Notices by Chuck Darwin (cdarwin@c.im), page 22

Located in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province, China,
it is one of only about 200 identified craters worldwide
and is very young in geological years.

Based on measurements of nearby soil erosion,
it likely formed during the early-to-mid Holocene
—our current geological epoch, which began at the end of the last ice age about 11,700 years ago.

With a diameter of 900 meters, it is the largest known impact crater from this era
—far exceeding Russia's 300-meter Macha crater, previously the largest known Holocene impact structure
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-earth-largest-modern-crater-southern.html

In late 2026, Voyager 1 will become the first human-made object to reach one light-day away from Earth. 

https://www.iflscience.com/on-november-13-2026-voyager-will-reach-one-full-light-day-away-from-earth-81432

Plaques commemorating African American soldiers fighting against Nazi Germany in Europe
have been removed from a U.S. military cemetery in the Netherlands.

Approximately 1 million African American soldiers fought in Europe during World War II.

More than 8,200 Americans are buried at the Netherlands American Cemetery in the southern village of Margraten, just east of city of Maastricht.

Another 1,700 officially counted as missing have their names displayed at the site, according to the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC),
the U.S. agency responsible for the Dutch site.

A total of 174 African American soldiers are buried or memorialized at Margraten, according to the Dutch research project, the Black Liberators.

It is the only U.S. military cemetery in the country.

Dutch media reported earlier this month two informational panels about African American soldiers in the mid-20th century war had been taken down in the cemetery's visitors' center.

A local official who was granted anonymity to speak freely told Newsweek the ABMC did not inform authorities in the Limburg province, where the cemetery is located, of the removal.

https://www.newsweek.com/memorial-to-black-us-soldiers-who-died-in-ww2-quietly-removed-11020241

Strip away the fine words about peace and solidarity,
and China’s core offer in 2026 to countries being bullied by Donald Trump is this:
"You know where you are with us.”
But that promise of predictability cuts both ways.

https://www.economist.com/the-world-ahead/2025/11/10/american-isolationism-is-a-golden-opportunity-for-china?link_source=ta_bluesky_link&taid=691573edd7340b000167e61f&utm_campaign=editorial-social&utm_content=discovery.content&utm_medium=social-media.content.np&utm_source=bluesky

Donald Trump is planning to allow new oil and gas drilling off California’s coast, according to reports.

New drilling in those waters has not been permitted in about 40 years.

The Trump administration’s move would set the stage for conflict with California Governor Gavin Newsom, a major Trump critic and staunch opponent of offshore drilling.

Newsom said the plan would be “dead on arrival in California” and the state would challenge it in court.

The Department of the Interior could announce the plan as soon as this week.
However, some analysts have said energy companies are not likely to be very interested in expanding drilling off California.
https://www.1011now.com/2025/11/12/trump-plans-allow-oil-drilling-off-californias-coast-report-says/

FEDERAL WEBSITES ARE PLASTERED WITH MAGA PROPAGANDA.

IT IS'NT LEGAL

The Trump administration is using taxpayer money to blame Democrats for the shutdown

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/hatch-act-trump-admin-violating-dems-shutdown-1235460985/

Trump’s former chief political adviser, Steve Bannon, is urging him to get the elections “squared away”
even before the voters have a chance to weigh in.

Former legal advisers have suggested the electoral system is in itself an emergency justifying extraordinary intervention,
-- possibly including federal agents and the military stationed outside polling stations.

A year out from the 2026 midterms, with Republicans feeling the blows from a string of losses in this week’s elections,
Donald Trump and his allies are mounting a multipronged attack on almost every aspect of voting in the United States
and raising what experts say are troubling questions about the future of one of the world’s oldest democracies.

While Democratic leaders continue to invest their hopes in a “blue wave” to overturn Republican majorities in the House and Senate next year,
Trump and some prominent supporters have sought to discredit the possibility that Republicans could lose in a fair fight
and are using that premise to justify demands for a drastically different kind of electoral system.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/09/trump-midterm-elections-voting-system?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Federal authorities told demonstrators Friday that there would be
“no more prayer”
in front of or inside the Broadview ICE facility,
in a move that mystified local leaders and raised legal questions.

https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/07/feds-tell-faith-leaders-no-more-prayer-outside-broadview-facility/

I see my departure as a blessing, to be honest.

I think in this moment, not being a part of corporate media is actually a gift.

Because from now, on the outside looking in, I don’t know that I could live with the kind of restrictions that people in corporate media are facing

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/08/joy-reid-msnbc?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

The story of Bruce Springsteen’s father shows what is obscured by the nostalgic narrative about a lost golden age of American manhood,
Mitchell Duneier writes.

“Today’s crisis didn’t begin with the loss of manufacturing jobs, and simply bringing those jobs back won’t solve it.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/opinion/bruce-springsteen-father-men-america.html?smtyp=cur&smid=bsky-nytimes

France starved, Louis and Marie build magnificent buildings, threw fancy parties, and glutted on exotic foods.

Too bad Trump slept through history classes.
It didn’t turn out well for them,
and I hope Trump eventually sees accountability.

https://bsky.app/profile/gerardtb.bsky.social/post/3m54s22s2622z

With little public scrutiny,
the Trump administration is handing out hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts to some of the country’s most profitable companies and wealthiest investors.

The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service,
through a series of new notices and proposed regulations,
are giving breaks to giant private equity firms, crypto companies, foreign real estate investors, insurance providers and a variety of multinational corporations.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/business/trump-administration-tax-breaks-wealthy.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

We are at most a few years away from the mainstream media becoming controlled top to bottom, with a few very exceptions, by ultrarich conservatives and their hirelings.

CBS News is gone;
CNN seems about to follow.
The Los Angeles Times installed an AI-powered “bias meter” to warn readers against taking some of what they read in the paper’s columns at face value.
And all across the country, local news is on a ventilator;
the right-wing Sinclair network is taking over everywhere,
and the Trump Federal Communications Commission is lending a hand.

https://newrepublic.com/article/202581/washington-post-right-wing-bezos?utm_campaign=SF_TNR&utm_source=Bluesky&utm_medium=social

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, authorized the purchase of Spirit Airlines jets before discovering the airline didn’t actually own the planes – and that the aircraft lacked engines.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/08/kristi-noem-spirit-airlines-planes?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Jamie Raskin, a House judiciary committee member and congressman from Maryland,
has accused the justice department of a
“shameful and gigantic cover-up”.

He demands to know why the Trump administration
“inexplicably killed” a criminal investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged
co-conspirators

despite the fact that nearly 50 women had provided information to prosecutors and the FBI
as part of the years-long investigation into Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who was jailed in 2022.

He claimed the women had identified to investigators
at least 20
co-conspirators.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/04/jamie-raskin-justice-department-epstein-investigation?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Australia has so much solar that it’s offering everyone free electricity.

“The program would require electricity retailers to provide free electricity to everyone for at least three hours a day"

https://kottke.org/25/11/0047800-australia-has-so-much-sol

Led by Trump ally and founder of the notorious mercenary firm Blackwater,
Erik Prince

Military contractors proposed (among other ideas) that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) create a
“skip tracing team”
that would send out private contractors to hunt down immigrants targeted for deportation.

Now, there are indications ICE is carrying out those plans
https://www.levernews.com/inside-ices-plans-for-a-bounty-hunter-army/

Military contractors called for
— and are now getting
— contracts to help carry out Trump’s mass deportations,
🔥with a bounty for every immigrant they track down.

https://www.levernews.com/inside-ices-plans-for-a-bounty-hunter-army/

IRS Direct File,
the electronic system for filing tax returns for free,
will not be offered next year,
the Trump administration has confirmed.

An email sent Monday from IRS official Cynthia Noe to state comptrollers that participate in the Direct File program said that
“IRS Direct File will not be available in Filing Season 2026. No launch date has been set for the future.”
The program developed during Joe Biden’s presidency
was credited by users with making tax filing easy, fast and economical.
However, it faced criticism from Republican lawmakers,
who called it a waste of taxpayer money because free filing programs already exist (though they are difficult to use),
and from commercial tax preparation companies, which have made billions from charging people to use their software.
https://apnews.com/article/irs-direct-file-not-available-2026-04f2d0c31bec80b55d122a0e76e08c36