Nation of Abnegation or Ennui

Attribution: People are avoiding bad news by Dave Whamond, Canada, PoliticalCartoons.com

Dave Whamond’s work has appeared in magazines and newspapers including Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, Readers Digest and many more. He has won 7 Silver Reubens from the National Cartoonists Society and several book awards. Dave has written and/or illustrated over 50 books and his syndicated comic, “Reality Check”, has appeared in newspapers since 1995.

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Author: patd

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad." "How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

80 thoughts on “Nation of Abnegation or Ennui”

  1. but not in Portland

    Portland’s protest frogs respond to President Trump’s military assault on their city.


  2. AI-Generated Music & Video by Delanae Elle Eanaled

    They called Portland a war zone.
    So we showed up… in inflatable frog suits.

    This satirical anthem was created to shine a light on the absurdity of the “war-ravaged Portland” or “War-zone” or “Portland’s on fire!” narrative. #showmeyourhellhole

    In truth, the city is filled with humor, creativity, and community, people who fight fear with laughter. Is there crime? Homelessness? Housing issues? Yes. Just like every other big city.

    🎶 Song: We’re the Frogs (Portland Peaceful Protest Anthem)
    🎬 Footage: Entirely AI-generated — cinematic sequence built from Portland landmarks.

    Message: Peaceful protest can look ridiculous — and that’s exactly what makes it powerful.


  3. Stephen Colbert gets caught up on the news he missed while The Late Show was on break, President Trump didn’t win a Nobel Peace Prize but he did deploy National Guard troops to Oregon and Illinois, and mass layoffs at the C.D.C. could leave the U.S. vulnerable to infectious disease outbreaks.

  5. good ideas from BiD and Jamie yesterday for the upcoming “no kings” protest. how could even Faux News fail to cover a massive parade crowd in cute costumes:
    BiD’s

    The alternative to inflatable costumes for protests: Soap bubbles. Lots of folks blowing bubbles in Portland.
    Anything colorful, joyful, and lighthearted. Fascists hate that sh/t.
    If confronted by agitators, may I suggest singing happy songs. Folks in Illinois were singing “Sweet Caroline.” Even the yt supremacists know that one, do it might knock them out of their hateful vibration a bit. Vibes are a thing.
    Alternatively, just chant for the release of the EPSTEIN files.

    Jamie’s

  6. or maybe include as part of the NoKings parade a reenactment of the “hosanna” march to really piss off maga:

  7. MTG’s “almost” Epstein reveal reads like the world’s strangest party guest list, or just another weekend at Mar-A-Lago — billionaires, royals, bankers, a magician.

    Watch the full Epstein Files playlist 🕵️

  9. Keeping Portland Weird
    While normally an annual event, Portland decided an emergency Naked Bike Ride was in order.

  10. Deconstructing Trump’s ‘Ended Eight Wars’ Narrative

    Trump keeps saying he “ended eight wars.” The record is messier. Since June, the U.S. helped midwife a handful of ceasefires and a White House “joint declaration,” from Gaza to the Caucasus to Southeast Asia. Those steps matter, but they are not final peace deals, and several fronts have already seen fresh violence. India and Pakistan dispute U.S. “mediation,” Cambodia and Thailand are still trading accusations, and eastern Congo remains deadly. Credit influence where it’s due; don’t confuse photo-ops with durable settlements. Our rundown separates progress from PR and shows what would count as real, lasting peace.
    — Read More on Trail Mix Briefs

  12. Pardon me, Ivy, I’m not trying to dispute it, I’m trying to corroborate it because if it’s accurate, it should be headline news.

    No worries, Anon. Good work. 👍

  13. The brave folks who record these videos and photos are sometimes in danger themselves. They may need to keep their anonymity.

  14. Archibald: What happened when I Googled myself
    Updated: Oct. 14, 2025, 6:56 a.m.|Published: Oct. 14, 2025, 6:45 a.m.
    Just look at us, and the world around us. Here we are, protesting libraries for shelving books about gay and trans people, banning the study of genuine history in schools so it doesn’t hurt anybody’s feelings, rounding up people who do the jobs we don’t want to do, and defunding media outlets that still correct their mistakes. All while turning a blind eye to technology that rewrites our lives, fictionalizes history, takes our jobs, cheapens our art and threatens to infiltrate our military.

    It’s a bigger threat than Haitians eating cats, I promise you that. It’s a bigger threat than some of the drugs we lock people up for.

    https://www.al.com/news/2025/10/archibald-what-happened-when-i-googled-myself.html?gift=0153c632-44fb-41d9-bd32-95be3ec085d7&fbclid=IwdGRleANbNwZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHhgHfPXLHoZWlAifkPu1GePQ0FTp-DZlHQhRIc2pePP58QFPB496xA1cQ8i3_aem_Tpe3fJuEZyC12WAcF_3-Yw

  16. Somehow the message isn’t getting through that 400 people have more wealth than the bottom 1.5 million citizens. This is a wealth tax under consideration by many since it has a thresh hold that must be exceeded before kicking in:
    Annual net wealth taxes
    An annual net wealth tax is a recurring tax on an individual’s net worth, defined as their total assets minus their total liabilities. Tax authorities generally set an exemption threshold, and only wealth above that amount is taxed.
    Broad-based: This is the most comprehensive type of wealth tax, covering all assets, including real estate, stocks, bonds, business equity, bank accounts, and valuables like art and jewelry.
    Selected assets: Some countries limit their wealth tax to only certain assets. For example, France replaced its broad wealth tax with one that only applies to real estate.
    Progressive vs. flat rate: The tax rate can be progressive, meaning higher rates apply to greater levels of wealth, or a flat rate can be applied to all taxable wealth above the threshold.

    Americans Favor Spending Cuts Over More Taxes to Cut Deficit
    To cut federal debt, majorities back raising taxes on upper-income Americans and increasing revenue with major tax code changes

    by Megan Brenan
    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Before the latest government shutdown, nearly half of U.S. adults said Congress should reduce the deficit either “mostly” (27%) or “only” (22%) by cutting spending, whereas 17% favored relying mostly or only on tax increases. Another 27% said they prefer an equal mix of spending cuts and tax hikes.

    These findings are from Gallup’s Sept. 2-16 poll, which was conducted amid fiscal disagreements between Republican and Democratic lawmakers that led to the Oct. 1 partial shutdown. The last time Gallup asked this question, in November 2012 as the country faced a year-end “fiscal cliff,” more Americans also favored spending cuts over tax increases, but the plurality favored a combination of the two.

    Two readings in April and July 2011 were taken prior to negotiations over raising the federal debt limit — and, like today, pluralities favored deficit reduction through spending cuts.

    Republicans Focus on Cuts, While Democrats Want Combined Solution
    Partisans’ preferences for reducing the federal budget deficit have differed sharply in the past and continue to today. Democrats have historically been most likely to prefer equal spending cuts and tax increases, and a 41% plurality of Democrats now favor that approach. Another 28% favor cutting the deficit at least mostly through tax increases and 21% at least mostly through spending cuts.

    Conversely, the broad majority of Republicans continue to favor spending cuts, either exclusively (38%) or mostly (42%). Independents’ preferences are currently roughly in line with the national average, as they have been in prior readings.

    Increasing Taxes on Wealthy Favored Most to Reduce Federal Debt
    Another question in the September poll asked Americans whether they favor or oppose seven possible actions to reduce the federal debt. Just two of the seven options garner majority-level support among U.S. adults: increasing income tax rates for upper-income Americans (63%) and increasing tax revenues by making major changes to the federal tax code (54%). Both of these concepts earn majority support from Democrats and independents but not Republicans. Just one other option, cutting defense spending (63%), is favored by a majority of Democrats, whereas less than half of Republicans and independents agree.

    Conversely, majorities of Republicans support increasing tax revenues by imposing tariffs on products imported from other countries (89%); making significant changes to Medicaid and food assistance programs (75%); cutting spending for programs other than defense, Social Security and Medicare (72%); and making significant changes to Social Security and Medicare programs (56%). Each of these measures is supported by no more than half of independents and 26% of Democrats.

    Bottom Line
    Americans’ desire to rein in government spending, paired with their reluctance to reduce major entitlement programs or raise broad-based taxes, mirrors the same clash of views preventing lawmakers from reaching a budget agreement. Republicans are focused on spending cuts, and Democrats lean toward a combination of spending cuts and tax increases. The fiscal gridlock now driving the government shutdown reflects not only partisan differences in Congress but also a divided public that offers little clear guidance for bipartisan compromise, something that Americans want.

  17. Orange Adolf is responsible for calling BiBi to not accept Biden’s ceasefire work, thus killing more Palestinians, which to helped beat Harris (folks staying home because they blamed Biden & saw no separation with Harris). War crimes tribunal for BiBi & tRUMP.

    If Adolf wants to get in the better graces of MAGAts (he doesn’t care), he could push for increased ACA subsidies but rebrand it tRUMP~care~ since what this is really about is dumping an Obama accomplished.

    RFKJ’s wife is on The View trying to defend her nutjob husband’s indefensible positions.

  19. Craig – Do you have a yellow shirt for Saturday? I’m not sure why they chose yellow as the cohesive color for No Kings 2.0. Sunshine? Joy? Certainly not cowardice.

  20. https://newrepublic.com/post/201663/stephen-miller-says-i-trump-powers-national-guard

    Stephen Miller may have just accidentally confirmed that he, not President Donald Trump, is the one calling the shots in regard to deportation raids and National Guard deployments.

    “Illinois governor says we’re provoking actions that are unlawful,” Miller said on CNN on Monday. “Why would the mere presence—just think about this for a second. If I put federal law enforcement and National Guard into a nice sleepy Southern town, is anyone gonna riot?”

    “Miller says quiet part out loud,” one user wrote on X. “He determines where to put ICE, CBP & other federal agencies, but he is also doing the same for various National Guards. An unelected staffer making these decisions, where is the president? Both Miller and Vought are running this admin.”

    Additionally, Miller misrepresents small Southern towns and the actions of the National Guard. If hundreds of armed military members descended on some remote Southern locale and started violently rounding up neighbors, employees, and friends, I’d be willing to bet that it wouldn’t go so peacefully.

    *And that’s why the DOJ wants to compile a list of registered guns/owners. Buy-bye 2A.
    Also, good luck with that because there are a lot of unregistered guns out there.

  22. BiD, my protest “uniform” T-shirt has sufficient yellow I think. It’s what I’ve worn to all the recent protests. Got it at Adams Morgan Day festival in 1990 when Mayor Marion Barry gave us the middle finger as we booed him.

  24. https://www.democracynow.org/2025/10/14/headlines/israeli_military_forces_kill_at_least_5_palestinians_despite_ceasefire_agreement

    Humanitarian aid has begun to trickle into the Gaza Strip, where over 2 million people face widespread starvation and malnutrition following Israel’s two-year assault that the United Nations and human rights groups have condemned as a genocide.

    Earlier today, Israeli military forces in Gaza City killed at least five Palestinians, despite the ceasefire agreement that took effect last Friday.

    *Ceasefire? Israel isn’t complying.

  26. That turkey waddle is six weeks early!

    TIME is doing good work, there.

    Dictators try to look young forever. I’m guessing Khadafi and Sadaam used a lot of hair dye.

  28. Ceasefire my ass. That means the military doesn’t fire their weapons at Palestinians. Hmmm, I wonder whether Hamas will just shrug it off? I don’t see that as likely.

    Oh, I get it, we’re an Abneg nation.

  30. https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2674176395/

    The trader opened the short position Friday, and, according to the financial data and analytics platform Unusual Whales, had opened their account “30 minutes before Trump’s announcement of 100% tariffs on China.”

    “Insiders benefit, retail investors and consumers, and American businesses suffer. That’s the MAGA playbook. Privatize gains and socialize losses.”

  31. see, MAGAs don’t really care about global affairs either way, so the people Trump is really trying to impress are the liberals that he feels spurned him

    oh, and Ivy, the the Twitter account that was the original source of the video we were talking about last night was suspended by Elon Musk, which is why I couldn’t find it

  32. https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/politics/state/2025/10/13/kansas-republicans-approve-budget-for-session-to-gerrymander-kansas/86678767007/

    Kansas OKs $460,000 for special redistricting session and maybe more

    Jack Harvel
    Jason Alatidd

    Topeka Capital-Journal

    Kansas lawmakers approved $460,000 in additional expenses to the budget for a four-day legislative session to vote on a new congressional map.

    *More red state gerrymandering.

    Craig – Maybe a “Beat The Cheat” sign with a caption to stop red state gerrymandering?
    Pin it to the back of your tee.

  33. theyre such nazis holy shit

    A weakness to their agenda is their need for an appearance of legitimacy, but I don’t know how the fuck Democrats exploit that, they can’t exploit anything.

  34. oh, and Ivy, the the Twitter account that was the original source of the video we were talking about last night was suspended by Elon Musk, which is why I couldn’t find it

    Anon, Elon’s out of his hidey-hole but apparently on his way to another bad spin?

  35. I can’t read the Bulwark article because it’s pay-walled but here’s a start.

    The story of Elián González is about immigration, state power, and the use of force. It’s also about conservatism in America. So let’s start with that famous photo at the top.
    This is a picture of a militarized American agent forcing his way into a private residence to abduct an illegal immigrant and deport him to his country of origin.
    When it was taken, in April 2000, American conservatives were incensed by it. They thought that the government agent was a jackbooted thug and that the child being seized for deportation was a tragic victim.
    Today, if you showed that photo to conservatives without context, I suspect most of them would not be outraged at all. I suspect that many of them would get off on it, actually. So let’s walk back in time to talk about Elián González and conservatism and how we got to Donald Trump.

    https://www.thebulwark.com/p/elian-gonzalez-ice-and-what-happened-true-conservatism-quantum-politics?

  40. https://dpa-international.com/politics/urn:newsml:dpa.com:20090101:251014-99-328364/

    Israeli security authorities have recommended that the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt should only be opened after the return of all hostage bodies, Israeli media reports said on Tuesday.

    Contrary to the agreement with Israel, the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement has so far handed over only four out of 28 bodies. It has said that there are difficulties in locating the remains in the rubble after two years of war in the coastal strip.

    *Keeping Rahfah closed will reduce aid getting to Palestinian survivors.

    ~Imagine it being hard to find bodily remains after Israel has been bombing the crap out of the area for two years.~

  42. Anon, thought about you over the past couple of weeks – too bad you aren’t in East Bumfuck. The Robinson Grand, a really nice little venue for music, sponsored a Yacht Rock Revue a couple weeks ago and have an Eagles tribute band scheduled this weekend. I’d give you a review of them, but, well, they weren’t my cup-o-tea, either.

    And in lighter news: WaPo

    Supreme Court rejects Alex Jones’s bid to set aside $1.4 billion verdict
    Attorneys for Jones said the move could clear the way for Infowars to be sold to the satirical news site the Onion.

    The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a bid by conspiracy theorist and Infowars founder Alex Jones to set aside the historic $1.4 billion jury verdict against him for defaming families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary mass killing.

    Jones had asked the justices to pause the award and take up an appeal of the civil case against him, saying it was the only way to forestall a possible sale of Infowars to the satirical news site the Onion. The sale is designed to raise money for restitution for Sandy Hook families.

    Jones was found liable in Connecticut state court and in a separate suit in Texas for falsely claiming that the 2012 shooting that left 20 students and six adults dead was a hoax carried out to confiscate guns and create momentum for gun-control regulations.

    Jones falsely accused family members of victims of being “crisis actors.” The baseless claim led to years of harassment against the families of Sandy Hook victims by Jones’s followers and other conspiracy theorists.

    Attorneys for Jones wrote in filings with the high court that a potential sale of Infowars to the Onion would “confuse Jones’s listeners and ultimately destroy Jones’s very message” because the Onion had floated the idea of using the site to publish satirical commentary.

    “It would have been as if the KKK levied on a judgment against the NAACP or a group of atheists took over a church or synagogue — ideologically polar opposites — and began to use the opposition entity for its own ideological purposes,” the attorneys wrote.

    The Onion had previously attempted to buy Infowars, but the move was blocked by a bankruptcy court. Jones and his company have filed for bankruptcy in Texas.

    Jones has no hope of paying the full $1.4 billion verdict against him, his attorneys wrote in their filing with the high court.

    The families of Sandy Hook victims did not file a reply to Jones’s appeal to the Supreme Court.

    The justices did not explain their decision, as is customary.

    [Continues]

    Bwahahahahah.

  43. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/14/private-chat-among-young-gop-club-members-00592146

    Leaders of Young Republican groups throughout the country worried what would happen if their Telegram chat ever got leaked, but they kept typing anyway.

    They referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

    William Hendrix, the Kansas Young Republicans’ vice chair, used the words “n–ga” and “n–guh,” variations of a racial slur, more than a dozen times in the chat. Bobby Walker, the vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans at the time, referred to rape as “epic.” Peter Giunta, who at the time was chair of the same organization, wrote in a message sent in June that “everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber.”

    “Can we fix the showers? Gas chambers don’t fit the Hitler aesthetic,” Joe Maligno, who previously identified himself as the general counsel for the New York State Young Republicans, wrote back.

    The 2,900 pages of chats, shared among a dozen millennial and Gen Z Republicans between early January and mid-August, chronicle their campaign to seize control of the national Young Republican organization on a hardline pro-Donald Trump platform. Many of the chat members already work inside government or party politics, and one serves as a state senator.

    “I’m ready to watch people burn now,” Annie Kaykaty, New York’s national committeewoman, said.

    Mixed into formal conversations about whipping votes, social media strategy and logistics, the members of the chat slung around an array of slurs — which POLITICO is republishing to show how they spoke. Epithets like “f—-t,” “retarded” and “n–ga” appeared more than 251 times combined.

    “You say it once or twice, it’s a joke, but you say it 251 times, it’s no longer a joke,” Jipson said. “The more we repeat certain ideas, the more real they become to us.”

    Weeks later, someone in the chat staying in a hotel asks its members to “GUESS WHAT ROOM WE’RE IN.”
    “1488,” Dwyer responds. White supremacists use the number 1488 because 14 is the number of words in the white supremacist slogan “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” H is the eighth letter in the alphabet, and 88 is often used as a shorthand for “Heil Hitler.”

    The private rhetoric isn’t happening in a vacuum. It comes amid a widespread coarsening of the broader political discourse and as incendiary and racially offensive tropes from the right become increasingly common in public debate. Last month, Trump posted an AI-generated video that showed House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in a sombrero beside Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, whose fabricated remarks were about trading free health care for immigrant votes — a false, long-running GOP trope.

    Hendrix made a similar remark in July: “Bro is at a chicken restaurant ordering his food. Would he like some watermelon and kool aid with that?”
    Hendrix was a communications assistant for Kansas’ Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach until Thursday. He also said in the chat that, despite political differences, he’s drawn to Missouri’s Young Republican organization because “Missouri doesn’t like f–s.”

    In another exchange, Dwyer, the Kansas’ chair, informs Giunta that one of Michigan’s Young Republicans promised him the group “will vote for the most right wing person” to lead the national organization.
    “Great. I love Hitler,” Giunta responded.
    Dwyer reacted with a smiley face.

    Few minority groups are spared from the Young Republican group’s chat. Their rhetoric — normalized at most points as dark humor — mirrors some popular conservative political commentators, podcasters and comedians amid a national erosion of what’s considered acceptable discourse.

    …Mosiman, the chair of the Arizona Young Republicans, mused about how the group could win support for their preferred candidate by linking an opponent to white supremacist groups. But Mosiman then realized the plan could backfire — Kansas’ Young Republicans could end up becoming attracted to that opponent.
    “Can we get them to start releasing Nazi edits with her… Like pro Nazi and faciam (sic) propaganda,” he asked the group.
    “Omg I love this plan,” Rachel Hope, the Arizona Young Republicans events chair, responded.

  44. ❤️

    see the people coming up now will never know the joy of an aversion to something was overplayed on FM radio

    I am capable of perspective 😊

  45. “…back in my day we’d turn our noses up to music made by actual human beings with physical instruments”

    “what’s a physical instrument?”

    “… something human beings used to make music”

    “what’s a human being?”

    “…what you used to be”

  50. see the people coming up now will never know the joy of an aversion to something was overplayed on FM radio

    If I never hear “Year of the Cat” again it will be too soon.

    No, I don’t think they will. Not exactly a great loss IYAM.

  51. https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/sen-schmitt-we-can-no-longer-apologize-for-who-we-are

    “Donald Trump’s victory was not just a win for his movement but for the ideas of the people in this room,” Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt told the crowd. “National conservatism is an idea whose time has arrived.”

    Schmitt, a first-term senator, followed a GOP donor’s speech on “The Problem of Our Time: White Guilt” with a talk of his own titled “What is an American?” In it, Schmitt criticized some legal immigration, declared that “America doesn’t belong to them — it belongs to us,” and insisted, “We can no longer apologize for who we are.”

    “Our people tamed the continent, built a civilization from the wilderness,” Schmitt said. “We Americans are the sons and daughters of the Christian pilgrims who poured out onto the ocean’s shores.”

    Thomas Klingenstein, a top Republican donor, argued in a speech that the greatest problem facing the nation is “white guilt.”

    “Many Americans voted for President Trump in 2016 because he told them what they knew but needed to hear: America could be great again,” said Klingenstein. “Now, Trump must tell them something else they know but need to hear: America is no longer guilty of systemic racism, or most any racism for that matter.”

    But no one made a louder entrance than Missouri’s junior senator, Schmitt.

    He closed by outlining his view that America is “a nation and a people, with its own distinct history and heritage and interests.”

    That heritage, he said, is one of pilgrims and settlers who repelled “wave after wave of Indian war band attacks.” He said “every great feat of the modern world bore American fingerprints,” calling those who built skyscrapers, split the atom, invented the airplane and walked on the moon.

    “America, in all its glory, is their gift to us, handed down across the generations. It belongs to us. It’s our birthright, our heritage, our destiny,” Schmitt said.

  56. Cat Stevens

    fundamentally this is all good music just over-played, except Hotel California 😊

  57. Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

    The “call of duty” (it’s a video game, more hours of it have been played collectively than the entire history of the human race)
    Generation is very racist, Craig

    They all enable each other and say racist shit online, your minds would be blown

    this KKK shit used to be an anathema, it has been mainstreamed

    The weirdness has been going on for a while. You just have been able to ignore it. No longer.

  59. and we are not even talking about this new sports gambling techno sub-economy.

    What the fuck

    ok i have to look for my ostrich mask ✌️

  61. https://www.rawstory.com/bill-lee-2674184420/

    Following the launch of a massive federal interagency task force in partnership with state law enforcement, Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee pledged that the “Memphis Safe Task Force” would be a permanent fixture.

    “The Memphis Safe Task Force began operations on September 29, with the National Guard joining efforts this past Friday,” Action5 News reported on Monday.

    Lee told reporters on Tuesday, “We’ve just begun,” and said the program will last “for months,” before stating that in some form it will continue “forever.”

    “We do know that this is gonna last for months, and we have just begun. In fact, I will tell you that it will last forever,” he said.

    *Boycott TN. Many of the country artists who live their might well be yt supremacists, but those who aren’t should move. Dust to dust.

  62. You folks have been busy. Teach me to visit the doctor.

    Not even mildlyn surprised by GOP racism. It’s been there all along just getting more and more obvious since joined by the Dixiecrats.

  64. joined by the Dixiecrats

    Once you’ve lived with them, you understand they ARE the Dixiecrats.

  65. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alaska-flooding-typhoon-halong/

    The remnants of Typhoon Halong brought hurricane-force winds and catastrophic flooding to coastal communities in western Alaska on Sunday, pushing entire houses off their foundations.

    Rescue aircraft were dispatched to the tiny Alaskan villages of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, where there were reports of up to 20 people possibly unaccounted for, said Jeremy Zidek, spokesperson for the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

    “We have received reports that people’s homes have floated away and that people were potentially in those homes,” Zidek told The Associated Press.

    In Kwigillingok, at least 18 people were rescued, while at least 16 people were rescued in Kipnuk, Alaska State Troopers said Sunday evening local time. Three people were still unaccounted for in Kwigillingok as of 6:50 p.m. local time. Troopers had also received reports of people still unaccounted for in Kipnuk but couldn’t confirm the exact number.

    “Search efforts will be continuing overnight as conditions allow,” the troopers said in a statement Sunday evening. … “This is an active and ongoing search and rescue effort.”

    That effort was being coordinated by the Alaska State Troopers, with assistance from the Alaska Air National Guard, Alaska Army National Guard and U.S. Coast Guard, the troopers pointed out.

    *I had no idea this was happening. That is what the NG are supposed to do. The only reason I found out about the Nor’Easter was from a friend in Boston.

  66. That fell apart quicker than I thought it would.

    Reuters: “Re-emergent Hamas fighters demonstrated they were reasserting control in Gaza by deploying hundreds of security forces in the streets and executing several people they accused of collaborating with Israel.
    The outlook for Trump’s peace plan darkened further when the president threatened Hamas with military strikes unless the militant group disarmed.
    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has maintained the war cannot end until Hamas surrenders its weapons and cedes control of Gaza, a demand the fighters have rejected”

  67. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-gaza-riviera-echoes-kushner-waterfront-property-dreams-2025-02-05/

    U.S. President Donald Trump’s vision of a Gaza Strip cleared of its Palestinian inhabitants and redeveloped into an international beach resort under U.S. control has revived an idea floated by his son-in-law Jared Kushner a year ago.
    The idea, outlined by Trump in a press conference on Tuesday, has drawn shocked reactions from both Palestinians and Western critics who say it would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing and illegal under international law.

    *The plan has not changed. Biden got more hostages released than tRUMP. Also, tRUMP had BiBi blow up a ceasefire over a year ago, because it would’ve helped Harris.

  68. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/ukraine-urges-world-declare-russias-123700363.html

    Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has called on the international community to clearly recognise the actions of Russia and its state nuclear corporation Rosatom at the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) as illegal, unacceptable and critically dangerous.

    He said Russia has deliberately disconnected the ZNPP from the Ukrainian grid in order to test its forced connection to the Russian grid – a step that is unprecedented in the history of nuclear energy.

  71. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/us-news-outlets-reject-pentagon-000714225.html

    -At least 30 news organizations declined to sign a new Pentagon access policy for journalists, warning of the potential for less comprehensive coverage of the world’s most powerful military ahead of a Tuesday deadline to accept new restrictions.

    The policy requires journalists to acknowledge new rules on press access, including that they could be branded security risks and have their Pentagon press badges revoked if they ask department employees to disclose classified and some types of unclassified information.

    All five major broadcast networks issued a joint statement on Tuesday, saying: “Today, we join virtually every other news organization in declining to agree to the Pentagon’s new requirements, which would restrict journalists’ ability to keep the nation and the world informed of important national security issues. The policy is without precedent and threatens core journalistic protections. We will continue to cover the U.S. military as each of our organizations has done for many decades, upholding the principles of a free and independent press.”

  74. BRICS and the Shift Away from Dollar Dependence

    For nearly a century, the U.S. dollar has dominated global trade and finance, accounting for 59% of global foreign exchange reserves as of 2024 (IMF, 2024).

    In response to this enduring dominance, BRICS — an alliance of five major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — is working to reduce its reliance on the dollar and promote a more multipolar financial system that enhances economic autonomy. While other currencies like the euro and yuan have expanded their roles, neither has come close to displacing the dollar’s supremacy.

    This effort is commonly framed as de-dollarization: a significant reduction in the use of the U.S. dollar in global trade and financial transactions, which in turn lowers demand for the dollar among nations, institutions, and corporations (J.P. Morgan, 2024). It challenges the dominance of dollar-denominated capital markets, where most global borrowing and lending still occurs in dollars.

    Contrary to the popular belief that BRICS seeks to overthrow the dollar, Saaida (2024) argues that the bloc’s strategy is more pragmatic — aimed at enhancing financial independence and reducing vulnerability to U.S. monetary policy and sanctions. Western economic policy has accelerated BRICS’ push for financial alternatives.

    These economic initiatives from Western countries include Russia’s removal from SWIFT after the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, trade tensions between China and the U.S., and the influence of Federal Reserve policies on global markets. These geopolitical and financial motivations are now shaping concrete policy decisions around how BRICS members conduct cross-border transactions.

  75. https://newrepublic.com/post/200486/trump-corruption-scandal-crypto-uae-deal

    A New York Times exposé published Monday tells the tale of two back-to-back deals that enriched three powerful families: the Trumps, the Witkoffs (as in Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff), and the ruling family of the United Arab Emirates.

    In one deal, announced in May, a firm of Emirati royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan invested $2 billion in World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company owned by the Trump and Witkoff families—which consequently became among the most prominent crypto firms overnight.

    In the other, negotiated “at the same time and by some of the same people,” the White House two weeks later agreed to sell the UAE hundreds of thousands of the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence chips, despite national security concerns.

    The Times revealed that some officials in the Trump administration were wary about the chip deal due to UAE-China ties.

    Dan Nexon, a political scientist at Georgetown University, observed that the report reveals how “U.S. foreign policy is much easier to understand once you accept that the main ‘grand strategy’ of the Trump administration is straight-up kleptocracy.”

    “The Trump Administration is cashing in on foreign crypto deals—and weakening guardrails that protect our advanced technology,” wrote Senator Elizabeth Warren on X. “We should not pass any crypto legislation without shutting this down.”

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