FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul grabbed him for an interview as he was exiting a small, local event at his high-school alma mater. He exuded a calm fury, the same passion he’s always had against injustice.

I’ve included a partial transcript of the following ~8:00 video below. He made the following chilling, if obvious point about halfway through.

“I spent 17 months in Southeast Asia while the draft dodger was playing golf. Right? You know how I know we’re a third world country? Because in third... [More]”

Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.

Table of Contents

• Public Policy & Politics
• Journalism & Media
• Economy... [More]

“You are at the mercy of these faceless bureaucrats.”

This hits a little too close to home. How long before someone finds this blog and puts me on a list? Will my bank in Switzerland freeze my account as well? Granted, I’m not a black woman like poor Nathalie, so I have more rights.

This is just a public-service announcement that the reason they want you to do everything on your phone, on-line, and in the cloud is so that they can then track every last little thing you do.

And then they will... [More]

So it all started with the following line of code in the Startup.cs of a WPF application,

locator.GetInstance<IAuthenticationService>().LogInBasedOnGeneralSettings();

It was to be replaced with these lines of code.

#if DEBUG
    locator.GetInstance<IAuthenticationService>().LogInBasedOnGeneralSettings();
#else 
    locator.GetInstance<LoginViewModel>().Show();
#endif

Reduce startup complexity

Going by the single-responsibility principle, the startup should be responsible for starting the... [More]

The official response in the U.S. to the shooting of Renee Nicole Good is exactly the one you expect from an authoritarian state. No pity. No remorse. No empathy. They slander and lie and smear.

People crawl out of the woodwork to parse the event, proving that she was a terrorist.

It’s monstrous.

It is the sign of a deeply sick society, a broken culture.

These people exhibit such a deep lack of empathy, and such a disinterest in ensuring that this never happens again.

They need—and kind... [More]

The article C# 14 Extension Members: Complete Guide to Properties, Operators, and Static Extensions by Laurent Kempe writes,

“Perhaps the most powerful C# 14 capability is extension operators. You can now add user-defined operators to types you don’t control, enabling natural mathematical operations.”

When I first saw this, I thought it was kind of gimmick-y. But I just realized why it’s very nice that you can declare operators separately—optionally—from the type. Adding operators by default is a heavy... [More]

Think of trickle-down economics like this: imagine that two people have just dug up a big pile of money.

One of them says,

‘I’m gonna take all of this money and I’m gonna go make more money with it and then I’m gonna come back here and give you some of it’

And the other guy goes,

‘OK I guess I’ll wait here then.’

The first guy doesn’t believe in trickle-down economics. He just said whatever he thought he needed to say in order to get away with the money right now.

It’s the other... [More]

This is another cover-up of a shooting by federal military deployed in the U.S. Being white does not protect you. Historical privilege does not protect you. Only obeisance to the regime might protect you.

The umbrella has gotten smaller. You used to be standing under the umbrella, watching it rain on black and brown people. Now, It’s raining on people who have the right skin color, but the wrong thoughts, maybe the wrong gender.

This is Gaza.

NEW EVIDENCE SHOWS TRUTH BEHIND ICE SHOOTING by HasanAbi (YouTube)

The cop shot her because she was an uppity... [More]

Lesson 1: Resistance is futile

The lesson Switzerland can learn from the attack on Venezuela is that it can just stop investing in the military because its military is useless in this day and age.

It’s wasted money.

While there are theories that Caracas didn’t use any of its anti-aircraft missile batteries because they were paid off, it’s also just as likely that they realized that they can’t use them without dying.

What are you gonna do when those Chinooks drop into your national... [More]

This is yet another excellent interview, this one with John Kiriakou, who, like Ben Norton, is extraordinarily well-informed and extremely capable of imparting his knowledge. Lee Camp does a very good job of feeding him questions and topics.

LIVE: Former CIA Officer John Kiriakou on Venezuela, 9/11 & More! by Lee Camp − Unredacted Tonight (YouTube)

I learned the following about the mission to kidnap Maduro,

• The U.S. had zero casualties. Kiriakou says that that wouldn’t have been possible without complicity on the part of at least some Venezuelans, who were almost certainly on the CIA payroll.[1]
• He... [More]

Ben NortonThe following video is an excellent interview with Ben Norton, a fluent Spanish-speaker who has spent a lot of time in Venezuela, reporting and investigating economics and politics. He knows a lot of people there, and has many friends there. He says that the opposition in Venezuela, which on the tip of everyone’s tongue in the U.S., is negligible in Venezuela. They have no real presence, not even online. They are very marginal.

Those are the two parts of the narrative that are being pushed... [More]

Vijay Prashad is brilliant, and he’s brilliant in this video. He discusses how he knows Maduro personally, that the guy was a bus driver and union leader before he was asked to step in for him by Chavez, who was dying of cancer. Maduro’s wife is in the general assembly, as well.

Venezuela: What Just Happened? With Vijay Prashad, Andreína Chávez and José Luis Granados Ceja 📱 by Katie Halper (YouTube)

Maduor was elected president. The Wikipedia on the 2024 Venezuelan national election is one of the longest ones I’ve ever seen, and is filled with wishy-washy language that lets the reader believe that there is cold,... [More]

At least it’s easier to stay on top of things this time. You don’t have to dig down to get to the truth. The press conferences are more open and to the point. You don’t have to ask yourself what they’re really saying. They’re saying it. What they’re saying is horrible enough. If they’re lying to cover up something even more horrible and illegal, it almost doesn’t even matter.

Try and stop us

The U.S. President just says that the U.S. owns other countries, like Venezuela. It’s not true in... [More]

Renato KaiserIn September of 2023, I saw “s’läbä isch geil” by Renato Kaiser. It was a solid two hours. He had no notes. He delivered a two-hour show from memory. He is incredibly eloquent, introspective, insightful, poetic, and very, very funny.

These are the “chapters” of that nearly two-hour show

• Life is good
• Severin
• What about immortality?
• Would we want that? Why not?
• Just for ourselves? Or for everyone?
• Swiss Lotto / Win4Llife
• Cats; Altersheim
• Flossing
• Gendering in speech
• Serial killers... [More]

Read the explanation of method, madness, and spoilers.[1]

1. Zurück in die Zukunft II (1989) — 7/10
2. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) — 8/10
3. Zurück in die Zukunft III (1990) — 7/10
4. Rambo: Last Blood (2019) — 6/10
5. Non c’è più religione (2016) — 6/10
6. King Arthur (2004) — 6/10
7. Triangle of Sadness (2022) — 6/10
8. A Knight’s Tale (2001) — 9/10
9. El Verdugo / 100 Rifles (1969) — 6/10
10. Paddington in Peru (2024) — 6/10
11. The End of the Tour (2015) — 9/10

Zurück in die Zukunft... [More]

The article Oil Tanker Seized by Liz Wolfe (Reason) writes in such a weak way about piracy. This is neither surprising for the author nor the publication.

“Over the weekend, the Trump administration seized two oil tankers. […] U.S. forces boarded a Panamanian-flagged commercial vessel, owned by Hong Kong’s Centuries Shipping, off the coast of Venezuela. They had no seizure warrant, which doesn’t appear to have gotten in their way.”

This is why Liz Wolfe and Reason can’t be taken seriously as a news organization,... [More]

Tucker Carlson : War, Peace, Trump, and the Constitution. by Judge Napolitano − Judging Freedom (YouTube)

This is a good interview. The Pareto Principle is quite strong, though. I can agree wholeheartedly with at least 80% of what both of them said. I can find little with which to disagree in their discussion of Israel, Russia, China, Venezuela, Iran, Syria. They are both staunch supporters of freedom of speech, due process, no collective punishment, judge the individual, not the group. These are all good things.

The remaining 20% is, however, very important and requires a bunch of follow-up... [More]

The weekly newsletter Roaming Charges: Kill, Kill Again, Kill Them All by Jeffrey St. Clair (CounterPunch) writes,

“The double-tap strikes are appalling and illegal, but Hegseth is merely following the bloody path Barack Obama blazed. Obama’s drone assassination team even had a name for wounded survivors they would target for a second kill strike: squirters. According to David Shedd, Obama’s former acting director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.”

“We used double-taps all the time. You would get the initial signature off of a... [More]”

If you’ll recall, just 2½ weeks before the kidnapping, Trump Declares Closure of Venezuela’s Airspace by Dave DeCamp (Scheer Post),

““To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” the president wrote on Truth Social.

“It’s unclear if the declaration means that the US will impose a no-fly zone on Venezuela, which would be an act of war. Such a step or any military strikes on Venezuela would be illegal... [More]”

I queued this article in November of 2025 but never published it. The context has suddenly become much more relevant, so I’m clearing my queue of anything related to Venezuela.

At first, I thought it was kind of hilarious that the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize had been awarded to a Venezuelan. You know, because Trump wants one of the damned things so desperately, and he hates Venezuela, so it really seemed like a stick in his eye.

Hoo-boy was I wrong. The Nobel Peace Prize in 2025 was awarded to... [More]

I queued this article in October of 2024 but never published it. Since Israel and the U.S. are gearing up to attack Iran again, it’s time to clear out the backlog.

The article Biden escalates toward disastrous war against Iran by Andre Damon (WSWS) writes,

“Iran surrounded by US basesUsing Iran’s attack on Israeli military infrastructure Tuesday as a pretext, the White House has effectively given Israel carte blanche to carry out an illegal attack against the most populous country in the region.

““We’ll be discussing with the Israelis... [More]”

I queued this article in September of 2024 but never published it. It’s still quite topical as, 15 months later, Venezuela’s president has been kidnapped, Israel’s genocide against Gaza continues, and Israel is gearing up for another run at Hezbollah in Lebanon and against Iran.

Vijay Prashad offers an in-depth analysis of the history of Hezbollah, as well as the more recent history in the region. He particularly emphasizes that Israel is, by all reasonable definitions, the terrorist state, as... [More]

I queued this article in September of 2024 but never published it. The linked video is no longer available on YouTube nor can any trace be found of anything with that name on either DuckDuckGo (Bing) or Google because search engines apparently don’t index Rumble.[1] I’ll leave the link to YouTube, though, so we can all enjoy the big black hole provided by Google.

What Interest Does the U.S. Have in Who Governs Venezuela? by Glenn Greenwald (YouTube)

In the video, Greenwald discusses how the U.S. is... [More]

Read the explanation of method, madness, and spoilers.[1]

1. Born Poor (2025) — 8/10
2. Rückkehr des Königs (Return of the King) (2003) — 8/10
3. The Whiskey Bandit (2017) — 8/10
4. Palestine Is Still the Issue (2002) — 9/10
5. House of Gucci (2021) — 6/10
6. Heat (1995) — 6/10
7. Miami Vice S01 (1984) — 7/10
8. Knight Rider S01 (1982) — 6/10
9. Antarctica S01 (2011) — 6/10
10. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (2023) — 6/10

Born Poor (2025) — 8/10

This is a tragic film about generational poverty in... [More]

Below are links to articles, highlighted passages[1], and occasional annotations[2] for the week ending on the date in the title, enriching the raw data from Instapaper Likes and Twitter. They are intentionally succinct, else they’d be articles and probably end up in the gigantic backlog of unpublished drafts. YMMV.

Table of Contents

• Public Policy & Politics
• Journalism & Media
• Economy... [More]

Read the explanation of method, madness, and spoilers.[1]

1. Blood Diamond (2006) — 9/10
2. Cape Fear (1991) — 9/10
3. Das Netz (1991) — 9/10
4. Donnie Brasco (1997) — 8/10
5. Sandman S02 (2025) — 4/10
6. Road to Perdition (2002) — 7/10
7. Jump Cut (2024) — 8/10
8. Die drei Musketiere (1948) — 7/10
9. The Grudge (2019) — 6/10
10. U-571 (2000) — 6/10

Blood Diamond (2006) — 9/10

Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a diamond smuggler in Liberia and Sierra Leone. He’s incredible, seemingly using a... [More]

They: Maduro was a dictator.

Me: Fuck off.

They: What?!? Don’t you care that Maduro wasn’t a nice guy?

Me: No. Nothing you think you know about Venezuela is true. Nothing you think you know about Maduro is true.

They: But the Venezuelans…

Me: You don’t care about the Venezuelans. You care about low gas prices.

They: But Venezuelans are celebrating…

Me: The only people greeting the U.S. as liberators are oligarchs, plunderers, and assholes. Or the clinically deluded. Like you.

They:... [More]

Read the explanation of method, madness, and spoilers.[1]

1. Robocop (2014) — 6/10
2. Stirb Langsam 2 (Die Hard 2) (1990) — 8/10
3. Punisher: War Zone (2008) — 5/10
4. Brian Simpson: Live from the Mothership (2024) — 8/10
5. Fatal Attraction (1987) — 8/10
6. The 6th Day (2000) — 6/10
7. October Sky (1999) — 8/10
8. Shane Gillis: Beautiful Dogs (2023) — 7/10
9. Flyboys (2006) — 8/10
10. Schtonk (1992) — 8/10

Robocop (2014) — 6/10

Omnicorp has robot warriors. They use them all over the world to mop up... [More]

Read the explanation of method, madness, and spoilers.[1]

1. Over the Top (1987) — 6/10
2. Happy Gilmore (1996) — 7/10
3. The Interview (2014) — 7/10
4. Last Man Standing (1996) — 8/10
5. Havoc (2025) — 5/10
6. Snatch (2000) — 8/10
7. Adú (2020) — 9/10
8. Elysium (2013) — 8/10
9. Violent Night (2022) — 7/10
10. North Country (2005) — 9/10

Over the Top (1987) — 6/10

Lincoln Hawk is a truck driver who makes extra money with arm-wrestling. He’s quite well-known on the trucker circuit. He’s divorced from... [More]

Read the explanation of method, madness, and spoilers.[1]

1. Pollock (2000) — 7/10
2. Equalizer (2014) — 9/10
3. Rush Hour 3 (2007) — 7/10
4. Murder Sheets (2024) — 8/10
5. Emotionally Exhausting (2015) — 8/10
6. Self Help Me (2020) — 8/10
7. Ronny Chieng: Love to Hate It (2024) — 8/10
8. No Country for Old Men (2007) — 9/10
9. Fatherhood (2023) — 6/10
10. Abgang mit Stil (Going in Style) (2017) — 7/10

Pollock (2000) — 7/10

Jackson Pollack died as he lived: a miserable, self-pitying, drunken asshole.
... [More]