I heard a new phrase the other day: soft apocalypse, for when everyone acts as if society isn’t collapsing.
 
Not sure exactly who said it or came up with it (maybe it’s old and I’ve simply never heard it before) but the reply someone else (British) gave was: “Isn’t that every day now? Isn’t that what we live in?”.
 

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Oct 12 2025 13:41 utc | 3

How many times will Argentina let the US wrack havoc on it’s economy before  it finally joins BRICS. Good example for the ROW.

Posted by: Thurl | Oct 12 2025 14:04 utc | 5

Posted by: Thurl | Oct 12 2025 14:04 utc | 5
 
######
 
How would Argentina add value to BRICS?
 
Right now, Argentina’s dysfunction as a US ally indirectly benefits BRICS.
 
This financial mismanagement has been going on for decades.
 
Argentina needs to hit rock bottom repeatedly until it collapses and reforms into something sustainable.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Oct 12 2025 14:33 utc | 7

Today, the Air Force is being told it will need to plan on keeping Minuteman III in service up through 2050.

Minuteman III first went into service 55 years ago in 1970 ! This is yet another tell of a federal gov‘t thats tettering on insolvency

Posted by: Exile | Oct 12 2025 15:12 utc | 9

persiflo @6
 
Money well diverted!
Who says Trump isn’t brilliantly tending to humanity’s needs! lol
 
Or would the TDS victims prefer a fresh batch of nukes (Obama-bombs)?

Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 12 2025 15:18 utc | 11

I’ve been talking about the paucity of TNT production in the US for well over a year now, nearer to 2.
PETN is the trigger explosive used for RPGs; using it instead of TNT for civilian blasting – combined with ANFO proliferation means all that effort to reduce supply/access, post Oklahoma City – goes out the window.

Posted by: c1ue | Oct 12 2025 15:23 utc | 13

steel porcupine@15:15
 
GAI is Robert Mercer funded think tank,  founded by Goldman Sachs insider Steve Bannon and others. Mercer has contributed heavily to Trump’s political activities, since at least 2016 as well a huge range of propaganda outlets eg Breitbart. 
You offer ideas that oligarchs like Mercer want promoted – great! Another billionaire shill to add to the billion  already hired by the billionaires 
 
Do you have any opinions of you’re own?
 
 
 
 

Posted by: will moon | Oct 12 2025 15:50 utc | 15

Neil deGrasse Tyson in a viral video got so worked up he literally freaked out that so many scientists actually say they believe in God. He practically hyperventilates as he stomps around a stage trying to make it clear to us how crazy that is. He then said: “If you can’t convert them, you’ve got no hope in the general public. Viral video of Neil deGrasse Tyson “destroying” faith in God is analyzed exposing his lies & hypocrisy.

Posted by: Kana | Oct 12 2025 16:30 utc | 17

@Kana#17
Neil deGrasse Tyson is a prime example of woke: a social crusader masquerading as a scientist.
Clearly incompetent and exhibiting none of the qualities necessary in a real scientist: an open and flexible mind, a willingness to learn, the desire for truth.
His woke nonsense was so bad as to be literally funny.

Posted by: c1ue | Oct 12 2025 16:45 utc | 19

I also endorse Global Times editorial on the issue, “Only By Upholding Promises Can China-US Economic and Trade Ties Stabilize.” Here’s an excerpt:
 

The US unilateral actions have dealt a heavy blow to global market confidence, raising concerns that the world’s two largest economies could once again slip into a trade war. Some analysts argue this proves the fragility of the so-called China-US tariff “truce.” We believe that “a person without faith cannot establish himself or herself” – whether commitments between China and the US are “solid” or “fragile” depends on trust, and more importantly, on actions. If the US claims to seek dialogue while simultaneously escalating unilateral measures and resorting to “fabricated justifications” and “trade bullying,” it will only deepen the trust deficit. China has always advocated resolving differences through equal consultation, but it will never accept any form of coercion.China has repeatedly made it clear that its export control measures on rare earths and related items is a legitimate action by the Chinese government to refine its export control system in accordance with laws and regulations. These actions are not only necessary to safeguard national security, but also fully demonstrate China’s steadfast commitment – as a responsible major country – to pursuing world peace, reducing the risk of military conflict, and preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, in accordance with international norms and common practice. 

 
The Outlaw US Empire will need to alter its behavior radically to treat China and all other nations with respect. And respect is something racists find impossible to bestow to others. 

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 12 2025 17:25 utc | 21

“Do you dispute the allegations made concerning funding – Soros et al? Or any of the other allegations presented?Or is all that you can say is that this NGO is funded by people you don’t like?”
c1ue@15:58
 
Not at all. At this time it’s rumour and rumours can be true, so whatever. But sourcing one’s entire comment from a Sangster funded think tank implies the poster enunciates the approved view – approved that is,  by Sangster. This billionaire has taken advantage of Citizens United to amplify his opinions to a global scale – equally Soros et al but steel porcupine wasn’t quoting Soros’ approved media but Sangster approved media 
Goldman Sachs is a broad church – Prof R Wolf, an Internet personality and academic when asked about his impressive professional connections to the American Establishment despite being a self professed Communist, said it was all to do with “knowing people personally” either from school or one’s early career. Bannon’s connections to oligarchy are well known as are Goldman Sachs’ connection to oligarchy
Soros is  friends with Bessent so it’s a circle  jerk – billionaires win,  ordinary folk lose
 
 
”Yes there is class warfare and it’s my class, the rich class that’s winning”
Warren Buffet

Posted by: will moon | Oct 12 2025 17:48 utc | 23

Posted by: will moon | Oct 12 2025 15:50 utc | 15
 
Posted by: c1ue | Oct 12 2025 15:58 utc | 16
 
RE:  so many billionaires, so little time
 
<<
 
Addressing @will moon first at #15, I’ll say it is distinctly bogus to go all what-about-ism in defense of a violent terrorist organization simply because influential figures in the U.S. who oppose the particular terrorist organization in question have money themselves or have worked at some point for lucrative businesses.
 
Open Society Foundation cash did not make Antifa a terrorist organization—its mission/intent/aims/and actions did. 
 
Keep in mind that money is merely a tool, a means to an end.  It’s not strange in a hyper-financialized capitalistic society like the U.S. that someone knows someone whose brother-in-law has is wealthy.
 
>>
 
Turning to @c1ue at #16, I can believe the experiences you’ve had  in the Deep Blue city where you live accurately informs your view.
 
Red States are not purely Red throughout:  enclaves of Blue exist.  A phenomenon I’ve noticed on the part of the DNC, for instance, is to expand & enlarge the Blue islands, perhaps as a means of triggering eventually a redistricting for Congressional representation, in order gradually to strengthen & magnify the Blue colonies within the Red—purple-izing them in effect.
 
Am distracted by American tackle football right now—Patriots @ New Orleans—but will firm up my observations in a bit and tag you again. 

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Oct 12 2025 18:30 utc | 25

Neil deGrasse Tyson in a viral video got so worked up he literally freaked out that so many scientists actually say they believe in God. He practically hyperventilates as he stomps around a stage trying to make it clear to us how crazy that is. He then said: “If you can’t convert them, you’ve got no hope in the general public. Viral video of Neil deGrasse Tyson “destroying” faith in God is analyzed exposing his lies & hypocrisy.
 
Posted by: Kana | Oct 12 2025 16:30 utc | 17
————
Neil deGrasse Tyson is a prime example of woke: a social crusader masquerading as a scientist….
 
Posted by: c1ue | Oct 12 2025 16:45 utc | 19

Generally, proponents of the Big Bang Theory refuse to acknowledge the underlying principle that unites them with theism; that everything was created from nothing. Theists, generally, do not accept a broader definition of God than their particular version of scripture allows. 
 
The smarter scientists (not NDT) can overcome the cognitive dissonance that this entails and admit that neither or both may be true.

Posted by: Fool Me Twice | Oct 12 2025 19:16 utc | 27

@will moon #23
So you still do nothing but attack the funding source behind the person presenting information.
Or in other words, you have nothing.
The way to combat “misinformation” is better information – not ad hominem.
Present counter information that contradicts the narrative you disagree with or lose credibility by being nothing but a partisan snipe.

Posted by: c1ue | Oct 12 2025 20:01 utc | 29

@steel_porcupine #25
@malenkov #22
I am actually on the events mailing list for my Deep Blue city public library system, so I have a pretty accurate view of what kinds of events they host.
As for conservatives getting cracking: they do their community events generally in/around churches.
And finally the commentary on red/blue areas: the reality is that the vast, vast majority of the United States, by area, is conservative/red. Blue support is almost entirely in large urban enclaves. California, for example, is 90%+ red by area but that 10% hosts 40% to 45% of the overall population. Add in some smart gerrymandering, and you get the Democrat dominance of the state.
But as Rich Baris has abundantly documented: this veneer of control is quite thin. The biggest warning sign for Democrats is the extent to which Trump peeled away Hispanic and Black male votes away. This is not to say that most black men or Hispanics voted for Trump, but Kamala Harris received the lowest proportion of black and Hispanic votes of any of the previous Democrat candidates for President going back to before Clinton.
How much of this is the Democrat party shifting to the party of the rich liberals, the educated, the government workers – we will see but there is no question whatsoever that the Democrats pay nothing more than lip service to their former base of blue collar workers, union workers and so forth. Or in other words, how much of this is Trump vs. say Vance in 2028.
There are also other, significant issues related to skullduggery: illegal aliens counted as “residents” by the Census is one prime example. Should the census remove these from their rolls of population, the already declining House of Representatives hosted by California, among other deep blue states, is certainly going to drop with the overall change being in the high single/low double digits of representatives.

Posted by: c1ue | Oct 12 2025 20:13 utc | 31

@will moon #23
You misuse the Buffet quote. Among other things – far more billionaires historically have supported the Democrat party than the Republican one, accounting for “perceived winner” bias ie whoever is perceived to win, gets more billionaire bucks regardless of party.
Buffet himself has always supported the Democrats – he openly announced this in 2020: Buffet says I’m a Democrat
Omaha, Nebraska for that matter is another of those Blue urban centers in an otherwise entirely red state.
 

Posted by: c1ue | Oct 12 2025 20:18 utc | 33

Omaha, Nebraska for that matter is another of those Blue urban centers in an otherwise entirely red state. 
Posted by: c1ue | Oct 12 2025 20:18 utc | 33
 
________
 
Never forget the capital cities, which are usually blue! Lincoln has been electing Democrat mayors since at least the turn of the century.

Posted by: malenkov | Oct 12 2025 20:48 utc | 35

c1ue
 
They campaigned on Epstein not Antifa so I think it cope
 
Yea the funding source is important. Remember Mencken – “It is difficult to get a man to understand something if his income depends on him not understanding” applies here in spades
 
I am  partisan about billionaires not the duopoly, both parties work for the billionaires fuck em all
 
Billionaire funds Trump. Billionaire funds think tank. Think tank come up with action plan to save Trump admin from Epstein – it’s a circle jerk
 
The US is a police state –  you telling me  the Fusion Centres, present in every state, dont successfully coordinate the efforts of law enforcement agencies across the country Dream on mate your country got more cops than the defunct Soviet Union and spies on its own citizens a thousand times more. It’s just froth for the base but they won’t buy it. Their more concerned about elite child abusers a concern Trump rode whilst campaigning but now will not deliver on
 
 
 
 
If this admin wants a win, prosecute Epstein’s clients. Thomas Massie named a former  leader of Barclays Bank as one of Epstein’s clients recently in the legislature  – prosecute this banker

Posted by: will moon | Oct 12 2025 21:19 utc | 37

…. all american here hero …..

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Oct 12 2025 21:41 utc | 39

Peter AU you probably know that von Braun was heavily implicated in the use of slave labour.  His relocation to the US allowed his past to be forgotten because he was useful in fighting the Soviet Union
 
My dad was an aeronautical engineer and I remember him saying the mathematics behind rocketry was some of the most difficult and demanding work possible
 
 
 

Posted by: will moon | Oct 12 2025 21:49 utc | 41

Zelensky seems to believe that if he poses for enough photos next to the NATO schmucks, eventually they will just hand him a membership card and a NATO secret decoder ring.

Posted by: nwwoods | Oct 12 2025 21:56 utc | 43

Putin Trump? I would have liked to be a fly in Trump’s car when he gave Putin a lift from the airfield in Alaska.
 
Putin, Lavrov, Peskov – the careful wording they always use. Are they running a psyops on Trump or is there something more?
The Russians say Trump is predictable as his political policies have never changed throughout his life. Some years back, I watched all the interviews of Trump I could find and for that reason I believe his moves against Iran and Venezuela are real rather than bluff or a magicians trick to divert attention.
The Russians also support the Trump peace plan in gaza though at the moment I does it one little bit. So what’s going on?
 
Splitting the Americans from the City of London? Ehret’s division of the Americans into nationalists and loyalists comes to mind. In the 1950, the Brits pulled the Americans into an equal nuclear alliance. Made in London has also controlled many American minds. Gaza has broken a lot of that Zio control in the US. It will now be a much smaller voting block.
 
With the odd stuff going on, it makes me wonder if Russia is giving Ehret’s nationalists every bit of support in taking their country back from the city of London. 
 
 

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Oct 12 2025 22:35 utc | 45

It is interesting to note that the spectral signature of dominant atomic energy transitions in nitrogen are in the blue – violet region of the optical spectrum…
So, ‘could be’ – but remember my caveat above!
Posted by: General Factotum | Oct 12 2025 23:23 utc | 46
 
Thanks. I think it was Martyanov said the Soviet Union had been working on some sort of non nuclear plasma EMP device. But whatever it is, Putin said the new weapons are in their testing stage now and will be announced soon.
I guess we will get to find out a bit more about this weapon when Putin makes that announcement.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Oct 12 2025 23:32 utc | 47

Some time after Putins next gen weapons announcement back in 2018, the deputy defense minister said Russia is now focussing R&D on directed energy weapons. Putin had also stated that Russia had made a break through in a new area of physics. 
Since then I have seen video of three Kinzhal or Zircon streaking across the Ukraine sky in daylight. Just a bright plasma light. The Oreshnik, a shower of bright plasma streaking down from the sky.
 
The Russians are now operating within high temp plasma – ionized air. Zircon and Kinzhal from Putins 2018 announcement then the Oreshnik, now possibly this new weapon.
Ionized air is the stuff lightning travels through. Ionize the air for a split second over high voltage lines and there would be massive arcing….

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Oct 12 2025 23:53 utc | 49

I hope Peter AU1 is correct, but my belief is that the unusual blue “fireballs” are just due to Russia finally hitting the really big grid transformers in the Ukraine, which they have been avoiding due to how expensive and difficult to replace they are. 
 
If these really are massively powerful EMP devices, then they are definitely nuclear powered, but obviously without the radioactive fallout. That would be a serious game-changer.

Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 13 2025 0:20 utc | 51

William Gruff | Oct 13 2025 0:20 utc | 51
 
Russia is working on a lot of non nuclear stuff. The first test of that system, whatever it is had the best video. I tried to play the bright flash frame by frame. When it occurred, it instantly lit up all the area in blue, but as it subsided in the next frame or two, it could be seen that its origin was in the atmosphere. That’s when what appeared to be massive arcing at ground level could be seen in two places and with that the city lights all went out.
 
It will be interesting to see what the Russians have come up with now and are ‘testing’ in Ukraine as they really are at the next level when it comes to weapons tech.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Oct 13 2025 1:06 utc | 53

Posted by  @c1ue at #16
 
RE:  public libraries in the U.S.
 
<<
 
I can believe the experience you’ve had in the Deep Blue city where you live accurately informs your view about public libraries and their r’ship w/ the community.
 
My experiences in a deeply Blue community within a deeply Red state are informative additionally.
 
Go to the ala.org homepage [American Library Association] and one of the first things you’ll see is a red banner that say “Dealing with censorship challenges at your library-? Or need to get prepared for them-? Visit our Fight Censorship page for easy access to resources.”
 
The ALA finds itself embroiled in allegations from conservative groups that it is too ‘woke’ in promoting content some find politically biased towards Dems & liberals, offensive content or even pornographic content.  ALA supporters say the attacks themselves are dog whistles to normalize hate against LGBT individuals while suppressing discussions related to race, white privilege and other hot topics.
 
In the summer of 2025, state libraries in Montana, Missouris and Texas announced they were leaving the ALA, with possibly more to join them in the exodus. Right-wing lawmakers in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming are exploring similar actions. Membership among library branches is down 14% since 1989. In 2024, the ALA reported that a record number of books—-4240 unique titles—-had been challenged in the U.S., a 65% increase over 2023.
Such moves are an indication that matters are not exactly pristine & serene within the ALA and the publics it serves.
Notably, the ALA has changed from an organization that helped communities access information and use common sense in guiding their local citizens through unbiased civic-minded research sources into one that promotes a very specific one-sided view.
 
A conservative cohort took over the Lafayette, Louisiana library board in 2024, and the controversies have been fast & furious ever since.  For instance the library board rejected a grant to fund a program about voting rights, saying it was too left wing.
 
I know it is hard for neutral-minded citizens to believe that a voting rights program could actually be biased, but it is not a stretch to see how some eager beavers might have stacked such a program w/ views & persuasions that would favor illegal aliens obtaining drivers licenses, for instance, and even social security cards and then gaining access to U.S. services like Medicaid—-the notion being that these volunteer groups at the library, these voting rights programs, would be the in-built means to make certain, on the down-low, that illegal aliens would indeed have full access to the menu of U.S.-provided social services.
 
The Lafayette, Louisiana library board cancelled a display celebrating Pride Month and has, in fact, cancelled library displays for any distinctive group, whether German-American or French-Cajun.
 
When a popular librarian in Lafayette ignored the directive and put up a display of queer teen romance books, the board sought to fire her. Lafayette Parish is deeply religious: conservative DJT country, red as a crawdad boiled w/ cayenne.  Incidentally, the local community has endorsed & applauded the board’s right-tilting shift, away from the ethics of liberal-minded librarians, no matter how beloved or popular those particular librarians are. It’s beguiling when libraries seem tone-deaf to the prevailing local community standards.
 
The question is, whose standards should a library reflect-?Must it reflect any one standard at all or a myriad in a nonpartisan fashion-?Is it possible to disseminate information without regard for political manipulations-?
 
“Join a panel of individuals with both professional and lived experience to learn how to support the LBGT person in your life,” the library’s newsletter read.  In 2020, the ALA issued a statement affirming the rights of transgender people, stating that ALA “unequivocally and emphatically stands in solidarity with both transgender staff and transgender members of our community. However, we acknowledge that there are more and more obstacles to supporting our young patrons. Depending on your service area [read: Red communities] you may be facing book challenges, programming bans and outright hostility toward children who just want to be themselves.”
 
Note that the ALA portrays itself as an arbiter of when children want to be themselves and how to ensure that they can be themselves: “Community-building results from the relationship the library has with the trans-umbrella community.  The library allows you to lead discussion sessions with families who belong to the trans-umbrella community in order to troubleshoot local resources and signal that you are an ally in a hostile environment.”
 
There was a time when a teenager, questioning whether they were a lesbian or not, could discern such a thing on their own, a process that might take a decade or more and would certainly extend beyond the age of 12.  There was a time before public libraries were co-opted space in the U.S.’s cultural divide, but now is not that time.
Red States are not purely Red throughout:  enclaves of Blue exist.  A phenomenon I’ve noticed on the part of the DNC, for instance, is to expand & enlarge the Blue islands, perhaps as a means of triggering eventually a redistricting for Congressional representation, in order gradually to strengthen & magnify the Blue colonies within the Red—purple-izing them in effect.
 
Targeting the public libraries of deeply Blue cities surrounded by many counties of Red cities is a way to strengthen & sturdify the Blue profile of the area.  I have no problem at all believing that support for trans youth, for instance, is an energy that can & does arise organically among individuals in a community, but it is more difficult to believe that such a wholesale and comprehensive community-wide energy would sustain itself over time without outside infusions of guidance & support.
 
A nytimes op-ed, celebrating the public library’s special place in the quest to protect trans-youth and to help them form an identity, concentrates on the need to display prominent books by queer authors or books w queer characters in public libraries & to offer a healthy slate of Drag Queen Story Hour events: “The library is important because it helps us unlock our most empathetic and authentic selves.”
 
The fact is this: drag queens are neighbors, friends & students.  Some people, like the nytimes op-edder, view their events, like Drag Queen Story Hour, as family-friendly, uplifting and inspiring to young minds:  “This is goodness, love & happiness,” a commenter in the chat wrote.  “Building communities around literacy is what the world needs right now. Gender play through clothing, one’s wardrobe or garb or drip—-whether someone is experimenting with masculine styles or feminine styles—is more popular than ever. This is our world; you may as well embrace it.”

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Oct 13 2025 1:15 utc | 55

From The Raw Story

The president took to his own social media site, Truth Social, over the weekend, where he insisted there was nothing to worry about with China, a nation which Trump recently threatened with even more tariffs in an escalating trade dispute.
“Don’t worry about China, it will all be fine!” Trump wrote Sunday. “Highly respected President Xi just had a bad moment. He doesn’t want Depression for his country, and neither do I. The U.S.A. wants to help China, not hurt it!!! President DJT.”

I wonder how Xi will take that slam…..bullies do what bullies do……until they get smacked down

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 13 2025 1:18 utc | 57

jopalolive
 
I think it was in the china thread, somebody mentioned complexity of maths required for rockets compared to the maths needed for aeronautical engineering.
Soviet/Russia maths is far above western maths. It can solve problems western mathematics cannot solve.  With that Soviet sausage factory, Musk gained access to Soviet/Russian mathematics.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Oct 13 2025 1:31 utc | 59

Posted by: will moon | Oct 12 2025 19:06 utc | 26
 
RE:  billionaires—plus [BONUS-!] DJT will not prosecute Epstein list perpetrators
 
<<
 
First, money is not intrinsically violent.  We have numerous examples of the peaceful application of wealth.  My point is simply that we have also witnessed the violent acts which have resulted from Open Society Foundation funding, not the least of which are regime-change ops and color revolutions which have claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands.
 
Second, Epstein was prosecuted during the Obama admin and found guilty of his sex crimes.  The Obama DoJ opted not to prosecute the perpetrators whose names are on the Epstein List.
 
Next came the DJT 1.0 admin.  Epstein was charged additionally for his sex crimes under DJT’s DoJ, but Epstein died in detention in 2019, and it was not possible to pursue that particular case futher.
 
After that, Joe’s admin prosecuted Ghislane Maxwell for her culpability in Epstein’s crimes, but Joe’s DoJ did not pursue the prosecution of perpetrators whose names are on the Epstein List.
 
Now suddenly everybody insists that DJT’s DoJ should prosecute these alleged perpetrators-?  We have known the names of these alleged perps since 2015.  The blogger Ryan Dawson has compiled a list.  Is his list THE list-?  There’s no way to know.
 
What’s obvious is that no admin has been willing to pursue this matter beyond prosecuting Epstein himself and also Ghislane.   Victims have been compensated.  The victims have signed non-disclosure agreements.  This template did not firm up under DJT.
 
Do you see that there has been a wholesale whole-of-government effort to keep things under wraps-?  Apparently the Democratic senator Dick Durbin of Illinois has been vetoing any effort to move the so-called Epstein List into public view.  It has been said that he is protecting an influential donor from Illinois.  But the upshot is that a Democratic senator has been blocking public disclosure.
 
It’s not the Republicans.  It’s not DJT.  It’s all of them.
 
For some reason.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Oct 13 2025 1:37 utc | 61

Posted by: jopalolive | Oct 13 2025 1:32 utc | 60
 
RE:  Drag Queen Story Hour for toddlers is EXTREMELY CREEPY
 
<<
 
I mean, one must interrogate how this is arising organically from within any community and why.   If one suspects that the phenomenon is not arising organically as a grass-roots initiative from within the citizenry, then a whole passal of other concerns come into play.
 
Notepad in hand, gumshoes start sleuthing.
 
Suddenly one realizes that it is not merely the public library that seems to be pushing transgender issues but also that very well-heeled prosperous-looking bookstore which opened up, improbably, during the pandemic and miraculously began to amplify its success, even during lockdown.  It’s one-block from the the public library, and it appears to be less engaged in selling books, though it is in fact a bookstore, than in selling the community on certain issues.
 
The gumshoe, notepad in hand, begins perusing the Comment Section on the bookstore’s website, and finds that some people, posting a comment, thank God that they breathe the same air as those who opened this bookstore.
 
Guys, it’s a bookstore, right-?
 
Any able gumshoe will begin furiously compiling impressions and turning the pages of the notepad.
 

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Oct 13 2025 1:50 utc | 63

Per rumors of Xi Jinping having suffered a stroke on 9 October:
 
Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony of the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Women, which will open in Beijing on Monday morning, and deliver a keynote speech.  Dozens of heads of state, government leaders, parliamentary leaders, deputy prime ministers, ministerial officials, leaders of international organizations, and friendly personnel from various continents will attend the meeting. 
 
The rumor regarding Xi’s health arose on 10 October.  Like the chatteratti here @ MoA noted at the time, rumors like this are little different than rumors about VVP dying of cancer, etc.
 
Keep in mind, too, that a month ago social media in the U.S. exploded w/ the notion that DJT was dead, simply because he had not had any public events for the span of one weekend.  Even though DJT had in fact played golf at his course in New Jersey during that weekend, and there was photographic evidence of this, no one took that as Proof of Life.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Oct 13 2025 2:01 utc | 65

Posted by: jopalolive | Oct 13 2025 2:00 utc | 64
 
RE:  cross-dressers
 
<<
 
From USA Today in early May 2023:  “Drag is an art form w/ special importance in the LBGT community where performer exaggerate or play up gender presentation.  Drag-themed story hours feature performer in colorful costumes reading LBGT-themed storybooks to children.”
 
Now—recast the above, focusing instead on the maligned & disallowed—cancelled—minstrel show from days of yore.  As USA Today might have described it:  “Minstrel is a musical art where performers exaggerate or play up racial features & presentation.  Minstreal stage shows feature white performers in blackface singing songs associated w/ black stereotypes:  the southern mammy, the country preacher, the tap dancer, the Sambo, the dandy, the house n-word.”
 
Now put a 21st Century twist on the matter:  “Minstrel is a musical art where white performer exaggerate racial features in colorfully costumed family-friendly entertainments specifically geared for children.”
 
Drag similarly distorts aspects of the feminine or female-at-birth secondary sex characteristics.  It exaggerates surface features—hair, makeup, breasts, costuming—but omits deeper-level signals, the kind of lived experience of a lower-status member of s patriarchal society.  It omits the awareness of what it’s like to fall under the oppressive male gaze.  It omits the awareness of vulnerability, which being the less physically strong member of the human species entails.
 
A gratuitous aside:  I know we have heard testimony of women toting 5 bales of hay on their backs, and I can believe that there is occasionally a Paul Bunyan lady, but plenty of women feel preyed upon by muggers looking for easy pickings, even if they are indeed Paul Bunyan ladies.  How does the mugger know unless he tries something-?
 
With drag, exoticism comes into play (just as it does w/ minstrelsy):  Idealized & glamorous elements if the feminine are prominent:  I am the Other.  I’m norming the Other.  I’m norming the breasts that come w/ the bulge.
 
Drag performer portray celebs—Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Marilyn Monroe, Lady Gaga, Beyonce.  Drag filters the experience of being a woman through a male milieu.  It elevates pre-existing female concepts.  It’s the not-woman woman.  Male-at-birth adults who pass as women inspire an uncanny valley-style perceptual dissonance, just as racially white people who blackface their way to blackness do.  You see the phenomenon.  You look again.  Blink.  Slack-jawed, do a double-take.  You confirm the reality a la the uncanny valley perceptual dissonance.
 
Consider the nytimes op-edder who wrote, in support of Drag Queen Story Hour in the library, using now the same argument to support minstrel shows in the library:  “The library is important because it helps us understand lives we believe to be unlike ours.  This is an understanding that can help us unlock our most empathic and authentic selves.   Minstrel performers are neighbors, friends and students.  Their minstrel shows are family-friendly, uplifting and inspiring to young minds.”
 
It is difficult for us to comprehend this today, so forbidden is minstrelsy, but by the 1830s & 1840s, minstrel shows were the zenith of the American music entertainment industry of the time.  The popularity swept the Northeastern states first & then spread on a popular wave throughout the country, packing theatres w/ families-–yes, families—from all walks of life and even every ethnic group.  This was not solely entertainment for whites.  Minstrelsy swept blacks into the spectacle too.
 
For decades minstrelsy was a tool by which American whites expressed elements of the black experience and black culture.  It rinsed blackness through whiteness.   It warped the notion of blackness as a result of the intense exaggeration—the skin color, the hair texture, the lips, the nose.  I theorize that drag shows function similarly.  That they have been hijacked by a lib-Dem-activist entity today, and repackaged for children, is another matter entirely

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Oct 13 2025 2:44 utc | 67

b wrote an article on the ending of womens sports some years ago, I think due to a proclamation by diversity Biden.
 
To see a drag race in bygone days, you would watch the top fuelers. 
That changed with the Paris Olympics and the drag queen opening show – complete with a minor.  After that were the various drag competitions. That female boxer who was flattened by a homosexual, said something about it and was forced to apologize.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Oct 13 2025 3:04 utc | 69

I was teaching union forklift truck drivers to talk to computers for product receiving in 1985 but we didn’t have this
 
Chinese researchers develop innovative textile that helps AI recognize voice commands
 

It can harness the natural electrostatic charges generated on clothing when a person speaks. The researchers enhanced this effect by creating a multi-layered structure featuring a composite coating of 3D tin-sulfide nanoflowers embedded in silicone rubber, along with graphite-like carbonized textile.
The washable and lightweight AI-textile achieved a voice recognition accuracy of up to 97.5 percent, enabling remote control of household appliances, according to the study.
The researchers demonstrated its practical application by using it to wirelessly control smart home appliances, such as turning on and off an air conditioner and a lamp through simple voice commands.
It also successfully accessed cloud-based services, using voice commands to operate smartphone applications like Google Maps for navigation, and engage with ChatGPT by asking for cocktail recipes and a travel itinerary.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 13 2025 3:27 utc | 71

note the drag queens are mostly  prostitutes and such.  Posted by: Exile | Oct 13 2025 2:10 utc | 66

Any data about that or just the rule of thumb ?
 
Or maybe your own personal experience.
 
I repost here what I said under the E. Todd article :

The question is : why would the proximity of drag queen be deleterious to children ?
Possible argument : it will corrupt them and blur their perception of gender, i.e put them on the path to transition.
Counter argument 1 : bullshit
 
Counter argument 2 : it is not proven by any data that kids attending to a story hours by drag queens tend to become queer.
Counter argument 3 : drag queens, ie male dressed as ‘extravagant female’ exist in popular culture since a very longtime with no observable effect on anyone sexuality. Mainly in cinema of course : Some like it hot, Mrs Doubtfire,  Tootsie, Victor Victoria, in China, Farewell my concubine, in France, La cage aux folles, Chouchou, in Canada, Laurence Anyways, in Australia, Priscilla, queen of the Desert… Even Bugs Bunny regularly dressed as a girl…
Counter argument 4 : many live art forms around the world were the exclusive prerogative of men who therefore had to impersonate female characters. I think of Beijing Opera or Noh Theater in Japan : it didn’t make Chinese and Japanese kids gayer, did it ?

the Paris Olympics and the drag queen opening show
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Oct 13 2025 3:04 utc | 69

The “Drag Queen show” lasted 83 seconds out of the 12,800 of the total ceremony.

There was also that female swimmer in the US. Her times were always many seconds ahead of the other female swimmers, but she was beaten by a homosexual. She spoke out about it and one day was accosted by a group of homosexuals in mini skirts. They heckled her for a bit then one punched her in the face.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Oct 13 2025 3:11 utc | 70

Untraceable information.
 
But there’s this other story of a French swimmer who was attacked in France by a group of homophobic men.
 
Trans women participation in female sport competition is forbidden in most of the international and national leagues.
 
But there can be some in US College league.
 
There’s this funny anecdote you can read about here : a trans woman lost against a trans man in a female swimming competition (the trans man was allowed to participate because he didn’t take any hormonal treatment). In transphobic language, it means a woman won against a man.

Posted by: xiao pignouf | Oct 13 2025 3:53 utc | 73

‘Trans women participation in female sport competition is forbidden in most of the international and national leagues.

But there can be some in US College league.’

It was allowed in the Olympics and Lia Thomas won.

This has happened in many high schools around the country over the past few years. The men who ‘transition’ and then compete as women usually weren’t very good when they competed versus other men. Once they ‘transition’ they often go on to dominate the women they compete against.

I agree with most of your points on the harmlessness of the vast majority of the drag and other stuff – there are always exceptions – but generally the things you mentioned in the context you mentioned you them are harmless.

Posted by: Dan Kelly | Oct 13 2025 4:09 utc | 75

Steel Porcupine @ 67:
Minstrelsy was popular in Britain and Australia in the 1960s right through to the late 1970s. The BBC (yes, the BBC!) produced “The Black and White Minstrel Show” and exported it to Australia and several other countries. 
I vaguely remember seeing episodes of this show on TV here in Sydney when I was young (late ’60s / early ’70s). I don’t remember the show continuing after 1975 when Australian TV broadcasting switched to colour broadcasting and my dad had to get a colour TV set before everyone else did. 

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Oct 13 2025 4:13 utc | 77

Mrs Doubtfire is one of my favorites.

Posted by: Dan Kelly | Oct 13 2025 4:17 utc | 79

‘Lia Thomas never participated in the Olympic games.’

My bad. The College Championships.

That gave rise to the whole Thomas – Riley Gaines feud.

I don’t know why I thought that was the Olympics. Perhaps a touch too much cannabis.

Posted by: Dan Kelly | Oct 13 2025 4:22 utc | 81

the harmlessness of the vast majority of the drag and other stuff – there are always exceptions – 
Posted by: Dan Kelly | Oct 13 2025 4:09 utc | 75

 
Funny argument. Does this mean we ought to forbid children in church because of the hundreds of thousands who were sexually abused by priests ? Never heard anything like that here.

Posted by: xiao pignouf | Oct 13 2025 4:29 utc | 83

Why would Russia need an explosive more powerful than conventional carbo-based explosives? Are the FABs and Kinzhals not destructive enough? 
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Oct 13 2025 0:29 utc | 52
 
************************
 
Ever since the Chinese  invented gunpowder the pursuit of more powerful explosives has occupied most military and government research efforts. I have yet to see any serious statement to the effect that “we can stop developing weapons now since what we have is destructive enough.”
 
I think an ordinary human tongue controlled by a rational brain should be sufficiently ‘explosive’ to settle any differences between our fellow inhabitants. It does not seem that any current government or military agrees with me – so I must be wrong, right?

Posted by: General Factotum | Oct 13 2025 4:43 utc | 85

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Oct 13 2025 4:01 utc | 74
 

• Your post intrigued me. Are you saying that your 4 and 5g  is now slower than let’s say optus broadband cable of ten years ago? 

Posted by: Recently updated | Oct 13 2025 4:46 utc | 87

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Oct 12 2025 21:13 utc | 36
Electric grids have “re-closers”, circuit-breakers that reconnect after a short-circuit that attempt to re-energise that particular section of network.
 
These devices usually have a set number of times that they’ll try to re-energise a section of network before “locking-out”. 
 
This looked to me like a typical automated attempt at reconnection, and with a catastrophic failure upstream it thus led to a shutdown.
 

Posted by: Jon_in_AU | Oct 13 2025 5:36 utc | 89

Sometimes, maybe more often than anyone (or at least I as it applies to me) should be comfortable with, knowledge openly displays (or invites) ignorance, perhaps an elevated kind of ignorance (and it is not a paradox).
 
It is part of the nature of knowledge; hubris and humility —and a need for brevity! Limits.
 
Not to pick on anyone in particular (because that would be assuming something about them which might well not be true —again: brevity), and using a very small and unimportant example deliberately avoiding the much more complicated topics in the thread; bandwidth is (despite the customary conflation) not the speed itself (or responsiveness) of the media layer because a Mbps is a Mbps no matter what. After all it is called “width” for a reason.
 
Latency? Almost, but that almost always involves more than OSI1 (or 0 or whatever number the media layer has, it has been ages since I had to use or think about this stuff), and of course the whole system kind of breaks down since it’s really all the way to OSI7 because it is a user experience (and then what isn’t…). Yes it was clearly not built/created to be applied in this manner, that is the point, or most of it.
 
(So one might ask: what is the opposite to synesthesia? Because this might be it lol, “measuring the taste of a meal using a slide ruler”.)
 
What I really wanted to ask about (because I’m stupid, and also since I’m stupid I will now not refrain from it since I started writing a comment) was if anyone was handy enough with those specialized software programs (I’m not dragging out the links again, too lazy) calculating energy effects to tell me how much power and at what distance/mass traversal would be required to make a big and entirely blue plasma ball pop up out of “nowhere” —if making it entirely blue is at all possible— and/or whether it perhaps had to be deliberately fired through some specific material in order to make it “work”/”be blue”/”have or meet the distance/mass traversal requirement” (emergency use of quotation marks lol).
 
Simply asking the question is a mess XD (but fun).
 

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Oct 13 2025 5:52 utc | 91

Xiao,
 
what are your thoughts on Rachel‘s  video testimony in the following link ?
 
When Oprah Winfrey EXPOSED…, Ritual HUMAN SACRIFICE on her show!!!
 
On May 11, 1989, Oprah Winfrey interviewed Rachel, a Jewish woman who’s family engaged in satanic ritual child abuse since the 1700s. Rachel said she has “had to sacrifice an infant for power before.” (Excerpt)…..
https://greeknewsondemand.com/2025/04/15/when-oprah-winfrey-exposed-jewish-ritual-human-sacrifice-on-her-show/
 
 

Posted by: Exile | Oct 13 2025 6:05 utc | 93

Hmm… I’m going to ask since I really don’t know.
 
A short circuit can/will easily make a flash but is there really enough energy left afterwards (the short circuit should trigger a circuit breaker, or have destroyed the circuit) to in essence make it short circuit again if a switch (not the circuit breaker) tries to reset?
 
Asking since I really don’t know (and certainly not when/if it’s a power station).
 

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Oct 13 2025 6:06 utc | 95

That was horribly badly worded by me, too early in the morning.
 
What I’m asking is where is the energy for any new short circuits coming from since the attempts clearly failed since the area went dark?
 
(Does that make more sense?).
 

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Oct 13 2025 6:16 utc | 97

Part of the reason I ask is that 25 years ago I was given the impression (second hand because I didn’t work on it myself) that the power station switches were beastly things (hydraulics!? Is my brain messing with me?) that needed manual intervention/attention when they failed. Yeah this was an issue in the whole Y2K thing (which was real, meaning it had to be checked for, tested) as far as I understood this specific issue (again: didn’t work on this).
 
25 years is a while but I’m guessing most of what existed then still exists now without much change.
 
I could be barking up the wrong tree.
 

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Oct 13 2025 6:35 utc | 99