Memes that made me laugh 294

 

Gathered from around the Internet over the past week.  Click any image for a larger view.

Sunday morning music

 

Let's have a little more classical guitar.  Miguel Rincón is a multi-talented performer on baroque and Renaissance instruments, including "Renaissance lute, Baroque lute, Baroque guitar, Vihuela, Chitarrone and Archlute".  He's one of my favorite performers.

Let's start with his performance of Santiago de Murcia's Fandangos, from the composer's 1730 collection Codex Saldívar.  The guitar is a modern reproduction of a 5th century original.

Next, a twofer for the theorbo, a member of the lute family with a greatly extended neck and two pegboxes.  First is Robert de Visée's Passacaille from 1699, and then Giovanni Kapsberger's Passacaglia from 1640.  This theorbo is a modern reproduction, based on a design from the 14th century.

Melchior Neusidler was born in Nuremberg in 1531.  He was a famous lutist of his day, composing many pieces as well as performing.  Here's his Ricercare Terzo, performed on a modern reproduction of a 7th century lute.

And finally, two of my favorite pieces for classical baroque guitar.  Here's Santiago de Murcia's Tarantelas, also from his 1630 Codex Saldívar, and Gaspar Sanz's Canarios from 1674.

A lovely way to start the day, no?

Peter

The organizers behind the anti-ICE protests

 

Following this morning's first article, in which I argue that we're seeing a deliberate attempt to turn illegal immigration into a cause célèbre like George Floyd's death in 2020, City Journal has this exposé of one of the driving forces behind that attempt.

The People’s Forum is a “movement incubator” and “a home” for over 200 left-wing groups. Its Manhattan location offers “co-working space, conference rooms, a theater for film screenings, a media laboratory, a lending library, and [the] People’s Café,” as well as an art space, “ideal for art builds, poster making, screen printing.” Part of what makes the organization so quick to respond is that outsourcing isn’t necessary—everything is in-house.

. . .

The group has drawn congressional scrutiny for its behavior and alleged Chinese connections. Last year, Senator Chuck Grassley contacted the Department of Justice about TPF’s “reported Chinese Communist Party ties.” Representative Jason Smith, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, urged the IRS to revoke TPF’s tax-exempt status, citing its role in “inciting riots and violence, supporting illegal activity, and conducting other activity contrary to the public good.”

Elected officials are right to worry. One of TPF’s most radical allies is Nodutdol, a pro-North Korean organization that hosted its end-of-year fundraiser at TPF’s space. In April 2025, TPF hosted a Nodutdol-facilitated event on “Socialism and Sovereignty” in what it referred to simply as “Korea,” in which it denounced “the constant demonization of North Korea” and deemed “reunification” of the Koreas “a vital front in the global anti-imperialist struggle.”

Newer organizations also rely on The People’s Forum as a volunteer hub. That includes groups like ICE Out of New York, which has staged direct actions, such as a disruptive protest inside a Manhattan Home Depot over the corporation’s failure to condemn deportations occurring on its properties.

. . .

While TPF is based in Manhattan, its influence extends far beyond Gotham. Its classes use a hybrid format, allowing anyone with an Internet connection to participate. TPF’s in-house press and bookstore, 1804 Books, prints, publishes, and distributes all manner of “socialist literature and revolutionary theory.” And as it fundraises for a major renovation, the group’s reach and operational capacity appear poised to expand.

This weekend’s rapid, coordinated protests make one thing clear: the anti-capitalist movement is growing. The People’s Forum is just one node in a massive militant network that opposes the American experiment. Officials must keep watch—and when lawbreaking occurs, take action.

There's more at the link.

Friends, that's just one group, in one city.  There are literally hundreds, possibly thousands, of smaller groups in most liberal left-wing cities, and they're all fed by "umbrella" organizations such as The People's Forum.  George Soros and his Open Society Foundations is another funder and coordinator of such activities, as is Hansjorg Wyss and his eponymous Wyss Foundation and the Berger Action Fund.  There are many more like them.  They're pouring hundreds of millions of dollars every year into US politics in an attempt to derail the Trump administration's policies, and prepare to take back political power as quickly as possible.

They're all funding and organizing and coordinating the anti-ICE activities we're seeing on our streets.  They're all doing their best to make it impossible to control those activities, by any means necessary.  We haven't yet seen ICE officers ambushed and assassinated while doing their duty, but I think it's only a matter of time until we do.  After all, from their insular and blinkered perspective, ICE just killed one of their own protesters, so such a response would be no more than ICE deserves.

Tragically, such extremism is beginning to make its presence felt on the right, conservative wing of US politics as well.  Remember Newton's Third Law of Motion?  "Every action causes an equal and opposite reaction."  Extremism begets more extremism, swinging and see-sawing to and fro.  Most of the victims don't really care that much about the extremes - they just got in the way.  They're useful cannon fodder to be exploited for propaganda purposes.  The BBC went so far as to headline, "Two starkly opposed Americas laid bare by deadly ICE shooting".

We are not, repeat, not a United States at this time.  We're far from it.  We can't expect everyone to support common-sense courtesy and decency, because few extremists are willing to do so.  That puts every moderate in the cross-hairs of one or other (or both) sides.

Forewarned is forearmed.

Peter

Shades of 2020... are we seeing George Floyd redux on the left?

 

When it comes to politics, I'm not a great believer in coincidences.  When headlines, proclamations and exhortations pop up like weeds around the same subject, there's always some form of coordination behind them.  If anyone denies that, they're most likely part of the coordination effort.

That's what we're seeing now in connection with ICE's immigration enforcement:  a concerted, organized effort to paint the agency as evil, and its agents as villains and demons, and to use both as levers to attack President Trump.  It's shades of the George Floyd riots all over again.  Consider these headlines (and click on any one to read the article concerned):

• Renee Nicole Good was Minneapolis ‘ICE Watch’ ‘warrior’ who trained to resist feds before shooting
• Crockett warns of nationwide protests over ICE shooting: 'State-sanctioned execution'
• WALZ’S REBELLION: Minnesota Governor ... Threatens to Activate National Guard Against Federal Law Enforcement
• ‘Stoking the Grievance Industry’: Leftist Groups Mobilize After ICE Shooting in Minneapolis
• Chaos!: Democrats Use Minneapolis Shooting to Push Their Anti-Trump 2026 Campaign Theme
• Just how insane did Democrats become on immigration?
• Who Is Helping Low IQ Migrants Defraud American Taxpayers?

Those are just a few examples of the torrent of articles (from both left and right wing authors and sources) about the present political and social situation.

If you can't see parallels between the riots of 2020 and those of 2026, I fear you're living in cloud cuckoo land.  The left, progressive wing of US politics is trying to whip up fear, anxiety and doubt around the issue of illegal aliens and illegal immigration (although they're very careful never to use, or accept the legitimacy of, either of those terms).  They want to make it a standard around which to rally support, and to undermine the policies and actions of the Trump administration. To achieve that end, demonstrations and riots, public violence, even looting and trashing other people's property, are merely tools in their toolbox.  The "restraints" of law, common decency, and ethical and moral behavior are a joke to them.  They use those things against those who believe in them.

In South Africa we used to say that the left wing (meaning, in that country, the anti-apartheid forces during the 1980's) were trying to make the country ungovernable.  To a considerable extent, they succeeded, leading to that country's first-ever democratic elections in 1994.  They used violence, controlled and uncontrolled, as just another method of applying pressure.  It cost us tens of thousands killed, possibly hundreds of thousands - we'll never know - and they still haven't stopped.  Stress kills, even after many years and many miles.  (See, for example, my 2008 article about the death of a good friend.)  I'm convinced that my heart attack in 2009, out of the blue with no warning, was just such a delayed-effect reaction to all those years.

With that experience behind me, I can say with absolute confidence that precisely the same tactics (particularly intimidation and aggression) are being used against conservatives, and against law enforcement officers and agencies (with particular emphasis on the Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency).  The lyrics are different, but the tune is the same.  The fatalities here are a lot less, too . . . for now.

Folks, remember how disrupted things became in 2020 and 2021?  Expect it to happen again.  If you live in cities (and I sincerely hope many of you heeded my earlier warnings and left big cities behind you), you're going to be right on the spot.  Think it won't affect you?  I have news for you . . . the success of the left depends on you feeling their wrath personally, and being afraid of them, and therefore voting the way they want in order to "make it stop".  They won't leave you alone.

If you're still city-bound (and even if you're not), pay extra attention to the following:

• Make sure your emergency preparations, food and ammo stocks, etc. are as ready as possible.  Expect there to be another run on firearms and ammunition, just like 2020/21, as those who hadn't prepared in time try to do so at short notice.  If your own supplies are a little threadbare, beat the rush and stock up now, while prices are still relatively low.  Service and lubricate your firearms, and load your spare magazines!  There's nothing quite so useless in a defensive emergency as an unloaded magazine... or, perhaps, an empty fire-extinguisher when your house is burning.  (You do have fire-extinguishers - quality ones, of a reasonable size - in your home, don't you?  When did you last check them?)
• Design, prepare and practice emergency drills with your spouse and children, and anyone else who lives with you.  Be ready for an emergency if one arrives unannounced.  Liaise with your neighbors, and arrange with those of them who are realists to help each other if the need arises.  Keep your vehicle(s) serviced and at least half-filled with fuel, ready to leave in a hurry, and have at least 72-hour bug-out bags packed for every member of your household.
• Have spare cash on hand, as much as you can afford.  In an emergency, some vendors are likely to refuse credit cards, and/or the card charging systems might be out of service.  Cash is king!

Finally, if Minneapolis 2020 looks like it's coming to your neighborhood, be somewhere else!  Let insurance pay for repairs and replacement for any damage they do to your home and vehicles.  That's what insurance is for.

Peter

Autofocus spectacles?

 

I was intrigued to learn of a new optical technology that allows spectacles to autofocus from near to far vision.

The glasses contain eye-tracking sensors as well as liquid crystals in the lenses, which are used to change the prescription instantaneously. The result, according to the company, is an improvement on current bifocal or varifocal lenses, both of which are meant for people who need assistance seeing both far and close distances, but come with drawbacks.

. . .

By using a dynamic lens, IXI does away with fixed magnification areas: “Modern varifocals have this narrow viewing channel because they’re mixing basically three different lenses,” said Niko Eiden, CEO of IXI. “There is far sight, intermediate and short distance, and you can’t seamlessly blend these lenses. So, there are areas of distortion, the sides of the lenses are quite useless for the user, and then you really have to manage which part of this viewing channel you’re looking at.”

The IXI glasses, Eiden said, will have a much larger “reading” area for close-up vision — although still not as large as the entire lens — and it will also be positioned “in a more optimal place,” based on the user’s standard eye exam. But the biggest plus, Eiden added, is that most of the time, the reading area simply disappears, leaving the main prescription for long distance on the entire lens.

“For seeing far, the difference is really striking, because with varifocals you have to look at the top part of the lens in order to see far. With ours, you have the full lens area to see far — as you were used to when you were slightly younger,” Eden explained, referring to people who had glasses for distance vision from their teens or early adulthood, before starting to also need reading glasses, like most people as they get older.

There's more at the link.

I use reading and computer glasses, with different prescriptions, but don't yet need longer-range lenses.  It would be handy to have a single pair that will autofocus from near (book) to slightly longer (computer) distances on demand.

However, I have questions.

1. How are these glasses powered?  There must be a battery somewhere, and a means to carry the power to the lenses themselves.  What's the life of the battery?  How is it recharged and/or replaced when needed?
2. Can these lenses be incorporated/blended with existing technology that darkens the lens in bright light, and lightens it in darker areas, so that one doesn't need a separate pair of sunglasses?
3. How do the lenses perform in the rain?  Will they be able to compensate for drops of rain on their surface, and still provide clear vision?
4. How secure are they against dust, being dropped, and other hazards?  If scratched, as so many spectacle lenses so often are, can they continue in use, or would they have to be replaced?
5. What will they cost?  I imagine that at first, they'll be a premium product.  I won't be able to buy them online from discount vendors, I'm sure.

All that said, this sounds like a very useful development.

Peter

The dollar, the Dow Jones Index, and your money

 

Peter Schiff tweeted on Tuesday:

That's a very frightening statistic.  The Dow Jones Index rising so fast, and so high, is not because the potential for investment growth is there.  In fact, the value of the Dow on a per-dollar basis is down by three-quarters since the turn of the century.  The dollar is getting weaker and weaker, because we (or, rather, the Fed, and the politicians who spend it so wastefully and carelessly) keep on printing it like there's no tomorrow.

There are those who say that the dollar is, in fact, one of the strongest currencies around, and that's why overseas investors keep buying it.  I don't believe that for a moment.  The dollar simply happens to be the least bad choice among leading international currencies.  All the others - the euro, the pound, the renmimbi, the yen - are issued by economies that are in even worse shape than the USA's.

To add to the picture, here's what Jared Dillian had to say in his Chart Of The Week e-mail, also on Tuesday.  I can't link to his e-mail, unfortunately, but here's the meat and potatoes bit.

Here’s what nobody wants to talk about: When the dollar rolled over in the early 2000s, it didn’t just decline—it collapsed. And that collapse lit the fuse on the greatest commodities supercycle in modern history. Gold went ballistic. Oil went ballistic. Everything went ballistic.

Now look at where we are today. We’re testing the bottom of that channel again. The exact same technical setup. And when—not if, but when—this thing breaks, it’s going to be biblical.

The smart money isn’t waiting around to see what happens. They’re already positioning for the next commodities boom. Because that’s what happens when the dollar gets crushed. Commodities go lunar.

When this channel breaks, the dollar is going to get absolutely demolished, and commodities are going to rip.

The setup is right there. It’s staring you right in the face. The only question is: Are you going to ignore it like many will, or are you going to position yourself correctly?

Time to get long commodities. Like, yesterday.

I have no idea whether or not he's right - I'm not a stock market chartist - but, in the light of all we've discussed in these pages over the past several years about the dollar's weakness, and the unbalanced state of national and world economies, and the immense debt overhang that threatens us all . . . I won't be surprised if he's entirely correct.  As for whether to invest in commodities, I'm a small-time saver, not a big-time rich investor, so that won't affect me much.  However, I'm very glad that some years ago, I invested a small proportion of our savings in a few one-ounce silver coins.  They're currently up by about 250-300% in dollar terms over what I paid for them.  That's a commodity price I can get behind!

Meanwhile, apart from my medical expenses stash (which I dare not spend on anything else), I'm using our steadily-depreciating dollars to buy things we can use and will need in the short to medium term, because I expect that before long, if the dollar lets go, we may no longer be able to afford them.  YMMV, of course . . . but keep Weimar Germany in mind.  The parallels are ominous.  (See also zero stroke.)

Peter

"Politics is the art of the possible" - not the impossible

 

First German chancellor Otto von Bismarck famously opined, "Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable — the art of the next best."  That's as true today as it was when he said it, about one-and-a-half centuries ago.  Unfortunately, many politicians ignore it and try to carry on regardless, usually with disastrous or tragic consequences.

The latest to do so is Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado.

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has said she should "absolutely" be in charge of the country, following the US ousting of President Nicolás Maduro last week.

"We are ready and willing to serve our people as we have been mandated," Machado said in an interview with the BBC's US partner CBS.

She thanked US President Donald Trump for his "leadership and courage" after US forces stormed Caracas and arrested Maduro, but said nobody trusted the deposed president's ally who has been appointed as interim leader.

Machado and her opposition movement claimed victory in 2024's heavily disputed elections, but Trump has refused to back her, saying she lacks popular support.

There's more at the link.

I accept that Ms. Machado won an electoral majority in Venezuela during the most recent elections, but she never took power, because Maduro and his goons controlled almost every avenue of control open to them.  She was blocked at every turn, and had to go into hiding in case he arrested her - in which case she'd surely have had an accident or illness while incarcerated that would have killed her.  She recently had to be smuggled out of the country to accept her Nobel Peace Prize.

There's simply no way she can muster enough support from the authority structures in Venezuela to hope to take over.  Maduro and Chavez loyalists would kill her before she took office, and the entire government bureaucracy and machinery of state - long since converted into bribe-taking, corrupt, self-seeking figureheads - would refuse to obey any directive she issued, or any law she had passed, that threatens their place in the sun.  She may have popular support among the electorate, but the reality of the Venezuelan equivalent of the "Deep State" is that electoral support doesn't matter at this time.  As we noted yesterday:

Trump “is correct in saying this is a deeply corrupt regime, and it’s a deeply factionalised military and state structure engaged in all sorts of illicit activities, who would be hard pressed to part with their ill-gotten gains, prestige and positions, and literally put their necks on the line,” says Christopher Sabatini, senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House.

. . .

And Maduro and Hugo Chávez, his predecessor, bought loyalty by carving the state into fiefdoms from which their various clients could extract rents, impoverishing the nation while creating powerful rival power centres.

“Now the head is gone, as we see when you have dictators die, you end up getting a lot of rivals under the leader jostling for power. So don’t be surprised if somebody in the military shoots the vice-president. That’s part of the disintegration,” says Pape.

Again, more at the link.

I agree that, in simple justice, Ms. Machado probably should be the next President of Venezuela.  However, in cold, hard, practical terms, for her to assume that office would be a death sentence for her, her family, and many Venezuelans who support her.  It would plunge that country into even greater turmoil.  It's simply impossible under present conditions.  To think otherwise is to live in cloud cuckoo land.

Peter

A thought occurs to me...

 

Idle stream of consciousness:

1. Venezuelan ex-president Maduro is being held in MDC Brooklyn prison in New York City.
2. MDC Brooklyn is where Jeffrey Epstein was incarcerated, and where he allegedly "committed suicide" in his prison cell.
3. I wonder if Maduro has been placed in Epstein's old cell?
4. And if so, I wonder if the significance of that cell has been explained to him?

Do I have nasty, twisted thoughts sometimes, or what?

Peter