The telegraph article was paywalled, but I got to see a bit of the video. These people are so ridiculous and dramatic! What do they think they will accomplish?
I remember wandering the Cairo Bazaar, watching the worse traffic I’d ever seen, and thinking “Egypt is worse than Mexico” No racism just an observation
You know what's funny? I live in an area that that is increasingly becoming dominantly Orthodox Jewish. I often shop at an Italian gourmet shop that is a lone hold out in their dominantly kosher shopping center. You take your life in your hands if you venture in on a Fri. afternoon. Total chaos! Everyone is backing up, or pulling in, crossing the alleys every which way. Young children running infant of traffic! There is no order! We have also had an increase of car accidents, roll-overs, school bus crashed, you name it! So the one point I have to make is- chaos will happen if standards aren't reinforced and people aren't assimilated (or taught to begin w/!)
I've been to Cairo. The museums were fantastic as was Giza. But getting there in a vehicle was daunting! I've never seen traffic like it. I seriously thought we'd hit other vehicles every 10 seconds (we were being driven in a van). But what a trip...all over Egypt. We also went to the Coptic Christian church and had armed guards following us. I'll never forget it.
I think they thought that they'd be welcomed with open arms and could protest at will, not realising the ambivalent attitude the Egyptians have toward the Palestinians or indeed how dangerous the Sinai is.
What these irrational clowns don't realize is that they are infidels and are held in contempt by the hardcore Islamists of Hamas. They will not be welcomed with open arms. The Islamic fanatics are more liable to shoot them than welcome them with open arms.
Let's start a collection to send Queers for Gaza to Gaza where these nut cases will be executed as soon as they step off the plane.
This would be funny if it weren't so pathetic. They think they are being compassionate, but what they really are is stupid. They disgust me. Not one of these morons lamented the murders and hostages taken on Oct. 7.
I say again, "If you don't want civilian casualties, don't go to war with Israel."
I love the Orientalization the Welsh guy does to the Arabs and how he himself is Orientalized by the Londoner! It is beautiful in It's own way. There is something remarkable about the delusion remaining unbroken despite contact with reality. Maybe the Egyptians should have been rougher?
One of the women coming from the UK posted their map to Rafah and they thought they were going to the very southern tip of Israel!! 🤣 And people talk about Americans' lack of geographic knowledge. At least the average American isn't going to the places they can't find on a map!
As the article said, it is very strange in our digital age how a map that wasn't hand-drawn could be so incredibly wrong. I have to wonder where they sourced the map, who made it, who labeled it. Could they actually be that stupid? Or was this an intentional deception to make the march look easier than it really was, so as to boost the numbers participating? What did they expect would happen when the map turned out to be wrong? Did they think the participants would be rescued? Or were they genuinely willing to trade the participants' lives for publicity?
Celia, I think they really are that stupid. Stupid, uninformed, and lacking in curiosity. I also don't think they thought out any of the logistics of this fiasco. They would not be able to answer any of those questions you've posed.
The Gaza marchers are the funniest! Have you seen the Welsh guy crying and pleading with the Egyptian police? https://x.com/habibi_uk/status/1933839654156984648 I saw a screen grab close up of one of the police officers rolling his eyes 🤣
What a f'ing idiot, but he's also dangerous imo because I think he passionately believes in what he is doing. That kind of passion does influence people, even if misrepresented. he may not influence the Egyptians but I can guarantee that clip will sway gullible folks in the western world.
The Egyptian police were so moved by his words that they dropped their weapons and collapsing in tears, begged the valiant Welsh nurse for forgiveness NOT.
Chris Bray has an interesting post today about the migrants in New York City. The imbedded video from ROCA is enlightening about the various shelters/hotels in the city and who is in them.
Thank you for the ChrisBray link. I particularly liked a comment someone posted about Minnesota. My friends and family there seem to have lost their minds. All have TDS and a frightening habit of parroting the same political slogans or messages. 1984 and Animal Farm come to mind. Goldstein! Snowball! There is something really strange going on in Minnesota. It has had an outsized presence on the national stage since Floyd. Perhaps the leftist authoritarian single party “utopia” Democrats dream of?
My TDS second cousin posted 1984 in relation to Trump. Scratching my head on that one. I could turn somersaults, do headstands, weave the most convincing of evidence -- nothing will deter her from foaming at the mouth over Trump. Nothing could convince her that he's not the second coming of King Henry VIII.
Just got to watch "The Private Life of Henry VIII," released in 1933, staring Charles Laughton, and all the wives played by the English female stars of that era, Merle Oberon, Elsa Lanchester, Binnie Barnes, Wendy Barrie, etc. Laughton made me love Henry, played him with a slight W.C Fields tinge. You actually feel sorry for the King. The story is written to reflect he felt forced into the marriages. One scene he's hesitating at the door of the bridal chamber of the 4th wife, he looks almost directly into the camera, "The things I do for England." You can't beat that! It's a marvelously good movie.
I have a quasi-MAGA friend who has lived in suburban Minneapolis for close to 40 years. He says it is surreal how much things have changed in the last 15 years.
Minnesota is perplexing. It's like everyone there has lost their minds (like California). The problem is, why do they not see that their 'utopia' is, in fact, turning into a shithole? It appears that CA, MN, NY, IL and and some other states enjoy shitholes. Do the people really want this? Is this really a result of the population's desires, or corrupt voting systems? Wherever democrats control the system, civilization in in decline. Can someone explain to me why the voters accept this?
I read that piece on high trust societies too. I think many places have that trust. I know here in Cincinnati I think nothing of leaving my purse and laptop on the table in a coffee shop, walking away and going to the bathroom. I know nothing will be touched. It’ll all be there when I get back.
Wow. That is amazing. That trust has been gone on the west coast for a very long time now. It used to be that way up in the mts here. We all left our doors unlocked and anyone could come and borrow a tool etc if you weren't home cuz it would be brought right back in good shape. It isn't like anymore tho. A friend who lives in an apartment in a converted old house in the nearby city said she even takes her purse with her when she leaves her own room to go to the bathroom down the hall now!
During the LA Riots, my entire belief in the Social Contract went up in the SoCal April fires. I do we even live in a high trust society anymore? I don’t see it
Being native combined with a chaotic childhood meant I never had much trust in the Social Contract to begin with. However, over time, I did learn to trust my chosen community. Covid and the ongoing political polarization of everything else has pretty much destroyed that trust and I recently realized not only am I still grieving those lost relationships, I am deeply grieving the part of myself that had learned to trust. Sadly I don't see being able to trust the current society around me anytime soon.
I still see it somewhat in the daylight hours in our small town. After dark when the dogs start barking is a different story.
I will say it has improved significantly in the last few months. We are literally on the border, and for a while there it was a little nerve racking late a night.
That used to be the way is was in Ohio. I remember my Dad yelling at a kid in the mall telling him to "put it back" as he was trying to shoplift an item. I'm not so sure it is still that way. But what do I know...I live in CA.
Several years ago we were in the card shop in town and the woman behind the counter asked my husband to take $100 bill to the bank down the street to exchange it for smaller bills. He took it to the bank and came back with her cash. She never even considered that he would steal it and neither did he.
It’s pretty much like that where I live in Alabama, too, PH…but I also think it’s somewhat in my personality. Many around here are distrustful…I’m always a little amused by the women I see who take their purses with them to receive the Eucharist at Mass(and it’s not just the ones who are leaving immediately afterwards.) 😏
Oh my gosh, really? Yikes. If you can’t trust the people next to you in church, maybe you should try a different one.
Also, sounds like my mom, although I blame her paranoia on being raised in Brooklyn.
Once at my daughter’s birthday party, my mom wouldn’t even lock her purse in the car. We were at a barn. She had to walk all around all day with her purse tucked under her arm. 🙄
This takes me back to visiting NYC in 2019. I hadn’t been there since the 80s 90s so I saw the transition of Guiliani from piles of rags sleeping on steam grates to a clean well run city. Anyway, there was an exhibition on Versailles at the Met, Woman in Gold was at the Neue Gallerie and I really really really wanted to see that, I wanted to finally see the Cloisters as it figured in a lot of books I’d read and there was an exhibition both at the Cloisters and the Met on religious overtones in fashion. Plus the last time I was there the Twin Towers were extant and we wanted to see the memorial.
Anyway, I figured that was the last time I’d go to NYC and is see everything I wanted.
We rode the subways, which sometimes were closed for repairs with no warning. But the point I want to make is that here we were, two white people from the intermountain West, not unsophisticated but also not used to skyscrapers and millions of people, with a paper subway map trying to figure out the stops, but mostly white, on a train of diversity, and the people were wonderful! They helped us, we had great conversations, black and white just getting along nicely. No one tried to Rob us or stab us. In fact on the platform, people would come up to us and ask a question and all we could say was we were tourists and had no idea about anything.
I don’t know if that experience is possible anymore in blue cities after St Floyd of George and the March of the illegals.
It actually is, Unwoke. We certainly have more undesirables inhabiting our public spaces than we did half a dozen years ago, but you'd find the same cultural institutions going full-tilt and general helpfulness on the part of New Yorkers.
But do mind your purse.
It was in 2006 when the last of my family left a front door unlocked. That was when my elderly aunt died. All my life I could walk into her house unaided by doorbell. (Or at least, up until 10 PM, when I guess she did latch it.)
My husband passed away yesterday. We discovered he was very sick inside about 6 weeks when he presented with symptoms of a bleeding ulcer. The ER doctors did a CT scan of his abdomen and discovered many worse things. His previous routine bood work had given no indication. His yearly physicals told him he was healthy, watch the weight, keep the glucose down, exercise. The usual stuff. The other evening he fell headfirst down the stairs and crashed his head through the drywall. There was no shout, no evidence of resisting. Just a pool of blood under his head. We got him to a trauma center but he never woke up. A head scan showed he had two strokes, so we have to conclude that’s what caused the fall. After waiting and praying for days he would wake up, the doctors said there was no hope. The ventilator was removed. He breathed on his own for a while, and then passed.
We do mammograms and colonoscopies as routine preventative measures. Why not a quick scan of the liver and surrounding organs before it’s too late? Especially when the blood tests are unreliable. Had he survived the fall, the prognosis and course of treatment were daunting and not guaranteed. Why weren’t these lesions observed a long time ago when they were small?
As horrible as all this is, I take some comfort in knowing he went fast, in no pain, never knew what hit him. He would have suffered from all the treatments the doctors would have thrown at him, leaving him a shriveled up, miserable mess.
I like to this my handy husband was taken home because God needs an addition build for when I arrive, and He knew my husband is the perfect guy for the job.
I did not say Goodbye, I said, See ya’ later, sweetheart.
When I was 10yo my best friend since 4yo died of leukemia. An elderly neighbor came to me knowing the pain and suffering I was experiencing as the neighbor had observed our friendship from her front porch. She described death like a walk in the woods. Some people run ahead to get to the light faster. But we'll all catch up and see them soon. My whole life this has given me comfort.
You will see him soon. He just ran to the light first. Blessings friend and may you find peace as you process. 🙏✨️
My heart goes out to you Maureen. May you and your family be surrounded by the beautiful light and comfort of love and faith. A truly poignant reminder that we and our loved ones can go at anytime.
Hi Maureen: I echo the comment community in our condolences for your loss. And it’s a stark reminder to remember the old adage Carpe Diem as no day is promised. We pray for you and May your husband Rest In Peace.
That's so sudden and tragic and makes us all stop and remember to say, "I love you" to our loved ones every day. I'm so sorry you are going through this tragedy.
Unz Review and other beyond far right folks think “it’s the Jews” is the default excuse for everyone’s problems. Absurd and angering but I used to believe it was a tiny minority. Now I wonder and fear for my Jewish friends.
It's all getting more and more bizarre. I read that an internet expert claims that over 50% of internet communication is all bots now. I tried to explain this to some folks that we have to take everything in the media now with a grain of salt and it's like my words simply slid right off of them as they were caught up in all the excitement of believing this crap. It's somehow stimulating to them and like a friend said, it's meant to distract from what is really going on.
Some days I spend way too long reading what passes as news, and ensuing comments. One is flabbergasted and disgusted; but it's like watching a train wreck. As Conrad says, "the fascination of abomination."
It's wierdly addictive. What saves me is when I go up in the mts I am offline completely for however long and I have far fewer stressful interactions with other humans. I am then able to focus more fully on what's real and most important to me. In otherwords, I get my brain back! For so many years I never understood the online/electronic/media addiction thing. Now I sadly get it.
Yes! I saw a post about a month ago with a guy showing us a bot farm, with a whole wall of smart phones hooked to one laptop that was pumping out fake messages, presumably to get people riled up about something.
If you look at the "trending" on X you can see hundreds of people posting the exact same thing. Attacking religions, political parties, all kinds of interesting things. Remember Mike Solana's exposing Apple AI as being a bunch of guys in India? AI stands for An Indian
I saw a post that someone had researched, claiming to be from a female from the United States but was actually a middle aged man named Abdul from Pakistan. It's a good thing I've spent the last decade believing in my own eyes rather than "sources".
Yes. It's mind boggling really how much fake shit is going on. And I don't think it's all just coming from the 'left' either as there appear to me to be multiple agendas in play from multiple directions.
I saw a headline (saved the article for later reading) suggesting that the AIs using the Internet for training material are going to spiral down in performance as their outputs become their inputs.
I think the 50 percent might be on the low end as far as comments sections on open social media platforms like X, Facebook, etc. I keep trying to remind people that you are likely arguing with a dude in China or India or Russia who just has a script in front of him and a program operating 100 accounts from his computer in a boiler room or warehouse somewhere with 300 other dudes. Or, an AI driven server room humming away.
Was that Matt Taibbi or Sasha Stone? Both posts brought out some pretty unhinged commenters. I feel like The Racket, in particular, has a bunch of isolationists and antisemites who have been goading Matt on. They always make it seem like they've uncovered some secret truth. There is no use arguing with them, because they are immune to facts.
And based on what we've seen over the past few days, if Israel wanted Trump dead, he would be dead.
You want to see unhinged ignorant nuts? Try the WSJ comment section. The article could be about banana smoothies and there will be someone(s) who link it to how awful Trump is.
Agree completely. I've noticed that many of the commenters there have very few prior comments or likes, suggesting it's totally artificial.
The WSJ news section has really gone downhill, and it's not just Trump they hate - it's also Musk/Tesla and Boeing. Immediately after the Air India crash, all the headlines suggested it was Boeing's fault.
I really enjoy reading Matt and listening to he and Walter, but I don't even open the Racket comments. I'm not sure why he draws such ire and a seemingly endless number of just horrible posters.
Matt won’t block or ban posters which is consistent with his free speech platform. It has made his comment section unbearable. Some posters will have 150 likes five minutes after his post.
Brian if you want to read unhinged on Israel read Glen Grunwald. This is an issue I disagree with Matt. However I do think the Mullahs can be removed and centrifuges destroyed without using the USAF. Anyone who doesn’t wish their removal is a menace to peace.
I keep wondering why she interviews him still. You are right he is more measured on her podcast. Also, I still don’t know what to think about the leaked picture of him in a French maid costume. He’s a strange guy for sure.
I’m not sure about that picture either. I did see Glenn post on X stating it was true, and that he was upset that his private life became public.
I learned of Glenn when I read his book No Place to Hide, about Edward Snowden. Glenn was the one that was in contact with him while hiding, Snowden gave Glenn the files to write the story. Glenn is very intelligent, I just can’t understand why he behaves as he does about Israel.
I never liked Matt's commenters. I love Matt's writing but his comment section always has a hostile vibe created by the commenters. It's why I used to comment daily on TFP but rarely comment on Racket when I used to sub to both. Although now I sub only to Racket because I like to hear what Matt and Walter have to say. Matt's chat area is a dump too since he only allows founding members to initiate posts, and it's the same 2 or 3 who keep posting shit there, and they're all nut jobs.
This is the direction Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and others are going. The easiest thing to do is blame the world’s 16 million Jews for everything..
It's seriously weird and I just don't get it. Both Candace and Tucker are usually pretty smart. Megyn Kelly has to my knowledge remained staunchly pro jewish as has Dr Phil. Hopefully both of them have more influence than Candace and even Tucker. While not jewish myself, I don't see how one can be anti-Israel and claim to be pro Jewish at the same time. I know many folks think that is possible but I personally just don't see it. The only extrapolation I can make is being Cherokee; I might strongly disagree with my own tribal government and other Cherokee people, but at the end of the day I will never forget that ALL Cherokee were treated exactly the same by outside forces, irregardless of political beliefs, etc.
Thank you for thoughtful assessment on this topic. You certainly have a perspective that helps reach this conclusion, and I appreciate it. If I could I’d like to expand on this from my perspective. Judaism is more than a religion, it is a homeland (Israel) and Peoplehood. All three. Each supports the other. Three pillars. I felt incredible energy while in the markets in Israel, surrounded by hundreds of people I’ve never met.
That’s why for 2000 years while in exile on the Passover holiday we recited the words, next year In Jerusalem, our eternal city. The perversion that being anti-Israel but still supporting the Jewish religion is almost as old as anti-Semitism.
One modern example, during WWII when the United Nations was addressing the creation of a Jewish homeland in Israel, the Jewish owners of the New York Times refused to print stories supporting the new state. Their reasoning: we live in America (the New Jerusalem) and while being Jewish, we see that as a religion only and do not support the founding of a state, Israel. They feared that such support would somehow impact their status in the US.
Because of this and much much more, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) now includes in the definition of anti-Semitism, anti-Israel sentiment. The US Government has adopted this definition as well.
Thank you so much Brian for enlightening me on this! It is heartening to know that the official definition of anti-Semitism includes anti-Israel sentiment. Most Cherokees no longer practice traditional religion or culture and we have long been politically divided on many fronts, but at the end of the day no matter our trappings or where we are in the world we still know we are Cherokee.
It’s very sad that the Cherokee people are so fractured. It’s so interesting to me to learn about others cultures, especially when the people are so proud.
Yes. I find it amazing and really quite miraculous that the Jewish people were able to retain so much of their own culture and religion in the face of so many centuries of persecution. The Cherokee were simply unable to hold on to so much. Our strength was in intermarriage, adaptation, assimilation and re-inventing ourselves over and over again from the ashes which remained. Which is why we so quickly embraced the Phoenix when the Europeans brought it here. The Phoenix really does symbolize our essence as a people of the fire. Most folks don't know that the Cherokee survived several genocidal events, not just the Trail of Tears.
(Surgical recovery is giving me too much time for this.) I've waded through far too many threads today that are reminiscent of the time, as a child at Uncle Eddie's farm, I walked out the wrong door of the dairy barn...
I'd figured out all by myself that Anti-Zionist = Anti-Jewish. Full stop. Mealymouthism in action; but then I've always considered antisemitism not merely immoral, flat-assed wrong, but breathtakingly and self-defeatingly stupid -- a look at the Nobel Prize league tables alone proves that. Thank you for a deeper analysis. It won't move many jerks, but it's worth a try. And much more enlightening and congenial reading than the Other Stuff.
Candace is an old fashion not to bright Jew hater with five million followers. Tucker has become an angry, slimy opportunists. With a long history of reinventing himself.
I've been seeing more and more posts on social media that Israel is responsible for 9/11. Somehow, it seems a lot of people are getting told and convinced with bizarre new narratives even though the like of us never get those memos. I honestly don't know what happened.
It's the same old antisemitic tripe that has been dished up for millennia: 'it's the Jews' fault.' Hitler didn't come up with a new idea when he blamed the Jews for everything that had gone wrong in Germany; he just repurposed a very old and ugly idea that people were primed to believe because that lie has been told over and over for such a long time.
These idiots are willing and eager heirs of Hitler. Ultimately of Haman.
Nothing like an old friend who knows you from the old days in ways it’s almost impossible to duplicate in old age. You’re doing exactly what you should be and missing nothing in our 21st Century tribal vine. I’m hoping that Mr Celia didn’t have a bad Father’s Day as I’m guessing your kids may be rebelling against you both. Having lost both my Father (when I’d just turned 23) and my best friend (too young in 2017), I tell everyone: enjoy them while you can. In the end, all our driving and striving are naught without having loving family and friends.
Our two rebellious kids are, mysteriously, still fond of their father. I say mysteriously because they *know* that he is more conservative than I am. And much, much more vocal to them about his religious beliefs. Perhaps it's that they feel like he is who he always has been, while they have misinterpreted my consistent classical liberalism as a signal that I'm willing to go along with *anything*, and hence feel that I have 'changed' or somehow betrayed who they thought I was. Like many who have galloped further and further to the Left, they don't perceive just how far they've gone.
Even since Carter plunged a shiv in the back of the Shah and let Islamist lunatics take over Iran, that nation has been a problem for the world (not to mention Iranians who wanted basic liberties. Even the most strident Second Amendment advocate would agree to keep guns out of the hands of socio- and psychopaths. So why is it a matter of controversy to keep nukes out of the hands of Islamist lunatics? Especially when even the corrupt UN admits that Iran was lying and cheating and assembling atomic bombs?
The newspapers are screaming that the ayatollah has promised us unprecedented destruction if we aid Israel. (And I should add, aid ourselves and the world.)
I might be wrong, but to me the old guy's threat sounds like the last squawk of an impotent bully.
I don’t get it either Bruce. Every dumbass who was cheerleading all the pointless wars post WWII is now suddenly opposed to preventing Iran from joining club nuke. Imagine the world if we had prevented North Korea, China, and Pakistan from getting nuclear weapons instead of doing foolish things like Vietnam and Iraq. For some reason there are many who can’t distinguish between these situations.
I was the dumbass cheerleading those wars in my youth. I even participated in one, in uniform. But I'm heartened that so many of my fellow America's are now, anti-war. My take is SOME/MOST this anti-war sentiment from MAGA is anti-deep state. With the continuous wars being a feature of that deep state. And most of us MAGA who are anti-deep state are Populist Nationalists. There's another set of those opposed to America offensive military involvement in Iran who were already 'anti-Isreal' before last Friday's attack. These are those with antisemitic words. That is not me or most of MAGA. As we chart forward, I do hope we can be smart enough to distinguish between the two groups. Both are anti-war but coming at it from different POV's.
My two cents: obama and his global.pals wanted a multi polar world w US power diminished. Iran serves that objective if it has hegemony over the ME( likewise more power for China in Asia and Russia in eastern EU( MORE FLEXIBILITY AFTER THE ELECTION). This is a lot about sovereignty. Other than Isreal and the US ( and maybe japan)which other free countries even care that much anymore about their sovereignty ( the desire for global citizenry is very apparent: same for many multinational corps and organizations although trump 2 has at least reversed that..for now). Look at the UK and France this past week or two especially the labour party and big mac macron. What is stupifying is that guys like Carlson do not get that today's geo politics ( especially w technological advances) is not 1939 and fortress america protected by two oceans. This is why it it no longer to support Carlson or rationalize he is not a jew hater ( otherwise he has been a manchurian mediaite the past two decades and now is his moment).
The prediction that if Trump helps bomb that Iranian nuclear fortress, it will split MAGA as they don't want war is probably accurate. Tucker is the bell weather for that outcome. BUT, I am in agreement that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. I was looking at pics on X yesterday that show Iranians on the beaches before the revolution--the people are in bathing suits and are happily gathered. Now... Women are fully covered and obviously despised by the religious intolerant. Regime change doesn't go well--but... I don't know. As I said yesterday, I am torn by this issue, but I'm very clear that Islamists with these toxic ways are a serious problem for the world, let alone our country.
Here's an instructive post from Germany about how these men act toward German women in "normal" summer dress. Watch to the end to see the man come into the picture. He attacks the German woman:
I too am torn as I think many of us are. No one sane really wants war, but Iran is going to continue to be a big big problem if we don't deal with this. Sometimes you just have to put a mad dog down.
Carlson and others ( including heard Beck this am waffle while his guest( CEO of Federalist) called for no bunker busters because america not in danger of being attacked. I interpret thst standard as meaning US should pretty much not seek to be a world leader and Erick Erickson just summed it up that way as well. The busters can ve used without "another viet nam" since no boots on ground ( no need here ). Regime change may occur but it won't involve American boots in Tehran etc. The debate we need here is what role America is to.play. the Carlson Tulsi Bannon Et al answer seems to be very little unless we are attacked or about to be. How does that play around the globe. What's the message to China for example thst tucker is conveying( hevis now the front man like it or not). Note that if US is to essentially pull back then doesn't it follow we should not tell Israel what to do next on its own. Again while defending America is priority one the issue today is what else should America be doing as a world leader ? The progressive right ( as Erickson calls tucker and company) has yet to address this. Until then perhaps their voices should be given less weight.
All very good points and good info to consider. Especially if the US doesn't get involved, it should be hands off Israel and let them proceed. I think the fear is where does it end if we do get involved. Personally I think it's too late. We are already involved and many want to remain in denial about that.
I worked with a woman who is Persian. Her family fled Iran during the 1979 Revolution. The majority of Iran is Persian, not Muslims. They are wonderful people and deserved to be freed of this oppressive regime.
MAGA will heal by the mid-terms because the agenda will be too important to them to torch. Trump needs a bigger majority in both houses of Congress and they will give it to him.
RMW … JMHO but Bari was a wolf in sheep’s clothing much longer than one would imagine. Think of one year ago — Debate gate & then her oh so disingenuous post that following day, “They Knew”.
Once she knew then what did she do? Ahh… it’s enough to pop for a month & flood the ~FP with all the stuff I wrote up — that ended up being basically facts.
Yeah, he has fallen off a cliff. Used to quite like his ability to flesh out questions in strange ways with his little quirks to get to the meat of things. He is in the Tucker Carlson business now, not the news business; so we can assume he realizes this and is saying what he need to say to make his business grow.
I've never figured out Obama's attitude on Israel. Maybe some of the teachings in Islam he got early, imparted wisdom from his Commie Mommy, or just hanging around Democrat Progressives. I never forget how he made Bibi come in the White House by the back door ... a guy whose wife is descended from slaves treated a world leader in such fashion. He also bowed (and scraped?) before Arab tyrants. SMH.
I have read that theory--that Obama wanted to establish Iran as the major power in the Middle East--a number of times. On the one hand, it seems like madness. On the other hand, Iran is the only nation in the area with the will to become a superpower, and if you're seeking to establish a multi-polar world and you don't care how many people die in the process....
Obama's idea of Iranian dominance in the Middle East was based on wishful thinking and smug ignorance. I spent a lot of last year reading memoirs by Iranians and seeing Iranian films starring actors who were arrested when it was discovered that they'd worked on such films -- which had to be smuggled out of the country. Some people involved in the making of those films who got away, and all of the memoirists, live in exile.
I'm no Middle East expert, but I don't close my eyes to what's happening and what's been happening since the 1970s.
Hundreds of thousands if not millions of Iranian women have been murdered for crimes against the tenets of Islam. The unmarried ones are raped first because it's a sin to kill a virgin.
My onetime sorta neighbor Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist, has lived in 20 safe houses since fleeing Iran. Who knows where she is now -- almost certainly not in Flatbush, where she was being stalked and her house cased until her would-be assassin slid past a stop sign and the Feds nabbed him. (The NYPD could do nothing because people are always trespassing in driveways and casing houses around here.)
He had an arsenal in his trunk.
Iran is ruled by God-crazy sadists. First they kill their own people, then Israelis, then the rest of us.
What part of that does the idiot Tucker Carlson not understand?
I've kind of obsessed over "to bomb or not to bomb" for a few days. But if we don't, more than likely the nuclear war genie is out of the bottle. We must let the bunker busters fly.
The Shah's son was in pilot training at the AFB in the town I grew up in when Carter stabbed the Shah. The lockdown to protect the son was impressive, had seen him out and about just a few days earlier.
The US installing the Shah decades earlier was probably overstepping, but in hindsight it was considerably better than the alternative.
So glad you are visiting with your good friend Celia! I find myself incredibly grateful for each friend I still have left. .Blessed blessed rain! We are finally getting some. I hope it is enough. Bad wildfires up in British Columbia were already sending smoke our way. It's way too early for this. So scary.
So the Ayatollah appears to want to go down in his bunker like, dare I say it, Hitler. Unlike Hitler though he won’t blow his own brains out. Meanwhile as his country burns and his people die he hurls insults and threats at the rest of the world. Clearly he will not negotiate an end to this. Trump almost has to press the button on the bunker-busters. The only other hope would be an overthrow of the Ayatollah internally with some outreach to the U.S. behind the scenes. Not holding my breath on the latter.
I was playing golf on Sunday with a buddy, he wound up in a sand trap and whiffed somewhat on his first stroke, had to play the next stroke from the trap as well.
Some Iranians that I follow on X that live in Israel have posted that Shia Islam will not allow the Ayatollah to surrender. His choices are die or flee. I do agree that the citizens of Iran need to rise up and overthrow him. Already I am seeing posts on X about people in the military supporting a new Shah. It’s a fragile eco system. If enough in the army do not support the Ayatollah, along with the elite and a few other groups regime change becomes much easier.
Maybe but don’t forget china is Iran’s biggest customer for oil, maybe their only one. OTOH china doesn’t like foreigners and as they are enslaving Muslim uighers I don’t think they care much for Muslims. So who knows.
I was thinking he could flee to a majority-Shia country, but there aren't too many of those: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon. And more than one of those countries might dismiss the idea outright out of prudence.
This is pretty hilarious . And good on JK Rowling for putting it to Boy George, who I actually thought was dead. Best line ever. Did he really have to hurt him.
Why can't those that have enjoyed tremendous success and have become fabulously wealthy doing so stfu so as not to completely blow up their credibility spewing out their ignorance?
What could be more golden than an old friend? I just returned from seeing a few in Chicago. One I've known since 1983, another since 1986, and went camping with one of my high school buddies. The laughter in the weaving car was priceless.
One of our cats is approaching the rainbow bridge. We're utterly perplexed by his refusal to eat. I'm still trying to comprehend how the vet handled him, and I wonder whether this makes sense (I've harbored concerns over this vet, and have since vowed, despite their outward expressions of concern, to not return there.)
Arlecchino stopped eating, so I took him to the vet. They requested a urine sample. Urine sample showed a bacterial infection.
They then said we had to pay an additional $300 to find out what kind of bacterial infection, in order to ascertain which antibiotic to treat it. The results would come back in FIVE DAYS.
FIVE DAYS? says I. FIVE DAYS?
Hence they gave me some antibiotic to treat it. They also prescribed a thyroid medication. They pumped him full of fluids a few times.
He started refusing the antibiotic. His dad (tasked with giving him his medicines) knew the bottle has to be exhausted, but stopped giving it to him.
In five days the vet called to say that was the correct antibiotic, and to come in for more to treat the infection.
In the meantime, Arlie hadn't eaten in a week.
Now he hasn't eaten throughout the entire month of June. He is lying on the bathroom floor. Here and there he lets out a plaintive wail.
Why on earth would it take FIVE DAYS to diagnose a bacterial infection? Doesn't this require some sense of urgency? I don't understand.
I did take him back for an antibiotic shot given his refusal of the liquid, but it seems that was too late. He won't eat. He drinks water, but that's all.
In the meantime, my idea of "fun" is to argue with people that Trump does not see himself as a "king," -- this is the most ludicrous assertion -- and the 'evidence' they provide, shouting FACTS! is not evidence of anything....
One provided two paragraphs from a PBS article that says 'Trump downplayed allegations that he would seek a third term" as PROOF that Trump is seeking a third term.
So I asked him, Hey, what does 'downplay' mean to you?
I'm so sorry about your cat. Sometimes I wish they could speak to us and tell what the heck is wrong, and then I remember all the hard stares I get for no reason. I hope you and your cat get some measure of peace. Can you give him a puree since he won't eat solids?
Vets have been terrible since Covid! I had a great vet and suddenly they were no longer able to make appointments for basic things. Now all private practices are booked to the gills and not taking new patients. We're stuck with Petco because Banfield wanted to do senseless blood work.
We gave up on the vets with our cat who had lots of health problems, plus we couldn't afford the high costs. So I did all the alternative healing stuff I do on myself and hubby and it worked for our cat for 13 years until it all finally caught up with him and we put him to sleep. He also refused to eat for several weeks before he died and he had lumps/cysts developing all over his body. It was time. His spirit made several visitations to us afterwards and once in a rather dangerous situation, he showed up to help.
I have given up on most of them too. Had a homeopathic vet in Maine who cured my wonderful puppy from the 1-year mandated rabies that produced an allergic reaction to all protein eaten. Now I won’t get a dog here in SC partly because I am tired of fighting with this poor, legally required vaccine mandate. Most dogs today are urban and always leashed so don’t run into wild animals. In Maine dogs did. But an initial vax can and does last a long time which a titer would show. Dogs today are as overmedicated as humans are. And one big way markets work is to get their products legally mandated.
So sad that in the US we are making our pets as unhealthy as our human citizens! I think they still airdrop oral rabies vaccine baits in the wild. They claim this is successful and maybe it is. But with me at least, their credibility is completely lost, so who knows?
After my now dear departed Missie Rose had a gall bladder issue and almost died, she didn’t eat or drink. (It’s good your guy is drinking) so I had a syringe, one of those bigger ones, no needle of course and force fed her. (You can get them at tractor supply or a farm store or even the vet has them) Use the purée cat food or make your own, thin it with a bit of water and then squirt it down his throat. After a while they eat on their own.
Your vet sounds like the vets in Florida. In it only for the money. Horrible.
I can’t post photos here but imagine a card with a dog and a cat staring at the night sky. And it reads If I could reach up and hold a star for every time you made me smile, the entire evening sky would be in the palm of my hand.
My vet sent us that when one of our furry family members left. I find great comfort in that. Hope you can too
When they see evidence of a bacterial infection in the urine sample, the sample is then sent off to a microbiology lab for culturing. They do what a lot of us probably did way back when in biology labs where they smear the sample on an agar plate. It then takes ~five days for the culture to grow enough that tests can be run for the microbiologist to identify what exactly is growing. Until then, the vet is just guessing based on the most likely bacteria that cause UTIs.
The same thing happens in the same time frame with human medicine, minus the upfront decision of paying $300 to run the test or not. It just gets run, and the patient is typically only aware it was even done if we guessed wrong in the first place and have to change the antibiotic.
Although, as an interesting aside, we do have fancy machines now that allow us to determine what bacteria is present and any antibiotic resistance markers it might have within 2 hours when a patient has a positive blood culture. They've made a HUGE difference in determining appropriate antibiotics quickly for these people. Before these tests came along, patients sometimes had to hang out in the hospital getting IV antibiotics for five days until we could determine if what showed up in their blood culture was a true pathogen or just a contaminant from the sample draw.
The processes involved in keeping organic creatures alive are incredibly complicated. Most people take for granted how incredible it is just to take a single breath, let alone 23,000 of them a day unconsciously. We like to pretend we understand these processes, but we don’t. I could give you 100 guesses as to what happened, and they’d likely all be wrong.
Because I found this so amusing -- the Western Activist march to Gaza, encountering the reality which is Egypt. There are echoes of the medieval Children's crusade. Self entitled or what. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/06/18/the-western-activists-march-to-gaza-that-became-a-farce/ or https://archive.ph/qnnY8
And this is an interview with Maggie Oliver about the grooming gangs and how it is still going on (certain sectors continue to bleat btw) 8000 children might be involved in Bradford but Bradford didn't want an inquiry -- part of the reasons Baroness Casey pushed for one. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/maggie-oliver-grooming-gangs-inquiry-jm8r2802m or https://archive.ph/hsB4I
The telegraph article was paywalled, but I got to see a bit of the video. These people are so ridiculous and dramatic! What do they think they will accomplish?
I remember wandering the Cairo Bazaar, watching the worse traffic I’d ever seen, and thinking “Egypt is worse than Mexico” No racism just an observation
Egypt is chaotic. They do things their own way and are dealing hardcore Islamists.
It would not surprise in the slightest if the traffic was worse in Cairo than Mexico City.
Mexico City is one of the few places I refuse to drive. Made that mistake once and will not do it again.
Offensive driving has it's place, but DF is out of control.
Its worse than driving the Bumper Cars at Six Flags.
Pretty sure the Bumper Cars ain't doin' 80+ kph with no brake lights
You know what's funny? I live in an area that that is increasingly becoming dominantly Orthodox Jewish. I often shop at an Italian gourmet shop that is a lone hold out in their dominantly kosher shopping center. You take your life in your hands if you venture in on a Fri. afternoon. Total chaos! Everyone is backing up, or pulling in, crossing the alleys every which way. Young children running infant of traffic! There is no order! We have also had an increase of car accidents, roll-overs, school bus crashed, you name it! So the one point I have to make is- chaos will happen if standards aren't reinforced and people aren't assimilated (or taught to begin w/!)
Hated Cairo and the oppression I felt. It was just an overall feeling, hard to describe especially as a white woman.
I've been to Cairo. The museums were fantastic as was Giza. But getting there in a vehicle was daunting! I've never seen traffic like it. I seriously thought we'd hit other vehicles every 10 seconds (we were being driven in a van). But what a trip...all over Egypt. We also went to the Coptic Christian church and had armed guards following us. I'll never forget it.
Try the archive url which is next to it.
This video is also pretty funny: https://x.com/JakeWSimons/status/1935284035611177351
I think they thought that they'd be welcomed with open arms and could protest at will, not realising the ambivalent attitude the Egyptians have toward the Palestinians or indeed how dangerous the Sinai is.
That video was bizarre and hilarious!
Wow. Being compared to Bob Dylan just because he has a Welsh accent, now that's something.........
ha ha!
He's one of the bards of old, come to life!
Glory Be!
This guy is so dramatic. I cannot believe he really exists!
What these irrational clowns don't realize is that they are infidels and are held in contempt by the hardcore Islamists of Hamas. They will not be welcomed with open arms. The Islamic fanatics are more liable to shoot them than welcome them with open arms.
Let's start a collection to send Queers for Gaza to Gaza where these nut cases will be executed as soon as they step off the plane.
These morons are separated from reality.
Did you see the one of the woman? https://x.com/JakeWSimons/status/1935000813962674656
or this one? https://x.com/JakeWSimons/status/1934922704731230515
What sort of reception would they get from fundamentalist Islamists?
They are lucky we don't know. It would have been ugly. And they have no idea from what they are being saved.
This would be funny if it weren't so pathetic. They think they are being compassionate, but what they really are is stupid. They disgust me. Not one of these morons lamented the murders and hostages taken on Oct. 7.
I say again, "If you don't want civilian casualties, don't go to war with Israel."
They might have consulted Lara Logan before embarking, the fools.
Those two women are nuts.
I love the Orientalization the Welsh guy does to the Arabs and how he himself is Orientalized by the Londoner! It is beautiful in It's own way. There is something remarkable about the delusion remaining unbroken despite contact with reality. Maybe the Egyptians should have been rougher?
One of the women coming from the UK posted their map to Rafah and they thought they were going to the very southern tip of Israel!! 🤣 And people talk about Americans' lack of geographic knowledge. At least the average American isn't going to the places they can't find on a map!
It is just hilarious. I am pleased others share my sense of humour.
As the article said, it is very strange in our digital age how a map that wasn't hand-drawn could be so incredibly wrong. I have to wonder where they sourced the map, who made it, who labeled it. Could they actually be that stupid? Or was this an intentional deception to make the march look easier than it really was, so as to boost the numbers participating? What did they expect would happen when the map turned out to be wrong? Did they think the participants would be rescued? Or were they genuinely willing to trade the participants' lives for publicity?
Celia, I think they really are that stupid. Stupid, uninformed, and lacking in curiosity. I also don't think they thought out any of the logistics of this fiasco. They would not be able to answer any of those questions you've posed.
They are so naive on one side, yet arrogant on the other. I think they missed some criitical development skills somewhere along the line.
It's ridiculous cosplay! How can anyone take them seriously?
ANd because I just discovered this article which explains about the Israeli hacking group Predatory Sparrow. They are the ones currently draining Iran's cryptocurrency which the Iran regime uses to evade sanctions. The article is from last year. https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2024/08/15/irans-electronic-confrontation-with-israel or https://archive.ph/MHSxr
The Gaza marchers are the funniest! Have you seen the Welsh guy crying and pleading with the Egyptian police? https://x.com/habibi_uk/status/1933839654156984648 I saw a screen grab close up of one of the police officers rolling his eyes 🤣
What a f'ing idiot, but he's also dangerous imo because I think he passionately believes in what he is doing. That kind of passion does influence people, even if misrepresented. he may not influence the Egyptians but I can guarantee that clip will sway gullible folks in the western world.
You are completely and sadly correct.
The Egyptian police were so moved by his words that they dropped their weapons and collapsing in tears, begged the valiant Welsh nurse for forgiveness NOT.
Only in his fantasies. 🤣
Chris Bray has an interesting post today about the migrants in New York City. The imbedded video from ROCA is enlightening about the various shelters/hotels in the city and who is in them.
https://chrisbray.substack.com/p/the-obvious-goal?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=484195&post_id=166207873&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=15nx69&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Chris' main theme today is High Trust Societies. How do we get there?
This is a clip of NY's governor pledging 50 million for legal fees for illegal immigrants.
https://x.com/EYakoby/status/1935169359447736727
Thank you for the ChrisBray link. I particularly liked a comment someone posted about Minnesota. My friends and family there seem to have lost their minds. All have TDS and a frightening habit of parroting the same political slogans or messages. 1984 and Animal Farm come to mind. Goldstein! Snowball! There is something really strange going on in Minnesota. It has had an outsized presence on the national stage since Floyd. Perhaps the leftist authoritarian single party “utopia” Democrats dream of?
My TDS second cousin posted 1984 in relation to Trump. Scratching my head on that one. I could turn somersaults, do headstands, weave the most convincing of evidence -- nothing will deter her from foaming at the mouth over Trump. Nothing could convince her that he's not the second coming of King Henry VIII.
As someone observed on a podcast recently , Trump’s politics are essentially those of a Democrat 25 years ago.
Just got to watch "The Private Life of Henry VIII," released in 1933, staring Charles Laughton, and all the wives played by the English female stars of that era, Merle Oberon, Elsa Lanchester, Binnie Barnes, Wendy Barrie, etc. Laughton made me love Henry, played him with a slight W.C Fields tinge. You actually feel sorry for the King. The story is written to reflect he felt forced into the marriages. One scene he's hesitating at the door of the bridal chamber of the 4th wife, he looks almost directly into the camera, "The things I do for England." You can't beat that! It's a marvelously good movie.
I have a quasi-MAGA friend who has lived in suburban Minneapolis for close to 40 years. He says it is surreal how much things have changed in the last 15 years.
Minnesota is perplexing. It's like everyone there has lost their minds (like California). The problem is, why do they not see that their 'utopia' is, in fact, turning into a shithole? It appears that CA, MN, NY, IL and and some other states enjoy shitholes. Do the people really want this? Is this really a result of the population's desires, or corrupt voting systems? Wherever democrats control the system, civilization in in decline. Can someone explain to me why the voters accept this?
California was a kinda weird mix to begin with. Minnesota? Lutherans. Scandinavians of various varieties. Stable stock -- one would have thought.
I read that piece on high trust societies too. I think many places have that trust. I know here in Cincinnati I think nothing of leaving my purse and laptop on the table in a coffee shop, walking away and going to the bathroom. I know nothing will be touched. It’ll all be there when I get back.
Wow. That is amazing. That trust has been gone on the west coast for a very long time now. It used to be that way up in the mts here. We all left our doors unlocked and anyone could come and borrow a tool etc if you weren't home cuz it would be brought right back in good shape. It isn't like anymore tho. A friend who lives in an apartment in a converted old house in the nearby city said she even takes her purse with her when she leaves her own room to go to the bathroom down the hall now!
During the LA Riots, my entire belief in the Social Contract went up in the SoCal April fires. I do we even live in a high trust society anymore? I don’t see it
I don't see it much... and certainly less since the Covid and GF riots.
With Karen Bass reprising the role of Philly's former mayor, Wilson "the mad bomber" Goode?
Being native combined with a chaotic childhood meant I never had much trust in the Social Contract to begin with. However, over time, I did learn to trust my chosen community. Covid and the ongoing political polarization of everything else has pretty much destroyed that trust and I recently realized not only am I still grieving those lost relationships, I am deeply grieving the part of myself that had learned to trust. Sadly I don't see being able to trust the current society around me anytime soon.
That cell phone has all your data, take it with you, everywhere.
Oh, yes. I should’ve mentioned that part. I never go anywhere without my phone.
I don’t believe we do.
Those who do, do so at their own peril.
I still see it somewhat in the daylight hours in our small town. After dark when the dogs start barking is a different story.
I will say it has improved significantly in the last few months. We are literally on the border, and for a while there it was a little nerve racking late a night.
Your comment about doors unlocked I experience only on our community farm. Thankful! Off I go- my weeds are calling.
When I was a child we left the doos unlocked. I could go to the neighbors house and just walk in. Now everything is locked up.
That's Ohio for you. I would also add that people sitting at other tables would call anyone out for messing with your stuff.
That used to be the way is was in Ohio. I remember my Dad yelling at a kid in the mall telling him to "put it back" as he was trying to shoplift an item. I'm not so sure it is still that way. But what do I know...I live in CA.
Several years ago we were in the card shop in town and the woman behind the counter asked my husband to take $100 bill to the bank down the street to exchange it for smaller bills. He took it to the bank and came back with her cash. She never even considered that he would steal it and neither did he.
Wow.
I know. The good ol'days.
It’s pretty much like that where I live in Alabama, too, PH…but I also think it’s somewhat in my personality. Many around here are distrustful…I’m always a little amused by the women I see who take their purses with them to receive the Eucharist at Mass(and it’s not just the ones who are leaving immediately afterwards.) 😏
Oh my gosh, really? Yikes. If you can’t trust the people next to you in church, maybe you should try a different one.
Also, sounds like my mom, although I blame her paranoia on being raised in Brooklyn.
Once at my daughter’s birthday party, my mom wouldn’t even lock her purse in the car. We were at a barn. She had to walk all around all day with her purse tucked under her arm. 🙄
Bless her!🥺
This takes me back to visiting NYC in 2019. I hadn’t been there since the 80s 90s so I saw the transition of Guiliani from piles of rags sleeping on steam grates to a clean well run city. Anyway, there was an exhibition on Versailles at the Met, Woman in Gold was at the Neue Gallerie and I really really really wanted to see that, I wanted to finally see the Cloisters as it figured in a lot of books I’d read and there was an exhibition both at the Cloisters and the Met on religious overtones in fashion. Plus the last time I was there the Twin Towers were extant and we wanted to see the memorial.
Anyway, I figured that was the last time I’d go to NYC and is see everything I wanted.
We rode the subways, which sometimes were closed for repairs with no warning. But the point I want to make is that here we were, two white people from the intermountain West, not unsophisticated but also not used to skyscrapers and millions of people, with a paper subway map trying to figure out the stops, but mostly white, on a train of diversity, and the people were wonderful! They helped us, we had great conversations, black and white just getting along nicely. No one tried to Rob us or stab us. In fact on the platform, people would come up to us and ask a question and all we could say was we were tourists and had no idea about anything.
I don’t know if that experience is possible anymore in blue cities after St Floyd of George and the March of the illegals.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful experience of NYC.
It actually is, Unwoke. We certainly have more undesirables inhabiting our public spaces than we did half a dozen years ago, but you'd find the same cultural institutions going full-tilt and general helpfulness on the part of New Yorkers.
But do mind your purse.
It was in 2006 when the last of my family left a front door unlocked. That was when my elderly aunt died. All my life I could walk into her house unaided by doorbell. (Or at least, up until 10 PM, when I guess she did latch it.)
My husband passed away yesterday. We discovered he was very sick inside about 6 weeks when he presented with symptoms of a bleeding ulcer. The ER doctors did a CT scan of his abdomen and discovered many worse things. His previous routine bood work had given no indication. His yearly physicals told him he was healthy, watch the weight, keep the glucose down, exercise. The usual stuff. The other evening he fell headfirst down the stairs and crashed his head through the drywall. There was no shout, no evidence of resisting. Just a pool of blood under his head. We got him to a trauma center but he never woke up. A head scan showed he had two strokes, so we have to conclude that’s what caused the fall. After waiting and praying for days he would wake up, the doctors said there was no hope. The ventilator was removed. He breathed on his own for a while, and then passed.
We do mammograms and colonoscopies as routine preventative measures. Why not a quick scan of the liver and surrounding organs before it’s too late? Especially when the blood tests are unreliable. Had he survived the fall, the prognosis and course of treatment were daunting and not guaranteed. Why weren’t these lesions observed a long time ago when they were small?
As horrible as all this is, I take some comfort in knowing he went fast, in no pain, never knew what hit him. He would have suffered from all the treatments the doctors would have thrown at him, leaving him a shriveled up, miserable mess.
I like to this my handy husband was taken home because God needs an addition build for when I arrive, and He knew my husband is the perfect guy for the job.
I did not say Goodbye, I said, See ya’ later, sweetheart.
Oh no, Maureen, I am so sorry for your loss. I will say a prayer in his honor, and a prayer for you and your family's peace and comfort.
Thank you for the visual of him building your room in Heaven.
My God, Maureen, I am so sorry to hear this.
Yes, I also believe that "See you later" is correct. We all go home sooner or later. Until then, may his memory be eternal.
I am so very sorry Maureen. May you find comfort and strength in the right time.
Maureen, words are insufficient when one is grieving, but words are all we can offer.
So sorry for your loss. May his memory be a blessing.
I’m so sorry for your loss. Take care.
When I was 10yo my best friend since 4yo died of leukemia. An elderly neighbor came to me knowing the pain and suffering I was experiencing as the neighbor had observed our friendship from her front porch. She described death like a walk in the woods. Some people run ahead to get to the light faster. But we'll all catch up and see them soon. My whole life this has given me comfort.
You will see him soon. He just ran to the light first. Blessings friend and may you find peace as you process. 🙏✨️
So sorry for your loss.
My heart goes out to you Maureen. May you and your family be surrounded by the beautiful light and comfort of love and faith. A truly poignant reminder that we and our loved ones can go at anytime.
Hi Maureen: I echo the comment community in our condolences for your loss. And it’s a stark reminder to remember the old adage Carpe Diem as no day is promised. We pray for you and May your husband Rest In Peace.
So sorry for your loss , Maureen.
Oh Maureen, I’m so sorry. Going without pain is a blessing for him, but I’m sure hard on you since there was no time to prepare. Prayers.
That's so sudden and tragic and makes us all stop and remember to say, "I love you" to our loved ones every day. I'm so sorry you are going through this tragedy.
Hurts to see a member of our community in pain. So sorry to hear of your loss, Maureen.
It does hurt.
Sorry Maureen. Please know we grieve with you.
Oh my God! This is terrible news. Prayers.
So sorry Maureen. God bless you and your family.
My condolences. My heart is with you this morning.
Saw a comment on another SubStack yesterday of a guy who suggested Israel was responsible for:
1. JFK assassination
2. 9/11
3. Attempt on Trump‘s life
What on earth, dude?!? Where do people get this nonsense?
Unz Review and other beyond far right folks think “it’s the Jews” is the default excuse for everyone’s problems. Absurd and angering but I used to believe it was a tiny minority. Now I wonder and fear for my Jewish friends.
It's all getting more and more bizarre. I read that an internet expert claims that over 50% of internet communication is all bots now. I tried to explain this to some folks that we have to take everything in the media now with a grain of salt and it's like my words simply slid right off of them as they were caught up in all the excitement of believing this crap. It's somehow stimulating to them and like a friend said, it's meant to distract from what is really going on.
Some days I spend way too long reading what passes as news, and ensuing comments. One is flabbergasted and disgusted; but it's like watching a train wreck. As Conrad says, "the fascination of abomination."
It's wierdly addictive. What saves me is when I go up in the mts I am offline completely for however long and I have far fewer stressful interactions with other humans. I am then able to focus more fully on what's real and most important to me. In otherwords, I get my brain back! For so many years I never understood the online/electronic/media addiction thing. Now I sadly get it.
Yes! I saw a post about a month ago with a guy showing us a bot farm, with a whole wall of smart phones hooked to one laptop that was pumping out fake messages, presumably to get people riled up about something.
That's interesting.... I can't get a visual on that.
If you look at the "trending" on X you can see hundreds of people posting the exact same thing. Attacking religions, political parties, all kinds of interesting things. Remember Mike Solana's exposing Apple AI as being a bunch of guys in India? AI stands for An Indian
I saw a post that someone had researched, claiming to be from a female from the United States but was actually a middle aged man named Abdul from Pakistan. It's a good thing I've spent the last decade believing in my own eyes rather than "sources".
Yes. It's mind boggling really how much fake shit is going on. And I don't think it's all just coming from the 'left' either as there appear to me to be multiple agendas in play from multiple directions.
I saw a headline (saved the article for later reading) suggesting that the AIs using the Internet for training material are going to spiral down in performance as their outputs become their inputs.
Interesting. Circular logic in action.
Yep — the old infinite loop 🔂 & will they have coded in the control-c?
I think the 50 percent might be on the low end as far as comments sections on open social media platforms like X, Facebook, etc. I keep trying to remind people that you are likely arguing with a dude in China or India or Russia who just has a script in front of him and a program operating 100 accounts from his computer in a boiler room or warehouse somewhere with 300 other dudes. Or, an AI driven server room humming away.
Was that Matt Taibbi or Sasha Stone? Both posts brought out some pretty unhinged commenters. I feel like The Racket, in particular, has a bunch of isolationists and antisemites who have been goading Matt on. They always make it seem like they've uncovered some secret truth. There is no use arguing with them, because they are immune to facts.
And based on what we've seen over the past few days, if Israel wanted Trump dead, he would be dead.
Yes, lots of antisemitism and nasty posts in Racket comments. I don’t engage there at all, though I enjoy the ATW shows.
I'm going to borrow your last line CR and trot it out when this topic comes up. It's a great comeback!
Edit: It was Sasha Stone’s post.
Actually neither. Can’t remember who’s Stack it was.
Matt definitely seems to have some seriously unhinged followers.
It was both. And he and Kunstler can be painful in the comments, unless one gets in quickly.
You want to see unhinged ignorant nuts? Try the WSJ comment section. The article could be about banana smoothies and there will be someone(s) who link it to how awful Trump is.
Agree completely. I've noticed that many of the commenters there have very few prior comments or likes, suggesting it's totally artificial.
The WSJ news section has really gone downhill, and it's not just Trump they hate - it's also Musk/Tesla and Boeing. Immediately after the Air India crash, all the headlines suggested it was Boeing's fault.
They have abandoned any pretense of objectivity.
The Trump erection is boring and stale.
Good one Jen.
🤣🤣
I really enjoy reading Matt and listening to he and Walter, but I don't even open the Racket comments. I'm not sure why he draws such ire and a seemingly endless number of just horrible posters.
Matt won’t block or ban posters which is consistent with his free speech platform. It has made his comment section unbearable. Some posters will have 150 likes five minutes after his post.
Taibbi posted an unhinged update on the Israel / Iran war last night.
The comments supported the unhinged essay.
I unsubscribed a while ago.
Loons.
Yes, I totally agree!
Thank you, I thought I was out of step.
That’s why I come to JIP, to keep in touch with reality.
Ditto ‼️
Brian if you want to read unhinged on Israel read Glen Grunwald. This is an issue I disagree with Matt. However I do think the Mullahs can be removed and centrifuges destroyed without using the USAF. Anyone who doesn’t wish their removal is a menace to peace.
I’ve unsubscribed to Glenn Greenwald long ago.
When I see his posts on X, I replay “Fuck You Glenn”.
When his is interviewed by Meghan Kelly, I listen, because she does a great job a keeping the questions on point.
I keep wondering why she interviews him still. You are right he is more measured on her podcast. Also, I still don’t know what to think about the leaked picture of him in a French maid costume. He’s a strange guy for sure.
I’m not sure about that picture either. I did see Glenn post on X stating it was true, and that he was upset that his private life became public.
I learned of Glenn when I read his book No Place to Hide, about Edward Snowden. Glenn was the one that was in contact with him while hiding, Snowden gave Glenn the files to write the story. Glenn is very intelligent, I just can’t understand why he behaves as he does about Israel.
I never liked Matt's commenters. I love Matt's writing but his comment section always has a hostile vibe created by the commenters. It's why I used to comment daily on TFP but rarely comment on Racket when I used to sub to both. Although now I sub only to Racket because I like to hear what Matt and Walter have to say. Matt's chat area is a dump too since he only allows founding members to initiate posts, and it's the same 2 or 3 who keep posting shit there, and they're all nut jobs.
Both! The Swarming of the Unhinged. Painful.
I mean, look at Jeffrey Epstein, for crying out loud!
This is the direction Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and others are going. The easiest thing to do is blame the world’s 16 million Jews for everything..
Clicks.
It's seriously weird and I just don't get it. Both Candace and Tucker are usually pretty smart. Megyn Kelly has to my knowledge remained staunchly pro jewish as has Dr Phil. Hopefully both of them have more influence than Candace and even Tucker. While not jewish myself, I don't see how one can be anti-Israel and claim to be pro Jewish at the same time. I know many folks think that is possible but I personally just don't see it. The only extrapolation I can make is being Cherokee; I might strongly disagree with my own tribal government and other Cherokee people, but at the end of the day I will never forget that ALL Cherokee were treated exactly the same by outside forces, irregardless of political beliefs, etc.
Thank you for thoughtful assessment on this topic. You certainly have a perspective that helps reach this conclusion, and I appreciate it. If I could I’d like to expand on this from my perspective. Judaism is more than a religion, it is a homeland (Israel) and Peoplehood. All three. Each supports the other. Three pillars. I felt incredible energy while in the markets in Israel, surrounded by hundreds of people I’ve never met.
That’s why for 2000 years while in exile on the Passover holiday we recited the words, next year In Jerusalem, our eternal city. The perversion that being anti-Israel but still supporting the Jewish religion is almost as old as anti-Semitism.
One modern example, during WWII when the United Nations was addressing the creation of a Jewish homeland in Israel, the Jewish owners of the New York Times refused to print stories supporting the new state. Their reasoning: we live in America (the New Jerusalem) and while being Jewish, we see that as a religion only and do not support the founding of a state, Israel. They feared that such support would somehow impact their status in the US.
Because of this and much much more, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) now includes in the definition of anti-Semitism, anti-Israel sentiment. The US Government has adopted this definition as well.
Thank you so much Brian for enlightening me on this! It is heartening to know that the official definition of anti-Semitism includes anti-Israel sentiment. Most Cherokees no longer practice traditional religion or culture and we have long been politically divided on many fronts, but at the end of the day no matter our trappings or where we are in the world we still know we are Cherokee.
It’s very sad that the Cherokee people are so fractured. It’s so interesting to me to learn about others cultures, especially when the people are so proud.
Yes. I find it amazing and really quite miraculous that the Jewish people were able to retain so much of their own culture and religion in the face of so many centuries of persecution. The Cherokee were simply unable to hold on to so much. Our strength was in intermarriage, adaptation, assimilation and re-inventing ourselves over and over again from the ashes which remained. Which is why we so quickly embraced the Phoenix when the Europeans brought it here. The Phoenix really does symbolize our essence as a people of the fire. Most folks don't know that the Cherokee survived several genocidal events, not just the Trail of Tears.
(Surgical recovery is giving me too much time for this.) I've waded through far too many threads today that are reminiscent of the time, as a child at Uncle Eddie's farm, I walked out the wrong door of the dairy barn...
I'd figured out all by myself that Anti-Zionist = Anti-Jewish. Full stop. Mealymouthism in action; but then I've always considered antisemitism not merely immoral, flat-assed wrong, but breathtakingly and self-defeatingly stupid -- a look at the Nobel Prize league tables alone proves that. Thank you for a deeper analysis. It won't move many jerks, but it's worth a try. And much more enlightening and congenial reading than the Other Stuff.
Thank you, my pleasure and I hope your recovery is going well.
Candace is an old fashion not to bright Jew hater with five million followers. Tucker has become an angry, slimy opportunists. With a long history of reinventing himself.
Ms Owens is also a huge disappointment. Well, Mr Carlson too, I suppose, but he always had that slimy Popular Kidism about him. IMHO
Anti-Zionist = Anti-Jewish = Anti-America.
I've been seeing more and more posts on social media that Israel is responsible for 9/11. Somehow, it seems a lot of people are getting told and convinced with bizarre new narratives even though the like of us never get those memos. I honestly don't know what happened.
It's the same old antisemitic tripe that has been dished up for millennia: 'it's the Jews' fault.' Hitler didn't come up with a new idea when he blamed the Jews for everything that had gone wrong in Germany; he just repurposed a very old and ugly idea that people were primed to believe because that lie has been told over and over for such a long time.
These idiots are willing and eager heirs of Hitler. Ultimately of Haman.
When I told the man he was delusional for thinking, those things, he called me a brainwashed Gen X, just like the boomers. 🙄
What of the meth pipe
Might a well just blame them for everything. Next time i get a flat tire its Israels fault..
Nothing like an old friend who knows you from the old days in ways it’s almost impossible to duplicate in old age. You’re doing exactly what you should be and missing nothing in our 21st Century tribal vine. I’m hoping that Mr Celia didn’t have a bad Father’s Day as I’m guessing your kids may be rebelling against you both. Having lost both my Father (when I’d just turned 23) and my best friend (too young in 2017), I tell everyone: enjoy them while you can. In the end, all our driving and striving are naught without having loving family and friends.
Our two rebellious kids are, mysteriously, still fond of their father. I say mysteriously because they *know* that he is more conservative than I am. And much, much more vocal to them about his religious beliefs. Perhaps it's that they feel like he is who he always has been, while they have misinterpreted my consistent classical liberalism as a signal that I'm willing to go along with *anything*, and hence feel that I have 'changed' or somehow betrayed who they thought I was. Like many who have galloped further and further to the Left, they don't perceive just how far they've gone.
Maureen, I am sorry to read about your husband’s passing. May his memory be a blessing.
Even since Carter plunged a shiv in the back of the Shah and let Islamist lunatics take over Iran, that nation has been a problem for the world (not to mention Iranians who wanted basic liberties. Even the most strident Second Amendment advocate would agree to keep guns out of the hands of socio- and psychopaths. So why is it a matter of controversy to keep nukes out of the hands of Islamist lunatics? Especially when even the corrupt UN admits that Iran was lying and cheating and assembling atomic bombs?
The newspapers are screaming that the ayatollah has promised us unprecedented destruction if we aid Israel. (And I should add, aid ourselves and the world.)
I might be wrong, but to me the old guy's threat sounds like the last squawk of an impotent bully.
I say bomb that centrifuge.
I don’t get it either Bruce. Every dumbass who was cheerleading all the pointless wars post WWII is now suddenly opposed to preventing Iran from joining club nuke. Imagine the world if we had prevented North Korea, China, and Pakistan from getting nuclear weapons instead of doing foolish things like Vietnam and Iraq. For some reason there are many who can’t distinguish between these situations.
I was the dumbass cheerleading those wars in my youth. I even participated in one, in uniform. But I'm heartened that so many of my fellow America's are now, anti-war. My take is SOME/MOST this anti-war sentiment from MAGA is anti-deep state. With the continuous wars being a feature of that deep state. And most of us MAGA who are anti-deep state are Populist Nationalists. There's another set of those opposed to America offensive military involvement in Iran who were already 'anti-Isreal' before last Friday's attack. These are those with antisemitic words. That is not me or most of MAGA. As we chart forward, I do hope we can be smart enough to distinguish between the two groups. Both are anti-war but coming at it from different POV's.
My two cents: obama and his global.pals wanted a multi polar world w US power diminished. Iran serves that objective if it has hegemony over the ME( likewise more power for China in Asia and Russia in eastern EU( MORE FLEXIBILITY AFTER THE ELECTION). This is a lot about sovereignty. Other than Isreal and the US ( and maybe japan)which other free countries even care that much anymore about their sovereignty ( the desire for global citizenry is very apparent: same for many multinational corps and organizations although trump 2 has at least reversed that..for now). Look at the UK and France this past week or two especially the labour party and big mac macron. What is stupifying is that guys like Carlson do not get that today's geo politics ( especially w technological advances) is not 1939 and fortress america protected by two oceans. This is why it it no longer to support Carlson or rationalize he is not a jew hater ( otherwise he has been a manchurian mediaite the past two decades and now is his moment).
Agree. Tucker has been a big disappointment. ( pisses me off that Bimbo Bari might have been right about him).
The prediction that if Trump helps bomb that Iranian nuclear fortress, it will split MAGA as they don't want war is probably accurate. Tucker is the bell weather for that outcome. BUT, I am in agreement that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. I was looking at pics on X yesterday that show Iranians on the beaches before the revolution--the people are in bathing suits and are happily gathered. Now... Women are fully covered and obviously despised by the religious intolerant. Regime change doesn't go well--but... I don't know. As I said yesterday, I am torn by this issue, but I'm very clear that Islamists with these toxic ways are a serious problem for the world, let alone our country.
Here's an instructive post from Germany about how these men act toward German women in "normal" summer dress. Watch to the end to see the man come into the picture. He attacks the German woman:
https://x.com/realMaalouf/status/1935023234828665248
I too am torn as I think many of us are. No one sane really wants war, but Iran is going to continue to be a big big problem if we don't deal with this. Sometimes you just have to put a mad dog down.
Carlson and others ( including heard Beck this am waffle while his guest( CEO of Federalist) called for no bunker busters because america not in danger of being attacked. I interpret thst standard as meaning US should pretty much not seek to be a world leader and Erick Erickson just summed it up that way as well. The busters can ve used without "another viet nam" since no boots on ground ( no need here ). Regime change may occur but it won't involve American boots in Tehran etc. The debate we need here is what role America is to.play. the Carlson Tulsi Bannon Et al answer seems to be very little unless we are attacked or about to be. How does that play around the globe. What's the message to China for example thst tucker is conveying( hevis now the front man like it or not). Note that if US is to essentially pull back then doesn't it follow we should not tell Israel what to do next on its own. Again while defending America is priority one the issue today is what else should America be doing as a world leader ? The progressive right ( as Erickson calls tucker and company) has yet to address this. Until then perhaps their voices should be given less weight.
All very good points and good info to consider. Especially if the US doesn't get involved, it should be hands off Israel and let them proceed. I think the fear is where does it end if we do get involved. Personally I think it's too late. We are already involved and many want to remain in denial about that.
I worked with a woman who is Persian. Her family fled Iran during the 1979 Revolution. The majority of Iran is Persian, not Muslims. They are wonderful people and deserved to be freed of this oppressive regime.
MAGA will heal by the mid-terms because the agenda will be too important to them to torch. Trump needs a bigger majority in both houses of Congress and they will give it to him.
No the majority is Muslim, but they aren’t Arab.
Persian Muslims ?
Wow!
Even a broken clock and all that......actually Bari was right about a lot of things at one time which is why we originally supported her.
RMW … JMHO but Bari was a wolf in sheep’s clothing much longer than one would imagine. Think of one year ago — Debate gate & then her oh so disingenuous post that following day, “They Knew”.
Once she knew then what did she do? Ahh… it’s enough to pop for a month & flood the ~FP with all the stuff I wrote up — that ended up being basically facts.
You could well be right about Bari.
🤣🤣🤣
Yes. The left has gone back to their original feelings...hating Jews. People don't realize that communists were also Jew haters, not just facists.
Even a broken clock ⏰ is right 1x/day.
Yeah, he has fallen off a cliff. Used to quite like his ability to flesh out questions in strange ways with his little quirks to get to the meat of things. He is in the Tucker Carlson business now, not the news business; so we can assume he realizes this and is saying what he need to say to make his business grow.
Yup, Obama wanted to strengthen Iran to counter Israel. He has Jewish blood on his hands, along with Biden.
As to Tucker Carlson, he is nothing more than an opportunist.
I've never figured out Obama's attitude on Israel. Maybe some of the teachings in Islam he got early, imparted wisdom from his Commie Mommy, or just hanging around Democrat Progressives. I never forget how he made Bibi come in the White House by the back door ... a guy whose wife is descended from slaves treated a world leader in such fashion. He also bowed (and scraped?) before Arab tyrants. SMH.
I have read that theory--that Obama wanted to establish Iran as the major power in the Middle East--a number of times. On the one hand, it seems like madness. On the other hand, Iran is the only nation in the area with the will to become a superpower, and if you're seeking to establish a multi-polar world and you don't care how many people die in the process....
Obama's idea of Iranian dominance in the Middle East was based on wishful thinking and smug ignorance. I spent a lot of last year reading memoirs by Iranians and seeing Iranian films starring actors who were arrested when it was discovered that they'd worked on such films -- which had to be smuggled out of the country. Some people involved in the making of those films who got away, and all of the memoirists, live in exile.
I'm no Middle East expert, but I don't close my eyes to what's happening and what's been happening since the 1970s.
Hundreds of thousands if not millions of Iranian women have been murdered for crimes against the tenets of Islam. The unmarried ones are raped first because it's a sin to kill a virgin.
My onetime sorta neighbor Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist, has lived in 20 safe houses since fleeing Iran. Who knows where she is now -- almost certainly not in Flatbush, where she was being stalked and her house cased until her would-be assassin slid past a stop sign and the Feds nabbed him. (The NYPD could do nothing because people are always trespassing in driveways and casing houses around here.)
He had an arsenal in his trunk.
Iran is ruled by God-crazy sadists. First they kill their own people, then Israelis, then the rest of us.
What part of that does the idiot Tucker Carlson not understand?
I've kind of obsessed over "to bomb or not to bomb" for a few days. But if we don't, more than likely the nuclear war genie is out of the bottle. We must let the bunker busters fly.
The Shah's son was in pilot training at the AFB in the town I grew up in when Carter stabbed the Shah. The lockdown to protect the son was impressive, had seen him out and about just a few days earlier.
The US installing the Shah decades earlier was probably overstepping, but in hindsight it was considerably better than the alternative.
That's saying something about the UN. They are pretty much a group of fools.
So glad you are visiting with your good friend Celia! I find myself incredibly grateful for each friend I still have left. .Blessed blessed rain! We are finally getting some. I hope it is enough. Bad wildfires up in British Columbia were already sending smoke our way. It's way too early for this. So scary.
Maureen, I’m so sorry for your loss. You and your family are in my prayers.
So the Ayatollah appears to want to go down in his bunker like, dare I say it, Hitler. Unlike Hitler though he won’t blow his own brains out. Meanwhile as his country burns and his people die he hurls insults and threats at the rest of the world. Clearly he will not negotiate an end to this. Trump almost has to press the button on the bunker-busters. The only other hope would be an overthrow of the Ayatollah internally with some outreach to the U.S. behind the scenes. Not holding my breath on the latter.
I was playing golf on Sunday with a buddy, he wound up in a sand trap and whiffed somewhat on his first stroke, had to play the next stroke from the trap as well.
I called it the "Hitler Play"
Two shots in the bunker.
He didn't laugh
Now, that right there, is funny.
Some Iranians that I follow on X that live in Israel have posted that Shia Islam will not allow the Ayatollah to surrender. His choices are die or flee. I do agree that the citizens of Iran need to rise up and overthrow him. Already I am seeing posts on X about people in the military supporting a new Shah. It’s a fragile eco system. If enough in the army do not support the Ayatollah, along with the elite and a few other groups regime change becomes much easier.
He will flee. Those so quick to create martyrs for the cause never want to become the martyr themselves.
Yup, he has a son waiting in the wings to take over for daddy.
The kid needs to flee as well.
Probably to France, just like the Ayatollah many years ago. But who knows? Maybe Russia?
I don’t know. That seems like asking for trouble. Either Russia or china is my guess
I could see Russia, but China seems a bridge too far.
Maybe but don’t forget china is Iran’s biggest customer for oil, maybe their only one. OTOH china doesn’t like foreigners and as they are enslaving Muslim uighers I don’t think they care much for Muslims. So who knows.
He should claim to be an asylum seeker. He'd be set up in a fabulous hotel room in NYC. Debt card and all.
I was thinking he could flee to a majority-Shia country, but there aren't too many of those: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon. And more than one of those countries might dismiss the idea outright out of prudence.
This is pretty hilarious . And good on JK Rowling for putting it to Boy George, who I actually thought was dead. Best line ever. Did he really have to hurt him.
https://redstate.com/katie-jerkovich/2025/06/17/80s-pop-star-tries-to-attack-jk-rowling-for-trans-stance-and-gets-destroyed-n2190602?utm_source=rsmorningbriefingvip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
OMG. JK is still and forever a true hero!
Why can't those that have enjoyed tremendous success and have become fabulously wealthy doing so stfu so as not to completely blow up their credibility spewing out their ignorance?
Celebrity immaturity is rampant. As JK points out so delightfully, at what age you become rich and famous makes a difference.
Maureen, sending ❤️
The biggest news nobody is talking about is Penn State creating a one-atom thick, 2-dimensional computer.
They have identified metals that retain their properties at that scale and successfully built them into transistors.
This is yet another speed and size revolution in computing and a major step toward nanorobotics.
https://share.google/E2PVSPKcDeQRRI3Cx
I don’t see how that could even work.
Most of us have no idea how any computers work.
That describes me!
And few of those who do could build one.
Oh to be absolutely ignorant of any & all — I was lamenting with a Dr friend who knows as I know & oh to rewind to the simpler days..
Ever heard of Turing Tumble? Can't say I fully understand how computers work, but my son and I sure have had fun going through the puzzles.
https://store.upperstory.com/products/turing-tumble
Also, I finished Scavengers Reign yesterday. Your description was pretty spot on. I enjoyed it. Thanks for the recommendation!
Looks like a really interesting game, I'd like to try it!
Glad you enjoyed my recommendation.
There are some simulators to get a feel for it. Here’s one that looks pretty decent. I’m not sure if it is the official one.
https://tumble-together.herokuapp.com/?code=-C1GD0FC1GKC1GKC1GKC1GKK_IA0E2A4A6A7A8A&id=1
If they stress test it like EPIC … it will probably do the opposite of whatever they say it is supposed to do.
"Fascinating", said Spock with one eyebrow raised.
What’s on my mind? After your comment, it’s “I wanna come go thru all your fabric!! That sounds like fun!!”😋
I’m so sorry for this sad and sudden loss, Maureen. You are a wonderful and strong person whose faith shines through. Sending prayers to you.
What could be more golden than an old friend? I just returned from seeing a few in Chicago. One I've known since 1983, another since 1986, and went camping with one of my high school buddies. The laughter in the weaving car was priceless.
One of our cats is approaching the rainbow bridge. We're utterly perplexed by his refusal to eat. I'm still trying to comprehend how the vet handled him, and I wonder whether this makes sense (I've harbored concerns over this vet, and have since vowed, despite their outward expressions of concern, to not return there.)
Arlecchino stopped eating, so I took him to the vet. They requested a urine sample. Urine sample showed a bacterial infection.
They then said we had to pay an additional $300 to find out what kind of bacterial infection, in order to ascertain which antibiotic to treat it. The results would come back in FIVE DAYS.
FIVE DAYS? says I. FIVE DAYS?
Hence they gave me some antibiotic to treat it. They also prescribed a thyroid medication. They pumped him full of fluids a few times.
He started refusing the antibiotic. His dad (tasked with giving him his medicines) knew the bottle has to be exhausted, but stopped giving it to him.
In five days the vet called to say that was the correct antibiotic, and to come in for more to treat the infection.
In the meantime, Arlie hadn't eaten in a week.
Now he hasn't eaten throughout the entire month of June. He is lying on the bathroom floor. Here and there he lets out a plaintive wail.
Why on earth would it take FIVE DAYS to diagnose a bacterial infection? Doesn't this require some sense of urgency? I don't understand.
I did take him back for an antibiotic shot given his refusal of the liquid, but it seems that was too late. He won't eat. He drinks water, but that's all.
In the meantime, my idea of "fun" is to argue with people that Trump does not see himself as a "king," -- this is the most ludicrous assertion -- and the 'evidence' they provide, shouting FACTS! is not evidence of anything....
One provided two paragraphs from a PBS article that says 'Trump downplayed allegations that he would seek a third term" as PROOF that Trump is seeking a third term.
So I asked him, Hey, what does 'downplay' mean to you?
Crickets.
I LOL-ed at “The laughter in the weaving car was priceless.” Like a little movie.
I'm so sorry about your cat. Sometimes I wish they could speak to us and tell what the heck is wrong, and then I remember all the hard stares I get for no reason. I hope you and your cat get some measure of peace. Can you give him a puree since he won't eat solids?
Vets have been terrible since Covid! I had a great vet and suddenly they were no longer able to make appointments for basic things. Now all private practices are booked to the gills and not taking new patients. We're stuck with Petco because Banfield wanted to do senseless blood work.
The vet business model is as toxic as the human medical business model.
There have been some vets online breaking away from the vet establishment and giving online info/tutorials to pet owners.
We gave up on the vets with our cat who had lots of health problems, plus we couldn't afford the high costs. So I did all the alternative healing stuff I do on myself and hubby and it worked for our cat for 13 years until it all finally caught up with him and we put him to sleep. He also refused to eat for several weeks before he died and he had lumps/cysts developing all over his body. It was time. His spirit made several visitations to us afterwards and once in a rather dangerous situation, he showed up to help.
I have given up on most of them too. Had a homeopathic vet in Maine who cured my wonderful puppy from the 1-year mandated rabies that produced an allergic reaction to all protein eaten. Now I won’t get a dog here in SC partly because I am tired of fighting with this poor, legally required vaccine mandate. Most dogs today are urban and always leashed so don’t run into wild animals. In Maine dogs did. But an initial vax can and does last a long time which a titer would show. Dogs today are as overmedicated as humans are. And one big way markets work is to get their products legally mandated.
So sad that in the US we are making our pets as unhealthy as our human citizens! I think they still airdrop oral rabies vaccine baits in the wild. They claim this is successful and maybe it is. But with me at least, their credibility is completely lost, so who knows?
After my now dear departed Missie Rose had a gall bladder issue and almost died, she didn’t eat or drink. (It’s good your guy is drinking) so I had a syringe, one of those bigger ones, no needle of course and force fed her. (You can get them at tractor supply or a farm store or even the vet has them) Use the purée cat food or make your own, thin it with a bit of water and then squirt it down his throat. After a while they eat on their own.
Your vet sounds like the vets in Florida. In it only for the money. Horrible.
Thank you. I'll try that with the baby food I got for him yesterday. And I won't tell his dad that I force-fed him.
Hope it works for him.
He went in the wee hours of the morning.
Oh no. I’m so sorry. It’s always so hard.
I can’t post photos here but imagine a card with a dog and a cat staring at the night sky. And it reads If I could reach up and hold a star for every time you made me smile, the entire evening sky would be in the palm of my hand.
My vet sent us that when one of our furry family members left. I find great comfort in that. Hope you can too
Poor kitty. And poor kitty parents being in this position. *hugs*
When they see evidence of a bacterial infection in the urine sample, the sample is then sent off to a microbiology lab for culturing. They do what a lot of us probably did way back when in biology labs where they smear the sample on an agar plate. It then takes ~five days for the culture to grow enough that tests can be run for the microbiologist to identify what exactly is growing. Until then, the vet is just guessing based on the most likely bacteria that cause UTIs.
The same thing happens in the same time frame with human medicine, minus the upfront decision of paying $300 to run the test or not. It just gets run, and the patient is typically only aware it was even done if we guessed wrong in the first place and have to change the antibiotic.
Although, as an interesting aside, we do have fancy machines now that allow us to determine what bacteria is present and any antibiotic resistance markers it might have within 2 hours when a patient has a positive blood culture. They've made a HUGE difference in determining appropriate antibiotics quickly for these people. Before these tests came along, patients sometimes had to hang out in the hospital getting IV antibiotics for five days until we could determine if what showed up in their blood culture was a true pathogen or just a contaminant from the sample draw.
Thank you, Alan. Good to know.
We'll never know why Arlecchino went into such a rapid decline despite the interventions.
He went away early this morning.
I’m sorry to hear that.
The processes involved in keeping organic creatures alive are incredibly complicated. Most people take for granted how incredible it is just to take a single breath, let alone 23,000 of them a day unconsciously. We like to pretend we understand these processes, but we don’t. I could give you 100 guesses as to what happened, and they’d likely all be wrong.
So sorry. *hugs*