The MoA Week In Review – OT 2026-048

pic of smoke.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 2 2026 8:41 utc | 101

—

The Chinese are watching this unfold in real time with their fancy new satellite constellation and they’re not sharing the video with us.

Posted by: too scents | Mar 2 2026 8:46 utc | 102

they’re not sharing the video with us.

Posted by: too scents | Mar 2 2026 8:46 utc | 102

—

C’mon China. When will the supercuts be released?

Posted by: too scents | Mar 2 2026 8:47 utc | 103

Surprised Oil only up +8% early Monday

Posted by: Exile | Mar 2 2026 9:00 utc | 104

Aramco is on fire

Posted by: Suresh | Mar 2 2026 9:01 utc | 105

“Friendly” fire….
Report says a Kuwaiti F18 shot it after it didn’t ID itself.
Possibly an Israeli pilot (not confirmed)

for those that blue sky: https://bsky.app/profile/hannibalbrigade.biz/post/3mg2irz2cls2y

https://x.com/ZaidBenjamin5/status/2028338063450259683

https://x.com/sentdefender/status/2028339721286373482

Both the Pilot and Weapons Systems Officer (WSO) onboard the U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle that crashed this morning over Kuwait due to a “friendly fire” incident, appear to have survived, being found by locals and transferred to local authorities in Kuwait.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 2 2026 9:01 utc | 106

Surprised Oil only up +8% early Monday
Posted by: Exile | Mar 2 2026 9:00 utc | 104
Probably heavily manipulated for profit. They can’t make it too obvious.

Posted by: anon | Mar 2 2026 9:08 utc | 107

Probably heavily manipulated

Posted by: anon | Mar 2 2026 9:08 utc | 107

—

Oil? The butcher’s thumb is weighing down the VIX.

Posted by: too scents | Mar 2 2026 9:11 utc | 108

..The British Empire is comically inhumane and so are the many European settler-colonial states. So, it takes real dedicated effort from Americans to make America reach levels of cruelty so absurd that it stands out among them. Truly, America is exceptional. Death to AmericaMarg bar ÂmrikâMarg bar ÂmrikâMarg bar Âmrikâ
Posted by: All Under Heaven | Mar 2 2026 6:35 utc | 72

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAnaznZG6W0
from the comments –

@josephledux8598
4 years ago (edited)

Well now, I’m an ex-convict and veteran of ten years spent in maximum-security Louisiana prisons and let me tell you, this song is as real as it gets. A few minor details: “You been a long time coming but you’re welcome home….” This is the Louisiana traditional gut-punch greeting old convicts give to the new guys who just got off the bus: “Welcome home.” Believe me, the first time you hear that, it crushes you. “Eat my breakfast by the light of the moon.” When you’re on a field crew, whether picking cotton or hoeing rows of purple-hull peas or cutting sugar cane, your long, exhausting day begins at around four thirty AM and yes, even by the time you’ve finished breakfast it’s still dark outside. Oddly similar to Army basic training in that respect. If Army basic lasted twenty or thirty years. “Got a mighty long time, lord knows I’ll never be free.” and “…my boys they got a hundred, I got ninety-nine.” Louisiana has the longest, harshest sentences for crimes of any state in the nation. Specifically, this sentence refers to armed robbery, which carries up to ninety-nine years. If it’s a first offense. (Much) longer for subsequent offenses. And a life sentence means exactly that, natural life. Meaning the only way you get out is in a coffin. Parole? Not in this life. Maybe in the next. “Angola bound…” Angola is the largest, by land area, maximum-security prison in the country. For many years it was the only maximum-security prison in the state though now there are some others. Three quarters of the inmates at Angola are serving natural life sentences and will die there. In my experience inmates usually refer to it as “the River” or “on the River” as it is adjacent to the Mississippi. It was a slave plantation in history, and it’s still very much a plantation in modern times with the same backbreaking labor. The only real difference is that the guards and crew pushers wear uniforms now and carry modern semiautomatic rifles, and the slaves are a mix of black and white people now. Aside from those differences it would be difficult to tell a black and white picture of a modern Angola field crew from a picture taken in 1859. “Shaggy hounds….” If you run, sooner or later that sound you hear will be the baying of a team of bloodhounds. They don’t just sniff and howl. When they catch you they’re going to eat your ass up. The irony is that the ones handling the dogs will be inmates, just like you. Followed by guards with rifles on horseback. The only officials in Louisiana that can legally shoot an unarmed felon to prevent escape are prison guards and believe me, they have no reluctance to opening up on you. The only thing in your favor is that most of them can’t shoot worth shit so if they hit you it will probably be by accident. An inmate escaped from a compound where I was locked up, actually made it over the fence but got hung up dangling by his skin and clothes from the razor wire. The guard in the tower emptied an entire thirty-round magazine from a Ruger Mini-14 at him from less than forty yards and literally shot the windows out of every employee car in the parking lot. The inmate was completely untouched. Speaking of Angola, the plantation is so huge that even if you break away from a field crew or a secure compound you could run for a flat hour or two in any direction and never make it off the grounds. Rather than a single prison it should be looked at as multiple prisons all sharing the same reservation. That I’m aware of there has never been a successful escape from Angola, meaning one in which the inmate made it for more than a few hours before getting picked up again. Or killed. Or dying from exposure in the swamp in the ghastly heat. No, despite this song having first come out on an Aaron Neville solo album, Aaron never did time in Angola. But his brother Charles did. He spent five years at Angola for the heinous offense of simple drug possession. Which is every bit as unfair and outrageous as it sounds. This was and still is typical for Louisiana. If he’d been white and could afford a real lawyer he’d almost certainly have gotten probation. “Angola Bound” is actually an elaboration of a traditional prison song Charles learned at Angola while he was there, and Charles is almost certainly the source of all the genuine details spelled out so casually in the lyrics of the song. Not to imply there’s anything inauthentic about Aaron singing the song. He did do some time in the Orleans Parish Prison. Despite Angola being known in those days as “Bloody Angola,” the most dangerous prison in the country, Orleans Parish Prison — roughly analogous to a county jail in other states — was even more deadly.

Posted by: tucenz | Mar 2 2026 9:16 utc | 109

Is Witkoff a biggest sucker, or was he in on the whole “negotation as a ploy” gimmick?

Posted by: Call it what u will | Mar 2 2026 9:39 utc | 110

Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 2 2026 9:01 utc | 106

Of course it’s “friendly fire”… But how about the other plane? At least one more was shot down

Posted by: rk | Mar 2 2026 9:41 utc | 111

I just tried posting a reply on Twitter and it blocked me saying “You have reached your daily limit for this action. Please add your phone number” ( i think i’ve made 4 or 5 reply-posts today). Since when was this a thing?

Posted by: UK Defektor | Mar 2 2026 9:50 utc | 112

They are already begining to eat each other!
There is no semblance of self awareness or logic

This scared girl-woman is symptomatic of all naive Yankee poodles.

There is no rationality or logic in her terror of being made a widow:

First of all she is a miltary wife therefore she should s happy to be one – if she was a pacifist what is she doing with a miltary spouse?

Second the US miltary has been stomping all over the planet for decades under dem/rep, two Santas, bullshit.

Where was her rage when Clinton bombed Yugoslavia? Or Obama ‘surfed’ death by drones of civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq?

where was her rage when Clinton destroyed Libya? Or when Biden went full postal on Russian ukranians goading the provoked SMO?

what did she do about the Russophobia and murder of civilians? The bandera Nazio worship?

Where indeed has her and her adult-child Yankees rage beeb for the decades of the siofascists invasion and genocide in Palestine!!!

yup you all get suckered as always by your Owbers as you have been for the last two hundred and fifty years.

you didn’t go from innocent to guilty because of this one lying bastard executive – it is what it always has been.

still it’s not too late – instead of trying to pick a political fight for the coming elections why don’t you tell your husband to get out? Why don’t you stop more miltary recruits?

why don’t you stop the worship of the little green goblin and his coke snorting Hollywood mentors?

here is the simple truth for the crybaby and all who are floatsam and jetsam this day , suddenly finding their cruise ship has sunk as they slept:

YOU CANNOT SUPPORT UKRAINE AND PALESTINE AT THE SAME TIME

That is the only logical position – you can not be pro ziofascist illegal apartheid entity colonialism and conquest in the Levant and be pro Palestine

you cannot be pro Ukrainian natzio fascist supporter and pro antifascist anti Nazi, which is what Russia has been the last century.

Get a grip! Yankee doodles and grow up – at this rate you will not even make 300 never mind a millennium

Cassandra MacDonald

@CassandraRules
7h

This wife of an active duty service member has gone viral on tiktok because well… shes really mad. I cant even blame her tbh.

Mar 2, 2026 · 2:26 AM UTC

Posted by: DunGroanin | Mar 2 2026 9:55 utc | 113

Posted by: persiflo | Mar 1 2026 15:35 utc | 4

I got into a bit of an OCD habit of taking a screenshot of interesting comments (not just from here, either). It got too overwhelming, and I had no method or time to catalogue them, so I did a purge and deleted about 36 thousand of them 18 months ago.

I’m now back up to (checks) over 9k again. Too many interesting things that I’d like to read again and ponder, but I’d require several parallel networked brains to cope with the sheer volume of info.

Always appreciate your commentary btw. You strike me as the kind of cat that I’d get along really well with in person. As with a few of the regulars here.

Cheers.

Posted by: Jon_in_AU | Mar 2 2026 10:28 utc | 114

Pentagon leaders worry the US will expend its air defense stockpiles, and the conflict will “spiral out of control”
Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 2 2026 7:56 utc | 90

What does it mean? If the Epstein Coalition runs out of conventional ammo, it will start using nukes? The pedos looking for little girls glowing in the dark?

Posted by: Asian Frog | Mar 2 2026 10:34 utc | 115

A feature article of the consequences of economic sanctions on Iran by Gérard Funffrock, engineer, PhD in contemporary history (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
Source : https://regisdecastelnau.substack.com/p/iran-les-sanctions-economiques-et
Regis de Castelnau
English translation on Martyanov blog.
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2026/03/hm-akrotiri.html#disqus_thread

Posted by: FromFrance | Mar 2 2026 11:01 utc | 116

Of course it’s “friendly fire”… But how about the other plane? At least one more was shot down
Posted by: rk | Mar 2 2026 9:41 utc | 111

AlJazeera reports that _three_ fighters were downed by Kuwaiti AD in friendly fire incidents.
( could just be cloaking ) in both cases a problem for the US.
( during GulfWar II it was mostly US AD vs Brit fighters for “blue on blue” kills.)

Posted by: MAKK | Mar 2 2026 11:33 utc | 117

There are photos of the downed pilots faces in circulation showing 4 different people (one is a woman). So at least 4 planes were downed. (Source Mahmood OD: he shared the pictures and videos on latest stream.)

Posted by: UK Defektor | Mar 2 2026 11:54 utc | 118

Posted by: MAKK | Mar 2 2026 11:33 utc | 117

How does it make any sense for AD to down four aircraft when there are supposed to be no Iranian aircraft there?

Sounds like either:
A) it was friendly fire, maybe confusing Iranian missiles to US aircraft (unlikely considering the friend-or-foe characteristic of air defense)
B) It was friendly fire, but for the reason of Kuwait military supporting Iran ‘off-the-books’, seeing where things are headed (remember Nazi German allies abandoned it gradually as they saw the German defeats accumulating)
C) Iranian Su-35 used LONG RANGE air-to-air missiles to take out those US jets as they took off from Kuwait air base

Posted by: unimperator | Mar 2 2026 12:06 utc | 119

Surprised Oil only up +8% early Monday
Posted by: Exile | Mar 2 2026 9:00 utc | 104

A slower, steady rise of oil price will be more painful to western economies compared to a rapid spike and immediate crash.

If oil rises slowly, starts plateauing in a significantly higher price level will cause much more pain to the European union.

Posted by: unimperator | Mar 2 2026 12:13 utc | 120

Inadvertent dissemination of propaganda?

Earlier today — I forget which discussion it was in — a link to photo was posted, supposedly of the primary school girls later killed by UD/Israeli airstrike at the beginning of the present war.

Note that in the picture mentioned above the children were in heavy black dresses, complete with heavy headgear.
But also note that victims in pictures from after the destruction of the school are not dressed that way.

Maybe the class photo is a picture of the school at some other time in the past?
Or is it?
Do wonder if the supposedly pre-kill picture was issued– but from who and where? — with intent to portray the Iran of now as being more like Saudi Arabia in the worst days of its Religious Police.

Posted by: Cynic | Mar 2 2026 12:22 utc | 121

The photo to which I referred — Mar 2 2026 12:22 utc | 121

https://x.com/ALERTX360/status/2028287907283321251

it is in the “RIP Ali Khamenei” discussion.

Was it a formal occasion of some kind?

Posted by: Cynic | Mar 2 2026 13:00 utc | 122

@all – I am of course not keeping files about everyone here being right and wrong; that was a joke.
Posted by: persiflo | Mar 1 2026 15:35 utc | 4

*****************

I’m (sort of!) sorry to hear that. For a while I was standing in awe of your skill and expertise in handling such a complex project with such cool aplomb.

In the spirit of openness and honesty I should also explain that my post regarding Chakras, Chi, and Ley Lines… where Peterfgrsgmstmf (I can never get the spelling right) bravely suggested he did not believe me. Embarrassingly for me, he was correct. But it wasn’t a joke – just 99% stupid nonsense to fill in a rainy afternoon. The only true part was that I really do have a degree in The Mathematical Principles of Feng Shui… I downloaded and printed it free of charge from the “University of Bums on Seats”

http://cynicalbastards.com/ubs/

You too can become an instant expert, join the rank files (sic – or is that sick?) of academia. The University has such a fetching logo!

Posted by: General Factotum | Mar 2 2026 13:02 utc | 123

Not good. Also exactly what the US/Israel thugs would do – and not by accident.

Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed on Monday that the Natanz nuclear facility was struck during the ongoing US-Israeli aggression against the Islamic Republic. While IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi warned that a radiation leak with potentially catastrophic consequences cannot be ruled out, even as the agency acknowledged it had lost contact with Iranian nuclear authorities.

Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Reza Najafi, told reporters on the sidelines of Monday’s extraordinary board of governors session in Vienna that Natanz, Iran’s uranium enrichment facility, was hit during US-Israeli operations.

“Again they attacked Iran’s peaceful, safeguarded nuclear facilities yesterday,” Najafi told Reuters, confirming Natanz by name when asked which facilities were targeted.

IAEA: situation ‘extremely worrying’

Addressing the emergency session, Grossi warned that the situation was “extremely worrying,” stressing that a radiological release could not be excluded; one potentially severe enough to require evacuating areas as large as or larger than major cities.

The IAEA’s Incident and Emergency Centre has been placed on active alert, with a dedicated team continuously collecting information and assessing the situation around the clock. The agency’s regional safety monitoring network has also been put on alert and is liaising with the IEC continuously.

So far, no elevation of radiation levels above normal background has been detected in countries bordering Iran, though the agency acknowledged that communications blackouts caused by the conflict have significantly limited its ability to assess conditions inside the country.

Grossi also confirmed that all efforts to re-establish contact with Iranian nuclear regulatory authorities through the IAEA’s emergency channel have so far gone unanswered.

Notably, Grossi’s statement made no mention of who carried out the strikes on Iran, referring only to “military attacks” and “military operations” without identifying the United States or “Israel” by name.

A deal that was within reach

Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, who had been shepherding negotiations between Washington and Tehran, revealed hours before the joint aggression that Iran had agreed to zero stockpiling of enriched uranium, going further than the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal, subject to full IAEA verification.

“If the ultimate objective is to ensure forever that Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb, I think we have cracked that problem through these negotiations,” Albusaidi said, estimating that three months would be needed to finalize an accord.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi corroborated the account, saying both delegations had left their Geneva session satisfied after seven hours of talks, with a deal “within reach.” […]

Radiation threats beyond Iran

Grossi also underscored that the threat extends well beyond Iran’s borders. The UAE operates four nuclear reactors; Jordan and Syria have operational nuclear research reactors; and Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, all of which have been subjected to military attacks in recent days, rely on nuclear applications of various kinds.

The Director General recalled that past IAEA General Conference resolutions explicitly state that armed attacks on nuclear facilities should never take place, warning that such attacks “could result in radioactive releases with grave consequences within and beyond the boundaries of the State which has been attacked.”

He urged utmost restraint in all military operations in light of these risks.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/iran-confirms-natanz-facility-struck–grossi-warns-of-radiat

Posted by: teri | Mar 2 2026 13:19 utc | 124

Ooof!

the Obsessive Groaniad really pissed off the squirrel.

Read the whole thread there to get the full spleen! It’s very … moreish. Yum yum.

☀️👀

@zei_squirrel
7h

this is just astonishing. The Guardian chose as the author of its deranged lie-filled screed propaganda obituary of Khamenei Holly Dagres, who is literally an Israel lobbyist. The utter fucking depravity and shamelessness of the Guardian goes beyond anything in legacy media, even the NYT and BBC. They are the most odious scum Zionist genocidal propaganda on earth, and the fact that cunts like Yanis Varoufakis and Owen Jones keep promoting and writing for it reveals what they are too

Mar 2, 2026 · 6:15 AM UTC

Posted by: DunGroanin | Mar 2 2026 13:22 utc | 125

Iran has won.

It is going to take a while for that to sink in. “America loses ” and “Israel loses” are unthinkable thoughts. At this point Iran has bloodied our nose, they will need to smash faces a good long time before reality sinks in.

Crybully madmen could still use a nuke. Even the US military and internet trolls will see that as a sore loser move. Loser moves are all the West has left. It is all coming down. Nukes only make it come down faster.

Let it rain.

Posted by: oldhippie | Mar 2 2026 13:27 utc | 126

I have been wondering why did Iran not attack first?

Posted by: calendars | Mar 2 2026 7:08 utc | 81

There’s this book called the Koran. You might consider reading it.

Posted by: malenkov | Mar 2 2026 13:39 utc | 127

There are photos of the downed pilots faces in circulation showing 4 different people (one is a woman). So at least 4 planes were downed. (Source Mahmood OD: he shared the pictures and videos on latest stream.)
Posted by: UK Defektor | Mar 2 2026 11:54 utc | 118

Most active f-1{4568} planes are not single seaters.

Posted by: MAKK | Mar 2 2026 13:54 utc | 128

I wonder if those planes defending againt drones using aad missiles might accidently target wrong object because there may be multiple in view – partly due to pilot error (is always possible to blame operator) but also due to some imprecision in the system. That and it seems those self guided missiles can lose track of one object and pick another. The US mic would not admit to such flaws.

Posted by: jared | Mar 2 2026 14:29 utc | 129

Today the news is that the price of a barrel of oil is going up, while the maximum price EU countries are willing to pay for Russian oil is going down. The market is like a ballet dancer doing the splits.

Posted by: The Far Side | Mar 2 2026 14:39 utc | 130

PressTV is stating that Iran shot down the F15.
Is that claim taken lightly?

Posted by: jared | Mar 2 2026 14:44 utc | 131

Israel now bombing Lebanon, and according to RT the Lebanese government has just banned Hesbollah.

https://www.rt.com/news/633492-lebanon-bans-hezbollah-military/

The Lebanese government has outlawed all security and military activities of Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has announced.

In a statement on Monday, Salam called for Hezbollah to hand over its weapons to the state and said the Lebanese Army would immediately start implementing its plan to disarm the group.

Explaining the ban, the prime minister pointed to an overnight missile launch into northern Israel claimed by Hezbollah, which said it sought revenge for the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the US-Israeli regime change operation launched on Saturday.

The Lebanese prime minister stated that Hezbollah’s act directly contradicted the country’s rejection of being “dragged into the ongoing regional war” and its commitment to peace.

Following rocket fire by Hezbollah, Israel carried out airstrikes on Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 31 people, according to the authorities.

Salam’s statement urges the international community to step up diplomatic efforts “to stop the Israeli aggression,” and suggests that Beirut is prepared to re-enter negotiations with Israel under international auspices.

Posted by: Occasional poster | Mar 2 2026 14:55 utc | 132

Occasional poster | Mar 2 2026 14:55 utc | 132
*** Salam’s statement urges the international community to step up diplomatic efforts “to stop the Israeli aggression,” and suggests that Beirut is prepared to re-enter negotiations with Israel under international auspices. ***

Israel will not stop, it intends to steal a lot of Lebanon.
That idiot / puppet should change his name to Salami.

Posted by: Cynic | Mar 2 2026 15:02 utc | 133

@ juliania | Mar 1 2026 22:15 utc | 43

thanks juliania…. have you ever tried sprouting the peas in pots indoors and then transplanting them outside?? might work…we do that here sometimes, to avoid them being eaten by slugs at the beginning…. the issue of the ikons went thru a controversial period in the history of the orthodox church… i am on the fence about them myself, so i don’t know what that would make me in terms of ideological position on this topic…

Posted by: james | Mar 2 2026 15:45 utc | 134

Posted by: All Under Heaven | Mar 2 2026 6:35 utc | 72 In defense of Losurdo, Losurdo is critiquing an ideology. He is not critiquing a nation, nor is he so depraved that he is judging collective hereditary guilt of peoples. Morally, Losurdo is in fact against genocide. That’s why he finds the historical genocides carried out by so-called liberal nations an indictment of, evidence against the pretensions of liberalism. Liberalism which in practice is meant as a euphonious name for capitalism, free market society, supposedly us. All Under Heaven dreams of murdering hundreds of millions. After this vileness was repeatedly pointed out, All Under Heaven did not explain what else could possibly be meant, but demanded that the readers do their own research! Do not let the ignorant absurdities of All Under Heaven inspire contempt for Losurdo.

Not so incidentally the way that All Under Heaven minimizes the genocides of the so-called British empire, ignoring even the actual quote, is not humorous. It may be comical in the sense of grotesque. The great Bengal famine of 1770 was basically caused by English taxes forcing the growth of opium instead of food so that a drought was a titanic catastrophe. The estimated thirty million victims of this alone exceed the number of Native Americans killed in the continental US. This is due solely to the lower population density, to be sure, not the moral superiority of the Americans—who after all were still English then? Perhaps All Under Heaven should start including the Bengalis among the victims of America?

Incidentally, I do have to disagree a little with Losurdo. There is in fact something pretty much unprecedented in the Nazis, and the resemblances between Roosevelt and Hitler for instance, are true, yet not the complete picture. Previous genocides were accomplished mostly by famine, and theft of land so that the existing population couldn’t grow any more. It mostly took the form of what might today be euphemized as ethnic cleansing, evacuation to the west. The straightforward violent mass murder certainly occurred, repeatedly, a policy essential to destroying the resource base by terrorizing the survivors into fleeing. The Nazis went to the effort of actually rounding up enemies, including Jews who rationally speaking weren’t even enemies, or even competitors, and doing them in by simple murder. That really has rare precedents (Mongols maybe? The Iroquois League vs. the Hurons? The war of the Triple Alliance?) Completely identifying 18th century America with Fascism is an apology for fascism. Again Losurdo is critiquing an ideology, not writing a history of America, a point All Under Heaven didn’t seem to grasp. My personal belief is that treating Scripture as scripture is folly. Treating Marxists treatises as scripture borders on criminal.
[No, I did not omit disease as a huge factor, maybe the most important in the beginning. The thing is, anybody who includes this as an indictment of genocide is writing some sort of science fiction, or a secret history where people before the germ theory of disease was even propagated, were nevertheless magically capable of waging germ warfare. This is nonsense.]

Posted by: steven t johnson | Mar 2 2026 15:51 utc | 135

No 110 re witkoff. Most likely in on it, being jewish and in tandem with slime kushner. A bit brazen by pedophile to send two jews to negotiate with Iran about Iran’s nuclear ambitions while the two jews real principal is holding a few nukes. It is clearer by the minute that the negotiations were a sham.

Posted by: nisses | Mar 2 2026 16:02 utc | 136

U.S. Central Command
@CENTCOM
At 11:03 p.m. ET, March 1, three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagles flying in support of Operation Epic Fury went down over Kuwait due to an apparent friendly fire incident.
https://nitter.net/CENTCOM/status/2028424933794087326

Media statement

https://www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/PRESS-RELEASES/Press-Release-View/Article/4418568/three-us-f-15s-involved-in-friendly-fire-incident-in-kuwait-pilots-safe/

TAMPA, Fla. – At 11:03 p.m. ET, March 1, three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagles flying in support of Operation Epic Fury went down over Kuwait due to an apparent friendly fire incident.

During active combat—that included attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones — the U.S. Air Force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses.

All six aircrew ejected safely, have been safely recovered, and are in stable condition. Kuwait has acknowledged this incident, and we are grateful for the efforts of the Kuwaiti defense forces and their support in this ongoing operation.

The cause of the incident is under investigation. Additional information will be released as it becomes available.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 2 2026 16:08 utc | 137

Iran has won.
It is going to take a while for that to sink in. “America loses ” and “Israel loses” are unthinkable thoughts. At this point Iran has bloodied our nose, they will need to smash faces a good long time before reality sinks in.
Crybully madmen could still use a nuke. Even the US military and internet trolls will see that as a sore loser move. Loser moves are all the West has left. It is all coming down. Nukes only make it come down faster.
Let it rain.
Posted by: oldhippie | Mar 2 2026 13:27 utc | 126

I agree with most of this, disagree with some parts. Very dense materiel, let’s take it step by step.

Iran has won.  I would amend this to Iran is WINNING. The US and Israel sucker punched Iran again, and this time the tide turned in the favor of Iran much faster than the first time. Iran learned from the first time, the US and Israel did not. In fact, by taking out the Iranian moderate leadership personalities and replacing them with more militant ones, I’d say the US and Israel punched more at US and Israel than Iran. Our biggest achievement is the successful strike that took out over 150 elementary school girls.

It is going to take a while for that to sink in. “America loses ” and “Israel loses” are unthinkable thoughts. At this point Iran has bloodied our nose, they will need to smash faces a good long time before reality sinks in.  I would only change that to “America is winning.” and “Israel is winning.” And maybe bold the phrase good long time. This war will last a while.
Crybully madmen could still use a nuke. Even the US military and internet trolls will see that as a sore loser move. Loser moves are all the West has left. It is all coming down. Nukes only make it come down faster.  Hopefully both the US AND Israel realize that using nukes is just a sore loser move.
Let it rain. NO NO NO.  This line is the reason for me dissecting your whole post. Let’s NOT have it rain nuclear weapons. I get annoyed by incessant posts about “The fact that the US can slaughter children all over the world, and RUSSIA CAN NOT PREVENT IT – PROVES that Russia is weak. But it is better than nukes starting to fly.

Posted by: Woke American | Mar 2 2026 16:19 utc | 138

Bleah sorry for the bad formatting in the last post. I thought I had enough extra line breaks in all the right places.

Posted by: Woke American | Mar 2 2026 16:19 utc | 139

F-15 FUBAR (fucked up beyond all recognition )

Curious internet Cats haz questions:?

1.) How does friendly fire take out 3 planes in one day

2.) Was it really friendly fire or is that cope, Kuwait is only miles away from Iran

3.) Is it more embarrassing to get shot down by a random Kuwaiti air defence, or by the ghost of Tehran
——

https://www.palladiummag.com/2023/06/01/complex-systems-wont-survive-the-competence-crisis/

——
Comment from the internet …
When an anti-air system cannot identify a target due to missing, incorrect, or mismatched Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) transponder codes, the target is generally classified as “unknown” or “hostile” by default.

This scenario is a primary cause of friendly-fire incidents and usually results from one of several technical or procedural failures in the IFF system.

Why IFF Systems Fail to Identify Targets
Missing or Incorrect Codes: Modern military IFF systems, such as Mode 5, rely on encrypted, time-sensitive cryptographic keys.

If the aircraft’s transponder has not been updated with the correct codes, is not functioning, or is turned off, it will not reply to an interrogation.
System Incompatibility: Legacy IFF systems (Modes 1, 2, 3A/C, S) may not communicate properly with newer Mode 5 systems.

Technical Malfunction: The interrogator (radar system) or the transponder (on the aircraft) may fail, leading to no response.
Civilian/Third-Party Aircraft: Civilian aircraft or aircraft not equipped with the specific military IFF system will not produce a “friendly” response, forcing the operator to treat them as unknown.

Consequences of Missing Codes
When an IFF interrogation fails to return a positive reply:
Operator Judgment: The decision to engage falls on the operator and strict

Rules of Engagement (ROE).
“Unknown” Classification: The target is typically categorized as unknown, which is often considered a “foe” (hostile) in high-threat environments.
Visual/Alternative Identification:
Operators must rely on other methods, such as visual identification or, in very limited, high-stakes cases (like the Phalanx CIWS), fully autonomous systems.

Combat Identification (CID) Failure: The failure of this system can lead to accidental engagement of friendly or neutral aircraft.
————-
Conjecture |~ that it was three planes from the same flight package that had their guard down as they were returning to base and the air defense unit just emptied their battery at them
——-

Supposedly, all 3 airplanes were shot down by MIM-104 Patriot air-to-surface missiles.

This system first entered operational service about a decade after the F-15 did.
Kuwait’s air force first purchased the MIM-104E PAC-2 air defense missiles in 2010 (and a couple years later purchased some MIM104F PAC-3 missiles). Egypt, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan also operate the system.
——-

Mr skeptic writes:
§| This happened to 3 planes?
In the same place?
With the same AA operator?
In a row?
_____

Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 2 2026 16:24 utc | 140

@ Melaleuca | Mar 2 2026 16:24 utc | 140

thanks melaleuca… i share the view of the mr. skeptic…

Posted by: james | Mar 2 2026 16:28 utc | 141

Is the USAF really so hopeless that little Kuwait‘s SAMs can shoot down 3 in a few hpurs ?

reflect on that Barflies

Posted by: Exile | Mar 2 2026 16:38 utc | 142

john helmer from yesterday –

ON THE BRINK OF ISRAELI NUCLEAR ATTACK ON IRAN — TRUMP JUST SAID SO

Posted by: james | Mar 2 2026 16:39 utc | 143

There is no disruption to the oil supply just yet. The +8 is based on expectations and a first wave increase, likely to keep the shock at a minimum.

Posted by: WG | Mar 2 2026 16:45 utc | 144

Larry Johnson’s site may be under some sort of DDOS attack. A few minutes ago was getting cloudflare related http error 522. Now I can see the site with a cloudflare banner saying it is off line but “cloudflare always on” is showing archive of the site as of Thursday before Operation Epstein Fury commenced.

Posted by: Joe Turner | Mar 2 2026 16:45 utc | 145

Posted by: Suresh | Mar 2 2026 6:04 utc | 70
”
The United States Central Command has confirmed that three U.S. Air Force F-15E long range fighters were shot down over Kuwait on March 1, following multiple unconfirmed repots of shootdowns, and the subsequent release of footage showing one of the aircraft falling in flames in an uncontrolled spiral over Kuwaiti skies.
Claims that the aircraft were shot down by Kuwaiti forces, rather than by hostile air defences in Iran or Iraq, having been bought to serious question. With Kuwait employing exclusively NATO standard air defence systems and fighter aircraft, modern identification friend or foe systems leave only a minimal possibility of shooting down friendly fighter aircraft, fuelling speculation that claims that the aircraft were shot down by friendly forces may be an attempt to deny Iran credit for what would be one of the most signifiant air defence operations in recent decades.
The U.S. Armed Forces have a history of seeking to conceal major details in the losses of high value aircraft, with a notable example being the attribution of the loss of an F-18 fighter on the first day of Operation Desert Storm against Iraq to ground-based systems, despite persistent reports that Iraqi aircraft had been responsible. It was only later conceded that a MiG-25PD interceptor had shot down the fighter. Eight years later, repots of Yugoslav air defences critically damaging a second F-117 stealth fighter, after shooting down a first, were widely denied or ignored, and were only confirmed by a U.S. Air Force pilot in December 2020. The loss of three F-15s, which are among the most costly and high value fighter types in service, to a single Iranian air defence operation, would be a significant embarrassment for the U.S. Armed Forces and the country’s defence sector, particularly at a time when efforts are being made to market the F-15 abroad for well over $300 million each. ”
https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/us-confirms-loss-three-f15e-iran

Posted by: Jams O’Donnell | Mar 2 2026 17:18 utc | 146

Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 2 2026 16:24 utc | 140
Posted by: Jams O’Donnell | Mar 2 2026 17:18 utc | 146

Especially when you consider that ‘Patriot’ systems are almost incapable of shooting anything down except stuff that impales itself on a missile.

Posted by: Jams O’Donnell | Mar 2 2026 17:21 utc | 147

Iran has a right to defend itself.

Posted by: Exile | Mar 2 2026 17:29 utc | 148

Posted by: steven t johnson | Mar 2 2026 15:51 utc | 135
“…the germ theory of disease was even propagated, were nevertheless magically capable of waging germ warfare.”

a simple understanding of contagion does not require knowledge of germ theory.

no modern understanding of addiction is required to get a planet addicted to tobacco and spirits, is it?

most people don’t understand the chemical processes involved in firing a gun. But here we are.

and look at all the obese malnourished people in the world. now that has certainly never occurred in human history. all those freedom fries and ketchup from the New World. when they do the inevitable remake of “Empire of the Ants,” what will the high-fructose fed buggers do then? back in the glory days when Coke was the real thing, at least when it came to sugar.

Posted by: duck n cover | Mar 2 2026 17:34 utc | 149

Inconvenient Truth of the day.

If there was no such place as “Israel” this attack on Iran wouldn’t be happening.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 2 2026 17:37 utc | 150

Israeli media.
Yeah, a coupla planes crashed. U$ planes, so nevermind :
https://xcancel.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/2028432783383617687

Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 2 2026 17:43 utc | 151

Inconvenient Truth of the day. If there was no such place as “Israel” this attack on Iran wouldn’t be happening.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 2 2026 17:37 utc | 150

What if it is not the truth, what if (as in Venezuela) the only objective is to control , or at least deny , cheap oil to china?

israel may have an agenda and us another… a “one-two” punch against china and then…

what if then us offered RF Eastern Europe (and even a say on western continental) , for joining the us on a “energy board” that decides who gets what at what price…

not saying it is so, not saying RF would accept, just discussing a scenario that could neuter china without a direct blockade , let alone open conflict…

Posted by: Newbie | Mar 2 2026 18:00 utc | 152

ON THE BRINK OF ISRAELI NUCLEAR ATTACK ON IRAN — TRUMP JUST SAID SO
by John Helmer
If the Iranians can, they will launch the attack on Israel which Postol has mapped as near-total destruction of the Israeli cities. If they do, or if they are about to do, Israel will launch preemptive nuclear attack

Read more
https://johnhelmer.net/on-the-brink-of-israeli-nuclear-attack-on-iran-trump-just-said-so/

Posted by: Phrateek Lampada | Mar 2 2026 18:03 utc | 153

All of our activities typically happen on a single device. This causes us to worry about whether it’s safe to click on a link or install an app, since being hacked imperils our entire digital existence.
Qubes eliminates this concern by allowing us to divide a device into many compartments, much as we divide a physical building into many rooms. Better yet, it allows us to create new compartments whenever we need them, and it gives us sophisticated tools for securely managing our activities and data across these compartments.
Use qubes os to defeat the Feds setup max opsec
https://immigrationreform459.blogspot.com/2026/02/high-resistance-opsec-guide-for.html?m=1

Posted by: Kes | Mar 2 2026 18:05 utc | 154

Came to this for a break from WWIII.
A few days ago a mate sent me a bunch of links relating to the rolling shitshow that is the AI tech sector.
Most of them went deep into the financial shenanigans the Tech Bros are using to look vaguely solvent, if not now, then soon. Trust us.
The phenomenal amounts of venture capital being bet on this technology which will almost certainly be lost.
The fact that corporate America has put so many of its eggs in this basket case technology.
The disappointing returns of scale, the phenomenal stupidity of LLMs and the new horror of it being embedded into America’s War Machine (looking at Iran, it may have already happened).
One was a bit different, being a report from San Francisco on some of the fringe characters riding the expansion of this latest tech bubble.
After reading it I wondered if it was fiction – some near future sci-fi story of a normie observer watching the seeds of a revolutionary technology sprout, meeting cartoonish stereotypes developing it and the various hangers-on, an emergent counter-culture convinced of humans enduring superior brains, only to e increasingly horrified as the sprouts come up like knotweed to choke out the world as we know it.
But no – Cluely is real, as is its owner. It seems uber-hustling zoomers have cracked the secret of telling venture capitalists what they need to hear to be showered with millions or billions of dollars for some hacked together front-end for one or other AI engine. There is even an uber-uber-hustler grifting off the other hustlers.
I spent some time in Silicon Valley and SF in the naughties, it was la-la-land back then. Now it looks like aliens have landed, and they are brain-dead. Anyhoo, it is engagingly written and not overly technical, so read on…
Child’s Play Tech’s new generation and the end of thinking

There’s going to be some very broken and broke people when this bubble bursts.

Posted by: ChatNPC | Mar 2 2026 18:11 utc | 155

The Outlaw US of A and Israel are using Iran as a proxy for this war of attrition. Iran however knows that. Iran are holding the upper hand. No one will be safe including if you are based at the other side of pond.

Posted by: pepe | Mar 2 2026 18:12 utc | 156

IRGC REPORT ON 12TH WAVE OF TRUE PROMISE 4

➡️Bitumen tanker “Athe Nova,” belonging to US allies, is still burning in the Strait of Hormuz after being hit by 2 drones

➡️The twelfth wave of Operation True Promise 4 in the maritime arena showcased the decisive and targeted action of the IRGC Navy against enemy bases by attacking fixed and mobile targets of the hostile US military in three countries—Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain—and the Strait of Hormuz, with the launch of 26 attack drones and 5 ballistic missiles.

➡️ In these prideful operations, the US “Arefjan” base in Kuwait was hit in two stages by 12 drones.

➡️The US military command and control center at Al-Minhad base in the UAE was targeted with 6 drones and 5 ballistic missiles.

➡️The remaining installations of the US naval fleet in Bahrain were hit and destroyed by 6 drones.

➡️The bitumen tanker “Athe Nova,” belonging to US allies in the Strait of Hormuz, is still burning after being hit by 2 drones.

🐻The latest tacking data for the tanker “Athe Nova” confirms it is standing still in the Gulf of Oman at the exit of the Straight of Hormuz.

🔴 @DDGeopolitics

https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/174961

Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 2 2026 18:27 utc | 157

It’s hilarious that NoBody influencers with a million “followers” are crying because they are sleeping on the floor of Dubai airport or whatever hardship.
But lack of flights will soon impact the essential imports into Gulf countries…like bottled water:

Water scarce in UAE
https://x.com/Partisangirl/status/2028455701933387893

The UAE will run out of water.
People are already panic buying water, the smart ones at least.

Tap water isn’t drinkable. Bottled water has to be shipped in.

The airways are closed.

The sea (Hormuz) is closed.

Nothing is coming in. It’s the desert.

Temperatures can rise up to 130 degrees Fahrenheit (55 degrees Celsius) with 100% humidity.

The government has instructed people not to panic buy, which means they know they will run out of water.

I speak from personal experience when I lived in the UAE as a child, and war broke out in the region, everyone panic bought water, and there was non left for the rest of us.

Who thought it was a good idea to stick 9 million foreigners in the desert? The same people who invented the “UAE” in the first place. Nature was always going to reclaim that place.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 2 2026 19:13 utc | 158

Woke @ 138

I was thinking of MacBeth, Act 3, Scene 3. Probably should have quoted it exactly – “Let it come down.” – but the repetition would have accentuated the reading you have.

Every red line has been crossed. If they have nukes they would already be using them. If they surprise me and use them now or next week or next month I will say they were always going to use them. Just waiting for the moment when a big boom would satisfy their little minds. They are certifiably mad. They have no understanding of the toys they play with. Just none.

If the nuclear moment passes US is never rebuilding and re-occupying those bases in the Gulf and in the region. It is a dead loss and a permanent loss. Iran just cut the US down to size. Israel loves to say ‘existential a few thousand times a day and now it is. Israel committed national suicide on October 7. US followed suit on Feb 28. There is no coming back. Out damned spot.

Posted by: oldhippie | Mar 2 2026 20:06 utc | 159

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Posted by: oldhippie | Mar 2 2026 20:11 utc | 160

There’s Iran thread 1, 2, there’s the china angle, the classic Ukraine thread… this being the open thread is perfect to float some ideas (that might sound crazy)

point in question, macron just announced France will build more nukes, not report on how many, spread them wherever they choose.

then I heard hectic Pete in a frenzy over Iran being able (in a year time) to saturate with balistics the whole region… it rang a bell

what if? What if macron woke up to the ghost of de Gaulle looking down on him and just yelled!

”mon dieu!!! What if our “American friends” decide to defang every dangerous county ? Even France!!!”

seriously, part of the current us agenda can be to assure gelding of every country that it can (maybe even Israel might start sweating now…)

pros cons and critics or improvements welcome.

p.s. a bit tired of the Epstein fury name, how about hectic furries? I can picture the entire trump cabinet in full cosplay gear in the new ballroom

Posted by: Newbie | Mar 2 2026 21:04 utc | 161

Posted by: duck n cover | Mar 2 2026 17:34 utc | 149 There is at least one documented instance of a deliberate effort to spread smallpox. There is no documentation of success. The point is not that some people were just as malevolent then as now, the point is that the many, many deaths from disease cannot be c0unted as acts of genocide. Otherwise All Under Heaven should be calling for the extermination of Asians for genocide against Europe in the Black Death. Or possibly attacking Black Africans for germ warfare which did so much to keep Europeans in coastal enclaves. At least that was the case until the isolation and manufacture of quinine became widespread later in the 19th century. It was disease which fortuitously enabled many European invaders to win in the first place. Successful germ warfare is something of a pipe dream even now, despite all the claims about covid being genocidal germ warfare. For one thing, humanity is one species, therefore any bioweapon will strike user and target alike. That’s barring a massive vaccination program to shield the aggressive party.

European weapons were superior but the numbers were against them until nature took a hand. The fact that so many more diseases came from European invaders was due to so many diseases from Asia and Africa spreading to Europe, making Europeans a reservoir for unfamiliar thus dangerous diseases. As I joked, that wasn’t germ warfare either. Cortez is possibly the most famous example of an invader saved by germs. But the Pilgrims moved into a seemingly empty land without violence because disease had already wiped out so many of the local populations. The Wampanoags allied with the settlers to slaughter the Pequot (and the Narragansett stood neutral.) In King Philip’s War, as its called, the Wampanoag and the Narragansett mostly killed…but anywhere from 5% to 30% of the settlers died, with whole settlements annihilated. What would have happened if there had never been such losses is uncertain. But it might have been impossible for the settlers to win if there local populations hadn’t been diminished enough decades before?

Perhaps this is a good place to note straight-up mass slaughter appears to have been the primary mode of genocide in the far west, especially California, rather than the more usual theft of land and resources or so-called removal. At first glance, this seems to be because there was no place further west to remove the survivors of defeat to, lower numbers for self-defense by the native people and the impunity provided by even more superior technology and the decades of precedent.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Mar 2 2026 21:45 utc | 162

I can picture the entire trump cabinet in full cosplay gear in the new ballroom

Posted by: Newbie | Mar 2 2026 21:04 utc | 161

[jukebox] Michael Jackson – Beat It (yt video)

Posted by: persiflo | Mar 2 2026 22:58 utc | 163

Zhao Dashuai has this Tweet:
https://xcancel.com/zhao_dashuai/status/2028409985231888560
It’s a picture of a cetacean swimming underwater, exhaling a puff of air from its blowhole. What could be its significance besides the bubbles forming the shape of a mushroom cloud and its connotations with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? (themselves condemned as war crimes by the Russian government and almost universally in this bar)

Posted by: Digby | Mar 3 2026 4:47 utc | 164

Well, while waiting on this global sporting event in the middle east, I bought some rough opal. I have a grinder at my mates shed with a cubic boron nitride wheel that I used for grinding tungsten carbide. Will have to get that down here and see if I can turn a bit of stone into a gem. I bought one stone, beautiful colour and when I thought I had bought it, it came up unavailable. I thought bugger, I missed out, someone else got. So I went looking for another stone. Found one with promise but I do not think as good so bought that straight away so I wouldn’t miss out. Same thing. Checked into and bugger. I had bought two stones. The oddities of the website.

The first stone I bought for around 100$, I reckon I should be able to cut a gem worth around the 800 to a 1000$. How good my judgment is is to be put to the test. But I will certainly not lose on it. It will be break even or better at absolute worst. The second stone is guaranteed bread and butter. It may turn out far better but has a defect in the center so will likely have to be cut into three stones. I could only get glimpses at that ones potential but colour peaking out all over.

In opal Greens and blues are he cheapest colours and are the fastest sellers. Yellows oranges and reds are far more expensive. I went through the under 100$ stones looking for those colours. The vast majority were greens and blues. But whatever colour, pattern and brightness are exceptionally important.

The first I bought, I could see the pattern. The second, I could only see glimpses of the colour.

Good gems. They only enhance the natural beauty of a woman.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 3 2026 5:48 utc | 165

@ Peter AU1 | Mar 3 2026 5:48 utc | 165 with the Opal work….let me know what you come up with and I may buy from you…

##############

From ZH…..LOL!

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado said on March 1 that she will return to her country in the coming weeks.
Machado, 58, did not set a date for her return, but she said in a video posted to X that one of the objectives is to prepare for “a new and resounding electoral victory.”
“I will return to Venezuela in a few weeks. I want to do so, as do hundreds and thousands of Venezuelan exiles around the world,” she said. “We will arrive to embrace one another, to work together to guarantee an orderly and sustainable transition to democracy.”

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 3 2026 5:54 utc | 166

oldhippie | Mar 2 2026 20:11 utc | 160

Its an odd thing oldhippie. All my life I have realised the power was out of my hands. I lived much of my life in remote regions. No man no problems. The odd occasion there was a problem, pull out the gun. Then matters could be settled diplomatically.

This last decade tracking to the source of so called power. Much was suspected. The Epstein files laid it bare. I am not an educated man but fucken hell, one plus one equals two. Understanding the rougher side of life I guess allows a better understanding of the Epstein files.

The networking of this multinational organised crime gang that rule over us here in this so called west…..

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 3 2026 6:06 utc | 167

I am reading a Xinhuanet posting about robots and want to share why China is sprinting ahead of the profit constrained West

One key driver of this rapid progress is China’s model of collaborative innovation. Training humanoid robots isn’t left to isolated experiments; it is treated as a coordinated, large-scale engineering effort that integrates virtual simulation, physical testing and industry participation. Government-backed innovation centers — co-built with research institutes and private firms — help consolidate resources and address shared bottlenecks in data, computing power and training efficiency, accelerating the transition from lab prototypes to deployable products.
In recent years, national and regional humanoid robotics innovation centers and embodied intelligence training facilities have expanded rapidly. Shanghai’s heterogeneous robot training facility, for example, accommodates more than 100 robots for multi-scenario exercises, generating data across industrial and service environments. Open-source datasets and motion-control frameworks further reduce industry entry barriers, enabling faster commercialization.
At the Hangzhou Embodied Intelligence Pilot Base, this ecosystem approach is being formalized. Li Xingteng, deputy general manager of the base, said organizers are establishing academic, industrial and technical committees to align researchers, founders and chief technologists.
In his view, competition in embodied intelligence will ultimately hinge not on a single breakthrough but on the resilience of the entire ecosystem. China already holds globally competitive advantages in robot bodies, dexterous hands and manufacturing capacity, he said, but these strengths remain fragmented. The base aims to integrate upstream and downstream players while lowering corporate costs through shared data infrastructure.
It has aggregated 22 major open-source embodied intelligence datasets and is testing multiple real-world data collection routes to identify the most cost-effective approach. While simulation is useful, Li stressed that real-world data remains essential for task-specific training. By providing diverse collection environments, the base lowers the burden on individual firms and supports joint model development.

Link
https://english.news.cn/20260302/e61b8eb3dc76486697b92c11360cdf16/c.html

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 3 2026 6:16 utc | 168

I began to read in despair but it’s been turned around for this night. Much appreciated MOA posters…and thanks to Teri for keeping the Palestinian thread going. (Earlier I thought it would take a lot of searching to find out how Israhell was taking advantage of US attack on Iran (in addition to Israhell’s attacks on Lebanon on TV news, but nothing on Gaza)). Didn’t know thread was here. Thanx again for your work ..

9 teri– “Israel, being the paramount exemplar of depravity, decided yesterday to make Gaza pay.”

28 Hot Carl — “If Iran intentionally targeted infrastructure that made israel livable, such as cutting all electricity, all water though plumbing supply and crator runways to preclude fixed wing aviation… If Iran did those things, the Europeans now occupying Palestine would leave that then unlivable place and go elsewhere. Problem solved! However, you can be sure the Iranians are not smart enough to understand that concept and they will refuse to adopt any discernable strategy to reach the desired outcome of ending the European occupation of Palestine, or anything else.”

31 persiflo — “from where we learn that baiting Iran into an escalation that makes Israel unlivable is part of USrael’s battle plan, so they can use nukes (presumably). Or it may be just a threat.”
75 Suresh. — “The 2 hour coordinated respond against all US assets in the region was completely unexpected and overwhelmed military planners not used to dealing with a multidomain conflict.”

90 Melaleuca — “@MaxBlumenthal
WaPo: the mood inside the Pentagon is “intense and paranoid”
Pentagon leaders worry the US will expend its air defense stockpiles, and the conflict will “spiral out of control”
This is precisely what Pentagon Joint Chiefs Chair Dan Caine warned of last week ..”

Posted by: Lavieja | Mar 3 2026 6:26 utc | 169

psychohistorian | Mar 3 2026 5:54 utc | 166

The first one, if it works out and my judgement is good, will go to my sister. If that does work out, the next good one that works out, you will be given first option at mates rates psycho.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 3 2026 6:27 utc | 170

146 Jams O’Donnell — Great news!!!

Posted by: Lavieja | Mar 3 2026 6:36 utc | 171

If the Iranians can, they will launch the attack on Israel which Postol has mapped as near-total destruction of the Israeli cities

Posted by: Phrateek Lampada | Mar 2 2026 18:03 utc | 153

I dunno, based of actual report (not supposition) the Iranians have this far refrained from attacks on power stations, water supply, etc. They have not even hit any civilian ports as far as I can discover. Regarding the one attack on Aramco, Iran was quick to say it wasn’t done by them.

Seems like Iran has chosen to go with Queensbury Rules for the first few rounds at least.

Posted by: Tel | Mar 3 2026 6:39 utc | 172

Posted by: james | Mar 2 2026 15:45 utc | 134

Perfectly fine for you to be ‘on the fence’, james. And the iconoclasts weren’t entirely wrong as icons were being treated far too extremely when the objections began to be raised. But it is also true that a trumpian madness infected the Byzantine powerfuls of the time and many of the earliest such paintings were lost. The ones we do have come from places like St. Catherine’s monastery on Mount Sinai, which was remote enough to be safe. It does show however that it’s easy to misunderstand how icons are rightly a part of the Orthodox panoply, where they are not the subject of worship but of veneration.

Perhaps the clearest explanation of the meaning of icons is expressed in a text I have, written by Leonid Ouspensky:

“…. The formulation of the Council [the VIIth Ecumenical Council reestablishing the veneration of icons] says: “We preserve, without innovations, all the Church traditions established for us, whether written or not written, one of which is icon-painting as corresponding to what the Gospels preach and relate … for if the one is shown by the other, the one is incontestably made clear by the other… ”

Again, in the words of Leonid Ouspensky:

… The icon never strives to stir the emotions of the faithful. Its task is not to provoke in them one or another natural human emotion, but to guide every emotion as well as the reason and all the other faculties of human nature on the way towards transfiguration …

Posted by: juliania | Mar 3 2026 6:41 utc | 173

Thank you For remininding us of the spiritual aspects of our Holy Icons

Posted by: Exile | Mar 3 2026 7:26 utc | 174

There’s this book called the Koran. You might consider reading it.
Posted by: malenkov | Mar 2 2026 13:39 utc | 127
I am sure there can be a justification for starting a war in Islam if it is absolutely certain that you are about to be the victim of aggression. Can you try to answer the question?

Posted by: calendars | Mar 3 2026 10:18 utc | 175

“Justin Wolfers: We Are Sabotaging the Engine of Our Prosperity”. (Translation: Trump is sabotaging US prosperity)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni4E5fY_eAU (length: 10 minutes)

Posted by: WMG | Mar 3 2026 10:25 utc | 176

April futures on the TTF index — Europe’s largest hub — opened at $586.7 per 1,000 cubic meters (+8.8%) at 07:00 GMT. As of 07:52 GMT, they were trading at $710.8 (+31.8%).

Posted by: Jo | Mar 3 2026 10:58 utc | 177

my mrs has come across info re Epstein….that young children up to say 7-8 yrs old are deliberately stressed or excited, this releases extra hormones or ? into the blood which is then eithdrawn to make serums. This explains certain poses in photographs plus the looks that certtain medical treatments are beong applied. EG the pic of former Andrew over a young teenager it looks like so the “enhanced blood” can be used as a serum for him?

Posted by: Jo | Mar 3 2026 11:05 utc | 178

🇺🇸 ☄ The US tested new weapons during strikes on IranThe US Central Command (CENTCOM) published a series of photos capturing the first 24 hours of the operation. In them, the launch of a new ballistic missile, PrSM, from a wheeled launcher of the M142 HIMARS multiple rocket launcher system was identified. This missile is essentially a continuation of the ATACMS, known for its use in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The difference of PrSM lies in the range of flight (more than 500-650 km versus 300 for ATACMS) and an improved navigation system. In addition, two PrSM missiles are installed in the HIMARS launcher instead of one ATACMS. Earlier in 2024, , which could have already been manufactured and delivered to the troops. Later, in March 2025, a new contract was signed with Lockheed Martin for the supply of 1170 PrSM. ✨ The missile’s flight range allows for highly accurate strikes deep into Iran from the territory of almost any US-allied Middle Eastern country. In addition, the mobility of the ground launcher ensures the concealment of movement, the surprise of the strike, and safe withdrawal, making them no less formidable weapons than ships and aircraft.⚡️

Posted by: Jo | Mar 3 2026 11:32 utc | 179

Mysterious earthquakes have occurred near a secret US military base.
In Nevada, where the “Object 52” base is located, 16 earthquakes with a magnitude exceeding 2.5 have been recorded. Over the past week, more than 100 tremors with magnitudes between 1.0 and 3.0 have occurred. Notably, the series of earthquakes began simultaneously with the US and Israeli attack on Iran.
For many years, it was believed that “Object 52” was used for experimental testing of stealth aircraft and nuclear weapons research.
📢 | 📲 lord of war both posts

Posted by: Jo | Mar 3 2026 11:35 utc | 180

Posted by: Phrateek Lampada | Mar 2 2026 18:03 utc | 153

Hate to disagree, but Helmer is WRONG. “Israel” hasn’t got any Nukes. It’s run by Jews. And if they ever accumulated enough dosh to invest in an Atomic Bomb, then the ~ 12 families in charge of the Parasite Statelet would have found the temptation to steal it irresistable.

They spent it on private jets, luxury yachts and upmarket condos in Monte Carlo and Florida. Bibi spends as much time outside “Israel” as inside it. His wife is a member of one of the ~ 12 ruling families and Bibi WAS not. He’s probly got a big Dick which Jewesses find very pleasing.

If you watch clips of him, you’ll notice that the clips made outside “Israel” (with no other people in them) have one of 3 or 4 standard background posters taped to the wall behind him.

Jews are devoted to the relentless pursuit of Cheap Tricks..
The cheaper the better…

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 3 2026 13:35 utc | 181

Posted by: persiflo | Mar 2 2026 22:58 utc

That night. ’81 still feels fresh in my mind. Dagenham was just a small place then, but that evening, everything changed for good. I was on my way to see Queen at Wembley. Just a kid from the estate, no big dreams or anything, just looking for a decent night out. Little did I realize, I was about to step into something way bigger than I thought.

As I moved through the crowd, I’d heard folks whispering about “Under Pressure.” At first, I just thought it was about stress, everyone feeling weighed down, trying to keep it together. The lines about “loves daring you to change” and “this is our last dance” seemed like a cry for freedom, like a call to break free from all the usual chains. I saw it as a song about pushing back, finding your courage when the world’s pressuring you.

Then Bowie’s words hit me:

“It’s the terror of knowing what this world is about.”

That one hit hard. Felt like he was talking about the fear of really facing who you are, of showing your true self in a world that doesn’t always want that. I thought maybe it was about coming out, about being honest, about love, breaking free from all the lies and hiding.

But as I kept listening, something changed inside. The lyrics started to seem like clues, like a code. I remembered stuff I’d read about Gnosticism, about hidden knowledge, about the Demiurge, that false god who keeps us trapped in illusion.

Suddenly, that line: “It’s the terror of knowing what this world is about” took on a whole new meaning. It wasn’t just about personal fear. It was about the cosmic horror of waking up to the truth. That maybe we’re living in a fake universe, built on lies, controlled by some blind, ignorant creator.The Demiurge.

That’s when it hit me hard: Queen and Bowie weren’t just singing about life’s struggles. They were dropping hints, encoding messages about what’s really going on. Their music was like a secret language, a call for those who could see beyond the veil. Below the catchy melodies, there was a story about awakening, about pulling back the curtain on the big deception.

Standing there in the crowd, I realized I’d caught a glimpse of something real. The illusion was starting to crack. The world I thought I knew? It was actually a prison, created by the Demiurge. The real story was hidden underneath, waiting for the brave to notice it.

That night, I didn’t just leave as a fan. I left as someone starting to wake up to the cosmic game. The lyrics, the music, they weren’t just about love or stress. They were signposts pointing toward gnosis, toward freeing the soul from the Demiurge’s domain.

And from then on, there was no turning back. The curtain had been pulled back, and I saw the truth: we’re all prisoners in some shadow realm. But the light of knowledge? Yeah, it’s out there, just waiting to set us free.

Posted by: lachaussette | Mar 3 2026 14:23 utc | 182

Stock market going down. Oil going up. Gas in the EU has near doubled.
The new supreme leader has declared Jihad so the US is now in a forever war with a country that has cutting edge missiles. The Iranians won’t be negotiating with the Americans. The only ending for the Americans is to leave the region. Officially there is 10 dead Americans but I suspect the number is higher. The higher the better. The Americans like to use the term “Make them pay a cost”. Well I want to see the Americans pay a “cost”.

I suspect the Persian Gulf will be closed for the duration of this forever war. That will really put the screws into the Europeans.
Qatar has ceased gas production and Iraq has ceased oil production as all storage is full. I guess all the gulf oil countries will cease production. That will cost them bigtime. They should not have been hosting US bases.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 3 2026 16:12 utc | 183

Ah, the state of European infrastructure. My attention has just been drawn to this satirical site: https://bahn.bet/ which allows the placing of spoof bets on the delays for Deutsche Bahn trains.

Could do with something similar in Britain.

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Mar 3 2026 19:51 utc | 184

Great news, Peter! I hope the opal work can bring you lasting serenity.

I don’t feel like I have to offer much advice to you about most anything, but still here be mentioned a character trait that I see in all of the more serious artists that I know: patience and dedication. The skills will come over time. Passion helps a lot, but without dedication even a strong talent can’t begin to show. All the while personal talent is almost of no meaningful consideration as long as one finds joy doing the thing (and doesn’t depend emotionally on outsized notions of success). Calm and steady work almost always is what wins the day in the artistic fields.

Creative urge is prone to ebbs and flows. There will be periods of frustration. It’s common good advice to let go a bit then; for it will return. Most professionals do that while not falling completely out of their routines. The lucky few who have a chance to work in their own schedule often treasure their regular hours in the studio. They will show up whenever possible; and if it means they just do some cleaning, drink tea and read the newspaper, so be it.

My new studio mate is like that. We’re getting along pretty well. He usually likes to have a good, serious and succinct chat right after he comes in and again when he packs up to leave, but prefers to work in focused silence throughout, completely unfazed but also fully aware of my presence, for hours and hours. I like that very much.

Oh, and make sure you have a really good light! A bright, full-spectrum lamp with adjustable Q (think of as a colour accent) such as used in professional photography, perhaps. Art galleries use them for pictures of paintings and such, where it depends on matching true colors and perfect reproduction. Nothing beats sunlight, but you’ll want both. Also you may want to get your eyesight checked and find a suitable visual aid.

Apologies for the unwarranted info bomb, but I just can’t help being happy for you.

Posted by: persiflo | Mar 3 2026 20:08 utc | 185

Posted by: Jo | Mar 3 2026 11:05 utc | 178

adrenochrome

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 3 2026 21:20 utc | 186

Posted by: Jo | Mar 3 2026 11:05 utc | 178

adrenochrome

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 3 2026 21:20 utc | 186

also, the elite seek near term aborted babies, black in particular. Purist stem cells.

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 3 2026 21:24 utc | 187

persiflo | Mar 3 2026 20:08 utc | 185

Thanks persiflo. Sunlight is the best light so I will set up on the veranda. Still summer here and we generally get sunny days through till June July. Ive rubbed boulder opal before and polished some of it by hand. Its something I can stay engrossed, especial the roughing out stage to reveal how much colour pattern and brightness it has.

Boulder opal more often than not is cut free form, but the other opals are generally a symmetrical cut some will lend themselves to various shapes diamonds, triangles, rectangles ect to get max carat weight but the most popular shape is the oval. Cutting the perfect oval is going to be the hard part for me. There are templates with a wide range of ovals so I will likely get one of them. When doing the final cutting, I will be able to use that as a guage to get a perfectly symmetrical oval.

Will mostly be doing it on a hobo’s budget at the start. The bench grinder turns at over twice the speed of a cabbing machine. Opal is glass with a small water content so have to be very careful not to overheat the stone and blow splinters out of it.

When I was recovering early last year,I found a couple of chunks of boulder I had never bothered to cut any stones out of, so sat on the veranda for some days and rubbed them out on a diamond knife sharpening stone. Just low grade matrix boulder stuff mostly blues some green that only flashed when seen from at a sharp angle off to one side. That’s the other thing about the value of opal, you want it to flash when looking at it directly.

But when I ran I out, I wished I had more. I haven’t ever bothered to polish them. Polishing that many very low grade stones by hand – no thanks. If I get a 1200 grit soft wheel and a felt polishing wheel at some stage I will finish them.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 3 2026 22:20 utc | 188

lachaussette | Mar 3 2026 14:23 utc | 182

I had begun researching Australian political stuff in 2013. I had never been interested in politics and never voted but the was something from earlier I had always wondered about so researched that and it got me looking into domestic policy here.

With MH17 I watched that very closely as PM Abbott turned out to be central to the incident I had first researched. I could believe it when than fascist lying prick had been elected.
Two weeks after the crash, I realized with total certainty that the Australian government was an accomplice to that shoot down and something just turned over in me. It actually felt like something physical in me had turned over.
Every Australian government since that has not released the classified agreement between Australia and Ukraine on the investigation of the shootdown is also an accomplice. And not only that, they are all international criminals as they are involved in a war of aggression against Russia.

It is exactly the same with Americans and 9/11. The Epstein class. All traitors their country and people. Not just ruthless – pure evil. Satanic as the Russians say.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 3 2026 22:37 utc | 189

I had begun researching Australian political stuff in 2013. I had never been interested in politics and never voted

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 3 2026 22:37 utc | 189

wow.

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 4 2026 0:27 utc | 190

From Xinhuanet about the South Korea market trading being halted

SEOUL, March 4 (Xinhua) — South Korea’s bourse operator triggered circuit breakers on Wednesday after a bout of panic selling amid escalating Middle East conflict.
The benchmark KOSPI tumbled 468.98 points, or 8.10 percent, to 5,322.93, and the smaller KOSDAQ plunged 92.46 points, or 8.13 percent, to 1,045.24.
The Korea Exchange triggered circuit breakers on both the KOSPI and KOSDAQ markets following the severe market crash, caused by the escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
The level 1 circuit breaker was activated in the KOSDAQ at 11:16 a.m. local time (0216 GMT), and the circuit breaker was also issued in the KOSPI about three minutes later.
A level 1 circuit breaker will be triggered when the index drops more than 8 percent for at least one minute to suspend trading for 20 minutes, while a level 2 will be activated when the index plunges 15 percent or more for over one minute to halt trading for 20 minutes.
After the 20-minute suspension, trading resumes following a 10-minute single-price auction period.
A level 3 circuit breaker will be triggered when the index drops 20 percent or more and the trading is closed for the day.
The South Korean won versus the U.S. dollar exchange rate stayed at 1,480.30 won per dollar at 11:00 a.m. local time, up 14.20 won from the previous day’s daytime close.
Foreign investors led the sell-off in the KOSPI, while retail and institutional investors prevented a deeper rout through dip-buying in the KOSPI.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 4 2026 4:50 utc | 191

This is Senegal news, but it is indicative of what the colonial States are trying to do to hold onto their colonies.

Senegal Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko has said he is ready to pull his Pastef party out of government and return to the opposition if President Bassirou Diomaye Faye moves away from the party’s vision.

Speaking in a live broadcast, Sonko warned that differences at the top could lead to a strained power-sharing situation.

His comments come as Senegal faces university unrest and tough talks with the International Monetary Fund, which froze a $1.8 billion program in 2024 after the government revealed more than $11 billion in hidden debt.

Sonko, barred from running in the 2024 election, backed Faye, who later appointed him prime minister. But recent disagreements over leadership and debt talks have exposed tensions within the government and unsettled investors.

https://x.com/cecild84/status/2028992416175239392

Layman’s synopsis. Sonko was sent to jail to blunt his ability to win an election. After much public agitation, he was released, and he endorsed his protege, Faye.

Sonko is a pan-africanist and a bit revolutionary. Faye is handsome and well spoken, but a very conventional thinker.

Faye used Sonko’s base and reputation to win the election, promising Sonko a secondary role.

The cracks appeared early, with Faye going to France and doing photo ops with Macron, who represents the colonial power.

Now, it seems that Sonko is tired of Faye being a French tool and weak on reform, and wants to break out on his own.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 4 2026 6:33 utc | 192

Here’s an interview with CEO of Germany’s TKMS, Oliver Burkhard, on why they should be chosen to build subs for Canada. Since b lives in Hamburg, right? (I’m now living in Ottawa, and I saw an ad recently on the side of a bus for South Korea’s Hanwha, which surprised me. Seems a bit mass-media for such a thing.)
https://youtu.be/3CgJEuTkHgo

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Mar 4 2026 11:22 utc | 193

barfly vs. barfly is a book on sabotage of discussion threads on a niche webforum. It was authored by an anonymous troll who assumed the pen name J. Anthony Blinken for the publication. It was originally printed in small number by Masone Publishing Co. and is today considered rare. Copies can achieve significant collector’s value. One heavily worn copy from former DEA inventory has sold on ebay for 200 bucks in 2025. Several pdf versions exist, but all of them have been redacted and partially altered.

The book has gained notoriety after researchers from the Whiskey Bar University claimed to have shown that strategems from the work have been used by several MoA commenters at various times in personal vendettas and philosophical arguments [1]. A group of hacktivists claimed that the text also informs a secret counter-troll operation on the blog; this was retweeted by Kim Dotcom, but later deleted.

[1] From Ragebait to Meltdown: An Escalation Model for Flamewars on a Geopolitical Webforum. weblink

Posted by: persiflo | Mar 4 2026 11:24 utc | 194

The German U-boats are built in Kiel.

Laboe Naval Memorial

Posted by: persiflo | Mar 4 2026 11:48 utc | 195

One heavily worn copy from former DEA inventory has sold on ebay for 200 bucks in 2025. Several pdf versions exist, but all of them have been redacted and partially altered.

Posted by: persiflo | Mar 4 2026 11:24 utc | 194

lie. I sold it for only $187.55.

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 4 2026 12:43 utc | 196

@ pers

never got into .. ezrerbauten neheinem whatever… I remember the radio dj stumbling over their name all the time.

Anyways, I found a 20 year old mp3 player, and lots of music brought back memories, but thos one i had forgotten about completely, and incried amd listened to it at least 15 times on repeat.
x marks the pedwalk sweep hands (timeless remix)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fXEqlkGwLpE

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 4 2026 12:52 utc | 197

ine-shtoortstende noi-bowten

It’s about the lyrics here. “I am six meters tall, I am the whole Chinese people. Feed my ego.”

Posted by: persiflo | Mar 4 2026 15:10 utc | 198

Under the cover of chaos we have the following

“A Watershed Milestone”: Kraken Becomes First Crypto Firm To Gain Access To Fed’s Payment System

Kraken has secured a Federal Reserve “master account,” giving its banking arm direct access to the Fed’s core payment systems and making it the first crypto firm to operate on the same rails as traditional financial institutions, Coindesk reported.
The company said its unit, Kraken Financial, received approval for a Federal Reserve “master account,” the Wall Street Journal reports. The account allows direct access to Fedwire, a major interbank payment network that processes trillions in transfers a day, and will be able to move money on the same rails that banks and credit unions use. The firm also noted that the approval would enable them to handle transactions more quickly and seamlessly for big clients and professional traders, as it would have access to Fedwire.

If you thought the US dollar was worthless, It is now worthless on tulipmania steroids

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 4 2026 15:26 utc | 199

JF: Prof Mohammad Marandi

https://www.youtube.com/@judgingfreedom/featured

*Special*: Prof Mohammad Marandi: Latest developments LIVE from Tehran.”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Mar 4 2026 15:28 utc | 200

Back to Main

Leave a Comment