Updated 05.26.2025: on Monday Trump said that Putin had “gone crazy”. That is NOT a statesman’s condemnation — that’s a “frat boy bad night in the bar” / joke. A statesman would say he deplored the killing of Ukraine civilians when a prisoner exchange was underway — and would impose NEW sanctions on Russian travel, with the NATO allies. Damnation. Out. End update.
Trump is absolutely getting more Ukrainians killed; that is a fact, now. This latest attack by Putin is… deeply depraved and during a prisoner exchange, to boot. And because Tangerine won’t act, perhaps as I’ve suggested before — it is time for the Bitcoiners to make themselves useful — all those of good will, who oppose what Putin is doing.
Based on the recently-continued rise in Bitcoin (now over $104,000), as a trading pair with USD and the Russian Ruble (and the continued decline of the Ruble), it would seem likely that at least some Russian oligarchs are piling their local currency hoards into. . . Bitcoin, as they know the dollar and euro are both closed to them. [Unlike paper dollars, the Bitcoin addresses may be effectively locked, by a polite note saying “Hey — please do not buy, sell or transact with this address.” Rather handy, in times such as these — assuming most coiners will act morally.]
Bitcoin moralists would be deeply appreciated here — if they’d collectively help identify these addresses, converted from a Russian fiat currency, and help the entire moral world further isolate these malign actors. Put them on the sidelines.
And between now and then, do sing along with Aretha & me; with a pull-quote from Febrary of 2022:
…Trading volumes between the Russian ruble and bitcoin increased to a nine-month high as the country’s fiat currency plunged to record lows due to the fallout from the invasion of the Ukraine.
Data tracked by Kaiko, a Paris-based cryptocurrency research provider, shows that ruble (RUB)-denominated bitcoin volume surged to nearly 1.5 billion RUB on Thursday….
Onward, resolutely. Trump is snuffing the beacon of light we once were (2008-2016) for the Western World. Awful.
Mr. Mirengoff correctly and cogently faults Donald Trump tonight, as an inveterate liar, charlatan and most troublesome of all… a non-serious person. He is no preznit — not even a fully formed adult.
Ukraine has proven it.
But I’ll let Paul tell you (I won’t pay for his “walled garden” opinion pieces / articles — so this is just the opening foray below).
…During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised to end Russia’s war against Ukraine very quickly. In fact, he repeatedly said he’d end it within 24 hours of taking office.
I doubt many people believed him. Perhaps some took him seriously, but only fools could have taken him literally.
Trump does seem serious about ending the war, but he has failed to make serious headway. The problem, in my view, is that he’s going about it the wrong way. I also believe he’s going about it the wrong way because he has other, conflicting priorities that stand in the way of a peace deal. [Cough (confidential from Condor): He owes Putin a slew of very weighty favors — all of which mean Tangerine 2.0 cannot push a fair peace deal with Ukraine, at all.]
You need not be an artist of the deal to recognize the path to a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. You need only understand the dynamics of this war….
And — whether Paul shows the courage in later paragraphs to admit he should never have voted for MAGA in the first place… doesn’t really matter.
Interestingly, he is and even Hinderaker is) admitting the obvious: Trump is a reprobate, and a… loser.
All while brave Ukrainians die, by the thousands. Month after atrocious month.
Well… Mr. Bezos is nothing, if not consistent — in his disregard for the labor laws that apply to his US facilities. This time, his minions refused to allow a certified union rep to be present at disciplinary hearings — an egregious violation of applicable federal law — in the Amazon Staten Island complex of facilities.
…Amazon.com Services LLC violated federal labor law in multiple cases at a Staten Island, N.Y., warehouse when it failed to provide workers the opportunity to have a union representative present during disciplinary meetings and suspended a worker for 10 weeks with pay for being a union leader, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled May 6.
Administrative Law Judge Benjamin Green did, however, dismiss charges alleging Amazon suspended and discharged another employee for union activity.
The company and Amazon Labor Union have been at odds since the warehouse workers won a historic election vote for union representation in 2022 and were later certified by NLRB. Neither Amazon nor the union immediately responded to a request for comment….
In the higher mountains of Colorado starting Tuesday, through the following Sunday — so blogging may be sporadic, here. Onward.
This is a smallish update, but it means the depositions are likely next week — to uncover the lies the Noem/Rubio minions have told (should result in. . . fireworks). [And separately, various concerned citizens are writing in, sua sponte, to urge the release of Mr. Khalil and Mr. Abrego Garcia, directly to the involved USDC Judges. So, I say… “More — more of this!”]
Until the depos are concluded, most of this is likely to remain sealed, so that the Noem/Rubio forces can’t — after the fact — concoct dovetailing “stories” to cover their respective tracks. Bring it (from a very short motion to seal that was filed overnight by Mr. Abrego-Garcia’s lawyers, in 25-cv-951 USDC, MDD):
…The accompanying Status Report contains information regarding the Government’s interrogatory responses and email correspondence regarding the topics to be covered in the 30(b)(6) depositions the Court has ordered. The Government has designated these materials as Confidential or Attorneys’ Eyes Only under the Stipulated Confidentiality Order. Accordingly, pursuant to the Confidentiality Order, “even if [Plaintiffs] believe that the materials designated as Confidential or Attorney’s Eyes Only are not properly classified as Confidential or Attorney’s Eyes Only,” they are required to file this motion seeking to maintain the designated material under seal. Id.
Further, Plaintiffs are not simultaneously filing a public version of the accompanying Status Report, as the Government has designated the entire Status Report Confidential or Attorneys Eyes Only. Plaintiffs rely on the Government to identify reasons why alternatives to sealing the material not filed publicly would not provide sufficient protection….
The bulk of the relief burden is now falling to the EU nations, and… China. China is likely to receive lots of goodwill credit in these African nations, as Xi steps in where Tangerine has turned his back on the continent.
The immediate human health cost is blindingly-obvious, but the longer term loss of stature — on the world stage will take perhaps another decade to correct, once we are rid of him.
Here is to hoping that the people of Togo engage in safe practices, as dictated by WHO and the African CDC. And here’s CIDRAP on it all, as of yesterday:
…Togo’s health ministry declared an mpox outbreak late last week, with three confirmed cases reported so far, raising concerns about further disease spread in West Africa where illness activity is surging in Sierra Leone, the region’s latest hot spot, health officials from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said yesterday at a weekly briefing.
Yap Boum, PhD, MPH, deputy incident manager for Africa CDC mpox response, said Africa’s mpox activity reflects a mixed picture, with promising signs in some of the earlier affected countries and with different regions of the continent experiencing different clades and transmission patterns.
Confirmation of cases in Togo pushes the number affected African countries to 25, with active transmission underway — in 16…
Now you know — onward to barbequed smoky ribs, greens and cornbread — spicy beans and rice, too. Grinning….
He was sentenced for MURDER, by the very capable judge — after a felony conviction.
It is libel per se, to now impugn Mr. Floyd or his family — at this point. Blood libel in fact. And it is sedition, to push Tangerine 2.0 — a weak minded, psychotic old geezer — for a pardon or commutation. This ex-cop committed a cold blooded murder in the street on cameras; we all saw it.
The law determined that is the right place for him. Show some respect.
End of story. No “mind meld” needed. Just the regular (and manifestly correct — on copious visual evidence — from multiple camera vantage points!) outcome of our system of ordered liberty.
Please give your bout of libelous flatulence a trip to the water closet. It is all pungently… sickening.
What of his daughter’s right to grow up with her… father, man?
Updated: stop defending the felonious assaults John. These are willful abuses of process, and you know it. End updated portion.
The tiny handed dotard was so far out of pocket, this one doesn’t merit any in-depth analysis. He will lose all the way up through the Supremes. He cannot tell a private university whom they may or may not allow to matriculate. D-a-a-a-a-mn.
We will likely stop following this — after this, the one post — unless some upper level judge/justice ends up likewise out of pocket, here:
…In a lawsuit filed in Boston federal court earlier on Friday, Harvard called the revocation a “blatant violation” of the U.S. Constitution and other federal laws, and had an “immediate and devastating effect” on the university and more than 7,000 visa holders.
“Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” the 389-year-old school said in the lawsuit filed in Boston federal court. Harvard enrolled nearly 6,800 international students in its current school year, equal to 27% of total enrollment….
Busy Friday — And no John, intentionally abusing the law is not just a “blunt instrument” — it is Tangerine’s felonies tour continued —so… suck it, Hinderaker!
Next up? The silly Tom Cruise vehicle / Ethan Hunt (is this like… MI:7?!?), as a late matinee, with friends! Sweet!
Subtle wobbles — in unwasted grace — characterize this palette cleanser, tonight. See at right — the yellow ochre oval depicts this rare beauty of a planet — far out into our chilly night skies.
It has long been known (since Edwin Hubble’s decades of study, then sorted carefully by Otto Struve), that orbiting planets cause their stars to rock back and forth ever so slightly, as the planets’ gravity pulls the stars one way and another. And these particularly odd… to and ‘fro wobbles, are what led the team in Chile to find this diamond in the rough. Here’s the story — still developing (likely now awaiting secondary source / confirmation by JWST):
…A newly discovered planetary system, informally known as 2M1510, is among the strangest ever found. An apparent planet traces out an orbit that carries it far over the poles of two brown dwarfs. This pair of mysterious objects – too massive to be planets, not massive enough to be stars – also orbit each other. Yet a third brown dwarf orbits the other two at an extreme distance….
“Circumbinary” planets, those orbiting two stars at once, are rare enough. A circumbinary orbiting at a 90-degree tilt was, until now, unheard of. But new measurements of this system, using the ESO (European Southern Observatory) Very Large Telescope in Chile, appear to reveal what scientists previously only imagined….
[It was identified by using] “radial velocity” measurements. Orbiting planets cause their stars to rock back and forth ever so slightly, as the planets’ gravity pulls the stars one way and another; that pull causes subtle, but measurable, shifts in the star’s light spectrum. Add one more twist to the detection in this case: the push-me-pull-you effect of the planet on the two brown dwarfs’ orbit around each other. The path of the brown dwarf pair’s 21-day mutual orbit is being subtly altered in a way that can only be explained, the study’s authors conclude, by a polar-orbiting planet….
Fascinating — and lovely, in very sublime ways… graceful, even. Yes, yes — wobble, baby — to and ‘fro, in unwasted… grace. Smile — onward.
For anyone paying attention, it tells the entire story… without a single word needed.
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