Links 3/30/2026

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1. The Rev Kev March 30, 2026 at 7:32 am

   “China Built the World’s Largest Outdoor Escalator, and It’s a Modern Marvel That Looks Like It Never Stops Rising Into the Sky:

   Very useful in a city full of hills and probably adapted from an American idea-

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I95rdKhWD0 (12 secs)
   1. Dalepues March 30, 2026 at 9:43 am

      A South American idea.
      https://www.youtube.com/shorts/81Fvs95XJKM
2. none March 30, 2026 at 7:40 am

   The search for Epstein’s Missing Computers : The Epstein Files by Julie K. Brown

   “Captain Jeff will get you high tonight, and take you to his special island…”
3. Irritable March 30, 2026 at 7:42 am

   I assume that Kid Rock loves irony, since the ideals embodied by the Statue Of Liberty, which apparently he has a copy of, are the antithesis of Republican ideas concerning immigration.

   Or maybe it’s just that he’s as stupid as the rest of the Epstein-Trump regime/hangers-on.
   1. Karen March 30, 2026 at 6:34 pm

      There are many, many musicians out there that while they are musically very smart (talented) and maybe should be considered to have an high IQ, they are actually very stupid when it comes to anything other than music..
4. vao March 30, 2026 at 7:44 am

   Thomas Röper and Alina Lipp fled the EU sanctions by emigrating to Russia. Alina Lipp’s mother had to follow suit, since the sanctions were extended to her. Nathalie Yamb is lucky to live in Switzerland, but she cannot do anything in or with the EU; she is stuck in Switzerland.

   Jacques Baud and Hüseyin Doğru are doomed: they reside in the EU, can no longer access their own accounts, cannot receive help from anybody (lest these other persons be struck with the same sanctions), cannot travel.

   If the sanctions are maintained, I am afraid that Doğru and later Baud will have only one recourse: make a dash to the nearest Chinese embassy and claim asylum. The Chinese could try to exfiltrate them under diplomatic immunity, but given what happened to Julian Assange, I do not think EU countries will ever let them arrange that kind of exit. I suspect that confining Doğru and his family, as well as Baud, into an indefinite stay in a diplomatic purgatory (like Assange was) would actually be very much agreeable to the EU.
   1. The Rev Kev March 30, 2026 at 8:17 am

      It really surprises me that the Swiss government does not kick up a stink about Jacques Baud. He is an honoured Swiss citizen and there is no reason for the Swiss to let he and his family be thrown under a bus. At the very least they should be delivering food to his family on a weekly basis. But the Swiss government is veering to a neocon bent and they may go along with this to make nice with Brussels-

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

      And of course Wikipedia does its part in character assassinating him.
   2. Trees&Trunks March 30, 2026 at 9:20 am

      This is the reason why EU must go to war with Russia in 2030. To defend our freedoms and EU values.
   3. AG March 30, 2026 at 10:38 am

      re: Dogru

      BERLINER ZEITUNG brought it last week. I missed posting then.

      They are the only larger daily reporting regularly/at all:

      machine-translation

      “Can no longer feed our children”: Authorities freeze accounts of journalist’s wife

      Following the freezing of Hüseyin Doğru’s accounts, his wife is now also affected. The journalist and his family are facing a humanitarian crisis.

      March 28th
      https://archive.is/KFDDa

      Today NACHDENKSEITEN

      use google-translate

      “Collective punishment” for the family of German journalist Doğru: EU sanctions regime increasingly scandalous
      
      Now, the accounts of the wife of German journalist Hüseyin Doğru, who has been sanctioned by the EU for months on absurd “justifications,” have also been “seized.” Words fail me: A family with small children is being collectively punished because Doğru holds the “wrong” opinion. The EU’s practice of sanctions is totalitarian – the silence of large segments of German “civil society” on this issue is pathetic.

      A commentary by Tobias Riegel
      https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=148448

      p.s. It´s important to realize that almost no-one in Germany knows about/takes notice of this or Jacques Baud´s case, not to mention Nathalie Yamb´s.

      Dogru being the worst of all cases since he is actually opposed to SMO and his family sit. is so much more dire!
      1. Kouros March 30, 2026 at 7:53 pm

         “Disidents” in socialist Romania were not punished this way. People that wanted to emigrate were not put to such calvary.
         1. AG March 30, 2026 at 10:54 pm

            I think Nima said that it would be better for Baud to go to prison, financially.
            😂
            What else is there left but to laugh.
            I am angry enough the rest of the day over this state of insanity.
   4. manavortex March 30, 2026 at 1:02 pm

      Yeah, thank you very much for signal boosting the Dogru situation. Feels like I’m one of ten people in this country who are aware of what’s happening, and I’m horrified.
5. Donald March 30, 2026 at 7:56 am

   The bad part about Iran getting a nuke is not so much Iran, but that everybody may want one now, seeing that deterrence against stupid aggressive countries might require one.

   And the more countries have them, the higher the risk someone uses one and then we have our post- WW2 precedent for thinking it is just a very powerful weapon to be used if needed.

   Of course, if Israel gets pounded as some say is or will happen, they might drop a few themselves.
   1. MULMAT March 30, 2026 at 9:16 am

      And the more countries have them, the higher the risk someone uses one

      Is that so? When the first atomic bomb dropped, only one country had that capability. Since them, many countries developed nukes and never used them. I’m confident that the Soviet Union and China would have been nuked by the US if they didn’t have nukes themselves.

      Mutual Assured Destruction is a stable framework overall. The risk of nuclear proliferation is not that dozens of countries will have nuclear weapons; the real risk is when one country has too many of them (as in thousands) and starts contemplating using “tactical nuclear weapons” on the battlefield.

      I don’t worry about Iran or anyone else developing nukes to defend their sovereignty. But I’m very scared about the US’s development of so called tactical nukes, because their use might be the precedent that starts a global nuclear war.
      1. Donald March 30, 2026 at 5:30 pm

         Not all of the crazy aggressive people in the world are Americans or Israelis, even if we account for the vast majority.

         Anyway, that aside, we came close to nuclear war by accident, though I am not going to go look for links. In one case the Soviets saw ( on radar) what they initially thought was a nuclear attack by the U.S. The more countries have nukes, the more chances there are for accidents that could lead to an exchange.

         And yeah, I know that countries attacked by the U.S. would not be attacked if they had nukes. That does not cancel out my concerns. The idea that a nuclear armed world is a safer world is a gigantic gamble.
   2. jp March 30, 2026 at 12:37 pm

      “We’ll try to stay serene and calm
      When Alabama gets the bomb.”
   3. Lefty Godot March 30, 2026 at 7:53 pm

      A few months ago, Medvedev said that he expects many more countries will be joining the nuclear club in the not too distant future. If not having nukes gets you attacked and invaded, this makes perfect sense. The world will reap what the United States has sown, thanks to what it has allowed the US to get away with for decades.
6. .Tom March 30, 2026 at 8:17 am

   “Economists are unaware of the manner in which food is produced, and because they are, so is the general public.”

   What a fine example of the writing of Steve Keen (from the Things Fall Apart link), always weaving his feud with academic economics together with whatever is his subject matter. I always pay attention to Keen and take him seriously but for me he won the argument with the neoclassicists years ago. And I really think that more people in the general public know how food is produced than have learned how it is produced from economists. Indeed I suspect more have experience producing their own food than have learned gardening from economists.

   Anyway the article is short and good. It’s about how loss of inputs of energy and fertilizers will affect economies globally. It does not discuss the subsequent deflationary destruction of productive capacity as prices of inputs and shortages causes business failures and other deflationary forces such as interest payment increases, job losses and household bankruptcies. These were discussed in his conversation with Nika Dubrovsky and Michael Hudson in the video How the Global Crisis Will Unfold published by Institute of David Graeber on Saturday, transcript here.

   The Institute of David Graeber YouTube channel has lots of very interesting stuff and that mostly gets rather few views so I’ll hope you’ll like and subscribe https://www.youtube.com/@instituteofdavidgraeber2258
   1. vao March 30, 2026 at 8:47 am

      Are we really facing “deflationary forces”?

      Historically, the sudden destruction (or unavailability) of productive capacity causes hyperinflation, not deflation. This is typical for particularly destructive wars (Secession war, WWI, WWII, Yugoslavia) — and now the third Gulf war.

      Furthemore, since we are facing massive price increases because of the scarcity of essential inputs (oil, gas, helium, sulphuric acid, nitrates), and consequently of a wide range of goods (agricultural produce, chips, medicine, etc), while governments are already toying with the introduction of subsidies to consumers or industry to attenuate the impact of such price increases (aka money printing), all conditions seem to align to lead to hyperinflation, not deflation.
      1. .Tom March 30, 2026 at 11:18 am

         I don’t feel qualified to argue for Keen or Hudson so I am on shaky legs here but, iiuc, they argued there will be both inflation and deflation. First there will be inflation in the prices of goods that in short supply because they aren’t being shipped out of the Gulf, e.g. oil, sulfur, urea, etc. Later there will be deflation as people lose jobs and the cost of servicing debts goes up and businesses are less profitable and demand for finished goods and services declines and producers lower prices to encourage sales so they can cover their debts and avoid bankruptcy.

         After listening to them I said to Mr. .Tom let’s sell the car now because used car prices are still fairly high and in a year or so nobody will have the cash to buy one or fill up the tank, so we will have to drop the price. This was my trivial example of deflation later.

         As for hyperinflation, it was mentioned but I usually get very confused considering it. They said that nearly all hyperinflations in history were the result of printing money to pay foreign debts, so the money you print has to be converted and the exchange rate drops (or rises, idk, depends which side you’re on I suppose) as a function of how much new money you print.
         1. amfortas March 30, 2026 at 5:18 pm

            i watched that whole thing last evening, and you do a pretty good job of summing up the ‘inflation and deflation at the same time’ concept.
            we’re in for a very bumpy ride, even here in the usa.

            order seeds…heirloom only.even if you have nowhere to plant them…theyre a trade good and/or a bribe…and lightweight if you hafta flee to the countryside…might getya in the door at a place like amfortas’ hermit kingdom.
            keep em in a cool dark place, like a backpack at the back of yer closet. go long on leafy greens, carrots, radishes, and such…people forget those when doom-buying.
            weird squashes, too…superfoods. i like spaghetti, trombocino, hubbards and kushaws…keep well overwinter.
            those french pumpkins, too(galiueaux something)
   2. Vicky Cookies March 30, 2026 at 9:25 am

      I watched the Hudson and Keen talk yesterday; it was sobering to hear Keen refer to global famine. He and Hudson differ as to the intentionality of all this. Hudson indicated that he believes U.S. officials have gamed out the economic impacts; Keen rather thinks that a combination of poor economics education, greed, and myopia are producing the coming catastrophe. It’s the old ‘evil v. stupid’ debate that takes up a lot of my own mental space, when, in the end, the impact is the same.

      Contra Yeats, the best don’t lack all conviction, but instead are dismissed by those in power as Cassandras and killjoys. The worst are certainly filled with passionate intensity.
      1. .Tom March 30, 2026 at 11:43 am

         Concur. Since early in Trump 47 Hudson has talked about that theory of a class war plan brewed up by [have to find the reference, I think Varoufakis referred to the same source] and put about by Stephen Miller. It’s hard to accept the idea of Trump having that much strategy. And there is a lot of stupid in the universe, perhaps as much as there is helium (which is actually very abundant, it just doesn’t like hanging around close to the surface of a planet like ours) but I have a hard time accounting for the big decisions being made as mere stupidity. Sure there’s a lot of it involved but there are regularities that stupidity alone cannot explain.

         The map is not the territory. Our models that attempt to explain the decisions being made are extremely abstract — they are small scale mental maps of a territory we cannot explore. The old ‘evil v. stupid’ debate is as abstract as it gets. If we live long enough historians may be able to unravel and debate the details to allow a better picture. Until then not being sure my mental models are right and reading NC seems like a good plan.
   3. DJG, Reality Czar March 30, 2026 at 9:33 am

      .Tom: Agreed.

      This observation comes in the middle of the article, as Keen shifts from lampooning “theory” to marshaling statistics: “Unfortunately, not only do Neoclassical economists normally ignore energy, but also when they do consider it, they trivialize its impact. One of the few Neoclassical papers to make an empirical prediction of the impact of a decline in energy inputs asserted that, according to the “Cobb-Douglas Production Function”, “a drop in energy supply of … 10% … reduces production by … 0.4%” (Bachmann et al. 2022). In fact, the relationship between energy and GDP is effectively 1 for 1: a 10% fall in energy causes a 10% fall in GDP, and vice-versa.” [bold is mine]

      Cold water splashed on the face.

      As I have mentioned before, “theory” in the soft-side disciplines — and economics is soft-side — is shit. “Theory” is mainly used to dignify a lot of opinion. So economic “theory” is all worthless — except for Marx and Keynes. Queer theory, gender theory, all shit, designed to get people tenure and not to get anything done in the world.
   4. jefemt March 30, 2026 at 10:36 am

      I’m not convinced about deflation. With 8 billions vying for scarce goods, and a ton of ‘mythical money’ having been created by central banks and then multiplied to infinity by clever ‘investors’ and their Lawyers, there is a ton of “money” (it missed my pockets) flying around the world at the speed of light chasing scarce assets.

      The mix of what deflates and get stranded, and what inflates and retains value, will be an interesting popcorn-watch. All those vacant second homes in ski areas, for example. Or big-assed van-life campers that get 16 MPG. And that’s just here in the northern rockies. Farm and ranch land will run up even further, and there is no way… since the early 80’s , that the per-acre prices demanded and paid come anywhere close to penciling out…

      Utility. A working bike? A water filter? A .22? Just pondering it all is off-putting.
      The Equanimity approach has its perks. Tough sledding— we have been taught from an early age to give a shit, try hard, do our best, effectuate positive change.

      Poof…. annnnnnd…. its GONE 1 minute 40 seconds https://youtu.be/hs6so5zqa5U
      1. Mikel March 30, 2026 at 8:48 pm

         “With 8 billions vying for scarce goods…”
         There is a part in the discussion about famine. Maybe some subtraction from the 8 billion?
7. Robert Hahl March 30, 2026 at 8:36 am

   I finally thought of the sign I would carry at a No Kings protest: “Please replace Trump with some other idiot before it’s too late.”
   1. The Rev Kev March 30, 2026 at 9:11 am

      You wouldn’t make yourself popular if you put the following tweet on your sign-

      ‘No Kings, except when the DNC tells us we don’t get to choose the presidential nominee.’

      I keep on thinking about that ‘No Kings slogan and the only time that it would have at all been relevant would have been in 18th colonial America.
   2. tegnost March 30, 2026 at 9:53 am

      Mine would be “End Citizens United.” and/or “Repeal the Patriot Act”
      Yours is funnier though…
      1. Rod March 30, 2026 at 2:57 pm

         “End Citizens United.”
         Is on one side of my 24”x36” foamcore sign and has aroused so many responses/started so many conversations over the past 6 protests that I wish I was a more gregarious protester in response.
         I have no doubt that the sentiment has universal and unifying resonance.
         1. amfortas March 30, 2026 at 5:26 pm

            i painted ‘thought criminal’ on the headache rack on the cab of my ragged old truck(good god!) more than a year ago. nobody has said a word.
            in this far place, when shit hits the fan, people become very polite, and turn te other cheek/dont notice things. this is an inherited thing, i have determined from the hoodoo war/mason county war that happened out here just after the civil war. it left a mark that one discovers accidentally on occasion.
   3. Irritable March 30, 2026 at 10:00 am

      The bravest protesters I have seen at the various No Kings rallies are the ones waving Palestinian flags.
   4. GC54 March 30, 2026 at 10:45 am

      My wife’s in our blue NC town’s No Kings rally was
      “Fire all politicians who support this illegal war.”

      She was apparently ostracized (I didn’t go).
      1. Joe Renter March 30, 2026 at 2:05 pm

         Russel one of the guys from Due Dissidence, who currently is in SE Asia said if he was in the States his picket sign would read, “Bomb Israel “! They are both serious anti Zionist.
         1. Jhallc March 30, 2026 at 6:14 pm

            Mine would have been
            “Are we the baddies?”
      2. BillC March 31, 2026 at 3:08 am

         Thank you for this info. As a former Charlotte and Hendersonville resident, I am disappointed but not surprised. I feared upon first hearing of “No Kings” that its avoidance of any unambiguous statement of an objective suggests it’s a purely self-satisfied performative expression of “I’m fed up and I’m not gonna take it any more!” … followed by no action at all.
   5. Mikel March 30, 2026 at 8:50 pm

      Don’t have any kings here.
      They couldn’t name the protests “No Wars”? Plenty of those.
8. ChrisFromGA March 30, 2026 at 8:57 am

   Bags of cadavers

   Sung to the tune of “Abracadabra” by the Steve Miller Band

   Melody

   Wars heat up
   They can’t cool down
   Don’s yes-men spinning, round and round
   Round and round, and round they go
   But where this stops, nobody knows

   Every time we play Empire games
   MENA goes up in burning flames
   Burning flames, on Dubai tower spires
   Kiss your 401k goodbye, let the bond yields go higher

   [Chorus]

   Bags of, bags of cadavers
   They’ll multiply just like rabbits
   Bags of, bags of cadavers
   Bags of cadavers

   Wars make me hot, they make me sigh
   Don makes me laugh, with fake AI
   Oil fields burnin’ for your love
   With the touch of armageddon

   [Chorus]

   I feel the magic in empty threats
   It’s looking tragic cause Don’s Bibi’s pet
   Bibi’s pet, stupid and weak,
   A Cabinet full of groveling freaks
   I see the rapture in Pete’s eyes
   I hear Pentagon highlight reels in reprise
   Just when they thought a ground war sounds good, too
   They stepped in some deep IRGC doo-doo

   Bags of, bags of cadavers
   They’ll multiply just like rabbits
   Bags of, bags of cadavers
   Bags of cadavers

   Every time we play Empire games
   MENA ends up in burning flames
   Burning flames, on Dubai tower spires
   Kiss your 401k goodbye, let the bond yields go higher

   [Interlude]

   Heads heat up
   They can’t cool down
   Prevarication goes round and round …

   Heads heat up
   They can’t cool down
   Prevarication goes round and round …

   Heads heat up
   They can’t cool down
   Prevarication goes round and round
   1. .Tom March 30, 2026 at 12:06 pm

      That … is … horrible. Very well done, ChrisFromGA!
      1. ChrisFromGA March 30, 2026 at 1:15 pm

         I’m in a dark mood.
9. Steve H. March 30, 2026 at 9:00 am

   One of my proudest moments as an actor was in the Michigan City Indiana State Prison, doing improvisational interactive theater for AIDS education, when the front row started whispering ‘Is this real?” to each other.
   In this spirit, I would like to present Druski.

   First, the viral Erika Kirk satire:

   https://twitter.com/i/status/2036953526811930846

   Then, three more showing his range and reach:

   https://www.youtube.com/shorts/G32siPZXgx0
   https://www.reddit.com/r/BlackPeopleTwitter/comments/1s3xc9r/the_unholy_trinity/
   Candace
10. The Rev Kev March 30, 2026 at 9:36 am

    ‘Craig Murray
    @CraigMurrayOrg
    al-Jolani allowed the IDF to pass through Syrian territory to attack Hezbollah from the East around Mount Hermon.
    The Syrian government gave the Israelis logistic support.
    There are no words sufficient.’

    I have no idea if this is true or not but I would say that al-Jolani is in a very precarious position. Which ever side he decides to pick, the other is more than capable of crunching him. He might find an Iranian or Hezbollah missile dropping onto the Presidential Palace. Or maybe the Israelis will off him to send Syria into chaos again. He is definitely the dog that caught the car. Zero sympathy.
    1. vao March 30, 2026 at 10:15 am

       While everybody is discussing the whacking meted out to Israel by Iranian, Lebanese, and now Yemeni missiles, one should not forget that there is a ground war going on.

       Israeli forces are progressing, pushing back Hezbollah, eliminating resistance cells, razing everything in their wake — albeit while sustaining heavy losses in equipment and troops. The Israeli flanking offensive from Southern Syria has been instrumental in placing Hezbollah in an unfavourable situation. So far, the Israeli objective of conquering Lebanon to the Litani river does not appear entirely unrealistic, if extremely costly.
       1. The Rev Kev March 30, 2026 at 10:33 am

          But if they get to the Litani, what will be the condition of their forces? And would they be able to hold their positions or would Hezbollah once more push them back to their own borders.
          1. vao March 30, 2026 at 11:16 am

             “But if they get to the Litani, what will be the condition of their forces?”

             Exhausted.

             But Lebanon itself will be exhausted, with millions of displaced people, entire towns or parts of large cities reduced to rubble, and Hezbollah politically under pressure by other Lebanese parties.

             “And would they be able to hold their positions or would Hezbollah once more push them back to their own borders.”

             Contrarily to what it did in the 1980s-1990s, Israel is emptying that part of Lebanon from its population. Hence, no “fish in the sea” guerrilla possible, which caused so much trouble 30-40 years ago.

             Second, Israel occupies the Syrian mountains overseeing Lebanon. This is already making life very difficult for Hezbollah; with the appropriate electronic gear (which it is busy installing on Mount Hermon), Israel will have a much easier time controlling Southern Lebanon.

             Third, it is destroying every structure it encounters — dwellings of Lebanese farmers, hardened tunnels of Hezbollah forces, bridges over the Litani, schools, everything. Hezbollah will reconquer at best a gazaified territory; from the Syrian heights, Israel can pound any group trying to reconstruct anything.

             All this does not imply that Israel will defeat Hezbollah: it depends on how full or depleted their respective arsenals are, how rapidly their will to fight will crumble — and, crucially, how devastating the bombing campaign waged by Iran, and now Yemen, will proved to be. Once its surveillance bases in Syria are blown up, its caserns wiped out with personnel and equipment, its weapons production plants torched, Israel will not be able to sustain a ground campaign successfully. Besides, Israel was not well-prepared to wage that war — there was a belief that Hezbollah had been deterred by the whacking it suffered in 2024.

             The fact that Hezbollah entered the fray shows that, just as for Iran, this is an existential fight for that movement: the last chance to finally assert the sovereignty of Lebanon over its whole territory, deter Israel from further attacking Lebanon, and especially to not be annihilated by Israel and their Lebanese adversaries. The fact that the fight is so hard, with Hezbollah making Israelis pay dearly for every metre of land, but being forced to retreat slowly, shows that this is indeed a “now or never” wager.
       2. Mikel March 30, 2026 at 9:03 pm

          “Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., recently unveiled a resolution that would prevent Trump from participating in or assisting Israeli military operations in Lebanon absent congressional approval.”

          Hmmmmm…
          So it’s on the radar?
    2. Aurelien March 30, 2026 at 12:34 pm

       I wasn’t at all surprised given the politics of the region, and the fact that Hezbollah were sent into Syria during the Civi War to fight the jihadists that were Al-Jolani’s original power base. The Syrians have always wanted back the control of Lebanon they had from 1990-2005, and the new regime has already sent a Division with many of the remaining foreign fighters on to the border, which is worrying people. It looks as though we are the beginning of a struggle between Iran and Syria for control and influence in Lebanon, which is not good news.
       1. hk March 30, 2026 at 11:13 pm

          3 or 4 way struggle, at least: lest we forget, Israelis are invading ftom the south. The Maronites seem leaning towards Hizb’ullah, but it’s not clear. I’m assuming Lebanese Sunnis decided that they are with the Gulfies and al Golani…and maybe tacit alliance with Israel, indirectly (but that seems unclear since where exactly Golani fits with the current Israeli regime seems unclear (I’m assuming, if Bennett ever returns to power, he’ll make nice with the Sunnis (ie Gulfies) more explicitly, but Netanyahu’s coalition seems more schizophrenic.) But the Turks’ interests aren’t aligned with the Gulfies and they presumably still have assets in Syria in case Golani gets off the reservation, too.
11. Vicky Cookies March 30, 2026 at 9:41 am

    Re: the No Kings piece:

    A friend of mine was a participant in the meetings organizing the Milwaukee event. He reported that the organizers did in fact have a goal, and it was overtly stated to be a Get Out The Vote effort for the Democrats in November. DSA was involved, but more radical parties were sidelined, limiting the critique. The inflatable costumes bother me, too. I am not against theatrical tactics, but there is a fine line between using absurdity to highlight absurdity and simply being absurd. See this from the Anarchist elements at the protests of the IMF/World Bank forum at Prague in 2000.

    For my part, our local No Kings event just made me sad.
    1. AG March 30, 2026 at 1:08 pm

       “there is a fine line between using absurdity to highlight absurdity and simply being absurd”
       😉👍

       p.s. Reminds me of those many quirky US indie comedy movies a couple of years ago where young people were constantly running around in inflatable costumes or simply dressed up as mascots to sell merch. Those mostly were politically on the right side however struggling with c.a.p.i.t.a.l.i.s.m. in their own goofy, sad or just absurd way.

       p.p.s. An interesting take on staging protest for lobbying groups was offered by a polit drama from 2016, MISS SLOAN (the author always suggested it was based on his Mum´s experience as high level lobbyist.) Included e.g. inflatable giant rats as a means.

       trailer
       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMUkfmUu44k
    2. Randall Flagg March 30, 2026 at 1:51 pm

       It is sad, and a joke.
       Though I applaud them getting out there,I’m going to start asking Democrats, “Hey, are you suggesting to me that if I vote democrat all our problems are over?”

       Honestly, if they did what they claimed they would do for the average person during Obama or Biden’s terms, Trump wouldn’t have been elected.
12. flora March 30, 2026 at 9:57 am

    re: “No Kings” Organizers & Indivisible Pivot to May Day General Strike – Payday Report

    By May 1st the US Main Street economy could be hurting more than it is already hurting. I’m making a point of shopping at my locally owned stores on May 1st. They’re already hanging on by a thread in competition with the big box stores.

    This year, May 1st is on a Friday, is right before finals at colleges and exams at k-12 schools. Kids have enough to worry about in finding future employment to ask them to risk harming their grades, imo.

    (Who thought this year – not last year – would be great for a general strike? Do they live in bubble? Or is it something darker than that? )
    1. Wukchumni March 30, 2026 at 10:17 am

       The best protest on May 1st would be irate drivers in 1/2 mile gas lines ala 1979…
       1. flora March 30, 2026 at 10:28 am

          Good point. / ;)
       2. ChrisFromGA March 30, 2026 at 10:47 am

          Or, irate flyers who missed their flight due to cancellations, can’t reach a human due to greased AI replacing customer service, no European vacation for you!
    2. earthling March 30, 2026 at 10:29 am

       I can’t get mad at anyone getting off the dime and going out to protest this insane administration, in whatever way they see fit.

       But yes, the goal seems to be just having a calendar of protests.

       The goal needs to be registering so many new voters that the Republicans cannot hold the Senate in November, and/or pressuring the ones there now to Do The Right Thing and apply the 25th for reasons of mental illness, or impeachment for any of hundreds of laws violated.

       If the primary season slips by and we lose our chance to ditch any magats because we were busy organizing neighbors to carry signs or take a day off work, well yes, maybe that’s what the string-pullers wanted after all.
    3. jefemt March 30, 2026 at 10:42 am

       I thought the whole point was striking. Bang pots, buy nothing, eschew, espit out. ?

       If and when one DOES need to buy, buy local, with intention.
       Do little , with less. Un-American and anti-western/capitalist.

       Nihilism versus Stoicism?
    4. Mark Gisleson March 31, 2026 at 7:24 am

       A day late (about twice a year I somehow forget to read NC but I always go back and I’m glad I did.

       The May Day strike is, in my opinion, the neoliberal fake left’s last hurrah. If they’re successful and get the crowds they want, the party faithful are going to be forced to rub elbows with all the actual bona fide leftists the party purged from its ranks years ago.

       Or will the No Kings geniuses blow it by giving us the same tired hyperpropandizing influencer speeches? Cosplay cheerleaders? Chants and songs that are not organic but instead come from some nepo hire’s iTunes playlist? Without dissident voices and honest debate, participants will leave without any hope of things ever getting better.

       To put it more bluntly, these organizers could #$@! up a @#$! dream. If they get to do it like they’ve done No Kings, I’d say the Republicans are still in good shape to gain seats in both chambers this fall.*

       *Assuming Trump fires himself but srsly, don’t you think he’d rather be playing golf?
13. Lefty Godot March 30, 2026 at 10:34 am

    Ukraine has supposedly been running out of troops for over a year, but they can afford to send soldiers to the UAE and Kuwait?? And they are still giving up ground to the Russians very grudgingly. Something does not compute here.
    1. jefemt March 30, 2026 at 10:46 am

       Gotta stay in Trump’s good graces. Gotta help guerilla the obsolete US military, re-tool to the beer budget modern drone/ digital way of war(tm)

       I think the US Military will continue the champagne and lobster budget, and ADD on the beer-budget third world autonomous aspects. Its still a S L I C C, just aded another scoop, and a whole buncha
       perpetual skirmish chaos security !
    2. The Rev Kev March 30, 2026 at 10:46 am

       It’s money. Ukrainians can make lots of money setting up shop in the UAE and Kuwait. maybe Zelensky gets a cut as well. Beats sitting in the mud and dodging Russian drones on the eastern front.
    3. Daniil Adamov March 30, 2026 at 11:04 am

       The situation at home is almost certainly hopeless for them, but as collapses go it is indeed extremely slow. Fighting at home offers little in the way of advantage, while foreign adventures might at least be profitable and may even offer a genuine advantage (in the very unlikely-seeming case of Iran’s collapse, which would indeed be inconvenient to Russia and a godsend to Ukraine). I remember there were some Ukrainian mercenaries operating in Africa earlier (and now as well?) following a similar logic – they can act against our interests there, how ever indirectly, and even if that amounts to very little, it still offers more room for maneuver and individual achievement than staying at home. And the rulers get PR victories, which are clearly very important to them. There may be a cost to this (Events in Ukraine suggests Ukraine’s anti-drone defences are getting worse) but the rulers will not be paying it.
       1. hk March 30, 2026 at 12:00 pm

          Quite the contrary, the rulers will be paid for them.
    4. Mikel March 30, 2026 at 1:28 pm

       Wars continue to expand.
14. t March 30, 2026 at 10:44 am

    Not sure, entirely, the question the Guardian article is addressing. Everyone I talk with thought the girls school bombing, and certainly the stike on “Police Park,” were from AI using data in a stupid way with no oversight. This is exactly what we thought would happen, moral questions aside.

    And we all just saw this stupidity with DOGE use of, effectively, ctrl F, to search for mere words such as “diversity.”

    So family-blogging much of “AI” is just doing stupid things really really really fast.
    1. Daniil Adamov March 30, 2026 at 11:19 am

       Someone did have to decide to rely on AI without human supervision. Whether they thought it’d help them shift responsibility or just didn’t think at all is another question. I’m currently leaning towards the latter.
       1. t March 30, 2026 at 2:47 pm

          Ai doesn’t kill people, people kill people?

          Don’t blame a weapon for exactly what we warned you it would do.

          Leaning latter as well, but some of these idiots think AI is magic and they, in championing AI, are super magic.
    2. Aurelien March 30, 2026 at 1:31 pm

       What could have been clearer in the Guardian piece is that every potential target has its own separate file with its own data. In the old days, this would have been an actual physical file, with photographs and other papers in it, and a human being would have gone through the file to make sure it was a military target. This was always prone to error, but at least there was a human in the loop. What the article is saying is that these days, the file, or the document collection, is scanned automatically by a program (not an AI) which returns a verdict on it as a potential target. I would imagine that it is mainly concerned whether the target is a worthwhile one, worth spending a Tomahawk on, but the analysis should also confirm that it was a valid military target. The problem, of course, is that doing this for Iran the old way by hand takes infinitely longer, and presumably the program has no way of flagging up marginal cases. But it’s actually an aspect of a larger problem, which is that any automated system is only as good as the instructions and the data. The system identified the school as a military target, based on what it knew, but the information was wrong. It’s analogous to a jury bringing in the wrong verdict because it didn’t have all the facts. Presumably the capacities of the program were over-sold, in a context where Generals and politicians are looking to technology to do more and more things because it is so much faster. The problem is that even one error is too many.
    3. Mikel March 30, 2026 at 1:43 pm

       I especially took note of this part of the article:
       “..As the historian of science William Thomas has argued, the operations analysts did not impose this logic on the military; the military was already converting operational experience into systematic procedure, and had been for decades. Nobody stopped making judgments. But the judgments were no longer about whether the bombing served a strategic purpose. They were about how to measure it and how to optimise around those measurements.”
15. AG March 30, 2026 at 11:05 am

    re: Trump and his shrink comic

    https://www.moonofalabama.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/talkingto.jpg

    Trump stretched out on bed.
    Shrink looking at him:
    “The Iranians you´ve been talking to for 2 days…are they in the room with us now?”
16. flora March 30, 2026 at 11:33 am

    Judge Napolitano and Larry Johnson this morning. utube, ~27+ minutes.

    Larry Johnson : Trump’s Suicide Mission of Boots on the Ground

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSezLaNm8xY
17. jefemt March 30, 2026 at 11:37 am

    This was covered on NC a few weeks ago… caught my eye…

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-seethes-as-stupid-lawsuit-exposes-ballroom-s-underground-military-complex-plans/ar-AA1ZIaHB?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=283c6a1ab7c74969ba6014287d465228&ei=17

    He seethes, he lashes …. I don’t think, despite South Park saying so, that He Gets Us. All Of Us.
18. Kengferno March 30, 2026 at 11:56 am

    The “War, Energy and the Cunning of Entropy” link with it’s use of Thermoeconomics as a lens to look at the Iran war and broader societal changes, certainly is giving off interesting Asimov Foundation psychohistory vibes. Certainly has a unique way of looking at non-standard economic indicators and how they actually might influence real world economics
19. Oregon Lawhobbit March 30, 2026 at 12:20 pm

    The article about aliens “seeing” the Roman Empire brings to mind Harry Turtledove’s “Worldwar” series. Slower than light invasion fleet of aliens whose technology progress glacially arrives at Earth, prepared to use their ~late 20th century technology edge to conquer the people running around in metal suits with sharp sticks….

    Only to drop into the middle of WWII.

    Hilarity ensues.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldwar_series
    1. Jason Boxman March 30, 2026 at 5:55 pm

       Three Body Problem makes a similar point about civilization development and galactic travel even at light speed.
    2. hk March 30, 2026 at 11:21 pm

       NB: Turtledove was at Caltech, although he flamed out after freshman year (historically, 10-20% drop out after year 1)–he came back to give a few talks to us when I was an UG in 1990s. He went on to study history and got PhD in East Roman (ie Byzantine) history in 1970s. So, in a way, there are a few weird linkages.
20. Tinky March 30, 2026 at 12:52 pm

    Gotta say, the linked Hesgeth parody does provide a touch of comic relief.

    https://x.com/OlgaBazova/status/2038576950600401235
21. Mikel March 30, 2026 at 1:51 pm

    AI got the blame for the Iran school bombing. The truth is far more worrying -The Guardian

    Then the AI stories:

    The mirage of visual understanding in current frontier models – Gary Marcus
    I don’t see why this is hard to understand – Heavy Machinery
    AI’s aesthetics of failure – Blood in the Machine

    All connected…
22. XXYY March 30, 2026 at 2:51 pm

    Former 82nd Airborne Commander says sending 7,000 troops to Iran is a complete suicide mission. He reveals they canceled a similar drop in 1979 because they knew they would be completely massacred by Iranian forces. –Megatron on X

    Recall that Iran has 1 million people in its regular army, and another million in its reserve army. So yeah, 7,000 troops will be very lucky to get out of the country alive. I can’t even think of a suitable analogy for this, it’s so absurd and ridiculous.

    It’s been obvious that the US wanted to take over Iran for many decades just like they wanted to take over all the other countries in West Asia and Eastern Europe. But they have never tried it! I always was a bit surprised about this, but perhaps cooler heads, back when they existed, prevailed.

    Trump will be remembered by historians, if there are any, as the General Custer of the 21st century.
    1. hk March 30, 2026 at 11:24 pm

       General (brevet) Custer was actually a highly competent wartime leader (you don’t go from a WP cadet to a (temp) major general in 4 years without some ability.) I don’t think Trump has anything like that to his name.
23. Mikel March 30, 2026 at 3:15 pm

    https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/2026033074/nasdaq-paves-the-way-for-spacex-and-openai-to-quickly-join-a-premier-index-after-ipos/
    “… Nasdaq has approved a series of new rules, including a “fast entry” rule, designed to make it easier for newly listed large companies to join an elite index.

    The move comes as a slew of companies prepare for major initial public offerings that could take place as soon as this year. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is expected to soon file confidentially with regulators and go public in June, while artificial-intelligence labs OpenAI and Anthropic are reportedly targeting fourth-quarter IPOs…”

    The dump…
    1. expr March 30, 2026 at 6:10 pm

       a couple of comments a week or so ago give a lot more detail and why it is a bad idea
       Patrick Boyle U-tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rS3fTbC7TE
       https://keubiko.substack.com/p/nasdaqs-shame
       1. Mikel March 30, 2026 at 7:12 pm

          Indeed. I had posted a link to the Patrick B. video. Very entertaining.
24. Jason Boxman March 30, 2026 at 4:11 pm

    CNN, but it is meant as a joke.

    A recession is guaranteed. But when?

    Actually hopium for you

    Eight years of (mostly) bad predictions
    Economists have been predicting or warning about a recession every single year for the past eight years, and they were only right once – kinda.

    And a long list of failed predictions since 2018. Theories on why we’re okay?

    The “rolling recession” theory
    The K-shaped theory
    The front-loading theory
    1. Mikel March 30, 2026 at 6:07 pm

       How about the irksome “jobless recovery” theory?
25. Don March 30, 2026 at 4:28 pm

    “A civilization 2,000 light-years away looking at Earth today would see the Roman Empire.”

    Towards the end?

    That would be a pretty clear representation of the current state of our civilization.
26. Anonted March 30, 2026 at 8:20 pm

    Re: Is it the Sunni Century?

    This might be the read of the day, wow. Who knew the Saudis were so optimistic?
27. Revenant March 30, 2026 at 8:38 pm

    Is It The Sunni Century? Nobody seems to have commented on this. I don’t know where to begin. An AI-inflected confection of anti-Shia bigotry written by hysterical petro-sheikhs in a desparate attempt to launder their US vassalage as manifest destiny and divine right.

    Made it, Ma! Top of the world! [Oil tank explodes]
    1. Mikel March 30, 2026 at 9:08 pm

       Nobody seems to be sure what is being discussed in Pakistan led talks.
28. Widening Gyre March 30, 2026 at 9:11 pm

    https://www.quinnemanuel.com/the-firm/publications/client-alert-emerging-litigation-risks-in-financing-ai-data-centers-boom/

    The content here is nothing new or unfamiliar, but interesting to see large international legal firms smelling the smoke of a bubble that’s about the burst into flames.

    Lenders who originated data center loans—including the private credit facilities described in Section A—have begun pooling those loans and selling tranches to asset managers and pension funds, spreading risk well beyond the original lending institutions.

    The financing structures described above present litigation risks along multiple vectors. The deeply interconnected AI ecosystem means that distress at any single node—a construction delay, a tenant default, unhedged energy cost differentials, a collapse in GPU resale values—can propagate across multiple counterparties and financing layers.
29. AG March 30, 2026 at 10:13 pm

    re: SCOTUS & copyright infringement

    A major victory for internet providers in Cox Communications, Inc. v. Sony Music Entertainment
    
    
    ACLU Celebrates Supreme Court Decision Promoting Free Expression Online

    The Cox v. Sony decision promotes the public’s free speech rights by assuring that an Internet service provider is not liable for failure to police online activity
    https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-celebrates-supreme-court-decision-promoting-free-expression-online

    verdict, 29 pages
    https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-171_bq7d.pdf
30. AG March 30, 2026 at 11:01 pm

    re: Iran vs. Kurds

    interview about Kurdish Communists

    German JUNGE WELT daily

    machine-translation

    “This war must be made as soon as possible”
    Iran: the attacks, the United States and Israel, aberrations in the Kurdish Opposition and the strategy of the Communists in Kurdistan. A conversation with Ibrahim Alizadeh
    https://archive.is/cnxSp

    p.s. Regardles of the horrible facts on the ground and everything else, it does remind me a bit of MONTY PYTHON´S discussions in LIFE OF BRIAN.

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