Sorry, I ain't buying it.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-15/houston-s-oldest-refinery-is-shutting-it-won-t-be-the-last After more than a century of churning out fuel on the banks of the Houston Ship Channel, the city’s oldest refinery is preparing to shut down, potentially putting hundreds of people out of work. Its competitors are welcoming its demise.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-14/tsmc-considers-running-intel-s-us-factories-after-trump-team-request Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is considering taking a controlling stake in Intel Corp.’s factories at the request of Trump administration officials, a person familiar with the matter said, as the president looks to boost American manufacturing and maintain US leadership in critical technologies. and Though Intel has reiterated its commitment to investing in US factories — even as it pulls back from efforts abroad — Washington officials have for months been discussing contingency plans. One option favored by some in the Biden administration was a possible deal between Intel and GlobalFoundries Inc., Bloomberg has reported. and Biden officials also floated the possibility of TSMC licensing its manufacturing technology for use at Intel’s facilities, according to multiple people familiar with the conversations. But TSMC wasn’t interested in an arrangement that could ultimately benefit a competitor, the people said. And Biden’s team was generally reluctant to take an active role in deal conversations, according to several people familiar with the situation.

https://apnews.com/article/vermont-border-patrol-shooting-youngblut-lasota-zizians-6541ebcefc2806efd105d7db99a24aaf In the wooded outskirts of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a perplexed landlord noticed odd sights at two of his rental properties. Tenants wore long black coats and parked box trucks outside the duplexes. They ran an electrical cord from one box truck into one of the condos, and kept a stretcher inside another. A neighbor remembers similarly dressed figures walking around at night holding hands. They never spoke a word. By the time the FBI searched the property last week, one of the most recent tenants had been killed in a shootout with U.S. Border Patrol agents in Vermont, and a second was under arrest. A third, a shadowy figure known online as “Ziz,” remains missing after authorities linked their cultlike group to six deaths in three states. More at the link [image: ?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F5f%2Fc1%2Fa48e011416b25ac3d0b11cf97f5d%2F75895b07e3cd4b8cb837536b5c48a8ac]

Pretty accurate from my understanding of the story. Although it fails to mention that many Russians were convinced (and probably remain so today) that the deal was a lease agreement that the US reneged upon after the 1917 revolution. As well, the by the 1860s the British were not at all interested in acquiring Alaska as their focus was by then South Asia and not the Western Hemisphere.

Despite the tens of billions being wasted on a project like the F-35, the examples that tend to draw the most attention from the media and the most outrage among taxpayers involve overspending on routine items. This may be because the average person doesn’t have a sense of what a fighter plane should cost, but can more easily grasp that spending $640 for a toilet seat or $7,600 for a coffee pot is outrageous. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/only-the-pentagon-could-spend-640-on-a-toilet-seat/

If I was a young Dem politician, I'd stay away from the insanity and keep a low profile. Progressive has become a code word for communist. The party needs to recalibrate, but that's hard to do against Trump, because Trump is a populist. So, they need to get off of the TDS bandwagon and start to stake out core positions that appeal to more people than college educated liberals and the indigent.

awww, my kingdom for a booosie! There sails off into the Tyrrhenian Sea one cabin cruiser, one brand sparkling new motor bike, a fine hybrid suv to take me pets to the beach every morn. Me castle on the hill overlooking the same sparkling sea. All for a boosie in a flat. I dunno, methnks only Jon could live like that.

Link to video

@Doctor-Phibes said in Official Portraits: @Jolly said in Official Portraits: I sometimes forget how unexpressive the English are If you're going to use the adjective 'literally', at least finish the sentence with something you can literally do. Being an American is no excuse for clumsiness. Also, if you're going to swear, do it properly. 'Heck' is a word best reserved for Sunday school. Shucks. I suspect twitterpation is imminent.

Light 'em up.

looked real to me.

Good, let the NGOs lawyer up and we'll decide this at SCOTUS.

@NobodySock said in Why Concerts Cost So Much: I know back in the day, artists relied on album sales as their primary source of income. Back then concerts were reasonably priced with the advent of the Internet and the ability to download music, album sales have taken serious hits, and thus the concert venue has now become the performers, primary method of income. I can’t remember the last concert I have gone to as I stopped going when tickets started approaching $50 or more. It’s crazy now nowadays I know. Yep. Artists used to go on tour to boost album sales. Now they release recordings to engage and encourage people to come to their shows…

@LuFins-Dad said in Hey LD: They’ve always been high propensity voters definitely blue. Now that they might have to find a real job, they might decide it is time to turn red.

If we give one of theirs a speeding ticket, they kidnap 3 of ours for a year.

Yeah, large wild animals are best seen from something larger than them.