Tuesday, September 22, 2026

CBO analysis found the Iran war has cost $38 billion


“We have been too quiet for too long. There comes a time when you have to say something. You have to make a little noise. You have to move your feet. This is the time.” — John Lewis (1940-2020)



Merz Vows To Press Ahead With Reforms After Historic German State Election Defeat

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has faced a major electoral setback in two state elections including a historic defeat for his party.

Jared Kushner Is Acting as an Unregistered Foreign Agent Who Bills Saudi Arabia Through a Private Equity Fund. New York Can Prosecute Him for the SEC Filings That Hide It Chris Armitage

A.I. Queries From Abroad Raise Fears of a Biological Weapons Race

Bloomberg (Gift Article): Anthropic Says Yemeni Cell Used Claude in Missile Development. And from Carl Zimmer in the New York Times (Gift Article): A.I. Queries From Abroad Raise Fears of a Biological Weapons Race.


CBO analysis found the Iran war has cost $38 billion

DoD Inspector General, LEAD IG REPORT TO THE U.S. CONGRESS. APRIL 1, 2026–JUNE 30, 2026. U.S. forces launched Operation Epic Fury (OEF) on February 28 to dismantle the Iranian regime’s security apparatus, including its missile production and naval capabilities, and to ensure that Iran never acquires nuclear weapons.

  • The DoW [“Dept. of War”] estimated the cost of OEF [Operation Epic Fury] to be $33.4 billion as of June 29. The estimate includes $7.4 billion of cumulative obligations (incremental costs) for OEF, $22.3 billion for expended munitions, and $3.7 billion in equipment losses, but does not include costs for infrastructure repairs.
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Monday, September 21, 2026

Monday Secrets

German Customs Made Secret Messenger Surveillance Permanent Reclaim the Net




Birdwatching Is Good For Your Mental Health. Listening Is Too All About Birds

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MobLand’s second season is pure television crack

 

MobLand’s second season is 

pure television crack

Guy Ritchie directs a stacked cast led by 
Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren in a 
soap-opera-meets-gangster franchise with polish.
TV reviewer

MobLand S2, UK, crime-thriller ★★★

  • Where to find it: Paramount+
  • First aired: September 18
  • Who’s in it: Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, Paddy Considine, Joanne Froggatt, Anson Boon, Lara Pulver, Mandeep Dhillon, Teddie Allen, Emmett J. Scanlan
  • Who made it: created by Ronan Bennett; written by: Jez Butterworth, Esther Watson; directed by: Guy Ritchie, Lawrence Gough
  • Time commitment: 10 x 45-49 minute episodes
  • How it rates (season 1): IMDb: 8.3/10; Rotten Tomatoes: 77%
  • Synopsis: Irish gangsters behaving unbelievably badly
Chalk it up to the luck of the Irish. The Harrigan crime dynasty perfectly embodies this expression, which roughly equates to undeserved success through “dumb luck”. This is one of the most ludicrous crime families on television. A mafia with no need for outside enemies, considering the range of Machiavellian plots occurring inside their Cotswolds stronghold. It’s like Succession with shooters. MobLand is back in all its blood-soaked bastardly and betrayal. Episodes are set for weekly release after a premiere double, with the streamer offering up the first four for review.
The family’s led by dangerous nutter Conrad Harrigan (Pierce Brosnan) and his equally psychotic wife Maeve (Helen Mirren). These two crazed codgers allow Tom Hardy to calmly stride onto centre stage as fixer Harry Da Souza, sorting out their self-inflicted problems. The likes of which remarkably never jeopardised Harrigan supremacy over North London’s criminal underworld – until now. After seeing off rivals, the Stevensons (i.e. mercilessly butchering them all in season one), MobLand’s second season focuses on machinations within the clan, as various players scheme for ascension to Conrad’s throne.
Helen Mirren returns in season two of MobLand.
She’s back: Helen Mirren returns as psychotic family matriarch, Maeve Harrigan.  
Murderous violence flares early when a routine meeting with the top brass of an affiliated Turkish gang goes haywire at a greyhound track. Conrad feels disrespect from his opposite’s no-show, triggering a wild gunfight in a private box. Meanwhile, Kevin Harrigan (Paddy Considine) continues to feud with his father while contemplating a move to snatch control of a vast drug empire. As ever, Harry is the chips in the buttie, with loyalties torn between his best pal and career employer.
Harry’s busier than bacteria. At times he babysits five mobiles, a sight to have anyone reaching for the painkillers. His marriage to the mob exacts a destructive toll on his other marriage to Jan (Joanne Froggatt), who’s filing for divorce. Daughter Gina (Teddie Allen) teams with Eddie Harrigan (Anson Boon) in a business shaking down rich YouTubers. Joining the mix is Seraphina (Mandeep Dhillon), Conrad’s daughter by another mother, allying with the shadowy American influence-peddler Kat McAllister (Janet McTeer).
Backed by the clout of a US diplomatic role, Kat’s out to crush the Harrigans in response to Harry’s rejection of her employment offer. Also taking a number is new-age hitman Frank Cooper (Johnny Flynn). He’s been unearthed by corrupt, high-ranking police operative Colin Tattersall (Toby Jones), formerly entrenched within the Stevenson cartel. He wants in, approaching Kat to bring Cooper on board as her incursive spearhead. Meanwhile, Conrad secretly undertakes cognition testing. To nobody’s surprise, he’s discovered to be a hothead displaying poor judgment and rash decision-making.
This season wades directly into a pit of past traumas. There’s Kevin’s vengeful retaliation over his mistreatment at the hands of a prison “screw” decades before. Wife Bella (Lara Pulver), Conrad’s former mistress who bore his child/grandchild Eddie, stitches up her own childhood abuser. Seraphina’s closeness to Conrad earns Maeve’s constant scorn, leading her to take the action of an enemy. Eddie continues to be played by his grand-mum/step-mum. We also lurch into murkier incestuous territory as Maeve continues to express herself inappropriately around him.
Created by Ronan Bennett with Guy Ritchie as a director, MobLand made it clear from the start it was less committed to realism or nuance than it was to explosive action, cartoon thuggery and an industrial strength body count. Undoubtedly important to the show’s success is the dream pairing of Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan. The veterans share great chemistry, as evidenced in The Thursday Murder Club, and clearly enjoy inhabiting their dastardly characters. Conrad is an untethered lunatic who’d give the Kray brothers pause for thought in doing business with him. The delightfully demented Maeve is a conniving puppeteer, playing Conrad and Eddie like a pair of sociopathic marionettes.
In a stacked cast Tom Hardy continues to be MobLand’s centrepiece with his quietly menacing mister fixit commanding plenty of screen time. Kevin is more important this season but Paddy Considine is still wasted, spending too long in the background sitting on sofas and scowling in corners. The quiet strength of this season is the inclusion of Johnny Flynn, delivering great humour in the guise of whimsical scooter-riding gun for hire, Frank Cooper. So too, Emmett J. Scanlan as Conrad’s head lackey Paul, who’s always off to the side, comically mumbling cold truths as the family’s madness envelops him.
MobLand is a strange brew. The show suffers from overused genre tropes and plays like a soap opera, with unrealistic scenarios in an over-the-top presentation of cockney crims. Tracking the body count practically calls for an Excel spreadsheet. But the series is also moreish in the same way any soap can be – once viewers have picked sides – and it boasts the action and polish of a top-class gangster franchise. Holding everything together is Hardy. Virtually the only Harrigan hood with the required smarts, Harry is at his most persuasive here, with and without leverage. It’s the gift of the gab – a sure sign that he’s kissed the Blarney Stone.
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 is an avowed cinephile who in recent years has turned his focus to premium streaming series. He has worked in major media outlets in Sydney and Hong Kong since the early 1990s.
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The Census Bureau Is Overrun With Staffers From a MAGA Think Tank

 

The Census Bureau Is Overrun With Staffers From a MAGA Think Tank



Wired – “The US Census is home to vast troves of sensitive data on nearly every person living in the country, which is used for apportioning and drawing congressional districts as well as allocating federal funding based on population sizes. 

Multiple staffers at a Trump-aligned policy think tank have burrowed their way into the US Census Bureau, where they have access to sensitive data and have contributed to a public report that bolsters conspiracy theories undermining trust in elections ahead of the midterms. In August, the Census Bureau published an anonymously authored reporttitled “Noncitizen Voting in the 2020 Election: A Beginning Analysis,” claiming to show that thousands of noncitizens voted in the 2020 election. 

A WIRED investigation revealed that the report appeared to employ faulty methodology, casting its conclusions into doubt, and that two of its authors work for the America First Policy Institute, a right-wing think tank with deep ties to the Trump administration. 

Now WIRED has found that the two authors are part of a larger team, made up almost entirely of AFPI members, who have been detailed to the Census Bureau and given access to its data. The Census Bureau is home to vast troves of sensitive data on nearly every person living in the country, which is used for apportioning and drawing congressional districts as well as allocating federal funding based on population sizes. 

Experts and Census employees who spoke to WIRED worry that the noncitizen voting report is the first salvo in Census data possibly being used to undermine the results of the upcoming midterms or the 2028 presidential election. 

A Census employee who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity says that there has historically been “nothing close” to what AFPI is doing at the bureau. “Frankly, it’s disrespectful to the institution,” they say. The Trump administration has repeatedly attempted to cast doubt on the accuracy of Census data in order to reshape elections. 

Earlier this year, WIRED reported that the Department of Commerce, which oversees the bureau, was circulating a rule changethat would eliminate noncitizens from being counted in the Census, a move that could drastically reshape how Congressional districts are drawn. Republicans also took aim at a little-known statistical method called differential privacy that is used to protect the privacy of individual respondents, alleging that it makes the Census count inaccurate in ways that favor Democrats in congressional apportionment..”


Moose on the loose at Warsaw’s main station brings trains to a standstill Notes from Poland. Micael T: “So it is a Putin-moose that sabotage the trains from Poland to Kiev?”


Secret Banking Database Used For Pre-crimeDeeper States

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Happy birthday Aga and Ruby

 Birthday wishes From Sydney to High Tatras
 


"With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come."

~ William Shakespeare


Happy Birthday 🎈 Wishing you a beautiful day and many blessings for the year ahead. 🎂 

May your birthdays be the start of a year filled with new opportunities, accomplishments, and endless joy…


From Jozef Imrich and William Shakespeare 🫶



"Birthdays are nature's way of telling us to eat more cake."
~ Jozef Imrich

"The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age."
~ Lucille Ball

"Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest."
~ Larry Lorenzoni

"Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."
~ Jack Benny

"Age is a matter of feeling, not of years."
~ George William Curtis

"When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it's a sure sign you're getting old."
~ Mark Twain

"As men get older, the toys get more expensive."
~ Marvin Davis

"Age is not important unless you're a cheese."
~ Helen Hayes

"You are only young once, but you can be immature for a lifetime."
~ John Grier

"Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional."
~ Chili Davis

When I have a birthday, I take the day off. But when my wife has a birthday, she takes a year or two off."
;-)



21 September 2026 



“Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.” — Zelda Fitzgerald




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