First cougar cubs verified in Michigan in more than a century Upper Michgan Source (RPW)
Decades after peregrines came back from the brink, a new threat emerges Guardian (Kevin W) :-(
Laurence des Cars, saving the Louvre whatever the cost Le Monde
COVID-19/Pandemics
Five Years of COVID-19: How the Pandemic Changed Our Lives Valdai Club (Micael T)
Measles Cases Reach 294 in Texas and New Mexico: Here’s What to Know MedPage
2 house cats caught bird flu in NYC, health officials say Gothamist. Indoor cats getting bird flu? Yikes.
China?
Taiwan calls China ‘foreign hostile force’ and vows tough measures BBC I don’t yet see anything on Global Times about the Taiwan remarks. Does the Chinese government see that as so predictable as to be beneath notice?
China lodges solemn representations with Canada; ‘suppressing China not a panacea for resolving G7’s internal disagreements’ Global Times. But this seemed noteworthy.
China unveils processor a million times faster than US rival – developers RT (Kevin W)
No chance Trump can catch China’s shipbuilding juggernaut Asia Times (Kevin W)
Russian goods seizures cause havoc on China-Europe rail link: ‘big impact’ South China Morning Post
The Antipodes
Australia moves to arm troops with anti-ship missiles as China threat looms Reuters
Australia on alert over Trump attacks on cheaper medicines The Age. Kevin W: “Trump wants Aussies to pay the same prices for medicines that Americans do.”
South of the Border
White House ‘drawing up plans’ for increasing troops in Panama amid Trump’s push to ‘reclaim’ canal: report Independent
Maldives to Declare Bankruptcy? Sri Lanka Guardian
European Disunion
Munich 2025: A Moment of Truth for Europe? Global Affairs. Micael T: “A moment of truth is possible only if you are capable to recognise a truth painted in purple, dancing naked on a harpsichord and singing ‘the moment of truth is here’.”
Cracks appear in European credit markets Global Capital
Trump hints at sending U.S. soldiers to take over Greenland: ‘I think it’ll happen’ Daily Mail
Finnish court hands Voislav Torden life sentence for war crimes yle. Micael T: “But Ukrainian neo-Nazis must receive weapons and money to steal at the expense of Finnish citizens? It almost seems as if there are good neo-Nazis and bad neo-Nazis.”
A bottle and a half of wine a week could cost you your driver’s license Aftonbladet via machine translation: Micael T: “a person’s consumption can be flagged to the Swedish Transport Agency by a doctor taking a regular blood test where the PEth value is measured. If it exceeds 0.3, it indicates overconsumption, then the doctor must send the test results to the Swedish Transport Agency, which can revoke the driver’s license.”
Old Blighty
Why has NHS England been abolished and what does it mean for patients? Guardian (Kevin W)
Economy finds reverse gear in January with surprise contraction Sky
"How dare you call my daughter a terrorist…"
The mother of Zoe Rogers, one of the Filton18 political prisoners from Palestine Action, delivers a powerful message to Prime Minister Keir Starmer. pic.twitter.com/CZAmMMnD2D
— MintPress News (@MintPressNews) March 11, 2025
UN judge convicted in slavery trial (VIDEO) RT (Micael T)
Israel v. The Resistance
Hamas says it will only free US-Israeli, 4 slain hostages if ceasefire implemented Times of Israel
Following Israel's decision to cut power to to the Strip's desalination plants, Gazans, who in any event have been suffering from a shortage of water, now find themselves – at the height of Ramadan – without almost no sources of drinking waterhttps://t.co/kDjVBdXKPz
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) March 14, 2025
New bombshell UN report accuses Israel of sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians Mondoweiss
History’s Most Evil People Turn Genocide Into Rape Orgy BettBeat
The rockets used in airstrikes on the eastern sector of south Lebanon specifically, used to keep the targeted site burning for hours, which was found to be due to the materials inside the rocket.
This is just a small peace burning, and it creates a mini airstrike scene pic.twitter.com/mYz5sbQ6p9— Pheebs (@galpalpheebs) March 13, 2025
New Not-So-Cold War
G7 warns Russia of expanded sanctions unless it backs ceasefire Financial Times
UK to host virtual meeting of ‘coalition of the willing’ on Ukraine Anadolu Agency. Do they also have the memory of goldfish in the UK? Do they not remember that the original coalition of the willing was in pursuit of a fabricated cause?
Russia, Ukraine launch heavy drone strikes as troops advance on Kursk Aljazeera
Echoes Of The May 2 2014 Odessa Massacre Moon of Alabama. This might be a portent of Banderite control of Ukraine starting to crack.
Winter 2025: Azov is Coming Moss Robeson, Bandera Lobby Blog (Micael T)
No Mercy for Mercs: What Legal Nightmare Awaits Them in Russia? Sputnik
Destruction of Ukraine dam caused ‘toxic timebomb’ of heavy metals, study finds Guardian (Kevin W)
Moscow Unfiltered (3) Tarik Cyril Amar. A detailed take on the 2 hour Lavrov interview with Larry Johnson, Judge Napolitano, and one other blogger.
Sheila Fitzpatrick · Not Corrupt Enough: Whose Cold War? London Review of Books (Anthony L)
Moscow-City 2025. Walking tour of the Business District 4K HDR YouTube. resilc: “Not AI fake. the view of the swirl building is from the same location we saw it in 2018. evnr more development. usa usa needs sanctions AGAINST us i guess for similar progress.
Syraqistan
Time is running out for Syria’s president. He must share power if he is to hold his country together Economist
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Everything You Say To Your Echo Will Be Sent To Amazon Starting On March 28 ars technica
Imperial Collapse Watch
Amb. Chas Freeman & Col. Larry Wilkerson: Where Does Trump Stand on Ukraine? Dialogue Works, YouTube. The talk goes well beyond Ukraine and towards the end, has some important observations about the Middle East
THE US HAS NO PERMANENT FRIENDS, ONLY PERMANENT INTERESTS Proletaren via machine translation. Micael T: “Finally they start to get it on the real left”.
Last week,thanks to @nukestrat,we revealed that the new #USTacticalNuclearWeapons B61-12 have been shipped to Europe,#Italy included. NO press coverage.Why?It would undermine the propaganda telling #Europe is defenceless and absolutely need #ReArmEuropehttps://t.co/6a65odAbMf
— Stefania Maurizi (@SMaurizi) March 13, 2025
Haig points out:
The B61-12 is just replacing the older B61s already in Europe (about 100 across six NATO bases). It has some accuracy tweaks, and age-susceptible parts have been replaced. The deliverability of aircraft-delivered nuclear gravity bombs in the context of robust Russian air defenses is questionable, but the presence of these bombs has been a symbolic security blanket for Europe.
NEWS | UN Expert on Human Rights in Haiti, William O’Neill, after his fourth visit since April 2023, urged neighboring countries, particularly the United States, to stop illegal arms trafficking into Haiti. “There isn’t a single gun or bullet manufactured in Haiti. If you halt… https://t.co/ykFK1DEf4U
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) March 13, 2025
Trump 2.0
How Trump’s trade war could quickly spiral out of control CNN
U.S. nurses oppose confirmation of Dr. Mehmet Oz to lead Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services National Nurses United
Producer Prices may show first inflationary effects of tariff wars Bondad Blog
The WASPs Are Gone Yascha Mounk
US expels South African ambassador after remarks on Trump Aljazeera. Not the actions of a confident power.
DOGE
Inside Elon Musk’s ‘Digital Coup’ Wired
You Might Not Make Enough Money To Get Musk’s Potential DOGE Dividend Check: Here’s the Salary Cutoff (Kevin W) GoBankingRates
Democrat Death Wish
‘Uniting anger’: Democrats fume over Schumer’s handling of funding fight Politico. I very much appreciate readers rallying and trying to stop a continuing resolution that contained heinous amendments that would gut efforts to oppose the Trump/DOGE wrecking ball plans. Apparently Democrats like Chuck Schumer think Americans will reward them in the midterms for helping the destruction along. As reader Richard Kline wrote in “Protest works. Just look at the proof”:
The nut of the matter is this: you lose, you lose, you lose, you lose, they give up. As someone who has protested, and studied the process, it’s plain that one spends most of one’s time begin defeated. That’s painful, humiliating, and intimidating. One can’t expect typically, as in a battle, to get a clean shot at a clear win. What you do with protest is just what Hari discusses, you change the context, and that change moves the goalposts on your opponent, grounds out the current in their machine. The nonviolent resistance in Hungary in the 1860s (yes, that’s in the 19th century) is an excellent example. Communist rule in Russia and its dependencies didn’t fail because protestors ‘won’ but because most simply withdrew their cooperation to the point it suffocated.
Some may point out, however, that this process takes time, and the viciousness of the Trump program will result in rapid and/or serious damage to the livelihoods of many. In other words, he is accelerating the neoliberal imperative “Go die!”.
GOP Clown Car
Rep. Mace sued by 1 of the men she accused of being a sexual predator South Carolina Daily Gazette
Immigration
Judge denies temporary relief in lawsuits challenging Guantánamo migrant detentions The Hill
Mr. Market Has a Sad
Wall Street Battered Again by Trump Chaos as New Winners Emerge Bloomberg
Consumers and Businesses Send Distress Signal as Economic Fear Sets In Wall Street Journal
AI
EXCLUSIVE: Banned Yale Scholar Speaks Out After AI-Generated Accusations of Terror Ties Drop Site
China Announces Generative AI Labeling To Cull Disinformation Bloomberg
Leaked Apple Meeting Shows How Dire the Siri Situation Really Is The Verge
About Sam Altman and “creative writing” Anindita Biswas, LinkedIn (Micael T)
— Paul Triolo (@pstAsiatech) March 14, 2025
The Bezzle
Music Exec Accidentally Explains How Useless Record Labels Are YouTube (Micael T)
Class Warfare
Gen Z Americans Don’t Have Enough Saved To Cover a Single Month of Spending Fortune
It’s Not Nature. It’s Not Nurture. It’s a Möbius Strip. New York Times. Anthony L: “Sociogenomics.”
Antidote du jour (via):
A bonus (guurst):
Чет не спится😉 pic.twitter.com/uSGP52tmBx
— Maksud (@MaksudPash15485) March 13, 2025
A second bonus (Chuck L):
16. Dog's unwell, and cat hasn't left his side since..pic.twitter.com/VlOod017ty
— Wolf of X (@tradingMaxiSL) March 12, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
re: B61-12
yes it´s unsurprisingly dishonest
however – as I seem to not get tired of telling people in Germany (who won´t listen) – Europe is in theory defenseless. If it really wanted war these B61s had to be virtually carried into the theatre of operations by F-35. And it´s an open secret those are expected to be mostly shot down.
So what are those B-61s good for? Except cannon fodder.
The real work would be done by seaborne missiles, ICBMs and may be B-52s.
but to even talk about it is idiotic.
re: above image of the moustached dude fiddling with the bomb – why do these people still look like Goose from Top Gun
Looking at that photo, I could not help thinking of a guy maybe sneaking up behind him with a blown up paper bag…
The Baltic chihuahuas are clamoring for nukes:
Lithuania may need to amend constitution for nuclear weapon deployment – MoD LRT
Maybe we can send them some reconditioned Davey Crockett nuclear bazookas? The Baltics are complete whack jobs, looking for their Archduke Franz Ferdinand moment in history.
Forget Davey Crockett nuclear bazookas. That’s old school. Give them something that they would be really keen to use – like nuclear hand grenades.
That missile doesn’t appear to be all that much bigger than the Estes rockets I would terrorize my neighborhood with suburban launches, and fraught with after apogee location difficulties, in particular if the parachute went behind a fence.
It’s not a missle but more of a Not-So-Fat Man.
Working link for Judge denies temporary relief in lawsuits challenging Guantánamo migrant detentions” article at-
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5196083-judge-guantanamo-migrant-detentions/
Re ‘Dog’s unwell, and cat hasn’t left his side since..’
Damn, man. Where did those onion ninjas come from?
Thanks, fixing. Added more links rather than cleaning the ones I had up.
Srećko Horvat on Serbia protests: Students are showing Europe the path forward (DiEM25)
https://diem25.org/srecko-horvat-on-serbia-protests-students-are-showing-europe-the-path-forward/
Croats commenting on Serbia is like Ukrainians commenting on Russia.
Have you ever heard of a certain J.B.Tito, boychik?
Gen Z Americans Don’t Have Enough Saved To Cover a Single Month of Spending Fortune
~~~~~~~~~~~
Took my Gen Z 20 year old nephew snowboarding last week, and previously he had gotten a $1700 ‘Soccer Is Life’ tattoo running from his upper ankle down to his foot, and since I saw him in January he added a $3100 map of California to the other ankle and foot to sort of even things out in ink distribution, along with a $300 manta ray on his inner lower arm.
Tats are tantamount to potato chips in that you can’t just have 1, and I expect him to be quite the illustrated man by the time he’s 25.
It strikes me that in a way, young adults such as him are showing off their visual net worth, in his case $5100.
I’ve noticed that too. With a spouse that works with people in housing difficulties and financial stress, it is amazing to see/guess how much money people in those situations have spent on tattoos, or have a pet, or smoking, etc. Though I suppose that it gives them a sense of having a regular life of some kind.
If what I’m trying to describe makes any sense.
Same for both our sons. I’m reserving judgement. I can’t imagine being a young person trying to forge his way in this stupid timeline.
I’m in the same boat, I just grin and bear it when the tyke sez ‘Uncle Wuk, would you buy me a snowboard and boots!?’ and I see 7 new snowboards and boots festooned on his skin.
Pets can provide significant health benefits, and are a very big help staving off depression. I cannot begin to say that about tattoos. I get why they might appear to be a bad use of funds, but imo lumping them in with tattoos and smoking is distinctly unfair.
Stories like these run contrary to “it’s the top 1% driving inflation” or some such. As I’ve said many times before, Americans have a deep seated spending problem. From the article: “But they’re also more likely to shell out on discretionary categories like travel and entertainment. Spending in non-essentials among that cohort is up more than 25% from a year ago — substantially above the overall rate.“. “Drunken sailors” is a well earned moniker.
There is no way of knowing whether a USN sailor was drunk in 1944 when he got that anchor tattoo on his upper arm that when I saw it half a century later, looked like a smudge.
And that tattoo of a dainty butterfly that a young girl gets ends up years later looking like Mothra. To be fair, I worked with this guy from Cyprus who as a young man was in Egypt in ’45 training for the invasion of Japan. While there, he got a tattoo of a topless dancing girl on his upper arm and over forty years later, it was still clear and hardly faded.
I have friend who ran a tattoo shop. She told me alcohol causes the design to run and not be sharp. Customers were carefully screened and told to come back if they had been drinking.
I guess a plus for a tattoo showing of wealth is that it can not be stolen?
Not so fast. The Nazis in the concentration camp took care to take the skin off those that had good tattoos and had them on display though I am not sure if it was as lamp shades. And in the Sonchai Jitpleecheep series of crime novels is mainly set in Bangkok, in one novel it featured several men killed and skinned for their tattoos as there was a market for them.
You Only Live Once mentality and approach? Not sure if that aptly describes a broad swath of the Gen Z cohort….or “YOLO” for the shorthand version. My reference could also and likely be dated…
Spending as opposed to saving for a down payment on the first home. Anecdotally my young niece and her husband are realistic about ever buying a home, that it would be unlikely in their near future and that was before mortgage rates were going up circa 2022. Neither of them is stupid, unreasonable about working or unmotivated, but the reality today for them is different from my time living a leaner existence in the late 1990s. Locally the residential real estate markets have been sizzling hot for the most part, broadly speaking about Greenville Spartanburg and nearby cities of South Carolina.
The Gen Z highest achievers in the classroom will turn out fine, which is nothing new.
Extra tattoos are not going to “drive inflation”.
More generally, middle income people spending to the limits of their pay is a sign of inadequate wage growth and/or rentierism, both or which make people at the top richer, allowing them to spend bigly.
Five grand in tattoos ain’t no down payment on a house. Or even a car lease.
But it’s a start on a do it yourself art gallery, now showing you.
I’m starting to think the joke is on savers this time. I’ve got a funny urge to convert my 401K to Barolos and camping gear.
Why not get an REI tramp stamp on the small of your back and a passel of Peak brand freeze-dried meals (beef stroganoff is so tasty) and call it good.
“No Mercy for Mercs: What Legal Nightmare Awaits Them in Russia?”
A very nuanced one?
“A very nuanced one?”
Hah! I saw what you did there, Rev..
Yes, and in relation to another story, likely getting a hole punched in that prison wallet.
Hmmm… “Get nuanced. I’m all right Yakov.”
So far as I know none of the foreign fighters captured in Ukraine are mercenaries as defined under AP1 of the Geneva Conventions, and if they were they would still be entitled to decent and humane treatment. The concept of “unlawful combatants” (originated by the US of course) is not a legal category. The Russians are signatories to AP1, and the Geneva Conventions apply in an armed conflict whatever a nation’s domestic laws say. They are also signatories to the Convention Against Torture which applies under all circumstances everywhere.
I suspect this is essentially propaganda, intended to discourage foreigners or even foreign governments, from involving themselves further in Ukraine, and might be quite effective.
You should go there and try saying that to Russian soldiers while they are capturing you. Lots of space for nuanced discussion there.
Massive protest underway in Serbia, supposed to culminate with a rally at 11am EST. Groups from different parts of the country are descending on Belgrade for the central protest rally. This is some of the footage from last night as student groups from southern Serbia marched in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu9QiN_cRsY
Talking to some of the people involved, there is 50/50 chance of a government overthrow today and the government is not going to last more that a few weeks. Big blow to US and EU as president Vucic has been quite willing to sell out the country, including lithium mining in western Serbia and selling prime real estate to Jared Kushner for a pittance.
He was even on Don Jr. podcast a few days ago, crying about coloured revolutions. We’ll see how things go today, if anyone is interested this is the live feed from the main independent news channel in Serbia https://n1info.rs/n1-tv-live-stream/
I leave you with a traditional Serbian greeting, Pumpaj!!!
I thought N1 is CNN. There is even CNN logo in the bottom left. You can’t get more independent than that.
Yeah, I don’t quite understand the colour revolution angle here, as I always figured Vučić as something of a Western-aligned stooge already? Not Western aligned enough due to the Ukraine war? I don’t think any Serbian president would be able to ram through the kind of comprehensive sanctions that Western governments want from Serbia.
Vučić is Pashinyan-like. Colour revolution angle here is not to allow him to be replaced with someone Dodik-like, but Zelensky-like. Lithium must flow.
But why push to replace him at all? Lithium would have been flowing even with Vučić there, at least that is my understanding. If he is already trying to align Serbia more with the West, than I don’t get the reason for wanting to push him out.
In the EU and those trying to get in, it is not enough to follow most dictates coming from Brussels. You have to follow ALL of them and be in complete alignment. Vučić doing stuff like buying Chinese weaponry and his unwillingness to strip the Serbian military arsenals bare so that those weapons could be sent to the Ukraine was more than enough to make him a target.
Best of luck. I’m all in favour of overthrowing puppet governments. Pumpaj back atcha!
“A New Scientific Field Is Recasting Who We Are and How We Got That Way”
I have been telling people for twenty odd years that it is not nature OR nurture, it is nature AND nurture. And to be healthy, your nurture has to be in line with your nature.
“You will not find a Elephant living in the Arctic.”
Technological advances in travel have enabled people to immediately move to places that are unfit for the genetics. Like an Inuit moving to Hawaii, a Peruvian Highlander moving to the the Australian Coast, or an Kenyan moving to Portland, Maine. They moved to places they were not genetically adapted to live and there will be some effects as a result.
But the proper term they should be using is Envirogenomics, not sociogenomics. Since society is only one of many factors that interact with our genome, and there are only so many ways we can change society to sustain or genetics.
On polygenics; let’s take high cholesterol. It is not really a polygenic disorder, but an Envirogenomic disorder.
I am glad to read this article but they were sloppy in their writing and the point could have been made in a more clear and direct way. I do no really think they know the subject they are writing about as much as they think they do.
My grandmother lived in a small foothill town in the Tatra mountains before immigrating to Canada around 1910, and my mom was born and raised near Crowsnest Pass in Alberta, so I think there was a homing beacon of sorts for yours truly so duly attracted, Slovakians being hillbillies.
I know you were using cholesterol to illustrate a point, but it’s not a very good example.
First, high cholesterol is not a disorder. People with low cholesterol have the highest all factor mortality rate: https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4266
Total cholesterol of over 200, which is considered high, is correlated with the lowest all factor mortality: https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5196083-judge-guantanamo-migrant-detentions/
Second, there are people who have genetic high cholesterol. They can have very high HDL. Their high total cholesterol is not the result of bad diet as with most.
Similarly:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17512433.2018.1519391?rfr_dat=cr_pub++0pubmed&url_ver=Z39.88-
Yves – your second link goes to an article in the Hill… would be great to see the right one. I have a friend battling with her doc about statins. She has very mildly elevated LDL-C, everything else blood pressure, tryglicerides, blood sugar, CRP are all normal-optimal and her doc still wants to start her on a statin, even her naturopath is on the statin bandwagon. It is like the whole medical system is brainwashed about this drug. And thanks, that last review is a keeper!
“G7 warns Russia of expanded sanctions unless it backs ceasefire”
The collapse of the Kursk salient aka Russia’s Battle of the Bulge, seems to have really shocked a lot of western leaders as they have come to understand that the Ukraine is actually losing this war. Probably the Trump admin too as here Rubio was in lockstep with the rest of the G7 leaders threatening Russia if they do not immediately sign up for that 30-day ceasefire. But what may be really pushing their agenda is the Ukrainian troops cut off in Kursk of which there appear to be a few thousand. Trump is extremely concerned about those troops and said-
‘it is “unbelievable” how Russian forces managed to encircle so many Ukrainian troops despite the extensive financial and military support Washington has provided to Kiev over the years.’
Earlier in the day, Trump urged Putin to preserve the lives of the ‘thousands of Ukrainian troops’ who are ‘completely surrounded by the Russian military. This would be a horrible massacre, one not seen since World War II.’ he said in a post on Truth Social.
Putin came back and said ‘If they lay down their arms and surrender, [we] will guarantee them their lives and dignified treatment in accordance with international law and Russian legal norms.’
But here is the thing. Anybody here remember the Battle of Debaltseve back in 2015? The Donbass militias had gotten a Ukrainian invasion force into a fire sack and were pounding the crap out of them. There was panic in the west about this and Momma Merkel pleaded with Putin to get the Donbass militias to let them go in return for a peaceful settlement which was how we got Minsk 2. And since then western leaders admitted that the only purpose of that agreement was to free those troops and let the west buildup the Ukrainian military. This time Putin ain’t falling for it and will only accept those troops as either dead or as prisoners – their choice. And some of them have war crimes to answer for.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Debaltseve
The Debaltseve event and similar has gotten several mentions from various alternative media. While Putin’s recent offer is an improvement and not a copitulation, it might rather annoy those Russians collecting war crimes evidence in Kursk. Trump certainly represents Western Values as he claims concern for Ukraine lives as he and The West are silent and oblivious on say Russian or Palestinian lives. Dima at military summury I think did however mention the Americans did honor a Russian request to spare Russian lives in similar situation where the roles were reversed in this same conflict.
Trump may claim he has concerns for Ukrainian lives but just the other day he was boasting how he was the one to send Javelin missiles to the Ukraine which were used to kill Russian lives. I bet that the Russian picked up on that. Can you imagine Trump’s response if there was a repeat of the attack on Columbus, New Mexico and a major foreign nation asked that the lives of the attackers be spared and that they be allowed to go back into Mexico?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Columbus_(1916)
re: “G7 warns Russia of expanded sanctions unless it backs ceasefire”
The G7 as a military alliance? riiight…. / ;)
See Taibbi and Kirn’s latest ATW. no paywall. utube. The opening twtr-X clips are great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZGNl2C8Yzs
Need to add Blackrock in there as well. Maybe time to jettison Italy.
The proposed or hypothetical DOGE dividend suggestion. I’m still moderately in favor of seeking out the low hanging fruit, so to speak on trimming obvious expenses like the under-utilized commercial real estate the US leases or rents for the federal workforce. I just never understood the dividend idea as talking points from the administration.
Cutting expenses to trim the large budget deficits means saving money…or does it not. Added on, whatever investing themes this investment manager, Mr. Fishback, pitches well I’d be selling it. One can be wealthy and rich but not terribly bright, as many know.
I’ll say the quiet part out loud. This “dividend” scheme is a smoke screen to hide the coming tax reductions for the already wealthy class.
The “True” Republican Party has always been about reducing government. The “best” way to do that is to starve it of funds. Then the mythical “Free Market” can step in and do the bidding of the Oligarchs even better than the Government does!
Taxes are a major tool of Social Engineering. Control the taxes and you indirectly control the society. Eliminate most taxes and you, arguably, remove any ‘control’ function from the society. This situation is properly called Savagery.
Stay safe.
Trump kind of showed his hand in the first term, when Interior Director Zinke proposed raising fees in National Parks, for instance for every entry my buddy’s sightseeing tour vehicles make into Sequoia NP, he is charged $75 for commercial entry, and Zinke wanted to take it to $300.
This is what he proposed for public entry in 2017, and abandoned in 2018.
I’m so curious what happens during our summer of missed content, with the hour getting late as far as getting seasonals on board, and those NPS employees with Fed credit cards have had their limit taken down to one measly buck for 30 days, it’s a classic bust out operation, and not some sporting goods store in NJ-but the crown jewels in the forest for the trees and everywhere else socialism has held sway for far too long-the sheer nerve that all 300 odd million of us are part owners!
“Five Years of COVID-19: How the Pandemic Changed Our Lives”
It takes someone from the WHO to write an article about the after effects of the Covid pandemic – and completely omit any mention of Long Covid. The guy says ‘Today, COVID-19 has become part of our daily lives, transitioning into the category of common infections, though people still die from the virus.’ If that were only true. But Covid is forever leaving an increasing number of people suffering Long Covid which will eventually put a spanner in the economy. The same one that governments prioritized over the health of workers, errrr, citizens. And he should not be so proud about the development of those vaccines. They came with their own problems and all those people that held those vaccines under suspicion were right to do so. This whole article sounds like an attempt to whitewash the WHO and to put the blame on governments and people but we know that the WHO was the one that failed and dramatically. But now they want even more power to decide how to respond to the next pandemic while they failed us – and still are – with this one.
Arun Shourie’s new book on Savarkar comes at a critical moment for India
>> But Savarkar, like the Muslim League, had his own “two-nation theory — a theory that was so convenient for the British”. “Savarkar began advancing this unbridgeable separateness [between Hindus and Muslims] much before Jinnah alighted on the same thesis.”
Re. Yasha Mount and the WASPs.
«(Was World War II won by the WASP elite or by Navajo code talkers and Jewish astrophysicists and most of all by courageous GI’s drawn from every ethnic and religious group?) »
Or was it a pyrrhic victory won by Russia with 25,000,000 casualiies?
I, as a WASP, am glad I can now blame the US’s problems and awful politics on some other group or groups and their various Lobbys. / ;)
re: Dems.
This was written before the voting. The outcome was a forgone conclusion, as the article explains. Schumer’s ‘mistake’ was stringing everyone along thinking they could win when he knew they would not. (Sound’s like McNamera about Vietnam. Or like Z about Ukr,.) That stringing people along in the face of certain defeat was a mistake on his part, imo, and could fracture the party. (And to add insult to it, I kept getting money-beg emails from Dems during the, what I can only call kabuki floor show.)
From Punchbowl News:
Schumer folds on funding and Democrats are furious
https://punchbowl.news/article/senate/schumer-backs-funding-measure/
(And, ahem, it sounds like the last election where the Dems’ internal polling showed word-salad losing, but they kept telling everyone the Dems were in for the win. Is this the new Dem estab strategy for politics? / ;)
I have to disagree with their conclusions. It was only a loser as long as the Republicans could get cloture. But that would have mean Democrats being serious enough to really shut down the government for the weekend. And perhaps even do their job and have a truly clean CR ready to go. They might not have gotten that through reconciliation, but it would have played better politically AND there is an outside chance some bits of the CR might have been changed for the better. As all of that was possible not really a loser.
A more accurate reading of this was that Chuck and some relatively safe* or retiring Dems were always set to allow the CR to get to a vote, and he misread the room on how much he and the others could pretend they were not just pretending to be opposition. It was the same bait and switch the Democrats always play. But this time the public wanted opposition AND they got the Senate procedural process the useless ten were using for cover. As in every Democrat that voted for cloture is now tarred with letting this happen even though they voted NO on the CR.
My only real enjoyment in this has been Trump kicking the useless Chuck when he was down by congratulating him on “doing the right thing”. Something that hit the news here in NYC on every major local newscast.
By relatively safe, in NY’s case neither of the two despicable Senators is facing reelection before Trump’s replacement is on the ballot. Chuck is up 2028, Gillibrand in 2030.
Techno-optimism truly is dead (or buried by partisan pettiness)….
SpaceX’s Dragon 10 launched yesterday in primetime from Cape Kennedy with a reuseable booster.
the commander is a woman, 50% of the crew of 4 are women….and not by DEI/affirmative action, by 100% merit….and have resumes equal to/better than the men on the mission!
What a national shame that this isn’t being celebrated.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that in a healthy, mature society that it does not matter the sex of a person doing a job but if they are the best qualified for it. In the old Soviet Russian system there was a lot of meritocracy going on with the result that the first Russian female cosmonaut – Valentina Tereshkova – went up into space back in 1963. It took the US another twenty years before they could find a female astronaut – Sally Ride – to send into space. That was just ridiculous. But I thank Star Trek showing me as a young kid that you could have a future where men and women could work alongside another without one being superior to the other. Modern films just shows the opposite now which does not do young people any favours.
But I thank Star Trek showing me as a young kid that you could have a future where men and women could walk alongside another without one being superior to the other as far as the electric eye that automatically opened doors to convenience stores at gas stations was concerned…
…but no ‘WWWWhoooooooshhhhh!’
Back when they were filming the very first Star Trek back in the 60s, you had a lot of people write in asking questions about their technology. One guy – a building superintendent – was asking about how those doors opened and closed so fast as he could not replicate the speed but was told that they used to prop men to open and close those doors for the actors. Another asked how they got that ‘WWWWhoooooooshhhhh!’ sound as he was trying to reproduce it with his own doors. He was told that it was a sound effect added in editing – but they did send the guy a tape reel with that sound effect on it for his own use. Want to know a funny thing. I used to go to MacDonalds from time to time and they use sound effects there. And I know damn well that one of them is one of those used in Start Trek. How about that.
“Everything you say to your Echo will be sent to Amazon starting on March 28”
‘Amazon is killing a privacy feature to bolster Alexa+, the new subscription assistant.’
Amazon supported privacy features? Really? And they were actually real? Well I guess that if you can’t trust Jeff Bezos with your privacy, then who can you trust?
Very interesting piece on strong dollar policy and “taming financial markets” a phrase one doesn’t see very often.
Quote:
The campaign to elect Trump was backed by billionaires. That might explain why the cost-of-living crisis, the rising costs of food and energy, the lack of affordable, decent housing, health and education was not blamed on the financial system and global markets, but on the people of China, Mexico, immigrants, and on ‘culture wars’. (As I have tried to show in earlier posts, the rising costs of food, energy and housing can be blamed on global markets in commodities, property and money.)
https://open.substack.com/pub/annpettifor/p/will-donald-trump-tame-the-global?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=jz47a
“First cougar cubs verified in Michigan in more than a century”
As a kid I always liked cougars & pumas – even though there were none in Oz – but never thought about what a cougar cub would look like. Do they all have that black lining around their muzzle when young?
– ‘New bombshell UN report accuses Israel of sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians’ – Mondoweiss
This is an important report that should be spread far and wide. But I’m not sure the word “bombshell” is appropriate. On the contrary, such reports have become depressingly routine and expected by anyone paying attention. That is why there is such a ferocious effort by the Israel lobby and its lackeys in government and the media to repress such information. But thanks to Mondoweiss, Mahmoud Kahlil, and all of those who keep fighting.
There’s something happening here
But what it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man from DOGE over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it’s time we stop
Children, what’s that sound?
Everybody look, what’s going down?
There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much AIPAC resistance from behind
It’s time we stop
Hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look, what’s going down?
What a field day for the protest meet (Ooh ooh ooh)
A hundred people in the street (Ooh ooh ooh)
Singing songs and they carrying signs (Ooh ooh ooh)
Mostly say, “Hooray for our side” (Ooh ooh ooh)
It’s time we stop
Hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look, what’s going down?
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
Step out of approved Zionist line, the men come and take you away
We better stop
Hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look, what’s going down?
You better stop
Hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look, what’s going down?
You better stop
Now, what’s that sound?
Everybody look, what’s going down?
You better stop
Children, what’s that sound?
Everybody look, what’s going down?
For What it’s Worth, by Buffalo Springfield
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVhn1edWaDA
Regarding the 2 housecats with h5n1, I have a concern as a bird and cat owner. My concern is that it is very easy to track bird droppings into the home after walking outside. We are a “leave the shoes are the door” kind of home, but just one mishap with fresh droppings could be enough to track virus around the home. Google AI states that cats can be infected by droppings. I am considering using hypochlorous acid spray to decontaminate shoes after walks as well. Looking forward to seeing what the investigation shows.
I am watching this weekend’s Bill Maher program. The discussion is with pundit Sam Stein and some other woman I have never heard of.
There sits Sam Stein, with the most smug and condescending tone possible, explaining that manufacturing in the USA is a “quaint old idea from the 1970s” and that AI is going to revolutionize the world.
This commentary is after a week in my professional life where dozens of patients cannot get medication. Not because it is expensive, but because it is just not available. Antidepressants, Adderall, multiple different antibiotics, inhalers, and most poignant of all one cancer patient had to have their entire treatment changed mid stream to a very inferior drug because the preferred one is just not available. These shortages continue to happen and are getting worse by the year because we do not manufacture these agents inside the United States. It long ago passed the dangerous level. I spend so much of my week dialing for drugs all over this part of the country that I am having trouble doing my real job.
I have neighbors who are now on their 4th month of a rental car because car parts are not available. We have half finished houses in our area because housing components are not available.
And there we have our DNC pundits spewing this stuff. And they wonder why no one is listening. Mr. Stein, when you and Mr Thomas Friedman can show me how AI is going to manufacture drugs, chemical molecules, and car parts – please let me know.
If the West does finally complete the mental breakdown and actually goes to war in the Ukraine – I cannot wait to watch AI manufacture planes and tanks. Does anyone with two firing neurons think that maybe, just maybe, China and India are not going to build our war materiel? I just do not understand the mass delusion/psychosis that has become of the Democratic Party and their pundits today. I find it so so depressing as a liberal – and my New Deal Dem elders must just be rolling in their graves. But, as Bill Maher so eloquently demonstrated at the end of the show, these same people gladly spend all kinds of media time to virtue signal things like sex workers, and then on the other side to glorify scum like Andrew Tate. All this media time being spent on virtue signaling and we brush off supply and manufacturing and critical infrastructure issues because “The AI revolution is coming.” I am old enough to remember all the “internet revolution” propaganda. When I look out and survey where we are now compared to then – well, I think we lost the bet. I guess this is what it is like living through a collapse.