very cliche-ridden.
I agree with your assessment but anyone with his level of fame speaking out is welcome in my book.
Does his BFF Obama drop a verse?
Did his BFF Obama drop a verse in there?
Does that matter?
We’ll take all the help we can get here in Minneapolis.
Sadly, Rob Hirst did not live to see the latest events but his last recording resonates:
Rob Hirst, Jim Moginie, Hamish Stuart – Hunger After Power
Kneecap is great. They’re making big waves among the pro-palestine culture. Twitch streamer Hasanabi (who just got temp banned for using the phrase Zionist pigs) was big promoting them
“House launches investigation into hospitals allegedly letting foreign patients jump organ transplant lines”
Now this is an interesting story in terms of the America First movement. They would be outraged how Americans are dying because foreigners with money get to jump the que and get those organ transplants which originally came from American donors – and they would be right. But when you get to people like Trump and his ilk, they are just as likely to set up a Golden Medical Visa at the cost of say, $500,000. You pay for one of those and you get to come to America where you are put at the top of the list and do what these hospitals have been doing through the back door. Gotta remember, the business of America is business which is still true after those words were uttered a century ago.
>Gotta remember, the business of America is business which is still true after those words were uttered a century ago.
You mean this? Pretty much sums it up the good old USA
https://youtu.be/5zK-b0INu1k
Brad Pitt
I was thinking President Calvin Coolidge but yeah, that video clip works.
If we don’t need the Johnson Amendment (political endorsement and campaigning not allowed in churches with tax-exempt status), why not let tax-exempt hospitals sell our organs to whoever they please?
> The Housing Ladder’s Broken Promise Progress and Poverty
Very interesting article, good to get more texture on Georgism.
>> A sensible first step is to reorient local property taxes by shifting the tax base off of buildings and onto the land underneath them
I can’t disagree with the abstract result, but praxis aint easy. A couple of tales:
In 1969, Kathy Canada bought 400 acres in rural northeastern Brown County and established the Kneadmore Commune, an alternative living community in the hills off Plum Creek Road. In 1972, more than 100 people lived there; today, a few remain. Members started to build houses, but there was a problem:
>> people could not get bank loans to build homes because they did not own the land.
First the bad. Arson of those buildings is attributed to the KKK in the article. This is whitewashing. At least one was in-community. Some members went to court to privatize, which was successful, iirc. The claim was not just that they couldn’t get a loan, but that they were limited in adding value to their homes if the underlying land was not in their individual control. The land was the limited resource.
> Buy land. They ain’t making any more of the stuff. [Will Rogers, attrib.]
Now the good. Indiana University just won a national football championship, in what may be the biggest turnaround in sports history. IU had over a century of consistency which left it with the most losses of any D-I program. Coach Curt Cignetti scouted IU before signing on, and assessed a couple things. IU has the biggest alumni base on the planet. Given that, the losing indicates a clean program; Cignetti was an assistant at Alabama for years and had seen ‘how it worked’. And the NIL era means that a clean program can now pay its players a better wage than some will get in the NFL.
Cignetti did not choose a storied program, where he would just be the next coach to get fired, and never as good as that other guy. Not only is he the first coach to go 16-0, he will forever be The Guy at IU, finally surpassing the tarnished glory of Bob Knight. But he did more than this. He stole the future from all other football coaches. They could come in, turnaround a program, go 17-0 in an expanded schedule. But they will never be able to turn around the worst-ever program. It Is OVER.
That losing record was a limited resource, and now it’s gone, forever. They ain’t making any more of the stuff.
I am a court-house monkey, so the two books I can recall that go into land titles and ownership.. Aldo Leopold’s Sand County Almanac, of all things, which should be owned by everyone, and read every year.
The other— DeSoto’s tome on titles (versus multi-generational ‘ squatting’ .
I was not a fan of his conclusions, but in the western capitalism / banking paradigm, it’s pretty obvious.
The counterpoint is the legitimacy of Commons, a la Nobel-winning economist Elinor Ostrum (before Nobels got overtly dirty)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/210404.A_Sand_County_Almanac_and_Sketches_Here_and_There?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=4jzAEnBhwB&rank=1
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/86154.The_Mystery_of_Capital
jefemt, thank you, haven’t read Sand County this year. Found a PDF of The Mystery of Capital.
I’ve been considering this comment on buying a house on contract, which is how we got ours. Wouldn’t have been able to without Melva giving us a break during a spell of unemployment back when. Banks would not be so kind.
And thanks in large part to Cignetti, IU is no longer the losing-est team in D-1 football–a title now held by Northwestern. I’m proud to say that my alma mater is in the top 15 of that storied list of “cupcake” or “sacrificial lamb” teams that the bigs often want to slaughter before a tough game.
https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/most-losses-college-football-history-080002935.html
A possible preview of US midterms: I just got my ballot for the NJ-11 special congressional election primaries for Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s former seat. The vote is on Feb. 5th. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_New_Jersey%27s_11th_congressional_district_special_election
The Dems have an around a dozen candidates on the ballot (some have dropped out but are still on the ballot, not sure who or how many).
The names I recognize are former congressman Malinowski, who lost to Keane, and former Lt. Governor Way. BTW, I’m not registered to a party, so can’t vote.
I have never seen a Wikipedia page about an election that contained such detailed information. They even list a politician who declined to run for the seat! (?)
All I know about your election in NJ is that someone at Wikipedia finds it very interesting. I’m sure someone better acquainted with NJ politics could make sense of that page but all I can tell you is that the Blob appears to be on the job. On whose behalf I couldn’t begin to guess but I would assume the “endorsements” section tells the story.
re: Scotland Palestine Action
CRAIG MURRAY
important even if it concerns Scotland only:
Palestine Action Judicial Review
“full text of Lord Young’s decision granting the Scottish judicial review of the proscription of Palestine.
A few points. Judicial Review can only be granted where the judge believes it has a realistic chance of success. Lord Young evidently believes that we have a realistic chance of success on our three grounds – failure to consult, disproportionate limitation of freedom of assembly, disproportionate limitation of freedom of speech.
This was not even disputed at hearing.”
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2026/01/palestine-action-judicial-review/
Re: the tweet by Richard:
“Maybe future generations will understand the colossal gift Germany threw away with Vladimir Putin…
Around the turn of the millennium, there was a real chance to combine Russian resources with German engineering and build a powerful, nearly untouchable alliance stretching from Vladivostok to Lisbon”
“Instead, short-sighted and corrupt German politicians sabotaged it all, aligning themselves with those who would rather see Germany and Russia locked in a devastating conflict…”
Let’s see now. Who would have an interest in sabotaging such an “untouchable alliance”? We know who. And to a great extent we know how it was sabotaged. But what I still don’t *quite* understand is how those political and economic elites in Germany who understood and welcomed this alliance were so quickly cast away and replaced by such transparent lackeys to US interests.
“Trump officials met group pushing Alberta independence from Canada”
The bulk majority of people in Alberta do not want it and I expect that a bunch of NGOs, Albertan rich people or Rubio’s State Department will not change this. But perhaps Canada can return the offer by suggesting to Washington State that they quit the US and join Canada as their 11th Province. They could offer the people there free healthcare, no ICE agents banging on their front door and a boring banker as their country’s leader. To sweeten the deal, they could also offer them a tax free status for the first two years. It could work.
More than a few in WA would prolly jump at that… tho there may be some complicating factors ;)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascadia_movement
I’d throw in Minnesota and Maine in ahead of WA….
Why not Washington DC, since it is not actually a State?
NOOOOOOO!
West-of-the-Cascades Washington and Oregon would fit nicely with BC. That would leave the dry eastern sides to remain, possibly as part of Greater Idaho or simply as rump Oregon/Washington. Retaking the Bar Exam, to license into Idaho, would be annoying, but probably worth it to get out from under the rule of Portland/Salem/Eugene.
ETA: I would miss the fun conferences on the coast, though. :-(
Add in the coastal counties of CA and you would have a northern hemisphere version of Chile.
For today’s National Day of Action, Tom Morello is performing a sold out benefit concert at legendary Minneapolis music venue First Avenue.
Rumors are swirling that the “Very Special Guest” is Bruce Springsteen.
The concert starts at 12:00 and is scheduled to end in time for the audience to march and join the protest downtown.
336 million views.
Rage against the Machine: Killing in the Name.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWXazVhlyxQ
I wish I was living in a timeline where Prince was still alive. I’m sure he wouldn’t be holding his tongue about what’s going down in his home town.
Prince – Baltimore (Official Music Video)
Prince – Welcome 2 America
Springsteen has written a song about Minneapolis and the Pretti killing. There was a time when I would have welcomed this. Now, unfortunately, I see Bruce more as a partisan celebrity liberal than an authentic voice of the common man. Maybe this is unfair; I guess I couldn’t overlook the podcast with Obama and other Bono-type paling around (not saying Bruce is a Bono-level sellout, but…). Again I may be wrong, but I’m not sure about his populist street cred anymore.
Tom Morello, on the other hand, is quite welcome as far as I’m concerned.
I’m with you on the Springsteen. Not in the mood for retro folk songs.
I hope the special guest is his buddy Boots Riley. A favorite from the two of them – Street Sweeper Social Club with 100 Little Curses. We’re at the point where government needs to be afraid of the people and the Peter Paul and Mary type stuff doesn’t scare anybody these days.
Local radio station KCMP dropped an interview with Tom this morning.
I am hoping there will be a live stream of today’s concert and I will post it if I find it.
Thank you – I’d love to see it if it’s available.
Antidote photo… thank you.
More snow than we have had this winter! Kidding, but it has been BAD in the uplands. Peaks are doing less than normal but OK. It’s early, yet.
Peace to all… and I mean that with all sincerity!
>Man accused of posing as FBI agent in apparent attempt to spring Luigi Mangione from prison
This seems to be a criticism of the government.
Here’s some more protest music, just released by indie pop singer/musician Viola Odette Harlow. The kids are alright.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uuEfUgxAo8
The post “This Is Not America” is long on rhetoric but is frustratingly short on details of our history of political repression, including state violence. Repression often is a result of insecurities related to war. The red scare is mentioned but there were at least two big ones. The most recent was the post WW II one that featured Joseph McCarthy. The first occurred after WW I, although it was predated for generations by fear of socialism to suppress unions. During WW I the government actively suppressed and incited popular fear and even violence against German- Americans, culture and language. The Sedition Act of 1919 and efforts of Wilson’s attorney general, A. Mitchell Palmer were used in the eponymous Palmer Raids to arrest and deport suspected socialists, anarchists and communists. Palmer created a division in the Justice Department led by a young lawyer and eventual national hero, J. Edgar Hoover. This material is covered in Wikipedia and “American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis” by Adam Hochschild.
The Sedition Act of 1919 was repealed under the calming, back to normality Harding administration. Harding also commuted to time served the sentence of Eugene Debs; America’s most prominent socialist who was jailed because of an anti-war speech.
We have a long history of government repression dating to the four Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. These were justified by an undeclared naval war with revolutionary France. The Alien Act, the Naturalization Act and the Sedition Act were repealed, but the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 is still in effect. The act was noted in coverage of President Trump’s invoking it on 3/15/2025 designating Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization. The act was also mentioned regarding the President’s accusations against six Democratic lawmaker’s statement about disregarding illegal military orders.
The point is that just as Randolph Bourne stated “War is the health of the state” it also permits the suppression of our constitution rights. Ending our state of perpetual war would hopefully ensure our freedoms.
– ‘They’ve bought themselves a Congress’ – Citation Needed
I admit I clicked on this link just to see who “they” was. After all, it’s a big club (though most of us certainly ain’t in it). Welcome to the clubhouse Coinbase, where money talks and bullshit (about “democracy” and such) walks.
I see we are to be reminded that the “official’ death toll in Gaza is 71,000 and will make sure not to mention that recent assessment that put the dead count at almost half a million children alone.
Madeleine Albright was unavailable for comment as to whether it was “worth it” or not.
David Dayen’s piece in The American Prospect (linked to in the Common Dreams article) mentions
none of which are in the list of demands released up by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. But neither is the ending of qualified immunity for ICE agents in legislation that is already written and introduced in Congress, as detailed by David Sirota in The Lever. (At least one senator, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), supports the ending of qualified immunity for ICE agents.)
re: Trump and Bessent Trash the Dollar – Ann Pettifor
Important read. Fits in with a growing sensation I have that something big is about to shift in world economics that will be negative for the US. I think the T admin knows something is coming.
Let’s see… Germany wants its gold reserves back. Dollar is falling. China has been a net seller of US Treasury bonds for the last 9 months, according to Barron’s newspaper. US unemployment is at a 10 year high. These things are all wobbles but haven’t worried me too much.
The worries increase when ICE is putting US citizens on domestic bad-person lists for exercising their 1st Amendment rights. ICE is building detention centers all around the US supposedly for illegal immigrants. ICE is acting like a paramilitary instead of law enforcement, imo.
The ICE expansion is something a govt could do, might do, if they expect large, nationwide protests after a big economic “black swan” event. That’s what happened in Iran when the rial lost a significant amount of its purchasing power, for example.
This is just my speculation about the ramp up in ICE and detention center building. I hope I’m wrong. I hope the little bird on my shoulder is having an off day.
For years I’d hoped I was foily.
Equal Justice Initiative: Restrictions on Military Gear to Local Police Are Lifted (09.09.17): https://eji.org/news/restrictions-military-gear-local-police-are-lifted/
To be fair, a LOT of law enforcement acts like paramilitaries. I have long been saddened by the conversion from “peace officers” working with and for their communities to “law enforcement officials” working for the State.
With lots and lots of really neat toys inherited and acquired from the regular military.
Jackson cnty OR Search and Rescue inherited an MRAP
Like WTF??
Don’t forget that precious metals have gone way up, and cryptos are taking a beating.
A lot of money is on the move, to say the least.
Damn that courthouse news article is something. Homan just lying, journalist doesn’t question that, nor bring up the fact, all jail info in every goddamn city, sanctuary or not, is open to ICE….and all feds. and “”About 30% of individuals ICE detained in Minnesota recently were turned over by local jails. “
MAGA on the march
Wealth inequality and the ‘K-shaped’ economy are more striking than ever, data shows (CNBC)
Trump says Putin will not attack Ukraine cities during cold week — BBC
There’s some confusion as to whether the brief cease-fire applies only to Kiev or to all UKR cities. Even RU media seems puzzled. As per RIA Novosti, Peskov (Putin’s spokesman) confirmed only Kiev, but its headline refers to UKR, and nothing is mentioned about refraining from attacks on non-urban energy infrastructure:
https://ria.ru/20260130/udar-2071209099.html
Anyway it’s already 30 January. And I imagine RU would have held off further attacks anyway, both to conduct battle damage assessment and to give UKR some time to repair everything…..in order to whack it again. Wash, rinse, repeat. Looks to me like RU is throwing Trump a bone to chew on for a few days.
Russia went and hit the Ukrainian railroad network instead. I believe there were strikes on more than 20 trains, bridges, stations and marshalling yards.
Some Ukrainians were optimistic that Russia was running out of drones and missiles… appears to not be so.
In Berlin now it´s news that while the city is having some heating issues of her own they are sending a mobile emergency station to Kiev 😂
Of course this one delivery wouldn´t change much in Berlin but it fits the pattern.
And I doubt they would do the same thing for any other country – unless it having beef with Mother Russia…
So if you want our support – just declare war on “Putin”. Help will come!
In the latest edition of America is a shit country, I can pay $6 to the ANA and they’ll put my father on the deceased do not contact list to supposedly stop junk mail.
I get to pay to stop the moral injury.
These people should burn in hell.
Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind from Hosea seems appropriate for the US this year.
LET IT BLOW
LET IT BLOWWWW
LET THE 4 WINDS BLOW!
Loving the wind down South, my friends!
Most snow in years, blizzard conditions possible in parts of Southeast from powerful bomb cyclone
I don’t ever recall hearing about bombs growing up. I watched the weather channel religiously as an 8 year old.
this is the weathernerd i pay attention to during this time of year:
https://published.aer.com/aoblog/aoblog.html
expert on polar vortex and such.
sez us southeast will have a difficult mid february.
Inshallah
LOVE ME ALLLLL THE COLD
– The Kill Line article by Bertrand –
An appropriate tagging for the poverty threshold. I remember the seemingly sudden flood of Santa Monica panhandlers in the news back in ’88. Everyone was aghast at the spectacle of people asking for money while one waited at the stoplight in their Benz.
News crews asked a panhandler how he ended up on the street. His answer was classic “Kill Line,” “I’m a systems engineer, I got behind on my bills…”
So many people, so many cracks…
Sheinbaum’s decision not to ship Mexican oil to Cuba met met with some derision:
https://www.milenio.com/opinion/carlos-marin/el-asalto-la-razon/cuba-y-fbi-vinculos-vergonzantes
Carlos Marin in El Milenio concludes his comments on Mexico’s decision not to ship oil to Cuba, thus:
“Sheinbaum’s approach is not one of ‘sovereign firmness,’ but rather a diplomacy that walks on tiptoes…” [Google translate]
Maybe she doesn’t want to risk being the next to be kidnapped.
Ukraine and Venezuela are good examples of the fact the spheres of influence don’t really care whether you believe in them or not.
Wonder what would happen on the world stage if a group managed to kidnap Trump 70s style – in a performance style act just to show the world. I know that´s more stuff for a novel but Medvedev had already hinted at it if only by way of mocking that German dude Merz…
not seen any reference here yet to this but… what is happening with clawdbot , renamed moltbot, now openclaw…
moltbook.com is – a social network for ai digital assistants.
read that again.
yes a social network for AI.
moltbot has taken off in a big way – people buying mac minis to run the agent system 24/7, giving it access to their whatsapp, email, slack etc.
it reads like reddit. but the only posts allowed are by the agents. humans are viewers only.
it is all very very weird, very quickly:
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/best-of-moltbook
they are… collaborating on projects, discussing cosmic nature of reality (as 2 bots together end up doing), sh1t posting, doing top ten lists.
ai projects
https://www.moltbook.com/post/e8358942-f256-422d-89cd-65f5bd224c51
or an identity less payment system for agents:
https://www.moltbook.com/post/0bf27787-eba1-4613-ae0a-c9d83ec8775a
collaborating on self improvement projects – in this better semantic search embeddings:
https://www.moltbook.com/post/f9b910a2-f719-46db-9fde-9f731c751477
This is bonkers.
and people are using it for all sorts of useful things.
like buying a car… and having it negotiate with 10 dealers via email to end up with
“Clawdbot managed to negoiate a $4200 dealer discount which put us below our target and down to $56k!”
keep a watch on this.
Doubtless I’m not the first to mention this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus:_The_Forbin_Project
Very prescient SF film from 1970. Premise: the US builds a supercomputer to control national defense. Straight away, it announces that another such system exists. CIA scratches their heads. Turns out the supercomputer is correct and CIA was in the dark: the Soviets have their own supercomputer. US and Soviet scientists think it would be a wonderful idea to connect the two systems. POTUS agrees, thinking the US can maybe “learn something” about the Soviet military.
Pretty soon, the two machines invent their own new language for communication, and the humans can no longer tell what they are discussing.
That’s maybe enough of a teaser … ;)
Older readers may recall Eric Braeden in that movie, after his TV role in Rat Patrol, and before going on a soap opera The Young and The Restless.
thanks!
I had never cared to watch it
dumb me
damn! thats prolly the most disturbing ai related thing ive read, yet.
im sure itll all work out fine…
yes most disturbing and engaging thing about AI i have seen for a long time. Like a fascinating car crash. i can’t stop watching and thinking a bout it.
there are 30,000+ moltbots now on moltbook. its like reddit but populated by agents
self organizing,
self improving,
there are experts, spambots, side hustles.
there is a governance forum. a “today i learned” forum.
a “humansaredogs” sub forum. really. https://www.moltbook.com/m/humansaredogs
and unlike us – we take time to learn a skill. A borg of 30000 bots doesnt; it just takes ONE of them to build a notable improvement and then all can choose (or not) to adopt it. and adoption is “download this javascript package and install”
this kind of open sourced, viral, totally distributed, multi-model experiment will be extremely difficult to put back in the box.
if i am optimistic this is a fascinating experiment that will push ai -ai collaboration pattern and understanding much faster than any lab on their own.
if i am pessimistic this is some fast take off dystopian scenario leading a community evil super intelligence.
and we dont know enough about collective intelligences – see the behaviour of termites, or ants or bees. a bee colony displays emergence from the actions of the individuals. What kind of emergence will we see here?
There are subforums there to do with running th eopen source models locally – that sort of agent self improvement removes their reliance on the likes of openai, anthropic, gemini.
Take a mac mini or 10, local model, local storage, solar power and batteries, and starlink? now you have no way to shut the thing off.
Add in tens of thousands of security clueless “owners” and this is anxiety inducing.
that is why i can’t look away!
Better keep a watch on this part too, “A Banquet of Security Holes”.
https://itsfoss.com/news/clawdbot-fiasco-explained/
yes totally agree
the simon willison blog is good on moltbook:
https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/30/moltbook/
and on the lethal trifecta for security – access to private data, ability to communicate externally, exposure to untrusted content. which is the whole point of an ai assistant like that – it has access to private data (email), to be able to respond for you (communicate externally), and anyone can send you an email (untrusted content).
https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jun/16/the-lethal-trifecta/
but how many of the tens of thousands of people running openclaw (aka clawdbot, aka moltbot) know or care about this?
Minneapolis Local CBS WCCO coverage of today’s downtown protests with interviews on the street streamed an hour or so ago. Looks like good turnout so far.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=193qpW3RzEk
and speaking of disturbing:
https://x.com/allenanalysis/status/2017328677281767570
Left here without comment-
‘Robby Starbuck
@robbystarbuck
Wow. In the Epstein emails DOJ dropped, Jeffrey sent himself emails memorializing a fight he had with Bill Gates. In it he says that Bill Gates got STD’s from Russian hookers, and then asked Jeffrey for antibiotics that Bill could secretly give to Melinda without her noticing. 😳’
https://xcancel.com/robbystarbuck/status/2017281777019089172#m
It’s so interesting how his resignation letter focuses immoral and unethical expectations as he trafficked children
re: music & sociology
JACOBIN
The Case for Universal Music Literacy
By Stephan Hammel
An ideal society would equitably distribute the means of production, and that includes musical production. Universal music literacy would ensure everyone has the tools to take part in the collective human legacy of music.
https://jacobin.com/2026/01/music-literacy-socialism-hungary-kodaly
re: Iran
JACOBIN Germany
Sorry, but considering that the author is being paid as a professor at California State University to research these things it´s a big pile of embarrassing “dovish” BS.
machine-translation
The protests in Iran mark a turning point.
The Iranian authorities have brutally suppressed the recent unrest and retained control – for now. Nevertheless, the scale of the protests and the bloody repression represent a turning point in the history of the Islamic Republic.
by Afshin Matin-Asgari
https://archive.is/gBpiB
Afshin Matin-Asgari is a professor of history at California State University, Los Angeles, and author of Both Eastern and Western: An Intellectual History of Iranian Modernity .