MicroB

Commie nonsense. The Baltics are top of his list to reform the USSR>

He's gambling on the same lack of unity as in 1939. In 1939, the German Army was comprehensively outgunned by its neighbours, if they acted collectively. But they did not. And Poland and most of Western Europe was over run in short order. Europe (France and UK) lack tactical nuclear weapons. Russia has tactical nuclear weapons. Would an invasion of Latvia cause Paris or Berlin to come running to its aid. NATO wargaming indicates that because of the small size of the Baltics, Russia could very quickly over run them before NATO reinforcements arrive. The current garrison would need to perform a holding action, but they are not exactly under a unified command, and potentially its like Singapore all over again, when a numerically superior British-Australian force surrendered to relatively ill equipped Japanese soldiers on push bikes (the Japanese seized the water supplies, making defence of the island impossible). Russia doesn't really need much of an army to invade and secure Latvia. Its tiny. Once taken, NATO forces in Estonia and Lithunia are in a very difficult position. They might even surrender without a fight, to spare destruction. Russian forces in Kalingrad could effectively control the Baltic, or try. Then you have maximum propaganda of defeated looking NATO troops being paraded through Moscow, as hostages. I can then imagine some Western politicians talking about new facts on the ground, and accepting it. Putin deploys a tactical nuclear weapon as a first strike, if his forces do start getting mullered. I have zero faith the Americans would respond. Europe can only respond with a strategic weapon, which are bigger, and far less accurate (so not much use in taking out military formations, more useful if you want to escalate to a whole city. I can see such a choice leading to hestitation and ultimately inaction. Where this goes wrong is miscalculation, which is how every World War started. Germany miscalculated. Japan miscalculated. The world paid the price.

The Rats are starting to eat each other. Actions like this were predicted. https://meduza.io/en/news/2025/04/17/he-was-the-governor-of-russia-s-kursk-region-when-ukraine-launched-a-surprise-incursion-now-alexey-smirnov-is-in-jail-facing-embezzlement-charges

Are you, perchance, interested in buying a bridge?

Ban any Activism. Religious Activism certainly. Clubs supporting sports teams. You write like a person who never attended a real university.

But no room for very fine people. Is Tommy Robinson ok to go to an American university, study journalism or something, kick off a bit with the "Filth" (as he calls them), which is ok because he's waving a flag, and he has a go-pro live streaming? He'll enroll using his 2nd Nomme de Guerre, Benny Hill. Curtailing the Left, ok, but should that also mean suppressing the "Right"? I'd also extend restrictions to the God Botherers, Agnostics, Atheists, Vegans, Vegetarians, militant Meat Eaters, Good Ol' Boys, Gingers and the OTC.

He had an un-American name (Juan, should be John like everyone else) and spoke with a funny accent. These are literally the reasons he was taken into custody. The Amish and Mennonites should be very afraid. They have strange accents, sometimes a bit halting in their English and don't dress like normal Americans. One wonders is ICE Agents are lacking a bit of nous. Almost suggests they tried for the FBI, but failed the County Sherrif's exams. Like the Fed version of Reno 911.

King Charles to throw a sickie? Prince William too busy visiting a Coastguard base, on the day, apologies sent. The 47th President left inspecting His Majesty's crack Royal Logistical Corps 150 Regiment (TA), accompanied by the Duck (!) of Edinburgh (Prince Eddie, the Actor Royal), accompanied by Capt (rtd) Mark "Froggie" Francois, MP, BA, MA, aka Uncle Albert, who will fill in the awkward gaps with how he approached the bacon buttiie shortage using Combined Arms in 1983, and how he fought in the trenches during the Brexit Wars, alongside Sqn Leader Steve "Chips" Baker.

The China block on rare earth is global, not just US. The US has 6 choices. 1. Extract more rare earths in the US. They are not rare, but their extraction is pretty toxic, This will no doubt include running rough shod over whole communities. There is a cost there, socially, medically and politically. 2. Extract more rare eartch from a region (Ukraine) that is probably the most mined region in the world. Oh, and stop a war involving a nuclear power. 3. Invade Greenland and gamble that first the geologists were correct, that you can get your rare earths out of the frigid Arstic ground in a country with virtualy no industrial infrastructure, because your domestic electronics industry calls it a day, and that the whole move doesn't completely break the Western alliance. 4. Invade Congo, and sort out a brutal civil war that makes ISIS's actions in Iraq and Syria look like a kiddies tea party. Calculate how many US military heads will be seen per night on sticks on the evenung news. 5. Declare war on China. 6. Sit down and talk to China. Probably concede everything.

Some Medtech companies are now laying off people and halting deliveries of medtech, because now they are rendered uneconomic. Things like needles, syringes, blood collection pouches. Of course the companies might try and find a CMO in the homeland, or maybe build a factory, buy in the tooling, to make needles in the US. But a change in manufacture requires the FDA to approve the change. And now the FDA is essentally freezing up because of DOGE. They can't even pass the cost onto the customer (hospitals) because they are tied into multi-year contracts, and so would have to sell as a massive loss. Wait until this starts filtering down to Diabetics who find their $5 glucose monitors are now $100, and their test strips are $2 each, not 50 cents.

Don't forget the Chinese tourists packing into Becester SHopping village, to buy Made in China brand names in the UK I was rather shocked to go in to the Citygate Factory Outlet Mall on Lantau Island in Hong Kong, and find most of the discount Nike goods were not from China, or anywhere in Asia, but from Turkey. A long time friend is an academic in Taipai. He is vehemently anti-Communist, but he had particular scorn reserved for Hong Kong Chinese, who he regarded as too "white" inside, and that they didn't think like Chinese At the time Hong Kong went back to China, he was pretty happy. I wonder why, because surely it was the Communists in charge now. maybe, he saud, but at least they are Chinese. Around about the same time, there was the Nick Leeson affair' the British broker who brought down Barents Bank after he tried to cover up losses using customer money. He went on the run for a little while, and ended up in a Singapore jail, before being transferred to a British prison. My friend thought the punishment was too lenient (think he got 5 years, which I thought was enough). My friend thought Leeson should have been executed, because of the harm he caused society. And thats the difference between Western individualism, and Chinese confucianism. The latter is all about a harmonious society. It's sometimes presumptuous to assume they are guided by the same moral British, well run, it wasn't a democracy. Chris Patton was probably the wrong choice for the final governor. Some suprising footage of a previous Chinese leader, Jiang Zemin, berating HK journalists in 3 languages, including English, concerning the HK Chief Executive. Its instructive. Chinese moral compasses are not Maoist, Leninist, Marxist. They are based on characteristics that are much older, very traditiona;. I suspect Taiwan is actually closer to Communist China than it is, say, the United States. Which means, they will work things out one day with their kith and kin.

Well, your question is false. Country level GDP is still published, so not sure why you are making up a falsehood in this respect, unless it is to spread discord and cause unecessary argument. GDP by city, or sometimes called GMP (Gross Metropolitian Product) started being calculated about 20 years ago, once the financial tools became available to make that sort of measurement. The EU regularly published GMP as part of its Eurostat dataset, and the BEA does the same in the US, but I think you knew that.

Face palm. If the GDP ranking was measured by state, city, your precious India would be further down the list. More likely than not, the last time India was ahead of California was probably about 1850, when the Koh-i-Noor diamond was considered but a trinket by its then owner, the richest man in the world at that time. Then California was largely taken over by Europeans fresh off the boat/wagon train, and mostly without 1776 baggage. Based on GDP, Texas is bigger than or comparable to Italy, New York bigger than Canada. Little ol' Ohio; richer than Switzerland (though the inhabitants probably don't feel that, which might tell you about flaws in using GDP as a yardstick. India is a very poor country). Common cause bound the 13 colonies together. Trade bound the other 37. It might unbind them. It might be the one thing that California and Texas agree on.

Yeah, spelling might be improved. Still, which way did the uneducated Russian masses in 1917 lean? Pete Hegseth; are you saying now he's a left wing plant? RFK Jr; another Harvard graduate. So is Elise Stefanik, your president's pick to represent him to the world. Vivek Ramaswamy, you know, the bloke who helped out Musk on DOGE, a Harvard old boy. First time round, the 45th President favoured Harvard graduates. Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner, Wilbur Ross, Mike Pompeo, Elaine Chao, Alexander Acosta, Rod Rosenstein, the Mooch, Kayleigh McEnany, Rachel Brand, Sarah Flores, Jeffrey Rosen, Stacy Cline Amin, John Bash, Ann Donaldson, Gregory Katsas, Michael McGinley, Schuyler Schouten, Zina Bash, Avrahm Berkowitz, Kenneth Juster, Gilbert Kaplan, and Henry J. Kerner. Of course, all of these graduates will likely agree with a statement that a Harvard education allowed them to think for themselves. If you disgree with that, ergo they are all leftist plants, and the President has been negligant. All of them, by your reckoning, under "leftist influence" and need to be "mericlessly" (sic) eradicated. You have a 50/50 chance of getting dementia or cancer. Your chances of surviving either depend on university research.

In the case of TB, unlike most other Western countries, the US doesn't pracice vaccination, and instead depends on surveillance measures to control spread (the reasons are complicated). The case of Andrew Speaker underlines why the research continues to be important. Its a disease that would have haunted the 47th President when he was younger, and likely impacted the majority of Europeans aged over 60 in some way, and its returning. The BCG vaccine also proved useful during the COVID pandemic in turbocharging the immune response in the elderly, for the very reasons you don't give it to very young babies.

Department of Homeland Security is canceling grants, with a twisted press release omitting life-saving counter terrorism research being carried out By cutting these grants, the safety of Americans and her armed forces is weakened. DHS grants are related to counter terrorism. I've worked on them before; serious stuff. I was in force protection. Harvard' research is about identifying extremism and radicalisation. Ideological vandalism which warms the hearts of America's enemies.

Some people defended the Omagh bombings, and blamed the police for shepherding people towards where the bombs were planted. America was rightfully outraged about the Japanese sneak attack on a sunday morning, December 7 1941. America and most of the world were outraged about 911, though the protagonists considered they had been at war with the US for most of their lives. And there would be some who seek to blame the US for both atrocities, for the scale of the casualties. It was Palm Sunday. Whether or not there was a military medal awarding ceremony os immaterial. To talk of legitimate targets is the language of the terrorist, the terrorist sympathizer and their lackeys. Should Russia now cancel all events related to the 80th Anniversary of VE Day? During WW2, Rembrance Sunday events were still carried out in Britain, attended, as always, by members of the Armed Forces. The Nazis never dared to attack these. The attack on Sumy remains a war crime, irrespective of any errors supposedly committed by the governor. Putin's apologists are the ones seeking to blame Ukraine for Russian barabarism.

What the ruling means is in the case of woman only facilities, someone who is transgender cannot insist on access. The owners od said faciities can, if they wish, continue to allow access. Fully transitioned trans men will use woman's facilities. This includes communal changing and showering facilties. And the other way. Now men, with their young sons, will be sharing shower facilities with fully transitioned transwomen, who have boobs and faux vaginas. And those who haven't fully transitioned, and never will (ie breasts and a penis). Surgery has come on leaps and bounds in fashioning appendages and orifices. Protections under the Equalities Act of 2010 are unaffected. Trans individuals remain protected from discrimination based on gender reassignment and can still bring claims for direct and indirect discrimination, harassment, and victimisation in reliance on principles such as associative and perceived discrimination. Indeed, the ruling cited an example: The Law says she is not a biological female, but is deserving of the same anti-discriminatory protections as a biological female. One of the implications of the ruling is the end of single sex public conveniences, moving to a model of private cubicles. Or if someone built changing and showering facilties that consisted of private changing cubicles and showers, and then declared them to be female only, they would need to demonstrate that excluding trans people is a limited and proportionate means to achieving a legitimate aim. I think in that case, they couldn't demonstrate that. This case would never have come about if not for the Scottish Gender Recognition Reform Act, which was declared illegal by the then Scottish Secretary and struck down. The Transphobes obviously got wood out of the judgement, but its not the judgement that lot suppose.

Of course, when it comes to people using public conveniences, how would you know? An excust for QOTSA, Monsters in the Parasol. Cracking song and video.

So time to strip citizenship from people who hold un-American values, or who support terrorism. I expect a root and branch investigation of the Kennedy clan, to check their private beliefs, vis a vie the so-called Armed Struggle. Obviously Klansmen, and extension, their kin, because they clearly don't believe in the opening lines to the Declaration of Independence. David Duke to start with. A Semite being accused of being Anti-Semitic. I view Sein Fein as being the political wing of a terrorist organisation, the PIRA. PIRA attacked my dad because of who he was. Sein Fein think of themselves as that as well, but apparently thats ok, because for now, PIRA has stood down. They even have a US supporters organisation, the membership of whom need to be investigated for anything un-American (a comibination of support for a cause that used terrorism, and contact with the law (theft, murder, DUI, speeding etc). Quite a few will be dual national, either because they are naturalised Americans, or, because of Irish nationality laws, have acquired Irish citizenship. Thus, if they were stripped of their US citizenshp, they cannot be rendered stateless. Any American, with dual Irish citizenship, or an entitlement to Irish citizenship (ie grandmother from the Emerald Isle, terrorists can be sneaky sleepers), if they are convicted of committing an offence, should be deported on the presumption that to commit an offence, and be Irish, must make them a potential terrorist. Include letter writers to the Times and Post, because they are obvious agitators that America doesn't need. Also need to look at those with connections to the Stern Gang, either familial, or through shared political belief. If you sympathized with their aims, that makes you a terrorist. Or Un-American. I think at one time there was a would-be Scottish terrorist group, who went around burning down Bothiesm painting things and shouting a lot. Tricky lot, those Scots. Never turn your back on a Campbell might be true for the lot of them. Or course, 100% facetious. You lot in Thailand; if your visa is canceled, the rozzers aren't around in the morning to drag you to a dungeon. You have some notice to vacate the country.

If Lavrov really believes that, the man is a fool. But he's not a fool, and is content to spout propaganda.

Friendly fire/ Blue on Blue/ Fraticide are a feature of warfare since time immemorial. This war is more complicated that others since both sides are fielding both the same equipment, but also using unfamiliar equipment https://www.port.ac.uk/news-events-and-blogs/blogs/building-an-inclusive-and-growth-led-economy-and-society/ukraine-war-us-issues-nato-weapons-playing-cards-to-help-ukraine-avoid-friendly-fire https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-november-5

Autotopsies of the killed Gaza medics show shots to the head and chest. Some appear to have been bound. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/15/world/middleeast/gaza-medics-autopsies-israel.html https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-04-16/ty-article-live/hamas-rejects-israeli-proposal-for-gaza-cease-fire-and-hostage-deal-official-tells-bbc/00000196-3c5f-d78d-a1de-3c5fa76b0000 https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/autopsies-of-gaza-medics-killed-by-israeli-troops-show-some-shot-in-the-head/ https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/report-autopsies-reveal-some-of-medics-killed-by-idf-in-ambulance-incident-were-shot-in-the-head/

A Reddit analysis https://www.reddit.com/r/WallStreetbetsELITE/s/vE92FUaF1Q

Is this befoe or after they file for bankruptcy? Will probably go the way of that other asbestos case, Federal-Moghul.