Nobody Cares: PRS

[Dakota Tebaldi]

My favorite thing about this map is that Grand Rapids is on it, apparently just to emphasize that it will not be getting high-speed rail.

 

[Free]

My favorite thing about this map is that Grand Rapids is on it, apparently just to emphasize that it will not be getting high-speed rail.

My brother lives in Grand Rapids, and he would greatly benefit from a high-speed rail system.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Whatever you do, don’t get deutsche bahn to run it.

 

[Free]

Ah yes, Russian and U.S. interests and tactics are very aligned here...

Russia and U.S. amplifying Alberta separatist narratives to stoke division, distrust: report

A year ago, weeks after the Carney Liberals won the last federal election, the website albertaseparatist.com sprang up, accompanied by similarly named TikTok and YouTube accounts.

Article headlines included “The case for sovereignty over statehood” and “Ottawa’s piggy bank wakes up” — but these sites don’t appear to have come from anywhere in Alberta.

Rather, researchers discovered the now defunct website and social media accounts likely came from a Russian covert influence network known as Storm-1516, known for making fictional websites that target audiences in various countries. And here, it targeted Canada and Alberta.

Both Russian and pro-Trump U.S. actors are amplifying and spreading misinformation about Alberta separatism in the hope of fraying Canadian unity and sowing distrust in key institutions and authorities, warns a new report released Wednesday.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

City video aggregator 'yegwave' (Edmonton, AB airport code) got outed as mainly Russian.

 

[detrius]

Whatever you do, don’t get deutsche bahn to run it.

Here's the train from the picture I posted:

Verspätungsdaten und Pünktlichkeit von Zug ICE 1052 (Berlin Hbf - Köln Hbf)

Verspätungen, Zugausfälle und Pünktlichkeitsstatistik sowie Livestatus, Wagenreihung und Verspätungsprognose für ICE 1052.

www.zugfinder.net

As you can see, it was punctual ("pünktlich") five times in April.

 

[detrius]

The thing is, I have to switch trains in Hannover anyway, so most of these delays don't impact me at all.

In fact, if my connection gets cancelled or if the train is late by 20 minutes or more, I get to simply pick another train or travel on another day. That's why I typically book the cheapest ticket for about 20 Euros and a departure time at around 6am. That way, if I get lucky and the train fails (preferably announced a few days in advance), I can sleep in and travel at a more leisurely pace.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

As is tradition.

 

[Noodles]

Ah yes, Russian and U.S. interests and tactics are very aligned here...

Russia and U.S. amplifying Alberta separatist narratives to stoke division, distrust: report

Russia knows it will never not be a shithole, so instead of trying to get better, they are desperstely trying to destroy everything else even remotely good.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

I've long thought that WW2 is probably the most mythologised conflict in history since the Trojan war. This FT article (Evernote link because paywall) makes much the same point far better than could I.

The second world war fixation gets the US into trouble again

 

[Free]

I've long thought that WW2 is probably the most mythologised conflict in history since the Trojan war.

Remember when Athena came to the aide of the Allies at the Battle of the Bulge, all because Hitler judged Eva Braun the most beautiful woman in Europe?

 

[Free]

New York real estate titan likens the phrase ‘tax the rich’ to racial slurs

The phrase “tax the rich” can be “just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs”, according to the New York City billionaire Steve Roth, who said that the top 1% should be “praised and thanked”.

Speaking on his company’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, Roth, the CEO of Vornado Realty Trust, expressed his support for fellow billionaire and the CEO of Citadel, Ken Griffin, who was singled out in the 15 April announcement by New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, of the state’s first “pied-à-terre” tax on second homes valued at more than $5m. In a video, Mamdani announced the policy in front of Griffin’s penthouse, which he said was purchased for $238m.

“We are all shocked that our young mayor would pull this stunt in front of Ken’s home and single him out for ridicule,” Roth said. “This was both irresponsible and dangerous.”

"Tax the rich" is as bad as racial slurs, says the very white, very very rich man. I'm surprised he even considers racial slurs to be bad.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Armageddon 2: Asteroid saves Earth from U.S. in Michael Bay sequel - The Beaverton

 

[Free]

Giuliani update.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani out of ICU but will remain hospitalized, spokesperson says

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is no longer in the ICU but will remain in the hospital for “some time” as he recovers from pneumonia, his spokesperson said Wednesday.

“The mayor and his family appreciate the outpouring of love and prayers sent his way,” spokesperson Ted Goodman said in a statement.

Love? Did anyone here send along some love with their thoughts and prayers? I hope not.

Goodman said earlier this week that Giuliani, 81, was hospitalized in critical but stable condition. The former mayor was previously diagnosed with restrictive airway disease following 9/11, Goodman said, a condition that can complicate a respiratory illness.

He got this restrictive airway disease from 9/11? Are you sure there's no other possible cause?

“The virus quickly overwhelmed his body, requiring mechanical ventilation to maintain adequate oxygen and stabilize his condition,” Goodman said.

Again, did anyone here send some love his way?!?!

 

[Free]

Trump Bootlicker and Billionaire Jeff Bezo's Washington Post published an editorial on the NYC Mayor and his "tax the rich" efforts.

Zohran Mamdani’s ‘creepy and weird’ attack on success [WP by way of archive.today]

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been scrambling to come up with money to fund a major expansion of city government, and he has put the politics of envy at the center of his effort. This is bound to be a fiscal failure, but it’s already a moral one.

Last month, the social-media-savvy socialist filmed a video outside the New York home of billionaire Ken Griffin. He told viewers who lived there and declared, “We’re taxing the rich.” Why pick on the hedge fund manager?

Because he's a hedge fund manager?

The mayor didn’t accuse Griffin of violating any laws or even dodging taxes. His only crime was owning a nice penthouse — that is, being a successful person. Griffin said Tuesday that the video was “creepy and weird.” It was also unethical.

“He seems to have forgotten that the CEO of another American company was assassinated just blocks from where I live in New York,” the Citadel chief executive noted, referencing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare’s Brian Thompson in December 2024.

Luigi Mangione, awaiting trial for that premeditated murder, has inspired copycat violence aimed at the affluent.

They (the editorial is not bylined) are insinuating Mamdani, in effect, doxxed Griffin and put his life at risk. But, here is the "creepy and weird" attack on...success?



Mamdani does stand outside the building where Griffin's penthouse apartment is claimed to be. And he does say Griffin purchased it (for 238 million dollars!). But he also says that he doesn't really live there. That's because Ken Griffin lives somewhere in Miami, Florida. Which is something Mamdani never mentions.

That is so, so unethical of him.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

This is hilarious (maybe not so much if you're not in the US, I guess). Not The Onion.

Kash "J. Edgar Boozer" Patel Is Going Insane Over a Missing Bottle of Bourbon, 2 Dozen Leakers And Another Atlantic Story That Just Crushed Him. Again.

Kash Patel is threatening and polygraphing DOZENS of FBI Agents for snitching to the Atlantic about his blackout comas, personal branding, and investigating the reporter they spoke to. LOL.

deanblundell.substack.com

 

[Free]

This is hilarious (maybe not so much if you're not in the US, I guess). Not The Onion.

Kash "J. Edgar Boozer" Patel Is Going Insane Over a Missing Bottle of Bourbon, 2 Dozen Leakers And Another Atlantic Story That Just Crushed Him. Again.

Kash Patel is threatening and polygraphing DOZENS of FBI Agents for snitching to the Atlantic about his blackout comas, personal branding, and investigating the reporter they spoke to. LOL.

deanblundell.substack.com

It's not funny to a lot of us in the U.S., as well.

And tagging any story involving the minions and schemes of this administration with "Not The Onion" is becoming a regular necessity.

 

[Noodles]

This is hilarious (maybe not so much if you're not in the US, I guess). Not The Onion.

Kash "J. Edgar Boozer" Patel Is Going Insane Over a Missing Bottle of Bourbon, 2 Dozen Leakers And Another Atlantic Story That Just Crushed Him. Again.

Kash Patel is threatening and polygraphing DOZENS of FBI Agents for snitching to the Atlantic about his blackout comas, personal branding, and investigating the reporter they spoke to. LOL.

deanblundell.substack.com

I thought Polygraphs were just a fake movies and TV thing and were meaningless IRL.

 

[Tigger]

They are, you may as well use a dowsing rod. If they had any actual validity they would be in every court on earth.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

I thought Polygraphs were just a fake movies and TV thing and were meaningless IRL.

As I understand it, US courts don't accept them, but they're still widely used in the US, not so much as indicators of truth (though they do apparently give better than random results) but as ways of putting pressure on suspects in the hope they'll confess because they think the polygraph will catch them out, or as indicators that the suspect may be lying so it's worth probing further.

For whatever reason, US law enforcement seems to like them, even though the courts don't.