Links - 6th November 2026 (2 - Donald Trump)

It's a Lovely Life by Heather Delaney Reese | Facebook - "This may be the most important thing I’ve ever written... White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stepped behind the podium in the briefing room... She told the room she felt it was too important not to be there, and then she launched into one of the most dangerous performances our country has ever seen come out of that room. And within minutes, it became clear this wasn’t a press conference about a shooting as the White House claimed it would be. It was about defining this administration’s next moves. Telling the country that criticism of the president is no longer just disagreement, but something more dangerous and potentially criminal. That the people speaking out against Donald Trump and his regime are not just wrong, but responsible for the violence in our country and subject to consequences for it, saying it in plain language: “This political violence stems from a systemic demonization of him and his supporters by commentators, by elected members of the Democrat Party, and even some in the media.” And then going even further: “Much of the manifesto of the would-be assassin is indistinguishable from the words that we hear daily from so many.”... She opened by invoking the First Amendment. “Saturday was supposed to be a joyful evening celebrating free speech and the First Amendment with all of you, members of the press.” She said it with a straight face. She used the words “free speech” to begin dismantling it. And everything that followed was built on that contradiction. She told the room that the political violence this country is experiencing “stems from a systemic demonization” of Trump and his supporters. That the “hateful and constant and violent rhetoric directed at President Trump, day after day for eleven years, has helped legitimize this violence.” And then she said the whole framework for the press conference. The whole argument in just a couple sentences before she started to justify all that she was saying: “Those who constantly and falsely label and slander the President as a fascist, as a threat to democracy, and compare him to Hitler to score political points are fueling this kind of violence.” Notice the word she chose. Slander. That is a legal term. It was not chosen by accident. Slander is actionable. Slander can be prosecuted... She said: “When you read the manifesto of this shooter, ask yourselves: how different is the rhetoric from this almost-assassin than what you read on social media and hear in various forums every single day? The answer, if you’re being honest with yourself, is that there is no difference at all.” She is not saying the left inspired the shooter. She is saying the left is the shooter... She then read a list of names. Democratic elected officials, called out one by one in front of the entire press corps, in front of every camera, and in front of every person watching at home. Hakeem Jeffries. Josh Shapiro. Alex Padilla. Elizabeth Warren. Adam Schiff. Ed Markey. JB Pritzker. Ayanna Pressley. LaMonica McIver. Each name read aloud with a quote attached, each quote stripped of its context, and each one handed to Trump’s super fans, the most radicalized people in this country, as proof that these officials are dangerous. Trump and his enablers know how his base works. You give them talking points, and they repeat them. You give them propaganda, and they regurgitate it as fact. You call someone an enemy, and they receive death threats. She knows how this works. She has watched it work. And she read the list anyway... One that I keep coming back to is how they keep trying to recreate a Reichstag moment... since she wants to talk about rhetoric that incites violence, we need to look at where the violence is really coming from. The president... said of Liz Cheney, his own former Republican colleague, “Let’s put her with a rifle, standing there with nine barrels shooting at her.”... Every time this administration attacks the First Amendment, we respond by funding the people defending it."
Left wing logic: if you denounce the left's incitement of violence, that's fascism, and Trump is staging fake assassination attempts at the risk of his own life and left wingers have nothing to do with it at all
Left wingers are allowed to incite violence, because that's free speech, but if you criticise them, you are violating their right to free speech. If you quote left wingers inciting violence, that's somehow out of context, but when you lie about Trump and right wingers, that's proof that they incite violence (ironic that the Liz Cheney bit is well known to be out of context) Trump supporters are "the most radicalized people in this country" even though left wingers are responsible for most of the violence

M.A. Rothman | Facebook - "𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄-𝐃𝐔𝐓𝐘 𝐀𝐈𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐂𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐉𝐎𝐑 𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐓 𝐂𝐀𝐏𝐈𝐓𝐎𝐋 𝐈𝐍 𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐌 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐃𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐌𝐏 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐕𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐁𝐄 𝐈𝐌𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐃
Maj. Jason Watson put on his Air Force uniform, walked to the U.S. Capitol, and stood alongside Rep. Al Green demanding the 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐥 of the President and Vice President. When Green left the scene, Capitol Police ordered Watson to stop demonstrating. He refused — and was arrested for violating code 22–1307, crowding, obstructing and incommoding (Washington Times, Mediaite). Watson’s stated grievance was the strikes on Iran and Venezuela, which he claimed violated the War Powers Act and cost service members their lives. His real audience wasn’t Congress. It was the cameras: he told the crowd he was standing “𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺” with Green’s uphill Rule 9 push to force a floor vote on impeachment articles — a maneuver Congress has shown zero appetite to touch. There’s a reason officers don’t campaign in uniform. The military exists outside politics precisely so a commander in chief never has to wonder whether the officer corps will follow orders or stage a protest instead. Watson didn’t just break Capitol Police’s rules — he broke that line, and now faces likely additional review under military law on top of his civilian charge. A 𝐧𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐦𝐞, he told the crowd, could take a stand. A sworn officer in dress blues isn’t a nobody. He’s the guy who’s supposed to salute, not sermonize. 𝐇𝐞 𝐬𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧."
Naturally left wingers complained about fascism and claimed freedom of speech was violated. Nobody is above the law - unless it pushes the left wing agenda, after all

Meme - Donald Trump: "Best I can do is live in your head rent free"

Europe’s rearmament drive is sustaining 195,000 US defence jobs, Nato chief says - "Europe’s rearmament drive is sustaining 195,000 US defence jobs through $300bn in arms orders, Nato’s top official has said"
A Trump hater claimed that higher NATO defence spending didn't benefit the US. And this is excluding how much the US spends on European defence, which the WEF has calculated to be quite substantial

Meme - "The Last Time Voters Elected a Republican Mayor:
New York - 1994
Seattle - 1964
Minneapolis - 1957
Portland - 1952
Chicago - 1927
Washington, D.C. - NEVER
But Liberals want to blame President Trump for crime in these cities?"

VictoriaL59 on X - "Canada spent five years renaming its own streets, squares, parkways and universities because the old names made somebody uncomfortable. Trutch Street in Vancouver is now šxʷməθkʷəy̓əmasəm Street. The Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway in Ottawa is now Kichi Zībī Mīkan. Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto is now Sankofa Square. Ryerson University is now Toronto Metropolitan. Then Trump signed a piece of paper calling it Lake America, and the entire country discovered overnight that names are sacred, history matters, and you cannot simply decide to call a place something else. Where was the outrage then⁉️"

Threads - "16 years ago Google shut down their entire business in China because they wouldn’t submit to an authoritarian government. Today, they are renaming lakes because a fascist declared it so on the toilet at 2am."
Left wing logic - disappearing political dissidents is the same as renaming a lake

Congratulations, MAGAs, You Really Won With “Lake America” - "I’m sure all those poor Canadians your guy stuck it to this week feel truly defeated, as they retreat to their peaceful nation where they have affordable groceries, excellent healthcare, a living wage, national pride, global respect, and leaders who aren’t felons and rapists."
Left wingers are so deluded. Left wingers in Canada are just as miserable as in the US, despite their having the left wing American dream of "free healthcare", because left wingers are always miserable. Certainly, they wouldn't agree they have "affordable groceries", "excellent healthcare" or "a living wage"

The Real Reason Donald Trump Didn't Eat In The Morning, According To Andre Rush - "former White House chef Andre Rush revealed that the businessman wasn't regularly noshing on pancakes or cereal in the early hours of the day. "Some people are not morning eaters," Rush said. "He's a worker. He's up all night. It wasn't a lot of morning breakfast.""

Gavin Newsom on X - "The President of the United States of America blocked access to the free press and launched state-run media. This is authoritarianism in action. We can end his unchecked power when we take back Congress this November. VOTE."
Nick shirley on X - "Aren’t you the same guy who signed a bill into law that criminalizes and penalizes those who expose fraud in your state? You have no room to talk."

Ron Ironfield | Facebook - "💥 The Supreme Court ruled 50-years-ago that news organizations are not entitled to access to places or information the government controls - shutting down any claim by CNN that President Trump's decision to revoke the press-passes for three organizations violates its constitutional rights.
🔻In Houchins v. KQED (1978), the justices held that the First Amendment is neither a Freedom of Information Act nor an Official Secrets Act.
The press’s core protection is the right to communicate information once it has been obtained, not a right to collect it from the government.
🔻Pell v. Procunier (1974) and related cases established that the press has no constitutional right to information or locations not available to the public generally.
🔻Zemel v. Rusk (1965) stated that the right to speak and publish does not carry with it an unrestrained right to gather information, and that entry into the White House is not a First Amendment right.
Those rulings have never been overruled.
President Donald Trump announced on Friday that CNN, MS NOW, and Politico were banned from the White House effective immediately because they constantly publishes information that is blatantly false. The President told reporters in the Oval Office those organizations can write whatever they choose; but because they are dishonest he does not have to let them into the people’s house. Today Secret Service agents deactivated and confiscated hard passes when CNN, MS NOW, and Politico reporters arrived at the press entrance. CNN called the move an illegal assault on a constitutionally protected right to report without government hindrance. MS NOW and Politico said they would take every step to defend their First Amendment rights. Conservatives point out that the three outlets still have cameras, websites, sources, and nationwide reach. He did not ban them from operating. What they lost is a privilege - workspace, West Wing proximity, and pool access - that ordinary citizens never receive. White House press access is a courtesy the executive can manage, not a legal entitlement. The organizations will sue, but the Highest Court already ruled."

The idea that Heinlein’s Starship Troopers were fascists is a lazy Leftist smear - "Paul Verhoeven, director of the movie, makes it clear that in his view the future human Federation described in Heinlein’s book is a “fascist utopia”. “I decided to make a movie about fascists,” he told the Guardian in 2022. He certainly did make that decision: in his movie the Federation’s symbols are clearly modelled on Nazi and fascist ones and there are references to Triumph of the Will and Olympia. These are all additions by Verhoeven and his team, not to be found in Heinlein’s book. The Federation as described in the book probably does fit quite well with a Hollywood lefty’s definition of fascism. This is basically the same definition used by Rik Mayall’s character, sociology student Rick, in The Young Ones. Such people believe that anyone or anything they disagree with or dislike is fascist. Using the Britannica definition of fascism, however, you have to say that Heinlein’s Federation doesn’t fit at all well. One universal characteristic of fascism, for instance, is “contempt for electoral democracy”. Heinlein’s Federation is an electoral democracy, and moreover one in which the right to vote is highly prized and respected, almost the defining element of the system. The actual fascists and Nazis abandoned elections and voting as soon as they were in power, and frequently insisted that democracy is philosophically unsound. Militarism is another characteristic of fascism. If Heinlein’s Federation is militaristic, however, it goes an odd way about it. There is no conscription, nor any aggressive recruiting as in the movie – indeed young people are discouraged from signing up. Far from the Mobile Infantry being a huge army of cannon-fodder as in Verhoeven’s vision, it is as selective as today’s SAS. In the book, Johnny Rico’s course starts with 2,009 recruits of whom just 187 pass out to become “cap troopers”, a pass rate fairly similar to UK special forces selection – and in the case of the MI, no fewer than 14 of the rejects are dead (mostly in training accidents but one executed on purpose) which even the SAS couldn’t get away with today. Then again, it’s clear that Heinlein’s Federation doesn’t discriminate against non-voters who haven’t served. Johnny Rico’s father (at the start of the book a strong critic of the military, from a family with no tradition of service) is a very wealthy businessman able to afford not only a home swimming pool, but an Olympic-length one. Heinlein made absolutely no suggestion in the book that non-voters were not allowed to have children, or that having children was made more difficult for them: Verhoeven put that idea into the movie on his own initiative. It’s always easier to argue against a bad person you made out of straw than a real person, of course. Actual real-world fascists, too, were generally racists of one type or another. Heinlein handled this issue quite clearly in Starship Troopers. Johnny Rico becomes a commissioned officer in the MI. But he and his wealthy family are Filipino, and probably not of Spanish colonial descent either – they speak Tagalog at home. The MI and the rest of the Federation services clearly recruit from the entire human race: Native Americans, Arabs and Japanese are specifically mentioned in the book, among others. These will have been challenging ideas for a lot of white American readers in 1959, but Heinlein didn’t shy away. Fascism in the real world also generally meant sexism. Heinlein’s Federation wasn’t quite as nominally liberated as Verhoeven’s mixed-showers, gratuitous breast visuals one. The MI itself, the Federation’s close-combat force, was all-male in the book (as indeed British close-combat forces remained until 2016). But it was specified by Heinlein that women were better at piloting spaceships than men, and most space pilots were therefore women, including the character Carmen Ibanez and the captain of Johnny’s ship, Yvette Deladrier. There were many other ways for women to earn their vote and it was clear that plenty of them did so, in Heinlein’s future. And Heinlein managed to avoid the suggestion that women would only serve because they wanted babies, or to pursue male romantic targets. Verhoeven failed both those tests. So, Verhoeven is dead, stupid wrong. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers Federation is no “fascist utopia”. One may well doubt the idea that restricting the vote to service veterans and reintroducing corporal and capital punishment would result in the ideal society as Heinlein suggests. But calling his ideas “fascist”, and smearing them as such at movie length, is lazy and childish. It was also incredibly disappointing (and again, lazy) that Verhoeven and his crew made no effort whatsoever to depict the signature technology of the MI in the book: powered armour suits, an idea which went on to become a major sci-fi trope and which would have made a much more interesting movie. One wonders how much of this President Trump knows – probably not much. It seems reasonable to believe he just thought the movie uniforms looked cool, perhaps without picking up Verhoeven’s not-so-subtle messaging. And you have to say, Trump’s proposed Space Force uniforms don’t look particularly Nazi or fascist, unless – as is pretty common among Left-wing people – you basically think all military uniforms look Nazi or fascist. Indeed, the actual badge symbol of the US Space Force, far from being based on eagles or fasces, appears to be closely modelled on that of Star Trek’s “Starfleet” – a fictional non-military organisation which usually appears primarily focused on peace conferences and scientific research rather than warfare. It’s another storm in a teacup, then: and what it mainly illustrates is just how strong the urge is among certain sections of society to call people and ideas which are disliked “fascist” or “Nazi” when they are actually nothing of the kind."

Meme - Fusilll Spock @awstar11: "Leftist rely on their followers being incurious, drooling, partisan morons"
Usually Right @normouspenis: "-12 hour warnings of flooding
-3 hour flash flood warning
-NOAA proposed cuts not effective until October 1, 2025."
Rachel Bitecofer @RachelBitecofer Jul 5, 2025: "Republican's "small government" lunacy got these poor kids killed."

Rod Dreher on X - "Deleted post griping about what Trump said about Los Angeles and San Diego being nuked by Iran. Now that I've seen the clip, it was clear that he simply wasn't speaking clearly, that he was WARNING that this could happen, not wishing for it. I apologize."

New Greenland security deal offers hope for a reasonable defence agreement with the U.S. - "There are at least two important differences from 1951. The first is the new restriction barring states or investors which are not members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), or NATO partners or European Union members from controlling, significantly influencing or accessing non-public information unless the parties are that the “activities of such states or investors would not constitute a threat to national security or public order.” It states that the reasoning for this restriction is the “threat to national security and public order posed by increased efforts by adversaries to expand influence and control in Greenland.” Which suggests that unless parties agree, Russia and China will not likely be able to establish a direct investment presence in Greenland. The second is the role of the Greenlandic government itself. Greenland is now directly involved in the agreement and the possibility of independence is explicitly recognized in its preamble. Neither was the case in 1951. Indeed, no one was seriously talking about an independent Greenland at the time. The political circumstances have, therefore, changed considerably, even though the basic American military presence remains."
Weird. Left wingers insist that the US got nothing new and Trump was an idiot to pretend otherwise

Bernie on X - "Trump buys $6 BILLION of oil and gas from Russia and there’s a Backlash? Seriously? Europe has spent MORE THAN €375 BILLION buying Russian oil, gas and coal in the last 3 years. And they’ve never stopped buying! In fact they bought almost €3 BILLION of the stuff in August alone. The BBC left this bit out of the story. (Obvs)"

Meme - TheEdgeofGoon: "If 9/11 happened today, the hijackers would be white conservative men..."
macguini: "It already happened on January 6th. Update for clarity: Some of y'all are crazy. Yes the death toll was higher for 9/11. But both were terrorist attacks on American soil and both have ultimately led to yet another war in the Middle East. One led to a war in Afghanistan and Iraq. The other lead to the current wars we are in, bombing children schools and hospitals."
Left wingers are deranged with hatred

Meme - Democratic NPCs in unison: "Dictator Felon Russian Asset Nazi King TACO Pedophile"

Meme - "The Democrat's Pedo Dilemma
The same people who want to allow grown men in little girl's bathrooms, boys in girl's sports, trans & sex books in children's libraries, drag queens in children's reading hour, encourage children to explore their bodies, teach them about transitioning in grade school etc. etc. etc. are calling Trump a "Pedo""

Meme - :You celebrated M.A.P.S
You put porn in kids libraries
You ignore democrats in the files to attack Trump who is not implicated
YOU ARE THE PEDO PROTECTOR"
Left wingers just work backwards from their desired conclusion

The Hatred That Broke American Politics - The Atlantic
Ironically, the author criticises the left for ignoring anti-Semitism and obsessing over other alleged prejudices, then slams Trump and the right for only going after anti-Semitism on the left. Of couse, this being because the left is obsessed over alleged prejudice against other "minorities" but condones, excuses or even promotes anti-Semitism is not a possibility. Not to mention how anti-Semitism on the right is quite powerless, which is why ignoring it isn't hypocrisy

Center for Strategic Politics on X - "We polled five routes for Trump to leave office before the end of his term. A plurality of Dems support four of them, including a military coup and death by natural causes. The only one underwater, an assassination, is still supported by 29%.
Criminal prosecutions of Trump officials are generally favored by Dems, with clear majorities indicating support in all cases. Voters also support prosecution of officials from both the Trump and Biden admins over US support for Israel's genocide in Gaza.
A majority of Democrats want to pack the Supreme Court and abolish the filibuster, but getting rid of the Senate altogether is highly disfavored (however, 34% of Dems under 45 support it). "
Damn Trump promoting hate! Hate will never win! Right wing political violence needs to be stopped. Lock them all up!
Damn Trump prosecuting his political enemies and destroying centuries-old institutions! He's destroying democracy!

Svetlana Lokhova on X - "They are lying to you. The documents that Obama's henchmen took when they raided President Trump's home Mar-a-Lago is the evidence of their own crimes. Here is the most important document, which Monaco and co secretly and retroactively re-classified few weeks before the Raid. It shows that Brennan's CIA operative masquerading as a "Cambridge University Professor" lied that I am a Russian spy who recruited Donald Trump's National Security Advisor. That kicked off the whole Crossfire Hurricane investigation of the senior Trump campaign advisor, then leading into Mueller etc. So they stole the documents and charged President Trump under the Espionage Act for exposing Obama, Brennan, Comey and co."
Lara Logan on X - "If anyone would know the truth here, it would be Svetlana Lokhova. She has written multiple books based on years of research. And she was at the center of much of this when they targeted her & falsely accused her of being a Russian spy who was supposedly having an affair with Gen Michael Flynn. This was a complete lie on every level. And reporters got prizes for pushing these lies year after year. Shame on them. Folo Svetlana for the truth bout “Russia collusion” & what it was really about. This is so damning. It is shameful."

OSINTdefender on X - "U.S. President Donald J. Trump has announced that he has instructed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to substantially reduce any future joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea, calling them “totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea, who he claims has been “unthreatening and respectful.”"
Sam E. Antar on X - "The knee-jerk reactions to Trump on South Korea are missing the interesting part. South Korea itself is run by liberal President Lee Jae-myung, who has been pushing a “peace first” policy toward North Korea, reducing tensions and calling for renewed dialogue. Now Trump is telling the Pentagon to substantially reduce joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises because he says they send a “hostile” signal to North Korea. Think about that before automatically reaching for the partisan pom-poms. Trump may have just outflanked South Korea’s own liberal government from the left on North Korea."

Ida Turan 🇮🇷 on X - "I see a serious meltdown in the timeline over Trump’s post again. As an Iranian, I’m telling you: you don’t deserve this president. Someone should tell these angry American pundits to read a tiny bit of their own country’s history, and also remind them that they didn’t elect a pope. This is freaking politics. Get used to it already ffs. Nixon met Mao, the communist dictator who was directly responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of his own people.
Reagan not only met Gorbachev, the president of the “Evil Empire,” he built a close personal friendship with him.
@realDonaldTrump met Kim Jong-un, who is a grotesque joke compared to the pure evil of Mao and the Soviet Empire. You had the exact same meltdown over negotiations with the Islamic regime in Iran. Not every negotiation means appeasement. Sometimes it’s just a window to reduce and manage tension, and to save lives! The Korean War was a proxy war in the Cold War between the USSR and the United States. North Korea is a silly joke compared to the Soviet Union. The Soviets had literally a thousand times more nuclear warheads that could actually reach the U.S. And the USSR was not some isolated country quietly minding its own business like North Korea. I can easily imagine that back then there were plenty of people screaming the exact same thing you’re screaming now: “No appeasement with pure evil!”
Yet the USSR, a communist superpower, dissolved without any major military intervention. Thank you, but your screaming and your prescribed approach doesn’t work. Oh, Trump has no moral compass? Fuck you and your stupid moral compass. He’s saving God knows how many lives while you’re sitting in your basement preaching morality. Things might go wrong, yes, Trump could make mistakes, just as Reagan certainly did, but you still have to be thankful to him for his courage in facing the inevitable challenges that nobody else ever had the guts to face, instead of dodging it. Let him do his job. The man knows what he’s doing. He’s protecting South Korea’s ass and, most likely, freeing up a huge amount of American taxpayers’ defense money that’s been pouring into Korea. He’s saving who knows how many lives by ending the conflict now, before it’s too late. And don’t even get me started on the lesson he’s teaching South Korea: what they’re doing isn’t the behavior of an ally, it’s the behavior of a freeloader. If you don’t even understand this, politics is certainly not for you. Anyway, he needs to move the military equipments from Korea to middle east, these are not random, not for punishment. He is signaling NK not to get smart. Reagan made the impossible possible. He proved people like you were wrong. Trump has shown you that you were wrong hundreds of times, yet you still don’t have the humility to admit that you know nothing. Pray for his success and stop making yourselves look ridiculous with these ignorant meltdowns.
P.S. My head hurts and I don’t have the patience for sugarcoating. Sorry not sorry."

Praying Medic on X - "Although he cannot say it publicly, Trump is in a cold war against the CCP. China intends to topple the US as the world's greatest military and economic power. They've been slowly subverting governments that are currently allies of the US. Canada is one example. The UK is another. Spain and South Korea are currently being reeled in by the CCP. Trump removed the CCP's influence in Venezuela. He's working on Iran & Cuba. Trump's endgame is to form new economic & military alliances to maintain a Western democratic bulwark against the CCP's plan for global domination. The Gulf States are a key part of this plan. There's a decoupling happening. Any nation that will not stand against the CCP's subversive plans will be left to fend for itself. If South Korea aligns itself with the CCP, Trump will leverage his relationship with Kim Jong Un to try to bring them back into alignment. The CCP plans to capture not just Taiwan, but South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and the entire Pacific."

Status-6 (War & Military News) on X - "US President Trump: When I called recently the president of South Korea... I said, would you like to give us a little hand? We don't need help with Iran. But if you'd like, give us a hand with Iran. He said, no, thanks. And I said, we have 39,000 soldiers over there guarding you from Kim Jong-un, your next-door neighbor. And you're not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran? That's strange. No, no, we'd rather not get involved. I say, well, why are we involved in helping you?"
Meaghan Mobbs on X - "In the clip below, POTUS is 🎯 . I commented yesterday on my concern about adjusting our military posture and cooperation without significant concessions made by Pyongyang. And Seoul’s drift toward Beijing concerns me. But refusing to stand with the United States against Iran’s nuclear ambitions concern me too. Alliances cannot simply be about what America is obligated to provide when an ally is threatened. There must be an expectation of strategic reciprocity. The United States and South Korea share a long and consequential history there - forged through war, sacrifice, and decades of standing alongside one another other. Free nations either stand together against nuclear proliferation, wars of aggression, and authoritarian powers increasingly working in concert, or eventually we will confront those threats alone and fail together. I want South Korea firmly inside the American alliance system. But that alliance has to mean something in both directions, and Washington is right to expect more from Seoul."

Osama bin Laden vs Hasan Piker / Left Wing Hypocrisy on Public Executions

These probably contributed to my first one week ban from iFunny:

Destiny | Steven Bonnell II @TheOmniLiberal: "*Osama bin Laden* >pretended he grew up in humble background, was actually born to incredibly wealthy parents
>pretended to be Muslim, but only when convenient to him
>spoke about how he's from "the Middle East", but attended wealthy schools in the West
>justified the killing of women and children by jihadists
>lived in gated community
>published content claiming American civilians deserved 9/11
>be Hasan Piker
>pic unrelated"

The Liberal Agenda: "I'm sick of this clown. I'm sick of his circus."
"Marked Safe From Watching a public execution because I'm not a sadistic piece of shit"

The Liberal Agenda: "This is our entire statement on what happened to Charlie Kirk."
The Liberal Agenda @theleft.org: ""I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights."-Charlie Kirk, who just got shot in the neck *Charlie Kirk death photo*"

Links - 6th November 2026 (1 - Data Centres [Artificial Intelligence])

Arrest Epstein’s Clients!!! on X - "Why isn’t Antifa going after Flock cameras and data centers? 🤔 Why isn’t BLM calling Flock cameras and data centers racist? 🤔"

Brittany Rae

on X - "If you’re against data centers, smash your phone.  Then cancel Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, banking apps, GPS, FaceTime, DoorDash, and every other thing on your TV that actually runs on those buildings.  You don’t get 2026 convenience while demanding 1995 infrastructure.  The servers have to live somewhere. Your lifestyle already voted yes.  America First means we build it here so China doesn’t own the future or collapse our grid. 🇺🇸"
I saw one left winger claim that all of those were around before data centres. They are so ignorant.

Eric Daugherty on X - "🚨 JUST IN: X has just rooted out a Chinese bot farm of 200,000 THOUSAND accounts influencing American politics, with hundreds of them running an influence operation against the construction of data centers in the USThe posts claimed that AI data centers "drive up household electricity prices" and "strain the grid""Others included AI-generated cartoons that depicted data-center operators enriching themselves at the public's expense.""We take seriously any attempts to undermine the integrity of the global town square and suspend accounts that violate our Authenticity policy."Good! Purge them all! @elonmusk"
There're still AI haters who deny that the Chinese are trying to stoke up Western hatred for it

Alyona on X - "Humans survived for centuries without data centers. No one has ever survived without clean drinking water."
Humans survived for centuries without vaccines too

Meme - Jeremiah Johnson: "People are about twice as likely to approve of **coal plants** being built nearby as opposed to data centers. Coal plants use more water and pollute more. They create comparable noise pollution. There's no way this makes sense outside a media panic."
"Do you support or oppose the following types of projects being built near where you live?"
"Americans' Openness to Data Centers Has Kept Declining. Heatmap News asked: "As you may know, data centers are facilities that house the servers that power the internet, apps, and artificial intelligence. Would you support or oppose data center being built near where you live?""
Time for left wingers to boast about being smart and reality having a left wing bias Meme - "The Case for Data Centers Finds Limited Traction "Please indicate how convincing you find the following argument in favor of data centers to be." saying convincing
Generate billions in local tax revenue for schools, roads, and other services
Very convincing 14%. Somewhat convincing 28%. Total 42%
Make powerful computing accessible to anyone, anywhere
Very convincing 10%. Somewhat convincing 27%. Total 37%
Create thousands of high-paying jobs for local community members
Very convincing 12%. Somewhat convincing 23%. Total 36%
Power modern business and healthcare without costly hardware investment
Very convincing 9%. Somewhat convincing 25%. Total 34%
Use a fraction of the water that agriculture or steel manufacturing does
Very convincing 10%. Somewhat convincing 22%. Total 32%
The excessive-water claim was based on a math error, since corrected
Very convincing 8%. Somewhat convincing 20%. Total 27%"

Meme - Jeremiah Johnson @JeremiahDJohns: "Data centers are good and we should build a lot more of them. Every major argument against data centers I've seen is very bad."
David Hogg: "If these data centers are so essential to our national security and economy and have such amazing benefits they should prove it by building them in the richest zip codes in America first."
Readers added context they thought people might want to know: "Loudon County, Virginia is the richest county in the United States and also has the most data centers."

Polymarket on X - "JUST IN: Virginia’s Loudoun County expects $1.3 billion in data center tax revenue next year, helping the county cut residents’ property taxes by roughly 30% over the past decade."

Meme - Richard Hanania @RichardHanania: "Higher IQ people make better decisions about everything. Loudoun County, highest median income in the nation, rolls out the red carpet for data centers. Chud areas worry about their precious tumbleweeds and gravel getting displaced. Better to live around smart people."
Sara Eisen @SaraEisen: "In Loudoun Virginia home to more than 200 data centers, tax revenue from data centers has exploded. As a result, over the past 10years, they lowered the real property tax rate every year from $1.145 in tax year 2016 to $0.805 cents per $100 in assessed value for 2026."
"LOUDOUN DATA CENTER TAX WINDFALL. TAX REVENUE FROM COMPUTER EQUIPMENT IN DATA CENTERS. *$466M in FY22 to $795M in FY26*"

A County Got Rich From Data Centers. Some Question ‘At What Cost?’ - The New York Times
Richard Hanania on X - "New argument against data centers: They make you too rich and make your public amenities too nice."
Left wingers demand that data centres provide their own electricity, then cite the noise from the electrical generation facilities as reasons why data centres are bad.

West Virginia wants to use data centers to eliminate its income tax
Left wingers love taxes, so this is probably a big reason why they hate data centres

Thread by @billybinion on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Fascinating. Some data centers came to a struggling town in Washington state. Did it run out of water? Was the community destroyed?  Let’s see. The town…built a new high school, hospital, library, sewage systems, and police & fire stations. Poverty fell from 29% to 6%.  Oh. Data centers pay ~57% of property taxes in Quincy, Washington. They funded a $15 million aquatic center—with a pool, waterslides & lazy river—and a 143,000-square-foot sports complex. They’ve created almost 1,000 jobs. The city admin called it a “miracle.”This isn’t an outlier. A data center came to a “dying” North Dakota town. As a result, the government can repave its streets, renovate its senior center, finance a new public-safety complex, make walking trails & refurbish its opera house. How terrible."

Logan Dobson on X - "A Data Center Came to A Small Town. You’ll Never Guess What Happened Next* *unless you guessed lots of jobs, lots of tax revenue, spillover benefits to local business like hotels and restaurants, discounts on electric bills, and grants for teachers... A data center came to a small town. You’ll never guess what happened next*  *unless you guessed tons of money for parks, schools, infrastructure, paying a majority of property taxes, creating jobs, lowering the poverty rate, and subsidizing electricity for residents"

nic carter on X - "With some very minor exceptions, the data center buildout is happening in red states (historically some purple but on a go forward basis, red).  The data center question is entirely a red on red issue. It’s impossible to build in blues and power is expensive, hence no one is even planning to build there  🚨this is why the left is poisoning the well on datacenters 🚨  They have nothing at stake. Nothing to gain, nothing to lose. They will run the Greta / fracking playbook on DCs.  The right must avoid being useful idiots for the left and China at all costs.   By all means, debate the merit of the DC buildout. But don’t fall into the slopulist trap of being against them “because everyone is” or because the left manufactures consent via the press and NGOs.  The left is not participating in the DC buildout; they should not have a seat at the table. Assume that they will try to play spoiler to ruin what is a massive reindustrialization opportunity in Americas heartland, creating skilled jobs that have been missing for so long. It’s entirely rational for the left to ruin this for red America. Don’t let them."

L. Wayne Mathison on X - "I farmed in Manitoba for 34 years, so I don’t dismiss concerns about farmland, water, noise or what a massive industrial project might do to nearby families. Property rights matter. So does protecting a community’s quality of life.  But Wab Kinew’s decision to simply reject the hyperscale AI data centre near Île-des-Chênes looks painfully short-sighted.  AI development isn’t going to stop because Manitoba says no. The investment, infrastructure, technical expertise and future industries will simply go somewhere else. Alberta, Texas and other jurisdictions will build the power and welcome the capital while Manitoba continues exporting its young people and complaining about its weak economy.  The sensible answer wasn’t blind approval. It was hard negotiation.  Require the company to generate its own power without raising Manitoba Hydro rates. Set enforceable noise limits and setbacks. Demand closed-loop water systems, local tax revenue, Manitoba hiring and training, environmental monitoring and a substantial cleanup bond. No corporate welfare. No shifting costs onto ratepayers or neighbours.  If the developers couldn’t meet those conditions, reject it.  Instead, Kinew chose the familiar Canadian approach: manage decline, block the investment and congratulate ourselves for being cautious.  Data centres aren’t automatically good. They create real local costs that must be controlled. But trying to stop the AI economy is like trying to stop the Industrial Revolution by refusing to build a railway.  The world will keep moving. Manitoba must decide whether it intends to participate or watch from the siding."

How much water does AI really use? - "The International Energy Agency estimates AI accounts for 15 to 20 percent of data center electricity demand, and by extension, its water use. The rest is accounted for in supporting other digital activity, from satellite data that helps predict the weather and protect troops to billions of us streaming movies, television and TikTok videos."

Meme - "Data centers barely use any water, barely use any land, and they lower electric bills."
"Data Centers Use Little Water, Little Land - and Lower Your Electric Bill
Data Center Water Use Is a Rounding Error Next to Golf and Farms
Data Center Land Use is Tiny Compared to Corn and Idle Farms
Data Centers Actually Lower Electricity Rates"

Meme - Sean Westwood: "Water use is just not a credible argument against the growth of Al data centers. It is misinformation."
"Bottled water production 24
Restaurant dish rinsing 51
Commercial car washes 100
Residential swimming pools 120
Restaurants and food service 130
All U.S. data centers 228
Residential laundry 500
Golf courses 531
Leaking water pipes 900
Residential toilets 1,300
Residential showers 1,700
Irrigation of corn crops 1,860
US, beef and meat production 2,500
Residential lawn irrigation 2,900"

clara the urbanist on X - "every data center story says it uses "as much power as 100,000 homes" like that's a scandal. an aluminum smelter pulls five times that and it's why airplanes are cheap. measuring industry in homes is how you train a country to believe building things is a crime"
Lee Vinsel on X - "This stuff is obvious if you have ever thought about the history and sociology of industry's electricity and water demands, and why and how sources of water and power were central to factory siting *forever*. The shame is that we don't teach this stuff often in fields of critical technology studies, so folks complaining have zero sense of scale, in absolute or, especially, comparative terms.   Then again, these uninformed critics also tend to be the folks who have, over the past handful of years, been experts on global pandemics, wildfires, tariffs, immigration policy, and more. In other words, welcome to one of the downsides of the Internet."

Billy Binion on X - "Most data centers use the same amount of water—or less—than an average large office building. Meanwhile, they're helping lower electricity costs by financing new power generation. The hysteria over AI data centers is going to age very, very poorly."
Rowan Scarborough on X - "China info op worked. Massive disinformation convinced liberals to data center surrender. China can get liberals to do anything. Look at how libs defended Wuhan lab."

Richard Hanania on X - "Red states let people build housing, blue states made it difficult, and we saw the results. Now, the left’s ambivalence to hatred of markets is leading to data center bans. The results will be the same, and everyone will eventually acknowledge the pro-market side was correct."

nic carter on X - "Lemme tell you what’s gonna happen.   Red states will keep adding power and building data centers.   Blue states will succumb to idiocy and turn off data centers (they mostly weren’t building them in the first place bc their grids don’t work bc of failed green transitions).   Red states will keep bringing in investment  and tax revenue.   Blue states will keep spending insane amounts on massive carefare programs (Medicaid based fake jobs programs).   Blue states will default.  Red states will be forced to bail them out"

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on X - "Thank you for your leadership, @GovKathyHochul. A data center moratorium gives lawmakers time to put strong protections in place and guarantee AI benefits all of us, not just a powerful few."
litquidity on X - "AOC successfully steered thousands of Amazon jobs away from the city and now supports a moratorium on data centers that would bring significant tax revenue to New York Quite the track record of value destruction"

Yogi on X - "This is one of the dumbest things Democrats have done in years.  A data center is not some evil AI factory. It is literally the infrastructure behind your tiktok brainrot,  email, banking, cloud storage, streaming, hospitals, gov systems, websites, the kiosk that you use to tap, pay and give tip, and basically every piece of modern technology you use.   Put simply the INTERNET.   We have been building these things since the 1990s.  The new ones are more efficient, can build or contract their own power, pay for grid upgrades and use closed loop cooling systems. There are obvious ways to regulate the actual externalities without freezing construction for a year.  Instead New York looked at the most important infrastructure buildout of the next decade and said, actually, let’s stop.  China and Russia could not design a better propaganda campaign if they tried. Convince Americans that data centers are dangerous, get activists to panic, then let politicians kneecap the country while China builds as fast as it can.  AOC says this will help make sure AI is “for all of us.”   @AOC  how exactly does stopping New York from building AI infrastructure accomplish that? It doesn’t.   AI will keep getting built, just somewhere else. You let the buildout happen, then tax the companies, make them fund the grid or require community benefits.   You do not stop everything and pretend that somehow democratizes the technology.  And the people cheering this have no idea what a data center even is.  It is basically like banning the construction of computers because computers use electricity.  The capital will not wait. The jobs, tax revenue, power investment and infrastructure will just go to Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio or anywhere else run by adults.  This is not protecting New Yorkers.  It is making New York poorer, weaker and less relevant."

‏ً on X - "Unpopular opinion: The fact that they can quickly install data centers nationally means they could've been updating infrastructure which they claimed was too difficult and expensive."
Left wing ability to understand the difference between government and the private sector and the cost of all the restrictions they keep demanding - 0. Of course, they demand more and more government and more and more regulations - then blame "capitalism" for the problems
Great strategic ambiguity about who "they" are

Black Lives Matter OKC - Oklahoma City | Facebook - "I want to dispel a favorite narrative on the right real quick. Whenever they say that we need data centers “to win the AI race against our enemy, China” please know that they are LYING to you. According to June data by Statista (link in comments), there are currently 4,435 data centers operating in the United States. China has 369. We have more than ELEVEN TIMES the number of data centers that China has. Furthermore, the UK, Germany and France all have more than “our enemy.” The United Kingdom has the second highest number of data centers in the world. But that number is still way lower than ours, at 555. So even the narrative that we need to “keep up” with the UK would be false. But that’s not the narrative they’ve chosen. China is a convenient boogeyman to get you to comply. Don’t fall for it."
Left wingers think all data centres are equally powerful regardless of size
Weird how China is funding anti data centre misinformation since it has lost the race and will never be able to win it no matter what the US does
The fact that there are very few measles deaths is proof that measles vaccines are not needed and pushing them is propaganda. Left wingers really have no ability to think ahead
Weird how left wingers claim that the fact that China has a lot of "renewable" energy and electric cars means the US needs to follow, but China building lots of data centres means the US doesn't need to build any

The Meaning of Sex

From 2015:

The Meaning of Sex

Attraction. Pleasure. Attachment. Reproduction. Fulfillment. What is the meaning of sex? The answer lies somewhere in the way we integrate the biological imperatives with the emotional and experiential realities. I’m not going to improve on that answer in the next few pages, but I’ll complicate it a bit.

Recently a young woman at Dartmouth College, having had sex for the first time with a man, reflected that she had “lost her virginity.” Then she put that thought on hold: “Virginity is just a total social construct,” she told her interviewer. Her story appeared in the college’s student newspaper. 

A “social construct”? I’m an anthropologist and I speak this language. Virginity is a social construct to the extent that we invest the state of virginity with social significance. American culture seemingly has been divesting its stock in virginity since the sexual revolution more than half a century ago, but somehow the idea lingers. The young woman at Dartmouth would like to think it doesn’t matter, it is just a total social construct, but even the dismissive formula betrays her troubled feelings. It does matter. 

As well it should. To say that something is a social construct is not to say it is trivial or meaningless. It is only to say that we have developed standard ways to talk about it. Virginity, as it happens, is a biological fact as well as a social construct, and because it is both, it commands a special kind of attention. 

Fatherhood

Virginity is a bit like some other words that connect biological realities with social expectations. The word “father,” for example, refers inescapably to the male who played the seminal role in impregnating the egg that became a child. But we build on this nucleus of meaning to create quite elaborate cultural conventions. The man who raises a child he has not fathered is also called a father; George Washington is father of our country; and some holders of religious office are addressed as Father. A father in the familial sense is expected to love, care for, and provide for a child and to exercise tempered authority. We could, with the Dartmouth student, say this is just a total social construct. But we’d be wrong. It is a lot more than that. 

Anthropologists have spent some 150 years trying to get to the bottom of words like “father”—and mother, brother, cousin, etc.—kinship words. A 19th-century American lawyer who was gifted with both unusual curiosity and immense patience opened this door in the 1850s when he took note of how much Seneca Indian kinship terms differed from English ones. Lewis Henry Morgan tugged on this thread for the next 30 years, along the way producing one of the great monuments of 19th-century scholarship, an immense study titled Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity in the Human Family. 

Morgan made much of the observation that in many societies around the world words such as “father” apply to whole classes of people. I might, for example, use the local equivalent of “father” for my father’s brothers and for my father’s father’s brother’s sons. Thus the word “father” might be translated as “paternally related male a generation older than me.” At which point we might be tempted to conclude with our Dartmouth friend that the concept of “father” is just a total social construct. After all, different cultures fill the conceptual space of “fatherhood” in different ways, so how much biological or existential reality can there be to the concept?

Morgan himself thought something similar. He speculated that maybe the natives being none too scrupulous about sexual relations were never certain who their actual fathers might be and hit upon the happy expedient of identifying all the potential inseminators with a single term. Morgan’s theory was never substantiated by evidence of such promiscuity among people who used kinship words in such a broad fashion, but Morgan did succeed in putting some key questions on the table. How do we decide collectively who is a relative? And what difference does it make?

These turned out to be very good questions, and the discipline of anthropology grew up wrestling with them. One of the characteristics that makes us human and that both unites us with nature and sets us apart from it is our preoccupation with kinship. At its most basic, kinship is the way human societies organize the realities of sexual reproduction. It supplies the meaning of sex—at least a large portion of that meaning, if not all of it. Kinship turns the biological fact of mating into the social facts of living together in a more or less orderly world. 

We need that social ordering because the biological facts are and always have been dangerous, disruptive, and often deadly. Sex without the constraint of social constructs would have brought an early end to our species, which depended on pair-bonding and a sexual division of labor to make it through the hard passage of time to reach modern civilization. Sex and human reproduction liberated from fairly stable pair-bonding wasn’t a viable possibility for most of human prehistory, and in the ethnographic and historical record, there is the barest trace of societies that did without pair-bonded marriage between men and women and stable families of some sort. 

Fatherless

There are exceptional cases, most famously the Nayar and the Na. The Nayar were a warrior caste among the several kingdoms of the Malabar Coast in southwest India, who in traditional times treated marriage as a ceremonial matter after which a woman took acknowledged lovers rather than a husband. A Nayar woman, however, had to produce a named man of appropriate status for each of her children or face expulsion from her lineage. The Na (or Musuo) are a tribal group in southwest China who went still further in erasing fatherhood. The Na kinship terminology is the only one we know of that lacks a word for “father.” But the Na do allow a woman an option to marry and to take an actual husband. There are exceptional reasons for these exceptional cases: Mainly they are instances of small subgroups within larger complex societies that have fit themselves into a niche by adopting mating patterns that would be impossible in any other situation. 

When Daniel Patrick Moynihan published his report in 1965, The Negro Family: The Case for National Action, he likewise observed that marriage was rapidly deteriorating in African-American communities because of state incentives for unmarried women to have children. Moynihan’s warning about an emergent pattern was derided at the time, but the pattern he foresaw proved real. When Moynihan wrote, about 25 percent of African-American children were born outside marriage. Today it is 72 percent. Clearly it is possible for people to form a social system that discourages stable pair-bonding between men and women. But the realization of that possibility has brought dramatically negative results in the form of multigenerational dependency on government benefits, a culture of poverty, educational disadvantage for children, poor health, and psychological damage. 

Leaning away from the social constructs that comprise humanity’s long-enduring kinship patterns seldom conduces to human flourishing. Of course, the kids in college who are hooking up aren’t thinking about mating at all, let alone creating enclave social systems. They enjoy a different kind of enclave made possible by individual prosperity and institutional wealth, which have always provided a limited exemption from the rules that govern society as a whole. The hook-up culture is the patrician version of inner-city promiscuity—without the immediate and dire consequences.

Hooking Up, Marquesan Style

Sex outside of marriage is as old as the hills, but what about sex outside of meaning? Sex that is “just sex”? Sex that is pleasure for pleasure’s sake? 

“Sex without meaning” is, paradoxically, an important and meaningful idea in contemporary life. The hook-up culture, pornography, prostitution, and the commercial sex trade in all its forms are illusory promises of sex unburdened by the “meaning” that comes from sex as part of long-term attachment between individuals. Of course, sex outside long-term attachment is nothing new. The world’s oldest profession comes by its reputation honestly. But the attempt to make sex into a recreational activity equally available to men and women and free for both from the burdens of shame and guilt is something pretty new. “Free thinkers” of earlier generations may have fantasized about it; Aldous Huxley may have pictured it in Brave New World. But it took the peculiar combination of feminist advocacy, the gay rights revolution, modern technology, the breakdown of the two-parent family, and the liberated college campus to create the conditions whereby this assault on human nature could have the opportunity to play itself out. 

Humans have broken free of biological imperatives to the degree where we can try out all sorts of social experiments. Every human society can be thought of as experimental in this sense. We are always trying things out. And, more often than not, failing. Where are the communes of the 1960s? 

In the 150 years that anthropologists combed the world looking in detail at the variety of ways people organized the facts of human reproduction, we indeed found some challenging cases—special cases where a brother might marry his sister (ancient Egypt) or a woman might be simultaneously married to two husbands (the Marquesan Islands). But even the exceptional cases prove on closer look to fall within the fairly tight prescriptions biology gives us, even as biology leaves us a margin for cultural elaboration and error.

Those Marquesan Islanders, made famous by Herman Melville’s captivity narrative, Typee, stand out as especially exceptional. When European ships began to arrive in these remote Pacific islands, they were often met with swarms of young girls attempting to climb aboard to have sex with the sailors. Though our knowledge of the Marquesans is limited, it appears that, for them, virginity—or chastity—was not a social construct. But Marquesan life was no sexual free-for-all. These islanders were part of strictly hierarchical tribal groups governed with their own elaborate kinship obligations. The sexual openness of Marquesans shocked and sometimes appalled Westerners, as did Marquesan full-body tattoos. The sexualization of young girls was notable. Older women stretched the labia of little girls to make them more attractive. Both boys and girls were initiated into sex at a very young age by older adults, and the children became avid participants. 

But behind this exotic surface, the Marquesans were governed by strong rules on rank and privilege, sexual segregation, and birth order. Only a woman of high rank could have a second husband, for example, and he was a commoner subordinate to her. Men and women ate separately. And, as in Europe, the oldest son inherited family property. Sex for the Marquesans was not outside of meaning. It was fraught with meanings, some of which are now obscured behind the shroud of a dead culture. But the general picture is clear, and it is the usual thing: Attraction. Pleasure. Attachment. Reproduction. Fulfillment. To which we can add power, prestige, danger, purity, control, and the other relational overlays that typically attach themselves to sex. But there are also culturally specific meanings that were never easy for outsiders to comprehend and that have now been lost to history.

Embarrassments 

In What Does Bowdoin Teach? How a Contemporary Liberal Arts College Shapes Students, my coauthor Michael Toscano and I examined not only the curriculum of this exemplary liberal arts college but also a wide swath of campus social life. In that vein, we came across a series of surveys carried out by Bowdoin students on the college’s hook-up culture. For several years running, the students had surveyed other students and found, consistently, that about 75 percent of the students were “hooking up.” The exact definition was left to the discretion of the students who answered the question, but there was little doubt from the surrounding comments that most of the respondents meant they were having sexual intercourse with other students outside the expectation of a close or ongoing romantic relationship. 

We also observed that a fairly large number of the female upperclassmen appeared to regret having been part of the hook-up culture. One of the regrets came from the discovery that the Bowdoin men are more interested in the new women on campus. Many of the female upperclassmen experienced a diminishment of their desirability, as they were replaced by fresh recruits to the hook-up scene. Those regrets seldom surprise mature adults. But I’ve noticed that the inclusion of this material in our very long and exhaustively detailed account of Bowdoin has drawn more attention than almost anything else—and more criticism. The criticism came from the parents of students, as well as faculty members and students. We apparently crossed some Marquesan-style cultural taboo in reporting to the general public what Bowdoin students were regularly reporting to one another. 

The Bowdoin community was, in a word, embarrassed. 

That makes sense. The pretense that Americans can engage in promiscuity without consequences is hollow. Sex does have meaning, and part of its meaning is that it belongs in the context of attachment. It can be removed from that context for a while, but the need reasserts itself, despite what gender theorists of various sorts would have us believe. If we are working hard to maintain the theory that sex is a combination of harmless fun and self-exploration, the reawakening of that need for attachment can be deeply disturbing.

The fictional rape crisis on American college campuses is an outward manifestation of that disturbance. Rape in the sense of forced sex is a serious crime and a terrible moral transgression. When rape occurs it should be treated as a serious crime and reported immediately to law enforcement. But we now know that forcible rape is a fairly rare event on college campuses. The National Crime Victimization Survey found that rape and sexual assault are 1.2 times higher for nonstudents (7.6 per 1,000) than for students (6.1 per 1,000). Yet we are subject these days to a highly audible campaign of assertions that college campuses are home to a vast epidemic of sexual assaults. We are also subject to efforts by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and various campus activists to make the punishing of supposed perpetrators a high priority. 

Much has been written about the bogus allegations and the instances of seeming self-delusion on the part of young women who say they have been raped, so I will leave aside the details. The Rolling Stone story about the University of Virginia and the endlessly reported story of the mattress girl at Columbia University have now gained bodies of literature that could be case studies for pathological lying. But there are dozens if not hundreds of other instances. 

Many but certainly not all women who participate in the hook-up culture eventually awaken to some sense that a history of casual sex jeopardizes the possibility of long-term attachment. This isn’t a matter of stigma at all. In our society, and especially in the microculture of the college campus, no immediate stigma follows from hooking up. To the contrary, the stigma is typically visited on those who decline to participate. Social acceptance, popularity, and a certain prestige can be obtained by playing the game. Many college women now seek sexual conquests in a pattern similar to that of many men. Feminist author Hanna Rosin made only a mild stir when she wrote in a 2012 article in the Atlantic that hooking up is “an engine of female progress,” and advised young women to avoid the “overly serious suitor” as a danger to career success and “a promising future.” Clearly large numbers of women who attend college start out believing this. 

But if the cost of that view is not immediately apparent, it is still real. The woman who treats her sexuality as something detachable from strong mutual attachment to a single partner sooner or later discovers that men regard her as expendable. Rosin and her like-minded apologists for the hook-up culture shrug. What does it matter what men think? 

But the pretense that sex is just sex is never true. Nor is it ever merely a social construct in the sense that society has arbitrarily decreed what it means and we can, with sufficient attitude, decide it means something different or nothing at all. The distress of women who feel used by the hook-up culture returns now as recrimination against their former sexual partners. This doesn’t excuse the propagandists of the rape culture, which might better be called the “false accusation culture.” But it does point to an underlying truth. Biology and culture are, at a fundamental level, opposed to the level of sexual license that colleges like Bowdoin not only condone but encourage. 

Disappointment

Bowdoin College welcomes its “first-year” students with a play titled Speak About It, in which upperclassmen act out numerous situations of sexual coupling. At the end of the play, the cast unites in explaining that, sexually speaking, anything goes at Bowdoin. Students should take advantage of the opportunities, but they need to observe one constraint: Always be sure that you have your partner’s “consent.” 

Consent has become the watchword of the current phase of the sexual revolution. The term is acquiring additional legalistic accretions, such as “affirmative consent,” which requires the participants to make many repeated inquiries about the willingness of the partner before they proceed. 

But “consent” is really no answer to the deeper questions that sexual intimacy inevitably raises for men and women. And ramping up consent with stronger affirmations of willingness doesn’t change the shiftiness of the idea. We “consent” to all sorts of things against our better judgment. The whole advertising industry is founded on the ease with which we are swayed by our impulses, and no domain of human life is more susceptible to impulse than sexual attraction. 

Consent between college students who are placed in a situation of social license by the colleges themselves is at best an ambiguous concept. Colleges long ago abandoned their in loco parentis stewardship of students’ behavior and have in many cases moved on to the role of enabler. Bowdoin follows up the invitation to debauchery in Speak About It by placing bowls of condoms in conspicuous places in all the residence halls, which, of course, are co-ed. Students are told they can opt out of the sexual culture of the college, but doing so requires a student to reject the prevailing campus norms. In these circumstances, consent is a weak guardrail. 

Consent exists in a gray zone between legalistic framing of sexual conduct and psychological rationalization. It is the all-purpose permission slip and excuse of the hook-up culture. In any and all subsequent recriminations, the dispute turns on whether consent was granted—or withdrawn, or exceeded, etc. This has a readily grasped logic based on the premise that people make well-deliberated choices about sex; they know what they mean and they mean what they say. Everyone admits that a woman’s consent can be impaired by intoxication, but this stops short of admitting that both women’s and men’s consent is often impaired by immaturity, lust, peer pressure, and the thousand other things that lead people in doubtful situations to make doubtful decisions.

College students who seemed to have “consented” to sexual encounters at the time, upon reflection decide that they were coerced. These late-blooming allegations typically have little credibility with law enforcement officials and courts, but they are worth taking seriously as evidence that sexual behavior has its biocultural logic that cannot be wished away. 

The young women in these cases can become obsessed with the idea that they were assaulted or raped even where there is compelling evidence that the sexual acts were consensual and even though the women remained on friendly terms with the accused males for a long period after the alleged rapes. The accusers in these cases may sometimes be fabricating their claims out of thin air. That seems to be the case with the Rolling Stone accuser. And many of the accusers may be influenced by the feminist narrative that elevates them into heroic “survivors” no matter how specious their claims to victimhood. But the vehemence of the allegations suggests something more: the crystallization of regret. 

Let me repeat: Actual rape is a serious crime which calls for the serious response of law enforcement. The gravity of that crime, however, is obscured by rhetoric that treats other kinds of sexual encounters as though they were rape. 

Many men at some point also feel the emptiness of promiscuity and uncommitted sex, but they typically take longer to reach that conclusion. What might be called the imbalance of regret between men and women has a partial biological explanation, favored by sociobiologists. The theory is that male sexual adventurism is rooted in the built-in urge of men to sire as many offspring as possible, in contrast to female reproductive strategies that are constrained both by gestation and by the woman’s need to secure a reliable protector and provider for her child. 

Do these legacies of our primitive past still bear on contemporary behavior? After all, very few college men are attempting to father even one child. Hooking-up is supposed to be without consequences, not a means of filling a nursery. And college-aged women are urged to secure careers, not husbands. Outrage attended the remarks of Susan Patton, the mother of a male Princeton student, when she suggested in 2013 that female students should make a point of finding “a life partner” among the available men on campus. Much of the outrage drew on the “right” of young women to enjoy consequence-free sexual liaisons. 

But a fair number of college women belatedly discover that there is no such thing as sex without consequences. Their experience is perhaps summed up in the line spoken by a female character in the 2001 movie Vanilla Sky, “Don’t you know that when you sleep with someone, your body makes a promise whether you do or not?” Broken promises like that add up. The liaisons are easy in the microculture of the college campus. But there is an internal cost that comes from acting against a woman’s better self—and a man’s. 

At Bowdoin, the rise of the hook-up culture coincided with a sharp drop in the number of alumni who marry each other. That’s a pattern that I expect we would find around the country if the data were available. But, be that as it may, the recriminations that make up the substance of the “rape crisis” speak loudly of the regrets these women have over their transient sexual relationships. 

Leaving the Wilderness

The sexes are complementary. The distortion of women’s sexuality plainly distorts men’s sexuality as well, though in a more deferred way. Men, instead of learning how to be responsible, committed partners and eventually husbands and fathers, learn that the pleasure-seeking dimension of their sexuality can be sustained with relative ease. As a result, the men shun social maturity. The women who are veterans of the hook-up culture find that, once they are in it, their options for getting out are reduced. The fictionalized portrayal of this situation is the hit TV show Girls. 

All of this distorts and diminishes the lives of those who are caught up in the pursuit of sex without attachment. They eventually become those for whom genuine attachment is far more difficult. There are also less obvious consequences. As the philosopher Peter Kreeft has pointed out, the disruption in college of traditional sexual mores is part of the devaluation of truth and the rise of subjectivism; the emphasis on instant gratification undermines the habits of character that depend on patience and longer-term planning; and it cuts away the authority of the past in favor of the instant wisdom of the present and utopian dreams about the future. As Kreeft puts it, “If you want to restore liberal education, restore sexual morality. And if you want to restore sexual morality, restore liberal education. The same virtues of honor, self-control, innocence, purity, respect, patience, courage, and honesty are cultivated in both places. They reinforce each other.”

But one doesn’t need to go all the way to the mind of the moralist to recognize that we are cultivating deep problems by ignoring the meaning of sex. 

The Dartmouth student who attempted to suffocate her realization that she had tossed away her virginity by diminishing virginity to “just a total social construct” testifies to how difficult it is for contemporary college students to face the realities. Part of that difficulty is that they find themselves immersed in a sea of rationalizations for destructive behavior and invitations to wade in even deeper. The Dartmouth student, for example, now regards her sexual orientation as “queer.” That is to say, she has embraced the movement that rejects efforts to model same-sex attraction on age-old patterns of opposite-sex attraction. The wilderness of self-invention beckons. 

 

We are, however, not creatures who thrive in the wilderness. Both biologically and culturally, we need to plant ourselves in an order that accommodates our sexual complementarity. The meaning of sex is that it leads somewhere—somewhere beyond orgasms and the excitements of strangers. An older generation called that “somewhere” marriage. 

Links - 5th November 2026

The most extreme solutions to overtourism

The Reykjavik Confessions - "All six had now confessed to their involvement in the two murders. After an investigation which had lasted more than a year, there was however no physical evidence, and the suspects’ memories were hazy. Yet they had all told police and signed statements that, yes, they had either killed Geirfinnur and Gudmundur or helped dispose of their bodies... When Gudjon began the diary after his arrest in November 1976, he confidently stated: “I know nothing about his case.” In the following weeks as his solitary confinement started to take hold, he expressed his frustration at being unable to remember, asking God to help him. By December, after he had confessed, he wrote: “I can’t remember anything and I’m losing my mind.” And, by January 1977 he was “involved in some unbelievable web of lies”. “There is something really wrong about this case. Particularly the fact that I can’t remember anything.” If he could not remember why would he confess? Gisli Gudjonsson, the former Icelandic detective has read the diary and believes he knows the answer. Now a leading forensic psychologist he has worked on many of the major miscarriages of justice in UK - such as the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four. He is one of the world’s leading experts on false memory syndrome and says Gudjon’s diary is one of the clearest examples of it he has come across... Memory distrust syndrome is a relatively new concept in forensic psychology, and has only begun to be studied extensively in the past 30 years. Gisli Gudjonsson is one of its pioneers and his research has shown how it can lead to suspects making false confessions about crimes they didn’t commit. The triggers for it are isolation, persuasive police interrogations where they may confront suspects with false evidence, and high emotional intensity where the police highlight the futility of continual denials. It’s a controversial concept, particularly among some police officers who see it as a way-out for criminals. That’s why Gudjon’s diary is so important as it shows the slow process of someone beginning to distrust their memory. The diary’s existence only emerged in 2011 when the Icelandic government set up a special committee to investigate the way the police handed the case. The inquiry spoke to the surviving people convicted of the killings, as well as relatives, lawyers and police... “The sad thing is after almost 40 years, Albert Klahn doesn’t know what happened. He doesn’t know whether he is guilty or innocent. “Can you imagine? After 40 years, you’re living in the dread that perhaps you were involved and you can’t remember anything.”... It’s an A5 black and white photo of one of the suspects, Kristjan Vidarsson, pretending to strangle a middle-aged policeman who is playing the part of Geirfinnur. Crime reconstructions are common but getting the suspected killers to re-enact an offence they can’t remember shows how desperate the police had become in their struggle to find any evidence. There are other macabre photos - a misshapen dummy lying in the snow, and Kristjan standing nearby. Whatever they had gone through, the suspects had become compliant, willing to participate in scenes which would be used against them. Gisli Gudjonsson says it is a dangerous strategy. “Being taken to a crime scene, re-enacting something that you are alleged to have done without any really clear knowledge of what took place contaminates the entire case. “So once you have enacted something, it then becomes more of a reality for the individual.”... In 1970s Iceland, keeping prisoners in solitary confinement was a more acceptable practice - a way to break down their resistance. It was known that the six suspects had spent a considerable time in isolation. But when the committee set up by the government to investigate the case got hold of the prison custody logs, they revealed information which Gisli Gudjonsson says he simply could not believe. “I’ve worked on miscarriages of justice in many different countries. I’ve testified in several countries - hundreds of cases I’ve done, big cases. “I’d never come across any case where there had been such intense interrogation, so many interrogations and such lengthy solitary confinement. I mean I was absolutely shocked when I saw that.” Gudjon spent 14 months in solitary confinement, but even Erla was in isolation for 105 days, away from her young daughter. During this time she was interviewed over 100 times and her lawyer was only present on three occasions. These interviews could go on throughout the day and into the night. Prison officers were recruited too to befriend the inmates, to extract more information... “His head was put into a washing bucket of water and he was told if he didn’t confess he would be drowned. “Of course he wasn’t drowned but this is, and was, torture of course.”... “They can’t keep me here any longer, I can’t wait to go to court so I can tell them what really happened. I confessed to this just to make everything stop and get out of here and see my friends, see my family.” They also detail the drugs that he was given on virtually a daily basis, including diazepam and mogadon, to help him sleep and calm him down. They can also cause amnesia. Kristin says he tried to resist their administration: “He is saying ‘I’m done with this and I’m not going to take them’ and other days he’s saying ‘It’s better if I take them and don’t make a fuss about it. And it’s better to be completely numb here.’”... “These individuals had absolutely no knowledge of what happened. They were just trying to appease the police, they were trying to be co-operative because they knew if they were not co-operative they would be given more solitary confinement.”"

Bubble tea bubble: Why investors are snubbing the popular drink (aka "Is China's bubble tea bubble about to burst?") - "Stock market debuts of two China-based chains have already flopped... Bubble tea "provides very much an affordable pleasure to consumers in China", said Mr Yu, pointing to the "wide price range" of products being offered by different bubble tea chains. Some investors, however, have not shown the same level of enthusiasm. Seeking to cash in on the craze, several Chinese tea chains have looked to sell shares to the public in recent years. Last month, China's third largest bubble tea chain, Sichuan Baicha Baidao Industrial, known as Chabaidao, made its stock market debut. The shares plunged on their first day of trade and have yet to recover. That followed another disappointing debut by Shenzhen-based Nayuki. Its shares have lost more than 80% of their value since their launch in Hong Kong almost three years ago... It "has relatively low barriers to entry, leading to increased competition," said Kenny Ng, Securities Strategist of Everbright Securities International. "Many companies rely on opening new stores to sustain revenue growth. However, this expansion strategy can lead to a decline in gross profit margins as companies face higher costs associated with store operations and management." For bubble tea fans, growing competition has its advantages. Han is a regular boba drinker from Beijing who used to stay away from certain premium brands because she found them too expensive. That has changed. She says price has become less of a factor when choosing between different brands because "they have a lot of discounts and vouchers". But for bubble tea makers and their potential investors, lower prices and higher costs could prove to be an unattractive recipe."
From 2024

The dangerous downsides of perfectionism - "The rise in perfectionism doesn’t mean each generation is becoming more accomplished. It means we’re getting sicker, sadder and even undermining our own potential. Perfectionism, after all, is an ultimately self-defeating way to move through the world. It is built on an excruciating irony: making, and admitting, mistakes is a necessary part of growing and learning and being human. It also makes you better at your career and relationships and life in general. By avoiding mistakes at any cost, a perfectionist can make it harder to reach their own lofty goals. But the drawback of perfectionism isn’t just that it holds you back from being your most successful, productive self. Perfectionistic tendencies have been linked to a laundry list of clinical issues: depression and anxiety (even in children), self-harm, social anxiety disorder and agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, binge eating, anorexia, bulimia, and other eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic fatigue syndrome, insomnia, hoarding, dyspepsia, chronic headaches, and, most damning of all, even early mortality and suicide... Faced with failure, “perfectionists tend to respond more harshly in terms of emotions. They experience more guilt, more shame,” says Hill. They also experience more anger. “They give up more easily. They have quite avoidant coping tendencies when things can't be perfect.”... Perfectionism is also dangerous. Record numbers of young people are experiencing mental illness, according to the World Health Organisation. Depression, anxiety and suicide ideation are more common in the US, Canada and the UK now than a decade ago. Research shows that perfectionistic tendencies predict issues like depression, anxiety and stress – even when researchers controlled for traits like neuroticism. Worsening matters, being self-critical might lead to depressive symptoms but those symptoms then can make self-criticism worse, closing a distressing loop... It’s also been shown that one of the most robust protections against anxiety and depression is self-compassion – the very thing that perfectionists lack. And self-criticism, which perfectionists are so good at, predicts depression."

Why your toilet needs reinvention - "In the average UK home, they account for at least 30% of water use. While low flush toilets are gaining popularity, their 6.5-litre flush still consumes nearly 12,000 litres per person per year, assuming a modest five flushes per day. It also flushes everything at once, which can be bad news. Urine comprises only 1% of domestic sewage, but contains 90% of wastewater’s nitrogen, 50% of its phosphorus, and the lion’s share of dissolved pharmaceuticals like endocrine disruptors that even in minute quantities can alter hormone systems in humans and aquatic life... Enter the modern NoMix toilet, designed to separate urine from faeces by means of toilet geography. Liquid only? Aim for the front. More solid contributions? Leave those at the rear. Since the urine isn’t flushed down the sewer, but collected, it also uses less water."

Family left £5,000 out of pocket and holiday ruined because airline didn't know Jersey was real - "A Jersey family said their holiday was ruined because the airline they were travelling with did not recognise their passports. Iwona Izbinska-Sosnowska, her husband Andrzej and daughter Ava, 19, planned to fly with China Eastern Airlines to Vietnam from London Gatwick. They had arranged a three-week trip to Hanoi and Hạ Long Bay - a celebration of Iwona surviving cancer... It's not the first time Jersey residents have been affected by border confusion. Earlier this year, Jersey asked the UK Home Office for support after residents were barred from boarding flights to the island - despite being permitted to do so. The home affairs minister in Jersey's letter to authorities explained that lawful residents were wrongly denied boarding as a result of new border requirements being misinterpreted. It comes after the implementation of the new digital Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system, which has been confused with Jersey's physical immigration documents."

Vuong: TDSB tolerates assault, but has zero tolerance for self-defence - "If your seven-year-old is beaten at school and dares to defend themselves, the full weight of the system falls on them — while the child beating them is met, every time, with patience and endless second chances... Quietly, other parents have come to this boy’s mother with at least four other families reporting that their own children have been hurt by the same child. That changes the problem entirely. This is no longer a single case of targeted bullying — it is one child repeatedly targeting and harming the children around him."

Genting restaurant that charged S'poreans S$293 for steamed fish cleared of profiteering charge after 3-month investigation - "A Genting Highlands restaurant that charged a group of Singaporean tourists RM902 (S$293.25) for a single wild river patin fish has been cleared of profiteering, following an investigation by Pahang's Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Bureau... In March, a Singaporean tourist known as Jimmy visited Loong Kee Restaurant at Gohtong Jaya. He came with a group of friends, 10 of whom were fellow Singaporean senior citizens. He told Stomp the group got the "shock of (their) lives" when they saw the bill for a wild river patin, also known as silver catfish, weighing 2.7kg. They had been told it was priced at RM338 per kg, bringing the fish alone to RM902 (S$293.25)... The group protested the bill but was unable to dispute it, having not confirmed the price and weight before the fish was served. Their total bill for the meal came to RM1,762 (S$572.88). In response, the restaurant said its staff had followed standard ordering procedures and explained the pricing and weight to the customer... the restaurant has since said it would optimise its seafood ordering process, and will more clearly communicate the fish species, weight, unit price, and total price to customers before placing orders... Pahang State Consumer Affairs and Human Resources Committee Chairman Shen Chunxiang told reporters at a press conference that the bureau had investigated the restaurant under its "Ops Kesan 5.0" operation after receiving public complaints... The Pahang Domestic Trade Bureau Director clarified at the press conference that profiteering is not determined by price alone. The bureau assesses a merchant's profit margin against an allowable profit rate, calculated using the merchant's historical profit data over several years. Based on the restaurant's data from 2023 to 2025, the allowable profit rate was set at 56.74 per cent. Loong Kee Restaurant's actual average profit margin from January to March 2026 was 44.08 per cent, which fell below the threshold"

First reading: The unprecedented violence targeting Canadian police - "June has proved to be such a violent month for Canadian police that officers are being killed at a frequency more typical in the United States — a country far larger and far more violent."
Time to mock American police for being militarised

FIRST READING: Canada effusively welcomes rejected Somalian referee, before realizing alleged terror ties - "After a Somalian World Cup referee was turned away by U.S. border security, Canadian politicians immediately extended a hearty welcome for him to come officiate in Canada. Only after Canadians had rolled out the red carpet, however, did it emerge that the referee, Omar Artan, was rejected because of alleged terror ties... it would only take a few hours until Somalia's largest single terror group appeared to speak out in Artan's defence. "The case of Omar Artan serves as the latest and most damning proof that American policy extends beyond security concerns to encompass broad ethnic discrimination," reads a statement allegedly issued Wednesday by the Somali terror group Al Shabaab... Al Shabaab has been on Canada's official registry of terror entities since 2010. A description calls it the "strongest, best organized, financed, and armed military group in Somalia," and cites its links to al-Qaida... "In British Columbia, (Artan) would be welcomed and celebrated for his accomplishment. We would be thrilled to have him refereeing games here," B.C. Premier David Eby told a Wednesday press conference in response to news reports about Artan's inadmissibility. "In British Columbia he would be considered gold, not garbage." In the same statement, Eby identified Artan as a "refugee" who had overcome "incredible hardships and persecutions." Except Artan is not a refugee, nor has he ever been displaced from his homeland. He is a resident national of Somalia who came up as a referee for the Somali National League and the Confederation of African Football. Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow also publicly invited Artan to officiate at World Cup matches in Toronto; the opening game is set for Friday afternoon. "Toronto believes in fairness, inclusion and giving talent the opportunity to shine. He would be welcome to referee here in our city," she said in an official statement, adding "I will be writing to FIFA to let them know he is welcome to referee here.""
If the US rejects terrorists, Canada must welcome them. Only traitor Maple MAGAs disagree!

Multiculturalism attracts terror group recruiters to Canada: expert | National Post - "The recent slew of hate-motivated incidents in Canada had myriad alleged motivations, from Islamism to white supremacy. The terror groups that promote such ideologies were likely drawn to recruit in Canada because of its multiculturalism, says one academic. “Most Canadians are big fans of multiculturalism. We celebrate it. It’s part of our existence,” says Arne Kislenko, a professor of international relations at Trinity College, University of Toronto and in Toronto Metropolitan University’s history department. But, he said, there’s also that friction that exists. “There are some people always that feel left out, so they tend to engage in crass stereotypes.” Recent weeks have seen incidents across Canada: a shooting at a synagogue in Belleville motivated by antisemitism, the arrest of three people in Ontario in separate incidents related to antisemitic and anti-Muslim threats made online, the arrest of an Alberta teen in relation to the 764 network, which is classified as a terrorist group in Canada, the arrest of a man in Quebec for allegedly planning to attack Canadians with chemical weapons, and antisemitic flyers handed out in Belleville nearly two weeks after the shooting. There are currently 89 terror groups listed in Canada, including Hamas, ISIS, Al Qaeda, Proud Boys and the Bishnoi Gang. Kislenko said it’s no different than Germans in the 1930s. Despite some of them being highly educated, they started to think that Jewish or Slavic people “were somehow not human or that they had evil designs.” Today, there’s a similar sentiment of placing blame on others, he said. Another reason why terror groups might recruit in Canada? From the outside, at least, it appears to be an “easygoing” society. It’s “safe place” where they can operate. One way recruiters acquire targets is to find someone who has made a comment on a mainstream platform, like Instagram or Twitter. Recruiters from terror groups with similar ideologies to whatever post the person commented on then bombard them with messages. Eventually, the person may be put in contact with like-minded people, who might recruit them. “We saw that with ISIS. It’s super sophisticated, targeted propaganda — high-tech recruitment videos with music and the promise of everything you could imagine,” said Kislenko... The young people who do get targeted are often looking for the simplest explanation for complicated issues, said Kislenko. “People blame Jewish people for everything. It’s a convenient scapegoat. Or you blame big government, or you blame women, right? And that’s what a lot of these newer terrorists are engaging in,” he said. “If you’re deeply antisemitic, you’re probably focusing on Israel and what it’s doing in Palestine, even if you don’t know what that means or have an opinion about it. You see it on the news, and certain narratives play into that.” Findlay said that although it may seem like there are more hate-motivated attacks now, it’s been going on “for a long time.” “How it manifests and how it channels and how (terror groups) establish their reach obviously has changed because of the advent of technology from the 1970s roughly onward. It has really made everything look like it’s happening more often in a way,” she said. “And (terror groups) really do attach to waves of prosperity and economic decline, as well as the rise of conspiracy theories. They follow trends. When things are not looking so great … these things kind of seem to flourish a little bit more.”"

Why Sweden is abandoning its cashless society - "Sweden was predicted to become entirely cashless by 2030. As the country developed its own mobile payment system, called Swish, banks slowly stopped handling cash, and tills disappeared from shops. With cash circulation the lowest as a share of GDP in the world, Swedish progress was lauded, and observers wondered how it had forged so far ahead of the rest of Europe so quickly. It all changed when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. Realising that reliance on an electronic payment system left Sweden vulnerable to blackouts or sabotage, the Riksbank – Sweden’s central bank – urged civilians to keep 1,000 Swedish kronor (£80) per adult at home. The government issued a brochure entitled “If Crisis or War Comes” to every household, advising Swedes to use cash regularly to “strengthen preparedness”... In July, the bank announced that essential shops such as grocers and pharmacies with staffed checkouts had to accept physical cash... only 5 per cent of shoppers said they had paid cash for their last in-store purchase in 2025, compared with 10 per cent in 2023 and 40 per cent 15 years ago. This fits the Nordic model. Only 2 per cent of Norwegians and 8 per cent of Danes reported using cash for their most recent in-store purchase, a Riksbank survey from the end of last year found. In the euro area, cash is still the most common method of payment in shops... The country takes inspiration from Ukraine, which rapidly adapted to a new digital system under war conditions. Statistics from the National Bank of Ukraine show that nine out of 10 transactions are cashless, raising the question of whether a return to cash is the answer... almost half of respondents in a survey from September 2025 considered the decreasing use of cash in Sweden as a “somewhat” or “very negative” development."

Allie ✞ on X - "It's funny to me how many "biohacks" there are to replace going outside
-Sunrise lamps and red light and vitamin D for the sun coming up
-Blue light glasses for it going down
-Ice baths for cold exposure
-Saunas for heat exposure
-"Grounding mats" for...literal ground
-Cooling mattresses to replace nighttime cool
-White noise machines because our houses are so quiet
-All sorts of air purifiers because we won't open the windows
All of these are fine supplements, we can't live outdoors, but perhaps we're indoors too much if we have to spend THIS much time, money, and effort tricking our bodies into thinking we're outside"
Ryan Boger on X - "You could probably null in void the entire biohacking industry with like one sentence about how people should drink water, eat more vegetables and go to bed earlier"

Sometimes the ones who resign are the ones who care the most for the organization. - "those who see the big picture, understand the problems and the possible solutions, but because of their inability to push for the execution of those solutions, are tormented by thoughts of missed opportunities, unrealized potential, wasted resources, and simply what could have been. It's not easy to live with those kind of thoughts and frustrations, and eventually, after much tortuous deliberation, they come to the realization that they can't identify with, relate to, or be part of an organization who doesn't seem to care about solving its problems as much as they do. So they resign."

Meme - ""So, when did you know that she was the one?"
*Busty woman with low cup crop top with 5 cups of beer*"

Meme - "Treat Her With Compassion"
"who let granny wear this?!"

Meme - th_l_t_d_: "Related HBD fact: Indian men have the same grip strength a Polish women."
Leonarda Jonie @Leonarda_Jonie: "My gym is full of Indian men. Great. Now I have to compete with them for the 10-pound dumbbells."

Meme - "Advise for Fellow Indians: Want to get rid of that curry smell before an important interview or date? Hit the sauna. Your curry smell comes from a mixture of garlic, turmeric, and other spices that gradually work their way into your sweat. The harder you sweat, the faster the spices are secreted out. I hit the sauna for days straight before my Microsoft in-person interview and got the job. I'd also recommend getting memberships to DIFFERENT saunas and using one every day. I got banned from my sauna for making it smell like curry."

Meme - "BUBBA GUMP SHRIMP COMPANY"
1 star review: "Went to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. for dinner and our waiter came over and immediately started doing the shrimp list from Forrest Gump. At first we thought it was funny. Shrimp gumbo, fried shrimp, coconut shrimp, shrimp kabobs, etc. But he just... kept going. After about three minutes I realized he was definitely making some of them up. "Shrimp lasagna, shrimp tacos, shrimp pot pie, shrimp pancakes, shrimp hot pockets..." At one point he said "shrimp on a stick" and then like two minutes later said "shrimp on a bigger stick." This went on for NINE MINUTES. When he finally finished, he asked what we wanted to drink. We ordered two Diet Cokes. We never saw him again."
Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. (Manager): "We sincerely apologize for your experience. After reviewing the situation with our staff, we discovered that the individual who approached your table was not actually an employee of Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. He's actually an ex employee. He was fired and still has his uniform and occasionally comes in to mess with people. I'm sorry your table was involved."

Meme - Alan MacLeod @AlanRMacLeod: "If The Atlantic magazine is doing guilt by association, here's a pic of its owner, Laurene Powell Jobs, with Ghislaine Maxwell."
James Kirchick @jkirchick: "In Defense of Guilt by Association: Judging people by the company they keep is actually a very good determinant of their character. Latest me, for @theatlantic:..."

Meme - *Arwen* "Show me Lord of the Rings' strongest female character"
*Eowyn* "I said, Lord of the Rings' strongest female character"
*Shelob* "Perfection."

All guest stars labeled in Les Mis 40th Anni Charity Gala [with roles & lyrics in Chinese subtitles) - YouTube

Phantom of the opera - 40 years (Sarah Brightman & Michael Crawford) - YouTube

School camp instructor sent photo of private parts to 15-year-old girl, gets jail - "An external camp instructor kept in contact with a 15-year-old student on social media after running a three-day school camp for her secondary school class, despite knowing his company did not allow this. Ilyas Mohd Yusoff, now 24, began sending sexual messages to the girl and asked her to have sex with him, before sending a photo of his private parts to her on social media app Snapchat... He also shared his sexual preferences with her and told her that he would get "aroused" when she threatened him. He also asked her to have sex with him. At all times, he knew she was 15. On May 1, 2023, Ilyas sent the victim a picture of his private parts via Snapchat. He wanted the victim to blackmail him by threatening to leak the photo, as being blackmailed in this manner sexually aroused him, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Sheldon Lim... the victim had approached Ilyas on the last day of the camp and asked him repeatedly for his Instagram account details. He refused as he knew it was prohibited by his company, but the victim found his profile on Instagram and followed him, so Ilyas followed her back, said the lawyer. As for the messages about sex, Ilyas claimed that he only sent them in the context that they would engage in intercourse after the victim turned 16"

WATCH: Companies ditch four-year degree requirement - "Campus Reform Higher Education Fellow Nicholas Giordano appeared on Wilkow! to discuss how major U.S. companies are dropping their requirement to have four-year degrees. Degrees used to be a ‘golden ticket’ into corporate America, “but then the businesses and the companies realized that the students are not coming in prepared for our workforce,” Giordano said. Colleges have not given students the tools they need to succeed, he argued. “What’s the point of a college degree when you can give students technical skills to do certain jobs?” Companies used to have apprenticeships, where people started at low-level positions and worked their way up, Andrew Wilkow, host of the program, mentioned. “Something is happening in colleges that are making the graduates no longer desirable.” Giordano responded, “It’s because education has lowered standards for the last 30 years. Students have simply been cycled through the system where they haven’t learned how to write effectively, they don’t learn how to communicate with other people.” He further explained that companies are taking it upon themselves to train workers, because the universities are unreliable, as they incentivize laziness. “Companies are saying, ‘We need workers that are actually going to work.’” Gordano concluded. “How are these students going to be able to manage in the real life if they can’t sit there and take a class that’s hard?”"
When you confuse signalling for value added, then debase the signal

Could things get any worse for BBC Verify? | The Spectator - "When Tim Davie, the former BBC director-general, announced the expansion of BBC Verify, the organisation’s external fact-checking branch, last May, he claimed it would ‘nurture trust’ among readers, watchers and listeners of ‘the world’s most trusted news provider’. How did Verify get on? Well, after making misleading claims about racially motivated attacks in the wake of the 2024 Southport stabbings, wrongly claiming that car insurers were charging an ‘ethnicity penalty’ for drivers, and citing a journalist employed by an Iranian news agency owned by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps for commentary on the conflict in Gaza, the credibility of Verify, as well as its importance, was truly diminished. Less than a year after Davie’s plan to expand the operation, BBC Verify’s live blog was shut down and its role in the organisation minimised. How could BBC readers’ trust in Verify get any lower? On Sunday evening, an investigation from the Telegraph revealed that civil servants had been seconded to and worked on BBC News and BBC Verify stories about small boats, net migration and election debates. The scheme, which took civil servants from the Government Statistical Service, had been running since 2018 and sought applicants to ‘advise on the interpretation and presentation of statistical claims’; ‘help journalists find the right data source and come to conclusions supported by the evidence’; and ‘promote good statistics and statistical thinking to journalists.’... Only after the Telegraph revealed this did the BBC suspend the scheme."