She’s One of Florida’s Most Lethal Python Hunters Garden & Gun
Which Movies Do People Love to Hate? A Statistical Analysis Stat Significant
Is our universe trapped inside a black hole? Space.com
Visualized: All of the World’s Data Visual Capitalist
COVID-19/Pandemics
New Drug Could Block COVID-19 Before It Starts, Study Finds UVA Today
With crumbling public health infrastructure, rural Texas scrambles to respond to measles The Texas Tribune
Study explores impact of pandemics on birth rates in Switzerland News Medical
Climate/Environment
Climate change will reduce the number of satellites that can safely orbit in space MIT News
Can the Tools of Finance Help Combat Climate Change? Yale Insights
China?
Ship Wars: Confronting China’s Dual-Use Shipbuilding Empire CSIS
Trump’s China strategy seeks ‘containment with a smile’ The Hill
Chinese ‘invasion barges’ spotted on drills for first time The Guardian
Africa
Fear spreads that NIH will terminate grants involving South Africa Science
US expels South Africa’s ambassador, calling him ‘race-baiting’ Trump hater Reuters
How well is Africa doing across the Sustainable Development Goals? Brookings
Internet shutdowns at record high in Africa as access ‘weaponised’ The Guardian
South of the Border
Pentagon asked for military options to access Panama Canal Reuters
‘Haiti’s survival is at stake,’ says UN expert, warning of worsening crisis UN News
From Mexico cartel safe house to US streets: BBC tracks deadly fentanyl targeted by Trump tariffs BBC
European Disunion
Fury erupts at Keir Starmer’s EU capitulation as he sets date for Brexit betrayal Express
Dutch lawmakers object to EU’s multibillion defense proposal DW
Israel v. The Resistance
Trump’s Bombast Towards Yemen and Iran Could Sink his Presidency Larry Johnson
US and Israel look to Africa for moving Palestinians uprooted from Gaza AP
Former head of Israeli military intelligence welcomes ‘chaos’ in Syria Middle East Eye
Israel is Denying Doctors and International Aid Workers Entry to Gaza at Unprecedented Rates Dropsite News
Growing despair in besieged Gaza amid shortages of much-needed food and fuel DAWN
this is straight gestapo shit btw https://t.co/zW1hfZcGsy
— hasanabi (@hasanthehun) March 14, 2025
New Not-So-Cold War
Putin guarantees life of Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk if they surrender Euronews
BREAKING: Absolutely *damning* ECHR ruling finds Kiev bears heavy responsibility for the massacre of scores anti-Maidan activists in Odessa, May 2014. Inevitable Western media blackout on this, as it confirms what Russia was saying all along.🧵…https://t.co/4g8hVCTe2j pic.twitter.com/NNUc3HFVtA
— Kit Klarenberg 🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻 (@KitKlarenberg) March 13, 2025
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
If you think AI Agents will be a boon to our lives then just stop and think a moment about what the AI Agent has to have access to. The security/privacy implications are profound. Description of the problem very nicely put here by @mer__edith pic.twitter.com/nVpJ3c6k4B
— Alan Woodward (@ProfWoodward) March 10, 2025
Data Privacy Experts Concerned About DOGE Access to ED Government TechnologyCPPA Puts the Brakes on Honda’s Data Privacy Practices McDermott, Will & Emery
Imperial Collapse Watch
High attrition rates and increased waivers muddy enlistment numbers Responsible Statecraft
US Air Force in Crisis as Only 6 in 10 Aircraft Mission-Ready Newsweek
I tried the viral $20 strawberry. It tasted like the end of the American empire The Guardian
No empire dies quietly: the violent twilight of US dominance Morning Star
Trump 2.0
Donald Trump threatens opponents with jail in Justice Department speech Al Jazeera
Trump’s Canadian tariffs are having a chilling effect on Vermont’s small business owners CNBC
‘My career is over’: Columbia University scientists hit hard by Trump team’s cuts Nature
Donald Trump’s Slumping Poll Numbers Council on Foreign Relations
DOGE
Elon Musk wants to use AI to run US gov’t, but experts say ‘very bad’ idea Al Jazeera
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy Teams Up With DOGE to Gut USPS TruthOut (Kevin W)
Are Elon Musk’s politics threatening Tesla and his empire? DW
DOGE is endangering Trump’s priorities Brookings
Democrat Death Watch
The Democrats’ Enabling Act: Senate votes to fund Trump’s dictatorship WSWS
The Big Lesson From Bernie Sanders’s Gangbusters Anti-Oligarchy Tour The New Republic
The Schumer-Jeffries Split Explodes in Public Politico
Charlamagne tha God: Schumer, Jeffries should step down The Hill
Immigration
Judge blocks Trump administration from implementing Alien Enemies Act The Hill
Birthright Citizenship in the United States American Immigration Council
Trump’s New Immigration Ban: An Arbitrary, Discriminatory Legal Immigration Rewrite Cato Institute
Scoop: ICE already short $2 billion as Trump’s immigration crackdown ramps up Axios
Our No Longer Free Press
CPJ, partners urge FCC to stop threatening press freedom and free speech Committee to Protect Journalists
News Guild President Jon Schleuss identifies three big threats to press freedom People’s World
Mr. Market Is Moody
Wall Street tumbles 10% below its record for first ‘correction’ since 2023 on Trump’s trade war AP
Ominous market signals show more trouble could await US stocks Reuters
DC housing market shows signs of cracks amid mass federal layoffs CNBC
AI
Anthropic CEO says spies are after $100M AI secrets in a ‘few lines of code’ TechCrunch
Google’s New Robot AI Can Fold Delicate Origami, Close Zipper Bags Slashdot
Google’s Gemini DeepResearch is now available to everyone engadget
The Bezzle
New FTC Data Show a Big Jump in Reported Losses to Fraud to $12.5 Billion in 2024 FTC
AI voice-cloning scams: A persistent threat with limited guardrails Axios
Guillotine Watch
The Top 6 Most Expensive Hermès Birkin Bags Southeby’s
Class Warfare
The push to restore semiconductor manufacturing faces a labor crisis − can the US train enough workers in time? The Conversation
Antidote du Jour (via)
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
and
Bookends of our present situation.
“Trump’s Bombast Towards Yemen and Iran Could Sink his Presidency”
Like Obama, Trump firmly believes that there is no foreign problem that he cannot solve by using bombs and troops. Thing is, Obama bombed so many people that at one stage he ran out of bombs. And you just know that the inventory of bombs was far higher way back then. So what does Trump do if he starts to run out of bombs. What if Ansar Allah make it a point to hit a US ship? And why the bluster against Iran? He has already said that he is imposing maximum pressure against them. Does he think that offering – temporary – relief will get them to shut off supplies to Yemen? What makes him think that Ansar Allah are under Iran’s direct control? But I guess that at the end of the day, this is all about doing his buddy Bibi a solid.
2 days ago the info that Obama actually ran out of bombs already got mentioned; do we have the news item on that? I wasn ´t so much into things back then.
Just a quick search coughs up this article-
https://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/04/politics/air-force-20000-bombs-missiles-isis/index.html
Don’t forget that Obama was the guy that started his first few months of his Presidency by being awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.
Appreciate it!
Frankly I didn´t expect it to be that easy with an actual headline saying “The U.S. is running out of bombs to drop on ISIS”.
I would have never typed that into search…
How naive we all were then!
(I’m using the figurative meaning of all, not the literal)
Obama and that Nobel, the pyrrhic triumph of Hope over experience. Plus ça change…
I thought it pretty bad in his acceptance speech to turn it into a war speech. The gall of the man.
“Trump firmly believes that there is no foreign problem that he cannot solve by using bombs and troops.”
I disagree. He also believes that maximum economic and financial pressure can bring adversaries to heel — see all those tariffs and other, hem, incitements.
In this respect, Panama (ports transfered from a Chinese firm to Blackrock) and Taiwan (TSMC agreeing to invest $100B in the USA, and possibly to take over/partner with Intel against the commercial, technological, and IPR interests of Taiwan) can be counted as successes for the USA.
As well, bombs and troops resulted in some successes recently — even if by proxy: Lebanon, Syria.
I have been reading many articles in the past couple of decades arguing that the USA, overextended, overstretched, overtaxed, overloaded with foreign entanglements, with a decaying military and a run-down industrial infrastructure, will incur a massive setback in some exotic place resulting in the collapse of its hegemony. I have the impression we are nowhere near this turning point.
If you want to look at how that scenario might play out, then I would recommend the novel “Twilight’s Last Gleaming” by John Michael Greer. Very much worth the read-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight%27s_Last_Gleaming_(novel)
The ending is more optimistic than this Wikipedia article would make out.
Up until now it hasn’t really mattered when we lost in some overseas conflict, not a lot of soul searching when we left with our tales between our legs in Kabul, for instance.
I’m a big fan of the fourth turning, and follow along:
1865: Appomattox
1945: Tokyo Bay
2025: Kiev
Will we lose hegemony when we lose Ukraine?
When the US abandons a war like Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan they usually just sail away in the ships or fly away in their planes i.e on their own terms. Ex-Colonel Douglas Macgregor has made the same point. The only time that was different was Appomattox. That time you had tens of millions of Americans suffering an outright defeat. The South has never forgotten – or forgiven – that defeat and generations later it’s effects are still felt. You have the US suffer that sort of defeat and who know how people will react. That novel shows what could happen.
Another endorsement for Twilight’s Last Gleaming. The ending is best case scenario for our current predicament
This is ripoff from an old post at Eschation a long time ago…
America’s Foreign Policy:
Plan A: Bomb
Plan B: Bomb Bomb
Plan C: Bomb Bomb Bomb
Plan D: Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb
It’s my expectation that Mother Nature will be the impetus for this. All you need is a few more bad hurricanes, fires, and other climate collapse natural disasters to cause a mess stateside. It’s a lot more difficult to maintain a global empire without a stable climate.
I wish Her the best of luck.
Those robots spraying a Cybertruck reminded me of this film from back in the day, starring Yul Brynner.
Westworld (1973) Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoUWNBcBKkA
exactly!
(I didn´t want to say it, always coming up with these film analogies).
But… yeahhh
Can you imagine a few years down the track a new sport? Robots vs robots. You would have an area hooked up with cameras everywhere and two teams of robots armed with human weapons would go for each other. Hunger Games but for Robots or maybe just Terminators vs Robocops. The main rule would be that they would have to be humanoid in shape and size like these ones were so you do not end up with just robot tanks. You could have sponsorship deals, online betting, team favourites and the full nine yards. And nobody need get hurt.
well there is this…
“Real Steel”, 2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU3ZqtbIRPI
It made me think about the number of people that thought that it was for real.
It´s almost as if one were hesitant about calling out Trump´s bullshit simply out of fear that might help the other idiots who want to go on with “project WWIII” get back in office…this really is a rock/hard place conundrum. Regardless that they wouldn´t get far with WWIII. But just to know there is a bit of communication going on now and the embassies are getting staffed again. I mean Rutte saying out loud that there won´t be NATO for UKR in a way that nobody can deny it? Like a new era.
From a Mad magazine decades ago, paraphrasing perhaps, “Nixxon. New name, same old gas”.
…possible they (Americans) would be better off with a Mr. N now?🙄
I assume N and T are the most hated POTUSes outside USA in the history of POTUSes.
May be I should write POSSUM instead. President of …SSUM… can´t come up with anything good right now.
One would think we’d be better off with N, but the this stupid timeline confounds determination.
President Of States Supposedly United, Maybe.
I think we’d be better off with N now. (Never thought I’d think this.) He started the EPA and ended the Vietnam War. Of course, he had to be got rid of for that last “sin.”
Newsweek on USAF “mission capable” rate.
Newsweek related the “partial mission capable rate (PMC). Sadly, GAO does as well.
There are three mission capable rates: fully mission capable (FMC), PMC and not mission capable (NMC).
Flexibility is key to military success. A unit with a tiny FMC fleet has restricted flexibility. Most of its aircraft cannot do missions that could be combat critical.
Using PMC hides a lot of issues.
This is what appears to be the actual longer news report quoted:
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2025/03/06/air-force-aircraft-readiness-plunges-to-new-low-alarming-chief/
And here are actual charts for “Air Force Mission Capable Rates” per model if one scrolls down:
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-force-mission-capable-rates-fiscal-2024/
Having grown up in a small town home overlooking a lake in southern Minnesota, I’m old enough to remember the winter ice harvests. They stopped sometime in the late ’40s, presumably because electric refrigeration was coming to the nearby farms thanks to the REA program.
Puts me in mind of the ice trade in North America which at one time employed about 90,000 people and 25,000 horses. At the beginning of the season, you would have ice shipped into the big cities where some of the blocks would be put in display in store windows where crowds of people came to stare at it. It fetched a good price and was a lucrative trade once but you are still talking about frozen water. And a twenty buck strawberry? What’s that old saw about a fool and their money?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_trade
Would make more sense to do a taste comparison at the height of the strawberry season, and make it a blind tasting. There is a world of difference between peak season strawbs picked locally, and the first ones that appear in stores.
The writer could also have done a price check on how much they charge for strawberries at Wimbledon, apparently quite a lot. Maybe not 19.99 but still.
A $20 strawberry? Meh. 13 years ago there was already a $1000 ice-cream.
Shhh, Nancy Pelosi doesn’t want anyone to know about her strategic ice cream reserve secured in special freezers! /s
More Grauniad:
«Erewhon, the only grocery store to have inspired both a Louis Vuitton perfume and a Balenciaga collection, is not the first to introduce this luxury fruit trend to Americans.»
Some kind of sequel to Yves’ post yesterday on digital brain rot….
Citrus gets picked and graded, with perfect examples headed to Japan where it sells for a big premium. No American would ever really care about a slight blemish or an orange being out of round and not perfectly symmetrical, but they do in Nippon,
When I was growing up, Orange County was kind of a backwater and not a great deal of houses compared to now, and what it had was maybe a dozen 2nd and 3rd generation Japanese-Americans who owned a bit of land and grew the most amazing strawberries-the size of a small child’s fist and oh so full of flavor.
One by one they all sold their ‘truck farms’ and homes were built in their place.
“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” (One Hundred Years of Solitude, p1, pp1)
… and in the American grain, Ralph Fasanella: https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/ice-man-crucified-4-86406
I recognized your initial quote immediately, Michael. One of my all-time favorite books, and I’m glad you brought it back to my mind.
Likewise. My favourite quote from it, not relevant to this thread but relevant to much else, is:
“High attrition rates and increased waivers muddy enlistment numbers”
‘According to a senior Army official, only 8% of the population is eligible for “clean enlistment” with no waivers, much lower than the 23% found in a 2020 DOD study.’
Maybe that was why they allowed RFK jr into the government. If he can get Americans healthier again, that would have to increase the pool of recruits available to be recruited and sent out to the ends of the empire. But if numbers are going down, perhaps it is because young people see how Trump wants to gut the Veterans Health Administration which means that if they join up and get wounded, then they won’t have much government hep when they get back but left to their own devices.
“Thank you for your service,now Go Die.”
The Top 6 Most Expensive Hermès Birkin Bags Southeby’s
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
First I look at the purse-some fetching $450k, and then you try and think of how any mens wallet could ever be worth $450k unless it had about 11 pounds of crisp brand new Benjamins in it?
Now when it comes to time its the other way around-no womens watches fetch anywhere near what an intricate vintage Swiss made high end mens wristwatch sells for.
It’s really difficult for a man of glutinous wealth to display it on his person, with wristwatches being about the only thing possible-this despite any old Timex supplying the very same time.
Maybe a tattoo? (ducks)
Wuk’s nephew with $450k of tattoos would pound-for-pound be a better asset class than gold I reckon
Maybe an arm-bracelet with very expensive tastes. Just ask Jeff Bezos.
…and she can pilot a helicopter.
‘Hey, Jeff. Ever seen a helicopter do a barrel roll?’ Better buckle up!’
I was once looking at very expensive watches in a jewellers with a more-glamorous-than-me friend and I said something along the line of ‘who on earth would bay 10k for a watch when a cheap one does the same job? Who notices?’ She looked at me pointedly and said ‘beautiful women notice’.
I’ve a friend with a taste for very expensive bags who insists that her net spend on them is zero – she will buy much sought after bags new and used and usually sell then on after a year or so, depending on demand and fashion. While I suspect that her ‘net zero’ line is more for her husbands ears, I think she has a point that there comes a level where you can justify very expensive items as investments (although YTer Patrick Boyle has an amusing video pointing out that in general watches are not a good investment). But I would guess that like with antiques, if you have a very good eye and a bit of luck, it is a taste you can indulge in without doing yourself long term financial damage, and may even make a profit out of it.
The thing is, you wouldn’t dare use a purse such as a Birkin for it’s intended purpose-just as you would be daft to don a pair of vintage Air Jordan’s and then throw away the cardboard box and go shoot hoops on the blacktop.
These are trading totems, not using totems
My friend absolutely uses her bags and purses for their intended purpose (though obviously not in dodgy bars or suchlike). She regularly points out to me random women with very expensive accessories (like most men I’m oblivious to most of those things, and only recently started to notice when other men are wearing very expensive watches). Many of course can be fake. My sister loves her $200 *cough* Birkin bought in Bangkok and likes to tease the curious who ask about it.
I suppose you could drive your 1955 Gullwing Mercedes to 7-11 to get a slurpee…
The value of most everything highly sought after is in the condition, older coins that were caught with a gloved hand after being minted and never circulated and are in pristine condition are worth infinitely more than the same coin that circulated for decades or even 30 days worth of commerce.
Yes, well, that’s where it all gets complicated. Some items – even fashion items – do benefit from a ‘lived in’ look – I’m told there is quite a second hand market for things like ‘lived in’ Mulberry and even Patagonia where they go for much higher than the original sales price. Of course genuinely old clothes can be very expensive – good quality old linens are very popular.
I think this is all part of the marketing – for most people, it’s delusional to think that the watch or bag or jacket they buy can keep its long term value. You have to really know your product niche well. There are of course lots of people who do this as a hobby. I’m told the market for trading upmarket brands of clothes in Japan is enormous. It’s a cheap way for some people to keep up with fashion trends if you are willing to devote time to it and I guess its a lot more environmentally sustainable than buying new from mainstream stores.
A friend went from buying and selling camera stuff gravitated to clothing – he has a positive rep from the website he uses, so people regularly give him things to sell and they split the profit. He’s always asking me for my Patagonia cast offs (I used to buy a lot years ago when I lived near one of their outlet stores).
I am pretty active in the market for old bicycles. The market for fifty year old Paramounts and Colnagos has absolutely cratered as the guys my age and older all start looking to unload their hoards. A critical part of making money in a market like that is to turn the inventory over quickly because the market can change completely in a year or two.
Rolex watch bought by U.S. air force serviceman in 1974 for $345 (then about a months wages for him) appraised decades later at five to seven hundred thousand dollars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9Y4bmbh1KY
“I never used it” The vet kept it pristine in a safe deposit box, hence the astronomical value. “New in Box” is the ultimate condition and rare as unicorns.
True, but one has to balance preserving condition and use. Kids and pets would lay waste to that investment strategy.
Back in the 80s, I acquired a late 18th century slant-front desk from a neighbor, which I planned on enjoying and then reselling. Not one week in and the cats had discovered the joy of surfing the slanted lid.
If it was an antique violin you could have put the cat to good use if it damaged it.
Murdurous thoughts indeed occurred. Nevertheless, an assessment of what really makes us happy also took place. The desk was unloaded.
Did you check out to see if there were any hidden draws and the like? You often had those in those old 19th century desks.
It was a pretty common thing also in the 19th century to hide cash inbetween the backing of a painting in a frame and the painting.
I was told years ago that is a place where many a land deed, marriage certificate, maybe even a fraktur, were hidden from burglars. It makes sense that stock certificates or money could be there too.
It did have a secret drawer, hidden behind the central gallery of small drawers which could be removed via a hidden latch.
Between you, me and the IRS, I bet that it was completely empty and there was nothing to be found.
Boyle has pretty awful politics (pro-Milei, for example) but he mostly keeps that in check and is otherwise quite witty and a lot of fun. His video on Neom, the deranged Saudi/MBS desert-ruin/city-of-the-future (and McKinsey, etc. hyper grift) is very entertaining.
Yes, I love his super dry sense of humour. And he knows his stuff – his video on the South Seas Bubble was fantastic.
A second follow-up on Neom dropped just recently. His first one about the train needing to travel at sonic speeds while stopping every few seconds had me in hysterics.
Then there’s Scottie Pippen’s wisdom on the matter.
That Prem Thakker tweet video is a heartbreaker.
How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I’m young
You might say I’m unlearned
But there’s one thing I know
Though I’m younger than you
That even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do
Dylan, Masters of War
I thought this piece was unusual and hard to argue with regarding Zion*s grip:
https://open.substack.com/pub/alonmizrahi/p/dear-american-student?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=jz47a
This is exactly why I left the US 9 years ago in February 2016. In The awakening of the Occupy Wall Street movement I had become an activist, actually a hardcore activist. I’m proud to say that I was arrested three times for protesting, twice against the implementation of Citizens United decision and once for raising the minimum wage to $15. (I was a class traitor perhaps, having achieved a class that I was not raised in.)
And I have to agree with what this writer says, nobody cares in the US. It’s even more true now than it was when I realized it in 2015. And so I left and took my energy, intelligence and humanity elsewhere. Probably one of the best decisions I ever made.
nobody cares, simply not true. Mothers care. Fathers, brothers, sisters care. I remember my mom crying while watched the news coverage the day Kent State happened. That care transfers across those demographics.
And thanks for from-lining it. I firmly believe that it makes a difference.
The piece certainly covered the broad reach of Zionism here in the US, but perhaps went a bit too far in labeling every organization and institution as a cog in the Zionist machine. While I understand the point that my local fire department is Zionist because it exists in the US and it is under that umbrella, I don’t agree. Not every organization is tainted beyond repair and not every individual action can be labeled as Zionist because it is under this umbrella. He has simplified his argument to make a point, but then destroyed his argument in the process.
And this one: “Look what happened to the anti-Vietnam or the civil rights movements. They made no difference. The system swallowed them whole.”. Yes, the system fights back by swallowing movements, but did they not make any difference?
And since these students are not cut out for armed revolution or massive cultural upheaval, they should just leave?
This could have been written by the Trump administration.
Pythons – wirh a functional state you could have created a large department with salaried python catchers and systematically manage/root out the problem instead of relying on minimum salaried volunteers.
It is a common good to get rid of invasive species.
But hey who am I? Just an old socialist shouting at the gesellschaft-cloud.
A cold blooded grasp
And panicked furtive hand wave
The lone signal made
Burma Slave
Dutch lawmakers object to EU’s multibillion defense proposal DW
This was interesting even if seemingly inconsequential (not binding decision). One of the parties voting for the objection was the NSC (New Social Contract) which are described as “pro-EU Christian Democrats” and their reason is that the ReArm project will result in excess debt even if they fully support the Ukrainian adventure. One could consider them as ordoliberals. Not against the ReArm program but against the Eurobonds as financial tool. The PVV (Party for Freedom) is considered nationalist and populist right wing and voted in favour of the objection as well as the BBB (Another right wing populist party aligned with the farmers). All these i believe agree that they see this program as another “free-check” for poorer countries (say Italy, Spain, and Portugal) that will be re-paid by the rich countries.
The reason i find this interesting is that it shows the widening vaults of European disunion. The ReArm project might turn having results opposite to those intended, creating divisions rather than uniting the EU around supposed collective defence. I have come to find a Manifesto opposing the very same program though for very different reasons. Against Militarization: Scientists Unite in Opposition to EU Rearmament. This is mostly an Italian initiative (showing how DJG is right to show us how reluctant are many Italians to the Ukrainian adventure) though there are signatories from different countries including about half a dozen from Spain.
On the new Journalists Union: It sounds like “The Union versus the Corporate Media”. And this comes at a time when so many ex-corporate voices are competing for audience and revenues on new media … in a more open “market”. And the audience is increasingly rewarding them and other non-traditional sources with attention and subscriptions.
I wish them well against the financiers, oligarchs, and “the right” (whatever they mean by that). Windmills are popular enemies in my humble opinion.
“No empire dies quietly: the violent twilight of US dominance”
If this ever happens, then Israel is toast. Who would want to be that country’s big buddy. Saudi Arabia? Russia? China? Swaziland? They have alienated just about everyone because they always have the US at their back and knew that they never had to suffer the consequences of their actions. If the US leaves the scene, there will be no end of countries that will be glad to put the boot in and a world-wide boycott of anything Israeli would just be a start.
I’ve been thinking that one of the ways to understand many of Israel’s recent actions is that its leadership or a part of it understands that it will be in big trouble a few decades down the line, and wants to secure the most favourable positions for that time while it still has America. Occupy as much territory as it can feasibly hold, crush or weaken the opposition(s), cull the herd(s) and then dig in.
Whether that’s their thinking or not, Israel does have one other key advantage: the weakness of most other states in the region. All of them have major problems of their own that hinder effective action even if they wanted to take it. Syria is still in a civil war and Lebanon is hopelessly divided, but even a more stable state like Egypt still has trouble feeding its populace and keeping the peace. I have trouble gauging how bad the much-reported problems in Iran (e.g. corruption, poverty) really are, but their protests don’t come out of nowhere either. Non-government/unrecognised resistance groups seem more cohesive and capable of decisive action, but their resources are more limited. While this remains the case, it can hold out. How long it will remain the case, I do not know.
Can the US train enough semiconductor workers in time?
Of course it can, but as readers here well know, the US cannot — or will not — pay those workers enough for housing, healthcare, reproduction, or retirement. This is why H1B remains the only option.
Its ridiculous… according to the BLS median wage for a Semiconductor Tech: 45k
I am about done being told that basic supply and demand doesn’t have to apply to labor.
no less than 32 Americans got killed by storms this weekend.
30/40 years ago this would be the news cycle for days. Today, the NYT’s lede is all about tariffs.
And pundits wonder why “flyover country” hates the NY-DC media
It was a noted TV news story in Oz tonight and it looked bad.
I have a great idea.
Let’s fire meteorologists.
Better yet. Put them in jail for a coupla years for failing to predict that storm accurately. Like how Italy jailed a bunch of seismologists for getting an earthquake assessment wrong-
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/23/jailing-italian-seismologists-scientific-community
More likely meteorologists will be jailed for being accurate. Sunny and 70 forever.
I guess it’s happening…
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/heres-a-dead-person-on-social-security-in-seattle-with-plenty-to-say/
Here’s a ‘dead’ person on Social Security in Seattle, with plenty to say
And this one…
https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/oklahoma-man-says-social-security-benefits-terminated-without-warning-or-explanation/
Maybe Trump wants to declare Musk a new South Africa’s ambassador.
The Schumer-Jeffries Split Explodes in Public PoliticoRepublic
A policy free high school level soap opera account of who was right and who was wrong based on norms etiquette and tradition based procedure.
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/mar/15/viral-strawberry-erewhon-los-angeles
While it is doubtful that modern Russia can be called the successor to the Eastern Roman Empire, the parallels between Ukraine and the Western Roman Empire are obvious. The neo-Nazis should rebrand themselves as legitimate descendants of the great Romans with more history.
Carney orders review of Canada’s F-35 purchase from Lockheed-Martin:
https://torontosun.com/news/national/carney-orders-review-of-f-35-fighter-jet-purchase-from-u-s-s-lockheed-martin
“Defence Minister Bill Blair will look into whether the contract for 88 planes costing about US$85 million each is the best investment for Canada”
Defence Minister Bill Blair will look into whether the contract for 88 planes costing about US$85 million each is the best investment for Canada
https://torontosun.com/news/national/carney-orders-review-of-f-35-fighter-jet-purchase-from-u-s-s-lockheed-martin
“AP Exclusive: US and Israel look to Africa for moving Palestinians uprooted from Gaza”
If I were the Sudan, Somalia or the breakaway region of Somalia known as Somaliland I would be very careful. Somebody like Trump would promise that they would financially help settle those Palestinians and give them food, water, shelter and medical services on an ongoing basis. But as soon as the next elections were over in 2028 that would be all shut down and the new President would say that all the financial support was promised by the last guy, not him, and he is gone so no more support for those Palestinians so it is all on you.
Here’s an idea.
Step One: Let Russia ‘lead’ and ‘support’ a movement to relocate the Gazans to Baja California. Mexico would get lots of foreign ‘investment,’ and a large, cohesive minority group happy to have a safe place to live, with massive positive world publicity for Mexico in general.
Step Two: Let ‘various actors’ ‘support’ a rejuvenated Hamas, aimed straight North. I think that Mexico wouldn’t have much of a problem with that either. “Fast and Furious” in reverse.
As an Afrikaner-born South African, I am absolutely incensed at the toxic fake perpetual victomhood of the people who will sell out our country for a return to some violent fever dream of white-minority rule. There is no practical goal I see here that I can parse other than a continuing death spiral of social unrest. All I can continue to hope for is that the majority of my rational and peace loving countrymen continue to resist the pull of darkness and chaos.
Anyway, for anyone interested an article locally about the influence of philosopher Dugin in the particular strand of white nationalist Afrikanerdom.
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-03-03-dugin-how-a-russian-philosopher-shaped-antiliberal-sentiment-in-sa/
Regarding the film of Mahmoud Khalil being “arrested”, why do they block out the faces of the “arrestors”? I’d like people to know who they are so they can be “arrested” for kidnapping.
Just logging off for the night but before I do. Footage has emerged of Trump making a phone call to Putin demanding that he sign that ceasefire deal-
https://www.bitchute.com/video/0qkDqMlcLs8k (57 secs)
Tablet magazine has a long article about Obama’s thought machine that has many insights about politics and the media over the past few decades.