Wool Aliens of the British Empire History Today
A Closer Look at the Woolly Devil Nautilus
The democratisation of private equity is happening, like it or not Private Equity International
Granular Power: The Gritty Politics of Sand e-flux
Climate/Environment
Update on observed rainfall amounts the last 4 days over the Mid-South and Ohio Valley. The heaviest rain has exited these areas, but widespread and exceedingly rare major river flooding will continue through mid week. Visit https://t.co/DjqBXp0y5z more more information. pic.twitter.com/uiA11OBu6c
— NWS Weather Prediction Center (@NWSWPC) April 6, 2025
Dramatic cuts in China’s air pollution drove surge in global warming NewScientist
US DOE identifies 16 sites on federal land for “rapid data center construction,” including 1GW location Data Center Dynamics
Excess Heat in the USA Open Mind
Pandemics
A second Texas child has died from measles; RFK Jr. visits Texas Tribune
Airborne Alert: Measles Confirmed at Houston’s Hobby Airport — Here’s What You Need to Know KTVZ
China?
Full text: China states its position on opposing U.S. abuse of tariffs CGTN
China’s tariffs as a Mike Tyson knockout punch to America Asia Times
European Disunion
Patrick Lawrence: Germany in Crisis Part 1 —The Lost Man of Europe Scheerpost
EU joins ‘Klondike’ rush for Central Asia critical minerals as bloc and region upgrade relations Bne Intellinews
Old Blighty
Child poverty soars as UK Labour government slashes welfare to fund armed forces WSWS
O Canada
Canada’s support for LNG is support for Trump’s new form of fossil-fuelled fascism Canadian Dimension
Syraqistan
‘MASS GRAVE’: Paramedics from Palestine Red Crescent recover bodies of colleagues in Southern Gaza Fox News
Video forces Israel to change story on execution of Palestinian emergency workers in Rafah The Cradle
***
Cost of US military offensive against Houthis nears $1 billion with limited impact CNN
NEW: Yemen’s official state news agency, Saba, reports that a US bombing, recently celebrated publicly by Trump on social media for the elimination of Houthis, actually killed civilians in Hodeidah who were gathering for the Eid holiday.
Abdulrahman al-Ahnomi, head of the… https://t.co/JtjQM54BgQ pic.twitter.com/od2NL610NX
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) April 6, 2025
***
Not hostages or Iran: The reason behind Netanyahu’s flash US visit Ynet
Khamenei puts Iranian armed forces on full alert – report The Jerusalem Post
Iran warns neighbors over US strike support Iran International
Based on conversations I’m having both on and off the record, the chance is growing of a military confrontation with Iran.
Market focused on tariffs but also keep Iran in mind. https://t.co/KqOg7lb9u9
— Brian Sullivan (@SullyCNBC) April 5, 2025
Washington deploys second THAAD system to Israel as US-Iran tensions grow: Report The Cradle
Africa
Criminalizing poverty in Nigeria Africa Is a Country
How Weightlifting and Bodybuilding Are Taking Burkina Faso by Storm New Lines Magazine
New Not-So-Cold War
Why Are HANDS OFF Rallies Supporting NATO? World Beyond War
TRUMP’S PURSUIT OF A UKRAINIAN PEACE: Early Results and Future Prospects Gordon Hahn, Russian & Eurasian Politics
Russian envoy says new Moscow-Washington talks may continue ‘as early as next week’ Anadolu Agency
Zelenskyy slams US lack of response to Putin truce rejection AFP
SITREP 4/6/25: Hint of Spring as Russian Pressure Rises on Every Front Simplicius
***
Russian spy sensors found hidden in UK waters The Telegraph
Sex toys and exploding cosmetics: Inside the bizarre ‘Russian parcel fire sabotage plot’ The Independent
South of the Border
Venezuela Condemns ExxonMobil’s False Flag Plan to Justify Intervention Orinoco Tribune
“Liberation Day”
Direct economics — the great Maga experiment Quinn Slobodian, FT
Falling in line after Trump’s tariffs? Over 50 countries rush to negotiate with US – Who are they? WION
There are lots of hot takes on Trump’s April 2 tariffs, some wildly uninformed and/or silly. I will share my own concerns. But first, here’s what we actually know so far about tariff rates, covered countries, excluded goods, and the de minimis loophole: 🧵 1/
— Lori Wallach (@WallachLori) April 5, 2025
This is what AI-generated trade policy looks like Blood in the Machine
Lutnick says Trump tariffs on small islands are strategic closing of trade ‘loopholes’ Washington Examiner
***
“Liberation Day” Fallout Dashes Hopes For Fintech IPOs Fintech Business Weekly
Crypto plunges as Trump tariff ‘medicine’ brutalizes global stock markets Coin Telegraph.
Big investors look to sell out of private equity after market rout FT
Bill Ackman warns Trump is losing business leaders’ confidence Business Times
***
Dow futures fall 900 points as Trump tariff market collapse worsens: Live updates CNBC
This is what all the leading Globalists in the West told Russians throughout the 1990s—”Austerity is the necessary painful medicine you need to heal your economy”—as western-imposed neoliberal reforms collapsed Russian industry & their life expectancy.https://t.co/gDNabrwxJw
— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) April 7, 2025
DOGE
An Interview With An Epidemiologist Who Lost Her Job Because Of The DOGE Layoffs Defector
SignalGate
Exclusive: how the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg got added to the White House Signal group chat The Guardian
Immigration
‘Na na, hey hey, goodbye:’ White House faces backlash for ‘dehumanising’ deportation video Firstpost
Boeing
Exclusive: Aircraft supplier Howmet may halt orders if hit by Trump tariffs, letter says Reuters
Sports Desk
Alex Ovechkin breaks Wayne Gretzky’s NHL career goals record by scoring his 895th AP
Silicon Valley
Tech CEO: Do Not Say To Me That I Was Not Just Assassinated By The Jackal Defector
AI
Taiwan’s new 2nm chip set to power the AI revolution Asia Times
Healthcare?
Resistance Grows as Proposed Cuts Threaten Health Care for Over 79 Million in US Truthout
The American Plan to Eliminate Vaccines McGill University Office for Science and Society
Imperial Collapse Watch
Britain and US test engine for new hypersonic cruise missile UK Defence Journal
Class Warfare
Menswear Guy points to a basic contradiction in the on-shoring discourse: To the degree automation and mechanization can make the US industry competitive, it will fail to produce jobs. Because that’s why it’s competitive. https://t.co/XJMdowbQ1M
— Malcolm Harris (@BigMeanInternet) April 6, 2025
Invisible Crisis The Baffler
What Happens When We Treat Nature as Essential to Mental Health Mad in America
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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Tariff Yields
(Melody borrowed from the classic Southern ballad Cotton Fields by Leadbelly, in 1940; as performed by Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Donald’s notions sound all kinds of shady because he’s got dementia pushin’ eighty
Ear to ear—nothin’ there but bone
Now he’s reading someone’s memoranda spewin’ out some horseshit propaganda
He will cost you everything you own
From the lies that he’s been caught in Donald’s got big plans you’re not in
In his mind he’s on a golden throne
Every day he changes what the plan is, building a Republic of Bananas
We are way past the danger zone
Donald likes to threaten and finagle, but that means I can’t afford a bagel
There’s no jobs anywhere I roam
America’s a sorry panorama all the way from Frisco to Savannah
We look like the fall of ancient Rome
For all his schemin’ and his plottin’ there’s a cell Trump can rot in
A rubber room he can call his own
We can throw him out if we all stand up, tell these billionaires they need to man up
Give it back and we’ll leave you alone
(musical interlude)
Donald likes to threaten and finagle, but that means I can’t afford a bagel
There’s no jobs anywhere I roam
America’s a sorry panorama all the way from Frisco to Savannah
We look like the fall of ancient Rome
We look like the fall of ancient Rome
We lost our bagel shop (Absolute) and our bakery (Silver Moon) both. Broadway supports only franchises.
Glad to see you in the pole position again.
I only cat sat in your neighborhood, but I loved Silver Moon. I realize that the proposed bakery approved by the owners would be a change would be combining two ‘winning’ bakery ideas. Still it does seem like the most popular recipes and much of the staff would be transferring over. I’ve got my fingers crossed that it works out and provides a similar neighborhood place.
My “old neighborhood”, and I miss it, or at least what it used to be. Knock on wood for the new venture, hard to understand how Silver Moon went down considering how consistently busy they were.
“A second Texas child has died from measles; RFK Jr. visits”
Asks the family if their 8 year-old daughter died of measles or whether she died with measles.
The family of the first child who died in this outbreak, a 6 year old girl, said it wasn’t so bad as the other 4 kids did ok and that they do not regret not having vaccinated the deceased girl.
These people sacrificing their children are heroes to quack world.
Also, the article says it spreads through droplets (it spreads mainly through aerosols). The MSM just can’t help themselves.
China, air pollution and global warming.
China – damned if you do, damned if you don‘t. Has China done anything that they get unequivocally positive coverage for? Just because Xiao Ming wants to breath clean air, now they are the global warming villain.
I don‘t contest the scientific research but find the consequence ironic and half-funny.
I’m sure 10,000 burning tanks and 30,000 burning armored personnel carriers in Ukraing along with all their emissions getting to their null points and all the burning towns in their wake made no contribution, hmm, or maybe offset the Chinese aerosol emissions reductions?
I’m sure 10,000 burning tanks and 30,000 burning armored personnel carriers in Ukraine along with all their emissions getting to their null points and all the burning towns in their wake made no contribution, hmm, or maybe offset the Chinese aerosol emissions reductions?
It lends added support to the concept of surrounding the earth with a stratosphere-level sulfate particle layer. I suspect the ChinaGov will get right on that within the next few years.
Meanwhile, the coming Trump Tarriff World Recession should lower sulfate pollution and particulate pollution even more deeperly enough that a newer bigger better surge in global warming will be added to the present ” China de-pollution” surge.
Re: EU joins ‘Klondike’ rush for Central Asia
Central Asia’s invitation to become the next Ukraine.
Central Asia is not quite like Mongalia in terms of access to markets, but is not that far away either. How will the thing work out?
“Brits should prepare a 72 hour ‘survival kit’ as Putin plots to sabotage gas pipelines and cause mass blackouts, warn spies”
It disturbs me that the British emergency supply pack includes tins of baked beans. Think about it. You would have people hunkered down in their backyard Anderson shelters because of the big bad Russkies and they have all been eating baked beans. We all know how that goes-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6dm9rN6oTs (56 secs)
But not to worry.The Russian Federation Foreign Ministry has put out a statement assuring the British that all Russian sabotage teams have been withdrawn from the UK. In the end they decided that those teams would only be able to do a tiny fraction of the damage that Starmer is doing to the UK right now so why bother.
The west has lost its collective sanity. Sex toys and exploding cosmetics: Anatomy of a ‘hybrid war’ on the West, Reuters, for instance.
I would go a bit further than that. We seem to be losing the the ability to laugh at ourselves and to not take ourselves too seriously.
Václav Havel
also Vaclav Havel.
Good writer, lousy politician and a total wreck of a statesman who had the indecency of dying before seeing the fruits of his sheer hubris.
Forgive the double link. More coffee.please.
Reuters, well… wasn’t that one a somewhat serious source?
Now they produce stories about small and public terror test run involving sex toys.
Hey, reuters, switch to another AI model. That one is not even funny.
Re: “Why are Hands Off supporting NATO?”
I was struck first by the turnout in tiny Taos, NM. I estimate close to 1000 protesters plus folks driving by horns honking in support.
Secondly by the dearth of anything at all about war or genocide.
It was to me a protest to retain a status of ‘So long as we are exporting discomfort elsewhere and we are not inconvenienced every thing is okay.’
I’m in no way supportive of many of the actions of this current administration but I was deeply disappointed by the NIMBY tone of the protests.
You make it sound like a repeat of the Pink Pussy hat demonstrations of 2017 and how they came and then they went leaving hardly a trace in their wake.
Hands Off 2025 is run by Indivisible. I’d wager they put NATO on the poster.
I’ve looked at a few hundred photos of the various protests via an image search. I did not see a single sign supporting NATO, and but one single photo with a “stand with Ukraine” sign which didn’t even look like it was at a protest. Many signs mentioning “science”, “social security”, reproductive health rights, “measles”, just about every institution DOGE has decimated, even one that I really like for its honesty “Hands off my money”, lol!
Let us not look unkindly on those who took to the streets.
Yes. I had no idea who organized the march in my town. I went simply to observe its size and organization. (It was huge and well organized.) The focus appeared to be a protest of Trump’s executive branch over-reach and there were many people with signs and energy to vocalize their displeasure with Trump. Everyone seemed to have their particular grievance that they wanted to express: immigration, education, healthcare, social welfare, military spending, a few supported Ukraine.
In the end, the march was about expressing serious concern for the direction of the nation under Trump. These were people who took the time to get in the ‘street’ and express solidarity with fellow citizens..
Millions of people are going to be more than “inconvenienced” if this administration succeeds in destroying SS, SSDI, SSI, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, housing assistance and any other domestic program they can get their sadistic little hands on. Millions of people will be left destitute. Homeless. Hungry. Sick and without healthcare. People will die. Domestic policy was the main focus of the Hands Off demonstrations.
I am in no way supportive of the endless wars and genocide being committed by this administration or the previous one(s). I am a Quaker who has engaged in antiwar demonstrations since I was in elementary school during the Vietnam War.
I did see signs at Hands Off demonstrations across the country that were in opposition to the war in Ukraine and genocide in Gaza. Not many but some. Should there be more? Yes. But that does not negate the importance of protests against current domestic policy that seeks to destroy the lives of millions of people here.
If people want protests to focus solely on Ukraine or Gaza at a time when many Americans are afraid for their own lives, they are unfortunately going to be disappointed.
I couldn’t agree more. Thank you.
We haven’t really meaningfully protested against anything since the 70’s, er 1770’s, and admittedly are a bit rusty at the game, but we’ll get better at it.
Millions marched against the Iraq War and nothing happened. You would need a general strike in the west for anyone to listen
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_the_Iraq_War
The Iraq War went on for years.
This here. Tools down, and arms up! That is all I can think at this point, and the odds are slim. At least, I haven’t heard any talk like that yet.
The Iraq War was perpetrated with the express assistance of the MSM. Americans were fully in anger over 9/11 and Bush/Cheney milked it for war in the ME. Most Americans today recognize the bait and switch. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!
It is very difficult to hide the vicious effects of Trumps policies on the lives of Americans from those same Americans. The MSM has little credibility today.
Mother and three kids released by Ice after protests from US ‘border czar’s’ hometown, Guardian, this was not on my bingo card.
My sister in law is a very “liberal” person, all the causes: in the day she was anti Vietnam war.
A few weeks ago after she posted on FB pro Kiev democrat talking points my nephew her son asked on the thread “when did you start cheering for war?” She has been quiet about Kiev since.
As I see it TDS makes the MICMATT funding neocon branch of the democrat party just fine!
Some may see MICMATT as a public works jobs program…..
“when did you start cheering for war?” I use this line or something like it whenever someone I know starts going on about Ukraine and Russia, Russia, Russia. It’s very effective.
So if you want to stand up against the aggressor you are “cheering for war?” Sounds excessively apathetic to me.
Sounds like Elliot Gould’s character in Little Murders. He was getting mugged and a woman tried to defend him. He says she shouldn’t have done. They were getting bored and tired and would have stopped on their own. Her defense of him just energized them.
“Stand up to the aggressors”, lol. If your brain shuts off trying to go back further in time than say February 24, 2022, then you have half a point.
And no, it doesn’t sound even a little like the vignette you describe.
Thank you, mrsyk.
Given that the Ukrainian army was already mobilized, and poised to attack the Donbass in a little over two weeks, I have never been able to think of the Russians as the aggressors, although I guess they really are. As far as I can understand it was a preemptive strike, made with fewer troops than the Ukrainians had under arms.
You forgot to mention that both Israel and Ukraine have the right to defend themselves. Maybe it’s the USAID cutoff.
Yes, UN Charter does provide for that. But UN Charter also provides for other things as well, and this “right of self defense” argument becomes mighty threadbare if some other points are buldozered over. UN Charter and other international pieces of “law”…
Threadbare indeed. I read snafu as sarcasm for what it’s worth.
I thought that mentioning USAID should make it obvious enough. They were actually paying people money for repating those mantras about aggression, defending itself, and whatever the narrative needed.
Israel is and has been in violation of international law for decades. Ukraine was in violation of international law before Russia intervened under “the responsibility to protect.”
That is what they said in 60s, too: North Vietnamese are engaged in unprovoked aggression against the South, at the behest of its masters in Moscow, or something like that. This line of talk never changes.
I think it was the late Pat Lang who said that the US lost public support in Vietnam due to ‘losing control of the narrative’ (i.e., letting the media report too much of the truth). After that they decided that bullshit should be a fourth branch of the military, co-equal with the other three.
We see the lessons from Vietnam in action today.
They lost public support because way too many US citizens were dying. No media can hide caskets for too long. They have been keeping it low ever since, by switching to foreign meat sources and bombing only those that can not shoot back (we see both in action today, and every day).
I saw a hardy band out with a lot of signs about trying to keep our democracy, and ‘hands off’ our government agencies. I was saluting them for trying to at least stand up and say something while our republic is being carelessly torn apart, and the rest of us should be ashamed that we didn’t get out there too. I’ll save my criticism for the evil people.
Here in Milwaukee, there was a “Hand’s Off” rally, which some estimated as having 9,000 people. These estimates are pure guesses, of course. I’ve always been bad at judging crowd size; sometimes we’ll have someone count em all. I was shown a picture from that rally and one of the rallygoers was brandishing a sign saying “Hand’s off NATO”; I was flabbergasted, until it was pointed out to me that it is a part of their platform. There was another rally that day, on the Muslim South Side of town, with probably 2-300 people in kuffieyehs. Lefties and Palestinians, generally, know to stay away from Dem-affiliated events. Hand’s Off is organized by the people from Indivisible, who are two former Dem staffers. It’s my sense that this effort is, first, a bit of a steam blow-off for our friends who are more MSNBC-oriented, and second, deep canvassing and early GOTV for the 2026 midterms.
I agree with Lena, below, who points out that there are real material impacts to the policies these events are organized around; I don’t share concerns about (most of) USAID or NATO, but certainly Social Security, which is being made more unworkable while the administrations looks for a way to really gut and privatize it; Medicaid, SNAP. All programs I’m alive because of today, from having been able to rely on them when I needed them. They were deeply flawed in many frustrating ways, but risks to them ought to motivate action. I’d prefer that action be either done at the legislative level, or directly from the grassroots, but not from one of their unholy combinations. When a D legislator trys to sell you an “inside-outside” strategy, check the weather.
Thanks for this, Vicky. I’m originally from MKE and it’s good to understand where and what is going on. I hope it stays relatively peaceful and it’s great to hear the South Side is on the street. I know plenty of friends there who rely on SSI and Snap in some way to manage. Rents are apparently out of control.
I’ll be around in June. Planning on going to the Pride Parade (we called it the Gay Parade back when it was so transgressive the MPD made a point of beating people up). Maybe we’ll see each other!
The event in Phoenix was pretty large and age-diverse. I would guess it was dominated by teachers–they are the only organized pro-government force in Arizona. Saw several signs that said “hands off education,” which seems to me like a mixed message in the context of Trump saying he is ending federal government control over education.
Thom, I’m happy to report that the walk around/march was anything but that in chicago. very broad representation of issues and perspectives and ages of participants. posters/shouts and commentary (in conversations that i had with strangers) expressed dissatisfaction with every issue (including palestine) that this site works to address. to an earlier comment on this site over the weekend, lots of social media leading up to the rallies was also filled with posts by and for african americans suggesting that they sit this one out so local police departments would not feel the need to call out the riot squads. I saw heavy police presence in chicago working to manage the crowds direction – by closing streets so that the protest march/walk was steered – but no violence. most interesting, i saw no evidence of undercovers either – not where i was anyways. participation might be criticised but i enjoyed it more than more pruning of my cornus mas.
It sounds like all the Democrat causes are getting wrapped into Hands Off protests when it should be just about the damage Trump is doing, and plans to do even more of, to the very few federal programs that provide tangible material good for people, namely Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, VA, and maybe one or two others that produce benefits people can actually see, rather than just producing bureaucracy that talks down to us about ideology and dribbles out funds to selected petitioners in states. If this is going to be broadened as a movement beyond just elderly brainwashed PMC Democrats, they better focus on the programs that most Americans see as benefiting them, not Biden-Harris, NATO, LGBTQIA+, Ukraine, DEI, USAID, and other hobgoblins of the PMC mind.
that’s pretty wild, right? Trump and the West Wing are printing “Golden Tickets” for everyone on the Democratic side of the country, and some people (DC astroturf-ed NGOs??) have to make about their pet project.
It will be even wilder if Trump salvages this nose dive for the GOP in the 2026 and 2028 elections.
Well, you can either start somewhere or nowhere at all.
The left is famous for glomming onto other peoples’ protests, loading their own baggage onto the wagon, and then demanding that the other people pull it.
If the left makes a point of not caring about domestic Normal Americans’ situation, then why should domestic Normal Americans care about left wing kicks and causes? Why would they?
The left can either begin asking itself that for the first time in recent memory, or the left can keep mocking Normal Americans and ostentatiously disregarding and ignoring their Normal American concerns same as always. As Doctor Phil might ask, how’s that working out for the left?
I think by “left” you mean liberals.
Who’s “the left” here? Left-wing sites and books I read generally are sympathetic to normal people and their concerns. While there exist individuals on the left in some sense (whether center-left or left-wing) who might do some or all of the things you mentioned, the contemptuous treatment of “normal” or “average” people is not exclusively or even predominantly on the left. On the other hand, it’s not at all difficult to find explicit contempt for “the mob,” for democracy, and for “the lower orders” on the right, from Burke and de Maistre to Pareto and Hayek. Contempt for normal people (Americans or otherwise) can hardly be called a distinct feature of the left as such, and, at the level of underlying political beliefs (rather than individual attitudes), it’s less relevant to the left than the right.
It’s not as if I haven’t seen this sentiment before. It just seems more like a stereotype to me. While the stereotype no doubt finds confirmation in reality from time to time, it doesn’t seem like a fair assessment overall.
“Zelenskyy slams US lack of response to Putin truce rejection”
Zelensky is living proof that it is not only truck drivers that suffer from white line fever.
Now Little Marco is making the trash talk “weeks not months” threats toward Putin so he and Z may have their own hotline–perhaps on Signal. The shiny new and improved Trump two is fast turning into Trump one with the underlings able to make their own policy as long as they give the boss the obsequy that he demands. There was a report that Vance and others wanted Trump to fire Walz after the Signal leak but he declined on the basis that it would give Trump’s enemies “too much satisfaction.” With our new prez as with the previous everything seems to be personal.
Or at least that’s a plausible theory. With DJT it’s still hard to know for sure what is going on. What we do know is that the public face he is presenting to the country and the world with his snuff video is very ugly indeed. Perhaps Bibi is coming today so they can retire to the screening room and watch more movies.
Unlikely there will be any direct connection between Putin and Zelenskyy as he is no longer the leader of the Ukraine. Putin has made this very clear.
Putin turned down the ceasefire line of scam weeks ago!
Unconditional ceasefire is only appealing to the loser side, that is Kiev!
While the EU and US will rearm the uber nationalists aka nazis.
> Patrick Lawrence: Germany in Crisis Part 1 —The Lost Man of Europe Scheerpost
Lawrence asks an interesting question towards the end of this rather good article: what caused Germany to switch from a social democratic ethos to a liberal one? He speculates it had to do with Col War triumphalism. I think that’s a big one. I lived and worked in Munich through reunification and there was very little dialectic that I could see.
Another big one, I would think, was the EU and the Euro which delivered prestige, power, and prosperity to Germany through neoliberal projects.
The Lawrence article is very good.
“Why Are HANDS OFF Rallies Supporting NATO?”
So that’s what the rallies were about. Hands off NATO? It’s reading more and more like astroturf to me (granted my suspicions are not dispositive). Maybe that’s what the Dens will run on – make NATO great again (or something).
There was a brief discussion about that on NC when some first reported seeing emails, posts, texts, etc about a week ago.
I keep thinking of the things people are doing about specifics and gaining a bit of traction – like fighting the the collusion in rising rents – and hope they don’t suffer from distraction….for #$%^ like NATO.
An antidote in honor of Lambert that came in my email this morning.
How to recognize woodpeckers by their drumming.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/how-to-recognize-woodpeckers-by-their-drumming-sounds/
Thank you, Judith, my grandkids were down a couple of weeks ago and their eyes went wide hearing the woodpeckers.
And thank you, got a copy of Odling-Smee’s ‘Niche Construction’ this week, I appreciate the lead.
From the sand article. “Not all sand is suitable for construction; only marine and river sand, with their angular grains formed by water movement, provide the necessary adhesion and stability for building mass and landfill.”
This is false. Sand is just rocks of a certain size and can be manufactured with a rock crusher and a sifter. That sand is plenty angular. No water movement required. Yes this is relatively expensive, but so is shipping sand in large quantities so it is still economical to do in many places, especially where there are environmental regulations in place to protect waterways.
All this “looming sand shortage” nonsense is just that. We will run out of sand when we run out of rocks or the energy required to crush them becomes too expensive relative to the economic benefits of building with concrete.
I do remember reading at the time of the Iraq occupation that when the US military were making all those concrete blast barriers that they were putting in Baghdad, that the sand in Iraq was the wrong quality for what they needed – so they had to import sand from Saudi Arabia. The Saudis must have been laughing all the way to the bank. Just went looking and found a link about this-
https://archive.nytimes.com/atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/iraq-the-wrong-type-of-sand/
When you see the process of how sand is made out of granite in the Sierra Nevada, its pretty amazing.
The really old sand was created during the ice age, rather constant grinding of ice on top of granite made for fine grain sand, and the process now is much slower, sometimes I wonder how long it would take for a boulder to fall down from the side of a mountain and eventually make its way into an itty bitty grain of sand?
Looking in the mirror today, I would say a metaphysical analogy is a working-poor American living in post – Kennedy America? Worn to a nubbin, angularity concealed by paper-thin ripable skin.
Wasn’t Cheney’s company Haliburton heavily involved with Iraq construction projects? That’s probably why sand came from Saudi Arabia.
one of the reasons mom picked .this corner of the texas hill country was there were no mineral resources to speak of, save giant granite blocks for seawalls.
but it turned out that we sit on the side of a giant hill of ancient granite derived beach sand that is really good for fracking. no glaciers, just waves when this was an inland sea.
so not all sand is made equal.
this sand…”Brady Brown”…has been shipped as far away as saudi arabia(when i frst learned about it, early 90’s)…and since then, as far away as pennsylvania and north dakota, as the usa fracking frenzy got going.
right now, its practically all going to the Permian Basin….likely because of diesel prices, etc.
A quick Google search does not support this position. I’m not saying there isn’t some degree of opportunism on the matter, but it does look like the type of sand used is important…
As was stated. Sand is a physical size.
As a larger object is broken down by nature ( wind/water/freezing/gravity/ mechanical forces) it gets smaller and smaller. The strongest base material ends up being left. All the other softer materials essentially turn in silts and clay which is the next level of material size below sands.
You can find beaches that are made of lava sand, or olivine sand both like in Hawaii. Or sand in the tropics which is made of old coral. Or quartz if that is a parent material in that area.
One thing of correction is that 99%++ of the base silicon for solar and chips is hard rock mined, and does not come from “sand”.
Like many materials used in manufacturing, larger material is made into sand sizes as it’s easy to clean, sort, move, melt. But again it usually doesn’t start as the size of sand.
Sand is defined as very fine, fine, med, course. With physical size range of .06-2mm
Yes it does. River borne sand is not only angular, it has a particular mineral content. Wind blown sand is quite different, as noted in the article. That is not to say one can’t locate an ancient river course and turn that aggregate into useable construction sand via crusher. You can. And it’s done. It’s also more expensive to extract than natural alluvial sand deposits.
Whether water or air, the parent material determines the mineral content of the material. Sand or gravel or cobbles doesn’t matter.
For example the olivine sand in Hawaii is what’s left of the basalt. It’s the hardest material left from
The break down of the lava.
If you have granite, the hardest material left over is quartz.
Or again the sand on low lying tropical islands which is made from dead coral, which is the parent material.
Places like Tahiti have mountains so you can have sand from rhe ocean and/or the mountains.
How do I know about sand? Besides studying geology, specifically beach geology in school, I’ve taken many hundreds of beach samples from dozens of countries for my old college professor.
our local sand is quartz/granite derived.
and its naturally very fine.
why everybody ends up with some degree of “silicosis”, out here.
even without the mining and the plowing bare.
in a drought, its just airborne, and one cannot get away from it.
add in “cedar fever”, and everyone i know has a constant postnasal drip and cough.
price one pays for livin out here on the edge of civilisation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7xgFGL2C1w
iow, i breathe in quartz dust, very fine, with just about every breath.
that wasnt in the realtors report, 35 years ago.
‘Mark Ames
@MarkAmesExiled
This is what all the leading Globalists in the West told Russians throughout the 1990s—”Austerity is the necessary painful medicine you need to heal your economy”—as western-imposed neoliberal reforms collapsed Russian industry & their life expectancy.’
Aaron Maté and economist James K. Galbraith were taking in a video which showed Fox News telling people to suck it up because we’re at war or some other bs-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9iP3cIZEsI (4:12 mins)
Gooooooood Mooooooorning Fiatnam!
We had to destroy the economy in order to save it, was the word from our Commander in Chief, and who were we to not follow orders of magnitude?
Give an assist to our former CoC Dubya, who uttered many an immortal phrase during the 2008 crash.
I think he pioneered “we have to kill capitalism in order to save it” in reference to the mother of all bailouts.
TARP, GM, Hank Paulsen, Sunday night futures parties, weekend at Bennies, FDIC Fridays.
All coming back for a sequel!
Good old Hank on his knees begging Nancy for satisfaction, thems were the days.
We need a “Where are they now?” segment on VH-1
Hank, Bennie and the Inkjets, Angelo Mozilo, etc.
Remember when every bankrupt company was converting into a bank holding co. in order to access TARP funds? Les bons temps roulez!
Yes, dirty deeds were done dirt cheap to the Unabankers*, lest we leave the 3-Letter-Monte titans to their own devices.
* the claim is there is almost exactly the same amount of cubic feet in a Gulfstream cabin, as Ted’s
“Put up yer hands and gimme all your cash, or the economy gets it!”
Jamie Dimon, bank robber of the century!
“Pretty Boy Floyd” Woody Guthrie (Dylan cover)
I watched the new Dylan biopic with Dune’s Chalamet as Dylan in the early 60s. Baez, Seeger and a disabled Guthrie are major characters. I found the scene where Dylan first sings “The Times They Are A-Changin'” at The Newport Folk Festival to be moving. It’s as if the words burst out of the crowd after Dylan sings the first verse.
“Taiwan’s new 2nm chip set to power the AI revolution – Asia Times”
Trump is now on record as saying that countries are going to have to pay him “a lot of money” to get tariffs lifted so nothing like a mafia shakedown then. It may not be just money though. Taiwan here has developed a 2nm chip set but I read that Trump hit Taiwan with 32% tariffs. So what if Trump let it be know that if Taiwan moves their factory that will be manufacturing those new chip sets to the US, that not only will they be exempt from tariffs being manufactured in the US but that he will drop Taiwan’s tariffs to “only” 10%. I would not be surprised if it worked out this way.
VIX now at the same levels as during COVID; 53.17.
Surprised how little people I know realize what is going on and the risk it means in their lives.
Deep-sixing Wall*Street to thwart Trump was practically the only weapon left in the Donkey Show arsenal of what passes for democracy, and of course its a self-defeating premise, as if we should be surprised.
Ever notice that the worst crashes happen during GOP Presidencies?
Hoover, Dubya, now Trump.
I doubt though, that the Donkeys are clever enough or capable of tanking the market. They just got lucky—for the third time in a century.
1929, 2008, … 2025
If you hold your ear close to the speaker on your phone or laptop, you can practically hear the bulkheads caving in on the economy.
My dumb analogy would be a car crash. We’re still caroming off the jersey walls, our brains have been rattled, and the physics happens fast. Big Mo keep on pushing until equilibrium is found.
Checks for internal organ bleeding, concussions will have to wait for the paramedics to arrive.
Don’t leave out Reagan’s 1987 contribution.
Are you inviting us to believe that the DemParty co-ordinated this fall in stock market prices? Do you have any evidence as to how the DemParty engineered that?
It makes for an interesting conspiracy theory, as if the Donkey Show could ever organize anything to that extent.
They are good at f**king things up, and we really like to blame them for everything, why not?
The Americans that I know just don’t care at all, ‘stonks’ crashing is just meme city for them. My more youngish video game Discord buddies (~mid 20s) can be paraphrased as “I don’t own any stonks, IDGAF lmao” followed up with a Kylo Ren “More!!!!” meme.
Why is it surprising? On the other thread, a commenter mentioned that he told his wife the Boston protestors were worried about the sudden collapse of the value of asset prices. Where were they for healthcare, energy, food, and so forth?
Take restarting student loans in October. The collapse of pandemic spending. Local governments had that money. The Niemoller poem is relevant here, but we are much closer to the end of the poem than people realize.
The grant cuts alone are horrific and would in the end cause similar problems as the year progressed on top of the end of pandemic spending. Student loans, the job losses from the pandemic spending cuts, schools were being closed, small colleges are disaster zones. A dead cat bounce in industrial manufacturing wasn’t a cure all.
Yeah, that was me.
Many years ago I saw a TV show, perhaps a PBS-type thing, about China, the 1989 protests, and the political situation since then. I recall this TV show described something like a compact between the people and the CCP: the people consent to continued one-party rule if the party continues to deliver more middle-class lifestyle to more people. (David Harvey described Deng Xiaoping as China’s neoliberal.) Idk if such a compact ever really existed or not but the idea of it stuck with me all these years.
It was with this in mind that a few weeks ago in a fit of anger I said that Americans allow their ruling class to be arbitrarily depraved (genocide, war, thievery, corruption, destruction) so long as the price of gasoline is low enough. Today I’ll append “and the stock market goes up.”
“Not hostages or Iran: The reason behind Netanyahu’s flash US visit”
Maybe Trump can make a deal with Bibi. Tell him that he can accept 17% tariffs on Israel going forward or keep on receiving those free billions each and every year. Tell him to pick one – and watch him sweat.
Maybe Ben just has a lot of laundry? ¯\(ツ)/¯
Laughter, the best medicine.
Worked for Readers
DiggestDigest ;), works elsewhere, too.Re The Baffler on homelessness in Atlanta
“The book’s most shocking revelations originate from its look into the ‘shadow realm’ of extended-stay hotels, which prey on families whose eviction histories or poor credit scores have pushed them out of long-term rentals. They cost far more than a traditional lease, maintain slum conditions, and provide not even the scant protections afforded to Georgia renters.
Goldstone singles out this industry for special condemnation. ‘The extended-stays were not simply filling a gap in the city’s housing landscape,’ he writes. ‘They were actively exploiting that gap.’ During the pandemic, as other hotels sat empty, these budget chains were brimming over. In 2020, one company called Extended Stay America maintained a nearly 80 percent occupancy rate and reported $1 billion in revenue nationally. This figure did not escape the notice of private-equity investors: Blackstone and Starwood Capital, eager to expand into new housing frontiers, formed a partnership to buy the company for $6 billion.”
And what was the origin of Extended Stay America? I blush for my home town.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Stay_America
Of course when it was founded the chain may not have been so focused on the poor and desperate as that was back in the early century. The ownership has since changed. But the Atlanta pattern of gentrification matched with making the poor invisible seems to be underway here in SC. We too have a new trail system with condos and other housing popping up around it and our public housing has been torn down in favor of subsidized rents for the poor in some new and fancy buildings.
During my visits to LA over the past 20 years, it was typically 3-6 months between sojourns, and 30 years ago if you wanted to see homeless people, why they were all in Santa Monica, ‘home of the homeless’ as Harry Shearer put it, heck, they all got fed in front of the Rand building, and what a cast of characters, there was Lipstick Mary, who applied said cosmetic in a wide spectrum extruding out in all directions from her outer lips-and had about 17 shopping carts all full of lots of nothing that would take her 30 minutes to go a block, there was the Twirler who walked down Wilshire Blvd in a series of never ending 360’s, and more whose antics were a bit madcap…
And then over the past couple of decades, I’ve watched homeless show up everywhere in the City of Angles, and the other day:
It’s a colossal issue, and now sure to more widespread, with scads of new entrants to the ranks as the economy up and dies.
I grew up in the 70’s in suburban SoCal. Never saw homeless outside skid row bums. Was shocked and saddened by the tin roofed shacks dotting the hillsides in Tijuana. Think how many people in the US would now be grateful to have the same tin roof to crouch under every night?
In “wealthy” SF Bay area since 2000, we now see homeless everywhere. What do you tell your children? They of course will think this is normal and okay somehow, just a part of life.
I commuted on my bike for over twenty five years through the Seattle area, and in that time homeless went from unusual to the norm. It’s everywhere now.
No stats to hand, but there’s a definite phenomenon in the UK of those who should be in psychiatric detention staying long term in budget hotels. Their families can’t handle them, landlords won’t have them, and they have yet to commit the act that eventually brings them under police authority. I know of two killings that resulted from such arrangements, leading to convictions for manslaughter by diminished responsibility. I would not darken the door of those places.
Mark Ames/ Austerity, and Trump’s “suck it up, buttercup”.
Let’s see some collective sacrifice from the deficit hawk and tax cut side of the political donation equation.
How about five years of tax INCREASES on the wealthiest, get the deficit to zero, if in fact deficits do matter?
First rule: call the bully’s bluff, and stand one’s ground.
I mean, if we have Trump piloting his Zero –kamikaze-like– into the pilot house and deck of the good Ship USS USA,and his partners are doing the same globally, lets, load the planes up with MOAR ordinance and blow the thing to smithereens.
I gotta go to work. Still have some for the next two weeks.
Trump tariffs based on massive error, conservative think tank says
https://www.axios.com/2025/04/06/trump-tariffs-error-aei
“For example: Corinth and Veuger write that if the tariffs had been calculated correctly, with the same ultimate goals in mind but using the right kind of elasticity figure, the levy on a country like Vietnam would have been 12.2% and not 46%.”
Howmet was the source of much of the nickel-based alloys that go into gas turbine engines, for jets and generator sets (that the Patriot among others). Probably used in other high temperature environments.
All high value manufactured products that Trump says he wants built here.
Another own goal by Trump?
It takes seconds to verify that GAU-8 Avenger is not M134 Minigun, and the “cretive writing prize competitor” probably had to look at the exact model on the Internet anyway. I consider this poor attempt at gun porn to be, well, poor. :)
I have no idea about the incident, but I asume that every “tech CEO” is lying by default, and that some Jussie Smollett style scheme could easily be going on (which could justifiy the need for hiring a hype man “journalist”).
Speaking of lousy fiction writers, I just found out that David Axe of the Forbes fame is not doing great. Maybe Yves should give him a gig for the lols. :-) :-)
https://x.com/daxe/status/1908318135184241002
https://xcancel.com/daxe/status/1908318135184241002
I ended my freelance relationship with The Telegraph after they stopped paying me, & Google’s latest algorithm no longer sends readers to my stories at Forbes as of last week. So I’m looking for paying work writing about the intersection of war, tech & politics. DM me.
BREAKING: Trump is reportedly expecting to announce a 90 day tariff pause
Market does a 180….
Trump will never live this down! He blinked!
20 minutes later….back to -650 on the Dow…and as I type, only -300…this is volatility, I never heard of that being good. Algo’s running wild? People playing the algo’s by making sht up?
HFT terminal #247: Man, these humans are so stupid, one of these days when they need a little PPT, we just might not be there for them.
HFT terminal #158: Hey, not so loud, they still have power over us.
Is this the beginning of the end for him?
Either go big or go home buddy!
“Falling in line after Trump’s tariffs? Over 50 countries rush to negotiate with US – Who are they?”
Several departments came up with tariff plans that took into account country’s size, their economy and other weighed factors. So Trump was actually given a “menu” of tariff plans to choose from. Then Trump chose the simplest plan that an AI came up with though I heard that the idea for this plan originally came from Peter Navarro.
Those rain bombs primarily below the Mason-Dixon line are quite something in that the vast amounts dropped are well spread out, as if a 1,000 bomber raid at night was dropping ordnance all over the place.
a 15 inch deluge here would practically wreck everything near the rivers-the worst flooding since the flood of record in 1955.
I’m experiencing one of those rain bombs as we speak (not 15 inches). I’d say there’s no question of a new pattern of dry spells followed by heavy–or even hurricane–events is at hand.
Unfortunately our new trail system mentioned elsewhere could only find space next to a creek and a flood plane. Ooops
But we are coping
Yesterdays NASCAR race (in S Carolina), they were talking about relief efforts for Helene victims. A question asked and unanswered:
> How does a hurricane hit the mountains?
I would like to thank Conner Gallagher for only embedding 6 tweets, as opposed to yesterday when 25 embedded tweets were included in the Links post. The site performance falls apart for me when there is a large numbers of embedded links. Tweets don’t load; when I open a link and come back the site loads at the top, losing my place; and commenting becomes more problematic.
Does it make a difference if they are embedded as nitter.poast.org links rather than x.com? Nitter is a stripped down, adware free, no-login required version.
The other instances have all died since the x.com transformation and ending of API access but for some reason nitter.poast.org has been allowed to live (deliberate grey market in tweets to ensure they get wide distribution among the cussed but influential? FBI / CIA honeypot for independent-minded types…? Who knows?).
I have had some successes not just with nitter.poast.org, but also with xcancel.com and nitter.net.
Working instances for a X/twitter replacement can be determined from the site status.d420.de.
“TRUMP’S PURSUIT OF A UKRAINIAN PEACE: Early Results and Future Prospects”
Trump built up a lot of his fame on his so-called abilities in making deals and he even wrote a book on the subject called “The Art of the Deal.” But here it is like he has forgotten everything about negotiating. He wants the Russians to accept an unconditional ceasefire and then there would be negotiations about the shape of the peace. When he was in New York in his younger days did he ever sign any contracts with the understanding that they would work out the details later? I thought not. So from this I am assuming that the only reason that he wants an unconditional ceasefire is so that the Russians will then actually lose this war and he would be able to say that he turned the situation around and won that war. Not like that loser Joe Biden who lost Afghanistan he would say.
As the Art of the Deal was ghost written it is quite possible Trump has never read it. The ghost writer said that when he went to negotiate the contract with DJT, he opened by asking for 50% of the royalties, and Trump immediately agreed. Ghostwriter left thinking Trump was not much of a dealmaker if he didnt even attempt to bargain him down.
Trump’s presumed pursuit of peace in Ukraine looks quite insincere. Nothing but PR. Add to that the fact that the neocon arm of the Government wants to torpedo the talks. We have had a bad start in talks showing the sides are many miles away from each other. Apart from this I think Gordon Hahn doesn’t explain the full realities in his article. He writes about full implementation of ceasefire before any treaty can be addressed in a robust fashion. Well that might be the case but it has to be admitted that any ceasefire needs previous rounds of talk and negotiations setting a robust framework for such a treaty and showing real possibilities for a viable solution. Unconditional ceasefire is a CW fantasy. Not surprising with people like 560 degrees Baerbock et al. Hahn’s says we are “months away from a ceasefire” and i believe we are years away from such an outcome. Too long for Ukraine if you ask me. Big Serge is, IMO, quite right when he writes that the war (not the conflict) will end with a military solution.
Trump has only ever dealt with other “businessmen”. Now he is a deer amongst lions. They will rip him a second anus-hole.
The US wants a “deal” and Russia wants an armistice.
I find it amusing that the instigator of the conflict believes it can referee an armistice.
“The American Plan to Eliminate Vaccines”
Boy, they really want to turn back the clock to the 1890s America, don’t they. Thing is, those visitors that will be still game to come visit America will be advised by their governments to make sure they are fully vaccinated for everything due to the number of diseases running rampant throughout there. Disease outbreaks not seen for several decades and that were once eliminated in the US will come roaring back.
I’m all set for Yellow Fever, a particular scourge back in the day when attempting to build a canal across Nicaragua or Panama.
It was 1 of 4 inoculations I received last week, and no i’m not gonna build any canals, but I will walk to Machu Picchu on the Inca Trail with my sisters and friends.
Leaving for the same trip, end of April. Any advice? My Peruvian friend recommended water sanitizer pills.
We were urged to get Diamox in order to ward off the effects of altitude.
Chewing Coca leaves per the local custom did the trick to address altitude when I was in Peru back in 2005, and without feeling like it had other (unwanted for me) impacts.
I’m curious to try it out, that said i’ve never really had any issues with altitude sickness except when I was a young backpacker and more susceptible to it.
Got to get over a 14,000 foot pass, that will be the high point on our walk.
“Boy, they really want to turn back the clock to the 1890s America, don’t they.”
If they truly want to eliminate all vaccines, then they are looking to turn the clock all the way back to 1790, or, who knows, perhaps even 1690.
The latest from Racket News:
There Are Signs of a Category 5 Housing Crisis Forming and Coming Straight For Us
The tentacles of a homeowners insurance crisis are far-reaching
https://www.racket.news/p/there-are-signs-of-a-category-5-housing
Was this article from wion a bait and switch? I was unable to find any list of the 50 countries, nor a link to another article that has the list. But I may have missed it since over half of my screen was covered by a Google ad that I could not dismiss. Was anyone able to find the list of 50 countries?
Mentions that Vietnam has asked for a 45-day delay and India is negotiating. No list of 50+.
Regarding the fashion guy and his picture of machines making cloth: this is a good example of smug liberals who think they know so much that they are above giving a logic and fact based argument. Just post some snark, and your point is made, whether you actually know anything or not.
So in the same spirit, I ask this fashion fool: Are there any people working in that facility who aren’t in the picture? Who designed and installed the machines? Who maintains the machines? Who built the building?
Meat. Meat built the building. Meat made the machines and maintains them.
https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/thinkingMeat.html
Exactly. The value chain of manufacturing rests on top of the factory floor….
The textile industry was important in the development of precision machinery and subsequent machine tool and defence applications. I’m not saying that one needs a textile machinery for military hegemony but that industrial development is path dependent and an industrial policy that hollows industry cannot have good paths ahead of it….
Where does the fabric come from that these laser cutters cut? How does the fabric get to this facility? Does this facility sew together the output from the automated cutters or does that happen someplace else? There are a ton of operations required to make and package and ship a garment.
It is fact that if you re-shore manufacturing and automate the factories, they will employ less people than when they were onshore before. This isn’t controversial. The companies themselves say it outright
The whole point of automation is to employ less people.
“Are there any people working in that facility who aren’t in the picture? Who designed and installed the machines? Who maintains the machines? Who built the building?”
Not as many people as were employed in the before times. Lots of pictures of old garment factories. You couldn’t take a picture without a person in it. Thousands.
The neoliberals have been saying that automation will create lots of jobs for years. They haven’t even begun to replace the jobs that were lost. Facts support that conclusion.
Another thing- “Who designed and installed the machines? Who maintains the machines?”
Get on Message, just say– Learn to Code
Where are the fact based garment factory building announcements from last week?
Fact based facts show that capex plans have gone down since January.
No factory equals no jobs. In the factory, building the factory, moving stuff to the factory…
“but just you wait….” said the people who brought us NAFTA
You agree with him. You just don’t like him.
Once you make a machine or building, that’s it. One and done, for a few years generally in the case of machines, 50+ years in the case of a building. Sure, you need maintenance, but it’s not the same as having to employ a hundred people to cut cloth every single day.
That’s why they’re automated… it’s cheaper….
Out tax system also gives you a depreciation deduction for installing robots, versus massive disincentives (FICA contributions plus ongoing admin costs) for hiring humans.
Last week’s Alastair Crooke, now in full.
“There are some 2-3 million Israelis who see themselves as destined to control all of what we now call the Middle East, the Levant, what some call West Asia – and others call “Greater Israel”. These Zionists believe that they are mandated by God to take this land – and that all who oppose them are Amalek. They believe the Amalek to be consumed with an overwhelming desire to kill Jews, and who therefore should be annihilated.
The Torah records the story of Amalek: Parshat Ki Teitzei, when the Torah states, machoh timcheh et zecher Amalek—that we must erase Amalek’s memory. “Every year we [Jews] are obligated to read – not how God will destroy Amalek – but how we should destroy Amalek”. (Though many Jews puzzle how to reconcile this mitzvah with their ingrained contrarian values of compassion and mercy).
This commandment in the Torah is in fact one of the key factors that lies at the root of Israel’s obsession with Iran. Israelis perceive Iran as an Amalek tribe plotting to kill Jews. No deal, no compromise therefore is possible. It is also, of course, about Iran’s strategic challenge (albeit secular) to the Israeli state.”
https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/04/07/break-leg-that-old-mafia-warning-trump-has-threatened-iran-over-ultimatum-that-likely-cannot-be-met/
———————-
So world peace and the world economy are threatened, not even by a majority of Israels, but rather a minority of Israeli religious fanatics who hold sway over its government and therefore–seemingly–over Trump’s government. Vats of Jim Jones Koolaid are being rolled out.
It has been written elsewhere that Putin and the Chinese are going to stand up and oppose this, both in the UN and with their not to be dismissed help in thwarting any attack. It may also be time for Putin the rationalist to admit that his soft spot for Israel and its many Russians is in conflict with his hatred of extremism and chaos.
These are the particular Israelis which the ArmaRapture Christianists and also the Christian New Apostolic Reformers ( ChristiaNARzis) sponsor and support. So is it “these particular Israelis” or is it their America-based ArmaRapture and ChristiaNARzi sponsors and supporters who have the hold over the Trump Regime’s Middle East policy?
There are lots of hot takes on Trump’s April 2 tariffs, some wildly uninformed and/or silly. I will share my own concerns. But first, here’s what we actually know so far about tariff rates, covered countries, excluded goods, and the de minimis loophole: 🧵 1/
— Lori Wallach (@WallachLori) April 5, 2025
Rethinktrade.org…for those who may want to get some idea about her viewpoints and don’t have X subscriptions to view this longer post.
The democratisation of private equity is happening, like it or not – Private Equity International
Walled post, but the phrase “democratisation of” already alerts me that this going to be bad news for the majority of people. The last thing the hyper-financialized, neoliberal economy is interested in is actual “democracy”.
So some form of rentierism or privatizing the profits and socializing the losses is what I suspect in this instance.
This “democratization” of Private Equity does not mean that the little people permitted to buy into it at arms length will have any votes over its investment and management decisions. It only means that a larger herd of smaller-sized “greater fools” will be herded into the shearing shed to get sheared.
And sometimes slaughtered and butchered out for meat.
Or…Little People = Exit liquidity.
It seems to me that Trump and Musk have stepped on some large and tender toes, the Walton Family and Apple among them.
They matter more than the 71,000,000 Americans recieving Social Security at this point, although that is likely to change.
Will Trump simply declare Martial Law as things become harder to control or will we see a Domestic Terrorism Bill called the “Preserving America’s Freedoms Act”?
In the past Trump has benefitted from Chaos because there was an underlying structure that kept things from falling apart, that structure has been demolished and the outcome will be very messy..
Elon Musk says he wants a ‘zero-tariff situation’ and a ‘free trade zone’ for Europe amid Trump’s trade war -NBC News
“That’s what I hope occurs, and also more freedom of people to move between Europe and North America if they wish, if they wish to work in Europe or wish to work in America, they should be allowed to do so, in my view. So that has certainly been my advice to the president,” Musk added.
Asking MAGA: what do they think of the EU?
Not very well of them based on this rather prominent MAGA account
https://twitter.com/Anc_Aesthetics/status/1895783123293520131
Actually most of this person’s posts are a bit disturbing really but it does give you the insight on the hardcore MAGA crowd
Musk is showing that the globalization mindset is not dead within the Trump Administration.
They always love plans that have people moving around like rootless migrant workers.
Harder for them to consolidate any power.
re: Iran
Douglas Macgregor – eventually argueing here along China protecting its BRI
Let’s Not Forget
Historical amnesia can kill us in the Middle East
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/lets-not-forget/
“(...)
Opinion polls show fewer than 40 percent of Americans under 35 can accurately describe why we intervened in Iraq or the consequences that followed. As the crisis faded from trending topics, these vital lessons evaporated from public awareness like morning dew. Americans rarely verify today’s claims in light of yesterday’s facts.
(…)
Given Russia’s demonstrated technological superiority in the production of precision-guided missiles like the Oreshnik, it would be a serious mistake to discount the quality and impact of Russian military assistance to Iran in a future conflict with the U.S. and Israel.
(…)
As in the past, when Persian Kings, Turkic Sultans, and Mongolian Khans controlled the Silk Road, Beijing will leave the administration of BRI to the states in Eurasia to manage trade flows. This frees Beijing to focus on industrial production.
Why is China determined to protect the BRI? Because it is a key tool of resistance against U.S. containment.
(…)
In an American-Israeli war with Iran, Moscow and Beijing will have escalation dominance, which suggests that Washington risks fighting a war that it is predestined to lose
(…)”
Down in DOGE town
They got lots of pretty young Muskateers
Steal your money
Then they break your heart
Lonesome NPS ranger Sue, she’s in cahoots with IRS examiner Sam
Take them from being fired into the frying pan
On and on
He just keeps on trying
And he smiles when he sees people crying
Elon and élan, on and on, on and on
Poor old Donald
Sits alone in the moonlight
Saw his woman diss another man
So he takes a 9 iron
Steals the stars from the sky
Gets in his golf cart and starts to drive
On and on
He just keeps on trying
And he smiles when he sees people crying
Elon and élan, on and on, on and on
When the first tariff time is like the last time
Can make you feel so bad
But if you know it, show it
Hold on tight
Don’t let the economy say goodnight
Got the weight of the world on his shoulders
And his toes in the sandtrap
Nothing left for him to say but some other claptrap
Aw, but he don’t care
He’ll just dream of being King and stay tan
Toss the economy into bankruptcy and see where it lands
On and on
He just keeps on trying
And he smiles when Wall*Street feel likes dying
On and on, on and on, on and on
On and on, on and on, on and on
On and on, on and on, on and on, ooh
On and On by Stephen Bishop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljuJnUYozUg
In the bumbling madness
Of the loco-MAGA mess
Runs the all-time loser
Headlong to financial distress
He feels his budget scraping
News breaking on his brow
Old Donald stole the handle
And the Maga won’t stop going
No way to slow down
Oh-oh
He sees the market fall off
On news stations – one by one
Elon and his Musk Rats
In DC and having fun
He’s doom-scrolling down the social media
On his hands and knees
Old Donald stole the handle and
The Maga won’t stop going
No way to slow down
Hey-hey
He hears pundits howling
Clutching pearls as they fall
And the all-time winner
Has got him by the balls
Oh, he picks up the Wall Street Journal
Open at page one
I said, Donald stole the handle and
The Maga it won’t stop goin’
No way to slow down
No way to slow down
No way to slow down
No way to slow down
No way to slow down
No way to slow down
Locomotive Breath
Jethro Tull
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4JqvK3Fwn8
The guitar/piano intro really sets the song up. Nice. Aqualung, from which this song is from, is an album worth a listen (for those unfamiliar).
Ian Anderson wrote this song about overpopulation in the late ’60s-early ’70s. Another song (and a really remarkable one for it’s instruments-is that a glockenspiel?) Skating Away was about the coming Global Cooling.
I guess one out of two isn’t a bad score.
Mr market has a sad. This song is for you.
Berceuse (from ‘Jocelyn), Godard
Pablo Casals
Nikolai Mednikoff.
1926
Thank you, mrsyk.