Bad Stupid 3 Quarks Daily
The six-second hug Aeon
Climate/Environment
US Government Is Accelerating Coral Reef Collapse, Scientists Warn Inside Climate News
US ‘bullying’ could scupper carbon levy on shipping, warn experts The Guardian
Extreme weather having an impact on farmers’ mental health The Narwhal
A hotter, wetter South is becoming a breeding ground for mold Grist
Pandemics
How Covid Quietly Rewires the Brain Bloomberg
The Koreas
N. Korea’s Kim says willing to get along with U.S. if Washington drops hostile policy Yonhap
China?
Chinese Surveillance Gets the AI Treatment China Media Project
China’s Spring Festival AI war Pekingnology
A Chinese official’s use of ChatGPT accidentally revealed a global intimidation operation CNN
India
Ahead of Mark Carney’s visit, Ottawa says India no longer linked to violent crimes in Canada Economic Times
Modi continues Israel visit, invokes so-called ‘Biblical axis’ in Knesset speech New Arab
Afghanistan-Pakistan
Pakistan-Afghanistan live: Islamabad says ‘open war’; jets attack Kabul Al Jazeera
Pakistan-Afghanistan War: Did India & Israel Express “All Possible Support” To Kabul Amid Threats From Pak? Eurasian Times
Syraqistan
Palantir’s AI Is Already Playing a Major Role in Tracking Gaza Aid Deliveries Drop Site
Activists plan 200-boat flotilla to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza New Arab
***
Iran Calls Trump’s Bluff as Deep State Rebels Over War Simplicius
Iran to offer ‘commercial bonanza’ to US companies FT
Will Trump Take the Exit Ramp or Go to War with Iran? Larry Johnson
White House officials believe ‘the politics are a lot better’ if Israel strikes Iran first Politico
For Trump, Military Strike in Iran Could Serve Symbolic Purpose New York Times
Vance: ‘No chance’ any Iran strikes would lead to long war in Middle East The Hill
Saudi Arabia Boosting Oil Output In Anticipation of U.S. Attacks On Iran OilPrice
Flags of Iran Pawel Moscicki
Africa
As Trump’s African Peace Deal Teetered, a Call From Rwanda Halted U.S. Sanctions WSJ
European Disunion
Viktor Orbán Orders Military Protection for Energy Infrastructure Hungary Today
New Poll Shows Orbán Steadily Leading Ahead of April Election Hungarian Conservative vs. New poll: Orbán should brace for crushing defeat as Péter Magyar eyes constitutional rewrite Daily News Hungary
Gay Nazis (Or Why Liberal Identity Politics Must Die) Nate Bear
Poland charges former security chiefs over use of Pegasus spyware Notes from Poland
Old Blighty
Blood tech: UK’s use of Israeli spyware that helps underpin a genocide Al Jazeera
Labour’s worst fears realised by Greens’ victory in Gorton and Denton byelection The Guardian
New Not-So-Cold War
Kill all the birds with one stone Julian Macfarlane
Turkey reportedly weighs $500 billion U.S. energy deal linked to potential F-35 Lightning II fighter purchase Defence Industry Europe
Putin’s Top Aide Patrushev Addressed The West’s Evolving Naval Threats To Russia Andrew Korybko
Russia’s finance ministry to tighten budget rule as oil revenues sink Intellinews
The Ever-Tightening Russia/China Strategic Partnership Karl Sanchez
South of the Border
US citizen was among those killed in Cuba speedboat shootout. Here’s what we know CNN
U.S. Government Blocks Payments for Legal Defense, President Maduro Defends His Right TeleSur
LAWFARE DIPLOMACY: HOW THE U.S. BULLIED ITS WAY BACK INTO THE PANAMA CANAL NACLA
L’affaire Epstein
How Jeffrey Epstein sought to infiltrate the justice system Miami Herald
Newspapers Did Not Kill Themselves Maureen Tkacik, American Prospect
‘You’ll have to ask my husband:’ House Republicans say Hillary Clinton punted questions on Epstein Politico
Trump 2.0
***
Pentagon fires senior officer who called Netanyahu and his allies ‘Judeo-supremacist cronies’ TRT Afrika
My guess – and it is based on limited but not extensive contact with Navy warfighters – is that he holds the position that a war on Iran would be a disaster. I don’t want to be too specific, but I believe from what I know that this view is widely held among particularly Naval… https://t.co/BYLvq8K5H8
— Daniel McAdams (@DanielLMcAdams) February 26, 2026
Tensions simmer over Howard Lutnick, Trump’s favorite dealmaker Politico
***
Border Wall Plans Expand Into Big Bend National Park, Sparking Local Opposition and Environmental Concerns Big Bend Times
This issue has brought together liberals and conservatives, environmentalists and outdoorsmen. Locals of all persuasions.
Not only is the landscape threatened but also the dark sky. Big Bend is one of the best places to view the stars in the lower 48. That is now at risk. pic.twitter.com/pMsoSoSElV
— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) February 26, 2026
DHS Shutdown
FEMA disaster relief fund nearly empty, officials say Semafor
Democrats Suck
Mamdani
Mamdani charms Trump, pushes housing and gets ICE detainee released Axios vs. Mamdani deepens collaboration with Trump in second White House meeting WSWS
Police State Watch
PRIVATE PRISON FALSIFIED RECORDS IN DETAINEE’S DEATH IN ICE CUSTODY The Intercept
AI
Wall Street turns to complex trades to dodge AI ‘implosions’ FT
High-yield bond surge signals rising risk, demand in BTC mining, AI infrastructure Coin Telegraph
On NVIDIA and Analyslop Ed Zitron
***
Anthropic says Pentagon’s “final offer” is unacceptable Axios
Retired US Air Force General Jack Shanahan on the Anthropic-Pentagon tensions Gary Marcus
The Scent of Iranian Lavender Spencer Ackerman. Argues the Anthropic-Pentagon disagreement is theater.
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
The Government Just Made it Harder to See What Spy Tech it Buys 404 Media
Our Famously Free Press
One family is about to control CBS, CNN, HBO, and TikTok. They’ll buy WBD with $24 billion in money from the Saudis, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi. To win over Trump, they canceled Colbert, blocked a CECOT investigation, and blocked Talarico. Much more will follow. Block this rotten deal. pic.twitter.com/heRvXDIjrO
— Alvaro Bedoya (@BedoyaUSA) February 26, 2026
Class Warfare
The Apotheosis of Point of Sale Data Phenomenal World
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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Comments are closed.
Re: ‘You’ll have to ask my husband:’ House Republicans say Hillary Clinton punted questions on Epstein
I predict Bill will challenge the record for using “I do not recall…” in a hearing.
I believe the current record is still Reagan with 124+
I hate to have to point that out, but this is a legitimate response. It should have occurred to me that Hillary had an easy way to slip the deposition noose.
1. In prosecutions, wives cannot be compelled to testify against their husbands.
2. Anything she heard from Bill, as opposed to directly from Epstein, is hearsay and not admissible evidence.
In the Epstein files there is a quote where Epstein says he works for the Rothschilds, specifically Ariane de Rothschild. During Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign she very famously had Lynn Forrester de Rothschild as an advisor to her campaign. Though only related by marriage, the Rothschilds are a famously tight family. It would not be a stretch to intuit some connection between Ariane and Lynne that might seek to capitalize on their relationships with both Epstein and Clinton.
Seems like there is a line of questioning there that would not involve Clinton’s right to not testify against her husband but still be of relevance to the investigation.
Epstein visited the White House at least 17 times during the Clinton administration. If I recall these visits were linked to lobbying over trade policy, and to the whole “Chinagate” scandal which was swept under the rug (one of many such sweepings for Clinton). Mark Middleton was often the major White House contact; remember him? Epstein was also a major contributor to, and possibly provided organizational advise for, the Clinton Foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative, and the Clinton Health Access Initiative. Mutual involvement with the last one was the reason for Bill’s best known international trips with Epstein, and also linked the two of them with Bill Gates. It is likely that the Epstein relationship (and maybe even the Maxwell relationship) was primarily with Bill, but it is highly unlikely that Hillary wasn’t aware of all this. And then there is lot’s of stuff like this…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7748467/amp/Bill-Hillary-Clinton-frequent-guests-Jeffrey-Epsteins-New-Mexico-ranch.html
… which gets completely ignored by the mainstream press, always written off as hearsay or lies by people seeking publicity or money.
Congressional inquiries are almost always worthless exercises in partisan gotcha name calling that never get beyond surface-level pap.
“It is likely that the Epstein relationship (and maybe even the Maxwell relationship) was primarily with Bill, but it is highly unlikely that Hillary wasn’t aware of all this.”
Sabby Sabs makes the same point in a deep dive here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ2DdqUTbyY
Frequent user of the Lincoln Bedroom, I wonder….
Curious, that. It was a short journey from Nixon’s “you can say you can’t remember; you can say you don’t recall” to having half our presidents suffer from dementia.
“FAA restricts Texas airspace after Pentagon reportedly strikes down Customs and Border Protection drone”
I wondered about this headline when I read about this incident earlier. This article mentions that a coupla weeks ago the airspace was shut down over El Paso, Texas over a Mexican cartel drug cartel drone – but which turned out to be a party balloon. The Pentagon was furious over this because shutting down any air space over North America was their call as they have responsibility for that airspace. So I was wondering if this shoot down was their payback and reminding everybody else who has charge of those skies.
So it appears Paul Anka was right, the fix was in for the Paramount WB deal from the beginning. Netflix walked away from the deal hours after the Netflix CEO left the White House
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/netflix-backs-out-warners-deal-paramount-win-1236516763/
I love our free matket. This whole thing reeks.
Gee, what a surprise! So far everything the democrats and the left claimed orange man would do, has come true! He has served himself and his billionaire buddies and nothing else except shredding the constitution. No one does a thing about it. He will turn out to be the end of us and that will be that!
I am wondering if people think that the Ellison’s are actually going to make money off of this.
100 billion dollars for Warner brothers? Plus they have to sanitize all of the content and make it Trump friendly?
Will the next Superman movie have him team up with Lex Luthor against poor people?
What long term future does CNN even have?
TDS becomes I told you so.
I think you mistake the events as a loss for Sarandos and Netflix. They walk away with tons of publicity and at least 2.8 billion dollars as a break up fee. Zaslav gets a deal where the Ellisons have just paid for a solid gold Rolls Royce but get a broken down Honda. (Much of the entire acquisition is running on fumes or are flat out money pits, and those that aren’t are not anywhere near worth what they are paying. They can salvage the Honda, but it is going to cost them more money and the eventual valuation of the company that will remain won’t equal what they paid.)
The winners are Zaslav and the WBD stockholders, and Sarandos and Netflix. They ran the board and won.
The complicit losers are the Ellisons.
The long term losers are the employees of WBD and most of all the American public. This isn’t just about the Zionist control. We have legitimately gotten to a media so deeply compacted that it makes the situation a couple of years ago where it was owned by five companies look open and diverse.
Oh I totally get that Paramount smoothed tgis over by agreeing to cover that fee. I do not think Netflix will be able to keep that. Eccentially Paramount is paying t0 cover Netflixs fee to pulling back from the deal.
Don´t see losses for Ellisons here
I will be very surprised if in a year the valuations for Paramount and WBD, however they end up being structured, even come close to what the Ellisons have laid out. Oh I know that they aren’t actually buying businesses but influence and much of that for others, but they are going to have lost money.
agree
their financial losses however would be so limited I don´t really count them in
specially with MidEast investors covering much of the investment
for them it´s a tip
but in any case it´s the worst possible outcome for the real world
i have no idea how serious we can take states´ AGs and Sen. Warren in opposing this…
fwiw: THE TOWN podcast yesterday
https://podcasts.apple.com/is/podcast/emergency-pod-paramount-outbids-netflix-and-wins/id1612131897?i=1000751994877
The AI capability that allows the general public to make full-length, realistic movies from prompts is arriving just in time.
I’m gonna do one using real people portraying how we do American 🇺🇸 Revolution 2!
I can already smell 👃 the Oscar!!!
https://deadline.com/2026/02/paramount-warner-bros-netflix-international-leaders-react-1236738491/
Perhaps WB management are the real ones to blame–shouldn’t be selling at all?
As for taking over CNN it’s dubious it could be much worse as was true of CBS pre Paramount. Don’t forget that many gave CNN the credit for Trump’s win in 2016.
Old Time High Death Toll
Sung to the tune of “Old Time Rock-and-Roll”, by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band
Melody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1LsRShUPtY&list=RDW1LsRShUPtY
Just take those old weapons off the shelf
I sit and lubricate ’em by myself
Today’s warlords ain’t got the same soul
I like an old-time high death toll
Don’t even try to bomb a disco
The Joint Chiefs won’t even let you have the floor
In ten minutes, they’ll be opening bomb-bay doors
They like an old-time high death toll
Still like that old-time high death toll
The kind of swamp music that de-vivifies your soul
I reminisce about the slayers of old
With an old-time high death toll!
Hey!
[Guitar break]
Won’t play the diplomatic tango
I’d rather hear some Westmoreland or funky Pot, Pol
There’s only one sure way to get the Ayatollah to go
That’s with an old-time high death toll
Call me a relic, call me what you will
Say I’m old-fashioned, say I’m down for the kill
Today’s warlords ain’t got the same soul
I like an old-time high death toll
Still like that old-time high death toll
The kind of swamp music that de-vivifies your soul
I reminisce about the slayers of old
With an old-time high death toll!
Ow!
[Instrumental break]
[Chorus]
Still like that old-time high death toll
The kind of swamp music that de-vivifies your soul
I reminisce about the slayers of old
With an old-time high death toll!
Still like that old-time high death toll
The kind of swamp music that de-vivifies your soul
I reminisce about the slayers
of old
With an old-time high death toll!
[Repeat Chorus]
This is really good, Chris, the beat is still there and the lyrics are….[chef’s kiss] !
BRO THATS SOLID
SHARING WITH MY REVOLUTIONARY CHOIR
Sorry, Conor Gallagher, but Akim Reinhardt of Bad Stupid truly doth protest too much.
He keeps trying to prove that Trump voters and supporters are all borderline fascisti.
And there’s this: “But can you be a Trumper at this point and not be damaged? Yes, we’re all damaged to some degree, but can you be an avid Trumper and not be damaged in ways that mitigate your ability to empathize and/or understand that you’re being taken for a ride?”
Meanwhile, this morning, I check my Fcbk feed. The Italians were posting about protests against the government, local concerts, book-store events. The USanians are already lining up to defend Hillary Clinton. Yes, eight or nine years later, we still get to witness Hillary Diehardism. It’s like a bad case of alcoholism, when the cumulative effects are producing brain damage that manifests in behavior.
Damage? Yes, Blue MAGA = Red Maga.
These are the people who think that Kamala Harris lost because “Americans hate the womensys,” not because Kamala Harris was lying about her 24/7 efforts with Joe “Knox Gelatin for Brains” Biden to get a ceasefire in Gaza.
Bad stupid? As I keep pointing out, there is no such thing as fake news. There are lies, bullshit, and propaganda.
And do any of youse truly believe Clinton’s testimony before Congress? The Blue MAGA of Fcbk do.
So I see lots of damage. And my neighbor Antonio Gramsci is supposed to have said: «La sfida della modernità è vivere senza illusioni, e senza diventare dei disillusi». The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions but without becoming one of the disillusioned. (Or, lacking any trust.)
PS: As has been shown, Ghislaine Maxwell was at Chelsea Clinton’s wedding. If as Hillary Clinton claims, her 30 000 missing e-mail messages were mainly about yoga and planning Chelsea’s wedding, shouldn’t she find a way of releasing the 30 000 so as to clear up the matter? One must speculate — and one must wonder about the compilation of the guest list in the 30 000 missing work-product e-mail messages.
Hillary Clinton continues to remind people how lucky they were in not electing her. She oozes prevarication, while showing that she condescends to tolerate her political and media inquisitors.
Not all people. I was just told she would have been a great president. This is what we are up against, people that believe that kind of stuff.
This is what we are up against..
Yeah, the people who repeatedly fall for the fairy-tales are likely also the most active voters– the delusional and credulous lending legitimacy to the some of the most troublesome delusions and lies that burden us, enabling these.
The tribalist dems and repubs, if not total kool-aid drinkers, can come up with the most twisted and entertaining rationalizations to defend their leader’s actions, let alone their own.
Republican + Democrat voters = Good Germans
This is so true. I do get a kick out of how they can twist things. They come up with some all star level word salad, and if not, they just believe what they want.
Recently, when Newsome said something stupid and derogatory about black people, they said it was totally debunked. There were no black people in the room. Well, he still said what he said… which was derogatory, and, he was talking to a black person when he said it. But debunked.
Maybe Putin made him do it. They still believe he’s in control too.
Both sides need to focus on the Epstein files – this is the big club – and the best chance we have. Everybody should be on board with that.
Hillary might have been president had she campaigned instead of treating the whole thing as a queenly progress.
2016 was the first time I willfully did not vote for a presidential candidate of any party.
In 2020 Joe Biden said the quiet part out loud, “Nothing will fundamentally change.”
Thus,now we have Donnie doing the quiet part and daring us top stop him.
Clinton depositions? Remember Miracle Max saying Wesley was only “mostly dead?” Those depositions will be mostly something other. Not even particularly good theater.
Hillary might have been president had she campaigned instead of treating the whole thing as a queenly progress.
But… but… it was her turn!!!
In a way Trump is an idiot. People hate DEMS so much. He could have destroyed them if he didn´t pursue this public persona. So that whatever a Clinton does too many will remain diehard fans of her and her allies.
Am looking at stupid Germany. It is always: Trump is this, that and what not. Permanent TDS.
It has sunk into everyday culture.
And with every new racist slur he solidifies it.
However this “failure” to finish off the Dems is no coincidence.
panem et circenses
After all they have the same enemy.
Preserve uniparty is of course the true bottom-line.
Hey, some honestly believe that Harris won. I haven’t gotten them to run the scenario of how, but I can honestly not think of any conspiracy version I know of that ends with Trump losing if you follow it through.
Right now the Dems are still trying to make sure that no populist appealing Democratic primary candidates can succeed, but still they are the answer.
It is a bipartisan disease where the symptoms are the same, delusional attachment to damaging parasitic entities.
> Right now the Dems are still trying to make sure that no populist appealing Democratic primary candidates can succeed, but still they are the answer.
This is how I interpret the YouTube adverts featuring Sen. Warren asking for $ for the “Democratic Fight Fund.” They need to be sure that no-one to the left of the current party consensus makes it to a general election.
Perhaps featuring her works for many D voters, but I won’t forget what I interpret to have been her cooperation with the Party Establishment to keep Sanders down.
Out for cocktails yesterday, a friend brought up Clinton’s testimony and said something along the lines of her doing her usual great work. I thought the comment was obviously sarcastic, so I chimed in about her not being able to recall a thing! It turns out the comment was not sarcastic, and happy hour became a little less happy.
I drink alone.
“Vance: ‘No chance’ any Iran strikes would lead to long war in Middle East”
J D Vance is also saying that Iraq, errr, Iran is developing weapons of mass destruction so I would not put much stock in what he says. If Vance wants to be Prez in ’28, he is not actually standing out much and making a mark for himself. In this aspect he is a lot like VP Kamala Harris when she was not doing much of anything in office. In over a year, I can’t think of anything that Vance has done except to say how great Trump is.
Come on, our first vice president inspired by REM, touched by eyeliner. That has to count for a lot.
Hey! What did REM do to deserve that?
REM, Orange Crush, live at Pinkpop, 1989.
Vance is very similar to Harris in that his only real backing is from Big $, Thiel in his case. He is life insurance for Trump, as Harris was for Biden.
Lots of $, no political base.
No chance Iran strikes would lead to a long war…because nukes will fly before it gets to that point! Maybe that’s what he means? It’s like he’s denying any agency to the other side in this matter, that it’s only “us” that have a say in how long the war will go on.
“No Chance Vance” has a ring to it.
I feel so stupid. I am Dutch, so I know what a bicycle looks like. Yet I was not able to pass the “I am not a robot” verification on the COVID article, which asked to click all the squares with bicycles in them.
Some days I just want to throw all computers away.
Understandable if it was a mountain bike….
Various tech people at various times have explained to me that the correct squares is the least important part of the test, the main thing is mouse/finger movement and timing.
I don’t get it, but that what they say.
Sorry, but why does this verification shit exist in the first place?
How can access to texts/content/or all kinds of important services be allowed to be controlled by these completely arbitrary and inadequate programs?
Is there no law? Shouldn´t they just be abolished? What is all this?
“All this” is ~165 billion instances per year of free pattern recognition and user response data, sorted by demographic and geographic location, for training AI models.
“all this” is ~180 billion instances per year of free, real-time pattern recognition and user response data, conveniently sorted by demographic and location, for AI model training.
Inflation accelerating!
AI out of control. :)
Sorry about that. Interface issues. I thought I’d corrected, instead of double posting two variants.
Ah, but do you know what an American bicycle looks like, loaded to the gills with every “improvement” and gizmo known to man and Martian?
Usually, by-elections are forgotten within days, but I think the Guardian is correct that this one is a genuine game changer. The nightmare scenario for Labour centralists is that they could be outflanked on the left, just as the Cons have been outflanked on the right. The Greens have won the fight (in England anyway, SNP and PC have done this already in Scotland/Wales) to fly the flag for the ‘left, but definitely not Labour’ voter, which is increasingly the most important single bloc in UK voting (not counting the ‘get the b’stards out’ bloc). It gives a genuine alternative to voters in every traditional red seat, and maybe others besides (some old style Tory voters may even be tempted to vote Green to stop Reform). As for Reform, they seem to have run out of momentum – they have probably topped out their natural vote, and now people are looking a little more closely at them, and its not a particularly pretty sight.
The Tories, it should be noted, were a rounding error in the vote.
So unless Labour does something drastic – i.e. get themselves a leader people actually would want to vote for, they could be headed for an election disaster now that (assuming they play their cards right), the Greens, along with SNP and PC, offer a real alternative in left leaning constituencies.
What this means for naturally centre-right leaning areas is harder to say. The Conservatives have been entirely inept in their attempts to neutralise Reform, but Reform itself always seems a step away from self-immolation. The LibDems could still prosper if they went all out for a ‘sensible centrist’ voter.
Its not impossible we could see a situation where LibDems/Greens/SNP/PC and even Sinn Fein would be the majority grouping, with neither Labour nor Conservatives having enough seats to put together a government in any realistic combination. Interesting times.
‘So unless Labour does something drastic’
In all fairness, they did try to cancel about 30 local Council elections until they had to back off. Manchester is a big surprise as it was a heartland Labour seat. There is something that I note here. Starmer sabotaged an attempt by Andy Burnham to run as the Labour candidate. He seems like a good guy but the guys at The Duran have pointed out that Burnham was a former lieutenant of Tony Blair. So a major loss for Labour, the Tories and Reform. As it was, Labour got demolished, Reform did not get up and the Tories were an afterthought with the Greens taking the seat. But I still expect Starmer to survive this as Labour has no one to replace him with.
I read that Andy Burnham was stopped because as an MP he could have challenged Starmer for the PM position once Starmer loses the upcoming local elections. Essentially by appealing to the numerous centrists Labour MPs who quite enjoy their seats.
By preventing Burnham from running Labour lost to the Greens and now can’t use “a vote for the Greens splits the vote and lets Reform in” because the Greens have shown that they can muster more support than Labour.
I agree. As often as not, a byelection leads to an upset due to a protest vote against the sitting government, and the seat usually reverts to past form at the next general election. In this case, Starmer and Labour have alienated so many voters, both traditional Labour voters and others, that they seem beyond the point of no return.
Starmer offers nothing but lies and broken promises, all the while mendaciously supporting the genocidal Zionists, having protestors arrested as ‘terrorists’, and continuing to send millions to the utterly corrupt Zelensky, all the while claiming there are too many black holes in government finances to be able to help ordinary people.
Labour and Reform claim Gaza was only an issue for Muslim voters, whereas most people in Britain are disgusted by what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank and the failure of mainstream politicians to acknowledge this and actually do something. In sharp contrast to the immediate villification and sanctioning of Putin and all thngs Russian within hours of the invasion of Ukraine.
For me, Hannah Spencer’s success has come as a bright point in a long dark season.
Me too Alice!
Delighted as I am to see Starmer get a kick in the goolies, I do wonder whether the Greens in the UK will escape the fate of their brethren in Europe, who have become part of the establishment themselves, a vaguely wokist, good-thinking, mildly progressive war-supporting home for those temporarily disillusioned with other parties of the Left. (In France the Greens and the Socialists have been swapping disaffected voters for a decade or more.) Her victory speech yoking together the interests of the working-class poor, migrants and refugees, as though these interests were convergent instead of generally opposed to each other, may have been inexperience and naivety, or it may be an early sign that the party will promise whatever it needs to promise in any given constituency to get elected. I hope that’s wrong, but I fear that the result will be the destruction of the Labour Party, and with it much of the British political system, with nothing in its place.
It took time, but at last the Labour party is undergoing pasokification, just like its brethren in the rest of the European continent.
I do not think we should shed tears for the destruction of a decrepit party, and I do not share your fears about the British political system disappearing without replacement, in a kind of anarchical free-for-all without rules — for nature abhors a vacuum. What should worry us instead is what will come to fill the void.
I don’t know much about the UK Greens at present, although they’ve being campaigning on an openly populist economics policy (i.e. what Labour should have been doing). Back in the 1990’s one local Green group was the tenant of a building owned by a voluntary group I was involved in. They were seen mostly as well meaning if somewhat hapless old hippies and nobody took them all that seriously. It was an open secret that they were moderately well funded by a well known musician.
From what I’ve heard, in recent years they’ve attracted a lot of disaffected Labour and LibDem activists at grassroots level, and these seem to be far more capable when it comes to campaigning. They do seem to have an addiction to the more extreme wokism, which will inevitably result in a clash of reality when it comes to making commitments to major voting blocs, most notably the traditionalist Muslim communities who apparently they successfully wooed this week.
The main precedent I can think of is the way that Alex Salmond successfully wiped out Labour in Scotland. I can just hope they don’t end up the same way.
I keep mentioning the SNP and PC because it seems to me that the only progressive movement that could successfully win a national election and form a government would be a Green/nationalist alliance, although forming a government with parties that by definition want to form a different government will cause its own problems.
I have come from common people, early on one counselor quipped that I had an IQ of 142. I had no idea what that meant, but learned that it was a cultural bias. My instinct told me that whatever cleverness I had would serve no purpose without serving humanity and life on earth. I am a communist, I am for dispensing with privilege. I have a dark view on human nature so I haven’t worked out fully how to advance my notions. Alas, I am not much of an activist.
I have a bright view on human nature, and I always think about being proactive and offering a new way for my fellow neighbors.
I’m a 41 year old white male who’s traveled in self flagellating liberal circles, so it’s nice to be finally liberated from identity politics and just say what I’m feeling or thinking for the first time in my life.
I’ve been so cautious about crossing these imaginary redlines throughout my life because of stupid fucking liberals checking me based on their identity politics ideology.
No more! Sticks and stones shall hurt my bones, but words will never hurt me!
It’s a breath of fresh air in my life, and one that demands getting others political WHETHER THEY LIKE IT OR NOT!
NON CONSENSUAL AMERICAN POLITICAL PUSHER – Some people hate me now and some people love me but at least im cool with BECNEL
🇺🇸 🫡 📚
The bit I find interesting is the defeat (again) of Reform. There have been 4 byelections, and the coverage for all of them has included a lot of Reform is going to win. But they’ve only won one. We are told Reform are a shoe in for the next government, but the trends don’t show that to me.
And of course Reform, the last bastion of the worling man apparently, decided the best option for a candidate was a metropolitan out of towner who has spent his whole career in academia. I thought they viewed that as a bad thing?
Via Sean Paul Kelley over at Ian Welsh’s blog, the U.S. State Department has ordered the evacuation of non-emergency personnel from the U.S. embassy in Israel:
“On February 27, 2026, the Department of State authorized the departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel and family members of U.S. government personnel from Mission Israel due to safety risks.”
This is what Sean Paul Kelley says about this:
“On the posssible[sic], now looking more probable, war with Iran, the US has ordered the evacuation of its embassy in Israel. I don’t know what could make it more obvious, you?”
re: AI vs. labour
THE VERGE
Burger King will use AI to check if employees say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’
AI chatbot ‘Patty’ is going to live inside employees’ headsets.
https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/884911/burger-king-ai-assistant-patty
How is it possible labour unions don´t threaten a general strike.
Everywhere.
Draw a red line.
Pressure representatives in parliament.
Call out lobbyists and the corporations behind them.
What better is social media good for than get organized.
Of course it has to be rooted in real institutions.
Journalists should be on the barricades and lead on.
Because they will be the first to be cut.
But also they are closest to the public.
Nobody can be so dumb not to see what is coming.
Looks like some believe there is going to be a booming economy with the people working and shopping hating EVERYTHING about it.
You say you want it to go down like the Book of Revelation
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it’s biblical evolution
Well, you know
We don’t need a red heifer to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don’t you know that you can count me out
Don’t you know it’s gonna be alright
Alright, alright
You say you got a real old school solution
Well, you know
We’d all dread to see the plan
You ask me for a lyrical contribution
Well, you know
We’re all doing what we can
But if you want power for people with minds that hate
All I can tell you is brother you have to wait
Don’t you know it’s gonna be alright
Alright, alright, al…
You say you’ll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it’s the secular institution
Well, you know
You’d better free your mind instead
But if you go carrying water for dogma now
You ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow
Don’t you know it’s gonna be alright
Alright, alright
Alright, alright
Alright, alright
Alright, alright
Alright, alright
Revolution, by the Beatles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZpKhjQh6rw&list=RDJZpKhjQh6rw
Wuk, might I inscribe your likeness on a mountain face? I will in my mind for now.
AI pimps now using the same tactics as Mafia Dons (intimidating witnesses, threatening their families)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/27/californian-pulls-ai-ballot-measures-citing-openai-intimidation-00803117
(Where is that quote from Mr. Boxman, again?)
As of the region wasn’t complex enough.
There has been a low level war for 2 decades or more along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, it seems that for whatever reason the Pakistanis have run out of patience and have decided to up the game. This is a dangerous game as the Taliban have the capacity (through various allied groups) to create plenty of chaos in Pakistan, and that country is already on an edge. Given that both countries share a border with Iran, and all have a restive Baloch population, one can only guess the direction this will take.
Thank you.
Further to the Ellison family’s march, the impact on the BBC will be interesting.
CBS and the BBC share output / coverage. CBS funds some BBC productions, e.g. the recent series culminating in the Norman Conquest.
One notices more Americanisms creeping into BBC output.
‘Daniel McAdams
@DanielLMcAdams
My guess – and it is based on limited but not extensive contact with Navy warfighters – is that he holds the position that a war on Iran would be a disaster. I don’t want to be too specific, but I believe from what I know that this view is widely held among particularly Naval personnel in the Pentagon.’
There may be another factor at play here. If Trump goes for war and the US Navy loses one or more ships in combat, then there will be hell to pay at home. And it won’t be Trump taking responsibility for this happening but instead he will be blaming captains and admirals instead. He will even smear them on his social media to protect himself. And that is the real disaster that those navy warfighters are really worried about.
Setting up for American Kronstadt, 1917?
Should that happen, the country might also be ready for its Joseph Welch Moment; recall that in the conventional re-telling of Joe McCarthy’s downfall, the brave Mr. Welch brought him down solely with his moral clarity and resolve, while eliding that he was a partner in an Old Money law firm/power center representing the Army in those hearings.
Should Trump force the military into the catastrophic strategic blunder they’ve been set up for, it’s not implausible to see the Overton Window regarding elite criticism of Trump shift radically.
Yep. No way will Trump accept any blame.
It’s pretty weird to realize that a few hundred non-functional toilets on the CVN Gerald Ford have helped to defer an appointment with WW III.
What happens when a navy becomes useless, a liability even? Ie what do all those admirals etc do for employment?
By the time you make Admiral you have more than twenty years of service. They’ll all retire and start drawing large pensions. They’ll be OK.
The Trump Administrations behavior at home and abroad has become increasingly violent and irrational, there is no consideration at all for the traditional Republican base, which leads me to believe that either canceling the mid terms or putting the jackboot on the scales is increasingly likely.
It would be stupid to the point of insanity, which is now par for the course.
Genocide Joe could be appeased with an ice cream cone and the promise of a play date with a girl scout, a promise he’d likely forget before he finished the ice cream.
Trump is enraged and nuts, not even a cuddle puddle with sweet Kristi and Laura Loomer could calm him down.
“Tensions simmer over Howard Lutnick, Trump’s favorite dealmaker”
Reading this article reminded me of something that I have been thinking about the past few days. Since I was a teenager there was all these complaints how governments should be run as businesses as a business is more lean, more efficient, does not have much of a bureaucracy and is nimble on its feet while being responsible with money. Business people were bolder, were smarter and knew how to get things done. This was behind the call to shrink governments down until it was small enough to drown in a bathtub. Well with Trump the results are in. The US is being run as a business and it is business people running things. You don’t have negotiators anymore, you just send a pair of business people to make a deal instead of a treaty. Research and development in the US has been cut back like it has in the private sector. Howard Lutnick is typical of the sort of (business) people running things with a large slice of personal enrichment. Alliances are being wrecked as Business USA wants to extort as much money as they can from their allies-slash-vassals. It really is amateur hour. So if anybody says down the track that a country should be run as a business, just point out that this was tried in the US in the mid-20s and the results weren’t pretty.
Washington, DC insights.
The article by DataRepublican (small r) provides more evidence of how the political system and culture works behind the scenes. Happy talk to the cameras.
A variation on that theme is laid out in her article about Norm Ornstein. She brings the receipts and shows what conventional journalists could do if they tried. More sunshine is needed in DC to disinfect Congress and the supporting machinery.
Just logging off for tonight but before I do. A cartoon from Jesse’s cafe Americain which has a lot to say-
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifMyR0SGqfXQ1qec6iQt-5niI-ScP8Vox1esw4pLaKAiDf4pp9LwwZYWmrWhfBZtDNoCZ4piMdvniXDyLUyjLwbLI3BY5x-J3zPGNI7l7NBVuxNtGM8v8T7Kq989kiczVM2hfsYaBTHRJMLY_gU5DRCG8xxzyh9cvCkrXjPBv5E7NVhRsLsi5PTxJNhVS3/s819/transfusion.jpg
HY spreads are starting to blow out today as the contagion from private credit spreads. Real US consumer income is finally rolling over as well as aggregate payrolls stalling, 10 years treasuries with a 3 handle. It is all coming together in the usual fashion.
Fed will be getting to work soon enough.
re: Antidote.
Reminds me of Ferdinand the Bull, a children’s story and 1938 Disney cartoon.
utube, ~8+ minutes.
Ferdinand the Bull – full short film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN62cxSs5Q8
Heh, thank you, I made it to about a minute in. As a musician and something of a historian in that realm, the soundtrack immediately lit me up. Starting in 1914 (maybe even before), in Detroit, movie theaters (who had no sound) engaged musicians to provide the soundtrack. Those ranged from a solo player to maybe even 50 players. With the advent of movie sound at the end of the ’20s, those orchestras and players were out of jobs. Many of them headed for Hollywood, but they outnumbered the available jobs many times over.
A technological displacement. There have been others along the way, analog overdubbing starting in the ’60s, synthesizers and digital sequencing in the ’80s and finally AI complete synthesis. Complete synthesis even of the video production.
A commenter the other day posted this, a complete AI production if I understand correctly. So now Hollywood itself is displaced. But at what cost?
Apex
Complete with a V-8 Cybertruck.
At about 35 secoinds in, you will see that even “AI” knows that skyscrapers don’t crash and burn into their own footprint.
It is a psychotic dreamscape.
Of course skyscrapers don’t fall into their own footprint
unless controlled.
From Due Dissidence, utube, ~25+ minutes.
Vance Repeats BUSH ERA LIES To Sell IRAN WAR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnSrRphMwTY
Vance’s Colin-Powell-at-the-UN moment.
re: COVID Germany girls/anxiety disorder
West German Broadcasting WDR
just a brief interview
More and more girls are being admitted to the University Hospital of Cologne due to mental illness.
A growing number of young people in North Rhine-Westphalia are struggling with anxiety disorders, depression, and eating disorders – young girls are particularly affected. This trend is evident not only in the new DAK Children and Youth Report, but also in the child and adolescent psychiatry department of the University Hospital of Cologne.
February 26, 2026
https://archive.is/j5d8g
The study this is based on is by DAK – Deutsche Angestellten Krankenkasse/ they call themselves Health Insurance Germany, literally they are “German Health Insurance for Clerks”, Germany´s oldest such entity, going back to the late 18th century in Hamburg.
use google-translate
DAK Children and Youth Report 2025: Anxiety Disorders
https://www.dak.de/dak/unternehmen/reporte-forschung/kjr-2025-angststoerungen_153340
“(…)
In 2024, 22 out of every 1,000 children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 insured by DAK received a diagnosis of anxiety disorders. Extrapolated to all children and adolescents in Germany, this corresponds to 230,000 cases. The prevalence of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents increased from 2019 to 2024 (Figure 1). Compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019, there was an increase of 17% in 2024. This trend is largely attributable to girls, as the prevalence among boys remained constant (approximately 15 cases per 1,000 boys) throughout the entire period. In contrast, girls showed a steady increase from 2019 to 2021, which then stabilized at a consistently elevated plateau from 2021 to 2024. In 2024, 30 out of every 1,000 girls had a diagnosed anxiety disorder, meaning they were twice as likely to be affected as boys.
(…)”
On NVIDIA and Analyslop – Ed Zitron
I was waiting for this.
“New term: analyslop, when somebody writes a long, specious piece of writing with few facts or actual statements with the intention of it being read as thorough analysis.
This week, alleged financial analyst Citrini Research (not to be confused with Andrew Left’s Citron Research) put out a truly awful piece called the “2028 Global Intelligence Crisis,” slop-filled scare-fiction written and framed with the authority of deeply-founded analysis..”
For a nice change of pace, here’s an old lecture by Michael Parenti on Julius Caesar as a populist “man of the people”.
Julius Caesar did cater to the poor of his day and from the distance of a couple millennia, it’s hard to say whether he was serious or just mouthing empty platitudes. Given that one of his assassins was the biggest loan shark in Rome, I tend toward the former interpretation. Since senators turned him into a pin cushion, we will of course never know for sure. The most interesting thing about the lecture is Parenti’s discussion of who it is that writes history and how we should interpret that. Very relevant today with our current “populist” in office who caters to the common person, but clearly does not mean it. Today’s money lenders (there’s another word I could substitute here given Trump’s extensive Zionist connections, but I shall refrain) sure don’t seem bothered much by Trump at all.
If you think COVID is over, read (in Bloomberg!, not exactly a fringe publication) How Covid Quietly Rewires the Brain where they cite a national estimate of ~ 18% of Americans having had long-COVID.
It causes brain damage
(bold mine)
This was already increasingly clear in 2020 (loss of smell); it only took 6 years for Bloomberg to join reality.
And there’s no durable immunity; it isn’t a question of when you’ll get long COVID, it’s just a matter of when.
Stay safe out there!
Of course the story is peddling Gale’s “After COVID” book, which given there’s no durable immunity, is simply false. There is no after here.
Even in year six, obviously it is over, nothing to see here.
And the story itself contradicts the title of the book. What a stupid timeline. And the book photo is a surgical (lol) mask discarded on a paved road somewhere. “The health impact that will last generations.”
Well, yeah, it will, because generation after generation of people are getting infected, you dolt.
Kill me.
An authority on pandemics (I’ve lost her name) reflected sometime around 2020 that the Flu Pandemic of 1918 forward took about ten years to dissipate. Not sure if that holds for this virus, of course, but it is an indication of one sort. Business must go on, TINA.
Jason have you looked into the immunity offered by Novavax’s vaccine? Theres some speculation that it can provide mucosal immunity. Nasal sprays seem to be promising in this regard too.
They unfortunately don’t offer it here anymore but the data looks good.
Sadly even Novavax isn’t a sterilizing shot. It’s based on tried-and-true sub-unit protein platform, though, and I had no real side effects except a sore arm for a few days, as is annoying usual it seems.
re: Germany food banks
via OVERTON Blog originally from a German labour union site
use google-tarnslate
On the “table-ification” of society
(correct translation would be “bank-ification” since the German literal word used is “food table” instead of the English “food bank”)
https://overton-magazin.de/top-story/zur-tafelisierung-der-gesellschaft/
I did not know that this food bank concept was pushed by none other than McKinsey (I am missing an emoji here trying to shoot itself).
“(…)
The food bank movement in Germany, promoted by the management consultancy McKinsey, has failed.
Nowadays, there’s an entire generation of people who have never known anything different: poor people queuing for food at food banks. They think food banks are part of the social welfare system and simply a necessary evil for the “losers of the social market economy.”
The enormous organization, with its roughly 1,000 distribution points, is mired in perpetual financial difficulties despite generous donations and appears to have passed its peak. The food bank concept has not only reached its limits, but the entire model is now being questioned, even recently by the food banks themselves.
In a short time, the number of people requesting food from food banks has increased by 50 percent. By the end of 2024, the food banks had 1.5 million “clients,” 28 percent of whom were children, and 20 percent of those relying on donated food from the food banks were over 63 years old. At the same time, the food banks are receiving less food than before.
(…)
Peak poverty in Germany
According to the common definition, someone is considered poor if they have less than 60 percent of the average net household income. This currently applies to 16.8 percent of Germany’s population, which is 14.2 million people.
According to the Federal Employment Agency (BA), approximately 5.5 million people currently live in so-called citizen’s income/Hartz IV/basic income support households, including almost two million children. Around one in five recipients of benefits from job centers works for low wages and supplements their income. In addition, there are more than one million people who need basic income support in old age or due to reduced earning capacity because their pensions are too low, as well as around 400,000 recipients of asylum seeker benefits. The latter receive almost 20 percent less in benefits than citizen’s income/Hartz IV recipients. Furthermore, almost eight million people in Germany work in the ever-expanding low-wage sector.
(…)”
I always remind people to add to any of these figures those unknown numbers of people who are supported by friends and family.
Again from last year:
Top 10% own 50% of German wealth. The lower 50% own 3%. The 40% in between own 40%.
However the top 1% own up to 35%.
In a sane media and academic culture these figures would be repeated every single day. Instead of “Russia, China, Iran.”
Kudos!
I spent some time looking into Sonoma County’s Green Party a few years ago, I had never encountered such constant and intense virtue signalling in my 7 decades of life.
They so useless they aren’t even pathetic.
The Greens have actual power in a lot of 2nd and 3rd tier cities in France and the silly projects that ruin local infrastructure and kill small business are legion. In Tours, the Green mayor and municipal council closed the main bridge (a major national artery) over the Loire to all but pedestrian and bicycle traffic, and covered it with potted plants, to “save the planet” as it were. In Rouen, the Green local government abolished crosswalks and signals, and then spent 10M€ to paint the central high street with color patterns that “encourage sharing”. They’ve also blocked construction of a bypass to the autoroute that would remove freight truck traffic from the central city because it would involve more laying of concrete and “cars are not the future” I could go on…
America is going great
Core wholesale prices rose 0.8% in January, much more than expected (CNBC)
Moar rate cuts coming?
Epstein fallout continues at a brisk gallop…
I read a British tabloid article speculating he’s off to the UAE, lol. I suppose he gets Epstein’s ghost for a roommate.
Meanwhile, back in Lahaina, Maui…. (L.A. residents might find this interesting.)
From Redacted with Clayton and Natalie Morris.
utube, ~1 hr, 10+ minutes.
CONFIRMED! “They stole their homes” The Great Maui Fire Land Grab Nearly 3 Years Later | Redacted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK55h8opq08
OT, my Daughter lives in Santa Clara, ground zero for the CyberTruck.
I asked her if she had ever seen one hauling anything and she said once, a bicycle.
I’m in Sonoma County and to date I have seen one CyberTruck hauling a 25 Ft boat.
Just one, once, and I see them daily.
I have probably seen 100 or so since they came out and only one was driven by a Woman while it is c
common to see Women driving ICE pick up trucks including huge ones.
Note to Geeks, if you are trying to look cool, you are by definition not cool.
The guys from Multipolarity discuss the contradicting polls from Hungary. One of them works in Hungary presently and has written about polling and such. Aparently somebody is lying…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYAiNBEHM3Y
https://x.com/sarahkendzior/status/2026664991768604928
im a bit overwhelmed due to my own history of exposure, at far lower levels, to this bullshit.
its ‘power in america’
bottom to top.
its in every lil town.
its all around us.
even way out here…altho, i dont think my local bougies are eating babies, nor screwing children, just yet….thats for further up the power ladder.
re: astrology
Money, Power…and Horoscopes? Why Astrology Is Washington’s Secret Obsession
From Nancy Reagan to Barry Goldwater, the capital’s most powerful have long turned to the occult for guidance—just as Wall Street titans did in the lead-up to the great crash of 1929. Sally Quinn speaks with Andrew Ross Sorkin about astrology and power.
By Sally Quinn
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/astrology-washington-dc-nancy-reagan
Well, this fixes the price of groceries; doing my taxes.
Trump definitely gets his name everywhere.
Monetizing Life[tm] is working so great …..
Israel just attacked Iran, launching missile strikes into Tehran.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cn5ge95q6y7t
“Pre-emptive attack” during US-Iran peace negotiations.
From AlJazeera:
LIVE: Israel attacks Iran, US official says US took part in strikes
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2026/2/28/live-israel-launches-attacks-on-iran-multiple-explosions-heard-in-tehran
Johnson was right. McGovern was wrong. The war has begun.
To study possible hidden effects without some of the uncertainty that comes with real-world data, researchers in the UK took a rare step: In a closely monitored human challenge study approved by national ethics bodies, they deliberately infected healthy young adults who had no prior immunity with the original strain of the coronavirus. Most developed only mild illness, and none reported lasting problems, but after a year they performed slightly worse, on average, on memory and decision-making tests they’d taken before being infected. The difference was roughly comparable to six IQ points.
Losing six IQ points is not “slightly worse.” That is a serious, serious drop from one covid infection.
You apparently cannot detect a 3 point decline yourself. Dunno re six. But everyone I have sent this to who has had Covid acts as if they are not affected because (unless they lost smell) they subjectively had no lasting effects.
Goddammit. The war is on. Israel has just struck Iran to get things kicked off-
https://www.rt.com/news/633159-israel-strike-iran/
What a sad and dangerous moment we are in. I can only hope that the resultant damage to the region, it’s people, and the world are somehow kept to a minimum. Madness.
I am hoping that Israel and the US will hold off on the “tactical nukes”, but I am not hopeful.
This only proves that Israel and its diehard allies in our military-industrial complex do whatever they want regardless of how many people oppose it. The only way to stop them is to muster up enough hard power to get them to back down, as soft power and protesting is useless without a certain degree of force backing it up.
Civil disobedience only works up to a point.
Even Shrub wasn’t this dumb.
Decapitation strikes.
Who is Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei and why is he a possible target?
US bases targeted
And
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-february-28-2026/amp/
This isn’t a love tap. We’re really at war.
OPERATION EPSTEIN FURY
NO MORE WARS FOR PEDO BANKERS
#AMERICANREVOLUTION2