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Links 3/8/2025

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Chastity or Fornication? London Review of Books

Athena Spacecraft Declared Dead After Toppling Over On Moon CNN

Misdiagnosis of Chronic Conditions as ‘In Your Head’ Causes Lasting Damage The Conversation

The Blood of Exceptionally Long-Lived People Suggests Crucial Differences ScienceAlert. Underlying study not new but seems not to have gotten much notice.

Scientists discover new part of the immune system BBC. Paul R: “Interesting, but idk, science by press release is always suspicious. I’ll wait for more developments before expecting too much.”

COVID-19/Pandemics

Patients with long Covid regain sense of smell and taste with pioneering surgery Guardian (Paul R)

Climate/Environment

Gene-Edited Non-Browning Banana Could Cut Food Waste, Scientists Say Guardian

China?

China ‘mass produces’ semiconductor-related papers Asia Times (Kevin W)

China’s exports miss forecasts as U.S. tariffs hit, imports record sharpest decline since July 2023. CNBC

Economic-Themed Press Conference During Two Sessions-Full Transcript & Highlights Inside China (guurst)

Surface tension: could the promised Aukus nuclear submarines simply never be handed over to Australia?
Guardian

Africa

Congo offers US minerals in exchange for security MiningMX

South of the Border

‘Biased’ UN report on Nicaragua ignores victims of US-backed opposition violence Grayzone (Mike H)

Trump’s Détente with Venezuela Antiwar.com (Kevin W)

European Disunion

ECB cuts rates again and warns trade war fears are hurting Europe’s economy Guardian

Donald Tusk announces military training plan for all Polish men BBC

Eurotard hysteria achieves new heights as Ursula von der Leyen unveils her new Goatse-branded defence initiative and Friedrich Merz reacts to literal fake news with a massive deficit spending plan eugyppius (Micael T)

EU denies picking on US tech giants, says US also tackling monopolisation Reuters. Since when is picking on tech giants bad?

‘Baltic Sea waters are deep – New research results on the Nord Stream attacks Nachdenkseiten via machine translation (guurst)

Ursula, gravedigger of Europe ? Translated from BAM (Belgian Alternative Media) by Cocotteminute

Romania arrests six over alleged Russia-linked coup plot Aljazeera. Doubling down.

Denmark’s state-run postal service will no longer deliver letters Associated Press

Israel v. The Resistance

Wrecking Yemen with a Terror Designation Daniel Larison

‘How life is in there’ London Review of Books (guurst). Administrative detention in Israel.

Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem hit new record +972 Magazine

World Bank estimates $11 billion needed for reconstruction of Lebanon after Israel-Hezbollah war Arab News

Trump says he wrote to Khamenei offering talks on Iran’s nuclear program Times of Israel. In small letters in red above the oversized headline: “Iran says it has not received the letter yet”

New Not-So-Cold War

Russia: reparations + peace: Details of the Russian peace plan Marat Khairullin (Chuck L). A must read. Scroll down to find the Russian peace plan. It outlines how Russia proposes to keep rump Ukraine (which would include Odessa, which may disappoint a lot of Russian) militarily neutered and politically aligned, at least at the outset. Perhaps I am unduly pessimistic, but I can’t see the US and certainly not the current regime in Kiev agreeing to this. Russia will have to make a lot more progress on the ground before a near-capitulation like this becomes acceptable as less bad than the direction of travel.

SITREP 3/7/25: EU’s Mega-Billion Bid for Ukraine Flops Again, as Trump’s Erratic Messaging Dissipates ‘Peace’ Momentum Simplicius. Important

Russia’s Putin Is Said to Be Ready to Agree to Ukraine Truce With Conditions Bloomberg. Headline revised since first publication; then it was only “Russia’s Putin Is Said to Be Ready to Agree to Ukraine Truce”. Notice the sequence (emphasis mine)

In the first signal of a positive response from President Vladimir Putin to US counterpart Donald Trump’s call for a ceasefire, the offer was conveyed at last month’s talks in Saudi Arabia between top Russian and American officials, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing internal policy.

*Sigh* That meeting was on February 18. So even if accurate, as opposed to Telephone-induced or deliberate overstatement, why is it being leaked now, particularly after Russian officials have repeatedly and consistently rejected the idea of a ceasefire or truce since then, as Lavrov did yesterday (see here staring at 1:26)? And why would Trump be trying to bully Russia again, per the next entry, if Russia was amenable to Trump’s big demand for a ceasefire or something approximating that?

Trump Threatens to Hit Russia with Sanctions Wall Street Journal. Lead story. The Russians will see this as pathetic, even before you get to the microscopic level of US imports of Russian wares. They will not be impressed with Trump’s dominance games. I think you can kiss that Trump request for help with negotiating with Iran goodbye. Even if Russia goes through the motions, this bluster confirms, the US in general and Trump in particular can’t be trusted to stick to any position. And this seems merely to be due to the fact that Russia is continuing to hit Ukraine energy infrastructure and also struck a training site in Dniepropetrosk and killed about 150 Ukraine and an estimated 30 NATO trainers. The thing that OUGHT to have Trump upset or rethinking his approach is that he keeps saying he wants a ceasefire (and that does seem to be high on his wish list) when Lavrov has said every time Ukraine comes up that no way, no how is Russia going to agree to a ceasefire. They will stop war-making only after their minimum ask has been met, which includes Ukraine removing all forces from the four oblasts and Ukraine taking steps (which IIRC include constitutional changes) that commit them to neutrality and no NATO evah.

Ukraine loses access to satellite intelligence, but not completely Ukrainska Pravda

Ukraine could get NATO protection without membership – Italian PM RT (Kevin W)

THE REM WAR – THE RUSSIAN STATE VERSUS TRUMP AND MUSK John Helmer

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Utah becomes first state to pass bill making app stores verify ages CBS (Kevin W)

Imperial Collapse Watch

U.S. Air Force Leadership Confirms ‘Tough Choices’ Ahead as China Develops World’s First Sixth Generation Fighter Military Watch

ANTI-IMPERIALISM ISN’T TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME John Helmer (Chuck L)

Trump 2.0

The Paradox of Trump’s Economic Weapon Foreign Affairs

Trump threatens new tariffs on Canada, including 250% tax on dairy CNN (Kevin W)

Japan is the next target in Trump trade war The Drink Business

The US: the World as Real Estate Julian Macfarlane

Scoop: State Dept. to use AI to revoke visas of foreign students who appear “pro-Hamas” Axios (Dr. Kevin, guurst)

President Trump says Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau ‘trying to use’ tariff fight ‘to stay in power’ The Hill. Help me. Trudeau was dead as a leader until the Trump tariff threat gave him a new lease on life.

DOGE

Chapter 04: Endogenous Money, of Money and Macroeconomics from First Principles, for Elon Musk and Other Engineers Steve Keen (Micael T)

Musk, Rubio clashed in front of Trump during Cabinet meeting: Sources ABC (Jack B)

Federal workers’ salaries represent less than 5% of federal spending and 1% of GDP Marketplace (Kevin W)

Why Do Republicans Want to Dismantle the Education Department? New York Times

Democrat Death Watch

Senate Democrats’ impending choice: Shutdown or surrender Politico

Immigration

Trump to revoke legal status for 240,000 Ukrainians as US steps up deportations Reuters

Safe place for science: Aix-Marseille Universite ready to welcome American scientists Aix-Marseille Universite (Paul R)

Our No Longer Free Press

WaPo Laments Loss Of News From Iran Which Is Not From Iran Moon of Alabama

House Republicans subpoena Google over alleged censorship EndGadget (Kevin W)

Mr. Market Is Moody

Fed’s Powell: ‘No hurry’ to cut rates amid Trump volatility Axios

It is not the economic impact of tariffs that is most worrying. What are the lessons of the 1930s? Economist

US trade deficit hits record high in January on imports surge Reuters

AI

Signal President Calls Out Agentic AI As Having ‘Profound’ Security and Privacy Issues Techcrunch

The Bezzle

Crypto prices fall as US strategic reserve plan disappoints traders Financial Times. BWAHAHA!

The Spectacular Synapse Collapse Fortune. A reminder: avoid non-bank payment processors unless you really have to go there.

Guillotine Watch

Where is Luigi Mangione getting his clothes? Gothamist. He is not my type (I don’t even have a type!) but he is cute and his legal team is making great use of that.

Antidote du jour. Mark T: “Attached is a photo of my sister’s cat, Tigger. She found him as a kitten, hungry and alone in a storm water drain in the countryside, while on a field trip.”

And a bonus (guurst):

And a second bonus (Chuck L):

Yet another bonus (Chuck L):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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155 comments

  1. farmboy

    thank you for the the print, pdf option, Im posting on Facebook everyday, it seems to post better there

    1. Nikkikat

      Yes, if anyone needed a take down it’s Musk, good for Rubio, no telling the mess he has at state. Anyone that does a beat down to Musk, I salute you!

    2. Bsn

      I always thought, it’s not the actor, it’s the act. If Rubio (who I have not been impressed by in the past) has a good idea or does a good job, then Go Rubio!

  5. The Rev Kev

    Gotta say now that that video of two Hummingbirds taking shelter during a heavy rain in that flower is nothing less than epic. Thanks for posting it.

    1. vao

      I was immediately suspicious, and I saw that there is an AI indication in the twitter post.

      1. ambrit

        Curses! So, the we recently ordered from an Eastern European country may not be all she is cracked up to be?

            1. ambrit

              We are broad minded. We would have accepted a Wallachian wench. Alas, it seems to have been “All In our mind.”

      1. Ann

        Yeah, hummingbirds would never do that. They hate each other. The only time you’ll see hummingbirds that close together is when they are still in the nest. Even then, they fight. The females build the nest, get themselves bred, lay the eggs, feed the babies by themselves until they fledge, then they leave. The males do nothing but breed, then they fly south alone about three weeks later. Then the females are gone, then the babies fly south about four weeks later. Alone. I had one Broad-tailed male baby who was a runt, barely made it to the feeder on his first try. He stayed here until he got big and strong and left on October 17 last fall when it was already freezing every night. I hope he made it. I want to see him come back.

        1. The Rev Kev

          Hummingbirds hate each other? That sounds like very unusual behaviour and not one that I would have expected. You would think that having a male around the nest would help safeguard it from predators. No hummingbirds in Oz of course but we have one similar called a honeyeater-

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeyeater

    3. The Rev Kev

      Rats. Too good to be true. Really starting to hate all these AI-generated images and videos cropping up.

        1. The Rev Kev

          The listed winner for that bike race must have taken some explaining in the books. Hi-ho Silver away!

    1. Samuel Conner

      My bad for not noticing the prior comments on this. Oddly, my comment posted without the option to edit/delete. This happens intermittently (current comment and the one below do have the “edit” option). Have others noticed this?

        1. Terry Flynn

          Yeah I’ve had it happen couple of times a year for over 10 years so it’s not new. Yves has kindly (twice over 15 years) explained quirks in “skynet” so I now follow her revised recommendations following the recent commenting furore and always copy my comment into a text editor and check it, plus a refreshed version of the NC page, before posting.

          I still have typos but less often ones that totally negate the point I’m trying to make!

        2. Terry Flynn

          PS NC is loading very slowly compared to other sites for me in UK at 17:00 UTC. I have previously wondered if the “skynet” over which Yves et al have no control, has caused such problems when for some reason they’re suffering “hiccups” or a sustained slow loading period. To my untrained eye, this might be the cause of blips in the posting/ability to edit process.

          Just a thought…….even if it’s true, likely nothing Yves can do and it resolves itself within an hour or two. The solution is watch the loading bar…..don’t click away as quickly as you might normally do. It might just be that if you wait 2 mins the edit function will load. Just my (again purely speculative) thoughts…..

      3. Jeff W

        I’ve had that happen on occasion.

        And, just in the past week, I had the “opposite” happen: I posted a comment (or tried to) and poof! it vanished. No chance to edit, no notice that it was in moderation, nothing. It never did appear on the site. (But that’s happened only that one time, at least recently.)

  8. Samuel Conner

    I think there is a superfluous “X” at the end of the URL for the Foreign Affairs item “The Paradox of Trump’s Economic Weapon”.

  9. The Rev Kev

    “Denmark’s state-run postal service will no longer deliver letters”

    The Danish spooks will love that. No more letters whose contents are unknown going through the system anymore but just emails and texts which will be easily scanned. I find though that their argument that most people don’t write letters much anymore a bit spurious. By the same argument you could say that most motorists hardly ever have an accident – so the rescue services can be abolished then.

    I found Denmark to be a sort of uber-capitalist country when there. As an example, the bulk majority of the ambulance and fire departments are run by a private corporation called Falck – about 85% and 65% respectively. And something about that sets my teeth on edge. So I guess that for the postal system abandoning letters it was nothing personal – it’s just business.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falck_(emergency_services_company)

    1. Henry Moon Pie

      “No more letters whose contents are unknown going through the system anymore”

      I don’t know what the practice is now, but 20 years ago, people mailing letters in Croatia were required to leave them unsealed. That was a holdover from Tito, but now it’s the neolibs who are desperate to know what we’re thinking.

      1. Potemkin

        More like a leftover from Pavelic. I have never heard about the requirement to leave letters unsealed in Yugoslavia (despite being born and raised there).

    3. ambrit

      Is this a test run for the United States Post Office privatization scheme?
      No delivery of letters can result in no Postal Workers’ Unions.

      1. Michael Fiorillo

        I can’t wait to see the MAGA uprising when Musk orders the shutting down of thousands of rural post offices… but I’ll have to wait a very, very long time, won’t I?

        1. The Rev Kev

          Based on his performance the past few months, Musk is liable to order all rural post offices to be shut down immediately and fire all staff just to see if they are needed or not.

              1. Camacho

                That’s the joke. I thought about throwing in recently acquired Argentinian-Chinese chainsaw somwhere in there, but couldn’t be bothered just for a throwaway low-effort one-liner joke.

    4. Terry Flynn

      My experience living in Sweden in 2015 was of a country with a distinct uber-capitalist underbelly. Comparing notes with people who lived in Denmark and Norway gave similar thoughts (even if the neoliberalism manifested in different areas of life).

      My boss was lovely and desperately tried to help me integrate (which I was keen to do) but the system worked against him. Then one of his deputies (another born and bred Swede) took me out for the archetypal coffee and cake to explain the things not said out loud. Some were surprising but the one I openly laughed at (which puzzled her) was “Terry that ‘permanent’ Chair won’t be permanent if you don’t produce something really good within 5 years”. I told her I’d come from Sydney where my university unit/think-tank would find ways to get rid of you if you didn’t do that within a 6-12 month timescale so 5 years was a luxury I’d not had since my postdoc days.

    5. NotThePilot

      Funny enough, you’re not the first person to notice that. I’ve never been to any Scandinavian countries, but I think it was Spengler who said the predatory capitalist side of Europe could be traced to the Vikings. Which has several funny implications, such as stereotypical Anglo-Saxon capitalism actually being a weird hybrid of institutions the Britons were sort of dragged into by the Norse.

    6. Ann

      Rev Kev:

      The fallacy of argument by analogy. Funny, but false. Another argument by analogy:

      “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to the garage makes you a car.”

      I agree with you, but that’s no argument. Sorry.

  10. basket weaver

    i feel the book review up top doesn’t contribute anything to the ongoing discussion around christianity and religious attitudes around sex, pregnancy, and childbirth – i got told what the book was about and that was mostly all the author spoke of besides the few ending paragraphs . i think what would really be useful is an analysis of how christianity is now associated with cruelty after cruelty like the ones listed in the review because it’s got a few uncanny parallels to the degraded US soft power . because you could find out about the church’s abuse of women and men and children and gay people by reading a bunch of other books published before this one . but the image of kindness and communion beyond the earthly realm that attracted nonbelievers is decaying independent of if christianity can actually deliver on that promise

    1. Adam Eran

      A better topic (includes lust): Supernormal Stimuli.

      I’d suggest this is buggy biological software. Bugs in software disable the computer. In biology, they disable clear thinking. One example: refined sugar bypasses all indications that “Hey! You’ve had enough calories!” You can suck on a “Big Gulp” soda all day without ever feeling full.

  11. The Rev Kev

    “Lying sideways on the moon, the Athena lander is declared dead”

    How do you spend all that money on a Moon lander and then have it fall over like a badly balanced hat-rack after it reaches the surface? I suppose that we should be grateful that once it reached the Moon it did not undergo a rapid unscheduled disassembly – or the front falling off.

    1. Henry Moon Pie

      This and Musk’s repeated failures to get his big rocket to fly left me with this hypothetical in my head:

      If “going to the moon” had been left to private companies, would we have made it yet?

      The astronauts who landed the LEM back in the day with their primitive computer (and no AI!!!) were damn good pilots. Right stuff indeed.

    4. upstater

      Quite a budding grift industry there! I knew there were some of these out there, but not this many:

      Commercial Lunar Payload Services (wiki) “Eight missions have been contracted under the program (not counting one mission contract that was revoked after awarding and another mission contract that was cancelled after the contracted company went bankrupt).”

      And then there’s Artemis, with TWO competing moon landers, one Musk and the other Bezos. After the Starship blowup, can the US beat China to the moon, if ever? From NYT’s story:

      “As SpaceX is supposed to conduct a demonstration of its Starship lander without any astronauts aboard before Artemis III, a successful astronaut landing on the moon using Starship could require as many as 40 launches.”

      40 launches? No wonder Musk is a billionaire. 40 launches probably would make him a trillionaire.

      1. The Rev Kev

        Musk has probably adopted that catch-phrase ‘Everybody wants to go to the Moon. Real men want to go to Mars.’ That will be the big government subsidy dumpster going forward.

      2. upstater

        I sent the identical NYT link to my brother and son. Both got a red warning screen “This message could be dangerous. Similar messages were used to steal people’s data…”

        Censorship is alive and well!

  12. Mikel

    Re: Eurotard hysteria…(long title)

    “…Consider what happened under Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel, when our Bundeswehr attempted to procure updated Puma infantry fighting vehicles for German soldiers. In the insane upside-down world of the Federal Republic, not even the military is exempt from our complex workplace health and safety regulations. Thus the new Pumas had to provide such optimal interior climactic conditions “that they could transport heavily pregnant female soldiers during combat missions.” Specifically, the vehicles had to be built such that munitions fumes would not threaten “amniotic fluid damage among female crew.”

    ???

    1. vao

      The Schützenpanzer “Puma” has been a disaster: too heavy, too costly, too complex, and too fragile — all of the 18 engaged in field manoeuvers in 2022 broke down and could not complete the exercise.

      In Germany, accusations against bureaucracy and excessive regulations have become a mantra to explain why the country is not doing well, and they are besides the point.

      The fact is, Germany started designing the “Puma” in 1996/1998, and delivered the first pre-series vehicles in 2006. The previous comparable German vehicle of this type was the “Marder”, whose design started in 1959 and was completed in 1967. That amounts to a 40 years difference. In 40 years, all those who took part in the design, construction, and testing of the “Marder”, from the top engineers and welders down to the novice armourers and mechanics were gone — pensioned, in retirement homes, dead of old age — and with them the relevant skills and know-how.

      The “Puma” should not have been the successor of the “Marder”, but the successor of its successor. Not maintaining technical and industrial skills over the career lifetime of qualified personnel has a price — use them or lose them (that also includes knowing how to eliminate irrelevant requirements during the specification phase).

      1. Mikel

        Well, this is my fault. I just put the quote up and expressed my perplexity without being specific.

        Put aside the technocratic aspects of building and the regulations. What sticks out to me is this: What is the mental process or policy that turns out the results that heavily pregnant women will be riding around in weapons during a battle? Is it expected the pregnant women won’t have a choice? Questions abound…

    2. pjay

      This entire article was a hilarious take-down, but this was brilliant:

      “Those of you wondering whether it might be a better idea to rearm first and then set about alienating our powerful geopolitical partners simply lack the Eurotardian vision. These are such serious people, that in the space of a few days they spun up this remarkable logo for their spending programme … … which obviously portrays the EU member states smearing yellow warpaint on themselves and in no way evokes the most notorious obscene internet image of all time…”

      Call me uninformed, but I admit to ignorance about the “Goatse” reference until I clicked on the link provided. Now it is impossible not to see it! What a brilliant “Eurotardian” logo, one which is much more representative of Europe’s relationship to the US than their impotent criticisms of Trump’s rhetoric.

      1. ThirtyOne

        Thumbs aren’t present in that logo. I wonder if there are preliminary drafts of the logo with thumbs, and are they above or below the fingers.

    3. ciroc

      German weapons are better suited to museums than battlefields.

      Germany has sent 14 Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine, according to an inventory of its military support to Kyiv. These weapons contain electronics that are so vulnerable to dirt and moisture that soldiers have to wear slippers or booties when they enter the vehicles so they don’t track in any mud, the New York Times reported on Monday.

      Each howitzer even comes with a vacuum cleaner, and the barrels sometimes have to be cleaned with a long brush. “The Panzer really loves cleanliness,” an artillery commander named Mykola told the Times, referring to a nickname for the Panzerhaubitze. “If you fire off two full loads of ammunition, you need to spend a day servicing it.”

      Serhii, a lieutenant with the 43rd Separate Artillery Brigade, even decided to recall the howitzers from the field out of fear that should the machines come under Russian fire, mud will prevent them from escaping the bombardment, the Times reported. In Germany, these vehicles were kept in climate-controlled garages.

      https://www.businessinsider.com/mud-makes-trouble-ukraines-howitzers-super-sensitive-dirt-vacuum-cleaner-2023-5

      1. vao

        See my comment above. The Panzerhaubitze 2000 is the first such vehicle designed by the Germans since WWII. After WWII, the Bundeswehr always used self-propelled artillery equipment from the USA.

        There was an attempt to design a self-propelled gun in a project common to Germany, Italy, and the UK in the 1970s (dubbed Panzerhaubitze 70 by the Germans). Just like many other such European cooperation endeavours, it ended up in failure; each participating country went on to build its own vehicle based on its own requirements and technology.

        1. Terry Flynn

          Indeed. I wondered if someone better up on CIVILIAN co-operation might explain how Airbus has mostly “worked”. On paper I’d have said “this can’t possibly work” yet it mostly has (even with us awkward Brits on board for a fair chunk of the work!)

          I’m aware that a portion of aerospace stuff was always a British strength, with some of this going into Rolls Royce, but I’m frankly surprised we haven’t messed up our advantages to the extent we did in so many other industries.

      2. converger

        Love it. Russians don’t need to hit the howitzers. They just need to target the mud puddles in front of the howitzers.

      3. Red Snapper

        Cleaning barrels with a long brush occasionally is normal artillery hygiene. Ze Germans are not special in that regard, though they are in vacuum cleaning.

    4. chris

      Considering what you just posted, this Guardian cartoon almost passes for sober commentary.

      I am having a lot of difficulty understanding what our European allies mean when they try to describe the US these days. Apparently, aggressive behavior on the world stage and aligning US resources behind controlling more of the world is considered isolationism. If the US were to retrench, go back to merely abusing our allies in public while saying polite things about them, that is considered global leadership.

      Following this line of thinking, doing anything to support US interests is isolationism while pretending military spending assists our allies is peaceful engagement. I had thought this was a construct of the media and that many of my friends in the UK and the EU did not actually believe this kind of BS. But a non-scientific survey of my friends and acquaintances suggests this kind of view is more common than I had thought. I’ve even heard some people suggest that a great way to annoy Trump would be for the UK to rejoin the EU, and that by doing that the UK would get cheaper energy and catch a ride with a winning team. It’s almost as if the last 3 years and the economic effects of the Ukraine War do not exist in their minds.

      1. JBird4049

        Before the 1940s the United States really was an isolationist autarky. Maybe we should be that again? And wouldn’t that be a mindscrew for many?

  14. The Rev Kev

    “Japan is the next target in Trump trade war’

    It doesn’t matter if Japan is next or not. Over the next four years Trump will be going after every country. He said something a coupla days ago that made me wonder if this was his grand idea. He came out and said that if a country wanted to do business with America, then the only way to avoid tariffs is to move their factories to America. In essence, he wants the world to de-industrialize itself and move its most important assets to the US and the vagaries of US law and political decisions down the track. I suppose in his brain he sees this as a way of America re-industrializing itself and having more employment – while those other countries have to deal with sudden mass unemployment. There comes a point where some countries will think that selling and buying stuff to America is not worth the hassle and go with places like China instead.

    1. endeavor

      You probably have seen the projections of job losses that have been estimated in many articles discussing AI implementation in the US. Should we not try to re-shore some manufacturing using tariffs to employ people and stave off our probable Hobsion future if we just sit on our hands?

      1. Potemkin

        Instead of trying to prolong the life of the Empire, maybe you should try to hasten its death.

    2. converger

      I think that ship has already sailed. Trump has successfully accelerated what would otherwise have been a generation-long fade from US global dominance into a rapid unscheduled disassembly.

  15. chuk jones

    “Senate Dems: Shutdown or Surrender.” Alt headline: Senate Dems: Shut up and surrender.

    It’s not so simple in the Senate, where Democratic leaders are being more careful to avoid promising blanket opposition to a relatively “clean” stopgap bill ahead of the March 14 shutdown deadline. Privately, leaders have urged their members to stay silent and force Republicans to come up with a palatable plan.

    After the State of the Union behavior, I fully expect the latter. They seem to be placing all their money on Trump/Repug self destruction before it is too late. Why is it always wait till the mid-terms?

    1. Samuel Conner

      Perhaps they’re resting until they have a majority. The two years of tranquility will be good practice for when they actually have some power and want to not use it.

      —

      A quote from the Cat (of the BBC serial Red Dwarf) comes to mind; it went something like, “If I don’t get enough naps early in the day, I’ll be too tired to properly do my main snooze.”

  16. Mikel

    Ukraine could get NATO protection without membership – Italian PM – RT

    Did they basically just say their plan is to keep doing what they are doing?
    Currently, they are offering Ukraine “security assurances” (funds and weapons), but not peacekeeping troops or NATO membership. And Meloni is saying that’s the plan?

    1. ArvidMartensen

      It looks to me like there is a war on in Europe.
      Not the Ukraine war. The war between the US oligarchs who pay for the Trump/Republicans and their military vs the US oligarchs who pay for the Democrats and their more woke military.

      Just now that war is playing out as Europe vs Trump. Starmer? Democrat oligarch employee. Fond-of-Lyin? Definitely Democrat oligarch camp. Baerbock? Yep. etc etc Trump et al are definitely underrepresented in Europe.

      Both sides want to loot Russia of its oil and gas, minerals, water, farmland, technology. But more importantly, they want to stop their hated enemies (the other US oligarchs) from looting Russia first.
      So the war of Europe vs Trump is just an argument between two oligarch factions.

  17. The Rev Kev

    “SITREP 3/7/25: EU’s Mega-Billion Bid for Ukraine Flops Again, as Trump’s Erratic Messaging Dissipates ‘Peace’ Momentum”

    In reading the bit about Trump in this article, I think I realize what the Ukrainian problem is and it is an old one. When talking about how to end the war in the Ukraine, Trump and his team are just negotiating with themselves in their own little bubble like the Biden team used to do. When Zelensky started to give pushback, Trump and Vance went ballistic. Trump actually thinks that he can control Russia’s strategic moves like when he flew off the handle when Russia attacked the energy grid till he backed down. For the Russians, this war is literally existential. For Trump, he sees it through the lens of business decisions so it is all about making deals to do with land and resources. But until Trump seriously listens to what the Russians are saying – again and again and again – he is going to fail and have his own Afghanistan on his hands.

    1. heh

      Trump actually thinks that everything boils down to one big of game of Monopoly*.

      * Now available with digital money instead of paper one.

    2. ChrisFromGA

      That’s not to even mention Rubio’s recent admission that the conflict is in fact a US ‘proxy war’ against Russia, which had many people questioning how it’s possible that the US can on one hand admit to supporting a proxy war, while on the other claiming moral high ground in attempts to extract compromises and concessions from Russia; it has more the look of ‘saving face’ after knowingly losing the so-called ‘proxy war’.

      I believe that is the money quote there at the end.

      Until Trump accepts that his job is to wind this whole horrific mess down, with the most plausible face saving narrative, the war will go on.

      1. The Rev Kev

        Some nasty little truths are starting to emerge lately about this war. You have Rubio admitting that it is a proxy war against Russia which is big. And now you have the Europeans, who have been saying for three years that they are not a party to this war, taking about sending in their troops and planes. When Kursk is finally recaptured by the Russians, expect a lot of people throw hysterics.

    3. .Tom

      It can make sense for NATO states to negotiate with themselves via public news media but not much for Trump’s staff to do so. I suspect they are forced to behave like this by a combination of 1) not having a plan or a strategy to work with (because Trump doesn’t have one or it’s too unstable or incoherent), 2) being told to go and do stuff to give the appearance of decisive action, and 3) having to be obedient and loyal to Trump and show it.

      Prior to Jan 20, Trump bragged about ending the war quickly but he can’t force concessions from Russia or get Ukraine to capitulate so he’s in a bind. The result is the confusion that Simplicius presented. It reflects Trump trying different angles as he learns, in his way, about the bind he’s in. Perhaps he can’t sit still long enough to be told about the constraints so he has to learn for himself by making mistakes.

      It can be hard for politicians in top office to accept an unwelcome reality. I can’t believe I’m gonna type this but … Trump, while not doing very well at it, may be doing rather better than some other politicians in top office we could name.

      1. John k

        Well, he’s not there yet, but he’s at least trying to end it which is 180 from what Biden was doing. And the light-weight Rubio seems to get it, so I remain hopeful that us, having tried everything else, will fairly soon do the right thing and get out. And imo eu will fold its tent not so long after, leaving Poland/baltics to fume on their own.
        Russ looks to get to the dnieper fairly soon. I still think russ has to take Odessa as a minimum…. Didnt Catherine build that?

    4. ilsm

      Ze’ war is Biden’s responsibility, assuming he was intellectually capable in April’22.

      Trump is not as free of the deep state as we hoped.

      Ending the SMO in 24 hours was not a stretch goal.

      Just shut down all intel and stop paying whoever is setting up missions in the over complex toys we gave them.

      1. chris

        I agree that creating the conditions that would cause Ukraine to lose and Russia to end the SMO would not take long. But to arrange some kind of understanding and save what little face we have left…? That will take a much longer time.

        As Yves and others regularly discussed here have said, thr Ukrainians want what they don’t control and no one is willing to give them. The Russians want what no one is willing to give them and so they’re slowly grinding their way towards ownership of a viper pit. The US wants to control a situation that it has zero control over. Sure, the US is the body sanctioning Russia and supply Ukraine with an excuse for an economy these days. But that’s all we can do. The smartest Trump play here is to simply walk away. His ego and his advisors won’t let him do that.

        1. ilsm

          I would walk. While US is losing no soldiers our weapons and ammunition are going out and the receiving of new weapons is expensive and slow.

          Thanks,

  18. Carolinian

    Re Trump cuts 400 million from Columbia–this sure sounds like “weaponizing government” and itself a form of antisemitism since many of those Columbia protestors were Jews upholding traditional Jewish humanism versus Zionist colonialist genocide. But then nobody ever accused transactional Trump of being morally coherent. Doubtless Miriam Adelson is pleased with the latest move.

    And of course it’s not just Trump who has problems with right versus wrong since large chunks of the media further downtown in Manhattan doubtless agree with what he is doing here.

    Meanwhile in Gaza Trump and the increasingly dubious Witcoff
    have threatened to kill everyone unless Hamas releases all the hostages and then leaves. Perhaps the Prez and his friend can imitate our Nikki and go sign some bombs.

    1. Erstwhile

      And just how much of donald j trump will the rest of the world take? A show of hands. Anyone? Anyone?

  19. pjay

    – ‘Baltic Sea waters are deep – New research results on the Nord Stream attacks’ – Nachdenkseiten via machine translation (guurst)

    Thanks for this. Here is the original article on which it is based, which is more detailed and already in English:

    https://21stcenturywire.com/2025/02/26/nord-stream-revelation-submarines-in-the-nato-lake/

    Whether or not it was carried out by submarine, the detailed information in the article makes it crystal clear why this had to be a NATO operation. Very good.

    1. Es s Ce Tera

      Around the time of NS2 explosions I had made the same comment here on NC re: the explosions suspiciously taking place at submarine depths, it being challenging to dive to these depths without rebreathers and hyperbaric chambers. And also commented about Baltops happening right on top of the site, if I recall. But I didn’t have this added context that two naval operations were happening in parallel, the area being practically flooded with NATO navies from both exercises, nor that the explosions took place in a known NATO submarine alley marked on nautical charts, nor that German and American commanders were in charge of operations at the time. Very interesting new info indeed. The probability that it was NATO behind NS2 has now increased.

      And we can see now that if the Russians had planted those explosives it’ll mean they have supernatural, otherworldly submarine superpowers approaching the level of magics which NATO does not have, can get right under the noses of multiple fleets blasting a narrow area with ASW, sonar, sonobuoys, acoustic sensors. We can’t rule it out, though. Let’s not forget Chinese submarines off the coast of New Jersey flooding the skies with warp-capable cloaking drones, and without accidentally lighting the water on fire!

      Side note: Such is the state of “Google search” that my comments on NC around this topic are disappeared even with very specific keywords and a unique nick. I wonder if others who have commented are experiencing the same.

    2. ciroc

      I wonder: How many incompetent NATO admirals have been fired for allowing Russian sabotage in waters under full NATO control?

    3. scott s.

      Dunno. The article basically says BALTOPS 22 was a pretty big exercise, which should come as no surprise.

  20. The Rev Kev

    “Crypto prices fall as US strategic reserve plan disappoints traders”

    Did Trump just do a rug pull? There must have been more than a few investors who purchased crypto in the expectation that they would be able to sell it to the Feds at a good price and pocket themselves a tidy little profit. But then Trump says that nah, the US already owns the crypto that they need – in the form of seized crypto. Yoink! I wonder how many got caught out here. But it might also indicate that the Feds will be more aggressive seizing crypt assets going forward in order to build up that strategic reserve of pixie dust.

    1. ambrit

      Someone I know locally who has a tendency to “play the ponies” was all in on Crypto before the election last November. Yesterday he told me that he sold it all in the week after the election and basically doubled his money. I asked about the tax burden and he replied that Cryptos are still in the Wild West stage of development.
      He said, “I decided to get out early, before the big boys cashed out. Glad I did. Look at Crypto now.”
      I asked him what he was considering for his next “investment.”
      “Tulip bulbs,” was his reply. Then he burst out laughing.

  22. ChrisFromGA

    I swore off all the war mapper videos (Dima, Weeb Union, DPA) for Lent. However, I keep MoA as a daily read, and from what I read this morning in the Ukraine open thread, the Kursk pocket has finally collapsed, and thousands of UAF troops are surrendering in Sudzha.

    Looks like Zelensky’s last “bargaining chip” has come a cropper.

    1. ambrit

      I made a similar decision recently. Much less personal stress.
      I do wonder what is going to happen to all the “Foreign Fighters” and any Western “advisors” caught up in the maelstrom. Shot while trying to escape?

      1. ChrisFromGA

        A bit more detail from a MoA commenter
        ”unimperator”

        Russian spec ops have reportedly used an old gas pipeline to infiltrate in Sudzha. The AFU defense in Sudzha is in disarray.

        Some analysts say it could take up to a month to clear out the bulge, but potentially it could happen significantly quicker.

        https://x.com/leonidragozin/status/1898334519167426972

        I suspect we will be hearing soon about a lot of tragic skiing accidents involving NATO personnel, or slip and falls in the shower.

        1. ChrisFromGA

          Events are moving fast, now. Looks like Kursk will be completely retaken very soon.

          From MoA comments, again: (take with whatever grains of salt you want, I realize its just a commenter and anonymous)

          ‼️🇷🇺💥🇺🇦🏴‍☠️ The Russian Armed Forces are tightening the ring.

          At the moment, about 5,500 Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers are completely surrounded, about 350 have surrendered and up to 1,500 Ukrainian soldiers were killed on March 6-8.
          Over the same three days, up to fifty units of American, Turkish and Canadian equipment were burned

        3. The Rev Kev

          One of the excuses the Israelis use is their soldiers falling off roofs while at home.

  23. PlutoniumKun

    The Blood of Exceptionally Long-Lived People Suggests Crucial Differences ScienceAlert.

    The thing that caught my eye with this is the apparent link between low creatinine levels and longevity. Perhaps someone with more biology knowledge than me might elaborate, but my understanding is that creatinine levels are associated with muscle mass – this seems to indicate that low, not high muscle mass is linked to longevity, which contradicts a lot of other data.

    1. Vandemonian

      You’re right, PK, higher muscle mass is associated with higher levels of serum creatinine:

      https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30406-5/

      However, there’s also evidence that higher muscle mass is associated with increased longevity:

      https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4035379/

      In a routine clinical setting serum creatinine is routinely used as an indicator of renal function, rather than muscle mass, and it’s almost certain that the low creatinine levels in this cohort are an indicator of good renal function, rather than higher muscle mass.

      Keep going with that strength training and the healthy diet – sarcopenia is not your friend!

  24. MicaT

    Baltic Sea waters.
    So we are back to the Russians blew up their own pipeline narrative via submarine.
    Incredible that people still believe this, but it seems to be true for way too many.

  25. mrsyk

    Meet the Columbia Radicals Arrested for Storming a Barnard Building, Washington Free Beacon.
    Here’s one;
    “Wimer is a medical student at Columbia’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. According to screenshots of her LinkedIn that has since been deleted, she is “passionate about global health and human rights” and has “experience in research, program management, and community outreach in multicultural settings.” Wimer is the Class of 2025 president, the programming coordinator for Columbia’s Human Rights and Asylum Clinic, and an active member of Columbia’s chapters of White Coats for Black Lives and Students for a National Health Program, according to an online bio.”

    As for me, I would be rather proud if that were my daughter.

    1. Mikel

      Good points. Again, I’d add the love of ZIRP began with the GFC – the “gift” that keeps on giving.

  28. mrsyk

    This is the Post doing what they do best, muckraking, but there is a quote about his “art” fellow readers will enjoy. Hunter Biden’s $3M house appears untouched — while every neighboring home was burned to ash — after he called it ‘unlivable’ due to LA wildfires, NYP.

    “Hunter laid bare his financial woes in the court papers as he urged a judge to drop the laptop hacking lawsuit he filed against Garrett Ziegler, a former Trump White House aide, because he’s “millions of dollars” in debt.

    He claimed the debt, as well as dwindling sales of his artwork and memoir, prevented him from “litigating this case.” “

    1. JBird4049

      I don’t want to get conspiratorial here, but Hunter Biden house looks like any other, is surrounded by plants with no cleared spaces, and somehow is completely untouched by fire unlike all the other houses all around it.

      Were there special water drops or private firefighters for him?

      1. mrsyk

        Stands out doesn’t it.
        I can’t stop chuckling over “dwindling”. I guess the family business isn’t doing so well

    1. JBird4049

      While nice, I don’t think that this has any chance of passing, which makes more of a virtue signal, but with the likely deep recession or depression coming on and the political and economic fallout from the butchering of the federal government, I think that the midterm elections in 2026 it might be realistic to introduce the bill.

  30. Arkady Bogdanov

    “Trump threatens new tariffs on Canada, including 250% tax on dairy”

    I wish I could see this as a positive, but I do not. This will drive up dairy prices, almost none of which will filter down to US dairies. Small family-owned dairies almost universally have decrepit infrastructure due to DECADES of sustained, depressed milk prices. This will just push up prices across the board, and almost, if not all of the increase in prices, will be pure profit for processors and distributors and very little, if any, will make it’s way down to farms, and we will not see any increase in production- my guess is this will lead to sustained, high prices- for as long as the tariffs are in place. I visit farms for a living and in the last ten years or so, dairies have been closing left and right at a pace not seen since the 80’s. I have been warning legislators and their staff for years regarding this issue….nobody gives a (family blog), and it is enraging.

    1. Arkady Bogdanov

      Adding- I will ask my farm contacts to keep me apprised of any increases in payment they receive and will let you all know, but I am very confident that it will be a microscopic percentage of that 250%.

    2. IveHadEnough

      I have trouble understanding your fears.

      The US provides massive subsidies to dairy farmers (though I realize much of this goes to large corps).

      https://www.realagriculture.com/2018/02/u-s-dairy-subsidies-equal-73-percent-of-producer-returns-says-new-report/

      Relatively speaking very little dairy is exported to the US from Canada except (apparently) goat milk and artisan cheeses.

      https://agrimoon.com/canadian-dairy-exports-to-the-u-s-flourish-amid-specialized-demand/

      Currently most dairy exports from the US enter Canada under the various maximums to avoid high tariffs and are therefore tariff free so that outlet for (the heavily subsidised) surpluses is still there until canada hammers them with their own tariffs.

      So, yes, there will be negative effects on the margin but, no, I can’t see it cratering the US dairy industry or making US milk unaffordable.

      1. mrsyk

        Small dairy farms here in VT have been enduring, to put mildly, difficult times for a stretch now. AB’s reaction is understandable, hopefully the damage inflicted will be minimal, as you reasoned out. Then they can go back to worrying about quickly increasing operational costs and regional buy side monopolies.

  32. edgui

    ANTI-IMPERIALISM ISN’T TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME – John Helmer

    Between the rock, the hard place, and the Golden Dome, there is plenty of hopeful, wishful thinking. This is understandable, especially at this time of Lent. It’s also religious faith. The Roman Catholic bishops of Europe have just issued their Lenten proclamation that “as Christians prepare to embark on the journey of Lent, a time of repentance and conversion leading to Easter, the feast of hope and new life, we continue to entrust Ukraine and Europe to our Lord Jesus Christ, through the intercession of Mary, the Queen of Peace.”

    What a pleasure to read Helmer.

    1. ilsm

      The parts of Ukraine added by Stalin are populated by linked to Rome “Catholics”.

      I pray for the conversion of Europe. Peace, too. But include Ukraine as needing conversion.

      Apparitions at Fatima and Mugajurdi.

    2. Potemkin

      The Roman Catholics have been one of the main factors in Slavs-killing-Slavs since forever (up until today). Playing innocent just adds insult to injury.

  34. ciroc

    >Surface tension: could the promised Aukus nuclear submarines simply never be handed over to Australia?

    As a MoA reader, I knew this in 2022. The Guardian should hire b as a reporter now.

    1. nyleta

      We gladly pay the Danegeld here in Australia, Mr Albanese is rightly scared of what Mr Trump and other Presidents might do in a fit of temper. We are practically defenceless and those we do have are the wrong type for the conflicts we might face. No nuclear subs will ever be bult in Australia but we contribute to building US and UK subs. This is not the first time we have been in this situation, Before Federation we contributed battlecruisers to the British Royal Navy, it is a sign that what little sovereignty we gained after WW2 has been lost by our own actions in directing our economy to the housing market instead of industrial production. We will crew some US or UK navy vessels but whether fully is not known.

      There is a hope that we may participate in the British Underwater Battlespace Area Denial initiative using autonomous vessels. The Chinese system would probably be better in the vast spaces of the Pacific but no-one on either side would let us into this.

      1. bwilli123

        “We are practically defenseless.”
        A wide band of waters surrounding us is a major barrier no other country our size has. Also our nearest neighbors are either friendly or allied to us. That would also count as a major defence.
        Threats are mostly likely to come from our inept politicians signing themselves up to posture against our major trading partner.
        We have a perfect record of compliantly standing alongside the USA ever since WWII (Korea, Vietnam Iraq etc.) regardless of International Law or logical benefit to ourselves.
        But nobody wants to be the Prime Minister who breaks the record.

    2. The Rev Kev

      The sub deal never made any sense and it was Scotty from Marketing that had this bright idea and who took pleasure in booting the French when he didn’t have to look so giddy in doing so. So now it come out that the US can’t come up with the goods as they can’t make enough subs for themselves, much less deliver on foreign contracts. having Trump in office will make the situation even worse. So now the idea is-

      ‘up to eight additional Virginia-class SSNs would be built, and instead of three to five of them being sold to Australia, these additional boats would instead be retained in US Navy service and operated out of Australia along with the five US and UK submarines that are already planned to be operated out of Australia’

      So what happens. We pay for them but we have zero control of them? Who pays for all those salaries, costs and the maintenance? Whose flag will they fly? If one of them attacks a Chinese warship, will Washington say that it was actually an Aussie sub that attacked China and nothing to do with the US? Will we be even allowed to know where those subs are operating or will that be a secret from us? Then the idea is that we just spend the money on long-range missiles, drones or bombers instead of our own subs. I wonder which country we will be buying all that from? What if a future Trump has a spat with the Aussie government – and then orders all those subs back to Pearl. So we will have no subs then at all? Nothing about this whole deal makes any sort of sense at all.

  35. Charlie Krauss

    Ok. I have to call BS, here: “Gene-edited non-browning banana could cut food waste, scientists say.” If elite over production wants to map the banana genome the Nth time, fine. But I object to biotech declaring war on banana bread just so they can fatten IP margins.

  36. AG

    re: Germany migrants elections

    New study via German daily taz:

    Voting with a migration background
    Study on Voting Behavior and Origin

    People with a migration background vote differently than the rest of the population. A new study by the DeZIM Institute shows exactly how.

    German:
    https://taz.de/Waehlen-mit-Migrationshintergrund/!6074151/

    “(…)depending on their group of origin, between 82 and 87.3 percent of this group of people expressed great or very great interest in the federal election – compared to 90.2 percent of people without a migration background.
    Different groups – different voting behavior

    (…) According to the study, the SPD, the Left and the BSW achieved the highest share of voters among people with roots in Turkey, the Middle East or North Africa – when age, education and gender are taken into account. In this group, the probability of voting for the SPD is 18.5 percentage points higher than for voters without a migration background. The BSW has an increase of 13.1 percentage points and the Left has an increase of 7.6 percentage points. The probability of voting for the AfD, on the other hand, is 9.4 percentage points lower, for the Greens it is 9.7 percentage points lower and for the CDU/CSU it is 8.1 percentage points lower.

    The picture is different for migrants with roots in the former Soviet Union. According to the study, the probability of voting for the AfD is 19.4 percent higher there than in the population without a migrant background. The BSW has an increase of 17.4 percentage points. The Greens, the Left and the SPD, on the other hand, perform worse in this group. However, the CDU/CSU has the greatest overall voter potential here – as is the case with people without a migrant background.(…)”

    Study direct link (German pdf) is here:
    https://www.dezim-institut.de/en/publications/publication-detail/welche-rolle-spielte-der-migrationshintergrund-bei-der-bundestagswahl-2025/

    I don´t know yet if the study itself distinguished between East Europeans and Russian – or not.

    p.s. I remember Berlin Jewish community allegedly had huge problems with the influx of Russian Jews in the 1990s because latter were regarded as backward and racist and pretty often obnoxious and many in numbers, while the domestic community was rather small. I dont´t know how this turned out. But on this example one can observe that there were huge differences. To assume that “the post-Soviet” bloc is one single item is pretty ridiculous.

  37. AG

    re: RU/UKR

    via A Skeptic:

    Kremlin lifts restrictions — new course for total victory

    According to information leaked from Russian security and military circles, immediately after the failed meeting at the White House, emergency meetings at the highest level were held in Moscow. The key topic was deciding on the further course of the special military operation.

    According to inside information, President Vladimir Putin gave a direct order to Defense Minister Andrei Belousov to lift all previous operational restrictions and begin a new stage of military action — with the clear goal of completely defeating Ukrainian forces.

    This includes several key steps:

    Destruction of Ukraine’s military and transport infrastructure.

    Disconnection of the energy system — Ukraine may be left without electricity for an indefinite period.

    Elimination of key Ukrainian leaders — attacks on high-ranking officials of the Kiev regime are expected to begin soon, including military commanders, ministers and advisers close to Zelensky.

    An offensive in several directions — Kharkov, Nikolaev and Odessa in focus. Militarily, Russian forces now have the ability to launch a strong offensive in several key directions. Nikolaev and Odessa – Russia is considering the possibility of conquering the southern part of Ukraine, which would completely cut off Kiev’s access to the sea.

    One thing is certain – the Russian special military operation is entering a new phase in which there is no longer room for restrictions. The pressure on Ukraine will increase, and the possibility of a complete defeat of the Kiev regime now seems more real than ever.

    https://askeptic.substack.com/p/various-news-2025-03-08

        1. Red Snapper

          “A Skeptic” is just aggregator (no skepticism involved.:) ). Below that “news item” there is a link to some Telegram channel that is the source (or so I assume, because I can not see the content of original post without the app).

  38. AG

    re: First Amendment vs. Freedom of Speech rhetoric

    How a post-9/11 law could enable a crackdown on speech

    If Trump Justice Department lawyers want to avoid First Amendment arguments, this is likely where they’ll go

    https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-protests/

    p.s. This was the very question I asked myself when earlier today I read Joe Lauria´s piece on the case ConsortiumNews vs. NewsGuard/USG

    Judge Orders Defendants in CN v NewsGuard & USG to Respond to Trump Executive Order on Censorship

    A U.S. federal judge has set a deadline of Thursday for the U.S. Government and NewsGuard to respond to an executive order banning government involvement in censorship.

    https://consortiumnews.com/2025/03/05/judge-orders-defendants-in-cn-v-newsguard-usg-to-respond-to-trump-executive-order-on-censorship/

    How is Trump Admin. going to pull off this double standard.

    DEMS? AOC? SANDERS? WARREN? Anywhere on this?

  39. juno mas

    RE; Synapse Collapse

    All interactions have become transactions: Caveat Emptor!!!!!!!!!!!!

    ( Hell, my dentist can no longer be trusted…buyer beware!)

  41. JBird4049

    >>>EU denies picking on US tech giants, says US also tackling monopolisation Reuters. Since when is picking on tech giants bad?

    Shouldn’t we praise and obey our Overlords? I mean Elon Musk and all the others seem to expect constant adoration from the Little People. And I say the last seriously and the last sarcastically.

  42. AG

    re: Chinese education system

    BERLINER ZEITUNG

    China’s Education System in Transition: How Reforms Affect Students and Parents
    China is facing massive challenges in the field of education. The government has been implementing fundamental reforms for several years now – and has already achieved success.

    by Jiawen Ruan


    The Berliner Zeitung is committed to broad and global reporting that seeks to understand geopolitical shifts and changes as objectively as possible. This is the seventh part of our series “The Chinese Perspective,” which presents the Chinese view of fundamental developments of our time. The author of the text is Jiawen Ruan, chief correspondent in the Berlin office of the state-owned media group China Media Group.

    https://archive.is/A2GwB

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