Blue-spotted salamander migration to begin Monday Upper Michigan Source (RPW)
Why We Should Worry When Whales Stop Singing Bloomberg
Ice Blast: East Kazakhstan Rescuers Share Mesmerizing Video KG-24 via machine translation (Micael T)
Trapped Antarctic scientists plead for rescue after ‘assault’ The Times (Micael T)
The prehistoric psychopath Works in Progress (Anthony L)
Report forecasts climate change to drive rise in heart disease Aljazeera
Increasing pointers to climate change indirectly impacting tuberculosis rise Mongabay
Stress from flooding so great it may increase risk of dementia, researchers warn Daily Mail
#COVID-19/Pandemics
We Told You To Catch Covid A Bunch Of Times Because We Thought It Was Natural. Now We Think It Was Made In A Lab, We Still Think You Should Catch It A Bunch Of Times. pic.twitter.com/9YzhIt84vH
— The Vertlartnic (@TheVertlartnic) March 17, 2025
Most folk understand that HIV is very harmful long after the acute infection.
Most people think that Covid does nothing at all after acute infection.
The difference in understanding, I fear, could just be time.
It took many years for this to be widely acknowledged for HIV.
1/🧵 pic.twitter.com/5tkpIukUnN— Pete 😷 #COVIDisAirborne (@PeteUK7) March 18, 2025
A new study shows common flu antivirals may not work well against H5N1 bird flu in cows' milk. Preventive measures like avoiding raw milk and reducing dairy worker exposure are crucial. Learn more: https://t.co/g8ZAnrWYSF#InfectiousDiseases #BirdFlu pic.twitter.com/biMa3qbLNw
— St. Jude Research (@StJudeResearch) March 17, 2025
Climate/Environment
What s going on is without any competition the most extreme event in world climatic history
Thousands of records locally broken by 10C margin (world record);
35C in Turkey,33.7C in Greece,33.5 Cyprus, 31 Russia.
Not less crazy the MINIMUMS(some more records (there are thousands) pic.twitter.com/37utMpXYUK— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) March 16, 2025
Doctors on high alert as melioidosis death toll rises to 20 in Queensland ABC Australia
Indonesia’s cocoa farmers work with businesses to fight the bitter impact of climate change Canadian Press
Mangla Dam hits dead level, power production halted AryNews
Quebec Faces Serious Flooding Following Thaw And Rainfall Pinnacle Gazette
Wildfire fallout – insurers set to reassess risk, tighten policies in California Insurance Business
Peruvian farmer takes German energy giant RWE to court in landmark climate case Reuters
China?
China’s property slump persists as stimulus struggles to stabilise sector Reuters
China probes Li Ka-shing’s Panama ports deal for security concerns Asia Times (Kevin W)
South of the Border
Milei on the tightrope: Congress to discuss $LIBRA scam, IMF deal and Supreme Court appointments Buenos Aires Herald
Total blackout in Panama: A failure in a private power plant disrupts the electrical grid Energy News
European Disunion
From Politico’s European AM newsletter. Headline “EU forges ahead in Putin’s shadow.”
The bazooka image is unfortunate. Recall that Hank Paulson’s bazooka, intended to prevent a Federal rescue of Fannie and Freddie, quickly proved to be a dud:DRIVING THE DAY: EU’S DEFENSE BAZOOKA
REARM UPDATE: Two weeks after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen revealed her ReArm Europe plan, the EU’s executive body will today unveil new details on how the proposal will work as Brussels tries to up its defense game.
Playing it safe: At the heart of the proposal is a €150 billion loan scheme known as SAFE. According to a draft of the proposal seen by my defense and finance colleagues, the Commission will open the door to foreign allies such as South Korea, Japan and potentially the U.K. and Canada to play a role. (While loans will only be available to EU countries, friendly states from outside the bloc can take part in joint weapons purchases.)
Keeping it in the family: In a nod to France, which has argued that EU defense initiatives should be limited to European companies, the Commission is offering preferential treatment to European companies….t a minimum 65 percent of funds must be spent on weapons components manufactured in Europe and Ukraine….
Loosening the fiscal rules: Amid the blizzard of announcements this lunchtime, the Commission will also outline how countries’ military spending will get special treatment under the EU’s budget rules. Defense spending up to a maximum of 1.5 percent will be exempt each year. But as our FS team reports, the Commission will propose a four-year limit to that.
Speaking of which: Germany followed through on its plan to throw budgetary caution to the wind, with the parliament on Tuesday passing a landmark bill that paves the way for billions of euros in debt-financed spending on infrastructure and defense….The move marks a U-turn in the fiscal policy of the EU’s biggest economy after years of self-imposed austerity under a debt brake.
🔘 Germany's future Chancellor: Putin has declared war on all of Europe
Friedrich Merz stated that Russia's current war extends far beyond Ukraine and affects all of Europe.
The new Chancellor, like his predecessor, is betting on militarization, preparing to spend a 1 trillion… pic.twitter.com/lqPm8Ou3Yl
— Zlatti71 (@Zlatti_71) March 18, 2025
It’s Up to Europe’s Citizens Consortium News
Russophobia At Peak! Why Europe Fears An “Existential Threat” From Russia & Is “Hell Bent” On Fighting Moscow? Eurasian Times (Ignacio)
Old Blighty
The Great Wealth Migration: Why the Ultra-Rich Are Fleeing Britain Caixin
Up to 1.2m disabled people will lose thousands in UK welfare overhaul, experts warn Guardian (Kevin W)
Israel v. The Resistance
Israeli army intensifies deadly attacks across Gaza, killing 12 in overnight strikes Anadolu Agency
Massacre at 2 A.M.: Israel Resumes Indiscriminate Attacks Against Gaza, Killing Over 400 People Abubaker Abed, Jeremy Scahill
Col. Larry Wilkerson on Israel Shatters the Ceasefire! Dialogue Works, YouTube
Israelis moving to live in Europe ‘rejuvenating’ Jewish communities Guardian (Kevin W). An indicator of the magnitude of flight.
Tulsi Gabbard Wants Other Countries To Join the US in Attacking Yemen Antiwar.com (Kevin W)
The Iran War Plan Ken Klippenstein
New Not-So-Cold War
Telephone conversation with President of the United States Donald Trump President of Russia
President Donald J. Trump’s Call with President Vladimir Putin US Embassy & Consulates in Russia. Oddly no version as of 5:00 AM on the White House site. Also this diverges from the Kremlin account: “an energy and infrastructure ceasefire” v. the Russian version:
Donald Trump put forward a proposal for the parties to mutually refrain from strikes on energy infrastructure for 30 days. Vladimir Putin responded favourably to the proposal and immediately gave the relevant order to the Russian troops.
Putin gives Trump just enough to claim progress on Ukraine peace BBC. Even the BBC gets it.
PUTIN DEMONSTRATES HOW TO TELEPHONE A PERSONALITY CULT John Helmer. Very useful. Helmer points out that Putin had already halted the grid attacks and that the US, unlike the Russia side, has been very quiet about what transpired in the call.
Putin Gives Trump a Meaningless Concession, But Sticks to June 2024 Position Larry Johnson. Includes important detail from a same-day speech by Putin which took a very harsh view of the US/Western posture.
At least one Ukrainian UAV struck the Kavkazskaya oil transshipment point in Kuban, Krasnodar Krai.
The Kavkazskaya oil transshipment point is designed for transshipment of Russian oil by railway and into the Caspian Pipeline Consortium JSC pipeline system. It transfers an… pic.twitter.com/bsE9saY1Ug
— AMK Mapping 🇺🇦🇳🇿 (@AMK_Mapping_) March 19, 2025
How Russia KNOCKED OUT Ukraine From Kursk HistoryLegends, YouTube
Turkiye
Turkish police detain Erdoğan’s main political rival Financial Times. Lead story.
Syraqistan
Landmines in Syria kill hundreds of civilians returning home after fall of Assad Guardian
Imperial Collapse Watch
This is an absolutely fascinating interview – maybe one of the most thought-provoking I've read so far this year – of @kejimao, one of China's upcoming scholars and a Research Fellow at the International Cooperation Center of China's powerful National Development and Reform…
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) March 17, 2025
Trump 2.0
Roberts issues rare public pushback after Trump calls for judge’s impeachment The Hill
Trump says his administration is set to release JFK files with no redactions Associated Press. So he thought he needed a distraction from the probable damp squib of the actual Putin calls, as opposed to whatever the tries to make up about it right afterward?
JFK Assassination Records National Archives (Martin O)
Harold Hamm: ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ Needs $80 Oil OilPrice (resilc)
DOGE
‘It’s a Heist’: Real Federal Auditors Are Horrified by DOGE Wired (resilc). Important. Please circulate
U.S. Government-Funded Innovation Barry Ritholtz (resilc)
Leaked memo: DOGE plots to cut Social Security phone support Axios (guurst)
Recording Reveals SSA Head Dudek’s Thoughts on DOGE, Trump ProPublica (Robin K)
Doge breaks into US Institute of Peace building after White House guts board Guardian (resilc)
Immigration
Republican files impeachment against judge who ruled against Trump deportations The Hill
Police State Watch
Letter from a Palestinian Political Prisoner in Louisiana Dictated over the phone from ICE Detention. Mahmoud Khalil.
Our No Longer Free Press
House Judiciary Probes AI Censorship Allegations with Subpoenas Reclaim the Net
Mr. Market Has a Sad
Fed’s Wait-and-See Outlook Obscures Bigger Strategy Shift Wall Street Journal
AI
AI Boom Reshapes Power Landscape as Data Centers Drive Historic Demand Growth PowerMag (resilc)
400 Hollywood Creatives Push Back on OpenAI and Google’s Calls to Train AI on Copyrighted Material Hollywood Reporter (Kevin W)
The Bezzle
This Is How Tesla Will Die Will Lockett (resilc)
How TD Became America’s Most Convenient Bank for Money Launderers Bloomberg. Big investigative report. Note we wrote up a recent case seeking to claw back pay and pensions from crooked execs. This article confirms a key element of the thesis of that case, that the execs were in cahoots with the crooks.
A Hospital Empire Is Closing Its Doors—but the Stock Is on a Tear Maureen Tkacik, Terri Buhl, American Prospect
Back to cash: life without money in your pocket is not the utopia Sweden hoped Guardian. From a few days back, still germane
Most of them are clueless. It’s like expecting Ptolemaic astronomers to understand gravity. They simply can’t comprehend how the financial system works. But they believe they already know because they’ve read Aristotle (AKA Paul Samuelson). https://t.co/ufh8b13Awb
— Dr. Steve Keen (@ProfSteveKeen) March 18, 2025
Antidote du jour (via):
And a bonus:
Kids are kids pic.twitter.com/OiFKpyt4dx
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) March 18, 2025
A second bonus:
Something to brighten your day.. 😊 pic.twitter.com/6c9rHkHMSS
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) March 18, 2025
And a third (Chuck L):
9. And free medical. pic.twitter.com/78aBZVQVU8
— Wolf of X (@tradingMaxiSL) March 12, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
‘AMK Mapping 🇺🇦🇳🇿
@AMK_Mapping_
At least one Ukrainian UAV struck the Kavkazskaya oil transshipment point in Kuban, Krasnodar Krai.
The Kavkazskaya oil transshipment point is designed for transshipment of Russian oil by railway and into the Caspian Pipeline Consortium JSC pipeline system. It transfers an average of 6 million tons of oil per year.’
Well that didn’t take long. Putin and Trump set up a deal where neither the Ukraine or Russia will attack each other’s energy infrastructure – and immediately the Ukrainians attack Russia’s energy infrastructure. Bonus points as this facility is partially owned by American investors such as Chevron and Mobil. I’m wondering if perhaps the UK may have provided targeting data to the 3 drones that attacked this facility. Putin may have promised not to attack the Ukraine’s energy infrastructure but he never promised not to take the Sumy Oblast which is only about 70 kilometers from Kiev. And as Trump has been left looking like a sucker over this attack, he would probably look the other way.
Apparently the damage is not serious – fragments of drone fell on a pipeline between storage tanks and caused a difficult but limited fire.
The “funny” part is that Exxon and Shell are among the majority shareholders of Caspian Pipeline Consortium which owns the pipeline and the transshipment point. According to Lenta.ru Mr. Putin has already instructed them to provide spares, sanctions or not, if they need their oil to flow.
Talk between CEO’s is just talk.
No terms have been presented that could be applied.
No, false. The Kremlin readout said Putin immediately ordered the military not to fire on Ukraine energy targets. Russia immediately implemented its end of the verbal agreement.
Putin – orders Gerasimov: no more bombing of thermal power plants.
Gerasimov – answers Putin: there are no more of them left.
That was exactly my thought. It was easy for Putin to agree; it’s hard target a Honda portable generator.
It’s impossible to have a unilateral ceasefire. I would encourage reading Simplicius’ piece. He takes apart the notion that there was any concession from Putin. Russia apparently took out the power in Slovyansk UA last night, as well.
The whole notion that there was any mutually agreed to cessation of energy attacks manifest by the parties is complete BS.
Trump wouldn’t care. Just so long as this “deal” made him look good back home. It’s all about appearances.
The key part to understanding the mess is that Trump cannot control what Zelensky does. Trump does not represent Z-man. Ukraine still has agency.
In a negotiation, if one side makes an offer and the other side never accepts, there is no objective manifestation of an agreement. Putin offered to halt the attacks for 30 days IF Ukraine agreed to do the same. The second part never happened.
As far as your comment about appearances, I agree that our Orange Julius only cares about the appearance of progress. The sheepish press who really know better will oblige him.
30 days pause in hitting energy infrastructure was an Ukrainian proposal to begin with. Trump merely conveyed it and Russia accepted. Russians even claim that their air defenses shot down 6 drones of their own that were already on their way to hit Ukrainian targets.
Agreement or not, theatricals or not, I assume Russia will use the Ukrainian strike as a showcase to the 86% of the world not following western media what kind of regime Russia is dealing with.
But where was that written down (Ukrainian proposal?) Trump and Putin were merely “talking” not working off of detailed written documents. That would never be the case, of course … technical details would be ironed out by teams of negotiators who would report up to Putin and Trump. That never happened, either. We’re in the realm of oral statements and hearsay.
Technically, because Russia made a counter-offer to Trump’s initial proposal in Saudi Arabia, the original offer that Trump claimed to have been presenting to Putin was dead. That is a bit of legalese but it still raises the question, what exactly is going on here? It isn’t good faith bargaining. It is mere posturing.
It’s all moot now anyways, as both sides attacked each others energy infrastructure last night, per CNN:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/19/europe/ukraine-russia-drone-attacks-intl-hnk/index.html
There were notetakers, both agreed, and the US and Russian readouts confirmed the understanding. That is acceptance and offer..
In New York State, verbal agreements of less than one year duration are binding.
On further reflection, this may be another US bad faith retrade.
See how the US readout says “energy and infrastructure” while the Russian says “energy infrastructure’ and that was what Russian officials told the media?
Alternatively, Ukraine may have a very liberal idea of what “energy infrastructure” means, as in anything that has power lines running through it, meaning any building with a circuit breaker.
Nice catch.
That’s the problem with trying to negotiate unilaterally … both of the dispute parties need to be put in a room together with the door locked and forced to agree on what such terms mean.
Yours truly said from the outset of the talks talk that the US and Russia could settle this war between them was barmy. Ukraine even though weak and destined to lose, still has agency. And even more important, it still has possession of the considerable majority of the land area.
TASS is signaling Russia is not about to shrug this off….as one might expect.
https://tass.com/politics/1930739
Now I would still expect Russia to adhere to its side of the deal for appearance’s sake, since among other reasons running out the ceasefire clock is running out the clock, it looks good before the Global South, and it puts the US in the awkward position of needing to beat up on Ukraine, which just embarrassed Trump. Russia no doubt regards regime change as a necessary but not sufficient condition for an end to the hot conflict. The topic is absent from the readouts of both sides. Admittedly, this may not be the sort of thing that can be discussed in recorded exchanges, but the Russians will likely push on this issue on next level meetings where not translators are present.
And remember, keeping the ceasefire is no cost to Russia. Russia was not reinstigating the electric war. Putin may have decided he did not want to wreck Ukraine further unless absolutely necessary to allow the possibility of a a somewhat viable post-conflict Ukraine. And if Russia wants to drop the hammer, it could probably start in Sept and have the job done in a few weeks, leaving enough time for the population to decamp before the really cold temps kicked in…of course creating a humanitarian crisis. That is presumably a less preferred outcome but is still very much there.
The Russians might well be giving even less than appearances indicate. If they’re intending to launch major offensives with the end of the rasputista, the strikes on power plants and relays in the Ukrainian deep rear would be paused for awhile in any case, to focus on logistics hubs and assembly points in the near rear..
So it could well be time for that “halt”, which is just a change of targets, for purely military reasons.
New Not-So-Cold War
Looks like Simplicus didn’t make the list, but I read it last night. Quick take is, Russia kept responding with technical concerns needed to achieve what the US and Russia agree upon, like how is a truce to be monitored, weapon supplies and intel must be halted entirely by all The Western nations for hostilities cease, etc. US response was basically a vacuous dead blank stare back with the eyeballs as they seem completely out of their depth at implementation which fits Trump’s modis perfectly. The read is not unlike Larry Johnson’s.
Western MSM is also being shown to be utterly out of it’s depth and incompetent. For several days now, headlines like Putin Agrees to Ceasefire, Deal Reached, etc, have mislead Westerners. As if it happens because Harry Potter waived his magic wand so it must be so, nothing else needs doing. The MSM in this case may not be trying to manage narrative so much as just completely incapable of reading and interpreting what Putin/Russia is actually saying.
lol. Team Marco Rubio, nor Team Jake Sullivan, would be able to produce a detailed technical primer on the logistics of a cease fire.
I hate “4-D chess” hypotheses, but it does feel like Putin is playing a long-game and setting the backdrop under which Trump can politically-walk away from Ukraine later in the year
Trump and Putin both want to cut of US military and monetary support for Ukraine. And Zelensky doesn’t. There may be some complexity here, but Trump will stumble into conditions for his preferred outcome. Zelensky has been talking about his conditions…all he needs is to keep openly and obviously trying to blow up a deal.
Ukraine is out of ATACMS https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-out-of-atacms-missiles-ap-reports/
Ukraine hasn’t been reported to have used US weapons in Russia lately…so there is that also.
My simplistic ‘money’ view of the situation.
The Russian are in no need of 4-D chess to understand Trump and the rest of the CW because they are transparent to them through their PR games. It has been for long told that the West was winning the “PR war”. I disagree even if they manage to push Russophobia in some or most CW countries. That is not a win, on the contrary if you think about CW populaces and how these are being manipulated by this game.
>Why We Should Worry When Whales Stop Singing Bloomberg
…given how important singing is to whales’ reproduction, social interactions and foraging, their silence signals trouble. A whale has no energy for song…devastated populations of krill, anchovies and sardines that the cetaceans eat.
Much like humans. To open my phone and see images of U.S. supplied bombes raining down indiscriminately on innocent Palestinians makes it hard to pick up my guitar, listen to songs, and enjoy social relations. It feels with all the bad news there is no “energy for song.” Without a periodic self-imposed media quarantine, to immerse myself back into the analog world around me, to feed my spiritual “krill”, I’d starve.
You speak my mind
The YouTube dialog works with Wilkerson is the best I’ve seen. He is pissed.
I highly recommend the listen.
And it’s just so sad.
I second the recommendation.
Just started listening – Wilkerson makes the point right out of the gate that Israel has never honored the ceasefire, they’ve killed Gazans every single day since Jan. 20.
It’s all so depressing – the press won’t report honestly on this, Orange Julius’ coddling of Netanyahu, now Gabbert turning out to be a turncoat. It’s lie after lie.
I have been pretty cynical about my country, the US, for many years, but it is only in the last few that I internalized it was profoundly and thoroughly evil. Evil political leadership. Evil corporate leadership. The actual structure of the limited liability corporation to maximize shareholder value selects for evil leadership. The economic system is evil. Life destroying. Although we share this evil with many including our adversaries.
I also gave to Tulsi’s presidential bid. And now this. The situation is soul destroying. What does someone who sees reality tell children?
Is the only way to save the world from this evil collapse of the system? That seems to be what is happening. Many commentators I have grown to respect, Sachs, Wilkerson etc. indicate that an attack on Iran would do the job. Evil and also insane.
The only hope is that it seems that most citizens are not evil, just ignorant and struggling. But desperate ignorant people do dangerous things. Can the powerful successfully enslave us officially and overtly?
I too might have to take a media break and play guitar. I have a feeling reality would quickly intrude, however.
“The economic system is evil. Life destroying. Although we share this evil with many including our adversaries.”
The real hegemon…
I’ve said before that the global elite don’t care about the survival of any nation, per se, as much as they care about the perpetuation of economic ideology.
“No matter how cynical you become, it’s never enough to keep up.” (Lily Tomlin)
I am far from a sunshine pumper and don’t gainsay anyone. I am compelled to post that in the last month or so I have been privileged to witness mastery in many artistic fields, e.g. Olga Kern performing the Rach 2, an excellent new collection of essays by a friend, a new 44’ sculpture by another friend. Additionally, something I made resolved itself fast, and stayed. This work is ongoing in spite of what I/we are powerless to change. FWIW.
Re Turkish police detain Erdoğan’s main political rival.
I am all pins and needles for EU’s position to this blatant violation of the democratic process in the wake of what transpired and continues to transpire in Romania.
Judging by the first reactions amongst liberal BG politicians, I expect it to be marked by utter lack of self-awareness. A Pandora’s Box was opened in Romania and now it will be tough to take the democratic high ground.
I wouldn’t get your hopes up for the EU. They just promised a coupla billion dollars to the mild head-choppers in Syria without demanding that they had to stop their massacres of Alawites and Christians first. More of those EU values at work
Because HTS is so weak and doesn’t control Syria or even Damascus, it would be kind of funny of that money ended up in the wrong hands. Probably Israel, or maybe the SDF could simply walk into a bank and take it.
More likely that money would go into the hands of HTS’s owner – Erdogan.
>Tulsi Gabbard Wants Other Countries To Join the US in Attacking Yemen Antiwar.com (Kevin W)
At the time, Gabbard was critical of the fact that the Yemen war was unauthorized by Congress, making US participation illegal under the Constitution.
Both TG and BS received financial donations from me in their presidential bids. I sent several emails to friends asking to get on board and support them. And now, now they can go in the dustbin/trash.
It seems a losing battle, almost everyone that held promise and then rises to a position of power sings a different tune than the one they were playing earlier, on their way up. Makes you want to take that “black pill.”
Yes indeed. I think there were two fundamental conditions required to serve in Trump’s second administration. The first was that you demonstrated loyalty to Trump during the eight years in which he was persecuted by the entire US Establishment. The second was absolute fealty to Israel. The second one was probably more important.
Wolf of X
@tradingMaxiSL
9. And free medical.
As 4/15 approaches, I was looking for a financial advisor, thanks.
…go long kitty crack, er Temptations
p.s. a product of the Great White North, not sure if tariffist attacks were levied upon cat treats~
Orijen brand cat and dog food (made from “whole prey”) is also a soon-to-be-tariffed product of Maple-Leaf Land. Their “Regional Red” variant is said to contain, among other things, wild boar, bison, and Alberta lamb. Was always tempted to think of it as “regional roadkill” flavor.
Sardines work just fine.
“Back to cash: life without money in your pocket is not the utopia Sweden hoped”
‘Such is the perceived severity of the situation that the authorities are trying to encourage citizens to keep and use cash in the name of civil defence. In November, the defence ministry sent every home a brochure entitled If Crisis or War Comes, advising people to use cash regularly and keep a minimum of a week’s supply in various denominations to “strengthen preparedness”.’
I got a idea. Instead of stockpiling cash and maybe food in their pantry, all those Swedes should emulate Trump and seek to have a personal strategic bitcoin reserve or other digital assets. Then it won’t matter if the power and net goes down because of those dastardly Russkies as they will have the potential wealth to buy all the food and services that they will want or need and will be technologically superior to all their quaint fellow citizens who invested in cash and the barbarous relic.
I am getting tired of thanking Putin everyday for throwing a monkey-wrench into the stupid plans in the West.
The latest major Putin-intervention to be thankful for was the new nuclear doctrine that said they would bomb USA too if they or the Eurotards were stupid enough to launch a nuclear bomb towards Russia. Most likely he and his team at least slowed down our path to nuclear war.
Now thanks to the Putin-cyber-hackers-attackers-hybrid-shadow (feel free to add more scary words of your choice), obviously Putin-controlled and managed because he personally controls and manage absolutely every person and action of every person both individually and in aggregate, we may be able to use cash again in Sweden.
Sweden is really a digital hellscape. I wanted to pay some local handymen for their services in cash but when trying to withdraw cash from the bank I was to undergo an interrogation and having to wait for a few weeks to get the cash.
Funny you should mention no need to stockpile food and cash.
In one of the main Swedish broadsheets today, a Swedish Defence University researcher claims the idea that society would suffer a catastrophic collapse in the event of war is a huge myth. Instead of prepping by stockpiling water and tins of food, what you will need is friends and social relationships.
https://www.svd.se/a/Av9vgr/forskare-vid-forvarshogskolan-odla-relationer-bra-prepping-rad
Pretty sure that if you stockpiled water and tins of food while most people didn’t, that pretty soon the friends and social relationships would come to you. :)
Is he promoting cannibalism? Should we eat our friends and drink social relationships? Are there any good recipes how to cook friends that do not involve water or electricity?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kySDKESt3_M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCmgEN-F-gc
‘Donner Party of 87, we’re ready to (s)eat you’
How To Serve Man
Maybe they are channeling their inner Alex Jones who once described in detail that in an emergency he would kill and eat his neighbours to feed himself and his kids.
Helpful hints from Jonestown:
Intestines make a nice casing for mystery meat, don’t throw them away.
You are who you eat.
The melioidosis story brought back some memories……..
I was an intern in July, my very first month in the big city and my very first call night as an MD. My attending physician ( boss ) was a world renowned infectious disease physician with a reputation for being just ruthless on rounds. Back in those days, as interns, we were on call every third night. That meant you admitted all the patients to the big inner city hospital that needed to come in, you took care of all the overnight happenings on all of your fellow intern’s patients, and you had to have everything ready to present to you attending by 7 AM the next AM. You then worked all day the post call day to get everyone tucked in. It was often 36 hours straight. It taught doctors how to think, how to prioritize, how to manage, how to behave under extreme pressure. This was also decided about 20 years ago to be too harsh. So now, we let the interns go home before 5, there is no overnight management, and instead of the 14 admissions like I had on my very first night, the interns are usually capped at 3-5 patients a day. And we wonder why young doctors do not know how to prioritize, manage emergencies, etc – but that discussion is for another day.
We admitted 14 that first night. As an indication of that era, 11 of those people were AIDS patients in various stages of dying. 1 was a lung cancer patient, and 1 was a renal failure patient, the other one was a Vietnam veteran – about mid 40s – who was having what appeared to be cardiac chest pain, and a fever.
The attending, again a very stern world class ID physician, arrived at 630AM. He sent my senior resident off to what is called Morning Report and looked at me pitifully and said “IM Doc will now take the students and I on rounds – and we will start with the very easiest patient.” So off we went to the Vietnam veteran with chest pain and fever.
In those days, after all night on call, no sleep, the intern was asked to be at the foot of the bed, the attending on the front right side and the students all around. There were no notes, iPhones, papers, etc – all from memory. And the formal presentation was done by the intern. Right in front of the patient. “Mr. Smith is a 45 year old Vietnam Vet. He has been having fever for the past 3 days, and has developed a severe chest pain upon inspiration on the right side. …… cardiac enzymes are mildly positive….Chest X ray was negative….”
From the attending – “Dr. IM Doc, could you please give us your discussion right now of the diagnosis of melioidosis and how it may comport with this patient?”
Me – “Melioidosis, sir, umm, ahh, I did not even think of that, sir.”
Attending – “Well, tell this patient what you know about melioidosis”
Me – ( up for 26 straight hours – pager going off every 5 minutes ) – “Sir, I have no idea what that even is.”
Attending – looking down at patient “Mr. Smith, I am so sorry that Dr. IM Doc here has completely humiliated himself, this team, and this hospital. This is completely unacceptable. This will not happen again. Dr. IM Doc and I will be back precisely at 2 PM. He will do this all over again. And he will know all about melioidosis and he will demonstrate to me how to diagnose it correctly. We are so sorry, Mr. Smith, we hold our doctors to a much higher standard than this.”
My very first call day. My very first presentation. I wanted to melt into the floor. No mercy or compassion shown. I wanted to go back home. He was very very hard on me the whole month. I just knew I was going to flunk. So, on my very last day and my verbal review with him – he said – “You are not half bad. I see great promise in you. This is why I am so hard on you. Otherwise I would not waste my time” And four years later, when I finished and joined the faculty – he became one of my very first patients.
We do not even remotely train doctors like this anymore. This was deemed too brutal about 20 years ago or so. And now the fruit of this decision is plain for all to see, especially the unfortunate patients in the hospital. There is a great accounting going on right now, however, just look at the state of the profession and the disaster that is our hospitals. Again, that is a post for another day.
Melioidosis – is one of those ancient scourges of mankind. It does not get much press because it is not as common as some of the others and is largely confined to certain parts of the world. There are those who make a very good case that this may very well have been “The Plague of Athens” as described by Thucydides. The symptoms do comport. It is found in very damp and warm parts of the world. Lots of wet soil and wet plant fronds – and it gets placed into open cuts. Very common in places like VietNam. It causes a very acute illness in most people that is like a severe pneumonia-but it can be sepsis. The chronic phase – and what my attending was getting at in Vietnam veterans – is that it can come back years later usually as initially unexplained fever and pleuritic chest pain. It is caused by organisms in.a gram negative family called Burkholderia. It is not to be messed with. No vaccines available.
Thanks IM Doc. Your comment now has me wondering how many Vietnam vets died after the war due to diseases like Melioidosis that they picked up in-country. And now I am wondering if there were any studies done to pick up on this. Surely the medical records of the Vets Admin would help out here. The 58,000 lost in Vietnam may turn out to have been only the down payment when you crank in things like suicide and diseases like this.
We do not even remotely train doctors like this anymore. This was deemed too brutal about 20 years ago or so.
Great anecdote, thanks for sharing.
We do not raise children this way either. To be even a wee bit harsh to little Suzy when she does something untoward in public, would garner a harsh rebuke from many, including spouse. I can see this statement generalized into many areas of life. And maybe there is a better way, and then maybe not, to make sure when you drive home a point/learning, it sticks.
Humiliation and overwork maybe an effective teaching method for some, but for other students, perhaps most, it seems like it will just be discouraging. Certainly this approach is easiest and perhaps most fun for the teacher, who gets to invoke their inner Marquis de Sade in the guise of being a humanitarian.
When I think back over the teachers that had the most impact on me, the ones I come up with are those who conveyed a shared sense of enthusiasm and also compassion for someone grappling with the difficulties a new discipline or subject matter. Some of these teachers also became lifelong friends and intellectual resources who I was not afraid of approaching in later years.
We can agree, however, that no single teaching style works best for all.
You are also a doctor?
Well, going out on a limb here, I don’t want my doc to be more investing in inhabiting a “safe space” for his/her feelings and ego, or 9 to 5 time demands, than I want a doc who is competently trained under rigorous demands. I want my doc to be rigorously trained in trying (for them) circumstances so they can handle whatever illness I might present, and without them relying on an AI program’s algorithmic output about what to do and how to treat. I really don’t want a doc who has a ‘cheat sheet’ to hand in AI (doctoring for dummies. heh) instead of rigorous training and experience.
Yeah. I’m old school. So sue me.
Another round of effective antidotes, thank you. I’ve signed up for orange cat’s stock picking news letter. He seems to be doing well.
Perhaps the greater the number of antidotes, the worse the news.
A Links “Tail Risk Indicator?”
Do you mean: Ih8mecz2pecz.com?
I don’t want to go all Tom and Jerry on you but, is that domain owned by Mr.JincksLLC?
I just knew that, after memecoins became ‘realmish,’ that #fiduciaryfeline would be next.
Looks to me like that cat has a job: guarding beehives. Not a bad gig!
Newsflash:
This just in, (REDACTED) spent another peaceful day resting in Arlington, as is his custom.
I always wondered, was it a bakers dozen worth of (REDACTED) on that grassy knoll blasting away at the Lincoln on Garfield Ave, far from Mt McKinley?
The unredacted JFK documents reveal that yes, Kennedy was killed that day and the cause of death was definitely bullets. No idea though what is in the 3,000 documents that still have not been released. Sixty years later and some secrets are still too hot to release.
“The Iran War Plan”
Pretty sure that it was Scott Ritter who pointed out then when the Pentagon wargamed out an attack on Iran, they found that it would last at least a decade and the end would be very uncertain indeed. None of the Arab states like Saudi Arabia would want a bar of it as it would put their oil infrastructure into the territory of collateral damage. And the US does not have the troop numbers to actually invade Iran successfully so it would be a missile slogging match with the complications that the Russian would be aiding out here. And what would Trump get out of it exactly? A war that he can hand over to the Vance Presidency? A pat on the head by Netanyahu? A chance to completely empty US military inventories? The risk of US Navy ships going down? Does Trump even know what he wants? I am reminded of an incident in the early days of the Vietnam war. The US was quickly getting bogged down so the White House called in a highly regarded Admiral for advice. He took a look at the war and then asked the White House about what they wanted the end state to look like. As the White house did not know themselves, they just sacked that Admiral.
There is a section in the dialog works with Col Wilkerson that covers war with Iran. He thinks it would be a disaster.
“Does Trump even know what he wants?”
I doubt it. But Israel, and the neocons who continue to infest our National Security apparatus, know what they want. Destabilization, sectarian conflict, chaos, balkanization. As in Iraq. Or Syria. Or Lebanon. Or Libya. Or Yemen. Or Somalia. Etc. No need to “conquer” Iran, just destroy it as a nation capable of offering resistance to Greater Israel. Trump seems quite willing to go along.
I’d say this was all just part of the plan, but I don’t want to be accused of being an Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theorist. I think Col. Wilkerson would agree with me though.
Back to cash: life without money in your pocket is not the utopia Sweden hoped Guardian
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cash* doesn’t last, but coins are really your best hope for future historical artifacts, pretty much the most common item found since the Lydians came up with the concept back in the day.
When Sweden ran out of precious metals in the 17th century, but was loaded with productive copper mines, they minted large ‘coin’ plates weighing up to 44 pounds made out of copper. Most of the examples on the market come from a shipwreck in 1783 off the coast of South Africa that was salvaged in the 1970’s.
https://cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=270093
We tend to think of money in coins and currency, but every culture had something else that sufficed, here in the USA it was pretty much a shell game, Wampum (specific shells & clams) on the east coast, and by simply moving shells from say Malibu eastward, they became more valuable the further they went.
Gold didn’t seem to garner much interest among the Native Americans, here in Cali the first to get to gold bearing rivers in the Gold Rush found so much just laying in the river, one place in Downieville was called ‘Tin-Cup Diggins’ as thats how much early argonauts could expect to find in a day of searching for the golden fleece.
Bricks of tea were utilized as money in Russia, the Aztecs had copper axe money, the Japanese made clay money, and hundreds of other go betweens.
* I once did an appraisal on around $40k face value worth of large size National Banknotes from around 1900 that were hidden in a wall for 80 years, and 95% of it crumbled if you barely touched it.
Since you mentioned the Lydians, I have always wondered about the etymology of their king Croesus, made famous by Herodotus and memorialized as the richest man in the known world at the time. Wikipedia gets into it a bit , and notes the the ancient Greek spelling was Κροισος. And there are a few theories about what the Lydians themselves might have called him.
I had my own theory before reading about any of the alternatives, and it is a lot simpler. Since this king was pretty much a mythical figure already by Herodotus’ time, why not call this ancient king by what he was known for? The Greek word for gold is χρυσός – very similar to Κροισος. So was Herodotus calling him King Goldman? And maybe there was a misspelling at some point along the way? I’m probably wrong since I have never seen a single classical scholar mention it, but it makes sense to me!
Lydian Staters were made of Electrum, a 55% gold, 44% silver and 1% copper composition, can’t think of any other coins with sort of content.
“Ice Blast: East Kazakhstan Rescuers Share Mesmerizing Video”
It’s kinda like watching fireworks but done with ice and snow. And once you start watching, you want to watch it through to the end.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
>JFK Assassination Records National Archives (Martin O)
Showing 1 to 10 of 2,181 entries
Yeah, not on the reading list for today, or probably in my lifetime…
There are 219 pages, same as last night. Page 219 has one item, the others have ten, making the total 2181 documents. Most of them are single pages, mostly sources and methods but kind of interesting. I will likely wait for others to point out what if any of the documents are interesting but the site is a good alternative to doom scrolling through pet movies.
I’ll also wait for those more knowledgeable to go through these documents. I’m not holding my breath that any smoking gun revelations will exist after 60+ years. But I can almost guarantee how the mainstream media will handle it. That AP story in today’s Links provides the perfect example (forgive my long quote):
“Some of the documents from previous releases have offered details on the way intelligence services operated at the time, including CIA cables and memos discussing visits by Oswald to the Soviet and Cuban embassies during a trip to Mexico City just weeks before the assassination. The former Marine had previously defected to the Soviet Union before returning home to Texas.”
“One CIA memo describes how Oswald phoned the Soviet Embassy while in Mexico City to ask for a visa to visit the Soviet Union. He also visited the Cuban Embassy, apparently interested in a travel visa that would permit him to visit Cuba and wait there for a Soviet visa. On Oct. 3, more than a month before the assassination, he drove back into the United States through a crossing point at the Texas border.”
“Another memo, dated the day after Kennedy’s assassination, says that according to an intercepted phone call in Mexico City, Oswald communicated with a KGB officer while at the Soviet Embassy that September. The releases have also contributed to the understanding of that time period during the Cold War, researchers said.”
If you were the typical educated liberal or Chomskyan “leftist” who had no interest in this stuff, then you would have no idea that this description of Oswald as either some Cuban/Russian agent or some poor commie wannabe is an absolute 180 degree false depiction of what the documents released in the 1990s *actually* showed about the CIA and Oswald’s trip to Mexico City. Which is why about the only people who still give any credence to the official narrative are educated liberals or Chomskyan “leftists” or those who depend on the mainstream media for their information about the world.
Ask and it shall be given – try this one
https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2025/0318/157-10014-10151.pdf
Confirming everything rumored in leftest circles in the late 60s re: the CIA and coups and assassinations.
Lots on Cuba and Vietnam, lots of hand waving on who knew and who approved.
I just jumped to the middle range and grabbed a few pdfs. Surprising amount of personal information on low level committee staff .
Wildfire fallout – insurers set to reassess risk, tighten policies in California Insurance Business
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The insurance renewal on my cabin comes in a month or 2, hopefully that is. If not, i’ll become another cabin owner in the community bare asset naked, of which about 40% are currently.
Not much I can do in terms of making my surroundings safer up in the forest for the pine trees, as i’m practically surrounded by them-which has been quite the blessing in that when its a hundred and hell down below on the fruited plain, those same sentinels tend to shade out the Sun, allowing me to live la vida 72 degrees.
I’ve had the cabin now for 13 years and greatly enjoyed it, and were it to be consumed in a blaze along with the other 55 or so cabins, I would just take the insurance money and not rebuild.
If you think the situation of rebuilding is daunting in SoCal currently, my scenario would unfold like this:
Its 639 significant turns and 21 miles from the turn on Hwy 198 to get to my place, there is literally one blind curve after another in much of sojourn as an added bonus, and you’d have to locate a contractor in probably Visalia to drive about 3 hours each way every working day, to build a new cabin, and 55 other cabins would be vying for that guy willing to put crazy wear on vehicles dragging up everything necessary to build a cabin, and good luck with that.
The guy I bought my cabin from was a contractor and built it himself and brought up every last piece of cabin in his work truck, or should I say trucks, as he told me he wore out 3 of them building his cabin for me, as it turned out.
If that was true for your own cabin, then how the hell did those other 55 cabins get to be built? They can’t all have been built by contractor/builders.
Most of them date from the 1930’s-40’s and are board and batten built-not insulated, really only basic lodging for summer months-not meant to be used in the winter.
None of them would come close to passing muster in terms of building codes currently, adding to their excessive charm.
I’m fine with T deporting Tren-de-something gang members here in the country illegally.
I’m not fine with T trying to deport someone in the country legally, someone with a green card, because they said something T (and his biggest sponsor) doesn’t like. What happened to T’s love of the 1st Amendment? How’s he gonna criticize the EU’s Digital Services Act if he goes through with deportations based on speech he doesn’t like?
Jimmy Dore, utube, ~29+ minutes.
Marco Rubio CAN’T DEFEND Deporting Pro-Palestinian Mahmoud Khalid!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJoTi4ioq0A
Not that the Dems have clean hands on this issue. / ;)
Dore, utube, ~2 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6t36qPJLgE
You have no idea if those Venezuelans were gang members. Neither does anyone. And if you know DAs and prosecutors, they will tell you cops plant evidence all the time.
It’s pretty appalling to see Trump able to dog-whistle this level of cruelty by doing the legal equivalent of name-calling.
FIRE podcast.
On Mahmoud Khalil
So to Speak: The Free Speech PodcastEp. 2
https://www.thefire.org/news/podcasts/so-speak-free-speech-podcast/mahmoud-khalil
From the full podcast:
“Trying to ban some forms of speech almost ennobles it.”
Yep. aka, shooting one’s self in ye olde foot wrt US opinion./ ;)
Re new war plan against Iran–there’s really nothing in Kipperstein’s article other than cited passages of milspeak blather and the hint that the bomber boyz favorite, “decapitation strikes,” may be on the way. Also the Israelis will need some Arab governments to cooperate.
In other words the war plan is they have no plan but a louder mouth than usual to threaten it in the person of DT. That’s of course when he’s not hinting at a new detente with Iran if they show a little deference. The “face/heel” (ht Lambert) duality continues.
https://www.si.com/fannation/mlb/fastball/news/department-of-defense-takes-down-article-on-jackie-robinson-time-in-army-dodgers-legend-broke-color-barrier-01jpq6xte0gb
Department of Defense Takes Down Article on Jackie Robinson’s Time in Army
Jackie Robinson both broke baseball’s color barrier and served in the United States Army during World War II, but new federal policies have led to his story getting swept under the rug.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles-navajo-code-talkers-removed-223000982.html
Articles about Navajo Code Talkers removed in Pentagon’s DEI purge
Some articles were put back.
o.m.g. If Musk’s “geniuses” are doing a simple search-and-replace computer text sort with bad assumptions about what certain words-text means/implies, (which is what this sounds like could be happening), – especially considering English is a context sensitive language – then the “geniuses” ain’t so smart. / ;)
“This Is How Tesla Will Die”
If Musk is in such a tough position, then he might get Trump to ban any car that competes with his on the grounds of ‘Buy American.’ I would not put it past him. And it does not help that as Tesla cars are being associated with his attacks on social security, that they are being attacked as well as Tesla showrooms. It may be soon that any Tesla owner will have to worry about their car being coined whenever they park it. But by reading that article, he has a very shaky empire and it is only all those government contracts that really keep him afloat.
First they came for the stock valuation of Tesla, and I did not speak out because I was into internal combustion, Elon’s wealth that is.
It may not only be Elon’s rockets that blow up but maybe some of his companies as well.
It is too damned hard not to smile guiltily at the irony. Vancouver Canada is Tesla ground zero — thousands of them — I can literally see a few driving in front of me, a few alongside, a few in the mirrors, say, anywhere from 6 to ten Teslas from my car at any given time. Driven by well-to-do, enthusiastic Liberal Party of Canada types with severe TDS, who suddenly find themselves piloting the icon of the Trump/Musk brand, still disdained by those who have always disdained them, and now also by those who used to aspire to become them! Delicious.
History Legends says that AFU got most of its forces out of Kursk, that the cauldron was not closed in time to prevent retreat. The news stories about large numbers of Ukrainian troops being completely surrounded, including Trump’s TruthSocial post, were incorrect, he said.
It depends on what you mean by large. The troops trapped in the cauldron that led Merkel to fly to see Putin and work out a deal (Minsk) were about 30,000-40,000. Here the top estimates are 8,000, some as few as 2.500.
“Leaked memo: DOGE plots to cut Social Security phone support”
Maybe DOGE’s idea will be to make social security offices be like some big corporations. Online you can see where their offices are but their is no actual contact telephone number or even an email address. The only way to contact them is through a single national telephone number where you will have to navigate a telephone tree to end up waiting on hold for an hour or two listening to some crap music – punctuated by messages saying that your call is important to them – until some person in India eventually comes on the line. When you have a monopoly, you can treat your customers any way that you want.
I think this is the arrogance of the tech world on steroids. It is an atrocity, but so much of what happens today requires internet and a basic level of computer competence. And much of it is allowed not just because it may be cheaper* it is sold as ‘easier’ or ‘more efficient’ or even more ‘climate friendly’. It is increasingly impossible to either go to an office or talk to a human, and if you cannot do it online it doesn’t get done. And this is not private companies I am talking about. It is the government. New York has a whole list of things that almost entirely impossible to do if you do not do the internet anymore – including renewing your license to cut hair.
*And it is also indicative of the respect our businesses and government have toward customer or citizen service. Because in this case you mostly get what you pay for – not much.
IMO, in your description you forgot a very important part of that phone tree – navigate wrong and you get thrown out. You have to start the process all over. Many times the phone tree does not offer a really good choice for what you need to do or find out. Pick the maybe best choice and then it is clear they aren’t offering an almost best choice on that limb. Not only that there is often no way to go back up the menu tree. I also love the random hang up, several times as I waited over the required thirty plus minutes I have just gotten a ‘Thank you for calling, Good day’ and then the dial tone.
Plus I’m not sure it is India anymore, the accents have changed, gotten stronger and the English has gotten weaker in several customer service lines I have encountered in the last year. It might be that as they seek even cheaper calling centers in India, the choices are more limited OR like when manufacturers decided China was charging too much for the cheap t-shirts, etc and moved to Malaysia, they have found more amenable sweat shop countries.
JFK Assassination Records – National Archives
Still a lot of “look over there at Oswald”?
Pretty sure the puppyducks bonus antidote is slop…
Re: WIRED story on DOGE:
There is at least one significant typo in the original article:
“In no uncertain terms is this an audit,” claims the second auditor. “It’s a heist, stealing a vast amount of government data.”
Should read: “In no uncertain terms is this NOT an audit.” Awkwardly phrased, but at least accurate. Depending on locution, a double negative may be required. This is one such instance.
>Imperial Collapse Watch
It’s interesting that the Chinese scholar recognizes the similarities between Trump’s policies and Mao’s Cultural Revolution.
I recently saw an Asian scholar say that Trump 2.0 is most comparable to Krushchev, who revealed bad acts that occurred under Stalin and in doing so, fatally undermined the legitimacy of the government.
If, like me, anyone else is loathe to click on “X,” here’s a link to the online article:
https://thechinaacademy.org/starting-the-trade-war-the-best-thing-trump-did-to-china/
The comparison is facile. The Cultural Revolution had Red Guards by the millions marching through the streets, putting dunce caps (“high hats”) on landlords and other perceived class enemies, and carrying out communist versions of the Bonfire of the Vanities. What’s going on today in the US is just the latest round of boring oligarch-led looting and privatization. It started, arguably, under Carter with trucking deregulation, but there’s a lot of ruin in a nation so they’re only now getting down to tearing the copper from the walls.
One strategy we might discuss at this point is simply shutting down the dairy industry. Bird flu has a 50% fatality rate (much worse than COVID), and it’s obvious that it has now spread throughout dairy herds across the entire world. The virus is one mutation away from becoming a human disease.
Dairy products are fun to eat, but I don’t know a single person who would refuse to give them up if it meant the collapse of human civilization and the death of 4 billion people or whatever.
I don’t like to think that COVID was just a dress rehearsal.
Hello nutria? California’s least-welcome invasive swamp rodents arrive in Fresno
California’s most-destructive and least-welcome swamp rodents have arrived in its fifth-largest city. To be precise, they’ve arrived in the stretch of San Joaquin River that traces Fresno’s northwest border.
https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/marek-warszawski/article302254799.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Swamp rodents might make Fresno seem more upscale…
Recipe for Nutria Gumbo.
RE: Russophobia At Peak!
Very good article and an excellent rundown of why the West has for so long had their panties in a wad about the dastardly Boris and Natasha. But because I can’t help myself, I will point out this one part where the article misses a very important point –
“The ongoing Ukraine war started in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea…”
Oh? Was there maybe something else that happened in 2014 that caused Russia to annex Crimea? Something where the US played a part? Where an old USian battleaxe was handing out cookies, urging on a US-sponsored coup?
Forgetting that detail does make me doubt the motives of an otherwise very good piece.
They “forget” so much concerning that. Not just what caused it, but that the people of Crimea initiated and voted for it in a landslide.
I was concerned that the article portrayed Yeltsin and Putin as contrasting figures. Wasn’t Putin as much a proponent of economic integration with the West as his predecessor, hoping that one day Russia would be recognized as a member of Europe?
Putin wanted economic integration with the West, but frowned on allowing the West to continue to rob Russia blind, which Yeltsin was apparently to drunk to notice. That’s why Putin is now reviled.
A lot of the worst anti-Putin rhetoric can be traced back to Bill Browder, one of the looters at the time who later had a falling out with Putin after being accused of evading quite a large amount of Russian taxes. Rather ironically for someone who is an unapologetic capitalist, Browder’s own grandfather was once head of the United States Communist Party before and during WWII.
I had the same reaction. Especially suspect is the last section, titled “Russia’s decoupling From Europe Under Putin.’ He compares the Westernization efforts of Peter the Great to what he describes as its reversal under Tsar Alexander I’s “Slavophilia” movement and reactionary nationalism. Then he draws a parallel with Yeltsin and Putin:
“Russia has witnessed a somewhat similar trajectory in transitioning from Boris Yeltsin to Vladimir Putin. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Yeltsin tried to integrate Russia into the Western market economy… He allowed a comparatively free press and Western popular culture to seep into Russia. However, Yeltsin was followed by Putin, who from the beginning had no illusions about the West. Putin placed more emphasis on BRICS, which was formalized in 2009.”
“With the Ukraine war, Russia’s break from the West seems complete.”
That’s it. The implication is that it was Putin’s nationalism or “Slavophilia” that led to the break with the West, though the reference to “illusions about the West” suggest Yeltsin’s naivete about Western Russiophobia. Nothing about Putin’s strong desire and considerable efforts to *strengthen* Western ties “from the beginning” that he only really abandoned after continued aggressive US/NATO expansion and dismissal of Russian security concerns. Also, on the “Western” side, the author ignores the decades in which Russophobia was much reduced (if not eliminated) in Europe and European leaders were much more open and “realist” in their views on the USSR and then Russia. I do think this history of Russophobia is relevant. But in my view it is best seen as a propaganda tool by elites who use such it to stir up these pre-existing prejudices for their own current ends.
I wonder if the supposed decrease in lethal violence that the Prehistoric Psychopath piece notes in the 20th century is an artifact of population growing way faster (increasing the denominator in the equation, basically), plus more medical treatments for wounds that previously would have been fatal (decreasing the numerator). The role of sociopaths in warfare is also understudied, I think. Dave Grossman’s On Killing argues that purposeful killing in warfare is more often done by a relatively small percentage of the combatants, where many others are just firing “near” an enemy they can see rather than at one. I think the US military changed its training to try to overcome that after the Korean War. Barbara Ehrenreich also makes the point in Blood Rites that humans are easily recruited to self-sacrifice in a mass violent cause due to the swarming behavior needed by early humans to overcome much larger and stronger predators. As Goehring said, you just have to supply humans with the noble motive to march them off to war, but that doesn’t mean they are starting out for battle based on innate violent tendencies.
Facepalm –
https://www.yahoo.com/news/minnesota-state-senator-arrested-sting-234454342.html