Links 3/6/2026

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1. ChrisFromGA March 6, 2026 at 7:21 am

   Re: No sign of Xi-Trump summit being called off

   I’m no expert or even a follower of Chinese thinking, but it is difficult to understand what is really going on here. At face value, Chinese leaders seem to be making the same mistake as Russia did in thinking that the US was even capable of being a partner.

   Saying that both sides should “respect each other, coexist in peace, and pursue cooperation for mutual benefit and win-win outcomes” is a nice aspirational goal. However, there is no evidence that Trump is interested in any of that. He has blood up to his elbows after assassinating the Ayatollah and killing over 100 girls in an atrocity.

   Then there is the next story, about Bessent still trying to bully China into stopping purchases of Russian oil. That doesn’t sound like respect to me.

   When people stop paying attention to reality and no longer deal with evidence, one has to wonder if they are simply delusional.
   1. OnceWere March 6, 2026 at 8:13 am

      What do the Chinese gain by aping the present-day Western habit of turning every diplomatic interaction into a public game of blatant and unsubtle jingoism, dominance games, and virtue signaling ? Smile to Trump’s face, try and talk some sense into him, and when that goes nowhere, give him the glad hand and send him on his way. Then covertly, and without any public announcement of either undying support for the Islamic Republic or animosity towards the United States, send 1,000,000 drones and 10,000 MANPADs to Iran.
      1. ChrisFromGA March 6, 2026 at 9:31 am

         There is a happy medium somewhere between bellicose rhetoric and dominance displays, and submissive groveling … how about “we respectfully decline to meet at this time, we will reschedule when our partners are not distracted with waging war on multiple continents?”
         1. OnceWere March 6, 2026 at 10:59 am

            Characterizing “being willing to hold a face-to-face meeting” as substantially equivalent to “submissive groveling” seems very much a stretch.
            1. ChrisFromGA March 6, 2026 at 11:39 am

               It’s a spectrum … maybe it’s not groveling, OK, but when your so-called “partner” slaughters the religious leader of a country that supplies you with oil, kidnaps the leader of another place that you invested time and money in developing business relationships, and generally acts like a murderous thug, I would suggest that “pursuing cooperation for mutual benefit” might not be realistic goal at present.
               1. OnceWere March 6, 2026 at 12:54 pm

                  Even if in the inner circles of the Chinese state “pursuing cooperation” is already generally agreed upon by to be totally impossible, where is the benefit to China in broadcasting that to the world’s public in such uncompromising terms that neither side can ever back down without a total loss of face. If the Chinese, for example, followed the Russian/European example as regards to relations with the United States, then no doubt they’d win plaudits from internet info warriors, but they’ll also have backed themselves into the same position as the Europeans, who are now unable to engage the Russians in any form of diplomacy without a humiliating backdown.
   2. vidimi March 6, 2026 at 8:28 am

      I agree. The US is non-negotiation capable much less agreement capable, so what is the point of this charade? Russia borrowed a page out of Trump’s play-book and made lots of contradictory noises between Lavrov and Dimitriev but to what benefit? It may have spooked BRICS partners and this apparent lack of resolve may have tilted Modi to side with the US. I don’t see any upside to this kind of mixed messaging, though it’s not yet clear that China is engaging in the same theatrics.
   3. mrsyk March 6, 2026 at 9:03 am

      Lol, aren’t the Chinese allowed to troll?

      In general to the thread, the Chinese are keeping communication channels open as the ongoing tidal shift gathers strength. It’s called diplomacy and it’s an essential stream of intelligence gathering, a valuable skill that the west seems to have misplaced. No matter the turn of events, diplomacy will be required to shape what comes after, a point where the US may have to learn how to be agreement capable.
      1. lone plateau March 7, 2026 at 2:44 am

         I believe it was Churchill who said that “to jaw-jaw is better than to war-war”
2. The Rev Kev March 6, 2026 at 7:32 am

   “Exclusive: Trump says he must be involved in picking Iran’s next leader”

   Trump being delusional as normal but perhaps it is more than that. Perhaps Trump’s people have got him convinced that the US is winning and it will take only a bit more time to ‘finish them off’. In another article in Links by Simplicious the Thinker called “Iran Blinds US With Unprecedented Campaign of Strikes on Region’s Strategic Radars” there are two videos of Trump talking and it is the second one that he describes what the US has done to Iran. If he actually believes all that, then he probably does think that the Iranians will roll over and let him choose the next leader. Does he realize that it is the next religious leader?
   1. fjallstrom March 6, 2026 at 7:54 am

      It is a very useful quote to tell anyone who is deluded that the war is about bringing democracy to Iran.
      1. Polar Socialist March 6, 2026 at 8:47 am

         Remember the “rules based order” era? Back then democracy was redefined as “US gets to pick the leader”.
         1. TomT March 6, 2026 at 1:33 pm

            The current liberal-Democrat response to all of this could end up being a tersely-worded Schumer-bomb calling Trump a dictator and demanding that ALL U.S. citizens should be allowed to pick Iran’s next religious leader.
3. Stephen V March 6, 2026 at 7:33 am

   Well the World used to be a turd rolled by a beetle. I’ll take a dormose and nut as an upgrade.
   1. CanCyn March 6, 2026 at 7:44 am

      “Feed your head” Jefferson Airplane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnJM_jC7j_4
   2. The Rev Kev March 6, 2026 at 8:07 am

      I think that the message of that Dormouse is ‘Time to nut up or shut up!’
      1. Jonathan Holland Becnel March 6, 2026 at 3:56 pm

         The revolutionary seed has been planted 😀

         aka

         *stilgar shouts*

         LISAN AL- GAIB
4. The Rev Kev March 6, 2026 at 8:23 am

   “US weighs asking China to curb Russian, Iranian oil purchases”

   This is Scott Bessent saying this. Just goes to show you that he is as intelligent as Trump is. They should make other demands too. Like China should get rid of all it’s nuclear missiles, demilitarize itself and let in Wall Street banks to help run the Chinese economy. Anybody think that China will go for it?
   1. Howard L March 6, 2026 at 9:16 am

      I might be for the inverse. USA eliminate their nuclear stockpile, demilitarize, and let in Chinese infrastructure experts.
5. DJG, Reality Czar March 6, 2026 at 8:52 am

   Photographic antidote: Uh-oh. Found out.

   The hazelnut is the “national nut” of the Undisclosed Region. It is in the gianduiotti. Little bags of hazelnuts are in the windows of many stores. There should be one at the center of each cri-cri.

   So there I am…
   1. jsn March 6, 2026 at 11:15 am

      You’re much cuter than I thought!
6. Judith March 6, 2026 at 8:57 am

   Question: What impact if any will the war have on the availability of prescription meds?
7. DJG, Reality Czar March 6, 2026 at 8:57 am

   Highly recommended: Emmanuel Todd on The Beginning of a World War.

   As he himself mentions, he’s a bourgeois. But starting with almost stereotypical French sangfroid, he gets progressively spicier.

   There’s this: “Mr Todd, the war in Ukraine is entering its fifth year. Looking back, are there any aspects that you misjudged?”

   “Emmanuel Todd: I always have scruples and doubts. The prediction was correct: the West lost this war long ago. If the Americans had won, Joe Biden would have been re-elected. Donald Trump is the president of defeat.”

   And this diagnosis that the patient, the U.S.A., is now on life support: “After a year, Trump had to admit that despite protectionism with high tariffs, reindustrialisation is not working. There is a shortage of engineers, technicians and skilled workers. The proportion of illiterates among young people aged between 16 and 24 has risen from 17 to 25 per cent over the last ten years. America is dependent on imports; it cannot do without them. It was pure madness for the world’s leading power to outsource its industry to China. Even in agriculture, the foreign trade balance is in deficit. Tariffs have become a threat to the dollar. It is the weapon of an empire that lives on credit from the labour of other countries. The desolate state of American society makes it impossible to implement MAGA. It lacks the necessary economic and intellectual dynamism.”

   Read it all, mes soeurs et mes frères.
   1. vidimi March 6, 2026 at 9:29 am

      Worthwhile, but I disagree with several of Todd’s assumptions, like India joining Russia and China in defiance of the US, but more importantly, that Israel is a puppet of the US.

      If, according to John Helmer, Putin saw the West as being run by Jewish capital, a network of Zionist billionnaires loosely centered around the Rothschild dynasty, then the US is the corporate HQ and largest BU of this venture; Canada, the UK, ANZAC, the EU states are business units receiving their strategy from HQ, some other states like the UAE are joint ventures, but Israel is the holding company. There may be a transfer of assets from HQ to the holding company, but it’s all ultimately for the benefit of the shareholders who want to expand their market share.
      1. The Rev Kev March 6, 2026 at 9:46 am

         India will have it’s own problems. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau has said-

         “India should understand that we are not going to make the same mistakes that we made with China 20 years ago in terms of saying, ‘Oh, you know, we’re going to let you be able to develop all these markets and then, you know, the next thing we know is you’re beating us in a lot of commercial events,’” Landau said at the Raisina Dialogue, India’s flagship conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics.

         The US will ensure trade and economic ties with India are fair to Americans, he said. “Ultimately, we have to be accountable to our own people just as the government of India has to be accountable to its people.”

         https://www.rt.com/india/633990-us-wont-allow-india-to/

         That’s a heckuva job you did there, Modi.
         1. Juice March 6, 2026 at 10:07 am

            That American speaks like a typical ignoramus American, without looking first, or understanding the society or its culture. America couldn’t develop India even if it sincerely tried.
      2. DJG, Reality Czar March 6, 2026 at 9:47 am

         vidimi:

         I don’t agree. Wall Street is much too varied to be dominated by a single group, even one with a whole lotta money. It’s like saying that Hollywood was dominated by Jews — yes, there were many Jews like Sam Goldwyn instrumental in creating the studio system and even the glamor of Hollywood, but they didn’t dominate subject matter. Wall Street was, for many years, mainly a WASPy boys club. Those WASP institutions are still there. See also: Silicon Valley.

         The reason that Epstein, under the direction of Ghislaine Maxwell, and who knows?, her pop, took a multi-pronged approach of wheeler-dealering, black mail, self-presentation as some kind of Gatsby, and endless networking is a sign of lack of control. He didn’t just call up some Rothschild and get results.

         Which is why so much of the U.S. elite, that Height of Judeo-Christendom, should be put in prison together. Let the prison commissary decide on the special diets.
         1. vidimi March 6, 2026 at 10:04 am

            I was paraphrasing Putin in using the term Jewish Capital and used Zionist in my own words to include billionnaires like Musk, Gates, Bezos, etc. It’s not really controversial to claim that billionnaires run the West and that they are all Zionist.
8. Howard L March 6, 2026 at 9:01 am

   25th Amendment please.

   TRUMP ON TRUTH SOCIAL:

   THERE WILL BE NO DEAL WITH IRAN EXCEPT UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER! AFTER THAT, AND THE SELECTION OF A GREAT & ACCEPTABLE LEADER(S), WE, AND MANY OF OUR WONDERFUL AND VERY BRAVE ALLIES AND PARTNERS, WILL WORK TIRELESSLY TO BRING IRAN BACK FROM THE BRINK OF DESTRUCTION, MAKING IT ECONOMICALLY BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE. IRAN WILL HAVE A GREAT FUTURE. “MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!).”
   1. Wukchumni March 6, 2026 at 9:08 am

      MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!)

      Miga in Spanish means crumbs.
      1. Don March 6, 2026 at 5:39 pm

         Or croutons.
   2. Yalt March 6, 2026 at 10:09 am

      Maybe an MI&D civil commitment would be more to the point.
   3. Jonathan Holland Becnel March 6, 2026 at 4:07 pm

      😂

      TACO TRUMP BOUT TO FOLD

      IF YOURE EXPLAINING, THEN YOURE LOSING

      #AMERICANREVOLUTION2
9. The Rev Kev March 6, 2026 at 9:17 am

   ‘Ryan Petersen
   @typesfast
   22h
   The impact of the Iran war on container shipping is reaching well beyond the Persian Gulf, creating ripple effects upstream at ports around the world. 1/ 🧵’

   Here is a link that shows the full thread-

   https://xcancel.com/typesfast/status/2029575950728647039
   1. Queen of Swords March 7, 2026 at 11:45 pm

      Thank you!
10. Henry Moon Pie March 6, 2026 at 9:19 am

    Jewish supremacism in the Epstein files–

    ” It draws on certain currents of Jewish supremacism within Judaism and these have in turn been drawn upon by the secular Zionist movement. Let’s emphasise that this by itself is not evidence that the whole of Judaism is compromised by Jewish supremacism.”

    I’ve traced out the Jewish supremacist sources in Judaism before, but I think it’s worth repeating. First, ask yourself a question: what other religion, in its theology or sacred writings, regards one tribe or ethnic group as God’s favorite? While Christianity, built upon the foundation of Judaism, flirted with Jewish supremacism in its early years, Paul of Tarsus, himself a Jew, delivered a decisive blow against it:

    As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

    Galatians 3:27-29 (NRSVU)

    The matter was settled at the first church council recounted in Acts 15:

    Since we have heard that certain persons who have gone out from us, though with no instructions from us, have said things to disturb you and have unsettled your minds, we have decided unanimously to choose men and send them to you, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.

    Now it’s undeniable that Christians and the Christian church have often acted subsequently in all kinds of reprehensible ways and have advanced not Jewish but European supremacism throughout the world, but the theological stance of the Church has been “there is neither Jew or Gentile.”

    Much maligned Islam is universalist as well. I can’t offer any expertise about the Quran or Islamic theology, but I have known, since a beloved high school teacher had us read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, that Malcolm was turned from the Nation of Islam sect, which teaches that whites are “devils,” to universalist true Islam.

    Buddhism is universalist. Hinduism encompasses a huge array of cultures and ethnic groups in South Asia. There is no hint of ethnic supremacism in the Tao te Ching.

    So what’s up with Judaism? It’s a matter of historical accident. However the cult of YHWH arose among the rural people in the hills west of the Mediterranean coast of the Levant, it held a henotheistic worldview, similar to that held in Babylon or Assyria. To be a nation, a people needed a god. To be a god, a deity needed a house (temple) built by a people. Although all these people recognized the existence of other gods, each nation was obligated to worship one god above all others, as we see in the 1st Commandment:

    I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.

    Exodus 20:2 (NRSVU)

    The “J” strand of the Torah, so-called because it uses YHWH for the name of God, reveals this henotheistic worldview consistently.

    Fast forward to 587 BCE. Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his god Marduk smashed Jerusalem and leveled the temple. Under the henotheistic worldview, YHWH was as much a loser in this battle as Zedekiah, king of Judah at the time. Now without a house/temple, he lost his divine status, maybe even his existence. After Jerusalem’s fall, Nebuchadnezzar, following Babylonian practice, took the political and religious elite of Judah into exile in Babylon, leaving behind the hoi polloi. One of these exiles, Ezekiel, had a vision of YHWH’s essence, his Shekinah, departing from the temple before it was destroyed, thus giving hope that Judah’s tribal god still existed. (Ezekiel 10). A prophet called Second Isaiah by modern scholarship (Isaiah 40-55) was even bolder. He claimed that YHWH, the loser tribal god, was actually the ONLY God, the Lord of the universe:

    Have you not known? Have you not heard?
    The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.

    Isaiah 40:28 (NRSVU)

    Second Isaiah did not work out all the implications of his radical move. That was left to Ezra, another exile. Babylon’s glory was short-lived. Persia conquered Babylon, and King Cyrus issued a decree allowing Judah’s exiles to return to Jerusalem. The restoration project went slowly at first, so a later Persian king sent the scribe Ezra back to Jerusalem to restart the cult of YHWH and rebuild the temple. Being a scribe, Ezra thought what was need was a book that laid out a new narrative: YHWH had always been the Lord of the universe, and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple was this monotheistic God’s judgment against Judah for its unfaithfulness. That narrative is now found in the Torah and the histories that Ezra and his scribes compiled from older bits and pieces, both written and oral, combined with some new material.

    But Ezra, considered by both rabbinical tradition and modern scholarship to be the founder of Judaism, retained the old special relationship between the tribal god, YHWH, and this reconstituted Jewish people. The Jews had suddenly been promoted to the “chosen people” of the God of the cosmos. Ezra declared that they were to keep themselves separate, even from the descendants of the hoi polloi who were not taken into exile in Babylon. (Note also the class element in this.) (Ezra 7) Ezra’s contemporary, called Third Isaiah (Isaiah 56-66) in modern scholarship, dissented, arguing that a religion that claimed to worship the God of the universe had to be universal:

    And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
    to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
    and to be his servants,
    all who keep the Sabbath and do not profane it
    and hold fast my covenant—
    these I will bring to my holy mountain
    and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
    their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
    will be accepted on my altar,
    for my house shall be called a house of prayer
    for all peoples.
    Thus says the Lord God,
    who gathers the outcasts of Israel:
    I will gather others to them
    besides those already gathered.

    Isaiah 56:6-8 (NRSVU)

    Unfortunately, it was Ezra’s view that dominated in Judaism and was amplified even further in the Talmud. Jesus, in clearing the temple, takes Third Isaiah’s universalist proclamation on his lips, indicating his break from the Pharisees and Judaism. Perhaps this was part of the reason for his arrest.

    So this long and complex history is what gave rise to a religion that claimed the God of the universe had a “chosen people,” and the Jewish supremacism it undergirds.
    1. ChrisFromGA March 6, 2026 at 11:11 am

       That’s really good scholarship. It supports my theory that the dispensationalists lost the plot right around Acts. Or are they just too plain lazy to read the Good Book and think for themselves?

       Thanks, HMP.
       1. Henry Moon Pie March 6, 2026 at 12:15 pm

          The Darbyite dispensationalists are a whole different story of a religion gone haywire, one that I’ll leave for another day. ;)
          1. Lefty Godot March 6, 2026 at 1:39 pm

             I blame it all on Manuel Lacunza. Maybe unfairly, but you’ve got to start somewhere! ;-)
          2. Giovanni Barca March 6, 2026 at 3:20 pm

             It is clearly an “hermeneutica distortion” to cite the Genesis verse blessing Abraham (a la Hagee and Huckabee and my beloved cousins’ Tennessee megachurch) without citing the Pauline verse that clearly interprets the promise to Abraham as extending to all followers of Jesus and not to the ethnicity or the modern settler colony. (For Christians, that is.)
       2. cfraenkel March 6, 2026 at 3:06 pm

          Judging from the conversations I’ve had with them, their comprehension is limited to one verse at a time. Context? Who needs that? It’s whatever you need it to be.
    2. Sam Beaton March 6, 2026 at 11:24 am

       Thank you so much for this, I’ll send this to my Christian Zionist friends
    3. mrsyk March 6, 2026 at 11:39 am

       Thank you HMP, I read this with great interest. It’s a subject I have embarrassingly little knowledge of. I’m taking this, Ezra declared that they were to keep themselves separate, home. That is a lot to chew on.
       1. Henry Moon Pie March 6, 2026 at 12:21 pm

          One needed correction I noticed belatedly. Ezra’s sermon against intermarriage is in Ezra 9. An excerpt:

          After these things had been done, the leaders came to me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices, like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites. They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness.”

          …“But now, our God, what can we say after this? For we have forsaken the commands you gave through your servants the prophets when you said: ‘The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of its peoples. By their detestable practices they have filled it with their impurity from one end to the other. Therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them at any time, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it to your children as an everlasting inheritance.’

          13 “W
          1. mrsyk March 6, 2026 at 12:33 pm

             Damn. This club is for true-bloods only?
             Edit, It occurs to me that this has “implications”.
11. Tom Stone March 6, 2026 at 9:26 am

    Trump spent the last year crapping on the Republican base and now he expects their unquestioning support?
    He is unhinged, what he does domestically as the wheels fall off is frightening to consider.
    It’s gonna be lit, as Mr Boxman puts it.
    1. ArvidMartensen March 6, 2026 at 5:09 pm

       Yes, it seems to me that he never really learned that you can’t shaft a person today, and then demand they do something for you tomorrow.

       Except. Except if you have been running a large company your whole life.
       So, if he has always had the money and power to get away with treating people badly them demanding they do something for him, he would never have had to deal with knockbacks and blowbacks. It looks like a case of someone who was never stopped from getting what he wanted his whole life. And now he’s becoming a joke for that.

       Perhaps this is why wise fathers who ran companies put their children in the mailroom first, and made them work their way up. To see real life,not just life from the 85th floor.
12. vao March 6, 2026 at 9:58 am

    Regarding India’s intelligence role in Iran’s warship IRIS Dena? Analyst raises doubts — The Week: it seems that the site has taken away the article. The page can still be accessed at archive.ph.
13. Bugs March 6, 2026 at 10:08 am

    “A New Spy Radio Signal Has Appeared. It’s Broadcasting in Farsi”

    I pointed my pretty good shortwave outfit at 7910kHz and there is something happening on the frequency (no normal noise there) but no number count. I’ll check back tomorrow in the time period mentioned.
    1. ThirtyOne March 6, 2026 at 1:57 pm

       And for those without a rig:
       http://websdr.org/

       I used to get numbers stations on my Zenith Transoceanic radio back in the ’70s.
14. flora March 6, 2026 at 10:35 am

    re: antidote

    Reminds me of the opening scene from the animated movie Ice Age. utube, ~2+ minutes.

    Scat Ice Age 1

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOWHDQU46NU
    1. AG March 7, 2026 at 10:19 am

       HA!
       I wanted to post that same vid re: antidote!
       In Germany they say “Zwei Dumme, ein Gedanke” “Two morons, same idea” 😉
       Of course it´s used with self-irony and in reference often to comical incidents.
15. Tom Stone March 6, 2026 at 10:48 am

    I seem to recall that the AI industry was planning to raise a shitload of $ this year and that a lot of big loans elsewhere were going to roll over…
    That might prove a bit more difficult than was was expected.
16. Wukchumni March 6, 2026 at 11:10 am

    You ask how much I need you, must I explain?
    I need you, oh my darling, like roses need rain
    You ask how long I’ll love you; I’ll tell you true
    Until the twelfth of never, I’ll still be loving you

    Hold me close, never let me go
    Hold me close Uncle Sugar, melt my heart by playing your part

    I’ll love you till there’s nothing left in Iran to go boom!
    I’ll love you till far right Zionism has lost its perfume
    I’ll love you till the poets run out of rhyme
    Until the twelfth of never and that’s a long, long time

    Hold me close, never let me go
    Hold me close, enjoy the fireworks show

    I’ll love you till there’s nothing left in Iran to go boom!
    I’ll love you till far right Zionism has lost its perfume
    I’ll love you till the poets run out of rhyme
    Until the twelfth of never and that’s a long, long time

    Until the twelfth of never and that’s a long, long time

    The Twelfth of Never, performed by Johnny Mathis

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNNRGa3pKyw&list=RDnNNRGa3pKyw
17. Wukchumni March 6, 2026 at 11:35 am

    Trump Finally Fires Kristi Noem Migrant Insider
    ~~~~~~~~~

    As a loyal foot soldier with boobs on the ground appearing before the House, Kristi never let a whiff of decency betray the mission at hand, even if it was her swan song… saddle-sore ridden hard right and put away wet.
    1. ChrisFromGA March 6, 2026 at 11:56 am

       Noem

       (Sung to the tune of, “Roam” by the B-52s)

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNwC0sp-uA4&list=RDiNwC0sp-uA4

       [I hear a demotion,
       wrestlin’ in,
       the press conference,
       Kristi dear …]

       Boy, mercury’s shootin’ through every degree
       Oh, girl dancin’ down those dirty and fascist trails
       Shootin’ from the hip, in designer leather kicks
       Around the world, her power trip begins with a glove kiss

       [Chorus]

       Noem if you want to
       Noem, you naughty girl
       Noem if you want to
       Noem, you naughty girl!
       Noem, if you want to, without anything but the cuffs you’ll feel

       Skip the Miranda rights strip to the Cuban sunset
       Yeah, ride the C-130 to Guantanamo- oh!
       Shootin’ from the hip, cuffing wayward immigrants
       Around the world, her power trip begins with a glove kiss

       Noem if you want to
       Noem, you naughty girl
       Noem if you want to
       Without morals, without due process
       Noem, if you want to
       Noem, you naughty girl!
       Noem, if you want to, without anything but the cuffs you’ll feel

       Fly the great big sky, thin out the great big sea (of teaming hordes)
       Kick through meat plant doors, bustin’ legal boundaries
       Shootin’ from the hip, rockin’ chaps, and stetson hats
       Around the world, her trip begins with a glove kiss

       [Repeat Chorus]

       Shootin’ from the hip, like a modern Bernie Goetz!
       Shootin’ from the hip, like a modern Bernie Goetz!
       Shootin’ from the hip, like a modern Bernie Goetz!
       Oh boy

       Shootin’ from the hip, rocking chaps and stetson hats!
       Ow!

       Shootin’ from the hip, cuffing pols and immigrants!

       (You go girl, Noem! You go girl, Noem!)

       Shootin’ from the hip, cuffing pols and immigrants!
    2. ThirtyOne March 6, 2026 at 12:32 pm

       hoowee, ride’m cowboy!
    3. The Rev Kev March 6, 2026 at 5:48 pm

       I was wondering myself if Trump would replace her with Laura Loomer.
18. hemeantwell March 6, 2026 at 12:50 pm

    Can anyone recommend right-wing websites open to criticism of Trump from an “America First” position a’ MTG or Carlson? We should be tracking their understanding of this mess, which alt sites they are drawing on, etc. I realize Larry Johnson’s site could serve, but are there others?
19. skippy March 6, 2026 at 3:19 pm

    Whoboy …

    Republicans against Trump
    @RpsAgainstTrump
    NEW: Donald Trump is demanding that Israel’s President Isaac Herzog immediately pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his corruption trial.

    Trump tells Israel’s Channel 12 in a phone interview that Herzog must give Netanyahu a pardon “today,” saying he doesn’t want Netanyahu distracted by anything other than the war with Iran.

    Trump called Herzog “a disgrace” and said he had “promised me five times” to pardon Netanyahu, warning: “Tell him I’m exposing him.”

    This is Elitist Oligopoly rubbing its collective[tm] genitalia in everyone’s face … out in the open … publicly …
    1. Jonathan Holland Becnel March 6, 2026 at 4:27 pm

       Maybe that’s the bribe to cover the Kompromat the Epstein Devils have on Trump so they can end the Epstein War?
       1. skippy March 6, 2026 at 9:08 pm

          I think it goes way deeper than that Jonathan. All the things that have occurred since neoliberalism became dominate in everything socio/political economics including GeoPol/FP. Trump and posse can do things because of how the ground was prepared with “ratchet like effect”.
20. Jason Boxman March 6, 2026 at 3:26 pm

    Raimondo is a capitalist idiot

    And no, this is not about what’s happening in Iran, what’s gonna happen to oil and downstream products. it’s about AI.

    America Cannot Withstand the Economic Shock That’s Coming (NY Times oped)

    The future of higher education should be modular, and employers must be active partners in shaping what gets taught. The country needs to shift focus from long and expensive degrees that risk obsolescence before completion toward short, affordable job-linked credits that offer on-ramps between education and work. People should be encouraged to pursue credentials that can stand alone or be stacked over time into degrees, bringing people back to campus over the arc of their lives. A midcareer accountant displaced by A.I. doesn’t need another master’s degree. Instead, she may be better off with a four-month credential and temporary wage insurance that bridges any pay gap and incentivizes her to accept a new role sooner.

    …

    A.I.-driven mass unemployment is a potential crisis on the horizon. This country cannot withstand the kind of economic shock I see coming. Without solutions, America’s anxiety will become rage — and political backlash will follow, targeting companies that make A.I., businesses that deploy it and politicians who back it. A new grand bargain between the public and private sectors can help us meet this moment. I know we have the ingenuity to do it. What’s missing now is the collective will.

    She’s huffing glue.

    Meanwhile

    The Allure of ‘Slop Bowls’ Fades as Consumers Tighten Spending (NY Times)

    I had no idea they were “slop bows”. That’s nasty.

    Sales and traffic at restaurant chains like Cava, Chipotle and Sweetgreen are falling, as customers grow tired of both salad bowls and their rising price tags.

    and

    For a few months, chains like Chipotle, Sweetgreen and Cava appeared to be insulated from declines in restaurant visits, in part because they tend to have more higher-income consumers. Chipotle, for instance, said 60 percent of its customers have an average household income of $100,000 or more. But as the year progressed, they, too, saw a decline in customers. Sweetgreen’s same-store sales fell 11.5 percent in the fourth quarter, thanks to a steep drop in traffic.

    Meanwhile at Staples today, there’s only one employee staffing returns, online pickups, and checkout. This has been the case for probably a year or more.
    1. Jonathan Holland Becnel March 6, 2026 at 4:30 pm

       I went to withdraw money at Capital One today and the bank teller said a bunch of workers have been calling out.
    2. Alan Sutton March 6, 2026 at 7:12 pm

       “ The future of higher education should be modular, and employers must be active partners in shaping what gets taught”

       Interesting. Here in Australia, Bill Shorten the ex Labour Leader who retired into a near $Million a year job as Vice Chancellor of Canberra University came up with similar ideas last year:

       https://theconversation.com/bill-shorten-re-imagines-universities-with-specialist-institutions-and-bespoke-degrees-264778

       A worldwide agenda, obviously.
       1. AG March 6, 2026 at 9:32 pm

          good god…
          these people
          Hands off our children and our educational system!!!
          You see it with the fake debate over banning of social media for teens which has now reached EU.
          Instead of fighting corporate business interests and models they start to harrass us and ever expand their sacrosanct rights to rule under the most treacherous pretense.
21. AG March 6, 2026 at 6:17 pm

    re: Chinese “lifestyle” now “in”

    BERLINER ZEITUNG

    machine-translation

    TikTok
    “Becoming Chinese”: How everyday routines from China are becoming a new lifestyle
    New routines for a more conscious life are currently spreading on social media, blending tradition, trend, and lifestyle. They originate in China.
    https://archive.is/5ztIa
22. Robert Gray March 6, 2026 at 6:21 pm

    A propos of nothing — except perhaps the NC kinda-sorta frontispiece. The BBC online ( I know: boo hiss ) has a short-ish (14 min.) video about a small group of researchers prowling through the mountains of Uzbekistan looking for snow leopards.

    https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0n2r713/in-search-of-the-elusive-snow-leopard-in-uzbekistan
23. AG March 6, 2026 at 7:38 pm

    re: computer games & economy

    NEW LEFT REVIEW

    The history of Nintendo.
    Consoling

    by Owen Hatherley
    06 March 2026
    https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/consoling
24. Jason Boxman March 6, 2026 at 8:16 pm

    Trump is coming for Cuba; Little Marco gets erection

    Trump sets his sights on crisis-hit Cuba after Iran action (BBC)

    The day after Cuba was crippled by another 24-hour nationwide blackout, US President Donald Trump suggested the country was next on his administration’s agenda, saying it was “just a question of time” before there would be change on the island.

    Standing in front of an awkward-looking Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and the other stars of the Inter Miami soccer team on Thursday, Trump told the team’s owner, Cuban-born magnate Jorge Mas, that they would soon be “celebrating what’s going on in Cuba”, adding that the Cuban authorities “want to make a deal. So badly you have no idea”.

    “It’s going to be an amazing day,” replied Mas.

    In a conversation with the broadcaster CNN on Friday, Trump said: “Cuba is gonna fall pretty soon”.

    More than any other president, Trump sees the military as his to use in his quest to dominate anyone that he wants. Perhaps Iran is more than he can chew? Cuba is probably toast regardless, as his blockade is probably going to turn lethal pretty quickly. Another crime against humanity.

    The Hague isn’t big enough for the warmongers and militarists among America’s elite.
25. AG March 6, 2026 at 9:38 pm

    antidote looks like a friendly interpretation of Trump vs. Iran

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