under construction

@SVG__Collection care to share?

Almost 1000 songs deep into my all-time favorites playlist. This is fun.

Brilliant

This is pretty insane: the U.S. just tried to literally re-colonize part of the Philippines. They did so under the so-called "Pax Silica" initiative, the brainchild of - surprise, surprise - an ex-Palantir guy named Jacob Helberg who now runs U.S. economic "diplomacy" from the State Department. It's causing a big outcry in the Philippines, which is quite a feat given this is by far the most US-friendly country in Southeast Asia. If you're the US and you're getting the Marcos administration - of all governments - to push back on sovereignty, you've really overplayed your hand. What is the "Pax Silica" initiative? In a nutshell it's about the US getting other countries to commit to restructuring their AI tech infrastructure around a US-led stack. It's basically vendor lock-in: you hand over your critical minerals, align your export controls with Washington's, regulate AI the way America wants, and in return you get to be a US "trusted partner," whatever that means these days. In essence, let's not kid ourselves, it's all about China: this is the US's initiative to "win the AI race" by getting other countries to contractually commit to keeping China out of their tech supply chains. When you can't preserve your lead through innovation, you seek to lock countries in contractually. For instance as a country, this would mean telling Huawei they can't sell you AI chips, and telling Chinese firms they can't invest in your data centers - even if they're better and cheaper. It's not about choosing the best technology, it's about choosing the right flag. But in this instance, the US went much further still: they literally tried to carve out 4,000 acres of Philippine territory (in New Clark City, 60 miles north of Manila) to be governed under US common law with diplomatic immunity - the first arrangement of its kind anywhere in the modern world. This is according to the WSJ who ran the story last month (wsj.com/world/asia/u-s…) as if it was a done deal (it wasn't). Heard about the "French concession" or "British concession" in China during the century of humiliation? Same thing: the US basically asked for an "American concession" in the Philippines. Unsurprisingly, there was quite a bit of backlash in the country with for instance the Peasant Movement of the Philippines (KMP) calling it a “massive sellout” of the country’s land, minerals, and sovereignty (punto.com.ph/us-led-pax-sil…). So much so that the Philippines' government - namely Joshua Bingcang, president and chief executive of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) - issued a statement saying that the Philippines had rejected US proposals that would place the project beyond local jurisdiction (asianews.network/philippines-re…). Note, by the way, this delicious irony: the BCDA is the government agency that was created in 1992 specifically to convert former US military bases at Clark and Subic Bay after the Philippines spent decades negotiating their closure. New Clark City - where the Pax Silica's hub would go - is built on the old Clark Air Base. So the agency whose entire reason for existing is to turn former American colonial territory (i.e. US military bases) into sovereign Philippine land is the one now being asked to hand part of that very same land back under US jurisdiction (and, apparently, declined). Of course though, blocking this specific jurisdiction grab doesn't change the bigger picture. The Philippines is still a Pax Silica signatory, and Pax Silica itself is structurally neocolonial: you supply the cheap labor and raw materials, align your export controls and regulations with Washington's, cut yourself off from the world's rising technological powerhouse - and in exchange you get assembly jobs and the privilege of getting a pat on the head and being called a "trusted partner." They dropped the most cartoonishly colonial demand - governing Philippine soil under US law - but the underlying architecture is the same: you serve America's supply chain, on America's terms, and you relinquish your sovereign right to trade with whoever offers the best deal.

Totals extracted from the table in the post (seasons 2000/01 to 2025/26 – “vencedores do século”):Overall trophies (97 in total across the 4 competitions)FC Porto: 37 (38%) Benfica: 26 Sporting CP: 20 Other clubs: 14 Breakdown by competitionLiga Portugal (26 editions) Porto: 13 Benfica: 8 Sporting: 4 Boavista: 1 Taça de Portugal (26 editions) Porto: 10 Sporting: 6 Benfica: 3 Braga: 2 Others (Vitória SC, Académica, Aves, Torrense, Vitória FC): 5 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (26 editions) Porto: 13 Benfica: 7 Sporting: 6 Allianz Cup / Taça da Liga (19 editions, from 2007/08) Benfica: 8 Sporting: 4 Braga: 3 Porto: 1 Others (Vitória SC, Moreirense, Vitória FC): 3 Notes (matches comments under the post): Porto = 38% of all trophies. Without Taça da Liga → Porto has 36/78 (46%) and exactly 2 more than Benfica + Sporting combined. Liga + Taça only → Porto has 44% and also 2 more than the Lisbon clubs combined. Liga only → Porto has exactly 50%. This is the complete summary of every winner shown in the image.

Os vencedores do século... 🇵🇹🏆

@RuiPinto_FL um brinde a isso

A Taça é a festa do futebol. De facto, ali tudo pode acontecer. O Torreense conseguiu o inimaginável e tornou-se a primeira equipa da Segunda Liga a vencer a competição. É impossível não amar este desporto.

Russia Hammers Kiev With Massive Barrage, Likely Including Oreshnik Hypersonic IRBMs zerohedge.com/geopolitical/r…

Best of the IGWT-report Ht Tavi Costa

Over and over it's been said to me decade after decade that 'a few people can't control the world - that's ridiculous.' But it's actually quite straightforward once you have your assets and gofers installed to do your bidding in a system that YOU created and have programmed vast tracts of the population to believe that 'a few people can't control the world - that's ridiculous.' We have now had two successive US presidents with blatantly dismantling brains - one a crook with a more quiet dementia and the other a mega-crook with aggressive dementia and a deleted mental filter who gets off on death and destruction. There was also of course the seriously mentally ‘challenged’ (imbecilic) Boy George Bush. The message? We can put anyone we like in the positions of (official) 'power'. Given that the second dementia ‘president’ was always a deeply insecure little boy seeking cover in malignant narcissism and bombast he was the perfect front man for demolishing the old system as he was installed to do so the AI/digital dystopia can replace it and to facilitate moving the centre of global power eastwards as always planned. Next you need to surround your chosen president with a circle of complete morons and psychopaths in a ‘Cabinet’ that you also control and have your largely gofer politicians on Capitol Hill sit on their hands and zip their mouths while your malignant narcissist goes about his mayhem on your behalf – not least by using one-man swish of the pen, law of the land, ‘Executive Orders’. This way your malignant narcissist little boy with the intellect of a pea can impact upon the lives of 350 million Americans and with your psychopathic assets in Israel impact upon the global population through the consequences of the Cult-instigated war with Iran with its potential to delete the old system so the new can take over. Add to all this the fact that the overwhelming majority of the global population is conditioned (programmed) to believe that the answer to political narcissists, psychopaths and main chancers is a different ‘party’ of political narcissists, psychopaths and main chancers owned by the same force and you are home and dry. A few people can’t control the world? DODDLE. Unless we wake up to the politics scam and how it works – and FAST. Eight billion people cannot be controlled by a comparative handful unless the billions give their power away to the handful. The fact that humanity has always done so, should trigger the penny to drop that WE have created the problem and thus WE, united and informed, are the answer. Continued failure to see that will mean game over and humanity will go on being ruled into total AI/digital control via moronic ‘leaders’ like this one.

Gold walked sideways for the week, and is now right at red line. The red slingshot parabolic move for gold is still in play, as long as the red parabolic curve is not broken to the downside. So if that red line is to hold, the way is still up. #joinus

Niger 🇳🇪 has officially revoked France’s 58-year uranium mining concession at the strategic Arlit site, which was previously operated by the French nuclear company Orano. The military government stated that the company failed to pay the required royalties despite repeated warnings. Authorities announced that the mining rights have now reverted to the state and have created a new state-owned company, TSUMCO SA, to manage the country’s natural resources. This action follows the recent cancellation of several gold mining licenses over tax and environmental issues.

The commodities index CRB has broken out big time vs bitcoin.

Interesting move...

China To Impose Mining Controls On Strategic Minerals zerohedge.com/commodities/ch…

Geoengenharia, já não é teoria da Conspiração! 💥 peticaopublica.com/?pi=geoengenha… ✝️ t.me/lucindaribeiro… 🌺

Gold versus the stock market - Can this continue to reflect the 1960's/70's as closely as it has for the last 13 years? Incredible 👇

NEW: 🇺🇸🇻🇪 Trump brutally honest for stealing Venezuela’s oil: “We've taken out so much oil in Venezuela, we've paid for the cost of the war [with Iran] about 25 times over”

The AI bubble math doesn't add up. Anthropic spends $3 to make $1 and that’s before you include any and all other costs like staff or electricity. Microsoft dumped $300B in capex, made ~$18B in AI revenue. OpenAI and Anthropic alone make up 43-54% of Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Oracle's entire revenue backlogs. Enterprises are burning through annual AI budgets in 4 months with zero measurable ROI. This is the most expensive science experiment in history, funded by your SaaS subscriptions.