My apologies gruff for expecting some genuine honest lawkeeping, justice and journalism in the crappy USA. 
 
Someone must have arrested Ghislaine and Epstein and some lawyers and judges must have resisted corruption, some media must have been honest? 
 
 But you are right – it’s not worth expecting anything better – throw out the filthy bathwater and all the precious babies too! 

Posted by: DunGroanin | Jan 9 2026 14:34 utc | 303

Trump Dicksuck Syndrome writes:
 

Am I defending rattlesnakes when I say that you should avoid stepping on them? That you should stay away when you hear them rattle their tail?

 
I was totally unaware that rattlers were restricted by law as to what kinds of violence they can use and under what circumstances. One learns something new every day!
 
But then, armed authority in the USA doesn’t seem to be under any such restrictions either, so I guess Mr. TDS has a point after all. So let’s make fun of the victim like he does!

Posted by: malenkov | Jan 9 2026 14:37 utc | 305

DunGroanin @313: “Someone must have arrested Ghislaine and Epstein and some lawyers and judges must have resisted corruption, some media must have been honest?” 
 
 
They have their reasons, but honesty and service to the public are not among them. I am actually quite surprised, as well as a little disappointed, that you would entertain such juvenile notions. Maybe it is time for you to do some more groaning?

Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 9 2026 14:49 utc | 307

Now even aluminum is getting rare in Europe. This article (in German) reports a decrease in production of some 12% and quotes industry insiders in stark words: if political conditions (Rahmenbedingungen) do not improve prosperity will shrink, citing energy prices and lack of demand. The article goes on to blame China and India for buying all the scrap aluminum from the world markets.

Posted by: persiflo | Jan 9 2026 15:49 utc | 309

@216 Peter

Your writing skills have improved, with now being able to answer future posts (to @220) … and re. another deleted post, the price of being ‘the only straight guy in town I suppose’ … /

@285 @287 Peter

Very much so. Females tend to have different objectives and expectations, which are detached from the competitive world, meaning the forms of competition they experience are very different from males, hence satisfied by different criteria. The error is to try to deceive the population that one is as good or capable or deserving in the setting of the other, which is not true or honest.

That the populations do not realise this is maybe part of a form of mockery of the opposite, the naivety of that is that authority and propaganda do not then laugh at the result, but try to enforce it.

It is dystopian, but you will find authoritarian influence on societal structure, or disrupting it, very much focuses on the family unit, gender, and children.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aGLCes1KO58

Posted by: Ornot | Jan 9 2026 16:30 utc | 311

While there are arguments about whether the woman ought to have been shot or not, there seems to be little attention paid to the reported ICE goons’ refusal to allow a medic to assist the presumably not yet dead target after the shooting, and subsequent Israeli-style blocking of an ambulance. 
Or were these initially reported details wrong?
 

Posted by: Cynic | Jan 9 2026 17:10 utc | 313

Larry Johnson has an interesting view on why Maduro was kidnapped from Venezuela.
 
https://sonar21.com/was-there-another-incentive-to-kidnap-maduro

Posted by: WMG | Jan 9 2026 17:37 utc | 315

Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 9 2026 11:52 utc | 289You cannot blame the cops for doing what cops have always done.

 
Only a moral imbecile believes this. Cops are not a fact of nature. And it is absolutely necessary to punish such deeds. And failure to do so is acceptance of crime. 
 
 

Rather, I would blame the mass media/neolibcon Establishment for their efforts to delegitimize Trump and thus giving stupid people the ignorant impression that it is safe to give cops implementing his policies a hard time. These fools are more victims of false narratives from presstitutes than they are of cops’ bullets.

 
And here he earns his money for being a Trump apologist the hard way, by sticking up for him no mater what he does and no matter how stupid you have to get to do so. The supposed class consciousness where a supposedly middle class woman (in a nation of the homeless suffer but 900 or so billionaires pollute the air by breathing, the so-called middle class is a nonsense phrase) is to be hated even after death is the sort of malignant nonsense that gives class consciousness a bad name. I will note this hateful fool thinks ICE would enter a gated community! 

Posted by: steven t johnson | Jan 9 2026 18:02 utc | 317

@328 Ornot

Just noticed b already posted on that at:

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2026/01/trump-has-changed-and-tds-with-him.html

Posted by: Ornot | Jan 9 2026 18:32 utc | 319

Thinking about equality and such  Men qnd women are very different.’ Equality only comes when those differences are recognised and respected.
 
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 9 2026 10:53 utc | 285

 
Great point.

Posted by: persiflo | Jan 9 2026 18:55 utc | 321

@ Paul | Jan 9 2026 19:27 utc | 332
 
This is a fair comment although I don’t know how “the left” reacted to her murder. I know that Dim Party libs were unmoved, but they’re just the DEI wing of American fascism.

Posted by: malenkov | Jan 9 2026 19:54 utc | 323

Posted by: Paul | Jan 9 2026 19:27 utc | 332
 
####
 
How can a citizen (a veteran no less) break and enter into “the people’s House”?

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 9 2026 19:57 utc | 325

And if it is not the People’s House, whose House is it?

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 9 2026 19:58 utc | 327

It’s not surprising to me that people rationalize cold-blooded murder in the streets of their fellow citizens.
 
This stuff doesn’t happen in China. This stuff doesn’t happen in Russia.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 9 2026 20:05 utc | 329

me 336 – absolutely correct……these are paid provocateurs, LGBTQ paid agents of the Soros foundation……..play with fire and get burned……..

Posted by: tobias cole | Jan 9 2026 20:31 utc | 331

Am I defending rattlesnakes when I say that you should avoid stepping on them? That you should stay away when you hear them rattle their tail?

 I was totally unaware that rattlers were restricted by law as to what kinds of violence they can use and under what circumstances. One learns something new every day!
Posted by: malenkov | Jan 9 2026 14:37 utc | 315
 
************
 
Fun Fact: In Australia, the incidence of snakebite is higher with people trying to kill snakes, than all other incidences combined. 
 
It would seem that if you want to reduce the risk of snakebite, avoiding trying to kill them will reduce your risk factor by more than 50%. Simplistic logic, I know… (I live in the bush and try not to get bitten when I kill them, There are kids around)

Posted by: General Factotum | Jan 9 2026 21:30 utc | 333

All the alligator tears over Rene from the “left” are for one reason only. They believe if you disagree with them not only are you wrong but that gives them the right to behave in a lawless manner without any responsibility. They believe it gives them the right to harass you, harass your employer, threaten you and your family, burn down city blocks and on and on. As far as they are concerned they have free license to do whatever they want.
 
They are all 5 year old brats that have never grown up.
 
 Take this moron Rene as an example.
 
 She has three children she is responsible for but decides to hit the streets with an already thought out plan to commit criminal acts and tempt fate.
 
 I’m sure she believed that because she thinks she is right she won’t suffer any consequences. This is how these morons think.
 
She knows better now.
 
 She failed at life and destroyed her children’s lives with her narcissism. Good riddance.

Posted by: Archetypex | Jan 9 2026 22:34 utc | 335

NDP Leadership Debate Saturday @ 6 PM in Toronto: No To Rigged NDP Leadership Let Yves Speak!
 
https://x.com/EnglerYves/status/2009315353042850158
 
“Join me at NDP debate Saturday in Toronto. Don’t let unelected 3 person vetting committee determine what ideas are acceptable in leadership race.” [details below] ALL OUT FOR YVES ENGLER TORONTO! Because there’s no one else.
 
http://www.yvesforndpleader.ca

Posted by: John Gilberts | Jan 9 2026 22:42 utc | 337

Posted by: Archetypex | Jan 9 2026 22:34 utc | 345
 
So you are saying that if you want to protest in the USA you should realize that it is  very possible to get murdered doing so and govern yourself accordingly. 
If you get murdered it is your own damn fault.
 
interesting eh what.

Posted by: arby | Jan 9 2026 22:57 utc | 339

I assume that I do not know the whole story then.
 
I did not know she was committing a crime.
 
I find it hard to believe the crime was so egregious that the sentence was swift and the punishment was death

Posted by: arby | Jan 9 2026 23:12 utc | 341

I must say though that that woman felt the full force of American freedom and democracy.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 9 2026 23:25 utc | 343

at the very least it is a very sad thing. 
 
But I guess the real problem was that she didn’t have her AK 47.
 
 More Guns.

Posted by: arby | Jan 9 2026 23:32 utc | 345

Right and wrong don’t matter. What people think is right or wrong is what matters.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 9 2026 23:35 utc | 356
People like her better pray that all the red state people they hate never decide to think that way.
 The only thing that prevents their wholesale slaughter is that the people they hate are far more law abiding folk.

Posted by: Archetypex | Jan 9 2026 23:42 utc | 347

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/09/ice-agent-minneapolis-bodycam-footage
 
 
Quite surprised it wasn’t the other — clearly aggressive — woman who got shot.

Posted by: Cynic | Jan 10 2026 0:03 utc | 349

Trump statement 9 January 2026 (as quoted in Guardian) ………
**  “If we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor,” Trump said.
“So we’re going to be doing something with Greenland, either the nice way or the more difficult way.”  **
 
 
Has the raving zioblimp ever looked at an atlas?  
Russia is next door to the USA anyway ….. and always has been.

Posted by: Cynic | Jan 10 2026 0:14 utc | 351

When a far left LGBTQ paid Soros activist attempted to kill a BP officer with her 4000 lb SUV bad things will happen. 
She asked for this situation, she used her heavy SUV continuously to impede federal law enforcement officers.  She challenged them for weeks, and then decided that she would run down a BP officer…..very bad and stupid too.
She is fully responsible for her own death………she was a fanatic, a radical, an anarchist.  
Good riddance…….

Posted by: tobias cole | Jan 10 2026 0:21 utc | 353

So you dont think that RF and Red China do not have an interest in Greenland, for strategic military and mineral exploration reasons?
Denmark has no capacity to defend Greenland……none.
Greenland needs to sign a free trade agreement and a defense pact asap………totally bilateral.

Posted by: tobias cole | Jan 10 2026 0:27 utc | 355

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 9 2026 23:51 utc | 358
I’m not exactly enthusiastic about our government or leaders.
 
 But it’s not blue or red anymore. It’s huge divides.
 
 Huge divides in areas that were normally not political a generation ago.
 
A dem and republican 30 years ago would have been able to agree on a lot of things that are now divisive.
 

Posted by: Archetypex | Jan 10 2026 0:29 utc | 357

I put this on the wrong board– 
 
 ho ho ho–  Kyle Rittenhouse – who shot three people during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin – offered to travel to Minnesota amid unrest after ICE fatally shot a woman. 

Posted by: arby | Jan 10 2026 0:37 utc | 359

tobias cole | Jan 10 2026 0:27 utc | 365
*** So you dont think that RF and Red China do not have an interest in Greenland, for strategic military and mineral exploration reasons? ***
 
 
Notice the USSR never invaded Greenland. 
Come to that, neither did WW2 Germany. 
 
What’s wrong with Greenland being neutral and maybe protected by treaty like the Antarctic …. except that the ever-avaricious USA,  always seeking imperial expansion, does not seem to honour treaties any more.
Denmark has no capacity to defend Greenland……none.
 
 
*** Greenland needs to sign a free trade agreement and a defense pact asap………totally bilateral.***
 
Why do you want Greenland to be asset-stripped and stolen? 
Subjected to the NATO protection racket and sold off to multinational corporate predators?  
 
Will the same US-imperialist excuse apply to grabbing Canada … then presumably Iceland and even the Faroe Islands after that?
 

Posted by: Cynic | Jan 10 2026 0:43 utc | 361

oops, sorry ….
In my post #371, “Denmark has no capacity to defend Greenland……none.” 
should have been inside the marked quote of comment by tobias cole.

Posted by: Cynic | Jan 10 2026 0:53 utc | 363

Posted by: Cynic | Jan 10 2026 0:24 utc | 364

If you define the attitude of the second woman as aggressiveness, then I maintain what I said. And I suggest you to check the definition of “aggressive”.
 
You can certainly call her provocative, cheeky or a teaser, but tell me : does anyone deserve to die for that ?
 
If the answer is yes, then either you give the parents and the teachers a licence to kill, or you disarmed all the thin-skinned law enforcement officers.
 

Posted by: xiao pignouf | Jan 10 2026 1:08 utc | 365

I like Alex but his little intro videos always piss me off.

Posted by: arby | Jan 10 2026 1:17 utc | 367

Christoforou . He is a good actor. Little known before hooking up with Mercouris. Before the marriage of the two Alexanders, Mercouris wrote as an international lawyer and Christoforou had a blog where nobody commented. Digging deeply into MH17, I run onto his his blog where he posted same bullshit. An Austral;ian barrister did also. He was the bloke that wrote to the Australian Government asking about the agreement between Australia and Ukraine.
 
O’Neill knew what he was talking about. Christoforou was an actor making his way upwards. Martyanov scorns the Russian TG click baiters. Christoforou climbed onto Mercouris and Mercouris descended to Christoforou’s level.
 
That arrogance of the starlet that I saw long before he hooked up with Mercouris. Something that does not fade from memory as he bullshits his way into bucks.
 
 
 
 
 

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 10 2026 3:22 utc | 369

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 10 2026 3:22 utc | 379
 
It’s where we differ, Peter.  The reason I appreciate what Alex does is that, first both he and Alexander have the same church background that I do,  so,  yes,  I am prejudiced,  but can see where both are coming from, as it were.  Second, they go different places that I will otherwise never see.  I like that.  Also, I was a different person in my youth, made many mistakes, so do we all.   I am not expecting expert news analysis or  what I can read elsewhere such as  in the writings of karlof1 for example.  This is lighter fare, with a take on the more serious stuff that is refreshing, especially on a dreary day. 
 
Back when the takeover happened in Ukraine, I was very much beholden to an Ukrainian person, young I think, who made his breathless way, camera in hand,  through an eastern Ukraine town that was being invaded by the new regime.  Bodies were lying in the street, buildings catching fire, and vehicles speeding through empty  squares.  It was scary, but he filmed it.  Not much in the way of coherent newsgathering, but  he was making a record of what he saw.   We were straining for news back then.  It was before the sophistication that made such videos somewhat suspect.  Alex isn’t doing that;  he is just giving highlights of the day’s news whilst walking.
 
I think that is in the tradition of the earliest reporters whose scrolls were what counted for historical records in ancient times.   I appreciate that if I’m not interested in what Alex is describing I can still visually walk down and up the streets, see landscapes, a little or large church, a lot of or no graffiti.    And cats.  Mostly he is in Cyprus;  that is not an uninteresting place to be these days.  And it takes me out of myself, which is often a good place to be!
But to each his own.
 
 

Posted by: juliania | Jan 10 2026 4:39 utc | 371

Is Guyana Oil A Target Like Venezuela’s? 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3dW13ttgVU
 
“Energy, greed and US strategic interests.”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Jan 10 2026 5:03 utc | 373

up the worn knotted 
ancient rope of civility 
 
the sum boon and hindsight of humanity 
swaying in an angry sea
the ruins are beautiful but tricky 
repeated absurdity 
 
sorrow is hollow 
a symphony of sympathy 
not necessary 
the word judges me i judge it back
that’s how it must be

Posted by: Upsidedowndingo | Jan 10 2026 5:48 utc | 375

 juliania | Jan 10 2026 4:39 utc | 381
We do differ a great deal on this aspect juiania. What I saw in 2014 has been imprinted on my mind.
 
. Men like that do not have religion. It is a bloody harsh world juliania. Stonebird has been there and done that more than me.Perhaps his judgment is better.
 
The Alex marriage. Trash in the gutter as we head into the future.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 10 2026 7:08 utc | 377

 General Factotum | Jan 10 2026 7:10 utc | 388
 
Plenty of smoke here. I look outside and there is a smoke haze. Perhaps I should stop smoking. Only 27 at my kitchen table. Was 37 the other day and that was a bit warmish. I just sit here as Sir Drinkalot, a knight of the kitchen table, and watch the world go round.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 10 2026 7:32 utc | 379

The Register has a posting up about CES 2026 which is a showcase for new techie stuff and the following should make you roll your eyes
 

Public Interest Research Group’s right to repair campaign director Nathan Proctor had an obvious choice to make when it came to the worst environmental impact: Lollipop Star. 
Literally a piece of e-waste in waiting, Lollipop Stars are suckers with an integrated battery and tiny speaker that, when placed in one’s mouth, transmit sound through jaw vibrations, delivering what the brand calls “music you can taste.” 
The device is non-rechargeable, gets about 60 minutes of battery life, plays a single song, and once the sucker is gone, it’s garbage.

 
Is our species redeemable?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 10 2026 7:50 utc | 381

Innocent until Proven Guilty
 
versus
 
extra judicial killing 
 
 

Posted by: Exile | Jan 10 2026 7:59 utc | 383

juliania
 
I tend to think too much. I recently wrote to my aunt, my mothers younger sister on this question of equality. Because I could not strike a woman, I was charged by my sister inlaw with domestic violence. When my youngest daughter was down, I told her to book a holiday to Thailand.  Equality. On the streets of Bangkok, she nearly skewerd a blokes eye. She was a stupid girl and he was quite cranky. I pushed her back behind me. 
 
Those ancient churches of the levant – running through Byzantine to Russia. That Greek  couple, drone along and the bearded lady making his way up the ladder….. Regardless of religion, be wary of them.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 10 2026 9:37 utc | 385

Riding the tiger and watching the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l482T0yNkeo&list=RDl482T0yNkeo&start_radio=1
.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 10 2026 10:33 utc | 387

and ask whether Germany is still was ever a sovereign state or just a NATO frontline…”
Posted by: John Gilberts | Jan 10 2026 3:45 utc | 380

 
fixed it for them!

Posted by: malenkov | Jan 10 2026 11:11 utc | 389

WoW! what an admission.
 
Monitor𝕏 (@MonitorX99800): “🇺🇸🇮🇱⚡- Meta Policy Chief: ‘I’ve been at META for almost 9 years we banned content claiming zionist run the world or control media’ say that again but slowly” | nitter.poast.org

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Jan 10 2026 14:59 utc | 391

@Peter AU1 | Jan 10 2026 3:22 utc
No matter what, I like Alex’ approach to dissect the MSM messages. This in itself holds a pretty high value, as one gets reminded of the BS that is presented to us. Mercouris is too wordy for me, but Christoforou’s 40min stroll thru an interesting neighborhood  is worth the deal. 3 flies with 1 stroke.
Not sure how well I would get along with him should I ever run into him in person, I sense some narcissistic trait in him, but this is just pure guess work. But why to complain, it’s for free

Posted by: steiniplatte | Jan 10 2026 15:24 utc | 393

 
Replying to xiao
Posted by: xiao pignouf | Jan 10 2026 9:46 utc | 396
 
Two points regarding your post.
 
Why did you not cite the last words Mr. dyke said to the uniformed knuckle-dragging ape before she started to enter the passenger side of the suv?   That is a serious omission imv. 
 
 
She said, paraphrasing,  “Isn’t it time for you Big Boys  to go get some lunch?”  —  dripping with sarcasm, her walk a swagger.
 
I am relying on that officer’s video, as posted at by the guardian linked above by cynic iirc.
 
 
 
Second, the urgent demand to drive away seems to have come from Mr. dyke as she starts to get in the suv.   Words of fear? having just taunted the officer as “big boy”?   
 
The command does not appear to come from that officer as you assert.
He did not have the driver’s ear-range attention from in front to the left side of the suv.    The audio sounds like Mr. Dyke gave that command to her wife. Facts with come out, or not.
 
 
The other officer, standing by the driver’s open window,  (Ms. Good had just said to him, “ I am not mad at you Dude,” her words dripping with facetious submission.) was demanding the driver “get out of the fucking car.”
 
This as her partner just finished taunting the armed ape who was filming her taunt, calling him a big boy, and then commanding her wife to drive away.
 
The facts are not clear except that it was an execution.
~~
Peasants need to have more smarts to push back if they don’t want to be iced from the getgo.  That was resistance training?
My god, help us.
Lambs to slaughter..
 
 
 

Posted by: suzan | Jan 10 2026 16:44 utc | 395

steiniplatte | Jan 10 2026 15:24 utc | 403
 
I’m not much into tourist resorts. There is much history everywhere. I get away from this urban scrawl and history is everywhere on the ground. There is knapped stone and oral history of an ancient past.
When I was growing up and my younger years, I would read about Nazi’s being tracked down and held to account. Now we can watch a standing ovation in the Canadian parliament because the Nazi’s have been pointed at the Russians. Now the jews of the Brirish mandate and America need to be hunted down and held to account. The very public genocide of Gaza for living space…. 
The two Greeks? Cashing in on this slaughter we watch.
 
Kissinger, Brezenski, Nutty Yahoo. Poles. Mass murderers straight out of the old testament. I just read suzans account of the latest extrajudicial killing in the US. 
 
The cops here. Some are good men. The vast majority are simply goons with guns.. Away from tourist resorts and into the rural areas, there is history in Europe. Here in Australia, Away from the urban scrawl, everywhere I look there is history on the ground. The teevee evangelicals of America ride their way to riches on the backs of fools.
 
The Russians are now slaughtering the Nazi’s of Galicia by the multitude. It is up to the west to hunt down the jews of the British Mandate then find the money lenders of London city and throw them off bridges. That financial center of London is at the heart of the matter.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 10 2026 17:28 utc | 397

for all the heroes out there,
 
instead of cheerleading ICE terrorizing kids, why not take the kids that the state is starving into the grocery store and help them take some food?
 
i already know the answer. the slave cannot utter the words, or even entertain the thought, “money isn’t real.”
 
if Archetypex or the Painter came home and found his kid listening to “Been Caught Stealing,” by Jane’s Addiction, he’d send the kid to an IDF/ICE military school. better to murder Mexicans than “steal” from 7-11.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrwjiO1MCVs

Posted by: duck n cover | Jan 10 2026 17:49 utc | 399