[advisory.com] From 1997 to 2023, at least 60% of Americans reported drinking alcohol. That number dropped to 62% in 2023 and 58% in 2024 before hitting 54% this year. Before the most recent poll, the rate of alcohol consumption has been below 60% fewer than 10 times, including at 58% in 1939 and 55% in 1958. The highest alcohol consumption rate seen in the poll so far has been 68% and 71%, recorded between 1974 and 1981. OK. That's the "what"; the question is "why". What significantly wide-spread event could this decline be attributed to? Rhetorical question: "How long will it take for all the Covid-vax effects to effectuate?" Considering Little Billy Gates' willingness to muck with humanity "for it's own good" and his connections and communications with the Vax crowd, it's a legitimate question. Did they pull a "Carrie Nation" on us? Test case: My own consumption after two vax shots is down from a bottle of fireball a month to a bottle sitting half full for 2 years.
/snark... maybe
Posted by: chris ||
02/08/2026 1:45 Comments ||
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#3
I've been drinking regularly in the 54 years I've been married.
Correlation is not causation, however.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/08/2026 2:02 Comments ||
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#4
Last time I was drunk was Sept 1976. I got married and decided it was more important to focus $$ on a family. Only 3 toasts since then, all in honor of fallen friends.
#5
Nightclubs in NYC and LA are closing as men aren't buying women drinks any more.
They figure, why should I? I've got no future, can't buy a house, my job is insecure and will likely be offshored soon, but it was all worth it for a few years of really cheap lawncare.
#9
The demographics of the USA changed a lot during this period (btw, people older than 60 tend to drink less alcohol). Unless you adjust for that, the raw numbers don't mean much.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
02/08/2026 11:40 Comments ||
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#10
I ended up drinking more during COVID. I've been drinking less since we moved to TX in late 2023. That's because I don't often drink alone and have not built a new social network yet.
Since a lot more people are moving post COVID that may be part of the explanation.
#12
Every man has to believe in something. I believe I'll have a drink.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/08/2026 14:36 Comments ||
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#13
A friend who owns a very successful bar — neighbourhood hangout with good music variety, not a dive or a fern bar — attributes it directly to pot legalization. She now stocks those drinks containing THC, which helps, but smokers roll their own and don’t really drink, especially not the mixed drinks where the profit is. Because the music is a big draw, the crowd is decidedly mixed, from college age to long retired, so it is less about old people not drinking much.
Another possibility is GLP-1 weight loss drugs, which apparently blunt interest in alcohol as much as they blunt interest in eating. I suspect the real answer is All of the Above, not any one thing.
[IISS] This report examines different expressions of maritime insecurity in the Horn of Africa region and considers the influence of external actors and key non-state armed groups over this domain.
After an overview of some of the key land-based political and security challenges confronting Somalia, the report analyses the resurgence of piracy in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean since late 2023, the smuggling of munitions, components and dual-use items between the Horn of Africa and Yemen, and the evolving competition over ports and foreign military bases across the region.
Somalia has been the site of a protracted security and governance crisis since the shattering of its state institutions in the final years of the Cold War. This crisis has reverberated within the Horn of Africa, but also across the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. The shards of the Somali state have been gradually pieced back together, with a fragmented (but internationally supported) federal state nominally in charge of southern and northeastern areas of the country, and a breakaway Republic of Somaliland more effectively projecting power over Somalia’s northwest, while seeking international recognition.
These successor states have been locked into an uneasy coexistence, as the federal government in Mogadishu – with the assistance of regional and international militaries – attempts to stave off jihadist insurgents, notably al-Shabaab.
Instability in Somalia has shaped – and is increasingly shaped by – maritime-security dynamics. Somali piracy has had an outsized effect on global shipping, though the region has also experienced growing competition over both commercial and military ports. This report focuses primarily on these evolving dynamics of maritime security that surround the littoral states of the Horn of Africa, specifically the Federal Republic of Somalia, the Republic of Somaliland, and the comparatively stable Republic of Djibouti.
The report surveys different expressions of maritime insecurity in the region, and traces the influence of external interests and key non-state actors over this domain. Following an overview of some of the key land-based political and security challenges confronting Somalia – notably tensions surrounding Somali’s planned 2026 presidential elections, amid mounting territorial gains made by al-Shabaab – the report engages with the resurgence of piracy in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean since late 2023.
The recent deterioration of maritime security has followed a prolonged period of relative calm in the waters off the Somali coast, which resulted in the redeployment of international anti-piracy fleets and the relaxation of commercial risk-management practices. These factors – alongside the distraction posed by Houthi attacks in the Red Sea – have converged to create an opening that Somali pirates have been quick to exploit. Although Somali piracy remains at lower levels than during its 2008–13 peak, its re-emergence speaks to a failure to address security deficiencies on land and to tackle piracy’s underlying causes.
The report then examines the flow of munitions, components and dual-use items between the Horn of Africa and Yemen. The combination of state-sponsored arms supplies, primarily from Iran, and the activities of smugglers and arms brokers on both sides of the Gulf of Aden has created a dense network of trading relations that has thrived in the context of internal conflicts and geopolitical discord. This network appears to largely transcend ideological divisions, to the benefit of armed groups across the region, and may give rise to increased sharing of technical knowledge among armed groups, notably with regards to missiles and uninhabited aerial vehicles.
[Amazon] Our debates about immigration revolve around what happens with immigrants once they arrive. We need to start talking about who is sending them and why. For decades, establishment elites sold us the story of immigration as a compassionate renewal of the American Dream within a harmonious melting pot.
But beneath that narrative lies a different reality: Mass migration has morphed into the most powerful political weapon ever aimed at the United States—one engineered by elites at home and aided by adversaries abroad. Now Peter Schweizer, the bestselling investigative journalist of our time, is blowing the lid off this whole series of schemes.
Backed by years of forensic fieldwork and a trove of confidential documents and intercepted communications—linking political leaders, global NGOs, and even drug cartels—Schweizer detonates a political shock wave eclipsing his past bombshells, revelations that have sparked FBI probes and bipartisan reforms.
Urgent, shocking, and overflowing with national security implications, The Invisible Coup makes America’s greatest political threat visible for all to see—and solve.
Before the introduction:
"A nation can survive its fools and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banners openly. But the traitor moves among those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor - he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and garments, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation - he works secretly and alone in the night to undermine the pillars of a city - he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resists. A murderer is less to be feared." ---M. Tullii Ciceronis, Orationum Para I.[-III]
Interesting article, while Epstein was certainly a monster, the MSM and the far left keep acting like what Epstein was doing was as obvious as a third eye in the middle of Epstein's forehead.
[NoPasaran] No matter how shrewd you (rightfully) think Donald Trump is, you do not appreciate his brains enough.
Admit it, like myself you have been wondering why Trump and Pam Bondi did not immediately release the documents relating to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, as the GOP candidate promised during his 2024 campaign. Lots of conservatives have been extremely vocal in their criticism of the (non-)move. It turns out that the White House was completely right to do so (or, rather, to refrain from doing so) and that there was/is method to 47's madness. (Tusen takk for the Instalink, Sarah.)
They knew how intertwined Europe's élites (not just the Scandinavians) have been with Epstein and his island (photos above and below of Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit — who may now be denied the option to ever become queen when her husband ascends the throne — and the country's former prime minister Thorbjørn Jagland who has additionally held several international posts).
In the past year, The Democrat Party's Locofocos have gone increasingly bonkers over releasing the Epstein files, which they assumed must contain the most sordid revelations on Donald Trump. As millions of documents are released, it turns out that to a large extent (to nobody's surprise), it is mainly leftists, American as well as foreign, who are embroiled. Or, as Wretchard the Cat puts it, eloquently:
The irony is the Epstein files were supposed to sink MAGA but the torpedoes are running circular.
Thanks to the Republican president holding back on his promise, foreign élites will not now be able to accuse their "tactless," "brainless," and "inconsiderate" nemesis of gratuitously and irresponsibly releasing the confidential documents, as it is the Democrats' drama queens — their fellow leftist allies (whom they support in just about every endeavor) — who have been fighting to make the documents public. They are the only ones, or certainly the main ones, to blame.
I wouldn't be surprised if, during his talks with foreign officials (unless the premier talked to is part of the visitor roster to Little Saint James) over the past 12 months, the president has in private been repeatedly saying: "By the way, Look, I am trying to hold the fort here; a lot of people in your country are mentioned in the files and that's why I have been trying to limit their release, but the Democrats' fire eaters may leave us no choice."
Genius.
In related news: Calling Epstein "A math nerd with charisma", Daniel J. Flynn reports that The Epstein Enigma Unravels Ever-So Slightly in Bannon Interview:
Jeffrey Epstein called himself a “hermit” in two hours of 2019 interview footage just released. This seemed strange but probably on one level accurate. Despite his name invading the news with increasing ferocity over the last two decades, Epstein’s Woody Allen-ish voice remained completely unknown to me, and perhaps to many who follow current events, until his conversation with Steve Bannon was uploaded to YouTube. Stranger still, watching Epstein discourse on myriad topics for two hours resulted in no compulsion to immediately take a shower. Unlike with, say, Harvey Weinstein or Jimmy Savile, the mere look of Epstein did not provoke a visceral reaction of disgust. The disgust comes on an intellectual level after actively thinking about his deviance rather than on a physiognomic level while passively watching him speak. In fact, the more Epstein talked to Bannon, the more I wanted him to talk — and for Bannon to let him. He mesmerized. A reason beyond the money and the dark pleasures of Epstein Island existed for so many people to voluntarily pursue his company. Epstein was, to use an albeit overused word, brilliant. This superlative risks upsetting a coalition of simpletons and highbrains, who regard "smart," "intelligent," and "genius" as shorthand for every other positive attribute to include "righteous," "wise," "prudent," "dependable," and "good." Tellingly, the Marine Corps includes "intelligence" nowhere in its 14 leadership traits. …
#1
I don't think Trump is responsible for the slow release of the files.
There was a lot to go through, the equivalent of several million pages, and effort had to be made to avoid showing victims and compromising evidence that could be used in future trials. And this effort wasn't perfectly done because some victim images were shown in documents released.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
02/08/2026 11:37 Comments ||
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#2
^ Perhaps not and maybe I'm just not seeing it, but it seems that most of the files released so far are showing the various prominent Europeans that were involved with Epstein.
We'll see if there is a correlation between the members of Congress retiring and the Epstein files.
[JP] The understanding has sunk in that the winner in battle will be the one who holds the smartest model inside the missile’s head, and no less importantly, inside the commander’s observation tools.
"There are also errors, and the wisdom lies in training and preparing both the operator and the machine to deal with them," said Col. (res.) Yaron Sherig, head of the Defense Ministry’s AI and Autonomy Directorate at MAFAT, in an interview with Maariv last week.
The challenge facing the AI and Autonomy Directorate goes beyond developing machines and robots. It is focused on the ability to deliver these capabilities at an industrial pace to the operational edge. As preparations for a multi-front war are already underway, development time has become a critical resource.
To preserve the technological gap with the enemy, the directorate has enlisted dozens of startup companies, implementing the strategy of the Defense Ministry’s Director General, and former deputy IDF chief of staff, Maj. Gen. (res.) Amir Baram, summarized as "An accelerating work pace, aimed at ensuring that every sophisticated algorithm is quickly transformed into a tool in the hands of the fighter in the field."
The Directorate of Defense, Research and Development (DDR&D), also known as MAFAT, is a joint administrative body of the Israel Ministry of Defense.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[advisory.com] From 1997 to 2023, at least 60% of Americans reported drinking alcohol. That number dropped to 62% in 2023 and 58% in 2024 before hitting 54% this year. Before the most recent poll, the rate of alcohol consumption has been below 60% fewer than 10 times, including at 58% in 1939 and 55% in 1958. The highest alcohol consumption rate seen in the poll so far has been 68% and 71%, recorded between 1974 and 1981.
[Amazon] Our debates about immigration revolve around what happens with immigrants once they arrive. We need to start talking about who is sending them and why. For decades, establishment elites sold us the story of immigration as a compassionate renewal of the American Dream within a harmonious melting pot.
