it doesn’t work. the reason why obama and pelosi did not go after bush and cheney for torture is, that it was bill clinton and gore that made torture legal. so if obama and pelosi were to go after bush and cheney for torture, they would point out that it was bill clinton that made it legal.
““Extraordinary rendition” is when shady government operatives stuff a bag over your head and fly you off to some foreign country where they can legally torture you. It sounds like something Alex Jones might dream up in a paranoid frenzy, but it’s a well-documented phenomenon under both Bush, Jr. and Obama—and Bill Clinton was the guy who started it all.
Clinton and Gore signed off on the first rendition back in the ’90s, despite being aware that it breached international law. Until recently, rendered people frequently wound up in the prison cells of places like Mubarak’s Egypt or Gaddafi’s Libya, where they were tortured with electric shocks, rape, beatings, and even crucifixion.
It can sometimes go hideously wrong: In 2003, the CIA snatched a terrorist off the streets and beat, tortured, and sodomized him, only to discover they’d accidentally grabbed the wrong man. The victim just happened to share a name with a wanted criminal. His suffering came care of the Clinton/Gore dream team. ”
The Duran is covering this morning that Sir Keir Starmer’s Far Right, Zionist & finance-controlled “Labour (sic) Party” has been smashed, though London, Scotland and Wales’ returns not in yet, the results are obvious.
Who won? Nigel Farage’s Extreme Right “Reform” will rule. The formerly “Left” Labour Party, destroyed by the likes of Tony B.liar’s “New Labour” constantly moved right, and now they get ousted for something more Sincerely Fascist & Right.
Gotta respect ordinary Britons off-the-scales Self-hatred, and desires to be whipped by a Headmaster of Superior. Baked into the culture. A Death Cult, or maybe just a Let’s Be Miserable Cult. Vomitous losers.
The sheer volume of speculation about the effects of AI on everything from the future of human intelligence (like whether there will be any — past performance furnishes no guarantee of future results, thank god for that dubious assurance) to the prospects of a financial crash makes it hard to ignore.
One thing that has puzzled me is the shape of resistance as it has surfaced in academia: lots of airtime given to luddites banning phones and falling back on hand-written bluebooks.
I wonder why more attention has not been given to applying AI to assisting teachers to teach and guide and to assist and lead students to learn. All that the LLM geewhiz chat apps are featured doing is facilitating cheating and skating by on stupid.
In a way it parallels the development of “self-driving” capabilities in automobiles. It does not focus on making drivers better. CYA requires insistence that the driver remain alert and constantly monitor the car, but realistically no human can be passive and instantly responsive in an emergency.
I don’t know that learning things or skills is a comparably impossible goal as that of the passive driver alert to emergencies in a split-second. Most people like games and much learning can be induced in a game-like environment, either individually or in social groups. AI’s appetite for monitoring can be put to good use — at least I imagine that is possible.
True to our era, I asked an ai search tool what’s out there and she found things — products and outdated academic studies of effectiveness. Automated writing evaluation (AWE) systems and essay-assessment tools used in classrooms to give students iterative writing feedback, for example.
I fear I know one ultimate answer: we are witnessing the result of putting psychopaths in charge and measuring their leadership performance with scoreboards that chart greed. I still do not understand why the opposition in restraint is so weak and unimaginative and lazy.
British elections confirm the two legacy Parties — Labour and Conservative — are very, very unpopular.
There is one right-wing (noisily authoritarian, vaguely traditional) alternative on offer and an array of conviction-lite alternatives across the centre-left.
Anybody else feel like the US economy & labor market itself is a massive unsustainable bubble? I think blogger Nat Wilson on this website called it something like the Unreality Era since 2008-now.
I feel like this was the case before the 2008 GFC. I feel like it worsened after the 2008 GFC, where I feel like outside of medical pros the US became like Latin America or Russia in terms of mass overqualified underemployment (eg engineer driving Uber, MBA lady working as a stripper, accountant working as a Starbucks barista, etc). I feel it may potentially further worsen with the AI effect on the job market (note this is “perception is reality” situation – AI does not have to “replace human labor effectively”, only that US execs believe it will & accordingly execute mass layoffs).
Afaict the rational response an individual is as follows. Ironically if a mass portion of the US workers did this, it would reduce the Consumer sector of GDP significantly & this change alone would cause a recession.
1 If a person has ability to, and the job market has opportunity to; work 40+ hours per week. Here “work” is broadly defined as W2 salary, W2 hourly, 1099/gig, or entrepreneurial small business.
2 Diversify your occupations, similar to diversifying with multiple asset classes in your asset allocation (AA) in your investing. Even if you have a great FT occupation, work a PT job or side small busienss or at least hobby that could be “monetized” as a small side business at least an average of 5 hours per week. This way if your main occupation gets decimated you potentially “have experience” in an alternate occupation.
3 If possible, save money. Stack an emergency fund for 12 months expenses with I Bonds Savings Bonds at treasurydirect and/or a good money market fund like those at Vanguard. If the emergency fund is sufficiently funded, contribute to tax-advantaged accounts like Roth IRA & 401k. Avoid & pay off debt.
4 In your investing, place a significant part of your asset allocation (AA) in non-USD assets, such as ETF funds of foreign stocks, gold, silver. If the USD loses “reserve currency market share” your personal pain is partially mitigated with the non-USD assets.
5 Maintain healthy habits, such as exercise & nutrition. Perhaps you can combine exercise with a 1099 gig or PT job that is physical where you are walking around a lot. If healthy habits mitigate healthcare costs, the time spent on this might aid not only your health but your wealth – especially in this extortionate US “healthcare system”. I acknowledge that working a lot can be unhealthy, use your judgement on the work/life balance tradeoff. For instance, I recall a newsstory that workers working 55+ hr/week had higher per week had higher measurable stress level. OTOH consider the stress reduction from the peace of mind of having a 12 month emergency fund vs not having it.
Thatcher was advised by Pinochet to implement what he did in chile to the U.K. thatcher responded that that would be unacceptable in europe.
so the rich found their guy who would, blair. hope blair enjoys his life in the UAE.
in the U.S.A., it was not reagan that carried out the reagan agenda, that was actually started out under carter, it was the man the rich wanted and got, bill clinton.
The British are a bunch of miserable and thick cnuts who can’t find a Tory who’s too Tory for them. So everyone in Britain has to be as Tory as possible to ever get anywhere. Petty, spiteful and vindictive even when it harms them more than the people their ire’s aimed at.
Yves’ big report on Donnie’s failed war today includes this brilliant 2:03 Lego Hip-hop takedown of Diaper Donnie, “Coz the President of the United States is a pedophile . . .”
Very busy news day here, so gonna share another link.
Not overall a fan of ZeroHedge, Fascistic MAGA Greedheads. But from time to time they do a legit, Right to Left Horshoe move that the Normies all wet their pants over. The first few weeks of the Trump FailWar, they did a great piece called “The Mighty Hormuz” or words to that effect, clearly showed they knew he’d LOST the war, was over a barrel with his pants down, getting ready for—
Okay, the Persians are quite civilized and restrained, they’re not the Zionist Entity forcibly sodomizing “sub-human Ayrab Terrorists.”
I have personal reasons for loving Espanya after 11 weeks there the summer of 2004. And the Spanish PM ousting Trump from the country, militarily, is great. So shocked to see that their Health Minister is so goddamn stupid, NOTHING learned since Covid!?? WTF. Never expected them to go Bill Gates Cull the Human Herd.
Merz and Ursula and Co. must be giggling with glee, as their citizens will eventually be hit, the poorest and most vulnerable first.. .
The biggest giggle from “Armageddon Prose” is the following line– “Neon-haired Karen demands immediate mask compliance for hantavirus”. Her hair color doesn’t matter, any person who doesn’t want to win a Darwin Award should get this.
Growing older day by day looking around at madness and beauty combined staring down the gun barrel at the end of life and you can only say hey, I had my day and it’s never coming back again. If you’re young you’re scared, but don’t care because nihilism guides your way. If nothing matters, then what are you so worried about? Death and destruction, shit like that is for others, all evidence to the contrary, but go on and keep on trying to convince yourself and others. It’s easy to buy the lies
Okay then. That was a spontaneous stream of consciousness prose poem attempt that’s whatever it is. Bullshit. Poetry is anchored in the sensorial, not abstract concepts. Maybe.
Wanted to take a break from chaos and mayhem, cruelty and aggression, greed and hatred and say something about blue waves breaking on white sand shores, about the warmth in a lovers eyes, about a taniger’s trill and a blue bird’s squawk, about innocence and a gentle caress, about a loving embrace and the break of dawn and love and love and love in a world gone wrong
Why not?
Want a bite of my apple?
China will place large orders for US agricultural products — and Americans will see it as a concession — for an obvious strategic reason: China expects a global food crisis and even a famine to hit by next year, probably as soon as late this year. This coming global food shortage will last for years if not a decade due to the fertilizer shortage and farm bankruptcies (and interruptions) caused by the blockade and closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Of course, Trump just wants to brag about an immediate and short-term win, and Americans do not think long-term — because even America will be hit by the global food shortage and higher food prices. So, by the end of this year or next year, America will be forced into the situation in which Americans are experiencing grocery inflation and hunger while having to fulfill the orders to export foods to China.
Frankly I do not really care about Americans starve and suffer due to karma. My biggest worry is that America and especially Trump, given their track records of breaking agreements and contracts, their lack of sense of honor, ethics, morals or trustworthiness, will refuse to deliver the orders that China will have already placed due to global — and domestic — food crisis.
Frankly I do not really care about Americans starve and suffer due to karma.
Same here. The grifters described below are finally going to get their comeuppance. /s
As of 2024–2025, over 40% of the United States population identifies as a race or ethnic group other than non-Hispanic White. The country is increasingly diverse, with Hispanic (approx. 19–20%), Black (approx. 13–14%), and Asian (approx. 6–7%) residents forming the largest minority groups.
The Lego videos are getting old and tired at this point. It’s time for something more creative. Plus, I can’t stand Rap/Hip Hop. Trying to appeal to Americans on the autism scale with these Lego videos isn’t gonna get ‘er done. Try some country music videos instead and hit MAGA below the belt. They love them some Country Music.
There is a bizarre childish regression in the mentality of Reform voters. They are frightened and dismayed by the world as it is, and want a return to the childhood of their imagination. We’re at a point now where the London borough of Havering wants to secede and become part of Essex council, despite being part of London officially for 60 years and having London-managed services for another 40 years before that. Like Brexit, there are no specific benefits that they can enumerate, not to mention a scaffolding or path to attaining those benefits.
There is no amount of reason, logic or evidence that can be drilled into them, they are beyond help. They’ve voted for this shit-show for decades, gotten everything they’ve wanted and now rather than change their minds they want to regress. Nothing could possibly be their fault. They are victims to shadowy cabals of boat people and Turkish barbers.
I wish the best for all of the Scottish and Welsh independence voters, and hope the North of Ireland escapes this shitshow of English exceptionalism, because these people are beyond saving.
Seven billion people on the planet of which I’d say 95% despise Netanyahu. How is he still alive? He continues to show no regard whatsoever for his own people, slaughtered the vast majority of Israel’s on 10-07 and gave the middle finger to all the families of POW’s held captive in Gaza for over a year. Even Hitlers own Generals tried to kill him with a bomb in a briefcase. He has placed a bullseye on the back of every Jew throughout the world and destroyed Israel’s reputation. How is it possible his own security detail hasn’t killed him given the disdain he’s shown the IDF?
Israel is responsible for the deaths of how many world leaders and high ranking officials throughout the entire world for decades, how is it possible this tiny little Country is still on the map?
Israel is the size of NJ, Iran is the size of California, Montana and Texas combined. Iran has (allegedly) launched hundreds of super sonic missiles, and thousands of other types of weaponry. How is it possible Tel Aviv is still standing?
According to what has been reported, Iran destroyed Israel’s ports and airport therefore how was the United States able to deliver 6,500 tons of military equipment and ammunition to Israel during a 24-hour period via cargo ships docking at Haifa and Ashdod, along with several cargo planes transporting munitions and vehicles.
How is Israel able to continue to fight wars on several fronts (Gaza, West Bank, Syria, Iran and Lebanon} when we are constantly told they have no military and everything else has been depleted?
Someone kindly explain why Iran has not taken out Israel’s fragile water supply (why they want Lebanon – for their vast water resources) and electrical grid!!!!!!!!!!!!! Game over! And yet every single day we read about the carnage in both Lebanon and Gaza.
IMHO the reason Israel’s has enacted a media blackout is NOT because of the damage but rather there has actually been so little damage and this is all political theater.
Thanks, Bob, 100%. I did a long piece on this some months back, being more Irish than anything (fraternal grandmother was only “pure” blood in the family, so I’m 25%) yeah, I’ve mostly hated those Cnuts from an early age. Monstrously inhuman, racist and violent, and proud of it too, shitty food, bad dentistry, lotsa gits who think they’re Ubermenschen. Only rivalry with their neighbors forced them into the “good” side in WWII, the “great” Winston Churchill had early on praised both Hitler and Mussolini.
We’re destroying ourselves but not at the rate they are. Zio-pigs, crying in their gin and tonics that the Sun has Set on their shitty Brittania Empire.
TM, thanks for the comment as well, dunno if you’re new or infrequent here.
So LAS has narrow musical taste as well as bad aesthetics, recently claimed his politics are based on “nothing.” To quote a bumper sticker, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” Of course you DO stand strongly for the Banderist neo-N@zi ideology, so you’re not fooling much of anyone.
You’re right on occasion though, Mamdami did a weak-kneed response to the sale of stolen Gazan land being SOLD out of a Zionist Temple in NY State, sent the police in to keep protesters of the violation of International Law far from the Temple, did at least denounce it but hasn’t fired that Zionist, insane Police Commissioner yet.
The political “Left” is generally emasculated, only performatively pretends to want to “make things better”, the Dimmies throw the game Washington Generals-style to the ReThuglicans every single time as they have the same donors. US is doomed, I hope to get out fairly soon.
To Mago, I’m with you brother. Saw a bunny in the field on the way for coffee this morn, he’s been a neigbor (or she) since I moved in 9 months ago. Peace be unto all living things except the Zionists and Imperialists, MAGAt CHUDs, DimmieCrap Saps, Banderites, etc. Gotta open our eyes and get the boots off our necks, or escape. Oh, and hoping that Hantavirus isn’t coming for me!!
@ProNewerDeal: Good tips, all. TreasuryDirect is US-only, and has been getting a little weird lately. (I’m unhappy about committing to them.) Also: learn to cook. A friend is a 60-year-old man who only eats fast food, takeout, prepared stuff.
The most obnoxious thing Iran can do? Back off to one demand: “We’ll give up nukes if Israel gives up theirs!”
How Russia Is Secretly Rearming Iran (And Why The US Can’t Stop It)
———-
this is why in 1994 under bill clinton, the caspian sea was targeted as essential to world domination.
Here is what I was taught about torture 40 years ago in the military; the nazis did a systematic study of interrogation techniques, and concluded torture was ineffective as a way of getting information.
The very first problem, is that it gives someone who doesn’t actually know anything, a reason to lie about that.
By 100th water-boarding, I bet KSM was confessing to being the second gunman in the Kennedy assassination.
Someone had to check that.
In reality, people decline to “talk” under torture routinely. In “Bravo Two Zero” some SAS guys get captured. First they give their weak cover story. The Iraqis don’t buy it, and torture them some more. Then they give their strong cover story, the one they have all practiced until the can recite it in their sleep and the Iraqi’s buy it, and send them on to a POW camp. Thing is, they never did actually “talk”.
Using torture is the hallmark of someone who doesn’t know what they are doing.
What does it tell us about the CIA, that they jumped into torture with both feet?
Short answer BJ, money, blackmail and fear. There’s a comeuppance a coming some fine day. Everybody dies and everything changes. I’m good at stating the obvious.
The party’s over at the Open Thread and folks have gone home to dinner and other concerns and distractions, so I feel free to talk a little bit about my immediate world. Yeah, I know what some are thinking, like what the fuck’s with this guy? Get a life. Those few who are reading this, i mean. But life is life. And here’s a slice.
In the natural foods store one day while taking to an employee who is a published poet and with whom I occasionally send my own verse, one of the owners who is also a poet and writer showed me one of her poems. Good stuff. Both of these women could have been my students back in the 90’s when I taught poetry to talented and gifted youth. Anyway, one of them said, let’s start a writer’s club. Why not? She’s following up with the idea of this little writer’s club, so we’ll see what happens.
Apropos to all of this, the thought arose that good writing like good sex is spontaneous, passionate and uninhibited. Not that I’m going to hit on these millennial poet women, please, but I look forward to getting down with some heartfelt sharing of words and wisdom when and if it happens. And if anything comes of it, I’ll share. We need more poetry in the world.
To BJ, I say thank you for a magesterial post, but I hope your final paragraph is incorrect. I can’t know at this time, however. I can pretty easily answer your query as how they have not just survived but prospered, though, as could many others, & I don’t want to condescend given how informed your comment is and assume you don’t know this:
The Zionist Genocidal Entity has survived and prospered since at least the time FDR cut a deal with the Egyptians and Saudis to support Zionist land-theft and ethnic cleansing (actually far earlier as well), later King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, who lived until 2005 (!) pledged Arab alleigance to the Zionists who want the northern half of his country. My dad was anti-Semitic (but was flattered whenever his Jewish business associates mistook him as a Jew), but strongly supported Israel because they exterminate brown people. He considered that great, but disdained both Judaism and moreso Islam.
Now my dad wasn’t particularly politically connected, but in the Epstein Class, George Carlin “Big Club but you aren’t in it”, the Elites universally love it, even the Goyim elites who are considered subhuman by it. I don’t know if it’s the Tail that wags the Dog, certainly seems so under Trump, but it’s the Tip of the White-Supremacist, Exterminationist Imperial Spear that the entire “West”, even fake Libs like Barack Obama (called a dirty schwartze by Bibi privately, Congress let him do an anti-Obama hate speech to major applause back in the day. )
mago’s response to BJ is incisive too, and I wish him the best viz his new poetry promotion. And his call on sexuality is good as well.
Listening to George Galloway’s post from yesterday on the Robot hybrid Keir Starmer’s surviving the Parliamentary Shellacking voters gave “Labour” and bringing bad old blood, Gordon Brown and others in to “revive” his dead premiership. NO semblance of actual Representative Democracy in the UK for decades, however I have seen elsewhere that Ireland, Wales, Scotland etc. will all disaffiliate as Sir Keir further sinks the UK to the ociean floor. About time. The Elites will never step away from the Zionist Killing Machine, it is their chief source of pride. Gavin Newscum will serve it faithfully.
Galloway is a great man of the Left, over 5 decades. He’s bad on sex however, mago prompts me to say, many people have an Achilles heel or prejudice they can’t shed somewhere, George is emblematic of this flaw. 90% great, 10% bigoted, few escape flaws entirely.
The God of Serendipity is working overtime this morning!!
I can’t stand the Russophobe rage spittle of LAS vis the Russians, but legitimate criticism is always called for, and who better than the brilliant John Helmer to dish it out.
I will share the link on Yves’ Naked Capitalism, the whole thing is worth reading, he had my jaw dropping with shock many times. The long-departed from this site Ms. Jennings (actually a dude) used to claim that Putin would flush Russian Federation down the terlet to favor Zionists, even let the Ukro-Banderists win, that is many bridges too far, BUT this article supports there was a smattering of truth to what he claimed, maybe 8-12% (about the amount of x LAS makes good calls.)
Final paragraph a sample of why it’s worth reading: “Instead, Putin has publicly supported President Donald Trump’s Gaza redevelopment scheme under the “Board of Peace”. Last October, responding to an Iranian question about what Russia “can do to bring an end to the [genocide]”, Putin replied: “regarding President Trump’s proposal on Gaza – you may find this surprising, but Russia is overall ready to support it. Provided, of course, that it truly leads to the ultimate goal we have always spoken about. We must thoroughly examine the proposals made. Since 1948 – and later in 1974, when the relevant UN Security Council resolution was adopted – Russia has consistently supported the creation of two states: Israel and a Palestinian state. I believe this is the only key to a final, lasting solution to the Palestinian–Israeli conflict. As far as I understand – I have not looked through the proposal carefully yet – it suggests creating an international administration to govern Palestine for some time, or more precisely, the Gaza Strip. It is proposed that Mr Blair would head it. Now, he is not known as a great peacemaker. But I know him personally. I have even visited him at his home, spent the night there, and in the morning, over coffee in our pyjamas, we spoke at length. Yes, this is true.”
Coffee in your PJs with the Muslim-exterminating Tony B.liar, multimillionaire after being Bush’s Poodle. Disgusting. More than half my past respect for Vlad P c’est mort.
spud
it doesn’t work. the reason why obama and pelosi did not go after bush and cheney for torture is, that it was bill clinton and gore that made torture legal. so if obama and pelosi were to go after bush and cheney for torture, they would point out that it was bill clinton that made it legal.
https://listverse.com/2014/02/05/10-reasons-bill-clinton-was-secretly-a-terrible-president/
““Extraordinary rendition” is when shady government operatives stuff a bag over your head and fly you off to some foreign country where they can legally torture you. It sounds like something Alex Jones might dream up in a paranoid frenzy, but it’s a well-documented phenomenon under both Bush, Jr. and Obama—and Bill Clinton was the guy who started it all.
Clinton and Gore signed off on the first rendition back in the ’90s, despite being aware that it breached international law. Until recently, rendered people frequently wound up in the prison cells of places like Mubarak’s Egypt or Gaddafi’s Libya, where they were tortured with electric shocks, rape, beatings, and even crucifixion.
It can sometimes go hideously wrong: In 2003, the CIA snatched a terrorist off the streets and beat, tortured, and sodomized him, only to discover they’d accidentally grabbed the wrong man. The victim just happened to share a name with a wanted criminal. His suffering came care of the Clinton/Gore dream team. ”
torture does not work,
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/G4UscOZRQpU
CIA agent reveals why torture fails
Mark Level
The Duran is covering this morning that Sir Keir Starmer’s Far Right, Zionist & finance-controlled “Labour (sic) Party” has been smashed, though London, Scotland and Wales’ returns not in yet, the results are obvious.
Who won? Nigel Farage’s Extreme Right “Reform” will rule. The formerly “Left” Labour Party, destroyed by the likes of Tony B.liar’s “New Labour” constantly moved right, and now they get ousted for something more Sincerely Fascist & Right.
Gotta respect ordinary Britons off-the-scales Self-hatred, and desires to be whipped by a Headmaster of Superior. Baked into the culture. A Death Cult, or maybe just a Let’s Be Miserable Cult. Vomitous losers.
Link here– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3T0aa0v2u8&t=110s
bruce wilder
The sheer volume of speculation about the effects of AI on everything from the future of human intelligence (like whether there will be any — past performance furnishes no guarantee of future results, thank god for that dubious assurance) to the prospects of a financial crash makes it hard to ignore.
One thing that has puzzled me is the shape of resistance as it has surfaced in academia: lots of airtime given to luddites banning phones and falling back on hand-written bluebooks.
I wonder why more attention has not been given to applying AI to assisting teachers to teach and guide and to assist and lead students to learn. All that the LLM geewhiz chat apps are featured doing is facilitating cheating and skating by on stupid.
In a way it parallels the development of “self-driving” capabilities in automobiles. It does not focus on making drivers better. CYA requires insistence that the driver remain alert and constantly monitor the car, but realistically no human can be passive and instantly responsive in an emergency.
I don’t know that learning things or skills is a comparably impossible goal as that of the passive driver alert to emergencies in a split-second. Most people like games and much learning can be induced in a game-like environment, either individually or in social groups. AI’s appetite for monitoring can be put to good use — at least I imagine that is possible.
True to our era, I asked an ai search tool what’s out there and she found things — products and outdated academic studies of effectiveness. Automated writing evaluation (AWE) systems and essay-assessment tools used in classrooms to give students iterative writing feedback, for example.
I fear I know one ultimate answer: we are witnessing the result of putting psychopaths in charge and measuring their leadership performance with scoreboards that chart greed. I still do not understand why the opposition in restraint is so weak and unimaginative and lazy.
bruce wilder
British elections confirm the two legacy Parties — Labour and Conservative — are very, very unpopular.
There is one right-wing (noisily authoritarian, vaguely traditional) alternative on offer and an array of conviction-lite alternatives across the centre-left.
See any omens for politics elsewhere?
ProNewerDeal
Anybody else feel like the US economy & labor market itself is a massive unsustainable bubble? I think blogger Nat Wilson on this website called it something like the Unreality Era since 2008-now.
I feel like this was the case before the 2008 GFC. I feel like it worsened after the 2008 GFC, where I feel like outside of medical pros the US became like Latin America or Russia in terms of mass overqualified underemployment (eg engineer driving Uber, MBA lady working as a stripper, accountant working as a Starbucks barista, etc). I feel it may potentially further worsen with the AI effect on the job market (note this is “perception is reality” situation – AI does not have to “replace human labor effectively”, only that US execs believe it will & accordingly execute mass layoffs).
Afaict the rational response an individual is as follows. Ironically if a mass portion of the US workers did this, it would reduce the Consumer sector of GDP significantly & this change alone would cause a recession.
1 If a person has ability to, and the job market has opportunity to; work 40+ hours per week. Here “work” is broadly defined as W2 salary, W2 hourly, 1099/gig, or entrepreneurial small business.
2 Diversify your occupations, similar to diversifying with multiple asset classes in your asset allocation (AA) in your investing. Even if you have a great FT occupation, work a PT job or side small busienss or at least hobby that could be “monetized” as a small side business at least an average of 5 hours per week. This way if your main occupation gets decimated you potentially “have experience” in an alternate occupation.
3 If possible, save money. Stack an emergency fund for 12 months expenses with I Bonds Savings Bonds at treasurydirect and/or a good money market fund like those at Vanguard. If the emergency fund is sufficiently funded, contribute to tax-advantaged accounts like Roth IRA & 401k. Avoid & pay off debt.
4 In your investing, place a significant part of your asset allocation (AA) in non-USD assets, such as ETF funds of foreign stocks, gold, silver. If the USD loses “reserve currency market share” your personal pain is partially mitigated with the non-USD assets.
5 Maintain healthy habits, such as exercise & nutrition. Perhaps you can combine exercise with a 1099 gig or PT job that is physical where you are walking around a lot. If healthy habits mitigate healthcare costs, the time spent on this might aid not only your health but your wealth – especially in this extortionate US “healthcare system”. I acknowledge that working a lot can be unhealthy, use your judgement on the work/life balance tradeoff. For instance, I recall a newsstory that workers working 55+ hr/week had higher per week had higher measurable stress level. OTOH consider the stress reduction from the peace of mind of having a 12 month emergency fund vs not having it.
spud
Thatcher was advised by Pinochet to implement what he did in chile to the U.K. thatcher responded that that would be unacceptable in europe.
so the rich found their guy who would, blair. hope blair enjoys his life in the UAE.
in the U.S.A., it was not reagan that carried out the reagan agenda, that was actually started out under carter, it was the man the rich wanted and got, bill clinton.
Bob
@Mark Level
The British are a bunch of miserable and thick cnuts who can’t find a Tory who’s too Tory for them. So everyone in Britain has to be as Tory as possible to ever get anywhere. Petty, spiteful and vindictive even when it harms them more than the people their ire’s aimed at.
Mark Level
Yves’ big report on Donnie’s failed war today includes this brilliant 2:03 Lego Hip-hop takedown of Diaper Donnie, “Coz the President of the United States is a pedophile . . .”
See here– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3T0aa0v2u8&t=110s
I’d be interested to know if the lyrics are written by people or AI, but doesn’t matter much when the results are so stirring.
Mark Level
Very busy news day here, so gonna share another link.
Not overall a fan of ZeroHedge, Fascistic MAGA Greedheads. But from time to time they do a legit, Right to Left Horshoe move that the Normies all wet their pants over. The first few weeks of the Trump FailWar, they did a great piece called “The Mighty Hormuz” or words to that effect, clearly showed they knew he’d LOST the war, was over a barrel with his pants down, getting ready for—
Okay, the Persians are quite civilized and restrained, they’re not the Zionist Entity forcibly sodomizing “sub-human Ayrab Terrorists.”
Anyway, they have a post today that I looked at and think is correct, here’s the link– https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2026-05-08/who-inexplicably-immediately-releases-all-passengers-hantavirus-cruise-ship-without
I have personal reasons for loving Espanya after 11 weeks there the summer of 2004. And the Spanish PM ousting Trump from the country, militarily, is great. So shocked to see that their Health Minister is so goddamn stupid, NOTHING learned since Covid!?? WTF. Never expected them to go Bill Gates Cull the Human Herd.
Merz and Ursula and Co. must be giggling with glee, as their citizens will eventually be hit, the poorest and most vulnerable first.. .
The biggest giggle from “Armageddon Prose” is the following line– “Neon-haired Karen demands immediate mask compliance for hantavirus”. Her hair color doesn’t matter, any person who doesn’t want to win a Darwin Award should get this.
mago
Growing older day by day looking around at madness and beauty combined staring down the gun barrel at the end of life and you can only say hey, I had my day and it’s never coming back again. If you’re young you’re scared, but don’t care because nihilism guides your way. If nothing matters, then what are you so worried about? Death and destruction, shit like that is for others, all evidence to the contrary, but go on and keep on trying to convince yourself and others. It’s easy to buy the lies
Okay then. That was a spontaneous stream of consciousness prose poem attempt that’s whatever it is. Bullshit. Poetry is anchored in the sensorial, not abstract concepts. Maybe.
Wanted to take a break from chaos and mayhem, cruelty and aggression, greed and hatred and say something about blue waves breaking on white sand shores, about the warmth in a lovers eyes, about a taniger’s trill and a blue bird’s squawk, about innocence and a gentle caress, about a loving embrace and the break of dawn and love and love and love in a world gone wrong
Why not?
Want a bite of my apple?
KT Chong
China will place large orders for US agricultural products — and Americans will see it as a concession — for an obvious strategic reason: China expects a global food crisis and even a famine to hit by next year, probably as soon as late this year. This coming global food shortage will last for years if not a decade due to the fertilizer shortage and farm bankruptcies (and interruptions) caused by the blockade and closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Of course, Trump just wants to brag about an immediate and short-term win, and Americans do not think long-term — because even America will be hit by the global food shortage and higher food prices. So, by the end of this year or next year, America will be forced into the situation in which Americans are experiencing grocery inflation and hunger while having to fulfill the orders to export foods to China.
Frankly I do not really care about Americans starve and suffer due to karma. My biggest worry is that America and especially Trump, given their track records of breaking agreements and contracts, their lack of sense of honor, ethics, morals or trustworthiness, will refuse to deliver the orders that China will have already placed due to global — and domestic — food crisis.
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Frankly I do not really care about Americans starve and suffer due to karma.
Same here. The grifters described below are finally going to get their comeuppance. /s
As of 2024–2025, over 40% of the United States population identifies as a race or ethnic group other than non-Hispanic White. The country is increasingly diverse, with Hispanic (approx. 19–20%), Black (approx. 13–14%), and Asian (approx. 6–7%) residents forming the largest minority groups.
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The Lego videos are getting old and tired at this point. It’s time for something more creative. Plus, I can’t stand Rap/Hip Hop. Trying to appeal to Americans on the autism scale with these Lego videos isn’t gonna get ‘er done. Try some country music videos instead and hit MAGA below the belt. They love them some Country Music.
TM
There is a bizarre childish regression in the mentality of Reform voters. They are frightened and dismayed by the world as it is, and want a return to the childhood of their imagination. We’re at a point now where the London borough of Havering wants to secede and become part of Essex council, despite being part of London officially for 60 years and having London-managed services for another 40 years before that. Like Brexit, there are no specific benefits that they can enumerate, not to mention a scaffolding or path to attaining those benefits.
There is no amount of reason, logic or evidence that can be drilled into them, they are beyond help. They’ve voted for this shit-show for decades, gotten everything they’ve wanted and now rather than change their minds they want to regress. Nothing could possibly be their fault. They are victims to shadowy cabals of boat people and Turkish barbers.
I wish the best for all of the Scottish and Welsh independence voters, and hope the North of Ireland escapes this shitshow of English exceptionalism, because these people are beyond saving.
BJ
Kindly explain the following:
Seven billion people on the planet of which I’d say 95% despise Netanyahu. How is he still alive? He continues to show no regard whatsoever for his own people, slaughtered the vast majority of Israel’s on 10-07 and gave the middle finger to all the families of POW’s held captive in Gaza for over a year. Even Hitlers own Generals tried to kill him with a bomb in a briefcase. He has placed a bullseye on the back of every Jew throughout the world and destroyed Israel’s reputation. How is it possible his own security detail hasn’t killed him given the disdain he’s shown the IDF?
Israel is responsible for the deaths of how many world leaders and high ranking officials throughout the entire world for decades, how is it possible this tiny little Country is still on the map?
Israel is the size of NJ, Iran is the size of California, Montana and Texas combined. Iran has (allegedly) launched hundreds of super sonic missiles, and thousands of other types of weaponry. How is it possible Tel Aviv is still standing?
According to what has been reported, Iran destroyed Israel’s ports and airport therefore how was the United States able to deliver 6,500 tons of military equipment and ammunition to Israel during a 24-hour period via cargo ships docking at Haifa and Ashdod, along with several cargo planes transporting munitions and vehicles.
How is Israel able to continue to fight wars on several fronts (Gaza, West Bank, Syria, Iran and Lebanon} when we are constantly told they have no military and everything else has been depleted?
Someone kindly explain why Iran has not taken out Israel’s fragile water supply (why they want Lebanon – for their vast water resources) and electrical grid!!!!!!!!!!!!! Game over! And yet every single day we read about the carnage in both Lebanon and Gaza.
IMHO the reason Israel’s has enacted a media blackout is NOT because of the damage but rather there has actually been so little damage and this is all political theater.
Mark Level
Thanks, Bob, 100%. I did a long piece on this some months back, being more Irish than anything (fraternal grandmother was only “pure” blood in the family, so I’m 25%) yeah, I’ve mostly hated those Cnuts from an early age. Monstrously inhuman, racist and violent, and proud of it too, shitty food, bad dentistry, lotsa gits who think they’re Ubermenschen. Only rivalry with their neighbors forced them into the “good” side in WWII, the “great” Winston Churchill had early on praised both Hitler and Mussolini.
We’re destroying ourselves but not at the rate they are. Zio-pigs, crying in their gin and tonics that the Sun has Set on their shitty Brittania Empire.
TM, thanks for the comment as well, dunno if you’re new or infrequent here.
So LAS has narrow musical taste as well as bad aesthetics, recently claimed his politics are based on “nothing.” To quote a bumper sticker, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” Of course you DO stand strongly for the Banderist neo-N@zi ideology, so you’re not fooling much of anyone.
You’re right on occasion though, Mamdami did a weak-kneed response to the sale of stolen Gazan land being SOLD out of a Zionist Temple in NY State, sent the police in to keep protesters of the violation of International Law far from the Temple, did at least denounce it but hasn’t fired that Zionist, insane Police Commissioner yet.
The political “Left” is generally emasculated, only performatively pretends to want to “make things better”, the Dimmies throw the game Washington Generals-style to the ReThuglicans every single time as they have the same donors. US is doomed, I hope to get out fairly soon.
To Mago, I’m with you brother. Saw a bunny in the field on the way for coffee this morn, he’s been a neigbor (or she) since I moved in 9 months ago. Peace be unto all living things except the Zionists and Imperialists, MAGAt CHUDs, DimmieCrap Saps, Banderites, etc. Gotta open our eyes and get the boots off our necks, or escape. Oh, and hoping that Hantavirus isn’t coming for me!!
Jorge
@ProNewerDeal: Good tips, all. TreasuryDirect is US-only, and has been getting a little weird lately. (I’m unhappy about committing to them.) Also: learn to cook. A friend is a 60-year-old man who only eats fast food, takeout, prepared stuff.
The most obnoxious thing Iran can do? Back off to one demand: “We’ll give up nukes if Israel gives up theirs!”
spud
a body of water
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xkR_3C0kaDA
How Russia Is Secretly Rearming Iran (And Why The US Can’t Stop It)
———-
this is why in 1994 under bill clinton, the caspian sea was targeted as essential to world domination.
https://www.bakerinstitute.org/sites/default/files/2013-08/import/u-s-policy-towards-the-caspian-region-can-the-wish-list-be-realized.pdf
somecomputerguy
Here is what I was taught about torture 40 years ago in the military; the nazis did a systematic study of interrogation techniques, and concluded torture was ineffective as a way of getting information.
The very first problem, is that it gives someone who doesn’t actually know anything, a reason to lie about that.
By 100th water-boarding, I bet KSM was confessing to being the second gunman in the Kennedy assassination.
Someone had to check that.
In reality, people decline to “talk” under torture routinely. In “Bravo Two Zero” some SAS guys get captured. First they give their weak cover story. The Iraqis don’t buy it, and torture them some more. Then they give their strong cover story, the one they have all practiced until the can recite it in their sleep and the Iraqi’s buy it, and send them on to a POW camp. Thing is, they never did actually “talk”.
Using torture is the hallmark of someone who doesn’t know what they are doing.
What does it tell us about the CIA, that they jumped into torture with both feet?
mago
Short answer BJ, money, blackmail and fear. There’s a comeuppance a coming some fine day. Everybody dies and everything changes. I’m good at stating the obvious.
The party’s over at the Open Thread and folks have gone home to dinner and other concerns and distractions, so I feel free to talk a little bit about my immediate world. Yeah, I know what some are thinking, like what the fuck’s with this guy? Get a life. Those few who are reading this, i mean. But life is life. And here’s a slice.
In the natural foods store one day while taking to an employee who is a published poet and with whom I occasionally send my own verse, one of the owners who is also a poet and writer showed me one of her poems. Good stuff. Both of these women could have been my students back in the 90’s when I taught poetry to talented and gifted youth. Anyway, one of them said, let’s start a writer’s club. Why not? She’s following up with the idea of this little writer’s club, so we’ll see what happens.
Apropos to all of this, the thought arose that good writing like good sex is spontaneous, passionate and uninhibited. Not that I’m going to hit on these millennial poet women, please, but I look forward to getting down with some heartfelt sharing of words and wisdom when and if it happens. And if anything comes of it, I’ll share. We need more poetry in the world.
Mark Level
To BJ, I say thank you for a magesterial post, but I hope your final paragraph is incorrect. I can’t know at this time, however. I can pretty easily answer your query as how they have not just survived but prospered, though, as could many others, & I don’t want to condescend given how informed your comment is and assume you don’t know this:
The Zionist Genocidal Entity has survived and prospered since at least the time FDR cut a deal with the Egyptians and Saudis to support Zionist land-theft and ethnic cleansing (actually far earlier as well), later King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, who lived until 2005 (!) pledged Arab alleigance to the Zionists who want the northern half of his country. My dad was anti-Semitic (but was flattered whenever his Jewish business associates mistook him as a Jew), but strongly supported Israel because they exterminate brown people. He considered that great, but disdained both Judaism and moreso Islam.
Now my dad wasn’t particularly politically connected, but in the Epstein Class, George Carlin “Big Club but you aren’t in it”, the Elites universally love it, even the Goyim elites who are considered subhuman by it. I don’t know if it’s the Tail that wags the Dog, certainly seems so under Trump, but it’s the Tip of the White-Supremacist, Exterminationist Imperial Spear that the entire “West”, even fake Libs like Barack Obama (called a dirty schwartze by Bibi privately, Congress let him do an anti-Obama hate speech to major applause back in the day. )
mago’s response to BJ is incisive too, and I wish him the best viz his new poetry promotion. And his call on sexuality is good as well.
Listening to George Galloway’s post from yesterday on the Robot hybrid Keir Starmer’s surviving the Parliamentary Shellacking voters gave “Labour” and bringing bad old blood, Gordon Brown and others in to “revive” his dead premiership. NO semblance of actual Representative Democracy in the UK for decades, however I have seen elsewhere that Ireland, Wales, Scotland etc. will all disaffiliate as Sir Keir further sinks the UK to the ociean floor. About time. The Elites will never step away from the Zionist Killing Machine, it is their chief source of pride. Gavin Newscum will serve it faithfully.
Galloway is a great man of the Left, over 5 decades. He’s bad on sex however, mago prompts me to say, many people have an Achilles heel or prejudice they can’t shed somewhere, George is emblematic of this flaw. 90% great, 10% bigoted, few escape flaws entirely.
Mark Level
The God of Serendipity is working overtime this morning!!
I can’t stand the Russophobe rage spittle of LAS vis the Russians, but legitimate criticism is always called for, and who better than the brilliant John Helmer to dish it out.
I will share the link on Yves’ Naked Capitalism, the whole thing is worth reading, he had my jaw dropping with shock many times. The long-departed from this site Ms. Jennings (actually a dude) used to claim that Putin would flush Russian Federation down the terlet to favor Zionists, even let the Ukro-Banderists win, that is many bridges too far, BUT this article supports there was a smattering of truth to what he claimed, maybe 8-12% (about the amount of x LAS makes good calls.)
Link here– https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/05/putins-misleading-factoids-on-russia-israel-ties.html
Final paragraph a sample of why it’s worth reading: “Instead, Putin has publicly supported President Donald Trump’s Gaza redevelopment scheme under the “Board of Peace”. Last October, responding to an Iranian question about what Russia “can do to bring an end to the [genocide]”, Putin replied: “regarding President Trump’s proposal on Gaza – you may find this surprising, but Russia is overall ready to support it. Provided, of course, that it truly leads to the ultimate goal we have always spoken about. We must thoroughly examine the proposals made. Since 1948 – and later in 1974, when the relevant UN Security Council resolution was adopted – Russia has consistently supported the creation of two states: Israel and a Palestinian state. I believe this is the only key to a final, lasting solution to the Palestinian–Israeli conflict. As far as I understand – I have not looked through the proposal carefully yet – it suggests creating an international administration to govern Palestine for some time, or more precisely, the Gaza Strip. It is proposed that Mr Blair would head it. Now, he is not known as a great peacemaker. But I know him personally. I have even visited him at his home, spent the night there, and in the morning, over coffee in our pyjamas, we spoke at length. Yes, this is true.”
Coffee in your PJs with the Muslim-exterminating Tony B.liar, multimillionaire after being Bush’s Poodle. Disgusting. More than half my past respect for Vlad P c’est mort.
mago
With you all the way Mark Level. Keep on keeping on.