Links 4/21/2025

The complex origin story of domestic cats: Research points to Tunisia Phys.org

Vance meets Pope Francis on Easter Sunday after tangle over migration, gets chocolate eggs for kids AP

Pope Francis has died on Easter Monday aged 88 Vatican News

Climate/Environment

Microplastics found in human ovary follicular fluid for the first time The Guardian

Pluralistic: Against transparency Cory Doctorow

Pandemics

Why I Keep Masking Defector

Japan

Japan to discuss car safety standards in Trump tariff talks, Nikkei Asia reports The Straits Times

China?

Beijing slams ‘appeasement’ of US in trade deals that hurt China The Straits Times

China’s trade war playbook is coming into focus Semafor

Boeing Flies 737 MAX Aircraft Back To The US After China Bans Deliveries Simple Flying

BYD Semiconductor Deep Dive Nomad Semi

China’s non-nuclear hydrogen bomb generates fireball to burn targets at 1800°F: Report Interesting Engineering

Old Blighty

Shock Poll Shows Reform UK On Course To Win Next General Election Huff Post

Syraqistan

US Airstrikes Pound Yemen, Killing 12 in Capital Antiwar

Netanyahu Is Considering a Limited Strike on Iran – That Is Complete Insanity Haaretz

With Eye on Iran, US Sends Bunker-Busting Bombs to Israel Antiwar

How the West Plays Politics With International Terrorism Larry Johnson

Remembering an artist who gave life to the children of Gaza +972 Magazine

European Disunion

Spa town spies: Czech church linked to Kremlin kompromat campaign Euractiv

New Not-So-Cold War

Trump says he hopes Russia, Ukraine to strike ‘deal this week’ Reuters

‘Easter truce’ in Russia’s Ukraine war marked by accusations of violations Al Jazeera

Easter Ceasefire Brings Brief Glimmer of Humanity Amidst the Chaos Simplicius

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, APRIL 20, 2025 Institute for the Study of War

***

Ukrainian envoy asks for 30% of Germany’s military equipment RT

Threat of mass layoffs at Thyssenkrupp and HKM, the conversion of Germany’s steel industry to a war economy WSWS

Germany bets on volunteers to fix a hollowed-out army — but will it work? Politico

Mysterious Thirty Years’ War camp, once home to 80,000 people, unearthed in Germany Interesting Engineering

Trump 2.0

How Trump Is Helping Price Gougers Exploit His Tariffs The Lever

First shockwaves of Trump’s tariffs are about to hit the world economy Yahoo! Finance

Hedge funds are the new ‘shadow banks’—and some are worried they pose a systemic threat to financial stabilityFortune

Threat to US Exceptionalism Spurs Rush for Emerging Local Bonds Bloomberg

***

By Weaponizing Arrest Records and Suspending Due Process, the Trump Administration Has Targeted Over 1,000 Foreign Students Drop Site

***

After remarkable Supreme Court rebuke, Trump administration slams ‘meritless litigation’ Politico

How judges can hold Trump admin accountable for defying court orders Axios

COURTS ARE USEFUL, BUT WE CANNOT DEPEND ON THEM TO SAVE DEMOCRACY LPE Project

***

Cucks vs. breeders Read Max. “On the animating fetishes of the Trump administration.”

DOGE

Downward DOGE: Elon Musk keeps revising cost-trimming goals in a familiar pattern The Register

DOGE is red tape Can We Still Govern?

SignalGate 2.0

Hegseth Said to Have Shared Attack Details in Second Signal Chat New York Times

Just to quickly review some of the timeline: heat on Hegseth, owner of a Crusader cross tattoo, largely originated back in January with a Jewish Insider piece charging that his allies in the Pentagon were not supportive enough of war with Iran:

On March 24 SignalGate 1.0 breaks. On April 15, Dan Caldwell, senior adviser to Hegseth, and others fall.

Caldwell, 2 others sacked at DoD fight back in fiery joint statement Responsible Statecraft. “At this time, we still have not been told what exactly we were investigated for, if there is still an active investigation, or if there was even a real investigation of “leaks” to begin with.”

Now we have SignalGate 2.0, and Hegseth taking heavy fire.

Former Top Pentagon Spokesperson Details ‘Month From Hell’ Inside the Agency Politico. John Ullyot, “a longtime backer” of Hegseth, with the knife in the back.

At least Pete is having fun while it lasts:

Police State Watch

US citizen wrongfully arrested by border patrol in Arizona held for nearly 10 days The Guardian

ICE Plans Central Database of Health, Labor, Housing Agency Data to Find Targets 404 Media

Official abuse of state security has always been bad, now it’s horrifying The Register

AI

Famed AI researcher launches controversial startup to replace all human workers everywhere TechCrunch

Groves of Academe

ENDING 30 YEARS OF RESISTANCE, TRUMP AND ABBOTT BREAK THE ‘PEOPLE’S HOUSE’ Texas Observer

Imperial Collapse Watch

US spending on war vs. diplomacy Polygraph

The Friendly Skies

Airbus Promised a Green Aircraft. That Promise Is Now Unraveling. WSJ

Astro Mechanica Raises $27.1M for Supersonic Flight Tectonic

The Bezzle

The Galaxy Brains of the Trump White House Want to Use Tariffs to Buy Bitcoin The Intercept

Guillotine Watch

The fury at ‘America’s Most Powerful’ Blood in the Machine

Antitrust

Monopoly Round-Up: Monopolies and Fascism BIG by Matt Stoller

Class Warfare

The bastards of neoliberalism The New Statesman. “The eccentrics of the new right aren’t rebelling against our political regime – they are its twisted successors.”

Palestine, College ‘Marxism’ and the Morbid Dialectics of Social Media Rootless Cosmopolitan

Spiritual Women of the Wilderness New Lines Magazine

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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58 comments

  1. Antifa

    Pallid Gotta Win Man
    (melody borrowed from Ballad Of A Thin Man written by Bob Dylan, in 1965.)

    Donnie Trump must assume his delinquent demands
    Repeatedly stated, makes nations pay what they can
    He threatens harm if there’s no cash in hand
    “Call me back today on my throne!”
    He wants nations living in fear as this big blue planet spins
    Skull and femur bones . . .

    You’re no thoroughbred, and you’re no kind of whiz
    You disappoint your crew when you say, “More fizz!”
    Your bulging waistline makes ’em wonder if you’ll live
    Then you say, “Hey, Elon, can you spare me a loan?”
    Now I hear an orchestra of tiny violins
    Skull and femur bones . . .

    None of this is quite cricket, but you still have your clique
    Though your team doesn’t know what to do, which they tend to leak
    They compare The Art Of The Deal with this orange antique
    Who’s so irresponsible what comes next is unknown
    A toddler who’s learning to steer and who only wants to win
    Skull and femur bones . . .

    Ask your Cabinet of quacks—how’s a tariff not a tax?
    A sales tax to every shopper in our nation?
    Now all global trade has been wrecked; supply chains that no longer connect
    Profits we can never collect—with stocks dysfunctional, driving us deep in stagflation

    Ah, all your tariff endeavors mean that Main Street will stay cooked
    Bankrupt employers and those hungry mobs underfoot
    Your Executive Orders is all that it ever took
    While DOGE cuts our state to the bone
    We won’t last through this fiscal year; you have ruined every biz
    Skull and femur bones . . .

    All your cult followers, doncha know that they’re skippin’ meals?
    They’re afraid for their health, and now they doubt your ideals
    You may still be the POTUS, you may still be makin’ deals
    But they say, “What’s all this blowback? Where’s our stepping stone?”
    You’re gonna wind up the King of a land where no one lives
    Skull and femur bones . . .

    Inflation hits double digits, shrouding the great DOW
    There’s no strength or cohesion, farmers can’t plow
    In a nation of has been’s you can stand and take a bow
    Families getting tossed from their homes
    You still want a war with Beijing, that’s your final mortal sin
    Skull and femur bones . . .

    Well, stupid is in bloom; solar panels are comin’ down
    Elon’s blowing up rockets, and he’s too tightly wound
    You’ll invade Panama, and then take Greenland down
    You’re dreaming of infinity stones
    But no one is kissing your ring, and no one will now forgive
    Skull and femur bones . . .

    Reply
  2. The Rev Kev

    “The Galaxy Brains of the Trump White House Want to Use Tariffs to Buy Bitcoin’

    With headlines like that, sometimes the satire writes itself. Maybe they would do better putting that money into US Treasury bonds instead because with Bitcoin ‘Poof! Aaaaand it’s gone.’

    Reply
  3. Colonel Smithers

    Thank you, Conor.

    For readers who speak French, they may be interested in potential successors:

    https://www.cnews.fr/monde/2025-04-21/mort-du-pape-francois-qui-sont-les-papabili-les-cardinaux-consideres-comme-favoris
    Mort du pape François : qui sont les «Papabili», ces cardinaux considérés comme favoris pour lui succéder ?

    As a Catholic, I’m hoping for someone who will follow Francis’ positioning and accelerate reform.

    It was disappointing to see officials surround the Pope over the week-end who look nothing like the 21st century Catholic Church.

    Reply
    1. The Rev Kev

      Thank you. Colonel. The images in that article showed them to be verging on elderly. Guess they figure that if they mistakenly elect a reformer, then he won’t be there long.

      Reply
    2. DJG, Reality Czar

      Colonel Smithers: Thanks for your list. I have seen Pietro Parolin mentioned more than once in articles here in Italy. Yet he is at the center of the administration of the Church, which may make him too much the Vatican insider.

      The interesting thing is going to be the antics of the U.S. hierarchy, which tends to the dogmatic, puritanical, and greedy. I wouldn’t rule out some unseemly behavior from some U.S. divine if I were you.

      Reply
    1. The Rev Kev

      Probably true. The Pope might have been expecting somebody intelligent but got Vance instead. As proof, after the Pope died Vance said ‘My heart goes out to the millions of Christians all over the world who loved him.’

      A quick Google search shows that there are about 1.4 billion Catholics in the world.

      Reply
      1. Polar Socialist

        I think that number is somewhat inflated. It’s based mostly on inference and self-identification, which is somewhat problematic. For example, 52% of Spanish identify as Catholics, but less than third of them are practising Catholics.

        So, given that the lower end of the estimate of the number of Catholics is around 1 billion, and practising Catholics is likely to be below that, his off the cuff remark is probably quite close the mark.

        Reply
      2. Ben Panga

        He may be boorish and ignorant, but I believe Vance is very intelligent (for some definition of “intelligent”).

        Poor hillbillies don’t get jobs at Palantir easily.

        Reply
          1. Ben Panga

            Mt. Wilhelm?

            Apropos of nothing, here are (some of) Vance’s investments from his VC days.

            Maddeningly, Vance’s VC fund, Narya Capital, is named after something (a ring apparently) from the Tolkien books like Palantir and Anduril.

            “It is described as having the power to inspire others to resist tyranny, as well as (in common with the other Three Rings) hiding the wielder from remote observation (except by the wielder of the One) and giving resistance to the weariness of time:”

            Investments include Hallow, a Catholic meditation and prayer app, and a gene therapy company . I assume this will be JD Vance’s stake in the enterprise.

            Naturally in hobbit land “Thiel, one of Vance’s mentors, is listed as a separate investor in many of the companies, per PitchBook.”

            Reply
    2. Terry Flynn

      I made a similar comment to the earlier thread where someone announced pope’s death but it hasn’t made it through moderation (maybe too much snark!)

      Liz Truss meets QE2; what happened within a day or so?
      JD Vance meets Pope; what happened within a day or so? /jk

      Maybe heads of state might rethink future plans for meetings with right-wingers who propose economic nonsense or are widely reviled according to the polling data. Such meetings don’t seem good for their health!

      Reply
      1. Pat

        I was thinking it could soon become the more fatal version of the Zelensky meme about political longevity after being pictured with him. IOW, that ironic if morbid thought is going to be out there. We’ll know if it has really taken hold when his trips automatically induce the suggestion he be met with the same welcome he and his wife got in Greenland.

        Reply
    3. Henry Moon Pie

      Either that, or he had a St. Simeon reaction as recounted in Luke 2:25-32. According to the story, Simeon was a righteous man to whom YHWH had given the promise that he would see the Messiah before he died. The Holy Spirit led him to the temple one day where he encountered Mary and baby Jesus. Simeon took baby Jesus into his arms and declared:

      Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
      according to your word,
      for my eyes have seen your salvation,
      which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
      a light for revelation to the gentiles
      and for glory to your people Israel.

      This song from the Greek bible is sung by liturgical Christian denominations every Sunday as the “Nunc dimittis,” the Latin Vulgate translation of the opening words of the song.

      So perhaps Pope Francis, like Simeon seeing Jesus, felt he was ready to depart this life having met J.D.

      Reply
    4. DJG, Reality Czar

      ex-PFC Chuck:

      Indeed. Worthy of Alfred Hitchcock.

      It seemed, though, that Vance spent much time carrying one of his kids as a prop and hoping to make his sour theology and pinched economics seem somehow human. (I recall Musk’s famous press conference in the Oval Office, holding J15-S22*, or whatever that unfortunate child’s name is.)

      Now, though, newly minted convert Vance is likely to make some inept statements and involve himself with U.S. Catholic clerics who are only slightly to right of Francisco Franco. It will be a joy to behold.

      Reply
      1. Terry Flynn

        involve himself with U.S. Catholic clerics

        *snigger*

        (Come ON – I’ve made serious posts too today also…..and I’ll use the *allegedly* tag just to cover myself and the site. Plus anyone whose seen those TikTok vids knows what half the world thinks. I’ll keep my own opinions to myself. I only stoop to this level when the level is sooooooo low already thanks to the demonstrable actions of the people involved.)

        Reply
  4. Wukchumni

    Gooooooood Mooooooorning Fiatnam!

    The platoon was given R & R for Sede Vacante while awaiting chimney smoke as pontiff indicator-along with a Vatican City police report absolving JD of possibly giving Francis serious agita that resulted in the Pope’s passing… and frankly we needed time away from the daily grind of what all too often passes for society norms limbo, how low can you go?

    Reply
    1. JohnA

      Somehow, I cannot imagine that whoever is elected as the new pope, will in any way be similar to the character ultimately elected as new pontiff in the recent film Conclave.

      Reply
      1. doug

        It is also a good book IMO and might be worth a read at this point. Lots of fictional details about the intrigue and the process.

        Reply
      2. threeskies

        Nanni Moretti’s 2011 We Have A Pope with Michel Piccoli, available on Kanopy, takes us within
        the fresco’d halls of the Vatican as the vote counting for the new Pope is dramatized–Cardinals praying to be passed over. Piccoli is the winner! but he can’t see it so he flees his handlers to wander among his people. A shrink’s brought in to get to the bottom of this; but some hot topics are verboten. And then there are the Cardinals, sealed in together: what to do. Soccer, of course.

        Reply
        1. Wukchumni

          Is there any doubt that given the chance, we might see Pope Donald*, as blowback for Francis?

          Make America Genuflect Again

          And yeah I know that despite adoring the very same Sky Daddy, evangs and Catholics don’t really see eye to eye on anything except breeding.

          Reply
  5. JohnA

    The Institute for the Study of War piece is an interesting blend of evenhandedness and blatant propaganda. It actually cites Russian sources claiming Russia had observed the snap ceasefire over Easter called for by Putin. In contrast British media merely regurgitate Ukrainian claims that Russia violated the ceasefire on numerous occasions without mentioning Russian claims that Ukraine had failed to observed the ceasefire.
    The article then strays into blatant bias claiming Russian forces had attacked and destroyed churches and killed priests etc. I have no idea how accurate such claims are, but I do know the Ukrainians have persecuted Russian orthodox priests and desecrated Russian orthodox churches and monastries as part of attempts to de-Russify Ukraine. Propaganda by omission as usual in western media.

    Reply
    1. Camacho

      You mean they claim that Russian forces had attacked and destroyed Russian churches and killed Russian priests. Uniats/Catholics are in Galicia, not in Donbass or Kursk. These claims go nicely with those of Russians attacking their own nuclear power plants.

      Reply
  6. The Rev Kev

    “Cucks vs. breeders”

    ‘[Musk fixer Jared] Birchall was involved in acquiring the property for a compound in Austin where Musk imagined the women and his growing number of babies would all live among multiple residences, according to a person familiar with the matter.’

    Didn’t Jeffrey Epstein have a similar plan for a breeding ranch for himslef?

    Just sayin’.

    Reply
  7. Afro

    Is there a good way to discern if it’s actually the Israel lobby going after Hegseth, or if that’s just a psyop?

    Reply
  8. griffen

    Seeing the above articles on the proverbial sh-show inside the Pentagon….one can’t help wonder if Mr. Secretary Pete Hegseth is over his skies just a bit in this role. Everything falls under scrutiny, for good or for ill. I had his potential departure being early if it wasn’t first.

    It’s all seeming or appearing that DoD leadership is, quite likely the polar opposite of the famed Wooderson quote from the film Dazed and Confused …”alright, alright, alright..”

    Reply
  9. Trees&Trunks

    Bryan Caplan – no, top STEM researchers belong in the academia to produce public knowledge for the benefit of everybody, incl. industries, not only for one company patenting the inventions and earning monopoly rent. In fact, most important research and researchers should be in the academia to produce publicly owned vaccines, antibiotics, energy technologies and making stuff without planned obsolesence etc.
    The “industry” can focus on things that can be privately own like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSqxH6uDkDY

    Reply
    1. Kilgore Trout

      For those unfamiliar with his work, Caplan is among those mentioned in the New Statesman article linked today. He’s one of the lesser/ milder “bastards of neoliberalism” in the piece, coming from one of the hive-minds of libertarianism, George Mason U.

      Reply
  10. Wukchumni

    I’ve got tattoos all over my skin
    I’ve got you all deep in doodoo with me
    So deep in my heart that you’re really a part of me
    I’ve got tattoos all over my skin

    I’d tried so not to give in
    I said to myself, “This SecDef affair never will go so well”
    But why should I try to resist when, baby, I know so well
    I’ve got tattoos all over my skin

    I’d sacrifice anything come what might
    For the sake of havin’ war near
    In spite of a warning voice that comes in the night
    And repeats, repeats in my ear

    “Don’t you know, illustrated fool, you never can win?
    Use your mentality, wake up to reality”
    But each time that I do just the thought of peace makes me stop
    Before I begin ’cause I’ve got tattoos all over my skin

    I would sacrifice anything come what might
    For the sake of havin’ war near
    In spite of the warning voice that comes in the night
    And repeats, how it yells in my ear

    “Don’t you know, little fool, you never can win?
    Why not use your mentality, step up, wake up to reality”
    But each time I do just the thought of peace makes me stop
    Just before I begin ’cause I’ve got tattoos all over my skin
    Yes, I’ve got tattoos all over my skin

    I’ve Got You Under my Skin, performed by Frank Sinatra

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1AHec7sfZ8

    Reply
  11. none

    The fury at ‘America’s Most Powerful’ Blood in the Machine

    “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.”

    I had recently been thinking the opposite: “Imagine the Democrats nominating someone as aggressive as Trump, but in reverse, smashing the oligarchy to protect regular people instead of the other way around. Well, it happened: FDR. He ended the depression, won WW2, and was re-elected three times!”

    Does that formulation make any sense? Inequality decreased a lot in the 1930s even before WW2 arrived. And while the war was violent, it wasn’t domestic violence. I’ve been wanting to look up or compute the GINI index changes before the war.

    Reply
  12. farmboy

    https://agr.wa.gov/departments/business-and-marketing-support/international/statistics
    Top 10 Exports:
    Rank Product Value % Change
    1 Frozen French Fries $1.1 billion 2.87
    2 Fish and Seafood $940 billion -12.32
    3 Apples $845 million 23.65
    4 Wheat $652 million -0.05
    5 Dairy $564 million 0.96
    6 Hay $485 million -12.26
    7 Hop Cones and Extracts $323 mil 1.29
    8 Beef $321 million -1.86
    9 Fresh Sweet Cherries $293 23.14
    10 Pulses $207 million 12.18
    And these are the crops and farmers and processors and laborers that will be harmed terribly!

    Top 10 Markets:
    Rank Country Value % Change
    1 Canada $1.4 billion 0.03
    2 Japan $1.1 billion -0.05
    3 Mexico $908 million 0.32
    4 China $693 million -0.19
    5 South Korea $508 mil 0.02
    6 Philippines $377 mil 0.10
    7 Taiwan $315 million -0.02
    8 Indonesia $239 mill 0.17
    9 Hong Kong $176 mill 0.04
    10 Vietnam $159 million 0.01
    tariffs will do huge harm to Washington exports

    Reply
  13. eg

    “The bastards of neoliberalism” continues the excellent work Slobodian began with his Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36738613-globalists

    Though he doesn’t reference it in this piece, one of the things which struck me most was how profoundly anti-democratic Hayek and Mises were — how they despised the nationalist revolutions characterized by the mass franchise which trailed in the wake of the (first round of) demolition of the European dynastic empires, and yearned for the aristocratic Austrian Empire of their youth. Is it any wonder that all the fruits of their academic works are so virulently poisonous to the well-being of working people?

    Reply
  14. Wukchumni

    Spa town spies: Czech church linked to Kremlin kompromat campaign Euractiv
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Growing up as a Bohemian’s Bohemian in the SoCalist Movement meant going to hot springs out in the palm desert, which always attracted those with some accent left over (1948 Czech immigrants) or heavily accented English (1968 Czech immigrants) and little did I know then, but it was as close as it came to a national identity-soaking in hot springs.

    I run into soakers from the old country quite a bit in my wanderings, its what we do.

    Russians have always been attracted to places such as Karlovy Vary, i’m not surprised with the spy connection…

    Reply
    1. The Rev Kev

      You think that those Russians spies were trying to find out the secret recipe for the Czech national dish of Vepřo knedlo zelo aka pork roast with dumplings & sauerkraut?

      In this war, the Czech government have really gone gung-ho against the Russians while the Slovakians have been very much laid back about the whole thing. Maybe it is just as well they split all those years ago.

      Reply
      1. Wukchumni

        I’m 50.0000364% Czech and 49.9999636% Slovak, and the former has always looked down on the latter, so you can only imagine the struggle.

        Reply
          1. Wukchumni

            I guess i’d be 1/2 Becherovka, ha.

            The first time I flew to Prague in 1997, we were waiting for friends coming in on another flight and waltzed over to the bar where a 1/2 liter of Pilsner Urquel was a princely 71¢, hadn’t they got the memo about airport gouging?

            My nephew greets us and I tell him about the cheap suds and he shrugs and tells me I got ripped off, as 1/2 liters at his favorite pub in town are 25¢.

            Food and booze were equally giveaway cheap for awhile, I remember tasty restaurant meals setting me back $2 to $3.

            Reply
  15. Lieaibolmmai

    On COVID and DNA Demethylation.

    True, “Covid infection is dysregulating methylation”, but how? They have shown no DIRECT mechanism. Well, let me share one possible indirect mechanism; Viral infections cause nutritional deficiencies the trigger methylation changes. With viruses, the most relevant deficiency is Zinc. Let me explain.

    “Tern” brings up methyltransferases, enzymes that methylate genes. These are the DNMT genes, like DNMT1.
    It you look up DNMT1, you will see it has a binding site specifically for Zinc.

    https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P26358/entry

    So, does a zinc deficiency lower DNMT activity? Yes:
    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28421879/
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0946672X21000213

    So if COVID lowers methylation rates, and zinc deficiency lowers methylation artes, is that not a relevant correlational study to perform?

    IMHO, since Zinc is crucial to immune function, the effect of fighting off the viruses leads to a zinc deficiency in many people which leads to lower methylation rates. I have not seen one study that checks zinc levels before and after viral infection, and that is sad, becawsue we could probably reverse all the diabetes, cancer, and Long COVID caused by the infection.

    Reply
  16. The Rev Kev

    “Editorial | Netanyahu Is Considering a Limited Strike on Iran – That Is Complete Insanity”

    You know what? I say let them go for it. In fact, I give them my blessing. Tell them to hit Iran with all the aircraft that they have. But tell them that they can do it on their own. So no US tanker aircraft, no US EW aircraft, no US rescue helicopters – zip. Make it an all Israeli effort so it they get shot down the US won’t be dragged into that mess. I suppose it might be a bit different fighting a real war than just bombing helpless civilians and embassies but hey, variety is the spice of life. See what happens when some of them have to punch out of their aircraft and parachute into Iran a very long walk from Israel. But just remind them that Iran has just installed a new radar system that will let them see Israeli aircraft taking off right from the get-go and that their radar systems will light up those super-duper F-35s like a Christmas tree-

    https://armyrecognition.com/news/army-news/army-news-2024/iran-deploys-800-km-over-the-horizon-radar-in-northwest-capable-of-detecting-us-rq-4-global-hawk

    Reply
  17. timbers

    Not-So-Cold-War

    The question of the day for some might be…what does Trump Team mean when they say they’ll move on and walk away from the Ukraine war if they don’t obey his commands and agree to stop fighting? Will he end support to Ukraine? Will he stick to walk away for more than 24 hours?

    Reply
    1. vao

      Will the military high command in the USA itself disobey the orders of Trump, as it did in the past regarding Syria?

      Reply
    2. The Rev Kev

      I don’t think that Trump will ever leave the Ukraine. For him, it would be walking away from all that money on the table. That would be how he would see it.

      Reply
  18. timo maas

    China’s non-nuclear hydrogen bomb generates fireball to burn targets at 1800°F: Report Interesting Engineering

    It’s a thermobaric bomb. That’s it. I have never seen term nuclear used so many times in an article that has absolutely nothing to do with nuclear stuff. This comment is also non-nuclear.

    Reply
    1. The Rev Kev

      I think that you are right here. The term ‘nuke’ seems to be there to push a few panic buttons, especialy that video clip of the size of nukes. Oddly enough as I was reading this article, I could not help but ask myself if it was more environmentally friendly than napalm. The mind is a strange thing – and some more strange than others.

      Reply
  19. Alice X

    >How Trump Is Helping Price Gougers Exploit His Tariffs – The Lever

    Good piece on bad outcomes to a no-plan plan. After the prices go up, even for things not even directly linked to tariffs, they will not be coming back down.

    Reply

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