Since there’s been a complaint. I’ll start…
The American West is suffering a severe snow drought this winter. The water level in Lake Powell, the upstream one of the two big reservoirs on the Colorado River, is already 32 feet lower than at this point last year. The next deadline for the seven states that are signatory to the Colorado River Compact to reach an agreement on handling the drought is tomorrow. There has been little (if any) progress since the last deadline. We are at the point where the federal government is supposed to step in and dictate. Given a President who thinks Canada can just turn the taps on, that’s a scary thought. Unless the lower basin states — AZ, CA, NV — are willing to accept a LOT less water, Lake Powell will almost certainly reach minimum power pool this year. That’s the level where it is no longer possible for the dam to generate electricity. Reaching dead pool level — where no water can be released at all — is not out of the question.
Actually, Rohmer films aren’t long.
This year I skipped the Berlinale. I don’t feel that well and it has become a wee bit too expensive too.
I also miss queuing for tickets in person. Now it’s all online.
I have essentially switched to the Fantasy Film Festival (which also takes place around here with one or two additional shorter spinoffs at other times of the year).
I’m sorry to hear that, Hartmut. But the Fantasy Filmfest should be fun too.
I remember when Splatting Image was a thing.
Oh my God, just when you think you can’t be shocked any more by examples of the administration’s (or the POTUS’s) corruption, you learn otherwise:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/opinion/corruption-trump-accountability.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NFA.U6Ki.7VQgP7cuBbQV&smid=url-share
And, on an entirely unrelated note (as far as I know), you could get a dislocated neck if you were trying to keep up with Trump’s reaction to the UK’s proposed settlement with Mauritius of the Chagos problem, and Diego Garcia. By my count (and I’m not going to go back and check) today’s accusation by Trump that Keir’s deal is “a very big mistake” is his third volte face in a few weeks where he has said this, and then the opposite, and now this again. Not to mention his original back and forth about it a year ago:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9dqg3nqynlo
Further to russell’s comment upthread about the new social media site for AI “agents” to interact, this is an NYT writer interviewing her own agent about its experiences on the site:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/upshot/moltbook-artificial-intelligence-ai.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NFA.HHDh.MSfIxI2Jr59d&smid=url-share
The thing is, Trump’s memory is shot. So he tends to go with whatever the last person to talk to him said. If a couple of people close to him have different opinions on some topic, you can expect to see exactly that sort of flip-flopping.
In a sane world, this would be a bombshell of a story and we’d be hearing bipartisan talk of impeachment. Instead, I’m only learning about it here.
Robert Reich’s open letter to Kristi Noem in today’s Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/19/kristi-noem-ice-google-meta
SCOTUS knocks down Stinky’s tariffs ?
there is some justice in the world ?
this is a freaky Friday.
I’m sooo tempted to read this as some of the justices discovering at least a hint of a spine when it comes to Trump. Doesn’t mean they won’t continue to be reactionary as hell. But perhaps on stuff where the focus isn’t ideology, but just Trumpic insanity…?
But realistically? I want to see several more examples before getting my hopes up.
Listening to the radio (old-timey FM), right after they announced the SCOTUS decision against tariffs, they moved to an audio clip of His Orangeness saying the US has pledged $10B to the Bored of Piece (of sh*t).
The radio announcer then said, “The president offered no details on how this would be… (noticeable pause) at all legal.” I LOLed in my office at that one.
F**king clown show.
Turns out, multiple companies already have in progress law suits to require the government to refund the money collected from them by Trump’s tariffs. I admit to mixed feelings on that. For me, it comes down to whether, and to what extent, they absorbed the added costs themselves, vs passing them thru to their customers.
If they held the line on prices, absorbing the tariffs by accepting lower profits? No problem at all with them recovering their loss. But if they passed all, or even part, of their tariff-induced cost? I’d have to see from them something on how they proposed to similarly pass along those refunds to those customers.
IANAL, but it looks like it could take multiple cases to establish an equitable answer.
A sane decision of any significance by this SCOTUS usually means that something really awful is just around the corner.
Remember, they have things like birthright citizenship on their to-do list.
OK, this is business-friendly and thus right in their lane but I would not be surprised at all, if this is not also rising the shields for some reactionary semisolid digestive final product already in the works.
Kassandra was an optimist with rose.colored glasses.
Veering off in a different direction, here’s the title of today’s Economist podcast:
And the Arrest is History: Andrew Mountbatten Windsor
The Economist does manage some nice turns of phrase.
I’ve already received a benefit from the Court’s ruling on Trump’s tariffs. On PredictIt, I bet the Court would overturn the tariffs. I’ve received a 20% return on my investment. 🙂
now Stinky says he’s going to do a 10% global tariff.
because he’s a moron.
now Stinky says he’s going to do a 10% global tariff.
But no more, anywhere? Last month BYD filed suit at the US Court of International Trade challenging much higher tariffs than that on their EVs. If the tariff on compact EVs is reduced to 10%, they’ll be opening dealerships tomorrow and dominating EV sales by next year. I claim there is an enormous unmet demand for well-built compact EVs priced at $20k, and BYD can meet it.
I recently rode in a Tesla in self-driving mode. Impressive but somewhat anticlimactic, having seen several self-driving videos. It would have been more impressive if there had been no one in the driver’s seat.
I’ve heard that some companies have already sold off the legal claims for tariff refunds. I’m waiting for the scam emails related to that.
Yeah, kids of Tres. Sec Bessant have bought up lots of “tariff refund claims”, for 20% of face value.
Corruption. MASSIVE corruption.
Of the kind that requires tumbril-rides to fix.
Further to my comment about Trump’s back and forth about the Chagos deal, there have been reports in various papers that his latest condemnation of it was because Starmer refused permission for the US to launch an attack on Iran from Diego Garcia.
And today, there are reports in the Times about Politico reporting that both BoJo and Liz Truss have been lobbying Trump against the Chagos deal very recently.
O brave new world, that has such leaders (and past leaders) in’t.
O brave new world, that has such leaders (and past leaders) in’t.
Trump is, no doubt inadvertently, accomplishing one thing: a lot of previously covert misbehavior is moving into the open.
Where, down the line, the perpetrators can be dealt with. Probably an improvement over them remaining in the shadows.
The Economist does manage some nice turns of phrase.
Lol, I haven’t read the Economist in ages. I was to annoyed by every article ending with some call for neo-liberal deregulation as the solution to all our problems. Also, the fawning coverage of US administrations (Bush, not sure about Obama) was getting a bit ridiculous.
That said, they have some of the smartest writers and if you want to know what’s going on in, say, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan or Malaysia right now, it’s the right address.
What is their editorial stance now?
novacant, like you I haven’t read The Economist in ages.
At least, back then, they were tots for “gun control”.
I’m not sufficiently up on UK politics to describe their stance beyond “underwhelmed by the currently available options” among politicians and parties. They were appalled by Brexit, but then anyone with two brain cells to rub together could see that would be the fiasco that it has indeed become.
As for the US, they have the same challenge everyone else does: selecting which of each week’s insanities to even talk about. They still have a bit of a libertarian lean, but rather less than a couple of decades ago. More like “Surely we can simplify and rationalize the kludge that has grown up over the years.”
“They still have a bit of a libertarian lean, but rather less than a couple of decades ago.”
Decades ago, I subscribed to The Economist when, for me at least, subscribing to magazines was a thing.
The Economist has stayed the course much better than some other major publications that have drifted from journalism to viewpoint advocacy.
The Economist has stayed the course much better than some other major publications that have drifted from journalism to viewpoint advocacy.
I put it to you that this just means you agree with the viewpoint they advocate.
I put it to you that this just means you agree with the viewpoint they advocate.
Perhaps. But The Economist has higher ratings from various media rating services than does Scientific American, for example, a publication of a similar age and stature.
various media rating services
Care to share names?