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Extreme weather alert

Submitted by QMS on Tue, 10/28/2025 - 8:37am

.
this hurricane Mellisa is a real doozy

more than a mile high column of pressure above the eye

175 mph winds devastating Jamaica

https://x.com/MatthewCappucci/status/1983010147224936687/photo/1

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Submitted by QMS on Tue, 10/28/2025 - 8:42am

Glad I'n not offshore now

.
.

creating some havoc to the US war machine in the
Caribbean region

—

Zionism is a social disease

Submitted by soryang on Tue, 10/28/2025 - 10:12am

Looks like it's headed straight for GITMO

@QMS

Morning QMS!

I heard Mr. Weatherman say this is the strongest hurricane on record on the Atlantic side in Oct.

The fact that it stalled for so long over hot water didn't help any.

—

語必忠信行必正直

Submitted by QMS on Tue, 10/28/2025 - 9:09am

On a different topic

.
(sort of an open thread)

state of affairs

Seeing a rival building, educating, and innovating at the scale that China has done casts U.S. dysfunction into sharper relief.

An interesting essay.

https://www.theideasletter.org/essay/the-great-reckoning/

The world has fundamentally changed. The choice, for the West, is not between resistance and surrender, but between thoughtful adaptation and stubborn denial, between strengthening our institutions through honest self-examination or watching them weaken through willful blindness to new realities.

—

Zionism is a social disease

Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 10/28/2025 - 10:03am

America used to do great things

@QMS

—

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by soryang on Tue, 10/28/2025 - 11:06am

Kua had to sugar coat the message

@QMS

These achievements come at a moment when not just the United States but many democracies in the West are themselves in crisis. This simultaneity forces an uncomfortable question: Is political legitimacy purely about procedural democracy? Or must it also encompass performance, delivery, competence, and resilience? Can the virtues of technocratic governance—its efficiency, its ability to plan and build and manufacture at scale—be adopted without succumbing to authoritarian temptation?

The answer is no longer self-evident. And that uncertainty is itself part of the reckoning the West faces.

It seems to me that these are rhetorical questions. The author has to pretend it's still an open question so as not to offend the sensibilities of the deluded. The leadership is hopelessly incompetent. How could someone write an essay on this topic without raising the extraordinary levels of corruption that bar change and still resort to disastrous imperial "solutions"? Corrupt Chinese leaders whether in the government, the party, or industry are periodically taken to the woodshed for punishment. Here US leaders are purged for not being corrupt or venal enough.

Can we avoid authoritarianism? Who's not perceiving reality here? Oil companies, along with the war machine, the surveillance people and the wall street carpet baggers, run US policy. They only thing they care about is their own interests. There is a vestigial facade of concern for human rights, which is all but gone. The ideological facade is on the way out...

If you write the truth, you are in danger of being tagged in whatever category from NSM 7. "Be careful what you say." The author was careful but he got his message across. I hope people listen.

This speaks for itself:

It looks like President Trump didn't realize he was supposed to stop in front of the US and Japanese flags. Prime Minister Takaichi seemed confused that Trump kept walking, and then followed proper protocol and bowed in front of the flags.pic.twitter.com/ZRNIgqDy2D

— Jeffrey J. Hall (@mrjeffu) October 28, 2025

—

語必忠信行必正直

Submitted by QMS on Tue, 10/28/2025 - 11:21am

trumpet is an absolute baffoon

@soryang

doubt he can even spell diplomacy
let alone understand the concept

#2 These achievements come at a moment when not just the United States but many democracies in the West are themselves in crisis. This simultaneity forces an uncomfortable question: Is political legitimacy purely about procedural democracy? Or must it also encompass performance, delivery, competence, and resilience? Can the virtues of technocratic governance—its efficiency, its ability to plan and build and manufacture at scale—be adopted without succumbing to authoritarian temptation? The answer is no longer self-evident. And that uncertainty is itself part of the reckoning the West faces. It seems to me that these are rhetorical questions. The author has to pretend it's still an open question so as not to offend the sensibilities of the deluded. The leadership is hopelessly incompetent. How could someone write an essay on this topic without raising the extraordinary levels of corruption that bar change and still resort to disastrous imperial "solutions"? Corrupt Chinese leaders whether in the government, the party, or industry are periodically taken to the woodshed for punishment. Here US leaders are purged for not being corrupt or venal enough. Can we avoid authoritarianism? Who's not perceiving reality here? Oil companies, along with the war machine, the surveillance people and the wall street carpet baggers, run US policy. They only thing they care about is their own interests. There is a vestigial facade of concern for human rights, which is all but gone. The ideological facade is on the way out... If you write the truth, you are in danger of being tagged in whatever category from NSM 7. "Be careful what you say." The author was careful but he got his message across. I hope people listen. This speaks for itself: It looks like President Trump didn't realize he was supposed to stop in front of the US and Japanese flags. Prime Minister Takaichi seemed confused that Trump kept walking, and then followed proper protocol and bowed in front of the flags.pic.twitter.com/ZRNIgqDy2D — Jeffrey J. Hall (@mrjeffu) October 28, 2025

—

Zionism is a social disease

Submitted by Dawn's Meta on Tue, 10/28/2025 - 9:44am

QMS thank you for highlighting Melissa.

I have been listening to a teacher (I think) livestreaming the storm coming on shore west of Kingston.

Here's my big complaint of the day: where is a good list of shelters? And at what elevations? There is a website I finally found from the Jamaican government but it seems not updatedStorm shelters

Shouldn't this information be at the top of every story? They say get away but to where?

The world has gone insane.

Make it make sense.

—

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

Submitted by QMS on Tue, 10/28/2025 - 9:54am

local networking is about the only thing

@Dawn's Meta
.
that makes any kind of sense
the web has been overtaken by political
interests so it is basically back to word of
mouth communication and connection for
the flow of information to continue

—

Zionism is a social disease

Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 10/28/2025 - 9:53am

Thanks for the alert

Somebody here, don't remember who to h/tip, turned me (us) on to "Hippie Soul Cafe" radio out of the US Virgin Islands.
Great station with cool soothing music with top o' the hour excerpts of important speeches.
Anyway, while listening to it yesterday the thought occurred to me that would it suddenly go off the air it would mean Mellisa had arrived.
Hoped for the best, then turned on the World Series.
Sheesh, 19 inning gruller with the Dodgers eventually winning @ midnight Pacific time.
Those poor fans in Toronto.

—

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Tue, 10/28/2025 - 10:58am

That was QMS, who also intoduced us, long before,

@earthling1

to radio garden. If you have it, you can seaarch for locations, like, Kingston Jamaica, which will return a listing like the following: https://radio.garden/visit/kingston/wJj2QIvR and then jump right into the action. Jamaica, btw, does have some fun radio stations.

be well and have a good one

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by usefewersyllables on Tue, 10/28/2025 - 10:49am

Looks like Melissa is

still Cat 5, with a central pressure of 892mb- which is best described as "really, really, stupidly strong" (read: Biblically strong). She'll lose some oof after making landfall in Cuba, but it looks like the Exumas, and Turks and Caicos, will probably take it in the shorts at at least Cat 3 on Thursday or thereabouts.

In short- seems to me, it is a good day to stay in the harbor. Be safe out there!

—

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Tue, 10/28/2025 - 11:40am

Somebody has to do ut

be well and have a good one

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by QMS on Tue, 10/28/2025 - 12:05pm

yup

@enhydra lutris

a good tune
but a nasty storm
inappropriately named
imho
why can't they just name them
for what they are
like hell or high water?
perhaps kinder to refer natures' fury
on human labels like Barbie or Ken or

—

Zionism is a social disease