Tuesday, February 10, 2026
CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 117th Edition. Sen. Lummis wakes up from a long winter's nap.
I'm shocked — shocked — to find that gambling is going on in here!
Captain Renault, Casablanca.
Initially my reaction to all this was, I don’t care. I don’t see what the big deal is. But now I see what the big deal is. The members of Congress who were pushing this were not wrong!
Retiring Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis.
About fucking time.
It's frankly very difficult to credit this comment. A pack of rich men, and 30 members of the current Trump interregnum, are mentioned in the Epstein files, including Trump, and she didn't see what the big deal was? As if the rich and powerful buying underaged sex slaves on U.S. territory, pretty openly, isn't a big deal.
That would be the viewpoint of a complete moron.
Lummis isn't a moron.
She's also not running for office again either.
Either she's really checked out, which at age 71, and admittedly now too worn down to do her job, she may very well be. Maybe she just isn't paying any attention.
Or maybe her lifetime in politics has simply numbered her to stuff like this, which should worry us all, as that would suggest some pretty gross filth is pretty common.
Or, maybe retiring, and after having realized that a tsunami of filth is coming, she decided to get out of the water.
Last edition:
CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 116th Edition. Dissing J.D., What's the point of the National Prayer Breakfast?, Drip.
Wednesday, February 10, 1926. Going to the League.
Germany applied to join the League of Nations and indicated that it would submit the South Tyrol dispute to the body.
Last edition:
Sunday, February 7, 1926. Negro History Week.
Thursday, February 10, 1916. Battle of Dogger Bank.
Light ships of the Royal and German navies fought at Dogger Bank.
Canadian soldiers rioted in Calgary and vandalized two businesses owned and operated by German Canadians. There were rumors that the stores hired illegal aliens rather than Canadian veterans, which sparked the violence.
Last edition:
Wednesday, February 9, 1916.
Sunday, February 10, 1901. Boers invade Cape Colony.
Boer General Christiaan de Wet's troop invaded the Cape Colony.
Last edition:
Friday, February 8, 1901. Russian overreach.
Thursday, February 10, 1876. Terry ordered to take action against Sioux.
The Madness of King Donald. The 25th Amendment Watch List, Tenth Edition. Finger on the nuclear trigger.
Kaitlan Collins: "Mr. President, what would you say to sex abuse survivors of Epstein who haven’t seen justice”
Donald Trump: “You know, I’ve never seen you smile”
Man, that's creepy.
I wonder how many teenage girls head that after they were raped at Epstein Island?
February 7, 2026
Trump claimed in an interview with the New York Post that Venezuela failed to get their AAA rockets off the ground during the U.S.'s raid as the US used a "discombobulator" on them.
Um. . .sure.
In a bit of a defense for the deranged prince, what the military probably was referring to was an electronic jamming system. While no doubt the most recent variants are quite advanced, such systems have been around for a very long time.
Trump's incredibly racist post depicting the Obama's as apes was taken down and blamed on a staffer.
Um. . . sure.
Trump is also claiming that the US has wanted a triumphal arch for 200 years, with is complete nonsense and which is only slightly less weird than his claim that Presidents have wanted the giant outhouse he hopes to build for 100 years.
February 9, 2026
Loss of inhibitions can be a sign of dementia.
This is definitely a "get off my lawn" moment.
February 10, 2026
A spoiled brat and a real estate developer by trade, he sees the world through a pinhole. His mind is turning to much. He needs to be removed.
Last edition:
The Madness of King Donald. The 25th Amendment Watch List, Ninth Edition. Trump is insane and the end of the United States as a great nation.
Monday, February 9, 2026
The 2026 Wyoming Legislature, Part 3. The Confederate Legislature Edition.
School funding bill dies in Wyoming House: The Legislature is constitutionally required to undergo so-called ‘recalibration.’ The bill, drafted in the legislative off season, was unpopular among educators.
Some other stupid bills died as well, including the paranoid geoengineering bill and a constitutional amendment on property tax valuation.
The Business Council seems to have survived.
It's a budget session, we need to keep in mind, so 2/3s of a body is needed to introduce a bill.
Lawmakers kill dozens of bills on budget session’s first day
More data here:
Last edition:
The 2026 Wyoming Legislature, Part 2. Pre Legislative Committee Edition.
Ascendant Ignorance in the Age of Donald Trump. Ignoramus Watch Part 3. The Quack Edition.
BASH: Is this measles outbreak a consequence of the administration undermining support for vaccines?
DR OZ: I don't believe so. Secretary Kennedy has been advocating for measles vaccines
BASH: Oh, come on
From a CNN Interview of Mehmet Oz, a prime example of the Oprah Effect.1
In fairness to Dr. Oz, who in fairness should not be a government official, he does want people to get the measles vaccine.
Also in fairness, the dissing of vaccines isn't really a Trump thing in and of itself, but he gave it some boosted unneeded assistance by taking the political step of promising Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. a job as the HHS Secretary if he'd drop out of the last Presidential race. Kennedy is a quack, and an opponent of vaccines in varying degrees (it seems to change day by day). The rise of this movement, however, started with people like Jenny McCarthy who sadly has a son with autism. McCarthy herself was a Playboy model and her only real expertise is in showing her naked visage, something that really doesn't qualify a person for anything serious, and in fact may achieve much the opposite.
Oh, and by the way, Jenny McCarthy appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show multiple times in the 2000s to discuss her erroneous theories on autism and vaccines, and to promote a book she wrote.
Much of this story has to do with the inability to understand the difference between present conditions and past ones. People tend to assume that negative developments in a population mean a negative present condition. Sometimes they do, but sometimes they also represent a positive one. I'll give a personal example.
In 1982 I had pneumonia while at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. I was extremely ill, literally on death's door.
Before the advent of antibiotics the fatality rates for bacterial pneumonia were between 60% and 70%.
Not good.
Now, the survivability rate is pretty good.
I've had a colon surgery for a developing condition that would have killed me even thirty years ago.
The point? Well, if I go on to develop Alzheimer's, which I pray I do not, it'll mostly be because I didn't die at age 19 of pneumonia.
Also, fwiw, Meet The Press this weekend had a physician on who noted that diseases we can now vaccinate for are associated with cancer, which is a developing field of medicine. I.e., you get some disease that's not big deal when young, and then you get cancer when older. You don't want cancer.
A fellow I know who suffered a heart attack, and who was otherwise very healthy, may have developed his heart condition this way as well.
Get vaccinated.
Footnotes:
1. The Oprah Effect is so named here to explain the phenomenon of Oprah Winfrey putting some flaming bogosity on to her popular daytime television show and thereby having millions of people give it credence. There are a fair number of examples, including the rise of Dr. Oz.
Last edition:
Ascendant Ignorance in the Age of Donald Trump. Ignoramus Watch Part 2. The War is a Racket edition.
Blog Mirror: February 9, 1976: "Taxi Driver" Premieres
February 9, 1976: "Taxi Driver" Premieres
I was not aware that this was a 1976 movie, but then, I've never thought of the topic either.
I've actually never seen Taxi Driver all the way through.* It's just too icky for me. But the point raised here, tracking the depictions of New York City from the early 1960s into the 1970s, from "magical" to decline, is a really interesting observation.
Somewhere I have a series photographs of my mother in New York that must date from the late 1940s. She and some friends went down from Montreal to visit. She told me once how "clean" New York was, that being her observation from that trip.
I've been to New York state, but it's been years and years. My exposure to New York City, however, is limited to the airport, a memory which is equally old.
Footnotes:
*Indeed, of the movies mentioned in this thread, the only one I've seen all the way through is Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Last edition:
Friday, February 6, 1976. Peltier arrested. Prince Bernhard implicated. Smith warns. Black Jack dies.
Wednesday, February 9, 1916.
It was the first flight of the Sopwith Pup.
The HMS Mimi and HMS Toutou sank the Hedwig von Wissmann on Lake Tanganyika.
From Punch:
Today In Wyoming's History: February 9: 1916 Bill Carlisle robs passengers on the Union Pacific "Portland Rose". Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.
Last edition:
Sunday, February 6, 1916. Irmingard.
Saturday, February 9, 1946. Stalin declares war inevitable.
Stalin in an "election" speech carried on Soviet radio, stated another war was inevitable due to the "capitalist development of the world economy", and that the USSR needed to plan accordingly.
The Chairman:
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin has the floor.
(Comrade Stalin’s appearance in the rostrum was greeted by the voters with loud cheers lasting several minutes. The entire audience in the Bolshoi Theatre rose to its feet to greet Comrade Stalin. There were continuous cries of “Cheers for great Stalin!” “Long live great Stalin, Hurrah!” “Cheers for our beloved Stalin!” )
Comrade Stalin:
Comrades!
Eight years have passed since the last elections to the Supreme Soviet. This has been a period replete with events of a decisive nature. The first four years were years of intense labour on the part of Soviet people in carrying out the Third Five- Year Plan. The second four years covered the events of the war against the German and Japanese aggressors — the events of the Second World War. Undoubtedly, the war was the main event during the past period.
It would be wrong to think that the Second World War broke out accidentally, or as a result of blunders committed by certain statesmen, although blunders were certainly committed. As a matter of fact, the war broke out as the inevitable result of the development of world economic and political forces on the basis of present-day monopolistic capitalism. Marxists have more than once stated that the capitalist system of world economy contains the elements of a general crisis and military conflicts, that, in view of that, the development of world capitalism in our times does not proceed smoothly and evenly, but through crises and catastrophic wars. The point is that the uneven development of capitalist countries usually leads, in the course of time, to a sharp disturbance of the equilibrium within the world system of capitalism, and that group of capitalist countries regards itself as being less securely provides with raw materials and markets usually attempts to change the situation and to redistribute “spheres of influence” in its own favour — by employing armed force. As a result of this, the capitalist world is split into two hostile camps, and war breaks out between them . . .
And so, how should our victory [in World War II] be interpreted? What can this victory signify from the point of view of the state and the development of the internal forces of our country?
Our victory signifies, first of all, that our Soviet social system was victorious, that the Soviet social system successfully passed the test of fire in the war and proved that it is fully viable.
As we know, the foreign press on more than one occasion asserted that the Soviet social system was a “dangerous experiment” that was doomed to failure . . . [but] now we can say that the war has refuted all these assertions of the foreign press and has proved them to have been groundless. The war proved that the Soviet social system is a genuinely people’s system, which grew up from the ranks of the people and enjoys their powerful| support; that the Soviet social system is fully viable and stable form of organization of society . . .
Now a few words about the Communist Party’s plans of work for the immediate future. As you know, these plans are formulated in the new five-year plan, which is to be adopted in the very near future. The main tasks of the new five-year plan are to rehabilitate the devastated regions of our country, to restore industry and agriculture to the prewar level, and then to exceed that level to a more or less considerable extent. Apart from the fact that the rationing system is to be abolished in the very near future (loud and prolonged applause), special attention will be devoted to the expansion of the production of consumers’ goods, to raising the standard of living of the working people by steadily reducing the prices of all commodities (loud and prolonged applause), and to the extensive organization of scientific research institutes of every kind (applause) capable of giving the fullest scope to our scientific forces. (Loud applause.)
I have no doubt that if we give our scientists proper assistance they will be able in the very near future not only to overtake but even outstrip the achievements of science beyond the borders of our country. (Prolonged applause.)
As regards long-term plans, our Party intends to organize another powerful upswing of our national economy that will enable us to raise our industry to a level, say, three times as high as that of prewar industry. We must see to it that our industry shall be able to produce annually up to 50,000,000 tons of pig iron (prolonged applause ), up to 60,000,000 tons of steel (prolonged applause ), up to 500,000,000 tons of coal (prolonged applause ) and up to 60,000,000 tons of oil (prolonged applause ). Only when we succeed in doing that can we be sure that our Motherland will be insured against all contingencies. (Loud applause.) This will need, perhaps, another three five-year plans, if, not more. But it can be done, and we must do it. (Loud applause) . .
In conclusion, permit me to express my thanks for the confidence which you have shown me (loud and prolonged applause. A voice: “Cheers for the great leader of all our victories, Comrade Stalin! “) by nominating me as a candidate for the Supreme Soviet. You need have no doubt that will do my best to justify your confidence. (All rise. Loud and prolonged applause rising to an ovation. Voices in different parts of the hall: “Long live great Stalin, Hurrah!” “Cheers for the great leader of the peoples!” “Glory to great Stalin!” “Long live Comrade Stalin, the candidate of the entire people!” “Glory to the creator of all our victories, Comrade Stalin! “
Charles "Lucky" Luciano was deported to his native Italy where he'd spend the rest of his life, dying in 1962 at age 64.
.jpg)
Thursday, February 9, 1911. Establishing the size of the House of Representatives.
The House of Representatives approved the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929, increasing the number of U.S. Representatives, beginning in 1913, from 391 to 435, the number that it has had ever since.
This has created unequal representation and something really needs to be done to change it.
Voters in the Arizona Territory approved the proposed state Constitution.
Writer Jack London, who was a Socialist, came out in support of Socialist revolutionaries in Mexico.
The Army intended to deploy lighter than air craft near El Paso in an attempt to figure out what was going on in the revolution near there.
Indentured servitude for Chinese workers in British Malaya was abolished, effective June 30, 1914.
Last edition: