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The Counterpunch: Consumer Solutions To Fight Extinction
Although the world is highly complex, every person can make a difference. That previous sentence almost sounds like a cliche right?
Really it’s not. If every person on the planet made a few simple lifestyle changes, it would result in less demand on land and resources and soften the impact of deforestation on endangered species.
The most powerful thing every one of us can do is to #Boycott4Wildlife and boycott the brands that are destroying the forests for palm oil, wood and soy.
Here are a few other changes you can make which collectively can save the natural world.
The Counterpunch: The easy consumer solutions that fight animal extinction and deforestation #activism #Boycott4Wildlife #minimalism #anticonsumerism #extinctionrebellion
TweetChange your diet to be plant-based
Agriculture is the main threat to 86% of the 28,000 species known to be at risk of extinction. Whether or not you should become vegan is beyond the scope of this website. The choice is yours to make. However, there is overwhelming evidence that if every person changed their diet to be plant-based and reduced demand for meat, we could end deforestation, pollution and stop the mass extinction of thousands of animal species.
Industrial food production is a major driver of the planetary environmental emergency. Food systems are responsible for 21 to 37 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, 70 per cent of water use and 80 per cent of the pollution causing eutrophication and marine dead zones.
Human rights could address the health and environmental costs of food production, David R Boyd, The Conversation, September 2021.Biomass is the collective weight of living animal species on the planet:
60%: The animals that humans eat: meat and dairy
36%: humans
4%: Wild animals
The Guardian: 2021 Report Plant-based diets crucial to saving global wildlifeThis is pretty gross really. If we don’t change this imbalance, firstly all of the wild animals will die (which we are seeing right now), then the forests will die and then the entire planet will die, including humans because there will be no more oxygen to breathe. According to experts, this will happen within the next few decades.
[Source: Global Canopy & Trase Insights]
Soy, followed by palm oil used in animal feed are some of the biggest causes of tropical deforestation on the planet. Source: Global Canopy & Trase Insights.https://twitter.com/GlobalCanopy/status/1382291305833828357?s=20
The Counterpunch: Go plant-based
We live in a culture that celebrates meat-eating, it will take quite a lot of effort for some people to unlearn this. That is understandable. Wherever you are on the journey, even making some meals plant-based can make the difference to forests and wildlife.
Foodie inspiration
It is possible to make mouth-watering, indulgent, healthy and absolutely amazing food in your own home, all without hurting any animals, or the forests.
Will Yeung
Easy, quick vegan Asian fusion dishes.
Pick up Limes
Quick, healthy and vibrant vegan dishes.
Get savvy about green-washing marketing tactics by retail brands
Brands love to virtue-signal about how green they are. They use PR-friendly phrasing which make them sound amazing, but these words mean absolutely nothing in terms of real action.
- “We are committed to ending deforestation by xyz”
- “We have started on a journey towards xyz”
- “We engraved our brand name onto a tree in the Amazon…”
This is also known as green-washing. As you have seen on this website – there are very few truly sustainable multinational retail brands that are not destroying the earth in some way or another. A good place to start looking for brands who may be doing the right thing:
However, be aware that there is no real guarantee that any brand is sustainable. Be suspicious of green ticks of approval or websites with overly flowery language to describe environmental activities. Be vigilant for new information about brands. Subscribe to news from independent watchdogs of (palm oil, wood, soy, meat) deforestation such as:
- Chain Reaction Research (CRR)
- The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)
- Greenpeace
- Rainforest Action Network (RAN)
- You can also subscribe to Palm Oil Detectives
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The Counterpunch: Find Alternatives
When in doubt, look for small-to-mid sized local retail brands that you can liaise with directly yourself to find out about their policies. Shop at independent supermarkets that support these brands and that source ethical products.
Understand: The RSPO and WWF Palm Oil Scorecard are yet another form of green-washing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK3wWLMtSy4
The WWF Scorecard allocates a high, score to multinational brands that have not yet stopped deforestation activities in their supply chain.
Recent research from industry watchdogs indicates that retail brands with ‘No Peatland and No Deforestation (NDPE) policies for their palm oil are still buying from mills destroying forests. This means that whatever ‘sustainable’ RSPO certified palm oil label is attached to their brand – they are clearly responsible for large-scale species extinction.
https://twitter.com/ClimateAdvisers/status/1358883363000639488?s=20
So far, no palm oil industry watchdogs have been able to give Palm Oil Detectives any confirmation of any brand using deforestation free palm oil – even despite major brands such as Nestle, Ferrero, Unilever and Mars supposedly using ‘sustainable’ palm oil and obtaining a high rating on the WWF Palm Oil Scorecard.
These brands are complicit and responsible for the destruction of 38,000 ha of rainforest last year alone and the disappearance of 1,000’s of animal species forever.
Ergo – RSPO certification is a form of green-washing.
But perhaps we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater just yet!
If the RSPO can tighten its rules under pressure from consumers, it may actually make a positive difference to the forests and the animals. Consumers want all brands in the RSPO to stop 100% of their deforestation activities – right now. You can do this by joining the boycott and using the hashtag #Boycott4Wildlife
Oversight of the RSPO by independent authorities is critical to make sure big retail brands who are the big polluters and destroyers of the natural world are held to account. Consumer boycotts of supermarket brands are also critical to force the hand of change.
The Counterpunch: Boycott! Boycott! Boycott!
Using this website, you can boycott all of the brands responsible for deforestation, until they agree to stop destroying forests.
Once there is evidence (provided by independent sources: Greenpeace, Environmental Investigation Agency, etc) that deforestation has ceased – then, you will be able to find an updated list of deforestation-free palm oil brands here. But only once these brands are proven to have stopped cutting down forests.
Not promised, not talked about, not virtue-signalled…but fully ceased deforestation!
The Counterpunch: The easy consumer solutions that fight animal extinction and deforestation #activism #Boycott4Wildlife #minimalism #anticonsumerism #extinctionrebellion
TweetShop local and look for small-to-mid sized brands
Often (not always) small-scale SME businesses have better oversight of their supply chain. They can therefore give clear and definitive answers on where their ingredients come from and where their packaging comes from.
Shopping to support a local business means you support the local economy, rather than a nameless, faceless corporate giant.
When in doubt – reach out to the brand over the phone or in person. You should find it relatively easy to reach a flesh and blood human being and to have a conversation about deforestation free palm oil. If they are doing the wrong thing, rather than boycotting straight away, consider pressuring them initially to change to deforestation free palm oil or another oil source that is also deforestation free, often smaller companies have the ability to pivot quicker and change suppliers than larger companies.
I’m a Palm Oil Detector boycotting @Nestle @Unilever @Ferrero @Mars @Avon @Loreal because of their #palmoil #deforestation Join the fight! #Boycott4Wildlife
TweetBuy wholefood ingredients and cook meals instead of buying convenience foods
Benefits
- Healthier for your body, gives you more energy and helps you maintain a healthy weight.
- Often (not always) cheaper than convenience foods.
- Cooking from ingredients means you know exactly what you’re eating.
- If you buy plant-based, your food choices aren’t hurting the forests and the endangered species living there.
- Boycotting the deforestation palm oil in your convenience food benefits all of the animals.
- You won’t be exposed to the harmful additives in convenience food that you can’t pronounce.
Break up with your stuff
Donate, sell and giveaway your excess stuff. Take the Marie Condo approach and live better with less. The stuff you own can end up owning you. Once you are rid of it and learn to live with less, there is a huge amount of freedom in this way of living.
Jettison your petrol-guzzling car
Ask yourself…do you really need a car? Can you just use an Uber instead and have an ebike for getting around? The next time you buy a car, can you buy an EV instead of a petrol-guzzler?
Audit all of the stuff you own
There’s no reason why every household on our planet needs a power drill, a hair dryer, a juicer, several TVs, expensive sporting equipment that’s used once and then stashed away. Instead you could always ask someone in your local area or your neighbourhood if and when you need to borrow something. Sharing things you rarely use instead of buying them helps to lower the pressure on natural resources.
Join the Sharing Economy
Live simply and join a community of people where you can borrow things, as and when you need it, rather than owning things outright. It saves on space, saves you money and it helps to slow down deforestation.
Trading websites are great for this. You help your local community and also
New Zealand:
Australia:
USA:
UK:
Limit your exposure to advertising and surveillance with open-source software
When you rid your daily life of ads, it becomes easier to avoid feeling pressured to constantly buy furniture, tech, snack foods and all of those traps of modern life that are destroying rainforests.
Instead you can look after your privacy and limit your ad exposure with these open-source alternatives to Big Tech. The Big Tech companies buy and sell every aspect of your personal life to advertisers. Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Google and Amazon are the worst for this.
Here are some alternatives:
Signal: Free state-of-the-art open-source private messaging for mobile devices and web. Used by whistle-blowers such as Edward Snowdon. A fully private alternative to Facebook-owned WhatsApp.
Ecosia: A Google search engine alternative that will plants trees the more you use the search function.
UBlock Origin: A free, open-source ad blocking browser extension that works in Firefox for both web browser and mobile device. It can also block ads on Youtube when you view videos in Firefox.
Proton VPN: Free and paid versions allow you to use a fully encrypted VPN tunnel that ensures your passwords and data stays safe. It keeps your browsing history private and data is stored securely in Switzerland. It protects the identity of activists and journalists in countries where they may be at risk.
Protonmail: A free open-source email service that provides complete privacy. Designed by CERN Scientists in Switzerland who were motivated to create a fully secure email service. Data stored in Switzerland which has one of the strictest data privacy policies in the world.
Linux: A free open-source computer operating system. An alternative to Microsoft Windows and Apple. It has a small learning curve to use it but this is 100% worth it. The documents you create and store on a Linux computer are fully private, whereas for Microsoft and Apple operating systems, this is not the case.
Beware of tech FOMO
Tech FOMO (Fear or Missing Out) means being sucked into marketing to buy the latest iPhone, smart watch or smart TV. In accordance with creating this demand, tech companies also ensure that tech is designed intentionally to fail after only a few years, so that consumers are forced to buy new products.
This sneaky trick is known as ‘Planned Obsolescence’. Apple and Android (Google) is the worst for this.
Technology is deliberately very difficult to take apart, repair or replace parts inside of mobile phones, tablets and computers. This forces consumers to purchase a new phone or new computer. This has a terrible impact on the natural environment, as more components for tech means more deforestation and mining and more animal extinction.
The same practice occurs in fast-fashion and furniture. The practice of planned obsolescence by brands is highly unethical and unsustainable for the environment and the animals that live there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM
The Counterpunch: Learn how to be a hacker, a fixer and an Inspector Gadget
Instead of giving in to consumerist FOMO and buying the latest iPhone or gadget; look to websites like Make Use Of, IKEA Hackers, The subreddit on Hacks, Tinkernuts on Youtube and Wikihow to learn hack, fix and reconfigure all of your tech, furniture and personal items and say ‘up yours’ to the greasy machine of commodification. Learn more about how to stop obsolescence.
Buy less clothes
Fast fashion is a mode of clothing production that is very cheap due to low labour costs in third world nations. Aside from the huge human rights issues with clothing production done in this way, fast fashion also has a devastating effect on the world’s natural resources. Consider that it takes nearly 2,000 gallons of water to produce one pair of jeans. According to one UN report:
The fashion industry produces 20 per cent of global wastewater and 10 per cent of global carbon emissions – more than all international flights and maritime shipping. Textile dyeing is the second largest polluter of water globally and it takes around 2,000 gallons of water to make a typical pair of jeans.
United Nations: putting the breaks on fast fashion.The Counterpunch: Reduce your clothing purchases
The good news is that you can contribute to slowing the pace of fast fashion by buying less clothes and buying clothes in biodegradable fabric like cotton, tencel or hemp. Before you hit ‘Buy Now’, ask yourself:
- Do I need these new clothes or shoes or are the ones I own still OK?
- Why do I want this item? Did I see an ad or see an influencer talking about this item and it made me want it?
- Bookmark the page and then revisit the website in a week’s time. If you still want the item of clothing, then perhaps you should get it. Often we are held hostage by momentary urges that go away after a short period of time.
- Am I feeling sad or frustrated or depressed? Is there something I am trying to escape by purchasing? Often we buy things to cheer ourselves up. This rarely works for more than a few hours, then you’re back to feeling sad again but with an emptier wallet.
A good place to start looking for fashion brands which may be sustainable is the B Corporation directory. You can filter your search to brands in a particular industry and part of the world.
Let me know what you think of these ideas, I hope you like them!
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#animalExtinction #brandMarketing #deforestation #environment #greenwashing #minimalism #PalmOil #plantBasedDiet #recycle #reuse #wildlifeActivism -
Contents
Prerequisite
Before we begin setting up our project, we need to ensure a webdriver is installed on our dev environment. We will be using Laravel Dusk for web interaction tests which will use a headless version of the Chrome browser. If you are using Homestead, you can go ahead and set “webdriver” to true and provision your server.
Learn more about Laravel Homestead or DDEV with Docker for local Laravel development.
When running through your provisioning script, it will download and install the Chrome driver ready to be used via Dusk.
Testing is very much an optional part of development, but it is highly recommended you try it out since many companies and developers are looking at TDD and testing as a requirement.
Creating the project
First you need to create our application. If you have Homestead running, then you can SSH into your box and cd into your code directory. Here you can run laravel new blog or you can use composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel blog if you don’t have the Laravel installer setup. Now you can open the project using your favourite editor.
Don’t forget to setup the database and point your server configuration to the new project.
Now you have your project setup, we can move on and create everything needed for user authentication including registering and logging in a user.
Backend AuthenticationCreating your first PHPUnit tests
Next, we will be adding some tests for user authentication. You will need to run php artisan make:test UserLoginTest which will create UserLoginTest.php in your tests/Feature directory.
If you run ./vendor/bin/phpunit you can see how the command works. Your test will pass because of the boilerplate code, but you’ll be removing that and updating it with some real tests.
Delete the “testExample” method and replace it with this code…
use RefreshDatabase; public function testUserLogsInSuccessfully() { $user = User::factory()->create([ 'email' => '[email protected]', 'password' => Hash::make('secret') ]); $response = $this->post('/login', [ 'email' => '[email protected]', 'password' => 'secret' ]); $response->assertRedirect('/home'); $this->assertTrue(Auth::check()); $this->assertTrue(Auth::user()->is($user)); } public function testUserLogsInUnsuccessfully() { $user = User::factory()->create([ 'email' => '[email protected]', 'password' => Hash::make('secret') ]); $response = $this->post('/login', [ 'email' => '[email protected]', 'password' => 'incorrect-password' ]); $response->assertSessionHasErrors(['email']); $this->assertFalse(Auth::check()); }
use RefreshDatabase; tells PHPUnit that in order to run our test, we need to have our tables setup and empty in order to continue.
Inside of testUserLogsInSuccessfully method, we create a user factory inside the database with the email “[email protected]” and password “secret“. The response is then sending a post request to “/login” with what will be the correct email and password. The test should then expect to receive a redirect to “/home“. The next assertion expects Auth::check() to be true and finally, the last assertion expects the correct authenticated user to match the user within the database and that will return true.
The testUserLogsInUnsuccessfully will create the same user, but we will purposely use the incorrect details and expect our response to return an error with our email address. It will then check the authentication has failed, which will be true.
Replace your use statements with this code
use App\Models\User;use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\RefreshDatabase;use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithFaker;use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Hash;use Tests\TestCase;
And now you can run ./vendor/bin/phpunit to run the test suite. Of course this will fail and you’ll see why soon.
First off, we need to add a database connection into our phpunit.xml file. Open it up and add the following before the closing tag.
When we run our tests, we will be using sqlite in memory. This means that a database will never be created on our system and once tests are finished, all the data will be cleared.
Laravel version 7 and 8
From Laravel version 7, all controller files within the auth directory have been removed and placed into laravel/ui. For the purposes of this course, we’re going to recreate these ourselves, however to begin we will need to enter the following composer require laravel/ui in order to get started.
Authentication Routes
First thing you need to do is add the authentication routes. Head over to routes/web.php and add…
Authentication Controllers
Next, you need to create the home controller file in app/Http/Controllers/HomeController.php or by running the artisan command php artisan make:controller HomeController if you run the latter command, then remove the code and add the folowing…
middleware('auth'); } /** * Show the application dashboard. * * @return \Illuminate\Contracts\Support\Renderable */ public function index() { return view('home'); }}
Within the app/Http/Controllers directory we’ll create a new folder called Auth. Inside our Auth directory, we want to make the following controllers with the following code.
ConfirmPasswordController.phpmiddleware('auth'); }}LoginController.phpmiddleware('guest')->except('logout'); }}RegisterController.phpmiddleware('guest'); } /** * Get a validator for an incoming registration request. * * @param array $data * @return \Illuminate\Contracts\Validation\Validator */ protected function validator(array $data) { return Validator::make($data, [ 'name' => ['required', 'string', 'max:255'], 'email' => ['required', 'string', 'email', 'max:255', 'unique:users'], 'password' => ['required', 'string', 'min:8', 'confirmed'], ]); } /** * Create a new user instance after a valid registration. * * @param array $data * @return \App\User */ protected function create(array $data) { return User::create([ 'name' => $data['name'], 'email' => $data['email'], 'password' => Hash::make($data['password']), ]); }}ResetPasswordController.php
If you run ./vendor/bin/phpunit your PHPUnit tests should pass and you have finished this part of the course. If your test fails, it will display an error which will help you fix the test. Be sure not to change the test, but update the code the test is relying on to get the test to green.
Adding Laravel Dusk for browser tests
We will be creating this app using TDD which involves creating the tests first to describe our application and having them fail at first. We will then write the application code that will get tests passing. In order to do this you should install Dusk as it will be a part of your testing suite via composer require --dev laravel/dusk.
If you’re not using Homestead and don’t have the Chrome driver set up, you might be able to run php artisan dusk:chrome-driver and chmod -R 0755 vendor/laravel/dusk/bin/ to ensure permissions are set correctly.
Once composer has installed the dependancy, you can go ahead a run php artisan dusk:install which will create DuskTestCase.php and ExampleTest.php plus a bunch of other boilerplate code in our tests directory.
If you’re not using Homestead, you may need to change your DuskTestCase.php inside your tests directory. If you’re like me and you’re running Laravel on DDEV, then go ahead and update it to the following…
return RemoteWebDriver::create( 'http://selenium-hub:4444/wd/hub', DesiredCapabilities::chrome()->setCapability( ChromeOptions::CAPABILITY, $options ) );
You may also find this blog post of interest.
To ensure everything runs correctly, you will need to run php artisan dusk which will run our ExampleTest.php. It may take a moment to run, but with any luck you should see a green passing test.
If you receive any errors, then please visit the prerequisites to ensure everything has been installed correctly. Go ahead and delete ExampleTest.php as it will no longer be needed.
Frontend AuthenticationCreating your first Laravel Dusk tests
With Dusk setup and ready to go, you can create your first test by running php artisan dusk:make UserLoginTest.php.
Closing thoughts
This has mostly been boilerplate Laravel authentication as we are trying to replicate a traditional Laravel app. In the next episode, you’ll be looking at implementing the frontend authentication and registration using Laravel Dusk.
#from-zero-to-hero #laravel #php #tutorial
https://michaelbrooks.co.uk/laravel-from-zero-to-hero-01-user-authentication/
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Cannabis Lies Vol. 9: The Reform Lie
Filed Under: Policy Fiction
The federal apparatus has spoken. The Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration have announced a shift in the regulatory status of cannabis, moving state-licensed medical products to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act while pointedly leaving adult use, unlicensed, and synthetic THC products in Schedule I. Headlines across the country erupted with the language of victory. Outlets hailed this as a historic acknowledgment of the plant’s medical utility, a shift that supposedly recognizes the plant’s reality after decades of denial. The public was told that the prohibition era was entering its twilight and that the federal government had finally conceded that the plant possesses medicinal value.
None of this reflects the actual legal impact of the order. This announcement is the latest manifestation of the Reform Lie. It is a calculated piece of bureaucratic maintenance designed to satisfy the demand for progress while ensuring the core structure of prohibition remains entirely untouched. As Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche stated in the order, the new policy mandates that:
“Marijuana in any form covered by a state medical marijuana license, be placed in Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act.”
It is a classic maneuver by the state to preserve its authority by offering a small, controlled concession that changes everything on paper but leaves the reality of the drug war exactly where it has always been.
The Reform Lie is the mechanism by which the state manages the tension between popular opinion and its own mandate. It functions by acknowledging that a substance has medical value without ever addressing the fundamental injustice of its criminalization. When the government moves a substance from one box to another, it claims it is following the science. When that same government keeps the prisons full, keeps the borders militarized against possession, and keeps the threat of federal intervention hanging over every state-sanctioned interaction, it is not following science. It is managing optics. For decades, the apparatus has faced growing pressure to address the disconnect between federal law and the public reality of cannabis use. Instead of dismantling the structure, the government has repeatedly opted for symbolic reform. These gestures generate cycles of positive press. They allow officials to claim they have acted on the issue. They provide a release valve for public anger without ever sacrificing the underlying authority to arrest, prosecute, and punish. This is the central trick. The Reform Lie presents a change in tax status as a change in morality.
To understand the scope of this deception, one must look closely at what the shift to Schedule III actually achieves. Under the Controlled Substances Act, Schedule III is home to substances such as anabolic steroids and certain prescription painkillers. It is a designation that implies a potential for abuse, though one that the state deems less severe than those in the Schedule I category, which the government defines as having no currently accepted medical use. Moving state-licensed medical products to Schedule III finally acknowledges what has been true for thousands of years. It acknowledges that the plant has medical value.
However, the change in classification does nothing to address the core conflicts of the prohibition era. The federal criminal penalties for the unauthorized production, distribution, or possession of cannabis remain firmly in place for everything outside that narrow, state-sanctioned medical window. The interstate commerce ban survives completely intact. The government continues to treat the transport of the plant across state lines as a federal crime, regardless of the legality of the substance in the states of origin or destination. Banking remains a fractured landscape of private risk and federal oversight. Employment in the federal sector remains hostile to users, and the firearm restrictions that strip rights from medical patients do not budge.
Most critically, this move provides no relief for those currently held in the carceral system. This order structurally excludes any mechanism for record relief, sentence modification, or pardon, leaving the carceral status quo entirely intact. It does not vacate criminal records. It does not end the status of cannabis as a tool for immigration enforcement. It does not stop the random, localized harassment of the population by federal agencies that still view the plant as contraband outside of the narrow, state-licensed framework.
This is a victory for the balance sheet. It is a win for the corporations that have spent millions lobbying for the ability to deduct ordinary business expenses under the tax code. As of April 22, 2026, state-licensed medical cannabis is no longer subject to 280E. It is a stabilization for the industry that the government has deemed acceptable. For the average person, for the patient, and for the citizen who does not operate within the protective bubble of a state-licensed medical program, the reality remains frozen in the past. This bifurcation of the population is intentional. It creates a system where legitimacy is not a right inherent to the citizen. It is a commodity to be licensed. The people who work within the sanctioned industry are protected, taxed, and monitored. The people who exist outside of that bubble, who grow their own, who share, or who live in states without functional medical programs, are left to the mercy of a law that has not changed. The government has not legalized the plant. It has simply professionalized the privilege of interacting with it.
This strategy is not new. It follows a consistent historical pattern. In every generation, the state has used cannabis policy as a messaging tool to address shifting cultural demands. This is not about the plant. It is about the maintenance of control. The lineage of this deception is long and well-documented.
Consider the era of the Gateway Lie. The government needed a way to justify the expansion of its police power, so it framed the plant as the first step on a path to hard drug use. This narrative was never about safety. It was about creating a bridge between a benign cultural habit and the perceived chaos of the heroin epidemic. It gave law enforcement a justification to monitor, harass, and incarcerate individuals who were otherwise peaceful. The Gateway Lie was effective because it operated on fear. It suggested that a single act of consumption was a moral failing that would lead inevitably to destruction.
Consider the Crime Lie, where the plant was the supposed accelerant for violence. In the 1980s and 1990s, the state pivoted to a narrative of aggression. It claimed that cannabis use caused psychosis and fueled the drug trade. It used this narrative to justify the militarization of police forces, the introduction of civil asset forfeiture, and the explosion of the prison population. The Crime Lie turned the consumer into a danger to the public, a threat that had to be neutralized by the full weight of the judicial system. It was never about the drug. It was about the expansion of the carceral state.
Consider the Teen Epidemic Lie, where the narrative focused on the alleged destruction of youth, or the Addiction Lie, which served to pathologize a human relationship with a plant. Each of these lies served a purpose. They provided the state with the moral cover required to expand surveillance, increase budgets, and exert control. The Reform Lie is simply the modern evolution of this pattern. The state no longer needs to argue that the plant causes violence, because the public no longer believes it. So, the state shifts the narrative. It pivots to the language of regulation. It claims to be fixing the system. It is a retreat, but it is a managed retreat. The goal remains the same, which is to maintain the state’s position as the final arbiter of what a person can put into their own body.
The most devastating impact of the Reform Lie is the erasure of the human cost. When the headlines celebrate a minor technical shift, they drown out the voices of those who continue to suffer under the full weight of prohibition. The Reform Lie tells the prisoner that their incarceration is necessary because they did not have the right paperwork. It tells the immigrant that their status remains precarious because the federal law still views the plant as an illicit substance. It tells the veteran that they must choose between their medical treatment and their access to federal services. It tells the small grower that they are a criminal while the corporate entity next door is a taxpayer. By focusing on the tax status of corporations, the conversation ignores the individuals who are still being processed through the system. It creates an environment where progress is measured by market capitalization rather than the restoration of liberty. It turns the struggle for sovereignty into a fight for market share.
Help Keep Pot Culture Magazine Independent Pot Culture Magazine is independent cannabis journalism. No corporate owners. No investors. Just readers. If you value this work, chip in a few dollars and help keep it going. Support PCMIf the government acknowledges that cannabis has medical value, the continued maintenance of criminal penalties for everyone else becomes an indefensible moral contradiction. One cannot simultaneously argue that a substance is legitimate medicine and that the possession of that substance warrants the stripping of rights, the loss of employment, or the threat of prison. This contradiction exposes the truth of the state position. The government does not actually care about the safety of the substance. It cares about the control of the substance. If it were about safety, the state would be looking for ways to educate rather than incarcerate. If it were about medicine, the state would be ensuring access rather than creating barriers. The existence of the prohibition machinery alongside the admission of medical utility for the licensed few is proof that the objective has always been to maintain a system of punishment.
This system relies on the compliance of the public. It relies on the belief that the state is making progress. The Reform Lie is designed to prevent the public from seeing that the state is not moving toward freedom. It is moving toward an integrated model of control. By allowing a portion of the market to become legitimate, the state creates a vested interest in the status quo. The corporate entities that now have a seat at the table are no longer incentivized to fight for total legalization. They are incentivized to maintain the current regulatory structure because it keeps their competitors out. They become partners in the enforcement of the very prohibition they once railed against. This is the ultimate victory for the state. It co-opts the opposition by giving them a slice of the profit.
We have seen this happen in other sectors of the economy, where regulations are written by the very corporations they are meant to govern. This is not reform. This is the capture of the regulatory apparatus. The Reform Lie ensures that the people who built the culture, who fought for the plant when it was dangerous to do so, are excluded from the new order. They are the ones who bear the cost of the transition. They are the ones who are still in cages, who are still fleeing from the law, who are still fighting for the right to exist in peace.
This administrative process is now set to continue with new hearings starting June 29, 2026. These proceedings are often portrayed as a necessary step toward further reform, a way to build a bureaucratic consensus for future changes. In practice, they serve as a stalling tactic. They provide a way for the administrative state to maintain the illusion of progress while keeping the ultimate authority firmly in its own hands. These hearings will involve experts, lobbyists, and officials debating the minutiae of regulation, all while the fundamental structure of the Controlled Substances Act remains unassailable. The system is designed to consume time, resources, and energy, ensuring that any real change is mediated through a process that the state can control, slow, or halt entirely. It is a theatre of governance, performed for an audience that is desperate for change, but the script was written in the halls of power, not by the people who have lived the consequences of prohibition.
MORE FROM CANNABIS LIES
CANNABIS LIES Vol. 8: The Addiction Lie
Cannabis is often labeled addictive, but the science tells a more precise story. This piece breaks down cannabis use disorder, how it is defined, and why mild, moderate, and severe cases get flattened into one fear-driven narrative. The result is a distorted public understanding of risk that fuels policy, perception, and misinformation.
by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsApril 11, 2026April 20, 2026CANNABIS LIES Vol. 7: The Mental Health Panic
Cannabis and mental health risks are often overstated in public debate. Research shows heavy use and high THC exposure can increase psychosis risk in vulnerable individuals, but widespread claims of a mental health crisis lack strong evidence. This piece examines the data, separates correlation from causation, and breaks down what cannabis users need to know.
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Legal cannabis is often blamed for rising traffic deaths, but federal data tells a more complicated story. NHTSA findings, toxicology limitations, and conflicting crash studies reveal that THC presence is not a reliable measure of impairment. This investigation breaks down how flawed testing and policy shortcuts have shaped the narrative around so-called stoned driving.
by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsMarch 28, 2026March 27, 2026The administrative state is also moving to consolidate its control over clinical trials. By creating a registration pathway for state-licensed entities, the government is essentially seizing control of the research process. It is setting itself up as the gatekeeper of scientific knowledge. It will dictate who can research the plant, what they can research, and what the results can be used for. This is not an opening of the doors to scientific discovery. It is the enclosure of the scientific commons. It ensures that the research that reaches the public will be the research that has been filtered through the priorities of the state.
The Reform Lie is not a strategy. It is an admission of failure. When the government chooses to perform the act of reform without embracing the reality of justice, it proves that it is not interested in the truth. It is interested in the maintenance of power. True reform would not be a shuffling of schedules. It would be the total and unconditional withdrawal of federal interference from the lives of the people. It would be the recognition that the state has no authority to criminalize the relationship between a human being and a plant. It would be the end of the prohibition machine, the release of the prisoners, and the restoration of rights for every person affected by the war on the plant.
As long as the apparatus continues to frame these technical shifts as moral victories, the public must recognize the deception. This is not progress. This is the state recalibrating its control to ensure that it remains the gatekeeper, the tax collector, and the final judge of who is allowed to exist in the world it seeks to dominate. The plant remains the same. The people remain the same. The only thing that has shifted is the label on the cage. The cage is still there. The bars are still locked. The guards are still watching. The power to punish, to threaten, and to control has not been removed. It has been refined. It has been made more surgical. It has been made more efficient.
The moral weight of this lie is heavy. It falls on those who have been promised justice and received only a change in terminology. It falls on the families who have been broken by the enforcement of archaic laws. It falls on the communities that have been targeted for generations. The Reform Lie assumes that the public has forgotten the history of the struggle. It assumes that the public is satisfied with the crumbs of corporate legitimacy. It assumes that there is no understanding of the difference between the freedom to live and the permission to serve.
The narrative of the state must be rejected. The recognition must grow that every small step that leaves the core structure of the prohibition machine in place is a step away from justice. The government must be held accountable for the contradiction of its own law. The reality of the prohibition era must continue to be documented, to expose the lies that are told to justify the control, and to advocate for the total restoration of liberty. The struggle for the plant is not a struggle for a change in status. It is a struggle for the soul of the culture. It is a struggle to define what it means to be a free person in a society that seeks to regulate every choice. As NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano noted regarding the order:
“Rescheduling fails to fully harmonize federal marijuana policy with the cannabis laws of many states, particularly the 24 states that have legalized its use and sale to adults.”
This is the core of the deception. The Reform Lie is the latest barrier to that freedom. It is a wall that must be dismantled, not by the government, but by the people who have lived the reality of the struggle.
The truth is simple, though the state works hard to obscure it. Cannabis is a part of the human experience. It has been used for healing, for creativity, for connection, and for joy for as long as historical records exist. The attempts by the state to control this relationship are an affront to human autonomy. They are based on fear, on ignorance, and on a desire for power. The reclassification to Schedule III is just the latest tactic in a long campaign to prevent people from fully embracing their own sovereignty. While the proponents of this move claim that:
“Today’s order marks a historical reversal in federal cannabis policy,”
It is a sign that the state is feeling the pressure, that it knows its position is untenable, but that it is not yet ready to concede.
A crossroads has been reached. Either the crumbs offered by the state are accepted, turning the public into participants in their own regulation, or the fight for the total and unconditional end of the prohibition machine continues. The Reform Lie can be accepted, or the truth can be demanded. The history of the culture is a history of resistance. It is a history of people who refused to be told what they could do, who they could be, or what they could consume. That history is the source of strength. It is the foundation upon which the future will be built. Permission from the state is not required to exist. Schedules, labels, and tax codes are not needed to define what is right. The truth is known, and it will continue to be shared until the last cage is empty and the prohibition machine is nothing but a memory.
The Reform Lie will continue to be told. The headlines will continue to scream about progress that does not exist. The state will continue to frame its maintenance of power as a move toward justice. But the deception will not hold. The patterns are visible. The history is known. The stakes are understood. The reality of the prohibition era will be documented, one article, one story, one voice at a time. This is not just a battle for a plant. It is a battle for the truth. And it is a battle that will be won, not because the state gives permission, but because the truth is on the side of the people. The prohibition machine is built on lies, and lies cannot stand forever against the weight of reality. The end of prohibition is coming, not through the actions of the state, but through the resolve of the people who have been fighting for it all along. The Reform Lie is the last gasp of a system that knows its time is over. We will not be fooled. We will not be silenced. We will be here, documenting the reality, telling the truth, and fighting for the culture until the day the plant is free.
©2026, Pot Culture Magazine. All rights reserved. This is the property of Pot Culture Magazine and is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. Unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or transmission
of this work, in part or in whole, without the express written permission of Pot Culture Magazine, is strictly
prohibited.F O R T H E C U L T U R E B Y T H E C U L T U R E
The Digital Cage: Saint Lucia’s Traceability Trap
Saint Lucia has selected GrowerIQ as its national seed-to-sale traceability backbone, effectively finalizing a digital surveillance grid for its cannabis industry. By mandating enterprise software before establishing licensing frameworks, the government risks automating the exclusion of legacy farmers. This move trades cultural sovereignty for state-managed control, turning the cannabis industry into an extension of the…
by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsApril 23, 2026April 22, 2026Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s Virginia Sabotage
Virginia legalized possession, but Governor Abigail Spanberger sabotaged the retail market. By delaying sales until 2027 and gutting equity provisions, the Commonwealth institutionalized a half-legal trap. Consumers now navigate a system that treats possession as a right but supply as a crime, fueling an unchecked illicit market while abandoning promised reform. Spanberger’s public safety rhetoric…
by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsApril 21, 2026April 20, 20264/20 has been hollowed out by branding, corporate silence, and a culture that forgot its own history. While the industry sells holiday merch, Singapore executed a man for cannabis. The movement that once fought for autonomy now treats the plant like a commodity. This piece examines the cost of that betrayal and the culture left…
by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsApril 20, 2026April 24, 2026 #280E #AdministrativeLaw #cannabis #CannabisCommunity #CannabisCulture #CannabisCommunity #CarceralState #Culture #DEA #DepartmentOfJustice #DrugWar #FederalGovernment #Industry #Legalization #Marijuana #MarijuanaNews #NORML #Policy #PolicyFiction #PotCultureMagazine #Prohibition #Reform #ScheduleIII #StateSanctioned #Weed -
Cannabis Lies Vol. 9: The Reform Lie
Filed Under: Policy Fiction
The federal apparatus has spoken. The Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration have announced a shift in the regulatory status of cannabis, moving state-licensed medical products to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act while pointedly leaving adult use, unlicensed, and synthetic THC products in Schedule I. Headlines across the country erupted with the language of victory. Outlets hailed this as a historic acknowledgment of the plant’s medical utility, a shift that supposedly recognizes the plant’s reality after decades of denial. The public was told that the prohibition era was entering its twilight and that the federal government had finally conceded that the plant possesses medicinal value.
None of this reflects the actual legal impact of the order. This announcement is the latest manifestation of the Reform Lie. It is a calculated piece of bureaucratic maintenance designed to satisfy the demand for progress while ensuring the core structure of prohibition remains entirely untouched. As Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche stated in the order, the new policy mandates that:
“Marijuana in any form covered by a state medical marijuana license, be placed in Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act.”
It is a classic maneuver by the state to preserve its authority by offering a small, controlled concession that changes everything on paper but leaves the reality of the drug war exactly where it has always been.
The Reform Lie is the mechanism by which the state manages the tension between popular opinion and its own mandate. It functions by acknowledging that a substance has medical value without ever addressing the fundamental injustice of its criminalization. When the government moves a substance from one box to another, it claims it is following the science. When that same government keeps the prisons full, keeps the borders militarized against possession, and keeps the threat of federal intervention hanging over every state-sanctioned interaction, it is not following science. It is managing optics. For decades, the apparatus has faced growing pressure to address the disconnect between federal law and the public reality of cannabis use. Instead of dismantling the structure, the government has repeatedly opted for symbolic reform. These gestures generate cycles of positive press. They allow officials to claim they have acted on the issue. They provide a release valve for public anger without ever sacrificing the underlying authority to arrest, prosecute, and punish. This is the central trick. The Reform Lie presents a change in tax status as a change in morality.
To understand the scope of this deception, one must look closely at what the shift to Schedule III actually achieves. Under the Controlled Substances Act, Schedule III is home to substances such as anabolic steroids and certain prescription painkillers. It is a designation that implies a potential for abuse, though one that the state deems less severe than those in the Schedule I category, which the government defines as having no currently accepted medical use. Moving state-licensed medical products to Schedule III finally acknowledges what has been true for thousands of years. It acknowledges that the plant has medical value.
However, the change in classification does nothing to address the core conflicts of the prohibition era. The federal criminal penalties for the unauthorized production, distribution, or possession of cannabis remain firmly in place for everything outside that narrow, state-sanctioned medical window. The interstate commerce ban survives completely intact. The government continues to treat the transport of the plant across state lines as a federal crime, regardless of the legality of the substance in the states of origin or destination. Banking remains a fractured landscape of private risk and federal oversight. Employment in the federal sector remains hostile to users, and the firearm restrictions that strip rights from medical patients do not budge.
Most critically, this move provides no relief for those currently held in the carceral system. This order structurally excludes any mechanism for record relief, sentence modification, or pardon, leaving the carceral status quo entirely intact. It does not vacate criminal records. It does not end the status of cannabis as a tool for immigration enforcement. It does not stop the random, localized harassment of the population by federal agencies that still view the plant as contraband outside of the narrow, state-licensed framework.
This is a victory for the balance sheet. It is a win for the corporations that have spent millions lobbying for the ability to deduct ordinary business expenses under the tax code. As of April 22, 2026, state-licensed medical cannabis is no longer subject to 280E. It is a stabilization for the industry that the government has deemed acceptable. For the average person, for the patient, and for the citizen who does not operate within the protective bubble of a state-licensed medical program, the reality remains frozen in the past. This bifurcation of the population is intentional. It creates a system where legitimacy is not a right inherent to the citizen. It is a commodity to be licensed. The people who work within the sanctioned industry are protected, taxed, and monitored. The people who exist outside of that bubble, who grow their own, who share, or who live in states without functional medical programs, are left to the mercy of a law that has not changed. The government has not legalized the plant. It has simply professionalized the privilege of interacting with it.
This strategy is not new. It follows a consistent historical pattern. In every generation, the state has used cannabis policy as a messaging tool to address shifting cultural demands. This is not about the plant. It is about the maintenance of control. The lineage of this deception is long and well-documented.
Consider the era of the Gateway Lie. The government needed a way to justify the expansion of its police power, so it framed the plant as the first step on a path to hard drug use. This narrative was never about safety. It was about creating a bridge between a benign cultural habit and the perceived chaos of the heroin epidemic. It gave law enforcement a justification to monitor, harass, and incarcerate individuals who were otherwise peaceful. The Gateway Lie was effective because it operated on fear. It suggested that a single act of consumption was a moral failing that would lead inevitably to destruction.
Consider the Crime Lie, where the plant was the supposed accelerant for violence. In the 1980s and 1990s, the state pivoted to a narrative of aggression. It claimed that cannabis use caused psychosis and fueled the drug trade. It used this narrative to justify the militarization of police forces, the introduction of civil asset forfeiture, and the explosion of the prison population. The Crime Lie turned the consumer into a danger to the public, a threat that had to be neutralized by the full weight of the judicial system. It was never about the drug. It was about the expansion of the carceral state.
Consider the Teen Epidemic Lie, where the narrative focused on the alleged destruction of youth, or the Addiction Lie, which served to pathologize a human relationship with a plant. Each of these lies served a purpose. They provided the state with the moral cover required to expand surveillance, increase budgets, and exert control. The Reform Lie is simply the modern evolution of this pattern. The state no longer needs to argue that the plant causes violence, because the public no longer believes it. So, the state shifts the narrative. It pivots to the language of regulation. It claims to be fixing the system. It is a retreat, but it is a managed retreat. The goal remains the same, which is to maintain the state’s position as the final arbiter of what a person can put into their own body.
The most devastating impact of the Reform Lie is the erasure of the human cost. When the headlines celebrate a minor technical shift, they drown out the voices of those who continue to suffer under the full weight of prohibition. The Reform Lie tells the prisoner that their incarceration is necessary because they did not have the right paperwork. It tells the immigrant that their status remains precarious because the federal law still views the plant as an illicit substance. It tells the veteran that they must choose between their medical treatment and their access to federal services. It tells the small grower that they are a criminal while the corporate entity next door is a taxpayer. By focusing on the tax status of corporations, the conversation ignores the individuals who are still being processed through the system. It creates an environment where progress is measured by market capitalization rather than the restoration of liberty. It turns the struggle for sovereignty into a fight for market share.
Help Keep Pot Culture Magazine Independent Pot Culture Magazine is independent cannabis journalism. No corporate owners. No investors. Just readers. If you value this work, chip in a few dollars and help keep it going. Support PCMIf the government acknowledges that cannabis has medical value, the continued maintenance of criminal penalties for everyone else becomes an indefensible moral contradiction. One cannot simultaneously argue that a substance is legitimate medicine and that the possession of that substance warrants the stripping of rights, the loss of employment, or the threat of prison. This contradiction exposes the truth of the state position. The government does not actually care about the safety of the substance. It cares about the control of the substance. If it were about safety, the state would be looking for ways to educate rather than incarcerate. If it were about medicine, the state would be ensuring access rather than creating barriers. The existence of the prohibition machinery alongside the admission of medical utility for the licensed few is proof that the objective has always been to maintain a system of punishment.
This system relies on the compliance of the public. It relies on the belief that the state is making progress. The Reform Lie is designed to prevent the public from seeing that the state is not moving toward freedom. It is moving toward an integrated model of control. By allowing a portion of the market to become legitimate, the state creates a vested interest in the status quo. The corporate entities that now have a seat at the table are no longer incentivized to fight for total legalization. They are incentivized to maintain the current regulatory structure because it keeps their competitors out. They become partners in the enforcement of the very prohibition they once railed against. This is the ultimate victory for the state. It co-opts the opposition by giving them a slice of the profit.
We have seen this happen in other sectors of the economy, where regulations are written by the very corporations they are meant to govern. This is not reform. This is the capture of the regulatory apparatus. The Reform Lie ensures that the people who built the culture, who fought for the plant when it was dangerous to do so, are excluded from the new order. They are the ones who bear the cost of the transition. They are the ones who are still in cages, who are still fleeing from the law, who are still fighting for the right to exist in peace.
This administrative process is now set to continue with new hearings starting June 29, 2026. These proceedings are often portrayed as a necessary step toward further reform, a way to build a bureaucratic consensus for future changes. In practice, they serve as a stalling tactic. They provide a way for the administrative state to maintain the illusion of progress while keeping the ultimate authority firmly in its own hands. These hearings will involve experts, lobbyists, and officials debating the minutiae of regulation, all while the fundamental structure of the Controlled Substances Act remains unassailable. The system is designed to consume time, resources, and energy, ensuring that any real change is mediated through a process that the state can control, slow, or halt entirely. It is a theatre of governance, performed for an audience that is desperate for change, but the script was written in the halls of power, not by the people who have lived the consequences of prohibition.
MORE FROM CANNABIS LIES
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Cannabis is often labeled addictive, but the science tells a more precise story. This piece breaks down cannabis use disorder, how it is defined, and why mild, moderate, and severe cases get flattened into one fear-driven narrative. The result is a distorted public understanding of risk that fuels policy, perception, and misinformation.
by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsApril 11, 2026April 20, 2026CANNABIS LIES Vol. 7: The Mental Health Panic
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by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsApril 4, 2026April 2, 2026CANNABIS LIES Vol. 6: The Driving Apocalypse Lie
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by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsMarch 28, 2026March 27, 2026The administrative state is also moving to consolidate its control over clinical trials. By creating a registration pathway for state-licensed entities, the government is essentially seizing control of the research process. It is setting itself up as the gatekeeper of scientific knowledge. It will dictate who can research the plant, what they can research, and what the results can be used for. This is not an opening of the doors to scientific discovery. It is the enclosure of the scientific commons. It ensures that the research that reaches the public will be the research that has been filtered through the priorities of the state.
The Reform Lie is not a strategy. It is an admission of failure. When the government chooses to perform the act of reform without embracing the reality of justice, it proves that it is not interested in the truth. It is interested in the maintenance of power. True reform would not be a shuffling of schedules. It would be the total and unconditional withdrawal of federal interference from the lives of the people. It would be the recognition that the state has no authority to criminalize the relationship between a human being and a plant. It would be the end of the prohibition machine, the release of the prisoners, and the restoration of rights for every person affected by the war on the plant.
As long as the apparatus continues to frame these technical shifts as moral victories, the public must recognize the deception. This is not progress. This is the state recalibrating its control to ensure that it remains the gatekeeper, the tax collector, and the final judge of who is allowed to exist in the world it seeks to dominate. The plant remains the same. The people remain the same. The only thing that has shifted is the label on the cage. The cage is still there. The bars are still locked. The guards are still watching. The power to punish, to threaten, and to control has not been removed. It has been refined. It has been made more surgical. It has been made more efficient.
The moral weight of this lie is heavy. It falls on those who have been promised justice and received only a change in terminology. It falls on the families who have been broken by the enforcement of archaic laws. It falls on the communities that have been targeted for generations. The Reform Lie assumes that the public has forgotten the history of the struggle. It assumes that the public is satisfied with the crumbs of corporate legitimacy. It assumes that there is no understanding of the difference between the freedom to live and the permission to serve.
The narrative of the state must be rejected. The recognition must grow that every small step that leaves the core structure of the prohibition machine in place is a step away from justice. The government must be held accountable for the contradiction of its own law. The reality of the prohibition era must continue to be documented, to expose the lies that are told to justify the control, and to advocate for the total restoration of liberty. The struggle for the plant is not a struggle for a change in status. It is a struggle for the soul of the culture. It is a struggle to define what it means to be a free person in a society that seeks to regulate every choice. As NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano noted regarding the order:
“Rescheduling fails to fully harmonize federal marijuana policy with the cannabis laws of many states, particularly the 24 states that have legalized its use and sale to adults.”
This is the core of the deception. The Reform Lie is the latest barrier to that freedom. It is a wall that must be dismantled, not by the government, but by the people who have lived the reality of the struggle.
The truth is simple, though the state works hard to obscure it. Cannabis is a part of the human experience. It has been used for healing, for creativity, for connection, and for joy for as long as historical records exist. The attempts by the state to control this relationship are an affront to human autonomy. They are based on fear, on ignorance, and on a desire for power. The reclassification to Schedule III is just the latest tactic in a long campaign to prevent people from fully embracing their own sovereignty. While the proponents of this move claim that:
“Today’s order marks a historical reversal in federal cannabis policy,”
It is a sign that the state is feeling the pressure, that it knows its position is untenable, but that it is not yet ready to concede.
A crossroads has been reached. Either the crumbs offered by the state are accepted, turning the public into participants in their own regulation, or the fight for the total and unconditional end of the prohibition machine continues. The Reform Lie can be accepted, or the truth can be demanded. The history of the culture is a history of resistance. It is a history of people who refused to be told what they could do, who they could be, or what they could consume. That history is the source of strength. It is the foundation upon which the future will be built. Permission from the state is not required to exist. Schedules, labels, and tax codes are not needed to define what is right. The truth is known, and it will continue to be shared until the last cage is empty and the prohibition machine is nothing but a memory.
The Reform Lie will continue to be told. The headlines will continue to scream about progress that does not exist. The state will continue to frame its maintenance of power as a move toward justice. But the deception will not hold. The patterns are visible. The history is known. The stakes are understood. The reality of the prohibition era will be documented, one article, one story, one voice at a time. This is not just a battle for a plant. It is a battle for the truth. And it is a battle that will be won, not because the state gives permission, but because the truth is on the side of the people. The prohibition machine is built on lies, and lies cannot stand forever against the weight of reality. The end of prohibition is coming, not through the actions of the state, but through the resolve of the people who have been fighting for it all along. The Reform Lie is the last gasp of a system that knows its time is over. We will not be fooled. We will not be silenced. We will be here, documenting the reality, telling the truth, and fighting for the culture until the day the plant is free.
©2026, Pot Culture Magazine. All rights reserved. This is the property of Pot Culture Magazine and is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. Unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or transmission
of this work, in part or in whole, without the express written permission of Pot Culture Magazine, is strictly
prohibited.F O R T H E C U L T U R E B Y T H E C U L T U R E
The Digital Cage: Saint Lucia’s Traceability Trap
Saint Lucia has selected GrowerIQ as its national seed-to-sale traceability backbone, effectively finalizing a digital surveillance grid for its cannabis industry. By mandating enterprise software before establishing licensing frameworks, the government risks automating the exclusion of legacy farmers. This move trades cultural sovereignty for state-managed control, turning the cannabis industry into an extension of the…
by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsApril 23, 2026April 22, 2026Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s Virginia Sabotage
Virginia legalized possession, but Governor Abigail Spanberger sabotaged the retail market. By delaying sales until 2027 and gutting equity provisions, the Commonwealth institutionalized a half-legal trap. Consumers now navigate a system that treats possession as a right but supply as a crime, fueling an unchecked illicit market while abandoning promised reform. Spanberger’s public safety rhetoric…
by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsApril 21, 2026April 20, 20264/20 has been hollowed out by branding, corporate silence, and a culture that forgot its own history. While the industry sells holiday merch, Singapore executed a man for cannabis. The movement that once fought for autonomy now treats the plant like a commodity. This piece examines the cost of that betrayal and the culture left…
by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsApril 20, 2026April 24, 2026 #280E #AdministrativeLaw #cannabis #CannabisCommunity #CannabisCulture #CannabisCommunity #CarceralState #Culture #DEA #DepartmentOfJustice #DrugWar #FederalGovernment #Industry #Legalization #Marijuana #MarijuanaNews #NORML #Policy #PolicyFiction #PotCultureMagazine #Prohibition #Reform #ScheduleIII #StateSanctioned #Weed -
Cannabis Lies Vol. 9: The Reform Lie
Filed Under: Policy Fiction
The federal apparatus has spoken. The Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration have announced a shift in the regulatory status of cannabis, moving state-licensed medical products to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act while pointedly leaving adult use, unlicensed, and synthetic THC products in Schedule I. Headlines across the country erupted with the language of victory. Outlets hailed this as a historic acknowledgment of the plant’s medical utility, a shift that supposedly recognizes the plant’s reality after decades of denial. The public was told that the prohibition era was entering its twilight and that the federal government had finally conceded that the plant possesses medicinal value.
None of this reflects the actual legal impact of the order. This announcement is the latest manifestation of the Reform Lie. It is a calculated piece of bureaucratic maintenance designed to satisfy the demand for progress while ensuring the core structure of prohibition remains entirely untouched. As Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche stated in the order, the new policy mandates that:
“Marijuana in any form covered by a state medical marijuana license, be placed in Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act.”
It is a classic maneuver by the state to preserve its authority by offering a small, controlled concession that changes everything on paper but leaves the reality of the drug war exactly where it has always been.
The Reform Lie is the mechanism by which the state manages the tension between popular opinion and its own mandate. It functions by acknowledging that a substance has medical value without ever addressing the fundamental injustice of its criminalization. When the government moves a substance from one box to another, it claims it is following the science. When that same government keeps the prisons full, keeps the borders militarized against possession, and keeps the threat of federal intervention hanging over every state-sanctioned interaction, it is not following science. It is managing optics. For decades, the apparatus has faced growing pressure to address the disconnect between federal law and the public reality of cannabis use. Instead of dismantling the structure, the government has repeatedly opted for symbolic reform. These gestures generate cycles of positive press. They allow officials to claim they have acted on the issue. They provide a release valve for public anger without ever sacrificing the underlying authority to arrest, prosecute, and punish. This is the central trick. The Reform Lie presents a change in tax status as a change in morality.
To understand the scope of this deception, one must look closely at what the shift to Schedule III actually achieves. Under the Controlled Substances Act, Schedule III is home to substances such as anabolic steroids and certain prescription painkillers. It is a designation that implies a potential for abuse, though one that the state deems less severe than those in the Schedule I category, which the government defines as having no currently accepted medical use. Moving state-licensed medical products to Schedule III finally acknowledges what has been true for thousands of years. It acknowledges that the plant has medical value.
However, the change in classification does nothing to address the core conflicts of the prohibition era. The federal criminal penalties for the unauthorized production, distribution, or possession of cannabis remain firmly in place for everything outside that narrow, state-sanctioned medical window. The interstate commerce ban survives completely intact. The government continues to treat the transport of the plant across state lines as a federal crime, regardless of the legality of the substance in the states of origin or destination. Banking remains a fractured landscape of private risk and federal oversight. Employment in the federal sector remains hostile to users, and the firearm restrictions that strip rights from medical patients do not budge.
Most critically, this move provides no relief for those currently held in the carceral system. This order structurally excludes any mechanism for record relief, sentence modification, or pardon, leaving the carceral status quo entirely intact. It does not vacate criminal records. It does not end the status of cannabis as a tool for immigration enforcement. It does not stop the random, localized harassment of the population by federal agencies that still view the plant as contraband outside of the narrow, state-licensed framework.
This is a victory for the balance sheet. It is a win for the corporations that have spent millions lobbying for the ability to deduct ordinary business expenses under the tax code. As of April 22, 2026, state-licensed medical cannabis is no longer subject to 280E. It is a stabilization for the industry that the government has deemed acceptable. For the average person, for the patient, and for the citizen who does not operate within the protective bubble of a state-licensed medical program, the reality remains frozen in the past. This bifurcation of the population is intentional. It creates a system where legitimacy is not a right inherent to the citizen. It is a commodity to be licensed. The people who work within the sanctioned industry are protected, taxed, and monitored. The people who exist outside of that bubble, who grow their own, who share, or who live in states without functional medical programs, are left to the mercy of a law that has not changed. The government has not legalized the plant. It has simply professionalized the privilege of interacting with it.
This strategy is not new. It follows a consistent historical pattern. In every generation, the state has used cannabis policy as a messaging tool to address shifting cultural demands. This is not about the plant. It is about the maintenance of control. The lineage of this deception is long and well-documented.
Consider the era of the Gateway Lie. The government needed a way to justify the expansion of its police power, so it framed the plant as the first step on a path to hard drug use. This narrative was never about safety. It was about creating a bridge between a benign cultural habit and the perceived chaos of the heroin epidemic. It gave law enforcement a justification to monitor, harass, and incarcerate individuals who were otherwise peaceful. The Gateway Lie was effective because it operated on fear. It suggested that a single act of consumption was a moral failing that would lead inevitably to destruction.
Consider the Crime Lie, where the plant was the supposed accelerant for violence. In the 1980s and 1990s, the state pivoted to a narrative of aggression. It claimed that cannabis use caused psychosis and fueled the drug trade. It used this narrative to justify the militarization of police forces, the introduction of civil asset forfeiture, and the explosion of the prison population. The Crime Lie turned the consumer into a danger to the public, a threat that had to be neutralized by the full weight of the judicial system. It was never about the drug. It was about the expansion of the carceral state.
Consider the Teen Epidemic Lie, where the narrative focused on the alleged destruction of youth, or the Addiction Lie, which served to pathologize a human relationship with a plant. Each of these lies served a purpose. They provided the state with the moral cover required to expand surveillance, increase budgets, and exert control. The Reform Lie is simply the modern evolution of this pattern. The state no longer needs to argue that the plant causes violence, because the public no longer believes it. So, the state shifts the narrative. It pivots to the language of regulation. It claims to be fixing the system. It is a retreat, but it is a managed retreat. The goal remains the same, which is to maintain the state’s position as the final arbiter of what a person can put into their own body.
The most devastating impact of the Reform Lie is the erasure of the human cost. When the headlines celebrate a minor technical shift, they drown out the voices of those who continue to suffer under the full weight of prohibition. The Reform Lie tells the prisoner that their incarceration is necessary because they did not have the right paperwork. It tells the immigrant that their status remains precarious because the federal law still views the plant as an illicit substance. It tells the veteran that they must choose between their medical treatment and their access to federal services. It tells the small grower that they are a criminal while the corporate entity next door is a taxpayer. By focusing on the tax status of corporations, the conversation ignores the individuals who are still being processed through the system. It creates an environment where progress is measured by market capitalization rather than the restoration of liberty. It turns the struggle for sovereignty into a fight for market share.
Help Keep Pot Culture Magazine Independent Pot Culture Magazine is independent cannabis journalism. No corporate owners. No investors. Just readers. If you value this work, chip in a few dollars and help keep it going. Support PCMIf the government acknowledges that cannabis has medical value, the continued maintenance of criminal penalties for everyone else becomes an indefensible moral contradiction. One cannot simultaneously argue that a substance is legitimate medicine and that the possession of that substance warrants the stripping of rights, the loss of employment, or the threat of prison. This contradiction exposes the truth of the state position. The government does not actually care about the safety of the substance. It cares about the control of the substance. If it were about safety, the state would be looking for ways to educate rather than incarcerate. If it were about medicine, the state would be ensuring access rather than creating barriers. The existence of the prohibition machinery alongside the admission of medical utility for the licensed few is proof that the objective has always been to maintain a system of punishment.
This system relies on the compliance of the public. It relies on the belief that the state is making progress. The Reform Lie is designed to prevent the public from seeing that the state is not moving toward freedom. It is moving toward an integrated model of control. By allowing a portion of the market to become legitimate, the state creates a vested interest in the status quo. The corporate entities that now have a seat at the table are no longer incentivized to fight for total legalization. They are incentivized to maintain the current regulatory structure because it keeps their competitors out. They become partners in the enforcement of the very prohibition they once railed against. This is the ultimate victory for the state. It co-opts the opposition by giving them a slice of the profit.
We have seen this happen in other sectors of the economy, where regulations are written by the very corporations they are meant to govern. This is not reform. This is the capture of the regulatory apparatus. The Reform Lie ensures that the people who built the culture, who fought for the plant when it was dangerous to do so, are excluded from the new order. They are the ones who bear the cost of the transition. They are the ones who are still in cages, who are still fleeing from the law, who are still fighting for the right to exist in peace.
This administrative process is now set to continue with new hearings starting June 29, 2026. These proceedings are often portrayed as a necessary step toward further reform, a way to build a bureaucratic consensus for future changes. In practice, they serve as a stalling tactic. They provide a way for the administrative state to maintain the illusion of progress while keeping the ultimate authority firmly in its own hands. These hearings will involve experts, lobbyists, and officials debating the minutiae of regulation, all while the fundamental structure of the Controlled Substances Act remains unassailable. The system is designed to consume time, resources, and energy, ensuring that any real change is mediated through a process that the state can control, slow, or halt entirely. It is a theatre of governance, performed for an audience that is desperate for change, but the script was written in the halls of power, not by the people who have lived the consequences of prohibition.
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by Pot Culture Magazine EditorsMarch 28, 2026March 27, 2026The administrative state is also moving to consolidate its control over clinical trials. By creating a registration pathway for state-licensed entities, the government is essentially seizing control of the research process. It is setting itself up as the gatekeeper of scientific knowledge. It will dictate who can research the plant, what they can research, and what the results can be used for. This is not an opening of the doors to scientific discovery. It is the enclosure of the scientific commons. It ensures that the research that reaches the public will be the research that has been filtered through the priorities of the state.
The Reform Lie is not a strategy. It is an admission of failure. When the government chooses to perform the act of reform without embracing the reality of justice, it proves that it is not interested in the truth. It is interested in the maintenance of power. True reform would not be a shuffling of schedules. It would be the total and unconditional withdrawal of federal interference from the lives of the people. It would be the recognition that the state has no authority to criminalize the relationship between a human being and a plant. It would be the end of the prohibition machine, the release of the prisoners, and the restoration of rights for every person affected by the war on the plant.
As long as the apparatus continues to frame these technical shifts as moral victories, the public must recognize the deception. This is not progress. This is the state recalibrating its control to ensure that it remains the gatekeeper, the tax collector, and the final judge of who is allowed to exist in the world it seeks to dominate. The plant remains the same. The people remain the same. The only thing that has shifted is the label on the cage. The cage is still there. The bars are still locked. The guards are still watching. The power to punish, to threaten, and to control has not been removed. It has been refined. It has been made more surgical. It has been made more efficient.
The moral weight of this lie is heavy. It falls on those who have been promised justice and received only a change in terminology. It falls on the families who have been broken by the enforcement of archaic laws. It falls on the communities that have been targeted for generations. The Reform Lie assumes that the public has forgotten the history of the struggle. It assumes that the public is satisfied with the crumbs of corporate legitimacy. It assumes that there is no understanding of the difference between the freedom to live and the permission to serve.
The narrative of the state must be rejected. The recognition must grow that every small step that leaves the core structure of the prohibition machine in place is a step away from justice. The government must be held accountable for the contradiction of its own law. The reality of the prohibition era must continue to be documented, to expose the lies that are told to justify the control, and to advocate for the total restoration of liberty. The struggle for the plant is not a struggle for a change in status. It is a struggle for the soul of the culture. It is a struggle to define what it means to be a free person in a society that seeks to regulate every choice. As NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano noted regarding the order:
“Rescheduling fails to fully harmonize federal marijuana policy with the cannabis laws of many states, particularly the 24 states that have legalized its use and sale to adults.”
This is the core of the deception. The Reform Lie is the latest barrier to that freedom. It is a wall that must be dismantled, not by the government, but by the people who have lived the reality of the struggle.
The truth is simple, though the state works hard to obscure it. Cannabis is a part of the human experience. It has been used for healing, for creativity, for connection, and for joy for as long as historical records exist. The attempts by the state to control this relationship are an affront to human autonomy. They are based on fear, on ignorance, and on a desire for power. The reclassification to Schedule III is just the latest tactic in a long campaign to prevent people from fully embracing their own sovereignty. While the proponents of this move claim that:
“Today’s order marks a historical reversal in federal cannabis policy,”
It is a sign that the state is feeling the pressure, that it knows its position is untenable, but that it is not yet ready to concede.
A crossroads has been reached. Either the crumbs offered by the state are accepted, turning the public into participants in their own regulation, or the fight for the total and unconditional end of the prohibition machine continues. The Reform Lie can be accepted, or the truth can be demanded. The history of the culture is a history of resistance. It is a history of people who refused to be told what they could do, who they could be, or what they could consume. That history is the source of strength. It is the foundation upon which the future will be built. Permission from the state is not required to exist. Schedules, labels, and tax codes are not needed to define what is right. The truth is known, and it will continue to be shared until the last cage is empty and the prohibition machine is nothing but a memory.
The Reform Lie will continue to be told. The headlines will continue to scream about progress that does not exist. The state will continue to frame its maintenance of power as a move toward justice. But the deception will not hold. The patterns are visible. The history is known. The stakes are understood. The reality of the prohibition era will be documented, one article, one story, one voice at a time. This is not just a battle for a plant. It is a battle for the truth. And it is a battle that will be won, not because the state gives permission, but because the truth is on the side of the people. The prohibition machine is built on lies, and lies cannot stand forever against the weight of reality. The end of prohibition is coming, not through the actions of the state, but through the resolve of the people who have been fighting for it all along. The Reform Lie is the last gasp of a system that knows its time is over. We will not be fooled. We will not be silenced. We will be here, documenting the reality, telling the truth, and fighting for the culture until the day the plant is free.
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Barcodes, library slips, bookworms, and book deliveries in “Whisper of the Heart”
Shizuku’s father is a librarian in this film. He later says that he would like the card catalogs to stay too, like her.When I watched Whisper of the Heart, a romantic drama anime film which came out over 29 years ago (on July 15, 1995), on Max, I never expected that libraries, and librarians would be such a central part of the film! I was aware that the film was listed on Jennifer Snoek-Brown’s list of “Foreign-Language Films” on Reel Librarians. The latter list notes films reportedly with librarians and/or archivists alphabetically by title”. She warns that she can’t confirm that “every film on this list actually includes a librarian and/or archivist” as her primary focus is on examining English-language films. While that is a laudable goal, I don’t limit myself in that way, personally, and happily cover anime on this blog time and again. In fact, I have written about over 70 anime series, four films, and various manga, with my first post in August 2020. [1] This review will focus on the role of libraries, and librarians like the protagonist’s father, in the story, while relating it to other fictional examples and real-life library concepts.
One of the first conversations in the film is between the 14-year-old protagonist Shizuku Tsukishima, living in the Tokyo suburb of Tama New Town, who learns the local library is going to the bar code system, and her father. She tells him that she likes the library slips instead. He actually agrees with her, but decides to go with the library’s change anyhow. Thanks to the library slip, she learns that one man’s name is in common on all the books she has checked out: Seiji Amasawa. This piques her interest. This major plot point is mentioned in many summaries and reviews of the film, noting that Seiji is on every single one of these checkout slips and how she is slowly drawn to him as the film goes forward, with their feelings growing. Shizuku is also drawn toward these books because she loves fantasy books, and meets Seiji at an old antique shop somewhere in town. Other reviewers have noted that the checkout cards are an interesting narrative device, which “lends itself well to romantic daydreaming.” It is worth noting that Shizuku is spending his summer vacation, last one she has at Mukaihara Junior High School, translating and reading “popular foreign music into Japanese” like John Denver’s Country Road. [2]
At one point, Shizuku checks a book out of the library, which was never checked out before, and even though she somewhat ends up disturbing the job of the librarian (or the teacher standing in as a librarian), she comes across Seiji. Then, not longer after, he is curiously reading the book she checked out and she takes it from him, surprised to see him. And he even knows her name from the book. So much for reader’s privacy! Although some may see a sense of relief and kinship at seeing these library check-out cards, looking at these cards would run afoul of existing ethics, as outlined by the ALA. Those ethics state that libraries will “protect each library user’s right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted.”
Such cards are sometimes known as borrowing cards. They had/have an equivalent inside the library: a circulation card. Such cards may include the name of who borrowed the book and name of the book. There are also slips/cards which remain in a book only listing the date a book is due to be returned, known as date due slips. I’m not sure why I haven’t gone into this much detail on this before, but better late than never. In the case of this film, it would be a borrowing card, rather than a date due slip, which was stuck in the back of book, and then the book would be shelved, a way to record who borrowed a book before computer systems supplanted this system. Paper can still be used in today’s libraries, even to write down call numbers for books. The latter has also been shown in the films Dangerous Minds and Regarding Henry.
I am reminded of a scene in All the President’s Men, in which Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein go to the Library of Congress, and a Black male librarian gives them the slips for who checked out certain books, as opposed to an interaction with a White female librarian. I described this all in a post on this very blog in February of last year:
…In the classic 1976 political thriller, All the President’s Men, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein travel to the Library of Congress after their research seems to be stalled and having a librarian have a strange conversation with one them. They go to one librarian, who declares that the records they want are confidential, and that he can’t fulfill their request of library card checkout slips since July 1971. The other, the image of which is shown above, fulfills their request. Voiced by Jaye Stewart, he tells them “I’m not sure you want ’em, but I’ve got ’em.” Woodward and Bernstein proceed to go through perhaps thousands of check-out slips in the Reading Room of the Library of Congress. Unfortunately, the work is for naught, as it doesn’t confirm if a White House staffer checked out books on Ted Kennedy…Snoek-Brown…[said] hat it is not ethical to “give out checkout slips or records without a court order” as librarians have an “obligation to protect the privacy rights of our patrons.” I agree with Snoek-Brown entirely on that point
Coming back to the film, I would think that such borrowing cards would weaken the commitment of the library to reader confidentiality. As it presently stands, almost every U.S. state has laws “protecting the confidentiality of library records”. The Japan Library Association in a statement published in 1980, states that librarians should respect the privacy of each library user, and should not “divulge his/her name or details of books or other library materials used to third parties”. A more recent statement notes library privacy and confidentiality, among other virtues, as important. This film came out before the economic downturn in Japan, in 1997, which unfortunately lead to privatization of libraries through “outsourcing of staff to reduce costs and provide a flexible workforce”, with privacy of user information is at stake because private management companies are “not obligated to protect users’ privacy and routinely gather their data”. [3]
Shizuku says card catalogs are better than digital recordsMoving on from that, and back to the film, Shizuku soon follows a cat to an antique shop and is drawn to a cat statue named Baron Humbert von Gikkingen, with the shop’s owner, Nishi, telling her about him. She barely makes it to the library in time, is annoyed by Seiji, and is embarrassed in the process, as he delivers “her” lunch for her, with the fat cat (she had followed to the shop) riding on the back of the bike. The lunch is actually for her dad, who works in the library! This library is a fictional place created for the film itself, as no such library exists at that location (Irohazaka Sakura Park). [4]
This fantastical nature of the library is not unique. However, this library is more akin to something that exists in reality, rather than in a magical realm by itself. This makes the series unique. Surely, there are public libraries akin to those in real-life in Josee the Tiger and the Fish or I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, to give two examples, apart from the many within school buildings that I’ve often written about. This library is clearly a place of knowledge, but it is not a place or refuge. Rather, it is a place of learning and development.
As the movie goes on, Shizuku learns who donated a book at the library: the father of Seiji. She is later called a “bookworm”, which she accepts happily. After all, she often goes to the library, a fantasy reportedly depicted in The Cat Returns, a 2002 film. She takes out books in the public library, so she can learn more for her story. At one point, she remains one of the last people there, writing away, and Seiji visits her in the library, while she writes her story. As a writer, she becomes more than a bookworm, and Seiji is more than a novice violin maker. Both characters are not exceptional, but have proven that they have what it takes to ensure their work can become “exceptional”, with their romance blossoming by the film’s end, even without a kiss. [5]
There is much more to this film than what I’ve noted so far and ending the article here would be selling it short, to say the least. For Shizuku to be called a bookworm as an insult, and turning it into a positive, is not limited to this film. There is an entire series entitled Ascendance of a Bookworm, which focuses on Myne and her quest to provide free books to the populace, building her previous life as a college librarian. In his quest, she even becomes a church librarian with some magical powers. The series has even been cited as an example of when an outsider from another world “usher systematic change in their adopted one.” The term was even alluded to in the series Bibliophile Princess, as a bibliophile, someone who frequently reads or collects books, and loves books, is also known as a bookworm. Bibliophile appears more “positive.”
Otherwise, there was a British comic from 1978-1985 entitled Bookworm about a young boy who always has a book and his parents tell him to do more “boyish” things, but it results in disaster. There’s also an 1850 painting entitled The Bookworm by Carl Spitzweg. A variation of this piece was even named The Librarian! Pu Songling published a romantic short story, in about 1740, entitled The Bookworm, while there are characters known as bookworms in Tiny Toon Adventures and most infamously in the campy 1960s Batman series. There are many other bookworms in fiction, like in Wonder Man (1945), Navy Blues (1937), and even Wong in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to an extent.
There is also the Association internationale de bibliophilie, which is called International Association of Bibliophiles or AIB in English. It is dedicated to bibliophiles. Russia has its National Union of Bibliophiles (formed in 2010), while there are is a book club in Detroit, a former group for female bibliophiles (Hroswitha Club), and the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles. There is even a 15-minute film, which I haven’t seen, entitled The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, about a man who is writing his memoir, but is blown off a balcony, writing out of a library,and even becomes a librarian with the city suffering from impact of a storm. There’s also books such as The Great Book-Collectors about book-collecting practices of the British Library, Bodleian Library, and Ashmolean Museum, along with a physical archive named Library of the Printed Web dedicated to “web-to-print artists’ books, zines and other printout matter.”
All of this is related to the concept of tsundoku, which means acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in your home without actually reading them. It can refer to books ready for reading later, as well, when those books are on a bookshelf. It is related to what A. Edward Newton wrote about in 1921, and stands in opposition to the term antilibrary. The latter, coined by Lebanese-American author Nassim Nicholas Taleb means a “collection of unread books”, which make people curious and humble. [6] He further stated that the older someone gets, the more they know, the larger is their “accumulation of unread books” and those who focus on such unread books are antischolars, i.e. those who do not “care about how much you know, but how much you don’t know” and how to find information you need.
When it comes to libraries, I would think people would side more with idea of antilibrary than the idea of tsundoku, as the latter seems to imply that having unread books is “bad.” Having books you haven’t read should not be seen as a negative. It is inevitable there will be books you haven’t read in your lifetime, no matter what. And libraries hold the books so they can be read by others, and shared, to spread knowledge, and understanding. This doesn’t mean that every book is right, immutable, or correct. Rather, the books can help you understand more about the world, at their best, and at their worst, promote misinformation. The latter can be prevented with careful weeding to ensure that patrons have the best information available.
Shizuku is studying in the library with a stack of books sitting on the table next to her. The man she likes is across the table from her, I believe.As I’ve noted on this blog various times, libraries serve many important functions in society. One of those is providing a place to study. This is shown clearly, as indicated in the above screenshot. You don’t have to be a bibliophile/bookworm for that. In fact, not all bookworms are librarians, and not all librarians are bookworms. Some are, but due to the many tasks during the work-day, often librarians don’t have time to read a book on the job, as some people might think.
When it comes to Japan, I’ve noted this before on here, but there are over 3,000 public libraries in this island nation, and remain an important part of the country’s society. In fact, there is even an entire Wikipedia page listing them, entitled “List of libraries in Japan” (not to be confused with the page “List of archives in Japan“). Some probably still have card catalogs. These libraries, known as toshokan in Japanese, are centered by the National Diet Library. The only series, I know, to date to directly feature this library is 26-episode early 2000s R.O.D. the TV anime series, which features characters from the Read or Die light novels, manga, and OVA, and the Read or Dream manga.
Academics have noted that information commons/learning commons which provide various materials, facilities, and services, in one place, originally appearing in North America, has also appeared in Japanese universities and college. Such spaces are reportedly in an ” the early stage of development”, and there is a need for such spaces to rebuild their own services because of student needs. Furthermore, many libraries in pre-modern Japan were arguably private and have been called bunko, meaning “storehouses of books.” Currently, most have been subsumed into larger national, prefectural, university, or research library institutions. Some have even covered this in books such as Youth-Serving Libraries in Japan, Russia, and the United States.
It is also said that Japanese academic libraries are well-resourced and support the country’s research capacity, while reflecting the country’s “strong bureaucratic culture.” I’m not sure if this is also the case for the country’s public libraries as well, to be perfectly honest. I can say, with certainty, that libraries are an important part of the country, especially considering that the Imperial Library (forerunner to the National Diet Library) was established in the latter 19th century, and in 1947, the National Library Act created Japan’s sole national library (National Diet Library). This was followed by the landmark 1950 Library Act. The law states, in part, that the country’s libraries are aimed to promoting “sound development…[and] the enhancement of the education and culture of the nation”. It goes onto say:
…libraries shall endeavor to accomplish…[collection of] nooks, archives, audio-visual materials and other necessary data and materials…with suitable attention paid to the acquisition of local materials, art works, materials on local administration, gramophone records and films…library materials shall be properly classified and processed…efforts shall be made to ensure that library personnel acquire sufficient knowledge of library matters…close communication and cooperation shall be maintained by…inter-library loans between libraries…reading circles, seminars, appreciation groups, film showings and exhibits of data…shall be sponsored and encouraged…close contact and cooperation shall be maintained with schools, museums, community centers and research institutes, etc….professional personnel of libraries shall be called librarians and assistant librarians.
And that’s only part of Chapter 1! There is no comparison to this in U.S. law. The legislation, which passed the U.S. Congress in April 1800 (see page 56), only mentioned that the purchase of books “as may be necessary for the use of Congress at the said city of Washington, and for fitting up a suitable apartment for containing them and for placing them therein, the sum of five thousand dollars shall be…appropriated.” That same law went onto say that a library catalogue shall be furnished by a joint congressional committee, with books “placed in one suitable apartment in the capitol in the said city, for the use of both…houses of Congress and the members thereof”. That is it. It wasn’t until 1802 that a law defined the functions and role of this library, the Library of Congress (LOC), and even made the appointment of the Librarian of Congress a “presidential responsibility”! Still, this was nothing like the Library Law in Japan, which was much more extensive.
Such a law in the U.S, would be unthinkable, even at this current time, despite the fact it could have extreme value in ensuring the institution’s mission and objectives. On the other hand, LOC has broadly defined that on its own, and has a bit of autonomy, as it is only the de facto national library. This makes it different from the many across the world, coupled with any state-established libraries serving as preeminent information repositories for specific regions.
When I watched Whisper of the Heart on Max, with my mom and dad, I never expected libraries to be as big of a part of the film from the get-go. I am truly grateful that I came across this film, and would surely watch it again if I get a chance. That;s all for this post. Until next week! As always, comments are welcome.
Shizuku looks at library slips and finding out some man checked the SAME book out before her© 2023-2024 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.
Notes
[1] Since then, I’ve written about (I don’t recommend you watch all of these, though, and some of the following I would not watch again) over 80 anime series: Revolutionary Girl Utena, Wandering Son, Ice, Kuttsukiboshi, Paradise Kiss, Macross Frontier, Classroom of the Elite, Gargantia, Kandagawa Jet Girls, El-Hazard, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, Ascendance of a Bookworm, R.O.D. the TV, B Gata H Kei, Bloom Into You, Little Witch Academia, Yamibou, Whispered Words, Aoi Hana / Sweet Blue Flowers, Strawberry Panic!, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Manaria Friends, Kampfer, Lapis Re:Lights, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Blue Drop, The Mystic Archives of Dantalian, Cardcaptor Sakura, Venus vs. Virus, Otherside Picnic, My-Hime, Simoun, Riddle Story of Devil, Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood, Dear Brother, Library War, Girl Friend Beta, Kokoro Library, Attack on Titan, Let’s Make a Mug Too, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra, Bernard-jou Iwaku a.k.a. Miss Bernard said, Komi Can’t Communicate, The Ancient Magus Bride: Those Awaiting a Star, Gosick, Laid-Back Camp, As Miss Beelzebub Likes, Bibliophile Princess, Love Live! Sunshine!!, Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie, My Roommate is a Cat, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, Kin-iro Mosaic, Akebi’s Sailor Uniform, Makura no Danshi, Azumanga Daioh, Oresuki, Seitokai Yakuindomo, Gabriel DropOut, Spy x Family, A Couple of Cuckoos, Märchen Mädchen, Healer Girl, Smile of the Arsnotoria the Animation, Smile Pretty Cure!/Glitter Force, A Good Librarian Like a Good Shepard, A Place Further Than The Universe, Teasing Master Takagi-san, Myself ; Yourself, Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War, Stars Align, Tokyo Mew Mew New, Skip and Loafer, Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Violet Evergarden, Somali and the Forest Spirit, Aharen-San wa Hakarenai, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, Chitose Got You, Clannad, Cue!, Encouragement to Climb: Next Summit, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Gabriel Drop Out, Kin-iro Mosaic, K-On!, Noir, Otherside Picnic, The Rising of the Shield Hero, and Re:Zero, and four films: I Want To Eat Your Pancreas, Calamity of a Zombie Girl, Your Name, and Josee, the Tiger and the Fish. Later posts this year will focus on series such as Ouran High School Host Club, Is the Order a Rabbit?, Kiss Him, Not Me, The Demon Girl Next Door, The Executioner and Her Way of Life, YuruYuri, Library War, Maria Watches Over Us, Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka, and Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (Haruka Nogizaka’s Secret), to name a few.
[2] “Whisper of the Heart,” IFC Center, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Russo, Lee. “How Whisper of the Heart Explores the Fear of Failure,” CBR, Jun. 13, 2020; Graeme. “The Best Films I’ve Ever Seen: Whisper of the Heart,” Film School Rejects, Jun. 15, 2018; “Whisper of the Heart,” Studio Ghibli, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Faith. “Whisper of the Heart,” Studio Ghibli Movies, Nov. 28, 2014; Toole, Michael. “Whisper of the Heart Blu-Ray + DVD Review,” Anime News Network, Nov. 29, 2014; Osmond, Andrew. “Whisper of the Heart Review,” Anime News Network, Jan. 11, 2012; Mindus, Jay. “Why Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart Is the Perfect Movie for Young Artists,” CBR, May 12, 2022; “Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba),” Harvard Film Archive, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Cyrenne, Randall. “Whisper Of The Heart,” Animated Views, Mar. 7, 2006.
[3] Alix, Francis A. “The History and Current Challenges of Libraries in Japan,” SLIS Connectings 10(1): 10.
[4] Graeme, “The Best Films I’ve Ever Seen: Whisper of the Heart,” 2018; Toole, “Whisper of the Heart Blu-Ray + DVD Review,” 2014; Osmond, “Whisper of the Heart Review,” 2012; “Tracing Shizuku’s Steps: Visit ‘Whisper of the Heart’ Locations in Real Life,” tsunagu Japan, accessed Jun. 7, 2023; “Visiting ‘Whisper of the Heart’ Movie Location,” justa-fangirl, 2014.
[5] “Whisper of the Heart,” Ghibli Wiki, accessed Jun. 7, 2023; Cyrenne, “Whisper Of The Heart,” 2006; “Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba,” Harvard Film Archive; Mindus, “Why Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart Is the Perfect Movie for Young Artists,” 2022; Pineda, Rafael Antonio. “Live-Action Whisper of the Heart Sequel Film Delayed Due to COVID-19,” Anime News Network, Apr. 20, 2020. The live-action sequel, also named Whisper of the Heart came out in October 2022 in Japan, but it was received badly if the reviews from Japan Times and Crunchyroll listed on the “Whisper of the Heart (2022 film)” Wikipedia page are any indication. Apparently, there is even a library scene in the film. I haven’t watched the film, so I can’t confirm that completely, however.
[6] Brooks, Katherine. “There’s A Japanese Word For People Who Buy More Books Than They Can Actually Read,” HuffPost, Apr. 19, 2017; Tobar, Hector, “Are you a book hoarder? There’s a word for that,” Los Angeles Times, Jul. 24, 2014; “Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them,” BBC News, Jul. 29, 2018; Crow, Jonathan. “‘Tsundoku,’ the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the English Language,” Open Culture, Jul. 24, 2014; “A QUOTE ON BIBLIOMANIA,” Language Hat, Feb. 7, 2008; Popova, Maria. “Umberto Eco’s Antilibrary: Why Unread Books Are More Valuable to Our Lives than Read Ones,” The Marginalian, Mar. 24, 2015; Stillman, Jessica. “Why You Should Surround Yourself With More Books Than You’ll Ever Have Time to Read,” Inc., Dec. 5, 2017; McDonough, Lauren Smith. “Everyone Is Obsessed With the Trend of Antilibraries Right Now,” House Beautiful, Dec. 19, 2017; Boyd, Rebecca Lowry. “The book trend everyone is talking about right now,” Better Homes & Gardens, accessed Jun. 27, 2023.
#AllThePresidentSMen #AnimeNewsNetwork #antilibrary #AscendanceOfABookworm #barcodes #BibliophilePrincess #bibliophilia #BlackLibrarians #BlackWomen #BluRays #books #booksAreNotSacred #ethics #femaleLibrarians #IWantToEatYourPancreas #JapaneseLibrarians #JapaneseMen #JapanesePatrons #JoseeTheTigerAndTheFish #KOn #libraryCards #librarySlips #magic #NationalDietLibrary #NavyBluesFilm #RODTheTV #ReadOrDieLightNovels #ReadOrDieManga #ReadOrDieOVA #ReadOrDream #readerConfidentiality #ReelLibrarians #SeitokaiYakuindomo #Simoun #students #studying #teachers #TheCatReturns #tsundoku #WhisperOfTheHeart #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteWomen
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Barcodes, library slips, bookworms, and book deliveries in “Whisper of the Heart”
Shizuku’s father is a librarian in this film. He later says that he would like the card catalogs to stay too, like her.When I watched Whisper of the Heart, a romantic drama anime film which came out over 29 years ago (on July 15, 1995), on Max, I never expected that libraries, and librarians would be such a central part of the film! I was aware that the film was listed on Jennifer Snoek-Brown’s list of “Foreign-Language Films” on Reel Librarians. The latter list notes films reportedly with librarians and/or archivists alphabetically by title”. She warns that she can’t confirm that “every film on this list actually includes a librarian and/or archivist” as her primary focus is on examining English-language films. While that is a laudable goal, I don’t limit myself in that way, personally, and happily cover anime on this blog time and again. In fact, I have written about over 70 anime series, four films, and various manga, with my first post in August 2020. [1] This review will focus on the role of libraries, and librarians like the protagonist’s father, in the story, while relating it to other fictional examples and real-life library concepts.
One of the first conversations in the film is between the 14-year-old protagonist Shizuku Tsukishima, living in the Tokyo suburb of Tama New Town, who learns the local library is going to the bar code system, and her father. She tells him that she likes the library slips instead. He actually agrees with her, but decides to go with the library’s change anyhow. Thanks to the library slip, she learns that one man’s name is in common on all the books she has checked out: Seiji Amasawa. This piques her interest. This major plot point is mentioned in many summaries and reviews of the film, noting that Seiji is on every single one of these checkout slips and how she is slowly drawn to him as the film goes forward, with their feelings growing. Shizuku is also drawn toward these books because she loves fantasy books, and meets Seiji at an old antique shop somewhere in town. Other reviewers have noted that the checkout cards are an interesting narrative device, which “lends itself well to romantic daydreaming.” It is worth noting that Shizuku is spending his summer vacation, last one she has at Mukaihara Junior High School, translating and reading “popular foreign music into Japanese” like John Denver’s Country Road. [2]
At one point, Shizuku checks a book out of the library, which was never checked out before, and even though she somewhat ends up disturbing the job of the librarian (or the teacher standing in as a librarian), she comes across Seiji. Then, not longer after, he is curiously reading the book she checked out and she takes it from him, surprised to see him. And he even knows her name from the book. So much for reader’s privacy! Although some may see a sense of relief and kinship at seeing these library check-out cards, looking at these cards would run afoul of existing ethics, as outlined by the ALA. Those ethics state that libraries will “protect each library user’s right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted.”
Such cards are sometimes known as borrowing cards. They had/have an equivalent inside the library: a circulation card. Such cards may include the name of who borrowed the book and name of the book. There are also slips/cards which remain in a book only listing the date a book is due to be returned, known as date due slips. I’m not sure why I haven’t gone into this much detail on this before, but better late than never. In the case of this film, it would be a borrowing card, rather than a date due slip, which was stuck in the back of book, and then the book would be shelved, a way to record who borrowed a book before computer systems supplanted this system. Paper can still be used in today’s libraries, even to write down call numbers for books. The latter has also been shown in the films Dangerous Minds and Regarding Henry.
I am reminded of a scene in All the President’s Men, in which Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein go to the Library of Congress, and a Black male librarian gives them the slips for who checked out certain books, as opposed to an interaction with a White female librarian. I described this all in a post on this very blog in February of last year:
…In the classic 1976 political thriller, All the President’s Men, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein travel to the Library of Congress after their research seems to be stalled and having a librarian have a strange conversation with one them. They go to one librarian, who declares that the records they want are confidential, and that he can’t fulfill their request of library card checkout slips since July 1971. The other, the image of which is shown above, fulfills their request. Voiced by Jaye Stewart, he tells them “I’m not sure you want ’em, but I’ve got ’em.” Woodward and Bernstein proceed to go through perhaps thousands of check-out slips in the Reading Room of the Library of Congress. Unfortunately, the work is for naught, as it doesn’t confirm if a White House staffer checked out books on Ted Kennedy…Snoek-Brown…[said] hat it is not ethical to “give out checkout slips or records without a court order” as librarians have an “obligation to protect the privacy rights of our patrons.” I agree with Snoek-Brown entirely on that point
Coming back to the film, I would think that such borrowing cards would weaken the commitment of the library to reader confidentiality. As it presently stands, almost every U.S. state has laws “protecting the confidentiality of library records”. The Japan Library Association in a statement published in 1980, states that librarians should respect the privacy of each library user, and should not “divulge his/her name or details of books or other library materials used to third parties”. A more recent statement notes library privacy and confidentiality, among other virtues, as important. This film came out before the economic downturn in Japan, in 1997, which unfortunately lead to privatization of libraries through “outsourcing of staff to reduce costs and provide a flexible workforce”, with privacy of user information is at stake because private management companies are “not obligated to protect users’ privacy and routinely gather their data”. [3]
Shizuku says card catalogs are better than digital recordsMoving on from that, and back to the film, Shizuku soon follows a cat to an antique shop and is drawn to a cat statue named Baron Humbert von Gikkingen, with the shop’s owner, Nishi, telling her about him. She barely makes it to the library in time, is annoyed by Seiji, and is embarrassed in the process, as he delivers “her” lunch for her, with the fat cat (she had followed to the shop) riding on the back of the bike. The lunch is actually for her dad, who works in the library! This library is a fictional place created for the film itself, as no such library exists at that location (Irohazaka Sakura Park). [4]
This fantastical nature of the library is not unique. However, this library is more akin to something that exists in reality, rather than in a magical realm by itself. This makes the series unique. Surely, there are public libraries akin to those in real-life in Josee the Tiger and the Fish or I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, to give two examples, apart from the many within school buildings that I’ve often written about. This library is clearly a place of knowledge, but it is not a place or refuge. Rather, it is a place of learning and development.
As the movie goes on, Shizuku learns who donated a book at the library: the father of Seiji. She is later called a “bookworm”, which she accepts happily. After all, she often goes to the library, a fantasy reportedly depicted in The Cat Returns, a 2002 film. She takes out books in the public library, so she can learn more for her story. At one point, she remains one of the last people there, writing away, and Seiji visits her in the library, while she writes her story. As a writer, she becomes more than a bookworm, and Seiji is more than a novice violin maker. Both characters are not exceptional, but have proven that they have what it takes to ensure their work can become “exceptional”, with their romance blossoming by the film’s end, even without a kiss. [5]
There is much more to this film than what I’ve noted so far and ending the article here would be selling it short, to say the least. For Shizuku to be called a bookworm as an insult, and turning it into a positive, is not limited to this film. There is an entire series entitled Ascendance of a Bookworm, which focuses on Myne and her quest to provide free books to the populace, building her previous life as a college librarian. In his quest, she even becomes a church librarian with some magical powers. The series has even been cited as an example of when an outsider from another world “usher systematic change in their adopted one.” The term was even alluded to in the series Bibliophile Princess, as a bibliophile, someone who frequently reads or collects books, and loves books, is also known as a bookworm. Bibliophile appears more “positive.”
Otherwise, there was a British comic from 1978-1985 entitled Bookworm about a young boy who always has a book and his parents tell him to do more “boyish” things, but it results in disaster. There’s also an 1850 painting entitled The Bookworm by Carl Spitzweg. A variation of this piece was even named The Librarian! Pu Songling published a romantic short story, in about 1740, entitled The Bookworm, while there are characters known as bookworms in Tiny Toon Adventures and most infamously in the campy 1960s Batman series. There are many other bookworms in fiction, like in Wonder Man (1945), Navy Blues (1937), and even Wong in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to an extent.
There is also the Association internationale de bibliophilie, which is called International Association of Bibliophiles or AIB in English. It is dedicated to bibliophiles. Russia has its National Union of Bibliophiles (formed in 2010), while there are is a book club in Detroit, a former group for female bibliophiles (Hroswitha Club), and the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles. There is even a 15-minute film, which I haven’t seen, entitled The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, about a man who is writing his memoir, but is blown off a balcony, writing out of a library,and even becomes a librarian with the city suffering from impact of a storm. There’s also books such as The Great Book-Collectors about book-collecting practices of the British Library, Bodleian Library, and Ashmolean Museum, along with a physical archive named Library of the Printed Web dedicated to “web-to-print artists’ books, zines and other printout matter.”
All of this is related to the concept of tsundoku, which means acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in your home without actually reading them. It can refer to books ready for reading later, as well, when those books are on a bookshelf. It is related to what A. Edward Newton wrote about in 1921, and stands in opposition to the term antilibrary. The latter, coined by Lebanese-American author Nassim Nicholas Taleb means a “collection of unread books”, which make people curious and humble. [6] He further stated that the older someone gets, the more they know, the larger is their “accumulation of unread books” and those who focus on such unread books are antischolars, i.e. those who do not “care about how much you know, but how much you don’t know” and how to find information you need.
When it comes to libraries, I would think people would side more with idea of antilibrary than the idea of tsundoku, as the latter seems to imply that having unread books is “bad.” Having books you haven’t read should not be seen as a negative. It is inevitable there will be books you haven’t read in your lifetime, no matter what. And libraries hold the books so they can be read by others, and shared, to spread knowledge, and understanding. This doesn’t mean that every book is right, immutable, or correct. Rather, the books can help you understand more about the world, at their best, and at their worst, promote misinformation. The latter can be prevented with careful weeding to ensure that patrons have the best information available.
Shizuku is studying in the library with a stack of books sitting on the table next to her. The man she likes is across the table from her, I believe.As I’ve noted on this blog various times, libraries serve many important functions in society. One of those is providing a place to study. This is shown clearly, as indicated in the above screenshot. You don’t have to be a bibliophile/bookworm for that. In fact, not all bookworms are librarians, and not all librarians are bookworms. Some are, but due to the many tasks during the work-day, often librarians don’t have time to read a book on the job, as some people might think.
When it comes to Japan, I’ve noted this before on here, but there are over 3,000 public libraries in this island nation, and remain an important part of the country’s society. In fact, there is even an entire Wikipedia page listing them, entitled “List of libraries in Japan” (not to be confused with the page “List of archives in Japan“). Some probably still have card catalogs. These libraries, known as toshokan in Japanese, are centered by the National Diet Library. The only series, I know, to date to directly feature this library is 26-episode early 2000s R.O.D. the TV anime series, which features characters from the Read or Die light novels, manga, and OVA, and the Read or Dream manga.
Academics have noted that information commons/learning commons which provide various materials, facilities, and services, in one place, originally appearing in North America, has also appeared in Japanese universities and college. Such spaces are reportedly in an ” the early stage of development”, and there is a need for such spaces to rebuild their own services because of student needs. Furthermore, many libraries in pre-modern Japan were arguably private and have been called bunko, meaning “storehouses of books.” Currently, most have been subsumed into larger national, prefectural, university, or research library institutions. Some have even covered this in books such as Youth-Serving Libraries in Japan, Russia, and the United States.
It is also said that Japanese academic libraries are well-resourced and support the country’s research capacity, while reflecting the country’s “strong bureaucratic culture.” I’m not sure if this is also the case for the country’s public libraries as well, to be perfectly honest. I can say, with certainty, that libraries are an important part of the country, especially considering that the Imperial Library (forerunner to the National Diet Library) was established in the latter 19th century, and in 1947, the National Library Act created Japan’s sole national library (National Diet Library). This was followed by the landmark 1950 Library Act. The law states, in part, that the country’s libraries are aimed to promoting “sound development…[and] the enhancement of the education and culture of the nation”. It goes onto say:
…libraries shall endeavor to accomplish…[collection of] nooks, archives, audio-visual materials and other necessary data and materials…with suitable attention paid to the acquisition of local materials, art works, materials on local administration, gramophone records and films…library materials shall be properly classified and processed…efforts shall be made to ensure that library personnel acquire sufficient knowledge of library matters…close communication and cooperation shall be maintained by…inter-library loans between libraries…reading circles, seminars, appreciation groups, film showings and exhibits of data…shall be sponsored and encouraged…close contact and cooperation shall be maintained with schools, museums, community centers and research institutes, etc….professional personnel of libraries shall be called librarians and assistant librarians.
And that’s only part of Chapter 1! There is no comparison to this in U.S. law. The legislation, which passed the U.S. Congress in April 1800 (see page 56), only mentioned that the purchase of books “as may be necessary for the use of Congress at the said city of Washington, and for fitting up a suitable apartment for containing them and for placing them therein, the sum of five thousand dollars shall be…appropriated.” That same law went onto say that a library catalogue shall be furnished by a joint congressional committee, with books “placed in one suitable apartment in the capitol in the said city, for the use of both…houses of Congress and the members thereof”. That is it. It wasn’t until 1802 that a law defined the functions and role of this library, the Library of Congress (LOC), and even made the appointment of the Librarian of Congress a “presidential responsibility”! Still, this was nothing like the Library Law in Japan, which was much more extensive.
Such a law in the U.S, would be unthinkable, even at this current time, despite the fact it could have extreme value in ensuring the institution’s mission and objectives. On the other hand, LOC has broadly defined that on its own, and has a bit of autonomy, as it is only the de facto national library. This makes it different from the many across the world, coupled with any state-established libraries serving as preeminent information repositories for specific regions.
When I watched Whisper of the Heart on Max, with my mom and dad, I never expected libraries to be as big of a part of the film from the get-go. I am truly grateful that I came across this film, and would surely watch it again if I get a chance. That;s all for this post. Until next week! As always, comments are welcome.
Shizuku looks at library slips and finding out some man checked the SAME book out before her© 2023-2024 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.
Notes
[1] Since then, I’ve written about (I don’t recommend you watch all of these, though, and some of the following I would not watch again) over 80 anime series: Revolutionary Girl Utena, Wandering Son, Ice, Kuttsukiboshi, Paradise Kiss, Macross Frontier, Classroom of the Elite, Gargantia, Kandagawa Jet Girls, El-Hazard, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, Ascendance of a Bookworm, R.O.D. the TV, B Gata H Kei, Bloom Into You, Little Witch Academia, Yamibou, Whispered Words, Aoi Hana / Sweet Blue Flowers, Strawberry Panic!, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Manaria Friends, Kampfer, Lapis Re:Lights, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Blue Drop, The Mystic Archives of Dantalian, Cardcaptor Sakura, Venus vs. Virus, Otherside Picnic, My-Hime, Simoun, Riddle Story of Devil, Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood, Dear Brother, Library War, Girl Friend Beta, Kokoro Library, Attack on Titan, Let’s Make a Mug Too, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra, Bernard-jou Iwaku a.k.a. Miss Bernard said, Komi Can’t Communicate, The Ancient Magus Bride: Those Awaiting a Star, Gosick, Laid-Back Camp, As Miss Beelzebub Likes, Bibliophile Princess, Love Live! Sunshine!!, Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie, My Roommate is a Cat, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, Kin-iro Mosaic, Akebi’s Sailor Uniform, Makura no Danshi, Azumanga Daioh, Oresuki, Seitokai Yakuindomo, Gabriel DropOut, Spy x Family, A Couple of Cuckoos, Märchen Mädchen, Healer Girl, Smile of the Arsnotoria the Animation, Smile Pretty Cure!/Glitter Force, A Good Librarian Like a Good Shepard, A Place Further Than The Universe, Teasing Master Takagi-san, Myself ; Yourself, Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War, Stars Align, Tokyo Mew Mew New, Skip and Loafer, Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Violet Evergarden, Somali and the Forest Spirit, Aharen-San wa Hakarenai, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, Chitose Got You, Clannad, Cue!, Encouragement to Climb: Next Summit, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Gabriel Drop Out, Kin-iro Mosaic, K-On!, Noir, Otherside Picnic, The Rising of the Shield Hero, and Re:Zero, and four films: I Want To Eat Your Pancreas, Calamity of a Zombie Girl, Your Name, and Josee, the Tiger and the Fish. Later posts this year will focus on series such as Ouran High School Host Club, Is the Order a Rabbit?, Kiss Him, Not Me, The Demon Girl Next Door, The Executioner and Her Way of Life, YuruYuri, Library War, Maria Watches Over Us, Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka, and Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (Haruka Nogizaka’s Secret), to name a few.
[2] “Whisper of the Heart,” IFC Center, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Russo, Lee. “How Whisper of the Heart Explores the Fear of Failure,” CBR, Jun. 13, 2020; Graeme. “The Best Films I’ve Ever Seen: Whisper of the Heart,” Film School Rejects, Jun. 15, 2018; “Whisper of the Heart,” Studio Ghibli, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Faith. “Whisper of the Heart,” Studio Ghibli Movies, Nov. 28, 2014; Toole, Michael. “Whisper of the Heart Blu-Ray + DVD Review,” Anime News Network, Nov. 29, 2014; Osmond, Andrew. “Whisper of the Heart Review,” Anime News Network, Jan. 11, 2012; Mindus, Jay. “Why Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart Is the Perfect Movie for Young Artists,” CBR, May 12, 2022; “Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba),” Harvard Film Archive, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Cyrenne, Randall. “Whisper Of The Heart,” Animated Views, Mar. 7, 2006.
[3] Alix, Francis A. “The History and Current Challenges of Libraries in Japan,” SLIS Connectings 10(1): 10.
[4] Graeme, “The Best Films I’ve Ever Seen: Whisper of the Heart,” 2018; Toole, “Whisper of the Heart Blu-Ray + DVD Review,” 2014; Osmond, “Whisper of the Heart Review,” 2012; “Tracing Shizuku’s Steps: Visit ‘Whisper of the Heart’ Locations in Real Life,” tsunagu Japan, accessed Jun. 7, 2023; “Visiting ‘Whisper of the Heart’ Movie Location,” justa-fangirl, 2014.
[5] “Whisper of the Heart,” Ghibli Wiki, accessed Jun. 7, 2023; Cyrenne, “Whisper Of The Heart,” 2006; “Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba,” Harvard Film Archive; Mindus, “Why Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart Is the Perfect Movie for Young Artists,” 2022; Pineda, Rafael Antonio. “Live-Action Whisper of the Heart Sequel Film Delayed Due to COVID-19,” Anime News Network, Apr. 20, 2020. The live-action sequel, also named Whisper of the Heart came out in October 2022 in Japan, but it was received badly if the reviews from Japan Times and Crunchyroll listed on the “Whisper of the Heart (2022 film)” Wikipedia page are any indication. Apparently, there is even a library scene in the film. I haven’t watched the film, so I can’t confirm that completely, however.
[6] Brooks, Katherine. “There’s A Japanese Word For People Who Buy More Books Than They Can Actually Read,” HuffPost, Apr. 19, 2017; Tobar, Hector, “Are you a book hoarder? There’s a word for that,” Los Angeles Times, Jul. 24, 2014; “Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them,” BBC News, Jul. 29, 2018; Crow, Jonathan. “‘Tsundoku,’ the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the English Language,” Open Culture, Jul. 24, 2014; “A QUOTE ON BIBLIOMANIA,” Language Hat, Feb. 7, 2008; Popova, Maria. “Umberto Eco’s Antilibrary: Why Unread Books Are More Valuable to Our Lives than Read Ones,” The Marginalian, Mar. 24, 2015; Stillman, Jessica. “Why You Should Surround Yourself With More Books Than You’ll Ever Have Time to Read,” Inc., Dec. 5, 2017; McDonough, Lauren Smith. “Everyone Is Obsessed With the Trend of Antilibraries Right Now,” House Beautiful, Dec. 19, 2017; Boyd, Rebecca Lowry. “The book trend everyone is talking about right now,” Better Homes & Gardens, accessed Jun. 27, 2023.
#AllThePresidentSMen #AnimeNewsNetwork #antilibrary #AscendanceOfABookworm #barcodes #BibliophilePrincess #bibliophilia #BlackLibrarians #BlackWomen #BluRays #books #booksAreNotSacred #ethics #femaleLibrarians #IWantToEatYourPancreas #JapaneseLibrarians #JapaneseMen #JapanesePatrons #JoseeTheTigerAndTheFish #KOn #libraryCards #librarySlips #magic #NationalDietLibrary #NavyBluesFilm #RODTheTV #ReadOrDieLightNovels #ReadOrDieManga #ReadOrDieOVA #ReadOrDream #readerConfidentiality #ReelLibrarians #SeitokaiYakuindomo #Simoun #students #studying #teachers #TheCatReturns #tsundoku #WhisperOfTheHeart #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteWomen
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Barcodes, library slips, bookworms, and book deliveries in “Whisper of the Heart”
Shizuku’s father is a librarian in this film. He later says that he would like the card catalogs to stay too, like her.When I watched Whisper of the Heart, a romantic drama anime film which came out over 29 years ago (on July 15, 1995), on Max, I never expected that libraries, and librarians would be such a central part of the film! I was aware that the film was listed on Jennifer Snoek-Brown’s list of “Foreign-Language Films” on Reel Librarians. The latter list notes films reportedly with librarians and/or archivists alphabetically by title”. She warns that she can’t confirm that “every film on this list actually includes a librarian and/or archivist” as her primary focus is on examining English-language films. While that is a laudable goal, I don’t limit myself in that way, personally, and happily cover anime on this blog time and again. In fact, I have written about over 70 anime series, four films, and various manga, with my first post in August 2020. [1] This review will focus on the role of libraries, and librarians like the protagonist’s father, in the story, while relating it to other fictional examples and real-life library concepts.
One of the first conversations in the film is between the 14-year-old protagonist Shizuku Tsukishima, living in the Tokyo suburb of Tama New Town, who learns the local library is going to the bar code system, and her father. She tells him that she likes the library slips instead. He actually agrees with her, but decides to go with the library’s change anyhow. Thanks to the library slip, she learns that one man’s name is in common on all the books she has checked out: Seiji Amasawa. This piques her interest. This major plot point is mentioned in many summaries and reviews of the film, noting that Seiji is on every single one of these checkout slips and how she is slowly drawn to him as the film goes forward, with their feelings growing. Shizuku is also drawn toward these books because she loves fantasy books, and meets Seiji at an old antique shop somewhere in town. Other reviewers have noted that the checkout cards are an interesting narrative device, which “lends itself well to romantic daydreaming.” It is worth noting that Shizuku is spending his summer vacation, last one she has at Mukaihara Junior High School, translating and reading “popular foreign music into Japanese” like John Denver’s Country Road. [2]
At one point, Shizuku checks a book out of the library, which was never checked out before, and even though she somewhat ends up disturbing the job of the librarian (or the teacher standing in as a librarian), she comes across Seiji. Then, not longer after, he is curiously reading the book she checked out and she takes it from him, surprised to see him. And he even knows her name from the book. So much for reader’s privacy! Although some may see a sense of relief and kinship at seeing these library check-out cards, looking at these cards would run afoul of existing ethics, as outlined by the ALA. Those ethics state that libraries will “protect each library user’s right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted.”
Such cards are sometimes known as borrowing cards. They had/have an equivalent inside the library: a circulation card. Such cards may include the name of who borrowed the book and name of the book. There are also slips/cards which remain in a book only listing the date a book is due to be returned, known as date due slips. I’m not sure why I haven’t gone into this much detail on this before, but better late than never. In the case of this film, it would be a borrowing card, rather than a date due slip, which was stuck in the back of book, and then the book would be shelved, a way to record who borrowed a book before computer systems supplanted this system. Paper can still be used in today’s libraries, even to write down call numbers for books. The latter has also been shown in the films Dangerous Minds and Regarding Henry.
I am reminded of a scene in All the President’s Men, in which Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein go to the Library of Congress, and a Black male librarian gives them the slips for who checked out certain books, as opposed to an interaction with a White female librarian. I described this all in a post on this very blog in February of last year:
…In the classic 1976 political thriller, All the President’s Men, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein travel to the Library of Congress after their research seems to be stalled and having a librarian have a strange conversation with one them. They go to one librarian, who declares that the records they want are confidential, and that he can’t fulfill their request of library card checkout slips since July 1971. The other, the image of which is shown above, fulfills their request. Voiced by Jaye Stewart, he tells them “I’m not sure you want ’em, but I’ve got ’em.” Woodward and Bernstein proceed to go through perhaps thousands of check-out slips in the Reading Room of the Library of Congress. Unfortunately, the work is for naught, as it doesn’t confirm if a White House staffer checked out books on Ted Kennedy…Snoek-Brown…[said] hat it is not ethical to “give out checkout slips or records without a court order” as librarians have an “obligation to protect the privacy rights of our patrons.” I agree with Snoek-Brown entirely on that point
Coming back to the film, I would think that such borrowing cards would weaken the commitment of the library to reader confidentiality. As it presently stands, almost every U.S. state has laws “protecting the confidentiality of library records”. The Japan Library Association in a statement published in 1980, states that librarians should respect the privacy of each library user, and should not “divulge his/her name or details of books or other library materials used to third parties”. A more recent statement notes library privacy and confidentiality, among other virtues, as important. This film came out before the economic downturn in Japan, in 1997, which unfortunately lead to privatization of libraries through “outsourcing of staff to reduce costs and provide a flexible workforce”, with privacy of user information is at stake because private management companies are “not obligated to protect users’ privacy and routinely gather their data”. [3]
Shizuku says card catalogs are better than digital recordsMoving on from that, and back to the film, Shizuku soon follows a cat to an antique shop and is drawn to a cat statue named Baron Humbert von Gikkingen, with the shop’s owner, Nishi, telling her about him. She barely makes it to the library in time, is annoyed by Seiji, and is embarrassed in the process, as he delivers “her” lunch for her, with the fat cat (she had followed to the shop) riding on the back of the bike. The lunch is actually for her dad, who works in the library! This library is a fictional place created for the film itself, as no such library exists at that location (Irohazaka Sakura Park). [4]
This fantastical nature of the library is not unique. However, this library is more akin to something that exists in reality, rather than in a magical realm by itself. This makes the series unique. Surely, there are public libraries akin to those in real-life in Josee the Tiger and the Fish or I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, to give two examples, apart from the many within school buildings that I’ve often written about. This library is clearly a place of knowledge, but it is not a place or refuge. Rather, it is a place of learning and development.
As the movie goes on, Shizuku learns who donated a book at the library: the father of Seiji. She is later called a “bookworm”, which she accepts happily. After all, she often goes to the library, a fantasy reportedly depicted in The Cat Returns, a 2002 film. She takes out books in the public library, so she can learn more for her story. At one point, she remains one of the last people there, writing away, and Seiji visits her in the library, while she writes her story. As a writer, she becomes more than a bookworm, and Seiji is more than a novice violin maker. Both characters are not exceptional, but have proven that they have what it takes to ensure their work can become “exceptional”, with their romance blossoming by the film’s end, even without a kiss. [5]
There is much more to this film than what I’ve noted so far and ending the article here would be selling it short, to say the least. For Shizuku to be called a bookworm as an insult, and turning it into a positive, is not limited to this film. There is an entire series entitled Ascendance of a Bookworm, which focuses on Myne and her quest to provide free books to the populace, building her previous life as a college librarian. In his quest, she even becomes a church librarian with some magical powers. The series has even been cited as an example of when an outsider from another world “usher systematic change in their adopted one.” The term was even alluded to in the series Bibliophile Princess, as a bibliophile, someone who frequently reads or collects books, and loves books, is also known as a bookworm. Bibliophile appears more “positive.”
Otherwise, there was a British comic from 1978-1985 entitled Bookworm about a young boy who always has a book and his parents tell him to do more “boyish” things, but it results in disaster. There’s also an 1850 painting entitled The Bookworm by Carl Spitzweg. A variation of this piece was even named The Librarian! Pu Songling published a romantic short story, in about 1740, entitled The Bookworm, while there are characters known as bookworms in Tiny Toon Adventures and most infamously in the campy 1960s Batman series. There are many other bookworms in fiction, like in Wonder Man (1945), Navy Blues (1937), and even Wong in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to an extent.
There is also the Association internationale de bibliophilie, which is called International Association of Bibliophiles or AIB in English. It is dedicated to bibliophiles. Russia has its National Union of Bibliophiles (formed in 2010), while there are is a book club in Detroit, a former group for female bibliophiles (Hroswitha Club), and the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles. There is even a 15-minute film, which I haven’t seen, entitled The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, about a man who is writing his memoir, but is blown off a balcony, writing out of a library,and even becomes a librarian with the city suffering from impact of a storm. There’s also books such as The Great Book-Collectors about book-collecting practices of the British Library, Bodleian Library, and Ashmolean Museum, along with a physical archive named Library of the Printed Web dedicated to “web-to-print artists’ books, zines and other printout matter.”
All of this is related to the concept of tsundoku, which means acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in your home without actually reading them. It can refer to books ready for reading later, as well, when those books are on a bookshelf. It is related to what A. Edward Newton wrote about in 1921, and stands in opposition to the term antilibrary. The latter, coined by Lebanese-American author Nassim Nicholas Taleb means a “collection of unread books”, which make people curious and humble. [6] He further stated that the older someone gets, the more they know, the larger is their “accumulation of unread books” and those who focus on such unread books are antischolars, i.e. those who do not “care about how much you know, but how much you don’t know” and how to find information you need.
When it comes to libraries, I would think people would side more with idea of antilibrary than the idea of tsundoku, as the latter seems to imply that having unread books is “bad.” Having books you haven’t read should not be seen as a negative. It is inevitable there will be books you haven’t read in your lifetime, no matter what. And libraries hold the books so they can be read by others, and shared, to spread knowledge, and understanding. This doesn’t mean that every book is right, immutable, or correct. Rather, the books can help you understand more about the world, at their best, and at their worst, promote misinformation. The latter can be prevented with careful weeding to ensure that patrons have the best information available.
Shizuku is studying in the library with a stack of books sitting on the table next to her. The man she likes is across the table from her, I believe.As I’ve noted on this blog various times, libraries serve many important functions in society. One of those is providing a place to study. This is shown clearly, as indicated in the above screenshot. You don’t have to be a bibliophile/bookworm for that. In fact, not all bookworms are librarians, and not all librarians are bookworms. Some are, but due to the many tasks during the work-day, often librarians don’t have time to read a book on the job, as some people might think.
When it comes to Japan, I’ve noted this before on here, but there are over 3,000 public libraries in this island nation, and remain an important part of the country’s society. In fact, there is even an entire Wikipedia page listing them, entitled “List of libraries in Japan” (not to be confused with the page “List of archives in Japan“). Some probably still have card catalogs. These libraries, known as toshokan in Japanese, are centered by the National Diet Library. The only series, I know, to date to directly feature this library is 26-episode early 2000s R.O.D. the TV anime series, which features characters from the Read or Die light novels, manga, and OVA, and the Read or Dream manga.
Academics have noted that information commons/learning commons which provide various materials, facilities, and services, in one place, originally appearing in North America, has also appeared in Japanese universities and college. Such spaces are reportedly in an ” the early stage of development”, and there is a need for such spaces to rebuild their own services because of student needs. Furthermore, many libraries in pre-modern Japan were arguably private and have been called bunko, meaning “storehouses of books.” Currently, most have been subsumed into larger national, prefectural, university, or research library institutions. Some have even covered this in books such as Youth-Serving Libraries in Japan, Russia, and the United States.
It is also said that Japanese academic libraries are well-resourced and support the country’s research capacity, while reflecting the country’s “strong bureaucratic culture.” I’m not sure if this is also the case for the country’s public libraries as well, to be perfectly honest. I can say, with certainty, that libraries are an important part of the country, especially considering that the Imperial Library (forerunner to the National Diet Library) was established in the latter 19th century, and in 1947, the National Library Act created Japan’s sole national library (National Diet Library). This was followed by the landmark 1950 Library Act. The law states, in part, that the country’s libraries are aimed to promoting “sound development…[and] the enhancement of the education and culture of the nation”. It goes onto say:
…libraries shall endeavor to accomplish…[collection of] nooks, archives, audio-visual materials and other necessary data and materials…with suitable attention paid to the acquisition of local materials, art works, materials on local administration, gramophone records and films…library materials shall be properly classified and processed…efforts shall be made to ensure that library personnel acquire sufficient knowledge of library matters…close communication and cooperation shall be maintained by…inter-library loans between libraries…reading circles, seminars, appreciation groups, film showings and exhibits of data…shall be sponsored and encouraged…close contact and cooperation shall be maintained with schools, museums, community centers and research institutes, etc….professional personnel of libraries shall be called librarians and assistant librarians.
And that’s only part of Chapter 1! There is no comparison to this in U.S. law. The legislation, which passed the U.S. Congress in April 1800 (see page 56), only mentioned that the purchase of books “as may be necessary for the use of Congress at the said city of Washington, and for fitting up a suitable apartment for containing them and for placing them therein, the sum of five thousand dollars shall be…appropriated.” That same law went onto say that a library catalogue shall be furnished by a joint congressional committee, with books “placed in one suitable apartment in the capitol in the said city, for the use of both…houses of Congress and the members thereof”. That is it. It wasn’t until 1802 that a law defined the functions and role of this library, the Library of Congress (LOC), and even made the appointment of the Librarian of Congress a “presidential responsibility”! Still, this was nothing like the Library Law in Japan, which was much more extensive.
Such a law in the U.S, would be unthinkable, even at this current time, despite the fact it could have extreme value in ensuring the institution’s mission and objectives. On the other hand, LOC has broadly defined that on its own, and has a bit of autonomy, as it is only the de facto national library. This makes it different from the many across the world, coupled with any state-established libraries serving as preeminent information repositories for specific regions.
When I watched Whisper of the Heart on Max, with my mom and dad, I never expected libraries to be as big of a part of the film from the get-go. I am truly grateful that I came across this film, and would surely watch it again if I get a chance. That;s all for this post. Until next week! As always, comments are welcome.
Shizuku looks at library slips and finding out some man checked the SAME book out before her© 2023-2024 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.
Notes
[1] Since then, I’ve written about (I don’t recommend you watch all of these, though, and some of the following I would not watch again) over 80 anime series: Revolutionary Girl Utena, Wandering Son, Ice, Kuttsukiboshi, Paradise Kiss, Macross Frontier, Classroom of the Elite, Gargantia, Kandagawa Jet Girls, El-Hazard, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, Ascendance of a Bookworm, R.O.D. the TV, B Gata H Kei, Bloom Into You, Little Witch Academia, Yamibou, Whispered Words, Aoi Hana / Sweet Blue Flowers, Strawberry Panic!, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Manaria Friends, Kampfer, Lapis Re:Lights, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Blue Drop, The Mystic Archives of Dantalian, Cardcaptor Sakura, Venus vs. Virus, Otherside Picnic, My-Hime, Simoun, Riddle Story of Devil, Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood, Dear Brother, Library War, Girl Friend Beta, Kokoro Library, Attack on Titan, Let’s Make a Mug Too, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra, Bernard-jou Iwaku a.k.a. Miss Bernard said, Komi Can’t Communicate, The Ancient Magus Bride: Those Awaiting a Star, Gosick, Laid-Back Camp, As Miss Beelzebub Likes, Bibliophile Princess, Love Live! Sunshine!!, Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie, My Roommate is a Cat, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, Kin-iro Mosaic, Akebi’s Sailor Uniform, Makura no Danshi, Azumanga Daioh, Oresuki, Seitokai Yakuindomo, Gabriel DropOut, Spy x Family, A Couple of Cuckoos, Märchen Mädchen, Healer Girl, Smile of the Arsnotoria the Animation, Smile Pretty Cure!/Glitter Force, A Good Librarian Like a Good Shepard, A Place Further Than The Universe, Teasing Master Takagi-san, Myself ; Yourself, Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War, Stars Align, Tokyo Mew Mew New, Skip and Loafer, Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Violet Evergarden, Somali and the Forest Spirit, Aharen-San wa Hakarenai, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, Chitose Got You, Clannad, Cue!, Encouragement to Climb: Next Summit, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Gabriel Drop Out, Kin-iro Mosaic, K-On!, Noir, Otherside Picnic, The Rising of the Shield Hero, and Re:Zero, and four films: I Want To Eat Your Pancreas, Calamity of a Zombie Girl, Your Name, and Josee, the Tiger and the Fish. Later posts this year will focus on series such as Ouran High School Host Club, Is the Order a Rabbit?, Kiss Him, Not Me, The Demon Girl Next Door, The Executioner and Her Way of Life, YuruYuri, Library War, Maria Watches Over Us, Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka, and Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (Haruka Nogizaka’s Secret), to name a few.
[2] “Whisper of the Heart,” IFC Center, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Russo, Lee. “How Whisper of the Heart Explores the Fear of Failure,” CBR, Jun. 13, 2020; Graeme. “The Best Films I’ve Ever Seen: Whisper of the Heart,” Film School Rejects, Jun. 15, 2018; “Whisper of the Heart,” Studio Ghibli, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Faith. “Whisper of the Heart,” Studio Ghibli Movies, Nov. 28, 2014; Toole, Michael. “Whisper of the Heart Blu-Ray + DVD Review,” Anime News Network, Nov. 29, 2014; Osmond, Andrew. “Whisper of the Heart Review,” Anime News Network, Jan. 11, 2012; Mindus, Jay. “Why Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart Is the Perfect Movie for Young Artists,” CBR, May 12, 2022; “Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba),” Harvard Film Archive, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Cyrenne, Randall. “Whisper Of The Heart,” Animated Views, Mar. 7, 2006.
[3] Alix, Francis A. “The History and Current Challenges of Libraries in Japan,” SLIS Connectings 10(1): 10.
[4] Graeme, “The Best Films I’ve Ever Seen: Whisper of the Heart,” 2018; Toole, “Whisper of the Heart Blu-Ray + DVD Review,” 2014; Osmond, “Whisper of the Heart Review,” 2012; “Tracing Shizuku’s Steps: Visit ‘Whisper of the Heart’ Locations in Real Life,” tsunagu Japan, accessed Jun. 7, 2023; “Visiting ‘Whisper of the Heart’ Movie Location,” justa-fangirl, 2014.
[5] “Whisper of the Heart,” Ghibli Wiki, accessed Jun. 7, 2023; Cyrenne, “Whisper Of The Heart,” 2006; “Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba,” Harvard Film Archive; Mindus, “Why Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart Is the Perfect Movie for Young Artists,” 2022; Pineda, Rafael Antonio. “Live-Action Whisper of the Heart Sequel Film Delayed Due to COVID-19,” Anime News Network, Apr. 20, 2020. The live-action sequel, also named Whisper of the Heart came out in October 2022 in Japan, but it was received badly if the reviews from Japan Times and Crunchyroll listed on the “Whisper of the Heart (2022 film)” Wikipedia page are any indication. Apparently, there is even a library scene in the film. I haven’t watched the film, so I can’t confirm that completely, however.
[6] Brooks, Katherine. “There’s A Japanese Word For People Who Buy More Books Than They Can Actually Read,” HuffPost, Apr. 19, 2017; Tobar, Hector, “Are you a book hoarder? There’s a word for that,” Los Angeles Times, Jul. 24, 2014; “Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them,” BBC News, Jul. 29, 2018; Crow, Jonathan. “‘Tsundoku,’ the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the English Language,” Open Culture, Jul. 24, 2014; “A QUOTE ON BIBLIOMANIA,” Language Hat, Feb. 7, 2008; Popova, Maria. “Umberto Eco’s Antilibrary: Why Unread Books Are More Valuable to Our Lives than Read Ones,” The Marginalian, Mar. 24, 2015; Stillman, Jessica. “Why You Should Surround Yourself With More Books Than You’ll Ever Have Time to Read,” Inc., Dec. 5, 2017; McDonough, Lauren Smith. “Everyone Is Obsessed With the Trend of Antilibraries Right Now,” House Beautiful, Dec. 19, 2017; Boyd, Rebecca Lowry. “The book trend everyone is talking about right now,” Better Homes & Gardens, accessed Jun. 27, 2023.
#AllThePresidentSMen #AnimeNewsNetwork #antilibrary #AscendanceOfABookworm #barcodes #BibliophilePrincess #bibliophilia #BlackLibrarians #BlackWomen #BluRays #books #booksAreNotSacred #ethics #femaleLibrarians #IWantToEatYourPancreas #JapaneseLibrarians #JapaneseMen #JapanesePatrons #JoseeTheTigerAndTheFish #KOn #libraryCards #librarySlips #magic #NationalDietLibrary #NavyBluesFilm #RODTheTV #ReadOrDieLightNovels #ReadOrDieManga #ReadOrDieOVA #ReadOrDream #readerConfidentiality #ReelLibrarians #SeitokaiYakuindomo #Simoun #students #studying #teachers #TheCatReturns #tsundoku #WhisperOfTheHeart #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteWomen
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Barcodes, library slips, bookworms, and book deliveries in “Whisper of the Heart”
Shizuku’s father is a librarian in this film. He later says that he would like the card catalogs to stay too, like her.When I watched Whisper of the Heart, a romantic drama anime film which came out over 29 years ago (on July 15, 1995), on Max, I never expected that libraries, and librarians would be such a central part of the film! I was aware that the film was listed on Jennifer Snoek-Brown’s list of “Foreign-Language Films” on Reel Librarians. The latter list notes films reportedly with librarians and/or archivists alphabetically by title”. She warns that she can’t confirm that “every film on this list actually includes a librarian and/or archivist” as her primary focus is on examining English-language films. While that is a laudable goal, I don’t limit myself in that way, personally, and happily cover anime on this blog time and again. In fact, I have written about over 70 anime series, four films, and various manga, with my first post in August 2020. [1] This review will focus on the role of libraries, and librarians like the protagonist’s father, in the story, while relating it to other fictional examples and real-life library concepts.
One of the first conversations in the film is between the 14-year-old protagonist Shizuku Tsukishima, living in the Tokyo suburb of Tama New Town, who learns the local library is going to the bar code system, and her father. She tells him that she likes the library slips instead. He actually agrees with her, but decides to go with the library’s change anyhow. Thanks to the library slip, she learns that one man’s name is in common on all the books she has checked out: Seiji Amasawa. This piques her interest. This major plot point is mentioned in many summaries and reviews of the film, noting that Seiji is on every single one of these checkout slips and how she is slowly drawn to him as the film goes forward, with their feelings growing. Shizuku is also drawn toward these books because she loves fantasy books, and meets Seiji at an old antique shop somewhere in town. Other reviewers have noted that the checkout cards are an interesting narrative device, which “lends itself well to romantic daydreaming.” It is worth noting that Shizuku is spending his summer vacation, last one she has at Mukaihara Junior High School, translating and reading “popular foreign music into Japanese” like John Denver’s Country Road. [2]
At one point, Shizuku checks a book out of the library, which was never checked out before, and even though she somewhat ends up disturbing the job of the librarian (or the teacher standing in as a librarian), she comes across Seiji. Then, not longer after, he is curiously reading the book she checked out and she takes it from him, surprised to see him. And he even knows her name from the book. So much for reader’s privacy! Although some may see a sense of relief and kinship at seeing these library check-out cards, looking at these cards would run afoul of existing ethics, as outlined by the ALA. Those ethics state that libraries will “protect each library user’s right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted.”
Such cards are sometimes known as borrowing cards. They had/have an equivalent inside the library: a circulation card. Such cards may include the name of who borrowed the book and name of the book. There are also slips/cards which remain in a book only listing the date a book is due to be returned, known as date due slips. I’m not sure why I haven’t gone into this much detail on this before, but better late than never. In the case of this film, it would be a borrowing card, rather than a date due slip, which was stuck in the back of book, and then the book would be shelved, a way to record who borrowed a book before computer systems supplanted this system. Paper can still be used in today’s libraries, even to write down call numbers for books. The latter has also been shown in the films Dangerous Minds and Regarding Henry.
I am reminded of a scene in All the President’s Men, in which Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein go to the Library of Congress, and a Black male librarian gives them the slips for who checked out certain books, as opposed to an interaction with a White female librarian. I described this all in a post on this very blog in February of last year:
…In the classic 1976 political thriller, All the President’s Men, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein travel to the Library of Congress after their research seems to be stalled and having a librarian have a strange conversation with one them. They go to one librarian, who declares that the records they want are confidential, and that he can’t fulfill their request of library card checkout slips since July 1971. The other, the image of which is shown above, fulfills their request. Voiced by Jaye Stewart, he tells them “I’m not sure you want ’em, but I’ve got ’em.” Woodward and Bernstein proceed to go through perhaps thousands of check-out slips in the Reading Room of the Library of Congress. Unfortunately, the work is for naught, as it doesn’t confirm if a White House staffer checked out books on Ted Kennedy…Snoek-Brown…[said] hat it is not ethical to “give out checkout slips or records without a court order” as librarians have an “obligation to protect the privacy rights of our patrons.” I agree with Snoek-Brown entirely on that point
Coming back to the film, I would think that such borrowing cards would weaken the commitment of the library to reader confidentiality. As it presently stands, almost every U.S. state has laws “protecting the confidentiality of library records”. The Japan Library Association in a statement published in 1980, states that librarians should respect the privacy of each library user, and should not “divulge his/her name or details of books or other library materials used to third parties”. A more recent statement notes library privacy and confidentiality, among other virtues, as important. This film came out before the economic downturn in Japan, in 1997, which unfortunately lead to privatization of libraries through “outsourcing of staff to reduce costs and provide a flexible workforce”, with privacy of user information is at stake because private management companies are “not obligated to protect users’ privacy and routinely gather their data”. [3]
Shizuku says card catalogs are better than digital recordsMoving on from that, and back to the film, Shizuku soon follows a cat to an antique shop and is drawn to a cat statue named Baron Humbert von Gikkingen, with the shop’s owner, Nishi, telling her about him. She barely makes it to the library in time, is annoyed by Seiji, and is embarrassed in the process, as he delivers “her” lunch for her, with the fat cat (she had followed to the shop) riding on the back of the bike. The lunch is actually for her dad, who works in the library! This library is a fictional place created for the film itself, as no such library exists at that location (Irohazaka Sakura Park). [4]
This fantastical nature of the library is not unique. However, this library is more akin to something that exists in reality, rather than in a magical realm by itself. This makes the series unique. Surely, there are public libraries akin to those in real-life in Josee the Tiger and the Fish or I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, to give two examples, apart from the many within school buildings that I’ve often written about. This library is clearly a place of knowledge, but it is not a place or refuge. Rather, it is a place of learning and development.
As the movie goes on, Shizuku learns who donated a book at the library: the father of Seiji. She is later called a “bookworm”, which she accepts happily. After all, she often goes to the library, a fantasy reportedly depicted in The Cat Returns, a 2002 film. She takes out books in the public library, so she can learn more for her story. At one point, she remains one of the last people there, writing away, and Seiji visits her in the library, while she writes her story. As a writer, she becomes more than a bookworm, and Seiji is more than a novice violin maker. Both characters are not exceptional, but have proven that they have what it takes to ensure their work can become “exceptional”, with their romance blossoming by the film’s end, even without a kiss. [5]
There is much more to this film than what I’ve noted so far and ending the article here would be selling it short, to say the least. For Shizuku to be called a bookworm as an insult, and turning it into a positive, is not limited to this film. There is an entire series entitled Ascendance of a Bookworm, which focuses on Myne and her quest to provide free books to the populace, building her previous life as a college librarian. In his quest, she even becomes a church librarian with some magical powers. The series has even been cited as an example of when an outsider from another world “usher systematic change in their adopted one.” The term was even alluded to in the series Bibliophile Princess, as a bibliophile, someone who frequently reads or collects books, and loves books, is also known as a bookworm. Bibliophile appears more “positive.”
Otherwise, there was a British comic from 1978-1985 entitled Bookworm about a young boy who always has a book and his parents tell him to do more “boyish” things, but it results in disaster. There’s also an 1850 painting entitled The Bookworm by Carl Spitzweg. A variation of this piece was even named The Librarian! Pu Songling published a romantic short story, in about 1740, entitled The Bookworm, while there are characters known as bookworms in Tiny Toon Adventures and most infamously in the campy 1960s Batman series. There are many other bookworms in fiction, like in Wonder Man (1945), Navy Blues (1937), and even Wong in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to an extent.
There is also the Association internationale de bibliophilie, which is called International Association of Bibliophiles or AIB in English. It is dedicated to bibliophiles. Russia has its National Union of Bibliophiles (formed in 2010), while there are is a book club in Detroit, a former group for female bibliophiles (Hroswitha Club), and the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles. There is even a 15-minute film, which I haven’t seen, entitled The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, about a man who is writing his memoir, but is blown off a balcony, writing out of a library,and even becomes a librarian with the city suffering from impact of a storm. There’s also books such as The Great Book-Collectors about book-collecting practices of the British Library, Bodleian Library, and Ashmolean Museum, along with a physical archive named Library of the Printed Web dedicated to “web-to-print artists’ books, zines and other printout matter.”
All of this is related to the concept of tsundoku, which means acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in your home without actually reading them. It can refer to books ready for reading later, as well, when those books are on a bookshelf. It is related to what A. Edward Newton wrote about in 1921, and stands in opposition to the term antilibrary. The latter, coined by Lebanese-American author Nassim Nicholas Taleb means a “collection of unread books”, which make people curious and humble. [6] He further stated that the older someone gets, the more they know, the larger is their “accumulation of unread books” and those who focus on such unread books are antischolars, i.e. those who do not “care about how much you know, but how much you don’t know” and how to find information you need.
When it comes to libraries, I would think people would side more with idea of antilibrary than the idea of tsundoku, as the latter seems to imply that having unread books is “bad.” Having books you haven’t read should not be seen as a negative. It is inevitable there will be books you haven’t read in your lifetime, no matter what. And libraries hold the books so they can be read by others, and shared, to spread knowledge, and understanding. This doesn’t mean that every book is right, immutable, or correct. Rather, the books can help you understand more about the world, at their best, and at their worst, promote misinformation. The latter can be prevented with careful weeding to ensure that patrons have the best information available.
Shizuku is studying in the library with a stack of books sitting on the table next to her. The man she likes is across the table from her, I believe.As I’ve noted on this blog various times, libraries serve many important functions in society. One of those is providing a place to study. This is shown clearly, as indicated in the above screenshot. You don’t have to be a bibliophile/bookworm for that. In fact, not all bookworms are librarians, and not all librarians are bookworms. Some are, but due to the many tasks during the work-day, often librarians don’t have time to read a book on the job, as some people might think.
When it comes to Japan, I’ve noted this before on here, but there are over 3,000 public libraries in this island nation, and remain an important part of the country’s society. In fact, there is even an entire Wikipedia page listing them, entitled “List of libraries in Japan” (not to be confused with the page “List of archives in Japan“). Some probably still have card catalogs. These libraries, known as toshokan in Japanese, are centered by the National Diet Library. The only series, I know, to date to directly feature this library is 26-episode early 2000s R.O.D. the TV anime series, which features characters from the Read or Die light novels, manga, and OVA, and the Read or Dream manga.
Academics have noted that information commons/learning commons which provide various materials, facilities, and services, in one place, originally appearing in North America, has also appeared in Japanese universities and college. Such spaces are reportedly in an ” the early stage of development”, and there is a need for such spaces to rebuild their own services because of student needs. Furthermore, many libraries in pre-modern Japan were arguably private and have been called bunko, meaning “storehouses of books.” Currently, most have been subsumed into larger national, prefectural, university, or research library institutions. Some have even covered this in books such as Youth-Serving Libraries in Japan, Russia, and the United States.
It is also said that Japanese academic libraries are well-resourced and support the country’s research capacity, while reflecting the country’s “strong bureaucratic culture.” I’m not sure if this is also the case for the country’s public libraries as well, to be perfectly honest. I can say, with certainty, that libraries are an important part of the country, especially considering that the Imperial Library (forerunner to the National Diet Library) was established in the latter 19th century, and in 1947, the National Library Act created Japan’s sole national library (National Diet Library). This was followed by the landmark 1950 Library Act. The law states, in part, that the country’s libraries are aimed to promoting “sound development…[and] the enhancement of the education and culture of the nation”. It goes onto say:
…libraries shall endeavor to accomplish…[collection of] nooks, archives, audio-visual materials and other necessary data and materials…with suitable attention paid to the acquisition of local materials, art works, materials on local administration, gramophone records and films…library materials shall be properly classified and processed…efforts shall be made to ensure that library personnel acquire sufficient knowledge of library matters…close communication and cooperation shall be maintained by…inter-library loans between libraries…reading circles, seminars, appreciation groups, film showings and exhibits of data…shall be sponsored and encouraged…close contact and cooperation shall be maintained with schools, museums, community centers and research institutes, etc….professional personnel of libraries shall be called librarians and assistant librarians.
And that’s only part of Chapter 1! There is no comparison to this in U.S. law. The legislation, which passed the U.S. Congress in April 1800 (see page 56), only mentioned that the purchase of books “as may be necessary for the use of Congress at the said city of Washington, and for fitting up a suitable apartment for containing them and for placing them therein, the sum of five thousand dollars shall be…appropriated.” That same law went onto say that a library catalogue shall be furnished by a joint congressional committee, with books “placed in one suitable apartment in the capitol in the said city, for the use of both…houses of Congress and the members thereof”. That is it. It wasn’t until 1802 that a law defined the functions and role of this library, the Library of Congress (LOC), and even made the appointment of the Librarian of Congress a “presidential responsibility”! Still, this was nothing like the Library Law in Japan, which was much more extensive.
Such a law in the U.S, would be unthinkable, even at this current time, despite the fact it could have extreme value in ensuring the institution’s mission and objectives. On the other hand, LOC has broadly defined that on its own, and has a bit of autonomy, as it is only the de facto national library. This makes it different from the many across the world, coupled with any state-established libraries serving as preeminent information repositories for specific regions.
When I watched Whisper of the Heart on Max, with my mom and dad, I never expected libraries to be as big of a part of the film from the get-go. I am truly grateful that I came across this film, and would surely watch it again if I get a chance. That;s all for this post. Until next week! As always, comments are welcome.
Shizuku looks at library slips and finding out some man checked the SAME book out before her© 2023-2024 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.
Notes
[1] Since then, I’ve written about (I don’t recommend you watch all of these, though, and some of the following I would not watch again) over 80 anime series: Revolutionary Girl Utena, Wandering Son, Ice, Kuttsukiboshi, Paradise Kiss, Macross Frontier, Classroom of the Elite, Gargantia, Kandagawa Jet Girls, El-Hazard, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, Ascendance of a Bookworm, R.O.D. the TV, B Gata H Kei, Bloom Into You, Little Witch Academia, Yamibou, Whispered Words, Aoi Hana / Sweet Blue Flowers, Strawberry Panic!, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Manaria Friends, Kampfer, Lapis Re:Lights, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Blue Drop, The Mystic Archives of Dantalian, Cardcaptor Sakura, Venus vs. Virus, Otherside Picnic, My-Hime, Simoun, Riddle Story of Devil, Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood, Dear Brother, Library War, Girl Friend Beta, Kokoro Library, Attack on Titan, Let’s Make a Mug Too, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra, Bernard-jou Iwaku a.k.a. Miss Bernard said, Komi Can’t Communicate, The Ancient Magus Bride: Those Awaiting a Star, Gosick, Laid-Back Camp, As Miss Beelzebub Likes, Bibliophile Princess, Love Live! Sunshine!!, Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie, My Roommate is a Cat, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, Kin-iro Mosaic, Akebi’s Sailor Uniform, Makura no Danshi, Azumanga Daioh, Oresuki, Seitokai Yakuindomo, Gabriel DropOut, Spy x Family, A Couple of Cuckoos, Märchen Mädchen, Healer Girl, Smile of the Arsnotoria the Animation, Smile Pretty Cure!/Glitter Force, A Good Librarian Like a Good Shepard, A Place Further Than The Universe, Teasing Master Takagi-san, Myself ; Yourself, Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War, Stars Align, Tokyo Mew Mew New, Skip and Loafer, Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Violet Evergarden, Somali and the Forest Spirit, Aharen-San wa Hakarenai, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, Chitose Got You, Clannad, Cue!, Encouragement to Climb: Next Summit, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Gabriel Drop Out, Kin-iro Mosaic, K-On!, Noir, Otherside Picnic, The Rising of the Shield Hero, and Re:Zero, and four films: I Want To Eat Your Pancreas, Calamity of a Zombie Girl, Your Name, and Josee, the Tiger and the Fish. Later posts this year will focus on series such as Ouran High School Host Club, Is the Order a Rabbit?, Kiss Him, Not Me, The Demon Girl Next Door, The Executioner and Her Way of Life, YuruYuri, Library War, Maria Watches Over Us, Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka, and Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (Haruka Nogizaka’s Secret), to name a few.
[2] “Whisper of the Heart,” IFC Center, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Russo, Lee. “How Whisper of the Heart Explores the Fear of Failure,” CBR, Jun. 13, 2020; Graeme. “The Best Films I’ve Ever Seen: Whisper of the Heart,” Film School Rejects, Jun. 15, 2018; “Whisper of the Heart,” Studio Ghibli, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Faith. “Whisper of the Heart,” Studio Ghibli Movies, Nov. 28, 2014; Toole, Michael. “Whisper of the Heart Blu-Ray + DVD Review,” Anime News Network, Nov. 29, 2014; Osmond, Andrew. “Whisper of the Heart Review,” Anime News Network, Jan. 11, 2012; Mindus, Jay. “Why Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart Is the Perfect Movie for Young Artists,” CBR, May 12, 2022; “Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba),” Harvard Film Archive, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Cyrenne, Randall. “Whisper Of The Heart,” Animated Views, Mar. 7, 2006.
[3] Alix, Francis A. “The History and Current Challenges of Libraries in Japan,” SLIS Connectings 10(1): 10.
[4] Graeme, “The Best Films I’ve Ever Seen: Whisper of the Heart,” 2018; Toole, “Whisper of the Heart Blu-Ray + DVD Review,” 2014; Osmond, “Whisper of the Heart Review,” 2012; “Tracing Shizuku’s Steps: Visit ‘Whisper of the Heart’ Locations in Real Life,” tsunagu Japan, accessed Jun. 7, 2023; “Visiting ‘Whisper of the Heart’ Movie Location,” justa-fangirl, 2014.
[5] “Whisper of the Heart,” Ghibli Wiki, accessed Jun. 7, 2023; Cyrenne, “Whisper Of The Heart,” 2006; “Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba,” Harvard Film Archive; Mindus, “Why Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart Is the Perfect Movie for Young Artists,” 2022; Pineda, Rafael Antonio. “Live-Action Whisper of the Heart Sequel Film Delayed Due to COVID-19,” Anime News Network, Apr. 20, 2020. The live-action sequel, also named Whisper of the Heart came out in October 2022 in Japan, but it was received badly if the reviews from Japan Times and Crunchyroll listed on the “Whisper of the Heart (2022 film)” Wikipedia page are any indication. Apparently, there is even a library scene in the film. I haven’t watched the film, so I can’t confirm that completely, however.
[6] Brooks, Katherine. “There’s A Japanese Word For People Who Buy More Books Than They Can Actually Read,” HuffPost, Apr. 19, 2017; Tobar, Hector, “Are you a book hoarder? There’s a word for that,” Los Angeles Times, Jul. 24, 2014; “Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them,” BBC News, Jul. 29, 2018; Crow, Jonathan. “‘Tsundoku,’ the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the English Language,” Open Culture, Jul. 24, 2014; “A QUOTE ON BIBLIOMANIA,” Language Hat, Feb. 7, 2008; Popova, Maria. “Umberto Eco’s Antilibrary: Why Unread Books Are More Valuable to Our Lives than Read Ones,” The Marginalian, Mar. 24, 2015; Stillman, Jessica. “Why You Should Surround Yourself With More Books Than You’ll Ever Have Time to Read,” Inc., Dec. 5, 2017; McDonough, Lauren Smith. “Everyone Is Obsessed With the Trend of Antilibraries Right Now,” House Beautiful, Dec. 19, 2017; Boyd, Rebecca Lowry. “The book trend everyone is talking about right now,” Better Homes & Gardens, accessed Jun. 27, 2023.
#AllThePresidentSMen #AnimeNewsNetwork #antilibrary #AscendanceOfABookworm #barcodes #BibliophilePrincess #bibliophilia #BlackLibrarians #BlackWomen #BluRays #books #booksAreNotSacred #ethics #femaleLibrarians #IWantToEatYourPancreas #JapaneseLibrarians #JapaneseMen #JapanesePatrons #JoseeTheTigerAndTheFish #KOn #libraryCards #librarySlips #magic #NationalDietLibrary #NavyBluesFilm #RODTheTV #ReadOrDieLightNovels #ReadOrDieManga #ReadOrDieOVA #ReadOrDream #readerConfidentiality #ReelLibrarians #SeitokaiYakuindomo #Simoun #students #studying #teachers #TheCatReturns #tsundoku #WhisperOfTheHeart #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteWomen
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Barcodes, library slips, bookworms, and book deliveries in “Whisper of the Heart”
Shizuku’s father is a librarian in this film. He later says that he would like the card catalogs to stay too, like her.When I watched Whisper of the Heart, a romantic drama anime film which came out over 29 years ago (on July 15, 1995), on Max, I never expected that libraries, and librarians would be such a central part of the film! I was aware that the film was listed on Jennifer Snoek-Brown’s list of “Foreign-Language Films” on Reel Librarians. The latter list notes films reportedly with librarians and/or archivists alphabetically by title”. She warns that she can’t confirm that “every film on this list actually includes a librarian and/or archivist” as her primary focus is on examining English-language films. While that is a laudable goal, I don’t limit myself in that way, personally, and happily cover anime on this blog time and again. In fact, I have written about over 70 anime series, four films, and various manga, with my first post in August 2020. [1] This review will focus on the role of libraries, and librarians like the protagonist’s father, in the story, while relating it to other fictional examples and real-life library concepts.
One of the first conversations in the film is between the 14-year-old protagonist Shizuku Tsukishima, living in the Tokyo suburb of Tama New Town, who learns the local library is going to the bar code system, and her father. She tells him that she likes the library slips instead. He actually agrees with her, but decides to go with the library’s change anyhow. Thanks to the library slip, she learns that one man’s name is in common on all the books she has checked out: Seiji Amasawa. This piques her interest. This major plot point is mentioned in many summaries and reviews of the film, noting that Seiji is on every single one of these checkout slips and how she is slowly drawn to him as the film goes forward, with their feelings growing. Shizuku is also drawn toward these books because she loves fantasy books, and meets Seiji at an old antique shop somewhere in town. Other reviewers have noted that the checkout cards are an interesting narrative device, which “lends itself well to romantic daydreaming.” It is worth noting that Shizuku is spending his summer vacation, last one she has at Mukaihara Junior High School, translating and reading “popular foreign music into Japanese” like John Denver’s Country Road. [2]
At one point, Shizuku checks a book out of the library, which was never checked out before, and even though she somewhat ends up disturbing the job of the librarian (or the teacher standing in as a librarian), she comes across Seiji. Then, not longer after, he is curiously reading the book she checked out and she takes it from him, surprised to see him. And he even knows her name from the book. So much for reader’s privacy! Although some may see a sense of relief and kinship at seeing these library check-out cards, looking at these cards would run afoul of existing ethics, as outlined by the ALA. Those ethics state that libraries will “protect each library user’s right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted.”
Such cards are sometimes known as borrowing cards. They had/have an equivalent inside the library: a circulation card. Such cards may include the name of who borrowed the book and name of the book. There are also slips/cards which remain in a book only listing the date a book is due to be returned, known as date due slips. I’m not sure why I haven’t gone into this much detail on this before, but better late than never. In the case of this film, it would be a borrowing card, rather than a date due slip, which was stuck in the back of book, and then the book would be shelved, a way to record who borrowed a book before computer systems supplanted this system. Paper can still be used in today’s libraries, even to write down call numbers for books. The latter has also been shown in the films Dangerous Minds and Regarding Henry.
I am reminded of a scene in All the President’s Men, in which Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein go to the Library of Congress, and a Black male librarian gives them the slips for who checked out certain books, as opposed to an interaction with a White female librarian. I described this all in a post on this very blog in February of last year:
…In the classic 1976 political thriller, All the President’s Men, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein travel to the Library of Congress after their research seems to be stalled and having a librarian have a strange conversation with one them. They go to one librarian, who declares that the records they want are confidential, and that he can’t fulfill their request of library card checkout slips since July 1971. The other, the image of which is shown above, fulfills their request. Voiced by Jaye Stewart, he tells them “I’m not sure you want ’em, but I’ve got ’em.” Woodward and Bernstein proceed to go through perhaps thousands of check-out slips in the Reading Room of the Library of Congress. Unfortunately, the work is for naught, as it doesn’t confirm if a White House staffer checked out books on Ted Kennedy…Snoek-Brown…[said] hat it is not ethical to “give out checkout slips or records without a court order” as librarians have an “obligation to protect the privacy rights of our patrons.” I agree with Snoek-Brown entirely on that point
Coming back to the film, I would think that such borrowing cards would weaken the commitment of the library to reader confidentiality. As it presently stands, almost every U.S. state has laws “protecting the confidentiality of library records”. The Japan Library Association in a statement published in 1980, states that librarians should respect the privacy of each library user, and should not “divulge his/her name or details of books or other library materials used to third parties”. A more recent statement notes library privacy and confidentiality, among other virtues, as important. This film came out before the economic downturn in Japan, in 1997, which unfortunately lead to privatization of libraries through “outsourcing of staff to reduce costs and provide a flexible workforce”, with privacy of user information is at stake because private management companies are “not obligated to protect users’ privacy and routinely gather their data”. [3]
Shizuku says card catalogs are better than digital recordsMoving on from that, and back to the film, Shizuku soon follows a cat to an antique shop and is drawn to a cat statue named Baron Humbert von Gikkingen, with the shop’s owner, Nishi, telling her about him. She barely makes it to the library in time, is annoyed by Seiji, and is embarrassed in the process, as he delivers “her” lunch for her, with the fat cat (she had followed to the shop) riding on the back of the bike. The lunch is actually for her dad, who works in the library! This library is a fictional place created for the film itself, as no such library exists at that location (Irohazaka Sakura Park). [4]
This fantastical nature of the library is not unique. However, this library is more akin to something that exists in reality, rather than in a magical realm by itself. This makes the series unique. Surely, there are public libraries akin to those in real-life in Josee the Tiger and the Fish or I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, to give two examples, apart from the many within school buildings that I’ve often written about. This library is clearly a place of knowledge, but it is not a place or refuge. Rather, it is a place of learning and development.
As the movie goes on, Shizuku learns who donated a book at the library: the father of Seiji. She is later called a “bookworm”, which she accepts happily. After all, she often goes to the library, a fantasy reportedly depicted in The Cat Returns, a 2002 film. She takes out books in the public library, so she can learn more for her story. At one point, she remains one of the last people there, writing away, and Seiji visits her in the library, while she writes her story. As a writer, she becomes more than a bookworm, and Seiji is more than a novice violin maker. Both characters are not exceptional, but have proven that they have what it takes to ensure their work can become “exceptional”, with their romance blossoming by the film’s end, even without a kiss. [5]
There is much more to this film than what I’ve noted so far and ending the article here would be selling it short, to say the least. For Shizuku to be called a bookworm as an insult, and turning it into a positive, is not limited to this film. There is an entire series entitled Ascendance of a Bookworm, which focuses on Myne and her quest to provide free books to the populace, building her previous life as a college librarian. In his quest, she even becomes a church librarian with some magical powers. The series has even been cited as an example of when an outsider from another world “usher systematic change in their adopted one.” The term was even alluded to in the series Bibliophile Princess, as a bibliophile, someone who frequently reads or collects books, and loves books, is also known as a bookworm. Bibliophile appears more “positive.”
Otherwise, there was a British comic from 1978-1985 entitled Bookworm about a young boy who always has a book and his parents tell him to do more “boyish” things, but it results in disaster. There’s also an 1850 painting entitled The Bookworm by Carl Spitzweg. A variation of this piece was even named The Librarian! Pu Songling published a romantic short story, in about 1740, entitled The Bookworm, while there are characters known as bookworms in Tiny Toon Adventures and most infamously in the campy 1960s Batman series. There are many other bookworms in fiction, like in Wonder Man (1945), Navy Blues (1937), and even Wong in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to an extent.
There is also the Association internationale de bibliophilie, which is called International Association of Bibliophiles or AIB in English. It is dedicated to bibliophiles. Russia has its National Union of Bibliophiles (formed in 2010), while there are is a book club in Detroit, a former group for female bibliophiles (Hroswitha Club), and the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles. There is even a 15-minute film, which I haven’t seen, entitled The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, about a man who is writing his memoir, but is blown off a balcony, writing out of a library,and even becomes a librarian with the city suffering from impact of a storm. There’s also books such as The Great Book-Collectors about book-collecting practices of the British Library, Bodleian Library, and Ashmolean Museum, along with a physical archive named Library of the Printed Web dedicated to “web-to-print artists’ books, zines and other printout matter.”
All of this is related to the concept of tsundoku, which means acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in your home without actually reading them. It can refer to books ready for reading later, as well, when those books are on a bookshelf. It is related to what A. Edward Newton wrote about in 1921, and stands in opposition to the term antilibrary. The latter, coined by Lebanese-American author Nassim Nicholas Taleb means a “collection of unread books”, which make people curious and humble. [6] He further stated that the older someone gets, the more they know, the larger is their “accumulation of unread books” and those who focus on such unread books are antischolars, i.e. those who do not “care about how much you know, but how much you don’t know” and how to find information you need.
When it comes to libraries, I would think people would side more with idea of antilibrary than the idea of tsundoku, as the latter seems to imply that having unread books is “bad.” Having books you haven’t read should not be seen as a negative. It is inevitable there will be books you haven’t read in your lifetime, no matter what. And libraries hold the books so they can be read by others, and shared, to spread knowledge, and understanding. This doesn’t mean that every book is right, immutable, or correct. Rather, the books can help you understand more about the world, at their best, and at their worst, promote misinformation. The latter can be prevented with careful weeding to ensure that patrons have the best information available.
Shizuku is studying in the library with a stack of books sitting on the table next to her. The man she likes is across the table from her, I believe.As I’ve noted on this blog various times, libraries serve many important functions in society. One of those is providing a place to study. This is shown clearly, as indicated in the above screenshot. You don’t have to be a bibliophile/bookworm for that. In fact, not all bookworms are librarians, and not all librarians are bookworms. Some are, but due to the many tasks during the work-day, often librarians don’t have time to read a book on the job, as some people might think.
When it comes to Japan, I’ve noted this before on here, but there are over 3,000 public libraries in this island nation, and remain an important part of the country’s society. In fact, there is even an entire Wikipedia page listing them, entitled “List of libraries in Japan” (not to be confused with the page “List of archives in Japan“). Some probably still have card catalogs. These libraries, known as toshokan in Japanese, are centered by the National Diet Library. The only series, I know, to date to directly feature this library is 26-episode early 2000s R.O.D. the TV anime series, which features characters from the Read or Die light novels, manga, and OVA, and the Read or Dream manga.
Academics have noted that information commons/learning commons which provide various materials, facilities, and services, in one place, originally appearing in North America, has also appeared in Japanese universities and college. Such spaces are reportedly in an ” the early stage of development”, and there is a need for such spaces to rebuild their own services because of student needs. Furthermore, many libraries in pre-modern Japan were arguably private and have been called bunko, meaning “storehouses of books.” Currently, most have been subsumed into larger national, prefectural, university, or research library institutions. Some have even covered this in books such as Youth-Serving Libraries in Japan, Russia, and the United States.
It is also said that Japanese academic libraries are well-resourced and support the country’s research capacity, while reflecting the country’s “strong bureaucratic culture.” I’m not sure if this is also the case for the country’s public libraries as well, to be perfectly honest. I can say, with certainty, that libraries are an important part of the country, especially considering that the Imperial Library (forerunner to the National Diet Library) was established in the latter 19th century, and in 1947, the National Library Act created Japan’s sole national library (National Diet Library). This was followed by the landmark 1950 Library Act. The law states, in part, that the country’s libraries are aimed to promoting “sound development…[and] the enhancement of the education and culture of the nation”. It goes onto say:
…libraries shall endeavor to accomplish…[collection of] nooks, archives, audio-visual materials and other necessary data and materials…with suitable attention paid to the acquisition of local materials, art works, materials on local administration, gramophone records and films…library materials shall be properly classified and processed…efforts shall be made to ensure that library personnel acquire sufficient knowledge of library matters…close communication and cooperation shall be maintained by…inter-library loans between libraries…reading circles, seminars, appreciation groups, film showings and exhibits of data…shall be sponsored and encouraged…close contact and cooperation shall be maintained with schools, museums, community centers and research institutes, etc….professional personnel of libraries shall be called librarians and assistant librarians.
And that’s only part of Chapter 1! There is no comparison to this in U.S. law. The legislation, which passed the U.S. Congress in April 1800 (see page 56), only mentioned that the purchase of books “as may be necessary for the use of Congress at the said city of Washington, and for fitting up a suitable apartment for containing them and for placing them therein, the sum of five thousand dollars shall be…appropriated.” That same law went onto say that a library catalogue shall be furnished by a joint congressional committee, with books “placed in one suitable apartment in the capitol in the said city, for the use of both…houses of Congress and the members thereof”. That is it. It wasn’t until 1802 that a law defined the functions and role of this library, the Library of Congress (LOC), and even made the appointment of the Librarian of Congress a “presidential responsibility”! Still, this was nothing like the Library Law in Japan, which was much more extensive.
Such a law in the U.S, would be unthinkable, even at this current time, despite the fact it could have extreme value in ensuring the institution’s mission and objectives. On the other hand, LOC has broadly defined that on its own, and has a bit of autonomy, as it is only the de facto national library. This makes it different from the many across the world, coupled with any state-established libraries serving as preeminent information repositories for specific regions.
When I watched Whisper of the Heart on Max, with my mom and dad, I never expected libraries to be as big of a part of the film from the get-go. I am truly grateful that I came across this film, and would surely watch it again if I get a chance. That;s all for this post. Until next week! As always, comments are welcome.
Shizuku looks at library slips and finding out some man checked the SAME book out before her© 2023-2024 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.
Notes
[1] Since then, I’ve written about (I don’t recommend you watch all of these, though, and some of the following I would not watch again) over 80 anime series: Revolutionary Girl Utena, Wandering Son, Ice, Kuttsukiboshi, Paradise Kiss, Macross Frontier, Classroom of the Elite, Gargantia, Kandagawa Jet Girls, El-Hazard, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, Ascendance of a Bookworm, R.O.D. the TV, B Gata H Kei, Bloom Into You, Little Witch Academia, Yamibou, Whispered Words, Aoi Hana / Sweet Blue Flowers, Strawberry Panic!, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Manaria Friends, Kampfer, Lapis Re:Lights, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Blue Drop, The Mystic Archives of Dantalian, Cardcaptor Sakura, Venus vs. Virus, Otherside Picnic, My-Hime, Simoun, Riddle Story of Devil, Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood, Dear Brother, Library War, Girl Friend Beta, Kokoro Library, Attack on Titan, Let’s Make a Mug Too, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra, Bernard-jou Iwaku a.k.a. Miss Bernard said, Komi Can’t Communicate, The Ancient Magus Bride: Those Awaiting a Star, Gosick, Laid-Back Camp, As Miss Beelzebub Likes, Bibliophile Princess, Love Live! Sunshine!!, Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie, My Roommate is a Cat, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, Kin-iro Mosaic, Akebi’s Sailor Uniform, Makura no Danshi, Azumanga Daioh, Oresuki, Seitokai Yakuindomo, Gabriel DropOut, Spy x Family, A Couple of Cuckoos, Märchen Mädchen, Healer Girl, Smile of the Arsnotoria the Animation, Smile Pretty Cure!/Glitter Force, A Good Librarian Like a Good Shepard, A Place Further Than The Universe, Teasing Master Takagi-san, Myself ; Yourself, Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War, Stars Align, Tokyo Mew Mew New, Skip and Loafer, Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Violet Evergarden, Somali and the Forest Spirit, Aharen-San wa Hakarenai, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, Chitose Got You, Clannad, Cue!, Encouragement to Climb: Next Summit, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Gabriel Drop Out, Kin-iro Mosaic, K-On!, Noir, Otherside Picnic, The Rising of the Shield Hero, and Re:Zero, and four films: I Want To Eat Your Pancreas, Calamity of a Zombie Girl, Your Name, and Josee, the Tiger and the Fish. Later posts this year will focus on series such as Ouran High School Host Club, Is the Order a Rabbit?, Kiss Him, Not Me, The Demon Girl Next Door, The Executioner and Her Way of Life, YuruYuri, Library War, Maria Watches Over Us, Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka, and Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (Haruka Nogizaka’s Secret), to name a few.
[2] “Whisper of the Heart,” IFC Center, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Russo, Lee. “How Whisper of the Heart Explores the Fear of Failure,” CBR, Jun. 13, 2020; Graeme. “The Best Films I’ve Ever Seen: Whisper of the Heart,” Film School Rejects, Jun. 15, 2018; “Whisper of the Heart,” Studio Ghibli, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Faith. “Whisper of the Heart,” Studio Ghibli Movies, Nov. 28, 2014; Toole, Michael. “Whisper of the Heart Blu-Ray + DVD Review,” Anime News Network, Nov. 29, 2014; Osmond, Andrew. “Whisper of the Heart Review,” Anime News Network, Jan. 11, 2012; Mindus, Jay. “Why Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart Is the Perfect Movie for Young Artists,” CBR, May 12, 2022; “Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba),” Harvard Film Archive, accessed Jun. 6, 2023; Cyrenne, Randall. “Whisper Of The Heart,” Animated Views, Mar. 7, 2006.
[3] Alix, Francis A. “The History and Current Challenges of Libraries in Japan,” SLIS Connectings 10(1): 10.
[4] Graeme, “The Best Films I’ve Ever Seen: Whisper of the Heart,” 2018; Toole, “Whisper of the Heart Blu-Ray + DVD Review,” 2014; Osmond, “Whisper of the Heart Review,” 2012; “Tracing Shizuku’s Steps: Visit ‘Whisper of the Heart’ Locations in Real Life,” tsunagu Japan, accessed Jun. 7, 2023; “Visiting ‘Whisper of the Heart’ Movie Location,” justa-fangirl, 2014.
[5] “Whisper of the Heart,” Ghibli Wiki, accessed Jun. 7, 2023; Cyrenne, “Whisper Of The Heart,” 2006; “Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba,” Harvard Film Archive; Mindus, “Why Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart Is the Perfect Movie for Young Artists,” 2022; Pineda, Rafael Antonio. “Live-Action Whisper of the Heart Sequel Film Delayed Due to COVID-19,” Anime News Network, Apr. 20, 2020. The live-action sequel, also named Whisper of the Heart came out in October 2022 in Japan, but it was received badly if the reviews from Japan Times and Crunchyroll listed on the “Whisper of the Heart (2022 film)” Wikipedia page are any indication. Apparently, there is even a library scene in the film. I haven’t watched the film, so I can’t confirm that completely, however.
[6] Brooks, Katherine. “There’s A Japanese Word For People Who Buy More Books Than They Can Actually Read,” HuffPost, Apr. 19, 2017; Tobar, Hector, “Are you a book hoarder? There’s a word for that,” Los Angeles Times, Jul. 24, 2014; “Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them,” BBC News, Jul. 29, 2018; Crow, Jonathan. “‘Tsundoku,’ the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the English Language,” Open Culture, Jul. 24, 2014; “A QUOTE ON BIBLIOMANIA,” Language Hat, Feb. 7, 2008; Popova, Maria. “Umberto Eco’s Antilibrary: Why Unread Books Are More Valuable to Our Lives than Read Ones,” The Marginalian, Mar. 24, 2015; Stillman, Jessica. “Why You Should Surround Yourself With More Books Than You’ll Ever Have Time to Read,” Inc., Dec. 5, 2017; McDonough, Lauren Smith. “Everyone Is Obsessed With the Trend of Antilibraries Right Now,” House Beautiful, Dec. 19, 2017; Boyd, Rebecca Lowry. “The book trend everyone is talking about right now,” Better Homes & Gardens, accessed Jun. 27, 2023.
#AllThePresidentSMen #AnimeNewsNetwork #antilibrary #AscendanceOfABookworm #barcodes #BibliophilePrincess #bibliophilia #BlackLibrarians #BlackWomen #BluRays #books #booksAreNotSacred #ethics #femaleLibrarians #IWantToEatYourPancreas #JapaneseLibrarians #JapaneseMen #JapanesePatrons #JoseeTheTigerAndTheFish #KOn #libraryCards #librarySlips #magic #NationalDietLibrary #NavyBluesFilm #RODTheTV #ReadOrDieLightNovels #ReadOrDieManga #ReadOrDieOVA #ReadOrDream #readerConfidentiality #ReelLibrarians #SeitokaiYakuindomo #Simoun #students #studying #teachers #TheCatReturns #tsundoku #WhisperOfTheHeart #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteWomen
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Mini 8×8 LED Matrix
I have a few neat 20x20mm square 8×8 LED matrix modules that I want to drive.
Quite some time ago I tried to hook them up with a HT16K33 based 16×8 I2C LED matrix driver, but it was all on stripboard and not only was it quite messy, actually it really didn’t work very reliably either, so this is another attempt. Eventually this resulted in a small driver PCB.
The LED Matrix Module
The fundamental point of an LED matrix module is the matrix bit. The LEDs are arranged in a grid of some sort and consequently it isn’t possible to light up all LEDs at the same time. They have to be “scanned” and if they are scanned quickly enough then persistence of vision kicks in and it appears as if all LEDs are lit at the same time.
There are a whole range of 8×8 LED matrix modules to choose from, and often it isn’t obvious what the type or pinout for them is. At least it isn’t when they’ve been kicking around in your parts drawer for some time.
Options are:
- Size of module. I’m using a square mini module which is 20x20mm (often described as 19x19mm). A larger 8×8 version is the 32x32mm module. There are also asymmetrical arrangements too, for example 5×7 LEDs.
- Type of LED. I’m using single colour LED modules, but they are often available in different colours. There are also dual-colour versions (usually red and green, which also gives an orange option when both are lit) and even RGB versions. The RGB can be “programmable” LEDs or simply direct connections to each LED colour – so with RGB, that is 4 pins per LED…
- Common Anode or Common Cathode. This refers to which leg of a row/column or LEDs is common to that entire row/column.
- Number of pins and pinout. Different matrices are mapped onto pins differently. I’ve seen some with 14 pins and some with 16, both in DIP format.
- Arrangement of the “grid”. There are two main variants here – a grid with the same number of LEDS per common connection, or a “Charlieplexed” arrangement which is a clever way of driving more LEDs from less IO pins. I have a square grid of 8 rows and 8 columns of LEDs.
Here is a schematic with LED arrangement and pinouts for a common 8×8 LED module found very cheaply online.
The left shows a common cathode, and the right a common anode. I’m pretty sure I have common anode LEDs from an old note I found lying around, so I’m going to start with that.
I’ve used the following simple circuit to verify which pin is which. The resistor is there to limit the current passing through each LED.
In the final circuit, I’d be looking at maybe using a 1K resistor so limiting the LED current to around 3-3.5mA (assuming 5V supply and forward voltage of 1.7-2.2V for a typical red LED). For a maximum of 8 LEDs per common connection, that would still only be less than 50mA so I don’t think current would be an issue in any of the approaches I’ll be looking at. But I also have to take into account that if there are 8 scan cycles for a complete display, then each LED will only be on for 1/8th of the time of the scan, so will appear 1/8th as bright anyway.
I do seem to have a module that follows the pinout as shown above (right). In the following diagram, the pins are numbered with pins 1 to 8 along the bottom (left to right) and pins 9 to 16 across the top (right to left).
In this orientation, the ROWs and COLUMNs as described above are mapped as shown below.
Just to bring all this together, the pin functions of my matrix are as follows (row = anode; column = cathode):
PinPinR5116C8R7215C7C2314R2C3413C1R8512R4C5611C6R6710C4R389R1LED Matrix Driving
The fundamental principle for a common anode configuration is that if a positive voltage is patched onto a ROW and GND is connected to a COLumn then that LED at that position will light up. However of course, different ROWs and COLs will have different states so some kind of “scanning” will be required.
A microcontroller can do this without any additional support if it has 16 IO pins. For example, the following algorithm could be used to scan each ROW in turn, setting the appropriate COL values:
Initialise ROW and COL pins as OUTPUT
Set all ROWS and COLS to LOW
FOR EACH ROW:
FOR EACH COL:
Set HIGH or LOW according to required output pattern for that ROW.
Momentarily set ROW HIGH then return it LOWEvery COL/ROW LED will light up when the combination ROW=HIGH, COL=LOW is reached. If the ROWs are scanned quickly enough, then persistence of vision means that the LED matrix appears to be fully illuminated.
As I say, given suitable current limiting LEDs (one per ROW) and enough IO pins a microcontroller could do this directly, but it uses a lot of GPIO and is likely to reach the current limits of the microcontroller pretty quickly if lots of LEDs are illuminated at once.
The answer is to utilise an additional chip as an LED matrix driver, both freeing up the microcontroller’s GPIO and providing the option for a higher current draw.
LED Matrix Drivers
There are a number of options. Some are general IO expanders, some are dedicated to supporting LED matrices, some include higher current sinks or sources as required.
A key benefit of these types of devices is that in some the scanning is performed by the device itself, so the MCU only has to send it the data for the complete display and then let it just get on with things.
MAX2719 Segment Display Driver
This is a “Serially Interfaced, 8-Digit LED Display Driver” (more here). From the MAXIM datasheet:
“The MAX7219/MAX7221 are compact, serial input/output common-cathode display drivers that interface microprocessors (µPs) to 7-segment numeric LED displays of up to 8 digits, bar-graph displays, or 64 individual LEDs.”
They interface to a MCU using SPI and have additional features to directly support 7 or 8-segment displays. As they support up to 8 digits with up to 8 segments, they could also perfectly support my 8×8 LED matrix.
Key parameters:
- 24 pin DIP.
- MCU Interface: Serial IO (chainable).
- Power: 4.0V – 5.5V.
- DIG sink current: 500mA; SEG source current: 100mA. Max current supply (all segments on): 330mA.
These are often paired up with a 32mm 8×8 LED display on a cheap PCB kit. For my purposes though, there is an issue – these are designed to be used with common cathode displays.
I suspect this is due to the current ratings for the digit/segment pins. The datasheet expands:
“Eight-Digit Drive Lines that sink current from the display common cathode. The MAX7219 pulls the digit outputs to V+ when turned off.”
“Seven Segment Drives and Decimal Point Drive that source current to the display. On the MAX7219, when a segment driver is turned off it is pulled to GND.”
If the LEDs are in a matrix, in principle it ought to be possible to have an arrangement that could work with a common anode display if the current limits can be balanced.
The common cathode (DIG) will assume a worst case of all 8 LEDs illuminated, meaning a maximum sink of up to 500mA or up to around 60mA per LED. The individual anode (SEG) supports up to 100mA current source per LED. These are both pretty high, especially as I’m not anticipating more than a total of around 50mA for 8 LEDs.
But can a common cathode scanning chip be used with a common anode display? As it stands it will be assuming that it can set a single cathode line LOW and drive all 8 anode lines according to the required pattern. But as the LEDs are displayed in a matrix, looking back at the circuit diagrams, I think it just means that the cathodes are the columns and the anodes are the rows. So instead of scanning rows, it will be scanning columns, so I think it would be fine.
So to summarise, for my LED matrix, the ROWs will be the anode, so connected to SEG and the COLs will be the cathode so connected to DIG.
There is one other key advantage to using the MAX7219. It supports a single “current setting” resistor (Rset in the datasheet). A single resistor between the ISET pin (18) and VCC. Looking at the table in the datasheet I think using a ~60-80K resistor would keep he current down to <10mA for the LEDs, although I must admit I’m not quite following how the values are calculated.
IS31FL3731 LED Driver
The actual IS31FL3731 driver chip is a QFN-28 or SSOP-28 surface mount device, so I won’t be using these directly, but they are available in a breakout board from Adafruit (more here and here). From the datasheet:
“The IS31FL3731 is a compact LED driver for 144 single LEDs. The device can be programmed via an I2C compatible interface. The IS31FL3731 offers two blocks each driving 72 LEDs with 1/9 cycle rate. The required lines to drive all 144 LEDs are reduced to 18 by using the cross-plexing feature optimizing space on the PCB. Additionally each of the 144 LEDs can be dimmed individually with 8-bit allowing 256 steps of linear dimming.”
I believe by “cross-plexing” they are talking about “Charlie Plexing”. The breakouts have the following key parameters:
- SMD but available as a breakout.
- MCU Interface: I2C with 4 address options.
- Power: 2.7V – 5.5V.
- Pinout compatible with Adafruit 16×9 Charlieplexed LED modules.
These are available relatively cheaply (~£6 each) but they aren’t geared up for use with a common LED matrix like mine, so they won’t be considered further either. But I do have some of the modules and the corresponding LED boards, and I can confirm they are very neat and possibly the highest density LED matrix I have.
HT16K33 LED Controller
This is the driver chip Adafruit use on their own 20x20mm 8×8 LED matrix “backpacks” (more here). From the datasheet:
“The HT16K33 is a memory mapping and multi-function LED controller driver. The max. Display segment numbers in the device is 128 patterns (16 segments and 8 commons) with a 13*3 (MAX.) matrix key scan circuit. The software configuration features of the HT16K33 makes it suitable for multiple LED applications including LED modules and display subsystems. The HT16K33 is compatible with most microcontrollers and communicates via a two-line bidirectional I2C-bus.”
Key operational parameters:
- SMD but available as a breakout.
- MCU Interface: I2C with 8 address options (although only 4 are available on some of the backpacks themselves).
- Power: 4.5V – 5.5V (although the Adafruit backpacks look like they can be powered from 3V3 too).
- Available in 8×8 (20 pin), 8×12 (24 pin) and 8×16 (28 pin) variants, although Adafruit modules are only available in 8×16 format.
- 16x ROW = anode (active HIGH to display); 8x COL = cathode (active LOW to display)
- COL sink current: 200mA; ROW source current: <40mA
These are the modules I’d originally used with my first attempt (undocumented) at driving these LED matrix displays. If I was to use them again, then it would be a case of including the footprint on a PCB for a pair of LED matrices and then providing a connector for I2C and power.
Note: I can’t just use the Adafruit LED matrix breakouts directly as I want to cascade them up to each other and these breakouts have exposed PCBs top and bottom that stops the LED matrix from being positioned right next to each other.
MCP23017 IO Expander
This is a generic 16-way GPIO I2C expander providing access to an additional 16 GPIO pins over I2C (more here) – a “16-Bit I/O Expander with Serial Interface” according to the datasheet:
“The MCP23X17 consists of multiple 8-bit configuration registers for input, output and polarity selection. The system master can enable the I/Os as either inputs or outputs by writing the I/O configuration bits (IODIRA/B). The data for each input or output is kept in the corresponding input or output register. The polarity of the Input Port register can be inverted with the Polarity Inversion register. All registers can be read by the system master.”
Key parameters:
- 28 pin DIP.
- MCU Interface: I2C (23017) or SPI (23S17).
- Power: 1.8V to 5.5V.
- Max current sink/source for IO pins: 25mA; Max through VSS/VDD: 150mA/125mA.
These devices have two 8-bit GPIO ports, so it would seem a simple matter of hooking up one port to the rows and one to the columns and then it would work fine as a matrix driver. There are a couple of issues though:
- Each common connector IO pin to be scanned should allow for up to the maximum of 8 LEDs to be illuminated. If there is a 25mA limit per IO pin, that isn’t much per LED. It could be done, e.g. by using a 2K resistor with my red LEDs, but they might not be very bright. But they still might be bright enough depending on what is required.
- There is no built-in scanning, the microcontroller will have to constantly send the new IO values over I2C for each row or column scan. That will add up pretty quickly to become a limiting factor I suspect, especially as that has to be maintained at a suitable refresh rate.
Given the current limits and lack of automated scanning, whilst these could work, they offer very little advantage, and some disadvantage, compared to the other options.
74HC595 Shift Register
Whilst it is possible to drive LEDs directly from a microcontroller (assuming they can support the current), it is more usual to use a shift register to save IO pins.
“The SNx4HC595 devices contain an 8-bit, serial-in, parallel-out shift register that feeds an 8-bit D-type storage register.”
This means that 8-bits provided over a serial link get turned into 8 IO pin outputs and as these devices can be cascaded together, they can be expanded to 16-bits, 24-bits, etc.
Operating parameters:
- 16 pin DIP.
- MCU Interface: Serial/clock IO.
- Power: 2V – 6V.
- Max IO current 20mA; max total current via VCC/GND 70mA.
In principle these could work well with a matrix, using two devices, one for rows and one for columns, but the current could be an issue. When driving (say) a single row, the device driving the row will need to support up to 8 LEDs worth of current on a single IO pin, and the device driving the columns would have to allow for up to 8 LEDs illuminated on 8 IO pins. If the currents are limited as previous described, the latter would be ok (up to 50mA total, around 3mA per LED), but the combined total for a row would be too much for a single IO pin.
Typically such devices might be used with something like a ULN2803 current sink which can sink up to 500mA in total. This would have to be provided on the cathodes and the cathode would be the scanned column in the code.
Current limiting resistors should be put in the anode side of the circuit, meaning that the resistors serve only a single LED at a time. If they were placed in the cathode side, then if multiple LEDs are lit, the brightness would change if sharing a resistor.
Using a shift register only has a minor advantage over using direct MCU IO pins – it reduces the pin count required. But in all other respects is not so different. It will still have current limitations which really need an additional chip to overcome; and all scanning will have to be handled by the microcontroller and kept at a suitable refresh rate.
Summary of Options
- MAX7219: unsurprisingly this is a device dedicated to driving segment and matrix displays. The fact it is designed for common cathode displays shouldn’t be an issue for my LED matrix. Driven via a serial IO link (SPI) and chainable.
- Disadvantages: One device is required per matrix. They are not particularly cheap. They are quite large in DIP format.
- IS31FL3731: designed for LED matrices.
- Disadvantages: This is a surface mount device, so requires a breakout for me to use it. Designed for a Charlieplex matrix, so not really suitable.
- HT16K33: again dedicated device for driving LED matrices. Can support two 8×8 matrices. Driven over I2C.
- Disadvantages: Surface mount again, but breakouts are available, but again not particularly cheap.
- MCP23017: general purpose I2C IO expander.
- Disadvantages: unlikely to support current required. Needs MCU to perform scanning.
- 74HC595: general purpose serial to parallel shift register. Can be chained.
- Disadvantages: likely to require additional current sink device. Needs MCU to perform scanning.
The choice for me is going to have to be either the MAX7219 or HT16K33. Both are too large for my mini displays, but if I can design a board for several displays at the same time there might be options to overlay chips and displays in a useful manner.
The HT16K33 is perhaps the more useful device, with each supporting two displays but I would have to design a board to accept the footprint of the breakout or attempt a SMD PCB…
Mini LED Matrix MAX2719 PCB
In the end, rather than mess around with breakouts, I just dived right in and tried to design a PCB that would support a MAX7219 and one of my mini LEDs. I went with the MAX7219 over the HT16K33 as it seemed a simpler choice at this point in time. I had to create a custom symbol for my LED matrix following the pinout as shown previously.
In terms of connecting to the MAX7219, I have the following:
- SEG A – G + DP -> ROWS 1 – 8
- DIG 0 – 7 -> COLS 1 – 8
There was no way I would get a DIP version on – and I did try. One thought was if I had a PCB for several matrices at the same time, then I would have more layout options – but it just wouldn’t go.
So I decided to go with the surface mount version of the MAX7219. This comes in a SOP-24 package which looks just about hand solderable.
I have two board designs – one for two matrices and one for four. My first four-matrix design was a 2×2 square, but I just could not get traces between pins between the two sets of boards, so in the end I went with a 1×4 layout which gives plenty of room between the two long rows of LED matrix pins.
Unfortunately I managed to get the pitch wrong for my LED matrix and the rows are one pin-row-header too wide. But to be honest, I’m not sure I’d have been able to route it with them any narrower, so maybe this is just the way I’ll have to do it!
Each MAX7219 has a 0805 footprint 62K resistor and 100nF capacitor, although when it came to it, I only had 75K resistors in my parts box, so I used those.
There are IN and OUT headers so the idea is that the boards can be chained. I’ll have to see how well that works in practice.
I initially went with standard pin header sockets for the matrix as they can be bent fairly easily, but unfortunately they don’t make very good contact with the pins on the matrix, so I switched to round-hole pin headers instead.
Example Code
Driving the displays is relatively straight forward, it is just a case of hooking it up to an Arduino’s SPI and sending a number of addr-data pairs, one for each chained MAX7219, detailing either commands or DIGIT data to be displayed.
There is one problem however.
When it comes to programming the MAX7219, the register address corresponds to a DIGIT, which for me is a “column” value; and the data programmed corresponds to the SEGMENTS to illuminate, which for me is a “row”. Recall the MAX7219 is designed for common cathode 7-segment displays, but I’m using it to drive a common anode LED matrix.
So this means I am scanning columns and setting rows. But as the matrix is rotated through 90 degrees on the circuit board, it appears that I’m scanning rows and setting columns. It gets more confusing…
Mapping to segments, I’ve made a mistake. I thought DP was the last segment, but when it comes to setting the SEGMENT values in the registers for the MAX7219, they are encoded in an 8-bit value as follows:
I’ve hooked them up as follows in the schematic
Which means that to get R8, R7…R1 in the right “column” I need the 8-bit value written to be in the following format:
MAX7219 Register Bit: 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
MAX7219 Segment: DP A B C D E F G
LED Matrix "ROW": R8 R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7
Physical Column: 1 8 7 6 5 4 3 2This corresponds to the LED matrix being oriented with pin 1 top left. This makes the top left LED correspond to physical (row 1, column 1) and the bottom right LED is (row 8, column 8).
This means that when creating a bit pattern for the column values, they are swapped compared to bit numbers, and DP needs inserting into bit 7.
val = ((val & 0xff)>>1) | ((val & 0xff)<<7);
It does, ironically, mean that to scan columns in the order left->right, I can simply use:
for (int r=0; r<8; r++) {
for (int c=0; c<8; c++) {
// to scan columns 1 to 8
uint8_t val = (1<<c);
// adjust for DP
val = ((val & 0xff)>>1) | ((val & 0xff)<<7);
// Convert rows 0-7 to register address 1-8
sendToSPI(r+1, c);
}
}It’s quirky, but it works!
But if I stick with this approach, then any bitmaps (or fonts!) stored in memory for display will have to be stored horizontally mirrored.
The final test code for an Arduino Uno or Nano, using the standard SPI pins (13=clock; 11=data out):
#include <SPI.h>
#define SS_PIN 10
#define NUM_MAX7219 2
#define MAX7219_TEST 0x0f
#define MAX7219_BRIGHTNESS 0x0a
#define MAX7219_SCAN_LIMIT 0x0b
#define MAX7219_DECODE_MODE 0x09
#define MAX7219_SHUTDOWN 0x0C
void maxCommand (uint8_t address, uint8_t value) {
digitalWrite(SS_PIN, LOW);
for (int i=0; i<NUM_MAX7219; i++) {
SPI.transfer(address); // Send address.
SPI.transfer(value); // Send the value.
}
digitalWrite(SS_PIN, HIGH); // Finish transfer.
}
void maxData (uint8_t row, uint8_t value) {
digitalWrite(SS_PIN, LOW);
for (int i=0; i<NUM_MAX7219; i++) {
SPI.transfer(row+1); // ROW registers address 1-8
uint8_t val = value;
val = ((val & 0xff)>>1) | ((val & 0xff)<<7);
SPI.transfer(val); // Send the value.
}
digitalWrite(SS_PIN, HIGH); // Finish transfer.
}
void setup() {
pinMode(SS_PIN, OUTPUT);
SPI.setBitOrder(MSBFIRST);
SPI.begin();
maxCommand(MAX7219_TEST, 0x01); // Test mode on
delay(1000);
maxCommand(MAX7219_TEST, 0x00); // Test mode off
maxCommand(MAX7219_DECODE_MODE, 0x00); // Disable BCD mode.
maxCommand(MAX7219_BRIGHTNESS, 0x00); // Turn brightness right down
maxCommand(MAX7219_SCAN_LIMIT, 0x0f); // Use all digits
maxCommand(MAX7219_SHUTDOWN, 0x01); // Turn on
// Start with everything off
for (int r=0; r<8; r++) {
maxData(r, 0);
}
for (int r=0; r<8; r++) {
maxData(r, 255);
delay(500);
maxData(r, 0);
}
for (int c=0; c<8; c++) {
for (int r=0; r<8; r++) {
maxData(r, (1<<c));
}
delay(500);
}
for (int r=0; r<8; r++) {
maxData(r, 0);
}
}
void loop() {
for (int r=0; r<8; r++) {
for (int c=0; c<8; c++) {
maxData (r, (1<<c));
delay(200);
}
maxData (r, 0);
}
}Conclusion
I haven’t published the PCBs as I wasn’t sure many would accept the issues with them, and I didn’t want to spend ages attempting to explain them away in my GitHub repository, but if are of interest, given all the above, ping me a message somehow (via Mastodon is probably easiest) and I can send on Gerbers or KiCad files.
I’ve only tested the two-way board so far. I’m working up to soldering four devices on a PCB.
I’d like to get a whole block of 20 or so LED matrices all tied together. I’ll post back here if I manage it.
Software wise, I’ve proved the principle but can’t decide at the moment if it is more intuitive to think of the columns going left to right, or right to left. With hindsight it would have been a lot simpler to map them onto the SEGMENTS already bit-swapped. And with DP in the right place of course.
Still, amazingly, the PCBs work.
Kevin
-
Building a virtual neuron – part 2
Image credit: Ionut Stefan
It’s been a tad longer than I intended since our intro on differential equations came out, but hopefully that means you had some extra time for memory consolidation. Otherwise, you can refresh your memory here. Today it’s finally time to tackle the long-awaited virtual neuron. But before we jump in, we need to have a quick housekeeping chat. As you can already glimpse from the list below, we mean business this time, so I strongly recommend that you read this article in chunks. Then again, I’m just a disembodied voice on the Internet and I can’t tell you what to do.
- Defining the goal
- The plurality of virtual neurons
- The foundation model
- From cats to neurons
- From neurons to circuits
- From measurements to interventions
- Virtual neuron 1 – linear, boring, and instructive
- Virtual neuron 2 – to the moon and beyond
- Virtual neuron 3 – other ions have joined the party
- The full model – everybody gets a function
- Still alive?
Defining the goal
First, we need to understand what we want to do. “Building a virtual neuron” sounds cool (well, about as cool as math can ever sound), but it tells us surprisingly little about the task. We need to define the level at which we build this neuron. Do we want to simulate every protein and ion, and all their interactions? I mean, maybe. I admit that does sound pretty cool, but would we be able to interpret the results? My computational neuroscience professor used to say: “If you build a simulation as complex as the system you’re studying, you now have two systems you don’t understand.” And leaving that aside, could we even construct such a simulation right now? Well, no, not really. So instead we need to define three things:
- what we want to do;
- what we can and want to get out of it;
- what we can realistically accomplish.
For today, we want to build a model capable of producing action potentials, just like real neurons (1). We want to use this model to understand how neurons produce these potentials and how they are affected by both external stimuli and ion channel properties (2). And we can realistically accomplish this with a run-of-the-mill laptop and our own brains (3).
The plurality of virtual neurons
There isn’t just one single way to simulate a neuron. In fact, there are a lot of options. If you don’t believe me, have a look here. Choosing a computational model is an act of balance between complexity and efficiency. On the one hand, we want something complex enough to capture what we’re interested in: for example, if we want to know what happens to a neuron when we mess with its calcium channels, we need a model that includes them. On the other hand, this model needs to run on the available hardware and we should be able to make some sense of its results. So if we only care about calcium channels, it’s not such a good idea to include 300 other types of ion channels.
The foundation model
For today, I’ve chosen the Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) model. As some of you might already know, this is kind of the bedrock of modern computational modeling, and often the first boss you will encounter if you ever attend such a course.
While arguably not the first computational model, the HH was pioneering as a quantitative, dynamic, biologically grounded one, and it remains remarkably elegant to this day. Of course, now it’s quite easy to look at it and think “well, big whoop, we already know how action potentials work”. But given the limited amount of information Hodgkin and Huxley had available at the time, it’s nothing short of fascinating how well the model reproduced empirical data and what predictions they were able to derive from it.
At the same time, coming from the biology side, I always had a bunch of questions about action potentials that remained largely unanswered until I made my way through the math jungle. For example, why do sodium (Na+) channels open slowly at first, then all at once? Why does the threshold for spike generation have that value and not another one? Why do potassium (K+) channels take so long to open? And why is it that we don’t always get one spike after another?
As we work our way through the model, we will be answering these questions and more. But similar to the previous article, we’ll start with a series of small, made-up examples (the code to follow along is here) and work our way up to the main beast. I hope that these examples bring clarity, but if they have the opposite effect, please let me know in the comments. That way, I can improve this guide (and future ones).
Throughout, I’ll try to highlight the underlying biology, as well as what Hodgkin and Huxley actually knew at the time. If you’d like a refresher on neuron structure and function, we do have this older post covering the basics, but I’ll try to weave those concepts in as we go.
From cats to neurons
Abstracting the movements of a cat to math is somewhat straightforward. If we get stuck in the equation, we have something tangible to go back to. So before we start with the math, let’s try to build the same kind of concreteness for neurons and action potentials.
We can begin from the same information Hodgkin and Huxley had available at the time. Neurons are enclosed by membranes, which usually block the movement of ions. Since the membrane is typically sealed, we can have different concentrations of ions on both sides: more Na+ outside, more K+ inside. While they didn’t yet know how these concentration gradients were maintained, HH recognized their importance.
They also observed that, if one were to place an electrode outside of the neuron and stick another one inside, a potential difference in voltage of about -65 mV could be measured (by the way, these days it’s also known the exact voltage difference varies by neuron type). In other words, the inside of the cell is more negative compared to the outside. Importantly, the value and its sign don’t matter that much, at least not for understanding the general principles. What matters is that there is a measurable difference and that sometimes there is a change in this difference.
If the membrane were forever sealed to the passage of any and all ions, then that would be the end of the story. We’d have no action potential to talk about (and we couldn’t anyway, because no intelligence, language, movement, nothing). But sometimes, the membrane allows ions to flow through it. You can imagine the ion concentrations we mentioned above as water stored in a tank. There’s much more Na+ outside the neuron than inside, so when the Na+ “tap” (i.e., ion channels) opens, Na+ rushes into the neuron, like water gushing into an empty chamber. This happens very fast and leads to a temporary reversal of the voltage difference sign: the inside becomes more positive than the outside. Then the Na⁺ tap closes and the K+ tap opens, allowing K+ to flow out and bring things back to normal.
This information is pretty much all we need for the HH model, although I’m sure you still have some questions.
Small detour # 1: hypothesized, but not modeled
We mentioned above that Hodgkin and Huxley didn’t know how the Na+ and K+ gradients were maintained. However, they hypothesized there must be some active mechanism that pushes Na+ out and brings K+ into the neuron, thus working to maintain the concentration gradients. Otherwise, each neuron would only have a few action potentials to fire before the ion concentration on both sides of the membrane equalizes.
And they were right. Years later, we found out that there are proteins embedded in the membrane, called ion pumps, that are open only on one side of the neuron at a time. They act kind of like a shuttle bus that only allows Na+ to board from the inside going out and K+ from the outside going in.
Small detour # 2: positive, yet negative?
I’m sure it’s not lost on any of you that: 1) both Na+ and K+ are positive ions, and 2) cells, including neurons, aren’t electrically charged. So how can we talk about a voltage difference?
There are a few key points here:
- overall, the amount of positive and negative charges is equal both inside and outside the membrane, but it’s the distribution of these charges close to the membrane that makes a difference;
- inside the neuron, there are also large negatively charged proteins which can’t leave the cell and tend to cluster close to the membrane;
- even though both Na+ and K+ each carry a +1 charge, the concentration of Na+ outside the cell is larger than that of K+ inside the cell (around 150 mM for Na+ vs 100 mM for K+, depending on neuron type). Additionally, the pump we mentioned earlier throws out 3 Na+ ions for every 2 K+ brought in, thus maintaining the imbalance;
- there are also some K+ channels that remain open at rest. Due to the K+ concentration gradient, some of it flows out of the neuron, which means that some positive charge trickles outward, leaving the inside slightly more negative relative to the outside.
The combination of these factors generates the voltage difference measured by Hodgkin and Huxley.
From neurons to circuits
Coming back to our neuron model, now that we have the biology basics, we can begin to abstract. But instead of inventing an entirely new mathematical framework to describe how neurons behave, Hodgkin and Huxley realized that it was easier to repurpose what was already in the physics of electric circuits.
All the elements we described above have an equivalent in a circuit:
- since the membrane stores charge, it behaves like something called a capacitor, i.e. a device which stores charge by accumulating it on two closely spaced surfaces insulated from each other;
- the only way for ions to passively go through the membrane is through ion channels, which are typically closed. In other words, the channels provide resistance to the flow of ions, so we can represent them through resistors;
- we also explained that there are differences in the concentration of ions between the inside and the outside of the neuron and that these differences drive the ion flow, so the ion concentration differences are our voltage sources or batteries;
- and finally, although not explicitly included in the HH model, the ion pumps which restore the concentration gradients represent the current sources in our circuit, pushing ions in a specific direction to keep the system going.
As I said, even at the time, there was already a lot of math for how to work with electrical circuits. And that’s the key for cracking our simulations.
From measurements to interventions
In the circuit above, we could measure the voltage difference of the inside compared to the outside of the membrane. In fact, that’s what Hodgkin and Huxley did at first. They used giant axons from squids and silver electrodes to measure the so-called membrane or resting potential, which we said sits at around -65 mV.
But measurements alone aren’t enough. And by itself, the neuron and its membrane potential at rest aren’t that exciting. We want action…potentials. Those happen when neurons receive stimuli or input. One could try to do these measurements in vivo, that is when the one neuron we measure receives input naturally, either from other neurons or from the environment. But in this particular situation, Hodgkin and Huxley wanted to have precise control over the neuron’s input and they wanted to use the circuit framework from above. So instead, they used another set of electrodes to directly inject current into the axon of an isolated neuron.
Now, looking at the circuit diagram, physics tells us that if we inject some external current (we’ll call it ) into this system before the point where the individual elements (capacitor and resistors) are branching out, this current will split to flow through each available path. So we’ll have a capacitive current and, for each type of channel, ionic currents, which for now we’ll lump under a generic . As nothing is lost in this idealized circuit, our original will be the sum of the currents flowing through the individual elements, so: .
Cool, but we actually care about voltage, right? That’s what the action potential is, a change in voltage difference between the inside and the outside of the neuron over time. Yes, and here’s how physics helps us again: it tells us that – our capacitive or membrane current, can be expressed in terms of the rate of change of the voltage, i.e. our old friend . Since we’re talking about membrane voltage, we’ll just rename x to . And the full formula is , where represents something called the membrane capacitance, and it’s just a constant, a number that we normally determine experimentally or read from a paper that already measured it. In this case, Hodgkin and Huxley measured and found it equal to 1 (, but don’t stress about the units yet; by the way, what you’ve just heard is the collective shudder of all the world’s physicists at the idea of not stressing about units).
With that, we can rewrite , and shifting the terms, we get . Since is a constant, you will often see it written on the same side as (basically, constant = we don’t care much about it), but to make it clearer, we can also isolate . This will be our stepping stone for the full model. The lefthand side of the equation won’t change anymore. That’s the potential we’ve been wanting to simulate for a while now. The righthand side will gradually expand in complexity until it allows us to get something looking like the image below:
Virtual neuron 1 – linear, boring, and instructive
In the equation , we already know that is a constant equal to 1 . is what we pump into the system and we have full control over it. For now, we will try out three values: 0, 1, and 2 mA/. tells us about how ions, like Na+ and K+, behave, but for now, we will completely ignore it by setting it to zero. So our equation reduces to or 0, 1 or 2 (mV), depending on which we pick. This is very similar to the first cat example from last time, except that our starting point, , is -65 mV.
But just because this example is so simple, it doesn’t mean we can’t extract any information from it. We observe that the higher the input current is, the faster our membrane voltage increases. And of course, if there is no input whatsoever, nothing happens.
We can also check what happens if we start from different values at (in this case, -100 mV, -65 mV, and 10 mV). And we’ll look at just one external input value, = 1 mA/. As you see below, not much. The line looks exactly the same, except that it starts from different values of . We’ll check this again in the more complex model and see if it holds.
Virtual neuron 2 – to the moon and beyond
Now it’s time to tackle . Instead of zero, we could give it another random value, like 3. But no matter what fixed value we give it, the only thing that would change in our equation would be how fast the membrane voltage increases. More importantly, we know this is unrealistic in neurons because when Na+ and K+ channels open and the ions travel from one side of the membrane to the other, the ionic currents also change.
That means needs to be not a constant, but a function. More specifically, a function which changes over time (and later, over voltage too). One such example would be – at every time step, our ionic current would be equal to the negative value of that time step. Our base equation would then transform into . For mA/, we would get the following:
We see that the membrane voltage now rises much faster, up to very unrealistic values (in practice, if we actually injected the current necessary for reaching such voltages, we’d fry the neuron long before getting there). And if we were to slightly vary either or as we did above, there would be barely any noticeable difference in the result.
But remember how we represented our ion channels through resistors? Similar to capacitors, there is also a formula that relates current and voltage for these elements: . is our membrane voltage, the one we’ve been plotting so far. So our base equation now expands into (I’ve moved to the lefthand side to avoid using too many brackets). is the conductance for that ion. Conductance is a measure of how easily electric current flows through a material. In our case, this means how easily the ions pass through their respective channels. For now, we will pretend that is a constant, like 0.1 (mS/).
And is our battery from the circuit above. It represents the equilibrium potential of each ion, what they aspire to, and the voltage at which the membrane would settle if there were no other ions around and if the membrane were permeable all the time. In this case, we don’t need to pretend: is always constant for a given ion type. For example, for Na+, is about +45 mV. If the membrane potential, , were equal to +45 mV, we would say that Na+ is at equilibrium and there would be no movement of Na+ ions across the membrane. In real neurons, this is never reached, since other ions have different equilibrium potentials (for example, K+ sits at around -82 mV), but we’ll learn more about that later.
Small detour # 3: that Nernst guy
But hold up: what does ion concentration have to do with voltage? And where do ion equilibrium potentials actually come from? Well, in practice, from neat little tables.
But conceptually, we need to make something clear, using Na+ as an example: we said that there are more Na+ ions outside than inside the neuron, so there is a higher concentration of Na+ on the outside of the membrane. If we open the tap, this concentration difference will push Na+ inside. But when does the pushing stop? Is it when the Na+ concentration is exactly equal on both sides of the membrane? It would be, if only Na+ were the only one around and there were no voltage difference between the two sides of the membrane.
But let’s imagine that we also have those negatively charged proteins from earlier. This changes the game, because even though the concentration of Na+ ions might equalize at some point, there would be another force pulling it in: the negative charge of the proteins, or the electrical gradient. Because these two forces compete, the actual voltage at which no Na+ moves around anymore is the one given above.
We can calculate this number from yet another equation that some guy named Nernst came up with: . R, T, z, and F are constants, so we again ignore them. What matters is that this formula allows us to relate the ion concentrations (outside) and (inside) the neuron to voltage, thus giving us the equilibrium potential of each ion.
Bonus: this nifty formula tells us why sudden influxes of K+ can kill you. When the concentration of K+ outside the neuron increases a lot, the equilibrium potential of K+ ends up being much higher than -82 mV. In turn, this messes with the generation of action potentials, thus impairing communication between neurons. Once we have the full HH model, we’ll be able to check exactly how this happens.
Back to virtual neuron 2
For now, we see that if we were to model just Na+ currents and assume a constant conductance (in this example, mS/), the membrane potential would eventually settle to the equilibrium potential of Na+.
This time, if we change our starting point , we observe a different behavior compared to the first virtual neuron: here, the membrane potential always settles at the Na+ equilibrium, regardless of whether we start from a value above or below that.
But what happens if we keep the resting state voltage the same and change the conductance ? A higher conductance means that Na+ ions barrel through channels quicker (because more channels are open, not because the ions move any faster). That translates into the equilibrium potential being reached sooner.
I want to stress here that conductance isn’t just an abstract thing that makes the graph sharper. In real life, alterations in Na+ channel conductance can have devastating effects. For example, tetrodotoxin, a powerful toxin derived from pufferfish, effectively decreases Na+ conductance to zero by blocking Na+ channels and preventing its influx into the cell. This is deadly. And in different types of epilepsy, Na+ conductance is again affected: either too high or too low, depending on the type of epilepsy. As we’ll see later, changes in conductance affect the properties of action potentials, such as shape and timing. At the level of the whole brain, this results in abnormal communication between neurons and can lead to the symptoms observed in epilepsy.
Moving on to varying the external input current , we see that the membrane potential no longer settles at the ion’s equilibrium potential, but at another value that changes with the strength of the external input . Looking again at our equation , we see that when is zero, the membrane voltage is only governed by . But once we inject a steady flow of current into this system, the balance point shifts higher or lower, depending on the sign of . This will be important for action potential generation later on.
Virtual neuron 3 – other ions have joined the party
Alright, but we know Na+ doesn’t act alone. There is at least a K+ current. There are other ions as well, but Hodgkin and Huxley lumped everything else that might act in a neuron under a so-called “leak” current that is modeled as an additional resistor.
Once we add the K+ and leak currents in our model ( and ), we now have a slightly longer differential equation for the membrane voltage:
.
Simulating this allows us to see that, like before, the membrane voltage settles at an equilibrium point. But this point is no longer equal to the equilibrium voltage of any single ion. Instead, it sits somewhere in-between. This in-between value is nothing more than the weighted average of the contributions of all ions to the membrane potential. The contribution of an ion is given by the product between its equilibrium potential and its conductance, so the full equation reads like this: .
We saw above that changing the Na+ conductance when only Na+ is present allows us to manipulate how fast we reach the equilibrium potential. But the equilibrium potential itself remains unchanged. But now we have more than one ion, each with their own conductance, and we see in the equation above that the membrane equilibrium potential takes into account conductances as well. So what happens if we change each ionic conductance individually?
We should be able to deduce this from the equation, but we’ll check it against the simulation results below. The blue line represents our original case from above. Since the K+ equilibrium potential is more negative than our original resting state potential , increasing the K+ conductance while keeping the Na+ conductance the same means that the membrane will settle at a new, more negative potential (orange line). In contrast, since the Na+ equilibrium potential is positive, increasing the ionic conductance while keeping the same means that our neuron’s equilibrium potential goes up and we also reach it faster (green line). Now, if we increase while maintaining this higher , our membrane resting potential comes down, closer to that of K+. But we still get there fast, since the Na+ conductance is so high (red line).
In principle, we could also play around with the leak conductance . However, as we will see later, in the HH model, the leak conductance is always assumed to be static, whereas and do change under certain conditions.
The full model – everybody gets a function
We’ve already added quite a few details to our model, but there’s still a bit to go on. So far, we have a simulation of the membrane potential which includes multiple ion channels. This model is capable of settling at an equilibrium point, the resting state potential, but it still doesn’t produce spikes yet. So let’s fix that. Fair warning, this next part is the trickiest (I know! As if the novel before was soooo easy!), so go slowly, pause often, and don’t worry if things take a few reads to click.
Key takeaway # 1: conductances are voltage-dependent
Let’s bridge biology and math now: we said that when the Na+ conductance increases (i.e. Na+ channels open), the membrane voltage also increases. But we also know from experiments that when the membrane voltage increases, K+ channels open. In other words, the K+ conductance increases. In math terms, that suggests conductance (for both Na+ and K+) is voltage-dependent.Key takeaway # 2: there is a maximum conductance
Imagine all Na+ channels are open. Even then, there is still a limit to how much Na+ can pass through the membrane at every time step, because the ions need to wait for their turn to go through the channels, just like cars have to wait to pass through a crowded tunnel. That means conductance has a maximum value, which we can call . When all channels are open, for Na+ and similarly, for K+.Key takeaway # 3: we can work directly with proportions of open channels
But what if only 50% of the channels were open? Well, the limit would be half of the maximum: . Why is it this relevant? Because instead of directly relating conductance to voltage, we can relate proportion of open (or closed) channels to voltage. The math is easier and it’s a bit more intuitive.Putting it all together
First of all, since conductances are voltage-dependent and the membrane voltage changes over time, we actually have voltage- and time-dependent conductances. Important to note, only for Na+ and K+; we assume the leak conductance to be fixed.Secondly, we work with the proportion of open channels, not with conductances directly. Let’s pause for a moment and think about what we want to model. We basically want a sort of push-pull mechanism, such that when the voltage goes up, the proportion of open Na+ channels goes up, and when the voltage decreases, the proportion of closed channels increases. And the same way for K+.
Let’s start with K+. We can denote the proportion of open K+ channels with n. The proportion of closed channels will be simply 1 – n (total minus how many are open). Since we’re interested in how this evolves over time, we need to bring back our differential equation friend, in this case . The push-pull mechanism we want can be written in the following form: or following the Hodgkin-Huxley convention: . There are two parts that matter here:
- the two functions A and B act like weights for the proportion of closed, respectively open, channels. A controls how fast closed channels open and B controls how fast open channels close;
- the above is not enough. A and B are voltage-dependent functions themselves and they need to be chosen in such a way that, when the voltage goes up, A goes up and B goes down, and vice-versa when the voltage goes down.
But how to choose them? Well, the equation above is called a first-order differential equation and has a known solution. Without going further into mathematical detail, Hodgkin and Huxley used that solution together with experimental measurements of K+ currents to derive specific formulas for and . I am including them here for completeness and because you will see them in the code, but there is no reason to stress over them. In practice, unless you use them on a daily basis, you’re just going to look them up when needed (and by the way, depending on the neuron type, the actual numerical values in these formulas will change): and .
(Side note: the sign convention. One thing to notice above is that we use both and V. That’s not a typo. Normally, we define the membrane voltage , so the membrane voltage is negative at rest. In the HH model, however, V is defined as . That means the voltage is shifted such that at rest, mV. And because all s and s were fitted to these shifted values, we need to take that into account when working with the original HH model.)
For Na+, they modeled the Na+ channel activation in a similar manner, except they called the proportion of activated channels m. Again, for completeness, the respective equations were and .
Now we almost have the full functioning HH model, but there are just a couple of minor tweaks left. Because Hodgkin and Huxley fitted their model to experimental data, they observed two interesting tidbits:
- the model fit better when the variable n was raised to the power of 4 and when m was raised to the power of 3. At the time, they didn’t know why that was the case, but in the meantime, we’ve found out that the K+ ion channel is made up of 4 subunits, each of which needs to be activated for the channel to allow the passage of K+. In that case, you can think of n as the proportion of channels where subunit 1 is activated (or the probability for this subunit to be activated). The proportion of channels where 2 subunits are activated is , and so on. Similarly, Na+ channels have 3 activation domains that need to be opened for Na+ to pass through the channel;
- when the membrane voltage was held constant at a high value, K+ kept flowing out of the cell until the voltage was allowed to return to normal. But for Na+, Hodgkin and Huxley observed a different behavior: Na+ flowed into the cell at first, then it stopped. The Na+ current sharply decreased and regardless of how long the voltage was kept high, the Na+ current didn’t increase anymore. To model this behavior, they introduced a second variable for Na+, called h, which they used to model the proportion of inactivated Na+ channels. This needed the same and functions, with and . Again, nowadays, we know that Na+ has an inactivation domain that rapidly blocks Na+ channels at high voltages and only unlocks them when the voltage goes down again. That’s also why action potentials cannot spread backwards from where they came from.
And that’s it, we now have a full HH model. Put all together, it looks like this:
,
,
,
.Importantly, by itself, the model doesn’t really do anything. If the external input is zero and we start the model from an initial membrane voltage below a certain threshold (in this case, -60 mV), it quickly decays back to the resting state potential (which you can calculate yourself using the formula given above and the maximum conductances and ionic equilibrium potentials given in the code here.)
If we start the model above a certain threshold (for example, -50 mV), it will fire a single spike before going silent forever.
To get more than one spike, we need to drive it with external input current. So far, we’ve used constant current, and we’ll stick with that for today (in the next part, we’ll also try out time-varying currents). For a high enough current, we see that the model fires one action potential after the next. You can try it out for yourself to see what happens for different values of , and next time we’ll try a more systematic analysis as well.
Finally, we can inspect our gating variables m, h, and n, to see how they evolve over time. In the plot below, you see that the Na+ channel activation variable m (in blue), goes up really quickly – Na+ channels open fast; but it goes down just as quickly – they also close fast. The Na+ inactivation variable, h, quickly decreases during the spike – Na+ channels are blocked and cannot open again for some time. In the meantime, the K+ activation variable n goes up, lagging a bit behind m – K+ channels open more slowly and the membrane voltage goes back down.
Still alive?
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired. The good news is that now we have a functional HH model. Also good news is that we can do a lot of things with it, but unfortunately, that requires additional explanations, and I think we could all use a break. So I’ll see you for the next part. Until then, feel free to toy with the model parameters.
P.S.: If someone knows a better solution for displaying LaTeX equations in WordPress, do let me know. The current method is hurting my soul.
What did you think about this post? Let us know in the comments below. And if you’d like to support our work, feel free to share it with your friends, buy us a coffee here, or even both.
You might also like:
References
Goaillard, J.-M., & Marder, E. (2021). Ion Channel Degeneracy, Variability, and Covariation in Neuron and Circuit Resilience. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 44(1), 335–357. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-neuro-092920-121538Hodgkin, A. L., Huxley, A. F., & Katz, B. (1952). Measurement of current‐voltage relations in the membrane of the giant axon of Loligo. The Journal of Physiology, 116(4), 424–448. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.1952.sp004716
Hodgkin, A. L., & Huxley, A. F. (1952). A quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve. The Journal of Physiology, 117(4), 500–544. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.1952.sp004764
#computationalModeling #computationalNeuroscience #hodgkinHuxleyModel #math
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Security Issues in Matrix’s Olm Library
I don’t consider myself exceptional in any regard, but I stumbled upon a few cryptography vulnerabilities in Matrix’s Olm library with so little effort that it was nearly accidental.
It should not be this easy to find these kind of issues in any product people purportedly rely on for private messaging, which many people evangelize incorrectly as a Signal alternative.
Later, I thought I identified an additional vulnerability that would have been much worse, but I was wrong about that one. For the sake of transparency and humility, I’ll also describe that in detail.
This post is organized as follows:
- Disclosure Timeline
- Vulnerabilities in Olm (Technical Details)
- Recommendations
- Background Information
- An Interesting Non-Issue That Looked Critical
I’ve opted to front-load the timeline and vulnerability details to respect the time of busy security professionals.
Please keep in mind that this website is a furry blog, first and foremost, that sometimes happens to cover security and cryptography topics.
Many people have, over the years, assumed the opposite and commented accordingly. The ensuing message board threads are usually is a waste of time and energy for everyone involved. So please adjust your expectations.
Art by HarubakiIf you’re curious, you can learn more here.
Disclosure Timeline
- 2024-05-15: I took a quick look at the Matrix source code. I identified two issues and emailed them to their
security@email address.In my email, I specify that I plan to disclose my findings publicly in 90 days (i.e. on August 14), in adherence with industry best practices for coordinated disclosure, unless they request an extension in writing.
- 2024-05-16: I checked something else on a whim and find a third issue, which I also email to their
security@email address. - 2024-05-17: Matrix security team confirms receipt of my reports.
- 2024-05-17: I follow up with a suspected fourth finding–the most critical of them all. They point out that it is not actually an issue, because I overlooked an important detail in how the code is architected. Mea culpa!
- 2024-05-18: A friend discloses a separate finding with Matrix: Media can be decrypted to multiple valid plaintexts using different keys and Malicious homeservers can trick Element/Schildichat into revealing links in E2EE rooms.
They instructed the Matrix developers to consult with me if they needed cryptography guidance. I never heard from them on this externally reported issue.
- 2024-07-12: I shared this blog post draft with the Matrix security team while reminding them of the public disclosure date.
- 2024-07-31: Matrix pushes a commit that announces that libolm is deprecated.
- 2024-07-31: I email the Matrix security team asking if they plan to fix the reported issues (and if not, if there’s any other reason I should withhold publication).
- 2024-07-31: Matrix confirms they will not fix these issues (due to its now deprecated status), but ask that I withhold publication until the 14th as originally discussed.
- 2024-08-14: This blog post is publicly disclosed to the Internet.
- 2024-08-14: The lead Matrix dev claims they already knew about these issues, and, in fact, knowingly shipped cryptography code that was vulnerable to side-channel attacks for years. See Addendum.
- 2024-08-23: MITRE has assigned CVE IDs to these three findings.
Vulnerabilities in Olm
I identified the following issues with Olm through a quick skim of their source code on Gitlab:
- AES implementation is vulnerable to cache-timing attacks
- Ed25519 signatures are malleable
- Timing leakage in base64 decoding of private key material
This is sorted by the order in which they were discovered, rather than severity.
AES implementation is vulnerable to cache-timing attacks
a.k.a. CVE-2024-45191
Olm ships a pure-software implementation of AES, rather than leveraging hardware acceleration.
// Substitutes a word using the AES S-Box.WORD SubWord(WORD word){unsigned int result;result = (int)aes_sbox[(word >> 4) & 0x0000000F][word & 0x0000000F];result += (int)aes_sbox[(word >> 12) & 0x0000000F][(word >> 8) & 0x0000000F] << 8;result += (int)aes_sbox[(word >> 20) & 0x0000000F][(word >> 16) & 0x0000000F] << 16;result += (int)aes_sbox[(word >> 28) & 0x0000000F][(word >> 24) & 0x0000000F] << 24;return(result);}The code in question is called from this code, which is in turn used to actually encrypt messages.
Software implementations of AES that use a look-up table for the SubWord step of the algorithm are famously susceptible to cache-timing attacks.
This kind of vulnerability in software AES was previously used to extract a secret key from OpenSSL and dm-crypt in about 65 milliseconds. Both papers were published in 2005.
A general rule in cryptography is, “attacks only get better; they never get worse“.
As of 2009, you could remotely detect a timing difference of about 15 microseconds over the Internet with under 50,000 samples. Side-channel exploits are generally statistical in nature, so such a sample size is generally not a significant mitigation.
How is this code actually vulnerable?
In the above code snippet, the vulnerability occurs in
aes_sbox[/* ... */][/* ... */].Due to the details of how the AES block cipher works, the input variable (
word) is a sensitive value.Software written this way allows attackers to detect whether or not a specific value was present in one of the processor’s caches.
To state the obvious: Cache hits are faster than cache misses. This creates an observable timing difference.
Such a timing leak allows the attacker to learn the value that was actually stored in said cache. You can directly learn this from other processes on the same hardware, but it’s also observable over the Internet (with some jitter) through the normal operation of vulnerable software.
See also: cryptocoding’s description for table look-ups indexed by secret data.
How to mitigate this cryptographic side-channel
The correct way to solve this problem is to use hardware accelerated AES, which uses distinct processor features to implement the AES round function and side-steps any cache-timing shenanigans with the S-box.
Not only is this more secure, but it’s faster and uses less energy too!
If you’re also targeting devices that don’t have hardware acceleration available, you should first use hardware acceleration where possible, but then fallback to a bitsliced implementation such as the one in Thomas Pornin’s BearSSL.
See also: the BearSSL documentation for constant-time AES.
Art by AJEd25519 signatures are malleable
a.k.a. CVE-2024-45193
Ed25519 libraries come in various levels of quality regarding signature validation criteria; much to the chagrin of cryptography engineers everywhere. One of those validation criteria involves signature malleability.
Signature malleability usually isn’t a big deal for most protocols, until suddenly you discover a use case where it is. If it matters, that usually that means you’re doing something with cryptocurrency.
Briefly, if your signatures are malleable, that means you can take an existing valid signature for a given message and public key, and generate a second valid signature for the same message. The utility of this flexibility is limited, and the impact depends a lot on how you’re using signatures and what properties you hope to get out of them.
For ECDSA, this means that for a given signature , a second signature is also possible (where is the order of the elliptic curve group you’re working with).
Matrix uses Ed25519, whose malleability is demonstrated between and .
This is trivially possible because S is implicitly reduced modulo the order of the curve, , which is a 253-bit number (
0x1000000000000000000000000000000014def9dea2f79cd65812631a5cf5d3ed) and S is encoded as a 256-bit number.The Ed25519 library used within Olm does not ensure that , thus signatures are malleable. You can verify this yourself by looking at the Ed25519 verification code.
int ed25519_verify(const unsigned char *signature, const unsigned char *message, size_t message_len, const unsigned char *public_key) { unsigned char h[64]; unsigned char checker[32]; sha512_context hash; ge_p3 A; ge_p2 R; if (signature[63] & 224) { return 0; } if (ge_frombytes_negate_vartime(&A, public_key) != 0) { return 0; } sha512_init(&hash); sha512_update(&hash, signature, 32); sha512_update(&hash, public_key, 32); sha512_update(&hash, message, message_len); sha512_final(&hash, h); sc_reduce(h); ge_double_scalarmult_vartime(&R, h, &A, signature + 32); ge_tobytes(checker, &R); if (!consttime_equal(checker, signature)) { return 0; } return 1;}This is almost certainly a no-impact finding (or low-impact at worst), but still an annoying one to see in 2024.
If you’d like to learn more, this page is a fun demo of Ed25519 malleability.
To mitigate this, I recommend implementing these checks from libsodium.
Art: CMYKatTiming leakage in base64 decoding of private key material
a.k.a. CVE-2024-45192
If you weren’t already tired of cache-timing attacks based on table look-ups from AES, the Matrix base64 code is also susceptible to the same implementation flaw.
while (pos != end) { unsigned value = DECODE_BASE64[pos[0] & 0x7F]; value <<= 6; value |= DECODE_BASE64[pos[1] & 0x7F]; value <<= 6; value |= DECODE_BASE64[pos[2] & 0x7F]; value <<= 6; value |= DECODE_BASE64[pos[3] & 0x7F]; pos += 4; output[2] = value; value >>= 8; output[1] = value; value >>= 8; output[0] = value; output += 3;}The base64 decoding function in question is used to load the group session key, which means the attack published in this paper almost certainly applies.
How would you mitigate this leakage?
Steve Thomas (one of the judges of the Password Hashing Competition, among other noteworthy contributions) wrote some open source code a while back that implements base64 encoding routines in constant-time.
The real interesting part is how it avoids a table look-up by using arithmetic (from this file):
// Base64 character set:// [A-Z] [a-z] [0-9] + /// 0x41-0x5a, 0x61-0x7a, 0x30-0x39, 0x2b, 0x2finline int base64Decode6Bits(char src){int ch = (unsigned char) src;int ret = -1;// if (ch > 0x40 && ch < 0x5b) ret += ch - 0x41 + 1; // -64ret += (((0x40 - ch) & (ch - 0x5b)) >> 8) & (ch - 64);// if (ch > 0x60 && ch < 0x7b) ret += ch - 0x61 + 26 + 1; // -70ret += (((0x60 - ch) & (ch - 0x7b)) >> 8) & (ch - 70);// if (ch > 0x2f && ch < 0x3a) ret += ch - 0x30 + 52 + 1; // 5ret += (((0x2f - ch) & (ch - 0x3a)) >> 8) & (ch + 5);// if (ch == 0x2b) ret += 62 + 1;ret += (((0x2a - ch) & (ch - 0x2c)) >> 8) & 63;// if (ch == 0x2f) ret += 63 + 1;ret += (((0x2e - ch) & (ch - 0x30)) >> 8) & 64;return ret;}Any C library that handles base64 codecs for private key material should use a similar implementation. It’s fine to have a faster base64 implementation for non-secret data.
Worth noting: Libsodium also provides a reasonable Base64 codec.
Recommendations
These issues are not fixed in libolm.
Instead of fixing libolm, the Matrix team recommends all Matrix clients adopt vodozemac.
I can’t speak to the security of vodozemac.
Art: CMYKatBut I can speak against the security of libolm, so moving to vodozemac is probably a good idea. It was audited by Least Authority at one point, so it’s probably fine.
Most Matrix clients that still depended on libolm should treat this blog as public 0day, unless the Matrix security team already notified you about these issues.
Background Information
If you’re curious about the backstory and context of these findings, read on.
Otherwise, feel free to skip this section. It’s not pertinent to most audiences. The people that need to read it already know who they are.
End-to-end encryption is one of the topics within cryptography that I find myself often writing about.
In 2020, I wrote a blog post covering end-to-end encryption for application developers. This was published several months after another blog I wrote covering gripes with AES-GCM, which included a shallow analysis of how Signal uses the algorithm for local storage.
In 2021, I published weaknesses in another so-called private messaging app called Threema.
In 2022, after Elon Musk took over Twitter, I joined the Fediverse and sought to build end-to-end encryption support for direct messages into ActivityPub, starting with a specification. Work on this effort was stalled while trying to solve Public Key distribution in a federated environment (which I hope to pick up soon, but I digress).
Earlier this year, the Telegram CEO started fearmongering about Signal with assistance from Elon Musk, so I wrote a blog post urging the furry fandom to move away from Telegram and start using Signal more. As I had demonstrated years prior, I was familiar with Signal’s code and felt it was a good recommendation for security purposes (even if its user experience needs significant work).
I thought that would be a nice, self-contained blog post. Some might listen, most would ignore it, but I could move on with my life.
I was mistaken about that last point.
Art by AJAn overwhelming number of people took it upon themselves to recommend or inquire about Matrix, which prompted me to hastily scribble down my opinion on Matrix so that I might copy/paste a link around and save myself a lot of headache.
Just when I thought the firehose was manageable and I could move onto other topics, one of the Matrix developers responded to my opinion post.
Thus, I decided to briefly look at their source code and see if any major or obvious cryptography issues would fall out of a shallow visual scan.
Since you’re reading this post, you already know how that ended.
Credit: CMYKatSince the first draft of this blog post was penned, I also outlined what I mean when I say an encrypted messaging app is a Signal competitor or not, and published my opinion on XMPP+OMEMO (which people also recommend for private messaging).
Why mention all this?
Because it’s important to know that I have not audited the Olm or Megolm codebases, nor even glanced at their new Rust codebase.
The fact is, I never intended to study Matrix. I was annoyed into looking at it in the first place.
My opinion of their project was already calcified by the previously discovered practically-exploitable cryptographic vulnerabilities in Matrix in 2022.
The bugs described above are the sort of thing I mentally scan for when I first look at a project just to get a feel for the maturity of the codebase. I do this with the expectation (hope, really) of not finding anything at all.
(If you want two specific projects that I’ve subjected to a similar treatment, and failed to discover anything interesting in: Signal and WireGuard. These two set the bar for cryptographic designs.)
It’s absolutely bonkers that an AES cache timing vulnerability was present in their code in 2024.
It’s even worse when you remember that I was inundated with Matrix evangelism in response to recommending furries use Signal.
I’m a little outraged because of how irresponsible this is, in context.
It’s so bad that I didn’t even need to clone their git repository, let alone run basic static analysis tools locally.
So if you take nothing else away from this blog post, let it be this:
There is roughly a 0% chance that I got extremely lucky in my mental
grepand found the only cryptography implementation flaws in their source code. I barely tried at all and found these issues.I would bet money on there being more bugs or design flaws that I didn’t find, because this discovery was the result of an extremely half-assed effort to blow off steam.
Wasn’t libolm deprecated in May 2022?
The Matrix developers like to insist that their new Rust hotness “vodozemac” is what people should be using today.
I haven’t looked at vodozemac at all, but let’s pretend, for the sake of argument, that its cryptography is actually secure.
(This is very likely if they turn out to be using RustCrypto for their primitives, but I don’t have the time or energy for that nerd snipe, so I’m not going to look. Least Authority did audit their Rust library, for what it’s worth, and Least Authority isn’t clownshoes.)
It’s been more than 2 years since they released vodozemac. What does the ecosystem penetration for this new library look like, in practice?
A quick survey of the various Matrix clients on GitHub says that libolm is still the most widely used cryptography implementation in the Matrix ecosystem (as of this writing):
Matrix ClientCryptography Backendhttps://github.com/tulir/gomukslibolm (1, 2)https://github.com/niochat/niolibolm (1, 2)https://github.com/ulyssa/iambvodozemac (1, 2)https://github.com/mirukana/miragelibolm (1)https://github.com/Pony-House/Clientlibolm (1)https://github.com/MTRNord/cetirizinevodozemac (1)https://github.com/nadams/go-matrixclinonehttps://github.com/mustang-im/mustanglibolm (1)https://github.com/marekvospel/libretrixlibolm (1)https://github.com/yusdacra/icy_matrixnonehttps://github.com/ierho/elementlibolm (through the python SDK)https://github.com/mtorials/cordlessnonehttps://github.com/hwipl/nuqql-matrixdlibolm (through the python SDK)https://github.com/maxkratz/element-webvodozemac (1, 2, 3, 4)https://github.com/asozialesnetzwerk/riotlibolm (wasm file)https://github.com/NotAlexNoyle/Versilibolm (1, 2)3 of the 16 clients surveyed use the new vodozemac library. 10 still use libolm, and 3 don’t appear to implement end-to-end encryption at all.
If we only focus on clients that support E2EE, vodozemac has successfully been adopted by 19% of the open source Matrix clients on GitHub.
I deliberately excluded any repositories that were archived or clearly marked as “old” or “legacy” software, because including those would artificially inflate the representation of libolm. It would make for a more compelling narrative to do so, but I’m not trying to be persuasive here.
Deprecation policies are a beautiful lie. The impact of a vulnerability in Olm or Megolm is still far-reaching, and should be taken seriously by the Matrix community.
Worth calling out: this quick survey, which is based on a GitHub Topic, certainly misses other implementations. Both FluffyChat and Cinny, which were not tagged with this GitHub Topic, depend a language-specific Olm binding.
These bindings in turn wrap libolm rather than the Rust replacement, vodozemac.
But the official clients…
I thought the whole point of choosing Matrix over something like Signal is to be federated, and run your own third-party clients?
If we’re going to insist that everyone should be using Element if they want to be secure, that defeats the entire marketing point about third-party clients that Matrix evangelists cite when they decry Signal’s centralization.
So I really don’t want to hear it.
CMYKatAn Interesting Non-Issue That Looked Critical
As I mentioned in the timeline at the top, I thought I found a fourth issue with Matrix’s codebase. Had I been correct, this would have been a critical severity finding that the entire Matrix ecosystem would need to melt down to remediate.
Fortunately for everyone, I made a mistake, and there is no fourth vulnerability after all.
However, I thought it would be interesting to write about what I thought I found, the impact it would have had if it were real, and why I believed it to be an issue.
Let’s start with the code in question:
void ed25519_sign(unsigned char *signature, const unsigned char *message, size_t message_len, const unsigned char *public_key, const unsigned char *private_key) { sha512_context hash; unsigned char hram[64]; unsigned char r[64]; ge_p3 R; sha512_init(&hash); sha512_update(&hash, private_key + 32, 32); sha512_update(&hash, message, message_len); sha512_final(&hash, r); sc_reduce(r); ge_scalarmult_base(&R, r); ge_p3_tobytes(signature, &R); sha512_init(&hash); sha512_update(&hash, signature, 32); sha512_update(&hash, public_key, 32); sha512_update(&hash, message, message_len); sha512_final(&hash, hram); sc_reduce(hram); sc_muladd(signature + 32, hram, private_key, r);}The highlighted segment is doing pointer arithmetic. This means it’s reading 32 bytes, starting from the 32nd byte in
private_key.What’s actually happening here is:
private_keyis the SHA512 hash of a 256-bit seed. If you look at the function prototype, you’ll notice thatpublic_keyis a separate input.Virtually every other Ed25519 implementation I’ve ever looked at before expected users to provide a 32 byte seed followed by the public key as a single input.
This led me to believe that this
private_key + 32pointer arithmetic was actually using the public key for calculatingr.The variable
r(not to be confused with big R) generated via the first SHA512 is the nonce for a given signature, it must remain secret for Ed25519 to remain secure.If
ris known to an attacker, you can do some arithmetic to recover the secret key from a single signature.Because I had mistakenly believed that
Credit: CMYKatrwas calculated from the SHA512 of only public inputs (the public key and message), which I must emphasize isn’t correct, I had falsely concluded that any previously intercepted signature could be used to steal user’s private keys.But because
private_keywas actually the full SHA512 hash of the seed, rather than the seed concatenated with the public key, this pointer arithmetic did NOT use the public key for the calculation ofr, so this vulnerability does not exist.If the code did what I thought it did, however, this would have been a complete fucking disaster for the Matrix ecosystem. Any previously intercepted message would have allowed an attacker to recover a user’s secret key and impersonate them. It wouldn’t be enough to fix the code; every key in the ecosystem would need to be revoked and rotated.
Whew!
I’m happy to be wrong about this one, because that outcome is a headache nobody wants.
So no action is needed, right?
Well, maybe.
Matrix’s library was not vulnerable, but I honestly wouldn’t put it past software developers at large to somehow, somewhere, use the public key (rather than a secret value) to calculate the EdDSA signature nonces as described in the previous section.
To that end, I would like to propose a test vector be added to the Wycheproof test suite to catch any EdDSA implementation that misuses the public key in this way.
Then, if someone else screws up their Ed25519 implementation in the exact way I thought Matrix was, the Wycheproof tests will catch it.
For example, here’s a vulnerable test input for Ed25519:
{ "should-fail": true, "secret-key": "d1d0ef849f9ec88b4713878442aeebca5c7a43e18883265f7f864a8eaaa56c1ef3dbb3b71132206b81f0f3782c8df417524463d2daa8a7c458775c9af725b3fd", "public-key": "f3dbb3b71132206b81f0f3782c8df417524463d2daa8a7c458775c9af725b3fd", "message": "Test message", "signature": "ffc39da0ce356efb49eb0c08ed0d48a1cadddf17e34f921a8d2732a33b980f4ae32d6f5937a5ed25e03a998e4c4f5910c931b31416e143965e6ce85b0ea93c09"}A similar test vector would also be worth creating for Ed448, but the only real users of Ed448 were the authors of the xz backdoor, so I didn’t bother with that.
(None of the Project Wycheproof maintainers knew this suggestion is coming, by the way, because I was respecting the terms of the coordinated disclosure.)
Closing Thoughts
Despite finding cryptography implementation flaws in Matric’s Olm library, my personal opinion on Matrix remains largely unchanged from 2022. I had already assumed it would not meet my bar for security.
Cryptography engineering is difficult because the vulnerabilities you’re usually dealing with are extremely subtle. (Here’s an unrelated example if you’re not convinced of this general observation.) As SwiftOnSecurity once wrote:
https://twitter.com/SwiftOnSecurity/status/832058185049579524
The people that developed Olm and Megolm has not proven themselves ready to build a Signal competitor. In balance, most teams are not qualified to do so.
I really wish the Matrix evangelists would accept this and stop trying to cram Matrix down other people’s throats when they’re talking about problems with other platforms entirely.
More important for the communities of messaging apps:
You don’t need to be a Signal competitor. Having E2EE is a good thing on its own merits, and really should be table stakes for any social application in 2024.
It’s only when people try to advertise their apps as a Signal alternative (or try to recommend it instead of Signal), and offer less security, that I take offense.
Just be your own thing.
My work-in-progress proposal to bring end-to-end encryption to the Fediverse doesn’t aim to compete with Signal. It’s just meant to improve privacy, which is a good thing to do on its own merits.
If I never hear Matrix evangelism again after today, it would be far too soon.
If anyone feels like I’m picking on Matrix, don’t worry: I have far worse things to say about Telegram, Threema, XMPP+OMEMO, Tox, and a myriad other projects that are hungry for Signal’s market share but don’t measure up from a cryptographic security perspective.
If Signal fucked up as bad as these projects, my criticism of Signal would be equally harsh. (And remember, I have looked at Signal before.)
Addendum (2024-08-14)
One of the lead Matrix devs posted a comment on Hacker News after this blog post went live that I will duplicate here:
the author literally picked random projects from github tagged as matrix, without considering their prevalence or whether they are actually maintained etc.
if you actually look at % of impacted clients, it’s tiny.
meanwhile, it is very unclear that any sidechannel attack on a libolm based client is practical over the network (which is why we didn’t fix this years ago). After all, the limited primitives are commented on in the readme and https://github.com/matrix-org/olm/issues/3 since day 1.
So the Matrix developers already knew about these vulnerabilities, but deliberately didn’t fix them, for years.
Congratulations, you’ve changed my stance. It used to be “I don’t consider Matrix a Signal alternative and they’ve had some embarrassing and impactful crypto bugs but otherwise I don’t care”. Now it’s a stronger stance:
Don’t use Matrix.
I had incorrectly assumed ignorance, when it was in fact negligence.
There’s no reasonable world in which anyone should trust the developers of cryptographic software (i.e., libolm) that deliberately ships with side-channels for years, knowing they’re present, and never bother to fix them.
This is fucking clownshoes.
If you’re curious about the cryptography used by other messaging apps, please refer to this page that collects my blogs about this topic.
#crypto #cryptography #endToEndEncryption #Matrix #sideChannels #vuln
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Collatzeral Damage: Bitwise and Proof Foolish
Let’s talk about the Collatz Conjecture, which is like mathematicians’ original version of this programmer joke:
Except the number of mathematician hours wasted is much larger, possibly too large for uint32_t to hold it.The Collatz conjecture is an infamous trap for the young and ambitious. Despite its simple construction, it has evaded proofs and general solutions for nearly a century. Veritasium made a video about this conjecture, which I recommend:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=094y1Z2wpJg
The Collatz conjecture involves a recursive function that contains one branch: If a number is odd, multiply it by 3 then add 1. If it is even, divide it by 2.
The conjecture states that repeating this operation will eventually reach 1 for all positive integers.
Quick observation:
- Even numbers take you closer to your goal of reaching your goal (reaching 0).
- Odd numbers take you further away from your goal.
You can write recursive code that implements the Collatz function like so:
function collatz(num) { console.log(num); if (num === 1) { return; } return (num % 2 === 1) ? collatz((3 * num) + 1) : collatz(num >> 1);}If the Collatz conjecture is false, there is some integer for which the
returnstatement will never be reached.We don’t know if the conjecture is true or not.
We do know that it has held up for a hell of a lot of positive integers (from a human perspective), and have yet to find a counterexample, but we don’t know if it’s necessarily true for all positive integers.
What if there’s actually a cycle somewhere (similar to what I discussed in the context of hash functions)?
That mathematicians don’t know the answer isn’t really interesting for the readers of this blog, but why the answer is so elusive (despite the intuitive simple construction of the function central to the Collatz conjecture) is something I think we can say something interesting about.
AJBut first, let’s talk about a class of cryptographic algorithm that serves as the building block for several types of hash functions and stream ciphers used across the Internet today.
Important
I am taking a lot of liberties in this blog post, and I am prioritizing clarity over technical precision.
Readers will be better served by cross-referencing this entertainment-focused blog post with the work of actual mathematicians.
And for the pedants in the audience: if something seems imprecise, it’s probably because I made a trade-off to help a wider audience gain a basic intuition.
Add, Rotate, XOR (ARX)
ARX is a category of cryptography algorithms that is used to build various cryptography building blocks. The SHA-2 family of hash functions and the ChaCha stream cipher both an ARX construction (and both are used in a lot of Internet traffic).
Let’s focus on ChaCha for the moment, focusing on the reference implementation that ships with libsodium:
#define U32C(v) (v##U)#define U32V(v) ((uint32_t)(v) &U32C(0xFFFFFFFF))#define ROTATE(v, c) (ROTL32(v, c))#define XOR(v, w) ((v) ^ (w))#define PLUS(v, w) (U32V((v) + (w)))#define PLUSONE(v) (PLUS((v), 1))#define QUARTERROUND(a, b, c, d) \ a = PLUS(a, b); \ d = ROTATE(XOR(d, a), 16); \ c = PLUS(c, d); \ b = ROTATE(XOR(b, c), 12); \ a = PLUS(a, b); \ d = ROTATE(XOR(d, a), 8); \ c = PLUS(c, d); \ b = ROTATE(XOR(b, c), 7);
At the core of ChaCha is the quarter round function. This is applied on alternating columns and diagonals of the input state until the desired number of rounds has been completed.
for (i = 20; i > 0; i -= 2) { QUARTERROUND(x0, x4, x8, x12) QUARTERROUND(x1, x5, x9, x13) QUARTERROUND(x2, x6, x10, x14) QUARTERROUND(x3, x7, x11, x15) QUARTERROUND(x0, x5, x10, x15) QUARTERROUND(x1, x6, x11, x12) QUARTERROUND(x2, x7, x8, x13) QUARTERROUND(x3, x4, x9, x14)}After all rounds are complete, the initial state is added to the output. This 512-bit state includes the key (which consists of up to 256 bits), nonce, and some constant values. Because half of the input bytes are your secret key, an attacker without knowledge of the key cannot invert the calculation.
ChaCha is an improvement of another stream cipher from the same family as the eSTREAM finalist, Salsa20. ChaCha improved the diffusion per round and performance. This makes ChaCha less susceptible to cryptanalysis, even in extremely reduced-round variants (e.g., ChaCha8 vs ChaCha20).
As interesting as all that is, the important bits to know is that the ChaCha update emphasized improving diffusion.
What does that mean, exactly?
Art: HarubakiWhat is Diffusion?
Diffusion is a measurement of how much the output state changes when each bit differs in the input state.
This is important for making it difficult to statistically analyze the relationship between the input and outputs of a cryptographic function.
ARX Diffusion
ARX consists of three operations: Rotation (sliding bits around like a flywheel), addition, and eXclusive OR (also known as XOR).
Comparing Salsa20 and ChaCha’s quarter round, using the notation from the source code on Wikipedia, you see:
Salsa20 Quarter Round
b ^= (a + d) <<< 7;c ^= (b + a) <<< 9;d ^= (c + b) <<< 13;a ^= (d + c) <<< 18;
Addition then rotation then XOR.
ChaCha Quarter Round
a += b; d ^= a; d <<<= 16;c += d; b ^= c; b <<<= 12;a += b; d ^= a; d <<<= 8;c += d; b ^= c; b <<<= 7;
Addition then XOR then rotation.
Each step of the quarter round function still involves addition, rotation, and XOR, but their usage is different. (Also, they just update values directly rather than involving an extra temporary value to implicitly occupy a stack register.)
And it’s subtle, but if you play with these different quarter rounds with slightly different inputs, you can see how the diffusion is improved with the second construction in fewer numbers of rounds.
“Why does diffusion matter?”
Bit diffusion in ARX constructions is one of the ways that ciphers ensure their output remains indistinguishable from a random oracle.
If you’ve ever looked at a cryptographic hash function before, or heard about the “avalanche effect“, that’s precisely what we want out of these ARX constructions.
“So what?”
As some of you might remember from your studies, XOR is just addition without carry (mod 2).
If you repeat your same experimentation but only use one operation (AR or RX), you’ll find that your diffusion is poor.
This is because addition is an abstraction that hides a very important feature that’s often taken for granted.
CMYKatCarry Propagation
Let’s say, for a learning exercise, you wanted to build integer addition entirely out of bitwise operators: AND, OR, NOT, XOR, and the left and right bit shift operators.
As already mentioned above, XOR is just addition without carry. So that part’s easy:
def add_bits_no_carry(x, y): return x ^ y
How about carrying values to the next place? Well, consider the following table:
XYCalculated Carry Value000100010111That third column sure looks like an “AND” operator, does it not?
Great, but what if you had a carry value from the previous step?
Well, now you have to implement two half-adders: One to handle the input carry value with one input, and the other to handle the other input and produce the next output carry value.
def half_adder(x, y): return [x ^ y, x & y]def add_bits(x, y, c_in): [a, b] = half_adder(x, y) [d, e] = half_adder(a, c_in) return [d, b ^ e]
If you feel lost, this hardware tutorial explains it with diagrams.
The main thing I want you to take away is that addition is much more complicated than XOR because of carry propagation.
Original sticker made by CMYKat
(Poor edits made my me)On Computation and Information Theory
We use XOR to mix data (which could be plaintext, or could be all zeroes) with pseudo-random bytes, since it’s perfectly hiding so long as the bytes we’re mixing them with is unknown. This is the intuition underlying one-time pads and modern stream ciphers (including the ones we’re discussing).
In the context of ARX, because some operations (addition) propagate carries and others don’t (XOR), when you combine these steps with rotating the bits in-place, it becomes very easy to mix the output bits in a short number of rounds of operations. Cryptographers measure how well bits are mixed across a large number of inputs and reject designs that don’t perform well (generally speaking).
But a direct consequence of the hidden complexity of addition with carry is that the state you’re operating within is larger than the output. This means that some information is used (carried over from previous bits or limbs) that is not revealed directly in the output bit(s).
It’s easy to add two numbers together, but if you don’t know either of the numbers, it’s impossible to know the other (unless, of course, a side-channel leaks enough information to deduce one of them).
“That’s neat and all, but what does it imply?”
Don’t worry, I’m going somewhere with this.
CMYKatTuring the Page
Let’s briefly talk about Turing machines.
The relevant Wikipedia article covers them adequately well. For everyone else, another Veritasium video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeQX2HjkcNo
A Turing machine is a mathematical model for computation.
The basic idea is that you have a tape of symbols, a head that reads from the tape, and an internal state that determines the next move.
We don’t need too formal of a treatment here. I’m not exactly trying to prove the halting problem is undecidable.
A dumb joke I like to tell my computer science friends:
I’ve solved the Halting problem! It’s called: “the heat death of the universe,” at which point the program fucking halts!
But do put a pin in this, because it will come up towards the end.
CMYKatBitwise Collatz Functions
Above, I wrote a bit of code that implements the Collatz function, but I was a bit lazy about it.
In truth, you don’t need multiplication or the modulo operator. You can, instead, use bitwise operations and one addition.
- The modulo 2 check can be replaced by a bitwise AND mask with 1. Odd values will return 1, even will return 0.
- When the least significant bit is 0:
Dividing by 2 is the same as right-shifting by 1. - When the least significant bit is 1:
Multiplying by 3 then adding 1 can be rewritten as the following steps:- Left shift by 1 (2n)
- Set the lower bit to 1 (+1), using bitwise OR
- Add the original number (+n)
Thus, our function instead looks like:
function collatz(num) { console.log(num); if (num === 1) { return; } return (num & 1) ? collatz(((num << 1) | 1) + num) : collatz(num >> 1);}That is to say, you can implement most of the Collatz function with bitwise operators, and only need one addition (with carries) in the end.
Suddenly, the discussion above about carry propagation might seem a lot more relevant!
Art by AJSmall Example
Imagine you encode a number as a binary string. For example, 257.
When you work through the algorithm sketched out above, you end up doing this:
n == 0001_0000_0001 2*n == 0010_0000_0010 # left shift by 1 2*n + 1 == 0010_0000_0011 # bitwise OR with 1 add: 0001_0000_0001 # n 0010_0000_0011 # 2n + 1 # This is where carry propagation comes in! result: 0011_0000_0100
When you perform the 3n+1 branch of the Collatz function the way I constructed it, that last addition of n will propagate carries.
And that carry propagation is where the trouble starts.
Since the (3n+1) branch is only ever invoked with odd values for n, you can guarantee that the next step will be followed by at least one division by 2 (since 3n+1 is even for any odd n).
This allows you look ahead two steps at a time, but there is no easy way to predict how many back-to-back (3n+1)/2 two-steps you will encounter from a given value. Instead, you have to actually perform the calculation and see what happens.
AJCollatz Machines
The input and output of the Collatz function is an integer of arbitrary size. The behavior branches depending on the least significant bit of the input.
You can think of the least significant bit as the “head” of a machine similar to a Turing machine.
However, instead of moving the head along a tape, the Collatz function does one of two things:
- Moves the symbols on the tape one space to the right (somewhat familiar territory for Turing Machines).
- Rewrites all of the symbols on the tape to the left of the head, according to some algorithm. This algorithm makes the tape longer.
As we observed previously, the carry propagation implicit to addition makes the bits diffuse in a way that’s hard to generalize faster than simply performing the addition and seeing what results from it.
Proving that this Collatz machine halts for all positive inputs would also prove the Collatz Conjecture. But as we saw with proper Turing Machines, this might not be possible.
Pedants on the /r/math subreddit were quick to point out that this isn’t necessarily true, but the goal of this blog post was not to state a technically precise truth, but to explore the Collatz conjecture from a different angle.
The important disclaimer at the top isn’t some cop-out boilerplate I slap on everything I write to absolve me of any retribution for my mistakes. It’s actually important for everyone to read and understand it.
The entire point of this blog is “hey, here’s a neat idea to think about” not “here’s a universal truth about mathematics I discovered”. For that, I would have written an actual paper, not a furry blog. Unfortunately, I have no new insights to offer on anything, nor will I probably ever.
I recommend reading the comment I linked at the start of this quoted section, as it’s grounded in a more formal mathematics understanding than this blog post.
Is It Unsolvable?
With all this in mind, in the general case, the Collatz Conjecture may very well one day prove to be as undecidable as the Halting Problem.
Or, maybe someone will find a cycle within the integer space that fails to ever reach 1.
Art: CMYKatAs it stands right now, there have been a lot of interesting approaches to try to solve it. The first Veritasium video linked above talked about some of these ideas.
Maybe we need new mathematic tools first. Or perhaps the Langlands project will uncover a relationship between unrelated areas of mathematical research that already exist today that will yield an answer to this nearly century-old conjecture.
Either way, I hope you find this topic… mildly interesting. Enough to appreciate the problem, not so much that you think you can solve it yourself.
Art: AJStay safe, don’t drink and derive, and happy hacking.
#CollatzConjecture #define #HaltingProblem #mathematics #TuringMachines
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Lazy Caturday Reads: Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, and More News
Good Afternoon!!
Elizabeth Taylor with her Siamese cat, 1956, photo by Sanford Roth
Epstein, Epstein, Epstein. He’s everywhere in the news. We still haven’t seen the DOJ Epstein files, but we’re already learning more about Epstein’s relationship to Trump from the recently released text messages. We don’t know yet how bad it will get when the files are released, but the extent to which Trump is publicly panicking suggests it will be very bad for him.
In Trump’s latest effort to control the Epstein story, he ordered Attorney General Bondi to investigate Democrats who had connections to the child sex trafficker.
Acceding to President Donald Trump’s demands, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday that she has ordered a top federal prosecutor to investigate sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to Trump political foes, including former President Bill Clinton.
Bondi posted on X that she was assigning Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to lead the probe, capping an eventful week in which congressional Republicans released nearly 23,000 pages of documents from Epstein’s estate and House Democrats seized on emails mentioning Trump.
Trump, who was friends with Epstein for years, didn’t explain what supposed crimes he wanted the Justice Department to investigate. None of the men he mentioned in a social media post demanding the probe has been accused of sexual misconduct by any of Epstein’s victims.
Hours before Bondi’s announcement, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he would ask her, the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “involvement and relationship” with Clinton and others, including former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and LinkedIn founder and Democratic donor Reid Hoffman.
Trump, calling the matter “the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans,” said the investigation should also include financial giant JPMorgan Chase, which provided banking services to Epstein, and “many other people and institutions.”
There’s no evidence that any of the people Trump is targeting were involved in sexual abuse or sex trafficking.
A JPMorgan Chase spokesperson, Patricia Wexler, said the company regretted associating with Epstein “but did not help him commit his heinous acts.”
“The government had damning information about his crimes and failed to share it with us or other banks,” she said. The company agreed previously to pay millions of dollars to Epstein’s victims, who had sued arguing that the bank ignored red flags about criminal activity.
Clinton has acknowledged traveling on Epstein’s private jet but has said through a spokesperson that he had no knowledge of the late financier’s crimes. He also has never been accused of misconduct by Epstein’s known victims.
Clinton’s deputy chief of staff Angel Ureña posted on X Friday: “These emails prove Bill Clinton did nothing and knew nothing. The rest is noise meant to distract from election losses, backfiring shutdowns, and who knows what else.” [….]
Summers and Hoffman had nothing to do with either case, but both were friendly with Epstein and exchanged emails with him. Those messages were among the documents released this week, along with other correspondence Epstein had with friends and business associates in the years before his death.
Nothing in the messages suggested any wrongdoing on the men’s part, other than associating with someone who had been accused of sex crimes against children.
At Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson writes:
In a transparent attempt to distract from the many times his own name appears in the documents from the Epstein estate members of the House Oversight Committee released Wednesday, President Donald J. Trump asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Democrats whose names appeared in the documents. He singled out former president Bill Clinton, former treasury secretary Lawrence H. Summers, and Reid Hoffman, who founded LinkedIn and who is a Democratic donor.
Marlon Brando and cat
Although the attorney general is the nation’s chief law enforcement officer and is supposed to be nonpartisan in protecting the rule of law, Bondi responded that the Department of Justice “will pursue this with urgency and integrity.” Maegan Vazquez and Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post note that reporters have already covered the relationship of Epstein with Clinton, Summers, and Hoffman for years, and that in July, Justice Department officials said an examination of the FBI files relating to Epstein—a different cache than Wednesday’s—“did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
Meidas Touch noted: “In normal times, it would be a major scandal for the President to direct his AG to criminally investigate his political opponents to deflect from his own involvement in a major scandal—and for the AG to immediately announce she is doing it. The Epstein scandal and cover up just got even bigger.”
This scandal truly has Trump flailing. I hope this will be the one that really brings him down, but he somehow seems to wriggle out of every scandal. But he certainly is terrified of the Epstein files being released.
Politico: House plans to vote Tuesday on releasing Epstein files.
House Republican leaders are planning to hold a vote Tuesday on legislation to force the release of federal files related to Jeffrey Epstein, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss internal plans ahead of a public announcement.
The tentative scheduling decision follows a successful effort by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) to sidestep Speaker Mike Johnson and force a floor vote on their bipartisan bill to compel the Justice Department to release all of its records related to the late convicted sex offender.
President Donald Trump has made repeated attempts to kill the effort, which continued in a series of Truth Social posts Friday. But Johnson said Wednesday he intends to move quickly to hold the vote and put the matter to bed.
Under the current GOP plan, the House Rules Committee would approve a procedural measure Monday night to advance eight bills for floor consideration, including language to tee up the Epstein legislation. If that measure is approved on the floor, likely early Tuesday afternoon, debate and a final vote on the Epstein bill could immediately follow. GOP leaders are considering whether to postpone the Epstein vote until Tuesday evening….
The four Republicans who signed on to the discharge petition forcing the vote — Massie, plus Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Nancy Mace of South Carolina — are likely to examine Johnson’s moves very closely. They could together block any procedural measure that would undercut the Epstein legislation, postpone it or otherwise alter it.
One more story on the Epstein texts from Jason Wilson at The Guardian: Steve Bannon advised Jeffrey Epstein for years on how to rehab his reputation, texts show.
Hundreds of texts over almost a year show Maga influencer Steve Bannon and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein workshopping legal and media strategies to protect Epstein from the legal and publicity quagmire that enveloped him in the last year of his life.
The texts, released by the House oversight committee on Wednesday, show that as early as June 2018, the pair were devising responses to the gathering storm of public outrage about Epstein’s criminal history, his favorable treatment by the justice system, and his friendships with powerful figures in business, politics and academia.
Bannon conspiratorially described the renewed scrutiny of Epstein as a “sophisticated op”, and over time he counseled Epstein in his adversarial responses to media outlets, the justice system and his victims.
All the while, both men were also strategizing how best to promote Bannon’s rightwing populist agenda, and the political fortunes of its standard bearer, Donald Trump.
In all of Epstein’s messages, the identity of his correspondent is redacted. But Bannon’s identity in the threads cited in this reporting is clear from contextual clues including his documented activities at the time, details of his business and media pursuits, and other disclosures. In one document, the sender’s phone number is not redacted – and it is the same number linked to Bannon in a legal case against Trump adviser Roger Stone.
Read the rest at The Guardian.
Trump is also beginning to panic about the economy and the negative effects of his insane tariffs.
David J. Lynch at The Washington Post: Trump goes on defense over tariffs as prices on everyday items keep rising.
President Donald Trump’s bid Friday to sootheconsumers by dropping tariffs on a wide array of groceries, including coffee, beef, bananas and tomatoes — contradicting his repeated claims that the levies were not affecting retail prices — shows he is on the defensive over his signature policy initiative.
Public opposition, eroding support on Capitol Hill and a potentially lethal challenge before the Supreme Court have Trump scrambling to defend his economic strategy even as the administration notches diplomatic agreements that are cementing its high-tariff approach to rebalancing global trade.
Sophia Loren with her cat, 1959
Public opinion is the immediate worry, following recent Democratic electoral victories in Virginia and New Jersey that were fueled by Americans’ ire over the cost of living. By a nearly 2-to-1 margin, registered voters disapproved of the president’s tariffs in a recent Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll, a finding that has been consistent all year and could imperil Republican candidates in next year’s congressional elections.
The president on Friday issued an executive order rolling back import taxes on many foods, his most significant retreat on the emergency tariffs he imposed in April, which were billed at the time as loophole-free. In September, the White House had signaled that some products that are not generally produced in the United States could be spared tariffs once nations where they originate reached trade deals with the United States. But Friday’s exemptions apply to products from any nation, even those that have not agreed on trade terms.
“They know that they shouldn’t have imposed a lot of these tariffs and that they’re hurting affordability for consumers. Now they’re looking for a way to justify lowering them. And that’s fine. But did we really need to go through all this in the first place?” said Christopher Padilla, senior adviser to the Brunswick Group and a former trade official in the George W. Bush administration….
This week’s tariff cuts appear aimed at responding to public concern over high prices. Inflation overall is running at an annual rate of 3 percent, above the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target for price stability but well down from the mid-2022 peak of 9.1 percent.
Prices on many everyday items, however, continue to soar. Through September, the most recent data available, coffee prices were up 19 percent over the previous 12 months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bananas were up 7 percent.
Elizabeth Buchwald at CNN: Trump’s latest tariff TACO probably won’t make your life more affordable.
Americans could soon see some goods get cheaper after President Donald Trump exempted certain agricultural imports from a set of tariffs on Friday. But any price drops likely won’t be enough to make life feel more affordable any time soon.
The executive order exempted products like coffee, beef and some fruit from Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs, which began rolling out in April.
The new exemptions are part of what traders have dubbed TACO, or Trump Always Chickens Out, to describe times when the president backs off a policy after unintended consequences pop up. In the case of tariffs, Trump has already reversed a number of his measures, a sign that the administration is reshaping his signature economic tool.
The latest TACO comes after voters, worried about affordability, gave Republicans a drubbing in recent off-year elections.
Why this likely won’t help consumers much:
Nevertheless, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the new exemptions generally won’t help improve affordability.
“It depends on what the importers do with the tariff,” he said in a CNBC interview on Friday. “So when you look at the overall price trend, it hasn’t been because of tariffs. It’s been because of these other events going on and just supply and demand.”
Steve Martin and cat
But in cases where tariffs have been passed along to consumers, prices could drop, Greer said.
One potential example: bananas. American consumers are paying about 8% more for bananas than before Trump’s second term began.
The US largely imports bananas from South American countries. With bananas exempt from “reciprocal” tariffs that started at 10%, prices could go back to where they were earlier this year, said Sarah House, senior economist at Wells Fargo. But it’s unlikely to be something most consumers notice unless they’re buying bananas often, she added.
But not everyone is convinced it will even do that much.
“It is not clear that lowering tariffs will lower prices — it depends on what retailers think they can get away with. The import price of bananas has fallen since tariffs were imposed, but the US consumer price has risen,” Paul Donovan, chief economist at UBS global wealth management, said in a note last week. (The United States tracks import prices before accounting for tariffs. In some cases, import prices have fallen as exporters lower what they charge as a way to share in the tariff expense importers pay.)
More analysis at the CNN link.
Another flop: Trump’s soybean deal with China may have just been a mirage. AP: USDA data casts doubt on China’s soybean purchase promises touted by Trump.
New data the Agriculture Department released Friday created serious doubts about whether China will really buy millions of bushels of American soybeans like the Trump administration touted last month after a high-stakes meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The USDA report released after the government reopened showed only two Chinese purchases of American soybeans since the summit in South Korea that totaled 332,000 metric tons. That’s well short of the 12 million metric tons that Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said China agreed to purchase by January and nowhere near the 25 million metric tons she said they would buy in each of the next three years.
American farmers were hopeful that their biggest customer would resume buying their crops. But CoBank’s Tanner Ehmke, who is its lead economist for grains and oilseed, said there isn’t much incentive for China to buy from America right now because they have plenty of soybeans on hand that they have bought from Brazil and other South American countries this year, and the remaining tariffs ensure that U.S. soybeans remain more expensive than Brazilian beans.
“We are still not even close to what has been advertised from the U.S. in terms of what the agreement would have been,” Ehmke said.
Beijing has yet to confirm any detailed soybean purchase agreement but only that the two sides have reached “consensus” on expanding trade in farm products. Ehmke said that even if China did promise to buy American soybeans it may have only agreed to buy them if the price was attractive.
Will Trump try to distract from the Epstein files and his failures on the economy by taking use to war with Venezuela?
David E. Sanger, Eric Schmit, tTyler Pager, and Zolan Kanno-Youngs at The New York Times (gift link): Trump Escalates Pressure on Venezuela, but Endgame Is Unclear.
The Trump administration is rapidly escalating its pressure campaign against Venezuela, with America’s largest aircraft carrier, the Ford, about to take up a position within striking distance of the country, even as President Trump’s aides provide conflicting accounts of what, exactly, they are seeking to achieve.
Mr. Trump held back-to-back days of meetings at the White House over the past two days, reviewing military options, including the use of Special Operations forces and direct action inside Venezuela.
Marlyn Monroe with her cat
It is still not clear whether Mr. Trump has made a decision about what kind of action to authorize, if any. On Friday, he told reporters on Air Force One that “I sort of made up my mind.” “I can’t tell you what it is,” he said, “but we made a lot of progress with Venezuela in terms of stopping drugs from pouring in.”
It is possible Mr. Trump is relying on the arrival of so much firepower to intimidate the government of Nicolás Maduro, who the United States and many of its allies say is not Venezuela’s legitimate president. Mr. Maduro has put his forces on high alert, leaving the two countries with their weapons cocked and ready for war.
There were signs that the administration was moving into a new and more aggressive posture. Shortly after a meeting on Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on social media that the mission in the Caribbean now had a name — “Southern Spear.” He described its goal in expansive terms, saying the operation “removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere.”
“The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood,” he wrote, “and we will protect it.” With the arrival of the Ford and three accompanying missile-firing Navy destroyers, there are now 15,000 troops in the region, more than there have been at any time in decades.
The only thing missing is a strategic explanation from the Trump administration that would clarify why the United States is amassing such a large force. Mr. Hegseth’s posting on X was only the latest in a series of statements from administration officials that, at best, are in tension with one another. Some are outright contradictory.
Mr. Trump has been the most consistent, saying it is all about drugs. But that would not explain why the Ford was rushed from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Caribbean region, adding to an American force that has now reached 15,000 soldiers and sailors, to attack small boats that until early September had been intercepted by the Coast Guard. Nor would it explain why Colombia or Mexico — Mexico being the main conduit for fentanyl — are not in the Navy’s sights.
Dan Lamothe, Tara Copp, Michael Birnbaum, and Noah Robertson: Trump weighs Venezuela strikes as U.S. forces prepare for attack order.
President Donald Trump said Friday night that he has “sort of made up my mind” about how he will proceed with the possibility of military action in Venezuela, following a second consecutive day of deliberations at the White House that included top national security advisers.
Trump’s vague remarks aboard Air Force One were delivered as he traveled for the weekend to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and included no additional new details. The comments came as U.S. forces in the region awaited possible attack orders and after days of high-level discussions about whether — and how — to strike in Venezuela, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter is highly sensitive. Joining Trump in deliberations Friday were Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, these people said.
Robert Redford with his cat
Earlier in the day, an administration official said “a host of options” had been presented to the president. Trump is “very good at maintaining strategic ambiguity, and something he does very well is he does not dictate or broadcast to our adversaries what he wants to do next,” the official said.
Any strike on Venezuelan territory would upend the president’s frequent promises of avoiding new conflicts and betray promises made to Congress in recent weeks that no active preparations were underway for such an attack. It also would further complicate U.S. cooperation with other Latin American countries, and deepen suspicions — there and in Washington — over whether Trump’s endgame is the forced removal of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, whom Trump has accused of sending drugs and violent criminals to the United States.
Maduro, a socialist strongman, came to power in Caracas in 2013 and increasingly has become a fixation for Trump.
In August, U.S. officials increased the reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction from $25 million to $50 million, citing alleged ties to drug cartels and U.S. beliefs dating back to the Biden administration that he lost Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election and refused to step down.
“The United States is very plugged into what’s going on in Venezuela, the chatter among Maduro’s people and the highest levels of his regime,” the administration official said. “Maduro is very scared, and he should be scared. The president has options on the table that are very bad for Maduro and his illegitimate regime. … We view this regime as illegitimate, and it’s not serving the Western Hemisphere well.”
President Donald Trump has said he believes Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s days are numbered, and that land strikes inside Venezuela are possible.
Experts say that the US doesn’t currently have the military assets in place to launch a largescale operation to remove Maduro from power, though Trump has approved covert action within Venezuela, CNN has reported.
Bette Davis with cat
But if Trump did order strikes inside Venezuela aimed at ousting Maduro, he could face serious challenges with fractured opposition elements and a military poised for insurgency, according to experts, as well as political backlash at home for a president who promised to avoid costly entanglements overseas.
CNN reported that Trump received a briefing earlier this week to review updated options for military action inside Venezuela, a concept the White House has been weighing. The administration had not made a decision on whether to launch strikes, CNN reported, though the US military has moved more than a dozen warships and 15,000 troops into the region as part of what the Pentagon branded Operation Southern Spear in an announcement Thursday.
The concentration of military assets and threats of further attacks beyond the ongoing drug boat campaign have served to increase pressure on Maduro, with administration officials saying he needs to leave office while arguing that he’s closely tied to the Tren de Aragua gang and leading drug trafficking efforts.
But if Maduro does flee Venezuela or is killed out in a targeted strike, experts worry about a military takeover of the country or the boosting of another dictator similar to Maduro.
Read the rest at CNN.
Those are my recommended reads. I’ll add a few more links in the comment thread. What stories are you interested in today?
#BillClinton #catArt #caturday #ChinaSoybeanPurchases #DonaldTrump #EpsteinFiles #JeffreyEpstein #LarrySummers #NicolasMaduro #PamBondi #ReidHoffman #SteveBannon #TACOTrump #TrumpTariffs #Venezuela
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Finally Friday Reads: He Said, She Said
“It might happen sooner.” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
It’s one of those days where I really wonder if I should actually get up, even though today Temple and I beat the garbage collectors to the street for a walk. We usually manage to shadow the postman. I saw a question on C-SPAN’s Facebook page that’s really worth asking. “Are you better off financially today than a year ago?” The answer for everyone I know is absolutely no. Our democracy and ability to get justice are getting worse by the minute, also.
So, yesterday, Hillary Clinton testified in a closed session about her complete lack of a relationship with Epstein, which she framed as a basic waste of everyone’s time and money. She stated that, to her knowledge, she’d never even met the guy, then told them to ask Bill. Meanwhile, we’re getting more calls for an investigation into Trump’s obvious associations. This headline from Bill Sher writing at the Washington Monthly says it all. “It’s Time for the Media to Press Trump on Allegations of Abusing a Minor. The president should be scrutinized with the same intensity as others in the Epstein Files.”
I was skeptical that the Jeffrey Epstein files would implicate President Donald Trump in illegal sexual abuse of a minor. It’s not that one cannot imagine Trump being untoward; on the contrary, a jury found him to be liable for sexual abuse. But Trump committing sex crimes against underage girls seemed dubious.
Yet inconclusive but tantalizing evidence exists in a 21-slide presentation, apparently created last summer by two joint Federal Bureau of Investigation-New York Police Department task forces, summarizing four “Jeffrey Epstein Investigations.”
A “Timeline” slide of developments in the case, from July 24, 2006, to July 22, 2025, spanning the initial Epstein investigation through Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction and appeal, indicates that the presentation was created after that date. To put it in context, the allegations against Trump appear to come from a single witness and don’t include physical evidence, such as notes or texts.
One slide titled “Prominent Names” dishes allegations against several famous people and leads with two regarding Trump:
1. [REDACTED] stated Epstein introduced her to Trump who subsequently forced her head down to his exposed penis which she subsequently bit. In response, Trump punched her in the head and kicked her out. (date range 1983-1985, [REDACTED] would have been 13- 15)
2. [REDACTED] remember Epstein introduced her to Trump saying “This is a good one, huh” and Trump responded “Yes”. (date range roughly 1984, [REDACTED] would have been 14)
An email thread from July 24, 2025, circulating in the FBI’s New York field office, appears to include a draft of the “Prominent Names” slide text. The Trump text, which has a typo, is identical to what is in a slightly different, probably draft, slideshow.
When the latest Epstein files were released on January 30, the allegations against Trump immediately drew attention. For example, that same day, the progressive MeidasTouch Network posted the email thread on X and CNN’s Jake Tapper, among others, highlighted an email thread covering August 6 and 7, 2025, about “NTOC Names,” which refers to tips collected by the National Threat Operations Center, the bureau’s hub for receiving and vetting public tips regarding federal crimes. The thread includes Epstein-related tips and, in some cases, how federal authorities responded. One emailer notes that in one document, some rows have “yellow highlighting … for the salacious piece,” which appears to refer to the “Prominent Names” slide. (An emailer in July asks for “a sentence or two” for each of the names with “salacious statements.”)
Several tips mention that federal authorities were unable to follow up with the tipsters or verify their stories; those items were not on the “Prominent Names” slide. But one entry on Trump tracks what’s in the slide:
[REDACTED] reported an unidentified female friend who was forced to perform oral sex on President Trump approximately 35 years ago in NJ. The friend told [REDACTED] that she was approximately 13-14 years old when this occurred, and the friend allegedly bit President Trump while performing oral sex. The friend was allegedly hit in the face after she laughed about biting President Trump. The friend said she was also abused by Epstein.
The table’s “Response” column notes, “Spoke with caller who identified [REDACTED] as friend. Lead was sent to Washington Office to conduct interview.”
Some media outlets, including The Mirror, The Telegraph, The Daily Beast, and Mediaite, covered the allegation. But most reporters elided the bit-penis-hit-in-the-face allegation in favor of vague references to multiple unsubstantiated claims while the Justice Department sought to inoculate the president by stating, “Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump.” The media’s attention gravitated to other famous names mentioned in the Epstein files, regardless of whether the files contained evidence of sexual misconduct. Several prominent figures have since resigned from their positions due to their associations with Epstein.
Then, starting on February 15, Roger Sollenberger, the independent journalist, pieced together information indicating that the FBI interviewed the accuser four times in 2019. Sollenberger suggests this means that the FBI found her “credible.” Furthermore, records of three of those interviews were not in the Epstein Files release. He also found a “Jane Doe 4” in a lawsuit against Epstein with similar biographical details, making similar allegations against an unnamed Epstein friend. Jane Doe 4 was deemed ineligible for the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program, but the suit nonetheless appears to have led to a settlement for her from Epstein.
Bolstering the case that the FBI found the accuser credible, Nina Burleigh and Katie Chenoweth, the independent journalists, noted that, uniquely, her redacted name is routinely followed by the phrase, “PROTECT SOURCE,” which is “typically used for high-risk informants such as mafia rats.”
There is so much more to this story that I hope you take the time to read it all. The Guardian also has more information on the claim. “Epstein files contain explicit but unsubstantiated claim that Trump abused minor. Department of Justice did not release FBI memos when it uploaded millions of pages of files beginning in December.”
Three memos that describe four interviews conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2019 contain explicit but unsubstantiated claims that Donald Trump sexually abused a woman when she was a minor in the early 1980s with the assistance of Jeffrey Epstein, according to a Guardian review of those documents.
The Department of Justice did not release those records when it uploaded millions of pages of files related to Epstein beginning in December. The existence of the missing documents was first reported by independent journalist Roger Sollenberger and subsequently confirmed by NPR, causing outrage in Washington and sparking an investigation from congressional Democrats.
The Guardian obtained the missing FBI Form 302 reports, which memorialize 25 pages of agents’ notes from the four interviews conducted in the summer and fall of 2019. The notes describe how the woman came forward to tell agents she recognized Epstein from a photo sent by a childhood friend. Only the first session, in which she did not name Trump, made it into the public release. The Guardian has chosen not to publish the woman’s name.
All we know about the Hillary Testimony comes from Clinton herself. This is from the New York Times and reported by Annie Karni. “In Tense Deposition, Hillary Clinton Denies Knowing Epstein or His Crimes. After resisting testifying for months, the former secretary of state entered the session defiant and grew irate after a Republican leaked a photo from inside the room.”
In a lengthy opening statement her aides distributed in advance, Mrs. Clinton accused House Republicans of using her as a prop in “partisan political theater” and excoriated their investigation as “designed to protect one political party and one public official, rather than to seek truth and justice for the victims and survivors.”
“You have compelled me to testify, fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, in order to distract attention from President Trump’s actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers,” she said.
She added: “You have made little effort to call the people who show up most prominently in the Epstein files,” noting that not a single Republican had attended a closed-door session last week in Ohio to depose Leslie Wexner, the retail billionaire and prolific G.O.P. donor who helped Mr. Epstein build his wealth.
In a day’s worth of questioning that she later called “repetitive” and unproductive, Mrs. Clinton told the committee that she did not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein and “never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes or offices.”
“I don’t know how many times I had to say I did not know Jeffrey Epstein,” she told reporters after the session had ended. “It’s on the record numerous times.”
The deposition briefly went off the rails when, as Republicans questioned her, Mr. Johnson’s post of the photograph showing Mrs. Clinton’s testifying while wearing a weary expression prompted an eruption in the room. Her lawyers vociferously objected and called for journalists to be allowed inside to document the proceedings. House Democrats noted that Republicans had refused to grant the Clintons’ request for a public hearing.
“We are sitting through an incredibly unserious clown show of a deposition,” Representative Yassamin Ansari, Democrat of Arizona, said, claiming Republicans were “more concerned with getting their photo op” than with holding anyone accountable.
This is from the Washington Examiner. It’s reported by David Zimmermann. “Clinton says she was asked about UFOs and Pizzagate at ‘unusual’ Epstein deposition.”
After exiting her deposition on Thursday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested some members of Congress were more concerned with UFOs and Pizzagate instead of Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell in their questions.
The high-profile witness called the House oversight committee deposition “quite unusual” as it concluded.
“I started being asked about UFOs and a series of questions about Pizzagate, one of the most vile bogus conspiracy theories that was propagated on the internet, that was serving as the basis of a member’s questions to me,” Clinton said in Chappaqua, New York, where the closed-door deposition hearing was held.
It’s unclear why Clinton was questioned on extraterrestrial life, as UFOs have nothing to do with the late convicted sex offender’s crimes. Last week, President Donald Trump said he would start declassifying government files related to the existence of aliens.
The Pizzagate conspiracy theory refers to a child sex ring linked to members of the Democratic Party, and it went viral during the 2016 presidential election cycle when Clinton was running against Trump for president. At one point, a pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C., named Comet Ping Pong was caught up in the right-wing conspiracy theory.
Clinton did not name the member who asked the unusual questions, nor whether the lawmaker was a Republican or a Democrat.
The hearing was disrupted earlier when Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) shared a photo of Clinton with conservative commentator Benny Johnson, who then posted the image on social media. As a result of the stunt, the hearing was paused for about 30 minutes. Closed-door hearings forbid unauthorized photography as it could violate House rules and confidentiality agreements.
Clinton denied she ever met Epstein and claimed to never have “any connection or communication” with the convicted sex offender, although she admitted knowing Maxwell “casually as an acquaintance.”
She criticized the GOP-led committee’s decision to reject her and her husband’s bid for public hearings.
“It was disappointing that they refused to hold a public hearing, so I wouldn’t have to be out here characterizing it for you. You could have seen it for yourself,” she told reporters. “We had asked for that. We think it would have been better for the committee and its efforts to gather whatever information they are seeking.”
The former Cabinet secretary also slammed oversight committee Republicans for skipping the recent deposition of former Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner, whom the FBI labeled a co-conspirator of Epstein. Chairman James Comer (R-KY) did not attend that deposition due to an already scheduled medical procedure.
Despite her criticisms, Clinton noted the “best exchange” came toward the end of the hearing, when Comer asked a “series of significant questions” related to the investigation’s focus.
Since I’ve already mentioned polls, I think I’ll share the results of an interesting one analyzed by G. Elliott Morris in his Substack, Strength in Numbers. “New poll: Democrats’ real problem isn’t being too liberal — it’s being seen as too weak. Americans, including swing voters, see the Republican Party as 20 points more extreme than Democrats — and the Democrats as weak and ineffective. So why would the *Democrats* moderate?”
In our February poll, we asked voters whether each of 10 adjectives describes the Democratic and Republican parties. Each person was asked to rank how well each word — such as “extreme”, “elitist”, “tough”, and “weak” — described both parties on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 indicating the word described the party very well.
The Republican Party’s defining traits in voters’ minds are extreme (60% agree), elitist (57%), tough, (56%) and cruel (51%). The percentage of Americans agreeing with descriptions of positive traits is comparatively smaller: just 41% say the party is competent, 41% say principled, and only 31% — less than a third — say the GOP can be considered empathetic.
The average American sees Democrats in a much different light. The top descriptors of the party are empathetic (54%) and principled (49%). Comparatively few people think of it as “tough” (31%), and nearly half the country calls the Democrats weak (48%) and ineffective (47%). Democrats’ competence rating is 46% — five points higher than the GOP’s — but it’s the weakness and ineffectiveness labels that dominate voters’ impressions and national discourse about the party.
The chart above is ordered by the gap between the percentage of Americans who say each descriptor applies to each party — and these gaps are revealing. Democrats lead on empathetic by 23 points (54% versus 31%) and on principled by 8 (49% versus 41%). The GOP leads on exactly one positive trait: toughness (56% versus 31%). That’s it.
Being seen as tough is an advantage in a politics where voters want parties to deliver for them no matter what, but it’s likely not worth being called cruel and elitist. In our poll, Democrats lead the Republicans on the U.S. House generic ballot by 10 percentage points among registered voters. At least in the short term, that’s a worthwhile trade.
But the Democrats’ weakness problem stands out as a particularly strong signal of intra-party dissatisfaction. When we look at how each party’s own identifiers rate their own party, the weakness gap for the Democrats really jumps out. Just 53% of Democrats call their party tough, compared to 80% of Republicans. And 31% of Democrats say their own party is weak — almost three times the 13% of Republicans who say the same about theirs.
On most traits, partisans rate their own party similarly. Democrats and Republicans are within a few points of each other on being competent, principled, and cynical. But on toughness and weakness, Democrats are far more self-critical. That matters electorally: a party whose own base doubts its strength will struggle to turn out its base. And in an era of close elections, that is not a loss a party can afford.
Those results were not much of a surprise to me. Today, it’s Bill Clinton’s turn to testify in the Epstein Investigation. NBC News has live updates on its website. “Trump administration live updates: Bill Clinton testifies in House Jeffrey Epstein probe. Clinton is the first sitting or former president to testify before members of Congress in more than 40 years.” This is reported by Rebecca Shabad.
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, said this morning that Democrats have “real questions that deserve serious answers from former President Clinton” during his closed-door deposition in Chappaqua today.
“We have said from day one that Democrats want to talk to anyone, whether they are a Republican or a Democrat, no matter how powerful they are, whatever position that they’ve been in,” Garcia told reporters ahead of the deposition.
Garcia said that they don’t want to see another “sideshow” today like what happened during Hillary Clinton’s deposition yesterday, in which he said Republicans asked her about UFOs and conspiracy theories.
Because “Republicans have now set a new precedent, which is to bring in presidents and former presidents to testify,” Democrats are again demanding that Trump testify before their panel about his relationship with Epstein, Garcia said.
Trump appears in the Epstein files “almost more than anybody else,” Garcia said.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and authorities have not accused him of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
They’re also reporting that lots of Diet Cokes have been brought into the building for the former President. I guess we’ll see what happens.
That’s about all I’m good for today. The entire Epstein show is getting old. I do have a local source from WDSU, the news station I watch here in New Orleans. At least a few of these sick, powerful pedophiles are feeling a bit of justice. “Here’s who has faced fallout from the Epstein files. Since Congress and the Department of Justice released the Epstein files, several high-profile people have been burned by past links to convicted sex-offender.” Please note the word several. I guess that’s a start though.
Several individuals in government, private companies and universities have faced fallout over alleged links to convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The Get the Facts Data Team has created a timeline of reports on individuals who have faced professional or reputational consequences or legal action since Epstein’s arrest in 2019.
Among those who faced professional or reputational consequences were CEOs who resigned or sold their companies, faculty who were suspended and public figures who issued apologies.
You may read the list and the ‘consequences’ at the link.
What’s on your Reading, Action, and Blogging list today?
#2026Polls #JohnbussBskySocial #BillClintonTestimony #HillaryClintonTestimony #RepRobertGarcia #TheEpsteinFiles -
Finally Friday Reads: He Said, She Said
“It might happen sooner.” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
It’s one of those days where I really wonder if I should actually get up, even though today Temple and I beat the garbage collectors to the street for a walk. We usually manage to shadow the postman. I saw a question on C-SPAN’s Facebook page that’s really worth asking. “Are you better off financially today than a year ago?” The answer for everyone I know is absolutely no. Our democracy and ability to get justice are getting worse by the minute, also.
So, yesterday, Hillary Clinton testified in a closed session about her complete lack of a relationship with Epstein, which she framed as a basic waste of everyone’s time and money. She stated that, to her knowledge, she’d never even met the guy, then told them to ask Bill. Meanwhile, we’re getting more calls for an investigation into Trump’s obvious associations. This headline from Bill Sher writing at the Washington Monthly says it all. “It’s Time for the Media to Press Trump on Allegations of Abusing a Minor. The president should be scrutinized with the same intensity as others in the Epstein Files.”
I was skeptical that the Jeffrey Epstein files would implicate President Donald Trump in illegal sexual abuse of a minor. It’s not that one cannot imagine Trump being untoward; on the contrary, a jury found him to be liable for sexual abuse. But Trump committing sex crimes against underage girls seemed dubious.
Yet inconclusive but tantalizing evidence exists in a 21-slide presentation, apparently created last summer by two joint Federal Bureau of Investigation-New York Police Department task forces, summarizing four “Jeffrey Epstein Investigations.”
A “Timeline” slide of developments in the case, from July 24, 2006, to July 22, 2025, spanning the initial Epstein investigation through Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction and appeal, indicates that the presentation was created after that date. To put it in context, the allegations against Trump appear to come from a single witness and don’t include physical evidence, such as notes or texts.
One slide titled “Prominent Names” dishes allegations against several famous people and leads with two regarding Trump:
1. [REDACTED] stated Epstein introduced her to Trump who subsequently forced her head down to his exposed penis which she subsequently bit. In response, Trump punched her in the head and kicked her out. (date range 1983-1985, [REDACTED] would have been 13- 15)
2. [REDACTED] remember Epstein introduced her to Trump saying “This is a good one, huh” and Trump responded “Yes”. (date range roughly 1984, [REDACTED] would have been 14)
An email thread from July 24, 2025, circulating in the FBI’s New York field office, appears to include a draft of the “Prominent Names” slide text. The Trump text, which has a typo, is identical to what is in a slightly different, probably draft, slideshow.
When the latest Epstein files were released on January 30, the allegations against Trump immediately drew attention. For example, that same day, the progressive MeidasTouch Network posted the email thread on X and CNN’s Jake Tapper, among others, highlighted an email thread covering August 6 and 7, 2025, about “NTOC Names,” which refers to tips collected by the National Threat Operations Center, the bureau’s hub for receiving and vetting public tips regarding federal crimes. The thread includes Epstein-related tips and, in some cases, how federal authorities responded. One emailer notes that in one document, some rows have “yellow highlighting … for the salacious piece,” which appears to refer to the “Prominent Names” slide. (An emailer in July asks for “a sentence or two” for each of the names with “salacious statements.”)
Several tips mention that federal authorities were unable to follow up with the tipsters or verify their stories; those items were not on the “Prominent Names” slide. But one entry on Trump tracks what’s in the slide:
[REDACTED] reported an unidentified female friend who was forced to perform oral sex on President Trump approximately 35 years ago in NJ. The friend told [REDACTED] that she was approximately 13-14 years old when this occurred, and the friend allegedly bit President Trump while performing oral sex. The friend was allegedly hit in the face after she laughed about biting President Trump. The friend said she was also abused by Epstein.
The table’s “Response” column notes, “Spoke with caller who identified [REDACTED] as friend. Lead was sent to Washington Office to conduct interview.”
Some media outlets, including The Mirror, The Telegraph, The Daily Beast, and Mediaite, covered the allegation. But most reporters elided the bit-penis-hit-in-the-face allegation in favor of vague references to multiple unsubstantiated claims while the Justice Department sought to inoculate the president by stating, “Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump.” The media’s attention gravitated to other famous names mentioned in the Epstein files, regardless of whether the files contained evidence of sexual misconduct. Several prominent figures have since resigned from their positions due to their associations with Epstein.
Then, starting on February 15, Roger Sollenberger, the independent journalist, pieced together information indicating that the FBI interviewed the accuser four times in 2019. Sollenberger suggests this means that the FBI found her “credible.” Furthermore, records of three of those interviews were not in the Epstein Files release. He also found a “Jane Doe 4” in a lawsuit against Epstein with similar biographical details, making similar allegations against an unnamed Epstein friend. Jane Doe 4 was deemed ineligible for the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program, but the suit nonetheless appears to have led to a settlement for her from Epstein.
Bolstering the case that the FBI found the accuser credible, Nina Burleigh and Katie Chenoweth, the independent journalists, noted that, uniquely, her redacted name is routinely followed by the phrase, “PROTECT SOURCE,” which is “typically used for high-risk informants such as mafia rats.”
There is so much more to this story that I hope you take the time to read it all. The Guardian also has more information on the claim. “Epstein files contain explicit but unsubstantiated claim that Trump abused minor. Department of Justice did not release FBI memos when it uploaded millions of pages of files beginning in December.”
Three memos that describe four interviews conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2019 contain explicit but unsubstantiated claims that Donald Trump sexually abused a woman when she was a minor in the early 1980s with the assistance of Jeffrey Epstein, according to a Guardian review of those documents.
The Department of Justice did not release those records when it uploaded millions of pages of files related to Epstein beginning in December. The existence of the missing documents was first reported by independent journalist Roger Sollenberger and subsequently confirmed by NPR, causing outrage in Washington and sparking an investigation from congressional Democrats.
The Guardian obtained the missing FBI Form 302 reports, which memorialize 25 pages of agents’ notes from the four interviews conducted in the summer and fall of 2019. The notes describe how the woman came forward to tell agents she recognized Epstein from a photo sent by a childhood friend. Only the first session, in which she did not name Trump, made it into the public release. The Guardian has chosen not to publish the woman’s name.
All we know about the Hillary Testimony comes from Clinton herself. This is from the New York Times and reported by Annie Karni. “In Tense Deposition, Hillary Clinton Denies Knowing Epstein or His Crimes. After resisting testifying for months, the former secretary of state entered the session defiant and grew irate after a Republican leaked a photo from inside the room.”
In a lengthy opening statement her aides distributed in advance, Mrs. Clinton accused House Republicans of using her as a prop in “partisan political theater” and excoriated their investigation as “designed to protect one political party and one public official, rather than to seek truth and justice for the victims and survivors.”
“You have compelled me to testify, fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, in order to distract attention from President Trump’s actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers,” she said.
She added: “You have made little effort to call the people who show up most prominently in the Epstein files,” noting that not a single Republican had attended a closed-door session last week in Ohio to depose Leslie Wexner, the retail billionaire and prolific G.O.P. donor who helped Mr. Epstein build his wealth.
In a day’s worth of questioning that she later called “repetitive” and unproductive, Mrs. Clinton told the committee that she did not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein and “never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes or offices.”
“I don’t know how many times I had to say I did not know Jeffrey Epstein,” she told reporters after the session had ended. “It’s on the record numerous times.”
The deposition briefly went off the rails when, as Republicans questioned her, Mr. Johnson’s post of the photograph showing Mrs. Clinton’s testifying while wearing a weary expression prompted an eruption in the room. Her lawyers vociferously objected and called for journalists to be allowed inside to document the proceedings. House Democrats noted that Republicans had refused to grant the Clintons’ request for a public hearing.
“We are sitting through an incredibly unserious clown show of a deposition,” Representative Yassamin Ansari, Democrat of Arizona, said, claiming Republicans were “more concerned with getting their photo op” than with holding anyone accountable.
This is from the Washington Examiner. It’s reported by David Zimmermann. “Clinton says she was asked about UFOs and Pizzagate at ‘unusual’ Epstein deposition.”
After exiting her deposition on Thursday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested some members of Congress were more concerned with UFOs and Pizzagate instead of Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell in their questions.
The high-profile witness called the House oversight committee deposition “quite unusual” as it concluded.
“I started being asked about UFOs and a series of questions about Pizzagate, one of the most vile bogus conspiracy theories that was propagated on the internet, that was serving as the basis of a member’s questions to me,” Clinton said in Chappaqua, New York, where the closed-door deposition hearing was held.
It’s unclear why Clinton was questioned on extraterrestrial life, as UFOs have nothing to do with the late convicted sex offender’s crimes. Last week, President Donald Trump said he would start declassifying government files related to the existence of aliens.
The Pizzagate conspiracy theory refers to a child sex ring linked to members of the Democratic Party, and it went viral during the 2016 presidential election cycle when Clinton was running against Trump for president. At one point, a pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C., named Comet Ping Pong was caught up in the right-wing conspiracy theory.
Clinton did not name the member who asked the unusual questions, nor whether the lawmaker was a Republican or a Democrat.
The hearing was disrupted earlier when Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) shared a photo of Clinton with conservative commentator Benny Johnson, who then posted the image on social media. As a result of the stunt, the hearing was paused for about 30 minutes. Closed-door hearings forbid unauthorized photography as it could violate House rules and confidentiality agreements.
Clinton denied she ever met Epstein and claimed to never have “any connection or communication” with the convicted sex offender, although she admitted knowing Maxwell “casually as an acquaintance.”
She criticized the GOP-led committee’s decision to reject her and her husband’s bid for public hearings.
“It was disappointing that they refused to hold a public hearing, so I wouldn’t have to be out here characterizing it for you. You could have seen it for yourself,” she told reporters. “We had asked for that. We think it would have been better for the committee and its efforts to gather whatever information they are seeking.”
The former Cabinet secretary also slammed oversight committee Republicans for skipping the recent deposition of former Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner, whom the FBI labeled a co-conspirator of Epstein. Chairman James Comer (R-KY) did not attend that deposition due to an already scheduled medical procedure.
Despite her criticisms, Clinton noted the “best exchange” came toward the end of the hearing, when Comer asked a “series of significant questions” related to the investigation’s focus.
Since I’ve already mentioned polls, I think I’ll share the results of an interesting one analyzed by G. Elliott Morris in his Substack, Strength in Numbers. “New poll: Democrats’ real problem isn’t being too liberal — it’s being seen as too weak. Americans, including swing voters, see the Republican Party as 20 points more extreme than Democrats — and the Democrats as weak and ineffective. So why would the *Democrats* moderate?”
In our February poll, we asked voters whether each of 10 adjectives describes the Democratic and Republican parties. Each person was asked to rank how well each word — such as “extreme”, “elitist”, “tough”, and “weak” — described both parties on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 indicating the word described the party very well.
The Republican Party’s defining traits in voters’ minds are extreme (60% agree), elitist (57%), tough, (56%) and cruel (51%). The percentage of Americans agreeing with descriptions of positive traits is comparatively smaller: just 41% say the party is competent, 41% say principled, and only 31% — less than a third — say the GOP can be considered empathetic.
The average American sees Democrats in a much different light. The top descriptors of the party are empathetic (54%) and principled (49%). Comparatively few people think of it as “tough” (31%), and nearly half the country calls the Democrats weak (48%) and ineffective (47%). Democrats’ competence rating is 46% — five points higher than the GOP’s — but it’s the weakness and ineffectiveness labels that dominate voters’ impressions and national discourse about the party.
The chart above is ordered by the gap between the percentage of Americans who say each descriptor applies to each party — and these gaps are revealing. Democrats lead on empathetic by 23 points (54% versus 31%) and on principled by 8 (49% versus 41%). The GOP leads on exactly one positive trait: toughness (56% versus 31%). That’s it.
Being seen as tough is an advantage in a politics where voters want parties to deliver for them no matter what, but it’s likely not worth being called cruel and elitist. In our poll, Democrats lead the Republicans on the U.S. House generic ballot by 10 percentage points among registered voters. At least in the short term, that’s a worthwhile trade.
But the Democrats’ weakness problem stands out as a particularly strong signal of intra-party dissatisfaction. When we look at how each party’s own identifiers rate their own party, the weakness gap for the Democrats really jumps out. Just 53% of Democrats call their party tough, compared to 80% of Republicans. And 31% of Democrats say their own party is weak — almost three times the 13% of Republicans who say the same about theirs.
On most traits, partisans rate their own party similarly. Democrats and Republicans are within a few points of each other on being competent, principled, and cynical. But on toughness and weakness, Democrats are far more self-critical. That matters electorally: a party whose own base doubts its strength will struggle to turn out its base. And in an era of close elections, that is not a loss a party can afford.
Those results were not much of a surprise to me. Today, it’s Bill Clinton’s turn to testify in the Epstein Investigation. NBC News has live updates on its website. “Trump administration live updates: Bill Clinton testifies in House Jeffrey Epstein probe. Clinton is the first sitting or former president to testify before members of Congress in more than 40 years.” This is reported by Rebecca Shabad.
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, said this morning that Democrats have “real questions that deserve serious answers from former President Clinton” during his closed-door deposition in Chappaqua today.
“We have said from day one that Democrats want to talk to anyone, whether they are a Republican or a Democrat, no matter how powerful they are, whatever position that they’ve been in,” Garcia told reporters ahead of the deposition.
Garcia said that they don’t want to see another “sideshow” today like what happened during Hillary Clinton’s deposition yesterday, in which he said Republicans asked her about UFOs and conspiracy theories.
Because “Republicans have now set a new precedent, which is to bring in presidents and former presidents to testify,” Democrats are again demanding that Trump testify before their panel about his relationship with Epstein, Garcia said.
Trump appears in the Epstein files “almost more than anybody else,” Garcia said.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and authorities have not accused him of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
They’re also reporting that lots of Diet Cokes have been brought into the building for the former President. I guess we’ll see what happens.
That’s about all I’m good for today. The entire Epstein show is getting old. I do have a local source from WDSU, the news station I watch here in New Orleans. At least a few of these sick, powerful pedophiles are feeling a bit of justice. “Here’s who has faced fallout from the Epstein files. Since Congress and the Department of Justice released the Epstein files, several high-profile people have been burned by past links to convicted sex-offender.” Please note the word several. I guess that’s a start though.
Several individuals in government, private companies and universities have faced fallout over alleged links to convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The Get the Facts Data Team has created a timeline of reports on individuals who have faced professional or reputational consequences or legal action since Epstein’s arrest in 2019.
Among those who faced professional or reputational consequences were CEOs who resigned or sold their companies, faculty who were suspended and public figures who issued apologies.
You may read the list and the ‘consequences’ at the link.
What’s on your Reading, Action, and Blogging list today?
#2026Polls #JohnbussBskySocial #BillClintonTestimony #HillaryClintonTestimony #RepRobertGarcia #TheEpsteinFiles -
Finally Friday Reads: He Said, She Said
“It might happen sooner.” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
It’s one of those days where I really wonder if I should actually get up, even though today Temple and I beat the garbage collectors to the street for a walk. We usually manage to shadow the postman. I saw a question on C-SPAN’s Facebook page that’s really worth asking. “Are you better off financially today than a year ago?” The answer for everyone I know is absolutely no. Our democracy and ability to get justice are getting worse by the minute, also.
So, yesterday, Hillary Clinton testified in a closed session about her complete lack of a relationship with Epstein, which she framed as a basic waste of everyone’s time and money. She stated that, to her knowledge, she’d never even met the guy, then told them to ask Bill. Meanwhile, we’re getting more calls for an investigation into Trump’s obvious associations. This headline from Bill Sher writing at the Washington Monthly says it all. “It’s Time for the Media to Press Trump on Allegations of Abusing a Minor. The president should be scrutinized with the same intensity as others in the Epstein Files.”
I was skeptical that the Jeffrey Epstein files would implicate President Donald Trump in illegal sexual abuse of a minor. It’s not that one cannot imagine Trump being untoward; on the contrary, a jury found him to be liable for sexual abuse. But Trump committing sex crimes against underage girls seemed dubious.
Yet inconclusive but tantalizing evidence exists in a 21-slide presentation, apparently created last summer by two joint Federal Bureau of Investigation-New York Police Department task forces, summarizing four “Jeffrey Epstein Investigations.”
A “Timeline” slide of developments in the case, from July 24, 2006, to July 22, 2025, spanning the initial Epstein investigation through Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction and appeal, indicates that the presentation was created after that date. To put it in context, the allegations against Trump appear to come from a single witness and don’t include physical evidence, such as notes or texts.
One slide titled “Prominent Names” dishes allegations against several famous people and leads with two regarding Trump:
1. [REDACTED] stated Epstein introduced her to Trump who subsequently forced her head down to his exposed penis which she subsequently bit. In response, Trump punched her in the head and kicked her out. (date range 1983-1985, [REDACTED] would have been 13- 15)
2. [REDACTED] remember Epstein introduced her to Trump saying “This is a good one, huh” and Trump responded “Yes”. (date range roughly 1984, [REDACTED] would have been 14)
An email thread from July 24, 2025, circulating in the FBI’s New York field office, appears to include a draft of the “Prominent Names” slide text. The Trump text, which has a typo, is identical to what is in a slightly different, probably draft, slideshow.
When the latest Epstein files were released on January 30, the allegations against Trump immediately drew attention. For example, that same day, the progressive MeidasTouch Network posted the email thread on X and CNN’s Jake Tapper, among others, highlighted an email thread covering August 6 and 7, 2025, about “NTOC Names,” which refers to tips collected by the National Threat Operations Center, the bureau’s hub for receiving and vetting public tips regarding federal crimes. The thread includes Epstein-related tips and, in some cases, how federal authorities responded. One emailer notes that in one document, some rows have “yellow highlighting … for the salacious piece,” which appears to refer to the “Prominent Names” slide. (An emailer in July asks for “a sentence or two” for each of the names with “salacious statements.”)
Several tips mention that federal authorities were unable to follow up with the tipsters or verify their stories; those items were not on the “Prominent Names” slide. But one entry on Trump tracks what’s in the slide:
[REDACTED] reported an unidentified female friend who was forced to perform oral sex on President Trump approximately 35 years ago in NJ. The friend told [REDACTED] that she was approximately 13-14 years old when this occurred, and the friend allegedly bit President Trump while performing oral sex. The friend was allegedly hit in the face after she laughed about biting President Trump. The friend said she was also abused by Epstein.
The table’s “Response” column notes, “Spoke with caller who identified [REDACTED] as friend. Lead was sent to Washington Office to conduct interview.”
Some media outlets, including The Mirror, The Telegraph, The Daily Beast, and Mediaite, covered the allegation. But most reporters elided the bit-penis-hit-in-the-face allegation in favor of vague references to multiple unsubstantiated claims while the Justice Department sought to inoculate the president by stating, “Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump.” The media’s attention gravitated to other famous names mentioned in the Epstein files, regardless of whether the files contained evidence of sexual misconduct. Several prominent figures have since resigned from their positions due to their associations with Epstein.
Then, starting on February 15, Roger Sollenberger, the independent journalist, pieced together information indicating that the FBI interviewed the accuser four times in 2019. Sollenberger suggests this means that the FBI found her “credible.” Furthermore, records of three of those interviews were not in the Epstein Files release. He also found a “Jane Doe 4” in a lawsuit against Epstein with similar biographical details, making similar allegations against an unnamed Epstein friend. Jane Doe 4 was deemed ineligible for the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program, but the suit nonetheless appears to have led to a settlement for her from Epstein.
Bolstering the case that the FBI found the accuser credible, Nina Burleigh and Katie Chenoweth, the independent journalists, noted that, uniquely, her redacted name is routinely followed by the phrase, “PROTECT SOURCE,” which is “typically used for high-risk informants such as mafia rats.”
There is so much more to this story that I hope you take the time to read it all. The Guardian also has more information on the claim. “Epstein files contain explicit but unsubstantiated claim that Trump abused minor. Department of Justice did not release FBI memos when it uploaded millions of pages of files beginning in December.”
Three memos that describe four interviews conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2019 contain explicit but unsubstantiated claims that Donald Trump sexually abused a woman when she was a minor in the early 1980s with the assistance of Jeffrey Epstein, according to a Guardian review of those documents.
The Department of Justice did not release those records when it uploaded millions of pages of files related to Epstein beginning in December. The existence of the missing documents was first reported by independent journalist Roger Sollenberger and subsequently confirmed by NPR, causing outrage in Washington and sparking an investigation from congressional Democrats.
The Guardian obtained the missing FBI Form 302 reports, which memorialize 25 pages of agents’ notes from the four interviews conducted in the summer and fall of 2019. The notes describe how the woman came forward to tell agents she recognized Epstein from a photo sent by a childhood friend. Only the first session, in which she did not name Trump, made it into the public release. The Guardian has chosen not to publish the woman’s name.
All we know about the Hillary Testimony comes from Clinton herself. This is from the New York Times and reported by Annie Karni. “In Tense Deposition, Hillary Clinton Denies Knowing Epstein or His Crimes. After resisting testifying for months, the former secretary of state entered the session defiant and grew irate after a Republican leaked a photo from inside the room.”
In a lengthy opening statement her aides distributed in advance, Mrs. Clinton accused House Republicans of using her as a prop in “partisan political theater” and excoriated their investigation as “designed to protect one political party and one public official, rather than to seek truth and justice for the victims and survivors.”
“You have compelled me to testify, fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, in order to distract attention from President Trump’s actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers,” she said.
She added: “You have made little effort to call the people who show up most prominently in the Epstein files,” noting that not a single Republican had attended a closed-door session last week in Ohio to depose Leslie Wexner, the retail billionaire and prolific G.O.P. donor who helped Mr. Epstein build his wealth.
In a day’s worth of questioning that she later called “repetitive” and unproductive, Mrs. Clinton told the committee that she did not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein and “never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes or offices.”
“I don’t know how many times I had to say I did not know Jeffrey Epstein,” she told reporters after the session had ended. “It’s on the record numerous times.”
The deposition briefly went off the rails when, as Republicans questioned her, Mr. Johnson’s post of the photograph showing Mrs. Clinton’s testifying while wearing a weary expression prompted an eruption in the room. Her lawyers vociferously objected and called for journalists to be allowed inside to document the proceedings. House Democrats noted that Republicans had refused to grant the Clintons’ request for a public hearing.
“We are sitting through an incredibly unserious clown show of a deposition,” Representative Yassamin Ansari, Democrat of Arizona, said, claiming Republicans were “more concerned with getting their photo op” than with holding anyone accountable.
This is from the Washington Examiner. It’s reported by David Zimmermann. “Clinton says she was asked about UFOs and Pizzagate at ‘unusual’ Epstein deposition.”
After exiting her deposition on Thursday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested some members of Congress were more concerned with UFOs and Pizzagate instead of Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell in their questions.
The high-profile witness called the House oversight committee deposition “quite unusual” as it concluded.
“I started being asked about UFOs and a series of questions about Pizzagate, one of the most vile bogus conspiracy theories that was propagated on the internet, that was serving as the basis of a member’s questions to me,” Clinton said in Chappaqua, New York, where the closed-door deposition hearing was held.
It’s unclear why Clinton was questioned on extraterrestrial life, as UFOs have nothing to do with the late convicted sex offender’s crimes. Last week, President Donald Trump said he would start declassifying government files related to the existence of aliens.
The Pizzagate conspiracy theory refers to a child sex ring linked to members of the Democratic Party, and it went viral during the 2016 presidential election cycle when Clinton was running against Trump for president. At one point, a pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C., named Comet Ping Pong was caught up in the right-wing conspiracy theory.
Clinton did not name the member who asked the unusual questions, nor whether the lawmaker was a Republican or a Democrat.
The hearing was disrupted earlier when Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) shared a photo of Clinton with conservative commentator Benny Johnson, who then posted the image on social media. As a result of the stunt, the hearing was paused for about 30 minutes. Closed-door hearings forbid unauthorized photography as it could violate House rules and confidentiality agreements.
Clinton denied she ever met Epstein and claimed to never have “any connection or communication” with the convicted sex offender, although she admitted knowing Maxwell “casually as an acquaintance.”
She criticized the GOP-led committee’s decision to reject her and her husband’s bid for public hearings.
“It was disappointing that they refused to hold a public hearing, so I wouldn’t have to be out here characterizing it for you. You could have seen it for yourself,” she told reporters. “We had asked for that. We think it would have been better for the committee and its efforts to gather whatever information they are seeking.”
The former Cabinet secretary also slammed oversight committee Republicans for skipping the recent deposition of former Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner, whom the FBI labeled a co-conspirator of Epstein. Chairman James Comer (R-KY) did not attend that deposition due to an already scheduled medical procedure.
Despite her criticisms, Clinton noted the “best exchange” came toward the end of the hearing, when Comer asked a “series of significant questions” related to the investigation’s focus.
Since I’ve already mentioned polls, I think I’ll share the results of an interesting one analyzed by G. Elliott Morris in his Substack, Strength in Numbers. “New poll: Democrats’ real problem isn’t being too liberal — it’s being seen as too weak. Americans, including swing voters, see the Republican Party as 20 points more extreme than Democrats — and the Democrats as weak and ineffective. So why would the *Democrats* moderate?”
In our February poll, we asked voters whether each of 10 adjectives describes the Democratic and Republican parties. Each person was asked to rank how well each word — such as “extreme”, “elitist”, “tough”, and “weak” — described both parties on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 indicating the word described the party very well.
The Republican Party’s defining traits in voters’ minds are extreme (60% agree), elitist (57%), tough, (56%) and cruel (51%). The percentage of Americans agreeing with descriptions of positive traits is comparatively smaller: just 41% say the party is competent, 41% say principled, and only 31% — less than a third — say the GOP can be considered empathetic.
The average American sees Democrats in a much different light. The top descriptors of the party are empathetic (54%) and principled (49%). Comparatively few people think of it as “tough” (31%), and nearly half the country calls the Democrats weak (48%) and ineffective (47%). Democrats’ competence rating is 46% — five points higher than the GOP’s — but it’s the weakness and ineffectiveness labels that dominate voters’ impressions and national discourse about the party.
The chart above is ordered by the gap between the percentage of Americans who say each descriptor applies to each party — and these gaps are revealing. Democrats lead on empathetic by 23 points (54% versus 31%) and on principled by 8 (49% versus 41%). The GOP leads on exactly one positive trait: toughness (56% versus 31%). That’s it.
Being seen as tough is an advantage in a politics where voters want parties to deliver for them no matter what, but it’s likely not worth being called cruel and elitist. In our poll, Democrats lead the Republicans on the U.S. House generic ballot by 10 percentage points among registered voters. At least in the short term, that’s a worthwhile trade.
But the Democrats’ weakness problem stands out as a particularly strong signal of intra-party dissatisfaction. When we look at how each party’s own identifiers rate their own party, the weakness gap for the Democrats really jumps out. Just 53% of Democrats call their party tough, compared to 80% of Republicans. And 31% of Democrats say their own party is weak — almost three times the 13% of Republicans who say the same about theirs.
On most traits, partisans rate their own party similarly. Democrats and Republicans are within a few points of each other on being competent, principled, and cynical. But on toughness and weakness, Democrats are far more self-critical. That matters electorally: a party whose own base doubts its strength will struggle to turn out its base. And in an era of close elections, that is not a loss a party can afford.
Those results were not much of a surprise to me. Today, it’s Bill Clinton’s turn to testify in the Epstein Investigation. NBC News has live updates on its website. “Trump administration live updates: Bill Clinton testifies in House Jeffrey Epstein probe. Clinton is the first sitting or former president to testify before members of Congress in more than 40 years.” This is reported by Rebecca Shabad.
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, said this morning that Democrats have “real questions that deserve serious answers from former President Clinton” during his closed-door deposition in Chappaqua today.
“We have said from day one that Democrats want to talk to anyone, whether they are a Republican or a Democrat, no matter how powerful they are, whatever position that they’ve been in,” Garcia told reporters ahead of the deposition.
Garcia said that they don’t want to see another “sideshow” today like what happened during Hillary Clinton’s deposition yesterday, in which he said Republicans asked her about UFOs and conspiracy theories.
Because “Republicans have now set a new precedent, which is to bring in presidents and former presidents to testify,” Democrats are again demanding that Trump testify before their panel about his relationship with Epstein, Garcia said.
Trump appears in the Epstein files “almost more than anybody else,” Garcia said.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and authorities have not accused him of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
They’re also reporting that lots of Diet Cokes have been brought into the building for the former President. I guess we’ll see what happens.
That’s about all I’m good for today. The entire Epstein show is getting old. I do have a local source from WDSU, the news station I watch here in New Orleans. At least a few of these sick, powerful pedophiles are feeling a bit of justice. “Here’s who has faced fallout from the Epstein files. Since Congress and the Department of Justice released the Epstein files, several high-profile people have been burned by past links to convicted sex-offender.” Please note the word several. I guess that’s a start though.
Several individuals in government, private companies and universities have faced fallout over alleged links to convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The Get the Facts Data Team has created a timeline of reports on individuals who have faced professional or reputational consequences or legal action since Epstein’s arrest in 2019.
Among those who faced professional or reputational consequences were CEOs who resigned or sold their companies, faculty who were suspended and public figures who issued apologies.
You may read the list and the ‘consequences’ at the link.
What’s on your Reading, Action, and Blogging list today?
#2026Polls #JohnbussBskySocial #BillClintonTestimony #HillaryClintonTestimony #RepRobertGarcia #TheEpsteinFiles -
Finally Friday Reads: He Said, She Said
“It might happen sooner.” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
It’s one of those days where I really wonder if I should actually get up, even though today Temple and I beat the garbage collectors to the street for a walk. We usually manage to shadow the postman. I saw a question on C-SPAN’s Facebook page that’s really worth asking. “Are you better off financially today than a year ago?” The answer for everyone I know is absolutely no. Our democracy and ability to get justice are getting worse by the minute, also.
So, yesterday, Hillary Clinton testified in a closed session about her complete lack of a relationship with Epstein, which she framed as a basic waste of everyone’s time and money. She stated that, to her knowledge, she’d never even met the guy, then told them to ask Bill. Meanwhile, we’re getting more calls for an investigation into Trump’s obvious associations. This headline from Bill Sher writing at the Washington Monthly says it all. “It’s Time for the Media to Press Trump on Allegations of Abusing a Minor. The president should be scrutinized with the same intensity as others in the Epstein Files.”
I was skeptical that the Jeffrey Epstein files would implicate President Donald Trump in illegal sexual abuse of a minor. It’s not that one cannot imagine Trump being untoward; on the contrary, a jury found him to be liable for sexual abuse. But Trump committing sex crimes against underage girls seemed dubious.
Yet inconclusive but tantalizing evidence exists in a 21-slide presentation, apparently created last summer by two joint Federal Bureau of Investigation-New York Police Department task forces, summarizing four “Jeffrey Epstein Investigations.”
A “Timeline” slide of developments in the case, from July 24, 2006, to July 22, 2025, spanning the initial Epstein investigation through Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction and appeal, indicates that the presentation was created after that date. To put it in context, the allegations against Trump appear to come from a single witness and don’t include physical evidence, such as notes or texts.
One slide titled “Prominent Names” dishes allegations against several famous people and leads with two regarding Trump:
1. [REDACTED] stated Epstein introduced her to Trump who subsequently forced her head down to his exposed penis which she subsequently bit. In response, Trump punched her in the head and kicked her out. (date range 1983-1985, [REDACTED] would have been 13- 15)
2. [REDACTED] remember Epstein introduced her to Trump saying “This is a good one, huh” and Trump responded “Yes”. (date range roughly 1984, [REDACTED] would have been 14)
An email thread from July 24, 2025, circulating in the FBI’s New York field office, appears to include a draft of the “Prominent Names” slide text. The Trump text, which has a typo, is identical to what is in a slightly different, probably draft, slideshow.
When the latest Epstein files were released on January 30, the allegations against Trump immediately drew attention. For example, that same day, the progressive MeidasTouch Network posted the email thread on X and CNN’s Jake Tapper, among others, highlighted an email thread covering August 6 and 7, 2025, about “NTOC Names,” which refers to tips collected by the National Threat Operations Center, the bureau’s hub for receiving and vetting public tips regarding federal crimes. The thread includes Epstein-related tips and, in some cases, how federal authorities responded. One emailer notes that in one document, some rows have “yellow highlighting … for the salacious piece,” which appears to refer to the “Prominent Names” slide. (An emailer in July asks for “a sentence or two” for each of the names with “salacious statements.”)
Several tips mention that federal authorities were unable to follow up with the tipsters or verify their stories; those items were not on the “Prominent Names” slide. But one entry on Trump tracks what’s in the slide:
[REDACTED] reported an unidentified female friend who was forced to perform oral sex on President Trump approximately 35 years ago in NJ. The friend told [REDACTED] that she was approximately 13-14 years old when this occurred, and the friend allegedly bit President Trump while performing oral sex. The friend was allegedly hit in the face after she laughed about biting President Trump. The friend said she was also abused by Epstein.
The table’s “Response” column notes, “Spoke with caller who identified [REDACTED] as friend. Lead was sent to Washington Office to conduct interview.”
Some media outlets, including The Mirror, The Telegraph, The Daily Beast, and Mediaite, covered the allegation. But most reporters elided the bit-penis-hit-in-the-face allegation in favor of vague references to multiple unsubstantiated claims while the Justice Department sought to inoculate the president by stating, “Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump.” The media’s attention gravitated to other famous names mentioned in the Epstein files, regardless of whether the files contained evidence of sexual misconduct. Several prominent figures have since resigned from their positions due to their associations with Epstein.
Then, starting on February 15, Roger Sollenberger, the independent journalist, pieced together information indicating that the FBI interviewed the accuser four times in 2019. Sollenberger suggests this means that the FBI found her “credible.” Furthermore, records of three of those interviews were not in the Epstein Files release. He also found a “Jane Doe 4” in a lawsuit against Epstein with similar biographical details, making similar allegations against an unnamed Epstein friend. Jane Doe 4 was deemed ineligible for the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program, but the suit nonetheless appears to have led to a settlement for her from Epstein.
Bolstering the case that the FBI found the accuser credible, Nina Burleigh and Katie Chenoweth, the independent journalists, noted that, uniquely, her redacted name is routinely followed by the phrase, “PROTECT SOURCE,” which is “typically used for high-risk informants such as mafia rats.”
There is so much more to this story that I hope you take the time to read it all. The Guardian also has more information on the claim. “Epstein files contain explicit but unsubstantiated claim that Trump abused minor. Department of Justice did not release FBI memos when it uploaded millions of pages of files beginning in December.”
Three memos that describe four interviews conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2019 contain explicit but unsubstantiated claims that Donald Trump sexually abused a woman when she was a minor in the early 1980s with the assistance of Jeffrey Epstein, according to a Guardian review of those documents.
The Department of Justice did not release those records when it uploaded millions of pages of files related to Epstein beginning in December. The existence of the missing documents was first reported by independent journalist Roger Sollenberger and subsequently confirmed by NPR, causing outrage in Washington and sparking an investigation from congressional Democrats.
The Guardian obtained the missing FBI Form 302 reports, which memorialize 25 pages of agents’ notes from the four interviews conducted in the summer and fall of 2019. The notes describe how the woman came forward to tell agents she recognized Epstein from a photo sent by a childhood friend. Only the first session, in which she did not name Trump, made it into the public release. The Guardian has chosen not to publish the woman’s name.
All we know about the Hillary Testimony comes from Clinton herself. This is from the New York Times and reported by Annie Karni. “In Tense Deposition, Hillary Clinton Denies Knowing Epstein or His Crimes. After resisting testifying for months, the former secretary of state entered the session defiant and grew irate after a Republican leaked a photo from inside the room.”
In a lengthy opening statement her aides distributed in advance, Mrs. Clinton accused House Republicans of using her as a prop in “partisan political theater” and excoriated their investigation as “designed to protect one political party and one public official, rather than to seek truth and justice for the victims and survivors.”
“You have compelled me to testify, fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, in order to distract attention from President Trump’s actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers,” she said.
She added: “You have made little effort to call the people who show up most prominently in the Epstein files,” noting that not a single Republican had attended a closed-door session last week in Ohio to depose Leslie Wexner, the retail billionaire and prolific G.O.P. donor who helped Mr. Epstein build his wealth.
In a day’s worth of questioning that she later called “repetitive” and unproductive, Mrs. Clinton told the committee that she did not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein and “never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes or offices.”
“I don’t know how many times I had to say I did not know Jeffrey Epstein,” she told reporters after the session had ended. “It’s on the record numerous times.”
The deposition briefly went off the rails when, as Republicans questioned her, Mr. Johnson’s post of the photograph showing Mrs. Clinton’s testifying while wearing a weary expression prompted an eruption in the room. Her lawyers vociferously objected and called for journalists to be allowed inside to document the proceedings. House Democrats noted that Republicans had refused to grant the Clintons’ request for a public hearing.
“We are sitting through an incredibly unserious clown show of a deposition,” Representative Yassamin Ansari, Democrat of Arizona, said, claiming Republicans were “more concerned with getting their photo op” than with holding anyone accountable.
This is from the Washington Examiner. It’s reported by David Zimmermann. “Clinton says she was asked about UFOs and Pizzagate at ‘unusual’ Epstein deposition.”
After exiting her deposition on Thursday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested some members of Congress were more concerned with UFOs and Pizzagate instead of Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell in their questions.
The high-profile witness called the House oversight committee deposition “quite unusual” as it concluded.
“I started being asked about UFOs and a series of questions about Pizzagate, one of the most vile bogus conspiracy theories that was propagated on the internet, that was serving as the basis of a member’s questions to me,” Clinton said in Chappaqua, New York, where the closed-door deposition hearing was held.
It’s unclear why Clinton was questioned on extraterrestrial life, as UFOs have nothing to do with the late convicted sex offender’s crimes. Last week, President Donald Trump said he would start declassifying government files related to the existence of aliens.
The Pizzagate conspiracy theory refers to a child sex ring linked to members of the Democratic Party, and it went viral during the 2016 presidential election cycle when Clinton was running against Trump for president. At one point, a pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C., named Comet Ping Pong was caught up in the right-wing conspiracy theory.
Clinton did not name the member who asked the unusual questions, nor whether the lawmaker was a Republican or a Democrat.
The hearing was disrupted earlier when Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) shared a photo of Clinton with conservative commentator Benny Johnson, who then posted the image on social media. As a result of the stunt, the hearing was paused for about 30 minutes. Closed-door hearings forbid unauthorized photography as it could violate House rules and confidentiality agreements.
Clinton denied she ever met Epstein and claimed to never have “any connection or communication” with the convicted sex offender, although she admitted knowing Maxwell “casually as an acquaintance.”
She criticized the GOP-led committee’s decision to reject her and her husband’s bid for public hearings.
“It was disappointing that they refused to hold a public hearing, so I wouldn’t have to be out here characterizing it for you. You could have seen it for yourself,” she told reporters. “We had asked for that. We think it would have been better for the committee and its efforts to gather whatever information they are seeking.”
The former Cabinet secretary also slammed oversight committee Republicans for skipping the recent deposition of former Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner, whom the FBI labeled a co-conspirator of Epstein. Chairman James Comer (R-KY) did not attend that deposition due to an already scheduled medical procedure.
Despite her criticisms, Clinton noted the “best exchange” came toward the end of the hearing, when Comer asked a “series of significant questions” related to the investigation’s focus.
Since I’ve already mentioned polls, I think I’ll share the results of an interesting one analyzed by G. Elliott Morris in his Substack, Strength in Numbers. “New poll: Democrats’ real problem isn’t being too liberal — it’s being seen as too weak. Americans, including swing voters, see the Republican Party as 20 points more extreme than Democrats — and the Democrats as weak and ineffective. So why would the *Democrats* moderate?”
In our February poll, we asked voters whether each of 10 adjectives describes the Democratic and Republican parties. Each person was asked to rank how well each word — such as “extreme”, “elitist”, “tough”, and “weak” — described both parties on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 indicating the word described the party very well.
The Republican Party’s defining traits in voters’ minds are extreme (60% agree), elitist (57%), tough, (56%) and cruel (51%). The percentage of Americans agreeing with descriptions of positive traits is comparatively smaller: just 41% say the party is competent, 41% say principled, and only 31% — less than a third — say the GOP can be considered empathetic.
The average American sees Democrats in a much different light. The top descriptors of the party are empathetic (54%) and principled (49%). Comparatively few people think of it as “tough” (31%), and nearly half the country calls the Democrats weak (48%) and ineffective (47%). Democrats’ competence rating is 46% — five points higher than the GOP’s — but it’s the weakness and ineffectiveness labels that dominate voters’ impressions and national discourse about the party.
The chart above is ordered by the gap between the percentage of Americans who say each descriptor applies to each party — and these gaps are revealing. Democrats lead on empathetic by 23 points (54% versus 31%) and on principled by 8 (49% versus 41%). The GOP leads on exactly one positive trait: toughness (56% versus 31%). That’s it.
Being seen as tough is an advantage in a politics where voters want parties to deliver for them no matter what, but it’s likely not worth being called cruel and elitist. In our poll, Democrats lead the Republicans on the U.S. House generic ballot by 10 percentage points among registered voters. At least in the short term, that’s a worthwhile trade.
But the Democrats’ weakness problem stands out as a particularly strong signal of intra-party dissatisfaction. When we look at how each party’s own identifiers rate their own party, the weakness gap for the Democrats really jumps out. Just 53% of Democrats call their party tough, compared to 80% of Republicans. And 31% of Democrats say their own party is weak — almost three times the 13% of Republicans who say the same about theirs.
On most traits, partisans rate their own party similarly. Democrats and Republicans are within a few points of each other on being competent, principled, and cynical. But on toughness and weakness, Democrats are far more self-critical. That matters electorally: a party whose own base doubts its strength will struggle to turn out its base. And in an era of close elections, that is not a loss a party can afford.
Those results were not much of a surprise to me. Today, it’s Bill Clinton’s turn to testify in the Epstein Investigation. NBC News has live updates on its website. “Trump administration live updates: Bill Clinton testifies in House Jeffrey Epstein probe. Clinton is the first sitting or former president to testify before members of Congress in more than 40 years.” This is reported by Rebecca Shabad.
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, said this morning that Democrats have “real questions that deserve serious answers from former President Clinton” during his closed-door deposition in Chappaqua today.
“We have said from day one that Democrats want to talk to anyone, whether they are a Republican or a Democrat, no matter how powerful they are, whatever position that they’ve been in,” Garcia told reporters ahead of the deposition.
Garcia said that they don’t want to see another “sideshow” today like what happened during Hillary Clinton’s deposition yesterday, in which he said Republicans asked her about UFOs and conspiracy theories.
Because “Republicans have now set a new precedent, which is to bring in presidents and former presidents to testify,” Democrats are again demanding that Trump testify before their panel about his relationship with Epstein, Garcia said.
Trump appears in the Epstein files “almost more than anybody else,” Garcia said.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and authorities have not accused him of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
They’re also reporting that lots of Diet Cokes have been brought into the building for the former President. I guess we’ll see what happens.
That’s about all I’m good for today. The entire Epstein show is getting old. I do have a local source from WDSU, the news station I watch here in New Orleans. At least a few of these sick, powerful pedophiles are feeling a bit of justice. “Here’s who has faced fallout from the Epstein files. Since Congress and the Department of Justice released the Epstein files, several high-profile people have been burned by past links to convicted sex-offender.” Please note the word several. I guess that’s a start though.
Several individuals in government, private companies and universities have faced fallout over alleged links to convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The Get the Facts Data Team has created a timeline of reports on individuals who have faced professional or reputational consequences or legal action since Epstein’s arrest in 2019.
Among those who faced professional or reputational consequences were CEOs who resigned or sold their companies, faculty who were suspended and public figures who issued apologies.
You may read the list and the ‘consequences’ at the link.
What’s on your Reading, Action, and Blogging list today?
#2026Polls #JohnbussBskySocial #BillClintonTestimony #HillaryClintonTestimony #RepRobertGarcia #TheEpsteinFiles -
Finally Friday Reads: He Said, She Said
“It might happen sooner.” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
It’s one of those days where I really wonder if I should actually get up, even though today Temple and I beat the garbage collectors to the street for a walk. We usually manage to shadow the postman. I saw a question on C-SPAN’s Facebook page that’s really worth asking. “Are you better off financially today than a year ago?” The answer for everyone I know is absolutely no. Our democracy and ability to get justice are getting worse by the minute, also.
So, yesterday, Hillary Clinton testified in a closed session about her complete lack of a relationship with Epstein, which she framed as a basic waste of everyone’s time and money. She stated that, to her knowledge, she’d never even met the guy, then told them to ask Bill. Meanwhile, we’re getting more calls for an investigation into Trump’s obvious associations. This headline from Bill Sher writing at the Washington Monthly says it all. “It’s Time for the Media to Press Trump on Allegations of Abusing a Minor. The president should be scrutinized with the same intensity as others in the Epstein Files.”
I was skeptical that the Jeffrey Epstein files would implicate President Donald Trump in illegal sexual abuse of a minor. It’s not that one cannot imagine Trump being untoward; on the contrary, a jury found him to be liable for sexual abuse. But Trump committing sex crimes against underage girls seemed dubious.
Yet inconclusive but tantalizing evidence exists in a 21-slide presentation, apparently created last summer by two joint Federal Bureau of Investigation-New York Police Department task forces, summarizing four “Jeffrey Epstein Investigations.”
A “Timeline” slide of developments in the case, from July 24, 2006, to July 22, 2025, spanning the initial Epstein investigation through Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction and appeal, indicates that the presentation was created after that date. To put it in context, the allegations against Trump appear to come from a single witness and don’t include physical evidence, such as notes or texts.
One slide titled “Prominent Names” dishes allegations against several famous people and leads with two regarding Trump:
1. [REDACTED] stated Epstein introduced her to Trump who subsequently forced her head down to his exposed penis which she subsequently bit. In response, Trump punched her in the head and kicked her out. (date range 1983-1985, [REDACTED] would have been 13- 15)
2. [REDACTED] remember Epstein introduced her to Trump saying “This is a good one, huh” and Trump responded “Yes”. (date range roughly 1984, [REDACTED] would have been 14)
An email thread from July 24, 2025, circulating in the FBI’s New York field office, appears to include a draft of the “Prominent Names” slide text. The Trump text, which has a typo, is identical to what is in a slightly different, probably draft, slideshow.
When the latest Epstein files were released on January 30, the allegations against Trump immediately drew attention. For example, that same day, the progressive MeidasTouch Network posted the email thread on X and CNN’s Jake Tapper, among others, highlighted an email thread covering August 6 and 7, 2025, about “NTOC Names,” which refers to tips collected by the National Threat Operations Center, the bureau’s hub for receiving and vetting public tips regarding federal crimes. The thread includes Epstein-related tips and, in some cases, how federal authorities responded. One emailer notes that in one document, some rows have “yellow highlighting … for the salacious piece,” which appears to refer to the “Prominent Names” slide. (An emailer in July asks for “a sentence or two” for each of the names with “salacious statements.”)
Several tips mention that federal authorities were unable to follow up with the tipsters or verify their stories; those items were not on the “Prominent Names” slide. But one entry on Trump tracks what’s in the slide:
[REDACTED] reported an unidentified female friend who was forced to perform oral sex on President Trump approximately 35 years ago in NJ. The friend told [REDACTED] that she was approximately 13-14 years old when this occurred, and the friend allegedly bit President Trump while performing oral sex. The friend was allegedly hit in the face after she laughed about biting President Trump. The friend said she was also abused by Epstein.
The table’s “Response” column notes, “Spoke with caller who identified [REDACTED] as friend. Lead was sent to Washington Office to conduct interview.”
Some media outlets, including The Mirror, The Telegraph, The Daily Beast, and Mediaite, covered the allegation. But most reporters elided the bit-penis-hit-in-the-face allegation in favor of vague references to multiple unsubstantiated claims while the Justice Department sought to inoculate the president by stating, “Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump.” The media’s attention gravitated to other famous names mentioned in the Epstein files, regardless of whether the files contained evidence of sexual misconduct. Several prominent figures have since resigned from their positions due to their associations with Epstein.
Then, starting on February 15, Roger Sollenberger, the independent journalist, pieced together information indicating that the FBI interviewed the accuser four times in 2019. Sollenberger suggests this means that the FBI found her “credible.” Furthermore, records of three of those interviews were not in the Epstein Files release. He also found a “Jane Doe 4” in a lawsuit against Epstein with similar biographical details, making similar allegations against an unnamed Epstein friend. Jane Doe 4 was deemed ineligible for the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program, but the suit nonetheless appears to have led to a settlement for her from Epstein.
Bolstering the case that the FBI found the accuser credible, Nina Burleigh and Katie Chenoweth, the independent journalists, noted that, uniquely, her redacted name is routinely followed by the phrase, “PROTECT SOURCE,” which is “typically used for high-risk informants such as mafia rats.”
There is so much more to this story that I hope you take the time to read it all. The Guardian also has more information on the claim. “Epstein files contain explicit but unsubstantiated claim that Trump abused minor. Department of Justice did not release FBI memos when it uploaded millions of pages of files beginning in December.”
Three memos that describe four interviews conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2019 contain explicit but unsubstantiated claims that Donald Trump sexually abused a woman when she was a minor in the early 1980s with the assistance of Jeffrey Epstein, according to a Guardian review of those documents.
The Department of Justice did not release those records when it uploaded millions of pages of files related to Epstein beginning in December. The existence of the missing documents was first reported by independent journalist Roger Sollenberger and subsequently confirmed by NPR, causing outrage in Washington and sparking an investigation from congressional Democrats.
The Guardian obtained the missing FBI Form 302 reports, which memorialize 25 pages of agents’ notes from the four interviews conducted in the summer and fall of 2019. The notes describe how the woman came forward to tell agents she recognized Epstein from a photo sent by a childhood friend. Only the first session, in which she did not name Trump, made it into the public release. The Guardian has chosen not to publish the woman’s name.
All we know about the Hillary Testimony comes from Clinton herself. This is from the New York Times and reported by Annie Karni. “In Tense Deposition, Hillary Clinton Denies Knowing Epstein or His Crimes. After resisting testifying for months, the former secretary of state entered the session defiant and grew irate after a Republican leaked a photo from inside the room.”
In a lengthy opening statement her aides distributed in advance, Mrs. Clinton accused House Republicans of using her as a prop in “partisan political theater” and excoriated their investigation as “designed to protect one political party and one public official, rather than to seek truth and justice for the victims and survivors.”
“You have compelled me to testify, fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, in order to distract attention from President Trump’s actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers,” she said.
She added: “You have made little effort to call the people who show up most prominently in the Epstein files,” noting that not a single Republican had attended a closed-door session last week in Ohio to depose Leslie Wexner, the retail billionaire and prolific G.O.P. donor who helped Mr. Epstein build his wealth.
In a day’s worth of questioning that she later called “repetitive” and unproductive, Mrs. Clinton told the committee that she did not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein and “never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes or offices.”
“I don’t know how many times I had to say I did not know Jeffrey Epstein,” she told reporters after the session had ended. “It’s on the record numerous times.”
The deposition briefly went off the rails when, as Republicans questioned her, Mr. Johnson’s post of the photograph showing Mrs. Clinton’s testifying while wearing a weary expression prompted an eruption in the room. Her lawyers vociferously objected and called for journalists to be allowed inside to document the proceedings. House Democrats noted that Republicans had refused to grant the Clintons’ request for a public hearing.
“We are sitting through an incredibly unserious clown show of a deposition,” Representative Yassamin Ansari, Democrat of Arizona, said, claiming Republicans were “more concerned with getting their photo op” than with holding anyone accountable.
This is from the Washington Examiner. It’s reported by David Zimmermann. “Clinton says she was asked about UFOs and Pizzagate at ‘unusual’ Epstein deposition.”
After exiting her deposition on Thursday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested some members of Congress were more concerned with UFOs and Pizzagate instead of Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell in their questions.
The high-profile witness called the House oversight committee deposition “quite unusual” as it concluded.
“I started being asked about UFOs and a series of questions about Pizzagate, one of the most vile bogus conspiracy theories that was propagated on the internet, that was serving as the basis of a member’s questions to me,” Clinton said in Chappaqua, New York, where the closed-door deposition hearing was held.
It’s unclear why Clinton was questioned on extraterrestrial life, as UFOs have nothing to do with the late convicted sex offender’s crimes. Last week, President Donald Trump said he would start declassifying government files related to the existence of aliens.
The Pizzagate conspiracy theory refers to a child sex ring linked to members of the Democratic Party, and it went viral during the 2016 presidential election cycle when Clinton was running against Trump for president. At one point, a pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C., named Comet Ping Pong was caught up in the right-wing conspiracy theory.
Clinton did not name the member who asked the unusual questions, nor whether the lawmaker was a Republican or a Democrat.
The hearing was disrupted earlier when Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) shared a photo of Clinton with conservative commentator Benny Johnson, who then posted the image on social media. As a result of the stunt, the hearing was paused for about 30 minutes. Closed-door hearings forbid unauthorized photography as it could violate House rules and confidentiality agreements.
Clinton denied she ever met Epstein and claimed to never have “any connection or communication” with the convicted sex offender, although she admitted knowing Maxwell “casually as an acquaintance.”
She criticized the GOP-led committee’s decision to reject her and her husband’s bid for public hearings.
“It was disappointing that they refused to hold a public hearing, so I wouldn’t have to be out here characterizing it for you. You could have seen it for yourself,” she told reporters. “We had asked for that. We think it would have been better for the committee and its efforts to gather whatever information they are seeking.”
The former Cabinet secretary also slammed oversight committee Republicans for skipping the recent deposition of former Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner, whom the FBI labeled a co-conspirator of Epstein. Chairman James Comer (R-KY) did not attend that deposition due to an already scheduled medical procedure.
Despite her criticisms, Clinton noted the “best exchange” came toward the end of the hearing, when Comer asked a “series of significant questions” related to the investigation’s focus.
Since I’ve already mentioned polls, I think I’ll share the results of an interesting one analyzed by G. Elliott Morris in his Substack, Strength in Numbers. “New poll: Democrats’ real problem isn’t being too liberal — it’s being seen as too weak. Americans, including swing voters, see the Republican Party as 20 points more extreme than Democrats — and the Democrats as weak and ineffective. So why would the *Democrats* moderate?”
In our February poll, we asked voters whether each of 10 adjectives describes the Democratic and Republican parties. Each person was asked to rank how well each word — such as “extreme”, “elitist”, “tough”, and “weak” — described both parties on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 indicating the word described the party very well.
The Republican Party’s defining traits in voters’ minds are extreme (60% agree), elitist (57%), tough, (56%) and cruel (51%). The percentage of Americans agreeing with descriptions of positive traits is comparatively smaller: just 41% say the party is competent, 41% say principled, and only 31% — less than a third — say the GOP can be considered empathetic.
The average American sees Democrats in a much different light. The top descriptors of the party are empathetic (54%) and principled (49%). Comparatively few people think of it as “tough” (31%), and nearly half the country calls the Democrats weak (48%) and ineffective (47%). Democrats’ competence rating is 46% — five points higher than the GOP’s — but it’s the weakness and ineffectiveness labels that dominate voters’ impressions and national discourse about the party.
The chart above is ordered by the gap between the percentage of Americans who say each descriptor applies to each party — and these gaps are revealing. Democrats lead on empathetic by 23 points (54% versus 31%) and on principled by 8 (49% versus 41%). The GOP leads on exactly one positive trait: toughness (56% versus 31%). That’s it.
Being seen as tough is an advantage in a politics where voters want parties to deliver for them no matter what, but it’s likely not worth being called cruel and elitist. In our poll, Democrats lead the Republicans on the U.S. House generic ballot by 10 percentage points among registered voters. At least in the short term, that’s a worthwhile trade.
But the Democrats’ weakness problem stands out as a particularly strong signal of intra-party dissatisfaction. When we look at how each party’s own identifiers rate their own party, the weakness gap for the Democrats really jumps out. Just 53% of Democrats call their party tough, compared to 80% of Republicans. And 31% of Democrats say their own party is weak — almost three times the 13% of Republicans who say the same about theirs.
On most traits, partisans rate their own party similarly. Democrats and Republicans are within a few points of each other on being competent, principled, and cynical. But on toughness and weakness, Democrats are far more self-critical. That matters electorally: a party whose own base doubts its strength will struggle to turn out its base. And in an era of close elections, that is not a loss a party can afford.
Those results were not much of a surprise to me. Today, it’s Bill Clinton’s turn to testify in the Epstein Investigation. NBC News has live updates on its website. “Trump administration live updates: Bill Clinton testifies in House Jeffrey Epstein probe. Clinton is the first sitting or former president to testify before members of Congress in more than 40 years.” This is reported by Rebecca Shabad.
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, said this morning that Democrats have “real questions that deserve serious answers from former President Clinton” during his closed-door deposition in Chappaqua today.
“We have said from day one that Democrats want to talk to anyone, whether they are a Republican or a Democrat, no matter how powerful they are, whatever position that they’ve been in,” Garcia told reporters ahead of the deposition.
Garcia said that they don’t want to see another “sideshow” today like what happened during Hillary Clinton’s deposition yesterday, in which he said Republicans asked her about UFOs and conspiracy theories.
Because “Republicans have now set a new precedent, which is to bring in presidents and former presidents to testify,” Democrats are again demanding that Trump testify before their panel about his relationship with Epstein, Garcia said.
Trump appears in the Epstein files “almost more than anybody else,” Garcia said.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and authorities have not accused him of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
They’re also reporting that lots of Diet Cokes have been brought into the building for the former President. I guess we’ll see what happens.
That’s about all I’m good for today. The entire Epstein show is getting old. I do have a local source from WDSU, the news station I watch here in New Orleans. At least a few of these sick, powerful pedophiles are feeling a bit of justice. “Here’s who has faced fallout from the Epstein files. Since Congress and the Department of Justice released the Epstein files, several high-profile people have been burned by past links to convicted sex-offender.” Please note the word several. I guess that’s a start though.
Several individuals in government, private companies and universities have faced fallout over alleged links to convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The Get the Facts Data Team has created a timeline of reports on individuals who have faced professional or reputational consequences or legal action since Epstein’s arrest in 2019.
Among those who faced professional or reputational consequences were CEOs who resigned or sold their companies, faculty who were suspended and public figures who issued apologies.
You may read the list and the ‘consequences’ at the link.
What’s on your Reading, Action, and Blogging list today?
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THE THREAD THAT REFUSES TO BREAK: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF WORLD AIDS DAY AND THE YEAR IT CUTS A LITTLE DEEPER
There are moments in history that do not simply arrive; they accumulate. They gather weight, memoryand meaning until they become more than dates on a calendar. World AIDS Day is one of those moments. It is a day that carries an entire era on its shoulders: the grief of the early epidemic, the rage of activists who refused to stay silent, the breakthroughs that turned despair into possibility, and the ongoing struggle to protect dignity in a world where stigma never fully disappears. World AIDS Day is woven from millions of individual stories, yet it remains a single, unified symbol of remembrance and resistance. It has existed for more than forty years, and every one of those years has been shaped by triumph, loss, misinformation, activism, science, bigotry, hope, and the relentless determination of communities who learned quickly that no one was coming to save them unless they saved each other.
When I write about World AIDS Day now, in 2025, I find myself reflecting not only on the global arc of the epidemic but on the personal threads that tie me to this day in ways I once did not expect. I did not grow up thinking I would one day speak about HIV, AIDS, stigma, or loss. I did not imagine sitting in clinics as volunteers comforted frightened clients. I did not imagine dancing at the Red Ribbon Ball beside survivors who once planned their funerals because they believed they had run out of time. I did not imagine being part of events organized by The Project or ICARE, or standing in community spaces where education, testing, music, grief, and joy intersected all at once. But life has a way of pulling you into the spaces you need to understand. And understanding the meaning of World AIDS Day has reshaped the way I move through the world.
This year feels heavier. More fragile. More electric. The political backdrop is different. The public silence is louder. The absence of federal recognition under the Trump administration intensified the emotional weight of the day. It is one thing to carry grief. It is another to have your government tell you that your grief is inconvenient. When a president cancels federal observance of World AIDS Day, he is not simply removing a symbolic gesture. He is pulling at the threads of remembrance, hoping the whole tapestry unravels. But communities like ours do not unravel. We hold tight.
This post explores the history of World AIDS Day—the decades of activism and pain and triumph that shaped it—and examines why observance matters not just for people living with HIV, but for everyone. I want to explore the psychosocial grooves this day carves into communities, how it strengthens resilience, disrupts stigma, and expands understanding. I want to include space for readers to explore related posts on The Babblings of JT, because the story of HIV is far too large to fit in one narrative (See: HIV Stigma and the Stories We Carry, jtwb768.com [placeholder]). And most importantly, I want to explain why World AIDS Day 2025 lands so personally for me—why the absence of acknowledgment feels like a reopened wound.
This is not just history. It is testimony. And it is an insistence that remembrance cannot be erased
THE ORIGIN: HOW WORLD AIDS DAY BEGAN AND WHY IT MATTERED FROM DAY ONE
World AIDS Day was first observed on December 1, 1988, at a time when the AIDS epidemic was no longer new but still carried immense fear and stigma. The disease had already taken hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide. Families were grieving in private because public mourning often led to judgment. Medical providers were still learning how to treat the virus. Entire communities—especially gay men, trans women, sex workers, people who inject drugs, and people living in poverty—were fighting not only a deadly virus but a world that blamed them for their suffering.The origins of World AIDS Day grew from two essential needs: awareness and acknowledgment. Dr. Thomas Netter and Dr. James Bunn, public information officers for the World Health Organization’s Global Programme on AIDS, recognized that the world lacked both. They proposed a day dedicated to raising awareness, encouraging testing and education, and creating a space for public recognition of the epidemic’s human toll (UNAIDS, 2024). World AIDS Day became the first international health day in history.
But globally, the observance took root because communities insisted on it. In the United States, activists from ACT UP, GMHC, community organizers, health educators, and families who had buried too many loved ones pushed continually for visibility. Public pressure forced political leaders to acknowledge the reality of the epidemic, even when those leaders resisted. In 1988, President Reagan issued his first public speech on AIDS—years after thousands had already died and after countless activists had demanded attention. World AIDS Day emerged from that culture of forced recognition. It was created because silence had become lethal.
The earliest observances were somber. They were marked by candlelight vigils, quilt displays, reading of names, marches, church services, and public education campaigns. But they were also defiant. They asserted that people living with HIV were not going to disappear quietly. That their lives deserved visibility. That death from AIDS was not inevitable. That activism could change policy. That science needed funding. And that humanity required compassion.
The power of World AIDS Day rested in its dual nature: it honored the dead while demanding accountability from the living. It confronted stigma head-on by placing grief in public view. It reminded the world that epidemics are shaped not only by viruses but by inequity, policy, and prejudice (Shilts, 1987). And it told people living with HIV that they were not alone. For individuals whose families had rejected them, for communities ravaged by loss, for partners barred from hospital rooms, the observance became a place to breathe—to be seen.
For more than forty years, World AIDS Day has continued to evolve. It has grown into a global phenomenon observed in more than 100 countries. It has been recognized by presidents, prime ministers, public health agencies, the United Nations, churches, universities, and community centers. But at its core, it remains what it always was: a day of remembrance, resistance, education, and connection.
It is a day built from the human need to honor those who shaped us.
And that is why attempts to erase it matter so deeply.
THE IMPACT: WHY WORLD AIDS DAY STILL MATTERS—FOR PEOPLE WITH HIV AND FOR THOSE WITHOUT
It is easy for people untouched by the epidemic to assume that World AIDS Day is largely symbolic—a day about the past rather than the present. That assumption could not be further from the truth. The observance continues to play a vital role in saving lives, improving public understanding, encouraging testing, reducing stigma, and reminding policymakers that public health responsibilities cannot be abandoned. Its impact extends far beyond people who live with HIV.For people with HIV, World AIDS Day provides validation, visibility, and collective strength. Living with HIV, even in 2025, involves navigating stigma that persists in ways both subtle and overt. Stigma influences whether someone seeks testing, whether they disclose their status, whether they access care consistently, whether they feel safe in relationships, and whether they experience shame or acceptance (CDC, 2024). On World AIDS Day, people with HIV see themselves reflected in public dialogue. They watch global leaders acknowledge their lives. They gather at events where they are not alone in their stories. It becomes a day where their experiences are centralized, honored, and protected.
For people without HIV, the observance provides education, empathy, and responsibility. It teaches the public that HIV is not a relic of the past. It explains that prevention tools exist—PrEP, PEP, condoms, harm reduction, U=U—and that access to these tools is deeply shaped by inequities in race, class, geography, and sexuality. It shows communities that HIV is not a disease of “others,” but a public health issue affecting millions. The day prompts conversations that people might otherwise avoid. It encourages testing among individuals who may not realize they are at risk. It combats misinformation that still circulates decades after it should have disappeared.
For policymakers, World AIDS Day serves as an accountability marker. Budgets, legislation, funding for research, support for community groups, access to medications, and public health infrastructure are all shaped by political will. The observance reminds leaders that the epidemic is ongoing, that lives are still at stake, and that abandoning support is not an option. Historical data shows that educational campaigns increase around World AIDS Day, awareness spikes, and engagement with testing and treatment services rises (KFF, 2023). The day’s influence is measurable.
For communities, World AIDS Day strengthens connection, healing, and psychosocial resilience. It provides a communal space to grieve, celebrate, organize, and support one another. It holds both joy and sorrow. The emotional impact is transformative. In towns like Davenport, Des Moines, or Iowa City, community events create safe environments where people can speak openly about their experiences, educate each other, and feel part of something larger than themselves.
World AIDS Day matters because epidemics are not shaped only by biology—they are shaped by the collective will to care.
THE PSYCHOSOCIAL GROOVE: HOW WORLD AIDS DAY SHAPES COMMUNITY IDENTITY AND RESILIENCE
Every community has rituals—moments that give shape to its emotional landscape and create shared meaning. In the HIV community, World AIDS Day is one of the most powerful of these rituals. It is not just a day; it is a psychosocial groove carved into the heart of collective memory. It creates structure around grief, celebration, advocacy, and connection. It gives people a place to put feelings that otherwise go unspoken. And it reminds communities that healing does not occur in isolation; it grows from connection, from remembrance, and from a shared understanding that the past informs the present.World AIDS Day gives people permission to feel. In a society where many still speak about HIV in hushed tones, the observance creates a moment where grief is public, where stories are shared openly, and where people living with HIV are surrounded rather than isolated. It transforms loneliness into solidarity. When someone attends a candlelight vigil, or sees quilt panels displayed, or listens to names being read aloud, they recognize that they are part of something larger than their personal journey. That recognition is psychologically grounding. Humans need belonging. They need context. They need space where vulnerability is met with acceptance rather than avoidance. World AIDS Day supplies that space.
For caregivers, case managers, clinicians, outreach workers, and volunteers, the day becomes a moment of collective reflection. These individuals carry stories that often remain unspoken—stories of clients who fell through cracks in the system, patients who arrived too late, families fractured by stigma, and survivors who persevered. The observance validates their emotional labor. It gives them an opportunity to recalibrate, to remember why the work matters, and to honor those they helped along the way. It reinforces the idea that compassion is not expendable. In this sense, World AIDS Day nurtures the internal emotional infrastructure of caregiving professions that are often stretched to their limits.
Communities build identity through shared memory. The HIV community’s identity is forged through decades of activism, survival, and mutual support. World AIDS Day strengthens that identity by reminding people of their collective roots. It brings together individuals who might otherwise never cross paths: survivors from the eighties and nineties, newly diagnosed young adults, public health experts, faith leaders, drag performers, shelter staff, outreach teams, harm-reduction workers, and family members who lost someone they loved. Where else do these worlds intersect so naturally? The day creates a tapestry from threads that might not weave together on any ordinary afternoon.
That tapestry does not just represent remembrance; it symbolizes hope. For people newly diagnosed, seeing others speak openly about their experiences can dismantle fear and shame. For young LGBTQIA+ people, the observance connects them to a lineage of resilience. For immigrants and refugees navigating a new country, the day offers cultural grounding in communal care. For people in recovery, it links harm reduction to dignity. World AIDS Day shapes the psychosocial experience of entire communities, reminding them that they are not defined by stigma or isolation but by resistance, connection, and the will to survive.
And then there is the role of organizations like The Project and ICARE. Their events carve deep emotional grooves because they are built from trust. When people walk into a testing event hosted by ICARE, they feel the presence of care rather than surveillance. When they attend a remembrance ceremony organized by The Project, they see their grief reflected back at them in compassionate ways. When they experience the Red Ribbon Ball for the first time, they see what it means to celebrate the living while honoring the dead. These events shape the emotional foundation of Iowa’s HIV community in ways numbers cannot measure.
World AIDS Day becomes a mirror, a meeting place, a container for emotion, and a reminder that no community survives without its rituals. And in 2025, that ritual has taken on an even sharper edge.
A THREAD THAT REACHES INTO THE PRESENT: WHY WORLD AIDS DAY 2025 FEELS SO PERSONAL THIS YEAR
Every year, World AIDS Day is personal to someone. This year, it is personal to me in ways I did not expect. 2025 has been a year of political assaults, public health neglect, and increasingly hostile rhetoric aimed at the communities most affected by HIV. When the Trump administration announced that federal agencies would not observe World AIDS Day, something in me cracked open. I expected frustration, but what I felt was a deeper, heavier kind of hurt—a sense of erasure that lingered in my chest like smoke from a fire still burning. That hurt slowly sharpened into resolve.I have spent years immersed in community work that directly touches the lives shaped by HIV. At The Project, I watched clients walk through doors terrified about what their lives might look like after testing. I have seen case managers sit with people for hours, explaining everything from lab results to medication options to housing applications. I have watched people cry from relief because someone finally spoke to them without judgment. At ICARE, I witnessed the courage of individuals who approached testing tables in public spaces, their palms sweating as they tried to act casual while their entire world felt uncertain. I have watched volunteers give warmth and dignity to strangers whose fear was palpable.
At the Red Ribbon Ball, I felt the emotional gravity of the community. There is nothing quite like standing in a room full of survivors while music fills the air and people hold each other through laughter and tears. The event is part fundraiser, part homecoming, part memorial, and part celebration of continued existence. It reveals the fullness of the HIV community’s humanity in a way no textbook ever could.
These experiences shaped my identity, not only as a writer but as a person who believes deeply in dignity, remembrance, and human connection. So when the federal government withdrew recognition of World AIDS Day, the message felt personal. It said, “The work you do does not matter. The community you stand beside is inconvenient. The grief you have borne is not worth public acknowledgment.”
But I know better.
And the community knows better.World AIDS Day 2025 feels personal because the political indifference is impossible to separate from the lived experiences I have witnessed. I think of the young man who walked around the block six times before deciding to get tested at an ICARE event. I think of the survivor who attended the Red Ribbon Ball for the first time in twenty years because he finally felt safe enough to be in a room with others who carried similar memories. I think of the countless stories told quietly in clinic rooms, in waiting areas, in support groups, and in living rooms. These stories deserve acknowledgment.
This year also feels personal because the political climate has intensified stigma rather than alleviated it. HIV stigma thrives when leadership is silent. It thrives when education is suppressed. It thrives when people feel unprotected. And when the President cancels an observance that has existed for more than four decades, it tells the world that stigma has permission to grow again. That kind of silence is violent.
And beyond all of that, this year feels personal because I have grown older. I have seen how communities change over time. I know what it means for collective memory to weaken if it is not nurtured. I understand the urgency of keeping stories alive. I have watched too many people forget the devastating early years of the epidemic—a forgetfulness that breeds misunderstanding. When I see younger generations understand HIV only in passing, without the context of activism, suffering, and resilience that shaped the movement, I feel a responsibility to write more, share more, and remember more.
World AIDS Day 2025 lands differently because the thread connecting past and present feels more fragile than ever. And that fragility fuels my resolve to keep pulling that thread forward rather than letting it break
THE NATIONAL BLIND SPOT: HOW WORLD AIDS DAY FILLS A VOID THAT STILL EXISTS IN 2025
One of the most striking realities about HIV in the United States is how deeply it still intersects with silence. Even with decades of scientific advancements, educational campaigns, and public advocacy, the social understanding of HIV remains shallow for many. Too many people believe HIV is “not a problem anymore.” Too many assume the epidemic is a relic of the past. Too many imagine that medication alone solves everything, forgetting the layers of stigma, trauma, discrimination, and systemic inequality that shape the lived experiences of people with HIV today.This national blind spot is not accidental. It is the product of years of underreporting, political discomfort, weak sex education curricula, and the declining visibility of HIV in mainstream media. Younger generations may not have witnessed the funerals, protests, and devastating losses of the eighties and nineties. Middle-aged adults may assume they already “know enough” about HIV from what they heard thirty years ago. Older adults who lived through the terror of those early years may carry memories so painful they avoid speaking about them at all.
World AIDS Day interrupts that silence. It does what few national observances can: it forces a confrontation with reality, both past and present. It centers the experiences of people with HIV in the public consciousness. It compels people who know little about the epidemic to pause, listen, learn, and acknowledge. It provides a structured moment for education at a scale that individual organizations could never achieve alone.
Without World AIDS Day, the national conversation about HIV becomes scattered, inconsistent, and too easily overshadowed by political noise or public exhaustion. The observance concentrates attention—something crucial in a media environment where attention is currency. It reminds the country that HIV is still disproportionately affecting Black, Latino, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, disabled, and low-income communities (CDC, 2024). It reminds the public that access to PrEP, PEP, antiretroviral therapy, and culturally competent care remains unequal. It reminds policymakers that funding must be maintained, expanded, and directed intentionally based on data, not ideology.
National awareness campaigns launched around World AIDS Day routinely reach millions. Hospitals prepare educational materials. Schools incorporate lessons. News outlets run interviews with public health experts. Community groups hold panels, marches, vigils, and events. Social media becomes saturated with messages about prevention, stigma reduction, and remembrance. The observance gives advocates a platform to reach people who might otherwise remain unaware, uninterested, or uninformed.
It also fills gaps in sexual health education that remain shockingly wide. Many states still lack comprehensive sex education requirements. Many curricula still ignore or misrepresent LGBTQIA+ health. Many schools avoid discussing HIV altogether unless forced. World AIDS Day helps mitigate this harm by creating public-facing education that reaches students, parents, teachers, and communities who would not otherwise encounter accurate information.
This national blind spot widens when federal leadership disengages from the observance. The cancellation of World AIDS Day 2025 by the Trump administration did not merely remove a ceremonial statement; it reinforced the dangerous misconception that HIV is no longer a national issue. It told millions of people living with HIV that their lives do not warrant recognition. It told communities still fighting the epidemic that their work exists in a vacuum. It gave permission for stigma to deepen. It gave ignorance fertile soil.
That is why communities must compensate for the absence of federal leadership by amplifying remembrance on their own terms. As long as HIV continues to exist—and as long as stigma continues to shape human lives—World AIDS Day will remain essential.
THE THREAD OF MEMORY: HOW WORLD AIDS DAY PROMOTES HEALING AND INTERRUPTS STIGMA
HIV stigma has always been one of the deadliest forces shaping the epidemic. It influences whether people access care, whether they disclose their status, whether they trust medical providers, and whether they believe they deserve support in the first place. Stigma can fracture family relationships, isolate individuals socially, deepen depression or anxiety, and lead to dangerous delays in testing or treatment (UNAIDS, 2024). The silence surrounding HIV often causes more harm than the virus itself.World AIDS Day disrupts that silence. It creates a moment in time where stigma loses some of its power because the world turns its eyes toward truth instead of myth. It invites people to reflect on their assumptions. It pushes conversations into public spaces where they cannot be easily ignored. It creates language around experiences that many might otherwise struggle to name.
For people living with HIV, stigma can manifest in ways both large and small. It is the awkward silence after someone reveals their status. It is the shift in facial expression. It is the friend who suddenly becomes distant. It is the family member who insists on barriers or refuses physical affection. It is the coworker who whispers instead of asking questions. It is the dating prospect who vanishes after learning the truth. It is the lingering internalized shame that grows from these encounters.
World AIDS Day helps counter this by validating the experience of people with HIV. It provides public affirmation that their lives are worthy of respect, support, and dignity. It offers opportunities for storytelling, which is one of the most powerful tools in combating stigma. When people hear stories—raw, human, honest—they begin to understand HIV as something deeply personal rather than abstract. They see faces, families, relationships, and futures rather than stereotypes or fear.
Storytelling also shifts the internal narrative for people living with HIV. Many people struggle to speak openly about their status, even with professionals. Shame is a heavy burden. But storytelling in the context of World AIDS Day creates a shared environment where shame loses its grip. When someone hears their experience echoed through another person’s story, they realize their struggle is not isolation but connection.
I have seen this firsthand. During remembrance events, people who have remained silent for years sometimes speak for the first time. They share memories, gratitude, and grief. They reveal moments from their past they have never said aloud. For some, these stories carry decades of weight. For others, the emotions are fresh. Whether the speaker is newly diagnosed or a survivor of the early epidemic, their stories matter. And the act of sharing them can be profoundly healing.
The observance also gives families permission to remember loved ones without fear of judgment. In the early years, many families suffered in silence. Some refused to acknowledge the cause of death because of societal stigma. Some held funerals without mentioning the truth. Some never spoke their loved one’s name again. World AIDS Day gives those families a chance to reclaim memory. It tells them that remembrance is not shameful—it is sacred.
Stigma weakens when communities remember together. And memory grows stronger when communities reclaim it publicly. World AIDS Day does both.
THE THREAD OF ADVOCACY: HOW WORLD AIDS DAY CONTINUES TO SHAPE POLICY AND PUBLIC HEALTH
Activism has always been the heart of the HIV movement. Without activism, HIV treatments would not have been developed as quickly as they were. Without activism, discriminatory policies would have remained intact. Without activism, the government would have continued ignoring a crisis that was killing thousands. World AIDS Day emerged from that activism—not as a passive memorial, but as a strategic moment to push for change.In 2025, advocacy remains as crucial as ever. The epidemic has not disappeared, and neither have the structural barriers that shape it. In some ways, the landscape is even more complex now. Politicians have become bolder in attacking LGBTQIA+ communities, transgender health care, harm reduction, and sexual health education. Public health budgets remain vulnerable to partisan cuts. Misinformation spreads quickly online, fueled by polarized media ecosystems. And the cancellation of World AIDS Day at the federal level signals a troubling shift in political willingness to engage with truth.
World AIDS Day amplifies advocacy by creating a unified moment when public attention is focused on HIV. This matters for several reasons.
First, visibility influences funding. Legislators are more responsive when they perceive a strong, vocal constituency. When advocates mobilize on World AIDS Day—through marches, events, campaigns, or meetings with elected officials—they apply pressure during a moment of heightened visibility.
Second, the observance supports policy literacy. Many people do not understand how laws affect HIV care. They may not realize that Ryan White funding, Medicaid expansion, or housing programs shape the ability of people with HIV to survive. World AIDS Day offers a platform for educating the public about policy, connecting individual experiences with systemic forces.
Third, advocacy grounded in remembrance carries moral urgency. Policymakers may be indifferent to statistics, but stories move them. When survivors speak about losing half their friend group in the eighties, or when young people describe struggling to access culturally competent providers, the narrative becomes harder to ignore. World AIDS Day provides the emotional framework for advocacy that data alone cannot provide.
Fourth, the observance supports global cooperation. HIV does not recognize borders. Advocacy related to PEPFAR, WHO initiatives, and international health cooperation gains strength when tied to a global day of awareness. When nations reaffirm their commitments on December first, they solidify partnerships that strengthen public health systems worldwide (PEPFAR, 2024).
Advocacy thrives on unity, visibility, and momentum. World AIDS Day generates all three!
PART 4 OF 4
(No lines between sections. Narrative headings. Conclusion included. APA-style references at end.)THE PERSONAL THREAD THAT TIES IT ALL TOGETHER: WORLD AIDS DAY AS A LIVING LEGACY
When I think about World AIDS Day as a whole—its history, its purpose, its emotional weight—I realize that it operates as a kind of living legacy. It is not something frozen in time. It evolves, adapts, reshapes itself, and gathers new meaning every year. For people who lived through the darkest chapters of the epidemic, it is a moment to honor those who never had the chance to witness today’s advancements. For younger generations, it is a doorway into a history they did not experience firsthand but inherit nonetheless. For communities like mine in Iowa—where stigma still lingers in quiet corners, where access and understanding differ wildly from place to place—World AIDS Day grounds us in shared purpose.This legacy matters even more in 2025 because the silence coming from federal leadership forces communities to confront a hard truth: remembrance cannot depend on institutions that are unwilling to honor it. The cancellation of the federal observance by the Trump administration has pushed communities to step up even more, to speak even louder, to organize even more intentionally, because the absence of national acknowledgment leaves a void that memory must fill. It is a sobering reminder that progress is not secure. Rights are not permanent. Memory is not guaranteed.
World AIDS Day becomes an act of safeguarding. It protects the stories that would otherwise be lost. It preserves the emotional truth of the epidemic. It sustains the networks of care that people have built across decades. It reinforces the idea that remembrance is not passive—it is active, deliberate, and necessary.
This is why the day feels so personal to me this year. I am watching how easily a single political decision can threaten to unravel decades of acknowledgment. I am watching how quickly silence can try to reclaim space that activists fought like hell to open. I am watching how communities must fight both the virus and the narratives that seek to erase its impact. And I am reminded that remembrance is not just about looking backward—it is about protecting the present and shaping the future.
World AIDS Day is not only for people who lost friends, partners, lovers, or chosen family—though it certainly belongs to them. It is not only for people who live with HIV—though it certainly uplifts them. It is not only for activists, volunteers, community organizations, or clinicians—though they carry the day with astonishing grace.
World AIDS Day belongs to everyone who believes that truth matters. That dignity matters. That lives matter. That silence must never again dominate the conversation about HIV. And that remembrance is a collective responsibility.
It belongs to all of us because the epidemic reshaped the world we live in. It reshaped laws, communities, families, science, activism, culture, and public health. To ignore it is to ignore a chapter of human history that continues to influence the present.
In the absence of federal recognition, the responsibility falls to us—to writers, advocates, community members, and anyone who refuses to let memory die. Every time a story is told, every time a name is spoken, every time a candle is lit, every time a quilt panel is displayed, and every time an article like this is shared, World AIDS Day endures.
And as long as it endures, we remain connected to the people who came before us, to the people who walk beside us, and to the people who will come after us. Remembrance becomes a form of love—a love that refuses erasure, that refuses silence, that refuses to let history be rewritten.
This year, that love feels urgent. And necessary. And deeply, unshakably personal.
CONCLUSION: THE REFUSAL TO FORGET
World AIDS Day was born from activism, grief, and the refusal to let stigma define human lives. It continues to matter because the epidemic continues to shape communities, identities, policies, and personal histories. It lifts the stories of those who have lived through unimaginable loss and honors the resilience that continues to save lives. It creates connection where isolation once thrived. It replaces silence with truth. It transforms grief into action, memory into movement, and history into a tool for liberation.In 2025, World AIDS Day carries a new layer of meaning. The decision by the Trump administration to cancel federal observance stripped away institutional acknowledgment, but it could not strip away remembrance. It could not silence community voices. It could not erase decades of activism. And it could not diminish the personal importance of this day for those of us who understand how fragile memory becomes when institutions choose convenience over truth.
This observance remains an anchor for public health, an engine for advocacy, a container for grief, a celebration of survival, and a reminder of the collective responsibility we hold toward one another. It shapes psychosocial resilience in ways few events can. It heals, educates, mobilizes, and unites.
As readers of The Babblings of JT, I invite you to explore other reflections on stigma, resilience, and the ongoing fight for dignity (See: The Weight of Silence: How Stigma Hurts More Than Truth, jtwb768.com [placeholder]). I invite you to read the essays that delve deeper into the intersections of identity, public health, and community care (See: Breaking Stigma Through Storytelling, jtwb768.com [placeholder]). And I invite you to carry forward the remembrance that institutions failed to uphold this year.
Memory persists because we choose to hold it.
World AIDS Day persists because we refuse to forget.REFERENCES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). HIV surveillance report.
KFF. (2023). HIV funding trends.
PEPFAR. (2024). Annual program results.
Shilts, R. (1987). And the Band Played On.
UNAIDS. (2024). World AIDS Day history and impact report.#aidsActivism #communication #communityResilience #federalPolicy #firstPersonCommentary #globalHealth #hivAdvocacy #hivAwareness #humanDignity #jtSantana #jtwb768 #lgbtqiaHealth #mentalHealth #politics #publicHealth #remembrance #stigmaReduction #trumpAdministration #worldAidsDay
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THE THREAD THAT REFUSES TO BREAK: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF WORLD AIDS DAY AND THE YEAR IT CUTS A LITTLE DEEPER
There are moments in history that do not simply arrive; they accumulate. They gather weight, memoryand meaning until they become more than dates on a calendar. World AIDS Day is one of those moments. It is a day that carries an entire era on its shoulders: the grief of the early epidemic, the rage of activists who refused to stay silent, the breakthroughs that turned despair into possibility, and the ongoing struggle to protect dignity in a world where stigma never fully disappears. World AIDS Day is woven from millions of individual stories, yet it remains a single, unified symbol of remembrance and resistance. It has existed for more than forty years, and every one of those years has been shaped by triumph, loss, misinformation, activism, science, bigotry, hope, and the relentless determination of communities who learned quickly that no one was coming to save them unless they saved each other.
When I write about World AIDS Day now, in 2025, I find myself reflecting not only on the global arc of the epidemic but on the personal threads that tie me to this day in ways I once did not expect. I did not grow up thinking I would one day speak about HIV, AIDS, stigma, or loss. I did not imagine sitting in clinics as volunteers comforted frightened clients. I did not imagine dancing at the Red Ribbon Ball beside survivors who once planned their funerals because they believed they had run out of time. I did not imagine being part of events organized by The Project or ICARE, or standing in community spaces where education, testing, music, grief, and joy intersected all at once. But life has a way of pulling you into the spaces you need to understand. And understanding the meaning of World AIDS Day has reshaped the way I move through the world.
This year feels heavier. More fragile. More electric. The political backdrop is different. The public silence is louder. The absence of federal recognition under the Trump administration intensified the emotional weight of the day. It is one thing to carry grief. It is another to have your government tell you that your grief is inconvenient. When a president cancels federal observance of World AIDS Day, he is not simply removing a symbolic gesture. He is pulling at the threads of remembrance, hoping the whole tapestry unravels. But communities like ours do not unravel. We hold tight.
This post explores the history of World AIDS Day—the decades of activism and pain and triumph that shaped it—and examines why observance matters not just for people living with HIV, but for everyone. I want to explore the psychosocial grooves this day carves into communities, how it strengthens resilience, disrupts stigma, and expands understanding. I want to include space for readers to explore related posts on The Babblings of JT, because the story of HIV is far too large to fit in one narrative (See: HIV Stigma and the Stories We Carry, jtwb768.com [placeholder]). And most importantly, I want to explain why World AIDS Day 2025 lands so personally for me—why the absence of acknowledgment feels like a reopened wound.
This is not just history. It is testimony. And it is an insistence that remembrance cannot be erased
THE ORIGIN: HOW WORLD AIDS DAY BEGAN AND WHY IT MATTERED FROM DAY ONE
World AIDS Day was first observed on December 1, 1988, at a time when the AIDS epidemic was no longer new but still carried immense fear and stigma. The disease had already taken hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide. Families were grieving in private because public mourning often led to judgment. Medical providers were still learning how to treat the virus. Entire communities—especially gay men, trans women, sex workers, people who inject drugs, and people living in poverty—were fighting not only a deadly virus but a world that blamed them for their suffering.The origins of World AIDS Day grew from two essential needs: awareness and acknowledgment. Dr. Thomas Netter and Dr. James Bunn, public information officers for the World Health Organization’s Global Programme on AIDS, recognized that the world lacked both. They proposed a day dedicated to raising awareness, encouraging testing and education, and creating a space for public recognition of the epidemic’s human toll (UNAIDS, 2024). World AIDS Day became the first international health day in history.
But globally, the observance took root because communities insisted on it. In the United States, activists from ACT UP, GMHC, community organizers, health educators, and families who had buried too many loved ones pushed continually for visibility. Public pressure forced political leaders to acknowledge the reality of the epidemic, even when those leaders resisted. In 1988, President Reagan issued his first public speech on AIDS—years after thousands had already died and after countless activists had demanded attention. World AIDS Day emerged from that culture of forced recognition. It was created because silence had become lethal.
The earliest observances were somber. They were marked by candlelight vigils, quilt displays, reading of names, marches, church services, and public education campaigns. But they were also defiant. They asserted that people living with HIV were not going to disappear quietly. That their lives deserved visibility. That death from AIDS was not inevitable. That activism could change policy. That science needed funding. And that humanity required compassion.
The power of World AIDS Day rested in its dual nature: it honored the dead while demanding accountability from the living. It confronted stigma head-on by placing grief in public view. It reminded the world that epidemics are shaped not only by viruses but by inequity, policy, and prejudice (Shilts, 1987). And it told people living with HIV that they were not alone. For individuals whose families had rejected them, for communities ravaged by loss, for partners barred from hospital rooms, the observance became a place to breathe—to be seen.
For more than forty years, World AIDS Day has continued to evolve. It has grown into a global phenomenon observed in more than 100 countries. It has been recognized by presidents, prime ministers, public health agencies, the United Nations, churches, universities, and community centers. But at its core, it remains what it always was: a day of remembrance, resistance, education, and connection.
It is a day built from the human need to honor those who shaped us.
And that is why attempts to erase it matter so deeply.
THE IMPACT: WHY WORLD AIDS DAY STILL MATTERS—FOR PEOPLE WITH HIV AND FOR THOSE WITHOUT
It is easy for people untouched by the epidemic to assume that World AIDS Day is largely symbolic—a day about the past rather than the present. That assumption could not be further from the truth. The observance continues to play a vital role in saving lives, improving public understanding, encouraging testing, reducing stigma, and reminding policymakers that public health responsibilities cannot be abandoned. Its impact extends far beyond people who live with HIV.For people with HIV, World AIDS Day provides validation, visibility, and collective strength. Living with HIV, even in 2025, involves navigating stigma that persists in ways both subtle and overt. Stigma influences whether someone seeks testing, whether they disclose their status, whether they access care consistently, whether they feel safe in relationships, and whether they experience shame or acceptance (CDC, 2024). On World AIDS Day, people with HIV see themselves reflected in public dialogue. They watch global leaders acknowledge their lives. They gather at events where they are not alone in their stories. It becomes a day where their experiences are centralized, honored, and protected.
For people without HIV, the observance provides education, empathy, and responsibility. It teaches the public that HIV is not a relic of the past. It explains that prevention tools exist—PrEP, PEP, condoms, harm reduction, U=U—and that access to these tools is deeply shaped by inequities in race, class, geography, and sexuality. It shows communities that HIV is not a disease of “others,” but a public health issue affecting millions. The day prompts conversations that people might otherwise avoid. It encourages testing among individuals who may not realize they are at risk. It combats misinformation that still circulates decades after it should have disappeared.
For policymakers, World AIDS Day serves as an accountability marker. Budgets, legislation, funding for research, support for community groups, access to medications, and public health infrastructure are all shaped by political will. The observance reminds leaders that the epidemic is ongoing, that lives are still at stake, and that abandoning support is not an option. Historical data shows that educational campaigns increase around World AIDS Day, awareness spikes, and engagement with testing and treatment services rises (KFF, 2023). The day’s influence is measurable.
For communities, World AIDS Day strengthens connection, healing, and psychosocial resilience. It provides a communal space to grieve, celebrate, organize, and support one another. It holds both joy and sorrow. The emotional impact is transformative. In towns like Davenport, Des Moines, or Iowa City, community events create safe environments where people can speak openly about their experiences, educate each other, and feel part of something larger than themselves.
World AIDS Day matters because epidemics are not shaped only by biology—they are shaped by the collective will to care.
THE PSYCHOSOCIAL GROOVE: HOW WORLD AIDS DAY SHAPES COMMUNITY IDENTITY AND RESILIENCE
Every community has rituals—moments that give shape to its emotional landscape and create shared meaning. In the HIV community, World AIDS Day is one of the most powerful of these rituals. It is not just a day; it is a psychosocial groove carved into the heart of collective memory. It creates structure around grief, celebration, advocacy, and connection. It gives people a place to put feelings that otherwise go unspoken. And it reminds communities that healing does not occur in isolation; it grows from connection, from remembrance, and from a shared understanding that the past informs the present.World AIDS Day gives people permission to feel. In a society where many still speak about HIV in hushed tones, the observance creates a moment where grief is public, where stories are shared openly, and where people living with HIV are surrounded rather than isolated. It transforms loneliness into solidarity. When someone attends a candlelight vigil, or sees quilt panels displayed, or listens to names being read aloud, they recognize that they are part of something larger than their personal journey. That recognition is psychologically grounding. Humans need belonging. They need context. They need space where vulnerability is met with acceptance rather than avoidance. World AIDS Day supplies that space.
For caregivers, case managers, clinicians, outreach workers, and volunteers, the day becomes a moment of collective reflection. These individuals carry stories that often remain unspoken—stories of clients who fell through cracks in the system, patients who arrived too late, families fractured by stigma, and survivors who persevered. The observance validates their emotional labor. It gives them an opportunity to recalibrate, to remember why the work matters, and to honor those they helped along the way. It reinforces the idea that compassion is not expendable. In this sense, World AIDS Day nurtures the internal emotional infrastructure of caregiving professions that are often stretched to their limits.
Communities build identity through shared memory. The HIV community’s identity is forged through decades of activism, survival, and mutual support. World AIDS Day strengthens that identity by reminding people of their collective roots. It brings together individuals who might otherwise never cross paths: survivors from the eighties and nineties, newly diagnosed young adults, public health experts, faith leaders, drag performers, shelter staff, outreach teams, harm-reduction workers, and family members who lost someone they loved. Where else do these worlds intersect so naturally? The day creates a tapestry from threads that might not weave together on any ordinary afternoon.
That tapestry does not just represent remembrance; it symbolizes hope. For people newly diagnosed, seeing others speak openly about their experiences can dismantle fear and shame. For young LGBTQIA+ people, the observance connects them to a lineage of resilience. For immigrants and refugees navigating a new country, the day offers cultural grounding in communal care. For people in recovery, it links harm reduction to dignity. World AIDS Day shapes the psychosocial experience of entire communities, reminding them that they are not defined by stigma or isolation but by resistance, connection, and the will to survive.
And then there is the role of organizations like The Project and ICARE. Their events carve deep emotional grooves because they are built from trust. When people walk into a testing event hosted by ICARE, they feel the presence of care rather than surveillance. When they attend a remembrance ceremony organized by The Project, they see their grief reflected back at them in compassionate ways. When they experience the Red Ribbon Ball for the first time, they see what it means to celebrate the living while honoring the dead. These events shape the emotional foundation of Iowa’s HIV community in ways numbers cannot measure.
World AIDS Day becomes a mirror, a meeting place, a container for emotion, and a reminder that no community survives without its rituals. And in 2025, that ritual has taken on an even sharper edge.
A THREAD THAT REACHES INTO THE PRESENT: WHY WORLD AIDS DAY 2025 FEELS SO PERSONAL THIS YEAR
Every year, World AIDS Day is personal to someone. This year, it is personal to me in ways I did not expect. 2025 has been a year of political assaults, public health neglect, and increasingly hostile rhetoric aimed at the communities most affected by HIV. When the Trump administration announced that federal agencies would not observe World AIDS Day, something in me cracked open. I expected frustration, but what I felt was a deeper, heavier kind of hurt—a sense of erasure that lingered in my chest like smoke from a fire still burning. That hurt slowly sharpened into resolve.I have spent years immersed in community work that directly touches the lives shaped by HIV. At The Project, I watched clients walk through doors terrified about what their lives might look like after testing. I have seen case managers sit with people for hours, explaining everything from lab results to medication options to housing applications. I have watched people cry from relief because someone finally spoke to them without judgment. At ICARE, I witnessed the courage of individuals who approached testing tables in public spaces, their palms sweating as they tried to act casual while their entire world felt uncertain. I have watched volunteers give warmth and dignity to strangers whose fear was palpable.
At the Red Ribbon Ball, I felt the emotional gravity of the community. There is nothing quite like standing in a room full of survivors while music fills the air and people hold each other through laughter and tears. The event is part fundraiser, part homecoming, part memorial, and part celebration of continued existence. It reveals the fullness of the HIV community’s humanity in a way no textbook ever could.
These experiences shaped my identity, not only as a writer but as a person who believes deeply in dignity, remembrance, and human connection. So when the federal government withdrew recognition of World AIDS Day, the message felt personal. It said, “The work you do does not matter. The community you stand beside is inconvenient. The grief you have borne is not worth public acknowledgment.”
But I know better.
And the community knows better.World AIDS Day 2025 feels personal because the political indifference is impossible to separate from the lived experiences I have witnessed. I think of the young man who walked around the block six times before deciding to get tested at an ICARE event. I think of the survivor who attended the Red Ribbon Ball for the first time in twenty years because he finally felt safe enough to be in a room with others who carried similar memories. I think of the countless stories told quietly in clinic rooms, in waiting areas, in support groups, and in living rooms. These stories deserve acknowledgment.
This year also feels personal because the political climate has intensified stigma rather than alleviated it. HIV stigma thrives when leadership is silent. It thrives when education is suppressed. It thrives when people feel unprotected. And when the President cancels an observance that has existed for more than four decades, it tells the world that stigma has permission to grow again. That kind of silence is violent.
And beyond all of that, this year feels personal because I have grown older. I have seen how communities change over time. I know what it means for collective memory to weaken if it is not nurtured. I understand the urgency of keeping stories alive. I have watched too many people forget the devastating early years of the epidemic—a forgetfulness that breeds misunderstanding. When I see younger generations understand HIV only in passing, without the context of activism, suffering, and resilience that shaped the movement, I feel a responsibility to write more, share more, and remember more.
World AIDS Day 2025 lands differently because the thread connecting past and present feels more fragile than ever. And that fragility fuels my resolve to keep pulling that thread forward rather than letting it break
THE NATIONAL BLIND SPOT: HOW WORLD AIDS DAY FILLS A VOID THAT STILL EXISTS IN 2025
One of the most striking realities about HIV in the United States is how deeply it still intersects with silence. Even with decades of scientific advancements, educational campaigns, and public advocacy, the social understanding of HIV remains shallow for many. Too many people believe HIV is “not a problem anymore.” Too many assume the epidemic is a relic of the past. Too many imagine that medication alone solves everything, forgetting the layers of stigma, trauma, discrimination, and systemic inequality that shape the lived experiences of people with HIV today.This national blind spot is not accidental. It is the product of years of underreporting, political discomfort, weak sex education curricula, and the declining visibility of HIV in mainstream media. Younger generations may not have witnessed the funerals, protests, and devastating losses of the eighties and nineties. Middle-aged adults may assume they already “know enough” about HIV from what they heard thirty years ago. Older adults who lived through the terror of those early years may carry memories so painful they avoid speaking about them at all.
World AIDS Day interrupts that silence. It does what few national observances can: it forces a confrontation with reality, both past and present. It centers the experiences of people with HIV in the public consciousness. It compels people who know little about the epidemic to pause, listen, learn, and acknowledge. It provides a structured moment for education at a scale that individual organizations could never achieve alone.
Without World AIDS Day, the national conversation about HIV becomes scattered, inconsistent, and too easily overshadowed by political noise or public exhaustion. The observance concentrates attention—something crucial in a media environment where attention is currency. It reminds the country that HIV is still disproportionately affecting Black, Latino, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, disabled, and low-income communities (CDC, 2024). It reminds the public that access to PrEP, PEP, antiretroviral therapy, and culturally competent care remains unequal. It reminds policymakers that funding must be maintained, expanded, and directed intentionally based on data, not ideology.
National awareness campaigns launched around World AIDS Day routinely reach millions. Hospitals prepare educational materials. Schools incorporate lessons. News outlets run interviews with public health experts. Community groups hold panels, marches, vigils, and events. Social media becomes saturated with messages about prevention, stigma reduction, and remembrance. The observance gives advocates a platform to reach people who might otherwise remain unaware, uninterested, or uninformed.
It also fills gaps in sexual health education that remain shockingly wide. Many states still lack comprehensive sex education requirements. Many curricula still ignore or misrepresent LGBTQIA+ health. Many schools avoid discussing HIV altogether unless forced. World AIDS Day helps mitigate this harm by creating public-facing education that reaches students, parents, teachers, and communities who would not otherwise encounter accurate information.
This national blind spot widens when federal leadership disengages from the observance. The cancellation of World AIDS Day 2025 by the Trump administration did not merely remove a ceremonial statement; it reinforced the dangerous misconception that HIV is no longer a national issue. It told millions of people living with HIV that their lives do not warrant recognition. It told communities still fighting the epidemic that their work exists in a vacuum. It gave permission for stigma to deepen. It gave ignorance fertile soil.
That is why communities must compensate for the absence of federal leadership by amplifying remembrance on their own terms. As long as HIV continues to exist—and as long as stigma continues to shape human lives—World AIDS Day will remain essential.
THE THREAD OF MEMORY: HOW WORLD AIDS DAY PROMOTES HEALING AND INTERRUPTS STIGMA
HIV stigma has always been one of the deadliest forces shaping the epidemic. It influences whether people access care, whether they disclose their status, whether they trust medical providers, and whether they believe they deserve support in the first place. Stigma can fracture family relationships, isolate individuals socially, deepen depression or anxiety, and lead to dangerous delays in testing or treatment (UNAIDS, 2024). The silence surrounding HIV often causes more harm than the virus itself.World AIDS Day disrupts that silence. It creates a moment in time where stigma loses some of its power because the world turns its eyes toward truth instead of myth. It invites people to reflect on their assumptions. It pushes conversations into public spaces where they cannot be easily ignored. It creates language around experiences that many might otherwise struggle to name.
For people living with HIV, stigma can manifest in ways both large and small. It is the awkward silence after someone reveals their status. It is the shift in facial expression. It is the friend who suddenly becomes distant. It is the family member who insists on barriers or refuses physical affection. It is the coworker who whispers instead of asking questions. It is the dating prospect who vanishes after learning the truth. It is the lingering internalized shame that grows from these encounters.
World AIDS Day helps counter this by validating the experience of people with HIV. It provides public affirmation that their lives are worthy of respect, support, and dignity. It offers opportunities for storytelling, which is one of the most powerful tools in combating stigma. When people hear stories—raw, human, honest—they begin to understand HIV as something deeply personal rather than abstract. They see faces, families, relationships, and futures rather than stereotypes or fear.
Storytelling also shifts the internal narrative for people living with HIV. Many people struggle to speak openly about their status, even with professionals. Shame is a heavy burden. But storytelling in the context of World AIDS Day creates a shared environment where shame loses its grip. When someone hears their experience echoed through another person’s story, they realize their struggle is not isolation but connection.
I have seen this firsthand. During remembrance events, people who have remained silent for years sometimes speak for the first time. They share memories, gratitude, and grief. They reveal moments from their past they have never said aloud. For some, these stories carry decades of weight. For others, the emotions are fresh. Whether the speaker is newly diagnosed or a survivor of the early epidemic, their stories matter. And the act of sharing them can be profoundly healing.
The observance also gives families permission to remember loved ones without fear of judgment. In the early years, many families suffered in silence. Some refused to acknowledge the cause of death because of societal stigma. Some held funerals without mentioning the truth. Some never spoke their loved one’s name again. World AIDS Day gives those families a chance to reclaim memory. It tells them that remembrance is not shameful—it is sacred.
Stigma weakens when communities remember together. And memory grows stronger when communities reclaim it publicly. World AIDS Day does both.
THE THREAD OF ADVOCACY: HOW WORLD AIDS DAY CONTINUES TO SHAPE POLICY AND PUBLIC HEALTH
Activism has always been the heart of the HIV movement. Without activism, HIV treatments would not have been developed as quickly as they were. Without activism, discriminatory policies would have remained intact. Without activism, the government would have continued ignoring a crisis that was killing thousands. World AIDS Day emerged from that activism—not as a passive memorial, but as a strategic moment to push for change.In 2025, advocacy remains as crucial as ever. The epidemic has not disappeared, and neither have the structural barriers that shape it. In some ways, the landscape is even more complex now. Politicians have become bolder in attacking LGBTQIA+ communities, transgender health care, harm reduction, and sexual health education. Public health budgets remain vulnerable to partisan cuts. Misinformation spreads quickly online, fueled by polarized media ecosystems. And the cancellation of World AIDS Day at the federal level signals a troubling shift in political willingness to engage with truth.
World AIDS Day amplifies advocacy by creating a unified moment when public attention is focused on HIV. This matters for several reasons.
First, visibility influences funding. Legislators are more responsive when they perceive a strong, vocal constituency. When advocates mobilize on World AIDS Day—through marches, events, campaigns, or meetings with elected officials—they apply pressure during a moment of heightened visibility.
Second, the observance supports policy literacy. Many people do not understand how laws affect HIV care. They may not realize that Ryan White funding, Medicaid expansion, or housing programs shape the ability of people with HIV to survive. World AIDS Day offers a platform for educating the public about policy, connecting individual experiences with systemic forces.
Third, advocacy grounded in remembrance carries moral urgency. Policymakers may be indifferent to statistics, but stories move them. When survivors speak about losing half their friend group in the eighties, or when young people describe struggling to access culturally competent providers, the narrative becomes harder to ignore. World AIDS Day provides the emotional framework for advocacy that data alone cannot provide.
Fourth, the observance supports global cooperation. HIV does not recognize borders. Advocacy related to PEPFAR, WHO initiatives, and international health cooperation gains strength when tied to a global day of awareness. When nations reaffirm their commitments on December first, they solidify partnerships that strengthen public health systems worldwide (PEPFAR, 2024).
Advocacy thrives on unity, visibility, and momentum. World AIDS Day generates all three!
PART 4 OF 4
(No lines between sections. Narrative headings. Conclusion included. APA-style references at end.)THE PERSONAL THREAD THAT TIES IT ALL TOGETHER: WORLD AIDS DAY AS A LIVING LEGACY
When I think about World AIDS Day as a whole—its history, its purpose, its emotional weight—I realize that it operates as a kind of living legacy. It is not something frozen in time. It evolves, adapts, reshapes itself, and gathers new meaning every year. For people who lived through the darkest chapters of the epidemic, it is a moment to honor those who never had the chance to witness today’s advancements. For younger generations, it is a doorway into a history they did not experience firsthand but inherit nonetheless. For communities like mine in Iowa—where stigma still lingers in quiet corners, where access and understanding differ wildly from place to place—World AIDS Day grounds us in shared purpose.This legacy matters even more in 2025 because the silence coming from federal leadership forces communities to confront a hard truth: remembrance cannot depend on institutions that are unwilling to honor it. The cancellation of the federal observance by the Trump administration has pushed communities to step up even more, to speak even louder, to organize even more intentionally, because the absence of national acknowledgment leaves a void that memory must fill. It is a sobering reminder that progress is not secure. Rights are not permanent. Memory is not guaranteed.
World AIDS Day becomes an act of safeguarding. It protects the stories that would otherwise be lost. It preserves the emotional truth of the epidemic. It sustains the networks of care that people have built across decades. It reinforces the idea that remembrance is not passive—it is active, deliberate, and necessary.
This is why the day feels so personal to me this year. I am watching how easily a single political decision can threaten to unravel decades of acknowledgment. I am watching how quickly silence can try to reclaim space that activists fought like hell to open. I am watching how communities must fight both the virus and the narratives that seek to erase its impact. And I am reminded that remembrance is not just about looking backward—it is about protecting the present and shaping the future.
World AIDS Day is not only for people who lost friends, partners, lovers, or chosen family—though it certainly belongs to them. It is not only for people who live with HIV—though it certainly uplifts them. It is not only for activists, volunteers, community organizations, or clinicians—though they carry the day with astonishing grace.
World AIDS Day belongs to everyone who believes that truth matters. That dignity matters. That lives matter. That silence must never again dominate the conversation about HIV. And that remembrance is a collective responsibility.
It belongs to all of us because the epidemic reshaped the world we live in. It reshaped laws, communities, families, science, activism, culture, and public health. To ignore it is to ignore a chapter of human history that continues to influence the present.
In the absence of federal recognition, the responsibility falls to us—to writers, advocates, community members, and anyone who refuses to let memory die. Every time a story is told, every time a name is spoken, every time a candle is lit, every time a quilt panel is displayed, and every time an article like this is shared, World AIDS Day endures.
And as long as it endures, we remain connected to the people who came before us, to the people who walk beside us, and to the people who will come after us. Remembrance becomes a form of love—a love that refuses erasure, that refuses silence, that refuses to let history be rewritten.
This year, that love feels urgent. And necessary. And deeply, unshakably personal.
CONCLUSION: THE REFUSAL TO FORGET
World AIDS Day was born from activism, grief, and the refusal to let stigma define human lives. It continues to matter because the epidemic continues to shape communities, identities, policies, and personal histories. It lifts the stories of those who have lived through unimaginable loss and honors the resilience that continues to save lives. It creates connection where isolation once thrived. It replaces silence with truth. It transforms grief into action, memory into movement, and history into a tool for liberation.In 2025, World AIDS Day carries a new layer of meaning. The decision by the Trump administration to cancel federal observance stripped away institutional acknowledgment, but it could not strip away remembrance. It could not silence community voices. It could not erase decades of activism. And it could not diminish the personal importance of this day for those of us who understand how fragile memory becomes when institutions choose convenience over truth.
This observance remains an anchor for public health, an engine for advocacy, a container for grief, a celebration of survival, and a reminder of the collective responsibility we hold toward one another. It shapes psychosocial resilience in ways few events can. It heals, educates, mobilizes, and unites.
As readers of The Babblings of JT, I invite you to explore other reflections on stigma, resilience, and the ongoing fight for dignity (See: The Weight of Silence: How Stigma Hurts More Than Truth, jtwb768.com [placeholder]). I invite you to read the essays that delve deeper into the intersections of identity, public health, and community care (See: Breaking Stigma Through Storytelling, jtwb768.com [placeholder]). And I invite you to carry forward the remembrance that institutions failed to uphold this year.
Memory persists because we choose to hold it.
World AIDS Day persists because we refuse to forget.REFERENCES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). HIV surveillance report.
KFF. (2023). HIV funding trends.
PEPFAR. (2024). Annual program results.
Shilts, R. (1987). And the Band Played On.
UNAIDS. (2024). World AIDS Day history and impact report.#aidsActivism #communication #communityResilience #federalPolicy #firstPersonCommentary #globalHealth #hivAdvocacy #hivAwareness #humanDignity #jtSantana #jtwb768 #lgbtqiaHealth #mentalHealth #politics #publicHealth #remembrance #stigmaReduction #trumpAdministration #worldAidsDay
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Mostly Monday Reads: Of Manifestos and Wannabe Monarchs
“President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Chuck Grassley, laments not attending the ill-fated White House Correspondents Dinner. A President Grassley would be something to behold.” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
Another day, another fishy attempt at assassinating Trump. I’ll just put my hypothesis right up top, then provide the analysis and details from the media about the weirdness surrounding the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting Saturday night. We know the details about the shooter and have gotten a chance to review his manifesto. We also know the Secret Service had an unusually insecure setup to guard the large number of high-value targets present for what was supposed to be Trump’s first visit to the event after hating on the press continually.
JJ, Boomer, and I discussed the situation via text chat as the entire scene unfolded. I’m finding that a large number of friends and colleagues share my view. Here’s one that eloquently aligns with my hypothesis about the entire show from fellow New Orleanian Louis Maestros, who owns and runs Old Arabi Lighthouse Records and Books with his wife and cat. It’s just one of those places that you should visit.
Well, that is the most lucid and thoughtful shooter “manifesto” I’ve ever read.
I now am under the impression that the complete lack of security was meant to invite some kind of attack just to make the supposedly less vulnerable magic ballroom seem like a good idea after all. Which would be an incredibly stupid and reckless thing to do, and completely on brand.Here’s JJ’s take from Saturday night via the group text.
I guess what I am trying to say, is I don’t think the man was put in there as a fake setup. But I do think that he was organically there…however, they knew about him, and chose not to do anything until the last minute.
Here’s something from me.
Just think we could’ve had Chuck Grassley as president today.
But I already put my real take on a discussion with some of my old high school friends. I called shenanigans because I have experience from my time at the Fed, with 10 days of pre-Clinton and pre-Greenspan visits to the New Orleans Fed. The Secret Service Swarms the venues and the hotels for more than a week.
BB was observing those left behind to fend for themselves.
I just watched the video and Vance was rushed out first. Then they went to Trump. Melania got pushed aside and ended up crawling out lol
They took RFK Jr out and left his wife to fend for herself
My favorite Trumper exit was Steven Miller using his wife as a human shield while copping a feel of her breast.
One thing that we started discussing was this Washington Post Article about the security situation. “Correspondents’ dinner lacked highest security level despite presence of top officials. The White House correspondents’ dinner, attended by the president and several Cabinet members, was not given top security status that would have unlocked the full weight of federal resources.”
The Trump administration provided a lower level of security for the White House correspondents’ dinner than it has for other gatherings of high-ranking officials, even though the president and many Cabinet members were in attendance, according to officials familiar with the plan.
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance were quickly evacuated to safety Saturday when a gunman charged the security perimeter and attempted to storm the ballroom at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Others in attendance included Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The concentration of high-ranking leaders in one ballroom left the nation unusually vulnerable as the would-be assassin raced past Secret Service before he was apprehended. A worst-case scenario might have resulted in passing the power of the presidency to the senior-most senator of the majority party, Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who was not at the event and is third in line to the presidency behind Vance and Johnson.
When so many officials gather in one place for official functions such as an inauguration or State of the Union address, the secretary of homeland security typically puts the Secret Service in charge of coordinating all security through a formal designation known as a “National Special Security Event.”
There was no such designation on Saturday night at an event also attended by thousands of journalists and other government officials, according to local and federal officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss security details. The suspected gunman, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, wrote a statement saying he wanted to target members of the Trump administration and ridiculed what he called lax security at the hotel, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the writings. He said Iranian agents could easily have brought more dangerous weapons to the venue, according to the text.
The White House referred questions to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Washington Hilton said in an email that the Secret Service “led security for the event.”
In the old days, we’d have had this discussion across several blog threads, with lots of people joining the conversation. Old school blogging is not what it used to be. JJ found this analysis at MEDIAITE. I considered it data to support my thesis that the Secret Service was either just or deliberately inept. Sean James has the analysis. “WHCD Shooter Couldn’t Believe How Bad Security Was Before Trying to Shoot Trump: ‘Incompetence Is Insane.”
The man suspected of attempting a mass shooting while targeting President Donald Trump and members of his administration at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night wrote he was shocked at how bad the security was at the venue.
“Like, this level of incompetence is insane,” Cole Tomas Allen wrote in a manifesto obtained by the New York Post. “And I very sincerely hope it’s corrected by the time this country gets actually competent leadership again.”
That was part of an entire section in his manifesto dedicated to describing the terrible security at the Hilton hotel in Washington, D.C., where the annual event took place.
“PS: Ok now that all the sappy stuff is done, what the hell is the Secret Service doing? Sorry, gonna rant a bit here and drop the formal tone,” Allen wrote. “Like, I expected security cameras at every bend, bugged hotel rooms, armed agents every 10 feet, metal detectors out the wazoo.”
Instead, he said there was:
No damn security.
Not in transport.
Not in the hotel.
Not in the event.
Allen went on to say if he was an Iranian agent he could have easily smuggled in a weapon with ease. He also said the security at the hotel was entirely focused on protesters outside the event and seemingly had not considered that a wannabe assassin could check into the hotel the day before.
He added he felt a “sense of arrogance” from the hotel, as if its guests couldn’t possibly be attackers.
The Post obtained his manifesto the morning after Allen fired multiple shots in the hotel lobby, minutes after the event kicked off. It was set to be Trump’s first appearance at the dinner since he became president, but instead he was rushed off the stage by Secret Service, along with First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who is due to give birth any day now.
The video clearly shows the First Escort hiding under the table.
Doomsday Scenario, this morning. “The Trouble with Trump’s Bunker and Ballroom. Is he building it to sustain an attack — or the end of democracy?” If anything, it was crystal clear that the entire Trump performance on Saturday night was to secure his Ballroom by showing that any other place would be insecure. However, the Correspondent’s dinner is associated with a professional society, and it’s difficult to see how it connects directly to Trump’s plea.
All of which brings me to the other weird unfolding current story about presidential security: Trump’s pet project of building a new presidential ballroom. In his remarks Saturday evening from the White House and in social media posts and court filings since, President Trump has used the shooting to attempt to justify and jumpstart his construction of a giant White House ballroom. The construction of the above-ground portion of the ballroom has currently been stopped by a court order, and the Justice Department moved over the weekend to dismiss the lawsuit citing the now-pressing-and-obvious national security implications.
Trump’s argument, reinvigorated since Saturday and immediately sock-puppeted by all manner of right-wing influencers, is two-fold: First, the president needs a secure facility — unlike the Washington Hilton! — where the president can host grand gatherings, and, second, that the (re)construction of now-destroyed East Wing will enable the creation of a giant secure presidential bunker.
It’s clear that the ballroom is the thing that Donald Trump cares about more than anything in his presidency — or the world. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that he even gets distracted in war-planning meetings by talking about his ballroom.
I’m less interested in the debate over the purpose of the ballroom — except, to say that I don’t buy the justification for a moment — and plenty of others have taken on that directly. The shortest possible objection is that we can’t possibly believe or agree that the world is too dangerous for the elected leader of a democracy to ever leave his compound and that all supplicants must come to him in order to have an audience (plus Trump’s ballroom is still way smaller than the ballroom of the Washington Hilton, so it’s not like it’s an actual replacement for hotel galas.)
But I did want to talk a bit today about the bunker side of the story.
Loyal readers of RAVEN ROCK will know the short history of the White House bunker: FDR first had a facility created in World War II, to guard against surprise attack by German bombers, and then the bunker was dramatically enlarged and rebuilt for the early Cold War by Harry Truman when he embarked upon the massive renovation of the White House in 1948. The expectation was that in the event of a surprise attack, a president could be rushed down into the bunker until a special rescue mission could arrive to remove the president from the rubble. A special helicopter unit — codenamed OUTPOST MISSION — was for decades based in Pennsylvania to respond to the White House and excavate and evacuate the president. The pilots carried special dark visors and lead-shielded flight suits to protect themselves and officials from the flash and effects of a nuclear blast.
Today, the facility is known as the PEOC — the Presidential Emergency Operations Center — and is run by the White House Military Office. The facility has only been used a handful of times — including on 9/11, when it was where Vice President Cheney, the First Lady, and other administration leaders gathered and oversaw the government’s response through the day. “I was hustled inside and downstairs through a pair of big steel doors that closed behind me with a loud hiss, forming an airtight seal,” Laura Bush remembered later. “We walked along old tile floors with pipes hanging from the ceiling and all kinds of mechanical equipment.”
As with everything else we excerpt here, this article has a lot more content and is worth reading. Paul Waldman, writing at Public Notice, has this analysis. “A more secure ballroom will not stop the madness. This is the age of chaos Trump has made.”
Alternative angle of Trump and others being rushed off stage at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
Just to remind you what Orange Caligula really thinks about reporters and such, here’s a headline from Politico. This is reported by Eli Stokols. “Trump lashes out at ‘60 Minutes’ anchor for reading alleged gunman’s manifesto. Any detente between the president and the press after the shared horror of Saturday’s dinner appears to be short-lived.”
President Donald Trump lashed out at CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell in an interview Sunday for quoting from the manifesto of the suspected gunman who tried to storm the White House Correspondents Dinner less than 24 hours earlier.
Trump had initially expressed a sense of camaraderie with members of the press corps who hosted him at their annual dinner and experienced the same initial panic when armed law enforcement agents stormed into the ballroom.
But when O’Donnell, during an interview recorded at the White House on Sunday, quoted from the accused gunman Cole Allen’s apparent manifesto — “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” she read — Trump, who’d been relatively subdued in his responses, flashed a familiar anger.
“I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would, because you’re horrible people. Horrible people,” Trump said. “Yeah, he did write that. I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.”
O’Donnell interjected, “Oh, do you think he was referring to you?”
But the president blew past her question, declaring, “I’m not a pedophile.”
Trump bristled at what he seemed to deem an insinuation about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, who was not mentioned by name in the manifesto or by O’Donnell. “You read that crap from some sick person,” the president said. “I got associated with stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated.”
O’Donnell had just asked Trump if he thought the experience at the dinner would change his experience with the press. He answered obliquely, asserting that the press corps was largely left-leaning and opposed to his policies on immigration and crime.
But his scathing response to her moments later offered a much clearer answer.
“You should be ashamed of yourself for reading that, because I’m not any of those things,” Trump said. “You shouldn’t be reading that on ‘60 Minutes.’ You’re a disgrace.”
The fact-checkers must be having a heyday with that one. Oh well, he’s the Liar and Cheat. What does anyone expect from those who interview him?
Just one more headline and then I’m out to take the box to Cox Cable, which used to provide me with online news. This is from my local NBC affiliate, WDSU. This news shouldn’t surprise you at all. “Man accused in correspondents’ dinner shooting charged with attempted assassination of Trump. “Cole Allen, charged in the attack at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, allegedly targeted President Trump and his administration, according to authorities.”
The man who authorities say tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner with guns and knives has been charged with the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump. He appeared in court Monday to face charges in a chaotic encounter that resulted in shots being fired, Trump being rushed off the stage and guests ducking for cover underneath their tables.
Cole Tomas Allen was taken into custody after the shooting on Saturday night and is being charged in federal court in Washington. Authorities say an officer wearing a bullet-resistant vest was shot in the vest but is expected to recover.
Allen, of Torrance, California, is being represented by lawyers with the federal defender’s office and sat beside them in court in a blue jail uniform.
Prosecutors have not revealed a motive, but in a message reviewed by The Associated Press that authorities say was sent by Allen to family members minutes before the attack, Allen referred to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin,” made repeated references to the Republican president without naming him and alluded to grievances over a range of Trump administration actions.
Investigators are treating the writings, along with a trail of social media posts and interviews with family members, as some of the clearest evidence of the suspect’s mindset and possible motives.
As usual, a lot more detail in that news report, and more will come.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
#JohnbussBskySocialJohnBuss #ColeAllen #TrumpAssassinationAttempt3 #WhiteHouseCorrespondentsDinner -
More Apple ][*, //* II* and classic Macintosh hardware upgrades
The mini micro classic Apple emulators related post last week became way too big, so here is the classic Apple 2/Macintosh hardware upgrade part follow-up I announced in Some notes on mini/micro Apple //e emulators.
Last week, I mentioned [Wayback/Archive] ARC Javmaster – YouTube. Let’s continue from there for an even bigger post (:
Javmaster actually has a shop at [Wayback/Archive] Welcome to the 8-bit stuff store – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery with a lot of interesting (mainly Apple ][ era related) retro things like:
- USD 25 [Wayback/Archive] Apple IIc USB C power adapter with Volt Gauge – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery
Apple IIc USB C power adapter with Volt Gauge with USB-C connected and showing 15.2 volts
[Wayback/Archive] Transform your Apple IIc experience with this sleek USB-C power supply replacement! – YouTube
- USD 120-430 [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu 3.5 Drive Case – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery
Floppy Emu 3.5 Drive Case powered up with green screen fitting well together with an Apple //c plus
[Wayback/Archive] Step into the future of vintage computing with the Floppy Emu 3.5! – YouTube
[Wayback/Archive] New 3.5 drive case for Apple II & Macintosh Floppy Emu: soon at 8bitstuff.com! #3dprinting #Apple – YouTube
[Wayback/Archive] Starting GSOS 6.04 from the new Floppy Emu 3.5, a match made in heaven! #apple #3dprint #appleiigs – YouTube
- USD 120-430 [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emulator Disk ][ Case – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery
Floppy Emulator Disk ][ Case with green screen fitted in an original Apple ][ era 5.25 inch diskette drive case
[Wayback/Archive] New Release: Floppy Emu ][ Case Assembly Guide! – YouTube[Wayback/Archive] #AprilApples Guest episode: Watch Jon Assemble a Floppy Emu Case from Scratch! – YouTube
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3D Printed Apple II Joystick – clear Special edition: internals
3D Printed Apple II Joystick – clear Special edition
3D Printed Apple II Joystick
USD 80-155 Apple II Joystick Recreation: cheapest is 3D printed in classic color, the other clear
The 3D recreation of the iconic Apple II Joystick, keeping all the classic features with brand new mechanical parts. The moving parts brand new, adapted to work seamlessly with Apple II’s that use the DB9 port.
The switches are brand-new Matias key switches, a new version of the ALPS keys that were so successful in most original keyboards.
By using these materials, the quality and durability are better. The 3D printed case and switches resemble the original and is crafted to be enjoyed and used with your retro systems.- [Wayback/Archive] 3D Printed Apple II Joystick – A Fusion of Nostalgia and Innovation – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery
- [Wayback/Archive] 3D Printed Apple II Joystick – clear Special edition – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery
[Wayback/Archive] Apple II Joystick Recreation – Rediscover the Ultimate Retro Gaming Experience! – YouTube
- [Wayback/Archive] 3D Printed Apple II Joystick – A Fusion of Nostalgia and Innovation – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery
8bitstuff also pointed me to this shop with cool parts helping you fix Apple ][* and Apple //e and II* model issues: [Wayback/Archive] Shop | ReActiveMicro.com which is part of [Wayback/Archive] ReActiveMicro.com which has this great card in their catalog:
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A2FPGA Multicard
USD 150 [Wayback/Archive] A2FPGA Multicard | ReActiveMicro.com
[Wayback/Archive] #156: Can One Apple II Card Replace Them All? – YouTube
The firmware is open source at [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – a2fpga/a2fpga_core: Apple II FPGA Co-Processor and still being maintained.
[Wayback/Archive] A2FPGA – The ReActiveMicro Apple II Wiki
The A2FPGA is primarily an HD video and Mockingboard-compatible sound card for the Apple II, II+, //e, and IIgs.
and other hardware like:
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Disk ][+ v1.0 kit
USD 30-40 [Wayback/Archive] Disk ][+ – Assembled or Kit | ReActiveMicro.com
Disk ][+ v1.0 is a small PCB that installs into Apple Disk ][ drives. It replaces the red LED in the drives with a two-color LED, to better distinguish the reading phases, in green, from the writing phases, in red. Comes assembled or in kit form.
Notes:
- You need one set for each drive.
- I don’t really like the way they connect to the drive electronics, see picture below from [Wayback/Archive] Disk II+ – The ReActiveMicro Apple II Wiki . Instead of the pin, I would likely solder the wires to the electronics.
4 hook probes connected to the Disk II analog board.
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Apple IIe Enhancement Kit
USD 30-35 [Wayback/Archive] IIe Enhancement Kit | ReActiveMicro.com
Comes with an ‘Enhanced’ paper template, 65C02 CPU, and all the ROM’s necessary to upgrade your Apple IIe.
[Wayback/Archive] Apple IIe Enhancement Kit – The ReActiveMicro Apple II Wiki
Note it has various options (USA vs European Apple //e, plus languages: check before you order!)
I need to check if my Apple //e already has this enhancement kit.
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No-Slot Clock v1.0
USD 65 [Wayback/Archive] No-Slot Clock | ReActiveMicro.com
The No-Slot Clock v1.0 allows your Apple II to remember the date and time. It will work on an Apple II, Apple II+, Apple IIe, Apple IIc, and Clone systems. It features dual battery holders. Two CR1025 cells included.
The No Slot Clock does not fit in to the IIc or IIc+ with a RAM Card installed.
[Wayback/Archive] No-Slot Clock – The ReActiveMicro Apple II Wiki
Likely won’t needs this as ROMXe and ROMXc both include a clock.
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Ultimate-Micro.com Apple II 3.5″ Disk Controller Card v1.0
USD 200 [Wayback/Archive] Apple II 3.5 Disk Controller Card | ReActiveMicro.com
This is the Apple II 3.5″ Disk Controller Card v1.0 from Ultimate-Micro.com.
The Apple II 3.5″ Disk Controller Card v1.0 is a clone of Apple’s Apple II 3.5″ Disk Controller Card. The disk controller card allows you to use 3.5-inch floppy disk drives, including the Apple SuperDrive and Apple 3.5 Drive, with all Apple II computers. This card also supports the operation of older model Apple II UniDisk 3.5 drives.
Not sure if I really want this one, especially with the USD 200 price tag: The
Ultimate-Micro.comdomain vanished and the Yellowstone Universal Disk Controller mentioned below at USD 170 (including cables) can do more. -
Apple II A2io Bluetooth Game Port Receiver
USD 20 [Wayback/Archive] A2io Bluetooth Game Port Receiver For Your Apple II Systems | ReActiveMicro.com
This is the A2io Bluetooth Game Port Receiver from CraftyMech and designed by Aaron Reid. Works on all Apple II systems with a 9 pin game port.
…
A2io allow you to connect and use a modern wireless game pad as either a joystick, paddle, or pad input device. You pair the game pad with your mobile device (phone/tablet/laptop) and then connect to the A2io. The mobile device acts like a translator between your Apple and game pad.
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CFFA 300 REV C
USD 225 [Wayback/Archive] CFFA3000 v1.0 Rev C-RM for II, II+, ///, IIe, and IIgs | ReActiveMicro.com
This is the CFFA3000 v1.0 Rev C-RM built by ReActiveMicro under license from R&D Automation.
…
The CFFA3000 v1.0 Rev C-RM Controller is a Mass Storage Device and Floppy Emulator that once installed in your Apple II system acts like a solid-state Hard Drive using Compact Flash Cards and USB Flash Drives. Floppy Emulation allows users to load .PO images as if they were physical disk. See the manual for more details. There is also discussion about adding .WOZ support, and we will post updates if/when it happens.
Comes with CF Card as pictured, and with Remote option standard. Manual can be found here for review.
Plug and play ready, and fully tested. Comes started with **256MB** CF Card, preloaded with several ProDOS 8 volumes with games and utilities, and several GS/OS volumes. You can select which one to boot using the on-board firmware menu (press “M” key on power up).
[Wayback/Archive] wiki.reactivemicro.com/images/9/9d/2021-10-23-CFFA-RM_Manual.pdf
I already have this, including the original remote back in 2014 from dreher: [Wayback/Archive] CFFA3000 Run 3: Order Status
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CFFA3000 Remote
USD 40 [Wayback/Archive] CFFA3000 – Remote Option With Cable | ReActiveMicro.com
This is the CFFA3000 Remote option built by ReActiveMicro under license from R&D Automation. ***REMOTE ONLY!***
ReActiveMicro is an authorized dealer and partner with R&D…
The CFFA3000 Remote option comes with the connector cable, which attaches to the CFFA3000 card installed in your Apple II system. It comes as pictured, with the Remote, the connection cable, and a 3D printed enclosure.
Finally it pointed me to [Wayback/Archive] Home | JD Micro which has RAMX (for Apple ][* systems) and ROMX (variants for any Apple 2 model) for which these are most applicable to my systems (both ROMX versions also contain the fonts mentioned in their blog post [Wayback/Archive] 11th May 2021 | JD Micro):
[Wayback/Archive] Review: ROMX+ Device for Apple II+ – YouTube
- [Wayback/Archive] ROMXe | JD Micro for Apple //e – includes clock
[Wayback/Archive] Review: ROMXe by JD Micro – More ROMS than you can shake a joystick at! – YouTube
- [Wayback/Archive] ROMXc | JD Micro for Apple IIc – includes clock
[Wayback/Archive] Boot Instantly – ROMXc Review for the Apple //c – YouTube
Other results from the queries I used in the post last week also returned some hardware that can be used for classic Apple machines:
- [Wayback/Archive] The ESP32 SoftCard for the Apple II | Applefritter
I’ve been working on a new card for the Apple II that would extend its capabilities using my favorite Wi-Fi module: the ESP32. I decided to called it a soft card, because similarly to the original Z80 SoftCard it contains its own processor allowing it to run software not originally meant for the Apple II. And similarly to the original 80-column card that was needed, it produces its own composite video enabled through a soft switch. Both NTSC and PAL are supported and can be switched using a command. In addition it can produce 8-bit sound that is mixed and played through the Apple II speaker. For most of its applications the card also needs a FAT32 formatted microSD card.
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[Wayback/Archive] ESP32 SoftCard Expansion Card for the Apple II from CVT on Tindie
ESP32 SoftCard Expansion Card for the Apple II
- [Wayback/Archive] Apple2idiot card (ESP32) | Applefritter
It is an interesting and different take on interfacing an ESP32 module to an Apple II. It uses a dual ported SRAM instead of trying to interface the ESP32 to the Apple II bus using something like 74LVC245s or through a parallel chip like a 6522 or 82C55 or through a serial chip like a 6551 or 6850.
https://github.com/equant/apple2idiot
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[Wayback/Archive] GitHub – equant/apple2idiot: A general purpose ESP32 IOT board for the Apple IIe
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assembly lines
[Wayback/Archive] Shop – CT6502 and [Wayback/Archive] Shop – Page 2 of 2 – CT6502a
- [Wayback/Archive] Assembly Lines: The Mug – CT6502
Assembly Lines: The Mug; Print-on-demand from Printful.
Mug; handle left
Mug; handle behind
Mug; handle right
This is a really cool idea including the Choplifter and Lode Runner main sprites on the mug. The right picture shows you can also get it in 15oz size.
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Apple II wDrive Disk Drive Emulator
[Wayback/Archive] Apple II wDrive Disk Drive Emulator – CT6502
The wDrive is a disk drive emulator for the Apple II (II+, IIe, IIc, IIGS) that boots disk images (WOZ, DSK, 2MG, HDV, etc) from an SD card.
Manufacturer: [Wayback/Archive] Mfa2 Workshop
We are developer of wDrive, softSP card and related accessories which are published through Kboo HK
Note it there are two options to choose from:
- USD ~80: wDrive only (Apple IIc and IIGS)
- USD ~100: wDrive plus SoftSP card (Apple II, II+, IIe)
The second option includes this one:
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MFA2 SoftSP Card
[Wayback/Archive] Apple II MFA2 SoftSP Card wDrive or FujiNet – CT6502
The SoftSP card allows you to boot hard disk images or use FujiNet devices on an Apple II+ or IIe, which do not have SmartPort support.
The SoftSP card is not needed on the Apple IIc or Apple IIGS.
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The SoftSP card should be placed into a slot lower than the wDrive disk controller card. Slot 1 or 2 usually works well.
Note: The SoftSP card will also work with the FloppyEMU. However, you MUST use a special drive cable that isolates pin 12, to avoid damaging your FloppyEMU. You do not need to use this cable with the wDrive, although it won’t cause any issues if you do. You can find details about the issue here.
That last bit is really really important as SoftSP only can be installed in a system that also connects to a FloppyEMU under these circumstances:
- Connect the FloppyEMU to a Yellowstone is a universal disk controller card for Apple II computers (see below), especially since the Yellowstone also supports both wDrive and FujiNet.
- Connect the FloppyEMU to an original Disk Controller, but cut wire #12 as explained in [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu SoftSP Warning | Big Mess o’ Wires
You can’t safely connect a Smartport device to a Disk II controller card, no matter how the card’s internal logic might be modified. That includes Floppy Emu when it’s configured in Smartport emulation mode. The reason is that Smartport devices connect pin 12 internally to ground. This is how other connected equipment and daisy-chained drives know that they’re Smartport drives, and it’s essential for correct daisy-chain operation of Smartport drives with the BMOW Daisy Chainer or the Apple Unidisk 3.5 drive.
Both options essentially makes the SoftSP unneeded for FloppyEMU, and with this signalling problem for wire #12 (which is the SmartPort compatibility indicator) I am not sure which other SmartPort devices besides wDrive will actually work with the Apple ][, Apple ][+ and Apple //e without damaging the SmartPort device.
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- [Wayback/Archive] Assembly Lines: The Mug – CT6502
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Another shop via [Wayback/Archive] Big Mess o’ Wires -> [Wayback/Archive] Big Mess o’ Wires Store
Bring new life to your classic computer
From disk emulators to ROM upgrades, keyboard and mouse adapters, and more hardware creations, BMOW has your retrocomputer needs covered.
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Yellowstone Universal Disk Controller Card and two DB-19 female adapters
[Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone Disk Controller Everything Bundle – Big Mess o’ Wires
Yellowstone is a universal disk controller card for Apple II computers. It supports nearly every type of Apple disk drive ever made, including standard 3.5 inch drives, 5.25 inch drives, smart drives like the Unidisk 3.5 and the BMOW Floppy Emu’s smartport hard disk, and even Macintosh 3.5 inch drives. Yellowstone combines the power of an Apple 3.5 Disk Controller Card, a standard 5.25 inch Disk II controller card, the Apple Liron controller, and more, all in a single card.
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The “everything” bundle includes the latest version Yellowstone Universal Disk Controller Card and two DB-19 female adapters
- [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone: Cloning the Apple II Liron | Big Mess o’ Wires
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The “Liron” disk controller was introduced by Apple in 1985. More formally known as the Apple II UniDisk 3.5 Controller, it’s designed to work with a new generation of “smart” disk drives more sophisticated than the venerable Disk II 5.25 inch floppy drive. The smart disk port on the Liron is appropriately named the Smartport, and it can communicate with block-based storage devices such as the Unidisk 3.5 (an early 800K drive) and Smartport-based Apple II hard drives.
Why care about the Liron? The Apple IIc and Apple IIgs have integrated disk ports with built-in Smartport functionality, but for the earlier Apple II+ and IIe, the Liron is the only way to get a Smartport. For owners of the BMOW Floppy Emu disk emulator, the Liron card makes it possible to use the Floppy Emu as an external hard drive for the II+ and IIe. Unfortunately finding a Liron is difficult, and although they occasionally turn up on eBay, they’re quite expensive. That made cloning the Liron a logical first goal.…
- [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone Universal Disk Controller – Big Mess o’ Wires
Article: [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone Universal Disk Controller for Apple II | Big Mess o’ Wires – Run any disk drive with your Apple II computer!
Supported Drives
Need to attach a disk drive to your Apple II? Yellowstone has got you covered. Yellowstone is compatible with the Apple IIe, Apple IIgs, Apple II+, Apple II, and most Apple II clones. It works with these disk drives and drive emulators:
Can be connected directlyDisk II A2M0003Naked Apple 3.5” 800K, black labelNaked half-height Apple 5.25″Naked Apple 3.5” 800K, red labelFloppy Emu 5.25 modeNaked Apple 3.5” 1.44MB, auto-injectFloppy Emu Model C dual 5.25 modeNaked Apple 3.5” 1.44MB, manual-injectFloppy Emu 3.5 modewDriveFloppy Emu Unidisk 3.5 mode [1]Floppy Emu Smartport hard disk mode [1]And more…Requires optional DB-19F connectorUnidisk 5.25 A9M0104Macintosh 800K External M0131Disk IIc A2M4050Apple SuperDrive (Apple FDHD Drive) G7287Duo Disk 5.25 A9M0108Unidisk 3.5 A2M2053 [1]AppleDisk 5.25 A9M01075Applied Engineering 3.5 [2]Laser FD100 5.25Apple 3.5 Drive A9M0106And more…[1] smart drive
[2] partial compatibilityWhen using 3.5 inch drives, Yellowstone is compatible with Apple II standard 800K double-sided double-density disk media.
A naked drive is a bare drive mechanism without any enclosure, such as an internal drive taken from a Macintosh, Apple IIc, or Apple IIc+.
Yes, pull the internal 3.5 inch drive from an old Mac and use it directly with your Apple II!
This brought back Applied Engineering memories (:
- [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone DB-19 Female Disk Adapter – Big Mess o’ Wires
The adapter includes a six inch ribbon cable and a detachable mini-board that converts the ribbon cable connector into a DB-19 female shape.
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This adapter has custom wiring that’s specifically designed for use with Yellowstone, and should not be used with other disk hardware.
Can be connected directly to Yellowstone boardApple Disk II A2M0003BMOW Floppy EmuNaked Apple 5.25” DriveswDriveNaked Apple 3.5” DrivesRequires Yellowstone DB-19F adapterUnidisk 5.25 A9M0104Macintosh 800K External M0131Disk IIc A2M4050Apple SuperDrive (Apple FDHD Drive) G7287Duo Disk 5.25 A9M0108Unidisk 3.5 A2M2053AppleDisk 5.25 A9M01075Applied Engineering 3.5Apple 3.5 Drive A9M0106Laser FD100 5.25 A naked drive is a bare drive mechanism without any enclosure, such as an internal drive taken from a Macintosh, Apple IIc, or Apple IIc+.(note that’s a ~15 cm ribbon cable)
- [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone Back From the Dead | Big Mess o’ Wires
- [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone: Cloning the Apple II Liron | Big Mess o’ Wires
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Floppy Emu Model C Deluxe Bundle
USD 130 [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu Model C Deluxe Bundle – Big Mess o’ Wires
The BMOW Floppy Emu is a disk emulator for classic Apple II, Macintosh, and Lisa computers.
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The bundle includes:
- Floppy Emu Model C
- Frosted Ice Acrylic Case
- Vintage Apple Software Collection SD Card
- Full-Size SD Adapter
- Disk Extension Cable
- USD 110 [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu Model C – Big Mess o’ Wires
Articles and videos:
- [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu Technology Design | Big Mess o’ Wires
- [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu Disk Emulator for Apple II, Macintosh, and Lisa | Big Mess o’ Wires
There are way more, but these are a good start.
- USD 10 [Wayback/Archive] Frosted Ice Case for Floppy Emu Model C – Big Mess o’ Wires
- USD 15 [Wayback/Archive] Vintage Software Collection SD Card – Big Mess o’ Wires which includes the Full-Size SD Adapter
- USD 20 [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone DB-19 Female Disk Adapter – Big Mess o’ Wires but with a 100cm cable instead of a ~15cm cable
[Wayback/Archive] BMOW Floppy EMU for Vintage Apple Computers! | Mastergeko4 – YouTube shot at the time the YouTuber was quite a novice, which brought back memories of me being young and figuring out things by fiddling with them and bumping my head against walls (:
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Noisy Disk Mechanical Sounder with 2 ribbon cables attached
USD 20 [Wayback/Archive] Noisy Disk Mechanical Sounder – Big Mess o’ Wires
Noisy Disk uses a mechanical relay to create authentic-sounding mechanical stepping sounds for disk head movements for your Floppy Emu disk emulator’s virtual 5.25 inch floppy disk.
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Nothing will be harmed if Noisy Disk is used with other computers or emulation modes, but you’ll hear strange clacking noises that don’t match the disk activity.
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The product includes the Noisy Disk board with 2 x 10 pin rectangular input and output connectors, and a 6-inch extension cable for connecting to your Floppy Emu board.
This likely sounds exactly like the more expensive Disk Clicker which was reviewed at [Wayback/Archive] Testing the New Classic Floppy Clicker on Apple Floppy Emulator – Authentic Retro Sounds! – YouTube and sold at [Wayback/Archive] Disk Clicker – 8bitdevices.com
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Internal/External Drive Switcher for Apple IIc
USD 25 [Wayback/Archive] Internal/External Drive Switcher for Apple IIc – Big Mess o’ Wires
At the flip of a switch, select which Apple IIc floppy drives should act as Drive 1 and Drive 2. Add support for dual external 5.25 inch floppy emulation. For the Apple IIc with the Floppy Emu disk emulator.
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[Wayback/Archive] Internal/External Drive Switcher for Apple IIc | Big Mess o’ Wires
This is a two-part device: a signal tap that should be installed inside the Apple IIc, and a modified DB19 adapter with two slide switches for the external connection. Two female-female jumper wires are passed through a gap in the case to make the connection between the two parts.
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Daisy Chainer Disk Coupler
USD 45 [Wayback/Archive] Daisy Chainer Disk Coupler – Big Mess o’ Wires
Link the Floppy Emu disk emulator into a daisy chain with other Apple II disk drives. For use with Floppy Emu Model B and C.
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In order to work correctly, Apple II computers require daisy chained drives to be connected in a specific order:
- any 3.5 inch drives must go first in the chain
- Smartport and Unidisk 3.5 inch drives must go second
- any 5.25 inch drives must go last
There can be at most two drives of each type, six drives total.
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There are two primary firmware versions for the Floppy Emu: normal firmware and Smartport daisy chain SPDC firmware. When using a Floppy Emu with the Daisy Chainer, the SPDC firmware is required if your Emu is configured to emulate a Smartport Hard Disk or a Unidisk 3.5. In all other cases, the normal firmware should be used.
[Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu Update: Smartport Daisy-Chain Support | Big Mess o’ Wires
Most people should use the normal firmware version, and it’s the default for newly-purchased hardware. The Smartport daisy chain firmware version is only needed in uncommon situations when:
1. The Floppy Emu’s selected emulation mode is Smartport Hard Disk, Smartport Unit 2, or Unidisk 3.5AND
2. The Floppy Emu is plugged into the back of a BMOW Daisy Chainer or to the Apple Unidisk 3.5 drive, A2M2053.
The
wiki.apple2.orgdied, so here are archived links: [Wayback/Archive] wiki.apple2.org: A2 3.5 Drives -> Apple UniDisk 3.5 (A2M2053)Daisy Chainer clear acrylic case
Oh: there is also this one for it:
- USD 10 [Wayback/Archive] Clear Acrylic Case for Daisy Chainer – Big Mess o’ Wires
A clear acrylic case to protect and showcase your Daisy Chainer board. These custom-made Daisy Chainer cases protect your board in style!
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This is a top-and-bottom “plate” style case with open sides. Assembly takes about 5 minutes.
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Apple Disk Drive A/B Switch
USD 20 [Wayback/Archive] Apple Disk Drive A/B Switch – Big Mess o’ Wires
Select between a Floppy Emu and a real floppy drive at the flip of a switch. Includes switch module and one 3 foot 20-pin ribbon cable.
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For Lisa computer owners, and Macs with only one internal floppy connector, disk drive emulation can be awkward sometimes. The Apple Disk Drive A/B Switch aims to eliminate that awkwardness. This accessory makes it possible to attach a Floppy Emu and a real floppy disk drive at the same time, and select between them with a switch. Both drives will be powered, but the computer will only “see” one drive at a time, depending on the switch position.
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⚠ Do not use Floppy Emu’s Dual 5.25 mode in combination with the A/B Switch. It will cause disk errors and may damage the Floppy Emu or your other 5.25 inch drive.
Macintosh specific stuff from BMOW:
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Mac Sync-inator VGA Sync Converter
USD 40 [Wayback/Archive] Mac Sync-inator VGA Sync Converter – Big Mess o’ Wires
Take the hassles out of vintage Macintosh monitor setup! The Mac Sync-inator is a Mac-to-VGA video converter with a powerful sync processor built-in.
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[Wayback/Archive] Mac Sync-inator VGA Sync Converter | Big Mess o’ Wires has much more information including tables for the DIP-switches that set:
- Setting the Desired Video Resolution
- Choosing the Sync Processing Mode
Too bad this is not compatible with my Macintosh SE/30, but still interesting to know it exists.
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ADB-USB Wombat Input Converter
USD 40 [Wayback/Archive] ADB-USB Wombat Input Converter – Big Mess o’ Wires
ADB-USB Wombat is a bidirectional input converter for USB and ADB keyboards and mice. It works in two directions, connecting modern USB peripherals to a classic ADB-based Macintosh or Apple IIgs computer, or ADB peripherals to a USB-based computer running Windows, OSX, or Linux. The foreign keyboards and mice behave exactly like native peripherals, requiring no special software or drivers – just plug it in and go. This is the Wombat main board. You will also need ADB and/or USB cables depending on your intended usage (sold separately).
[Wayback/Archive] Wombat ADB-USB Input Converter | Big Mess o’ Wires has extensive documentation.
USD 10 [Wayback/Archive] Black Acrylic Case for ADB-USB Wombat – Big Mess o’ Wires protects the top of the board (but not the sides)
USD 6 [Wayback/Archive] ADB Cable, 3 ft – Big Mess o’ Wires (sold out at the time of writing, but might be in stock when you read this)
Despite having spare ADB keyboards, I don’t have spare ADB mice, so this might come in really useful.
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Mac ROM-inator II
USD 45 [Wayback/Archive] Mac ROM-inator II | Big Mess o’ Wires
This was actually a trip down memory lane, as 10 years ago, I bought a Macintosh SE/30, upgraded the memory, and helped the original author – Doug Brown – with their documentation:Want to add new features to your old Mac? The Mac ROM-inator II replaces the stock Macintosh ROM SIMM with a custom flash memory module. Add a bootable ROM disk, make your system 32-bit clean, gain HD20 hard disk support, and more. The Mac ROM-inator II supports the Macintosh SE/30, IIx, IIcx, IIci, IIfx, and IIsi.
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The ROM-inator II is based on Doug Brown’s earlier Mac ROM SIMM design, used with permission.
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Compatibility The ROM SIMM and pre-programmed ROM contents are compatible with the Macintosh SE/30, IIx, IIcx, IIci, IIfx, and IIsi. The SIMM simply snaps into the ROM socket on the computer’s logic board. Note the Macintosh SE differs from the SE/30 internally, and is not compatible with the ROM-inator II. CPU accelerators such as the Daystar PowerCache and Turbo series are not compatible with the ROM-inator II. Some SE/30 hardware may require a shim to ensure ideal fit of the SIMM – see instructions for details. If running Mac OS System 7.5 or later, some Mac models require a software patch to the System file.…
The ROM disk contains:- System 7.1, with System Update 3.0 and Apple CD-ROM Extension 5.3.1
- HD SC Setup 7.3.5 (patched to support formatting non-Apple hard disks)
- SCSI Probe 3.3 (for troubleshooting the SCSI bus)
- ResEdit 2.1.3
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Usage Most of the ROM-inator II’s benefits are automatic: just install the SIMM, and you’ll gain HD20 support, 32-bit cleanliness, and custom sounds and icons. Only the ROM disk requires any user interaction. When first powered on, a Macintosh with the ROM-inator II will play a customized startup sound, and display diagnostic info about the amount of installed RAM, the current addressing mode, and the detected ROM disk type. After a moment, an interactive startup menu will be displayed. To boot from the ROM disk as a read-only disk, press the R key on the keyboard. Or to convert the ROM disk into a writable RAM disk, press the A key. Or to bypass the ROM disk, do nothing and wait five seconds. If no keys are pressed, the Macintosh will boot normally from an attached SCSI or HD20 disk, or wait for a floppy disk to be inserted. Note: If booting from a SCSI disk when the ROM-inator II is installed, any 32-bit enablers or extensions such as MODE32 or 32-Bit System Enabler must be removed from the disk’s System folder.[Wayback/Archive] Mac SE/30 with Upgraded ROM | Big Mess o’ Wires
- [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – dougg3/mac-rom-simm-programmer.software: Control software for Mac ROM SIMM programmer
- [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – dougg3/mac-rom-simm-programmer: Firmware for Mac ROM SIMM programmer
- [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – jpluimers/dougg3..mac-rom-simm-programmer: Firmware for Mac ROM SIMM programmer
- [Wayback/Archive] Wiki updates (images, links); added README.md to master branch; added downloads branch. by jpluimers · Pull Request #25 · dougg3/mac-rom-simm-programmer · GitHub
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Then there is a shop on the Cayman Islands that ships world wide and has both the Mac ROM SIMM and the Mac ROMM SIMM programmer:
- USD 10 [Wayback/Archive] RTC PCB for SE30 – CayMac Vintage’s Ko-fi Shop – Ko-fi ❤️ Where creators get support from fans through donations, memberships, shop sales and more! The original ‘Buy Me a Coffee’ Page.
Replacement RTC chip for the SE30. This RTC is a ATTiny85 on a PCB with its own crystal for better accuracy on the SE30. No battery is needed when using this RTC version as the P/RAM settings are stored in the flash RAM. The external crystal on the logic board is not needed either.
And there is [Wayback/Archive] a2heaven: For everyone who still loves and uses old computers.:
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Liron Reborn
USD 60 [Wayback/Archive] Liron Reborn
Liron Reborn is a Samrt Port / Disk II controller card for Apple II/IIe computers.
It is a functional hardware compatible Liron clone , with original Liron card Firmware.
A difference from Original Liron card is that card can be used as a a standard 5.25 inch (Disk II) controller or Liron ( SmartPort ) card .
I likely won’t need this as the Yellowstone card looks way more promising
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FASTChip //e – 65C02
USD 150 [Wayback/Archive] FASTChip //e – 65C02
The FASTChip //e accelerates the Apple //e™ by replacing the on-board microprocessor with a much faster one. Because the memory on the Apple //e™ can only run at a 1 MHz speed maximum, faster memory (SRAM) must be provided to increase performance and allow the 65C02/65C816 CPU to run at full speed.
To do this, the FASTChip //e contains 512KB/1024KB of fast SRAM memory. The clever design allows the acceleration of programs running in both main and auxiliary memory. The additional FASTChip //e memory can emulate both 192/448 KB fast RamWorks compatible RAM and 256/512 KB fast RamFactor (slinky) compatible RAM.
[Wayback/Archive] REVIEW: FastChip //e Accellerator by A2Heaven – YouTube
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65C816->65C02 Board
USD 35 [Wayback/Archive] 65C816->65C02 Board
You can use 65C816->65C02 board to connect 65C816 CPU to your Apple II computer .
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* This board was based on Daryl Rictor’s original design. More information can be found here: sbc.rictor.org/support/conv.html
[Wayback/Archive] 65816 to 6502 converter by Daryl Rictor.
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DB19 to IDC20
USD 11 [Wayback/Archive] DB19 to IDC20 Floppy Disk adapter
DB19 to IDC20 Floppy Disk adapter
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directly connect IDC20 Pin Cable connector to the 19-pin port of Apple IIc, or to a floppy controller with a 19-pin connector
Probably cheaper to use the package deals from BMOW
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IDC20 to DB19 cable adapter
USD 13 [Wayback/Archive] IDC20 to DB19 cable adapter
The product is designed to be directly connect IDC20 pin connector to the DB19 pin port .
Likely the combo from BMOW is cheaper.
TrackStar II
- USD 75 [Wayback/Archive] TRAK STAR II
Readout of Disk Drive head position .
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Constant Digital Readout of Disk Drive head position .
Work with any 5″ Apple II compatible Drive .
Display Full , Half and Quarter track head position .Nice idea, but has not been in stock for a long time and feels overpriced.
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Quadlink Clone Kit
USD 160 [Wayback/Archive] Quadlink Clone Kit
It’s an ISA expansion card from the ’80s designed to turn your IBM PC (such as a 5150 or 5160) into an Apple ][! After booting and running the software, you can switch quickly between PC and Apple mode using Ctrl-Alt-A (for Apple) and Ctrl-Alt-P (for PC).
Kit contain all PCB , passive components and chips needed to build working Quadlink Clone .
[Wayback/Archive] GitHub – schlae/quapple: Quadlink clone turns your ancient IBM PC into an Apple ][
Only useful if I find back an ISA compatible PC.
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3D Stickers set
USD 10 [Wayback/Archive] 3D Stickers set
Apple II logo and Disk II label sticker set .
Actually this is quite a nice idea, despite them having been out of stock like forever.
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RamFactor1M
USD 85 [Wayback/Archive] RamFactor1M
RamFactor1M is based on Aplied Engineering RAMFactor card ( firmware is same as original ), however it uses more modern low power 1MB SRAM and can provided battery backup up to 1-2 Year with small CR2032 Battery.
The battery is for backup data (just like PowerFactor from Aplied Engineering ) and can be used as Solid State Disk.
This is a trip down memory lane, though back then school could not afford these.
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Apple II Slot Extender
USD 40 [Wayback/Archive] Apple II Slot Extender
The Apple II slot extender allows you to easily and freely test the functionality and repair your Apple II cards outside of the computer.
You can also turn off voltages that aren’t necessary for the card to work to prevent testing errors.
Package include
- 1 x Apple II extender PCB bottom
- 1 x Apple II extender PCB Top
- 1 x 50 pin Flat ribbon cable with 0.5m length ( contact me if you want a longer cable )
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One more shop (: I think I found it searching for [Wayback/Archive] BlueSCSI, but anyway at [Wayback/Archive] Shop – Joe’s Computer Museum, focussing on [Wayback/Archive] Apple //e Archives – Joe’s Computer Museum I found these interesting items:
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A2Pico
USD 55 [Wayback/Archive] A2Pico – Multi-Function Card – Joe’s Computer Museum
A2Pico is, essentially, a universal peripheral card for your Apple ][ Computer. Want a Z80 CPM Card? Maybe you need inexpensive mass storage. Need to add SmartPort support to your machine? Or, maybe you’re a hacker and want to design your own function. A2Pico lets you do just that!
Using it easy: Flash it with the firmware you want to use (or write your own firmware!), put it in the appropriate Apple // slot and have fun!
NOTE: your card will come without firmware, so that you can choose to make the card whatever you like!
[Wayback/Archive] GitHub – oliverschmidt/a2pico: A2Pico
A2Pico is about Apple II peripheral cards based on the Raspberry Pi Pico. It consists of two parts:
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A2DVI card
USD 50 [Wayback/Archive] A2DVI v2.0 – Apple II Digital Video Adapter – Joe’s Computer Museum
Unlike the below “universal” adapter, the A2DVI might be just the thing for me.The A2DVI produces a digital video stream from your Apple II’s memory. The signal is output via an HDMI-compatible connector, giving your Apple II the option of output to modern displays. No more analog signal conversion required.
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JCM Universal Apple RGB Adapter
USD 20-35 (kit or assembled) [Wayback/Archive] JCM Universal Apple RGB Adapter – Joe’s Computer Museum
The Universal Apple RGB Adapter takes the 4-Bit TTL RGB signal from an Apple ///, the Apple /// Plus or the Apple IIe Video7-style RGB card and converts it to two formats: IBM-style CGA-Compatible TTL, and Apple IIgs Standard. On the Apple /// machines, it also connects the color NTSC signal from the rear connector to a standard RCA-Jack so you can use it.
Since I don’t have either an Apple ///, nore a Apple IIe Video7-style RGB card, this might not be fore me.
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Why Cable? – Original DB19
USD 15-30 [Wayback/Archive] Why Cable? – Apple IIe Card Y-Cable Replacement (Original DB19) – Joe’s Computer Museum
Everybody wants the Apple IIe Card. Nobody has the “Y-Cable” that goes with it; they tend to get lost. So, I designed a replacement solution!
The Why Cable? Apple IIe Card Y-Cable Replacement solves your Floppy and Joystick problem with your Apple IIe Card. Just plug it into your card, then add your floppy drive and joystick and your Apple IIe card will work as intended!
This version emulates the original DB19 cable, and is fully compatible with all drives the Apple IIe Card lists as compatible.
Need to check out if I still have this cable/connector or need the below one (:
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Why Cable? – 20-Pin Cable Version
USD 10-25 [Wayback/Archive] Why Cable? – Apple IIe Card Y-Cable Replacement (20-Pin Cable Version) – Joe’s Computer Museum
Everybody wants the Apple IIe Card. Nobody has the “Y-Cable” that goes with it; they tend to get lost. So, I designed a replacement solution!
The Why Cable? Apple IIe Card Y-Cable Replacement solves your Floppy and Joystick problem with your Apple IIe Card. Just plug it into your card, then add your floppy drive and joystick and your Apple IIe card will work as intended!
This version works with 20-pin ribbon cable connectors and supports any drive that properly emulates a standard 5.25 inch Disk ][ drive, including the FloppyEMU and wDrive.
And I need to check if it is missing, if I need the 19 or 20 pin version. Likely I need the 20-pin one.
- Some 3D printed replacement for your Apple //e opening covers on the back of your machine, and for your Alps Key Stems:
DB-19/DB-25/DB-9 back plates (3D printed, STL files if you want to print your own)
DB-19: outside view
DB-19: inside view
DB-25: outside view
DB-25: inside view
DB-25 for Audio Jacks: outside
DB-25 for Audio Jacks: inside
DB-9: outside view
DB-9: inside view
DB-25 with DB-9 opening: assembled
DB-25 with DB-9 opening: outside
DB-25 with DB-9 opening: inside
USD 1
[Wayback/Archive]
Apple //e DB-19 Back PlateUSD 1
[Wayback/Archive]
Apple //e DB-25 Back PlateUSD 1
[Wayback/Archive]
Apple //e DB-25 Back Plate for Audio JacksUSD 1
[Wayback/Archive]
Apple //e DB-9 Back PlateUSD 1
[Wayback/Archive]
Apple //e DB25 Back Plate with DB9 Opening[Wayback]
A2e-DB25-with-DB9-insert.stl[Wayback]
A2e-DB25-with-DB9-insert.stl[Wayback]
A2e-DB25-with-DB9-insert.stl[Wayback]
A2e-DB25-with-DB9-insert.stl[Wayback]
A2e-DB25-with-DB9-insert.stlAdding the hole in the design required thickening of the base and increasing the depth of the holding clips so they would not pull out when tension is applied to an attached external cable.Note that all link(ed?) to the same .stl file, which is only correct for the right most back plate: “DB-25 with DB-9 opening”.
All of these are based on [Wayback/Archive] Apple IIe port covers, thicker for FFF printers by scruss – Thingiverse which in turn is based on [Wayback/Archive] Apple IIe port covers, three sizes by option8 – Thingiverse.
Alps Key Stems (one of them has the wrong picture, but they are manufactured correctly; 3D printed; no STL-files on the product pages)
Alps Key Stems, Short – 10 Pack
Alps Key Stems, Long – 10 Pack
USD 5
[Wayback/Archive]
Alps Key Stems, Short – 10 Pack – Joe’s Computer MuseumUSD 5
[Wayback/Archive]
Alps Key Stems, Long – 10 Pack – Joe’s Computer MuseumThis might have been the base STL file for this: [Wayback] Hairpin-To-Alps-keycap-adaptor.stl
- Some 3D printed replacement for your Apple //e opening covers on the back of your machine, and for your Alps Key Stems:
- a
- a
- aa
- a
For all shops: I didn’t list all of their items, just the ones that I might use in the future.
An interesting device I did not know about either was the FujiNet one: it is fully open source! One thing to check out is where to order pre-assembled ones for Apple II series.
- [Wayback/Archive] FujiNet · GitHub
FujiNet is a multi-peripheral emulator and WiFi network device for vintage computers. The first completed hardware was for the Atari 8-Bit line of computers and development has begun for other systems (Coleco ADAM, Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari Lynx, ZX Spectrum and more) with the goal of supporting as many old systems as possible. What sets FujiNet apart from other WiFi devices is the new Network Device (the N Device). The N device allows vintage computers that do not have enough processing power to handle TCP/IP connections themselves to talk to the modern internet over WiFi. Virtual adapters have been created for many protocols including: TCP, UDP, HTTP, FTP, TNFS, HTTPS (SSL/TLS), SSH, TELNET, WebDAV and JSON parser. The FujiNet project is 100% completely open source, software and hardware. All code and schematics are available here.
- [Wayback/Archive] FutureVision Research was the only shop I found selling them, but I probably overlooked others.
- [Wayback/Archive] FujiNet – FutureVision Research
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Apple II/III FujiNet w/ accesoiries
USD 110 [Wayback/Archive] FujiNet for Apple II & III (With Accessories) – FutureVision Research
The FujiApple Rev1.1 for SmartPort enabled Apple II computers emulates SmartPort drives, Disk II drives (read only), CP/M, Clock, Modem, and a new Network Device. Disk images can be mounted directly from the internet via TNFS servers or from the onboard MicroSD socket*. The Network device enables access to Internet protocols such as HTTP, HTTPS, TNFS, SSH, TCP, UDP and more.
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This kit comes with the following (ribbon cable color may be gray or rainbow depending on availability):- FujiNet for Apple II & III
- DB-19 to IDC20 Female adapter
- 30cm IDC20 Female to Male cable
- 30cm IDC20 Female to Female cable
- DB-19 spacer
- Two different lengths of thumbscrews
- Two 1.375″ thumbscrews for use with IIe/III
- Two 1.5″ thumbscrews for use with IIc/gs/+
The page contains many more helpful information and links.
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Some non-shop links
- [Wayback/Archive] FloppyEmu vs. CFFA3000/Booti | Applefritter
- [Wayback/Archive] Plus Too Mac Replica | Big Mess o’ Wires
- [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu Disk Emulator? : apple2
Yes. I’d rank it as the most versatile as it works across the greatest number of machines (Apple 2s and Macs).
It is cheaper and more readily available than the other solutions.
The only slight downside is it isn’t as fast, direct memory access/processor wise, as the card solutions that exist – but those do use up a slot, and there isn’t much software that can take advantage of the speed difference anyway – and on a machine that only goes a couple Mhz anyway, it won’t make much difference.It’s 7 years old at this point, but Joe’s Computer Museum did an excellent video comparing the major options here:
https://youtu.be/Wjy6_qnTnv0a covering
- MicroDrive/Turbo
- CFFA3000
- Floppy Emu
- SDFloppy II
- UNISDISK Air 19 – [Wayback/Archive] UNISDISK Air Series, very hard to get
[Wayback/Archive] Apple II Mass Storage Benchmark Results – Joe’s Computer Museum
[Wayback/Archive] Apple II Mass Storage Mega Roundup – YouTube
- [Wayback/Archive] Nerdly Pleasures: wDrive v. Floppy Emu – Comparison of the Best Apple II Disk Emulators
- [Wayback/Archive] Thoughts on wDrive versus Floppy Emu? | Applefritter
- [Wayback/Archive] Fujinet for Apple II, SD card and Internet capable device for SmartPort | Applefritter (works with Yellowstone card)
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An external monitor on a Macingosh SE/30
- [Wayback/Archive] Mac SE can use an external Monitor?? – Apple Community
- ………………………………………………………
Mac SE/30 and Macintosh Classic
Since I own both a Macintosh SE/30 and a Macintosh Classic, these are relevant too:
- [Wayback/Archive] Classic II vs SE/30 – TidBITS
- [Wayback/Archive] Siblings – Macintosh SE and Mac Classic : VintageApple
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Queries
I used additional queries than the first blog post to complete this blog post. Here they are:
- [Wayback/Archive] macintosh Floppy Emu 3.5 – Google Suche
- [Wayback/Archive] apple 2 disk sd card – Google Suche
- [Wayback/Archive] Liron disk controller card – Google Search
- [Wayback/Archive] cffa vs floppy emu – Google Search
- [Wayback/Archive] floppy emu apple ii disk controller – Google Suche
- [Wayback/Archive] wDrive vs floppy emu – Google Search
- [Wayback/Archive] fujinet apple ii – Google Search
- [Wayback/Archive] Apple Liron – Search on Google
- [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone fujinet – Sök på Google
- [Wayback/Archive] does floppy emu work with classic macintosh – Google Search
- [Wayback/Archive] mac se/30 versus macintosh classic – Google Suche
- ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
- [Wayback/Archive] bluescsi v2 – Sök på Google
--jeroenRate this:
#12 #156 #25 #3dprint #3dprinting #4 #Apple #appleiigs #AprilApples
- USD 25 [Wayback/Archive] Apple IIc USB C power adapter with Volt Gauge – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery
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More Apple ][*, //* II* and classic Macintosh hardware upgrades
The mini micro classic Apple emulators related post last week became way too big, so here is the classic Apple 2/Macintosh hardware upgrade part follow-up I announced in Some notes on mini/micro Apple //e emulators.
Last week, I mentioned [Wayback/Archive] ARC Javmaster – YouTube. Let’s continue from there for an even bigger post (:
Javmaster actually has a shop at [Wayback/Archive] Welcome to the 8-bit stuff store – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery with a lot of interesting (mainly Apple ][ era related) retro things like:
- USD 25 [Wayback/Archive] Apple IIc USB C power adapter with Volt Gauge – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery
Apple IIc USB C power adapter with Volt Gauge with USB-C connected and showing 15.2 volts
[Wayback/Archive] Transform your Apple IIc experience with this sleek USB-C power supply replacement! – YouTube
- USD 120-430 [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu 3.5 Drive Case – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery
Floppy Emu 3.5 Drive Case powered up with green screen fitting well together with an Apple //c plus
[Wayback/Archive] Step into the future of vintage computing with the Floppy Emu 3.5! – YouTube
[Wayback/Archive] New 3.5 drive case for Apple II & Macintosh Floppy Emu: soon at 8bitstuff.com! #3dprinting #Apple – YouTube
[Wayback/Archive] Starting GSOS 6.04 from the new Floppy Emu 3.5, a match made in heaven! #apple #3dprint #appleiigs – YouTube
- USD 120-430 [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emulator Disk ][ Case – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery
Floppy Emulator Disk ][ Case with green screen fitted in an original Apple ][ era 5.25 inch diskette drive case
[Wayback/Archive] New Release: Floppy Emu ][ Case Assembly Guide! – YouTube[Wayback/Archive] #AprilApples Guest episode: Watch Jon Assemble a Floppy Emu Case from Scratch! – YouTube
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3D Printed Apple II Joystick – clear Special edition: internals
3D Printed Apple II Joystick – clear Special edition
3D Printed Apple II Joystick
USD 80-155 Apple II Joystick Recreation: cheapest is 3D printed in classic color, the other clear
The 3D recreation of the iconic Apple II Joystick, keeping all the classic features with brand new mechanical parts. The moving parts brand new, adapted to work seamlessly with Apple II’s that use the DB9 port.
The switches are brand-new Matias key switches, a new version of the ALPS keys that were so successful in most original keyboards.
By using these materials, the quality and durability are better. The 3D printed case and switches resemble the original and is crafted to be enjoyed and used with your retro systems.- [Wayback/Archive] 3D Printed Apple II Joystick – A Fusion of Nostalgia and Innovation – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery
- [Wayback/Archive] 3D Printed Apple II Joystick – clear Special edition – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery
[Wayback/Archive] Apple II Joystick Recreation – Rediscover the Ultimate Retro Gaming Experience! – YouTube
- [Wayback/Archive] 3D Printed Apple II Joystick – A Fusion of Nostalgia and Innovation – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery
8bitstuff also pointed me to this shop with cool parts helping you fix Apple ][* and Apple //e and II* model issues: [Wayback/Archive] Shop | ReActiveMicro.com which is part of [Wayback/Archive] ReActiveMicro.com which has this great card in their catalog:
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A2FPGA Multicard
USD 150 [Wayback/Archive] A2FPGA Multicard | ReActiveMicro.com
[Wayback/Archive] #156: Can One Apple II Card Replace Them All? – YouTube
The firmware is open source at [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – a2fpga/a2fpga_core: Apple II FPGA Co-Processor and still being maintained.
[Wayback/Archive] A2FPGA – The ReActiveMicro Apple II Wiki
The A2FPGA is primarily an HD video and Mockingboard-compatible sound card for the Apple II, II+, //e, and IIgs.
and other hardware like:
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Disk ][+ v1.0 kit
USD 30-40 [Wayback/Archive] Disk ][+ – Assembled or Kit | ReActiveMicro.com
Disk ][+ v1.0 is a small PCB that installs into Apple Disk ][ drives. It replaces the red LED in the drives with a two-color LED, to better distinguish the reading phases, in green, from the writing phases, in red. Comes assembled or in kit form.
Notes:
- You need one set for each drive.
- I don’t really like the way they connect to the drive electronics, see picture below from [Wayback/Archive] Disk II+ – The ReActiveMicro Apple II Wiki . Instead of the pin, I would likely solder the wires to the electronics.
4 hook probes connected to the Disk II analog board.
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Apple IIe Enhancement Kit
USD 30-35 [Wayback/Archive] IIe Enhancement Kit | ReActiveMicro.com
Comes with an ‘Enhanced’ paper template, 65C02 CPU, and all the ROM’s necessary to upgrade your Apple IIe.
[Wayback/Archive] Apple IIe Enhancement Kit – The ReActiveMicro Apple II Wiki
Note it has various options (USA vs European Apple //e, plus languages: check before you order!)
I need to check if my Apple //e already has this enhancement kit.
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No-Slot Clock v1.0
USD 65 [Wayback/Archive] No-Slot Clock | ReActiveMicro.com
The No-Slot Clock v1.0 allows your Apple II to remember the date and time. It will work on an Apple II, Apple II+, Apple IIe, Apple IIc, and Clone systems. It features dual battery holders. Two CR1025 cells included.
The No Slot Clock does not fit in to the IIc or IIc+ with a RAM Card installed.
[Wayback/Archive] No-Slot Clock – The ReActiveMicro Apple II Wiki
Likely won’t needs this as ROMXe and ROMXc both include a clock.
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Ultimate-Micro.com Apple II 3.5″ Disk Controller Card v1.0
USD 200 [Wayback/Archive] Apple II 3.5 Disk Controller Card | ReActiveMicro.com
This is the Apple II 3.5″ Disk Controller Card v1.0 from Ultimate-Micro.com.
The Apple II 3.5″ Disk Controller Card v1.0 is a clone of Apple’s Apple II 3.5″ Disk Controller Card. The disk controller card allows you to use 3.5-inch floppy disk drives, including the Apple SuperDrive and Apple 3.5 Drive, with all Apple II computers. This card also supports the operation of older model Apple II UniDisk 3.5 drives.
Not sure if I really want this one, especially with the USD 200 price tag: The
Ultimate-Micro.comdomain vanished and the Yellowstone Universal Disk Controller mentioned below at USD 170 (including cables) can do more. -
Apple II A2io Bluetooth Game Port Receiver
USD 20 [Wayback/Archive] A2io Bluetooth Game Port Receiver For Your Apple II Systems | ReActiveMicro.com
This is the A2io Bluetooth Game Port Receiver from CraftyMech and designed by Aaron Reid. Works on all Apple II systems with a 9 pin game port.
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A2io allow you to connect and use a modern wireless game pad as either a joystick, paddle, or pad input device. You pair the game pad with your mobile device (phone/tablet/laptop) and then connect to the A2io. The mobile device acts like a translator between your Apple and game pad.
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CFFA 300 REV C
USD 225 [Wayback/Archive] CFFA3000 v1.0 Rev C-RM for II, II+, ///, IIe, and IIgs | ReActiveMicro.com
This is the CFFA3000 v1.0 Rev C-RM built by ReActiveMicro under license from R&D Automation.
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The CFFA3000 v1.0 Rev C-RM Controller is a Mass Storage Device and Floppy Emulator that once installed in your Apple II system acts like a solid-state Hard Drive using Compact Flash Cards and USB Flash Drives. Floppy Emulation allows users to load .PO images as if they were physical disk. See the manual for more details. There is also discussion about adding .WOZ support, and we will post updates if/when it happens.
Comes with CF Card as pictured, and with Remote option standard. Manual can be found here for review.
Plug and play ready, and fully tested. Comes started with **256MB** CF Card, preloaded with several ProDOS 8 volumes with games and utilities, and several GS/OS volumes. You can select which one to boot using the on-board firmware menu (press “M” key on power up).
[Wayback/Archive] wiki.reactivemicro.com/images/9/9d/2021-10-23-CFFA-RM_Manual.pdf
I already have this, including the original remote back in 2014 from dreher: [Wayback/Archive] CFFA3000 Run 3: Order Status
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CFFA3000 Remote
USD 40 [Wayback/Archive] CFFA3000 – Remote Option With Cable | ReActiveMicro.com
This is the CFFA3000 Remote option built by ReActiveMicro under license from R&D Automation. ***REMOTE ONLY!***
ReActiveMicro is an authorized dealer and partner with R&D…
The CFFA3000 Remote option comes with the connector cable, which attaches to the CFFA3000 card installed in your Apple II system. It comes as pictured, with the Remote, the connection cable, and a 3D printed enclosure.
Finally it pointed me to [Wayback/Archive] Home | JD Micro which has RAMX (for Apple ][* systems) and ROMX (variants for any Apple 2 model) for which these are most applicable to my systems (both ROMX versions also contain the fonts mentioned in their blog post [Wayback/Archive] 11th May 2021 | JD Micro):
[Wayback/Archive] Review: ROMX+ Device for Apple II+ – YouTube
- [Wayback/Archive] ROMXe | JD Micro for Apple //e – includes clock
[Wayback/Archive] Review: ROMXe by JD Micro – More ROMS than you can shake a joystick at! – YouTube
- [Wayback/Archive] ROMXc | JD Micro for Apple IIc – includes clock
[Wayback/Archive] Boot Instantly – ROMXc Review for the Apple //c – YouTube
Other results from the queries I used in the post last week also returned some hardware that can be used for classic Apple machines:
- [Wayback/Archive] The ESP32 SoftCard for the Apple II | Applefritter
I’ve been working on a new card for the Apple II that would extend its capabilities using my favorite Wi-Fi module: the ESP32. I decided to called it a soft card, because similarly to the original Z80 SoftCard it contains its own processor allowing it to run software not originally meant for the Apple II. And similarly to the original 80-column card that was needed, it produces its own composite video enabled through a soft switch. Both NTSC and PAL are supported and can be switched using a command. In addition it can produce 8-bit sound that is mixed and played through the Apple II speaker. For most of its applications the card also needs a FAT32 formatted microSD card.
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[Wayback/Archive] ESP32 SoftCard Expansion Card for the Apple II from CVT on Tindie
ESP32 SoftCard Expansion Card for the Apple II
- [Wayback/Archive] Apple2idiot card (ESP32) | Applefritter
It is an interesting and different take on interfacing an ESP32 module to an Apple II. It uses a dual ported SRAM instead of trying to interface the ESP32 to the Apple II bus using something like 74LVC245s or through a parallel chip like a 6522 or 82C55 or through a serial chip like a 6551 or 6850.
https://github.com/equant/apple2idiot
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[Wayback/Archive] GitHub – equant/apple2idiot: A general purpose ESP32 IOT board for the Apple IIe
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assembly lines
[Wayback/Archive] Shop – CT6502 and [Wayback/Archive] Shop – Page 2 of 2 – CT6502a
- [Wayback/Archive] Assembly Lines: The Mug – CT6502
Assembly Lines: The Mug; Print-on-demand from Printful.
Mug; handle left
Mug; handle behind
Mug; handle right
This is a really cool idea including the Choplifter and Lode Runner main sprites on the mug. The right picture shows you can also get it in 15oz size.
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Apple II wDrive Disk Drive Emulator
[Wayback/Archive] Apple II wDrive Disk Drive Emulator – CT6502
The wDrive is a disk drive emulator for the Apple II (II+, IIe, IIc, IIGS) that boots disk images (WOZ, DSK, 2MG, HDV, etc) from an SD card.
Manufacturer: [Wayback/Archive] Mfa2 Workshop
We are developer of wDrive, softSP card and related accessories which are published through Kboo HK
Note it there are two options to choose from:
- USD ~80: wDrive only (Apple IIc and IIGS)
- USD ~100: wDrive plus SoftSP card (Apple II, II+, IIe)
The second option includes this one:
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MFA2 SoftSP Card
[Wayback/Archive] Apple II MFA2 SoftSP Card wDrive or FujiNet – CT6502
The SoftSP card allows you to boot hard disk images or use FujiNet devices on an Apple II+ or IIe, which do not have SmartPort support.
The SoftSP card is not needed on the Apple IIc or Apple IIGS.
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The SoftSP card should be placed into a slot lower than the wDrive disk controller card. Slot 1 or 2 usually works well.
Note: The SoftSP card will also work with the FloppyEMU. However, you MUST use a special drive cable that isolates pin 12, to avoid damaging your FloppyEMU. You do not need to use this cable with the wDrive, although it won’t cause any issues if you do. You can find details about the issue here.
That last bit is really really important as SoftSP only can be installed in a system that also connects to a FloppyEMU under these circumstances:
- Connect the FloppyEMU to a Yellowstone is a universal disk controller card for Apple II computers (see below), especially since the Yellowstone also supports both wDrive and FujiNet.
- Connect the FloppyEMU to an original Disk Controller, but cut wire #12 as explained in [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu SoftSP Warning | Big Mess o’ Wires
You can’t safely connect a Smartport device to a Disk II controller card, no matter how the card’s internal logic might be modified. That includes Floppy Emu when it’s configured in Smartport emulation mode. The reason is that Smartport devices connect pin 12 internally to ground. This is how other connected equipment and daisy-chained drives know that they’re Smartport drives, and it’s essential for correct daisy-chain operation of Smartport drives with the BMOW Daisy Chainer or the Apple Unidisk 3.5 drive.
Both options essentially makes the SoftSP unneeded for FloppyEMU, and with this signalling problem for wire #12 (which is the SmartPort compatibility indicator) I am not sure which other SmartPort devices besides wDrive will actually work with the Apple ][, Apple ][+ and Apple //e without damaging the SmartPort device.
- a
- a
- [Wayback/Archive] Assembly Lines: The Mug – CT6502
- a
Another shop via [Wayback/Archive] Big Mess o’ Wires -> [Wayback/Archive] Big Mess o’ Wires Store
Bring new life to your classic computer
From disk emulators to ROM upgrades, keyboard and mouse adapters, and more hardware creations, BMOW has your retrocomputer needs covered.
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Yellowstone Universal Disk Controller Card and two DB-19 female adapters
[Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone Disk Controller Everything Bundle – Big Mess o’ Wires
Yellowstone is a universal disk controller card for Apple II computers. It supports nearly every type of Apple disk drive ever made, including standard 3.5 inch drives, 5.25 inch drives, smart drives like the Unidisk 3.5 and the BMOW Floppy Emu’s smartport hard disk, and even Macintosh 3.5 inch drives. Yellowstone combines the power of an Apple 3.5 Disk Controller Card, a standard 5.25 inch Disk II controller card, the Apple Liron controller, and more, all in a single card.
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The “everything” bundle includes the latest version Yellowstone Universal Disk Controller Card and two DB-19 female adapters
- [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone: Cloning the Apple II Liron | Big Mess o’ Wires
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The “Liron” disk controller was introduced by Apple in 1985. More formally known as the Apple II UniDisk 3.5 Controller, it’s designed to work with a new generation of “smart” disk drives more sophisticated than the venerable Disk II 5.25 inch floppy drive. The smart disk port on the Liron is appropriately named the Smartport, and it can communicate with block-based storage devices such as the Unidisk 3.5 (an early 800K drive) and Smartport-based Apple II hard drives.
Why care about the Liron? The Apple IIc and Apple IIgs have integrated disk ports with built-in Smartport functionality, but for the earlier Apple II+ and IIe, the Liron is the only way to get a Smartport. For owners of the BMOW Floppy Emu disk emulator, the Liron card makes it possible to use the Floppy Emu as an external hard drive for the II+ and IIe. Unfortunately finding a Liron is difficult, and although they occasionally turn up on eBay, they’re quite expensive. That made cloning the Liron a logical first goal.…
- [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone Universal Disk Controller – Big Mess o’ Wires
Article: [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone Universal Disk Controller for Apple II | Big Mess o’ Wires – Run any disk drive with your Apple II computer!
Supported Drives
Need to attach a disk drive to your Apple II? Yellowstone has got you covered. Yellowstone is compatible with the Apple IIe, Apple IIgs, Apple II+, Apple II, and most Apple II clones. It works with these disk drives and drive emulators:
Can be connected directlyDisk II A2M0003Naked Apple 3.5” 800K, black labelNaked half-height Apple 5.25″Naked Apple 3.5” 800K, red labelFloppy Emu 5.25 modeNaked Apple 3.5” 1.44MB, auto-injectFloppy Emu Model C dual 5.25 modeNaked Apple 3.5” 1.44MB, manual-injectFloppy Emu 3.5 modewDriveFloppy Emu Unidisk 3.5 mode [1]Floppy Emu Smartport hard disk mode [1]And more…Requires optional DB-19F connectorUnidisk 5.25 A9M0104Macintosh 800K External M0131Disk IIc A2M4050Apple SuperDrive (Apple FDHD Drive) G7287Duo Disk 5.25 A9M0108Unidisk 3.5 A2M2053 [1]AppleDisk 5.25 A9M01075Applied Engineering 3.5 [2]Laser FD100 5.25Apple 3.5 Drive A9M0106And more…[1] smart drive
[2] partial compatibilityWhen using 3.5 inch drives, Yellowstone is compatible with Apple II standard 800K double-sided double-density disk media.
A naked drive is a bare drive mechanism without any enclosure, such as an internal drive taken from a Macintosh, Apple IIc, or Apple IIc+.
Yes, pull the internal 3.5 inch drive from an old Mac and use it directly with your Apple II!
This brought back Applied Engineering memories (:
- [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone DB-19 Female Disk Adapter – Big Mess o’ Wires
The adapter includes a six inch ribbon cable and a detachable mini-board that converts the ribbon cable connector into a DB-19 female shape.
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This adapter has custom wiring that’s specifically designed for use with Yellowstone, and should not be used with other disk hardware.
Can be connected directly to Yellowstone boardApple Disk II A2M0003BMOW Floppy EmuNaked Apple 5.25” DriveswDriveNaked Apple 3.5” DrivesRequires Yellowstone DB-19F adapterUnidisk 5.25 A9M0104Macintosh 800K External M0131Disk IIc A2M4050Apple SuperDrive (Apple FDHD Drive) G7287Duo Disk 5.25 A9M0108Unidisk 3.5 A2M2053AppleDisk 5.25 A9M01075Applied Engineering 3.5Apple 3.5 Drive A9M0106Laser FD100 5.25 A naked drive is a bare drive mechanism without any enclosure, such as an internal drive taken from a Macintosh, Apple IIc, or Apple IIc+.(note that’s a ~15 cm ribbon cable)
- [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone Back From the Dead | Big Mess o’ Wires
- [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone: Cloning the Apple II Liron | Big Mess o’ Wires
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Floppy Emu Model C Deluxe Bundle
USD 130 [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu Model C Deluxe Bundle – Big Mess o’ Wires
The BMOW Floppy Emu is a disk emulator for classic Apple II, Macintosh, and Lisa computers.
…
The bundle includes:
- Floppy Emu Model C
- Frosted Ice Acrylic Case
- Vintage Apple Software Collection SD Card
- Full-Size SD Adapter
- Disk Extension Cable
- USD 110 [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu Model C – Big Mess o’ Wires
Articles and videos:
- [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu Technology Design | Big Mess o’ Wires
- [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu Disk Emulator for Apple II, Macintosh, and Lisa | Big Mess o’ Wires
There are way more, but these are a good start.
- USD 10 [Wayback/Archive] Frosted Ice Case for Floppy Emu Model C – Big Mess o’ Wires
- USD 15 [Wayback/Archive] Vintage Software Collection SD Card – Big Mess o’ Wires which includes the Full-Size SD Adapter
- USD 20 [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone DB-19 Female Disk Adapter – Big Mess o’ Wires but with a 100cm cable instead of a ~15cm cable
[Wayback/Archive] BMOW Floppy EMU for Vintage Apple Computers! | Mastergeko4 – YouTube shot at the time the YouTuber was quite a novice, which brought back memories of me being young and figuring out things by fiddling with them and bumping my head against walls (:
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Noisy Disk Mechanical Sounder with 2 ribbon cables attached
USD 20 [Wayback/Archive] Noisy Disk Mechanical Sounder – Big Mess o’ Wires
Noisy Disk uses a mechanical relay to create authentic-sounding mechanical stepping sounds for disk head movements for your Floppy Emu disk emulator’s virtual 5.25 inch floppy disk.
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Nothing will be harmed if Noisy Disk is used with other computers or emulation modes, but you’ll hear strange clacking noises that don’t match the disk activity.
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The product includes the Noisy Disk board with 2 x 10 pin rectangular input and output connectors, and a 6-inch extension cable for connecting to your Floppy Emu board.
This likely sounds exactly like the more expensive Disk Clicker which was reviewed at [Wayback/Archive] Testing the New Classic Floppy Clicker on Apple Floppy Emulator – Authentic Retro Sounds! – YouTube and sold at [Wayback/Archive] Disk Clicker – 8bitdevices.com
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Internal/External Drive Switcher for Apple IIc
USD 25 [Wayback/Archive] Internal/External Drive Switcher for Apple IIc – Big Mess o’ Wires
At the flip of a switch, select which Apple IIc floppy drives should act as Drive 1 and Drive 2. Add support for dual external 5.25 inch floppy emulation. For the Apple IIc with the Floppy Emu disk emulator.
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[Wayback/Archive] Internal/External Drive Switcher for Apple IIc | Big Mess o’ Wires
This is a two-part device: a signal tap that should be installed inside the Apple IIc, and a modified DB19 adapter with two slide switches for the external connection. Two female-female jumper wires are passed through a gap in the case to make the connection between the two parts.
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Daisy Chainer Disk Coupler
USD 45 [Wayback/Archive] Daisy Chainer Disk Coupler – Big Mess o’ Wires
Link the Floppy Emu disk emulator into a daisy chain with other Apple II disk drives. For use with Floppy Emu Model B and C.
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In order to work correctly, Apple II computers require daisy chained drives to be connected in a specific order:
- any 3.5 inch drives must go first in the chain
- Smartport and Unidisk 3.5 inch drives must go second
- any 5.25 inch drives must go last
There can be at most two drives of each type, six drives total.
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There are two primary firmware versions for the Floppy Emu: normal firmware and Smartport daisy chain SPDC firmware. When using a Floppy Emu with the Daisy Chainer, the SPDC firmware is required if your Emu is configured to emulate a Smartport Hard Disk or a Unidisk 3.5. In all other cases, the normal firmware should be used.
[Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu Update: Smartport Daisy-Chain Support | Big Mess o’ Wires
Most people should use the normal firmware version, and it’s the default for newly-purchased hardware. The Smartport daisy chain firmware version is only needed in uncommon situations when:
1. The Floppy Emu’s selected emulation mode is Smartport Hard Disk, Smartport Unit 2, or Unidisk 3.5AND
2. The Floppy Emu is plugged into the back of a BMOW Daisy Chainer or to the Apple Unidisk 3.5 drive, A2M2053.
The
wiki.apple2.orgdied, so here are archived links: [Wayback/Archive] wiki.apple2.org: A2 3.5 Drives -> Apple UniDisk 3.5 (A2M2053)Daisy Chainer clear acrylic case
Oh: there is also this one for it:
- USD 10 [Wayback/Archive] Clear Acrylic Case for Daisy Chainer – Big Mess o’ Wires
A clear acrylic case to protect and showcase your Daisy Chainer board. These custom-made Daisy Chainer cases protect your board in style!
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This is a top-and-bottom “plate” style case with open sides. Assembly takes about 5 minutes.
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Apple Disk Drive A/B Switch
USD 20 [Wayback/Archive] Apple Disk Drive A/B Switch – Big Mess o’ Wires
Select between a Floppy Emu and a real floppy drive at the flip of a switch. Includes switch module and one 3 foot 20-pin ribbon cable.
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For Lisa computer owners, and Macs with only one internal floppy connector, disk drive emulation can be awkward sometimes. The Apple Disk Drive A/B Switch aims to eliminate that awkwardness. This accessory makes it possible to attach a Floppy Emu and a real floppy disk drive at the same time, and select between them with a switch. Both drives will be powered, but the computer will only “see” one drive at a time, depending on the switch position.
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⚠ Do not use Floppy Emu’s Dual 5.25 mode in combination with the A/B Switch. It will cause disk errors and may damage the Floppy Emu or your other 5.25 inch drive.
Macintosh specific stuff from BMOW:
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Mac Sync-inator VGA Sync Converter
USD 40 [Wayback/Archive] Mac Sync-inator VGA Sync Converter – Big Mess o’ Wires
Take the hassles out of vintage Macintosh monitor setup! The Mac Sync-inator is a Mac-to-VGA video converter with a powerful sync processor built-in.
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[Wayback/Archive] Mac Sync-inator VGA Sync Converter | Big Mess o’ Wires has much more information including tables for the DIP-switches that set:
- Setting the Desired Video Resolution
- Choosing the Sync Processing Mode
Too bad this is not compatible with my Macintosh SE/30, but still interesting to know it exists.
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ADB-USB Wombat Input Converter
USD 40 [Wayback/Archive] ADB-USB Wombat Input Converter – Big Mess o’ Wires
ADB-USB Wombat is a bidirectional input converter for USB and ADB keyboards and mice. It works in two directions, connecting modern USB peripherals to a classic ADB-based Macintosh or Apple IIgs computer, or ADB peripherals to a USB-based computer running Windows, OSX, or Linux. The foreign keyboards and mice behave exactly like native peripherals, requiring no special software or drivers – just plug it in and go. This is the Wombat main board. You will also need ADB and/or USB cables depending on your intended usage (sold separately).
[Wayback/Archive] Wombat ADB-USB Input Converter | Big Mess o’ Wires has extensive documentation.
USD 10 [Wayback/Archive] Black Acrylic Case for ADB-USB Wombat – Big Mess o’ Wires protects the top of the board (but not the sides)
USD 6 [Wayback/Archive] ADB Cable, 3 ft – Big Mess o’ Wires (sold out at the time of writing, but might be in stock when you read this)
Despite having spare ADB keyboards, I don’t have spare ADB mice, so this might come in really useful.
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Mac ROM-inator II
USD 45 [Wayback/Archive] Mac ROM-inator II | Big Mess o’ Wires
This was actually a trip down memory lane, as 10 years ago, I bought a Macintosh SE/30, upgraded the memory, and helped the original author – Doug Brown – with their documentation:Want to add new features to your old Mac? The Mac ROM-inator II replaces the stock Macintosh ROM SIMM with a custom flash memory module. Add a bootable ROM disk, make your system 32-bit clean, gain HD20 hard disk support, and more. The Mac ROM-inator II supports the Macintosh SE/30, IIx, IIcx, IIci, IIfx, and IIsi.
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The ROM-inator II is based on Doug Brown’s earlier Mac ROM SIMM design, used with permission.
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Compatibility The ROM SIMM and pre-programmed ROM contents are compatible with the Macintosh SE/30, IIx, IIcx, IIci, IIfx, and IIsi. The SIMM simply snaps into the ROM socket on the computer’s logic board. Note the Macintosh SE differs from the SE/30 internally, and is not compatible with the ROM-inator II. CPU accelerators such as the Daystar PowerCache and Turbo series are not compatible with the ROM-inator II. Some SE/30 hardware may require a shim to ensure ideal fit of the SIMM – see instructions for details. If running Mac OS System 7.5 or later, some Mac models require a software patch to the System file.…
The ROM disk contains:- System 7.1, with System Update 3.0 and Apple CD-ROM Extension 5.3.1
- HD SC Setup 7.3.5 (patched to support formatting non-Apple hard disks)
- SCSI Probe 3.3 (for troubleshooting the SCSI bus)
- ResEdit 2.1.3
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Usage Most of the ROM-inator II’s benefits are automatic: just install the SIMM, and you’ll gain HD20 support, 32-bit cleanliness, and custom sounds and icons. Only the ROM disk requires any user interaction. When first powered on, a Macintosh with the ROM-inator II will play a customized startup sound, and display diagnostic info about the amount of installed RAM, the current addressing mode, and the detected ROM disk type. After a moment, an interactive startup menu will be displayed. To boot from the ROM disk as a read-only disk, press the R key on the keyboard. Or to convert the ROM disk into a writable RAM disk, press the A key. Or to bypass the ROM disk, do nothing and wait five seconds. If no keys are pressed, the Macintosh will boot normally from an attached SCSI or HD20 disk, or wait for a floppy disk to be inserted. Note: If booting from a SCSI disk when the ROM-inator II is installed, any 32-bit enablers or extensions such as MODE32 or 32-Bit System Enabler must be removed from the disk’s System folder.[Wayback/Archive] Mac SE/30 with Upgraded ROM | Big Mess o’ Wires
- [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – dougg3/mac-rom-simm-programmer.software: Control software for Mac ROM SIMM programmer
- [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – dougg3/mac-rom-simm-programmer: Firmware for Mac ROM SIMM programmer
- [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – jpluimers/dougg3..mac-rom-simm-programmer: Firmware for Mac ROM SIMM programmer
- [Wayback/Archive] Wiki updates (images, links); added README.md to master branch; added downloads branch. by jpluimers · Pull Request #25 · dougg3/mac-rom-simm-programmer · GitHub
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Then there is a shop on the Cayman Islands that ships world wide and has both the Mac ROM SIMM and the Mac ROMM SIMM programmer:
- USD 10 [Wayback/Archive] RTC PCB for SE30 – CayMac Vintage’s Ko-fi Shop – Ko-fi ❤️ Where creators get support from fans through donations, memberships, shop sales and more! The original ‘Buy Me a Coffee’ Page.
Replacement RTC chip for the SE30. This RTC is a ATTiny85 on a PCB with its own crystal for better accuracy on the SE30. No battery is needed when using this RTC version as the P/RAM settings are stored in the flash RAM. The external crystal on the logic board is not needed either.
And there is [Wayback/Archive] a2heaven: For everyone who still loves and uses old computers.:
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Liron Reborn
USD 60 [Wayback/Archive] Liron Reborn
Liron Reborn is a Samrt Port / Disk II controller card for Apple II/IIe computers.
It is a functional hardware compatible Liron clone , with original Liron card Firmware.
A difference from Original Liron card is that card can be used as a a standard 5.25 inch (Disk II) controller or Liron ( SmartPort ) card .
I likely won’t need this as the Yellowstone card looks way more promising
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FASTChip //e – 65C02
USD 150 [Wayback/Archive] FASTChip //e – 65C02
The FASTChip //e accelerates the Apple //e™ by replacing the on-board microprocessor with a much faster one. Because the memory on the Apple //e™ can only run at a 1 MHz speed maximum, faster memory (SRAM) must be provided to increase performance and allow the 65C02/65C816 CPU to run at full speed.
To do this, the FASTChip //e contains 512KB/1024KB of fast SRAM memory. The clever design allows the acceleration of programs running in both main and auxiliary memory. The additional FASTChip //e memory can emulate both 192/448 KB fast RamWorks compatible RAM and 256/512 KB fast RamFactor (slinky) compatible RAM.
[Wayback/Archive] REVIEW: FastChip //e Accellerator by A2Heaven – YouTube
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65C816->65C02 Board
USD 35 [Wayback/Archive] 65C816->65C02 Board
You can use 65C816->65C02 board to connect 65C816 CPU to your Apple II computer .
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* This board was based on Daryl Rictor’s original design. More information can be found here: sbc.rictor.org/support/conv.html
[Wayback/Archive] 65816 to 6502 converter by Daryl Rictor.
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DB19 to IDC20
USD 11 [Wayback/Archive] DB19 to IDC20 Floppy Disk adapter
DB19 to IDC20 Floppy Disk adapter
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directly connect IDC20 Pin Cable connector to the 19-pin port of Apple IIc, or to a floppy controller with a 19-pin connector
Probably cheaper to use the package deals from BMOW
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IDC20 to DB19 cable adapter
USD 13 [Wayback/Archive] IDC20 to DB19 cable adapter
The product is designed to be directly connect IDC20 pin connector to the DB19 pin port .
Likely the combo from BMOW is cheaper.
TrackStar II
- USD 75 [Wayback/Archive] TRAK STAR II
Readout of Disk Drive head position .
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Constant Digital Readout of Disk Drive head position .
Work with any 5″ Apple II compatible Drive .
Display Full , Half and Quarter track head position .Nice idea, but has not been in stock for a long time and feels overpriced.
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Quadlink Clone Kit
USD 160 [Wayback/Archive] Quadlink Clone Kit
It’s an ISA expansion card from the ’80s designed to turn your IBM PC (such as a 5150 or 5160) into an Apple ][! After booting and running the software, you can switch quickly between PC and Apple mode using Ctrl-Alt-A (for Apple) and Ctrl-Alt-P (for PC).
Kit contain all PCB , passive components and chips needed to build working Quadlink Clone .
[Wayback/Archive] GitHub – schlae/quapple: Quadlink clone turns your ancient IBM PC into an Apple ][
Only useful if I find back an ISA compatible PC.
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3D Stickers set
USD 10 [Wayback/Archive] 3D Stickers set
Apple II logo and Disk II label sticker set .
Actually this is quite a nice idea, despite them having been out of stock like forever.
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RamFactor1M
USD 85 [Wayback/Archive] RamFactor1M
RamFactor1M is based on Aplied Engineering RAMFactor card ( firmware is same as original ), however it uses more modern low power 1MB SRAM and can provided battery backup up to 1-2 Year with small CR2032 Battery.
The battery is for backup data (just like PowerFactor from Aplied Engineering ) and can be used as Solid State Disk.
This is a trip down memory lane, though back then school could not afford these.
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Apple II Slot Extender
USD 40 [Wayback/Archive] Apple II Slot Extender
The Apple II slot extender allows you to easily and freely test the functionality and repair your Apple II cards outside of the computer.
You can also turn off voltages that aren’t necessary for the card to work to prevent testing errors.
Package include
- 1 x Apple II extender PCB bottom
- 1 x Apple II extender PCB Top
- 1 x 50 pin Flat ribbon cable with 0.5m length ( contact me if you want a longer cable )
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One more shop (: I think I found it searching for [Wayback/Archive] BlueSCSI, but anyway at [Wayback/Archive] Shop – Joe’s Computer Museum, focussing on [Wayback/Archive] Apple //e Archives – Joe’s Computer Museum I found these interesting items:
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A2Pico
USD 55 [Wayback/Archive] A2Pico – Multi-Function Card – Joe’s Computer Museum
A2Pico is, essentially, a universal peripheral card for your Apple ][ Computer. Want a Z80 CPM Card? Maybe you need inexpensive mass storage. Need to add SmartPort support to your machine? Or, maybe you’re a hacker and want to design your own function. A2Pico lets you do just that!
Using it easy: Flash it with the firmware you want to use (or write your own firmware!), put it in the appropriate Apple // slot and have fun!
NOTE: your card will come without firmware, so that you can choose to make the card whatever you like!
[Wayback/Archive] GitHub – oliverschmidt/a2pico: A2Pico
A2Pico is about Apple II peripheral cards based on the Raspberry Pi Pico. It consists of two parts:
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A2DVI card
USD 50 [Wayback/Archive] A2DVI v2.0 – Apple II Digital Video Adapter – Joe’s Computer Museum
Unlike the below “universal” adapter, the A2DVI might be just the thing for me.The A2DVI produces a digital video stream from your Apple II’s memory. The signal is output via an HDMI-compatible connector, giving your Apple II the option of output to modern displays. No more analog signal conversion required.
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JCM Universal Apple RGB Adapter
USD 20-35 (kit or assembled) [Wayback/Archive] JCM Universal Apple RGB Adapter – Joe’s Computer Museum
The Universal Apple RGB Adapter takes the 4-Bit TTL RGB signal from an Apple ///, the Apple /// Plus or the Apple IIe Video7-style RGB card and converts it to two formats: IBM-style CGA-Compatible TTL, and Apple IIgs Standard. On the Apple /// machines, it also connects the color NTSC signal from the rear connector to a standard RCA-Jack so you can use it.
Since I don’t have either an Apple ///, nore a Apple IIe Video7-style RGB card, this might not be fore me.
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Why Cable? – Original DB19
USD 15-30 [Wayback/Archive] Why Cable? – Apple IIe Card Y-Cable Replacement (Original DB19) – Joe’s Computer Museum
Everybody wants the Apple IIe Card. Nobody has the “Y-Cable” that goes with it; they tend to get lost. So, I designed a replacement solution!
The Why Cable? Apple IIe Card Y-Cable Replacement solves your Floppy and Joystick problem with your Apple IIe Card. Just plug it into your card, then add your floppy drive and joystick and your Apple IIe card will work as intended!
This version emulates the original DB19 cable, and is fully compatible with all drives the Apple IIe Card lists as compatible.
Need to check out if I still have this cable/connector or need the below one (:
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Why Cable? – 20-Pin Cable Version
USD 10-25 [Wayback/Archive] Why Cable? – Apple IIe Card Y-Cable Replacement (20-Pin Cable Version) – Joe’s Computer Museum
Everybody wants the Apple IIe Card. Nobody has the “Y-Cable” that goes with it; they tend to get lost. So, I designed a replacement solution!
The Why Cable? Apple IIe Card Y-Cable Replacement solves your Floppy and Joystick problem with your Apple IIe Card. Just plug it into your card, then add your floppy drive and joystick and your Apple IIe card will work as intended!
This version works with 20-pin ribbon cable connectors and supports any drive that properly emulates a standard 5.25 inch Disk ][ drive, including the FloppyEMU and wDrive.
And I need to check if it is missing, if I need the 19 or 20 pin version. Likely I need the 20-pin one.
- Some 3D printed replacement for your Apple //e opening covers on the back of your machine, and for your Alps Key Stems:
DB-19/DB-25/DB-9 back plates (3D printed, STL files if you want to print your own)
DB-19: outside view
DB-19: inside view
DB-25: outside view
DB-25: inside view
DB-25 for Audio Jacks: outside
DB-25 for Audio Jacks: inside
DB-9: outside view
DB-9: inside view
DB-25 with DB-9 opening: assembled
DB-25 with DB-9 opening: outside
DB-25 with DB-9 opening: inside
USD 1
[Wayback/Archive]
Apple //e DB-19 Back PlateUSD 1
[Wayback/Archive]
Apple //e DB-25 Back PlateUSD 1
[Wayback/Archive]
Apple //e DB-25 Back Plate for Audio JacksUSD 1
[Wayback/Archive]
Apple //e DB-9 Back PlateUSD 1
[Wayback/Archive]
Apple //e DB25 Back Plate with DB9 Opening[Wayback]
A2e-DB25-with-DB9-insert.stl[Wayback]
A2e-DB25-with-DB9-insert.stl[Wayback]
A2e-DB25-with-DB9-insert.stl[Wayback]
A2e-DB25-with-DB9-insert.stl[Wayback]
A2e-DB25-with-DB9-insert.stlAdding the hole in the design required thickening of the base and increasing the depth of the holding clips so they would not pull out when tension is applied to an attached external cable.Note that all link(ed?) to the same .stl file, which is only correct for the right most back plate: “DB-25 with DB-9 opening”.
All of these are based on [Wayback/Archive] Apple IIe port covers, thicker for FFF printers by scruss – Thingiverse which in turn is based on [Wayback/Archive] Apple IIe port covers, three sizes by option8 – Thingiverse.
Alps Key Stems (one of them has the wrong picture, but they are manufactured correctly; 3D printed; no STL-files on the product pages)
Alps Key Stems, Short – 10 Pack
Alps Key Stems, Long – 10 Pack
USD 5
[Wayback/Archive]
Alps Key Stems, Short – 10 Pack – Joe’s Computer MuseumUSD 5
[Wayback/Archive]
Alps Key Stems, Long – 10 Pack – Joe’s Computer MuseumThis might have been the base STL file for this: [Wayback] Hairpin-To-Alps-keycap-adaptor.stl
- Some 3D printed replacement for your Apple //e opening covers on the back of your machine, and for your Alps Key Stems:
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For all shops: I didn’t list all of their items, just the ones that I might use in the future.
An interesting device I did not know about either was the FujiNet one: it is fully open source! One thing to check out is where to order pre-assembled ones for Apple II series.
- [Wayback/Archive] FujiNet · GitHub
FujiNet is a multi-peripheral emulator and WiFi network device for vintage computers. The first completed hardware was for the Atari 8-Bit line of computers and development has begun for other systems (Coleco ADAM, Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari Lynx, ZX Spectrum and more) with the goal of supporting as many old systems as possible. What sets FujiNet apart from other WiFi devices is the new Network Device (the N Device). The N device allows vintage computers that do not have enough processing power to handle TCP/IP connections themselves to talk to the modern internet over WiFi. Virtual adapters have been created for many protocols including: TCP, UDP, HTTP, FTP, TNFS, HTTPS (SSL/TLS), SSH, TELNET, WebDAV and JSON parser. The FujiNet project is 100% completely open source, software and hardware. All code and schematics are available here.
- [Wayback/Archive] FutureVision Research was the only shop I found selling them, but I probably overlooked others.
- [Wayback/Archive] FujiNet – FutureVision Research
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Apple II/III FujiNet w/ accesoiries
USD 110 [Wayback/Archive] FujiNet for Apple II & III (With Accessories) – FutureVision Research
The FujiApple Rev1.1 for SmartPort enabled Apple II computers emulates SmartPort drives, Disk II drives (read only), CP/M, Clock, Modem, and a new Network Device. Disk images can be mounted directly from the internet via TNFS servers or from the onboard MicroSD socket*. The Network device enables access to Internet protocols such as HTTP, HTTPS, TNFS, SSH, TCP, UDP and more.
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This kit comes with the following (ribbon cable color may be gray or rainbow depending on availability):- FujiNet for Apple II & III
- DB-19 to IDC20 Female adapter
- 30cm IDC20 Female to Male cable
- 30cm IDC20 Female to Female cable
- DB-19 spacer
- Two different lengths of thumbscrews
- Two 1.375″ thumbscrews for use with IIe/III
- Two 1.5″ thumbscrews for use with IIc/gs/+
The page contains many more helpful information and links.
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Some non-shop links
- [Wayback/Archive] FloppyEmu vs. CFFA3000/Booti | Applefritter
- [Wayback/Archive] Plus Too Mac Replica | Big Mess o’ Wires
- [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu Disk Emulator? : apple2
Yes. I’d rank it as the most versatile as it works across the greatest number of machines (Apple 2s and Macs).
It is cheaper and more readily available than the other solutions.
The only slight downside is it isn’t as fast, direct memory access/processor wise, as the card solutions that exist – but those do use up a slot, and there isn’t much software that can take advantage of the speed difference anyway – and on a machine that only goes a couple Mhz anyway, it won’t make much difference.It’s 7 years old at this point, but Joe’s Computer Museum did an excellent video comparing the major options here:
https://youtu.be/Wjy6_qnTnv0a covering
- MicroDrive/Turbo
- CFFA3000
- Floppy Emu
- SDFloppy II
- UNISDISK Air 19 – [Wayback/Archive] UNISDISK Air Series, very hard to get
[Wayback/Archive] Apple II Mass Storage Benchmark Results – Joe’s Computer Museum
[Wayback/Archive] Apple II Mass Storage Mega Roundup – YouTube
- [Wayback/Archive] Nerdly Pleasures: wDrive v. Floppy Emu – Comparison of the Best Apple II Disk Emulators
- [Wayback/Archive] Thoughts on wDrive versus Floppy Emu? | Applefritter
- [Wayback/Archive] Fujinet for Apple II, SD card and Internet capable device for SmartPort | Applefritter (works with Yellowstone card)
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An external monitor on a Macingosh SE/30
- [Wayback/Archive] Mac SE can use an external Monitor?? – Apple Community
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Mac SE/30 and Macintosh Classic
Since I own both a Macintosh SE/30 and a Macintosh Classic, these are relevant too:
- [Wayback/Archive] Classic II vs SE/30 – TidBITS
- [Wayback/Archive] Siblings – Macintosh SE and Mac Classic : VintageApple
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Queries
I used additional queries than the first blog post to complete this blog post. Here they are:
- [Wayback/Archive] macintosh Floppy Emu 3.5 – Google Suche
- [Wayback/Archive] apple 2 disk sd card – Google Suche
- [Wayback/Archive] Liron disk controller card – Google Search
- [Wayback/Archive] cffa vs floppy emu – Google Search
- [Wayback/Archive] floppy emu apple ii disk controller – Google Suche
- [Wayback/Archive] wDrive vs floppy emu – Google Search
- [Wayback/Archive] fujinet apple ii – Google Search
- [Wayback/Archive] Apple Liron – Search on Google
- [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone fujinet – Sök på Google
- [Wayback/Archive] does floppy emu work with classic macintosh – Google Search
- [Wayback/Archive] mac se/30 versus macintosh classic – Google Suche
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- [Wayback/Archive] bluescsi v2 – Sök på Google
--jeroenRate this:
#12 #156 #25 #3dprint #3dprinting #4 #Apple #appleiigs #AprilApples
- USD 25 [Wayback/Archive] Apple IIc USB C power adapter with Volt Gauge – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery
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More Apple ][*, //* II* and classic Macintosh hardware upgrades
The mini micro classic Apple emulators related post last week became way too big, so here is the classic Apple 2/Macintosh hardware upgrade part follow-up I announced in Some notes on mini/micro Apple //e emulators.
Last week, I mentioned [Wayback/Archive] ARC Javmaster – YouTube. Let’s continue from there for an even bigger post (:
Javmaster actually has a shop at [Wayback/Archive] Welcome to the 8-bit stuff store – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery with a lot of interesting (mainly Apple ][ era related) retro things like:
- USD 25 [Wayback/Archive] Apple IIc USB C power adapter with Volt Gauge – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery
Apple IIc USB C power adapter with Volt Gauge with USB-C connected and showing 15.2 volts
[Wayback/Archive] Transform your Apple IIc experience with this sleek USB-C power supply replacement! – YouTube
- USD 120-430 [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu 3.5 Drive Case – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery
Floppy Emu 3.5 Drive Case powered up with green screen fitting well together with an Apple //c plus
[Wayback/Archive] Step into the future of vintage computing with the Floppy Emu 3.5! – YouTube
[Wayback/Archive] New 3.5 drive case for Apple II & Macintosh Floppy Emu: soon at 8bitstuff.com! #3dprinting #Apple – YouTube
[Wayback/Archive] Starting GSOS 6.04 from the new Floppy Emu 3.5, a match made in heaven! #apple #3dprint #appleiigs – YouTube
- USD 120-430 [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emulator Disk ][ Case – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery
Floppy Emulator Disk ][ Case with green screen fitted in an original Apple ][ era 5.25 inch diskette drive case
[Wayback/Archive] New Release: Floppy Emu ][ Case Assembly Guide! – YouTube[Wayback/Archive] #AprilApples Guest episode: Watch Jon Assemble a Floppy Emu Case from Scratch! – YouTube
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3D Printed Apple II Joystick – clear Special edition: internals
3D Printed Apple II Joystick – clear Special edition
3D Printed Apple II Joystick
USD 80-155 Apple II Joystick Recreation: cheapest is 3D printed in classic color, the other clear
The 3D recreation of the iconic Apple II Joystick, keeping all the classic features with brand new mechanical parts. The moving parts brand new, adapted to work seamlessly with Apple II’s that use the DB9 port.
The switches are brand-new Matias key switches, a new version of the ALPS keys that were so successful in most original keyboards.
By using these materials, the quality and durability are better. The 3D printed case and switches resemble the original and is crafted to be enjoyed and used with your retro systems.- [Wayback/Archive] 3D Printed Apple II Joystick – A Fusion of Nostalgia and Innovation – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery
- [Wayback/Archive] 3D Printed Apple II Joystick – clear Special edition – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery
[Wayback/Archive] Apple II Joystick Recreation – Rediscover the Ultimate Retro Gaming Experience! – YouTube
- [Wayback/Archive] 3D Printed Apple II Joystick – A Fusion of Nostalgia and Innovation – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery
8bitstuff also pointed me to this shop with cool parts helping you fix Apple ][* and Apple //e and II* model issues: [Wayback/Archive] Shop | ReActiveMicro.com which is part of [Wayback/Archive] ReActiveMicro.com which has this great card in their catalog:
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A2FPGA Multicard
USD 150 [Wayback/Archive] A2FPGA Multicard | ReActiveMicro.com
[Wayback/Archive] #156: Can One Apple II Card Replace Them All? – YouTube
The firmware is open source at [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – a2fpga/a2fpga_core: Apple II FPGA Co-Processor and still being maintained.
[Wayback/Archive] A2FPGA – The ReActiveMicro Apple II Wiki
The A2FPGA is primarily an HD video and Mockingboard-compatible sound card for the Apple II, II+, //e, and IIgs.
and other hardware like:
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Disk ][+ v1.0 kit
USD 30-40 [Wayback/Archive] Disk ][+ – Assembled or Kit | ReActiveMicro.com
Disk ][+ v1.0 is a small PCB that installs into Apple Disk ][ drives. It replaces the red LED in the drives with a two-color LED, to better distinguish the reading phases, in green, from the writing phases, in red. Comes assembled or in kit form.
Notes:
- You need one set for each drive.
- I don’t really like the way they connect to the drive electronics, see picture below from [Wayback/Archive] Disk II+ – The ReActiveMicro Apple II Wiki . Instead of the pin, I would likely solder the wires to the electronics.
4 hook probes connected to the Disk II analog board.
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Apple IIe Enhancement Kit
USD 30-35 [Wayback/Archive] IIe Enhancement Kit | ReActiveMicro.com
Comes with an ‘Enhanced’ paper template, 65C02 CPU, and all the ROM’s necessary to upgrade your Apple IIe.
[Wayback/Archive] Apple IIe Enhancement Kit – The ReActiveMicro Apple II Wiki
Note it has various options (USA vs European Apple //e, plus languages: check before you order!)
I need to check if my Apple //e already has this enhancement kit.
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No-Slot Clock v1.0
USD 65 [Wayback/Archive] No-Slot Clock | ReActiveMicro.com
The No-Slot Clock v1.0 allows your Apple II to remember the date and time. It will work on an Apple II, Apple II+, Apple IIe, Apple IIc, and Clone systems. It features dual battery holders. Two CR1025 cells included.
The No Slot Clock does not fit in to the IIc or IIc+ with a RAM Card installed.
[Wayback/Archive] No-Slot Clock – The ReActiveMicro Apple II Wiki
Likely won’t needs this as ROMXe and ROMXc both include a clock.
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Ultimate-Micro.com Apple II 3.5″ Disk Controller Card v1.0
USD 200 [Wayback/Archive] Apple II 3.5 Disk Controller Card | ReActiveMicro.com
This is the Apple II 3.5″ Disk Controller Card v1.0 from Ultimate-Micro.com.
The Apple II 3.5″ Disk Controller Card v1.0 is a clone of Apple’s Apple II 3.5″ Disk Controller Card. The disk controller card allows you to use 3.5-inch floppy disk drives, including the Apple SuperDrive and Apple 3.5 Drive, with all Apple II computers. This card also supports the operation of older model Apple II UniDisk 3.5 drives.
Not sure if I really want this one, especially with the USD 200 price tag: The
Ultimate-Micro.comdomain vanished and the Yellowstone Universal Disk Controller mentioned below at USD 170 (including cables) can do more. -
Apple II A2io Bluetooth Game Port Receiver
USD 20 [Wayback/Archive] A2io Bluetooth Game Port Receiver For Your Apple II Systems | ReActiveMicro.com
This is the A2io Bluetooth Game Port Receiver from CraftyMech and designed by Aaron Reid. Works on all Apple II systems with a 9 pin game port.
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A2io allow you to connect and use a modern wireless game pad as either a joystick, paddle, or pad input device. You pair the game pad with your mobile device (phone/tablet/laptop) and then connect to the A2io. The mobile device acts like a translator between your Apple and game pad.
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CFFA 300 REV C
USD 225 [Wayback/Archive] CFFA3000 v1.0 Rev C-RM for II, II+, ///, IIe, and IIgs | ReActiveMicro.com
This is the CFFA3000 v1.0 Rev C-RM built by ReActiveMicro under license from R&D Automation.
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The CFFA3000 v1.0 Rev C-RM Controller is a Mass Storage Device and Floppy Emulator that once installed in your Apple II system acts like a solid-state Hard Drive using Compact Flash Cards and USB Flash Drives. Floppy Emulation allows users to load .PO images as if they were physical disk. See the manual for more details. There is also discussion about adding .WOZ support, and we will post updates if/when it happens.
Comes with CF Card as pictured, and with Remote option standard. Manual can be found here for review.
Plug and play ready, and fully tested. Comes started with **256MB** CF Card, preloaded with several ProDOS 8 volumes with games and utilities, and several GS/OS volumes. You can select which one to boot using the on-board firmware menu (press “M” key on power up).
[Wayback/Archive] wiki.reactivemicro.com/images/9/9d/2021-10-23-CFFA-RM_Manual.pdf
I already have this, including the original remote back in 2014 from dreher: [Wayback/Archive] CFFA3000 Run 3: Order Status
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CFFA3000 Remote
USD 40 [Wayback/Archive] CFFA3000 – Remote Option With Cable | ReActiveMicro.com
This is the CFFA3000 Remote option built by ReActiveMicro under license from R&D Automation. ***REMOTE ONLY!***
ReActiveMicro is an authorized dealer and partner with R&D…
The CFFA3000 Remote option comes with the connector cable, which attaches to the CFFA3000 card installed in your Apple II system. It comes as pictured, with the Remote, the connection cable, and a 3D printed enclosure.
Finally it pointed me to [Wayback/Archive] Home | JD Micro which has RAMX (for Apple ][* systems) and ROMX (variants for any Apple 2 model) for which these are most applicable to my systems (both ROMX versions also contain the fonts mentioned in their blog post [Wayback/Archive] 11th May 2021 | JD Micro):
[Wayback/Archive] Review: ROMX+ Device for Apple II+ – YouTube
- [Wayback/Archive] ROMXe | JD Micro for Apple //e – includes clock
[Wayback/Archive] Review: ROMXe by JD Micro – More ROMS than you can shake a joystick at! – YouTube
- [Wayback/Archive] ROMXc | JD Micro for Apple IIc – includes clock
[Wayback/Archive] Boot Instantly – ROMXc Review for the Apple //c – YouTube
Other results from the queries I used in the post last week also returned some hardware that can be used for classic Apple machines:
- [Wayback/Archive] The ESP32 SoftCard for the Apple II | Applefritter
I’ve been working on a new card for the Apple II that would extend its capabilities using my favorite Wi-Fi module: the ESP32. I decided to called it a soft card, because similarly to the original Z80 SoftCard it contains its own processor allowing it to run software not originally meant for the Apple II. And similarly to the original 80-column card that was needed, it produces its own composite video enabled through a soft switch. Both NTSC and PAL are supported and can be switched using a command. In addition it can produce 8-bit sound that is mixed and played through the Apple II speaker. For most of its applications the card also needs a FAT32 formatted microSD card.
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[Wayback/Archive] ESP32 SoftCard Expansion Card for the Apple II from CVT on Tindie
ESP32 SoftCard Expansion Card for the Apple II
- [Wayback/Archive] Apple2idiot card (ESP32) | Applefritter
It is an interesting and different take on interfacing an ESP32 module to an Apple II. It uses a dual ported SRAM instead of trying to interface the ESP32 to the Apple II bus using something like 74LVC245s or through a parallel chip like a 6522 or 82C55 or through a serial chip like a 6551 or 6850.
https://github.com/equant/apple2idiot
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[Wayback/Archive] GitHub – equant/apple2idiot: A general purpose ESP32 IOT board for the Apple IIe
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assembly lines
[Wayback/Archive] Shop – CT6502 and [Wayback/Archive] Shop – Page 2 of 2 – CT6502a
- [Wayback/Archive] Assembly Lines: The Mug – CT6502
Assembly Lines: The Mug; Print-on-demand from Printful.
Mug; handle left
Mug; handle behind
Mug; handle right
This is a really cool idea including the Choplifter and Lode Runner main sprites on the mug. The right picture shows you can also get it in 15oz size.
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Apple II wDrive Disk Drive Emulator
[Wayback/Archive] Apple II wDrive Disk Drive Emulator – CT6502
The wDrive is a disk drive emulator for the Apple II (II+, IIe, IIc, IIGS) that boots disk images (WOZ, DSK, 2MG, HDV, etc) from an SD card.
Manufacturer: [Wayback/Archive] Mfa2 Workshop
We are developer of wDrive, softSP card and related accessories which are published through Kboo HK
Note it there are two options to choose from:
- USD ~80: wDrive only (Apple IIc and IIGS)
- USD ~100: wDrive plus SoftSP card (Apple II, II+, IIe)
The second option includes this one:
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MFA2 SoftSP Card
[Wayback/Archive] Apple II MFA2 SoftSP Card wDrive or FujiNet – CT6502
The SoftSP card allows you to boot hard disk images or use FujiNet devices on an Apple II+ or IIe, which do not have SmartPort support.
The SoftSP card is not needed on the Apple IIc or Apple IIGS.
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The SoftSP card should be placed into a slot lower than the wDrive disk controller card. Slot 1 or 2 usually works well.
Note: The SoftSP card will also work with the FloppyEMU. However, you MUST use a special drive cable that isolates pin 12, to avoid damaging your FloppyEMU. You do not need to use this cable with the wDrive, although it won’t cause any issues if you do. You can find details about the issue here.
That last bit is really really important as SoftSP only can be installed in a system that also connects to a FloppyEMU under these circumstances:
- Connect the FloppyEMU to a Yellowstone is a universal disk controller card for Apple II computers (see below), especially since the Yellowstone also supports both wDrive and FujiNet.
- Connect the FloppyEMU to an original Disk Controller, but cut wire #12 as explained in [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu SoftSP Warning | Big Mess o’ Wires
You can’t safely connect a Smartport device to a Disk II controller card, no matter how the card’s internal logic might be modified. That includes Floppy Emu when it’s configured in Smartport emulation mode. The reason is that Smartport devices connect pin 12 internally to ground. This is how other connected equipment and daisy-chained drives know that they’re Smartport drives, and it’s essential for correct daisy-chain operation of Smartport drives with the BMOW Daisy Chainer or the Apple Unidisk 3.5 drive.
Both options essentially makes the SoftSP unneeded for FloppyEMU, and with this signalling problem for wire #12 (which is the SmartPort compatibility indicator) I am not sure which other SmartPort devices besides wDrive will actually work with the Apple ][, Apple ][+ and Apple //e without damaging the SmartPort device.
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- [Wayback/Archive] Assembly Lines: The Mug – CT6502
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Another shop via [Wayback/Archive] Big Mess o’ Wires -> [Wayback/Archive] Big Mess o’ Wires Store
Bring new life to your classic computer
From disk emulators to ROM upgrades, keyboard and mouse adapters, and more hardware creations, BMOW has your retrocomputer needs covered.
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Yellowstone Universal Disk Controller Card and two DB-19 female adapters
[Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone Disk Controller Everything Bundle – Big Mess o’ Wires
Yellowstone is a universal disk controller card for Apple II computers. It supports nearly every type of Apple disk drive ever made, including standard 3.5 inch drives, 5.25 inch drives, smart drives like the Unidisk 3.5 and the BMOW Floppy Emu’s smartport hard disk, and even Macintosh 3.5 inch drives. Yellowstone combines the power of an Apple 3.5 Disk Controller Card, a standard 5.25 inch Disk II controller card, the Apple Liron controller, and more, all in a single card.
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The “everything” bundle includes the latest version Yellowstone Universal Disk Controller Card and two DB-19 female adapters
- [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone: Cloning the Apple II Liron | Big Mess o’ Wires
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The “Liron” disk controller was introduced by Apple in 1985. More formally known as the Apple II UniDisk 3.5 Controller, it’s designed to work with a new generation of “smart” disk drives more sophisticated than the venerable Disk II 5.25 inch floppy drive. The smart disk port on the Liron is appropriately named the Smartport, and it can communicate with block-based storage devices such as the Unidisk 3.5 (an early 800K drive) and Smartport-based Apple II hard drives.
Why care about the Liron? The Apple IIc and Apple IIgs have integrated disk ports with built-in Smartport functionality, but for the earlier Apple II+ and IIe, the Liron is the only way to get a Smartport. For owners of the BMOW Floppy Emu disk emulator, the Liron card makes it possible to use the Floppy Emu as an external hard drive for the II+ and IIe. Unfortunately finding a Liron is difficult, and although they occasionally turn up on eBay, they’re quite expensive. That made cloning the Liron a logical first goal.…
- [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone Universal Disk Controller – Big Mess o’ Wires
Article: [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone Universal Disk Controller for Apple II | Big Mess o’ Wires – Run any disk drive with your Apple II computer!
Supported Drives
Need to attach a disk drive to your Apple II? Yellowstone has got you covered. Yellowstone is compatible with the Apple IIe, Apple IIgs, Apple II+, Apple II, and most Apple II clones. It works with these disk drives and drive emulators:
Can be connected directlyDisk II A2M0003Naked Apple 3.5” 800K, black labelNaked half-height Apple 5.25″Naked Apple 3.5” 800K, red labelFloppy Emu 5.25 modeNaked Apple 3.5” 1.44MB, auto-injectFloppy Emu Model C dual 5.25 modeNaked Apple 3.5” 1.44MB, manual-injectFloppy Emu 3.5 modewDriveFloppy Emu Unidisk 3.5 mode [1]Floppy Emu Smartport hard disk mode [1]And more…Requires optional DB-19F connectorUnidisk 5.25 A9M0104Macintosh 800K External M0131Disk IIc A2M4050Apple SuperDrive (Apple FDHD Drive) G7287Duo Disk 5.25 A9M0108Unidisk 3.5 A2M2053 [1]AppleDisk 5.25 A9M01075Applied Engineering 3.5 [2]Laser FD100 5.25Apple 3.5 Drive A9M0106And more…[1] smart drive
[2] partial compatibilityWhen using 3.5 inch drives, Yellowstone is compatible with Apple II standard 800K double-sided double-density disk media.
A naked drive is a bare drive mechanism without any enclosure, such as an internal drive taken from a Macintosh, Apple IIc, or Apple IIc+.
Yes, pull the internal 3.5 inch drive from an old Mac and use it directly with your Apple II!
This brought back Applied Engineering memories (:
- [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone DB-19 Female Disk Adapter – Big Mess o’ Wires
The adapter includes a six inch ribbon cable and a detachable mini-board that converts the ribbon cable connector into a DB-19 female shape.
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This adapter has custom wiring that’s specifically designed for use with Yellowstone, and should not be used with other disk hardware.
Can be connected directly to Yellowstone boardApple Disk II A2M0003BMOW Floppy EmuNaked Apple 5.25” DriveswDriveNaked Apple 3.5” DrivesRequires Yellowstone DB-19F adapterUnidisk 5.25 A9M0104Macintosh 800K External M0131Disk IIc A2M4050Apple SuperDrive (Apple FDHD Drive) G7287Duo Disk 5.25 A9M0108Unidisk 3.5 A2M2053AppleDisk 5.25 A9M01075Applied Engineering 3.5Apple 3.5 Drive A9M0106Laser FD100 5.25 A naked drive is a bare drive mechanism without any enclosure, such as an internal drive taken from a Macintosh, Apple IIc, or Apple IIc+.(note that’s a ~15 cm ribbon cable)
- [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone Back From the Dead | Big Mess o’ Wires
- [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone: Cloning the Apple II Liron | Big Mess o’ Wires
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Floppy Emu Model C Deluxe Bundle
USD 130 [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu Model C Deluxe Bundle – Big Mess o’ Wires
The BMOW Floppy Emu is a disk emulator for classic Apple II, Macintosh, and Lisa computers.
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The bundle includes:
- Floppy Emu Model C
- Frosted Ice Acrylic Case
- Vintage Apple Software Collection SD Card
- Full-Size SD Adapter
- Disk Extension Cable
- USD 110 [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu Model C – Big Mess o’ Wires
Articles and videos:
- [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu Technology Design | Big Mess o’ Wires
- [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu Disk Emulator for Apple II, Macintosh, and Lisa | Big Mess o’ Wires
There are way more, but these are a good start.
- USD 10 [Wayback/Archive] Frosted Ice Case for Floppy Emu Model C – Big Mess o’ Wires
- USD 15 [Wayback/Archive] Vintage Software Collection SD Card – Big Mess o’ Wires which includes the Full-Size SD Adapter
- USD 20 [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone DB-19 Female Disk Adapter – Big Mess o’ Wires but with a 100cm cable instead of a ~15cm cable
[Wayback/Archive] BMOW Floppy EMU for Vintage Apple Computers! | Mastergeko4 – YouTube shot at the time the YouTuber was quite a novice, which brought back memories of me being young and figuring out things by fiddling with them and bumping my head against walls (:
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Noisy Disk Mechanical Sounder with 2 ribbon cables attached
USD 20 [Wayback/Archive] Noisy Disk Mechanical Sounder – Big Mess o’ Wires
Noisy Disk uses a mechanical relay to create authentic-sounding mechanical stepping sounds for disk head movements for your Floppy Emu disk emulator’s virtual 5.25 inch floppy disk.
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Nothing will be harmed if Noisy Disk is used with other computers or emulation modes, but you’ll hear strange clacking noises that don’t match the disk activity.
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The product includes the Noisy Disk board with 2 x 10 pin rectangular input and output connectors, and a 6-inch extension cable for connecting to your Floppy Emu board.
This likely sounds exactly like the more expensive Disk Clicker which was reviewed at [Wayback/Archive] Testing the New Classic Floppy Clicker on Apple Floppy Emulator – Authentic Retro Sounds! – YouTube and sold at [Wayback/Archive] Disk Clicker – 8bitdevices.com
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Internal/External Drive Switcher for Apple IIc
USD 25 [Wayback/Archive] Internal/External Drive Switcher for Apple IIc – Big Mess o’ Wires
At the flip of a switch, select which Apple IIc floppy drives should act as Drive 1 and Drive 2. Add support for dual external 5.25 inch floppy emulation. For the Apple IIc with the Floppy Emu disk emulator.
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[Wayback/Archive] Internal/External Drive Switcher for Apple IIc | Big Mess o’ Wires
This is a two-part device: a signal tap that should be installed inside the Apple IIc, and a modified DB19 adapter with two slide switches for the external connection. Two female-female jumper wires are passed through a gap in the case to make the connection between the two parts.
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Daisy Chainer Disk Coupler
USD 45 [Wayback/Archive] Daisy Chainer Disk Coupler – Big Mess o’ Wires
Link the Floppy Emu disk emulator into a daisy chain with other Apple II disk drives. For use with Floppy Emu Model B and C.
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In order to work correctly, Apple II computers require daisy chained drives to be connected in a specific order:
- any 3.5 inch drives must go first in the chain
- Smartport and Unidisk 3.5 inch drives must go second
- any 5.25 inch drives must go last
There can be at most two drives of each type, six drives total.
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There are two primary firmware versions for the Floppy Emu: normal firmware and Smartport daisy chain SPDC firmware. When using a Floppy Emu with the Daisy Chainer, the SPDC firmware is required if your Emu is configured to emulate a Smartport Hard Disk or a Unidisk 3.5. In all other cases, the normal firmware should be used.
[Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu Update: Smartport Daisy-Chain Support | Big Mess o’ Wires
Most people should use the normal firmware version, and it’s the default for newly-purchased hardware. The Smartport daisy chain firmware version is only needed in uncommon situations when:
1. The Floppy Emu’s selected emulation mode is Smartport Hard Disk, Smartport Unit 2, or Unidisk 3.5AND
2. The Floppy Emu is plugged into the back of a BMOW Daisy Chainer or to the Apple Unidisk 3.5 drive, A2M2053.
The
wiki.apple2.orgdied, so here are archived links: [Wayback/Archive] wiki.apple2.org: A2 3.5 Drives -> Apple UniDisk 3.5 (A2M2053)Daisy Chainer clear acrylic case
Oh: there is also this one for it:
- USD 10 [Wayback/Archive] Clear Acrylic Case for Daisy Chainer – Big Mess o’ Wires
A clear acrylic case to protect and showcase your Daisy Chainer board. These custom-made Daisy Chainer cases protect your board in style!
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This is a top-and-bottom “plate” style case with open sides. Assembly takes about 5 minutes.
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Apple Disk Drive A/B Switch
USD 20 [Wayback/Archive] Apple Disk Drive A/B Switch – Big Mess o’ Wires
Select between a Floppy Emu and a real floppy drive at the flip of a switch. Includes switch module and one 3 foot 20-pin ribbon cable.
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For Lisa computer owners, and Macs with only one internal floppy connector, disk drive emulation can be awkward sometimes. The Apple Disk Drive A/B Switch aims to eliminate that awkwardness. This accessory makes it possible to attach a Floppy Emu and a real floppy disk drive at the same time, and select between them with a switch. Both drives will be powered, but the computer will only “see” one drive at a time, depending on the switch position.
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⚠ Do not use Floppy Emu’s Dual 5.25 mode in combination with the A/B Switch. It will cause disk errors and may damage the Floppy Emu or your other 5.25 inch drive.
Macintosh specific stuff from BMOW:
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Mac Sync-inator VGA Sync Converter
USD 40 [Wayback/Archive] Mac Sync-inator VGA Sync Converter – Big Mess o’ Wires
Take the hassles out of vintage Macintosh monitor setup! The Mac Sync-inator is a Mac-to-VGA video converter with a powerful sync processor built-in.
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[Wayback/Archive] Mac Sync-inator VGA Sync Converter | Big Mess o’ Wires has much more information including tables for the DIP-switches that set:
- Setting the Desired Video Resolution
- Choosing the Sync Processing Mode
Too bad this is not compatible with my Macintosh SE/30, but still interesting to know it exists.
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ADB-USB Wombat Input Converter
USD 40 [Wayback/Archive] ADB-USB Wombat Input Converter – Big Mess o’ Wires
ADB-USB Wombat is a bidirectional input converter for USB and ADB keyboards and mice. It works in two directions, connecting modern USB peripherals to a classic ADB-based Macintosh or Apple IIgs computer, or ADB peripherals to a USB-based computer running Windows, OSX, or Linux. The foreign keyboards and mice behave exactly like native peripherals, requiring no special software or drivers – just plug it in and go. This is the Wombat main board. You will also need ADB and/or USB cables depending on your intended usage (sold separately).
[Wayback/Archive] Wombat ADB-USB Input Converter | Big Mess o’ Wires has extensive documentation.
USD 10 [Wayback/Archive] Black Acrylic Case for ADB-USB Wombat – Big Mess o’ Wires protects the top of the board (but not the sides)
USD 6 [Wayback/Archive] ADB Cable, 3 ft – Big Mess o’ Wires (sold out at the time of writing, but might be in stock when you read this)
Despite having spare ADB keyboards, I don’t have spare ADB mice, so this might come in really useful.
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Mac ROM-inator II
USD 45 [Wayback/Archive] Mac ROM-inator II | Big Mess o’ Wires
This was actually a trip down memory lane, as 10 years ago, I bought a Macintosh SE/30, upgraded the memory, and helped the original author – Doug Brown – with their documentation:Want to add new features to your old Mac? The Mac ROM-inator II replaces the stock Macintosh ROM SIMM with a custom flash memory module. Add a bootable ROM disk, make your system 32-bit clean, gain HD20 hard disk support, and more. The Mac ROM-inator II supports the Macintosh SE/30, IIx, IIcx, IIci, IIfx, and IIsi.
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The ROM-inator II is based on Doug Brown’s earlier Mac ROM SIMM design, used with permission.
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Compatibility The ROM SIMM and pre-programmed ROM contents are compatible with the Macintosh SE/30, IIx, IIcx, IIci, IIfx, and IIsi. The SIMM simply snaps into the ROM socket on the computer’s logic board. Note the Macintosh SE differs from the SE/30 internally, and is not compatible with the ROM-inator II. CPU accelerators such as the Daystar PowerCache and Turbo series are not compatible with the ROM-inator II. Some SE/30 hardware may require a shim to ensure ideal fit of the SIMM – see instructions for details. If running Mac OS System 7.5 or later, some Mac models require a software patch to the System file.…
The ROM disk contains:- System 7.1, with System Update 3.0 and Apple CD-ROM Extension 5.3.1
- HD SC Setup 7.3.5 (patched to support formatting non-Apple hard disks)
- SCSI Probe 3.3 (for troubleshooting the SCSI bus)
- ResEdit 2.1.3
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Usage Most of the ROM-inator II’s benefits are automatic: just install the SIMM, and you’ll gain HD20 support, 32-bit cleanliness, and custom sounds and icons. Only the ROM disk requires any user interaction. When first powered on, a Macintosh with the ROM-inator II will play a customized startup sound, and display diagnostic info about the amount of installed RAM, the current addressing mode, and the detected ROM disk type. After a moment, an interactive startup menu will be displayed. To boot from the ROM disk as a read-only disk, press the R key on the keyboard. Or to convert the ROM disk into a writable RAM disk, press the A key. Or to bypass the ROM disk, do nothing and wait five seconds. If no keys are pressed, the Macintosh will boot normally from an attached SCSI or HD20 disk, or wait for a floppy disk to be inserted. Note: If booting from a SCSI disk when the ROM-inator II is installed, any 32-bit enablers or extensions such as MODE32 or 32-Bit System Enabler must be removed from the disk’s System folder.[Wayback/Archive] Mac SE/30 with Upgraded ROM | Big Mess o’ Wires
- [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – dougg3/mac-rom-simm-programmer.software: Control software for Mac ROM SIMM programmer
- [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – dougg3/mac-rom-simm-programmer: Firmware for Mac ROM SIMM programmer
- [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – jpluimers/dougg3..mac-rom-simm-programmer: Firmware for Mac ROM SIMM programmer
- [Wayback/Archive] Wiki updates (images, links); added README.md to master branch; added downloads branch. by jpluimers · Pull Request #25 · dougg3/mac-rom-simm-programmer · GitHub
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Then there is a shop on the Cayman Islands that ships world wide and has both the Mac ROM SIMM and the Mac ROMM SIMM programmer:
- USD 10 [Wayback/Archive] RTC PCB for SE30 – CayMac Vintage’s Ko-fi Shop – Ko-fi ❤️ Where creators get support from fans through donations, memberships, shop sales and more! The original ‘Buy Me a Coffee’ Page.
Replacement RTC chip for the SE30. This RTC is a ATTiny85 on a PCB with its own crystal for better accuracy on the SE30. No battery is needed when using this RTC version as the P/RAM settings are stored in the flash RAM. The external crystal on the logic board is not needed either.
And there is [Wayback/Archive] a2heaven: For everyone who still loves and uses old computers.:
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Liron Reborn
USD 60 [Wayback/Archive] Liron Reborn
Liron Reborn is a Samrt Port / Disk II controller card for Apple II/IIe computers.
It is a functional hardware compatible Liron clone , with original Liron card Firmware.
A difference from Original Liron card is that card can be used as a a standard 5.25 inch (Disk II) controller or Liron ( SmartPort ) card .
I likely won’t need this as the Yellowstone card looks way more promising
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FASTChip //e – 65C02
USD 150 [Wayback/Archive] FASTChip //e – 65C02
The FASTChip //e accelerates the Apple //e™ by replacing the on-board microprocessor with a much faster one. Because the memory on the Apple //e™ can only run at a 1 MHz speed maximum, faster memory (SRAM) must be provided to increase performance and allow the 65C02/65C816 CPU to run at full speed.
To do this, the FASTChip //e contains 512KB/1024KB of fast SRAM memory. The clever design allows the acceleration of programs running in both main and auxiliary memory. The additional FASTChip //e memory can emulate both 192/448 KB fast RamWorks compatible RAM and 256/512 KB fast RamFactor (slinky) compatible RAM.
[Wayback/Archive] REVIEW: FastChip //e Accellerator by A2Heaven – YouTube
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65C816->65C02 Board
USD 35 [Wayback/Archive] 65C816->65C02 Board
You can use 65C816->65C02 board to connect 65C816 CPU to your Apple II computer .
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* This board was based on Daryl Rictor’s original design. More information can be found here: sbc.rictor.org/support/conv.html
[Wayback/Archive] 65816 to 6502 converter by Daryl Rictor.
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DB19 to IDC20
USD 11 [Wayback/Archive] DB19 to IDC20 Floppy Disk adapter
DB19 to IDC20 Floppy Disk adapter
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directly connect IDC20 Pin Cable connector to the 19-pin port of Apple IIc, or to a floppy controller with a 19-pin connector
Probably cheaper to use the package deals from BMOW
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IDC20 to DB19 cable adapter
USD 13 [Wayback/Archive] IDC20 to DB19 cable adapter
The product is designed to be directly connect IDC20 pin connector to the DB19 pin port .
Likely the combo from BMOW is cheaper.
TrackStar II
- USD 75 [Wayback/Archive] TRAK STAR II
Readout of Disk Drive head position .
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Constant Digital Readout of Disk Drive head position .
Work with any 5″ Apple II compatible Drive .
Display Full , Half and Quarter track head position .Nice idea, but has not been in stock for a long time and feels overpriced.
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Quadlink Clone Kit
USD 160 [Wayback/Archive] Quadlink Clone Kit
It’s an ISA expansion card from the ’80s designed to turn your IBM PC (such as a 5150 or 5160) into an Apple ][! After booting and running the software, you can switch quickly between PC and Apple mode using Ctrl-Alt-A (for Apple) and Ctrl-Alt-P (for PC).
Kit contain all PCB , passive components and chips needed to build working Quadlink Clone .
[Wayback/Archive] GitHub – schlae/quapple: Quadlink clone turns your ancient IBM PC into an Apple ][
Only useful if I find back an ISA compatible PC.
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3D Stickers set
USD 10 [Wayback/Archive] 3D Stickers set
Apple II logo and Disk II label sticker set .
Actually this is quite a nice idea, despite them having been out of stock like forever.
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RamFactor1M
USD 85 [Wayback/Archive] RamFactor1M
RamFactor1M is based on Aplied Engineering RAMFactor card ( firmware is same as original ), however it uses more modern low power 1MB SRAM and can provided battery backup up to 1-2 Year with small CR2032 Battery.
The battery is for backup data (just like PowerFactor from Aplied Engineering ) and can be used as Solid State Disk.
This is a trip down memory lane, though back then school could not afford these.
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Apple II Slot Extender
USD 40 [Wayback/Archive] Apple II Slot Extender
The Apple II slot extender allows you to easily and freely test the functionality and repair your Apple II cards outside of the computer.
You can also turn off voltages that aren’t necessary for the card to work to prevent testing errors.
Package include
- 1 x Apple II extender PCB bottom
- 1 x Apple II extender PCB Top
- 1 x 50 pin Flat ribbon cable with 0.5m length ( contact me if you want a longer cable )
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One more shop (: I think I found it searching for [Wayback/Archive] BlueSCSI, but anyway at [Wayback/Archive] Shop – Joe’s Computer Museum, focussing on [Wayback/Archive] Apple //e Archives – Joe’s Computer Museum I found these interesting items:
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A2Pico
USD 55 [Wayback/Archive] A2Pico – Multi-Function Card – Joe’s Computer Museum
A2Pico is, essentially, a universal peripheral card for your Apple ][ Computer. Want a Z80 CPM Card? Maybe you need inexpensive mass storage. Need to add SmartPort support to your machine? Or, maybe you’re a hacker and want to design your own function. A2Pico lets you do just that!
Using it easy: Flash it with the firmware you want to use (or write your own firmware!), put it in the appropriate Apple // slot and have fun!
NOTE: your card will come without firmware, so that you can choose to make the card whatever you like!
[Wayback/Archive] GitHub – oliverschmidt/a2pico: A2Pico
A2Pico is about Apple II peripheral cards based on the Raspberry Pi Pico. It consists of two parts:
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A2DVI card
USD 50 [Wayback/Archive] A2DVI v2.0 – Apple II Digital Video Adapter – Joe’s Computer Museum
Unlike the below “universal” adapter, the A2DVI might be just the thing for me.The A2DVI produces a digital video stream from your Apple II’s memory. The signal is output via an HDMI-compatible connector, giving your Apple II the option of output to modern displays. No more analog signal conversion required.
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JCM Universal Apple RGB Adapter
USD 20-35 (kit or assembled) [Wayback/Archive] JCM Universal Apple RGB Adapter – Joe’s Computer Museum
The Universal Apple RGB Adapter takes the 4-Bit TTL RGB signal from an Apple ///, the Apple /// Plus or the Apple IIe Video7-style RGB card and converts it to two formats: IBM-style CGA-Compatible TTL, and Apple IIgs Standard. On the Apple /// machines, it also connects the color NTSC signal from the rear connector to a standard RCA-Jack so you can use it.
Since I don’t have either an Apple ///, nore a Apple IIe Video7-style RGB card, this might not be fore me.
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Why Cable? – Original DB19
USD 15-30 [Wayback/Archive] Why Cable? – Apple IIe Card Y-Cable Replacement (Original DB19) – Joe’s Computer Museum
Everybody wants the Apple IIe Card. Nobody has the “Y-Cable” that goes with it; they tend to get lost. So, I designed a replacement solution!
The Why Cable? Apple IIe Card Y-Cable Replacement solves your Floppy and Joystick problem with your Apple IIe Card. Just plug it into your card, then add your floppy drive and joystick and your Apple IIe card will work as intended!
This version emulates the original DB19 cable, and is fully compatible with all drives the Apple IIe Card lists as compatible.
Need to check out if I still have this cable/connector or need the below one (:
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Why Cable? – 20-Pin Cable Version
USD 10-25 [Wayback/Archive] Why Cable? – Apple IIe Card Y-Cable Replacement (20-Pin Cable Version) – Joe’s Computer Museum
Everybody wants the Apple IIe Card. Nobody has the “Y-Cable” that goes with it; they tend to get lost. So, I designed a replacement solution!
The Why Cable? Apple IIe Card Y-Cable Replacement solves your Floppy and Joystick problem with your Apple IIe Card. Just plug it into your card, then add your floppy drive and joystick and your Apple IIe card will work as intended!
This version works with 20-pin ribbon cable connectors and supports any drive that properly emulates a standard 5.25 inch Disk ][ drive, including the FloppyEMU and wDrive.
And I need to check if it is missing, if I need the 19 or 20 pin version. Likely I need the 20-pin one.
- Some 3D printed replacement for your Apple //e opening covers on the back of your machine, and for your Alps Key Stems:
DB-19/DB-25/DB-9 back plates (3D printed, STL files if you want to print your own)
DB-19: outside view
DB-19: inside view
DB-25: outside view
DB-25: inside view
DB-25 for Audio Jacks: outside
DB-25 for Audio Jacks: inside
DB-9: outside view
DB-9: inside view
DB-25 with DB-9 opening: assembled
DB-25 with DB-9 opening: outside
DB-25 with DB-9 opening: inside
USD 1
[Wayback/Archive]
Apple //e DB-19 Back PlateUSD 1
[Wayback/Archive]
Apple //e DB-25 Back PlateUSD 1
[Wayback/Archive]
Apple //e DB-25 Back Plate for Audio JacksUSD 1
[Wayback/Archive]
Apple //e DB-9 Back PlateUSD 1
[Wayback/Archive]
Apple //e DB25 Back Plate with DB9 Opening[Wayback]
A2e-DB25-with-DB9-insert.stl[Wayback]
A2e-DB25-with-DB9-insert.stl[Wayback]
A2e-DB25-with-DB9-insert.stl[Wayback]
A2e-DB25-with-DB9-insert.stl[Wayback]
A2e-DB25-with-DB9-insert.stlAdding the hole in the design required thickening of the base and increasing the depth of the holding clips so they would not pull out when tension is applied to an attached external cable.Note that all link(ed?) to the same .stl file, which is only correct for the right most back plate: “DB-25 with DB-9 opening”.
All of these are based on [Wayback/Archive] Apple IIe port covers, thicker for FFF printers by scruss – Thingiverse which in turn is based on [Wayback/Archive] Apple IIe port covers, three sizes by option8 – Thingiverse.
Alps Key Stems (one of them has the wrong picture, but they are manufactured correctly; 3D printed; no STL-files on the product pages)
Alps Key Stems, Short – 10 Pack
Alps Key Stems, Long – 10 Pack
USD 5
[Wayback/Archive]
Alps Key Stems, Short – 10 Pack – Joe’s Computer MuseumUSD 5
[Wayback/Archive]
Alps Key Stems, Long – 10 Pack – Joe’s Computer MuseumThis might have been the base STL file for this: [Wayback] Hairpin-To-Alps-keycap-adaptor.stl
- Some 3D printed replacement for your Apple //e opening covers on the back of your machine, and for your Alps Key Stems:
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For all shops: I didn’t list all of their items, just the ones that I might use in the future.
An interesting device I did not know about either was the FujiNet one: it is fully open source! One thing to check out is where to order pre-assembled ones for Apple II series.
- [Wayback/Archive] FujiNet · GitHub
FujiNet is a multi-peripheral emulator and WiFi network device for vintage computers. The first completed hardware was for the Atari 8-Bit line of computers and development has begun for other systems (Coleco ADAM, Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari Lynx, ZX Spectrum and more) with the goal of supporting as many old systems as possible. What sets FujiNet apart from other WiFi devices is the new Network Device (the N Device). The N device allows vintage computers that do not have enough processing power to handle TCP/IP connections themselves to talk to the modern internet over WiFi. Virtual adapters have been created for many protocols including: TCP, UDP, HTTP, FTP, TNFS, HTTPS (SSL/TLS), SSH, TELNET, WebDAV and JSON parser. The FujiNet project is 100% completely open source, software and hardware. All code and schematics are available here.
- [Wayback/Archive] FutureVision Research was the only shop I found selling them, but I probably overlooked others.
- [Wayback/Archive] FujiNet – FutureVision Research
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Apple II/III FujiNet w/ accesoiries
USD 110 [Wayback/Archive] FujiNet for Apple II & III (With Accessories) – FutureVision Research
The FujiApple Rev1.1 for SmartPort enabled Apple II computers emulates SmartPort drives, Disk II drives (read only), CP/M, Clock, Modem, and a new Network Device. Disk images can be mounted directly from the internet via TNFS servers or from the onboard MicroSD socket*. The Network device enables access to Internet protocols such as HTTP, HTTPS, TNFS, SSH, TCP, UDP and more.
…
This kit comes with the following (ribbon cable color may be gray or rainbow depending on availability):- FujiNet for Apple II & III
- DB-19 to IDC20 Female adapter
- 30cm IDC20 Female to Male cable
- 30cm IDC20 Female to Female cable
- DB-19 spacer
- Two different lengths of thumbscrews
- Two 1.375″ thumbscrews for use with IIe/III
- Two 1.5″ thumbscrews for use with IIc/gs/+
The page contains many more helpful information and links.
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Some non-shop links
- [Wayback/Archive] FloppyEmu vs. CFFA3000/Booti | Applefritter
- [Wayback/Archive] Plus Too Mac Replica | Big Mess o’ Wires
- [Wayback/Archive] Floppy Emu Disk Emulator? : apple2
Yes. I’d rank it as the most versatile as it works across the greatest number of machines (Apple 2s and Macs).
It is cheaper and more readily available than the other solutions.
The only slight downside is it isn’t as fast, direct memory access/processor wise, as the card solutions that exist – but those do use up a slot, and there isn’t much software that can take advantage of the speed difference anyway – and on a machine that only goes a couple Mhz anyway, it won’t make much difference.It’s 7 years old at this point, but Joe’s Computer Museum did an excellent video comparing the major options here:
https://youtu.be/Wjy6_qnTnv0a covering
- MicroDrive/Turbo
- CFFA3000
- Floppy Emu
- SDFloppy II
- UNISDISK Air 19 – [Wayback/Archive] UNISDISK Air Series, very hard to get
[Wayback/Archive] Apple II Mass Storage Benchmark Results – Joe’s Computer Museum
[Wayback/Archive] Apple II Mass Storage Mega Roundup – YouTube
- [Wayback/Archive] Nerdly Pleasures: wDrive v. Floppy Emu – Comparison of the Best Apple II Disk Emulators
- [Wayback/Archive] Thoughts on wDrive versus Floppy Emu? | Applefritter
- [Wayback/Archive] Fujinet for Apple II, SD card and Internet capable device for SmartPort | Applefritter (works with Yellowstone card)
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An external monitor on a Macingosh SE/30
- [Wayback/Archive] Mac SE can use an external Monitor?? – Apple Community
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Mac SE/30 and Macintosh Classic
Since I own both a Macintosh SE/30 and a Macintosh Classic, these are relevant too:
- [Wayback/Archive] Classic II vs SE/30 – TidBITS
- [Wayback/Archive] Siblings – Macintosh SE and Mac Classic : VintageApple
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Queries
I used additional queries than the first blog post to complete this blog post. Here they are:
- [Wayback/Archive] macintosh Floppy Emu 3.5 – Google Suche
- [Wayback/Archive] apple 2 disk sd card – Google Suche
- [Wayback/Archive] Liron disk controller card – Google Search
- [Wayback/Archive] cffa vs floppy emu – Google Search
- [Wayback/Archive] floppy emu apple ii disk controller – Google Suche
- [Wayback/Archive] wDrive vs floppy emu – Google Search
- [Wayback/Archive] fujinet apple ii – Google Search
- [Wayback/Archive] Apple Liron – Search on Google
- [Wayback/Archive] Yellowstone fujinet – Sök på Google
- [Wayback/Archive] does floppy emu work with classic macintosh – Google Search
- [Wayback/Archive] mac se/30 versus macintosh classic – Google Suche
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- [Wayback/Archive] bluescsi v2 – Sök på Google
--jeroenRate this:
#12 #156 #25 #3dprint #3dprinting #4 #Apple #appleiigs #AprilApples
- USD 25 [Wayback/Archive] Apple IIc USB C power adapter with Volt Gauge – 8 bit stuff cool retro computer 3D gadgets and geekery
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Lazy Caturday Reads
Woman and Cat, by Koji Fukiya, 1936.
Good Afternoon!!
Yesterday, Dakinikat wrote about Trump’s crypto dinner, where he briefly spoke to the people who had spent the most on his personal memecoin. The “gala dinner” was held at Trump’s Virginia golf club. The attendees–mostly from foreign countries–had spent their money hoping to gain “access” to Trump, but that didn’t happen, at least at this event. Trump showed up on a “military helicopter,” spoke for less than half and hour and then did his YMCA dance. Then he left again without speaking to anyone personally. And the food was terrible.
Wired: A Helicopter, Halibut, and ‘Y.M.C.A’: Inside Donald Trump’s Memecoin Dinner.
Donald Trump left the stage at his golf club near Washington, DC, on Thursday night, he pointed to the crowd, brought his index finger to his temple—as if to say: You know what’s coming—then began to dance. To the beat of “Y.M.C.A” by The Village People, Trump shimmied, gyrated, and pumped his arms above his head.
Looking on were more than 200 people who had been invited to the Trump National Golf Club for a private gala dinner. They had won their seats by purchasing large quantities of Trump’s own crypto coin—TRUMP—some holding millions of dollars’ worth….
By late afternoon, the dinner guests had started to filter through the gates of the golf club. By comparison to Trump’s previous banquets, thronging with DC insiders and members of the Silicon Valley elite, the crypto dinner attracted a mismatched collection of oddballs: independent traders rubbed shoulders with crypto executives, die-hard Trump fans, and even professional sports stars—former NBA player Lamar Odom towered overhead. A handful wore bowties in Bitcoin orange; others sported gold Trump sneakers.
Just after 7 pm, the dinner guests gathered at the window to watch Trump descend in Marine One, his presidential helicopter. A short while later, he appeared from behind a blue velvet curtain to whoops and applause from the crowd. Had they seen the helicopter, Trump asked. “Yeah, super cool!” somebody yelled….
From behind a lectern at one end of the dining room, backdropped by four US flags, Trump delivered a characteristically winding and digressive speech that sources say lasted around 25 minutes. At some point, he got round to crypto.
“We’ve got some of the smartest minds anywhere in the world right here in this room,” said Trump. “You believe in the whole crypto thing. A lot of people are starting to believe in it … This is really something that may be special—who knows, right? Who knows—but it may be special.”
For some, the dinner represented a chance to network with other deep-pocketed crypto figures, and to hear directly from Trump about his plans to bring an end to the regulatory uncertainty that crimped the industry’s expansion under Biden.
“You don’t get to meet the president easily,” Vincent Liu, chief investment officer at trading firm Kronos Research, told WIRED a few days before the dinner. “To be able to hear his message on crypto directly—I’m definitely looking forward to that.”
Woodblock print from Tsukioka Yoshitoshi’s series One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (1885-1892)
No one got to meet the president, but I Wired says they also wanted to network with each other. On the general presentation and the food, served at circular tables
…each seating 10 people arrayed beneath a set of crystal chandeliers. Waiting on the chairs were gift bags containing Fight Fight Fight-themed hats and posters, and a collectible plastic card (some allege that they didn’t receive merch at their seats.) The four largest coin holders—along with two other attendees selected by raffle, sources say—received a gem-encrusted Trump gold watch.
Between mouthfuls, the attendees discussed trading and investment strategies—and Trump’s speech. “To feel his personal charisma to me was very inspiring,” says Liu. But others complained about the brevity of Trump’s appearance: After his speech, Trump had departed immediately in a golf cart bound for his helicopter. “Trump could have at least given the top people their watches himself,” says Pinto. “He didn’t.”
The food itself had left a bitter taste in the mouth, too. “It was the worst food I’ve ever had at a Trump golf course,” says Pinto, who added he left hungry. “The only good thing was bread and butter.” Another attendee described the meal as “OK, but not top-class.”
From Penn Live: Trump’s controversial crypto dinner ripped by attendee: ‘Trash.’
Donald Trump’s controversial memecoin dinner Thursday night was shrouded in secrecy, and while it still isn’t clear who all attended — the White House did not make the list public — we do have a report of how good the food was….
According to Fortune, 25-year-old Nicholas Pinto was one of those who attended. The site said he invested “more than $360,000 in Trump’s memecoin.
And for that, he told the site, the dinner that was served was “trash.”
“Walmart steak, man,” he texted Fortune.
The site said the menu for the included a “Trump organic field green salad” and an “entrée duet” of filet mignon and pan-seared halibut.
“Everybody at my table was saying the food was so of the worst they ever had,” Pinto said.
“I was hoping for Big Macs or pizza,” Pinto told Fortune. “That would have been better than the food that we were served.”
Trump is just raking in the dough as quickly as he can with the minimum effort.
The New York Times got the guest list: Who Won a Seat at Trump’s Crypto Dinner?
The invitees for President Trump’s private dinner for customers of his cryptocurrency business on Thursday included a Chinese billionaire fighting a lawsuit from U.S. regulators, a lawyer for Justice Clarence Thomas and a former basketball star, according to a guest list obtained by The New York Times and social media posts.
The dinner, at which Mr. Trump gave remarks, was an extraordinary moment in which the president leveraged his position to make money — for his crypto business and for his Virginia golf club, which hosted the event.
The event’s invited guests were not known publicly beforehand, even to each other. They were identified only by the pseudonyms they used on the electronic wallets where they kept their $TRUMP memecoins. Most had gained an invitation by becoming one of the top 220 holders of that memecoin over a certain period of time. The top 25 of those were given V.I.P. status and afforded a more intimate gathering before the dinner and an unofficial tour of the White House on Friday.
When they arrived at Mr. Trump’s club outside Washington Thursday evening, the digital world had become physical. The invitees’ names and contact information were delineated on paper lists, checked by staffers at the door. A Times reporter reviewed one of those lists, and used it to identify people who were present. Some other invitees self-identified on social media. A reporter and photographer from The Times also saw some $TRUMP crypto buyers enter and exit the White House on Friday.
Merchant’s Daughter by Mizuno Toshikata
Some top invitees:
Justin Sun, a Chinese crypto billionaire who was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. for allegedly inflating the value of a cryptocurrency. Mr. Sun is a major investor in a separate crypto venture largely owned by a company tied to Mr. Trump, World Liberty Financial. After Mr. Trump took office, the S.E.C. asked a judge to put Mr. Sun’s case on hold….
Elliot Berke, a Washington attorney who has worked for congressional Republicans and Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court. The Times identified him because the invitee list included his email address at his law firm, Berke Farah. He was honored as “Republican Lawyer of the Year” in 2021 by the Republican National Lawyers Association….
Evgeny Gaevoy, the founder and chief executive of a digital-asset firm, Wintermute. The Times identified him because the list of invitees included his Wintermute email….
Anil Lulla and Yan Liberman, two co-founders of Delphi Digital, a Miami Beach firm that offers market intelligence for crypto investors. Their corporate emails were included in the list of invitees….
Cheng Lu, 32, a crypto investor from Shanghai, was observed by a Times reporter entering the White House on Friday. He said he did not have a chance to speak with Mr. Trump during the dinner on Thursday or at the Friday tour. “I just want to see President Trump,” he said.
Several more are listed at the NYT link.
Another big story today is Trump’s terrifying persecution of Harvard University. Here’s the latest:
From The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board: Is Trump Trying to Destroy Harvard? The order against foreign students turns away the world’s brightest.
The Trump Administration has frozen billions in federal grants to Harvard University, threatened its tax-exempt status, and sought to dictate its curriculum and hiring. Now the government seems bent on destroying the school for the offense of fighting back. And for what purpose?
That’s how we read the Department of Homeland Security’s move Thursday to bar foreign students from attending the world-renowned institution. That’s 6,800 students, or a quarter of Harvard’s student body, whose futures are suddenly in disarray. It’s also a short-sighted attack on one of America’s great competitive strengths: Its ability to attract the world’s best and brightest.
The latest assault began when DHS demanded that Harvard turn over sundry records on its foreign students, including whether any had participated in illegal activity or left the university owing to “dangerous or violent activity or deprivation of rights.”
Some of its record requests are reasonable, but some overreached by requiring private student information. DHS also gave Harvard all of two weeks to respond. If it failed to do so, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said she would “automatically withdraw” the school’s certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program. “The withdrawal will not be subject to appeal.”
The SEVP program lets non-citizens enroll at universities on student visas. DHS can bar universities from the program if they fail to comply with “recordkeeping, retention, reporting and other requirements” on foreign students. Harvard says it responded with “information required by law” within two weeks and handed over more records on May 14.
Twin Guardians, by Hawse Sumi
That didn’t satisfy Noem and she banned Harvard from enrolling international students. Harvard soon got a restraining order from a federal court.
Most of Harvard’s foreign students are enrolled in graduate programs. Many assist with scientific research and teaching undergraduate courses. Driving them out of Harvard will disrupt research projects and might cause some professors in the sciences to leave for other universities. This seems to be a goal of freezing Harvard’s research grants.
Harvard sued on Friday, and a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against the student ban. The university rightly says the Administration’s actions are “clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students.”
The university seems likely to prevail on the law, but until courts settle the merits, thousands of students who have done nothing wrong will be in legal limbo. Some of them no doubt opposed the anti-Israel protests and may even hail from Israel. Why punish them? [….]
This will be terribly damaging to America’s ability to attract talented young people who bring their enterprise and intellectual capital to the U.S. Non-citizens accounted for more than half of doctoral degrees in AI-related fields in 2022. Many have gone to work at U.S. companies like Nvidia or started their own.
Clearly Trump hates Harvard, higher education, and education generally. But I’m coming to the conclusion that Trump’s goal is to destroy the U.S. in every possible way and at the same time enrich himself and his wealthy friends. He doesn’t even appear to care about the economy anymore. He wants Americans to be poor, ignorant, and isolated from the rest of the world.
The New York Times: Universities See Trump’s Harvard Move as a Threat to Them, Too.
The Trump administration’s surprising bid to end Harvard’s international enrollment put the higher education world on edge this week, looming as a larger threat against academic autonomy.
Well beyond the halls of Harvard this week, college leaders were shocked that one swift move by the federal government could eliminate their ability to serve students from abroad, a growing population that has infused their campuses with cachet and wealth.
“This is a grave moment,” Sally Kornbluth, the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote in a message to her campus.
More than 5,000 miles away, Wendy Hensel, the president of the University of Hawaii, said that it was “reverberating across higher education.”
President Trump has already unnerved universities this year by launching investigations, freezing grants, demanding changes in campus practices and attempting to deport international students. He has justified his punitive approach as a means to combat what he considers antisemitism. But he and his allies also have long resented a perceived liberal bias and racial diversity efforts at prestigious colleges.
The Trump administration said Thursday that it revoked Harvard’s international student certification because the university had failed to meet its demands, including a request for records of student protest activity dating back five years.
To many academics, that was a clear signal that Mr. Trump was prepared to use any federal mechanism as leverage if he did not get what he wants.
“While Harvard is the victim of the moment, it’s a warning and unprecedented attempt of a hostile federal government to erode the autonomy of all major universities in the U.S.,” said John Aubrey Douglass, a senior research fellow at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley.
Yesterday, Trump and Marco Rubio began dismantling the National Security Council.
CNN: More than 100 National Security Council staffers put on administrative leave.
The Trump administration has put more than 100 officials at the National Security Council at the White House on administrative leave on Friday as part of a restructuring under interim national security adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to two US officials and another source familiar with the matter.
Woman and cat, by Toyohara Kunichika
CNN previously reported that a significant overhaul of the body in charge of coordinating the president’s foreign policy agenda was expected in the coming days, including a staff reduction and a reinforced top-down approach with decision-making concentrated at the highest levels.
An email from NSC chief of staff Brian McCormack went out around 4:20 p.m. informing those being dismissed they’d have 30 minutes to clean out their desks, according to an administration official. If they weren’t on campus, the email read, they could email an address and arrange a time to retrieve their stuff later and turn in devices.
The email subject line read: “Your return to home agency,” indicating that most of those affected were detailed to the NSC from other departments and agencies….
With this happening on a Friday afternoon before a long holiday weekend, the official called it “as unprofessional and reckless as could possibly be.”
Those put on leave include career officials, as well as political hires made during the Trump administration….
Staffed by foreign policy experts from across the US government, the NSC typically serves as a critical body for coordinating the president’s foreign policy agenda.
But under President Donald Trump, the NSC’s role has been diminished, with the overhaul expected to further reduce its importance in the White House.
Axios says they are trying to purge the “deep state.”
President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have orchestrated a vast restructuring of the National Security Council, reducing its size and transferring many of its powers to the State and Defense departments.
Why it matters: Trump’s White House sees the NSC as notoriously bureaucratic and filled with longtime officials who don’t share the president’s vision.
- A White House official involved in the planning characterized the reorganization as Trump and Rubio’s latest move against what they see as Washington’s “Deep State.”
- “The NSC is the ultimate Deep State. It’s Marco vs. the Deep State. We’re gutting the Deep State,” the official said of the move, which will cut the NSC staff to about half of its current 350 members. Those cut from the NSC will be moved to other positions in government, officials said.
- “The right-sizing of the NSC is in line with its original purpose and the president’s vision,” Rubio told Axios in a statement. “The NSC will now be better positioned to collaborate with agencies.”
Zoom in: White House officials point to an NSC structure that’s filled with committees and meetings that they say slow down decision-making and produce lots of jargon and acronyms.
There’s a lot more a the link, but I think Trump is just trying to bring every part of the government under his personal control.
Finally, I want to look at what Trump and RFK Jr. are doing with Covid-19 and Covid vaccines.
More than five years after the first cases of COVID-19 were detected in the United States, hundreds of people are still dying every week.
By Utagawa Hiroshige, 1797-1858
Last month, an average of about 350 people died each week from COVID, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
While high, the number of deaths is decreasing and is lower than the peak of 25,974 deaths recorded the week ending Jan. 9, 2021, as well as weekly deaths seen in previous spring months, CDC data shows.
Public health experts told ABC News that although the U.S. is in a much better place than it was a few years ago, COVID is still a threat to high-risk groups.
“The fact that we’re still seeing deaths just means it’s still circulating, and people are still catching it,” Dr. Tony Moody, a professor in the department of pediatrics in the division of infectious diseases at Duke University Medical Center, told ABC News.
The experts said there are a few reasons why people might still be dying from the virus, including low vaccination uptake, waning immunity and not enough people accessing treatments.
Read more details at the ABC link.
So why is the government limiting access to Covid Vaccines?
Scientific American: What FDA’s Planned Limits on COVID Vaccinations Mean for Health.
Larry Saltzman has blood cancer. He’s also a retired doctor, so he knows getting covid-19 could be dangerous for him — his underlying illness puts him at high risk of serious complications and death. To avoid getting sick, he stays away from large gatherings, and he’s comforted knowing healthy people who get boosters protect him by reducing his exposure to the virus.
Until now, that is.
Vaccine opponents and skeptics in charge of federal health agencies — starting at the top with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — are restricting access to covid shots that were a signature accomplishment of President Donald Trump’s first term and cost taxpayers about $13 billion to develop, produce, and distribute. The agencies are narrowing vaccination recommendations, pushing drugmakers to perform costly clinical studies, and taking other steps that will result in fewer people getting protection from a virus that still kills hundreds each week in the U.S.
“There are hundreds of thousands of people who rely on these vaccines,” said Saltzman, 71, of Sacramento, California. “For people who are immunocompromised, if there aren’t enough people vaccinated, we lose the ring that’s protecting us. We’re totally vulnerable.”
The Trump administration on May 20 rolled out tougher approval requirements for covid shots, described as a covid-19 “vaccination regulatory framework,” that could leave millions of Americans who want boosters unable to get them.
Vaccine opponents and skeptics in charge of federal health agencies — starting at the top with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — are restricting access to covid shots that were a signature accomplishment of President Donald Trump’s first term and cost taxpayers about $13 billion to develop, produce, and distribute. The agencies are narrowing vaccination recommendations, pushing drugmakers to perform costly clinical studies, and taking other steps that will result in fewer people getting protection from a virus that still kills hundreds each week in the U.S.
“There are hundreds of thousands of people who rely on these vaccines,” said Saltzman, 71, of Sacramento, California. “For people who are immunocompromised, if there aren’t enough people vaccinated, we lose the ring that’s protecting us. We’re totally vulnerable.”
The Trump administration on May 20 rolled out tougher approval requirements for covid shots, described as a covid-19 “vaccination regulatory framework,” that could leave millions of Americans who want boosters unable to get them.
Read the rest at the link. You can also check out this article at Technology Review: The FDA plans to limit access to covid vaccines. Here’s why that’s not all bad.
Trump simply doesn’t care if Americans die. That’s obvious based on the way he dealt with Covid during his first term. He seems willing to let RFK Jr. do whatever he wants. So who can Americans turn to for guidance and access to vaccines and treatments?
That’s it for me today. What’s on your mind?
#CovidVaccines #Covid19Deaths #CryptoCurrency #FDA #HarvardUniversity #internationalUniversityStudents #KristiNoem #NationalSecurityCouncil #NSC #RobertFKennedyJr_ #TrumpCorruption
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Wednesday Reads
Good Afternoon!!
Trump shouts to reporters from White House roof.
Yesterday, Trump wandered around on the White House roof, and shouted inanities at reporters on the ground, including a joke about nuclear weapons. He is such an embarrassment.
ABC News: Trump takes unusual stroll on White House roof.
President Donald Trump made a surprise appearance on the White House roof above the briefing room in an apparent effort to inspect future construction.
The press, which had been pushed significantly down the driveway, attempted to figure out what was going on.
“Mr. President, what are you doing up there?”
“Just taking a little walk,” he shouted back.
“What are you building?”
“It goes with the ballroom, which is on the other side,” he said.
Pressed again by reporters, Trump said “Something beautiful,” while pantomiming with his hands.
Great. So he’s planning to wreck both the East and West wings?
The president was accompanied by a small group of aides and Secret Service. The group included architect Jim McCrery, who has been commissioned to add Trump’s ballroom to the White House. The two men appeared engaged in intense conversation as they surveyed the grounds with lots of animated pointing….
“What are you trying to build?” one reporter shouted.
“Missiles,” Trump responded, presumably joking. “Nuclear missiles,” he repeated while making the gesture of a rocket launching.
Q: Sir, what are you trying to build?TRUMP: Missiles. Nuclear missiles
Monica Charen at The Bulwark (Charen worked as Nancy Reagan’s speechwriter): Trump’s White House Renovation Is Awful—and Fitting.
Americans who haven’t visited the White House for a guided tour probably can’t picture the East Wing. There’s no TV show about it. It has no famous office to rival the Oval. There are relatively few photos of it in its current form.
As someone who worked there for six months (I moved to the West Wing after the 1984 election), allow me to sing its praises: The East Wing was built in 1902 as a visitors’ entrance and then expanded in 1942 to house the First Lady’s offices. Its style echoes the West Wing in design and footprint, which gives the White House complex a rough symmetry. Like the West Wing, it’s smaller than Hollywood imagines. It conveys stability and authority without ostentation. Unlike the West Wing, it’s flooded with sunlight and, at least when Nancy Reagan held court, adorned with fresh flowers. The two-story structure melds seamlessly into the surrounding gardens. You can hardly see it from the street.
Rendering of planned White House ballroom
Now President Trump has announced that he will “modernize” (which must mean demolish) the East Wing and replace it with a huge, gaudy ballroom. At 90,000 square feet, the ballroom will dwarf the West Wing and even the residence. Naturally it will be adorned in white and gold (to get a flavor, have a look at the way Trump has decorated the Oval Office). This permanent disfigurement will solve a problem that doesn’t exist. When the president entertains more people than can comfortably fit in the East Room (about 200), tents are erected on the lawn complete with floors and walls. But Trump is dissatisfied with the historic building that was good enough for Lincoln and Eisenhower and Reagan. Ladies’ high heels sink into the grass, he says, explaining why he has also paved over the Rose Garden.
But rather than rail against this desecration of a key national symbol, perhaps it’s better to welcome it. The presidency will never be the same post-Trump, so why not the White House? Why not make concrete and visible the destruction of centuries-old norms and values? This president has just elevated to a Court of Appeals a lawyer who presided over a purge of FBI agents who investigated Trump for January 6th and instructed his underlings at the Justice Department to “F— the courts.” He has opened a criminal investigation into former Special Counsel Jack Smith on the specious charge of violating the Hatch Act. His attorney general has opened a disciplinary investigation of Judge James Boasberg because Boasberg privately expressed concerns that the Trump administration might, to borrow a phrase, “F— the courts.”
Read the rest at the Bulwark.
Later yesterday, Trump further made an ass of himself at an event about to the Olympics. The Los Angeles Times: Trump names himself chair of L.A. Olympics task force, sees role for military during Games.
In past Olympic Games held on American soil, sitting presidents have served in passive, ceremonial roles. President Trump may have other plans.
An executive order signed by Trump on Tuesday names him chair of a White House task force on the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, viewed by the president as “a premier opportunity to showcase American exceptionalism,” according to a White House statement. Trump, the administration said, “is taking every opportunity to showcase American greatness on the world stage.”
At the White House, speaking in front of banners adding the presidential seal to the logo for LA28, Trump said he would send the military back to Los Angeles if he so chose in order to protect the Games. In June, Trump sent the National Guard and U.S. Marines to the city amid widespread immigration enforcement actions, despite widespread condemnation from Mayor Karen Bass and other local officials.
“We’ll do anything necessary to keep the Olympics safe, including using our National Guard or military, OK?” he said. “I will use the National Guard or the military. This is going to be so safe. If we have to.”
Trump’s executive order establishes a task force led by him and Vice President JD Vance to steer federal coordination for the Games. The task force will work with federal, state and local partners on security and transportation, according to the White House.
Those roles have been fairly standard for the federal government in past U.S.-hosted Olympic Games. But Trump’s news conference could present questions about whether a president with a penchant for showmanship might assume an unusually active role in planning the Olympics, set to take place in the twilight of his final term.
There is ample precedent for military and National Guard forces providing security support during U.S.-hosted Olympic Games. But coming on the heels of the recent military deployment to Los Angeles, Trump’s comments may prove contentious.
Anyone who thinks Trump is planning to leave the White House at the end of his term is living in a fantasy world. He’s turning the White House into Mar-a-Lago North, and he doesn’t plan to leave. Next, he’ll build a golf course on White House grounds. Rachel Maddow said it out loud on Monday night.
The Wrap: Rachel Maddow Warns the US Isn’t Headed for Dictatorship: ‘We Are There.’
Rachel Maddow did not sugarcoat it for viewers: The MSNBC anchor warned viewers that the United States is not headed towards an authoritarian state under President Donald Trump: “We are there. It is here.”
“Life in the United States is profoundly changing and is profoundly different than it was even six months ago,” the anchor said Monday night on “The Rachel Maddow Show.” “Because we do now live in a country that has an authoritarian leader in charge, we have a consolidating dictatorship in our country.”
Maddow went on to paint the picture of what she called a caricature of an authoritarian state. She mentioned secret police, prison camps and individuals fired for speaking a truth that does not please their authoritarian leader.
“We’re beyond waiting and seeing now. It is clear what’s going on,” she said. “We have crossed a line. We are in a place we did not want to be, but we are there.”
She pointed to immigration raids happening nationwide, comparing ICE agents with masked secret police, even referring to immigrants as “the scapegoated enemy on whom all things must be blamed and against whom all things are justified.” Another element she raised was that Trump has turned military force inward on the American people.
In addition to acts of violence against Americans, Maddow noted that under this authoritarian rule protests must be criminalized and media must be intimidated into saying and doing what the leader wants. She added that top universities and law firms are also subject to funding cuts if they do not bow to the president.
And if you release facts to the contrary of the president, be careful.
“Because he said it, then it must be true, and if you say otherwise then you will be fired,” Maddow said.
Also during the Olympics event, Grandpa Trump repeated, for he umpteenth time, his insane ideas about California’s supposed mismanagement of water and forest fires.
oh my goodness — get a load of Trump's incoherent rant about water management in California (this is an event about the Olympics!)
In Epstein scandal news, Trump and Vance will meet with other top officials, including the Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General and the head of the FBI to discuss how to control the fallout from the highly unusual meeting of Assistant AG Todd Blanche with Ghislaine Maxwell and her subsequent transfer to a minimum security prison. Remember the days when the Department of Justice remained scrupulously independent of the president?
CNN: Top Trump officials will discuss Epstein strategy at Wednesday dinner hosted by Vance.
Top Trump administration officials will gather at the vice president’s residence Wednesday evening as they continue to weigh whether to publish an audio recording and transcript of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s recent conversation with Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
The administration’s handling of the Epstein case, as well as the need to craft a unified response, is expected to be a main focus of the dinner, three sources familiar with the meeting told CNN. The meeting will include White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Vice President JD Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Blanche.
Officials who will meet to discuss Epstein strategy
With the exception of Vance, the White House considers those officials the leaders of the administration’s ongoing strategy regarding the Epstein files, two of the sources said.
The meeting comes as Trump’s administration is considering releasing the contents of Blanche’s interview last month with Maxwell. Two officials told CNN that the materials could be made public as early as this week.
There have also been internal discussions about Blanche holding a press conference or doing a high-profile interview, possibly with popular podcaster Joe Rogan, according to three people familiar with the discussions, though those conversations are preliminary. Rogan, who endorsed Trump on the eve of last fall’s election, has been highly critical of the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein case and previously called their refusal release more information about Epstein a “line in the sand.”
Meanwhile, CNN previously reported that the Justice Department has been digitizing, transcribing and redacting the interview materials as they weigh if and when to publicly release the information from the Maxwell interview. There is over 10 hours of audio, a senior Trump administration official said. Portions of the transcript that could reveal sensitive details like victim names would also have to be redacted, one of the officials said.
One official told CNN that some of the conversation within the White House has focused on whether making the details from the interview public would bring the Epstein controversy back to the surface. Many officials close to Trump believe the story has largely died down.
Really? I don’t think so.
Meanwhile, in his supposed investigation of the Epstein files, GOP Rep. James Comer has issued subpoenas to a bizarre list of people. Politico: Comer issues subpoenas for DOJ’s Epstein files, depositions with former officials.
The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday issued subpoenas for Department of Justice records on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, as well as for interviews with a slate of former government officials in connection to the case.
Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) announced that he was summoning nearly a dozen former officials to appear for depositions on the Epstein investigation — a list that includes former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Former U.S. Attorneys General William Barr, Alberto Gonzales, Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder and Merrick Garland, as well as former FBI Directors Robert Mueller and James Comey were also tapped to give testimony in connection to the case.
Comer was required to send the subpoenas after a Democratic-led subcommittee vote in July.The move is the latest in a broader battle over the Epstein files, which took the Trump administration by storm last month as anger boiled over from within MAGA circles about the administration’s handling of the case.
The committee’s subpoena of Bill Clinton in particular seems more symbolic than substantive. No former president has ever testified to Congress under the compulsion of a subpoena — and lawmakers have tried only twice before: once in 1953, when the House Un-American Activities Committee subpoenaed Harry Truman, and once in 2022, when the Jan. 6 select committee subpoenaed Donald Trump.
Neither president testified in those instances, and the Justice Department has long cited Truman’s example — though not backed by any legal precedent — to suggest that it is improper for Congress to compel even former presidents to testify, given separation of powers concerns.
Yesterday The New York Times published photos from inside Jeffrey Epstein’s New York townhouse. The article also included the full text of a letter from Woody Allen on Epstein’s 63 birthday. (gift link): A Look Inside Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan Lair.
As a gift for Jeffrey Epstein’s 63rd birthday, friends sent letters in tribute to the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender. Several shared a common theme: recounting the dinner gatherings that Mr. Epstein regularly hosted at his palatial townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Ehud Barak, former prime minister of Israel, and his wife noted the great diversity of guests. “There is no limit to your curiosity,” they wrote in their message, which was compiled with others in January 2016. “You are like a closed book to many of them but you know everything about everyone.”
A sculpture of a bride clinging to a rope dangled in a central atrium of Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion.
The media mogul Mortimer Zuckerman suggested ingredients for a meal that would reflect the culture of the mansion: a simple salad and whatever else “would enhance Jeffrey’s sexual performance.”
And the director Woody Allen described how the dinners reminded him of Dracula’s castle, “where Lugosi has three young female vampires who service the place.” [….]
But Mr. Epstein’s prized property was no gloomy Transylvanian fortress. He had spent years turning the seven-story, 21,000-square-foot townhouse into a place where he could flaunt — and deepen — his connections to the rich and powerful, even as hints of his dark side lurked within, according to previously undisclosed photos and documents showing how he lived in his later years.
Since Mr. Epstein’s death in federal custody in 2019, which was ruled a suicide, many mysteries about his life have remained unsolved. How did he amass a nine-figure fortune? And why did so many powerful men continue to fraternize with him long after he became a registered sex offender?
The White House had pledged to release details about the federal investigations into Mr. Epstein and his associates. But this summer the Trump administration backpedaled. The ensuing right-wing outrage has threatened to splinter the Make America Great Again movement — for whom Mr. Epstein is a central figure in conspiracy theories — and has put Mr. Trump on the defensive like few other issues….
At least one other MAGA luminary also visited the townhouse: Stephen K. Bannon, a former adviser to Mr. Trump and an online media personality, who has said that he videotaped hours of interviews in the mansion with Mr. Epstein in 2019. Framed photos of Mr. Bannon — including a mirror selfie snapped by Mr. Epstein — were kept in at least two rooms in the mansion.
Use the gift link to read the rest if you’re interested.
The Guardian: Epstein scandal broadens as trove of letters from famous figures published.
The long-running scandal surrounding the disgraced late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein broadened on Tuesday after the New York Times published a trove ofpreviously unseen letters to Epstein from numerous powerful figures as well as unseen photographs from inside his Manhattan mansion.
The letters, written to Epstein by a number of high-profile individuals, were reportedly compiled as a birthday gift for Epstein’s 63rd birthday in 2016. Their publication comes amid intense speculation around Donald Trump’s ties to Epstein, who was found dead in a New York jail in 2019 and had long cultivated a celebrity social circle of the rich and powerful.
In one letter, former prime minister of Israel Ehud Barak and his wife wrote “there is no limit to your curiosity.”
“You are like a closed book to many of them but you know everything about everyone,” they wrote, describing Epstein as “A COLLECTOR OF PEOPLE”.
They continued: “May you enjoy long and healthy life and may all of us, your friends, enjoy your table for many more years to come.”
In a letter from film-maker Woody Allen, Allen reminisced about Epstein’s dinner parties at his Upper East Side townhouse and described the gatherings as “always interesting”. He noted that the parties included “politicians, scientists, teachers, magicians, comedians, intellectuals, journalists” and “even royalty”.
Allen also described the dinners as “well served”: “I say well served – often it’s by some professional houseman and just as often by several young women” who he said reminded him of “Castle Dracula where Lugosi has three young female vampires who service the place.”
Other letter writers reportedly included billionaire media mogulMortimer Zuckerman;Noam Chomsky and his wife; Joichi Ito, the former head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab; physicist Lawrence M Krauss; and Harvard biologist and mathematician Martin Nowak.
A few more insane stories:
BBC News: RFK Jr cancels $500m in funding for mRNA vaccines for diseases like Covid.
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) plans to cancel $500m (£376m) in funding for mRNA vaccines being developed to counter viruses that cause diseases such as the flu and Covid-19.
That will impact 22 projects being led by major pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer and Moderna, for vaccines against bird flu and other viruses, HHS said.
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine sceptic, announced he was pulling the funding over claims that “mRNA technology poses more risks than benefits for these respiratory viruses”.
Doctors and health experts have criticised Kennedy’s longstanding questioning of the safety and efficacy of vaccines and his views on health policies.
The development of mRNA vaccines to target Covid-19 was critical in helping slow down the pandemic and saving millions of lives, said Peter Lurie, a former US Food and Drug Administration official.
He told the BBC that the change was the US “turning its back on one of the most promising tools to fight the next pandemic”.
In a statement, Kennedy said his team had “reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted”. “[T]he data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu,” he said.
He said the department was shifting the funding toward “safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate”.
Kennedy also claimed that mRNA vaccines can help “encourage new mutations and can actually prolong pandemics as the virus constantly mutates to escape the protective effects of the vaccine”.
Health experts have said that viruses mutate regardless of whether vaccines exist for them.
NPR: Why a NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose.
The Trump administration has asked NASA employees to draw up plans to end at least two major satellite missions, according to current and former NASA staffers. If the plans are carried out, one of the missions would be permanently terminated, because the satellite would burn up in the atmosphere.
The data the two missions collect is widely used, including by scientists, oil and gas companies and farmers who need detailed information about carbon dioxide and crop health. They are the only two federal satellite missions that were designed and built specifically to monitor planet-warming greenhouse gases.
It is unclear why the Trump administration seeks to end the missions. The equipment in space is state of the art and is expected to function for many more years, according to scientists who worked on the missions. An official review by NASA in 2023 found that “the data are of exceptionally high quality” and recommended continuing the mission for at least three years.
Both missions, known as the Orbiting Carbon Observatories, measure carbon dioxide and plant growth around the globe. They use identical measurement devices, but one device is attached to a stand-alone satellite while the other is attached to the International Space Station. The standalone satellite would burn up in the atmosphere if NASA pursued plans to terminate the mission.
NASA employees who work on the two missions are making what the agency calls Phase F plans for both carbon-monitoring missions, according to David Crisp, a longtime NASA scientist who designed the instruments and managed the missions until he retired in 2022. Phase F plans lay out options for terminating NASA missions.
Crisp says NASA employees making those termination plans have reached out to him for his technical expertise. “What I have heard is direct communications from people who were making those plans, who weren’t allowed to tell me that that’s what they were told to do. But they were allowed to ask me questions,” Crisp says. “They were asking me very sharp questions. The only thing that would have motivated those questions was [that] somebody told them to come up with a termination plan.”
Joseph Cirincione, vice-chair of the Center for International Policy Board of Directors at MSNBC: We don’t need nuclear reactors on the moon.
If Transportation Secretary and acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy wanted to do his part to help provide a distraction from the Trump administration’s Jeffrey Epstein files scandal, his announcement of a plan to put nuclear reactors on the moon was a partial success. In the 24 hours after his announcement on Monday, he was briefly trending on social media, just behind Ghislaine Maxwell.
If he intended this to be a serious proposal for human occupation of the moon, he failed. For the near future, nuclear reactors on the moon are impractical, expensive and dangerous.
Duffy may not understand this. He has no experience in space or nuclear technology. He is a former Fox News host who became interim director in June when President Donald Trump pulled the nomination of Elon Musk’s choice, billionaire Jared Isaacman, after Trump’s breakup with Musk.
Space exploration has used nuclear materials for power for many decades. This is overwhelmingly in the form of radioisotope thermoelectric generators. These use plutonium-238, which gives off heat used to generate electric power for small probes, including some of the rovers on Mars. This typically involves 20 or 30 pounds of material. In fact, several of the Apollo missions left some behind on the moon were powered by such radioactive means.
But a nuclear reactor is another matter altogether. This would involve potentially hundreds of pounds of low-enriched uranium in yet-undeveloped small reactors delivered by space launchers that don’t exist.
Read more at the link. Also see this article from BBC News: Nasa to put nuclear reactor on the Moon by 2030 – US media.
That’s all I have for you today. What’s on your mind?
#2028Olympics #DonaldTrump #GhislaineMaxwell #greenhouseGasesData #JeffreyEpsteinNYTownhouse #JeffreyEpsteinScandal #mNRAVaccines #NASASatellites #NuclearReactorOnMoon #RepJamesComer #RFKJr #SeanDuffy #USDictatorship #WhiteHouseBallroomPlans
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Wednesday Reads
Good Afternoon!!
Trump shouts to reporters from White House roof.
Yesterday, Trump wandered around on the White House roof, and shouted inanities at reporters on the ground, including a joke about nuclear weapons. He is such an embarrassment.
ABC News: Trump takes unusual stroll on White House roof.
President Donald Trump made a surprise appearance on the White House roof above the briefing room in an apparent effort to inspect future construction.
The press, which had been pushed significantly down the driveway, attempted to figure out what was going on.
“Mr. President, what are you doing up there?”
“Just taking a little walk,” he shouted back.
“What are you building?”
“It goes with the ballroom, which is on the other side,” he said.
Pressed again by reporters, Trump said “Something beautiful,” while pantomiming with his hands.
Great. So he’s planning to wreck both the East and West wings?
The president was accompanied by a small group of aides and Secret Service. The group included architect Jim McCrery, who has been commissioned to add Trump’s ballroom to the White House. The two men appeared engaged in intense conversation as they surveyed the grounds with lots of animated pointing….
“What are you trying to build?” one reporter shouted.
“Missiles,” Trump responded, presumably joking. “Nuclear missiles,” he repeated while making the gesture of a rocket launching.
Q: Sir, what are you trying to build?TRUMP: Missiles. Nuclear missiles
Monica Charen at The Bulwark (Charen worked as Nancy Reagan’s speechwriter): Trump’s White House Renovation Is Awful—and Fitting.
Americans who haven’t visited the White House for a guided tour probably can’t picture the East Wing. There’s no TV show about it. It has no famous office to rival the Oval. There are relatively few photos of it in its current form.
As someone who worked there for six months (I moved to the West Wing after the 1984 election), allow me to sing its praises: The East Wing was built in 1902 as a visitors’ entrance and then expanded in 1942 to house the First Lady’s offices. Its style echoes the West Wing in design and footprint, which gives the White House complex a rough symmetry. Like the West Wing, it’s smaller than Hollywood imagines. It conveys stability and authority without ostentation. Unlike the West Wing, it’s flooded with sunlight and, at least when Nancy Reagan held court, adorned with fresh flowers. The two-story structure melds seamlessly into the surrounding gardens. You can hardly see it from the street.
Rendering of planned White House ballroom
Now President Trump has announced that he will “modernize” (which must mean demolish) the East Wing and replace it with a huge, gaudy ballroom. At 90,000 square feet, the ballroom will dwarf the West Wing and even the residence. Naturally it will be adorned in white and gold (to get a flavor, have a look at the way Trump has decorated the Oval Office). This permanent disfigurement will solve a problem that doesn’t exist. When the president entertains more people than can comfortably fit in the East Room (about 200), tents are erected on the lawn complete with floors and walls. But Trump is dissatisfied with the historic building that was good enough for Lincoln and Eisenhower and Reagan. Ladies’ high heels sink into the grass, he says, explaining why he has also paved over the Rose Garden.
But rather than rail against this desecration of a key national symbol, perhaps it’s better to welcome it. The presidency will never be the same post-Trump, so why not the White House? Why not make concrete and visible the destruction of centuries-old norms and values? This president has just elevated to a Court of Appeals a lawyer who presided over a purge of FBI agents who investigated Trump for January 6th and instructed his underlings at the Justice Department to “F— the courts.” He has opened a criminal investigation into former Special Counsel Jack Smith on the specious charge of violating the Hatch Act. His attorney general has opened a disciplinary investigation of Judge James Boasberg because Boasberg privately expressed concerns that the Trump administration might, to borrow a phrase, “F— the courts.”
Read the rest at the Bulwark.
Later yesterday, Trump further made an ass of himself at an event about to the Olympics. The Los Angeles Times: Trump names himself chair of L.A. Olympics task force, sees role for military during Games.
In past Olympic Games held on American soil, sitting presidents have served in passive, ceremonial roles. President Trump may have other plans.
An executive order signed by Trump on Tuesday names him chair of a White House task force on the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, viewed by the president as “a premier opportunity to showcase American exceptionalism,” according to a White House statement. Trump, the administration said, “is taking every opportunity to showcase American greatness on the world stage.”
At the White House, speaking in front of banners adding the presidential seal to the logo for LA28, Trump said he would send the military back to Los Angeles if he so chose in order to protect the Games. In June, Trump sent the National Guard and U.S. Marines to the city amid widespread immigration enforcement actions, despite widespread condemnation from Mayor Karen Bass and other local officials.
“We’ll do anything necessary to keep the Olympics safe, including using our National Guard or military, OK?” he said. “I will use the National Guard or the military. This is going to be so safe. If we have to.”
Trump’s executive order establishes a task force led by him and Vice President JD Vance to steer federal coordination for the Games. The task force will work with federal, state and local partners on security and transportation, according to the White House.
Those roles have been fairly standard for the federal government in past U.S.-hosted Olympic Games. But Trump’s news conference could present questions about whether a president with a penchant for showmanship might assume an unusually active role in planning the Olympics, set to take place in the twilight of his final term.
There is ample precedent for military and National Guard forces providing security support during U.S.-hosted Olympic Games. But coming on the heels of the recent military deployment to Los Angeles, Trump’s comments may prove contentious.
Anyone who thinks Trump is planning to leave the White House at the end of his term is living in a fantasy world. He’s turning the White House into Mar-a-Lago North, and he doesn’t plan to leave. Next, he’ll build a golf course on White House grounds. Rachel Maddow said it out loud on Monday night.
The Wrap: Rachel Maddow Warns the US Isn’t Headed for Dictatorship: ‘We Are There.’
Rachel Maddow did not sugarcoat it for viewers: The MSNBC anchor warned viewers that the United States is not headed towards an authoritarian state under President Donald Trump: “We are there. It is here.”
“Life in the United States is profoundly changing and is profoundly different than it was even six months ago,” the anchor said Monday night on “The Rachel Maddow Show.” “Because we do now live in a country that has an authoritarian leader in charge, we have a consolidating dictatorship in our country.”
Maddow went on to paint the picture of what she called a caricature of an authoritarian state. She mentioned secret police, prison camps and individuals fired for speaking a truth that does not please their authoritarian leader.
“We’re beyond waiting and seeing now. It is clear what’s going on,” she said. “We have crossed a line. We are in a place we did not want to be, but we are there.”
She pointed to immigration raids happening nationwide, comparing ICE agents with masked secret police, even referring to immigrants as “the scapegoated enemy on whom all things must be blamed and against whom all things are justified.” Another element she raised was that Trump has turned military force inward on the American people.
In addition to acts of violence against Americans, Maddow noted that under this authoritarian rule protests must be criminalized and media must be intimidated into saying and doing what the leader wants. She added that top universities and law firms are also subject to funding cuts if they do not bow to the president.
And if you release facts to the contrary of the president, be careful.
“Because he said it, then it must be true, and if you say otherwise then you will be fired,” Maddow said.
Also during the Olympics event, Grandpa Trump repeated, for he umpteenth time, his insane ideas about California’s supposed mismanagement of water and forest fires.
oh my goodness — get a load of Trump's incoherent rant about water management in California (this is an event about the Olympics!)
In Epstein scandal news, Trump and Vance will meet with other top officials, including the Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General and the head of the FBI to discuss how to control the fallout from the highly unusual meeting of Assistant AG Todd Blanche with Ghislaine Maxwell and her subsequent transfer to a minimum security prison. Remember the days when the Department of Justice remained scrupulously independent of the president?
CNN: Top Trump officials will discuss Epstein strategy at Wednesday dinner hosted by Vance.
Top Trump administration officials will gather at the vice president’s residence Wednesday evening as they continue to weigh whether to publish an audio recording and transcript of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s recent conversation with Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
The administration’s handling of the Epstein case, as well as the need to craft a unified response, is expected to be a main focus of the dinner, three sources familiar with the meeting told CNN. The meeting will include White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Vice President JD Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Blanche.
Officials who will meet to discuss Epstein strategy
With the exception of Vance, the White House considers those officials the leaders of the administration’s ongoing strategy regarding the Epstein files, two of the sources said.
The meeting comes as Trump’s administration is considering releasing the contents of Blanche’s interview last month with Maxwell. Two officials told CNN that the materials could be made public as early as this week.
There have also been internal discussions about Blanche holding a press conference or doing a high-profile interview, possibly with popular podcaster Joe Rogan, according to three people familiar with the discussions, though those conversations are preliminary. Rogan, who endorsed Trump on the eve of last fall’s election, has been highly critical of the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein case and previously called their refusal release more information about Epstein a “line in the sand.”
Meanwhile, CNN previously reported that the Justice Department has been digitizing, transcribing and redacting the interview materials as they weigh if and when to publicly release the information from the Maxwell interview. There is over 10 hours of audio, a senior Trump administration official said. Portions of the transcript that could reveal sensitive details like victim names would also have to be redacted, one of the officials said.
One official told CNN that some of the conversation within the White House has focused on whether making the details from the interview public would bring the Epstein controversy back to the surface. Many officials close to Trump believe the story has largely died down.
Really? I don’t think so.
Meanwhile, in his supposed investigation of the Epstein files, GOP Rep. James Comer has issued subpoenas to a bizarre list of people. Politico: Comer issues subpoenas for DOJ’s Epstein files, depositions with former officials.
The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday issued subpoenas for Department of Justice records on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, as well as for interviews with a slate of former government officials in connection to the case.
Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) announced that he was summoning nearly a dozen former officials to appear for depositions on the Epstein investigation — a list that includes former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Former U.S. Attorneys General William Barr, Alberto Gonzales, Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder and Merrick Garland, as well as former FBI Directors Robert Mueller and James Comey were also tapped to give testimony in connection to the case.
Comer was required to send the subpoenas after a Democratic-led subcommittee vote in July.The move is the latest in a broader battle over the Epstein files, which took the Trump administration by storm last month as anger boiled over from within MAGA circles about the administration’s handling of the case.
The committee’s subpoena of Bill Clinton in particular seems more symbolic than substantive. No former president has ever testified to Congress under the compulsion of a subpoena — and lawmakers have tried only twice before: once in 1953, when the House Un-American Activities Committee subpoenaed Harry Truman, and once in 2022, when the Jan. 6 select committee subpoenaed Donald Trump.
Neither president testified in those instances, and the Justice Department has long cited Truman’s example — though not backed by any legal precedent — to suggest that it is improper for Congress to compel even former presidents to testify, given separation of powers concerns.
Yesterday The New York Times published photos from inside Jeffrey Epstein’s New York townhouse. The article also included the full text of a letter from Woody Allen on Epstein’s 63 birthday. (gift link): A Look Inside Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan Lair.
As a gift for Jeffrey Epstein’s 63rd birthday, friends sent letters in tribute to the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender. Several shared a common theme: recounting the dinner gatherings that Mr. Epstein regularly hosted at his palatial townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Ehud Barak, former prime minister of Israel, and his wife noted the great diversity of guests. “There is no limit to your curiosity,” they wrote in their message, which was compiled with others in January 2016. “You are like a closed book to many of them but you know everything about everyone.”
A sculpture of a bride clinging to a rope dangled in a central atrium of Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion.
The media mogul Mortimer Zuckerman suggested ingredients for a meal that would reflect the culture of the mansion: a simple salad and whatever else “would enhance Jeffrey’s sexual performance.”
And the director Woody Allen described how the dinners reminded him of Dracula’s castle, “where Lugosi has three young female vampires who service the place.” [….]
But Mr. Epstein’s prized property was no gloomy Transylvanian fortress. He had spent years turning the seven-story, 21,000-square-foot townhouse into a place where he could flaunt — and deepen — his connections to the rich and powerful, even as hints of his dark side lurked within, according to previously undisclosed photos and documents showing how he lived in his later years.
Since Mr. Epstein’s death in federal custody in 2019, which was ruled a suicide, many mysteries about his life have remained unsolved. How did he amass a nine-figure fortune? And why did so many powerful men continue to fraternize with him long after he became a registered sex offender?
The White House had pledged to release details about the federal investigations into Mr. Epstein and his associates. But this summer the Trump administration backpedaled. The ensuing right-wing outrage has threatened to splinter the Make America Great Again movement — for whom Mr. Epstein is a central figure in conspiracy theories — and has put Mr. Trump on the defensive like few other issues….
At least one other MAGA luminary also visited the townhouse: Stephen K. Bannon, a former adviser to Mr. Trump and an online media personality, who has said that he videotaped hours of interviews in the mansion with Mr. Epstein in 2019. Framed photos of Mr. Bannon — including a mirror selfie snapped by Mr. Epstein — were kept in at least two rooms in the mansion.
Use the gift link to read the rest if you’re interested.
The Guardian: Epstein scandal broadens as trove of letters from famous figures published.
The long-running scandal surrounding the disgraced late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein broadened on Tuesday after the New York Times published a trove ofpreviously unseen letters to Epstein from numerous powerful figures as well as unseen photographs from inside his Manhattan mansion.
The letters, written to Epstein by a number of high-profile individuals, were reportedly compiled as a birthday gift for Epstein’s 63rd birthday in 2016. Their publication comes amid intense speculation around Donald Trump’s ties to Epstein, who was found dead in a New York jail in 2019 and had long cultivated a celebrity social circle of the rich and powerful.
In one letter, former prime minister of Israel Ehud Barak and his wife wrote “there is no limit to your curiosity.”
“You are like a closed book to many of them but you know everything about everyone,” they wrote, describing Epstein as “A COLLECTOR OF PEOPLE”.
They continued: “May you enjoy long and healthy life and may all of us, your friends, enjoy your table for many more years to come.”
In a letter from film-maker Woody Allen, Allen reminisced about Epstein’s dinner parties at his Upper East Side townhouse and described the gatherings as “always interesting”. He noted that the parties included “politicians, scientists, teachers, magicians, comedians, intellectuals, journalists” and “even royalty”.
Allen also described the dinners as “well served”: “I say well served – often it’s by some professional houseman and just as often by several young women” who he said reminded him of “Castle Dracula where Lugosi has three young female vampires who service the place.”
Other letter writers reportedly included billionaire media mogulMortimer Zuckerman;Noam Chomsky and his wife; Joichi Ito, the former head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab; physicist Lawrence M Krauss; and Harvard biologist and mathematician Martin Nowak.
A few more insane stories:
BBC News: RFK Jr cancels $500m in funding for mRNA vaccines for diseases like Covid.
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) plans to cancel $500m (£376m) in funding for mRNA vaccines being developed to counter viruses that cause diseases such as the flu and Covid-19.
That will impact 22 projects being led by major pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer and Moderna, for vaccines against bird flu and other viruses, HHS said.
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine sceptic, announced he was pulling the funding over claims that “mRNA technology poses more risks than benefits for these respiratory viruses”.
Doctors and health experts have criticised Kennedy’s longstanding questioning of the safety and efficacy of vaccines and his views on health policies.
The development of mRNA vaccines to target Covid-19 was critical in helping slow down the pandemic and saving millions of lives, said Peter Lurie, a former US Food and Drug Administration official.
He told the BBC that the change was the US “turning its back on one of the most promising tools to fight the next pandemic”.
In a statement, Kennedy said his team had “reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted”. “[T]he data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu,” he said.
He said the department was shifting the funding toward “safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate”.
Kennedy also claimed that mRNA vaccines can help “encourage new mutations and can actually prolong pandemics as the virus constantly mutates to escape the protective effects of the vaccine”.
Health experts have said that viruses mutate regardless of whether vaccines exist for them.
NPR: Why a NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose.
The Trump administration has asked NASA employees to draw up plans to end at least two major satellite missions, according to current and former NASA staffers. If the plans are carried out, one of the missions would be permanently terminated, because the satellite would burn up in the atmosphere.
The data the two missions collect is widely used, including by scientists, oil and gas companies and farmers who need detailed information about carbon dioxide and crop health. They are the only two federal satellite missions that were designed and built specifically to monitor planet-warming greenhouse gases.
It is unclear why the Trump administration seeks to end the missions. The equipment in space is state of the art and is expected to function for many more years, according to scientists who worked on the missions. An official review by NASA in 2023 found that “the data are of exceptionally high quality” and recommended continuing the mission for at least three years.
Both missions, known as the Orbiting Carbon Observatories, measure carbon dioxide and plant growth around the globe. They use identical measurement devices, but one device is attached to a stand-alone satellite while the other is attached to the International Space Station. The standalone satellite would burn up in the atmosphere if NASA pursued plans to terminate the mission.
NASA employees who work on the two missions are making what the agency calls Phase F plans for both carbon-monitoring missions, according to David Crisp, a longtime NASA scientist who designed the instruments and managed the missions until he retired in 2022. Phase F plans lay out options for terminating NASA missions.
Crisp says NASA employees making those termination plans have reached out to him for his technical expertise. “What I have heard is direct communications from people who were making those plans, who weren’t allowed to tell me that that’s what they were told to do. But they were allowed to ask me questions,” Crisp says. “They were asking me very sharp questions. The only thing that would have motivated those questions was [that] somebody told them to come up with a termination plan.”
Joseph Cirincione, vice-chair of the Center for International Policy Board of Directors at MSNBC: We don’t need nuclear reactors on the moon.
If Transportation Secretary and acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy wanted to do his part to help provide a distraction from the Trump administration’s Jeffrey Epstein files scandal, his announcement of a plan to put nuclear reactors on the moon was a partial success. In the 24 hours after his announcement on Monday, he was briefly trending on social media, just behind Ghislaine Maxwell.
If he intended this to be a serious proposal for human occupation of the moon, he failed. For the near future, nuclear reactors on the moon are impractical, expensive and dangerous.
Duffy may not understand this. He has no experience in space or nuclear technology. He is a former Fox News host who became interim director in June when President Donald Trump pulled the nomination of Elon Musk’s choice, billionaire Jared Isaacman, after Trump’s breakup with Musk.
Space exploration has used nuclear materials for power for many decades. This is overwhelmingly in the form of radioisotope thermoelectric generators. These use plutonium-238, which gives off heat used to generate electric power for small probes, including some of the rovers on Mars. This typically involves 20 or 30 pounds of material. In fact, several of the Apollo missions left some behind on the moon were powered by such radioactive means.
But a nuclear reactor is another matter altogether. This would involve potentially hundreds of pounds of low-enriched uranium in yet-undeveloped small reactors delivered by space launchers that don’t exist.
Read more at the link. Also see this article from BBC News: Nasa to put nuclear reactor on the Moon by 2030 – US media.
That’s all I have for you today. What’s on your mind?
#2028Olympics #DonaldTrump #GhislaineMaxwell #greenhouseGasesData #JeffreyEpsteinNYTownhouse #JeffreyEpsteinScandal #mNRAVaccines #NASASatellites #NuclearReactorOnMoon #RepJamesComer #RFKJr #SeanDuffy #USDictatorship #WhiteHouseBallroomPlans
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Lazy Caturday Reads: Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, and More News
Good Afternoon!!
Elizabeth Taylor with her Siamese cat, 1956, photo by Sanford Roth
Epstein, Epstein, Epstein. He’s everywhere in the news. We still haven’t seen the DOJ Epstein files, but we’re already learning more about Epstein’s relationship to Trump from the recently released text messages. We don’t know yet how bad it will get when the files are released, but the extent to which Trump is publicly panicking suggests it will be very bad for him.
In Trump’s latest effort to control the Epstein story, he ordered Attorney General Bondi to investigate Democrats who had connections to the child sex trafficker.
Acceding to President Donald Trump’s demands, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday that she has ordered a top federal prosecutor to investigate sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to Trump political foes, including former President Bill Clinton.
Bondi posted on X that she was assigning Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to lead the probe, capping an eventful week in which congressional Republicans released nearly 23,000 pages of documents from Epstein’s estate and House Democrats seized on emails mentioning Trump.
Trump, who was friends with Epstein for years, didn’t explain what supposed crimes he wanted the Justice Department to investigate. None of the men he mentioned in a social media post demanding the probe has been accused of sexual misconduct by any of Epstein’s victims.
Hours before Bondi’s announcement, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he would ask her, the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “involvement and relationship” with Clinton and others, including former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and LinkedIn founder and Democratic donor Reid Hoffman.
Trump, calling the matter “the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans,” said the investigation should also include financial giant JPMorgan Chase, which provided banking services to Epstein, and “many other people and institutions.”
There’s no evidence that any of the people Trump is targeting were involved in sexual abuse or sex trafficking.
A JPMorgan Chase spokesperson, Patricia Wexler, said the company regretted associating with Epstein “but did not help him commit his heinous acts.”
“The government had damning information about his crimes and failed to share it with us or other banks,” she said. The company agreed previously to pay millions of dollars to Epstein’s victims, who had sued arguing that the bank ignored red flags about criminal activity.
Clinton has acknowledged traveling on Epstein’s private jet but has said through a spokesperson that he had no knowledge of the late financier’s crimes. He also has never been accused of misconduct by Epstein’s known victims.
Clinton’s deputy chief of staff Angel Ureña posted on X Friday: “These emails prove Bill Clinton did nothing and knew nothing. The rest is noise meant to distract from election losses, backfiring shutdowns, and who knows what else.” [….]
Summers and Hoffman had nothing to do with either case, but both were friendly with Epstein and exchanged emails with him. Those messages were among the documents released this week, along with other correspondence Epstein had with friends and business associates in the years before his death.
Nothing in the messages suggested any wrongdoing on the men’s part, other than associating with someone who had been accused of sex crimes against children.
At Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson writes:
In a transparent attempt to distract from the many times his own name appears in the documents from the Epstein estate members of the House Oversight Committee released Wednesday, President Donald J. Trump asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Democrats whose names appeared in the documents. He singled out former president Bill Clinton, former treasury secretary Lawrence H. Summers, and Reid Hoffman, who founded LinkedIn and who is a Democratic donor.
Marlon Brando and cat
Although the attorney general is the nation’s chief law enforcement officer and is supposed to be nonpartisan in protecting the rule of law, Bondi responded that the Department of Justice “will pursue this with urgency and integrity.” Maegan Vazquez and Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post note that reporters have already covered the relationship of Epstein with Clinton, Summers, and Hoffman for years, and that in July, Justice Department officials said an examination of the FBI files relating to Epstein—a different cache than Wednesday’s—“did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
Meidas Touch noted: “In normal times, it would be a major scandal for the President to direct his AG to criminally investigate his political opponents to deflect from his own involvement in a major scandal—and for the AG to immediately announce she is doing it. The Epstein scandal and cover up just got even bigger.”
This scandal truly has Trump flailing. I hope this will be the one that really brings him down, but he somehow seems to wriggle out of every scandal. But he certainly is terrified of the Epstein files being released.
Politico: House plans to vote Tuesday on releasing Epstein files.
House Republican leaders are planning to hold a vote Tuesday on legislation to force the release of federal files related to Jeffrey Epstein, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss internal plans ahead of a public announcement.
The tentative scheduling decision follows a successful effort by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) to sidestep Speaker Mike Johnson and force a floor vote on their bipartisan bill to compel the Justice Department to release all of its records related to the late convicted sex offender.
President Donald Trump has made repeated attempts to kill the effort, which continued in a series of Truth Social posts Friday. But Johnson said Wednesday he intends to move quickly to hold the vote and put the matter to bed.
Under the current GOP plan, the House Rules Committee would approve a procedural measure Monday night to advance eight bills for floor consideration, including language to tee up the Epstein legislation. If that measure is approved on the floor, likely early Tuesday afternoon, debate and a final vote on the Epstein bill could immediately follow. GOP leaders are considering whether to postpone the Epstein vote until Tuesday evening….
The four Republicans who signed on to the discharge petition forcing the vote — Massie, plus Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Nancy Mace of South Carolina — are likely to examine Johnson’s moves very closely. They could together block any procedural measure that would undercut the Epstein legislation, postpone it or otherwise alter it.
One more story on the Epstein texts from Jason Wilson at The Guardian: Steve Bannon advised Jeffrey Epstein for years on how to rehab his reputation, texts show.
Hundreds of texts over almost a year show Maga influencer Steve Bannon and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein workshopping legal and media strategies to protect Epstein from the legal and publicity quagmire that enveloped him in the last year of his life.
The texts, released by the House oversight committee on Wednesday, show that as early as June 2018, the pair were devising responses to the gathering storm of public outrage about Epstein’s criminal history, his favorable treatment by the justice system, and his friendships with powerful figures in business, politics and academia.
Bannon conspiratorially described the renewed scrutiny of Epstein as a “sophisticated op”, and over time he counseled Epstein in his adversarial responses to media outlets, the justice system and his victims.
All the while, both men were also strategizing how best to promote Bannon’s rightwing populist agenda, and the political fortunes of its standard bearer, Donald Trump.
In all of Epstein’s messages, the identity of his correspondent is redacted. But Bannon’s identity in the threads cited in this reporting is clear from contextual clues including his documented activities at the time, details of his business and media pursuits, and other disclosures. In one document, the sender’s phone number is not redacted – and it is the same number linked to Bannon in a legal case against Trump adviser Roger Stone.
Read the rest at The Guardian.
Trump is also beginning to panic about the economy and the negative effects of his insane tariffs.
David J. Lynch at The Washington Post: Trump goes on defense over tariffs as prices on everyday items keep rising.
President Donald Trump’s bid Friday to sootheconsumers by dropping tariffs on a wide array of groceries, including coffee, beef, bananas and tomatoes — contradicting his repeated claims that the levies were not affecting retail prices — shows he is on the defensive over his signature policy initiative.
Public opposition, eroding support on Capitol Hill and a potentially lethal challenge before the Supreme Court have Trump scrambling to defend his economic strategy even as the administration notches diplomatic agreements that are cementing its high-tariff approach to rebalancing global trade.
Sophia Loren with her cat, 1959
Public opinion is the immediate worry, following recent Democratic electoral victories in Virginia and New Jersey that were fueled by Americans’ ire over the cost of living. By a nearly 2-to-1 margin, registered voters disapproved of the president’s tariffs in a recent Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll, a finding that has been consistent all year and could imperil Republican candidates in next year’s congressional elections.
The president on Friday issued an executive order rolling back import taxes on many foods, his most significant retreat on the emergency tariffs he imposed in April, which were billed at the time as loophole-free. In September, the White House had signaled that some products that are not generally produced in the United States could be spared tariffs once nations where they originate reached trade deals with the United States. But Friday’s exemptions apply to products from any nation, even those that have not agreed on trade terms.
“They know that they shouldn’t have imposed a lot of these tariffs and that they’re hurting affordability for consumers. Now they’re looking for a way to justify lowering them. And that’s fine. But did we really need to go through all this in the first place?” said Christopher Padilla, senior adviser to the Brunswick Group and a former trade official in the George W. Bush administration….
This week’s tariff cuts appear aimed at responding to public concern over high prices. Inflation overall is running at an annual rate of 3 percent, above the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target for price stability but well down from the mid-2022 peak of 9.1 percent.
Prices on many everyday items, however, continue to soar. Through September, the most recent data available, coffee prices were up 19 percent over the previous 12 months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bananas were up 7 percent.
Elizabeth Buchwald at CNN: Trump’s latest tariff TACO probably won’t make your life more affordable.
Americans could soon see some goods get cheaper after President Donald Trump exempted certain agricultural imports from a set of tariffs on Friday. But any price drops likely won’t be enough to make life feel more affordable any time soon.
The executive order exempted products like coffee, beef and some fruit from Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs, which began rolling out in April.
The new exemptions are part of what traders have dubbed TACO, or Trump Always Chickens Out, to describe times when the president backs off a policy after unintended consequences pop up. In the case of tariffs, Trump has already reversed a number of his measures, a sign that the administration is reshaping his signature economic tool.
The latest TACO comes after voters, worried about affordability, gave Republicans a drubbing in recent off-year elections.
Why this likely won’t help consumers much:
Nevertheless, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the new exemptions generally won’t help improve affordability.
“It depends on what the importers do with the tariff,” he said in a CNBC interview on Friday. “So when you look at the overall price trend, it hasn’t been because of tariffs. It’s been because of these other events going on and just supply and demand.”
Steve Martin and cat
But in cases where tariffs have been passed along to consumers, prices could drop, Greer said.
One potential example: bananas. American consumers are paying about 8% more for bananas than before Trump’s second term began.
The US largely imports bananas from South American countries. With bananas exempt from “reciprocal” tariffs that started at 10%, prices could go back to where they were earlier this year, said Sarah House, senior economist at Wells Fargo. But it’s unlikely to be something most consumers notice unless they’re buying bananas often, she added.
But not everyone is convinced it will even do that much.
“It is not clear that lowering tariffs will lower prices — it depends on what retailers think they can get away with. The import price of bananas has fallen since tariffs were imposed, but the US consumer price has risen,” Paul Donovan, chief economist at UBS global wealth management, said in a note last week. (The United States tracks import prices before accounting for tariffs. In some cases, import prices have fallen as exporters lower what they charge as a way to share in the tariff expense importers pay.)
More analysis at the CNN link.
Another flop: Trump’s soybean deal with China may have just been a mirage. AP: USDA data casts doubt on China’s soybean purchase promises touted by Trump.
New data the Agriculture Department released Friday created serious doubts about whether China will really buy millions of bushels of American soybeans like the Trump administration touted last month after a high-stakes meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The USDA report released after the government reopened showed only two Chinese purchases of American soybeans since the summit in South Korea that totaled 332,000 metric tons. That’s well short of the 12 million metric tons that Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said China agreed to purchase by January and nowhere near the 25 million metric tons she said they would buy in each of the next three years.
American farmers were hopeful that their biggest customer would resume buying their crops. But CoBank’s Tanner Ehmke, who is its lead economist for grains and oilseed, said there isn’t much incentive for China to buy from America right now because they have plenty of soybeans on hand that they have bought from Brazil and other South American countries this year, and the remaining tariffs ensure that U.S. soybeans remain more expensive than Brazilian beans.
“We are still not even close to what has been advertised from the U.S. in terms of what the agreement would have been,” Ehmke said.
Beijing has yet to confirm any detailed soybean purchase agreement but only that the two sides have reached “consensus” on expanding trade in farm products. Ehmke said that even if China did promise to buy American soybeans it may have only agreed to buy them if the price was attractive.
Will Trump try to distract from the Epstein files and his failures on the economy by taking us to war with Venezuela?
David E. Sanger, Eric Schmit, Tyler Pager, and Zolan Kanno-Youngs at The New York Times (gift link): Trump Escalates Pressure on Venezuela, but Endgame Is Unclear.
The Trump administration is rapidly escalating its pressure campaign against Venezuela, with America’s largest aircraft carrier, the Ford, about to take up a position within striking distance of the country, even as President Trump’s aides provide conflicting accounts of what, exactly, they are seeking to achieve.
Mr. Trump held back-to-back days of meetings at the White House over the past two days, reviewing military options, including the use of Special Operations forces and direct action inside Venezuela.
Marlyn Monroe with her cat
It is still not clear whether Mr. Trump has made a decision about what kind of action to authorize, if any. On Friday, he told reporters on Air Force One that “I sort of made up my mind.” “I can’t tell you what it is,” he said, “but we made a lot of progress with Venezuela in terms of stopping drugs from pouring in.”
It is possible Mr. Trump is relying on the arrival of so much firepower to intimidate the government of Nicolás Maduro, who the United States and many of its allies say is not Venezuela’s legitimate president. Mr. Maduro has put his forces on high alert, leaving the two countries with their weapons cocked and ready for war.
There were signs that the administration was moving into a new and more aggressive posture. Shortly after a meeting on Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on social media that the mission in the Caribbean now had a name — “Southern Spear.” He described its goal in expansive terms, saying the operation “removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere.”
“The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood,” he wrote, “and we will protect it.” With the arrival of the Ford and three accompanying missile-firing Navy destroyers, there are now 15,000 troops in the region, more than there have been at any time in decades.
The only thing missing is a strategic explanation from the Trump administration that would clarify why the United States is amassing such a large force. Mr. Hegseth’s posting on X was only the latest in a series of statements from administration officials that, at best, are in tension with one another. Some are outright contradictory.
Mr. Trump has been the most consistent, saying it is all about drugs. But that would not explain why the Ford was rushed from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Caribbean region, adding to an American force that has now reached 15,000 soldiers and sailors, to attack small boats that until early September had been intercepted by the Coast Guard. Nor would it explain why Colombia or Mexico — Mexico being the main conduit for fentanyl — are not in the Navy’s sights.
Dan Lamothe, Tara Copp, Michael Birnbaum, and Noah Robertson: Trump weighs Venezuela strikes as U.S. forces prepare for attack order.
President Donald Trump said Friday night that he has “sort of made up my mind” about how he will proceed with the possibility of military action in Venezuela, following a second consecutive day of deliberations at the White House that included top national security advisers.
Trump’s vague remarks aboard Air Force One were delivered as he traveled for the weekend to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and included no additional new details. The comments came as U.S. forces in the region awaited possible attack orders and after days of high-level discussions about whether — and how — to strike in Venezuela, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter is highly sensitive. Joining Trump in deliberations Friday were Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, these people said.
Robert Redford with his cat
Earlier in the day, an administration official said “a host of options” had been presented to the president. Trump is “very good at maintaining strategic ambiguity, and something he does very well is he does not dictate or broadcast to our adversaries what he wants to do next,” the official said.
Any strike on Venezuelan territory would upend the president’s frequent promises of avoiding new conflicts and betray promises made to Congress in recent weeks that no active preparations were underway for such an attack. It also would further complicate U.S. cooperation with other Latin American countries, and deepen suspicions — there and in Washington — over whether Trump’s endgame is the forced removal of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, whom Trump has accused of sending drugs and violent criminals to the United States.
Maduro, a socialist strongman, came to power in Caracas in 2013 and increasingly has become a fixation for Trump.
In August, U.S. officials increased the reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction from $25 million to $50 million, citing alleged ties to drug cartels and U.S. beliefs dating back to the Biden administration that he lost Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election and refused to step down.
“The United States is very plugged into what’s going on in Venezuela, the chatter among Maduro’s people and the highest levels of his regime,” the administration official said. “Maduro is very scared, and he should be scared. The president has options on the table that are very bad for Maduro and his illegitimate regime. … We view this regime as illegitimate, and it’s not serving the Western Hemisphere well.”
President Donald Trump has said he believes Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s days are numbered, and that land strikes inside Venezuela are possible.
Experts say that the US doesn’t currently have the military assets in place to launch a largescale operation to remove Maduro from power, though Trump has approved covert action within Venezuela, CNN has reported.
Bette Davis with cat
But if Trump did order strikes inside Venezuela aimed at ousting Maduro, he could face serious challenges with fractured opposition elements and a military poised for insurgency, according to experts, as well as political backlash at home for a president who promised to avoid costly entanglements overseas.
CNN reported that Trump received a briefing earlier this week to review updated options for military action inside Venezuela, a concept the White House has been weighing. The administration had not made a decision on whether to launch strikes, CNN reported, though the US military has moved more than a dozen warships and 15,000 troops into the region as part of what the Pentagon branded Operation Southern Spear in an announcement Thursday.
The concentration of military assets and threats of further attacks beyond the ongoing drug boat campaign have served to increase pressure on Maduro, with administration officials saying he needs to leave office while arguing that he’s closely tied to the Tren de Aragua gang and leading drug trafficking efforts.
But if Maduro does flee Venezuela or is killed out in a targeted strike, experts worry about a military takeover of the country or the boosting of another dictator similar to Maduro.
Read the rest at CNN.
Those are my recommended reads. I’ll add a few more links in the comment thread. What stories are you interested in today?
#BillClinton #catArt #caturday #ChinaSoybeanPurchases #DonaldTrump #EpsteinFiles #JeffreyEpstein #LarrySummers #NicolasMaduro #PamBondi #ReidHoffman #SteveBannon #TACOTrump #TrumpTariffs #Venezuela