The Pursuit of Mastery Big Think
Gray wolves are hunting sea otters and no one knows how Science Daily (Kevin W)
Social media is boosting mental health disorders and suicidal thoughts among teens, particularly in girls The Conversation
Genes influence human lifespan far more than thought, new study suggests STAT
COVID-19/Pandemics
📉25% LOWER ALL-CAUSE MORTALITY! Wowzers—one of the largest long-term safety studies ever undertaken—offers the clearest answer yet: “Among 28 million French adults aged 18–59, those who received an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine were less likely to die in the subsequent four years… pic.twitter.com/taR4Dm2v0C
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) January 29, 2026
BREAKING:
Scientists Develop Plant-Based Antiviral Chewing Gum That Neutralizes Over 95% of Flu and Herpes Viruses in Saliva
Building on earlier ACE2-based gum that cut SARS-CoV-2 in saliva by over 95% and is now in trials, the new gum targets a wider range of pathogens. pic.twitter.com/m9Y4SEzgwQ
— SARS‑CoV‑2 (COVID-19) (@COVID19_disease) January 29, 2026
Climate/Environment
What happens to forests when the planet warms up too fast Earth
Amazon is getting drier as deforestation shuts down atmospheric rivers New Scientist
HISTORIC HEAT WAVE IN AFRICA
Hundreds of records have been falling allover Africa every day of the month.Incredible "double-double" record again in the CONGOS capitals
36.2C Kinshasa
35.9C Brazzaville
Hottest January day in history for bothThey did the same thing in December! pic.twitter.com/UxGwtQAcaz
— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) January 28, 2026
Drought in the east, floods in the south: Africa battered by climate change Aljazeera
China sees most high temperature days on record in 2025 Reuters
Records fall as Storm Chandra brings flooding to the UK and Ireland Net Weather
National survey finds microplastic pollution around Britain’s coastline could be double than previously recorded University of Portsmouth
China?
I Test Drove a Chinese EV. Now I Don’t Want to Buy American Cars Anymore. Wall Street Journal. Paul R: “Surrender, Elon.”
China reportedly drops rules that sparked property crisis, developer shares surge Reuters
China’s AI Landscape: a free-for-all, not a central plan ChinaTalk
India
India hasn’t even experienced industrialisation in the first place: Ha-Joon Chang Frontline (Colonel Smithers). From last November, still germane.
Southeast Asia
Junta-backed party secures sweeping victory in Myanmar’s ‘sham’ election Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/30/junta-backed-party-victory-myanmar-sham-electionCeasefire with Cambodia still ‘fragile’: Thai foreign minister Nikkei
O Canada
Trump threatens Canada with 50% tariff on aircraft sold in US, expanding trade war Independent
European Disunion
Germany plans satellite missile detection system to cut reliance on US Financial Times
The time has sadly come for a Nordic nuclear weapon Euractiv
Old Blighty
Starmer hits back at Trump’s China criticism Telegraph
Higher food prices ‘inevitable’ due to energy cost shock, growers warn The Grocer
Who secretly owns Britain? Map of hidden UK property owners Tax Policy (Colonel Smithers)
The Palestine Action hunger strikes ended in partial victory Asa Winstanley
Israel v. The Resistance. In our recent Iran War Watch post, we were hugely remiss in not pointing out the factor most likely to constrain Trump: Mr. Market. If investors continue to drive up oil prices, Trump will blink, even if he otherwise would prefer not to. But the buildup continues….
Israel's apologists spent over 2 years sowing distrust in the official Gaza death toll.
Now the Israeli army quietly accepts that it is actually an underestimate.
Eternal shame for the atrocity deniers. They must never be absolved of their guilt. https://t.co/JDZPqbJEoU pic.twitter.com/RhcjtWPY7H
— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) January 29, 2026
Full text: Charter of Trump’s Board of Peace Time of Israel (resilc)
* * * The US Navy Faces a Major Challenge in Sustaining Combat Operations off the Coast of Iran Larry Johnson
Iran ready for both war and dialogue, ‘will not accept dictation’: FM Araghchi PressTV. See further in the article. This would seem to mean no use of the big, critical Incirlik airbase, over which Turkiye has stronger rights than most nation do over US installations:
Ankara opposed to military intervention
Fidan, speaking alongside Araghchi, reiterated Ankara’s opposition to military action against Iran. “We have conveyed our opposition to a military intervention against Iran to our interlocutors at every opportunity,” he said.
How can Iranians do that to Iranians? Setareh Sadeqi describes the recent Mossad/CIA riots in Iran Vanessa Beeley
New Not-So-Cold War
Sergey Lavrov: “Our negotiating team remains committed to continuing contacts in any formats. They know what they are doing” International Affairs (Micael T). Lavrov in full on “suffer no fools” mode.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with Turkish media (state television channel TRT and newspaper Türkiye), Moscow, January 29, 2026 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
Note that another tweet highlights this speech includes Nebenzya saying: “Europe is governed by political pygmies. I’ve been saying this for a long time – it’s a fact. The guiding principle has vanished, and now we see a race of cockroaches.”
Russia’s Nebenzya Smashes EU Leaders’
"Peace is more dangerous than war in Ukraine" explains the madness of the EU.
Disband NATO and Brussels,they failed NATO failed.
Europe ruled by ‘MOST DANGEROUS OF FOOLS’ in continenthttps://t.co/iVaNtxCQ8b
— Politics Polly (@PoliticsPolly1) January 30, 2026
SITREP 1/30/26: Putin Flatters Trump With Kiev-Energy Ceasefire Simplicius. Note that Alexander Mercouris disagrees with this take.
NATO creating bank to prepare for war with Russia – media RT (Kevin W)
Chinese satellite reveals US military location amidst threats of US-Iran war Janta Ka Reporter, YouTube
Why it would be a big mistake for the US to go to war with Iran The Conversation (Kevin W)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Important. And why I do nothing on my phone save make a very very few calls and hail rideshares and keep it mainly in a Faraday bag.
🇬🇧 A new British police tool is capable of downloading all information from your smartphone, including deleted messages, deleted browsing history & private conversations — BBC
The device is capable of downloading:
– call logs,
– chats,
– cookies,
– device notifications,
-… pic.twitter.com/WuCNvudXiJ— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) January 30, 2026
Read the manual for a Palantir-ICE app 404 Media
Imperial Collapse Watch
New (Old) Paradigm with John Mearsheimer and Alastair Crooke CrossTalk, Rumble
How the tariff war shock affected the ‘safe asset’ privilege of US Treasuries VoxEU
Trump 2.0
Trump to Attend Screening of ‘Melania,’ a Film Heavily Promoted by Amazon New York Times (resilc)
Roaming Charges: Bored of Peace CounterPunch
Shutdown
Senate passes massive government funding package, sending it to House The Hill
L’affaire Epstein
Department of Justice Publishes 3.5 Million Responsive Pages in Compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act Department of Justice
Elon Musk Emailed Extensively With Jeffrey Epstein, Asking to Visit His Notorious Island Futurism
Stunning Epstein twist as Ghislaine Maxwell claims 29 friends cut ‘secret deals’ with DOJ Daily Mail (resilc)
MAHA
An Unknown Commission Could Destroy the Vaccine Market Eric Feigl-Ding (Dr. Kevin)
U.S. Has No Backup Plan if Foreign Generic Drugmakers Bow Out, Senator Says MedPage Today
Fed
What Does Kevin Warsh’s Nomination Mean for the Fed? Bloomberg
A Bad Heir Day at the Fed Paul Krugman
ICE Rampage
Former CNN host Don Lemon arrested after anti-ICE protests at Minnesota church BBC
Judges across the country rebuke ICE for defying court orders Politico (MJS)
Democrats say they are seeing signs of a fundraising boost amid outrage over ICE The Hill
Our No Longer Free Press
YouTube Leads All Media Barry Ritholtz (resilc)
St. Luigi
Federal judge in NYC spares Luigi Mangione the death penalty, drops murder and firearm charges Gothamist
Economy
Global Oil Discoveries Are Badly Lagging Consumption OilPrice
Mr. Market is Giddy
Gold and silver prices plunge as rally goes into reverse Financial Times
CHART: Friday massacre for mining stocks but copper price pulls out of nosedive Mining.com
Tungsten rises to record highs as export curbs turn up supply heat Reuters
AI
How the A.I. Boom Could Push Up the Price of Your Next PC New York Times
Guillotine Watch
Tim Cook’s parties with Trump hours after Pretti killing Oligarch Watch
Class Warfare
The average 50-something American is now worth $1.4 million USA Today (resilc)
Nike Says Its Factory Workers Make Nearly Double the Minimum Wage. In Indonesia, Workers Say, “It’s Not True.” ProPublica (Robin K)
THE MEANS-TESTING INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX Luke Farrell
Antidote du jour (via):
A bonus:
The chicken that believed it was a duck is now facing the truth.
— Science girl (@sciencegirl) January 31, 2026
A second bonus:
Orange cat behavior.. 😂 pic.twitter.com/4fV2U0IvjM
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) January 20, 2026
And a third:
Fennec fox, tiny body, endless cutenes
— Science girl (@sciencegirl) January 29, 2026
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
“The average 50-something American is now worth $1.4 million”
It would have been more interesting to know the mean value of a 50-something American as average means nothing. As an illustration – twenty people are sitting in a bar when in walks Jeff Bezos. At that point, the average bar-fly in that place is now a billionaire. At least this article has the decency to talk about the medium value of a 50-something American but I have the impression that this article had a lot of AI input. And what should also be mentioned about these financial figures is how the goal posts are being moved all the time so what is possible for a 30-something to earn right now might not be possible in ten or twenty years time.
My rule is that when a statistic is quoted as an average, not pinned down as one of mean/mode/median, then the piece is firstly targetting the non-analytical, and secondly trying to set a certain untrue idea in the readers’ minds.
Remember when Motorola was promoting Six-Sigma, when the distributions of the underlying processes followed nowhere near a normal distribution, so even a 4-sigma analysis would be hand-wavy.
Oh, man, cut it to the chase, just work with the whole distribution – remember, a picture is worth more than a thousand words…
The median wealth is quoted at the end of the article – 192k for that age group.
garbage in garbage out.
This is from 2020 and covid was very,very good for the we want it all crowd.
Needless to say, if you owned a house in 2000 and didnt lose it in ’09 you got gifted a very large chunk of money.
The devil is in the details.
https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-in-income-and-wealth-inequality/
The typical 50-something American actually worth $192k likely doesn’t own a house.
So if someone doesn’t read to the end, they get the idea that the typical 50-something American is worth $1.4 million, owns a house etc.
“trying to set a certain untrue idea in the readers’ minds”, as I suggested.
Silly Americans don’t understand how good they have it!
How many actually own the house vs paying it off not to mention if they sell they are right back in the market.
I wonder what it is counting PV of their projected social security benefits as an annuity.
Pretty sure the median is close to a negative number. It is easy to lie with statistics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Lie_with_Statistics
From the 1950’s and only 140 pages. You can read the whole thing in two or three sittings.
I was thinking they left out qoutation marks on worth viz “worth”
Liquid convertible assets ?
Lead – balloon slow to sell assets like real estate?
Add in a negative environment into which one is trying to sell? When T S H T F, we-all be nekkid?
(my favorite joke punch line: He-all !! He-All !! He-Alllways calls me Jackass! )
“Mean” is the same as “average”, sum up values for all individuals in the population and divide by the number in the population.
“Median” is the value at which half the population is above/below.
@ Rev Kev — I thought the same, but if you have the patience to scroll all the way down, USA does give the median figures, which are, of course, dramatically lower.
Excellent antidotes today, thank you. I do particularly love orange cats. And a swimming chicken, lol.
I did show the “swimming” chicken to Mrs. Socialist as it brilliantly demonstrates the “value based realism” (a multilayered comment about our bird-brained president and flocking to NATO).
She’s still laughing.
Well played!
Polar Socialist: To add to your collective laughter, you may want to show her the article from Euractiv about the “sadly” needed Nordic Nuke.
One would think that a writer named Kirkegaard would have some qualms. Soren Kierkegaard evidently is no longer in the Danish school system. And the Danish post office no longer delivers letters.
The article is likely to cause dizziness, being so daft.
A question to you Northerners: Was there a bad harvest of rye in Denmark these last few years? I am detecting symptoms of ergotism… [Wiki entry, ergotism: “Convulsive symptoms include painful seizures and spasms, diarrhea, paresthesias, itching, mental effects including mania or psychosis, headaches, nausea, and vomiting.}
The junk being produced now in the Far North and sold as “thinking” boggles the mind.
Don’t know if I should let you in on a secret: the rest of us Nordics don’t think Danes are Nordics – they’re mentally more like Dutch or English, really. Except the authoritarianism which comes from the Germans, I gather.
Even as a kid taking the ferry to Denmark was considered “going to Europe”. And ferry was at the time all that there was – Kattegat is psychologically much wider than physically.
But yeah, that is probably the daftest article of 2026, and it’s only January.
As a Dutch person living in Finland, i can confirm this. But the Danish are way more obedient to rules than the Dutch!
Regarding the article, I know the scholar who has basically launched this ridiculous idea. One of his first reactions to the Ukrainian war. The funny thing is the he regards himself as a communist. But also Finnish communists hate Russians
I have a few things to say in favour of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. For instance this superb version of El concierto de Aranjuez. It is impossible for me to listen it without shedding tears.
There’s a fellow in a cell lying dying
And he gets himself up onto one elbow and he turns to his killers
Who are all gathered around and he says
Watch me blackmail Gates, mate
Watch me blackmail Gates, mate
Bridge players are a dangerous breed, mate
So watch me approximate
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Keep me cockatoo cool, Bill
Keep me cockatoo cool
Ah, don’t go acting the fool, Bill
Just keep me cockatoo cool
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Ain’t take me veiled threat back, Jack
Take me veiled threat back
Dead men do tell tales that’s a fact
Ain’t take me veiled threat back
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
And mind me Epstein barb, Bill
Mind me Epstein barb
Ah, don’t let facts go running amok, Bill
Just mind me Epstein barb
Altogether now
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Heard you got Russian STD’s playing with your didgeridoo, Blue
Playing your didgeridoo
Ah, like, no wonder Melinda said you were through, Blue
Playing your didgeridoo
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Hide my tales when I’m dead, they said
Hide my tales when I’m dead
So we hid what he did when he died, defied
And that’s him hangin’ in his cell, crucified
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie me kangaroo court down, sport
Tie me kangaroo court down
Tie Me Kangaroo Sport, by Rolf Harris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEkLy7A37T0&list=RDvEkLy7A37T0
👍
Blending Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Gates in a song by Rolf Harris is too much for my delicate stomach.
.Tom
Ironic, because Rolf Harris was convicted of indecently assaulting young women, and of being a pedophile.
Think of it as a gone to the dark side trifecta.
Can you see what it is yet…?
“Elon Musk Emailed Extensively With Jeffrey Epstein, Asking to Visit His Notorious Island”
I use to think of Elon Musk as a sort of billionaire serial pest going out of his way to get people noticing him through his love of showmanship and antics. But with this article, Musk has now slid into just being pure creepy. Just like Bill Gates. Wealthy people who have it all and could make a big difference to society but cannot resist the urge to have a fling with underage girls on a secluded island. I will never look at him the same way again – as in never forgive and never forget.
Speaking of Mercouris, if Costner is his hero he should stay out of the screening room.
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2026/01/an-interesting-question.html
Critics called The Postman “self mythologizing” but everything Costner does is self mythologizing. It’s his entire shtick. Of course when one is shaping one’s own fantasy narrative it’s easy to make oneself the hero and justify plenty of mayhem and violence. You could say Costner’s role model was Clint Eastwood but Eastwood was and still is a lot smarter.
The true comparison re Costner would be our oh so self mythologizing and dumb POTUS. When fantasy macho meets a real threat you wonder what Costner the actor would do. Bone spurs anyone?
Meant to be at the bottom of comments. Brain freeze from snow piling up outside.
Martyanov should stick to military matters. His male chauvinist pig ass must have never raised children in this go it alone society.
The book, The Postman, was written by David Brin 12 years before the the movie was released.
I read the book and saw the movie which followed the book pretty closely, so I wouldn’t put it all on Kevin Costner.
Musk is the billionaires’ Id.
Actually spit out my coffee. Chapeau, mon cher.
I was pretty depressed to learn that John Glenn was on Epstein’s jet, as reported in “Scams, Schemes, Ruthless Cons: The Untold Story of How Jeffrey Epstein Got Rich,” The New York Times Magazine, January 4, 2026.
One reason the ClA puts valuable assets into private corporations like Musk’s and Gates’ companies is because private corporations are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
I should also mention Palantir.
File under ICE:
DOJ opens civil rights investigation into Pretti shooting, Blanche says
“Blanche confirmed at a press conference related to the latest release of the Epstein files that the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and the FBI are looking into Pretti’s killing, which drew strong condemnation from members of Congress from both parties.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/30/doj-investigation-pretti-shooting-minnesota-00757544
(What are the odds that Kash Patel’s FBI will find ICE agents guilty of any wrong doing? / rhetorical question)
Even if those two ICA agents are eventually found guilty of homicide, Trump will probably issue them a pardon on the way out the door in ’28.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a blanket pardon granted for every ICE/CBP agent.
implies accounatbility and perhaps shame. Not present here, methinks. Instant pardon more likely, which could lead to subpoenas to get more into the violent culture of ICE.
Unlawful homicide is a state crime. If convicted of such, the governor, not the president, has the power to pardon.
Trump can block funding to a state.
File also under ICE:
Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. utube, ~23+ minutes.
Jon on Alex Pretti’s Killing, DHS vs. Video Evidence & MAGA’s Gun Rights Surrender | The Daily Show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-eNduwugmY
Perhaps its me, but I cannot understand why the audience was laughing. I could only watch 10 minutes.
Sardonic humor. If you watch the entire episode you’ll understand how sardonic humor works and is used to make a serious point.
Stewart’s audience knows he uses sardonic humor often, and so they likely knew from the start what he was doing and where is was likely going.
File also under ICE:
Here is a group of Minnesota farmers’ representatives and state agricultural officials discussing the behavior and impact of ICE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A-YQlkhu24
Like the objections to ICE behavior coming from local law enforcement officials, this shows how communities are raising bipartisan objections to what is happening.
Thanks for the link.
Thank you, Yves.
With regard to the Larry Johnson link, including Danny Davis’ interview with retired Royal Navy commodore Steve Jermy, Jermy has commented on the war in Ukraine and European security architecture. Well worth a listen / read whenever he pipes up.
With regard to Warsh, who I came across during the 2008 crisis, his best call was marriage to Estée Lauder’s granddaughter Jane.
Agreed, CS. The Steve Jermy conversation with Danny Davis is interesting. Here’s the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvXvmyfdLqo
Navy Combat Vet: What Trump’s ‘Massive Armada’ to Iran Can Do /Steve Jermy & Lt Col Daniel Davis
In the conversation they do a combat analysis using, as far as I could tell, rather little guesswork, and concluding that the risk/benefit is very much against starting something but, given the postures our esteemed politicians have already taken, it it’s still rather likely.
The video seemed off as far as image and sound. I liked it but it seemed AI suspect. I hope it is real and I like hearing Jermy’s views in other podcasts.
I have had years of having to test references in engineering documents. Having to use the Kalama Sutta every day is tiring.
Thank you, Colonel Smithers.
Toward the end of the Johnson interview with Diesen, Johnson predicts that a result of ill considered weaponization of the dollar for international geopolitical and economic leverage will end up producing massive hyperinflation in the U.S. I’d be interested in hearing what the econ mavens here have to say about this.
Yesterday:
chart friday massacre for mining stocks but copper price pulls out of nosedive
5000 years ago:
Newly identified rock art reveals how ancient Egypt’s hunt for copper turned into brutal conquest
A 5,000-Year-Old Inscription Reveals the Terrifying Brutality of Ancient Egypt’s Colonial Expansion Into Sinai
https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/5000-year-old-inscription-sinai-egypt/
“God Min, ruler of copper ore”
If anyone was wondering how we got to our present point in this perilous timeline.
Copper was extremely valuable back then but tin was priceless and to be found only in distant places like Cornwall. Without tin you cannot make bronze which has so many uses, especially swords. Turns out that iron swords replaced bronze swords not because they were superior – they were in fact much inferior the first few centuries – but that the collapse of international trade routes put an end to the supply of tin. Copper was still valuable but not in the same way. But in our modern world copper will never lose its value. We just saw a collapse of gold and silver prices but copper was bouncing right back.
Circa 2010 on a drive one day, I counted 17x ‘we buy gold’ storefronts in Glendale, Ca. when the precious was 1/5th of current value…
Talking to friends in LA, they haven’t seen any these days, was the vacuum cleaner effect enough to shake it all out, back in the day?
Actually, the Friday massacre was for gold mining corps. I own stock in Newmont (NEM). It has tripled in value over the the last 12 months. It dropped 5% on this past Friday. Friday is a typical take your profit day. NEM is likely to gain that 5% back next week.
Gold will continue to rise as the multi-polar world economy lurches forward. I’m transitioning out of Treasuries as the dollar loses value. YMMV.
If you thought that there would be justice, instead it’s twenty five secret deals.
If you were thinking “Accountability!”, nope, it’s 25 secret deals.
Gotta cover up tracks! Gotta hide the scent! Paper it over before my reputation is spent.
Twenty Five Secret Deals!
JFC, it’s 8:43 am and I’m thinking cocktails. At least the view is nice from my deck-chair.
That reminds me of Julian Assange talking about the importance of Wikileaks.
Paraphrasing, if the files became known, 90% of Washington would fall.
The Epstein annex would probably represent a type of double jeopardy, but really just extra evidence to ensure exposure and some extinguishing.
Exorcisms coming back into fashion inside the Beltway and in media and corporate offices?
Melania and the problem of rightwing esthetics. I would like to note that Gregory Bovino was recently sporting a coat by Hugo Boss that looked like something out of a Hitler Rant.
Likewise, the problem with Melania the film is that it is rightwing propaganda and rightwing esthetics — with access for Amazon and money galore. Poor Coco Chanel settled for an affair with a German officer and some collaboration.
I am not sure how this article escaped Forbes:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2026/01/30/melania-director-defends-75-million-documentary-price-tag-heres-why-its-raised-eyebrows/
Director Ratner is threatening a docuseries. Next up? Melania, moral beacon among trophy wives. Or rightwing “art” devolves, as ever, into kitsch.
I place this paragraph here to tantalize youse, brethren and sistren: “Amazon shelled out $40 million for the rights to “Melania” in a bidding war that reportedly included other major studios, with Disney being the second-highest bidder. But Amazon’s offer was much larger, with the New York Times reporting it outbid Disney by $26 million. Amazon has repeatedly defended its major bid for “Melania,” telling multiple news outlets it “licensed the film for one reason and one reason only — because we think customers are going to love it.” Melania Trump is reportedly pocketing a large sum of Amazon’s bid, the Wall Street Journal reported weeks after the auction in February 2025. Her payday is more than 70% of the $40 million, the Journal reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the deal, which would be over $28 million. The Journal also reported Trump sold the idea of the documentary to billionaire Jeff Bezos and his then-fiancé, Lauren Sánchez, when they dined at Mar-a-Lago in December 2024.”
PS: Tim Cook partying (but not in that sense!) with Trump. Isn’t Tim Cook a gay icon? Like Scott Bessent and Pete Buttigieg? Yet some years back, the wonderful Urvashi Vaid wrote that marriage equality mainly served gay men and would de-fang the movement. Tim is now cooked kitsch.
PPS: Ahh, I’m not bitter that I didn’t get an invitation to the Bezosganza in Venezia. Talk about kitsch.
Regarding Bovino and his Hugo Boss duster, he wears it well. He looks like a Star Wars Federale bigwig. I imagine that is the intent.
Life is a costume party!
or Space Commander Travis from Blake’s 7? Baddies always wear black, life imitating art again.
Definitely wants to be Neil Patrick Harris in “Starship Troopers.”
mrsyk: Hmmm.
JFC, it’s 8:43 am and I’m thinking cocktails. At least the view is nice from my deck-chair.
So you’re in a costume and drinking a Sazerac cocktail — out in the snow?
And it’s six degrees f out. Just livin’ the dream here.
I was blissfully unaware of the upcoming (and now very much live) Melania film until my wife mentioned it in passing a few weeks ago. So I read some reviews today (and watched the trailer…..how could I resist?), and OMG cringe (as our three offspring might say). Now I’m waiting for RU’s efficient hackers to post the movie online. I will eventually watch the thing, gratuito, accompanied by a cheap bottle of Malbec or Chianti.
Still, my MBA background nags me with the question: who exactly is the target audience for this flick? It surely isn’t the right-thinking USA citizens with a terminal case of TDS. And the garish displays of wealth in the film (or so I’ve read, as I haven’t watched it yet) certainly won’t appeal to the MAGA crowd, many of whom live paycheck-to-paycheck. Which leaves Donald and Melania and their coterie. That must be the target audience.
And yet…..the film has done surprisingly well so far, grossing over $8m on its first day, which is not bad for a documentary. Allora, chissà?
“Nobody knows anything” — William Goldman (1983) on the business of making movies
Ehhh, it’s the Trump affect.
In any case unless it makes over 120 million at the box office it’s likely to be a loss as the total budget is around 65-80 million.
I doubt it will have legs to carry past a week or so.
MAGA are turning out
https://deadline.com/2026/01/box-office-iron-lung-send-help-melania-shelter-1236703378/
Me2-ed Ratner of all people…🙄
Maybe he could cast Melania for Rush Hour 5 – 4 is in prep.
Michael Tracey has been oddly quiet ever since the new batch of Epstein files have come out lmao
His previous posts in defense of those involved were rather weird to say the least
Is he a devoted contrarian or actively involved/connected? Remains to be seen…
He’s busy outlining his next series of 5000 word essays explaining to us deluded conspiracy nuts who are incapable of critical thinking how those 29 co-conspirators mentioned by Maxwell are about to be victims of baseless smear jobs by an army of blackmailing “me-too” prostitutes after money. It’s all part of a lib/Dem plot to get Trump. For Tracey, the “lone pervert” theory has already been proven. Move along.
Watching him pretzel-twist himself defending the indefensible has certainly been something. “Clarifying” even. I no longer trust anything he has to say.
A reputation is hard to develop and easy to lose
While his take on Epstein is abysmal and a genuine willful blindspot of his there’s a lot of good reporting he’s done on worker’s rights and many other subjects. I wouldn’t totally discount Tracey yet (unlike Taibbi who has totally lost his mind).
That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some skeletons in Tracey”s closet they way he’s been defending Epstein acquaintances. Time will hopefully tell.
re: New (Old) Paradigm with John Mearsheimer and Alastair Crooke CrossTalk, Rumble
Thanks for this link. Important analysis, imo. Crooke’s emphasis on the US economy and dollar in fostering these crises is worth a listen.
I think this was the logical, inevitable result of neoliberal economics: profits above all else, give the markets their head to run without restrictions.
Owen Jones is an interesting and pains-taking reporter, but he falls for propaganda here. The Israelis are acknowledging the figure of 70,000 dead only because (1) it comes from the Gaza Health Agency (2) which is barely functioning (3) so the figure is too low and obsolete.
What the Israeli government wants you to think is (1) the number is accurate and (2) is proof that the Israeli forces haven’t killed enough Palestinians for the events to be called a genocide. Only 70,000! Aren’t we merciful! Madeleine Albright blew off Leslie Stahl and her question about 500,000 dead Iraqi children!
The most recent estimates are 400,000 dead. Even that number may be low.
So if you believe the figure of 70,000 murdered in Gaza, I have select biblical verses to sell you, bunkie.
I think that the IDF attached a rider to their acceptance of that 70,000 death toll and said none of them were through starvation.
When I type holocaust into my browser, it self-corrects it to read Holocaust, and does a 1/10 scale holocaust perpetuated by Zionists require capitalization?
Hard agree with all of this
“Wealth inequality and the ‘K-shaped’ economy are more striking than ever, data shows”
Whenever I point out how this makes a mockery of aggregated macroeconomic data (hiding especially much mischief in the lower quartiles of the income and wealth distributions) presented over at Wolf Street, and how it has been going on for years now, I am dismissed with a sneer to “take my social justice narratives elsewhere.”
Now that the problem has become obvious even to CNBC, perhaps it might be taken more seriously in the wider public discourse?
But I’m not holding my breath …
Matt Stoller has a very good column today on some distortions in the official statistics that I hadn’t previously thought about.
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/the-boomcession-why-everyone-but
“Stunning Epstein twist as Ghislaine Maxwell claims 29 friends cut ‘secret deals’ with DOJ”
The US Department of Justice regrets to announce the sad suicide of Ghislaine Maxwell in her prison cell at 2 am next Tuesday night. People with intimate knowledge of these 29 individuals are urged to contact the Department of Justice so that things can be sorted out for them.
re: Gaza
DROP SITE NEWS:
Israeli military accepts Gaza Health Ministry casualty count: The Israeli military has accepted the figures issued by Gaza’s Health Ministry on the number of Palestinians killed in Israel’s war on Gaza, according to Haaretz. Gaza’s health ministry puts the confirmed toll at 71,667 and acknowledges it as an undercount with many more missing under the rubble. Over the course of the war, Israeli authorities have publicly blasted Gaza’s health ministry as misleading and unreliable. In January 2024, Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham first reported that the Israeli military found the ministry’s numbers reliable and regularly used them internally in intelligence briefings. In October 2023, soon after the war began, President Biden cast doubt over the health ministry’s figures saying, “I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed.”
Ok. So if IDF accepts 71k killed what is the real number then?
I have heard of no update from Finkelstein since his statement in Athens end of last year I think that 20k children dead is 100% and a casualty count up to 600k is possible. What happened to all the doctors speculating 150k-500k dead?
It´s just odd that all of a sudden the “public” appears to agree on this 70k after so many different but much higher estimates were put out by people who are not strangers to this kind of analysis.
The 70,000 number is being officially accepted by the same people who accepted the 40,000 number that never changed for years no matter how many people were killed.
The 500,000 to 1,000,000 numbers are correct, but won’t be officially acknowledged until there is a generational change in the Western system for manufacturing consent. Which will probably only happen when the West is far along the collapse process anywhere from 2027 to 2040.
The problem is that to my knowledge even Craig Murray settled on 70k. And the doctors who warned of 500k in THE GUARDIAN e.g. have not come forward since. So I have the impression this is unanimous. But it happened in such a sea-change way – without huge discussion that I don´t trust it. The most recent academic study that had those high figures had mostly been ignored. And that was already some time late summer ´25 I think. It´s almost like an agreement to focus on other fights. Which would make sense. Since the number of dead appears to have zero effect on the West anyway. Everybody knows by now that they are evil. And there is zero discussion across the frontline in Western societies any more. At least as those with power or media influence are concerned. But maybe I am just to gloomy and not reckognizing shifts happening. And of course additionally Germany is extreme in this respect.
Do you happen to have a cite for Craig Murray and the 70k? I haven’t seen anything like it and I thought I’d read pretty much everything he’s posted on the subject at his website (though not on any social media).
As I understand it, the 70k is a narrow figure that excludes:
– bodies a yet uncounted under rubble (a lot of these)
– deaths other than from armed aggression (i.e. starvation, destruction of sanitation, destruction of healthcare etc.)
ok
but still it strikes me as odd that the discussion on numbers appears to being mute for some while…
fair question
I would have to go through all his blog posts which I doubt I have time for now, unfortunately.
I still believe he once was referring to the 70k figure at a time when that was accepted by all including the Israel critics. I was surprised to read that.
Not a satisfying answer, I know.
Is it possible that was about winter one year ago… a November…?
re: Germany antiwar movement crisis
essay by German OVERTON-BLOG on reasons for the crisis and possible solutions
machine-translation
How narrowing of focus leads to obscuration – and weakens a peace movement
January 31, 2026
by Bernd Schoepe
https://archive.is/kbaE6
Regarding Tim Cook.
I don’t say this for political reasons, though he is clearly either totally tone deaf or thinks by cozying up to Trump he can get something. And, others will have said this.
While Cook is enriching himself we will sooner than many think look back on his tenure as CEO as the period that severely damaged Apple. Their quality control is virtually nonexistent, their operating system is now horrible and doesn’t work, and equally bad they don’t tell their senior service people about know, pervasive problems.
The Doctorow thesis of enshitification is alive and well and no-one personifies it now better than Apple.
Agree except on “no-one personifies it now better than Apple.” Millions of people are busy pulling their hair out over Microslop’s current systems.
Indeed. As a long time user of both, I hate the Tim Cook era of Apple greatly but Microslop hasn’t had a decent OS since Windows 7. While my Macs are getting more frustrating to use, my current Windows machines started at garbage and then lit the landfill on fire.
Cook answers to a Board of Directors and shareholders, so can’t do everything himself even as a star exec. He can share the ups and downs with them, as he has less latitude than an Elon Musk.
Yeah, but being a best bud with Trump has nothing to do with the shareholders.
Cook has no real principles as that would limit looking out for only his own interests.
Tim Cook is working hard… to make you switch to Linux ;)
More excellent reporting from KMSP, one of our local news affiliates:
Worst of Worst: DHS arrests include dozens of offenders recently in federal custody
re: privacy
English-language video interview by German blog MANOVA
with Hakeem Anwar on how to fight “e-ID”
20 min.
https://www.manova.news/artikel/raus-aus-der-digitalen-knechtschaft
Break free from digital bondage
In a Manova interview with Tom-Oliver Regenauer, software engineer and activist Hakeem Anwar explains, on the sidelines of the “People’s Reset”, what ways there are to defend oneself against the impending e-ID and to become independent from Big Tech.
Like a rabbit caught in the headlights, many people are staring at the looming threats. And indeed, it is terrifying to see the weapons the technocratic elite are deploying to torpedo the last vestiges of freedom and condemn humanity to digital enslavement: e-IDs, 15-minute city plans, and QR code barriers. But anyone who believes they are helplessly at the mercy of these terrifying scenarios is mistaken!
At this year’s “The People’s Reset” in Morelia, Mexico, hundreds of people gathered who had freed themselves from the belief in helplessness and a lack of alternatives, and who now see the many threats as an incentive to catapult themselves toward freedom and self-empowerment. Software engineer and activist Hakeem Anwar from “Above” is one of them. Tom-Oliver Regenauer met him on the sidelines of the Davos counter-event.
Together they discussed the wide range of options available to everyone to become independent of Big Tech corporations, both digitally and in the analog world, and to resist the global rollout of e-IDs. The latter is of particular importance, as this digital ID is the key to the digital prison. Once implemented, the locks on this prison gate will remain permanently closed.
Tungsten rises to record highs as export curbs turn up supply heat Reuters
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
49’ers headed to Tiny Town and environs would have been so disappointed as there wasn’t any precious anywhere near, with Scheelite filling in for all that glitters.
A number of mom and pop tungsten mines opened up after Pearl Harbor around these parts, and most promptly closed after Nagasaki, I know of about a dozen of them.
Last year, we took a drive off of Hwy 395 about 10 miles north of Bishop and came across the largest tungsten mine in the USA, the Pine Creek mine, which could be opened again.
No tungsten means-no war making capability.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pine-creek-tungsten-mine
Magnesium restriction is the trump card China holds up its sleeve. The way magnesium is supplied for modern manufacturing means that it cannot be stockpiled, it oxidises within 3 months and most aluminium alloys require it. China has a real stranglehold on magnesium processing and supply
Read the recent substack from no01 for a fascinating survey of the state of play.
>I Test Drove a Chinese EV. Now I Don’t Want to Buy American Cars Anymore.
Exactly! America can’t produce anything great anymore because it’s committed to fair play. /s
Article touts a $43,000 Everready Energizer transportation appliance as ‘cool’. Sorry, it’s bling loaded disposable crap appeal to a W2 wage slave customer base willing to go long on form over function.
It’s very hard calculating this as a socialist. The Democratic party needs to die. Full stop. The question is does it collapse in a way that allows socialist parties to finally start forming?
The Democrats may retain just enough legitimacy and power long enough to continue suppressing the left even as the Republicans tear them apart along with the Dem’s own self destructive tendencies.
So they basically hand America to fascists on a silver platter while the left is still nascent.
Re: the means-testing industrial complex. Never forget rule #4 in the rules-based order.
4. A government forced by populists to give money to the non-rich must then hire many bureaucrats to create complex rules that make recipients appear guilty of cheating; all other options are forbidden.
4a. Add counterweight program funding to serve some other constituency via NGOs.
4b. Ensure applicable rake-off and kickbacks get processed with some semblance of lack of accountability.
God forbid some of the Gov’s own means testing verification should be done—at no fee/cost—by checking with another Gov entity that would know—the IRS.
Billing to US for their efforts to the tune of 800,000,000$$—yearly.
Still not 1/3 of a PU—so that calms me a bit :(
PU=1/365 of 2026 Pentagon Budget
Ugh, Morgan & Morgan is running ads on the radio, wanting to look into medical malpractice at hospitals. Kind of amusing, in a sense, but certainly not looking for people killed by hospitals with COVID. But with such understaffing, I guess this is a ripe hunting ground for Morgan. He was and maybe is a big Democrat Party donor in Florida. I grew up with his ads in Florida.
On An Unknown Commission Could Destroy the Vaccine Market the link is missing the final ‘y’ I think, the working link is:
https://drericding.substack.com/p/an-unknown-commission-could-destroy
Intro
Yeah vaccine makers could be subjected to suit for damages.
LIKE EVERY OTHER PRODUCT IN THE US.
Make a safe product, no worries. Hmm, why are they worried?
archive.ph for
U.S. Has No Backup Plan if Foreign Generic Drugmakers Bow Out, Senator Says
Criminal Scott, lol, who should be in jail.
He’s not wrong, though.
You have all three branches, fix it.
NO?
Man, this is historic. Crucial RAM was considered gold standard for enthusiasts for decades. I’m running some right now I think.
Micron Announces Exit from Crucial Consumer Business (Micron)
Wowzers, killed by AI demand. What a tragedy. I have two Crucial SSDs.
Scientists Develop Plant-Based Antiviral Chewing Gum That Neutralizes Over 95% of Flu and Herpes Viruses in Saliva
This even if quite interesting will be very difficult to test and check real utility. Should be quite cheap chewing gum, as cheap as regular chewing gum, because you would need to be chewing any time a “risky” contact comes. It might possibly be more interesting for Herpesviruses (forget about controlling flu with chewing gum!) but consider that you can be infected by herpesvirus anytime after starting to socialise. Let’s say from 3 yo to death. And not necessarily through the mouth. My expectations of this having an impact on herpesvirus prevalence are (very) low but I am open to surprises. A “milky” business? May be.
NATO creating bank to prepare for war with Russia – media RT (Kevin W)
Oh man! Go and check the DRSB website.
First idea that comes to mind is how “creative” our leaderships come to finance war and weapons. Nothing like that was proposed to finance at least parts of the European Green Deal. The next idea that comes is “typical neoliberal bullshit” which presents the DRSB as the “force mutiplier”. Multiplier of what? Of stupidity? There is no bloody common strategy or at least an idea on defence (what to defend and how), less so on attack, but the bank is there ready for something. The European leadership aren’t pygmies. Why insulting the pygmies?
She can’t seem to face up to the facts
She’s tense and nervous and without ICE killing someone can’t relax
She can’t sleep ’cause of all the ire
The hazards of being a Mar-a-Lago face hire
Canine Killer
Qu’est-ce que c’est?
Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa, better
Run, run, run, run, run, run, run away, oh-oh-oh
Canine Killer
Qu’est-ce que c’est?
Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa, better
Run, Fido run, run, run, run, run, run away, oh, oh, oh, oh
Ay-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya, ooh
You start a controversy, you can’t even finish it
You’re talking a lot, but you’re not saying anything
When you have nothing to say, your lips are sealed
Kill a domestic terrorist once, why kill them again?
Canine Killer
Qu’est-ce que c’est?
Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa, better
Run, run, run, run, run, run, run away, oh-oh-oh
Canine Killer
Qu’est-ce que c’est?
Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa, better
Run, Fido run, run, run, run, run, run away, oh, oh, oh, oh
Ay-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya
Ce que j’ai fait, ce soir-là
Ce qu’elle a dit, ce soir-là
Réalisant mon espoir
Je me lance vers la gloire, okay
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
We are vain and we are blind
I hate people when they’re not polite to animals
Canine Killer
Qu’est-ce que c’est?
Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa, better
Run, run, run, run, run, run, run away, oh-oh-oh
Canine Killer
Qu’est-ce que c’est?
Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa, better
Run, Fido run, run, run, run, run, run away, oh, oh, oh, oh
Ay-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya, ooh
Psycho Killer, by the Talking Heads
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O52jAYa4Pm8
What happens to forests when the planet warms up too fast Earth
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In 15 years i’ve watched the bark beetles on tour in the Sierra Nevada doing their greatest hits, ‘I saw it standing there’, ‘You’ve lost that living feeling’, ‘The end’, ‘Hello, goodbye’, ‘If I fell’ & ‘Within you, without you’.
They started around 5k and are now at 9k, with the good news being that timberline is at 10k and the angry 1/8th inch invaders run out of pines to kill.
The “India hasn’t even experienced industrialisation in the first place: Ha-Joon Chang” article is very much worth reading. It explains a lot how development in India is so uneven with things like satellite launching capabilities next to rural and urban poverty.
thanks for recommendation
Japan-Korea Joint Investigation
“TM (True Mother) Report”
Unification Church Has Infiltrated the Liberal Democratic Party
https://en.tansajp.org/investigativejournal/9031/
Opening article (in English) on the TM Report, a 3,212 page document that was seized by Korean prosecutors during the investigation of Han Hak-ja, leader of the Unification Church in Korea.
In October 2025, Han and members of former President Yoon Suk-yeol’s administration were indicted on charges of violating the political funds law, i.e., of trading gifts and money in exchange for special treatment of the Church.
Guest appearances by Newt Gingrich, Dick Cheney, and Christopher Hill.
Current Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi is mentioned repeatedly in the TM Report, and she has requested a snap election on February 8th, in hopes of securing a putative mandate, with the aim of putting this unwelcome news behind her.
Tansa announces they are working together with Korea’s Newstapa, to publish a series of articles on the TM Report.
re: history of violence
What Was History’s Deadliest Era?
By Michael Ledger-Lomas
A recent history of guns and empire argues that early modern Europe marked the origins of a uniquely murderous era. But the world it describes is not so different from our own and making sense of its horrors requires judgment, not just arithmetic.
Review of The Killing Age: How Violence Made the Modern World by Clifton Crais (University of Chicago, 2025)
https://jacobin.com/2026/01/book-review-crais-modernity-violence
25% lower all-cause mortality for mRNA Covid-19 vaccine: this is intriguing but that data support another interpretation than “mRNA good”! If I read it correctly, the reduction is in the relative risk of all-cause mortality in treated versus untreated. But this tells us nothing about absolute mortality. If you were vaccinated and have a lower risk of mortality now than the unvaccinated, is your risk lower than the general population pre-Covid? Or has it risen but not as much as for the unvaccinated? Also, is the unvaccinated population comparable to the vaccinated or does it represent a mixture of people too sick to be vaccinated, people too healthy to consider vaccination, people who refuse to vaccinated (higher all-cause risk appetite) and people who survived Covid unvaccinated and have immunity and disability as a result?
All cause mortality is the most important endpoint. I don’t understand the rest of your discussion. It has to have been compared to the non-vaccinated. There were no people deemed to be “too sick to be vaccinated”. Those in poor health were considered to be a priority for vaccination. The only counter-indication on that front was being currently moderately to pretty sick (as in fighting another infection) and to wait to recovery to get the shot. The immunocompromised, a natively unhealthy population, were a priority group for the vaccines.
This finding does not contradict the fact that many INDIVIDUALS were still harmed by the mRNA vaccines. Aggregate impacts however seem to have exceeded individual serious harm. And that harm was never well enough studied, by design, for individuals to make good decisions as to whether they had a profile that put them at risk (save perhaps super fit men, who appear to be pushing their hearts to such a performance limit as to put them at high risk of myocarditis).
A recent extended family discussion had us talking of our family tree. On one side was the Stevens family.
After many generations we tend to be more accepting of Congress Representative Thaddeus Stevens
For a while he was left out of the geneaology.
That looks interesting! Thanks for posting!
You’re welcome. We do have a tradition of being SOBs. /s
Some of my family have marched in civil rights protests, and others have been shot at or chased by surface-to-air missiles in military conflicts. It has a focusing effect.
I’ve been lucky to only be a first responder, or deal with airplanes on fire.
Chicago bank fails, becoming first in nation to go under in 2026
https://chicago.suntimes.com/business/2026/01/31/chicago-bank-fails-metropolitan-capital-fdic
“first in nation”, i.e., more are expected ?