Popular cafe, Sule (素乐), in Dali, China.

China urges travelers to avoid Seattle airport after 20 scholars were denied entry to the US Chinese government officials are urging travels to avoid entering the U.S. through Seattle. They cite ongoing harassment by U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel.

Pure unadulterated anti-Chinese racism entrenched at the highest levels.

Two views of Dali's Erhai Lake in China, after thunderstorm and several hours later.

The Philippines: The crucifix above the massage table Is massage compatible with Catholicism?

Latest in a series.

Trump touts newly released plans for D.C. triumphal arch The proposed 250-feet-tall, white-and-gilded monument would stand on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., by the Potomac River.

If Mussolini II gets his disgusting arch, we're going to tear it down.

These common drug tests lead to tens of thousands of wrongful arrests a year, experts say. One state is fighting back A great-grandmother’s medicine tested positive for cocaine – spawning a 15-month legal nightmare, forcing her to refinance her home, and spurring a new state law that could set a precedent across the ...

Let’s not equate fascism in the US with Trump. It’s countless other creeping measures destroying innocent people’s lives that have been infecting the country for years, creating an atmosphere of fear and paranoia to soften people up for increasingly more brutal forms of totalitarian dictatorship.

Two cafes in Guangzhou.

Can orgies solve the fertility crisis?

I love the title of this article though I refuse to read anything behind a paywall.

She tried therapy and medication, but this grandmother says psilocybin is what changed her life | CNN Martha Stem wanted “a guided, intentional journey” on “magic” mushrooms to cope with a jarring death in her family and a lifetime of stored trauma. She’s among the early waves of people participating ...

Good, long-read article by CNN. Psilocybin's star is rising.

Georgia woman charged with murder after police say she took abortion pills to end pregnancy A 31-year-old Georgia woman has charged with murder by police who say she took pills to induce an abortion.

It’s cases like these, where a woman taking an abortifacient is charged with murder, that makes me think maybe all sane Americans should pack up and leave the country and let the Christian fascists and their dupes have it to themselves.

As a result of the orange tumor’s Iran war, our Grab driver told us the price of gasoline in Cebo has gone up from 59 to over 80 Pesos per liter.

Insights into China, Part 9: A journey to the hinterland The Chinese countryside is everywhere.

Latest post in my China series.

Two tasks for Americans to resist the fascist U.S.-Israeli Axis of Evil: 1) Collective boycotts of the Big Grid, to the extent personally feasible. 2) Leave the U.S. These two choices—fighting back and fleeing dictatorship —aren’t incompatible. They both have a real effect.

Epstein kept garden of toxic plants that turn people into 'zombies' Several of Jeffrey Epstein's emails revealed that he had an interest in potentially toxic plants that eliminated a person's free will and did not show up in a toxicology report.

To be fair to the datura flower, it has been in use for thousands of years around the world, has numerous medical uses and is perfectly legal to grow and consume in the U.S. The datura plant motors the plot of my recent novel, The Tao of Poison (ishamcook.com/2025/08/10/t...).

Strange experience reading these two classic novels at the same time. They haven’t the slightest thing in common except that the prose is exquisite and flows beautifully despite my having no idea what’s going on.

Insights into China, Part 8: An immersion in a museum From dioramas to living museums and homestays.

Latest post in my China series.

Cafe with friendly owner in Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China.

Children of Men (2006) ⭐ 7.9 | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller 1h 49m | R

Rewatched this brilliant and prescient dystopian film. Set in 2027, society is collapsing due to infertility. To protect its identity the UK bans all immigrants, brutally evicting them from their homes and confining them in a squalid ghetto. It's what the U.S. could become, indeed is becoming.

Women “punching in” (打卡) to photograph each other in a cafe in Dali, China.

The sewage system, or What is fascism? How fascism works, with a special emphasis on the USA.

Outrageous as the Minneapolis events are, we must keep historical perspective. As I wrote 5 years ago during Biden, the militarization of U.S. police forces has been increasing by leaps and bounds since the 1980s, with no letup. ICE today is inexorable the result.

Psycho Pete's Living Guide to Boycotting the Big Orange Menace The beast eats money. Don't feed it with yours.

This boycott list of American products is long but worth a read. It’s hard to boycott everything but everyone can do what they can (I sell my books on the Amazon platform and buy music on Amazon but part of that money goes to the musicians, etc).

Minneapolis shooting scrambles Second Amendment politics for Trump Prominent Republicans and gun rights advocates helped elicit a White House turnabout this week after bristling over the administration’s characterization of Alex Pretti as responsible for his own deat...

This is a really interesting, massive contradiction and conundrum the Trump Administration is being confronted with: the right to bear arms and the regime's fascist impulse to control the population by TAKING AWAY its arms.

Insights into China, Part 7: A glimpse inside a school Dorm rooms, examination hells, and four-year vacations.

Dorm rooms, examination hells, and four-year vacations.

nursesonja • 7h & Threads Let us not forget, it was the same administration that reduced us to wearing trash bags as protective gear while we watched the hospital go up in flames around us during the pandemic that just murdered one of our own on the streets in broad daylight. As a nurse & as a person, I will never forgive. I will never forget. I will never back down. This was never about border control. This is about total control. O240 Q5 G34 → 21

The nurses are pissed

Stupidity In Stupidity Avital Ronell explores the fading empire o…

I'm going to have a look at this book for any insights into the American psyche.

Section 4 of the 25th Amendment allows the vice president and a majority of Cabinet members to declare the president is unable to discharge the duties of the office.

Stocks sell off globally as traders digest Trump message saying he wants Greenland because ‘your Country decided not to give me the Nobel’ The message was sent to the Norwegian prime minister, who has no control over how the Nobel Committee awards its prizes. Greenland is a territory of Denmark, not Norway.

Trump doesn't need to be impeached. He is unfit for office and needs to be removed from it in a straitjacket.

'Mystery Guy' Filmed at Minneapolis Protest After ICE Shooting as MAGA Supporter Cheers Violent Remark A viral video from a Minneapolis protest shows a man cheering after an ICE shooting, sparking backlash, online identification claims and misinformation concerns as investigations continue.

It's fascist brownshirts like Jayden Scott who oddly deserve a modicum of respect simply for speaking honestly, when he says, "We executed one of you yesterday," referring to ICE agent Jonathan "Fuckin' bitch" Ross's murder of Renee Good. No phony rationales of self-defense, just raw Gestapo truth.

Sorry to say Amazon doesn’t have a discount if buying these two related books together.

Trump’s plan to own the Western Hemisphere and Greenland is not what Americans want | CNN Politics President Donald Trump’s decision to remove the head of a sovereign country over the weekend was a hugely significant operation. But it was perhaps even more significant as a statement of intent.

As soon as Hitler II takes or attempts to take Greenland, all hell's going to break loose, and Americans will see the real face of fascism, as the U.S. Gov't will need to terrorize the population to control the situation at home.