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.
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
“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.
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?
Re: EU joins ‘Klondike’ rush for Central Asia
Central Asia’s invitation to become the next Ukraine.
“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
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.
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.
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…..
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.
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.
“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.
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.
“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.
‘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!
“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.
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.
“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.
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”).
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
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.
“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.
“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.
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
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?