Oklahoma boy astounds classmates with his ability to do 50 different bird calls CBS (Regan)
No, the Dire Wolf Has Not Been Brought Back From Extinction New Scientist
#COVID-19/Pandemics
Third measles death Your Local Epidemiologist (Dr. Kevin)
Milk tested for bird flu reveals a scientific mystery Iowa Capital Dispatch (Robin K)
Climate/Environment
“Putting a price on nature opens the door to its financialisation, not its protection” REDDMonitor (Micael T)
Trump officials quietly move to reverse bans on toxic ‘forever chemicals’ Guardian (Kevin W)
In New England, Canadian hydropower has slowed to an ominous trickle Grist
How Trump’s Forest Service Cuts Could Affect Wildland Firefighting ProPublica (Robin K)
China?
China Just Turned Off U.S. Supplies Of Minerals Critical For Defense & Cleantech CleanTech (Kevin W)
Interesting comparison between China and the USA. China's incarceration rate is nearly 80% lower than in the US, and 32% lower than the world average. pic.twitter.com/VyzBp41HOX
— Jason Hickel (@jasonhickel) April 4, 2025
3/29-30th, Shanghai Yangshan Port refueled Korean ship HMM Green in its automated pier w/ 2902t green methanol + 1532 TEU containers. 1st time an internationally operated ship bunkered Chinese produced green methanol.
A step in Shanghai becoming the global green fuel refueling… https://t.co/eo8uy62y9J pic.twitter.com/YwWTUkidvU— tphuang (@tphuang) April 6, 2025
Koreas
South Korea sets snap election date after President Yoon’s removal from office Guardian
Africa
Power outages in Khartoum and northern Sudan after attack on hydroelectric dam National News
Nigeria’s debt hits record N145trn on rising borrowings Business Day
European Disunion
Germany considers school lessons to prepare students for crisis and war situations Anadolu Agency
Estonian Foreign Minister: EU close to depriving Hungary of its voting rights because of its stance towards Russia Anti-Spiegel via machine translation. Micael T: “Hungary will not enforce sanctions and boost their economy as a consequence? That‘ll teach them Hungarians to stick to the EU-loser script.”
Old Blighty
‘They’re everywhere’: workers warn of rat infestation at Somerset nuclear plant Guardian
Israel v. The Resistance
Live: Israel bombs media tent near Nasser hospital, killing two journalists Middle East Eye
Looking Back, Israeli Historian Tom Segev Thinks Zionism Was a Mistake Haaretz
High Court set to hear high-stakes challenge to government’s firing of Shin Bet chief Times of Israel
The Nonsensical Case for the Illegal War in Yemen Daniel Larison
Trump has threatened Iran over an ultimatum that likely cannot be met Alastair Crooke (Chuck L)
US in direct nuclear talks with Iran, Trump says BBC. Kevin W: “Read through to the end.”
Iran’s currency falls to record low against the dollar as tensions run high ABC
Kremlin says Russia is ready to do all it can to help resolve US-Iran nuclear tensions Middle East Monitor
New Not-So-Cold War
Putin expresses support for Ukraine ceasefire, but demands guarantees from Kiev Blitz. Putin makes a more Trump-friendly reiteration of his position.
The European Union readies itself for the possibility of war with Russia Ian Proud (Micael T)
Finnish firefighters are preparing for war – bulletproof vests and helmets for everyone YLE via machine translation (Micael T)
Russia and the US made “three steps forward” after two days of consultations in Washington Indian Punchline (Kevin W)
Big investors look to sell out of private equity after market rout Financial Times
Imperial Collapse Watch
Philistines, Philistines Everywhere Ian Walsh
Five Details That Most Observers Missed From SIPRI’s Latest International Arms Trends Report Andrew Korybko. See report: TRENDS IN INTERNATIONAL ARMS TRANSFERS, 2024 SIPRI (Micael T)
Wow wow. Mexico! From the President 1/2
🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽
🛑 BROTHERS AND SISTERS, LET US NOT BE MISTAKEN: THE ENEMY IS THE SAME
TO THE PEOPLE OF OUR INDOAMERICA
From: Claudia Sheinbaum, President of Mexico:Why does imperialism want to see us divided?*
Because it knows that…— Dr. Renee Levant (@ReneeLevant) April 6, 2025
Provocative, but I had a friend whose mother had been completely sheltered from real world hardships when growing up. She had a great deal of difficulty with adult life, had frequent panic attacks, and when her husband divorced her (this in the days when that was rare, “another woman” successfully pursued him), she regularly threatened to kill herself in front of her kids. The eldest, my friend, worked hard to shelter his two younger siblings from her moods. He saw his job as keeping her alive (starting at the age of 6!) so he did not wind up in an orphanage. So my n=1 says this can happen.
"Millennials traded discipline for 'gentle' parenting, and now we’re raising anxious, entitled kids who can’t cope. With birth rates plummeting, are millennials raising kids who act as contraceptives for the next?"
Writes @hannahspierMD in a V24 opedhttps://t.co/XpFpZG3M1o
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 8, 2025
Trump 2.0
Trump plans birthday Washington military parade – The Hill RT (Kevin W)
Pentagon Prepares for Trump to Go Berserk Ken Klippenstein
Trump To Eliminate Capital Gains Moon of Alabama
Republicans Fracture on Trump’s Tax Bill Wall Street Journal
Democratic AGs sue National Institutes of Health over disrupted medical research grants Iowa Capital Dispatch (Robin K)
GOP budget would add an ‘unprecedented’ $5.8 trillion to the deficit, analysis finds Kansas Reflector (Robin K)
Tariffs
What Happens if All Trade With China Comes to a Screeching Halt? Michael Shedlock
China vows to fight ’till the end’ after Trump’s latest tariffs threat BBC
China-led anti-US tariff pact bruited as Trump 50% deadline looms Asia Times (Kevin W)
Trump says EU must buy $350B of US energy to get tariff relief Politico (Christi I)
Apple Rushes Shipments From India To Dodge Tariffs India Times
Tariffs are splintering Donald Trump’s coalition Jacobin (Robin K)
Donald Trump’s tariff blitz sparks turmoil for green energy sector Financial Times
Democrat Death Wish
Why Do Democrats Destroy Their Own? Matt Taibbi (Chuck L)
Trigonometry, Not Triggernometry, Who Fired the Head Shot that Killed Kennedy? Larry Johnson
Immigration
Judge says deportation of Maryland man to an El Salvador prison was ‘wholly lawless’ Associated Press
Supreme Court allows Trump to enforce Alien Enemies Act for rapid deportations for now CNN (Kevin W)
Read the Supreme Court’s Ruling on Venezuelan Migrants New York Times
Google Is Helping the Trump Administration Deploy AI Along Border Intercept (Robin K)
White House mocks deported migrants (VIDEO) RT (Kevin W)
US revokes all visas for South Sudanese over country’s failure to repatriate citizens Guardian
Our No Longer Free Press
Turkish government correspondent in Sweden singled out ETC – days before arrest Blankspot via machine translation (Micael T)
Mr. Market Has a Nervous Breakdown
Trump is worse than al Qaeda Angry Bear
The Consequences of Chaos Barry Ritholtz
Chartbook 369 Are we on the edge of a major financial crisis? Trump’s Chart of Death and why bonds not equities are the big story. Adam Tooze. Makes a key point I skipped over yesterday, that equity market crises (unless the stocks are bought with a lot of margin debt) does not cause a financial crisis. See the implosion of the ginormous dot com bubble. As much as Tooze is focusing on Treasuries, IMHO he is looking at the wrong starting point. Far more likely is a crisis in multiple emerging markets….which may well afflict advanced economy markets due to bank exposures.
Crypto plunges as Trump tariff ‘medicine’ brutalizes global stock markets Cointelegraph
Trump leaves emerging market central banks with no clean choices Reuters (Robin K)
AI
BREAKING: Bill that would have blocked OpenAI’s conversion to a for-profit has mysteriously been gutted. Gary Marcus (Paul R)
US’s AI Lead Over China Rapidly Shrinking, Stanford Report Says Axios
Artificially intelligent? Or stupid? Julian Macfarlane (Micael T)
Class Warfare
There Are Signs of a Category 5 Housing Crisis Forming and Coming Straight For Us Racket (Robin K)
Antidote du jour (via):
And a bonus:
Cat Tries to Catch Mouse But What Happens Next? 😂 pic.twitter.com/8MQU2TMPTh
— contents that ll heal your depression 🌻 (@catshealdeprsn) April 8, 2025
A second bonus:
Yep, smarter than you’d think… pic.twitter.com/NphyjNGVg1
— Zlatti71 (@Zlatti_71) April 8, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Tesla Rejection
(melody borrowed from Rainbow Connection by Paul Hamilton Williams and Kenny Ascher; performed by Kermit the Frog, from The Muppet Movie)
Why does this world like to burn Tesla autos? Cybertrucks, too, get fried
People risk prison, or sudden contusions—but sales of new Teslas has died
Yes, these are crimes, and yet people achieve it; their friends tag along happily
Elon designed it, for reasons perplexing, to sell to the bourgeoisie
First it’s a chafing dish, then flames jump like dancers, and quickly consume the car
Hot as a swastika, there’s no need to feed it—a lithium reservoir
While it is blazing the crowd shouts ‘Amazing!’ Reporters show up from TeeVee
Elon designed it, for reasons perplexing, to sell to the bourgeoisie
Stand well upwind from the smell
The owner will say this is tragic
Once it’s a rubbish heap, the crowd here rejoices; there’s an insurance claim
Teslas burn worldwide, at Tesla retailers. Regicide isn’t a game.
Each Tesla owner should carefully store it—don’t leave it out on the street
Elon designed it, for reasons perplexing, to sell to the bourgeoisie
La-da-da-di, da-da-doo
La-la, da-da-da-di-da-do
“‘They’re everywhere’: workers warn of rat infestation at Somerset nuclear plant’
I find that rather ominous. When it is finished there will probably be miles of electrical lines and data cables woven throughout those buildings. So if the rats are still there when that plant is finished, who is to say that those rats won’t be munching on all those lines and cables. My wife and I met a woman recently whose place has a serious rat problem. They ate all the electricals in her car overnight so that the car had to be written off. Fortunately it was covered by insurance but will that plant be covered for damage caused by rats eating all those cables and maybe eating through walls?
Typo: Ian Welsh not Ian Walsh.
US in direct nuclear talks with Iran, Trump says BBC. Kevin W: “Read through to the end.”
Yep. Those last two paragraphs are chilling for three reasons: (1) Netanyahu’s obvious use of the U S of A as a cat’s paw / proxy; (2) the continuing fallout / mess in Italy from what happened in Libya; and (3) how only USonions could be deceived by someone like Netanyahu into thinking that Iran’s four-thousand years of civilization and history are somehow going to be leveled next week.
Heck, the Italians are still trying to figure out why Trajan made his mess in Persia: From Wiki entry in English: “In 113, Trajan embarked on his last campaign, provoked by Parthia’s decision to put an unacceptable king on the throne of Armenia, a kingdom over which the two great empires had shared hegemony since the time of Nero some fifty years earlier. Trajan, already in Syria early in 113, consistently refused to accept diplomatic approaches from the Parthians intended to settle the Armenian imbroglio peacefully.[197] As the surviving literary accounts of Trajan’s Parthian War are fragmentary and scattered,[198] it is difficult to assign them a proper context, something that has led to a long-running controversy about its precise happenings and ultimate aims.”
Look what Parthia did to Crassus…..
Simplified Julius’ ambitions.
The Parthians also humbled Mark Antony militarily in a way that did not help his own ambitions against Octavian.
The Parthians! That’s why ‘The Empire’ must humble the Persians. Revenge for what their forebears did to our forebears. Plus, look at what their “abuse” of gold, sacred blood of the Sun Kings of Wall Street, did to Market Sentiment.
Poor Crassus. To become remembered as the Patron Saint of the original FIRE Sector; back when “pump and dump” was a simpler “pump and spray.”
Ancient Parthian silver coins always seemed plentiful on the marketplace, and despite being of the same era as Roman silver coins-they didn’t have the appeal in terms of collector demand.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthian_coinage
Do not forget the Sassanids. Emperors Gordian the third, Valerian, and Julian the Apostate perished in Mesopotamia because of those pesky Persians. And a few others who survived were taught harsh lessons in warfare by those Orientals.
I actually thought the most telling passage was this one:
“Netanyahu said Israel and the US were “both united in the goal that Iran does not ever get nuclear weapons”.
“If it can be done diplomatically in a full way, the way it was done in Libya. I think that would be a good thing,” he added, referring to the North African country’s decision to dismantle its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programmes in 2003.”
That worked out great for Libya. I would imagine that Iranian officials have drawn a lesson or two from that example of “diplomacy.”
And the ghost of Khaddafi is asked: “Knowing what you know now, would you have done anything different?”.
Hillary spilled the beans that they were after Khaddafi’s karats, and Iran is a big believer in the precious.
So have the North Koreans, especially when John Bolton told them that was the aim during the first Trump Presidency.
Libya never had much of a nuclear programme, despite decades of effort, and was never remotely near even having enough fissile material for a weapon: not many countries were prepared to cooperate with such an, um, unpredictable ruler. Libya did have a large CW programme, and as part of normalisation of relations, agreed to join the CWC and destroy its stockpile. They were, in any case, largely for political purposes and to feed Gaddafi’s fantasies of being a major actor in the world. It was an open secret at the time that the whole WMD thing was just a pretext: Gaddafi wanted to come in from the cold, and the West wanted his help in fighting Islamic extremism, which he was very happy to do, because he saw it as a threat to his own rule. Unfortunately, the West massively overestimated the strength of the regime and Gaddafi’s grip on power. The rest is … history.
what?! The UK & France, with US air support, basically declared war on Libya, supporting the eastern rebel movement against Gaddafi, after Sarkozy brought him and his family up to Paris for a full honors state visit and extracted money for Sarko’s campaign – and for which reason he’s currently wearing an ankle bracelet. Sarko needed him eliminated and the UK had a long time grudge to settle over the TWA airliner incident.
I’ve read some funny stuff but this one is mort de rire.
Everything until your last sentence is basically true, or at least arguable. The West was taken by surprise by the rebellion, and decided to come in at that point to secure a place with the new government of an oil-rich state. It doesn’t alter the fact that the 2004 agreement with the West was intended to hold, and western states were deeply involved with Libya on security issues, including sending suspects to be tortured there. As you say, Gaddafi visited Paris in 2007, and signed contracts for billions of Euros of exports. There’s any amount of boring factual material that explains all this in the public domain. I wasn’t directly involved but I did know people who were.
Whether there’s actual evidence of the Libyans funding Sarkozy’s election campaign, we’ll have to wait until September to find out. As for Sarko wanting him eliminated, well it makes a good plot for a Gerard de Villiers novel, but as far as I’m aware there’s not an iota of actual proof to support it, and in any event it doesn’t invalidate my point.
So I can’t quite see what you are laughing about, sorry.
“If it can be done diplomatically in a full way, the way it was done in Libya. I think that would be a good thing,” he added…
I gasped when I read that line.
I thought the key point might be that Iran is believed to have enough fissionable material for 6 nuclear bombs.
AQ Khan gave the bomb to the Norks, wouldn’t it make sense that the Iranians were also recipients of his largess?
Guess we’ll find out~
60% is not that close to 90% weapons grade and getting there is not an easy or quick operation. On the other hand I was taught that 2kg is enough. If so they could build ~90 bombs, given the time and desire.
‘Philip Pilkington
@philippilk
This is a terrible idea. The CCP are introducing enormous levels of uncertainty into their governance model. For what? To run a trade surplus they don’t even need that much anymore with the US. I expected a steadier hand. 🤷♂️’
I totally agree with Philip Pilkington. China should just roll over and do whatever Trump tells them to do and I am sure that this will be Trump’s last economic demand. /sarc
But seriously. Who exactly is introducing enormous levels of uncertainty at the moment. Who is causing the stock market to go up and down like the Assyrian empire? Pilkington unwittingly does make mention of one thing however in that tweet. China may be able to move on without the American market but will the American market be able to keep going without China? How will the Pentagon get along without Chinese supplies? Yes, all that the US receives from China can be replaced – mostly – but it will take years if not decades. And although it will cause China economic pain, the Chinese people will support their government as they are a very patriotic people and will not accept Trump bullying their country. Trump may make things worse by introducing secondary sanctions on every other country on the planet. Don’t know what Oz would do as they are our biggest market but there comes a point where more and more countries will say to themselves that the present day America is not worth the trouble of trading with. But don’t forget to read the link called “What Happens if All Trade With China Comes to a Screeching Halt?” in today’s Links to see how bad things could really get.
But the long and the short of it all is that Trump tried to bully China and just got b****-slapped by them and now he is bellowing in outrage.
Rev Kev: China may be able to move on without the American market but will the American market be able to keep going without China?
A phrase that comes to mind is ‘The Dream Palace of the Americans.’
Because if many Americans, and Trump, imagine that in 2025 China and its economy—remain dependent on the US market, that’s a massive strategic error. To put it politely.
The big picture is that when the reduction of US imports created by Chinese retaliatory tariffs is factored in with the fact that China exports $580 billion to the US and has an overall GDP of 18 trillion, that means the reality is that its imports to the US constitute only 3 % of its GDP. So, that this trade war with the US will have an unmanageable impact for China is unlikely.
When one digs deeper, it becomes obvious that in almost every respect the US under Trump has started a war it cannot win.
Firstly, China exports about 14% of its total exports only to the United States. It exports double its US volumes to ASEAN and Russia. All China needs to do is boost its ASEAN and Russian exports to replace its US trade entirely. Estimated timeframe to accomplish that? Two years, perhaps. This doesn’t even factor in expanded Chinese trade to the EU, to Africa, and to the non-US Americas (Canada and Latin America).
Secondly, Beijing can stimulate domestic demand. It has 1.2 billion consumers sitting on a massive pile of savings. It would take a change in policy direction from Chinese authorities. But they now have an absolute incentive to pivot toward domestic consumption.
Thirdly, there’s the question of production by US companies in China (or equivalent to production, as with Apple assembly by Foxconn plants) and vice-versa. US companies certainly manufacture 10 times more in China than Chinese companies in the US, probably more. This obviously gives China further advantages.
For instance, Beijing could weigh on those US companies and throttle them. Alternatively, they can pressure them to produce more and newer goods over in China—in other words, play the same game as Trump but far better, which China is equipped to do. This would also serve to reduce any inflationary impact from Chinese tariffs on American goods on internal Chinese consumption, and offer US companies an escape to eventual retaliatory tariffs by third countries. Finally, Beijing could eventually nationalize or close those factories if that suits Chinese strategy as the trade war further escalates.
Finally, as upset consumers in China and globally vote with their feet and shun US brands as a reaction to US strategy under Trump, China will be accelerating replacement of US trade with Chinese trade around the world.
In all cases, China is better off, US companies and exports worse off.
So the US under Trump has started a war it cannot win. Some decades ago, a book titled ‘The Dream Palace of the Arabs’ detailed how Arab leaders and thinkers pursued dreams of greatness which then collided with harsh realities, leading to disillusionment, fragmentation, and cultural despair. So it will be here. Thus, the Dream Palace of the Americans.
Yeah how long do the US car companies in China last with this situation? I give it a a few days to a week or two.
: Foreign policy is domestic policy, and because our strength at home determines our strength in the world, domestic policy is foreign policy too.
: Foreign policy is really domestic policy with its hat on.
I thought Bismark originated the point, but maybe I’m misremembering Royal Flash.
I’m sorry, in searching up the quote, I have induced an unintended rhetorical ambiguity.
The second point (‘hat on’) is from Hubert Humphrey, and gives a definite order of priority.
The first is tautological mush and destroys its own argument. I’d cite the source but I keep hucking a hairball each time I try.
Searching for “strength at home determines our strength in the world” (with the quotes) suggests it was Anthony Blinken:
https://ee.usembassy.gov/2021-02-04-2/
Thank you.
I’m delighted that you have piped up and in such fashion.
@ the NC community: What M has written is better than anything I have come across in the UK and even French MSM and at work.
Thank you.
May I add that, late last week, a European Commission official told me that the Commission’s diplomatic service, the External Action Service, is engaging Japan and South Korea, but not China, over Trump’s tariffs as the Commission and many member state leaderships still see China as a threat.
Dear old Blighty thinks it can triangulate, but would prefer to do a deal with the US. Recent discussions with the EU and interested parties like the City have reached an impasse over free movement. The EU is content with a technical tidy-up.
IMHO Pilkington is right here. Again the basic problem is that US trade deficits are not sign of the world ripping off America, but the exact opposite – China is sending US real goods in exchange for funny paper. That US elites gobble up that wealth and then discard the workers because they don’t need them, is internal US problem. But I guess Trump’s antics make it hard to manage this rationally and not slip into macho contest.
On the other hand, few rounds of counter-counter-tariffs and US-China trade will completely cease in few weeks and then US will really implode, because the productive capacity can’t be replaced in months, so China will not have funny paper and US will be without basic physical goods. Maybe that’s the logic, that perhaps China can use this situation to finally reorient its economy to internal demand and override their own domestic special interests with nationalistic/war-like rhetoric and Trump is the perfect villain to rally the Chinese people around the flag.
Drama is US Finance thought it could rule the world with some UK/EU passengers operating FIRE sector econ whilst the dirty work of Mfg would be off shored to nations for wage/enviro arb – see Summers old memo.
Tech got blinded by Gates Digital Capitalism – vast expansion without frictions and Mfg issues/legacies. Most of them are Fintech now or are shooting for it … balance sheet flow for sweet profits …
Own goal so now Trump stamps his pretty shoes and the unwashed cop it …
Well, there is this to spitball:
China wouldn’t really want the USA to re-industrialize – even if it was hypothetically in the future.
Considering the hawkish rhetoric that has been thrown around for years now, it would only embolden the USA about its ability to wage war.
Who knows? If the hawkishness coming out of the USA had been dialed back long ago, would renegotiation of tariffs be easier?
I guess having Syria there is a reminder to take a pinch of salt.
for anyone who likes pop culture media analyzed through a serious academic lens.
A video essay by “Feral Historian” re. Judge Dredd (comic and Stallone film), Dredd and the Dilemma of Policing
11 min. Circumspective and not using one political lens.
That’s a Cattle Egret perched on the camel’s head.
Would it be there to get a feed of any fleas that camel has? I have seen videos of crows eating ticks off of kangaroos-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3GBHwVEfNA (5:59 mins)
Are these wallabies? They seem quite small compared to the crows. Wondering why all those bees when the marsupials are drinking.
The very last animal on the video appears to be in really poor shape: patches without fur, infested with what look like fully gorged ticks.
There is some kind of monitor lizard and a cockatoo, the other birds (and the snake) are completely unknown to me (unsurprisingly, being a world apart).
I also remember to have seen a video where African warthogs let themselves be cleaned from ticks by mongooses.
Yeah, they are wallabies. Couldn’t find the original video showing crows and kangaroos so had to link to this one. It’s a tough life in the Outback.
Umm, no it is not. It is an egret, yes. But not a Cattle Egret. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_egret
The white bird in the Antidote has black legs. The photo may have been taken at an American zoo; that may be an American Egret (genus Egretta). The Cattle Egret has yellow legs and is actually a Heron (genus Ardea).
A great philosopher once wrote …
That news was somewhat sensationalist, as Finnish paramedics have used bulletproof vest since 2017 and firefighters since 2020. The idea is that if they respond to an incident where the law enforcement has control, they’re supposed to be prepared for possible violence on site.
Only the framing is new in this article.
So, they already knew that it doesn’t feel good to know that they could be a target for the enemy. :)
“Stupid is as stupid does”
I came across this earlier this morning!
It looks as if the administration or it’s AI calculations F’ed up the reciprocal tariff formula as well. You can’t make this sh*t up.
https://www.axios.com/2025/04/06/trump-tariffs-error-aei
> Pentagon Prepares for Trump to Go Berserk Ken Klippenstein
Is it known that B-2 can safely fly through Iranian air defenses? Biden flew them over Yemen last year but, if the conclusions reached on NC are accurate, did not risk flying F-35 over Iran.
It seems a big gamble. If just one gets shot down then the deterrent power of such weapons is greatly reduced.
F-35s are less stealthy than B-2s. And it was Israel who made the attack on Iran, not the US. Yes, I know our help was essential but it was not US planes.
There is only one way to find out if B-2 can safely fly through Iranian air defenses. Any potential Dale Zelko Jr. is advised to renew his life insurance.
Inside a New Mexico lab, researchers estimate there is five bottle caps worth of plastic in human brains. NYT archive
“They found that human brain samples from 2024 had nearly 50 percent more microplastics than brain samples from 2016.”
Maybe the reason people are getting stupider and stupider? But plastic is safe! The government would never allow plastic food containers otherwise!
Fracking produces huge amounts of ethane, the building block for many plastics. And states have subsidized construction of these plants with billions. And weed more fracking to power AI. It is a stupidity doom loop. This one for JLS, if she’s reading.
there is no conclusive science re. link between all that plastic and health.
This Russian scientist thinks that microplastics is overblown https://www.rt.com/news/612723-alarming-media-reports-microplastics/
I’m (weakly) in the correlation, not causation camp….and if just look at the diet of a random American, in Maslow hierarchy of needs style, one needs to be worried about your hamburger and soda first. Blood flow related issues (heart attack, heart disease, strokes, etc) are the #1 shortener of life, by far.
For sure, one should be worried that their diet is crap, and heart disease remains at the top of the killer chart, yet I would hazard this is one of those times when you don’t need a randomized control trial to consider a spoon’s worth of plastic in your brain and conclude negative health outcomes.
Now I’m wondering if we’ve got plastic hearts…
The impacts of diet and sedentary lifestyle are known and well studied. The impacts of microplastics throughout the body are largely unknown and barely studied. The precautionary principle is appropriate.
So, the medical reddits are being sort of censored since they were sold off but every now and then a report gets through before being buried. Some reports about a rise in spontaneous CJD slip through. Not a large level but still microplastics have got to be a suspect.
“Germany considers school lessons to prepare students for crisis and war situations”
The German Federal government, seeing how American kids are traumatized by active shooter drills on an ongoing basis and seeing that they do not have their own active shooters, has decided to traumatize their own kids with WW3 drills instead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0WwjWdzV_I (4:53 mins)
I suffered through a France 24 youtube video titled “Estonian City prepares for potential Russian Invasion”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SceqBsS_KM
It noted Russian provocations, including removing buoys from a river (with footage of a small Russian boat removing the buoys!) and electronic warfare, but no mention of Russia being attacked by drones. And the comments section largely agreed about the threat but noted a large number of Russian “trolls” among the commenters. Obviously, a youtube comment section is not a bellwether of public opinion and reflects the demographics of France 24’s viewers, but disturbing nonetheless.
Similarly, With future at risk, Taiwan prepares citizens to resist potential Chinese invasion (7:46 minute video) PBS Newshour
“…are millennials raising kids who act as contraceptives for the next?”
LOL!!! I have a younger brother and sister that are MUCH younger than I am… 18 and 21 years younger. When my wife and I had kids occasionally my younger brother or sister would come visit for a few days when they were older teens and young 20-somethings. We’d let them babysit for long stretch some days and we referred to it as birth control for them!
In American schools, there was an elective course on parenting that was pretty interesting. Lots of sex ed. of course, but also, the student would be “in charge” of a baby doll. The doll had alarms for being hungry, needing burping, waking up in the dead of night, etc. The student had to “care for” the doll 24/7 for a couple weeks. I thought it was a great lesson.
Can go the other way :)
Babysitting well-behaved kids might be exhausting but also rewarding and leading to wanting kids. Babysitting kids who are not well behaved might be exhausting and emotionally draining thus leading to not wanting kids
Might be argued about if discipline is part of raising a well behaved kid, might be argued about what is discipline and even what is well behaved.
The article bring to mind an interview with a champion poker-player who was interviewed and asked what she could learn/use from poker in daily life. Her answer was the proportionality principle – let the punishment fit the crime or otherwise the kid will know that the threat is a bluff or might learn to never take risks.
One example might be telling the kid who does not want to eat vegetables that if he/she does not eat the vegetables then he/she will not get dessert. A believable and enforceable threat. No threat might mean that the kid is in control and some might consider that to be bad. A threat of killing the family dog if the kids doesn’t eat his/her vegetables on the other hand is disproportionate and might lead to a child who is constantly afraid to fail to be good or too severe consequences or to being seen as a bluffer.
Precautionary-principle without proportionality-principle can lead to risk/pain-avoidance levels/behaviours that are unhealthy.
We have some in-laws who are engaging in Gentle Parenting. Watching adults feed a toddler’s tantrum with expectations of coherent conversation in low, soothing, tones sets my teeth on edge. When my own children have witnessed their cousins outbursts, and the parents gentle parenting techniques, the reaction has been “I will not do that with my kids.”
I remember thinking that I would rationally explain to my child why they should or shouldn’t do this or that instead of just saying “Because I told you so”. As Mike Tyson said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face”, and after I actually had a kid, that plan of mine didn’t last long.
>>Parenting
Weird pivot for Visegrad24 whose editorial lens is so obvious that I wouldn’t be surprised to see its name on a Powerpoint slide with Visegrad as the #7 recipient of RadioFreeEurope grants. “Focusing on discipline” is typically opposite of the trope-ish parenting advice from NPR/PMC-world.
How about…don’t LARP as peak E. Lee Ermey in front of a toddler/first-grader; don’t create a world without consequences for kids either.
It’s fascinating to watch kids function in a world where they can use a smartphone (1980’s era Supercomputer) and at the same time think that The Gingerbread Man is a sentient being.
Re: “Millennials traded discipline for ‘gentle’ parenting…”
Hmmm… another article about the ‘crisis’ in declining birth rates, this one wrapped up in a bit of psychodrama about how terrible liberal parents are – the underlying article is titled “Pathological mothers are killing birth rates”, and the author, Hannah Spier, has a history of articles critiquing feminism and decrying the effect of liberal values on the family and medicine. See for example, the list published at conservative outpost The American Spectator, or her own podcast, Psychobabble. (https://hannahspier.substack.com/)
The particular X account cited, Visegrad24, is linked to the Intermarium Foundation, who state their conservative, and pro-Israeli stance (“The most influential anti-Hamas account” on X — see https://www.guidestar.org/profile/88-1644454). It’s unclear where Intermarium is getting their money – they appear to have only operated since 2023, and although they claim to be a ‘foundation’, they haven’t yet filed the correct tax return for a foundation (the 990-PF).
How to bring up your kids is worth some brief discussion, but I’m more concerned about the coded message that underlies the “Birth rates are declining” articles I’ve seen appearing more frequently in the media: The dog whistle is “the class of people like us is shrinking, and if we don’t have more kids we’ll be overrun with less desirable types”. Yes, in aggregate, global birth rates have declined below the replacement rate, but on a country-by-country basis, the picture is significantly more nuanced. See World Bank data from 2022: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN
I would have said that declining birth rates are due to people not being able to afford many kids or even any. Or even to get married in the first place. Thanks Neoliberalism, we couldn’t have done it without you. But ‘if the dog whistle is “the class of people like us is shrinking, and if we don’t have more kids we’ll be overrun with less desirable types” ‘ maybe it is because they got spooked by the opening scenes from “Idiocracy’-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP2tUW0HDHA (4:39 mins)
I suspect there is an even more profound reason explaining why people do not have children. Let us consider the usual laments about why so few children is a calamity:
1) Firms will not have the necessary workforce to run their operations.
2) There will not be enough people contributing to social security to support all those pensioners.
3) Demand will cave in as demography sags, jeopardizing economic growth.
4) There will not be enough soldiers to defend against terrorists/invaders/pirates/malevolent groups of all kinds.
All those arguments are rudely utilitarian. People are viewed as resources, as means to sustain an economic order, not as ends in themselves. People are called upon to make children (or chastized because they don’t) not because it is a natural thing to do, and generally a gratifying one, but in order to maintain a flow of labour and money into the socio-economic system.
Of course, the utilitarian arguments listed above did apply to ancient societies. Thus, agricultural societies favoured high fertility — because they needed lots of peasants to plow the fields, mow cereals, pick fruits; lots of warriors to defend those fields and orchards against pillaging nomads; lots of healthy young people to spread the burden of caring for older people.
But they were working and protecting their fields, and supporting their relatives. In the current system, working means making Bezos, Gates, Ellison or Gates richer; being a warrior means going to fight in Afghanistan, Vietnam, Iraq, Yemen, or even Ukraine — to defend what exactly?
And the whole hypocrisy is revealed when the same ones urging to procreate are the same taking away the means to ensure that children can grow and develop harmoniously: cutting subsidies for nurseries, school kitchens, libraries; making health care and education unaffordable all the while making sure that nurses, midwives, teachers be kept overworked and their wages as low as possible. And no matter how much people contribute to social security and pensions, benefits always end on the chopping block.
Therefore, beyond the physical causes (pollution, microplastics, and other nasty chemicals damaging the reproductive physiology of all populations), I contend that the accelerating decline of human fertility is the biological expression of the disenchantment of the world dominated by the mortiferous ideology of neoliberal capitalism.
I also thought that the article conveniently erased an entire list of other causes for declining birthrate – those pesky political and economic reasons. It kind of put the issue into culture war territory. Then stepped back to watch the ensuing fallout.
That’s consistently the whole approach taken by the propaganda organs of the ruling class and their corporate interests in lecturing us: “It’s all your fault as individuals! Your lifestyle, your parenting, your morality. It’s never the plutocrat-created socioeconomic hellscape that we have made your environment into. Pay no attention to us behind the curtain.”
“in aggregate, global birth rates have declined below the replacement rate, but on a country-by-country basis, the picture is significantly more nuanced”
From those statistics I learned that India fertility just dropped below the replacement rate. I had no idea.
From a Club of Rome perspective, those dropping fertility rates are a big positive development. Add that to the Jackpot Program and we might just preserve a present day First World lifestyle for the “deserving” ten percent of our world population.
As Pink Floyd put it away back in 1973:
“With, without
And who’ll deny
It’s what the fighting’s all about…”
Unfortunately the “deserving” 10% will all be in China and Russia.
Waiting for the Neo-liberal ‘How To Guide,’ “Davos Man Kampf.”
Every man wants to be a Davos, Davos man
To have the kind of booty always in demand
Networkin’ in the mornings, go man go
Workouts in chutzpah, assets grow
You can best believe me, he’s a Davos man
Glad he’s in attendance, not anyone can
Hey! Hey! Hey, hey, hey!
Davos, Davos man (Davos man, yeah)
I gotta be a Davos man (I gotta be a Davos man)
Davos, Davos man (yeah)
I gotta be a Davos (oowh)
You can tell a Davos, he has funky hi-fi joss
His Davos afterparty, always so boss
Funky with his gotten gains, he’s a king
Call him Mister Ego, dig his claims
You can best believe that, he’s a Davos man
He likes to be the leader, here’s his best for humanity plan
Hey! Hey! Hey, hey, hey!
Every man ought to be a Davos, Davos man
To live a life of freedom, Davos makes a stand
Have your own lifestyles and ideals
Possess the strength of confidence, that’s the skill
You can best believe that he’s a Davos man
He’s the special god son in anybody’s land
Hey! Hey! Hey, hey, hey!
Macho Man, by Village People
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxxj73JCV4Q
“…He’s the special god son in anybody’s land
Hey! Hey! Hey, hey, hey!”
I bet you wrote that in honour of your State’s “Favourite God-son,” Gavin the First.
Early mapmakers thought that California was an island to itself, and so does Gav, we kindly ask countries to ignore the Federal tariffs, dude
interesting….as I always assumed that Visegrad was just a bunch of dudes and dudettes LARPing as France24 or BBC News. (that would have been its early days before it got noticed and institutional cash)
Intermarium probably is a foundation, just not incorporated in the US
Intermarium holds a US tax ID (88-1644454), and lists an address in the US (somebody’s house, but still…). They might be channeling dollars to somewhere overseas (legally complex, but not impossible under US not-for-profit law), but it’s more likely funded by a few US individuals or by overseas money coming in, and the money is mostly staying in the US, although I can’t tell from their available tax and other filings – the reasons for this being a ‘foundation’ are unclear, other than as a tax dodge. If the DOGE-bags really want to do something interesting, a thorough data analysis of ‘foundation’ money flows would be instructive (and probably too flammable to let out)
These freaks are fundamentally about eugenics. One thing that always strikes me when I read Hannah and her ilk is how much they hate children.
I remember these people from my own childhood. I had teachers like this, my friends had parents like this. And now we have them on full display with “tradwife” influencers.
Kids, as themselves at the moment, have zero value, except possible as labor to deal with horrible horrible younger children who also have wants and needs and views on life and the world and curiosity.
And of course it couldn’t be due to Covid or the vax. Let’s get that straight from the get go. This is another example of “pre-teaching” and “pre-propaganda”. A friend used to say “tis a mystery”.
Declining birthrates are indeed a crisis–for the 10%, that is. Think general strike, only delayed by a decade or two. No obvious culprits, no heads for Pinkerton’s to smash.
Re: the fake rumor that briefly spiked markets
I know that we live in a “crimogenic” environment to quote Bill Black, but can we have some investigation please of the source of the fake news of a tariff pause yesterday? Apparently, it got on-air at CNBC which suggests a high-level official … do we know the whereabouts of the following individuals, around 10-11AM on April 7th?
Nancy Pelosi
Marjorie Taylor-Greene
Mitch McConnell
Elon Musk
You’re welcome, FBI. Not holding my breath for subpoenas, though.
fake rumours happen all the time…..and of course is never researched.
You want to more a stock/prevent a collapse….get two other people. Person #1 “hears news.”
Gullible (or unquestioning) journo hits her Rolodex; (shockingly) by coincidence persons #2 and #3 were in the room when the news broke….but conveniently don’t want to be cited.
I love the idea that Nancy Pelosi is at home staring at a wall of monitors with lots of blinking red lights; the situation passes her red line so she grabs her phone, lol
What you describe is criminal behavior.
In the past, I’ve read about cases where a desperate investor fakes a press release, and faxes it to the media to create a false rumor of company X buying company T. It happened down in Florida, IIRC. The SEC caught the guy, and he was prosecuted for criminal fraud. Ill-gotten gains can be clawed back.
In this case, I would guess that CNBC got duped by a high-ranking official. It could very well be a congress critter or an aide – they’re notorious for insider trading and such. With the SEC being gutted by DOGE we will probably never get to the bottom of this.
Shame on CNBC though, for reporting it and not insisting on independent second sources. Chalk up another one to the enshittification of everything, including journalism.
Last time I looked at a dead tree version of the LA Times it was 28 pages worth @ the odd price of $2.77, a slimmer read than the giveaway Thrifty Nickel.
That’s journalism in a nutshell~
I posted on another article today about Trump’s fondness when he was a reputed real estate big shot for feigning takeover intentions by buying shares in a certain company and making his purchase known. Of course, he was all talk with less money and credit than he pretended, but the suckers would pop the share price anyway. Donald would promptly sell and make millions.
And so here we are today, with a Trump-and-dump as President and his hangers-on waiting for The Word. That’s the definition of a kleptocracy.
Spiking also seems to be going on today.
There is more going on than the rumor everybody is focusing on.
“Finnish firefighters are preparing for war – bulletproof vests and helmets for everyone”
At the same time Finnish ambulance personnel and first responders were sent to Gaza to learn new lessons that could be applied in Finland but the Finns have not been able to contact them for some reason.
As if I need Stanford to inform me that the “AI gap” between the US and China has narrowed.
I am amused by their credulity that the “investment gap” supposedly in favour of the US amounts to anything other than rents and grift.
One suspects that the ‘investment gap’ is of a kind with the ‘best and most expensive military the world has ever seen’. Only more so.
You saying that the new 1T+ investment in US DoD will not make US military better than Russia’s or China’s or both?
I hope that the Iranian people are readying themselves for the coming war.
There is a scene in the movie Open Range in which Boss says to Charley Waite, “Most time, a man will tell you his bad intentions if you listen, let yourself hear.”
Surely the Iranians have heard for many years the bad intentions of Israel and the USA.
I hope that the “average” American is preparing for a war with Iran. Oil back over $100 USD a barrel will “crimp” lifestyles quite a bit.
The Benedict Donald show online has been crowing about the price of oil going down as of late, it’s the only arrow in their quiver.
They better hope that there is not a hole at the bottom of that quiver.
As Frank N Furter put it: “It’s a quiver of antici-pation!”
The hole is that the entire economic premise of fracking/LNG everything in sight collapses when the price of oil drops below $70 or so, and what’s left of US gas and oil production for export collapses with it.
Not that that’s a bad thing.
The determining factor will be who “really” controls the price of oil. If America can “secure” those Venezuelan heavy crude oil fields, then America can become fairly self-reliant. The rest of the world will have to deal with the price shocks attendant to the I/I/A War. For that to not ravage American fuel prices, Washington will have to develop some top-down controls over the domestic oil producers and refiners. I can see this developing as part of an “America at War” drive towards Institutionalized Authoritarianism.
Uniparty Uber Alles!
As a Canadian, I resent that you deem only Venezuelan oil worthy of American “security”. ;) Perhaps our oh-so-thick tar oil should also be taken into, as they say, “protective custody”. No?
In just 11 days time will be the 250th anniversary of the shot heard round the world, which really kicked off Capitalism…
America is bewildered by what is tantamount to a Bizarro World FDR First 100 Days, everything is being taken away from them except for our vaunted military, presently laying waste to Yemen in not only loss of lives there, but at tremendous expense.
I don’t know when the tariffist-a tax will begin in earnest at the checkout stand, but if there’s one thing consumers know-its how much things cost, as they tend to buy the same things all the time-in particular with food.
We’ve had decades to get used to mass murders promulgated by high velocity metal things that resemble some types of acorns, and whereas there was much soul searching and some action done regarding Columbine just before the turn of the century, nobody does nothing now, and we’re spoiled in that any tally under 10 is hardly newsworthy these days, couldn’t the shooter have aimed better?
A shooting event of some magnitude on the day of the quincentennial would make for a perfect bookend, as Capitalism fades to black.
Random right field comment….I swear that in the last few months, I’m reading comments here that trigger my “uncanny valley” tingly senses—nothing malicious or annoying, but it just seems that a lazy faux-AI is posting comments as a testing range to see if Skynet can achieve Turing-level engagement farm. (won’t name names, but hint—look for generic avatars lol)
And/or as if this website is caught up in the tide of a broader “info war” (yikes, one thing not on my life bingo card, parroting that AJ man who peddles vitamins).
Hey, I get where you’re coming from with that “uncanny valley” vibe—sometimes you catch a whiff of something just off in the digital ether, don’t you? I’ve noticed it too, not just here but across the web lately—comments that feel like they’re trying too hard to sound human, yet miss the mark by a hair. Maybe it’s the generic avatars, maybe it’s the oddly polished yet soulless phrasing. If it’s a lazy AI test run, I’d say Skynet’s got some work to do before it’s pouring beers with us at the bar.
As for the “info war” angle—yikes, yeah, didn’t expect to be dodging propaganda shrapnel on my daily scroll either. But it’s 2025, and the internet’s a wilder jungle than ever. Still, Naked Capitalism’s always been a spot where real humans wrestle with real ideas, so I’m betting it’s just a few weird blips on the radar. Keep your tingly senses sharp, though—might need ’em to spot the next vitamin-hawking conspiracy theorist creeping in!
I did not know one could generalize an ad hom! Congratulations!
I don’t know about the influence of AI in the comments at Naked Capitalism, but I am very grateful that the names of commenters lead the comments, unlike a site like Moon Of Alabama, where they follow. This convention allows me to skip whole threads, knowing that I will find no there there.
I haven’t heard of any measures taken by our government to ready the populace in case of emergency, but I read somewhere that 72 vestal versions of porn is being considered as a must have item.
Didn’t Aldous Huxley write about this back in the 1950s? If I remember correctly, it was his groundbreaking book about induced states of “waking illusion;” “The Doors of Conception.”
I want to get in on the ground floor of the upcoming “Fundamentalist Porn Platform,” “Only Fanes.” (Now I get it about the Fundie obsession with the “Temple Mount.” My question here; is it properly included in Masters and Johnson or Krafft-Ebing?)
Stay safe. Wear gloves.
There I was, a lonely spermatozoa on the make-with 99,999,999 others vying for her intention, and then one day she asked me out on a date.
Poor esse. She promptly absorbed you, didn’t she.
I got slapped around after being held upside down upon clearing the canal-as was the custom.
Yeah. ‘Welcome to the world!’ (SLAP!)
I remember thinking, what have I got myself out of?
Perhaps now ‘rebooted’ as “Welcome to the Machine.”
Customs slapped you around? BlackRock has already taken control of that Canal as well? We live in “interesting times.”
Dr. Strangelove’s Plan For Post-Nuclear Attack https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8icpnrLqx0
Re: “Philistines, Philistines Everywhere…”
I will only point out that the graphic header to Ian Welsh’s site is an excerpt from “Destruction”, the fourth painting in Thomas Cole’s terrific series, “The Course of Empire” (1833-1836). Very high resolution views of all 5 paintings are available at the New York Historical Society’s web site and are well worth a thorough viewing. (you can start here: https://www.nyhistory.org/video/thomas-cole-course-of-empire-series-curator – brief video and links to each of the digital images).
Thanks for the Thomas Cole!
“Trigonometry, Not Triggernometry, Who Fired the Head Shot that Killed Kennedy?”
It’s a pity that trigonometry did not exist when the Warren Commission was about as that would have really helped their investigations. Finding JFK’s brains would also help as it would likely have contained bullet fragments which would have helped sort out what happened. It’s amazing all this messing with an event that happened over sixty years ago. Once heard this “expert ” back in the early 70s declare that when your head is hit with a bullet, of course your head would snap forward in the direction that the bullet came from and not back. Even said that this was common knowledge with Vietnam vets. Even back then I knew that this sounded suss.
In this case, physics brings issues distinct from the maths. With regard to head movements, here is an article from the Association of Firearm and Tool Mark Examiners Journal (a pdf can be found elsewhere on the web):
The Head Snap…
“The EU is about to withdraw Hungary’s voting rights because of its stance towards Russia – Anti-Spiegel”
Estonia is really getting gung-ho about war with Russia for some reason. Somebody should tell them that the USSR does not exist anymore. But then I saw this a little while ago-
‘Estonia’s parliament is set to vote on a bill that would allow its military to sink civilian vessels found to pose a national security threat, state broadcaster ERR reported on Tuesday.
Firing on, and sinking a civilian craft would be permissible if potential damage is deemed less than that accruing if the target vessel is allowed continue.
Under the bill, military and naval commanders would be required to notify the vessel’s owner, or its flag state, only after the use of force.’
https://www.rt.com/russia/615385-estonia-bill-sink-civilian-ships/
I ask you. With legislation like that, what could possibly go wrong?
If gearing up for war complete with fear porn is all the EU bigwigs have left to keep their elite positions and the EU together then the EU has failed.
Oh yeah, there’s a clause in article 5 of the NATO treaty that says member nations are only obliged to come to another member nation’s defense if it is attacked first by a hostile power, not if it starts the hostilities with another power. So, starting a war with RU won’t oblige the US to step in.
Or France or Spain, for that matter…..
I wonder if T’s demand the EU buy Billions of $ worth of US energy to escape tariffs will put a dent in their saber rattling. / ;)
Ha! The EU’s make believe army runs on make believe fuel.
It is just that Trump saw all that cash being tossed around…
But not for ignorring the ICC arrest warrant for Bibi Netanyahoo…
As of yesterday, I’m case anyone was wondering, the US FDA still hadn’t approved Novavax. The current approval is through the end of the month, I think.
And thanks again, NC, for yesterday’s link on RFK jr, the worlds most annoying drug addict and longtime quack grifter, and his band of idiots, especially David Geier, who no longer holds a medical license because of wreckers harm to children.
Word needs to be out.
Regarding the 3rd measles death article…….. (before you straw man me, hear me out) Jimmy Dore interviews Dr. Korey who researched the first “death” of a young girl due to measles. After visiting the family and doctors, Korey determined the death was not because of measles, but with measles. Remain skeptic and if you’re interested in this subject, review the 20 minute interview here: “No, That Girl In Texas DID NOT Die Of Measles” – Dr. Pierre Kory
Just be aware that Jimmy Dore did a video recently saying that measles is no big deal and as “proof” had a clip from “The Brady Bunch” showing the kids happy to get measles as that would mean no school for them-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5289k-dbOMY (1:17 mins)
Measles can be fun.
Rev, respectfully, “Straw Man”.
Jimmy Dore is great on a lot of subjects but anything to do with vaccines he gets wobbly. Maybe because he suffered badly from covid vaccine damage.
Er, the sadder but wiser girl. / ;)
From The Music Man movie. utube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUJhOBIH6kk
That I think is spot on. And of course, it’s understandable. Vax injured ourselves, hubby and I, so a bit more concerned perhaps than many. Also, I taught public school while Coved and the vax rollout was in full bloom. Due to that, and concern for the children, we both spent endless hours reading science journals/papers/studies and became (not to sound “cocky”) quite informed about the subject. Vaccines have a poor history in general so being skeptical is a good start.
He also did a show in dec 2021 “Omicron is a Hoax’. with him and Max B, still talking about herd immunity. 4 weeks later, Deaths doubled from covid.
Your rumble link comes up muted on my pc. the utube link comes up OK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5x4quL5VGk
measles causes pneumonia.
it is akin to saying the patient died from blood loss, with a bullet hole in his heart.
um, no. Saying a viral respiratory infection may be followed by a secondary infection, like for example pneumonia following a case of the flu is well understood. It is not saying the first automatically and inevitably caused the second. A bad case of the flu can be followed by a secondary, opportunistic pneumonia or bronchitis infection once the immune system is depleted from fighting off the flu. (Ask me how I know. )
There are reasons people recovered from the flu are advised to avoid strenuous exercise for a week or two after recovering. This was once common knowledge. Disclaimer: I am not a medico.
– ‘Trigonometry, Not Triggernometry, Who Fired the Head Shot that Killed Kennedy?’ – Larry Johnson
I really hesitated before commenting on this. I don’t think NC is the forum to debate specifics of the Kennedy assassination. But this article was posted here, and we are currently debating whether the recent document declassification was of any benefit. So let me make this observation. Though Johnson seems to support some sort of conspiracy theory, he says this in relation to a famous autopsy picture of the back of Kennedy’s head:
“I know this may upset everyone who insists that the lethal shot came from the grassy knoll. Sorry, the photographic evidence does not support that. That is not to say there were no shooters in position there. But the entrance and exit wounds visible on Kennedy’s head do not support that conclusion. If Kennedy’s fatal head wound came from the front, then he should have had a massive exit wound somewhere on the back of his head.”
Here’s the thing. Expert witnesses in Dealey Plaza, at Parkland hospital, and at the Bethesda autopsy almost universally reported “a massive exit wound somewhere on the back of [Kennedy’s] head.” For that reason among others, key witnesses also stated that this “official” autopsy photo was almost certainly doctored or fake. For thirty years we were told the opposite. We only know this because of the declassification of documents forced by the Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. Most people don’t know this because, well, the media provided either no coverage or distorted coverage of what was revealed in that massive declassification, which included much information not just on the assassination, but on Kennedy administration policies and CIA behavior (and their relationship) as well. This apparently applies to Johnson as well, who uses pseudo-mathematical “trigonometry” to make a completely irrelevant point about a key event in US history.
I can’t find it immediately but I recall a very good BBC Panorama documentary in the 1990s, which used what were then the latest computer analytical techniques to track the progress of the motorcade frame by frame, and show the relationship, with Oswald’s position and the shot. As I recall, Kennedy’s head was turned at a certain angle when the bullet hit, which corresponded to the wound. But of course after sixty years, you’re not going to convince anyone: the difficulty with conspiracy theories is the definitional problem of proving a negative.
Johnson didn’t do himself any favors by using a graphic of a protractor superimposed on an obviously slant angle photo of the street and buildings.
It was my understanding (from reading many years ago) that the official autopsy ‘photos’ were an artists reproduction ‘out of respect for the Kennedy family ‘.
Yes. I believe the headshot in Johnson’s article is an “artists rendition” of an autopsy photo. This in itself might raise some questions. But the real problem is that the large wound in the back of the head seen by multiple witnesses seems to have disappeared.
“Trump says EU must buy $350B of US energy to get tariff relief ”
Trump specifically said US energy. I do not know the worth of energy that the EU imports but what if it was about the same amount? Then that would be Trump telling the EU not to import energy in future from places like Russia or the Middle east but only the US – which would reduce them to total vassalage.
I’m sure Trump prefers that to Total ‘vassalage.’
Bingo:
In 2024, the EU imported €375.9 billion worth of energy products…”
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20250321-1
I think you have an error there: “EU imported €125 billion worth of energy products, but paid €376 billion for them…”
Artificially intelligent? Or stupid? – Julian Macfarlane
It looks like they were told what they wanted to hear.
A whole other can of worms….
“In New England, Canadian hydropower has slowed to an ominous trickle”
Rumour has it that Trump’s tariffs included Canadian water so they said forget it.
Taibbi and Kirn. ATW. no paywall. utube, ~1 hr 51+ minutes.
America This Week Monday Night Live Show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI5fW5jTxaU
“No, the dire wolf has not been brought back from extinction”
Saw those pups on the news a few hours ago and they looked cut. But Dire Wolves they will not be. They will only look like Dire Wolves. And when that team said ‘our team is proud to return the dire wolf to its rightful place in the ecosystem’ they were wrong as the ecosystem from 10,000 years ago is long gone so these wolves will be always out of place. The same point was made about those recreated dinosaurs in the book “Jurassic park”. In other words the whole thing is a stunt. But the pups are still cute.
There have also been long-running projects to bring back the aurochs. They resulted in animals that look quite a bit like the extinct bovine (Heck cattle and Taurus cattle), but genetically and physiologically they are not the real thing. It is a question whether they can play the same role in the ecosystem as the aurochs.
The project about resurrecting dire wolves is on a very similar path, no matter how much its promoters tout the genetic wizzardry: wolves that look a lot like dire wolves — but actually aren’t.
Klippenstein
In the largest single deployment of stealth bombers in U.S. history, the Pentagon has sent six B-2 “Spirit” aircraft to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
———–
Wow six whole airplanes. As for their alleged invincible stealthiness that is yet to be proven. So far US tech versus Russian counter tech doesn’t seem to be favoring the former.
And it’s easy to believe that the Russians will be giving Iran plenty of help should the axis of chaos (Israel/Trump) decide to start a war.
Klippenstein claims to be against all this saber rattling but he is far too credulous about the saber which will be facing modern air defense as opposed to bombing Afghanistan with no defense whatsoever or Yemen with very little. And that credulousness merely serves the saber rattling rather than opposing it.
I heard by 1944, we were able to amass as many as half a dozen B-17’s in the air at once, to teach the fatherland a little lesson.
Looks like an amphibious operation against Yemen is contemplated, Iran will not deploy outside their umbrella to help, the risk is too great. I wonder how many of the Aramco plants will get hit by the Yemeni’s. That would give the US some sort of springboard for actions in the Straight of Hormuz later on.
The US can’t do it. They don’t have the men and the equipment like they did in the 90s. To even try to do it would require at least half a year to stockpile all the resources needed, assuming that the Iranians would not be attacking all those preparations. Even if they managed to land a force, Yemen is really rugged territory as the Saudis have discovered and that force would be isolated from the locals. Not gunna happen.
Just ask the UK about the Aden Emergency.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aden_Emergency
Mish on trade
“If trade ceases, income from tariffs that Trump claims will balance the budget will drop to zero.
And for his efforts, team Trump will not collect a cent but prices will jump. We call this winning.”
He also points out all the minerals the MIC must have and that China can cut off.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Links (Tariffs Are Splintering)
“A legal nonprofit just filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump’s declaration of tariffs on China, claiming that the emergency authority he’s invoked gives him no such authority to impose these tariffs. Underneath or alongside that claim is a much deeper argument that it’s time for Congress to claw back its delegation of tariff authority, which it has effectively handed over to the president for decades now.
But here’s what is politically significant about this lawsuit: the nonprofit filing the suit is funded in part by Leonard Leo, the longtime leader of the Federalist Society. By most people’s estimations, Leo was the single most important architect behind all three of Trump’s appointments to the Supreme Court and the overwhelming number of judges Trump appointed to the federal bench during his first term. Leo is the heart and soul of the conservative legal movement, the Principia of the judicial right. His nonprofit, named the New Civil Liberties Alliance (of course), was also the force behind the court’s overturning of the Chevron doctrine last year.”
Truly it’s insane that this kind of power has been put in the hands of any president much less the new Great Golfer. It’s almost as insane as giving him sole power over war and peace.
It could be time to Make America America Again. It’s a republic, not a monarchy.
Lost in the news shuffle, (it is in the links though) by a 5-4 ruling the SCOTUS gave Judge Boasberg a legal smackdown.
They took away his jurisdiction over the “Tren de Aragua” alleged defendants who were deported to El Salvador. I did read the ruling (thanks for the link.)
It appears that the majority held that the APA is not an appropriate basis to challenge the detentions. Instead, any deportees must challenge custody through habeas corpus which means jurisdiction lies in the state where they were domiciled. In this case, Texas.
I am not sure I agree with this reasoning but effectively it takes Boasberg off the game board. He already canceled a hearing today that was supposed to hear briefs on the longer injunction.
There is still the contempt issue, however. Boasberg could go after the Trump administration for their defiance of his TRO while the planes were still in the air.
Going by this I’d say the SC gave Trump a defeat since they said all future deportees must be afforded a hearing and that’s what he is trying to avoid–no doubt due to the shaky legal basis using the 18th century law.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-gives-boost-trump-deportation-plans-alien-enemies-act-rcna198585
It says they did not pronounce on the justification itself. So that means he will have to show they are in fact alien enemies and not just people he doesn’t like.
It’s a bit more nuanced, I think. Yes, due process for the potential deportees will be preserved. But, they’ll have to file for a habeas writ in Texas courts, where most of them reside, and the DC Circuit Court which is more liberal just got their ticket punched off the “Jumanji” game board. At least that’s my interpretation.
Boasberg’s 15 minutes of fame are up.
Not sure where the burden of proof lies, but properly it ought to be on the government. The whole putative class thing just got vaporized, once jurisdiction got wrenched out of Judge Boasbergs’ court, so it will be up to individuals to fight for their freedom.
Well it was always about that–challenging the deportation. And if even one case invalidates the excuse used by Trump then his whole boot the protestors gambit will be monkeywrenched.
As Mr. Franklin told the lady outside of the hall in Philadelphia:
“[It is] a Republic, if you can keep it.”
Oklahoma boy astounds classmates with his ability to do 50 different bird calls
Holy crap, this lad has a phenomenal and unique talent. Everyone should watch the video. Amazing!
Indeed. It helps to grow up in a place were the sounds of nature are louder.
… and the talent to replicate tonal pitch and cadence.
I tried to post the link to the Alastair Crooke article on Twitter several times. It was blocked and I got a message there saying X or its partners has identified that website, Strategic Culture, as potentially harmful. Censorship is alive and well on Twitter still.
Strategic Culture says they have now been blocked by the EU–all of it. So it may be Musk doing his own censorship (which he does) or bending to their rules.
The site is hosted in Russia I think but has always featured Western writers like Crooke. Crooke has a partially paywalled Substack here and lots of free Youtubes
https://conflictsforum.substack.com/
Ground beef “On Sale” for $8.99 is one thing, increasing the price of a “MegaMillions” ticket from $2 to $5 is altogether more serious because it makes hope unaffordable for most Americans.
I’ve been sticking to “Virtual” Lotto tickets for years now because they don’t change my odds of winning, I won’t have to worry about the IRS, I can have the same fantasies and in a week I can save enough $ for a cup of Coffee.
Oh yes. The Lottery. The most regressive tax in America.
True story from my checquered past.
When I was working at the USPS I put up five dollars to join the Station Lottery Pool. Back then, the closest State that had legal Lottery was Florida. One of the workers at the place had some other reason to go to Florida from Louisiana that weekend. He took the money, $800 USD, and brought the tickets back. The drawing was on a Thursday. Friday morning many of us arrived at work with visions of riches dancing with those sugar plums in our heads. The central organizer of the foray into speculation met us, very glum indeed. We had not had a single “hit” on any of the tickets.
To paraphrase the old “warning” appended to ads for contests on kids’ television; “Many will enter. No one will win.”
As for the price of beef, etc. We adjusted our “lifestyle” choices concerning meat to chicken or turkey several years ago. Now, with the Bird Flu pandemic ramping up, even those choices are looking scary.
Stay safe and healthy.
Are there any other sources for the Sheinbaum text? I can’t find. I don’t know Spanish so can’t so easily check in that language.
I checked both Google and DDG on “Hermanos y hermanas” exact in the last week – nothing.
Also checked the https://www.gob.mx/presidencia/ site – nothing.
For something this inflamatory, I’d have expected it to be all over the place.
I checked in Spanish. Nothing.
The post reads like what a high, first world, teenager imagines the third world left sounds like. Sheinbaum actually sounds like the engineer she is.
Fun times:
Trump Administration Live Updates: Supreme Court Pauses Order to Rehire Federal Probationary Workers
This timeline is so lit.
https://www.world-grain.com/articles/21250-tariffs-provoke-price-uncertainty-for-commodities-as-traders-balk?utm_source=World+Grain+Daily&utm_medium=Newsletter&oly_enc_id=7900G8555389E1R
On the parenting piece, I just can’t help remarking on the quote:
(Note: Anyone who looks honestly at the current state of the US know that our culture does not glorify nurturing. That aside . . . )
I feel it is fair to say that nurtuing is a feminine trait, however, I am 100% certain when it comes to *authentic* authority, discipline and stoicism, I’ve observed these traits more often in women. Men in my world are always complaining and are often undisciplined, and as for stoic, no way! I’ve known way more women who handle life’s hardships with a kind of unrelenting resolve to keep going and accept things as they are and especially do right by their children.
Nonetheless, I cannot count the number of times I’ve witnessed fellow parents (often fathers) whine, plead and “have empathy” with their kids in ways that are obviously bad for the kids’ developing personality. I’ve never once said anything about it to my friends, but I do agree that the article is onto something about serious problems in current US parenting styles.
re: Big investors look to sell out of private equity after market rout – Financial Times
They make it sound like that’s a bad thing. / ;)
This is the first time I can remember the stock marketers sound really nervous, unsure if the Greenspan and later Bernanke puts are still in place. (Said puts are responsible for driving stock valuations to absurdly overvalued levels, imo.)
adding: this recent 5-year chart of market gains looks very healthy. A correction here of 10% or so doesn’t sound like the end of the world, more like a normal correction, imo.
https://www.statmuse.com/money/ask?q=dow+jones+chart+by+year+2019-2024
From that FT article,
“Many large investors in private equity funds entered the year with record levels of exposure to unlisted assets. While the exposures often stretched beyond investors’ risk limits and even led to a wave of borrowing by many institutions, they had bet the situation was manageable and would be quickly resolved by a revival of dealmaking.”
exposure to unlisted assets, or one could say “assets that benefit from “mark to market” valuation.
often stretched beyond investors’ risk limits and even led to a wave of borrowing by many institutions, some color here would be informative. I imagine “limits” as defined in legally binding documents on the institutional side. And what of this “borrowing”?
The ice underfoot is looking altogether thin these days.
heh. Why am I thinking of pets dot com? Go, NASDAC (1999). / ;)
The idea that modeling emotional regulation as a response to a child being upset, which is not the same thing as having an adult conversation, implies a lack of rules, consequences, and boundaries, does not follow logically. One can use such a technique for responding to emotional distress while simultaneously setting clear expectations for behavior and appropriate consequences.
And to echo another poster, in my experience it has been emotionally insecure fathers I have seen be overly permissive and inconsistent, not mothers.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We now resume our regularly scheduled bear market.
They used to use ammonia in home refrigerators. A tad poisonous in case of a large leak, like a line breaking. As efficient as CFCs. Cheap, no greenhouse effects.Still used in industrial settings.
Thing is if a line lets loose in a confined space, it could kill you. A quick search yielded no occasion where a residential ammonia refrigerator killed or injured anybody.
My guess is that ammonia equipment might be a little more expensive.
We had a Dometic ammonia cycle refrigerator in the old Airstream when we lived “on the road” for a few years. They are much simpler than freon based systems. Just add heat, and the cycle does the rest. That’s why travel trailers used them. They could work “off grid” if supplied with a bit of propane to fuel the fire that drives the cycle. Also much quicker freeze times!
As the Jackpot progresses, people will have to adapt to less energy intensive lifestyles. Smaller and cheaper to run refrigerators will be one component of this.
1/2 re: interview on new German book about Musk, “MUSK FILES”
(yeah they must have spent months to come up with that one)
BERLINER ZEITUNG published an interview with the 2 authors, Sönke Iwersen and Michael Verfürden.
Both with the investigative section of German economics paper HANDELSBLATT.
“The Tesla Files” – the book about Elon Musk: “Pure fear reigns in Grünheide”
An interview with Sönke Iwersen and Michael Verfürden, who looked behind the facade of the Tesla Gigacity and discovered some disturbing things.
machine-translation
https://archive.is/mAMfw
I wonder how the hell do these 2 writers from HANDESLBLATT have the means to pay a 14-member team for the investigation? In a time when investigations are ailing under the depletion of funds. Unless of course there are vested interests behind. The interviewer could have asked. But she did not.
None of this is genuine – i.e. independent – investigative journalism. Even if the info they come up with is legit I have serious issues just with how it all looks.
But it´s long enough to contain some interesting info, e.g. on the surveillance of Tesla-employees.
2/2 re: interview on new German book about Musk, “MUSK FILES”
Two examples for the double standard applied here which is so frustrating:
1) I am aware of the problems and shortcomings of the Tesla company. But has either one of these 2 authors ever written a book about other companies doing the same thing? Lack of independent oversight, no labour unions, fear of employees, blocking media requests? This is everyday reality. But naturally not for HANDELSBLATT standard reporting.
2) HANDELSBLATT in Sept. 2022 – as I pointed out here before – reported about how then Minister of Commerce Habeck was silencing internal opposition to his anti-RU energy policies by abusing internal intelligence against 2 senior state officials accusing them of spying for Moscow.
Instead of attacking Habeck and demanding legal consequences HANDELSBLATT as soon as Nordstream would blow up a couple of weeks later dropped the story completely. And when in winter 2022 it was confirmed that Habeck had been incorrect and the two men charged were innocent (which everyone knew all along) there was zero reaction to that. So there was no 14-member team to investigate Habeck. Funny thing that.
Thanks for the news from Germany. Major EU country.
It’s National Pygmy Hippo Day! https://nationaltoday.com/pygmy-hippo-day/
typo….what was meant was m a j o r i t y…..majority
Windows patch Tuesday with some real winners that need fixing:
Microsoft April 2025 Patch Tuesday fixes exploited zero-day, 134 flaws
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-april-2025-patch-tuesday-fixes-exploited-zero-day-134-flaws/
That zero day exploit is pretty bad so be sure to patch:
Exploitation of CLFS zero-day leads to ransomware activity
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2025/04/08/exploitation-of-clfs-zero-day-leads-to-ransomware-activity/
I’ve got a couple of Windows VMs I’m patching now. I’ll post a comment if it goes sideways.