Links 3/18/2025

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1. The Rev Kev March 18, 2025 at 7:19 am

   “Trump says he and Putin will discuss land and power plants in Ukraine ceasefire talks”

   That is going to be a neat trick with the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant if that is what Trump is talking about. Alex Christoforou pointed out in his latest video that this power plant is actually in Zaporizhzhia Oblast which voted and did join the Russian Federation. The Russian Constitution will not allow Putin to sell it off or give it away to Trump as it is Russian territory. I could see Putin offering to sell electricity generated there to the Ukraine as much as their electrical grid is ash right now however. So either Trump is just spouting his latest bs lines or he thinks constitutions are just like contracts – always up for renegotiation – and expects Putin to get in line.
   1. ilsm March 18, 2025 at 9:29 am

      High hopes.

      Trump will give Russia Crimea because Tennyson! \sarc\

      Trump will get back Donbass, while giving them the last Kursk “pocket”. \sarc\

      Russia will offer to negotiate the shape of the table in Paris starting next December. \sarc\

      Ukraine has nearly gone through all 500 gifted ATACMS; got no advantage from them and wants 500 more to get no advantage.

      Russia has a great career keeping this debacle ruining the US.

      While Trump and Bibi pound sand and kill children from Sana’a to Gaza.

      BTW observed somewhere USAF defeated most of the Houthi drones shot toward USS Truman. Go Navy! Under USAF fighter cover.
      1. The Rev Kev March 18, 2025 at 9:35 am

         You only need one drone to get through and hit a Navy ship to change the game.
         1. juno mas March 18, 2025 at 6:33 pm

            …and that drone only has to ‘appear’ that it was launched by the Houthis.

            (We’ve gone through this before: $2M missiles taking out $2k drones.)
            1. ChrisRUEcon March 18, 2025 at 9:06 pm

               The Math IS Mathing … LOL
2. ChrisFromGA March 18, 2025 at 7:35 am

   Israel broke the joke of a Gaza ceasefire. Israel attacked Gaza, killing hundreds:

   https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/gaza-israel-hamas-strikes-03-18-25/index.html

   Never forget how they lied for months and months. By the way, I suspect this is the template for the Russia-Ukraine war – they’ll lie about a ceasefire being “on the 10 yard line” for about a year, then when it finally happens, it will implode after fewer than 60 days.

   The lying liars just love to lie, lie, lie! They are non-agreement capable, the whole rotten lot:

   Blinken, Biden, Trump, Witkoff, Rubio
   1. The Rev Kev March 18, 2025 at 7:40 am

      When an Israeli spokesman appears on TV these days, I just switch myself off. Nearly everything that they say is a lie so what is the point of listening to what they have to say? Their word means nothing.
      1. ChrisFromGA March 18, 2025 at 9:20 am

         Please apply the same filter to Trump and Witkoff. They are nothing but liars.
3. Zagonostra March 18, 2025 at 7:48 am

   Rapid Onset Political Enlightenment Tablet. A must read.

   …the newly minted digital variant of “public opinion” was rooted in the algorithms that determine how fads spread on social media, in which mass multiplied by speed equals momentum—speed being the key variable. The result was a fast-moving mirror world that necessarily privileges the opinions and beliefs of the self-appointed vanguard who control the machinery, and could therefore generate the velocity required to change the appearance of “what people believe” overnight…

   Every form of totalitarianism is unique….Soviet cynicism was a natural product of how the Soviets decided to rule, which was to demand absolute external compliance to party dictates in word and deed while at the same time allowing its subjects a separate space to think their own thoughts—provided that they never acted on those thoughts. The natural outcome of the Soviet system was compliance without belief…

   Musk, meanwhile, was entirely and sincerely his own man—a privilege that came in part from being the richest man in America, and in part from the nature of his businesses, which the Obama cadres appear to have misunderstood. Musk may have paid twice as much as the next-highest bidder for Twitter, if such a bidder actually ever existed.

   Netanyahu’s decision to invade Rafah on May 6, 2024, was the culmination of two long and otherwise separate chains of events whose consequences will continue to reverberate throughout the Middle East, and also at home. Netanyahu had been promising to invade Rafah since February. The fact that he had not done so by May had become both a symbol of Israeli weakness and indecision in the face of a global onslaught of Jew-hatred, as well as the continuing solidity of the regional power structure established by Obama’s Iran deal.

   Too much to unpack without a re-reading and careful deconstruction. But, some items stand out.

   True enough there is a “new machinery” in place from when the days of Lipmann, and that each “form of totalitarianisms is unique,” but to say that “Musk is his own man” I think is false, just ask Bibi and those who control his military contracts, which may be the same group. As for “global onslaught of Jew-hatred,” it’s very wide, too wide a paint brush that the author uses. The images I saw this morning of 300 dead Palestinians make me hate the state of Israel, Christians, atheist, Buddhist, Taoist, Maoist, gays, lesbians, straights or any other designation you wish to make including Jews, that supports this indiscriminate bombing of women and children.
   1. eg March 18, 2025 at 8:48 am

      Too bad Samuels’ derangement on Iran derails an otherwise interesting examination of “the blob” and its use of 21st Century communications technology to “manufacture consent.”
   2. Mikel March 18, 2025 at 8:48 am

      Going to grab a cup and read.
      I hope it mentions that he Soviets were also telling the people that computer programs were making the govt and businesses more efficient by figuring out what needed to be manufactured, etc !
   3. Safety First March 18, 2025 at 9:15 am

      I personally was struck by the language around the COVID lockdowns. Being a “bad” thing, that is, foisted upon us by Obama’s “permission structure machine” or suchlike.

      Without going into a long and detailed breakdown, because it is far, far too early in the morning, and because there are other subjects I would much, much rather write an essay on at the moment. My OVERALL reaction to the piece is that the author a) tries too much to pretend that the media and propaganda environment of the 2010s and early 2020s was COMPLETELY AND RADICALLY DIFFERENT from the past, and b) asserts, more or less out of thin air, that it is now done, finished, kaputski.

      I’ve done a lot of reading, and watching, of Cold War-era propaganda, for my own edification – because I feel that you cannot study the Cold War era as a whole without so doing. What may be different, to some extent, between today and, say, the 1950s, is the structure of the media landscape through which propaganda is applied, as well as the attendant terminology. But the basic idea of constructing a cage around one’s public actions and statements, of enforcing endless re-pledging of fealty – dare I say, of allegiance – through both positive and negative reinforcement, of flooding the voters’ brains with easy to remember slogans that catch on like fads and have no rational basis in reality? I mean, been there, done that, many times?

      And I won’t even touch the whole “where, oh where has objective journalism disappeared off to with Russiagate” thing with a ten foot pole. Instead, I recommend a book – “Selling the Korean War”, by Steven Casey, and another one, “Second Front – Censorship and Propaganda in the 1991 Gulf War”, by John Macarthur. Snapshots in time of exactly how that sort of “objective journalism” was managed by the Powers That Be long, long before Axelrod and Obama were doing their tango.
      1. jsn March 18, 2025 at 1:37 pm

         Yes, Wisner’s “Mighty Wurlitzer” got a digital upgrade.

         And Obama was born into Wizner’s “family”.

         In some ways very insightful, this is a “limited hang out.”
   4. Hubert Horan March 18, 2025 at 2:04 pm

      Despite its length Samuels’ Rapid Onset article is worth a read because it lays out useful bits of the expansion of propaganda techniques in national politics. Obama and Axelrod certainly deserve lots of criticism, but because he wants to focus his story on them he misses enormously important context.

      Samuels makes zero mention of propaganda techniques prior to Axelrod, so he can portray him as a huge innovator. No mention of the long war of corporate/libertarian interests against hugely popular New Deal policies. No mention of the massively funded Koch type programs to push neoliberal Democrats, mainstream media, academics and the judiciary to support policies that had little electoral support. Zero mention of longstanding propaganda techniques such has heightening tribalism by reducing everything to good-versus-evil narratives that demonizing opponents.

      Zero mention of how this fueled the PMC takeover of the Democratic Party and the PMC’s complete abandonment of broad New Deal-type coalitions. In this context Obama and Axelrod weren’t driving major changes but were continuing ongoing shifts. And were doing a lousy job on the propaganda front, because they weren’t tapping into or solidifying any portion of the Democratic base, and weren’t directing the base’s anger at political opponents. Samuels mentions some political failures (healthcare) and ignores others (abortion, immigration, gutting antitrust) but these don’t fit his larger thesis that Obama and Axelrod were masters at creating support for policies voters didn’t really like.

      Because Samuels ignores the longer, bipartisan history of manipulative propaganda, and ignores the PMC issues, he misses that Trump gains are largely explained by his ability (however cynical) to tap into the electorate’s more populist concerns, why the Dems aggressively expunge anyone not totally dedicated to the interests of large donors.

      Samuels assumes that (but does not explain why) an Israeli-Saudi total victory over Iran and the Palestinians would be a wonderful thing. This leads to the perverse conclusion that Obama’s Iran deal had nothing to do with stabilizing an ugly Middle East and reducing the chance of wars that US voters had absolutely no interest in. Instead, Samuels insists that the Iran deal was a cyncical Obama ploy to reduce the power of Jews within the Democratic Party. Yes Israel/Iran issues are very complicated, and there are a range of plausible arguments on all sides, but Samuels falls into the exact same tribal/good-versus evil propaganda framing he is attacking Axelrod for. Zero mention of the enormous power of AIPAC type money on the Democratic Party, and zero mention that the huge growth of political donations might have had a bigger impact on imposing unwanted policies on the electorate than any of Axelrod’s campaign techniques.
      1. jsn March 18, 2025 at 3:27 pm

         Thank you for taking the time to write this! Great comment.

         Per my mighty wurlitzer comment above, there’s been in place somewhere in the bowels of the Blob since at least when Keenan wrote his “Political Warfare” memo a sophisticated propaganda machine organized along the principles of Norbert Wiener’s “cybernetics”.

         Increasingly and particularly since Reagan this machine has been targeted domestically and it has always existed primarily in the service of capitalist oligarchic interests. We’re now seeing various factions taking form amongst erstwhile capitalist oligarchs as the inertia of the State is degraded by DOGE and Lawfare. Zionism appears to be heavier in one faction, but there may suddenly be many factions rather than our habitual two.
      2. Norton March 18, 2025 at 4:24 pm

         There is a unique data person in the news recently involved in identifying many of the linkages and impacts of federal budgets and programs, like USAID and campaign finance. She goes by the name DataRepublican (small r), and here is an interview with her.
      3. dt1964 March 19, 2025 at 10:32 pm

         I want to say thank you for your comment as well. I stopped reading as soon as Samuels starting talking about the Hamas ‘army’ attacking, killing, and raping Israelis in October 2023. Maybe the ‘permission structure’ has led me to false beliefs. But I thought many of the Israeli dead and injured were in fact from Israeli military (including IDF helicopters) action, not Hamas. At least, he didn’t mention Hamas’ reported beheading of infants.

         It seems to me that Samuels’ essay is every bit as much propaganda as the Obama/Axelrod form. As for Musk, I think that he has used Twitter, now X, as the platform to take the ‘permission structure’ to the next level.
         Not at all reassuring for our future.
         1. Mr Woo March 20, 2025 at 4:01 pm

            I was confused as to the motivation of the piece but when he starts talking about Hamas rapes, bowing down to the Ayatollah and getting back at Jews that love the Clintons it seems that the whole thing is based on anger at an Iran deal that the author felt wasn’t sufficiently in Israel’s interests. But the way he makes it look like two boomers, four millenials and a laptop in the White House decide the global political and communicative landscape and can control the algorithms of social media, was very entertaining. And then…Trump changes the world! Dun dun duuun :)
4. ciroc March 18, 2025 at 8:05 am

   >Minnesota Republicans seek to codify ‘Trump derangement syndrome’ as mental illness

   It’s funnier than The Babylon Bee.
   1. mrsyk March 18, 2025 at 9:20 am

      Funny like “this meat smells funny”, or “we have a funny kind of democracy”. I guess if one is critical of Trump one can be committed to the “funny farm”. Good times.
      1. The Rev Kev March 18, 2025 at 9:52 am

         I suppose that there are two types of “funny.” There is funny funny and there is funny strange. Two different meanings. It’s all about context.
         1. Saffa March 18, 2025 at 10:16 am

            I believe the saying goes “as in funny ha-ha or funny strange”
            1. The Rev Kev March 18, 2025 at 10:18 am

               I’ve heard both.
            2. Revenant March 18, 2025 at 2:57 pm

               The British version is funny ha-ha or funny peculiar, which is more sinister, more… Lovecraftian.
         2. Sub-Boreal March 18, 2025 at 10:22 am

            “It’s a funny old world.”
            1. mrsyk March 18, 2025 at 10:50 am

               Yes. Not that I was a fan of “Thatcherism”, but it sure looks manageable from today’s perspective.
   2. Christopher Smith March 18, 2025 at 10:39 am

      I don’t know. One of my friends has a bad case of TDS. Throughout Biden’s term the guy was always mocking election deniers. When we were hanging out this weekend, he was telling me all about how Trump rigged the 2024 election. When I pointed out that I was not interested in his election denialism, a position he formerly mocked, he replied that this was different because there was evidence. I asked him about his “evidence.” Needless to say, it was a screed about how Elon has hackers and Trump said we “would never have to vote again” but drawn out into a five minute rant.

      I’m finding it less funny by the day.
   3. earthmagic March 18, 2025 at 10:47 am

      Funny how?!
   4. Bill B March 18, 2025 at 11:33 am

      MAGA folks or liberals? They each have their own type.
5. Mikel March 18, 2025 at 8:24 am

   OpenAI Says It’s “Over” If It Can’t Steal All Your Copyrighted Work – Futurism

   Fair use isn’t claiming the work and thoughts of others is some computer program “thinking”.

   These f’ers from A to Z (Altman to Zelensky) are out of ideas except asset-stripoing and looting.
   1. Terry Flynn March 18, 2025 at 8:49 am

      I refused Cambridge University Press permission to turn over my textbook to the AI things. They COULD very logically and easily conclude that the open access stuff by me is worth scraping instead.

      It would be a pity if I copied over all the main orthogonal main effects plans and balanced incomplete block designs to my public website with any “minor unintentional copy-paste mistakes” and these got scraped and thus shone like the beacons of Gondor in studies that used those ;-)
   2. Doubt March 18, 2025 at 9:34 am

      I don’t find the framing of this very convincing. If training materials for AI are regarded as not being covered under fair use, the biggest beneficiaries would be publishers like Elsevier and Penguin as well as major IP holders like Disney. Artists and authors would benefit negligibly, if at all, regardless of whether the copyright for their works is held or managed by a corporation.

      At best, I could see a “Spotify model” being implemented, but, for the vast majority of artists, the earnings from streaming services are a pittance (for them), and it’s hard to imagine artists not associated with publishers benefiting much. More likely, many will still end up included in the training datasets while being given legal tools they can’t feasibly use.
      1. Terry Flynn March 18, 2025 at 11:07 am

         If training materials for AI are regarded as not being covered under fair use, the biggest beneficiaries would be publishers like Elsevier and Penguin as well as major IP holders like Disney. Artists and authors would benefit negligibly, if at all, regardless of whether the copyright for their works is held or managed by a corporation.

         Yes and that’s the unfortunate price a lot of us paid to get our books published. Is it fair? No. I get on average GBP80 p.a. royalties for my textbook, all of which goes to my accountant since I am required to do a self-assessment for tax, for which my accountant charges around GBP80. But I never did this for the money. Flaw number one in your reasoning.

         At best, I could see a “Spotify model” being implemented, but, for the vast majority of artists, the earnings from streaming services are a pittance (for them), and it’s hard to imagine artists not associated with publishers benefiting much.

         Again, I didn’t do it for the money. I always knew I’d gain only a pittance. Let me give you some insights (which I’ve stated here before) as to the purpose of my textbook, which gives flaw number two. I, along with the two most esteemed academics in my field at the time (RIP both now) wrote this book not in the expectation that it’d become the “default textbook” in ANY course in ANY country in the world. Why would it not? Because it is absolutely antithetical to big companies who offer consultancy services in discrete choice modelling. If you’re an academic who wants the dosh, you’re probably going to want to stay sweet with such companies. Thus, do NOT recommend to students a book which “opens the black box” and tells them how to do all this stuff themselves.

         More likely, many will still end up included in the training datasets while being given legal tools they can’t feasibly use.

         See my point below. The whole point about discrete choice modelling is that you NEED statistical design matrices, which don’t stay up on the internet for long (for various reasons, but NOT for any copyright/legal infringements etc). If AI want to scrape my stuff they’re welcome. The stuff “owned” by CUP might not be scraped, and even if so, AI will struggle. Why? Because what I and colleagues did was NOT stuff on what economists call the “production possibilities frontier”. By definition it was work to move beyond this using well designed experiments that are NOT out there to “scrape”.

         As a final note, our book merely gives the reader all the statistical and survey method tools to do the types of discrete choice models we pioneered. I spent 5 years working hard in peace from funders before I got my “key paper” published. Then on EVERY single project since I have been employed I have tried to be humble in recognising that I have an equation with two unknowns and therefore potentially infinite solutions. The only way to hone in the likely correct one is to spend a LOT of time among a multi-disciplinary group including experts who “work at the coal face” to get an idea as to which is the REAL maximum in the maximum likelihood function. AI can’t give you that in any area beyond an incredibly narrow number of applications for which we already know the answer.

         I do not fear AI. Because what I did was based on 20 years’ of experience “thinking outside the box”. Furthermore I never did it for the cash, I did it (stupid and naive those this makes me sound) to enable followers to know the general “path” towards a solution. To GET a solution, they still must do a lot of HUMAN work. Since I’m the last remaining expert in my my field, with h-indices, and an Erdős number better than any health economist I’ve ever known (who didn’t get it purely by being someone I taught), I’m fairly sure my work will get scraped. This won’t help people, however and I’m relaxed.

         As a final note, if you want proof as to the shenanigans that go on in “academics versus business”, look up the edit history on wikipedia of the maxdiff model. When it stopped being an advert for a company and instead started being the definition of a long-standard mathematical model, that’s when I, under tutelage of one of my colleagues, began to put things right. Our “back and forth” with certain people ended when we got our book published and a certain wiki sub-editor who knew their stuff put a stop to editing by certain people for a while.
         1. Mikel March 18, 2025 at 12:26 pm

            “Because what I did was based on 20 years’ of experience “thinking outside the box”.

            The LLMs have provided a literal meaning to “thinking outside the box”.
            1. Terry Flynn March 18, 2025 at 12:38 pm

               Yeah, trouble is what it actually is, is “making shit up” when they must think outside the box.

               One of my oldest undergrad friends works in AI at Google. He refuses to say exactly what he does. But he did quiz me a LOT 5-10 years ago about what I was doing in my research.

               I think (personally) he got the “idea” of what I did (moving beyond the PPF) but never really understood what AI needed to do to “really” think outside the box. Which has made me think AI is actually nowhere near genuine proper artificial intelligence. The “Google et al AI” is not thinking outside the box in the way a human would do AT ALL. It is still rooted in predictive algorithms. Its version of “intuition” is “just making shit up”.
               1. Mikel March 18, 2025 at 12:58 pm

                  “Thinking outside the box” only has true meaning for humans. It really has no meaning for computer programs.
                  1. Terry Flynn March 18, 2025 at 1:18 pm

                     yep!
                     1. Norton March 18, 2025 at 4:27 pm

                        Schrödinger’s AI coming soon? :)
                  2. Procopius March 19, 2025 at 9:37 am

                     Almost everybody is forgetting that computers are actually just very sophisticated adding machines.
         2. Mikel March 18, 2025 at 12:56 pm

            I’m also thinking the copyrights of others would be collateral for debt.
            1. Terry Flynn March 18, 2025 at 1:33 pm

               This is not snark……I’m genuinely wondering…….maybe I’m being dumb but could you expand upon your point (without making a load of work for you!)? I don’t get your point :(
               1. Mikel March 18, 2025 at 2:08 pm

                  I’m taking a leap of thought into a future where there are copyrights claimed that are not theirs. Right now they’ve managed to limit copyright filing to people. For now.
                  1. Terry Flynn March 18, 2025 at 2:43 pm

                     ah thanks. I wonder what kinda “power levels” there are. Cambridge University (as a Federal institution) is a lot more powerful than it was in my day in the 1990s thanks to “Gates Business Park” etc. However, the Colleges own HUGE swathes of land, e,g, the entire port of Folkestone…..

                     Wonder what a battle of the “land barons” vs the “new AI tech companies” would play out?
                     1. Revenant March 18, 2025 at 6:30 pm

                        I objected to the Cambridge IP land grab, when they stripped academics of absolute ownership of their patentable inventions (IIRC, they did not dispossess them of copyright because they needed the useful idiot arts faculty to vote for the patent changes)

                        The late Ross Anderson at the Comp.Sci.Department and I worked up my idea to organise all academics to donate their IP to a company which would licence it back to them provided the Uni was not a co-owner or a sublicensee etc. It was going to be called “Non Placet Limited”, it does not please (what is said to vote against against a motion in the Senate)….
                        1. Terry Flynn March 19, 2025 at 2:56 am

                           Good for you! A pity it didn’t work.
6. Mikel March 18, 2025 at 8:32 am

   As AI nurses reshape hospital care, human nurses are pushing back – Associated Press

   “The group raised new alarms in January when Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the incoming health secretary, suggested AI nurses “as good as any doctor” could help deliver care in rural areas.”

   I want to see all the Kennedys and their ilk using AI nurses and doctors – without questioning the BS.
   Let it be tested on them. They eant it so badly. Be the guinea pig.
   1. The Rev Kev March 18, 2025 at 8:40 am

      I’m sure that before you used one of those AI nurses, that they would make you sign a waiver absolving them of any resulting bad incident up to and including death. And if you refused, then you can’t see that AI nurse. Can’t see a real doctor or nurse either though as that AI nurse replaced them and they no longer work their. Real doctors and nurses are for those who can afford them.
      1. t March 18, 2025 at 9:46 am

         Sounds about right
7. The Rev Kev March 18, 2025 at 8:33 am

   “Up to 90% of arms, munitions destroyed in Kursk Region belong to NATO — Russian diplomat”

   To be expected. For months now Zelensky has thrown his best formations into Kursk to try to get a breakthrough but they have all been stopped cold. In addition, Zelensky was sending the last of his best equipment to Kursk as well up to and including Abram tanks. As this pocket started to shrink, I would have expected NATO to pump in any and all weaponry that they could scrounge to try to stop Kursk from collapsing altogether. Now that it is mostly over, I am not surprised to see huge stocks of NATO weaponry being picked up by the Russians. Makes you wonder though. Like with Afghanistan, will Trump demand that Russia hand back all that NATO weaponry or face sanctions? But I think that his teeth will grind when he sees all those tanks and weapons – especially American ones – on display in military museums in Moscow.
   1. ChrisFromGA March 18, 2025 at 8:46 am

      I’m curious how much of that weaponry can be re-furbished and re-purposed by Russia for the battlefield.

      It would be hilarious to see an Abrams tank with a Russian flag rolling into Kharkov. Or an Aussie Bushmaster vehicle with the SMO markings used to storm Kherson.
      1. ilsm March 18, 2025 at 9:36 am

         Kiev will sell parts and ammunition.

         Finding spare parts is a problem the western stuff breaks so often. The black market will work.
      2. The Rev Kev March 18, 2025 at 9:42 am

         Would be more hilarious to copy what the UK/EU countries do and take a tank or vehicle from one of those countries that was donated to the Ukraine & captured and park it outside their Embassy in Moscow. After all, turnaround is fair play.
      3. ciroc March 18, 2025 at 12:32 pm

         Some of them will be sent to Iran. Since the Iranians are masters of reverse engineering, they may be able to create new weapons for the Palestinian resistance.
8. Louis Fyne March 18, 2025 at 8:55 am

   >>>Ultra-processed babies: are toddler snacks one of the great food scandals of our time?

   of course. I don’t need the Guardian to tell me that.

   Reminds me of my, ostensibly “health-conscious,” cousin. She spends a fortune at Whole Foods….only to stock her pantry w/the Whole Foods-brand, organic versions of shelf-stable snacks, and plastic sippy pouches (high salt, high sugar, high industrial seed oils, low satiety). Of course, I’m never going to give her the “errr, aware you aware that….” lecture, lol.

   I’ve always wondered if those plastic applesauce-yogurt sippy-pouches are one of many sources of BPA, etc.
   1. albrt March 18, 2025 at 12:10 pm

      I suppose you could make raw snacks out of babies, but public acceptance is probably improved by ultra-processing.
9. mrsyk March 18, 2025 at 9:00 am

   Terrific antidotes today, thank you. Of course fox loves music!
   1. Paleobotanist March 18, 2025 at 4:17 pm

      I have a PhD student who gives guitar concerts to moose at night in the field. They are quite appreciative and curious.

      Orpheus was real;^)
      1. duckies March 18, 2025 at 5:28 pm

         moose – guitar
         fox – banjo
         elephant – piano
         cow – trombone
10. DJG, Reality Czar March 18, 2025 at 9:02 am

    David Samuels, Rapid Onset. Tablet.

    Important for its attempt to bury Obama rather than to praise him.

    This observation alone is worth the time you spend on the long essay: ‘The Obama Democratic Party (ODP) was a kind of balancing mechanism between the power and money of the Silicon Valley oligarchs and their New York bankers; the interests of bureaucratic and professional elites who shuttled between the banks and tech companies and the work of bureaucratic oversight; the ODP’s own sectarian constituencies, which were divided into racial and ethnic categories like “POC,” “MENA,” and “Latinx,” whose bizarre bureaucratic nomenclature signaled their inherent existence as top-down containers for the party’s new-age spoils system; and the world of billionaire-funded NGOs that provided foot-soldiers and enforcers for the party’s efforts at social transformation.’

    Also important for Samuels’s own hobbyhorses and his failure to break new ground. To wit:

    –Obama did all of this more or less on his own, somehow? I don’t believe in the Great Man excuse for history.
    –Obama is a product of the Democratic Party, rather than leading an incursion from outside. So the Clintons are involved in here somewhere, eh?
    –The author seems to be much too convinced that his rubric is “airtight.” Yet the current war (and genocide) in Ukraine is a proxy war based on Western lies and very much on the unwillingness of the Russians to publicize much. The West is spilling secret information constantly, announcing its addled plans, and screaming its soon-to-be-made mistakes. The Russians don’t say much. The Russian concession to the digital world is to send out the wildly intelligent and witty Maria Zakharova – but she was invented by Jay Ward way back when as Natasha Fatal
    –The author slips on the “genocide in Gaza,” which he offers as a meme. What happened here is very interesting: The Palestinians were finally able to get the world to see them on social media. The exception that tests the rule? Or is Samuels’s too-clean structure a hollow figure made from pipe cleaners? See below in which Netanyahu becomes a savior. Oh.
    –David Axelrod as evil genius?
    –Elon Musk as one of three saviors? “Musk, meanwhile, was entirely and sincerely his own man—a privilege that came in part from being the richest man in America, and in part from the nature of his businesses, which the Obama cadres appear to have misunderstood.”
    –And then the Holy Book of Netanyahu. Sheesh.
    –Obama may deserve revenge. This essay isn’t it.
    –And I’m Saint Joseph, the father of god (feastday tomorrow: Send adoration.)
    1. Mikel March 18, 2025 at 9:46 am

       Yeah, it might have been a tad more palatable if the writer had used Obama Administration as the subject throughout the story instead of just Obama.
       Like Trump Administration should be used instead of Trump.
    2. OIFVet March 18, 2025 at 2:03 pm

       Yup, he lost me once his priors on Covid, Musk, Israel and Iran took over what had been a ln interesting article with some valid observations.

       Still worth the read, but with critical thinking and a spoonful of informed skepticism.
       1. Revenant March 18, 2025 at 3:12 pm

          I thought this essay was brilliant, right up until this gem:

          “the idea that Iran was itself a formidable adversary—was a mess of lies. Iran was not and never was a regional power, capable of “balancing” traditional American allies. It was a totalitarian shit hole regime that is deeply hated by its own people and throughout the region, entirely dependent on American backing in its efforts to gain a nuclear bomb.”

          Frankly, the essay up to that point *is* briliant and it has given me a new way to think about Obama, about Musk/Twitter and about David Samuels….

          I overlooked the Covid points because he isn’t necessarily wrong in writing about how the digital false consciousness manufactured “consent” to unreasonable measures (the relatives of the dying could have been FFP3 masked and allowed to visit and enforced to quarantine at properly ventilated and invigilated facilities rather than leave their loved ones to die alone…).

          Also… autistic traits and possibly ADHD are a superpower. You cannot manufacture consent with people who don’t give a shit about other’s feelings but really have to know THE FACTS. Could non-autistic Elon – say, Tim Cook or Larry Ellison – have bought twitter?

          This article is the high-blown answer to Armchair Warlord’s simple question: why is the twiiterverse of commentary on Ukraine from people with anime pictures in their bio’s (and no Ukraine flags) so much more right on all the big questions than MSM and the entire pllkitucsl class. Because they are immune at least in part to external voices, either because they hear only their own (autism) or they hear loads of others (ADHF, not stable internal monologue but a cacophany).
11. mrsyk March 18, 2025 at 9:13 am

    The video of Katherine Franke (“police state watch”) explaining the extortion technique Trump uses when “negotiating” is a must watch. “Introduction of brownshirts” is now officially on my bingo card.
    1. ambrit March 18, 2025 at 9:44 am

       I’m with you on the “Brownshirts” issue. It is the next logical step. We must also remember that the Brownshirts were part of a larger ecology of violent militias at the time. Who today remembers that the Communists also fought “in the streets” back then? It is also instructive to remember that most of the brawlers doing the fighting in the streets then were ex-military veterans of the Great War. All that is needed to make the analogy complete is for America to lose a decently sized war.
12. The Rev Kev March 18, 2025 at 9:19 am

    “Beware the Ides of March — Are Trump and Netanyahu, Acting in Tandem, Committing Political Suicide?”

    It’s amazing in its own way. Trump has this huge agenda in how he wants to reshape America into his idea of what America should look like. Probably something like 1890s America – but without all that industry. Now after only two months, he is ready to jump into the Ukrainian rasputitsa at the instigation of the UK and France instead of just walking away. This could very easily now become Trump’s war. And if that wasn’t enough, it looks like at the instigation of Israel that he wants to get involved in a shooting war in the Middle east. For now it it is Yemen but he is already threatening Iran. That aborted attack on Iran last year should have shown him that that may not be so easily done. Trump probably think that in any room, that he is the smartest one there but that ain’t necessarily so.
    1. ambrit March 18, 2025 at 9:46 am

       That would have to be a pretty small room, or one with only a handful of people in it.
    2. Mikel March 18, 2025 at 9:54 am

       Trump Administration. The reality TV star isn’t thinking of all of this himself.
13. pjay March 18, 2025 at 9:41 am

    – ‘The European Parliament Confirmed Poland’s Centrality To The Bloc’s Eastern Security Strategy’ – Andrew Korybko

    There are many important issues embedded in this article, as well as the others by Korybko that he cites in the text. I note two here. First, his “New Iron Curtain” terminology emphasizes a key point that isn’t discussed often enough in the face of Russia’s impending “defeat” of Ukraine. This is that the NUMBER ONE priority of this long-planned proxy war was to *sever the ties between Russia and Europe* that had been developing since the end of the Soviet Union. Atlanticist-oriented neocons have been writing about this since the 1990s. Their fear was not just the re-emergence of a Russia that might challenge US military supremacy someday, but the economic challenge of a Europe – especially Germany – reintegrated with Russia. The Nordstream pipeline was the ultimate symbol of this danger. Far from a “defeat” for the US/NATO alliance, in terms of severing these ties and building a “new Iron Curtain,” the Ukraine war has been an unqualified success. Mission accomplished!

    So much for “keeping Russia out and Germany down.” How about the “keeping America in” part? This is another area in which a lot of people seem to be celebrating a bit prematurely (with Yves and a few others being significant exceptions). Many commentators, even those critical of the US/NATO project like Korybko, simply assume that Trumpian “populism” has won in the US and we are getting out of Europe, leaving our poor European “allies” high and dry. Now they’ll have to defend themselves, while the US withdraws, perhaps to concentrate on warmongering with China or finishing our destruction of the Middle East. But there is a very powerful and bipartisan Atlanticist Establishment in the US. There are some factional disagreements, but they all — neoliberals; neoconservatives; the huge arms industry, its lobbyists, and Congressional lackeys: the national security apparatus: the Europhile liberal media/academia complex – all of them, have a massive material and/or ideological investment in the Atlanticist project. They’ve managed to capture (almost) all of the European political class. They spent 8 years carrying out war against Trump for this reason. Do people really think they are going to give up now? Are the “populists” now in control? Really?

    Lots of other issues suggested in this piece (e.g. the centrality of Poland in the New Cold War). But these two are the most striking to me.
    1. Revenant March 18, 2025 at 3:14 pm

       European Russophobia and Atlanticism are two sides of the same coin. Like Janus.
14. Mikel March 18, 2025 at 9:59 am

    And all those in the Trump Administration talking about the “stock market doesn’t matter’….
    What are their short and put positions?
15. duckies March 18, 2025 at 10:08 am

    “Vote crow next general election.”

    Never. Rook voter for life.
    1. Revenant March 18, 2025 at 3:15 pm

       Crow is fur eatin’, not votin’.
16. Mikel March 18, 2025 at 10:08 am

    https://fortune.com/2025/03/14/elon-musk-tesla-cybertruck-delivery-halt-owners-complain-of-metal-sides-falling-off/
    Elon Musk’s Tesla reportedly halts Cybertruck deliveries as owners complain of metal sides falling off

    I’ll guess it’s 80% incompetence and 20% malice.
    (This is who programs are being cut for so that more govt money can go to his businesses?)

    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/elon-musk-discovers-magic-money-computers-or-how-the-u-s-financial-system-actually-works-43a21350?mod=home_lead/
    “….Going back to Musk, what he’s said to have found is that the government doesn’t track terribly well the money it spends — for example, not coding each payment for precisely what it’s going toward.

    He told Cruz that he attributes 80% of that sloppiness to incompetence and the other 20% to malice.”
    1. The Rev Kev March 18, 2025 at 10:17 am

       ‘Elon Musk’s Tesla reportedly halts Cybertruck deliveries as owners complain of metal sides falling off’

       Very much looking forward to the day that their fronts fall off – and the comments that will flow from that.
       1. Sub-Boreal March 18, 2025 at 10:27 am

          Beat me to it!
17. JMH March 18, 2025 at 10:09 am

    To state the obvious, if you were actually interested in cutting “waste, fraud, and abuse” … seems I have been hearing that phrase for the last 60 or 70 years … the logical place to start is the so-called defense budget. It is the largest slush fund. But no, we must go after Social Security and Medicaid and Medicare as there are the largest pools of money that might be put into private hands so the greedy bastards can suck out as much as they can get away with. Since we have a government of, by, and for the rich, the fat cats, the plutocrats, the oligarchs, the looters … I cannot decide the most descriptive word for them … they must be allowed to belly up, elbowing their way in. Is the appropriate emotion here disgust or rage? Both at the same time? I receive Social Security and Medicare. I paid whatever taxes were required. And now some ginned up department fronted by a really rich guy wants to blow up long established programs that work reasonably well in the name of what the profit driven call efficiency? The definition of efficiency that fuels private equity? The definition that has seen so many businesses sucked dry until the husk resembles what remains when a spider has finished a meal. Welcome to the American Nightmare.
18. Mikel March 18, 2025 at 10:17 am

    Aljazeera repeating a lie by Marco Rubio, that the US “coordinated with Russia” on the Yemeni attacks. This sort of thing at the margin is not helpful to the US improving relations with Russia, let alone getting to any sort of big deal. From the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the call:

    During the conversation, Marco Rubio informed him of the US decision to launch a military operation against the Houthi forces in the Red Sea region.

    Sergey Lavrov, in response to the arguments by the American representative, stressed the need for all parties to immediate cease the use of force and the importance for all sides to engage in political dialogue so as to find a solution that would prevent further bloodshed.

    Does that really qualify as total denial of Rubio’s claim? “Stressing the need for” and “totally objecting to” are different…IMO.
    1. Yves Smith Post authorMarch 18, 2025 at 10:37 am

       First, the text was from the official Russian readout. It is vanishingly unlikely that it was issued to rebut Rubio.

       Second, “coordinated with Russia” = Russia participated in the planning. In reality, Rubio presented the US plan to Russia.

       Third, Russia objected to the attack by calling for diplomacy instead.

       So yes, Rubio lied.
       1. Mikel March 18, 2025 at 12:07 pm

          If the Russians leave any room for misinterpretation (or lies), it will be taken.
          1. Yves Smith Post authorMarch 18, 2025 at 1:42 pm

             I doubt Rubio cared one iota what the readout said. He had his story. No one reads readouts, including journos who ought to.

             You don’t seem to begin to get how offensive it is, and more important, disruptive to Russia’s relationships, to depict Russia as being on board with US shelling of Houthis when it absolutely is not. Rubio, the asshole he is, was probably relying on Lavrov not correcting Rubio publicly due to not wanting to sour the Trump-Putin phone call. Some poor Russian MF junior probably had to call all over the Middle East correcting the Rubio fabrications.

             I further do not understand why you defend America persisting in bad faith behavior.
             1. Mikel March 18, 2025 at 2:00 pm

                I don’t defend it. I just point it out. Basically, I’m not thinking anything has changed until I see it changed.
             2. Mikel March 18, 2025 at 2:14 pm

                Until Russia gets a security agreement that makes sense to them, it still seems like the plan to extend Russia is game on.
19. The Rev Kev March 18, 2025 at 10:34 am

    “The Kingdom of Judea vs. The State of Israel”

    Just through demographics alone, I could very easily see a situation where secularists in Israel will become an oppressed minority but am not sure how that would work out as they pay nearly all the taxes, man nearly all the military and fill all the civil service jobs. So maybe a tolerated minority? The position of women would sink as the religious right would demand that all women leave the Israeli military and go back home to be out of sight and out of mind. You think that I am joking but when Hillary was SecState and went to Israel, a major religious publication airbrushed her and any other women out of the official photos taken. It is that weird and now these same people want to run the country. I don’t see an eventual Israeli civil war – maybe – but I can see a collapse of the State as professional Israelis will just bail out of the country.
20. The Rev Kev March 18, 2025 at 10:55 am

    “Magnolias are so ancient they’re pollinated by beetles — because bees didn’t exist yet”

    This is an amazing story this and one that I would never have suspected. Magnolias were contemporary with the dinosaurs? And they are pollinated by beetles? Before bees I suppose that having beetles pollinate flowers was common but it looks like magnolias surviving all those time shows us the proof of this being so.
    1. marcyincny March 18, 2025 at 12:27 pm

       So years ago we lived in Kentucky and often visited The Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill (https://shakervillageky.org/) outside of Lexington where I fell in love with Southern Magnolias, the big evergreens. I have been trying to grow a couple of supposedly cold-tolerant varieties here in central NY and two years ago (thanks to global warming?) I finally had a few big, waxy, lightly fragrant blossoms.

       And yes I noticed tiny black beetles in the flowers. I too am delighted to know more about their phylogeny.
    2. Revenant March 18, 2025 at 3:17 pm

       Magnolias are also pollinated by slugs.

       They and Old Dixie have a good PR team. Strange fruit….
21. user1234 March 18, 2025 at 10:55 am

    Trump hypes up tensions with Iran Indian Punchline. Important

    Trump had shorter peacemaker stint than Obama.
22. pjay March 18, 2025 at 11:02 am

    – ‘Every Administration Since Obama Has Been Bombing Yemen, Yet…’ – Ian Welsh (Micael T)

    – “Scott Ritter Should Be A Nobel Prize Winner…”

    It probably won’t shake my fundamental pessimism, but I’ve been struck by the very harsh criticism of Trump over the Yemen bombing by anti-war conservatives like Judge Napolitano and Larry Johnson. I saw Johnson on Nima’s Dialogue Works yesterday, and he really lit into Trump and defended AnsarAllah in terms very similar to Ian Welsh, as the only entity with the guts to stand up against the Israeli genocide. It does make you wonder what effect, if any, Trump’s apparent doubling-down on the MIGA project will have on his support. I guess we are seeing whose support is most important to him. What a world.
    1. Carolinian March 18, 2025 at 12:43 pm

       See my Patrick Lawrence link below.

       And Gilbert Doctorow–who says he knew someone in Trump’s real estate operation–continues to defend Donald as an underappreciated if not totally stable genius.

       https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2025/03/18/why-alternative-media-are-down-on-trump/

       If you ignore everything that comes out of Trump’s mouth and his all caps tweets then maybe that has weight, but personally I don’t believe a word of it. Lawrence says we may come to prefer Trump 1 to Trump 2.

       Trump is no genius but he is different from all the wonks. Fingers crossed that disaster doesn’t loom. Of course for Gazans it’s happening right now.
       1. pjay March 18, 2025 at 1:56 pm

          I agree. The Lawrence piece is excellent as usual. And Doctorow misunderstands the Trump phenomenon in my opinion. About Trump’s “political skills” he says this:

          “One big factor in the underappreciation or miscomprehension of what Trump is doing comes from the underappreciation of his political skills. These skills should have been crystal clear from the very first days of his administration when he successfully pushed through the confirmation process ALL of his candidates for the top slots in his administration…”

          “Was this success in the confirmation votes just the result of the outstanding merits of the candidates and of their brilliant testimony in tough hearings? Of course not. It was the direct result of Trump’s marshalling his political skills, calling in chits, i.e. IOUs, issuing warnings of hell to pay in the next electoral cycle if he were to be defied.”

          Trump’s primary “political skill” is demagoguery – his ability to gain broad public support by pretending to be one of the “people” in opposition to “the elite.” This was made much easier by the entire Establishment joining together to oppose him, playing to his strengths. So Doctorow is not wrong in pointing to fear as Trump’s main weapon; most Republicans would not support him if they weren’t deathly afraid of how their constituents would view any opposition. But when it comes to his “titanic struggle with the Deep State” at home or abroad he is a rank amateur. As far as providing an improvement on foreign policy, he is guided by no principles or philosophy or real understanding that I can see. My prediction is that the Blob will be able to undermine any positive tendencies toward reducing tensions in Ukraine (see my above comment). And regarding Israel – Lawrence covers that well. Is this due to bribery? Blackmail? Some delusional belief in an “Abraham Accords” solution to the Middle East? Who knows. But I would better appreciate his ability to reduce Congress to sniveling sycophants if that actually lead to something positive. Unfortunately, I’m leaning more toward the disaster side right now.
          1. Revenant March 18, 2025 at 3:22 pm

             The video about the Federal negotiations with Columbia strikes me as an example of Trump being able to count, although here not votes but cashflow. The tactic of putting your counterparty’s financial balls in a vice until they sign your deal is scorched earth negotiation 101, i.e. pure NY real estate. He has no third term and he has no afterlife unless he permanently remakes America to be safe for Trumps (and thus his “allies”)….
    2. XXYY March 18, 2025 at 1:41 pm

       One of the features of Western politics over the last decade has been the collapse of the traditional left/right paradigm. Pronouncing someone a left winger or right winger is no longer a reliable guide to what they think. I’m trying to stop using the terms all together, although after decades of use it’s hard to stop.

       Not only are right wingers hewing to positions that I would have formerly associated with the left (anti-war, respect for treaties and other nations, reverence for human life), but we have also seen nominally left people and parties abandoning traditional left positions in favor of performative activities so they can pile on to Trump and others, and so they can support the increasingly useless and center-right Democratic party.

       I don’t know if this change is exactly a bad thing, but it does mean you have to examine people and positions on a case-by-case basis. Johnson and Napolitano are good examples of people who don’t conveniently fit into any kind of pre-existing mold.
    3. lyman alpha blob March 18, 2025 at 2:21 pm

       I’m very glad to see this criticism. It has been disturbing to watch people like Taibbi and Greenwald, both of whom I’ve followed for a couple decades or so now, be tarred as “conservative mouthpieces” in recent years for being critical of Biden, when they have been very consistent in their criticisms of those in power over the years no matter who is president.

       It’s been much more recently that I started following Judge Napolitano and the guests that frequent his and other similar podcasts. They were also highly critical of Biden and hopeful that Trump would be an improvement. I’m heartened to see that they are sticking to their principles too – and it reassures me that I’ve been listening to the right people.

       On a related note, Greenwald had a good show yesterday, talking about Trump defying the courts, and reminding us that he is far from the first to do so and is following in the footsteps other recent administrations – https://rumble.com/v6qso9y-system-update-show-424.html
       1. anahuna March 18, 2025 at 4:25 pm

          I agree

          Greenwald also had an excellent show today, playing lots of clips of Trump campaigning as the peace president” — to cheering crowds — and excoriating him for the bombing of Yemen.
23. Bill B March 18, 2025 at 11:34 am

    MAGA folks or liberals? They each have their own type.
24. antidlc March 18, 2025 at 11:41 am

    My apologies if this has been posted. I did a search and couldn’t find it previously posted.
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-10/musk-s-doge-team-sends-private-equity-veterans-to-social-security-agency
    Musk Taps Private Equity Veterans to Aid DOGE at Social Security

    Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has sent three individuals with experience in private equity and finance to the Social Security Administration, highlighting the focus that President Donald Trump is putting on rooting out waste and fraud in the nation’s social insurance programs.

    Among those tapped for the task are Antonio Gracias of Valor Equity Partners, who also served on the board of Tesla Inc. and was an early investor in SpaceX — two of Musk’s companies — as well as Scott Coulter, formerly of Lone Pine Capital, and Michael Russo, formerly of Shift4, according to people familiar with the moves who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss them.
    1. Mikel March 18, 2025 at 11:59 am

       And the looting continues.
25. Bill B March 18, 2025 at 12:04 pm

    ‘”Any American receiving Social Security benefits will continue to receive them. The sole mission of DOGE is to identify waste, fraud, and abuse only,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement emailed Monday.’ And I got a bridge… https://www.axios.com/2025/03/17/social-security-trump-doge

    Proposal would force millions to file Social Security claims in person
    The agency acknowledges the change could cause particular hardship for elderly and disabled Americans who have limited mobility. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/17/social-security-changes-phone-claims-doge/?utm_campaign=wp_todays_headlines&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F41a6931%2F67d94427c7d02e5122238ac4%2F596a5df2ade4e20ee37172da%2F18%2F61%2F67d94427c7d02e5122238ac4
    1. Wukchumni March 18, 2025 at 12:11 pm

       in late 2023 I contacted Social Security and advised them that I wanted a crack at my forced annuity, and they duly set up a phone conversation with a SS agent, and I think there has been quite a bit of fraud because they asked me a whole bunch of questions that no ersatz Wukchumni could have answered, I was half surprised they didn’t ask who the catcher was on my 1974 little league team.

       A friend who decided to take his SS payments when he was 66 about 6 years ago, was told there must be a mistake-as he’d been getting payments since he hit 62, or I should say somebody else was, unbeknownst to him.
       1. Bill B March 18, 2025 at 1:48 pm

          Interesting anecdotes. Multiple questions are SOP in both the private and public sectors. They’re being careful. It doesn’t necessarily indicate there’s been “quite a bit” of fraud, whatever that may mean. The Social Security Adminstration indicates there’s been very little fraud, but I suspect that may not mean much to you.

          So, this proposal is justified? DOGE isn’t interested in fraud. It hasn’t provided any evidence, to my knowledge, of Social Security fraud after Elon and Trump claims (lies) re millions of dead people getting SS. Yet they keep repeating it. DOGE wants to break things so agencies will function poorly, thus justifying eliminating them.
          1. Wukchumni March 18, 2025 at 4:14 pm

             When was the last time you were asked what high school you went to and the year of graduation?

             That was one of the questions, they were playing for keeps~
             1. Bill B March 18, 2025 at 7:27 pm

                Safeguards are needed, SSA is using those safeguards, and I’d think they help to prevent fraud. Why do you think they ask them? You said a fraudulent Wukchumi could not have answered those questions. In fact, if they’re being used, and work, there would be a low amount of fraud. I used to get irritated when asked security questions but quickly realized they were helping to protect my interests. And, I know many people who receive Social Security and none have had any fraudulent issues like your friend. So, I suspect that may be a rarity.

                We’re supposed to trust the richest guy on the planet who thinks Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, is obviously ideologically opposed to it, to ferret out fraud?
       2. scott s. March 18, 2025 at 4:40 pm

          Pretty much my experience as well. I refuse to sign up for “id.me” or now I guess it’s “login.gov”. VA and IRS want me to use “login.gov” as well, so I guess my online accounts with them will go stale.
26. Carolinian March 18, 2025 at 12:37 pm

    New Patrick Lawrence

    https://consortiumnews.com/2025/03/17/patrick-lawrence-the-zionists-within/
27. Mikel March 18, 2025 at 12:49 pm

    It was said some time ago that this would pop up on the radar more. Questions were met with a handwave back then.
    https://www.wheresyoured.at/core-incompetency/
    CoreWeave Is A Time Bomb

    Maybe the handwaving away will continue…but…questions abound.
28. flora March 18, 2025 at 12:52 pm

    Taibbi and Kirn. ATW. no paywall. utube. This is episode mostly about the Auto-Pen controversy and related matters.

    America This Week Monday Livestream 3-17-25

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvoIuUTgx88
29. caucus99percenter March 18, 2025 at 1:07 pm

    Credit where credit is due: Musk’s SpaceX vehicle piloted by a NASA military crew successfully docked with the ISS containing two stranded astronauts.

    https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/stranded-astronauts-thank-musk-trump-for-facilitating-return-sunita-williams-says-will-be-back-before-long/ar-AA1B3vS4

    https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4122690/military-pilots-first-spaceflight-is-mission-to-rescue-astronauts/

    You have to wonder if a lot of Western observers are — be it consciously or subconsciously — ignoring this, or even hoping the rescue fails and astronauts die, just in order to deny Trump and Musk a feather in their cap?
    1. Mikel March 18, 2025 at 2:52 pm

       Everybody is waiting to see if the NASA military crew still has jobs once they come back to earth.
    2. flora March 18, 2025 at 6:30 pm

       C-Span video. They’re home.

       https://www.c-span.org/event/public-affairs-event/international-space-station-astronauts-return-to-earth/431766
       1. caucus99percenter March 18, 2025 at 11:41 pm

          That link didn’t work for me, but BBC has splashdown video here:

          https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cp3yp8v0z4no
30. spud March 18, 2025 at 4:16 pm

    excellent,

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ptsnv9pUP60

    TARIFFS: Why YOU Got it All Wrong | Steve Keen

    10,470 views Mar 4, 2025 #GoldStandard #GlobalEconomy #GoldInvesting
    Welcome to Soar Financially! In this episode, we’re joined by Professor Steve Keen, Author of New Economics Manifesto, renowned economist and expert in monetary systems, for a compelling discussion about the hidden mechanics of our global financial system and what it means for investors. If you’re curious about the interplay between private debt, government spending, and the real drivers of economic growth in an era of policy missteps and financial risks, this interview is a must-watch.
31. GramSci March 18, 2025 at 4:33 pm

    Re: Trump and Putin Talk (per the Grauniad):

    «18 min. ago. The Kremlin’s readout (in Russian) said Trump put forward “a proposal for the parties to the conflict to mutually refrain from attacks on energy infrastructure facilities for 30 days”.

    Meanwhile the White House readout said

    The Kremlin has continually claimed, falsely, that it has never attacked power plants used to generate electricity for civilians. For instance, following last month’s bilateral talks in Riyadh, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said:

    We clarified [to the US] that we have never threatened systems supplying power to civilians, and that only the sites directly supplying the Ukrainian armed forces have been our targets.

    [The Grauniad editorializes:] But repeated attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been a key element of Russia’s war effort.

    …
    »
32. Wukchumni March 18, 2025 at 8:00 pm

    Devil’s Own Advocate…

    I get the feeling that a role reversal is in order and we Golden Billionaires are gonna be pauperazzi soon. I see our new role as a human export gig like say Filipinos ending up working elsewhere as the pay at home won’t cut it.

    But where do we end up going, certainly not to ex-Golden Billionaire haunts?
33. AG March 18, 2025 at 10:33 pm

    re: Taibbi vs. elite academia

    Does anyone happen to have read Taibbi´s latest text on hgher education and double standard (as I suspect)?
    And could briefly summarize the points in it?

    The Angst of the Well-Endowed
    One enormous facet of the education controversy remains ignored
    Matt Taibbi

    From Thomas Edsall in the New York Times this morning:

    Marc Andreessen, a billionaire venture capitalist, cryptocurrency investor and pivotal but unofficial adviser to Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, made the case in a recent interview that the entire system of American higher education should be shuttered and abandoned… The American university system commands worldwide respect. What would prompt a call for its abolition?

    At Johns Hopkins, the loss of $800 million in U.S.A.I.D. grants has forced the school to lay off 2,200 foreign and domestic workers… The Trump administration announced that it was cutting $400 million in grants to Columbia University “due to the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”

    Twenty years ago, maybe even ten, I’d have found these stories about Elon Von Hitler-Musk detonating thousands of campus-related jobs horrifying. But the education sob stories now flying off the presses are a Burj Khalifa of “needs context.” A gigantic lie of omission is a constant feature of these stories:

    p.s. I had been argueing along this line. Of course this has been an issue in US educationa for a very long time. So none of it makes the Trump peoples´ current rampage in any way more honest. But to quote Craig Murray´s latest text, it´s the “rot of democracy”. Only where the foundation already was corrupt any of this could be pulled off.
34. AG March 18, 2025 at 10:46 pm

    In Germany we had a very sad Tuesday. I did intend a comment on that which was however littered with curse words and I luckily fell asleep. So I will spare you that.

    The decision on the war budget passed with 513 votes. 489 were necessary – 203 voted against. There were none abstaining.

    FDP wants to go to court over this. Why? Pure lip service.
    Everyone should know the Constitutional Court is – fucking – w.o.r.t.h.l.e.s.s.

    Among CDU, GREENS, SPD there were 3 (!!!!) who voted against:
    Martin Diedenhofen (SPD), Mario Czaja (CDU) Canan Bayram (GREENS)
    Now that´s real democracy.

    p.s. Mrs. and Mr. Clinton visiting Berlin. So if you want to throw cream tarts now is the time.
    1. caucus99percenter March 18, 2025 at 11:57 pm

       Echoes of 1914 and the SPD opening the door for WW I by voting yes on the war bond issue?

       https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2004/08/spdd-a06.html

       “Wer hat uns verraten? Sozialdemokraten! Die sogenannten ‘Demokraten’!”
       1. The Rev Kev March 19, 2025 at 12:26 am

          And five years later the same sort of people were saying that may the hand of the person signing the armistice wither.
       2. AG March 19, 2025 at 2:25 am

          Well as far as that is concerned I have come to be thankful for the – I never expected to say this until a few years ago – Russian nuclear and non-nuclear deterrents. i.e. the parallels to 1914 end with the vote for war budget.

          In fact: Russians have to fight so we don´t have to.

          Foreign Policy has a new piece on the Oreshnik. I haven´t had time yet to sift through it but it makes me think that FP writing this is the safest sign that Pentagon finally has grasped it and then informed Hegseth´s team and that surfaced eventually with Rubio and Co.

          FP here:

          The Latest Russian Missile Is Bad News for NATO
          Oreshnik is a different beast from its predecessors.
          By Decker Eveleth, an associate research analyst at CNA, a nonprofit research and analysis organization based in Washington.

          https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/03/17/russia-missile-nato-oreshnik-ukraine-war-conventional-weapons/
35. AG March 18, 2025 at 11:09 pm

    re: Romania

    Was trying to post link on Romania. For some reason NC´s site won´t take it.

    #1 Romanian Court has banned another anti-NATO candidate

    #2 Romania with possibly harshest censorship laws internationally (machine-translation):

    Romanian government prepares “toughest censorship in the world”

    Draft emergency decree criminalizes dissemination of “conspiracy theories” and “fake news” / Criteria for blocking online content vaguely defined / Opposition: Government wants to determine “what is true and what is false”

    https://archive.is/pdCK0
36. Martin Oline March 18, 2025 at 11:24 pm

    The Nation Archives have started releasing the Kennedy papers from the assassination collection. As they are digitized more will be released. You can get to them through the link at this page.
    Here is something for you night owls. I think I’m going to bed.
    1. AG March 19, 2025 at 2:19 am

       Yesterday Walter Kirn stated that from his sources who would be as close as anyone without being obliged to not disclose anything cautioned from not to expect too much. There are redactions but those seem to not be biggies. In fact the team going through before publication used less time for the revision than was granted via those 60 days, I think he said.
37. AG March 19, 2025 at 2:10 am

    re: Rapid Onset Political Enlightenment Tablet.

    This essay is quite a mess.

    It´s underlying ideology is even really ugly. It comes through only in the beginning, a bit in the middle and in the finale but it´s a Zoinist, pro-Trump, free-capitalism hypocritical talking point where the ancient Greeks, Axelrod, Deleuze and Saint Paul all find their place. Towering above all of them it´s the one and only Elon Musk. The bad guy in this twisted piece of faith in faux American heroism is Barack Obama. The black wizard: David Axelrod.
    The only thing missing is a female lead!

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