Dark energy: mysterious cosmic force appears to be weakening, say scientists The Guardian
U.S. hits new low in ranking of world’s happiest countries Cleveland.com
Climate/Environment
RFK, Jr., Once Poisoned by Mercury, Is Silent as EPA Weakens Rules against It Scientific American
Pandemics
RFK, Jr. Wants to Let Bird Flu Spread on Poultry Farms. Why Experts Are Concerned Scientific American
Texas public health official predicts the measles outbreak could take a year to contain STAT
Trump administration considers plan to eliminate CDC’s HIV prevention division NBC News
The Koreas
‘At risk of extinction’: South Korea’s second city fears demographic disaster FT
China?
As Tesla Falters, China’s BYD Pulls Ahead With 5-Minute EV Charging Inside EVs
China Delays BYD Factory in Mexico Over Concerns Tech Will Leak to American Rivals Gizmodo
China stocks back as US exceptionalism fades away Asia Times
Philippines Seeks To Include India, South Korea In Squad Alliance StratNews Global
European Disunion
Germany’s Annalena Baerbock set for top UN job DW. Of course.
Euro techies call for sovereign fund to escape Uncle Sam’s digital death grip The Register
Syraqistan
IDF tanks enter Netzarim Corridor in Gaza Strip, sources confirm to ‘Post’ Jerusalem Post
Gaza officially enters 1st stage of famine amid Israeli blockade Anadolu Agency
The likely cause of dwindling sympathies for Israel All Israel News. Not what you might expect.
***
Syria’s Genocide, Claiming Over 10,000 Lives, Is Not a Sectarian Conflict But A Deliberate Western Strategy to Dominate the Entire Region. Fiorella Isabel
Flawed Summaries of the Sunni-Shi’i Split Sawahil. I prefer Prof. Seyed Mohammad Morandi’s summary: the issue is CIA Islam.
The “SNA are the bad guys” narrative isn’t an indictment against Turkey, which is only increasing its presence in Syria and just announced it’d be furnishing the Syrian army with Bayraktars and training.
This is further consolidating Jolani’s power. The rise of a new dictator.
— Lindsey Snell (@LindseySnell) March 19, 2025
Turkey in undeclared state of emergency following detention of Erdogan rival Imamoglu Bne Intellinews
***
Exposing Britain’s Covert War On Yemen Kit Klarenberg, Global Delinquents
The Nuclear War Plan for Iran Ken Klippenstein
Trump sets two-month deadline for Iran nuclear deal amid Houthi warnings Bne Intellinews
New Not-So-Cold War
Statement from Secretary Rubio and NSA Waltz on Call with Zelenskyy The White House
Zelensky says lasting peace achievable this year after he and Trump hail ‘positive’ call BBC
Ukraine immediately broke Putin-Trump deal on energy targets – Moscow RT
Ukraine won’t cede territory in ceasefire talks: Zelensky Xinhua
Ukraine Launches Large Scale Ground Assault on Russia’s Belogrod Military Watch
Trump rejects one of Putin’s ceasefire demands, White House says Ukrainska Pravda. Intelligence sharing.
US has ‘moved beyond minerals deal’ to focus on lasting ceasefire in Ukraine, White House says Kyiv Independent
Trump suggests US could control Ukraine’s power plants in call with Zelenskyy Euronews
Zelensky Furious Putin Unyielding As US-Russia Agree Direct Talks On Ukraine Conflict; EU Excluded Alexander Mercouris
***
US Looks to Reassure European Allies on Role in Ukraine Deal Bloomberg
UK, EU in Talks to Accelerate Arms for Ukraine Before Ceasefire Bloomberg
Trump agrees to help Ukraine find available Patriot air defense systems in Europe, White House says Kyiv Independent
Germany to release extra 3 bln euros in military aid for Ukraine: Source Reuters
***
Russia’s Plan for 2025 Marat Khairullin Substack
South of the Border
Trump’s Latin American sticks could end up stuck in his spokes Responsible Statecraft
Trump 2.0
Trump to sign order to shut down Department of Education, White House says Reuters
GOP committee chairs fire warning shot at Trump on NATO Axios
Why Trump Tried to Fire Federal Trade Commission Democrats BIG by Matt Stoller
Chartbook 363 Stockholm syndrome in Mar-a-Lago: The belief that “something must be done” and the sanewashing of economic policy in the age of Trump Adam Tooze, Chartbook
Major reduction in Fed’s US growth forecast WSWS
Can Public Opinion Help Stop Donald Trump? Left Notes
DOGE
As DOGE Mauls Social Security, Profit-Hungry Private Equity Is Swooping In Truthout
***
The person the White House says is leading DOGE has also been working at HHS Politico
DOGE’s ‘AI-first’ strategist is now the head of technology at the Department of Labor Blood in the Machine
***
The Milwaukee NLRB office currently operates out of a privately-owned building. It is the NLRBU’s understand that there is no space available for the Agency in Milwaukee’s federal building. DOGE, in all of its haste, is flirting with ending labor law enforcement in Wisconsin.
— National Labor Relations Board Union (@TheNLRBU) March 19, 2025
DOGE, without warning, cancels leases on buildings across Nebraska Flatwater Free Press
DOGE plays hardball in U.S. Institute of Peace takeover WaPo
***
FBI’s joint terrorism task force investigating latest arson attack on Tesla facility The Independent
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Democrats en déshabillé
Shilling Books While Rome Burns: Why Politicians Need to Focus on Their Day Jobs Literary Hub
Police State Watch
Trump is seeking to deport another academic who is legally in the country, lawsuit says Politico
Exclusive: Mahmoud Khalil’s Attorney on Breaking Developments in Detained Columbia Graduate’s Case Drop Site
French scientist denied US entry after phone messages critical of Trump found The Guardian
BREAKING
Columbia University is getting close to yielding to President Trump’s demands in negotiations to restore $400 million in federal funding.
Columbia has until Thursday to agree to nine far-reaching demands by the Trump administration.
The demands include banning… pic.twitter.com/5CEqeVHO8j
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) March 19, 2025
***
Some Americans Have Already Been Caught in Trump’s Immigration Dragnet. More Will Be. ProPublica
Sports Desk
Department Of Defense Backtracks After Deleting Jackie Robinson Article For “Woke DEI” Defector
Groves of Academe
Fallout from Trump research cuts expands across academia Axios
UC president announces hiring freeze and other cuts LAist
Ohio House Republicans pass higher education overhaul to ban diversity efforts and faculty strikes Ohio Capital Journal
Digital Watch
Google to acquire Israeli firm staffed by former Unit 8200 officers The Cradle
Virtue or Vice? A First Look at Paragon’s Proliferating Spyware Operations Citizen Lab
Supply Chain
Nvidia to spend hundreds of billions on US chipmaking, CEO Huang tells FT Investing
Proposed US port fees on China-built ships begin choking coal, agriculture export The Business Times
Healthcare?
Report Shows How UnitedHealth Group Is Enriching Itself At The Expense Of Our Nation’s Veterans HEALTH CARE un-covered
Imperial Collapse Watch
The Emotional Stress of Imperial Decline Un-Diplomatic
Class Warfare
Ride or Die, Cowboy How Things Work
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
“Turkey in undeclared state of emergency following detention of Erdogan rival Imamoglu”
I wonder if the EU is going to stick their nose in here comlpaining about ‘dermocracy’ or something. Erdogan could simply reply that he is only doing what the EU had Romania do recently. (crickets)
Ursula von der Leyen has already expressed “Deep concern for democrazy in Turkey”
Re: Ride or Die
Bollywood Dancing in Houston.
https://youtu.be/H3AlDCBrOVY?si=SdowUNJWjBGgyE6Q
The Black Screen appears and says “Not available in your country.”
This cowboy must have chosen Door Number Two.
And yet we get it here in Oz. Go figure.
VPNs are your friend and I have now moved to Japan.
I have noticed that even within the United States more sites are blocking people from unapproved locations. The World Wide Web ain’t anymore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsa6vd1ZDwY
I can’t tell if this link is the same as bassmule’s, but if it is, I cannot understand why it would be blocked. What beautiful people. I am jealous of their community and joy and music and dancing and …
Re; The likely cause of dwindling sympathies for Israel
The author forgot to mention hubris, constant lying, naked racism, extreme and even gleeful violence against anyone who may criticize it– not even oppose it…
That’s four reasons right there, and I’m sure that readership could help to aid her understanding by easily taking the list to 100.
[And as a shout-out to fellow vets, I’ll add #5: the USS Liberty]
Yeah, that Cookie is badly crumbled …
Sometimes reading writing (and thinking) that bad is like having a mild seizure.
(Someone in the comments disagreed with Cookie. Satan is the problem! The ultimate Woke, Old Scratch, Beelzebub … he goes by many names, all of them woke.)
My first thought was that the article had to be a parody. But then again, we see zionists continue to defend the indefensible when it comes to the actions and behaviours of the IOF. Seemingly nothing will be too atrocious or outrageous for them to swallow as being perfectly moral and justifiable. The rest of the world has clearly got it wrong. If only.
That article had the following section-
‘Israel is the recipient of this destructive and toxic creed, because, while we are not perfect, we do strive to hold ourselves to high moral standards, based on the Ten Commandments and the code of ethics which come from our scriptures, urging us to love our fellow man as ourselves.’
Wow. Just wow. Where has she been the past year or more? And is she talking about ‘the most moral army in the world?’ Frankly if I was an American I would hold a grudge against Israel as it seeks to gut the First Amendment simply so that nobody there will be allowed to criticize Israel.
“urging us to love our fellow man as ourselves.’”
Israelis do not consider Palestinians as human beings, but as animals — as expressed very publicly, forcefully, and repeatedly by members of the Israeli government, Israeli politicians of all persuasions, Tsahal officers and soldiers, and simple civilians.
Hence, the aforementioned ethical tenets of the Israeli behaviour have always been respected.
Alternatively, one could argue that, since Palestinians are indisputably human beings, the attitude of Israelis towards them highlights the fact that zionists are the genuine self-hating Jews — a conclusion logically deduced from the fact that “they love their fellow man as themselves”.
In a sense, it is all very consistent.
In America’s antebellum South some planters thought black Africans were a different species and therefore naturally suited to join the “chattel” out in the barn. Meanwhile in Ukraine Z’s soldiers call the Russians “orcs” per the creatures in Lord of the Rings.
So dehumanization is a common tactic among self justifiers and the socially crippled and those tasked with killing others (and therefore at risk themselves). You could call it a form of madness or you could call it normal as long as dominance/submission governs human relations.
Hosea 8 comes to mind –
For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind
Guess where that comes from? Once upon a time there was a people freed from slavery and always overcoming imposed adversity, and this became their shared identity…
The author thinks some races exhibit ‘deviate behaviour’? That’s interesting. Also, Jordan Peterson regularly uses the word “deviant”, especially when referring to trans, gay, bi, etc., and apparently it’s now a talking point.
Also a JP talking point, he consistently straw mans the woke/DEI/inclusion stance as wanting everyone to be equally endowed, argues the goal is “equality of outcome”, and it isn’t. (He plagiarizes this from Hayek, by the way.)
The phrase “every accusation is a confession” comes to mind.
The fact that the laws Israel is accused of being in violation of predate any notions of “wokeness” or DEI is conspicuous by its’ absence. And then, as you say, the inability to parse their own religion or culture.
If that is the best they have to offer then they have already lost the argument.
From the All Israel News “About” page:
“ALL ISRAEL NEWS is based near Jerusalem and endeavors to be a trusted source of news, analysis, and information from Israel to our Christian friends around the world.”
“Our goal to effectively communicate to you what’s happening in Israel and why it matters and to explain and analyze events with a Biblical perspective and worldview…”
“In addition to news and analysis, ALL ISRAEL NEWS also serves as an online platform to educate Christians around the word about Israel and Biblical truths…. ALL ISRAEL NEWS is managed by Israeli Messianic Jewish believers and endeavors to report what God is doing in Israel today, particularly among the Messianic/Christian community in Israel and the international community as it relates to Israel.”
The Board of Directors bios are enlightening as well, especially that of co-founder and CEO Joel Rosenberg. So are those of the Advisory Board, which includes Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum (remember him?).
pjay:
Of course I remember Santorum. So does Dan Savage.
Santorum is frothy!
Christians who put the nation of Israel above their relationship with Jesus are in violation of one of the Ten Commandments:
“Thou shall have no other gods before me”
Exodus 2:3
Or what of love your neighbour as yourself? And also, the point of the crucifixion wasn’t to take that as an example and do it to others.
So then this is a Christian Zionist outlet.
” Messianic Jewish” believer means a Jewish convert to Christianity who wants to keep the benefits ( real or imagined or felt) of Jewish ethniculture). They also hope to be a Trojan Horse for converting all the Jews to Christianity using their legacy traces of Jewish ethniculture as cover and bait.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messianic_Judaism
The author does manage to ironically get to the real reason, since the following was aimed not at Israel, but at Hamas –
“…the absurdity of thinking that anyone would side with cold-blooded murderers and rapists.”
Part of the loss of sympathy among rising numbers of Normals is that the Leftish Wingish Israel which was ready to give in to Two State Solutionism reached its high-water mark with the Oslo Accords and once the Israeli Right assassinated Rabin in order to assassinate the Accords, the Right and Fascist Right has been moving Israel more and more rightward and getting visibly nastier and nastier.
And in America-specific terms, those Normal Americans who have begun to fear and loathe the National Christianists, the Gileadists and the ArmaRapturists are noticing that the Judean Fascistan of today is their special pet, and so they begin to fear and loathe it too as an extension of America’s own National Christianist Great Cultural Revolutionaries. In essence, Judea has laid down with dogs and it is getting up with fleas. Or maybe . . . it has laid down with pigs and it is getting up with swine flu.
Some unhappy notes on the happiness measurement
The World Happiness Report Is a Sham
A case study in elite misinformation.
https://yaschamounk.substack.com/p/the-world-happiness-report-is-a-sham
Thanks for that link. That survey always did seem a bit iffy to me like the one listing the best cities in the world to live in. Like how can Finland be the happiest country in the world when they suffer from an induced case of Russia Derangement Syndrome? I would have thought that the happiest country would be a Latin one as a guess.
I guess Being brainwashed and high on you own hypocritical moral supply does give you a feeling of greatness. It takes a certain level of stupidity to achieve the levels of PDS/TDS now found in the Scandinavian countries. Stupid people don’t care about facts and can live happy.
My partner runs a record store for the last 25 years. It’s a local gem basically. And out of all the many international people that come and love the place, the only person I remember ever turning their nose up (and pointedly so) was a Finnish guy. Outlier?
(writing as a half Finn…)
two possibilities –
one there are annoying/irritating/rude people in every culture. so it could be that. or
two – the Finnish trait for honesty, straightforward, direct talk,, and to the point. Small talk not welcome. This can come across as blunt or even rude.
the small talk and quietness one leads to one of my fave “you know you’ve been in Finland too long ” jokes…
You know you’ve been in Finland too long when…
… you can sit in silence with a stranger for an hour and… feel comfortable.
writing as someone that is half Finnish with close family still over there (all my cousins are Finnish), and with family history going back into Karelia.
There are two things here at play.
happiness –
Finland has great social systems. culturally a strong sense of fairness and equality.
there is no gender in the language – no word for he or she. you use the word hän and if gender is important infer from context. Finnish women got the vote second after New Zealand.
or the way speeding fines are calculated based on daily disposable income rather than a fixed rate
121,000 euro fine
Or Great access to the outdoors and a culture that celebrates nature, forests.
e.g. with “everymans right” – Jokaisenoikeudet
Jokaisenoikeudet
The law allows anyone living in or visiting Finland the freedom to roam the countryside, forage, fish with a line and rod. So this isnt just a cultural norm, this is baked into the law.
and the country is very sparsely populated (similar to NZ). I haven’t found peace and quiet like it in any other country.
or holiday behaviour – used to be the norm (not sure now) to save holiday and disappear for 4 weeks in August to the summer house. Back to nature, grilling, sauna, fishing, beer. Wonderful. and totally normal. Go to helsinki in summer and the place was empty of Finns.
Or School is much more driven by childrens learning needs than a factory system.
Russia derangement. :( this is a sad situation and I strongly believe a mistake. Don’t believe all you see in the press. The finns that I know see both sides of this.
however… historically Finland is a young country – independence from Russia was in 1917. so you could say it manage to get out of the story/history that was the USSR during that revolutionary year.
Prior to that it was a buffer state between Russia and Sweden, before that the history is linked to Sweden (hence two official languages of swedish and finnish).
Throw in the WW2 winter war fighting between Russia and Finland… and temporary occupation of parts of Russia (the part of Karelia now in Russia from memory) and you can see how their history is strongly intertwined with Russia.
and you can also imagine how their experience since WW2 is experienced differently to other european nations. They had the longest european border with the USSR. they were heavily politically influenced by Russia. they managed decades of keeping that delicate balance and have… thrown it away with this foolish NATO entry.
US has a plan to improve its place by wrecking those above.
If theres one thing ive learned from reading the comments here its that surveys are often poorly done and dont accurately measure what theyre trying to measure. Shoutout terry for continuously bringing that up.
re: Germany profitting of US braindrain?
German-Foreign-Policy-Blog:
Brain circulation
Berlin is seeking to bring scientists from the US to Germany who are being dismissed en masse by the Trump administration. At the same time, complaints about restricted academic freedom are growing in Germany.
https://archive.is/bWuv3
Operation Pilcrepap (“Paperclip” in reverse) ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Aim_at_the_Stars
“Germany’s Annalena Baerbock set for top UN job”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1UtRnGn5hc (46 secs)
Alex Christoforou now has plenty of Clown World material for the coming year.
She appears to be a person looking for positions that can provide her with money and prestige, such positions often also comes with power but there are a few positions where the power over many is very limited.
Placing her in an UN-job in New York will surely meet her criteria for money and prestige but possibly it does not come with much power over many. Might seem costly to have ceremonial jobs to place people whose only skill is attaining high positions that provides money and prestige but the alternative is that those people will instead manage to get into positions where they also have power over many and they can’t/won’t use the power for the benefit of the many.
That is one of the reasons why I am against EU-institutions (the European Parliament especially) having more power. It used to be a great place to put the money and prestige-seeking incompetents, away from important decisions and having them there reduced the damaging internal conflicts for their positions.
Take UVdL for instance. Make Ursula queen of Europe but reduce her powers to be mostly (preferably only) ceremonial powers, it might seem costly to do so but the cost of having her influence the lives of hundreds of millions of people is in my opinion considerably higher.
>Can Public Opinion Help Stop Donald Trump? Left Notes
There’s a reason why even authoritarian leaders fear public opinion and invest so much in trying to shape and control it.
They don’t “fear” it, because their “investment” pays huge dividends. They shape opinion and control it since time immemorial, no mass modern society can exist without propaganda, as Jacques Ellul has pointed out so cogently.
No, “public opinion” amounts to nothing unless it coalesces into something else, something with a structure, with leaders and an enduring organization. Just read, Gustav LeBon, Gaetano Mosca, Pareto and Michels, a tightly knit minority, whether in a democracy, communist, or dictatorial regime will always wield control, though as Aristotle in his Politics, there is a natural cycles by which a political structure changes, e.g., demos to mob rule, aristocracy to oligarch, king/monarch to dictator/tyrant.
Thank you, Zaganostra – this has been the element most missing in all criticisms of the current “phase”. It is easy to carp and be counted in a poll, hard to build that which could be a benefit to the population, harder still to keep such benefits flowing without grift and sabotage. Such are shortcuts to heaven for opportunists, I suppose.
Is it a little late to realize the limits upon our expression and activity that is present in propaganda and spying, or can something organically arise to suddenly upend this situation and “save the people”? Often asked, this question leaves the question of “something with structure…an enduring organization” out in the cold, and does not address the nascent controlling regime within the opposition, nor its prevention. Our paradox…
Well, in the spirit of Global Guerillas, can free-lance self-organized bunches of members of the public try doing their own open-source propaganda? Publiganda, if you will?
Is it worth giving it a try?
Antidote du jour
WTF, is that CGI? If not I’ll have to revisit some of those yarns spun by sailors of old.
You mean that Antidote du jour does not look like a cat at all, or that loose skin and blubber make it look like it has hips and knees?
Indeed, looks like a man swallowed by a dolphin. Oddly poetic.
About that image and what those “knees” really are:
https://mashable.com/article/beluga-whale-legs-illusion-image
Thanks so much, I still like the mermaid (not gender specific) illusion.
RE: The likely cause of dwindling sympathies for Israel All Israel News. Not what you might expect.
Thank you for this healthful dose of sardonics! It is more than just amusing to read of a “philosophy which has bitterly divided humanity and one which, if left unchecked, will destroy our modern civilization, because it is dependent upon a vicious rivalry where nothing is off limits when it comes to destroying each other.”
Indeed. Just look at those darn Amakelites! Let’s never forget that Israelis “strive to hold ourselves to high moral standards, based on the Ten Commandments and the code of ethics which come from our scriptures, urging us to love our fellow man as ourselves. These are the values which have spurred us on to render assistance to so many populations in their time of need.”
Those may well be values of a large part of Diaspora Jewery. They may well be legacy values of the dwindling number of secular-descended Jewisraelis who are leaving Israel to save some semblance of their values and culture.
They are certainly not the values of today’s Judeastan. Reference to those values by a Judeastani is something like phantom pain remembered from a long-ago amputated limb.
I looked in vain for any mention of systematic extermination of Palestinians in Gaza, or starvation as a weapon of war. It’s as though there are some things Israelis can’t look at directly, like trying to stare at the sun.
There have even been a lot of Jews abandoning support for Israel. Surely that isn’t out of love for Hamas and their murderous and unprovoked attacks, as the author professes to believe.
re: crisis of German steel-industry endangers 55k jobs
Steel crisis in Duisburg threatens 55,000 jobs across Germany
https://archive.is/tId0t
The original study referenced by the article was written by the government-affiliated IW in Cologne
https://www.iwkoeln.de/studien/tillman-hoenig-benita-zink-die-stahlindustrie-in-duisburg-bedeutung-und-perspektiven.html
see pdf
excerpt from rather long abstract:
“(…)
Future scenarios for the steel industry in Duisburg
The steel industry in Germany, and especially in Duisburg, is facing significant challenges. High energy prices, a shortage of skilled workers, and bureaucratic hurdles are impairing competitiveness. The transformation to climate-neutral steel production requires massive investments, as the switch to hydrogen-based production is associated with significantly higher costs. These developments are also reflected in employment trends:
Since 2019, the number of employees in the German steel industry has fallen by 7.9 percent, and in Duisburg by as much as 10.5 percent. Current developments at large companies illustrate these trends: thyssenkrupp AG plans to further cut 5,000 jobs and outsource 6,000 jobs, while with 3,000 jobs in steel and an additional 1,500 jobs in related services, the Krupp Mannesmann steelworks could even face closure in the worst-case scenario.
Due to the rejection of subsidies for the electric arc furnaces for HKM and ArcelorMittal, further job losses cannot be ruled out.
Against this background, the study examines five scenarios that analyze varying degrees of employment decline in the Duisburg steel industry.
Even in the baseline scenario, which assumes a decline of 1,000 jobs, the total estimated losses for Germany, including indirect and induced effects, are €1.5 billion in production, €0.5 billion in GDP, and 5,000 jobs.
In the “worst-case” scenario, the elimination of 11,000 jobs in the Duisburg steel industry, the following effects occur:
A decline in employment in the Duisburg steel industry by 11,000 employees and the associated reduction in production capacity would lead to total estimated losses of €16.4 billion in production, €5.6 billion in GDP, and almost 55,000 jobs in Germany.
Of this, €1.1 billion of GDP is directly attributable to Duisburg’s steel industry, a further €850 million of GDP is attributable to the upstream value chain, and €3.7 billion of GDP is attributable to the downstream value chain.
The effect is therefore particularly large in the downstream value chain. In addition to the broader steel industry, the automotive industry suffers the largest GDP loss in Germany, followed by construction and mechanical engineering.
Approximately a quarter of the total effect is attributable to Duisburg. In the city, the decline results in a loss of €4.6 billion in production value, €1.3 billion in GDP, and a good 13,000 jobs. In addition to the direct effects, this overall regional effect also takes into account indirect and downstream effects.
Relatively speaking, Duisburg is the most affected. The decline in employment would lead to a 6.2 percent decline in the city’s GDP, while the decline in North Rhine-Westphalia and Germany would be only 0.1 percent.
The decline in steel employment in Duisburg, due to missing tax payments by the Duisburg steel industry and its upstream and downstream value chain, leads to a Germany-wide annual loss of €773 million in tax revenue. This loss is distributed among Duisburg (€30 million), the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (€132 million), other municipalities and federal states (€296 million), and the federal government (€315 million). The largest share of this decline, €420 million, is attributable to wage tax revenue.
(…)”
If the German government does not want to save the German steel industry, it makes you wonder what they are going to use to build the fleets of tanks and other military vehicles that they are planning on building. Aluminium perhaps?
I can only assume this being IW that it´s providing the future arguments to “save” German steel to build tanks and artillery. And if “green” steel won´t work out – because it´s not solved yet – and therefore GREENs gonna resist, they can wave around with 55k-job warning signs and invoke “the greater good” to shut the GREENS up (and the “LEFT” and the AfD for that matter).
Which – we all know – is what will happen.
Merz eyeing 2029 elections.
It is not coincidence this study came out now.
And then this bitch is parading around before she will pollute UN HQ…unbelievable.
The green steel project in Sweden is controlled by the same people who controlled Northvolt (one of the largest bankruptcies in Sweden):
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/northvolt-bankruptcy-strikes-blow-swedens-northern-boom-town-2025-03-12/
https://www.vargasholding.com/our-companies
https://www.vargasholding.com/our-companies/northvolt
https://www.vargasholding.com/our-companies/stegra
Some people made small fortunes out of Northvolt even though not many batteries were produced.
Stegra, their green steel company, may or may not do better.
Iron and steel making are producing a lot more iron and steel now per employee than they did in the past, I wouldn’t expect many jobs to be ‘created’ by changing over to ‘green’ production.
But it seems that while government money can be put into ‘green’ projects if the money are seen as subsidies instead of investment. Subsidy or investment has the same wider economic upsides/downsides/effects but the key difference is that if the money were invested then there would be a chance of an upside due to the investment being successful but subsidy money does not have that upside.
I originally came from a steel/iron town so I know there is at least one benefit from ‘green’ steel – the local air quality. That being said I am not entirely convinced, possibly as I have not seen the numbers, that ‘green’ steel has less damaging environmental impact than regular steel.
I see.
I only remember that ThyssenKrupps´s CEO in late 2024 voiced serious doubts over going green. If it was mainly about the high cost or also solving the technological part I cannot judge.
Steel production is ~7% of global carbon emissions. Swapping out coal-based steel production for blue/green hydrogen and/or renewable/hydrogen powered electric arc furnaces makes economic sense over the long haul, approaching parity with coal-fired steel as it scales. If you care about climate change at all, it already makes sense at current Euro carbon market prices.
The problem here, as with so much of a world driven by strip-mining the economy for short-term profit instead of building for a long-term future, is that Germany is about to back off of investing in a viable next-generation steel industry.
I believe your numbers.
My concern about how ‘green’ it is relates more to what renewables are replacing:
-if the renewables, electricity generating, are replacing coal-powered electricity generation then it is one thing and I believe it is most certainly it is ‘green’
-if the renewables, electricity generating, are replacing coal-powered heat-generation (iron/steel production) then it is another thing and I am not so sure
Possibly both are worthwhile, as is I believe it might at least in certain circumstances be better to start by replacing the coal-powered electricity generation before going for ‘green’ steel
Germany still have coal-powered electricity generation so going for ‘green’ steel now might not be as ‘green’ as the subsidy-hungry ‘entrepreneurs’ are claiming.
p.s. There is of course already tomorrow´s decision about the budget by BUNDESRAT.
Which, alas, AfD and BSW cannot block.
Bundesrat (the states are represented in this 2nd chamber of the house) has 69 votes.
A “yes” needs 46.
CDU, SPD, GREENS have 41.
Bavaria with CSU and minority party FREIE WÄHLER 6 votes. If Bavaria agrees it´s done. The only party that simulates reluctance is FREIE WÄHLER, which is a more rural, small rightwing version of CSU.
But over stories such as saving German steel they cannot say no.
(I wouldn´t argue that it´s being used in that way. But eventually it all does however fall in place not by accident and not without manipulation of opinions, naturellement.)
Additionally AfD has filed another lawsuit with the Constitutional Court.
All these attemtps will fail.
It takes roughly 8 kWh of electricity to smelt a single pound of aluminum ingot. Germany can’t afford to make aluminum at scale, even if they had enough electricity to do it.
As usual in Germany, I assume the people in the industry know all these problems. But nobody listens to them.
They will fill all the gaps with horses, just like in previous two WWs. No steel or aluminium needed, and full green certification as long as you feed them low-fart diet.
Bad news, is that Ruskies are already one step ahead, having deployed a few equines for transport purposes in wooded areas (though no cataphracts yet).
The return of the Cossacks! (Spelt with a ‘c’.)
>Trump 2.0
Well Trump quasi fulfilled one of his campaign promises and released JFK files yesterday and today the story didn’t even make it onto NC’s links (apologies if I missed it).
I think this is one of the best examples of how the “revelation of the method” works. All that remains are some smoldering embers on Twitter/X of how Israel and the CIA are somewhat implicated. Most of the revelations contained in the documents were already know by some, for the ones still clinging to the lone gunman, it will garner nothing more than a shrug.
So can public opinion help stop Trump, please…public opinion has become public spectacle no more enduring than cotton candy in your mouth.
This was actually in Links yesterday. But on your larger point, I’m afraid I have to agree. “Public opinion” has become such a chaotic mish-mash of facts, fables, and blatant falsehoods that most people don’t know what to believe. We have “former” government officials and Navy pilots talking about UFOs (sorry, UAPs) on television, complete with video, and that garners only shrugs. Mission accomplished. Any actual JFK revelations would probably probably garner shrugs from the majority as well. William Casey supposedly made the statement about knowing our propaganda is working when everything people believe is false. It is just as effective when the “information universe” is so muddled that no one knows what to believe or who to listen to. As you say, everything is spectacle. Some people choose a side and play along, as they would at a professional wrestling match. Most others just shrug.
Commenter JustAnotherVolunteer yesterday linked to a 569 page document of Miscellaneous Records from the 1975 Church Committee.
I did not read the The Church Committee’s final report, published in April 1976 in six books. Also published were seven volumes of Church Committee hearings in the Senate. I have probably heard the main parts of it through other news sources and books about the CIA and Kennedy assassination. These pages were considered too sensitive to release at that time and are stamped Top Secret. I wonder what was considered too sensitive to release at that time? I have been reading it a bit at a time and there is more detail about the Mafia’s involvement. Looking forward to more details in the next 500 pages I have left to read. It beats cat videos.
Well, whatever public opinion is driving the reduction in Tesla sales, it appears to be having a measurable impact on Tesla stock. If no such thing as public opinion even exists, then how do we explain the fall in Tesla stock to go along with the fall in Tesla sales?
And in a nation of 330 million people, 10 million people is a public. It is not the whole public, but it is a public.
“Trump suggests US could control Ukraine’s power plants in call with Zelenskyy”
These are not the ideas and words of a President that is planning on getting out of the Ukraine any time soon – if ever. The Rasputitsa has now got him. And when ‘Trump told Zelenskyy that the US could be “very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise” ‘ I had a laugh. Anybody remember when the US spent years and billions of dollars trying to get the Iraqi electrical grid back on line in the years following the invasion but it just never happened? There are a few factors that Trump is overlooking too. Like who is going to pay for it all? The Ukrainians? The EU? The UN? Certainly not him. But in any case, all the replacement equipment comes from only one place really – Russia. Either he has to make nice with Russia here or else he has to completely build a new electrical grid for the Ukraine costing untold billions. And the later is not a great idea as it will hook the Ukrainian grid up to the EU grid and look what happened to the Baltic States when that happened.
Trump is simply a clown with no filter. He’s on ayahuasca. Ignore his Tourette syndrome and you’ll find more peace.
The ZPP is in Zaphorizhe which is legally Russian territory. Putin would never give it up.
BTW, how’s that “raw earths” deal going? Seems to have slipped out of the headlines, hasn’t it?
Trump will go nucular when he realizes Putin has the raw earths in a vice grip.
What will Trump do when he realises Putin also already has the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in a vice grip? As it is in what Russia now considers to be Russian territory, no way it is ever going back to Ukraine.
There’s a link up there wrt the rare earth mineral deal. White House press sec. says that they’ve moved on from that now. I’m beginning to say “whatever” when I read stuff from them, and I’m not happy with that because it’s worth paying attention. Esp. to the DOGE bulldozer.
Thanks … I missed that one.
So, as Bill Clinton might say, Trump has “moved on” from raw earths in order to get back to work for the ‘merican peeple!
(We need a mash-up of G.W. Bush saying “nucular” and Trump saying “raw earths”, maybe along with that giant nuclear clown emoji that used to be popular a few years back.)
It’s slipped out of the news because Trump is waiting to find out whether Putin or Zelensky is going to give the US oligarchs a better deal. Either way the winning bidder gets control of the physical territory, but hands over control of the underlying resource base to Trump.
Nyet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzk6SoZxgPQ
Perhaps he thinks an American presence will somehow deter the Russians but on a practical level what American company (or taxpayer) is going to want to invest the huge sums needed to rebuild Ukraine’s system with its Soviet era equipment?
We keep hearing that Trump and his people are working for peace in private even as he keeps saying dumb things in public. Perhaps that should be reversed.
Doctorow has his take on the US talking control of Kiev’s nuclear plants and think it is a good idea that Russia would accept. He doesn’t talk about the rest of the system and the cost of restoring it.
https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2025/03/20/u-s-control-over-ukrainian-nuclear-power-plants/
Trump rejects one of Putin’s ceasefire demands, White House says Ukrainska Pravda. Intelligence sharing.
“Intelligence sharing in terms of defence for Ukraine will continue.”
Maybe the headline ought to read “Trump does not rule out ending financial and weapons support to Ukraine”?
No word from Trump on weather the US will continue to provide weapons and financial support as Russia demanded that too, be ended. Sooner or later the funds appropriated to Ukraine will run out. Although the Govmit can always add zeros after and other digit and make invent reasons why the well never runs dry, of course, and clueless MSM can eagerly provide the narrative to keep the public dumb.
Regarding yesterday’s discussion on New-Not-So-Cold-War.
I feel my main point was missed. It is: Russia is not prosecuting the war to a greater extent that she might, and far short of her greatest extent. Thus she remains stuck fighting it. This is why she will not get Odessa. However, IMO she most certainly could have Odessa but only if she prosecutes the war to as if she wants to win it.
Russia will have control over Odessa, either by including it within the “buffer-zone,” or directly. The exact form of this control has yet to be determined, and surely will be shaped by the actions of the west: Odessa will never be allowed to become a NATO port– never.
The Russians are managing the SMO at a deliberate pace: (Russian) casualties are at low or acceptable levels, they have no need for general mobilization or conscription, and thus, the government’s prosecution of the conflict still retains strong public support. How would you improve on the successes that Russia has enjoyed?
By sending much more Russians to the meatgrinder, what else? That is the staple of all the smarter-than-Rooskies western armchair generals. They also know how Novak Djokovic could have been better at tennis.
‘Intelligence sharing in terms of defence for Ukraine will continue.’
Another data point to show that Trump has no intention of walking away from the Ukraine but is now committing himself to that country which will act as an albatross around his neck for the rest of his Presidency. Does he think that he can turn around the whole situation and turn it into a win which will earn him the gratitude of people like Lindsay Graham? Why is he even doing this? So when he says that he wants the killing to stop, what I think he means is to freeze the front so that the Ukraine does not collapse. But I do not think that the Russians have any intention for signing up to a Minsk-3. They have lost too much blood and treasure to just throw it all away and only to have to do it all over again in a few short years.
So perhaps this is Trump’s ” LBJ choice”? His Vietnam? In which case, I wonder what “new Nixon” will follow Trump?
On the other hand, all this talk of “Ukraine” could be flooding the zone with bright shiny tinkertoys for the intellectuals to play with while the serious work of controlled demolition of government continues and the work of sifting through the rubble of demolished government for monetizable privatisable pieces and objects begins.
An interesting contrast with the article on New York a couple of days ago. In many ways, South Korea is the canary in the coalmine for advanced countries – it seems to be ahead of the game for every long term trend, positive and negative, especially in terms of demographics.
Seoul is a good example of how a city can become so dominant, it continues to attract people and investment, despite what would appear to be multiple disadvantages – its within artillery range of a somewhat unpredictable neighbour, it lacks many amenities (no nice beaches or easy to access wild areas), its generally (with some exceptions) not all that nice in urban terms – and yet it continues to grow and thrive.
Busan is in many ways a much nicer city. It avoided the attentions of the USAF, so it still has some characterful historic urban areas. It has some nice beaches, great mountains, and its not hard to get to wild and beautiful areas by bike or public transport. Some of its industries are world leaders, especially in ship construction. And its even just a short ferry hop from Japan and Jeju Island. Its property is generally a lot cheaper than Seoul (although the Korean property market is in a huge bubble). And it still can’t hold on to its young people and seems likely to go into rapid decline. The smaller Korean cities are in even bigger trouble. One can only speculate what will happen when the Korean real estate bubble pops, which it surely must as its running out of people to buy or rent.
Got Measles?
FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – A second case of measles has been confirmed in Fresno County and health officials are seeking individuals who may have come in contact with the infected person after he visited a grocery store in Clovis.
According to the Fresno County Department of Public Health (FCDPH), the person infected with measles was unvaccinated and is linked to the first case of measles reported earlier this month.
The FCDPH says the risk to the general public is low thanks to childhood routine MMR vaccines, the man did visit a WinCo Foods store in Clovis.
Officials ask anyone who has visited the WinCo Foods at 396 W. Ashlan Ave on Thursday, March 13 from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. to take an online survey. Health officials say the confidential survey will help investigators assess potential exposure and health status.
https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/local-news/fresno-county-measles-case-2/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WinCo in Visalia is where I shop and there is often a line of 5 to 6 people at checkouts-as its a great supermarket and popular.
Clovis is cheek by jowl next to Fresno, and has been really handy for residents, as it doesn’t have the stigma of being from the 5th largest city in the state.
Surely Conor Gallagher is presenting an inadvertent treasure hunt of error.
I refer to Cookie Schwaeber-Issan’s immortal swamp of moral relativism, The Likely Cause for Dwindling Sympathies for Israel.”
It isn’t genocide. It isn’t that the “West” has now had its nose rubbed in dirty Israeli politics, the unsavory right wing with types named Smotrich, or the endless lying propaganda. It isn’t that Israel is using the U S of A as a cat’s paw. It isn’t the use by the U.K. of those “extraterratorial” bases in Cyprus to inflate its tottering empire.
No. It is wokeness. It is “catapulting Hamas … even to a revered status.”
Yet by her own definition of woke, Cookie is hoist on her own petard: “the demand to be inclusive of others who exhibit deviate behavior, treating it as equally acceptable, the high importance of creating equitable situations for all, despite the impossibility of everyone being endowed identically”
Deviant behavior like propaganda, corruption, brutalizing occupied populations, and making God one’s real-estate broker?
Keep in mind that one of the most remarkably consistent things about rightwing authoritarianism is the kitsch and the vulgarity. Note the point at which Cookie starts talking about light among the nations.
Unfortunately, Cookie, someone is standing in the Palestinians’ light.
Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has a first class mind and is indefatigable.
Here she is interviewed by British Channel Four’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy. Brace yourself for his combativeness.
https://www.youtube.com/live/DvoY66qwWCY
thanks.
At least Channel 4 has her.
In Germany NO WAY.
She speaks of 50k killed.
What´s about the doctors and Lancet who first estimated 500k, later less?
I am just wondering for the sake of argument and accuracy of records.
Or is she choosing those numbers because only the corpses found – so far – are regarded as “proof”.
You get the feeling that Elon is in a world of hurt as far as Tesla stock plunging, why else would this happen, pleading with Muskatears on Fox to come through?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick drew sharp criticism Wednesday after urging Fox News viewers to buy shares in Tesla, the electric vehicle company owned by Elon Musk.
Talking to Fox’s Jesse Watters, Lutnick impassionedly pitched: “I think if you want to learn something on this show tonight, buy Tesla. It’s unbelievable that this guy’s stock is this cheap. It’ll never be this cheap again.”
Lutnick later hyped the technological advancements being made by Musk, the world’s richest person, and his company.
“When people understand the things he’s building, the robots he’s building, the technology he’s building, people are going to be dreaming of today and Jesse Watters and thinking, ‘Gosh, I should have bought Elon Musk’s stock,’” said Lutnick. “I mean, who wouldn’t invest in Elon Musk? You gotta be kidding me.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/howard-lutnick-fox-news-elon-musk_n_67dbbe4ee4b06974a39c87be
I think that I would rather invest in BYD which can come up with EVs that recharge in under 5 minutes and cost only about twenty grand. That is the future. Musk’s Teslas seem to be driving towards a dead end.
There’s always a catch though. In order to recharge in 5 minutes, these BYD EVs require chargers that operate at near industrial level capacity. From the article:
The high-capacity charging network required for five-minute charging doesn’t exist here…or even in China:
The fastest DC Chargers in the U.S. are 500kW and estimates are that there are only a few hundred of those in operation.
While a network of 1,000 kW charging stations would indeed unlock the potential of BYD’s five-minute recharging claim, the U.S. has a ways to go to get there.
I’d like to know how much battery life is lost by megawatt charging. Maybe I’m an ICE stan, as a well-built engine can keep going for decades, but these rare earth batteries have a limited lifespan from day one and IIRC the faster they charge the shorter the lifespan is, and the sooner some new desert hill has to be dug up to replace it.
Why not Wuling? They have an EV for $8.000 …..
Lutnick has some ‘unbelievable’ brass to suggest TSLA is ‘cheap’. It is still at a very balloonish price to earnings ratio of 161. This says a great deal about Mr. Lutnick’s intelligence and ethics.
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/TSLA/tesla/pe-ratio
Yeah, TSLA has been all hype for a long time now, but focusing on whether it’s ‘cheap’ or not distracts from the main issue, a Cabinet Secretary touting a stock, one with a clear and obvious conflict of interest at that. A ‘nation of laws’, what a joke.
Well, that’s what happens when the Norms Fairy leaves the building and the Anything Goes Fairy walks out onto the field.
Law is now a joke, if you are rich enough to have permission to treat it that way.
On a lighter, well, darker note than my comment about dear religiously addled Cookie S-I:
Dark Energy: Mysterious Cosmic Force Weakening.
Well, sez I to myself, if you can’t count on dark energy, what can you count on?
The article quotes several scientists who admit that the data are preliminary yet tantalizing.
The result would be a big crunch, rather than heat death and the big whimper.
This indicates an endless cycle of expansions and contractions, big bangs and big crunches, which has been foreseen in more than on philosophy. I was reminded of Epicurus, the early atomists, Herakleitos (and pantá rhei), and the masterpiece of Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe. Indeed, this idea of history as a cycle is more satisfying, even if the arrow of time is handy and vivid.
Worth a read.
One for the cosmologists –
Perlmutter and Schmidt earned bonanza
For proving accelerating expand-a
But Einstein’s “biggest mistake”
Will now put on the brakes
Saul, give it back – we’ve got negative Λ
file under Syraqistan: The Mizrahi are replacing the Ashkenasi in govt, bringing a different force into play.
From Alastair Crooke
The Kingdom of Judea vs. The State of Israel
A geo-political reading of Israel’s incipient civil war
https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/03/17/kingdom-of-judea-vs-state-of-israel/
The Mizrahi won’t be able to replace the Ashkenasi in the military though. They are still needed there to bomb defenseless civilians and apartment buildings.
In crudest terms the Ashkenazraelis broke down into secularist Ashkesabras and Religionist-Nationalist Ashkelikudists.
Menahem Begin was excluded from the center of Ashkesabra political power by the same Ashkesabra elites who excluded and disrespected the Mizrahis. Menahem Begin won the Prime Ministership by running his own sort of Trump-concept campaign of ” I am your retribution” to get them to vote their vengeance against the Ashkesabra elites. They identified with him because they could see that his enemies were their enemies also.
The Mizrahis fully support the politics of bombing defenseless civilians and apartment buildings even if it is technically-speaking Ashkenazis who carry it out. As soon as the Mizrahis succeed the Ashkenazis into all those military positions, they themselves will do the bombing.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, one of the “two bad boys” of Israel’s farthest right is, himself, Mizrahi. ( He was a fervent welcomer and applauder of the Rabin assassination).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itamar_Ben-Gvir
Rabin: I remember that.
Many leftists dismissed the Oslo Accords as a clever trick. Some respectable intellectuals like Edward Said also feared it was a delay and diversion tactic. And maybe they were right.
But I notice that Netanyahu and the Likudians thought that the Oslo Accords were real and not-fake and not-a-trick; and that their ultimate purpose was the Two State Solution.
Net and the Liks were afraid enough of that to where they felt that assassinating Rabin was worth doing, just to make sure no Two State Solution would ever happen.
Jeff Wells at Rigorous Intuition 2.0 wrote a post about that .
https://rigint.blogspot.com/2006/07/violent-bear-it-away.html
( Jeff Wells also took that occasion to note how gatekeeper Leftists like Noam Chomsky
try to dismiss JFK as just an imperialist anyway, so it doesn’t even matter who shot JFK.)
‘Yashar Ali 🐘
@yashar
BREAKING
Columbia University is getting close to yielding to President Trump’s demands in negotiations to restore $400 million in federal funding.’
I got an idea. Using eminent domain the Trump regime could seize control over Columbia University – and then sell it to an Israeli corporation with links to the Israeli government and Israeli spooks. They would then absolutely enforce all those changes on that formerly private university. They would have ex-IDF patrolling the campus like they already try to do in the US and each classroom would have an ex-IDF goon to make sure that everybody stays on message. Dissent and protesting would be illegal and I am sure that the Trump regime would agree to make that campus a bill of rights free zone to enable all this to happen. Free speech and academic freedom? What’s that?
Columbia’s endowment fund is healthy. Seems like they could use that for a year or two. / ;)
https://endowment.giving.columbia.edu/endowment-performance-and-management/
that was my thought. If they had any integrity (academic freedom, freedom of speech, and all that). Tell the government to take a hike and tap your investments.
But I know what way it will go.
>U.S. Says Social Security Recipients Need to Visit Offices to Get Benefits as DOGE Closes Offices Nationwide
Oh brother, this will be chaos. Which is the intention.
Just wait until you need to bring a grandparent along, in order to start getting paid on your forced annuity.
Not both grandparents?
I had to talk down my brother on this one (we are both on SS).
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2025-03-19/social-security-administration-to-require-in-person-identity-checks-for-new-and-existing-recipients
The proposal is that proof of identity must be supplied in person if you want to change your direct deposit bank and this won’t be allowed over the phone. If you have a SS web account (and these, which are pre Trump, might themselves be considered a bit controversial) you can do it that way. The above says that only 47 offices in very small towns have been closed.
Of course any change at all might be considered the nose under the tent for a full assault on SS and also, of course, Musk should shut his pie hole and go back to his rockets. But the third rail is still the third rail IMO and Trump is unlikely to shaft his own base given the thin ice he’s on re the rest of the public. FWIW.
Musk can shaft Trump’s base faster than Trump can say ” Hey! Don’t do that!”
What is that silicon valley motto? Oh yes . . . ” Move fast and take things.”
Is it wrong to hope that everone outside the US in a project partnership using the Kitt Peak National Observatory throws a huge fit about DOGE cuts to the NSF?
Not that it matters. Financial compensation for defaulting doesn’t help researchers can pick up where they left off.
A less woke person would probably realize “they should stop stealing my tax dollars and pay for it themselves” or “more efficient for Arizona to handle it, give the power to the states ” or “I voted for this!”
“Trump agrees to help Ukraine find available Patriot air defense systems in Europe, White House says”
He said that he will look for them in Europe. What I think that he means is that the Europeans can give the Ukrainians what Patriot launchers and missiles that they have left to them for free. And then those very same countries can then buy more Patriot batteries and missiles to replace them with from him. When they get around to making them that is Nothing personal. Just business.
He will send DOGE to EU in order to improve efficency of search.
There is something tantamount to the entire population of the USA here in the guise of 350 million almond trees, and such enthusiastic supporters of Trump were the orchardists, that is until his stupid tariffs in his first term against China got retaliated on and the value of almonds dropped by 2/3rds, making them all non-profit businesses
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The big picture: Vidovich’s current issues are the latest in a line of major farming outfits in the San Joaquin Valley facing a financial beating over the past two years.
Stone fruit giant Prima Wawona filed for bankruptcy in October 2023 after transitioning from local ownership to private equity management.
Fellow private equity-owned almond farming enterprise, Trinitas Farming LLC, filed for bankruptcy. The large-scale almond grower posted $188 million in debt upon its filing.
In late 2024, Fresno’s Assemi family – once the largest growers of California pistachios and a one-time major supplier to the Wonderful Pistachios co-operative – began shopping its entire portfolio of farm properties, which included processing plants for its Touchstone Pistachios brand, and 52,000 acres of farm land sprawling across the Valley.
The Fresno farming family defaulted on $700 million in loans issued by Prudential Insurance Company and another $149 million in loans also issued by U.S. Bank.
https://sjvsun.com/ag/u-s-bank-sues-valley-water-titan-vidovich-over-105mil-loan-default/
“RFK, Jr. Wants to Let Bird Flu Spread on Poultry Farms. Why Experts Are Concerned”
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is pushing a new plan: let the virus rip. Hmmm. Let’r’rip. Didn’t they try that plan with another virus about five years ago? How did that work out? Are we at the level of herd immunity yet?
Problem is, the virus is already out in the wild. By culling herds in all, we just kill off the birds that might have immunity. Stamping out the virus is long past being possible. How to live with it is the question of the moment. And propagating the birds that survive it is the best bet now.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce8vp560n7vo
Starmer says cost of sickness benefits ‘devastating’
During the first Trump administration “Rolling Stone” published the results of an FOIA request sent to the White House Pharmacy which showed that they were prescribing a LOT of medications.
Adderal, Ambien and Xanax were the big 3, as I recall.
Last year the DEA seized two containers full of pure Coke in the same Month, 40,000 Lbs in the Baltimore seizure and 40,000 Lbs in Virginia iirc.
We know that many of the decision makers in the beltway have had Covid multiple times and I suspect that a lot of Policy decisions have been affected by both drug use and abuse and Covid induced brain damage.
It would certainly explain the prevalence of delusional thinking and insanely reckless behavior we are witnessing..
Is there a coherent book on “historical ranking of Presidents”? The Wiki page has Reagan & FDRoosevelt among the best, when their policy agenda was mostly opposite (Reagan reversed much of FDRoosevelt New Deal).
I would like to see a historian with a coherent humanitrian ideology, like social democracy, or ML King’s “anti triple-evil of economic exploitation, racism, & imperialism”. The historian should measure the Presidents by
1 did they share this humanitarian ideology
2 was the President effective/skilled/earnest/hard-working in actually implementing this ideology & thereby improving the situation for everyday people? It does seem possible for there to be a category of well-meaning social democratic politicians (Rep Ocasio Cortez as a possible example), that are skilled at campaigning, but are lazy or incompetent in actually achieving any concrete policy. In contrast Seattle City councilperson Kshama Sawant would be an example here, an earnest humanitrian who implemented the $15 min wage.
Does such a book exist? At least one that covers the FDRoosevelt to now era?
Anything about Israel reminds me of the book “Not by Power or Might – The Zionist Betrayal of Judaism” by Moshe Menuhin. I think the title says it all.
From yesterday’s NYTimes via Meryl Nass’s substack. wow….
Nonprofit’s Leader Convicted of Siphoning Off $240 Million in Federal Food Aid
https://merylnass.substack.com/p/so-you-think-the-biden-covid-era
“Germany to release 8bn in military aid for Ukraine: Source” in Links today.
“Europe Can Have Both a Welfare State and a Warfare State” – Ian Welsh today.
https://www.ianwelsh.net/europe-can-have-both-a-welfare-state-a-warfare-state/#respond
This is way outside the scope of my training and my former dayjob, so I’m noting this new study just out of a layperson’s curiosity: Children’s arithmetic skills do not transfer between applied and academic mathematics (open access). I have zero experience with designing and conducting studies involving human subjects, so perhaps those who know that business can comment.
Abstract:
Many children from low-income backgrounds worldwide fail to master school mathematics1; however, some children extensively use mental arithmetic outside school2,3. Here we surveyed children in Kolkata and Delhi, India, who work in markets (n = 1,436), to investigate whether maths skills acquired in real-world settings transfer to the classroom and vice versa. Nearly all these children used complex arithmetic calculations effectively at work. They were also proficient in solving hypothetical market maths problems and verbal maths problems that were anchored to concrete contexts. However, they were unable to solve arithmetic problems of equal or lesser complexity when presented in the abstract format typically used in school. The children’s performance in market maths problems was not explained by memorization, access to help, reduced stress with more familiar formats or high incentives for correct performance. By contrast, children with no market-selling experience (n = 471), enrolled in nearby schools, showed the opposite pattern. These children performed more accurately on simple abstract problems, but only 1% could correctly answer an applied market maths problem that more than one third of working children solved (β = 0.35, s.e.m. = 0.03; 95% confidence interval = 0.30–0.40, P < 0.001). School children used highly inefficient written calculations, could not combine different operations and arrived at answers too slowly to be useful in real-life or in higher maths. These findings highlight the importance of educational curricula that bridge the gap between intuitive and formal maths.
As soon as I read your post, this classic from The Onion rang a bell:
https://theonion.com/metric-system-thriving-in-nations-inner-cities-1819565900/
On a more serious note, the article you linked raises an interesting point re theoretical vs practical knowledge. I’m generally good at math whereas my wife is useless, and yet: she can do currency exchange rates in her head (and profit margins too) at blinding speed and perfect accuracy, whereas I get confused and invariably screw them up (despite my hoity-toity academic credentials).
Go figure. In education (as in Hollywood), nobody really knows what works and what doesn’t.
Catherine Austin Fitts talks about the history of the missing money. From Solari Report. ~7+ minutes
https://missingmoney.solari.com/
Proposed US port fees on China-built ships begin choking coal, agriculture export
Well this could be a godsend for USA climate action. Eliminating export coal mining (there will still be coal mining for domestic use) and the exporting of coal will more than meet the US targets for eliminating green house gasses in the world. That and the elimination of export crops would also result i huge reductions in air pollution from the fossil fuels used to grow them. Good timing too, planting hasn’t started yet.
And the huge reduction in pollution emanating from those coal/ag ports will be another plus. Who knew climate change denier Trump could actually reverse global warming with this single move.
Private Equity strikes again; this time they’re using a new trick, something called back floating rate loans.
Jimmy Dore, utube, ~43+ minutes.
Viral Video Predicts Wall St. To Collapse The Economy AGAIN! w/ Carol Roth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6tHJ58olkQ
The video’s comments section really take Dore to task for having this guest as an unbiased expert. Sounds like Dore’s audience has a better grasp of the PE situation than does Dore. Maybe his audience reads NC. / ;)
Maybe. / ;)
Not sure if this has been a problem for others. For the last couple of weeks, when I’m on an article or links page for NC, I’ve been occasionally redirected to some sort of malware looking site, with a fake McAfee popup claiming I have a virus. The URL is a bunch of random characters with a .sbs extension. It happens after 30 seconds to a few minutes, without interaction on my part.
I’m trying to reproduce it but it seems unpredictable. Possibly an issue with a rogue script doing XSS injection or something? I’ve experienced this on two different devices and browsers now, though it doesn’t seem to happen on mobile.
I’ll see if I can narrow down the culprit if it happens again, although it seems to be behaving for now (I cleared site data, so that might have helped).
I’m having the same issue.
Metaphor update:
State Dept says Ceasefire just a “breath away”
Abandoning the gridiron metaphors, now we’re “just a breath away!” from a ceasefire in Ukraine, according to the Trump State Department. Why do I get a strong sense of deja vu? Wasn’t there this Antony Blinken guy who used similar language around Gaza? Are we sure Antony isn’t moonlighting for the State Department?
The lies grow bigger …
Every Deal You Fake
(Sung to the tune of, “Every Breath You Take” by the Police)
Every deal you fake
Every move you make
Every vow you break
Every claim you forsake
I’ll be laughing at you
Every single day
Every lie you say
Every game you play
Every deal you betray … I’ll be watching you
The whole world sees … a Greek tragedy
Cause your ceasefire’s fake
There’s more honor in snakes!
Every move you make
Every vow you break
Every deal you forsake
Every claim you stake
I’ll be laughing at you
Since Joe’s gone, sanity’s lost without a trace …
We’ve gone from a zombie prez to a nutcase
I look around for a chimp to hold the [nucular] suitcase
I feel so cold and I long for past disgrace
You need more Add-er-all-n-Xanax, please!
The whole world sees … a Greek tragedy
Cause your ceasefires are fake
There’s more honor in snakes!
Every move you make
Every vow you break
Gonna spend my days watching stiffs decay in the Gaza Strip
Gonna spend my days watching stiffs decay in the Kursk Oblast
Tragicomedy … Every lie you say, every single day, every game you play … Tragicomedy …
Every dumb mistake, every deal you fake, every pill you take … Tragicomedy (repeat, fade)
Novara Media, live 03/20/25, interviews with Knesset members who cling to the Trump plan for Gaza:
Netanyahu Wants a War in the West Bank