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Links 2/3/2025

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What We Can Learn From a Dog’s Way of Looking At the World Lit Hub

Why Does February (Usually) Have 28 Days? Conversable Economist

Climate/Environment

After wildfires, what distance are extra precautions a good idea to protect against smoke, soot, and ash exposures? Harvard School of Public Health

Wildfires and Arctic ice clouds: An unexpected connection Earth.com

Pandemics

CDC says Kansas tuberculosis outbreak isn’t the largest. Here’s what KDHE meant The Topeka Capital-Journal

Kansas tuberculosis outbreak reminds us of long battle for public health — and importance of trust Kansas Reflector

Africa

More than 700 killed as DR Congo military fights M23 rebels Al Jazeera

What’s Happening In Congo Is A Proxy War! African Stream

***

Trump Vows to Cut Off Aid to South Africa Over Land Policy Bloomberg

Musk, Thiel and the shadow of apartheid South Africa FT. From September, still germane.

The Koreas

How MAGA Made Its Way to South Korea In These Times

Trade Wars

Here are some goods in the crosshairs of Trump’s tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China AP

Monopoly Round-Up: What Did Trump Just Do on Tariffs? BIG by Matt Stoller

Trump’s tariffs, cuts may well put tech in a chokehold, say analysts The Register

PRESIDENT TRUMP’S TARIFFS ARE A NECESSARY SOLUTION The White House

***

Mexico vows retaliation to Trump tariffs without detailing targets Reuters

List of products from the United States subject to 25 per cent tariffs effective February 4, 2025 Department of Finance Canada

Tariff war with US likely to put Canada into recession, say economists Business Standard

***

Trump’s Oil Tariffs A Boost For European And Asian Refiners Reuters

EU ‘will respond firmly’ if Trump decides to impose tariffs on the bloc Euronews

Trump appears to spare Britain tariffs – for now The Business Times

China?

China Shrugs Off New Trump Tariffs but Bruising Trade War Looms Asharq Al-Awsat

China’s factory activity growth slows again as Trump tariffs loom South China Morning Post

Big Swing: Chinese golf cart makers are moving to US to dodge tariff blitz

Old Blighty

UK seeks smoother trade with EU but customs union is ‘red line’, Cooper says The Guardian

The sewage crisis is your fault: How water firms use same deceptive tactics as Big Oil and Big Tobacco Big Issue

Syraqistan

Gaza deal’s future hangs on Trump-Netanyahu meeting Axios

Netanyahu heads to Washington to meet Trump, hoping to ‘redraw’ Middle East Times of Israel

ICC issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas commander UN News. From Nov. 21, apparently not still germane.

Netanyahu to postpone talks on second phase of ceasefire deal Al Mayadeen

Families of Israeli hostages accuse Netanyahu, government of obstructing swap deal Anadolu Agency

Trump invites Jordan’s Abdullah to White House while pushing him to take in Gazans The Times of Israel

***

Iran unveils new air defence system and ballistic missile Bne Intellinews

Syria’s new leader al-Sharaa meets Saudi crown prince on first trip abroad France24

European Disunion

It’s France vs. the rest on buying US weapons Politico

New Not-So-Cold War

From Proxy War to Proxy Peace Let Me Tell You…

Both Ukraine, Russia must ‘give a little’ to end war, Trump envoy says AFP

Zelenskyy Says Excluding Ukraine From US-Russia Talks About War is ‘Very Dangerous’ AP

***

The Empty Tank: Is Demise of the Ukrainian Army Near? Gordon Hahn, Russian & Eurasian Politics

Europe Divided Over Plans to Escalate Ground Force Deployments in Ukraine: France and UK Lead Push For Escalation Military Watch \

European leaders will ‘wag tails’ for Trump – Putin RT

***

Zelenskyy: Putin fears talks with Ukraine as he cannot admit defeat Ukrainska Pravda

Panama Canal

Won’t renew Belt and Road deal with China, says Panama president amid US pressure The Economic Times

Rubio’s Stop in Panama Opens a Campaign Against ‘Shadow Fleet’ of Vessels Skirting U.S. Sanctions on Iran and Russia New York Sun

Imperial Collapse Watch

Senior USAID security officials put on leave after attempting to refuse Musk’s DOGE access to agency systems CNN

Is this the same Musk who said “We will coup whoever we want”?:

A lot of celebration about the Trump administration/DOGE coming for USAID, but:

Trump 2.0

Elon Musk spent more than $290 million on the 2024 election, year-end FEC filings show CNN

The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover Wired.

Education Department places dozens of officials on leave over Trump’s DEI order, union says USA Today

We need an international alliance against the US and its tech industry Disconnect

Kamala

CBS agrees to release Harris transcript to FCC amid Trump lawsuit The Hill

Democrats en déshabillé

‘We Have No Coherent Message’: Democrats Struggle to Oppose Trump New York Times. They have a message:

And:

Police State Watch

Oklahoma’s Mental Health System Under Threat: A Deep Dive into House Bill 1343 Dissent Speaks. “….proposes to completely dissolve the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS) and transfer all its functions to the Department of Corrections.”

Immigration

Marines arrive at Guantanamo Bay as Trump’s migrant deportation plan moves ahead at warp speed Daily Mail

Homeland security chief declines to say whether women, children to be held at Guantánamo The Guardian

Texas National Guard to make immigration arrests under Trump admin deal Axios

AI

DeepSeek might not be as disruptive as claimed, firm reportedly has 50,000 Nvidia GPUs and spent $1.6 billion on buildouts Tom’s Hardware

DeepFreak Epsilon Theory

Add F*cking to Your Google Searches to Neutralize AI Summaries Gizmodo

Class Warfare

Teamsters bureaucracy calls off Costco strike at last minute, sparking outrage from workers WSWS

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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159 comments

      1. The Rev Kev

        Oh my. So USAID – which probably also means the CIA – declared war on Trump to get his orange a** thrown into prison last year. But they lost and now Trump is looking for vengeance as he has never been the forgive and forget type. As payback, he is dismantling USAID and I say good riddance myself. But it is more than that. If the CIA were actually behind this lawfare themselves, this would be Trump telling them that he is taking one of their favourite toys off of them and smashing it as payback. The spooks may have six ways to Sunday to mess with him but Trump knows now that he has the seventh day to do the same to them.

        1. mrsyk

          Wow. Just wow. Perhaps I’ve been a bit overzealous heaping all the blame on Trump for razing our institutions to the ground, since that looks like that’s been underway for awhile now. More at 11:00 I guess.
          Friggin NGOs.

      2. dave -- just dave

        I asked X’s chatbot Grok about Mike Benz’s accuracy record. Reply went into some detail, but the summing up was:

        Conclusion:

        Mixed Record: Mike Benz’s accuracy on social media appears to be mixed. While he has brought valid points to light regarding potential government and tech collaborations, his track record includes instances of misinformation or exaggerated claims, particularly when linked to controversial or conspiracy-laden narratives.
        Critical Consumption: For those following Benz, it’s advisable to approach his claims with a critical eye, cross-referencing them with other credible sources and considering the context of his statements, especially given his controversial associations.
        Need for Verification: Given the nature of social media and the complexity of topics like digital censorship and freedom, any claim by Benz or similar figures should be subject to verification from multiple, unbiased sources before being accepted as factual.

        In summary, while Benz might touch on true aspects within his broader narratives, his overall accuracy is debated, and his claims should not be taken at face value without further investigation.

        I think it is a mistake to believe him.

        And, even if his claims are true, then it indicates that USAID sometimes is used for purposes like this. On the other hand, other funds at USAID actually support real programs which benefit people directly, and the U.S. indirectly. Misuse of funding would be the sort of thing that Inspectors General should look into.

        1. mrsyk

          I can’t stand listening to him bro this, bro that, and yes, a grain of salt. In this particular instance, he’s drawing conclusions by examining the revenue streams, a technique I support, but would benefit from a look at accounting practices within USAID, Fair and Just Prosecution, and Tides to support his conclusion. For instance, are pools of money segregated? When does the word “fungible” apply?
          As for the good things USAID may do, those all suffer devaluation by being twinned with the purposes of its donors, particularly when those “purposes” turn out to be “promoting one’s book”, as opposed to promoting public wellbeing.

        2. tegnost

          Maybe ask grok about usaids record, you know, for balance…
          That said, imo that grok said such and such is largely as meaningless as it’s opine regarding the spooks, so never mind.

        4. John Wright

          One can see that USAid gave 336 million in humanitarian aid to Gaza on Sept 24, 2024.

          This is evidence of a “real USAID program”.

          If one divides by 2 million Gazans, that is less than $200 per capita for a country destroyed with much assistance from the US.

          Then there is the question of how much of that aid effectively arrived in Gaza.

          Perhaps USAID is mainly feel good optics.

        5. Yves Smith

          We said no quoting AI here and we mean it.

          Next one gets ripped out. That means the entire thread too.

          Do it again after that and you will be blacklisted.

        6. Skip Intro

          Sam?
          Samantha Power?
          Is that you?

          Regurgitating a BS summary of collected smears and censorship attempts hardly counts as an argument.

        7. jsn

          Smith Mundt Act revision of 2012 allows psy ops domestically by the Agencies and their proxies.

          That this has taken a political form should be no surprise.

          These entities were built for political regime change abroad, their application domestically would obviously be used to support the same politics.

        8. Bsn

          It’s all about source documents. Not Weekypedia, not “press releases”, not Grock. Benz has produced may source materials, has Grock???

        9. JustTheFacts

          You do realize grok isn’t intelligent… right?

          At best, it just tells you what the majority of texts in its training data are likely to respond to your question.

  2. flora

    File under healthcare. A long read from Unlimited Hangout. (I’ve got a bad feeling about this.)

    Thiel-Linked HHS Nominee Threatens MAHA Ambitions with Biotech Stance

    Biotech investor and Peter Thiel associate Jim O’Neill is poised to usher in a deregulatory paradigm that would allow a proliferation of dubious products on the US market under the guise of “innovation” and “efficiency.”

    https://unlimitedhangout.com/2025/01/investigative-reports/thiel-linked-hhs-nominee-threatens-maha-ambitions-with-biotech-stance/

    1. Mark Gisleson

      If you don’t know enough not to buy snake oil, that’s a failure of our schools, not our health system ; )

      1. mrsyk

        Phase three trials released to the wild. Who needs ethics in research? (That’s sarcasm)
        If you’re desperate for a “cure”, and traditional sources are beyond your reach…..well, let’s just say it might color your judgement.

        1. Terry Flynn

          I was part of the key Bristol centre running the Protect study of treatment for prostate cancer in the first decade of this century. At times it felt like half the dept had been dragooned into the study to find something – anything – reportable that did not read as “this has been over-blown”.

          Recently, as usual, the Guardian breathlessly reported on prostate cancer now being the most prevalent in the UK. As Yves has pointed out repeatedly, even the Daily Mail often does better reporting on health. And, indeed, a letter had to be reported warning that we shouldn’t freak out too much. (Readers of this site know full well of the truly scary public health issues that could be coming our way.)

          Just so I don’t come off as uncaring, yes I had 2 family friends who died of prostate cancer. However, the stats are clear and when the guy who co-invented the PSA test gave a guest lecture during the “Protect years” saying he was unsure whether he has added or subtracted to total human happiness by promoting the test, then you must wonder. Question question question ourselves. I still find it ironic that my former colleagues find it uncomfortable that they boast about one of the biggest best trials ever in cancer…..and yet it concluded (largely though not exclusively) “do nothing”,

      2. jsn

        A failure engineered by more or less the same people (California, glibertarian “conservatives”) two generations ago.

        I remember the Reaganites coming after “critical thinking” via their attack on the Humanities back in the early 80s.

        This attack opened the door for the Post Modernists in who’s narrative hall of mirrors we’ve been bouncing off the glass for 40 years.

          1. mrsyk

            This attack opened the door for the Post Modernists in who’s narrative hall of mirrors we’ve been bouncing off the glass for 40 years. Lol. And I’ve got the bruises to prove it.
            narrative hell it is, I want to replace “hell” with something that eludes to the echo chamber, but Narrative Canyon sounds like a Louis L’Amour title.

  3. vao

    This sentence just does not parse in my opinion:

    After wildfires, what distance are extra precautions a good idea to protect against smoke, soot, and ash exposures?

    What about the other readers of NC? Or is it a quirk of the English language that a non-native speaker cannot grasp but that would be typical of the grammar used by the Harvard School of Public Health? Or have AI redactional bots struck again?

    1. The Rev Kev

      It’s not you it’s them. That is a very poorly constructed sentence in English so literacy standards must be really dropping fast at Harvard to come up with something like that.

        1. mrsyk

          There’s no author listed on that Harvard piece. It has the appearance and the anodyne tone of being AI generated, and looks alarmingly like the many public health issuances from the CDC regarding the pandemic.

          “Big Brother, that you?”

          1. mary jensen

            ” idea to protect”: at least the “to” is correct (not too nor two).

            That sentence is a smouldering disaster zone.

      2. JMH

        Literacy standards have dropped. I taught English to young adolescents in recent years. I gained a reputation as a writing guru. All I did was hammer them to write simply and directly, to never forget the simple declarative sentence. To use short words. to say what they wanted to say and stop. I had a list of “rules” that I stole from George Orwell, the last of which was, “Break any of these rules rather than say something absolutely barbarous. Once freed from the notion that sounding “erudite and sophisticated” was the goal and embracing simplicity, most went on to become more nuanced and truly sophisticated. Even so, these students were not up to the level of those of 20 or 30 years ago.

        Why is this so? Young people today in the great majority do not read. Yes, they read the assigned books … if they cannot find a summary … but they are not eclectic readers. They tend not to push themselves, to try “harder” books that expand vocabulary and exposure to complexity wherein you absorb sophisticated use of language. At least that’s one reason and no, I am not saying no young people are eclectic readers because some are and, yes, their writing is usually more advanced.
        Then there is the mobile phone and social media and online dictionaries and an app for this and an app for that which consume hours each day for many, child and adult.
        I grew up in a print and audio culture way back when. I am still more comfortable with print than with visual media. I took to television when it came along in my teens, but radio had its charms. That has all changed. Images, still and moving, have been pervasive for, what, two generations? No wonder print media and literacy are in decline. The youngest can barely write or read cursive.
        There is much more to the perceived decline in literacy in the United States. This is my sketch.
        I have been all over the place with this to the point that you may question the statement that alI was thought a writing guru. Believe me that was in the minds of others.

      1. Steven A

        My thought, too. Adding at turns an incoherent sentence into a dumb question. It’s one that should be asked before wildfires.

      2. Alice X

        I would make it more direct:

        Wild fires produce smoke, soot and ash which are hazardous to health and require special precautions within a certain distance.

        What is the certain distance is the question. A considerable distance I would surmise.

  4. The Rev Kev

    “Trump appears to spare Britain tariffs – for now”

    Is this like how the civilians living in Hiroshima and Nagasaki noticed that they were being spared the American heavy bombing campaign in 1945? They knew that it meant something but they did not know what exactly.

  5. Zagonostra

    >Syria’s new leader al-Sharaa meets Saudi crown prince on first trip abroad France24

    The new Syrian authorities have received a steady stream of diplomatic visitors since toppling Assad in December.

    I spoke to a Syrian lady that works in the back kitchen in a small restaurant in a small town in the middle of PA. She came out to talk to me since she heard me speaking with the owner. She is flying back with her husband to visit family near Aleppo. I asked her if the situation had stabilized in Syria and whether she felt safe. Her answer, in very broken English was that she was hopeful. I asked if I could interview her? You could see the fear in her eyes, she declined and went to the kitchen.

  6. ChrisFromGA

    [Bugler plays taps]

    Ladies and Gents, let’s have a moment of silence for the Magnificent Seven stocks (NVDA, MSFT, AAPL, etc.)

    It was an epic run, but all things must pass. It’s feasting time for bears.

  7. Zagonostra

    Russian Market
    @runews

    Zelensky says Ukraine only received around $75 billion of the $177 billion in aid sent by the United States.
    “I don’t know where all this money is.”

    For all those in Congress who voted against an auditor being established to trace where the money was going and how it was being spent as a condition of funding, should be forced to cough up the $100 billion from pet MIC spending projects in their district.

    1. ilsm

      Some of the last $60B which GOP leader Johnson folded on last summer was $20B for the costs incurred by USEUCOM in Ramstein, direct combat support funds for costs incurred by EUCONM supporting Kiev. I suspect that tranche was similar to spending before this last tranche.

      Then there is funding for USSOPACECOM satellite operations and US airborne sensors and targeting comms……

      Lots of bill holders around the US’ combatant command structure.

      Zelenski won’t have dibs on funds that restocked Biden’s disbursement of US war stocks.

  8. YuShan

    “Europe Divided Over Plans to Escalate Ground Force Deployments in Ukraine: France and UK Lead Push For Escalation”

    From the article:
    Nevertheless, the deployment of large formations of active ground units could have a new impact on the conflict, as such ‘flag bearing’ forces may well be protected by their countries’ overseas arsenals including their nuclear deterrents, in order to deter Russian forces fro advancing or striking them.

    They are completely delusional if they think the Russians will hold back. Quite the opposite: Western ground forces will be an absolute magnet for Russian strikes. The Russians know that once body bags start coming to the UK and France, what was left of support for this war among the general public in the West will evaporate real quick. Even to the point of bringing down governments.

  9. Wukchumni

    Goooooooood Mooooooooorning Fiatnam!

    Its not as if the platoon wasn’t prepared for a tariffist attack and resulting over the counter measures, it was our commander in-chief’s signature move, hell, Helen Keller would have seen it coming. Despair over disparity.

    Semper finance, Mac.

  12. Mark Gisleson

    I’d like Senator Schumer to explain why the price of pizza will go up after tariffs. Is he getting his delivered from Italy? The only two imported ingredients used in pizza are optional: Canadian bacon, and olives. And to be honest, I think the Canadian bacon is made here and not imported.

    Almost all pizza ingredients are agricultural commodities that we grow a surplus of and export.

    Schumer needs new staff, preferably at least one of whom did not go to college.

    2. Dr. John Carpenter

      Yeah, I had the same reaction. But I’d assume there’s not a Dem out there who knows how the pizza is made.

      1. The Rev Kev

        As far as politics is concerned, there is nobody in Dem leadership who even knows how the political sausage is made.

      2. albrt

        Wouldn’t you think the dems would have learnt how to make pizza with all the time they spent hanging around the Comet Ping Pong Pizzeria?

    3. anahuna

      I hope DJG, Reality Czar, will pardon me from wefomment me for quoting from his comment on this morning’s thread under “Trump Declares Economic War….”. Re tomatoes:

      But what truly indicated to me how messed up the U.S. economy is was the tomatoes. Yes, tomatoes. In the third week of September, which is high tomato season in the Great Lakes States, the Jewel food store was carrying only tomatoes from Mexico and Canada. The indy produce market across the street had only one kind of tomatoes from the U.S. of A. They were from Michigan, which is normal in Chicago. They also were too sweet, as if to reinforce the stereotype that U.S. foodstuffs are cloying.”

    4. Wukchumni

      Superbowl party banter as imagined by Chuck…

      ‘Geeze did you see that play, what a catch!, and I was almost thinking of not feeding you today on account of the price of pizza going up so much on account of you know who’s tariffs.’

      1. griffen

        BYOG. “Bring Your Own Guacamole.”

        Wait a sec, the TV is telling me that Mexico finagles an extra month, so the tariffs that were threatening to commence this month are being pushed out…

        This’ll be like watching the RedZone option from the NFL. Hey look so and so for the Panthers might actually score a touchdown…never mind, just a simple FG. My thoughts are that we’re going to be in scoreboard watching for the foreseeable future, and I mean long after this coming SB match up…

  13. Terry Flynn

    Adding the swearword to my first google search had no benefit. I suspect Google has already begun patching the loophole. Using Firefox with add-ons on a Linux machine, “What is the maxdiff” gave an industry sponsored link as first hit (which is objectively wrong*) but at least the sidebar from wikipedia was there to put the reader right/provide the academic links.

    “What is the f*cking maxdiff” merely eliminated the wikipedia sidebar but, more worryingly, gave an even worse summary from an industry source seeking your survey design money.

    *I recently noticed that my open access research article in the top choice modelling journal co-authored with the guy who practically invented the field and the guy who calculated the damages for the Exxon Valdez case has now become my most cited article. It was, and is, intended to explain crucial differences between these “techniques” of surveying and be a primer to the novice, written before we had AI try to do this job. I am laughing hollowly at the AI hype.

    1. Mark Gisleson

      I asked Google who I was and got all links to my same-named nephew.

      I asked Google who the #@$! I was and all the links were to me.

      Not a fair test. In forums not moderated by Yves, I’m somewhat notorious for swearing. In fact, when I went back to college one of my instructors told me they’d never graded a blue book exam in which the student swore as much as I had. It was in the context of the Hutsi genocide of the Tutsis and I stand by those swears.

      1. The Rev Kev

        ‘I’m somewhat notorious for swearing.’

        Gee, that almost makes you an honorary Aussie. :)

        1. Joe Renter

          When I was in my surfing days, about 18 or so, a couple of Aussie surfers stayed a “surf house”, on my side of town. They schooled us on some of the more randy sayings, a couple I still remember. One that I will have to pass on repeating other to say it was about bedroom activities. The other was about being hungover and, “ Making love to the porcelain “. The guys were real characters.

      1. Terry Flynn

        I don’t. I use duckduckgo and/or other engines with addons and had to disable a load of stuff to do a “naive” Google search.

        Kinda thought my reference to Ff plus addons plus Linux might have alerted people to fact I’m not a total Internet moron so I don’t get people swearing at me but …..

    3. JustAnotherVolunteer

      A better option is to include -ai in your query. Gets rid of all the kruft.

      So – “What is the maxdiff” -ai

      Should get the old google style page of links

  14. Zagonostra

    Chrystia Freeland
    @cafreeland
    American neighbours, you depend on us a lot and we are happy to work together but it’s got to be a two-way street.

    With neighbours like Freeland, I’d be wanting to relocate. I saw this segment aired on CNN, less sound, on TV screen at the gym yesterday afternoon. I didn’t know what she was saying. What did strike me is that on the adjacent screen you had Lindsey Graham on FOX, earlier Senator Tim Kaine was on CNN being interviewed.

    Rhetorical question, why does CNN and Fox always dredge up individuals from the swamp. I know there are some Malcom X, MLK, Eugene Webbs, Upton Sinclair types out there. Why aren’t these 2 dinosaur media outlets allowed to die? 30+ Screens blasting “Go Pro” extreme sports, food porn, Football, beauty products…etc. Not one progressive news channel allowed for the proles to fill their visual sphere as the auditory sphere was bombarded by hackneyed “classical” rock and roll that was over played and killed decades ago…thank goodness for sound blocking headpones.

  15. Webb

    USAID is a mix of truly vital programs like PEPFAR and FEWSNET and more nefarious work meant to destabilize our enemies. Once Musk, Rubio, and Trump are done with it, all that will be left will be the worst components of American foreign policy. Highlighting things such as USAID grants funding dissident communication networks in Cuba or Ukraine is not a problem with USAID, it is a problem *with the US government*. Disestablishing USAID will only move these types of activities under DoS or DoD, and they will likely even be harder to track once that happens. Of course USAID is lousy with CIA infiltration, but it pales in comparison to what happens in the defense industry and State Department. Anyone would be foolish to think Trump and Musk will change that.

    1. t

      I don’t think that. Never have. Trump likes, wants, and needs deep state goons. He prefers that they are loyal to him, more hidden, and have less accountability.

      Should be obvious.

    2. Aurelien

      My direct experience of USAID programmes is limited, so I’d be interested in your views, but I think the real problem with all such organisations is their transformation at the end of the Cold War from people vaguely trying to do good in areas such as health and agriculture, to organisations pushing neoliberal social and economic ideas, and creating in the process a corrupt and largely ineffective network of alleged “experts.” This led to two problems: one is that if you are, say, providing Human Rights training for police forces (a favourite aid agency topic) you can’t help but push the views and norms of your own country, and indeed since you’re spending your taxpayers’ money you don’t really have a choice. Under Cameron, courses run by the UK had to have a module on gender-based violence, whatever their subject, and whatever the sensitivities on the ground. On other, more valuable, subjects I used to have to say to audiences that I specifically wasn’t there to sell them the UK model, but of course if your experience is actually limited to one model anyway, then in practice that’s what you are going to do.

      The other is that the programmes of such agencies have become wasteful bureaucratic nightmares. If you were funding training for female journalists in the Arab world (another good Aid agency subject), then you’d engage a local NGO whose staff spoke English and had been educated abroad, you’d invite a group of woman journalists from your own country, you’d invite a group of English-speaking, foreign educated, journalists from the Arab world, and by the time you had paid the interpreters, the NGO staff, the translators, hired the hotel, paid for flights and accommodation, done all the administration, paid for the dinners, written the reports to your capital, audited the NGO, processed the expenses claims and published your report, the actual value of the project might be almost nil. Indeed, overheads typically represent the majority of the costs of such programmes.

      As for infiltration by the CIA, I have no idea. How would you tell? Presumably they are not going to declare themselves. Has there been any attempt to work out what percentage of USAID staff we are talking about, and on what basis?

      1. Webb

        I think you are correct on a lot of things, but important parts are too caricatured. The “social and economic ideas” aspect of USAID’s work is objectively pretty small; the real money goes to things like NextGen contracts (pharmaceutical supply chains), the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (food and disaster aid), and Feed the Future (agricultural training). For example, a NextGen HIV medicine distribution contract is in the $2-3b range, while your corruption/human rights grants are in the $5-10m range. And a lot of the latter stuff is going through State to begin with.

        I think most people that work in aid would give you 100 things they’d like to change about the industry, but nothing good will come out of Musk’s demolition. It’s only going to compound with more absurdities (we’ve just been told we cannot use the word “vulnerable” anymore, for example). Like we are probably just going to have more anti-woke and anti-DEI compliance trainings that are going to drive costs up in their own way (if USAID survives the week, I mean). Plus we all know the DoD is just setting money on fire without any of the same pressures.

        I’m sure placement of agents in USAID (and State) is a secret at the highest level. But all of us underlings in the humanitarian industry have had a few suspicious encounters with people who asked a few too many questions.

      2. pjay

        As I said the other day, the use of USAID by the CIA has a long and well-documented history going back to the 1960s. The shift to more overt “civil society” or “democracy promotion” activities reflect the general shift in US strategy from the 1980s with the creation of the NED, etc. But I had to smile at your “providing Human Rights training for police forces” example, given that perhaps the most notorious CIA-linked activities under USAID cover occurred under its notorious “Office of Public Safety” training program.

        Here is one of the best short articles on this side of USAID by Mark Ames. Again, each of his examples are well-known to those who have looked into this subject.

        https://popularresistance.org/murderous-history-of-usaid-us-agency-behind-cubas-fake-twitter/

        As Webb says, there are legitimate programs and well-meaning employees of USAID. I agree with Webb that these will probably be gutted while the worst components of our hybrid warfare apparatus will likely be preserved in other forms. And the rhetoric used by Trump and Musk that USAID is a nest of “radical lunatics” or “radical leftists” who promote “anti-American” causes is simply playing to their right-wing partisan audience. I would like to see some real dismantling of the covert capacity, but my expectation is that this will turn out just like all the other past efforts, from Carter’s “reform” under Stansfield Turner to the Iran-Contra “investigations” nothingburger to the Benghazi hearings, etc. etc.

        1. AG

          Thanks for Ames.

          It is as Chomsky put it 40 years ago, the GOP does the same as DNC just with less cosmetics.
          Nothing has changed at least since the Reaganites´ coup.

          Which makes it so odd that so many of his administration back then are today calling for reasonable solutions. Obviously the old guard today does not understand that it all originated with their POTUS.

      3. Bob Tetrault

        My mother was a 67 yo RN-PHN Nurse Practitioner in the late 80s who went to Peshawar under USAID auspices and taught high-level first aid to Afghan refugees who then went back over the Khyber pass to be medics to the Mujahideen. A laudable effort that, in its infrastructure, had to have had substantial IC support.

      4. Colonel Smithers

        Thank you, Aurelien.

        Late on Friday, the BBC quietly admitted USAID is, or was, its third largest donor, after the Foreign Office and some entity I have not heard of. Some money was ringfenced for correspondents around the world.

    3. Mikel

      The “nefarious” work and networks will indeed be rebranded. That influence wasn’t built up to wipe out in one day with a pen touching paper.
      The overarching preoccupation with hegemony will still be there, just a shuffling of who is pulling the strings.

  16. Zagonostra

    >JPMorgan Chase Charged by Yet Another Internal Whistleblower with Cooking the Books

    Williams’ lawsuit also charged that the bank retaliated against her protected whistleblowing activities by terminating her employment after she raised concerns about the improper payments.

    Lucky that retaliation was only job termination and and not life, like that of whisleblower Suchir Balaji, whose murder is being memory holed.

    1. chris

      “Important speech. The best speech. I was talking to some very intelligent people, I could drop names but I won’t, they’re all just smarter than the Grass Tyson guy, but, they told me, and they would not have said this if they didn’t believe it, that the most important speech during modern Presidential campaign was from the money Musky gave to my campaign.” – intercepted quote from the imaginary Trump that lives in memes.

      It is tragically stupid that it was the Democrats themselves who sharpened the knives that the Republicans have used to gut the neoliberal party and their positions over the last 20 years. In every turn you see their libertarian lite language and market based approach and support for oligarchs having lead us to the current state of affairs. Yet we all know that if Musk and Zuck and Bezos came back to them all would be forgiven and nothing would change. I don’t think Trump 2.0 was a coup. I think it was the awful thing the US has been metamorphizing into finally breaking free of its chrysalis. Trump is spreading his terrible new wings over the world now. Chuck Schumer and others are left making comments on mediums they don’t control about things they don’t understand and which don’t affect the people who’s support they need. This is the whimper after the bang I guess…

    2. Bsn

      Kamala spent over 4X that much. She didn’t get much return on those dollars if you listen to her “speech”. I’d like croutons on my salad, hole the onions.

  18. The Rev Kev

    “Trump Vows to Punish South Africa Over Law to Expropriate Land’

    First thought was that this was Musk getting Trump to do his buddies back home a solid. But maybe not. Maybe this is Trump being transactional. Consider. He may seem erratic with his decisions but some patterns you can make out if you squint your eyes a bit. Shipping lanes. Trump is really focused on shipping lanes. So Panama is a bottleneck for ships going between the Pacific and the Atlantic. The control of Greenland would be used to dominate shipping coming out of the rapidly melting Arctic. The militarization of the Galapagos Islands is a place to keep watch on shipping going along the South American coastline. So what if this was part of a long-term campaign to have South Africa let the US Navy set up a base in a port along that country’s coastline. Say Durban or Port Elizabeth. Give the US over-watch on shipping going along the Cape of Good Hope.

    2. mrsyk

      Add Somalia, which sits at the southern access to the Red Sea, and is the subject of Trumps first military action. I think you’re on to something.

      1. Bugs

        Yup. And South Africa is the S in BRICS.

        And Grand Poobah Elon must restore dignity to his fellow whites.

    4. JMH

      Plausible, but you must have a functional blue water navy and the US fleet is not said to be in great shape. Keeping an eye from orbit does not require a navy but it is effective? Trump looks transactional to me.

    5. CA

      President Trump has apparently decided on severely penalizing South Africa for beginning a decades delayed land redistribution program to compensate Black South Africans for land ravages that occurred during the apartheid years. The United Kingdom, similarly, has for years been sanctioning Zimbabwe for a land redistribution program to compensate Blacks for colonial ravages.

    6. MarkT

      The nonsense of the “genocide of white farmers in South Africa” has been going on for some time. There is definitely lots of crime and desperation there. In one of the most unequal societies in the world, with a terrible history of racism. But the definitions of genocide that I have found do not include that.

  19. DJG, Reality Czar

    I’m not willing to admit that Trump is right about DEI, given the astounding histories of discrimination that I have seen and read about. It isn’t as if discrimination is a made-up problem in the U S of A. (For starters, eh, ask anyone over 55 years of age.)

    And yet, the USA Today article, Dozens of Education Department Officials Furloughed, has this oddity: ‘According to Holder, affected staffers said the decision appeared to be related to employees’ participation in a diversity training called the “Diversity Change Agent” program. That’s an instructional course that the agency previously described as an attempt to “foster an inclusive culture that respects individual talents, values differences, and allows our workforce to fully contribute to our organizational success.”’

    I’m so old, I recall when personnel departments were personnel departments and had about three employees. They were also engaged in “screening”: plenty of screening, often malign. Then these departments became human resources and started to wrap their tentacles around every part of the organization.

    Now we seem to have gone to Revenge of Human Resources, Or Human Resources All the Time. I’m wondering why so much training is going on.

    Just put the company’s goals to avoid discrimination into people’s job descriptions.

    Why are USonians having Maoist struggle sessions over various bogus U.S. racial and affective categories?

    1. Christopher Smith

      Trump is right about DEI programs, especially those with Kendi/D’Angelo influence. I fact, those tend to exaserbate racial tensions (see here). Yet he has no plan (not to mention a good plan) to address ongoing discrimination.

      But as someone who got the joy of experiencing a DEI struggle session at a former employer back 2021, I say good riddance to DEI.

      1. Bsn

        Spot on. Retired teacher here who went through many phases of anti racism studies, workshops and professional development hours. Pre about 4 years ago, the trainings were pretty helpful, especially for teachers who grew up without much interaction with other cultures. But it went too far, was given way too much clout and money and crept into staff meetings very fast over the last few years. My favorite example is that we had a black principal, who was poor, not real bad, but not very “good”. They moved him around and he went downtown to admin to create an equity committee. In a school board meeting when they were asked “What does the diversity committee do?”, he snickered and responded (literal quote here) “We have meetings”. The other committee members laughed and agreed.
        Cut that waste, quickly please.

    2. t

      Some of why so much training is going on is because people need to learn.

      Roll it in with ethics and compliance if you like

      l the men laughing at “your body my choice” ? A lot of them refuse to behave themselves in the C suite.

      1. mrsyk

        I’ll add that “training” is often mandated in punitive decisions against corporate and institutional law-breakers. This in lieu of meaningful consequences of course.

    3. chris

      Because just like technical platforms have a cycle that always leads to enshittification, concepts and ideas in the US have a natural life cycle too. Someone, somewhere, develops a Good Idea. This idea percolate through the society and then someone tries to codify it as Good Idea(TM). Then hucksters come behind, license Good Idea(TM) and try to sell it back to the people who developed it, but in such a form that it does not accomplish what the original concept was intended to address.

      Diversity and inclusion are great concepts. Equity, as practiced in the western tradition, is also a great idea. DEI has become a stick to beat people with. Even worse, it’s the ultimate sign of how disposable labor is in the eyes of our masters. DEI never touched the C-suite. That’s where important decisions are made and you need “the best people” – for some definition of “best”.

      But if you don’t care who is skilled, and you don’t really care about a position, because you think anyone could do it and if they stop you can replace that one peon with another peon who would be grateful to have a job, then sure, why not add some additional box checking to the process. It’s not like it matters much anyway. And all these people will be replaced with AI soon. So who cares?

      Companies at these levels consider their main products to be stock. As long as the market thinks they’re doing OK reality doesn’t matter. People don’t matter. Resources don’t matter. Skills don’t matter. Nothing really matters until it does. Maybe Trump’s tarrifs will shake enough people that we start to understand the gravity of our situation again.

    4. EMC

      It seemed to me that DEI was rolled over increasing outrage and growing activism over what may be the worst manifestation of racism against African Americans – the killing by police on little to no provocation, and subsequent impunity for murder. DEI became the liberal whitewash to avoid the issue.

      1. Emma

        Exactly.

        Trump’s desire for popularity and self perceived success has a way of blowing up the Washington DC paradigms. He got rid of abortion as a national wedge issue during his first administration and now want to 🪓 DEI and immigration. I wonder what sort of horrors will have to be created as the next pointless Duopoly wedge issue?

    5. JMH

      Excellent question. As a student of China past and present, I noted the similarity. Did those conducting them realize that?

    6. AG

      Well here are Aaron Maté and Katie Halper on DEI and the airplane crash:

      DEI PLANE CRASH – What they’re hiding behind the HOAX
      64 min.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3p7DEgO-lY

      I said this last year: If these things happen it makes no sense to blame DEI.
      The problems are somewhere else.
      Trumps people are doing everything to salvage their interests and scapegoating others.

      As Maté correctly says for Trump its DEI, for Democrats its the Russians. But eventually it doesn´t matter. The result domestically is the same.

      Of course there is this difference. If its Russia USA threatens WWIII. If its DEI they fire people and confine destructive powers to their own population.

    7. Es s Ce Tera

      @DJG, Reality Czar

      In the corporate world training is the usual way to get everyone on the same page about anything. I’m required to take yearly training on risk management, anti-money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, anti-bribery, anti-corruption, security, cybersecurity, sexual harassment and anti-discrimination. I wonder why the last two are causing such an allergic reaction in the United States, and why now, it’s as if Donald Trump and his supposedly business-centric team has only now discovered that all of corporate America has been training on these last two for only the last 15-20 or so years. Living under a rock, I suppose.

      Your question, though, is a good one because in my experience training of the DEI sort usually comes from teams such as People and Culture, Change Management, Workforce Strategy, Employee Experience, Talent, etc. Which means these initiatives are often teams struck to find ways to address specific problems identified by employees and/or leadership.

      Employees opening and clicking on links in phishing emails hits the org with $20 million loss, big enough to need to be disclosed to the board, the board is unhappy says do something, leadership says how do we stop this, creates a group which naturally concludes we must create education and training for employees, teach them NOT to open these links, how to recognize phish attempts, and how to report them, what to do if you inadvertently open one, so on and so forth.

      The need is there, the need creates the training. Likewise, how do we train our employees not to be so f*cking racist and stop this flood of lawsuits hitting our bottom line. Likewise, geezus, how to we stop all these managers from grabbing women’s asses? You can fire people, or you can opt for prevention, or both.

  20. The Rev Kev

    “Both Ukraine, Russia must ‘give a little’ to end war, Trump envoy says’

    Well I suppose if push came to shove, Russia could agree not to invade the Baltic States so Trump could claim that as a win, I guess. But I suspect that after fighting a three-year war against the Collective West through the Ukraine, they are in no mood to give in to US demands to make Trump look good and come out making the West look like they were the “winners.” Those days are gone.

    1. ChrisFromGA

      Trump’s strategy on Ukraine appears to blather, spin, and go nowhere, while letting the war run its’ course.
      His empty rhetoric appears meant to appease the neocons, while not actually doing anything. I see no actual movement towards talks or any sort of deal.

      It’s not a bad strategy for now. I suspect though that the neo-con days of rage are coming. The swamp seems dazed and confused like the Donkeys, but they’ll get up off the mat sooner or later.

    2. timbers

      Baltic states? How about he agrees to “not invade Britain, Micronesia, or other similar nstions” as it’s charm is it delivers a catagorization of UK some may appreciate others not so much.

    3. ChrisFromGA

      By the way, I like Wyatt’s analysis over at Defense Politics Asia. Everything is going the way of the Russians, there is no reason for Putin to talk to Trump. And if you pay close attention to the press harrassing Trump during his oval office Executive order sign-a-thon a week ago, he refused to say that he had actually talked directly to Putin.

      1. timber

        My theory is, someone within Team Trump was tasked and recently started to analyze the actual facts of the conflict including facts on the ground and began to realize how little leverage USA has and what mess of a swamp it is. This reality is causing new and different policy suggestions to filter up to Trump. And this new appreciation of the facts has helped push TT to offer slight movements towards reality, like no NATO and Ukraine needs an elected leader. Is there a strategy? Maybe: Require Ukraine make changes that need considerable time like elections – time enough for current dynamics to run its course to conclusion. Problem solved.

        1. heh

          Someone within Team Trump should also be tasked with analyzing super-hypersonic missiles, and Spanish BRICS membership.

        2. GF

          If I was Putin I would not speak to Trump until ALL sanctions are permanently lifted and Russia’s $300 billion is returned as a precondition.

    4. ilsm

      Putin has said: Russia will talk to US and Kiev, but no agreement will be effective until Kiev presents a semblance of credibility after electing a legislature and executive.

      US needs to consider doing different than past 75 years wrt type of democracy they sustain.

  21. Carolinian

    RT article

    “‘I assure you, Trump, with his character and persistence, will restore order quite quickly. And all of them, you’ll see, soon all of them will stand at the master’s feet and gently wag their tails,’ Putin argued.”

    lol! Of course the real question is whether Trump will be wagging his tail for Bibi tomorrow. It’s time to get this “who’s the alpha?” issue settled.

    1. ChrisFromGA

      That wasn’t a complement being paid by Putin towards Trump. I think we need a Russian language sarcasm tag.

      1. The Rev Kev

        Maybe instead of a ‘/sarc tag’ it should be a ‘\sarc tag’ as some Russian letters look like they are back to front.

      2. Carolinian

        Well I did say lol. And Putin has been saying a few nice or at least flattering things about Trump. More flies with honey?

        When they finally do get together it should be interesting.

      1. Carolinian

        No worries then since the Israelis are known for being strictly truthful with their videos. Perhaps the real question is whether those Muslims in Michigan who did a lot to elect Trump are going to be played for chumps. So far things are looking grim.

        However Alastair Crooke says that Netanyahu is seriously ill and that Trump’s options may be a lot more limited than he thinks.

  22. timbers

    Panama Canal – “Won’t renew Belt and Road deal with China, says Panama president amid US pressure The Economic Times”

    Well, might China impose a naval blockade of US trade ships to Taiwan, as well as military vessals? Seems reciprocal IMO. “Speres of influence” and all that, doncha know.

  23. The Rev Kev

    “Rubio’s Stop in Panama Opens a Campaign Against ‘Shadow Fleet’ of Vessels Skirting U.S. Sanctions on Iran and Russia”

    It’s plain that one way or another, Trump wants control of the Canal but optics-wise, it would be better if the Panamanians did it for him. Control for what? What if one day Trump announces that he is going to strangle Chinese shipping and has given orders to Panama to forbid the entry of any Chinese ships through that Canal. I think that this is all part of a greater plan to let the US have the ability to stop most Chinese cargo ships traveling the sea routes of the world. Of course a vital first step would be for the US to stop nearly all trade with China so that the US itself would not be vulnerable. So what we are seeing right now is a preliminary trade war with China before the main event.

    1. ChrisFromGA

      Very strange headline there, 3rd grade geography lessons perhaps in order?

      Please explain, using maps, how Russian oil bound for India, China, Europe, Africa, or SE Asia has to transit the Panama Canal? (rhetorical question not aimed at the good Rev Kev.)

  24. timbers

    “Big Swing: Chinese golf cart makers are moving to US to dodge tariff blitz” *** China, how about dodging tariffs on automobiles? I’ve got 132,000 miles on mine and prefer not having to spend an unnecessary extra couple of 10’s of thousands of dollars on my next vehicle.

  25. Jabura Basadai

    first guffaw snorting coffee – Putin fears?
    Zelenskyy: Putin fears talks with Ukraine as he cannot admit defeat

  27. Tom Doak

    The FT article on Musk, Thiel, and South Africa is very much in line with my observations from traveling there in 1991, but I didn’t realize Thiel was also from the region.

    I have seen throughout America for the last 30 years the same rationales that were used in SA being used here to justify charter schools, militarization of police, etc. And, note that the South Africa of that day was perfectly willing to cut itself off from countries who disagreed with them.

    And the DNC’s response seems to rhyme with the ANC ! They are all about promoting on the basis of minority status, and if they had their way it would be a different sort of apartheid, favoring people with graduate degrees.

    1. MarkT

      I grew up in apartheid South Africa. I was also unaware of Thiel’s southern African connection. I’m not entirely surprised, however. Namibia was a neighbour, and long under the administration of South Africa. UN resolution 435 was on TV screens throughout my childhood.

      Musk is a contemporary who went to a school down the road from me. It was a government school, but one of the elite ones, created by Lord Milner. Their roles were to mould good English speaking citizens of/for the Empire, and were modeled on British private (public) schools. They cost a bit more than the high school I was zoned for, which nevertheless was good and progressive for its time. We held sports meetings with non-white schools which the local Afrikaans schools refused to participate in, because of the presence of non-white athletes. But of greatest interest to me, particularly in retrospect as my political awareness developed, was the cosmopolitan nature of my school. We were a small United Nations. People from the ex Portuguese colonies, Madeirans, Greek Cypriots, Austrians, Germans. And a number of east Europeans who had defected. The brother of one of them assassinated Chris Hani, leader of the SA Communist Party, in 1993. A very educated man. It brought the country to the brink at a crucial time when democracy was just taking hold. I often wonder about that.

      1. MarkT

        Explainer: “white” schools in South Africa were segregated by language. English and Afrikaans. The segregation went beyond “race”. We had limited interaction with neighbours who did not speak our language.

  28. Will

    re tuberculosis

    In 2024, Toronto recorded a 20 year high of TB cases. This local news report identifies the causes as (1) prevalence in native communities in Nunavut, which is about 2,300km north west of the city, and (2) immigrants.

    https://youtu.be/lZ_jn0v0x2Y

    By the way, the source is not a fringe cable or youtube channel but a mainstream broadcaster.

  29. Bugs

    Democrats en déshabillé

    They really got nothing. Nothing. Jeffries, Schumer. None of them have a thought of any worth for the people who elected their sorry a$$es to federal office. I can’t imagine what the conversation is in DC right now. Are they really taking The Ragin’ Cajun’s advice to let Trump punch himself out? Cause I don’t think that’s ga happen. Czar Elon sure ain’t walking away from the opportunity of a lifetime. Heck, it looks like he’s even going for getting South Africa back for the Afrikaaners now. About that salute…

    P.S. I can’t be the only curmudgeon thinking this here: I can’t take the comments where it’s “here’s what the AI said”. Depressing slop that just adds so little to the conversation. Would an AI have come up with my (somewhat useless but heartfelt) comment above? I sure hope not. Not being prescriptive, mind you, just expression of dismay.

    2. Wukchumni

      I gave up on the Donkey Show when it came up lame, which has been its trademark move all of my adult life, leading to a bout of premature curmudgeonism,…since overcome.

    3. flora

      No, you aren’t the only curmudgeon here. My take, (unattractive as it is), is that the national Dem party sold itself to WallSt as the party of powerless victims in the Clinton admin. The also “we’re too weak to oppose you financially” party. But and also the “we make a moral claim” as a party on your indifference to our plight. But, (and here’s the kicker), we will never make an economic class based critique of your GOP actions. But that’s just me. The Dems as the pity party. sheesh. / ;)

  30. Tom Stone

    Like Bankruptcy Societal collapse happens slowly, then all at once.
    I suspect we are pretty much finished with the slowly part…Donny and the Thugs are doing a heckuva job.

  31. CA

    While this now chronic education problem strikes me as especially important, there has been little evident attention paid:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/29/us/reading-skills-naep.html

    January 29, 2025

    American Children’s Reading Skills Reach New Lows
    With little post-pandemic recovery, experts wonder if screen time and school absence are among the causes.
    By Dana Goldstein

    In the latest release of federal test scores, educators had hoped to see widespread recovery from the learning loss incurred during the Covid-19 pandemic.

    Instead, the results, from last year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress, tell a grim tale, especially in reading: The slide in achievement has only continued.

    The percentage of eighth graders who have “below basic” reading skills according to NAEP was the largest it has been in the exam’s three-decade history — 33 percent. The percentage of fourth graders at “below basic” was the largest in 20 years, at 40 percent.

    There was progress in math, but not enough to offset the losses of the pandemic.

    Recent reading declines have cut across lines of race and class. And while students at the top end of the academic distribution are performing similarly to students prepandemic, the drops remain pronounced for struggling students, despite a robust, bipartisan movement in recent years to improve foundational literacy skills…

    1. AG

      Thanks!
      Of course NYT would not understand that economic rule which they defend is the major cause for all this.
      Reading skills need (com)passion, time, time, time.

      Efficiency ideology and the fight to survive in society are the direct causes for this. The American Dream in its absolute is destroying it´s foundation. Since NYT and Co. are part and parcel of this framework how could they understand.

      So the phenomenon is there but it has an explanation (which makes it not a phenomenon any more.) But you won´t find it properly laid out.

    2. CA

      https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/04/us/us-math-students-pandemic.html

      December 4, 2024

      U.S. Students Posted Dire Math Declines on an International Test
      On the test, American fourth and eighth graders posted results similar to scores from 1995. It was a sign of notable stagnation, even as other countries saw improvements.
      By Dana Goldstein

      American students turned in grim results on the latest international test of math skills — adding to a large body of research showing significant academic declines since the Covid-19 pandemic began.

      The exam, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, known as TIMSS, was given last year to fourth and eighth graders from dozens of education systems across the globe. The results, released on Wednesday, found that since 2019, American fourth graders have declined 18 points in math, while eighth graders have declined 27 points.

      In fourth grade, those declines were driven by the struggles of students at the bottom end of the achievement spectrum. While fourth graders in the 75th percentile and above did not decline since 2019, those in the 25th percentile and below declined significantly. In 16 other countries, fourth graders performed better in math in 2023 than in 2019.

      Among American eighth graders, both high-performing and low-performing students lost ground in math…

    3. Norton

      Test scores decline. Administrators hardest hit.

      Teachers tell me that they have to spend too much time on behavioral issues and ideological items. That takes away from what older adults would recognize as more conventional teaching and learning. Factor in the huge numbers of students who come to school hungry and that explains some of the decline. Hard to focus when the brain is being starved in various ways.

      No wonder so many young parents are investigating home schooling.

      1. flora

        Also, teach to the test, aka the No Child Left Behind Act. Said Act was a windfall to computer companies pushing something called core curriculum online learning. It financially punishes schools whose students lag in testing results. It was and is a disaster for public k-12 education. It is a very clever way to slowly defund public schools, imo, and create a new market for computer companies without improving education.

        2. flora

          And yes, while George H. W. Bush, (W’s dad), son Neil Bush was flourishing in the S&L banking debacle in the 1980′, he went on to found !Ignite.

          After the No Child Left Behind Act was passed the US k-12 public schools became a feeding ground for rich corporations and the well connected – to heck with education. imo.

          Create a stick. Drive schools to invest in carrots that were worthless, imo. Watch what happens to test scores.

          I’ll stop.

  32. AG

    re: arms production

    German army portal “hartpunkt” states that Bundeswehr is considering to purchase Tomahawks as a temporary solution until there is a European “weapon”.

    German text (!)
    “Deep Precision Strike – Is the Tomahawk an option for the Bundeswehr?”
    https://www.hartpunkt.de/deep-precision-strike-ist-der-tomahawk-eine-option-fuer-die-bundeswehr/
    (google translate is out of order right now…but use it in case)

    p.s. to this day it hasn´t reached any German that Tomahawks are most likely seriously compromised and this uselessness will increase with every passing year. So we are destroying civil social structure for arms supplies which additionally are garbage. Very.Good. And I would assume AfD would go along with this as long as there is a German “economic” angle in this…

      1. AG

        What would it look like if you compared China-France and Germany-France? on the same time scales.
        p.s. does that graph mean that German real income has not increased significantly in real value since 1977? Which would confirm the usual wisdom on the issue of genuine labour income value stagnating since the 1970s.

    2. duckies

      I prefer Germany being armed with shitty weapons, instead of the good ones. They should also introduce Heckler & Koch G11, as was planned back in the day.

  33. AG

    re: USAID

    I have a language question: I always thought USAID is pronounced “US-Aid” like in aiding/helping.

    In Germany after Febr. 2022 critics of “US Empire” instead said “USA-ID” like in “identity”. Which to me makes no sense and appeared to be ideologically infused incorrect English.

    But may be I am wrong.

    1. flora

      USAID is an acronym of United States Agency for International Development.

      So, US Agency for International Development. USAID.

      1. AG

        so pronounced: “US-aid”
        not “USA-id”?

        sorry if this is odd
        But I happen to seriously argue with German-speaking public speakers over this question.

        p.s. I know it this way from Chomsky´s live talks. But people wouldn´t believe me. At some point I started to doubt myself with so many saying “USA-id”.

      2. AG

        Larry Johnson calls it shortcut A-I-D (basically as you do). Chomsky says US-aid. So I stick with that. Case closed.
        p.s. poets could also argue it means “U said”

  34. Gulag

    I will try to frame what is going on with USAID in a slightly different matter.

    Way back on April 30, 1948 George Kennan, the about to be new head of the State Department Policy Planning staff, drafted a then secret memo (which was finally released to the public in 2005) in which he stated, in part:

    “We have been handicapped however by a popular attachment to the concept of a basic difference between peace and war, by a tendency to view war as sort of sporting contest outside of all political context…We cannot afford in the future, in perhaps more serious political crises, to scramble into impromptu covert operations…It would seem that the time is fully ripe for the creation of a covert political warfare operations directorate within the government.”

    But as the U.S. intelligence apparatus evolved after this memo, the State Department came to believe that its covert dirty tricks/statecraft budget needed to be parked at the CIA for the purpose of plausible deniability. This plausible deniability logic accelerated during the 1960s (when USAID was created) and as the years rolled on more and more layers of spy craft were hidden under humanitarian aide, grants, contractors, subcontractors, NGOs etc., eventually creating a sprawling intelligence apparatus that contaminated almost every institution in American society and most populated countries around the world.

    USAID gradually became a central coordinator of intelligence statecraft, military logistical support and State Department grants. It assisted the Pentagon on a national security front, the State Department on a national interest front and the intelligence community on a clandestine operations front.

    May it rest in peace.

  35. MarkT

    This may or may not be linked to current global affairs. A malign actor has taken down the website of the South African Weather Service (government website, weathersa.co.za) and I am told they are relying on “social media” to get their forecasts out.

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