TQC – Apparently, the kid had a loaded weapon and pointed it at the shooter’s son during the chase, so the jury believed it was self defense in the end. The State’s case was built on the idea that the store owner (and his son) shouldn’t have been chasing the suspected thief in the first place. But that argument is also problematic and was not bought by the jury. The shooter served three years waiting for trial, so he definitely did some time. 
 
I tend to trust juries … it’s one of the few real vestiges of popular involvement in government we have left and the public’s ability to put their thumb on the scale. Looking forward to what the United CEO murder jury does … 

Posted by: Caliman | Jun 11 2026 15:46 utc | 3

Border control problems , visa problems , ticket price problem , Giani Infantino being Giani …; it have not even started but the FIFA World Cup in the US is already a train wreck.
I will revert my previous statement : “football : when war is not enough anymore.”

Posted by: Savonarole | Jun 11 2026 16:59 utc | 5

Europe – through Ukraine – has cut off oil to Hungary before the elections, and opened the tap after Orban had lost. Perhaps the EU’s behavior towards Hungary could be a precedent for Russia’s behavior towards Armenia?

Posted by: The Far Side | Jun 11 2026 17:23 utc | 7

Do any Barflies believe that there are advanced Alien cultures elsewhere in the Universe, close enough to Earth to visit us occasionally?
 
I believe Earth is in a bubble with a radius of at least 100 light years in which no other life exists.
 

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jun 11 2026 17:52 utc | 9

‘Do any Barflies believe that there are advanced Alien cultures elsewhere in the Universe, close enough to Earth to visit us occasionally?’

My own feeling on the UFO-alien stuff is that it’s all a cover for the deep state-military.

It allows them to test all their various war machines while using that as a convenient distraction for the masses.

It also benefits them in that, to believers, they can be see as people with some authority versus the averaage joe who may have interacted with the ‘aliens’ which thus allows them to ultimately control the narrative.

They can also be seen to be protecting us from evil or simply unknown extraterrestrials.

It’s a circle that always benefits them which is how power operates.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/B-21-in-flight.jpg/960px-B-21-in-flight.jpg

Posted by: Agonizing Reappraisal | Jun 11 2026 18:21 utc | 11

If a steady stream of fake news is pumped out over next few months, gold has a chance to go back to $5k.

Posted by: unimperator | Jun 11 2026 18:43 utc | 13

💢 Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced that he might resign as head of state and run for the position of Prime Minister of the Republic, as he stated on Radio Belgrade.
Subscribe @NewResistance

Posted by: Jo | Jun 11 2026 21:45 utc | 15

Russia doesn’t have to be the pioneer in everything. No nation has to. It can augment stuff in some areas with Chinese, Indian or whose ever tech.
 
Speak of the EU who is spared from the war (physically, but not economically or socially), who boasted of regulating AI, innovating AI and investing AI and kicking out US tech companies. Only to announce that Google accounts are going to form the basis of everything and digital ID in EU. And not having basically any fundamental AI companies at all.

Posted by: unimperator | Jun 11 2026 22:06 utc | 17

By the way, the gulf of Persia is heating up even more and reportedly all ships including tankers are suffering from barnacles.
 
Barnacles grow on the hull of the ship and significantly increase drag. So whenever those ships get to leave, they might be spending twice as much or more time to reach a destination.

Posted by: unimperator | Jun 11 2026 22:13 utc | 19

Posted by: Agonizing Reappraisal | Jun 11 2026 18:21 utc | 11
 
Agree, and if in fact there are aliens no matter how advanced living among us, they’ve been here for a LONG TIME. Also, given the known physical impediments to interstellar/intergalactic travel, it’s akin to traveling (long distances) in time.  I don’t keep up with the topic but TMK there have been no theoretical ‘breakthroughs’ in the recent past that would suffice to explain for a method capable of bringing any space faring civilization into contact with ours. If anyone is aware of them I’m open to learning. Worm holes, bending spacetime etc. are ideas but AFAIK there is no physical proof that they exist. 

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 11 2026 22:24 utc | 21

@21 TomQ

“I don’t keep up with the topic but TMK there have been no theoretical ‘breakthroughs’ in the recent past that would suffice to explain for a method capable of bringing any space faring civilization into contact with ours.”

A very human-centric view ….earthling.

Posted by: Ornot | Jun 11 2026 22:38 utc | 23

Apparently the UK is going to run out of sterling 
 
If you believe the western media that is.
 
 
https://billmitchell.org/blog/?p=63226
 
 
The comment section is excellent. Couldn’t have put it better myself. That’s at least 5 years of study given away free right there.

Posted by: Andrew | Jun 11 2026 22:53 utc | 25

contd. from previous Open thread ….
Posted by: persiflo | Jun 10 2026 23:35 utc | 202 Language emerges from local collective ‘Lifeworlds’ (Husserl, Habermas) – it is what raises us out of nature (Habermas) – escaping the limits of the philosophy of consciousness – gets us to human interaction – communication (both verbal and non-verbal) – the concept of mutual understanding – hermeneutics – the communicative relation [stress on relation] and validity claims (objective, social, subjective) within communicative action which makes the emerging memorandum of understanding (MOU) between IRI and USA of empirical interest as to the actual level of understanding possible as the latter appears to be very ignorant of the former’s Lifeworld, which is not the case for the former, between these two as they lack a ‘common language’, other than war. An Irishman thinking like a German leads to sentences, and copious flavouring clauses, which at their limits strive to finally reach a full stop. 
Posted by: Don Firineach | Jun 11 2026 23:22 utc | 216

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jun 11 2026 23:23 utc | 27

A very human-centric view ….earthling.
Posted by: Ornot | Jun 11 2026 22:38 utc | 23
 
LOL, well guilty as charged of course. Does a fish even know what water is? But it would take a fundamental rewriting of certain (often just theoretical) laws of physics. 
 
 

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 12 2026 0:14 utc | 29

@29 Tom

That is the thing though, and I thought of that after posting:

The view you offer is based only on the ‘long distance’ physical transfer of a living creature.

Whether that is possible is just one question. You will probably think I hang out with weirdos, and you might be right:

A friend was walking along the waterline of a beach, and a person walking in front placed a rock down and continued walking. He picked it up and is certain that it is a crystalised extraterrestrial (it was a veeeery unusual rock) .

Another person I knew had a ‘fragment of a spaceship’ found at a crash site in south america. Sure. Except the account of the person wbo found it (present) is not easily explained at all.

Then there is ‘astral travel’ or telepathic visit, some are sure this is occuring.

Others think extraterrestrials are being born to humans knowingly.

When viewed solely from the material perspective, and physical law might be correct as far as it goes, well you see some of the differences possible.

If there is an idea to physical law, it is to provide certainty, explainability in a form that coincides in a mechanical sense, hence repeatable. This is useful and an understandable pursuit. Start introducing other concepts that are outside of its explaining though, and it ‘freaks out’.

Posted by: Ornot | Jun 12 2026 0:54 utc | 31

I think this is the place to talk about music and feelings. 
 
So. I remember this from 30 years ago. I expect wyou appreciate:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1G9D8A4Fiw&list=RDCamAhPeYoC8&index=9 

Posted by: Vallari | Jun 12 2026 1:15 utc | 33

Posted by: Ornot | Jun 12 2026 2:18 utc | 34
 
Talk to persiflo in his Avanted
 

Posted by: Valllir | Jun 12 2026 2:21 utc | 35

Do you guys watch this year Fifa world cup ? Soccer is the global religion of sport. It’s a pretty big deal around the world.

Posted by: KillerDoll | Jun 12 2026 2:34 utc | 37

Free movies via streamimdb . ru ?
 
 
 
Matty McTech @setupspawn
 
“Do Not Do This!
 
1. Do not go to IMDB and find a movie or tv you want to watch.
 
2. Do not then click on the URL and type “play” before the imdb. (playimdb.com/title….) and press Enter ”
 
https://x.com/setupspawn/status/2064912147960791103
 
 
Seems to work. Re-directs to a video stream of the movie searched, streamed from the ‘.ru’ site above.
 
Hopefully whoever is running that .ru site is at least partially de-monetizing some evil thing or other.
 

Posted by: GreatLakesObserver | Jun 12 2026 4:34 utc | 39

Re: World Cup
 
Da’ wife and I watched the mexico match, our Household will boycott the rest. 

Posted by: Exile | Jun 12 2026 5:21 utc | 41

Two Japanese companies, Kanto Denka and Central Glass, have formally notified major clients—including Samsung, SK Hynix, and TSMC—that they will permanently cease production of tungsten hexafluoride starting July 1, 2026.
 
The core reason for the shutdown is a disruption in raw material supply.
Between 60% and 70% of the production cost of tungsten hexafluoride comes from high-purity tungsten powder, a material Japan is almost entirely dependent on China for.
 
Following China’s tightening of tungsten export controls in early 2026, shipments of high-purity tungsten powder to Japan have effectively dropped to zero.
 
The Japanese companies managed to keep production going for about five months by drawing down stockpiles, but ultimately failed to secure an alternative source.
 
https://xcancel.com/tphuang/status/2064459113594015838

>… Nikkei Asia
Jun 9
US asks China to resume rare-earth exports to Japan s.nikkei.com/49QF48p
 
 
>… Japan Shuts Down 25% of Global WF6 Capacity: A Major Supply Chain Blow – ChemNet
From January 2026, China’s high-purity tungsten powder exports to Japan have basically disappeared.
 
60% to 70% of the production cost of tungsten hexafluoride comes from tungsten powder, which has increased by about 325% year-on-year. Japanese companies have endured a five-month inventory, but they couldn’t wait for the alternative raw material to be implemented.
 
————
news.chemnet.com/news-6286.h…
Jun 11, 2026 · 6:57 PM UTC
 
 

From January 2026, China’s high-purity tungsten powder exports to Japan have basically disappeared.
60% to 70% of the production cost of tungsten hexafluoride comes from tungsten powder, which has increased by about 325% year-on-year. Japanese companies have endured a five-month inventory, but they couldn’t wait for the alternative raw material to be implemented.
After July 1st, the global annual capacity of tungsten hexafluoride directly evaporated about 2200 tons, and the industry calculated that the supply gap in the second half of the year will reach 2000 tons.
The name tungsten hexafluoride is one that most people have never heard of.
But it has a less romantic nickname—— “Chip blood”.
In the manufacturing of advanced processes below 7nm, 3D NAND with more than 200 layers of three-dimensional stacking, and HBM high-bandwidth memory, it is the core material of chemical vapor deposition process, which is used to deposit tungsten metal film in nano-level gaps, to construct the circuit interconnection inside the chip.
There is no mature alternative material at present.
Some 80 percent of global tungsten resources and refining capacity are concentrated in China.
 
 
Japan’s domestic territory almost does not contain tungsten mines, and more than 80% of its tungsten products rely on imports from China, and the dependence on high-purity tungsten materials for high-end military and semiconductor is more than 90%.

When China tightened its export controls, Japan’s line for making tungsten hexafluoride, a key ingredient in making memory chips, crumbled like a skyscraper with its foundation removed.

From a pure technical and economic perspective, the chain is clear: China does the regulation → Japan can’t get the raw materials → Japanese companies shut down → Global supply gap widens → Prices rise → Industry turmoil.
But this clear chain of technical and economic links simply hides the really difficult problems.

 
Recommend reading article. ^^It’s interesting. ……… And I imagine, just the beginning of the collapse of global supply chains for all sorts of items that no one outside specific industries has ever given a single synapse about… until, suddenly, one day, it all came to a screeching stop…..
 
 
https://news.chemnet.com/news-6286.html

Posted by: Melaleuca | Jun 12 2026 5:33 utc | 43

I was sent this link by a friend and Persia speaks to our current social conflict, IMO
 
Al-Ghazali: The Thinker Who Linked Money to Morality
 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx3iE0LuxbI

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 12 2026 5:53 utc | 45

Good morning barflies I have travelled to France so have missed a few days of MoA! 
 
There seems to be some posts on the Interweb, which smell of limited hangout, misdirection … but it could equally be the begining of some greater capitulation. 

Is it limited hangout? Is it a sacrificial goat? Is it perhaps a wider move at appeasing the multipolar victors that demands that truth be admitted for peace to be had ?
 
The French, German and British ambassadors requesting a meeting with the Russian deputy foreign minister!

 
The obviously fermented ‘violence’ and street hoodlums in Northern Ireland, Glasgow and no doubt in England shortly, with Mossad Fake Tommy and FartRage leading the charge with the Reform and Green snake oil  .
 

This one caught my eye as it is pointing a finger at the illegal apartheid entity and it’s agents conspiracies in the control of the Collective Waste elections.

I am only worried about the msm source – Haaretz and Liberation as the ‘investigators’.

‘Israeli firm BlackCore suspected of meddling in NYC, Scotland elections
haaretz.comJun 11, 2026 · 7:45 PM UTC ‘
——
“‘Israeli Firm BlackCore Suspected of Meddling in NYC, Scotland Elections, French Official Says

 

Last month, a Haaretz-Libération investigation uncovered systems for building an army of avatars, developed by Israeli company BlackCore, including a smear campaign of a left-wing French candidate.

 

Israeli firm BlackCore, suspected of interfering in France’s local elections in March, is also ‌suspected of meddling in elections in New York City and Scotland, and operating in Angola and Togo, the head of France’s disinformation ⁠detection service Viginum said on Thursday.

A joint investigation by the French daily Libération and Haaretz, which analyzed BlackCore’s digital footprint, uncovered a toolkit of influence-operation systems routed through servers in Britain, Germany, Finland and Lithuania.

 

French authorities identified BlackCore – a self-described Israeli “elite influence, cyber and technology” firm – as the suspected operator behind a disinformation campaign targeting left-wing candidates in France’s 2026 municipal elections.

 

BlackCore is now the subject of two investigations in France – one by Paris prosecutors and another by the domestic intelligence agency, which is probing who may have commissioned the campaign.
BlackCore’s systems appear to have shared web infrastructure with websites that housed the internal systems of two Israeli companies – Galacticos and SNI.

 

“This ⁠modus operandi was not limited to municipal elections in France,” the head of Viginum, Marc-Antoine Brillant, said. “It also appears to ⁠have been used to carry out foreign digital interference operations in other countries or ⁠regions, such as Angola, Togo, the elections in Scotland, and ⁠the 2025 municipal election in New York’’
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2026-06-11/ty-article/israeli-firm-blackcore-suspected-of-meddling-in-nyc-scotland-elections
 

(I am only putting link up because am quoting – it is not an endorsement of that site which I repeat I have never had reason to trust as anything else but another HasbaRat op.)
“Angola, Togo and SCOTLAND.”
Bloody hell!

Posted by: DunGroanin | Jun 12 2026 6:51 utc | 47

 How to describe the key points of the capitalist domination/imperialism mechanism. (Mostly the US/UK variant.)
1/ Sawing the seeds of chaos. 
 Ethnicity , religion, economic pressure , political extremism , corruption , criminality ; whatever is good to destabilize a country will be actively used , mostly under cover/pretext. The goal is to manufacture the perception of an existing enemy / imminent danger.
 
2/ Growing some conflict.
Militarizing and already explosive situation by sending weapons and/or troops and make a conflict to start. Once the conflict is started , do whatever it take to prolong it or making an agreement between the party impossible.
 
3/ Reaping the profits.
When the conflict situation is engaged, it’s time to make money ; sending PMC or companies to solve the problem warfare create and above all : lending the most possible paper money.
 
4/ Vassalize / Control / Contain.
Whatever it takes, debts are to be paid. It’s possible to create more debt for the victims via “reconstruction” policies and make more profits for your companies and “the markets”. The best option is to impose a puppet government and/or leonine “alliance”. If it fail , return to phase one to impose a containment policy, the goal is to restart the cycle as fast as possible until you reach the pursued control state. If the target was not weaken enough ; rinse & repeat.
 
This is a very schematic and basic description, the order is not linear and several phases can happen simultaneously. There is also some case where it fails, but the capitalists are like crocodiles : once they bite something, they can’t re-open their jaws.
There is some ways to make it stop, the easiest one is to make it more expensive than profitable and/or to play the “uno reverse” card and poisoning the imperialist structure.
I hope it will help someone to understand imperialism 101 in the 21st century, it also works pretty well to understand some past conflicts.

Posted by: Savonarole | Jun 12 2026 9:41 utc | 49

On Tuesday Iran will be annihalated by my small country New Zealand!
Actually, I have little interest in football and as little knowledge about it so I wouldn’t take that prediction to the betting shop. Either side might win or draw or maybe there will be a riveting penalty shoot out or maybe freedumb luvin’ US will prevent Iran team entry to the game.
If the game takes place I will be happy regardless of the result and would be pleased for Iran given what the country has been subjected to. Death to the US “the great satan the wounded snake”! 
 

Posted by: tucenz | Jun 12 2026 11:16 utc | 51

Titmouse @ 52
Thanks for being here.
 
My choice,……..
Massive attack,…’ if we tolarate this our children will be next’

Posted by: Mark2 | Jun 12 2026 13:13 utc | 53

Titmouse
Or Black eyed peas……  where is the love.

Posted by: Mark2 | Jun 12 2026 14:22 utc | 55

@ Anatoly Karlin 🧲 | Jun 12 2026 8:00 utc | 50
 
lol… funny why the usa and friends obsess about it so much…. you too seem to fall into the same category with your derogatory overview… 

Posted by: james | Jun 12 2026 15:06 utc | 57

I want to thank titmouse for the formation of the MOAR KOWBELL band and want to challenge their horn capabilities with a song that doesn’t need words to communicate intensity like we are living through….what thinks thou persiflo?
 
Trombone Shorty – Hurricane Season
 
 
Crank it up!
 
 

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 12 2026 15:11 utc | 59

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 12 2026 15:11 utc | 61
 
Speaking of challenging the horn section (and the sound of the end of the world), here’s Christopher Rouse’s 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Music winner:
 
Christopher Rouse – Trombone Concerto

Posted by: Caveman | Jun 12 2026 16:10 utc | 61

😮 I’m gonna need to bring in more friendly woodland animals!
😀
 
OK, let’s see:

• some rabbits & hares for the bongos, and a whole partridge family to help Woody on the drum kit,
• a gaggle of geese for horns and some mule deer for the bugling
• perhaps a badger DJ to scratch the records and ignore endless cheesy love song dedications
• I think a bear to match those metal vocal growls
• frogs and crickets for the rhythm section maybe, but there might be some cricket casuaties…

 
😀 Be right back! Keep the requests coming and be nice enough to spot the band a drinky poo or two. (I honestly don’t know who can and cannot hold their spicy pond water, so this will be a learning experience for us all. 😉 )

Posted by: titmouse | Jun 12 2026 16:49 utc | 63

confirms many posters suspicions from the past, especially peter au’s research.. rt news article, so you can’t read it in the land of the free and brave in europe, lol..
 
US publishes docs on ‘dangerous’ Ukrainian biolabs

Posted by: james | Jun 12 2026 18:29 utc | 65

quote from the link @ 67 – 
 
““Despite the obvious potential for catastrophic global impact research on dangerous pathogens in biolabs can have, politicians, so-called health professionals like Dr. Fauci, and entities within the Biden administration’s national security team lied to the American people about the existence of US-funded and supported biolabs, and threatened those who attempted to expose the truth,” Gabbard said in a statement on Friday.
Gabbard said that she has issued new guidance to US intelligence agencies on collection of data from the laboratories in Ukraine, and from the broader network of US-linked biolabs around the world. At present, her office is collecting “new details on clinical trials that are underway at these facilities, raising significant ethical, financial, and security concerns,” her statement read.
However, Gabbard will not be in a position to act on this intelligence for much longer. Following her husband’s diagnosis with a rare form of bone cancer last month, Gabbard announced that she would retire at the end of June. President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he would nominate US attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, to replace Gabbard as DNI. Clayton has never commented publicly on the biolabs issue.”

Posted by: james | Jun 12 2026 18:32 utc | 67

In response to Trump releasing Disclosure Day docs, all future NASA funds will be privatized.
 
In response to Trump releasing the latest info on how the NIH is a Chicom plot, all public health and global disease surveillance will be privatized.
 
Masks off. Fauci released a bio weapon. Go back to work. Big Brother says forget who vaxxed everyone, and it’s forgotten
 
Based on China’s own government data, how many millions of Chinese died within 3 months of China putting its slaves back to work?
 
China is the future. Yes. Just like Gaza is.
 
Once Cuba is destroyed, its isolated status and the effects of its native medical services will also be destroyed. No one will ever know if Cuba has effectively eliminated covid 19.
 
Bra fucking oh.

Posted by: Duck n cover | Jun 12 2026 19:39 utc | 69

Covid 19 is the 8th leading cause of death in Japan. I’m sure the leaders there love the Sinophobia spread, only on rare occasions, by such an ardent defender of war as MAHA Trump.
 
Hey Trump! No one is sick. Just eliminate Medicare, snap, measles vax, school, and take all the  water for data centers. And thanks for all the truthtelling about Russia, Gaza, Iran, VZ….global warming…money…immigrants…no disease in the for profit prison system. I wonder why.
 
Smart people are never wrong. Keep taking your ivermectin and shoving UV light up your ass. All will be bleached white soon.

Posted by: Duck n cover | Jun 12 2026 19:51 utc | 71

One for @ titmouse here: Three Little Birds

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Jun 12 2026 21:11 utc | 73

confirms many posters suspicions from the past, especially peter au’s research.. rt news article..;; US publishes docs on ‘dangerous’ Ukrainian biolabs
Posted by: james | Jun 12 2026 18:29 utc | 67
 
Thank you for this, james.  I hope peter sees it!

Posted by: juliania | Jun 12 2026 21:40 utc | 75

The Indian Foreign Minister stated that the US specifically asked India to purchase Russian oil to help stabilize the oil market. Previously, the US had tried to prohibit India from buying Russian oil. Initially, Indians bought Russian oil at a discount, but after the start of the Epstein coalition’s war against Iran, they began buying it at a premium, when Russian oil briefly outperformed even Brent.

Posted by: MiniMO | Jun 12 2026 22:14 utc | 77

Meanwhile in China… the GaoKou ended. (The GaoKou is the single most important test for Chiense students. It is roughly equivalent to the SAT, only far more difficult and comprehensive.)
 
Social media is flooded with videos of stranded kids freaking out that they are stuck in elevator, involved in a car crash, dealing with a parent with a heart attack, and stranded when downed power-lines block the road. In each case, the police, and helpful citizens, rush to the rescue and race them to the GaoKou. Great job China!
 
Afterwards, the social media videos of millions of happy and relieved students running though the streets are heart-warming and joyful.
 
All of the barflies need to stop smelling the malodorous fumes from the dying American Empire and look East. The half a century of the consumerism era is over, and a new era of serious frugality is upon us.  I, for one, am hopeful.

Posted by: Rufus Arrr | Jun 12 2026 22:20 utc | 79

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jun 11 2026 23:23 utc | 27
 
Thanks for this, Don.  It’s my firm believe that as I said in another context recently, where there’s a will there’s a way  — it applies to language transposition, as in whatever that previous context was.  But there has to be a certain amount of what I would call precognition. 
 
For example, as a college student I was given a short essay in the German language to translate and comment upon.  I did the translation fine, but comment I could not.  I had no idea where the writer was coming from, so his words had no meaning for me.  The essay, as I remember it, was titled Weg Von Hier.  I believe its author is Kafka.  German scholars will no doubt recognize it and understand its context;  I, a woefully ignorant student, did not.   My wise, elderly, jewish/German professor did not enlighten me.  I expect he felt I would one day come to see what Kafka meant.  As I say, he was a very wise teacher.

Posted by: juliania | Jun 12 2026 22:53 utc | 81

Well, I’m sure you, Ornot, have not given up on Vernunft entirely too. Sorry for making it sound so. 

Posted by: persiflo | Jun 12 2026 22:59 utc | 83

Much celebratory coverage in the Wurlitzer about Elon Musk becoming the “worlds first trillionaire”…
 
I guess it all depends on which currency wealth is measured in…
 
Zimbabwe dollars, anyone??
 
Wasn’t Musk in favour of auditing Fort Knox, back in his DOGE days? Wonder what went wrong?

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Jun 12 2026 23:08 utc | 85

‘Generally I find people quite loaded, so prefer a lot of space and am more at home in the natural world or simpler traditional society :-/’

Hi Ornot! Thank you for all you do. Your past reports and your continuing care and conern for all the innocent peoples being slaughtered all over the globe is beyond commendable.

I am curious as to how much time you are actually able to spend in the natural world?

Do you post from a mobile device while enjoying nature and the traditional ways?

Thank you again for all you do.

Posted by: Agonizing Reappraisal | Jun 12 2026 23:31 utc | 87

All of the barflies need to stop smelling the malodorous fumes from the dying American Empire and look East. The half a century of the consumerism era is over, and a new era of serious frugality is upon us.  I, for one, am hopeful.
Posted by: Rufus Arrr | Jun 12 2026 22:20 utc | 81
 
Every morning I take a quick look at a few news sites. ZH for the headlines, RT, Orinoco, Tass, and last Xinhua.  All but Xinhua are about war, and tragedies,and billionaires, etc., but Xinhua is about positive good vibes, environmental care, robots, old town scenery and just completely uplifting.

Posted by: arby | Jun 13 2026 0:17 utc | 89

solar + battery storage is more cost effective per kW than any fossil fuel system.Posted by: fnord | Jun 11 2026 22:03 utc | 168Perhaps in the U.S., but elsewhere the cost of sufficient battery storage is too high, which is why the problem of periods of low sunlight and excess renewable energy arises, leading to consideration of nuclear power plants as a buffer.Solar power is one solution, but it is not THE solution everywhere.
Posted by: smartfox | Jun 11 2026 22:08 utc | 171
 
Where I live in Central America, sufficient solar collectors and battery storage to run a house for a family of 5 costs roughly 1.5 x the average monthly salary. I checked. But we don’t use as much electricity as people do in the US. No heat or AC. If we bother with hot water, it’s usually solar. We cook with LNG. Lights, TV, Refrigerator, Clothes washer (but no drier), fans, chargers, not much else.

Posted by: Samu | Jun 13 2026 0:39 utc | 91

Posted by: Samu | Jun 13 2026 0:39 utc | 98
 
That was a reply to posts on the Iran War thread.

Posted by: Samu | Jun 13 2026 0:46 utc | 93

@102 persiflo

“I can agree with nearly everything”

Just as long as you are still able to say ‘No’.

Prophecy, pre-destiny and fatalism …those are difficult concepts, if we even have a choice on whether to discuss them.

Posted by: Ornot | Jun 13 2026 1:22 utc | 95

@106 persiflo

The reason I say that is because of a particular experience, that still leaves me wondering.

When young I was sat at a table with a conversation between adults. I would never interupt that. Someone I held (and still hold) very close was saying about what they would be up to that day. When they said they would be back around a certain time I interrupted loudly and decisively “No you won’t”. I had no reason to say that, there was no ‘turning up late’ stories etc. , no bad feelings towards them, the person was reliable and honest. I don’t even know why I spoke, everyone seemed agitated embarrassed, conversation ended and everyone went their way. Rest of story is as I had said.

So it leaves me wondering, did I affect what happened to him. If what occurred was predestined and I had communicated it, how can some things be predestined and others not. It does not make sense.

Meaning from that perspective, your “Yes” was not even a choice, nor anything else is.

Something I have never managed to reconcile, nor maybe am destined to.

Posted by: Ornot | Jun 13 2026 1:50 utc | 97

@108 Ornot

To be clearer, motorbike on familiar road vs unmarked new roadworks.

I don’t expect an answer, there is nothing anyone could say would convince me one way or another, is something I have only spoken about once before ever to anyone, here it is more regarding philosophical reasoning, or the limits of.

Thanks though.

Posted by: Ornot | Jun 13 2026 2:47 utc | 99