Colossal Biosciences Wants To Build a High Tech, Frozen “Noahs Ark” In the Heart of Dubai ZME Science
Dutch scientists left a hamster wheel outside. Then, all the animals started playing with it ZME Science
Reproduction in space, an environment hostile to human biology Reproductive BioMedicine Online
Climate/Environment
IOC open to earlier dates for future Winter Olympics and Paralympics because of warmer temperatures AP
“We’ve never seen a storm like this before.”
Heavy rain and strong winds swept across Spain and Portugal just days after deadly floods, triggering new evacuations, landslides and flood alerts. Authorities warn of more damage ahead: pic.twitter.com/xemxtjafKw
— DW News (@dwnews) February 8, 2026
The UK quit coal. But is burning Louisiana’s trees any better? Grist
THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS TO MINE THE OLDEST BIOME ON EARTH Atmos
Analysis: Clean energy drove more than a third of China’s GDP growth in 2025 Carbon Brief
Economic growth is still heating the planet. Is there any way out? The Guardian
A Velvet Or Violent Climate Revolution: Which Will We Choose? Climate Uncensored
Water
Water for sale: from the Thames to the Amazon The Ecologist
Pandemics
All anti-covid/ clean air advocates are trying to get govts to do is install tech like this (and more!) in your child’s classrooms so they don’t come home w flu, RSV. HFM, Covid etc each week and instead of getting excited yall get inexplicably mad at disabled ppl lol. https://t.co/XVaLPGtIfZ
— Julia Marie (@julia_doubleday) February 8, 2026
Japan
The age of Takaichi dawns Observing Japan
China?
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai given 20 years’ jail in national security case Straits Times
Bessent sees ‘unruly’ Chinese trading behind gold price swings Bloomberg
Trump confirms upcoming Xi visit, pledges China trip in April Al Mayadeen
Thailand
‘Clear signal’: Thai PM Anutin says Bhumjaithai won most seats in election, open to working with other parties Channel News Asia
Syraqistan
‘Israel’s’ West Bank ‘annexation’ drive prompts condemnations Al Mayadeen
Why USrael-Iran war is inevitable GeoPolitiQ
Does Netanyahu’s Upcoming Visit With Trump Signal a US Attack on Iran? Larry Johnson
Iran arrests prominent reformist politicians, cites links to US, Israel Al Jazeera
Pentagon Makes Largest Known Arms Purchase from Israel — For Banned Cluster Weapons The Intercept
Africa
Collapsing Empire: US Bows To African Revolutionaries Kit Klarenberg
The business that bet the carbon market – and lost The Continent
Old Blighty
Starmer in fight to reassert control over Labour party after McSweeney exit The Guardian
British Corporate Media Is Pushing For Censorship On Substack. The Dissident
European Disunion
Opposition Socialist Party candidate Antonio Jose Seguro elected president of Portugal Anadolu Agency
Germany is quietly building a new model of governance — one that doesn’t need to cancel elections, ban parties, or openly censor speech, because it has learned how to administer the art of “legitimacy” upstream.
In a striking interview with Neue Zurcher Zeitung, researcher… https://t.co/JHf347Fw8Q pic.twitter.com/V8DtCpaEGC
— THE ISLANDER (@IslanderWORLD) February 6, 2026
New Not-So-Cold War
US-Russian-Ukrainian Peace Talks: Abu Dhabi 2 Gordon Hahn
What next for Ukraine? Julian MacFarlane
Starlink? Events in Ukraine
Analysts Reject Ukraine’s Claim of Attack on Russia’s Oreshnik Missile Launch Site Military Watch
South of the Border
U.S. Ammunition, Sold to Civilians, Fuels Mexican Cartel Violence TeleSur
L’affaire Epstein
US Congress to depose Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell AFP
Epstein messages someone that he’s “going into a SCIF”.
A SCIF is a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility.
A highly secure, specially designed enclosed area (a room, group of rooms, building section, or even a temporary setup) used by the U.S. government -particularly… pic.twitter.com/yrTM42julU
— Low Profile (@SeosQuinn) February 8, 2026
Epstein Files Reveal Scope of Ghislaine Maxwell’s Role in Clinton Circle New York Times
Noam Chomsky’s wife responds to Epstein controversy Aaron Mate
Spook Country
Inside the Classified Whistleblower Complaint Against America’s Spy Chief The After-Action Report
Trump 2.0
Trump’s Dollar Phenomenal World
‘Setting this agency up for failure’: Amid staffing crunch, IRS taps employees with no relevant experience to assist during filing season Government Executive
Social Security is directing employees who normally process benefits to answer phones instead Government Executive
Republicans Start Work To Get Trump His $1.5 Trillion Military Budget for 2027 Antiwar
There’s Not Enough Money in the World for Trump’s Golden Dome Futurism
Democrats Suck
Democrat Chasity Verret Martinez wins Louisiana state House special seat in district Trump won CBS News
Police State Watch
‘Operation Dildo Blitz’ Anti-ICE Protest in Minneapolis Ends With 50+ Arrests Common Dreams
ICE’s Private Prison Contractors Spent Millions Lobbying to Force Banks to Give Them Loans The Intercept
Immigration
These Haitian meatpacking workers may be deported. They voted to strike anyway. Food and Environment Reporting Network
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Homeland Security Spying on Reddit Users Ken klippenstein
Sports Desk
5 takeaways from Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime performance The Hill
Turning Point USA’s Halftime Show Was Exactly What You’d Expect Wired
International opposition to Trump and ICE shape opening of Milan Olympics WSWS
There is a metaphor here about the state of the union for sure. pic.twitter.com/kCc6o84Ytr
— Aaron Quinn (@AaronQuinn716) February 8, 2026
The Bezzle
Monopoly Round-Up: The $2 Trillion Collapse of Bitcoin and Terrible Software Companies BIG by Matt Stoller
Private credit worries resurface in $3 trillion market as AI pressures software firms CNBC
What’s Wrong with Nonprofits? Statecraft
Class Warfare
One of California’s first labor fights over AI is playing out at Kaiser Los Angeles Times
My landlord remotely controlled my heating — it was so cold I could see my breath The I Paper
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
80 comments
Comments are closed.
That piece about the landlord remote controlling the apartments utilities made me think of: You will control nothing and all will be frosty, dude.
Re the cat in today’s Antidote du jour. I think that somebody left the news channel running while they were out and after an hour of watching it, that cat is now having an existential crisis.
LMAO! The sad thing is it feels so true.
Naw the cat is bored because he wants to lick the shower water and mommy is showing too long
There is a metaphor here for the state of the Union. Please, never ever loose your sense of humour. There somehow resides the ability to save the Union form most maladies. I had a good laugh with this, a sane laugh seeing USians are still able to have a laugh about themselves.
re: US “metaphor”
I was watching it on live TV. (this was weeks ago btw)
Now think about that.
How historic.
And of course in conversations Jamaica came up…
In Bavaria and Austria you have special appreciation for this sport.
It´s like Cricket in UK and on the subcontinent I assume.
And now it´s Israel…
Wukchumni should dedicate one piece to this all…
They want you (they want you)
They need you (they need you)
There ain’t no way you’re ever gonna medal
Now don’t be sad (don’t be sad ’cause)
‘Cause one out of four ain’t bad
Now don’t be sad
‘Cause one out of four ain’t bad
kudos!
speedy and spot on
“Homeland Security Spying on Reddit Users”
Reddit uses roll their eyes and tell Homeland Security to take a number as they already have 17 different security organizations watching every post that goes up already. These days, if you write something to go up on the internet and you are not already on a list somewhere, then you are doing it wrong.
Curious if the various spys bother to distinguish between bots, promotional accounts, karma farmers, people with mutiple sock puppet accounts, and just regular folk.
God know the AI data scrapers do not.
17 organizations and their hypersensitive LLMs auto-suspending users for the slightest danger of actually changing something. Social media’s cooked, folx.
Believing that the government monitors social media is one thing, but coming face-to-face with actual evidence of it is quite another. When the government singles out specific users for scrutiny, other Reddit users become suspicious that they are being watched, too. This discourages them from posting critical content about the government.
As Dubya would say, Mission accomplished!
Tangential at best but…
From 2020:
Ghislaine Maxwell was one of the most powerful Reddit posters
—-
Rev said “These days, if you write something to go up on the internet and you are not already on a list somewhere, then you are doing it wrong.”
Indeed, but at least I’ll have fine company in the NC commentariat wing of the gulag.
‘member when it was all “Russia Security Spying on ____ Users”?
WSWS: International opposition. Olympics.
The Italians indeed have been acting up. Lantier catches the shift in the mood in Italy. It isn’t universal. After all, the Meloni government tried a few Minneapolis tactics here in the Chocolate City about ten days ago — which haven’t gone over well. Nevertheless, she persists — and shows us that the Fratelli d’Italia are also Fratelli di Trump.
So I recommend the article. The situation is complicated — this is Italy. The Olympics are a source of pride (the Italians won a bunch of medals the first day).
And then there is Ghali, who has created a wonderful controversy.
I searched for a translation of Promemoria. Evidently, Gianni Rodari, who was a communist almost all of his life (and was born in the Undisclosed Region), is too hot to handle for the Anglos. We wouldn’t want his wonderful children’s poetry and tales to pollute neoliberalism, eh
Promemoria di Gianni Rodari:
Ci sono cose da fare ogni giorno:
lavarsi, studiare, giocare,
preparare la tavola
a mezzogiorno.
Ci sono cose da fare di notte:
chiudere gli occhi, dormire,
avere sogni da sognare,
orecchie per non sentire.
Ci sono cose da non fare mai,
né di giorno, né di notte,
né per mare, né per terra:
per esempio, la guerra.
[quick translation DJG]
There are things to do every day:
wash yourself, study, play,
set the table
at midday.
There are things to do each night:
close your eyes, go to sleep,
have dreams to dream,
ears that don’t hear sounds.
There are things not to do ever,
not during the day, not at night,
not at sea, not on land:
for instance, war.
Italian pal came over for a coffee. We were mostly trash-talking the Italian and German costumes worn by the athletes on their ceremonial entry. Allegedly the Italian uniforms were Armani designs?
Goodness.
And it was Anna-Lena Baerbock carrying the torch of peace…
Did she carry it across the Rubicon?
She most likely would get lost not knowing about the river story in the first place.
‘Aaron Quinn
@AaronQuinn716
There is a metaphor here about the state of the union for sure.’
Feel sorry for those guys on the bobsled team. Four years of hard work, practice and training all gone down the toilet. Seems the second guy in threw his leg too high trying to get in which knocked the third guy out of getting into the sled and that left the fourth guy nowhere. Hopefully their next run will go better.
This was not an Olympic run, this was a few weeks ago.
Re: The age of Takaichi dawns
This is a good round-up, though one point that only gets glossed is that the LDP grabbed this supermajority mainly by sweeping the Single Member Districts (SMDs) [shō senkyoku].
And this is where things get interesting:
https://x.com/taku_almurakami/status/2020717590990270531
According to this analysis, the LDP’s share of the vote under proportional representation [hirei daihyō] is only 36.7%, which means more than 60% of the voters chose non-LDP parties. I.e., the opposition vote was split and the LDP prevailed through the winner-take-all logic of the SMDs.
Regarding younger voters, Harris’ article notes:
Objectively, this is true, though from my vantage point many of these young people are extraordinarily naïve about politics and will become disenchanted if/when they connect the dots that the leadership doesn’t give a toss about them but still demands that they “bleed for Japan”.
And possibly sooner than later, because the news is already that Takaichi will “advance and revise” three security-related documents:
https://www.47news.jp/13845297.html
The power of US controlled social media, perhaps
UK style “landslide.” Made worse because there really is no “organized” opposition to LDP in Japan.
Why Is Spain’s Social Housing So Well-Designed?
The mellow harsher is at the end of the article.
A lot of unfashionable, functional social housing was gobbled up 2008-> by..someone with money with the ear of some minister
The vienna ambition is correct, but vienna is an outlier in public policy for more than 100 years now.
I have lost count of housing professionals who love vienna, but see this experience as embargoed, not for export.
You can have niche pilots, but if you look at backlog need in most countries, the private sector has not supplied in tandem with the social sector.
So you end up with homelessness and the wretched choices (now assisted by parliaments) that include a non violent professionally covered hit .
Currently most abysmal talk in Germany about the rent issue and housing.
Staggering dishonesty through the ranks.
No substantial public resistance any more.
Poverty in Germany latest figure:
13.3M threatened by poverty which is defined < 1446 Euros income/month.
30% of single households are affected.
One major reason the housing issue/extreme rents and real estate.
Successful housing policies, like good health systems, are rarely designed and implemented in one go – they develop over time in the right socio-political context. As such, they can rarely be replicated, even though there is always a lot to learn by looking at countries with successful policies (and the disasters too).
A key element that Spanish and other Western European countries have is an emphasis on architecture as a unifying feature, in contrast to the Anglosphere where there is almost always a very distinct differentiation between public and private housing in design and appearance, resulting in an immediate stigma of the former.
Population collapse, in about two generations (2 x 25 years) will provide lots of affordable housing…
And if we also get some wars going on…
File under ICE. From Due Dissidence, utube, ~7+ minutes.
Bannon Promises ICE Will “SURROUND THE POLLS” in November
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5Z8k0KUOeA
This would be an excellent way to lose the Mandate of Heaven as I support that even some of the more extreme anti immigrant factions might think this as voter suppression especially if there is any violence within sight of the polls. The Ku Klux Klan and the local police were used under Jim Crow to protect the polling stations from the unacceptable after all.
Indeed, See also the so-called ‘literacy tests’ from back in the day.
Given the lack of auditing, leaky software and improved comms in voting machines, they could elect anyone they want anywhere they want. Glitches and all. Welcome President Mickey Mouse.
The expectations and blowback from voters is the real problem, because manufacturing consent is what they need to do. So expectations are being managed, though Bannon is a bit of a loose cannon
Trump’s trillion and half for the war profiting machine!
The linked article says the NDAA is $1.05 T!
The constitution says “raise” and army and “maintain” the navy. The NDAA is the “raise” part: sets the order of battle for US military and the “maintained” navy.
You cannot appropriate for 2 years or less (per the written constitution) what is not in the NDAA!
What is the congress going to appropriate a 50% price rise for the stuff in the NDAA?
They could appropriate enough resources for the war profit machine to pass an audit.
I discovered over the weekend that USMC passed the audit in 2024! The only agency in the war profits establishment and Navy owns all their heavy equipment, airplanes, etc…. They may have excused the USMC effort to replace the AMTRAKs.
I agree with yves on AI. My own opinion is that there is literally no positive side either to AI, or those promoting it.
I think AI is a trojan horse. No billionaires would be throwing billions at something that doesn’t hugely benefit them, their wealth and power. And the pace of data centre builds seems frenetic.
Some uses?
# Keeping track of, and killing, enemy targets in Occupations (Israel has this one sewn up)
# Keeping track of comments and ideas that threaten the billionaires, and neutering them with mocking/derogatory comments, or disappearing them
# Keeping track of digital currency, who is buying what where
# Controlling access to digital currency, once it replaces anonymous cash, debanking on steroids
# Flooding the online space with propaganda and mood management bots
# Flooding the online space with random fluff so that anyone who has insights into what is going on is drowned out or disappears in the fog
# Controlling the voting population at election time via social media etc to have the most oligarch-useful candidate elected in a landslide – see Japan
# Moulding the minds of the young so that they believe that they must rely on AI because they can never be as smart as AI
# Using the young, AI addicted population to spontaneously demonstrate against any government that is getting in the way of the oligarchs (thereby sending warning signals to said governments)
and a whole other bunch of stuff that isnt yet conceived
And the problem is that every government would become addicted to the power of this, so overthrowing the west probably wouldnt make a dent in the use of AI.
Global warming is probably the only thing that AI cannot control
“Reproduction in space, an environment hostile to human biology”
This would be wildly dangerous for an embryo. What about the background radiation? What effect will weightlessness have on an embryo? How do you get a baby back to earth that has never experienced full gravity? Will that baby be even able to breath after arriving? Will it’s little bones break if it tries to move too fast?
Reproducing in space is another matter altogether. In a Robert Heinlein story, two “spacers” were talking about a brothel that was operating in orbit. Customers would climb into a sphere with their chosen “partner” and the entire inner surface was a mirror. But then one day a fresh recruit went in, got completely disorientated, then threw up all over the place including on his partner. Tell me that this could never happen.
Someone I know did work on Newts in space. I found that so funny that I don’t recall the results.
(Female newts, or at least this species, can store sperm until they feel like using it. Not something humans can do but was part of why there were Newts in Space.)
https://karlof1.substack.com/p/dr-hudson-on-xi-jinping-thought-the
(Email) Interview of Dr. Hudson with China Daily
Apologies if this will be featured in its own blog post later (I don’t think it has been at the time of posting this comment?), if so please delete
Great link
Thanks
“Bessent sees ‘unruly’ Chinese trading behind gold price swings”
What Bessent means is that China refused to take art in the engineered collapse of gold and silver the other day and he is not happy at all.
Images of citizens being executed in the streets by government agents had a real effect on the conscience of many Americans. And not just liberal critics of ICE. It included some MAGA folks who actually believe in civil liberties, but more importantly a large segment of the general population who are just “normal” folks who are not usually motivated by partisan politics. It was a real moment that provided an opportunity to unify a lot of people over something of crucial importance.
So naturally you want to alienate most of them by organizing “Operation Dildo Blitz.”
Just curious. Was this cooked up by some agent provocateur, or are there actually some f**king idiot Abby Hoffman wannabes who thought this stunt would accomplish something? Well, it did.
I’m not sure how many people are being alienated by this.
All of the media coverage of Saturday’s protest that I’ve seen have completely avoided talking about or showing images dildos being thrown (they have all replaced “dildo” with “chunks of ice” when reporting on the police crackdown it generated) so most people here in Minneapolis have no idea what happened unless they are really plugged in.
For people here who are in the trenches, it provided a very much needed moment of levity.
If you haven’t seen clips yet, it’s worth taking a moment to search them out.
I’ve seen the clips.
I respect the people in the trenches very much. Since I am not there, perhaps I have no right to question their tactics, or moments of levity. But strategically, I also cannot help but view this from the broader perspective as well. To me it evokes pink pussy hats. You may scoff and say that people are actually getting beat up and killed here. And I would say yes; that is exactly my point. This battle is larger and more serious than the pussy hat charade.
The best outcome will be minimal coverage by the mainstream media, as seems to be the case (“dildos” and all!). But you can bet it will make for useful sound and sight bites in the conservative media.
It has the same ‘ick’ factor as ‘pink pussy’ hats.
Was it some sort of LARPing of the ancient Greek play Lysistrata? If so, it was much below the importance of what is happening in Minneapolis, imo.
Now, bear with me here, replace those phallic impersonators with toilet plungers…. as in the poor fellow in I believe New York City who suffered indignity and physical damage from the application of said bathroom implement at the hands of the City Police.
Stay safe.
I would never scoff at a member of the commentariat whose contributions I very much appreciate.
If the protests at Whipple were a one day event that didn’t interfere with brunch plans, I would agree with you but large numbers of people are down there every day.
How would you like to be the prosecutor of the 54 people charged with “Assault with a friendly weapon” ?
Talk about a career killer.
Can you imagine a good defense attorney saying something along the lines of “These protestors just wanted the ICE officers to be happy ” ?
I’m not sure if this –
“…no idea what happened unless they are really plugged in.”
– was intentional, but it is definitely hilarious. Having one plugged in would definitely get a person’s attention.
;)
Protests have reached the pussy hat stage, so a new distraction must be imminent. Another sign is protestors attacking their own.
https://nypost.com/2026/02/08/us-news/anti-ice-protesters-attack-their-own-supporter-with-sex-toys-in-minneapolis/
Respectfully, they have not reached that stage.
No one who is allowed to enter Whipple in a vehicle is considered to be one of “their own” no matter what signs they display:
Hard hats and dummy plates: Reports of ICE ruses add to fears in Minnesota
Thanks for providing such a perfectly illustrative example of my point!
I did some digging and it looks like it was coordinated by local adult shop The Smitten Kitten (which is one of the major mutual aid hubs here in Minneapolis) who were supplying expired dildos to a group calling itself the “Dildo Distribution Delegation”.
J6 provocateur Jake Lang announced he was going cause a disruption at the Whipple Federal Building that day in a rented U-Haul (also worth searching for clips) and I suspect the dildos were intended for him but when he bailed they were repurposed.
My guess: ‘some agent provocateur.’
I mean, who would pay for those things? (Then again, who paid for those mysteriously appearing pallets of bricks in areas with no construction going on during the BLM protests?… Inquiring minds… / ;)
Rubber bullets!
The interview in Statecraft about NGOs and their problems and political cultures was more analytical than I was expecting, though very conventional in terms of the categories of analysis taken from organizational sociology. The political implications of “associations without members” and “intense policy demanders” are things that need to be explored at deeper levels and more broadly. I wish I could have brought researcher Andrew Lowenthal from his interview about the German censorship network into the room.
One thing that bothers me about NGOs is the way most seem to swim in a linguistic sea of moralistic cliches of do-goodism, networking and “partners” and “transparency” and “accountability”. If you look at their collateral, such as websites or annual reports, they all seem to speak this common, meaningless language that is both cloyingly bright and obscure, beginning with the names they adopt for themselves and their programs. Reading these interviews (Statecraft and Neue Zurcher Zeitung), the mystery deepened, but I learned.
The Twitter/Lowenthal is not entirely correct in this limited assessment:
“Germany is quietly building a new model of governance — one that doesn’t need to cancel elections, ban parties, or openly censor speech, because it has learned how to administer the art of “legitimacy” upstream.”
That would indeed correspond with the US-inspired analysis of “MANUFACTURING CONSENT” which is experiencing new popularity among journalists and commentators.
By comparison that was/is benign to what we actually are facing now.
This today is not only soft power!
I am aware Lowenthal is not focusing on it – but censorship is actually the real sword here.
Informally it is true that people don´t speak out because a particular feeling has been established.
(I am not sure, was it 60% of Germans´ fear to speak out freely?)
However there is the normative power enshrined in such laws as the banning of BDS. Also contained in the latest antisemitism clause which is intentionally kept very broad to keep people insecure but it does include punishment.
Add to that the various “fascism” regulations + threats of banning AfD , the new amendment on denying genocide and war of aggression after the Ukraine War had started and as of January add the implementation of actual punishment if Germans violate the sanctions regime against people or entities.
All of these might not concern common individuals in their everyday lives (unlike the informal NGO-system which has streamlined what is chic to say and what is no-no).
The mentioned laws are however directed against those professional media workers and activists who have usually been at the forefront of public resistance of mobilizing those who fear the informal ostracism.
Without these material laws the NGO-“culture” Lowenthal describes would be much less threatening and problematic.
And one more biggie which is seldomly mentioned because it concers social net and income:
The threat of losing ones job and poverty make everyone much more cautious.
It might just be regarded as coincidental but 1) I don´t think it is 2) it doesn´t matter to the now mostly defunct system at large. In a society where losing your workplace can threaten your existence the question of freedom of speech becomes subordinate.
Yeah, that was a somewhat curious interview. I’ve worked at a large nonprofit for a couple decades so what they are talking about didn’t seem so far off to me. I felt they touched on a lot of critical issues but didn’t linger very long on any of them. They mentioned, for instance, that the rise of NGOs coincided with the decline in traditional civil society organizations, but they hardly dwelled on the ramifications of such changes. Hierarchical organizations beholden to government/oligarchic interests in place of more or less organic community-based associations? I think the incuriosity towards such radical social shifts is interesting.
re: Uganda vs. human rights Lina Zedriga
BERLINER ZEITUNG
machine-translation
A human rights lawyer disappears: The price of resistance in Uganda
In September, Lina Zedriga was still dancing on the roof of the Berlin publishing house. On election day in January, the vice president of Uganda’s largest opposition party was abducted.
https://archive.is/UMWFU
re: Big Agro & pesticides
LEE FANG Substack
preview only
Pesticide Industry Infiltrates MAHA to Derail Reforms
Croplife America, the lobby group for Bayer and Syngenta, has all but wiped out any prospect for pesticide health and safety reforms.
https://www.leefang.com/p/pesticide-industry-infiltrates-maha
Substack should be prepared to do to the UK what Imgur did.
Which was…?
In response to the Online Safety Act, Imgur geo-blocked all users in the UK. 🫠
Axios
Zoom in: She said cutting red tape, streamlining regulations and supporting workforce training are among the top policy goals of her group
In other words, standard republican…let them eat training.
Further on, population and resulting job losses can be traced to the rent being too high, which not ironically is exactly why these abundance bros have so much value to their assets.
And speaking of whom social security could be fixed by raising the wage cap to 250,000 and then at least those committed super ager bros would be throwing more money in the ss fund to account for their living to 150. That is not too much to ask for ,Representative Bustos. If you are a democrat, you should demand it, but since you’re a Democrat, you won’t. Hopefully this sort of person will become so exasperated by the unheralded left that they will decamp to the repubs and “fix” that party instead.
– “Hopefully this sort of person will become so exasperated by the unheralded left that they will decamp to the repubs and “fix” that party instead.”
If so, it will mirror what millions of voters have done over the last several decades: “decamp” to the Republicans as the Democratic party followed the advice of a parade of “centrist” groups like this one. It did help the Dems gain more support from Wall Street and suburban soccer moms though.
Given the history of the Party since Carter, I actually thought this article headline might have been from The Onion. Then I saw it was from Axios…
Regarding safety of statins. NC posted a link yesterday (2/08/25) to a 15-year-old article that claimed that statin use accelerated coronary artery calcification and hence atherosclerosis and congestive heart failure. Statin use has been intensely opposed by practitioners of naturopathic medicine. The topic of statin side effects and benefits is covered in a recent huge meta review in the Lancet. The findings are summarized in https://www.acsh.org/news/2026/02/07/worried-about-using-statins-dont-be-49958 The conclusion is that the side effects on drug warning labels mostly do not occur and that those that are real are infrequent. Also, their use did correlate with a decrease in heart attacks and strokes.
Well in the last 5 months, 2 childhood friends, both male and 63, died from heart failure. Both were taking statins for elevated LDL numbers. Stating that a study is 15 years old and reflexively making the assumption that the results don’t measure up to later studies because… … It’s old(?) is no reason to downplay it’s results. Maybe older studies were less corrupted by those that stand to benefit from the increased use in statins as a preventative, than recent publications.
The research around statins is opaque. A collaboration funded by the pharmaceutical companies, the Cholesterol Treatment Triallist Group (CTT) has the raw data under lock and key and independent researchers have been trying to get access to this data for decades. With no luck.
Why are the trials funded by the pharma industry?
Why is the raw data a secret?
This is an ongoing debate in sections of the medical community.
https://www.bmj.com/campaign/statins-open-data
https://theconversation.com/well-never-know-if-statins-are-safe-while-commercial-interests-come-first-24608
https://www.crossfit.com/health/mayanne-demasi-1-the-secret-life-of-data
https://www.zoeharcombe.com/2025/11/the-ctt-statin-papers/
If statins are so efficaceous, then you would expect the raw data to be given away to anyone who wants to look at it.
The fact that it’s such a secret says to me three things.
First that the benefits of statins are probably quite overstated.
Secondly that the risks associated with taking statins are probably understated.
And most importantly, that the release of the data would threaten or even wipe out the huge profits that statins make for the pharmaceutical companies
America This Week
4pm ET
https://www.racket.news/p/america-this-week-4-pm-monday-et
I occasionally look at public figures in an attempt to discern what their “Spirit Animal” is, Vikings famously chose the bear which is where “Berserker” comes from.
White House spokespersons seem to be inhabited by the spirit of the Dung Beetle, members of Trump’s inner circle display the spirit of several creatures, most often the banana slug, a slimy poop eating predator with a sickly sweet smell.
Dracaena park in Piedmont is an ideal habitat for banana slugs, pervaded by their scent and it where I first saw one chowing down on dog poop.
Don’t forget Placobdelloides jaegerskioeldi.
“Noam Chomsky’s wife responds to Epstein controversy”
Methinks that she does protest too much-
https://xcancel.com/CDMorlock/status/2020616016531947905#m
So who exactly is Valeria Chomsky nee Valeria Wasserman that caused Chomsky to cut off his kids?
If this common dreams article is correct and Congress has seen the unredacted versions and haven’t done anything then they are just doormats and should recalled from office.
RO khanna should be ashamed. If he’s not reading the un redacted documents in Congress tomorrow then he’s not fit for office.
Those young women and all the hell they have been through need their justice. This is the only way. This is the start to clean house, why are they protecting these monsters?
I didn’t realize they had seen those documents.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/massie-nuclear-epstein-files
Re enshittification, very recent personal experience, over three months
Our internet has been horrible, and after the illness of a tight-fisted family member caused me to take over the management of our account, I found out it was because we were on the lowest cheapest plan. We had been with this isp for over 20 years. It is the second oldest and largest isp in the country.
Cue me calling the isp to transfer to a new much better plan,and get my name on the customer record
Over 3 months of calls they did the following
# First call – forgot to put my name on the record.
# Second call, added me, wrong spelling of first and last name though (later found out). They merged my record with that of another customer, so when I could finally log in I could see all this other customers details: name, address, payment credit. Said they would upgrade the plan as asked. Internet still awful.
# Third call, in which I mentioned this might be illegal, they said they would fix up the record. Said they would upgrade my plan
# Fourth call, they finally removed the other customer from my record and got my name right. Said they would see why my plan wasn’t upgraded
# Fifth call, they said it was ‘system issues’ as to why my plan hadnt been upgraded, but they would fix it straight away. Charged me $2 on my credit card. I asked them how they are still in business.
A month later, no new plan. I might add that each of these calls chewed up an hour or three while they identified me, found the record, put me on hold, talked to me, put me on hold (rinse and repeat)
Yesterday I changed isps. Internet now runs like smoke.
lol
Maxwell can clear Trump’s name in Epstein probe in exchange for clemency, attorney says
Play the card you have I guess
Never even heard of Bad Bunny until I saw him in that film “Bullet Train”-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88dcagH_skM (2:47 mins)
Saw much of his performance yesterday from the Super Bowl but was not that much impressed. Still, the whole thing would have enraged Trump especially when they finished that performance with the words ‘We’re still here.’ I’m sure that Trump would have ordered Bondi to send an ICE team to check the papers of all those performers but by the time they would have arrived, those performers would have been long gone.
Ah, but their ‘escape’ plane would have been forced down at an Air Force base by that “missing” F-22. Then they would have been processed, at Guantanamo Base. If they were judged to be innocent, they will be allowed to swim back to America from Havana.
See. No problems at all!
re: Hollywood & AI
OpenAI Wins Key Discovery Battle as It Gains Ground Against Authors in AI Lawsuits
The company cited attorney-client privilege in rejecting a bid for information related to its deletion of two datasets used to train old versions of its AI system.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/openai-wins-key-discovery-battle-as-it-gains-ground-against-authors-in-ai-lawsuits-1236500933/
“(…)
The court had just ruled that OpenAI waived attorney-client privilege by denying allegations that it knowingly infringed upon the copyrights of authors whose books it illegally downloaded. The finding opened the door to internal communications behind the company’s deletion of two huge datasets of pirated books, potentially exposing it to massive damages. Its in-house legal team was set to be deposed.
OpenAI immediately appealed the ruling, bringing on Lisa Blatt, a veteran of the Supreme Court bar who counts Google, Bank of America and Starbucks as clients. In her brief, she delivered a dire warning: the decision, if allowed to stand, will eviscerate assertions of privilege in any copyright case involving what’s known as state of mind, an analysis used to determine whether a defendant intentionally committed infringement or was unaware of doing so.
(…)”
re: Warner Brothers takeover
Netflix Exec Predicts “$6 Billion in Job Cuts” if Paramount Buys Warner Bros. Discovery
“And, quite frankly, we think it’s going to be even more than that,” Clete Williams says.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/massive-layoffs-if-paramount-buys-warner-bros-says-netflix-1236500848/
This commenter has been banned for multiple rule violations, including Being an Asshole.