Scientists Just Discovered an RNA That Repairs DNA Damage – And It’s a Game-Changer SciTech Daily (Chuck L)
Alzheimer’s May Develop Differently in Women MedPage. Note that HRT, started early enough, is neuroprotective. In general, HRT gets an unwarranted bad rap. Women who start HRT comparatively early have lower all cause mortality than women who don’t. See here for details.
COVID-19/Pandemics
We’re losing decades of our life to this illness’: long Covid patients on the fear of being forgotten Guardian (Kevin W)
RFK Jr. tells parents to consider MMR vaccine amid outbreak The Hill
Climate/Environment
This ancient bit of ingenuity keeps carbon trapped for thousands of years Grist
Italy to reintroduce nuclear power by 2030 EurActiv
You may read that a new study says the AMOC will not collapse. Not true. The wind-driven currents will remain but the thermohaline currents may collapse in 20~30 years. It doesn't contradict what other "collapse" studies say & the authors agree.https://t.co/p5d0i9slst
— Dan Miller (@danmiller999) February 27, 2025
Since 1900, we've lost 75% of our global food crop varieties—the most rapid extinction of agricultural genetics in human history
Meanwhile, the US lost 93% of vegetable varieties between 1903-1983
This is one the greatest threats to agriculture and is rarely talked about 🧵 pic.twitter.com/jhcIADwZa5
— Sam Knowlton (@samdknowlton) February 28, 2025
China?
Beijing sees red over Marco Rubio’s comments on Taiwan and tariffs South China Morning Post (guurst)
Chinese factories see improved orders as importers rush to beat tariffs Independent
Afghanistan refutes Trump’s claims about Chinese presence in Bagram Airfield Global Times
Koreas
N. Korea warns of boosting nuclear deterrence after US aircraft carrier arrives in South Anadolu Agency
South Korea says nuclear weapons are ‘not off the table’ The Times
India
Modi’s developed nation dream has no basis in reality Asia Times (Kevin W)
European Disunion
European defence stocks soar as arms makers expect orders boom Guardian (Kevin W)
Report Your Family For Wrong Think, Says German Government Initiative Reclaim the Net (Micael T)
Can Germany Revive Its Industry Without Cheap Energy? OilPrice. See Kevin Kirk’s comparative energy costs chart from his inaugural Coffee Break for a quick answer.
Romanian far-right supporters hold protest rally ahead of election re-run France4
Norway rethinks €1.7 trillion sovereign fund to boost support for Ukraine EurActiv (Micael T)
State-owned Lernia is being sold off to German venture capitalists Aftonbladet via machine translation (Micael T)
Old Blighty
Meet the Zoomer Doomers: Britain’s secret right-wing movement Spectator
Israel v. The Resistance
Gaza ceasefire in peril as Israel and Hamas hit impasse BBC
‘No Other Land’: Palestinian-Israeli film’s Oscar win sparks outrage in Israel Middle East Eye (Kevin W)
Israel mulls extending service for reserve troops as renewed war looms YNet
UK government funds pro-genocide University Jewish Chaplaincy Electronic Initifada (Robin K). From late February, still germane.
I heard from my friend yesterday, a Palestinian detainee freed just a few days ago:
The officer was Emirati and was torturing and abusing him every 10 mins and urinating over his face.
He told him, “I am Emirati. How dare you attacked our brothers in Israel?”
— Abubaker Abed (@AbubakerAbedW) March 1, 2025
Israel’s Criminal Starvation of Gaza Daniel Larison
New Not-So-Cold War
From Politico’s morning European newsletter:
BREAKING OVERNIGHT — WHITE HOUSE PAUSES UKRAINE MILITARY AID: President Donald Trump last night suspended all U.S. military aid to Ukraine. The move followed last Friday’s disastrous meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, where Trump and his Vice President JD Vance berated the Ukrainian president in front of the cameras. “We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution” to the war, a White House official told POLITICO’s Eli Stokols.
Scale of the U.S. U-turn: A U.S. defense official told Bloomberg that all U.S. military equipment not already in Ukraine — including weapons that are currently in transit — won’t be sent to the frontlines. And per Reuters, Trump is simultaneously moving forward with plans to drop economic sanctions on Russia before a peace deal is even struck.
What’s behind the move: Trump made clear in public comments Monday that the minerals deal Zelenskyy had traveled to Washington to sign remains on the table. The carrot and stick approach is about forcing Zelenskyy into a bigger negotiation to end the war with Russia, Eli writes.
Damage control: Just before reports trickled out about the White House’s move to cut aid, Zelenskyy said in a social media video posted that he wanted to “create conditions for proper diplomacy, for the soonest possible end to this war with a decent peace.” He also said Ukraine, Europe and America together “can ensure decades of peace.”
MEANWHILE, IN BRUSSELS — EU LEADERS PAUSE NEW AID PLAN: Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is set to debut her toolkit for boosting EU defense spending at 9:15 a.m. (more on that below). But the other big item on the agenda for the European Council summit — a huge new infusion of aid for Ukraine — is in doubt.
DON’T look for the EU to step up in a big new way to fill the void left by the U.S. as European leaders gather on Thursday
‘This is a catastrophe’: Ukraine reacts to US military aid pause BBC
EU Commission president unveils €800 billion EU rearmament and Ukraine support plan Ukrainska Prava. Help me. Money cannot magic weapons into existence.
Europeans move towards seizing €200bn of Russian assets Financial Times
8 Demands Trump Has Made Before Zelensky Can Return Babylon Bee
White House wants filmed apology from Zelensky – Fox RT (Kevin W)
Ukraine debacle signals the death of Atlanticism Asia Times. (Kevin W). Keep in mind “signals”. This was baked in with Trump/Vance posture on Ukraine. But in keeping with Trump’s love of dominance, attention, and drama, this break was shocking by having an encapsulating fracas on TV.
This summer I’m joining the Ukrainian military. Steffen Berr, Linkedin. Micael T: “A fascinating combination of Darwin Award candidacy and virtual signaling from a Dutch. Darwin – he will die for sure. Virtue signaling – in three months the fighting may well have stopped.”
Sergey Lavrov: “Over the past 500 years all tragedies in the world originated in Europe or occurred owing to European policies. The colonisation, wars, the Crusaders, the Crimean War, Napoleon, World War I, Hitler… The Americans played no seditious, let alone ‘inflammatory,’ role” International Affairs (Micael T). Lordie, Lavrov looks awfully eager to throw the US a bone. How about Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Overthrowing Mossadegh and Allende? Our support of Israel’s ethnic cleansing and now genocide? Our many other regime change operations…particularly Ukraine?
Trump’s America is No Friend – Russia Must Stay the Course Global Affairs (Micael T)
OSCE shared intel with Ukraine before 2022 – ex-Greek ambassador RT (Chuck L)
Imperial Collapse Watch
An Idiot’s Guide to War Russia Observer (guurst)
U.S. Cattle Inventory Smallest in 73 years Farm Bureau (Micael T)
Trump 2.0
Beijing Hits Back as U.S. Tariffs on China, Canada, Mexico Begin Wall Street Journal Live blog, which is unusual for the Journal. Archived version as of 4:30 AM EST.
Trump Escalates Global Trade War, Sparking Tit-for-Tat Tariffs Bloomberg
On CNBC, Rohit Chopra says we do need to rebalance trade, but asks why Trump is obsessed with Canada and giving loopholes to pharma? Also why hasn't Trump closed the de mimimis loophole?
Then the anchors attack right-winger Steven Moore. pic.twitter.com/JU5ievAXF9
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) March 3, 2025
Trump Escalates His War on Independent Regulatory Agencies Washington Monthly
‘Trump hasn’t done anything’: Shoppers’ hopes for inflation dashed The Times
US auto industry could be collateral damage in Trump’s trade wars Independent. We’ve covered before but bears repeating.
DOGE
The Trump Administration Said These Aid Programs Saved Lives. It Canceled Them Anyway. ProPublica (Robin K)
Big Consulting Bosses Meet With Trump Officials to Save Contracts Wall Street Journal. This would be funny except their special pleading to be saved from the wrath of DOGE might succeed.
Democrat Death Wish. “Democrats en déshabillé” looks too mild these days.
Playbook: Democrats in despair Politico. Chuck L: “I can only conclude that if the Dems don’t want small donors’ money they don’t want small donors’ votes either.”
New @playbookdc: Last month, a group of moderate Democratic consultants, campaign staffers, elected officials & party leaders gathered in Loudoun County, Virginia, for a retreat where they plotted their party’s comeback.
We got their takeaways. pic.twitter.com/lA1nVshriG
— Adam Wren (@adamwren) March 2, 2025
Democrats want Trump to confront the human toll of layoffs at address to Congress The Hill. And I want a pony. Trump has had, what, 8 years of being vilified? Think this will phase him an iota?
Our No Longer Free Press
The State Department Inflicted a Concussion upon Me Sam Husseini. !!!!
FBI Recruits Journalists and Attorneys as Informants Ken Klippenstein
Mr. Market is Moody
How big is the stock market’s America bubble? Financial Times
AI
Mindless Coping Wisdom of Crowds (Micael T)
Power Cut Ed Zitron. Important. You need to read in a bit to get to how this is pretty clearly AI (lack of) demand driven)
The Bezzle
El Salvador’s wild crypto experiment ends in failure Economist
‘Tangible desperation’: Critics’ withering reviews of Meghan Markle’s Netflix show as they mock ‘gormless lifestyle filler’ that shows her ‘joylessly filling party bags with seeds’ Daily Mail. She is rapidly becoming the Elizabeth Holmes of lifestyle brands.
Class Warfare
The Trump administration is waging an economic war on the poor and workers Economic Policy Institute
Antidote du jour (via):
And a bonus (Robin K):
— Danny C (@DannyC1111_DC) March 3, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
It starts to sound more like a Mafia bust-out, stripping every asset and turning it over to Musk and friends.
For some reason, your comment reminded me of this scene from “The Goodfellas”-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPtjyqgZAUk (1:09 min)
A fire sale for America’s assets?
The Yeltsin era in Russia was just a practice run. Now the show’s coming home to America, with an already-created oligarch class to facilitate matters.
The Sopranos had an episode on this too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bust_Out
You can’t be a Manhattan real estate developer without being owned by the Mob. I was surprised to see the movie, “The Apprentice” actually nominated for a best actor Oscar.
One thing I find interesting about Trump is the open, overt, unabashed acknowledgment of what Trump is. The “family business ‘ is called the Trump Organization. Saying the quiet part out loud, literally.
Army is next,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2nmZx02IRU
“Report Your Family For Wrong Think, Says German Government Initiative”
Somebody should buy the German government a clue as it is obvious that they don’t have one. This is going to go down real well in eastern Germany in what was once the DDR. Back when Honecker was running things you had the Stasi policing people which played out like this-
‘Nearly three hundred thousand East Germans were working for the Stasi by the time the Wall fell, in 1989, including some two hundred thousand inoffizielle Mitarbeiter, or unofficial collaborators. In a population of sixteen million, that was one spy for every fifty to sixty people.’
The equivalent numbers for the present day US would be well over half a million informers. They were a hated feature of east German life and after the wall fell, you had activists discovering that their partners were actually Stasi informants. And now the German government wants to bring back informants again? That is right away why people will be more willing to vote AfD as this bright idea is probably targeting people who might support that party. Was this one of Habeck’s bright ideas?
Great movie on the issue: The Lives of Others
Orwell surely would like to remind the German government that ‘1984’ was a warning, not a how-to guide.
>Democrat Death Wish. “Democrats en déshabillé” looks too mild these days.
Agree, and a prime example is this tweet I read yesterday by an erstwhile political presidential candidate that I supported financially and helped to sway friends and family to trust and vote for.
Bernie Sanders
@SenSanders
Meet Trump’s new best friend, Vladimir Putin.
At the heart of Putin’s rule are two forces: corruption & violence.
In Putin’s Russia, there is no freedom of speech. Protests are violently suppressed. Dissidents are murdered. And the billionaire oligarchs become even richer.
https://x.com/SenSanders/status/1896666599932989522
Projection much?
Yes, Bernie lacks the self-awareness to realize that all these problems he projects are here at home, the “good guys” we backed killed Gonzalo Lira, and we literally have a billionaire inside the WH enriching himself.
He doesn’t get it that this isn’t a good look for either himself or the party. Meanwhile, there are so many problems at home he ignores. A sad way for him to go out. Is there anyone left in the party who maintains their integrity?
Steven A. Smith should run.
The 9 or 10 years old calumnies about Russiagate, Putin!
The grannies and grampies who protested Nixon and Vietnam are now standing with Saigon on the Dneiper.
I learned long ago from my brother not to talk “war” with my sister in law who stands with Zelenski.
Oh the ruin of minds…. TDS.
To a less scary liberal I said, send your grandsons!
I am trying to get Ukraine to rhyme in Country Joe’s chant…..
‘or they won’t take foreigners’
You should tell them but they do. And helpfully provide the website where they can go join to fight the Russian bear-
https://ildu.com.ua/
Then ask them to send you a postcard from Kiev when they get there.
A placeholder until better comes along:
And it’s one, two, three, what are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me, it’s just such a pain
Next stop is U-Ukraine
And it’s five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why,
Whoopie! We’re all gonna die!
Great!
Tx
Can’t believe I sent him $25
Right there with you—in 2016. I just can’t decide whether that whole primary campaign was just a ruse or whether something really did happen to change him between then and now. Blackmail? Threats? Or maybe he was just a cynical actor playing the sheepdog all along. Certainly BlackAgendaReport held that view even back then….
It’s amazing that after the primaries shenanigans in 2016 and 2020, Sanders had the gall to call Russian elections fixed and manipulated. Whether he suffers from Stockholm Syndrome or something else is at play, it’s both sad and infuriating to see his credibility and legacy go up in flame. And yes, I know some will say that they’ve been burning since 2020, but stil.
The Ancient Greek Roots of the Oval Office Opera:
https://www.beyondwasteland.net/p/business-decision
>Israel’s Criminal Starvation of Gaza Daniel Larison
The use of starvation as a weapon is a war crime. Israel’s use of aid as a bargaining chip isn’t new, but it is still outrageous.
I’m encouraged by Trump’s actions viz Ukraine and I’m horrified that he allows starvation to be used against Palestinians. I’m almost starting to think this is part of some sick use of a program of domestic schismogenesis, speculation of course.
There is documented usage of schismogenesis techniques by the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS, an institutional precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)), against Japanese-held territories in the Pacific during World War II.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schismogenesis
OK, how about this scenario?
Trump will be awarded the Peace Prize for stopping the violence in Ukraine.
It will be awarded to him in jail by the ICC for his arrest as a war criminal for supporting genocide in Gaza by sending 2,000 pound bombs that were used to speed a final solution.
> This ancient bit of ingenuity keeps carbon trapped for thousands of years Grist
>> (In 2023 the global biochar market was worth $600 million, and is expected to grow to $3 billion this year.)
An oikos needs an exchange product to engage with the broader community. We have an abundance of wood, a superabundance since the hurricane-winds, and biochar can be used within the oikos, as well as an export.
The question is, how much non-renewables are being exported off the land in this exchange? Biochar may be unique by allowing greater access by the plant to those resources (minerals, aeration, …). That alters the variables for resource depletion. We shall see.
Side notes: unlike perlite, biochar clumps like mad. And I just put eyes on ‘1491’ yesterday, have not read, so many books… But despite statistical arguments against synchronicity, I find it’s just easier to accept these coincidences as serendipity, and use them to drive the behavior (‘read 1491’). Again, we shall see.
1491. Great read. One problem — to me– is that darned global population. Lots more ewwwman beans today than in 1491. I think we are beyond overshoot, and it’s going to a long painful process to get to some form of stasis, if we manage to get there at all.
I remain,
Steadfastly-
Mister Happy
“RFK Jr. tells parents to consider MMR vaccine amid outbreak”
That’s a bit weak. He used Samoa as an experiment in what happened if you did not vaccinate a population against measles which then blew up in his face and over 80 people died but with measles threatening to return to the US, he chickens out. Instead of saying based on what he saw in Samoa that yeah, giving your kids the measles vaccine would be a really good idea, he does jazz hands. He just says have a talk to your local doctor about it so as far as he is concerned, you’re on your own. And if you choose wrong, then it is all on you and he cannot be blamed.
The ‘Talk To Ya Doctor’ punt is so ruefully similar to the CDC’s rhetorical and logistic punting on masks annd protection strategies, and NY’s disastrous attempt to turn ‘you do you’ into warning signage.
“Alzheimer’s May Develop Differently in Women”
Menopausal HRT has high rates of effectiveness for reduction of menopause symptoms just based on anecdotal evidence. As the study points out, risks are rare, and the long-term health benefits might be very consequential. Unfortunately, the politicization of HRT in the context of transgender health care could end up entangling access to HRT for everybody, not unlike how the politicization of abortion has f*’ed up emergency care for miscarriages. Seems like the “moral” objections to specific kinds of health care often ends up limiting access for broader groups than just the targeted class.
Nonetheless, the study about HRT and reduction of mortality is very encouraging!
“This summer I’m joining the Ukraine military”
Lol, I want to print this on some of those lawn placard and distribute them to the local team blue party bigwigs.
I have been telling people this exact thing. If you feel so strongly about Ukraine vs Russia and unless they are stopped, it’s Paris next that they should go join. Pick up a gun and go kill people.
It’s pretty amazing the responses. Well they haven’t asked for any help or they won’t take foreigners or some other excuse.
These people who tell the Ukrainians to die to protect the west are the worst kind of cowards. The kind that are fine telling you to go die but not them.
Yup. It’s a funny thing how those “I stand with Ukraine” signs are always in front of rich people’s houses.
Do these primming cannon fodder’s heirs and assigns have Blackrock stock they hope to get dividends from Caucasus oil revenues they lust after?
I won’t buy their plane tickets but I will send them a box of 5.56 mm COD as a going away gift.
“OSCE shared intel with Ukraine before 2022 – ex-Greek ambassador”
No surprise here. Nearly a decade ago I would read how OSCE observers would find and visit a position set up by Donetsk or Lugansk militias. Minutes after those OSCE observers would leave, that position would come under shellfire by the Ukrainians. The people in both Republics got real hostile when they found out what they were really up to and jeered their presence. And at the outbreak of the war there was an article on NC saying how the OSCE surveillance cameras were being used to target nearby Russian formations – and the Russians had the receipts to prove it. As a force, they have totally discredited themselves as who could trust them?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization_for_Security_and_Co-operation_in_Europe
Re: AI Derangement Syndrome
I find it odd that Ed Zitron’s piece on Microsoft cutbacks in data center construction makes no mention of DeepSeek. Per Wikipedia:
«[DeepSeek] claims that it trained its V3 model for US$6 million compared to $100 million for OpenAI’s GPT-4 in 2023, and approximately one-tenth of the computing power used for Meta’s comparable model, Llama 3.1.»
Seems to me DeepSeek’s efficiencies alone are sufficient to account for Microsoft’s retrenchment.
I’m afraid new, more efficient LLMs will only amplify the power of the MSM, rendering Zitron’s glee over the imminent demise of LLMs blindingly premature.
Same same. DeepSeek meets a melioration criteria (‘good enough’) without getting borged. John Robb suggests the use of AI tutors will rapidly overwhelm the capabilities of public education. I’ll note the particular case of home-schooling, where for example an Evangelical family can entirely exclude the external world from the response space.
Big computers still to be used for things like locating submarines. But LLM’s?
> “What trillion-dollar problem is AI trying to solve?” Wages. They’re trying to use it to solve having to pay wages.
«What trillion dollar problem is AI trying to solve?»
Disassembly of enemy operating systems to reveal flaws that can be exploited by a novel computer virus.
EcoHealth Alliance redux.
Ed Zitron is right;
I was convinced that OpenAI was DOA after the Chinese revealed they had a better, cheaper, less power-hungry version of AI.
It seems Microsoft has decided since then that its own doubts warrant backing way-off of spending that only a few months ago was signaling an absolute commitment.
Trump doesn’t have a clue about Tech in general, or AI in particular, but he sure loves him some grift, and the bigger the better.
So, when does the AI bubble burst, before, or after the $500 Billion government investment Trump announced in Sam Altman’s second-rate house of cards?
Thanks for the Ed Zitron link discussing the implications of MS pullback from data center expansion for AI; that was eye-opening. Reading this, I was reminded of Hubert Horan’s lengthy series on Uber; it appears to me that EZ thinks OpenAI will exceed Uber’s cash burn by an order of magnitude or more.
EZ closes on a somewhat apocalyptic note:
> “There are no “phony comforts of being an AI skeptic” — what I am writing about here,
as I regularly remind you, is extremely scary stuff.
If I’m right, tech’s only growth story is dead. ”
IIRC, VPOTUS not long ago pledged USG interventions to maintain US supremacy in AI. Granting EZ’s analysis, lots of subsidy may be needed; thankfully (if one is an AI optimist) USG can create as much USD as needed to fund the policies it wants to pursue. Perhaps a notional future US sovereign wealth fund could take on large tranches of future issuance of Softbank debt.
Magnificent antidote
Thank you, Yves.
I’m glad that you have linked to the issue of seizing Russian assets.
Differences of opinion between Starmer, for, and Macron, against, were aired over the week-end. Retired British diplomat Lord (Peter) Ricketts suggested, as a compromise, that the assets or proceeds from sale be given to Ukraine.
There’s also push back from the Belgian and Luxembourg governments and their clearing and settlement banks Euroclear (spun out of JP Morgan in the 1990s at the SEC’s insistence) and Clearstream. A friend and former colleague is at Euroclear.
JP Morgan remains the main custodian for Euroclear. That allows the US bank to see the trading flows and portfolio operations of clients and rival firms, which drove JP Morgan to the top of investment banking. The US giant should be worried about having to transfer assets against the Euroclear account and the loss of a big revenue stream.
Un peu d’histoire: Sovereign debt as reserves have been favoured, at first by the US and UK, from 1922, the Genoa conference, to the Basel accords on banking regulation.
The UK has the highest exposure to foreign creditors, called “the kindness of strangers” by then Bank of England boss Mark Carney during the Brexit campaign, in the OECD. Who would buy gilts, UK government bonds, if the UK does not respect property rights.
The British government’s seizure of Venezuela’s gold at the Bank of England in 2019 was the gateway drug for what is proposed now. The world is a different place now. The UK and the west are in weaker positions.
Readers may be interested to hear that the seizure of assets owned by ordinary Russians living in the EU and even UK, nothing to do with the government, and even the internment of such people have been suggested to the European Commission. US readers may be stunned to hear that some of the information being provided to the Commission is based on what Rachel Maddow and Catherine Belton spew out, including that Trump and Boris Johnson are Russian agents, the former since a visit to Moscow in the 1980s.
“Afghanistan refutes Trump’s claims about Chinese presence in Bagram Airfield”
For some reason Trump really has a bee in his bonnet about all those abandoned US weapons in Afghanistan – some $80 billion’s worth I think. The collapse happened on Biden’s watch, not his but he seems to be thinking about trying to get some sort of win by getting all those weapons, trucks, etc. back again. As Biden stole $7 billion of Afghanistan’s funds as he went out the door, perhaps the Afghans could make Trump a deal. The US could use that $7 billion to buy back at least that amount of US weapons so the Afghans get their money back and Trump can show off a coupla warehouses of US weaponry returned back again. But I don’t think that Trump will go for that. He wants ALL that gear back which means that Afghanistan would be effectively demilitarized – which would be handy when the CIA sends ISIS militias back into Afghanistan again.
My gut is this is about the Rumsfeld CNN fears. The White House wants a chance for the President to look tough, and they have the same problem as Biden: the low hanging fruit is gone or anything else is too craven to warrant support.
The new Afghanistan narrative can be “limited” and framed as getting our stuff back.
Britain: Meet the Zoomer Doomers: Britain’s secret right-wing movement Spectator
Germany: One of the striking aspects of the AfD’s success in the German elections was the party’s popularity among the young, especially men under 25: one in four voted for the hard-right movement. Support for bracingly conservative positions among Gen-Z men isn’t just a German phenomenon, however. In Westminster and beyond, a new breed of young right-wing influencers is seeking to shift our politics.
Romania: Romanian far-right supporters hold protest rally ahead of election re-run France4
Holy cow, Batman! Their spreading like a bad habit your mother told us to avoid! And their doing it in secret with young men by taking advantage of their being vulnerable and disillusioned! One of America’s most valuable resource! What are going to do? The Joker is probably behind this!
Batman – Stay calm, Robin. Good things come to those who are patient and brush and floss their teeth. Alfred…would you put in a call into Gotham City Hall?
As ever, the absence of an economic left drives the people to right populism as the only political ideology that registers real social malaise. Neoliberalism inevitably leads to revivifications of the national socialist ethos with different permutations and emphases. Eventually the neoliberals will try to co-opt these movements, integrating them as far as possible into the mainstream, focusing on common points of interest like major industry and Israel (the AfD is resolutely Zionist), but I am not sure how well this integration will go, given the very poor quality of European neoliberal leadership and certain economic realities there is no getting away from.
An Idiot’s Guide to War Russia Observer (guurst)
Justin Pierre James Trudeau: HE’S BACK! The Dark Lord has returned! Cancel his pension now!
Good to see Patrick Armstrong post. I followed him until he suspended his blog due to Canadian authorities visiting him to inform him that his pension and himself would be dis-appeared if he continued to tell the truth about Project Ukraine.
I too am glad that Patrick Armstrong is once again posting. The clarity of that post is like a breath of fresh air and tells you that what ever the UK/EU plan, it is not going to work. They talk a big game but as Armstrong shows, it won’t amount to anything because they have nothing. For example. Starmer talks about British boots on the ground but what he does not mention is that they could only fight for five days before having to pull out as that is all the ammo that the British Army has in storage.
Gooooooood Mooooooorning Fiatnam!
La piste de la resistance was on hand in Vermont to protest against the Veep intentionally sliding downhill repeatedly, a trademark of the administration as it were.
JD skis just like you think JD would, full of confidence in theory and yet he slithers down the mountain like a grandma with osteoporosis while nursing a hangover.
Still its good to have somebody in the White House that doesn’t whack off repeatedly, chasing the object of their desire in an attempt to squeeze it in a fitted hole.
I would like to ask the NC community to help point me to data on the frequency of wildfires in California overall or LA in particular from 1900 onward. A friend in Bulgaria needs it as part of her work on her PhD, but so far has only been able to find data from the late 1980’s onwards. Links to any resources would be very helpful and much appreciated.
Also, there was an excerpt from a book on wildfires in LA area, posted as a post or a link here shortly after New Year’s, in which the author discussed how building in firezones and the attendant suppression of numerous but smaller natural wildfires resulted in fewer, but larger and more devastating fires. I can’t seem to find it, I will be grateful if someone can point me to it.
Thank you in advance 🙏
“EU Commission president unveils €800 billion EU rearmament and Ukraine support plan”
I put that title through a semantic analyzer and this is how it translated it-
“Ursula von der Leyen unveils an €800 billion EU slush fund that she and her friends will be able to get even more wealthier from with no accountability”
Got brain?
If you want a limited hangout, you’d better check that out, got brain?
If you want to get down, with tech pumped by clowns, got brain?
Use your mind, use your mind, use your mind … got brain?
If you watch fake news, you got them, AI blues – got brain?
When your crypto is gone, and they wanna grift on, got brain?
Use your mind, use your mind, use your mind – got brain?
When your cerebrum is gone, and they want to grift on, got brain?
Don’t forget this fact, you can’t get it back, got brain?
Use your mind, use your mind, use your mind – got brain!
Use your mind, use your mind, use your mind – lame-brain!
Sung to the tune of “Cocaine”, as performed by and written by JJ Cale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWmD_HcOcfU
Those birds are very ballsy.
I’ve noticed quite a few comfy PMC friends changing their fb photos to Ukraine support-oriented things in the past week. Have had to bite my tongue to not tell them they’d better sign up themselves or send their military-aged sons and daughters to fight. Figure it’s an extension of TDS. They needed a new supply or something to virtue signal about and this fit the bill. If I tried to give them facts it would go over like a lead balloon.
Thank you for the loss of food crop varieties link. Definitely something I’m interested in, especially apple and pears. The older varieties have been being torn out for dwarf trees for decades, or the orchard itself torn out and not replaced. It’s heartbreaking. Can’t find the best eaters and bakers anymore.
Sorry I meant dwarf trees for stuff that stores a lot longer or looks pretty at the supermarket.
That crop variety loss is a big worry. Too many eggs in one basket – as the Irish belatedly discovered back in the 1840s. I believe that there are parts of Ireland that still have not recovered their pre-famine population to this day. Those examples were all vegetables but can you imagine a brand new sort of rust getting a hold in the American wheat belt?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_leaf_rust
It devastated Oz wheat farms in the second half of the 19th century until a rust-resistant wheat was developed but lots of areas never went back to wheat again.
TDS pulls on several strings of calumny, an is innocently in to colonizing Russia.
US auto industry could be collateral damage in Trump’s trade wars Independent. We’ve covered before but bears repeating.
My neighbor across the street appears to be transforming his house and grounds into an auto fixer upper shop. For weeks going into months now, vehicles mostly small trucks pull up, with several various men dressed for the task of working on vehicles, crawl underneath to do repairs. They work on his driveway and park on the street in front of his house. Work ends as sunset approaches and light is lost. One guy spent days trying to replace something or other underneath a vehicle. Several people/vehicles a day come and go. Here in the South, it’s common for lower income to store non working vehicles on their lawns and back yards. A few have several such vehicles. There they stay, accumulating rust and become eyesores. Nice Third World touch for sure. Rarely did I see that up north.
Similar topic: Links regarding Trump wants to end Russian sanctions, and Trump has not helped us with inflation. Well, here a grandstand Trump might do, though it would more PR than any real help: Import a huge amount of eggs from Russia and drive the prices down by half. That just might become a talking and even a legend amongst his bade, it could become good PR for Trump regardless of any real benefit or not.
The US egg corporations would never stand for it. They are making too much money right now and would probably tell people not to trust ‘communist’ eggs and how it is unpatriotic to buy non-American eggs as MAGA, amiright?
Mr. Market is having a sad … glamour boy NVDA is cratering, oh baby, no bueno – that’s a proxy for future growth of hyperscalers AI plans.
Short at will, boys and girls!