Coss

Solong, the container ship, collided with tanker Stena Immaculate just before 10am GMT (11pm NZDT). The Solong was carrying 15 containers of sodium cyanide, according to shipping data company Lloyds List Intelligence. * Note to Brits, avoid North Sea fish for the foreseeable future. Look for that stuff farmed in South East Asia.

As ever, I enjoy your insightful views.

Not suggesting that this is linked, but as its an awful lot of jet fuel for the USA's military, https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360609772/cargo-ship-crashes-jet-fuel-tanker-north-sea

Didn't Trump castrate the USA's cyber defence folk?

vis X being targeted in 'massive cyberattack' as service goes down and “We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources," Musk claimed in a post. "Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved. ... ...with the heaviest disruptions occurring along the US coasts. ... ___ targeting the USA? who'd a thunk?

I also think, that in addition to Bubi being correct in these things: that the recent move to establish a crypto currency reserve for the American people, will be an exercise of the American people, buying vast amounts of crypto with the names: $TRUMP: A memecoin launched on the Solana blockchain with a market capitalization of over $2.75 billion (as part of a group of memecoins) $MELANIA: Another memecoin launched on the Solana blockchain, also part of the group with a $2.75 billion market cap. $WLFI: The governance token for World Liberty Financial, the Trump family's crypto project. This token has generated around $385 million in sales. ...when the values of such have been artificially boosted by Trump''s Truth Social posts says that they are all in short supply etc. Also Musk and anyone else who Trump's got money from.

I'd suggest that this is fake, from either side. I reckon if Anonymous were to issue a warning, it'd be in the form of the something like Trump's Plane or Mar a Lago's computer systems, frying in the sun.

True, the second series curse. It's now a class struggle between the main character and the toffs, but the story still has legs. Pros: some excellent music, including such "WWII classics" as - Counting the Beat~Swingers and Highway Star~Deep Purple. 🤪 Con" Femme Fatale Sofia Boutella, though beautiful eye candy, flits about the front line of WWII with all the grace of a girl elbowing her way into a Prom.

Circumstances have caused me to hold off the reporting for a while. Whilst in Bangkok for a few days, I visited both Nana and Cowboy for old time's sake. And whilst here were many who coulda rocked my planet, I deferred, not even drinking much. Nana, one evening I did walk by and down the Soi to see what else was happening. I saw much what I saw 14 years ago. The next night I went into Nana (security was not an issue, polite) and had 3 beers on one of the stools adjacent to a bar. It was early, so I got to see all the comings, not so many goings. When I left I poked my head into a few bars and saw girls on stage. Unremarkable apart from many tattoos. Cowboy - a day later I walked the Soi, and again had a couple of beers. Early again and pretty much like I remembered it. 1. I'm getting old 2. It's all still there. 3. Unless I get single again, it's unlikely I'll return. 4. The allure of the places hasn't faded.

As an aside - If China/Russia/North Korea/Waikikamukau had gone into the USA government's computer systems and taken copies of all the data, World War 3 and possibly 4, would have started. Musk and his big ball children are invited in by the sitting president, given the data and no one can see the impending fall into the void?

And another one :: Trump cabinet confronted ‘liar’ Elon Musk in White House showdown Elon Musk was called a “liar” by members of Donald Trump’s cabinet in a fiery White House showdown, The Telegraph can reveal. In an extraordinary confrontation on Thursday (NZT Friday), which took place in front of the president, two members of Trump’s administration clashed with the world’s richest man over Doge lay-offs. Sean Duffy, the department of transport secretary, was enraged by Musk’s attempts to cull air traffic controllers despite the national shortage. He accused Musk, the government efficiency tsar, of firing personnel that should not have been laid off, which Musk denied. Duffy is understood to have slid a spreadsheet across a desk in front of the president, to allege Musk was not telling the truth about the scale of his cutbacks, The Telegraph understands. The exchange ended with the president ordering Duffy to hire staff from MIT as air traffic controllers because the role requires “geniuses”, The New York Times reported... more at the LINK Q: why not, "don't fire employees with crucial jobs?" When Musk fires staff in his companies, it's his bottom line than can suffer. When he fires crucial government workers, people will die. 'mericans: Sorry for your loss, perhaps there will be enough of your countrymen, with ability and the skills left in situ, to reassemble your country once Donald as finished.

Zero Day - TV Mini Series 2025 "In the midst of crisis: how can we discover the truth when it seems that the world is being destroyed by uncontrollable forces? Also, to what extent are conspiracy theories our own inventions or products of our imagination?" No spoilers - Robert De Niro plays an ex president brought out of retirement to solve the giant big country-threatening problem. A jaunt through the USA government at the high levels. They didn't seem to reference any current players, except perhaps the Speaker... And they avoided any Drumpf like stuff, refreshingly showing the USA without him. De Niro, Jesse Plemons and Lizzy Kaplan give fine performances. If anything, the effort was made to give us USA watchers, some satisfaction that the USA will survive near catastrophe. I enjoyed this, a bit lightweight for serious thinkers, but right in the middle of the solar plexus for yer average Joe. A good watch

Image - this is...

and https://x.com/JasmineForUS/status/1897894350073258028

The piss tape is getting closer... Trump weighs new sanctions on Russia... President Donald Trump said Friday he is “strongly considering” levying new sanctions and tariffs on Russia for its war against Ukraine, floating the possibility of new pressure on Moscow just days after he ordered a pause on U.S. military assistance and intelligence sharing with Kyiv. Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform, said he was considering the action “based on the fact that Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now.” He added that the prospective sanctions could remain in place until the two sides come to a ceasefire and peace settlement. The sanctions threat came as Trump faces criticism for increasing pressure on Ukraine to reach a deal while playing down or even denying Russia’s responsibility for starting the war with its invasion three years ago. “To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late,” Trump added in his post..... https://apnews.com/article/trump-russia-ukraine-sanctions-intelligence-aid-49d2b3e212cae2967abe19a48ccb306b but then he can pause them.... Putin: "Make 5,000 copies of tape, put in courier bags..."

Yes, also Katie Porter should be re-elected (either side, doesn't matter) and given the speaker position. I've seen her fillet a fish at 100ft, with an imperceptibly raised eyebrow. Then give her coffee and let her speak. No one would mis-state anything if she was in charge

If Cav îs still reading, I'd like to state that the following gives me no pleasure: That many of us were right about Trump, is a moot point. You can see the consequences playing out every day. Either he will be neutered or there could be Civil war. One of the many thorns, his bare feet are encountering: Trump is not a king, judge says in reinstating fired federal labor board member In a court case that could very well define the limits of Donald Trump's presidential power, a federal judge Thursday reinstated a member of a federal labor agency, warning of the damage to the country if Trump continues to rule as if he were a king. U.S District Judge Beryl Howell reinstated Gwynne Wilcox to the National Labor Relations Board after Trump removed her without providing any cause, issuing an opinion that suggests the case could be a broader test of the "unitary executive theory." "An American President is not a king -- not even an 'elected' one -- and his power to remove federal officers and honest civil servants like plaintiff is not absolute," Howell wrote.... https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-king-judge-reinstating-fired-federal-labor-board/story?id=119533138 Trump administration hit with over 100 lawsuits since inauguration Trump has been sued three times for every business day since the inauguration. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-administration-hit-100-lawsuits-inauguration/story?id=119493968

If only those sentiments will be forthcoming, south of the equator, pacific region, south west -ish.

Whilst this may be too early to confirm, it seems that a President's ability to impose tariffs is a wartime - threat to national security thing. Put in place to enable stability in times of war. So on the face of it, the tariffs are illegal. The reason they give for the Canada tariffs is fentanyl coming into the states from Canada. Something like 46 lbs last year. Threat to national security? That's why he has to keep pausing the tariffs (permanent pauses)

The morphing of dictators: why dictators get worse over time Kaushik Basu - Oxford Open Economics, Volume 2, 2023, Published: 14 February 2023 LINK Abstract: Dictators, even those who seize power with the intention of helping the nation, frequently morph over time into tyrants. There may be many reasons for this. This paper focuses on one interesting and arguably pervasive driver behind this process. A model is developed which shows that the series of decisions taken over time by an authoritarian leader concerning how much political intrigue and evil to indulge in in order to stay in power leads to a dynamic inconsistency converting the leader into a tyrant. It is possible that the dictator will, eventually, come to regret this, but by then they have no exit options. The analysis prompts us to think about ex ante rules and term-limit provisions to prevent this from happening. _____ I post the above as I found it interesting. I'm not sure I have the brain power to understand it fully, or to argue one way or another. It may be that others here, are enlightened. I did like this: " Let me close by addressing a narrower matter, which arises directly from the above model. This concerns having global rules concerning term limit. A tyrannical leader in one nation can destabilize the world. So, ideally, we need a term-limit requirement built into an international charter or a global constitution. If the T, in the above game, is capped by a charter at 2, there will be only that much evil a leader can morph into. What is more important, is that leaders, being aware that they will have to exit, will be more conscious of their behavior when in office.8 It is possible to think of more immediate actions, that is, even before a global agreement is reached. For this, we have to get away from our propensity to think of nations as individuals or players. Thus the Cuban missile crisis is typically modeled as a two-player game, USA and USSR locked in a deadly Hawk-Dove scenario. Likewise, there is a body of writing on the war games in the Korean Peninsula and what we can do to avert disaster. This is conducted mostly in terms of a game between North Korea, USA, China and Russia, occasionally tossing in South Korea. Much of this is done again treating nations as players. When individuals are brought in, like Kim Jong-un, they are treated as having interests totally aligned with their own nation—‘Kim Jong-un is an ardent nationalist who regularly responds to threats by upping the ante’ (Menon, 2017). What is not always recognized in popular discourse but is a central tenet of modern political economy, at least since the seminal work of Downs (1957), is that leaders have their own interests, which are not aligned with the interest of the nation. Many dictators who have long been in power may want to exit purely for their own interest, but they may not have a viable exit option9. They know that, once out of power, they will be punished by their own people or even killed by the generals. It is not immediately clear how to solve this. Some may argue that the way to solve this is to create attractive exit options. This would amount to the US telling Kim Jong-un, ‘If you stop oppressing your people and threatening other nations, we will protect you by helping you leave your country, and give you a castle on a pacific island to settle in.’ This could help us deal with Kim Jong-un and promote peace in his nation and the world. But no problem in economics comes with the absolute final answer. If the US uses this strategy regularly for world peace, we will have another problem. Individuals with no interest in power and tyranny may now strive to become tyrants for no other reason but to get that castle in the Pacific Island. " ______ Which raises for me, the question of, why do we elect people who have no interest in serving the people who vote for them? Emphasis on serving.

I watched about 10 minutes of the speech but had to turn it off, even his supported were gritting their teeth and dying behind their forced grimace smiles. For those who may wish to see some highlights/ fact checks/ humour:

Yes my iPhone - I took a Nikon with me for the Laos trip but never used it, as every time I thought I'd use it, MLG turned the excursion into a "Take photo for me, take me photo..." The iPhone is good for those, as I them hand it off to her and she can airdrop the ones she likes, that show her to the best advantage for InyaFaceYouTwitTok. The Nikon is an old D5600 and was gonna be used for it's video capabilities so I could do a bit of movie work (unrealised personal project) Next time I'm gonna have to make sure the trip doesn't include a house blessing. Though I'm now informed it's every year for three years, though only two left and smaller ones. On Buddhas, we now have a 6 inch shiny brass one, for our house, duly blessed and monked and such.