I never liked the F-35. The idea of dragging around a giant fan that only gets used for VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) seems like a really dumb idea. They should have built the thing to land on it's tail like a Flash Gordon rocketship. Yes, it would have been a trick, but with modern electronics and controls it should have been cheaper, lighter and easier than carrying around this stupid fan. Modern jet engines are plenty powerful enough to support vertical takeoffs. In any case we have a story about a couple of problems the F-35 is having with heat:
Driving north on Jackson School Road this morning, I see a man jogging on the sidewalk. He is also heading north and he is on the portion of the sidewalk closest to the road. You might think he is going the wrong way if the normal rule of 'keep right' applies, but this sidewalk is special. The left lane, if you can consider that sidewalks have lanes, is for bicycles and the other one or two lanes are for people walking. Jogging is not walking, so you might consider jogging in the bike lane the correct choice.
As I catch up to the jogger, he encounters a woman walking a couple of dogs and one of the dogs takes exception to the jogger and makes a lunge toward him. Was the dog just trying to say hello, or was he trying to take a bite out of him? I couldn't say. I only saw this for a split second, long enough to see the startled jogger take a step toward the road. If he had taken two steps we would have collided.
I did not even think about braking until I was past them and there was no bang or bump, so I just drove on. Disturbing to say the least.
If I don't get enough sleep I become a zombie and end up spending hours watching YouTube short videos and you get this one. I never wondered about this because I assumed that the electronics would be designed to work at a certain speed, so there would be no point to changing the speed of the disk. Even if the electronics could be adapted to work with a faster disk, it wouldn't make a significant difference in performance because the limiting factor is the time it takes the heads to move to a different track.
This footage captures a major attack unfolding in Ukraine, with Zelensky claiming it was caused by an ICBM—missiles designed to deliver nuclear or conventional warheads and nearly impossible to intercept.
Interpol is reporting a big win after a massive combined operation against online criminals made 41 arrests and seized hardware thought to be used for nefarious purposes.
Operation Synergia II – the follow up to the first Synergia raids that were announced in February – saw cops in 95 countries crack down on phishers, ransomware extortionists, and information thieves around the world. The operation was carried out in conjunction with the corporate world, specifically Group-IB, Trend Micro, Kaspersky and Team Cymru.
In addition to the arrests, Interpol revealed 65 people are still under investigation and claimed to have shuttered 22,000 IP addresses, taken control of 59 servers and 43 other computing devices.
Cyber criminals are the worst. The Beekeepersprings to mind, as does the ransomware attack on an engineering firm I hired a couple of years ago. On one hand you could blame the victims for not ensuring their computer systems were secure, but on the other hand with exponential growth of the computing industry, is it even possible to make your system absolutely secure? Well yes, if you cut all the wires and lock it in a Faraday cage. Okay, it needs to be secure, but it also needs to be usable, so we have to balance these two requirements and when we do, sometimes security gets short-changed. That's why we've got to wade through these annoying identification protocols when you call most any business about most anything at all.
I finally got around to replacing the across-the-floor ethernet cable with one routed across the ceiling and inside the wall. When we started the big remodeling project over a year ago, we moved into the basement and we took our TV with us. The remodeling project was only supposed to last a few months, so it's okay to have a cord running across the floor. I mean, we're in the basement. Actually the only place it ran across the floor was at the bottom of the stairs and we covered it with a rug, so it was practically invisible. But it's been a while, and the TV is still in the basement, so I ran a new cable in a more secure and permanent manner.
The Portland Trail Blazers, Oregon's NBA team, have been having a rough time since all their star players have moved to greener pastures. They're getting better, slowly. They beat the Atlanta Hawks Tuesday night in a nail-biter. Since they are rebuilding the team, they are also trying to rebuild their fan base, which has been decimated since the all-star team they had is no more. To that end, they are now broadcasting all of their games on commercial TV - Charge! 2.2. We have an antennae in the attic, let's see if we can pick it up. Plug the upstairs TV into the coax and bingo! NBA basketball clear as a bell. The antennae is a big old thing that I probably set up 30 years ago. It's not one of these miniature things they are using for their ridiculously high frequency, but it works fine.
Since I was running a new ethernet cable, and since we discovered a new use for coax, I figured I might as well run a new coax cable as well. Plug in the basement TV and run setup to scan for broadcast channels. It found, I dunno, a couple of dozen including the one channel we care about.
But then I remember that new stuff has been showing up on the ROKU, so I go take a look. One of the new things is TV channels, and there are a bunch of them. ROKU displays a list and I spent a couple of minutes scrolling through it looking for Charge! 2.2. I must have scrolled through a hundred channels. I did not find Charge! 2.2 and I did not find the end. It might be there. Seems as though everybody and their mother that has a broadcast license is making the content available over the internet. I noticed half a dozen news channels from around the country.
There is only one coax cable running to the upstairs TV and no easy way to run ethernet, so now I'm wondering if I can send ethernet signals over the sane wire as the antennae signal. I mean, what frequency domains are we talking about here? Are they even in the same ballpark, or are they in different leagues, playing in different cities, on opposite sides of the country? I have no idea.
Turns out you can run both broadcast and ethernet signals over the same coax and both signals come through loud and clear. Previous post about the Hitron adapters I used. I am only using one set of signals at a time, so it's possible if you were using both sets of signals simultaneously there might be some interference.
Those stupid screw-type coax connectors are a royal pain. If you hold the cable at the correct angle, the nut screws on easily, but get just a little off center and it jams up. You make or break half a dozen of these connections and your fingertips start complaining. It's basically ridiculous, but it's what I've got. There used to be quick connect coax connectors that just plugged in, no nut screwing required. I think those came with video games, but I don't have any of those connectors and all my coax cables have threaded connectors.
Our country has a zillion video channels all being broadcast simultaneously. YouTube has like a zillion channels, but each of those YouTube channels only put up new stuff intermittently, like once a week. But there are a zillion people watching those channels. How many channels are active at one time? Channels where we have someone broadcasting and somewhat actually watching? Is it a zillion times a zillion times a zillion? Or maybe the cube root of a zillion? If you had access to YouTube statistics you might be able to come up with a number. Of course, YouTube is only one player in the great social media landscape, and all of the traffic that involves an actual person is no doubt dwarfed by the tsunami of bits flowing between machines.
Meanwhile, over in Finland, somebody cut one of their undersea communications cables:
“Disturbances occur from time to time and there can be various reasons,” Bergstrom added. “For example, they are susceptible to the weather and damage caused by shipping.”
Finland’s Security and Intelligence Service (SUPO) told Yle that it was too early to assess the cause of the cable break, noting that around 200 undersea cable breaks happen around the world every year.
“The most common cause of cable breakage is human activity, such as fishing or anchoring,” a SUPO spokesperson said.
So, if you want to worry, look at less glamorous but arguably more significant headlines that don't point to world war, per se, but to world disruption, and major world market volatility.
Official allegations of sabotage were made in the EU as: two of Finland's five nuclear plants had to be shut down; a key Norwegian oilfield was shut by a power outage; the support cable on a Finnish suspension bridge broke; and two key Baltic EU data cables were severed. The Chinese vessel Yi Peng has been flagged as a possible cable culprit and at time of writing was forcibly moored in Denmark. This is likely to prompt a strong Chinese diplomatic response; and perhaps an EU one if it proves a Chinese ship damaged key seafloor infrastructure (again: this also happened to a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia in October 2023).
I am leaving the company I work for at the end of the year, and in the intervening time I am trying to keep good relations there.
It is a somewhat absurd and flattering situation, where I am required to scan in through the door 3 days a week, but have no real duties.
I can't help myself, though. I listen to a 10am daily meeting, but when it turns into a technical soapbox with various managers simultaneously skirting blame and taking credit for getting through the day's snafus, I feel the urge to tweak them and speak up. Yesterday I interrupted and asked them to confirm that the problem was "Issue A", and when confirmed, I cautioned them not to conflate that with "Issue B" although I did not use the word conflate because none of them know what that means. It cleared up the conversation and the next steps were settled in the next 2 sentences by my 2 compadre techs who are generally too timid or jaded to speak up in these bureaucratic feedlots.
The VP does not like to hear me speak since I announced I was leaving. My butting into a conversation with clarity confounds his efficiency model.
It was a really good tweak.
It's a miserable environment, with regular large layoffs, and people admittedly scared for their jobs. The cube farm appears to me most similar to an egg farm, with all the chickens in their cages straining their buttholes to produce an egg for the master so they don't go into the stew. Or maybe that's just me feeling superior. So I find a far flung conference room in the giant and 80% empty modern suburban office building on campus. I should try another building, although the scan report may show an anomaly. I don't know why I care about that. It must be habit.
To make my drive to the office worthwhile I consolidate my errands, and 2 days a week for the past couple weeks I've gone to Middle School at 12:45 to 'help' with the 5th and 6th period art classes. It is the most engaging thing I've done in years, basically just sitting with 7th-8th graders doing clay ceramics projects. My mere hulking presence seems to exert a calming effect on a sometimes disruptive group of brats. I hope to be going there regularly. It is an unbelievable contrast to the chicken coop. The time flies at school, whereas at the office it's just grim death.
I get to work with clay and follow quite clear and supportive instructions from the teacher. Again, a massive contrast.
It could all be a delusion, that enjoying myself like this is just a downward spiral into ... what? Like I haven't been there several times before.
blithe: adjective
showing a casual and cheerful indifference considered to be callous or improper.
(I never knew is had a "callous" denotation. I've been called that, but I hope we are generally known as polite.)
Two of my favorites posted about old computers today. The Silicon Graybeard included the above quote about Artificial Intelligence. I think it's spot on.
He starts off quoting the opening paragraphs from Tocqueville’s Democracy in America:
“Of all the novel things which attracted my attention during my stay in the United States, none struck me more forcibly than the equality of conditions. I had no difficulty in discovering the extraordinary influence this fundamental fact exerts upon the progress of society; it sets up a particular direction to public attitudes, a certain style to the laws, fresh guidelines to governing authorities, and distinctive habits to those governed.
“Soon I came to recognise that this very fact extends its influence well beyond political customs and laws; it exercises no less power over civil society than it does over the government. It forms opinion, creates feelings, proposes ways of acting, and transforms anything it does not directly instigate itself.”
I've been seeing a number of stories about people getting out from under the yoke of the Democratic war machine lately, and I can't tell if there really is an upsurge, or it's just normal, but those kind of stories were overshadowed by the runup to the election. In any case, I like this story from RT. It has a couple of points:
Malcolm's family is going after the FBI & CIA for their role in the assassination, and
It's got a brief history of Malcolm and his extremist views. I'd kind of forgotten about that part so it's good to be reminded.
Three of Malcolm X’s daughters have filed a lawsuit against the CIA, FBI, and New York Police Department, accusing the agencies of complicity in the assassination of the militant black activist.
Filed in a Manhattan court on Friday, the suit alleges that the CIA, FBI, and NYPD were aware of a plot to kill Malcolm X, but did not act to stop it. It claims that the NYPD arrested his security detail days before the assassination, while the CIA and FBI’s undercover agents – who were present on the night of the fatal shooting – stood by while the militant leader was gunned down.
The lawsuit alleges that there was a “corrupt, unlawful, and unconstitutional” relationship between the agencies and “ruthless killers that went unchecked for many years and was actively concealed, condoned, protected, and facilitated by government agents.”
This show is just insane. Tough girl joins the Marines, gets recruited by the CIA, goes undercover in Kuwait to infiltrate filthy rich family in order to get close to the patriarch, a terrorist for hire. Black Ops, helicopters, operators dispensing death and destruction left, right and center.
Unlike many of the shows we watch, the soldiers here are competent. They're also cowboys. They know what they are, they know their jobs and how to work together and that's all that counts.
It's weird how the amount of money you have available can completely change your view of what's important. Poor people squabble over a dollar. When daddy has a zillion dollars you don't flinch at paying a thousand dollars for a T-shirt because it's 'cute'. Actors have to mimic both kinds of attitudes and the entire range in between.
Once upon a time our girl had a friend who was a ballerina. She gets a phone call from her one night, hasn't heard from her in a long time, so she goes to pay her a visit. When she gets there the apartment is apparently empty, so we take a look around. The apartment is something like you might expect if Barbie were Korean. It's wild. Meanwhile the ballerina has committed suicide and is floating in the tub. She leaves a cryptic note asking her to avenge her. Okay then.
There were a number of entertaining bits.
The movie opens with four thugs going into a convenience store and being thugs. In the middle of this robbery our girl walks up to the counter to buy a snack. The cashier, understandably flustered is unable to make change, so our girl pulls out the change she needs from the thug's bag of loot, and then all hell breaks loose. The thugs are armed with knives and our girl is armed with canned goods. Naturally she lays them all out flat in short order.
Choi, the chief villain, is exceptionally strong. He demonstrates this by performing some full body pushups while doing a handstand. He is also a sexual pervert who is into BDSM.
The bad guys have taken over a small hotel and turned into a private brothel where they keep a harem of young women. The decor in the rooms is beyond gaudy.
At the hotel, when our girl gets into a fight with Choi, the couple from the front desk show up to put a stop to it. The woman shows up with a shotgun and lets loose multiple shots, none of which hit our girl because she is so freaking fast. Also because she is lucky, or the mattress is shotgun proof.
Our girl escapes down the hall, but the guy from the front desk shows up with a chain saw. He's running down the hall when a door to one of the rooms is flung open into the hall. He runs into it, falls and cuts his foot off with the chain saw.
Now our girl needs some guns, but this is Korea and guns are illegal, but she has contacts, which she uses to arrange a meeting. The meet is in a big open field. The gun dealer shows up in a largish, battered van. The dealer is a pleasant elderly couple, they look like somebody's grandparents. The open up the back of the van and reveal that it is carnival game booth. They have drawers crammed full of all kinds of guns. The girls, because our girl has picked up the girl who flung open the door at the hotel, pick out some handguns, a derringer and, wait-for-it, a flamethrower. I mean, why not? Grandma demonstrates its use by shooting a flame out 20 or 30 yards. The field looks to be dried grass which ought to catch fire easily, but the flame goes out horizontally and never touches the ground. Imagine that.
[Official Trailer] Kill Me Love Me | Liu Xueyi / Wu Jinyan / Bi Wenjun / Zhao Xiaotang | YOUKU
YOUKU English-Get APP now
Chinese historical drama / fantasy. Pretty people, fabulous clothes, elaborate sets, but most importantly a horribly convoluted plot involving political intrigue and treachery. That last part is what makes it compelling - the plot is a puzzle and the subtitles only give you clues, so your job is to figure out just what is happening.
Overview from TMDB:
In a land torn by war, the three kingdoms of Dayan, Xiyan, and Nanyue have battled for years. Prince Murong Jinghe of Dayan, renowned for his military prowess, suffers a devastating betrayal, leading to the annihilation of his army. Determined to uncover the truth behind the treachery, he seeks justice while navigating the treacherous court politics. Amid this turmoil, Mei Lin, a warrior presumed dead, becomes Murong’s only ally in his quest for revenge. As they fight together, a complex bond forms between them, blending love and sacrifice, as they both struggle to survive and seek justice.
Vowing to avenge her parents, Mei Lin becomes an assassin and infiltrates the life of a ruthless prince—until startling revelations derail her revenge.
A city [whose name I have forgotten] is destroyed by an army. Mei Lin lived in that city with her parents. Her parents were killed when the city was destroyed. Prince Murong Jinghe gets blamed for the destruction and the murder of the inhabitants and is banished for ten years. His older brother who is in line to become Crown Prince was jealous of his younger brother's military success and so organized the destruction of the city and caused it to be blamed on his younger brother. All this happens before the show starts. The show begins when the younger brother returns to the capital.
A marriage is arranged between the children of the leaders of two neighboring nations in order to cement a peace treaty. The bride and her entourage journey to the neighboring nation. Her entourage includes 100 beauties and Mei Lin has managed to get herself included in this group. When they get to the capital the 100 beauties are handed out to big shots, presumably for their sexual gratification, though the show pretty much glosses over that part. Prince Murjong Jinghe manages to snare Mei Lin for himself, which is great because Mei Lin is now right next to the target of her revenge.
Of course, about the same time she finds out that he was set up, but she is in league with a secret band of assassins and their leader has decided this Prince must die, so she has to fake a public assassination attempt. Evidently what goes on in public is completely divorced from what goes on in private because they carry on in private like nothing happened.
I dunno why it is, but I enjoy watching these cute, hundred pound women take on a squad of big hulking goons and kicking their asses. It's ridiculous, but the girl is good looking and watching her move is just a pleasure.
Paging through this morning's batch of memes from Midwest Chick and this one pops up and immediately this tune pops into my mind. Only one problem: I don't know the name of the tune, or who wrote it, or when it came out, but I can hear it in my head clear as day. So I go looking for it, and looking, and looking and I am not finding anything . . . until on page four of Google's response to the prompt 'rock song lyrics include 'let the truth be told' -"Matthew West"' I come across a link to an old post from Peter Bengtsson's blog archive: Find song by lyrics which finally got me to where I wanted to be:
The Record Company - "Off The Ground" (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)
The Record Company
There are a bunch of songs out there with the title of 'Off The Ground' or 'Truth Be Told' which might explain why I had a hard time tracking this song down.
This video is not as technically dense as my usual selections, but it does give a wide overview of the history of the engine and the culture surrounding it. Don't think I've ever seen such a collection of V8 worship before. Never really thought of the V8 engine as a religious icon before, but it certainly fits.
Mostly not surprised, except for the USA. I didn't expect us to be in the top ten. We are not the largest country in the world in terms of population or land area, but we are up near the top.
My wife wanted a tape measure for her interior decorating project. Used to be that a 25' tape measure was a tool to be cherished, but then we got involved in home remodeling projects and they became just another disposable tool. I've lost count of the number of tape measures we've gone through in the last few years.
Anyway, I have one, but the end has gotten boogered and it won't stay hooked on anything. I bought cheap green one, but the return spring died after about six months. So now we need another one. I see this one on Amazon, and I remember the name Lufkin being a good name for measurement tools, so I order it.
It shows up, my wife tries using it, but where are the inches? It's got feet and feet are divided a couple of different ways, but there is no running total of inches. I never realized that tape measures had different marking systems. Well, okay, 100 foot tapes are different, and there are metric tape measures, but I thought all American tape measures were the same. Or maybe I just never noticed because I was able to adapt to whatever markings they used.
It has two scales: the top one measures in feet and inches and the bottom scale shows the measurement in inches.
Jack's Stanley 12' PowerLock Tape Measures
Told the Tuesday lunch crew about this and Jack brings his two 12 foot Stanley tape measures. The difference here is the hook on the end. The one on the bottom has a conventional hook. These will slide back and forth a short distance, about a sixteenth of an inch to allow for the thickness of the hook when making inside or outside measurements. The upper one has a bigger hook with a bend designed to hook over nail.
Now Dennis shows us this old Empire aluminum framing square with more numbers and scales than you can shake a stick at. Some of them are labeled and make sense, some are not.
Rafter lengths per foot run for common, hip and some other stuff
Drill size for various wood screws
Lumber Dimension Table
Fraction to Decimal Conversion Table
Mystery Numbers
Mystery Scale
Scales divided into 10ths & 12ths of an inch
When I was framing houses, an aluminum framing square set you up a level from a common nail pounder. We didn't have much use for all the fancy scales. All you really needed to know was that when you were cutting a hip or valley rafter, you used 17" as the run length instead of 12" as you would for common rafters. I never got an aluminum square. Years later I bought a steel framing square. I still have it. It doesn't have any fancy scales or tables, and it's getting kind of rusty.
Western Europe has been too long under Biden's thumb. They have apparently swallowed the whole 'we know better than the poors' schtick, witness this quote from Germany:
CDU MP Marco Wanderwitz says the AfD, the second most popular party in the country, must be banned to save democracy. (Source: Wanderwitz.de)
Finished The Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercombie. This is book three of the trilogy. The first two were great, this one kind of falls apart at towards the end. The wise old wizard turns out to be just another megalomaniac tyrant. He claims to know better than everyone else, and maybe he does, but I'm not sure his methods achieved better results. Two romances that I kind of hoped would go somewhere don't, and one that I didn't see coming appears out of nowhere.
In World War II, Nazi Germany established brothels in the concentration camps (Lagerbordell or Freudenabteilungen "Joy Divisions") to increase productivity among inmates. Their use was restricted to the more privileged Aryan prisoners, primarily the Kapos, or "prisoner functionaries", and the criminal element. Jewish inmates were prohibited from using the brothels according to rules against racial mixing. In the end, the camp brothels did not produce any noticeable increase in the prisoners' productivity levels but, instead, created a market for coupons among the more privileged camp prisoners.
The women forced into these brothels came mainly from the women-only Ravensbrück concentration camp, except for Auschwitz, which used its own prisoners. In combination with the German military brothels in World War II, it is estimated that at least 34,140 female inmates were forced into sexual slavery during the Third Reich.
I checked the Babbel website and there are 13 languages that I can learn, but TrumpSpeak isn’t one of them.
If I was able to train an AI Large Language Model, I’d be trying to train it on TrumpSpeak. The database of things that he has said (and tweeted) has to be pretty large. Then I would try to train that AI to predict what is likely to come out of all of that TrumpSpeak.
One thing I can say with certainty is that taking TrumpSpeak at face value has rarely been effective. Worse yet is taking the worst parts of TrumpSpeak (and there are some worse parts) and extrapolating them, which might generate a lot of clicks, but it is unlikely to help anyone make good decisions. For those of you in markets and running businesses, making the best decisions possible is what it is all about.
We will do our best to try to figure out what is likely to occur, but I do think some more background is helpful.
Two Sides of Trump
I will never forget Donald Trump speaking at a Bankers Trust High Yield Conference (I think it was before Deutsche Bank, and given the topic, I could probably figure it out, but that’s not overly important to the story).
He was speaking to a large audience of bond investors, many of whom had recently lost money on one of his Atlantic City casinos (I think it was the Taj, but I could be wrong). The audience, while not hostile, was far from receptive to his discussion – which, of course, focused on raising debt for his new project in Atlantic City (the Taj II if memory serves correctly). Yet, by the end, there was a buzz in the audience, all wanting to get a good allocation when the new bonds came out. Even after his lawyer/accountant, came out and “corrected” some things and said some other things that might not have been 100% correct, there was still a buzz. So, from my perspective, don’t underestimate his ability to charm a room, and even if not everything said is accurate, that room can remain charmed. You can argue that this shouldn’t be the case, but I think if we are going to figure out TrumpSpeak together, this should always be at the back of our minds, if not the forefront.
On the other side (assuming that the above reminiscence is a positive about Trump), his business organization looks very different (in my opinion) compared to other large organizations. The various businesses are compartmentalized. Unless things have changed, there isn’t a Golf Course Corp that manages all the golf courses. Properties and businesses stand as individual entities or maybe in small groups. There is also no one who stands out as his “trusted lieutenant.” So many business leaders rely on often a handful of people for advice and help. We all know when “so and so” gets promoted or goes to another firm, who they are going to bring with them. Yet Trump never seemed to have that cadre of trusted people who have important and visible roles in his dealings (he likely has some people that are in his inner circle, but they don’t seem to be well known, which after 8 years in politics seems surprising). So, a concern I had was his ability to delegate, which I think hampered his first term, as turnover was high, and a lot of roles were left vacant. Quite frankly, during this campaign, many people plugged into the campaign told me that several people recommended that he tone down some of his rhetoric and choice of words. He didn’t listen. He still won.
So, as I try to think about TrumpSpeak, I think of someone who can surprise people by getting them to agree with him, but who might not like delegation and having others share in the success.
You are free to disagree with that, but in my building blocks of thinking about TrumpSpeak, I go back to these “first principles” consistently, and it served me quite well the first time he was president.
Nice, clear explanation of how substitution cyphers work along with a real world example. Okay, it's from the entertainment industry, so it's more like an imaginary world, but still based in reality.
New Order - Blue Monday 88 (Official Music Video)
neworder
Here's the tune he's talking about. I vaguely remember it.
The name 'Joy Division' struck a spark in my mind, but I found no record of ever having posted anything by them. Could it be that just the name struck a chord with me? Looking through their tunes I'm not finding anything I recognize, but this image pops up, and I do recognize this. Bonus - when the video is played the image is animated. Haven't seen that before.
Western Australian Gold -- Off the Charts! But there's a problem.
Orophilia
Fascinating. This business of extracting gold may as well be black magic. I can understand how chemicals could react and change the contents of a mixture, but how does heating a mixture in a furnace result in all the gold collecting into one small pellet? And what happened to the rest of the mixture? Did the lead evaporate? It's possible, but seems like a bad idea.
Anyway, reminds me of a passage from the 3rd volume of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy, where the nearly dead Isaac Newton is supervising a gold test / measurement operation in the Tower of London. Neal's explanation was detailed and clear, but just like this video, it made no sense.
Came across this page of speculation from Al Jazeera. Thought I might ought to start paying closer attention now that there is some hope of squashing the deep state. Well, I have some hope anyway. It's unlikely it will be eradicated, more likely the great big ball of slimy goop that comprises the deep state will get squished and pummeled and kneaded into a new shape, but I expect it will survive. In short order I expect numerous government agencies to telling us they were always behind Trump and his policies but they were hamstrung by the Biden administration. Yeah, hamstrung by the ropes they used to tie themselves to Biden. The author, Dorian Geiger, writes for the New York Post and produces social videos for Al Jazeera. Be careful Dorian, you're in a treacherous place.
Trump 2.0: Who is going to be in the US president-elect’s administration?
As a second Trump administration looms, intense jockeying for key spots in his forthcoming cabinet has begun.
President-elect Donald Trump arrives at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, November 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida [Evan Vucci/AP Photo]
Trump had reportedly avoided detailed cabinet discussions until after the election results were clear.
In one early announcement, he said on Thursday that helping him manage that team will be Susie Wiles, who managed his election campaign and will now serve as his chief of staff.
“Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to make America great again,” Trump said. “It is a well-deserved honour to have Susie as the first-ever female chief of staff in United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud.”
Susie Wiles, co-chair of Trump’s campaign, will be the first woman to serve as a president’s chief of staff [File: Brian Snyder/Reuters]
Here’s a closer look at who else might be part of the next administration, from seasoned Republican figures to unexpected newcomers.
JD Vance – Senator, Ohio, and vice president-elect
President-elect Donald Trump and his running mate Senator JD Vance, stand on stage at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center on November 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida [Evan Vucci/AP]
Ohio Senator JD Vance has quickly risen as a prominent GOP voice, going from never-Trumper to loyal running mate. Despite once comparing Trump to Hitler, ideologically Vance is aligned with the 47th president’s MAGA base, particularly on issues like national security and US-China relations. A former venture capitalist and author, Vance is a staunch advocate of Trump’s America First agenda. He’s a sharp critic of Joe Biden’s foreign policy and will bring a populist stance to the Oval Office.
Robert F Kennedy Jr – Presidential candidate, environmental lawyer
Robert F Kennedy Jr dropped his campaign for the Democratic Party, opting instead to run as an independent, before sacking his campaign altogether to stump for Trump [File: Mark Makela/Reuters]
One-time Democrat, Robert F Kennedy Jr, ran on an unsuccessful independent ticket for president this election cycle, before ending his campaign to become a Trump surrogate. He weathered a number of gaffes that came to light during his campaign, including admitting to short-term memory loss due to “brain worms”, abandoning a dead bear in a park, and accusations that he sexually assaulted his family’s live-in nanny in 1998.
A purveyor of vaccine conspiracies, Trump predicted he’d tap Kennedy to “go wild on health”, per The New York Times. His first act of business if appointed? Kennedy said he would push to “advise all US water systems to remove fluoride from public water”.
Vivek Ramaswamy – Biotechnology entrepreneur
Vivek Ramaswamy speaks during a rally for Republican presidential nominee and US presidential nominee Donald Trump, at Madison Square Garden, in New York City on October 27, 2024 [Carlos Barria/Reuters]
Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur-turned-politician, made a name for himself in the 2024 Republican primary with his anti-“woke” agenda and government reform. Ramaswamy, a vocal critic of Big Tech censorship and bureaucratic overreach, could take a role in the Department of Commerce or a technology-focused post, driving policies that challenge Silicon Valley and reinforce free speech. While he’s a longtime friend of JD Vance, he has portrayed himself as differing from the next vice president ideologically, casting himself in a more libertarian mould, as opposed to Vance’s support for elements of economic populism.
Marco Rubio – Senator, Florida
US Senator Marco Rubio speaks during the rally of Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump, at Mullett Arena in Tempe, Arizona, on October 24, 2024 [Go Nakamura/Reuters]
Senator Marco Rubio, who was repeatedly attacked by Trump in the 2016 Republican primaries, has been a vocal critic of Biden’s stance on national security and foreign policy; he’s strongly anti-Russia and anti-China. Rubio, who was tapped as a potential vice presidential pick, has experience in foreign affairs positions, making him a strong candidate for secretary of state or another foreign policy role. He aligns closely with Trump’s emphasis on prioritising American interests.
Elon Musk – CEO, Tesla, SpaceX
Elon Musk has become one of Trump’s most important supporters [File: Evan Vucci/AP Photo]
Days before Trump was catapulted back to the White House, the X owner pledged to overhaul the federal government as a “secretary of cost-cutting” if awarded a cabinet position. However, Musk may decide he’s better suited for an oversight role, rather than a position like secretary of energy, which would involve congressional approval hearings.
Doug Burgum – Governor, North Dakota
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum walking into the spin room before a presidential debate between Republican President-elect President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris on September 10, 2024, in Philadelphia [Matt Slocum/AP Photo]
Doug Burgum ran a longshot primary campaign against Trump, in which the incoming president steamrolled the North Dakota governor. But could the gambit have paid off in the long run? Burgum’s failed primary effort significantly boosted his profile on the national stage. His experience in managing North Dakota’s natural resources positions him as a suitable candidate for secretary of the interior. He is likely to focus on balancing energy development with conservation efforts, overseeing public lands, and implementing policies that support both economic growth and environmental stewardship.
John Ratcliffe – Former director of national intelligence
Former Representative John Ratcliff testifies before a Senate Intelligence Committee nomination hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 5, 2020 [Gabriella Demczuk/AP Photo]
John Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence under Trump, is a trusted ally with deep experience in intelligence and cybersecurity. Known for his loyalty to Trump and expertise in “counterterrorism”, Ratcliffe could resume a similar role, focusing on cybersecurity threats and intelligence reform. His reappointment would signal a continuity in Trump’s approach to national security and information integrity.
