Metal Fans Unlikely To Cheat, Jazz Fans Are Boning Everyone According To A Study Metal in Action (Micael T)
Welcome to the wild world of skijoring Economist (Dr. Kevin)
A brain glitch may explain why some people hear voices Daily Science (Kevin W)
A (Really) Brief History of Knowledge Colin McGinn (Anthony L)
How type 2 diabetes quietly damages blood vessels Science Daily (Kevin W)
Climate/Environment
Climate change is pushing insurance to breaking point Fintech Global
For 50 years, global warming had a very consistent trend (+0.19 °C/decade) with a boring, predictable range of natural variations around it.
During the last three years, we've broken out above that range, suggesting the pace of change has quickened. pic.twitter.com/1piLBJQw0a
— Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde) January 20, 2026
Air pollution a major financial risk for companies and investors Air Quality News
Scientists reveal the impact of air pollution on the human body Independent
AUSTRALIA HEAT WAVE
Brutal heat today with temperatures up to 48C in South Australia with the heat expected to just get worse.
Next week will compete with Jan 1939 for the hottest week ever recorded in New South Wales:
‼️We can approach 50C https://t.co/MgJK4FwUfr— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) January 24, 2026
Next week the US will have the "relative" coldest air on Earth. But notice the mid-latitudes in general from the US to Europe to Russia feature of band of cold anomalies, whereas the Arctic is warm all around. That's precisely why the cold is being displaced south. pic.twitter.com/nRgx6Ny26c
— Jeff Berardelli (@WeatherProf) January 22, 2026
Biodiversity collapse threatens UK security, intelligence chiefs warn Guardian
Tidö removed the plastic bag tax: now use is increasing Klimatgrantskaren. Micael T: “Tidö = the Swedish government.”
China?
China likely to lower 2026 growth target as global slowdown weighs Investing Live
China’s rural banks struggle to sell seized properties despite hefty discounts Reuters
Climbing the Ziggurat London Review of Books (Anthony L). On Xi.
Japan
Sanae Takaichi and Lee Jae Myung: Two Warmongers met in Japan New Eastern Outlook (Micael T)
Japan’s Takaichi fast headed for a Liz Truss moment Asia Times (Kevin W)
Japan suspends world’s largest nuclear plant hours after restart BBC (Kevin W)
Africa
Sharp rise in malnutrition cases, preventable diseases in Somalia: MSF Aljazeera
South of the Border
Trump Muses About Asking NATO to Help Protect US Southern Border Bloomberg
Only a Fraction of Venezuela’s Oil Is Economically Recoverable OilPrice
European Disunion
Trump warns of ‘big retaliation’ if Europe divests from US stocks and bonds TRT World
Fearing Potential Future Monsters, Playing Nice for the Monster in the Backyard Olivier Boyd-Barrett
Why so quiet from the NATO huggers? Tidnengen Global via machine translation (Micael T)
US must have rights to Greenland’s resources as it defends its territory — vice president TASS (guurst)
Trump sparks anger over claim Nato troops avoided Afghanistan front line BBC (Kevin W)
Greenland Yes, Western Sahara No? The EU’s self-determination test WSWR (Micael T)
Germany’s dramatic China car trade slump tests Merz’s tough talk at Davos South China Morning Post
Old Blighty
Food price inflation rises unexpectedly ECIU
Frustrated farmers target ports in fresh protests FWI
We have formally challenged my draconian bail conditions imposed by the London Met Police.
Following my fourth arrest in under three months, they combined these restrictions:
1. Banned from Palestine events in London.
2. Curfewed to live and sleep at one address.
3. Must notify… pic.twitter.com/hJc5MnpPhD— Dr Rahmeh Aladwan (@doctor_rahmeh) January 23, 2026
Israel v. the Resistance
Israel's foremost political commentator, and a close Netanyahu ally, affirms what I have been saying in recent weeks: a new, Sunni Axis of Resistance is emerging in West Asia, and Israel is freaking out.
Soon, they will start using their influence in the US to tarnish the Saudi… https://t.co/3dG9LJfu38
— Alon Mizrahi (@alon_mizrahi) January 22, 2026
Israel Boosts Funding to Propagandize Americans American Conservative (resilc)
West Bank Monthly Snapshot – Casualties, Property Damage and Displacement | December 2025 OCHA (guurst)
💢NEW: Israeli forces have begun digging a deep trench along the so-called “Yellow Line” in Gaza to block Palestinian movement, according to i24NEWS. The outlet said at least 1.5 km has been excavated in southern Gaza, with additional digging in the north and artificial berms… https://t.co/nX9g865cZO
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) January 22, 2026
Art-of-the Deal Theatre or War? Ronen Bergman: ‘The Ayatollahs won the first round; Iranian regime not in danger’ Conflicts Forum
Syraqistan
US threatens Iraq with dollar crunch over Iran-backed militias Financial Times (Kevin W). No archived version yet.
New Not-So-Cold War
Meaningless Talks in Moscow Larry Johnson
Moscow has made an elegant diplomatic move in a subtle game with the United States Vzglyad via machine translation
A Method to his Madness Scott Ritter
The impotence of the people Events in Ukraine
* * * We will let nothing pass’: France intercepts Russia-linked oil tanker in Mediterranean France 24
How to Stop Western Maritime Lawlessness Vzglyad via machine translation (Micael T)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
TikTok US venture to collect precise user location data BBC (Kevin W)
Imperial Collapse Watch
Is parliament now post-literate?, beware declining superpowers, thankfulness, awe and wonder, and how AI destroys institutions James Marriott (Micael T)
The “rupture in the world order”—World Economic Forum dominated by inter-imperialist conflict WSWS (Micael T)
The End of New START Daniel Larison
China, Pakistan are winning big contacts to modernize air forces in Asia, Middle East, and Africa Kevin Walmsley
Trump 2.0
The consent of the governed has been withdrawn G. Elliott Morris. Today’s must read.
Judge warns Trump administration against changing immigration status of plaintiffs in case The Hill
Not Out of the Woods. Will the National Parks survive this administration? In the Public Interest
There Will Be a Nuremberg-Style Trial W.A. Lawrence
ICE Rampage
ICE SHOOTING: NEW Explosive Evidence – DOJ Blocks Investigation (New Video Breakdown) Kristy Greenberg, YouTube. See the section starting at 15:40, which has a new video from the New York Times giving a clear view of the cop shooter Ross’s actions
‘Enough Is Enough’: Hundreds of Minnesota Businesses Take Stand Against ICE New York Times (resilc)
What the Minneapolis General Strike Will Mean in DC Mike Elk
The White House has confirmed its official X account posted a fake image of a woman arrested in Minnesota after interrupting a service at a church where an ICE official appears to be a pastor. The White House image altered the actual photo to wrongly make it seem like the… pic.twitter.com/8sloiPu2Q9
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 22, 2026
Surveillance and ICE Are Driving Patients Away From Medical Care, Report Warns Wired
Democrats en déshabillé
Trump Is Proving Democratic Presidents Weren’t Powerless Jacobin
Mamdani
Economy
Keynes and Money, or Where Has All the Money Gone? Robert Skidelsky. On military Keynesianism
Fix Credit Card Competition with Market Improvements, Not Rate Caps Adam Levitin. The lady doth protest too much on the virtues of markets, but the substance is informative.
Mr. Market is Giddy
Gold, silver and platinum extend record‑setting rally Reuters
Guillotine Watch
UPDATE BELOW ON THIS STORY- 🚨🚨🚨
UNITED HEALTHCARE CAUGHT
PAYING OFF NURSING HOMES TO LET SENIORS DIE INSTEAD OF SENDING THEM TO THE HOSPITALUnitedHealth falls on report it secretly paid nursing homes to reduce hospital transfers | Reutershttps://t.co/CJjFQ4cmpn…
— Boone Cutler 🦬🇺🇸 🦅 (@boonecutler) January 22, 2026
Musk becomes a Davos man Oligarch Watch
Class Warfare
You’re Not a Progressive. You’re a Constitutionalist Christopher Armitage
Banal but brutal: Career anxiety is a driving force behind authoritarianism University of Copenhagen (Paul R)
The Erasure Economy: How Survival Becomes a Crime in America William Murphy (Micael T)
Socioeconomic inequality in longevity is larger than we thought VoxEU
Antidote du jour (via):
And a bonus:
— The Best (@Thebestfigen) January 20, 2026
A second bonus:
A fun compilation of golden retrievers being cute and silly
— Science girl (@sciencegirl) January 21, 2026
And a third:
Beluga stops a guy from smoking at the aquarium… with a splash
— Science girl (@sciencegirl) January 24, 2026
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
“Trump Muses About Asking NATO to Help Protect US Southern Border”
Yeah, that’s not going to happen now. Trump denigrated all those countries that sent troops to fight alongside the US in Afghanistan and said that they held back from the front lines. This from a man who is a Vietnam war draft dodger. A third of all Coalition deaths were from all those countries and they paid a heavy price-
https://stats.areppim.com/stats/stats_afghanwarxnation.htm
The point of Trump thinking of asking NATO troops on the border is so that large numbers of Border Patrol Agents can be taken from the southern border and sent to US cities to terrorize them. Why should NATO countries bail him out here?
This is being proven on the ground.
BP presence in the field is the lowest that I have seen since Trumps first term.
In some area the only people you run into are military.All the BP agents I have met up to supervisor level are new to the area,confused and don’t understand the new military zone.
Lots of agents are off on safari, Donnie just wants more.
Hell to the no.
Foreign troops in USA? Some would say time for target practice.
But definately the administration would be over. Done for. And much connected with them.
This is beginning to sound a lot like the old “Black Helicopter” “conspiracy theory.”
And Mexico’s ears should perk up because he didn’t say which side of the border.
The administration has been making noise about wanting to send some kind of troops there.
Send in “Blackjack” Hegseth and the 7th Cavalry. There is precedent.
The Mexicans can counter them with Indio light horse.
Watch out for any terrain feature with ‘Cuerno’ in the name. Bad juju there.
Link not working: You’re Not a Progressive. You’re a Constitutionalist Christopher Armitage
Fixed, thanks!
The Anti-Federalists were not exactly constitutionalists, hence the first ten amendments.
Biodiversity collapse threatens UK security, intelligence chiefs warn Guardian
Sorry to say I am fed up with this bloody s#it legacy media focus on intelligence reports framing everything as a geostrategical threat. Everything, and now including biodiversity, is a menace for security and possible cause of war or what? Aren’t there enough academic sources in the UK with less insane approaches? This relatively recent fashion of framing everything in geostrategic terms can only end badly.
In other news, “Adorable Golden Retriever Puppies Threaten National Security”, BBC, kidding.
It’s minus 6 degrees here and the hot water in the kitchen sink is frozen despite my cold weather preparations.
It’s gunna be about 39° Celsius tomorrow – about 102° Fahrenheit. But at least they are promising us a massive storm afterwards. Can’t even imagine a sink full of frozen water and how you get rid of it.
I think mrsyk means that the hot water supply line is frozen so no water comes out when you open the spigot.
In our house, our plumber, namely me, ran no supply lines in outside walls, so all our lines are working today despite getting down to -14 with wind chill (knock on
woodCPVC). When we lived in a parsonage in a near-west suburb of Chicago, the church’s maintenance committee had run the main supply past a single pane basement window. Despite insulating it, we were regularly out of water for a few days every January. No fun.And I’m also remembering being without electricity for several days twice down in S. C. after ice storms. They just run the power lines through the pines down there, and heavy snow or ice wreak havoc.
We have a fire in our airtight woodstove supplementing our no-electric gas heaters, and we’re warm and toasty inside this morning.
It’s minus 6°F here as well, no problems with the water, but I’ll find out about my old battery in my much older car. When it gets this cold I put a quilt over the engine compartment and a 100 watt light under the battery, on all night. One year doing so I put a freezer thermometer near the battery and it was twenty degrees warmer than the garage. My fingers are crossed until I try it. :-/
a lot depends on whether your car/battery does a lot of under-10 minute trips.
lead-acid batteries prefer being at 100% charged every so often. if not, sulfur crystals form on the lead plates inside if the battery’s charge gets too low, too often. (and on modern cars, the car’s computer likes to be frugal with recharging the battery during non-freezing weather to give you a bit more fuel efficiency)
if you know anyone with a battery minder/battery charger (most car dudes), let them top-off charge your car battery in exchange for cookies or a beer
I remember bringing the battery indoors at night. I should have thought of the quilt method.
I’ve managed to thaw the hot water tap. Cabin fever has set in, and the three cats are sacking the camp. I steel myself for the sound of breaking glass, lol, nevertheless, the wood stove is cooking and there’s a fresh moka pot on. Looks like a reading day, and I’m not mad at that.
My car started no problem, the quilt and incandescent light (the only one I ever use) came through like champs! Not quite as cold tonight and tomorrow 5 inches of snow predicted. I may not be going out for several days!
Nice. I’m impressed.
The snow is about to begin here.
We are to get 14 to 24 inches.
For an older car you might invest in a block or oil-pan heater. Starts on very cold mornings -minus 6°F is plenty cold- might result in spun bearings. Engine oil turns to glue and does not lubricate. Some good moly-disulfide oil additive might also help.
Be safe.
It’s +2 F or -15 C here and falling, light dry snow. I saw a young guy on a bicycle cycling down the paved road holding to the road track cleaned by car tires. He was going at a good clip. Maybe he uses studded bicycle tires for winter cycling. He was bundled up and looked like he’s used to riding in winter weather. The young and the hardy, or maybe the foolish. / ;)
i glean that most of yall are better set up for this crap than us texans. im better set up than anyone else in my county.
16 all day, ice everyhere. i drained the water lines yesterday.
but lil greenhouse is 43 degrees, and i picked peppers for lunch.
i frelling hate this time of year.
give me 110 degrees any ol time.
and after layin around wathing stargate sg1(for the 50th time) and tending fires, i go look at twitx, and resolve to shoot first if any idiot masked men show up.
because i’m a 7th gen son of pioneers, and a direct descendant of the brother of one David Crockett, and spent between 16 and 26 dealing with exactly this kind of bs from “law enforcement”. because i was weird, and because of the lies told about me to protect the original tormentors.
ill be out here on the farm.
Be cautions, amfortas (OK, probably not your forte’). Your perspective here is way too valuable to sacrifice for a single blaze of glory.
Welcome to the wild world of skijoring Economist (Dr. Kevin)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was doing snow surveys for the state in Mineral King about 15 years ago when my snowmobile up and quit on me, and necessity turned me into a frozen water skier of sorts, using an old yellow plastic rope we found in the ranger station, to pull me using the other snowmobile.
It really only works on uphills, and your lower arm gets plenty weary from the strain, but what a lot of fun-and unlike a horse pulling you, pretty consistent in power.
I think i’d be more than a little freaked out skijoring, I mean a horse galloping on snow pulling you behind, what could go wrong?
The article claims that the name comes from Norwegian for ski driving. That would, by rights, be skikjøring where the kjø is a sort of sh sound. Do the American skijorers pronounce the j as hard or soft?
I have seen skijoring in Leadville, Colorado, where they’ve had an annual event since 1949. They spell it as two words – ski joring – a hard j. It’s fun to watch, when someone falls they generally walk away, waving to the crowd.
Leadville is high, the airport is at 9,934 ft. (3,028 m), the highest public-use airport in the U.S. For me, living around 5,350 ft., the air feels thin there.
> Metal Fans Unlikely To Cheat, Jazz Fans Are Boning Everyone According To A Study
On the one hand, sure, that’s what metal is for: cathartic palliative for those not getting any. But jazz? Whoda thought the Stan Kenton fans were the naughty ones?
I had suspicions that these 4 mild mannered men who look like accountants were pushing a song about a quickie…
Take Five, by Dave Brubeck (and maybe the best drum solo ever by Joe Morello)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT9Eh8wNMkw&list=RDtT9Eh8wNMkw
Dave was a family man who grew up on a ranch in California. Desmond was the skirt chaser.
Of course there are those who say that white jazz and black jazz are different things.
And in 5/4 no less. Here’s “Unsquare Dance” in an even crazier 7/4 time signature. Morello laughs at the end of the recording in surprise and relief that they managed to get through the tune.
Does listening to Kenny G count? Asking for a friend.
Usually basic 4/4 time.
Now, the time signature changes in King Crimson’s “Discipline” will freak you out.
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice?
Hmmmm…. I don’t usually go for Sin-copation.
Time signature changes?
I thought each musician played in a different time signature throughout the instrumental without variance (discipline).
From a comment on a YouTube of the cut:
“During the piece the two guitars of Belew and Fripp, respectively, move through the following sequence of pairs of time signatures: 5/8 and 5/8, 5/8 and 4/4, 5/8 and 9/8, 15/16 and 15/16, 15/16 and 14/16, 10/8 and 20/16, 15/16 and 15/16, 15/16 and 14/16, 12/16 and 12/16, 12/16 and 11/16, 15/16 and 15/16, 15/16 and 14/16.”
Throughout drummer Bill Bruford is keeping 17/16 time with a 4/4 bass beat.
A guitarist once told me it was a true test of one’s ability.
1980s King Crimson is an acquired taste.
Hey, there are plenty of critics who had little use for the Dave Brubeck quartet and considered their playing around with time signatures to be a gimmick, so I don’t judge who’s in and who’s out. It’s true that Brubeck had been in a car wreck that broke his huge hands and left him partially disabled. That’s why he relied on those giant block chords and Paul Desmond’s improvisational genius. Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans and Clare Fischer were all better pianists.
I’ve enjoyed Ramsey Lewis since I was a kid, but my piano teacher, who had a weekend jazz trio of his own, considered him to be “pop.” Lewis’s music had staying power though. I was watching Woody Allen’s Irrational Man with Joaquin Phoenix recently, and “In Crowd” is the background for the opening scene.
Dave Brubeck Quartet was my introduction to jazz in my early 20’s, as a friend practically pushed a Take Five cassette on me~
Another friend went to the Playboy Jazz Festival every year at the Hollywood Bowl, which was another perfect venue to see all sorts of jazz, an eclectic mix of top rank talent. I went maybe 10 years.
Jamie Cullum was amazing…
These Are The Days
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RXVIMjNJCg&list=RD8RXVIMjNJCg
I had the great fortune of seeing DB live at the E96th street Y. Despite being quite elderly (it was reported to be his last public performance) he put on a terrific show. Plus, he told a story between each musical piece. It was a real treat.
I saw him live when in college–Desmond gone by then.
As for whether white jazz musicians are cultural appropriators I think that is a tiresome argument. To some of us it’s about music and jazz is an idiom that can serve anyone with an original musical idea. When it comes to performance many at the time said Desmond was the star and they were right. Arguably in some of his post quartet performances Brubeck was a more interesting pianist. He had an amazingly long career
Good to hear the name Clare Fischer again. One of the very greatest orchestrator-arrangers; I think Prince even used him a time or two.
As for Ramsay Lewis, he was ‘pop’, inasmuch as he was playing early, consciously simplified ‘jazz-funk’ piano — though there’s a long lineage of what might be called ‘barbecue jazz’ preceding him, meaning all those Hammond organ trios led by guys like Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff, which went way, way back to Wild Bill Davis —
https://wildbilldavis.com/Biography.html
— and also produced sax players like Stanley Turrentine. Granted, most of this stuff stayed in the black community except for Smith.
All that said, Lewis was the first guy I know of who figured out playing piano in that particular funk-jazz way (‘hard bop’ guys like Horace Silver may have been funky, but they’re clearly on the jazz side of the line) and you hear his licks copied by the likes of Stevie Winwood a little later.
The Cleveland bar where I grew up drinking 3.2 beer and noshing on pickled eggs had Take Five and Blue Rondo a la Turk on the juke box. The clientele was college and grad school students, biker gangs and on Thurs. and Sat. nights after the concert, Cleveland Orchestra players. HMP, you may have known the place.
Thanks for that link. Whenever I hear that jazz number I think of the sound of the windmill water pump on my grandpa’s farm.
“The gift of death metal does smile upon the good-looking”
-Strong Bad
When a metal band drops a jazz breakdown so their fans can be naughtier:
Messa – The Dress (Official Video)
That’s an amazing track. Just bought the album, Spin. Grazie!
The entire album is excellent and one of my favorite musical discoveries of 2025.
Wow, I am not a metal fan but this is terrific. I have not bought music in years but am getting this album.
Not surprising. History is full of free-love loving people in bohemian settings loving jazz.
Plenty of jazz has been dancing music and hence all the concern about who is dancing together.
Ye Olde Bohemian Grove Groove.
Additionally, try to count the number of babies conceived to romantic jazz ballads.
Candlelight and __________ (fill in the blank).
Even a metal head may put on some on when it’s time to get the clothes off.
i listen primarily to jazz, these days…blues on sundays.
but im pretty eclectic.
mongolian folk to willie, waylon and the boys>
but i am rather picky when it comes to country music.
i leave the stereo at the bar on at night during winter to deter coyotes…and the only radio station i can get is the brady texas country music station…and they play a lot of the GAC thats popular with the local bewildered herd.(“Great American Country”= my term for that overplayed corporate crap thatbegan in the 80s)
so i went over to the bar when i was braving the cold to tend to critters a while ago, and that damned song “they call me the fireman…thats my name…” is stuck in my head.
if i had a better stero for the house laptop, id prolly jam mozarts requiem or something to clean my ears.
How about some Cambodian Rock?
https://kpfa.org/episode/the-golden-age-of-cambodian-rock/
Those jazz cats and kittens do like to swing.
Goooooooooood Mooooooooorning Fiatnam!
Donald Quixote tilting against windmills in Davos claiming they might be giant boondoggles, and engaging in a pointless battle against perceived adversaries or abstract problems rather than real threats were classic Trump jousts, and frankly we wouldn’t have it any other way.
“US must have rights to Greenland’s resources as it defends its territory — vice president”
There was a comedy sketch which explained Australia’s defense policy. It came down to Australia spending billions of dollars to protect our trade routes to China – from China.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgspkxfkS4k (1:40 mins)
This is more of the same. Vance wants to have Greenland’s mineral reserves to protect it from foreign invaders. In this case the US. If Trump learns that Russia can send missiles over Antarctica to hit the US, will the US then demand possession of Antarctica?
Food price inflation rises unexpectedly ECIU
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The catiphate commands me to obtain cans of Fancy Feast, and frankly I do as i’m told, and it has been a reliable inflation indicator, the amount in each can never varying by weight, and a good amount of it comes from other countries…
They had been at 88¢ for about a year, and whammo!
96¢ now, you can take your CPI of 2.8% and stick the 9% increase where the sum doesn’t shine.
This article on UK food inflation was pushing a climate message, from the way it phrased things cutely to plant doubling in the reader’s mind (inflation has doubled in bread – not the same thing as price doubling! – and double-digit inflation in beef etc) to the way it insisted this was chiefly about climate change.
This is bullshit: prices have leapt in the UK because of input costs, attributable to the war on Russia and energy costs; increases in labour costs (taxes, minimum wage rises); and gross margin increases. The relative contribution with the stage in the food chain: farms have minimal labour but face high costs of fertilizer, raising the cost of domestic human flood and non food produce, fuel (for ploughing, hay making, grain drying etc) and therefore for animal feed and crop production whereas food distributors and
retail face big wage and tax rises.
The result is astonishing price increases in the UK, which has a very efficient food distribution sector and historically low food prices. We bought an organic chicken yesterday to roast. That would have been £9 or so before the pandemic and the SMO, now it is £19 and for a scrawny thing at that. Organic beef prices are £30-£40/kg for steak (depends on cut).
At the farming end, the market price for 10 month-old calves (which then spend a further year or two being finished on a farm) is about £1,000/calf. This is at the very top of the historic range of £700-£1,000. Meanwhile the beef herd in the UK is actually shrinking!
idk about eruope,uk, etc…but in texas, its the meat packers and distributers/hoarders…and other myriad middlemen wetting their beaks…that drive up the prices.
nothing to do with actual economics,lol(cost plus a lil profit…farmers get shit.)(and, sorry, wearing ropinggloves in greenhouse, and wireless keyboard is sticking from cold, and being outside too much,lol)
see parity pricing for agriculture. for decades, farmers must accept the “market price”, without regard to the cost of production. i know of no other business that is de facto required to run in this manner.
I hear you, Amf: most farmers have little pricing power.
Here”s a horror story in UK dairy.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/17/the-stark-reality-for-britains-dairy-farmers-milk-price
However, if you have a high margin niche, you can make a living. Here is the future of dairy farming: calf at foot systems where the calves stay on the cows and one of the udder’s quarters is left unstripped for the calf.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly452540dzo
Yields are lower (halved or less) but the calves gain weight better and are healthier, milking is only once a day, weaning distress is avoided and, if the farmer wants a holiday, calf will milk mother for him/her without pay!
This sort of milk is selling in local shops and directly from farms in the UK at 4x the price of conventional supermarket milk.
Do “farmers” also usually own the land?
And what about the true labour costs? Those are already all priced in. So it comes for free it seems…
p.s. This comes to mind!
If you haven´t already seen, a must – Louis Malle did two great documentaries in (rural) US when he lived there:
God’s Country
1985
95 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt66N-ypAfU
http://www.filmsufi.com/2011/05/gods-country-louis-malle-1986.html
And the Pursuit of Happiness (on immigrants)
1986
81 min.
https://vk.com/video329158083_456240012
http://www.filmsufi.com/2012/11/and-pursuit-of-happiness-louis-malle.html
This is the old US in a way…and Malle was by then picking up on things that today have outsized, monstrous proportions of course. In a way the then abnormal could still be registered and thus filmed. Today that same “abnormal” has become so standard and even worth to be defended by people living in it, it is indicipherable and cannot be turned into a narrative. The madness of reality cannot be objectified. And if you try to do you will end up with caricature.
Then again my GF stopped planting wheat and such as he was given a Gov paycheck to do so, as a little old timey farmer, something about making the commies in Russia have a market sad … back in the day … by yeah market forces and supply and demand lmmao …
Pretty sure the cat video is AI, i dont think a real cat can huff a breath like happens at the end, and the hole seems too deep for it to then poke its head out (looking at the camera, not the birds). Have to watch the whole thing before its clearly fake.
Could be. But some cats act real funny when snow comes to town-
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KaYHMh7Xesw
What makes wonder is that the second bird stays put. They tend to fly away all at once.
It looks real to me but who knows anymore?
Looks real to me. I’ve seen first hand similar behavior, including the snow exhale out the nose. Orange cats rock!
AI can’t ever make ordinary animal videos, they have to be cute.
It’s the Weekly World News of our era, but no cute Batboy videos yet~
Cute? There is something creepy about every totally computer created animal video.
The second bird never moves a pixel. This is AI. Yes, but could it happen?
Not with any set of birds I have ever seen.
In this video it could be a prompt from a specific source, absent criteria.
I’m firm pending further understanding.
Our cat, Pinksniff, pulled exactly that stunt but without the birds. Didn’t spend that much time buried either.
I thought the camera shake suggested not AI but I may be stuck in 2025.
I don’t see any obvious AI tells. In a background with that much detail you’d normally see artifacts with an AI video, and I didn’t notice any. It doesn’t seem suspiciously hyper-focused, either.
The ‘puff’ is actually powder snow that was dislodged from the edge of the hole by the cat’s breath. That’s another point in favor of authenticity, as I think AI would get that confused with breath steam and have it linger for a longer time.
The account also seems to post mostly older-style funny home video content, with no obvious AI stuff.
Yah, the puff at the end isn’t real. House cat lungs aren’t made for that. Rest might be.
waiting for Yves to go “arrrggh!” over an ai palliative is something i look forward to these days.
Not Out of the Woods. Will the National Parks survive this administration? In the Public Interest
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Was with my 2 brother in laws on our family cruise last month, when I dared invoke the ‘S’ word on them.
They swing so far to the right of right that one of them had such a list and fell in a crumple on the shuffleboard layout, could have been a tragedy if they were lefties, an awful lot of Pacific Ocean to fall in on that side!
When I mentioned that our National Parks were Socialism in that nobody owns them and over 330 million people visited them last year, I was met with ‘Are you saying the Lincoln Memorial is Socialist too?’ and I asked who owns it, shutting down that would-be argument rather quickly.
I could literally see their blood platelets boiling under the surface of their skin, and not wanting to be responsible for their untimely demise, quickly changed the subject to the ‘art auction’ on the 7th floor, which seemed to appease them.
Our National Parks are being set up for failure, and then TOPS (Trump Outdoor Purveyor Services) shows up with $16 Miller Lites and $28 hamburgers. (fries are $12 more)
Ouch! Do you get a side of baseball with that?
I suffered through pickleball on the fantail of the ship, you were kind of forced to watch in order to do laps on the poop deck. (I have no idea if it was actually the poop deck, but shit happens there)
It would drive me batty, all that THWACK THWACK action
“The consent of the governed has been withdrawn”
With everything that Trump is doing, both domestic and abroad, did he really think that this would make him even more popular? That he could fob off the whole midterms as he would sweep them all? At this rate, his own popularity may end up matching Starmer and Macron’s popularity ratings. So what happens if he loses too many seats in the Senate and House this November? Claim that he was robbed and wants those voting machines turned back on again. I think that there is going to be a lot of fighting over the midterms, both before and after.
It’s surprising that his poll ratings aren’t even worse but then a lot of Americans barely pay attention to DC.
It is pathetic how Trump keeps trying to see himself as leader of some kind of personality cult. The NPS article says he has made his own birthday a park free day instead of MLK day.
I was just emailed yesterday about 15 or so passages in ancient Greek by medical colleagues to be translated into Modern English. Interestingly, this batch had all 3 eras – Homeric, Attic, and Koine. So much of medical translation in medicine is the name of disease processes that are not nearly as specific as we have in our modern world and it is very difficult to make the transition to modern thought. So many of the things I am asked to do also have to do with “the human condition” or the human soul or more spiritual words. These are profoundly difficult to translate well into modern English. And the important thing I tell students all the time, it is not just a translation…….fully understanding ancient Greek means that you have to be able in your mind to sit around a campfire with the ancients in full recognition of their culture to really understand what these words mean.
For an example of how hard it truly is…….I give you the very first line of The Odyssey……the line that sets the tone for the entire rest of the work.
Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ
No one actually knows what it exactly means……….Sing to me, muse of the πολύτροπον, who was driven far……..
The word πολύτροπον means “many-turning or spinning” and has been variously translated through the ages as “successful”, “ingenious”, “resourceful”, “man of many ways”, “talented”, “very emotionally volatile”, and most recently “complicated”. Many of our best thinkers over time have literally left the word blank. My feeling is the “complicated” verbiage is the closest – but you can see in the foundational set-up for the whole poem – we have no idea what is exactly meant.
All of that to say – I get asked so often to translate passages with these words……and I always dream of the campfire – one of these hit my desk yesterday…..αμάθεια – in English it would be pronounced amathia. This word has to be translated as “a state of willful stupidity” or a “state of intelligent stupidity”. This word has a very special connotation as being the state of the elite, extremely intelligent or cunning – who through their arrogance are the stupidest people ever. This is a completely different word than ἄγνοια or agnoia – which is found all over the canon and basically means ignorant or as dumb as bricks. This word just means uneducated.
The fact that the Greeks had their own word for this special kind of stupid is proof that nothing has changed about our species at all. We still have all the baggage. And the really sad part with regard to the wisdom handed to us from the Greeks – so many times it is this word αμάθεια or amathia that is the direct predicate for major disasters that get millions killed. As I tell students all the time – this has all happened before, and this will all happen again.
Unfortunately, as far as the eye can see, we have αμάθεια, amathia on all sides today. The absolute nuts on our political extremes on all sides and the willing stupidity they project is for the ages. I try to take heart – our forebears somehow muddled through. Maybe we will too.
Does amathia imply a lack of commonsense, or too clever by half?
I like “complicated” for polytropon, it has the sense of the complications of a clockwork mechanism but – not speaking Greek – why could it not mean many turning or returning in the sense of time, history, world?
Thanks for expanding my knowledge of ancient Greek, IM Doc. I don’t remember encountering αμάθεια but it certainly seems to fit our current predicament.
A note on that first line if I may: Ἄνδρα is the accusative case of the vocative form of the word “man” / “human”, ἆνερ. And I think that πολύτροπον (also accusative) in this context would mean something along the lines of “well-traveled” (literally: “many-turns”). Hence my personal translation would be “(sing of the) well-traveled man”.
My 2 δραχμή…
UNITED HEALTHCARE CAUGHT
PAYING OFF NURSING HOMES TO LET SENIORS DIE INSTEAD OF SENDING THEM TO THE HOSPITAL
Saint Luigi the Avenger, ora pro nobis. Amen.
Note to USanians: There must be no forgiveness. Or to put it in the active voice: You have to maintain a certain level of outrage and demand justice, no matter who gets sent to jail. (Note to Hillary Clinton diehards: Including Mama Hillary.)
The article about the black sites and “black days” posted by Yves Smith indicates the extent of the corruption and the horror — and how it has come home.
Forgiveness? Living as I do in Italy, I listen to many, many Italians who state that that there is no forgiving fascism. And I agree.
There is no forgiveness: ICE shows up in Italy. (Which is likely illegal, which is immoral, and which shows how much the U S of A treats places like Italy as satellites — Italy might as well be Bulgaria in the Warsaw Pact in 1969).
https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/in-edicola/articoli/2026/01/24/milano-cortina-la-famigerata-ice-arriva-in-italia-per-la-sicurezza-delle-olimpiadi/8267386/
You shouldn’t insult Italy by comparing it to Bulgaria – at least Italy didn’t join Trump’s Council for Peace. That’s a major scandal here, yet Parliament may just ratify the membership, ’cause we are w0gs who love being someone’s b!tch…
Haven’t heard from you in a while. Kept wanting to ask how is the transition to euro going on?
No real drama yet, even dirty cash money is getting exchanged without consequences. There will be yet another early elections in late March/early April, so the gubmint is watching prices like a hawk, while raising its own fees for things like issuing ID cards and drivers licences. Any drama and problems will come sometime after the elections, my guess is it will start with inflation and then a gubmint debt spiral that would make the Maastricht criteria blush in embarrassment. Not that the Euro will be at fault for the latter and it will be only partially to blame for the former, but the blame will be passed onto it by certain politicians and parties.
“You’re not a Progressive. You’re a constitutionalist”
The framing of the issue of federal immigration officers occupying cities as illegal or unconstitutional is, I think, of limited value. Sure, it might fire up the brunch crowd, who associate law (and order) with justice, and the documents used in our country’s founding with some holy book.
ICE and CBP agents are surely engaged in some illegal activity. Most police probably are. Their defenders might say that it’s because of the demands of the job and the structure of the institution, necessitating some Dirty Harry style vigilantism and rule-bending. There’s some truth to this. Their opponents might respond that it’s rather due to a culture of impunity and lawlessness. There’s truth to this as well.
Their deployment is neither illegal nor unconstitutional so far as I can tell.
It reminds me of a bugaboo I’ve long had with some in the anti-war community, who seem to imply that burning children alive would be fine by them if it had the sanction of international law.
In expressing their disapproval of ICE occupations, and by calling them illegal, many seem to be espousing a natural law theory, that the acts with which they disagree are immoral by the standards of their community. I’m glad to see this, but I wish we could change some of the language, maybe use our own framing.
What we should take issue with is that we have an underclass created by law to perform often brutal and dangerous labor for low wages, and who by design have no rights. We should take issue with the fact that this is legal, not with the fact that, in enforcing the law, some federal agents go overboard. I’m bothered by the disappearing of families, not by the violation of law. I suppose I’m neither a progressive nor a constitutionalist.
Vicki Cookies:: You are being forgiving, which I warn about directly above. At a certain point, in fact, maybe much of the time, the democratic (small d) mindset requires some severity, some sharp-edged skepticism. No one, no one, was able to defend the beating up of black people during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1940s through 1960s — it strained credulity.
There Will Be Nuremberg posting is the antidote: ‘”Trump’s June 2025 directive read: “ICE Officers are herewith ordered, by notice of this TRUTH, to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.” He named Los Angeles, Chicago, New York. Miller ordered 3,000 arrests daily. Privately, the administration targeted one million deportations in Trump’s first year. DHS posted an image depicting “America after 100 million deportations” as paradise, captioned: “The peace of a nation no longer besieged by the third world.”’
This is illegal and unconstitutional: The law is based on individual cases and individual determinations, not roundups of undesirables like the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire. To be frank, the cops have shit the bed: Legal punishments are long overdue.
In my opinion, it is no longer a question of “illegal” vs “unconstitutional”. See also the latest on United Healthcare, in spite of St Luigi’s best efforts.
This is the face of evil, and I can no longer stomach it. Not even the “lesser” evil, my loved ones’ blandishments notwithstanding.
DJG, thank you for your reply.
I have to disagree with you on a factual point: much of the establishment was opposed to the civil rights movement, for example the Dixiecrats. I’d also ask which statue was violated in by the President making the social media post quoted.
I agree that it’s wrong; I just don’t think it’s illegal. We should remember that it was illegal for blacks and whites to attend the same school for quite some time, not out of living memory for some. Slavery was highly constitutional until the 13th amendment.
This is the distinction I’m trying to draw between ‘legal’ and ‘right’, which I think is a more useful framing for our understanding and for our strategizing. I was at a union event yesterday, during which several speakers railed against the unconstitutionality or illegality of these occupations, to much applause, but it struck me that this was a legitimating narrative for the status quo rather than a subversive or radical one. As I said, I’d rather see us take issue with the legality of the existence of a sub-citizen status for ‘aliens’, when national origin, which is a racial category in its own origins, is as arbitrary a characteristic as is race or sex, an accident of birth, for which no one ought to be treated lesser than.
I see now! The good old USof A is no different than India with its Laws of Manu. The division of people by “Color” with the darkest hue, the Dhalits kicked to clean the sewers and beaten for being impure…
The City on the Hill!
David Sirota. Jacobin:: Democrats and Self-Powerlessness.
Diagnosis: ‘The Obama era’s “but Joe Lieberman and Zell Miller!” rotating villain game metastasized into the “but Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin!” rotating villain game of the Biden era — the latter punctuated with some new “but the parliamentarian!” excuses for inaction.’
Let alone the glories of Nancy Pelosi and the magical impeachment based on one or the other of the politically unreliable Vindmans. (Approved by Heather Cox Richardson and her ilk.)
Let alone the entire mess of the Biden administration — hiding senile Joe in the Basement White House in Delaware during his campaign. Years of being manipulated by staff, by his own temper tantrums, and by the Missus. The meltdown, the donors, the tapping of Kamala Harris in revenge — senility, one forgets everything except the resentments.
And, natch, the Partito Democratico of Italy, created to be the doofusy twin of the U.S. Dems, suffers from the same inability to engage in politics. And the same tendency to complain about its own left wing, the left-wing Five Stars (which is most of them), and Sinistra Italiana.
I recommend the essay by David Sirota to you.
Yes of course Trump is a creature of the Dems. For a long time the Republican establishment didn’t want him.
But now that Dr. Frankenstein has created his monster what do we do about the monster? Listening to his stumbling Davos speech one has to believe the monster is doing himself in. Perhaps that re-animation thing via lightning bolts is only temporary.
It’s right on of course. Couldn’t reform the banking system during that meltdown or the health care during the COVID crisis because they didn’t want to, not because the couldn’t.
My partner is huge believer in HCR and I find most of her writings to be well extremely hard to take. Russia bad, dems are all perfect. Biden and harris were amazing and on it goes.
There just isn’t that Democratic Party anymore. It’s gone for good
Will read it, boss! 😉
p.s. Italian friend again complaining about Meloni and the Italian rightwing and him not being able to take seriously the leftwing. I learned that in the Castel Sant’Angelo Meloni&friends are conducting huge venues where rightwingers from all over the world are invited (remindes me of JOHN WICK´s adventures in Rome) – and this one prime event is named after Atréju a character from German bestselling childrens´ fantasy book “The Neverending Story”. A fact so dumb it did surprise. The colleague did explain to me that German author Michael Ende is still huge in Italy since he lived in a “leftwing” artistic comune of sorts in the Casa Liocorno (House of Unicorn) at Genzano.
So not much difference to a Silicon Valley nimwit quoting a sword from LORD OF THE RINGS to name some surveillance software.
But then I wonder: With all the bluster by Italy when claiming to own 50% of the world cultural heritage (whenever I hear this insane number I am picturing the Chinese and Indian Ambassadors´ faces) why fall back onto a childrens´ fantasy book for naming a “so-Italian-event”?! The lack of intellectual maturity is striking.
“Not Out of the Woods”
‘Will the National Parks survive this administration?’
Hadn’t considered the question before but has Trump ever been to any of the major national parks? Truth be told, casinos and the like would be more his style and I cannot picture him camping out in a park like Teddy Roosevelt did. No porta-potties with golden seats these days. The only interest that he has with those national parks is to remove any changes that the Biden regime put in place and likely too any that Obama did. Regardless, I would watch any moves to try to privatize these national parks so that some of his rich buddies can cash in.
I can see a links style course on The Blacktail Plateau…
Perfect Next Project for the Cross Harbor Capital guys out of Boston who run the Yellowstone Club and Crazy Mountain Ranch
https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/blacktail-plateau-yellowstone-national-park-wyoming-usa-summer-73916920.jpg
apologies for that chunder… don’t step in it, it’ll freeze pretty fast today…
About the only thing Obama did, was buckling to the gun lobby in that he did not veto the bill that allowed people to bring their gats into National Parks* (if they discharge them in a NP-they’ll be arrested though) and its doubtful all grown up now Anthony Fremont would remove it.
* easily the lowest murder rate of any place in the USA
During Gingrich they even wanted to privatize the Corps of Engineers lakes. We are living through Reagan era deja vu but Reagan had handlers including his wife. Trump only has enablers and sycophants.
However don’t think Trump can privatize the parks unless Congress agrees.
I think T has visited a national park. Here he’s seen in a brief film clip of his walk through. / ;) utube, ~1 minute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c54SvkgQ04A
I hope that the Big Orange Brain finally makes it to Death Valley. I know that alot of us are pulling for him. More today than yesterday. Say, wasn’t there a song like that?
It´s coincidence but with Carney, Merz and Alice Weidel we got three major players all former Goldman Sachs. Any more to add to that list? (If we expand to banks in general the list certainly turns out much longer.)
Mario Draghi.
per wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Draghi
After working as an economist, Draghi worked for the World Bank in Washington, D.C., throughout the 1980s, and in 1991 returned to Rome to become director general of the Italian Treasury. He left that role after a decade to join Goldman Sachs, where he remained until his appointment as governor of the Bank of Italy in 2006. His tenure as Governor coincided with the 2008 Great Recession, and in the midst of this he was selected to become the first chair of the Financial Stability Board, the global standard-setter that replaced the Financial Stability Forum.
(my emphasis)
Rishi Sunak.
“Previously, Rishi spent his professional career in business and finance, having co-founded an investment firm working with companies internationally. He also worked at Goldman Sachs, first as a summer intern in Investment Banking in 2000 and later as an analyst between 2001 and 2004. ”
Rishi Sunak Joins Goldman Sachs as a Senior Advisor
Jul 8, 2025
https://www.goldmansachs.com/pressroom/press-releases/2025/rishi-sunak-joins-goldman-sachs-as-a-senior-advisor
Wasn’t he the prime minister of some tiny European country or something also? Unusually interesting omission…
For a moment I actually forgot he wasn’t PM anymore and had to double check… Something tells me not a lot would have been different there policy-wise if he was.
Yes, well, the tiny European country was mentioned early in the article, but it’s only a Goldman Sachs branch bank. / ;)
Some get hazed via Goldman Sachs, others via Rhodes Scolarships…
Dropping my house insurance here, in that it was nearly $10k and if the movers and shakers in Pacific Palisades couldn’t get made whole for their digs in the toniest clime in LA (a whole 12 homes have been rebuilt out of 6,800 lost-boy howdy!) what chance does a nobody such as yours truly have with actually getting paid for loss?
Gonna have Julio and his merry band of tree monkeys go at it excising dead branches I couldn’t reach with a 14 foot pole-saw, using the windfall…
Well, we “just” had our first of the season “forest fire”; here in the PNW, SW ‘Ore-gon”, 2 days ago. I live urban interface, rural 7k hamlet. My townhome insurance was cancelled this past renewal. I see the year of the Fire Horse has arrived; no mercy for this elder virtual cat lady. All the best.
Minneapolis local news is reporting another ICE shooting in south Minneapolis (26th and Nicollet avenue). The victim is in critical condition.
Yeah, the video looks as bad or worse than the Renee Good incident. JFC
Also the victim has been reported dead.
https://www.startribune.com/ice-raids-minnesota/601546426
Aaaaand now the victim is reported dead.
ICE also claims the victim had a gun and two full magazines, which they’ve “recovered.” And presumably, that we should just take their word for that.
Looks worse but cant see anymore videos. Mentally drained and have storm prep to do.
So wait, ICE said the guy (an American citizen and lawful registered gun owner) had a gun. Then showed a picture of a weird looking gun on a car seat? (which I’m sure was not planted there by ICE ). hmmmm.
After years of getting local police to clean up misbehavior we now have a national “police” agency with no accountability to voters or, it seems, to Constitutional laws.
The T admin sure is acting like it wants to start some serious rioting.
He died.
https://www.startribune.com/ice-raids-minnesota/601546426
Scroll through the live updates. Video from the donut shop across the street was horrible. I saw other people filming so there will be more videos to come.
video: https://x.com/SpencerHakimian/status/2015089808381517866
It had the feel of the Rodney King video, except with a dead Rodney.
It seems we are headed for Insurrection status in Minny, how would that effect the macro in the haste of foreigners to rid themselves of anything $ related in a race to the exits?
jeebus! Looks like 10 ICE guys dog-piling on the guy, they’ve got him on the ground, then 7 shots?! 7!? These ICE guys are out of control.
We’re toast. :(
No, we’re not. It’s not going to be easy.
I remember Southern states’ sheriffs using police dogs to bite peaceful civil rights marchers, using water canons of civil rights marchers.
Back then the MSM covered these stories and it moved the conscience of the country.
Let’s see how much air time the current national MSM gives to these Minneapolis govt actions against peaceful protestors.
Yes, I think the analysis from earlier this week that the Twin Cities was the upper bound of what they could manage in terms of manpower and logistics is probably the case. That’s why they’re not in NYC or LA, they couldn’t hash it.
The Cities are small enough that they can flood it and make it seem like they’re very powerful, while having tangential benefits (Waltz, memories of the George Floyd aftermath, etc.).
Overall it’s a show of fragility/limits not overwhelming strength. Not to say things couldn’t get very messy. :/
Casus Belli for war on the populace? Goad the Casserole-eaters into rebellion, call out the military, and then take whatever they want? Why not? I don’t want to watch protesters gunned down by Reaper Drones, and I think that’s where we’re headed. We’ll see if Nuevo-Hitler is at his limit. I pray to God I’m wrong.
This posted on facebook about 4 hours ago:
“This morning, Alex Pretti was shot and killed in Minneapolis by a group of Border Patrol agents after filming them. Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse at the VA”.
The DC regime must think the Minneapolis protests are like its regime change insurgency run in Oran since 28 Dec 2025.
So far, Trump is doing a Pretti Goode job.
(found on a popular gunhumper forum)
Nope, they are completely under control, which is why the managerial hierarchy is complicit, liable, and subject to prosecution. Unless they remain in control there will be payment extracted. Which tells you exactly what happens next.
Another video– and this one is damning:
https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2015131503622021472
At second :35, ICE agent charges woman and sends her flying while observer/victim is assisting another woman off the street. Observer/victim turns to help woman who was sent flying and ICE agent starts hosing them down with chemical spray… ICE agent was way out-of-line, way out-of-control, and was clearly the aggressor who escallated the situation.
If this agent isn’t arrested and charged, if criminal law is not upheld or only applies to common citizens…
The Bulwark has been reporting on this all morning. The police chief indicated that the 37 year old victim had a permit to carry a firearm. Video shows he was an observer, filming with his phone in his right hand as he was confronted and pushed back by an ICE agent. No apparent weapon in his left hand from video by passing car. At some point it escalated and several agents took him to the ground where one of the agents fired a shot and then several into the victim a second later. It’s possible this observer had a gun on him and it was knocked loose during the scuffle, at which point they shot him. The victim was not a small guy and from the looks could have been ex military but that’s just conjecture on my part. We will find out more about the victim I’m sure and the context of the confrontation. Here’s the Bulwark link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRziTOd_PGQ
His gun was holstered, but they had taken it from him anyway. I suspect that the guy pistolwhipping him was doing so with a round in the chamber and his gun went off. At which his buddy reacted by emptying his clip into the victim
You know, I wondered about the two distinct sets of gunshot sounds and the inadvertent discharge (whether from allegedly pistol whipping or just a gun with a chambered round getting whacked just right) of a gun “spooking” an anxious ICE agent to pull and execute makes some sense.
This will get uglier before it gets better.
I just pray for peace.
Look for the videos taken from across the street. KMSP showed footage of the ICE agent who shot Pretti carrying a gun that looks suspiciously like the one DHS published. If that was indeed Pretti’s gun, he had already been disarmed before he was murdered.
Status Coup has been live-streaming. They are currently at the spontaneous protest at Nicolette Av and 26th St they reported is near the scene of the shooting.
Previously, tear gas was being deployed.
https://www.youtube.com/live/ASr1zVuQlX4
Thanks for the link
Wouldn’t it be something if the feds have or are trying to co-op the peaceful protestors into non-peaceful action? I’m thinking the the BLM summer. If you see pallets of bricks mysteriously appearing on the sidewalk, beware. / ;)
Yo, Kristi let’s kick it
ICE, ICE Barbie
ICE, ICE Barbie
All right stop, collaborate and listen
ICE is back with the brand-new makeup intention
Something, grabs a hold of eye shadow tightly
Flows like Earl Scheib daily and nightly
Will it ever stop? Yo, I don’t know
Turn off the lights and they’ll still glow
To the extreme they walk the border like a supermodel
Light up a stage and wax eyebrows on the video
Dance go rush to the immigrants, some from Montevideo
They’re killing Emma Lazarus’s hopes like a poisonous mushroom
Deadly when they go on a murderous Minneapolis melody
Anything less than ICE’s best, would be a felony
Love it or leave it you better gang way
You better hit bull’s eye the undocumented can’t play
And if there was a problem, yo, they’ll solve it
Check out them losing face while their blush resolves it
ICE, ICE Barbie
Vanilla ICE, ICE Barbie
Vanilla ICE, ICE Barbie
Vanilla ICE, ICE Barbie
Now that the Republican party is jumping
When January 20th kicked in and Barbie is primping
Quick to the point to the point of yucko!
She’s applying concealer like a pound of stucco
Making her look like Tammie Faye if you ain’t quick and nimble
I go crazy when I hear looking good is a status symbol
And foundation with a souped up-tempo
I’m on a roll and it’s obvious saving face is her temple
Yo, man let’s get out of here
Word to your mother
ICE, ICE Barbie too bold
ICE, ICE Barbie too bold, too bold
ICE, ICE Barbie too bold, too bold
ICE, ICE Barbie too bold, too bold
Ice Ice Baby, by Vanilla Ice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOQtzxPnoY0
re: US must have rights to Greenland’s resources as it defends its territory — vice president
US govt as a “protection racket”? I once joked about Meyer Lansky being the guiding light of the T admin. It’s still a joke…. I think. / ;)
Nice Constitution ya got there, it’d be a shame if something was to happen to it, and it took 6 weeks for a judge to rule against us.
Cut to Mar-a-Lago in Disney’s notional Godfather 2 remake as Meyer Trumpsky cuts a celebratory cake in the shape of Greenland.
The greatness of Coppola’s film is seen in how very very predictive it is of America today. Back then the cultural zeitgeist was still bitter about Vietnam. All these years later we are still waiting for our aborted Age of Aquarius.
Not a badly written piece strictly speaking, but I find it tiresome that Stevenson has to bend over backward in order to present every single western media talking point about China (Uyghurs, dictatorship, corruption, etc.). It feels almost as if he is less concerned about Xi and about China than about what one ought to think about China. Can’t we leave this sort of commentary behind and be more straightforward when talking about China? Is it really necessary to say that Xi is an emperor? I know that to some degree Stevenson is merely echoing the points made in the books he’s reviewing, but at the same time he is critical enough about their failings, so it just comes off feeling like he’s taking up a sort of censorship role in that he vetoes what is correct speech about China and what isn’t.
Nobody left to fill Edgar Snow’s shoes, eh?!
Yes, it is perfect house-style LRB radicalism. Stevenson is perhaps fractionally better (if such nuance is possible here) than Lanchester and the execrable Meek.
MEE youtube short – Massive strike and protest in Minneapolis – it looks like tens of thousands.
MEE again – another person killed in Minneapolis by ICE
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/A9zx_EuyY14
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01/24/us/minneapolis-shooting-ice
Bystander footage included in the NYT but longer:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/t4XpzhzEq_o
Keep filming people! Always.
Drop Site analysis of the second video
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/customs-border-patrol-agent-kills-minneapolis-nurse-video-analysis
It appears that ICE disarmed the man, then got him to the ground, then shot him. All while he was recording the entire time.
These clowns needs to be pulled back. They don’t know what they are doing and are now killing people for no reason.
Or they know exactly what they are doing, which I’m starting to believe is the case.
This is going to cause more people to open carry. And more people to defend themselves against IVE. Because now we know you will be executed even if you have been disarmed.
They’re not clowns, they’re cold-bloodied killers.
These are sadly not mutually exclusive.
These goons know damn well what they are doing, telling the agents that they don’t need a warrant to enter someone’s home and that they have “Absolute Immunity” from prosecution isn’t incitement?
GMAFB.
This is “Get in line or get hurt” to the populace at large
And reassurance to the goons, because this homicide investigation will also be done by Ka$h Patel’s FBI.
24 Days into the year…
Alas!
The results WE must see on our phones.
Folks
Keep filming and sharing.
There needs to be an acronym…
Or maybe not
re: Banal but brutal: Career anxiety is a driving force behind authoritarianism University of Copenhagen
sigh
a book review of ‘Making a Career in Dictatorship: The Secret Logic behind Repression and Coups’
“(…)
offers a surprising answer: it is not about fanaticism or sadism – but about the fear that one’s own career is stalling.
(…)
The book (…) is based on unique career data on 15,000 officers in the Argentine military, and it offers in-depth case studies on officers in Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Soviet Union and Jawara’s Gambia, as well as numerous historical pieces of evidence from other authoritarian regime around the world.
(…)”
And then in my view the ultimately damnening verdict:
“(…)
According to last year’s Nobel Laureate in Economics, James A. Robinson, it is “an intellectual milestone”.
(…)”
Aha. Milestone. Right.
And of course the review ends quoting the authors who talk about the ICE.
I always assumed that academic scholarship exists to point out something new. Something I cannot see on national news. Something not every high schooler will be writing an essay about by end of this year.
Since one of the authors is based in Germany:
How about explaining the behaviour of law enforcement in such stellar democracies as Germany, France or UK. How about explaining that those governments accepted black sites all over Europe. How about explaining 20k dead refugees crossing the sea. How about explaining that nobody dares to protest against governments any more. How about law enforcement of these role models of humanitarianism help enforce violation after violation of international law, of supporting genocide, of helping violate the parliamentarians´ obligation to seek peace.
How about explaining there is no popular resistance in any of our democracies even without police cracking down the way it did in those very very sublime examples named above. How about cracking that scholarly nut?
After all there is sooooo little research on this subject done by now. One really needs to look for it with a magnifying glass. But: It´s a milestone, dude.
Er, in the US at least, academics do research into questions they win grants for, the money to pay for the research. Because markets, etc…..
yes!
But it wasn´t always that way in Germania. We did have a respectable academic tradition before Bologna and all that horseshit… and in fact it has always been the research that would not serve the interests of power that would last.
Again to quote Chris Hedges: We created chairs for Holocaust Studies everywhere in the West only to realize that it meant nothing when it would matter most.
Same here: Spending an entire career on researching law enforcement in “autoritarian” states is good for what exactly?
See his CV
https://www.hertie-school.org/en/who-we-are/profile/person/glaessel
He can research whatever he wants to. I dont care. But when this kind of obvious approach to a topic becomes symptomatic in academia we have a problem.
This is the reason why we have no serious Russia Studies, no serious China Studies, no serious understanding of Latin America or Asia or Africa, especially not the Middle East, except some personalities and particular chairs that are still dedicated to independent inquiry. But we sure have stuff about the purges in Communism, about the EU, about minorities, about immigration, and we have about a trillion books on Holocaust and Israel.
Compare this to an edition I mentioned already, WESTERN STATE TERRORISM from 1991, edited by Alexander George. And that is nothing outlandish.
But you will find almost zero studies on such topics in Germany today accepted as highest academic research. Only outside academia. Why? It would be regarded as non-scientific. Simply because the ivory towers chose so.
This was different until the early 1990s. With the fall of the East, academic standards and the willingness to question oneself disappeared too.
Just another example: Germany´s major network for book reviews in historical science H/SOZ/KULT – which has about 20k book reviews archived – will never review a book that would prove that Israel is a genocidal state. It is simply a law of nature.
Maybe you remember Ilan Pappé´s “A History of Modern Palestine”. It got a review in 2005. It was the last review of a Pappé book there. The editorial board of H/SOZ/KULT seriously managed to find that one American historian to write a review who mocked Pappé.
I checked international reviews of Pappé´s book for an entire day. Almost every single historian hailed Pappé´s research. How is this possible?
Or take Nicolai Petro´s book about the history of Ukrainan nationalism “The Tragedy of Ukraine”. Petro is the Ukrainian historian of historian´s. He even has political credentials most German historians could only dream of. But do you think it got a review? I even wrote the editors to give it try. Of course I never got a response, and it was never reviewed while you have tons of books on the region reviewed due to the war naturellement. But those all serve the powers to be. What has that to do with independent scholarship?
Sorry for going off the rails a bit.
…have Gorbachev’s red blotch on his forehead and Trump’s red blotch on the back of his hand ever been seen together?
Are you adding anything to the comment section, or just using it as your personal blog?
It’s a personality test. Thanks for participating!
heh.
You must be new here…
It’s a rorschach test, Wuk’s brilliance (and humor) of mind is an easily acquired taste. Stick around if you can.
That´s like a Rorschach then?
(Am not acquainted enough with Trump´s hands. I am already blinded by his butiful haaair.)
Gosh, he is so sexy. It´s a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Melania compared to him looks like some rural Elvis impersonator from Valladolid. Secretly she must envy him like hell.
“Vai arrrr u so much prittia zan meeee.”
“It´s called megapretty now, babe. We gonna improve English too. Not only immigration.”
Not until Trump starts appearing in Pizza Hut commercials in Russia.
No need to be alarmist until then!
Gorby’s pension was probably in ashes by then, a guy’s gotta live!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rtxDl441Olw/
Yanis V. – Trump Wants You Distracted
Trump is clearly deteriorating rapidly as both the Greenland letter and his performance ( And the reaction to it) at Davos show.
SOTU is coming up and if Trump has a “Biden Moment” during his speech, which seems more likely than not, the 25th Amendment will be openly discussed.
If that happens Trump’s reaction is certain to be even more extreme than his behavior to date.
Chiming in to support the article saying that Venezuelan crude is not economical. This has been known for a long time. As the article points out, it is just recent reclassification that has made Venezuela sound like it has vast reserves. I wonder who stands to gain from this? It is so much cheaper to build solar cells or add better insulation to the house. As a society it would be hard to operate with no fossil fuel, but it wouldn’t be hard to cut back 50% or more.
This just in at the FT —
Trump threatens 100% tariffs on Canada if it seals trade deal with China
https://www.ft.com/content/cfba49b6-feb6-4982-b61d-6ec6cba5c845
No archived link yet.
‘Donald Trump has threatened to impose 100 per cent tariffs on Canada if it secures a trade deal with China just days after Mark Carney suggested the US was “rupturing” the world order.
‘In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president accused the Canadian prime minister of trying to make Canada a “drop off port” for Chinese goods. Trump threatened to reignite a trade war after months of détente. …’
etc.etc.etc
It’s quite something. If you wanted to instantly make allies for China and turn the rest of the world and all former allies against the US, you couldn’t do more or better than Trump is doing. What a pathological moron.
A funny thing about these is that the threat to withhold trade privileges (and taking hostages) was a common tactic used by Qing China in the run-up to the (First) Opium War. The specific incident that preceded the opening shots of the war involved the Chinese forbidding trade until the British (and other foreigners) sign a pledge that they have not and will not be involved in the opium trade. Many traders, even the British, were willing to sign it as they were not and did not plan on being involved in the opium trade, but they were forbidden from doing so by the British government. But as time went on, many grew desperate and were willing to take a chance with the pledge. In November, 1839, a British merchant ship, the Royal Saxon, tried to sail into the Canton harbor against the British orders, at which time a pair of British warships intercepted it. Several old fashioned Chinese warships sailed out to intervene, only to be overpowered and swept away by the British and the war was in the way.
The analogous party to Qing China now, in a sense, is the US: with exaggerated sense of the leverage granted by trade access–but then, even in 1839, the Chinese weren’t wrong about their leverage. The difference, for now, is that in 1839, when their bluff was seemingly called, eg British merchant ships beginning to buckle, the British were willing to use military force to enforce its will–and the Chinese were weak enough, without having realized how weak they were and how willing the British were to use force in response–to be curb stomped. Are we there yet, or, how quickly will we get there?
hk: A funny thing about these is that the threat to withhold trade privileges (and taking hostages) was a common tactic used by Qing China in the run-up to the (First) Opium War.
The parallels between Qing Dynasty China and the Trump era US very frequently occur to me, in fact.
hk: …the Chinese were weak enough, without having realized how weak they were … to be curb stomped. Are we there yet, or, how quickly will we get there?
Much nearer than the fools in Washington appreciate. In 2026, for instance, as near as the capability to engineer another plague like COVID, for which attribution would be effectively impossible and the technology exists globally.
A lot of automotive manufacturing capacity in Ontario adjunct to US Detroit industry. Canada can use these facilities to manufacture Chinese EV’s. If they really wanted to engage in a trade war they could also withhold oil product flowing to the US.
The last few years, the provincial and federal governments were throwing cash at car manufacturers and suppliers to establish or expand EV and battery production here in Ontario. All this with the province in particular pushing hard to open mining in northern Ontario for metals used in batteries. (And of course, running roughshod over the concerns of First Nations in the area.)
Would be very funny if any of those efforts ended up in the hands of the Chinese. Especially after the ginned up “Chinese election interference” brouhaha kicked off by a former head of the national intelligence agency chilled relations.
Trump may threaten 100% tariffs on Canada – except for Canadian oil – at which point Canada should impose a 100% export tax.
They might have to since it was clear from the get go that Trump wanted to relocate all auto industry from Canada in the US. As if then Canadians would rush to buy American cars…
Bessent pans Carney, cheers on Albertan separatism amid growing US-Canada rift
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/23/scott-bessent-canada-alberta-independence-00743947
Iranian riots coming to a Canadian province near you? Maybe Canada should check with China and Russia about how to block Starlinks.
This is completely astonishing to watch. You’re suppose to build up your key allies, not wreck them. Who needs worry about what Russia or China will do at this point?
You’re suppose to build up your key allies, not wreck them.
How many allies does the USA still have in real terms rather than on paper?
More evidence for the “haves vs have-nots” gap ever widening in the auto market, with higher end brands doing good sales while the “affordable” end of the market stagnates or shrinks: (Jan 2026) Cox Automotive: New-Vehicle Inventory Contracts as Industry Enters Pivotal 2026
So the fastest sellers are cars that are on the expensive end, while the cheaper cars are sitting and stagnating on lots unsold the longest. Ouch.
And average sale prices keeps going up, best sellers being the $75K and up bracket:
adding: looks like I won my bet with myself wrt Walter. And the show was going so well until the last 15-20 minutes. sigh….
From Scientists reveal the impact of air pollution on the human body
Parallels to SARS-CoV-2 here
It is always kind of amusing to see people not mask during wildfires. I don’t think people understand just how dangerous things that you inhale can be, or that you’re inhaling dangerous stuff all the time and maybe we should try to limit that somehow…
RE: Jazz fans and boning
Don’t worry folks. Jazz music sales are less than 2% of total music sales in the US. Most folks in the US couldn’t describe the Jazz beat if it was pound on their skull. (I know music teachers that don’t understand the basics of Jazz rhythm.) Infidelity is not going to overwhelm US society.
The music of unemployment, sayeth Frank.
So, how does Jazz Odyssey by Spinal Tarp fit into this?
Spinal Taps’ Jazz Odyssey is hard rockers attempting jazz. It ain’t got that thing that makes Jazz swing.
When I think of Jazz in my head, the first beat that comes to mind is that Art Blakey classic. He could sure swing.
Drop Site news has video of latest shooting in Twin Cities
https://xcancel.com/DropSiteNews
Some commentary and analysis by Ryan Grim. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmG2Dgtp29w&t=28s
F-in brutal. It looks like they straight up murdered the dude because he was taking video with his phone. He did resist, but he appeared to be unarmed. If you dare resist the masked, no ID, knuckle-draggers you will get a clip unloaded in you at point blank. Looks similar to what settlers do to Palestinians on the WB.
A fun trip down memory lane:
It looks like “many” people in Japan are on top of things. 15 years is not even the blink of an eye when it comes to radioactive decay timelines.
For that matter, how in the world are they now going to have human operators at the Fukushima site? The place was practically glowing in the dark in the aftermath of the meltdown. Recall that even robots couldn’t get anywhere near the thing before they immediately malfunctioned.
Evidently Japanese authorities are counting on this being the stupidest timeline.
“Evidently Japanese authorities are counting on this being the stupidest timeline.”
IMO, doesn’t appear to be any current govt leadership that’s not.
That’s the Niigata plant. Fukushima is being decommissioned.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20260122_18/
RE allegations UnitedHealth gave incentives to nursing homes to not transfer vulnerable patients to the hospital article, it is from May 2025. There is a more recent and troubling follow-up article from Dec. 2025. article “UnitedHealth reduced hospitalizations for nursing home seniors. Now it faces wrongful death claims.”
Article points out the conflict of interest of having one’s provider (Optum Health) being employed by a division of one’s insurance company and much more. In my experience the level of nursing home doctor care is mostly symptomatic and at the level of a cruise ship doctor. Doctors have only limited familiarity with a patient’s medical issues, their wishes and their families. There is a bias in these places for death. The article mentions the accuracy of death certificates which is a problem. Because the economic losses of killed or injured seniors are usually small, contingent paid malpractice lawyers are reluctant to take them on, removing a potential protection for bad care. There is also the so-called Medicare put whereby any award needs to be offset by giving back to Medicare and private insurers any expenses provided secondary to malpractice.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/dec/17/unitedhealth-nursing-homes
Michael Parenti has died.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/world-mourns-michael-parenti–marxist-voice-against-empire-d
Oh my, thank you! I’ve hung on many of a word of his.
he traced intervention, sanctions, and regime change to material interests: control over resources, labor, strategic territory, and global markets. He showed how human rights discourse is selectively deployed, how compliant client states are shielded from scrutiny, and how resistance is pathologized as extremism.
Sounds pretty current.
My favorite book was Power and the Powerless. My fellow engineer and I read the whole thing out loud while on a job site
Was about to do a double post, fortunately I checked.
Thanks…
ps. His son Christian Parenti caused some debate recently.
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/how-wokeness-kills-class-politics
Don´t know Chris Parenti´s latest stuff though.
https://media.defense.gov/2026/Jan/23/2003864773/-1/-1/0/2026-NATIONAL-DEFENSE-STRATEGY.PDF/
They included an old time picture of a map showing native-looking people working in fields.
Much of it a rehash of things already said.
This little line jumped out as an issue not really heard about:
“We will also ensure that U.S. forces have access to the electromagnetic spectrum required to defend
the Homeland.”
cover looks like computer game or a satirical “New Rome” mini-series
“CREEPY: Ice Agent tells citizen observer that she’s now a domestic terrorist on a LIST”
https://www.bitchute.com/video/YhwUe5I1A3RV (19 secs)
Real Brownshirt behaviour. ‘Ve know vere you live.’
The Trump DC regime thinks the Minneapolis protests are like its regime change insurgency run in Oran since 28 Dec 2025.
Unlike Iran there is no one to stop Ukraine “intelligence” insurgents from entering US through Canada to shoot up both US civilian’s and ICE agents.
Trump Regime “agent provocateurs”…..
What happens when the list expands to include a majority of Americans?
There’s a reason for this behavior.
From Catherine Austin Fitts at Solari Report. utube, ~1+ minute.
Leadership Is Changing Framework for Law Enforcement—from Domestic Law to Laws That Apply to War
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fupe3JQ5wg
File under you can’t make this stuff up.
From Due Dissidence. utube, ~20+ minutes.
Trump Taps NETANYAHU For Gaza “BOARD OF PEACE”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61h4P-82iX8
Netanyahoo has always wanted peace, it’s just that we’re spelling peace wrong.
Schumer: Democrats will block spending bill if it includes Homeland Security funding
re: ICE
Doug Henwood´s good exchange with a dude from CATO
David Bier of the Cato Institute on what’s behind Trump’s war on immigrants
1st half of the show David Bier with a lot of data past and present
2nd half: the great Aurélie Daher on the state of Hezbollah and why Israel is bombing Lebanon
https://shout.lbo-talk.org/lbo/RadioArchive/2026/26_01_22.mp3
I think it’s important to see what happened after Alex Pretti was executed. Skip the first video if you don’t want to see a snuff film (I have not watched this one, but am guessing it shows the shooting). Do watch the second one. This happened a short walk from my home.
https://sahanjournal.com/immigration/ice-shooting-nicollet-avenue-minneapolis/
That’s some great on the ground reporting. Takes your breath away. Thanks.
WOW at the endless use of the term far right post the Bill Clinton era and Dems going Third-way … Corporatist Dems are far left lmmao ~~~
Were right back to square one about evolution vs religion …. the Dems sin[tm] is they are not 100% on board with the feral notion that some are chosen by divine right or the right DNA. Not that Ethiopian Jews are viewed these days as tainting the European blood line or anything.
So where does reality really sit … lots of mindless ideological PR rhetoric or actions that strongly suggest the underlining agenda. I mean today we have Americans executing other Americans in broad daylight for just observing or not complying with random authoritarian orders which might breach constitutional rights – hard to litigate from the grave thingy …
Employed – With a Disability, 16 Years and over
Has mooned. 8,460 in December.
That back ground toxicity does have a propensity to catch up in future generations, no society in history regardless of ideology has figured that out yet. Its still the same as it was back in the day, when some figured out stuff, you could not see with the naked eye was what made people sick and not ill winds or making some deity angry. That is why in human[?] history there has been huge die offs and then expansion again once they had ample resources and some social construct to utilize them for a growth period. Then the wars start as they bump into each-other.
Now the consumers[tm] are fighting over the last scraps between each-other over status. Not saying the East is utopia but the internal dynamic in the West is cray cray – historically this amount of pressure on the unwashed makes things go pop and its a self reinforcing loop.
PS first rule of any fight is not to get hit ….