Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro on Thursday and reassured him of Moscow’s support as the Venezuelan leader faces escalating external pressure, according to a statement from the Kremlin.
In the call, reported by Reuters, Putin expressed support for Maduro’s government “in the face of growing external pressure,” as the United States under President Donald Trump continues to push for Maduro’s removal from office. Washington has increased military activity in the Caribbean as part of its pressure campaign.
The Kremlin said the two leaders discussed their shared interest in advancing a strategic partnership agreement and moving forward on joint projects in the economic and energy sectors. Moscow has long viewed Venezuela as a key partner in Latin America, particularly as both governments face isolation and international sanctions.
The Kremlin said the two leaders discussed their shared interest in advancing a strategic partnership agreement and moving forward on joint projects in the economic and energy sectors. Moscow has long viewed Venezuela as a key partner in Latin America, particularly as both governments face isolation and international sanctions. [continues]
Attribution: It’s All About Oil by Bill Day, FloridaPolitics.com
Rich foreigners can now buy a Trump Gold Card if they want to move to the U.S., President Trump says America may keep the oil from a seized Venezuelan tanker ship, and engineers are testing a tool that uses artificial intelligence to dynamically weave product placement ads into any show that you’re watching.
Our Friday Chat 11am ET
STARTER TOPIC: Trump’s emerging worldview treats Europe as Russia’s turf, Asia as China’s, and the Americas as his. Join us Friday as we unpack this “three-kings” map of power.
🔹 1. Europe “belongs” to Russia in Trump’s mind?
This one practically screams from the record:
Trump has repeatedly said Russia should “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO allies who don’t meet his payment expectations.
He has framed NATO as protection money — not a collective security pact.
That’s a mob view of Europe, not a presidential one.
He consistently undermines Ukraine, calls Zelensky greedy, and publicly shrugs at territorial conquest… almost like he thinks Russia has a legitimate claim.
He praises Putin’s “strength” and “historical claim” narratives, even when they contradict U.S. intelligence positions.
This is not random rhetoric or randomness. It looks more like an agenda.
🔹 2. Asia belongs to China?
Again — he telegraphs this more than we think. Not because he loves China (he doesn’t). But because:
He treats Chinese takeover of Taiwan as inevitable.
He signals he won’t defend South Korea or Japan unless they massively “pay us.”
He repeatedly frames Asian allies as freeloaders rather than strategic partners.
His trade-war obsession bizarrely coexists with an acceptance of China’s expanding sphere of control.
He doesn’t oppose Chinese dominance — he opposes America not getting a cut.
This isn’t just a theory. It’s more like pattern recognition.
🔹 3. The Americas belong to him
He sees the Western Hemisphere as:
A personal playground
A domain of loyalty tests
A space where only he writes the rules
His obsession with “our backyard” language toward Latin America.
His willingness to weaponize migrants as political assets.
His insistence that Canada and Mexico either praise him or be punished.
His view that American institutions exist to serve him, not the other way around.
If Russia gets Europe and China gets Asia, that leaves the Americas as his proprietary sandbox. It’s a worldview without Democracy — only dominion.
The “tri-sphere” theory explains a decade of scattered, bizarre, contradictory decisions.
Trump doesn’t misunderstand alliances.
He rejects the entire post-WWII world order and replaces it with Three Kings… and he’s one of them.
The U.S.-Venezuela conflict escalates as the Department of Homeland Security TikTok-ifies the seizing of an oil tanker, and Trump can’t resist taking credit for the “Captain Phillips” moment. Plus, the State Department bans the font Calibri for being “too woke,” and Michael Kosta unpacks the new beef between conservatives and the font’s creator.
Of the systems we use commonly, Calibri is the default font in MS Outlook on our office system and the WV Efile system, and only MS Word defaults to TNR (which is the preferred font for pleadings and orders among old fart lawyers and judges of my age). Calibri seems to have supplanted the old san serif that was a default font in the 90s. I just don’t get how a typeface can be woke. Oh, and it looks like it’s the typeface on this site.
What America is Clicking: December 12, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Marijuana Policy: President Trump is expected to sign an executive order directing agencies to reclassify marijuana, a move intended to ease research barriers and aid legal businesses without fully legalizing the drug. The Washington Post
Redistricting Rebuke: In a rare break with the White House, Republican state senators in Indiana sided with Democrats to kill a plan to alter the state’s voting maps, rejecting pressure from the President to adopt more partisan lines. The Washington Post
Venezuela Tensions: The U.S. has seized a “very large” oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, marking a significant escalation in the administration’s pressure campaign against the Maduro government. The Washington Post
Afghan Airbase: President Trump has expressed a desire to reclaim Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, though new satellite imagery suggests the Taliban is filling the base with aircraft decoys. The Washington Post
Justice Department: A grand jury has once again declined to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James, dealing another setback to the administration’s efforts to prosecute the state prosecutor. The Washington Post
Health Care: The Senate failed to pass legislation addressing a sharp rise in health care premiums, leaving millions facing higher costs as expiring subsidies were not renewed. PBS NewsHour
AI Regulation: The President signed an executive order blocking states from enacting their own artificial intelligence regulations, asserting federal preemption over the rapidly growing technology. AP News
Bay Area Blast: A massive gas explosion in the San Francisco Bay Area has injured at least six people and damaged multiple buildings, with construction crews suspecting a struck underground line. The Guardian
Diplomatic Standoff: Confusion deepens in West Africa as 11 Nigerian troops are being held in Burkina Faso after an “unauthorized” emergency plane landing. The Guardian
The Friendly Skies: An Australian skydiver was left dangling at 15,000 feet after his reserve parachute snagged on the plane’s tail; he managed to cut himself free with a hook knife and land safely. Local 10 News
A snapshot of what people are clicking, not what we think they should. Open Thread: Which of these stories is overblown, and what important news is missing? Add your links below.
Rachel Maddow wrote a great book “Blow Out” on the effect of oil on countries. Here is a review from 2019. The book is definitely worth reading as it covers the issues we are faced with today.
The oil and gas industry, according to MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, is “ranging like a ravenous predator on the field of democracy.” It is “Godzilla over downtown Tokyo.” It is “the richest, most powerful, and most destructive industry on the globe.”
Halfway through Blowout, Maddow’s new book about the industry’s impact on democracy worldwide, these claims begin to feel understated. In short, accessible chapters, Maddow covers apparently distinct topics, from fracking in Oklahoma to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to the Sochi Olympics to corruption in Equatorial Guinea to the ring of inept Russian spies that inspired The Americans and, finally, to Russian interference in the 2016 election. “Seems unlikely,” she writes, “but it all ties.”
Maddow’s tone will be familiar to viewers of her show: It’s knowing, cynical, and snide. The jokes and insults are presumably meant to leaven a difficult subject; I found them irritating, an exercise in letting readers feel morally and intellectually superior. The easy contempt is most grating when it seeps outside of the circle of her legitimate targets: “What [Russia] needed right then — like a junkie long past his last hit — was sanctions relief.”
But Blowout nonetheless feels like a public service. Though its value is not in original reporting, it usefully compiles the most convincing research and journalism on the harm that oil and gas have done to global democracy, and then weaves together a narrative of greed, power and corruption.
More at link
Europe for Russia. Asia for China. The Americas for Trump. Read the full Trail Mix Brief here:
Now that I am old, and can prove it, I enjoy reading the false nostalgia posts about how nice things were way back when. None of them include something that I can never forget. The kids today, everybody under seventy-four is a kid to me now, have lived without home heating with coal. The dust, the mess, the pain of shoveling coal at two in the morning, shoveling out the clinkers, and especially the smell.
My childhood and into my teens involved homes that burned coal. Family and friends, neighbors and towns, all used coal to heat the air and water. There were clouds of coal smoke, dust and stuff coating the world. There are still a few places using coal, but no where near the extant in the nineteen-fifties.
Ending coal burning reduced mortality, diseases and other health issues.
Hey …..it’s a brand new Triumvirate. Who gets to be Julius?
Stop calling it chaos. It’s actually a map. 🗺️
A fortress for the Americas. An insurance bill for Taiwan. A shrug for Europe. Live at 11am ET.
Get in here: https://trailmix.cc/chat
Watch the trailer:
Senator Mark Kelly said he’s faced an onslaught of death threats and hired a private security detail after President Donald Trump lashed out at him for posting a video urging members of the U.S. military to disobey “illegal orders.”
Kelly, an Arizona Democrat and former Navy pilot, revealed his heightened security situation in an interview with Vanity Fair published Wednesday. But, despite the dangerous circumstances, he said he remains unflappable.
“Trump is not gonna scare me,” he said. “He’s a wannabe authoritarian, and we’ve gotta make sure he doesn’t get there.”
*The tRUMPsky admin is afraid of Senator Kelly. He seems like a CIC and they want to make sure he doesn’t end up in the Dem ticket.
I will be setting up a new computer today. If missing for more than 48 hours, send a search party.
The secretary of the Navy reportedly has submitted his review of Sen. Mark Kelly’s conduct involving the “illegal orders” video that the Trump administration views as seditious and could lead to his court martial.
Citing an unnamed Pentagon source, CNN said only that the Office of Legal Counsel received the review, which War Secretary Pete Hegseth asked for by Dec. 10. It leaves unclear what — if any — fallout the Arizona Democrat might face.
Separately, the FBI has sought to discuss the Nov. 18 video with all six of the Democrats who took part in a message that reminded military personnel they “must refuse illegal orders.”
While it is unclear what the Pentagon and Justice Department will do next, Kelly and one of his colleagues who participated in the video, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Michigan, have formed legal defense funds for any legal battles ahead.
Theoretically, everything is hooked up.
today’s meme…
There is a statue of Columbo and his dog in Budapest.
A nonprofit organisation tasked by the US Congress with helping preserve historic sites has sued the White House to stop construction on President Donald Trump’s new ballroom.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed the suit on Friday, arguing that the White House failed to seek necessary reviews before demolishing the historic East Wing in October.
“No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever — not President Trump, not President Joe Biden, and not anyone else,” the lawsuit says.
It also alleges Trump is violating the US Constitution, “which reserves to Congress the right to dispose of and make all rules regarding property belonging to the United States”.
The White House said in a statement responding to the lawsuit on Friday that “President Trump has full legal authority to modernize, renovate, and beautify the White House – just like all of his predecessors did.”
*He never asks permission. Also, he never apologizes. Has he paid the destruction company? I heard he changed builders.
Trump replaced architect James McCrery with Washington-based Shalom Baranes Associates to lead the $300-million White House ballroom project, demoting McCrery to consultant.
“Shalom is an accomplished architect whose work has shaped the architectural identity of our nation’s capital for decades and his experience will be a great asset to the completion of this project,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said.
The White House did not specify why it was swapping architects on the project. The Washington Post reported that McCrery and Trump clashed over the scope of the project and that McCrery’s small firm wasn’t able to meet deadlines in the large-scale project.
A man and his dog.
Anonymous Bosch
Blue Bronc
Growing up in California, I had it pretty easy weather wise other than Fresno in the summer with the mugginess of irrigation and swamp coolers or in Los Angeles with severe smog caused by both nature and back yard incinerators at every house. Almost every child had some form of asthma or bronchitis.
The only real major social negative was de facto segregation caused by red lining, and real estate covenants. There were rich and poor areas for all races but few mixed areas. That didn’t really start to end until the 1960s with block busting. Schools weren’t legally segregated only geographically according to where you lived. There were a couple of years when I was just about the only white kid in what were majority black/Hispanic schools.
Nice to see the National Trust decided to sue. What have they been waiting for???
I could enjoy this.
From my morning read.
imagine it’s a Monday evening. You’ve probably had a boring day at work, still struggling to find your footing after the long weekend. When the clock hits 5 p.m., you finally clock out. But instead of heading home, you make your way to the bar and order a drink. A day like this calls for something to soothe the soul.
But this isn’t like any other Monday. Lately, Mondays have taken on a new name: Drunken Lectures Mondays. These days, rather than head to the bar just to drink, you also show up to hear a lecture on a chosen topic. You’re relaxed, drink in hand, surrounded by friends—and in that state, you’re ready to think and speak freely. A proper dialectic ensues. Ideas are exchanged, arguments are sharpened, questions asked. That’s the usual scene every other Monday at 254 Beer District in Westlands, Nairobi, where the Drunken Lectures are held.
Ahhh, BB. Coal – my paternal grandparents had coal heat in their home. My memory of it is not specific, but I do remember the coal bin in the basement – the furnace and boiler was a beast, and they had an automatic feeder for it that minimized those overnight tendings to the furnace. It certainly was all coal dusty in the basement but whether by the height of the basement – probably 14′ or so, or some other factor that escaped my young eyes and mind, I don’t recall it ever smelling smoky or like coal in the house.
meme #2…
Today’s Live Chat: Europe fears U.S.-Russia alliance ➡️
Europe’s had 8 years to get their shit straight, relying on us was stupid that whole time
Only Macron read the situation right, he has done as admirable a job at herding cats as can be expected
Which is why right-wingers attacked his wife
sword recipe:
take one ploughshare, add heat
apply hammer until sword
repeat
here wait I’ll do it like an online recipe
Sword Recipe
* AI slop about how delicious swords are and how happy they make everyone during the holidays *
ad
ad
ad
ad
ad
Ingredients:
Ploughshare, Heat, Hammer
ad
ad
ad
ad
ad
* more AI slop about sense-memory and the emotions food compels, mention Grandma *
ad
ad
ad
ad
ad
take one ploughshare, add heat
apply hammer until sword
repeat
Europe ➡️ Russia.
Asia ➡️ China.
The Americas ➡️ Trump.
Is this the new global map? Craig and Jack break down the “3 Empires Theory” and the strategy behind the partition.
There has been some disucssion about sfb clout ending right now. He has lost influence or pressure to dictate what politicians can do or what civilization can do. He has tried to be dictator wannabe and not exactly achieving it.
The Trump administration is pulling federal funding from Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, which operates a McAllen migrant shelter.
The South Texas charity is part of Catholic Charities USA and is a branch of the Diocese of Brownsville. Its executive director, Sister Norma Pimentel, has become known globally for her advocacy work for migrants.
Pimentel, who founded the migrant shelter in 2014 and has run it since, was considered one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People of 2020” and received a medallion of excellence from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute in 2023. During Pope Frances’ reign, she was considered the “Pope’s Favorite Nun.”
But as of last month, the organization has been barred from receiving federal funds for six years, according to documents the government shared with Fox News, after the Department of Homeland Security said an investigation found multiple grant violations, such as inconsistent records on migrants.
When the charity commemorated its decade of operations last year, Pimentel told Border Report that it has served over 500,000 migrants.
A few months ago, a House investigation — led by U.S. Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee, who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security, and Rep. Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma, also a member of the committee — probed more than 200 organizations they accused of “providing services or support to inadmissible aliens during the Biden-Harris administration’s historic border crisis.”
Four organizations were listed as the investigation’s priority, including Catholic Charities USA. The others were the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Global Refuge, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the latter of which is the focus of a criminal investigation recently launched by Gov. Greg Abbott.
The “Beam Me Up, Officer” Defense
Florida Man: In what might be the most creative alibi of the year, a suspect in Martin County found sitting inside a stranger’s vehicle told deputies he didn’t actually break in. Instead, he claimed he was being chased by aliens and had been conveniently “teleported” inside the car for safety. The deputies, apparently lacking jurisdiction over intergalactic travel, declined to investigate the UFOs and arrested him for burglary anyway. Coast to Coast AM
I’ll bet ICE Barbie wishes aliens would beam her up right about now. $220 millions for her to star in ads. The admin is unraveling.
NEW THREAD
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Join the Trail Mix
Get an alert when Craig goes live, and the link when our Open Thread heats up.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/putin-doubles-down-on-backing-maduro-amid-mounting-us-pressure-on-venezuela/
Attribution: It’s All About Oil by Bill Day, FloridaPolitics.com
Rich foreigners can now buy a Trump Gold Card if they want to move to the U.S., President Trump says America may keep the oil from a seized Venezuelan tanker ship, and engineers are testing a tool that uses artificial intelligence to dynamically weave product placement ads into any show that you’re watching.
Our Friday Chat 11am ET
STARTER TOPIC: Trump’s emerging worldview treats Europe as Russia’s turf, Asia as China’s, and the Americas as his. Join us Friday as we unpack this “three-kings” map of power.
🔹 1. Europe “belongs” to Russia in Trump’s mind?
This one practically screams from the record:
Trump has repeatedly said Russia should “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO allies who don’t meet his payment expectations.
He has framed NATO as protection money — not a collective security pact.
That’s a mob view of Europe, not a presidential one.
He consistently undermines Ukraine, calls Zelensky greedy, and publicly shrugs at territorial conquest… almost like he thinks Russia has a legitimate claim.
He praises Putin’s “strength” and “historical claim” narratives, even when they contradict U.S. intelligence positions.
🔹 2. Asia belongs to China?
Again — he telegraphs this more than we think. Not because he loves China (he doesn’t). But because:
He treats Chinese takeover of Taiwan as inevitable.
He signals he won’t defend South Korea or Japan unless they massively “pay us.”
He repeatedly frames Asian allies as freeloaders rather than strategic partners.
His trade-war obsession bizarrely coexists with an acceptance of China’s expanding sphere of control.
He doesn’t oppose Chinese dominance — he opposes America not getting a cut.
🔹 3. The Americas belong to him
He sees the Western Hemisphere as:
A personal playground
A domain of loyalty tests
A space where only he writes the rules
His obsession with “our backyard” language toward Latin America.
His willingness to weaponize migrants as political assets.
His insistence that Canada and Mexico either praise him or be punished.
His view that American institutions exist to serve him, not the other way around.
The “tri-sphere” theory explains a decade of scattered, bizarre, contradictory decisions.
Trump doesn’t misunderstand alliances.
He rejects the entire post-WWII world order and replaces it with
Three Kings… and he’s one of them.
Join the Chat
The U.S.-Venezuela conflict escalates as the Department of Homeland Security TikTok-ifies the seizing of an oil tanker, and Trump can’t resist taking credit for the “Captain Phillips” moment. Plus, the State Department bans the font Calibri for being “too woke,” and Michael Kosta unpacks the new beef between conservatives and the font’s creator.
Of the systems we use commonly, Calibri is the default font in MS Outlook on our office system and the WV Efile system, and only MS Word defaults to TNR (which is the preferred font for pleadings and orders among old fart lawyers and judges of my age). Calibri seems to have supplanted the old san serif that was a default font in the 90s. I just don’t get how a typeface can be woke. Oh, and it looks like it’s the typeface on this site.
What America is Clicking: December 12, 2025 at 7:37 AM
A snapshot of what people are clicking, not what we think they should. Open Thread: Which of these stories is overblown, and what important news is missing? Add your links below.
Rachel Maddow wrote a great book “Blow Out” on the effect of oil on countries. Here is a review from 2019. The book is definitely worth reading as it covers the issues we are faced with today.
‘It All Ties,’ Rachel Maddow Says Of Oil And Gas, Russia And Democracy In ‘Blowout’
More at link
Europe for Russia. Asia for China. The Americas for Trump.
Read the full Trail Mix Brief here:
Now that I am old, and can prove it, I enjoy reading the false nostalgia posts about how nice things were way back when. None of them include something that I can never forget. The kids today, everybody under seventy-four is a kid to me now, have lived without home heating with coal. The dust, the mess, the pain of shoveling coal at two in the morning, shoveling out the clinkers, and especially the smell.
My childhood and into my teens involved homes that burned coal. Family and friends, neighbors and towns, all used coal to heat the air and water. There were clouds of coal smoke, dust and stuff coating the world. There are still a few places using coal, but no where near the extant in the nineteen-fifties.
Ending coal burning reduced mortality, diseases and other health issues.
Hey …..it’s a brand new Triumvirate. Who gets to be Julius?
Stop calling it chaos. It’s actually a map. 🗺️
A fortress for the Americas. An insurance bill for Taiwan. A shrug for Europe.
Live at 11am ET.
Get in here: https://trailmix.cc/chat
Watch the trailer:
Stur is on now. Join us
https://streamyard.com/jp2mwysyxk
We are live at
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/mark-kelly-death-threats-trump-hegseth-b2882020.html
Senator Mark Kelly said he’s faced an onslaught of death threats and hired a private security detail after President Donald Trump lashed out at him for posting a video urging members of the U.S. military to disobey “illegal orders.”
Kelly, an Arizona Democrat and former Navy pilot, revealed his heightened security situation in an interview with Vanity Fair published Wednesday. But, despite the dangerous circumstances, he said he remains unflappable.
“Trump is not gonna scare me,” he said. “He’s a wannabe authoritarian, and we’ve gotta make sure he doesn’t get there.”
*The tRUMPsky admin is afraid of Senator Kelly. He seems like a CIC and they want to make sure he doesn’t end up in the Dem ticket.
I will be setting up a new computer today. If missing for more than 48 hours, send a search party.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2025/12/11/pentagon-has-report-on-sen-mark-kelly-illegal-orders-video/87678345007/
The secretary of the Navy reportedly has submitted his review of Sen. Mark Kelly’s conduct involving the “illegal orders” video that the Trump administration views as seditious and could lead to his court martial.
Citing an unnamed Pentagon source, CNN said only that the Office of Legal Counsel received the review, which War Secretary Pete Hegseth asked for by Dec. 10. It leaves unclear what — if any — fallout the Arizona Democrat might face.
Separately, the FBI has sought to discuss the Nov. 18 video with all six of the Democrats who took part in a message that reminded military personnel they “must refuse illegal orders.”
While it is unclear what the Pentagon and Justice Department will do next, Kelly and one of his colleagues who participated in the video, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Michigan, have formed legal defense funds for any legal battles ahead.
Theoretically, everything is hooked up.
today’s meme…
There is a statue of Columbo and his dog in Budapest.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c07555m4710o?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Bheadline%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D
A nonprofit organisation tasked by the US Congress with helping preserve historic sites has sued the White House to stop construction on President Donald Trump’s new ballroom.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed the suit on Friday, arguing that the White House failed to seek necessary reviews before demolishing the historic East Wing in October.
“No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever — not President Trump, not President Joe Biden, and not anyone else,” the lawsuit says.
It also alleges Trump is violating the US Constitution, “which reserves to Congress the right to dispose of and make all rules regarding property belonging to the United States”.
The White House said in a statement responding to the lawsuit on Friday that “President Trump has full legal authority to modernize, renovate, and beautify the White House – just like all of his predecessors did.”
*He never asks permission. Also, he never apologizes. Has he paid the destruction company? I heard he changed builders.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-04/trump-replaces-architect-to-lead-300-million-ballroom-design
Trump replaced architect James McCrery with Washington-based Shalom Baranes Associates to lead the $300-million White House ballroom project, demoting McCrery to consultant.
“Shalom is an accomplished architect whose work has shaped the architectural identity of our nation’s capital for decades and his experience will be a great asset to the completion of this project,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said.
The White House did not specify why it was swapping architects on the project. The Washington Post reported that McCrery and Trump clashed over the scope of the project and that McCrery’s small firm wasn’t able to meet deadlines in the large-scale project.
A man and his dog.
Anonymous Bosch
Blue Bronc
Growing up in California, I had it pretty easy weather wise other than Fresno in the summer with the mugginess of irrigation and swamp coolers or in Los Angeles with severe smog caused by both nature and back yard incinerators at every house. Almost every child had some form of asthma or bronchitis.
The only real major social negative was de facto segregation caused by red lining, and real estate covenants. There were rich and poor areas for all races but few mixed areas. That didn’t really start to end until the 1960s with block busting. Schools weren’t legally segregated only geographically according to where you lived. There were a couple of years when I was just about the only white kid in what were majority black/Hispanic schools.
Nice to see the National Trust decided to sue. What have they been waiting for???
I could enjoy this.
From my morning read.
To read more.
Ahhh, BB. Coal – my paternal grandparents had coal heat in their home. My memory of it is not specific, but I do remember the coal bin in the basement – the furnace and boiler was a beast, and they had an automatic feeder for it that minimized those overnight tendings to the furnace. It certainly was all coal dusty in the basement but whether by the height of the basement – probably 14′ or so, or some other factor that escaped my young eyes and mind, I don’t recall it ever smelling smoky or like coal in the house.
meme #2…
Today’s Live Chat: Europe fears U.S.-Russia alliance ➡️
Europe’s had 8 years to get their shit straight, relying on us was stupid that whole time
Only Macron read the situation right, he has done as admirable a job at herding cats as can be expected
Which is why right-wingers attacked his wife
sword recipe:
take one ploughshare, add heat
apply hammer until sword
repeat
here wait I’ll do it like an online recipe
Sword Recipe
* AI slop about how delicious swords are and how happy they make everyone during the holidays *
ad
ad
ad
ad
ad
Ingredients:
Ploughshare, Heat, Hammer
ad
ad
ad
ad
ad
* more AI slop about sense-memory and the emotions food compels, mention Grandma *
ad
ad
ad
ad
ad
take one ploughshare, add heat
apply hammer until sword
repeat
Europe ➡️ Russia.
Asia ➡️ China.
The Americas ➡️ Trump.
Is this the new global map? Craig and Jack break down the “3 Empires Theory” and the strategy behind the partition.
There has been some disucssion about sfb clout ending right now. He has lost influence or pressure to dictate what politicians can do or what civilization can do. He has tried to be dictator wannabe and not exactly achieving it.
The House just gave one of the strongest kicks to his world, where ever he is, in a bipartisan vote they enforced that federal unions can operate. 2025 and the oligarchs cannot just say the unions are not functional.
Rachel Maddow special tonight on the rise of authoritarianism 6 PT/9 ET.
Heritage Foundation attempting to strongarm in full public view:
https://x.com/Heritage_Action/status/1999141506473509071
pulled from this article:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/trump-gop-redistricting-push-indiana-backfired-rcna247832
The article also features actual examples of more insidious forms of “stochastic terrorism” sent to elected officials
https://www.krgv.com/news/trump-administration-freezes-federal-funding-for-migrant-shelter-in-mcallen/
The Trump administration is pulling federal funding from Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, which operates a McAllen migrant shelter.
The South Texas charity is part of Catholic Charities USA and is a branch of the Diocese of Brownsville. Its executive director, Sister Norma Pimentel, has become known globally for her advocacy work for migrants.
Pimentel, who founded the migrant shelter in 2014 and has run it since, was considered one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People of 2020” and received a medallion of excellence from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute in 2023. During Pope Frances’ reign, she was considered the “Pope’s Favorite Nun.”
But as of last month, the organization has been barred from receiving federal funds for six years, according to documents the government shared with Fox News, after the Department of Homeland Security said an investigation found multiple grant violations, such as inconsistent records on migrants.
When the charity commemorated its decade of operations last year, Pimentel told Border Report that it has served over 500,000 migrants.
A few months ago, a House investigation — led by U.S. Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee, who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security, and Rep. Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma, also a member of the committee — probed more than 200 organizations they accused of “providing services or support to inadmissible aliens during the Biden-Harris administration’s historic border crisis.”
Four organizations were listed as the investigation’s priority, including Catholic Charities USA. The others were the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Global Refuge, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the latter of which is the focus of a criminal investigation recently launched by Gov. Greg Abbott.
The “Beam Me Up, Officer” Defense
I’ll bet ICE Barbie wishes aliens would beam her up right about now. $220 millions for her to star in ads. The admin is unraveling.
NEW THREAD