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Links 4/20/2025

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Solving the Trolley Problem: Towards Moral Abundance 3 Quarks Daily

Does TED Still Make Sense? Quillette

Brand-new colour created by tricking human eyes with laser Nature

COVID-19/Pandemics

White House reveals COVID lab leak theory as ‘true origins’ of pandemic in flashy new website that blasts Biden, Fauci and Cuomo NY Post

UN rights chief hails draft pandemic accord as milestone for equitable global health Andolu Agency

Measles outbreaks now declared in 8 states, including Michigan’s first in 5 years Fox News

Climate/Environment

Small ocean swirls may have an outsized effect on climate, NASA satellite shows The Register

Climate change is redrawing the global wine map. Here’s what it means for your future vintages Euro News

Climate change will make rice toxic, say researchers Ars Technica

 

China?

China unveils world’s fastest hard drive SCMP

China launches 6 classified experimental satellites with Long March 6A Space News

China pits humanoid robots against humans in half-marathon Reuters

South of the Border

El Salvador’s president, Trump’s new deportation partner, is a pro-Israel Palestinian The Times of Israel

Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum woos Donald Trump with security shake-up FT

Brazil’s Indigenous leader Raoni says he is against drilling for oil in Amazon region Reuters

European Disunion

Labour costs across Europe: Where are they highest and lowest? Euro News

‘Careful dance between ideology and realpolitik: Meloni walking a tightrope between Europe and US’ France 24

Does Europe need new defence institutions? FT

Old Blighty

Fears that UK military bases may be leaking toxic ‘forever chemicals’ into drinking water The Guardian

What the UK ruling on the definition of ‘woman’ means for same-sex spaces, culture wars and more CNN

Drug Enforcement Leads To Increases In Violence, Report Published By UK Government Concludes Marijuana Moment

Israel v. The Resistance

‘It’s really hard to have any hope’: Gaza doctor describes daily struggle BBC

Gaza had educational justice. Now the genocide has wiped that out, too Al Jazeera

‘We smelled the stench of burning human flesh’: Israel burns 8 children to death in Gaza ‘safe zone’ Mondoweiss

Iran, US task experts with framework for a nuclear deal after ‘progress’ in talks Reuters

US Inching Towards a Deal With Iran Larry Johnson

New Not-So-Cold War

Russia’s Putin announces a one-day Easter ceasefire in Ukraine France 24

Ceasefire countdown: Will London talks finally stop the Russia-Ukraine war? Mint

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Declassified Biden-Era Domestic Terror Strategy Reveals Broad Surveillance, Tech Partnerships, and Global Speech Regulation Agenda Reclaim the Net

Oracle hopes talk of cloud data theft dies off. CISA just resurrected it for Easter The Register

UI student files privacy lawsuit, boycotts class until school improves online security Iows City Press Citizen

Imperial Collapse Watch

The dollar’s sell-off raises concerns that investors are losing trust in the U.S. CBS New

America’s Looming Food Bank Crisis Newsweek

Trump 2.0

Medical Journals Get Letters From DOJ Medpage Today

Larry Summers on Harvard’s Showdown With Trump Yascha Mounk substack

Inside Trump’s tariff brain Axios

Nobel Winner Joseph Stiglitz on Columbia’s Capitulation to Trump 3 Quarks Daily

DOGE

Elon Musk’s 25-year-old DOGE minion screamed at federal employees during 36-hour firing spree Daily Mail

House Democrats: DOGE is building a ‘master database’ of Americans’ sensitive information The Verge

Newsom to sue DOGE over AmeriCorps cuts: ‘Middle finger to volunteers’ The Hill

Democrat Death Watch

Democrats want Joe Biden to stay away The Hill

The Remarkable Rags-to-Riches Story Of Stacey Abrams Zero Hedge

Immigration

US Supreme Court halts deportation of detained Venezuelans BBC

We Are US Citizens. My Children Are Still Terrified of Being Deported. Politico

Farmers, seasonal businesses worry as immigration crackdown ramps up The Maine Monitor

Our No Longer Free Press

Saving the free press — before it’s too late Editor & Publisher

Opinion: Political journalism … without the journalist The Review

Mr. Market Is Moody

Why everyone is suddenly so interested in US bond markets BBC

Ditching Powell = $1 Trillion Meltdown? FX Leaders

The stock market may not have fully priced in a recession: Chart of the Week Yahoo Finance

AI

Microsoft Broadens Always-Watching AI-Powered Recall Tool That Logs and Indexes User Activity Reclaim the Net

Sam’s Club phasing out checkouts, betting big on AI shopping Fox News

‘Don’t ask what AI can do for us, ask what it is doing to us’: are ChatGPT and co harming human intelligence? The Guardian

The Bezzle

Fake job seekers are flooding the market, thanks to AI CBS News

An Art Fraud Case That Is Bonkers Even by Florida Standards Vanity Fair

Mastermind of ‘one-stop shop’ fraud website with one million victims jailed BBC News

Guillotine Watch

Antidote du jour (via)

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188 comments

      2. griffen

        Happy Easter out there in down under from out here in the southeastern US. Off topic but was watching perhaps the most apocalyptic* of such apocalypse film franchise series, the Mad Max “Fury Road” movie from 2015 I think. A stark reminder of what could still present itself, that of a citizenry overruled from a high citadel of power wielded by a truly mad person.

        Install what one wilt on the boundless examples, from the modern world for a truly mad individual. Back to Easter…spring brings some promise of warm sunny days, bunnies hopping and baskets of little puppies!

        1. Wukchumni

          Max Mad could turn out to be a rabid test, but lets not go there, yet.

          Happy 420, and don’t Bogart that joint my friend.

    2. Ben Panga

      Happy Easter and/or festival of the egg-laying chocolate rabbit to those that celebrate.

      Reading through the genocide links (and others), I pray for some for rebirth. Though I’m no Christian, the christ = love bit has always resonated. My heart shines powerfully yet the mind thinks “whither love?”

      Love to all the other shining hearts here,

      BP

  2. The Rev Kev

    “White House reveals COVID lab leak theory as ‘true origins’ of pandemic in flashy new website that blasts Biden, Fauci and Cuomo”

    Just a coincidence that this website has appeared in the middle of Trump’s trade war with China. I can see the next step already. Trump will next demand compensation from China for all the deaths and economic damage done to America – or else. Thing is, there may be a problem calculating the “damage.” They may want to include the cost of all those American suffering from Long Covid but that would mean actually acknowledging that they actually exist which means that they would have to help those people. Does the Trump regime really want to go there? Either way US courts would play ball with him. It was a US court that found Iran guilty of 9/11 and demanded billions in compensation for the survivors. I’m sure that a US court would find China guilty of Covid as well.

    1. Sam Adams

      Of course the US courts will find China guilty, they serve the powerful and for all the minor deportation sideshow there will be a lot of money to be made in pursuing compensation for all the victims of the Chinese virus. The old is new again…

      1. ambrit

        The Chinese have a “poison pill” strategy available. To wit, the ‘research’ was financed and run by Americans. Counter-sue for the Chinese damages.
        This will get ugly very quickly.

        1. Wukchumni

          For Chinese nationals in the USA increasingly worried about the emperors new rhetoric, there is always the Samsonite Option.

        2. GramSci

          And Trump’s lab leak webpage has already conceded that Peter Daszak and Ecohealth Health Sciences was running the research…while Trump was president. This can also get very funny very quickly, in a very sick way…

    2. Terry Flynn

      Just a link for newbies by Yves from a few years ago where gain-of-function research was discounted (and there’s been associated discussion that the USA funded it to avoid laws on doing it on their own soil).

      However, as you say, we’re in la-la land these days so logic doesn’t apply.

      1. Ignacio

        I know this is pointless but here the latest from Holmes:

        The Emergence and Evolution of SARS-CoV-2
        Unattractive for people seeking for narratives matching their priors but there it is. Plenty of data in there.

        Anyway the White House web page is very revealing. In December 2019 i wouldn’t anticipate such a sharp moral and intellectual decline.

        1. memoryfails

          “The latest” is more than a year old, nothing new to offer in light of all the evidence that has come out since then to support a lab leak?

          1. AG

            So where are we now with “lab leak” and scientific proof?
            Theories, assumptions and so on are easy to make.

          3. Alena Shahadat

            Ok, but,
            Wasn’t there a story, recently on NC, pointing out COVID 19 antibodies presence in people in Italy prior to the “official” start of the pandemic ?

            Or was it in the waste water ?

            I would be damned if I can find it…. Perhaps some of you have better memory than me.
            Happy Easter !

            1. fjallstrom

              The paper Ignacio linked argues that those results could be the result of contamination in the labs, because otherwise it would have resulted in outbreaks.

        2. fjallstrom

          Thanks for the link.

          The clustering of early cases around the market, the lack of early cases connected to the Wuhan institute and Wuhan institute neither researching the right strain or the right proteins for the furin cleavage site sounds like convincing arguments for a zoonotic origin.

          Good paper.

          Not that facts matter much in the political discourse of course.

        3. AG

          thanks for the paper.
          It appears to be from 1 year ago.

          Since I have not dug into the current alleged new intelligence on lab leak – as it is currently under debate in Germany – is there anything to be added now what one year ago was not known but would substantially change anything?

          I am willing to change my mind on Covid origin if evidence suggests. But in fact we do not know anything so what is there to change.

          What bothers me most, in Germany to those very circles who are essential to countering the Russophobia out of shere satisfaction “lab leak” is now basically proven.

          This is disconcerting just like with the peace movement building its arguments critical of NATO on NATO evidence towards underestimating Russian armed forces.

          This is all very strange and not helpful. Politics is NOT science.

      2. Thom Finn

        Terry, The first week of February 2020, a friend of mine, a physical chemist, handed me a paper, written anonymously (yes, I know but the content indicated someone active in the research community) outlining the timeline and itinerary of the Covid virus from a lab at a NIAID funded North Carolina university where gain of function research was performed on corona viruses.
        An aside: I always figured such research was being performed to develop a universal corona virus vaccine.
        Recall that during the hiatus on gain of function research during Obama’s tenure, Fauci claimed an exemption.
        At any rate, according to the author of the paper, the research was moved with the Wuhan level 4 lab being the end point. This lab had also received a great deal of funding from NIAID.
        A couple years later, about the time of the article you cited, MIT reported an almost exact conclusion as the paper I’d read nearly two years previously while also naming the NIAID subcontractor who facilitated the transfer to Wuhan.
        A, for me, hilarious side note, is that a couple weeks following the MIT report, Oxford came out with their conclusion; it being a wet market origin. Sorry, I’ll go with the home team.

        1. Terry Flynn

          Thanks but I’m PhD in med stats and health services research….. I’ve heavily relied on links from NC now I no longer have institutional access to articles.

          Apart from my purely anecdotal stuff about Long Covid I’m relying on NC so I can’t offer the kind of insights I did back in 2010…..

    3. Ignacio

      As a matter of fact there are other more realistic reasons to blame Covid on Chinese leaderships. No other than they promoted the run for wild meat in China, like beheaded chickens, hence SARS-CoV1 and SARS-CoV2. Now it is Trump’s time to run like a beheaded chicken to destroy whatever he touches.

      1. SteveW

        Chinese typically do not behead chickens. Usually slit the Chickens’ throat, drain all the blood, then process the rest. Go to a Chinese grocery store and see that they sell chickens with the head attached. Beheading chicken is the practice employed in a western farm.

        1. Ignacio

          May be the correct expression is “headless”. Running like headless chickens: “to be very busy doing a lot of things, but in a way that is not very effective”. That is the meaning for you.

    4. Kouros

      But the virus was done on NIH dime, no?!

      As with the Spanish Flu was in fact the Kansas Flu, and was spread around because the US military couldn’t send men fast enough over the Atlantic, healthy or sick, this Covid Chinese flu was originated by the Americans… One needs to look at the first mover, no?

  3. Alan Sutton

    Yes, Happy Easter everyone.

    That freerunner stuff is pretty amazing but I don’t think my ankles could stand it.

    1. Wukchumni

      There’s a certain admiration for doing really out there stuff, nobody’s gonna watch videos of Di Tommaso running down the stairs from the roof and cross the street and sprint up the stairs to the roof of the next building over. we’d ask for our 4 minutes back.

      That said, doing daring stuff is dangerous. I never leave the snow for all intents and purposes when skiing, and one time I was riding a chair in Mammoth and small talk ensued as I asked the fellow next to me where he was from, and he said ‘right here in Mammoth’, and asked what he did, and he related that he was a surgeon, and I inquired what his specialty was?

      He smiled and said ‘terrain parks’ which is where predominantly young snowboarders reside around monkey bars on the down low and jumps and whatnot. The ratio of boarder to skier in a terrain park on the slopes must be around 30-1, not our gig.

      1. Terry Flynn

        Yeah re danger. Most speed running videos I encounter online are of Darwin Award candidates where the runner decided alcohol was much more important than skill or judgment…..

        1. Wukchumni

          I hang out with H3* types, who claim to be a drinking club with a running problem. not that there is anything wrong with that.

          * Hash House Harriers

        1. Randall Flagg

          At least that guy knows what he’s doing and I’m sure puts the thought into it beforehand.
          Too many say:” Hold my beer! Or, Hey yall, watch this!”

          1. juno mas

            There will come a day in the lives of ‘freerunners’ when their flexible, powerful, proprioceptive body fails to deliver. The result will be a lifetime limp, or worse.

            1. vao

              Oh, even if they do not have any accident, all those ceaseless violent touchdowns on concrete will ruin their ankles, knees, pelvis, and lower back in due time. There is a good reason why it is recommended to jog on natural ground (earth) and not on asphalt.

      3. Wukchumni

        p.s.

        My leaps* have all been into water-a softer landing than asphalt, with 30 feet up being my max. I eyed the 50 foot drop into the Research Pools on the Kaweah River @ Ash(alpulco) Mountain near the visitors center in Sequoia NP with oodles of trepidation, what’s another 20 feet beyond what i’ve ever leaped in the scheme of things looming large in my mind-a no go.

        * we trained on large piles of sand next to 2 story homes being built all over my childhood haunts once upon a time

          3. sardonia

            Hiking through the Rockies once with friends we came across what looked like a big, fresh pond of new snow, into which one friend impulsively jumped, with an immediate look on his face of “This might have been a mistake”.

            He sank right up to his neck. Had it been a 30 or 40 foot deep drop, we’d have had no way of getting him out before he’d have suffocated in snow.

            All’s well that ends well….

      1. AG

        Does anyone remember this French flick (not flic!)?
        “Ghettogangz – District B13” (2004) not bad back then. It started Pierre Morel´s directing career.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJPy7e5hvSg

        I remember the freerunner hype in France hitting the intern. circuit around the time when “online” had became a viable model. So everybody knew about it instantly. And it looked more of a real thing audience members could reproduce themselves unlike “Matrix” stunts.

      2. LY

        The godfather of freerunning and the related parkour is Jackie Chan, who was often his own stunt person. Videos of his mishaps are often included as B-roll at the end of his films. He’s had his fair share of injuries, including a literal hole in his head.

        1. AG

          But when you ask him about his work all he talks about is “emotions” and “characters” and the “script”. 😆

  4. Deschain

    Ugghhhh please not Grummz. He is a well-known misogynist in the gaming community, as well as a big-time con artist.

  5. The Rev Kev

    ‘Prakash
    @Prakash20202021
    Sky Cruise — a wild concept of a nuclear-powered flying hotel ☁️✈️
    Designed to carry 5,000+ guests in the sky with 20 electric engines and almost nonstop flight, this airborne city blends aviation with luxury.’

    Errr, I only have two questions to ask about this atomic plane. One, will it be built by Boeing? Two, will it be flying anywhere near the Red Sea? You know of course that the wealthy that will be potentially flying on it will never front up with the cash to build this monstrosity so they will lumber the development costs on taxpayers across different countries. Sorta like they did with Concorde where British and French taxpayers paid for the development of this plane but for a long time could never actually afford to fly on it. But maybe the developers here saw the 2013 movie “Elysium” and want to create something similar where there will be poverty on the ground but above the wealthy will cruise in luxury with the best of care-

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elysium_(film)

    1. ambrit

      Very reminiscent of the Edgar Allen Poe story, “Melonta Tuata” (1849.) The story is about people who live aboard balloon cities in the sky. In it, some aircologies do “crash and burn,” but that’s the price of progress, right?
      Wasn’t it Barnum who said; “No one ever went bankrupt underestimating the intelligence of the public.”
      Stay safe. Keep your parachute handy.

      1. Robert Gray

        HL Mencken:

        “No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.”

        1. hk

          I do think Mencken is wrong: some people probably did lose money, but that’s mostly because their customers went to other hucksters who “underestimated” intelligence of the masses in a different manner.

      2. Birch

        Before Poe was Johnathan Livingston and his third book of Gulliver’s Travels. Laputa, a floating island powered by massive magnets, housed elites that could land their island on any dissenting village on the ground and immediately crush it to oblivion. The same book also described a green revolution driven by reason that led to widespread crop failures.

    2. Es s Ce Tera

      Why have so many smaller jet engines and not 4 extra big ones? Each of those smaller jet engines is contributing to drag, each needs a nacelle, each has more wiring and mechanical parts, more points of failure, and more of anything adds to mechanical complexity, which increases odds of anything going wrong. Many engines will have more fuel/energy draw than fewer. I’m not an engineer but I suspect this concept hasn’t gone anywhere near an engineer? Probably because they would ask questions like that, I suppose.

      That shape reminds me of a certain 1970’s Fisher-Price toy plane.

      1. timo maas

        I am an engineer. This is not a concept of a real vehicle, but more of a 3D rendering of a toy (as you have noticed). Out-of-proportion things look cute, and toys for small kids are intentionally make like that.

        As far as many engines are concerned, they are present in ekranoplans but all of them are needed only at takeoff.

      2. ilsm

        Triple redundancy required for aircraft failure modes that could cause human deaths.

        The aircraft with 20 engines should fly safely with7. Electric generators should provide energy for 20 engines while 2 of three are inoperative.

        Safety margins absolutely drive numerous faults most of these non safety problems.

        The plane will be so big that repairs and supply will be in flight.

        Theory of nuclear power aircraft has been explored. Years ago, one defense contractor I heard asked “how big do you want it “.

        1. The Rev Kev

          Both the US and the USSR developed nuclear-powered aircraft during the First Cold War but gave up on it in the end. I read that it took years to finally kill the US one. A major problem was how to shield the crew so that they did not end up glowing in the dark. The other problem had to do with any time one of these planes crashed if they were ever put into production and how to clear up a crash site contaminated with a destroyed nuclear reactor-

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear-powered_aircraft

            1. The Rev Kev

              On nuclear-powered ships the problems are more easily solved as they have the tonnage to support shielding for their crews. For aircraft the weight of shielding is the limiting factor because the more shielding carried, the less weight in payload that can be carried. But you can’t chintz on the former or else you will be killing them off with radiation poisoning. Just as well as who wants to deal with an airplane crash that involves a nuclear reactor?

              1. Michaelmas

                The reactors for the US nuclear bomber design were molten salt reactors, not regular boiling water reactors as in subs or power stations.

                That’s where the thorium molten salt reactor concept was developed, in fact. Regular sub-type reactors were too heavy. The concept was that the plane would have taken off with conventional jets and then cruise for months without landing on nuclear power.

                1. The Rev Kev

                  That would imply that they might have to live off recycled water due to the weight factor again. Aerial resupplying of food, supplies & spare parts would be fun and games as you would be talking about tons of material to transfer. In some ways it would be like how they have to resupply the International Space Station but here it would be worse as you have two aircraft in actual motion.

    3. timo maas

      This monstrosity has the potential to become a ride in Disneyland at best. Moving along the rails slowly, so it does not break apart. It looks like a product of AI trained on child’s drawings.

      The first ones to offer a ride on an atomic powered aircraft will be Russians. The wealthy will have a chance to take a sit on the Burevestnik, and hold on tight.

    5. cfraenkel

      Aside from the absurd shape, non-aerodynamic ‘features’ (an **external** elevator?!?!), the video boasts of it’s airborne fusion power plant. It’s a joke. Lets see how gullible people are.

      1. Camacho

        Lets see how gullible people are.

        Way too much. I’ve just checked the original Youtube video:
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrodDBJdGuo
        This thing is presented as futurism, aka science fiction. It seems that the author(s) did not want to fool anyone, but that (we the) people are so gullible that they fooled themselves.

    6. neutrino23

      This is an echo of Fhloston Paradise from the movie The Fifth Element. Just search Fhloston Paradise and look at the images. It was a kind of a space ship hotel that flew around some planet. They would change altitude and such to get better views at different times. Really awesome. Opera hall, giant windows, luxury suites, Polynesian singers and dancers. I would love to visit this place. You can even get t-shirts and other merch labeled Fhloston Paradise.

  6. timbers

    “House Democrats: DOGE is building a ‘master database’ of Americans’ sensitive informationWired reports the database could combine IRS, SSA, and voting records for surveillance targeting undocumented migrants.”

    Good thinking adding at the end “targeting undocumented migrants” because that practically guarantees 50-ish percent support from the MAGA and Republicans for accessing “Americans sensitive data” by DOGE plus puts a culture war spin on it, and Dems will win landslides raking in the transgender Micro Aggression 13 different sexual orientations crowd.

    1. MartyH

      After years of bipartisan support for FISA and its broad uses by “contractors” and others to gather data, of insisting on RealID, of legallized commercial sale of mobile phone location data collected from cell towers, of Bluetooth LE’s signaling location even when the devices are “powered off”, a new Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt campaign around personal privacy? Really? Isn’t there something more important to worry about? To campaign on?

    2. Ben Panga

      This is a facist technocracy being installed in front of people’s eyes. Who will control these systems – Palantir et al. Trump is extremely old.

    3. ArvidMartensen

      IBM built a repository of peoples locations and religion in the 1930s, under the guise of a census. Head of IBM USA got a German medal from Hitler for the work.

      The data made the rendition of jewish people into ghettos and death camps so much more efficient, needed fewer resources etc.
      First they came for the immigrants.
      History rhymes.

      1. JBird4049

        I ain’t that smart nor educated, but I am constantly amazed at how people insist on stupid stuff that they say we needed yesterday for “our safety,” “fight terrorism,” and “to protect the children.”

        When one thinks of how each cool new violation of our privacy and civil rights is always used by the next administration to keep on violating, but people never seem to notice, it’s almost humorous.

  7. Alan Sutton

    The Sky Cruise: there seems to be a huge gap between what these advertisers/marketers can imagine and what the real economy can provide. Where will that thing be built? It must be a scam trying to hoover up some loose change among the venture capitalist crowd.

    Astonishing level of disconnect with real life. An AI hoax?

    1. timo maas

      It’s not about economy, but science ‘n technology. This thing is as real as Noah’s Ark. It is capable of flying as much as Noah’s Ark replica is of sailing.

    2. fjallstrom

      Nuclear powered jet engines? There is a big gap between the design and real world physics!

      I would sort it as a wild idea, either for the fun of it, or to attract stupid investment capital.

      1. Yves Smith

        Help me. The US looked into this LONG ago, in the 1970s, and rejected the idea. The amount of lead it would take to protect the pilots would make a plane too heavy to fly.

        Russia has been developing nuclear powered missiles…no idea where that stands.

        1. Michaelmas

          It was the 1950s. The nuclear bomber was Curtis LeMay’s dream for SAC. It got killed along with SAC’s manned bombers by the development of ICBMs in 1957-59, just as much as by the problem with the shielding weight.

          Scuttlebutt has it that the Soviets did fly their version up to circa 1962 by skimping on the shielding and the whole squadron of airmen assigned –20 or 30 — all had died of cancer within a couple of years after that.

          1. Glen

            The Convair NB-36H carried a nuclear reactor in the bomb bay, but the reactor did not provide any power to fly the aircraft. Call it mostly a flying test bed to size the logistics of dealing with nuke power:

            Convair NB-36H https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_NB-36H

            The other nuclear powered effort was the Supersonic Low Altitude Missile (SLAM):

            Supersonic Low Altitude Missile (SLAM) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic_Low_Altitude_Missile

            A couple of nuke powered ramjet engines for the SLAM were built and successfully test run at the Nevada Test Site:

            Project Pluto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto

            Both efforts were cancelled to pursue ICBMs (SLAM went on longer since it was supposed to be able to fly for years in place of having B-52s airborne 24/7.)

            As an aside, here’s the nuclear powered rocket engines which were also built and successfully test ran at the Nevada Test Site:

            Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA

            If NASA and America had decided to go completely hog wild in the space program (Moon base, go to Mars), the rocket engines would have most likely been used, but it would have been an incredibly expensive effort.

    4. ambrit

      It looks like Miazaki Airways has a new “product” on the drawing board.
      I hope it has a Kiki Suite.
      It could also be a subtle send up of the recently discontinued Disney Star Wars Hotel “Experience.” (Disney supposedly lost a cool billion dollars on that scheme. I would be very happy to live off of the interest from that.)

  8. The Rev Kev

    “Measles outbreaks now declared in 8 states, including Michigan’s first in 5 years”

    Still waiting for Fox News to come out and say ‘It’s just the measles, bro.’

        1. ambrit

          In true libertarian fashion, now known as “Me Me Measles.”
          Never forget that the “Rugged Individualists” are drawn exclusively from the population of survivors. The rest of us? Rule #2: Go die.

          1. steppenwolf fetchit

            That somebody stole the idea from me before I even thought of it myself shows that I was on the right track with that little phrase.

  9. DJG, Reality Czar

    Does TED still make sense? Quillette (which doesn’t always make sense either).

    I bumped into TED talks years ago, and even in its early stages, it was obvious that the TED talks are one more bourgeois affectation. Note the current price: 12 Grand USD.

    A bargain for all of that bourgeois affirmation.

    This sentence, not far into the [embargoed] article, is pure TED: Dave told me that he’s put together an international network of corporate leaders who meet regularly at “bespoke” retreats in “epic” locations such as Bali and Botswana.

    Especially “bespoke,’ for that alluring air of English knowitallism and strong hint that one is dealing with a pretentious American.

    Short answer: TED never made sense.

    Short answer with hint of redemption: The height may have been this talk by Hans Rosling on how a simple invention (well, not so simple, but humble) changed the world. From twelve years ago.
    https://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_the_magic_washing_machine

    1. Terry Flynn

      re TED monetisation, I confess I was a little suspicious that the entire series of public lectures hosted by my old university employer in Sydney were pulled from YouTube a few years back. Are they on some platform now where you must pay? They were all TED-type talks intended to explore interesting topics for the lay audience.

      Thankfully I’d downloaded mine and so far nobody has complained about me hosting it as it is fair use educational…..and it is me FFS!

    2. Trees&Trunks

      I stopped listening to the TED-talls a long time ago. They became very quickly formalized and fossilized in terms of intonation, structure and form. They all sound like they understand a problem theoretically but can’t give flying… practically, whether it is about poverty, illness or death I never heard anger, fury or sadness at the time. I see them most as performative and CV/LinkedIn-profile building activities.
      Maybe it got better over time.

      1. The Rev Kev

        A coupla decades from now, TED talks will be in the same category as pole sitting and dance marathons.

      1. pjay

        Thank you for this! Hilarious. Though liberal PMC-types are just as conditioned by ritual and unquestioned beliefs as everyone else, they often think otherwise. It reminded me of that famous essay by Horace Miner, ‘Body Ritual Among the Nacirema.’ Most students used to have to read that back in the day – as we were being conditioned into our liberal PMC-hood.

        1. Patrick Lynch

          You are most welcome! It’s a fairly old video by now, back when I could still stand to listen to NPR, my local station ran TED talks and I would listen to them while I worked on paintings in my studio. It didn’t take long to start hearing them as self parody, wondered if I was listening to a comedy instead. One had to wonder if all of these TED talkers were required to take a course on all of the moves and vocal inflections before they were allowed on stage.

          The first time I saw a TED talk on You Tube, it was a mixture of laughter and revulsion as the person on stage played the crowd like a PMC violin. But the recommendations also served up the video I linked to. TED talks have been a joke for some time now. Some of the people I know who still listen to NPR, also think TED talks are important.

      1. stefan

        “What if I told you that everything you knew about slowly going insane on a desert island was wrong?”

        1. ambrit

          A Pedant’s worst nightmare!
          Encounters with Naked Capitalists in the Uncanny Valley.
          “I’ll call the person who related this story to me as Professor X. They crave anonymity so as not to jeopardize their accreditation at a major institution of learning. This began as a simple, basic hike through Silicon Valley. It soon turned dark, frightening, challenging to the Approved Narrative. It started innocently enough….”

    5. .Tom

      TED is is on the same cultural life cycle as WEF. For me TED went from “Oh, interesting, what’s this?” to embarrassed that I had mentioned this caricature of liberal solutionism to anyone I knew in a mater of weeks. I also enjoyed how it established its own specific emergent PowerPoint aesthetic that spread elsewhere.

  10. DJG, Reality Czar

    Maine Monitor: Maine businesses and seasonal workers holding special visa.

    The article reminded me of how many employers in the U S of A keep insisting that their businesses have to be based on thorough exploitation of the work force. This has been the argument of governments of the Southern states for years: right-to-work (so-called) laws, exploitation, and low wages. This has been the argument of the food-service sector for years and years: separate salary regulations, low minimum wage, and tips (so that customers can solve the business’s wage & hour policies for the owners — talk about hospitality!).

    The argument that people don’t want summer jobs, don’t want to work in a restaurant, and don’t want to work on a farm just doesn’t seem to hold water, in my not-so-humble opinion.

    Rather strangely, it is rightwingers (read to the end) who want to end this system of seasonal labor. Hmmmm. Now they will have to turn their sites back to Silicon Valley and its tales of entrepreneurial derring-do and all of those imported Indians (which has to do with the employers, not the Indians, please, who are collateral damage).

    Strange indeed. But then, I grew up in a union family, back when the U S of A still had labor unions.

    1. Wukchumni

      Those 30 or so men I saw a month ago doing everything except being cashier at the Wal*Mart in Frisco. Co. with the most interesting name tags and accents to match, were all migrant immigrants on a work visa from Mauritania.

      Wal*Mart never does things on a 1-off basis, I wonder how many more Mauritanians are toiling for the Sam the man?

    2. fjallstrom

      I heard Florida is legalising child labour from age 14, including week nights as long as they are home schooled. In other words if parents are poor enough their children can fill up the workforce (as long as they claim they are being home schooled), and they are working hard on getting parents poor enough.

      Sure, in a decade and half the problem will be not enough children as poor people are postponing forming families, but that’s for the future to sort out.

      They could increase wages and make the jobs more attractive, but we all know that won’t happen if there’s anything else they can do.

      1. ambrit

        Expect “them” to make birth control illegal again. That should solve the “lower class population” problem.

          1. heh

            First they outlaw abortions, and before you know it you get arrested for illegal pull out. Forensic experts will take samples from the curtains for a DNA match, to see if it’s yours. :)

    3. eg

      The great irony is that “the American system” of the late 18th and 19th centuries (bitterly opposed by the “free trade” slave-owners of the South who lost a war over it) was predicated on high wage labour outproducing European “pauper labour.” This was the insight of Friedrich List and his American counterparts as outlined in Michael Hudson’s America’s protectionist takeoff 1815-1914 : the neglected American School of Political Economy

      https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10074353-america-s-protectionist-takeoff-1815-1914

      These also were the same ideas which led to Germany’s rise from rural idiocy to industrial power which was the envy of Europe. And yet now both nations stumble around, bleeding out from the self-inflicted wounds of neoliberalism and austerity. It’s like a form of collective madness … 🤦‍♂️

  11. Henry Moon Pie

    The Trolley Problem–

    So Ezra Klein’s Eco-Modernist Abundance proposal makes its appearance at NC. Here’s a taste of the foolishness:

    Consider climate change. Abundance not only recommends choosing among existing tech like moving from coal to solar, but also explores near-future examples like cultured (aka lab-grown) meat. This tech does exist, but it’s niche, nascent, and expensive. It’s also unsettling and popular for politicians to oppose it. But Abundance, correctly, holds up cultured meat as a worthy goal because in addition to helping address climate change (agriculture is a major contributor), it would also allow us to effectively end the moral stain that is factory farming.

    Yes, let’s consider this great solution to the climate catastrophe. Here’s what UC Davis scientists report about the energy requirements of lab grown “meat:”

    The scientists defined the global warming potential as the carbon dioxide equivalents emitted for each kilogram of meat produced. The study found that the global warming potential of lab-based meat using these purified media is four to 25 times greater than the average for retail beef.

    That’s certainly an abundance of added CO2. Is that the abundance they’re talking about? Maybe just quit eating meat? Maybe use naturally grown meat substitutes like soy for your protein? No way, say Klein and his Abundateers. They much prefer a process with high capital and energy requirements because it will all be protected by a nice, monopoly-granting patent.

    These people will do and say anything to avoid leveling with the public about a number of things including the trajectory of climate change, resource limits and the energy and resource requirements of their high-tech, corporate-based solutions. It’s just more PMC BS to forestall real solutions to the polycrisis that would interfere with their power and pampered lifestyles.

    Remember the Trolley Problem is roughly this: a trolley with a driver and 4 passengers is headed for disaster unless a switch is thrown to divert it to another track. But diverting it will kill an innocent pedestrian on the alternate track. It’s a test of how deep your utilitarianism goes. Klein has changed the problem. Now we have a trolley with a few very self-satisfied but well-connected people, and diverting the trolley will kill dozens of deplorables. Easy choice for Ezra, especially since he’s on the trolley.

      1. JBird4049

        My question is that given the problems with Ezra’s Prosperity Gospel Abundance shtick just who is funding the effort?

        1. chris

          The people who want to control the future direction of the Democrat party. The Thompson and Klein “Abundance” shtick is their attempt to salvage their brand while seeming to discuss the issues that have caused people to fall away from the party.

      2. eg

        Ezra Klein is representative of a special species of idiot — one who has floated on the endless supply of hot air emitted by the chattering classes, possessing no technical knowledge whatsoever beyond a smarmy sort of sophistry; a priesthood engaged in that oldest project of priestcraft: to justify the essential structure of current economic arrangements on behalf of those they benefit at the expense of the mass of working people.

        Sometimes I force myself to listen to him to keep an ear to the ground for the hoofbeats of his herd — but it is nauseating work.

        Abundance is just the latest symphony conducted on the upper decks of the Titanic …

    2. amfortas the hippie

      how about a million or more small meat producers…perhaps a bit bigger than me…instead of these derned cafo’s?
      the ranchers who are my neighbors are a whole lot more humane to their animals than those meat factories….nearest neighbor currently running about 50 steers and cow/calfs for sale right there across the fence(i put a big water trough for them, so i get cowtv); he talks to them, and ive even caught him singing to them,lol.
      and with local, smaller slaughtering facilities enabled, a meat eater would be better able to apply that fabled market pressure to enable more humane practices at that end, as well(i dropped 5 sheeps off at the butcher in fredericksbrg, tx last week, and spoke with the head honcho at length as he, hisself, helped me unload and situate them…but his facility is only for “not for sale” custom jobs)
      (and this situation of almost zero local slaughtering/butchery is no accident, either, but the result of long term bribery by the big meat packers who just couldnt abide a local alternative to their near monopolies)

      there are a whole lotta things we could do, without resorting to pink slime and factory grown cockroaches.
      but like you say, Ezra and his cohort cant even contemplate such things.
      run their trolly off the cliff, and then maybe we can do something about ag.

      1. steppenwolf fetchit

        Would laws and regulations have to be changed to facilitate the thousands of micro-abattoirs and micro-meat-processors needed to support and service all the willing humane eco-clean ranchers?

        The more final-point-of-use retail/personal meat-buyers are ready to buy meat from mini and micro producers, the more mini and micro producers will be able to stay in business or go into business. it will have to start with more end-use consumers being willing to pay as much more as necessary to support the existence and increase of mini and micro producers. It could be a badge of living the elitny life.
        https://exiledonline.com/elite-versus-elitny/#:~:text=This%20article%20was%20first%20published%20in%20The%20eXile,act%20like%20hicks%20and%20get%20away%20with%20it.

        I personally buy meat from such a micro-producer in my own microlocal area . . . Ann Arbor, Michigan. Here is that micro-producer . . .
        https://www.vestergaardfarms.com/

        1. amfortas the hippie

          “Would laws and regulations have to be changed to facilitate the thousands of micro-abattoirs and micro-meat-processors needed to support and service all the willing humane eco-clean ranchers?”

          they would hafta be changed rather dramatically.
          here in texas, in the last 10 or more years(due to teabilly state congresscritters, mostly,lol) they’ve changed the regs on a lot of stuff like that.
          theres 2 micro (i suppose) grassfed beef companies who sell steaks(and even lengua!) in the little place i get gas, beer and cigs.
          so its improved from what it was.
          but the people tell me that they get more scrutiny than the big boys, by far.
          (which is sorta ironic, i guess…since having an inspecter onsite, with his own office, was one of the ways they killed local killin facilities)
          similarly, texas more or less legalised…umm….the tamale ladies,lol.
          regs, from what the tamale chicas tell me, are not all that onerous…mostly because theyve seen an inspector once, before they finalised their pseudo license.

          i have no idea how this sits with the federal regs.
          and dont really know(texgov is rather opaque,lol)
          what the liabilities are for either the localish beef killin and butcherin outfits, nor for the tamale ladies.
          ive studied up the best i can my own eventual doins, out here..and it appears that i can sell just about anything i produce “On Farm”.
          ill hedge and offer lunch for tips,lol.
          cuz i aint gon be code.
          clean, but not code.

          1. amfortas the hippie

            IOW, i know all about how to not get people sick with my cookin….even the way i do now, essentially outside to the elements.
            (not that hard, if one is cognizant of the temps and procedures and such…and especially the science of food safety)
            the regs are there to force the unscrupulous to abide by minimum standards, becasue they (aside from having no scruples/moral sense) need to be forced to do so.
            ive known many, many foodservice owner types who fit that bill,lol.
            i am not to be counted among them, however.
            i’d take it as a moral and personal failing if i made someone sick.
            and move immediately to make amends.
            i note that theres not a box to check on the foodservice forms for that,lol.

  12. Es s Ce Tera

    re: Wow, this watch is thinner than a credit card

    Anyone else notice this watch is visibly NOT thinner than a credit card? What kind of person says things that contradict their own eyes and also shows a video contradicting their own claim, even while making the claim? Weird.

    2. Wukchumni

      p.s.

      Often spokespersons for Rolex are ballerinas or professional tennis players, and aside from a 3 minute limit on potty breaks between volleys… neither pursuit is timed, and even when things are timed, you don’t see a lot of interior linemen, baseball (not timed) or basketball players wearing watches, and why bother in hockey when your wrists are all covered up.

      F-1 drivers seem to be a natural for spokesmen of high end Swiss watches in timed races, but it isn’t as if they ever look at theirs when en route in a race.

      NASCAR? …not so much

      I’ve never worn a watch and can typically be within 30 minutes of knowing what time it is by watching the sky, just how they did it in the old days hundreds of years ago.

      That is not to say I don’t have clocks around me in the car, phone and laptop, all as thin as an after dinner mint,

      1. JBird4049

        I used to wear watches all the time, and if I could afford a decent replacement mechanical wristwatch, I would still be wearing one. A good watch will lasts decades longer than any cellphone, is repairable, and is a good fashion accessory. I don’t see what the need is for this $400k gismo that is likely to break if you sneeze on it too hard.

        1. Laura in So Cal

          My Gen Z son is wearing his grandfathers’ watches. Not expensive watches either. He wore my father-in-laws timex with a new watch band and battery ($40) for 5 years until it had an accident and couldn’t be repaired. Now it’s my Dad’s old seiko (another $40) which I expect to last quite a while.

        2. eg

          I did too (nothing fancy or heirloom) from the time I was a teen in the’70s but carrying a cellphone around all day in my jacket pocket basically killed the utility of it, and I certainly couldn’t imagine wearing one as a vanity item.

      2. eg

        My wife is very good at guessing the time of day. I wonder if its connected in any way to her difficulties with seasonal affective disorder?

        1. JBird4049

          My mood is in some way controlled by the length of the day, which makes me very aware of the sun and the changes in when it rises and sets.

    3. John Wright

      And the posting lists 1.7mm thickness for the watch and a simple search has the credit card thickness of 0.76mm.

      Almost a mm thicker.

      Still a good watch accomplishment.

    4. cousinAdam

      As a lifelong ‘fixit’ and erstwhile VW/Porsche engine builder, the idea of a credit card that is 1.7mm thick boggles my mind. RUFKM?

    5. cfraenkel

      Most likely explanation: “thinner than a credit card” was one of the marketing features in the design spec, they based their whole campaign on the idea, and no one bothered (or cared, or even knew how to…) to check that the final product met the spec.

  13. Red Snapper

    Labour costs across Europe: Where are they highest and lowest? Euro News

    By pure coincidence, it also resembles the order they will be thrown against the Russian wall.

    1. Ignacio

      Rather than “labor costs” i would label that as a “wage repression index”. Hard it was in Mediterranean countries after the 2008 crisis. According to this paper: State-led wage devaluation in Southern Europe in the wake of the Eurozone crisis. The countries were the State has more control tools (and there is less collective negotiation) were the ones which managed better wage suppression. As asked by the ECB: The pivotal role of the ECB in maintaining borrowing costs at a sustainable level means that it can also credibly impose domestic reforms to the countries it bails out (such as Greece, Portugal and Ireland), or buys bonds from (such as Italy or Spain).
      Yet i greatly disagree with your commentary which reflects little knowledge about these countries if any. So far might these sent, if any, might be soldiers from Guyana for France and who knows (Birmingham UK?), Denmark and a few from few Baltic sates. Bulgaria, with the lowest wages, will very unlikely send there any soldier to die for Z.

      1. Red Snapper

        Disagreeing is fine, not getting the point also, acting like an ass not so much. But hey, what do I know.

  14. Steve H.

    > Collections: Why Celebrimbor Fell but Boromir Conquered: the Moral Universe of Tolkien [Bret Devereaux

    >> In short, the historian tries to, in a way, inhabit the worldview of people long gone and to communicate those values and assumptions to a modern audience. One of the ways we do that is reading the things those past people wrote carefully for exactly that: values, morals, assumptions about the world, mentalités as the Annales school would phrase it or Weltanschauung (‘worldview’) as German would express it.

    >> So we’re going to do a bit of that with Tolkien, looking at the way his legendarium treats sin and redemption, through the lens of two ambiguous characters: Celebrimbor and Boromir.

    acoup.blog/2025/04/18/collections-why-celebrimbor-fell-and-boromir-conquered-the-moral-universe-of-tolkien/

  15. Es s Ce Tera

    re: Medical Journals Get Letters From DOJ

    If they’re asking medical journals about diversity of viewpoints, they must not understand the concept of peer review and its role in scientific inquiry.

    Did nobody at the DOJ take a science elective, or a science-related class in high school?

    Or perhaps they did, and this is precisely what they wish to attack?

    1. The Rev Kev

      The whole thing sounds sinister and it is like that they are being told to prove a negative. And just what the hell is “competing viewpoints” supposed to mean anyway? Stuff that originated out of the Great Barrington declaration? Papers trying to prove that masks are dangerous? This sounds like the Trump regime trying to put their thumb down of the articles published by medical journals and I am not sure whether it has to do with Covid or the next coming pandemic. The fact that they are doing it indicates the importance the Trump White House assigns to scientific papers and how to control them for their own political purposes. Maybe the ultimate aim is to have those medical journals eventually send the White House a copy of every paper that they want to publish for some kind of vetting before they can publish it.

      1. aleph_0

        I’m excited to hear that the Trump admin is asking for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

      2. steppenwolf fetchit

        It also has to do with the Totalitarian Prime Directive of controlling all expression and practice of thought to assert Full Spectrum Dominance over all persons and institutions in society. The Dominance is the point.

      3. vao

        Time to figure out what are the serious journals edited in China, Russia, or Europe, and in which the results of scientific research can be published without the crazies in the USA censoring their preferred topics.

    2. griffen

      Been a real long while since I ventured out into the ZH territory but the article was linked so it’s all good. Grifting pays really well, who would ever know it.

      Post Grad ( okay it’s a JD ) of Yale Law which I was completely not aware, so that information was useful. When I think about Yale Law, I’m reminded of Vincent “Vinny” Gambini seeing the Yale Degree behind the presiding Judge in the court case to defend the “youts” against the charges related to a murder those youths did not commit. Oh, and him eating grits …

  17. The Rev Kev

    “US Inching Towards a Deal With Iran”

    You wonder if Trump will involve himself using his amazing negotiating skills by him adding additional conditions like Iran disarming itself and giving them two weeks to reply or else he will unleash hell on earth. Just to get better terms for himself and squeeze any conditions that he can out of them even if it jeopardizes the deal itself. But if he backs up a bit, then he will have a deal that he can claim as a victory – providing that he can get it ratified. Of course Israel is spitting chips about the whole thing and is saying that they may do a “limited strike” on Iran nuclear facilities with just a little bit of American help because they can’t do it themselves. Anything to blow up any deal and to also get America into a shooting war with Iran on Israel’s behalf.

    Rumour has it that before he left, the Iranians gifted Steve Witkoff a hat-rack with several hooks made out of gold. They explained to him that the first hook is for his Iran hat, the second for his Russia/Ukraine hat, the third for his Hamas/Israel hat plus a few more spare ones for future assignments.

    1. ilsm

      US sent a B -2 out of Diego Garcia where the 6 aircraft sit in tents so the rain doesn’t ruin the skin to drop a 30,000 pounder on a missile tunnel. No joy!

      Imagine losing the few B-2s that can fly, for no joy.

      They may take out some assets hidden in residential building.

      I do think that Israeli nukes has deterred Iran .

      Bibi is not Truman, more worrying,

      1. The Rev Kev

        ‘They may take out some assets hidden in residential building.’

        Or as Israel calls them, Hamas barracks.

          1. AG

            In fact Hamas is a legitimate organisation.
            They neglect that all along.
            I don´t know if there is anyone left making this clear.
            Insane.
            This “terrorism” bullshit has by now taken control of communication at large. They control the vocabulary and thus they control thought.

  18. Carolinian

    Re Fox News, Sam’s Club and “AI” scanning–admittedly Fox News is to news as Fox watcher Trump is to being president but is there anything “ai” about scanning a shopping basket full of products as you leave without a checkout? If any operation involving computers becomes “ai” then the term becomes meaningless.

    And Walmart’s old dream of putting RFID chips on all their merch (to deter shoplifting) is hardly new. The last time it was proposed the Big Brother privacy implications of total surveillance were denounced but perhaps we are way past that now. Ironically when Bezos trialed his “just walk out” stores it was revealed that his “ai” consisted of legions of Indian workers watching cameras from far away.

    2. Jason Boxman

      Yeah, that’s pretty funny that Amazon already did this and it was Powered By Indians ™ and now somehow Sam’s Club is gonna nail it?

      Ha ha.

      Doubtful.

    1. Ignacio

      It looks pretty much what you say. Unless there is any rare caracal-like feline hidden in some unknown desert it must be a caracal lynx.

  20. Carolinian

    This, from the infrequently posting Andrew Cockburn, may be important: the secret emergency action documents that nobody knows about and few talk about.

    https://spoilsofwar.substack.com/p/trump-is-opening-the-enemies-briefcase

    And it’s a bipartisan thing of course because a move to defang this unconstitutional law was not supported by Pelosi and the Dems. As with so much of what Trump does–now but also the Hillary like election denial of Jan 6–his mentality seems to be backtoya to his perceived enemies. This knee jerk tendency is then hijacked by dubious advisers (i.e. Pompeo) who seek to weaponize it.

  22. Tom Stone

    On my drive to a grocery store this morning I noticed several hundred people lined up to enter a Cannabis dispensary almost an hour before it opens.
    WTF?
    Then I remembered that It’s 4/20, Hitler’s birthday.

  23. ciroc

    >Drug Enforcement Leads To Increases In Violence, Report Published By UK Government Concludes

    “Prohibition makes the illicit drug trade very profitable and therefore attractive to criminal organizations, who will compete with each other for access to the illicit drug market.”

    Friedman wasn’t right about everything, but he was right about drugs.

  24. Ken Murphy

    For those who choose to celebrate 4/20 Day, I wish you a euphoric one.

    Here’s my own personal theory on where the 4/20 comes from. It relates to the scientific term for the primary (but not only) psychoactive substance 1-delta-9-tetrahydrocannibinol.
    Tetra is of course Greek for…four.
    Hydro refers to water, a/k/a H2O.
    Put those together and you have 4h20.
    Voila! Sure it’s overthinking things, but that’s part of what happens when you set your mind free to wander.
    I’m going to go celebrate by getting out in nature and doing some rollerblading along the Riverfront.

    1. joe murphy

      References to rollerblading and skiing today!
      Two of my favorite things.
      Happy Easter to all!

  25. Jason Boxman

    The Trade Adviser Who Hates Trade (NY Times via archive.ph)

    Once sidelined, President Trump’s counselor Peter Navarro has returned to Washington and quickly upended the global trading system.

    This guy

    On a clear day last July in Miami, Peter Navarro emerged from four months in federal prison, where he’d been imprisoned for contempt of Congress. Mr. Navarro had refused to testify in an investigation of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, an action he described as a defense of the Constitution.

    Just hours after his release from prison, Mr. Navarro flew to Milwaukee to speak at the Republican National Convention in support of Donald J. Trump’s re-election.

    “They convicted me, they jailed me. Guess what? They did not break me,” he said that night, punctuating each word as the crowd roared. It was an exercise in loyalty to Mr. Trump that seems to have paid off.

    1. nyleta

      Really quite Elizabethan situation is it not. Members of the court being released from the Tower, at least he didn’t have his ears cropped or his hand cut off. I expect the granting of monopolies to make a comeback soon. The domestic legal framework against them is mostly based on common law but Mr Trump has influence with the judiciary. Even if this is too hard monopolies about foreign trade or space seem possible.

      1. eg

        Maybe they will also pull a repeat of the seizure of the monasteries via a seizure of the legacy endowments of the universities they so despise?

  26. The Archivist

    This very well may make your Day (or week, or year)

    A most powerful(and deserved) repudiation of gaslighting Archcriminal Elliott Abrams, who was most curiously granted some “breathing room” during the interview, via a “technical glitch” that removed Dr Victor Gao – Vice President of the Center for China and Globalization.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA9pTqZ3NYU

  27. AG

    re: Trump vs. students and Gaza

    DROPSITENEWS

    By Weaponizing Arrest Records and Suspending Due Process, the Trump Administration Has Targeted Over 1,000 Foreign Students

    Facing sweeping deportation threats, international students and recent graduates—who have had their visas revoked or status terminated—speak out about living in fear and confusion.

    by Meghnad Bose
    Apr 19, 2025

    https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/deportation-students-ice-dhs-visas

    1. vao

      Gaza is now largely annihilated. The Palestinians there will not be able to bounce back and re-establish any kind of reasonable living conditions in the foreseeable future, even if the devastation and slaughter stopped right away.

      Meanwhile, as this article in Harpers Magazine shows, the Israelis are proceeding in a very similar fashion in the West Bank, relentlessly breaking the Palestinians physically and morally. Tulkarem and Jenin are gone, reduced to rubble, just like swathes of Gaza.

      For a very long time, there have been discussions about the feasibility, utility, and impact of non-violent resistance to a regime of oppression, with the assessment propagated in the mainstream being that it is generally more effective than violent resistance. As reported in the aforementioned article, the Palestinians in the West Bank have now concluded after decades of protests and opposition that non-violence is pointless when facing colonialists hell-bent on carrying out a genocide and an “international community” that scoffs at every law and principle supposed to prevent such a crime.

  28. Jason Boxman

    Hi COVID, is that you?

    When They Don’t Recognize You Anymore (NY Times via archive.ph)

    People with dementia often forget even close family members as the disease advances. “It can throw people into an existential crisis,” one expert said.

    No mention, of course, that SARS2 infects the brain, that it can lead to cognitive impairment, and accelerates dementia in seniors.

    This timeline is so lit.

  30. AG

    quick note by Taibbi on Harvard:

    “(…)
    Harvard has become a giant tax-exempt hedge fund disguised as an educational status symbol. The ease with which it makes money has allowed it (and other schools) to drift from its academic mission. Trump’s threats might not be the ideal way to get there, but everyone would benefit from the school spending some time in the financial wilderness.

    The school is a de facto business that earns billions with near-zero market exposure, thanks to bottomless subsidies and technical non-profit status. It can offer customers endless government-backed financing for tuition while keeping as a side business a monstrous tax-exempt hedge fund, donations to which are also deductible.
    (…)”

    Some critical reader discussion:
    https://substack.com/@taibbi/note/c-110324939

    1. Terry Flynn

      Who was the last major political figure to meet him? Oh yeah……

      Sorry for the snark, the guy seemed to be one of the better popes in terms of at least trying to follow the “be nice” bits of Jesus’s teachings. However, as a heavily lapsed Catholic I still didn’t adhere to the “lesser evil” thing by having someone like him in the Vatican compared to the shedload of frankly scary cardinals who could have followed Benedict.

    2. duckies

      Popes are like US presidents. They are praised by the faithful for being the lesser evil, and no one would have noticed that they change at all if it weren’t for the news banging on about it. Orange smoke coming from the White House chimney, same as the white smoke, and brown smoke.

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