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Links 4/6/2025

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Bonobos may combine words in ways previously thought unique to humans The Guardian

One of the last of Bletchley Park’s quiet heroes, Betty Webb, dies at 101 The Register


200,000 Rivets Secure the Ultra-Thin Aluminum Facets of ‘The Orb’ Colossal

Small Countries Should Not Exist 3 Quarks Daily

COVID-19/Pandemics

Families of COVID nursing-home victims blast Cuomo lawsuit being tossed: ‘He should be in prison’ NY Post

Ousted FDA vaccine chief makes plea to families to vaccinate children The Hill

Climate/Environment

Editorial: Mammoth de-extinction is bad conservation Ars Technica

China?

PLA puts US military on notice over ‘dangerous’ activities near China SCMP

Taiwan’s national security adviser in US for ‘secret’ talks: Report Andolu Adjansi

China says ‘market has spoken’ after Trump tariffs spark global stocks rout CNBC

China Delays Approval of TikTok’s US Asset Spin-Off Due to New US Tariffs Sputnik

South of the Border

Mexico announces $4b plan to boost food self-sufficiency amid US tariffs China Daily

The frenzied 24 hours when Venezuelan migrants in the US were shipped to an El Salvador prison AP


Haiti protests turn violent as gunmen open fire on police Euro News

Sec Hegseth to visit Panama after Trump’s demands for canal’s return Fox News

European Disunion

GLEICHAUF: Alternative für Deutschland in historic first pulls dead even with CDU/CSU in latest INSA poll Eugyppius

Serbia and Hungary move towards military alliance amid regional tensions Intellinews

Le Pen furore reignites Europe’s clash with its judiciaries Euractive

Protesters rallying against Italy’s new security bill clash with police PressTV

Old Blighty

Rats ‘bigger than cats’ are roaming Britain’s second-biggest city CNN

Were Still More UK Postmasters Also Wrongly Prosecuted Over Accounting Bug? Computer Weekly

Jaguar Land Rover stops exporting to USA as Trump Tariffs come into force Bristol Live

Israel v. The Resistance

New Not-So-Cold War

Russia Lost More Than 4,000 Tanks in Ukraine War: US General Defense Post

NATO not involved in talks to end Ukraine-Russia war – Rutte Ukrinform

View from Poland: American soldiers died because they were drunk International Affairs

Zelensky hits out at US over ‘weak’ reaction to Russian attack on his hometown The Independent

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Imperial Collapse Watch

Army Planners Are Weighing Force Reductions of Up to 90,000 Active-Duty Soldiers Military.com

Trump 2.0

Why Trump May Get Away With His Tariff Trauma Politico

Ted Cruz warns of midterm ‘bloodbath’ if Trump tariffs cause a recession The Guardian

Bessent seeks tax cut as big summer win Axios

Protesters tee off against Trump and Musk in “Hands Off!” rallies across the U.S. Politico

I Went to the Anti-Trump Protest Ken Klippenstein

DOGE

DOGE Is Planning a Hackathon at the IRS. It Wants Easier Access to Taxpayer Data Wired

DOGE arrives at Peace Corps HQ, signaling possible cuts on the horizon Fox News

DOGE drive didn’t just affect federal workers; Deloitte, Accenture, among hardest hit Mint

Democrat Death Watch

Immigration

Letters warn nearly 200 GE Appliances workers to leave U.S. Courier Journal

Our No Longer Free Press

Mr. Market Is Moody

Trump’s Trade War Looks Brutal for Finance, Too Deccan Herald

AI

OpenAI’s Motion to Dismiss Copyright Claims Rejected by Judge ars technica

How crawlers impact the operations of the Wikimedia projects Wikimedia

AI 2027 AI 2027


Intelligence Explosion: AI 2027 Model — Scott Alexander & Daniel Kokotajlo

AI proves that human fingerprints are not unique earth.com

Is AI a Treasure Chest or Pandora’s Box? Psychology Today

The Bezzle

Beverly Hills man gets lengthy sentence for fraud Beverly Pess

Guillotine Watch

Class Warfare

Makers of Rent-Setting Software Sue California City Over Ban Associated Press

Antidote du jour (via)

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here

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198 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    “Exclusive | Families of COVID nursing-home victims blast Cuomo lawsuit being tossed: ‘He should be in prison”

    In all fairness, if that judge had not tossed that case showing him responsible for thousands of deaths then how would he be able to run for President in 2028? Hmmphh. New York justice.

    Reply ↓
    1. SocalJimObjects

      I heard that Cuomo showed up uninvited at the wedding of Don Corleone’s daughter with a fat envelope and as such the Don told him that he would give the presiding judge “an offer he could not refuse”. It’s just another day in New York.

      Reply ↓
    2. Christopher Fay

      A contemporary example of in the U. S. if you’re at the right level there is no penalty for failure. The prime example is Sept 12 2001 when the entire top team in the U. S. should have been fired, sent home to their homes in Bumstork, Texas, or Willowblind, Montana, rather than to be allowed to run the country into the ground. DemPartay prime example Larry Summers, wherever he goes real world prices are paid by others within 6 months to 6 years.

      Reply ↓
  2. timotheus

    Impressions from the New York City Hands Off rally: very large to the point of immobility in certain areas around the NY Public Library, lots of signs denouncing Trump/Musk, a few celebrating Cory Booker. Zero criticism of Democrat complicity on the budget CR or anything else, 99% white (unlike the union march on the same issue a few weeks ago, which was easily 50% African-American–I guess the two coalitions don’t communicate much), no speeches, no written statement of the coalition’s positions–indeed, no literature on who organized the event–no rally at the end in Madison Square Park, no tabling, nowhere to sign up for future organizing. Conclusion: Democrats will save us from this nightmare, all the fault of evil Republicans, summed in one placard: OMG GOP WTF.

    Reply ↓
    1. Jen

      Not unexpected given the locale. Ken Klippenstein’s take from Madison WI was quite different. Most of the people he talked to were extremely pissed off at the Democrats.

      On a somewhat related note, my grocery bill yesterday in our local food coop topped $300, and the restaurant in my little cow town that is usually hopping on Saturday nights was practically empty when I drove by. There are a lot of local businesses that aren’t going to survive.

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    2. lyman alpha blob

      Thanks for the update. I thought there was a tweet in links earlier with a video of the NYC protest but maybe it got removed (or maybe I’m just confused). Anyway, it showed protestors marching and tepidly chanting “hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go” and I thought are we still doing this, is this really the best we can come up with? Wavy Gravy and Country Joe are not coming out to join you.

      I saw similar protests in Portland, ME yesterday. Clearly it had some sort of sponsorship, because it was “Hands Off” this, “Hands Off” that on all the signs. The protests might not be effective, but this “Hands Off” organization must be raking it in. Perhaps they’re an offshoot of “Move On” which has spawned many a career and raked in lots of cash while accomplishing not much of anything for over 20 years now. At the previous week’s protest, I saw so many “Free Ukraine” and “we’ll be speaking Russian soon” signs along with a complete lack of anything related to Gaza that I thought I’d wandered across a pro-war rally. Yesterday the crowd was still setting up when I arrived but I didn’t see any Ukraine signs, one woman did have a ‘Free Gaza” sign, and there were two or three taking Congress to task for sitting around with their thumbs up their posteriors, so a small improvement. Overall though I was so annoyed by these protests that I had half a mind to start telling them off for being so timid – the largely older, white crowd, standing on the sidewalk, on the weekend, for their timed period of “protest” before they head to the overpriced coffee shop to warm up and pat themselves on the back for a job well done, rather than getting into the street, risking arrest, and [family blog]ing things up. Instead though I listened to the better angels and thanked the woman with the Gaza sign for speaking up – in the current climate she is putting herself at risk with a sign like that.

      Reply ↓
      1. judy2shoes

        Thank you for your comment. I’m suspicious of the Hands Off movement because I cannot find anything definitive about who’s behind it. However, this link, which tells us who their partners are, makes me even more suspicious. YMMV.

        I noticed today a tab at the above website for May Day. It seems that this group is also organizing a May Day protest. What I am wondering if this isn’t an attempt to split off people who might be inclined to join a Workers Strike Back protest planned for the same day. Divide and conquer?

        Reply ↓
        1. flora

          see this twtr-X clip of Maddow talking to Ezra Levin from the Indivisible organization.

          Left-wing group Indivisible’s cofounder Ezra Levin says the group has been pushing Saturday’s “Hands Off” protests around the country.

          https://x.com/TPostMillennial/status/1908539918680289709

          You can find links following the Indivisible funding source(s). This isn’t as loosely organized as claimed, imo.

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          1. Yves Smith

            That is not dispositive. You don’t know if they are trying to get in front of a mob and call it a parade for fundraising purposes. The Wisconsin protest that Ken Klippenstein did not even remotely have a “usual leftie suspects” vibe.

            Reply ↓
            1. Socal Rhino

              Agree. The Hands Off website has listed Indivisible, Move On, and a couple of dozen other orgs as sponsors. To the Maga crowd, it’s all Soros, their chief boogyman.

              Reply ↓
              1. judy2shoes

                For this decidedly non-maga person, my chief boogeyman would be DNC types. Among the groups listed as partners, I noted Veterans for Peace, a group for which I have a lot of respect. Many of the others, not so much.

                Reply ↓
          2. judy2shoes

            Thanks, flora. I admit I cannot bring myself to watch anything Rachael Maddow. To Yves’ point below, I can only speak to my admittedly small sample of Dems I know who went to the rally. To a person, they are not angry with the democrat party; it’s Trump/Musk who are the problem. As for jumping in front of a parade, that may well be true, but I remain suspicious about the backers of Hands Off who may or may not be included in the partners list.

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      2. Wukchumni

        This is what a real protest March looks like, we’ll have to wait until the price of food skyrockets…

        The Women’s March on Versailles, also known as the Black March, the October Days or simply the March on Versailles, was one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution. The march began among women in the marketplaces of Paris who, on the morning of 5 October 1789, were nearly rioting over the high price of bread. The unrest quickly became intertwined with the activities of revolutionaries seeking liberal political reforms and a constitutional monarchy for France. The market women and their allies ultimately grew into a crowd of thousands. Encouraged by revolutionary agitators, they ransacked the city armory for weapons and marched on the Palace of Versailles. The crowd besieged the palace and, in a dramatic and violent confrontation, they successfully pressed their demands upon King Louis XVI. The next day, the crowd forced the king and his family to return with them to Paris. Over the next few weeks most of the French assembly also relocated to the capital.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_March_on_Versailles

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        1. Lefty Godot

          Having weapons is likely to be far more effective than waving the usual signs with their liberal messaging full of tsk-tsks and tut-tuts. Until the billionaires and their lieutenants genuinely fear for their lives and livelihoods, positive change is unlikely to occur at this point. Gandhi accomplished a lot non-violently, but the presence of an armed militant movement also contributed greatly, if nothing else by making him look like a reasonable person to deal with by comparison. And labor may have technically lost the Harlan County War, but it helped them win the long term outcome.

          Reply ↓
      3. Randall Flagg

        >Overall though I was so annoyed by these protests that I had half a mind to start telling them off for being so timid – the largely older, white crowd, standing on the sidewalk, on the weekend, for their timed period of “protest” before they head to the overpriced coffee shop to warm up and pat themselves on the back for a job well done, rather than getting into the street, risking arrest, and [family blog]ing things up. Instead though I listened to the better angels and thanked the woman with the Gaza sign for speaking up – in the current climate she is putting herself at risk with a sign like that.

        Thanks for saying it. Most of these protesters remind me of those idiots that in an effort to protest climate change and global warming go throw some paint on a masterpiece in a museum or block traffic at an intersection. Instead of making life miserable at the headquarters of an oil company, or the CEO’s house, or the bank that finances it and causing real trouble.
        To your point, grow some balls and raise hell at your Congressperson’s offices, both D and R. Both at the Capital building and in offices in your local cities. Standing on a street corner is fine but c’mon, performance and saying,”Gee, we’re showing them!” in this instance isn’t going to get it done.

        Reply ↓
      4. GC54

        15,000 circled around Tucson’s Reid Park yesterday in perfect spring weather. I walked counter flow to read the signs. 2/3 were hand made, folks of all ages. “IKEA has better cabinets.” The only trumpers evident were the noisy zoo elephants adjacent.

        still a few signs lingering as I rode by during the bike fest today.

        Reply ↓
    3. Milton

      From the rally in San Diego I guess that the modal age was in the 60s with very few young people and almost no young men. Plenty of clever signs but none directed at the lameness of the Democratic party or ending our forever wars. Support for Ukraine was well represented (God knows why) but I saw only 2 posters in support of Palestine and the persons holding them seemed to be alone–set apart from the masses.
      Of course, in San Diego there are plenty of homeless in and around the rally site. I thought to myself they are a gauge of how the US is faring in general. Having a Democratic president for 12 out of the last 16 years has done nothing to stem the growth; having witnessed the progression from just outside the core area to now taking up residence throughout the downtown area. I saw one with a poster that read: I need some empathy now (a meal was drawn). Of course he was ignored.
      Overall, the turnout (12,000) was probably in line with organizers expectations but the energy seemed forced with no real urgency. The demonstators are comfortable people with only a small inkling that where we are today is a result of 40+ years of Democratic malfeasance on behalf of our working and middle classes.

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      1. Wukchumni

        It had seemingly less energy than the pussy hat march early on in Trump’s first term. It was more see me-dig me older types.

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        1. skylark

          “see me-dig me older types” Good description of those at the gathering here on Cape Cod. Lots of hamming it up for the video camera, ukeleles, singing and dancing. “Comfortable people” having fun.

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          1. Wukchumni

            A friend was decked out in a polar bear outfit, and we are completely out of their zone, but I think it was a chance to finally get to wear it.

            Reply ↓
      2. lyman alpha blob

        You just reminded me, as I walked by the protest yesterday I did notice a couple goodthinking sign holders briefly engage with and then stiff a homeless guy before joining the larger crowd.

        As to your last paragraph, I’ve had some recent conversations with older, very intelligent, politically engaged people about the damage Trump is doing. When I tried to add some context and pointed out that Obama had assassinated teenaged US citizens and had Citigroup pick his cabinet for him and nobody seemed to mind much, so perhaps that’s why Trump got the idea that it would be OK to snatch people off the streets for deportation or to surround himself with oligarchs, they told me they had never heard of these things at all.

        Reply ↓
        1. judy2shoes

          “nobody seemed to mind much”

          The democrats I know will not criticize their party leaders no matter what they do. A classic response to me when I point out the same things you mention in your comment is “nobody’s perfect.” That’s it.

          Please don’t forget that before that young teenager was assassinated, obama murdered his father first. Seems to me like a very similar barbaric zionist habit of purposely targeting children in Gaza in order to chop off the tree at its base. This level of cruelty is almost unimaginable, and yet saint obama did it too.

          Reply ↓
          1. Wukchumni

            The violence that we’ve practically thrived on will come home to haunt us, and what sort of Fort Sumpter moment sets off festivities?… and what a patchwork mosaic of red and blue enclaves across the country-almost makes you wish for a Mason-Dixon Line, with the red bastion here in Godzone controlling the water and food production in Cali, not to mention the vast oil fields west of Bakersfield.

            Reply ↓
            1. judy2shoes

              “The violence that we’ve practically thrived on will come home to haunt us, and what sort of Fort Sumpter moment sets off festivities?”

              I agree with you, Wuk.

              Reply ↓
            2. NYT_Memes

              Speaking of coming home to haunt us, this has been developing for a long time. With such a long buildup, the resulting banquet of consequences will likely be epic.

              Chalmers Johnson books (among others): Blowback, 2000, followed by Nemesis, 2006. Nemesis, the goddess of retribution, waits impatiently for us.

              Every country gets the criminals it deserves – Robert Kennedy.

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        2. Buzz Meeks

          Same thing in Buffalo. I hadn’t stood in Niagara Square since Occupy. Talking to people about the DNC and the vile traitor Chuck Schumer, every last one defended Schmuck. “He had to do it” was a popular response but when I pressed on about all of his other sabotage of government doing his Israeli master’s bidding, they didn’t want to hear it. Same with Booker. A lot of the CNN talking points I have to hear coming from the side living room when I am home.
          No Teamsters or UAW but CWA and another nurse’s union. The first term D congressman spoke and he even brought up Palestine.
          I think there is something happening we just have to stay active and vigilant it isn’t co-opted by the usual suspects.
          Scanning the perimeter buildings on the Square I did notice several windows open on the upper floors of two buildings opposite each other overlooking the Square. I pointed that out people around me. Curious, sniper or surveillance?

          Reply ↓
    4. Christopher Smith

      It sounds like a bunch of slogans with no clear goals, which reminds me of what Occupy eventually devolved into. “Hands off” what, exactly?

      Reply ↓
    5. Michael Fiorillo

      Unsurprisingly, I saw a lot of Support Ukraine signs in the photos, which was telling in a very bad way.

      Also, one of the sponsors was MoveOn, so that tells us everything about the political nullity that will result. Sheepdogging is an overused term, but it applies here, and the demographics of the marchers speak to their limited political consequence.

      Real resistance will manifest, but it’s too soon to tell how.

      Reply ↓
      1. Buzz Meeks

        May have to gradually bring them into it. Sorry if Sounds wishy washy but there is a great deal of brainwashing to be undone. The lamestream media has a lot to answer for and we don’t have the luxury of time on our side.
        It’s a dilemma.

        Reply ↓
        1. Michael Fiorillo

          I agree, those people do need to be included in a larger movement opposing the Griftnate/Technate… but they and their issues – IdPol, support for sanctions and foreign interventions, tone deafness (to be generous) on immigration, deference to Billionaires, etc – have to be subordinated to a working class-based movement.

          Without that, nothing… and of course that presents other difficulties, but still, their dominance in the Discourse (which the Right fattens off) must end, if there is to be meaningful pushback.

          Reply ↓
    6. juno mas

      So here’s the NoozHawk description of the Hands Off event in my town, Santa Barbara:
      https://www.noozhawk.com/several-thousand-activists-blanket-downtown-santa-barbara-beach-to-protest-trump-elon-musk/

      I learned of the event via a non-descript flyer tacked to a bulletin board in the Music Department at my local community college (SBCC). I rode my bike past the gathering location well before the start of the event en route to the Post Office Saturday morning. Good early crowd, lots of energy and sign waving. Continuing to the PO to pick up a check and deposit at the bank, the roadways now clogged with cars avoiding very large masses of people carrying signs—to the event. Wow! This is going to be bigger than I imagined.

      I squeezed my bike into the crowd to listen to the event speakers: all women; all efficient, vibrant communicators; all with a message about taking back control of our democracy and solidarity. Then the march to the ocean began. I couldn’t gauge the size of the march while it moved down State Street (main pedestrian thoroughfare). I rode around the march for few blocks, until constrained by the 101 Freeway under-crossing. I joined the march at that point, walking with my bike. I could not see the beginning or end point of the marchers until we reached Stearn’s Wharf at the beach. The crowd was in the 8-10 thousand person category. (Santa Barbara is a city of 80K.) It was quite a spectacle. Weekend tourists on the BeachWay (shoreline bike/ped route) were slack-jawed; many more joined the crowd on the beach sand in designated group locations that spelled a message captured by a car-sized drone that appeared to be a police drone monitoring the marchers. (NoozHawk says the drone was in service to the protest organizers, however.)

      The majority of the marchers were older 50+, but their was a good mix of young parents with their kids in tow and college age folks too. I was part of the environmental and anti-war protests here in the 1960’s and the vocalization of protest chants in this march were superior! SB has not forgotten
      how to demonstrate with vigor.

      If this is the beginning of ‘take it to the street’ then get ready for a wild ride.

      Reply ↓
  3. The Rev Kev

    ‘Will Schryver
    @imetatronink
    Criminal
    Over the course of the past three years, I have viewed graphic scenes of warfare from around the world.
    But I have never been more outraged than I am about this American strike against a typical civilian gathering of men in a village in Yemen.’

    People have pointed out that this was actually a tribal gathering and have the receipts to prove it-

    https://xcancel.com/michelle_ogno/status/1908328462781448330#m

    After all the bombs and missiles lobbed into Yemen, there was a need to prove to Trump that it was all working and not a failure. So they showed that strike video to him as “proof” and he ran with it to hog the credit. This all echoes back to when they were striking gatherings of people in the middle of the desert in Afghanistan only to find that it was weddings because they had no idea of Afghan culture – and couldn’t be bothered finding out.

    Reply ↓
    1. Polar Socialist

      Or maybe Gaza has proved that terror bombing is again an acceptable form of power projection and forcing your will upon others.

      On the other hand, as the OSINTtechnical tweet above that one signifies, US Air Force doesn’t dare to enter Yemeni airspace, but uses stealth bombers and stand-off weapons against tribal gatherings, so bombing Iran is quite likely not in the cards in the near future.

      Reply ↓
      1. ilsm

        The minority conclusions of the WW II strategic bombing study was: bombing not clearly worth the resources and casualties. The Air Force lobby prevailed.

        B-2’s shooting stand off weapons is not cost effective. Dropping a 30000 pound bunker buster requires near flight to target……..

        If USAF cannot stop Houthi, Iran campaign would be expensive uselessness.

        Reply ↓
        1. jsn

          I think we’re seeing a fascist interpretation of bombings effectiveness: the point is terror and intimidation, the targets are spectacles destroyed to communicate the advance of TINA into direct political violence.

          Do as you are told, do not voice dissent or otherwise act out or this may happen to you.

          It’s the same message of wanton cruelty for the sake of cruelty ICE is delivering.

          Reply ↓
          2. Jason Boxman

            Yep. This always seems a means to simply terrorize a population; The biggest purveyors of international terrorism are nation states.

            Reply ↓
          3. ilsm

            Had US lost WW II both Curtis Le May and bomber Harris would have been hanged.

            Le May fire bombed Japanese cities bc the accuracy was not good and to (supposedly) damage war production needed to incinerate entire cities.

            Harris used RAF in utterly inaccurate night bombings, and did Dresden, etc.

            Most bombing outside of tactical use on enemy troops is terror, they call it counter value/economic targets. Whitewashed!

            Reply ↓
    2. Munchausen

      Just committing war crimes is not enough, but one has to boast about it. Adding insult to injury is how you MAGA. I wonder how long it would take for Trump to get his “Genocide Joe”-style nickname.

      Reply ↓
    3. Jason Boxman

      Trump crowing about this and posting a video of mass murder on the Twitter is a nice touch. An upgrade on Obama’s Terror Tuesday, I guess. I always skip/avoid killing/mass killing porn on Twitter ect. so it was great getting to watch this as I scrolled by on Musk’s Twitter, where he wanted people to post uplifting things some months ago, and to have less negativity, after I think he was getting dunked on too much for his tastes.

      These people are irredeemable.

      Reply ↓
  4. Christopher Fay

    A quick search for the cost of the JASSM stealth wonder missile launched by the stealth B2 weapon platform mentioned in the twitter above is $698,000 in the first result, wikipedia, to $1,226,000 in the third result. So I’ll settle at $1,225,000 per pop. This is not to mention the cost of the sortie by the B2 wonder platform, I’m guessing $5 mil to $10 mil per roundtrip. Less if it’s one way. This is to punish the goat herding missile launching Yemen for their courage.

    Reply ↓
    1. jefemt

      Couch lint. Elon spends that on any given local election and dim sum. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, that amount in a Social Security retirement account would fund a few years of quiet desperation toward the last waltz (the dance, not Tim)

      Reply ↓
    2. Unironic Pangloss

      and that is just the immediate costs. unlike a family car, All airplanes have a finite number of flying hours before they need to be taken out of service and thoroughly maintained.

      everyone hour flown over Yemen is one less hour available for any other hotspot…which is fine by me.

      Peace through using our own toys so much that they break!

      Reply ↓
      1. Pearl Rangefinder

        Yes, this is a very important point. They are burning up precious airframe hours on those B2s bombing sand huts in Yemen. All for what, exactly? Licking Israel’s balls?

        Absolutely mind boggling.

        Reply ↓
      2. Wukchumni

        When we’re at Star Wars Canyon in Death Valley NP, it isn’t uncommon to get as many as 10 really low passes in a couple days with F-15’s, F-16’s, F-18’s and F-35’s going as low as 100 feet overhead (I watched an F-18 that flew so low it set off the car alarm on a nearby parked truck) at say 500 mph…

        It’s a funny money meeting, in that in the desert there isn’t anything to buy-no stores-no delivery-no nothing, you have to be self sufficient, whereas how much do those 5 sorties (they always fly in pairs) cost?

        Half a million to a million bucks?

        I treat it like an air show, and mentally feel as if I got $25 worth of enjoyment out of the spectacle vis a vis my tax support of the MIC

        Reply ↓
        1. The Rev Kev

          If they are really flying so low, I would be awfully tempted to put up a sign saying ‘If you can read this sign, you are flying too slow.’

          Reply ↓
          1. Wukchumni

            A couple years ago F-18 & F-35 pilots drove in to see what they were flying over on the ground, and it was interesting to ask them things such as being tracked on the road (oh yes, your Tacoma makes for a good moving target) and where the various planes come from, generally NAS Lemoore and NAS China Lake.

            I keep up with the F-35 pilot-an avid skier, now stationed in Japan.

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        2. ilsm

          We should be enjoying 30 years of peace, but….

          I used to hunt deer in a part of the Adirondack NY wilderness, in a pleasant valley, nice river, and ridges.

          One morning a pair of A-10’s blasted down the river, lower than I was up on the ridge.

          Adirondacks alleged to resemble German terrain, should someone bring mechanized units through.

          The Cold War had ended!

          Reply ↓
          1. Michael Fiorillo

            In 2021 I was strafed from behind – obviously for the crew’s amusement – by an Apache helicopter, near Cranberry Lake in the Adks. I assume it was flying out of nearby Fort Drum. It couldn’t have been more than fifty feet above the car. Many years before that, I’d watched helicopter formations “defend” Keene Valley in the High Peaks area.

            Made me feel “taken care of.”

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          2. Rabid Groundhog

            Ah, memories! Fishing in a small boat in upstate NY, wartogs would line up and dive straight at you, leveling out BELOW the treetops. Always stood up and cheered despite the urge to duck. A pair of maneuvering A-10s is a marvel to behold, beautiful even, despite their horrific purpose.
            Not long before the climax of the Cold War -“Mr Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

            Reply ↓
    3. Wukchumni

      We’ve come a long way since December 8th back in the day after the day of infamy and have perfected effectively priced weapons of war to coincide with massive profits, utterly Krupp’d.

      About 175 were assembled on Highway 198 yesterday for Hands Off, and that’s over 10% of the full time residents in Tiny Town.

      Some great signs, I noticed that quite a few of them were fashioned out an Amazon delivery box, and when you say hands off, does that include the military?

      Reply ↓
      1. ilsm

        Trump has made a lot of peaceniks into war mongers.

        Saw too many Kievan flags at the Boston version of Jan 6 2021.

        Reply ↓
    4. ilsm

      By now how many of those B-2s at Diego Garcia are so broke they are nothing more parts donors to another B-2?

      Do they have enough high quality beds on the island for the contractors?

      Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        I read somewhere that Diego Garcia was accidentally rounded up and sent off to a prison in El Salvador in a clear case of mistaken identity.

        Reply ↓
          2. Wukchumni

            Heard he got a rendering job on the graveyard shift making Spam at the Hormel factory in Everything But The Snout, Mn.

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        2. ilsm

          Diego Garcia is a coral atoll like the atolls US Navy used during WW II.

          B-52’s from DG supported taking over Afghanistan in 2001.

          It harbors a number of Navy prepositioned supply ships. Enough stuff for a large USMC deployment, on ships in the lagoon.

          It was discovered by a Portuguese navigator in 1514, UK got it from Napoleon wars.

          Two parallel 13000 foot runways. Impressive amount of jet fuel storage. Not sure how they cover the 30000 pound MOAB’s.

          Now US using it!

          Reply ↓
      2. nyleta

        If I were the enemy I would be trying to get the B2 technicians. Keeping old technology like this going and force fitting new technology into such machinery is a very specialised business. I am willing to bet that the old maintenance crew chiefs they have been able to get to not retire are the only thing keeping them from only flying once a week. B52 started from a much simpler platform so can keep going until they fall out of the sky.

        They are the last of the non-drone aircraft. F 35 is not a dog fighter but part of a semi-drone cloud and the B21 is being developed the same way. Top Guns won’t be needed much longer.

        Reply ↓
        1. timo maas

          Top Guns won’t be needed much longer, reminds me of a claim that guns won’t be needed much longer on fighter jets, and designing a new one without an internal cannon (it was F-4).

          Reply ↓
          1. The Rev Kev

            Damn right it was the F-4 Phantom. Those fighter jocks were going nuts in Vietnam as they had no guns and the missiles of that era were, ahem, a work in progress. Heat seeking missiles were known to lock onto the sun for example. Some fighter jocks were reduced to latching onto NV fighters after their missiles were gone and reduced to firing unkind words at their opponents.

            Reply ↓
  5. The Rev Kev

    ‘The Rabbit Hole
    @TheRabbitHole84
    Young men are leaving the Democratic Party:
    – 2016: 51% of young men identified or leaned Democrat
    – 2023: This number dropped to 39%’

    Just going to wing it here but could it be that one cause is that the Democrats identified themselves with that part of “popular” culture that blamed everything on young males and how, for example, many of them going for jobs found themselves put at the bottom of the pile because they were young males? And the Democrats thought this a great thing?

    Reply ↓
    1. Es s Ce Tera

      If I were a young male (or female) it would be because the Democratic party didn’t come out against the Israeli genocide, created very real ethical dilemma of having to choose between evil (Biden supporting genocide, ethnic cleansing) and evil (Trump supporting genocide, ethnic cleansing) and both inching the world to the brink of war with China and Russia.

      By now I would be completely done with both parties, American politics and the United States as a country. Which is probably where both parties want young people to be – disillusioned and not voting at all.

      Reply ↓
      1. Expat2uruguay

        But those young people might leave the US. Go somewhere else and asia, europe, or South America. Then where would the US be?

        Reply ↓
        1. GramSci

          It’s not easy for a young person to emigrate without lotsa money, language skills, and/or trade sKills. It is somewhat easier with neoliberal skills.

          Reply ↓
          1. Expat2uruguay

            I don’t understand where this view comes from. People have immigrated all through history. Young people and poor people too.

            Reply ↓
            1. AndrewJ

              How did you do it?
              As a white american man who had to figure out self-employment due to limited employment prospects, I never saw a way to move, solo, permanently, with no savings, and no extended family out of the country. Best I could do is pick what I felt was the safest region of the US.
              Did you do it alone, or with a partner?

              Reply ↓
    2. Unironic Pangloss

      this will make me a luddite, NFG.

      33 to 50% of elementary teachers need to be men. dunno around the world, but at the kids’ school (standard American suburban public school), there are no male teachers or administrators except the the gaydar-triggering arts teacher (not that there is anything wrong with that!)

      Boys need in-real-life role models and informal couselors, particularly if they have divorced or sub-optimal house life. Boys and Girls need to see adult men and women functioning as equal mature peeps in a workplace

      And before someone shrieks…..boys without a well-adjusted childhood grow up to become men who are attracted to media-driven, larger than life personas….hmmm, who does that remind me of?

      Reply ↓
      1. anahuna

        Hmmm… Just how did it happen that teaching school, an honorable profession in many countries, has no prestige in the US of A? Some have speculated that it’s partially because it was once — along with nursing and prostitution — one of the few professions open to women. Beyond that, let’s look at the systematic and bipartisan degradation of the public school system and the top-down control exerted over individual teachers. I agree that we need a greater proportion of male teachers, but just what changes would be needed to attract them to the profession?

        Reply ↓
        1. Unironic Pangloss

          when i was a kid 40 to 50% of the teachers, principals, assistant principals were men.

          not holding my breath…but i presume asking (men and women) who drop out of undergrad teaching programs is a start, and then looking at HR.

          Women-led HR can be just as discriminatory in hiring as men-led HR

          Reply ↓
        2. lyman alpha blob

          You hit the nail on the head, which is why recently I was very pleasantly surprised to discover this show, Abbott Elementary, which is set in a resource-starved inner city school in Philly. Not only is the show hilarious and well-acted, it takes on the issues of the day without getting preachy. And it is very pro-teacher, explicitly anti-charter school (at one point caller a charter booster a “jackass”), and very pro-union. When was the last time you saw that on the teevee? We see the opposite so often, this show is almost militant! A very refreshing change and I highly recommend it.

          Reply ↓
          1. Ken Murphy

            It would take more than salary to entice this man.
            I’ve been told throughout my life that I should be a teacher. I’ve done a lot of training over the years in various corporate environments. My time in international finance taught me how to break down ridiculously complex things (derivatives, structured transactions like EETCs and synthetic leases, etc.) and explain how they work to upper level corporate types. And kids listen to me. I can even get through to autists thanks to my Asperger’s and the empathy I’ve had to learn.
            Why would I not go into teaching?
            1) Our society as a whole does not not respect education and teachers.
            2) All it would take is one pissed off disaffected teen girl to get her panties in a twist and my honor and reputation would be destroyed.
            3) Not interested in wasting time with an education degree or certificate. I am ridiculously over-educated with a BA in Int’l Bus & Econ, and a Masters in Space Studies. I’m also a world traveller, fluent in French and culturefied to the gills. I know my stuff, and in my view the proliferation of education credentials has not borne the fruit of a better-educated populace. Pretty much the opposite, frankly.
            I tend to regard most “teachers” these days to be purveyors of curriculum. They know how to present the materials they are supplied (thanks to their education degree), but lack a real depth of knowledge of the subject matter. And the kids can spot the ignorance a mile away. I’ve found over time that kids will generally respect people who know their stuff, and pay some attention to them. But they’re more than ready to dis those who are blowing smoke up their nethers. I have a feeling that a lot of the behaviour issues we’re seeing these days can be linked to this.
            4) I need a fair degree of autonomy to achieve best results. Being straightjacketed by a cohort of “educational administrators” would be anathema to me. Also, I would need to be able to exercise authority in “my” classroom. No cell phones. No monkey business. Don’t mess with the Bull, because you -will- get the horns.
            As you can see, it would be a recipe for disaster were I to go into teaching. I would deliver results that would make everyone else look bad. Can’t have that.
            .

            Reply ↓
            1. Geof

              Point 2 is key. Over decades I have seen this question come up repeatedly online. Men always say the same thing: their lives (not just their careers) could be wrecked by a groundless accusation. I cannot imagine why any man would take the risk. As a high school student decades ago I thought I might like to teach, but I knew in my bones that it would make me a target.

              Men are even afraid of dating. I see claims that young men don’t even approach women anymore for fear that they will be accused on social media of being creeps.

              My experience around women is that simply being a man often makes you a target of blame for all of society’s ills. I expect many men would find a female majority work environment hostile.

              From someone I know who works in a school of education, I hear that the men, who are in a minority, do not feel free to speak up. They keep their heads down and mouths shut about anything remotely political.

              Here in Canada schools of education know they have a problem and want to bring on male faculty, but government policy discourages it. As I recall, Canada Research Chair appointments, for example, must help the university achieve “equity” (the proportion of white male faculty must fall university-wide) – which means that even in overwhelmingly female schools like education no white men can be appointed.

              Reply ↓
    3. chris

      The cunning plan to obtain a voting majority was to eliminate 50% of eligible voters as well as their mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters, from wanting to affiliate with the Democrat party. Also, any gay people who don’t agree with them. Conservative minorities too. People in support of Union labor. Anyone in favor of peace or anti-trust policies as well.

      At this point I need to be convinced that the Democrat party isn’t three drunk republican raccoons in a trench coat.

      Reply ↓
    4. Wukchumni

      I’ve mentioned the local kid made good named Adin Ross, who is or was a Twitch streamer and now is on Kick, both names of which will have remain a mystery.

      Trump gave him an hour and a half interview before the election, and Adin gave Donald a Cybertruck and a gold Rolex.

      I can’t pretend to know what a male in the age bracket that has gone soft on the Donkey Show is thinking, but I didn’t see Kamala talking to anybody in that realm of the new normal, where 7,2 million predominantly like minded males watch you play a video game.

      Reply ↓
      1. Vicky Cookies

        I’m amazed at the idea of a society so disempowered that its people entertain themselves by watching someone else play a video game. It’s so removed from action itself! Spectating virtual engagement instead of acting in the world. We’re done for if this is our youth, but in what are at least ways which will be fascinating to think and write about, which is also spectating.

        Reply ↓
        1. Wukchumni

          My game growing up was pinball, and have some claims to being a wizard, in that the Duotron machine would give you points if you rapped on the side of the pinball machine about halfway up the panel. We’d play normal for 4 balls and then get a replay by rapping away before playing the 5th ball.

          The guy (bless you Ben Sheets for buying 2 brand new pinball machines!) that owned the Texaco station that invited in teenagers such as yours truly, must have thought we were god’s gift to pinball.

          Gas stations back then were nothing like the convenience mart experience now, you’d be lucky to be able to buy the 3 different kinds of Wrigley gum and a few different kinds of Life Savers, that would be it.

          After saving the world one last time while playing Missile Command, circa 1983, I hung up my fingers for good.

          I’ve never played a video game that didn’t require a Quarter~

          Reply ↓
            1. Wukchumni

              One of the Dartful Codgers in Colorado brought his 30 year old daughter along and she’s a fine skier, and a psychologist by profession, and related she is seeing a lot of young men completely in the throes of gambling addictions, and when I mentioned to her that to look at them-you’d never know based on outward appearances, and she said ‘I know-I know’.

              Reply ↓
        3. Planter of Trees

          It’s a ‘friend simulator’ more than anything. Eternally texting and yet terribly alone, that seems to be the mode of Gen Z life.

          Reply ↓
    5. jhallc

      The whole “Bernie Bro” smear, that the Hillary-ites pushed back in 2016, didn’t help to attract young men to the party.

      Reply ↓
    6. spud

      gee i wonder if it has anything to do with bill clinton sending americas real wealth offshore so that the stock market could end up being the largest economic bubble in the history of the world, you gotta wonder.

      and during trumps first term nancy pelosi stood up in front of america and declared democrats are free traders to their core.

      so now a tiny few own more than the rest of us combined, control americas political system, and what do we hear out of the whiners, gee look at all of those losses in the stock market.

      “The US would need 5 years of the income from tariffs at this new level to equal the $2 trillion wiped out in today’s stock market loss.

      US only has $4.1 trillion in annual imports.”

      even jimmy dore and jamie galbraith are whining about stock market losses.

      read the comments, it tells the story.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emGHYBUQVMM&t=328s

      lori wallach,

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_64e5aeEls&t=3305s

      comments mostly great.

      wolfs take,

      https://wolfstreet.com/2025/04/03/103178/

      Stocks Plunge as the Market Understood What Tariffs Are: A Tax on Corporate Profit Margins

      welshs take,

      https://www.ianwelsh.net/

      Trump’s Liberation Day: This Boy Could Fuck Up Boiling Water

      “So, Trump’s tariffs are out. He claims they’re half of what each country tariffs the US, but in fact they appear to have been determined by dividing how much the US sells to a country by how much that country sells to the US.

      In other words, the more your trade surplus is, proportionally, the higher the tariffs.

      This isn’t, on the face of it, necessarily stupid. But… it’s being done very stupidly.”

      Reply ↓
    7. RookieEMT

      I’m not that much of a young gun anymore but sure, it’s hearing ‘white people need to check their privilege…’ thing that gets old. What grinds my gears more is skyrocketing housing prices, endless wars, income inequality, bailouts of billionaires, open borders, etc.

      They’ve done either nothing or made every mentioned problem worse. It’s also arrogance, that we owe them our vote. They can’t fail, they can only be failed. Even after their horrible recent defeat, the messages are pathetic. They won’t evolve. They double down in failure.

      If the Democratic party even partly embraced Bernie, there’d be a much more different conversation now.

      What I will never figure out is why young people drift from the Democrats to the Republicans, as if that is an upgrade. Unless it’s a revenge fantasy.

      Reply ↓
      1. ArvidMartensen

        Bernie kept his mouth zipped shut the whole time the Biden Israelis were slaughtering the Gazans.

        Only now when it’s the Republicans does he huff up with outrage.

        The man is a despicable poseur.

        Reply ↓
  6. mrsyk

    Italians protesting “security” bill, according to the article,
    Among its provisions, the decree introduces severe penalties and imprisonment for acts of civil disobedience or peaceful resistance. Additionally, it grants special legal protections to police and military personnel.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      Those protestors should label it the “Meloni bill” to smear her forever with this attempt to recreate the Mussolini police state.

      Reply ↓
      1. ambrit

        Here in America we revere our “Founding Primates” and are in the middle of a socio-economic ‘restoration’ project. The result, if it all “goes well” will be a Muskolini Police State.
        At least the bond yields will arrive on time.

        Reply ↓
  7. Antifa

    Tariffs

    A tariff is a tax; the consumer gets the axe
    Paying more for grocery sacks from inflation
    They can’t bring our factories back, nor the good jobs that we lack
    Only fewer eggs to crack in our nation

    And these tax cuts for the rich—all that ‘trickle down’ they pitch
    Has us steering for the ditch sure as shootin’
    You’ll be broke when you retire, with all prices trending higher
    Some fine day you will expire while commutin’

    Take the highway or the bridge, buy some vittles for the fridge,
    Maybe save a little smidge—this ain’t livin’
    While both parties in DC want us bound to misery
    There will be no jubilee; that’s a given

    Park your car. Stop the bus. Let them say it’s treasonous.
    Raise your fist and start to cuss—shut it down!
    Hit the streets, fill the square, we aren’t going anywhere
    Till the rich pay their full share all around!

    A workers’ revolution is the simplest solution
    Or you accept destitution as your fate
    Trump is not a prodigy; do not bend upon your knee
    We, the people, only we, are the state

    Reply ↓
  8. heh

    Small Countries Should Not Exist 3 Quarks Daily

    Small brains should exist, but should not write articles about what should or should not exist.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      I was wondering at the end if this guy was trying to suck up to the other side of the Atlantic because when you think about it, this would include Greenland as well. But for someone that specializes in ethics and political philosophy, he writes like an economist especially when he says ‘small countries do not make economic sense’. His idea is that only countries with big economies should be allowed to be countries. Smaller countries are more responsive to their population but living in the Netherlands, he can see the problems in Belgium with two countries jammed together. Same for Catalonia in Spain. Come to think of it, can he not see the same with the 30-odd countries in the EU? When I read through it again. I do not think that he counts history or language or culture of being of importance and for him it is all about the economy.

      Reply ↓
      1. Expat2uruguay

        Thank you, this articles pretty ridiculous.
        “It is also sometimes claimed that small countries are more responsive to the needs of the population. While it might indeed be rather pleasant and convivial to be on first name terms with your prime minister and see the foreign minister trying to work off his winter weight at your gym, here again the smallness of the population makes it unlikely that such a government could be very effective” bull pucky!
        Living in Uruguay for almost 10 years now we believe that our small size, three and a half million people, is part of the secret to our political stability. We’re also one of the wealthiest, most stable, most renewable country but some of the best marks for democracy, personal safety, social freedom, etc. on our whole continent!!
        What a weird article, I wonder how it was selected to be part of today’s links

        Reply ↓
        1. The Rev Kev

          It’s always useful to see how different lines of thought have been developing. We may not agree with it but you don’t want to be surprised when they appear on the scene full blown. Like with DOGE in the US.

          Reply ↓
          2. Trees&Trunks

            Indeed! One of the worst things that could happen with NC would be if it just turn into an echo chamber of non-verboten-think.
            It is crucial to keep-up-to-date your enemies at the same time you are sharpening your own fact&toolbox.
            This article is a perfect forefront neoliberal thinking where might is right and measured in economical terms only. Neoliberal development: local transfer of common good => private companies => large transnational private companies kill small => kill small nations to gobble up all of value.

            Reply ↓
    2. Bugs

      The guy says he’s a “philosopher”. Incredible. The response in a comment about his home nation of NL not needing to exist is right on the money.

      Reply ↓
      1. John Wright

        What about small cities?

        What about small companies?

        Same could apply.

        I like the idea of small counties.

        If the USA were split up, there might not be enough resources to fund the CIA, FBI, NSA, and the Department of Defense to achieve their damaging size.

        With size can come other harmful entities and practices.

        Small countries add diversification to the world government universe.

        Small can be beautiful.

        Reply ↓
  9. VTDigger

    RE: Imperial Collapse

    Take a look at the cookie jar. Almost all cost overruns.
    https://www.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract/Article/4134550/

    USN is getting 1 sub per year after another billion in incentives soaked up:
    https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2023/11/09/us-navy-eyes-two-submarine-delivery-rate-in-2024-after-schedule-upset/

    Columbia class costs projected at $10 billion PER BOAT
    “Tiny” Virgina class costs $4 billion PER BOAT

    Pathetic. And we make fun of RU for the Borei costing $1 billion…

    China builds 8 SSN in the past 3 years:
    https://www.armyrecognition.com/news/navy-news/2025/china-to-expand-its-nuclear-submarine-fleet-as-the-production-of-type-093b-increases

    smh.

    Reply ↓
    1. ilsm

      Wow!

      New contracts for March 2025. Accenture gets a contract from USAF for $336 million through 2030, cost plus fixed fee, good work if you can get it! And! Level of effort, just send bills!

      What is a consulting firm doing with maintenance, I ask?

      A bit more looking and the contractor is installing and keeping up IT used to manage complex ERP systems.

      Lot of management at good profit to keep bombing the sand.

      Reply ↓
    1. Trees&Trunks

      No wonder they get drunk, them sailors or soldiers or whatever they are. They know they hava a bullshit job: defending a border that is not even under attack in a country that is doing their best to provoke a conflict which would kill them in a working week (cf. Ukraine). Even Pig Wanker (#10 in The Idler Book of Crap Jobs) seems like a more decent job.

      Reply ↓
    2. Paul Mendez

      The irony of drunk American soldiers drowning is that NATO’s strategy for the Great Ukrainian Summer Offensive of 2023 was predicated on the Russian defenders being drunken conscripts who would drop their weapons and run on the first sight of Western tanks.

      Reply ↓
  11. Munchausen

    🚨 Russian President Putin has inaugurated Arkhangelsk, Russia’s new nuclear submarine, a fourth-generation submarine with stealth capabilities and the ability to carry nuclear missiles. But more importantly, it has a fine Finnish sauna inside.
    — Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) March 28, 2025

    Russians put Russian banya everywhere (including trenches), but decided to go with NATO “fine Finnish sauna” inside this submarine for some reason. :)

    In other news, Russian military served Ukrainian borscht for lunch. :)

    Reply ↓
    1. Polar Socialist

      As hilarious as this is, it’s a fact that Russian banya == Finnish sauna (some enthusiast claim there’s a difference, but there’s none, really), and as Russia is a multicultural country with Turkish banyas, black banyas (a.k.a. smoke sauna), spa banyas etc, they often lazily refer to the traditional Russian banya as “Finnish” so it’s clear which type of banya they mean.

      Reply ↓
      1. Trees&Trunks

        Within Russia there is one practical difference between баня (Russian banya/sauna) and сауна (Finnish sauna). In the former you get clean together with friends whereas in the latter you get dirty from the special kind of temporary lady-friends you bring.

        Reply ↓
  12. J Snyder

    “MEXICO CITY — Mexico will invest over $4 billion over the next five years to strengthen food sovereignty and reduce import reliance in response to new US tariff measures, the government announced Friday.”

    Trump’s tariffs are a good time to learn the lesson:

    Korowicz, “How to be Trapped,” https://www.resilience.org/stories/2014-03-19/how-to-be-trapped-an-interview-with-david-korowicz/

    Welsh, “Free Trade is Elites Betraying Their Own Populations, https://www.ianwelsh.net/free-trade-is-elties-betraying-their-own-populations/

    “Once your country can’t feed itself, you are at the complete mercy of other countries and you have lost significant sovereignty–especially if you don’t generate sufficient hard currency to pay those who are selling you food (see Greece or Egypt).”

    Welsh, “Why Nations Can’t Resist Austerity,” https://www.ianwelsh.net/why-nations-cant-resist-austerity/

    Reply ↓
    1. flora

      Mexico investing in its own food sovereignty is a good thing, imo.
      After the two big N.American trade deals drove cheaper US produced foodstuffs into Mexico, those food imports drove thousands of Mexican farmers off their lands. They couldn’t compete for market in Mexico with the cheaper priced imported corn and other foodstuffs. (In some sense, the price difference acted like a modern enclosure act by driving farmers off their land and into the cities and factories.)
      From 2006:

      Mexico’s corn farmers see their livelihoods wither away

      https://www.bilaterals.org/?mexico-s-corn-farmers-see-their

      Reply ↓
  13. OIFVet

    Re “crazy mansion”

    I won’t comment on the gaudy taste of whoever designed/owns this thing, but I will comment on the acoustics. They are terrible and that’s a function of both materials and design. Same generally goes for McMansions. Little wonder why these people are so high-strung all the time, it’s impossible to actually get a good rest in these things.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      I noticed that about the acoustics as well. It wasn’t a home really. Parts of it look like an upmarket department store and in someways it had the feel of several buildings jammed together. I was looking at the colour scheme too and found nothing warm about it. The colours were all cool ones and did not look inviting and they did not especially look cozy. This led me to believe that it is not really a home so much as a status symbol. A statement that they are at the top and can do whatever they like.

      Reply ↓
      1. vao

        When looking at the video I was thinking all of this — the materials, the colours, the layout — looks very much like what one would find in a hotel — upscale perhaps, but a hotel nevertheless: no personality, lifeless, lots of concrete, no plants, aseptic, boring. The car storage and the inside pools are tacky.

        I have a hard time to believe that really wealthy people actually live in that kind of real estate. A “nouveau riche”, perhaps.

        Reply ↓
  14. The Rev Kev

    “Ted Cruz warns of midterm ‘bloodbath’ if Trump tariffs cause a recession”

    Trump is probably figuring on this which is why he is rushing all these massive changes. Even if the Democrats have big success in the midterms, it will be far too late to go back to the way things were as too many institutions will be gone along with the highly experienced people with institutional memory that were part of it. So Trump’s version of America will be to a large extent set in stone. And if we are going to be honest, the Democrats would be too feckless in trying to get rid of Trump’s changes.

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni

      I think Trump’s 100 Days ends on May Day, appropriate that.

      Yeah, it isn’t as if the Donkey Show is gonna do anything, with their rudder being out of commission-we get breadth & sentences from Booker.

      Reply ↓
  16. Mikel

    “IF mortgage rates fell 4.3 percentage points, we’d return to pre-pandemic affordability” pic.twitter.com/p9SBMxzJ5F

    How about this formula:
    People would have to maintain how many years of at least how much income to afford “buying” a home?

    Reply ↓
  17. The Rev Kev

    “Le Pen furore reignites Europe’s clash with its judiciaries”

    ‘Brazen attacks on judicial independence may have escalated after France’s bombshell verdict – but they are not new across Europe.’

    It’s funny that. I would have reworded that subtitle differently-

    ‘Brazen attacks on political candidates by the judiciary may have escalated after France’s bombshell verdict – but they are not new across Europe.’

    If you can’t beat ’em, lawfare them out of existence.

    Reply ↓
  18. Clwydshire

    I sometimes appreciate Jacob Dreizin’s bizarre but deeply felt alternative world view. I suppose I think of him as a leading indicator for a new American civil war. Let’s consider him for a moment as an economist predicting recession. He observes that DOGE moves are being reflected in state government and the business world. You could consider this a kind of companion to Conor Gallagher’s article today on DOGE going global. Link: https://thedreizinreport.com/2025/03/08/march-8-2025-prophecy-no-16-regime-will-eventually-cook-the-numbers-but-the-jobs-recession-is-practically-upon-us/
    Short excerpt from long post:

    “Textron re-confirmed its late 2024 plans to close its Arctic Cat snowmobile and ATV plant due to lack of demand (no relocation/outsourcing), laying off 385 this coming May; followed by Microchip Technology laying off 238 at its Colorado Springs fab later this month, as well as unspecified but imminent job cuts at its Gresham, OR fab, not to mention that 300 to 500 previously-announced layoffs (a minority of the 500 may be relocated) at its Tempe, AZ plant are being accelerated (!!!) from September to May; followed by Case New Holland firing 198 Fargo, ND employees SO QUICKLY THAT THE COMPANY DID NOT EVEN FILE A “WARN” NOTICE (it had also earlier announced the firing of 175 in Benson, MN, as of early April—likewise, John Deere announced on February 21st that it will kill 119 jobs at an Iowa factory); followed by North Carolina integrated circuits maker Wolfspeed—which was SUPPOSED TO BE HUGELY EXPANDING—planning to liquidate almost 180 jobs, no effective date yet provided; followed by Arconic (aluminum components for auto/aviation/buildings) in Lafayette, IN, with as many as 163 jobs cut, no effective date yet; followed by Custom Glass Solutions closing its Bucks County, PA, factory (which makes large windows/windshields for trucks, tractors, and RVs) by April 30th, killing 105 jobs…”

    Reply ↓
    1. mrsyk

      I seem to remember some “surprise” at Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 228,000 just two days ago.
      Thanks for the link.

      Reply ↓
  19. Expat2uruguay

    Details on Italy’s new security bill, the one which citizens are protesting against and clashing with the police….

    Among its provisions, the decree introduces severe penalties and imprisonment for acts of civil disobedience or peaceful resistance. Additionally, it grants special legal protections to police and military personnel.

    Liberal democracy indeed! /s

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      Why not? Meloni has just adopted those “European values” that we keep hearing about. Not to be confused with old-fashioned fascism and racism. /sarc

      Reply ↓
  20. Tom Stone

    Trump did declare that “It is good to be the King” on President’s day.
    He meant it.
    And our Congresscritters are so Craven and Corrupt that they won’t do a thing while he takes away their rice bowls.
    And He will soon show protestors who the Boss is.
    What we’re seeing is the first lesson, “The purpose of Terror is to Terrorize”.
    I expect there will be some genuine pushback from real Conservatives and Republicans as well as some Churches ( Mormons?).
    The Tariff’s are, as Yves mentioned, a display of Dominance, they will continue to escalate as Society disintegrates.

    Reply ↓
  21. Wukchumni

    One of the last of Bletchley Park’s quiet heroes, Betty Webb, dies at 101 The Register
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    It was an age of cunning deeds done out of sheer desperation, lest we be in the 5th Reich now. To be able to keep secret for many decades all the exciting things you did to turn the war around, would be quite the burden.

    My mom would have been 100 next month-a contemporary of Betty across the pond. she was a bicycle telegram delivery girl in Calgary, and emphasized to me once upon a time that none of them were of the ‘We regret to inform you…’ type, the military always delivered those.

    Reply ↓
    1. Henry Moon Pie

      That’s a beautiful story, Wuk. I can tell you miss her.

      Your story prompted a memory of mine that’s a little different. My grandfather was a depot agent and telegrapher in our little town, and during the war, my grandmother helped him, in part by delivering telegrams. These telegrams were received and “decoded” by my grandfather, and the sender was another telegrapher from up the line who knew my grandfather (they were both in the ORT). One day in 1944, there was a telegram informing that my uncle had died aboard a B-17 over Italy. The fellow up the line held that telegram held it until someone else was on duty. The tragic message still arrived eventually, but came from a friend and colleague rather than the tapping sound of the telegraph.

      Reply ↓
    2. Kouros

      “It was an age of cunning deeds done out of sheer desperation, lest we be in the 5th Reich now. To be able to keep secret for many decades all the exciting things you did to turn the war around, would be quite the burden.”

      Sorry mate, but the ones that killed the 3rd Reich were the Ruskies.

      Reply ↓
  22. OIFVet

    The invasion of America’s cringe academics The Unherd.

    You will probably enjoy this beatdown of America’s newly self-exiled “barmy neurotics” of academia, delivered with deliciously British viciousness. A sample from the first paragraph:
    “Stanley — mostly known on the internet for saying his former job title out loud — has been trying to get the word out in underground samizdat publications such as the Guardian and Vanity Fair. Interviewed in the latter, he likens the Trump regime to Nazi Germany four times. Vaguely reminiscent of Captain Von Trapp eyeing up the Alps and about to launch into Edelweiss, he declares: “Things are very bad in this country. It’s an authoritarian regime…we are leaving for our kids primarily so they can grow up under conditions of freedom. I would love to live in the United States, but I want to live in the United States because it’s a place that is free.” Still, readers must understand that what Stanley is absolutely not doing is “moralizing or lecturing”: “that’s not my thing. I’m an intellectual. What I do is I describe reality as I see it.””

    Reply ↓
    2. Alex Cox

      It’s fascinating, the ease with which PMC intellectuals like these three imagine they can just relocate to a foreign country, where approval and a job await them.

      The term ‘rootless cosmopolitans’ springs to mind.

      Reply ↓
    3. Mikel

      For the ones headed to Canada, has the dust really settled on how that country is going to handle campus protests?

      Reply ↓
    4. AG

      Interesting coincidence:

      Chris Hedges did an interview with Stanely, March 27th:

      Erasing History: How Fascism Works (w/ Jason Stanley)
      Jason Stanley joins The Chris Hedges Report to give proper context to what fascism means and how the Trump administration’s second term could really mean the completion of the American fascist state.
      https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/erasing-history-how-fascism-works

      Today I realized that there is an English equivalent for the German important adjective “faschistoid” – “fascistic”. However I believe I have never encountered “fascistic” in English texts or speech. Only “fascist.”

      This is remarkable. In German “faschistoid” would be applicable to what people in the US are usually talking about now, which means NOT outright Fascism as it occured e.g. in the 1930s and 40s.

      Only mirroring certain aspects of power which are in part already elements of our real democratic systems and are necessary as conditions to establish a genuinley fascist state.

      So there are similarities in some areas. Certainly not all. And probably not the most important ones.

      “Faschistoid”/”fascistic” mainly refers to the idea of hierarchy and creating systems which counter democratic control and free speech.

      It does not speak of the universal use of violent force as a means to terrorize huge parts of a country or all of it. Which is one of the reasons why I reject “fascism” in the current discussion.

      The best known definition of “fascism” I reckon is Dimitroff´s. And Dimitroff in the first instance mentions terror as a feature.

      To quote Wiki Germany on Dimitroff:

      fascism = “terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, chauvinistic and imperialist elements of finance capital”

      Which is a reason why Finkelstein made the comments as he did in Febr. I assume.

      So in Chile 1973 e.g. the order that was imposed was a fascist one, ruling on the basis of torture, murder and thereof intimidation. The state that enabled it, the US under Nixon might have had “fascistic” elements, e.g. with CIA or FBI, but the fascist powers unleashed were only used on the Chilean population.

      Reply ↓
      1. Mikel

        “It does not speak of the universal use of violent force as a means to terrorize huge parts of a country or all of it. Which is one of the reasons why I reject “fascism” in the current discussion.”

        Do you think the USA during legalized slavery was fascist?

        Reply ↓
        1. AG

          Good and difficult question which I am not really qualified to answer.
          I don´t know enough about the US.

          But taking a wild guess I would say, possibly.
          Also keeping in mind that one cannot simply compare such issues across centuries.

          It e.g. does depend on the First Amendment.
          In Germany you did not have comparable First Amendment rights, I assume.

          However the Third Reich for Non-Jews had a sincere legal system, you had due process, you had all kinds of social security, the state tried to make the war as agreeable for the population at home as possible.

          You got into trouble only if you seriously questioned the rule of the government, if you endangered the war effort, if you would help Jews, Roma and other minorities and if you supported the Resistance.

          As far as I remember you got into trouble in the US too when helping slaves or for having sexual relationships with slaves. (And there is the gender issue one tends to forget though it concerned 50+% of the population.)

          And for those whites who resisted the state, like a John Brown, there was capital punishment.
          But if you kept out of all that “unnecessary” trouble you could have a good life. Be it the US or Germany.

          Which pre-modern societies were not fascist?

          Additionally the racist element is central to this question. As an element which was pre-determined and which you could not change as an individual but which would still determine your position in society.

          Was the USSR fascist? I never thought so. It might have been totalitarian at certain periods though.
          As it is with the genocide: Intentionality is important in theses questions. The intentions behind state violence in any of these examples were different.

          Reply ↓
          1. JBird4049

            In the several decades before the American Civil War, the country was effectively divide into two nations with one being increasingly industrial using more or less free labor, and a fairly broad voter base, and the other being a plantation economy using slave labor, with a restrictive voting base under the strict, oligarchic control of the planter class and their slave patrols, which were used on poor whites about much as on slaves.

            Due to the South being the wealthiest section of the country and with the three-fifths clause giving its disproportionate representation and greater power in Congress and the Supreme Court, it had much control over the greater population of the North. The final two decades before the war saw the Fugitive Slave Act corrupted the courts because of the use of death threats and bribery to get the judges of whatever court an “escaped” slave was brought to. Accused escapees were not allowed to defend themselves in court and the judges were “encouraged” to declare them escaped slaves.

            There essentially was slave raiders looking to kidnap anyone who they could claim to be an escaped slave with the heavily armed kidnappers using violence and murder against the captives, witnesses, and the law who attempted to rescue anyone.

            The war finally happened when the North, particularly the more fanatical Abolitionists, began matching the violence of the pro-slavery people and the Southern elites realized that they were losing control of the federal government.

            Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        Many citizens are down to the point of using Trump’s golf scores for Powerball numbers in an effort to get out from under, this despite his scores being so high none of them qualify as lottery numbers.

        Reply ↓
        1. GF

          One could use the per hole scores. What is Trump’s real golf handicap?

          There was a video on CNN yesterday of Trump and his golf cart entourage heading somewhere (Trump and cart buddy both had on suits). There were eight to twelve golf carts stuffed with secret service accompanying the MAGATURD. And, all the golf carts matched – probably flown in on USAF 1.

          Reply ↓
            1. Wukchumni

              Donald was an early adapter to electric vehicles…

              If whacking off repeatedly and then chasing down the object of your desire in order to squeeze it in a fitted hole-wasn’t already on its last legs, I might not be so bold as to claim that Trump is the man who killed golf, kinda similar to JFK being the man who killed hat wearing on men.

              Golf has been in a constant state of transition since the turn of the century. The recession of 2009 brought financial hardship to the game, impacting both course owners/operators and customers. The result was golf courses closing on an unprecedented scale. We began charting course closures in 2014. Every demographic has been impacted by this trend. High-end private clubs, public courses, nine-holers, par 3s, driving ranges and municipal courses in almost every state have been shuttered.

              Reply ↓
  24. AG

    re: US labour unions and Trump

    JACOBIN

    Unions Need to Mount a Militant Response to Trump’s Assault

    By Marc Kagan

    Too many unions have responded to Donald Trump’s historic attacks on federal workers with little more than words. To beat back his anti-union assault, organized labor needs to break with decades of timidity.
    https://jacobin.com/2025/04/unions-trump-federal-workers-militancy

    DOUG HENWOOD PODCAST

    Jason Wade of the UAW explains the union’s endorsement of Trump’s auto tariffs • Sam Gindin, author of this article and former long-time adviser to what used to be known as the Canadian Autoworkers Union, on what issues the tariff controversy obscures
    April 3, 2025
    https://shout.lbo-talk.org/lbo/RadioArchive/2025/25_04_03.mp3

    Reply ↓
      1. AG

        It goes fan-tas-tic.
        Not a day passes without our own Russiagate enlightening the mood with new revelations of threat and imminent war. It´s almost like the most expensive soap opera in history for hundreds of millions per episode. Complete production budget: 500B Euros.
        But you certainly can´t complain either.

        Reply ↓
          1. AG

            Frankly it´s crazy we are having these discussions.
            What has happened is shocking.
            I remember winter 2021 when those idiots Habeck and Baerbock were argueing over whether it was appropriate for Habeck to wear a helmet when visiting Ukraine.
            That´s like a different century now.
            But people seem to get used to the shit .

            Reply ↓
            1. The Rev Kev

              I have visited Germany many times back in the 80s but I no longer recognize it. People like Habeck and Baerbock have made it into their own image.

              Reply ↓
    1. Alice X

      Thanks for that, very sad. A breed of humanity that cannot recognize their own. I’ve grown very sad these days.

      I still have determination for justice. but to what effect?

      Reply ↓
  28. Mikel

    “Another young female founder has been found guilty of fraud. This time, it’s Charlie Javice, who sold her startup Frank to JPMorgan for $175M—only to be convicted for fabricating user data. I love that fiat King Jamie Dimon got popped for being an idiot, but wrong is wrong.” pic.twitter.com/R8OOD71f9o

    And guess what?
    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jpmorgan-charlie-javice-frank-founder-convicted-fraud-175-million/
    Soon after starting her business, she was lauded as a business visionary, appearing regularly on cable news programs to boost Frank’s profile and once appearing on Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list.

    Forbes 30 Under 30 strikes again!

    Reply ↓
  29. ChrisFromGA

    Futures markets are pointing towards another blood bath tomorrow.

    Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq all down 3-4%. Oil down below $60/bbl.

    Lots of time for things to turn around overnight, though.

    Reply ↓
    1. Alice X

      And may the great crash begin. 1929 brought about a not indelible push back, even the 1917 Russian push back was not indelible. What is? Well, climate change, but there will no beneficiaries.

      Reply ↓
      1. ChrisFromGA

        We’ve only just begun, as the Carpenters sang.

        Who remembers the 2008 crisis?

        short selling bans;
        Bush giving a 9:00am “pep talk” to the markets;
        Bernanke doing emergency rate cuts;
        Hank Paulsen and Ben working long weekends to stabilize the Sunday night futures;

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__VQX2Xn7tI

        Reply ↓
        1. Wukchumni

          All of the efforts in 2008 seemed to be in regards to saving the big players on Wall*Street from themselves via risky bets, but that doesn’t seem in the cards this go round.

          Reply ↓
          1. judy2shoes

            Wuk, I am curious as to why you think the big wallstreet players won’t be bailed out this time.

            Reply ↓
            1. Wukchumni

              The Unabankers well may be bailed out again, but its a completely different scenario now, the housing bubble and dubious loans that set off the GFC seem so innocent, compared to dare I say, a maniac deadset on plunging yet another company into bankruptcy, the company we 330 million keep, that is.

              Reply ↓
              1. ChrisFromGA

                History doesn’t repeat, but sometimes it rhymes.

                At some uncertain price level, the political outcry will be too much even for Orange Julius. He will bow to the Unabankers. But we may get bail-ins, this time. As in, half your savings gets converted into bank equity.

                We aren’t there yet, IMO. Things are moving faster, though, than last time. This looks like a crash.

                Reply ↓
                1. Wukchumni

                  It would be the oddest financial crash ever, no ticker tape, no stock certificates, nothing other than a computer screen informing you, updating compounded losses in a jiffy.

                  Reply ↓
                1. Wukchumni

                  It’s an ‘own goal’ in that despite there seemingly being no other currency worthy of being hegemon aside from us, and I’d wondered how in the heck we could get hyperinflation, and now I know, thy name is Trump.

                  So the Unabankers get bailed out with worthless ex-almighty bucks?

                  It’s largely a nation of paupers rather all of the sudden, all armed to the teeth against an implacable foe-us.

                  Reply ↓
    2. johnnyme

      Asian markets plunge with Japan’s Nikkei diving nearly 8% after the big meltdown on Wall St

      BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares nosedived on Monday after the meltdown Friday on Wall Street over U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes and the backlash from Beijing.

      Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost nearly 8% shortly after the market opened. By midday, it was down 6% at 31,758.28. A circuit breaker briefly suspended trading of Topix futures after an earlier sharp fall in U.S. futures.

      Chinese markets often don’t follow global trends, but they also tumbled. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 9.4% to 20,703.30, while the Shanghai Composite index lost 6.2% to 3,134.98.

      South Korea’s Kospi lost 4.1% to 2,363.82, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 3.8% to 7,377.70, recovering from a loss of more than 6%.

      Reply ↓
  30. Tom Stone

    I wonder how many new homeless we will have in the US by the end of this year?
    If Dudek breaks Social Security ( Which is why he was appointed) it could easily top 10,000,000.
    The smallest increase I foresee from the policies now in place is a quadrupling of the current homeless population.
    I wonder how many Dogebags have considered what it will be like when Millions of people know your name, know what you look like and where you work and blame you for their misery.
    I’ll add that 30% of American Households own guns.
    I’m sure Elon will take care of them once they have served their purpose…

    Reply ↓
    1. Alice X

      The SS seniors below the FPL, like myself, if they were to go homeless will be calling on Medicaid. The effect will be the same.

      Reply ↓
    3. JBird4049

      I get that they want to financialize or destroy Social Security. But I don’t think that it would not come without blowback.

      The current homeless population is a minimum of one million people. If you add ten million, then that is four percent of American citizens. Even San Francisco only around 2.5 percent and California has less than one percent or 200,000 for a population of 38-39 million people.

      Somehow, I don’t think that having around four percent of American citizens, or the combined population of the eight smallest states by population, becoming homeless in a single year not being done without bloodshed. We are talking about people like my disabled 82 Mom and my family would NOT accept this.

      Reply ↓
    4. Lena

      Tom, thank you for continuing to speak out about homelessness and other poverty issues. I truly appreciate it.

      Two disabled people in my building lost their apartments last month because the landlord raised the rent again. One was a developmentally disabled man in his early thirties. Another was a woman who suffered a serious brain injury from being hit by a drunk driver more than a decade ago. Both of them were good neighbors. They never made any trouble at all. Their ‘sin’ was poverty.

      I didn’t even know they had moved until I saw their apartments being cleaned out. My neighbors were just gone. I never got a chance to say goodbye to them. I’m very worried that they might be homeless now. Affordable apartments, especially those for the disabled, are practically nonexistent in my area.

      If this administration succeeds in destroying SS, SSDI, SSI, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP and housing assistance, millions will be left with little or nothing. How is our country going to deal with this? My MAGA Christian ‘friends’ say the churches will take care of them. Hah. They aren’t taking care of them now and they won’t be when ‘welfare’ ceases to exist.

      I don’t know if violence will be the result. The poor people I know are too sick and tired to fight. So who will fight for them? Anyone? I predict an increase in suicide is much more likely than violence. A lot of people will go quietly into that good night and our betters will be more than happy to see them gone.

      Reply ↓
  31. Alice X

    >Bernie tweet

    It has now been 30 days with NO humanitarian aid getting into Gaza.

    No food, no water, no medicine, no fuel.

    That is barbaric. The U.S. must end our complicity in these atrocities.

    My heart breaks every day for the Palestinians who are still being genocided. Well, the brief interim of the false ceasefire gave a purpesful illusion of respite.

    Now, the Zionist imperative of their eradication is in full, though restricted view. Bernie’s missive, though so many dismiss him, must be acknowledged.

    I ahere.

    Reply ↓
    1. Alice X

      Typos, and Bernie brings up the hostages, but do not forget the Palestinian hostages by the thousands. The barbarians are in the gate.

      Reply ↓
    2. Hepativore

      Sure, Sanders is saying the right things and is drawing crowds, but where was Sanders during the Biden administration when Biden greenlit Israel’s actions under his watch? Likewise, Sanders has gone along with sending weapons to Israel like everybody else.

      It is too little, too late, for Sanders and AOC to accomplish much with this tour of theirs, and the ultimate irony is being “against the oligarchs” when they will just roll over for the Democratic Party leadership…the same one that has been kicking them in the faces since they dared go against the Party nomenklatura.

      What do Sanders and AOC have to offer at this point? Their own party hates them yet they still support it even though the Democrats have gone full neocon.

      Reply ↓
      1. Alice X

        Give up on focusing on Bernie. It is a genocide and I’m with anyone who speaks of it, even if I have to bend their arms up into a clench fist.

        Focus on the lives being lost!

        Reply ↓
  32. Wukchumni

    Trump administration orders national parks to remain open amid staffing shortages

    Trump administration orders national parks to remain open despite cutting more than 1,500 jobs so far this year. (LA Times)
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    This will be where the public makes a stand, methinks.

    Our NP’s are oh so popular, and everything obviously is going to be cut back quite a bit to the point where visitors are going to be angry, and its pretty easy as to who to point the finger at~

    To put things in perspective, 18 million fans attended NFL games last season, whereas 331 million went to our National Parks.

    Reply ↓
  33. Jason Boxman

    Heh. Trump’s Bitcoin rug pull has some company. Washington signed the bill for the first bank of the United States in exchange for the capitol being sited most profitably for him, necessitating Congress changing the original siting law they’d passed that Washington ignored. Fun times.

    Per The Hamilton Scheme by William Hogeland.

    Reply ↓
    1. Alice X

      Sachs says at the end that the tariffs have no constitutional basis.

      Will either other 2 branches stand up, or do we have a king?

      They had better move fast.

      Reply ↓

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