Rule-breaking black hole found growing at 13 times the cosmic ‘speed limit,’ challenging theories Live Science
Man accidentally gains control of 7,000 robot vacuums Popular Science
The Anatomy of a National Mania The Wayward Rabbler
Year-over-year shift in home prices, by ZIP Code
Map via @ResidentialClub pic.twitter.com/74R4VgeAPU
— Lance Lambert (@NewsLambert) February 20, 2026
Climate/Environment
How the climate repricing of housing will unfold Climate Change and Your Home
This storm is a meteorological masterpiece. I’m just in awe.
As the storm explodes in intensity, it will evolve into something elegantly extreme.
In the “warm sector,” a few tornado-strength waterspouts are likely 250 miles offshore. Those same thunderstorms could produce… pic.twitter.com/ivljezXsNb
— Matthew Cappucci (@MatthewCappucci) February 22, 2026
It’s Make or Break Time My Weather Corner. On south central US drought.
How a Groundbreaking Indigenous Treaty on Whales’ Rights Could Change National Laws Inside Climate News
Pandemics
2026 US measles total nears 1,000 as South Carolina confirms 11 new cases CIDRAP
Longevity influencers are curiously silent about a core driver of unhealthy aging. Why? Synergies
FEMA Still Hasn’t Reimbursed Hospitals for COVID-19 Work NOTUS
Japan
Takaichi Feeds Japan’s Addiction to Fiscal Stimulus Japan Economy Watch
U.S. military fanboy arrested for using fake ID to enter base Asahi Shimbun
India
India delays Washington trade visit as U.S. tariff policy shifts, source tells CNBC CNBC
Syraqistan
Not enough people are talking about the fact that Israel likely tested a nuclear weapon last month in Dimona and that most of humanity is within range of its Jericho III nuclear missiles pic.twitter.com/uMaYluhkm8
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) February 22, 2026
Trump Considers Targeted Strike Against Iran, Followed by Larger Attack New York Times
War With Iran on Hold… But for How Long? Larry Johnson
Trump ‘curious’ why Iran hasn’t ‘capitulated’ under US pressure, envoy says TRT World
The Strategic Dilemma At the Heart of Iran’s Struggle Simplicius
Iran agreed secret shoulder-fired missile deal with Russia
Iran protests resurface at universities as war risk persists Straits Times
Five Iranian Kurdish separatist groups formed an alliance today: PJAK, Komala, PAK, PDKI, and Khabat, called the “Alliance of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan.”
The coalition stated that its primary goal is to overthrow the Islamic Republic, achieve the right to… pic.twitter.com/CjG8zoNb3c
— Victor vicktop55 commentary (@vick55top) February 22, 2026
Oman confirms US-Iran talks will take place in Geneva on Thursday Al Jazeera
***
Pakistan launches airstrikes on eastern, southeastern Afghanistan Anadolu Agency
Old Blighty
Met police using AI tools supplied by Palantir to flag officer misconduct The Guardian
Government upgrades drones, deploys joystick tweakers to catch illegal dumpers The Register
European Disunion
Trump says he’s sending hospital ship to Greenland; Denmark says no thank you Politico
Why Europe won’t confront Trump on trade – even when the courts do Euractiv
Hungary blocks adoption of EU sanctions package until transit oil supplies resume Euronews
New Not-So-Cold War
Berliner Zeitung reports that Nord Stream is back on the table in behind-the-scenes talks between Moscow and Washington, with a scenario being discussed where Russian gas returns to Western Europe under US control, sidelining the EU.
Despite public claims that Nord Stream is… pic.twitter.com/I2MEBzMAOV
— Brian McDonald (@BrianMcDonald_7) February 22, 2026
The Flamingo Effect Scott Ritter
South of the Border
Exclusive: New US military-led group aided Mexico’s hunt for ‘El Mencho’ cartel boss Reuters
Landau tuiteó antes que Claudia Sheinbaum. Son estas cosas que demuestran que no está tomando las riendas. ¿Quién las tiene, entonces? pic.twitter.com/dLiDkwNvrN
— Corinne 🍉 (@meresank) February 23, 2026
Getting a lot less coverage than the tourists in Puerto Vallarta:
🇲🇽 CARTEL GEOPOLITICS IN MEXICO AFTER EL MENCHO
The fear of losing control over the Port of Manzanillo pushed CJNG to set the entire state on fire.
On Sunday, February 22, the elimination of El Mencho, who carried a 15 million dollar bounty, was not merely the death of a leader.…— TruthRadar (@TruthRadarHQ) February 23, 2026
Cartel boss killing jolts US-Mexico freight corridors Freight Waves
The Jensen case reveals how proceeds from stolen crude moved from the US to a Mexican cartel El Pais
Death Toll From US Extrajudicial Killings Reaches 142, Venezuela Condemns Renewal of US Sanctions Framework Orinoco Tribune
The Caucasus
A Watchdog Appointed to Guard the South Caucasus East’s Substack
L’affaire Epstein
Epstein files: Financier portrayed climate change as nature’s population control Anadolu Agency
How school picture day got caught up in the Epstein files fallout NBC News
DoJ Released Much More on Epstein’s Israel Ties—But Media Still Aren’t Much Interested FAIR
Trump 2.0
Man fatally shot by law enforcement at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach The Hill
We have a real problem brewing with the “Board of Peace” and it needs much more attention.
1) There is no legal entity for “Board of Peace” organized under the laws of any country, meaning it is subject to NO country’s laws.
2) Trump is acting like the US is party to it as a…
— Dave Troy (@davetroy) February 21, 2026
Democrats Suck
Scoop: Dems working on secret report found Gaza cost Harris votes Axios. How many overpriced consultants does it take to figure out genocide is unpopular?
Police State Watch
ICE Contractors Reap Huge Profits From Unprecedented Funding Surge Migrant Insider
Police in Idaho search for suspect who stole ambulance, drove into building that houses DHS offices AP
Supremes v. Trump Tariffs
Monopoly Round-Up: Trump Loses on Tariffs, Has His ‘Withdrawal from Afghanistan’ Moment BIG by Matt Stoller
Trump’s trade gamble will continue despite US Supreme Court rebuke Business Times
US tariff policy ‘hasn’t changed’ despite supreme court ruling, trade chief says The Guardian
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Across the US, people are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras Blood in the Machine
The Accelerationists
Tech companies are making their robots cute to try to win over humans NBC News
Our Famously Free Press
Sports Desk
Winter Olympics medal table: With 12 golds, was this the best U.S. team ever? Christian Science Monitor
Agriculture
US farmers are rejecting multimillion-dollar datacenter bids for their land: ‘I’m not for sale’ The Guardian
The Hard Questions College Students Are Asking About Our Food System Enlightened Omnivore
AI
AI Is Destroying Grocery Supply Chains Futurism
Forget Craigslist apartment scams. The Bay Area has a more sinister rental problem. SF GATE
Economy
Finance in the Dark Phenomenal World
Antitrust
Trump demands Netflix fire Susan Rice as DOJ probes Warner deal CNBC
The Bezzle
A Billionaire’s Gamble in the Global Casino Ann Pettifor
Class Warfare
$955 saved for retirement? Millions are in that boat. Yahoo! Finance
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
133 comments
Comments are closed.
Regarding the Kurdish joint venture to over-throw Iran:
https://isteve.blogspot.com/2007/12/war-nerd-on-why-kurds-always-lose.html?m=1
Will they start fighting each other before they reach Teheran?
The great powers at the end of WW1 did not want to see a unified Kurdish homeland, it would be troublesome in an unprofitable way.
Much better to ensure Kurdish minorities exist in a variety of Countries, Divide and Rule…or at least exploit ruthlessly.
International agreements like the League of Nations and UN almost by definition lock in existing national borders, however they were arrived at. So countries that did their conquering and settling in the mists of prehistory (or during the vast majority of history when it was the human norm) get to keep what they have. Everybody else gets to sit around the ghetto/desert/jungle until somebody deigns to give them a homeland. Most of them are still waiting.
Kurds still Charlie Browning, but this time Lucy definitely won’t pull away the football /s
The Kurds seem to have the idea to get themselves hated by every host country that they live in be it Iraq, Turkiye, Syria and Iran. And it is not like the Kurds in each of these countries like those Kurds in other countries. So, how’s that working out for them?
The Kurds always get their way for awhile.
And then Lucy pulls away the football.
“Host country” seems a strange term. Borders were drawn around them, imperial and colonial then post-colonial. Bad behavior has abounded on all sides. But yes relative to the US Lucy, they are Charlie Brown as can be.
Re: Longevity influencers are curiously silent about a core driver of unhealthy aging. Why?
“Herpes simplex 1 virus (HSV-1) has also been linked to Alzheimer’s disease, with one paper arguing for ‘overwhelming evidence for a major role for HSV-1 in Alzheimer’s disease’.”
It is beyond the scope of this article, but similar thinking should be applied to the search for causes of autism. Parents with a history of STD’s seem worth studying.
Nah, humanity needs autism more than your Greco-Roman whining/fertility cult.
this is not bluesky/Twitter, try engaging on the actual content of the comment without bitchy ripostes that only make sense to those within your community
This is out of line. I don’t know what has gotten into many of you. I’ve been seeing too many out-of-bounds comments in the last few days.
From Wiki: “As of 2016, about 67% of the world population under the age of 50 had HSV-1.[3] Because it can be transmitted through any intimate contact, it is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections.[4]”
When I was eight years old we went to St Simons Island (Ga) for a week long vacation. Several hours under a blazing sun blistered my face and shoulders. That day was the beginning of my herpes curse. Apparently this devil’s virus was dormant in my body and only needed an overdose of sunshine to awaken it. I am now 72 and for most of my life have had to live with this miserable disease. Seven years ago I was prescribed a variant of valaciclovir to treat it. I cannot tell you how
wonderful it is not to have my mouth covered in blisters for weeks on end. Now I read that this drug may even prevent Alzheimer’s.
(going anon) I’ve been taking 500mg valacyclovir daily for about 25 years and before that acyclovir. Have both HSV1 & 2. Never get outbreaks. Now learning that I might have saved myself from dementia, after so many doctors advised me to stop taking it because ‘reasons’, is just grand!
fwiw – don’t know if it’s HSV 1 or 2 that breaks out on my nose – when the tingling begins prior to an eruption i take 800mg of acyclovir in AM and again before retiring in the evening – will also put acyclovir cream on the area tingling – most of the time enough to prevent an eruption and after 4 or 5 days of this treatment it’s gone – have also noted that being anxious or nervous seems to coincide – try to stay calm more these days which seems to help a lot, and the issue only happens maybe 3 – 4X/yr – again, fwiw
i just (a week or two ago) recovered from a particularly bad flu. Suffered for three weeks – first week, surprisingly mild symptoms; second week, horrible coughing and the fevers started: third week, coughing and congestion. Definitely feels that the body took a hit. Lungs scarred, joints more decrepit, and worst of all, gut flora ravaged, still. I went through it without medication, so can’t blame that on antibiotics.
It’s good that COVID got people thinking about long-term viral damage, but COVID is not unique in this regard. As the article points out, all viral infections lead to damage of variable seriousness. And HSV-1 is indeed a villain as it is linked to many diseases from autism (viral encephalitis) to various cancers to alzheimers.
“Democrats Suck”
New category?
Best…H
Yves Smith wrote Feb 4 2026:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/02/links-2-4-2026.html
I was pleased about that change because I don’t know French and I read very badly so I end up sub-vocalizing stuff like “en déshabillé” or “croissant” and because it’s impossible to pronounce French without sounding silly I feel like a fool.
Yes, I’m with you on all that.
And, the Democrats do suck!
Aw c’mon, give it a try: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-dcBPrM7Gg&t=8s. Dayzabeeyay!
Écoutez et répétez.
You haven’t lived til you’ve heard teenaged southern belles in HS french class intoning (in the thickest accent imaginable)
“Bown Jewer jawan, commawn tallay voo?”
Tabarnak !
Chalice!
There was the great trip we took to Tijuana circa 1971 with Uncle Larry from Calgary and their large family trying to negotiate Spanish.
They butchered the pronunciation of every possible thing on the menu in the ‘Meskin restaurant.
Can-Mex never really took off, eh.
Some of them come with French names, too incidentally–at least the people I know.
Democrats en désastre!
(= democrats in bankruptcy, désastre being a linguistic false friend but an ally both ways here!)
‘Brian McDonald
@BrianMcDonald_7
Berliner Zeitung reports that Nord Stream is back on the table in behind-the-scenes talks between Moscow and Washington, with a scenario being discussed where Russian gas returns to Western Europe under US control, sidelining the EU.’
Not going to happen. The EU is hostile to the idea of any Russian gas entering the EU and maybe the Germans are more hostile to this idea than most. They recently passed laws to specifically ban it so why would they reverse themselves now? And since Trump wants to be a middleman for this pipeline, what exactly are they bringing to the table except them taking a cut of the profits for doing nothing. More to the point, the Russians have to agree for this to happen so why should they supply gas to the EU to help them out of the hole that they have dug for themselves, especially since a lot of that gas will probably be used for creating weapons to attack Russia with.
Ah, but by having it pass through the Americans (who will tax it both ways) the oil will be magically cleansed of sin. It being the US will and the EU being its lowly servant, so shall it pass. Do not put the US to the test, for great is its wrath. Now everyone kiss the President’s ring and stop taking his name in vain.
I want to be the first to try it out (as He would also would likely be): quadrillion !
Trump’s FCC Chair Wants Networks to Run Nationalistic Content and Pledge Loyalty for America’s Big Bday Gizmodo
~~~~~~~~~~~
FasCCism
I was on the verge of teenagerhood in the run up to the Bicentennial and it was practically in your face, unavoidable.
The networks and media of the day were all over it from around 1973 as it made for something other than gas shortage woes, inflation and Watergate news, a feel good story about ourselves.
Haven’t heard nothing but crickets and chorus frogs in regards to the vaunted approaching Semiquincentennial celebration, a 7 syllable word if you can keep it.
The upcoming Moon landing mission is almost as mysterious in terms of anybody knowing anything much. Such a contrast from those heady days of lunar see during the Apollo missions.
The 250th anniversary should be the cause for a celebration but I have the feeling that under Trump and his gang, that it is going to be a bust as Trump will probably try and use the celebrations to boost the Repubs chances in the Midterms so too much of it will be political in messaging. And a lot of it will be rah-rah patriotism to the point that in some places, that it will get embarrassing. Sorry to rain on everybody’s parade but I think that that is how it will play out.
My neighbors (and 5.6 million other people) drove to Expo ’74 in Spokane for the Worlds Fair.
It was an era when people did things. We talked the other day about many of us being raised ‘free-range’ when it really meant we were outdoors all the time.
I’m not sure you could gin up much interest in the 250th anniversary of the USA to the hoi polloi, since so many people nowadays can’t remember what happened last week-our memory retention well and truly shot.
As a part of the celebration he plans to do a WWE cage match or some such on the White House lawn. There was a saying at the track back in the day when describing a pony…class will tell.
I think the Moon mission is supposed to just a trip around the Moon to show we can still get there and back, kind of like Apollo 8. Instead of back to the future, it’s forward to the past! December 1968 in that case, not a very happy time at all but still undoubtedly a better time than the current era.
Re: Japan
“Takaichi Depression”
https://x.com/index201306/status/2024868997976723678
Winter Olympics medal table: With 12 golds, was this the best U.S. team ever? Christian Science Monitor
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Winter Olympics kind of morphed into X Games piste de la resistance in a big way where its all about sticking the landing, and I ski around 25 days a season at say 10 different ski resorts on the Ikon/Epic season pass trail, and you know what…
I never see anybody doing anything vaguely resembling the out there stuff you see in the Winter Olympics, where do they train?
JD got booed during the opening ceremonies putting paid to the idea that Donald Quixote should fill in for Sancho Panza, what to do?
Cleverly insert the FBI director into the winning Hockey team’s lockerroom celebration with a photo op of him doing beer curling…
…they say Kash is king
I wish to say that there is no truth to the rumour that Trump has invited the entire US Winter Olympic team to the White House for a photo op but once there the winners will be expected to hand over their Olympic Medals to Trump.
I’m holding an Olympics competition this summer and expect to win all the medals since I’m not letting anyone else compete but me.
Banning Russia from the Olympics makes the medal count look rather silly. Gloating over a men’s hockey gold seems like a chump move given that the Russians are the undisputed world heavyweight champions of hockey and I have to suspect the same is true of women’s hockey.
Oh, and where are all the stories about crooked judges? I guess they’re not a big deal when the USA wins?
USA!
Russia!USA!Russia!USA!Russia!My dad had promised us when we were kids he’d give us a thousand bucks if we won an Olympic gold medal, a safe gesture on his part.
Around 1984 I buy a 1908 London Olympics 18k gold award medal in an auction in merry olde for like $3k. It was for pigeon shooting and hopefully not the feathered kind.
I bring it back over the pond and a week later i’m having dinner with mom & dad, and displayed my major award and requested my grandido, please.
Daddy-o sez no dice, you had to earn it, not just keep your auction bidding paddle up.
The real tragedy was not seeing the Russian team especially for figure skating, just compare Alysa Liu’s performance to previous Russian winners, it’s just not even close
Also it’s extremely odd that the MAGA/BAP/Groyper crowd latched on to Liu (there are bizarre edits of her skating with a swastika and that other white nationalist/nazi white circle thing in the background with like >1 mil views on twitter) even though a quick look at her personal views and politics would probably classify her as “woke”. I’ve never understood the MAGA right/white nationalist obsession with Asian women, I don’t get it at all.
Liu has interesting background, afaik. Her father is a Chinese dissident of some kind who despises PRC–which probably wins him some points with that sort of people. (She is also a child through surrogacy, via an undisclosed egg donor–not sure if that means anything in this context, though.)
The US did get a head start on the rest of the world with women’s hockey. If I remember right, women’s college hockey teams started up around 35 years ago now.
The US has no business winning the men’s gold though. If Russia were allowed to compete, I suspect the gold medal game would have been between them and Canada.
That said, I’ve watched all of zero minutes of the Olympics, so I can’t say whether each country really brought their best.
The US didn’t win the gold, Connor Hellebuyck did. : )
(the Jet’s goalie, for those of you who don’t follow hockey)
Russian hockey is on a bit of a low at the moment: the best four players in the world are three Canadians and a German. This might be the first time in decades there wouldn’t be a Russian in that conversation; Canada would have been a heavy favorite even if the Russians were in the tournament.
Everybody brought their best; it was an impressive tournament. Just missing one thing.
The Canadians are the best at hockey, the Russians were only dominate when the pros weren’t allowed to play. The NHL tells the tale a little over 40% of NHL players are Canadian, 28% are US, then it’s Sweden with 9% and Russia with 6.5%. The NHL is where the big money playing hockey is and if the Russians were the best at it they’d at least find a way to be well above the Swedes and closer to the Yanks in numbers. As for the Women’s hockey the Russian team has never even medaled a couple of 4th place finishes is the best they’ve done, all the golds and all but one silver medal have been won by the Canadian or US women hockey teams since it began as an Olympic sport. The Russian Olympic program is very dirty, they may be paying a higher price for being dirty than say the Chinese are but the Russian program is still very dirty so I don’t have a ton of sympathy for their current Olympic predicament.
That’s not really fair. It’s true that the best Europeans come over here for the money, but the not-quite-best can make third- or fourth-line money at home, especially in Russia. The bottom half of an NHL roster is mostly North Americans.
The top 30 NHL players per ESPN (which might have a slight pro-US bias) are from:
USA 8
Canada 7
Russia 5
Finland 4
Sweden 2
Germany 1
Czechia 1
Switzerland 1
Slovenia 1
Which, coincidentally, matches the medals.
NHL minimum is $775K the top guys in the Russian League make maybe $2 million if you are saying the very top Russian League guys are equivalent to the end of bench NHL guys then my point still stands. Russia has 1 silver and one bronze when the NHL players have played all their other medals came when no NHL players played.
Yes, top Russian league guys are equivalent to third-line NHL players. Nobody, including the Russians themselves, doubts that the Russian league is inferior to the NHL. Players in the top Brazilian soccer league are equivalent to second division European players for the same reason. If you’re good enough to make the big money you move; if you aren’t you might as well stay home.
My point was that total percentages of NHL players are misleading because the bottom lines are almost entirely North Americans. If you look at the top end the Russians are indeed “well above the Swedes and closer to the Yanks in numbers.” Not dominant, but competitive.
Going back to earlier days when the Olympics didn’t have professional players we had the Canada Cup in the 1980s. The USSR then was clearly well behind the Canadians, well ahead of everyone else.
I appreciate your insights as I know next to nothing about hockey, a sport that allegedly uses something called a “puck” but which I have never actually seen in action.
We talked about hockey at a family gathering recently and my brothers admitted that they too have no idea what’s going on most of the time at a hockey game.
Curious how the point was made several times that RU was excluded from the games because of Ukraine, but Israel was allowed to send representatives despite what they’ve been doing to most of the Middle East for the last 3 years…
Re; War With Iran on Hold… But for How Long?
This entire affair is shaping up like a season of Game of Thrones, except there are no dragons and no nudity…
Dunno about dragons, but for nudity, perhaps one should consult the redacted Epstien files.
If you want nudity, please allow me to draw your attention to the AIpstein files. They prove that we are indeed naked apes.
Stay safe.
Well, I suppose Wuk could direct us to spring skiing in Colorado– not just in and around the hot-tubs but on the slopes… not incidently, but when I was a kid I saw my first fully-nude adult woman who was passed-out on a couch at Vail (and a sight to behold, she was!).
I’ve never seen anybody attired in their birthday suit on the slopes-and I’ve been known to wear a Hawaiian short sleeve shirt and shorts during springtime, but the coolest thing i’ve glimpsed would be the Estonian-American ski club at nearby China Peak on their annual weekend together where they dress to the nines…
Oh You Fancy, Huh… [China Peak]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c583eRPAlc
I saw my first fully-nude adult woman from when I was forming, it was my mother. Alas, I only had a small mirror to view my own ascension.
Yin Yang
In neo-Masada news, i’m glad to say yours truly is out of range of Zionist nuclear tipped missile attacks should they want to prompt a mass suicide of sorts, that is if they don’t have a Dolphin-class submarine lurking off of Malibu, then all bets are off.
“2026 US measles total nears 1,000 as South Carolina confirms 11 new cases”
Say, do you guys remember how early in 2020 that it was announced that the US had just had their 1,000 reported Covid-19 case? I do.
Another day, another Silicon Valley episode. Fridge in the show, vacuums in the news.
Security Issue
Chimp it out
Sung to the tune of, “Twist and Shout” by the Beatles
Well shake it up baby, now
(Shake up geopolitics baby)
Chimp it out
(Chimp it out)
C’mon, c’mon, c’mon, launch those JDAMS now!
(Launch those JDAMS)
And watch a mushroom cloud sprout
(Watch it sprout!)
Well, it will all work out, we hope
(it’ll all work out)
You know you chimp, so good
(Chimp so good)
Let’s get this party going now
(Get war going!)
Just like we knew you would (like Shrub, we knew you would)
Ooh
Well shake it up baby, now
(Shake up geopolitics baby)
Chimp it out
(Chimp it out)
C’mon, C’mon, C’mon, now baby now!
(Come on, baby)
Show us your empire’s clout
(Empire clout)
You know you chimp just like Shrub
(Just like shrub)
Come on, deliver a nucular closer now
(Nucular closer)
And grab a vial of iodine
Iodine! Oooh
[Guitar break]
aahh … ahhh … ahhh … ahhh … whoa, yeah, hey!
Well shake it up baby, now
(Shake up geopolitics baby)
Chimp it out
(Chimp it out)
C’mon, C’mon, C’mon, baby now!
(Come on, baby)
Show us your empire clout
(Empire clout)
You know you’re twisted, little girl
(Twisted, little girl)
You know it might not work out so fine
(it might not work out so fine)
Ah shake it, shake it, shake it baby!
(Shake up geopolitics, baby)
Ah shake it, shake it, shake it baby!
Ahh … Ahh … Ahh … Ah, sheet!
Interesting bedfellows on the real estate map, with the west coast and everything south of the Mason-Dixon Line being mutual decliners…
Oh Larry Yun
What will you tell us this time
You’re only dancing on this earth for a short while
And though American Dreams may toss and turn you now
They will vanish away like a 30—year fixed
Mortgage fading up to the sky
And though you want the bubble to last forever
You know it never will, you know it never will
And the interest rate hike make the good buys harder still
Oh Larry Yun
What will you have us believe this time
There’ll never be a better chance to change your mind
And if you want this world to see a better day
Will you carry the words of higher interest loans with you
Will you ride great housing bubble into mandate of heaven
And though you want it to last forever
You know it never will
And lack of affordability makes the journey harder still
Oh Larry Yun
What will you tell us this time
You’re only dancing on this earth for a short while
Oh Larry Yun
What will you have us believe this time
Oh Very Young, by Cat Stevens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP6B9HttRI8&list=RDbP6B9HttRI8
‘Max Blumenthal
@MaxBlumenthal
Not enough people are talking about the fact that Israel likely tested a nuclear weapon last month in Dimona and that most of humanity is within range of its Jericho III nuclear missiles’
It was only a coupla weeks ago that the US openly accused China of testing a nuke though there was no real evidence for it. Could it be that the US did this to muddy the waters and obscure the fact that the Israelis were for real testing a nuke at Dimona at about the same time?
According to the USGS the earthquake in Israel was over 10km deep. And occurred in a known fault zone.
I could not find anywhere on the web anyplace showing the particular patterns that a subsurface atomic explosion of that size would exhibit on seismic monitors.
On the meteorological masterpiece:
The view from the lounging area is pretty wicked out there. Or as NOAA would have it…N winds at 27 gusting to 70; blizzard conditions and the pressure is falling (oof). It’s great to have a totally anal landlord. He is out there snow blowing what looks to be about 18″ of snow. Bless his heart. He is just as happy as a clam. Now if only he can only keep the lights from blinking on and off.
Yesterday afternoon, just a little way up our street here in Boston, a tree committed suicide. This was in calm conditions still several hours before the unique event arrived. I spoke to a neighbor who confirmed that the tree had had enough of winter. And I can understand if it had read the NWS Norton office forecast discussion yesterday, which was completely out of character in tone and style, and just decided to avoid the torture. The forecast discussion from the Norton office is never alarmist like that. So that they were alarmed was quite alarming.
via Gabriel Rockhill
Michael Parenti Internet Archive
https://www.marxists.org/archive/parenti/index.htm
+
YT lecture/discussion about the cooperation between representatives of Western Marxism and the US security state on the occasion of Gabriel Rockhill´s latest book:
Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? Lecture and Panel Discussion
150 min.
https://www.youtube.com/live/V99paWsa8vY
Interview with Philipp Felsch by Daniel Tutt
Critical Theory After Habermas (feat. Philipp Felsch)
80 min.
https://www.youtube.com/live/o2a2Z4C4HYQ
p.s. Felsch´s best known book “The Summer of Theory: History of a Rebellion, 1960–1990”
which is addressed too about the history of the small but legendary West German left publisher MERVE is ok. A decent historic account. It looks at a small entity which generated a lot of intellectual substance and fudder and had an international reach phenomenal for such a One-Man-Band.
https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Summer-Theory-History-Rebellion-1960-1990/dp/1509539859
About AI and food chains and AI in general, efficiency is to do more with less, until we reach peak efficiency and can do everything with nothing.
Feedback loops with no circuit breakers. Just like wealth and power leveraging more wealth and power.
When the predators become parasites, the system is screwed.
Physics beats ideology.
Thematically related: Altman: You think AI is wasted energy? Try raising 100 billion humans , about how Altman claims that human life is less “efficient” than their LLMs so they should get a free pass on their energy use. He completely discounts the value of human life, and only looks at it through a (skewed, inaccurate) view of economic efficiency.
A morally repugnant statement, and proof that the people in charge of the tech companies have a deeply unhealthy worldview.
Drug addiction is a feedback loop with no circuit breakers. Short of crashing and burning.
Microphone up to the speaker, shriek going parabolic.
These people should understand physics.
They looked at how cancer takes over the body and said, “Hey! We can do that!”
These people really do want to mate with their machines (aka the singularity) and have already decided that all but a few humans are at best compost (aka bifurcation).
I think if the full insanity of this worldview was widely known, citizens would actually fight back.
This isn’t just an abstract theory, it’s an ongoing project.
The world has been taken over by cults. Deranged, inhumane cults, including
The ‘God is going to kill everyone in the world except me and my friends and I can’t wait’ cult.
The ‘AI will let me and my friends control the world and everyone in it’ cult.
DoJ Released Much More on Epstein’s Israel Ties—But Media Still Aren’t Much Interested FAIR
I don’t think many others are either, to be honest.
Most of the dems I know are too busy hating Trump and everything connected to him. It was great to see the USA win a hockey gold metal, but then Patel had a beer with them and now a third of the country hates them. The kid with the busted teeth is a POS and probably voted for Trump, so he is hated too.
Katie Porter, or one of the other dem reps was seen at an event the other day, and at the podium she held up a sign that said “**** Trump.” Not really a good look for a sitting congressmen, but it was cheered. Why not a sign that said “Go after the Epstein names.” No, can’t do that. It’s all about Trump and getting elected. Hating Trump sells.
Reading social media and political websites, it’s easy to find people wishing other people dead. Especially Trump, but his supporters as well. They are the scum of the earth they say, and are the cause of all problems. Kind of ironic watching them wish people dead while calling them a bunch of classless pieces of shit in the same breath.
Over the next 3 years this will only get worse. Maybe the dems win the mid-term and impeach Trump. That will ease the pain sooner if they can pull it off. Or maybe they have to wait another 3 years. I can only imagine the frenzy they will be in by then. But Trump will be gone, and they can go back to brunch. And they will because Orange Hitler is gone. All is good in the world once again.
What will also be gone is anything done about the people in the Epstein files. We will have radio silence and they will be long forgotten, if they are not long gone by then anyway. The Big Club wins once again. Thanks for playing along.
It shouldn’t and doesn’t have to be this way. Don’t lose the big prize – the Epstein files – get those people and many of our problems will take care of themselves.
None of my family or friends of the hard right political persuasion have softened their position, if anything they’re more resolved to it now.
None of this will shift the hard right or hard left. It’s all about the independents which are the majority “party” now.
If trends hold, the GOP is family blogged.
My people have softened their position.
I’m seeing tons of unity over the Epstein files and outright calls for a second American Revolution and “burning it all down” along with people shouting it in streets and airports.
GOOD THINGS!
Sinclair Broadcast Group, New York Post, Trinity Broadcasting Network, Fox News, Nexstar Media Group, American Family Radio, Daystar Television Network, WorldNetDaily, Newsmax Media, Breitbart News Network, Wall Street Journal, Blaze Media, One America News Network, The Daily Wire, Gab, Parler, Truth Social…if you want to immerse yourself in far right-wing media to reinforce your existing biases, there is no shortage of outlets to drown you in an ocean of propaganda. So people stuck in a habit of getting their news from those sources will be really difficult to budge off the opinions they’ve already formed. Moving from the far right-wing media environment to the “centrist”-“liberal” right-wing media locks you into another set of biases disconnected from reality. That’s the benefit of an American eagle with two right wings, to those invested in the current order, although it does tend to make the national bird go ’round and ’round in circles when change is actually what’s called for.
Trump says he’s sending hospital ship to Greenland; Denmark says no thank you Politico
~~~~~~~~~~
Supremes threw away my ploys, buncha goys!
I want to make some antics with real life noise
Some day they’re gonna fly, I’ll be amazed too
And when they do, you can give the devil his due
On the Good Hospital Ship Lolliprop
It’s a sweet trip to a pay-out shop
Where bail bon-bons play
On the sunny beach of Mar-a-Lago way
Pre-pardoned donation stands everywhere
Mar-a-Lago faces fill the lair
And there you are
Happy landing out of the motel with all-bars
See the sleight of and/or he say
With his big bad devil’s word play
If you eat too much, ooh-ooh
You’ll awake with a tummy ache, ayyyy (homage to Fonzie)
On the Good Hospital Ship Lolliprop
It’s a wet dream trip, to a Greenland slip
And dream away
On the Good Hospital Ship Lolliprop
On the Good Ship Lollipop, performed by Shirley Temple
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhns3vwPN0Q
Re SC/measles
“Most cases have been linked to known exposures, particularly within households and among close neighborhood contacts, but officials have confirmed infections with no identifiable source. One major exposure site identified by the State is the Way of Truth Church in Inman, South Carolina, a Christian congregation attended largely by Slavic immigrants and Ukrainian refugees. Officials say church leadership has been cooperative in helping trace exposures, but the outbreak has nonetheless continued to spread. As hundreds of South Carolinians remain under quarantine—some for the second time since October— state epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell warns transmission is expected to continue for several weeks at least.”
https://carolinacourier.substack.com/p/spartanburg-county-sc-measle-outbreak
The area is where “my people,” as we Southerners say, come from and was once mostly known for peach orchards. The orchards are gone and now the houses are often mansionettes but the social isolation may still be a thing.
New German daily for East Germany launched by same publisher as BERLINER ZEITUNG daily.
Welcome: OSTDEUTSCHE ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG, OAZ:
https://ostdeutscheallgemeine.com/
I am not sure yet in how far they will be able to offer so much a broader content sufficiently dissimilar to BERLINER ZEITUNG. Time will tell. I assume they have been working out that very problem.
Obviously the layout is the same as BLZ. Thus there is a corporate identity not by accident as Friedrich is an entrepreneur not only by profession but by heart. In a sense very “American” as his competitive mindset is concerned. And that of his wife and business partner.
As much as one may have qualms over some aspects of “Western Marxism”: The idea that society can be changed away from the competitiveness-ideology and that there is more to our existence than an ambition-induced race for – what I don´t know exactly – was a core concern of this postwar Left and integral part of the European deal. And I am having the impression more and more that of all elements of Leftism this is being thrown into the dustbin coz regulated market is good (unlike bad forms of “capitalism.”)
So while reaching to become a billionaire is the new bad. Millionaires are actually fine. They must be smarter than the others and are entitled to their wealth.
Good links today. Among other questions raised would be why school districts need a national photography behemoth to simply take pictures of kids. Do the school board members get trips to Vegas or some such? A “good job” to those parents who object.
And the flock camera smashers–all over the country the peasants may be grabbing their pitchforks.
That is simply how public school is these days. Lots of grasping hands. Lots of contracting. Simple things you think could be done in house are outsourced for reasons you dont understand and no one will explain. Lots of usage and convenience fees. Turtles and PE all the way down…
I was reading recently where parents weren’t allowed to take pictures/videos of their kids playing sports at school because the right to do so had been awarded to some corporation by those schools.
Private school is the same. Lifetouch is for school photos. For example seniors all take the same picture for the yearbook and those class pictures all go up on the wall. Dark jacket, white shirt and school ties. It would be impossible to do this individually.
The more fun pictures aren’t taken by Lifetouch. Lifetouch was around when we were kids.
Re: “We have a real problem brewing with the “Board of Peace” and it needs much more attention.”
Board of Peace = Bored of rights for workers and citizens
U.S. military fanboy arrested for using fake ID to enter base Asahi Shimbun
~~~~~~~~~~~
20 years ago we were in NZ in a rental van driving to Mt Cook NP and along the way, came across an open gated Tekapo Military Training Area camp and playing the dumb American card, decided we should drive in and got quite a ways and a NZ soldier motioned us to stop and asked what we were doing, and I told him we were lost, and he laughed and said, ‘this is a military camp and you’ll have to turn around and leave.’
That was that. Imagine a similar experience in these not so united states?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHxgQ_iEizk/
Patrick Henningsen is being interviewed by Kervork. The beginning, before moving on to other subjects, he talks about being “on lockdown in the epicenter of unrest” in Mexico and gives his first hand account of what it’s like.
On another note, I said last year that the type of immigration and border crackdowns being implemented in the USA are also what is seen when a war is happening or expected.
Newsflash:
The controversial Irony Dome* has been installed on the grounds of the White House not too far from where the ballroom used to be. It promises to intercept and destroy any incoming short or long range brickbats, yeah-buts, or damn near anything damning to the President.
* proven in the Knesset testing range
You aged ones like me, might remember when the Great Communicator scraped the solar panels on the roof of the White House (they ended up at some small college in Vermont, I believe) and replaced them with anti-aircraft missiles. I looked it up to confirm my memory:
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/12/us/report-cites-antiaircraft-missiles-at-white-house.html
You a’ll might recall the Missile Defense dome was Regan’s big grift too. What is old is new again as usual. One is taught to forget how much of the present landscape was laid down during the Edward Meese Regime, back then. It just took decades of incremental normalization.
On South Carolina Hospitals Aren’t Required to Disclose Measles-Related Admissions. That Leaves Doctors in the Dark.
I love how the photo is someone wearing an N95, taking a kids temperature, in a car; But never ever for COVID, which is obviously over, lol.
I hate this timeline.
Oz, RFK Jr and Battacharya were chosen for the same reason, to help thin out the population without stirring things up too much.
“The purpose of a system is what it does”
And where could you find a more qualified trio than these for the job?
In the BMJ, 2025,
“A 2025 study published in the Lancet11 tracked more than 830 000 US veterans and found that even non-admitted patients who tested positive for covid-19 had higher rates of bacterial, viral, and fungal infections in the year that followed.” https://www.bmj.com/content/390/bmj.r1733
So while we let Covid rip through the population, we get outbreaks of all sorts of other illnesses.
There was an article which I can’t find right now where they said that the dysregulation of the immune system after Covid infection also removed part or all of the immunity from vaccinations. Is this the case with measles? I haven’t seen any research yet on the topic.
The Strategic Dilemma At the Heart of Iran’s Struggle – Simplicius
This post is a reminder that there are so many goal posts being set up to serve narratives from the administration, other global officials, pundits, etc that all the refs will be making different calls.
It makes for an interesting complement to Big Serge’s latest piece.
Also, I guess there isn’t enough confirmation of that @vick55top tweet and all the movements of radicals out of Syria for the pundits to think that the waiting is about getting a proxy ground game in place.
From Due Dissidence, utube, ~25+ minutes.
Tucker Shares INSANE Behind-The-Scenes Huckabee Interview Details
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OAbsZOWOlw
I need to force down some crow, and here’s as good a place as any. I criticized Carlson’s performance as a debater in his encounter with Huck when I should have been praising Tucker as a journalist. He gave the Ambassador just enough rope.
Yeah. I wondered the same. It’s a bit sad when we want journalists to argue with and browbeat their interviewees rather than let them show themselves to be (the scum that they are).
So you would recommend the interview?
(I haven´t known Carlson until this whole chaos started, and until his first Putin interview I completely ignored him. I still am not sure of how real his integrity is but I definitely lack the actual information to make such a judgement especially in the light of the general verdict, not least here on NC.)
p.s. Did he change much as a journalist since his early days? I have no clue.
In his early bowtie days he was this little ruling-class twit. He had all the repub talking points. He wasn’t offensive, just shallow. Think of a juvy David Brooks…vacuous but with lots and lots of media face-time. The thing that I like about him now is that he knows how to listen and coax his interlocutor into extended answers.
I see…thanks!
Mazeltov, HMP!
Your comment yesterday made me doubt the ten minute clip I had seen of the exchange capped with the “take it all” comment. I was going to watch the whole 2 hour interview to see who came off better but your second-take spares me that, so thank you for dining au corbeau for me. :-)
Mandy perp walk!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cew8jde9pxqt
Well, not really. No bracelets, uniforms, cop cars with blue lights. The police action looks much like that for Andy last week. The police statement was
I’d like to enjoy a moment of schadenfreude but I expect it will proceed as with most white-collar crime, slowly, without custody, and likely end in a fine, if anything.
Tinfoil: they perp walked the cretin formerly known as Prince Andrew first so that the Mandy arrest garnered a bit less media attention. Andrew is an idiot who can be fully hung out to dry. Mandy knows where far too many skeletons are buried.
Still, who could be unhappy seeing Mandelson getting nicked :)
US farmers are rejecting multimillion-dollar datacenter bids for their land: ‘I’m not for sale’ – The Guardian
That the demons are trying to use farmland also show their hatred for humanity. Degenerate rats that want to increase food insecurity as well.
Also from Due Dissidence, utube, ~20+ minutes. Clip starts at the “Tucker Grills Huckabee” segment.
Tucker GRILLS Huckabee in Israel, Tariffs BLOCKED, Revolutionary Change PAC Launch – w/ Peter Hager
https://youtu.be/3O7VX1xMbZc?t=8920
Looking like embassies are getting evacuated. Are we all ready for war? I don’t think Iran will let this go so nicely this time (well, they did a pretty big number on Israel last time, so I wonder how crazy things will get this time). I can’t imagine Trump’s government surviving if the war goes pear shaped fast.
Judge Napolitano and Scott Ritter. utube, ~31+ minutes.
Scott Ritter : What War With Iran Will Look Like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzvbRHd57EU
Where are embassies getting evacuated?
US evacuates staff from Lebanon embassy amid tensions with Iran (Guardian)
You aged ones like me, might remember when the Great Communicator scraped the solar panels on the roof of the White House (they ended up at some small college in Vermont, I believe) and replaced them with anti-aircraft missiles. I looked it up to confirm my memory:
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/12/us/report-cites-antiaircraft-missiles-at-white-house.html
What’s old is new. You a’ll might recall the Missile Defense dome was Regan’s big grift too. What is old is new again as usual. One is taught to forget how much of the present landscape was laid down during the Edward Meese Regime, back then. It just took decades of incremental normalization.
Is the second appearance of this comment a subtle teaching aid? :-)
Consider me normalised!
Trump demands Netflix fire Susan Rice as DOJ probes Warner deal – CNBC
If it goes to that Paramount crew, I’m going to cancel HBO Max so fast that my fingers may fly off.
Iran war thoughts..
1.Plenty of consent manufacturing going on from the usual suspects
The Case for Striking Iran (Bret ‘not a bedbug‘ Stephens, NYT via archive)
Iran plotting terror attacks across Europe (some UAE based pr/propaganda flak, Telegraph)
‘Our classrooms are empty because the graveyards are full’: Iran’s students on why they are protesting again (The Guardian’s NGO human rights project)
2. I’ve seen across multiple stories that the voices in the White House inner circle cautioning against war seem to be Thiel pet JD Vance, and Thielverse/Palantir adjacent Military head Dan Caine. Interesting in more than one way – they may just be the rational non-Zionist compromised people, may be actually giving a realistic assessment, or may be wanting to be on record as cautious so they look better if/when it turns to sh*t and explodes Trump’s presidency. Regardless, it seems that despite their tightness with Israel and ongoing role in Zionist evils, the Thielites/Palantirites don’t want this war.
3. TACO odds seem to be rising but I’m still very concerned that Trump will get bounced into war, or miscalculate the response to “limited strikes”.
WRT #2, it’s worth remembering, from several memoirs of the diplomats and others who dealt with them, Goering was against any war (fully knowing that Germany was short on resources for war) and Ribbentrop was against Barbarossa (Many German diplomats were big fans of econ cooperation with Russia and were cognizant of Germany’s lack of resources….)
Tooze makes a good case in Wages of Destruction that in the end Germany had no choice but to do war (terrible terrible balance of payments and exchange rate problems nearly stopping the economy). It’s actually kinda impressive how close the country came to have its economy nearly collapse several times between 1933 and 1945 and somehow managed to postpone it until the end.
thanks for reminding of this point re: Goering.
Different topic: I posted a conversation with Paul Jay where he argued that the US business class after WWI eventually understood how profitable war was.
Do we have an actual study about this process of them understanding this? Tooze-way so-to-speak.
Regarding point 2, I’ve been wondering if it’s not so much “non-Zionist-compromised” but cold number crunching regarding total addressable market for the war products: is there more money to be made in an actual war, or in the threat of war? If the risk of the destruction of The State of Israel (which is the entity that can allocate funding for big military spend) is too high if the Iran bluff proceeds to full blown war, that removes a huge market for their goods and services. And not just Palantir but Anduril and whatever else the Thielites have up their sleeves (full-spectrum surveillance possibly requiring Israeli technology and complicity?).
If that is the case then they want everything up to the edge of the war but not to actually proceed. And this would have the added benefit of removing Netanyahu as a complicating factor because if the war doesn’t proceed forthwith, the odds of Netanyahu going to jail begin to rise. This week Ayelet “Kill The Snakes In Their Cradles” Shaked was saying “Netanyahu Must Go” and the only real alternative was Naftali Bennet, the smoother, American-accented face of genocide and former tech (security, natch) CEO. He would be the perfect face to repackage Israel to Americans who associate Israel with Netanyahu’s demands for more and do not have a tendency to look deeper. In this way The State of Israel (and those who rely on the pretense thereof) would be able to “move on” from the Netanyahu and 10/7-genocide era. I would be completely unsurprised if he was aligned with the Thielites and had even pitched this to them following the 12 day war last summer.
Also to be perfectly clear, Bennett is (if you can believe it) more right wing and extreme than Netanyahu. He’s a blood-and-soil nationalist though, so would be unlikely to align with the settler faction (Ben Gvir and Smotrich) except in the sense that he would likely annex the West Bank. He would continue the genocide, but abstract it away from the international (especially American) view. He would represent a likely temporary triumph of the “State of Israel” (as opposed to “State of Judea”) faction as outlined in the Ilan Pappe piece The Collapse of Zionism.
The elevated risk of actual destruction of Israel should the war with Iran gets “real(er)” is why I wonder if people like Huckabee and Graham seem so enthused about it, apparently more than the Israeli military. They want to see the Apocalypse. The destruction of Israel is a necessary precondition (presumably, there will be time for red heifer and the like along the way.)
Crazy but true: I recently had a conversation with several Israelis on why they shouldn’t be so enthusiastic about the support of the Christian Zionists like Huckabee because they tried to tell me he was a good guy. I explained the whole book of revelations bs and the dominionist/millenarian thing about the thousand year reich led by Jesus on earth that had as a critical component that all Jews be herded into Israel before it was destroyed. They had no idea. Literally, none.
Anyway I think Huckabee and Graham and the rest of those scoundrels are dangerous religious nuts who do indeed believe in this stuff (well, Graham may be a bit more cynical/self-serving about it, but Huckabee is for sure a true believer). I do not think there are enough of them, though; they don’t have enough divisions, to paraphrase the apocryphal Stalin quote. On the other hand, there are immense numbers of opportunists who are not (or not as much of) religious nuts who are more than happy to let the nuts blaze a path that they can profit from when betraying and kneecapping the nuts at a critical juncture. It is my sincere and fervent hope that we are about to see this play out at multiple levels of power in both Israel and the US.
I feel as if i’m watching a self-fulfilling prophecy play out in real time, as we have end-times evangs and end-times Zionists both competing for the gory, and nobody anywhere near the reins of power seems all that nonplussed by dogma developments, bring it on!
Interesting insight as always RJ.
Adding: Palantir/Anduril are explicitly against the big ships and expensive planes model. One result of “we amassed all our shiny expensive objects, and it still isn’t feasible'” might be to give more momentum to their desired pivot to cheap modular drones, missiles and Lattice AI.
I suspect I’m probably overcomplicating though, and they are mainly just correctly criticizing a bad idea.
Lol, I was just about to post the same. It MA turn out in the future that Palantir’s biggest customer (and non-user!) was Mossad….
Just spitballin’, but if more back and forth volleys are negotiated, the regime change has already happened.
finally got around to plowing through this:https://www.citriniresearch.com/p/2028gic
and while im not necessarily in the camp that expects literal skynet or The Matrix( any time soon…a white collar worker replacement from hell seems to be pretty much exactly what these things are good for.
and this lays out a plausible, IMO, path for that to blow up into everydamnedthing else.
because those people(PMC) account for the bulk of the consumer/discretionary spending.
among other things.
sent it to my Youngest, who has finally landed into being an Economics Major at texas tech.
(after his whole life listening to me ramble on about heterodox econ,lol)
and further, the hyperinterconnectedness of everything is well represented in this bit…white collar layoff apocalypse=> prime mortgage default=> and we finally get the Trickle Down we’ve been promised for nigh on 50 years!
as i have been for 30 years…or at least trying to, what with the poverty, lack of capital, and all the setbacks and disasters…im going long local ag.
out here, what these guys are talking about will be a local depression among the wine people and the hunting economy(legacy ranches that cant make $ on farming(no subsidies) or cattle( fubar, due to big ag and bad policy) anymores.)
both rely on discretionary income….as in extra money that one can blow to run off to the hill country to be a wine drunk or shoot bambi(neither are cheap endeavors)_
i warned the local movers and shakers about this very thing when the peanut subsidy went away, in…1996?….that their target customer was even then the fastest shrinking demographic in teh country.
meanwhile, i have watched from my place at least 7 new houses sprout on hilltops over the last 10 years….most in the last year and a half.
and can see even more at night(due to yard lights).
and thats just what i can see from my Hermit Kingdom.
local ptb also failed to listen when i advocated blowing the bridges on the approaches, to head off this invasion.
IBM down because Claude AI is going to fix COBOL code and replace virus protection.
SSA has got 60 million lines of COBOL code in its databases. What could possibly go wrong ? You thought DOGE cause a few problems in there, wait until Claude starts optimising the SSA rolls.
I keep asking the question: If Claude AI and other AI tools were so great, why haven’t Microsoft/Google unleashed them on their own code bases, e.g., Windows, Google Android OS, etc?
With more money than God, surely these companies would by now be releasing amazing new features on an insanely rapid cadence. Every security hole would have been patched by now. There would be no need for anti-virus, because MS Windows would be safer than Fort Knox.
The fact that they haven’t speaks volumes. They’re not “eating their own dog food.” They’re pushing it on everyone else.
Re: “Scoop: Dems working on secret report found Gaza cost Harris votes”
Sorry DNC, that was just one of the reasons I would never vote for that POS. I love how she ‘privately “pleaded” with Biden to show more empathy for civilians in Gaza’. We empathize with your genocide.
re: Iran
Mark Sleboda in a comprehensive take with Nima
The Axis is Rising? China and Russia Just Armed Iran to the Teeth
68 min.
https://rumble.com/v7637uw-mark-sleboda-the-axis-is-rising-china-and-russia-just-armed-iran-to-the-tee.html?e9s=src_v1_cbl%2Csrc_v1_ucp_v
p.s. Martyanov:
“(…) June, 2025. Vladimir Putin verbatim.
“You know, we once offered our Iranian friends to work in the field of air defense systems. The partners did not show much interest then, and that’s all. As for the agreement you mentioned, on the strategic partnership [between the Russian Federation and Iran], there are no articles related to the defense sector. This is the second point. And thirdly, our Iranian friends are not asking for this. Because there is practically nothing to discuss,” Putin said.
Correct, Tehran liberal “elite” is a mirror image of any pro-Western factions anywhere, in terms of their foreign interests and “belief” that one can “negotiate”. It is a long story, but Russia and China have been delivering things to Iran, ranging from combat aircraft to radar, but the only thing which is left for all of us is to wait and see. Per this:
see chart
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2026/02/he-also-promised-2000.html
If this is 40-50% of all US air power, I have bad news for fanboys–not enough for any REAL action other than, indeed, hurling everything at whatever the reconned Iranian AD is and hoping for effect. US never conducted real SEAD other than bombing the crap out of mighty Iraqi AD. In Vietnam, that didn’t work out that well. To put it mildly. Hoping, of course, against all hope, that DJT will find at least a rudimentary backbone, but with Epstein Files dominating alternative media agenda and his Israeli masters having him cornered–he will perform TACO and will strike Iran. (…)”
$4.01(k) update:
It was the $64,000 question for we holders of Bitcoin, was this the market bottom or merely a teaser on the way down the abyss to the meltdown value of 0’s & 1’s?
Twenty three years ago, Wendell Berry wrote this essay.
Here are the first 2 paras of the essay:
A Citizen’s Response to the National Security Strategy
of the United States of America
by Wendell Berry
9 February 2003
THE NEW NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY published by the White House in
September 2002, if carried out, would amount to a radical revision of the political character
of our nation. Its central and most significant statement is this:
While the United States will constantly strive to enlist the support of the international
community, we will not hesitate to act alone, if necessary, to exercise our right of self defense by
acting preemptively against such terrorists . . . (p. 6)
A democratic citizen must deal here first of all with the question, Who is this “we”? It is not
the “we” of the Declaration of Independence, which referred to a small group of signatories
bound by the conviction that “governments [derive] their just powers from the consent of the
governed.” And it is not the “we” of the Constitution, which refers to ” the people [my
emphasis] of the United States.”
This “we” of the new strategy can refer only to the president. It is a royal “we”. A head of
state, preparing to act alone in starting a preemptive war, will need to justify his intention by
secret information, and will need to plan in secret and execute his plan without forewarning.
The idea of a government acting alone in preemptive war is inherently undemocratic, for it
does not require or even permit the president to obtain the consent of the governed. As a
policy, this new strategy depends on the acquiescence of a public kept fearful and ignorant,
subject to manipulation by the executive power, and on the compliance of an intimidated and
office dependent legislature. To the extent that a government is secret, it cannot be
democratic or its people free. By this new doctrine, the president alone may start a war
against any nation at any time, and with no more forewarning than preceded the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor.
https://mail.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/CR2NSSoUSA.pdf