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Links 1/26/2026

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Unearthing What Archaeologists Can and Cannot Know Sapiens

Nearly a third of kids can’t use books when starting school – and try to swipe them like phones Sky News

Text is king Experimental History

Climate/Environment

Post-Storm Freeze to Test US Power Grids as Demand Surges Bloomberg

The big freeze Intellinews

The Koreas

US, South Korea agree to deepen cooperation on nuclear-powered subs, Seoul says Channel News Asia

China?

China’s Top General Accused of Giving Nuclear Secrets to U.S. WSJ

PLA purges intensify: Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli under investigation Sinocism

Like a Drifter, He was Born to Walk Alone China Articles

India

The Great Dispossession and the Battle for the Future of Food  Countercurrents

India, EU move closer to ‘mother of all deals’ as trade talks gain urgency amid global shifts Channel News Asia

Syraqistan

The Trump ‘Board of Peace’ excludes Palestine and Resistance states while drawing in the BRICS contingent. Vanessa Beeley and Fiorella Isabel

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Leaked: MI6 Infiltrated ISIS Refugee Camps Kit Klarenberg

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How Iraq’s oil sector is emerging as battleground for Russia, US Amwaj

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Ongoing lawsuit between American and British info warfare contractors sheds light on scale of covert operations against Iran All-Source Intelligence

Meet The Single, Shady Source Behind Time Magazine’s Claim That Iran Killed 30,000 Protestors. The Dissident

US Air Force to begin Middle East exercise amid Iran tensions Al Arabiya

Saudi Arabia to scale back flagship NEOM project: report The New Arab

O Canada

Carney says Canada not pursuing free trade deal with China as Trump threatens 100% tariffs CNBC

Old Blighty

AI job cuts are landing hardest in UK, Morgan Stanley says The Straits Times

London sky goes grey: Soaring energy prices bring back firewood in chimneys in UK homes Firstpost

Who really rules Britain? Democracy for Sale

European Disunion

Report Says the E.U. Is Gearing Up to Weaponize Europe’s Tech Industry Against the U.S. Gizmodo

EU-US: agreement on the private data of all Europeans Il Fatto Quotidiano (translation via GeoPolitiQ)

New Not-So-Cold War

Ukraine war nearing its end? No peace deal yet, but Kyiv upbeat after trilateral talks Firstpost

AT WHAT POINT, CAPITULATION OF THE KIEV REGIME?  CAN PRESIDENT TRUMP AND GENERAL GRYNKEWICH  SAVE IT John Helmer

Has Russia Finally Begun Disconnecting Ukraine’s Nuclear Plants? Simplicius

Aliyev Choked on Chutzpah or Why Azerbaijan Will Have to Be Bombed Marat Khairullin

The Great Game

CRINK encirclement: Trump efforts at a Eurasian middle belt to check Beijing, Moscow et al Intellinews

South of the Border

Venezuela’s Acting President Rodríguez Highlights Push for Oil Reform for Sovereignty and Social Welfare TeleSUR

Resisting the Empire Next Door, Protests in Mexico Grow Truthout

Trump 2.0

The commenters won Read Max

Trump’s Energy Policy Backfires as Consumer Bills Soar OilPrice

Exclusive: In secret recordings, Cruz trashes Trump tariffs, Vance Axios

Shutdown

Second fatal Minneapolis shooting puts Congress on verge of shutdown The Hill

Democrats en déshabillé

Democrats vote to hand Trump hundreds of billions for immigration crackdown and global war WSWS. From Thursday, but should be remembered as Democrats now try to fundraise off most recent Minnesota killing.

Police State Watch

Labor Leaders Mourn Alex Prettii as General Strike Calls Build Payday Report

The People’s Weapon, Wargames, and Minnesota Escalation Un-Diplomatic

Minnesota business leaders urge leaders to de-escalate tensions in the state KEYC

Obamas call Minneapolis shooting ‘Wake‑up call,’ urging accountability and de‑escalation MEAWW. Obligatory reminder that Obama was integral in making ICE into what it is today.

Monopoly Round-Up: Why ICE Polices in Minnesota, and Not the Corporate Board Room BIG by Matt Stoller

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Border Patrol chief praises agents who killed Alex Pretti Axios

Trump Admin Warns FEMA Not to Talk About “Ice” in Winter Storm Because They’re Scared People Will Use the Clips to Make Fun of ICE Futurism

Big Brother Is Watching You Watch

‘Kill Switch’ for Cars Approved by House Republicans: Full List Newsweek

The Uniparty

House boosts military budget as Pentagon extends failed audit streak to 30 years Stephen Semler

The Golden Dome ProblemThe After-Action Report

Imperial Collapse Watch

Strategic Blindness Simon Pearce

Accelerationists

Billionaire-backed ‘California Forever’ signs largest construction labor deal ever East Bay Times

The New Eugenics in Medicine MedPage Today

Healthcare?

Something to Take From Greenland HEALTH CARE un-covered

Economy

Markups From the Demand and the Supply Side Homo Economicus

AI

Louisville, Kentucky, joins growing number of cities bringing AI to permitting Construction Dive. What could go wrong?

US Senator proposes bill permitting AI data centers to bypass federal power rules via off-grid energy infrastructure development Data Center Dynamics

Leidos, OpenAI deploying AI to transform federal operations PR Newswire

The Bezzle

It Turns Out Crypto’s Stablecoin Adoption is Around 1% of Previous Estimates Gizmodo

Class Warfare

Are banks more dangerous than nukes? Julian MacFarlane

Tujuh Turunan: Long-Time Thinking for a Burning World Hilmar Farid

On Treasure Island, One Grocer and a Patchwork of Neighbors Keep People Fed San Francisco Public Press

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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100 comments

  1. Mark Gisleson

    I follow election cycles very closely. For the life of me I cannot begin to figure out what “Voltage” is referencing when they say that the demands for voter registration data are part of a Republican effort to ‘something something’ the 2026 off-year elections.

    I have not read of any accusations of GOP vote rigging (other than gerrymandering) in years. Not since the neocons switched parties and took their voting machines with them to the neoliberal-controlled Democrat party. To say that getting to see the books is an attempt at election-rigging is frankly outrageous.

    The Ken Martin led DNC’s game plan is becoming quite obvious: chaos, followed by more chaos and lots of shouty stuff. It’s clear they intend to go full 9/11 24/7. No discusssions, just rage.

    Nothing gets better until voters seize control of one of the duopoly parties. GOP gets to do that automatically when they select post-Trump candidates but neoliberals changed all their party rules so that only they get to be in charge. Nothing on the D side gets better until their leadership is purged and the rules are revised to again permit the D base to participate in party decision making.

    Never think that Ken Martin is a better person than Donald Trump. Ken Martin was running Minnesota’s DFL the whole time the state was getting ripped off by Somali fraudsters. The DFL is every bit as top down ‘shut up and do as we say’ as the DNC.

    If I was trying to dream up an ideal scenario for the GOP to win big this fall, it would look a lot like what we’re seeing right now. The fake liberals are going to double down (with your money) until everything is broken and the fake news media is behind them 100%.

    Voltage’s avatar, btw, is the DOGE dog and lists NAFO in their profile.

    1. t

      To say that getting to see the books is an attempt at election-rigging is frankly outrageous.

      The plan is to use the data to build an enemies list and target the enemies.

      Crosscheck had to rely on addresses and last names to illegally purge non-whites and likely Dems. Figure out which polling stations to close.

      Never mind that the request is not legal and asking the state to violate the rights of their registered voters.

      I would be fired for being in the same room when someone floated the idea of misusing personal information and this that is smugly flouting the law and basic decency. (While the power that be have a bot blitzkrieg insiting that that she never said anything about voter rolls.)

      1. curlydan

        Good points. Further to that, any request for a “list” of voters, aid recipients, tax filer addresses, etc is likely an attempt at name-address matching. That is, take a list of targets then try and name and address match versus an external list. I’ve seen this tried in corporate initiatives for years. The _best_ name and address matching result possible I’ve seen is about 80%-85%. In other words, whatever targeting is occurring will have at least a 15% error rate but likely closer to 20%-25%. This is happening in ICE all the time… they simply get the wrong person but still bust in that person’s window, terrorize the family, etc.

        1. ChatET

          The data mining for identifying illegal voter registrations is highly suspect. They did it in a lot of southern states since GWB’s term using felon’s names from other states, the false positives are just a feature. You forgot about the send a card to each voters registered address with a note saying to return the card if the registration is valid. The cards look like junk mail and are easily discarded. The Republicans will challenge your ballot if you don’t return the card. The Republicans only win by scamming and tilting the rules in their favor.

      2. flora

        Or, it could be an attempt to verify voter eligibility, aka citizenship, of people on the rolls.

        Not that I agree with Bondi’s demand. I don’t agree with her demand at all. And I doubt she wants it only to verify voter eligibility. It makes the ICE raid look like an extortion tactic: Nice city ya got there, be a shame if something happened to it. / my 2 cents.

        From the Brennan Center, last year.

        https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/tracker-justice-department-requests-voter-information

      3. scott s.

        <"Never mind that the request is not legal and asking the state to violate the rights of their registered voters."

        We are in court now in Hawaii to determine the legality of NOT providing information which the state claims is "personal information".

    2. ChatET

      Can you put more dog whistles in your message? I grew up in DJT’s backyard, the dude is pure evil, uses everyone for his own benefit, I know people who have been screwed by him personally, for you to say that Ken Martin is not a better person than Trump reeks of pure disillusionment and seriously questions your moral compass. Is Ken Martin all over the Epstein files? Did he buy a pageant so that he can see the young girls in the dressing room? Did he talk about grabbing them by the p***y? Ken Martin is ethically light years ahead of DJT as many are.

      1. Gulag

        ChatET:

        Always keep in mind the following insight from Schopenhauer (The World as Will):

        “The World is my idea–this is the truth that holds good for everything that lives and knows…it then becomes clear and certain to him that what he knows is not a sun and an earth but only an eye that sees a sun, a hand that feels the earth; that the world that surrounds him is there only as idea, idea only in relation to something else…”

        His insight that we only experience reality as a lens of our limited mind’s eye helps to keep me humble—at least some of the time!

      2. Mark Gisleson

        Your comment is a classic example of Trump Derangement Syndrome. My comments stem from the frustration of having been a life long Democrat party activist and campaign worker who believes with all his heart that the real problem right now is not Donald Trump, it’s the inability of the Democrat party base to purge itself of incompetent neoliberal “leadership” that has lost four out of seven presidential elections in this century without once holding themselves accountable. Why do these LOSERS get to pick the candidates?

        Get rid of Trump and almost nothing gets solved. Get rid of the leadership of the Democrat party and this country might have half a chance of surviving. How many times do voters have to tell Democrat leadership that they’d really truly rather have the turd sandwich than more of the same neoliberal crap?

        Do not think that everyone who disagrees with you supports Trump or is some kind of tool. It’s insulting and counterproductive. Hmm, you might be a neoliberal!

    3. scott s.

      So, it couldn’t be that election officials are violating NVRA by withholding information from the public, including political party organizations?

      Confidence that voter rolls are accurate seems like an obvious need for any democratic process, in particular when all mail-in balloting is used. That so many Ds, and apparently commenters here, view accuracy as unneeded I find troubling. Mark Gisleson, thanks for your comment, though I am unaware of how neoliberals changed their (I assume this is a reference to RNC) party rules. I searched out a copy of the 1972 rules and in the main I don’t see extensive differences, although the 1972 rules did have requirements for state and district conventions which are no longer in the current rules. But current (adopted at 2024 national convention) rules 15 and 16 do prescribe the award and binding of delegates to the national convention.

  2. The Rev Kev

    ‘Ivan Katchanovski
    @I_Katchanovski
    ““Fascist Battalion”: French neo-Nazis are fighting in Ukraine. Featuring SS symbols and swastika tattoos: A unit of French neo-Nazis is reportedly recruiting soldiers to fight alongside the Ukrainian army.’

    Yeah. Everything old is new again. In the final Battle of Berlin, you had the French SS Charlemagne unit fighting on behalf of their fellow Nazis-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJpWB5hi3hQ (12:02 mins)

    2. Bugs

      Eliminates some potential members of Marine’s updated version of the Milice française. I can’t imagine the Gendarmes signing up for a job like that but the CRS has always attracted that sort.

      I used to think the European hard right was mostly nasty talk about immigrants and would be incompetent in office. I don’t anymore. Trump has given us all a valuable lesson in steering around these people. If only French the left weren’t so stoopid and the center so bound to the wheel of a sinking economic ideology.

  3. none

    Voltage: “The mid-term elections are 8 months away, which is not allot of time if the goal is to manipulate the 2026 elections nation-wide. They have to do to all of the swing states what they are doing in Minnesota right now if they have any hope of winning the mid-terms. ”

    Swing states are only for presidential years. In midterms there are close districts and close senate races, but not swing states per se. So it’s mostly a matter of localized disruption. Even in a presidential election, they just have to suppress voting in some Dem areas.

    1. ilsm

      Trump is in more “trouble” than Khameini!

      He and his MAGullahs portray democrats as domestic terrorists if they speak up and are in mortal danger from Trump’s untrained, radical paramilitary enforcers.

      The first amendment is the issue of 2026.

    2. The Rev Kev

      Hence ICE Barbie’s demand that Minnesota hand over their electoral rolls to the Federal government. It is not hard to work out how she can indulge in such behaviour. Trump has probably shown his entire Cabinet the pardons that he has written up for every one of them and all that it needs is his signature.

  4. The Rev Kev

    ‘Brian McDonald
    @27khv
    Update to the American who sailed to Russia for a woman he met online, and ended up in jail: Russian outlet Mash says the woman from Kazan barely knew him.
    According to her, the 60-year-old had followed her on social media since 2022, left compliments, then got jealous in 2024 and started messaging obsessively. She blocked him. He then bought a yacht, crossed the Atlantic, and showed up anyway.’

    Just goes to show you that there is no fool like an old fool. He was obviously thinking with the wrong head.

    2. JohnnySacks

      Obviously no idea how the Russian mail order bride citizenship game is played. Goodbye fool, hello Brighton Beach!

    3. Sam Culotte

      No details on the Kazan woman so a couple of assumptions here: Very young, steeped in Russian culture, and not much English. Being pursued by an old, gun-toting, English-speaking, obsessive American.

      I’ve got reassuring news for the ignorant fool. It wouldn’t have worked out anyway, bud.

  5. Revenant

    Re French neo-Nazis in the Ukraine:

    ‘According to Streetpress, the author of this comment is a French neo-Nazi from Lyon who goes by the pseudonym “Kenneth”‘.

    [Snigger]

    1. ilsm

      Outside Neo Nazis have been going on “combat safari” to Donbas since the Kievans began shelling Donetz in 2014.

      This past summer Kievan artillery was pushed back and Donetz city is out of atry range, still get an occasional US supplied strike by drone or JASSM.

      1. pjay

        In my dreams, we send all those ICE agents who think and behave as brownshirts on “combat safari” to the Donbass front lines to see if their experience resembles ‘Call of Duty.’

  6. Roland Chrisjohn

    Dr. Parenti’s work has been an ongoing, integral part of our program (“History as Mystery” is standard reading for our students). I met him once when I sponsored him to speak at our university and am greatly saddened by his passing. Naiwen.

  7. .human

    Border Patrol chief praises agents who killed Alex Pretti

    Why isn’t this hate speech? /rhetorical

    1. Carolinian

      Divide and conquer works on the “it’s OK if we do it” principle. The prob for the Trumpies is that their side of the divide is shrinking fast.

        1. Adam1

          “They said federal agents had stopped, along with local residents, some off-duty police officers “for no cause” and asked them to prove their citizenship.”

          It’s only a matter of time before they shoot an off-duty officer. Shit will really hit the fan then.

  8. AG

    re: Germany crisis & Ukraine

    BERLINER ZEITUNG:

    Former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder wrote a long piece as a critical review of the recent decades urging to change course.

    It includes a few not very radical suggestions re: Russia (diplomacy, cooperation, end to arming Ukraine) – only a fraction of the entire piece – outrage came as expected.

    Schröder´s piece in the BERLINER ZEITUNG
    use google-translate

    Gerhard Schröder: “I am worried about the future of our country.”

    The former chancellor considers Germany’s business model outdated. He warns against rearmament, criticizes “censorship networks,” and advocates cooperation with Russia.
    https://archive.is/1EtQ1

    Briefly writing about the outrage, Harald Neuber:

    Schröder’s guest article in the Berliner Zeitung provokes strong reactions from Ukraine and Estonia
    Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna accuses Gerhard Schröder of dividing Europe with his statements on Russia. The accusation stems from a guest article in the Berliner Zeitung.
    https://archive.is/zTMWO

    p.s. I can´t stand “Estonia” no more. To repeat it: That entire Micky Mouse place got a third of Berlin´s population. I think we got more jobless than Estonia citizens…

  9. ilsm

    Thirty years of failed audits, a few trillion in war profits.

    Strategic Defense Initiative, appropriately labeled Star Wars is a long running, massive boondoggle from the onset! Lots of money made, not much defense resulting.

    I have participated in several Star Wars programs, it did upgrade all the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System radar sites to much more modern technology, SW and HW advances over the 1960’s. In theory they can track basketball sized targets.

    Can they cue a missile to hit it??

    As to Ground Based Midcourse Defense (GMD)! That 3-stage rocket has a kill vehicle on top which should never have been built! Trump wants to put a number of silos in big beautiful Greenland!

    The problem with Star Wars is the kill chain for any event has hundreds of points of error and/or malfunction…. tests are totally scripted and if time is critical a no test does not stop the next progress payment!

    The offense’s kill chain also had a lot of points of failure so sometimes it looks like Iron Dome works.

    While the Trump supporting media would have you believe 14 B-2 were on mission at once! Their reliability must have exploded!

    Boeing’s, etc bottom line is the main object of Star Wars!

    Now we have Golden Dome, an unauditable dividend spewing boondoggle.

    1. The Rev Kev

      When Trump attacked Nigeria, it turned out that a quarter of the missiles that were sent failed to work properly ie. they were duds.

      1. ilsm

        For US Navy sea launched cruise missiles I saw one raid had 40% fail to complete the mission. Maybe a bit high.

        One cause of faults in missiles traveling around in launchers is the movements can cause slight damage to components.

        For air to air missiles, they are assumed inoperative after XX flights on the pylon.

        Those destroyers rock and roll in the seas.

        1. scott s.

          <"One cause of faults in missiles traveling around in launchers is the movements can cause slight damage to components."

          Umm, do you really think that wasn't considered? There is a need to replace the jet fuel on occasion. The boosters do need to be managed, though I'm unaware of any reported booster failure.

    2. GC54

      Meanwhile we have the mysterious Black Budget. What/who have they been making/doing/faking/bribing for decades with all those ??trillion?$ ? So many $1000 toilets in the ledger to address some threat we are not privy to that seems far beyond what the Manhattan Project confronted.

    3. JohnnySacks

      Any enemy with half a brain, modest technical resources, and a source of quality missiles has figured out how to beat that crap already anyways. Hit us with swarms of cheap expendable incoming noise drones and bottle rocket level missiles with a few real ones in the mix. Iran will be the bridge too far – our navy in the Persian Gulf is basically a fish food delivery service.

  10. Adam1

    “Trump’s Energy Policy Backfires as Consumer Bills Soar”
    The administrations gutting of the IRA was just dumb. Even if you wanted to bring back fossil fuel generation the planning turn around time is long and yet energy demand is very high right now. So all they did was increase the gap by slowing and stopping renewable generation which was much further down the planning and build-out road. Cut your nose off despite your face.

    1. MicaT

      Yes true. I can’t find the exact increases but it was going up under Biden too.
      All of the project cancelations won’t be felt for a few years.

      I’m curious about how much the increases are due to export of LNG driving up domestic NG prices. The largest % of electricity is from
      NG and then of course all the home and industrial heating. I haven’t been able to find any numbers on that. Would seem logical that it’s had a big impact on prices.

  11. Steve H.

    > Text is king Experimental History

    Contraindicator, via Ian Welsh:

    Mass market paperback books are being phased out and will soon be discontinued. Publishers Weekly reported that ReaderLink, the largest distributor of hardcover, trade, and paperback books to booksellers in North America, stopped distributing mass market paperbacks at the end of 2025.

    1. jsn

      Market metrics don’t address issues of cultural reproduction. No doubt marketing and administered pipeline can boost book sales for some time.

      Look at what get published and sold at those independent book stores and, well, I haven’t found a book I’m interested in at a bookstore in a decade and a half.

      Alibris ends up my bookstore, does anyone have a better online book source when you can’t get it directly from the publisher.

      2. cyclist

        Alibris has some connection to Amazon, which I have been avoiding. You might want to try Thriftbooks and Better World Books (and there are a few others).

        1. jsn

          I remember reading a while back someone had bought Alibris, which I use to avoid Amazon, thanks for the other sources!

  12. mrsyk

    Good morning, thinking of fellow readers in the storm zone, and hope you are all waking up to a manageable day.
    My weather app says I have received 19 inches of precipitation in the last 24 hours. This looks to have settled to about 14 inches of dense, heavy, dry snow of a fine granular consistency, similar to sand.
    This morning I hope to clear the woodpiles, shovel paths to the woodpiles, compost and utility sheds, shovel the cat paths, shovel a “snow apron” against the two windward exterior sides of the camp, shovel the car park and clear the car.
    Stay warm, abolish ice!

      1. curlydan

        A corollary to “The Revolution will not be Televised” is “The Snowpocalypse will not be Forecasted”…

    2. LaRuse

      We got very lucky in that the air stayed cold enough to keep the precipitation as sleet until about 5pm yesterday, rather than bringing us freezing rain as early as 9am yesterday. As such, we have a couple inches of very dense sleet/snow on the ground, and roads and surfaces are lousy, but the powerlines and trees are just glazed and power outages are minimal. We had a sudden burst of beautiful, giant snowflakes about an hour ago, and since then, the snow quit and the sun looks like it might try and come out.
      Hope everyone else is faring as well.

    3. ilsm

      Tx.

      Southern New Hampshire about 20 inches of snow! It was cold and the snow is low moisture level. But there is a lot of snow!! Biggest snowstorm in maybe 10 years here.

      I have got the driveway cleared and the outside cars cleaned of snow. I have a path to the wood pile and a path for the oil deliverer to do. I use mostly snowblower being a bit long in the tooth so to speak to do all the shoveling. I like to shovel some places!

      Winter wonderland!

      1. mrsyk

        Still snowing here. I feel bad for the millions of people who lost power. It’s manageable here and profoundly beautiful. Fifteen inches and counting.

  13. Carolinian

    Re Text is King

    Fact #2: reading has already survived several major incursions, which suggests it’s more appealing than we thought. Radio, TV, dial-up, Wi-Fi, TikTok—none of it has been enough to snuff out the human desire to point our pupils at words on paper.

    Perhaps the doomsayers should remember why writing was invented in the first place: it’s more efficient than the oral tradition that preceded it. I’d much rather read the instructions for a new gizmo than twiddle my thumbs through the Youtube version.

    That said books on paper may indeed be doomed since the digital versions are in turn more efficient than having to lug home some of those ten pound library coffee table books with their glossy clay coated paper.

    Technology is as prey to social fads as anything else but in the end practicality tends to win. It’s almost Darwinian.

    1. JM

      Digital is only more efficient as long as a complex chain of infrastructure is in place and working to a certain degree. I suspect physical books are becoming more popular in Ukraine, for example. And as US power grids continue to degrade, ebooks are likely not going to be the priority.

      1. Carolinian

        Reading them by candlelight?

        And the world will still be awash with paper books from over the ages. Many are at my library’s used book store for $1 ($2 hardcover).

      2. NotThePilot

        Digital is only more efficient as long as a complex chain of infrastructure is in place and working to a certain degree.

        Very true, and there’s actually another very basic inefficiency that’s largely kept me using paper books: it’s hard to beat flipping physical pages once you aren’t reading in a perfect, linear sequence.

        It’s funny too because I really want to like e-readers: save trees and space, share things quickly, text search, sync to your computer, etc. Maybe I just need to give the latest-gen readers a chance. Every time I’ve tried one before though, it felt kind of painful to use, and I found myself wishing I could either just thumb pages or work on a text file with a full keyboard.

  14. The Rev Kev

    “London sky goes grey: Soaring energy prices bring back firewood in chimneys in UK homes”

    No doubt Starmer will make the burning of firewood in urban areas illegal because it is not good for the environment. Not sorry though that the UK has banned the use of domestic coal only two years ago. I still remember getting off a ferry at Dover and you could smell the sweetish smell of coal in the air and Dover was not that large a town at the time.

      1. jsn

        Brexit, adding tariffs to common market energy costs & Russian sanctions eliminating gas supply to the continent putting general pressure on energy costs across Europe.

    2. Revenant

      It already is illegal, in towns!

      Most urban areas are smoke control zones and most wood burners do not meet the latest (recently increased) standards. But nobody from the local authority audits (how could they without powers of entry, especially because people light fires mainly at night).

      I live in an expensive part of town, on the edge of the city centre, the countryside and the University campus. All the big detached houses around me have had a woodburner going on winter nights since the SMO began.

      The nanny brigade have been increasing their bleating about PM10, PM25 emissions and chanting about scary relative risk increases in disease but the absolute risk is zilch going to double zilch…. They should be far more concerned about the coronavirus pandemic damaging the population’s respiratory health.

      I don’t miss the smell of coal either, Rev, but it was very useful for our solid fuel Rayburn. And Britain is still full of the stuff. I suspect we will be digging it up in years to come, to burn in supercritical coal plants like the Chinese, in order to have energy security.

      The spouse and botanist inlaws are very nostalgic for the smell of peat on the fire, despite the environmental catastrophe they know it represents.

      NB: the UK has the world’s largest plutonium stock and apparently we just adopted a plan to “destroy” it by physically admixing it in some way. That 100 tonnes would go a very long way to energy and national security!

        1. Revenant

          Who knows but a failure any time soon is baked in now and can’t be dodged and a failure later does not exist because everybody has too high a mental discount rate….

          In practice, it would change agriculture in NW Europe. The arable growing season would be short. Pastoral systems would gave to operate at lower stocking density because of a lower through-year carrying capacity. Horticulture / orchards would be hardest hit, certain things are too tender. The biggest issue might be what the loss of AMOC does to a Mediterranean climate. Southern Europe might resemble the Ukraine climatically (mild coastal Crimea, severe continental interior).

    1. The Rev Kev

      What happens if Trump publishes a long list of countries who are not allowed to come to the US to see the World Cup? That will put a large crimp on people wanting to go to the US. And those that come will not be treated as guests but as potential security threats.

  16. AG

    To me the antidote somehow doesn´t look real…
    that jumping cat? Blurry background would make it easy to add it.

    2. Mikel

      I imagine if people look at that fake stuff enough, they’ll get used to it.

      Go on YouTube and other places and ask who is really being trained: the algorithms or the people watching/reading/listening.

  17. ex-PFC Chuck

    Throwing out an hypothesis here. The recent ICE raids around the country are not fundamentally about immigrants. Their communities just happen to be the targets of opportunity. The impetus behind the raids is not the personal animosity of Trump and the goons with which he has surrounded himself, although there seems to be plenty of that. Rather it is Plan B of the Zionists of the donor class to which they have fallen back upon since the more above-board public relations diversions of the American public’s attention from the atrocities of Gaza have not worked. It has succeeded marvelously in diverting the American public’s attention. But it is also accustoming the public to assaults on the civil liberties supposedly enshrined in the bill of Rights of our Constitution. A tell supporting this hypothesis is the lengths to which the inner Democratic party went to in order to assure that the recent ICE funding increase was passed by the House while covering their tracks. The first and foremost “must” of the Democratic inner party is to keep the funding faucets open.

      1. pjay

        Things are really getting crazy when I find myself agreeing with the Morning Joe hosts – let alone Anne f-ing Applebaum! But this segment is actually pretty powerful. Especially potent, and chilling, was the picture of Pretti on his hands and knees with the ICE agent pointing a gun to his back moments before executing him. I had not seen that picture before; they kept it on the screen for a while. It should be posted far and wide. The hosts did not hold back on the dangers of such impunity and the blatant lies of the administration. Applebaum’s comments on the purposeful use of fear by these thugs were spot on as well.

        1. Oregon Lawhobbit

          And then only one small step to making sure that ICE officers carry an extra firearm or two just in case the criminal being executed was too rude to bring one of his own.

          Sharing is caring. /s

  18. Earl

    Rep. John James was the only Michigan GOP representative to vote for the kill switch bill. James a one-term congressman, is running for Michigan governor this year and is leading the GOP primary polls. Rep. Debbie Dingle, a Dem, and consistent auto industry advocate voted no.

  19. Mikel

    ‘Kill Switch’ for Cars Approved by House Republicans: Full List – Newsweek

    FFS…that reads terribly for a headline for this story.

    “The House vote signals substantial Republican support for curbing any move toward mandated impaired-driving prevention systems, but not enough to pass such legislation.”

    The switch was not approved.

    A better headline could be:
    “Full list: Republicans Voting for Failed “Kill Switch” For Cars Legislation”

    The article is badly arranged and the headline is misleading.
    When enshittification meets agenda…

    1. AG

      Ok I am being superficial here and probably lacking some info: But I have zero understanding why Mark Sleboda was championing Vance initially (I don´t know about now). Obviously Vance is an opportunistic guy. Had he serious integrity he would be a pro-bono Yale lawyer. Besides I also have no clue why people still respect Vance as a public speaker. IMHO he has zero charisma and no serious qualities as an orator or simply acting on a stage. I always have the feeling he doesn´t like to be in the limelight. Unlike Trump who on the other hand is by far not as abstract-minded as Vance. Actually Vance is not fit for going into high-stakes politics. (Which doesn´t mean he can´t make it to the top.)
      Only his akward aura lets me hesitate in my rant. It seems to hint at him still keeping some straight bones hidden somewhere making him feel uncomfortable for selling out to big business.

      1. jsn

        I listen to Sleboda about Russia, for US politics he’s just another commenter like myself.

        I had the same issue with Larry Johnson and Judge Napolitano until they awoke to the general lawlessness of 2.0rump. Their constitutional proclivities, with which I agree, then began to dominate their interests and expression which has made them more interesting for me. It’s hard not to be nostalgic for “the rule of law, not men”, but it’s hard to see how to get back there from here.

        Vance, like everyone in our get paid to play politics, is an opportunist happy to grab what looks like power without understanding any of the systemic underpinnings of real power, participating in the magisterial Imperial suicide this Administration is committing through determined ignorance.

    2. ThirtyOne

      Musical interlude for Mr. Vance:
      “Sofa #1”

      [Group:] Yeah!

      [Howard:] I am heaven

      [Howard & Group:]
      I am the water

      [FZ:] I am the sky and the water

      [Group:]
      I am the dirt beneath your rollers
      I am your secret filth
      And lost metal money
      (Metallgeld)
      Under your crack
      I am your cracks and crevices.

      I am clouds
      I am embroidered
      I am the author of all the rims.
      And damask piping
      I am the Chrome Dinette
      I am the Chrome Dinette
      I am eggs of all kinds

      I am every day and night
      I am every day and night

      I am here
      And you are my sofa
      (Ayeee-ah!)
      I am here
      And you are my sofa
      (Ayeee-ah!)
      I am here
      And you are my sofa

      Eddie, are you kidding me?
      Eddie, are you kidding me?
      Eddie, are you kidding me?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUzNjJdBnxs

    1. alrhundi

      I’m curious if this counts people detained and held, or if there’s undocumented deportation? Regardless it seems that ICE is much more empowered and has received substantially more funding.

    2. chris

      I know I was with the chorus of Commentariat members who were speculating that Trump and the members of the Liberal World Order would inevitably do something stupid that would kick people into action. I have to admit that even though I could see a variety of possibilities several months ago, something this stupid eluded me. The board seems set for a protest where a massacre will occur. And that will no doubt break open all the floodgates.

      It is profoundly depressing to see my country be lead down this path by a number of greedy morons.

  22. Jason Boxman

    Hello, liberal Democrats.

    Psychosis, which causes a break from reality, is most associated with schizophrenia. But as many as 3 percent of people will develop a diagnosable psychotic disorder in their lifetime, and far more are prone to delusional thinking.

    (bold mine)

    And the Establishment media has fed liberals with plenty of Russiagate.

    From How Bad Are A.I. Delusions? We Asked People Treating Them. (NY Times)

    Julia Sheffield, a psychologist who specializes in treating people with delusions, is difficult to rattle. But she was unnerved last summer when patients began telling her about their conversations with A.I. chatbots.

    One woman, who had no history of mental illness, asked ChatGPT for advice on a major purchase she had been fretting about. After days of the bot validating her worries, she became convinced that businesses were colluding to have her investigated by the government.

    Another patient came to believe that a romantic crush was sending her secret spiritual messages. Yet another thought he had stumbled onto a world-changing invention.

    By the end of the year, Dr. Sheffield had seen seven such patients at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. Although she is accustomed to treating people with mental instability, Dr. Sheffield was disturbed that this new technology seemed to tip people from simply having eccentric thoughts into full-on delusions.

    and

    “I’m quite convinced that this is a real thing and that we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg,” said Dr. Soren Dinesen Ostergaard, a psychiatry researcher at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark. In November, he published a report finding 11 cases of chatbot-associated delusions in psychiatric records from one Danish region.

  23. Mikel

    The Trump ‘Board of Peace’ excludes Palestine and Resistance states while drawing in the BRICS contingent.- Vanessa Beeley and Fiorella Isabel

    Thank you.

  24. LawnDart

    An attack on Iran now might be insane but it also could make a lot of sense– lawmakers MUST pass defense and homeland security budgets; domestic terrorists/unpatriots jailed; elections delayed or postponed until adequate security and anti-fraud measures can be implemented… oh, Epstien who?

  25. Tom Stone

    Kristi Noem explicitly stated that taking video of Immigration agents in public is an act of violence, as is following them to observe their actions.
    We are seeing the results.
    In Minneapolis peacefully exercising your first Amendment rights is a capital crime, it is considered a terrorist act by the head of the DHS.
    I expect DHS to double down and I do not expect any prosecution of the the agents involved because they have “Total Immunity” according to JD Vance and others.
    Which is all the more reason to look forward to a SOTU for the ages.

    2. Lefty Godot

      Maybe Kristi can establish the Lon Horiuchi Medal to award to the ICEman that murders the most unarmed (or disarmed) American citizens each quarter. Although maybe that would be too DEI for her? I hope my fellow NRA members are taking note of federal thugs murdering legal gun owners now, after taking their weapons away. And we were all worried about Clinton and his NWO boys doing this back in the later 1990s. Just goes to show, you can never be too paranoid.

  26. Jason Boxman

    As U.S. Warships Get Closer, Iran and Allies Ramp Up Retaliation Threats (NY Times)

    As U.S. warplanes and aircraft carriers approach the Persian Gulf, Tehran and its regional allies are warning they will respond aggressively to a potential strike.

    The fiery rhetoric has been a standard part of Iran and its allies’ messaging to Washington. The last time those words were tested — when U.S. warplanes joined Israel in a 12-day war against Iran last June — the result was a relatively minimal retaliation.

    The recent surge in threats follows President Trump’s announcement last Thursday that he was sending a large naval force, which he called an “armada,” into the Persian Gulf. “We’ll see what happens,” he told reporters as he returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

    Officials in the Middle East are increasingly worried the United States will strike Iran in the coming days, an attack that could trigger a cycle of retaliation against U.S. bases across the region by Iran and its proxy groups.

    As of Monday, the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, accompanied by three warships equipped with Tomahawk missiles, entered the Central Command’s area of responsibility in the western Indian Ocean, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss those details. If the White House were to order attacks on Iran, the carrier could, in theory, take military action within a day or two. The United States has already sent a dozen F-15E attack planes to the region to strengthen strike aircraft numbers, according to U.S. officials.

    What a stupid timeline.

    1. Acacia

      Someday, “don’t know where, don’t know when,” one of these carrier strike groups will be hit by hypersonic missiles. So, yes, “we’ll see what happens.”

    2. AG

      Initially I read: “Iran and Aliens Ramp Up Retaliation Threats”
      (I guess that would make a cool movie)

  27. AG

    …Walter Kirn seems to not understand the nature of state power…but in his world of course billionaires are billionaires because they are more talented and smarter than those who are not and are therefore actually entitled to their wealth…Walter´s at least in part lack of insight in some areas mirrors the ingnorance of artists in Europe cheering Ukraine…in a twisted way…

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