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by liberal japonicus This Graniaud piece caught my eye. A group of men removed from the US to Djibouti, in east Africa, are stranded in a converted shipping container together with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers sent to supervise them after a deportation flight to South Sudan was stopped by an American … Read more

There is a column over on Digby’s Hullabaloo this morning on Trump’s increasing dementia.  It will probably have to get a lot worse before the members of his Cabinet and Republicans in Congress will be willing to act to remove him.  But it is at least possible that they will do so before the end … Read more

by liberal japonicus A thread to discuss the topic du jour, Biden's cancer diagnosis. To plant my stake, this is Hillary's emails redux, reporters jumping up and down on a topic that they can put themselves at the center of, while the rest of the world burns. Have at it.

by liberal japonicus It's possible that this wouldn't piss me off at other times, but as Russell noted earlier, tis the season of rants. Still, seeing this interview with Cornelis Piet 'Pete' Hoekstra, the new US ambassador to Canada, makes me realize 1) how truly rotten this administration is and 2) how much this shit … Read more

by liberal japonicus Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" it's been a bit since there was a post and the most recent comments, centered around Starmer's volte-face about migrants, seems … Read more

by liberal japonicus (Title from here, which includes the incredibly racist bit at the end) Well, Oz has spoken. I've enjoyed watching lots of reportage, here is a summary. I'll leave it to all of you for your thoughts, but some notes After the defeat of the Voice amendment, I wasn't super confident, so thank … Read more

by liberal japonicus Just wondering what all those people who tsk-tsked about Biden's pre-emptive pardons have any thoughts. An open thread (if it wasn't obvious)

by wj  "Rare earths" (lanthanide elements) are not particularly rare.  What they are is quite difficult to separate and refine, because they are so similar.  But there are differences, and those differences are critical is determining which one will work well (or at all) in any particular technical application.  Once upon a time, perhaps half … Read more

by liberal japonicus If you haven't noticed, this is not the place for breaking news. But this does seem to be something we might want to talk about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWpqJ8pD2Ng AMNA NAWAZ: Since President Trump reentered the Oval Office, billionaire Elon Musk and his DOGE team have been sweeping through federal agencies, accessing sensitive data as … Read more

by liberal japonicus Can you show me the shine in your JapanThe sparkle of your China, can you show meBodhisattva,  This Klein interview with Thomas Friedman is quite interesting. (the link to the transcript is here, put a gift link in the comments and I'll change it) I've never been a fan of the Moustache … Read more