The Great Waddle: History of Duck Farming Morning Ag Clips
Birds Are Changing Color in Cities. Here’s Why ZME Science
Body Modifiers Break the Science of Language Sequencer
Butter Recalled in 7 States Over Possible Fecal Contamination Newsweek
Climate/Environment
Decarbonization improves energy security for most countries, study finds Phys.org
Soft Future E-flux
Pandemics
Studies: 1 in 7 US working-age adults report long COVID, with heaviest burden on the poor CIDRAP
Hamburg researchers scanned 44 Long COVID patients and found severe shrinkage in key brainstem-cerebellum bridges.
These structural breaks, called “Broken Bridge Syndrome,” may underlie fatigue, motor issues, and autonomic dysfunction.https://t.co/hHowRrVRJH
— thetranscendedman (@atranscendedman) April 8, 2025
***
It is unknown how the 3-year-old girl from Mexico who died yesterday from H5N1 contracted the infection. This was also the case with the 13-year-old girl who suffered very severe disease from the virus in Canada in late 2024. Unknown routes of exposure are always concerning. https://t.co/qAf4odIeHS
— Conor Browne (@brownecfm) April 9, 2025
The Koreas
Japan
Tokyo may use Alaska LNG as leverage in US tariff talks Argus
China?
Big question: Can China or the US endure greater trade war pain? Asia Times
Trump’s tariff onslaught against China escalates a battle the US may not be able to win CNN
Elon Musk’s SpaceX Relies Heavily on Chinese Exports, Trade Data Reveals Lee Fang
Xi says China to strengthen ties with neighbours, in first public speech amid US trade war escalation Channel News Asia
US-China trade war is on: Could it turn violent, and when? Responsible Statecraft
US has secret weapons – Trump RT
The China Shock revisited High Capacity
Syraqistan
Trump Gives Netanyahu Free Hand on Gaza and Iran, but Is He Using Israel? Haaretz
Trump: Israel will ‘be the leader’ of strike on Iran if nuclear talks fail Times of Israel
***
The Real Housewives of Hasbara: When the Gaza War Is Good for Business Haaretz
Burger King to distribute $128,000 in vouchers to Israel soldiers Middle East Monitor
With Bakeries and Kitchens All But Shut Down, Desperate Hunger Engulfs Gaza Drop Site
IDF sources admit it may take years to root out all Hamas terrorists in Gaza – exclusive Jerusalem Post
***
Israel, Turkey look to create deconfliction mechanism in Syria, sources tell ‘Post’ The Jerusalem Post
European Disunion
Von der Leyen discusses trade disruption with China amid tariff barrage Euronews
Kallas labels China “main sponsor” of Russia’s war in Ukraine following reports of Chinese citizens in Russian army Euromaidan Press
EU opens door to reworking AI rulebook Politico
Ukraine’s defence industry is Europe’s best weapon for achieving strategic autonomy The London School of Economics
New Not-So-Cold War
The War is Effectively Over & Russia May Seize Odessa Glenn Diesen’s Substack (Video). With Andrei Martyanov.
Why a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine is pointless Responsible Statecraft
Home Front Harper’s
***
At northernmost military base Nagurskoye, a show of new radar and Chinese anti-drone weapon The Barents Observer
Meet the warriors trying to teach the west how to fight in the Arctic FT
South of the Border
Trump administration weighs drone strikes on Mexican cartels NBC News
Pete Hegseth announces ‘framework’ of Panama Canal deal agreed to – will permit US warships to travel ‘first and free’ New York Post
“Liberation Day”
lmao – Trump frontran his own announcement to pause tariffs by saying it’s a “GREAT TIME TO BUY!” 3 hours before huge news for stocks hit.
this is levels of insanity we’ve never seen before. pic.twitter.com/efTsO4qlkA
— Coffeezilla (@coffeebreak_YT) April 9, 2025
Billionaires score best-ever day as stocks soar on tariff pause The Business Times
We calculated that post Trump “put” today, the tariff mix is actually worse —China exports more consumer goods to US than other countries, so boosting that (to 125%) relative to others will boost the hit to consumption goods. pic.twitter.com/Yw9QIgcXqG
— Anna Wong (@AnnaEconomist) April 9, 2025
Trump tariffs: ‘Do not retaliate and you will be rewarded,’ White House says CNBC
Deutsche Bank: The market has ‘lost faith’ in US assets City AM
Chartbook 370: Is a “Treasury market unwind” in progress? Wednesday morning and the overnight fin-fi panic. (Part 2) Adam Tooze, Chartbook
Scoop: Top money managers say it was Japan not China selling last night that upended the bond market and forced Trump’s hand into a pause. And yes Trump took the win as so many countries wanted to do deals. Never one thing that causes anything; story developing
— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) April 9, 2025
Goldman Sachs Withdraws Recession Prediction After Trump Pauses Tariffs PYMNTS
Stocks surge on tariff reprieve, but recession fears remain Politico
Globalism? In this economy? Unpopular Front
Trump 2.0
Exclusive-Trump administration moves to restore some terminated foreign aid programs, sources say Reuters
Fewer foreign visitors traveling to US in what some see as sign of a ‘Trump Slump’ AP
Do I have Trump Derangement Syndrome? Wrong Side of History
‘Democracy with American Characteristics’ is what brought us here Rootless Cosmopolitan
Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Makes America’s Showers Great Again The White House
DOGE
‘It’s a shambles’: DOGE cuts bring chaos, long waits at Social Security for seniors Los Angeles Times
HHS ‘Reductions to Absurdity,’ One Week On MedPage Today
‘Elon Musk’ Was a Prolific Money Launderer for Hackers and Drug Traffickers. It Was Secretly the FBI 404 Media
Elon Musk’s attorney running to succeed Paxton as Texas attorney general The Hill
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
DNA’s real value: advertising, authoritarianism, apartheid The Tech Bubble
How to stop bioterrorists from buying dangerous DNA Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Immigration
DHS says it will weigh antisemitic content in immigration applications The Hill
Police State Watch
Spyware Maker NSO Group Is Paving a Path Back Into Trump’s America Wired
Federal Workers Say They’re Being Watched by AI for Saying Anything Bad about Trump or Musk ZME Science
Cops Used the Shoplifting Panic to Buy Tons of New Equipment The Appeal
Top cop accused of pooping on floor, drugging other cops, shouldn’t be in charge, lawyer says NJ.com
AI
Meta Whistleblower to Tell Congress That Company Aided China in AI Race Bloomberg
Parents of OpenAI Whistleblower Claim Cops Contaminated Crime Scene The Crypto Times
Healthcare?
RFK Jr.’s “MAHA” movement doesn’t want to eliminate chronic illness. They want to eliminate the chronically ill. The Gauntlet
Dr. Oz Pushed for AI Health Care in First Medicare Agency Town Hall Wired
Despite Overpayment Concerns, CMS Finalizes $25 Billion Hike in Medicare Advantage Payments for 2026 HEALTH CARE un-covered
U.S. maternal mortality rate increased 27% over five years, NIH study finds STAT
Tuberculosis Is Back in the Spotlight. Does the U.S. Even Care? MedPage Today
Our Famously Free Press
Corporate Media Minimize Massive Hands Off! Protests FAIR
The San Francisco Chronicle and the Astroturf Network The Phoenix Project
Imperial Collapse Watch
Navy secretary says Trump told him to ‘fix the damn rust’ on warships Task & Purpose
Murky Waters CSIS. “Navigating the Risks of China’s Dual-Use Shipyards.”
Collapsing Empire: The Delusion of US Air Power Global Delinquents
The national security backlash of ‘America First Foreign Assistance’ All-Source Intelligence
Donald Trump is Making the Case for BRICS Larry Johnson
Guillotine Watch
U.S. has worse wealth distribution than pre-revolutionary France did. pic.twitter.com/Cvd9kfqNHD
— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) April 8, 2025
Class Warfare
Viewpoint: Why Oligarchs Want a Recession Labor Notes
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Cabinet Of Clowns
(melody borrowed from Send In The Clowns by Stephen Sondheim for the 1973 musical A Little Night Music; as performed in 1975 by Judy Collins.)
There’s been a glitch
Market’s gone bear
Our ship of state’s going down
Trump’s in his lair
Trying on crowns . . .
Here’s the abyss
We’re in the groove
I’ll bet you dollars to pounds
Trump gets removed
He’s out of bounds
And chaos surrounds . . .
Heads should be chopped—Trump’s planning wars
Wars that can never be won—he’s undaunted once more
We haven’t got enough men to send troops anywhere
Orders he signs
Have us all scared . . .
Kissing his arse
Four weary years
We need a savant of detente
Our end is near
More tariff shakedowns
And market meltdowns
From this buccaneer . . .
President Kitsch
Is just a veneer
We’re all strip mining the state
That’s why we’re here
We should take him down
Before we all drown
Give him a Bronx Cheer . . .
Excellent:
President Kitsch
Is just a veneer
We’re all strip mining the state
That’s why we’re here
Kitsch is exactly what is going on in the Trump administration. It isn’t just Trump — there’s Pete Hegseth and the tattoos, plus Kristi Noem in that photo posted here recently, with her fabulous hair, her two puffy fanbois, and her guns.
[Of course, I’m thoroughly prejudiced, because I consider Send In the Clowns a highly overrated effort by someone whose influence in turning the U.S. musical into a kind of package wasn’t all sweetness and light.]
“Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Makes America’s Showers Great Again”
Yep. Everything’s Golden again.
I saw what you did there Rev. I’ll take Golden Slumbers instead.
This little gem in that pile of manure jumped out at me. Appliances were all fine until 2008. And removing water pressure restrictions will fix them.
I think we all know we can make appliances great again by making them “less computer.”
I think we all know we can make appliances great again by making them “less computer.”
Well sure, but if we do that where will russia get its targeting software from?
We recently purchased a new pressure adjustable shower head (before Trump) and it is set at 0.8 gallons per minute and works great. Our water use has dropped 700 – 800 gallons per month since.
Why do you want to reduce water use? What’s the objective? I’d rather have shower where it doesn’t take ten minutes to get wet.
You must be enormous to need that much water to get wet.
In all seriousness:
1. Some places like Birmingham, AL have very high water/sewer charges, to the degree that lower-income people have to choose between water and heat.
2. Potable water is our most scarce planetary resource. Sadly using municipal water means using potable water for things where you don’t need water of that quality.
Even though it is a token gesture, here in our not-at-all-water-scarce part of Southeast Asia (where water charges accordingly are very low), I do not run the shower. I get myself wet, turn the water off, scrub, and then rinse.
“Golden showers.” Trickle down at its most neo-liberal!
They **** in your pocket and tell you it’s raining!
Kinda sorta ties in with the story of the police chief running a-muck? (ducks)
“DHS says it will weigh antisemitic content in immigration applications”
Antisemitic here means that you said that you did not like Israel or Zionism – or do I repeat myself? But how far do they want to push this? Supposing that Trump & Co. start applying it to tourist visas as well so that if you happened to mention in a social media post that Israel is run by a bunch of genocidal maniacs for example, then no tourist visa to the US for you then, buddy. Mind you, if they did do this then things would get real interesting in three years time. In 2028 you will have the Los Angeles Summer Olympics being held. I could very well imagine Trump blocking international athletes on the grounds that they were mean to Israel. Athletes who would normally be expected to pick up Gold medals but whose absence would clear the way for American athletes. If you do not believe such things possible, then you have not been paying attention to the Summer and Winter Olympics the past few cycles.
International tourism is tanking already. It appears foreigners have heard about our showers.
There is an article in today’s Link about that-
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/fewer-foreign-visitors-traveling-us-sign-trump-slump-120593634
The way that Trump is wrecking regulatory bodies and tossing safety mechanisms, how long before any tourist that does come to America will be told ‘Don’t drink the water!’
Channeling Tom Lehrer?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPrAuF2f_oI
Good old days…
I think our greed-based healthcare system here has already been doing that for a while. Who wants to vacation here, have an accident, and find themselves saddled with a massive bill for treatment.
I think this has also been the case with business investment for a while. I remember a story from years ago about a Toyota plant that had to choose between locating in Birmingham, Alabama or Toronto. They chose to open in Toronto for two reasons – because Canada had national healthcare and because the public schools in Alabama were so poor that they did not produce people capable of running a modern, high-tech auto plant.
I was living in the Detroit Michigan area in the past and the local newspapers were very good on auto news. There were stories of Japanese auto companies choosing Canada instead of the US for the same reasons, health care and education.
I did not keep the references but, anecdotally, Canadian media in the last few days have been reporting academics cancelling trips to conferences, saw on TV a travel agency owner saying she had had to cancel every bus tour scheduled for the USA for the next several months as the customers had all bailed out and this morning CBC Radio reported on a Canadian selling his condo in Florida.
There were more stories. A lot of Canadians, especially those foreign-born, are unwilling the cross the CDN-USA border and suddenly find themself in a cell in New Mexico.
For an interesting table see https://www.ianwelsh.net/absolutely-massive-collapse-in-travel-from-canada-to-america-incoming/
I’m thinking there’s no way to quickly and efficiently scan someone’s social media to determine if critical of Israel, and if looking for specific keywords all manner of Christians and Jews pro or anti-Israel would be excluded from visiting on account of frequent use of the word “Zion” or “Israel” in writings and speakings.
The only way for them to do this is with a pre-existing list.
Which we know already exists because during Occupy protesters WERE being singled out for additional questioning, asked about protest activities, we all knew CBP had some kind of list and even Americans were red flagged just for being part of Occupy. Likewise, my Greenpeace colleagues would get the same purely punitive treatment, it goes with territory of being an activist. All suggesting there has long been a system in place.
Only this time it’s now being shared with ICE as well and has led to the arrests of Ozturk, Khalil, Suri, etc., for having opinions and also being the wrong color and with wrong sounding names.
‘I’m thinking there’s no way to quickly and efficiently scan someone’s social media to determine if critical of Israel’
What if they are now using AI for that? It would make sense.
What if they are now using AI for that? It would make sense.
It would make all the sense in the world. Bruce Schneier explains —
The Internet Enabled Mass Surveillance. A.I. Will Enable Mass Spying.
Spying has always been limited by the need for human labor. A.I. is going to change that.
https://slate.com/technology/2023/12/ai-mass-spying-internet-surveillance.html
For a couple of instances –
‘Summarization is something a modern generative A.I. system does well. Give it an hourlong meeting, and it will return a one-page summary of what was said. Ask it to search through millions of conversations (on phones) and organize them by topic, and it’ll do that. Want to know who is talking about what? It’ll tell you.’
‘Because all the data is saved, mass surveillance allows people to conduct surveillance backward in time, and without even knowing whom specifically you want to target. Tell me where this person was last year. List all the red sedans that drove down this road in the past month. List all of the people who purchased all the ingredients for a pressure cooker bomb in the past year. Find me all the pairs of phones that were moving toward each other, turned themselves off, then turned themselves on again an hour later while moving away from each other (a sign of a secret meeting)’.
And so on.
I disagree that modern AI performs summarization tasks well. I have now seen dozens and dozens of examples of AI summarizing transcripts for various information requests. Regardless of the prompts, it’s awful.
Each summary reminds me of the old joke about techies, who if you ask them the time, they tell you how to build a watch. They’ll be lengthy, precise, and completely useless. You’ll get the better context and save yourself time reading the transcript yourself and making your own notes. I have seen very few instances where AI is genuinely useful for professional work.
Alas, it doesn’t have to perform them well; it only has to perform them to the satisfaction of some judge, like John Roberts or Clarabell Thomas.
I have seen presentation from the police more than a decade ago about how they monitor the internets and social media for identification, profiling and targeting. Dredging the info from the internets, then properly parsing it and then analyzing. It was a SAS Users conference for public servants…
It will already happen to German athletes who put “D” as their gender….
Even the cars that those German athletes drove around in had a big “D” plastered over it.
World Cup 2026, jointly hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the US, promises to be interesting given the current xenophobia.
But how far do they want to push this?
Asking similar questions at DMV, at the ballot box? You have to swear to Israel as a contractor (no BDS) or public employee (including majority of states)…
>>>U.S. has worse wealth distribution than pre-revolutionary France did.
Crikey….pre-modern data is notoriously unreliable. Yes, 2016 US wealth distribution was awful but pre-real middle class 1788 awful?
No need to go all the way back to 1788. Plenty of reliable data from 1928! compared/contrasted with other reliable data from 1960, 1985, 2010.
Lazy Twitter engagement farming strike again! imo. ymmv
Worse wealth distribution, but much better cake distribution, judging by the obesity.
No need to lose your head over it. :)
yes. I love to laugh the trope of tubbies too (cuz I was a fat kid too), lol
but when you look at it through the lens of sugar + fat = brain-altering chemical WMD,
it is quite sad…people are (unknowingly) using fat and sugar as a pallative for the stimuli in their lives. much of the obesity problem isn’t just a matter of thermodynamics
When you look at it through a monocle, fat people don’t start revolutions. When was the last time you saw an obese terrorist? They don’t even make suicide vests in those sizes. :-)
When the Zombie Apocalypse arrives, they will be the first to go-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o78D7GFFkk (19 secs)
Jabba the jihadi.
Same infatuation with gambling.
And on their tumbstones be written:
“FRANCOIS am I woe worth it me
At Paris born near Pontoise citie
Whose neck in the bight of a rope of three
Must prove how heavy my buttocks be”
There was a lot of discussion about how absolutely fabulous RFK Jr’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) idea was, even though our boy Bobby never actually presented a plan for how he was going to do that. But at least he was talking about it! That’s something, right? Right? So people were saying it would be 3 free organic meals a day, delivered to everyone by Door Dash! Fat lazy people getting free gym memberships! The benefits were going to be amazing! It would transform the country!
I wonder how people are feeling about MAHA now? Maybe we just need to give him a little more time? More time to kill off those useless eaters?
So far he, seems to be able to get a pass by uttering the “waste fraud and abuse” incantation.
And he has some plans – overdosing on Vitamin A!
And overdosing on Vitamin A is actually a thing-
https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/disappearing-pod/death-by-nutrition/
Now with an extra dose of PFAS!
Every time I think about the horrible things Trump and his crew are doing, my mind goes back to what their counterparts in the Biden administration were doing. The Biden people seem like they were usually in a similar ballpark (COVID, global warming, wealth equity, etc.), but somehow they seemed to get a pass.
I find this takes much of the fun out of criticizing Trump. Very annoying.
Every time I think about the horrible things Trump and his crew are doing, I wish Harris was president. I had plenty of criticism of the Biden/Harris administration. I still do. But the Trump administration is a new level of horrific, the likes of which have never been seen before and they’re just getting started. So LOTE is looking pretty good. There, I said it.
Yeah, me too. I’ll take stumbling to the bottom over sprinting there, any day.
And lets not forget Jill Stein had a completely sane agenda, but nobody cared.
There, I said it.
Re – The (artificial intelligence) therapist can see you now
I used to be a big advocate for mental health care. It’s certainly helped me in a few ways, and I think it has its place. But in getting more and more convinced of a position I think I once read here — that the need for mental health care is masking the fact that our society is instilling these problems.
You also just know that AI therapists will be programmed to instruct their “patients” to be good worker bees above all else.
You mean like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0YkPnwoYyE (2:49 mins)
The thing I wonder about is normally a person seeking counseling is protected by the psychiatrist/psychologist/therapist keeping all discussions private.
Will that happen with AI therapy?
A person bares their soul about suicidal thoughts, anger at others, etc., etc. nothing that would warrant a human counselor notifying authorities but will AI, or whoever is snooping around the system, be guaranteed to not use anything said in these sessions against the client?
Mad at your boss, you’re fired.
Angry at your spouse ( who doesn’t have that happen in the normal living of life), sorry sir, surrender your weapons and here’s a restraining order to boot.
Confessing to whatever.
Addiction, here comes adds for clinics,
How does this not get out of control?
How does something with such possible benefits to more people not be used for nefarious purposes?
Bare your soul and you’re blackmailed or blackballed for the rest of your life. One this gremlin is out of the box I suggest fewer people will seek help.
And I don’t think someone saying,” Oh, don’t worry about that. We have guardrails in place.”, will cut it.
That’s a very good point.
And since AI therapists will be cheaper (at first), they’ll be preferred by insurance.
It might even be free as long as you waive privacy rights.
Another mess caused by crap that wasn’t needed. “Progress”
A lot of mental health care is to get one to be “well adjusted” in one’s functioning in society. I’m sure there are variations in the baseline emotional state of different people (60 years of TRD here), but in a different sort of society those differences (being more prone to anxiety, depression, ADHD, etc.) could be mitigated by finding a useful role in the society that doesn’t demand more than one can cope with. So we’re treating people as if their reactions to modern societal dysfunctions are a defect of the individual rather than evidence of social sickness. And the treatments are often either short term partial benefit and long term return to baseline, or just long term harmful from the get-go. When I was young, no one sought out mental health care unless they were in a small subculture where that was common. Or very well off. I’m not sure the huge expansion of mental health care to the general population has been a net social good, or that any of the treatments have more than that short term partial benefit which soon dissipates.
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. J. Krishnamurti
https://kfoundation.org/it-is-no-measure-of-health-to-be-well-adjusted-to-a-profoundly-sick-society/
“Kallas labels China “main sponsor” of Russia’s war in Ukraine following reports of Chinese citizens in Russian army”
The EU really screwed up bad choosing Kallas as the EU’s foreign representative. I have no doubt that they were convinced that Kamala would win last November which meant a continuation of old Joe’s policy of Russia confrontation. So they went with the anti-Russian Kallas which to them seemed logical. Then Trump got elected and now they are stuck with her. The Americans don’t want to talk to her and the Russians don’t want to talk to her. The EU can’t even send her to take part in negotiations with Russia and the US due to her Russia hostility which means that the EU is reduced to talking about a special delegation – to the outrage of Kallas.
I guess Kallas missed the part where the Internet sleuths figured out that the photo of the Chinese soldiers (uploaded by Zelensky) was named “north_koreans.jpeg” … she’s not the sharpest tool in the shed.
0804_Korean_Soldier 2.mp4 :-)
Stupid Girl, by the Rolling Stones
Heck, Rev Kev, the Italians don’t even want to talk to her, even if she is slightly more engaging than, say, the turdlicious Annalena Baerbock.
What we might keep in mind about Kaja Kallas, though, is that she is in her position at EU Central because of the stampede of the “New Europe” states lining the Baltic Sea. Estonia is now a satellite of Poland, because that famous blockade of the Gulf of Finland that she wants isn’t going to happen with the Estonian navy of four motorboats and an aging freighter.
So the Estonians gave up independence to be part of the Panicked Brigade. How she plans to dismantle the Russian Federation is a dream after too many glasses of schnapps.
At least, the Lithuanians, who are happy-go-lucky compared to their Baltic neighbors, have retained some skepticism about la mission civilisatrice de la Pologne, having had to endure the Poles for many a year.
the Estonian navy of four motorboats and an aging freighter.
Don’t exaggerate. They have 6 ships (and 7 commanders).
The EU has been suffering a form of early onset Alzheimers since the Maastricht Treaty which was accelerated by the entry of hamlets like Estonia into the EU, and subsequently the Lisbon Treaty, with the whimsical “election” (twice) of the most obvious failure in German politics since Rudolf Hess flew to Scotland to negotiate peace, Useless fonda Lyin’ with her nefarious plan to steal porkie pies which will somehow drive the Russian Federation to its knees. Kallas is just a symptom of the psychopathic sickness of the European political élite, who now face the simple fact that Trump’s tariff policies will create further splits in the EU project which will, hopefully, collapse before the end of his term in office.
re: Decarbonization improves energy security for most countries, study finds – Phys.org
Two things:
1. I get a very strange message when clicking on the link. It may be legit, but it looks to me like it could be a problem, so I haven’t read the actual post.
2. That said, and reading only the title, Germany is the most decarbonized country in the EU, imo. The results are a crumbling manufacturing sector. Germany is now the sick man of Europe, if you will.
Heh heh, gotta be careful when indicating causation. Surely there are other reasons as well. Nordstream?
Good point nevertheless. The “Greens” going all in on war has had consequences, and shows how easily corrupted political parties and the accompanying ideology are.
There are many reasons why Germany is in trouble. Decarbonization is not one of them.
“Swamp Stooge” update (my sobriquet for Speaker Mike Johnson):
Johnson scraps budget vote after conservative rebellion
So, this is how they’re going to ram through tax cuts for the wealthy. Forget about CBO scoring, or accounting. Forget about institutional rules. Just grab a cup of make-believe and some magic fairy dust, and voila, tax cuts are paid for!
Don’t forget it being powered by Unicorn farts.
To keep it all green. No more fossil fuels.
Last time the cuts expiring – now sigh been a very long number of years ago – is how they passed it last time without a budget impact.
Republicans always find a way.
Making Accounting Fraud Great Again!
US-China trade war is on: Could it turn violent, and when? – Responsible Statecraft
“But Chinese economic policymakers have considerable space for fiscal stimulus to increase domestic demand if they choose to use it. Up to this point they have refrained because they were trying to maintain momentum on their agenda of structural economic reforms. Faced with the emergency of international conflict, they are likely to open the spigot.”
The article then goes into the conflicts to emerge as China still tries to access the USA’s super consumers.
Indeed, it takes more than fiscal stimulus to create the kinds of super consumers needed to absorb all the manufactured goods. And it’s like a flip side of the USA not being able to re-shore manufacturing through tariffs alone.
I’m not saying conspicuous consumption is alien to China and there is a large population, but the American super consumer is another type of creation.
(Side note: China boosting domestic demand has been what many Western economists have been salivating for as part of their vision of China’s road to “democracy”)
“Super-consumer”, lol, is that why we are all fat? China would do well to keep SCs offshore.
I’m making up a word for buying alot of sh– that we don’t need and a host of pathologies around shopping.
Buying things you don’t need, with the money you don’t have, in order to impress people you don’t like.
add ‘working a job you dont want ” and it is perfect
Americans are debt slaves, shopping in company stores.
No choice, no voting for change…circling the drain.
Planned obscelence
Manufactured senseless
It’s automatic
Feeling the line
What were you lookin’ to spin
It’s automatic
Cash back, heart attack
Do you want fries with that?
It’s automatic
What does it matter?
What does it matter?
What does it matter?
Wanna feel up not down
Stick around ’til you see
No money down
Just your life that you don’t own
It’s automatic
Special offer only
Face-lift society, so
It’s automatic
Madness of love
Feeds the organ grinder
It’s automatic
What does it matter?
Automatic Society
Son Volt
>>>Face-lift society
Thank you, mrsyk. I was just thinking about this a few minutes ago. Mostly about how bizarre the women surrounding trump look, both in media and his entourage. They have the look of enhanced Stepford wives to me. Of course, so do many in Hollywood. In our bizzarro world made of plastic, so are many women (along with no small number of men)!
(I think this is an incredibly sad look into American society that views fake as better than real – tip of the iceberg.)
Jay Farrar wrote that in 2007, still germane ;)
Indeed, mrsyk. The farther back I look, the more foreshadowing I see.
News you can use:
How to disable a robot dog if it attacks you
https://youtu.be/6MUrF_G7KlM?si=aFQAS4OAl0K1VkBe
Sure to come in handy when the food riots start…
Re. Murky Waters Navigating the Risks of China’s Dual-Use Shipyards
I’m not sure what response the CSIS alarm bells should be from the US and its allies. Is the US supposed to sanction the shipyards and their customers? Should the US bomb the shipyards with tactical nukes? The US has intentionally allowed its shipbuilding industry to collapse and long relied on foreign flags and ships for trade. Naval shipyards are another example of cost-plus mismanagement.
What does CSIS want to happen?
Be afraid, very afraid?
” Pete Hegseth announces ‘framework’ of Panama Canal deal agreed to – will permit US warships to travel ‘first and free’ ”
Sounds like Hegseth is taking a leaf out of Trump’s book. Make a big announcement how the other side has completely caved to your demands and have the other side then issue a frantic denial. Trump and Hegwweth may see it as a way to put pressure on the other side but all it really does it show how untrustworthy in negotiations they are which makes people wonder how untrustworthy they are in keeping any agreements. Free passage for US warships? The cost of that would be cheaper than the annual coffee bill for the Pentagon alone so why ask it.
Performative, laugh out loud, we are good at something. Thank you for your service. Thank you, American Airlines, for the propaganda and the lousy service.
If only we had a Spacing Guild that gouged on warship transits and air transports. Then the US could only fight one foreign war every 50 years.
So weird that I now live in a timeline where Dune looks great by comparison.
Scoop: Top money managers say it was Japan not China selling last night that upended the bond market and forced Trump’s hand into a pause. And yes Trump took the win as so many countries wanted to do deals. Never one thing that causes anything; story developing
— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) April 9, 2025
Hmmmm…Wolf over at Wolfstreet made a comment that the Japanese government has debunked this claim.
Then there is this article:
https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/japan-rules-out-using-us-treasury-holdings-to-counter-trump-tariffs/ar-AA1Cz6uy/
“Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato on Wednesday ruled out using the country’s U.S. Treasury holdings as a bargaining tool against President Donald Trump’s decision to slap tariffs against imports from Japan.
“We manage our U.S. Treasury holdings from the standpoint of preparing for in case we need to conduct exchange-rate intervention in the future,” not from the standpoint of bilateral diplomacy, Kato told parliament.
Kato was responding to a ruling party lawmaker’s call for Japan to consider selling its U.S. Treasury holdings, which is part of the country’s huge foreign reserves, as a countermeasure against U.S. tariffs….”
So more bogus crap on X or the Japanese are “speaking with a forked tongue”?
we will find out when the treasury foreign holdings report comes out.
until then anyone’s guess.
Kallas labels China “main sponsor” of Russia’s war in Ukraine following reports of Chinese citizens in Russian army
The European Union’s foreign policy chief has defined China as the primary financial backer of Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.
I knew it. Russia is just a Chinese proxy in it’s war against America and Europe. But don’t forget about the Martians, Kallas.
Maybe this is an attempt at a narrative that I have seen used over the past coupla years. That the west would have beaten Russia in the Ukraine but goshdarnit, those damn Chinese came in with their support and wrecked all our plans. This way they can focus on the next target – China – and it means that they never have to admit that Russia actually beat them on the battlefield. Based on what was said in that recent New York Times article about how it is the US running this war, those US generals were also very loath to admit that the Russians beat them too and took to blaming the Ukrainians for not following their advice.
If anything, it looks like the Ukrainians were too good at following US/NATO advice.
I remember waking up on Day 1 of the SMO and thinking, “If I were a NATO general, I’d be worried, very worried”.
He did promise to fix the damn Rust Belt.
Do those two antidote mandarin ducks have different tariffs applied to them?
It’s Day 50 of the Trump Bear Market. Hope you enjoy it.
In 1930 we had “Hoovervilles” – tent camps of homeless men, as unemployment soared.
Will we get “Trump-towns?” Lines of unemployed programmers and software engineers, queued up to get jobs at the new textile mill opening up?
Well, another thing to consider. The textile mill and other manufacturers will still need computer savvy people, lawyers, HR, etc. Hypothetically, there would be additional places for white collar workers as well.
More choices outside of finance, academia, and government for employment.
That’s just the glass half full hopium.
Lawyers will definitely be needed to think up clever ways of cheating and evading pesky labor laws and environmental regulations. Oh wait … EPA got defenestrated … sorry, legal help no longer needed!
They still have other types of contracts to deal with, so maybe not as many lawyers needed. But still other options in industries for employment could be provided.
Yes, glass half full, I am tentatively hopeful that at least contract laws will still be respected in the future.
I look forward to my new career as union-breaker at the local textile mill. Now back to doing push-ups and studying up on “the sweet science.”
Jeez…they also have contracts with suppliers, etc.
And I then I read this about Arizona:
https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2021/02/06/arizona-no-longer-restricts-law-lawyers-here-pro-con/4339871001/
“Goldman Sachs Withdraws Recession Prediction After Trump Pauses Tariffs”
Trump tried to tariff the whole world overnight but Mr. Market coughed loudly so he has for the moment backed off – while trying to make China an object lesson for others. Regardless. When Trump was President the first time around I made an observation that I just remembered today. With Trump he ignores any protests and he does not pay any attention to them. I don’t think that he even cares about his polling numbers either. He will also blow off any special delegations as well. But what he does pay attention to is the stock market numbers. It was true the first time around and it still seems to be true. And when the stock market told him to knock it off with those maximum tariffs as too many billionaires and too many corporations were losing big money he did a 180. A $10 trillion hit was not what they signed up for.
The NY Times reported last night per insiders it was the bond market, not stocks.
You’re quite right. I did a bit of checking and found that Trump himself said that he backed off because of bond market reactions. So may it is the bond market over the stock market that Trump pays attention to. or maybe both but certainly not public opinion.
Globalism? In this economy? – Unpopular Front
It’s all like people are only left with a choice between one type of extremism or the other.
How does that stop?
And to be clear, that includes the extremism in globalization.
“Von der Leyen discusses trade disruption with China amid tariff barrage”
A sensible move coming from Ursula? She must really be under pressure. Some people, like Spain’s economic minister are wondering aloud that maybe it is time to open up trade with a reliable partner – like China. When US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent heard about this, he kind flipped out and told them that if they aligned with China that they would be cutting their own throat because China produces so much. But since the Trump regime seems determined to totally wreck Europe and pillage them, China may not be such a bad option. And if they made up with Russia, any goods could come by rail direct-
https://www.rt.com/news/615507-eu-cut-throat-pivot-china/
LIberals caught in the neoliberal trap:
Les Leopold, April 10, 2025, Why Aren’t You Supporting the Trump Tariffs?
thank you, the real question has been asked, why is the left supporting wall streets profits?
“Progressive Democrats are stuck with a painful dilemma. If they oppose the tariffs across the board, they will be siding with the financiers and CEOs who have profited wildly from low or no tariffs, and have ushered in runaway inequality and increasing job insecurity. (See Wall Street’s War on Workers.)
But Democrats on the left so detest Trump, that it’s nearly impossible for them to join with the UAW to support the tariffs. Unless a new path is forged, progressives will find themselves in an unholy alliance with the Wall Street neoliberals and against the working-class, sounding the death knell for any kind of progressive-worker alliance to build an alternative to Trumpism.”
“Jesus, how did we get into this mess?”
the real extremists was bill clinton. trump is just the inevitable blow back from the extremist policies of bill clinton.
you can easily google Bernie’s trade policies. he isnt a free trader.
personally I am for tariffs as a tax vehicle.
Just logging off for the night but first a Clown World story. The Ukrainians want a Russian astronaut that just arrived at the ISS arrested on charges of draft-dodging and treason. How so?
‘According to Zubritsky’s biography, he was born in 1992 in a village in Zaporozhye Region, which is now part of Russia but is still claimed by Kiev. He graduated from a military school in Kharkov as a pilot and served at an airbase in Sevastopol, Crimea during the 2014 Western-backed coup in the Ukrainian capital. In response to the overthrow of the elected government, Crimeans overwhelmingly voted to break away from Ukraine and join Russia. Zubritsky was among the numerous Ukrainian military personnel who rejected the new government in Kiev and continued their careers in the Russian Armed Forces. He applied to the space program in 2017 and was confirmed as a flight engineer for the Soyuz MS-27 mission last August.’
https://www.rt.com/russia/615522-zubritsky-ukraine-treason-sentence/
Has anybody noticed how the Ukrainians act just like a jealous ex-girlfriend?
Now you know why they announced Ukrainian space program the other day. :)
Why America Should Sprawl (NY Times via archive.ph)
Why not? That’ll help with climate!
“Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead!”
I don’t know…a climate/environment story or tariff story? Both?
https://www.reuters.com/technology/apple-airlifts-600-tons-iphones-india-to-beat-trump-tariffs-sources-say-2025-04-10/
Apple airlifts 600 tons of iPhones from India ‘to beat’ Trump tariffs, sources say
I wonder who will harvest the crops in California this year?
And I wonder how much clout the Gallo Family still has, because they are one of the big local players when it comes to imported labor?
The easiest solution would be to bus in High School students from the inner cities, expose them to a healthy outdoor lifestyle and pay them minimum wage, less a reasonable fee for food and housing…
Bringing back the good old days when the poors kept their place, or else.
It will be like the great Midwestern tradition of kids doing corn detasseling during the summer. From age 12, we were ‘allowed’ to work in the fields from 7am to 4pm for about a dollar an hour. Usually we were taken in large groups to the farms by bus every morning and then back home in the late afternoon. It was hot, often painful work (it could leave your hands torn up) but, daggumit, it built character!
Yep, like in the good old days in Honolulu when high schoolers typically worked at “on the shop floor with working folks” summer jobs. Typically in the Dole pineapple cannery, but also in places like Pacific Laundry on Kapiolani Boulevard, behind a gas station and a bowling alley. It built character to experience the gritty reality behind the Potemkin façade of glamorous tourist paradise.
It was common for kids (we were as young as 12 years old) to become seriously dehydrated, suffer heat exhaustion and pass out in the corn fields. The temperatures were usually in the 90’s with heat indexes into the 100’s because of the humidity. We got cuts not just on our hands but our arms and legs too. Stuff would get into our eyes from the corn and cause burning and itching.
Kids still do detasseling but from what I hear there are better safety precautions now. At least that’s what they say.
Its Navel orange harvesting time in Godzone, and frankly I sense no fear among the 18 or so Mexican-Americans that typically constitute a picking crew on a given orchard.
Where are you gonna find replacements that balances a 20 foot ladder against the tree and collects the gold colored bounty?
Ron DeSantis has it covered:
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article303763526.html
Well, now ….
US LNG crippled as Australia seizes US$1.5b trade overnight
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/04/us-lng-crippled-as-australia-seizes-us1-5b-trade-overnight/
China ‘optimistic’ about deeper UK financial co-operation
Vice-minister Liao Min speaking as renminbi green bond launched in London
https://www.ft.com/content/8eeedc68-69fc-46f2-a75b-3a5c844469f6
https://archive.ph/PxP0F
Head of British military makes first Beijing visit in 10 years
Trip by Tony Radakin announced only by China’s government amid strained Sino-American relations
https://www.ft.com/content/2deb7089-5575-4b1e-8efc-2cb893c90e46
https://archive.ph/zPeMN
The USA is preoccupied with its austerity project for the USA and tax cuts for the wealthy.
And more —
Spain defends closer trade ties with China after US warns against ‘cutting own throat’
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/spain-defends-closer-trade-ties-with-china-after-us-warns-against-cutting-own-2025-04-09/
‘MADRID (Reuters) – Spain will pursue closer trade ties with China in the interests of its citizens and of the EU, its agriculture minister Luis Planas said on Wednesday, rejecting a U.S. warning that moving closer to the Asian country would be “cutting your own throat”.
‘”We have excellent trade relations with China which we intend to not only continue having, but expanding,” Planas told reporters from Ho Chi Minh City … accompanying Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on a trip to Vietnam and, on Friday, China.
‘Planas had been asked about earlier comments by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who criticised Spanish Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo’s suggestion that Europe should more closely align with China.
“That would be cutting your own throat,” Bessent told a banking event in Washington ….’
Spain sees the US citizens about to get their throats cut.
I commented the other day that, despite the left prematurely celebrating a “win” in the SCOTUS on the deportation cases/Tren de Aragua defendants, the beat-down of Judge Boasberg would have consequences.
That’s because although the court did hold that the five defendants must receive due process, the larger class was dismissed when Boasberg’s jurisdictional basis was revoked.
Anyone swept up in the ICE dragnets will need to get a lawyer and contest their deportation on a 1:1 basis.
No problemo, you say. They still get a phone call, right? Well, maybe it just got a lot harder:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/10/us/immigration-detainees-trump-ice-students-visa/index.html
The game works like this:
+ Arrest/detain with no due process;
+ Move detainees around like a shell game, good luck finding your client, Esquire!
+ End up in Texas, where the courts are tougher on illegals. Venue shopping by the government.
If Boasberg’s ruling had held, any class immigrant swept up would have been protected from deportation under the AEA. True, they’d still be in prison, but in the US.
Now they can be picked up and shuffled around prisons indefinitely, and end up in front of Hangin’ Judge Dread.
RE: Cops Used the Shoplifting Panic to Buy Tons of New Equipment
Our police used the spurious shoplifting panic to buy new toys for surveillance? Meanwhile, very real floods and other climate disasters would seem ample reason for our local police to pick up a few of the military’s water purification vehicles and soldier water purification systems. I guess all our local tax money isn’t buying as much serve-and-protect as it used to, or perhaps our police are not really serving or protecting their local public.
RE: Soft Future
My impression of this essay — it was long, fuzzy, and soft — although I admit I did not read it that carefully. I believe we live in a time when creative thinking outside normal constraints is essential to the future of Humankind. Such unconstrained thinking does require an initial phase of random association, the discovery and exploration of new analogies, and the synthesis of new and often weak thought constructs … but after phase of creation such thought should be filtered, refined, expanded, strengthened, warped, twisted, and tweaked in an analytical phase to distill the essence of a new approach, new conceptualization, new beginning for thought. I believe the concepts of brain-storming, “Phillips 66” — variously used in advertising, marketing, and new product design, vaguely follows a flow similar to my vaguely wandering sketch for how I believe creative thought should flow and be refined toward an end. I believe Art in all its forms may lead to new ways to live in a ‘warming’ world with hostile climate, and the slow exhaustion of the resources that once fed the our Anthropocenean Civilization. I want to retain hope that Humankind will continue and build a new and better Civilization, and I look to our Art and artists … but I am saddened and loss some of the shine on my hesitant optimism after even a cursory look at the direction of contemporary art.
Re: right brain: I haven’t watched to completion but have seen other vids with Iain McGilchrist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ6C4KQhdLQ (44:06).
The visual arts in academia, galleries and museums have doubled down on ID politics, to no one’s surprise. I’ll be visiting the Met for Casper Friedrich (he, his) and MOMA for Jack Whitten (he, his), two of the bright stars in my firmament. https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/caspar-david-friedrich-the-soul-of-nature
https://www.moma.org/artists/6351-jack-whitten
(Reply to Jeremy Grimm)
But what is your opinion about the importance of Art and the direction of contemporary art and current academic thinking on art?
Moi? My limited take as at outlier, former teaching adjunct at a public Ivy and temp museum preparator at an Ivy, I might not be one to ask. During my professional lifetime ID politics and PMC career concerns have been paramount at l’academie des Beaux Arts. There are wrongthink activities I do personally that I don’t talk about. Society loves art but hates artists.
Back in the mid 80s I used to entertain my friends (who are mostly engineers) by riffing on the ridiculous descriptions museums have been known to accompany artists work — often the tribal signalling takes priority over a genuine desire to be intelligible. Grad studies in English literature didn’t have many practical uses, but it was good for a few laughs …
This could provide a chuckle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA6Ld1scC10
> “The visual arts in academia, galleries and museums have doubled down on ID politics”
100% Germany (and not only ID)
But arts are extremely vulnerable (except organized blue-collar labour in theatre and film) for this entire agenda.
Imagine if DOGE actually went after fraud:
Medicare Bleeds Billions on Pricey Bandages, and Doctors Get a Cut (NY Times via archive.ph)
RE: Viewpoint: Why Oligarchs Want a Recession
Suppose the oligarchs, the u.s. and perhaps International Elites — Elites I suspect are probably part of u.s. Elites even as the u.s. Elites grow less and less affiliated with the national interests of the u.s. — are indeed willing beneficiaries of Trumps efforts to deconstruct the u.s. and its Empire. What purpose does Trump’s random, irrational, ever shifting approach to deconstruction serve? I realize that chaotic actions can hide a pattern of intentions, but as the Trump Presidency evolves, it grows more and more difficult to see method to the madness. I can see how the “oligarchs” would benefit from a recession — if they were well positioned before the recession. I cannot see how they would benefit from the wild and woolly recession Trump seems to be constructing.
Unless Trump is a very different personality behind closed doors, I think his chaos would needlessly complicate the ability of oligarchs to exploit the situation. If I were Daddy Warbucks, I would at least want a copy of Trump’s program for this ongoing drama, if any such program exists.
90-Day-Wonder: An officer commissioned in a branch of the armed forces after an unusually short training period, especially after a three-months officers’ training course during World War II.
We are right near Benedict Donald’s 90th day, an unusually ‘short’ training period.
Burger King serves up $128k to the IOF. That 16,400+ Whoppers @ $7.79. About 670 calories. Fries with that? That’ll run the calorie count to just over 1,000. Add a sugary drink. Keep it up and the IOF will be waddling into its next deployments.
Well now I have another reason never to go to Burger King. I think the last time I had one of their burgers was in 2004. The IDF can have all they like.
“The War Is Effectively Over” (Diesen & Martyanov)…the only trouble is that the actual “win” date keeps slipping further into the future, like nuclear fusion, the cure for cancer, and humans landing on Mars. Last year anti-empire sites were guessing January or February (2025) based on money Russia had budgeted for the SMO. Now I am seeing guesses of August or September. On multiple fronts the UAF is still giving ground very slowly or even counterattacking. And even doing pointless small incursions into Belgorod and Bryansk. Maybe Russia will definitely win the war, barring some big influx of foreign help on the side of Ukraine, but it seems very much like a grind-it-out, slow motion process that will not be anywhere near Odessa this year. Maybe this style drone-intensive warfare is just extremely slow. I have seen similar overly enthusiastic statements about the capabilities of Hezbollah, Yemen, and Iran. Maybe those forces can do serious damage to Israel someday, but they haven’t done it to date in spite of firing off numerous missiles and drones. Nothing of major military significance has been hit, nor any government leaders (as compared to the successful killing of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders by Israel). Maybe the Axis of Resistance just doesn’t have the weaponry to put a halt to Israel’s project. They sure seem to lack effective anti-aircraft defenses.
Re: “Meet the warriors trying to teach the west how to fight in the Arctic”, let’s just start with there being no “warriors” in Norwegian armed forces, they are citizen soldiers with conscription and all.
The part about Arctic winter being mostly about survival, not fighting is indeed correct. You do check each other for signs of frostbites constantly. But other than that, Norwegians have never really fought in Arctic temperatures since the winter 1808-9. They do have this Birkibeinar mythology, but in the real world you never, ever fight on skis – unless you have a death wish.
As a someone who decades ago participates in war games below minus 30°C, the things you want to keep warm (besides yourself) are batteries and water, not your weapon. You just remove any grease or oil, and your weapon will be good to go, but if the batteries of your radios (and nowadays probably a lot of other stuff, too) drain you might as well not be there and if your water gets frozen you won’t be there for long.
Old yelllow has passed the ancient Roman hyperinflation figures of about 1800 years ago, after the silver Denarius was devalued from the rate of 25 Denarii equaling 1 gold Aureus, to eventually reaching a rate of 3,000 Denarii = 1 Aureus.
To be fair, there was really no silver in them, it had gone from being 95% pure for hundreds of years, to being silver-washed.
That whole stupid alchemy period took place after high technology made bronze coins look like silver, why couldn’t it be done with all that glitters, et tu Newton?
Our rate went from $20 face value in silver coins equaling just under 1 ounce of gold 93 years ago, to the present $3177 per ounce.
The “value” of a token isn’t its substrate — it’s the obligation (typically taxes, fees or fines) that it will fulfill.
Georg Friedrich Knapp, where are you? You are our only hope …
Birds changing colour in cities. Are we really surprised.
Since mid 1850s (example used in any self respectably Biology book that has an Evolution chapter) the peppered moth was cited as a shining example of evolution.
https://butterfly-conservation.org/moths/why-moths-matter/amazing-moths/peppered-moth-and-natural-selection
Grayzone: “An investigative report by journalist Andres Duran has placed Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa at in the middle of a system that has seen his violence-plagued country turned into a laundromat for transnational drug cartels.
“Ecuador teeters on the edge of a narco abyss, awash in violence, and with its dollarized economy and strategic ports transformed into a cocaine highway through Guayaquil to Europe and beyond.”
I nixed moving to Ecuador a couple of years ago, and it’s a good thing I did.