I smell Bankruptcy, it smells like Victory!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oz16-2Qt_TM&pp=0gcJCdkKAYcqIYzv

Posted by: Nobody | Apr 2 2026 14:35 utc | 4

@ Nobody | Apr 2 2026 14:35 utc | 4
 
thanks for sharing the nima / krainer interview from 3 hours ago… 

Posted by: james | Apr 2 2026 15:25 utc | 6

First anniversary of Liberation Day 

Posted by: Princess Bodica | Apr 2 2026 15:34 utc | 8

@ psychohistorian | Apr 2 2026 15:41 utc | 9
 
yes! i just finished reviewing this interview… i have an approach that cuts down on the time i devote to this videos, as 1 hour and 11 minutes is too much for me… however, i highly recommend the video… here it is (again )  clear to see and connect to – 
 
 

Alex Krainer: Trump TRAPPED in Iran War – The Exit Plan Is Falling Apart…

Dialogue Works

Posted by: james | Apr 2 2026 15:46 utc | 10

Oil wars and opal….
I see our glorious PM gave a speech to the nation the other day. Haven’t bothered to look up the transcript. Urging people to use our nearly non existent public transport as uh … we’re running out of fuel. The problems and headaches of being an American shoe shine boy.
 
Apparently Iran has said the US and its lackies will not be allowed to transport oil out of the gulf even after the conflict is over. A couple of weeks in and people were talking about how expensive fuel was now. Fun times have not even begun yet.
Donny Bullshit working the markets. Nothing like a bit of insider trading to make a quick buck.
 
Finally had a win on the opal today.
First lot op opal I bought on the auctions was disastrous. Hardly cut a stone out of it. Upped my game a bit and next lot were better. cut a lot of low value stones that may have been pushing close to break even. The last small lot that arrived today turned a profit.One small black nobby though turned into a stunner. Had been starting to think Lightning Ridge was over rated and didn’t even make the grade of decent Queensland boulder.
 
Have been buying some Cobber Pedy white very cheap thinking that may be some good bread and butter opal cutting. Coober Pedy is easy enough to put a price on in the rough as it tends to be sold by the troy ounce. From very low grade at around $200 an ounce to $5000 an ounce for the best grade. 
 
Only the Coober Pedy crystal is any good, the whites are crap unless they have very string colour. $5000 a troy ounce is about $30 a carat. The stuff I’ve been buying I have been paying around $5 a carat, sometimes $10 if it looks a bit better. Crap stuff but at least virtually every peace of rough cuts a saleable stone.
 
The bloke that was putting up the Coober Pedy for no reserve auction has just today started operating a reserve on them so I guess that’s the end of my short lived bread and butter. He has set price pieces as well at massively inflated prices. Some of it works out at about 15 to 16,000 an ounce and its not even crystal. Ret say 60% recovery cutting it into finished gems and the rough is worth as much or more than the finished gems that will come out of it. Americans and Europeans will buy the stuff though so he will be making a killing out of it. When I looked early, some were bidding big on fairly ordinary stones trying to beat his reserve. He’s asking Lightning Ridge values for much lower grade Coober Pedy.
 
Out of the opal I’ve bought to date, only the black opal today beats the best of the dregs of my boulder that I dug up around 2000. It wasn’t worth much then so just sold the best and kept the rest. It’s worth a reasonable amount of cash now so will get that all cut and polished as well.
 
Now I’ve got stones everywhere all in various stages of disrepair. One batch cut and polished that just need the backs and setting edges doing, jars with rubs on dopsticks ready to cut and polish and more rubs in trays.
Grinding the rough to find and shape the gem is the good part. Seeing either a dud or a gem as it is exposed. And always hoping the next one will be like what I found today.
Everything after that to the finished gem is tedious, fiddly and boring. As I have been putting it off, I now have a lot of tedious, fiddly and boring work ahead of me.
 
Have just another three pieces of Lightning Ridge coming. One of them I’m hoping will cut black and if it does I may do a bit better than break even on my foray into the online opal buying and cutting learning curve. I’ve spent my booze money, my smokes money and most of my tucker money. So now I have to get these finished then head off to Melbourne and find somebody who will part with plenty of money for a bag full of opals.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 2 2026 16:02 utc | 12

duck n cover | Apr 2 2026 16:12 utc | 13
 
What the fuck are you on about? If you wanna preach, go and preach to the sheeple, those who blithely accepted being injected with a new and untested technology. 
Plenty of research coming out now on the harm done by those American injections but none of the sheeple who rely on MSM propaganda even know, let alone give a shit. They are ones you should be preaching to or ranting against The majority of people in the west are no different to the Ukroids. Lambs to the slaughter.
 
Those who look for their non propaganda MSM news in other places are a small minority of the western population. The looming fuel crisis now – instead of everybody booting the Americans and Epstein class out, that also will be passively accepted by the sheeple.
 

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 2 2026 16:31 utc | 14

a delicate question and an example that explains the whole:
 
in a world of now infinite supply of pornography for all tastes, why is pornography still being produced?
 
will the traffic in youthful flesh decrease due to A.I.?
 
does robotics decrease slavery?

Posted by: duck n cover | Apr 2 2026 17:16 utc | 16

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 2 2026 16:31 utc | 14
so the fuel crisis will stop people from their participation in a society whose public health policy is harming them, either thru the vaccines or thru the spread of disease, or both together.
 
ok. go fuel crisis. we wouldn’t be here if PEOPLE, not you personally with your lifestyle choices, PEOPLE, acted collectively on the claims they were making about covid OR the vaccines.
 
is that clear? 

Posted by: duck n cover | Apr 2 2026 17:24 utc | 18

there’s a similar problem re global warming and EVs:
 
if there is no global warming, what are EVs for?
if there is global warming, what are EVs for?
 
it’s the same answer. 

Posted by: duck n cover | Apr 2 2026 17:28 utc | 20

Now that all the real damning Epstein evidence has been disappeared. 
 
Posted by: Maverick | Apr 2 2026 17:26 utc | 19
 
—
 
Destroyed?  Bondi has certainly kept incriminating evidence as leverage against her foes.
 

Posted by: too scents | Apr 2 2026 17:37 utc | 22

Posted by: too scents | Apr 2 2026 17:37 utc | 22
 
Which is why I used the word disappeared instead of destroyed. 

Posted by: Maverick | Apr 2 2026 17:39 utc | 24

Posted by: duck n cover | Apr 2 2026 17:41 utc | 25
it’s who controls the flow of traffic. 
 
Amazon workers on strike = communism.
 
Amazon firing those workers = GDP growth.
Amazon replacing those workers with robots while workers starve=more GDP growth.
 
and people know, esp in the US, that the country is such a shithole that a disruption to traffic might last days or more. so we all go horde toilet paper at the first snowflake. and if the trailer home gets blown away in a tornado, we can go beg at the Red Cross. it’s all part of the traffic circle of life.
 
anyway, as people “prep,” in the US we face the harsh reality that all zoning laws, fire codes, insurance schedules, condo and home ownership and tenant rules, etc., are ALL designed to prohibit people from collective action. it’s worse in urban areas of course, but can you put up a windmill in Trump’s America?

Posted by: duck n cover | Apr 2 2026 17:51 utc | 26

During that recent Congressional hearing regarding them files of ill-repute, Bondi acted like a “mean girl” in high school to individuals asking questions at the hearing – especially Thomas Massie and another one or two. When I saw that – I knew her days were numbered.
~
Very disrespectful.  Just like the POTUS was to Saudi Arabia recently – speaking of a so-called leader kissing his butt and such.
~
I mean is it too much to expect a bit of “modicum” from the damn president?

Posted by: Ken Hausle | Apr 2 2026 17:59 utc | 28

Posted by: malenkov | Apr 2 2026 17:34 utc | 21
Jackie Treehorn: 100% electronic! Wave of the future, Dude.
 
just to be clear, i meant internet porn and nothing illegal. sticky keyboards are the worst.

Posted by: duck n cover | Apr 2 2026 18:05 utc | 30

Tangential to Iran War: Argentina’s Chabad prez, DJT’s South American sock puppet, the chainsaw man, has declared Iran’s top diplomat in Argentina as persona non grata. His principal opponent in the fractured peronista movement, Axel Kicillof (Jewish and a staunch “left-winger” afaIk has had nothing to say about it, nor has Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, former president and convicted criminal, who was apparently neck-deep in a swindle involving the nationalized petroleum company and the Eskanazi family, a case that has never been resolved in the country (30 March 2026, La Nación,link no longer available, in an opinion piece authored by Enrique Bruchou). Argentina is in deep trouble, but its largely indifferent population seems oblivious.  

Posted by: Montefrío | Apr 2 2026 18:41 utc | 32

Hate most of his gross films, but Cry Baby wasn’t bad.  
 
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Apr 2 2026 18:54 utc | 33

 
Real (and especially fake) communists aren’t exactly known for their sense of humor — Socialist Realism pretty much put an end to the antics of Ilf/Petrov, Katayev, and Zoshchenko — but I’m surprised you didn’t enjoy the dig at suburban PC that is Waters’s Serial Mom.  Anyway, in your honor, here’s another passage from Flamingos Forever.  Edie, Divine’s demented mother who lives in a playpen and eats only eggs, is now a communist:
 

DOYLE “Free men and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf — in a word, oppressor and oppressed ‘–”
EDIE (interrupting) Oh, Doyle, I know that part. What I wanna know is — WAS KARL MARX CUTE?

Posted by: malenkov | Apr 2 2026 19:16 utc | 34

Hate most of his gross films, but Cry Baby wasn’t bad.  
 
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Apr 2 2026 18:54 utc | 33
 
 
Real (and especially fake) communists aren’t exactly known for their sense of humor — Socialist Realism pretty much put an end to the antics of Ilf/Petrov, Katayev, and Zoshchenko — but I’m surprised you didn’t enjoy the dig at suburban PC that is Waters’s Serial Mom. Anyway, in your honor, here’s another passage from Flamingos Forever. Edie, Divine’s demented mother who lives in a playpen and eats only eggs, is now a communist:
 
 
DOYLE “Free men and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf — in a word, oppressor and oppressed ‘–”
EDIE (interrupting) Oh, Doyle, I know that part. What I wanna know is — WAS KARL MARX CUTE?
 
 
 
Posted by: malenkov | Apr 2 2026 19:16 utc | 34
If not reveling in disgusting things makes me a humorless communist: I’ll be that!  
And what if I were to trot out stereotypes about gays every time we had an asthetic disagreement?  You’d be foaming at the mouth, wouldn’t you?  
Typical idpol syndrome.  You’re not part of any special identity community.  They lied to you, buddy.  

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Apr 2 2026 20:20 utc | 36

“I’ve discovered macrame!”
POLYESTER (John Waters, 1981). Una familia normal americana
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-ZFKPdb7xE
the world would be a poorer place without Divine.

Posted by: duck n cover | Apr 2 2026 20:53 utc | 38

duck n cover your love for sickness is showing.

Posted by: patriot_gain | Apr 2 2026 21:19 utc | 40

Trump dumps another cam girl: Bondi fired, Todd Blanche acting Attorney General. 
 
Trump speech: War continues until it doesn’t. The rest of the message, which is we’ve won, makes it pointless to continue the war. The speech is incoherent. The implicit notion that because escalation has terrifying risks with little to no prospect of success even in Trump’s terms, therefore it won’t happen, is sad to say, nonsense. 
 
As to what’s being done, Hegseth has fired Army Chief of Staff Randy George. Hegseth ousts Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George – CBS News
 
Whether or not George is being fired because he’s perceived as a Shinseki calling for too many troops and thereby calling into question the all the political schemes, who knows? This is not a free country where such issues are public matters. They are decided by the masters. 

Posted by: steven t johnson | Apr 2 2026 21:52 utc | 42

Supposedly four men are on a rocket ship on its way around the moon.  Why?  If you need to test a spaceship, why send FOUR people?  Why send any at all?
 
And with those questions, my mind starts spinning.  Are there four men on a rocket?  Is the rocket going around the moon?  If, as has been chattering over the Internet for the last few years, there is a fake alien invasion planned then how does this very odd “return to the moon” play into that.  And did the U.S. ever actually put anyone on the moon?
 
Just things I think about while bored and playing on my phone waiting for my wife who is in Aldi.

Posted by: Nobody Special | Apr 2 2026 22:44 utc | 44

Posted by: steven t johnson | Apr 2 2026 21:52 utc | 46
A DEI hire in Pete’s army is someone who doesn’t believe in the Ashes of the Red Heifer.
 
yes…what’s up…

Posted by: duck n cover | Apr 2 2026 23:13 utc | 46

Posted by: patriot_gain | Apr 2 2026 21:19 utc | 44
pray tell. i know i have a fair enough grasp on how this shithole works. 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtjiVTSs8pc
[Blue Velvet ] In Dreams by Roy Orbison – Extended Version. (HD)
 
as Jack Gettis says to Noah Cross, we all swim in the same waters, don’t we?

Posted by: duck n cover | Apr 2 2026 23:29 utc | 48

Have these Christians ever read the Passion narrative?
it’s not Jesus that is on trial. it’s both the Jewish and Roman legal systems that are on trial. like the Apology of Socrates and many others on up to Josef K, the conflict, the drama, is the phony courtroom proceedings and the legal charade.
 
i think what Christians get out of the story of Jesus is mostly that the state has the authority to crucify people. mom can watch and cry. and then to soften that harsh but divine medicine, they add something about a resurrection or what have you.

Posted by: duck n cover | Apr 3 2026 0:00 utc | 50

Kuromi | Apr 3 2026 1:09 utc | 56
 
All legumes transfer nitrogen from the air to the soil. In rotational cropping, chickpeas are often the crop of choice but any legume crop will do the job. I guess choice of legume depends on climate and soil of whatever area is cropped.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 3 2026 1:54 utc | 52

Finally, I have a question for our infamous barfly KillerDoll. Do you know Lecliss? She seems like a lot of fun to hang out with.

Posted by: Kuromi | Apr 3 2026 1:09 utc | 56

xD I don’t really know who is this Lecliss person but I don’t mind hanging out with anyone.

Posted by: KillerDoll | Apr 3 2026 2:18 utc | 54

duck n cover, you give Hunter S. Thompson on a purgative gonzo rant vibe. 🙂 It’s therapeutic, or perhaps like a flashback high. Or it’s like when I find those good berries so sweet and overripe they get me woozy. Good times.
 
Also there is such a thing as micro generation windmills. But then one might have to fight their ‘Home Owners Association’ to do anything. I keep overhearing that from my human neighbors, “We can’t do shit to the yard because of the HOA and the CC&Rs!” But who runs and votes on those? They do collectively, supposedly. Do they go to the meetings to cooperate and change things? No.
 
🙂 A remarkable prison of their own making. To be so comfortable being comfortable that one cannot be bothered to save themselves due to the effort to cooperate and be slightly uncomfortable. Apathy is a powerful self-oppressor and excellent excuse maker.

Posted by: titmouse | Apr 3 2026 3:10 utc | 56

Thank you bird friend, titmouse. I too am pro micro windmill and anti-HOA. I’ve tried finding a neighborhood without an Hoa, but to no avail. I resorted to blocking them, because they are constantly raising rates, by denying them a quorum. However, once they had enough people, they retroactively applied raised rates and called it a “special assessment”. So annoyed!!
 
Good luck with your nesting and don’t fly into any windmills 😉

Posted by: Kuromi | Apr 3 2026 3:45 utc | 58

@ Suresh | Apr 3 2026 4:16 utc | 64 with the Daily Beast link…..I have never watched before and stopped when they started the BS about how many protesters the Iran government has killed…semi-supporting Trump’s vomit.
 
 
I won’t be going back.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 3 2026 4:51 utc | 60

I won’t be going back.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 3 2026 4:51 utc | 64
 
Thanks 1st time for me. Yes, agree they’re part of the problem too.
 
Only interesting about the implosion within the 47th Admin, as not really up to speed with US “politics”.
 
Apologies to all for the share.
 
Hope news that 90000kg of Chinese rice and 100000 tons of Russian oil has been delivered to Cuba washes off the bad taste.

Posted by: Suresh | Apr 3 2026 5:06 utc | 62

Well, in the cutting and polishing, the best of what I thought was a win in the opal got ground into silica dust. The extra bright and strong colour was just a very thin shell. Taking out a couple of sand spots I could see under 6x magnification was all it took to halve the value. A bit of a bummer.
Still, I should have turned a reasonable profit on the last lot of rough from lightning ridge as the others also cut reasonable gems. Hopefully, the last three pieces of rough still to come will cut just as well.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 3 2026 9:23 utc | 64

Ah a refreshing Roman Easter message from the ever joyous Dmitry to our Eurocucks. 
 
 

East_Calling

 
 

@East_Calling
2h

Dmitry Medvedev: Of course, neither Trump nor America will withdraw from NATO. There’s no point in doing so, and Congress won’t allow it. Trump’s rhetoric is just a stunt. However, symbolic actions like reducing the size of the American contingent or refusing to deploy something are possible. But that’s not the point here. It’s obvious that there are strong contradictions within the alliance, which have been exacerbated by the Iranian campaign. And European politicians, especially in Brussels, are seriously considering creating a full-fledged military component within the EU. And this changes the world picture. Until now, our rhetoric about membership in the European Union has been restrained and calm towards all neighbors, even towards the Banderist Ukraine. Join if you want. But now everything should change – the EU is no longer just an economic union. It could quickly turn into a fully-fledged and extremely hostile military alliance against Russia, even worse than NATO. It will be a disgusting mob of rabid European parasites. And their task will be to earn political capital and, of course, money by fanning Russophobic hysteria. What am I getting at? Well, it’s time to abandon a tolerant attitude towards our neighbors joining the military-economic European Union, including the country 404. Our President recently did this in a neat way, hinting to a certain comrade Vovaevich that membership in the EAEU and membership in the European Union are incompatible… t.me/EastCalling/31381

Apr 3, 2026 · 9:52 AM UTC

Posted by: DunGroanin | Apr 3 2026 12:09 utc | 66

Every State already had its own depart. of Education. No need for a duplicate at the Federal Level. 

Posted by: Exile | Apr 3 2026 12:40 utc | 68

WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS/PARIS – The NATO alliance has in recent years survived existential challenges – ranging from the war in Ukraine to multiple bouts of pressure and insults from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has questioned its core mission and threatened to seize Greenland.
 
But it is the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, thousands of miles from Europe, that has nearly broken the 76-year-old bloc and threatens to leave it in its weakest state since its creation, say analysts and diplomats.
 
Trump, enraged that European countries have declined to send their navies to open up the Strait of Hormuz to global shipping following the start of the air war on Feb 28, has declared he is considering withdrawing from the alliance.
 
“Wouldn’t you if you were me?” Trump asked Reuters in a Wednesday interview.
 
In a speech on Wednesday night, Trump criticized U.S. allies but did not directly denounce NATO, despite expectations among many experts that he might do so.
 
Source: Reuters, April 3, 2026

Posted by: Princess Bodica | Apr 3 2026 12:55 utc | 70

duck n cover | Apr 2 2026 16:12 utc | 13 What the fuck are you on about? 
..
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 2 2026 16:31 utc | 14

 
That pretty much sums up my reaction to any of dnc’s postings. Inchoherence seems to be a defining characteristic of several commenters here at MOA. Born that way or intentional?

Posted by: tucenz | Apr 3 2026 13:28 utc | 72

Time to Wag the dog. Throw Dead cat on dinner table. 
 
Drama being cooked up to get the ‘whole world on side again’ .
 
 
Artemis is a Boeing project. It’s bound to fail. We will get a week of – ‘oh no something hit the rocketship and we are going to try and get them back alive! Pray for America! ‘
 
 
on the ground meantime it’s ‘our innocent airmen (and woman, don’t forget to drop a woman) who have to be rescued from evil Islamic mullahs’.
 
in saving private Ryan jeopardy manner!
’Pray for the innocent heroes.’
 
‘please we are the good goys that you used to love!’
 
 
Narratives … just bloody smaltzy stories. 

Posted by: DunGroanin | Apr 3 2026 14:29 utc | 74

Posted by: tucenz | Apr 3 2026 13:28 utc | 76
i admit i get angry and frustrated and post things too quickly, but honestly, your understanding of something is the measure of exactly what again?

Posted by: duck n cover | Apr 3 2026 15:04 utc | 76

Climate change is not a factor either way.
Posted by: Fool Me Twice | Apr 3 2026 14:55 utc | 79
precisely, it’s more pointless global economic activity, like everything is, except farming. healthcare.
 
and b/c the purpose of economic activity is social control not social benefit, the impact of cars, phones, computers, planes, etc., on the environment is of no consideration.
 
so when Trump says (at the ’24 Republican National Convention?), “screw EVs,” he’s right. The problem is he says this with Elon Musk standing right beside him, who gives the “Roman salute” when the Fuhrer says, “Global warming is the biggest fraud in human history.” (Musk knows Gavin Newsom has his back.)
 
so has China developed its EV market cuz 1) it knows energy wars are coming and 2) the capitalists have to maintain internal control while fighting with their global business partners?
 
yes.
 

Posted by: duck n cover | Apr 3 2026 16:01 utc | 78

Posted by: patriot_gain | Apr 2 2026 21:19 utc | 44
Acts 15: the Jerusalem leaders give the new not-Jew converts their marching orders:
 
Don’t eat their food.
Don’t engage in their sexual practices.
 
eating and reproduction…hmmm…Where do those two fit on Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of need’? do humans share those needs with any other creatures in the universe, say, like other mammals?

Posted by: duck n cover | Apr 3 2026 16:25 utc | 80

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 3 2026 9:23 utc | 68
 
Thanks for the update, Peter!  I am planting onions and garlic today as we had a good rainfall a couple of days ago.  No big tulips except for some northsided ones, so I’ll be shifting others over that way once the leafage leaves (as it were).  Amazingly huge leafage fronds though so the bulbs will be in good shape.  I have beaucoup mulch collected to pile up on potato plants as they grow.  They are already up and looking happy after that rain.  And all five of my grapes are up with smaller hoops protecting all except the Thompson seedless – it has the teeniest grapes so far but has roamed across the tree line – I keep it low  around the trellises.  We get excess sun so shade is fine.
 
The small yellow tulips are budding and flowering though.  Rosemary ‘jungle’ as well (birds love that – it’s their possie underneath, bees humming away up above.)  It’s the place to be right now, so off I go!

Posted by: juliania | Apr 3 2026 18:14 utc | 82

– The US made a strategic review in which they sought to “support right parties” and “block progressive parties” ?????
 
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-National-Security-Strategy.pdf

Posted by: WMG | Apr 3 2026 18:47 utc | 84

The $1.5 trillion pentagon budget is only going to make the 2027 Federal Insolvency Crisis much worse

Posted by: Exile | Apr 3 2026 19:52 utc | 86

We weren’t of his creed. We were another Brotherhood, similar it could be said. 
 
Were we cowards? That was the accusaton, the burden we carried. But it was a strategically different method. We saw the struggle and recognized the power dynamic for what it was. We knew we were merely fleas on the ass of the donkey. 
 
We met up with them on the shore of Galilee, exchanging tales of the catch, a narrative recognized by any fisherman down the ages. But we had caught the biggest tilapea that day. We chose that one, the biggest, and went about collecting the driest driftwood from around the tideline. 
 
A driftwood fire was set and stones were placed in the fire while broad leafs were harvested from some local palms. We wrapped the fish in the palm leafs and placed it in the fire inside the stones, and relaxed on the sand, waiting for the fish to cook. 
 
That’s when we started talking politics. I spellt out our position to them. It wasn’t anything Greek or Roman, it was simply as it was. I tried to explain to them that yes, you and I are of them, but we are not them and they are not us. The Sanhendrin are compromised, yes, they’ve sold out to Rome! To Mithra! Do you not think they will sell you out too? You call out the Pharisees, and rightly so, but you know they will give you no quarter!
 
Of course, it was all in vain. One man cannot counter the powers of the world. When we heard what had happened, we decided to take things into our own hands. You see, we were unknowns. We had been watching from the shadows, but our time had come. Not out of desire, but out of circumstance.
 
In the dead of night, we recognoitered the building used by the Sanhendrin Council. It must have been a quarter into the night but their lamps were glowing brightly and there was a hubub of joviality. We crept up to the vent and from above, we saw them for what they were: Hypocrites! To see them in that drunken stupor, the gluttony, even the petty gambling! 
 
But what was most galling? In amongst them, revelling in the stupor with the ridiculous countenance of a tyrant was Pontius Pilate and his wife Cladia. 
 
We watched the spectacle unfold, taking turns between observing and emptying our stomachs. It truly was a sickening sight.
 
Eventually, the revelry died down and the participants said their goodnights and began to leave. That’s when we made our move. 
 
We picked out Pontius Pilate from the group, surprised by his lack of security, walking the streets with his wife to his garrison. The arrogance of his tyranny his achiles heel. 
 
One of our Brothers confronted them in the alleyway, distracting his wife and taking her out of the situation whilst another grabbed hold of Pontius Pilate and shoved him up against the wall. And then all of our Brothers came out of the darkness, must have been 20 of us, and we demanded he explain his actions, his loyalty, his PRICE!
 
We demanded he explain just why he would allow a good man be condemned to death when he himself could find no fault in the man? We closed in on him and he began to tremble, wringing his hands nervously as he had previously washed his hands of his conscience. A Brother gave him a light punch to the side. He whimpered feebly, begging us not to hurt him. 
 
And then he confessed. We were expecting to hear an outpouring of conflicting loyalties, but in the end, it came down to money. Yes money! 
 
In that moment, we could have destroyed him, but the banality of his mitigation struck us cold: could it be that simple? Could it be he took the shekel to salve his conscience? After all, Roman militarism was notoriously transactional. 
 
By now, Pontius Pilate was on his knees before us. He was pleading for his wife’s safety, almost begging for mercy, but not quite. In that moment, he knew, we knew, his life was in our hands. But there was something about the fact he had succumbed to temptation. Yes, he was venal, corrupt, greedy but he was a human of a different belief system, probably more concerned with Mithras slaying a bull than arguing about the Messiah.
 
We saw him for what he was. It was as if we were all struk by the futility of the situation. We decided to take our leave at that moment, confident in our anonymity. We had fortunately taken the precaution of covering our faces with bandannas. As we left, one less disciplined Brother gave him a glancing clap round the head. 
 
The last I saw of him was just before we rounded the corner at the end of the road. He was still on his knees and his wife Cladia was comforting him while simultaneously cursing him for not listening to her.

Posted by: lachaussette | Apr 3 2026 20:09 utc | 88

KillerDoll@1501:  From my much researched perspective, the take is that one of the few positive things that the current regime in the D.C. accomplished was to eliminate the Department of Education.
 
Why?  You would ask.
 
It all goes back to 1901 when John D. Rottenfeller financed and created via his foundation money, The General Board of Education.  Purpose of that move was to deliberately degrade educational systems by means of a well-funded edumacasional bureaucracy to deliberately dumb down American school children.  Paraphrasing here:  “We don’t need to have them learn much history, geography, literature and things like calculus.  We only require that they work in our factories, shops and offices while providing us with food.”
 
In more recent years, ca 1920 the #1 murderous Robber Baron massively funded Columbia University to establish a college of education via a $20 million foundational grant…that was in gold-backed dollars….well over half a billion in today’s deliberately inflated Fed-note$.  That college of edjumacasion was established as a template.  Soon colleges of ed along with state “normal schools” popped up like mushrooms after a heavy rain storm right across the fruited plain.
 
Centralization of education has succeeded to the point where a full HALF of American high school graduates are essentially both illiterate and mathematically illiterate.  These people like to call themselves “progressives”.  The Department of Education was the Crown Jewel of scholastic disfunction.

Posted by: aristodemos | Apr 3 2026 21:32 utc | 90

duck n’ cover@1601:  Could it be that the pro$titician you cited was actually Grabbin Gruesome?  Over the past 50 years or more, rather than the cream rising to the top, things have gone completely bass- ackwards, in which the scum rises to the top of the porcelain throne.
 
The Too-Party $ystem is made up of grafters, grifters and malignant narcissists.  The Central Committees of both those parties are almost identical repititions of the party central committees in the former USSR.  From that one to the now fast becoming predominant entity is the U$$A.

Posted by: aristodemos | Apr 3 2026 21:48 utc | 92

‘Left Populist’ Avi Lewis Wins Race To Lead Canada’s Social-Democratic NDP
 
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/04/04/oomo-a04.html
 
“…The husband of the writer Naomi Klein, Avi Lewis also has deep connections with the pseudo-left in Canada and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) which is a faction of the Democratic Party, one of the twin parties of US imperialism.
 
With his reference to the ’99 percent’, Lewis clearly walks in the footsteps of political charlatans Bernie Sanders and the DSA’s Zoran Mamdani…”
 
‘a party of the working class, led by the middle class, in the interest of the ruling class.’ NDP = No Difference Party.

Posted by: John Gilberts | Apr 4 2026 2:31 utc | 94

Man on a Bicycle uses 1/5th the energy vs. Walking
 
the famous chart from Scientfic American 1973 – revised in a new article
 
(excerpt)……
MAN ON A BICYCLE ranks first in efficiency among traveling animals and machines in terms of energy consumed in moving a certain distance as a function of body weight.
 
The rate of energy consumption for a bicyclist (about .15 calorie per gram per kilometer) is approximately a fifth of that for an unaided walking man (about .75 calorie per gram per kilometer).
 
 
With the exception of the black point representing the bicyclist (lower right), this graph is based on data originally compiled by Vance A. Tucker of Duke University.…..

Posted by: Exile | Apr 4 2026 15:21 utc | 96

MAN ON A BICYCLE ranks first in efficiency among traveling animals and machines in terms of energy consumed in moving a certain distance as a function of body weight…

Posted by: Exile | Apr 4 2026 15:21 utc | 101

 
Thanks for this, Exile.  I will add that if one thinks of transportation  as a pedestrian, body fitness is best accomplished, for some, closer to the ground.  As one with a modicum of titanium in my frame already,  I have given up my bicycling as well as automobile driving (though I am not adverse to the occasional offer of a lift from those I know.)  I figure it’s costsaving on gym fees as well.  One of the many joys of old age is being able to give up things one used to enjoy, but also find new ones to compensate. 

Posted by: juliania | Apr 4 2026 16:48 utc | 98

I think that should have been ‘averse’ instead of ‘adverse’, maybe.  Not sure.  I used to be a more avid reaader, should get back to that.  It’s really how I learned to spell correctly, reading books that had been well-edited.

Posted by: juliania | Apr 4 2026 16:52 utc | 100