Land & Sea Journal

Monthly Edition

May 1, 2026

Chronicle of the month before May 1, 2026

Law

BREAKING: Trump Signs Executive Order On Psychedelic Drugs With Joe Rogan As Iran Shuts Hormuz (youtube.com)

Headlines have it Joe Rogan is against Trump. But if you've ever seen Joe Rogan, it's super unlikely he'd ever be against anyone. He probably disagrees with some policies of the White House, which maybe suspect Trump disagrees with also. Anyway, Trump so far has been willing to go and do a deal with people who have spoken against him in the past, called him names, and also people who Trump has in the past called names and disparages, we've seen them work with Trump afterwards.

Justice Clarence Thomas issues WARNING in rare address (youtube.com)

Fox. 'Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas warns that the rise of progressivism poses one of the greatest threats to America today.'

Cynicism, rejection, hostility, and animus toward the US and its ideals, the sentiment more common.

'Others with power and animus could treat us as unequal, but they lacked the divine power to make us so.'

Those truths were self-evident to most of the adults in our lives.

People all around claiming some righteous cause. Recast themselves as instututionalists, after they gain power and like all the things they now have which they never could have before, and facing their failures in moral decisions, they justify themselves this way. It's easier to do nothing than to do the right thing. America lacks people willing to do what it takes, to sacrifice popularity and comfort.

'We do not derive our rights from our government.' 'Our government derives its legitimacy and authority from our consent.'

'None of our rights come from the government. All of the government's authority comes from our consent.'

Government must not exceed the authority to which we have consented.

'Progressivism is retrogressive.'

Massive Charter victory: Court strikes down woods ban! (youtube.com)

NS government prohibited all outdoor activities on pretext of preventing forest fires. Hiking, camping, smoking.

For walking in the woods, the NS government fined this guy $28k.

'The minister when imposing this draconian total ban on walking in the woods had not even considered Charter rights and freedoms.'

Law will soon require many NYC businesses to replace roll-down gates (youtube.com)

Will cost little businesses $10k to replace their current regular gates, which work well, with gates that are 70% transparent. If you think graffiti is bad on metal gates (which is the government's reason to replace the metal ones), wait till the spray is on the glass, right? Shop owners are worried people will break their glass.

Maybe anyone in government could be required to keep a certain percentage of their assets in a shop like this, and have to maintain it.

Journalism

A congressman in Mexico City is trying to make an institute for journlaists. Mexico is considered high risk for journalists (although not so much in Mexico City, maybe), but still there are more journalists in Mexico City than any other city (or something). There are lots of newspapers, bloggers, news TV, etc.

He pointed out that as the capital, it should have a position of leading the other states by example.

The institute would guarantee journalists integrity and security, design policies to protect them and secure their access to justice, coordinate with authorities about aggressions (threats, attacks), collect and publish stats, and provide legal and security attention. He also has an idea where the authorities should have 3 hours after a claim of an aggression against a journalist to provide legal accompaniment etc.

How Media Silences Anti-War Voices (w/ Amy Goodman) (youtube.com)

30 years doing real news, real stories. Since 1996. They were a radio show. Once people heard it, people just wanted more, they wanted to have the show on their channels, they ended up with like 1500. 'We believe you have to go where people are,' whether TV or TikTok. No borders.

'We're going to where the silence is. We're covering stories that the rest of the media maybe has pundits on, if they cover it at all ... It's people describing their unique experiences, and from that we have to make a decision. What laws, what are the practices of our country, and that's how democracy works. Independent media is essential ...'

'When the White House says it's unpatriotic to ask questions, it's precisely when we have to ask questions.'

The distinction (why Goodman was called an 'activist' instead of a 'journalist' is between media that challenges power and media that accommodates power, not actual activism versus journalism.

'The way that it's used is to demean and to marginalize and to disrupt people that are truth tellers.'

'Who do you serve? Do you serve power, or not?'

'Who do you serve? You're actually the activist, becaues you're serving power, you're serving the corporations that own you, you're playing their game, and you have a very clear agenda.'

There are a lot of journalists who want to ask the hard questions, but they are just compromised by the companies they work for, noted a guest. Goodwin created a model that allows her to do that, without interruption. That really is the difference. Who are you accountable to? Who do you serve? What compromises are you forced to make.

People are not apathetic, Goodwin noted, considering Haitians gunned down when they ran for office or Americans largely not voting.

Clinton and Gingrich teamed up and passed the Telecommunications Act which lifted restrictions on ownership of local media, and it went from hundreds of local stations to now consolidated into just a handful. A few corporations and billionaire owners controlling the outlets, and their first priority is not to the news, it's not to the journalists who work for them. It's to the sharedholders, to their board of directors. They traded the integrity of the news organizations for special favors.

Why isn't there a law prohibiting owning more than 5 local networks, and even at 5 you should demonstrate some reason and interest in having all those 5 instead of just 1 or 2. Can't you require that who owns/runs a news organization actually take part in it?

'I don't think it's whether you have a view,' said Goodman. 'I think it's whether you are fair and accurate.'

She talked about how she had a guest on once, and before the guest came on she saw that Goodman had published an op taking the other side, but Goodwin challenged her saying 'So you're dropping out?' and she wouldn't drop out so she came on, but then after the debate she called Goodwin and said it was the fairest debate she'd ever been involved in. How many corporate news agencies can say the same?

'It's just straight up journalism. It's not advocacy. It's just a pure belief in what's good and fighting for that with everything that she's got.'

Democracy Now also has all their 30 years available publicly. Unlike maybe CNN or other big ones where they don't keep things past 6 months or it's paywalled, noted one guy.

Over the 30 years there's a record of many times the media has failed to pick up the story but Democracy Now has picked it up.

Goodwin talked about recent protests in Canada where police used dogs that bit native american protesters. No news covered it except them basically. But then it took off, and the big news agencies were using Democracy Now's footage, and Goodwin was like 'Good', and the democracy is called 'Steal This Story Please.'

The film already has 75 theaters and they expect to double that after they do NY, and they've won 8 audience awards, which tells them that even though big movie companies want you to believe all people want is true crime and celebrity films, there is a hunger out there for political content, for films that speak to this moment. ... Also, by the film being in these art house theaters it's helping bolster arts because art is dangerous now, and it's also under attack. These theaters that are daring to play this film, they're suffering from cuts, they're losing funding, alongside the journalists.

The "Stop Nick Shirley Act" (youtube.com)

Bill AB 2624.

The official aim of the bill is to protect immigrant-serving organizations from threats of violence.

Even if Cali legislators passed this, how could it ever pass a Constitutional challenge at the SC?

Comedian Dave Chappelle Unveils Restored 19th-Century Radio Hub | Hollywood News (youtube.com)

He funded the old union schoolhouse renovation. He didn't give money to the radio station, he invested in the space.

'It's kind of a beacon for sanity', 'a nice baseline of truth and context' for the local area, said Chappelle.

The radio station is out in the community connecting with the people there. They're not out of a big city, a corporation, subject to censorship by a sponsor. 'They tell the truth. They tell the stories. And that's rare these days.'

Nick Shirley Confronts Authors of the "Stop Nick Shirley Act" (youtube.com)

Shirley's doing not too bad with his questions and his approach to interview subjects. Not great, but better than earlier footage of him might lead you to believe.

His service as a medium between the general public and politicians is maybe interesting.

What he does wouldn't have been possible without SM/YouTube, would it?

Not sure why journalists don't do this a bit more. Like, Shirley tries to interview them about the 'Stop Shirley' bill, and not one of the authors will even answer a question, and they just run away more or less, so that make them apparent to people familiar with the Shirley/journalism/governmentXfraud issue, but most people don't know or care, so false politicians can continue in democracy. But if other bills were challenged the same way and the authors of the bill (signers) were seen running away and just not willing to even speak honestly to the people their bill effects, maybe there would be less votes for false politicians. Well, maybe not many less.

The Threats are real... They want to k*ll us (youtube.com)

Another reason civics needs to be in school, and not just cursory.

Shirley receives mean and scary death threats, for ... exposing fraud, two $1b fraud programs. Exposing fraud is not welcome by the governors, politicians in the state. Instead, they came out in defence of the fraudsters and against the journalist.

Tim Walz tweeted that Shirley was 'a delusional conspiracy theorist.' But then Walz dropped out of the election race because of his involvement in fraud.

Newsom's press office tweeted an AI image of Shirley dressed up like a terminator/suited/cybord saying 'Hey, can I see your kids', 'looking like a pervert' (Shirley said). To try to defame Shirley.

Someone suggested Shirley deserves the Pulitzer for journalism. I guess that's true. Who has done more in journalism this year? Funny, such an uneducated, young man, doing what all the educated, older and capable men can't or won't.

Diplomacy & IR

Civil Rights

Germany triggers debate by requiring men under 45 to get permit for trips longer than three months (youtube.com)

If you can't keep them in your country because you've destroyed the enjoyment of living there, make laws to forbit them leaving. What is the point at which that force just breaks and people just 'rebel'?

The Germans I've met in other countries in recent years are very liberalist and don't even care or understand the difference between freedom of speech and not. On forums, German message boards have seemed some of the most trigger defensive (taking the offensive, I mean) on any even possible reflection of something like criticism of anything that takes place in or to do with Germany.

Commenter. 'That would require changing the constitution, which isn't possible in the current German parliament'

Another. 'In Germany, we are required to pay about 18 euros per month to fund the public journalism institutions, because they are supposed to be independent from government and private billionaires and inform the population of topics of their interests, like this very one here. They failed to not "notice" this law when it's been issued, and I don't believe it was just by incompetence'

The provision to do this went unnoticed until a newspaper pointed it out.

Germany considering national conscription in military.

Many comments about in inequality, because this just is for men. 'When war knocks on the door, gender equality goes out the window' 'Where is equality? Equal rights must come with equal responsibilities.'

'It feels like my freedom is broken, somehow,' said the young German man interviewed, after the journalist pointed out it probably wouldn't be denied anyway. 'A lot of young people don't want to have contact with the miliitary. And that's a feeling of your living standard is reducing somehow.'

Immigration board denies Mahmoud Khalil's appeal, bringing activist one step closer to deportation (apnews.com)

"The only thing I am guilty of is speaking out against the genocide in Palestine — and this administration has weaponized the immigration system to punish me for it," Khalil said in a statement.

'Khalil, a 31-year-old legal permanent resident, was the first person whose arrest became publicly known during the federal crackdown on noncitizens who publicly criticized Israel and its actions in Gaza. The government has claimed that Khalil's efforts as a leader of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia were "aligned to Hamas." They have not presented evidence of any connection to the terrorist group, and Khalil has adamantly denied allegations of antisemitism.' AP

He served 104 days in immigration jail before a federal judge ordered his release.

A bank robber's cellphone gave him away. Now the Supreme Court is hearing his case (apnews.com)

Geofence warrants. 4th Amendment

Police don't have a suspect, and instead just fence a location. Allowing it could "unleash a much broader wave of similar reverse searches."

'The Trump administration's position would allow police to use geofence warrants and similar tools "with no judicial supervision or constitutional safeguards," according to the Policing Project at the New York University School of Law.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSmKgwh0YeM

Andrew Callaghan.

Information

A Statement by First Lady Melania Trump (youtube.com)

This is the Melania statement.

Hearing her speak, it sounds like maybe she didn't write it, or much of it, but it seems like it might be part of the general social fight against people just publishing fake news for profit or politics. Who wants lies told about them, in such a way like about how you met your husband?

Comments turned off by the White House channel. But makes sense in this case.

SpaceX-Cursor Deal, SaaS Debt Bomb, New Apple CEO, SPLC Indictment, Colon Cancer Spike (youtube.com)

Racism Industrial Complex workings public now. SPLC, a chartity group (or whatever) that collects money and pays people to infiltrate (white) racist groups, ostensibly, has taken in hundreds of millions of dollars over the past decade. They're being charged now.

They pay the same white racist groups to cause racist problems which they can then use to justify the need for their group. They foment racism, paying groups to foment protests, in order to say USA has a big racism problem. Grift. They opened bank accounts under fictitious entities so their donors wouldn't know they were funding the KKK etc. Because their movie star donors wouldn't want to give money to that.

SPLC's story is they weren't fomenting racism, they were not planning, they were monitoring. But SPLC was paying the leaders of these groups, not moles who were infiltrating the groups, and they were paying not to inform but to foment, said Sacks.

If you show me an incentive, you're going to see an outcome.

Give it to your friends in the media.

We make it easier for these organizations to get money, to hide money, and to do whatever they want with the money. Friedburg.

Science

The Vicious Tactics of Female Sexual Competition - Dr Dani Sulikowski (youtube.com)

Will women be barred from decision-making positions?

She raises an interesting idea about the sociey destruction of feminization, which is that yes, it causes reproduction to stop, and maybe there are then only a few thousand genetic lines, but you're one of them, and then it gets invaded and taken over and then breeding causes a massive population explosion, those thousand lines then increase much more than they would otherwise. She compares it to Musical Chairs.

It looks like a giant conspiracy, crazy. But it is just the emergent properties of this type of reproducive game.

Masculine men won't let this happen. They're beginning to self organize, and plenty of women are joining these groups. For this counter society to happen, you have to have men that are imasculinized, who are prepared to let it happen.

Women are good, when they're pushing an ideology, of creating an apparent consensus, but the opposition is there, maybe even the majority, just you have to find them and connect with them.

Her other unresolved take was that her original premise was that feminism started out as a movement to improve things for some people (women) but it was then coopted and all successive waves were about reducing reproduction. But she was unable to find a time when it was benevolent, so she is considering that feminism was never about benevolent action and was always about reducing reproduciton of other women. ... There was never a time when women were treated worse than men, so why is it that when feminism arrived, women were psychologically prepared to support it? They weren't oppressed systematically by a patriarch, so why did they want what feminism demanded? Well, I'm not sure women weren't oppressed in their pre-1950's households, or there wasn't an authentic salespitch that you can do more things and have more things if you organize and demand it.

Anecdotally, another scientist woman said that she was seeing in the generation now aged 20 to 25, and in her own family, people are starting to get married younger, different from what has been the norm. ... What is the relationship to this and OF/people not having sex/men not wanting to even try with Western women?

World

NASA's Artemis mission to go around the moon and take a look is underway. US is saying it wants a base there.

The politics of oil have fundamentally changed (youtube.com)

US is the maritime guarantor of the Persian Gulf, but 90% of Iranian oil goes to Asia. 'Thompson suggests the U.S. move against Iran (and Venezuela) in 2025/2026 may be a direct retaliation for China using rare earth mineral embargos to disrupt U.S. trade plans.' Ai tldr. Is there in the a US-led pro-state (oil, gas, nuclear) versus a Chinese-led electro-state (solar, coa, rare earths)?

Will US Big Tech support whichever party is most pro-nuclear, because Ai scale requires it?

Do US energy companies want access to Russian shale?

Has UK been complacent (all parties just assuming the market would handle energy security), UK lacks refining and depends seriously on imports?

Special ReportIran and Lebanon War

'A whole civilisation will die tonight': Trump's Iran threat shows anger & desperation, analyst says (youtube.com)

Does anyone care about his words at this point? 'We'll wait and see how Iran responds to this message.' If Iran doesn't respond how Trump wants, will he be seen as just throwing out idle threats again?

Iran says they don't want the ceasefire Trump wants. Iran wants only an end to the war, and there can't be a cessation of attacks while there is still a Threat to Iran from the US/Israel side. Iran also says they want acknoledgement of its right to enrich uranium, which Trump (and probably all US leaders) said he won't allow. All Iran has to bargain with is opening Hormuz, but even when they open it they'll charge $2m per vessel to pass through (to be shared between Iran and Oman), which they frame as compensation for the attacks on Iran instead of seeking cash war damages from the aggressors.

Trump says US to 'suspend bombing and attack of Iran' for two weeks (youtube.com)

Iran has said that the US president's weakness is markets, any president, noted Samo. They don't want to cause a recession.

Slovenia doing energy rations, Australia towns have run out of disel.

Iran makes its own cars, only about 1m a year.

The ceasefire idea (in US and Western news) lasted about a day or less. Both sides claimed victory. Iran said US broke the terms of the truce in multiple ways, and closed Hormuz again.

Israel continues bombing and attacking Lebanon, with the biggest attack today, including residential areas reportedly.

Politics

Special Report: Trump fires Attorney General Pam Bondi (youtube.com)

Trump said he had become 'frustrated' with Bondi's performance, reported.

Bondi dates back to Trump 1.0 and Florida. Speculation by the channel is that Trump wanted retribution against enemies by prosecuting them, and Bondi has tried a few things. She had said she had Epstein documents on her desk, but then later 'there was nothing to see.'

I wonder what percentage of Americans and others watching news, even if they try not to, cheer inside themselves at every negative news for Trump? What percentage of his base is still strong? Duing his election, we saw people not admit wanting him to win because of their friends and social condemnation, but they wanted him to win and voted for him, so we had surprising numbers. The reverse could be happening with his base. They could just be saying they still support him publicly.

"Democracy Kills," Says Burkina Faso Junta Leader Ibrahim Traore | APT (youtube.com)

He pointed out the huge number of NGOs currently in Burkina Faso.

'We fight against terrorism to secure our populations.'

'We fight for schools. No one has given us a single cartridge to fight againts terrorism that kills our children.'

'Often, people from the West seen Africans as subordinates. And so they come here to teach. 'I told you that we have the right to life. We teach that to the rest of the world.' '

'They don't even have the intelligence to know that what they say is not good.'

'Unhinged, insane': US lawmakers call for Trump's removal via 25th Amendment • FRANCE 24 (youtube.com)

The broad use of generalizations as charges. The accuser can point to nothing, has nothing to debate, can only throw out rhetoric and 'it seems' looking for enough consensus to proceed. Without understanding of what makes crime, and with the pretty obvious increasing prevalence of simply using lawfare and threats of it to get $$, will likely keep increasing. If no one really places any importance on it during the process, what does truth really matter?

Australia's most-decorated soldier charged with war crimes in Afghanistan (youtube.com)

For the death of Afghan nationals under Commonwealth Criminal Code's war crimes defintion. Executions or ordering other soldiers to kill detainees and an elderly man, kicked a man off a cliff, ordered him shot. Blooding ritual. Detained, unarmed Afghanis under the control of the Aus forces at the time.

Newspapers covered the story in Aus, and the war hero sued the papers for defamation but lost in 2023.

Democrats grow bolder on talk about removing Trump from office after his Iran threats (apnews.com)

Threatening to annihilate an entire civilization, when you have the power to do it, and are currently invading that country, might do that...

Pepsi and some other big brand pulled their sponsorships of that UK festival becaues they headlined Kanye, reports. Will this emerge as a new type of economic censorship, akin to governments freezing bank accounts? It's only one group that seems to do it.

I thought we weren't supposed to sensor artists? Kanye's said unpleasant things about a lot of types of people, white men, white women, black women, black men, hasn't he? So why is it there's this reaction only when one group is involved? It makes you wonder about medieval days, and how nowadays people are sort of taught in history that the Europeans were racist against the Jews and persecuted them occasionally to seize their wealth, but it might be more on the other side of economic and political actions, too.

Hungary election: Record high turnout with Orbán on verge of defeat (youtube.com)

Is a big part of politics in major countries just making sure no competent person gets a running ticket? Democracy's fine, have 1000 candidates if you want, so long as their all supersimp politicial politicians who no one likes and have no valuable ideas or strong personality? We see a lot of negative vote results, like people voted for a winner just because they saw him as the least worst option among bad options. There are millions of people, lots are doing somewhat impressive things, lots have some education, so why has it been decades since we've seen a candidate that really stands out?

The R-Word Is Back. Here's Why. | 'The Opinions' Podcast (youtube.com)

These days, what is worst to be called, 'nigger' or 'racist'? So if you call someone racist, and they're not, are you doing a worse thing? I've wondered for years about why the most politically detrimental words, which are somehow not classified the same way, are not sued over.

Tucker Carlson splits with Trump over Iran | Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg (youtube.com)

Tucker, like Kanye, attempt to cancel him becaues he speaks openly including criticism of Israel, and makes strong points.

Carlson says Trump is not making the decisions. Carlson has known Trump a long time and was with him in the runup to the election, so he knows, he said, that Trump isn't making the decisions.

Tucker does a pretty good job of combatting the BBC broadcasters attempt to 'slur' him, characterize him as an 'antisemite' which it's hard to imagine he could ever be, and has made clear statements on every occasion that counter such a claim.

It would be better though if Carlson made more original, fact based, specific points. He talks in terms of history and patterns and a judgement about the effects of political decisions, but he's something of a journalist, and has access to contacts he could do journalism with, so why doesn't he have more specific stories to relate?

After the BBC presenter read a bunch of insults Trump had made about Carlson, among Carlson's calm response was that, 'I feel sorry for him as I do for all slaves.'

Hungarian election-winner Magyar declares landslide victory • FRANCE 24 English (youtube.com)

A 2/3 majority. Orban said the results were clear, but the possibility of governing was not given to his party during his trem. Seems to be some strong anti-Russian sentiment. Guess warring isn't that popular with the citizens. It was a Russia/Europe election. Orban was in office 16 years. He's stood out in world news headlines for being firmly resistent to the European globalization/immigration policy, and against liberal ideas like trans etc.

The conservative beat the ultra conservative. Still will be rightwing about immigration.

YouTube (youtube.com)

Is it just routine now in the city? Inflation caused by governments (not talking for the moment about supply side inflation), followed by workers whose wages don't match, they protest a few times, the people and the government see it in the news and both accept it, the government meets and sets a period in which they will drag the process out, after which the wages are raised?

Network of YouTube accounts pushing Alberta separation | Deception Decoded (youtube.com)

CTV

Julan Casablancas, during a regular music interview, was quoted, "American Zionists get the benefits of white privileged people but talk like they are Black people during slavery.

Casablancas then said, "I mean, just for the people that are gonna be like, 'Hamas, October 7th', yes, bad, but you know, Native American rebellions didn't mean it was ok to do what we did. Slave rebellions that were violent didn't mean that slavery is not bad." And "You know, indoctrination is such a strong thing, we just want to be part of the tribe…But it is a sad fact, the brainwashing of people in general. You can't be mad because something was rammed down their throat, necessarily."

Massive amounts of social media posts criticizing him. Tons of criticizing comments, but lots of supportive/agreement comments also, but often lower down in the comments for some reason. The best comment out of those few I read was saying that tons of people were upset but none offered any counterpoint or argument to what Casablancas said.

Notably, a lot of the comments called him a 'creep' and 'creepy', like he had 'creepy views' on Zionism, which is the first time I read that word used in that kind of sentense. Seems to be bots/propaganda. Definitely a manipulative word to use in this situation. I've noted the word for years, but haven't seen it pop in manipulation campaigns, but maybe the manipulators discovered the word recently. It's a word like terroristic or, often, racist. It's power comes from its lack of specific definition and negative claim.

A lot pointed out, as a defense of being defensive [sic], that it was ok/right to be wary for reasons of safety because anti-jewish sentiment has gone up like 10x in the past year or something. Obviously, that's following attacks on Palestinians, in Lebanon, and in Iran. US is similarly getting negative feedback for its attacks in the Middle East and is facing significant political opposition/criticism and international popular criticism.

Spencer Pratt makes case to be next LA Mayor (youtube.com)

Actors make decent candidates. It sounds like his PR/writing team told him his lines and his motivation on them, and he seems to deliver them all like a movie. The sentiment might be true, but the lines sound written and memorized.

Commenter. 'Haha, Spencer is absolutely CRUSHING these 'gotcha' questions with perfect comebacks. Totally left her stammering and glitching out!'

How much does experience as a 'bad guy character' or a 'Simon Powell' type help in how you aren't shaken or distracted by aggressive questions. She didn't do aggressive questions, but he seemed to handle quesitons quite well.

Commenter. 'Spencer has never had a problem calling someone out and holding them accountable!'

After Melania joke: Trump wants Jimmy Kimmel fired (youtube.com)

Bad taste as usual.

However, Melania tweeted that Kimmel used 'hateful and violent rhetoric' which would cause his words to be illegal in many countries (which lack a real Bill of Rights), and which it isn't. She said people like Kimmel 'shouldn't have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate ...' which is also an as-usual, because the Trumps don't seem to understand civil rights or that they're guaranteed in the USA.

I'd maybe fire Kimmel for how poor taste and offensive these jokes are, but that's apart from the false characterization of his comments as 'violent' or 'hateful'.

UAE leaves OPEC in blow to oil cartel • FRANCE 24 English (youtube.com)

It has wanted to increase output for a while now. 'Restrictive production quotas'.

UAE said it was the right time, because market is undersupplied, and UAE's withdrawal now would have a minimum impact on price and UAE's friends.

Disagreements with KSA, the central banker of the oil markets.

The OPEC oil is largely stuck in Hormuz anyway.

Special ReportICE

Economics

The cities built on scamming us all | The Global Story (youtube.com)

Hormuz is turning into a food crisis situation, because pesticides, Qatar urea production, China not buying corn and stopping selling urea, farmers can't profitably grow crops because of pesticide prices (1/3 didn't secure their supply already and so switched to another crop like soybean). 'Single points of failure for food supply isn't going to cut it anymore,' paraphrasing Friedburg.

Inside the German town where people print their own money (youtube.com)

Chiemgauer. To compete with the Euro. I think I did a blog about this a month or two ago.

They require you to register before getting the money. So not too cash-y. More like a paper version of CBDC.

'It's legal because it's regional money.' If it was more than a regional currency, the German government wouldn't allow it. It can only be spent in the area, and should not be saved up. The bills expire after 3 years. A regular person can't exchange real money for them. Businesses can, but they pay 5% conversion.

10 or 15% of purchases in the town are paid for with Chiemgauer bills.

5m Chiemgaurs are spent annually by 4000 people and 300 businesses.

Globally, there are 300 such complimentary currencies. Many are in Europe and Brazil, but also a few African countires, Southeast Asian countries, Japan, South Korea, and US and Canada were reported to have them.

In Canada, there are Calgary dollars (pay for transit etc). Salt Spring Island, used as a souvenir, they are art-focused bills. Toronto Looneys are primarily digital. In the US, Berkshire Region (MA) BerkShares are accepted at hundreds of businesses and local banks (also has a digital version). Hudson Valley Current (digital first) for local farmers and artisans. SF BayBucks so local businesses can trade excess inventory or downtime for credits.

Every major economy is trying to ditch Visa & MasterCard (youtube.com)

In Austin, Texas, the population has like doubled in a decade, but the price of a home has gone down. 'If you let people bulid, you won't have [the] problem [of high prices]' said Sacks. Republican towns, while Democrats say they care about people and housing but do nothing for people.

In NY under Mamdami, they're going to do a 3.5% or something tax on second etc homes over $5m (all homes in NY within 15km of the center might be worth around there, some say, but I'm not sure about that, and this is in addition to the property taxes they already pay), so if Ken Griffin owns a penthouse and it's just one guy owning it it doesn't affect NY's economics much, but if you do a tax and all the billionaires in the world decide not to park there money in NY, it might effect it, said Sacks.

Technology

Anthropic. Somebody took their entire code and translated it into a different language and published it publicly. Anthopic, if they want to say people can't do that, will have to find a way to justify that's what they do with data and want people to say it's OK for them to do.

Anthropic's $30B Ramp, Mythos Doomsday, OpenClaw Ankled, Iran War Ceasefire, Israel's Influence (youtube.com)

Anthropic, which has a 'proven track record' of every once in a while advertising with fear, saying how dangerous their new product is in one way or another (a year ago it was able to blackmail users, after they prompted it like 200 times to get their desired result), but what Anthropic's new model is doing is coding better, reading code better, and finding vulnerabilities that no one has seen for years of reviewing code, and it can chain multiple vulnerabilities to maybe create an exploit.

One possibility not mentioned on the show is that these are the exploits that the government agencies had in pocket, and now they might close them up.

How long before people's PCs are just offline, no connection possible, machines?

The LinkedIn Spyware Situation (youtube.com)

'Linked in is illegally searching your computer when you visit their website. Working with an American-Israeli cybersecurity "" firm.' 'Microsoft is running one of the largest corporate espionage operations in modern history.' 'Now I always knw that LinkedIn was a PsyOp.'

It scans your browser extensions.

LinkedIn's privacy policy does not mention it.

Fairlink's research uncovered this wrongdoing by Linkedin/Microsoft.

Definitely illegal in Germany, he said, and probably elsewhere.

This is only for people using Chrome. 1000 echoes to not use Chrome. Brave doesn't automatically block it, he said.

Commenter. 'Requiring students to create or maintain a public LinkedIn account as a condition of passing a course forces them to disclose personal information to a third-party commercial platform unrelated to the minimum academic requirement. At minimum, the institution should offer an equivalent non-public alternative and explain what privacy assessment was done before adopting the requirement.'

Commenter. '"Why is LinkedIn automatically installed on my computer?" Ohh.'

Data centers banned in 30 states?

France Is Ditching Windows for Linux (youtube.com)

Anthropic now valued higher than OpenAI for first time, FTP, but there's no buyers in OpenAI's $850b market, reportedly. At that size, how many buyers are there?

They make about $30b revenue.

Anthropic focused on coding. Enterprise is willing to pay for tokens. Also Anthropic is code so good code can work for it, but the code Claude does many people call slop. OpenAI prioritized consumers, who have less willingness to pay.

Human Interest

Crime

Ontario police charge 93-year-old after assault (youtube.com)

Attacking her 93-year-old husband. She has dementia (and so couldn't even have criminal intent).

In Canada, everything that happened was mandatory. No choice, no discretion. The care home by policy has to call police. Police arriving at a 'intimate partner violence' by law have to charge everyone.

Ontario's solicitor general said police do have discretion in some circumstances, 'local police services are responsible for applying these procedures...' Pass the buck much? I've only ever heard that modern Canadian law requires arrest on a domestic call. That's why you should never call the police in Canada.

Canada.

Trustee says Godley couple targeted her in prostitution scheme (youtube.com)

Out of a nice family home, running prostitution, using local police to target political enemies.

A young woman was removed from school committees because she had a couple priors for prostitution (2023), and perhaps currently active (they found lots of social media posts that look like what a prostitute would post, and lots of reviews for services that match the names on the photos (including OF). They raised the question of whether (for daughters) an example that that kind of behavior is acceptable is acceptable. They questioned why their complaints to police to investigate were ignored, but they now found out that the police were involved (allegedly).

It is not known how many people were manipulated ('victimized') by this group of the couple (the 40 year old prostitute/mother) and her husband, the police chief and an officer.

It seems the (allegedly) criminal group pulled information on city leaders, police department, and school board.

The group had obtained 'private photos' (a bikini photo) of the woman who is still on the school board, and posted it to escort websites, as if the woman were an escort.

The couple faces state-level RICO charges (racketeering).

She noted it would be nice if citizens didn't have to wrry about police officers being involved in organized crime and targeting citizens.

Feds target Mexican Mafia across SoCal (youtube.com)

People sometimes wonder why gangs, which everyone knows who they are, police don't seem to do anything. Some gang activity is beneficial, because some illegal things still need to make their way around, but violance generally isn't, extortion isn't, etc.

Abuse at French after-school programmes: Parents sound the alarm • FRANCE 24 English (youtube.com)

This report is alarming if truly there is no supervision of the teachers/staff, even on an occasional basis. But we also remember the moral panic about schools in the 80s, where kids were coached to give testimony. In this case, one of the kids gave testimony only after sessions with a child psychologist. The psychologist interviewed said signs of 'typcal symptoms observed in victims of abuse' were a kid not wanting to go to school suddenly, sleeping, anger issues, avoiding all sorts of things.' They then get calls from parents that their kids are showing signs of trauma, but if these are the symptoms isn't that 50% of all children?

This isn't a civil rights issue where people have rights to not be surveiled. It's a controlled environment where there are (actual) children, so there is no reason to not have cameras (so long as the footage is not kept in a database or allowed into the hands of some corporation or something).

The organization in the video is disappointed that complaints are often minimized by authorities, but if the complaints are vague behavioral issues without any actual material testimony or something, what is there?

The kids had to tell their stories 5 times to different authorities over the course of a month or more. Which is perhaps as traumatic as the alleged abuse. It might be forgotten, but they are made to crystallize it as memory.

Culture

Wireless Festival cancelled after Kanye West denied entry to UK (youtube.com)

I've seen random (mostly hasbeen but not all) celebs (actors, it seems, mostly) calling out the festival for having Kanye and calling him 'racist.' Because he's one of the only uncensorable, free thinking, free speaking people in popular culture, definitely the only one at the top level of popularity. The other ones are less seen, like MIA.

Wireless Festival boss stands by Ye headlining concerts as sponsors pull out (apnews.com)

The UK government (under Starmer) then banned Kanye from entering the country, and then the festival was cancelled (because he couldn't come).

The UK government did this under the "Non-Conducive to the Public Good" provision in the Grounds for Refusal section of the Immigration Rules.They deem Kanye a threat to public order or to be otherwise not in the public interest. Officials blocked his Electronic Travel Authorization (a digital permit required for short term visitors to UK who don't need visas). The Home Office cited a 'pattern of behavior' involving so called antisemitic remarks including his Heil Hitler track and swastika-themed merch. No specific crime? only a conceived 'pattern'?

(UK banned Tyler the Creator in 2019 because they said his lyrics encouraged violence and intolerance.)

Rockstar Energy withdrew sponsorshop of Wireless Festival over Kanye.

The Feminization of Society | Louise Perry and Mary Harrington (youtube.com)

Chick has a theory that liberalism was a biproduct of the print era, and only works in a print media environment. The liberal information consuming rational civil discoursey subject, but the information doesn't proliferate so far and in such brainrotting formats as to exhaust that and reverse that into [a mess] where no one can remember which mass panic we're currently in for 15 minutes.

Married Mothers, Girlfriends, Wives, He Exposed It All So The Government Got Him (youtube.com)

The guy offered $200 to film content (OF?) in Argentina. He asked the women if they have a boyfriend. Many said yes. Over time he started flming almost exclusively with chicks who had boyfriends. He shared it on X and other platforms. The girlfriends and wives really get into it. Without using protection. The police arrested him because he said it wouldn't be shown in Argentina, it would only be shown abroad, but he did release it in Argentina. Black pill.

Commenter. 'Theyre not ashamed about cheating just mad about getting caught.'

Commenter. 'This isn't their dark side, gentlemen. It's their most primal nature when left without self-restraint. This is why honor and loyalty are traits cultivated in them by the family with conditioning and shame. We live in a society with soft power promoting promiscuity, a dysfunctional family unit, no shame, and a sisterhood that cares about spreading deceit on man-hating for profit rather than calling out and correcting bad behavior. The result is what we see now. Disillusion yourself from trusting them with your feelings. In the end, you can still care for them, but don't deceive yourself by thinking you can trust them with your core and authorship. Stay strong, Gentlemen!'

The vlogger talks about, from a guys perspective, how this isn't content of a young woman girlfriend, who later bragged about her bf and had a kid with him about a year after the content, it isn't her accepting the money cause she needs it for some (moral) reason, and sadly goes through the act. The 'energy and enthusiasm' with which she does it, how excited she gets 'would break any man's heart.' 'The woman having fun. The woman doing the work. The woman laughing.' Giggles at the end.

The vlogger also said that prosecutors are going after him for basically the same things women do on their own OF page, but not really, you make a deal you have a deal.

Commenter. 'Remember: It is now ILLEGAL in France to conduct a paternity test because it was exposing too many women who cheat unprotected'. Netherlands also.

Women in power and the policies they create is now in the fringes, not yet in the mainstream.

'The feminism and female empowerment is not limited to western society

It's gone worldwide'

'Men won't give up their hard earned optionality'. Another headline, this one by Orion. As it makes it's way into the mainstream, how far does it go before men simply reject social contracts, oppose laws, etc, until they get at least a fair deal again? Does it go so far that all relationships are default transactional (which is currently illegal in some countires like USA but not in others), is the result that if you want marriage you have to give up phone privacy to your husband etc, basically the modern technological equivalent of what the middle east did/does with their women? Or do male-female relationships stop for a while, since both have financial stability enough plus want freedom enough? One big question will be what happens with paying for children? Do they become state funded? and if so, does the state then get to decide on their education?

Japan: Where Have All The 'Punk Teens' Gone? (youtube.com)

Will the value of bullying become known?

Battles on the news, police versus students. Gangsters everywhere. Student protests.

A lot of spirit, exciting. People liked that time. Do people like this time? the docile, watched generation? The society with a government that has surveillance, records, evidence.

Gap between rich and poor, the youth rebelled. Pay gap between university educated and not.

Schools became stricter with rules and with enforcing them.

Now, everything goes online. Socializing, finding other people from not great homes. Getting attention. Venting aggression.

Schoolage crime is down. But school absenteeism and suicide are up.

People are hiding their feelings inside, and repressing their desires.

Bullying, you used to be able to avoid it with physical proximity/distance, but with the internet (Line groups) youth have to be involved with their bullies online.

The people in the video say they don't know which is actually better, but would rather be in the past time with rebellious youth, like their parents were, because it looks way more exciting and fun, and is more like what teenagers really like. Teenagers are supposed to be rebellious, more or less.

Products

I had a Subway sandwich today, and got a cookie. What percentage of the cookie is just sugar now? like 75%?

Apple's iPod is making a comeback (apnews.com)

Actually, the retro cycle has passed records, tapes, CDs, and so mp3s are sequential, but I wasn't sure people would do this one, since really there aren't many iconic mp3 players, and actually, most leave a lot wanting, but the iPod was a nice one to use.

Reece's Peanut Butter Cups have become gross. They just taste and feel like powdered sugar. You can't taste chocolate and can barely taste peanut butter. And you only get two smaller ones in a pack instead of the three larger ones a few years ago.

Wise (Transferwise) raised it's fees considerably.

It used to have $350 withdrawal per month free (no fees), but lowered that to $100.

It increased it's fees from 1.75% to 2.69% for anything over $100 per month. Pretty close to traditional banks, which was the whole reason we got Wise accounts.

The fixed fee went from $1.50 to $2.69.

Lots of negative sentiment on the recent Coachella. They had like no bands. Headlined by Beiber and Karol G, and tickets more expensive than ever. People said the Strokes were good, who were kind of headliners too.

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