Tootfinder

The U.S. is currently holding three times as many people in immigrant detention as were detained in the Nazi concentration camp system in spring 1939
—six years into the Third Reich and just before the start of World War II.
"…nobody sane now thinks the answer to abuses at Dachau was to give the guards more training."
https://<…

Into the abyss
The correct response to Dachau was not better training for the guards.

Casualties and destruction were reported across at least nine countries,
with the United Arab Emiratesrecording a total of 186 missiles and 812 drones sent toward the country since the start of the conflict
and two ports in Oman targeted in drone strikes today.

The US embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was hit by a drone strike,
causing a fire to break out.
The strike came as the state department urged that all US citizens leave more than a dozen Middle…

“Throughout our trip to Germany, most of the conversations I had with other survivors and their families reliably returned to fears and intergenerational traumas in the context of the Trump presidency; the rise of nationalism, authoritarianism and uncertainty in the U.S. and around the world. But although this was at the height of devastating reports of famine and genocide emerging from Gaza, everyone in our group, especially the Jews, seemed to make a concerted effort to avoid mention of Pa…

Remembering ‘Never Again for Everyone’ at Bergen-Belsen
At the height of the war in Gaza, a Jewish activist for Palestine accompanied his mother, a Holocaust survivor, to Germany for a ceremony to mark 80 years since liberation

I don't want war in Europe. I don't want war at all. I was a pacifist for the first 65 years of my life, and still tend that way. But we don't have a way of of deterring wars of aggression, and we live in a world where those are happening -- in #Ukraine, in #Palestine, and elsewhere. So we…

United States launched air strikes against Iran Saturday, and by Sunday night, at least 10 countries had attacked or been attacked.
Earth has just under 200 countries.
5% of countries are now at war.
The peace president did that, trying to conceal earlier crimes.

Mapped: Which countries have been targeted in Middle East as Iran retaliates to US-Israeli strikes
Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan are among the nations that have been attacked

Toblinger Knoten / Torre di Toblin
(October 2024)
#SilentSunday #LandscapePhotography #Photography

'Several' American warplanes crashed in Kuwait this morning,
the country’s defence ministry said.
All the pilots bailed out safely and are been checked up on at a hospital, according to the ministry.
They are all in a stable condition.
It is not immediately clear what caused the US warplanes to crash
but the incident came during an intense period of Iranian fire targeting the country.
The defence ministry said it is continuing investigations into th…

Series C, Episode 06 - City at the Edge of the World
AVON: Not unless they can do it in their sleep.
DAYNA: You should have killed them.
AVON: Probably.
CALLY: They could sleep through a war.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/306/415 B7B5

Trump Suggests Extended War on Iran as U.S. Adds to Forces in Mideast
Iran and allied militias, including Hezbollah, attacked Israel and U.S. targets,
and Israel struck in Lebanon.
Trump said the campaign could last “four to five weeks,”
but “we have the capability to go far longer than that.”
“Whatever the time is, it’s OK,
whatever it takes,”
Trump said at his first public event since U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran began on Saturday.
“Righ…

Live Updates: Trump Suggests Extended War on Iran as U.S. Adds to Forces in Mideast
Iran and allied militias, including Hezbollah, attacked Israel and U.S. targets, and Israel struck in Lebanon. President Trump said the campaign could last “four to five weeks,” but “we have the capability to go far longer than that.”

"Where will the von Neumanns, the Einsteins, and the Gödels of our age migrate after the SCOTUS overrules democracy in 2024 and Gödel’s Loophole is proven to exist? At this time, the two major powers of our time, the United States and China seem unlikely locations for brains to settle and grow in the long term."
(Inadvertently and ironically published on July 4th, 2022)

William Aspray
There was a moment in which Kurt Gödel, Albert Einstein, and John von Neumann were all roaming the halls of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton at the same time. Let that information sink in. Humanity experiences such gatherings of brilliant minds in a remote location of the space-time continuum only every so often; maybe the ancient Greeks and the men of the Renaissance witnessed such periods in time, as did the IAS staff at the end of World War II. How much will we have to wait f…

Sen. Kim accused Trump of rejected a “constitutionally required approval process for armed conflict because the Administration knows the American people reject risks pulling our nation into another war.” Kim said the overnight strikes in Venezuela “doesn’t represent strength. It’s not sound foreign policy. It puts Americans at risk in Venezuela and the region, and it sends a horrible and disturbing signal that targeting a head of state is an acceptable policy.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/jan/03/caracas-explosions-venezuela-maduro-latest-news-updates-live?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

HP reports Q1 revenue up 6.9% YoY to $14.44B, vs. $13.94B est., and expects FY 2026 results to be at the low end of its forecasts; HPQ drops 6% after hours (Jaspreet Singh/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/hp-war

Peter Arnett, a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent who covered the Vietnam War for the AP and the first Gulf War for CNN, has died at 91 (John Rogers/Associated Press)
https://apnews.com/article/peter-arnett-dead-e1e6815b50fe416b9ecf08453e9e80c4

Peter Arnett, who reported on the Vietnam and Gulf wars, has died
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Peter Arnett, who traveled the world covering wars from Vietnam to Iraq, has died. His son says Arnett died in Newport Beach and was surrounded by friends and family. He had entered hospice on Saturday while suffering from prostate cancer. He was 91. Arnett’s reporting on the Vietnam War for The Associated Press won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in 1966. He is likely best remembered, however, for his gripping live reports of the 1991 U.S.-led…

The British Ministry of Defence (MoD)
has said it is ⚠️moving families from the RAF Akrotiri airbase in #Cyprus
⚡️after it was targeted in a suspected Iranian drone strike last night
at around midnight local time (22:00 GMT), in an attack which caused limited damage but no casualties,
🔥Cyprus has put authorities on alert,
closing schools and evacuating people where necessary,

Institutional power, capitalism, colonialism, and an empire on the brink of war or collapse. Doncha just love escaping into fiction when the real world gets to be too much?
Yeah, 19th century fictional Britain is strikingly similar to the US today, but at least you know the fictional story will have a resolution. I don't want to spoil the story. Just know that you're in for a captivating ride with an excellent author.
Babel by R.F. Kuang
I listened to the audio book…

If you are an anti-fascist, you are against petroleum. Petroleum funds fascism globally. It is at the heart of the military industrial complex driving global imperialism, from both the US and Russia. Motonormitivity is fascist, both in it's elitist roots and in it's ties to historical fascism (Hitler hated bikes, just on principle). Oil is militarism.
Oil is the dominant resource which drives war, both in terms of it being the primary spoil wars are fought over and in terms of fueling the military vehicles and weapons that carry out those wars. Practically every war since (and including) WWII has been over oil. Genocides are carried out to secure oil. Gaza is over oil, in more ways than one.
Oil is the absolute enemy, and AI is simply an extension of that: an attempt to atomize us so we can't resist the oil-centric global order, one last grasp at the control over our lives oil has given to those whose power is now threatened by a solar punk future.
"I haven't written for a few weeks now. As I write the closing chapter and begin rewriting previous sections, everything feels both more distant and more immediate. The working title [Kairos] has only continued to feel more and more resonant, both during the writing and during my pause."
Now is the time to resist by making something different, by creating a world fundamentally opposed to these systems of oppression.
This is the last in my Kairos series. From here on out I'll be editing to try and make it more of a book than a series of posts. Thanks to everyone who has helped so far. All editing is welcome (typos, spell checks, questions and challenges). Between ADHD and dyslexia, it's always hard for my brain to notice mistakes in my own text so I always appreciate the support of those who can.
https://anarchoccultism.org/building-zion/kairos

Jim Beam shutting down bourbon production due to Trump's trade war is not something that I was expecting. Maybe I should have been expecting it.
"In a statement, the company said it was shutting down production at its Clermont distillery on January 1, 2026, though the visitors’ center on the site is to remain open, according to the Lexington Herald Leader."
#Whiskey #JimBeam #Politics

I read this fascinating thread while listening to Qobuz and by sheer coincidence, this track came on and it seems horribly appropriate:
#IfYouTolerateThisYourChildrenWillBeNext Manic Street Preachers on Qobuz https://open.qobuz.com/track/55341288
https://mastodon.social/@sellathechemist/116075306722957554
@… - The Russians cannot be trusted. At best the Russians will buy time, and then have another go.
When will European governments call a spade a spade and really push to disconnect from Russian oil and gas? If that means buying it from the US interim so be it. But then really push hard for energy and military security.
Russia is NOT going away. Nor is its hatred of Europe which is why the've been waging war on us in myriad ways for the last 20 years.
4/end
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/14/alexei-navalny-poisoning-death-russia-frog-toxin

Anger at the regime continues to spread,
even beyond the borders of the United States.
Millions of workers worldwide are following the fortunes of their brothers and sisters in the US
with intense sympathy for their struggle.
In Germany in particular, Trump’s actions vividly bring to mind Hitler, the Second World War and the Holocaust.
More and more people are becoming aware that a third world war can only be stopped if we succeed not only in overthrowing the…

Voices of solidarity from Germany in the fight against Trump’s drive to dictatorship - Bytes Europe
On Friday, January 23, around 100,000 people in Minneapolis turned out to protest against the Trump administration’s mobilization of ICE against the city’s

🔴URGENT! Donald Trump's special address at the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos!: https://benborges.xyz/2026/01/21/urgent-donald-trumps-special-address.html

Just finished "Pearl" written by Sherri L. Smith and illustrated by Christine Norrie, based at least in part on "Hiroshima in the Morning", a memoir by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto. A concise, wonderfully-illustrated, and fascinating story of a Hawaiian-born girl sent to visit her dying great-grandmother in Japan in 1941 and then trapped there throughout World War 2. I won't spoil things beyond that, but the book digs deep into the horrors of the war on both sides, showing just how cruel the geological ambitions of nations can be to people who belong to both cultures.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

A thought, after listening to all the fucking securocrats wanking off over their Munich Security Conference.
In the Franco-Prussian war, the Paris Commune happened. At the end of the first world war, Russia had a #communist revolution, while the German navy mutinied in an explicitly left wing revolt. After the second,

“Canada supports the United States…..”
these are the only words that matter and I’m sorry what? This is “our” position? No. I reject this!!
Canada has stood for humanitarian law and international peace and security for nearly a century.
We should be a “Middle Power” with values. Right? Wasn’t that the Davos speech?!
But here we are clapping meekly from the sidelines as the country that would love to annex us, now ruled by a Christo-Fascist Regime, and in partnership with a Judeo-Fascist Regime blows up people in a country ruled by a Islamo-Fascist regime.
We are basically back to the Middle Ages but with nukes in our back pocket.
These are the three most dangerous countries in the world all fighting amongst themselves. We should not be taking sides, except for the side of peaceful civilians of all religions in all countries.
This is not the way.
I am shocked at the shallowness, the naïveté and the cowardice of Carney’s foreign policy.
#canpoli #cdnpoli #canada #iran #usa #israel #palestine #war #genocide #fascism

Musk’s Starlink Blocks Russian Troops’ Internet Access at Ukraine’s Request
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/world/europe/starlink-blocks-russian-troops-access.html

At Ukraine’s Request, Starlink Denies Internet Access to Russian Troops
It’s unclear what effect the change will have on Russia’s ability to wage war, but Russian military bloggers said troops were experiencing internet outages that hampered frontline communications.

They are a military force in a war that cannot be won.
Kinda a natural spot in the rankings… @… https://…

Justin Hendrix (@justinhendrix.bsky.social)
At $28.7B for 2025 (nearly triple its 2024 budget) and at least another $56.25B over the next three years, ICE's budget would be the envy of many national militaries... "Indeed, this budget would put ICE as the 14th most well-funded military in the world, right between Ukraine and Israel." [contains quote post or other embedded content]

A look at the dearth of media coverage of Sudan's civil war, started in 2023; report: 32 journalists have been killed and 90% of outlets damaged or destroyed (Isma'il Kushkush/Nieman Reports)
https://niemanreports.org/sudan-civil-war…

Sudan’s Civil War Is Silencing the Press - Nieman Reports
Sudan’s journalists risk their lives to tell the story of their homeland as the world turns away, writes Isma'il Kushkush.

Russia Put Its Future at Risk by Remaking Its Economy for War
About half of the country’s federal budget goes toward the fight in Ukraine
-- money that does little to support its long-term development
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/24/world/e

Russia Remade Its Economy for War, but It’s Come at a Huge Cost
About half of the country’s federal budget goes toward the fight in Ukraine, money that does little to support its long-term development.

Gaza Sits Under 68 Million Tons of Rubble. A Look at the Daunting Task Ahead. - WSJ https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/gaza-rubble-reconstruction-israel-war-85f12cfa?st=Dz9edE&reflink=desktopwebshare_permal…

"One workload I now support would cost an estimated £6000 per month to run on one of the large cloud providers, which would allow me to purchase the actual hardware in use four times over every year. But “spinning up an instance” today using free credits means you can worry about that cost later, whereas ordering a box from Dell means waiting two to three business days by which time the hackathon is over."

Five Computers
There is no direct evidence that Thomas Watson, Sr. predicted in 1943 that there would be "a world market for five computers". First, he probably didn't know about computers back then: in the 1940s computers were classified research projects at the UK Government Code and Cipher School and the US Army, while Watson's IBM were famously involved with the other side during the war.

I am quite keen to watch The War Between The Land And The Sea on iplayer.
But we need to consider tactics. Will the folks sit and watch it with me at Xmas? If they would that'd perhaps be better than whatever drivel quiz shows and police car chase stuff they normally make me watch.
If they won't I'll be be postponing it three weeks for no reason.
🤔
Might be nice to watch it in the new bedroom but that probably won't have a bed or a chair until the new year.
#watching #doctorWho #onlyNotDoctorWho #tv

“It bears repeating that President Zelenskyy agreed to a Christmas truce,
but Putin declined,
yet he directs soldiers to continue to commit brutal crimes of aggression on one of Christianity’s holiest days.
“Even for countries at war, there is a long history of Christmas ceasefires, including notably during World War I.
Today’s decision by Putin to launch attacks rather than hold fire is a sobering reminder for us all:
Putin is a ruthless murderer who has no inte…

Ranking Member Shaheen, Senators Tillis, Rosen, Barrasso, Coons, King, Moran, Merkley, Van Hollen Statement on Russia’s Christmas Bombing of Ukraine | United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Thom Tillis (R-NC), Jacky Rosen...

Darth #Trump is an idiot—there's no other way to put it. It is rumored that he wants to pardon all war crimes committed by Russians against soldiers and civilians in #Ukraine.
Who does he think he is? Lord of the world? If he were just any ordinary citizen, people would laugh at him or put him in a psy…

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Feb. 14 that
territorial concessions by Ukraine
would not bring peace,
just as the 1938 Munich Agreement did not prevent World War II.
"It would be an illusion to believe that this war can now be reliably ended by dividing Ukraine
— just as it was an illusion to believe that sacrificing Czechoslovakia would save Europe from a greater war,"
Zelensky said at the Munich Security Conference.
The Munich Agr…

Territorial concessions by Ukraine won't bring peace, Zelensky says in Munich
"It would be an illusion to believe that this war can now be reliably ended by dividing Ukraine – just as it was an illusion to believe that sacrificing Czechoslovakia would save Europe from a greater war," Zelensky said at the Munich Security Conference.

As Trump threatens Iran, Venezuela, Mexico, Greenland and more,
renowned historian Alfred McCoy says the United States is
“an empire in decline,”
following a predictable pattern
of militarism abroad and political instability at home
as it loses power and influence on the world stage.
“American politics become increasingly contorted and irrational,”
says McCoy.
“I think the thing to do is to realize that we are an empire in decline, …
…

“Empire in Decline”: Historian Alfred McCoy on U.S. Aggression in Venezuela, Iran & Beyond
As President Trump threatens Iran, Venezuela, Mexico, Greenland and more, renowned historian Alfred McCoy says the United States is “an empire in decline,” following a predictable pattern of militarism abroad and political instability at home as it loses power and influence on the world stage. “American politics become increasingly contorted and irrational,” says McCoy. “I think the thing to do is to realize that we are an empire in decline, … and it will continue for another decade…

Two sides of the same presidency played out simultaneously along the National Mall on Thursday afternoon.
At one end, Donald Trump was telling the world to give peace a chance at a meeting with African leaders.
It was possible, he said, “to begin healing old wounds and transcending past differences and creating a future where every child of God can live in dignity, prosperity and peace.”
At the other end of the mall, top officials from his Defense Department were being grill…

Trump Trumpets Peace in Africa Amid War on Drug Boats, in Day of Dissonance
President Trump presided over a Congo-Rwanda peace deal on the same day his administration was being questioned about potential war crimes.

The Kremlin has heaped praise on Donald Trump’s latest national security strategy,
calling it an encouraging change of policy
that largely aligns with Russian thinking.
The remarks follow the publication of a White House document on Friday
💥that criticises the EU and says Europeis at risk of “civilisational erasure”,
💥while making clear the US is keen to establish better relations with Russia.
🔥“The adjustments that we see correspond in many ways to our vi…