hoping to impress, pam bondi didn't;

I will simply repeat that I hope everyone continues watching Pam Bondi’s unfolding mess in great detail. It’s going to get a lot worse as the issues get more serious.

Attorney General Pam Bondi delivered a failing performance today with a ridiculous theatrical “Epstein Binders” exhibition delivered to White House assembled “influencers.”  [They look like idiots]

A group of highly followed people from social media, were apparently recruited by someone in/around the orbit of Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt to visit the White House. I’m told the undiscussed agenda was to introduce the influencers to JD Vance, as part of the preliminary operation for Vance ’28 [Similar to Pushaw and DeSantis in ’22].

Attorney General Pam Bondi, always looking for the best performance for public imagery, took the opportunity of their visit to give the influencers an exclusive insider series of “Epstein Files” custom printed in a binder for them. However, the Epstein files delivered are nothing more than simple documents already in the public [Online pdf].

After talking for the past several days about her intention to reveal explosive Epstein files, Bondi way overpromised and severely underdelivered.  Then again, when it’s a performance, that tends to happen. But wait, it gets worse….......more........

larry johnson wants to make sure you know that you can't polish a turd; 

I thought the phrase “you can’t polish a turd” originated with the British or US Navy. For you non-native English speakers, it means that you cannot improve something which is inherently or unalterably unpleasant or of poor quality. After doing additional research, one of the earliest recorded uses is attributed to Geoffrey Stokes in his 1977 book Star-Making Machinery: Inside the Business of Rock and Roll, where it is used in the context of music production. The phrase gained popularity and became widely recognized in various contexts, often used humorously to describe futile efforts to improve something fundamentally flawed. That summarizes Keir Starmer’s meeting on Thursday with Donald Trump.

Here is how the British media portrayed the results of the meeting.

The Times of London:

Sir Keir Starmer won concessions from President Trump on trade and British plans to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius but failed to extract key ­commitments from the president on the future of Ukraine.

After more than two hours of talks in the White House, the prime minister said that they were working on a “new economic deal”, which the president said could happen “very quickly”..........more.........

i've ventured to guess that the zionists will  loose in the end at a place called armageddon located just east of southern gaza;

BEIRUT – It’s about 1:30 pm on Sunday, 23 February. Inside Beirut’s vast Sports City Stadium, at least 100,000 people clad in black and draped in yellow resistance flags pay their respects as the caskets of the late Hezbollah secretary-generals Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine begin to make a slow turn around the arena.

Suddenly a triangular formation of Israeli F-15 and F-35 fighter jets pierce the skies, buzzing the stadium as low as aeronautically possible. In any other nation, on such a somber occasion, this would have been an aerial tribute for the ceremony taking place on the ground.  

But this is Lebanon – a nation under pressure by the usual suspects, whose national army is prohibited from purchasing high-tech jet fighters and any meaningful air defenses. So the Israeli aerial show was, predictably, yet another provocation – one which, incidentally, instantly turned against the perpetrators. 

The whole stadium – plus the more than a million Lebanese congregating around it – outroared the agent provocateurs, in a cacophony of insults and deprecatory remarks. ..........more........

Mockery prevailed, rather than rage. What are you gonna do? Bomb all of us at the same time – as you did with Sayyed Nasrallah on 27 September 2024? We’re here, and we’re ready. Bring it on, cowards. 

 here are too many ukraine mineral deal problems to list here;

The New York Times reports (archived) that “Ukraine has agreed to turn over the revenue from some of its mineral resources to the United States”.

Ukraine will get nothing of value in return for it. The (former) Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenski is expected to visit the White House of Friday to submit to the extraordinary extortion of his country.

The deal is imposed indentured servitude at scale:

a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract called an “indenture”, may be entered voluntarily for a prepaid lump sum, as payment for some good or service (e.g. travel), purported eventual compensation, or debt repayment. An indenture may also be imposed involuntarily as a judicial punishment. The practice has been compared to the similar institution of slavery, although there are differences.

Ukraine is expected to get nothing, except more war, from this agreement. As Ted Snider describes it:

Normally, it is the country that defeated you in war, and not the country that defended you, that pillages you after the war. Unfortunately for Ukraine, its biggest military defender is set to pillage its resources as the two countries have now signed a minerals agreement after Trump warned that a refusal to sign would have led to “a lot of problems” for Ukraine.

Many mistakes have been made in the war over Ukraine’s minerals: Zelensky may have made a mistake in his strategy, and Trump may be mistaken in facts...........more............

 pcr doesn't like ai or the digital revolution and i agree;

AI and the Digital Revolution Are Mankind’s Deadly Enemies

Paul Craig Roberts

Does the pleasure you get from scrolling your cell phone compensate you for the frustration from the absence of customer service?  The same digital revolution that gave you a cell phone gave the companies the opportunity to drive up profits and executive bonuses by replacing customer service with AI that is seldom, if ever, programed to answer your questions and is extremely reluctant to connect you to a superior human who knows what to do.  All of us have been stressed out trying to get problems fixed, accounts adjusted, repairs made.  My favorite AI response when I call about the internet being down is “you will get faster service if you chat with us online.”

All of us know the frustration of the constant demands to update our information, our telephone number, our email.  These endless notices always appear when we are in the middle of some activity that is inconvenient to interrupt to go tend to Internet house-keeping problems.  But if you fail to respond too often, all of a sudden you cannot get into your investment accounts, your bank account, your Internet files, because the necessary code, since passwords no longer suffice, doesn’t reach you via cell text or email because you didn’t update.  These kinds of problems are almost impossible to correct, because they use your cell phone number and email to identify you. And even if you can get a human on the phone, the person has no way of knowing who you are except your information on file........more.........

our local electronic fishwrap provided this update on hurricane recovery; 

Over five months after Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina, the region continues to grapple with significant recovery challenges. While progress has been made, several critical needs remain unmet:

Job Loss due to Helene: Beyond the physical destruction, Hurricane Helene inflicted significant economic hardship on Western North Carolina. Widespread job losses due to business closures and damage exacerbate individuals’ and families’ challenges while striving to rebuild their homes and lives. In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the Foscoe Home Team sprang into action, providing essential resources to ease the immense hardship caused by widespread unemployment. From the first few days following the storm, FHT has offered food assistance, utility aid, and housing support, helping those affected stay afloat while they searched for new employment or rebuilt their businesses.

Housing Crisis: The sheer scale of destruction is staggering, estimates show over 74,000 homes either completely destroyed or suffering damage, rendering them uninhabitable. The lack of adequate temporary housing remains a major obstacle to recovery. Many not only lost their homes but their land was also taken by rivers that have created new paths in the wake of the floods.

Energy Insecurity: Widespread propane tank damage from the storm and the increased use of alternative heating in temporary housing during unusually cold weather have created a life-threatening energy crisis. The Foscoe Home Team is working tirelessly to address the crisis by providing free propane, firewood, heaters, and financial assistance for heating costs..........more.....

 the video rebel posts sporadically and usually has info you don't find elsewhere, so here's a new entry;

Elon Musk stirred up a lot of controversy by revealing the US government paid out $4.7 trillion last year without checking if it was being spent legitimately and if the person receiving it was neither a fraudster nor a terrorist. He also revealed that the US has 62 million more active Social Security numbers than people living in the US. The oldest person in the world is 116, but the US has 5 million people 140 or more years old eligible for Social Security. Many of those 62 million fraudulent Social Security numbers are used by foreigners for $3,000 plus income tax refunds on earned income tax credits.  Others might be ghost federal employees which is why he wants them to send emails to their boss. Fake employees have no boss. Prior to Musk, one postal address could receive millions of dollars in income tax refunds for a hundred different people. And government workers paid so little attention to the payee that they would allow 10 or more people to use the same Social Security number.

 In the future, every government department will have to have DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) workers to make sure that civil servants are doing things right.

 Liberal Democrats need these cuts to be made, because America could not survive with $2 trillion a year budget deficits. Of course, Republicans benefit more than Democrats from these cuts, because billions of dollars were dent back to Democrat influencers, politicians and campaign coffers.............more......