So much good news in there it’s hard to select a quote. I’ll go with this one, but please read the whole thing as they say.
Data from Kpler indicate that the seven-day average for oil clearing the Strait is 14.19 million barrels a day, approaching the prewar baseline of 17.13 million. Most of what’s missing are Iranian oil exports stopped by the U.S. blockade. The recent resumption of oil flowing through the Saudi bypass pipeline, followed by accelerating loadings at the port of Yanbu to transit the Red Sea, will unlock more exports.
But Dem midturn strategy has pivoted again from Iran to AI to lynching to ???
I read somewhere that in Victorian or maybe Georgian Britain, that it was common for middle class parents to send their young children off to live and work for other nearby families. I believe the thinking was this would help the children become a bit tougher and learn better work discipline. There may have been a concern that mom might engage in too much “helicoptering” of her children. Rather surprising.
Meanwhile Marseille, one hundred miles away, is rocked by current riots. The riots definitely include native French as well as migrants.
The riots started with lycée [high school] students but are spreading to university students. Montpellier is a college town — students are 1/4 of the population.
Twelve days is actually quite a long time for a French protest cycle. By roughly October 8–10 we should know much more: either university participation will have broadened substantially, or the present surge will have begun losing momentum.
________________________________
It never occurred to me that that the corp. debt being accumulated in order to build data centers would or could be in competition with US Treasuries. Of course, just because some guy says so, doesn’t make it true.
Adopted Missouri man discovers Michael McDonald of Doobie Brothers is his biological father
Michael Goessling was put up for adoption as an infant after his biological parents got pregnant when they were both 14 years old, First Alert 4 reported.
[…]
Goessling met with his birth mother in person on his 58th birthday and later connected with his biological father on the phone, who modestly mentioned he was a musician preparing for a tour through St. Louis.
“I said, ‘Are you Michael McDonald?’” Goessling said.
Oui, huxley, and also, Montpellier is not Marseilles.
When I was in that area in 2001, we got along with my high school French. The language highlight, for me, was when a waiter sniffed disdainfully, “Accent du Paris!” They speak a somewhat different-sounding French down there. I will be interested to hear your reports on how this goes! Montpellier and the coast there were lovely.
Are they talking about Tucker Carlson & Owens, or something else? It’s something else, that I strongly agree with.
In August 2025, Intel announced an agreement giving the federal government a 9.9% equity stake. The arrangement was described as passive ownership, but it nevertheless placed Washington on the shareholder register of a major American manufacturer.
– – – – – – If taxpayers should help preserve semiconductor production, why should they not finance publicly owned grocery stores?
Indeed. (Some other goods points in the article too.)
Taking a step or 100 steps backwards, I recall some excellent US corp. CEO commenting 15 or 20 years ago, that the worst longer term CEO of a major US corp. would make a better president (POTUS) than most of the ones we’ve had in last 50 or 100 years. I’m thinking Jamie Dimon said it, but that’s probably a bad guess.
Is Donald Trump exactly that instance? Better than many other presidents, but not that smart overall?
I was in Nice in July. We were on a WWII tour. Went to Toulon and Marseilles. Other than being very hot and humid, there were no problems.
Cicero, Kate, SHIREHOME:
Merci!
This trip is mainly to jumpstart conversation for me. I’ve taken a read-first approach and I now read French at a high intermediate level.
Standard advice is to learn conversation in parallel, but my mind goes to sleep with standard student dialogs. I couldn’t say anything I really wanted to say. Now I’ve got enough vocabulary and grammar to say what I want … poorly!
I’ll also do recon for a more leisurely trip through France another time.
Kate, they do speak French differently in the South, more like Italian. They pronounce almost all of the letters! There is some mutual hostility between Parisian French speakers and everyone else.
huxley, it’s actually closer to Spanish than Italian. And people there still remember with resentment the French from Paris coming down to conquer them in the 1200s!
@ Kate: “And people there still remember with resentment the French from Paris coming down to conquer them in the 1200s!”
That kind of long term historical “hate” must be really hard to maintain over centuries! I don’t see how it can happen, really. The in-group vs. out-group aspects of such feelings must be almost genetic?? Not just cultural.
If we look at our American experience, perhaps the closest we have to that case is the British attack on Washington DC in 1816 or so. We forgave them, the Germans for WW 11 and 12, the fascist Italians, and even the Japanese for Pearl Harbor. Oh, and the Muslim “invasion” post 911!!
I wonder if our empathic generosity is part of why so many Americns have been so willing to accept open borders and mediocre assimilation over the last 20 to 40 years? Of course a dedicated Leftist campaign of NGO and govt. corruption has been a great assist in that result.
@Kate: huxley, [Marseille French] is actually closer to Spanish than Italian.
Marseille French is closer to Italian in terms of clearer articulation of vowels and syllables — which was my main concern and still is. Parisian French is devilishly difficult to hear properly and is my greatest weakness in French.
ChatGPT says that one may make an argument for Italian or Spanish.
@R2L: That kind of long term historical “hate” must be really hard to maintain over centuries! I don’t see how it can happen, really.
Not if the “resentment” (Kate’s word) is maintained through the years with fresh evidence.
I’m no authority but in my brushes with French culture there really is a Paris problem. I asked ChatGPT:
___________________________________
France has had an unusually strong Paris-versus-everywhere-else axis for centuries. Paris was not merely the largest city; it was the political, administrative, intellectual, publishing, fashion, artistic, and educational center to a degree that London or New York never quite were in their respective countries. Complaints about Paris et la province are very old, and excessive centralization was still being discussed explicitly as a national problem in the 20th century.
Are they talking about Tucker Carlson & Owens, or something else? It’s something else, that I strongly agree with.
— TommyJay
They mean MAGA.
The author is writing from an economic libertarian perspective. They want to get back to advocating for laissez-faire economics. The trouble is that there has never been a majority for that vision. The MAGA style economic nationalist vision is the old serious rival the DSA vision has.
@huxley: I saw a sub-headline at the BBC saying the rioting has spread to Montpellier, but I was unable to read the article without subscribing.
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But the hats and hair! Cones were big and “tight.”T
Traffic cones anyone?
Another good news editorial from the WSJ:
The Battle of Hormuz Is Turning
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/strait-of-hormuz-battle-oil-tankers-central-command-trump-administration-f06d0abc?st=NrZQ1N
So much good news in there it’s hard to select a quote. I’ll go with this one, but please read the whole thing as they say.
But Dem midturn strategy has pivoted again from Iran to AI to lynching to ???
I read somewhere that in Victorian or maybe Georgian Britain, that it was common for middle class parents to send their young children off to live and work for other nearby families. I believe the thinking was this would help the children become a bit tougher and learn better work discipline. There may have been a concern that mom might engage in too much “helicoptering” of her children. Rather surprising.
Going medieval (continued)…
“Le Pen’s Election Odds Surge As Riots Rock France, Pressure Mounts On Macron”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/le-pens-election-odds-surge-riots-rock-france-pressure-mounts-macron
Liberté, égalité, fraternité…in the 21st century…
James Carville Goes on Verbal Rampage Against Far Left: ‘Not Been Right About Anything Ever!’
https://www.mediaite.com/online/james-carville-goes-on-verbal-rampage-against-far-left-not-been-right-about-anything-ever/
Don’t sugar coat it, James!
Geez. As it happens I’m traveling to Montpellier, France in 12 days for a language immersion course at ILA. Montpellier was flooded a few days ago:
–“Montpellier, France Underwater: Two Months of Rain in One Day & Lez River Floods”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5vi5l34d8E
Meanwhile Marseille, one hundred miles away, is rocked by current riots. The riots definitely include native French as well as migrants.
The riots started with lycée [high school] students but are spreading to university students. Montpellier is a college town — students are 1/4 of the population.
ChatGPT reassures me:
________________________________
Twelve days is actually quite a long time for a French protest cycle. By roughly October 8–10 we should know much more: either university participation will have broadened substantially, or the present surge will have begun losing momentum.
________________________________
Good to know.
Uhg. US debt and dollar woes.
The inevitable descent
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/10/the-inevitable-descent/
It never occurred to me that that the corp. debt being accumulated in order to build data centers would or could be in competition with US Treasuries. Of course, just because some guy says so, doesn’t make it true.
Adopted Missouri man discovers Michael McDonald of Doobie Brothers is his biological father
https://nypost.com/2026/10/01/us-news/adopted-missouri-man-discovers-michael-mcdonald-of-doobie-brothers-yacht-rock-fame-is-his-biological-father/
Good luck to you, huxley.
Oui, huxley, and also, Montpellier is not Marseilles.
When I was in that area in 2001, we got along with my high school French. The language highlight, for me, was when a waiter sniffed disdainfully, “Accent du Paris!” They speak a somewhat different-sounding French down there. I will be interested to hear your reports on how this goes! Montpellier and the coast there were lovely.
Ok, last one of these…
The new ‘Right’ is making socialism harder to fight
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/10/the-new-right-is-making-socialism-harder-to-fight/
Are they talking about Tucker Carlson & Owens, or something else? It’s something else, that I strongly agree with.
Indeed. (Some other goods points in the article too.)
Taking a step or 100 steps backwards, I recall some excellent US corp. CEO commenting 15 or 20 years ago, that the worst longer term CEO of a major US corp. would make a better president (POTUS) than most of the ones we’ve had in last 50 or 100 years. I’m thinking Jamie Dimon said it, but that’s probably a bad guess.
Is Donald Trump exactly that instance? Better than many other presidents, but not that smart overall?
I was in Nice in July. We were on a WWII tour. Went to Toulon and Marseilles. Other than being very hot and humid, there were no problems.
Cicero, Kate, SHIREHOME:
Merci!
This trip is mainly to jumpstart conversation for me. I’ve taken a read-first approach and I now read French at a high intermediate level.
Standard advice is to learn conversation in parallel, but my mind goes to sleep with standard student dialogs. I couldn’t say anything I really wanted to say. Now I’ve got enough vocabulary and grammar to say what I want … poorly!
I’ll also do recon for a more leisurely trip through France another time.
Kate, they do speak French differently in the South, more like Italian. They pronounce almost all of the letters! There is some mutual hostility between Parisian French speakers and everyone else.
huxley, it’s actually closer to Spanish than Italian. And people there still remember with resentment the French from Paris coming down to conquer them in the 1200s!
@ Kate: “And people there still remember with resentment the French from Paris coming down to conquer them in the 1200s!”
That kind of long term historical “hate” must be really hard to maintain over centuries! I don’t see how it can happen, really. The in-group vs. out-group aspects of such feelings must be almost genetic?? Not just cultural.
If we look at our American experience, perhaps the closest we have to that case is the British attack on Washington DC in 1816 or so. We forgave them, the Germans for WW 11 and 12, the fascist Italians, and even the Japanese for Pearl Harbor. Oh, and the Muslim “invasion” post 911!!
I wonder if our empathic generosity is part of why so many Americns have been so willing to accept open borders and mediocre assimilation over the last 20 to 40 years? Of course a dedicated Leftist campaign of NGO and govt. corruption has been a great assist in that result.
@Kate: huxley, [Marseille French] is actually closer to Spanish than Italian.
Marseille French is closer to Italian in terms of clearer articulation of vowels and syllables — which was my main concern and still is. Parisian French is devilishly difficult to hear properly and is my greatest weakness in French.
ChatGPT says that one may make an argument for Italian or Spanish.
@R2L: That kind of long term historical “hate” must be really hard to maintain over centuries! I don’t see how it can happen, really.
Not if the “resentment” (Kate’s word) is maintained through the years with fresh evidence.
I’m no authority but in my brushes with French culture there really is a Paris problem. I asked ChatGPT:
___________________________________
France has had an unusually strong Paris-versus-everywhere-else axis for centuries. Paris was not merely the largest city; it was the political, administrative, intellectual, publishing, fashion, artistic, and educational center to a degree that London or New York never quite were in their respective countries. Complaints about Paris et la province are very old, and excessive centralization was still being discussed explicitly as a national problem in the 20th century.
–linked to a Le Monde article, “Paris contre ou avec la province?”
https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1973/10/03/paris-contre-ou-avec-la-province_2555301_1819218.html
— TommyJay
They mean MAGA.
The author is writing from an economic libertarian perspective. They want to get back to advocating for laissez-faire economics. The trouble is that there has never been a majority for that vision. The MAGA style economic nationalist vision is the old serious rival the DSA vision has.
@huxley: I saw a sub-headline at the BBC saying the rioting has spread to Montpellier, but I was unable to read the article without subscribing.