Scientists Say Earth’s Core Could Be Hiding the Equivalent of up to 45 Oceans of Water ZME Science
Researcher skeptical of ‘Havana syndrome’ tested secret weapon on himself WaPo
Climate/Environment
The nation’s largest public utility is going back to coal — with almost no input from the public Grist
Study: Central Asia’s Water Tower to Lose One-third of Glacier Mass by 2040 The Diplomat
Disintegration by Cowardice The Climate Un-Censor
Pandemics
Rising global incidence of postviral diabetes after COVID-19 and public health implications Discover Public Health
The Koreas
Court sentences ex-President Yoon to life imprisonment over martial law bid Yonhap
Japan
Trump lauds Japan’s pledge to invest $36 billion in U.S. oil, gas and critical mineral projects CNBC
The Energy Blind Spot in Japan’s National Security Strategy Tokyo Review
U.S. Firm to Build Training Hub in Fukushima N-plant for Debris Removal; Plans to Establish Training Center by 2029 Yomiuri Shimbun
China?
Tokyo’s strategic US investment surge puts China on edge Asia Times
Trump’s April Visit to China is Taking Shape at High Speed George Chen
Who Can Halt the ‘America First’ Ambition Rolling Across the Globe? — China can. Alastair Crooke
US offers more details on claim China conducted secret nuclear weapons test South China Morning Post
Syraqistan
Israel Plans To Resume The Full Scale Genocide In Gaza. The Dissident
Did Israel detain right-wing US commentator Tucker Carlson? Firstpost
***
One Minute to Midnight Larry Johnson
What Iran’s Naval Exercise With China And Russia In The Strait Of Hormuz Actually Means The War Zone
Rep. Ro Khanna To Force a Vote on Iran War Powers Resolution Next Week Antiwar
***
US preparing for pullout of all troops from Syria The Hill
Middle East-focused US/UK intel contractors discussed price for their spies to ‘break stuff’ All-Source Intelligence
Africa
Nigeria on the brink, as we handover sovereignty to America, By Jibrin Ibrahim Premium Times
European Disunion
Berlin Court Orders Foreign Election Interference — And Calls It Democracy Islander Reports
Arms Trade Corruption Tracker exposes NATO’s ‘highest-profile corruption scandal’ The Canary
Old Blighty
🚨BREAKING — Donald Trump says “it may be necessary for the United States to use Diego Garcia, and the Airfield located in Fairford” to attack Iran.
He seems to be suggesting that UK bases could be used in an attack on Iran with or without Britain’s consent. pic.twitter.com/tPxVGP1xss
— Declassified UK (@declassifiedUK) February 18, 2026
Labour Spied On Journalists, Including Me Kit Klarenberg
UK prosecutors drop aggravated burglary charges against 24 Palestine Action activists The Cradle
Tony Blair: Watching ‘Schindler’s List’ inspired my approach to politics Jewish Chronicle
New Not-So-Cold War
Will investing in Russia really bring America a $12trn bonanza? The Economist
From the “Crimson Digest” Telegram channel:
This statement by Mr. Peskov, in response to RBK asking him to comment on a claim in The Economist about “a deal with the US for 12 trillion dollars on the condition of lifting sanctions” is a signal — but not for Russians, not for…
— Russians With Attitude (@RWApodcast) February 18, 2026
Clash of Civilizations Julian MacFarlane
Estimating Trajectories in Attritional Warfare Warwick Powell
Imperial Collapse Watch
The Generalized Dutch Disease Policy Tensor
How the US Won Back Chip Manufacturing China Talk
South of the Border
U.S. Boat Strikes Kill Eleven Council on Foreign Relations
Is Rubio backing off Cuba regime change for his own political good? Responsible Statecraft
L’affaire Epstein
Underage Accuser Included Trump ‘Rape’ Allegations In Her Lawsuit Against Epstein Roger Sollenberger
The Israeli Government Installed and Maintained Security System at Epstein Apartment Drop Site.
Trump 2.0
US president’s son Eric Trump invests in drone maker with gov’t contracts Al Jazeera
Hegseth Brings Christian Nationalist to Pentagon to Pray for Christian Revival After-Action Report
Demolition Asbestos Poisons Workers at DHS Headquarters (SCOOP) Migrant Insider
Credit cards cancelled, Google accounts closed: ICC judges on life under Trump sanctions The Guardian
US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere Reuters
Democrats Suck
As Trump Marches US Toward Iran War, Critics Ask: Where’s the ‘Pushback’ From Dems and Media? Common Dreams
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Leaked Email Suggests Ring Plans to Expand ‘Search Party’ Surveillance Beyond Dogs 404 Media
‼️ BREAKING: Researchers have uncovered secret AI surveillance projects linked to KYC provider Persona and OpenAI, sending user data to the US government.
Code references include intelligence program codenames “Project SHADOW” and “Project LEGION.”
Analysis of source code… pic.twitter.com/fnmQDgzWH8
— International Cyber Digest (@IntCyberDigest) February 19, 2026
The Jackpot
The Collapse is Here. It’s Just Not Evenly Distributed. Jessica Wildfire
The Accelerationists
Child’s Play Harper’s Magazine. Tech’s new generation and the end of thinking.
Meta’s AI glasses empower creeps Oligarch Watch
MAHA
MAHA Turns One Economic Populist
Secretary @PeteHegseth visited us for a beachside brunch — he can turn a leisurely afternoon into a MAHA extravaganza with tree pull-ups, a cold plunge, and a Mediterranean feast! pic.twitter.com/3j8IBXyns0
— Dr. Mehmet Oz (@DrOz) February 18, 2026
“Liberation Day”
Who Is Paying for the 2025 U.S. Tariffs? Federal Reserve Bank of New York
WH adviser Hassett urges ‘discipline’ for Fed economists over tariff study AP
Economy
What’s happening in the U.S. economy is looking less like Greenspan’s 1990s “productivity miracle” and more like Bernanke’s 2000s “jobless recovery”—except this time it’s a “jobless boom” with no recession first, something the U.S. has simply never seen (https://t.co/TdkIipCNmB) pic.twitter.com/mHuDYAxsLK
— Matthew B (@boes_) February 18, 2026
Small Business in the TINA Economy: Competing for the Scraps Charles Hugh Smith
Our economy is structurally rigged to produce these kinds of results…https://t.co/WUwNRjYhtM pic.twitter.com/QYr5ZolciW
— Faiz (@fshakir) February 18, 2026
AI
How AI slop is causing a crisis in computer science Nature. Commentary:
A really dangerous situation. Too many submissions. Too many generated papers. Little responsibility.
1. In 2026, more than 24,000 submissions were made to the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML). It’s TWO times more than in 2025. To fight it, the organizers now… pic.twitter.com/0vqRABMOat
— Andrew Akbashev (@Andrew_Akbashev) February 18, 2026
Antitrust
Paramount Has a Secret Plan to Buy Hollywood Before the Cops Arrive BIG by Matt Stoller
The Bezzle
Plug-in hybrids use three times more fuel than manufacturers claim, analysis finds The Guardian
Tesla ‘Robotaxi’ adds 5 more crashes in Austin in a month — 4x worse than humans Electrek
Class Warfare
Capitalization of the World: Global Distribution of Income from Property, 2000–2020 Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality
Workers’ resolve drives increase in unionization in 2025 Economic Policy Institute
Labor Movement, Attack! Hamilton Nolan
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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‘Declassified UK
@declassifiedUK
🚨BREAKING — Donald Trump says “it may be necessary for the United States to use Diego Garcia, and the Airfield located in Fairford” to attack Iran.
He seems to be suggesting that UK bases could be used in an attack on Iran with or without Britain’s consent.’
I’m sure that in Trump’s mind there is a simple solution. He could demand that the UK hand over Diego Garcia to the US so that it can be made American territory on the grounds of national security. Like with what he wants to do to Greenland. Once you invoke ‘national security’ you can do all sorts of skullduggery.
Using the “y’all p****””s who won’t stop me” is effective it seems.
Added bonus: Starmer government goes down in the ensuing kerfluffle. Everybody wins!
Added bonus: Starmer government goes down in the ensuing kerfluffle. Everybody wins!
And when Iran – not unreasonably – launches attacks on the bases that launched attacks on it…. :O
It would probably help Trump’s case if the UK relinquished all territorial claims to Diego Garcia first.
The entire premise of this ‘story’ is absurd. The UK is a vassal of a vassal. Their Cyprus airbases have been used by the IDF continuously for over 2 years. That they will not be used if Israel is threatened by Iran is inconceivable and little more performative political theater for the British public to allow them to pretend they will somehow not be rolled into the fallout of the Iran attack.
Andrew arrested! The fall guy for the elite or (one hopes) the first of the dominoes to fall?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/livestory/andrew-mountbatten-windsor-arrest-uk-police-epstein-files-9.7096935
Speaking as a cynic, I would say that Andrew was arrested so that the US did not have to arrest Bill Clinton.
It seems that two different things are going on here that are given equivalence and smeared together. Epstein ran women for entertainment and bait. Girls are easily taken advantage of. They are trained to be sexually attractive from a very early age. The male response is hard wired. Lenny Bruce had it right when he said a man will f##k mud. This condition is just barely balanced by some variable moral inculcation. And let’s be real about the over used term pedophile. Women mature at different ages and the age of consent varies in different cultures. A child is prepubescent. When a teenage girl turns into a woman is impossible to define, Underage is a statutory determination made to simplify our outrage. I can’t help but feel the current outrage is somewhat manufactured to indicate it can’t happen here.
The other thing is not the same. It is the subversion of allocated power. A failure of public trust, of the few working against the interests of the many. The aggrievance of the victims is not trivial but we are all victims, some more willing then others. But the number of sexual victims pale in comparison to the political victims. Just consider all the dead in Palestine in a war facilitated by Epstein’s skullduggery.
I guess I am remembering an argument with my father in law 20 some years ago about Bush dragging us into the Iraq war and he said what about Monica Lewinsky. As if 200,000 dead had some equivalency to spilling the mayonnaise on the blue dress. How many people reading today’s headline thought Andrew was being arrested for rape not espionage?
I have often wondered at the christian notion of sex is a sin and messianic state sanctioned murder is good, and how that is nuanced in accordance with the ten commandments.
I am flagging this comment as highly offensive and unacceptable. Epstein and Maxwell procured young girls to be used and abused by older, powerful men. R**ped in other words. And as we all (should) know, r**pe is not about sex it is about power.
These were girls, trafficked and imprisoned, then cast off to live a lifetime of coming to grips with their abuse – and in many cases unaliving themselves. There is zero “consent” in this situation.
The comment I have quoted is deeply misogynistic and victim-blaming. I find it repugnant and not acceptable for the NC commentariat.
I agree about the overuse of pedophile in this case but there is still something very wrong with men who prefer such young girls, they were closer to childhood than adulthood – easily manipulated and overpowered, it is very, very ugly. And, yes the genocide is Gaza is horrible, I don’t think outrage for one needs to exclude outrage for the other. These people are scum, arrest them for anything that will stick.
My point was, part of the outrage of the other is a fig leaf for moral ambivalence when it comes to sexuality. It is much like the outrage over abortion is a morally superior position to the same people who are OK with wholesale killing for conquest and who just wring their hands over adults who are criminals because they were borne to parents who never wanted them and didn’t raise them.
I share AR’s and CanCin’s views that these young women were/are victimized, trafficked, sexually abused and imprisoned, but am however curious about the insistence on referring to them as young girls, and not young women.
Clinton had his own wars, killed Iraqis by the 100ks just as the Bushes did, and I’m With Her voted for Bush’s wars. It’s all the same mayonnaise.
Yes!
Good question. Is he their sacrificial lamb, their Weinstein/Spacey, or will he take some more down?
I often hear in the press of the real consequences that the Epstein “files” have had. But if it’s somebody well past retirement age losing a job or a title then Meh! That’s not what I call real consequences. When you start locking these criminals up I’ll take notice. Hence arrest of the Andrew formerly known as Prince is a step in the right direction.
Yesterday I was listening over again to Whitney Webb’s 2022 interview on TrueAnon, a podcast launched 2019 as “the one and only podcast dedicated to uncovering the TRUTH about global pedophile rings, the CIA, the coverups and more.” Webb was doing the pre-release media tour for her two volume book One Nation Under Blackmail which puts Epstein in the much bigger history of dirty money and blackmail that the criminal and spy world relies upon.
It’s Episode 249: Worldwide Webb. Really something. Unfortunately it’s a Patreon only episode. There’s a short trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV201n0tiWg) or you can get a Patreon free trial (7 days, i think?) and get it like that https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-249-webb-72285750
Or get the book.
The book is now free for download at archive.org. There are far too many obscure names to read it close and fast but if you skim over all the obscure name paragraphs you can get through it in a few sittings. It is very good.
Link to the pdf
Link won’t load.
https://archive.org/stream/one-nation-under-blackmail-vol-1-2-whitney-alyse-webb_202401/One%20Nation%20Under%20Blackmail–Vol%201%262%20-%20Whitney%20Alyse%20Webb_djvu.txt
Weird.
thanks
right, me neither
Old Mountbatten had an island, E-I-E-I-Owe, Epstein!
And on the island he had some chicks, E-I-E-I-Owe, Epstein!
With a dip-dip here and a dip-dip there,
Here a dip, there a dip,
Everywhere a dip-dip,
Old Mountbatten had an island, E-I-E-I-Owe, Epstein!
Not chicks. Twinks.
And not as island but a castle, Classiebawn (lol, Classy Born, but the Irish etymology is claimed to be Clais Bhán, or White Hollow) . It’s on a headland next to the fine beach of Mullaghmore.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classiebawn_Castle
Two immediate points.
Andrew has been charged with passing confidential government documents to Epstein. This has the advantage of being easy to prove, since it’s based on the contents of messages that have already been revealed. If Andrew has any sense, he will plead guilty and cooperate. This is not to say that he won’t be charged–or admit–to other things later.
In addition, the documents show Mandelson doing exactly the same thing, so it would be extraordinary if he were not charged as well. It would make sense to go after Andrew first, though, because Mandelson is a slippery customer, whereas Andrew, after a life of privilege and security, will probably be completely overwhelmed by this experience.
Mandelson is also under police investigation, although he has not been arrested for questioning yet, iiuc.
Where would adjunct royal family member even get access to confidential government documents from? He’s hardly on a mailing list of ministry reports.
He was working as an envoy or something like that so was getting docs as part of that work. Sorry, no link but something I read the other day.
He was given the apparently safe job of Trade Envoy (I.e. he got free flights to stay with unlucky British ambassadors around the world). But mucked it up by fingering the merchandise. He had access to certain briefings.
Mandelson had much more sensitive docs. Why has he not been charged…?
He had an unpaid job as Special Representative for International Trade and Investment
From 2001 to July 2011, Andrew worked with UK Trade & Investment, part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, as the United Kingdom’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Mountbatten-Windsor#Trade_and_commercial_activities
Individuals finally getting arrested is a good development. Funny how it seems to only happen in the UK, or Europe, but never here in the US.
I’ve been thinking about the Epstein conspiracy and how things might work in a parallel universe, one where we have a healthy government interested in doing its job of following the law, bringing justice to victims of child trafficking, and uncovering the way Epstein used his wealth to peddle influence.
We would certainly at a minimum see something roughly analogous to the 9-11 Commission set up in Congress. With committee hearings, subpoenas for suspects like Gates, Lutnick, Wexner, etc. to be grilled on TV.
The fact that we’ve got nothing here stateside but crickets chirping is depressing.
We desperately need to make Attorney General an independently elected office. This business of appointing cooperative hacks has been unproductive over decades, and has done nothing but encourage bribery, corruption, and malfeasance by elected officials. This has brought us to this pretty pass of a completely captured government. Each party lets the graft slide during its time in power, then there are a raft of pardons for anyone who did get caught, rinse and repeat.
Maybe a constitutional amendment adding an Attorney General who is truly a ‘top cop’ is in order. It could include a provision to end to all presidential pardons, since the practice has been so badly abused.
In the olden days when people like Robert Maxwell were the top providers of dirty financial services we used to think of them as unusual. Or I did. Now it’s impossible. It’s not just routine white collar financial crimes like hiding and finding money, tax evasion, laundering stolen or criminal gains etc. that need it, the covert ops of governments need these services too. And when the things that really need to be investigated include Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Clinton Foundation, Donald Trump, Rothschilds, Bear Stearns, Leon Black, sultans and emirs, and on and on and on, you know it’s not going to happen because it would mean revealing how the world works.
And there’s the thing. Given that this is how the world works, the terrifying insanity of the rest of the news, the wars, the extermination, graft and self-dealing, gestapo thugs, surveillance and censorship, the endless lies, and the monstrous, world-destroying incompetence — it all relies on the same thing as Epstein’s crowd: elite impunity.
It’s hard for me to not see it all as almost one thing: a dreadfully unequal society that’s completely sick at the top.
We really need a fourth branch of government with the ability to investigate and prosecute government wrongdoing, hear citizen complaints, offer legal protection for whistleblowers, and maybe even force a fixed delay to the implementation of certain types of questionable laws passed by Congress so they can be pre-adjudicated for constitutionality instead of relying on post hoc legal challenges. And such a branch would need to be staffed in such a manner that it couldn’t be bought out by the wealthy and corporations or turned into a partisan attack dog for one faction. But that will have to wait till we get a new constitution some day, seeing as we can no longer even do something as simple as pass an amendment to the existing one on any matter of substance.
Given the Epstein stuff goes back 20+ years, how many knew, and did nothing over all those years, why expect anything now?
I would love to see some perp walks, and lots of them. The first, the last, and everyone in between. Nothing less should be acceptable.
I won’t hold my breath.
Overheard at Chappaqua, depends on what the definition of
isinhale is. /sNext week is showtime for Bubba and Hilda.
South Korea, ex president just got sentenced to life in prison, wow! Prosecutor wanted death penalty. They can teach us some things.
re: USSR
Martyanov yesterday or so in one of his infamous half-sentences where he is hinting at huge issues suggested Nikita Khrushchrev in his “incompetence” had started to ruin the USSR. Maybe those who know this stuff could comment.
So far I had been informed that in the1950s the USSR had better economic figures than Europe and good outlook.
In general up to academic scholarship levels I am increasingly having the impression hardly anybody in the West has serious insight into USSR history. Of course we have East European/GDR pre-1989 scholars still around but their work is almost non-existent outside dusty archives and libraries.
At least, I don´t know any more who to trust.
I thought that the idea of that argument is that Khrushchev was that by denouncing Stalin, he basically attacked the legitimacy and belief in the Soviet project and Lenin. This then resulted in ideological nihilism for the Soviet elites which cascaded downwards and why they kept looking west, which culminated in Gorbachev and the disaster of the 1990s. If I recall correctly, I think this was the Chinese conception of the USSR collapse so I don’t know if that applies full
Excellent point.
Another aspect is that stopping the purging of the economic managers allowed them to build up their power. Of course, there had to be a better way than executions to keep from using their positions to usurp the economy, but letting them undermine the system had large, eventually fatal costs.
Basically, they built up a proto-capitalist system in the gray market where factory managers traded necessary inputs that were kept in permanent short supply and when the time came, those proto-capitalists shed the Soviet system like a snake shedding its skin. They shed the obligations that the Soviet system had held them to and plundered the resources of the nation. This was similar to the way that the Protestant Reformation allowed emergent capitalists to shed their social obligations and to plunder the monasteries.
(I’m not saying anything here about the comparative merits of pre-Reformation Catholicism and Protestantism as religions, only about some of the social forces that came along for the ride.)
USSR history is so very politicized.
I like Stephen Cohen because he was realistic but seemed to actually care about the Soviet people rather than be looking for clues as to how to destroy them as monsters.
I don’t know if you would want to trust him but the book on Stalin by Italian communist Domenico Losurdo does a good job of challenging most of what we know about the Soviet Union up to the 1950s.
I like your comment. I’ll check out the Losurdo book
Hello I am a certified Khrushchev nerd. Your impression is overall correct , during the Khrushchev thaw the Soviet Union had a relatively strong economy, especially considering the destruction during the war. The Europeans had the advantage of being heavily subsidized by the Marshall plan but I don’t think you could call that a strong economy. Khrushchev was famous for some especially flashy blunders such as the black earth agricultural reforms and his infamous obsession with corn. His ultimate undoing was in diverting resources from the Soviet MIC under the logic that nuclear ICBMs meant that investments in traditional weaponry and a standing army were unnecessary. It was Brezhnev who ruined the economy
It was, of course, the Ukrainian Krushchev who gifted Crimea to Ukraine. It was the naval base there that Nato and the US coverted and a, if not the prime reason for the Maidan coup in order to eject the Russian fleet. However, Putin was quick witted and nimble footed enough to scuttle that plan. And the rest is history, as the saying goes.
I of course agree , Khrushchev was a perfect example of how Russian and Ukrainian are not cleanly separatable ethnicities as claimed by the ethnonationalists. He was a Russian speaker from Rostov-on-Don whose Ukranianess was never in doubt. When the war happened I knew I was going to have to deal with lib types condescending to me about history I knew better than they did.
Khrushchev was born in Kalinovka, a village in what is now Russia’s Kursk Oblast. His parents were poor peasants of Russian origin. He moved to the Donbas city of Yuzovka when he was 14.
Krushchev wrote in his memoirs: “I’ll say that the Ukrainian people treated me well. I recall warmly the years I spent there. This was a period full of responsibilities, but pleasant because it brought satisfaction … But far be it from me to inflate my significance. The entire Ukrainian people was exerting great efforts … I attribute Ukraine’s successes to the Ukrainian people as a whole. I won’t elaborate further on this theme, but in principle, it’s very easy to demonstrate. I’m Russian myself, and I don’t want to offend the Russians “
Thank you for your input bum, it is very insightful. I have recently read Khrushchev Remembers, a biography that agrees with much of your assessment. The book was translated with notes by Ernest Crankshaw, who served at Bletchley Park in WWII. I should really read a better one as that book has blatant propaganda. My primary interest was in finding more information about the short-lived rapprochement between Khrushchev and Kennedy. Regarding those messages, Khrushchev quoted Robert Kennedy saying “The President is in a grave situation. . . we are under pressure from our military to use force in Cuba. (He asks for Khrushchev’s help) the President is not sure the military will not overthrow him and seize power.” Crankshaw noted “Obviously, this is Khrushchev’s own version. . . We have no evidence the President was acting out of fear of a military take-over.” A Washington Daily News article in early October 1962 (which the President took to a security meeting on October 2) read “a high official in Saigon said the CIA’s growth to a malignancy and wasn’t sure even the White House could control it anymore. . . . If the United States ever experiences a Seven Days In May, it will come from the CIA and not the military.”
Khrushchev presided over the USSR when they developed their space program, which greatly alarmed the pentagon. They saw their strategic bomber advantage was becoming irrelevant and pushed Kennedy to do a pre-emptive strike on the USSR in 1961. Their request was denied, which likely helped lead to Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. Israel may very well see a similar window of opportunity, they want to destroy Iran before their chance is gone. In 1961 we had a president with moral strength, unlike today. Kennedy’s name will live forever as a president with resolve. If he does not show some backbone Trump’s name will be forever vilified, like Pol Pot and Idi Amin.
I found Sergei Khrushchev’s biography of his father, Nikita Khrushchev and the Creation of a Superpower an enjoyable and informative book. Sergei’s affection for his father is clear, so there is a bias, but I don’t think it prevented him from writing honestly about events and people, including his father, who would discuss things with him when he came back from the Kremlin, thinking out loud. It does show the USSR’s development from rural Ukraine to Sputnik and beyond (Sergei worked on missiles). My favorite anecdote is his maternal grandparent’s being rescued from the front during WW II to Khrushchev’s war quarters closer to Russia. Sergei’s grandfather goes to the bathroom and starts calling for his wife, soon all the relatives are crowded in the bathroom watching the grandfather turn the faucet on and off, all exclaiming in wonder at this phenomena.
Sergei Khrushchev became a US citizen after the breakup of the USSR.
Thank you for the recommendation, Cas. He wrote much about his son in the book and it made me wonder what happened to Sergei.
Sergei was instrumental in getting khruschev Pere’s memoirs out of the Soviet Union while he was under house arrest at his dacha. He tells the tale in the afterward of the first volume of the memoirs, the memoirs were dictated and the tapes eventually made it to strobe Talbott, who did the translation for khruschev remembers. The story is worthy of a spy novel and is quite fun. I recommend the unabridged memoirs, edited by Sergei. Nikita is quite funny and readable and there are many, many colorful anecdotes of the Premier Forrest Gumping his way through some of the most pivotal events of the 20th century. Sergei did move to the us and became a professor at brown university, I attempted to start up a correspondence but he never responded my letters. He shot himself in his office in 2020
Agreed. Cursory impression is that Soviet transition from peasant/serf agricultural economy to industrial power had huge costs, but was somewhat more “efficient” in transitioning thanks to central planning. West both helped and hindered after its revolution. China’s 40 year transition to world’s #1 economy and lifting of 1 billion out of poverty in that time is even more remarkable achievement of planning. Long overdue is a fairer economic analysis of Soviet era. Hamilton’s industrial policy proposals for US on steroids. Neo-libs say we don’t need no stinkin’ planning. Because markets.
Did Israel detain right-wing US commentator Tucker Carlson?”
Of course they bloody well detained him. Carlson knows what the Israelis are all about which is why he did the interview at the airport and never left there where he might be picked up by one of the spook agencies instead of airport security. But it is nice to know that the US Embassy and Ambassador Hucklebee came to Israel’s defence so rapidly. They say that Carlson and his team went through the same security procedures he undergoes upon arrival – but some security procedures are more equal than others. Even former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett go into the act by saying “Tucker Carlson is a chickenshit. Next time he talks about Israel as if he’s some expert, just remember this guy is a phony!” I hope that Carlson got a good interview on tape.
Here in Sonoma County I am seeing more “For Sale” and “For Lease” signs on retail and commercial (Office) buildings than I have since the height of the GFC.
On the other hand I live near an upscale outdoor mall and the new restaurants and boutiques are doing well, a simple lunch runs $30….
The current economic system is truly out of whack. Real estate is doing poorly, but this does not seem to affect the patrons of those upscale malls, restaurants, and boutiques — whose fortunes are probably largely dependent on real estate…
My various feeds have lots of videos/articles lately on the K-shaped economy. The wealthy – with stocks, bonds, real estate, other financial assets, remunerative work – are doing well and better. A thirty dollar lunch is nothing. On the other hand, the day-to-day wage earner, the one that we are told would not be able to meet a sudden 500 dollar expense – continues sliding down the economic ladder. The widening disparity between the groups is just one of the various economic canaries whose untimely demises suggest that things are going to get … spicy … in the not-too-far future.
Start spreading the news
He got arrested today
Donald wants no part of it
Duke of York, Duke of York
His vagabond shoes
Are no longer gonna stray
Right through the very heart of it
Duke of York, Duke of York
He’s gonna wake up in a gaol
Losing sleep
And find he’s no longer king of the hill
Top of the heap
These little girl blues
They’re putting him away
He’ll make a brand new start of it
The old Duke of York
If he can make it there
He’ll make it anywhere
It’s up to you
Duke of York, Duke of York
Duke of York, Duke of York
He’s gonna wake up in a prison
Losing sleep
After they found he was A number one
Top of Epstein’s list
King of the hill
A number one
These little girl blues
They’re putting him away
He’ll make a brand new start of it
The old Duke of York
And if he can make it there
He can get a cot and three hots anywhere
It’s up to you
Duke of York, Duke of York, Duke of York
New York, New York, performed by Frank Sinatra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le1QF3uoQNg&list=RDle1QF3uoQNg
Rumour has it his coat of arms is being changed. They are adding a “Scape Goat”, with 100s of rich guys hiding behind a curtain in the background.
Sarc aside, 1 down is better than none down. I note Wexner seemed to skate through his meeting with Congress yesterday though.
“The Energy Blind Spot in Japan’s National Security Strategy”
Umm, not to put to fine a point on it but isn’t this the same problem that Japan had back in WW2? That as Japan has no oil or coal, they had to import all their energy needs but once the US Navy submarine force started sinking Japanese tankers, their war economy kinda died. Same nowadays. Japan may want to get in China’s face but if it spilled over into a military confrontation, I would expect the Chinese submarine force to start sinking oil tankers headed to Japan. You would only need this to happen once or twice before the insurers would deny coverage to any tanker headed to Japan and it would be all over red rover. The Japanese have nuclear reactors to keep things going domestically but their naval ships would still need oil to keep going.
In 1941, the Japanese were stuck. The Americans, British, and Dutch were all refusing to sell oil to Japan.
Whether or not Japan went to war with those countries, Japan was going to run out of oil. The only question was whether Japan was going to put up a fight before that happened.
The embargoing countries claimed that all they wanted was Japan to withdraw from China. But from a Japanese perspective, why would they necessarily stop there? If they could force the Japanese to make big concessions merely through a trade embargo, what would stop them from demanding one thing after another? And the whole time, Japan’s stockpiles–their means to resist–would be steadily dwindling.
The Japanese could fight the Western powers and lose, or they could lose to the Western powers without fighting. Which decision is more “rational” ? Were the Japanese leadership necessarily stupid to treat their own armed forces as a wasting asset?
Meanwhile, Chiang’s strategy was always one of intransigence, in the confident expectation that Japan would eventually run afoul of some other major power, who would then beat the Japanese for him. And Chiang was correct. However, as it happened, being correct didn’t do Chiang much good.
Now, if the Western leaders had been fully aware that the Japanese could launch simultaneous successful major offensives at widely separated points (both Malaya and Luzon–logistically astonishing), they might have thought twice about taking such a hard line towards Japan, when they did.
For the principal consideration, after all, was the war going on between Germany and the USSR. The Japanese government made the decision to go to war with the West, barring some incredible diplomatic breakthrough, at the beginning of September. At that time, it looked like the main forces of the USSR were going to get beaten.
If the Soviet main forces had been rendered incapable of coherent offensive action, as seemed possible in late 1941, then the Americans and British would have far too much to worry about in Europe, for them to devote much shipping tonnage to a war in the Western Pacific. This grand-strategic linkage between the European and Pacific theatres is important, but often overlooked.
Seen this way, the Japanese war plan to seize the “Southern Area,” then establish a defensive perimeter, was by no means far-fetched.
The lack of coal in Japan gave us the movie The Battleship Island
There’s a real place: Hashima Island, a.k.a. Gunkanjima, a.k.a. Battleship Island.
It was used as a location in the 007 outing Skyfall (2012), and probably a few other films too.
The plug-in hybrid article is pretty weak. Summary: Porsche phev’s tend to use a lot more gas in the real world vs the standard measurement (my note: much like cars mpg often dont match what is on the sticker). Meanwhile, there are a lot of cheaper cars that use less. Hmm… why might a Porsche be less energy efficient than a Prius? Porsche blames it on “Different usage patterns”. Is this all not just common sense? In other words, your mileage may vary. Drive a Porsche as intended and you’ll use more energy which can be gas since it’s a phev.
Lesson is averages are not always the right metric, but can make sensational headlines.
And petrol cars routinely got over 30 mpg 30 years ago. More news: a 6,500 lb electric pickup is inherently inefficient. We could talk about the environmental impacts of the electric passenger vehicle complex other than emissions and fossil fuel depletion, but that would be complicated and boring. Easy lesson: be small.
Another lesson: where the electricity comes from matters. In places that have tons of hydroelectric and other renewables – Norway, Iceland, British Columbia, the Pacific Northwest (before the data centers all showed up), EVs are a slam-dunk for reducing carbon emissions. California Texas, and the EU, are more of a push. Places still burning old-school natural gas to make electricity (the Arabian peninsula), not so much. Regional grids still pushing on coal and fracked gas, worse than gas and diesel.
We drive a Plugin Prius and get nearly 1,000mpg. I buy one tank of gas per year. This year looks to be less. Unless we take a longer drive (>30miles) the gas engine never turns on. We have a lot of solar power on the roof so our electricity is clean.
I would imagine a Porsche might be different. That is not basic transportation, it is entertainment.
“Tony Blair: Watching ‘Schindler’s List’ inspired my approach to politics”
Of course what he does not say was that he was rooting for the Nazis.
“So when I had to decide to be a bystander or not, I made my decision and fulfiled my responsibility to the bigger world by killing lots of people.”
So Amon Goeth was his hero, eh? He just had to pick up that gun, so to speak.
As an additional antidote, Very good dog invades course but falls short of medal glory at Winter Olympics, Guardian.
“U.S. Boat Strikes Kill Eleven”
I heard about this boat strike a day or so ago. The article I read said that a US Coast Guard ship was sent and it arrived on the scene – about two days later. Shouldn’t be surprised. Kristi Noem ordered that the Coast Guard downgrade their job of search and rescue in favour of chasing druggies and deporting detainees instead-
https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/noem-ordered-resources-away-active-1691621
She literally ordered a Coast Guard plane to stop looking for a missing at sea Coastie and had that plane do an emmigrant eviction flight instead.
Managed to miss most of the sticking the landing Olympics, or what they pointedly do in the winter games.
Snippets I caught included cheating curlers, skiers going way too fast down moguls with jumps in-between as a brief respite, and the biathlon, which you think we’d be good at… as it involves ski-by shooting, but we completely suck at it, besmirching our gun nut bonafides by never even making a podium since it was introduced in 1960.
The women’s ice skating displays much grace and artistry, all welcome these days.
I gotta stick up for the Canadian curlers… they were not cheating! They were called on an odd delivery of the rock that is a rule violation – depending on how you read the rules. Double touching a rock with the intention to change its trajectory or speed would cause things to go wrong, it would never make a shot better. No curler would ever cheat like that, it would be stupid.
Re: Meta’s AI glasses empower creeps
We had a guy in our expat community here videoing women with meta glasses and then uploading it to TikTok. He was stupid enough to use his real name. He was also stupid enough to do it to some women with very tough Russian friends.
MAHA Turns One Economic Populist
~~~~~~~~
Dedicated to MAHAns and Franz
Buddy you’re a boy make a big noise
Playin’ indiscreet gonna play a real halftime show some day
You got the Alt-A stage in Bad Bunny’s place
A big disgrace
Pumpin’ your up all over the place
Singin’
We will we will Kid Rock you
We will we will Kid Rock you
Buddy you’re not such a young man hard man
Flippin’ the bird, gonna take on the world some day
You got Kennedy blood in yo’ face
MAHA ha ha ways
Wavin’ your Trump banner all over the place
We will we will Kid Rock you
(Sing it out!)
We will we will Kid Rock you
Buddy you’re supporting an old man, not a poor man
Pleadin’ with your eyes gonna get you some piece some day
You got RFK Jr in your face
Working out in a sauna milkbar space
Somebody should have put you in Bad Bunny’s place
We will we will Kid Rock you
(Sing it!)
We will we will Kid Rock you
(Everybody)
We will we will Kid Rock you
We will we will Kid Rock you
(Alright)
We Will Rock You, by Queen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tJYN-eG1zk&list=RD-tJYN-eG1zk
We are the Chump-ians, my friend …
I look forward to next year’s Super Bowl, when instead of just one Alt-halftime show, we will have a multiverse of alternatives, some probably AI-generated.
That way, everyone can stay in their safe space, protected from being exposed to Latin hip-hop artists, or really bad rock-country music and jingoistic lyrics.
The best thing about an AI country song played backwards?
You get your job back~
I keep having Gilbert and Sullivan tunes run through my head as I read the news…
Aside from the headline statistics here, I think the fact that a “safety monitor’ is present in the vehicle and it’s not helping is quite interesting. We can imagine that these people quickly get bored and are not really paying attention, because the robot is driving. Note that this would be the dynamic in any autonomous vehicle where a human is supposed to take over under imminent-crash conditions, which AFAIK is all of them.
In other words, the pervasive assumption by systems designers that humans are a fallback safety system in autonomous vehicles seems like it’s not working, as many (including me) have predicted.
Whitney Webb interview today on Epstein files
“Whitney will appear live on Redacted’s Thursday broadcast (Feb 19th) to discuss the Jeffrey Epstein case, the impact of recent releases and undercovered aspects of this story. Tune in on YouTube or on Rumble at 4 PM Eastern.” (via unlimited hangout)
From Rising global incidence of postviral diabetes after COVID-19 and public health implications
(bold mine)
Kill me, seriously. A paper that recognizes one of SARS-CoV-2 infection’s possible consequences, while simultaneously ignoring that repeat infection is both inevitable and preventable.
What a joke.
And none of the Public health imperatives and strategic recommendations mention anything at all about infection control or messaging regarding lack of durable immunity.
This timeline is stupid.
The RAM shortage is coming for everything you care about
https://www.theverge.com/tech/880812/ramageddon-ram-shortage-memory-crisis-price-2026-phones-laptops
I’ve been wondering when this headline would show up, and it certainly played into why I recently bought a laptop. But the reality is memory chips are embedded into everything that has a CPU now-a-days, and it seems like everything has a CPU in it too whether it really needs that level of control or not.
There is hope, Blue Owl suspended redemptions today…..the canary in the coal mine. Not that it wont happen but this will be a huge misallocation of capital for the next decade. The capital account is already driving the current account in the US, yesterdays long term transaction show this, typical of a country worthy of a downgrade.
The harder they come…thanks for that. Here is the latest https://archive.ph/sB1y6. Notice that Blue Owl offed a bunch of loans for $600M to give money back to investors. Doubtless it will be the General Partners who get the life boat, and the secondaries and limited partners who will eventually get it in the neck. Well deserved for these chump-a$$es. If SoftBank gets jittery, pass the buttered popcorn.
It gets better…Blue Owl sold the loans to one the insurance companies it owns. It’s a great country!
In the interview, Mr. Packer declined to say whether Kuvare was one of the four loan buyers and said the others included state pension plans.
“This was a really thorough process involving four really high-quality institutional investors in a very tight time frame,” he said.
I think he means high quality bagholders, I wonder if marcie has one of them in her office right now..”Listen, I’ve got this bridge, and I’m just not using it right now…Hey! Seems like a good fit for you Marcie, It’s a no brainer…!
Crucial killed their direct-to-consumer RAM, last fall, which already came for what I cared about. I’ve used Crucial memory on and off for decades. I have their SSDs, too.
America as a third world country, I get email from the official county alert system:
Meanwhile my greek yogurt is now over $9, for the first time, and it’s about $15/lb for Boar’s Head black forest, a common generic, not specialized, turkey cold cut.
Number go up is still in play for groceries in 2026.
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
— the fox explains to The Little Prince.
‘The Little Prince’
by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Wiser words were never written. Love, trust, friendship, loyalty – none of them can be seen.
Trump orders release of alien/UFO files. He must really want a distraction from everything he’s messing up
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116100300268316472
Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters. GOD BLESS AMERICA!
(Or maybe he’s just hyping up Spielberg’s coming Summer Blockbuster https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UFe6NRgoXCM)
Heifer Watch:
‘Al-Aqsa is a detonator’: six-decade agreement on prayer at Jerusalem holy site collapses (Guardian)
A series of arrests of Muslim caretaker staff, bans on access for hundreds of Muslims, and escalating incursions by radical Jewish groups culminated this week in the arrest of the imam of al-Aqsa mosque and an Israeli police raid during evening prayers on the first night of Ramadan.
As Trump Weighs Iran Strikes, He Declines to Make Clear Case for Why, or Why Now
Lol why bother? The case for Iraq was trash anyway.
Re: Epstein
There has been some renewed buzz on X about Kubrick’s final film Eyes Wide Shut (1999), its representation of elite crimes and perversions, and the possibility of an Epstein tie-in.
Ppl are retweeting that Kubrick didn’t die of natural causes (wink wink), but I will forego a URL for such claims strike me as baseless.
However, there may be something to the reading of Eyes Wide Shut being adapted not just from Arthur Schnitzler’s Traumnovelle, but also from some understanding of the elite world as it appeared in the 1990s, i.e., the world that Epstein inhabited.