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Links 10/14/2025

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‘Their resilience is a lesson to us all’: The maritime lions hunting seals on the beach BBC (Kevin W)

The Best Medicine For Joint Pain Isn’t What You Think, Expert Says The Conversation (Chuck L). This is the sort of one-size-fits all nonsense that makes me want to break china: “Yet people who exercise regularly are physically and biologically protecting themselves from developing the disease [osteoarthritis] and from suffering its worst effects.” Complete garbage. My chondromalacia patella is the DIRECT result of exercise. And this article treats all exercise as beneficial for arthritis, when there are many exercises that would further damage my joints. One of my MDs, a top specialist in non/minimally invasive procedures says (in my nomenclature, not his) that for women, jogging is knee surgery futures due to nearly all women having too much joint laxity to not suffer damage.

Breakthrough Discovery Could Finally Be the Key to Male Birth Control SciTech Daily (Chuck L)

Your type of depression could shape your body’s future health ScienceDaily (Kevin W)

A Japanese screw craftsman who single-handedly produces 400,000 screws a day — and How to Make It YouTube (resilc)

The Limits of Data Issues in Science and Technology (resilc). Today’s must read.

Climate/Environment

China?

Bessent says China wants to ‘pull everybody else down’ Financial Times. Lead story. Exclusive interview. I always thought Bessent was an idiot but here he may just be a mouthpiece for his boss. I can read it and the headline is representative. Unfortunately, I don’t yet have a non-paywalled link that shows the content.

Western executives who visit China are coming back terrified Telegraph (resilc)

US-China trade tensions simmer as port fees take effect BBC

Sending a message: Beijing issues documents without Word format amid US tensions South China Morning Post (guurst)

Hu Xijin: Silence is not gold Pekinology. On the rise in self-censorship.

India-Pakistan

Pakistan closes border with Afghanistan after dozens killed in overnight clashes France24

The Ganges Water Crisis , A Parched River, A Thirsty Nation Dainik Jagran

One after another, Pakistan endures successive climate disasters Mongabay

Southeast Asia

Photos show a town ravaged by civil war in Myanmar Independent

Thailand’s debt spiral BBC. The loan shark rates are horrific.

Africa

Massacre’ in Sudan kills at least 53 including 14 children and 15 women Sky

Madagascar president flees after losing support of key army unit Guardian

South of the Border

The US vs. Venezuela: Who Will Win? Top War (Micael T)

How the IMF and US helped loot and entrap Argentina with debt Thomas Palley

Protesters clash with police in Ecuador amid nationwide strike over fuel prices Independent

A Nation Starves: Haiti’s Hunger Crisis Puts 6 Million at Risk Modern Diplomacy

European Disusion

Europe’s future depends on dismantling the EU — part four Thomas Fazi

How Nord Stream 2 has blown up Europe Unherd

Europe’s Suicidal Follies Gordon Hahn (Micael T)

“Insane” social cuts deepen social divisions Sozialsmus (Micael T)

Old Blighty

Reeves faces a historic challenge with record state spending The Times

Pro-Israel group gets £7m from UK government to ‘identify’ antisemitism Middle East Eye

England sees second worst harvest on record, analysis shows Independent

Israel v. The Resistance

All living Israeli captives and hundreds of Palestinians released; Trump addresses Knesset DropSite

Gaza Hostages Released as Questions Remain in Ceasefire Process Bloomberg. Across the page banner headline and no paywall.

Another Tenuous Ceasefire in Gaza Daniel Larison

Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan… A Wedding Without a Bride and Groom Larry Johnson (resilc)

The October 7 Industry American Conservative (Kevin W)

* * *

Private US military consultants flock to bolster Lebanese military Intelligence Online

Intensive Israeli air strikes kill one, injure seven in southern Lebanon Aljazeera

IMF Warns Yemen on Brink of Economic Collapse as Public Debt Surpasses 100% of GDP Yemen Online

New Not-So-Cold War

As Russian Aggression Turns West, Poland Says It’s Ready Wall Street Journal

The Taliban Claimed That The Crocus Terrorist Attack Was Orchestrated From Pakistan Andrew Korybko

Hillary Clinton replies to my question as a liar or utterly ignorant of reasons for U.S. war in Ukraine. Lucy Komisar. ZOMG. A postcard from neocon alternative reality

Imperial Collapse Watch

Who maintains the scaffolding of freedom? Shruti Rajagopalan

The United States, Israel, and their “right” to murder Rebelion via machine translation (Micael T)

The Nobel Peace Prize Committee Goes to War American Conservative

Nobel Piss Prize Julian Macfarlane (Micael T)

Trump 2.0

Trump Promised a Shipbuilding Boom. He’s Sinking It Instead Washington Monthly (resilc)

JPMorgan announces $1.5 trillion U.S. investment initiative Axios

Benioff retreats from idea of sending troops in to clean up San Francisco The Register

Coal Miners With Black Lung Say They Are ‘Cast Aside to Die’ Under Trump New York Times

Immigration

ICE Raids Are Only Half The Story YouTube. Chris C:

Video where the vlogger talks about farm labor and the H2A visa system. She also talks about changes made to the H2A visa system by the Trump administration as well as the role of farm owners and labor contractors in these changes. Important information about current farm slavery in the U.S.

Shutdown

Why It’s Pointless for Democrats to Negotiate a Shutdown Deal New Republic (resilc)

Dwindling paychecks add pressure on GOP, Trump, Democrats to end shutdown The Hill

Supremes

The Missing Defenses of the Court’s Behavior Steve Vladeck

Our No Longer Free Press

News outlets broadly reject Pentagon’s new press rules Axios. Lead story.

AI

A small number of samples can poison LLMs of any size Anthropic (resilc)

The Grand AGI Delusion Gary Marcus

AI Is Juicing the Economy. Is It Making American Workers More Productive? Wall Street Journal

What Happened When AI Came for Craft Beer 404 Media

Mr. Market is Moody

Stock Bubble Dread Grips Central Bankers in Washington Bloomberg

Watch out for black swans: The trigger for financial crashes rarely is predicted by watchdogs This Is Money

The cracks are starting to appear in the shadow banking bubble

AI rally fuelled by junk debt as crash fears grow Telegraph. Important

Economy

Congo’s Cobalt Export Shock Spurs Rally and Doubts Over Supply Bloomberg

Stronger Growth, Weaker Hiring: Forecasters See a Split-Screen Economy Wall Street Journal

Americans Are Falling Behind on Their Car Payments Wall Street Journal Telegraph

The Dismal Science

The Ghosts of the Physiocrats Relearning Economics (Chuck L)

Process knowledge is crucial to economic development Programmable Mutter (resilc)

Trio win Nobel economics prize for work on innovation, growth and ‘creative destruction’ Reuters. As in the Swedish central bank prize i the name of Alfred Nobel

The Bezzle

Crypto’s Biggest Crash Reveals a Market Littered With Pitfalls Bloomberg

$19B crypto market crash: Was it leverage, China tariffs or both? CoinTelegraph

Class Warfare

Plastic Surgery Comes for the Waist New York Times (resilc)

Antidote du jour. Janet T: “Duchess (yellow lab who has prompted more laughter than any other dog we’ve had) and Moogie (fluffy and chonky boy kitty who is a love), watching the birds and chipmunks.”

And a bonus (Chuck L):

A second bonus:

And a third:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here

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115 comments

  1. hayrake

    The Limitations of data article is good. Read it and see, but if you don’t have time the short version is: Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted.

    Reply ↓
    1. ilsm

      One more point to consider: suppose your “data” has a life and changes with time and other/external events?

      In battle management data systems one issue is the state of one unit of interest is effected by a lot of externalities…… They called it pedigree of the data.

      Data sets are not concrete.

      That said suppose they trained a US command center AI on Douglas MacArthur?

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    2. DJG, Reality Czar

      hayrake: I think that Nguyen makes some pretty basic mistakes in the article. The first is the airy dismissal of data as individual observations in favor of the current faddish idea of “data” as information. Information is always going to be messy. The second is inherent in Nguyen being a professor of philosophy: There isn’t much in the article about methods of data collection, except anecdotally.

      I happen to have served as development editor for a dozen or so introductory statistics books for high-school and college students. There is a constant stress in these books on data as individual observations that are then arranged into datasets (which can introduced bias). There is a constant stress on developing an eye in dealing with categories — which are slippery forms of data. As students progress, they learn that certain statistical tests shouldn’t be used in certain situations. And small data sets are always a problem.

      Nguyen isn’t reporting anything new. A badly designed statistical experiment that collects data sloppily produces a mess. It is incumbent on informed citizens to interpret these studies. That’s the long and the short of it.

      “Data-based” medicine has this problem, now much in evidence. Where do the data come from? Who gathered the data? Why? And isn’t the person under treatment worth studying, too, for that person’s individual needs, habits, desires, and genetic inheritance?

      I made a comment at the excellent post by Richard Murphy about sloppy use of the word “theory” to prop up econ departments and biz schools. Here we see the sloppy use of “data” as information and it biases and the term “data.”

      What was remarkable to me was that so many of the questions that Nguyen is asking are in textbooks that college students are now supposed to be studying. One doesn’t need a data ethicist to know that a bad study, with built-in biases, isn’t going to be helpful.

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      1. lyman alpha blob

        Agree that there wasn’t much new in the article, but I also thought it was very good since so many people really don’t understand this at all and get dazzled by numbers, forgetting that figures lie and liars figure. Near the end the author gives some questions that people should ask when trying to evaluate data, but often don’t.

        One example that has bothered me for years now is the “Deflategate” controversy where Tom Brady was accused of having deliberately deflated footballs to get a better grip. One argument that was used to suspend him was a study that purported to show that New England players fumbled the ball much less frequently than the league average, and not only that, but Patriots players fumbled more often on other teams before coming to play with the Patriots, and more often after they left the Patriots. So Brady was deemed guilty – there must be something with that Patriots ball that is different from the rest of the league based on the data. But the study missed some very important context, namely that Bill Belichick really frowned on players who fumbled the football and would bench them if they dropped it and release them from the team if they didn’t get the message. This, in a league that often does not give players a guaranteed contract. So you either held on to the ball and got to be a millionaire, or didn’t and got to stock shelves at your local grocery store instead. That was some very strong incentive to hold on to the ball.

        Another sports data issue that really sticks in my craw is the current fetish for determining an in-game win percentage at any given moment, or the exact odds of catching a particular pass, brought to you by the brain geniuses at AWS. Well, based on what exactly? They never say. So when they say the odds of catching a 40 yard pass are a certain percentage, are they taking into account whether the QB is above average, the defense is below average, the heights of the players involved, weather conditions, etc? All this makes a difference. You can say and with confidence for example that 25% of all passes of 40 yards have been caught in the past , but it does not follow based on that that the next pass from a certain QB to a certain receiver in certain conditions also has a 25% completion percentage. AWS is making assumptions, not telling people what they are, and blinding people with science to get them to trust their figures.

        We’d like to think everything can be measured and quantified, but it can’t, and sometimes shouldn’t even be attempted, but that doesn’t stop people from trying anyway. I’ve mentioned the anecdote from my recently deceased math teacher friend before – a colleague told her that they needed an answer and bad data was better than no data. She had to tell him that no, it most definitely was not.

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        1. Bugs

          But despite the dodgy statistics and Billichek being a Billichek, Tom Brady still underinflated his balls and is a big cheater.

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          1. Wukchumni

            I respect the Brady Hand Gun Law, being on the receiving end of punishment in many a game against my typically hapless Bills

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        2. Jonathan Holland Becnel

          AWS and the awful Chris Collinsworth are making making bank off the NFL with their “NEXT GEN STATS!”

          More grifting to make football even worse.

          Reply ↓
      2. OIFVet

        Add data-driven edumacation to the list of bad ways to use data. Did one year of teaching with the BG branch of “Teach for America” and they tried to make me spend hours every week gathering, entering and analyzing useless data points, which were to be used to pass judgement on the quality of my work. Told them to eat sh!t and left the program.

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    3. Rick

      I agree it’s a good article. I see it as an example of the ideas the polymath Iain McGilchrist has put forth in his books. It also shows the fundamental weakness of generative LLM AI, which looks to me like what happens in people who have suffered an insult to the right cerebral hemisphere: confabulation, a lack of introspection, uncertainty, or the nuance of a larger picture.

      I know someone who worked as a data scientist for a large international firm. The clients would come with a huge pile of data with the assumption it was a fantastic money making asset. Turns out that just wasn’t the case. The data had little if any value and the only money to be made was by the consulting firm.

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  2. The Rev Kev

    “Hillary Clinton replies to my question as a liar or utterly ignorant of reasons for U.S. war in Ukraine”

    There is one question that I will always wonder about Hillary Clinton. She was the Golden Girl who was supposed to have been crowned President back in 2016, right? It was all planned out and set up – until it wasn’t. So the question that haunts me is that if Hillary had become President back in 2016, whether she would have set off the war in the Ukraine during her first term – say about 2018. That Project Ukraine would have been launched way back then. Well Hillary didn’t get to be President and Project Ukraine had to wait until 2022 when Biden was already two years in power. That six year delay proved a godsend to the Russians as it gave them all that time to prepare their country for the onslaught. Still the question remains. Whether it would have been Hillary that would have pulled the trigger back then.

    Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        I think that the assumption by NATO was that as they were training five battalions of Ukrainians to NATO standards annually and equipping them with NATO equipment, that they would quickly break and overrun the inferior, amateur, cowardly Russians who would break at the sight of the Ukrainians. At least that was the stated attitude.

        Reply ↓
      2. chris

        And with another several hundred billion and another six years, they could have been contenders!

        Ukraine really should be the moment the West read the writing on the wall. We can’t fake this anymore. It’s time to give up the idea that we can do this now or that we ever could. The entire idea of how we fight wars, with what equipment, and how to train people, is obviously dead. The only thing we created with that time and effort was wasted revenue. It’s obvious. But people like Clinton cannot accept that. Because any of the alternatives seriously limits her ability to earn money or talk about policy.

        We need fo give up the idea of nation building. We need to give up the idea of a NATO backed hegemony. We need to scrap the F-35 and most of our current weapons platforms. We need to give up the idea that we can fight wars cheaply using failed methods, and have any hope that those methods will overcome significant benefits like manufacturing dominance and efficient supply chains. We need to give up the idea that we can fight wars without manufacturing capabilities.

        I’d like to suggest we give up the idea that we fight wars to fuel the needs of our corrupt elite, but I know we’ll never do that.

        Reply ↓
        1. bwilli123

          Yes, but all it will take is a little war on Iran, which we hope will provoke the Iranians into closing the Straits of Hormuz, thus cutting most of China’s oil which will cause their economy (and thus the CCP) to collapse and then we can attack Russia through the back door in Siberia.
          A bonus is that the Middle Eastern Oil Kingdoms will also collapse and we can take over there too (or get Israel to do it on our behalf)
          A walk in the park!

          Reply ↓
          1. The Rev Kev

            Or the Iranians can take a page out of the Yemeni book and only attack shipping from Western interests – while giving Chinese and Russians ships free passes.

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          2. mzza

            these 110% successful interventions fueled by the US-owned oil from the by then easily-conquered through Noble Peace Venezulela of course…

            Reply ↓
      3. ilsm

        Debate continues on whether Hitler and the allies would have been “better prepared” to enter the second world war in 1941!

        Hitler decided in 1939 Germany was good enough vis a vis the allies. In May 1940 the general staff was still not sure.

        As Rumsfeld said you go to war with what you have”,…… will it ever be enough??

        In 2018 the Russians would have gone tac nuke.

        Why does the deep state ignore nukes? do they think they can kill Russia with a hundred thousand FPV drones and not go nuclear?

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        1. chris a

          The debate is long over. The Germans lost as soon as they invaded the USSR and there was no way to win. Much has been written on this, including “When Titans Clashed” by David Glantz. Almost everything we know about the war in the USSR was from German commanders.
          The west has demonstrated repeated arrogance and lack of planning in its attacks on others, especially since the 1990’s.
          What is it about Russian/Soviet military history that would make anyone think the army would break and run? Was no one preparing for an alternative?
          There would be other options than nukes for Russia, especially since Russia was well aware of the plans and was preparing.

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          1. Aurelien

            As you say, the debate is long over and the consensus is that the Germans were never going to win unless the Soviet Union collapsed in a few weeks. Why did they think it would? And why, more importantly, did the General Staffs of other western countries think so? On the one hand there was the pretty awful showing of the Red Army in the Finland campaign, and on the other the wholesale imprisonment and slaughter of senior army officers, including the most able commanders. So whilst the weakness of the Red Army was overstated, it wasn’t without evidence. In addition, the Red Army was very largely deployed near the frontiers ready for the inevitable counterattack, and to anyone who had studied the French defeat of 1940, it was obvious what was going it happen. Yet in the event, what actually happened was that huge numbers of Red Army troops were cut off and surrounded. Many surrendered, but enough didn’t that they inflicted significant casualties on the Germans, and logistics did the rest. The problem was that there was no Plan B, because Germany couldn’t afford a longer war. The Soviet Union had to be defeated quickly, so that Germany could finish off Britain before the Americans came in.

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        2. The Rev Kev

          The German Navy – the Kriegsmarine – was very unhappy when the war broke out in 1939. Their planning stated that they would not be ready for a major war until 1945.

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          1. Wukchumni

            You have to hand it to the Reich, they looked like the first coming of the Atlanta Falcons in the 2017 Superbowl @ halftime.

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    3. .Tom

      I thought Clinton’s reply was pretty solid for an off-the-cuff statement of the Western consensus reality, i.e. the neocon alternative reality (as in, alternative to objective reality). She covers most of their main points and deceptions in two minutes flat, each of which takes ages and loads of evidence to refute. It’s shocking to witness. That’s how it works, I suppose. And the audience loves it. Kudos to Lucy Komisar for asking.

      RK, I recall also the 2008 Democratic primary and her 2000 enthronement as NY Senator. But I don’t feel confident to write her off as a failure. Here we are in 2025 and neocon doctrine is thoroughly orthodox throughout the West. Idk how long it can last but its ascendancy and current hold on politics, policy and culture so far has been impressive and Clinton played her part.

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    4. Michaelmas

      Rev Kev: …the question that haunts me is that if Hillary had become President back in 2016, whether she would have set off the war in the Ukraine during her first term

      Of course she would. Why do you think erstwhile SIS (MI6) chief Sir Richard Dearlove got the band from the former Moscow desk back together to whip up the Steele dossier? It’s a strong bet that there were factions* in the UK who aimed for Brexit to happen in conjunction with the Ukraine war, with its effects on the EU, kicking off.

      * Factions including, to be clear, Dearlove —
      Quitting EU would make Britain SAFER, says former MI6 chief: Sir Richard Dearlove suggests Brexit would make it easier to deport terrorists and control our borders
      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3506991/UK-safer-Europe-says-former-MI6-chief-Sir-Richard-Dearlove-suggests-Brexit-make-easier-deport-terrorists.html

      Reply ↓
  4. The Rev Kev

    “What Happened When AI Came for Craft Beer”

    Worth while reading this article. You get to understand that AI has the Reverse Midas Touch – everything that it touches turns to s***.

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisFromGA

      In private equity land, killing patients is a good thing. It cuts down costs – dead patients don’t require pesky nurses who demand to get paid, doctors, medicine, etc.

      Reply ↓
  6. Wukchumni

    The Best Medicine For Joint Pain Isn’t What You Think, Expert Says The Conversation
    ~~~~~~~~~~~

    I reckon i’ve walked maybe 5,000 miles in Sequoia-Kings NP so far-so good (feeling a smidge better as of late, did a 3 mile hike the other day on the Nature Trail amidst fall colors-with only a soupçon of knee pain) so I haven’t lacked for exercise much.

    When the doc showed me X-rays of my knee 4 months ago, there was some concern that perhaps a cartilage embezzler had made away with mine, there not being a whole lot left.

    I got osteoarthritis the old fashioned way, I wore myself out.

    Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        In my defense versus runners, always had one foot firmly on the ground. all of the hard core runners I know are paying the price for all that levitation.

        What really did me in was about a gajillion stone steps on the Inca Trail walking to Machu Picchu, here-have at it for a minute from the privacy of your screen.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmV2rgJVdNA

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        1. Ignacio

          I was a runner but left the vice because muscular lesions. Now I ride bicycle (MTB) and i like it much more than running or walking. I ride with all the cautions. A coward when the path gets too rough (too “technical” the bikers say). Even with caution it is inevitable to crash like once a year but so far without consequences. I truly enjoy it and can do up to 90 km (about 55 miles) rides with or without company.

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          1. Joe Renter

            I understand the too technical part of MTBing can be intimidating. What I am doing currently is watching YouTube videos trying to get pointers. There are many great channels. In my area this is the time of year to get on the trails. We have dry and sandy trails. In the last 18 hours we received over 1.5 inches of rain. I am hitting the trails in the morning tomorrow.
            Also using flat pedals is good on technical trails as you get exit quickly.
            I know there are great trails in Spain, as I watch races posted on YouTube.
            Keep at it!

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        2. mrsyk

          From my days as a runner many years ago, I was taught by my coaches to avoid running on asphalt or other similarly hard surfaces and stick to trails and grassed sports pitches to save the knees from wear and tear. This was fifty years ago, and I know not if this is still considered a thing.

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          1. Wukchumni

            I was so impressed with our retinue of 14 Peruvian porters-each of them aspiring to be 5 foot 5, lugging 55 pound packs.

            We were told the oldest porter that goes back and forth all the time is 69 years old.

            If you could provide that same sort of service here in the Sierra Nevada, it would be great. All I had on my back on the Inca Trail was a larger daypack.

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          2. ADU

            I remember running, in that I no longer do. As a teen in LA, we ran cross country. We’d do 15 mile runs about once a week. etc. etc. but back then I ran in Ontisuka Tiger Marathon shoes. They were like Tai Chi shoes, super light and about a 1/4 ” sole with almost no padding. I am amazed that my legs still work. Running in those on sidewalks through the LA suburbs. How did I never blow out my knees? When looking them up to confirm my spelling I found this: 1970 Ontisuka Tiger Marathon Vintage (US10) Original Box
            Wow, a pair of shoes from my high school days now go for $700.00? Really? People are obsessed over strange things.

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    2. Carolinian

      I blew out my knees with a spate of cycling but not severely since the switch to daily walking has brought them back. I loved the freedom of the bike but decided being able to walk more important.

      I do think as we get older it’s use it or lose it. Just don’t overuse it.

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        1. Joe Renter

          Exactly. I did a 10 day meditation retreat when I was 48 and the hours of agony in just trying to do half lotus was a bigger challenge than hours of meditation. It’s the chair for me nowadays!

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      2. lyman alpha blob

        I never used to exercise when I was younger since I was healthy and didn’t need it. Now though I’m going by the use it or lose it rule. I do 25 situps daily, and then some occasional kayaking for the top half and moderate biking for the bottom half (maybe a few times per month each), for with some short bouts of wood splitting thrown in two or three times per week. So far, so good.

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    3. JP

      My training was Tai Chi Chaun. We were inveighed against hard full extensions. The cultivation of the chi was much about learning to relax opposing muscles and making exertion a meditation, coordination of breath and motion. I have watched many of my contemporaries seize up with scar tissue from injuries inflicted from the no pain no gain mentality. After fifty your muscles and connective tissue begin to change. If you keep pushing hard you will most definitely sustain the kind of injury that promotes osteoarthritis. Then in your 70’s and 80’s you can injure yourself just siting in a chair thinking about it. Exercise is essential for maintaining physical and mental health but it gets increasingly dangerous to push it. Inflammation is the enemy. Not noticeable in youth but tissue damage accrues. Then after 55 when the barometer drops it’s aches and pains. The best medicine for joint pain is to not incur any in the first place but still get plenty of exercise. Probably an impossible combination.

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      1. Yves Smith Post author

        Wellie there are always exceptions. I was seeing orthopedists as soon as I could walk. I was a pretty inactive kid yet still had many ankle sprains. And there is no way back with ankles, there’s not enough muscle to compensate for the loss of joint integrity. So Tai Chi was never on.

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        1. JP

          There are many forms. Tia Chi is basically a scaffold for cultivating the chi. It can be done in a chair. The breath is more important then the ankles

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      2. Wukchumni

        I think I stretched once, sometime before the turn of century.

        Have always been ready to go getting out of the box, er wheeled cage, and onto the trail.

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    4. Martin Oline

      100 years ago the treatment for arthritis was a rocking chair. I think most front porches came with them. Both a in short supply today.

      Reply ↓
  8. chris

    Re: Western executives who visit China are coming back terrified – Telegraph

    The archive link keeps timing out for me, but putting in the title brings you to enough different sources to get the gist of the Telegraph article. The bottom line is that the UK is installing roughly 2500 high quality manufacturing robots per year, the US 34000, and China is installing roughly 295000. So almost factors of 10 between the three nations. Ford executives are seeing this and freaking out. Not sure why Ford is scared. They’re been making high quality robots for decades, they just keep putting them in management. Perhaps if they made them for the factory floor their vehicles would be better built…

    Reply ↓
    1. ocypode

      I’ve been having the same problem, changing the .is domain to .li usually works out. The piece is pretty interesting, especially how there are essentially workerless factories in China to the point they don’t even keep the lights on.

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    2. Alice X

      …They’re been making high quality robots for decades, they just keep putting them in management.…

      I think the have had a number of crash dummies mixed in there.

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    3. Michaelmas

      chris: Ford executives are seeing this and freaking out.

      A common diagnosis of third world countries’ failure to develop — principally in Africa and S. America — used to be that they were in the state they were in because their wealthy elites kept on feeding any wealth that emerged or entered those countries into their own bank accounts, further enriching themselves and impoverishing the population as a whole

      Same now with much of the the West: there’s been a failure to invest and the default move has been to further enrich shareholders and top executives at every opportunity.

      Neoliberalism provided an ideological framework — however threadbare– for that to happen. And now not only can the West not build high-speed rails and infrastructure, nor fight and win prolonged wars, but in the US — the disease’s epicenter — there’ve been Boeing airliners that fall out of the sky, an F35 fighter force that mostly can’t fly, Polaris missiles sold to foreign states that don’t work, productive capabilities moved overseas, etc. etc.

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      1. Alice X

        Ahso, the profit motive is our undoing. If only humanity could see each of us, each other, on a basis of equality.

        Sans transaction.

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  9. ChrisFromGA

    Good morning. Those Sea Surface Temperature charts from the China/North Korea coast are downright scary. How much worse will it get when the Tech Bastards get all their coal-fired power plants built, at taxpayer expense, to power their data centers so that we can all make videos of our cats throwing the winning TD in the Super Bowl?

    Will we be swimming in 80-degree water off the coast of Jersey in December? Lake Superior as the new tropical destination?

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni

      In July of 2023 in Manatee Bay Florida, the temp was 101 degrees-rendering the ocean a hot spring of sorts.

      I would loved to have experienced that, being an agua caliente tribal member.

      But in its way, the Big Heat is fascinating thing to watch-as norms are what you make of them, as per Mother Nature’s whims.

      That said, i’m giving this planet 25 years to straighten up its act, or i’m outta here.

      Reply ↓
  10. Adam1

    “The Best Medicine For Joint Pain Isn’t What You Think, Expert Says”

    I’d agree that movement it probably the best thing from a preventative perspective, but in the entire article I didn’t find yoga or stretching mentioned once. Those are the types of movements you need for ensuring your joints aren’t grinding against each other.

    Additionally, arthritis is a disease of inflammation and inflammation is an immune system response. Having sub-optimal vit D levels can allow your immune system to get out of kilter. Vit D is important in regulating your inflammatory response mechanisms. And as we age our body’s ability to make vit D declines significantly and most of us don’t get enough regular exposure to the sun anymore so most of us are sub optimal in our vit D levels even though we haven’t yet got rickets.

    Reply ↓
    1. ADU

      Solid vit D levels are also good contra Covid. Over the last few years while studying how to respond to or prevent Covid, lots has been learned. Vit D acts as a hormone in some aspects. Really interesting and inexpensive. Not promoted by any government agency of course.

      Reply ↓
    2. Duke of Prunes

      A few years ago, there were some articles about how stretching had never been formally studied. People did it because it seemed right and /or they had always done it.

      Research has since found that only tangible benefit was that it made one good at stretching. No evidence it improved performance or reduced injury. I never looked at the studies, and was a bit skeptical since it seemed like there were suddenly many articles about this.

      On the other hand, when i was young we stretched, often bounced, when warming up, then they got rid of the bouncing, then they said it was better when cooling down so it doesn’t surprise me that maybe some are saying don’t bother. Maybe I’m just biased because I have never been very flexible – which i also read was a positive indication for arteriosclerosis, but so far, so good.

      Reply ↓
      1. Laura in So Cal

        My 83 year old father discovered Yoga about 10 years ago. Living on a rural property and having gardening/yard work as a hobby kept him in pretty good shape overall ftom a strength and stamina perspective, but he was stiff as a board. After doing yoga for 10 years, his flexibility and balance greatly improved. He boasts that he is the only person his age that he knows that can bend down and tie his own shoes.

        Reply ↓
        1. amfortas

          tai chi…including my homegrown variety…is even lower impact.
          my biggest issue is all of my joints, below my jaw(ie. literally all of them,lol…skull sutures dont count).
          i am stiff AF when i awake…and am usually awakened by the self-healed compression fractures in my thoracic spine(carrying feed sacks and hay bales)….i describe it to ppl as “i wake up under a fallen stone wall every day…”
          stretching, in whatever gentle form i can manage, is essential to getting anything done.
          takes me 5-10 minutes of this, sitting on the edge of the bed, before i can get up and make coffee.
          much of that, is due to left ankle(1# of stainless steel) becoming disarticulated during the night…hafta “pop” it all back together.
          i watched a lotta vids and actually tried real, formal Tai Chi…decades ago…because it was obvious that it could be helpful.
          but i found that i was too much of a fall risk with all that,lol…and thence modified the principles intoto my own thing.
          these methods have helped…even as they evolved to include the Bar Stump.
          i dont get tangled in my own feet near as often as i used to…altho i hafta be careful when i’m in a tight spot with a chainsaw…because i cannot just spring away out of danger like my boys can.

          Reply ↓
  11. The Rev Kev

    “Sending a message: Beijing issues documents without Word format amid US tensions”

    Well I suppose that it is their bat and ball so they get to make the rules. And that WPS Office already comes pre-installed on Amazon Fire tablets so is not that obscure-

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

    Both China and Russia are less and less willing to put up with the antics of the west. Lavrov was at a press conference recently and said during it that he would only take questions in Russian and not English which he actually speaks quite well.

    Reply ↓
  12. William Beyer

    Regarding “Western executives who visit China are coming back terrified,” when I was a member of the national board of directors of the American Institute of Architects, our president-elect returned from a trip to China and reported that the Chinese executives he had met had basically told him that China would be eating America’s lunch and there was nothing we could do about it. The year was 2003.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      Wasn’t really hard to work out though I missed it myself. China spent their money on infrastructure, training and development. America decided to spend their money in the sandboxes of Iraq and Afghanistan so that some insiders could become newly minted billionaires.

      Reply ↓
      1. jsn

        Yes, the Mandate of Heaven falls on those who raise the least as well as the best, something almost Christian about that (Gibbon of course called Christianity Communism).

        In doing so, it turns out you are able to optimize a workforce for climbing the value chain including such valuables NeoLiberalism fails to recognize like transportation, housing, health, education and diet.

        Once you’ve got all that in order, you can build the stands around a Capitalist pitch and watch the players compete on a level field. Not to say China has it all worked out on the micro-scale, lots of challenges with over a billion souls, but they’re certainly running a tighter authoritarian ship than we are, and one that’s not leaking from every seam as ours is.

        Reply ↓
  13. Mikel

    Western executives who visit China are coming back terrified – Telegraph

    https://www.eastisread.com/p/dandan-zhang-chinas-factory-workers/
    (This info or article was previously presented on NC. I bet the visiting execs took note of this army of workers too)

    https://jacobin.com/2025/10/china-logistics-gig-work-labor/
    (just another take that that gives a workers point of view…since we’re talking about who is “terrified”!)

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2773067025000214/
    (comes from a site that has the word “science”” in it)

    Reply ↓
  14. The Rev Kev

    ‘Zlatti71
    @Zlatti_71
    🇱🇻🇷🇺 “Second class”: Latvia will forcibly deport Russian pensioners by November
    By November, the country will begin forcibly expelling Russian citizens who failed to pass the Latvian language exam. This was reported by Riga City Council deputy Yulia Sokhina. According to her, the authorities’ attitude towards Russian speakers is second-rate.’

    Meanwhile silence emanates from organizations like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the EU, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Parliament, etc. about this blatant violation of older people’s rights. Some of those old folks have already been kicked out of the country and Russia takes them in and sets them up with social security as it turns out that they are a Christian nation and are not neoliberal enough to throw them out onto the streets. Who knew?

    Reply ↓
    1. JP

      What does religion have to do with it? It turns out language promotes a shared culture and people tend to take dare of their own. The morality of it is ambiguous at best.

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        Turns out that in this part of the world they still take their religion seriously and it is expressed in their lives by following the tenets of their religion. In the Russian army you will find Russian orthodox priests not only giving their blessing but being with the troops as well

        Reply ↓
        1. JP

          Not to be argumentative but a great many of the problems in today’s world are the result of people taking their religion seriously.

          Reply ↓
  15. thrombus

    A Nation Starves: Haiti’s Hunger Crisis Puts 6 Million at Risk Modern Diplomacy

    That’s why they support Barbecue.

    Reply ↓
  16. LawnDart

    Re; Immigration

    H-2A Visa Abuse: Exploitation of Farm Workers and Solutions

    The H-2A Visa: From Labor Lifeline to Modern Slavery – And What We Actually Need to Fix It

    Quick takeaway: migrant workers used to be able to move between employers for better pay, work conditions, etc., but the H-2A legally binds them to a single employer– you quit, you have to go back to whatever country you came from and start over.

    Why did farmers vote for Trump? Because this program is being expanded, and Team Trump has cut the minimum wage paid to these workers (more profits!).

    Don’t feel too bad about US being cut-out of the Chinese soybean market either, because, in addition to bailouts, there’s this:

    A New Road for Soybeans: Building New Domestic Demand

    With the loss of Chinese demand, U.S. ag is searching for its next “shining star.” Researchers at Iowa State may have found it for soybeans: the road beneath your feet and the refineries needed to fuel your truck or car.

    It’s a win-win for US “farmers” (agribusiness, not small-farm types) and US oil refineries.

    Reply ↓
    1. jefemt

      Fun to see the EROI on that soybean – to – asphalt / fuels….

      I am dumber than a post- it seems I am in ample, good company!

      Reply ↓
  17. Jason Boxman

    From Americans Are Falling Behind on Their Car Payments

    “The customer is constrained and under pressure,” said Michael Lavin, president and chief operating officer of Consumer Portfolio Services, at a conference last month. Consumer Portfolio Services, a subprime auto-financing company, pulled back on lending this year, Lavin said.

    The amount of Consumer Portfolio Services’ outstanding loans that ended up in repossession more than doubled since 2022, to nearly $98 million, in the second quarter of this year.

    This is interesting because during the great financial heist, Americans were mailing in their keys rather than give up their cars. If you don’t have transportation to work, in most places in America, you’re finished.

    Reply ↓
  18. MicaT

    Cobalt
    While the majority of US battery OEM’s still use NMC, China has almost completely changed to LFP.
    The power, energy,weight of LFP vs NMC has gotten to where it’s almost the same. But the price is substantially lower and safety is much higher as well as much better for the environment.

    Now of course sodium is the where CATL and BYD are putting most of their money on. Already it’s being used in cars, and energy storage systems. It’s substantially less expensive than LFP and safer yet and a more environmentally sustainable yet.

    Anyone still talking about shortages of lithium and cobalt etc isn’t keeping up with the extremely fast moving battery industry. Which is going to LFP and sodium partially because the raw materials are so much easier to get.

    Reply ↓
  19. Roxan

    Yves, you are 100% right about joint pain! When I talked to a surgeon about getting a new knee, I mentioned I used to do a lot of sports, he just nodded, and said ‘that will do, it!’ Anyone who advises exercise as a ‘cure’ for arthritis never had a sore joint themselves.

    Reply ↓
  20. The Rev Kev

    “Trump Promised a Shipbuilding Boom. He’s Sinking It Instead”

    This is what i have noticed about the Trump regime. That will announce all these grandiose plans but there is never any carry through. There is no assessing where the US is, thinking through where they want the US to be, sketching out all the steps necessary to get there, allocating the resources and the people to make it all happen and then carrying it out. That was how the US was able to place men on the Moon in only several years back in the 60s. Now? There seems to be no understanding of this approach or willingness to do the hard work to do it. It’s just all PR fluff.

    Reply ↓
  22. Ben Panga

    Google Translate of Medvedev Telegram post responding to Trump’s Tomahawk musings.

    Trump said that if the Russian President doesn’t resolve the Ukrainian conflict, “it will end badly for him.” He’s making this threat for the hundred and first time, in short.

    If “business peacemaker” is referring to Tomahawks, the phrase is incorrect. The delivery of these missiles could end badly for everyone. And most of all, for Trump himself.

    It’s been said a hundred times, in a manner understandable even to the star-spangled man, that it’s impossible to distinguish a nuclear Tomahawk from a conventional one in flight. It won’t be Bandera’s Kyiv that launches them, but the United States. Read: Trump. How to respond to Russia? Exactly!

    One can only hope that this is another empty threat, prompted by protracted negotiations with a cocaine-addled clown. Like sending nuclear submarines closer to Russia. Well, you know how it happens: a submarine surfaced in the steppes of Ukraine.

    Reply ↓
  23. jsn

    The Limits of Data and The Ghosts of the Physiocrats really need to be read together.

    Abstraction is a procrustean bed that truncates understanding, whether it is data being trimmed to fit an input window or metaphors being used to analogize dynamic systems.

    Essences are not fungible, which is what numeric or abstract systems require: what is lost, over time builds into what is essential, simply for having been lost for so long.

    Reply ↓
  24. The Rev Kev

    “Trio win Nobel economics prize for work on innovation, growth and ‘creative destruction'”

    There is a video at the top of this page and it looks like one of these turkeys giving a speech though he sounds like a flim flam man. At one point he says-

    ‘I strongly urge the world to keep putting efforts and money and resources and incentives to the people who are trying to invent us out of these two crisis.’

    Yep, he’s a modern economist, okay. The world has major problem? Give some billions to a billionaire to try to figure out an answer though likely they were partly responsible for the problems in the first place.

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni

      Maybe we can assuage all grown up now Anthony Fremont by awarding him a ‘Consolation Nobel Prize’ with said medal having a likeness of both the King of Sweden and Donald Trump in a conjoined design of things?

      Reply ↓
  25. Revenant

    The Arnaud Bertrand article about China delaying using the rare earth card until today because it had to ensure a source of helium independent of the USA is very interesting. However, I am surprised he did not make another couple of connections.

    First, in the early days of the SMO in the Ukraine, one of the many valuable Ukrainian industries we were asked to safeguard for the USA was… the extensive noble gas production business in the Donbas. Neon, krypton and xenon are all produced as a by-product of the steel industry liquifying and seperating air for oxygen production. The Ukraine accounted for well over half of the neon market and getting on for half of the krypton and xenon markets. The noble gases are needed in semiconductors, lasers, etc.

    Second, the second biggest supplier of helium after the USA is… Qatar. I imagine the US security guarantee is driven as much by the desire to prevent Qatar accepting others’ guarantees as it is by US interests (the US has plenty of natural gas and helium).

    Reply ↓
  26. Trister0

    I appreciate the consistent coverage of the H2a program here at NC. Hard to find elsewhere. Recent “downward adjustments” have played out in line with much of the commentary I have read from Conor and others here at NC. Sad and scary for me and those I work with, but vital. Keep up the good work!

    Any chance of something on the Jamaican H2a program popular here in the North East US?

    Reply ↓
  27. XXYY

    China and Helium.

    This piece also answers the question of why the German dirigible Hindenburg was filled with hydrogen gas instead of non-flammable helium.

    Helium was a strategic material during World War II, with the vast majority of the world supplies held by the United States. When the Germans needed a lighter than air gas they were forced to use hydrogen with the explosive results we saw.

    Looks like not that much has changed until very recently, with China developing new technologies for industrial helium manufacture.

    Reply ↓
  28. Wukchumni

    Left hand corner bottom pocket is being doused with enough rain and snow to put paid to a pitiful wildfire year, that is if you can look beyond early January when 16,000 homes burnt to cinders in the LA Infernos.

    You can never reason what makes or breaks a fire season, got off on our recognizance this time.

    LA Nina could give us another mighty winter. They’ve spent all summer and into the fall, replacing old culverts on Mineral King road-160 of them in total, with the larger ones being 3 feet in diameter. Its the first part of repaving the road, the whole job will take until 2027 to complete.

    Filled in culverts and/or bent & broken pipe were the leading cause of road failure in the winter of record for the southern Sierra for 125 years, in 2023.

    Reply ↓
  29. The Rev Kev

    “Lebanon • Private US military consultants flock to bolster Lebanese military”

    ‘The Pentagon has pledged an additional $230m in military aid to Beirut, stepping up US support for the Lebanese military and intelligence services in their ambitions to disarm Hezbollah. Cooperation is centred on a team of consultants funded by the US Department of Defense, as well as the British and Canadian governments.’

    So the Pentagon wants to give the Lebanese army enough equipment to fight a civil war with Hezbollah but not enough so that Israel has a sad face. And what Lebanon seriously needs right now is a civil war. With all these consultants, anybody think they will do just a good a job as they did for the Ukraine?

    Reply ↓
    1. ilsm

      Advisors is how US started in Saigon early 1960s before we ousted Diem…..

      Is Hizbolah like the VC?

      Can Netanyahu win hearts and minds

      Reply ↓
  30. griffen

    Cryptocurrency markets having a sad couple days, well it’s a damn shame isn’t that. \sarc

    Have those market participants in those varied Coins and exchanges not watched films such as Trading Places, or Wall Street, like ever at all? During 2025, been a good bit of “perpetually bullish” talk on the valuation of cryptocurrency like Bitcoin; but in the end of a tumultuous trading session it looks a lot like the fictional Duke brothers complaining about the margin call and their firm’s seats going up for resale.

    “…feeling good, Billy Ray…”…since I am not involved in the cryptocurrency craze.

    Reply ↓
  31. Mikel

    Process knowledge is crucial to economic development – Programmable Mutter

    “If Dan is right, you need deep connections into the physical economy to make proper use of the virtual economy that America is over-specialized in. If you don’t understand and work in the real world, you won’t have the kind of feedback loops that enable you to see how the economy works.”

    Indeed. I remember my years working at a record label in the 90s. I was a regional sales manager, but the big boss made sure we were educated in the economy of it all. We had to visit record stores, wholesalers, radio stations, CD and vinyl manufacturing plants (all in the USA at that time), recording studios, music festivals and concerts, the sales conferences, music video shoots, and the mail distribution centers. It was my first introduction to the open room workplace. The sales people were sat between the radio promotion team and manufacturing team.

    One of the first things he warned us about was that a hit record could be a company’s demise and not a launch pad – if the process was not understood.

    Reply ↓
  32. XXYY

    AI rally fuelled by junk debt as crash fears grow Telegraph

    Meanwhile, in AI news:

    O “Concerns around an AI bubble have been growing amid unease that a surge in valuations has not been justified by consumers’ appetite for the technology.”

    O “Growing numbers of businesses are cancelling their subscriptions to AI apps amid concerns that heavy spending on chatbots is leading to a surge in so-called “workslop” – low-quality work churned out by employees who are overly reliant on AI chatbots.”

    O ” …despite soaring investment and increased efforts from executives to coax staff into adopting the tools, most corporate AI projects have failed to make money. In August, a study from MIT found 95pc of company AI projects had so far generated zero return on investment.”

    Nothing to see here!

    Reply ↓
  33. Tom Stone

    When I learned that one of the leftist subversive groups that was going to be targeted by the Trump administration was the “No Kings” movement I took a few minutes to savor the irony.
    And then it inspired me to come up with the right sign for Saturday’s rally
    ” Jesus is the Lord,
    Elvis is the King,
    Donnie is a Drama Queen”.
    I’m hoping members of the commentariat can improve on this.

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisFromGA

      I’d go with something like “If Donald is the Nobel Peace prize winner, then Larry Flint should receive a lifetime achievement award for promoting chastity” but it would likely not fit on a sign.

      Reply ↓
  35. ChrisFromGA

    It seems that more and more mainstream economists are calling AI a bubble:

    https://seekingalpha.com/news/4503973-the-third-bubble-of-our-century-could-be-near

    Does anyone recall the timeline for the 2008 housing bubble finally popping? I seem to recall that while housing was widely recognized as a bubble as early as 2004/5, it wasn’t until 2007 when the writing was on the wall. The homebuilders started imploding first, then we had the first hedge funds go under, Thornburg Mortgage blew up, and finally Countrywide imploded. That was the first act. The second act was 2008, when it became apparent that it wasn’t “contained” to just homebuilders and subprime mortgage bucket shops.

    (Let us also have a moment of silence for Cramer’s famous meltdown on CNBC in August of 2007.)

    I want to say that every reputable economist recognized housing as a bubble by early 2007, and that subprime wasn’t contained, yet the music kept playing for a few more quarters. I would wager that we’re roughly at the equivalent of fall 2006 right now. Some smaller AI companies have imploded, but no “Big Kahuna” yet. We haven’t even had our Thornburg mortgage equivalent … that might be Anthropic or a smaller AI player going bankrupt.

    (I presume Nvidia is the Big Kahuna. If/when it blows, the name of the game will be to find out the dependencies, i.e. homebuilders->big banks->AIG)

    We need our Bear Stearns!

    Reply ↓
    1. Screwball

      I think it was 2010 sometime, but I could be off a little, I was in Columbus, Ohio at a sports bar with a bunch of guys who worked for JP Morgan Chase. Apparently, JPM has a large footprint in Columbus. Anyway, we were talking about the crash and the bank earnings, which JP Morgan had reported that week. The only reason the stock price didn’t get hammered more was their loan loss reserves or something like that, but that isn’t my point.

      As I was talking to these guys I learned they were loan officers and one was a senior loan officer. He said “I can’t count the number of loans I approved that I knew would never pay them back.” WHAT? So, like a dummy, I said “if you knew all these loans were not going to be paid back, why did you and the bank approve them?”

      Seems like a good question, no? So he calmly looks at me and says “because the government said we had to.” WHAT? Is that true? I guess/assume the government set the rules for who qualified, and who didn’t. Maybe, I don’t know.

      Sure seems to me, if I owned a bank or loaning institution, I sure wouldn’t approve loans I knew would never be paid back. But that’s just me. That entire exchange I will never forget, and never make sense out of.

      The rest, as they say, is history.

      Reply ↓
      1. ChrisFromGA

        The analog, I suppose, to bad loans circa 2007 as compared with current times is VC and big tech money being lent to speculative ventures like OpenAI that, in the hindsight of 2030, will be seen as obvious that it could never be paid back.

        My working theory is that: 1. Smaller speculative AI companies with no monetize-able use cases blow up first (1), then nVidia’s customers (datacenter jockeys dependent on the losers in step 1) blow up (2), then (3) nVidia blows up.

        An alternate theory is that OpenAI is the “Big Kahuna” but the dependency/tight coupling between them and nVidia makes me think that if one goes down, the other will follow. Also, OpenAI is still not public and technically not a for-profit venture, so how that all plays out is hard to predict.

        We haven’t made it to step 1, yet, as there is still VC money flooding into these malinvestments. Big Tech is the equivalent to the 2008 era Big Banks – JPMorgan, Bank of America, etc. Note that most of them survived due to government bailouts, but their stock prices suffered greatly. I expect a similar outcome for Microsoft, Facebook, and Google – the companies will survive but the stocks will go into stage 4 declines.

        BTW, by 2010 we were in the post-crisis phase of the housing bust/financial crisis. The Fed was in full damage control QE mode by then, and the stock market had already bottomed out.

        Reply ↓
  36. doily

    Joel Mokyr, not the worst pick we have seen for the “Nobel” prize in economics. More a historian than a chalkboard fantasist, his work on capitalist innovation would dovetail nicely with what Marx and Engels wrote in The Communist Manifesto if he showed more interest in the problem of distribution than the rest of his tribe, all happily thumping the table and shouting “Progress!” The world is going to hell, but hey, long distance phone calls are free now and that lemon you’re driving beats a 1974 Ford Pinto hands down for safety and comfort. But I have found Mokyr’s work to be generally open-minded and rigorous. In a debate back in the 1980s on the timing and speed of growth and distribution during the British industrial revolution he identified the rate of profit as a pivotal variable, “a historical fact recognised equally by Marx and W.A. Lewis” and actually suggested that “it is possible that the increase in real wages is overblown and the growth of modern industry in Britain can be approximated after all by the parables of capitalist dynamics first proposed by Marx.” And in a innovative though inconclusive study investigating “Why Ireland Starved” he argued that “when the chips were down in the frightful summer of 1847, the British simply abandoned the Irish and let them perish. There is no doubt that Britain could have saved Ireland. The British treasury spent a total of about £9.5 million of famine relief. . . A few years after the famine, the British government spent £69.3 million on an utterly futile venture in the Crimea. Half that sum spent in Ireland in the critical years 1846-9 would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives. It is difficult to reconcile this lavishness with claims [by two Irish revisionist historians] that British relief during the famine years was inadequate because the problem was ‘too huge for the British state to overcome.’”

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisFromGA

      Thanks for the link. If his analysis is correct, and I have no reason to doubt it, the Orange Julius is not going to be able to negotiate his way out of what’s coming.

      Reply ↓

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