NASA’s Curiosity rover finds major clue that Mars was once habitable Space.com
Study explores the impact of growing up without siblings on the brain and behavior of adults Medical Xpress
Could the Pope’s Death Mean the Demise of Liberal Catholicism? European Conservative
SUBARU IS BRINGING BACK PHYSICAL KNOBS AND BUTTONS IN ITS CARS Futurism
Climate/Environment
Climate Change Kills Capitalism Counterpunch
Nuclear Underpants Gnomes Breakthrough Journal
Pandemics
Vietnam reports H5N1 avian flu case with encephalitis CIDRAP
Scientists Discover Drug That Could Finally End Long COVID Suffering SciTech Daily
David Zweig Doesn’t Care About Children Pandemic Accountability Index
China?
This is interesting: Justin Yifu Lin, former Chief Economist of the World Bank and a China’s State Council Counsellor, explaining why in the trade war “the losses for the United States will be greater than those of China”.
He essentially frames a trade war as an economic war of… https://t.co/27y9mO3ajC
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) April 22, 2025
US and Philippines launch ‘Super Bowl’ of military exercises around South China Sea The Independent
European Disunion
Patrick Lawrence: Germany in Crisis Part 2: A Short History of Exploding Gas Pipelines Scheerpost
Germany blocks Eurofighter jet sale to Turkey over mayor’s arrest: report Turkish Minute
Why Germany’s “value-based” foreign policy is insane ⬇️
🇩🇪 Berlin vetoed a Eurofighter sale to Turkey after it jailed Istanbul’s mayor @ekrem_imamoglu
🇹🇷 His reaction: Turkey’s national interests are more valuable than Erdoğan or İmamoğlu. I demand you to reverse this decision. https://t.co/21AahvwTHc
— Ozan Demircan (@ozmuhabir) April 21, 2025
Old Blighty
Unfair Judgments: Lethal Cuts at the DWP London Review of Books
Syraqistan
Israeli army stopped designating Gaza ‘safe zones’ after restart of genocide The Cradle
Israel bans protesters from carrying images of Gaza’s dead childrenThe New Arab
Trump’s NSC Director for Israel and Iran Previously Worked for Israeli Ministry of Defense Drop Site
No Joke: US considering nuclear power for Saudi in grand bargain Responsible Statecraft
Pentagon to ‘relocate’ hundreds of troops to two new bases in Syria: Report The Cradle
Chinese HQ-9B Long Range Air Defence Systems Now Guard Egyptian Skies Military Watch
Africa
World Bank’s investment arm targets rise in African equity investments Semafor
New Not-So-Cold War
In case of a nuclear event, Ukraine to use Israeli placenta-based emergency treatment Times of Israel
***
🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦 “Real hell is about to begin!” – The ‘Brave Ones’ are pushing hard toward Dnipropetrovsk region
▪️On the Novopavlivka axis, units of the “Center” group recently captured Preobrazhenka, are attacking near Kotlyarivka, and are entrenching themselves in the grey zone near… pic.twitter.com/9qM3KcO0Ps
— Zlatti71 (@Zlatti_71) April 21, 2025
Nazi Is As Nazi Does Julian Macfarlane
Ratio for exchanges of KIA soldiers over time. Red is Russian bodies returned to Russia at each exchange, blue is Ukrainian bodies returned to Ukraine. Graphic by @lostarmour pic.twitter.com/G8SspdU5je
— Russians With Attitude (@RWApodcast) April 21, 2025
‘MOVE ON’ TO MOVE BACK, MR PRESIDENT: Trump Can and Perhaps Should ‘Move On’ from Mediating the NATO-Russia Ukrainian Conflict, But Be Ready to ‘Move Back’ Gordon Hahn, Russian & Eurasian Politics
“Liberation Day(s)”
Trump hosts Walmart, Target and Home Depot CEOs for tariff meeting CNBC
Sellers of secondhand clothes prepare for tariffs to give their businesses a boost AP
US imposes new duties on solar imports from South-east Asia Business Times
Trump 2.0
Trump’s Inauguration Donor Pool Includes $50 Million in Contributions from Corporations Under Investigation or Facing Federal Enforcement Public Citizen. “Cases against 11 of these corporations have already been dismissed or withdrawn, and six have been halted.”
Corporate Lawlessness Comes Next How Things Work
Trump Laid Off Nearly All the Federal Workers Who Investigate Firefighter Deaths ProPublica
Scoop: Thousands of fired federal probationary workers have complaints rejected Axios
Trump Admin Will Garnish Struggling Borrowers’ Wages as Student Loan Payments Resume Common Dreams
DOGE
Musk accused of polluting impoverished community with illegal gas turbines Musk Watch
SignalGate
Exclusive: The White House is looking to replace Pete Hegseth as defense secretary NPR
Trump says Hegseth is ‘doing a great job’ despite reports of second Signal chat The Guardian
. @PressSec “The President stands strongly behind @SecDef, who is doing a phenomenal job leading the Pentagon.
This is what happens when the ENTIRE Pentagon is working against you and against the MONUMENTAL change that you are trying to implement.” pic.twitter.com/0N45bQc1h5
— DOD Rapid Response (@DODResponse) April 21, 2025
Immigration
Mahmoud Khalil’s wife gives birth after ICE denied his request to attend delivery ABC News
Trump blasts Supreme Court while arguing trials for migrants ‘not possible’ The Hill
This has to be one of the craziest admissions from A JUDGE that I’ve ever seen in a court transcript. What the hell are we doing here?! https://t.co/FTTx3mq9Dr pic.twitter.com/LJZOI1Z2lE
— Sasha Gusev (@SashaGusevPosts) April 21, 2025
The Supremes
Court appears to back legality of HHS preventative care task force SCOTUSblog
Police State Watch
Crime and Punishment #1 Don’t Worry About the Vase
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
The FBI Can’t Find ‘Missing’ Records of Its Hacking Tools 404 Media
The Friendly Skies
Delta airlines flight 1213 catches fire at Orlando international airport 😳 pic.twitter.com/8qL54dQRkT
— 🌸 DigiGal (@DigitalGal_) April 21, 2025
AI
AI hallucinations lead to a new cyber threat: Slopsquatting CSO
In Defense of Cluely.com jonstokes.com
Supply Chain
Supply Chain Disintermediation: Another Unintended Consequence of Trump’s Tariffs Warwick Powell’s Substack
WD launches HDD recycling process that reclaims rare earth elements, cuts out China Tom’s Hardware
Mr. Market Has Another Sad
US: S&P 500 ends down 2.4% after Trump slams Fed chief again Business Times
LIQUIDITY, VOLATILITY AND MARKET CRAZINESS: PAUL KRUGMAN INTERVIEWS NATHAN TANKUS AGAIN Crises Notes
Healthcare?
State-By-State, America is Taking on Big Insurance’s Pharmacy Middlemen HEALTH CARE un-covered
Our Famously Free Press
THREAD. This is one of the more remarkable stories I have seen in my time studying state violence and working in law. But it’s also an exercise in propaganda. And it’s unbelievable how terrible the U.S. media coverage is. One thing in particular is important to see. pic.twitter.com/zk3iI4R3ir
— Alec Karakatsanis (@equalityAlec) April 21, 2025
Zeitgeist Watch
Columbia student suspended over interview cheating tool raises $5.3M to ‘cheat on everything’ Tech Crunch
Class Warfare
Deconstructing Housing Democracy Journal
Transient Homemaking e-flux
Ordo Amoris Hauntologies by Elia Ayoub
We Could Have Been Warthogs Nautilus
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Re: Study explores the impact of growing up without siblings on the brain and behavior of adults.
People with siblings have better survival skills, they have experience with physical combat, psychological warfare and sensing suspicious activity.
Also, an almost pathological sense of fairness. (The last remaining cookie will be divided with the help of a ruler).
If it’s only to be divided between two siblings, there is no need for a ruler — one divides it and the other chooses …
And watch them sweat.
When I was at Brian’s parent’s house as I tried to fill a glass with water, he snatched the glass from my hand and said angrily: “Don’t touch my mother’s glass.
When he was at my parent’s house he went into their refrigerator as if it was in his house.
I learned from Brian how to spot an only child almost instantly without anyone informing me they had no sibling(s).
LOL!!! I will make sure to tell me sisters.
I can’t help it, I’m the oldest.
“Exclusive: The White House is looking to replace Pete Hegseth as defense secretary”
I somehow doubt it. To do so means that he would have to admit that he made a mistake in choosing Hegseth which he will not admit. In addition, it would mean letting the Democrats get up a win on the board when they have hardly done anything. He must remember when he had to let Michael Flynn go right at the start of his Presidency which signaled that his picks were vulnerable. I don’t think that he wants to go there again.
Of course they are looking for replacements. They are nasty not stupid. If Pete steps on his thing one more time he will be peat.
I half disagree. Trump is nasty and stupid. Trump also doesn’t make mistakes (his opinion) so Pete will again have to step on his own peter more than once before he is jettisoned but it take will pressure from multiple sources before Trump agrees to can him. Then Trump can blame everybody but himself for the dismissal and not himself for the decision to hire him in the first place.
Pete and The Don deliver a One Trillion Dollars!! ($1,000,000,000,000.00) proposed annual budget?
They keep Elroy and the Doge Boys (not a garage band) away from the place.
And this is the thanks they get?
Ingrates!!! The worst ingrates. Just AWFUL ingrates. Very bad people. The worst people. These people should be sent off shore to a Prison or something.
Is “Signal-gate” anything but a MSM obsessive aghastitude attack over a big nothing? The fact that we are bombing Yemen without regard to civilian casualties and without any sort of UN mandate is a major atrocity and war crime. That someone let the planning for the crime out on a public channel is a ridiculous non-story. Hegseth and his cronies have a lot to answer for already in their short tenure, but focusing on this is just more evidence that the news media are all about insiders jockeying for position and not about anything of substance.
It’s exceptionally bad Operational Security, and it violates document retention laws. So yeah, it is a big deal.
Disagree, look at Musk. Trump all but called him a political and business idiot the other day for opposing his tariffs.
Hegseth is making Trump look like an idiot. Just like his first term, he’ll claim he was tricked and lied to.
Trump can never fail, only be failed.
As near as I can tell (I’m not good at this stuff so take it with a grain of salt), the people being fired and marched out of the Pentagon right now are opposed to going to war with Iran, and the people being kept are the neocons that want to go to war with Iran. So we’re down to reading the “tea leaves”, but it’s starting to look grim.
And completely agree with Lefty Godot that the MSM seems to focus on “DC normality”, and ignore the real actions, but a war with Iran would be really, really bad.
MacGregor suggested on Deepdive that Tom Cotton may be the replacement. Boom!
Trump could blame it on DOGE. Those bastards will fire anyone.
“Trump Laid Off Nearly All the Federal Workers Who Investigate Firefighter Deaths”
I would guess that this has all to do with the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer mentioned in that article. More than 23,000 firefighters have signed up to it but by firing those Federal investigators, that Registry is dead in the water and those firefighters will find it much, much harder to go for compensation.
Wildfires are drenched with a pink fluid that, I believe, is a forever chemical (chlofluorocarbon?). Not nice stuff to be exposed to when you’re working hard and have to be there.
No, it’s ammonium phosphate.
Coroners standard autopsy of any firefighter death in 2026:
‘he was shot down, while trying to escape’
I got an especially bad feeling in regards to fuego this summer and into the fall, too many odd locations at the wrong time of year have had conflagrations as of late.
Doing my last burns for the year, and from now on any dead wood will collect in a 10 foot wide and 2 foot high burn pile for December ignition.
Much better to burn it off slowly on your terms, than all at once with everything else on Hephaestus’s whims~
Some readers may need to understand that we have two classes of firefighters here in the USA. Urban firefighters wear uniforms as they do in other countries. Here, wildfirefighters (the class I believe Wuk references) frequently,if not usually, wear jailsuits.
Federal wildland firefighters do not wear jumpsuits. In California the total number of incarcerated firefighters is about 3800. (That is the instructional limit of the training facility.) While they should be paid similar to their federal cohort, the opportunity to be ‘outside’ is an incentive to volunteer for the work.
Upon reading the title of one of the linked articles, “Supply Chain Disintermediation: Another Unintended Consequence of Trump’s Tariffs”, it just occurred to me: could another unintended consequence be the emergence of a vibrant contraband economy?
The USA has positively enormous land and sea borders to monitor, and multiple organizations in neighbouring countries (such as the various narco networks in Mexico) have acquired quite some experience in smuggling drugs, weapons, and human beings. So why not rare earths, precision machinery, or basic pharmaceuticals?
When talking about the history of Prohibition, a widely-accepted premise is that by making bootleg booze profitable, Prohibition catalyzed the rise and spread of organized crime, the Mafia, etc.
There was a very recent linked article here that pointed to research that drug enforcement led to increased violence!
Who coulda knode?
Imagine…busted for smuggling aspirin.
This is a year of magnificent discoveries. Brits realized that a man is not a woman, and Germans that a car is not a phone: I can’t wait to see the next big breaktrough that these interesting times will bestow upon humankind.
I have friend who test drove a Tesla and said it was like driving an iPad! Very strange, while also welcome, to see some common sense prevailing here and there amidst the insanity.
I will never cease being amazed by the way decades of human factor engineering was simply thrown out the window when auto manufacturers started installing touch screens in cars.
I will never cease being amazed by the way decades of human factor engineering was simply thrown out the window when
autophone manufacturers started installing touch screens incarsphones.FTFY
Worse, they then turned around and broke established human factors on our computers, to make them work more like the broken phones. : (
Money. Software controls on a common touchscreen are a lot cheaper than wiring each button, dial, and switch.
I really dislike those cars where it looks like they used a chain saw to cut a slot in the dash and glued an iPad type screen into the slot. Butt ugly.
Tesla’s are ugly inside and out. They all look alike and they look like Dodge Neon’s. Inside they look like a kitchen counter with a couple of wooden chairs bolted to the floor and a screen on the countertop.
I am eagerly waiting for the breakthrough discovery that you can’t run a European economy without cheap gas from Russia or without exporting to China.
We love our 2003 screenless (except for the radio/tape/disk player face that came with the car and still plays great) Subaru Forester. Wouldn’t trade it for any of the new cars currently available for purchase in the USA.
re: AI; slopsquatting
The hits keep coming. The use cases all involve fraud and/or different types of cheating.
Cheating on exams, cheating on interviews, cheating at your job by pretending to write a bunch of code, except it makes up BS dependencies that don’t exist (not sure how that compiles, but in a JavaScript world, I guess runtime errors don’t matter.)
Maybe it is perfect for our lying world full of liars. A lying government. We lie to ourselves too … fake ceasefires, fake rumors of trade deals to jack-job the stonks.
What could possibly go wrong?
One of the commenters in a Reddit thread about this phenomenon notes that the vulnerability isn’t just that AI makes up fake dependencies, it’s that even without AI people rely sight unseen on dependencies in the first place.
I have noticed you can instruct AI to NOT to include any dependencies and it will repeatedly fail to, even if you eliminate dependencies by name, which I find curious. For most AI queries you can adjust the parameters and it will, but not for code it seems. To the point where I wondered if the creators wanted to deliberately insure code generated by AI cannot work (without considerable knowledge and effort).
Re; Columbia student suspended over interview cheating tool raises $5.3M to ‘cheat on everything’
The mindset is appalling.
While narcissistic, toxic individualism continues to be rewarded, expect this trend to continue.
“Cheat on everything” that is done on computer.
He thinks he’s creating a software that disrupts. Yeah…a software that disrupts software.
Anybody that doesn’t clearly understand the way to avoid the things mentioned is brain dead or brainwashed.
But, yes, his sense of entitlement is rotten.
File under son of gamer …. exploits and hacks for the Winnar … and noobs like to be owned …
What could possibly go wrong?
It’s starting to feel like our collective self has realized we’re in a cul-de-sac with no way out and have flipped on the lemming response.
There is an X entry above by Sasha Gustev regarding a district court judge calling an immigration case “Kafkaesque.” In case anyone else is interested in the source material, which is quite interesting, here it is.
https://theintercept.com/2025/04/17/international-student-visas-deport-dhs-ice/
I have a choice, and I choose not to give Elon Musk clicks.
Thanks for the link. I too am having my own general strike against the oligarchs.
We need more Generals- at least one more. We have General Malaise.
We need General Strike! May Day!!! May Day?
Here, Here! DueDissidence dudes say we need to have a general strike of 10 – 20 million is what it will take. That means we sacrifice for the common good for a reset. I hope this comes to pass. It’s a war.
I pretty much agree with the Due Dissidence guys.
David Brooks (!?) is also calling for a general strike and mass movement in possibly the most upper class, tone def, opinion piece ever. Tabbi and Kirn take apart Brooks’ argument in very funny style. It’s like Tom ‘the mustache of understanding’ calling for a general strike to save the yuppies. Basically, Brooks’ argument is not the same call and argument the Due Dissidence guys are making. Class warfare up close and personal./ ;)
America This Week, Monday night, no paywall. utube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzMxyvzbaUM
Even if it’s for the wrong reason, accept any ally that shows up. Fisticuffs over those wrong reasons can be set aside for later. VBNMW Dems don’t understand this concept at all.
Any union supporting such a strike would be in violation of Taft-Hartley as a wildcat and a political strike, and whatever assets they have could be forfeit as a result. That’s why Fain (UAW) is trying the approach of unions negotiating for the same contract termination date which would allow multiple unions to strike at once without violating T-H.
After I clicked on the link, the site demanded my email first to read it, so I backed out leaving it unread.
An opportunity for petty revenge squandered: use the email address of someone you don’t like!
Let the great wealth transfer from the Nordic & Baltic citizens to aerospace & defence share-holders begin!
https://www-svt-se.translate.goog/nyheter/inrikes/nordisk-baltiskt-kop-av-flera-hundra-stridsfordon?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Free-float: 94% https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/BAE-SYSTEMS-PLC-9583545/
Largest share-holders: https://hk.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/BAE-SYSTEMS-PLC-129389906/company-shareholders/
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/85-ownership-bae-systems-plc-070433564.html
Thank you.
Today’s business news on the BBC, 04:30 GMT, featured an interview with the CEO of Tekever, a drone manufacturer. The bigger segment was about the business opportunities to be had from European rearmament. The CEO, live from Lisbon, talked about how, from soon after the invasion, his firm’s drones had been tested in Ukraine.
As I watched over breakfast, I wondered whether business or security would drive technical developments and what programmes would be prioritised. Methinks it will be the former, i.e. a hand out to big business.
One hopes that Aurelien who has wcompared the Russian defence industry and its western peers and their set ups and objectives pipes up.
I am wondering what the results of those Ukrainian tests were. Like how many minutes did the test drones survive at the front – oh, they never made it that far?
Its interesting Colonel that at the moment the Russians, whilst still prioritizing high value military gear, are really/really prioritizing hunter/killer drone teams to take out UKN drone operators before advancing. Getting good at it too if one looks at the action/maps.
It is interesting to watch the Western investor/profit MIC model vs. Russian/China in real time and the battlefield.
Re: “Subaru is bringing back knobs and buttons…”
I have a pre-touch screen Subaru with over 250k miles which I haven’t replaced because I’ve hated the experience of the touch screen models when I’ve had one on loan. It’s a tremendous plus for safety and positive driver experience that touch screens are being phased out. Now they should get to work clearing out the junk information that’s been added around the speedometer.
Indeed. I’ve seen videos about the next generation electric car – built by Toyota in conjunction with one of the top 3 Chinese manufacturers. They have enough cash to sell it wayyyyyy below cost so tariffs won’t work very well…..
My first thought was “yes it has the potential to be very popular but to dominate the market it’s gonna have to also bring back knobs and buttons”. Curious to see if the final product does this. The rumours on YT videos are that whilst it had the inevitable touchscreen, this is really an add-on and the physical buttons etc are there.
Admittedly my Hyundai is a few years old now but the touchscreen is only for the music player and cell phone interaction. If newer cars are making everything touchscreen then they are merely imitating Tesla with its outside the box ideas which oh by the way save Tesla on manufacturing costs. Given how much vehicles cost now such chintziness is inexcusable.
Of course in Musk world your Tesla is theoretically driving itself giving the driver the opportunity to play with the computer. Given how highly regulated cars are now you wonder how Tesla has gotten away with so much.
Don’t forget that some of those touchscreens are starting to give out ads which you have to clear before doing anything else on that touchscreen.
Crank windows are on my wish list, too. Doing everything I can to keep my no-screen buttons and knobs ’98 Volvo going.
I have a 2017 car (Chevy Bolt) with a touchscreen.
After the car is started it frequently pops up a paragraph ON THE TOUCHSCREEN that mentions taking one’s eyes of the road to look at the touchscreen can be hazardous.
And the notice must be touched to clear.
An audible message would be far better than one that truly demonstrates the problem.
I sometimes try to help other elderly with technology and sometimes will pose a question after a time consuming fix is complete.
They usually smile when I ask, “how often do you hear someone say “could you please complicate that?””
Bringing back knobs could be a good idea.
I treasure my 2010 Toyota Tacoma – screen-free except for a tiny one for the radio – and hope to keep it going long enough to see the return of knobs and buttons as the default. It has only 125k kms on the odometer, so the odds are good. (Plus, it has a manual stick-shift which should reduce the risk of theft since few know how to use these anymore.)
My 2010 Taco just passed the 225k miles mark, and is the best vehicle i’ve ever owned.
I have seen a clip on X with a new EV Chinese car that on the touch screen monitor available, had a attachment that would allow the driver to use buttons!
He was borne SecDef on the Trump Trail
At 44 years old he’d done three months entailed
He tried to change the military culture in his diapers
Stamping his tiny little feet
All he said was “Folks my name is Outlaw Pete”
I’m Outlaw Pete, I’m Outlaw Pete, can you hear me?
At 23 an Army National Guard commission
And he rode her ’round and ’round on heaven’s mission
Father Jesus I’m an outlaw, tv commentator and thinker
And I slow down only to sow my grief with occasional liquor
I’m Outlaw Pete, I’m Outlaw Pete, can you hear me?
He cut his trail of tears across the Gitmo countryside
And where he went inmates wept and some detainees cried
One night he awoke from a vision of his life after death
Saddled his country with revelations of a tattooed chest
Married many times and settled down on the 3rd bequest
And as a dry hard rain fell he held out and did his best
I’m Outlaw Pete, I’m Outlaw Pete, can you hear me?
Can you hear me? Can you hear me?
Out of the east in Humordor, they sacked Dan
His heart quickened and burdened by the need to get his man
They found Pete peacefully denying by the Potomac river
Pulled his usual stunts and for now got the drop
Everybody said “Pete you think you’ve changed the MIC but you have not”
Some say Pete and his posse vanished over the edge
And some say they remain frozen out high up on that far right ledge
Outlaw Pete, Outlaw Pete, can you hear me?
Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me?
Can you hear me? Can you hear me?
Outlaw Pete, by Bruce Springsteen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRA6lWzCpCQ
‘Alec Karakatsanis
@equalityAlec
THREAD. This is one of the more remarkable stories I have seen in my time studying state violence and working in law. But it’s also an exercise in propaganda. And it’s unbelievable how terrible the U.S. media coverage is. One thing in particular is important to see.
Now to today’s article. I want to pause on how remarkable this is: El Salvador is now offering to trade the people illegally trafficked for cash and sent to its torture chamber to Venezuela if that country releases people on lists created by the far right.’
I wouldn’t be so sure that that list was compiled by El Salvador. More likely it was compiled by the White House and the spooks to get activists released so that they can do more dirty work in Venezuela. A lot would depend on who exactly was on those lists.
My morning coffee was the Super Bowl of all coffees in this part of the kitchen this morning.
Ratio for exchanges of KIA soldiers over time
This graph shows exchanges of Ukraine dead soldiers to Russian soldiers about equal up until March 2024. Only after March 2024 does Russian exchanges of dead Ukraine soldiers start climbing dramatically. If this is an accurate reflection of dying Russian soldiers, it suggests Putin has relied upon a weak strategy in prosecution of the war and sacrificed Russians in favor of this weak approach militarily. I wounder if these numbers can be relied upon to extrapolate overall casualties.
For a long time the amount of land that Russia took was quite small. Therefore the dead were mostly collected on the same side, meaning little to no exchanged bodies.
In the last year, Russia has been taking a lot of land meaning the dead are now collected by the advancing side, Russia.
While the numbers are interesting, I dont’ think they can be used as an accurate way to calculate the dead.
There are people who count graves and graveyards in Ukraine and Russia along with all sort of other metrics and it seems clear Ukraine has lost way more people than Russia.
https://x.com/simpatico771/status/1914361252261797922
⚡️🇷🇺In connection with the intensified topic of the next exchange of bodies, the group for calculating the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces of the LOSTARMOUR project offers an overview of this issue for the entire period of the SVO.
We know that at least 61 exchanges were made in total, the earliest being 05/07/2022, of which we have information on 50.
Initially, exchanges were carried out as equivalent, similar to those with prisoners, but later shifted towards the “all for all” scheme, since there is no benefit from storing enemy bodies.
In 2023, there is some shift in the number of bodies handed over towards dead Russian soldiers, especially during the summer Ukrainian “counteroffensive”.
In the future, especially since the summer of 2024, there has been a sharp increase in the number of bodies transferred to Ukraine.
“‘MOVE ON’ TO MOVE BACK, MR PRESIDENT: Trump Can and Perhaps Should ‘Move On’ from Mediating the NATO-Russia Ukrainian Conflict, But Be Ready to ‘Move Back’ ”
As The Duran pointed out, how can you mediate a conflict that, as the New York Times shows, that the US has been running all along. That’s like asking your mother-in-law to mediate a fight between yourself and your wife. And it looks like that Trump is siding with the Neocons by adopting Kellog’s plan which has always been a no-go with the Russians. It’s like he never heard a word that the Russians told him over the past three months. I can only assume that these plan have been negotiated by the different DC factions and that the result would be given to the Russians to sign as it is such a great deal for them. One bit really stood out was where the Russians would agree to hand over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the surrounding territories for the Americans to run, I kid you not. That is now sovereign Russian territory and the Russian Constitution would say ‘Nope.’ Maybe Russia should agree to that – so long as Russia gets to run America’s biggest nuclear power plant. Think that they will bite? Trump won’t move on as he will let the Russians win the war but then through his efforts lose the peace. Not only because he does not want to be known as the President that lost the Ukraine but because DC policy is always to press down hard on Russia.
I think there is three wars going on:
– a civil war in Ukraine that has been going on since 2014
– a state to state war between Ukraine and Russia that has been going on since 2022
– a power sphere conflict over Ukraine that has been going on since at least 2004 and is still escalating
A real peace would need solutions of all three conflicts.
The “mediation” is in the best case scenario a ruse to conduct negotiations over the power spehere conflict. In the Korean war I think both great powers had to strongarm their local proxies to accept a seize fire, so there is a kind of precedent that the great power conflict comes first.
But and in the worst case – which is probably more likely given what web hear from them – it is just totally ignorant.
Very true. And I think the “mediation” ruse allows Trump/USA to claim any success as a diplomatic win rather than a military loss. Whether such a claim is valid, the “mediation” narrative gives some cover for what is a major defeat.
While this mess continues, the administration is moving the spotlight to culture wars:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/donald-trump-vows-to-fight-for-long-island-town-in-native-american-logo-standoff/ar-AA1DoMB4/
Donald Trump vows to ‘fight’ for Long Island town in Native American logo standoff
Re: Liquidity, Volatility, and Market Craziness
Nathan Tankus is usually over my head, but in this interview he explains things so that even Paul Krugman can understand. Thanks for posting!
(Also lots of linky goodness added.)
Yes, I agree, this is a really important piece. Many thanks to Connor for including it.
Climate Change Kills Capitalism- Counterpunch
So the way I read it is- that we must save capitalsm because, if we don’t, capitalism won’t be able to save us…. just a little hickup – in my view – is that the capitalism spoken of here is the reason we need saving in the first instance
I think that you may be right. Capitalism only works when you have spare capital that is used for investing but the world that Capitalism is making will have precious little spare capital.
Nothing could be a weirder coincidence than capitalism self-destroying via the genesis of industrialization powered by oil.
Coincidence? Irony? Karma?
Happy Earth Day for sure.
The Counterpunch article links to the original editorial by a German.
The underlying editorial holds out hope for scaling up renewables , hydrogen burning and efficiencies in time to save capitalism.
This will consume even more hydrocarbons.
Radical conservation, reuse and a smaller consumption lifestyle in the developed world could delay the arrival time of some of the climate change effects.
Is this a “silver lining” to Trump’s trade wars?
Trump hopes to cover that silver lining with soot by re-ramping up American coal use.
It’s a good article as an antidote to the position that saving capitalism takes priority over addressing climate change (which is the default position for many people, especially politicians). Thallinger is arguing that this is a non-starter and a false dichotomy. Here’s the crunch quote:
It’s hard to argue with the conclusion from those premises. You can take issue with any of the three, but they’re all pretty well supported in the worst case climate scenario of 3 degrees plus (which is what he’s talking about here).
American Student Loans – a scam that made payday lenders and furniture rental companies seethe with envy!
“US and Philippines launch ‘Super Bowl’ of military exercises around South China Sea”
Can you imagine a headline in a few years saying “China and Venezuela launch ‘Super Bowl’ of military exercises around Caribbean”? Can you imagine the hissy fit that DC would have? But it could very well happen.
But it could very well happen………. Yes, and the USA won’t be able to do a darn thing about it.
“Super Bowl”?
At least there might be some clever commercials.
You can’t have a “superbowl” of practice scrimmages.
No Joke: US considering nuclear power for Saudi in grand bargain – Responsible Statecraft
“Turn out the lights
And light a candle…”
Teddy P.
A lyric with a new meaning.
What about Iran?!
Nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia would give Iran something new to threaten to attack with its missiles. Those plants will just be another set of hostages to events.
The Israelis will never allow the US to build them so the Saudis will find that there will be endless delays, endless design changes, holdups in the Senate for permissions, demands that only Americans be allowed in that plant to run it and no Saudis trained at all, etc. and goshdarnit, they will never get around to building those plants
US: S&P 500 ends down 2.4% after Trump slams Fed chief again – Business Times
Well, not that it doesn’t make some some nervous, but today (as of this moment) it’s whiplash. If one is only looking at index action, it’s like yesterday never happened. Did someone see them on the golf course together this morning?
Other games at play.
The headline reasons for the index moves are often the “narrative of the day or week”. Some think they are algo manipulations, but that would be more for insiders to understand.
Us mere mortals can only guess at what games are afoot.
What we can say is that such market gyrations are not healthy. They remind me of a manic depressive who swings wildly from highs to lows.
From Nuclear Underpants Gnomes
Basically, we’re all cooked.
So instead
But that ain’t gonna cut it.
Oops.
Nibbling around the edges of this is just mental wankery. Climate is an existential crisis whether or not it is recognized as such.
Probable Trump deniability angles when Hegseth is turfed out:
‘Some said Pete would make a great Secretary of Defense, if not the greatest, and maybe it was all too much for Hegseth to handle, I don’t know, war isn’t my deal, really.’
‘I don’t want to cast aspersions on his lack of wanting to attack Persia, but he had no idea how badly the Israelis want this, If the pilot’s good, see, I mean if he’s reeeally sharp, he can barrel that baby in so low… oh you oughta see it sometime. It’s a sight. A big plane like a B-2… varrrooom! Its jet exhaust… frying chickens in the barnyard!’
Hegseth? Who is that? I don’t know him. I might have met him once in a meeting. I think he was getting the coffee.
It’s like that Twilight Zone episode where the little boy could disappear people out to the cornfield.
For those who joined late:
“I’m not saying we couldn’t get our hair mussed . . .”
re: Mahmoud Khalil’s wife gives birth after ICE denied his request to attend delivery ABC News
Isn’t it supremely interesting how the Trump admin thinks deporting pro-Palestinian protesters will silence them, rather than the opposite?
Its more about developing systems to be used on American citizens in the fullness of time. “Pro-Palestinian protesters” is the pretext, not the reason.
For example, with the major Universities, especially those which are considered to be pillars of “Blue-Zone Civilization and Culture” . . . the goal is to exterminate those universities from existence, not to suppress pro-Palestine protest at them.
( I think Columbia University has unwittingly decided to exterminate itself over time, by allowing itself to become branded as a MAGA-friendly Trump Sh!thole University.)
A very good article by John Helmer that points to the fact that there won’t be peace in Ukraine anytime soon, unless Russians smash that place:
https://johnhelmer.net/the-real-trump-default-is-european-war-with-russia-so-the-us-can-escalate-war-with-china-the-case-of-the-arms-supply-line-from-rzeszow-to-kiev/
Yves.
stumbled upon this while waiting, ever so patiently, for my birds to go in for the night:
https://x.com/EvanWritesOnX/status/1914657629496082623
have no idea who this dude is, but it seems a succinct enough outline of the sort of structure of the really big players.
of course, this time of day, i am also quite stoned….
The guy copied from somewhere else.
I have a vague recollection of reading something similar quite a few years back, especially the description and consequences of finite vs infinite games…
And now for something different…
Kids in Tiny Town learn how to surf Slicky on the Kaweah River, and its quite something to watch (i’m way too old to risk life & limb-not necessarily in that order) as locals slide on the balls of their feet about 60 feet to the runout.
Swimming in the rivers here is the best way to cool off during our torrid summers~
Rock Sliding | Slicky Three Rivers CA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY68ZcTt9Fo