An Ancient Guidebook on How Not to Get Pregnant Haaretz (Robin K)
In Guatemala, painted altar found at Tikal adds new context to mysterious Maya history ScienceDaily (Kevin W)
Trends in Melatonin Use Alarm Child Sleep Experts Undark. Paul R: “I use melatonin as a sleep aid sometimes, but this can’t be good.” Moi: On top of that, I’ve never found it to be helpful with sleep and I was not aware of other possible health effects.
He Was Held Captive in His Room for Decades. Then He Set It on Fire. New York Times (Robin K). Read to the end.
Another Country Aurelien
Climate/Environment
We passed the 1.5C climate threshold. We must now explore extreme options Guardian
CO₂ concentrations are already higher than during the Mid-Pliocene Warm Period, 3-3.3 million years ago, when global sea levels were 5 to 25 meters higher than today!
We are in uncharted territory and most people are (kept) completely oblivious pic.twitter.com/BcTtrsOZXE
— Leon Simons (looking up) (@LeonSimons8) April 5, 2025
Scientists say human-caused pollution may be masking the true extent of climate warming Euronews
Why some storms brew up to extreme dimensions in the middle of America – and why it’s happening more often The Conversation
Keystone, ‘Safest Pipeline in the World,’ Ruptures—Again Common Dreams
Mountain roads closed forever: in Isère, people are preparing for this eventuality Mon sejour en montagne
Climate and health litigation mounting in Australia as exposure to heat waves grows PhysOrg
China?
Full text: China’s Position on Some Issues Concerning China-US Economic, Trade Relations and Trade barriers cannot stop economic globalization: Global Times editorial Global Times
China Restricts Rare Earths Exports, Again OilPrice
Chinese exporters said to be ditching shipments mid-voyage to avoid crushing Trump tariffs South China Morning Post
South of the Border
U.S. Defense Secretary Vows to “Take Back” Panama Canal OilPrice
Far-left Argentine Lawmaker Indicted for Posts Comparing Gaza War to Holocaust Haaretz
European Disunion
The European Union should reform or die Ian Proud
Miosga: How can we discourage pacifism from the Germans? Philosophia (Micael T)
Should Le Pen be barred? What is the Left’s right answer on this conundrum? Yanis Varoufakis (Colonel Smithers). Aurelien by e-mail:
Once more people get the issues confused. This isn’t about prosecutions, it’s about judicial discretion, and what some are calling judicial overreach.
The investigation was fair, and the verdict seems to have been fair as well, given the mass of evidence. What is at issue is the verdict.
The judges could have imposed merely a prison sentence and a fine, but they chose to use their discretion to impose disqualification as well. And although they could have allowed her to continue as a politician through the lengthy appeal process, the used their discretion to make the disqualification immediate. In this way the judges’ decisions alone made it impossible for her to stand in 2027.
The question the Left should be asking itself is whether judges should have this type of discretion and power
Europe’s gas problem: It has rejected Russian gas and now it has nothing to fill its gas storage facilities with International Affairs (Micael T)
It is the first time in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany: a journalist is threatened with prison for satirical “defamation of politicians”! Deutschlandkurier via machine translation (Micael T)
Old Blighty
Garbage piles up on Birmingham’s streets as a sanitation strike in the UK city enters its 5th week Associated Press
Israel v. The Resistance
See the New York Times story at the top for what slow motion starvation looks like:
Israel is engineering famine in #Gaza. By blocking food, water, and aid, it is deliberately creating conditions where children starve, hospitals shut down, and entire communities face death. This is not collateral damage, it’s a calculated genocide. pic.twitter.com/kTMc4Hom4l
— Euro-Med Monitor (@EuroMedHR) April 8, 2025
“This morning, Israeli officials from the Jerusalem Municipality, accompanied by Israeli Security Forces, forcibly entered six UNRWA schools in East Jerusalem.
They gave closure orders for the schools effective in 30 days.
UNRWA schools in occupied East Jerusalem are… pic.twitter.com/iBnWiB9SRi
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) April 8, 2025
Col. Larry Wilkerson: Think the U.S. can beat Iran? Yemen just crushed that illusion Dialogue Works. Important. Contains very good discussion of economic, military, and political fractures in Israel.
U.S. Commanders Worry Yemen Campaign Will Drain Arms Needed to Deter China New York Times. resilc: “Houthis playing rope a dope.”
IRAN & US ULTIMATUM [BY RYAN L. DUDLEY] Sonar21
Netanyahu Says Iran Deal Would Work Only If Nuclear Facilities Are ‘Blown Up’ Antiwar.com (Kevin W)
New Not-So-Cold War
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Chinese men fighting for Russia captured in Ukraine Financial Times. Help me.
Brief summary from the front for April 8th, 2025 Marat Khairullin
Trump Jr. demands answers from Ukraine over alleged assassination plot RT
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Practical Paranoia: Navigating A Hostile Digital Landscape Libre Solutions (Micael T)
Imperial Collapse Watch
Splitting Russia From China Is Possible—and Vital American Conservative. resilc: “Are these people crackheads and/or methheadzzzzzzz?”
Structural trends: a continuing story https://t.co/tOVpCIYJdZ pic.twitter.com/pOA1GtKIMm
— Basil Halperin (@BasilHalperin) April 5, 2025
Security on Land and at Sea: Ten Rules for Operating Transport Corridors Global Affairs (Micael T)
MAGA-stroika Heralds New Age Simplicius. Skip over the opener on the Economist; just after that, a good compilation of country groups organizing responses.
Trump 2.0
Tariffs Are Bad, But Trump’s New Port Fees Are Also Shaping Up To Be A Disaster Jalponik (resilc)
“Wi-Fi Keeps Going Down’: Donald Trump’s Return-to-Office Mandate Is Going Terribly Wired. resilc: “Destroy the village to save it…….General Trump as Ghengis Khan”
Tariffs
This story broke at the Wall Street Jouranl just after Links went live:
What would a US-China trade war do to the world economy? BBC (Kevin W)
Trump says US to announce ‘major’ tariff on pharmaceutical imports Anadolu Agency
US LNG crippled as Australia seizes US$1.5b trade overnight Pearls & Irritations (Kevin W). Important.
* * * Tech’s Trump ties are starting to burn Guardian
GOP Senator Grills Trump Trade Rep on Tariffs: ‘Whose Throat Do I Get to Choke’ if You’re Wrong? Mediate (resilc)
Elon Musk rips ‘moron’ Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro: ‘Dumber than a sack of bricks’ New York Post. resilc:
A stopped clock is right twice a day
I just returned from Walmuerto in XXXX, MA. Ii walked down the aisles and picked 10 items.
4 from China (hardware, toys, personal care items)
2 from Vietnam (lights, hardware)
1 from Mexico (auto filters)
1 from India (yarn)
2 from USA USA (liquids and paints)Joe Rogan and Ben Shapiro backed Trump. Now, they question his tariffs Associated Press
* * * America Underestimates the Difficulty of Bringing Manufacturing Back Molson Hart (resilc). A must read.
Pro-Trump Billionaires Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes Gizmodo (Dr. Kevin)
Trump’s executive order threatens National African American History Museum Washington Informer (Randy K)
DOGE
National Weather Service issues lifesaving tornado and flood warnings amid massive cuts Yale Climate Connections
Christian “TheoBros” Are Building a Tech Utopia in Appalachia Mother Jones (Paul R)
Immigration
Gratuitous Cruelty: The Supreme Court Just Unleashed Trump Zeteo
For almost 2 weeks, Khan Suri was kept in a room without bed & with TV blaring 21 hours/day.
Given used underwear & red uniform "usually reserved" for "high security" detainees.
Not allowed to spend >than 2 hrs/week outside dorm.
His little son has stopped talking in his absence. https://t.co/WEgvfqb1sh pic.twitter.com/FFMKoIbcZl— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) April 8, 2025
IRS agrees to share immigrants’ data with ICE Axios (Kevin W). IRS data will not identify the cohort that has employers using other people’s SSNs to pay them (the IRS can now see multiple uses of SSNs for payroll taxes). It would, however, identify the abusing employers. If you think the IRS will go after them, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you.
Paging Dick Cheney:
Noem is pointing the M4 muzzle at an agent with an open dust cover, indicating a chambered round. It's the worst possible place to point it. No one stopped her, including the agent to her left, who should know better but also has bad muzzle discipline. https://t.co/lwM08K4m3C
— Alex Horton (@AlexHortonTX) April 8, 2025
Our No Longer Free Press
German journalist sentenced to seven months of probation for a Twitter meme poking fun at the Interior Minister’s lack of commitment to free speech eugyppius (Micael T)
Mr. Market Is Having a Nervous Breakdown
Sex Workers Already Predicted There’s A Recession Coming — Here’s How They Know HuffPost (Kevin W)
AI
Trump Order Seeks to Tap Coal Power in Quest to Dominate AI Bloomberg (resilc)
The Bezzle
Tesla Sitting On Thousands Of Unsold Cybertrucks As It Stops Accepting Its Own Cars As Trade-Ins Jalopnik(resilc)
US Justice Dept disbands crypto enforcement team, citing Trump order Reuters (Kevin W). This will prevent, not promote, crypto from going mainstream.
Private Equity Is Getting Into the Airplane Repair Business Jacobin (Paul R)
Class Warfare
They want a lake view – then Stockholm’s food warehouses will be demolished Expressen via machine translation. Micael T: “Gentrification causes crisis/wartime starvation.”
From bob in upstate New York:
I live in a tourist area. Lots from Canada, it’s close.
The summer is looking very grim. Someone a few weeks ago showed up to 75% of us bound flights were cancelled. The people coming here would not be flying, but anecdotally, we are seeing the same behavior. This is short on details, but it’s a tourist town newspaper. They aren’t going to try to start a panic.
https://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/news/local-news/2025/04/where-are-the-canadians/
The other issue here is that no one can afford to live here. Prices for 3rd and 4th homes are above 500k , median household income is $63,747. If you’re really lucky you can buy a seasonal home built in the 1930’s for 200k.
Seasonal service work used to allow people to make decent money in season. Now, it’s all “J1s” (might be h2b’s tecnically, but locally they are all J1s), not sure on the official name. In my research there isn’t a program that would allow this. Yet they are here, lots, hundreds, constantly rotating. Young people who come over from some other county, eastern europe (croatia, serbia) or south america(peru, argentina), usually upper middle class university students in those countries. They work for a few months and then they are allowed to travel for a week or two. Not sure that week is going to be a good travel experience now with the black squads running around. Housing has to be made available to them, but they have to pay. The housing isn’t good. They’re young, they make it work.
But those people have to be set up years ahead of time. Most of the larger resorts are staffed with them, mostly. Over 80%. They need to set menus months ahead to give the kids time to learn them. They can afford to handle and plan for the overhead and paperwork.
Small businesses have no chance. Workers even less. They have to compete with indentured servitude (they don’t have housing, or papers, if they quit) pushing down wages. Now, the J1’s are even more scared, I bet.
I’d like to say that the J1s staying home would help the locals, but I don’t think so.
Antidote du jour (via):
And a bonus:
What kind of defense is this 😭 pic.twitter.com/OWgC0MbuqD
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) April 8, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Desperation
(melody borrowed from Desperado by Glenn Lewis Frey and Donald Hugh Henley; as performed by the Eagles)
Desperation—the Prez is non compos mentis
He’s pushing pretenses, and crashing the DOW
In the Rose Garden
He played a man for all seasons
This world won’t be squeezed into
Going without
Six B-2’s on that island, Oy!
Our cards are on the table
But once the shooting starts who knows what we will get?
For the road is long and winding
And war is always fatal
Leaving both sides gaunt from the horrors they have met
Desperation—to tear all Persia asunder
This will be a blunder, the worst that we’ve known
To defeat ’em, to defeat ’em, hell, with their Russian jets stalking
Their mission is blocking our missiles and drones
O, our empire’s old and it’s past its prime
Running short of dough facing sharp decline
Donald’s lookin’ back to the good times far away
Delusion calls and his eyes close
All the money that he’s stealing won’t stay
Desperation—you’ll lose as this war commences
Iran will burn fences, and shut down the Strait
While you’re campaignin’ Iran might reach out and touch you
Iran can push and can shove, too
(Can push and shove, too)
Iran can push and can shove, too
Disaster awaits . . .
Adding my voice to the appreciation choir. Glad you’re here.
What has become of us? Video shows Idaho police shooting knife-wielding teen with autism multiple times, sparking outrage, CBS. The video is embedded in this article, Protest following officer-involved shooting, video spreads on social media, East Idaho News.
Video not for the faint hearted, put down your coffee.
Oh good, the Guardian building consensus for pumping aerosols into the atmosphere at random and hoping nothing goes wrong. SAI is the most hubristic and least scientific idea since Theosophy.
I suppose “We” could do it too, just change the mix on commercial jet-a and presto, actual chemtrails!
And then if air travel is ever disrupted, bam, we’re all dead from mass crop failure.
Irony alert….if one is GretaThurnberg, you *want* 100% tariffs and oil crashing…the Western supply chain delivering tube socks, winter grapes, and iPhones is CO2 awful
Greta should be the biggest cheerleader for Trump and a debt-destruction-contraction right now
I imagine what Ms Thurnberg wants is a chance to grow up, maybe fall in love, have kids, maybe a dog and a couple cats, and grow old.
In this blame-cannon target rich environment, I find your choice of villains curious.
IMO. YMMV. well that is the Hobson’s/Sophoi’s choice..there is no magic CO2 bullet.
either more fission, “nudge” policis, no inbound first-world migration (carbon footprint), and basic tech research (so we don’t start hare-brained ideas like aerosol imjection) or economic contraction and less fossil fuel use.
I prefer door 1. Greta has her cake and its it too….she (as a proxy for the environmental movement) rails against CO2 but offers no policy proposals
Greta is a twenty two year old activist. Her job is to raise awareness. Surely she is not responsible for any policy creation beyond “leave it in the ground”.
My spidey senses tingle when activists are singled out.
Who told you the medicine didn’t/wouldn’t have to be bitter??
imo, GT is just realistic about the her futures best solution and rapidly curtailing oil consumption, and consumption in general, is a solid policy proposal.
And societies could try radical conservation in the transition. Less is more.
But I won’t question your ‘irony alert’ as that was my first reaction to the lede and article.
Agreed. Of all the people, Greta Thurnberg isn’t exactly a factor in this and though she’s been used as a human shield for some politicians trying to greenwash themselves, I have no doubt her intentions are honest and pure. Heck, I doubt we’ll ever hear much more from her because she dared to show support for Palestine.
Greta Thunberg was just a poor autistic teen used by her celebrity parents and some other people to be the face of advertising, for their own ends. Hello Richard B, who seems to have disappeared from the scene now she isn’t that useful newsworthy kid.
And yes, her feelings seemed genuine. And she has every reason to worry about the state of the environment, like every young person who gives it a moment’s thought and wanted the chance to have a family of their own and grow old in relative safety.
She probably won’t work out how she was used until she is much older, if she gets that chance.
“Exclusive | Chinese exporters ditching shipments mid-voyage to avoid crushing Trump tariffs”
I suppose that if the Chinese are stopping shipments going to the US, they will not longer have to pay Trump’s tariffs. On the other side of the ledger, the US loses not only the money from Trump’s tariffs for those shipments but also regular payments such as import taxes, ship’s docking fees, etc. And then there are the resulting shortages…
You have a shocking misunderstanding of how tariffs work Rev.
China does not have to pay the tariff applied to their goods, it is the buyer that pays the tariff. In the case of automobiles, it’s the dealers, who pass the cost on to their customers.
The reason they’re canceling delivery mid-voyage is the threat of having inventory stranded in port that will never be delivered because the customer who ordered them now finds themselves unable to sell the goods at the new price that has tariffs added.
It is for this reason that VW is leaving new vehicles sitting in port. (If the dealers can’t sell them, they will go somewhere else.)
Take the BYD cars from China, the best and least expensive EVs on the planet that cannot compete in the US because the high tariff doubles the price.
In the EU a BYD electric car cost $30K, they’re everywhere. In the US, the same car would cost $60K with Trumps proposed 100% tariff applied, and that extra $30K would be paid by the consumer, not the Chinese manufacturer.
My mistake there typing without engaging the brain first. Of course it will be the US consumers paying those tariffs when they hit the docks. Last time Trump was President and went on a tariff binge I think that somebody worked out that the Chinese were only paying a tiny fraction of them while US consumers were paying well over 90% of those tariffs
Some people, at times myself included, think that’s the only way I type.
the reason they are sending the ships back is because the importer.can not pay the tax associated with the import.
a shipment that cost 1 million now costs 2 million. the money isn’t in the importer bank account to pay it.
the cost doubled in a week. the cash on hand isn’t there to pay the additional cost.
or at least that is my take.
We aren’t in disagreement, we’re just describing the same situation from two different perspectives.
From the importers side, even if they had the money, they wouldn’t spend it because they understand that their customers won’t pay the extra cost.
Another thing to consider is that the cost of the goods are most likely financed, while the tariff is due IIRC, in full when delivered.
From the manufacturers point, the boatload of stuff still belongs to them and it’s obvious to them that the importer can’t/won’t pay, so the only move that makes sense is to bring it home or find another buyer.
If things get really bad, you can make soap from wood ash.
It’s a wonderful time to be alive and a member of the Cargo Cult. Instead of airstrips they are busy building docks to no where.
And as we saw in Gaza, that does not work out very well.
Twenty Five Crash!
Sung to the tune of “48 Crash” by Suzi Quatro
Melody
Well you got your claw-backin’ plan and the face of a little bear blue
And when your down forty grand there’s a case just for sniffin’ more glue
You’re so young, you could have been George Bush’s son
You’re so young, but like a hang up I’ll be sad when you’re old and … it’s gone
Watch Out!
You know the Twenty-five Crash came like a lightning flash (’25 Crash, ’25 Crash)
And the ’25 Crash it was a COVID rehash (’25 Crash, ’25 Crash)
’25 Crash, ’25 Crash
Come like a lightning flash, a lightning flash
And it’s a dash for cash, a dash for cash, that’s the ’25 Crash
You’ve got the kind of a mind of a Hooverville Romeo
And you’re so blind you could find that your motor ain’t ready to go
You’re so young, you’re a hot shot baby bear cub
You’re so young, but like a teenage runaway vix soon you’ll show claws and we’ll run …
Watch Out!
You know the ’25 Crash came like a lightning flash (’25 Crash, ’25 Crash)
And the ’25 Crash means no retirement bash (’25 Crash, ’25 Crash)
’25 Crash, ’25 Crash
Come like a lightning flash, a lightning flash
And it’s a portfolio trash, a dash for cash, that’s the ’25 Crash!
[Guitar]
Crash, Crash, ’25 Crash (Crash)
Crash, Crash, ’25 Crash (Crash)
Dash, Dash, dash for that cash!
Crash, Crash, ’25 Crash (Crash)
Crash!
You know the ’25 Crash came like a lightning flash (’25 Crash, ’25 Crash)
And the ’25 Crash means no retirement bash (’25 Crash, ’25 Crash)
’25 Crash, ’25 Crash
Come like a lightning flash, a lightning flash
And it’s a trade war clash, a dash for cash, that’s the ’25 Crash!
So I guess we will resolve the question of who is ripping of whom in unbalanced trade by real world experiment. Trump will break off trade between US and China completely and then we can see who drops dead first.
BTW, I wonder if this isn’t making war with Iran more likely in case Trump needs some rally-around-the-flag distraction in couple of weeks/months.
That only really works against a country that can’t shoot back. Back when he was President the first time, Iran did something that he did not like. I think that it was shooting down a US drone in their airspace. To save face he was negotiating with Iran to hit something in Iran, even if it was a thunder-box in the middle of a desert but the Iranians said absolutely not so he backed off. Does he know that Iran has only gotten stronger since them and now has Russian equipment backing them?
“He Was Held Captive in His Room for Decades. Then He Set It on Fire.”
I heard about this a coupla days ago but it is really bad reading this in detail. He will never get those years back again and it will affect him physically and mentally for the rest of his life. And then you wonder how many more there are like him still locked away in rooms somewhere scattered around.
The only way to be sure is to fully investigate all those child abusers who complain about “gentle parenting” not reproducing the large variety of mental illnesses they are so proud of.
Seems to be know by the neighbors that they came and went and played on a trampoline.
There almost always a sibling leading lives free lives with many opportunities to tell.
A couple of years ago, a Turpin girl got out and got help for herself and her sisters. The brothers went to school and had phones. They had phones!
How about a ban on stepmothers? Not only did Grimm told cautionary tales about Hansel and Gretel and warned kids about the stepmother wanting to kill the kids but even the Romans were on it. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41535193
Centuries old knowledge that is neglected.
My father, who did genealogy as a hobby most of his life, told me long ago that when a man married a second time the new wife would often insist that the children from the previous marriage leave the household. He said that the stepmother would refuse to raise another woman’s children. I have seen this happen several times in the research I have done, but the motivation for the children being raised by grandparents is unclear, especially when you are separated by 150 years or more from the time.
Back then there were no public schools, primary education was for those who could pay for it. It’s possible it was a pull situation more than push. The grandparents could have been concerned for the children’s education and opportunities more than a hostile home environment pushed them out. Just like today, many children are fortunate to be cared for when their parent is unable or absent.
Not to be one sided about this, men who married women with children could demand similar and the kids stayed with grandparents if they were lucky or went to orphanages if not that lucky.
There is a book, written by an average guy originally for his grandchildren, telling of how when his father was killed at work his mother remarried. But the new husband didn’t see why he should be supporting her children to another man and she didn’t want to jeopardise the new marriage. So she ditched the kids.
So this boy was left with his impoverished grandmother. And then sent out to work on a farm in a live-in arrangement when he was about 8 yo.
It’s a story of the triumph of the human spirit. Written of times 100 years ago. Called of all things “A Fortunate Life”.
Another question I had about the Le Pen case concerns selective application of law. If a certain class of crime is usually overlooked and then is enforced in a specific case then it might end up looking political and unjust. An example off the top of my head here in the USA is selective enforcement of Foreign Agents Registration Act — Scott Ritter and Omali Yeshitela are memorable cases while recipients of Israel’s political spending usually aren’t. Another is disclosure of government secrets. I have no idea if what Le Pen did is common but usually not enforced as a crime. Perhaps Aurelien or others have some information.
It was until recently relatively common. It’s a form of embezzlement where a member of parliament uses stipends for staff to pay people in “fake jobs” so that the money is returned to them for other uses. Presidential candidate and former PM François Fillon was convicted of this in a very high profile trial where his wife had been collecting a salary for a number of years for doing what amounted to nothing.
The part of the sentence in the Le Pen conviction that is causing consternation is that she is still appealing and it’s already barred her from political office for the next five years, meaning that she cannot run for president in 2027. There’s been one other case where this kind of sentence was handed down – it was a senator from French Polynesia – and there the Constitutional Court ruled that he could not be removed from his seat until a final appeal had concluded. Hence MLP retains her seat in the Assembly.
Also be aware that the French civil law system is unlike US or English common law in that precedent holds a different, less definitive, value and can be parsed by judges to the point of nearly ignoring it.
I’ve done no deeper research and I’m not a lawyer that does this sort of thing for a living, so YMMV.
Thank you, Bugs.
I’d add just that, whilst others have done the same thing, the Fillon case was slightly different in that the objective was simple personal gain. In Le Pen’s case, as in a number of others, whilst it looks as if some money may have gone to relatives etc. the latest I have seen is that some of it was also recycled from Brussels to pay some of the RN expenses in France. This kind of thing has happened, and been punished, before, but frankly it’s usually better concealed (there have been accusations that Bayrou, the current PM has done the same thing, but there was not enough evidence to justify going after him.) The RN crowd were caught because they were incompetent and didn’t try very hard to conceal what they were doing.
MLP has said in the past that the reason she needed to go outside France to finance the party was because no French bank would extend them a loan.
This was when she was taking heat for getting a loan from a Russian bank. “see, see Putin is financing them!” etc, etc.
I don’t think she’s got the vengeful streak of Big Don, but if she does, god help us, because I think they’re going to win the next election.
And most likely there was a forensic examination of her books by her enemies who have deep pockets and expertise perhaps paid for by the state, and a huge incentive to bring her to court.
And as it is with graft and corruption, it’s only the graft of one’s enemies that counts as illegal. One’s own is always re-classified.
Sounds like a case of ‘It’s OK when we do it.’
TheoBros in Tennessee–
It’s too bad the Mother Jones author chose a snarky, PMC tone in this article rather than treating this admittedly theocracy-tinged effort at community as just one example of a broader, often positive effort at finding a new way of living as the old one collapses. In fact, these TheoBros are but one, rather misguided attempt at restoring community in a society where it has largely disappeared.
For example, here’s a piece on a community in Vermont which is not–surprise,surprise–theocratic. The author lists six reasons that preparing for what’s coming is better in groups. Here her #3:
Here’s a Nate Hagens roundtable with Dougald Hine of the Dark Mountain Project, Swedish environmental activist Pella Thiel and Small Farm Future’s Chris Smaje talking about how they’re forming communities, mostly based around food and agriculture.
One rational response to societal collapse is to form such communities, in place where you already live if that’s possible. In the increasingly prescient Parable series by Octavia Butler, it was these sorts of communities that provided care and stability as central authority dissolved. It was the worldviews of these communities that contended to become the worldview of the future.
Considering that early colonies were founded by Puritans and Quakers, this activity has a long tradition. And those religious people that settled in Utah seem to be doing okay too.
The Shakers were on to something https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakers . Sublimate the libido, reduce the population and make outstanding furniture. I recommend the spoon bread at Pleasant Hill, KY https://shakervillageky.org .
How about the Shaker lemon pie at Pleasant Hill?
JMG: If the Shakers had such a community of supportive lay believers as a waystation between the World and the formal Shaker life, it’s quite possible that they would be a major American denomination today.
[resilience.org/stories/2013-10-23/reinventing-square-wheels/]
I’m intrigued by religious groups that take modernity with a grain of salt. The Anabaptist groups like the Amish reject a lot of modern conveniences because they discern that they undermine community and empathy. It’s hard to argue with them about that.
And in some ways, Orthodox Jews reject some aspects of modernity, but not all. I spent Monday morning getting what will be my last radiation treatment. When I first arrived in the waiting room, it was nearly empty, but things were running behind, so I was there for a while. Before long, an Orthodox rabbi entered with an ill member of his synagogue. A little later, a robust fellow who knew all the check-in ladies joined us. He happened to sit by me, and quickly engaged me in conversation. Before long, the conversation led to the revelation (small “r”) that my interlocutor was a Free Will Baptist preacher. So an Orthodox rabbi, a Free Will Baptist preacher, and a Lutheran preacher walk into an oncology radiation waiting room…
(Leaving out my somewhat more complicated religious status)
This seemed so pertinent that I wanted to link it even before I finished it. This is a new Nate Hagens interview of Alexis Zeigler, one of the founders of Living Energy Farm, an intentional community in central Virginia. I wish I’d had Youtubes of Zeigler back when we were trying to live off PVs in the Sangre de Cristos.
Been debating whether to seek out a set of the Foxfire books…
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Chinese men fighting for Russia captured in Ukraine
And what about those Martians Zelensky captured? It’s long past time EU sanctions Mars and Trump should impose pre-emptive tariffs as well…Just to be sure.
He shared the video named 0804_Korean_Soldier 2.mp4. 🤡
https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/144232
https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/144229
A friend of mine who served five years as a grunt in the PLA said that many on quitting went to Africa as he did to work in the various Chinese funded mining and infrastructure projects there – a lot found themselves cut loose (as happened to him) over covid, and were drifting around in various jobs, usually trying to get travel and adventure out of their system before going back to China (if they do). It wouldn’t surprise me if some ended up as mercs in odd corners of the world.
I am more than amused that we are supposed to see Chinese,and Korean and…., interference from these captures. But the occasional American or European captured or killed are supposed to be freedom loving individuals who came to Ukraine on their own. Personally I believe there is far less evidence that the nonRussians found are there officially then the NATO country military in Ukraine. Just the money, arms, and training in their countries belie the not involved meme.
How do we even know these men were Chinese? Ukraine never produced any North Koreans. The Russian far east has many Asiatics.
This article makes no sense – the authors don’t seem to know how LNG markets work. China actually blocked all LNG imports from the US 60 days ago in response to the first wave of tariffs. There are no US shipments to China at sea right now to cancel. Much of this was down to lower demand in China over the winter due to a combination of mild late winter weather and slower than anticipated growth.
In the wake of the original mass cancelling of contracts 2 months ago Chinese buyers had to resell to Europe, almost certainly at a loss. There is plenty of spare storage capacity this time of the year in Europe and as LNG is a fungible product, any cancelled shipments will be rapidly bought up if the price is right.
Thank you for the insights. I was bothered by this article on another, less informed, level. As a piece of writing it’s a total mess, circularly repeating itself as if trying to beat some ideas into someone’s thick head. I wondered if this was LLM composition. If this came from a human, they have significant cognitive and communicative difficulties.
Yes it’s a bad article. It seemed that the repetitiveness increased as I read it. I gave up on finishing it
It might be LLM, but in my experience people write like this when they are trying to write about a topic they don’t really understand (I know I do).
In reality, China’s block on LNG imports from the US has shot itself in the foot. The LNG was pre-purchased so its Chinese buyers who lose out, and anyone with spare storage capacity (i.e. Europe) who benefits by buying it at a discount.
The bigger story here may be that China has full stores at the end of winter, which seems to indicate a very significant drop in some sectors of industrial production and in transport – China uses a lot of gas in transport, although it is also falling off due to cheaper EV’s.
See the latest from Michael Every from Rabobank about the potential fallout for Australia if matters proceed to extremes between the US and China. He can see that Australia may be asked to destroy its economy in its role as a vassal of the US by sanctioning iron ore shipments to China.
The Australian gov. has been white-anted since Morrison with US gov. backroom boys. During the present Federal election campaign here no one is being asked their policy on such issues. This will be a much bigger decision than our ones to join the British Empire World Wars.
We sanction iron ore shipments to China then we’ll have no money for US nuke boats or AUKUS nor any of the other weapons systems that we are buying off the US.
Federal judge rules White House’s Associated Press ban unconstitutional for ‘viewpoint discrimination’ Fox
So get Musk to set up a privately funded event and do “press conferences” there. Make sure it’s corporate funded because corporations are the only true form of people that courts recognize as having constitutional rights of free speech.
Big investors look to sell out of private equity after market rout – FT
I read it yesterday but there’s a lot of jargon I don’t understand. I think the tl;dr is the headline and the text provides some evidence. Confirms what Yves reported on the 4th.
https://archive.is/2025.04.07-013307/https://www.ft.com/content/b7c5aea6-c429-4917-bf35-a4f1b3159f85
It’s hard to “sell out” of private equity. These are funds. You have to find a buyer for your stake. Good luck with that.
Being a realist, I am certain the nuclear facilities Iz Prime Minister says need blowing up is this one;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimon_Peres_Negev_Nuclear_Research_Center
US LNG crippled as Australia seizes US$1.5b trade overnight, can’t wait for the multidimensional chess rationalization on this one.
Isolationism ho!
Tangentially related, what happens to all those US “shale oil plays” with crude cratering?
$55/bbl and cliff diving as I type.
So much for Texas-Arabia. Stranded assets, cap those wells, baby!
Nutters. The most effective tool there is to limit fracking, cheap oil.
14 Billion $$
I pray Shell knows something we don’t and constipates the Marcellus…followed by mandatory Cap and Monitor…
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11022025/pennsylvania-petrochemical-plant-failed-to-boost-local-economy/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjG_NDV5cuMAxWJHNAFHW9uBpoQFnoECAkQAg&usg=AOvVaw2OM6T9Bjj4p-REe0hvlok9
And
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://triblive.com/local/regional/cracker-plant-in-beaver-county-could-be-sold-as-shell-looks-to-offload-chemical-assets/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjG_NDV5cuMAxWJHNAFHW9uBpoQFnoECAcQAg&usg=AOvVaw2EvPahUnbLVW55tMJ9TVT3
Ruh, Roh!
‘Beijing has slapped an additional 50% tariff – due to take effect at noon on Thursday – on American goods, mirroring Washington’s move. This comes on top of the previously imposed 34% tariff, the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
In addition to the tariff hike, China’s Ministry of Commerce filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization against the US and placed six American companies on its ‘unreliable entity’ list. An additional 12 US businesses were subjected to export controls that bar Chinese companies from supplying them with dual-use items.’
https://www.rt.com/news/615441-china-tarriff-us-84/
That means an 84% tariff on all US goods. They are not backing down and the ball is now back in Trump’s court.
I purchased a 200 Watt solar panel yesterday because my old 100 Watt was dying on me and I do not want to be stuck in my van with no power and having to pay double the $230 this one cost me. I am also going to buy an alternator for my van, just in case. This is how all of us living in poverty should be investing.
My friend went out with her parents yesterday and they all bought new iPhone 16’s for the same reason, the trade war.
Sixty days worth of cat food was my tariff induced purchase. Peace in the kingdom for now, lol.
if you’re willing to invest the time, and have the tools….generally many car.alternator failures (worn brushings, bearings, etc) are easily fixable. just time intensive.
lots of videos online, and the repair kits are affordable (even if they get 50% more expensive)
Alternator bearings are very standard metric sized bearings. Brushes are the weak point as they are always rubbing on the two slip rings and both Brushes and slip rings wear.
I always tried to put the rotor on a lathe and turn the slip rings smooth again.
Try to press the bearings on, pounding on the bearings can damage them and smooth pressure is the ticket.
Trump says US to announce ‘major’ tariff on pharmaceutical imports
‘Once we do that, they’re going to come rushing back into our country,’ president says about drug companies
Worth reading as a kind of comic monologue.
How did the U S of A get into the situation of not making its own pharmaceuticals? (Oh, neoliberalism and the obsession with “labor costs” and outsourcing.) ::
https://www.worldstopexports.com/international-markets-for-imported-drugs-by-country/
To quote esteemed commenter resilc: “Are these people crackheads and/or methheadzzzzzzz?”
Not too worry. US Vice-President J.D. Vance is on the job and decided to help out US-China relations here so he went on Fox News and called the Chinese peasants – twice.
‘Defending the levies, Vance said: “We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture.’
https://archive.vn/C2PEl#selection-1117.0-1117.126
The Chinese are fuming and with good reason too. I can see J.D. Vance as President of the United States being a barrel of laughs.
Keeping up the tradition. Joe Biden called Xi Jinpeng a “dictator” before the tea they drank together at trade talks was cold. Blinken looked visibly squirmy.
Then he ranted about “nobody wants to trade places with Xi Jinpeng!” at a debate or a presser.
Can anyone sane expect the Chinese to deal with goons?
Much further back, George Bush jr had the leader of China visit him at the White house and there was a big reception outdoors. And when it came time to play the Chinese national anthem, they played the Taiwanese national anthem instead. And just to cap it off, there was a protestor in the audience that stood up and started to berate him in Chinese and the Secret Service made no attempt to crash tackle her or to drag her away. i bet that that taught them a lesson.
US Diplomacy, lol, maybe someday.
Reminds me of the response from an Eastern luminary when asked about Western civilization said tat he thought “It would be a good idea”
Gandhi
one of my all time favorite quotes/stories.
ive told it often out at the bar.
I was really puzzled by that. It seemed every time the U.S. was sending somebody to talk to the Chinese, the State Department insulted them. I never understood the reasoning behind that.
It’s to show them who’s the boss, or as US diplomats would say it “negotiating from the position of strength”. :)
Rev Kev: Thanks for the link.
Ahhh, J.D. Vance. I read an enlightening essay / profile (with a wild caricature) of J.D. written by Pino Corrias, who has been publishing “warts and all” essays about the U S of A since Trump’s inauguration.
Tra ruggine e rancore. Il viaggio di JD Vance dall’inferno al potere
DI PINO CORRIAS
Elegia americana. Per fuggire dal terzo marito della madre tossica, cresce con la nonna che una notte dà fuoco al nonno alcolizzato. Nella vita, gli diceva: “Devi avere uno scopo”. Quindi l’Iraq e Thiel
in Fatto Quotidiano.
Apt: Between Rust and Rancor. The Voyage of J.D. Vance from Hell to Power.
Vance supposedly decided that his years in the Marines gave him his purpose / goal (scopo). I am leery of men who burble on about how they joined the military to make sense of their lives. If you didn’t have self-discipline before, the shellac of rules and regs and drills is not going to give you the self-discipline that a man must have to be a serious person.
So the ex-marine goes on about “peasants.”
Corrias also thinks that Vance, who had no father, or three or four fathers, depending on how one counts them, is in a kind of grandchild relation to Trump. Sounds icky: I have to think that one over.
“China Restricts Rare Earths Exports, Again”
I bet that the Pentagon is getting worried as securing new supplies will take years of effort both in the US and with its allies – those that are left. And the article mentions that the US got three-quarters of it’s needs from China so they had better hope that the Chinese don’t ban all rare earths to the US. The article does try to be optimistic and say that they will be able to use cola ash for their needs but that solution is years away. This article then ends saying ‘In the meantime, Washington can build new supply chains outside of China just like Japan did when it faced a similar fate more than a decade ago.’ I think that these are the same supply chains that Trump is presently burning down so they may want a Plan B.
“America Underestimates the Difficulty of Bringing Manufacturing Back”
This really is a must read article by someone that actually has experience in manufacturing – unlike those in the White House. He really does lay out all that is needed in all the gory details and the problems that will need to be resolved. It will actually require a cultural change to succeed but I do not think that a neoliberal society will tolerate any such thing. This one is so good that I am bookmarking it right now.
I second your recommendation.
It really is a “must-read.”
Agree fully! Toward the end he mentions the high cost of health care in the USA. This brings to mind Michael Hudson’s comments here and elsewhere to the effect that manufacturing in the US can never be competitive worldwide unless and until costs vulnerable to financial predation such as health care and education, are socialized, as they are in most other countries.
Healthcare, education, and housing related things. Westerners laugh at salaries in Russia, but don’t understand how low are the bills there (and that people tend to own the house/flat they live in).
Reason 4: American workers are fat, stupid, and grifters.
Excellent insight!
G-D workers.
I had to raise my brow at some it as well.
I’m just thinking about the part where it’s stated that American workers can’t read English.
Hmmmm…
If some of it is going to be called out, let’s lay it all out for discussion:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/under-biden-data-shows-new-jobs-went-to-migrants/ar-AA1BJpye/
I hate to tell you but that was my experience in Alabama. Admittedly very different in NYC but the high cost of living forces everyone to be on the ball.
As a travelling tech/outside contractor, I actually have seen this in probably
1/2 of the workplaces I visit– lazy, grifting, apathetic workers– but I also have little doubt that management is ultimately responsible for the quality of their workforce.
Maybe another 1/4 of the job sites are highly-controlled, surveiled, micromanaged and ruled-by-the-whip that quickly churn through workers as they quit or burn-out.
But I’ve also had the pleasure of working with thriving companies where worker morale was very good, where management was responsive and “hands-on.” Obviously more rare, but they’re still out there.
Again, any owner or manager who complains about the quality of their workforce should probably take a hard look into a mirror. But overall, I think that the author presented mostly valid points throughout his essay.
And therein lies the reason that I quit working at the tender age of 49. We grow up being conditioned to establishing self worth and status by what we do for a living. What else can you do when the real world keeps telling you you are just a replaceable cog in the machine of commerce. The diminution of skills and motivation are entirely predictable given the perspective of business elite don’t value or understand the skills that make their company work.
aye. i get my manager philosophy/practice from my grandad.
treat yer people well, and theyll reciprocate.
employee’s mom has a heart attack, he shows up with a few hundred dollars….employee gets married, he quietly pays the caterers.
hurt on the job? he takes them to the ER himself, and pays cash for it.
etc.
short term more expensive, perhaps…but long term loyalty pays, long term>
all his people loved him.
in both my cafe and out here on the farm, i get the same response from my people.
my cafe was 25 years ago…and my waitstaff still stops me in the produce aisle to gush about how i was the best boss theyve ever had.
but, unlike my competition, i wasnt a scrooge with pay, nor with leftover daily specials…id send the latter home with them…..”here, take this to yer momma”.
my competition would rather toss it in the bin,lol.
As the Wobblies used to say, good pay or bum work.
There is already a clip on the theme:
https://x.com/MyLordBebo/status/1909547966886506974
Thanks for the reminder, Rev. I saw it this morning and thought about reading it then had other things to do. I think it is a valid opinion piece and fairly accurate.
I have no problem with the idea (4) that Americans don’t want to work. Many don’t and I have been places (in 1978) where an employee would literally watch the clock and be delighted that twenty minutes passed and he didn’t do anything. What a waste of a life.
Number five is likely the big one. No infrastructure. I am a retired mold maker and found it interesting about the lead time for foreign-built molds. One place where I worked had a little niche carved out in servicing or re-working new molds from China that had never been run. There were always problems, probably because the process had been made more efficient by having unskilled workers do certain tasks. The rule of thumb was that if you wanted to send a set of molds overseas that had to work correctly or have the parts fit together, you had to send an engineer with them. I could go on but there is a very small audience for technical details. The one thing I am happy to be away from is this very lack of infrastructure. We were often tasked to make precision tooling with machines that were not accurate enough for the task. A good analogy for this is going to work somewhere as a web designer and finding your ‘workstation’ is an IBM selectric typewriter. Good luck with that web page and don’t complain because you will show you aren’t a ‘team player.’ I don’t mind being a team player, but there were times when I wish I had been the coach instead.
The rule of thumb was that if you wanted to send a set of molds overseas that had to work correctly or have the parts fit together, you had to send an engineer with them.
Airlines do this with MROs overhauling aircraft. If you want a good reliable result you have your people on-sight so no rework is required. The early days of MROs was a nightmare until the airlines learned to up the quality of the work.
“An Ancient Guidebook on How Not to Get Pregnant”
I am informed that a large coin is also an effective method. The girl presses her knees together to hold that coin in place – and keeps it there.
Drinking beer works better.
Not before the act;
not afterwards;
but instead of!
‘it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance’
William Shakespeare
Joe Rogan and Ben Shapiro backed Trump. Now, they question his tariffs – Associated Press
“I think they’re smarter than me when it comes to these tariffs. I also think he’s playing a high-stakes game here,” Portnoy said last week on his livestream. “I’m gonna roll with him for a couple days, a couple weeks, see how this pans out.”
A couple days, a couple weeks…hmmm
He’s part of a gambling site. Wonder how much he would bet on that timeline.
Now to take a completely different turn…
Remember the articles about this factoid:
“According to a recent analysis from Moody’s Analytics for the Wall Street Journal, households with the top 10% of incomes, making about $250,000 or more a year, now account for nearly half of all consumer spending — the highest share since they’ve been collecting data on this stuff.”
That’s the USA and I wonder if it’s near the same in other countries.
That’s fewer people to squeeze in order to make quarterly growth numbers.
It’s beyond supply and demand. If there are a declining number of “super consumers”, it’s some real short-term thinking to rely on price increases to cover up other economic problems.
Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
I’ve seen vids of snow leopards playing with their kittens. This looked more like that than a defense. They can be much more goof-ball like than other big cats.
To me it looks kinda confused. Like not being sure if it’s play-time or fight-time. When neither happened, it relocated just in case.
P.S. For those not into martial arts, brazilian jiu-jitsu is known for techniques of fighting while lying on the back.
From We passed the 1.5C climate threshold. We must now explore extreme options
We cannot afford to not state the obvious — end capitalism, or the world ends. We can’t have both a livable planet and rapacious capitalism. Geo-engineering just nibbles around the edges. And to be successful, we need to fully redirect all capitalist energies to geo-engineering, which is basically a world-wide command economy anyway, and thus the end of American financial capitalism, at a minimum.
Good luck with that.
Environmentalists could be silently cheering Trump’s tariffs as USA consumption drops.
Shrinking the consumption pie while sharing it more in a more equitable manner should be the focus of responsible USA leaders.
But that won’t happen as our leaders take care of their elite class.
I believe this has long been the plan among a certain crowd who pretended to be climate skeptics. Keep up with Business As Usual until things are so be that people will be crying for someone to “fix it.” And that’s the stuff of a sci fi disaster film.
Anything to keep the rice bowls of the people that matter full, no matter how risky, no matter the side effects.
Killing the planet in order to save it is not a good idea.
If we ever perfect fusion, we will just cook the planet 2X as fast.
Trade barriers cannot stop economic globalization: Global Times editorial – Global Times
Or the on-steriods wealth inequality that comes with it.
But trade barriers can set up trading blocks. To have globalization of trade you need a World Trade Organization to regulate trade and resolve issues. But that organization is now as good as dead and Trump just finished burying it. It will take years to shake out but I suspect that we will be seeing the rise of trading blocks around the world for mutual protection.
“Miosga: How can we discourage pacifism from the Germans?”
This is incredible stuff this. If there was one people that wanted only peace it was the post WW2 German generations as they had learned from their parents and grandparents what war was all about. Only in a Germany under the leadership of people like Merz and Habeck are creatures like this Miosga allowed to spout such vile rubbish. Her Wikipedia entry says that she has two kids so you wonder if she is encouraging them to join the Bundeswehr too.
Does Germany have an equivalent to Russia’s Immortal Regiment?
Yes. It’s called Holocaust-Memorial, center oft Berlin, some hundred polished black stonequaders in line like a military batallion.
Berliners call it SS-Parade.
These days, I think the number of antidotes should be multiplied 10-fold, to make up for the rest of the news.
Gotta admit that the one about the Snow Leopard was pretty funny.
Open dust cover probably means that the bald guy emptied the chamber before handing her his (pimped up) gun. I don’t know who the lady is, but she looks like a porn actress to me, including the way she holds the pistol grip.
That’s not a justification. People who actually use guns NEVER assume they are empty even when they are told so. You treat them as dangerous all the time and have the safety on and/or point it at the ground.
I am not trying to justify anything. The lady should not be playing with guns, and the “twitter dust cover expert” should not pretend to be an expert.
My personal impression: having never handled automatic weapons, I have no idea what a “dust cover” is and why it being open implies there is a bullet in the chamber.
Therefore, I was incapable of seeing anything remarkable in the weapons carried by the persons in the video. It was just two blokes and a gal LARPing in “tactical gear” with impressive-looking submachine guns/assault rifles. The only thing that (faintly) registered is that they were not wearing the weapons pointing down to the ground.
Even I who am not at all a gun person know this was reckless. You ALWAYS check a gun multiple times to see if it is unloaded. You ALWAYS make sure the barrel is pointed in a safe direction, which is generally downward.
Yup.Never point the barrel at something if you aren’t going to shoot it.
Never. Unloaded, or whatever. Never.
Just ask Alec Baldwin.
Well, that’s the official version, for the normies. Anyone who handles firearms regularly, professionally or socially, knows that in real life there is a lot of joking that goes on. When your life depends on your comrades, the trust-bond extends to humour; even, especially amongst over-charged young men perhaps, to what the gun-ignorant Average Citizen would find shockingly reckless, foolhardy, dangerous, etc., etc. behaviours. And yes, accidents do occasionally happen — but then so do people get struck down by lightning whilst crossing the street.
I was once on a jury trial where the defendant was accused of having an illegal firearm (rifle with banana clips) along with a minor drug charge ( less than an oz.). During deliberation they brought the gun into the jury room for us to see. Some folks handled it. Turns out there was a round still in it. The bailiff quickly grabbed the gun off the table and exited.
The guy she is pointing the gun at looks so tough that the bullet would likely bounce off him.
They all look tough, ’til guys with shoe deficit, wielding rusty AKs, enter the chat. 😉
Reminds me of the photo of VP Dan Quayle visiting (Central America?) where he was pointing a similar weapon but it was pointed at himself. Good times.
They want a lake view – then Stockholm’s food warehouses will be demolished – Expressen via machine translation.
“Sweden must prepare for war.
But in Stockholm, lakeside homes are considered more important than food storage.”
Really? Sweden must?
Yet, food storage is probably a good idea for a host of other reasons.
It just shows that this “war” is just a distraction and a justification to inflict austerity and poverty on the population. Rutte told us so: cut pensions and social spending.
Trump Jr. demands answers from Ukraine over alleged assassination plot – RT
I don’t know what’s going to result from any further investigations, but I’m not surprised at any beginnings of blowback that may be happening.
The article: “Navigating A Hostile Digital Landscape” was fairly useful. The difficulty I have with articles about internet and tech privacy have good overall considerations, but are often low on specifics such as avoid Gaggle at all costs, how to limit (or completely disable) the surveillance from your auto, etc. Does anyone of the comentariate have ideas or resources to share in this constant battle for privacy? AKA, know any good, reputable hackers? NC is the only site that we ever comment on due to its seemingly respectful approach to tracking.
One place we go is a podcast each week, Techtonic.
I spent months looking online for a schematic to my Sony tv to cut the wiring on the external microphone so it could not be used to record conversations due to the “smart” nature of the device. I finally threw up my hands and decided no important conversations around the tv. Sigh. I hear the inner party members can even silence theirs . . .
Possible solution: turn off the wifi. My Sony is used as a display device from an AVR, which in turn is fed from an old-school DVR with (US system) ATSC 1 tuner, and computer with dual ATSC 1 tuners receiving OTA via attic-mounted antenna. Though I guess broadcasters would like you to upgrade to ATSC 3 which can be encrypted and requires live internet at the user location. (Hopefully broadcasters will figure out that many if not most of us OTA users do so precisely because we don’t want the streaming service “experience”. And we don’t have the TV tax police like the UK.)
Nothing I have to say is worth Skynet wasting SSD space to save….but for those who are worried about monitoring….
honestly get a few of these magnetic boards (or two dry erase boards) and have truly private conversations in writing.
https://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Drawing-Board-Erasable-Kids/dp/B0DSLHFM4P?th=1
Thank you, Yves.
Further to the link about sex workers and the forecast of recession, former employers, by way of intermediaries / concierge services, book the upscale ones, “elite courtesans”, for clients, whether officers at client firms, wealthy individuals or public sector officials (e.g. at Cannes’ MIPIM festival (property)).
Since late last year, a slow down has been observed as providers ask for leads. Since the turn of the year, and especially from last month, requests from providers have increased.
I know half a dozen or so as, from time to time, I’m asked to provide a briefing as some, but not all, upscale providers like to prepare for certain types of dates. They are delightful company. Sex work is just a job for them.
So what is the community like?
There’s a relatively even spread of women across their 20s, 30s and 40s. A third are mothers, especially the older ones. Financial distress drove many, if not most, into the industry. The post-2008 austerity was the tipping point.
Most are not full time providers. About a quarter work in the public sector, a quarter in services and a quarter have a small businesses, often struggling. It’s a side hustle that has grown out of necessity.
A quarter to a third are in relationships, including married. Many, if not most, are on the left. Some volunteer for worthy causes. They often despise PMC women do gooders.
Let me add that the industry is also a good guide about where the economy is growing. As austerity hit Europe hard after 2008, many providers headed to Dubai. Since the pandemic receded and as Dubai became competitive, many providers are heading to India, east and south east Asia, Oman and Saudi Arabia. A handful are going to Mauritius, too. Many European and even Australian and American providers spend more time in Asia than at home, but these are the singletons. The mums can’t.
The US is considered the most competitive market*, but it’s also slowing. Many US providers are heading to Europe and Asia.
The US and Singapore are getting difficult for those who tour as border control officers are getting excitable.
*Not a single, but many US markets: NYC, DC, south Florida and California (plus Las Vegas) being the big ones.
“There’s a relatively even spread of women across their 20s, 30s and 40s. A third are mothers, especially the older ones. Financial distress drove many, if not most, into the industry. The post-2008 austerity was the tipping point.
Most are not full time providers. About a quarter work in the public sector, a quarter in services and a quarter have a small businesses, often struggling. It’s a side hustle that has grown out of necessity.”
If I recall, it got to the point where sex work was included more in official GDP numbers of some countries:
https://theconversation.com/now-gdp-data-reflects-the-truth-drugs-and-sex-work-boost-the-economy-27407/
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/10/business/international/eu-nations-counting-sex-and-drug-trades-toward-gdp.html
Thank you, Mikel.
Inclusion in GDP makes sense. They pay taxes.
Fees are routed into legitimate activities, often a small shop or rental property. A(n older) provider I know is an independent social services counsellor. Another, younger, was a nurse and now operates a stable. Another, a bit older, is in construction.
In some cases, clients pay the provider to organise / “curate” a date.
the handful of such providers around here are almost to a woman part of/controlled by the cornbread mafia…lots due to meth.
a couple, the smarter ones i know, are waitstaff at the bars, and have figgured out how to be relatively independent, using onlyfans, and such, as well as selling texted tit pics.
i, of course, cannot afford any of them…save for maybe that one toothless meth head,lol.
i consider it legitimate work…if only the rich white mafiosi types would get out of it.
One of the positive effects of decriminalizing the profession in New Zealand (in 2003) was seeing these people brought out of the shadows into the light. You’d see articles on the workers, or they’d write columns themselves. They went on strike, and advocated for better working conditions. All of us got a chance to see things from their viewpoint as human beings, not just commodities.
I was surprised by how much I liked them, for all the reasons you mention. I get the sense that they wouldn’t be out of place among the NC commentariat. Probably we have some here already, even if they don’t advertise the fact.
Thank you, Chris.
I know some who read this blog.
re: climate
Watching Paramount+ show “LANDMAN” about the Texas oil industry.
One middle episode has this scene among oil executives on altern. energy:
Landman | Monty Argues with Oil Execs (S1, E5) | Paramount+
3 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g4LA12qhc0
or this scene of how Texas oil guy sees wind turbines:
5 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmbZwxEnAFc
From the script POV it´s too intentional. Screenwriter Sheridan does this kind of covert messaging to the viewer a couple of times. Although such scenes are a deficit he could have solved it worse.
And bluntness on geopolitics is one of the odd features of Sheridan´s sudden surge of ouput.
It´s like he is everywere. (“1883”, “1923”, “Yellowstone”, “Lioness”, “King of Tulsa”, “Mayor of Kingstown” – and all of that since 2020.)
While I am sure this does resonate with some of the viewers – even if it is just about trying to get informed – what will that change for real? That´s the issue:
I dont´believe that movies influence people´s behaviour while they do change their understandig, to an extent may be even their views.
But there is a huge difference between what people think and what they do when it concerns their very own lives.
And movie executives while they privately would admit it must claim the opposite to put their product on the top of PR-chain.
How much has oil invested in Hollywood I wonder?
Which is one of the deficiencies of DEI in entertainment. (NETFLIX Europe 2 years ago for the first time had a call for projects explicitely stating it was intended only for POC-applicants which for many who read that call was odd of course. I assume this would be illegal in the US.) But that´s another topic.
I am always amazed to see those huge US cars in movies and nobody wonders about that…
And it reminds me of yet another Hollywood movie quote from the 2019 “Ford v. Ferrari”
Ford vs Ferrari | Enzo Ferrari’s speech
2 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJE0paEIlus
p.s. For a change in that movie US racism is directed against Italians. But guess what: They have dark hair and mean faces.
I read the MOU yesterday. Request for information require full name and address, among other things, so how will this help find them faster? Is Axios quoting a source arguing for this violation?
The IRS is arguing that fear of being snatched up will lead to dropping out, and taking that risk instead.
re: Sex Workers Already Predicted There’s A Recession Coming
Sort of related – “THE BIG SHORT” – the satire based on Michael Lewis´s book – has a scene where one of the protagonists talks with a stripper about the impending economic crisis:
see TC: 3:30-5:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MesrrYyuoa4
RE: “National Weather Service issues lifesaving tornado and flood warnings amid massive cuts”
https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/06/weather/video/national-weather-service-staff-shortage-tracking-balloons-trump-chinchar-digvid
Weather predictions may get worse. CNN Meteorologist explains why
File under mr. market has a sad.
This is a good time to remind people why Social Security must not be privatized and should not invest in the stock market. It’s an excellent time for Dems to stress this point.
Unfortunately, the neolib Dem estab has been trying to make a deal to privatize SS since the Clinton administration. I’m thinking of the Simpson-Bowles commission, aka the cat food commission during the O administration.
Here’s a reminder about Simpson-Bowles, from 2011.
There’s a reason it was called the cat food commission.
https://www.cbpp.org/research/bowles-simpson-social-security-proposal-not-a-good-starting-point-for-reforms
“cat food”
…when my parents were newbies to this beautiful country of ours one day when paying for their groceries they were looked at with some curiosity by the cashier: They had bought several dozen cans of cat food however unaware that it was actually food for an animal, not for humans. They did not know cat food as a neatly canned product sold in grocery stores was a real thing…
It’s a mess. Retirement accounts at the mercy of headlines.
I had never expected to see so many of the powerful so divorced from Reality.
When was the last time someone told Musk “No”, or “Boss, I don’t think that’s going to work out, here’s why”
With Trump it is both a need to dominate that has become extreme as he has aged (He is 78) and the fact that he has surrounded himself with sycophants, many of them with their own delusional agendas.
The Generals got where they are by telling their superiors what they wanted to hear and the Spooks are the same.
So the US Empire is committing suicide and taking most of the World along for the ride to Hell.
What does surprise me is how complacent the Oligarch’s are, they seem to have also surrounded themselves with “Advisers” who are telling them that everything is as fine as frog fur, no worries, it’s under control.
Idiocy, insanity, or both?
>>>I had never expected to see so many of the powerful so divorced from Reality.
>>>resilc: “Are these people crackheads and/or methheadzzzzzzz?”
Tom, I connect what you are saying with what I was going to say on resilc’s comment.
It is worse than an addiction, it’s a cult. I have had a number of addicts in my life and while many would not acknowledge their addiction, many would acknowledge that they were addicts. Trying to get a true believer to even see, let alone acknowledge, that they were in a cult or a cultish group is much harder. Heck, with the internet, people can form their own cultish groups in the comfort of their own chairs while being an addict often means going outside to get “it,” whatever it is.
At least being an addict often comes with the exciting adventures like misplacing the car again, or going to jail, or fixing the roof at 3am, or getting the shakes. Something that hits you and the people around you, which does give you a chance to change. Being trapped in groupthink can protect you from your folly for a long while, but I think the end consequences are worse; reality always gets its due, and the longer it takes to collect, the bigger the bill is.
re: 19th century history
review on RU-GB relations pre-1900
LONDONR REVIEW OF BOOKS
Dancing the Mazurka
by Jonathan Parry
on
“The First Cold War: Anglo-Russian Relations in the 19th Century
by Barbara Emerson”
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n07/jonathan-parry/dancing-the-mazurka
The ending (below) is a downer. And of course it is shocking that an experienced reviewer as Parry is incapable from refraining himself to introduce his personal views on current affairs.
But the reviewed book itself is not about the present but the past and this long review contains enough data as such to possibly be interesting enough in regards of historic scholarship despite the usual British delusions of grandeur on display here.
“(…)For the last two hundred years, Western fears about Russia have ultimately stemmed from politics more than geopolitics: from liberal distrust of the unpredictability and violence of absolutism. Westerners have worried, to varying degrees, about the Russian state’s ability to ignore the principles and processes they have tried to establish for the peaceful resolution of international disagreements. We now face an American president who is equally keen on rule-breaking and unpredictability. If Russia and the US can find common cause, it is likely to be to the detriment not just of Ukraine but also of Europe. It suits both parties to marginalise Europe’s role in international diplomacy. But their willingness to compromise with each other also reflects the limits of their own global power. Europe, for its part, has enough economic power to make a stand against Putin’s further ambitions, if it chooses to exercise it. Western European politicians have lived alongside absolutists for a long time and despite much hostile rhetoric on both sides, they have usually managed to deal transactionally and rationally with each other.
(…)”
Well, today the West still doesn’t get it, Russia responds to their belligerence.
https://azmirror.com/2025/04/08/ice-director-envisions-amazon-like-mass-deportation-system-prime-but-with-human-beings/
ICE director envisions Amazon-like mass deportation system: ‘Prime, but with human beings’
Trump immigration officials tout expanding the Alien Enemies Act while courting private contractors for mass removals
The leader of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that his dream for the agency is squads of trucks rounding up immigrants for deportation the same way that Amazon trucks crisscross American cities delivering packages.
“We need to get better at treating this like a business,” Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said, explaining he wants to see a deportation process “like (Amazon) Prime, but with human beings.”
Supreme Court requires noncitizens to challenge detention and removal in Texas
By Amy Howe
https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/04/supreme-court-requires-noncitizens-to-challenge-detention-and-removal-in-texas/
+
Inside US Detention-Center Brutality
An inside look at a Miami detention center where ICE sends immigrants targeted for detention and deportation under the Trump-Vance plan.
by Mark Dow
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/04/09/inside-us-detention-center-brutality/
“(…)
“Please make this go viral. . . . Please help us.”
Those are the words of Osiriss Azahael Vázquez Martínez in video messages he was able to record from the overcrowded Krome Detention Center two weeks ago.
Vázquez Martínez, 45, a construction worker, lived in the United States for a decade and “was arrested [in February] for driving without a license on his way home from work,” The Miami Herald reported.
(…)
U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance didn’t invent anti-immigrant rhetoric and violence. Brutality and racism have always been part of the immigration enforcement regime. But the longstanding principles of U.S. detention and deportation policy— dehumanization of the immigrants and unchecked power for their guards and deporters — have metastasized under the Trump-Vance plan.
In 1990, the “average daily population” of immigrant detainees in the United States was about 5,000. On March 23 of this year there were 47,892 people acknowledged to be in ICE custody.
(…)”
PE getting into up airplane repair business: time to stop flying then?
So many of the aircraft incidents over the last two decades could be attributed to insufficient maintenance. Wanna guess when the airlines started to contract maintenance? PE is just gravy. BTW I haven’t flown since 2001.
Not long ago, it was considered ridiculous and impossible to start a war with Iran because of their position on the Strait of Hormuz, and their consequent ability to cut off about a fifth of the world’s oil supply. They can do this immediately and without overtly attacking any other country, much the same way the Houthis have blocked traffic through the Suez Canal. The result would certainly be economic chaos throughout the world, especially at a time when major economies seem to be hanging on by their fingernails and many populations are teetering on the point of revolt.
Of course Iran has many other formidable capabilities as well, but I no longer hear talk of the danger they present to traffic on the Strait of Hormuz. Are the US and Israel intentionally averting their eyes from this immense risk to the world economy? After 50 years of constant threats from the West, I would imagine this is something Iran is positioned to carry out without even breaking a sweat.
Israeli Soldiers Expose War Crimes in Gaza ‘Death Zone’
IDF soldiers admit to committing war crimes in Gaza, with one officer revealing they not only kill military-age men, “we’re killing their wives, their children, their cats, their dogs …[and] pissing on their graves.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/04/09/israeli-soldiers-expose-war-crimes-in-gaza-death-zone/
You know, I have read really unpleasant stuff about the Holocaust and the Nazi atrocities generally, but I don’t think that I have ever read anything this openly dehumanizing especially when it can be widely disseminated. I mean you can find diaries from during the war and interviews done after the war, but this openness during the various genocides, not so much.
What this implies about the humanity as well as the mental and emotional health of the Israeli perpetrators and the confidence that they have of not being punished is its own horror.
Yeah. And what might even top it in its moral depravity is the complete negligence of these comments by our Western public. If I were to quote on TV what this above report lays out I would either be denounced a liar (paid by Hamas or Putin or antisemitic) or the comments would be mitigated and mocked. Either way: “Nothing of this ever happened or mattered. And none of us was ever here.”
JBird, the Izzies are doing God’ Swill.
It says so in an old book, so it must be true.
No reason to be ashamed of that, is there?
And heck, lots of people enjoy abusing the powerless when it is socially acceptable, look at the videos of ICE raids for a homegrown example.
They are not as extreme, yet, because they are not socially acceptable here, yet.
Heinrich Himmler gave a speech, I think in 1943, begging sympathy for the poor Sonderkommando. Apparently even the SS found it difficult to kill women and children. He carried on for a couple of hours about how hard it was. I’ve never read the full speech, so I don’t know if he acknowledged that the Jews they were killing were human beings or not.
Well, some are saying that Trump said earlier it was a good time to buy.
The question is : Will he tell when it’s a good time to sell?
(For people that are inclined to be traders.)
Big Google Trends increase still going up.
https://x.com/acrossthemersey/status/1910018275427180886?s=46
Richard Wolff – Chris Hedges
The Economics of a Dying Empire
48 min.
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-economics-of-a-dying-empire-w
Trump has now raised China’s tariffs to 125%
‘In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that “based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately.”
He expressed hope that Beijing would realize that “ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable.”’
https://www.rt.com/news/615482-trump-hikes-china-tariff/
I guess that Trump’s circle has realized that they cannot get to fight a military war with China without winning the trade war first.
Most people don’t want it to come to that.
But I’m sure any military planner worth a damn has said one can’t go into a war and not be able to supply medicine. (just one example)
It’s a shame if this the only reason – and not those made apparent by the supply chains during the early days of the pandemic – for a lot of this.
A couple of decades ago the biggest dose of melatonin you could get in pill form at the grocery or drug store was 3 mg. Which is still more than most people need (1 mg is plenty), but nothing like the much higher dose pills now sold everywhere (and Dog knows how much kids ingest in their gummies). In animals, melatonin suppresses sex hormones based on factors like seasonal exposure to light. In people it may help stave off puberty until the body mass of the child gets big enough that the amount produced by the pineal gland (which is declining anyway as one ages) gets diluted out over the larger amount of tissue; so that should be a major red flag about giving it to little kids or “tweens” on top of what their pineal glands are already producing. I have never found melatonin to be much help with sleep induction, although it does seem to make me dream more at the end of the night. What it is very helpful for is stimulating one’s immune system, so it’s worth taking at night if you suspect you’ve been exposed to a lot of germy people during the day (or think you might be feeling the first faint symptoms of an illness coming on). As a natural hormone, it should be fairly harmless for adults, but like other supplements, taking something occasionally, for a particular need, may be safer than taking it every day. Many supplements (vitamin E, for instance) also now come in supersized doses that are unnecessarily high and should not be taken daily at those dose levels.
Friendly reminder – the sharpest rallies occur in the context of bear markets.
1929, 1930, 2008.
Biggest percentage gain in the Nasdaq since … drumroll …
Dec 3, 2008.
What followed? Another three months of selling. Blast from the past:
https://web.archive.org/web/20081221063217/http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2008/12/four-bad-bears-update.html
An Advance in Brain Research That Was Once Considered Impossible (NY Times via archive.ph)
From ‘Be Cool!’ to ‘Getting Yippy’: Inside Trump’s Reversal on Tariffs
Bond market?
‘Yemen’s Houthis Shoot Down Third US MQ-9 Reaper Drone Within 10 Days’
https://news.antiwar.com/2025/04/09/yemens-houthis-shoot-down-third-us-mq-9-reaper-drone-within-10-days/
They keep on doing that, don’t they?
The real question is, if USA is expecting different results when sending a new one?