Links 5/14/2025

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1. The Rev Kev May 14, 2025 at 7:19 am

   “The Libertarian Tech Bros’ Weird, Dystopian Plan for Guantánamo Bay’

   I got a idea. Pull the military out and send those prisoners to a supermax prison in the US. Yes, they will then be entitled to full rights to defend themselves in American courts but we all have to make sacrifices. That leaves you with 45 square miles (117 km2) of land and water on the shore of Guantánamo Bay. So then you take a page out of Trump’s playbook and turn it into a luxurious resort for the rich and wealthy. You can have high-priced hotels, casinos, knocking shops, restaurants and shopping arcades. If you told Trump that a prime block of land would be set aside for a Trump hotel, he would totally buy into the whole project. Workers you ask? Put in contracts for Cuban workers and buy produce from them to keep the Cubans onside and not to stir up trouble. It’s either that or follow that tech bro plan which would be nothing more that a money pit – with them the major beneficiaries.
   1. Christopher Smith May 14, 2025 at 8:19 am

      Much better than the status quo, so why not give it a try?
2. Balan Aroxdale May 14, 2025 at 7:46 am

   Trump says he will order removal of all US sanctions on Syria Anadolu Agency

   Trump signs ‘largest arms deal in history,’ secures $600bn Saudi investment pledge The Cradle

   The insane, demagogic incoherence of Trump and the Trump administration keeps everyone guessing. A scam for all seasons. https://t.co/hgHr4TlauL

   I completely disagree with all commentators currently claiming a “break” in US/Israeli relations or speaking about a mood shift or Trump breaking with Netenyahu. You are only confused here if you accept such claims as valid.

   Trump is not lifting all Syrian sanctions for nothing, and we are certainly not speaking about mineral rights or any other such nonsense here. The genocide is still on, Netenyahu is still open about it, and I would bet my last cent that the concessions extracted from this deal are that Syria will take in Gazan refugees. I think this is primary purpose of Trump’s entire trip, to carry on the very same Israeli and State Department policy that was formulated in October/November of 2023. Every manner of PR and bullshit media flak has been thrown up around this but the plan has carried on regardless for 19 months now. I see no reason to think Trump’s tour is not simply a repeat of Bliken’s efforts in 2023 and 2024 to find somewhere to dump the still living Gazans.

   Whether the rest of the Arab states have agreed to the displacement, I don’t know. But I for one am certain that the cutout Jolani has agreed to facilitate the ethnic cleansing of Gaza(His trip to meet Macron has convinced me). I am surprised so many commentators have forgotten about this entire angle.
   1. upstater May 14, 2025 at 12:25 pm

      Pipeline gas from Qatar to Europe, via Saudi, Jordan and Syria?
3. PlutoniumKun May 14, 2025 at 7:52 am

   Taiwan is playing with darkness by abandoning nuclear power Intellinews

   The article flies over a few facts, making it seem that its the current government that has abandoned nuclear power – in reality, that decision was made 20 years or more when a number of plants under construction were mothballed – partially because they didn’t make much economic sense at the time, and partially under intense US pressure over its nuclear weapons program. The one remaining nuclear power plant, at Maanshan (a very nice surf spot as it happens) is more than 40 years old and would cost a fortune to keep running. Its contribution to overall Taiwanese energy use is pretty small.

   You can certainly argue that it was a serious mistake by Taiwan to opt for coal and gas instead of nuclear for its electricity, but that decision was made decades ago and would take further decades (and many billions of dollars) to reverse. Extending the operating licence for Maanshan would make very little difference. A much better bet for Taiwan would be investing in geothermal energy – the entire country is a major geothermal hotspot.
   1. GrimUpNorth May 14, 2025 at 3:13 pm

      What about a cable connection to the mainland? LOL

      A quick google search on Taiwan using geothermal came up with this “the island is very densely populated, and operational space is limited in many areas. In contrast, the less densely populated areas are very mountainous, which does not make a strong case for installing a rig either.” It goes on to be much more positive.
4. upstater May 14, 2025 at 7:52 am

   United Airlines flight attendants stage a protest at the PR event launching a new business class seat. No contract in 5 years, lowest pay of major US airlines. Interesting to note that the 3 gulf carriers pay more than the US.

   @xJonNYC The FAs have their say at today’s UA new Polaris event

   They got arrested for trespassing. Hope they aren’t sent to El Salvador.
5. Unironic Pangloss May 14, 2025 at 7:56 am

   >>>Boosting ICE budgets is bipartisan Polygraph

   I know that this view will be unpopular with the vast majority of the peeps…

   If you don’t like a law (eg, migration), repeal it. Selective enforcement is corrosive to society/govt legitimacy long-term.

   This term, your side doesn’t enforce migration laws. Next term, the other side stops enforcing environmental laws.

   “Ask for forgiveness (or look the other way), don’t ask for permission” (at all levels of society) is one of the 100 things destroying America’s social fabric.
   1. Darthbobber May 14, 2025 at 9:47 am

      Be that as it may, the article in question is about the ICE BUDGET and the fact that it’s steady increases have been supported by both parties, regardless of who’s in power.

      So on THIS issue, the precise point is that “your side” and “their side” are the same, and that the alternation between parties makes no difference.
   2. JMH May 14, 2025 at 10:58 am

      I find the “Mission Creep” of ICE disturbing since all of us whose ancestors were not born here more than say, 500 years ago, are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants. With some not especially creative “lawyering” this extends the jurisdiction of ICE, shall we say, rather broadly. Would that be a feature or a bug? Also note, the border czar … I believe that is his moniker … Homan was quoted, when challenged about some of his actions, “I was only following orders.” That defense was definitively shot down during the Nuremberg Trials in 1946. I actually remember that, young though I was. Now you can question the Nuremberg trials and opn some grounds, I do. You can wonder why the borders have been wide open until you look at who hires and benefits from all that inexpensive labor. You can, as I did at the time, see the Patriot Act as among the worst of bad laws, and I do. Why you might ask? Did 17 or 27 …however many “intelligence” agencies there are … need another layer of bureaucracy troweled on top of them? I think not. Was the creation of national police forces … think ICE and others … never stop with just one … necessary? Depends on what plans, hopes, dreams, schemes, you have for them.

      As to your general points, could not agree more. What once was a government has become a shambles. Shambles: among whose definitions are disorder, ruin, clutter jumble and mess and finally a place of bloodshed or carnage. The OED would note it once referred to a slaughterhouse. (Apologies for the pedantic aside) The absence of long term planning or of follow through in the face of partisan one-up-man-ship, dueling lobbyists, and showers of “campaign contributions” in pursuit of access has reduced the DC Bubble and Echo Chamber to sound and silliness in pursuit of perpetuity in office by the unambitious and perpetuity in office and a small to medium fortune for the more bright eyed. But my cynicism overflows or is it realism?

      The result is visible this day as The Don as styled by Gay Talese in The Godfather, cavorts about the Arab states being showered with cash in one form or another ostensibly for public purposes, while his offspring and other relations hustle for the various family businesses. In the world of William Gibson’s The Peripheral this is called a Klept … you can look it up. Realism? Cynicism? Folly? Fantasy? Take you choice, but keep an eye on ICE.
   3. Quintian and Lucius May 14, 2025 at 10:59 am

      It’s not that your view is unpopular exactly it’s that it derives from what I believe is nostalgic unreality. Selective enforcement is the very nature of law in this country, has long been, and will ever be. The facade of rule of law has in my view largely been sundered not by the actual cavalier character of government (again, it was ever thus, sovereign is he who decides on the state of exception) but rather by the incredible diversity of media coverage possible in the 21st century which allows the sufficiently politically conscious to view every conceivable angle of policy and identify hypocrisies and inconsistencies at a level of granularity previously reserved for dedicated scholars. Indeed even the comparatively politically narcoleptic now live in such demographically stratified infospaces that it’s perfectly impossible not to perceive the comparative lawlessness of their political opposite. We once – before my lifetime so I take this as an article of faith – had a monoculture in news media that was capable of weaving a coherent throughline between any number of acts of brazen extralegal fiat such that the American public could digest it all. That is certainly not the case now and I cannot conceive of it ever being so again.
      1. Hickory May 14, 2025 at 12:25 pm

         Indeed, selective law enforcement is a common feature of all unfree societies where a few people rule over everyone else and forbid people from upholding their own laws. In free societies, everyone is expected to agree on and uphold their own laws and thus there are not exceptions like this.

         What Ironic is saying is true – it’s better to have societies where everyone agrees on rules that work for everybody. Otherwise people just argue over whose rules and enforcement preferences dominate. And of course the rich usually get their way.
6. nycTerrierist May 14, 2025 at 7:59 am

   great, timely piece by historian Zachary Foster:

   https://palestinenexus.com/articles/jewish-antizionism
   1. vao May 14, 2025 at 1:04 pm

      It is a good overview, although slanted towards the English-speaking Jewish world in its last section: there is almost nothing about the current attitude of European (or South American) Jews towards zionism.

      I also found two intriguing articles by the same author on that site:

      How Zionists Prevented Jewish Refugees From Returning Home After WWII

      and

      Was Zionism about Rescuing Jews Fleeing Persecution? No.

      A further article confirms my earlier impression that the staunch support of Israel by the likes of Sunak, Meloni, Macron, Biden, Scholz, etc, is not due to any strategic advantage (economic, military, geographic, or otherwise), but because Israel is the country where Western countries, where antisemitism is latent, especially in right-wing circles, can dump their Jewish population. And if this happens to the detriment of Arabs, so what?
7. The Rev Kev May 14, 2025 at 8:05 am

   “US Hypocrisy on Terrorism Reaches New Heights, While Trump Signals a Welcomed Shift in US Foreign Policy”

   I thought that Larry Johnson would be more stirred up about Trump with meeting Syria’s Jolani. That guy is basically an al-Qaeda leader and until recently had a $10 million bounty on his head by the US government. So I can see it now. Trump enters the room to meet Jolani who comes in with a trimmed beard, polished shoes, an expensive Rolex and a bespoke suit. The cameras are rolling for this historic event. Trump thinks to himself at least this is one leader that does not go around wearing t-shirts. As Jolani gets closer, he rips his jacket open to reveal sticks of dynamite, shouts ‘Allahu Akbar’ before hugging Trump, then BOOM! Can you imagine?
   1. ilsm May 14, 2025 at 8:25 am

      US’ side of the Shi’a-Sunni schism!

      Sunni terrorists, sustained by USA since 1980’s are the good guys.

      Trump in KSA is renewing US pledge to Arabian peninsula Wahabbi.

      As long as Sunnis in charge Israel is safe.

      Sell them new anti missile shield, golden dome for Medina!
      1. Emma May 14, 2025 at 10:04 am

         It’s really not the Sunnis at large but specifically Wahhabi Takfiri fighters funded by the Gulf despots and supported by US/Israeli deep state. They’ve been at it since 1970s Afghanistan, kicked it up a notch in the Balkans and then Chechyna, then Uyghurs, Iraq, Lybia, Syria, etc. Associating these predominantly Muslim murdering freaks with the bulk of Muslims is like associating Christian Zionists in Congress with all Christians.
8. Afro May 14, 2025 at 8:06 am

   I think that Trump’s speech in Saudi Arabia is perhaps the best I’ve seen give him. To be honest I can’t recall a better speech from a US president.

   Among items strengths, he’s gracious to the hosts, rather than lecturing them as other Western leaders like Biden or Baerbock would do.

   He’s acknowledging real strengths in the hosts, which is they built up gleaming cities, that they’re probably proud of themselves.

   He’s acknowledging real failures at home, the trillions wasted on Baghdad on Kabul and nation building there. Those cities would be better off without US nation building.

   And finally it reflects real recent policy changes. They’re lifting the idiotic sanctions on Syria and they ended the idiotic attacks on Yemen.
   1. t May 14, 2025 at 8:18 am

      Honestly, I think a large percentage of the influence is how well they dress. And they let him touch the orb. He really enjoyed that!
   2. Christopher Smith May 14, 2025 at 8:21 am

      Agreed on the speech, but let’s see where he goes with it.
   3. ilsm May 14, 2025 at 8:28 am

      On Syria, give a leg up to US’ “refined” terrorists.

      If IDF can kill Gazans new Syrian allies can kill non SUnni.
   4. Chet G May 14, 2025 at 9:31 am

      Keeping in mind that Obama received a Nobel Peace Prize (2009) for making speeches and without making positive actions toward peace, I would say that Trump was following in Obama’s footsteps, considering one of Trump’s goals is receiving a Nobel.
      1. The Rev Kev May 14, 2025 at 9:42 am

         I’m afraid that starting a trade war with China, bombing civilians in Yemen, threatening Iran with a full-fledged attack, helping Israel commit a genocide in Gaza and keeping the war in the Ukraine going is not going to get him that Nobel peace prize.
         1. Darthbobber May 14, 2025 at 9:49 am

            Not even if he regifts the Qatari jet to the Nobel committee?
            1. The Rev Kev May 14, 2025 at 9:58 am

               As proven by how they gave a Nobel to Obama before he even did anything, they are a cheap date.
               1. MFB May 15, 2025 at 4:31 am

                  If I recall correctly, he did bomb the Moon.
   5. Carolinian May 14, 2025 at 9:42 am

      Perhaps we should encourage Trump to take still more bribes from the Arab countries if it means a correction of the long standing and senseless policy of favoring the 9 1/2 million Jewish Israelis over the triple digit millions who surround them. After all there has long been plenty of campaign bribery going on to further the anti Arab cause.

      In his recent talk with Judge Nap Alastair Crooke points out that the Cold War excuse for our ME policy was to keep the Soviets out of the Middle East. But the Cold War–mostly also senseless–is over despite neocons trying to revive it. FDR favored the Arabs while still asking them to accept Zionism. Truman on the other hand defied the advice of his State Department by siding with Israel. This policy mistake engendered all that has followed.

      At this point Israel isn’t going anywhere but for their own good someone needs to introduce them to reality.
   6. Lieaibolmmai May 14, 2025 at 9:49 am

      > he’s gracious to the hosts

      Because he wants $40 oil. Trump is a salesman.

      > lifting the idiotic sanctions on Syria

      Abu Mohammed al-Jolani was a most wanted terrorist a few month ago. Now that he is in charge, so no more sanctions.

      Trump is no different, he is just doing “it” differently.
      1. JMH May 14, 2025 at 11:10 am

         The Don was being polite for a change, but he respects wealth and glitter, besides it costs nothing. In this case one can quote the nameless person who said of a political speech, “He talks purty, don’t he.” Obama rode “talkin’ purty” to the presidency then betrayed all, almost all(?) of his promises right out the gate. The Don wants a Nobel Peace prize because Obama received one and, i am convinced,The Don has never forgiven Obama for mocking him at the Press Club(?) dinner in DC in 2011. Vengeful persons neither forget nor forgive.

         Take this however you will. Churchill is quoted as saying, “When you are going to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.”
   7. Quintian and Lucius May 14, 2025 at 11:09 am

      It is irritating to praise Trump for something like this but you’re not wrong if just regarding the content of the speech itself. Actually, more than irritating, it’s mortifying that this level of graciousness – what I would describe as completely reasonable and expected etiquette when one is a guest – is something laudable in the Western context. We’re grading on a frankly embarrassing curve.
   8. ric May 14, 2025 at 11:43 am

      Trump’s speech suggested to me that the last person he spoke with before getting off the plane was Tulsi Gabbard. If so, good for both of them.
   9. skippy May 14, 2025 at 4:10 pm

      I found this to be an interesting thread dissecting what Trump was banging on about … between Arnaud Bertrand and below commenter.

      Amine Idriss
      @amibiaka
      ·
      19h
      Arnaud, I see what you’re pointing to — but let’s not kid ourselves. Trump’s speech isn’t a breakthrough in appreciating civilizational diversity. It’s a classic expression of his white nationalist worldview, dressed up as respect for sovereignty.

      https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1922443275526668625

      Arnaud’s core argument is –

      “Regarding Trump’s speech in Saudi, some see it as a refreshing break from liberal hypocrisy. I see it as something more dangerous, the normalization of a neo-mercantilist worldview. And that’s not a nostalgic return to realism; it’s a revival of the very ideology that once justified conquest, colonization, and the commodification of entire peoples. People in the West today complain about migration, as if it’s an invasion. But most of those who migrate to the West are fleeing the long-term consequences of Western imperialism, of resource extraction, of wars fought for oil or influence, of economic systems designed to benefit a few and impoverish the many. This doesn’t mean illegal immigration should be glorified. But let’s be honest: I have no sympathy for anti-immigrant rhetoric when it comes from the descendants of those who directly benefited from colonial plunder and racial capitalism.” – snip

      It seems to me that multipolarity is not unlike a global shit in the magnetic field, fluxes, and then bang it changes. How networks of power position themselves for it, with a side of climate change, is a sight to behold, as such I highly discount anything coming from Anglophone camp[see above] and especially anything coming from disingenuous Trump/camp[self serving].
9. The Rev Kev May 14, 2025 at 8:36 am

   “PM Modi Elaborates on S-400 Missile System’s Importance For India’s Air Defence: Why They Matter Now More Than Ever”

   How long until the US orders India to get rid of those S-400s because it is against US law for them to own them. And then to tell India to buy inferior Patriot batteries instead – which don’t exist at the moment – and to buy hundreds if not thousands of Patriot battery missiles – which have not even been manufactured yet. If India is lucky, they should get those Patriot batteries & missiles by 2040. You think that Pakistan will wait?
   1. Random May 14, 2025 at 9:21 am

      The US doesn’t have that level of control over India. Might change in the future, but India is an important part of trying to contain China and because it has a conflict with China it also has more incentives to maintain relations with Russia.
      The Turks are much more vulnerable to pressure and have less reasons to keep Russia on side.
   2. PlutoniumKun May 14, 2025 at 9:37 am

      India already has a domestic Patriot equivalent (medium range, up to around 150km), the Barak 8, which is jointly produced with Israel. Earlier reports indicated that India bought the S-400 specifically for the purposes of providing air defence over its borders with China – hence range and anti-stealth capability is particularly important. The recent possible failures in conflict with Pakistan may result in a rethink about where they are deployed.

      Mixing two separate systems is not considered good practice in air defence, so its a curious decision – presumably they have fallen behind in producing a Barak with the range to match the S-400. The big question, presumably well pondered by the Russians and Israelis, is how they stop each side getting access to key operational and technical inside information.
      1. Polar Socialist May 14, 2025 at 10:40 am

         If the systems can talk to each other – even if it be trough a third system – then it’s fine and dandy. Something akin to not having all your eggs in the same basket. But if the systems are isolated enough to basically fight alone, then they’re out-dated and handicapped even before they go operational.

         Allegedly Iran can take pretty much any air-defense system and make it work with their command, control, communication & situational awareness (C3/SA) network for air defense.
10. Carla May 14, 2025 at 8:47 am

    “Illinois governor is first in US to block federal access to personal data on autism”

    Hey, Pritzker, why not block federal access to all personal data? Fourth amendment, anyone?

    Or does it apply only to corporate persons now?
    1. Unironic Pangloss May 14, 2025 at 9:36 am

       It’s funny how someone(s) is positioning/astroturfing Pritzker (billionaire, Dem. Machine scion) as a potential “Resistance” leader-2028 contender, see Jimmy Kimmel visit and Pritzker’s name popping up in random WaPo-NYt mentions.

       With friends like elite Democrats, who needs Republicans?!
       1. Henry Moon Pie May 14, 2025 at 2:15 pm

          Pritzker, Slotkin and Buttigieg! Who says Ds don’t have a bench? (With JB, it had better be a sturdy one unless his consultants put him on Ozempic)
          1. steppenwolf fetchit May 14, 2025 at 6:41 pm

             Well, if the DemParty were to have a genuine democratic free Republican-quality primary for the first time in many years, we could see what shakes out. Or even get a vote on what shakes out.

             If . . . .
             1. Henry Moon Pie May 14, 2025 at 7:30 pm

                No more down that path for me. I’m a veteran of McGovern in a small way, and recall how the Democrat Party not just abandoned a candidate, but actively allied against him.
11. eg May 14, 2025 at 9:11 am

    “Geonomics, nationalism and trade”

    This is why I decry the entire project to manufacture a divorce in the original term “political economy” into supposed “sciences” of each, an achievement of the unholy alliance of the marginalist school (Alfred Marshall being the foremost cementer of the ideas of Jevons, Menger and Walras) in economics and their Gilded Age funders in banking.

    It’s harmless enough in microeconomics, but intellectually lethal in macroeconomics — because in the latter “the politics never really went away.” It’s also why wherever international business investment went, gunboats inevitably followed … 🤨
12. The Rev Kev May 14, 2025 at 9:20 am

    “Qatar’s $400M jet for Trump is a gold-plated security nightmare”

    It doesn’t have to be. Trump could lease that 747 Jumbo jet back from the US government for a dollar a month while the government picks up the tab for the running expenses. He then announces that all those that own one of his Trump meme coins can go into a lottery to get a flight aboard this Jumbo jet for an hour or two. People would go out and buy & register one like they would with lottery tickets, especially MAGA supporters. Those that win would pay a $50 fee but that would be seen as cheap for a Trump flight and there would be no security issues at all. And is this so different to when recently top buyers of his coin could get a dinner with him?

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/12/top-buyers-trump-cryptocurrency-dinner
    1. ChrisPacific May 14, 2025 at 10:53 pm

       It’s kind of amusing how even given Trump’s famously lax definition of ‘national security threats’ (the opioid crisis, illegal immigration, countries running a trade surplus with the US, the continued existence of Canada/Greenland as independent nations…) a Presidential plane supplied by a foreign power somehow doesn’t make the list.
13. TomDority May 14, 2025 at 9:33 am

    If you get behind on your payments on your Tesla, they can auto- drive your car back to the dealership.
    Makes me speculate that if Tesla can do that – then they could auto-drive your car off a cliff or into a pole if you don’t agree with Musk politics…..just speculating ya know – maybe a fun little sci-fi – a little data integration with siri, doorbells and all sorts of smart devices combined along with digital currency and Homeland security and police fusion centers…… why you could deport anybody you want with a self driving cab or car instead of iconviniencing ICE and the courts….you could knock off any opposition and disapear people at will….erase their identity and digital footprint or frame someone easy-peasy………..who needs to mess with that constitution or laws etc.
    Sounds about rite for the duopoly’s vision for Making America Great Again and Defending democracy…… I just wish they would tell me for whom they are defending democracy for and, for whom are they making America great
    1. mrsyk May 14, 2025 at 10:22 am

       Brings to mind the death of Michael Hastings, the journalist who got General Stanley McChrystal fired.
       1. Henry Moon Pie May 14, 2025 at 2:27 pm

          During the morning’s brief channel surfing, I came across Andrew Ross Sorkin and Becky Quick lamenting the decline of ethics over the past couple of decades. For answers, they turned with all seriousness to their guest, Stanley McChrystal.

          Don’t change before the Empire falls.
          You’ll laugh so hard, you’ll crack the walls.
          1. JBird4049 May 14, 2025 at 4:57 pm

             Sometimes, I just miss the days when satire was a thing and not reality.
    2. Nikkikat May 14, 2025 at 10:45 am

       Yes, I’ve kind of come to the conclusion that it woulnt matter whether Trump or some other clown was in the White House, we really are screwed. Trump just showed us the true nature of things. These tech billionaires own us and there is really nothing that can be done about it. Any of these jack asses, could set anyone up for a fall. And frankly with very little effort or evidence. And just who is gonna do anything
       About it? Anyone that thinks the courts or the press or the political class will help is deluded. Trump will have his plane, the USPS will be privatized, Social Security and medicare too. It’s all gone, along with our so called democracy. It done. That picture from Saudi Arabia was our future. Along with the list of billionaires. They own it and there nothing we can do about it. The democracy they are defending is the facade for what making America great again means. Simply great and democratic for them, not us.
    3. lyman alpha blob May 14, 2025 at 12:58 pm

       RE: “…they could auto-drive your car off a cliff or into a pole if you don’t agree with [insert elite name here] politics…”

       Very true! And you might enjoy the Terra Ignota scifi series where self-flying cars are a major plot point. Excerpt from the wiki entry –

       “The Six-Hive Transport System is a global network of flying cars, the primary mode of transportation in the series. They are fast enough to circle the globe in less than 4.2 hours, made possible by Cartesian set-sets. Mukta was the prototype car made in 2073 and now resides in the Saneer-Weeksbooth home.

       Utopia [a political faction] operates its own car system, separate to the primary one used in the series. The Utopian system is slightly slower than the primary one, but has 100% fewer accidents.”

       You will have to read the series (or at least the first two books which are great – the latter two are subpar) to find out why one political faction refuses to use the global transportation system. Suffice it to say that after reading the series, I will never be getting into any driverless car.
    4. Es s Ce Tera May 14, 2025 at 9:17 pm

       Cars themselves will drive to the police station on detecting a non-white person in the driver’s seat?
14. Michael Fiorillo May 14, 2025 at 9:44 am

    Regarding Guantanamo being re-purposed as a prison for migrants: Obama, when refusing to pursue criminal investigations against torture and other criminal acts at Guantanamo and elsewhere, said it was time to “look forward, not backward.”

    We now have a much clearer idea of what he meant.
15. The Rev Kev May 14, 2025 at 9:55 am

    “RFK Jr. is full of crap”

    Somehow, looking at the images of RFK jr. taking his grandkids to go swim in those polluted waters, I am reminded of that 1975 film “Jaws.” The scene where people were on the beach but were not going into the water because of the recent shark attack. That is, until the local official leans on some older people to go into the water and when they do, they take their very young grandchildren with them into those waters. Don’t know why I thought of that old film…
16. The Rev Kev May 14, 2025 at 10:44 am

    “Trump envoys Witkoff and Kellogg to go to Turkey for Russia-Ukraine talks, sources say”

    Those talks are going to go nowhere. Zelensky is trying to turn it into a media stunt by daring Putin to go there but what would they talk about? Zelenski’s 10-point peace plan? Kellogg, whose plan Trump has adopted, hopes Putin turns up. Even I know that negotiations don’t work that way and it is only after everything is settled that you call in the leaders to sign the agreements. Trump made himself sound like an idiot by indicting that he might just drop in to any meeting. Everybody knows that Presidents on Air Force One just drop in on random visits to countries from time to time to do a bit of shopping and maybe to pick up a pizza. The only reason why they want Putin there is to give him an ultimatum to freeze the conflict or else. Maybe even do to him what Trump and Vance did to Zelenski in that White House meeting several weeks ago. And Kellogg and others have said that as soon as there is a freeze, that they will flood the Ukraine with troops from at least four NATO nations. Looks like this war is going to be decided on the battlefield as Trump only wants negotiations so that Russia wins the war but loses the peace. And as it is now no longer Biden’s war but Trump’s war, the failure is all going to be on him. And all those neocons like Lindsay Graham will pretend that they were not pushing him but will blame Trump for not trying hard enough and which the media will go along with.
    1. JMH May 14, 2025 at 11:16 am

       I do not recall Witkoff or Kellogg being invited. Why send two persons with opposing views in the first place? Lavrov should, politely, tell them to bugger off.
    2. ilsm May 14, 2025 at 1:19 pm

       Trump should pull a page from Teddy Roosevelt.

       Invite Russia and Kiev to come to Portsmouth, NH.

       June is very nice in New England and the hotel from 1905 has been updated.

       The space at the shipyard may need polish.

       Bretton Woods is nice, too.
17. Quintian and Lucius May 14, 2025 at 11:15 am

    “How Joe Biden Handed the Presidency to Donald Trump”

    Let us treat this as the New Yorker’s bid for the Most Embarrassing Blame Deflection Award for 2025 (wittier name pending). At the moment the only other candidate is that ludicrous New York Times article which apparently informed us that Russia would’ve been roundly defeated in the special military operation but for the intransigence, incompetence, and possibly incontinence of the Ukrainian military brass; the academy is therefore actively seeking other submissions, as unsealing an envelope for a 50/50 chance isn’t nearly enough fun.
    1. Unironic Pangloss May 14, 2025 at 11:43 am

       When are we going to get the Pulitzer Award for Gaslighting? Or is that the standard Pulitzer nowadays?

       Oh I hate Donald Trump—-but hold my beer as I do everything in my power to get him re-elected!
       1. AG May 14, 2025 at 11:58 am

          btw have your beer prices gone up?
          In my lovely native Bavaria hops harvest has serious shortages due to lack of water.
18. Wukchumni May 14, 2025 at 12:18 pm

    Gooooooood Mooooooooorning Fiatnam!

    In the fetid QWERTY jungle online where the numismatrix plied its traits, it was all about the skill-ratio, if you could turn a lone greenback into 30 bucks vis a vis crypto, it was a lot better than being stuck with the pyramid scheme on the back of a FRN, and why doesn’t that eagle on the right have a phalanx of old glories behind it, with an artificial breeze fanning them?
19. Tony Wikrent May 14, 2025 at 12:22 pm

    Regarding the Notes on the Crisis article on “Can China “Buy” America?”:

    in the 1980s I was tracking mergers and acquisitions as part of a group investigating how dirty money, after being laundered and brought back into the US, was buying up control of established companies. Back then, the major “public” worry was over the Japanese and what they would do with their rapidly growing trade surpluses. But the numbers on dollar amounts of mergers and acquisitions showed a much different reality. By far the largest amount in m&a was by “investors” from Britian and the British empire members of Australia and Canada. The Brits were usually at least three times larger than the Japanese.

    I was not surprised when legal probes a few years later identified HSBC (then known by its original imperial moniker the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank) as one of the largest launderers of dirty money. HSBC — the infamous Hong Shang — of course, was originally established to process the revenue of the British opium trade out of China.

    “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose,”
    1. Revenant May 14, 2025 at 5:56 pm

       The UK was a major legitimate investor abroad in the 80’s and the pool of safe countries for FDI.was much smaller. I don’t think the figures were directionally affected by corruption (but BCCI might have been part of it…).

       In HSBC’s defence, though, their crime was to purchase the extremely dodgy Republic Bank from Edmund Safra, which had a major NYC oresence and apparently zero KYC and AML controls! The US regulator fined them (HSBC) USD 12bn in exchange for a non-admission of guilt plea but in reality they inherited the crimes!

       Republic under Safra was suspected of tax evasion but also of other illegitimacies, in part because nobody could understand how low margin lending to governments and to physical goods trade could generate the profits claimed, especially when Republic employed very little leverage. The implication is that it was earning a vig on whatever its clients were doing.

       Given that Safra:
       – started out in physical shipments of cast.
       – was a Syrian-Lebanese New
       – lent to a lot of governments

       Safra died in a mysterious fire at his Monaco penthouse that was later judged arson….

       PS:
       It is not surprising that fingers were pointed at Iran-contra type deals and drug money, a but like Alan Stanford.

       Here is an article very lamely pretending these was nothing crooked in public but leaving a trail of breadcrumbs. but it is not hard to read between the lines.

       https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-biography-probes-into-mysterious-backstory-of-billionaire-banker-edmond-j-safra/
20. Tom Stone May 14, 2025 at 1:17 pm

    Hunter Biden must be green with envy, the Biden’s only managed to Grift about $23MM total while the Donald’s Family has cleared well over $100MM from crypto alone and if you add the $400MM jet they are averaging better than $125MM a Month.
    In other happy news regular Gas is at $5.29 per Gallon, cash price at the local 76 station.
21. Wukchumni May 14, 2025 at 1:19 pm

    That’s quite something to be able to gamble on the temperature of a city on a given day, why bother with mundane casinos?

    Gambling was fairly forbidden a century ago, and now nothing related to gambling is forbidden… heck, a couple of ballplayers who blackened the diamond by one throwing the world series for a gambler, and the other who gambled on games, were reinstated in the MLB yesterday, never mind.
22. XXYY May 14, 2025 at 2:14 pm

    Taiwan is playing with darkness by abandoning nuclear power Intellinews

    The Japanese prefecture of Fukushima is about 5,000 square miles in area, and remains mostly an abandoned area a decade after the reactor meltdown in the prefecture. I assume this will not change for another couple of hundred thousand years.

    The island of Taiwan is about 13,000 square miles in area, or perhaps two and a half times the size of the Fukushima prefecture. A single reactor catastrophe there on the scale of Fukushima will therefore, to a first approximation, make a half to a third of the island uninhabitable.

    It’s very easy to see why Taiwan is getting rid of nuclear power as fast as they can, though it doesn’t seem to be as fast as one would like. The mystery is why Japan isn’t doing the same thing.

    On the other hand, if Taiwan were converted into a nuclear wasteland, China and the US could stop fighting about its future and everyone could relax. I guess there really is a silver lining to every cloud.
    1. Revenant May 14, 2025 at 5:30 pm

       Fukushima Prefecture was wholly inappropriately abandoned. More people died from moving, upheaval and, in those who stayed, abandonment than could ever die of anthropogenic radiation exposure, especially in an elderly farming population.
       1. AG May 14, 2025 at 9:22 pm

          Sorry if this is a dumb question, was that incident really as dramatic as it was pictured in our (European) media or was it exaggerated or possibly even underplayed.
          1. PlutoniumKun May 15, 2025 at 3:23 am

             For those curious, I took my avatar name here from the mascot of the Fukushima nuclear plant. For some strange reason they eliminated all reference to him from the internet around about 2011.

             It’s very hard to get a real grip on the true extent of damage, not least because the Japanese are very good at message control (aided by their ability to keep foreign experts at bay). The extreme radiation was very localised, and thankfully not much went airborne, unlike with Chernobyl. So Revenant is correct to say that the overall direct threat to anyone further than a few miles from the plant was pretty low – but certainly not negligible. But it is still a gigantic ticking bomb which will take many years of control to prevent any kind of chain reaction that could restart a reactor fire, or a major release of radioactivity to the sea (bioconcentration in seafood is ultimately a much bigger human health threat than airborne release).

             This is one (not the only) reason Taiwan then mothballed its new nuke plants. Taiwan is even more seismically active than Japan and prone to very extreme natural disasters. The scale of the Typhoons that regularly hit the island have to be seen to be believed. It complicates everything.
             1. AG May 15, 2025 at 1:25 pm

                Thanks.
                I remember that Fukushima was “used” by the Merkel administration to pull off their no-alternatives no-NPPs plan. So we now have basically no leeway in terms of energy production.
                Back then I argued with colleagues that regarding emissions by various sources it ought to be looked into the matter scientifically. Not ideologically. While that appears a very beginner´s approach for NC I bumped into some heavy resistance. As usual…thinking of the public atmosphere in those days – some even made movies about it… it´s the same insane, unreflected blind trust by the elite in their own media products.
                Self-serving, self-affirming, circular flow of information.
                Not much has changed since.
                Actually I wonder when was the period that this bubble-think became standard and dominant. So that Fukushima could be replaced by any other term.
                Of course those same circlces don´t even know any more what Fukushima is today.
                And these are often not bad people.
                It seriously upsetting
             2. caucus99percenter May 15, 2025 at 1:58 pm

                Tons and tons of intensely radioactive congealed corium from three reactors is still stuck in the ground below the plants and will continue indefinitely to contaminate ground water.

                https://dunrenard.wordpress.com/2018/01/28/the-corium-of-reactor-2-of-fukushima-daiichi-is-clearly-visible/
             3. Anonymous May 16, 2025 at 2:28 am

                FINALLY! I have been wondering for so many years where PlutoniumKun came from, it sounded Japanese but I wasn’t sure
23. XXYY May 14, 2025 at 2:31 pm

    Trump takes a blow torch to the neocons and interventionists while speaking to the Saudis.

    I am no great admirer of Trump, but I challenge you to find a previous American president who would have said anything remotely similar to what Trump was saying here. Sounds like Noam Chomsky could have written this.

    Unfortunately, the overall effect was kind of ruined by the fact that on the same trip, he was selling US weaponry out the wazoo. But still…
    1. Kouros May 14, 2025 at 3:22 pm

       Franklin Delano Roosevelt?!

       The good neighbour idea?
24. Kouros May 14, 2025 at 3:23 pm

    Are the Turks copying Israel with their effort to split PKK? Is Ocalan becoming an Arafat in old age? Are we oing to have a Hamas-PKK and a Fatah/PA-PKK?
    1. caucus99percenter May 16, 2025 at 10:49 am

       More like a parliamentary Sinn-Fein-PKK and an extra-parliamentary Provisional-PKK ?

       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army
25. Kouros May 14, 2025 at 3:30 pm

    Six cheetah cubs!

    I can only think at how many will survive!

    Heroine mother that one, all by herself…
    1. MFB May 15, 2025 at 4:36 am

       Heroic Mother of the Cheetah Soviet Union, First Class!

       Although they all look so peeved in that photo, I wonder if they had substantial investments in Tesla or something . . .
26. AG May 14, 2025 at 3:48 pm

    re: llamas

    I was mistyping an internet address and ended up with writing “cria” into google. As it turns out that is actually a scientific term derived from the Spanish word for “baby” also describing young specimen of llamas.

    See Wiki:
    
    Etymology

    The term comes from the Spanish word cría, meaning “baby”. Its false cognate in English, crya (pronounced /ˈkraɪə/), was coined by British sailors who explored Chile in the 18th century and were quick to describe the camelids onomatopoeically according to the mwa sound they made, which was not unlike that of a human crying baby.
27. JCC May 14, 2025 at 4:21 pm

    On the X post “we’ve really decided to let people gamble on the specific temperature…”

    How do you determine a specific temperature of any town? This seems like a big “So what?” to me.

    If you check ambientweather.net you’ll see most towns have a pretty wide variance in temps. For example, in the town I live in today right now at 1:00PM, the temperature varies by at least 6F from one side to the other
28. AG May 14, 2025 at 4:38 pm

    re: US elites instrumentalizing anti-racism

    JACOBIN

    The Trouble With Equity

    By Jennifer C. Pan

    Corporate America and the rich have used anti-racism to distract from broader inequality. Ensuring that every racial group has identical access to society’s limited resources does nothing to change an economy that exploits the many to enrich the few.

    https://jacobin.com/2025/05/racial-equity-corporate-anti-racism
29. nyleta May 14, 2025 at 5:48 pm

    Russian delegation to Istanbul talks is out, Medinsky in charge again like in 2022, wonder how much worse the terms are this time. Would love to hear Mr Rubio’s input, his speech in the Middle East was much more refreshing than Mr Trump’s. He must be angling to cut off Mr Vance for the next presidential election.
30. AG May 14, 2025 at 6:15 pm

    re: US hypersonics ongoing problems

    Andrei Martyanov

    For once he gets a bit into detail of problems constructing a genuine hypersonic weapon that can hit moving targets, which, his point, US´s LRHW for a very long time will not.

    The critical issue being that simple Intertial Measurement Units won´t do the trick.

    topic starts TC: 12:30
    https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2025/05/istanbul-hysteria.html

    May be someone pro here can get into it and explain what the LRHW as of now can and what it cannot and why and what this LRHW can do what older US weapons systems cannot. Since IMU are not new. So what´s the big fuss about in this article which Martyanov references, mockingly of course.

    He does mention the 10 min. blackout issue of “Black Barrier”. Or is that permanent? So, it´s the plasma that prohibits outside communication with the missile for navigation. But the details are not entirely clear yet.

    Northrop Grumman Just Cracked the Code for Hypersonic Weapons
    May 13, 2025
    By: Brandon J. Weichert
    https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/northrop-grumman-just-cracked-the-code-for-hypersonic-weapons
    1. AG May 14, 2025 at 8:20 pm

       sorry typo: *Inertial Measurement Unit
31. AG May 14, 2025 at 7:00 pm

    re: Epstein Files on finances – Musk & other billionaires

    Katie Halper – Whitney Webb about the offshore banking system as handled by Epstein for the big power families -10 min.

    Whitney Webb Explains What Trump is HIDING From the Epstein Files
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ7qYuw5xYQ

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