Goldfinger

The Lamestream Media is all agog: what is Ayatollah 49% Don^©'s point in starting a war with Iran? He of "Peace President" propaganda?

"Wag the Dog" is all you need to know. That was specifically about a sex scandal, and so today. But the reason specific to today is the Rich Guys' need to extract value from The Rest of Us. And, in this case, fossil fuels, Ayatollah 49% Don^©'s major fixation. If the Strait of Hormuz gets really clogged, or essentially shut down... well Goldfinger didn't go to Fort Knox to steal the gold, but to leave it a radioactive dump for all time. In Ayatollah 49% Don^©'s mind (such as a lower brain stem might be), the future is burning stuff. American based stuff becomes, thus, more valuable if other supplies are sequestered. Bank shot.

Thought For The Day - 28 February 2026

The MAGA crowd, at least some, are having their ultimate wet dream, Middle East episode: Iran run by Shah Jr. For those not up on the history, Shah Sr. was installed by a CIA led coup which threw out a democratically elected leader, Mosaddegh. As always, the Big Guys That Matter just want the natural resources.

The cradle of democracy. My flat ass.

Kill All The Workers - part the second [update, yeah didn't take long]

In episode 1 was discussed the Wet Dream Supreme of the capitalist class wrt AI: send labour productivity through the roof, and keep all the attendant growth to themselves. None for the working classes.

Now comes new reporting on the declining birthrate. Ya know, The Musk Ox's present diatribe. Turns out, according to the report, that it's the dirty Redneck women who are opting out. All those college educated wimins keep popping them out. Who wooda thunk it? Anyone with a brain. Across the board, the main reason to have fewer (or no) little brats is the cost (short and long term). Ya cain't afford a Benz? May be ya cain't afford a drooler.

[R]esearchers found that teenagers and white women ages 20 to 24 without a bachelor's degree accounted for over half of the drop. College-educated women accounted for another 18 percent.

BTW, the same aspect is true of abortion: it's mostly married wimins with more than enough brats to suit them, thank you very much.

"One of the main reasons people report wanting to have an abortion is so they can be a better parent to the kids they already have," Professor Upadhyay says.

What's especially stupid about The Musk Ox and his ilk: they are all foaming at the mouth to get the bestest worker killing AI that there is. Of course, that only works for one, or may be two, such. At scale, The Musk Ox and his ilk will kill the economy. Eccles was right. What Eccles didn't forsee is a top heavy service economy which caters to the 1%. Much less an economy that does nothing else. Who needs a proletariat?

Such an economy, and its adherents, ought to thank all those young lower class wimins for doing the hard part: reducing the number of future idlers and welfare queens. I mean, if the under class DID keep breeding like rabbits, and still got Uncle Sugar's support and Medicaid and the like, the Right Wingnut Stasi would have much larger kill quotas each year. I mean, does the United States of Alabama really need more banjo picking albinos?

[update]
That didn't take long. Block (nee, Square) just axed 40% of its workers. White collar folk. Educated folk. We're all disposable now. Stop making more of us!!!!!

The Totally Unhinged - part the first

And so we begin a new series: The Totally Unhinged. And we begin, appropriately, with Huckabee Daddy. His chat with Carlson has been reported widely, One such.

The US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has said it would be "fine" if Israel took control of a vast swathe of the Middle East, drawing a swift rebuke from regional and other majority-Muslim states.

Suggesting even nominal support for Israeli sovereignty over much of the Middle East is an unprecedented departure from American foreign policy. It also goes well beyond what much of Israel's far-right is willing to call for publicly.

Nearly every Middle Eastern country aside from Israel condemned Huckabee's comments in a joint statement on Sunday.

In an interview with US conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, the ambassador was asked about his understanding of a biblical verse suggesting that land including parts of Egypt, Syria and Iraq had been divinely promised to the Jewish people.

Carlson said that according to the Old Testament, the boundaries would be "basically the entire Middle East."

He continued: "Does Israel have the right to that land?"

"Not sure we'd go that far," Huckabee said in reply. "It would be a big piece of land."

Carlson then pressed him: "Does Israel have the right to that land?"

"It would be fine if they took it all," Huckabee responded, before adding: "I don't think that's what we're talking about here today."

It was Karl Marx who opined: "Religion is the opium of the people". It is nutballs like Huckabee that proves him right. And, of course, it is why the diests Founding Fathers chose to separate Church and State. It reared its ugly head during the Second Great Awakening (oft times linked here), not long after the Founding.

The BBC (and some others) included this more explicit bit about the extent

In the interview, released on Friday, Carlson pressed the ambassador on his interpretation of a Bible verse which the host claimed suggested Israel had a right to the land between the River Nile in Egypt and the Euphrates in Syria and Iraq.

Huckabee said "it would be a big piece of land" but stressed that "I don't think that's what we're talking about here today".

Now, it must be remembered that the Israelites held sovereignty over a small bit of the current Middle East for about 200 years, 3,000 years ago. And the only explicit "statement" of this essentially infinite sovereignity is just the Old Testament. The Israelites wrote the book that gave them the Middle East. Or, to put it yet another way: Native Americans held sovereignty over the North American continent continuously for at least 10,000 years before White People invaded. Don't they have a much stronger case for recompense? Yes?? Oh, right. They're heathens.

Thought For The Day - 20 February 2026

Well... boy howdy!!! The Gang of Six didn't prevail. The three most rabid members dissented, to be expected. What is hilarious is that The Trippy Three complain

[Kavanaugh] noted discussion at oral arguments about how such a refund process was likely to be a "mess."

Well... it was Ayatollah 49% Don^© who made the mess. "Clean up on aisle 666!!" Any fifth grader knows from his/her Social Studies class which branch has taxing and tariff power. It ain't El Jefe.

Thought For The Day - 15 February 2026

NASCAR is primitive car racing, at best. I'm a Formula 1 junky since Jimmy Clark. But, I'll generally peek in at the Daytona 500 now and then. A car race that only turns left is dumb. Pebble Beach is much more interesting, at least today. Go Scottie!!

Which brings up MAGA, dontcha know?? Last time I peeked, Toyota held the top 4 places. A few dozen or so laps to go, but c'mon. NASCAR is moonshine racing, not anything resembling sophistication. Ayatollah 49% Don^© should make yet another EO and ban foreign cars. drivers, and owners from the sport. This is AMERICA after all!!! Be true to your school.

Block Island News

We've been going over to the Island for at least a couple of decades, generally in what's called "Shoulder Seasons", which translates to very early Spring and very late Autumn. Not so many silly tourists around. Turns out, the Native Block Islanders have been conducting an annual census for longer than we've been going over. To attempt to get a more or less accurate count, deep off season was chosen. Not too many day hopping mainlanders. Near as I can find, one doesn't have to show some form of Block Island (aka, New Shoreham, RI) ID to be counted. But, to discourage day hoppers from mucking up the count, said count is conducted after that last boat leaves.

Did I mention that the appointed day is Groundhog Day?? Well, yes it is. And, no, Block Island has no indigenous rodents of that description. Small detail. So, as one might expect of the Frequent and Enthusiastic Visitor, there is a yearning To Be Counted. We do "own" a small parcel of Block Island, but not enough to live in all year. So, it'd not be really cheating to Be Counted. OTOH, getting to the Island on 2 Feb. is dependent on the weather. Alas, pretty shitty this year. And all of the ones preceding. Or so I remember it. And one needs to find accommodation, of course. Not all that many open year round.

Not all years is the count published in the Block Island Times in a timely manner. But we mainlanders do get it timely this year: 1,014. The common wisdom is that the Island has a resident population of about 1,000. So it appears. No mention of how many were/are Frequent and Enthusiastic Visitors.