Links 2/8/2025

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1. The Rev Kev February 8, 2025 at 7:14 am

   ‘Autism Capital 🧩
   @AutismCapital
   🚨JASON CALACANIS: “How USAID got to the top of the DOGE list is that Trump decided to pause Foreign Aid for 90 days — reasonable enough…’

   Wait. Didn’t it come out that a lot of the opposition during Trump’s first Presidency and his Presidential run last year was funded by USAID through various bodies? That alone would make them Trump’s primary target. Come to think of it, old Joe suspended his security clearance after he was elected back in 2019. Was this part of an effort to hide who Trump’s true opponents were from him and that it was just not the Democrats?

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   1. Not Again February 8, 2025 at 10:01 am

      The USAID is overseen by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
      The GOP took control of that committee on 1/3/25.
      Rand Paul – who has sit on this oversight committee for years – dropped the info on 1/4/25.
      Neither Trump nor Musk is bright enough to find this on their own.

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2. AG February 8, 2025 at 7:46 am

   since when do seals eat penguins?

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   1. Merf56 February 8, 2025 at 8:46 am

      “ Leopard seals have a well-documented taste for penguins and at up to 3.5 metres long and 500 kilogrammes, they outmatch any species of these aquatic birds. The seals patrol shorelines, often stationing themselves at colonies, waiting to ambush birds as they transit between land and sea. A 2009 report found that at one colony, 12-16% of the gentoo penguins were consumed by leopard seals.”

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      1. PlutoniumKun February 8, 2025 at 9:22 am

         Sealions are also known to occasionally sample one when their habitats cross (such as in the tip of South America).

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      2. AG February 8, 2025 at 10:06 am

         there goes my world view
         (and puts the NAVY SEALS in a totally – much more appropriate – light)

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3. JohnnyGL February 8, 2025 at 7:59 am

   That 972 article on the use of carbon monoxide as a weapon during tunnel bombings has some interesting bits on how Hamas seemed to be able to handle the bombings better than hezbollah, in some instances. Check out this quote:

   “According to Hazoot, Hamas soon caught on. “Hamas learned lessons from ‘Guardian of the Walls,’” he explained. “They purchased 1,300 blast doors and distributed them throughout the tunnels. They created multiple ventilation shafts to disperse the gases and also implemented new tunnel-digging techniques involving twists and turns” — techniques which, according to Hazoot, helped to trap gas and prevent it from spreading further.”

   So, it turns out that Hamas had seen this technique, and had already made adjustments. But, perhaps, hezbollah hadn’t. According to the sources, and this guy Hazoot is one of the big ones willing to be named and go on record, the IDF started experimenting with the technique in 2017, and really gave it a shot in 2021.

   It seems like the big strike on nasrallah got to him and the other top commanders through asphixiation/suffocation.

   I found that very interesting and thought I’d throw it out there for the nakedcap crowd.

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   1. The Rev Kev February 8, 2025 at 8:05 am

      Sooner or later Israel will decide to go with the old-fashioned methods with these attacks and just go with Zyklon B.

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      1. Carolinian February 8, 2025 at 9:31 am

         And Trump will look sorrowful and say it had to be done so everything can be “beautiful”?

         There’s lots of speculation going on since this time around Trump is a lot more efficient at doing whatever he is doing but so far what he is doing doesn’t seem intelligent at all.

         But maybe it is all just a ploy and what matters is not the words–so many, way too many–but the deeds. Meanwhile skeptics are certainly entitled to be so.

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      2. timo maas February 8, 2025 at 9:43 am

         This is also old-fashioned, and reminiscent of flamethrowers, and even gas vagons (minus the mobility).

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4. Mikel February 8, 2025 at 8:02 am

   Rubio to boycott G20 meeting – RT

   “President Trump said on Sunday that he is halting funding to South Africa, accusing the country’s government of “confiscating” land and “treating certain classes of people very badly.” The US leader declared that Washington “won’t stand” for Pretoria’s “massive human rights violation.”

   And he and his administration are okay with trying to expel the Palestinians because they are a different “class” of people in their minds.

   It’s not a negotiating ploy.

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   1. JohnA February 8, 2025 at 9:23 am

      I suspect it is more to do with South Africa playing a leading role in trying to bring Israel to international justice.

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      1. Mikel February 8, 2025 at 9:39 am

         I know that. I’m comparing his views of land grabs.
         It’s the extension of what those comments.

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         1. Mikel February 8, 2025 at 9:47 am

            It’s an extension of what those comments suggest.

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5. The Rev Kev February 8, 2025 at 8:09 am

   “F-35 Fails to Improve on Delays and Performance Issues: Key Software Deficiencies Persist”

   The F-35 may soon be under the gun as Elon Musk has referred to it as s***. He also said ‘American weapons programs need to be completely redone. The current strategy is to build a small number of weapons at a high price to fight yesterday’s wars. Unless there are immediate and dramatic changes made, America will lose the next war very badly.’ Here he is also talking about the F-35 and saying that funds should be taken from it to build a new fleet of drones instead. Needless to say, there is already a lot of panic in defense circles about this-

   https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/02/07/742368/Musk-warns-that-US-will-lose-next-war-very-badly

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   1. VTDigger February 8, 2025 at 8:59 am

      It might all be worth it if meme lord goes after defense!

      “Trump then suddenly added that he wants to work toward “denuclearization” with China and Russia, and he believes such efforts are ‘very possible.'”

      https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2025/01/05996b7437e8-update3-trump-says-he-wants-fairness-nuclear-disarmament-talks-with-china.html

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   2. heh February 8, 2025 at 9:45 am

      “American weapons programs need to be completely redone” = wants a bigger cut

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      1. AG February 8, 2025 at 10:10 am

         right
         less F-35
         more missile defense
         same result: more profit

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6. Doug February 8, 2025 at 8:10 am

   Performativity is widely understood as “fake” and “virtue signaling”.

   The vast majority of actions reported in the link are neither fake nor virtue signalling.

   Indeed, they are the sort of actions that make a general strike and/or strike against essential services more likely.

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   1. Andouille February 8, 2025 at 8:45 am

      Yeah, agreed – successful strikes don’t materialize out of thin air. You need a large enough base of support for the given context and a fair amount of organizational capacity. Developing and maintaining both of these things more or less requires you to be actually doing something, which will, necessarily, be something less than a general strike, until it isn’t.

      There are definitely reasons to be skeptical of some of the actors involved, but I think a blanket dismissal of these actions would be unwarranted.

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   2. Mikel February 8, 2025 at 9:56 am

      Probably better to make sure one is not talking to a bot about their concerns. And also considering some of the owners of mediated platforms. ..
      An early step in organizing these days.

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7. Wukchumni February 8, 2025 at 8:21 am

   A very American fear aeon (Micael T). How about it can create unrealistic expectations about bodies and sex acts and make it difficult to get aroused by normal stimuli? Why, for instance, have boob jobs become pervasive among actresses (if you know the telltale signs, it’s evident) and plenty of “not paid to be looked at” women with the money to buy them?
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   This is Naked Capitalism, but don’t try hanging out in your birthday suit in most places in the USA, because I think we only equate being naked with the act of sex, there could be no other reason in our rather strait laced lifestyle.

   Janet Jackson exposed 1 breast about 20 years ago at the Superbowl-which is 50% less than you’d get with a page 3 daily tabloid lass in the UK. and caused much consternation… yeah we’re that prude.

   About a decade ago I was pulling into Arizona hot springs on my kayak on the Colorado River, when I spied 4 or 5 women on the beach in their 30’s with boob jobs that were much bigger than their body frames, and they had attractive males with them, and honestly my first thought was they were all from a porn shoot-it had the look.

   A little later I was disabused of the notion, as they were all ICU nurses from a Vegas hospital, and said males were ICU doctors.

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   1. GramSci February 8, 2025 at 8:57 am

      Kids who grow up on farms see lots of graphic animal sex. Not so many kids like that anymore. Of course, back in the day, just as today, many found it useful to insist, with biblical authority, that humans are not apes.

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      1. vao February 8, 2025 at 9:09 am

         In cities, cats and dogs are neutered — so no “graphic animal sex” to see.

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   2. Mikel February 8, 2025 at 8:58 am

      “Janet Jackson exposed 1 breast about 20 years ago at the Superbowl..”

      No, Justin Timberlake exposed Janet Jackson’s 1 breast at the Superbowl.

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   3. The Rev Kev February 8, 2025 at 9:14 am

      I notice a lot of high class society women in videos coming out of America with a similar look – round boob jobs, high cheek bones, odd shaped lips. Melania Trump is kinda like that. I notice too a lot of Botox being used and it seems to improve the looks of older women but with younger women, it makes them look artificial.

      As for that ‘A very American fear’, I find it weird that a parent will forbid their kids watching a film as it has boobs and bums in it – but they will put on a Quentin Tarantino film for them instead.

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      1. vao February 8, 2025 at 9:34 am

         The plastic surgery craze has apparently reached insane levels in South Korea.

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      2. griffen February 8, 2025 at 9:36 am

         On older women…since I’m now in my early 50s there are various stars I grew up watching in the 1990s, and it is interesting but obsessively to follow how their career arc continues. Most would recognize immediately who I’m talking of..

         By one example, Jennifer Garner….she was recently in a vigilante movie called Peppermint which just made her look quite the bad a**, and given my streaming options are limited, well I can’t speak to anything else she might be doing. I’ll include Jennifer Connelly in that grouping as well…Now I think of it she was well cast as the wife of Noah in the movie …

         Adding here…I recently joked that a “legitimate” usage idea for AI was to have remote care via Zoom or whatever be delivered by a virtual Dr of one’s choosing…if one could choose a popular actor or actress at least healthcare would be “funner” than it might be otherwise…\ sarc

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      3. Mikel February 8, 2025 at 9:41 am

         Expressing themselves…by all looking interchangeable.

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   4. Camacho February 8, 2025 at 9:52 am

      as they were all ICU nurses from a Vegas hospital

      They got a discount, and couldn’t let it go to waste.

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   5. Carolinian February 8, 2025 at 9:52 am

      Funny I was under the impression that the 1950s large breast obsession (paging Dr. Freud) was on the wane.

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   6. Wukchumni February 8, 2025 at 10:19 am

      p.s.

      Being naked in a hot springs in the USA is more likely the further away from what passes as society, but you’ll rarely see nakedness at private ones that charge an entrance fee.

      The aforementioned Arizona hot springs is a rare in-between case, they often get boy scout troops, and seeing one of my female friends in the buff might be one of their first opportunities ever to see somebody naked in their young lives. We’ve actually had scoutmasters try and shield their young charges eyes from being able to glimpse the human form, by raising a towel banner, gawd that was funny.

      Don’t forget a bathing suit if you’re going to any Utah natural hot springs, they’re sticklers against nudity and often you’ll see signs forbidding the practice.

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8. upstater February 8, 2025 at 8:26 am

   Automotive technology hellscape…

   Our 2019 Subaru needed a new battery a few weeks ago and it was replaced. It was also due for NYS inspection this month and a warranty repair so we took it to the dealer. A hot mess ensued.

   Apparently as part of the NYS inspection a port is plugged into a NYS big brother data system to check operation of emissions controls. But… if the always-on innards get zero voltage, this wipes out emissions history. Because there is no history, the car “failed” inspection! This is obviously a Subaru design defect.

   The solution? The dealer told us “drive the car at least 500 miles to reset the emissions history”. WTF? we average 500 miles a month and it is winter. So I’m supposed to drive to New York City and back and then get the emissions re-tested? I guess it was a “good” thing to get inspected on February 7, so I have 3 weeks to run up 500 useless miles. There is no work-around. Things get worser and worser!

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   1. .human February 8, 2025 at 10:00 am

      LOL. My ’08 Ford Escape Hybrid stopped displaying the correct date in August ’23. A few sessions of search revealed that only the day of week and time of day could be set. The internal 10 bit register that holds the week count since January ’04 had become full. There is no way it will ever become useful again.

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9. IM Doc February 8, 2025 at 8:31 am

   As DOGE begins to set its sights on HHS, I think it is worthwhile to hear from a primary care doctor on the ground. Right now, the attention is focused on the $160K Fauci shrine in the NIH building being shelved. Those sorts of things are literally couch lint to the real problems. And our system has made every PCP in the country complicit in an a mind boggling swindle and fraud. A gun in the form of their patients’ life or death is held to their head every day. It is not just Medicare billing for visits that is a reason so many are refusing to see Medicare patients – it is something far more sinister. There is a reason for moral injury in doctors and what I am about to describe is one of the worst causes. I have watched as this problem has gained in wealth extraction since I was a young MD decades ago. The skim has been going exponential over the past 5 years or so. It makes you heartsick when you think about the sheer scale and simplicity of the looting every day.

   A bit of back fill is in order. The issue I describe here is all about durable medical equipment. Hospital beds, oxygen compressors, CPAP machines, wheelchairs, etc. Myriads of items. Medicare does not buy these items outright and then provide to the patient. No, the items are “leased”. And I as the PCP am sent orders that I must sign to activate the lease. The vast majority of these patients could never even consider buying any of these items – they are often thousands of dollars at retail. So, for example, one of the orders I signed yesterday was for an oxygen compressor. You can find these online at retail, the exact model, for about $2100 new. I saw the exact model online yesterday for $450 used. So, Medicare could purchase this item for 2100 for the patient to have the rest of their life or the unit’s life – usually 5-10 years. Instead, Medicare “leases” this from various pre-selected vendors. There is ZERO competition – these vendors are already chosen. The compressor I signed for yesterday for an entire year lease was 1850 a month. So, the company is going to make 22,200 this year on an item that will cost them about 2100 retail, or about 1200 wholesale. Every year of the lease after that the patient lives – and most of them do live for several years – is pure astronomic profit. Now, please realize – I sign 10-12 of these every day. 5 days a week. Now consider there are about 300K PCPs out there in America. The sheer amount of the steal is just too hard to even consider. All of this is completely “legal”. The checks are written every day – no human at HHS or CMS ever looks at them. There are, a few times, forensic audits looking back when patterns emerge after years of payouts that system gaming has been happening. These type of “catches” are very few and far between – and this is largely “illlegal”. You read occasional newspaper stories about companies stealing tens of millions and no equipment delivered. Again – this is backward looking – often for years-old transactions. A few people do go to jail but often large sums of millions of dollars is never recovered.

   And another big difference compared to 30 years ago. At today’s rates – in the early 1990s – the lease amount on a 2100 dollar item would have been something like 100 dollars. Now it is 1800. As I said above – the level of the skim has just gone exponential over the past 5 years.

   The amount of looting and theft of the treasury is just unbelievable. I have contacted Congress people, I have confronted them in town halls, I have called the Inspector General at HHS numerous times only to get as far as a clerk and be laughed off. I have filled out IG forms dozens of time – and not once ever had any response. I have sat across from hospital admin on numerous occasions and been looked at like a moron – with the untoward feeling that the person across the table was into the scam at a neck deep level. I gave up about 10 years ago. And I often have a very sick feeling every time I sign these off.

   Being the scientist I am – I decided this week to test a hypothesis – to see if this care about waste was real. So I applied the scientific method. I conducted an experiment. I gathered up a series of 5 random orders that came across my desk. I added up the retail cost of each item found on the internet – all 5 orders totaled 15,750. I then added up all of the “lease” costs for these items that were listed for the 12 months I was signing for – $121,832. I then called the IG office. For the first time in my life, I was immediately connected to an Inspector. I was listened to. I had faxed all this paperwork to her and she and I went over every detail. I was heard. I was listened to. And I was told – yes this is a huge problem. Please give us time – it is being worked on. I was then asked to fill out the formal papers for a complaint. And I am still awestruck today. And please note, this is just one tiny aspect of the medical fraud going on. I do not doubt this is going to take quite a while to work through. I am just thrilled at the new attitude.

   Back to the scientific method. When an observation occurs that has never happened before, you as the scientist must then make an accurate assessment of your current conditions – and begin hypothesizing. There are only 2 I can think of – 1) The advent of the Trump admin – 2) The advent of DOGE. And 3) is always present in any experiment – Who knows? —- That is it. I have no evidence right now to pursue these hypotheses – but my guess is evidence will start to flow in very short order.

   I would ask a question – How is this type of Treasury looting for 1-2 generations not a coup? How is it not a coup when just a very few people are looting the Treasury like this all of my adult lifetime?

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   1. The Rev Kev February 8, 2025 at 8:43 am

      The US is going into debt at the rate of about $1 trillion every 100 days. I would estimate that the majority of that money is going on the sort of scams that you just reported across multiple industries. It all adds up. The fact that you were listened to by an Inspector I find noteworthy. It may be that that department realizes that Trump’s mob will look them over sooner or later so if they can get on top of some of these scams right now, it will make them look better when this happens.

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      1. Tom67 February 8, 2025 at 9:43 am

         Fantastically interesting. Am in Ukraine now and about a week ago the Guy i am sharing the Apartment with was deliriously Happy. Dozens and dozens of grantfeeders (grantosheri in Ukrainian) that is ultrapatriotic and lbgtq Bloggers were suddenly begging for money. Turned out that 9 out of 10 got money from the US. The commentaries below their begging were acidic. Schadenfreude was the least hostile reaction.

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   2. Wukchumni February 8, 2025 at 8:44 am

      My late mom was a Great Depression era kid, which meant you saved everything, probably drawing the line at belly button lint, but you get the idea.

      About a decade ago she gave me her mid 1961 to mid 1962 checkbook register, as a check for $190 had been written to pay for my coming out party.

      There was a series of checks for $6 and $7 to Dr. Evers-our PCP, with one whopper for $14 which I assume must’ve been for open heart surgery.

      The total health bill for a year not including my delivery was $88 for a family of 6. I asked my mom if we had health insurance, and she related that aside from the Kaiser Plan, nobody had health insurance back in the day.

      Dr. Evers probably had little in the way of newfangled expensive medical gear, a stethoscope here, an x-ray machine there, he really had to be intuitive in diagnosing patients.

      We’ve come a long way backwards, while greatly advancing the rise of machines.

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   3. GramSci February 8, 2025 at 9:06 am

      Docs wanted to put me on a CPAP ten years ago for snoring and sleep apnea. I lost some weight, but that barely helped. Instead, I started using three pillows piled into a bed wedge.

      Problem solved.

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      1. Joe Well February 8, 2025 at 10:16 am

         Also try taping your mouth shut, after first making sure your nostrils are clear enough to breathe through. Got me like 80% of the benefit of CPAP. In fact, if I cant breathe through my nose it’s hard use CPAP anyway.

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   4. pjay February 8, 2025 at 9:14 am

      This is a crucial, and extremely depressing point. My parents both went through long periods of illness before they died. No one who has serious examined itemized medical bills in such situations would disagree with your description. It is a massive system of wealth extraction first and foremost. And it is such a large part of our economy that it has completely captured and corrupted our political processes. The problem is that for many of us it is hard – impossible, in fact – to believe that the destruction of this corrupt government “safety net” in favor of a privatized system run by our financial and techno-feudal overlords will be an improvement. Will absolutely essential services for those who need them be preserved while the undeserving pigs at the trough are cut off? In my long life of observing these sorts of “reforms” it is usually the opposite that occurs.

      As always, I hope I am wrong. But I just can’t see Trump or Musk as actual populists who have the good of “the people” at heart. I do think Musk is serious in his comments about tremendous government waste and his desire for more efficiency. But how are “waste” and “efficiency” going to be defined by our genius Philosopher Kings? Are the actual needs of the superfluous masses really going to be of concern to these guys? Or is this just another “good cop bad cop” performance where the Red Team comes in and slices more of what’s left of the government and then the Blue Team comes back whining in a few years.

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      1. IM Doc February 8, 2025 at 10:19 am

         I would say to you the following…….I have had a lifetime to really think about this as the fraud just continues to worsen. I would love to hear alternate takes. I remind you, this issue is but one of many in health care that are just unbelievable swindles – Home Health Care, Hospice, Dialysis, Infusion Centers, Chemotherapy, I can go on and on and on. The hospice issue is probably the most depressing. Very few making big bank on the terminal suffering of others.

         How is having a few people at the top of these pyramid schemes looting the Treasury any different than “privatizing”? How is the system we have now actually not way worse. There seems to be absolutely zero oversight on any of this.

         I am afraid if this exposure is kept up – the American people are going to be shocked beyond belief about what has been going on. Their tax dollars, Medicare and insurance premiums, etc wasted and spent like this.

         And yes, this is potentially going to be a literally gargantuan economic hit. Lots of people are going to lose work from the on the ground people, those sitting at home getting a paycheck while playing video games ( not going to take any grief about this – it happens – I have patients who do this and laugh in my face about it ) – all the way to the exalted few who own these companies and the golf club memberships, massage and spa people and the millions and all the workers and employees to maintain their lifestyles.

         And unfortunately, as a Dem, I can see the current response of the Party – just blaringly ignorant of the exposures at hand, screaming about DOGE etc – again – when this all comes out – and the way they are acting now – they will be the ones blamed and more importantly, it will be all their fault for being this dense. Where I have chosen to live in the past has put me with my Congress people mostly being Dems. Over the years – and plenty of time when they had all the control and power – I told many of these Congress people TO THEIR FACE of the impending disaster and detonation that was coming. They often laughed out loud. Unfortunately, they did nothing about it. And I have very little sympathy for their screaming and wailing right now.

         I really think there is more than just cutting waste going on. I think there is a dawning realization of the financial dislocation coming for the entire country – and HHS and DOD are the two big whales.

         Buckle up friends – this is going to be a once in a lifetime spectacle. I among many others have been begging people to wake up for so long. Especially the Congress critters. This could have been handled decades ago – with pain – but handled. Now it has multiplied exponentially and along with the pain there will be sheer agony.

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   5. griffen February 8, 2025 at 9:19 am

      That is a remarkable recap of what one can label, well Federal government spending is always and ever a net positive so let this activity run it’s course….Feels likely if possible that the worm is turning and not just in the proverbial sense…

      I think it was a story on very sick emphysema patients who required an oxygen supply, and Medicare had previously been alerted to the likely and high potential for fraudulent billing. These anecdotes always seem isolated, but I have suspicion it’s widespread since what is the risk to an organization doing such nefarious billing for services…Also see, contractors and billing practices for services rendered in oh, say Iraq or Afghanistan…. Billion dollars here and there seem to add up…

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   6. katiebird February 8, 2025 at 9:31 am

      In the summer of 2017 both my parents (ages 90+) had falls bad enough that they needed wheelchairs. The cost was covered by Medicare – I think Medicare paid something over $100/mo for each. We were getting monthly reports from Medicare listing their claims and – maybe this was unusual? – the wheelchair company sent monthly statements also. The surprise to us was that after 6 months we got a statement from the Shop that the wheelchairs were paid for in full and now theirs. But this is all just earlier than your 5 year mark. I wonder if that shop has changed their pricing since?

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      1. IM Doc February 8, 2025 at 10:22 am

         And I would say to you – you were lucky enough to accidentally be placed with a company with ethics. There are a few still out there – and I do what I can to direct my patients their way.

         Also, wheelchairs and smaller priced items are often handled this way – at least by a few.

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   7. Carolinian February 8, 2025 at 10:07 am

      Thanks. And hope you are right that reform is the aim in much of this DOGE probing. We seem to be living in grifter nation so some of the objections could be coming from those who are on the take.

      There was a time when the press was supposed to uncover this sort of abuse but now they are on the take too–sometimes literally.

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   8. Randall Flagg February 8, 2025 at 10:12 am

      Dear IM Doc,

      Thank you for this comment and it’s wonderful to read that things may be changing.
      I hate to say this as you probably have such little free time for yourself and family to decompress and recharge, but your comments and insights are it seems worthy of a regular NC posting/column.

      If not in the medical world, IIRC you also mentioned the other parts of your life that I think many of us would enjoy reading about. The history of the changes in how medicine is practiced, community, your gardening, the other parts of life that make us whole.

      Your initial comments on the Pfizer and Moderna shots way back when were extremely helpful in understanding what was going on with the corruption of the whole mess.

      As always thank you for the time and thoughts you give to us here.

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   9. Mikel February 8, 2025 at 10:18 am

      Sounds like the rise in fraud coincides with the movement of industry from the United States.

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   10. Joe Well February 8, 2025 at 10:18 am

       And the basis of the fraud is that durable medical equipment is so overpriced to begin with. Just let on at the cost of similarly complex non-medical devices.

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10. bobert February 8, 2025 at 8:32 am

    Thanks for the aeon article about the birth of naturalism. It dovetails perfectly with my reading of David Bentley Hart’s Atheist Delusions, which takes a scalpel to the notion that the era of Christendom was an uninterrupted fog of superstition and religious oppression. Not to mention providing a few sharp kicks to the “angry atheist” mob of Dawkins, Harris, and Dennett, amongst others idiots.

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    1. JohnA February 8, 2025 at 9:30 am

       While Hawkins maybe somewhat in your face at times about religion, in what sense is he an idiot? Speaking as an atheist myself who has never been persuaded by any arguments in favour of a supreme being.

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       1. Wukchumni February 8, 2025 at 9:39 am

          I too don’t require invisible means of support as my deities are all too real when everything around you is godly.

          Atheism is the attack dog of dogma and vice versa, Pantheists merely befuddle fundamentalist followers.

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       2. jsn February 8, 2025 at 10:02 am

          Orthodoxies require certainty, whether divine or scientific.

          We know next to nothing, and living with that requires a humility that offers only social space to certainty, which generally feels like coercion, whether religious or scientific. The best practitioners of various faiths understand this, even atheists in my experience.

          That doesn’t make one a “relativist”, life is real and a universe of mysteries. In our short lives we get to sort out some miniscule representation of it all to ourselves, to the extent we can, and are interested. This universe has plenty of space for some kind of divinity, though I’m not clever enough to see any “One”!

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11. The Rev Kev February 8, 2025 at 8:36 am

    “Indoor Marijuana Ops Are Consuming a Staggering Amount of Energy”

    ‘Indoor marijuana growing operations in the U.S. use more energy than all outdoor agriculture combined.’

    Did not see that coming. If they keep this up, how are they going to have enough energy for all those cryptocurrency and AI servers? Won’t somebody please think of the children? I suppose that you could force most marijuana crops to be grown outside instead on actual farms but if that happened, I can see the next headline-

    “Outdoor Marijuana Ops Are Consuming a Staggering Amount of Water”

    Stoners will kill us all. /sarc

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    1. micaT February 8, 2025 at 9:04 am

       OK let’s talk pot and power. The article is complete BS.
       For a professional grower ( retired) doing indoor it works like this.
       About 2 pounds per light roughly per sq meter. And at this point it’s been a while and the new strains might be getting more than that.
       Their idea of 2kw per meter is probably close takes a lot for the fans and filtration and AC to keep things cool.
       Lights have improved a lot over the years and many are using LED. But roughly 1000 watts per meter.
       Grow time is about 3-4 weeks of 16 hrs a day ( using 3.5 days average) 3.5weeks x 7 days x 2kw x 16 hrs = 784 kWh
       Bud time is 5-6 weeks of 12 hrs day. 6weeksx 7 x 2kw x 12 hrs = 1008 kWh.
       4# of processed = about 1792 kWh.
       National average for electrical usage per household per month is 900 kWh.
       So roughly 2 months of average household usage will get you 4# of bud.

       Some do a full cycle from clones to harvest in 8 weeks, some 12.
       There is some additional minimal power for the cloning works, which is low power so they don’t burn.

       No where close to using a whole years worth of electricity for #4 of bud.

       I am not in support and I think the laws requiring pot to be grown indoors is beyond stupid for all sorts of reasons, but energy use is at the top of that list.

       Oh as to the lighting, it’s right around 1000 watts per meter squared like I said which is the same as most places in the US for noon time sun.

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       1. mrsyk February 8, 2025 at 9:24 am

          That grow time number right? 3-4 weeks or months? There’s auto-flower FrankenWeed strains that have shorter grow periods, but four weeks of pre-flowering growth sounds off.
          When you say 2 lbs of product per square meter, is this 32 ounces of dry, trimmed flower?

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          1. micaT February 8, 2025 at 9:41 am

             There are a few options on growing. Indoor is usually with lots of small plants usually cloned so they are all female and this means a very short season, usually between 8-12 weeks start to finish. This is because it’s really really hard to keep the bugs out. Then there is outdoor with 2 versions, 1 is light depravation which is kinda like growing indoors and 2 full term or plant in the spring and harvest in the fall. In full term outdoor, plants can get 6-12′ tall depending on the strain.
             In growing indoor, the actual grow time is about 3-4 weeks thats it. What you might not know is that the plants only get 2′ tall. Then it goes to 12 hrs lights, which simulate the fall which trick the plant into flowering ( budding). From planting 6″ high clones to harvest is literally 8-12 weeks. And that amount 2#+/- per light is trimmed bud, not plant material.

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             1. mrsyk February 8, 2025 at 9:47 am

                Thank you, this is very informative.
                I grow outdoors, option two.

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       2. Wukchumni February 8, 2025 at 9:29 am

          Tiny Town used to have quite the reputation of being where people grew marijuana, back in the stoned age before it was legalized.

          If you drove around Cherokee Oaks at the right time, you’d get a contact high from the smells of indoor grows leaking out through the garage.

          I have a few friends that were chancy gardeners and it used to be the only way to make a middle class income here, and it was hard work, with a constant devotion to your crop, forget that Bob Marley nonsense about planting a seed and letting it grow.

          They’d peddle their wares down in LA and it was around $3k a pound and then dropped down to $2k.

          I can legally buy a pound now for $800 including tax out the door.

          There are no indoors grows i’m aware of now, because it would be awkward with the AirBnB guests in the house when you’re tending garden.

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       3. doug February 8, 2025 at 10:10 am

          The major study quoted was published in 2012. A lot of LED’s since then for sure. Thanks for the details to debunk what I thought sounded off.

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       4. jhallc February 8, 2025 at 10:29 am

          There is also the need for air-conditioning due to heat control and de-humidifiers to control mold growth which add to the power consumption according to the article below. I’m not an expert on the numbers, but seems that indoor growth, as you say, should be not be promoted.

          https://www.pullcom.com/newsroom-publications-Putting-the-Green-in-Renewable-Energy-at-Cannabis-Grow-Facilities

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    2. mrsyk February 8, 2025 at 9:05 am

       I grew a couple indoor crops. Not worth the hassle would be my main take away.
       Big Ag Weed. We manage to take the fun out of everything

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       1. GramSci February 8, 2025 at 9:18 am

          The only analgesic for an old commie living in Outer Pentagonia, besides proximity to grandchildren, is the legality of growing ~8 oz. of weed every summer. Enough for me and Juana and Xmas presents.

          No, IM Doc, we DON’T smoke it.

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12. KD February 8, 2025 at 9:29 am

    EU and war:

    I wish I could remember the source, but I recall reading about the great EU plan to issue EU-bloc war bonds to fund defense spending. This would represent a mighty step forward for the EU, even if the result would be an interminable bickering about how to spend the gravy.

    IMHO the EU is completely dead, being a ploy to create a soft currency to prop up German/Eastern European exports while allowing German banks to lend money at low rates on leverage to net-import countries while profiting on interest rate spreads, while “disciplining” workers in those net-import countries (and what progressive forward thinking leader of an advanced democracy doesn’t like “discipline,” at least for other people). Thanks to the Ukraine/Russia economic suicide combined with US/China trade wars, there will be no German/Eastern European exports, Europe will de-industrialize, and the EU will come crashing down when the economic foundations disappear.

    But Brussels can dream, and you can imagine all the gravy that these “war bonds” will create for bankers and defense contractors and crooked EU bureaucrats, but you can’t have “war bonds” without threat inflation and the fear of Russians hiding under the bed. So one can listen to public comments of EU officials, and on one level say their comments are crazy, ridiculous threat inflation and the EU or NATO has no real capability to stop Russia conventionally even if they wanted to, but that really misses the prize, which is the self-licking financial/MIC ice cream cone paid for by the average European working stiff when he or she is not being “disciplined” by her enlightened masters.

    My thoughts on how I stopped worrying and learned to love the tough-talking EU bureaucrats, who are just jealous at all the payola the Ukrainian oligarchs managed to steal over the Russo-Ukrainian war and are salivating at the prospects for replicating the grift at scale across the EU.

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    1. The Rev Kev February 8, 2025 at 9:40 am

       There is another “benefit” of Eurobonds – EU taxation. To back up those Eurobonds with collateral, it will let those EU bureaucrats to bring in their long-held dream to bring in taxation levied by the EU itself on EU citizens rather than the member States. Think about all that money flowing from Ireland to Cyprus into the EU coffers in Brussels. minus 10% for the Big Gal.

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       1. KD February 8, 2025 at 9:44 am

          My only concern is how the tape worms and the round worms respond when they realize how badly they are being out-competed by financial parasites.

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13. The Rev Kev February 8, 2025 at 9:33 am

    “Ukraine Inches Closer to Final Call-Up ”

    Looks like Zelensky will end up forcibly recruiting 18-24 year olds after all. They might, might get a coupla weeks training, be issued a gun and be sent to the front. Puts me in mind of the 13th century Children’s Crusade for some reason – and that ended up badly too. Funny how nobody talks about Zelensky being the new Churchill anymore and how he can’t get any invites to anything but NATO meetings. He tried four times to get an invite to Trump’s inauguration but they blew him off. Still, they will compare him to historical figures-

    1775 – Patrick Henry: ‘Give me liberty or give me death!’

    2025 – Zelensky: ‘Give me NATO or give me nukes!’

    So inspiring.

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14. TomDority February 8, 2025 at 9:49 am

    US President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order sanctioning the ICC for “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.”
    This is a formal declaration by Donald Trump that despite his public statements about wanting to be the peace president — he is in fact a biggly genocide supporting, human rights violator of the first order unbound or sidestepping our own laws ..
    .just as his predecessors going back to Contra Reagan, Diamond cocaine laundering Bush sr, Haitian Clinton, Torturer/Gitmo/BS/endless war sidestepper Bush JR and his following Presidents straight up to Genocide Joe and the big loop with Trump back in ….Gitmo/Genocide/Money Laundering/Fraud/non-accountability/……the list of normalizations just keeps getting longer and uglier –
    And do not forget the absolute bi-partisanship of all this……I suppose aimed to inculpate all Americans as to these actions.

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    1. Wukchumni February 8, 2025 at 9:57 am

       It’s getting bad out there, I was shopping for bread @ the supermarket and my wife wanted Jewish Rye, and I told her I didn’t care for it-which was overheard by the authorities, who immediately leveled me with willingly being anti-semitic, and only upon buying 7 loaves was I let off on my own recognizance.

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    2. Carolinian February 8, 2025 at 10:12 am

       It’s not a good look. Perhaps he should propose Israel as the 51st state if that’s how he’s going to act.

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15. KD February 8, 2025 at 9:50 am

    A very American fear. . . if people are worried about videos, wait until AI + advanced robotics climb out of the uncanny valley to consume humanity.

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16. Wukchumni February 8, 2025 at 9:51 am

    We’re 19 days into the Bizzaro World FDR 100 Days, where under different auspices FDR started dragging America out of the Great Depression by creating jobs everywhere-an acronym alphabet soup worth!

    Out of nothing, the CCC was up and running with staffed camps a few months after his inauguration, get the country going!

    We only have a few acronyms for Trump’s 100 Days, DOGE, ICE & USAID.

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17. mrsyk February 8, 2025 at 9:52 am

    seems to admit to harboring an illegal alien in his home, anyone else troubled by this language?

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18. The Rev Kev February 8, 2025 at 10:01 am

    “Austrian Police Detain Richard Medhurst; Accuse Him of Being Hamas Member; UK Extends Probe Against Him”

    I would have thought better of Austria than to pull this bs stunt. Well, maybe not so much the Austrians as the Starmer government are probably behind this. When Starmer was Attorney General, he used his position to try to get the Swedes to indict Julian Assange on a charge, any charge, and tangle him up in legal troubles. So I wonder if this is really Starmer using the same playbook but using the Austrians to do this. The one thing about the Starmer government is how they are cracking down on dissent and abusing the law something shocking, especially for journalist like Medhurst and if I were him, I would not be returning to the UK. It may work out in the long run that Starmer will likely end up in the House of Lords for his “services” while Medhurst may have to seek sanctuary in the Russian Federation like others have done such as Tara Reade, Edward Snowden and journalist Eva Bartlett.

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