Kawasaki Shows off Concept for Rideable Horse Robot Futurism
US abandoned nuclear plant finds surprising second life as world’s quietest sound lab Interesting Engineering
Yes, Canada geese are annoying. But should they be gassed to death in Michigan? Bridge Michigan
Inflation eased in March but Trump’s tariffs could still bite despite 90-day pause USA Today
US egg prices increase to record high, dashing hopes of cheap eggs by Easter The Canadian Press
Climate/Environment
Siberian permafrost melt acceleration could release two times more CO₂ into the atmosphere than all of humanity since the dawn of history Bne Intellinews
Trump’s EPA Plans to Stop Collecting Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data From Most Polluters ProPublica
LARGEST NATURAL GAS POWER PLANT IN THE COUNTRY, DATA CENTER COMING TO FORMER HOMER CITY COAL PLANT Allegheny Front
Why the climate promises of AI sound a lot like carbon offsets MIT Technology Review
Data centres will use twice as much energy by 2030 — driven by AI Nature
The Bleak, Defeatist Rise of “Climate Realism” The New Republic
Water
Revealed: Big tech’s new datacentres will take water from the world’s driest areas SourceMaterial
Pandemics
WHO: SEAR Epidemiological Update On H5N1 In India Avian Flu Diary
Source: Workers key to bird flu response taking USDA buyouts, may strain agency’s efforts Des Moines Register
Indiana reports measles outbreak as cases rise in Ohio and Michigan CIDRAP
‘The Great Educator, Sadly, Is Going to Be These Viruses’ FAIR
China?
Trump tariffs live updates: China hits back, hikes tariffs on US goods to 125% from 84% yahoo! Finance
Trump Tariffs on China Now at Least 145% as Trade War Ramps Up Bloomberg
Beijing bites back at US tariffs by curbing Hollywood imports Channel News Asia
China can win an energy trade war with the US Semafor
US targets China oil storage terminal in new Iran-related sanctions CNBC
European Disunion
EU, China will look into setting minimum prices on electric vehicles, EU says Reuters
EU leaders plan trip to Beijing in July for summit with Xi Jinping SCMP
EU pauses retaliatory tariffs against US to ‘give negotiations a chance’ Euronews
The Brief – Give the world what it so craves, Eurobonds Euractiv
Syraqistan
Top Houthi Official Tells Drop Site Yemen Will Cease Attacks on U.S. Ships if Trump Halts Bombing Drop Site
Israel and Turkiye in Syria: No clash, just a division of spoils The Cradle
Hundreds of Air Force reservists face expulsion after opposing Gaza war Jerusalem Post
Microsoft fires engineers over protesting AI supply to Israeli military Anadolu Agency
Africa
Three Americans jailed over failed DR Congo coup returned home BBC
New Not-So-Cold War
New Syrsky Interview Sheds Light on Upcoming Russian Operations + Recruitment Figures Simplicius
Russia-US talks in Istanbul conclude after more than 5 hours Anadolu Agency
Western ‘coalition of the willing’ stumbles on reassurance force troop numbers, timeline Breaking Defense
Kremlin sets the conditions for foreign companies to return to Russian market Bne Intellinews
South of the Border
Argentina General Strike Demands End to Milei’s ‘Chainsaw’ Austerity Policies Common Dreams
US Nixes Venezuela-Trinidad Natural Gas Licenses as Maduro Declares Economic Emergency Venezuelanalysis
“Liberation Day”
Trump advisor reveals tariff strategy: Force countries to pay tribute to maintain US empire Geopolitical Economy Report
This chart explains why Trump backflipped on tariffs. The economic damage would have been huge The Conversation
The market drops partly reflect powerful corporate/financial interests not wanting change. But it’s also from tariff MALPRACTICE. I unpack why April 2 moves have been all downside/no upside. But, now, most critical is maximum TRANSPARENCY in negotiations during pause. 2/ pic.twitter.com/xofu5JBtvI
— Lori Wallach (@WallachLori) April 10, 2025
***
Stunned by Trump’s tariffs, world clothing suppliers are preparing to squeeze workers France24
Turning the little screws Blood in the Machine
A ‘US-Made iPhone’ Is Pure Fantasy 404 Media
Apple airlifts over 500 tonnes of iPhones from India ‘to beat’ Trump tariffs: Sources Channel News Asia
***
New Order? New Left Review
Trump channeling the Yeltsin Mindset Nefarious Russians
JUST ANOTHER AMERICAN PRESIDENT Seymour Hersh
DOGE
US bank regulator begins work with DOGE staff, email says Reuters
DOGE Arrives at FDIC but Doesn’t Have Access to Bank Data Bloomberg
Coal miners’ health care hit hard in job cuts to CDC NPR
Government shuts CDC office focused on alcohol-related harms and prevention STAT
Democrats en déshabillé
Cory Booker, Confused Liberals, Obama’s Reappearance, and the Dangers of a Fake Movement Black Agenda Report
Obama Legacy
Cash-strapped states panic over end of Obamacare subsidies Politico
After skipping Trump inauguration, Michelle Obama says ‘I chose to do what was best for me’ The Hill
Immigration
Supreme Court orders Trump to free Maryland father from El Salvador prison Courthouse News
Pressed for evidence against Mahmoud Khalil, government cites its power to deport people for beliefs AP
ICE director envisions Amazon-like mass deportation system: ‘Prime, but with human beings’ Michigan Advance
Police State Watch
Trump Team Prepping New Strategy for Domestic Terrorism Ken Klippenstein
As summer nears, Angola Farm Line workers again demand more protections against heat The Lens
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Cofertility raises a $7M Series A to make egg freezing free TechCrunch
Groves of Academe
Protesters face felony charges for taking over Stanford building Palo Alto Online
Trump Administration Subpoenas UC Faculty Information in Antisemitism Investigation KQED
Trump Administration Wants to Install Federal Oversight of Columbia University WSJ
Student Loans Update: Government May Garnish Millions of Borrowers’ Wages Newsweek
The US is a wealthy country and could afford to offer everyone who wants it an open-admissions high quality liberal arts university education – for free – if we wanted to
— Benjamin Balthaser (@BL_Balthaser) April 2, 2025
The Friendly Skies
NYC Hudson River helicopter crash victims are identified as tech boss, his wife and three children Daily Mail
US to unleash robot swarms to build smart aircraft with speed, precision, safety Interesting Engineering
AI
Bank of England says AI software could create market crisis for profit The Guardian
Meta’s AI, built on ill-gotten content, can probably build a digital you The Register
Healthcare?
Public Health Org Calls for RFK Jr. to ‘Resign or Be Fired’ MedPage Today
Our Famously Free Press
Antitrust
Zuckerberg on the Stand: The Trial to Break Up Facebook Starts Monday BIG by Matt Stoller
Imperial Collapse Watch
It Took 73 C-17 Loads To Move Patriot Battalion From Pacific To Middle East The War Zone
U.S. Commanders Worry Yemen Campaign Will Drain Arms Needed to Deter China New York Times
The Bezzle
Class Warfare
IU grad workers union says several members had visas revoked Indiana Public Media
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Vote For Trump!
(melody borrowed from America by Simon & Garfunkel, written in 1968)
(Way out here in Appalachia, the rank and file of Trump’s cult are expressing serious doubts
about their Great Leader. He had raised their hopes, but is now seen as an embarrassment.)
“Sisters and Brothers, my snake oil will make you feel better!”
“Paycheck to paycheck can be such a drag!”
“You’ve all got a stack of ancient debts that don’t decrease in size,
Elect me, and I won’t embarrass ya!”
“Let us break bread, for the Lord said He found me for His work!”
“I like guns and ice cream vote for me now!”
“Offer me your praise, in our Reich you’ll have it all!”
“I swear that I won’t embarrass ya!”
Trashing everyone
Silly names for dark races
We understand Elon’s ketamine use makes him wise
If we are prayerful some small lies they won’t really matter
“Forward with no regrets, we’ve got a long list of scapegoats!”
“Trump gets the last word on who has to go!”
“The Congress full of thievery, and pushing their vaccine
And no one knows of The Art Of The Deal!”
“Lines will be crossed; from here there is no more retreating!”
“Without me our country will wither and die!”
Mounting alarm on the journey to our Reich—
“But I swear that I won’t embarrass ya!”
“I swear that I won’t embarrass ya!”
“I swear that I won’t embarrass ya!”
Most of my acquaintances who voted for Trump do not regret their vote. I wonder how many others do?
Eh it’s early in the game. It’s really psychologically difficult for humans to admit when we’re wrong, and the actual pain from tariffs and geopolitical brinkmanship haven’t really hit yet.
Even if things get much worse, it will take time before people start regretting their decisions, and even then it will just be a portion, plenty of people will delusionally double down for their party. I saw it first hand among relatives that refused to acknowledge Biden’s cognitive decline.
“Trump’s EPA Plans to Stop Collecting Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data From Most Polluters”
Back during Trump’s first Presidency, he said something along the lines that if you do not note Covid cases, then you won’t see infection rates go up. This is along the same lines in that if you stop collecting emissions data, then you have no basis to demand that polluters knock it off. Those polluters then will do whatever they want as nobody will be watching them. Heard something similar with an industrial city here in Oz called Broken Hill. Government detectors check on pollution but on the days that it starts going overboard, the government stops taking samples. Nothing detected, then no problems.
I’ve tried not looking at my bank account to avoid seeing how broke I am but that usually ends with me getting overdraft notices. Pretty sure Mother Nature doles out worse penalties. Unfortunately she doesn’t just penalize the polluter but will hit all of us.
I remember thinking, O M G – and awaaaaay we go when Kelly Anne Conway opined and pointed out the basic strategy during Trump 45:
“Those are YOUR facts”
The funny thing is that “don’t do the testing and you won’t have the cases” became the core of Covid policy during the Biden administration, and it’s where we are today.
In Sweden they don*t register wealth, ownership of bonds, equities etc, neither after they abolished the wealth tax in 2007. This way you cannot tax wealth neither.
Funny side-effect: millionaire magazines couldn’t know who to send their stuff to.
https://www-svd-se.translate.goog/a/475f6035-2939-3da0-af44-f3314784cc9c/de-rika-gar-inte-att-rakna?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
The owner class scream hallelujah that the current warlusting, extreme neoliberal government refused to reintroduce the wealth statistics last year.
https://www-svensktnaringsliv-se.translate.goog/blogg/fokus-pa-skatterna/utredningsforslaget-om-formogenhetsregister-avfardat_1218006.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Statistics Canad census, done every 5 years, on its long form, asks questions only about income, not wealth. I asked them about that and they hummed and hummed and pointed to a specialised survey done more than 10 years ago that tries to capture some measure of wealth.
Never mind that CRA data is impossible to get.
When the Canuck census taker wants info from me I don’t violate the law and refuse to provide the info. Instead, I tell the government employee that in 1833 England passed a law that said slavery was illegal in their colonies so I need a letter from the deputy minister of Sats Can saying how much and when I’d be paid for working for the government.
That would be the last I’d hear from those privacy violators for another 5 years. I have a neighbour who tells them to fuck off but she’s first nation so she can get away with it.
Boy howdy, I’m glad I checked in on a slow news day! When folks find out that $25 toaster they wanted last month is now $62.50 are they going for it? Meanwhile in Gaza…
wait until the find out the toaster they wanted isnt there anymore and an Asian got to buy it for $5.
Trump may do wonders for the working class, but it maybe China’s. they finally get to but the products they make!
Are electric toasters still manufactured in the US? I wonder if a blueprint could be pulled out of the archives from seventy years ago and start making them again. Not many working parts in them and easily punched out. To make them more popular they could say that they are self repairable and that they will never have sensors installed and definitely will never be able to be connected up to the internet-
https://www.johndesmond.com/blog/products/the-history-of-toasters/
I’d buy a toaster like that.
If they are built here they’d cost $250. There could be a small market but not from anyone I know. Use some gold leaf and they could go for $2,500.
Let me guess for that $250 toaster. So about $10 for materials, $50 for taxes, only illegal immigrants used for labour and the rest swallowed up by management and consultancy fees. Then if it becomes successful, management sells out the company to a private equity firm who loads it up with the debt used to buy that company, it gets asset stripped and everything else sold out to a firm in Asia.
Or you’d have to toast your bread 3 times to get it right. Energy efficiency rules, you know.
Most likely it would also connect to the internet and come with an app so you can experience the modern convenience of knowing when your toast is ready when you’re out of the house.
And brick itself when private equity strips the toaster company for parts and ditches the burning hulk in a lonely ravine…
Unauthorized Bread
”The Boulangism cloud had burst and that meant that there was no one answering Salima’s toaster when it asked if the bread she was about to toast had come from an authorized Boulangism baker, which it had. In the absence of a reply, the paranoid little gadget would assume that Salima was in that class of nefarious fraudsters who bought a discounted Boulangism toaster and then tried to renege on her end of the bargain by inserting unauthorized bread, which had consequences ranging from kitchen fires to suboptimal toast (Boulangism was able to adjust its toasting routine in realtime to adjust for relative kitchen humidity and the age of the bread, and of course it would refuse to toast bread that had become unsalvageably stale), to say nothing of the loss of profits for the company and its shareholders. Without those profits, there’d be no surplus capital to divert to R&D, creating the continuous improvement that meant that hardly a day went by without Salima and millions of other Boulangism stakeholders (never just “customers”) waking up with exciting new firmware for their beloved toasters.”
My ancient 500/600 watt toaster kicked the bucket 1 or 2 yrs ago. All comparable toasters on the market where 1100 watts or more. At least I got if free by taking advantage of an offer at Amazon.
Maybe it will bring back the “Toaster Repair Shop”. I haven’t bought a new toaster in years. Last one I picked up was at a yard sale at least 15 years ago.
I toast my bread on a forked stick over the burn barrel!
The hard part is trying to keep from dropping crumbs down into my clothes, a wooden barrel held up with suspenders.
Your privileged presumption that you are somehow entitled to a burn barrel and a forked stick is highly triggering to me.
I’ve never owned a toaster. My mother made toast by putting bread on an old aluminum cookie sheet under the oven broiler and then turning it till both sides were browned. I’ve always done the same thing. I still have that old aluminum cookie sheet. It’s pretty banged up. As my mother would have said, “The poor have poor ways.”
I like the idea of a “Toaster Repair Shop”. It sounds very Andy Griffith Show. Maybe Goober could run it.
No, Emmett ran the repair shop!
I got a one-slicer to use on the road. It looks modern but inside, the exact same 1920s technology. We could 3D print the cases here and use old-timey hardware for the insides.
An oven broiler uses a whole lot more energy than a toaster does. I lament how much energy my toaster uses but I freeze bread I get for half price at my food co-op’s bakery as they bake new (they have a very good baker) and it’s retrieved better with a toaster than a microwave, though the latter would use less energy. I do start with a loaf not frozen.
And to draw a finer point on your comment below, I didn’t mean to start a sub-thread on toasters per se.
Crikey!
The Idiot in Chief™’s trade war with China is going to immiserate many more than who are already miserable.
I already do without.
I really don’t know about how much energy a couple of minutes of toasting bread under an oven broiler uses. We couldn’t afford a toaster so my mother always made toast that way. She did the best she could with what we had.
My cancer prevents me from swallowing solid food anymore so it has been a long time since I had toast but I used to enjoy it.
Dear Lena, my heart tears for you.
Did she also make “grease toast” from a can of lard accumulated from previous cooking?
No, my mother never used lard. But my grandmother always had a can of lard in her kitchen. Among other things, she used it to fry bread in a cast iron skillet. She never called it grease toast. It was fried bread. My grandmother lived to be 99 years old.
My mother made lettuce sandwiches as a meal for us when I was growing up. A few pieces of head lettuce between two slices of bread with Miracle Whip spread on them. She also made sugar sandwiches sometimes as a treat. Sugar sprinkled on slices of bread spread with margarine. I think they were sandwiches she learned to make as a child during the Great Depression.
They’ll need to start using metal parts for anyone to be able to make repairs. Few years ago mine stopped popping up so I tried to repair it myself. I was able to find the problem – one tiny little plastic part about the size of a grain of rice had cracked – but then I couldn’t fix it. Pretty clearly it was a feature of planned obsolescence so I would have to buy a new toaster. How hard would it have been to use an easily replaceable metal screw instead of a brittle plastic fastener?
I put one over on Big Toaster though – my extremely frugal mother had saved her old toaster which was the same model as mine that broke, and gave it to me. So far, so good ;)
Took a quick minute to read the above article on building a fully assembled I-Phone in a future America. Go long robots turning all those tiny screws, or rather the manufacturing of all the robotics necessary to efficiently assemble those Apple products.
Yeah and next up I’m bidding to own a magical bridge with a unicorn on the other side! Apple will likely rearrange their supply chain to India or a similar country, and not to Texas, California or anywhere in the lower 48. This is just tariff nonsense.
As for the toaster discussion or related small appliances, yeah Sunbeam once upon a time had a factory located near my hometown. I’ll guess that factory in Washington, North Carolina closed in the early 1990s. Times changed.
And General Electric had a clothes iron plant in Ontario, California that I toured as a Cub Scout in the early 1960’s. I recall seeing aluminum being poured for the iron’s shoe(?).
Bringing back manufacturing to the USA will be much more difficult than bringing in the light rail in regions where street cars used to roam.
It will be glory days for high paid in-sourcing consultants in the USA.
“Chainsaw Al” Dunlap came to town and did away with most of Sunbeam mfg. is the US. He did finally get fired but, not before he gutted the company in the 90’s.
IIRC, toasters are covered by energy efficiency and fire hazard standards. US regulation (or over-regulation depending on one’s politics) is a barrier to reshoring manufacturing.
Just saying.
Nonsense. They are covered by efficiency and fire hazard standards – particularly the fire ones, and you forgot electrical safety, and the EU’s RoHS material standards. Now go to any store in Shenzen or Berlin and find anything on the shelf that doesn’t have the exact same CE certificate label. It’s a global market. No manufacturer is going to make a product to US standards, a separate product for the EU, and a third, or Nth product for any other market. Stop repeating ignorant right wing corporatist propaganda.
This is so dumb. In what logical universe does setting standards for fire safety make a product un-manufacturable in the US, but allows it to be made in Shenzen, meeting exactly the same standards??
We have a Dualit toaster. Made in England, family owned factory. Fully repairable, no electronics. It was expensive (nowhere near the CAD$400 they cost nowadays). We’ve had it for 10 years and I doubt we’ll ever have to buy another one. We have a Technivorm coffee maker. Again, not cheap but owned for more than 10 years, still makes perfectly hot coffee. It’s repairable and is very dumb and will probably last another 10 years with repairs.
I am only belatedly in life learning the about practicability and affordability of thrift shops – have vowed to check them first whenever I ‘need’ something. So far I have not been impressed with the small appliance sections (mostly super cheap electronic stuff that people bought and used few times) – they won’t last long and can’t be repaired.
Second hand clothing, especially for kids, seems a no brainer. I have to go to a wedding this summer and I will not be buying a new dress for the occasion – thrift choices seem endless. IDK why anyone is buying new clothes.
We also have a Dualit, bought 25 years ago when we moved to London. It’s still going strong! We originally paid what we thought was a fortune for it at about £100; now they cost more than twice that.
We only just had to replace the timer last year. Bought the spare on Dualit’s website for £25 and my husband changed it out easily. It was expensive but I can’t complain about its quality and durability. I have friends who seem to replace their cheap toasters every year or two; they can’t imagine paying more. But in the end they’ve spent more on their multiple cheap toasters than I spent on my expensive one.
Maybe our big banks could return to offering you a free toaster when you sign up for a new account.
I think I will send Jamie Dimon a note . . . no, wait, maybe not.
Do some banks still offer a free rifle when you set up a bank account? As Michael Moore asked, is it a good idea to be handing out guns in a bank?
I still find it immensely funny to walk into a bank wearing my N95.
I have a toaster that was a college gift, and is now almost 25 years old. Still does toast, although a few strands of the heating elements don’t go red anymore. Built like a tank, I guess. And this one is encased in plastic, and has a plastic feel to it.
Separate rant: Bagel mode on toasters does it wrong. It’s either less toasting on one side, or one brand it actually means more toasting on one side. That makes no sense.
Proper way to toast a bagel is on a grill pan, face down, with a grill press; It’s soft on the bottom side, and crunchy on the face side. Perfect. The way it should be done.
For affordable appliances, try Habitat for Humanity Restores. They sometimes have new appliances as well as used ones in good condition.
I know Alice X is making a larger point here but in case people really are looking for affordable appliances, Habitat is an excellent resource. Also try local thrift stores for small appliances.
Thrift stores are about the only place I shop. Unless I can get it for free. Habitat got me a free fridge, for which I was most appreciative. :-/
I agree Lena. My bedroom is furnished either with items I built (work bench, desk, bookshelves) or bought from Habitat (tool closet, dresser, bed). It saves money, doesn’t burden the planet with building new “stuff,” and contributes to a worthwhile charity that builds or restores homes for people that couldn’t afford them otherwise.
Lena, my bedroom/office/workshop in this old house is furnished with either what I built or what I bought from Habitat. It’s a three-fer: save money; save the planet the burden of us making new “stuff;” contribute to the worthwhile project of building housing for people.
Outside of two beds, I don’t think we own one piece of new furniture. In NYC one used to be able to pick good furniture off the sidewalks on large-trash day.
The problem is that because of bedbugs, I have had to quit dumpster diving.
Craigslist is also a good place for very decent stuff, especially the “Free” section. I recently saw a listing “entire contents of three bedroom house for free”. I picked up a set of commercial shelving, old, US made; the owner even helped me break it down and load.
Used appliance stores are great! I always bought 2nd hand refrigerators and never had a problem. We’ve had the current used fridge for 15 years. It started dripping, recently, but we managed to repair it. Now, we’re shopping for a new stove but it’s hard to find a really small electric stove. Next, a new sink base, drawers, etc. We’ll buy drawers, and make the rest–there’s a youtube for any repair or skill you need!
Around here, there’s a very active Freecycle group, and supposedly an equivalent group on the Faceborg. It helps that we’re geographically adjacent to an 1%er enclave down the road. Nothing like multiple free 40″+ TVs to set up as computer & playstation monitors.
There’s free and then there’s FREE! There used to be a free box in Bolinas, California, actually a small room. They probably still have it, I haven’t been there in decades. The local weekly newspaper had a Sheriff Calls column that would print interesting calls. One day in the early ’80’s a guy called up to report he had been solicited for sex by a woman who was living in the free box. The dispatcher asked him if she had asked for money. He replied, “No man, she was in the free box.”
i tell everyone to hit the thrifts now for what you might need as far as electronics are concerned.
clothing to.
this was gonna happen sooner or later regardless of the tariffs. people are getting so poor, that replacing electronics, clothing, shoes etc., has become to big a burden when you can either eat, or pay bills, but you cannot do both.
Are you referring to this article?
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/04/10/tariffs-the-constitution/
Napolitano says that Trump’s tariffs are an unconstitutional sales tax on Americans (Trump openly says his purpose is to replace income taxes) and that even the 1977 law Trump is using only grants “emergency” powers that are being used against a trade deficit that has existed for decades.
Unfortunately only Congress has standing to challenge this upsurpation of their powers but perhaps some individual Congress people could start the ball rolling. Napolitano says even the 1977 law is unconstitutional since the Constitution says Congress cannot give away certain inherent powers.
He also talks about toasters.
What’s interesting is tariffs are what hydrated the United States into the federalist system.
America’s First Proposed Federal Tariff: The Imposts of 1781 and 1783
Much longer form is: The Hamilton Scheme by William Hogeland. America was founded as a financial capitalist nation.
Jason, good timing. I ordered that one and 2 other books of his late last week. Can’t wait. They will probably be hard to stomach, like The Whiskey Rebellion was, and will have to limit myself to reading only a couple pages every couple of days in order to keep myself sane.
thanks to both for the recommendations
I 2nd that book recommendation. It makes it abundantly clear that things are the way they are today because they were designed to be that way 250 years ago.
I read that Judge Nap piece yesterday. A week ago he had on Jeffrey Sachs who got the ball rolling (on the illegality of Trump’s tariffs. (I posted a link but it was late in the day and didn’t find any legs.) There could be legal action but I haven’t heard of any.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0alGvV0Sjc
It’s only illegal if you get arrested for it….
They won’t be needing a toaster, since they won’t be able to afford bread anyway.
“ICE director envisions Amazon-like mass deportation system: ‘Prime, but with human beings’”
A few years back I wrote a film about an Amazon delivery driver whose main cargo was indentured servants for “prime citizens”. Was intended to be a sci-fi but by the time it gets made it will be a quaint historical drama. It’s getting to be very difficult to satirize our profoundly sick society.
Don’t worry about it, Geo. The writers at The Onion and the Babylon Bee find that they just can’t keep ahead of real headlines too. If you could go back 2 years in time and tell your earlier self what was going to be happening in the years ahead, would 2023 Geo actually believe you?
Very true! Even the cynical pessimistic voices in my head are dumbfounded by how optimistic they were about things back then.
A few weeks back I taped or rather the DVR taped it, a Sunday afternoon showing of a 1987 film, The Running Man. Science fiction in what used to be print, and in film, can be or is disturbing on what they are getting right.
Hat tip, the intro depicts an apocalyptic scenario circa 2017…
Remember what happened to the “winners” of those competitions?
Charles Stross has an SF / IT / Lovecraftian horror / humor series (the Laundry Files). The series evolved to the point where the UK voted in ‘the Black Pharoah’ as PM. He has complained that he’s had to give up, as he can’t come up with a government more evil than the real world one.
IU grad workers union says several members had visas revoked Indiana Public Media
———-
I’m going to assume that this is related to some protest activities that would have taken place in 2022 and 2023. This is honestly such a bad policy that I’m surprised it’s going through.
The US benefits a lot by educating the elites and elite-adjacent of other countries, it provides a lot of soft power. But now that will go away. A lot of them will be more likely to send their children to universities in China or even evil Russia now.
It kind of feels like like the ideological parasite is beginning to more dangerously cannibalize the host.
The US higher education system also makes bank by having foreign students pay full tuition, especially the Chinese. That allows them to give USian students more financial aid.
These clowns clearly haven’t thought things through.
Oh, I think they’ve thought it through. The goal is to loot and destroy any and all academic research and education institutions in the United States deemed insufficiently loyal to Dear Leader, while identifying and personally punishing anyone guilty of any potential terrorist thought crime that might deviate from Trump Zedong Thought:
“Raise high the great red flag of Trump Zedong Thought, unite around the Party and Chairman Trump, and crush all kinds of constraints and subversive plots of revisionism… to carry the Dominionist revolution to the end.”
Show trials next, enabled by the white shoe law firms that have already submitted to Trump Zedong Thought. It’s wild that all of those people who were screaming about imminent Democratic dictatorship think that this is just fine.
Inflation eased in March but Trump’s tariffs could still bite despite 90-day pause USA Today
Wolf Street suggests otherwise, there is no easing in inflation when you break down by categories. The ease is caused by a big decline in energy. This isnt likely to be duplicated forever and could turn in the opposite direction. And food price inflation is big this time.
> White House aide Margo Martin shared a video where the President referenced substantial financial gains made by executives, specifically mentioning figures of $2.5 billion and $900 million.
[timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/watch-trump-accused-of-market-manipulation-charge-after-friends-make-2-5-billion-and-900-million/articleshow/120162627.cms]
I had referenced ‘If you know next weeks headlines, you can make a lot of money.’ Looks like the cycle is faster, they crashed & restarted the stock market in less than a week.
Very likely this will turn into a repeat of the Biden dynamic where the headline inflation numbers are going down but the things people buy every day in stores are going up. That is the sort of thing that could actually get through and turn away some peripheral MAGA types.
Too bad there isn’t a party to vote for in the mid-terms that offers anything different.
“After skipping Trump inauguration, Michelle Obama says ‘I chose to do what was best for me’ ”
Seriously not impressed. Just you watch. Ten years from now Michelle will be passing Donald some sweets during a funeral somewhere and maybe even hugging him in a picture. She is a woman of negotiable loyalties.
Really, Bush derangement syndrome. Maybe she doesn’t let her personal beliefs betray simple civility. Maybe loyalty is just what gets us Trump sycophants. Serious infraction passing sweets.
Bush got four or five thousand Americans killed in Iraq alone and an unknown number of Iraqis, set up torture centers in Cuba, Iraq, Afghanistan, aboard US Navy ships and others around the world, had people kidnapped in other countries for torturing, brought in the Patriot Act, cut back on American civil liberties, etc. etc. etc. but yeah George, have a sweet and give us a hug-
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/297602-george-w-bush-and-michelle-obama-share-hug-on-stage/
Why not snuggle up? Obama ended up continuing and systematizing Bush’s murderous policies.
Or maybe the guilty conscience is the source of the discomfort.
Yes they are all war criminals and psychopaths. It kinda goes with the territory of running a country. Don’t you think all those who voted for him share in the criminality. I for sure thought he was the worst US pres until Trump, but I look around my town at all the heavily opinionated and ignorant neighbors and know they would be worse, totally incompetent and happy to take the job. But they are my neighbors and I treat them civilly even though I know they would be war criminals on almost any scale. Gandhi’s are few and far between.
Did you really miss how bad Obama was? Not just because he extended Bush’s policies regarding the Middle East, he even expanded them. Don’t forget to take into account his work advancing the psychopathic financial institutions, the ACA, and the continued decimation of civil rights and liberties.
I have no idea if you meant Trump 1 or the current term, but for me it feels like we have been caught in a game of oneupmanship by every President of my adult life. Reagan was bad enough, but there has been no relief. They ought to add a line to the oath: “ you thought the last guy was bad, hold my beer.”
Michelle Obama hugging W shouldn’t have been such a surprise, or felt like such a betrayal. The imagery resonated negatively for so many because it was the first time they got that it might really be only ONE club and they weren’t in it or a consideration for those that were. So no I don’t blame everyone who voted for any of the assholes. With probably very few exceptions most who did fell for the bait and got hit with the switch. Let me quote my favorite Palin moment: “How’s that hopey changey thing working out for you…” Some version of that question could be asked for all of them.
Where does making sure we know the snub was intentional fall on your civility scale?
‘I chose to do what was best for me’
They always do.
The Rev Kev: Thanks. You sent me over to the Hill.
The telling detail is skipping Jimmy Carter’s funeral. To what end? Because she was too indoctrinated in “pleasing” people and “not disappointing”? Sheesh. I guess that she isn’t Eleanor Roosevelt after all.
Good thing that the Obamas, who supposedly relied for years on her salary at the U of Chicago hospitals and his salary as a “professor of constitutional law,” somehow have accumulated four houses with a combine value of some 15 million USD. (Hyde Park / Kenwood, IL, Oahu, Martha’s Vineyard, Kalorama, DC.)
She can sit on the couch with a box of Fannie Mae candies.
I am reminded of Catherine Liu on trauma and how the bourgeoisie uses “trauma” as a way of display and stagnation. “Instrumentalizing your suffering to accentuate your brand.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia6m3pIIS2k
First ten minutes or so in a great interview with Joshua Citarella.
“Selling a narrative of trauma and recovery.”
Sometimes, one does things because it is one’s social role. But that’s so twentieth-century, going to funerals and staying for lunch at the Polish restaurant down the road from the graveyard.
“Beijing bites back at US tariffs by curbing Hollywood imports”
I’ve only made two films. The first made about 1/4 of its gross from sales to China which has helped it become a relatively profitable venture. The second came out during the Trump first term and due to that tariff scuffle was not able to be sold to their markets and sadly bombed (not the sole reason but a big part of it).
These are not “Hollywood” films in any sense of the word and are true indie films. Foreign markets are about the only way most lower budget films have a shot at making their investment back since American audiences only seem to show up for horror movies (says a lot about our culture but that’s for another conversation). Especially since domestic streaming platforms pay pennies for indie films (Amazon recently cut pay to $0.01 per hour watched) the foreign markets are about the only way to recoup investment.
From talks I’ve had with agents, producers, and other directors, we are going to be seeing much less being made as few are able to get anything financed. About the only stuff we’re going to get is homogenized shows from streaming platforms and big IP movies. There’s not enough domestic audience support for original films. So, go enjoy the few we currently have while you can because there’s going to be less and less over the coming months and years.
Congratulations on being a filmmaker, that’s one of the greatest art forms in my opinion. I have envy, I think in some parallel world where I had better work ethic and a better attention span, I might have become a filmmaker.
Looking from afar as a fan, I suspect Hollywood has the same issues of rentierism as the rest of American industry. A lot of blockbusters that cost 300 million might have cost 200 million if they were better administered, and if fewer producers that didn’t actually do much got paid, also if they got the screenplays right the first time, they wouldn’t need as many reshoots.
It’s disappointing to hear and read that Netflix is parasitic. They used to make some better shows and movies but lately it’s more and more dreck in my perception.
Stoller expounded on this at length some years ago, but like the rot is most of America’s economy, it is massive studio consolidation that’s a cause of Hollywood’s creative bankruptcy, along with streaming services breaking the financing model for everything.
this is why you face such headwinds.
https://truthout.org/articles/democracy-in-peril-twenty-years-of-media-consolidation-under-the-telecommunications-act/
Democracy in Peril: Twenty Years of Media Consolidation Under the Telecommunications Act
In 1996, President Clinton signed the bill into law. Today, the media industry is donating big to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
By
Michael Corcoran ,
Truthout
“The negative impact of the law cannot be overstated. The law, which was the first major reform of telecommunications policy since 1934, according to media scholar Robert McChesney, “is widely considered to be one of the three or four most important federal laws of this generation.” The act dramatically reduced important Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations on cross ownership, and allowed giant corporations to buy up thousands of media outlets across the country, increasing their monopoly on the flow of information in the United States and around the world.
“Never have so many been held incommunicado by so few,” said Eduardo Galeano, the Latin American journalist, in response to the act.
Twenty years later the devastating impact of the legislation is undeniable: About 90 percent of the country’s major media companies are owned by six corporations. Bill Clinton’s legacy in empowering the consolidation of corporate media is right up there with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and welfare reform, as being among the most tragic and destructive policies of his administration.”
…
Thanks for the link. And this is why, imo, reporters no longer dig to get a scoop to beat the competion; there is no competion. The few, giant corporations control almost all of the MSM editorial boards.
The article suggests H’wood’s big China push of a few years back has already diminished with Chinese films taking up the slack.
And further trouble for the moguls lies in the fact that their precious IP is only protected by some easily hacked DRM. Why buy a cow when you can get the Marvel movies for free? Trump’s trade war is threatening Amerca’s international business in a number of ways.
the biggest film in the world right now is something that 99% of Americans have never heard of….USD1.8 billion at the box office. 哪吒之魔童闹海;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ne_Zha_2
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/releasegroup/gr2405716741/?
The train wreck Star Wars reboot trilogy flopped in China; and shockingly Chinese moviegoers, like American ones, are getting tired of comic book movies.
Fwiw (most of it however behind paywall and much “I think”):
2 posts by The Entertainment Strategy Guy´s Substack:
A Trade War Could Be A Disaster…For Hollywood
The Tariff War Will be Digitized
April 8th
https://entertainment.substack.com/p/a-trade-war-could-be-a-disasterfor
How the Trade Wars Could Decimate Substackers and the Creator Economy
The Tariff War Will be Digitized
April 9th
https://entertainment.substack.com/p/how-the-trade-wars-could-decimate-big-tech-apple-amazon-substack-tariffs-trump-youtube
Supreme Court orders Trump to free Maryland father from El Salvador prison Courthouse News
Do you suppose John Robert’s added in a final line in the ruling: “You could just pink mist him”
If a president like Trump refuses and blatantly defies the order, along the lines of “Make me!” would their be anything to stop him since he also has the loyalty of various law enforcement agencies and military branches at his disposal?
Those Canada Geese are excellent eating; very tasty. It’s a shame to waste them when they could feed many hungry people. Wherever they land they fertilize the soil and make the grass grow lush green. Are they really causing problems? How much thought is going into solving those problems when the first reaction is a mass killing?
Here in eastern Ontario the geese and the ecoli in their poop does cause problems with our drinking water – many homes and cottages are dependant on lake water. That said I don’t think widespread killing and disposing of carcasses is the answer. It would be great if they could be caught and humanely killed for food – but many bleeding heart types would object even to this.
To be honest, I am sick and tired seeing/hearing Canadians wanting to get potable water from lakes or creeks, without any purification systems. Yeah, kill all the beavers, deer, cougars, coyotes, anything out there, because they will affect OUR water.
Same way the baby seals needed to be clubbed to death, because they were eating OUR fish, nevermind the pelts.
And they are actual water hogs…
Whoah! That’s about a nine on the tension scale! Couple of reactions – first I imagine that there are lakes in the US that people depend on for water, I don’t think that it’s a uniquely Canadian thing. Secondly, I think the fish, frogs, turtles and other birds and wildlife dependant of the lakes for water are also negatively affected by the ecoli from the goose poop.
I agree that we should live and let live. I happen to think the geese are lovely and it is cool to see them up close. I also love nothing better than to be in the garden with bees buzzing all around. That said, nature prefers a balance, animal populations go up and down naturally without humanity’s intercession. Unfortunately we, human beings that is, have caused many things to be out of balance. There are simply too many geese with no predators. In an ideal world maybe there would be no human beings living along side lakes but we’ll never undo everything. We need nature too we can’t all cram into cities and never walk in a forest or along a beach. That means it is up to us to try fix things in a humane way as possible.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issues special permits for controlling Canada Goose populations on the condition that harvested meat is sent to local food shelves:
https://www.fws.gov/story/2024-04/canada-goosin-around-minnesota
When I was working in Cambridge, they would frequent parks and could be aggressively protective during mating season (about now). HR told to simply avoid them walk the other way. So maybe some humans were enough lacking in common sense to benefit from that HR advice.
They ruin a lot of parks by strewing poop everywhere; perhaps because they are so big they deposit a lot more waste than other birds. I know of at least one hotel that has to dedicate half of a maintenance persons time just to scat removal and hosing off garden and lawn walkways daily. In this world where we want all our parks and facilities to be as unattended as possible, they are a problem.
It’s awful; Here they especially like to eat all along the sidewalks around the lake, and at the height of season, entire stretches are just bird droppings, for hundreds of feet, multiple places all around. It’s amusing that I’m not the only one so irritating by this, to consider extreme measures. It’s a shame we can’t just encourage them to graze somewhere else.
Maybe let the lawns go wild, and replace all that grass with some wildflowers and encourage the bees. But then people will complain about the bees, eh?!
I had a mixed relationship with them on my river walk commute some years ago. There were a lot of them and I did have to watch where I stepped. They also felt they owned the whole park, even the path, a point on which I disagreed. I used to bring a long and pointy umbrella so disputes generally resolved in my favor, but it could take some time, as I was reluctant to actually hit them with it and they frequently didn’t find my threats too convincing. On the other hand, watching the little goslings appear in the spring and gradually get bigger over the following months brightened my days.
CO2 gassing is a nasty method of euthanization. The distress we feel when holding our breath for too long is actually due to an excess of CO2.
Animal euthanasia (euthanasia from Greek: εὐθανασία; “good death”) is the act of killing an animal humanely, …
If it’s nasty it ain’t euthanization.
I bet if you asked the geese, they might say the ever-expanding human population could use some culling.
Surely a business opportunity for some entrepreneurial foodie: “free-range, sustainably harvested organic goose”. Obvious restaurant name: “Mother Goose’s”. On second thought, recall the warning about “never eat at a place called ‘Mom’s”.
Kawasaki is onto something with their mechanical 4-legged friend personal transport idea. Wheels are only good so long as roads are adequately maintained and that’s clearly on the way out. The other thing I like is that you can probably operate it without a license, for a while at least.
That baby in the video looks like it would probably weigh a thousand pounds or more. Good luck getting it upright if it ever falls over, especially if you’ve just ridden it 20 miles into the wilderness. Maybe they will offer a crane version of the horse and you can call it in when needed.
My last motorcycle weighed about 500 lb and I had to get help from someone when it fell over. Made me realize light weight is important in things like this.
An actual horse can stand up under its own steam, which I never really appreciated until I saw this video.
My (first and only) motorcycle is about as lard-assed as your last one, XXYY. I dread the thought of righting it should it tip or fall over. I don’t even try to use its center stand anymore, it’s so much work to hoist.
The MAGA space on twitter seems to be leaning more and more towards a genocidal view towards China, was there something similar going on during the build up to the Iraq War? The number of views, likes and reposts are rather disturbing as this appears to have wide reach
Frankly, this feels like the Ukraine posting about Russia, endless seething about the Kerch Bridge and daydreams of bringing it down, reinventing and making up history, etc. Maybe this is the Ukrainization of America
https://x.com/cimmerian_v/status/1909604866542186656
https://x.com/WBSRespecter/status/1910310591077511400
https://x.com/Babygravy9/status/1910292203970167288
That one about a possible strike on the Three Gorges Dam is mentally insane. I mean rubber room level of insanity. The only response that China would be able to make to that level of death and destruction is a nuclear attack on America’s biggest cities. And as they say, incoming has right of way. Do these sort of people say to each other about China that ‘They took er jerbs!’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGmhLtsK2ZQ (13 secs)
Which itself is nonsense, because rich Americans took those jerbs across the Pacific
It’s a bait and switch. You have to blame the Chinese or else people will realize that it was their fellow Americans that sold them out, especially under Clinton. And MAGA supporters seemed to have swallowed that bait but good as you do not see that many of them blaming the billionaires for their situation.
“The Brief – Give the world what it so craves, Eurobonds”
No, the world does not crave Eurobonds. Only places like Wall Street and the City of London do so that they can play financial games with them. If they created Eurobonds in the EU, then they would need collateral to back them up. And the one that comes to mind – which is also a long term dream of EU bureaucrats – is taxation. No, not the normal taxes that citizens of the EU pay their own countries. This would be a EU-wide taxation scheme with all that money from the 30-odd members of the EU flowing to Brussels to be used for whatever they wanted to use it for. You can guess the rest.
Brawndo has what the world crave. It’s got electrolytes.
Eurobonds, by Magnus Lund Nielsen.
Thanks, Rev Kev. The EU simply isn’t structured to issued bonds, not being a central government, the Euro Central Bank notwithstanding.
And then there was this display of Nordic wit: ‘ Advocates have long made their case plain: Eurobonds would not only finance European re-armament – or, in Mediterranean, ‘readiness’ – they would give investors a safe haven for long-term investments as the world rearranges its trade furniture. ‘
Daft. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark if this is considered insightful economic analysis (invest in bombs!) delivered with stylish remarks (oh, those PIIGS!).
For any appliance and business nerds….a long-form video essay about Whirlpool’s April (pre-tariff) layoffs in Newton, IA from an appliance repair show owner.
spoiler alert: Whirlpool’s design de-contenting and poor parts quality tolerances have essentially destroyed their customers’ goodwill—leading to falling market share, eerily paralleling Maytag’s demise 20 years ago. AKA MBA crap-ification on this website.
16 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4ZgVSWo8ds
Thank you for posting this link. I forwarded it to a friend that used to work at the Newton plant.
I have a brand new Whirlpool HE washer and dryer in my house courtesy of my landlords. It’s hard to believe they were designed by people who used them. The UI is bad, and the dryer needs to be used in manual mode in order to dry clothes.
Seriously, it’s like the designers and engineers who made the thing checked some boxes and went home to a different brand.
Re: DOGE does the FDIC
So we can expect to see “do-it-yourself” bank closings during the next financial crisis?
Or will the shareholders just get automatically “bailed-in?”
Why does that “horse” move like a human child playing horsie?
Are they retooling the robotic mule, which was the standard Boston quadruped built for load carrying.
Odd and stupid.
Re “Climate Realism”
The author of the article is depressed/defeated because the business community is actually dealing with the reality of climate change while that reality continually eluded most climate activists. Having spent some years doing climate activism, I can say with certainty and experience, that people like author – Aronoff – were and continue to be deluded about what humans can do to stop the mass extinction event we’ve set off. They are hopemongers selling a bill of goods about what humanity can accomplish via tech and grit (Green New Deal) who patently rejected the truth and minimized/ridiculed anyone who told the truth to make a “movement” that was palatable to the parents of the kids with climate anxiety.
Many of these climate groups, instead of confronting the reality that anything we could do as a species would be marginal in effects, became fronts for the liberal order that unintentionally created and then intentionally inflated the crisis in the first place. They’re all hopemongers, who believe, maybe cynically, that the crisis can be averted and modernity maintained if only we transitioned fully to green everything, while studiously avoiding what geology and other sciences tell us about what the current and increasing levels (and more importantly the increasing rate of change) of CO2 and other GHGs actually mean for the planet, and the implications for most life, including the human species.
Frankly my attitude towards the likes of Aronoff and others is what did you expect? Those with power and money and assets that could be stranded have made it clear for decades they were unwilling to do anything to actually unwind the destruction. Sure, the played along with GND and ESG, because there was money to be made, but now they don’t have to do the kabuki dance. They wore a mask that appealed to you all, and now they’ve taken the mask off, like they have done time and time again. The issue, at the root, has always been the rule of capital, and now matter how reasonable you are with that rule, it will always destroy you and what you love for a quick buck.
The central issue is that any feasible strategy for dealing with climate change (of which warming is the biggest but hardly the only example) would require the abandonment of purely quantitive growth, the abandonment of exchange value as the metabolic controller of the system and it’s replacement by planned production of use values judged on qualitative grounds. Plus a number of other things, all incompatible not only with our existing variant of capitalism but with any possible iteration thereof.
This means, of course, that if you want to solve the problem you are stuck with being Ipso facto a revolutionary. (and in a way that goes beyond the “political revolution” promoted by Sanders and Co in 2016).
Even those who see themselves as leftists generally seem unwilling to accept the task of climbing the mountain of building a hegemonic alternative to capital.
The Achilles heel is that any meaningful effort (had we bothered to take it) would require global collaboration, lol, pretty sure that’s never happened.
Seems to me we are too far along the path to a rapid and devastating extinction event absent the ability to magically rebalance the earth’s global energy surplus before the arctic decides to gas us with methane.
Climate realism:
“The targets set out by the Paris climate agreement, they argue—to limit global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit)—are a lost cause. It’s time to prepare for a world warmed by at least three degrees Celsius.”
— that is hardly climate realism! Concluding that the toothless Paris climate agreement would have little effect was evident before the agreement was signed.
“…climate cynicism being voiced by the Council on Foreign Relations…” — may be novel[?], though I am not sure where — since it echoes the assessments of the u.s. DoD.
So much for “climate realism”.
The final paragraph of this link:
“Bleak as warming projections are, a planet where governments and businesses fight to the death for their own profitable share of a hotter, more chaotic planet is bleaker still.”
This view is consistent with what I most fear about trends of the future. Climate change and resource depletion are dire threats but the looming madness of a collapse into a war of all against all should have been the focus of this link’s scattered and short rant.
“The US is a wealthy country and could afford to offer everyone who wants it an open-admissions high quality liberal arts university education – for free – if we wanted to”
But America DOESN’T want to. The “Ivies” were begun as divinity schools, for heaven’s sake, and as such as institutions of priestcraft, doing what priesthoods have been doing since time immemorial: justifying the status quo to the populace on behalf of those for whom current arrangements are congenial (and these people are invariably wealthy in whatever way said status quo measures such things). Once fully established they became finishing schools for the offspring of the Boston Brahmins and their ilk Are we really surprised that their function differs so little now?
The custodians of these places (most importantly their endowments) and their alumnae along with their families have precisely ZERO incentive or intention of allowing a scheme such as Balthasar’s to see the light of day …
Maybe prospective students are looking at the results of the last three generations of USA leaders, primarily educated at asserted “high quality” institutions, and concluded that “higher education” is not serving the USA well.
At least some of the support for climate denialism, war mongering, and parasitic financial, medical, education, media industries must be placed on the failure of the USA’s educational institutions to promote critical thinking.
>>>At least some of the support for climate denialism, war mongering, and parasitic financial, medical, education, media industries must be placed on the failure of the USA’s educational institutions to promote critical thinking.
You mean the critical thinking that comes from a liberal arts degree, the kind of degree that is increasingly not taught?
Can one assume critical thinking does arise from a liberal arts degree?
I suspect most of USA’s leaders come from a liberal arts leading to law degree route.
Well, “the United States” doesn’t really get to decide and do things as an abstraction. Those who grab the levers of power do.
Depending on how crazy phone prizes get, people may want to be more watchful of their surroundings when using a phone in public.
I wonder if Apple will sell all of those phones they just flew in at the current low price?
I’m surprised I haven’t read more about how the current markups on so many goods has to cover all the executive compensation.
What a thought!
Or where do billionaires get their money? From us, the masses.!
People should hate all billionaires! They always want more!!
Corporations and billionaires are apex predators.
In the US, unlike some parts of the world, the most common scheme is that phone price is embedded into your phone’s multi-year data plan—like an installment plan, but typically does not show people as a separate line-item.
So as the mobile carrier sells the phone and data—consumers think of the phone as being “free,” even if it a >$1000 iPhone.
so via price-obfuscation and US carriers absorbing some of the cost, most people will have zero idea that their phone is affected by tariffs
Climate responses–
Nate Hagens just released a new video that helps to counter some of the ennui that might be induced by the endless stream of bad news on the climate front. Nate asked for viewers of The Great Simplification to send him videos of what they were doing to respond to the polycrisis. The new video includes the reponses of 12-15 people who range from a middle-aged engineer who quit his job with a utility to open a repair-all shop, several back to the landers attempting greater autarky while community building, and teachers at various levels imparting insights to their students. I found it quite uplifting and inspiring.
Thank you for pointing to this latest presentation from the Great Simplification. I will listen to it this evening. However, on their face, the repair-all shop, back-to-the-landers building community, and teachers imparting insights to their students do little to brighten my view of the future.
“US to unleash robot swarms to build smart aircraft with speed, precision, safety”
‘AI and machine learning enable robots to self-improve, reduce errors, stay on schedule, and adjust actions for perfect assembly.’
I don’t see them working. How will they deal with heavy bits of gear or even the engines? They would have to be specialized with some doing welding and others feeding cables throughout that aircraft. And that would mean that you would have to have several different designs. Maybe you could program them to make others of their type so that they are self-manufacturing. You could then call them Replicators. No, I am calling shenanigans on this idea. If they want innovative ideas in aircraft construction, then maybe they could go with this one-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVSiooNywfg (1 min)
What they want is investors. They forgot to write “Call now!” at the end of this sales pitch, I mean article.
Using “gas” and “gassing” as triggering buzzwords lowers the quality of the article. Not all gases are created the same. Only inside the article is mentioned that the gas in question is carbon dioxide. For humans such death would be agonizing, and I guess for animals too (though I’m not a doctor/veterinarian). What I find wierd is that it is recommended by American Veterinary Medical Association guidelines, but then again USA recommended electrical chair too. Couldn’t they just shoot/axe the geese, and cook & eat them, the old fashioned way?
sure they could, if feeding the poor were part of our national catechism.(funny how that part of jesustalk always gets left out)
that said, geese are a bit%h to pluck.
ive got a Yardbird(made in usa) plucker.
like a washing machine with rubber fingers all in it.
does chickens and ducks with aplomb…but geese take 10 times as long, and one must continue dunking them in the hot water.
even then, lots and lots of hand picking the dense down undercoat.
good eating, though…ive experimented with all manner of things…tamales to lasagne,lol.
if they have a lot of fat(mine sure do), it can be rendered, too…”Schmaltz”. like goose lard. very flavorful. the fat on mine is a sort of dark yellow/orange, like Van Goh’s sunflowers, but darker.
if those in mich are such a problem, shoot them in the head with a 410 and get to work.
waste not…, and all.
Instead of plucking geese might it possible and perhaps easier to skin them? [I am completely ignorant about such things.] I know goose down is a valuable insulation material, but perhaps someone could start a fad for goose skin gloves. I recall reading somewhere about a long ago fad for chicken skin gloves.
I have eaten goose only once at a Christmas dinner, but I will attest to the excellence of its wonderful flavor. Perhaps feeding the poor roasted goose would offend our Elites. Goose should be for the wealthy to enjoy. The poor can eat katniss, dandelions, and a portion of grain. As for goose grease … it has so many applications beyond the culinary.
“Russia-US talks in Istanbul conclude after more than 5 hours”
Alex Christoforou was pointing out recently that these negotiations are only about things like opening up embassies and consulates in each other’s countries. They are not talking about the Ukraine which is noteworthy. They are not talking about this war at all. And I don’t think that there are any secret negotiations here as Trump could not help himself but boast about them. There are secret talks between the US and Iran at the moment. Well, they were secret until Trump blabbed about them much to the annoyance of the Iranians. So maybe Trump is letting Zelensky sweat and not doing any negotiations so that he can get a better “deal.”
AI software says Bank of England could do much worse things for profit.
I seem to remember that the “phishing equilibrium” principle predicts that if there is a “could” — an opening for dishonest dealing and fraud to take place — then someone is already exploiting it / such frauds are already happening, under the radar.
My first thought: How is this different from Soros’ position against the pound in 1992? AI is just learning from the best…
“US abandoned nuclear plant finds surprising second life as world’s quietest sound lab”
A great use of an abandoned building. As a guess, it may be that that building will earn more money over its lifetime than if it had gone ahead with being a nuclear power plant. Amazing what you can do with a building built to last than one designed to fall apart after only a few decades. In Switzerland I saw a home over five hundred years old and still in use. No longer a home but an office but regardless it is still standing. In passing, I remember a famous architect saying that any of them that designed a building to last more than twenty years was a traitor. Make of that what you will.
Climate realism? How about this? If business as usual continues, and I can only assume that it shall there being no visible effort to change, the predictions of sea level rise, glacial melt, global temperature increase, ocean acidification, wet bulb uninhabitable zones, declining crop yields, and so on together with the hopey changey anecdotes of things getting better here and there will be the future. It will be a world of generally decreasing habitability for higher lifeforms, humans included. Since CO2 levels have already reached those of the Pliocene and rising, the future for civilization as we now know it looks bleak. The future for humanity looks increasingly iffy. When I was a boy, nuclear fission and nuclear fusion were accomplished. As the Kingston Trio sang,” And we know for certain that some lovely day, someone will set the bomb off and we will all be blown away.” Shall we avoid that fate only to launch the earth on a trajectory to become something like Venus? This is the most apocalyptic scenario I can come up with on the spur of the moment. Dial it back to whatever degree you please, but a future that even looks anything like fifty or one hundred years ago would be wildly optimistic. And finally, if there is a technological fix for this self-created and self-perpetuated vector, it is well concealed.
This, JMH. This is what we have to look forward to, and worse. There is no fixing it. The only thing I regret is that all the other species will be taken down with us, and they are innocent.
The Brief – Give the world what it so craves, Eurobonds Euractiv
The article makes the case of doubling down in the idiocy that has been the norm in EU policy for some many years now by the use of Eurobonds. This in a context in which the details of the CDU/CSU-SPD contract have been released painting the same picture of hopelessness and TINA that is the norm in Europe. Back to the Euractiv piece: “the world craves for Eurobonds”. The main argument here is that because Trump, Europe can offer now predictability with Eurobonds. The second argument in favour of Eurobonds is “some spread”.
Most of the opposition against Eurobonds comes from countries like The Netherlands who believe this will be an instrument by which the savers in Europe will finance the spending of the big spenders in the South. I have some questions that go on a different direction. If, as this article suggests, the EU wants to usurp the role the US has been playing in the last decades in international finance via Eurobonds, my guess is that the EU should be ready to run large commercial deficits with the rest of the world, as the US has been doing. Yet i don’t believe there is any relevant umm… “leader” in the EU ready for that and this Euractiv article is only expressing hopes that will never realise. Framing it as a clash between leadership styles forgets the fundamentals. The world may be indeed craving for something that the EU is unable to offer.
Twitter-sphere needs to agree on a witty name for EU-issued “Eurobonds”.
For paleo-types, a “eurobond” is US-denominated debt that is traded/held outside of the USA versus a EUR-denominated debt issued by a European sovereign.
Articles using “eurobond” for neo-eurobonds hurts my brain.
“Trump advisor reveals tariff strategy: Force countries to pay tribute to maintain US empire”
Maybe Stephen Miran can adopt that line from that movie to reflect his beliefs how America is not a country – it’s a business so f****** pay us. He thinks that America should be like the mafia running a protection racket with countries sending them ‘protection’ money as in ‘Nice country that you have. Shame if anything happened to it.’ Starting to remind me of my old Ancient History classes. After the Athenians and the Greeks defeated Persia and pushed them out of Greece, they set up the Delian League as a sort of mutual protection organization. Kinda like NATO. Individual States would contribute money, ships and men to Delos where the HQ was. But over time the Athenians moved that HQ to Athens and all that money sent was spent on the city itself rather than defence. And any individual States that got out of line would be ruthlessly crushed. It had become not the Delian League but the Athenian Empire. Getting the same vibe here-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delian_League
It did. And what happened to the Athenian empire?
Extra! Extra! Read all about it!
https://www.historyskills.com/classroom/ancient-history/anc-peloponnesian-war-reading/
lol, that’s the part the Founding Fathers swept under the rug/hand-waved when emulating our Republic in the footsteps of Athens and pre-Imperial Rome.
….or if you want to examine it from some meta-philosophy POV…us Muricans will succeed where our intellectual predecessors fell apart.
does that count as hubris?
They went to Sicilly for more loot…, after all, they asked themselves like Madelaine Albright, what’s the point of having this superb military if you can’t use it?
If you want to understand Trump, watch the Trump/Gaza video.
Keep in mind that this is Trump’s version of the “Triumph of the Will” by sweet Leni Riefennstahl and he expected it to be greeted with widespread approbation.
@Conner Gallagher : thank you for the reduction in tweets!!
They really did seem to be getting out of hand…
Good point!
Antidote: Shetlaned Shetlands!?
Forgive me for thinking horses and ponies aren’t anthropomorphized creatures. Pajamas? Really? / Oy
The jumper patterns and horses look Icelandic (or possibly Faroese) to me.
Slight digression: I am learning Irish and the Irish for a woolly jumper, including all those lovely Donegal and Aran knits, is “géansaí” or phonetically gay-ans-ee… which is simply an Irish pronunciation of “Guernsey”.
They have borrowed the “English” word for the Channel Islands fisherman’s jumper into Irish (quotes around English because Guernsey is an Île Anglo-Normand, it’s really a Norman French name but as the Normans are where Ireland’s English troubles started, it’s perhaps only fitting!).
And of course, the USA imported the word jersey, after the other Channel Island, for a jumper (or in US English a sweater). In the UK, jersey has a more polyvalent meaning, being a type of fabric, a jumper (but we would usually say jumper) or (probably capitalised) very specifically a fisherman’s jumper on the Jersey pattern (anchor motif in relief) rather than Guernsey pattern (plain), whereas a guernsey/Guernsey is only ever the fisherman’s jumper.
administrative point of order: the advert delivery network for the website seems to deliver pop-up ads now—when it never did before.
I don’t mind it. but if there are any complaints re. popups, i presume that’s the first place to look
Yesterday for several hours ICE had up on various social media a militaristic poster that said its job was to stop illegal people, products, money, and ideas. Eventually they took it down due to pushback on the “illegal ideas” notion, and made the absurd statement that for “ideas” they really meant “intellectual property” (what the everlasting family-blog is “illegal intellectual property” that might be crossing the border?).
They’re lying. They know they’re lying. We know they’re lying. They know we know they’re lying. Decades water ballet performed in overflowing BS, from both the public and private sectors, and I do wonder how long a culture playing such bizarre games with reality can survive with its sanity intact.
I think God invented religion and the MSM so that people could unburden themselves of any need to face reality.
As expected, the tariff strategy ‘chaos’ seems to working out fabulously for some individuals, as the economically privileged and politically connected winners continue to cash in:
“He made two-and-a-half billion today,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday, just hours after announcing the pause, “and he made $900 million.”
“That’s not bad,” the president added.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-brags-billionaire-friends
Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi remains conspicuously silent about all of this…. I wonder how she did?
If a condition and its outcome can be described by a logical expression, or an if-then statement, then it becomes logically necessary that if for example:
“Think of that. Nancy Pelosi sold vast amounts of Visa stock one day before the big lawsuit that we all read about a few days ago,” he said.
“You think it was luck? I don’t.” “She should be prosecuted,” Trump declared. “Nancy Pelosi should be prosecuted for that.”
https://nypost.com/2024/09/27/us-news/trump-calls-for-nancy-pelosi-to-be-prosecuted-over-visa-stock-trade/
Then the Trump example, as noted above, was also not due to luck and those involved should be prosecuted, as the would be self styled King has stated. If you want the obvious, you get the obvious, every time.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/white-house-post-trump-as-king/
re: Hundreds of Air Force reservists face expulsion after opposing Gaza war Jerusalem Post
A way to get out of conscription is to publicly oppose the war? Interesting.
It seems to me that due to Trump’s policies at least half the US population will be food insecure within a matter of Months, and not happy about it.
The cuts to Medicaid will also cause the majority of rural Hospitals and Health clinics to close.
If Republican Congresscritters think their constituents are unhappy now…
Of course the leading blights of the Democratic will step up, the champions of the poor and the downtrodden like Cory Booker and Kamala Harris.
No worries.
People are getting the message. University of Michigan consumer survey out today is definitely recessionary and stagflationary. Consumer sentiment both current and future the worst since 1981, inflation expectations the worst since 1978. This economy is nowhere as resilient as the one in the 1980’s.
Going to be very interesting to see how the Fed responds to a deep consumer recession with such high starting debt levels. I fear their balance sheet is going to take the load but who for, the oligarchs or the US peasants ?
Not messing around this time:
Pressuring Migrants to ‘Self-Deport,’ White House Moves to Cancel Social Security Numbers (NY Times via archive.ph)
Interesting approach to self-deportation, although still not going after illegal employers. Does work around the discomfort of having to actually go after businesses directly, though.
ZOMG!!!
But not everyone cancels upon death, as in checks the SSA updates. When my mother died, Vanguard shut down access to her account pronto, as did Amex, but neither her local bank (a super regional) nor her other credit card issuer (a behemoth) did.
There is a certain Machiavellian logic to this, in terms of discouraging future illegal immigration. Some of the migrants were falsely given the promise of some sort of status by Biden. Now they’re hosed. This sort of “non-agreement capable” behavior, or football snatching, sends a message back home to Latin America.
Big brother to the north is no longer stable or a place you want to go. Stay home.
in other news: in my area now, the week before Passover and Easter, it’s time to plant annual flowers and bedding plants, and early garden veg like radishes and green onions and peas and potatoes and lettuce and spinach. Life is good. / ;)
and adding: a dish of fresh spring peas with new baby potatoes in a cream sauce with a dash of pepper is so good. I can’t imagine French haute cuisine has anything that tops this bounty. / ;)
Petits pois a la Français!
Peas and cream, minus potatoes, plus bacon. You could leave the potatoes in and I wouldn’t complain….
I believe this is the first time that I bookmarked a recipe on NC
As I’m struggling for breath, I hope long covid clinics get money……. I’ve been finally referred to one….. just hope it’s not too late since I have zero desire to goto ED in this city.
Struggling for breath is awful. I was there once for other reasons. It’s sort of terrifying. Well, correction, it is terrifying. Best wishes to you that you can find a treatment that works.
Thanks Flora. Long COVID evaluator was fabulous.
Going back to my initial infections back at start of pandemic….. but she is concerned I have no local friends to help. I’m on own….. and that’s bad
Is this because DOGE crashed the SS website?
Social Security Administration ‘will be using X to communicate’ moving forward
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5245029-social-security-administration-social-platform-x-releases/
Hmm, no conflict of interests there…
Recently, Naked Capitalism cross-linked to an essay by Kishore Mahbubani that I can no longer find.
Colonel Smithers noted then that Mahbubani’s reasonable yet heterodox views are currently in eclipse. Mahbubani just isn’t a China hawk and warmonger.
Harper’s sent me an e-blast, and this is in their digest of news / archived articles >>
Mahbubani in 2019 in Harper’s Magazine: “It was rational for the United States to have the world’s largest defense budget when its economy dwarfed every other in the world. Would it be rational for the world’s number-two economy to have the world’s largest defense budget? And if America refuses to give this up, isn’t it a strategic gift to China? China learned one major lesson from the collapse of the Soviet Union. Economic growth must come before military expenditure.”
Yep. Five years later Mahbubani is still offering the only workable analysis. That quote has hardly aged.
Here’s the whole shebang as grist for the mill:
https://harpers.org/archive/2019/02/what-china-threat/
Commenters here will also notice some of the current Trump retreads mentioned way back in the 2019 article. They just never go away. Not that Nancy Pelosi will, either — there’s plenty of money to be made in being a retread.
In case no one else commented on this:
“State tells employees to report on one another for ‘anti-Christian bias’”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/11/state-report-anti-christian-bias-033535
Thanks, Judith. I suppose I should think this is outrageous, which I normally would, except I remember B and the B admin regarding the conservative Catholics as nearly Christian terriersists. So, is this only a political tit-for-tat? I can’t tell. Frankly, I think religion should be exempt from US politics, but that’s just me.
I was struck by the instruction (or is it a requirement) that workers report anonymously on each other. Dare I say Orwellian or is that a cliche by now.
“Thanks, Judith. I suppose I should think this is outrageous, which I normally would, except I remember B and the B admin regarding the conservative Catholics as nearly Christian terriersists.”
I missed that incident. What was that about?
re: Hands Off protest
Activism, Uncensored: “Hands Off” Protests and Pro-Palestine Activists Rally in DC
Activists also gathered in Norfolk, VA, on Thursday because of a ship they believe was transporting military equipment to Israel
includes 16 min. documentary footage on the protest
by Ford Fischer
https://www.racket.news/p/activism-uncensored-hands-off-protests
re: DROPSITE on Israel censorship of social media
Leaked Data Reveals Massive Israeli Campaign to Remove Pro-Palestine Posts on Facebook and Instagram
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/leaked-data-israeli-censorship-meta
Today’s batch was quite depressing…
I have this impression every day which frankly is why first thing I do is look up the news on NC.
If you try to read German dailies you go fuckin´ insane. It´s Soma-like self-delusion. They manage to design an online presence that papers over anything serious or bad happening in a way that you end up reading the life style section because you think the EU will fix everything. So you may as well read about stuff that you cannot afford and stop worrying about, ahem, the bomb.
And it is obvious they spend most of their budget on looks and fraudulently optimistic photography, layout and graphics. What is left of the budget they use for the actual content.
aye. and its just gonna get worse
i expect a depression, at least in places like where i live…this county, and its one actual incorporated town, relies on fedgov and stategove for at least 40% of their$.
ISD is the biggest employer, relies on state and fed for half.
city is second biggest employer.
county is third.
latter 2 rely on fedgov and state.
add in disruptions(or cessation!) of Social Security, Medicare and VA, and this place, with over 40% over 65,will be in a depression, fer sho.
1/3 of the population is at , below or near the poverty line(which hasnt been revised for some time,lol)
so medicaid, foodstamps, ssi, WIC, etc.
there’ll be a lotta hurt around here shortly, and going forward.
and, while ive planted almost my whole seed vault in preparation, im seeing 1/32″ baby grasshoppers everywhere.
ducks are working, but chickens are confined across the road(to keep em out of the beds over here, until the plants are big enough)….
very worrisome.
screw it.
all my doins are done, and the news of the world is exceptionally bad, today.
so ima gon have another couple of draft shiners(in frozen mason jars, no less), and a homegrown hogleg, and retire.
so, until monday, peeps.
Sláinte.
Sláinte!
It’s time to go camp on a quiet, ignored enclave of national forest cliff overlooking a high country river.
“and, while ive planted almost my whole seed vault in preparation, im seeing 1/32″ baby grasshoppers everywhere.
ducks are working, but chickens are confined across the road(to keep em out of the beds over here, until the plants are big enough)….
very worrisome.”
Can you get more more ducks? I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.
re: DROPSITE on possible scandal before Ecuador election
Dramatic Video From Widow of Slain Candidate Rocks Presidential Race in Ecuador, Confirms Drop Site Investigation
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/dramatic-video-from-widow-of-slain
“A stunning allegation has rocked the Ecuadorian presidential election, with the widow of a slain presidential candidate confirming the accuracy of an explosive investigation published last year by Drop Site News.
The article published evidence that the nation’s attorney general, a close ally of the United States, had withheld accurate information about the assassination, and pushed forward disinformation, in an effort to frame the political party of former president Rafael Correa for the murder.”
re: my post on the Hands Off protest video
I find the Palestine protest more professional and presenting the better speeches.
re: Executive Order “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful”
What is this bullshit any better than Harris´s idiotic Disney-ean “JOY”.
If Trump uses “beautiful” one more time I swear I´m gonna explode.
He and Harris deserve each other.
Louisiana judge just allowed Trump admin. to deport Khalil.