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Thursday’s Forum
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17 responses to “Thursday’s Forum”
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Some more sabotage against German infrastructure:
Some excerpts:
It is, literally, one of the darkest hours for Europe’s energy security and transition. A second sabotage attempt, this time rather successful, has struck the German power grid. Compared with the other sabotage attempt, this has significantly affected the country’s grid, forcing several power plants to go offline at the same time.
While Berlin acts as the culprit is still unknown, the political landscape in Europe’s largest economy and most important actor shows an increasingly disturbing environment for continental prosperity and security of energy and electricity supply.
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Clearly, the disconnection of five power plants at once was not random, and the perpetrators wanted to test the grid’s ability to withstand such a loss at a time of peak consumption and stress on the German electricity sector, dealing with another transmission line fault in Brandenburg. Reportedly, RWE was able to reconnect two power plant units, Neurath G and Niederaußem H, with nearly 1,600 MW available the morning after the sabotage. RWE has not yet released any news about the other three power plants disconnected from the grid, meaning Neurath F and Niederaußem G and K units.
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Investigations are now proceeding, but it could take weeks or months to get relevant results. In the meantime, Reul asserted, “This wasn’t a broken switch, it was deliberate. Whoever touches it is attacking our country.” Currently, the North Rhine-Westphalia government is looking into two possible authors for this attack: “sabotage orchestrated by a foreign state and left-wing extremism.”
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France is having a space summit next week.
It runs out the Taco so-called administration is not happy about it. It’s discouraging aerospace companies from taking part.
Apparently attending “could look like tacit support for EU policy positions,” OMG! Imagine supporting the policy positions of a few dozen allies!
But the Noble Price in Chutzpah goes to this line: “France did not coordinate with the US on the summit.”
Come now. This is a space summit, not something trivial like an incompetently fought war that shuts down 20% of the world’s oil supply. How dare they engage in diplomacy without consulting the Great and Powerful Taco!11!
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A MAGA/Freedom Caucus Republican gets religion:
Who Is Really Paying for American Politics?
Congressman (and SC Senate and Governor candidate) starts off:
Washington has spent years debating money in American politics while ignoring a simpler question: Should voters have the right to know who is spending that money to influence their elections?
Today, the answer is too often no.
He then identifies the problem.
Billions of dollars flow through an ecosystem of wealthy donors, corporations, special interests, nonprofits, and super PACs. Much of it is perfectly legal. But legal and ethical are not the same thing.
The system has become so complex and intentionally opaque that voters can be bombarded with millions of dollars in political advertising without knowing who ultimately supplied the money.
Proposes a solution:
The answer is not limiting political speech. The answer is sunlight.
Congress should examine greater disclosure of the original sources of significant funds used to influence federal elections while protecting constitutional rights to free speech and association. Moving money through multiple organizations should not magically erase its origin. If millions are being spent to influence an election, voters should be able to follow the money.
The standard must apply equally – whether it’s a liberal billionaire, conservative billionaire, corporation, labor organization, Republican group, or Democratic group. It should not matter.
Political speech should remain free. Political money should not be deliberately untraceable.
Hopes for the best:
This is not about one candidate or one election. It is about whether elected officials answer to the people who sent them to Washington or to the special interests spending millions to keep them there.
Follow the money. Disclose the interests. Expose the relationships. Then trust the American people to decide.
No party owns Washington. No special interest should be able to buy it.
And no American should need a subpoena to find out who is trying.
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New documentary out on Elon Musk.
Reviewed at Hollywood Reporter, links at BJ:
https://balloon-juice.com/2026/09/03/late-night-open-thread-un-musked/
Too extensive for quotes, but worth a read.
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I’ve had an idle thought for years. So many feminists of a certain age seem to have been Jewish and come out of a small town in the Midwest. Gloria Steinem from Toledo. Betty Friedan from Peoria. Even the Friedman twins (Ann Landers and Dear Abby) from Sioux City, Iowa. You got to wonder if there was a particular social milieu that nurtured those women.
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Moving the “Fascism Part II” discussion to here before it overwhelms the Canada post.
Stephen, this is directed to you. You said,
But on the other hand, it really does matter if that authoritarian asshole is Pol Pot or some tin-pot military dictator.
I’m struggling to see exactly how it matters. It seems to me that what an authoritarian does is dependent primarily on how absolute the power they accumulate is, and their mental deterioration. So the difference between Pol Pot and some South American dictator comes about primarily because Pol Pot had virtually absolute power and the typical tin pot is always in imminent danger of overthrow and death at the hands of the next tin pot in line.
Can you give some real world examples of when and how the governing philosophy of an absolute dictator made a difference on the actual, lived, outcome? Or are you just saying that short of absolute authority, the political philosophy does have an effect?
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Maria Bartiromo is out at Fox News. BlueSky speculation is that she’s the next WH Press Secretary.
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I remember liking the woman years ago on CNBC where had she stayed that course may have had a reputable career and been respected at the end of her career. Well, she torched that and any semblance of seriousness or respect after her move to Fox. Spinectomy and lobotomy later….now resides in the unserious talking head, authoritarian sycophant file.
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