A hearing test for the world’s rarest sea turtle EurekaAlert!
Climate/Environment
Fitch warns sovereign credit risk will rise with worsening climate events Intellinews
Home values are rising fastest in the most resilient places. Cause/effect or coincidence? Climate Change and Your Home
Water
One of the most pressing issue facing agriculture in the US is the rapid and continued depletion of ground water in our most important food producing regions.
But even more concerning is the degradation of farmland’s ability to capture, store and cycle rainwater.
The… pic.twitter.com/ZrXIqi1RT4
— Sam Knowlton (@samdknowlton) February 3, 2026
Inside Cleveland’s pay-as-you-can plumbing co-op that sees clean water as a human right Signal Cleveland (Carla)
Pandemics
Measles cases grow in SoCal; one infected person flew into LAX, spent hours at Disney park Los Angeles Times
DHS locks down detention center hit by measles outbreak The Hill
China?
Readouts of Xi-Trump, Xi-Putin calls Pekingnology
Trump-Xi Call: One Call, Two Statements, Many Signals George Chen
China warns Panama as Hong Kong firm contests ruling on canal ports Al Jazeera
Year of the sad horse: A defective toy goes viral in China — and sums up a nation’s mood NBC News. What defective toy would sum up US mood?
Lai says Taiwan should seek trade ties with democracies Taiwan News
India
India will diversify energy supplies after deal with U.S. on Russia oil imports Reuters. Diversify, not halt Russian imports as US claimed.
Is Trump Deluded About India No Longer Buying Russian Oil? Consortium News
Syraqistan
Wave of Israeli strikes on Gaza kill 21 Palestinians, amid new round of West Bank raids The New Arab
Israel cancels coordination for patient evacuations from Gaza, says Palestinian Red Crescent Anadolu Agency
***
WHAT COMES NEXT IN IRAN? Seymour Hersh
Iran Adamantly Rejects US Attempt to Control Upcoming Negotiations Over Iran’s Nuclear Program Larry Johnson
‼️ US Heavy Airlift to Middle East
The most recent update of heavy transport deliveries to the Middle East is now up to 108 — a substantial acceleration over the past several days.
I figure there is now enough air defense and strike ordnance in the region to sustain a… https://t.co/5uw1MZUQXH
— Will Schryver (@imetatronink) February 4, 2026
***
Where do the Kurds and the recent ISIS prison-breaks fit in the bigger picture in West Asia?Vanessa Beeley
The Sistani Hedge: Trump’s Irrational Pact in Baghdad Mohamed Karaki
***
Africa
Gunmen have killed 162 people in west Nigeria attack, says Red Cross official The Guardian
US deploys specialist military team to Nigeria as jihadist conflict escalates The Africa Report
UN backs Trump plan for Sudan, after receiving $2bn lifeline from US The Africa Report
Old Blighty
The Mandelson affair: inside the scandal of a century The New Statesman (IH)
That visit led to a £240m ‘strategic partnership between Palantir & MOD. Intel committee needs to examine Mandelson’s potential conflict of interests but also the national security consequences as revealed here in@thenerve_news.
2/https://t.co/Yfx2XZAQF3— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) February 4, 2026
Labour MPs say Starmer’s days as PM are numbered amid fury over Mandelson The Guardian
Inside Reform’s plans for a fascist takeover Hauntologies by Elia Ayoub
Victory for Palestine Action as “Filton 6” acquitted Electronic Intifada
European Disunion
From arms to orbit: Rheinmetall’s expansion unsettles rivals FT
Germany continues to sink Intellinews
New Not-So-Cold War
Witkoff & Kushner repeat their dress-down insult to the Russian delegation in the new round of Abu Dhabi talks. US officers Alexus Grynkewich (2nd right) & Timothy Brown (extreme left) show more caution, respect. pic.twitter.com/vzWkkIJ4aq pic.twitter.com/TJapiYJwNb
— Dances_with_Bears (@bears_with) February 4, 2026
What Are The Odds Of Russia Agreeing To A Three-Tiered Ceasefire Enforcement Plan In Ukraine? Andrew Korybko
Estonia Detains Ship Heading for Russia Suspected of Smuggling Reuters
EU Buys 93 Percent of Yamal LNG As Imports Surge Ahead of 2027 Russian Ban gCaptain
Russian spy satellites have intercepted EU communications satellites Ars Technica
The experts comment: New START expires, bringing both risks and opportunities Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Russian businessman’s remains found on British base in Cyprus RT
South of the Border
Russia will continue oil shipments to Cuba despite US pressure Al Mayadeen
US Refiners Struggle to Absorb Venezuelan Oil Surge After Trump-Maduro Deal Reuters
L’affaire Epstein
Epstein Geopolitics And the Age of Primitive Accumulation Un-Diplomatic
Putin envoy dismisses Polish PM’s claim Epstein scandal was Russian operation Polskie Radio
lol they dragged the “piss Trump dossier” guy out of Russiagate retirement for One Last Job https://t.co/aLzwzuV55Y
— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) February 4, 2026
Newly released Epstein files reveal further ties to Israel Mondoweiss
Trump 2.0
GOP Funhouse
Sen. Mitch McConnell hospitalized after experiencing ‘flu-like symptoms’ NBC News
Democrats Suck
Police State Watch
The Real Story Behind the Midnight Immigration Raid on a Chicago Apartment Building ProPublica. Commentary:
This raid was one of the first in which military hardware (a Black Hawk helicopter) and personnel were used. The orders came from the top after Trump said the Marines should “practice” on American cities. They found a willing training ground with the help of a slum lord.
— HollyGolightly (@hollygolytlee) February 4, 2026
As ICE Terror Forces People Inside, Calls Grow for Eviction Moratorium in Minnesota Truthout
Homeland Security is targeting Americans with this secretive legal weapon WaPo
700 federal agents set to leave Minnesota; districts sue feds to keep ICE away from schools MPR
Bringing The Genocide Home: SAPD Asks Council For Drone Used In Gaza Inadvertent
AI
Sam Altman and the day Nvidia’s meteoric rise came to an end Gary Marcus
Alphabet resets the bar for AI infrastructure spending CNBC
Requiem for a film-maker: Darren Aronofsky’s AI revolutionary war series is a horror The Guardian
Imperial Collapse Watch
US seeking to form critical mineral ‘preferential trade zone’ to counter China Anadolu Agency
America’s lost weapons are stopping it mining minerals in Pakistan The Canary
Is Coal Mining Pollution America’s Next Big Critical Minerals Source? Governing
Beyond The Appearances. Aurelien
“MAHA”
Senior FDA Official Under OIG Investigation Over Divorce, Assets Bloomberg. Accused of orchestrating a fake divorce to avoid conflict-of-interest rules.
Healthcare?
Senate talks to revive ACA tax credits appear to be fizzling out The Hill
The 2008 Housing Crash Was a Warning. Health Insurance May Be Next. HEALTH CARE un-covered
Our Famously Free Press
‘It’s an absolute bloodbath’: Washington Post lays off hundreds of workers The Guardian
Class Warfare
Labor Leaders Warm to General Strike Nationwide on May 1st Payday Report
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
92 comments
Comments are closed.
File under Trump 2.0. (He really hates the Constitution, imo.)
From Due Dissidence, utube, ~13+ minutes.
Trump To Bongino: GOP Should NATIONALIZE Midterm Elections
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh5zrMmvJEM
How does one hate that of which they are wholly ignorant and in that ignorance contemptuous?
It’s worked for racism for centuries.
A question that might be asked of most racists?
-00-
Fist bump to Dr. John! :-)
The cope in the comments to the Knowlton water post is staggering. Yaweh got nothing on the techno-priesthood.
I agree that the overall thinking in the comments that somehow either God or technology is going to save our aquifers from depleting is wild. The RFK jr. NAWAPA plan to ship water in via pipeline is just nuts. How about we start by planting fewer almond trees in California and better yet, maybe import some Israeli settlers from the West Bank to cut them down. I hear they have some experience with that sort of thing
Water is for lying over, whiskey is for lying under.
A reckoning looks ready to hit those who rely on usually reliable water from snowmelt in those states from the Rockies to the PNW, California excepted on account of reservoirs being mostly full, but we’re having an iffy winter after a promising start.
The west could go up in flames something akin to the Big Burn of 1910, which had far reaching consequences in that we decided that every fire in our forests in the future had to be extinguished promptly if not sooner, leading us here over a century later with forests choked with trees and standing piles of duff, all anxiously awaiting ignition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_1910
“‘It’s an absolute bloodbath’: Washington Post lays off hundreds of workers”
This article does not mention it but it looks like every desk reporter specializing in the Middle East was also fired because as we all know, nothing ever happens there anyway.
WaPost Middle East desk replaced with an AI Chatbot that parrots whatever the State Dept. says.
It wouldn’t be very different than the past decade or so, would it? Recall Antony Blinken’s never-ending ceasefire lies … were those ever challenged?
Indeed. As I recall, “Democracy Dies In Darkness” meant years of Russiagate idiocy.
It’s an aspiration, not a motto.
Jimmy Dore has said that ‘Democracy Dies In Darkness’ is not a motto but a mission statement.
Could be it will just be outsourced to a firm in Tel Aviv. That’s where all the reliable Middle East stories come from anyway, amiright? /s
New tagline?
Some of the news that might be affordable to print.
“Dildos die in outer space”
Surely you mean rather Some of the news that is profitable to print
> Year of the sad horse: A defective toy goes viral in China — and sums up a nation’s mood NBC News. What defective toy would sum up US mood?
A plush toy cat that looks a bit like this one?
https://www.yegvet.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Scared-Cats-What-to-Know-and-What-to-Do.webp
The cat in the photo you linked looks a little like a striped and booted Sabot Cat.
Rock’em Sock’em Robots would be my entry. They were even blue and red colored..
Winner!
What defective toy…
ICE Barbie?
ICE Barbie
Comes with refillable pepper spray cannon and replaceable tear gas. Available only in white.
Also comes with a toy gun and several toy dogs.
How about a Chucky doll carrying a butcher’s knife.
Not a toy but this thread about the guy who bought Topps (trading cards), Fanatics (sports jerseys) and sports gaming/gambling sites seems to “sum up US mood”. A heartwarming rich to richer story that doesn’t seem to have impressed anyone but other rich people.
From the initial post: “He turned $2,500 in Bar Mitzvah money into Fanatics, a $30 Billion sports powerhouse.”
Comments:
“He singlehandedly ruined baseball jerseys and cards”
“It must be nice to have a dad that can fund all your failures until you make it. But I’m sure he picked himself up by his bootstraps and all that”.
(And, because it’s Twitter and he’s Jewish, lots of awful comments too).
https://x.com/FarroYossi/status/2015855484847141108
Never heard of this guy and I hadn’t realized he bought Topps a few years ago. Sounds like he sucked at business early and got bailed out by a rich dad.
I used to collect baseball cards – I bought thousands of Topps cards every year throughout the 80s and early 90s. Card collecting really boomed then and at some point during that time, I also got interested in the stock market. The mantra was ‘buy what you know’ so I checked out Topps and found that they were pretty diverse (Bazooka bubble gum was theirs and stocked in every checkout line in every grocery store in the country, among other things sold by Topps) and their annual reports showed steadily increasing quarterly profits. I got in on the IPO – I bought 25 shares from my lawn mowing money and my mother’s boss at the time gave me the $$$ for another 75 shares as a graduation gift. I used the boss’ broker, EF Hutton to make the purchase. The broker was pretty condescending and said something along the lines that this would be a nice starter stock for a youngster like me. Within a few months the price had more than doubled, EF Hutton gave the stock an A+ rating, and the broker asked me how I figured out it would be such a good buy!
I then sold half the shares to recoup my initial investment, and I took that money and bought something recommended by the broker rather than doing my own research. I believe that was in September of 1987. NC readers may remember what happened a month later. I then lost almost all of that 2nd investment. That was the last time I listened when EF Hutton talked.
It seemed like you could make decent investments then just by following the stock pages in the newspaper and checking some basic business reports. Those days are long gone.
Now I don’t even want to buy baseball cards after learning who owns the company.
A friend had a coin store that also did baseball cards, and sometimes in the 80’s i’d hang out and watch kids buy a pack, grab for the Beckett price guide to see if they got something, and often leave all the commons on the counter, in their wake.
Wall*Street for the 12 year old set~
Rhymes with Klaus Barbie
I’m not sure it would even need to be defective but when I think about the USA as it is today, the first toy to spring to mind would be a windup gorilla shuffling in circles while banging cymbals together. At first I thought of backgammon then realized games are not toys even though it seems like a doubling cube is involved somehow.
I couldn’t think of anything, but I agree “a windup gorilla shuffling in circles while banging cymbals together” seems fitting.
I have a faint memory of that wind-up gorilla from a “just say no to drugs” public service announcement on American TV in the 80s. Seems very appropriate. I think he was on ‘speed’, as we used to call it.
Like a monkey with a miniature cymbal….
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pDJKgi2e-Aw
https://genius.com/Hot-chip-over-and-over-lyrics
The song came into my head immediately for that image but I had never seen the video. It is really interesting, ahead of its time, as a commentary on reality and unreality and technology and entertainment.
Yeah, and their reasons don’t include the job market. Nvidia and others are maintaining the high prices and low inventory of older SFHs in the SF Bay Area. And no-one wants a place there with a homeowners association, with fees in the $500 to $1000 a month range, so condos/townhomes stagnate.
Home values are rising fastest in the most resilient places. Cause/effect or coincidence? Climate Change and Your Home
They do not mention the total cost of home ownership. Taxes, insurance, energy, fixes, maintainence etc.
Of course realtors and real estate adjacent don’t give a squat about that – just their skim.
from 1923 unknown author
“Legal Gambling
The gloom is fading from the real estate situation. More nibbles during the last few weeks than the last three years. If January brings us good rains, this next year will open the door to the sunshine – a case of rain bringing the sun.
It is to be hoped, however, that there will never be another boom. The crash of the boom of 1923 was due to the same causes that wrecked the wall street stock market. People sold what they did not own. They made a payment down in the hope of getting the property off their hands before it began to burn. Real estate fell into the hands of sharp-shooting gamblers who had no interest in land. To them it was just a pile of blue chips on a roulette wheel.”
Best news of the day.
They claimed it was to save money, but IMO, this is why the UK is restricting jury trials. Jury nullification is a huge embarrassment to the State.
I’ll second your opinion, but I’m thinking the UK has little shame left to share.
So little shame that they will very carefully select the jury pool “of one’s peers” for trials like this in future. Palantir will help with the personality analyses.
Indeed!
Here is a really good article. It includes a transcript of the defence KC’s closing speech, where he dares the judge to direct the jury’s verddict (illegal) by outlining the jury’s absolute prerogative of nullification even though the judge has directed the court that the defence if necessity was not open to the defendants to plead.
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2026-01-14/filton-trial-jury-defy-judge/
Rumpole would be awed. A magnificently judged defence of jury independence (decency and rationality) seasoned by delightfully elegant judge-baiting.
“Iran Adamantly Rejects US Attempt to Control Upcoming Negotiations Over Iran’s Nuclear Program”
I have to admit that I took a lot of satisfaction at this passage-
‘The initial reports that the meeting in Oman would not take place cited Iran’s reaction to a US demand that Iranian ballistic missiles and Iran’s support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah must be on the agenda or there would be no negotiations. Without a moments hesitation, Iran barked back and said, “Ok, no meeting.”
Axios reported that US officials were surprised by Iran’s reaction and scrambled to come up with a response to Iran. Within two hours, the US retreated and accepte Iran’s position that the Friday meeting in Oman would only address nuclear bombs and uranium enrichment. Iran won this first round.’
Did those US negotiators seriously think that the Iranians would just buckle down? Seems that both sides can play hard ball. But if I were the Iranian negotiating team, I would not gather in one room in between negotiations. No need to tempt Trump.
US negotiations are tactical!
Delay and lull as they did in June. The US will strike when it will.
US has baby sg=hah and IDF trained Savak waiting.
Dovetails nicely with the photos of Witkoff and Kushner wearing track suits to negotiations with Russia. Putting the investor class in charge of anything besides money or the dinner bill is insanity.
My vote for the down on its luck toy that sums up Americas mood…
Re: Upcoming Negotiations Over Iran’s Nuclear Program
Along the same lines, what if the Iranians asked when the US plans to discontinue its uranium enrichment efforts and to submit every one its facilities to Iran-led inspections, and perhaps that would be the time to discuss matters further?
Continuing the thread of protest music. “How Much Did You Get for Your Soul?” by the timeless Lucinda Williams. Just released.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGQptI_kbWk
[Like many other commenters, I see the Springsteen song as a good effort tactically but an unsatisfying effort artistically. This song by Lucinda Williams is a real anthem, though.]
I second your praise of Ms. Williams’ song. Another good one from that album is “The World’s Gone Wrong”.
I recommend a new one from Billy Bragg, “City of Heroes “.
Mavis Staples’ new album is essential listening for 2026 and has been in heavy rotation here.
Mavis Staples – “Beautiful Strangers”
Excellent – thanks for that one DJG. I didn’t know much about Williams until a year or so ago when some friends took us to see her live. She put on a nice show and now I hope she comes around again and plays this one.
On a related note, here’s one for the punks. NOFX has chimed in with Minnesota Nazis.
Not bad, but I do prefer their anthem from the Shrub years – Idiot Son of an A**hole
She wrote the song Sing Unburied Sing for this album, inspired by Jesmyn Ward’s novel of the same name. Jesmyn’s first novel Salvage The Bones won the 2011 National Book Award for fiction. Both are set in Mississippi and Sing Unburied Sing is described as a southern ghost story. The lyrics of Lu’s song could easily describe the horror in Gaza:
The People’s Plumbing co-op story is great. Thanks for sharing that. The customer recommendations on their website are worth a read too. Not often I feel myself getting choked up over business testimonials!
https://www.peoplesplumbingcle.com
“WHAT COMES NEXT IN IRAN?”
Seymour Hersh continues to disappoint. When Palestinian forces attacked the Israelis two years ago, over a thousand Israelis died. It only came out in dribs and drabs that several hundred of those Israelis were actually killed by their fellow Israelis under the Hannibal Doctrine. And now Seymour Hersh is claiming that 3,117 to 16,500 people were killed during the protests in order to justify a US bombing of that country. Not once does he mention that there were Mossad and ISIS agents that were killing random people to infuriate the crowds and that this included children. From the part of this article that I can read, he is really looking forward to the overthrow of Iran. What a way to end a career.
You tolerate Seymour more than I.
Not a good week for two of the premier icons of “The Left,” Seymour Hersh and Noam Chomsky. A number of Chomsky defenders, including Aaron Mate, have had to issue sheepish mea culpas after the latest revelations of Chomsky’s bro-relationship with Epstein. I hope these latest propaganda pieces on Russia and Iran will convince “leftists” to show more critical skepticism toward Hersh now as well.
Hersh has always only been as good as his sources in the intelligence community. Recently these have been pretty bad. Chomsky is a more complicated case in my view, but in spite of his many stringent criticisms of US foreign policy over the decades (rattled off by his defenders on the “left” in recent days), he has also served to provide limited hangout cover in crucial times during that period. Both are stubborn and cantankerous when it comes to dealing with critics or admitting they might have been wrong about something. I lost my unquestioning reverence for these two some time ago, so it is hard for me to relate to the cognitive dissonance experienced by some of their fans in their attempts to excuse them.
Ahso, and alas.
Skynet won’t let me link to stories on one of our local station’s website (KMSP) but in response to Walz’s inaction on declaring an eviction moratorium, the Minneapolis City Council is scheduled to vote at 9:30am today on a proposal to allocate $1 million for rental assistance and delay eviction notices. From their site:
Now would be the perfect time to demand arms talks aimed at de-nuclearizing the Middle East.
File under: MSM won’t connect the Epstein dots, so let’s do it ourselves
Today in the (London) Times:
British socialite got girls for Epstein, emails suggest (via archive).
Hmmm….
Said socialite (now deceased) was the ex-wife of Nat Rothschild (current Baron i.e. head of British Rothschilds), who shares a lot of friends with Epstein. Mandelson, most obviously, but plenty of rich dudes also.
Rothschild had a business association with Seif al-Islam Gaddafi who was coincidentally assassinated in his home a few days ago
Rothschild’s other ex lovers include:
Petrina Khashoggi (love-child of disgraced crook/ Tory MP Jonathan Aitken who cuckolded Adnan Khashoggi. Arms Dealer Adnan was (per Whitney Webb) Epstein’s mentor in the 1980s.and about as dirty as it’s possible to be with links to both BCCI and Iran-Contra among many others)
Ivanka Trump (who you’ve probably already heard of)
—-
(We ain’t in the club)
‘I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member’ – Groucho Marx
I’ll add a bit more Whitney Webb as I think she’s miles ahead of anyone else on Epstein research (with full references/footnotes).
1. Her 2 volume book “One Nation Under Blackmail” is available on Archive.org and she has explicitly encouraged people to download it from there for free. 1st volume sets the story with the history of mob/spook collaborative sexual blackmail going back to WW2. 2nd argues that Epstein was a product of this, not a standalone creep.
https://archive.org/details/one-nation-under-blackmail-vol-1-2-whitney-alyse-webb_202510
2. A really good (long!) interview on the Pete McCormack podcast on the same subject matter and a lot of other Epstein stuff from last September. Would recommend to anyone trying to make sense of all this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwejUh3m9Fg
Thanks for this.
Additionally, there are the French connections in the files.
This isn’t surprising for those that recall this story from 2022:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60443518/
“A French modelling agent and close associate of the late US financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead in his prison cell in Paris.
Jean-Luc Brunel was found hanged in his cell in La Santé prison at 01:00 on Saturday, prosecutors told the BBC…”
Regarding “Health Insurance May Be Next”, the item that 5% of consumers represents 50% of the costs is analogous to alcohol consumption and gambling where a very disproportionately small number of users spend an out sized amount of the money. We’ve heard the often-quoted assertion that 30% to 50% of costs are incurred in the last year of a patient’s life. These patients, mostly seniors as with gambling addicts and alcoholics are viewed as problems undeserving of help. There is a bias for doctors and insurers to restrict even simple care for seniors. This bias is shown by the indifference to the high number of covid deaths in our nursing homes or other abuse. http://www.propublica.org/article/gone-without-a-case-suspicious-elder-deaths-rarely-investigated
I know you are trying to make the opposite general point, but your assertion about last year costs being due to addictions is a fabrication. I have heard and read of too many cases of old adults who clearly did not have long to live having immediate family members who wanted to forego heroic interventions as damaging to the quality of their remaining life threatened by medical professionals, that they would report them to the authorities (I guess the idea was dying a month or two early with having tubes inserted to extract rents was greedy heirs trying to get their hands on the estate sooner). I have even been told of medical directives explicitly saying no end of life big intervention being ignored by hospitals.
It’s been going on for a long time. A story from our family lore, beloved Uncle Marvin was a dairy farmer from central Georgia, born and raised within 20 miles of Eatonton, Georgia, on the Oconee river. Uncle Marvin was “hardscrabble” and worked hard his whole life. In his early 70s he developed type 2 diabetes. It took its toll, and within a few years he was essentially blind, weighed 250+ pounds (as opposed to 150 lbs), and could hardly walk.
His wife took him in to the hospital for foot pain and the doctor discovered diabetes had killed the circulation in his feet and they were essentially rotting off. The young doctor wanted to amputate one, if not both feet, so Uncle Marvin could live. He didn’t want that and just wanted to go home and pass peacefully at home, but the doctor insisted and refused to check him out of the hospital. My father, tall, imposing, and an ex-marine, argued forcefully with the doctor and let him know if they pursued that course of medicine the doctor would have no feet, either (it was the 1970s).
Forty plus years later my own father was sitting in a hospital with a DNR order and was hooked up to tubes and doped up due to a fall that literally severed his spleen and broke a hip (so fatal, even if indirectly), with this horrible “hospital” (really a PT center that felt 3rd world). They insisted he needed to live and he was ready to go. It was only after our family had him moved at great expense and effort to a high end long term care facility that he was allowed to die naturally and quietly (literally within 24 hours of the transfer). The last month of his life was several hundred thousand dollars in medical bills and he never took a single step or stood on his own after that fall.
Personally, I don’t know what the answer is, but this system is just NOT working for most people.
I’m sorry for your experience; my father was probably brain dead when he finally arrived, but my mother and I were give the immediate life or death decision to make on his behalf of having his colon removed, which was disintegrating due to lack of oxygenation from the heart attack, so he wouldn’t die of sepsis before we learned if he was brain dead. I have no idea if he would have wanted to live that way, if he had survived. The kinds of machines that they have today, it is disturbing to watch.
Once the machines were shutdown, however, the hospital really wanted the room to make more money, and my brother and law suggested they really wanted us to leave. I would have stayed with my father all night if I could have. But money calls.
“The experts comment: New START expires, bringing both risks and opportunities”
Although the Russians offered to extend this treaty another year to give time for it to be renegotiated, Trump never bothered to reply. He wants a brand new treaty that will include China but they have refused until they have nuclear parity with the RF and the US. It’s almost like the Chinese don’t trust Trump. But of course any new Trump nuclear treaty will not include countries like the UK, France, Pakistan, India and of course Israel. That START treaty is gone for good.
What Are The Odds of Russia Agreeing to a Three-tiered Ceasefire Enforcement Plan in Ukraine? —
Korybko is useful to read, as he usually reflects the thinking of RU’s diplomatic and business set (as opposed to Helmer, whose sources seem to be more hawkish military and intel types). Yet even the ever-optimistic Korybko — who I think desperately wants to see a swiftly negotiated end to the UKR conflict –takes a very dim view of this latest nonsense: “…no Russian official has said anything that can even remotely be spun as implying that the Kremlin is considering any of this…”
If the USA were serious about these peace talks, then Secretary of State Rubio would be conducting them (wearing a proper suit and necktie) with Lavrov as his counterpart. But this is not the case. My guess is that Trump just wants a Nobel peace prize and (with or without the prize) wants somehow to snatch away RU’s frozen assets from the EU; that’s it, nothing more. RU will continue to talk anyway, if for no other reason than to keep up appearances while it steadily grinds away in UKR.
The fighting will continue for a long time yet, methinks.
Re: Fear of ICE, immigrants avoiding care- a past counter example
I was a public health TB nurse 2004-2006. I treated my active TB patients in their homes in the community. Six Mexican brothers rented a house in my southern Indiana town and 5 of them got on bicycles each AM and pedaled off to work, at restaurants and construction. The sixth was my patient whose X-ray showed TB in all four lobes, (bad), and who was quarantined to the house as he was still contagious by sputum test. Their dad had died of a “coughing illness” in Mexico, and their mother was ill with a “coughing illness” in Mexico.
Meanwhile occasionally a woman was “showing up in the Emergency with a baby in her panties.”
Note that the hospital I worked for contracted with the county to provide public health services, vaccines, anonymous HIV testing, and the rest of it. They set up a mini department with a bilingual Nurse Practitioner, who quickly established rapport with these ladies, and started proper prenatal care with them. They were very grateful.
Meanwhile I was pulling my hair out trying to get *my* five brothers to comply getting chest X-rays to rule out active illness. (They’d rather work, did not want to go into the hospital proper, etc.) I found that if I took this or that brother’s name to the NP, one of her patients knew him, and suddenly, he was calling me ready for the ride to the hospital to get the X-ray.
The topper was a question from the NP re: a 14 yr old daughter of one of the moms. (No, not pregnant.) She was fainting, suddenly- at school, at home, apropos of nothing. She had latent, “asymptomatic” TB, as does 1/5 of the world’s population. Otherwise healthy. So in the spirit of when you are a hammer everything looks like a nail I suggested that maybe she had a calcified nodule (TB in a jail cell), somewhere that was impeding blood flow. An X-ray was performed and there was a >2CM calcified nodule right on her aorta. She was treated with INH, at that time the first line medicine for latent TB. The nodule gradually dissolved and she recovered.
Tell me how any of that would be possible now.
Yes they shut down the Dilly gulag for a TB outbreak but how many TB nurses do they have? X-ray machines? Do they know what the hell they’re doing? Do they think deportation will solve the problem?
The reason that almost all active TB patients in the US are foreign is because we have done a decent job of contact investigation, treatment and follow up to stop outbreaks.
FAFO with TB will be massive.
I don’t think Americans understand just how pear-shaped it gonna get when someone turns on a tap, and water doesn’t come out, at the population level. Perhaps look to water shortages in Mexico and Iran for clues, and elsewhere.
And we be pump-pumping for big Ag exporting crops and water abroad for profits, and pump-pumping for Big Data and NumberGoUp BTC.
No one thinks it can happen here, to us. Just like no one thinks SARS-CoV-2 can hurt you. Good luck with that to us all, I guess.
The greed in planting oh so many almond trees is perhaps best shown in an orchard a few miles from Woodlake, in that they planted the trees 4 feet apart about 5 years ago, just in time for the first harvest in which they will lose money on the deal, like every other almond grower in the state, with most of the nutmeats destined to go on vacay somewhere else in the world.
A decent percentage of the water comes from wells, and there’s about 350 almonds in a pound and we are currently selling 350 gallons of 1-time-use fossil water for about a buck fifty a pound, delivered to Asia.
Madness.
Those big financial firms realised a few decades ago that in a heating, drying world, people will pay anything for water. Water is tomorrow’s gold, if not today’s.
I believe the whole idea of all these orchards is to capture the rights to, and ownership of water. Owning water is one thing but I don’t know how you own an aquifer unless you have zillions of acres
Here they built illegal massive dams, siphoning the water from every river flood so that downstream was left with dribbles. And the government must have turned a blind eye, who would have thought donations could do that. All for cotton.
We have a few politicians who are well known to be Members for the electorate of Rinehart
In the central valley you own the aquifer if you drill deeper then your neighbor. A small walnut grower we used to buy direct from had to sell the farm because they could not afford to drill a new well to compete with the corporate farm that put in a deep well across the street.
‘Bigger straw man’
‘I drink your milk shake’-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5d9BrLN5K4 (32 secs)
‘Penis injection’ claims in Winter Olympics ski jumping investigated by Wada
One study in the scientific journal Frontiers found that every 2cm in suit size circumference reduced drag by 4% and increased lift by 5%. It said that a 2cm change in the suits was equivalent to an extra 5.8 metres in jump length.
However Bild has now claimed that jumpers have switched to other methods to game the system when they are measured for their suits, data for which is taken by a 3D scanner from the lowest point of their genitals. They include injecting acid into their penises or putting clay in their underwear to make their measurements temporarily bigger and therefore their suits looser for when they compete.
The newspaper quoted a doctor, Kamran Karim, who said: “It is possible to achieve a temporary, visual thickening of the penis by injecting paraffin or hyaluronic acid. Such an injection is not medically indicated and is associated with risks.”
Here I thought this was going to be about the goings on in the Olympic Village.
A Nordic Rudder?
re: Inside Reform’s Plan for a Fascist Takeover
Thanks for this link. Two points:
1. Basically, unfettered undocumented immigration leads to local populations demanding reform of immigration policies.
Instead of reforming immigration policies the right wing proposes authoritarian surveillance and crackdown on everyone because “emergency” (that both parties helped create), and propose eliminating pesky laws and treaties that obstruct the rising authoritarianism.
Almost sounds like a 3-step plan.
From the article:
“Friends and acquaintances I know who either live in Minneapolis or have been reporting there all report being amazed at how Minneapolitans are managing to organise an effective resistance to ICE while remaining entirely decentralised.
To misquote something variously attributed Napoleon about China and to then Adm. Yamamoto’s reported comment referencing the US populace from over 80 years ago: “I fear the ICE raids have awakened a sleeping giant.”
adding, correction:
There should be a close-quote mark after “decentralised.”
My comment starts with the third para: “To misquote….”
adding, correction: there should be a close-quote mark after “decentralised.”
Does this seem surreal to anyone besides me?
The Land Of The Free ™ is now forcing people to cower permanently in their houses to escape the predations of the country’s law enforcement agents. Lots of future Anne Frank diaries are being published in Minneapolis right now, I guess, though they can be written as Substack pieces and podcasts instead of hidden away on paper for future schoolchildren to marvel at.
How in the world did we come to this?
ICE = Gestalt P.O.
Won’t CK Hutchison Holding get an ISDS get involved in this case?
ISDS is part of treaties. China would not have agreed to treaties with ISDS provisions.
$4.01k update
No reports of Bitcoin investors jumping off of virtual bridges yet, but the news is a bit grim on the Seinfeld of investments (its an investment about nothing…) for it has hit $63k as I type, and confidence has to be shaken-not stirred.
This needs attention.
Social Security numbers are issued sequentially so if you give the last 4 numbers and a birth date the whole number can be found.
https://www.newsbreak.com/alternet-332687158/4476983475185-ohio-senator-says-exposing-the-last-four-digits-of-your-social-security-number-no-big-deal
and:
https://www.strac.io/blog/scary-fact-about-ssn-social-security-number
Sorry, this sounds hincky to me. My last 4 plus my birth date? I don’t think so. Phishing scam?
Neighbors: Blockades are pop-up parties that also slow down ICE agents
‘Prosecute ICE’ sculpture at St. Paul Capitol vandalized after unveiling
re: AI
Cool Worlds Podcast
Physicists Are Surrendering to AI
74 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PctlBxRh0p4