How a Secretive Gambler Called ‘The Joker’ Beat the Texas Lottery Wall Street Journal
You Might Think of Shrimp as Bugs of the Sea. But a Remarkable Discovery Shows the Opposite: Bugs Are Actually Shrimp of the Land Smithsonian Magazine
30,000 gallons of maple syrup likely lost in historic Michigan ice storm Bridge Michigan
Cholera cases in Europe linked to holy water imported from Ethiopia News-Medical
Climate/Environment
The world is heating up. How much can our bodies handle? Grist
Paris said au revoir to cars. Air pollution maps reveal a dramatic change. WaPo
In Western Pennsylvania, an Old Coal Town Gets a Gas-Fired Data Center Allegheny Front
Pandemics
Measles outbreaks spark concern over rare ‘horrific’ neurological disorder CBC
The Greatest COVID-19 Misconception Pandemic Accountability Project
CDC’s cruise ship inspectors laid off amid bad year for outbreaks CBS News
India
Terms finalised, US-India drill down on sectors for trade deal Hindustan Times
The Koreas
Commentary: South Korea’s likely next leader may rethink US alliance, pull closer to Beijing, Pyongyang Channel News Asia
The Force That Drives Korea Unchartered Territories
China?
China offers off-ramp Pekingnology
China Halts Critical Exports as Trade War Intensifies New York Times. Headline is misleading; published yesterday but more an update on measures Beijing enacted April 4.
China’s New Economic Weapons The Washington Quarterly
Xi to visit Southeast Asia amid China’s grievous export crisis Asia Times
China Power: As Beijing plays up global peacemaker role, scepticism lingers in Southeast Asia Channel News Asia
Syraqistan
Israeli military strikes Gaza City’s last functioning hospital NBC News
***
Washington, Riyadh agree to ‘pathway’ for Saudi civilian nuclear program The Cradle
US Envoy Steve Witkoff offers Iran nuclear deal without ‘full dismantling demand’ The New Arab
US, Iran take a leap forward in trust building Indian Punchline
On the Path to War with Iran – Alastair Crooke, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen The Duran
***
After Ukraine, Trump is now eyeing Pakistan’s rare minerals The Independent
Pakistan Deepens Ties with China and Russia in Eurasian Pivot Glenn Diesen’s Substack. A talk with General Raza Muhammad.
***
Pro-Erdoğan journalists echo Trump’s ‘relocation’ plan for Gaza, sparking backlash Turkish Minute
***
The Maltese Falcon Poachers: How European hunters brought death and destruction to Egypt’s migratory birds The New Arab
European Disunion
EU will use Trump tariff freeze to push new fossil fuel deal Politico
Hungarian opposition leader tells supporters he will restore Western alliances if he defeats Orbán AP
S&P revises Hungary’s outlook to negative, citing stagflation risks and fiscal slippage Bne Intellinews
Hungarian Two-tailed Dog Party stages largest protest to date against amendment of Assembly Act Euronews
New Not-So-Cold War
When Alleged Western Military “Experts” Insist that Russia is Not Making Progress, Just Show Them This Larry Johnson
Ukraine Loses F-16 Under Unclear Circumstances Military Watch
Russia ‘was and remains the aggressor’, says Von der Leyen following deadly attack on Ukraine’s Sumy Euronews
EU to weigh new Russia sanctions, security guarantees for Ukraine at Luxembourg Summit Ukrainska Pravda
Less than 500 people have signed contracts under the 18-24 program so far – OP Ukrainska Pravda (machine translation)
Top Kiev official wants women conscripted into army RT
Ukraine’s military chief ‘must go’, says commander who quit to speak out The Guardian. A context-free interview with Bohdan Krotevych, former Azov brigade leader.
Are Holocaust Perpetrators Heroes of Ukraine?
The Rivne Regional Council asks Zelensky to award Taras “Bulba” Borovets the title of Hero of Ukraine — the country’s highest state honor.
Taras “Bulba” Borovets and his paramilitary formation, Polis’ka Sich, were responsible for… pic.twitter.com/Z8o8l0JDwU
— Marta Havryshko (@HavryshkoMarta) April 12, 2025
South of the Border
Ecuador’s Noboa holds on to power, voters back ‘iron fist’ on cartel violence France24
U.S. intelligence report favors incumbent Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa in election CBS News
“Liberation Day(s)”
Trump’s electronics tariff exemption is temporary, Commerce Secretary says Axios
Charting the Largest Tariff Hike in Modern History Apricitas Economics
***
Donald Trump loves mess Read Max
Worst Case Scenario: Trump’s Tariffs Walling US Off Ahead of Wider World Conflict Brian Berletic, New Eastern Outlook
Debunking the Pettis-Miran Hypotheses Policy Tensor
GT Voice: Will fallout from US tariffs affect risk assessment of dollar assets? Global Times
OMG the Dollar Is Collapsing, or Whatever Wolf Street
Is the Trump Tariff Financial Crisis a Crisis of the Dollar? It Doesn’t Seem to Be … Yet Notes on the Crises
***
BREAKING: US Politicians were buying tariff exempt companies before the news like $AAPL Apple.
Take Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene. She bought $AAPL, $AMZN, $DELL, $NKE, and others before the surprise announcement today, buyjng the companies as they fell.
Unusual. pic.twitter.com/XHOdKjhNNB
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) April 12, 2025
***
Transcript: Are US tariffs just the beginning? With Abraham Newman FT
DOGE
Judge relaxes ban on DOGE access to sensitive US Treasury information CNN
DOGE takes over federal grants website, wresting control of billions WaPo
Democrats en Déshabillé
Gretchen Whitmer ribbed online for seeming to hide face in Oval Office Fox News
Person arrested for allegedly setting Gov. Josh Shapiro’s official Harrisburg residence on fire Spotlight PA
GOP Funhouse
The still untold story about GOP Rep. Cory Mills is a massive sleeper scandal for an outlet with resources to take an eye off the Trump ball: Money, sex, international arms deals, stolen valor claims, wildly shady finances. Here’s the gist, most of it from public record. (1/X)
— Roger Sollenberger (@SollenbergerRC) April 11, 2025
Immigration
Recent immigration brought a population rebound to America’s major metro areas, new census data show Brookings
Venezuela: 35 Migrants Rescued From Guantánamo Repatriated, None Belongs to Tren de Aragua Orinoco Tribune
Police State Watch
The Attack on International Students Can We Still Govern?. A good roundup and examination of wider implications.
AI
How to Train an Artistic AI ArtReview
Healthcare?
Kaiser accused of illegally using clerical staff, algorithms to triage suicidal patients Courthouse News Service
Private Equity’s Growing Role in Disability Care Demands Urgent Oversight MedPage Today
“Slow Pay, Low Pay or No Pay” ProPublica
Groves of Academe
Palantir wants to poach top high school grads with a new anti-college internship: ‘Skip the debt. Skip the indoctrination.’ Business Insider
Imperial Collapse Watch
This is why the Russian experience is so relevant to America today.
As @EvgeniaKovda keeps saying, she and other Russians and all former Soviet people are from America’s future. They already went through what America is going through right now.
— Yasha Levine (@yashalevine) April 13, 2025
Supply Chain
The Port That Powers a Nation: How New Orleans Connects America to the World Big Easy Magazine
Antitrust
Exclusive: @Meta adding former Trump & Bush official Dina Powell McCormick to its board, along with @stripe CEO Patrick Collison
—Reminder, it added Trump ally Dana White to board in Jan
—Meta faces historic antitrust trial against FTC next week@axioshttps://t.co/iOEpUx3AXk— Sara Fischer (@sarafischer) April 11, 2025
The Friendly Skies
Three Delta Air Lines Flights Makes Emergency Landings Due to Same Problem Aviation A2Z
The Bezzle
The Trump Family Is Going All-In on Crypto Projects, From Bitcoin Mining to Stablecoins Bloomberg
Guillotine Watch
Homeless workers now have to submit *proof of employment* to be allowed to sleep in their cars in one of the richest counties in the U.S.
Welcome to America: people shivering overnight in subzero temperatures for the privilege of keeping the local economy booming. pic.twitter.com/JPXk45Fmw1
— Brian Goldstone (@brian_goldstone) April 13, 2025
Class Warfare
Amazon workers force temporary shutdown after death at JFK8 warehouse WSWS
What Could Go Wrong?
It’s the first U.S. nuclear plant to use AI. Where does Diablo Canyon go from here? Cal Matters
Dinosaur Doomsday Crater Became an Ocean Oasis for 700,000 Years Gizmodo
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Man Who Has To Borrow
(melody borrowed from Man Of Constant Sorrow first recorded by Dick Burnett in 1913; here performed by Dan Tyminski and The Soggy Bottom Boys)
(His thoughts are vengeful and depraved)
Trump can’t think or plan and so he borrows
He’s in a deep dementia haze
Both his tiny hands are stained and bloody
His thoughts are vengeful and depraved
(His thoughts are vengeful and depraved)
Trump lives in an Oval Office bubble
He cannot read the page he’s signed
It’s a maze of words he can’t untangle
He waves his pen to wow the crowd
(He signs his name to wow the crowd)
Donnie couldn’t please his Dad or Mother
He’s has to win to take revenge
He left Queens for a Manhattan zip code
And lived a life of twisted pain
(He lived a life of twisted pain)
Four bankrupt casinos to his tally
He makes a mess then walks away
Every business failed for this fat grubber
His closest friends know he’s a knave
(His closest friends know he’s a knave)
This man is a clear and present danger
He’ll lead us straight to world war
Trump has no restraints on his ambition
He will use nukes—that’s what they’re for
(He will use nukes—that’s what they’re for)
Bravo!
Need to get silver- tongued handsome George Clooney, T Bone Burnett, and Tim Blake Nelson to cut a video of this!
“Ukraine Loses F-16 Under Unclear Circumstances”
The Russians have already confirmed that they bagged this F-16. Apparently it was three missiles launched from an S-400 ground-based system that took him out-
https://www.rt.com/russia/615705-ukraine-f16-shot-down/
Another wonder weapon that has not lived up to its reputation.
It still took three missiles to down it, and after reading how nasty those S-400 systems are, I wonder how the airplane outran? eluded? blinded? destroyed? the first two missiles.
A standard practice of any military is to fire of two missiles to every target to ensure mathematically that a target will be hit. You see it all the time. Maybe the reason for the third missile is that it was a maneuvering target. Either way that F-16 was hit and the Ukrainians will run out of aircraft before the Russians will run out of missiles.
S-400 are long-range systems for high altitude targets (missiles, bombers). Likely every UKR plane operates very low <300 feet almost all the time.
At that those altitudes and speeds, planes are not detected until close—and you are expected to fire multiple times given the small window of opportunity.
Simiplicious wrote a whole article about standard surface-to-air procedures (i think)
Interesting, you presume the F-16 with pilot duo (threat warning and defensive countermeasures along with air combat maneuvering) defeated two of three alleged shots.
Do you have evidence the second and third missile were not redundant?
Another wonder weapon that has not lived up to its reputation.
Pfft. It’s a more than half-century old, antiquated weapons platform that first flew when Gerald Ford was POTUS, and had problems even then.
So your irony is kind of wasted here; it’s just a pathetic situation. For an amusing comparison, a half-century is the distance in time between the wooden, sail-powered HMS Victory, top-of-the-line battleship at Trafalgar, and HMS Warrior,which was iron-hulled, armored, steam-powered, had rifled breech-loading cannon, and the top-of-the-line that much time later.
It’s worse than that. A lot of advanced features were stripped out of the F-16s supplied to the Ukrainians lest the Russkies got a hold of it. So those Ukrainians are flying a dumbed down version of the F-16 flown by NATO nations which itself is a stepped-down version of what the USAF flies.
Among the stripped features, reportedly, was the most advanced Friend-Foe determination coordination with things like ‘friendly’ Patriot batteries. This may be responsible for the earlier friendly-fire loss of an F-16, and may account for this one as well, as both sides have an interest in claiming a Russian shoot down.
Since we are dealing with aircraft, 50 years make all the difference between a Spad XVII or a Sopwith Camel, and the Mirage 5 or the Sukhoi SU-15.
US aircraft that were designed in the 1950s through 1970s have frequently had a very long lifetime, especially for the basic airframe. I think it was some kind of golden age of the US aerospace industry.
Many of the new aircraft coming out since have either been upgraded versions of these older airframes, or else unsuccessful planes that were built in small quantities and then discontinued.
I find it both amazing and depressing, especially since these older planes were designed and built by hand using drafting tables and hand driven machine tools.
And they did all their mathematical calculations with slide rules as well.
Some 30 years ago, I read an article (in the Scientific American or some magazine like that) about the new way of designing military aircraft.
The new airplanes achieve greater performance by adopting “unsound” designs — inherently unbalanced and aerodynamically unstable structures, impossible to pilot manually, but that work because of embedded electronic controllers that adjust all the flying parameters in real time so that the aircraft does not tumble out of control. It was even jokingly suggested that with all those electronics even an iron could fly.
That kind of trickery may increase performance but probably has some consequences on the structural integrity of the airframes as well.
Old-timers could not resort to those techniques and had to design aerodynamically sound airplanes able to take off, fly, and land, entirey piloted by (relatively slow) human beings, without the millisecond-timed intervention of multiple sensors and actuators.
That may explain a part of the evolution you describe.
Canard wing configuration is an example of that computer controlled instability.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canard_(aeronautics)#Computer_control
They became very fashionable at one point, but focus on frontal stealth made them fall out of vogue.
The scuttlebutt in the Russian forums is that the (very low flying) F-16 was detected by a (very high flying) Su-35 in a distance out of range for the Su-35, so it relayed the target information to the air-defense network and several missile batteries took the shot (thus multiple missiles) which the Su-35 then directed to the target, while the F-16 used all possible countermeasures.
As far as I know, the Soviet/Russian SOP at least used to be to use one radar guided missile and one IR guided missile per enemy airplane to make it harder for the target to use the correct countermeasures. Not that flying on the deck allows for much maneuvering or pilot error, anyway.
I’ve read about cases like this before, where an S-400 fires a (long range) missile and an airborne radar guides it to the target. The advantages of the networked systems.
Russian are also apparently testing, on the battlefield, anti-tank missile systems where one tank fires from concealment and an another tank takes control of the missile and guides it to the target. In principle neither of the tanks reveal it’s position during the engagement.
“several missile batteries took the shot (thus multiple missiles) […] while the F-16 used all possible countermeasures”
Makes sense. This may explain the expenditure of three missiles on the same target positioned at the limit of the AA range.
Donald Trump loves mess. Haven’t you heard? He thinks of himself as Donald Jesus Trump, the Messiah, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnXLjHtfAIU. “It’s true the stock market did a Jesus, it died and on the third day it was risen!!!”
He also said just the other day ‘The bond market’s going good. It had a little moment but I solved that problem very quickly. I’m very good at that stuff.’
https://www.rt.com/news/615679-trump-tariffs-too-high-dont-do-business-us/
I think that the Fool Killer is going to need a bigger club.
Thank you, Conor.
Further to the link about Taras Bulba Borovets, let me share with this community an anecdote from my employer.
Next week, my employer gets a new CEO. A month ago, She introduced herself on the intranet and mentioned that her Jewish grandfather fled pogroms in Rovno, Russia.
A Polish immigrant colleague commented below that Rovno is properly called Rivne as it’s in Ukraine and Russians, not Ukrainians, were responsible for the pogroms. That kicked off some anti-“Ruzzia” feeling. The Pole explained that “Ruzzia” was responsible for ethnic cleansing Jews, Poles and Ukrainians.
I’m surprised that this was allowed an airing as colleagues of slave descent were not allowed to comment on the employer’s role in funding the slave trade.
I’m surprised that anyone Polish would have called it something other than Równe or assign it as really belonging to Ukraine and not Poland.
Her grandfather would probably have remembered things differently (jewishgen.org). According to these memoirs Russian Empire had been good enough for Rivne Jews so that many of them preferred Russian citizenship to Ukrainian, which did little to diminish the anti-Semitism of Petlyura’s forces.
Grift-ball Wizards
(Sung to the tune of, “Pinball Wizard” by the Who)
Ever since I was a young boy
I’ve played that vampire ball
From Harrah’s down to Vegas
I must have played ’em all
But I ain’t seen nothing like them
In any casino hall
That daft, dumb Congress
Sure makes some mean stock calls
They evade every statute
Dodge the SEC
Teeing off by lunchtime
They hit the nineteenth green!
Got crazy intuition
Never seen ’em fall
That daft, dumb Congress
Sure makes some mean stock calls!
He’s a Griftball wizard
There has to be a plot twist
Our Griftball wizards – no handcuffs on their wrists!
How do you think he does it? (I don’t know)
What makes them pick so good?
Ain’t got no job distractions
No whistleblowers to tell
Won’t see no cop lights flashing
After the closing bell
Got crazy trader’s instincts
For when the market falls
Those daft, dumb Congress kids
Sure play a mean Griftball!
I thought I was the rally monkey king
But I just handed my Griftball crown to him
Even grizzled futures traders
Say, “he can beat my best.”
Immune to prosecution
They’ll never face arrest
Got crazy stock flipper fingers
Never seen them fall
That daft, dumb Congress
Sure plays some mean stock calls!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHc7bR6y06M
well done, that.
“Venezuela: 35 Migrants Rescued From Guantánamo Repatriated, None Belongs to Tren de Aragua”
Trump’s Department of Homeland Security, along with other organizations, have been playing it fast and loose identifying who is a member of a criminal gang or not and for them tattoos were the way to mark them out. They came out with a tattoo chart and everything but the problem is that some of them came from a simple Google Images search. Take Pete Belton from Derbyshire in England for example. Who’s that? A decade ago he got a commemorative tattoo on his arm for his daughter’s birth and the tattoo artist put it up on social media as an example of his artwork. Fast forward a decade and a Trump worker copied that image and said it was a sign of a gang member. Pete was going to go to America later this year but is afraid that that tattoo might see him being sent from JFK to Guantanamo Bay. Sheer lazy incompetence on the part of the Trump regime just like with the tariffs-
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly22xm8kx1o
Perhaps they asked some AI chatbot what were the kind of distinctive tattoos gang members prefer, and the AI chatbot duly replied with some slop brewed from Internet message boards.
You know, I think that you are onto something here. It would explain a lot. Kudos for sussing it out.
They could just as well have asked ‘experts’ from the gang squads of police departments and federal law enforcment. As criminology is a right-wing-dominated discipline, certain critical assumptions are left unexamined in the process of educating the ‘experts’, and little real-world knowledge trickles it’s way, up or down, to either the enforcement or the policy ends. Seeing gangs as a law enforcement problem has meant that it’s a field overgrown with stereotypes, and also the bit about hammers and nails.
In the end, we look at it’s effects, which are to increase the incarcerated population. We look then at who benefits, which would be opportunistic, politically-climbing judges, prosecutors, and the hucksters peddling both surveillance tech and the latest fix-all ideology which conveniently happens to require you to give them money to fund their social ‘science’. Gangs spring up where society and its institutions fail to incorporate it’s people, not that this has much relevance to the matter at hand, namely the administration taming labor by reminding them what rights we really have, by means of examples being made of the vulnerable.
Thank you, Conor.
Further to the link about private equity’s growing role in disability care (in the US), that has been the case for many years in the UK.
Depending on the nature of the disability, someone may be awarded up to £3-4000 monthly by his / her local authority. The private equity intermediary, increasingly US, will take two thirds to three quarters of that award. The carer(s) will get the balance, leaving many out of pocket and no longer able to carry on, not that many did it for the money. Councillors are happy with that as they are often in the pay of the private equity firms.
US private equity is increasingly buying out the partnerships who run the UK’s medical general practices, a trend that the Labour government wants to build on. In order to maximise profits, fees for the likes of medical examinations have increased nearly ten fold in recent years to about £4-500. The practices prefer to employ foreign doctors as they are cheaper, leaving tens of thousands of British doctors unemployed or underemployed. In addition, the practices limit the number of doctors, leading to waiting lists. They also employ physician associates, rather than fully and traditionally qualified doctors.
Plunder Equity really are a scourge on society. Cut quality, cut products, extract profit. There is no industry they won’t get their grubby hands on.
One of those industries I’ve watched get gobbled up over the past decade is the automotive motorsports/aftermarket engine businesses; things like cylinder heads, pistons, valves, camshafts, carbs, aftermarket fuel injection, etc. Companies like Cloyes, Comp Cams, Edelbrock, TCI, Dart Machinery, AFR, JE Pistons, JEGS Automotive… many more. All of these are pretty much the definition of small and medium enterprises that 99% of people haven’t heard about unless they are gear heads into hot rodding and racing, or keeping their 1968 Chevy on the road; not something one would expect Wall Street leeches to be interested in. I guess as they run out of bigger companies to gut, the smaller ones are coming into the crosshairs?
If this doesn’t stop, ‘Western’ society is gonna end up being three PE firms in a trenchcoat.
Dinosaur Doomsday Crater Became an Ocean Oasis for 700,000 Years Gizmodo
Excellent source on ancient impact craters:
https://craterexplorer.ca/manicouagan-impact-structure/
Thank you, Conor.
Further to the link about homelessness, readers who speak French and even those who don’t may be interested in this recent French tv report about Las Vegas: https://www.tf1info.fr/international/video-grand-reportage-tf1-ils-sont-de-plus-en-plus-nombreux-sous-les-casinos-de-las-vegas-des-sans-abri-survivent-dans-des-tunnels-2359200.html.
Some years ago, French tv featured the Silicon valley techies forced to sleep in their cars. One was a middle aged woman. She was now obese, no surprise as she could only eat fast food, not having a home and cooking facilities. A photo of the woman when young was shown. She was slim. She said liked cooking.
I have a close friend whose family lives in north SF Bay Area, but his job is south of San Jose. So he sleeps in his van 4 days a week to avoid the very long commute. I saw him on Friday night and he had not been home since last Sunday. He has figured out places that he can park and not be hassled, I think. Such is Silicon Valley life for some.
for any sci-fi fans: a video essay looking at the in-universe events of Blake’s 7 through a political theory lens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hM-H2EONxk (18 min) “Blake’s 7 and Revolutionary Drift” by the Feral Historian channel
Thanks for that. I was a big Blake’s fan and watched it again a few years ago.
This appears to unrelated to any link but thank you anyway!
I loved Blake’s Seven as a child. And I had a terrible crush on Servalan!
It’s so reassuring to see MTG adapting so well to D.C. and the Rules-Based Order. She had us worried for a while, but things are fine now.
> Hungarian Two-tailed Dog Party stages largest protest to date against amendment of Assembly Act Euronews
That is the most confusing news report I think I ever read, assuming, as I do, it isn’t a joke.
In the first march at Hero’s Square, I think the Two-Tail Dog Party, using ironic messaging, protested government efforts to ban/criminalize public assembly of the Gay Pride sort. I have no idea what’s going on in the second protest in Buda. In neither case does the article explain the underlying issues.
The second protest march in the article relates to the new Tisza party, Péter Magyar’s new splinter party from the ruling Fidezs, offering some kind of Christian-center-right less internationally embarrassing alternative to Orbán. I’m told it is doing well in polls. They have so far seated a few MEPs and one of them recently gave a speech in the EP encouraging the EU to punish Hungary by withholding grants because Orbán. The rally in Buda was pro-government and against that speech.
Unraveling this confusing Euronews article required a lot of research.
“After Ukraine, Trump is now eyeing Pakistan’s rare minerals”
On paper that must look great though they will never annex that country, having their fingers burnt in Afghanistan. But there may be, ahem, local complications. Brian Berletic has pointed out-
‘The US has also been engaged in years of undeclared proxy-war with China through the use of terrorists and militants across Eurasia used to target and destroy Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) infrastructure, Chinese engineers working on BRI projects, and local security attempting to protect them.’
And as turnaround is fair play, who is to say that those mines and transport corridors will not be hit by terrorists and militants trained, equipped and financed by China? Bonus points if those terrorists and militants were armed with weapons that had their origin in the US via the Ukraine.
Whatever happened to the minerals deal w/ Zelensky? Last I heard it was no longer “operative.” Zelensky was mad because Trump kept moving the goalposts.
Another “squirrel!” moment.
According to the Ukrainian minister of Justice Ukraine has delivered a counter-proposal to White House. And Ukraine is willing to continue negotiations until agreement, of course.
They’ll never honour it if signed of course but break it from day one.
I assume you mean both parties.
AFAIK that has not been China’s MO thus far. Just because the US adopts a (stupid, vicious, blowback-producing) tactic does not mean China will respond in the same fashion. And China has plenty of reason to avoid arming non state actors in that region.
Re :Palatine recruiting High School grads.
Oh the irony of Alex Karp telling people not to go to college when he spent probably a dozen years getting his BA, JD, PhD. What he should be telling people that if you meet the right people at Stanford, and your grandparents leave you a chunck of change for an inheritance, you too can run a company and become a billionaire.
‘Skip the indoctrination.’
It’s too hilarious.
Actually, it’s still part of the same indoctrination process: protecting the wealth of the billionaires.
In some small way, I will admit it is a charitable thing. Special needs comes in many forms.
Ex: The gifted and advanced programs at schools are a form of special needs programs as well.
Yes how dare the cogs in the machine learn about humanities, ethics, or learning different points of view. Just have them use Stephenson and Gibson as instruction manuals for our tech lord future.
“Washington, Riyadh agree to ‘pathway’ for Saudi civilian nuclear program”
The Saudis are going to be suckered in here. Even if a contract is signed it will always encounter problems with development, construction, permits, training of local engineers, etc. and they will just not get around to actually finishing that nuke plant. The Israeli lobby will make sure of that. It will be like Oz’s nuke sub deal where we hand over many billions with a promise of delivery in twenty or thirty years time. Or maybe we can just ‘lease’ US Navy nuke boats and spend the money on buying US weapons instead. The Saudis will run out of oil before that plant is ever commissioned and anything that the Saudis give away as part of this deal will actually be a freebie for the US as they will never fulfill their side of this deal.
Consider two things:
1) The Saudis might not mind if money is spent on a project that does not result in anything really usable. If they view it in the same way as the expensive, rarely used, and difficult to operate military gear they buy from the USA, then it will serve to make sure the “indispensible nation” continues to be friendly-minded towards Saudi Arabia (so much easy money to make there!)
2) If Saudi Arabia really needs an atomic power plant, then it will pragmatically do the same as Turkey: order one from Russia.
This is a boon for Iran. US cannot demand complete “denuclearization” of Iran now.
“Russia ‘was and remains the aggressor’, says Von der Leyen following deadly attack on Ukraine’s Sumy”
‘More than 30 people were killed in the missile strike as people gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday’
The Russians have said that they hit a parade attended by high-ranking officers with Ukrainian officials criticizing the military for holding a troop gathering so close to the Russian border. Unfortunately those who held that parade thought it a good idea to invite families along. Meanwhile in the west it is made out to be a deliberate attack on civilians and outrageously on Palm Sunday. Then they followed up by saying that there was no choice now but to bring in an unconditional ceasefire. Funny that. The Israelis just attacked the last proper hospital in Gaza and it was on some religious holiday too I believe but I have never heard a suggestion that therefore there must be an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. I guess that one of these is not like the other.
Re: The fire at his residence Governor Shapiro’s had this to say-
““This type of violence is not OK,” an emotional Shapiro said outside the residence, where fire damage was visible. “This kind of violence is becoming far too common in our society, and I don’t give a damn if it’s coming from one particular side or the other … one particular party or another or one particular person or another, it is not OK. And it has to stop. We have to be better than this.”
This from the guy who signed bombs that likely killed untold women and children in Gaza.
Here the comprehensive piece by Moon of Alabama:
Palm Sunday Attacks On Sumy And Al-Ahli
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/04/palm-sunday-attacks-on-sumy-and-al-ahli.html#more
“The Port that Powers The Nation, Big Easy Magazine. Dated 4/9/2025. Mentions The Gulf of Mexico.
Old habits die hard amongst the locals.
Fergoshsakes don’t let Mikey Johnson Or Senator Kennedy know!
“BREAKING: US Politicians were buying tariff exempt companies before the news like $AAPL Apple.
Take Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene. She bought $AAPL, $AMZN, $DELL, $NKE, and others before the surprise announcement today, buyjng the companies as they fell.
Unusual….” pic.twitter.com/XHOdKjhNNB
It is unusual that, despite headlines screaming “everything is changing”, the asset bubble appears to moving like nothing is changing.
‘Paris said au revoir to cars. Air pollution maps reveal a dramatic change.Paris said au revoir to cars. Air pollution maps reveal a dramatic change.’
Just wait until Trump and the Republicans are finished. Cities like LA will once more be covered by dense smog like they were several decades ago and once more we will read of rivers catching fire. And yes, through pollution that happened a coupla times.
Re: Measles outbreaks spark concern over rare ‘horrific’ neurological disorder (CBC)
This CBC article says Canada’s measles cases have topped 900 in 2025 so far, vs. the Associated Press reporting more than 700 US cases this year to date:
https://apnews.com/article/measles-outbreak-texas-rfk-new-mexico-kansas-vaccine-e904ec9781f1d164c73afe4ab71774fe
Let’s say Canada is just as afflicted with anti-vaxxers as the US. Nevertheless, when Canada has a population of about 40 million, vs. about 350 million in the US, how could our neighbors to the north possibly be reporting MORE measles cases than we are?
Is it just that USians can’t count, or that Canadians have 10 functioning provincial public health systems reporting cases vs. zero functioning public health systems for the US? Or is it simply a combination of both?
Debunking the Pettis-Miran Hypotheses by Policy Tensor – basically, the high savings rate = manufacturing surplus hypothesis. Names names, and provides some counter evidence. My main take-away is that the hypothesis scapegoats China and workers, instead of looking at the financial system and economic rent-seeking.
Favorite quote: “The entire American world position has been shattered by monkeys fiddling with the knobs in the cockpit.”
The USA financial system depends on a large military, with a global reach, that protects its overseas assets.
Having this protective military makes manufacturing overseas and purchasing global commodities less risky.
This is another reason for the loss of manufacturing.
But the cost is socialized as a public benefit, not as a subsidy to the financial industry.
There is also this:
“There is now no scenario in which Europe does not attain strategic autonomy and regards the US at best warily”
Oh, there certainly are scenarios in which Europeans wimps will sheepishly return into the NATO/USA fold after failing to agree on what “strategic autonomy” concretely means, failing to muster resources to sustain it, realizing how lightweight they are compared to China (economically) and to Russia (militarily), stunned at having become a non-player diplomatically, and wavering at being left to fend for themselves while the USA threatens to heap sanctions upon them.
We should never underestimate how pusillanimous and irresolute Europeans are — especially when shackled by the nearly unreformable legal and institutional framework of the EU.
I felt like Policy Tensor is looking for self promoting controversy, but am not expert enough to really know.
Have Miran & Pettis worked together, or are they being conflated because of Trump adjacency? I don’t know anything about Miran, but Pettis is just applying Wynn Godleys’ Monetary Economics.
To the extent I follow them, I tend to agree with both Tensor and Pettis, and agree the quote the latter picked!
Policy Tensor appears to be a microeconomics ace who hasn’t given enough thought to monetary economics and monetary systems. At the macro monetary economics level, Pettis is correct that the system is almost hydraulic, at least until you break it like Trump tried last Wednesday. For the double entry accounts to close on all sides of all transaction, monetary policy decision, like at what value to keep your currency and the policy decisions you make in pursuit of that goal, are in fact binding on how the balances turn out. And, that our government has consistently pursued a relatively strong dollar and all the, “we get stuff, they get paper”, advantages (for those for whom this is an advantage) that go with it doesn’t make the Chinese (or German, or Japanese) decision to suppress consumption correct. Tensor and Pettis could probably learn a lot from one another, perhaps they are through jousting (although I’m not aware of Pettis taking the bait, but then I watch from some distance).
The quote you picked was the high point!
I read this article with increasing dislike for its author when he unilaterally initiated an economics publication history dick measuring contest with Pettis, Setser et al. “I’m a real economist!”….
Yes Pinocchio / Ralph from the Simpson’s, now please go back to your micro-equilibria and get out the saltwater. Argument by appeal to authority is not enough.
Also his charts make no more sense than the ones he decries of Pettis’s. That scatter chart of EU economies change in current account versus change in manufacturing could have any number of interpretations. Most countries are clustered at no.change in current account and a wide range of changes in manufacturing. Of two outliers, one has no change in mnfg and a current account surplus – this could be a dominant mnfr that simply cannot growth mnfg further. Another has a deficit and mnfg growth, this could be a new entrant tooling up.
I have some advice for those Elites who think they can pick a fight with Russia, Iran or China and expect Uncle Sugar to use its incomparable Military and industrial might to pull their nuts out of the fire.
Either stop sniffing cut rate airplane glue or learn to enjoy singing falsetto.
My laugh of the day. Thanks.
I was critical of the Biden efforts to re-shore industry as basically too little, too late, and avoiding the fundamental problem (financial capitalism), but I’m going to have to re-think just how dumb I thought those effort were. Compared to Trump, a half gone Biden is a genius:
Tariffs ON AND OFF In 24 Hours: Wall St FREAKS OUT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAcLd2d2MkY
I can remember Trump being a bit surprised that his 2017 tax cuts did not create jobs, but instead was just pocketed to raise profits (because financial capitalism, not industrial capitalism, duh):
Did Trump’s tax cuts boost hiring? Most companies say no https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/did-trumps-tax-cuts-boost-hiring-most-companies-say-no
Just like the tax cuts back then will make jobs, why does he just think tariffs will magically “poof” re-industrialize America? Doesn’t he get better advice? I’m not sure what’s going on now other than the basic reality that Trump’s actions are like a wrecking ball taking down re-shoring efforts unless one can get a one on one and plead your case.
Just what is it with American Presidents? Have they all just parked their world view in 1991 and refuse to move it?
Compared to the current Trump, the 2016 Trump is a genius. Biden’s not the only one with significant cognitive decline these past few years.
1/2 re: Germany planned repression of opposition
In the coalition paper of the new government there are alarming signs to what we have to expect in the coming years.
They are trying to abuse hate-speech regulations to take away individuals´ rights to get elected if once convicted of “hate crimes”. Good Lord.
German ANTI-SPIEGEL has a short piece on this.
Thomas Röper there makes another very good point: He suggests that AfD is being undermined by secret assets of German domestic intelligence service. Just as we know it happened with Neonazi party NPD and as we are used to if from the FBI.
(German version, pls use google-translate))
Coalition agreement
Part 3: Elimination of opposition parties such as the AfD
The coalition agreement of the new federal government announces how the government intends to take action against the opposition. Instead of banning the AfD, for example, a more subtle and simpler approach will be taken.
https://anti-spiegel.ru/2025/teil-3-ausschaltung-von-oppositionsparteien-wie-der-afd/
2/2 re: Germany planned repression of opposition
JUNGE WELT has a piece on the same subject.
It´s not long and can´t be translated so I paste it in here.
I am not surprised German legacy media are quite silent over Trump´s deportation schemes. Not a coincidence.
What´s good for the goose…
This shit is frightening. Unlike in the US here we have no Bill of Rights. And via the clause re: denial of Holocaust and genocide in general almost anything short of torture and murder by the state can be justified.
“(…)
Old plans in new paper
Union and SPD want to give police new tools for repression and surveillance
By Marc Bebenroth
Strength is the prerequisite for peace. This “para bellum” sentence from the preamble to the coalition agreement can also be applied to the domestic rearmament plans of the CDU, CSU, and SPD. Under the label of “fighting terrorism,” the three parties announced that they would expand the scope of Section 89a of the German Criminal Code (“preparation of a serious act of violence endangering the state”) to include cases in which a suspect “intends to use objects such as a knife or a car rather than explosives.”
The planned expansion targets a person’s presumed intent and thus moves “dangerously close to a criminal law based on their beliefs,” warns Hamburg lawyer Ronja Pfefferl in her guest article published on the specialist portal Legal Tribune Online . This principle shaped criminal law during the Nazi era. According to Pfefferl, the potential for abuse is “evident.” The announced amendment could lead to investigative authorities justifying house searches and other infringements of fundamental rights simply by purchasing an everyday item.
To “strengthen the resilience of our democracy,” people should be able to be deprived of their passive right to vote. The prerequisite would be that someone has been convicted multiple times for incitement to hatred. The offense is to be “toughened.” In the future, it should be easier to “terminate” residence in Germany . According to the paper, convictions for incitement to hatred, “anti-Semitic crimes, as well as resistance and physical assault against law enforcement officers” should also be considered “standard deportation.” The latter can also be provoked by law enforcement officers if necessary.
Even without directly affecting those affected, the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats want to create new instruments of state power. They promise to allow the Federal Police to conduct “source telecommunications surveillance.” This involves officers installing malware on suspects’ devices, allowing them to intercept encrypted communications, for example. For “law enforcement purposes,” the “use of automated license plate reading systems” in so-called recording mode will be permitted. Under the pretext of making it easier to catch burglars, the time limit on telephone surveillance in cases of residential burglary is to be abolished. The coalition paper also states that “we want to make the so-called cell tower query, in which all devices registered in a cell tower are recorded and located, more comprehensively possible again.”
The so-called security authorities should be enabled to carry out ” automated data research and analysis .” This also includes “subsequent biometric comparison with publicly accessible internet data” – using “artificial intelligence.” The CDU/CSU and SPD want to introduce “video surveillance ” in “crime hotspots .” The goal: the most complete possible surveillance of public and digital spaces, as well as everyone who moves there. These projects require specialized software , which is usually purchased from profit-oriented companies.
German authorities are already partially using products from Palantir , the US intelligence-affiliated company founded by oligarch Peter Thiel. The coalition paper appropriately announces that it will give the Federal Criminal Police Office “a legal basis” for “testing and training IT products.”
(…)”
This is a fucking nightmare. And the worst part carries three letters: SPD.
Which renders those forces completely ineffective that for decades formed the heart of most opposition movements (i.e. left SPD, labour unions, churches). Nowhere to be found now.
I really have no clue what is going on here…
Copy-reader’s correction: “passive right to vote” (a clumsy / misleading translation of passives Wahlrecht) is more clearly expressed as “the right to run for and be elected to office.”
Actually I tried to explain the term to my Dad. And he didn´t get it until I explained it to him the way you do.
It is a machine-translation. I wonder when those will improve. My most recent uses of machine-translation of long narrative text into English were 1,5 years ago. But those were still surprisingly bad.
“The CDU/CSU and SPD want to introduce “video surveillance ” in “crime hotspots .” The goal: the most complete possible surveillance of public and digital spaces, as well as everyone who moves there. These projects require specialized software , which is usually purchased from profit-oriented companies.”
The city of Berkeley CA already has surveillance cameras all around the city. Our city council thinks that is the best use of money, rather than dealing humanly with our large homeless camps. So the budget for the Police goes up and for Social Services like the Mental Health dept. goes down with low wages and 30% lack of staffing.
May be I´ll write about that Berkeley situation to my MP. Of course she is not part of the coalition parties and it won´t matter. But at least I tried.
Apparently the negative online chatter about the F-35 at least has reached some people in the system here. I doubt it´ll change anything. But it didn´t go unnoticed.
I have understood by now that our “elites” are incredibly uneducated even on political issues if they happen outside Germany. They know German law and how to twist and abuse it. That´s it. The level of incompetence is truly embarrassing.
A tentative explanation.
1) Europe, and Germany in particular, is returning to its nature. After all, this is the part of the world that invented, formalized, and implemented absolutist monarchy, bonapartism/military dictatorship, fascism, neofunctionalism… We just have to admit that the rights under assault (of expression, opinion, association, etc) and democracy itself are not fundamental European values.
2) We are entering an era where it looks like there will not even be crumbs to distribute amongst plebeians to keep them quiet. The “elites” are a step ahead, furnishing their legal toolkit to be able to nip organized rebellions in the bud — also those that could take advantage of existing electoral frameworks to subvert the established order.
Many NC readers would probably welcome suggestions about worthwhile guides in the area of clandestine activism — perhaps there are also some classics to dust off and adapt to our modern world.
To me is also just looking like a carbon copy of the 19th century, when the boot of the government and the fisted hand ruled with impunity. So we’ve been there, we’ve done that.
Was it successful? Maybe, on the short run, but boy oh boy, when shit hits the fan, you get another 1848 (at which time there won’t be a conservative Czarist empire coming to save Europe), or 1871, or 1918, or what not.
A house divided cannot stand…
Well we know what happened to the 1848ers.
They were put down with brutal force. Surveillance stepped up. People fleeing.
The labour movement as a political force was a consequence of that. In 1848 people fled to the US. I wonder what destination it will be in 2048. The US most likely not.
Well, given the differing impact of climate change in western Europe and western Eurasia, my guess is that survivors will be swimming in the general direction of the Russian Federation.
At least grant ´em a small boat. The refugees are certainly willing to share their expertise in crossing rivers and sea.
1871 also saw the defeat of the French Commune.
Another possibility is that we return to the period 1880-1920, when anarchists all over Europe were blowing up head of states and shooting at factory owners.
Does CEO of UnitedHealthcare count as factory owner?
I would say this is only legally adjacent, but operationally the equivalent of the early 20th century capitalist role of factory owner. One has to go with the times; after all, there are no longer any Italian kings, Russian grand-dukes, or Austrian empresses to assassinate either.
I have been wondering about the last point you mention.
Now I do not know how many Germans are actually reading NC.
Neither do I know if those groups who used to be in the illegal resistance “business” are still against the system.
Because Ukraine has seemingly ruined very many brains.
So the so-called Antifa have become fanboys and fangirls of NATO and anarchist heros fighting the fascist Russian army.
I wouldn´t be at all surprised of those groups who owned much of the expertise have abandoned the old trenches to focus on AfD as the new enemy at the gates.
Clandestine activism is a really time-consuming undertaking. You don´t just come about that.
And unlike 1970s any bank account activity in this regard is much more difficult to hide. You got the police at your tail in no time. And without resources there is no underground.
This makes me think that looking into the techniques used by criminal organizations (mafia & co) might provide some useful information — especially regarding money flows when they operate outside their home country.
Yes good point.
p.s. Telepolis in the good old days would have been a place to look for this sort of info.
But the new site is essentially on the intellectual level of boy scouts.
I did have TP-bookmarks on articles about mafia money flows from the early Aughts. But those have of course become worthless. May be Gaby Weber has something.
Btw her bank account was canceled by Commerzbank last week. Speaking of money and banks… “debanking”.
“Just what is it with American Presidents? Have they all just parked their world view in 1991 and refuse to move it?”
that is exactly it.
That’s about when the perma-bubble (it looks like a financial bubble, but its’ really a political-economy bubble because it’s floated off with all the communicative infrastructure) floated loose.
By 2000, with the Judicial Coup, the bubble was far enough from reality that you could no longer bring it into focus through the fish eye lense of the bubble itself.
Everything since has been “fruit of the poison tree” which needs to be burned to the ground.
On Ecuador, there are plentiful comments online supporting a case of stolen election.
https://x.com/FiorellaIsabelM/status/1911781313012466123
Imagine this is in all bold caps:
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/04/13/economy/japan-us-tariffs-treasurys/
Japan isn’t planning to use its U.S. Treasury holdings as a negotiation tool to counter U.S. tariffs in talks scheduled between the two governments for April 17.
“As an ally, we would not intentionally take action against U.S. government bonds, and causing market disruption is certainly not a good idea,” Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Itsunori Onodera said on an NHK television program Sunday….”
Did DOGE fire them?
Um, It Turns Out No One at the Ports Is Collecting Trump’s Tariffs
https://newrepublic.com/post/193930/ports-not-collecting-trump-tariffs-glitch
I’m just guessing here, but I would think one of the necessary steps to being “so rich you cannot believe it” is getting the money. Just a guess, could be wrong…
Does anyone here know what is truly going on at Harvard Univers. at the moment?
I was told that a friend who is only visiting teacher – was wary about answering any political questions from Europe (being critical of POTUS e.g.) even in her private family emails.
I said that this does sound a bit like paranoia may be even cultivated by Harvard staff instructing their foreign guests. Those academics who I know are not particularly emancipated in their political views and not particularly brave.
But of course I am only guessing at what the sit. there is. And may be I am wrong.
I have academic friends (tenured, btw) who no longer feel comfortable talking about the policies of their institutions via email. They are worried about surveillance and getting in trouble, I.e., being called onto the carpet or ratted out to govt goons.
And when you think about it, the spook tools available today are light years beyond what was used by the STASI of yesteryear.
…so you would confirm not only the reaction of staff but also the real danger or possibility?
I do not know the excact legal situation here.
p.s. This should be something Taibbi/Kirn would discuss but I haven´t had time recently. Did they?
I wonder if Chris Hedges will talk about it in his Q&A.
Perhaps a paying subscriber could ask him.
Militarily, Turkiye is unassailable in the Middle East. But her political class is for sale.
If the religious papers and commentators can be bought like this, then we will be seeing the “sick man” of the Middle East before too long.
That’s nothing. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is paid peanuts to destroy Eastern Orthodox Christianity from inside.