All the moral talk of giving justice to the persecuted, helping the helpless, liberating the oppressed — it only ever goes one way. //

In the Biden era, we saw about infinity pseudo-refugees stream across the southern border from every corner of the third world. “Give us your poor, huddled masses, yearning to be free,” the Democrats chanted, as they called us callous racists for daring to suggest their professed humanitarianism was anything but. Yet in the Trump era, all it took was a handful of Afrikaners to lay the real intent of their immigration program bare.

The lib-left establishment isn’t pro-migrant, and they’re certainly not concerned with taking in genuine refugees fleeing political violence. They’re just anti-white. //

In some cases, the media has worked to dig into the refugees’ backgrounds in order to paint them as villains, while others simply said the quiet part out loud: “These [Afrikaners] are the descendants of the people who created the most diabolical system of white supremacy . . . so actually, there’s no injustice here,” said MSNBC’s Rick Stengel. //

South Africa was meant to serve as a post-racial ideal in the age of American hegemony. The apartheid system fell in 1990, “truth and reconciliation” flooded through the country, and a racially unified order was said to have emerged from the ashes. Yet forever committed to this rosy fantasy, the left refuses to acknowledge just how far it’s devolved.

But was this ever an honest ideal? Or was it always just a cover for a politics of disfigured resentment, where the left’s political allies, the “oppressed,” rise to dominate their enemies?

With this week’s mask-off moment, we have even more proof of the latter. All the moral talk of giving justice to the persecuted, helping the helpless, liberating the oppressed — it only ever goes one way: towards the interests of groups imagined to be permanently oppressed, even as they themselves become the oppressor. When these high-minded principles are revealed to be unequally applied, it shows they were never really principles at all.

It’s too simple to say the left is just anti-white; it’s more than that. They are anti-Western, against the very foundation of Western civilization they seek to supplant in the name of a Communist utopia where they hold the power. //

Millions of unassimilated third-worlders are fine because they erode millennia of our culture, customs, and history. Yet people who would honor and further those traditions? Well, that cuts to the core of the leftist political project.

The Great Replacement is real. All it took was a few dozen white refugees to prove it.

By giving in to the West-hating, slave labor-fueled, globalist agenda, Disney has cannibalized all the things that once made it great.

Customers rejected Smartmatic for reasons unrelated to Fox. For example, the filing said, Smartmatic’s equipment was not certified.

Yesterday, James Comey caused quite the stir when he went on Instagram and posted a picture of a shell formation on the beach — obviously one he made — that spelled out “86 47,” which many interpreted as a threat on President Trump’s life.

Since then, everyone’s been arguing over the definition of “86.” As slang goes, it has a wide variety of uses, some of which are more innocent, such as when you run out of a menu item at a restaurant you “86” it or when you get kicked out of a bar for being too drunk or unruly you’re said to be “86’d.” But it is also been used by the Mafia and the military to refer to killing people, and well, it’s a little harder to swallow that the man who prosecuted the Gambino crime family wasn’t aware of its more sinister meaning.

However, it gets worse than that for Comey. After posting the offending shell photo, the very next post on Instagram was him posting the favorable Publisher’s Weekly review of his third crime novel, out next week. //

So let me get this straight, Comey’s book is about successfully prosecuting a right-wing commentator for making vaguely worded threats? Really? (Also, “Samuel Buchanan”? I guess “Patrick Francis” wouldn’t have been on the nose enough for his liberal audience.) //

Comey’s animus towards Trump is beyond well-established. He is not ignorant of what 86 47 means. Nor is he unaware of the fact that the president faced two assassination attempts in the last year. For all these reasons, an argument could be made that Comey is being shown grace by the Trump administration in merely being investigated by the Secret Service over a post obviously calling for his assassination to his followers.

If he is to be interviewed, as my colleague at RealClearPolitics Susan Crabtree has suggested may occur, one can bet he won’t be ambushed and trapped in a bid to do to him what his FBI did to Flynn. Odds are, Comey will enjoy the protections of a system that he did not afford his own political opponents and avoid prosecution.

If Comey were held to the standard that he and his fellow coup plotters and lawfare insurrectionists have held Trump, he likely would have been prosecuted many times over for his abuses of power; his leadership in what amounted to a conspiracy to destroy a president — including to systematically violate or deprive the commander in chief and those in his orbit of their rights; and his running of information operations against the American people aimed at interfering in our domestic politics and defrauding the country. //

Comey’s animus towards Trump is beyond well-established. He is not ignorant of what 86 47 means. Nor is he unaware of the fact that the president faced two assassination attempts in the last year. For all these reasons, an argument could be made that Comey is being shown grace by the Trump administration in merely being investigated by the Secret Service over a post obviously calling for his assassination to his followers.

If he is to be interviewed, as my colleague at RealClearPolitics Susan Crabtree has suggested may occur, one can bet he won’t be ambushed and trapped in a bid to do to him what his FBI did to Flynn. Odds are, Comey will enjoy the protections of a system that he did not afford his own political opponents and avoid prosecution.

Chemists have successfully generated an unstable molecule in water, a feat once believed to be impossible.

Chemists have confirmed a 67-year-old theory about vitamin B1 by stabilizing a highly reactive molecule in water, a breakthrough that was long considered impossible. This discovery not only resolves a long-standing biochemical question but also paves the way for more sustainable and efficient methods of producing pharmaceuticals.

The molecule involved is a carbene, a form of carbon atom with only six valence electrons instead of the usual eight. This electron deficiency makes carbenes extremely unstable and reactive, especially in water, where they typically break down almost immediately. However, for decades, scientists have suspected that vitamin B1, or thiamine, might form a carbene-like intermediate during essential reactions in the body. //

The reference is to Ronald Breslow, a Columbia University chemist who proposed in 1958 that vitamin B1 could convert into a carbene to drive biochemical transformations in the body. Breslow’s idea was compelling, but carbenes were so unstable, especially in water, that no one could prove they actually existed in a biological setting. //

Beyond confirming a biochemical hypothesis, the discovery has practical implications. Carbenes are often used as “ligands,” or support structures, in metal-based catalysts — the chemical workhorses used to produce pharmaceuticals, fuels, and other materials. Most of these processes rely on toxic organic solvents. The researchers’ method of stabilizing carbenes in water could help make those reactions cleaner, less expensive, and safer.

“Water is the ideal solvent — it’s abundant, non-toxic, and environmentally friendly,” Raviprolu said. “If we can get these powerful catalysts to work in water, that’s a big step toward greener chemistry.”

Nextcloud's public story of Play Store problems seems to have helped. //

Nextcloud, a host-your-own cloud platform that wants to help you "regain control over your data," has had to tell its Android-using customers for months now that they cannot upload files from their phone to their own servers. Months of emails and explanations to Google's Play Store representatives have yielded no changes, Nextcloud wrote in a blog post.

That blog post—and media coverage of it—seem to have moved the needle. In an update to the post, Nextcloud wrote that as of May 15, Google has offered to restore full file access permissions. "We are preparing a test release first (expected tonight) and a final update with all functionality restored. If no issues occur, the update will hopefully be out early next week," the Nextcloud team wrote. //

Nextcloud stated that it has had read and write access to all file types since its first Android app. In September 2024, a Nextcloud Android update with "all files access" was "refused out of the blue," with a request that the app use "a more privacy aware replacement," Nextcloud claimed. The firm states it has provided background and explanations but received "the same copy-and-paste answers or links to documentation" from Google.

"To make it crystal clear: All of you as users have a worse Nextcloud Files client because Google wanted that," reads Nextcloud's blog post. "We understand and share your frustration, but there is nothing we can do." //

HyperionAlphaMAX Seniorius Lurkius
7y
29
A similar app called Syncthing also got booted off the Play Store for the same reason. I still have it on my phone and it's a fantastic Cloud-free way to backup my phone to my NAS, even over the internet.

Permissions are supposed to be laid in front of me and then I can make an educated decision whether to install it or not. Why is Google blocking useful apps that can compete with their Cloud Storage while allowing data-slurping malware masquerading as shopping apps and games on the store? //

rorybaust Seniorius Lurkius
16y
18
Google now appear hellbent on proving that all the anti trust efforts by the authorities are not just political stunts and theater but actually have merit. Who would have thought that when Google dropped the "do no evil" mantra that they would actively pursue evil as a business strategy instead ?

and yes that last one was a rhetorical question indeed //

The N-of-1 accomplishment provides a template for swift, personalized genetic therapies. //

News broke yesterday that researchers in Philadelphia appear to have successfully treated a 6-month-old baby boy, called KJ, with a personalized CRISPR gene-editing therapy. The treatment corrects an ultra-rare mutation in KJ that breaks a liver enzyme. That enzyme is required to convert ammonia, a byproduct of metabolism, to urea, a waste product released in urine. Without treatment, ammonia would build up to dangerous levels in KJ—and he would have a 50 percent chance of dying in infancy.

While the gene-editing treatment isn't a complete cure, and long-term success is still uncertain, KJ's condition has improved and stabilized. And the treatment's positive results appear to be a first for personalizing gene editing. //

KJ's treatment was presented this week at the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy Annual Meeting in New Orleans. It was also simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In an accompanying editorial, Peter Marks—a former top regulator at the FDA—called KJ's treatment a "platform technology" that could be used as a template for treating millions of others with rare genetic conditions. "The development of gene-editing products to address N-of-1 disorders with the use of mRNA encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles represents one of the most obvious opportunities for the application of a platform-technology approach that could be transformational," he wrote.

In all, KJ's treatment "shows the potential strength of the application of cutting-edge science and technology with a forward-leaning regulatory approach to safely expedite the development and availability of life-saving medicines," Marks wrote.

The mainstream economic narrative in the USA would have us believe that power blackouts are always a bad thing – just think of all that lost productivity! Think of the effect on the GDP!

So I was curious to see this video about the recent blackouts in Spain rack up millions of views on Instagram 👇

I think it resonated with people because it points towards a new narrative for society and the economy – one where joy & connection are prioritized over economic productivity. //

That's one of the things about living in Alaska that we all put up with, and most of us are willing to do so because, well, we live in Alaska. But we don't like it. It doesn't help us bond with our neighbors. There's no joy in a 12-hour blackout. No, we just hunker down, fire up our generators, light some candles, and stoke up our wood stoves to stay warm.

In other parts of the country, though, most people don't have generators or battery backups. These folks are just blacked out, and I can guarantee you that they see no "joy" in it.

Virtually every prescription from the climate-scold left involves us giving up something. They want us to give up our rural homes, they want us to give up our pickups and SUVs, they want us to give up our reliable natural gas and nuclear power plants for unreliable and low-density solar and wind power. They want us, in short, to surrender our prosperity, our modern technological lifestyle, all to prevent some fraction of one percent of a degree of warming over the next century. And now they admonish us to find joy in this? That's going to sell about as well as Kamala Harris's "campaign of joy." //

PubliusCryptus
3 hours ago

I think it resonated with people because it points towards a new narrative for society and the economy – one where joy & connection are prioritized over economic productivity.
Joy and connection? I see hunger and privation. //

Quizzical
3 hours ago
Whenever the power goes out for very many people, someone dies. Literally. Some people in relatively poor health are literally dependent upon electricity to keep powering the machines that keep them alive. Literally killing people is not something to be glossed over as no big deal. //

Peter Mohan
2 hours ago
As a retired NYC Firefighter I personally witness the joy of the 1977 blackout. Four deaths, hundreds injured, thousands arrested and 1600 buildings destroyed or looted.
Many of the businesses never returned to the poor neighborhoods that they had served. I’m looking forward to a heart attack so I can meet the dedicated doctors and nurses in the nearby emergency room.

Governing magazine found that in the 2021-2022 election cycle, “the biggest public-sector unions spent more than $700 million on election-related activity,” including $160 million from union political action committees. Most union members and all their public-sector leaders are Democrats, and not surprisingly, 96 percent of their funding went to Democratic politics, while the data show that Republican political entities received almost nothing.

Federal government public sector unions, by themselves, are a substantial force. Open Secrets magazine showed that dues mostly paid from U.S. national government salaries (some unions have state members also) constituted half or more of total public sector union political contributions. Again, Democrats received almost all of the funds, while Republican and conservative groups received little or even zero contributions. //

The National Treasury Employees Union and its ilk is one of the major ways the Deep State has remained entrenched, wrapping itself in red tape and restrictions that made it next to impossible for its employees to be removed. Trump's executive order has leveled that barrier and now an appeals court has affirmed his authority to be... well, a president. We elect presidents to protect the national interest, and part of that role is to deem who and what falls under the purview of national security, as well as who he tasks to enact and protect those interests.

This column really has two audiences. The first is moderate Republicans who are getting in the way of major fiscal reforms necessary to correct decades of financial irresponsibility. The second is Republican leadership who, in all honesty, are in a tough position trying to herd a bunch of unruly cats with personality disorders ranging from extreme anxiety to a desire to fight everything that moves.

Throughout this entire chaotic budget fight over the One Big Beautiful Bill, a dangerous delusion has begun creeping back into the Republican Party, especially among the moderate class and some in GOP leadership. It’s this belief they are getting once again that they won’t be able to win and stay in power if they don’t moderate on some of their positions. //

Trump didn’t win the presidency by compromising on his positions. Republicans didn’t retake the Senate by tacking to the center. The House didn’t hold together by hedging on tough issues. Conservative ideas won because voters rejected the Democrats’ failures and backed the vision Republicans offered. Republicans, in a moment of rare competence, had plans. The Democrats had fear.

Moderates want you to believe otherwise. They’re pushing to water down conservative reforms, cut deals on spending, avoid social issues, and retreat from the cultural battles that defined the campaign. Why? Because they think it’ll save their seats in the 2026 midterms. They’re even now still floating the idea that Roe v. Wade being overturned was bad and that Planned Parenthood funding is an issue we should let slide.

Medicaid reform? Don’t touch it. Budget cuts? Political suicide, they claim.

But if 2022 taught us anything, it’s that poor candidates, not conservative ideas, hurt the GOP’s momentum. And while the GOP should have won in Georgia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania, they didn’t because the candidates were terrible and were awful messengers of the alternative Republicans promised.

And in 2024, conservative messaging delivered wins across the board. There is zero evidence that elected Republicans trimming conservative principles from their governing style helps them win. None. The voters who turned out for Trump didn’t do so because they wanted moderation. They did it because they wanted action on the multiple issues that came with Democratic governance under the Biden administration. //

I’ll be blunt: Moderate politicians didn’t get us Republican governance. Conservatives did. And moderate voters looked between the progressive and conservative politicians and decided that the conservative ones had the best ideas for getting us out of the mess we were (and still are) in. //

Here’s what’s really happening: the moderates are scared. They’re afraid of being unpopular for five minutes on MSNBC and CNN. They’re afraid of upsetting entrenched interests. They’re afraid of standing firm on conservative values because they might get uncomfortable headlines.

But guess what? The voters who elected you don’t care about your cable news appearances. They care about results.

They care about whether you meant it when you said you’d cut the size of government. They care about whether you’ll hold the line on spending. They care about whether you’ll stand up for their values, not compromise them away to keep a seat warm.

The American people are tired of promises. They’re tired of Republicans winning elections only to govern like Democrats. I won’t go so far as to say they want bold, unapologetic leadership instead of political triangulation, but I will point out that they did elect Donald Trump twice. //

This isn’t about ideology for ideology’s sake. It’s about governing with integrity. Voters gave conservatives a mandate—so act like it. That means keeping our promises. That means following through. That means stop being afraid of doing what’s right just because it’s not easy.

You weren’t elected to be safe. You were elected to be bold. So grow a spine, get back in the fight, and give the voters the leadership they were promised. //

bocmatt
6 hours ago
I believe most of the "Moderates" are not moderates, they are Democrats who can't win in red areas so they run as Republicans. They MAY be moderate Dems at their core, but still are not reliable. Andrew Wikow calls them "the republican wing of the democratic party". Sounds about right.

The Trump administration's Justice Department, as part of the settlement of a lawsuit by the National Association for Gun Rights, is reversing a policy from the first Trump administration. The new policy will allow the sale of forced-reset trigger devices. These devices, while allowing a rifle or handgun to fire rapidly, do not alter the actual operation of the gun in any way; it still requires one actuation of the trigger to fire one and only one round.

And, as we might expect, the legacy media doesn't report this accurately. //

The Trump administration has not legalized machine guns, and we must note, actual machine guns are still legal for law-abiding citizens to own, if they are willing to invest the considerable costs and leap through a few government hoops that have been in place since 1934.

These devices do not alter the operation of a weapon. Any semi-auto rifle or handgun with one of these attached functions, as it was designed: One shot per trigger pull.

F22 Raptor filmed with a camera so fancy, you can see the vertical stabilizers get all wobbly

This week, the US health department announced a plan to ban prescription fluoride supplements for children. These ingested fluoride products are dispensed at safe doses by doctors and dentists to prevent tooth decay in children who are unable to get adequate fluoride doses from community water systems—something that may become more common as more states and cities remove or ban fluoride from their water.

Both the American Dental Association (ADA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend fluoridating community water and advise prescribing fluoride supplements for children who do not get adequate fluoride dosages through their water. //

While Makary said that the FDA will conduct a safety review of fluoride supplements, the conclusion seems to be foregone, with the HHS writing that it is already "initiating action to remove" the products.

The ADA noted that places that have removed fluoride from drinking water, such as Calgary, Canada, and Juneau, Alaska, have seen increases in dental decay, particularly among children and low-income populations. //

Beteljuice Smack-Fu Master, in training
7y
74
Subscriptor++
They preach fluoride because most dentists are ignorant of Vitamin K2 which massively helps re-mineralize. Most westerners are deficient in this extremely important vitamin. In fact, Vitamin K2 deficiency is the chief driver of osteoporosis.

About four years ago my dentist before he retired was perplexed at my X-Rays, noting his fixation on them I cautiously asked, "Is there something wrong???" He then slowly gestured with his index finger, "Thissss.... new... tooth enamel is MOST unusual." I then told him, "That's because I take Vitamin K2 every day." He then looked over to me as I lay on the dentist chair and said "Vitamin K2???" Being the father of a friend of mine, our relationship was very casual with no pretense, e.g., "I'm a dentist, I know everything about teeth." I then gave him a nutrition lesson. He had never heard of Vitamin K2. More to the point he had never seen anything like he saw that day in my X-Rays during the 30+ years of being a dentist. Want to guess what vitamin he was taking when I saw him for my next cleaning?

(before commenting and/or voting do read this link)
https://www.ericdavisdental.com/faqs-and-blog/blog/vitamin-k2-and-its-benefits-for-teeth/. //

MST2.021K Ars Praetorian
4y
546
Subscriptor
Vitamin K2 might work towards supporting dentin, underneath the enamel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteocalcin

Clearly though, protecting the enamel first works better which is the entire point of fluoridation. //

moongoddess Ars Centurion
14y
347
Subscriptor++
SixDegrees said:
The objection being raised is "mandatory, imposed medication." So I don't see how your proposed solutions would escape being called the same.

In which case, there goes iodide in salt as well. Hello, goiters! //

SixDegrees Ars Legatus Legionis
10y
45,760
Subscriptor
moongoddess said:
In which case, there goes iodide in salt as well. Hello, goiters!
Sure. Also enriched flour, vitamin D milk, and so on.

Lots of this stuff isn't all that important - for the middle and upper classes, who can afford varied and high quality diets. They mainly help those on the lower economic rungs, although everyone benefits to a degree. It's just that the poor may not have any alternatives, and rely on fortification for good health. Even if you eat only the junkiest of junk foods, there's a good chance it's produced with enriched flour and iodized salt. //

stinkly Smack-Fu Master, in training
15y
98
Subscriptor
I'm surprised not to see any mention of recently-reported research showing a negative correlation of intelligence and fluoride intake in the article, in the comments, or evidently in RFK's rationale for the proposed ban. I'm not a domain expert, so I'm ill-prepared to put the research into context, but it's evidently a real thing.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5285601/

More power, no moving parts: the quest to fly a rotating detonation engine

After decades of research, tests advance innovative engine for improved military effectors //

Rotating detonation engines have no moving parts and a unique design that makes them both lighter and more powerful than traditional engines. Here’s how they work.

Harper also tweeted that "People close to Biden tell the authors that his deterioration first became noticeable in 2015. Tapper and Thompson point to tapes from 2017 that suggest 'Biden was really struggling' and 'his cognitive capacity seemed to have been failing him.'"

In other words, it "first became noticeable" when Biden was still Vice President of the United States. //

"..by 2024, cabinet secretaries confessed he couldn’t be relied on in an emergency," Harper also shared from the book.

Perhaps most disturbingly, Harper provided a quote from a Biden aide who said the quiet part out loud about Biden's 2024 reelection campaign:

“He just had to win, and then he could disappear for four years—he’d only have to show proof of life every once in a while.”

Which, of course, meant that people who were not elected effectively would have been running the country, as many of us suspected was already happening.

Now, two other parts of the audio have been released by co-authors Thompson and Jake Tapper, including a tense moment where Biden's attorney, Bob Bauer, intervenes to help him when Biden was asked about an Afghanistan classified memo found at his house. Biden's brain sounds like it is complete mush.

"Was this something you consciously kept after your term as Vice President?" Biden was asked.

Biden says he doesn't recall, and he doesn't even seem to understand that the memo was found at his home.

You can hear him being advised, "Your answer is you don't recall," by Bauer, after Biden starts to speculate.

But then, Biden responds, "I guess I wanted to hang onto it just for posterity's sake."

That, of course, could expose him to problems. Bauer intervened, telling the prosecutor, Krickbaum:

"I just really would like to avoid, for the purpose of a clean record, getting into speculative areas.… He does not recall specifically intending to keep this memo after he left the vice presidency. I want these questions to be as clearly entered and as recorded on the transcript as possible.". //

Alex Thompson @AlexThomp
·
Replying to @AlexThomp
Throughout his interview, Biden sounded more like a nostalgic, grandfatherly storyteller than a potential defendant who could be accused of hoarding secret papers.
He waxed on about several topics including shooting a bow and arrow in Mongolia.
Here is that exchange.

7:05 PM · May 16, 2025

In Thursday’s hearing, Thomas asked Sauer — who represented the Trump administration — about the history of nationwide injunctions and when courts first started issuing such orders. The solicitor general answered by citing Thomas’ concurring opinion in Trump v. Hawaii, a 2018 case that resulted in SCOTUS reversing “a lower court’s decision to uphold a nationwide injunction on Trump’s travel ban,” according to The Federalist’s John Daniel Davidson.

In his concurrence in that case, Thomas noted how nationwide injunctions by lower courts “did not emerge until a century and a half after the founding.” He further observed that these injunctions “appear to be inconsistent with longstanding limits on equitable relief and the power of Article III courts.”

“These injunctions are beginning to take a toll on the federal court system — preventing legal questions from percolating through the federal courts, encouraging forum shopping, and making every case a national emergency for the courts and for the Executive Branch,” Thomas wrote.

In his response to Thomas, Sauer highlighted several examples of universal injunctions that he said began emerging in the early 1960s.

“So we survived until the 1960s without universal injunctions?” asked Thomas, to which Sauer replied, “That’s exactly correct.”

Sauer added, “In fact, those [injunctions] are very limited and very rare even in the 1960s. It really exploded in 2007 in our cert petition in Summers v. Earth Island Institute, we pointed out that the Ninth Circuit had started doing this in a whole bunch of cases involving environmental claims.”

There are as yet no details as to what's on offer, but we can assume there are both carrot and stick elements, and it's a safe bet that there won't be any late-night deliveries into Tehran of pallets loaded with American currency. //

"They are at the threshold of a nuclear weapon. If they decided to do so, they could do so very quickly. If they stockpile enough of that 60 percent enriched, they could very quickly turn it into 90 and weaponize it. That's the danger we face right now. That's the urgency here," he said.

Here's the thing, and I'm going to tell you: "Weaponizing" a nuclear device is generally used to mean putting it in an air-droppable bomb or making it fit on a missile. Iran doesn't have to do that, and Secretary Rubio, the president and the Pentagon certainly know this. All they have to do is assemble a device that goes "boom" when torched off, load it into an old tramp freighter with a skeleton suicide crew - these kinds of useful idiots are common enough in that part of the world - sail it into a darkened harbor some night and set it off. The target might be Haifa or Tel Aviv, or it might be New York. //

Whatever deal is struck, there is one thing we can rely on utterly, as long as Iran's current theocracy is in place: Whatever they agree to, they will lie about it. If they offer to stop enriching uranium, they will just try to move their enrichment facilities out of sight. If they agree to stop trying to produce a bomb, they will keep trying, but their efforts will be moved to some cave in the Alborz Mountains. Whatever they agree to, they will harbor no notions of actually keeping the agreement.

That's what they have done since 1979. That's what they always will do, as long as the mullahs are running Iran.

This is truly bananas: all of Europe appears to have been seconds away a continent-wide blackout.

The grid frequency across continental Europe plunged to 49.85 hertz — just a hair above the red-line collapse threshold.

The normal operating frequency for Europe’s power grid is 50.00 Hz, kept with an extremely tight margin of ±0.1 Hz. Anything outside ±0.2 Hz triggers major emergency actions.

If the frequency had fallen just another 0.3 Hz — below 49.5 Hz — Europe could have suffered a system-wide cascading blackout.

At that threshold, automatic protective relays disconnect major power plants, and collapse accelerates.

And it's disturbingly easy to imagine multiple scenarios where that could have occurred...