We heard a rumor that British police are on their way here with a search warrant so we're going to lock the door and leave town for the weekend. Honestly, Steve and I were just there to do a security review, nothing else.

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Thursday, February 19, 2026 - 02:13 pm: Edit

That which one soeth, so shall he reap.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Thursday, February 19, 2026 - 02:21 pm: Edit

“Old King Cole”

Gee, I never made the connection to the nursery rhyme before…

Too bad you didn’t retain the copyright or trademark protections!

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, February 19, 2026 - 05:20 pm: Edit

King Cole was a real guy, my ancestor, king of Colchester, my family home town. Eight of the twenty five nobles who forced King John to sign the Magna Carta are my ancestors.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Thursday, February 19, 2026 - 07:50 pm: Edit

Nice!

Almost wants to make me ask for a page where we all can boast about famous ancestors.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Friday, February 20, 2026 - 03:25 am: Edit

Well, I am NOT related to the Howards of Norfolk...

....but the Wife is related to the Norman Nobility who came over in 1066!

The Former Prince has been released, while investigations are ongoing.

On a RWM point - it seems Trumps anger over the Chagos Island deal has meanr the PM has refused US access for aircraft that could be used against Iran.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Friday, February 20, 2026 - 12:17 pm: Edit

As the topic has previously been addressed here in Disasters, this seems the appropriate place to note that the Supreme Court today issued a ruling striking the administration's application of "reciprocal" (to trade deficit percentages, not to opposing tariffs) and "drug-trafficing" (claimed deficiencies by Canada, China, and Mexico in preventing fentanyl from entering the U.S.) tariffs, ruling that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not include tariff authority.

The ruling is a somewhat complicated one. The majority opinion is from the Chief Justice, joined in full by Justices Gorsuch and Barrett, focused upon both the letter of the IEEPA itself and the "major questions" doctrine. Justice Gorsuch provided a separate concurrence, heavily focused on the "major questions" doctrine. Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson concurred with the IEEPA portion of the ruling, but did not feel that the "major questions" doctrine need be included. Justices Kavanaugh, Alito and Thomas dissented, with their dissents primarily based upon unitary executive theory.

Any refund of tariffs collected under the struck policies will be the subject of future litigation, as each payer of said tariff must bring suit individually.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, February 20, 2026 - 10:13 pm: Edit

Pity that rulling. The tariffs did a world of good on trade deals and raised a bunch of needed cash. But even the greatest president in history has to obey the law. Pity the law didn't allow such a productive policy.

NO FURTHER DISCUSSION OF TARIFFS

I mean, shucks, if I were president I would issue an executive order that no one can serve more than 20 years in the house/senate combined and no more than 30 in any elected office at any or all levels total. I would have the support of 80% of Americans. But it would not be legal. Sigh.

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Saturday, February 21, 2026 - 10:04 am: Edit

Far as Senators....

I would require States to have Two (2) Lieutenant governors who would serve as State's Senator....

Who would be paid from state funds and not Federal....
That way they are in their home state more, meeting the people and understanding what they like....

Also, would keep the current amount in the Electorial College, which would be determined by which candidate won the most counties in the state....

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 21, 2026 - 01:00 pm: Edit

We need to cancel the 17th Amendment and have senators elected by state legislatures. There would never be another unfunded Federal mandate forced on the states.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Saturday, February 21, 2026 - 01:13 pm: Edit

"which would be determined by which candidate won the most counties in the state"

People have franchise; acreage does not. This would be a massive violation of the principle of one person, one vote.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 21, 2026 - 02:18 pm: Edit

One person, one vote, is not part of the US system and outside of a congressional district never was. Montana has always had more congress-critters and electoral votes than "one person one vote" would indicate, and it would be a VERY bad idea to change that. This is a federal republic, not a Greek democracy.

We ended the BBS discussion of getting rid of the electoral college a decade ago.

That said, "won the most counties" isn't workable and the Republicans would never have less than a 2/3 majority. I'm not sure they would not have 80 senators. That's not healthy.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 21, 2026 - 05:45 pm: Edit

Anyone know if this is legitimate?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57VRx0qci4E&t=122s

Looks like an illegal AI copy of Dana Perino from Fox News. Anyone know if at least the info is real?

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Saturday, February 21, 2026 - 05:59 pm: Edit

Steve, it appears to be a repost of an earlier event back in July, 2025.

A google AI inquiry revealed:

The Phillips 66 Bayway refinery in Linden, New Jersey—a major supplier for the New York area—experienced1 multiple operational disruptions in the summer of 2025. A July power outage from storms, followed by an August fire, caused partial shutdowns and reduced gasoline production, impacting East Coast fuel supplies.
Yahoo Finance
Yahoo Finance
+2
Key Details on 2025 Disruptions:
August 2025 Fire: A fire in an ancillary unit reduced gasoline output, affecting the 258,000 barrel-per-day facility, notes this article.
July 2025 Power Outage: Rainstorms caused a partial shutdown, damaging emission monitoring equipment and causing, according to Yahoo Finance, a minor oil leak, reports Yahoo Finance.
Market Impact: Due to its role as a top East Coast supplier, these incidents led to tightened supplies and price spikes in the New York Harbor market.
Status: While operations were affected, the refinery did not completely close permanently during these 2025 events, but rather faced, as explained in this Yahoo Finance article, reduced capacity, says Yahoo Finance..”

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Saturday, February 21, 2026 - 06:04 pm: Edit

Oh, and yes, totally AI and the poster, Psych Pop, in the source tab indicates significant editing from source data, whatever that may mean.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Saturday, February 21, 2026 - 11:15 pm: Edit

It means click bait.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, February 22, 2026 - 01:06 am: Edit

That much was obvious. I sent the link to Fox News Legal.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Monday, February 23, 2026 - 11:17 am: Edit

Brief reminder that any SCOTUS ruling can be found on the SCOTUS website. In case you ever want to know what SCOTUS actually said, rather than what some reporter (who probably doesn't know what they are doing) characterizes SCOTUS as saying.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, March 03, 2026 - 06:41 pm: Edit

Just came across a news item, it is at least several days old, but I didn’t find it earlier.

The California Air Resources Board(CARB). Is apparently moving to extend cap and trade program to 2045.

Assembly Bill 1207, championed by Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin, aims to extend the cap and trade program to 2045, but critics argue it will skyrocket costs and force refineries to close. PBF Energy, which supplies a significant portion of California's fuel including 33% of the state's gasoline production, warns of dire consequences. The potential loss of refineries threatens job losses, disrupts fuel supplies, and endangers California's energy independence. The proposed changes could disproportionately affect California's economy and residents. Understanding CARB's actions and their impact on California's energy sector is crucial for reasonable people.

The bottom line, is if the extension is granted, PBF Energy will close two of the remaining seven California oil refineries, losing up to 33% of the states remaining refinery capacity.

I am not an expert on California Energy management or policy, but this strikes me as not a wise choice.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Wednesday, March 04, 2026 - 08:35 am: Edit

Curiously, it passed the various Assembly and Senate committee votes unanimously (including the Republican members of said committees).

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Wednesday, March 04, 2026 - 10:17 am: Edit

In the category of "this is horrifyingly awful", Polymarket has created a market betting on "Nuclear weapon detonation by...?"; this is happening amid increasing concerns that bets are happening among gov't insiders who can influence military decisions.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Wednesday, March 04, 2026 - 10:26 am: Edit

Concerning the 8:35 am post above: “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

(Often attributed to Napoleon.)

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Wednesday, March 11, 2026 - 02:17 pm: Edit

There really isn’t a place for this, so I guess here is as good as any…

The M.V. Astoria (formerly the S.S. Stockholm (and half a dozen other names)) is now being scrapped in Rotterdam. Built in 1948, the then named S.S. Stockholm in a fog bound approach to the harbor rammed and sank the Italian Cruise ship Andreadoria in 1956.

A celebrated case and a perennial mystery, the Stockholm served for years, under many different names, until docked in 2020.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, March 11, 2026 - 02:55 pm: Edit

I remember the movie WRECK OF THE ANDREA DORIA.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, March 30, 2026 - 04:46 pm: Edit

THE WILD BOAR PROBLEM
There are millions of wild hogs (aka pigs, boars) loose in the US, over 2.6 million in Texas alone. They are an invasive and destructive species. Their bloodlines go back to Spanish conquistadors and other settlers who turned pigs loose on the theory they would find things to eat, reproduce, and provide an endless supply of free meat to anyone who happened by with a rifle. This was commonly done on remote islands but was also done all over America in the 1500s and 1600s. It was noted that ordinary farm pigs turned loose in the forest will turn into wild boars within a decade. It is also noted that every female pig can produce 12 or so offspring a year.

This was made worse in the late 1800s when several people imported really big nasty European boars and turned them loose for sport hunting. And now and then then an ordinary farm pig gets loose and goes wild.

Because these pigs will eat all kinds of stuff, their meat is often low quality or totally inedible. They also carry numerous diseases which can be passed to humans through meat, especially when not processed and cooked properly.

These things are wild and virtually every state has open season for anyone to go kill all they want for fun or food any time of the year (given landowner permission). This barely keeps them in check, and often doesn't.

Wild boars (the term "boar" usually means male but is often used to generically describe the whole lot of them of all ages) are dangerous and destructive. They are easily as fast as a human and while they don't normally attack, they can do that if cornered. They live in packs ("sounders") of about 20. They usually feed at night and can destroy farmer's fields quickly; Texas farmers lose $60 million a year to wild boars. They are also known to come into suburbs and destroy yards and gardens. The big males are aggressive and mean and have big teeth and can seriously injure humans, dogs, and other animals. Big lone males have been known to come into farm areas and break into the fences around normal pig pens to mate with females. Pigs will eat the food in an area inhabited by deer and chase the deer out.

These things are about as smart as the average dog and learn very quickly. If they've never seen a trap they will wander into it (given bait) but if a wild boar sees a trap catch another boar, you will never catch the escaping boar in that kind of trap. If you shoot a boar, the other nearby boars will run and will stay away from that spot and from other similar open areas. Packs are organized and middle-size pigs are used to scout ahead when the pack moves. They will detect and avoid dangerous situations they have seen before.

What to do about them? Well, I doubt anyone but the most ardent of tree huggers would even care if they were all killed tomorrow. The problem is that they are hard to kill. Here are some things that have been tried and are being used.

Hunting: widely legal and while it's fairly easy for an average hunter of indifferent skill to kill a boar every night, that doesn't affect population growth to any real degree.

Amazingly, ending the bounty on killing coyotes has a major impact on hog populations. Coyotes (the smaller cousins of wolves and bigger cousins of foxes) are not normally pack hunters (they do often live in packs), but it has been observed that a group of four or more coyotes will hunt down a sow with piglets. One will distract her while others dash into her hideout and grab one of her babies. The pack then has a celebratory family dinner. Coyotes cannot (even in packs) deal with adult pigs/hogs/boars.

Poison and land mines are not legal for this use, although a new pig-specific poison is being tested in some areas under tightly controlled conditions. Fences don't often stop hogs as they will find a weak point and can easily surmount four-foot-tall fences.

Small traps each able to hold a hog or two have been used for a century but these have a negative effect in that any hog who sees his friend trapped will never enter one of that type of cage.

Big traps, able to captured the entire pack, are the favored solution currentl. At least a dozen companies make these, and being free market entrepreneurs, they are always trying new designs claiming to have built a better mousetrap, so to speak. Some have gates, others hold the whole trap above the ground and drop it all at once. This takes some doing. They are big (up to 30 feet across), come in sections that each take two men to handle, take a couple of hours to install, but are triggered by remote control when someone looking at a night vision camera determines that the whole herd has gone inside. This takes up to a week. You have to set up the trap, bait it, and not trigger it for days until you finally see that the reluctant hogs have joined their friends for the dinner. Once the hogs are trapped, the cage is five feet tall and strong enough to resist several 200 pound boars running into it at full speed. A trapping company or a group of local farmers who each chipped in to buy the traps ($5000 to $10000) and took turns setting them up wait for the next morning then come to the trap. Sometimes they shoot the hogs in the trap/pen. Sometimes they load them on trucks and take them to a slaughter house (more in a bit). Sometimes they take them to a special facility and feed them until they reach the proper size to slaughter for meat.

As I said, entrepreneurs are going hog wild designing better and cheaper traps. The latest design costs only a thousand dollars and consists of a dozen stakes (driven into the ground in a circle) and a nylon net that is taller than the posts. The net is strung inside the posts and the bottom several feet just lay on the ground. The boars outside the net are smart enough to figure out how to wiggle under the net to get in, but once inside they cannot figure out how to wiggle under the net to get out. This new design has the advantage of being much cheaper, much lighter, and easier to install. The only problem is that you very likely will only get half or three-fourths of the pack and those initially reluctant pigs who figure out not to go in there once they see their brothers trying and failing to get out will survive, learn, join other packs, and help them avoid the net traps.

Texas has pioneered the concept of harvesting these things for meat, establishing a dozen plants to process the pigs (and a hundred farms to grow the small ones into proper slaughter size). The animals are inspected, tested for diseases, and tested to see if the meat could be used to feed humans, pets, livestock, or zoo animals. Texas rakes in a billion dollars a year from the portion of the meat that can be sold. Amazingly, half of the human-edible meat is exported, mostly to Germany and Europe, but some to China and Japan, where wild boar is considered an exotic novelty.