Links 4/25/2025

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1. Antifa April 25, 2025 at 7:00 am

   Everything Is Goin’ To Hell
   (melody borrowed from the rock n’ roll classic You Never Can Tell written and performed by Chuck Berry back in 1964.)

   I hear that DOGE keeps shredding as they fire more personnel
   They will never play fair, they cut your job without a word of farewell
   In all the flyin’ fur I gather Elon wants his Show n’ Tell
   Guarantees are just bad jokes
   As everything is goin’ to Hell

   They’re wreckin’ every department with their cost cut fairy tale
   Investigators be damned as rank beginners grade pass or fail
   But Elon’s handiwork has made the judges on the High Court yell
   Guarantees are just bad jokes
   As everything is goin’ to Hell

   The database is No-Go so the DOGE boys made it crash
   A bunch of incel wreckers they’ll end up in Alcatraz
   They’re codin’ workarounds and lettin’ Elon steal the best intel
   Guarantees are just bad jokes
   As everything is goin’ to Hell

   They claim they’re codin’ genies with the go ahead to run free
   Wearin’ T-shirts and jeans but they’re here to do some surgery
   They’re on a tear to get there and if they break things that is just as well
   Guarantees are just bad jokes
   As everything is goin’ to Hell

   (musical interlude)

   And the results they’re gettin’ couldn’t fill a small clam shell
   In the publicity glare their flimflam it just ain’t gonna sell
   These boys are saboteurs who’ll be pardoned if they serve Trump well
   Guarantees are just bad jokes
   As everything is goin’ to Hell

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2. Wukchumni April 25, 2025 at 7:09 am

   Loved what appeared to be 572 Keystone Kops on la piste de la resistance in France…

   By the way, my French expat friends who have been living in the states for 15 years, have decided to go back on a permanent basis, a number of factors playing a part in their decision-they’re genuinely terrified of what Trump might do, and they can go home again, our options are a lot less possible in that regard.

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3. The Rev Kev April 25, 2025 at 7:24 am

   “Moscow calls Japanese loan to Ukraine backed by frozen Russian assets ‘theft'”

   So what happens when the EU is forced to give back Russia’s money? There is a vote coming up in a coupla months and if Hungary or Slovakia don’t go along with it, then all that money has to be returned to the Russian Federation. Unless of course (glances around) that the EU has swiped that money and spent it. So Tokyo will be on the hook for that $3.3 billion which they will have to pay themselves. Have the Japanese not heard of the sunk cost fallacy?

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4. Koldmilk April 25, 2025 at 7:32 am

   The article “The problem of scale-up in the UK” in Chemistry World appears to be gone and replaced with “The hole in the UK chemical industry”:

   Norman Keane thinks ICI’s breakup has left a gap in scale-up knowhow and skills, as well as a lack of facilites
   …
   Keane says that one of the things he hears from a lot of companies currently is that the UK industry is now very much dominated by small and medium-sized companies, which are trying to innovate, but often lack resources. …

   ‘There’s a lack of scale up facilities. There’s a shortage of toll manufacturing, because the chemical industry to support those facilities full time just doesn’t seem to be there. The scale-up facilities we have are often too expensive and insufficiently agile for SMEs to access.’ As a result, many companies are looking abroad, with India being particularly popular, because companies there are looking to expand from a strong base in pharmaceutical products into other speciality chemicals and bio-based products.

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5. upstater April 25, 2025 at 7:35 am

   Empty container glut could cause congestion, but BNSF and UP say they’ve got capacity Trains magazine

   “It’s my prediction that in two weeks’ time, arrivals will drop by 35% as essentially all shipments out of China for major retailers and manufacturers have ceased, and cargo coming out of Southeast Asia locations is much softer than normal,” Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said today (April 24, 2025).

   Oddly enough, the trade disruption is setting up the potential for kinks in the supply chain that could lead to congestion in the U.S. and a shortage of containers in Asia, intermodal analyst Larry Gross says.

   The containers that came to the U.S. during the import surge need to make their way back to West Coast ports. But with far fewer ships now scheduled to call at U.S. ports, there won’t be as much capacity available for the containers to hitch a ride back to Asia.

   So the fear is that the glut of empty containers will begin to stack up. “There’s a storm brewing,” Gross says.

   In 2021 “UP had 25 trains parked headed towards the city of Chicago — 25 trains, every one of those trains close to 2 miles long. So we had 50 miles of locomotives and trains parked. It will not happen under [UP CEO] Jim Vena’s watch.” Quite an impressive supply chain disruption it was, indeed.

   Dont go away! Stay tuned kids! More cartoons to follow!

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6. Colonel Smithers April 25, 2025 at 7:40 am

   Thank you, Haig.

   With regard to the Grayzone article about the UK organising Ukrainian attacks, readers should note that, since 2014, 100k Ukrainians have settled in the UK. They are not to be confused with the 200k given refugee status since February 2022.

   That 100k have a different status and are the loved ones of professional soldiers and new volunteers trained for an eventual attack on Crimea and the Donbas. These soldiers get longer and more intense training than the conscripts who get a few weeks squeezed at best at Catterick.

   As a cadet in the 1980s, I went to Otterburn.

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   1. Bugs April 25, 2025 at 9:30 am

      Thanks, Colonel.

      I wonder how many of these loved ones are now grieving. The UK is so all in for this war that I think the denouement will cause unprecedented political upheaval there. That could be a Reform government, in perhaps a mildly bad scenario. Or something much stranger…?

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7. mrsyk April 25, 2025 at 8:02 am

   Racing bikes down glaciers, no thanks! That video seems like a metaphor for something.

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   1. The Rev Kev April 25, 2025 at 8:07 am

      No real problem here. Just wait a few more years and there will no longer be any ice glaciers left to hold these sort of events. So how about a nice British cheese rolling competition instead?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvuktushEhY (3:27 mins)

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      1. Colonel Smithers April 25, 2025 at 8:39 am

         Thank you, Rev.

         The Gloucestershire event may soon be nominated as living heritage under UNESCO’s auspices:

         https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-heritage-hogmanay-cheese-rolling-notting-hill-carnival-b2731739.html#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20traditions%20that%20could%20be%20recognised,heathen%20festival%20to%20celebrate%20the%20return%20of%20spring.

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      2. JohnA April 25, 2025 at 9:47 am

         Whatever happened to dwarf tossing? Another Australian heritage event?

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         1. The Rev Kev April 25, 2025 at 9:57 am

            You have to be a tosser to enjoy that event but hey, what is Peter Dinklage doing these days?

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8. Retep Strebor April 25, 2025 at 8:09 am

   “China’s wealthy are hoarding cash amid an uncertain economy, survey finds”.
   Our media have been running variations of this counterfactual headline since 1950.

   Despite our embargoes, bombings and bioattacks, Mao grew GDP 6.5% annually for 25 years and, when we lifted some of the restrictions, his successors grew it even faster – for 50 years.
   China’s Q1 2025 growth is on track to add another $1.8 trillion to GDP whereas we will add nothing, even after we borrow another $3 trillion. And it’s certain that we will.

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   1. ex-PFC Chuck April 25, 2025 at 9:59 am

      What has the American elites scared s**tless about China is that they’re demonstrating what a country’s government can accomplish when it prioritizes the general welfare of all the people.

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9. eg April 25, 2025 at 8:25 am

   “UK intel behind Ukraine’s disastrous Krynky invasion, leaked documents reveal”

   And so the Krynky debacle gets added to the list of hare brained amphibious adventures planned by the British military, the ultimate price for which is paid by the soldiers of their gullible allies, taking its place in the shameful pantheon of disastrous failures along with Gallipoli and Dieppe …

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   1. The Rev Kev April 25, 2025 at 8:38 am

      Was disgusted myself in reading that article. Krynky was a butcher’s yard but the British were insisting that the Ukrainians send wave after wave of their soldiers for months before finally quitting. Those soldiers could never be supplied and they found themselves in a kill box with no way out and there was no real purpose even having them there. In a way, it became a foretaste of the Kursk incursion – which the British were heavily involved with too.

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      1. timo maas April 25, 2025 at 9:12 am

         And the media was praising the whole thing while it was going on. A Monty Python sketch, with real blood.

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   2. Daniil Adamov April 25, 2025 at 10:24 am

      I was going to joke that you should be very careful when taking advice on amphibious operations from the British.

      To be fair, I suppose being a traditional sea power would make them undertake more amphibious operations – and therefore have more amphibious disasters – than most, but they do also have a pattern of unreasonable optimism about those things. Gallipoli was also meant to offer an alternative to positional warfare…

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10. farmboy April 25, 2025 at 8:37 am

    https://x.com/tanvi_ratna/status/1915292385279398350/photo/1
    finally someone making sense of tariff regime:

    Tanvi Ratna
    @tanvi_ratna
    The U.S. has not remained the world’s dominant economy by being a fool. People say they “haven’t heard a strategy from the admin,” or that I’m stretching for patterns. I’m not. It was laid out in plain sight months ago.

    Stop looking for signal in headlines or X chatter. Start reading the economists and strategists actually shaping the plan.

    For proof, start with the 41-page document from the president’s top economic advisor—it openly outlines the blueprint to restructure global trade.

    It was written in November 2024—the month of the election victory.

    The admin is tight-lipped because negotiations are live and political pressure is peaking. But the strategy? It’s not hidden—it was laid out nearly a year ago.

    There’s a lot more going on than you’re being told. Look deeper.

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    1. SocalJimObjects April 25, 2025 at 8:48 am

       Since you must have read the document, would you please point out the specific page where the tariff on/tariff off strategy is laid out?

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11. mrsyk April 25, 2025 at 8:39 am

    Re Trita Parsi tweet, who are these people? It can’t be long before Israelis start cannibalizing each other raw in the streets of Jerusalem.

    You’ve thrown the worst fear
    That can ever be hurled
    Fear to bring children
    Into the world
    For threatening my baby
    Unborn and unnamed
    You ain’t worth the blood
    That runs in your veins

    Dylan
    Masters of War

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12. timo maas April 25, 2025 at 8:52 am

    Russia launches huge attack on Kyiv while Trump squeezes Zelenskyy Politico

    Trump also squeezed Putin, by writing “STOP it bro!” on Twitter. :)

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13. The Rev Kev April 25, 2025 at 8:59 am

    ‘Trita Parsi
    @tparsi
    They are having serious debates on Israeli TV as to whether newborn babies in Gaza are innocent or whether they should be killed. Seldom is the question asked in the West how other Middle Eastern societies can live safely next to this Israeli society.’

    Nice to know that the Medieval concept of Infant Damnation is alive and well in the Bronze-age culture of Israel.

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    1. JohnA April 25, 2025 at 9:53 am

       And to think Herod supposedly only had baby boys killed. Clearly a hold my beer moment for Israelis today determined to prove they are not sexist by killing all Palestinian girl babies and children too.

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14. Wukchumni April 25, 2025 at 9:10 am

    We grew up with quite an array of pets, a guinea pig named Harvey amongst the menagerie. Truth be said it was a pretty boring pet, all it did was sit there and poop perfectly formed pellets.

    My sisters and friends went to a restaurant in Cusco yesterday, dead set on eating one, and their claim was it tastes like chicken, but I’ll never know.

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15. Ben Panga April 25, 2025 at 9:15 am

    In other contexts there would be grim humour or satisfaction seeing the Guardian et al slowly coming round to the obvious truth that a genocide is in fact a genocide, but none here. [Family-blog] the lot of them. Widespread complicity in crystal clear genocide has been a crossing of the moral Rubicon for whatever society or culture I was born into. We have descended into depravity once more.

    All norms look spurious now. There’s no going back.

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16. t April 25, 2025 at 9:36 am

    Wherever Elon goes, the DOGE goons are taking data with them, aren’t they?

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17. Ghost in the Machine April 25, 2025 at 9:39 am

    My wife took a Delta flight yesterday to meet some old friends. They taxied to the runway. Then the pilot came on the speaker and said they needed to go back to the terminal ‘to unload a piece of equipment.’ Once back, she noticed they were filling the plane with fuel! Not confidence building!

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    1. The Rev Kev April 25, 2025 at 9:47 am

       Pretty sure that a fuel check is part of the pre-flight checklist (eye-roll). So how did they miss that one to the point that it had departed the terminal and was getting ready to take off.

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       1. jefemt April 25, 2025 at 9:55 am

          Covid/ stress brain. It’s evident everywhere. Not a great time to be an ardent bicyclist or pedestrian.
          Add in a distraction gizmo or a few billion— what could possibly go right?

          F*ck-ups— its not just for pilots and politicians any more.

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18. pjay April 25, 2025 at 9:49 am

    – ‘Against the Tyranny of Opinionated Ignorance’ – Quillette

    Here’s my summary for those who have not read this article: The masses are asses. And anyone like Joe Rogan who gives a platform to these asses is a tyranny-enabler.

    Whose opinion should you value on the subject of, say, the current doings in Gaza: the well-traveled and well-informed “journalist” Douglas Murray, or the ignorant “comedian” Dave Smith. The latter has *no* academic expertise in the region and – can you believe it – has *never even been there*! How could he possibly know what he’s talking about when compared to someone like Murray?

    I have not seen this episode of Rogan. And in fact Rogan does sometimes provide a platform for those whose views I consider ill-informed. But I am SO f***ing sick of these types of dishonest arguments for censorship that pretend to be appeals to reason. They use “expertise” or “experience” or “credentials” to silence those of the ignorant “masses” who ask legitimate questions.

    The author gives her game away at the beginning of this piece by invoking Gasset. I remember reading Revolt of the Masses as a sophomore first-generation college student, just as I was discovering how “ignorant” and “uninformed” the beliefs were back in my small midwestern hometown and among my relatively uneducated family. Gasset was right; the masses *were* asses I realized as I was liberating my mind from their influence. Fortunately, I quickly grew out of this overtly elitist phase of my academic indoctrination. But it took me much longer to start listening seriously again to the questions and concerns of those I had left behind. I learned that there was a way to converse with the “uninformed” that allows for actual communication and learning. And I definitely learned that one’s level of education or experience does not prevent ignorance or bias.

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    1. anahuna April 25, 2025 at 10:24 am

       Thank you, pjay, for taking the time to expose the pretensions of the Quillette writer in detail. Such an appeal to erudition put to what ends? Covering up the fact that the real aim was to disqualify any critic of the Gaza genocide, that’s what.

       The exquisite dishonesty on display set my teeth on edge.

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19. The Rev Kev April 25, 2025 at 10:00 am

    “China invites global cooperation on 2028 Mars sample-return mission”

    The US will probably not be part of that group. Back in 2011 the Wolf Amendment was passed which was part of an attempt to keep the Chinese out of space. It forbids NASA from cooperating with China and to get a look at those samples, they would first have to get the FBI to say that it would not be a threat to national security and they have to get the approval of Congress as well. Last year when a Chinese Lunar mission to the far side of the Moon brought back samples, I do not think that US scientists were allowed to get a look at the because of this Amendment-

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

    Maybe Trump can ask Musk to go get the US samples from Mars which I’m sure that he would be more than willing to sell to the US.

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20. The Rev Kev April 25, 2025 at 10:18 am

    “Underwater restaurant in the Maldives”

    Not always a good idea-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkKmWhtzYHU (2:42 mins)

    I do wonder though if the people that visit that restaurant actually care about the view at all or whether it is just one more way of displaying their net worth.

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21. Jason April 25, 2025 at 10:25 am

    Re: literacy in the U.S.

    Even prior to the current administration, 54% of us adults aged 16-74 read below a 6th grade level. That figure for Canada stands at 48% (measured instead by “adequate literacy”). 44% for Australia.

    These rates are generally higher among the European countries. So the real question might be what happened to the main settler colonial states of the British regarding literacy?

    Interestingly, when the British Empire were kicked out of India, the literacy rate there was 13%.

    Click to Edit – 

    

    Re: literacy in the U.S. Even prior to the current administration, 54% of us adults aged 16-74 read below a 6th grade level. That figure for Canada stands at 48% (measured instead by "adequate literacy"). 44% for Australia. These rates are generally higher among the European countries. So the real question might be what happened to the main settler colonial states of the British regarding literacy? Interestingly, when the British Empire were kicked out of India, the literacy rate there was 13%.

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