Bear Pit: now the sole domicile of politics at LuLa

[degrub]

As well in the US.

[Robert Roaldi]

It's pretty common here in the UK to have a contract clause that says anything you do that brings the employer into disrepute can be grounds for dismissal.
So really it's pretty dumb, if having an affair, to go somewhere you might be on a big screen and seen by huge audiences. Ironically if they hadn't ducked out of it with embarrassment no one would have put it on social media, so very much an own goal.

My take on that, and I'm not claiming that I'm not an outlier on this, is that I don't really buy the concept that him having an affair brings disrepute to his employer. I think that's arrogant bs.  FFS, half of marriages end in divorce, how do we think that happens, exactly? I don't remember the guy's name nor the company he worked for and I could not care less about either. I also don't believe that anyone else really cares, although many pretend to. For a day or so, anyway. What the CEO did wrong was to get caught and puritan America was temporarily titillated. We should not pretend that there's any more to the shit show than that.

People openly joke about the migration of sex workers to cities that host the Super Bowl, nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Who do we think is hiring those sex workers. I simply cannot take seriously the idea that people's private lives are any concern of their employers. I can imagine exceptions though, a Catholic cardinal or a TV evangelist visiting prostitutes. I can see where that might harm their brands. Although they seem to get away with a lot, don't they?

I watched a clip of a podcast where someone stated that the CEO on that concert video behaved badly because he betrayed his wife who was at home with his kids. Maybe that's true. And maybe it isn't. A priori we know nothing about the state of their marriage or how they live their lives and it's none of our business. The commentator continued that because he's in senior management he should behave better. I laughed out loud. Yeah sure, and pro athletes are supposed to be role models for kids. Give me a break, that ship sailed. The idea that there is a standard of public morality to which we all must adhere is farce, I mean, take a look around.

[degrub]

You think the puritans are bad, take a look at reputation and appearance control anywhere in Asia !

[Robert Roaldi]

I find it bizarre that the Trump administration is interviewing Ghislain in jail. Isn’t that a bit like admitting there’s something to all this. She’s convicted, she’s serving time, why interview her. They must be afraid she’s writing a book. If I were her, I’d make the deal, get the pardon, move to a country with no extradition treaty, and write the book anyway. What does she have to lose, she's in jail anyway for a long time. But it's not as if Trump has ever been subtle, I mean the guy is hawking golf courses and bibles on company time.

[Robert Roaldi]

This vlogger's wife was fired by DOGE while Elon was at its head and he's selling his Tesla, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFLrDaV6nkE&t=43s.

[Rob C]

This vlogger's wife was fired by DOGE while Elon was at its head and he's selling his Tesla, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFLrDaV6nkE&t=43s.

Robert, I have to conclude that nobody cares anymore.

It’s the same with the dead piling up in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and in all the other places where man shows his true colour, the bestial nature lying just under the surface. Shell-shock, numbness. That beautiful Ferrari, once you could buy it, would lose its magic as did my sensible Fiesta, bought when I realised I would be living alone. Your mega yacht would eventually fill your floating hours with problems you didn’t need. A day ago, here in Mallorca, an American pilot killed himself and his young son by flying into the sea. Just a little while earlier he’d been filmed flying acrobatics… aerobatics? Usually, nobody knows when their bell will toll, but ring that mother will.

It didn't use to be like that. Once, folks were careful, saved their pennies for those rainy days; nowadays, the way to go is spend, spend and spend until the card bounces. Caution has become a dirty word. Human psychology has looped the loop. You could be forgiven for thinking as I expressed in my opening line: nobody cares anymore; win or lose, it’s all the same in the end.

Oh well, lunch needs making in about thirty minutes. With luck, it might turn out okay!

;-)

[Robert Roaldi]

Robert, I have to conclude that nobody cares anymore.
.
.
.

I'm finding it harder and harder to care about the USA. Trump fired some labour stat bureaucrat because he didn't like the numbers she published. He then posted a number of things about the numbers, their timing, their political slant, all of which were shown to be untrue after a few minutes of fact-checking. Do you think anyone cares about facts anymore? People are barbecuing or at the cottage, or saturated with all the bs. The latest thing I've heard about is 'jobs for heritage americans'. So maybe 'heritage american' certification will become a thing now. It's a fictitious thing but there are benefits to having an uneducated and illiterate population. Maybe the Trump clan can launch a 'heritage' testing service.

RFK Jr fired his vaccine advisory board and replaced them with several vaccine skeptics. Think about that one for a minute. A vaccine skeptic? He may as well hire flat-earthers. OTOH, he is quite open about not believing in germ theory of disease so Trump must want incompetent insane people to work for him. At this point, the USA might be like those addicts. They won't turn their lives around unless they hit bottom and maybe the US hasn't sunk down low enough yet. I listened to a Sam Harris podcast the other day in which the interviewee described the devastation in science research funding because the "anti-woke" cult is angry at universities. MTG, a avowed QAnon fellow traveller (Jewish space lasers) is now considered to be an important force in Congress, especially in fund raising. Digest that for a moment.

The headlines say that Trump increased tariffs for Canada to 35%. I think it was 35%, I'm not really sure because who can keep track. It used to 25%, didn't it, then it was 10% maybe, but wasn't it 50% or 100% as well. I don't really know anymore. Is anyone paying attention to this horseshit? I stopped. Does Trump employ economic modellers to come up with these rates or does he pull them out of his ass on a whim? History has seen this before though, a nation brought down by one madman. (Did I just come close to invoking Godwin?)

Trump was angry at some health-industry related company Extremity Care LLC. They made a contribution to a Super PAC and he changed his mind. All well documented, as reported in a recent Popular Information SubStack. Utterly corrupt and not even trying to hide it anymore. It's all understandable. Trump doesn't care a damn about the USA. He doesn't care about US citizens or even the people who voted for him. They'll go along with anything anyway. There are moves afoot to further change voting districts in Texas and Florida and who knows where else. I noticed that after catching either De Santis (or his wife) in some financial scam a month or two ago, he laid low. It worked, everyone has forgotten and he's back. Oh well, all politicians are crooks right, but it's ok if he's OUR crook. Geezus, people are so f**king stupid, maybe the species doesn't deserve to survive.

Maybe the best thing the rest of the world can do is cut ties with the USA at this point. It won't be easy or cheap to do so but it might be cheaper than the alternative. I saw a funny post on FB. It said that Canada should seek inclusion into the EU since Canada is only 15 km from France (St. Pierre-Miquelon). Not so crazy, maybe. Be nice to have sources of used photo gear from somewhere other than a tariff crazy country.

I won't mention the American budget deficit increases. Apparently, that doesn't matter any more, they're doing great, Trump said so.

[degrub]

He could take a lesson from Thailand where all of the above is institutionalized in a suave fashion.

[Rob C]

I'm finding it harder and harder to care about the USA. Trump fired some labour stat bureaucrat because he didn't like the numbers she published. He then posted a number of things about the numbers, their timing, their political slant, all of which were shown to be untrue after a few minutes of fact-checking. Do you think anyone cares about facts anymore? People are barbecuing or at the cottage, or saturated with all the bs. The latest thing I've heard about is 'jobs for heritage americans'. So maybe 'heritage american' certification will become a thing now. It's a fictitious thing but there are benefits to having an uneducated and illiterate population. Maybe the Trump clan can launch a 'heritage' testing service.

RFK Jr fired his vaccine advisory board and replaced them with several vaccine skeptics. Think about that one for a minute. A vaccine skeptic? He may as well hire flat-earthers. OTOH, he is quite open about not believing in germ theory of disease so Trump must want incompetent insane people to work for him. At this point, the USA might be like those addicts. They won't turn their lives around unless they hit bottom and maybe the US hasn't sunk down low enough yet. I listened to a Sam Harris podcast the other day in which the interviewee described the devastation in science research funding because the "anti-woke" cult is angry at universities. MTG, a avowed QAnon fellow traveller (Jewish space lasers) is now considered to be an important force in Congress, especially in fund raising. Digest that for a moment.

The headlines say that Trump increased tariffs for Canada to 35%. I think it was 35%, I'm not really sure because who can keep track. It used to 25%, didn't it, then it was 10% maybe, but wasn't it 50% or 100% as well. I don't really know anymore. Is anyone paying attention to this horseshit? I stopped. Does Trump employ economic modellers to come up with these rates or does he pull them out of his ass on a whim? History has seen this before though, a nation brought down by one madman. (Did I just come close to invoking Godwin?)

Trump was angry at some health-industry related company Extremity Care LLC. They made a contribution to a Super PAC and he changed his mind. All well documented, as reported in a recent Popular Information SubStack. Utterly corrupt and not even trying to hide it anymore. It's all understandable. Trump doesn't care a damn about the USA. He doesn't care about US citizens or even the people who voted for him. They'll go along with anything anyway. There are moves afoot to further change voting districts in Texas and Florida and who knows where else. I noticed that after catching either De Santis (or his wife) in some financial scam a month or two ago, he laid low. It worked, everyone has forgotten and he's back. Oh well, all politicians are crooks right, but it's ok if he's OUR crook. Geezus, people are so f**king stupid, maybe the species doesn't deserve to survive.

Maybe the best thing the rest of the world can do is cut ties with the USA at this point. It won't be easy or cheap to do so but it might be cheaper than the alternative. I saw a funny post on FB. It said that Canada should seek inclusion into the EU since Canada is only 15 km from France (St. Pierre-Miquelon). Not so crazy, maybe. Be nice to have sources of used photo gear from somewhere other than a tariff crazy country.

I won't mention the American budget deficit increases. Apparently, that doesn't matter any more, they're doing great, Trump said so.

The trouble is, the American people are also victims of this situation. If there is apathy and indifference and, as in Britain, a low voter turnout, this results in the extremists getting power. I guess that, again as in my homeland, there is no real difference anymore other than in the branding, the name of the political parties: the players are all in the game for personal enrichment. When you discover that, all you can do is choose your least repulsive brand of poison or just stay at home and bury your mind in music or television. We are lucky: we get to do that with photography and distractions such as LuLa.

[Robert Roaldi]

The trouble is, the American people are also victims of this situation. If there is apathy and indifference and, as in Britain, a low voter turnout, this results in the extremists getting power. I guess that, again as in my homeland, there is no real difference anymore other than in the branding, the name of the political parties: the players are all in the game for personal enrichment. When you discover that, all you can do is choose your least repulsive brand of poison or just stay at home and bury your mind in music or television. We are lucky: we get to do that with photography and distractions such as LuLa.

True enough and very sad. Turns out votes count though, although it's not easy getting people to believe that sometimes. Bad economic data is starting to emerge in the US, which is bad for everyone there except for those who are already so wealthy that they could never spend it all. Bully for them.

I saw some odd anecdotal reports that US doctors are leaving the US and trying to enter Canada because they're so sick of dealing with the American health insurance industry. This is odd for me to hear because previous anecdotal evidence here in Canada was always about doctors wanting to go to the US because they earned more there. I wonder if there is any reliable data about these movements.

The efforts that are being made in Texas to gerrymander voting districts seem a little bizarre to me. The Republicans already have Texas in the bag, why draw attention to themselves by such an obvious move. It's ham-handed at best, but Trump has never been subtle.

It made me laugh when Trump fired that labour statistics person but Hegseth gets to keep his job.

The new head of NASA wants a nuclear reactor on the moon, https://www.business-standard.com/world-news/nasa-moon-nuclear-reactor-sean-duffy-space-race-china-russia-125080500728_1.html. I love it that the reactor image in that article made it look like the Monolith. Microstock at its finest?

[degrub]

ahhh. So now we know what the mysterious object was in 2001 Space Odyssey.

[Robert Roaldi]

The jury may be out on the US economy but Trump's doing ok, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-financial-disclosure-crypto-merchandise-b2770217.html. The Presidency may be the most successful business he's ever run.

[Rob C]

Having agreed a 15% tariff on the European Union a few days ago, Trump has changed his mind and now wants it to rise to 35% unless Europe hands him 600,000 million dollars of investment in the US on top of the agreed deal. Boy, is the USA being turned into the world’s greatest extortionist!

The robber barons are alive and thriving.

[digitaldog]

Don't worry, it is TACO Tuesday. Once a week! 

[Manoli]

Having agreed a 15% tariff on the European Union a few days ago, Trump has changed his mind and now wants it to rise to 35% unless Europe hands him 600,000 million dollars of investment in the US on top of the agreed deal. Boy, is the USA being turned into the world’s greatest extortionist!

The robber barons are alive and thriving.

US EU trade deal yet to be ratified

[Robert Roaldi]

Meanwhile, there has been progress on the vaccine front, with RFK Jr stopping many mRNA research projects https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/05/rfk-jr-hhs-mrna-vaccine-research. I wonder if criminal cartels will start smuggling vaccines into the US, better hire more border guards!  OH NO, tariffs against Canada may be raised.  This will save the US a lot of money, which they will need to pay off that massive federal budget debt. This seems well thought out.

A side note about that decision. They implied that mRNA vaccine research is only ending for respiratory related diseases like Covid, etc., but it not necessarily ending for other applications. Ordinarily I'd be interested in hearing the argument for that, but frankly, who gives a shit.

A recent Sam Harris Making Sense podcast asked whether the US is ready for the next pandemic https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/425-are-we-prepared-for-the-next-pandemic. It's a valiant effort to examine the issue but may ultimately be wasted effort. The USA is not receptive to rational thought and public health planning because experts are bad and they made us wear masks for a while. (Although ICE agents seem to like wearing masks, so maybe sometimes it's ok?) Many people don't believe in public health in the first place, because how can health be a 'public' thing. Let the USA run the experiment, see what happens.

I listened to an online report yesterday about FEMA. Trump wants to end/curtail/limit FEMA aid to jurisdictions that decide to protest against Israeli corporations because of what's going on in GAZA. This is how a mafia don would run a country, I think. You tax people to fund FEMA, but then hold back disaster aid unless the jurisdiction that is affected tows the party line. Well done. I suspect what's really going on is that the Don wants those jurisdictions to buy some meme coins.

The test case in L.A. went well, I think. The USA is nearly ripe for martial law. There were protests in L.A. but nothing that rubber bullets and riot police can't quell. It's Trump's assault on legacy media that confuses me. He should be concentrating on leaning on youtube to stop anti-Trump videos and podcasts. Facebook is on side, no more fact-checking there. Here in Canada, it's not possible to include links to Snopes in FB posts. This is done for some tax legislation reason I'm told, but maybe Texas and others will soon see the wisdom in it, I think.

They keep showing short video clips online of Trump skirting the rules of golf. Cute but who cares?

[Rob C]

It makes interesting thinking, this concentration on non-dollar value tokens. If someone manages to make the dollar become redundant, fall off its own cliff, then its collapse would bring the US and other big holders of dollars to their knees.

How to smash a country without firing a single military bullet. Perhaps we are not witnessing inept leadership at all, but a brilliantly orchestrated scheme to destroy the (currently believed) supreme military and economic power that the world has ever known. In a hundred years time the history books - should there be any, burnings and reediting notwithstanding - may yet write this up as the darkest hour western civilisation has known. Frankly, nobody can become incredibly rich and be anyone’s fool at the same time. I believe we have been, and will now continue to be blinded by the entertaining smoke and the semi-transparent mirrors.

Space. Yes, fortunes are being spent on it, and it may not be economics and warfare that are the drivers; should power believe that the public will not accept uncomfortable measures in order to save the planet, and thus itself, those with the funds to create lifeboats and alternative societies in non-terrestrial exile will not lie down and die with the plebs. Last flight out of Vietnam, anyone?

[Robert Roaldi]

.
.
.
Space. Yes, fortunes are being spent on it, and it may not be economics and warfare that are the drivers; should power believe that the public will not accept uncomfortable measures in order to save the planet, and thus itself, those with the funds to create lifeboats and alternative societies in non-terrestrial exile will not lie down and die with the plebs. Last flight out of Vietnam, anyone?

I wish they'd hurry up and go already.

[Robert Roaldi]

If you thought that firing a labour stats civil servant was going too far, some will go a long way to avoid data they don't like https://gizmodo.com/trump-administration-moves-to-destroy-satellite-that-monitors-greenhouse-gases-2000639234.

I hope there is something else going on here that they're not saying, like the satellite was worn out or malfunctioning or something and that they're planning to replace it with a newer and better one, but I didn't see any mention of anything like that.

During Trump's first term in office I had an idea to try to teach him about Einstein's special relativity to see if he'd reject it as fake and then fire the department that adjusts GPS satellite clocks every day. Would still be a fun prank, I think.

[Robert Roaldi]

Sometimes, news reports are too funny for words. Yesterday's meeting with members of cabinet that Vance hosted, without Trump's presence, was described in at least one report as "secret".

Hell, if I know about it, can't be much of a secret.