Intellectual Explorer

@driftingthrough.bsky.social

1154 Followers 2140 Following

My personality defects were made in Texas.

Frail old man with a bourbon sized and shaped crystal bottle of perfume labeled "elder diaper" in weird pidgin French.
Barometric pressure chart from February 24 to March 24, depicting wild fluctuations between 970 and 1010 hectopascals, more than a typical Midwestern US Spring.
Substack post by "Decoding Fox News": In Texas slightly more Democrats showed up to vote in the Senate primary than Republicans. In North Carolina it wasn't close, as over 824,000 voted for a Democrat, and 625,667 voted for a Republican. It’s just the primary of course but the Democrats have to be happy about the turnout in both states.
Headlines: Bill Gates calls himself ‘foolish’ over Epstein ties, pictures Bill Gates looking regretful holding a microphone.
Macron says European Union "should not hesitate" to use anti-coercion... [Against DJT]
Trump says he won't permit dividends, buybacks for defense companies till they fix equipment production REUTERS - 30 MINUTES AGO WASHINGTON, Jan 7 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would not permit dividends or stock buybacks for defense companies until they ‌fix problems with the production of military equipment. "Defense Companies are not producing our Great Military Equipment ‍rapidly enough and, once produced, ⁠not maintaining ⁠it properly or quickly," Trump said in a post ‌on Truth Social. Trump also called executive pay packages in the defense industry "exorbitant and unjustifiable." "From this ⁠moment forward, these ‍Executives must build NEW and MODERN Production Plants, both for delivering and maintaining this important ‍Equipment, and for building the latest Models of future Military Equipment," he said, without naming any specific companies or executives. "Until they do so, no Executive should be ‍allowed to make in excess of $5 Million Dollars which, as high as it sounds, is a mere fraction of what they are making now."Trump and the Pentagon have been complaining about the expensive, slow-moving and entrenched nature of the defense industry, promising dramatic changes that would make the production of war equipment more nimble. (Reporting by Katharine Jackson and Bhargav ‍Acharya in Toronto; Editing by Caitlin Webber) (c) Reuters 2026. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
BestBuy index card box in response to "Epstein Files" search
In the chaos of battle, clarity is at the bottom of the glass. Fog of War Whisky. LARP BOLDLY.
NightCafe AI image generator prompt: An outdoor cafe table featuring a glass and a green bottle called "sparkling ethnic conflict" on the brand label. The resulting image contains curious biases in the background elements not specifically prompted, suggesting Balkan or North African or Levant cultural influence.
Gene Wilder playing Willie Wonka smiles ironically across the table like he's suppressing a laugh, pretending to be interested in the answer to a question which is obvious only to 3rd parties and himself, a setup for a joke. "Tell me again how this time things will be different."
Beeman Marksman Laserhawk folding slingshot.
Image for an article headline depicts a "sea of red" (indicating losses or dropping prices) in a securities price display grid with a headline stating "Stocks stays close to record highs; dollar and bond yields turn higher."
Futurama Fry "Not sure if .." meme
2009 Adbusters magazine depicting a man and a woman feeling creepy about buying a soda from a vending machine that depicts in stark emotional contrast, the same couple happily enjoying the product with the tagline "always"
Lepiota mushroom growing in turf grass under a prairie drop seed grass tuft. The greenish tint of the identifying spores is barely visible on the gills.
Reishi mushrooms on a black locust tree. One old, dried out and darkened, above a new fruiting body growing aggressively in ideal weather, also cradling an empty cicada shell.
Reishi mushroom growing on a live black locust tree bark near the ground.
From The Halfway Cafe Substack 2025-08-10 BREAKING: An anonymous GOP senator says everyone in Congress knows Trump is a rapey pedophile, but 1/3 of Republicans are cashing in on the grift, 1/3 are afraid of Trump wrecking their careers, and 1/3 are afraid of Trump’s cult members committing violence.
Since Q1 2020, pretax profits of incorporated businesses of all sizes in nonfinancial industries had spiked by 122% to an annual rate of nearly $3 trillion, while Tariffs are currently collected at a rate of about $300 billion a year, which would roll back only a small portion of this huge spike in profits gained during the inflation era.
A bumble bee butt barely sticking out of a bee balm blossom in the foreground, with other bees and blossoms blurred by narrow field of focus in the background.
Newly hatched praying mantis macro shot: upside down hanging from the stem of a potted citrus leaf among tiny droplets of water about the same size as the mantis' head.
Donald Trump holds a sign up next to a lectern displaying a list of reciprocal tariffs in his trade war, with a visage lacking facial tone, orange makeup covering his pallor, like an upright corpse holding a casket lid open.
Early 1980s TV soundstage with young boy smiling at, and seated next to Baphomet, with a title "Being Real with Baphomet." (Fabrication)
Mclusky "the world is still here and so are we" record, released 2005-05-09, on a 1980s Technics turntable, sky blue vinyl.
Meme golden retriever puppy with adorable open mouth smile says "I know it hurts; it's supposed to"
Unibroue La Fin Du Monde
Flamin' Hot Cheetos packaging, logo, artwork.
Five years of CBOE VIX chart historical prices showing 2020 peaks around 33 and today, a spike which exceeds 52, 2025-04-09.
Headline: Analysis-Investors say it's time to take Trump seriously as markets recoil REUTERS - 5:27 AM ET March 03 2025 By Tom Westbrook and Ankur Banerjee SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Markets no longer think Donald Trump is full of bluster and are moving quickly to anticipate a slowdown in U.S. and global growth as he raises a wall of tariffs around the world's biggest economy and trading partners start to respond in kind. Six weeks into his second term, the U.S. president has hit imports from Mexico and Canada with 25% levies, put an additional 20% tariff on goods from China, threatened reciprocal tariffs globally and cut off military aid to Ukraine. But instead of the rising yields and higher dollar that investors had wagered on in November, the so-called "Trump trade" is in full retreat. Trade conflict has begun in earnest and the dollar is falling while bond yields dive.
VIX index chart showing 5 years of price history, spiking to $66 in 2020, then settling down to 30s, and in 2023 again to the 20s, landing around 12 in 2024 before jumping back up to 20s, currently @$19.10
Stock price chart showing 6 months of United Healthcare stock prices, having dropped from ~$600 to $475 since December 2024. Even a dry stock price chart can express a dour mood.
Miniature (about 30 lbs.) golden doodle dog looks insistently.
Reddit r/OptimistsUnite post by u/Stock_Sun7390 Most of the Republicans I know have now come to their senses I've had numerous Republican friends in my red state who went from WOOHOO TRUMP to THAT FUCKER GONNA DESTROY OUR COUNTRY! So there's hope. Plenty of it in fact, that maybe things will get done and will be better :) Also sorry about yet another political post here! I just HAD to share this somewhere because it's so good to finally see most of my red friends realizing who Trump actually is
NVDA 5Y stock price history chart looks like Al Gore's climatology chart.
US Treasury Bond yield curve January 2025 shows almost flattened curve over the prior two years' January yield curve with yields for each of those years that are slightly inverted.
Screen capture of a web page reporting 36,981 verified signatures have been recorded for a petition to the US House of Representatives in favor of a children's rights act specifically banning the use of religious exemption under child abuse and neglect law.
Social media post of two photographs documenting a hole where someone crashed a vehicle through the brick wall on the exterior of CVS pharmacy at Roosevelt and Oak Park Ave. in Oak Park, IL December 2024.
Child sitting with Baphomet on a 1980s TV soundstage for "Being Real with Baphomet" show.
DJIA, NASDAQ, S&P 500 1 month price history chart from November 18 to December 18, 2024 illustrating today's selling erased gains in this time, except for NASDAQ which only lost half its gains.
Warning sign: "Don't chase your dreams. Humans are persistence hunters. Follow your dreams at a sustainable pace until they get tired and lie down."
Peregrine falcon looking with head tilted at the camera from outside on a window ledge.
Don't chase your dreams! Humans are persistence hunters. Follow your dreams at a sustainable pace until they get tired and lie down.
DJT stock 1 year, $12.15 down from $66.22 peak.