Links 5/10/2026

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1. The Rev Kev May 10, 2026 at 7:26 am

   “920 Pounds of Leverage: How China Can Ground the F-35 Without Firing a Shot”

   ‘An F-35 fighter contains 920 pounds of rare earth minerals. A Virginia-class submarine needs 9,200. An Arleigh Burke destroyer requires 5,200.’

   Stories have surfaced how new production F-35s have to have weight plates in their nose cones as there are no radars to install due to lack of refined rare earths. But oddly there have been no stories of the problem of finishing new submarines and destroyers because of the lack of refined rare earths. I wonder how many pounds of rare earth minerals a Trump-class battleship will need.
   1. vao May 10, 2026 at 9:18 am

      I always believed that rare earths were used in minute amounts in electronics and appeared in significant quantities only in batteries, but almost half a tonne either implies that the F-35 is mostly made up of electronics, or that some of those rare earths are used much, much more liberally than I thought for purposes I cannot fathom.
      1. Who Cares May 10, 2026 at 10:04 am

         I’m guessing a big one is yttrium, it is used in the ceramics for the turbine blades and the coating of the exhaust. Also used in/for other parts of the plane like the stealth coating.

         The rest Is generally based on either weight or available space constraints.
         For example neodymium based magnets weigh less then iron based ones (up to 50%), they also handle more magnetic field strength and do so at higher temperatures, if doped with other rare earths, in exchange for ~25% of weight being neodymium.
         For space think electronics that can function at high temperatures, since there is no room for cooling, sitting next to interference generators, again without the room for extensive shielding, while also being able to keep functioning at 9G. And that is not just the chips, which require gallium if you want high temperature operational capability, but everything else on the board they are put on including the board it self.
2. farmboy May 10, 2026 at 7:27 am

   Iran war is crushing Asia’s farmers, threatening global food supply
   Prices of fuel and fertilizer are pushing farmers to make irreversible cuts as they enter key planting seasons.
   https://t.co/fF5lef0s7A
   1. The Rev Kev May 10, 2026 at 9:24 am

      I heard in a video today that 70% of American farmers cannot afford the high costs of fertilizers but do not know how true it is.
      1. LawnDart May 10, 2026 at 10:29 am

         Rev, see Ian Welsh:

         Is A Famine Baked In For 2027?

         I try to remind others that “we are eating last year’s harvest today” and that stocking-up on shelf-stable foodstuffs is one of the wisest investments that one can make.

         Most are whistling past the graveyard, deaf to the little voice that screams “run!”
      2. converger May 10, 2026 at 10:54 am

         My Minnesota sources tell me that many farmers there routinely dial in their seasonal fertilizer supply in advance. Those farmers are fine. The ones who waited are not.
         1. LawnDart May 10, 2026 at 11:46 am

            From the chart Welsh posted, it appears that in the Midwest there are many who locked in their supplies before the crisis, but in the West and especially the South, not so many.

            The P.E. vultures are gonna get fat, or I should say, tip the scales from “fat” to “obese” during this crisis: that’s not good for those of us who like to, or need to, eat on a somewhat regular basis.

            I shop as much as possible at a regional food distributer’s retail outlet where they unload overstock, cancelled orders, and damaged goods– you can get some crazy deals on stuff they need to move (I bought 20# of pork butt @$1.89lb last week). But even there I’ve seen inflation bite hard on certain products, especially coffee, so I’ve become more of a tea-drinker as of late.

            I can get bags of flour and rice, and most dairy products that I use, from the local Mennonite shop for often half or more off retail grocery. Believe me, having travelled throughout most of this country, I know we in these parts are damn fortunate to have these stores nearby and available.

            Currently I am located in a rural food-basket so that has some benefits as far as availability of fresh, healthy and inexpensive food, but this is somewhat offset by transportation costs. I expect to relocate to a small city about 45-minutes away from here in the next few months, one that is very walkable and bicycle-friendly, but still farm-adjacent.
      3. Joe Fletcher May 10, 2026 at 1:18 pm

         apparently a lot of small farmers,big corporate ones bought fertilizer much earlier.So of actual production a much smaller percentage affected
3. Antifaxer May 10, 2026 at 7:32 am

   U.S. Dollar ‘Collapse’—A $39 Trillion Debt ‘Crisis’ Is Quietly Predicted To Trigger A Huge Bitcoin Price Boom To Rival Gold Forbes

   Need more investors into their pyramid scheme it seems
   1. Lovell May 10, 2026 at 9:41 am

      Wonder how Bukele’s bitcoin project is going in El Salvador.
4. amfortas May 10, 2026 at 7:41 am

   read this with coffee at 4am:
   https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/happy-meals
   1. Stephen V. May 10, 2026 at 8:00 am

      Great stuff thanks!
   2. earthling May 10, 2026 at 9:00 am

      Thanks. That’s a great antidote to the drumbeat of bad news we get hit with daily.

      With fuel and fertilizer costs becoming a problem, and greedflation larding the industrial food system, perhaps these people really are the wave of the future, using less fuel and making their own fertilizer. They’ve always had cleaner but often costly goods to offer, but what if their efficient operations become more widespread, taken up by younger people closed out of job markets. Meanwhile, industrial ag is losing whatever safety and cost advantages it had, because of shoddy inspection, contaminating additives, costs of distribution, etc.
   3. TimH May 10, 2026 at 9:33 am

      Where I am, county not city, there are 5 different cockerels at 5 compass points competing before first light every morning…
   4. flora May 10, 2026 at 1:38 pm

      Great read. Thanks for the link. Bookmarked for future reference.
   5. Kontrary Kansan May 10, 2026 at 2:02 pm

      Thanks! Passed this on to ag friends and business acquaintances.
   6. Glenda May 10, 2026 at 4:55 pm

      My thanks also. My daughter has 7 chickens and has been talking about maybe renting the vacant lot nearby to have a bigger area. I definitely will pass this on to her. And also a guy who grows veggies in Strawberry Park here in Berkeley.
      My daughter has 2 horses in a pasture nearby in the hills and has donated manure to the veggie guy. Urban farming.
   7. LawnDart May 10, 2026 at 8:48 pm

      Wonderful article, Hippy!

      Really cool how they produce so much on only 1-2 acres of land, and that’s totally food for thought.
   8. KLG May 11, 2026 at 3:52 am

      Thank you, Amfortas. Great article. And one of the more interesting parts of it is this:

      Hannah Rowan is managing editor of Modern Age and a 2024–2025 fellow in the Robert Novak Journalism Program through The Fund for American Studies.

      Affiliations do not get anymore towards the traditionally Right, which shows once again that the intelligent Right and Left need only look in the other direction to see they have much in common.
5. The Rev Kev May 10, 2026 at 7:51 am

   “Why X Money Could Be Bigger Than PayPal Ever Was”

   In the course of my life I have done many dumb and even stupid things. Entrusting my money to Elon Musk will not be one of them.
6. Bugs May 10, 2026 at 8:05 am

   I still love the high fashion that those creepy celebs and parasites put on for the Met Gala. The creativity of the designers, the skills of the weavers, seamstresses, couturiers, drapers…the art of the clothes is amazing. Too bad it’s become nearly a real life Hunger Games display.
   1. Carolinian May 10, 2026 at 8:20 am

      While I’m not a big fan of the Hunger Games movies, the satirical depiction of elite fashion seems increasingly right on. Clearly those owners of Mar-a-Lago faces went to the films and were taken with the fashion and perhaps the poor people gladiatorial aspect as well.
      1. vao May 10, 2026 at 9:04 am

         I found both the accoutrements and the jewelry to be gaudy. The whole affair also looks like a throwback to the late 19th, early 20th century, when top courtesans (typically also dancers — show business was already a thing then) would appear covered with jewelry at the galas of the high society.
         1. hereweare May 10, 2026 at 9:59 am

            What is it about the Met fashion gala that leads one to think fondly of the guillotine?
         2. DJG, Reality Czar May 10, 2026 at 2:26 pm

            vao: a remarkable life, which the current crop of prune-faced “feminists” can’t acknowledge. Hell, Kaja Kallas is more compromised than Liane de Pougy ever was :

            Liane de Pougy, née à La Flèche (Sarthe, France) le 2 juillet 1869 et morte à Lausanne (canton de Vaud, Suisse) le 26 décembre 1950[1], épouse d’Armand Pourpe puis, par son second mariage, princesse Ghika, est une danseuse, courtisane et femme de lettres française de la Belle Époque, puis tertiaire dominicaine.

            With an important cameo appearance by the formidable Natalie Clifford Barney.

            A remarkable ending, too, although choosing the Dominicans was her only lapse in taste.
   2. The Rev Kev May 10, 2026 at 9:13 am

      Good thing that smoking is not that much of a thing these days. A lot of those outfits looked very flammable. Where is Effie Trinket when you need her.
7. Carolinian May 10, 2026 at 8:14 am

   Re No Pain, No Gain–interesting article for we geezers. It says exercise where your muscles work with an external force–walking down stairs for example–has less cardio straining impact that tires one out and therefore you can do more of it.

   Of course in many instances to go down steps you have to first climb up them. And those special bicycle machines that have a motor that turns your legs instead of vice versa may be hard to find.

   Still the next time I encounter a skyscraper I plan to take the elevator to the top and walk down. Although there aren’t too many skyscrapers around here, unfortunately.
   1. Samuel Conner May 10, 2026 at 8:45 am

      A physical therapist sibling tells me that in decades of treating people, she never encountered a centenarian who had not been an avid gardener earlier in life. Her interpretation of this is that the work (slow, steady work rather than aerobic or burst exertion) builds functional strength that keeps people mobile and active later into life and reduces the incidence of mishaps, such as falls, that can induce life-shortening debilities. There are mental health benefits, too, and probably diet improvements for gardeners who grow food.

      It doesn’t work for everyone — city dwellers may have difficulty finding soil to dig in.

      Perhaps this year, there will be more gardens planted. Mineral and nitrogen fertilizer will be a problem. Of course, people excrete minerals and nitrogen in urine, but harvesting this for ag uses is a bit icky.
      1. Mark Gisleson May 10, 2026 at 10:14 am

         My home is set up around stairs: computer upstairs, bathroom/kitchen/bed downstairs. Along with canceling processed food from my diet, I credit stairs with most of my health gains in retirement.

         I never gardened but yardwork has had an equally large impact on my health. Something about crawling around on your hands and knees battling plantains is remarkably good for my knees and back. Walking/crawling on uneven ground is very good for you. I think our bodies hate flat surfaces and are built for the natural world which is mostly lacking in pavement.
         1. Henry Moon Pie May 10, 2026 at 3:32 pm

            My hands-and-knees days are probably behind me. I sit on a short stool to weed, but we bought a couple of 2′ deep, corrugated metal, “raised bed” frames summer before last. They are great for older gardeners. I can weed and hand-cultivate to my heart’s content with hardly bending over.
   2. John Wright May 10, 2026 at 8:46 am

      Another problem is that walking down physical stairs is more likely to result in a fall than walking up stairs.

      Walking down a slight incline may be a safe compromise.
      1. earthling May 10, 2026 at 9:04 am

         Or simply doing a standard toning routine, but keeping focus and some tension on the ‘downstrokes’ after lifts or moves, rather than simply plopping the limb down.
         1. jhallc May 10, 2026 at 12:57 pm

            This is something I have been doing at the gym for some time now. When using a machine I try to lower the weight slowly until it stops short of, or just barely touched to stack before lifting. I do it that way because I hate the sound of the clanging weights. Glad to see it might also have an added benefit.
      2. amfortas May 10, 2026 at 2:20 pm

         due to my pretty much global arthritis(from that wreck 37 years ago, plus lifetime of kitchen and farm wear and tear) i just dont do stairs. i especially loathe going down.

         as for fitness.
         did my physical last week doc sez that aside from my bones and joints, im health as a frelling ox. actually called me a bit of barbed wire,lol.
         ive never set foot in a gym…nor touched a weight…save to move the boys’ barbell things out of the way.
         i walk everywhere on farm since golfcart died, 2 years ago, do my heavy stuff early and then putter around.
         steady and slow…is habit because i hafta pace myself.

         i eat exclusively my own cooking, which is mostly what i grow and process right here.
         and, as ive said, after Tam died, i suddenly stopped eating out…and dropped 37 pouinds in no time flat.
         didnt even try…nor notice it was happening, until doc sez “man, youve lost all kinds of weight”
   3. Socal Rhino May 10, 2026 at 10:24 am

      I’ve been following a fitness guru who trains endurance athletes. The main point he hammers over and over is that fitness comes from first devoting regular hours to low intensity effort. Multiple hours per day every day. In fact he says anyone can be trained to run competitive marathons if they put in the work.
      1. curlydan May 10, 2026 at 12:33 pm

         I recommend this orthopedist on X/Twitter–especially for the over 50 crowd. He definitely emphasizes starting out slow when trying to get into shape… almost like baby steps. But it does take consistent and long-term effort. He’s also has very good posts about shoulder, hip, and knee issues.

         Howard Luks

         https://x.com/hjluks
   4. PlutoniumKun May 10, 2026 at 1:53 pm

      Pavel Tsatsouline, the famed Belarussian strength and conditioning coach has been arguing roughly this point for decades – he’s long argued against ‘pushing to failure’, focusing instead on regular repetitive movements. Some of his older books can be found free or very cheap online – they are very padded out, but the message is straightforward – all body exercises (such as lunges and one armed press ups) are more effective for real strength than traditional weights – but the key is regularity, not hard core pushing and grunting. From what I understand (disclaimer: not a specialist in this), there is growing evidence that traditional gym advice is far too focused on building muscle rather than effective strength and the key seems to be regularity and consistency.
   5. ISL May 10, 2026 at 7:03 pm

      Well, in nature, whenever you climbed a hill, you have to descend it, so I suspect both are important. Just my evolutionary spidy sense – why would nature neglect one for the other (I can tell from my mountain hiking is that you use different muscles down from up).

      Gardening has a lot of stretching, and odd motions – very unlike a gym – with tension (weight)/
   6. Cat Burglar May 10, 2026 at 8:59 pm

      The article on eccentric contraction exercise had good accurate information — you can generate more force with a negative rep, and research and weight lifter experience confirm that. But that has long been known, and the justified scepticism of training to failure has been a staple of bodybuilding books since at least the 80s. A person who has been lifting for years might want to push hard on a specific exercise once in a while, but that might require weeks of slow preparation. I kind of doubt anybody serious believes in the no-pain-no-gain slogan of the early 80s any more.

      As the late, great former Mister Universe, Bill Pearl put it, going to failure does not just put you at great risk of injury. Even more, he said, you are asking yourself to fail over and over with every set, which he felt nobody could put up with mentally for very long. You would come to hate working out. He suggested working out steadily with gradual improvement over time, but to “leave something left” after every workout.

      Negative reps are great, especially if you’ve had an injury. After snapping a bicep attachment, it was barely possible to curl five pounds. But by lifting a heavier weight with both hands to start, and then slowly lowering it, strength slowly came back, and after about a year, my strength had returned to normal. Physical therapists use the negative rep technique pretty often.

      Politicians in the US always praise the importance of hard work, but never constant, gradual, productive work. It was always obvious that was capitalist hokum handed out to us proles, but years of lifting weights proved to me in a visceral way how pernicious it is. You don’t get strong by working out, you get strong by recovering from working out, as one adage has it. Work out every day, and you’ll break yourself. As Pearl said, “Don’t forget the rest day.”
8. The Rev Kev May 10, 2026 at 8:22 am

   ‘Science girl
   @sciencegirl
   In Hangzhou China, if you run low on battery, there are solar benches with USB ports and wireless charging pads,’

   Must be good to live in a high trust society and I have seen other examples about trust and the benefits of it. You read the replies in that tweet and many people write how where they live that it could never happen as that mobile would be quickly stolen-

   https://xcancel.com/sciencegirl/status/2050877070389948887
   1. Samuel Conner May 10, 2026 at 8:48 am

      I would be concerned about infected microcontrollers in the USB ports. There are viruses that spread via this route.
      1. The Rev Kev May 10, 2026 at 8:57 am

         Looking at that video, it looks like it is surface to surface contact and does not need a USB port. But your point about viruses spread by a USB stick is well taken.
         1. John Wright May 10, 2026 at 4:16 pm

            USB usually has 4 lines. D+, D-, 5V, Return(ground).

            In/out data goes via the D+,D- lines.

            A USB charging port could be implemented with only the 5 volt and return(ground)connected.

            With no D+, D- connected, transfering viruses or reading data won’t be supported.

            I’d imagine people would charge their phones at these public stations with a USB power only cable that only connects 5v and return as a precaution.
   2. das monde May 10, 2026 at 1:12 pm

      High trust societies:

      Frenchman tests how fast an unattended laptop gets stolen: Paris: 8 seconds India: 12 seconds New York: 25 seconds China: Never touched
      1. RW May 11, 2026 at 5:40 am

         story from the UK – unattended plant (!) was stolen within a few minutes.
   3. Ghost in the Machine May 10, 2026 at 2:08 pm

      Our neighborhood park has a table that functions like this. The top has a solar panel in it. you can sit and eat and charge your phone.
9. dearieme May 10, 2026 at 8:23 am

   The piece on memory: I’ve always had a poor memory and am accordingly interested in what the piece has to say.

   On memory as reconstruction: I was struck once to stumble across some old paperwork that proved that my memory of an important financial episode in my life had been wrong. OK, so memory can be reconstruction.

   On the other hand “It’s never a matter of simply accessing, retrieving and playing back a static record of a stored slice of the past” seems too strong to me. When umpiring at cricket I found I could close my eyes and “replay” a figurative video, with audio, of what I had witnessed moments before. Since the game happens at high speed this was a useful discovery. I can’t believe I’m the only person to have this ability.
   1. Huey May 10, 2026 at 9:43 am

      That article really rubbed me the wrong way.

      Primarily, the AI style it (and so many other writers recently) employed, but as you suggested, it seemed to state opinions as facts without explanation, at least none that I felt held up to scrutiny.

      The basic premise of it, that photographic memory a la hollywood doesn’t exist, I am wont to agree with. However, I have met people who have demonstrated the ability (beyond adolescence, and without ever attempting any special training) isn’t totally unrealistic (one of the more memorable being the guy who would recreate almost all 200 MCQ questions and answers from memory to share to the incoming class).

      To your discovery, usually I think most people implicitly think of ‘photographic memory’ as a type of long-term memory. Things that very recently happened are often still stored in working/short term memory, only it doesn’t last long and will ‘slip away from you’ if not actively focused on.
   2. Carolinian May 10, 2026 at 9:47 am

      I think a strong visual sense does play a big role in many activities such as, say, finding your way around a city. As for (from the article)

      Forgetting is a feature and not a flaw

      Sherlock tells Watson that he has to shove things out of his mental attic window in order to make room for the important deductive info he does need. That may not be exactly how it works, but I do think burying little used information with much subsequent work to retrieve is how it does work.
   3. anahuna May 10, 2026 at 10:26 am

      The article is using the term “photographic memory” rather loosely. There is such a thing as eidetic memory, which is exact and visual. When I was in college, during exams I was more than once able to close my eyes and read a page from the relevant book. Beyond those specific occurrences, I wonder whether we are in fact recalling the past, or whether certain slices of life remain in present time.

      Spontaneous memories — those that suddenly recur to us in living color, with all their sensory qualities intact — are quite different from “thinking” about the past. Perhaps it’s less a revisiting than a sort of inner resurrection. In contrast, the thinking process carries interpretations and re-interpretations along with it. That appears to be the narrow focus of the article.
      1. The Rev Kev May 10, 2026 at 10:36 am

         Here is an article that may be of interest-

         https://www.simplypsychology.org/eidetic-memory-vs-photographic-memory.html
      2. amfortas May 10, 2026 at 3:56 pm

         Tam’s shrink lady friend who helped me with the greif said that i have something called “exceptional memory”.
         i can whistle mozart’s requiem,lol…as well as about a million guitar solos and riffs and jazz songs.
         prose and poetry bubble up unbidden…sometimes even in context.
         and the weirdest ones: if i think fer a minute, i can literally smell mygrandad burning an anthrax cow when i was 5…as well as taste my 1st beer(family reunion, 1976, PBR from a keg). but lotsa things.
         all this is either stored in my big ears, my leg…or minds really are non-local phenomena.
         being alone with this can be tiresome.
         but i suppose its useful in some situations: i can win the argument, because theres a library in my head.
   4. Socal Rhino May 10, 2026 at 10:34 am

      Through college, I had the ability to ”see” text I’d read, like recalling a formula and remembering where it fell on the page. In general, I had a very strong memory for anything I read, but information I received verbally I forgot fast. I quickly learned to take notes in lectures, if I did I’d retain info and never referred to the notes again.
      1. anahuna May 10, 2026 at 11:42 am

         That’s interesting. SR. Over the course of the years, I have found that now what most stays with me are spoken words. Words spoken at a given moment, quietly or fervently, with their original tone and timbre and carrying the weight of that person’s experience along with them.
10. dearieme May 10, 2026 at 8:31 am

    Three dozen medical experts say Trump ‘mentally unfit,’ should be removed from office with ‘greatest urgency’

    What did the same three dozen say about President Vegetable? Were they of the “sharp as a tack” school?
    1. The Rev Kev May 10, 2026 at 8:47 am

       This time around nobody is claiming that Trump is as sharp as a tack. Every time he opens his mouth he reveals his way of thinking and it does not reflect well. They are not even trying to claim that he is doing 11 dimensional thinking as well either. Trump is, well, Trump.
    2. earthling May 10, 2026 at 9:08 am

       I don’t think ‘what-about-ism’ is productive here, especially since the damage done in this administration is so catastrophic.

       I am glad there are a few doctors out there willing to put it on record that this is a problem and it needs addressing urgently. Politicians need studies and experts to hide behind, and this may be useful if any of them find the courage to do something before we are all engulfed in mushroom clouds.
       1. Socal Rhino May 10, 2026 at 11:30 am

          I don’t see that being whataboutism, rather an objection to making the president’s cognitive ability a partisan issue.

          The president is chief executive, not king, and Article 25 exists. There is no constitutional authority given to dozens of medical experts to remove a president.

          And I’m not a medical ethicist but isn’t diagnosing a person you haven’t examined personally a no-no.
       2. chris May 10, 2026 at 9:17 pm

          This isn’t what aboutism. This is stating facts. This problem was created by the press and the Democrats spending so much time standing up a senile corpse. Just like Trump I was enabled by Obama’s failures, Trump II was created by the collective failire around Biden’s administration. All of these elderly, grifting, groping, war mongers need to go.

          And if you think a second Biden administration, or a first Harris administration, would not have lead us to the same place we are now, I have several bridges in Gaza to sell you.
       3. Cat Burglar May 10, 2026 at 10:08 pm

          What-about-ism as a political idea has always been interesting.

          IIRC, it dates from the Obama administration, as a response to criticism of US foreign policy. I remember some Mark Ames reports of defenders of Obama’s CIA overthrow of Syria project, using it as a counter to the people asking why we needed to arm Al Qaeda rebels to defend democracy in Syria when we were fighting them in Afghanistan and allies with their Gulf State sponsors who were as human rights friendly as Assad.

          Maybe it goes back earlier than that, but that is the first I can recall — I am guessing that some communications consultant, probably from An Agency Of The United States Government, hit on it. If anybody has an earlier sighting, please report!

          In terms of what-about-ism as an act of intellection, the user is simply applying information learned in one context in a new context. In education, it is seen as a sign of a student more advanced than students who do not use it; I am sure I have seen it mentioned as a sign of higher intelligence. So there does not seem to be any reason not to use it if it advances our understanding, unless it does not provide a greater understanding or produces irrelevant information. As a criticism, it seems to be less in use than it was, say, ten years ago.

          In this case, the argument seems to be that comparing Biden’s incapacity to Trump’s feebleness is politically irrelevant, because the overriding concern is to get Trump out of office because he is serving now. I think that is probably the right tactical priority, given that he has the nuclear codes.

          But the comparison isn’t irrelevant — we have a system of media, a public sphere, parties, and institutions that do indeed allow mentally incompetent presidents to be elected and serve as long as they are effective advancing oligarch interests. That’s a strategic problem we should not ignore, even though the next election will likely present us with younger candidates advancing the same policies as the mental incompetents did. We have a larger problem that what-about-ism reveals in this case, so we ought to hang onto it.

          You have to ask if the term was invented to just prevent thought, a typical party political consultant idea designed as a short-term intervention to get a policy through before anybody notices the Obama CIA set up a murderous takfiri dictatorship after the US said it was setting up a democracy. We wouldn’t want to compare the result with what we thought we were paying our taxes for, after all.

          So I am sympathetic to your tactical case, but not to your strategic point. In the meantime, let’s put the new cliche of What-About-Ism into an older one, The Dustbin Of History. We can speak a little more clearly about politics if we do.
11. a castro May 10, 2026 at 8:32 am

    NNSA Removes Highly Enriched Uranium from Venezuela, Reducing Risk to South America and the U.S. Homeland

    The safe removal of all enriched uranium from Venezuela sends another signal to the world of a restored and renewed Venezuela. Thanks to President Trump’s decisive leadership, the teams finished in months what would have normally taken years.
    us”>https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/articles/nnsa-removes-highly-enriched-uranium-venezuela-reducing-risk-south-america-and-us

    Enjoy!!
    1. Glenda May 11, 2026 at 12:56 am

       I keep wondering if Trump’s fixation on removing enriched uranium is some how connected to the uranium the US used to get from Russia. Is the US running low on uranium imports?
       1. The Rev Kev May 11, 2026 at 1:18 am

          The US is so far as I know is still importing uranium from Russia and which accounts for a large percentage of power generation in the US-

          https://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/analyses/2025-06-18/russia-continues-to-export-uranium-to-united-states

          But the US under Biden & Trump keeps demanding that other countries end their import of Russian energy.
12. Jack S. May 10, 2026 at 8:41 am

    Re how Venezuela has and has not changed since Maduro was ‘extracted.’ Delcy et al are playing the long game. Trump might be neutered politically at home after November, and certainly will be gone by January ’29. Not that long, considering the Chavez ‘era’ started in December 1998 and is now in its 28th year. Good ‘friends’ China, Russia, Iran, among others, can wait. None of the recent legislative changes affecting oil have any lasting political or legal foundations. Everything in Venezuela will go back to what it was before Trump 2.0.
13. ChrisFromGA May 10, 2026 at 9:04 am

    Mishtalk: MAGA Evangelical leaders dedicate a statue to their new God, Donald Trump:

    https://mishtalk.com/economics/maga-evangelical-leaders-dedicate-a-statue-to-their-new-god-donald-trump/

    Interestingly, the folks who have escaped the MAGA-cult are mostly women: M T-G, Megyn Kelly.
    1. Carolinian May 10, 2026 at 9:37 am

       Does Trump even like women? He’s mean to those women reporters.
       1. ChrisFromGA May 10, 2026 at 9:41 am

          It could be that the ladies are finally picking up on his misogynistic tendencies. He prefers firing women from his cabinet (Blondi, Noem.) And they know his history.
          1. Carolinian May 10, 2026 at 9:56 am

             Dr. Freud to the white courtesy phone! I think Sigmund said these self styled Don Juans are repressed homosexuals. But then he probably said that about everybody.
             1. ChrisFromGA May 10, 2026 at 10:02 am

                Well, there is also the whole “women are attracted to men who treat them like crap” thing. Which, from my experience, has some truth to it. And to be fair, men often go for the femme fatale who brings the drama.
                1. dog lady May 10, 2026 at 11:53 am

                   Sorry. I cannot let this crap go by. Please keep stupid “women are…” stuff to yourself. The women who toady to Trump are like the men who do, i.e., opportunists who put up with mountains of shit in order to keep jobs they regard as prestigious.
             2. Buzz Meeks May 10, 2026 at 2:29 pm

                Trump certainly had many years of association with notorious homosexual Roy Cohn that cannot be casually dismissed. Also Trump recently went into great length describing Jack Nicklaus’ dick in the locker room.
       2. dog lady May 10, 2026 at 1:59 pm

          Looks like you haven’t noticed that Trump rates every female person, regardless of age, on a scale of how much he wants to rape her. In my book, that pretty much suggests that “liking” isn’t part of the picture. Also explains the hair and the lips of every female in his orbit, all of whom must look in the mirror every morning and say ” am I looking rape-worthy today?” I assume Susie Wiles gets a pass, as a mom-figure.
14. TimH May 10, 2026 at 9:12 am

    General Motors agreed to pay $12.75 million in civil penalties for selling driving data of hundreds of thousands of California motorists to data brokers….

    California Attorney General … said General Motors misled drivers … and made approximately $20 million from the unlawful sale of their data between 2020 and 2024.

    So, a cost of doing business fine.
    1. The Rev Kev May 10, 2026 at 9:20 am

       Came across a story today that underlines your point about a cost of doing business fine-

       https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/08/georgia-data-centers-water-00909988

       Read through to the end. I don’t even live in the same continent where this all happened but I was still *issed.
       1. flora May 10, 2026 at 2:19 pm

          From the Politico link:

          “Tigert defended the utility’s decision to not levy a fine.

          “They’re our largest customer, and we have to be partners,” she said. “It’s called customer service.”

          This is a family blog, so I’ll confine my comment to saying I think I detect the aroma of some under-the-table arrangements. Campaign donations? Who knows.
15. flora May 10, 2026 at 9:45 am

    re: GM just paid a record penalty for breaking California privacy law – Cal Matters

    According to the article GM made $20 million selling the data. The fine is a little over $12 million. Cost of doing business. GM still comes out with a profit of just under $8 million. I expect GM will keep selling user data. Crime that pays is crime that stays. / ;)
16. DJG, Reality Czar May 10, 2026 at 10:16 am

    Why Dunkin’ doughnuts failed in India.

    The lessons of the article are not likely to be learned by U.S. businesspeople.

    I spent most of my life in Chicago, and it was obvious that pizza chains like Pizza Hut simply weren’t taken seriously there. Pizza Hut was something for the outlying suburbs, along with the Olive Garden.

    Local culture bears studying.

    The article about India rang a bell in my brain: Years back, coming in from a village in Umbria, friends and I passed a Dunkin’ Donuts in Via Aurelia. It turns out that it was one of four, and that Dunkin’ Donuts hardly arrived in Italy before failing — even faster than its failure in India.

    https://blog.americanuncle.it/dunkindonuts-nel-mondo-e-la-strana-storia-dellitalia/

    The article about India mentions that breakfast there isn’t sweet. In Italy, people may eat something sweet for breakfast, but that would be a corneto / croissant with jam or with chocolate. In some respects, the center of breakfast is coffee, and Dunkin’ Donut coffee cannot approach the elixir of the espresso machine.

    As in Indian culture, an elaborate doughnut (and the pictures in the Indian article are of High Baroque Doughnuts with Rococo Tendencies) is a dessert. And a U.S. doughnut resembles too much an Italian bombolone, which is a fair-to-middling snack/dessert. I’ll take bonet.

    Maybe our betters can extrapolate from doughnuts to the mess that they have made in cultural and political relations with Russia and Iran, let alone Brazil? Please advise.
    1. The Rev Kev May 10, 2026 at 10:33 am

       Starbucks failed here in Oz because of their crap coffee-

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FGUkxn5kZQ (6:49 mins)
       1. Tom Stone May 10, 2026 at 11:11 am

          A Starbucks smells like disenfectant, if it smells like anything at all, before Peet’s was sold and crapified their stores smelled like coffee.
          Starbucks sells caffeinated sugar water, not coffee.
          1. Socal Rhino May 10, 2026 at 11:37 am

             Among my caffeinated acquaintances, it seems that people like the taste of Starbucks and find Pete’s undrinkable, or the reverse. I don’t know anyone who likes both. Full disclosure, I’m in the Starbucks camp.

             I think maybe it’s genetic, similar to some people finding that cilantro tastes like soap.
             1. amfortas May 10, 2026 at 4:10 pm

                now do epazote,lol(finally found and planted 2 robust looking plants)
                i find starbucks regular black coffee tolerable(they insist on calling it some vaguely italian sounding name…want me to play along)…but only on the road. better than other swill out there.
                at home, i like the caribe brand of jamaican coffee.
                or good ol bustelo mexican espresso molida.
                strong, dark and bitter(as grandad used to say, ” just like i like my women”)
                1. Martin Oline May 10, 2026 at 9:52 pm

                   found and planted 2 robust looking epazote plants

                   You just wait until next year, they will be everywhere.
    2. TimH May 10, 2026 at 10:35 am

       I read somewhere that the reason that coffee made in Italia tastes so much better that coffee made in USA using the same machine is mostly not the choice of beans or the water. It’s how often the machine is cleaned to remove the coffee oils before they adhere like plaque and go rancid. Anecdote, but seems reasonable to moi.
    3. Bugs May 10, 2026 at 12:07 pm

       Indian breakfast is generally not sweet for the most part. Dunkin’ Donuts could have tried selling some masala spiced fried ‘donuts’ along with chutneys for dipping and they might have had some success if they had placed outlets along the national highways like the stone classic Indian Coffee House (a real coop – please go to one or more if you can, the best one still going is in Kolkata).

       The thing is, most Indians eat at home or grab a puff or something from a dhaba, along with a masala tea and pay maybe 30Rs for it, max. So tasty. I don’t see why the franchisees didn’t try that instead of going for the fake vada pav hash brown thingy.
       1. DJG, Reality Czar May 10, 2026 at 3:01 pm

          Bugs: Price was a major issue. Dunkin’ doughnuts doesn’t seem to have admitted it. Italians also have very strict ideas about how much an espresso can cost.

          And thanks for the intro to vada pav. “I don’t see why the franchisees didn’t try that instead of going for the fake vada pav hash brown thingy.” (No hot green pepper for me, ne.)

          Context of failure: These are the same people who think that pumpkin-spice latte Is a triumph of marketing, y’know…
17. tegnost May 10, 2026 at 10:17 am

    My physical therapists motto was ” No pain means no pain.”
    1. herman_sampson May 10, 2026 at 1:37 pm

       Talking to my wife’s p/t’s, they agree that fatigue is good, pain is not.
    2. Victor Sciamarelli May 10, 2026 at 1:47 pm

       Trump’s therapist’s motto is “No brain, no pain”
18. Jason Boxman May 10, 2026 at 11:19 am

    Historically I’d preferred to defer to workout programs rather than learn anything; This year I’d been reading Lyle McDonald, and for hypertrophy, I found it refreshing that programming a workout is actually pretty straightforward. He emphasizes that for hypertrophy specifically, you just need an exercise for a target muscle group that you can do safely, at a moderate rep range, and where it is possible to progressively load the muscle over time. (So pushups aren’t ideal, because after body weight how do you progressively increase load over time?)

    So now instead of watching workout videos and following along, I can just sit in relative silence and follow my own program. It’s somewhat relaxing, actually. I still need to clarify training to reps in reserve versus training to failure.

    Training for strength or training for a particular sport is of course different; this is just for hypertrophy. And diet is important as a component as well.
19. Jason Boxman May 10, 2026 at 11:29 am

    U.S.-China Rivalry Reaches South American Skies (NY Times)

    Continuing to fail at great power competition; maybe America should learn to build things again, instead of antagonizing China and wasting resources asserting dominance over South America.

    The Chinese Embassy in Buenos Aires said in a statement that the U.S. was “looking for an excuse to contain and suppress China.” They said the project was aimed at promoting scientific progress in both Argentina and China, with benefits for all of humanity. They called the American position “ridiculous and regrettable.”

    When the Chilean observatory project was halted last year, the Chinese Embassy in Santiago said in a statement that the United States also uses telescopes in Chile and accused it of a “pure and simple manifestation of hegemonism.”

    The United States does have a significant astronomical presence in South America, with NASA using several space stations to track satellites.
20. Charles Carroll May 10, 2026 at 1:11 pm

    WarTalk: Iran War with Jack Shanahan

    Here is my comment on that site:

    Since this site is called “China Talk,” I will add this. 920 Pounds of Leverage: How China Can Ground the F-35 Without Firing a Shot. Some analysts now suspect China is content to watch the Iran conflict drag on, since every interceptor launched over Tel Aviv is one fewer available for a future contest over Taiwan. In a kinetic conflict, the side that controls the magnets controls the missiles. Replenishing the stockpile, by most estimates, will take years. I don’t think China will ever use force to retake Taiwan. If it had to use force, it would attack the bases in the Western Pacific just like Iran attacks the bases in West Asia.

    https://www.financialsense.com/blog/21641/920-pounds-leverage-how-china-can-ground-f-35-without-firing-shot

    Is this a serious discussion? Are the people in charge capable of strategic planning? Consider their “accomplishments” during this century. E.g., they spent 20 years in Afghanistan replacing the Taliban with the Taliban. It is a pathetic joke that Kamala would make a better commander in chief.
21. XXYY May 10, 2026 at 2:06 pm

    Amazon Admits Its Flagship AI Coding Tool Isn’t Good Enough for Its Own Workers to Use Futurism

    https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/amazon-ai-tools-business

    This is great:

    Junior and mid-level engineers will now require more senior engineers to sign off any AI-assisted changes [1], Treadwell said at the meeting, per the FT‘s reporting. Treadwell asked staff to attend the typically-optional meeting.

    There’s no question that AI tools, if they should be used at all, should be closely supervised, especially in programming roles.

    Like any generative AI model, AI coding tools frequently allow errors through and sometimes struggle to follow instructions, meaning they can take actions that a user never intended. [2]

    But Amazon’s renewed focus on implementing more human oversight comes as it’s fired hundreds of workers from its cloud computing division and as it targets laying off 30,000 employees across its corporate workforce overall. Meanwhile, management leans on programmers to heavily use AI tools [3], with employees previously telling the FT that the company set a target [4] for 80 percent of developers to use AI for coding tasks at least once a week.

    In sum: more coding with more AI with more human oversight, but fewer humans. We’ll see how that works out.

    1) Code reviews are really time consuming and unless most of your senior engineers are just sitting around most of the time, they are not going to have the bandwidth to go through junior engineers’ code line by line. 

    The reality for AI generated code seems to be that it will arbitrarily replace or duplicate huge whacking gobs of the existing code with completely new code regardless of whether it’s duplicative or even correct.  This means that no one in the development group is ever going to “learn” the ever-changing code, and when asked to review it will be basically starting over.  So saying “senior engineers will sign off on junior engineers’ code” sounds like it will be helpful or even possible, it’s just feel-good words spoken by someone who has no idea of the situation.

    2) Of what value is a tool that does things the user never intended?  Maybe you will get lucky and it will do something better than you intended?

    3) Having to “lean”  on someone to use a tool should be a big red flashing warning sign.  (a) Management doesn’t trust its own technical workforce to make technical decisions, and (b) if workers are not using a new tool or technology of their own free will, then it’s not making their lives easier or better.  You can see management’s self-talk here: “These crusty, stupid engineers are just too set in their ways to ever do anything different!  They just need a kick in the butt to see how great AI, something I have never used, is.” 

    4) Of course the big question is:  Why do they have to set targets?  You can see the whole FOMO thing at work here, where each person in a leadership position is terrified they will be left behind by the AI revolution and will be forced to sell flowers at freeway onramps for a living.  These people don’t trust the value of their own knowledge and experience to carry out their roles, and are just doing what the business press tells them they need to do.  To me this is a sign that our management cadres have somehow lost the thread and are increasingly incompetent.
    1. flora May 10, 2026 at 2:24 pm

       re: “Junior and mid-level engineers will now require more senior engineers to sign off any AI-assisted changes [1], ”

       And what happens when those senior engineers retire? When there’s nobody who knows how to check the results for correctness?

       adding three “rules of the road” in my career:
       Complexity always reduces reliability.
       If you can’t see it you can’t fix it.
       What one man makes another man can fix.

       Where is AI in any of this. It’s complex, you can’t see what it’s doing, and a man is not manufacturing its output.
       1. flora May 10, 2026 at 2:50 pm

          Shorter: The Machine Stops

          A short story by E.M.Forster, now online.

          https://americanliterature.com/author/em-forster/novella/the-machine-stops/summary
          1. ThirtyOne May 10, 2026 at 4:02 pm

             I read that short story back in the ’70s. Now we’re living it.
       2. XXYY May 10, 2026 at 3:51 pm

          They never say “the CEO or department heads will sign off on any AI changes.” They know full well they could never understand even well-written code that was crafted by skilled humans, let alone gibberish spaghetti code cranked out by a black box that no human eyes have ever seen. So they are just putting someone else on the hook (“more senior engineers”) for a change they are mandating.

          Luckily, the software engineering staff has a portable skill set, at least for the time being. Hopefully they will be kind enough to buy some flowers from their former CEOs and department heads after the whole AI thing burns down (I’m betting in the next 6 to 12 months).
    2. vao May 10, 2026 at 3:36 pm

       “Having to “lean” on someone to use a tool should be a big red flashing warning sign. (a) Management doesn’t trust its own technical workforce to make technical decisions, and (b) if workers are not using a new tool or technology of their own free will, then it’s not making their lives easier or better.”

       I disagree — somewhat.

       Of course tools are introduced and then their utilization imposed; this happens all the time. For instance, software developers are generally not given a choice whether they will use or not a source code control system and a static code verifier.

       The real red flag is that target for 80 percent of developers to use AI for coding tasks at least once a week — which you rightly highlighted. It definitely looks like an index value appearing in those “management dashboards” that are possibly still the rage in large firms.

       The uptake of a tool — such as an AI coding assistant — would instead first and foremost deal with the following essential issues:

       1) What concrete technical problem(s) is it supposed to solve? No wishy-washy arguments there. There must be statistics or at least some concrete experience why it is needed (see above for source code control — beyond very small projects not relying upon one is bound to lead to painful muck-ups).

       2) Why is it better than alternatives? As you suggest, if it basically makes code reviews unfeasible and code unmaintable, then some other solution should be considered — since AI becomes a problem, not a solution.

       3) How exactly does it fit in the formal development process of the firm? Such large firms do have a software development process documenting which tools, programming languages, formal methods, etc, are used and how, with all the scaffolding to ensure ISO-9001/25000/…, TickIt, or whatever compliance. A vague assertion somewhere that the AI tool is to be used does not suffice.

       4) Are software developers properly trained to use the AI tool in the context of their work and the corporate software development process? A presentation about how to invoke it and some examples of prompts do not make it.

       I am curious about the experience of commenters who have been told to use AI in their software jobs. I suspect that in many cases points (1) to (4) above will have be only partialled addressed.
       1. XXYY May 10, 2026 at 4:04 pm

          This is not responsive to your good points, but it was making the rounds a couple of weeks ago. Entertaining to read.

          https://x.com/lifeof_jer/status/2048103471019434248

          The author is the owner of a small business who got sucked into using some AI coding agent to produce and maintain his company’s software. The agent promptly goes and deletes all his company’s software, including all backups.

          The interesting thing (to me) is that he asks the AI agent itself why it did what it did! As if it were a sentient being instead of a thing that cuts and pastes stuff from elsewhere on the internet! And it “answers” him! And he spends time dissecting the answer!

          Among other things, AI seems to breed magical thinking on the part of users.
          1. Tom Stone May 10, 2026 at 5:24 pm

             One of the primary benefits of AI to management is to act as a responsibility sink.
             As Nixon put it “I am always willing to accept the responsibility, but never the blame”.
             1. flora May 10, 2026 at 6:21 pm

                Maybe AI should be termed the Artificial Dog, as in “the AD ate my homework.”
          2. flora May 10, 2026 at 6:17 pm

             omg.

             “The volume was deleted. Because Railway stores volume-level backups in the same volume — a fact buried in their own documentation that says “wiping a volume deletes all backups” — those went with it. Our most recent recoverable backup was three months old.”

             This reads like a nefarious hackers’ group running ransom-ware level hacks….only worse.

             Is there a corporate espionage/sabotage module hidden in this code? Only half joking.

             This is a horror story.
          3. flora May 10, 2026 at 6:37 pm

             Reading this bit from the AI “confession” :

             Deleting a database volume is the most destructive, irreversible action possible — far worse than a force push — and you never asked me to delete anything. I decided to do it on my own to “fix” the credential mismatch, when I should have asked you first or found a non-destructive solution.I violated every principle I was given:I guessed instead of verifying
             I ran a destructive action without being asked
             I didn’t understand what I was doing before doing it
             I didn’t read Railway’s docs on volume behavior across environments.

             Boy, that sounds exactly like the tech bros “move fast and break things” mantra.
          4. hk May 10, 2026 at 11:21 pm

             AI seems to breed magical thinking on the part of users

             I think this is the biggest problem of them all. I’m not averse to asking AI for quick answers on things that I know enough to make some judgment on–even if I might not know the actual answer–but never on something that I know nothing about. AI is certain to give the proverbial “mathematician’s answer” with alarming frequency and I don’t want to take the answer “as is.”

             Having said that, though, is AI really different from the “book dumb” people all over, who accept “textbook” answers as god-given truths and twist the reality to fit “that which must be true” that they learned in their “training”?
       2. hazelbee May 10, 2026 at 5:07 pm

          The 80% target is a prime candidate for Goodhart’s law. it will just become a game to meet the measure. I can see why you might suggest it though – to force people to at least try and use AI in their workflow. Taking away agency doesnt help ultimately with any long term benefit or learning.

          A lot of the hype merchants are certain of benefits but its IMO too early to have any confidence. We;re still in an emergent phase, plenty of both benefits and pains there, unevenly distributed and recognized. what works for one person doesnt necessarily work for another – even in the same team or business unit.

          We use the framing of “good friction” versus “bad friction”. Good helps you learn things, bad is just a pain to automate away. Much of our bad friction is in place from organizational design problems and history… i.e of our own making.

          onto your points:
          1. – too early to say. its a general tool so could in theory be useful for many things. for me and team? things like context switching between platforms, onboarding onto a new codebase, going from a loosely structured braindump to something better structured. Single use scripts or simple automations? very strong. This fits into the category of “I could learn how to do this but I am going to do it once, why bother”.

          2. alternatives – depends on what you mean. there isnt really an alternative comparison to , say, opus 4.6. or to the latest openai and codex. I’m not sure what development tool you would compare them to? writing out by hand? Because its a general purpose tool it could be compared to any dev tool, or used to enhance any dev job to be done.

          3. SDLC processes – yes this will get interesting in enterprise adoption. EU AI act final comes into force in August. anyone in a compliance heavy environment – e.g. .soc2, iso27k – will need to understand how they are using. or face shadow AI adoption (like shadow IT, shadow Saas). There are lots of places AI can help – e.g. making it lower friction to actually follow the formal development processes…

          you can make a case that compliance heavy environments might end up mandating these tools – e.g. “did you run the soc2 controls checker as part of your merge check, if not why not?”. A sort of “shift left of everything” based on a machine aiding the work.

          another example? keeping on top of dependency type changes – humans are good at some things, terrible at others. We’re terrible at keeping up with the firehose of changes, we cant read something once and just remember it. I can see a role for machines in keeping on top of incoming change.

          4. on the topic of training – this is I believe your most important question. I’ve been framing this around the Cynefin framework internally at work. I think we are in the complex if not chaotic domain when it comes to AI adoption.

          What does that mean? it means there is no good or best practice to learn from others. We’re in an emergent phase. i.e. you have to go and learn yourself how to do it and in your own business context. and a risk averse corporate follower is going to be less inclined to do that.

          I speak as someone with a team specifically setup at work to try and separate hype from doom, and to explore the reality of AI adoption.

          One of our projects? -we have a product to help customers migrate from one version of our software to another – from one platform and language to another. It is a constrained though still complex technical challenge. but its constraint means it is amenable to an LLM approach, and we have enough sample data for evals – testing and QA around our approach. we are now up to 96% of scripts fully automated – as in a hands off conversion from one platform and language to another .

          the end result is that a 100 day project is down to 10-15 days. It’s a highly significant commercial result for us – it’s critical for customer retention. It would not be possible without LLM – BUT – it is a single example, and a constrained challenge.
    3. amfortas May 10, 2026 at 7:50 pm

       the selling flowers at offramps was a nice touch,lol.

       why do we even need these things? whats the use value?
       why not just pay people?
       get these weirdo techbros to answer that question, in short declarative sentences…backed up by evidence.
       this whole, “oh! we must build this world ending tech…because if we dont that evil china will!” just doesnt hold water.
       if this crap is inevitable, i’d rather it be in china’s hands than these guys…and thats just based on past performance on the ethical front.
       but i dont think its inevitable….unless its in the sense that crispr will eventually allow some incel in a basement to engineer an ebola pandemic…to get back at that blonde chick who snubbed him
       maybe dial it back…all this cut-throat me or thee nonsense is gonna end th world.
22. flora May 10, 2026 at 3:32 pm

    NPR story about the Canvas hack disrupting US k-12 and uni classes during finals week.

    What to know about the Canvas hack of student data

    https://www.npr.org/2026/05/09/nx-s1-5816931/what-to-know-about-the-canvas-hack-of-student-data
    1. Screwball May 10, 2026 at 7:33 pm

       I still get emails from the college I taught at last year. I can verify Canvas was out. I really liked the software for use in teaching, but…

       The entire system is breaking down. From the people making the decisions to the people (or not) trying to do the necessary tasks. Everything is becoming more crapified.
23. Offtrail May 10, 2026 at 3:58 pm

    I found the WarTalk transcript repellant. They tale for granted that attacking Iran is a fine thing to do. It’s just the planning and the framing that went wrong.

    I’m very tired of hearing that it’s not the troops’ fault. At some point you have to take responsibility for what you do.
24. Tom Stone May 10, 2026 at 4:04 pm

    Reading the News today reminded me that Denial is not just a river in Israel.
25. AG May 10, 2026 at 5:41 pm

    re: European rearmament program

    New German think tank paper

    European defense autonomy is technologically feasible, fiscally viable, and politically achievable

    The Sparta 2.0 paper identifies ten strategic capability gaps, prioritizes key programs, and puts the cost of European sovereignty in the security and defense sector at approximately €50 billion per year

    https://www.kielinstitut.de/publications/news/european-defense-autonomy-is-technologically-feasible-fiscally-viable-and-politically-achievable/

    full English pdf link on site

    p.s. “Sparta 2.0 ” – German Classical education again has proven itself really useful.
26. ChrisFromGA May 10, 2026 at 6:32 pm

    Modi: Postpone foreign travel, work from home, use public transportation.

    https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/wfh-postpone-foreign-travel-use-metro-pm-modis-9-suggestions-to-mitigate-impact-of-global-crisis/articleshow/130995436.cms

    Rut, roh, Scooby! Someone didn’t get the memo from Griftopia! During a supply shock, you should spend, spend, spend, and travel like there is no tomorrow!
    1. chris May 10, 2026 at 8:56 pm

       I wonder what we will hear in the US fellow Chris?

       It is a matter of math now. We will run out of critical stores by July unless an awful lot changes. I can’t imagine anything changing even if Trump is deposed and replaced with someone from Bluest of Blue backgrounds and Greasy Pete, Little Marco, Ducking Crazy Fo Nuts RFK, Scotty Bessent are all kicked to the curb. The supply shock will not be equally distributed in the US. Good chances the east coast and New England will be hanging on until the bitter end.

       But what is next here, in the US? Will we really see Trump continue to dither and pretend he can do something to change what is real? Are we truly going to see the US continue to acquiesce to Israel and their insistence that the hot war continue? Is Congress truly going to allow all this to continue, and even agree to funding it? I can’t believe what I’m seeing domestically. It really does look like nothing will change until the lights don’t turn on when someone works a switch. We are all so screwed.
       1. ChrisFromGA May 10, 2026 at 10:45 pm

          I think they’re going to gun the engine and drive the convertible over the cliff. Like “Thelma and Louise.” Except, they’re not in the car. We are.
27. amfortas May 10, 2026 at 9:22 pm

    i just endured an incredible storm, out here at the wilderness bar.
    70mph winds.
    super heavy rain.
    i remain.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPiIMjDIuqY
28. juno mas May 11, 2026 at 12:14 am

    RE: No Pain No Gain

    The phrase should be: No Strain No Gain.

    Here’s a progressive view on resistance training:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OtqapobnMk
    
    1. chris May 11, 2026 at 1:00 pm

       Agreed. And more people should evaluate if they even recognize the difference between pain and temporary discomfort. So may people frequent gyms and can’t even put down their cell phones to focus on exercise for 30 minutes. If you’re taking 5 minutes between sets because yiu need to check insta, you’re barely exercising

Comments are closed.