Yes, it is. When did you try? They keep coming up with new updates, I hardly recognize it from 3 months ago.
snarkhuntrsays
I tried it out when it was new and crap way back in the day. Tried it again a few months ago – I can see what people get out of it but the whole world(s) just seem repetitive and soul-less to me. I played it for a few weeks off and on, but just found that the time it took and the fun I was having didn’t match up well.
Each new planet explored just seemed like box-ticking to meet some achievement and there wasn’t any sense of discovery for me.
PYONGYANG (The Borowitz Report)—Kim Jong Un was incandescent with rage on Wednesday as he accused Donald J. Trump of stealing his idea of gathering his top military brass for an orgy of propaganda.
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Kim said of Tuesday’s event in Quantico, Virginia. “That asshole totally ripped me off.”
“The summoning of the nation’s generals, the insistence on loyalty, the unhinged rhetoric—I had all of that,” the North Korean dictator added. “The only thing I didn’t have was the weird drunk guy with all the makeup.”
In another accusation, Kim claimed Trump lifted his idea of attacking American cities, stating, “Washington DC, Los Angeles, Chicago—they were all on my target list. The only one I didn’t have was Portland. Why is he attacking Portland? That makes zero sense.”
The Senate voted on both the Republican, House-passed continuing resolution and the Democratic counter proposal later in the day. Both failed.
House Republicans are still away from D.C., prompting taunts from House Democrats, who gathered behind House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) for a press briefing on the House steps Tuesday morning, to come back and “do their jobs.”
A Monday meeting between Jeffries, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and President Trump did not move the needle. Soon after the meeting, Trump posted an AI deepfake video of Schumer saying Democrats are “woke pieces of shit” with Jeffries nodding along in a sombrero — not exactly the move of an engaged negotiator.
“President Trump didn’t seem to be seriously negotiating yesterday. So until Republicans get serious, things don’t look good,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told reporters.
“They’re in charge. They have to convene a negotiation. They haven’t done that … they have not convened a negotiation. They have not been serious about it, and the fact that they aren’t even here in the House of Representatives is proof that they’re not serious about it,” Murphy added.
“The Republicans can end this shutdown by giving back health care to the American people and not keeping fucking them over every single day,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) told reporters coming out of the Senate Dem caucus luncheon when asked if the caucus discussed how to get out of a shutdown. “That’s how we end this thing. They should do their jobs.”
Trump is just openly threatening to ransack the federal government if Democrats don’t cave. The White House OMB hinted at employing this strategy last week. “Trump: We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible and bad for them like cutting vast numbers of people out. Cutting things they like, cutting programs they like.
We can do things medically and other ways including benefits. We can cut large numbers of people”
Hud.gov has a new look: a red banner stretching across the top of the website, the text reading, “The radical left are going to shut down the government and inflict massive pain on the American people unless they get their $1.5 trillion wish list of demands. The Trump administration wants to keep the government open for the American people.”
The Trump administration has been pulling out all the stops in recent days to try to pin the blame for a shutdown on Dems — who have been pushing for an extension of ACA subsidies and for the Trump White House to stop cutting funding appropriated by Congress in exchange for their votes.
“Of course, I’m concerned. I’m concerned about people who won’t have access to government services,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) told reporters when asked about the consequences of a shutdown.
“But I’m also concerned about a Republican Party that thinks it can take a trillion dollars out of our health care system and make every American family pay for that, and that the Republicans will just dance on away,” she continued. “They’re willing to help out their billionaire buddies. After all, all these cuts to health care were so that they could fund tax breaks for billionaires and billionaire corporations. It’s time for Democrats to stand up and say, ‘No more.’” […]
“Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised to deliver groundbreaking news on autism research in September. It’s October. He failed.”
The White House Cabinet meeting held in April was weird for a great many reasons, but it was a comment from Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that stood out. At Donald Trump’s “direction,” the health secretary declared that U.S. officials would discover the causes of autism — in less than six months.
“We’ve launched a massive testing and research effort that’s going to involve hundreds of scientists from around the world,” Kennedy boasted. “By September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic, and we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures.”
The president seemed delighted, responding that such news would be “so big.” He proceeded to ask Kennedy: “So, you think you’re going to have a pretty good idea, huh?”
“We will know by September,” the secretary replied.
To that end, the public learned in June that Kennedy had hired David Geier, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, to help hunt for evidence about the causes of autism. Two months later, at another White House Cabinet meeting, the health secretary had an opportunity to lower expectations, but he did the opposite. [video]
“We are doing very well,” Kennedy said, referring to his team’s research efforts. “We will have announcements, as promised, in September. We’re finding interventions, certain interventions now that are clearly, almost certainly causing autism and we’re going to be able to address those in September.”
So, whatever happened to this?
To be sure, the president and Kennedy held a White House event last week in which Trump peddled a series of absurdities, culminating in him saying “Don’t take Tylenol” 11 times. At no point, however, did the president or his health secretary get around to identifying “what has caused” autism or undermining the science that proves that vaccines do not cause autism.
It led Dr. Jerome Adams, who served as Trump’s surgeon general during the president’s first term, to note online: “The White House, HHS, and all of the media have (completely) buried the lede. Every news headline should actually read: ‘Despite bringing the full resources of the U.S. government to bear, RFK fails to find a connection between vaccines and autism!’”
It was hardly an unreasonable point. Kennedy told the public, more than once, that he would deliver groundbreaking news in September. He and his team then launched “a massive testing and research effort,” which included “hundreds of scientists from around the world,” all in the hopes of confirming RFK Jr.’s unscientific ideas.[!]
“IGs exist as instruments of accountability by identifying wrongdoing. It’s precisely why Trump and his team see them as obstacles and enemies.”
There were plenty of problems with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s ridiculous speech to the nation’s generals and admirals, but one of the key areas of concern was the beleaguered Pentagon chief’s vision for how the DOD would operate in the coming months and years.
As The Washington Post reported, “Hegseth said he will overhaul the military channels that allow troops and defense personnel to file whistleblower complaints, report toxic leadership or point out discrimination based on race, gender, sexuality or religion.”
[…] the secretary told military leaders, “The [Defense Department’s internal watchdog] has been weaponized, putting complainers, ideologues and poor performers in the driver’s seat.” (Hegseth neglected to mention that he’s facing an ongoing investigation from the DOD inspector general.)
[…] a new model in which military personnel who see wrongdoing, waste or mismanagement — people Hegseth described as “complainers” — will find it more difficult to blow the whistle and have their concerns addressed.
But making matters far worse is that this offensive isn’t limited to the Pentagon. The New York Times reported:
The White House last week informed a federal office charged with conducting oversight of the Trump administration that it was blocking congressionally approved money for its operations for the coming fiscal year […]
[…] on the fifth night of his second term, Donald Trump executed his first Friday Night News Dump of 2025, firing at least 18 inspectors general who were responsible for rooting out corruption, ethical lapses and mismanagement in federal agencies throughout the government.
Trump did not appear to have the legal authority to take such steps, but he did it anyway. Nearly nine months later, the White House is going even further to gut IG offices.
As for the motivation behind the moves, nothing about this is subtle: Inspectors general exist as instruments of accountability. They identify wrongdoing. That’s precisely why Trump and his team have come to see them as obstacles and enemies.
The good news is that a handful of congressional Republicans, including Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Susan Collins of Maine, quickly expressed their disapproval and wrote to Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, “urgently request[ing] an explanation” of a decision they said would “disrupt numerous important oversight functions.”
The bad news is that Collins and Grassley have written similar requests to the Trump administration for months, and the GOP senators’ efforts have amounted to nothing.
@Acyn
Trump: San Francisco and Chicago, New York, Los Angeles… We’ll straighten them out one-by-one. It will be a major part for some of the people in this room. It’s a war too. It’s a war from within
7:10 AM · Sep 30, 2025
AND, this stupidity, what an addled 19th Century mind – – –
@Acyn
Trump: I think we should start thinking about battleships… It is something we’re considering, the concept of battleship. Six inch side solid steel. Not aluminum that melts if it looks at a missile coming at it. Starts melting. Bullets are a lot less expensive than missiles.
6:55 AM · Sep 30, 2025
“We could come up with a new system that would be much better” than Obamacare, the president said, seemingly unaware of his own record.
Exactly 12 years ago, congressional Republicans followed Sen. Ted Cruz’s lead and shut down the federal government for one reason: health care. At the time, the Texas senator and his colleagues believed a shutdown offered one last opportunity to derail the Affordable Care Act before it was fully implemented.
Two weeks later, after the Obama White House and congressional Democrats refused to pay Cruz’s ransom, GOP officials grudgingly accepted reality and retreated.
[…] In 2025, unlike in 2013, it’s Democrats who are fighting to protect the ACA from a Republican majority that’s already taken steps to sabotage the system known as Obamacare, and Republicans are prepared to make things worse by allowing new price hikes to take effect in the coming weeks.
Summarizing the dispute, the editorial board of The New York Times explained, “What the two parties are fighting about is whether Americans should have access to affordable health care. President Trump is seeking to deprive millions of Americans of their health insurance, and Senate Democrats are refusing to acquiesce.” [Well said.]
So, with just hours remaining before the shutdown deadline, the president made fresh comments about the existing system. [video]
“Obamacare is not a good thing. It’s been bad,” Trump said, deriding the popular and effective health care reform law. He added that he’s told congressional Democrats, “We could come up with a new system that would be much better.”
The comments came a few months after the president also said he and his party had “a chance to actually do a health care that is much better than Obamacare.”
By all appearances, he has no idea why this is laughable.
About a year ago, during a presidential debate, ABC News’ Linsey Davis reminded Trump that he’d “long vowed to repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act. She then asked, “So tonight, nine years after you first started running, do you have a plan, and can you tell us what it is?”
The Republican meandered for a while — he claimed to have “saved” the ACA during his first term, which was a brazen lie — before assuring voters that he and his team are “working on things.”
Asked in a follow-up question whether he has a plan to replace Obamacare or not, Trump replied, “I have concepts of a plan.” He added that Americans should expect to hear more about this “in the not-too-distant future.”
We’re still waiting.
[…] In mid-July 2020, […] Trump appeared on Fox News and said, “We’re signing a health care plan within two weeks, a full and complete health care plan.”
As regular readers might recall, two weeks went by, and the “full and complete” health care plan was nowhere to be found. As July 2020 neared its end, the then-president was pressed for some kind of explanation. He told reporters, “We’re going to be doing a very inclusive health care plan. I’ll be signing it sometime very soon. It might be Sunday [Aug. 2], but it’s going to be very soon.” [Scoff]
On Aug. 3, 2020, Trump presented a new timeline: “I do want to say that we’re going to be introducing a tremendous health care plan sometime prior — hopefully, prior to the end of the month. It’s just about completed now.” [LOL]
[…] In mid-September 2020, the then-president balked at the idea that he was failing to follow through on his promise. “I have it all ready. I have it all ready,” Trump told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, adding, “I have it all ready.”
[…] A month later, the Republican told CBS News’ Lesley Stahl his health care blueprint would be “announced very soon.” After Trump abruptly ended the interview, then-White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany handed the “60 Minutes” anchor a thick binder that she said included the White House health care plan. It did not. [!]
That was five years ago this month. Keep this in mind as Trump, apparently indifferent to appearances, declares, “We could come up with a new system that would be much better.”
It’s not often that Senate Republicans muster the courage to tell Donald Trump and his team, “Whoa, hold on, we can’t go that far.”
As a rule, the process surrounding Donald Trump’s nominees is relatively efficient. The president taps a loyalist with dubious qualification; Senate Republicans do what the White House tells them to do; and the nominees are confirmed to powerful positions that most shouldn’t have.
But there are some exceptions to the rule. Indeed, the list of failed Trump nominees has quietly become rather long. The list includes Matt Gaetz, Dave Weldon, Ed Martin, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, Chad Chronister, Kathleen Sgamma, Jared Isaacman and, as of this week, E.J. Antoni. NBC News reported:
The White House on Tuesday withdrew the nomination of E.J. Antoni, a conservative economist, to be the next commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. … Antoni, a contributor to Project 2025, was backed by Steve Bannon for the post.
For those unfamiliar with Antoni and his nomination, let’s take a minute to review how we arrived at this point.
A couple of weeks after Trump responded to his ugly record on jobs by firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics without cause, the president introduced his own nominee: Antoni, the chief economist at the Heritage Foundation. Almost immediately, he was exposed as an almost cartoonishly poor choice.
His academic background, for example, left little doubt that he was spectacularly unqualified to lead the bureau [!]. […] Antoni also had a record of misunderstanding the very government data he was supposed to oversee; he’d signaled an interest in moving away from releasing monthly job reports; he’d derided Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme”; and he’d helped craft the right-wing Project 2025 blueprint.
[…] Just when it seemed Antoni’s record couldn’t get much worse, NBC News reported that the BLS nominee was also among the crowd outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Soon after, CNN and Wired separately reported on Antoni’s since-deleted Twitter account, which featured sexually degrading attacks on Kamala Harris, derogatory remarks about gay people, conspiracy theories and weird references to weapons used by Nazi Germany in World War II. [!] [I snipped other offensive comments that Antoni posted online.]
[…] In mid-September, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted that Antoni could be counted on to generate “truthful and honest data.” In late September, the White House pulled the plug on this fiasco.
[…] only the third time since Election Day 2024 when just enough Senate Republicans mustered the courage to say, effectively, “Whoa, hold on, we can’t go that far,” following comparable reactions to Gaetz and Martin.
[…] the Trump White House obviously didn’t bother to do its due diligence on Antoni, reinforcing concerns about rampant incompetence in the West Wing.
[…] In addition to promoting offensive AI videos, during the run-up to the shutdown deadline, Trump acted erratically, agreeing to bipartisan talks, then reversing course, only then to reverse course again. He publicly urged his own party’s leaders not to negotiate with Democrats, while falsely claiming that Democratic votes wouldn’t be needed to keep the government open.
Now, as the shutdown begins, the president has said he’s prepared to take “irreversible” actions, including cutting unidentified “benefits,” all while suggesting he’ll be required to fire “a lot” of federal workers — a move that wouldn’t be necessary and might not even be legal.
With just hours remaining before the deadline, Trump boasted, “A lot of good can come down from shutdowns,” which indicated that he was looking forward to the mess, rather trying to avoid it.
As political scientist Jonathan Bernstein explained earlier this week, “the structural basics” of this shutdown appear to be favor Republican, “but it is possible that Trump can overcome that and convince people to blame him.”
[…] The White House is already hiring back a substantial number of fired workers because they’re not able to run things with such a depleted workforce. That’s not because they believe in good government. They’re doing it because it’s causing problems which either upset key Republican stakeholders or threaten the president’s popularity.
They are the government. They run it. They own it. They can say they’re going to fire everyone except the military and ICE. But the blowback is on them — non-functioning services, delayed checks, government facilities closed, flight delays, government workers without paychecks, etc. Those things are unpopular. They’re a big reason why Trump himself gave in after a few weeks in 2018-2019 when he closed the government down on himself demanding money to build his wall.
[…] The whole logic of the Republicans’ shutdown argument is that the shutdown sucks, people will think it sucks and that the public will blame Democrats for doing it and pressure them to stop. The permanent firing threat means the White House is going to make that permanent even after the Democrats have apparently thrown in the towel. There’s a big problem with that strategy.
In any case, the folks in charge inevitably take the hit for things not working […]
Re: Lynna, OM @ #5…
My daughter came across a claim that the generals at the big meeting are now referring to Hegseth and Trump as “little Boy” and “Fat Man” because their speeches totally bombed. (For those unaware, those were names applied to the two nuclear bombs dropped on Japan in August 1945.)
And, as regards Trump’s comments about battleships… The belt armor on the Iowa class ships was 12 inches, not 6 inches.
“The self-ruling Danish territory, coveted by Donald Trump, has vast caches of rare earth elements.”
Britain is closing in on a long-desired critical minerals partnership with Greenland […]
The move comes just months after Donald Trump threatened to annex the Arctic island, which is seen as an increasingly important geopolitical player due to its vast reserves of rare earth minerals.
Its icy terrain holds 40 of the 50 minerals that the U.S. deems vital to its national security. The resources, from uranium to graphite, are crucial to manufacturing and global supply chains.
[…] Prime Minister Keir Starmer could sign the agreement as soon as this week when he visits Denmark’s capital Copenhagen for the European Political Community summit.
[…] Britain will have to confer with others — not only Denmark, but its European counterparts, to avoid any awkwardness, said Dr. Patrick Schröder, senior research fellow of the Environment and Society Centre at Chatham House.
“I think it’d be really important for the U.K. to engage on this with other European countries, especially the Nordics and Denmark,” he said. “That would be quite important to ensure this is not being perceived as the U.K. trying to beat Europe to access the minerals.”
Much like Washington, Brussels is eager to carve out its own stake, with Greenland’s foreign minister recently signalling interest in deepening EU ties — and flagging the island’s mineral wealth as a key area for cooperation.
The deal has to work for both Britain and Greenland — and crucially for the island’s indigenous communities.
[…] Denmark currently provides an annual block grant to the island, but that support shrinks as Greenland’s mineral revenues grow. The grant “gives Denmark more influence over political decisions,” Schröder explained, “and that’s actually one reason why Greenland also wants to benefit more from mining. They are looking at this as a form of revenue, so that would then also increase their independence from the Danish budget.” […]
Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey on Wednesday described President Trump’s Quantico, Va., remarks to top generals as less than admirable.
“I’ve been doing this a long time. That presentation at Quantico from the president and secretary of Defense was one of the most bizarre, unsettling events I’ve ever encountered,” McCaffrey said […]
“The president sounded incoherent, exhausted, rabidly partisan, at times stupid, meandering, couldn’t hold a thought together,” he added.
During his remarks on Tuesday, the president announced plans to use “dangerous” cities as “training grounds” for military efforts, alleging the United States was undergoing a “war from within.”
[…] Sen. Jack Reed (R.I.), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the meeting was “an expensive, dangerous dereliction of leadership.”
“Even more troubling was Mr. Hegseth’s ultimatum to America’s senior officers: conform to his political worldview or step aside,” Reed said in a Tuesday statement. “That demand is profoundly dangerous. It signals that partisan loyalty matters more than capability, judgment, or service to the Constitution, undermining the principle of a professional, nonpartisan military.
“His words were divisive and corrosive to the force itself. America’s military strength depends on men and women of every race, gender, and creed. By dismissing and marginalizing servicemembers who do not fit his narrow vision, Hegseth insulted those who serve honorably and eroded the cohesion that makes our military strong,” he added. […]
“Here Are Your Clips Of Late Night Audiences Laughing At Loser Pete Hegseth”
[…] Nothing pierces an authoritarian’s sense of his own importance and power like the cacophony of voices pointing and laughing at them. […]
[Pete Hegseth looked at the camera and issued this warning]
“Should our enemies choose, foolishly, to challenge us, they will be crushed by the violence, precision, and ferocity of the War Department. In other words, to our enemies, F-A-F-O.”
Try to watch the video without just losing it. [video at the link]
See? You can’t. And neither can late night audiences. Because both Kimmel and Stephen Colbert made use of that clip […]
More commentary, and more video snippets, available at the link.
whheydt @16, funny, and appropriate. Especially considering that Hegseth dissed “fat generals and admirals” in his speech.
More related commentary:
[…] Speaking to military leaders in Virginia on Tuesday, Hegseth said: “It’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops.” Hegseth went on to target military leadership, saying, “it’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the country and the world. It’s a bad look.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom reposted a video of Hegseth’s remarks on X, accompanied by a photo of Trump removing his jacket at a McDonald’s. The Democratic governor wrote: “I guess the Commander in Chief needs to go!” […]
U.S. District Judge David Campbell wrote in a 32-page opinion that Sigal Chattah “is not validly serving as Acting U.S. Attorney” and therefore her involvement in prosecutions “would be unlawful.”
Chattah is the second U.S. attorney installed by the Trump administration to see her authority stripped by a federal judge in recent months. In August, a federal judge disqualified Alina Habba as acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey, though that ruling is on pause pending appeal.
Not exactly the same steps as they used for Habba but the same effect. When it became clear she couldn’t pass Congress the Trump administration took steps to bypass the legal process. Chattah was seen as so toxic that Trump never formally nominated her but still wanted her to be US Attorney, an absurdity itself. National Review: Was Lindsey Halligan Validly Appointed as United States Attorney?
As I understand the facts, it seems highly doubtful that Lindsey Halligan has been validly appointed as United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. If her appointment is invalid, so is her indictment of Comey.
It appears there are issues with Halligan’s appointment also. And since she was the only attorney involved in the bringing the charges if she gets kicked the whole case goes up in smoke. In the other situations multiple lawyers were involved so the judge just kicked the illegal attorney general and said they can’t be involved in this case or any future cases, not that the case is rejected. Comey’s lawyers are sure to bring this up, probably fairly soon.
This is Ed Whelen, who holds the Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a heavily Heritage Foundation influenced group. Not exactly a left wing kind of guy. If he is saying the appointment is invalid there are huge gaping issues. Essentially it boils down to Erik Siebert was still an interim appointment when he left/was fired. This means that the district court gets the next pick, the president doesn’t get to appoint a string of interim attorney generals.
JMsays
MSNBC: Nicolle Wallace calls conduct in video of New Jersey mayor’s arrest a ‘stain on this country’
MSNBC noticed a really bad bit of video. In another case the DOJ released some body cam video from the arrest of the mayor of Newark. This was probably a mistake, if they had been aware the senior figures would have tried to keep this under wraps. The video appears to show that order for the arrest came from Todd Blanche, current Deputy Attorney General and previous personal lawyer for Trump. Somebody also gave orders for body cams to be turned off, hiding evidence of the arrest.
snarkhuntrsays
@21, 23
The US was a country created with Norms for the conduct of government instead of actual rules, and for centuries it has been maintained this way. Why that is is something I don’t fully understand: likely the consequence of a bunch of wealthy gentlemen running the show and trusting that none of their peers would rock the apple cart too much by being overly blatant with their corruption and criminality.
Over the last few decades, people on the right have been testing and retesting those norms and discovering that there simply aren’t any rules at all. The only limits on what they could do with their governmental power were their own consciences. Having ruthlessly purged their party of anyone of conscience, they are now free to exercise unchecked power.
Unfortunately the Democrats seem to believe that if they just try hard enough, they can make it 1990 again, that the Republicans will voluntarily submit themselves to rules and morality. That they will cease their endless public lying and distortion and come back to consensus reality. They believe this so strongly, that they have resisted any call to impose rules and order on their opponents – after all, it can’t be a gentleman’s agreement if it has teeth, can it?
In the event that the Centre of the political spectrum in the States ever happens to take power again, hopefully there is enough spine there to push the creation of actual rules – and to punish the lackeys of the Trump administration severely enough for the rules and laws that they did break that the next wannabe dictator can’t find people to do his bidding. I don’t have much faith in this though. If the Democrats manage to squeak out enough midterm victories to take power in the House and/or Senate, I fully expect them to waste time ‘reaching across the aisle’ and ‘building consensus’ with the party that would happily decapitate the whole lot of them the next chance it gets.
StevoRsays
In summary biullionaires rule and Palestinians sidelined :
The proposal suggests a few billionaires who could sit on the board and flags it would include an investment body tasked with generating “real financial returns”.Critics say the plan sidelines Palestinians while giving power to foreigners who are “motivated by capital interests”.
Over the past year, Australia’s oceans have been hotter than ever before.
Its impacts were felt all across the nation — even for those as far away from the coast as you can get.
“It looks like the warm oceans probably contributed to some of the significant weather events that we saw [over the last year],” BOM senior climatologist Simon Grainger said.
Data from the past 125 years shows July to June sea surface temperatures around the country were far higher than any previous record.
And it wasn’t just one pocket of hot water skewing the figures.
Source :
StevoRsays
Over the past year, Australia’s oceans have been hotter than ever before.
Its impacts were felt all across the nation — even for those as far away from the coast as you can get.
“It looks like the warm oceans probably contributed to some of the significant weather events that we saw [over the last year],” BOM senior climatologist Simon Grainger said.
Data from the past 125 years shows July to June sea surface temperatures around the country were far higher than any previous record.
And it wasn’t just one pocket of hot water skewing the figures.
Is that No Man’s Sky? I really tried hard to like that game.
Yes, it is. When did you try? They keep coming up with new updates, I hardly recognize it from 3 months ago.
I tried it out when it was new and crap way back in the day. Tried it again a few months ago – I can see what people get out of it but the whole world(s) just seem repetitive and soul-less to me. I played it for a few weeks off and on, but just found that the time it took and the fun I was having didn’t match up well.
Each new planet explored just seemed like box-ticking to meet some achievement and there wasn’t any sense of discovery for me.
I prefer Satisfactory :)
https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/furious-kim-jong-un-claims-trump-727
For the convenience of readers, here are a few links back to the previous set of comments on The Infinite Thread.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/07/02/infinite-thread-xxxvi/comment-page-8/#comment-2279141
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
Saudis greenlight ‘Trump Plaza’ project while awaiting approval of massive media deal with Jared Video is 5:00 minutes, and discusses a $50 Billion [!] deal.
Feds freak out over Trump-Epstein statue: ‘Pushback drives them crazy’ Video is 2:45 minutes. There was more to this story than I thought.
Candidate rips into Trump admin over release of private data to Republican opponent Video is 9:44 minutes.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/07/02/infinite-thread-xxxvi/comment-page-8/#comment-2279122
“[…] nobody told Trump that. None of them clapped after Trump asked them to either. I suspect this event hammered home to the military that the secretary of defense and president are nuts.”
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/07/02/infinite-thread-xxxvi/comment-page-8/#comment-2279140
Republican governor asks the Pentagon to deploy National Guard troops to Louisiana
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/07/02/infinite-thread-xxxvi/comment-page-8/#comment-2279107
Trump Dementia Speech to Generals-Admirals
Government Shutdown
Months later, whatever happened to RFK Jr.’s self-imposed deadline on autism?
“Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised to deliver groundbreaking news on autism research in September. It’s October. He failed.”
So, tRUMP is willing to let putin invade NATO airspace and threaten NATO countries, but his tiny, selfish nasty mind demands we protect Qatar! WTF!
https://digbysblog.net/2025/10/01/he-wuvs-his-big-new-plane/
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/01/trump-promises-to-defend-qatar-in-wake-of-israeli-missile-strikes-00589638
Qatar gave Trump a big beautiful airplane. Now he’s thanking them:
The White House published an executive order on Wednesday vowing to defend Qatar in the event of an attack from another country, a remarkable security guarantee for a single country akin to NATO’s Article V.
The order, which President Donald Trump signed Monday, states that the White House will now consider “any armed attack” on Qatar “as a threat to the peace and security of the United States.”
The ugly motivation behind the White House’s war against inspectors general
“IGs exist as instruments of accountability by identifying wrongdoing. It’s precisely why Trump and his team see them as obstacles and enemies.”
https://digbysblog.net/2025/09/30/and-yet-his-approval-rating-remains-stable/
@Acyn
Trump: You know, our inner cities, which we’ll be talking about because it’s a big part of war now, a big part of war.
6:43 AM · Sep 30, 2025
@Acyn
Trump: San Francisco and Chicago, New York, Los Angeles… We’ll straighten them out one-by-one. It will be a major part for some of the people in this room. It’s a war too. It’s a war from within
7:10 AM · Sep 30, 2025
AND, this stupidity, what an addled 19th Century mind – – –
@Acyn
Trump: I think we should start thinking about battleships… It is something we’re considering, the concept of battleship. Six inch side solid steel. Not aluminum that melts if it looks at a missile coming at it. Starts melting. Bullets are a lot less expensive than missiles.
6:55 AM · Sep 30, 2025
‘We could come up with a new system’: On the ACA, Trump has an unintentionally funny line
“We could come up with a new system that would be much better” than Obamacare, the president said, seemingly unaware of his own record.
E.J. Antoni’s failed nomination makes the White House look even more incompetent
It’s not often that Senate Republicans muster the courage to tell Donald Trump and his team, “Whoa, hold on, we can’t go that far.”
Followup to comment 6.
Link
Josh Marshall:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/dont-believe-the-hype-russ-vought-degeneracy-edition
Cartoon: Beardos and fatsos
Re: Lynna, OM @ #5…
My daughter came across a claim that the generals at the big meeting are now referring to Hegseth and Trump as “little Boy” and “Fat Man” because their speeches totally bombed. (For those unaware, those were names applied to the two nuclear bombs dropped on Japan in August 1945.)
And, as regards Trump’s comments about battleships… The belt armor on the Iowa class ships was 12 inches, not 6 inches.
UK closes in on critical minerals deal with Greenland
“The self-ruling Danish territory, coveted by Donald Trump, has vast caches of rare earth elements.”
Link
https://www.wonkette.com/p/here-are-your-clips-of-late-night
“Here Are Your Clips Of Late Night Audiences Laughing At Loser Pete Hegseth”
More commentary, and more video snippets, available at the link.
whheydt @16, funny, and appropriate. Especially considering that Hegseth dissed “fat generals and admirals” in his speech.
More related commentary:
Social media posts and video at the link.
Newsweek link
A wholesome little distraction from the news
“Louis the Cat’s River Journey and a beaver surprise”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=GHqQu3lN0pk
Politico: Judge says Nevada US attorney’s involvement in criminal cases ‘would be unlawful’
Not exactly the same steps as they used for Habba but the same effect. When it became clear she couldn’t pass Congress the Trump administration took steps to bypass the legal process. Chattah was seen as so toxic that Trump never formally nominated her but still wanted her to be US Attorney, an absurdity itself.
National Review: Was Lindsey Halligan Validly Appointed as United States Attorney?
It appears there are issues with Halligan’s appointment also. And since she was the only attorney involved in the bringing the charges if she gets kicked the whole case goes up in smoke. In the other situations multiple lawyers were involved so the judge just kicked the illegal attorney general and said they can’t be involved in this case or any future cases, not that the case is rejected. Comey’s lawyers are sure to bring this up, probably fairly soon.
This is Ed Whelen, who holds the Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a heavily Heritage Foundation influenced group. Not exactly a left wing kind of guy. If he is saying the appointment is invalid there are huge gaping issues. Essentially it boils down to Erik Siebert was still an interim appointment when he left/was fired. This means that the district court gets the next pick, the president doesn’t get to appoint a string of interim attorney generals.
MSNBC: Nicolle Wallace calls conduct in video of New Jersey mayor’s arrest a ‘stain on this country’
MSNBC noticed a really bad bit of video. In another case the DOJ released some body cam video from the arrest of the mayor of Newark. This was probably a mistake, if they had been aware the senior figures would have tried to keep this under wraps. The video appears to show that order for the arrest came from Todd Blanche, current Deputy Attorney General and previous personal lawyer for Trump. Somebody also gave orders for body cams to be turned off, hiding evidence of the arrest.
@21, 23
The US was a country created with Norms for the conduct of government instead of actual rules, and for centuries it has been maintained this way. Why that is is something I don’t fully understand: likely the consequence of a bunch of wealthy gentlemen running the show and trusting that none of their peers would rock the apple cart too much by being overly blatant with their corruption and criminality.
Over the last few decades, people on the right have been testing and retesting those norms and discovering that there simply aren’t any rules at all. The only limits on what they could do with their governmental power were their own consciences. Having ruthlessly purged their party of anyone of conscience, they are now free to exercise unchecked power.
Unfortunately the Democrats seem to believe that if they just try hard enough, they can make it 1990 again, that the Republicans will voluntarily submit themselves to rules and morality. That they will cease their endless public lying and distortion and come back to consensus reality. They believe this so strongly, that they have resisted any call to impose rules and order on their opponents – after all, it can’t be a gentleman’s agreement if it has teeth, can it?
In the event that the Centre of the political spectrum in the States ever happens to take power again, hopefully there is enough spine there to push the creation of actual rules – and to punish the lackeys of the Trump administration severely enough for the rules and laws that they did break that the next wannabe dictator can’t find people to do his bidding. I don’t have much faith in this though. If the Democrats manage to squeak out enough midterm victories to take power in the House and/or Senate, I fully expect them to waste time ‘reaching across the aisle’ and ‘building consensus’ with the party that would happily decapitate the whole lot of them the next chance it gets.
In summary biullionaires rule and Palestinians sidelined :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-02/leaked-document-reveals-details-of-trump-peace-plan/105839640
Source :
Source :
.. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-02/hottest-year-on-record-in-oceans-around-australia/105698530
“ExoMars parachutes ready for martian deployment”
The high-altitude test was made in Lapland, northern Sweden
.https://phys.org/news/2025-07-exomars-parachutes-ready-martian-deployment.html
@ ^
I never even heard about this. The “Rosalind Franklin” rover. Love it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Franklin_(rover)
Hey, Stevo, you’re supposed to be our space correspondent, are you onto this?
;-)
Yet another problem with billionaries
.https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FqrDuFDvq/
Also, none of them have an airship where they can meet their evil co-conspirators (and throw down those who chicken out).