Links 4/19/2025

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44 comments

1. Antifa April 19, 2025 at 7:00 am

   There’s the Insurrection Act
   And the tariffs he has stacked
   There’s the Middle East attacks
   That must come to a climax
   So we hear

   There’s his war on global trade
   Although Xi’s been throwin’ shade
   There’s Iran we might invade
   Donald’s rogue and renegade
   That is clear

   As for kissing Donald’s bottom
   No such tributes have they brought him
   But success has never sought him
   Just that AIPAC crew who bought him
   Like a steer

   All the economic pain
   Of this moron’s dismal reign
   Will be harsh and inhumane
   Only billionaires will gain
   Every year

   You’ll pay more at every store
   Wonder what you’re working for
   While the headlines tell of war
   Counting scars as you keep score
   New frontier

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2. The Rev Kev April 19, 2025 at 7:22 am

   “Van Hollen recounts tearful exchange with mistakenly deported man”

   When Van Hollen and Abrego Garcia sat down, they each had a glass of water. But as that article mentioned, a government worker then brought them two Margaritas. Of course then you had these Richard Craniums back in the States tweeting how he was supposed to be in a hell hole but here he was sitting around with a Margarita. Point is, they weren’t given those Margaritas for the purposes of Salvadoran propaganda. They were given them for the purposes of American propaganda so likely it was a Trump official which thought to stage it like this.

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   1. Neutrino April 19, 2025 at 10:11 am

      Still not a good look when a US Senator appears to care more about, let alone even acknowledge, a foreign criminal than a dead American.

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      1. The Rev Kev April 19, 2025 at 10:17 am

         Doesn’t matter if he is a foreign crim or not. Either everybody gets due process or in the end nobody gets due process.

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         1. Neutrino April 19, 2025 at 10:50 am

            Not an either / or situation.
            It is possible to pursue and defend justice while maintaining compassion.

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3. Terry Flynn April 19, 2025 at 7:35 am

   Plants feel pain…. Congrats on reminding me of one of the scariest things I ever watched on TV as a kid. The Sound Machine, an episode of Tales of the Unexpected (the Black Mirror of its day).

   Unsurprisingly that was one of the episodes (co)written by Roald Dahl and the TV episode really stayed true to the horrific nature of so much of his story-telling, rather than the sanitised rubbish that Hollywood has produced in its adaptations of his work.

   (I was a latch-key kid and my older sister also allowed me to watch a bootleg VHS copy of Alien looooong before I should ever have been watching that. Of course kids these days shrug at such anecdotes when they watch stuff involving girls and a cup – do not google/watch that.)

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   1. Lazar April 19, 2025 at 9:33 am

      LOL, I also remembered that.

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4. Henry Moon Pie April 19, 2025 at 7:44 am

   I can’t believe I’m linking to an Atlantic article, but here it is. The author’s contention is that the primary explanation for DOGE is that it’s an attack on the PMC class and that this hatred for bureaucrats and experts has a long history on the right:

   Thanks to the Baby Boom, universities were exploding by the late 1960s, creating a huge new professoriate. Thanks to Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, the federal bureaucracy was expanding too, creating an army of social workers, government lawyers, and economists. Society showed the influence of what Irving Kristol described as “the new class.” To Kristol, an intellectual who had followed Burnham’s trajectory from Trotskyism to conservatism, this new class seemed nefarious because it showed little interest in making money. Instead, it craved power and exploited progressive ideas as a guise for achieving it. By Kristol’s account, the new class leveraged its control of the media, the academy, and the government to implant its self-serving ideas in the nation.

   So if the Atlantic is right that the Rs are out to destroy the PMC, and the Atlantic is a PMC rag of the first order, should people on the genuine Left lift a finger to stop them?

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   1. Alt Delete April 19, 2025 at 8:36 am

      Makes me think of Vivek Chibber’s recent chat on Doom Scrolling (YouTube) and his dismissal of the woke left vs the labour left as a cancer in the universities.

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   2. Matthew April 19, 2025 at 9:31 am

      … almost everyone who reads Naked Capitalism is PMC, as is almost everyone who has ever written about it.

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      1. .human April 19, 2025 at 10:04 am

         LOL. I do not resemble that remark. I am an auto-didact. One of my pet peeves is the loss of news print. Seeking information these days involves actively using electronic devices, streaming, online news, search engines. Where in the recent past one could find print news at street corners, park benches, train seats, top of trash containers, thrown on empty desk….you get the idea. This is partly why the PMC is more easily attuned to current events. They have the time and means.

         There was a famous rant in Congress during the early 20th century decrying the consolidation of news corporations during the late 19th century. It is in the Congressional Record, though I can no longer find a link and my own copy is lost on a hard drive long past.

         I throw sand in the gears every chance I get.

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      2. Lee April 19, 2025 at 11:20 am

         “… almost everyone who reads Naked Capitalism is PMC, as is almost everyone who has ever written about it.”

         Well then they’re PMC class traitors, blessings be upon them. Didn’t someone once observe that revolutions are lead by under-employed intellectuals? There’s going to be quite a few of them about in coming days experiencing their first bitter taste of precarity, which causes me to wonder, are they reachable and are they useful.

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   3. Mikel April 19, 2025 at 11:09 am

      I still think DOGE is primarily part of a data mining power grab.
      Hell..DOGE is PMC!!

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5. Wukchumni April 19, 2025 at 7:54 am

   Bookends dept:

   Today is the 250th anniversary of the shot heard round the world and the first major military campaign of the fledgling USA, and today might mark the last major military campaign of the USA when we stop supplying Ukraine with weaponry, in a shock heard round the world.

   Seeing as probably 98% of my countrymen couldn’t locate Ukraine on a delineated map of the world-we’ll act as if nothing happened, just like when we left Kabul with our tales between our legs.

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   1. Neutrino April 19, 2025 at 10:16 am

      How many readers can remember standing, nervously, in front of a class reciting that famous poem? One memory is of trying not to have a cadence too much like the clippity clop of Revere’s horse while getting caught up in the excitement of the message.

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   2. tet vet April 19, 2025 at 10:21 am

      “…tales between our legs” – A Freudian slip no doubt.

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6. Lost in OR April 19, 2025 at 7:56 am

   Plants Feel Pain and Might Even See

   I’m dating myself… but here’s confirmation from a Maine comedian.

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axg6YcXnjlk

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7. The Rev Kev April 19, 2025 at 7:56 am

   ‘DK🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸
   @1Nicdar
   Amazing! 🙏🏼
   A 2-year-old boy who spent the night alone in remote Arizona wilderness and walked 7 miles through mountain lion territory was led to safety by a rancher’s dog, authorities say.’

   Somebody needs to get Buford the dog a coupla steak dinners. He is a very good boy.

   We don’t deserve our dogs.

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   1. dougie April 19, 2025 at 9:19 am

      Buford is an Anatolian Pyrenees, cousin to Great Pyrenees. I discovered Pyrs about a year ago, when I rescued a 3 yo male off a euthanize list at a shelter. I have since rescued 2 more, and have become heavily involved in Pyr rescue transport. Gentle Giants, indeed! What a 71 yo guy needs with a house full of 125 lb dogs is a question for the ages, and one my spousal unit asks often. I tell her Pyr slobber kisses are a healthier alternative than “self-medication”, given the state of current events.

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      1. The Rev Kev April 19, 2025 at 9:28 am

         They are a beautiful dog and look like they would make a great companion dog. Was surprised to read though that a century ago they almost went extinct-

         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrenean_Mountain_Dog#History

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      2. Neutrino April 19, 2025 at 10:17 am

         and you get exercise moving around those pallets of kibble! ;)

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8. The Rev Kev April 19, 2025 at 8:19 am

   “JD Vance slammed after making bizarre ‘jerk’ comment during Italy visit”

   One of the old ancient Roman virtues was Gravitas-

   ‘It…translated variously as weight, dignity, and importance and connotes restraint and moral rigor. It also conveys a sense of responsibility and commitment to the task. Along with pietas (regard for discipline and authority), severitas, gloria, simplicitas (lucidity), integritas, dignitas, and virtus, gravitas was particularly appreciated as an ideal characteristic in leaders. Gravitas and virtus are considered more canonical virtues than the others.’

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitas

   With Vance I’m not getting that vibe. Certainly not Trump either. When you listen to them and watch them, it is like they are putting on a show for their base and are acting as entertainers. It may play well in Peoria but outside American’s borders the effect kinda falls flat.

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9. Alice X April 19, 2025 at 8:24 am

   >Still browsing like it’s 1999

   The interfaces to connect my still solid old scanners (and other stuff, a laser printer etc) with my later (less old) computers is one of my problems. How to keep the working techno rubble out of the landfills is the mission.

   Contra planned obsolescence 101.

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10. flora April 19, 2025 at 8:32 am

    Taibbi’s latest. public excerpt.

    The Harvard-Government Divorce is the Feel-Good Story of the Ages
    When a couple that should never have been together finally breaks up, it’s a happy thing

    https://www.racket.news/p/the-harvard-government-divorce-is

    Water Kirn described Harvard as a giagantic, tax-empt, hedge fund that invests over 30% of its endowment in PE.

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    1. IM Doc April 19, 2025 at 11:11 am

       I guess I would say with such issues abounding in my patients who are increasingly unable to afford medicine and health care and even food, yes, I would say particularly so in those who have “access” to health care via Obamacare plans —— that even contemplating diverting one dime from taxpayers accounts to fund places like Harvard is a grave sin. Asking people like the above patients to fund Harvard with their tax dollars while they are skimping on essentials all to graduate PMC types who view them as vermin – has got to be one of the worst examples of how our entire society has gone off the rails.

       And the thing is – with just basic conversations with friends, colleagues, neighbors and patients in the past few weeks, the feelings I have are far from isolated with me. Negative and hostile encounters and experiences with these Ivy League scolds is really becoming commonplace. I had yet another encounter this week ( this is probably the 4th or 5th time – I have lost count ) of an Ivy League student refusing to see Jewish patients – they make them “uncomfortable”. I am not sure how to get through to their pointy little heads that the 95 year old Jewish man in the patient room who worked all of his life as a mechanic in flyover land – has nothing to do with the Gaza situation. I do not know what else to say other than that this behavior on the part of these people is not a good look – and it does nothing to help the Gaza people. Indeed, it is making the situation much much worse.

       Say what you will about Trump – he at least understands optics and communication. It may be good – it may be bad – but it is working on so many of these issues. He is doing rings around the Dems – and I am just ashamed of my party that they are looking like such incompetents.

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11. Alt Delete April 19, 2025 at 8:52 am

    Speaking of Palantir, was quite shocking as a non US person to discover that James Carville does consulting work with Palantir. Makes sense I guess why his advice for Democrats a few weeks back was to “just play dead”.

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12. Wukchumni April 19, 2025 at 8:55 am

    You walk into the room with your laptop in your hand
    You see something on Naked Cap and you say, “What now!?”
    You try so hard but you don’t understand
    Just what you will say to tickle funny bones
    Because something is happening here but you don’t know what it is
    Do you, Generation Jones*?

    You raise up your head and you ask, “Is this where it is?”
    And somebody points to Trump and says, “It’s his”
    And you say, “What’s mine?” and somebody else says, “Well, what is?”
    And you say, “Oh my God, am I here all alone?”
    But something is happening and you don’t know what it is
    Do you, Generation Jones?

    You suppress the urge to vomit and you go watch the geek
    Who immediately goes into Trump trance speak
    And says, “How wondrous it feels to be such a tariff freak!”
    And you say, “Impossible!” as he hands you inflation at home
    And something is happening here but you don’t know what it is
    Do you, Generation Jones?

    You have many contacts among the jacks of all tirades
    To get you facts when the mainstream media relies on imagination
    But nobody has any respect for the fourth estate anyway
    They already expect you not to believe them
    Or any other old school news organizations

    Ah, you’ve been with the economists and their dismal scientist looks
    With great joy you have discussed bankers and Wall*Street crooks
    You’ve been through all of their cooked books
    You’re very well-read, it’s well-known
    But something is happening here and you don’t know what it is
    Do you, Generation Jones?

    Well, the dog killer, she comes up to the border and then she kneels
    She crosses herself and then she clicks her high heels
    And without further notice, she asks you how it feels
    And she says, “Here is your country back, thanks to the DHS”
    And you know something is happening but you don’t know what it is
    Do you, Generation Jones?

    Now, you see this tall midget shouting the words “Fire Powell Now”
    And you say, “For what reason?” and he says, “How”
    And you say, “What does this mean?” and he screams back, “Don’t have a cow!
    Give me some low interest rates or else Jay goes home”
    And you know something’s happening but you don’t know what it is
    Do you, Generation Jones?

    Well, you log onto the blog after you wake up, and then you frown
    You put your eyes in your pocket and your nose on the ground
    There ought to not be a law against the truth comin’ around
    You should not be made to wear a blindfold
    ‘Cause something is happening and you don’t know what it is
    Do you, Generation Jones?

    Ballad of a Thin Man, by Bob Dylan

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we37yX3zpKA

    * a nickname for those born from 1958-64, Baby Boomers in theory-but not really

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13. flora April 19, 2025 at 8:56 am

    Racket News. no paywall.

    The Numbers Behind The Government’s Anti-Misinformation Explosion
    The Free Press finds that the Biden administration awarded more than 600 grants

    https://www.racket.news/p/the-numbers-behind-the-governments

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14. The Rev Kev April 19, 2025 at 9:14 am

    “Regrets: Actors who sold AI avatars stuck in Black Mirror-esque dystopia”

    Why would those AI corporations bother with real actors? Can’t they just make up a face and voice if they are so great? Or maybe just grab an image from a 19th century photograph and colour it to make it look real so you don’t have to bother with real actors and contracts and all that comes with it. Here is just a small example of somebody animating 19th century photographs as an example-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=019Kyex2qls (1:47 mins)

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    1. Matthew April 19, 2025 at 9:33 am

       They can, but it improves the quality of the simulation to be able to feed in training material including as diverse a collection of movements and angles etc. as possible.

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       1. The Rev Kev April 19, 2025 at 9:44 am

          That’s the easy part and they have been doing something similar in movies for years. Have an actor in a total suit of green including the head train that AI on body movements and plaster that face on that actor in processing. In that 1993 film “Jurassic Park” in one scene, you had that young girl hang onto an open hatch with Raptors below her before she swung herself up. Well that was actually a female gymnast doing that stunt and when she looked up, they plastered on the face of the young actress playing that young girl. And that was with technology from 32 years ago.

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15. NotTimothyGeithner April 19, 2025 at 9:36 am

    Carville is trash. Why any Democrat other than the most fervent Mother (Hillary) devotees tolerate him is baffling. He was feeding his wife, a Bush operative, details of the Kerry campaign. It was probably to clear the road for Mother in 2008.

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16. Eclair April 19, 2025 at 10:08 am

    RE: today’s links being ‘heavy on videos.’ Yes! With my blue-tooth enabled headphones, these encourage me to do extensive spring cleaning! How else would the back recesses of the fridge get wiped down?

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    1. The Rev Kev April 19, 2025 at 10:15 am

       Fridges have back recesses?

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       1. flora April 19, 2025 at 10:46 am

          Also know as the ‘science experiments area.’ / ;)

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17. The Rev Kev April 19, 2025 at 10:23 am

    “Toothpaste widely contaminated with lead and other metals, US research finds”

    So let me get this straight. They purposely put in lead-contaminated ingredients into toothpaste and maybe lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic as well. Gimme a minute to try to work out why somebody thought that this would be a good idea-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73tGe3JE5IU (32 secs)

    Nope, got nothing. They have know since at least Roman times that lead will seriously screw over your health and yet they went out of their way to add it to toothpaste, including for children. You begin to wonder if those toothpaste manufacturers got contracts to dispose of toxic chemicals from factories and so are slipping it into their toothpaste as a way of disposing of it while making a profit.

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    1. flora April 19, 2025 at 10:56 am

       I may switch to plain old baking soda for a toothpaste.

       In other news you can use:
       Those biosolids in ‘organic’ home lawn and garden fertilizers you can buy in big bags in the big box stores? PFAS, heavy metals and other contaminates. From the AP:

       Chemicals in sewage sludge fertilizer pose cancer risk, EPA says

       https://apnews.com/article/sewage-sludge-pasture-farms-milk-beef-harmful-cancer-epa-42e084b6a41852fdafd199d355c7a890

       and from the Sierra Club via Archive:
       https://web.archive.org/web/20250323205216/https://www.sierraclub.org/sludge-garden-toxic-pfas-home-fertilizers-made-sewage-sludge

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18. Neutrino April 19, 2025 at 10:26 am

    Toothpaste contaminated? Who coulda knowed that in this time of cost cutting and prevarication?
    Dentists have told me that the act of brushing, and flossing, is more important than the choice of toothpaste, which seems to imply that the products are generally safe. Now that they aren’t, what to do?
    A regimen of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide may be the way to go, unless the baking soda is also contaminated. :(

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19. The Rev Kev April 19, 2025 at 10:46 am

    “Netherlands in Panic – “Russia Intends to Attack the Baltics!” Soldiers Take to the Streets”

    This is getting ridiculous now. If they keep it up, I will have to send Corporal Jones to calm them down-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR0lOtdvqyg (1:45 mins)

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20. Es s Ce Tera April 19, 2025 at 10:51 am

    re: Trump Officials Blame Mistake for Setting Off Confrontation With Harvard New York Times (Jason Boxman)

    Just checked the letter and, simply, wow. This is one of the demands:

    Viewpoint Diversity in Admissions and Hiring. By August 2025, the University shall
    commission an external party, which shall satisfy the federal government as to its
    competence and good faith, to audit the student body, faculty, staff, and leadership for
    viewpoint diversity, such that each department, field, or teaching unit must be individually
    viewpoint diverse. This audit shall begin no later than the summer of 2025 and shall proceed
    on a department-by-department, field-by-field, or teaching-unit-by-teaching-unit basis as
    appropriate. The report of the external party shall be submitted to University leadership and
    preferences, and practices, whether mandatory or optional, throughout its admissions and
    hiring practices, that function as ideological litmus tests. Every department or field found to
    lack viewpoint diversity must be reformed by hiring a critical mass of new faculty within
    that department or field who will provide viewpoint diversity; every teaching unit found to
    lack viewpoint diversity must be reformed by admitting a critical mass of students who will
    provide viewpoint diversity. If the review finds that the existing faculty in the relevant
    department or field are not capable of hiring for viewpoint diversity, or that the relevant
    teaching unit is not capable of admitting a critical mass of students with diverse viewpoints,
    hiring or admissions within that department, field, or teaching unit shall be transferred to the
    closest cognate department, field, or teaching unit that is capable of achieving viewpoint
    diversity. This audit shall be performed and the same steps taken to establish viewpoint
    diversity every year during the period in which reforms are being implemented, which shall
    be at least until the end of 2028.

    So if, for example, the geology department is found to hold too close to the viewpoint that evolution is true, it must proceed to hire or enroll those of the opposite viewpoint, or something? Likewise, if anyone thinks the Civil Rights Act was a good thing, or that slavery was bad, or that women should have the vote, or that Hitler and concentration camps and gas chambers were bad, they must find admit folks who take the opposite view?

    This seems written by people who have no higher education background.

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21. judy2shoes April 19, 2025 at 10:59 am

    Re: Plants Feel Pain and Might Even See

    Amazing bit of serendipity for me this morning as I saw first the article on apes crossing the language barrier and then the article I referenced above. I say serendipity because I just finished rereading Ishmael in the middle of the night when I couldn’t get back to sleep.

    Thank you, Yves, for both of these articles.

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    1. judy2shoes April 19, 2025 at 11:06 am

       Adding, it was more than a bit of surprise to find Donald Trump being mentioned in Ishmael towards the end of the book. Trump wasn’t on my radar during my first read years ago.

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22. Camelotkidd April 19, 2025 at 11:11 am

    The decks of playing cards with the oligarchs information on them is a sign of the times, and not a good one.
    “Justin Caffier classifies his “America’s Most Powerful” cards as an art project. It’s a parody of the infamous playing card decks that the US military once handed out to soldiers in Iraq to help them identify top members of Saddam Hussein’s government during the war for capture and/or assassination.
    When I think about Mangione, and Ethel Cain’s #KillMoreCEOs posts, and Caffier’s America’s Most Powerful deck, I can’t help thinking of the work of Stanford historian Walter Scheidel, and his 2017 book The Great Leveler. The volume is a lengthy and in-depth examination of how extreme inequality has been “resolved” throughout history. Disturbingly, Scheidel found that so far the only thing that has undone such inequality—the only great leveler, so to speak—is violence. Plague, war, or violent revolutions. “It is almost universally true,” Scheidel writes, “that violence has been necessary to ensure the redistribution of wealth at any point in time.”
    Our flight into terrain accelerates and the ground is coming up fast

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23. Mikel April 19, 2025 at 11:27 am

    Trump Is Changing the Rules in the Middle East, Netanyahu Is Left to Watch From the Stands- Haaretz

    A one-sided nuclear proliferation deal isn’t exactly “changing the rules”.

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