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Links 4/13/2025

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The lonely life of a glyph-breaker Aeon

Why We Distrust Technology Quillette


Mystery of medieval manuscripts revealed by ancient DNA Nature

COVID-19/Pandemics

RFK Jr.: ‘By September we will know what has caused the autism epidemic’ The Hill

Trump administration task force to consider declassifying COVID-19 origins materials AP

Climate/Environment

Sea Slug, Climate Change Warrior Nautilus

Climate champion or catastrophe: Can AI ‘offset’ its own, growing emissions? Euro News

Old Blighty

UK government takes over day-to-day running of British Steel from Chinese owner Jingye AP

Man crafts world’s largest beer tray collection Fox News

China?

China’s new semiconductor rule spares Taiwan fabs, punishes Intel, GlobalFoundries & Texas Instruments Tom’s Hardware

China-Laos Railway carries over 480,000 cross-border passengers in 2 years CGTN

Trump’s China tariff shocks US importers. One CEO calls it ‘end of days’ AP

 

South of the Border

Ecuador’s endangered election Progressive International

Trump threatens Mexico with more tariffs, this time over water Los Angeles Times

Brazil’s Ag Sector Plans for Export Boom as China Pivots Away from U.S. The Maritime Executive

European Disunion

Meloni’s solo Trump visit triggers anxiety in France Politico

European rearmament: Shuffling fake money around a monopoly board? Responsible Statecraft

Bombshell Reports: “German Weapons Not Made for War” Simplicius

Israel v. The Resistance

Israel’s Gaza offensive pushes hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into an ever-shrinking bubble CNN


US Airstrikes On Yemen: Trump’s Actions Spark Outrage As Mass Protests Erupts In Sanaa India TV

Grassroots Resistance Builds Against Israeli Occupation of Southern Syria Drop Site

Mohammad Marandi: U.S. & Iran Talks Begin — But Doubts Loom Large Dialogue Works, YouTube

Iran/US Scenario 2 in Play, Ball is now in Trump’s Court, and Trump blinks First in China Showdown Larry Johnson

What the hell was that about? Alon Mizrahi, YouTube. Timotheus:

Alon Mizrahi says Adam Hochstein’s role as intermediary with Hezbollah was to drum up fake settlement offers thereby to gather intelligence on Nasrallah’s whereabouts and assassinate because Israel knew the Lebanese side would have to go back to Nasrallah for consultations after each round.

He says that’s what is happening with the Iranian talks because they want to do a similar decapitation strike on the Iranian leadership.

Needless to say, not yet confirmed, but if this turns out to be accurate, this would give some support to the Mizrahi thesis. This would normally be seen as a cheeky dealbreaker. If this was allowed to be in the mix for the talks next week, it says the US is merely going through the motions…for some reason:

New Not-So-Cold War

NATO Is a Corpse Real Clear Defense

Ideological Fundamentalism in International Politics Glenn Diesen

Trump envoy: Ukraine could be divided like post-war Berlin Jerusalem Post. Later apparently denied by Kellogg, per Alexander Mercouris (note this didn’t sound like a full on denial….)

Lockheed Martin F-35 Fighter: The Real ‘Winner’ in the Ukraine War 1945

Europe Vows More Arms for Ukraine as US Takes Backseat The Defense Post

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Ireland’s privacy regulator is investigating X’s use of public data to train Grok Engadget

Two Lawsuits Allege The Trade Desk Secretly Violates Consumer Privacy Law AdWeek

Court Sides With Paramount In Video Privacy Battle Media Post

Imperial Collapse Watch

‘They’ll All Be Homeless’ San Francisco Public Press

How doctors are treating a rise in diabetes in rural areas PBS

Slow Pay, Low Pay or No Pay Pro Publica

US Pacific commander details stark consequences of war with China over Taiwan Washington Examiner

Trump 2.0

Smartphones, computers and other electronics are exempt from Trump’s reciprocal tariffs for now Engadget

‘It’s going to be messy’: Americans on how Trump’s tariffs are shaping their spending The Guardian

The Trump administration’s conflicting messages to the public and the courts Politico

DOGE

Palantir Is Helping DOGE With a Massive IRS Data Project Wired

You Might Not Make Enough Money To Get Musk’s Potential DOGE Dividend Check Yahoo Finance

Inside the DOGE immigration task force Politico

Democrat Death Watch

Democrats’ problem isn’t just messaging – it’s the electoral math The Guardian

Dems Fumble the Tariff Gift Trump Gives Them The Bulwark

Immigration

Jewish advocacy group questions DHS on plans to use antisemitism to deny immigration benefits The Hill

Federal judge sides with Trump in allowing immigration enforcement in houses of worship AP

NYC will allow immigration agents to operate on Rikers Island Gothamist

Immigrants without legal status must now register and carry documents, after court order Kansas Reflector

Our No Longer Free Press

Whistleblower tells Congress Facebook worked with China on censorship and data access Techspot

Leaked docs. expose Israeli censorship campaign to erase pro-Palestinian content online Press TV

Full Testimony: DHS and CISA’s Pivotal Role in Policing Our Speech Benjamin Weingarten

Mr. Market Is Moody

Yellen slams Trump tariff agenda as ‘worst self-inflicted policy wound’ The Hill

Trump’s approval rating takes a hit amid tariff war and market turmoil The Daily Mail

AI

Ex-OpenAI staffers file amicus brief opposing the company’s for-profit transition TechCrunch

Netflix is reportedly testing a search function powered by OpenAI Engadget

The Bezzle

Ghost students: The new enrollment fraud scheme Minnesota two-year colleges are fighting The Minnesota Star Tribune

QR code ‘quishing’ scams up 14-fold in five years BBC

Democrat Massachusetts lawmaker arrested for fraud, used stolen funds to purchase ‘psychic services’: feds NY Post

 

Guillotine Watch

Antidote du jour (via)

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179 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    ‘Suzie rizzio
    @Suzierizzo1
    Apr 10
    J.D Vance calls the Chinese peasants, but looks at this! 👍’

    Still can’t work out why J.D. Vance was calling the Chinese peasants. Does he imagine that Trump has all the cards and that if they insult and slap the Chinese around enough, that they will come begging for a deal? I mean you don’t see the Chinese calling J.D. Vance a hillbilly after all. After watching the US for many years, this is what passes for diplomacy through several Presidents and the Trump regime is no different.

    Reply ↓
    1. SocalJimObjects

      Coming from Hegseth, the term peasants is probably high praise, especially considering the venom with which he said those words. You can tell that Vietnamese peasants, sandal wearing Talibans, and now the poor Houthis have been living rent free in the minds of those working at the Pentagon. I mean, if you think about it, peasants rising up is pretty much the biggest threat to capitalism, so Vance is simply showing form as a former apprentice to Darth Peter Thiel.

      Reply ↓
      1. Ben Panga

        Not so former IMO. I’m still convinced he’ll be President (or King of the Shire or whatever the loons want) when Trump outlives his usefulness.

        Reply ↓
    2. Ben Panga

      Could it be because he’s a deliberately provocative ex-Palantir protégé of fellow [family blog] [family blog] Peter Thiel rather than the plucky MAGA hillbilly he’s portrayed as?

      The Palantir mob see war with China as inevitable and welcome, as well as being good for business. They see breaking up the world order (see also eg Vance in Europe earlier in the year) as necessary. Yes, they are insane.

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        The Chinese military should send Peter Thiel a message with a set of latitude and longitude coordinates. A quick reference to a set of maps would resolve those coordinates into an address, namely 1200 17th Street, Denver, Colorado – Palantir’s Headquarters. And that would be the real message.

        Saw something many years ago here in Oz. The government beancounters were asking if the RAAF still needed those old F-111 fighter-bpmbers and just how accurate can they be anyway. In reply the RAAF sent them a photo taken from an F-111 targeting system with the “Bullseye” on the window of the office where those beancounters were working.

        Reply ↓
    3. Es s Ce Tera

      What viewers of that TikTok may not realize is that you download the WeChat app, provide your mobile number and now you’re set up with what amounts to a bank account with no need to prove your identity. One of the steps involved is a friend with an existing WeChat account vouches for your realness. It works extremely well, especially in a society with little crime to begin with.

      Contrast with Western banks which, by regulation, and to combat money laundering, fraud, terrorist financing, etc., require you to complete and sign dozens of forms, provide identity information SSN, address, occupation, pay stubs, credit info and lots of wet signatures on paper (which are then scanned digitally). Basically, the old school paper-based guilty until proven innocent approach.

      Which “banking” system is more likely to be successful? Obviously, one of them is convenient and the other very much not. My theory is WeChat is one of the reasons why the West sees China as a threat, wants to take it down.

      Reply ↓
      1. curlydan

        As someone who had a WeChat account that was later shut down, I can say the WeChat process is far from easy and can be extremely aggravating and bureaucratic. I was stuck in WeChat hell with my phone when I did not use the app for 2-3 years, and no amount of tinkering, pleading, begging or vouching could get it working again.

        And it took my Chinese speaking wife 2-3 visits over multiple years to China to finally get her WeChat “fully operational”, i.e. paying for goods anywhere. Luckily, there are many friendly Chinese who can help the non-WeChat people out, but bureaucracy is hell everywhere.

        Reply ↓
    4. chris

      Yeah, I don’t get it either. He was supposed to be the coherent and intelligent advocate for the Trump administration. For some definition of coherent I guess.

      I’m sure you could look at the Chinese population as a whole and use some economic metrics to show that most don’t live on very much money and have a lifestyle reminiscent of the early 1900s, full of diseases and crises modern people consider barbaric. The problem is, you could easily turn around and apply those same metrics to the US and show that a majority of our population experience the same challenges. For example, I wonder how many Chinese “peasants” live in places where they’re regularly exposed to raw sewage because of inadequate infrastructure?

      Reply ↓
      1. Frank

        The only acquisition Trump and his ilk value is money. But mental acquisition is a much longer lasting achievement.
        Currently reading Harry Braverman’s “Labor and Monopoly Capital” and this is a bit from it.
        “We may marvel still at the British silk weavers of Spitalfields, whom Mayhew found, in the middle of the nineteenth century, living in incredible poverty and degradation, and who, but a short time before, when the day of the skilled hand-loom weaver was not yet over, had made their district of London a center of science and culture:

        The weavers were, formerly, almost the only botanists in the metropolis, and their love of flowers to this day is a strongly marked characteristic of the class. Some years back, we are told, they passed their leisure hours, and generally the whole family dined on Sundays, at the little gardens in the environs of London, now mostly built upon. Not very long ago there was an Entomological Society, and they were among the most diligent entomologists, in the kingdom. This taste, though far less general than formerly, still continues to be a type of the class. There was at one time a Floricultural Society, an Historical Society, and a Mathematical Society, all maintained by the operative silk-weavers; and the celebrated Dollond, the inventor of the achromatic telescope, was a weaver; so too were Simpson and Edwards, the mathematicians, before they were taken from the loom into the employ of Government, to teach mathematics to the cadets at Woolwich and Chatham.18

        The same remarkable history characterized the weavers of Yorkshire and Lancashire, as E. P. Thompson notes: “Every weaving district had its weaverpoets, biologists, mathematicians, musicians, geologists, botanists…. There are northern museums and natural history societies which still possess records or collections of lepidoptera built up by weavers; while there are accounts of weavers in isolated villages who taught themselves geometry by chalking on their flagstones, and who were eager to discuss the differential calculus.”

        Reply ↓
      2. eg

        Life expectancy in China has surpassed that in the US, and China is still a middle income country.

        Oh, and infant mortality rates are also higher in the USA than in China.

        Shouldn’t this be embarrassing?

        Reply ↓
  2. Alice X

    Mohamad Safa

    Famine is spreading in Gaza.

    Gaza doesn’t have enough food for the children, while the world full of food is watching and doing nothing.

    Gaza is again completely blockaded (and being bombed), they don’t have food or water for anyone. The Yemenis have been doing something, and they’re being bombed by the US for it. (Yemen is not full food having themselves been blockaded and bombed for years.)

    Who are the barbarians anyway?

    Reply ↓
      1. JBird4049

        I don’t support it, and I believe that many people in the West don’t support it, but the Israeli government has the full support of the Western governments; any attempt to expose the truth gets you insulted, threatened, and sometimes fired or arrested for “antisemitism.”

        Reply ↓
      2. Alice X

        What a complex web of lies the Zionists and their US Hegemonistas have erected (maybe I have that in reverse). We had a link recently on the consolidation of US Media recently. That Corporate Monolith keeps any meaningful exposition of the historical context and the immediate facts from full public view, save some snippets with diluted agency, attribution and context (thinking NYT).

        There is much valuable information out there (on the interwebs), as those who know, and with the time to seek it out.

        What can anyone of a moral conscience do?

        How can anyone look at these pictures from Gaza and not cry out?

        Reply ↓
        1. Alt Delete

          Looks like the movements are taking legal steps to hold individual IDF soldiers to account in various countries now. Aside from supporting the BDS movement with specific targets in each country, they said supporting the legal actions financially is another valuable way to help.

          Reply ↓
  3. Henry Moon Pie

    I’ll include just a little quote so you can decide if this Cato-employed, Techno-Optimist author knows his a– from a hole in the ground:

    Today, this bias manifests in the way we talk about, for example, climate change. The dominant discourse does not emphasise nuclear fusion, carbon capture, or geoengineering, despite their potential to dramatically cut emissions. Instead, we hear calls for people to consume less, fly less, drive less, eat differently—as though the best way to tackle a global problem is through personal sacrifice. This isn’t a rational economic approach; it’s a deeply ingrained cognitive reflex.

    So tell me how either carbon capture or geoengineering can “dramatically cut emissions?” By “deeply ingrained cognitive reflex, the author apparently means any kind of inclination toward solidarity and social responsibility. Do you think maybe he went nuts about Covid closings and mask mandates?

    The basic message of this piece is “eat, drink and be merry, and leave the driving to us.”

    What a maroon. What an a–hole.

    Reply ↓
    1. Henry Moon Pie

      Oops. My diatribe was directed against the “Why We Distrust Technology?” piece. That link makes a nice companion piece to the two idiots, one a Congressperson, in the Twitter excerpt. The interviewer seems to be believe that her god has ordained driving giant pickups up and down creeks and that “Thou shalt consume mass quantities” is the 11th Commandment. Maybe I need to check Elon’s Second Epistle to Siliconians to see if it’s in there. “God controls the sun.” F me.

      Reply ↓
      1. Tom Stone

        Mary Miller reminds me of my favorite Blonde Joke.
        “How do you get a Blonde to Marry you?”
        Tell her she’s pregnant.

        Reply ↓
        1. albrt

          Worked for my ex-wife’s father. Except it turned out she really was pregnant and the kid didn’t look like him.

          Reply ↓
      2. Jason Boxman

        Flat-Eartherism is alive and well in the 21st century. And sadly these people have political power. Humans are not long for this world.

        Reply ↓
      3. judy2shoes

        Thanks, Henry, for bring this article to the fore. I only want to add that it’s clear to me that the author is promoting technology as the solution to the problems technology itself created, while ignoring, among other things, its self-licking ice cream cone characteristics.

        Reply ↓
    2. vao

      So tell me how either carbon capture or geoengineering can “dramatically cut emissions?”

      The meaning of words gets obliterated — a clear indication that ideological sophistry is at play. The fact is that geoengineering and carbon capture have been devised precisely to avoid being obliged to reduce emissions.

      Reply ↓
      1. dave -- just dave

        I was dismayed to encounter a fairly recent interview with Nobel Laureate Steven Chu, formerly Obama’s Secretary of Energy, in which he expressed confidence that carbon capture technology would, in the future, be able to reduce carbon-dioxide caused global warming even if it “temporarily” reached uncomfortable levels. The techno-optimism is strong among many.

        In fact, “recovering astrophysicist” Tom Murphy, author of Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet, said that he was never able to get any of his colleagues at UC San Diego to pay enough attention to the ecological overshoot problem to take it seriously – they were busy with other stuff.

        I wish you could tell you who did this cartoon – at the podium, the lecturer is saying “And so, it is clear that if we all work together, we can handle this.” But the large hall has only a few people sitting in it. One person whispers to their companion, “In other words, we’re screwed.”

        Of course, you never know when something surprising might happen.

        Reply ↓
    3. hardscrabble

      I spent little time reading this once I understood his assertion: we distrust technology because we’re primitive, archaic social creatures who value our abilities to work together.

      Nah! tech will save us! it always does! /sarc

      Reply ↓
      1. Mikel

        “American tech innovation goes mostly to make the rich richer via patents and the stock market. Chinese innovation on the other hand goes firstly and more importantly to benefit everyone (sure, some of those tech goes to advance the CCP agenda)” https://t.co/2dSNzGBRre

        Includes a video of the Chinese using biometrics to purchase products.
        Yeah, giving up that kind of info to tech overlords in the USA is really all for peope’s benefit.
        Going up privacy for convenience? The worst trade ever.

        Reply ↓
        2. JMH

          Tech will save us? Where’s the tech? Ditto Geo-engineering? Specifics please. Nuclear fusion? That has been X-years away for at least 70 years. Please, capture some carbon.

          All hat, no cattle.

          Reply ↓
          1. GF

            Eliminating cattle would do more to reduce atmospheric carbon than any other single activity; and, no engineers needed.

            Reply ↓
          2. converger

            The reference to geoengineering as a strategy for “reducing” net carbon emissions is particularly egregious.

            Geoengineering is a spectacularly terrible idea, for all kinds of reasons. But all of that aside, the whole point of geoengineering is to slightly dial down the amount of solar radiation that reaches the Earth’s surface, not to dial down the amount of carbon that’s sloshing around.

            Even if it worked, geoengineering would not reduce or eliminate a single gram of carbon emissions. It would not reduce or eliminate any of the catastrophic climate change impacts that are already under way, nor is it intended to.

            Every scientist who advocates for geoengineering, no matter how optimistic, cheerfully acknowledges that even if it worked, geoengineering is a last-ditch effort to buy a little time by temporarily slowing down net solar radiation, a single element of a complex network of global carbon impacts which would continue to accelerate. Carbon sinks would continue to become saturated and become new carbon sources. Oceans would continue to acidify and die, and continue to rise faster as arctic ice and glaciers melt, exposing even more new carbon emission sources. Weather patterns would continue to make chunks of the planet increasingly uninhabitable.

            Geoengineering does precisely zero, by definition, to prevent any of that from happening by reducing carbon emissions. Anyone claiming otherwise clearly has no clue what they are talking about.

            Reply ↓
    4. John Wright

      I looked up the author’s bio and his undergraduate degrees are international relations and classics, while his PHD is in international relations.

      Not a hint of a technological background.

      He mentions the gradual improvement in solar cell efficiency, seemingly unaware that this efficiency is viewed as limited by the Shockley-Queisser limit.

      This limit was predicted in 1961, so it has been known for 60+ years and has not been refuted.

      So continual, significant improvements in solar cell efficiency are not in the cards.

      Hopium sales experience should have been mentioned in his bio, but was not.

      Reply ↓
    5. tegnost

      deeply ingrained cognitive reflex

      The pmc has a deeply ingrained cognitive reflex that transforms anything that makes them money into something intuitively good even if the tangible outcomes are viscerally bad. Don’t worry, any bugs will be fixed when the next version is released. How can we have self driving cars when a computer has no self? Ignore that we won’t ever have level 5 self driving…because computers have no self… I’ll get in a self driving car right after I see one eat, drink, and be merry…

      Reply ↓
      1. Henry Moon Pie

        I prefer driving something with a distributor and a carburetor personally. Better not driving at all:

        The farther you go,
        the less you know.

        Tao te Ching # 47 (Le Guin version)

        And for the author of that article:

        The more ingenious the skillful are,
        the more monstrous their inventions.

        Tao te Ching # 57 (Le Guin version)

        (Thanks for this one, Hoag. We’ve had some fun with it.)

        Reply ↓
    6. chris

      I stopped reading when I saw the author’s argument was why people weren’t more optimistic about the ability of three nearly non-existent, completely untested, or unproven technologies, to reduce something that we’re experiencing today. Madness.

      I wish they’d just be honest and tell people that they don’t have an answer and if we get these new ideas to work in practice we’re just going to use them to perpetuate the system which caused the problem. They’re worse than Ms. Thunberg with their silly declarations of tech optimism. She might tell us to stop now and provide no options. They tell us to proceed as if nothing needs to change because something might make all this OK in the future, maybe.

      Reply ↓
  4. The Rev Kev

    ‘steve hilton
    @SteveHiltonx
    Kamala Harris is delusional and unemployable.
    No-one thinks she would have won with “more time.” No-one wants to read any book she writes. She has no ideas for a “policy institute.”
    She’s just another vacuous machine politician.’

    Maybe they could help start a think tank for Kamala Harris where she gets a nice income, makes a few speeches a year and is sworn to steer clear of politics. You know. Keep her sitting on a shelf. They could call it something like the Institute for Innovative Intelligent Initiatives and she could be joined by other daring women thinkers like Liz Truss, Annalena Baerbock and Kaja Kallas. Sounds like a plan to me.

    It would of course have a male counterpart think tank called the Dan Quayle Institute for Deep Thinking.

    Reply ↓
    1. griffen

      Maybe the Zoolander institute is finally built, like to teach kids who can’t read like how to read and also do mathy or science like stuff and so on? \sarc

      No one is useless and unemployable….she could work the angles with her friend Eric Holder and start something that does not set fire to a Billion dollars…Come to think of it I have to now wonder what former VP Mike Pence is up to lately? He’s off with his family smiling and laughing, I’m just certain. Being a loser in politics can pay off in the long run, what a country!

      Reply ↓
    3. Henry Moon Pie

      I love your staffing but suggest “Institute for the Joyful Study of War” or perhaps “Institute for the Study of Joyful War.” Bombs with smiley faces. Deadly threats accompanied by lots of cackling.

      Reply ↓
    4. ambrit

      That should be the Dan Quayle Institute for Penetrating Insights; William Jefferson Clinton, President Emeritus.
      Keynes has been proven right again, this time on the Political front.
      “A political system can remain irrational longer than the public can stay solvent.”

      Reply ↓
          1. The Rev Kev

            Made me look it up-

            ‘There’s nothing like a bull market to bring out the crooks, and a bear market to start catching them’

            But as we have seen, the really big crooks get a government bailout with no penalties.

            Reply ↓
    7. Trees&Trunks

      Maybe she and Meghan Markle could join forces to push the limits of vacuum in all directions? No more horror vacui.

      Reply ↓
    8. Nikkikat

      The last line regarding Dan Quayle very funny! It seems we’ve seen these people before, male or female a brainless potatoe is a brainless potato. Wonder how they rise to the top?

      Reply ↓
    9. ChrisPacific

      I wish. I suspect we haven’t seen the last of her and I wouldn’t even rule her out from running in 2028.

      Whatever her flaws, she’s a pure establishment candidate and a biddable servant of the donors, and she ran a fairly close race against Trump. Of course, given how polarized the electorate was, a cardboard cutout could have done that (coincidentally that’s pretty much what she was). But if the only meaningful opposition to Trump continues to be Sanders, AOC, Warren etc. and the establishment candidates are the usual parade of vapid empty suits, she could very easily end up looking like the least bad alternative. (She is at least a vapid empty suit with a track record, albeit an indifferent one). If the Democrats continue to prioritize resisting the progressive wing over winning elections, she’s an obvious choice.

      Reply ↓
  5. DJG, Reality Czar

    Shuffling fake money around a Monopoly board? (By Ian Proud.)

    The question answers itself.

    As Proud writes “For now, the UK, along with Poland, appears most keen to push the idea of a Rearmament Bank. Part of the reason is Britain’s exclusion from the Commission’s plan under the REARM program to offer defense loans totaling $150 billion over four years.”

    War is a racket. Further, the European Commission isn’t truly an executive, and the EU, even if supranational, doesn’t have certain powers that still reside with its member-states, such as defense, raising armies and navies, and even foreign policies (which, luckily, means that Kaja Kallas of the Commission is mainly an increasingly all-too-obvious crank).

    But shuffling fake money around is a specialty of Ursula von der Leyen (see the continuing Pfizer/vaccine scandal), so we can’t expect this problem to go away imminently. At least, we have a diagnosis.

    Reply ↓
    1. DJG, Reality Czar

      NATO Is a Corpse. By some good-thinking Canadian.

      Let me dispense with a detail about military spending, and let me reaffirm that war is a racket.

      In 2024, the EU spent some 730 billion on defense/war.

      https://www.infodata.ilsole24ore.com/2025/03/01/quanto-spende-leuropa-per-la-difesa-e-la-russia/

      The IISS report underlying the figures was disputed by a team of Italians. The outrageous figure of 730 billion was bruited about in the Italian press — partly for the sheer size, partly because of Ursula von der Leyen’s blabbering about requiring 800 billion in new monies for tanks and bazookas and graft.

      So such pecksniffery is superfluous: “The real cause lies in decades of European free-riding, American strategic drift, and a foundational lie at the heart of the Alliance: the idea that an empire can masquerade as a collective defense pact without consequences.

      “Let’s start with the numbers. Most NATO members still do not meet the 2 percent of GDP defense spending benchmark, despite years of promises and performative panic. Canada, which has taken freeloading to an art form, has shown no serious intention of meeting its obligations.”

      Come on, Andrew Latham, of Macalester College and various think tanks, if you are going to send us all to a fiery death, at least be less dishonest about it. And offer some little bags of gianduiotti for our “kits di sopravvivenza” (recommended by Lady Lahbib of Bruxelles).

      Reply ↓
      1. Polar Socialist

        The irony of the whole “2% or more” issue is that yesterday we found out from the Germans and the Russians that while Leopard 2A6 costs 4 times more than T-90, it’s not actually suitable for war (say the Ukrainians according to the German military attache) and not equal to T-90 (say the Russians after studying a trophy).

        So, just by buying Russian tanks any NATO country could have better arms with fraction of the price. Unless preparing for a war is a racket, too…

        Reply ↓
        1. JMH

          Preparing for war is a racket unless you are really serious about preparing for war. If that, you make stuff for its lethality not its profitability. But anyone with half a brain knows that … so that means … Did you see the article by Simplicius about German armaments? And then there is the F-35 and the Abrams tank etc. and so on and so forth.

          Yup. Preparing for war in the West is a racket.

          Reply ↓
          1. Polar Socialist

            It’s been discussed here before, and as it now seems to have been confirmed, maybe worth mentioning again:

            Changing Leopard 2 powerpack takes about 20 minutes if you have a Leopard 2 ARV and a crew of trained trained mechanics, while it takes about two hours to change the powerpack of T-72 with engineering team with proper tools.

            Changing Leopard 2 powerpack without ARV and a trained crew takes about 20 hours, while the tank’s crew with a few wooden poles can change the T-72 powerpack in 2 hours.

            Reply ↓
      2. Aurelien

        It’s really time this “freeloading” business was put to sleep. The US spends a tiny percentage of its defence budget on its European commitments, and has only two serious ground combat units in Europe, together with an admittedly quite decent, but generally irrelevant, air capability. (Think Belgium with more MacDonalds.) This is a hold-over from the Cold War rhetoric about the “common defence” and the idea that Europe should effectively contribute to the cost of US nuclear forces and carrier battle groups in Asia because security. Given that Europe derives no clear benefit from either of the last two, and that the US anyway wastes money on an enormous scale, then I think it’s about time to retire this argument.

        Reply ↓
        1. The Rev Kev

          So far as I can recall, the US has never called the South Koreans a bunch of “freeloaders” even though it is a similar security situation. Strange that. Trump is now demanding that the South Koreans pay even more money for the privilege of hosting US bases. Not to be confused with a protection racket of course.

          Reply ↓
          1. Terry Flynn

            I honestly think it is time to stop believing there is a President of the USA who is “with it” in terms of cognitive function. NOT one single clinical friend of mine thinks he is not suffering “profound dementia”.

            I would never advocate violence. But here’s a thought experiment…..given hoarding and shops being raided for toilet roll etc……..”how long do you think ii’ll be before one of the three letter agencies decides enough is enough?” Non-consitutional so of course I don’t endorse it. But I can’t but help wonder about what OTHERS might do.

            Reply ↓
            1. Expat2uruguay

              My thoughts went immediately to a trump assassination when I saw this video about a trump plan to give greenlanders $10,000 a year to be part of the US: https://youtu.be/dk2zlzgy4H8

              Firstly, because many Trump voters I know would be absolutely enraged at the idea of $10,000, $10,000!! for greenlanders!

              But secondly, because the CIA would be the ones who actually knocked him off but would use a disaffected trump supporter as a Fall Guy.

              At any rate, I think he’ll be assassinated in 2025. Politics ain’t bean bag, and the cool and connected vice president is going to work a lot better than the madman in chief.

              Reply ↓
              1. steppenwolf fetchit

                Given Trump’s age and health, an assassination would probably be carried out by induced stroke or heart attack, or induced cancer, or some other plausibly natural-seeming death.

                Or Trump could be Article 25ed.

                Or the relevant Deep Agencies and Deep Operators might decide to hang some constitutional tinsel on the barbed wire of removal and inform the House and Senate that they need to have Trump impeached, convicted and removed and that any officeholder who gets in the way risks assasination of itself and its family. And then the Deep Operators would arrange to have Trump found in bed with a live boy.

                I suspect the Trump Team has thought about this which is why the Trump Team is trying so hard, fast and furious to purge and remove all the Deep Operator types out of the PermaGov, and replace them with its own Triple nazi Revolution supporters.

                Reply ↓
        2. scott s.

          To be fair, I think it’s actually three “serious ground combat units in Europe”. (2 Cav, 173 Airborne, 1 Armored/3rd Inf Div)

          Reply ↓
      3. ilsm

        Any reference to national security, or red lines presents a discernible image of “war as a racket”.

        That is the essence of the MICIMATT.

        Reply ↓
    2. bertl

      The term crank is a little over-nuanced when applied to Kaya Kallas. Totally f**king deranged seems more appropriate.

      Reply ↓
  6. The Rev Kev

    “China’s new semiconductor rule spares Taiwan fabs, punishes Intel, GlobalFoundries & Texas Instruments”

    Pretty smart thinking on the part of the Chinese bureaucracy. By pointing out that Taiwan is actually part of China, they don’t have to hit them with tariffs. And not only is Taiwan’s biggest export customer China, but China is also Taiwan’s biggest source of imports.

    Reply ↓
    1. timbers

      Don’t tell that (Taiwan is part of China) to Joe American who has any access to MSM. I worked with a American who came from Britain. He was incredulous at me when I corrected his insistance that Taiwan is a separate nation. Never heard of Nixon One China Policy, State Dept website and United Nations and it’s individual members meant nothing to him. Blob control of MSM at its peak.

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        It use to be up on the US State Department website for decades that Taiwan was part of China but Trump had it taken down.

        Reply ↓
      2. steppenwolf fetchit

        Actually, as I remember, the Shanghai Communique says something like ” all Chinese on both sides of the Straight, agree that Taiwan is part of China.” Which left the question to later beg itself over time . . . . are Taiwanese people Chinese? What if most Taiwanese think otherwise? What if they claim that the Shanghai Communique therefor does not bind them?

        And how would the ChinaGov respond to that?

        It was better to have left the issue unforced through continued reliance on “strategic ambiguity”.

        Reply ↓
        1. bertl

          I had a native Taiwanese student some thirty years ago who complained that the indigenous population had, through inter-marriage and birth rate, already been outnumbered by the Chinese who fled there in 1949.

          Reply ↓
  7. Unironic Pangloss

    >>>Stanford psychologist David Rosenhan wanted to find the answer…

    have these been replicated? some, like the “Marshmallow Test”, don-t hold up, sometimes….(or maybe kids aren’t impressed by marshmallows anymore.)

    curious about the “shortest line is actually the tallest line” gaslighting experiment…I doubt that holds up today (hypothesis that 2025 H. Sap. Americanus is not as conforming-trusting-deferential as 1970 H. Sap.) ; but there is no money in replication

    Reply ↓
    1. Ben Joseph

      1. The subjects were malingering, or feigning symptoms, but without the gains that usually accompany that presentation (e.g. lack of housing, desire for disability benefits). If you show up at a hospital and convincingly complain of crushing substernal pain, you would be admitted as well and possibly get invasive procedures like heart catheterization.
      2. Psychiatry requires patient honesty for its optimal practice because objective testing such as functional MRI are nascent and therefore not covered by insurance. In no other branch of medicine is accurate subjective report of symptoms more critical for optimal outcomes.
      3. Slight annoyance at thread author for amateurish conflation of psychology (arts and science study of behavior which is why colleges offer classes) and psychiatry (which is a medical specialty). Psychologists and social workers can be licensed to provide therapeutic counseling which seems to contribute to the ongoing misunderstanding. Psychiatrists are doctors and can deliver babies, suture wounds and provide a comprehensive understanding of medication prescription due to four years of study obtaining a medical doctorate or doctorate of osteopathy.
      The movement to allow other levels of training to prescribe medication will only increase inappropriate medication use, malingering or not.

      Reply ↓
  8. The Rev Kev

    “Trump envoy: Ukraine could be divided like post-war Berlin”

    I think that Kellogg pulled this plan out of a box of Corn Flakes. If you go to the following article, you will see a map of this planned partition. I’ll wait until you check it out-

    https://english.nv.ua/russian-war/kellog-s-peace-plan-includes-tripartite-occupation-of-ukraine-50505675.html

    So you see that the British & French force of some 20,00 people will be scattered over a huge territory in the rear. The real aim is to make sure that Russia does not get Odessa and Transnistria remains isolated for later attack. The Ukrainians will still be facing both Russia proper and the new Donetsk Oblasts with no real separation which you would think should be the job of the French and the British. Also parts of the new Russian Oblasts remain under Ukrainian control, which the Russian Constitution does not allow for. It sounds like a plan put together by the Ukrainians, Macron & Starmer and given to Kellogg to present but if it was thought up by Kellogg, then the man is a total idiot. And I note that as far as I know, Kellogg has still not talked to the Russians or flown to the Russian Federation to get their take.

    Reply ↓
    2. ilsm

      Channeling “iron curtain “ Churchill.

      The Morganthau plan might work. Western zones demilitarized and agrarian. No European occupiers.

      Allowing a partition as designed by Churchill and Truman post Potsdam will not fly.

      Reply ↓
  9. Red Snapper

    Europe Vows More Arms for Ukraine as US Takes Backseat The Defense Post

    The frontseat:
    https://kyivindependent.com/germany-announces-new-military-aid-for-ukraine-including-4-iris-t-systems-tanks-shells/
    Germany will provide four IRIS-T air defense systems, 15 Leopard 1 tanks, reconnaissance drones, and 100,000 artillery rounds …
    The German assistance is also to include 120 MANPADS launchers, 25 Marder infantry fighting vehicles, and 14 artillery pieces. Pistorius also confirmed that 30 Patriot air defense missiles have already been delivered, …

    Reply ↓
  10. griffen

    Ghost students…shocker they aren’t that interested in learning or achieving high grades in class. Higher education in this country is seemingly “fudged” if you ask me, spend a few years and rack up massive student debt before you can ever earn a dime in a chosen profession. Adding, the profession or career chosen might just take some extra time before sorting out if suits him or her. Accountant roles are always posted in job searches, but a life of punching values into GL journal entry posts is not all that enticing.

    Back to the above article though… scammers on the search for how and for where, to what else they can easily steal.

    Reply ↓
    1. herman_sampson

      What stuck out to me was the source of money that was scammed: ” grant funding from the state or federal government to cover tuition, student housing or meal plans.”
      I thought that ended a long time ago – those funded my college 40 some years ago.

      Reply ↓
      1. Bugs

        These are 2 year community college type schools and don’t require application approval so their tuition is likely modest. The scammers are getting the max in loans and grants by making it appear as if they’re the most worthy of aid on the application. It seems sort of exaggerated to me. I can’t imagine more than a few dozen are able to manage this and get away with it since they actually have to get somebody to sit in class for a few weeks before the money is released.

        Reply ↓
    2. FreeMarketApologist

      “…a life of punching values into GL journal entry posts is not all that enticing…”

      Hey, these are my people you’re talking about! It’s true, doing g/l entries all day isn’t that interesting – it’s like the ‘keypunch operator’ positions that used to abound. But, a couple years of decent accounting work is a significant stepping stone to more exalted positions and pay in the operational finance world — analyst, controller, treasurer, tax wizard, CFO. Get your CPA, and at the higher levels (even below CFO) the pay is significant, and you’re in the room with the decision makers. There’s a real shortage of people with strong accounting knowledge across all industries, and employers are paying up for the skills.

      Reply ↓
      1. griffen

        I should’ve included that I have a minor in Accounting, and most of work in a mostly professional, corporate setting the past 15 years has accounting considerations involved when it came to daily funding resources and knowing the key dates each month for heavy cash demands…

        Given the occasionally jarring lack for basic math skills or knowledge I find in everyday interaction at a restaurant or a gas station, I’d find it likely those particular roles will be generally open and available if people progress upward as you highlight.

        Reply ↓
  11. lyman alpha blob

    I have an exchange rate question and I couldn’t find an answer on the interwebs but I bet someone here knows how this works. Last year when I took a sojourn across the pond and had some purchases that required cash, I brought some US$ and exchanged them for euros here, or just took euros out of an ATM, and I got the going exchange rate less a small, reasonable percentage fee. This time my receipts are showing a whopping 15% fee taken on top of the transaction fee, and I’m getting well below the going exchange rate. I’m not exchanging/withdrawing at the airport either – I know the rates there are generally much worse and was able to avoid those last year.

    Am I just using the wrong ATMs? Or is this a new fee since last year? And is it a response to US tariffs on on the EU?

    Reply ↓
      1. lyman alpha blob

        Thank you, but as one of the videos mentions, you are often charged a 3% or so fee. I actually don’t mind paying that – I used to pay about that when exchanging traveler’s checks back in the early 90s – but 15% which is what I’ve been charged so far is extremely steep and I don’t remember ever being subject to fees that large. And I’m still using the same bank as last year, so something must have changed on this side.

        Reply ↓
        3. Pausanias

          I don’t know if this explains your predicament but I go to Greece and elsewhere in Europe every year and, over the past two years, when I request euros almost all ATMs first show you the charge in dollars and, if you agree, the implicit exchange rate is extortionate. If you state NO and you get charged in euros (through your bank), then you get, depending on your bank’s policy, a reasonable exchange rate and a reasonable fee. This also can occur with credit card transactions when they also ask whether to charge in dollars or euros; you should always charge in euros, if your credit card has reasonable fees and exchange rates.

          Reply ↓
          1. lyman alpha blob

            Thank you and everyone else who responded! I think you may have the answer – there was a yes or no option when I was making the withdrawal which may be different than last year. The first two times I just agreed to the terms, thinking that choosing ‘no’ would end the transaction. I’ll try choosing the ‘no’ option tomorrow on a smaller withdrawal and see if that stops the extortion.

            Reply ↓
          2. Revenant

            It’s more complicated than that. IIRC:

            The ATM or debit card terminalwill offer you deferred conversion or immediate. Always choose deferred, with conversion done by your home bank, the immediate rate is a scam.

            Whereas credit card terminals will offer the same choice but here immediate conversion is better because the credit card companies bulk buy the conversion daily (and possibly internally match trades etc).

            NB: I can never remember this with certainty in the heat of the moment and am always left worrying if I choose the right one. So you had better check I got this the right way round!

            Reply ↓
    2. Yves Smith

      It very much depends on your bank’s terms.

      Some banks refund ATM fees on “foreign” ATMs, meaning any ATM that is not your bank’s, if you keep a high enough balance. Perhaps you didn’t keep enough $ in that account when you went abroad?

      Here the ATM fees are 220 baht, which even with the baht not all that strong, is $6.50. Even on the maximum allowed ATM withdrawal of 30,000 baht, that’s 0.7%. But if you took out less, say 10,000 baht, you are up to over 2%.

      Many banks charge FX fees. Those are 3%. But again, you can get bank accounts that don’t charge them.

      You can avoid them (at least here) by letting the local bank do the FX and withdraw dollars….but the rates SUCK. Decent sized American banks give way better rates. This is true on credit cards too (I have seen some merchant terminals allow the option of charging in baht v. dollar, and again, the dollar rate is lousy).

      I had my evil TD Bank, at which I keep large balances, suddenly tell me via a little note in my monthly statement (!!!) that I was no longer getting foreign ATM charges waived and they were going to charge FX too. Fortunately I have another bank but I have to keep very large balances there and their service sucks. But I am stuck. However, there are a lot of “no FX fee” credit cards.

      Reply ↓
      1. lyman alpha blob

        Thank you Yves. I think Pausanius above got to my issue.

        I do try to avoid TD Bank myself – they acquired a smaller bank I used to deal with, after I had already closed my account at the smaller bank due to their poor service. If I remember right, it was the bank putting a lengthy hold on a small check from my mother that frosted me enough to leave. No wonder TD wanted them ;) I’ve also found that I can avoid having a credit card by having a checking account with an affiliated debit card and overdraft line of credit (ODLOC).

        I do use a credit union and they are nice enough to waive any US bank fees I incur from ATM withdrawals. I can’t remember if they waive them for foreign withdrawals, but I will find out soon. What I really should have done is had them raise the daily limit on withdrawals. Since I didn’t bring any US$ cash exchange this time, I now need to make multiple ATM withdrawals to get the cash I need for the purchases I need to make next week. Live and learn!

        Reply ↓
        1. Yves Smith

          TD acquired my very nice Commerce Bank.

          It’s way too hard to change banks, particularly for business accounts. And at least initially, TD was not terrible. They did only slowly cut back on the terrific Commerce branch hours.

          Reply ↓
  12. The Rev Kev

    “Iran/US Scenario 2 in Play, Ball is now in Trump’s Court, and Trump Blinks First in China Showdown”

    ‘Smartphones, laptop computers, memory chips and other electronics will be exempt from President Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs, another step back that could ease some consumer concerns about an immediate jump in costs for tech products imported from China.’

    Just goes to show you that Trump and his team were shooting from the hip. He has now had to admit that the US cannot do without all that electronic gear which is why he carved out a huge exemption for them. Everything else remains. But as the Moon of Alabama has pointed out it is worse for Trump. With this measure Trump has had to cut back the value of his tariffs by about 22% while the Chinese on the other hand get to maintain all of their tariffs. And any firm toying with the idea of making high-value electronic goods in America will now drop it as the Chinese stuff will still be coming in on only minimal tariffs.

    Reply ↓
    1. Es s Ce Tera

      Watching this tariff war feels like watching an under 400-rated amateur challenging a 2500-rated grandmaster.

      Reply ↓
    2. Carolinian

      He still left on the 10 percent so that at least some tariff can be collected as part of his scheme to eliminate the income tax.

      It may be time, or well past time, to ask whether we merely exchanged Joe for a more energetic version of senility. And the Silence of the Dems threatens a more general social crackup. There were those large demonstrations a few days ago but the supposedly Dem adjacent MSM ignored. The bird of prey is feeling poorly but it still has two wings.

      Congress needs to take away Trump’s tariff toy as well as assert itself on war powers. A more organic public uprising than Hands Off could help.

      Anecdotally some of my neighbors kept their Trump signs up after the election–a kind of “so there” to other neighbors who conspicuously support Dem causes. This week those Trump signs are gone.

      Reply ↓
  13. Mikel

    Brazil’s Ag Sector Plans for Export Boom as China Pivots Away from U.S. – The Maritime Executive

    Read all the way to the end:

    “Brazil’s agricultural shipments are also a factor in China’s interests in the Panama Canal. Chinese economist Li Xunlei has called for improving government ties in the Central American country in order to ensure strategic access to the waterway for China’s food shipments; 90 percent of the Brazil-to-China soy trade passes through the canal, he said in a recent paper.”

    It only gets more tense:

    https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5238988-us-panama-cooperation/

    Reply ↓
    1. Expat2uruguay

      Thank you, I saw that too. A person would be veryfoolish to read only the headline of that article and not read the last paragraph!! 90%!!!

      Reply ↓
    2. Expat2uruguay

      I think there’s an error in this reporting from the maritime executive: 90% of Brazil to China soy trade passes through the Panama canal? Wait a minute, let’s look at a map. I’m under the impression that the trade from Brazil to China goes directly across the Atlantic, around the Horn of Africa and on through the Indian Ocean. I don’t know where the statistic of 90% passing through the Panama canal comes from.

      It seems to me that what shipping China does through the Panama canal is probably on its way to California and Washington State.

      Reply ↓
  14. Terry Flynn

    For a long time I’ve been putting “do not recommend” on YouTube channels that IMHO suffer from TDS. (I also do so for all the obvious MAGA sympathisers).

    Things have just got interesting. I’ve said before that “the algorithm” CAN be manipulated……it took it years to realise I was NOT a middle aged woman but a gay man. Partly because I was trained by possibly the best academic marketer in the world who taught me how to answer stuff. But whatever.

    Now I’ve got a VERY big list of suggested videos from people who are not obviously “strong Democrats or Repubs” who are suggesting stuff I can’t repeat. There is an underlying theme though: the USA is utterly familyblogged; shelves are being cleared of certain items they know involve Chinese inputs as fast as what happened during COVID. AKA Panic buying. I saw this a mile off. I don’t want bad things for these people. However, so many people could predict this. Why did they not?

    Reply ↓
    1. Michaelmas

      Terry F.: However, so many people could predict this. Why did they not?

      Because they live in the Dream Palace of the Americans, where it’s somehow still 1990-94 for the Exceptional Nation, with greatness there to be seized by Americans, the World’s Most Exceptional People, if merely the — **insert the scapegoat of your choice** — were just removed.

      More seriously: extending the metaphor of the data revolution to this situation helps make sense of it, because clearly a big factor is that societies is in the West — but particularly the Americans — have lived a sort of controlled social experience whereby the User Interface has been kept ostensibly the same as the previous reality even as the entire underlying machinery has been transformed and in many cases moved elsewhere — removed, that is — by the globotics revolution and the rest of it, while ever-increasing amounts of money have been funneled to the top via QE, bailouts, etc.

      Now, what remains are the mountains of debt and the non-functioning societies. Looting or a giant Ponzi , but on carried out massive societal scales, is a shorter summary of it.

      Terry F.: the USA is utterly familyblogged

      Wait till the extent to which pharmaceuticals are sourced from China becomes visible to the poor saps.

      Terry F.: the algorithm” CAN be manipulated……it took it years to realise I was NOT a middle aged woman but a gay man.

      It continues to think I’m African-American. (I’m a green card holder, white Brit, now resident again in London.) I worked as a professional musician for decades around the SF Bay Area and when I quit that to work in tech business journalism, I kept playing in black churches in the East Bay on Sundays, so all the text messages I got and some of the email was from fellow church musicians and choir members. Thus, I get African-American-themed adverts and now CoPilot on my phone talks to me in an African-American accent.

      Having typed this up, it strikes me that it sounds comically far-fetched. But I’m absolutely serious.

      Reply ↓
      1. Terry Flynn

        Thank you! Sometimes I think I must be mad given what I seem to experience but good to learn of others relating to it.

        Reply ↓
      3. Antagonist

        I worked as a professional musician for decades around the SF Bay Area and when I quit that to work in tech business journalism,

        This is quite a bit different than your usual comments about military things. How and why did you—a professional musician—develop interests in military weapons?

        Reply ↓
      1. Ann

        There are many wolves here in rural British Columbia, but they stay further away from people than the coyotes do. In my area every acreage has at least one dog. We have a deadly rodent hound – a standard dachshund. If someone finds some of their sheep dead, it’s almost always dogs. When the coyotes howl, all the dogs join in, making a yip-yowl fest that goes on for 10 minutes. One night we were out late at night and the coyotes started up. All the dogs came on board, including ours. Then, way up the mountain behind our place one wolf let out one loooong howl. Every coyote and every dog instantly shut up. Dead silence. Not a peep – “the big dogs are speaking”. Yes, it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

        Reply ↓
        1. Glenda

          Here in Berkeley CA, during covid lock downs, we had coyotes coming down from the hills and killing the house cats. So we all made sure they were in the house. Now I let my cat out as he likes to hunt especially during full moon. The deer I often used to see have started coming around again, maybe for the roses in bloom. Last week I saw a doe with 3 fauns at the creek near me, and later a single young deer on my street. I mentioned it to a local friend about the deer and they said that it was likely not coyotes, but a rare mountain lion was the likely driver for the deer. In the past the police shot and killed a mountain lion near my neighborhood. People complained the lion should have been dealt less brutality, but cop will be cops. No one has reported a lion yet.

          Reply ↓
        1. Ann

          The wolves here mostly eat deer. In winter they run the deer out on the ice on the river where the deer slip and slide. The wolves disable the deer and then leave. The coyotes come in for the kill, the bald eagles come for the eyes, and then the wolves return. They eat their fill and leave the rest for the coyotes, the ravens, and the eagles. The carcass is picked clean within 3 days.

          Reply ↓
  16. Mikel

    Trump’s China tariff shocks US importers. One CEO calls it ‘end of days’ – AP

    This caught my eye:

    “He had looked for ways to make the chairs in the U.S. and had discussions with potential suppliers in Michigan, but the costs would have been 25% to 30% higher.

    “They didn’t have the skilled labor to do this stuff, and they didn’t have the desire to do it,” Rosenberg said.”

    It would take time and a different kind of investment and planning.
    Will there be any results from reports like these?

    https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/26/high-schools-reviving-shop-class-skills-gap.html/

    https://www.mmsonline.com/articles/the-resurgence-of-shop-class-in-american-classrooms/

    Reply ↓
    1. Terry Flynn

      Look at the YouTube videos…….heartbreaking……..yeah these numskulls voted MAGA but now the implications are coming to hit them. ZERO sales and no suppliers. Along with denial of credit. Their business will be gone in months,

      How did so many turkeys vote for xmas?

      Reply ↓
      1. Mikel

        Or some businesses sold cheap and then tariffs are reduced?

        So much bezzle out there (in addition to war mongering) that I have to wonder.

        Reply ↓
      2. Bsn

        Dem are also seeing ….. ZERO sales and no suppliers. Along with denial of credit. Their business will be gone in months,

        How did so many turkeys vote for xmas? ….. Or, vote Dem. There is no differences, Dem Repub, both duped.

        Reply ↓
      3. vao

        “How did so many turkeys vote for xmas?”

        Or as the German saying goes:

        Nur die allerdümmsten Kälber wählen ihren Metzger selber.

        (Only the most stupid sheep — actually calves — select themselves their butcher).

        Reply ↓
    3. spud

      go subscribe, Matt says everything i have been saying for years,

      Burn it all Down
      Globalization, once hailed as a panacea, has proven to be fundamentally corrupt and needs to be blown to kingdom come
      Matt Taibbi
      Apr 11

      Reply ↓
  17. Mikel

    Re: the Mizrahi thesis

    I suspect there are more reasons than given for the Iranians’ reluctance to be in the same room with negotiators for the USA.

    Reply ↓
        1. Yves Smith

          I listened to the full remarks by the Iranian ambassador. He made it clear the meeting was accidental as the teams were leaving….which IMHO = the US made sure they ran into each other.

          Reply ↓
      2. Jason Boxman

        If anything is bi-partisan in Washington, hold on to your wallet: You’re about to be robbed.

        Now applies to foreign policy!

        Reply ↓
        1. Lefty Godot

          Or, per George Carlin: The word bipartisan usually means some larger-than-usual deception is being carried out.

          Reply ↓
    2. Carolinian

      Just watching that Crooke “path to war” podcast.

      https://conflictsforum.substack.com/p/on-the-path-to-war-with-iran

      I like Crooke but don’t think he has much of a handle on this country and how it might react if Trump carries out his bombastic threats. Indeed I think Trump himself has a better handle on this–the reaction–than Crooke does. As Lambert once said Trump is always trimming his sails to his audience. Of course that was before this even older and possibly even more dubious Trump came to power.

      Ian Welsh has a better read of The Donald.

      https://www.ianwelsh.net/there-are-only-two-ways-to-handle-trumps-threats/

      He says you deal with bullies by standing up to them because they are weak people testing the reality of what they can get away with. And while Trump may or may not have said he “doesn’t five a f***” clearly he does get the fear when people like Jamie Dimon call him out. Here’s suggesting that deep down he knows he’s not up to any of this but the front is all. Until it isn’t.

      Way too optimistic perhaps but WW3 not to mention Great Depression 2 can be stopped if only we stand up and do it.

      Reply ↓
      1. nyleta

        Yemen first. UAE backed STC fighters starting around Bani Bakr and Saudi backed YPC fighters starting around Taizz. Israeli reports that large civil war forces are massing for an attack on Hodiedah port in Yemen. Must be costing someone lots of money or the price for Saudi recognition of the status quo ?

        If the US intends to do its bit the MEF will have to get the port the first day just like Dieppe other wise the wide dispersion of the Houthi anti-air assets will give them trouble. The US only wants to control the coastline, just like the British in the 1950’s they don’t care about what is happening in the countryside.

        Reply ↓
  18. timbers

    Bombshell Reports: “German Weapons Not Made for War” Simplicius

    I was expecting this to along the lines of, The Patriot Act was not made to fight terrorism but citizens. But it’s about over design that makes stuff impractical.

    Reply ↓
    1. lyman alpha blob

      That was a fascinating thread. Going by my very imperfect memory here, but it brought to mind something tangential I read from Bertrand Russell in his History of Western Philosophy, and he was discussing David Hume’s (or possibly another philosopher’s) thoughts on insanity. What is considered “insane” is very often a societal construct and can change over time as the zeitgeist does. So if what is considered normal is subject to change, should society consider someone who willfully breaks the norms as insane, or are they merely a minority of one?

      Reply ↓
    2. .Tom

      The same history is also ably retold in Jon Ronson’s book The Psychopath Test in which he went on to describe how that episode shook psychiatry in the USA (and presumably beyond) to its core and set the stage for the scientism of DSM, which we still live with today. I recently re-read Ronson’s book and I like it for its honest, open-minded presentation of how nobody knows how to sort these contradictions out.

      Reply ↓
  20. Henry Moon Pie

    Nominations for Dingbats of the Day–

    The two ladies in green. Their level of understanding of the planet they live on would embarrass a five year-old. And the lady on the right, good Christian though she may be, has YHWH confused with Ra.

    Reply ↓
    1. Terry Flynn

      Yeah. Meanwhile I’ll be putting a chair up against my bedroom door handle to give me an additional minute or so to call 999 if my dad (given an “off label” drug known to be dangerous among some patients – I HAD to come off it around 2010) and which my specialist told me “your dad’s practice MUST know of my alert here” means my dad is on a med that has caused people to kill others during semi-conscious sleep states.

      How TF do we end up in this situtation and why TF has his practice not acted on this? Specialists at my end have dotted is and crossed ts. They made ABUNDANTLY clear this is inappropriate.

      Part of this posting is so that a legal case can make it clear the medical malpractice. Part is cos I’d rather stay alive…… mum won’t go near him…….FFS.

      Reply ↓
  21. Skip Kaltenheuser

    Regarding M’s X patent comment on the Rizzio post of a video of the Chinese traveler buying a sparkling water without his cell phone and wallet:

    One can certainly disparage the increasing gaming of the US patent system by the Big Money, which the Obama Administration and a know-little, well-greased Congress opened the door to.

    That doesn’t change that America’s startling technological progress since its founding was made possible by its former unique first-to-invent patent system that incentivized inventors, small entities and universities to develop better ideas. It gave them a temporary property right enabling capital formation and the ability to challenge dominant market share, toward becoming established businesses or licensing out their inventions.

    Major reforms are needed to even the playing field, but not throwing out the original concept of patents awarded to innovators that all can study and build on. As opposed to trade secrets, and already established corporations using overwhelming legal resources to nullify or delay new patents from potential competitors and disruptors, which is the current miserable state of affairs. American innovation will continue to slide back, with few understanding why it’s happening, as big players simply steal ideas or kill them off in the crib.

    Meanwhile, from the video it looks like China is well on the way to knowing everywhere one goes and everything one does. I always forget my cell phone because I don’t use one. Years ago one of the biggest chills I had in China was a cute robot photographing my face as I boarded another plane for in-country travel. Another was an electronic sign at an intersection that instantly identified jaywalkers and posted their pictures. No thanks.

    Reply ↓
  22. timbers

    “The Chinese are peasants” – JD Vance

    Perhaps Vance could accompany me one day on rounds to assigned clients in need of assistance in their daily lives, who are serviced by TenCare which is Tennessee’s version of Medicaid. He might need a new term to describe the level he sees some people live at here in America. But he probably fancies him self too important to be bothered by tasks beneath him like improving the lives of the peasentry here in America and prefers his obsession of moving international chess peices around the globe in service to his rich sponsors.

    Reply ↓
    1. Mikel

      With a book titled “Hillbilly Elegy”, he’s leaving himself open to snappy comebacks from the Chinese people.

      Reply ↓
    2. taunger

      Ah, I’m familiar from another side. I’m try to help those folks get ssdi. I wish the rest of the pmc saw what you and I do.

      Reply ↓
    3. IM Doc

      For the risk of being too personal…..

      I grew up in a backwater part of this country. When I was a kid – it truly was “The Andy Griffith Show”. I think the best I can say now is that it is “Breaking Bad” on steroids. The extreme decline and impoverishment I see when I go home is profoundly disturbing. I do not go that often, so I think I am in a different position than those still there – they are frogs boiling in the water; I see drastic changes every time I go. Those people, my people, are now “peasants”.

      Contrast that with my Chinese immigrant wife. She came to America to escape “the peasant life” of her grandparents. She too grew up in a backwater part of the country. The first time we went to see her family, we rode for days in a rickety train full of pigs, chickens, dogs and screaming kids. The smell in the train was horrific. And her little “town” of almost 1.5 million was clearly what Americans perceive when they think of “Chinese”. There was no drug abuse that I could see, but there was lots of primitive living everywhere. BUT, the people seemed to be very happy. After being there for several weeks, I could see the lack of advertising propaganda in their lives, and that absence had left them with no one else defining “happiness” for them. That was my simple take; I am certain that much more was going on.

      Fast forward a few decades to present the grandparents with their grandkids. The Beijing airport was something out of Tomorrowland compared to the airport dumps in the USA. There was no more rickety train. Instead, we were taken right to her “town” by a bullet train. No vermin allowed. Instead, it was one of the finest trips I have ever been on for EVERYONE on board. The little 1.5 million “town” had become a megalolopolis. It was a completely different vibe. I do not remember seeing anyone I thought was a peasant there. But there were clearly signs of problems that we are so used to here. Much more obesity. A rollicking change in what I would call consumer culture. And there were haunting signs like something out of “The Twilight Zone” that things were not quite as they appeared. For example, street after street, block after block, of gigantic 30 story buildings that stood completely empty. The 30 story buildings in the town center that had been built since we last were there were so overcrowded as to be something out of a horror story.

      I do not have the experience nor the knowledge to know what is going on or what to make of our observations. But one thing is for sure – “peasants” is not really a word to use for the Chinese situation that I saw.

      Reply ↓
  23. The Rev Kev

    ‘Right Wing Watch
    @RightWingWatch
    Apr 10
    Rep. Mary Miller says that “climate change is a sham”: “God controls the climate because he controls the sun and the sun controls the weather, primarily.”‘

    Rep. Mary Miller reminds me of the true believer caught in his house in a flood. A National Guard truck came to get him but he sent them away saying the Lord would help him. The flood got higher so he went upstairs where a boat tried to get him to climb in but again he sent them away saying that the Lord would help him. The flood got higher so he climbed onto the roof where a helicopter tried to get him but again he refused saying the Lord would help him. He drowned and went to heaven where he asked the Lord why he let him drown. The Lord replied ‘Well I did send you a truck, a boat and helicopter.’

    Reply ↓
    1. Es s Ce Tera

      What puzzles me, isn’t it a Christian responsibility to care for God’s creation? On earth as it is in heaven? Which specific denominations are these which view the caretaking of God’s earth as a scam? Which priests or pastors are teaching the opposite?

      Reply ↓
      1. griffen

        I should avoid this as my duties as a US citizen require attention pretty soon….April 15 is the annual death march for filing individual income tax. Hooray.

        I looked this representative up, she is naturally a member of the Freedom caucus; her bio reads like she is wife June to husband Ward and the Cleaver family. 4th generation family farmers, so there is a particular lack of interest I find stunning,. Climate change has definitely done, generally so to speak, some rearranging and “climate wonders” in my home state of North Carolina, both in the mountains and on the coast. Nature does seem to not care that much about our way of life….this is nearly 20 years after Katrina as well….FFS.

        Firm and full believers can’t be easily swayed to change their mind or update their creed. I know this all too well.

        Reply ↓
  24. Mikel

    Some other articles about Stanford psychologist David Rosenhan’s 1973 experiment:

    https://www.simplypsychology.org/rosenhan_experiment.html/

    This one has a particularly interesting bit:
    https://bigthink.com/health/rosenhan-experiment-mental-institution/
    “Amusingly, while the staff at the hospitals had no idea they had fakers in the ward, the real patients often caught on very quickly. The participants reported dozens of cases of their wardmates coming up to them and accusing them of being either a journalist or professor playing sick in order to take notes about the hospital.”

    Reply ↓
  25. Bsn

    In the Why We Distrust Technology article the author implies it’s our inadequacy as humans not the tech itself that is “bad”. Using tech to fix tech has been discussed ad infinitum, so I won’t go there.
    I’ll go here. In the article “Few in 1970 predicted that agricultural innovation would allow us to feed four billion more people than seemed possible at the time.” True that. However, how did that turn out? There are very few bodies of water in the USA that I would drink from directly – without filtration. Of course people will say “but tech brought us good filters”. This “green revolution” has brought us dying soils and poisoned waters. In 1900 I would easily drink from nearly any stream.
    Secondly, In John Van Neuman’s 1955 article “Can We Survive Technology” he addresses the “speed” of tech’s “advance”.
    The speed of tech advance has overtaken our ability to control, understand and deal with it. In the past, we could drive a car with a top speed of, say 80 mph, and we could control it. Good brakes, nice steering, even a heated seat for winter driving (all tech advances). With the car’s limits, a fairly cognizant human could control it. However with the speed of tech (so many examples) such as the internet, AI, jet planes moving viruses and invasive species around the planet – speed has taken tech beyond both individual and societal control.
    There never were any “good ol’ days” but we could at least understand tech and deal with it. However today, “the bad days”, with the speed at which tech has evolved, it has overtaken humanity, lead and controlled by the worst of humanity’s children (Musk, Gates, Google, Amazon, digital control, etc) . I give us about 30- 50 years, max.

    Reply ↓
    1. elissa3

      One of the giveaways in this article is: “This isn’t a rational economic approach; it’s a deeply ingrained cognitive reflex.” (my italics) Ummm, yeah. Maybe humans aren’t designed and haven’t evolved to function as purely rational economic beings. Maybe, just maybe there are other values/considerations that our species favors.

      Homework for this article’s author: check out the movie “Quest for Fire” for a humorous clue. (Original title “La Guerre du Feu”).

      Reply ↓
    1. Wisker

      Indeed. “If WW1 has taught us anything, it’s that the real winner is much more expensive horses and lances.”

      (Yes, I’m aware it’s apocryphal).

      Reply ↓
  27. jhallc

    I came across this recent C.Z. Means and Whitney Webb post on Unlimited Hangout. Quite an amount of overlap between the Epstein and P. Diddy universe. Bill Clinton gets a cameo for his push through of the Telecommunications Act . Part 1 of a 3 part series.

    “It should come as no surprise upon closer examination of Sean Combs that, like Epstein, he was operating on behalf of a larger network that he did not ultimately control. Instead, it arguably controlled him. As this three-part series from Unlimited Hangout will endeavor to show, Combs was acting on behalf of an oligarch network that directly overlaps with that of Epstein. However, Combs used to influence a different industry and a different community for the benefit of these intelligence and organized crime-connected oligarchs.”

    https://unlimitedhangout.com/2025/04/investigative-series/one-label-under-blackmail-the-early-intersections-of-diddy-and-the-epstein-network/

    Reply ↓
    1. Mikel

      Then all the way at the last part of this Part 1:

      “…With such connections established, the question then becomes –– what did this group seek in someone like Sean Combs, and more broadly, in exerting its influence over the entertainment industry and specifically African-American music?

      While speculative, it appears that various connections leading back to MCA and its influence can help us arrive at one unsettling possibility. During this period, not only was MCA a dominant force in entertainment (and early hip-hop specifically), but Laurence Tisch –– through his 1985 takeover of CBS –– controlled another key branch of the music industry through 1995. With the Bronfmans taking over MCA, and later Def Jam and Warner Music (as will be noted in Part II), the influence of the so-called “Mega Group” billionaires over the music industry became extremely significant during the 1990s. With Combs teaming up with Clive Davis, with significant ties to this same network, to form his own label Bad Boy Records in 1995, this tiny group of billionaires had the ability to shape hip-hop, the cultural engine of the African-American community, in major ways.

      The same year that the Bronfman and Tisch clans formally joined forces with Leslie Wexner and others like MCA-linked Steven Spielberg via the “Mega Group,” American record labels had allegedly begun to conspire to promote crime in hip-hop lyrics with the ostensible goal of facilitating the filling of private prisons, as those that ran the record labels were allegedly deeply connected to private prison firms. An account from an anonymous industry insider details how, in 1991, he was invited to a clandestine meeting where he was forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement. He recounted the events of that meeting as follows…”
      (see article)

      I guess it’s not much a leap from the Harvard Report of the 1970s to this.
      I’ll have to see where the other parts lead.

      A description of the Harvard Report: “In 1972 CBS Records commissioned Harvard Business School and CBS Black Music Marketing Director, Logan Westbrooks, to develop and for CBS to implement, a “Study of the Soul Music Environment.” It was intended to be a simple, productive “blueprint” for Soul music.”

      Critiques of the report abound. One of the earliest came from music journalist Nelson George in his book “The Death of the Rhythm and Blues”.

      Reply ↓
      1. Tom Stone

        MCA has a long history of connections to organized crime,
        ” Dark Victory,Ronald Reagan, MCA and the Mob” by Dan Moldea is well worth a read.

        Reply ↓
        1. Mikel

          I read one that came out around 1993 – a few years after Dark Victory.
          It was called “Stiffed: A True Story of MCA, The Music Business, & The Mafia.”
          I don’t think either had much to say about Uptown Records.
          So the UH story is presenting the legacy.

          Reply ↓
  28. ilsm

    Interesting pair of posts.

    1945 on EU lining up for largely unsuitable F-35

    Simplicus on unsuitable German wunderwaffen.

    The fruit of ignoring rigorous testing.

    Settle for the only expensive stuff available

    Reply ↓
    1. HH

      The Europeans seem eager to continue an abusive relationship with the U.S. by buying the F-35. Even though there is no direct “kill switch” for the plane, the U.S can slowly render the F-35s useless by cutting off the automated logistics system that provides replacement parts. The EU has the resources to develop their own military aircraft (preferably unmanned) and they should do so to avoid further humiliation by the U.S.

      Reply ↓
  29. Ben Joseph

    Re: RFK uncovering explosion in autism.

    I can save him some time. I would hazard in my practice well less than half of diagnosed autism cases actually have it. For some reason in the late 80s pediatricians thought that was a softer blow than retardation.
    If anything, this tendency has increased this millennium.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK332894/

    Note the decrease in intellectual disability rates were accompanied by a compensatory increase in other diagnoses. Which is even more ironic given the criteria for a vast majority of recent history was based on deviation from the mean, a constant percentage.

    Reply ↓
    1. Expat2uruguay

      As the parent of a low IQ child, I have to agree. She was diagnosed with oral apraxia and years later her IQ was tested in the 90s. She’s 23 years old now and a wonderful person. She goes to a special school and volunteers at a pet shelter. I don’t know if she’ll be able to work, she’s really unable to deal with numbers. Also, she’ll break down in tears if something goes wrong. Anyway, she is retarded, even though we can’t use that word anymore. They just changed the name.
      I remember my mother had a mental breakdown. Nobody has those anymore. I had serious depression, and young people nowadays have anxiety disorders. Strikes me as all the same thing, different names.

      And that’s before we get to legitimate coping mechanisms for an insane world. It’s now been 8 weeks since I last drank alcohol. By far the longest period of sobriety I’ve had in 50 years. But the world is an evermore frightening place and the future looks very bleak, I’ve substituted old Western movies for the alcohol I suppose.

      Reply ↓
      2. Jonathan Holland Becnel

        Thanks for the comment, big dawg.

        I remember the old stories about Spartans tethering the ankles of young babies that for whatever reason they found unfit and tossed them off a cliff.

        The rich have stolen all the money and it’s up to us to figure out how to get our social safety net back.

        You’re doing a great job. It sucks, but you gotta do it.

        I’m 40 and 10 years into my sobriety.

        I smoke weed tho…

        So I guess I’m not 100% sober.

        Reply ↓
    2. Darthbobber

      Many things that would never have been diagnosed as autism in my youth now are. A host of socially awkward behaviours might now be understood as results of being somewhere on the very broad autism spectrum.

      And for much of it there’s little connection to purely intellectual disability. One of my friends was diagnosed with fairly mild autism, but it never interfered with his work in biology or as science librarian and teaching faculty at a state university.

      I strongly suspect that I would also come up somewhere on that spectrum.

      Reply ↓
      1. Alt Delete

        My understanding is that the goal these days is to help everyone identify levels of support needs rather than pin down and box in. It’s not uncommon I think for many otherwise gifted kids to lose out on opportunities that might help them shine and contribute more effectively to society had they been accurately identified. If the spectrum seems bigger, but it helps more people, is that so bad?

        Reply ↓
  30. Jason Boxman

    From Trump’s China tariff shocks US importers. One CEO calls it ‘end of days’

    Also this bears noting, and during Trump 1.0? I think I remember reading about this, or Biden? It’s been a long Pandemic. But Chinese factories were making it difficult to get your molds and machines out of China, in addition to the logistical challenges of transportation and exfiltration of the equipment:

    The tariffs, unless they are reduced or eliminated, will wipe out thousands of small Chinese suppliers, Woldenberg predicted.

    That would spell disaster for companies like his that have installed expensive tools and molds in Chinese factories, he said. The stand to lose not only their manufacturing base but also possibly their tools, which could get caught up in bankruptcies in China.

    Learning Resources has about 10,000 molds, weighing collectively more than 5 million pounds (2.2 million kilograms), in China.

    “It’s not like you just bring in a canvas bag, zip it up and walk out,” Woldenberg said. “There is no idle manufacturing hub standing fully equipped, full of engineers and qualified people waiting for me to show up with 10,000 molds to make 2,000 products.”

    (bold mine)

    China: It’s easy to get it, hard to get out! The toy is broken.

    Reply ↓
  31. Jason Boxman

    From Democrats’ problem isn’t just messaging – it’s the electoral math

    What the f**k?

    Messaging and messengers are not unimportant. They’re crucial. Especially if Democrats hope to change a brand that is toxic in many states where they must find a path to victory if they want any hope of reaching 270, 218 or 51. But math remains the far bigger challenge – and even perfect messaging crashes against structural and geographic realities. Too many Democrats, and the party’s polling/consulting complex, want to bleed the ActBlue accounts of supporters on lost causes like the Florida special election.

    The focus for Democrats must be on something different: defending free and fair elections, and building a coalition right now behind reforming redistricting, the courts, statehood for Washington DC and Puerto Rico, and imagining the Senate reapportionment that Daniel Patrick Moynihan warned 30 years ago we would soon desperately need.

    …

    Call it the Contract to Reform America, or Project 2029, or “make American politics fair again”. Get all the influencers and future podcasters onboard. Until Democrats fix the math and reform the system, the few will control the many for decades to come.

    (bold mine)

    Notice, no mention in this entire column about Democrats offering material benefits to the working class.

    What a joke. This dude is high as a kite. These people are mentally handicapped.

    Reply ↓
    1. AG

      Yeah, reveals his daily realities and how far off those are from the class of people he actually is writing about but isn´t even aware of. Is it possible that mass media fucked up our politics? As soon as someone speaks to a large audience from a medium that has an elite attribute to it they get megalomaniac. They seriously believe to be in some form special. I wonder if this isn´t a serious flaw inherent to our system triggering weaknesses in the human psyche like Coke fucks you up regardless who you are. Because I seriously do not know of a single case of journalist working for a legacy outlet or major TV station who is NOT feeling superior in some fashion.

      Reply ↓
  32. Tom Stone

    The PMC are about to learn that “To Protect and Serve” refers to the top 1%, not the top 20%.
    Got a degree in international relations?
    Cool, you can compete for a job as a Walmart greeter.
    Don’t like it?
    Too bad.
    Raise your voice and you will be educated like a red headed stepchild.

    Reply ↓
  34. Carla

    Re: Trump’s China tariff shocks US importers. One CEO calls it ‘end of days’

    If there’s one thing this country, and the environment, does NOT need, it’s more cheap consumer junk.

    But food? toilet paper? public libraries and schools? parks and playgrounds? health care? Yeah, we need all those.

    I’m tired of one CEO being convinced that his existential crisis is “end of days.” He’ll survive. For his lowest-paid employees, it could well be “end of days.” Not for him.

    Reply ↓
    1. Mikel

      The tensions with China are real. But I’m thinking the entire global establishment is in a trick bag with fewer and fewer consumers being responsible for more and more consumer spending.
      And they all want infinite quarterly growth.

      Reply ↓
  35. Mikel

    I’m going to throw this out there for the “tariff panic.”
    Don’t rush out to buy now. Resist. That’s the the best way to fight the hype tax for corporate profit.

    Reply ↓
  37. The Rev Kev

    “The lonely life of a glyph-breaker”

    This might be a case where AI would finally be able to earn its keep. Turn it loose on the Rosetta Stone but only the Egyptian text to see if it is any good. Then do the same for Linear B. If the results look promising, then turn it loose on unknown languages to see if it cannot pick up any patterns that have been missed. Might be worth a shot and would maybe help those glyph breakers no end if it works.

    Reply ↓
  38. Expat2uruguay

    Will we look back on this major war in the Middle East and all of that means for the global economy, and say that it all started with peace talks?

    Has this happened before in history?
    A war that started with peace talks?

    Reply ↓
    1. Martin Oline

      Yes, it has. World War II started at the Versailles peace conference. From Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War by P. J. Buchanan – At a London dinner party soon after Hitler had taken power in Berlin, one of the guests asked aloud, “By the way, where was Hitler born?”
      “At Versailles” was the instant reply of Lady Astor.
      source of quote is The Expellees by de Zayas p. 80.

      Reply ↓
  39. Jason Boxman

    Just anecdotal, but this keeps happening this year

    6 Dead After Private Plane Crashes in Hudson Valley

    Michael Groff, the pilot, was a neurosurgeon and experienced flyer, and his wife, Joy Saini, was a pelvic surgeon. Their daughter, Karenna Groff, was a medical student at N.Y.U. Langone and a former star soccer player at M.I.T., where she was named N.C.A.A. Woman of the Year in 2022.

    (bold mine)

    And

    Albert Nixon, the lead investigator for the N.T.S.B., said the plane had been nearing Columbia County Airport when the pilot reported a missed approach and asked for guidance for another approach. The air traffic controller then received an alert that the plane was flying at a low altitude, but was unable to reach the pilot. He said there was “no reason to believe” the plane was not safe to fly.

    The plane went down 10 miles from the airport.

    And

    In November of last year, a small plane carrying a pilot and four rescue dogs crashed roughly 50 miles west of Copake, in a remote area of the Catskill Mountains. In June, five members of a family were killed about 40 miles northeast of Binghamton, N.Y., when their small plane crashed en route from Cooperstown to Georgia.

    (bold mine)

    Reply ↓

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