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Links 4/30/2025

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The Feral Cats of Disneyland Who Officially Keep the ‘Happiest Place on Earth’ Free of Unwanted Pests Laughing Squid

Researchers are investing in a record-breaking collection of urine on Walpurgis Day Goteborgs-Posten via machine translation. Micael T: “At least when I was a young student some 30 years ago, you couldn’t find one single sober student this day. All of them were out in the parks getting drunk.”

Scientists Found The ‘Lid’ Keeping The Yellowstone Supervolcano From Erupting ScienceAlert (Chuck L)

Scientists Bioprint Living Tissues That Could Revolutionize Diabetes Treatment SciTech Daily (Chuck L)

Rattlesnake venom evolves and adapts to specific prey, study finds Guardian (resilc)

Scientists just added chicken to the ever-growing list of foods that will kill you BoingBoing

Why Have Sentence Lengths Decreased? LessWrong (Micael T)

#COVID-19/Pandemics

Enhancing the response to avian influenza in the US and globally Lancet Regional Health

Climate/Economy

Antarctica’s Astonishing Rebound: Ice Sheet Grows for the First Time in Decades SciTech Daily (Chuck L)

Blair says current net zero policies ‘doomed to fail’ BBC (Kevin W)

Ice all but disappeared from this Alaskan island. It changed everything. Washington Post

China?

China manufacturing PMI shrinks more than expected in April as US trade war bites Investing

LNG companies say they cannot comply with Trump rules on Chinese ships Financial Times

Koreas

‘A national crisis’: Suicide deaths rising among middle-aged Korean men amid economic woes. Korea JoongAng Daily

India-Pakistan

Pakistan warns of possible Indian strike within next 24-36 hours, citing ‘credible intelligence’ Anadolu Agency

Panic in Pakistan as India vows to cut off water supply over Kashmir Reuters

Why a Pakistan-India war would be a Chinese vs Western arms proving ground South China Morning Post

O Canada

Canada’s Liberals Win in a Repudiation of Trump Daniel Larison. Trump achieved the seemingly impossible task of rescuing the Liberals from the jaws of defeat.

Mark Carney’s house of cards UnHerd

South of the Border

The US Water War With Mexico Is Just Starting Bloomberg

Argentina publishes files on notorious Nazi fugitives RT (Robin K)

European Disunion

When Wadephul comes, we will sorely miss Baerbock Anti-Spiegel via machine translation (Micael T)

No train will come: new Wendlingen-Ulm line is simply too steep Nachdenkseiten via machine translation (Micael T)

Old Blighty

Trump ‘makes trade deal with UK second-order priority’ in blow to ministers Guardian (Kevin W)

Israel v. The Resistance

‘It would be easier to die in an airstrike than die of hunger’: Gazans face famine as UN runs out of food Mondoweiss (guurst)

Smotrich: Israel Will Stop Fighting Once ‘Hundreds of Thousands’ of Palestinians Are Removed from Gaza Antiwar (Kevin W)

Interesting that Smotrich was so easily baited:

$60 Million US Navy Jet Falls Off Aircraft Carrier/LT Col Daniel Davis YouTube

Evasive Maneuvers William Schreyer

US aircraft carrier to leave after intense Yemeni strikes: Report PressTV

UK launches Yemen airstrikes, joining intense US campaign against Houthi rebels Guardian

Report: Major explosion at defense facility in Iran IsraelHayom (Kevin W)

Is the Purpose of Israel to Destroy International Law? Sam Husseini

New Not-So-Cold War

Britain’s coalition of the willing decides that it’s unwilling Ian Proud

New entirely Russian-made airliner makes successful test flight RT (Robin K)

Imperial Collapse Watch

War is the Health of the State (1918) Randolph Bourne (DLG)

Global military spending hits record $2.7 trillion in 2024, sharpest rise since Cold War France24

Anti-Imperialists Really Need to Start Paying Attention to Ibrahim Traoré BettBeat

As global players focus on the Arctic, US icebreakers are scarce Asia Times (Kevin W)

Trump 2.0

DOGE employees gain accounts on classified networks holding nuclear secrets NPR

Trump executive order: Truck drivers must speak English Overdrive

Trump is on his way to losing Iowa Art Cullen (Robin K)

Trump Recasts Mission of Justice Dept.’s Civil Rights Office, Prompting ‘Exodus’ New York Times (Robin K)

Maga’s sinister obsession with IQ is leading us towards an inhuman future Guardian (Kevin W)

The white Afrikaners lining up to accept Trump’s offer of asylum Guardian (resilc)

Hegseth ‘proud’ to end Women, Peace and Security program The Hill

Tariffs

Mind you, it would be hard to for Amazon this accurately given that many products would be subject to multiple tariffs across their manufacturing process (as in not cheap to do it in a way that would not be subject to criticism), so I doubt this was more than an idle thought. But I wonder if this was a Trump messaging gambit to discourage manufacturers and retailers with narrower product lines to provide this information:

Amazon has no choice but to display tariffs on prices now The Verge (Kevin W)

Trump to Grant Carmakers Some Relief From His Punishing Tariffs New York Times

Only Teslas Exempt from New Auto Tariffs Thanks to 85% Domestic Content Rule Fuel Arc. Paul R:

Several Tesla models are above 85%, nearest competitor is Ford Mustang GT AT at 80%. “You probably can’t tell, but I have an eyebrow raised over here, it’s been stuck that way since these exemptions were announced. While domestic content rules sound neutral on paper, the real-world effect of this policy is to carve out an exemption that only Tesla benefits from today.”

DOGE

UPS cutting 20,000 jobs, closing 73 buildings in 2025 Des Moines Register (Robin K)

DOGE aide dismantling CFPB owns stock in companies that could benefit from cuts ProPublica

Democrat Death Wish

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’: Ranking Dems in Trump’s First 100 Days Zeteo

Our No Longer Free Press

Lawsuit over newspaper’s 2024 presidential poll moves to federal court Iowa Capital Dispatch (Robin K)

Antitrust

House GOP Proposes Eliminating Key Antitrust Law Matt Stoller

AI

The Age of Realtime Deepfake Fraud Is Here 404Media

The Bezzle

Private Credit’s Cracks Widened Before Turmoil Bloomberg

Windows isn’t an OS, it’s a bad habit that wants to become an addiction The Register (Kevin W)

Class Warfare

Starbucks boss plans more baristas and less tech BBC

Bribe takers sorted by “income” Kommersant via machine translation (Micael T)

Antidote du jour (via):

And a bonus:

A second bonus:

A third bonus (Robin K):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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142 comments

  1. Antifa

    Life In A Struggling Nation
    (melody borrowed from Just My Imagination written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, and performed by The Temptations in 1971)

    (ooooohhh)

    We’re living in limbo as all of our bills go sky high
    No food on the shelf—I don’t know how we’ll get by
    We can’t afford diapers except in the food bank queue
    But we’re raising up our little girl—so whatcha gonna do?

    Tryin’ to live under Trump’s inflation, struggling constantly
    Living life in a struggling nation is pure monotony

    (Ooh) Hope’s dead and buried we live so modestly (whoa yeah)
    We skip meals even though we are hungry, that’s how things have to be
    Trump’s tellin’ lies bouncin’ right off the wall
    His insane tariff scheme has ruined all our dreams

    Tryin’ to live under Trump’s inflation, broke again, struggling constantly
    Living life in a struggling nation is pure monotony

    Sun comes up on another day—two jobs wait for me
    An hourly wage means I am never breaking free until the day I die
    At seventeen my father came and told me this world is all a travesty
    Don’t trust in guarantees, it’s all made of baloney

    Struggling with inflation, broke again, struggling constantly
    But that’s life in a struggling nation, that’s how it has to be
    (Just a debtor, how can I do better?)

    Donald Trump’s inflation (Ooh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
    Struggling constantly
    It’s just life in a struggling nation . . .

    Reply ↓
  2. Wukchumni

    Goooooooood Mooooorning Fiatnam!

    It was the best of times for sum, the worst of times for some…

    …we had to destroy capitalism in order to save a few Illionaires, a fair trade-it was a greed that couldn’t be satiated, all they wanted was more

    Reply ↓
  3. The Rev Kev

    “The Feral Cats of Disneyland Who Officially Keep the ‘Happiest Place on Earth’ Free of Unwanted Pests”

    ‘These cats are official employees of the park as they are paid in food and water to work at night.’

    Disney being Disney, they once tried to eliminate providing free food and water for those cats to save on costs but the cats refused to work forcing Disney to restore them. Mickey M. no longer feeling safe to walk in Disneyland of a night.

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni

      Must have seen 1,000 free range dogs here in Peru, they are literally everywhere, although I’m sitting on but 1 cat sighting…

      Ah, the goings on in Mousewitz, er Disneyland!

      Reply ↓
    2. Rabbit

      I used to have squirrels and rabbits until the cat lady moved in and started feeding ferals. They no doubt have severely punished the wildlife around Disney.
      There’s also that brain eating cat crap fever that causes people to ride motorcycles fast and throw themselves off of cliffs. Supposedly kills a million people a year.
      In the US, cats and dogs are sacred animals. God help you if you get caught eating a dog. Nothing eats cats.

      Reply ↓
      1. amfortas the hippie

        ahem.
        chickens eat cats when theyre dead.
        especially when the maggots bloom.
        waste not, and all.

        as top predator, it was my(and cousins) responsibility to thin the bar cat herd..maybe around 40.
        bullets/shells favored males…especially the big males who had wandered in from elsewhere and started this mess.
        now i’m down to around 15…with still a few males to cull…and several more young males that i like and hope to catch and get fixed.
        in future, policy is to dispatch those big wandering males as soon as i see them.
        big cat fight? dispatch them both.
        chickens dont care either way.
        theyd eat me if i lay there still enough.

        Reply ↓
  4. Terry Flynn

    Re truckers and English. Why? Every single one will be unemployed in 3-4 weeks when all the major US stores have run down their inventories and pandemonium breaks out.

    Toilet paper wars: the sequel. Bigger and with more explosions!

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      The way things are going, maybe they won’t need so many truck drivers going forward as there will be nothing for them to transport coming from the Celestial Kingdom.

      Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        UPS laying off 20,000 is your sign that the Car Go Cult’s warehouses arent all that dissimilar to Melanesian efforts.

        Reply ↓
          1. amfortas the hippie

            given that i have only one neighbor at the end of the road past my place…but i havent seen a UPS truck…let alone that hot little ups driver i wanted to cook lunch for…in months.
            regular appearances of fedex, tho.
            (big black dude that i stood in the road so i could scold him for driving so fast…he apologised profusely…obviously leery of being way out here…and obviously a city guy,lol. asked what those birds were(guinneas)…and laughed when i told him they all dark meat and make the absolute best chix and dumplins.
            he waves all the time, now…and goes slow)

            Reply ↓
  6. The Rev Kev

    ‘non aesthetic things
    @PicturesFoIder
    A toilet designed for proper pooping posture’

    Yep. I can see really old people lining up and around the block to buy one of those. It’ll be great for them. A coupla years ago I broke an ankle and had to use a pair of crutches for a coupla weeks. I can just see a person using crutches trying to use one of those dunnies now. For a proper pooping posture, maybe have one of those old style French ones which look like a shower basin with two steps, making squatting mandatory.

    Reply ↓
    1. Bugs

      I love that those WCs are called French style by anglophones and the French call them Turkish toilets. Like “taking French leave” in French is filer à l’anglaise. But that comes from Dunkirk lol

      Reply ↓
      1. anahuna

        Around the turn of this century, while standing in line for one of those in not-yet Turkiye, I was startled to see a flash of light from under its door. It turned out that a fellow American tourist was photographing the two-foot basin to show her family at home a feature of the culture.

        Reply ↓
        2. Jabura Basadai

          when i was in Pakistan and visiting an acquaintance it was a hole in the tiled floor that you stooped over – there were tiles where you placed your feet that were ribbed to give you purchase while pooping – the hotels had regular toilets –

          Reply ↓
    3. Geode

      For a proper pooping posture, maybe have one of those old style French ones which look like a shower basin with two steps, making squatting mandatory.

      When I was at the university, a long time ago, a friend of mine went to Egypt as part of some student exchange program. According to him, he was in the dormitory where they were both shower basin and toilet. :)

      Reply ↓
  7. JohnA

    Re Researchers are investing in a record-breaking collection of urine on Walpurgis Day

    Ha, my memories of 30 April mostly consist of getting as close to the bonfire as possible due to the freezing cold and then desperate to get back home into proper warmth. Less a celebration, more a sense of duty to wave goodbye to winter that as yet had definitely not played its final cards.

    Reply ↓
    1. Polar Socialist

      An odd thing happened to me today; I happen to live in a Nordic city, and traffic today was horrible with all the drunken students blocking streets after four o’clock, which is kinda normal for Walburgis and really, really annoying (I’m a native in this city and never did that, not even when studying), the odd thing was that the National Broadcasting Company had multiple programs on about May 1st being also a Labor Day (well, not in the US, but in the rest of the world), about the class struggle and even many songs from the original revolutionary era (1910’s) and the revitalized Boomer versions from the early 1970’s.

      Some even performed by the artists I listened back in the 70’s. Got me and Mrs. Socialist all moody, remembering the mass events of the 70’s and talking about the new rising class awareness.Maybe it’s just clutching at straws, but it felt good for a while…

      Reply ↓
  8. Anon

    Great links–love the Medea Benjamin clip. With regard to the “Extreme Temperatures from Around the World ” twitter account, I have a family member in Almaty, Kazakhstan and she says there is no heat wave being reported in Kazakhstan. for what it’s worth, she ran a search on Russian language news sites (she speaks Russian, Russian is the common language spoken there, though the majority also speaks Kazakh) there and there is nothing about extreme heat. Yesterday she says was in the low 80s, today in the low 70s. The Kazakh steppe is in the north of Kazakhstan and several of the cities (including Almaty) listed in the ‘extreme heat’ tweet are quite far away, in the south . I say this only because the tweet suggests the entire country is on the steppe. This is actually the second time I asked her about ‘extreme heat’ reports about Kazakhstan in the west, to have her tell me the temps there were normal for the season.

    Reply ↓
    1. CanCyn

      It was 78 here in eastern Ontario yesterday. Today it is down to just above freezing. Normal average temps for this time of year are around 55. The temperature swings are really something – and as with COVID, nobody talks about it. They’re happy when it is warm and they complain when it is cold. If I point out that something is unusual, people look at me like I have 3 heads. I really am starting to wonder when the facade of denial will break and what will happen when it does,

      Reply ↓
      1. Terry Flynn

        UK has had totally weird April. The monthly mean will probably look like the typical April (chilly, and April is frequently the most annoying month for general glumness in the weather) but try looking at the day/night 2025 April variance. It’s MASSIVE.

        I know we Brits famously talk about the weather a lot but I overhear bus-drivers in centre together ready for shift changes all really annoyed that corporate policy on whether they must wear their gilets or sweaters etc are inappropriate. Night-time temperatures are really low….zero Celsius here in Midlands earlier in month and nights are still really cold. Daytime is another story. No rain and it’s getting to 25+ Celsius in afternoons. Every day. We’ve had absurdly warm afternoons all month.

        You can’t even say this is “summer” because heatwaves in UK are not accompanied by really cold nights. This is climate weirdness. I won’t say climate change because that term is so misused but “weather” has a lot of work to do to explain what’s been going on here for pretty much all of 2025 so far. We’ve been using a space heater in the room the cat is confined to at night so she doesn’t freeze. We’re having to mess with the central heating continually.

        Reply ↓
        1. Wukchumni

          It snowed in the Sierra the other day, most unusual.

          The freaky weather is on account of Hunga Tonga, with an assist from climate change

          Reply ↓
        2. amfortas the hippie

          here in nw texas hill country, we had a freeze around easter.
          and its been raining almost every night(ive logged 9+” since it started).
          but its also been hot since that freeze.
          90F right now.
          with the super high winds and dust storms in march, its been a strange spring.
          more rain over next week expected, and rather extreme temp swings between dusk and dawn.
          i note that im doing more laundry than usual for this time of year…ie: i usually have no laundry this time of year, because im naked, or nearly so.
          but all my warmups and sweaters and stuff are still not put away.

          Reply ↓
          1. Terry Flynn

            This reminds me of why I loved living near Sydney harbour for 6 years…. little laundry as when home I wore nothing.

            Reply ↓
    2. Anon

      Correction, people in Kazakhstan do call the region in the south ‘the steppe,’ colloquially, though it’s actually semi arid desert. Certainly didn’t mean to question climate change as a whole,but it is weird to text your relative and ask, Is there a massive heatwave there? and have her reply that there is not. Purely anecdotal.

      Reply ↓
  9. upstater

    Corporate welfare, CHIPS Act edition… Micron is getting $10B in various NY State and federal grants to build a dram chip plant north of Syracuse. It will consume as much electricity as the entire region (500MW) and double water supply and treatment demands. Obviously existing commercial and residential customers subsidize much of the former with higher rates. It appears county taxpayers and water customers will eat much of the latter if the state and feds don’t ante up.

    OCWA launches biggest upgrade ever to double water supply for Micron-spurred growth. Who will pay? Syracuse.com archive

    The agency expects the expansion to cost about $549 million for the first phase of the Micron project — that is, for the first two chipmaking factories, called fabs. Half of that money would pay for the second pipeline from Lake Ontario.

    Now, OCWA draws the majority of its water through one main pipe from Lake Ontario and a smaller portion from Otisco Lake. On average, the system provides up to 36 million gallons a day to residents of parts of five counties.

    The expansion would more than double the amount of water OCWA can provide on a typical day — to 72 million gallons a day. Micron would soak up much of that: At full build-out, the chipmaking complex could use more water than all of OCWA’s 350,000 current customers combined.

    Treatment of waste water is a big deal, also. Micron hasn’t divulged what the witch’s brew effluent contains because the chemicals are a trade secret. These poisons will eventually end up in Lake Ontario (50 years after the Clean Water Act, fish from the lake can be eaten only once a month!). Effluent gets dumped in Onondaga Lake (from namesake native people) was the single most polluted Lake in the US; remediation cost almost a billion and was dredging and covering the lake bottom. 75 pounds of mercury was dumped in the lake every day for nearly a century.

    They’ve learned nothing and forgotten nothing.

    Reply ↓
  10. The Rev Kev

    “LNG companies say they cannot comply with Trump rules on Chinese ships”

    I read some time ago that building an LNG tanker is not like building a WW2-style Liberty ship but requires a high level of expertise and experience. Sort of like the same problem in building ice-breakers. But a major drag is that there is no capacity in US ship yards to churn out a fleet of these things like Trump wants. They are right now hard pressed having the ship-builders needed to work on US Navy ships & subs. Maybe Trump & Co. think that a whole bunch of billionaires will jump into the breach and revitalizes ideal ship-building yards and train workers but with the daily instability of the government in DC, I don’t blame them being lurky about investing any money as who knows what the situation will be next month much less next year.

    Reply ↓
    1. scott s.

      Now that Korean shipbuilder Hanwha has taken over the old Philly Naval Yard (which once was a major new-build yard for the USN) we will have to see how that goes. Our local (Hawaii) shipper Matson has ordered a couple of LNG-fueled container ships for the Jones Act trade here.

      Reply ↓
  11. Christopher Smith

    Re: Scientists just added chicken to the ever-growing list of foods that will kill you

    Another day, another article trying to suck the joy out of living. (Ice cubes drizzled with olive oil for dinner, indeed!) Maybe the chicken lobby can pay RFK Jr. to say that chicken is bad so that Democrat schizmogenesis drives up sales.

    Reply ↓
    1. Geo

      The opening paragraph is great: “Fish will give you mercury poisoning, beef and pork clogs your arteries, bacon is an instant heart attack, tofu is an endocrine disruptor, and beans will make you a flatulent persona non grata. That pretty much leaves chicken as your only protein option. And now, the scientists say chicken will kill you too.”

      Personally, since everything is bad for me I’m just going to stick to the essentials with a strict diet of caffeine and nicotine.

      Later in the article it does clarify better though: “Nutritionist Shelley Loving suggests it might not be the chicken itself but how we’re cooking it. Apparently, we’re using the wrong oil. Skip the vegetable oil and spring for avocado or coconut oil instead.” Good thing coconuts and avocado are plentiful in the US and won’t be subject to tariffs.

      Reply ↓
          1. ambrit

            I sense a business opportunity here.
            A Twelve Cup Coffee Recovery program. Caffeine Anonymous anybody?
            You’ll get my tea cup only when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers!
            Me: “Hi. My name is ambrit and I have a problem….”
            Group: “Hi ambrit. Cream and sugar?”

            Reply ↓
        2. doug

          I would like to recommend a good article on the coffee plant and climate change in the april may issue of Smithsonian.

          Reply ↓
      2. t

        Yeah, annoying. Roast chicken or grilled chicken, my primary forms of chicken, don’t involve a lot oils. Just a bit of butter and drippings.

        And breaded fried chicken often comes on a bun, with mayo. Or at least with dipping sauce.

        Reply ↓
    2. Socal Rhino

      Reminds me of the following I saw recently:

      Replace your morning coffee with green tea and see an 85% reduction in your risk of experiencing joy in life.

      Reply ↓
  12. The Rev Kev

    “Scientists Found The ‘Lid’ Keeping The Yellowstone Supervolcano From Erupting”

    I must admit to a stray thought of Trump allowing a mining corporation into Yellowstone Park as their geologists discovered that there is lot of valuable minerals to be mined from that cap.

    Reply ↓
    1. jefemt

      Start a horizontal mine shaft at the ski resorts Big Sky, specifically within the guarded compound walls of the Yellowstone Club. Helicopter out the hi-graded prizes- everyone would assume it was just another squillionaire headed down to Belgrade MT to fly out on their little jet….

      Barf-o-rama. Supposedly a ton of oil on the northeast flank of the park proper and the adjacent Beartooth- Absoroka Wilderness. (See John McPhee- Rising form the Plains- what a great read!!!)

      Reply ↓
    2. Geo

      That’d be a quick way to fix global warming. Like hitting a hard restart on earth’s ecosystems resetting it back about a billion years or so.

      Reply ↓
  13. ChrisFromGA

    GDP prints negative for Q1 … it is just a number, and doesn’t show the human toll of suffering due to the Trump administration drowning various good things we had like the CFPB in a bathtub, then throwing in a toaster for the double-tap.

    For those not directly affected, the pain is not here yet, but it could be that Memorial Day is our last hurrah before the Summer of Unobtainium. Get your flat screens now, or else you might have to garbage pick in July, or just suffer with the current model.

    Reply ↓
      1. ChrisFromGA

        That’s some old-school entertainment.

        I remember amusing myself with black and white “Looney Tunes” on Saturday morning. We’d get up early before mom and dad were up. Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd were always a highlight, plus the Road-runner and Wile E. Coyote.

        Donald J Trump … super genius!

        Reply ↓
  14. Lieaibolmmai

    RE: Twelve-Month All-Cause Mortality after Initial COVID-19 Vaccination with Pfizer-BioNTech or mRNA-1273 among Adults Living in Florida

    I am surprised to not find the first comment here of that pre-print article showing the Pfizer shot was killing people. Seems like big news to me. It was possibly killing 240 out of 100,000 people. Drugs get shut down fro much less than that.

    My friends cousin died of a huge pulmonary embolism. Doctor never saw anything like it before. Five shots. ’tis a mystery!

    Reply ↓
    1. Terry Flynn

      As regulars know, I’m non clinical but 25 years in health services research or adjacent fields so I took every vaccine.

      I instantly picked up on a question asked by the Long COVID clinician in my 1.5 hour telephone consultation that got me into the service. COVID vaccine history noting EXACTLY which type I’d had on each occasion. Like most Brits we initially had the “old school type” one for first 2 vaccinations. Then most of us got one of the mRNA ones for boosters. The clinician zeroed in on these. Having been designing questionnaires since 1996 I knew a red flag when I witnessed one.

      So I’m watching developments on this front closely. Unfortunately my reputation precedes me so they won’t tell me why they went down that road. But I’ve noticed.

      Reply ↓
      1. ilsm

        I was in the AztraZeneca trial in the States, autumn 2020. I got the vaccine, not the placebo. I subsequently took the 2 Moderna shots spring 2021. No boosters!

        A couple of weeks ago at my USA medicare paid annual “blood test and talk with a physician’s assistant” when asked about boosters I replied I am chagrined the mRNA are still EUA!

        On a side note at 74 plus I was offered a testicle cancer screen which I declined as well as the shots.

        As to odd deaths since 2021, the number of sudden cardio-vascular deaths among men (all over 50)) in my in-law, cousin, brother circle is concerning.

        IIRC the US Pfizer stage 3 test had one fatality while the control had zero.

        Reply ↓
    2. ChiGal

      what I find odd is that they are touting a significant difference between Moderna and Pfizer when they include nothing about pre-existing conditions among their “carefully matched” variables. surprised this even got to the preprint stage.

      Reply ↓
      1. Terry Flynn

        Unfortunately I’m not surprised after an experience literally 3 hours ago. I know certain people on here are very very against having their medical history shared in any way and I respect that. Personally I share everything – I’m part of a database used to recruit people to trials. People in trials get top notch health care and can get early warning signals about stuff (like one day my knees will be in trouble just like mum).

        My point is that there are enough people who’ve shared the kind of info you refer to so they should know this. It’s odd when it’s not referred to so I’m with you. Incidentally the trial I was invited to be part of (stage 3 so it’s close to finishing line) is for the active ingredient in magic mushrooms. I got rejected due to a comorbidity – ONE THEY KNEW OF so why waste paper or bytes inviting people who are ineligible? Grrr. It’s one I KNOW is irrelevant but I also worked on enough clinical studies “on the other side” so I understand their logic if they for some reason couldn’t access the comorbidity data. Frustrating but that’s life!

        Reply ↓
        1. alrhundi

          That’s interesting they are using psilocybin. I saw some people on Reddit a few years ago discussing that shrooms were helping with their neurological symptoms.

          Reply ↓
          1. Terry Flynn

            Yeah the trial is of three dosages across 8+ countries.

            IMNSHO well designed trial and I’m glad it’s being done.

            Reply ↓
            1. Ann

              I take 125mg of psilocybin every day. It’s easy to get here in Canada. Keeps me from going down that ol’ depression road. Helps with chronic pain, too.

              Reply ↓
    3. Jason Boxman

      The fact that Pfizer and the FDA played hide-the-ball with the data on these when EUA was granted is unhelpful, as this adds more fuel to the “its just a cold” fire, which ensures people get repeat infections while believing the modified RNA shots are the cause of sickness and death and not SARS2 infection itself.

      Really going to be difficult to disambiguate what’s going on now between SARS2 infections and effects of the modified RNA shots. Sigh.

      Power outage now on a beautiful day. Gonna be out for hours, then. Ugh.

      Reply ↓
      1. Yves Smith Post author

        IM Doc, who read the clinical trial data, pointed out that the Pfizer recipients had more deaths than the control group during the short study period (this was not true of J&J). He said any clinical trial he had been involved in would have been shut down immediately until they understood why the death rate was higher and if that implicated the drug (he was on an Institutional Review Board for 15 years).

        Reply ↓
        1. Terry Flynn

          Yeah. Now I think back to consultation they asked a helluva lot about my pre-existing heart condition once they learnt I’d had a Pfizer booster shot. I definitely had a reaction to it. So did mum (from whom I inherited my cardiac issues). Now we make sure we get flu shots but covid? Nope given what’s on offer.

          Reply ↓
    4. Rhabyt

      Despite the comments on Twitter, all that this study is showing is that more people died after getting the Pfizer shot than the Moderna shot. The equation remains that for mortality: Moderna<Pfizer<Unvaccinated. Several other studies have also shown this. The conclusion is not that the Pfizer shot was dangerous (it was massively safer than staying unvaccinated), but that the Pfizer shot was not strong enough. The Moderna shot was shown to create better protections against Covid. All the types of mortality increases seen in this study (Pzifer worse than Moderna) are associated with getting Covid. Although the study says it sees non-Covid mortality differences, these are well within documented under-reporting of Covid deaths (https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2313661121).

      Reply ↓
      1. Terry Flynn

        Yeah but that’s not the point. Firstly it’s not gone through full peer review. Second we already know that a century of protocols re vaccinations were ignored by govs (such as that led by Boris Johnson here in UK) to gain political advantage.

        THIRDLY if you argue for vaccination against a coronavirus then you instantly mark yourself who knows nothing about this group of viruses. Mask. Mask. Mask.

        But heaven forfend we impinge on an American’s rights or those from other “freedom loving” countries. If I’m not too ill I’m thinking seriously about running for office here. It’d be the Mercia party based on Anglo local kingdom…….wanna try arguing that French invaders were better? Farage….hmm….

        Reply ↓
        1. Michaelmas

          Hey Terry —

          Last night I posted in response to your wish to revive discussion on gut microbiome re. autism, but it was well after midnight in the UK so you may have missed it. So here it is again and if you already saw it or already knew, please ignore–

          Two general points, if you didn’t already know them —

          [1] Every American suffers from microbiome dysbiosis. Cause or causes? In large measure — though far from entirely — simply because individuals’ sugar and milk intakes are massively more than humans evolved to process, and because anti-bacterials are everywhere — and we are commensal organisms effectively.

          (Your microbiome is you and that’s a good thing, as it’s hard to see how we’d exist otherwise with a total only about 20,000 genes in contrast to a species like wheat, with over 50,000 genes, for God’s sake)

          [2] A correlation between autism and microbiome dysbiosis is well-established in 2025. But it may be a bit of a chicken-and egg thing. Yes, autistic people seem to particularly suffer microbiome dysbiosis, but also autistic people frequently suffer from ‘leaky guts’ — in other words, they often experience gastrointestinal issues, and research indicates increased intestinal permeability with their gut microbiome leaking out into other physiological areas.

          https://gutpathogens.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13099-021-00448-y
          https://neurolaunch.com/leaky-gut-autism/
          https://healthpath.com/gut-health/autism-and-the-gut-microbiome/

          Reply ↓
          1. Terry Flynnpn

            I did miss it so many thanks.

            Yves has explained to me how “skynet” can rule the roost. Unfortunately I’ve tripped too many tripwires so I’m always put in moderation. I don’t get angry because some people who I’d personally say are better than me are also auto moderated.

            That’s life.

            Reply ↓
            1. flora

              Thanks. TF. To misquote the American 19th C. poet Emily Dickinson’s poem “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” / ;)
              (Emily Dickinson 1830 – 1886)

              I’m In Mod! Who are you?

              Are you –In Mod– too?

              Then there’s a pair of us!

              Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!

              How dreary – to be – Somebody!

              How public – like a Frog –

              To tell one’s name – the livelong June –

              To an admiring Bog!

              Reply ↓
              1. AG

                nice!
                (Funny, still to this day the place where I most learned about Dickinson was in US high school, despite all our misgivings today about the US educational system. However Dickinson was revered by those same students several of whom were pregnant still being minors.)

                Reply ↓
        2. flora

          TF, I agree with almost everything you write. Almost. If people living in the UK and in the old Commonwealth Countries want to mock the US Constitution and its Bill of Rights – 1st Amendment freedom of speech, of the press, of religion, etc (more honored in the breech these days), that’s fine.
          I’m glad the US broke away from the UK back in the day. / ;)

          Reply ↓
          1. Terry Flynn

            Yeah we need some sort of proper constitution here. Starmer was once a star who took down McDonald’s……. now he seems unhinged and Labour MPs are clearly worried

            FFS force through electoral reform…… this might be your last chance

            Reply ↓
      2. Henry D

        The fact that the Moderna shot came with a hidden bonus, the equivalent of a Fauci biological autograph, should make it worth it by itself. Unfortunately/ Fortunately even with the DNA contamination it is unlikely to integrate into your DNA and even then only a few cells making it very difficult to find, so he won’t likely be able to follow the GMO corn precedent and start charging you Royalties.

        Reply ↓
        1. JBird4049

          >>>so he won’t likely be able to follow the GMO corn precedent and start charging you Royalties.

          And I know some corporate types are looking at alterating people with DNA, say something for tetrachromatic color vision and then patenting the people and claiming ownership of them.

          I remember reading an issue of Heavy Metal back in the 80s where a corporation hired a model its advertising, but patented everything that made the woman beautiful: intelligence, personality, looks, everything, which allowed it to remove and replace all the genes that made her so. They wanted to own what she had, not hire what she was. She should have read the fine print.

          Reply ↓
      3. Yves Smith Post author

        IM Doc begs to differ. Via e-mail:

        The problem for this line of reasoning – the one data set we have in fragmentary form clearly shows that the all cause mortality was higher in the vaccinated group. That was from the original Pfizer study group from the 2020 DEC NEJM study. They have never bothered to present any further data on this. Indeed Pfizer and the FDA at the time decided it best to put all their study data under wraps for 75 years if you recall. That is what is known as complete transparency.

        Unfortunately, these studies being discussed now would not have the same kind of strength as that one would have had it been completed correctly. Prospective controlled forward looking studies are always going to give much better answers than retrospective lookbacks like this. Pfizer just did not want to release the data on their prospective trial – I wonder why?

        The Pfizer not being strong enough canard is just laughable – but it is also quite gruesome. If you recall, during the very early days of the rollout – there were Moderna areas and there were Pfizer areas. I was in a Moderna area – I will not go on and on again about all the voluminous problems that occurred – but let’s just say it was enough for the entire area to realize there were big problems.

        Reply ↓
  15. Matthew

    What a bizarre framing given that obviously he does have a choice and is going to do exactly that.

    “Amazon has no choice but to display tariffs on prices now”

    Reply ↓
    2. Yves Smith Post author

      My Abys were too proud to do “cat is broken” stuff. But one had a great trick and he knew it was great.

      I had casement windows, so the wood framed lower pane (pretty large because a very big window in a high-ceilinged room) was inside the outer/upper pane.

      Blake would jump up, grab the top of the lower pane with both front paws, then haul himself up, using his back legs against the pane for a boost.

      He’d perch happily on top of the window frame, as in smack dab in the middle of the window, lording it over the other cat.

      Reply ↓
  17. Carolinian

    Re sentence length.

    The article says the trend toward brevity has been happening for a long time and newspaper influence may be a factor. Here’s suggesting another factor, these days, would be that punctuation can be harder to see on digital screens which range from huge to tiny.

    Personally I find those long Henry James sentences to be an affectation and a pain. Gore Vidal agreed.

    Reply ↓
    1. Terry Flynn

      I now find the artificially short sentence lengths and poor punctuation in article titles to be a real hindrance to me. Quite often I have had to re-read because I realise the title is grossly misleading on first read. There was nuance that had been lost.

      Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t because the author/publisher were doing clickbait. It makes me think sub-editors have cognitive issues since it has become noticeably worse since 2020 and in publications I don’t think would stoop to clickbait.

      Reply ↓
      1. Michaelmas

        Terry Flynn: It makes me think sub-editors have cognitive issues since it has become noticeably worse since 2020 and in publications I don’t think would stoop to clickbait.

        In my experience, copy editors — the US equivalent of sub-editors — frequently put up one sentence at a time on the computer screen and then stare at it without reference to the unit of information, which is the paragraph.

        Quite a few I knew used to smoke pot at work too and were filled with resentment, feeling their education or talents entitled them to better, with a definite element of revenge-taking by screwing up the real journalists’ work occurring from time to time.

        Still, I should confess that the last time I did more than an occasional piece was fifteen years and the pot-smoking (or drinking) wouldn’t have been tolerated many places. My experience is based only on the single time I spent an hour in the copy editing department of a large tech-orientated magazine in San Francisco during the dotcom boom era when I wanted to understand how the people there could screw up copy so frequently.

        And it answered my questions when I watched someone magnify a single sentence on a screen and stare at it for fifteen minutes in a pot-bemused haze, while pretending to be working. That said, every publication, internet-based or old-school dead trees, has its own little culture, as every business does. I’m sure that doesn’t go on everywhere.

        Reply ↓
        1. AG

          This might be a banal question to long-time NCers, but what is the scientific reason that I find errors in a printed version of my text which I overlook on the screen?
          And why is pdf-formatted still better than the .doc on the screen?
          I have been printing out my stuff for this reason since day#1 working on PC.

          Reply ↓
          1. Terry Flynn

            Have also seen this but not sure why. I’m very very wary these days of on screen versions of scientific papers.

            Reply ↓
    2. Geo

      “The English language had deteriorated into a hybrid of hillbilly, valleygirl, inner-city slang and various grunts.” – Idiocracy

      Reply ↓
    3. matt

      When I was taught how to write, I was taught that really long sentences were bad. And if I wrote a sentence as long as the sentence from Stuart Little in a school assignment, it would have been edited out. I dont know the reason why long sentences are so discouraged – probably does have something to do with conciseness of communication when writing an essay as opposed to creative writing, which we just didnt have in school.

      Reply ↓
      1. flora

        Methinks it had to do with high school and freshman college English teachers not wanting to read long sentences in youths’ poorly written, rambling essays. Norman Mailer and Hemingway were famous for their short, to the point, almost blunt sentences which combined to paint the picture.

        If you don’t like long, well written sentences don’t read Gibbon’s Decline and Fall. It was written in a different time, when taking time and slowing down to read what was written was expected of the audience.The the pacing is magisterial. Too slow for today’s fast-paced world. Then again, maybe the fast-pace of today’s world is driving people crazy. / ;)

        Reply ↓
        1. matt

          normally i only read older books when i am off school, as the prose is a little more challenging. contemporary authors write pretty similar to how i text my friends, while older books take some time to adjust to the different writing style. of course, i try and balance the two. but it’ll often be a bunch of shorter contemporary books i finish in a day or two, then spending a month on dickens.
          i’ll consider taking up gibbon, but getting through all of that will probably take a few years at my current pace, lol.

          Reply ↓
          1. flora

            Spending a month on Dickens is well worth the time. The older phrase “giving someone the Dickens” came from that source. Also, so many of his characters are recognizable today in modern terms. / ;)

            Reply ↓
      2. flora

        High School essay writing has a specific format: thesis introduction where the last line of the opening para presents the thesis statement; body of the essay that supports the opening thesis (the argument in support of the thesis), with recognition of counter arguments and showing the counter arguments to be false or unimportant; and the conclusion paragraph explaining why the opening thesis is correct based on the arguments presented. It’s sort of like learning to write an op-ed. Here is what I think about a topic. Here are the reasons my idea is true. You can see from my above reasons that my idea is true about this topic. In short.

        As you say, high school English essay writing is not a creative writing exercise.

        Reply ↓
        1. Wukchumni

          It isn’t so much the length of written words, but the ability to convey a message that entertains, as far as I’m concerned.

          Friends sometimes ask if I do wordle, and I tell ’em I make the words zing instead, wordplay being where its at, and there are no guardrails as far as I’m concerned, everything is in motion.

          Reply ↓
          2. Terry Flynn

            I have read Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. Either I’ve become conditioned to simpler sentences or that guy was turgid in the extreme.

            I’ve read extracts from his Theory of Moral Sentiments which make him sound more human.

            Reply ↓
    4. Giovanni Barca

      Gore Vidal had John Hay ageeeing. (In Empire). In his “bookchat,” Vidal struck me as being somewhat adulatory of James. (In United States).

      Reply ↓
    5. Santo de la Sera

      Long sentences came up front and center for me when I took a course in the literature of the later English Renaissance during my teen years. I found I had to slow down my reading speed because the sentences were able to convey this beautiful polyphonic manner of thinking that I wasn’t used to, and which is specifically discouraged in schools these days.

      Reply ↓
        1. anahuna

          Thomas Browne. Urn Burial.

          And since death must be the Lucina of life, and even Pagans6 could doubt, whether thus to live were to die; since our longest sun sets at right descensions, and makes but winter arches, and therefore it cannot be long before we lie down in darkness, and have our light in ashes; since the brother of death daily haunts us with dying mementoes, and time that grows old in itself, bids us hope no long duration;–diuturnity is a dream and folly of expectation.

          Reply ↓
    6. Lefty Godot

      Philip K. Dick had some. Very short sentences. Separated by periods. In his novels. Just like that.

      Maybe a midpoint between Phil and Henry would be the sweet spot for readability.

      Reply ↓
  18. The Rev Kev

    “Why a Pakistan-India war would be a Chinese vs Western arms proving ground”

    So, maybe? Thing is, if there is going to be any fighting then it would be better if both sides duked it out up in the mountains. It’s a restricted space by nature but it is also a region where you can put a lid on the fighting. Honour could be satisfied while both armies went for each other until a truce could be called. But if the fighting took place on the plains then that would be bad. As India would have a numerical superiority, Pakistan may be pushed into using tactical nukes which would lead to strategic nukes being used. So yeah, see how Chinese, French, Russian and Indian hardware work in battle but it would be best to limit it to mountain warfare.

    Reply ↓
  21. The Rev Kev

    ‘Suppressed News.
    @SuppressedNws
    Follow
    ⚡️🇺🇸JUST IN:
    Israeli minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir today at the U.S. Capitol was confronted and completely lost it. “You’re supposed to be at the Hague! You’re a racist war criminal!”’

    That Ben-gvir is a real piece of work. How so?

    ‘On 25 February 1994, Baruch Goldstein, an American-Israeli physician and extremist of the far-right ultra-Zionist Kach movement, carried out a mass shooting of Palestinians who were praying in the Ibrahimi Mosque (Cave of the Patriarchs) in Hebron. Goldstein, dressed in Israeli army uniform, opened fire with an assault rifle and killed 29 people, including children as young as 12, and wounded 125 others. Goldstein was overpowered and beaten to death by survivors.’

    And Ben-gvir kept a portrait of Baruch Goldstein in his living room.

    Reply ↓
    1. Terry Flynn

      I don’t know anybody who takes Blair seriously these days. He’s like something stupid we did when drunk one night.

      Unfortunately Starmer worships him. As does our recently elected Labour MP, who worships Starmer.

      This is a tweet from the UK Prime Minister. Flytipping is solved by adequate funding……not by what he proposes…..but the language is Trumpian:

      This is a message to the fly-tippers blighting our towns and villages:

      For too long, your actions have gone unpunished. That ends now.

      We’ll use drones and new tech to identify your vehicle. Then we’ll crush it.

      WTAF? If our local MP, when campaigning at next general election, is lucky he’ll encounter me or my dad who will politely tell him he’s not getting our vote because he doesn’t understand money. If he’s UNLUCKY he’ll encounter mum who will call him the c word at 100 Decibels just so everyone local can hear. Part of me really wants the latter just for the lulz. It’s all go here in middle England!

      Reply ↓
      1. Michaelmas

        the language is Trumpian

        Yeah. But with Starmer it has the flavor, too, of a really unlikable, humorless head master at a fifth-rate public school (private school for USians) who thinks he can bully and dominate to get his way

        Reply ↓
  24. t

    How many of the “scientists” referenced willbe able to continue their research? Trump seems convinced AI can do it more cheaply, and better! (The research probably involves the kind of “AI” Ed Zitron always has to explain is not what he’s talking about, and has been around a while.)

    Reply ↓
    1. matt

      i tried to get ai to do my homework the other day (long story) and it got it so deeply and obviously wrong. the most glaring error was confusing a carboxyl for an ester. they looked a little similar if you were only looking at the chemical formula (both COO), but are absolutely not the same thing. really showed how “AI” is just LLMs that can predict the next letter, but dont understand the context.
      in the class that homework was for, the professor had been talking about using AI for pattern recognician in SIMS. there are patterns in the peaks that appear, and a well trained AI would likely be much faster than a human in analyzing them. but i guess that’s the thing about AI. it can be a useful tool for science, but it’s nowhere near replacing scientists. if you dont know exactly what you’re using AI for, you probably don’t need it.

      Reply ↓
  25. Bill B

    ‘Trump described “China tariffs” as a historic effort to curb “the greatest job theft in the world”, saying no other country had “taken more jobs” from the US.’ Poor, poor pitiful U.S.A.

    https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3308451/trump-hails-tariffs-list-achievements-his-administration-barely-mentions-them?utm_medium=email&utm_source=cm&utm_campaign=enlz-china&utm_content=20250430&tpcc=enlz-china&UUID=b004bbab-0ee9-43e3-9b2c-53793d34d272&next_article_id=3308336&article_id_list=3308530,3308524&tc=19

    Reply ↓
  26. Tom Stone

    I wonder how many of Elon’s little elves have considered the future?
    They are “Government employees” which means that their identities are known and a LOT of people are going to be very unhappy with them.
    Millions of very unhappy people.
    In a country where 30% of the populace own guns.
    Personally I would want a South African passport and enough cold hard cash to make the risk worthwhile, $25,000,000.00 at a minimum.
    I’m sure Elon has promised He would “Take care of them”…one way or another.

    Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        One where the door is secured once shut and there is a hatch at the top to pour in pellets.

        ‘Witnesses? No, I don’t know where those witnesses are.’

        Reply ↓
  28. Mikel

    Anti-Imperialists Really Need to Start Paying Attention to Ibrahim Traoré -BettBeat
    “Traoré represents one of the most promising ruptures in our imperialist world order, yet his movement receives a fraction of the attention given to the “resistance” by leaders like Putin.”

    We’ll see how it plays out in Africa.

    But on the subject of “resistance by leaders like Putin”, I looked up Kirill Dmitriev – the counterpart to Steven Witkoff in some negotiations between Russia and the USA. The wiki background is enough to paint a picture:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirill_Dmitriev/

    Reply ↓
  29. lyman alpha blob

    Here’s another for The Bezzle from one of Taibbi’s reporters – https://www.racket.news/p/when-genius-failedagain

    Not sure if it’s behind the paywall, so long story short for those who can’t read it, a factoring company called Stenn Technologies went belly up a few months back. They claimed to be using some fancy algos and AI to determine credit worthiness and bring a 21st century shine to a rather old and dusty business. Turns out they were just making up invoices for the receivables they were backing. Some of the investors who didn’t bother to do their due diligence and got burned were Citigroup, HSBC, Barclay’s and Goldman Sachs. Hilarious, and it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch!

    Reply ↓
  30. AG

    re: USA deportations

    Tennessee Man Has Been Stranded in Guatemala Since 2022 Over Tattoo
    A major legal challenge seeks to overturn a Biden-era case that helped lay the groundwork for Trump’s tattoo-based deportation regime.

    https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/tennessee-man-stranded-guatemala-green-card-tattoo

    “(…)
    “This is a policy that Democrats helped prepare over multiple administrations, though what Trump is doing is of a qualitatively different character. The use of tattoos to remove people under the Alien Enemies Act is certainly new,” said Lee. “I don’t draw attention to the role of Obama and Biden to diminish what Trump is doing, but at same time Trump didn’t fall out of the sky. These policies have had a bipartisan character.”

    With their fate determined by a seemingly arbitrary and unchallengeable decision by U.S. consular officials, Rivas’s lawsuit is a final attempt to fix what they say is a terrible mistake that has derailed their life.
    (…)”

    From comments:

    Ours is now a government of lies formed by “two” Parties(?) of Pretense:

    “16 Democrats Just Voted to Confirm Another Trump Appointee – What the hell is going on with the Democrats?”
    https://newrepublic.com/post/194575/16-democrats-vote-confirm-trump-appointee-ambassador-china?vgo_ee=mWq5j3MKQsEugMeOx7JHuBOv8aRtMq%2FTGrRR7BJPptoBRm50xw%3D%3D%3AMme0SEu1J%2BTca7sv%2F9auwp4gJRkgDywd

    Reply ↓
  32. mrsyk

    This is interesting. Italy, Portugal, and Spain Gear Up for Mid-June Travel Disruptions as New Anti-Tourism Protests Are Set to Erupt from Venice, Lisbon, Palermo, Barcelona, and Canary Islands Across Europe: What You Need to Know Before Planning Your Trip, Travel and Tour World.
    The lede; Travelers planning to visit Southern Europe this summer should expect major disruptions as Italy, Portugal, and Spain prepare for mid-June anti-tourism protests aimed at exposing the deep social, environmental, and housing crises fueled by mass tourism. Activists from Venice, Lisbon, Palermo, Barcelona, and the Canary Islands are set to stage coordinated demonstrations on June 15, hoping to pressure governments to enforce stricter tourism regulations and protect local communities overwhelmed by rising rents, overcrowding, and the erosion of cultural life.

    That from an industry rag.

    Reply ↓
    1. Terry Flynn

      Thanks but Canary Islands won’t affect tourists. Summer is low season. Too hot.

      Europeans do most business there October thru March

      Reply ↓
  33. dday

    We don’t need Amazon to tell us the tariff impact. A reasonably proficient AI program should be able to capture the prices of the 1000 top selling items on Amazon from say February 1st versus the new prices on June 1st, August 1st, etc. If Chat or Claude can’t handle it because of political fear, maybe Deep Seek could take a look.

    This sounds like something that Pro Publica or another public service non profit could handle.

    Reply ↓
    1. flora

      oooh, I’d love to see Amazon reporting the true tariff impact. Amazon buys something from China for $5. Sells it to you for $25. Tariff increases cost to consumer by, what, $5? I’d love to see something like that in writing. It’s not like Amazon is ripping off anyone now. right? Not ripping off either the producers or consumers. Matt Stoller has written a lot about overly powerful middlemen – Amazon is a middleman – these days now replacing the once overly powerful industrial producers in monopolistic practices. / ;)

      Reply ↓
      1. AG

        Actually I always wondered if it were possible to introduce price tags on every product in a supermarket indicating the percentage of labour being paid, PR, and the profit margin remaining. So you would have price tags with 4 figures. More helpful than those nutritional colour guides which were introduced in Europe years ago. Nobody cares about those. Most people know that the stuff they´re eating isn´t healthy.

        p.s. I remember this: When amazon started the company was mainly interesting to “us” as the market place for used and out-of-print books.

        Some authors even wrote huge essays in the early 2000s praising the new liberty and access to criticize and exchange criticism of books outside legacy media (including praise of the function showing recommendations based on other readers´ purchases). It is true that a lot of great reviews came together over two decades.
        But that slowly was yielding to the true predatory nature of the company later overshadowing everything that might have made sense for a little while.
        I realized this when I first found out that book-sellers were paying fees to amazon to be on the amazon “market place”, and of other means of control. Ever since I am getting books from the sellers circumventing amazon.

        Reply ↓
  34. AG

    Was looking for stuff on Mark Lombardi and bumped into this nice entry by Lambert in 2015:

    Quest for a Narrative Representation of Power Relations
    https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/07/quest-for-a-narrative-representation-of-power-relations.html

    “(…)
    Last April, I was enchanted by a diagram of the “web of corruption” surrounding New Jersey Governor and Republican Presidential candidate Chris Christie, which the New York Times coyly labels “the Lane Closings,” but which you and I know as BridgeGate. I encourage you to go view the original article at full size, and spend a little time reading it. This is the diagram, created by Bill Marsh and Kate Zernike:

    Figure 1: Christie’s Web of Corruption”
    (…)
    You can see how it would be interesting and even useful to map the webs of corruption surrounding Jebbie, or Hillary Clinton, or even Donald Trump; each of these candidates has a different type of corruption within our typology of corruption, and presumably one would expect that a proper visualization of each candidate’s “social network” would show differing patterns, rather like different species of spider can be classified by the geometries of the webs they weave.

    That strikes me now; what struck me in April would be how useful it would be, for Naked Capitalism readers, if Richard Smith’s narratives of incredibly intricate international scams could be visualized using a similar technique, and so I set out do determine it was possible to support that use case. (Spoiler: Very possibly, depending on requirements.)
    (…)”

    Reply ↓
  35. Dida

    The US Water War With Mexico Is Just Starting Bloomberg
    Panic in Pakistan as India vows to cut off water supply over Kashmir Reuters

    Jesus, the water wars are getting serious. I’m in my early 60s and I was hoping to reach the happy age of extensive cognitive impairment before it all comes crashing down, but it doesn’t look like I’ll make it.

    Reply ↓
  36. The Rev Kev

    Just saw this when I went to the Google homepage-

    ‘It’s World Password Day: Ditch passwords and try Sign in with Google’

    Did an AI write that?

    Reply ↓
  39. amfortas the hippie

    a postcard form the Wilderness bar.

    so what i think is happening is that they were casting around for someone to take the seat of the very old man who just won re-election a year ago.
    its not like folks are lining up to “serve”,lol.
    and for whatever crazy reason, they landed on me.

    ill know fer sho when the county judge, herself, calls me.
    (im trying not to ocd on her,lol….)

    Reply ↓
    1. Terry Flynn

      Great! Waking up so early and using my brain to post on here at 4am will hit me like a freight train later when the covid fog hits :(

      Reply ↓
      1. Terry Flynn

        If he goes in person he’ll need not only clothes but bullet-proof vest. London is barely any better….stab-proof vest.

        Can we vote to eject our respective capital cities?

        Reply ↓

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