In spite of Trump, wind energy is spreading

Among the many bad and evil things that Trump did when he got into office for the second time, was to make an executive order targeting wind and solar subsidies. This not only had the effect of blocking money to new projects, but also to cancel subsidies already granted.

This led Revolution Wind, a 50/50 joint venture between Global Infrastructure Partners’ Skyborn Renewables and Ørsted A/S, and Sunrise Wind LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ørsted A/S, to sue the US Administration, with predictable results. Ørsted A/S is a Danish company.

Sunrise Wind resumes construction, fifth ruling overturned

A federal judge for D.C. District Court has allowed Sunrise Wind to resume work after granting a preliminary injunction against the administration’s lease suspension and construction pause issued December 22, 2025. 

D.C District Judge Lamberth ordered the action to be “arbitrary and capricious” after having reviewed classified information and agreed that irreparable harm standards were met given the loss of specialized vessels that would cause a “cascade of delays” preventing the project from meeting its obligations. 

Previously, Judge Lamberth ruled in favor of Revolution Wind’s construction resumption twice, most recently under the same lease suspension and stop construction order affecting Sunrise Wind, and again in September 2025 when the federal administration issued a stop work order directly for Revolution Wind. The administration referenced undisclosed “national security concerns” that arose from a recent classified Department of War study alleging that turbine structures cause interference with military radar systems.  

…

Sunrise Wind is 45% complete and set to provide 924 MW of power generation to New York. The project’s supply chain stretches across 34 states and has driven more than $1.9 billion worth of investments while supporting more than 4,290 American jobs across the construction, operations, shipbuilding, and manufacturing sectors. Ten shipyards in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Texas built or retrofitted the more than 16 vessels operating at the site. Most notably, the first U.S.-built subsea rock installation vessel was constructed at Hanwha Philly Shipyard.

The above article mentions that the Judge had previously ruled in favor of Revolution Wind. 

Ørsted A/S put out a press release a couple of weeks ago, stating Revolution Wind begins delivering power to New England

Revolution Wind, LLC, a 50/50 joint venture between Global Infrastructure Partners’ Skyborn Renewables and Ørsted, announced today that the Revolution Wind project has started delivering power to New England’s electric grid, strengthening the region’s power supply and helping reduce costs for consumers.

Revolution Wind, a 704 MW offshore wind energy project, is expected to supply enough electricity to power more than 350,000 homes and businesses. The project will deliver power under fixed-price, 20-year agreements with energy utilities in Rhode Island and Connecticut, providing price certainty and stability for consumers.

So in spite of the best effort of the Trump administration, US households are starting to get wind energy, with more to come as other projects finishes.

It is escalating

First the arrested and charged Democratic politicians like Rep .LaMonica McIver and Senator Alex Padilla and now they are killing them.

Horrifying news out of Minnesota

Melissa Hortman, the top Democratic lawmaker in the Minnesota House, was shot and killed in a suspected politically-motivated assassination along with her husband early Saturday.

The suspect in the attack at Hortman’s home in Brooklyn Park is impersonating a police officer and remains at large, according to authorities.

Minnesota Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were also shot multiple times at their home in Champlin, but are expected to survive, according to Gov. Tim Walz.

PZ has more

This is clearly not just about political differences, if anyone still believed that. Now one group is trying to suppress the rest of the country through threats, the use of force, and outright murder.

Looking for news sources

It has long been know that a number of news sources in the US is completely unreliable, and work to present a far-right viewpoint as standard, and recirculates right-winged talking points disguised as news. During the last election, we also observed that old established news sources, such as New York Times and Washington Post where completely craven, and could not be trusted to accurately report the news.

So, where should one look for reliable news sources? Well, it is hard to fine, but it turns out that you have to look outside traditional news sources, to magazines that still maintain some standards – such unlikely magazines as Teen Vogue and Wired. And now Eater.

What Should You Do if ICE Comes to Your Restaurant?

In an interview on CNN, border czar Tom Homan bemoaned that immigrants in the U.S. were too informed. “Sanctuary citizens are making it very difficult to arrest the criminals,” he said, apparently annoyed that immigrants would be aware of basic rights they are owed by the government he works for. “For instance, Chicago, very well-educated. They’ve been educated how to defy ICE, how to hide from ICE.”

The ICE raids that the Trump administration has ordered across the country rely on fear, and there’s no shortage of that. Farm workers aren’t showing up to pick fruit, and street vendors aren’t showing up to run their businesses. They’re keeping their children home from school. “People in the neighborhood are talking about it. Agents are coming around, and people are scared to go to work,” a restaurateur in Queens told GrubStreet.

According to the American Immigration Council, immigrants of all statuses make up 22 percent of the food service industry, and ICE agents are sweeping up everyone in their raids on businesses, even U.S. citizens. “ICE is quite emboldened with the new administration, and they are not respecting people’s rights,” says Jessie Hahn, senior counsel for labor and employment policy at the National Immigration Law Center. “It just creates a lot of chaos, and they need to be held accountable.” And how an ICE raid may play out in a business is different from what it could look like on the street or in an individual home, which is why it’s important for all restaurant and food industry workers to know what to do if ICE shows up at work. We spoke to Hahn, and consulted other experts, about how restaurant workers and owners can work together to keep everyone safe.

Shellshocked

Sorry for the quiet here, but I have been shellshocked since the US election.

As most people who follow US politics, I knew that it wouldn’t be an easy win for the Democrats, but given the candidate and campaign, I had expected that Harris would win the election. What I had to not taken into account, is the misogyny and racism of the US. White people, especially men, in the US turned up for Trump, just like they did during the 2020 election, but across all demographics, there were a move from Democratic to GOP – a lot of this was because more people from the Democratic voting block stayed home this time. This makes absolutely no sense, when you look at what was at stake – Trump in 2024 was arguably more dangerous than Trump in 2020, where he had not yet gotten immunity from the SCOTUS , and where Project 2025 didn’t exist yet.

Let’s not mince words, Trump is the worst presidential candidate ever to run. He has been this every time he has run – somehow getting worse every time. He was the worst the first time he ran, the first time he won, the time he lost his position, and now when he won again.

Even though he is a rapist, a racist, and a monster at every level, people voted for him. Not only did they vote for him, they made sure to give him near-unlimited power by also giving the GOP the Senate and the House.

At this point, our only hope is the incompetence and infighting of the GOP – unfortunately their game plan has been made by the Federalist Society which have clearly shown that they can take advantage of these situations – just look at the current Supreme Court of the United States.

 

The Onion buys Infowars

This sounds like a parody article from the Onion, but it is true: The Onion wins auction for Alex Jones’ media company

Alex Jones’ media empire has been sold at auction, and the winner is The Onion. No Joke.

The satirical news outlet bought Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, backed by a group of Connecticut families. Jones said on today’s show that security has notified him he needs to vacate the premises this morning.

Proceeds of the sale will go to paying down Jones’ nearly $1.5 billion debt to families of Sandy Hook victims who won two defamation suits against him for spreading false conspiracy theories about the 2012 elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., which Jones said never happened. He accused the families of being actors, faking the killing of 20 children and 6 educators, in an effort to drum up support for gun control, and Jones supporters who believed the lies threatened and harassed the families for years.

It is no secret that Alex Jones was hoping for some of this allies to buy Infowars and let him keep the brand. Alas, for him, this was not to be. And he is not taking it well:

“We’re going out like vikings with swords in our arms,” he said. He’s accusing the auction house of rigging rules against him to benefit the families.

“At the last minute, the rules of the auction changed,” he alleged yesterday. “What was going to be an open auction where you […] could offer more money and top [previous] bids, but now they’ve decided that it’ll just be sealed and there’s one bid and whoever’s the highest gets it.”

For a tough guy, he whines a lot, doesn’t he?

As to why the Onion, or rather its parent company, bought Infowars, I think I will let the explain themselves

Here’s Why I Decided To Buy ‘InfoWars’

Today we celebrate a new addition to the Global Tetrahedron LLC family of brands. And let me say, I really do see it as a family. Much like family members, our brands are abstract nodes of wealth, interchangeable assets for their patriarch to absorb and discard according to the opaque whims of the market. And just like family members, our brands regard one another with mutual suspicion and malice.

All told, the decision to acquire InfoWars was an easy one for the Global Tetrahedron executive board.

Founded in 1999 on the heels of the Satanic “panic” and growing steadily ever since, InfoWars has distinguished itself as an invaluable tool for brainwashing and controlling the masses. With a shrewd mix of delusional paranoia and dubious anti-aging nutrition hacks, they strive to make life both scarier and longer for everyone, a commendable goal. They are a true unicorn, capable of simultaneously inspiring public support for billionaires and stoking outrage at an inept federal state that can assassinate JFK but can’t even put a man on the Moon.

Through it all, InfoWars has shown an unswerving commitment to manufacturing anger and radicalizing the most vulnerable members of society—values that resonate deeply with all of us at Global Tetrahedron.

No price would be too high for such a cornucopia of malleable assets and minds. And yet, in a stroke of good fortune, a formidable special interest group has outwitted the hapless owner of InfoWars (a forgettable man with an already-forgotten name) and forced him to sell it at a steep bargain: less than one trillion dollars.

Make no mistake: This is a coup for our company and a well-deserved victory for multinational elites the world over.

What’s next for InfoWars remains a live issue. The excess funds initially allocated for the purchase will be reinvested into our philanthropic efforts that include business school scholarships for promising cult leaders, a charity that donates elections to at-risk third world dictators, and a new pro bono program pairing orphans with stable factory jobs at no cost to the factories.

As for the vitamins and supplements, we are halting their sale immediately. Utilitarian logic dictates that if we can extend even one CEO’s life by 10 minutes, diluting these miracle elixirs for public consumption is an unethical waste. Instead, we plan to collect the entire stock of the InfoWars warehouses into a large vat and boil the contents down into a single candy bar–sized omnivitamin that one executive (I will not name names) may eat in order to increase his power and perhaps become immortal.

All will be revealed in due time. For now, let’s enjoy this win and toast to the continued consolidation of power and capital.

Infinite Growth Forever,

Bryce P. Tetraeder, Global Tetrahedron CEO

Sweet justice with a twist of satire. What more could we want?

It is always a white man

One of the many Twitter accounts spewing conspiracies and lies is Black Insurrectionist, who, to no ones surprise, turns out to be a white man.

The ‘Black Insurrectionist’ was actually white. The deception did not stop there

“Black Insurrectionist,” the anonymous social media persona behind some of the most widely circulated conspiracy theories about the 2024 election, can be traced to a man from upstate New York.

He’s also white.

With a profile photo of a Black soldier and the tagline “I FOLLOW BACK TRUE PATRIOTS,” the account on the platform X amassed more than 300,000 followers while posting dubious claims about Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Some were amplified by former President Donald Trump, his running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance, and their Republican allies in Congress. The most salacious claims have come in the closing weeks of the campaign.

Last month, the account posted what Black Insurrectionist claimed was an affidavit from an ABC News employee, alleging Harris was given questions in advance of the network’s debate with Trump — which ABC News vigorously disputed. Trump approved, though, declaring, “I love the person.” More recently, Black Insurrectionist posted a baseless claim alleging inappropriate behavior between Walz and a student decades ago, a falsehood that U.S. intelligence officials said sprang from a Russian disinformation campaign.

Unsurprising he has defrauded people and owes millions in back taxes.

Lazy linking

Here are a few links that might be of interest

Lady Gaga Never Spoke Out Against Rumors Claiming She’s a Man ‘Because I Didn’t Feel Like a Victim With That Lie’: ‘I’m Used to Lies Being Printed About Me’

Lady Gaga explains why she would not fight against these rumors, since she thought her fighting against them might harm someone else.

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A graph exploration method for identifying influential spreaders in complex networks

The problem of identifying the influential spreaders – the important nodes – in a real world network is of high importance due to its theoretical interest as well as its practical applications, such as the acceleration of information diffusion, the control of the spread of a disease and the improvement of the resilience of networks to external attacks. In this paper, we propose a graph exploration sampling method that accurately identifies the influential spreaders in a complex network, without any prior knowledge of the original graph, apart from the collected samples/subgraphs. The method explores the graph, following a deterministic selection rule and outputs a graph sample – the set of edges that have been crossed. The proposed method is based on a version of Rank Degree graph sampling algorithm. We conduct extensive experiments in eight real world networks by simulating the susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) and susceptible-infected-susceptible (SIS) epidemic models which serve as ground truth identifiers of nodes spreading efficiency. Experimentally, we show that by exploring only the 20% of the network and using the degree centrality as well as the k-core measure, we are able to identify the influential spreaders with at least the same accuracy as in the full information case, namely, the case where we have access to the original graph and in that graph, we compute the centrality measures. Finally and more importantly, we present strong evidence that the degree centrality – the degree of nodes in the collected samples – is almost as accurate as the k-core values obtained from the original graph.

An interesting paper from 2017.

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Five Russian GRU Officers and One Civilian Charged for Conspiring to Hack Ukrainian Government

Defendants Are Alleged to Have Committed Cyber Attacks in Advance of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine; Also Targeted 26 North Atlantic Treaty Organization Countries

It is the official release of the charge against Tenet and the Russian paymasters that was release a couple of weeks ago. For a good overview of the case, I recommend this article from the Columbia Journalism Review: The Tenet Media Incident

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A rare link in Danish: OPLEVET ETNISK DISKRIMINATION I DANMARK (pdf)

Denne rapport udgør den hidtil mest omfattende undersøgelse af racisme i Danmark
med udgangspunkt i oplevet diskrimination og fordomme. Mens enkeltpersoners egne
oplevelser ikke kan give et præcist billede af det faktiske omfang af diskrimination
og fordomme, så kan oplevelser i kombination med den omfangsrige forskning, der
henvises til i rapporten, tydeliggøre, at der er problemer, der skal løses.

Undersøgelsen tager udgangspunkt i voksne minoritetsetniske personer med
opvækst i Danmark – dvs. personer der enten er født i Danmark eller kommet hertil
som børn (herefter betegnet som minoritetsetniske personer). Overordnet viser
besvarelserne i undersøgelsen, at over 8 ud af 10 minoritetsetniske personer angiver,
at de har oplevet diskrimination eller fordomme inden for det seneste år. Over 6 ud af
10 minoritetsetniske personer angiver, at de har oplevelser, man som udgangspunkt
kan karakterisere som ulovlig diskrimination. For mange er der ikke tale om en enkelt
hændelse, men gentagne negative oplevelser på tværs af bl.a. arbejdsmarkedet, i det
offentlige rum og i kontakten med myndigheder.

This is a report about experienced/perceived ethnic discrimination in Denmark, made by the Danish Institute for Human Rights in 2023

Abortion on the ballot

Most focus on the 2024 US election is rightfully on the Presidential election, where the is a stalk choice between Harris and Trump. A lot of focus is also given to races at the secondary – for the US congress and the US senate. But it also important to focus on the state level, where there are both elections to political positions, that are incredible important, as well as propositions on a number of issues. One of these issues in many states is abortion.

Ballot Tracker: Status of Abortion-Related State Constitutional Amendment Measures for the 2024 Election

Since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, voters in 6 states have weighed in on constitutional amendments regarding abortion, and the side favoring access to abortion prevailed in every state. In 4 of these states – California, Michigan, Ohio, and Vermont – measures amending the state constitution to protect the right to abortion were approved by voters and in the other 2 states – Kentucky and Kansas – measures seeking to curtail the right to abortion failed. In 2024, up to 10 states may have abortion measures on their ballot seeking to either affirm that the state constitution protects the right to abortion or that nothing in the constitution confers such a right.

There is a map showing the states, but here is the list as well:

  • Arizona (for abortion)
  • Colorado (for abortion)
  • Florida (for abortion)
  • Maryland (for abortion)
  • Missouri (for abortion)
  • Montana (for abortion)
  • Nebraska (one measure for and one against abortion)
  • Nevada (for abortion, first of two needed elections)
  • New York (for abortion)
  • South Dakota (for abortion)

If you are in one of these states, make sure to vote to help protect abortion

One monster less

Henry Kissinger has died, 100 years old. He was a monster, who was held in high regards by the political elite in both US parties. He was undeservedly treated as a respectful elderly statesman, instead of the monster responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths all over the world.

Anthony Bourdain, a man who sadly lived fewer years than Kissinger, had a perfect description of Kissinger