Blood of Man Who’s Had 200 Snake Bites Helps Make a Potent Antivenom Nature
Kuwait Cracks Down on Crypto Miners to Cut Down on Electricity Usage Engadget
Absolutely unreal! 😍🚴♂️ This bike trick is pure talent and courage – one of the best ever! #BikeMaster #EpicStunts #CycleInspo
pic.twitter.com/UXAmOu8TwK— KnowledgeWolf 🧠💡 (@KnowledgeWolfy) May 1, 2025
Since 1981, One Man Has Relocated Nearly 1,000 Snowy Owls from Logan Airport Colossal
“Unprecedented Recovery” – Gene Therapy Reverses Heart Failure in Breakthrough Study SciTechDaily
COVID-19/Pandemics
Common bacteria linked to strep raises worries in US: ‘Pandemic in plain sight’ NY Post
New Drugs Outperform Paxlovid – A Game Changer for
COVID and Future Pandemics SciTechDaily
Climate/Environment
How Climate Change Threatens Eye Health Knowable
Dangerously hot in Alaska? New warnings show climate change impact. USA Today
In His First 100 Days, Trump Launched an “All-Out Assault” on the Environment Arc Technica
China?
China Unveils Its Military Mega-Project Sustainability Times
Small Packages From China Are Now Subject to US Tariffs. Here’s What to Know Wired
⚡️ Chinese special forces deployed armed robotic dogs during anti-terror drills simulating urban combat in Tibet. pic.twitter.com/n7nGn9kluI
— War Intel (@warintel4u) May 2, 2025
Pacific Island nations See a US Pullback – Will China Step Up? SCMP
South of the Border
Second Us Military Zone Along Border With Mexico Set Up to Deter Migrants Al Jazeera
Trump Urges Free Passage for Us Ships Through Panama, Suez Canals Andolu Agency
European Disunion
Hard Decisions Ahead in EU Budget Talks: What Spending Should the Bloc Prioritise? France 24
The Transatlantic Tech Clash: Will Europe “De-Risk” from the United States? CSIS
Old Blighty
I overheard Labour and Tories say ‘we’ve cocked it up’ – they were right Notinghamshire Live
Prince Harry Says He Doesn’t ‘Know How Much Longer’ King Charles Has, Seeks Reconciliation The Hill
The Map That Shows Reform’s Triumph Was Much More Than a Protest Vote BBC
Israel v. The Resistance
Gaza, the US and China: the Future of War and the End of Civilisation Thomas Faxi Substack
what is Happening in Gaza is Unprecedented in Modern History
Hunger, siege, and death are everywhere. Countless injuries go untreated due to a total collapse of the healthcare system. Food supplies have been completely depleted. Medicines are entirely unavailable. Prices have… pic.twitter.com/14RDgkv50B
— Mostafa Alathamna~Gaza🇵🇸 (@alathamnaa) May 3, 2025
Un Urges Independent Probe Into Gaza Aid Ship Attack, Calls for Lifting of Aid Blockade Andolu Agency
Netanyahu Says Freeing Hostages Is Not His Priority Scheer Post
Live: Global Outrage Grows as 57 Die of Hunger Under Israel’s Gaza Blockade Al Jazeera
Israel Calls Up Thousands of Reservists, Plans to Expand Gaza Offensive Amid Stalled Hostage Talks CNN
New Not-So-Cold War
Putin Accuses Zelensky of Making ‘Direct Threat’ to Moscow’s Victory Day Celebrations The Independent
North Korea’s Involvement in the Ukraine War: A New Threat to International Peace Modern Diplomacy
Greene Furious Over Ukraine Minerals Deal, Iran Talks: ‘The Base Is Not Happy’ The Hill
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
From Driver’s License to Digital Dossier? Why Some Are Worried About Real ID USA Today
TikTok Gets Fined $600M for Data Transfers That Broke EU Privacy Rules News Tribune
Can You Opt Out of TSA Facial Recognition at Airports? Travel Noir
Imperial Collapse Watch
The Average American Is Closer to Being Homeless Than Being Elon Musk USA Today
Pam Bondi’s Absurd Claim About Fentanyl Overdoses Epitomizes the Illogic of the War on Drugs Reason
Trump 2.0
— Tony Michaels 🎙 (@thetonymichaels) May 2, 2025
Trump Must Not Repeat Bush’s Iraq Mistakes in Iran The Hill
White House Tanks Trump’s Big Idea to Rename Veterans Day Daily Beast
How Rubio became Trump’s minister of many hats Axios
Donald Trump’s Grotesque Lie About the US Role in the European Theater in World War II Sonar 21
DOGE
Trump Administration Urges Supreme Court to Lift Data Access Block on Musk-Led DOGE Andolu Agency
DOGE Is in Its AI Era Wired
Democrat Death Watch
Kamala Harris in new speech:
“This country is ours. It belongs to you. It belongs to us. It belongs to We the People.”
Fact Check: The Democrat party doesn’t even belong to the people as it’s completely bought & beholden to corporations just like the GOP.pic.twitter.com/68Ano2eIeW
— Power to the People ☭🕊 (@ProudSocialist) May 1, 2025
I love it so much 😂 cos are you a Democratic Party or not? If you are, why the silence? https://t.co/rie4dydXWx
— Thando M 🇨🇩🏳️🌈 (@thandomipa) May 3, 2025
Young Democrats Challenge Longtime Incumbents as Party Grapples With Generational Divide
Immigration
Big Tech Takes on Immigration With New Migrant Tracking Software for Ice USA Today
Tampa Woman Deported to Cuba After Normal Check-in at Immigration Office Fox 13
Trump’s Immigration ‘Shock and Awe’ Is Losing in the Court of Law Politico
Our No Longer Free Press
U.S. press freedom falls to historical low Axios
The Cost of Arrogance: Npr’s Undoing Is a Cautionary Tale for the Media The Hill
Mr. Market Is Moody
Trump’s Promised ‘Golden Age’ for the US Economy Is off to a Chaotic Start The Guardian
Here’s What Happens if the U.S. Dollar Collapses nanalyze
Japan Signals Us Treasury Holdings Could Be Trade Bargaining Chip With Donald Trump Times of India
AI
“Godfather of AI” shares prediction for future of AI, issues warnings (video) CBS
Testing AI’s GeoGuessr Genius Astral Codex
AI Scientist ‘Team’ Joins the Search for Extraterrestrial Life Nature
Claude’s AI Research Mode Now Runs for Up to 45 Minutes Before Delivering Reports Ars Technica
The Bezzle
Generative AI Makes Fraud Fluent – From Phishing Lures to Fake Lovers The Register
Walmart Takes Drastic Action to Curb Growing Fraud Problem at Self-Checkout NY Post
Businesses Globally Are Set to Lose $15 Billion in 2025 Because of Fraudulent Chargebacks TechRadar
Guillotine Watch
New record: Most expensive ice cream – JP¥873,400 (£5,469; €6,211; $6,696) made by OMER in Japan.
The ice cream includes edible gold leaf, white truffle and natural cheeses 🍨 pic.twitter.com/kaJOACEear
— Guinness World Records (@GWR) May 18, 2023
You can try boozy hot cocoa that weighs 20 pounds and costs $375 ☕️ pic.twitter.com/N9aJu2dyKR
— Insider Food (@insiderfood) February 7, 2019
Antidote du jour (via)
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here
“Prince Harry says he doesn’t ‘know how much longer’ King Charles has, seeks reconciliation”
Well King Charles would reconcile with Prince Harry, but then Harry would run off right away to write a book all about it.
When Harry met sally?
Considering his recent history, it would be better titled “When Harry Met Sadly.”
Sally, as in a sudden move out of a beseiged location.
I’m probably even more cynical. Harry just lost an expensive court case, which means his fortune just took a big hit. Their media deals are done or ending, what replacements there are aren’t remotely as lucrative. And I have a bridge to sell you if you think Meghan’s jam is the hit it has been portrayed as. IOW, that isn’t going to keep them in designer clothes and polo ponies. Forget the book, Inheritance and if remotely possible an allowance are the goal. Which is not to say that another tell all won’t come out after that has been achieved and is in the bank.
I would be less suspicious if there had been some movement on this while Charles was on the sidelines getting cancer treatments. Like finding out (after the fact) that he and the kids had spent time with his father.
I think it’s worse than that. I am waiting to get my hands on a filing, but a lawyer friend who has a weakness for celebrity gossip says Harry (and Meghan?) is being sued for defrauding a charity, and really big numbers, as in a lot more than just having improperly charged private class travel.
That “charity” wouldn’t be the Exchequer, would it?
Please pass on the tip for AGCwebpages . . . it is an old style (think craigslist) style site where an unnamed LA entertainment lawyer dumps all the celebrity gossip he hears in to the blog as barely coded (as in referring to Megan Markle as “the Alliterate One”) references. If even 10% is true the populace would burn Hollywood. It is one of my favorite guilty pleasures.
You are saying that Harry is not agreement capable? Hm, it’s not really surprising considering he is now living in Murica. If Trump wants to screw with the Brits, all he has to do is endorse Harry as his candidate for the throne and most of us won’t even need to tune to the next season of The Crown.
From his tone in the video BBC interview, it sounds like his biggest problem is with his brother. That estrangement is probably due to the racist comments about Megan that sister-in-law Kate made, and then “Spare” was Harry’s revenge. Now he’s lost a small pile of money on lawyers and the King won’t even talk to him. Why am I even wasting my precious neurons on this lol. I did watch a season of The Crown, the one where Helena Bonham-Carter played Margaret. That was amusing. This is just pathetic.
He wants his security paid for, but since he left the royal family he is just another influencer now. Besides that, is he even tax resident in the UK? I think not, since he lives in California. Then why should UK tax payers even consider paying for his security?
“Greene furious over Ukraine minerals deal, Iran talks: ‘The base is not happy’ ”
Not just MTG who was always gung-ho for Trump. Candace Owens has been calling out Trump as she thought he was about free speech but he is getting worse than Biden right now-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN6w_vFdXqE (1:16 mins)
Lots of Trump’s base will bail by the midterms as they did not vote for Trump to throw tens of billions more into the Ukraine, attack Iran on behalf of Israel and push the economy at home into a deep recession. That’s why they voted Biden out and now Trump is adopting Biden’s policies. Must be why Musk has already bailed. He sees what is coming and wants out.
Trump. Just another apparatchik of the mob.
Who is the mob.
We could tell you, but then you might wake up tomorrow morning with a horse’s head in your bed. No, seriously. It is basically the DC establishment and the insiders. Putin has publicly stated that it does not matter who is made President as the same policies are always followed and he is right. Brian Berletic also writes about this too. People voted for Trump as a wildcard candidate but in major aspects he is following the same pre-set policies Washington always follows such as such as degrade Russia, lean on Iran, support Israel even in genocide, box China in, cut wages and workers conditions at home, etc.
Who is the mob?
The billionaire oligarchs who run the country.
The USA has been an oligarchy since the Constitutional
Coup d’EtatConvention in 1787.The oligarchs have a large supporting cast that assists.
It is similar to watching the credits at the end of a movie.
A few executive producers and many, many others that helped make the film.
A nervous and precarious PMC is a big assistant in the operation of the US mob.
Maybe Trump is a new Herbert Hoover that will, unintentionally, destroy both political parties who currently share mob control.
Gleefully running the country into the ditch, while claiming you won the Indy 500, takes quite the leap of bad faith
Washington Consensus, SES PMC, media, lawfarers and lobbyists, all a big collusive bunch. They all have vested interests in keeping the money and power machines humming. Their supporting cast includes the local company town public trough.
Not to mention censoring and arresting people who dare criticise Israel. Because if you criticise Israel, you are an anti-semite, according to the definition of anti-semiticism forced on Harvard by the Trump “administration.” All to cover up the actual genocide Israel is committing against the Palestinians with the full support of both the Biden and now Trump administrations. Apparently, Netanyahu is our emperor.
Rev, if there’s going to be a corrective in the midterms, as I hope there will, how is that going to look like?
Trumpian stooges in congress going to be replaced by career democrats who also toe the neoliberal line and are, for the most part, groveling servants of the corporate and billionaire class?
To tell you the truth, I have literally no idea. It could be like the UK where voters just abandoned both parties as being hopelessly incompetent and went for a new party. Maybe in the US there might be a move to send votes to independents – any independents – so long as they were not Dems or Repubs. The old challenge of ‘wasting your vote’ might finally be laughed at into oblivion. Lots can happen between now and November of next year.
Here’s a start here in the US. A new party with 15 candidates. They claim to progressive, but no platform visible yet.
https://indivisible.org/our-candidates
Nothing to see here. Looks like a team blue cutout to me.
An appendage of the lesser weevil
The corporate coup d’état and collapse of American democracy began long before Trump. He is simply snuffing out what remains. – Chris Hedges
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/trumpland?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=fqvc3&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
There will be no corrective in the midterms. Even if the Democrats win something, they are going to raise a sound and a fury against Trump (maybe even have some further BS impeachments), but otherwise do nothing to disrupt the resources flowing to the oligarchs.
Caught a portion of interview this morning, on ABC no less, featuring retired coal miners that suffer from black lung. With the existing or looking cuts to the federal workforce and further budget cuts, a certain program in place that tracks these individuals and guides their treatment for black lung stands to be fully or partly sidelined….said coal miners seemed unhappy with that.
These wealthy people including our leading Democrats just don’t grok what it’s like, struggling to breathe every hour after a lifetime of going underground. The Republican brand will get smoked in the mid terms if they keep this up at the federal government, and it seems most likely that they will.
M T-G surprised me by showing that she’s not just a MAGA stooge (funny how she shows more backbone than some Donkeys in going against Orange Julius.)
There is a small disturbance in the force …
I remember Trump running as a populist in 2016, I did not have a lot of faith in him but tried to keep an open mind. Trump did as I expected, governed as a standard Republican while the populism went by the wayside. I am not sure why anyone would think things would be different this time, especially with Trump term-limited out from running again. Why concern himself about a furious base when he won’t be running again? And I don’t think Trump gives a damn about the greater Republican party who have always been kind of hostile to him anyway.
I am not surprised that the populist promises were abandoned after the election, there was precedent for that. I am surprised at how quickly Trump embraced the Ukraine war. I am also surprised at how fast Trump cracked down on free speech. The Republicans have always been in favor of free speech when out of power, but hostile to it when in power. (Anyone else remember David Horowitz’s about face when Bush II took over from Clinton?). Trump has gone above and beyond in attacking free speech for the sake of Israel.
I will give the conservatives this, however. Greene, Owens, Rod Dreher, and others I follow have been very critical of Trump selling out his base while Trump is in power. Compare that with Bernie, AOC, and other loyal Democrats who talk a good game when there is a Republican president, but roll over and show their bellies no matter how bad a Democrat president behaves (see, Biden, Joe).
My bigger question is how come nothing changes, no matter who gets elected?
Inside China’s Stranglehold on the Global Medicine Supply Chain (video) The Epoch Times
Why does NC continue to link to the Epoch Times funded by the far right, religious cult Falun Gong? Surely, there are more reliable sources that would provide the same or better information on the topic of Medical supply chains. I have been a supporter of the wonderful work NC has been doing since the GFC and I have never seen this organization linked to before this year. I would again suggest that there has to be more worthy sources of information. I have read their coverage of various topics before and found them to be highly problematic. Here is a link I found with a quick search that is more focused.
https://medecon.org/chinas-stranglehold-on-pharmaceuticals-threatens-americans-health-and-u-s-national-security/
HUH? There’s no link to Epoch Times, or the video you mentioned. Perhaps Haig already removed it.
Please DO NOT accuse the site generally of linking to Epoch Times. None of Lambert, Conor, nor I have ever done so and we’ve been doing all the Links since 2019, save for perhaps Haig, who I took to task based on this comment.
BTW I do regard very limited linking to Breitbart to be OK. They actually do some original reporting.
There was a link earlier in the morning. I saw and went to it when I compared and contrasted with the link that ChukJones provided.
I am surprised to see content from The Epoch Times linked on NC. I came across it as a free paper offered at a local kosher deli. Maybe ten years ago, I picked up a copy with my bagels. That was the first and last time I bothered with The Epoch Times.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Epoch_Times
@ chukjones & carla
The reason for linking to publications like Epoch Times is simple. It’s always a good idea to see what they are reading and thinking on the other side of the hill. Otherwise NC could just turn into an echo chamber. I myself have sent in links to outrageously wrong articles simply so that other readers can see what other ‘news’ is out there. Lots of Democrats were completely blindsided by Trump’s win last year because they only read feelgood news and watched feelgood TV. If they had tuned into Fox news they may not have been caught so much by surprise.
Yes. The Epoch Times is a far right Falun Gong outlet, with the extent of its distortions varying with the topic. Their worst topic is usually China. But really, is it any worse than The Atlantic these days? Or the New Yorker’s ridiculous propaganda pieces on Syria or Putin? Or the NY Times on many issues? And as you say Rev, it is also a common source of “information” for the alt-right, so it is useful for staying “informed” on that subject.
I’d believe the Weekly World News over the Atlantic these days.
Even the Men in Black found the best tips in supermarket tabloids-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duA5eWjHCjU (20 secs)
I’m in agreement with you RK, a steady diet of only reading from the right sources makes us all dull boys and girls.
Everybody has their biases, and knowing what you are dealing with going in on usually dodgy content is the better part of valor and/or precious lost minutes you’ll never gain back.
I remember a brunch last summer with 7 PMCs and me. They were convinced of a Harris landslide. All of their sources were from the usual suspects and were convinced that diversity (only skin color, not ideas) was the winning formula against Trump. So much chuckling by the other about how the Trump campaign was just wallowing in their ineptitude. It was a losing argument on my part that, I, the only person at the table that was truly left of the others had to explain that the shittiness of the legacy parties, especially the Dems, was again going to be on full display come November.
Linking to ZH is also NG when NY magazine was the source and NYT had reporting. ZH is all-i MAGA and CT and called Harris an ultra leftist and socialist.
I chewed Haig out for this and deleted the link. I DO NOT allow links to ZH. The issue with ZH is not its political leanings but its total lack of concern about accuracy (which mean they run all sorts of clickbait nonsense that is not true or so exaggerated as not to be true) and steal tons of content, including from NC.
The Cost of Arrogance. Turley.
Turley may have a brief against NPR, but he gets some basics wrong about the Washington Post. Either Turley is hasty. Or Turley is sloppy. When making big charges, one must marshal one’s facts.
Turley conflates two U.K. editors from the Telegraph and Murdoch-land. They are Will Lewis, publisher / CEO, and Robert Winnett, high-ranking editor.
https://apnews.com/article/post-publisher-britain-phone-hacking-lewis-d215e7c2d598071ea23a63e5ddd62f0f
https://apnews.com/article/washington-post-will-lewis-publisher-2050bc460fcc8f40f5a61b62da7e147e
The “truth bomb” that Turley attributes to said conjoined Robert Lewis isn’t backed by his link. The underlying link goes to some Fox aggregate page. In an earlier iteration of this opinion piece — from which much is lifted — Turley uses the same faulty link.
Haste? In U.S. culture, the righteous are always in haste to correct the damned.
Anecdotally, I, too, was once Murdoched during a buyout and merger of a book publisher. Bringing in the Brits, as Bezos has done here, is a desperate maneuver that I have seen before. And these two Brits wouldn’t be the first two skeezy types that I have seen who headed to the colonies to save their careers and to lecture the colonials.
NPR is a mess. Agreed. Yet I will take Turley’s virtue with a grain of salt.
The problem with “free speech absolutist” Turley is that he got the president he wanted who has now proceeded to violate everything Turley claimed to stand for. When Marjorie Taylor Greene is telling more truth then time for a reboot.
And so he’s recycling complaints about NPR when the issue is clearly no longer NPR but the, yes, dictatorial way Trump is attacking NPR and all the other agencies. Original intent says the founders did not want a king.
Turley works for Fox and just as we used to complain that MSNBC is the mirror image of Fox we can now make the opposite complaint with full justice.
RE: “Unprecedented Recovery” – Gene Therapy Reverses Heart Failure in Breakthrough Study
Increasing cBIN1 (Or BIN1 – Myc box-dependent-interacting protein 1) might cure heart disease but will it also increase your Alzheimer’s risk?
Predominant expression of Alzheimer’s disease-associated BIN1 in mature oligodendrocytes and localization to white matter tracts
“An increase in BIN1 expression in AD and an interaction between BIN1 and Tau have been reported.”
I hope they get the dose right. It frightens me even more that they are using a virus to deliver the enzyme.
They really need to stop messing with gene therapy…
After suggesting showing the carnage in Nottinghamshire by Reform, today I held my nose and looked at Xitter to see where the arguing is about now. Lincolnshire. For context, Lincs is the most eastern bit of the East Midlands. Here is a sample tweet. Noice.
Lincs was indeed failed both by the Blair/Brown governments and then the coalition that followed who put all the new EU immigrants there with absolutely no extra money to deal with the massive demand for hospital, GP and school services that would follow. However, most of my Dad’s family (going back to 16th century) were from there and were rather archetypal, being things like publicans: Lincs these days is (in)famous for starting the kids young on gambling at the amusement arcades and the reference to “Spoons” is Wetherspoons, the most iconic pub chain in the UK where fights are most likely to kick off. It’s a place characterised by diseases of despair.
The irony is thanks to glacial rebound and how fast sea level is rising in the East, this map, showing where Reform won across the county almost exactly corrresponds to the bits that’ll be underwater in a few decades. Since I still have family there I won’t gloat but they’re not the sharpest knives in the drawer and there will be cynics out there who will be tempted to say let nature sort things out as you can practically watch in real time the east coastline be reclaimed by the sea: that entire turquoise area.
Hey Terry, did you see that Oz had their own Federal election. The Coalition aka the conservatives got absolutely hammered and their leader lost his seat altogether. The results were in within three hours of the voting booths closing. I like to think that this massive lost was caused in part by them muttering about Make Australia Great Again and how having our own DOGE would be a great idea. People see how that is working in America and wanted none of it.
Oh yep Rev. I watched most of it. Great that the coalition got a kicking. It’s a source of frustration to me that I’d already moved back to Europe in 2019 so didn’t get to vote in Warringah to boot out the mad monk. Glad to see the independents have kept the LNP out of there since. Dutton gave me the creeps.
Labor are not as progressive as I’d like but at least with AV system there are sources of pressure on them from the left. That majority was amazing and I understand it may go up a bit further.
People here had a choice between a hack or a maniac – so went with the former. For the past few weeks when either of them came on the news I just cut the sound. They are both of them just muppets. Saw a snippet of reporters asking Dutton a question though. One asked him how could voters give him their votes when he was refusing to answer the hard question to which he replied ‘Next question.’
Thomas Fazi neglects to mention that, regardless of legal justifications, an “all out war” between the US and China would last about 45 minutes, result in the utter destruction of both countries, be followed by several years of nuclear winter, and ultimately reduce the global human population to stone age levels if it didn’t wipe it out entirely.
I’m sure this is the driving force behind Trump’s enthusiasm for a “golden dome” to make the US invulnerable to missile attacks.
Reagan had the same idea with his Star Wars program. Before WW2 the US had an ocean each side for ultimate protection but then came ICBMs that could cross those oceans. So the dream is to establish once more an America that would be totally immune to the consequences of its actions against peer powers. But what will happen is that Trump’s golden dome” will prove to be a colossal grift that does diddly squat except to mint many more billionaires.
I worry that the grifters will run a skillful enough con to convince the military leaders that their fraudulent tech actually works as intended.
I didn’t really see the point of the essay, which was all over the place, but seemed to be arguing that Israeli behaviour in Gaza would somehow feed through into the conduct of a war with China. Given that such a war is supposed to be a naval/air one in the straits of Taiwan where most of the inhabitants are fish, I’m not sure what he’s trying to say.
Hot cocoa and ice cream do not fit together.
Yeah maybe it includes some tasty Kahlua though…ha ha. I’d prefer the simpler things like, say root beer and vanilla ice cream..
It’s not about drinking but just for clicks & likes.
Saw my first Capybara in the jungle, the mighty Peruvian jungle. It kind of bore resemblance to a Koala, I thought.
Watched it eat a long length of something green as if it was slurping down a lengthy strand of fettuccine.
Struggling mightily with the humidity, think I’ll read a book and watch blue butterflies skitter to and fro.
That’s why they have machetes in that part of the world. So that you can cut your way through the humidity.
We took an hour bus ride where the eco resort fellow told us at one point to put on our seat belts as the dirt road was more bumpy than flat, and then an hour ride on a long thin boat to get to our destination.
Looking into the jungle on either side of the shore, if you were stranded here, you’d be dead in a short time if you tried to make your way through the impenetrable morass. It reminds me of being on the Green River in Utah on a 5 day raft trip, every day the slot canyons rose so high on either side so you could only see a sliver of sky above.
We Southerners prefer to cut through the humidity with our air conditioners. Good thing we have a steady supply from China. Oh wait….
I think I lost a pound of sweat equity over breakfast, its pretty obvious why the deep south was so underpopulated before a/c.
Capybara are the hip new exotic with plenty of mingling bars and cafes which feature the largest of all rodents.
https://thecapybaracafe.com/
Claude’s A I model. Isn’t that spelled Clod?
John Helmer says that Putin and Trump will hold a summit meeting 15-16 May in Abu Dhabi.
https:/johnhelmer.net/the-summit-in-the-sand-putin-agrees-to-meet-trump-in-abu-dhabi-on-may-15-16/
Have not seen any report of this elsewhere.
Hhhm. If true, not sure why Trump wants this now (although Helmer says the Administration has been pushing for this pow-wow for a while). Maybe Trump still fantasizes he can turn Putin on Ukraine. Any effort on this front will be a waste of Putin’s valuable time. Maybe he wants help with Iran or even China…..but what does he have to offer Russia?
Helmer also cited US poll data in a recent post that showed that most Americans think Trump is too friendly with Russia.
– ‘Trump Must Not Repeat Bush’s Iraq Mistakes in Iran’ – The Hill
I was thrown by the opening paragraph of this article:
“In his seminal book “The Achilles Trap,” Steve Coll offers a meticulously documented account of how mutual misperceptions, intelligence failures and institutional groupthink led to the disastrous U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. The book traces how American policymakers, driven by domestic imperatives and regional prestige, misread Saddam Hussein’s opaque and ambiguous signals.”
“Misperceptions”?? “Misread”?? I was about to give up in disgust at yet another “incompetence” scenario, but I read on and discovered that the author actually gets it right later:
“The persistent distortion of facts about Iran is driven not just by flawed analysis, but by a carefully constructed narrative designed to perpetuate conflict. Misunderstandings about Iran do not arise from intelligence failures — on the contrary, for more than 20 years, the U.S. intelligence community has consistently concluded that Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons, a position reaffirmed in the 2025 Annual Threat Assessment Report.”
“Instead, these misconceptions are pushed by a deeply entrenched lobbying network that benefits from ongoing hostility. This network — neoconservative ideologues, defense industry interests and pro-Israel advocacy groups — has systematically portrayed Iran as a perpetual enemy…”
Iraq was an example of the same purposive narrative construction by the same cancerous network of ideologues and interests. Why the author buried the lede like this is beyond me.
Re ‘In His First 100 Days, Trump Launched an “All-Out Assault” on the Environment’
There is another outbreak of seismic activity in West Texas and New Mexico which just happens to be the area of the Permian Basin where contaminated water used in fracking is injected deep underground for disposal. Last year several scientific papers linked increased seismic activity there to underground waste water injections. I suppose this is yet another of the sacrifices that are needed in order to keep Ruskie gas out of Europe…
“North Korea’s Involvement in the Ukraine War: A New Threat to International Peace”
I don’t see why. North Korea did not send their soldiers to the Ukraine but only to Kursk – which is part of the Russian Federation so Article 2(4) of the UN Charter does not apply. And by now thousands of sheep-dipped NATO soldiers have been killed in the Ukraine and nobody gave them a second thought. Saw a clip the other day of the Russians capturing a Colombian merc, the only one of his group to survive. Were those Colombians acting against the UN Charter? What about the Foreign Legion that the Ukrainians stood up? What is their status? And this article is stating that Russia and North Korea forming an alliance is against international law. Howsat? Maybe against the International Rule Based Order but not actual international law. And the authoress is worried about the effect on Ukrainian citizens without mentioning those Donbass civilians which were dying by the thousand before the wqar. To tell you the truth, this article sounded like her application letter to become an accepted globalist.
Hyperbole.
Can DPRK compete with USA, NATO, EU, Bibi in the business of mayhem?
While DPRK could send several times the empire’s “stabilization force, well equipped.
She’s an undergrad of International Relations who thinks USA and China should have solved this crisis “because UN”. She seems to have no understanding of any of the levels of this crisis nor does she seem to realize that “rules based” is the opposite of what the UN stands for.
This ground was likely already covered but is there are really a shock to the mind that a sitting US President doesn’t truly grasp the history of the biggest world conflicts during the 20th century? Having an additional thought, given the article strongly implies that Mr. Trump evaded the draft into the Vietnam War by citing “bone spurs”, so that aspect is nothing new. As for our glorified national leaders since, or rather after, Bush 41…never serving in the military means you skipped out on the duty rightly or not. Lucky for myself my birth year was the early ’70s, as opposed to being born during the ’50s or so.
People who never serve ought to stay with the basics, lest they truly prove idiotic about history, documented at great length the parties most responsible for winning and victory in wars.
Even those that serve can aid in bad decisions.
John McCain and John Kerry come to mind.
McCain always seemed to be wanting to start a new war, as in “Bomb, Bomb Iran”
John Kerry protested the Vietnam War after serving there but later morphed into a reformed, resume padding, John Kerry who was advised by Senator Barbara Boxer to vote against giving Bush the lessor the authorization to use military force in Iraq.
Kerry responded to Boxer with ‘”I have to, I want to run for president.”
Kerry might have been elected if he had taken a stand against Bush, but that is unknowable.
George McGovern did serve in WWII and was anti-war.
And he failed to get elected by a wide margin.
Decency and integrity is not a quality seen often in USA politicians.
College deferment here. The WW2 generation thought they saved the world from Hitler and Tojo and therefore their children should save the world from Ho Chi Minh. The “generation gap” grew and rightly so since Ho wasn’t Hitler nor is Putin. At least Trump doesn’t seem to be as gung ho for war as spawn of Albright like Hillary. In fact according to the WaPo he just fired Waltz for trying to corner him into a war with Iran.
But Trump still likes to play the big shot and threaten countries with utter destruction. When he does kill people he tries to pretend he had nothing to do with it and Israel “bought” their weapons so his hands were tied. Radical empathy deficit is a syndrome with DJT but then there’s a lot of that going around.
“I overheard Labour and Tories say ‘we’ve cocked it up’ – they were right”
The next UK general election is scheduled to be held no later than Tuesday 21st August 2029. If this much destruction has been visited upon the Labour and Tory parties since Starmer got in not long ago, what will the status of both parties be like in 2029. Will they both be virtually annihilated or will they see the absolute necessity of reforming themselves into something that might appeal to voters. I’m thinking annihilation as they will probably refuse to change themselves in any fundamental way and just keep on sticking to what they are doing. And Starmer? He will be long gone and will be on the board of some major bank or investment firm.
The 2027 CITY local elections (like for Nottingham City – of which I am alas about 200 metres too far north of) will be the real indicator as to what to expect. If Reform cause as much carnage to Labour in the cities and the posh bits of certain towns/cities where Tories still reign then the alarm bells will well and truly go off. And the rigid following of “Treasury Orthodoxy” by our nutcase Chancellor means IMHO this is a high probability scenario.
That’ll be the point (if not before) that a hitherto not-well-publicised part of the Labour parliamentary party will strike – those who do want PR. Ironically Reform CLAIM they want Proportional Representation. They might even be serious if they’re not confident enough of getting an overall majority. It’s not inconceivable that the UK is in such dire straits that the (over half?) of the Labour Parliamentary party who want PR will strike, in conjunction with the other smaller parties. The Tories would go mad and say this was never in their manifesto but if they’re worried about a virtual wipe-out in 2029 they might just bite their tongues. Thus we’d get AV a la Australia or one of the other systems that preserve small single member constituencies (I’ve mentioned these before). Labour do NOT want to be left as a 40-50 member “London party” and the Tories want to keep existing so it’s all to play for.
As the Revenant said re the SouthWest yesterday, Reform are taking votes from both sides. It’s very impolitic to say this but there are old school(ish) Tories in the home counties who have “reasons” not to like Kemi Badenoch. Let’s not forget it was a monumental mess-up that got Margaret Thatcher the leadership of the Conservatives in the late 1970s: that was NOT the plan. She was meant to be the stalking horse to get the hated Edward Heath out, then stand aside in round two for a “Tory Grandee” like Geoffrey Howe (who brought her down ultimately) to take the leadership. Unfortunately she got too many votes in round one and ran away with the prize.
Though the Tories like to boast about their credentials about a female leader etc, you do hear stuff and another female….and whose ethnicity looks like those people we used to rule? Hmmm. Events may well conspire to make all the non-Reform parties in Parliament to give enough support to electoral reform yet. Amazing what the fear of Reform can do if your party looks like the Liberals did in the 1940s. But it is all to play for. There is a cadre of young newly elected Labour MPs who are terrified and could yet shift the course of Labour in time for 2029.
I had a small revelation, which I am only sharing because it may help others.
I’ve spent a lot of my mental energy expressing moral indignation about our politicians, including the Orange Julius, specifically that they are lying liars. Blinken, Biden, Pelosi, Schumer … and yet, why did I ever expect them to tell the truth?
They’re liars -that’s what they do!
Rather than waste my time pointing out the obvious, I will try to focus on improving my writing and analysis skills.
We are all highly cognizant what horrible liars and worse our leaders are, and yet accept financial numbers such as GDP et al as if they were sacrosanct, not connected with the scallywags in any fashion.
I think that with Trump, that is what Trump does. He wears people down with his constant bs. Saying America built the Suez canal, posting an AI image of him as the Pope after the real one died recently, trying to turn Remembrance day into one where people would chant ‘We’re number one!’, pretending that other leaders said things that they would never say. There is no point trying to keep up with him as it would be like trying to keep up with the guy ranting to himself walking down the street. So maybe ignore all his bs and just watch very carefully the things that he does. That is the real tell.
Eli Lilly CEO Says Company Can Help ‘Respond’ to National Security Concerns Around Essential Drugs as Tariffs Loom – CNBC
Additionally, an investigation should be opened into how the higher prices people pay in the USA for healthcare and drugs affects national security.
But agreed, especially since the pandemic, it’s a concern that is long over due for addressing.
If it took tariffs to kick off concern about that over globalization, then that’s what it took. It didn’t have to be done as erratically as it is being done.
My late father never talked about the war, and he was 14 when the goose steppers came into Prague without knocking in 1939 and 20 when he was involved in the Prague Uprising today, 80 years ago.
He did talk about it exactly once when my wife and mom & dad went to Death Valley NP to see Hale-Bopp lingering in a complete absence of unnatural light, and his family had a doctor friend who diagnosed him with a series of highly communicable, but non fatal diseases over the course of the war so he didn’t have to labor for the 3rd Reich-all imaginary, I can still hear him laugh saying he was the sickest Czech man in the country!
And then he talked of his involvement in the uprising, which abruptly ended when he related throwing a potato masher grenade on a moving Nazi halfback on the street, from atop a building and it was a direct hit, and then he clammed up and never said another word in regards to his involvement in the war, as if he’d said too much already.
A few years later I’m walking with him in Prague and he points to a rather pedestrian looking wall, and mentions that’s where they lined up Czechs to be shot after Heydrich was assassinated, all sans last cigarette.
I can see now why he sheltered us from the storm…
Regarding the article “Did our politics fail us during Covid?”, the subtitle is “Political scientist Frances Lee examines the “noble lies” and truth-seeking failures of the pandemic.” There were no noble lies, there were downright lies. Just another attempt to softball, diffuse and confuse the public. I think the latest term is “to nudge”. Give me a brake …. I could have used much stronger language.