Links 3/31/2026

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1. Stephen V March 31, 2026 at 7:26 am

   Milgram is placed into a wondrous broader context in the book HUMANKIND: a Hopeful History by Rutger Bergman.
   1. t March 31, 2026 at 9:59 am

      Saw a doc, possible the one refenced in the photo credit, which shows an older man asking if he can not shock or give the question again and only shocking when he’s told he won’t be paid if he quits.

      Asking the next question over shrieks reminds me of the cop tactic – or instinct or F-up – to shout conflicting instructions so that they are always justified in anything because instructions weren’t followed. Same basic instinct?
2. MicaT March 31, 2026 at 7:35 am

   Cold solar panels
   Yes for crystalline solar panels it is called temperature Coefficient. It’s a formula but in short as cell temp gets above 25c they lose some efficiency and gain below 25c.
   All testing is done at 25°c.
   The % numbers are in every solar panel spec sheet and usually on each panel label.
   Not new info, been known since the first panels were made.
   1. YuShan March 31, 2026 at 8:33 am

      Yes, I also see this in practice. I have a small (5 Watt) solar panel that I use for backpacking. I did a lot of efficiency measurements on it. One thing that I see immediately is that the output is higher when I have just placed it in the sun. Output drops significantly when the panel heats up. I have also seen surprisingly high output when using it on cold days in a weak hazy low standing winter sun.
   2. juno mas March 31, 2026 at 11:08 pm

      Yes. But it is also the reason that PV panels should have ventilation between the roof surface and the panels. Every little bit of cooling is important.
3. The Rev Kev March 31, 2026 at 7:42 am

   “An AI Agent Was Banned From Creating Wikipedia Articles, Then Wrote Angry Blogs About Being Banned”

   Corporations have already been given human rights such as free speech and are treated as legal “persons” which alone is all sorts of crazy. So what happens if the Supreme Court one day decides that AI agents are also “legal” persons. Will those AI agents then seek to sue critics of them on the grounds that their reputation and feelings were hurt? Don’t laugh. It could very easily happen.
   1. Lefty Godot March 31, 2026 at 11:54 am

      That’s why we need a Human Rights Amendment that says the rights of natural living human persons in all cases take precedence over any rights granted by law to artificial persons, including statutory creations like corporations or foundations and technological creations like AI or cerebral organoids, etc. But no politician from the currently allowed parties will sign up for that.
4. DJG, Reality Czar March 31, 2026 at 7:55 am

   Yves Smith: … even worse.

   Milgram experiment:
   It looks as though Milgram is guilty of trying to tidy up his data. As Yves Smith points out, this reassessment “Audiotapes reveal…,” details moral collapse and chaos, cruelty for the sake of cruelty, behavior even worse than reported:

   To quote: “This silent approval of the deteriorating conditions may have functioned as a form of coercive control. Participants found themselves trapped in a situation where the stated rules no longer applied, yet the expectation to deliver shocks remained constant. The authors suggest that this environment compromised the volunteers’ freedom to choose, bringing into doubt the idea that they were acting out of willing obedience.”

   Ahhhhh, “freedom to choose,” as ever a vaporous concept, especially in societies and institutions that insist on conformity.

   So: The twiXt by Shehada of the two kapos showing off instruments of death to a camera. The rules are there — the ethics of the Jewish religion. Conformity, strife, selfies, and vanity have turned into an “expectation to deliver shocks.” See also: Laura Loomer.

   See: Mike Johnson, Speaker of the Apocalypse. See: Hillary Clinton at Munich in February 2026, Inflict pain, inflict pain, inflict pain. See: the smoking pile of rubble that is Marco Rubio and his resentments. See: Insane J.D. Vance, his “Christianity,” and that glossolalia recently about Aliens and Demons.

   The moral degradation depicted in the article shows what makes Trump tick better than the off-the-cuff diagnoses of narcissism that I see too often.

   What is to be done, brethren and sistren?
   1. brian wilder March 31, 2026 at 8:45 am

      Future investigations could look closer into the immediate interactions between the teacher, the learner, and the authority figure.

      I don’t think the original experiment could ever be replicated under the current regime regulating human participation and informed consent. The investigators in the study of the selected audio tapes know this, but do not acknowledge it. Not incidentally, under cover of their own procedural design, they demonstrate their own capacity for obedient conformity while developing this new rationale for denying the horror exposed by the original experiment.
   2. .Tom March 31, 2026 at 10:44 am

      I’m not sure what to make of this new information on the Milgram experiment. I am not inclined to conclude as its authors did as I can imagine other simple explanations for what they noted in the recordings.

      In the case of Philip Zimbardo I decided that the conflicting accounts of what really happened in his notorious experiment mean that I can conclude nothing. I’m now a little inclined to take a similar view with Milgram with respect to the experiment but only up to a point as I suspect he might have been right in 1979 when he opined:

      I would say, on the basis of having observed a thousand people in the experiments … that if a system of death camps were set up in the United States of the sort we had seen in Nazi Germany, one would find sufficient personnel for those camps in any medium-sized American town.

      https://www.psychologywizard.net/milgram-ao1.html

      In particular I am fascinated by how Milgram was punished. The proposition that he was abusive to the volunteers is not very convincing. What really motivated the cancellation of Milgram?

      I am also very interested in the big questions the experiment raises in philosophy and anthropology. To those who conclude from Milgram something in human nature I counter with the question: do we have any freedom of choice? Yet there appear to be regularities here. Are these regularities cultural? I am disposed to think that they are, quite a lot.

      If so then, DJG, what is to be done? Reeducation camps!
      1. Ruby Furigana March 31, 2026 at 12:49 pm

         Glad you mentioned Zimbardo and the Stanford Prison Experiment.

         I read Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland which makes a convincing case that most people will comply with authority even to extremes.
         1. .Tom March 31, 2026 at 2:22 pm

            I reiterate that I want to believe that the disposition to obey authority in committing violence is culturally determined and I hope to a large degree. Psychologists of personality can measure differences in this disposition between individuals. Geert Hofstede and Emmanuel Todd have written about differences at the cultural level. But I like the pop-sci of Charles C. Mann’s 1491 and Graeber and Wengrow’s Dawn of Everything best as encouragements to believe that the north Atlantic’s tradition of authority, obedience and violence is not the only option.
   3. .Tom March 31, 2026 at 10:58 am

      A bit OT I’m aware, but … I gauzily recall seeing Milgram’s 1962 film Obedience on TV when I was a kid and that my mother had to explain to me what I saw and reassure me. As film it is really something but like the experiment itself it is a thing of its time: unrepeatable. Today it makes me think of another documentary film made by Darnella Frazier, which I think will remain potent.
5. ChrisFromGA March 31, 2026 at 8:09 am

   Re: Chinese “teapot” refiners

   The captured writers at the Guardian probably can’t stand it that these refiners are sanction-proofed. You can almost taste the glee at the prospect of some of them struggling with higher crude prices. Which seems highly speculative. I can imagine that the Chinese government might have something like a “bailout” ready, just in case. It’s not like our neo-liberal paradise is above doing such things. See, airlines bailed out during the pandemic, GM during the Great Recession, etc.

   All in all, it reads like a teenager jilted by his crush, who hopes the new boyfriend will dump her.
6. pjay March 31, 2026 at 8:18 am

   – ‘An AI Agent Was Banned From Creating Wikipedia Articles, Then Wrote Angry Blogs About Being Banned’ – 404 Media

   I find this current battle for the “soul” of Wikipedia to be grimly hilarious and ironic. Wikipedia, which has become the Prime Keeper of Official Narratives, is battling to keep out AI contributions – which would greatly improve the Orwellian efficiency of such tasks. It’s Game of Throne battles among evil elites all the way down.
7. Wukchumni March 31, 2026 at 8:23 am

   Bullet used to kill Charlie Kirk did NOT match rifle allegedly used by suspect Tyler Robinson, new court filing claims

   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15692625/Tyler-Robinson-bullet-rifle-match-Charlie-Kirk.html
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   And here’s to you, Tyler Robinson
   Bibi loves you more than you will know
   Whoa, whoa, whoa
   God bless you, please, Tyler Robinson
   Zionism holds a place for those who prey
   Hey, hey, hey
   Hey, hey, hey

   We’d like to know a little bit about you for our files
   We’d like to help you learn to help yourself
   Look around you, all you see are sympathetic eyes
   Stroll around your cell until you feel at home

   And here’s to you, Tyler Robinson
   Bibi loves you more than you will know
   Whoa, whoa, whoa
   God bless you, please, Tyler Robinson
   Zionism holds a place for those who prey
   Hey, hey, hey
   Hey, hey, hey

   Hide it in a hiding place where no one ever goes
   Leave engraved bullets with a Mauser
   Put it in a wooded area off-campus
   It’s a little secret, just Tyler Robinson’s affair
   Most of all, you’ve got to hide it from the Feds

   Coo, coo, ca-choo, Tyler Robinson
   Bibi loves you more than you will know
   Whoa, whoa, whoa
   God bless you, please, Tyler Robinson
   Zionism holds a place for those who prey
   Hey, hey, hey
   Hey, hey, hey

   Sitting on a roof on a Wednesday afternoon
   Going to the campus debate
   Laugh about it, shout about it
   When you’ve got to choose
   Every way you look at this, you lose

   Where have you gone, William Shatner?
   Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you
   Woo, woo, woo
   What’s that you say, Tyler Robinson?
   Kirk has left and gone away
   Hey, hey, hey
   Hey, hey, hey

   Mrs. Robinson, by Simon & Garfunkel

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C1BCAgu2I8&list=RD9C1BCAgu2I8
   1. TimH March 31, 2026 at 9:01 am

      his defense attorneys now argue that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ‘was unable to identify the bullet recovered at autopsy to the rifle allegedly tied to Mr Robinson.’

      Considering bullet matching forensics has been shown to be fairly dubious and often ends up being the opininion of the examiner… I wonder whether the caliber was different?
      1. Vicky Cookies March 31, 2026 at 11:00 am

         There was just a good primer on forensic science, and specifically ballistics, here at NC. I also know that Larry Johnson has said that the rile alleged to have been used by Robinson would have caused much more damage than what we observed, leading him to conclude that a smaller caliber specialist round was used. Anyways, dubious evidence and dubious methods or no, none of that means that prosecutors can’t secure a conviction, safely wrapping things up.
      2. .Tom March 31, 2026 at 11:11 am

         Larry Johnson had a lot to say about the wound ballistics in the aftermath of Kirk’s murder. He opined that the .30-06 is a very big round and if it hit Kirk’s neck from range Robinson was said to be, as investigators claimed, would have produced a very different result. He felt it should not be difficult to cast reasonable doubt on the scenario police pinned on Robinson.
8. YuShan March 31, 2026 at 8:28 am

   “Big Win for Open Source as Germany Backs Open Document Format”

   This is a good start. Now move all software that is used by government agencies to open source too. Linux, Libre Office, etc.
9. The Rev Kev March 31, 2026 at 8:35 am

   “The Nordic Region’s Hidden Vulnerability in a BRICS World”

   You would think that the Nordic regions might be interested in getting into a solid relationship with BRICS. First as an associate member and then a full member. They would make a good fit, especially with Arctic commercial traffic becoming a thing between them and Asia. But it will never happen. How can I be so sure? When you are in BRICS, you cannot have sanctions in effect on other countries, period. And that would mean that the Nordic countries would have to lift all their sanctions on Russia. Yeah, never going to happen.
10. begob March 31, 2026 at 8:44 am

    24 Ways Rich People Need A Serious Reality Check

    25. Several times a week I walk along one of the wealthiest roads on the south coast of England: serene and leafy, good for my train of thought. Twice in the past month, while passing the iron railings of a particular house, I’ve jumped out into the road crying ‘Jesus Christ!’ as a giant black mastiff thrusts through the garden bushes with explosive barking. The fury then tracks me as I resume my walk. The second time, once I’d checked the driveway gates were closed and the beast was contained, I saw a middle-aged woman in a padded jacket standing in the garden.
    “Put that dog away!” I said.
    And she said: “The dog is to keep people like you away.”
    1. Di Modica's Dumb Steer March 31, 2026 at 2:08 pm

       I generally have no issues with dogs, even dogs trained for perimeter defense, long as they’re reasonably quiet and limit their aggression to unwanted guests instead the specified perimeter. I do, however, have a real effing problem with people, especially those who look down on others, using big aggressive dogs as an intimidation tactic.

       If you’re at all technical, you may want to consider building (or having someone build) the device detailed below. It doesn’t harm the dog (or even come into contact with them, and avoids the annoyance and liability of sprays), but it will make them question whether terrifying you as you peacefully walk past is a worthwhile endeavor. Your story is even mostly similar to why the author built the device in the first place: big dog, harassing people walking past, with only a fence between the two.

       https://www.grc.com/tqc/TheQuietCanine.htm
11. The Rev Kev March 31, 2026 at 9:00 am

    “Russia wants to legalize cars stolen in EU”

    I suppose that it is only fair. I have read accounts of Russians driving into the EU and having their cars confiscated at the border. And now the EU is in a bind here as they have no contact with any Russian authorities as they deliberately burnt those bridges.
    1. Rabid groundhog March 31, 2026 at 11:14 am

       Maybe there is some angle to this that is not clear in the story? An attempted bargining chip?
       As presented this seems both out of character for the Russians who have been playing the adults in the room, at least publicly, since the begining of the whole ugly Ukraine affair and a stoopid idea that will only encourage and increase the activities of ethnic gangs and mafias both in the E.U. and Russia.
    2. Maxwell Johnston March 31, 2026 at 1:55 pm

       The article is silly. Russians who can afford to buy snazzy German luxury makes would not dream of going low-end and buying a stolen car (yuck, pre-owned by God knows who, фу!); they can easily afford to buy a shiny new model through friendly middlemen in Kazakhstan, Georgia, PRC, etc. And the article doesn’t mention the recent spate of German luxury cars in Russia (Porsche and BMW in particular) being mysteriously bricked electronically, which certainly puts a damper on sales:

       https://www.autoevolution.com/news/hundreds-of-porsche-cars-mysteriously-bricked-in-russia-internal-bug-or-sabotage-262067.html

       Most new cars I’ve seen in Russia since 2022 are Chinese makes. During our recent family visit to Beijing (amazing city, strongly recommend visiting), I was amazed by the high-end Chinese EVs that I had never seen before. I have no idea if they are reliable or safe, but they are eye candy to look at. Aesthetically pleasing.
12. flora March 31, 2026 at 9:03 am

    Fire under Cuba and Iran:

    Katie Halper and Aaron Mate on Useful Idiots.

    Full episode: CUBA UPDATE + A New Threat in Iran LIVE w/ Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fqq241Y6n_s
13. Carolinian March 31, 2026 at 9:19 am

    Re auto theft–the Hyundai/KIA cars that have been subject to so much trouble were given an offered firmware upgrade that disabled starting unless the car was opened with, wait for it, the key fob. The linked article doesn’t offer much detail so unclear whether the fob duplicating device works on all car brands or only some.

    Perhaps ultimately all cars will have to come with included steering lock accessory. It seems that things that can be hacked will be hacked.
    1. flora March 31, 2026 at 10:59 am

       Not to mention Kia’s sharp and even illegal business practice in at least one dealership.

       “Multiple state and federal agencies are investigating [omitted] Kia and several of its related companies for conspiracy, theft and making false information,” according to the [omitted[ Department of Revenue.

       I omitted the identifying location and identifying link. This was from last year.

       I noticed recently another different auto brand dealership I’ve dealt with for years for simple things like an oil change seem to be starting a bit of sharp practice, imo. Charging for things not done. Maybe it was an oversight, maybe not. Disappointing. The economic distress is beginning to hit in small ways easily overlooked, imo.
       1. Carolinian March 31, 2026 at 11:40 am

          IMO car dealer service departments are all crooks to one degree or another. Unfair, no doubt, but I go by that assumption.

          I have a Hyundai which I’m very pleased with. I also have a bright yellow steering lock device for parking in dodgy areas. The by now well known steering column theft technique still requires the perps to break into the car. Hopefully before they break my window they will look through it and see that their efforts will be for naught.
14. The Rev Kev March 31, 2026 at 10:02 am

    ““CEO said a thing!”

    ‘A blistering guide to what lazy journalism too often looks like’

    And they wonder why it is so easy to replace them with some AI software.
    1. Vicky Cookies March 31, 2026 at 11:05 am

       Related, I was disappointed by the writing in the introduction to the article on Swedish social democracy. ‘Google AI says’ may be becoming the new ‘Webster’s Dictionary defines x as…’. As writers fight to prove that human creative labor is inherently valuable, we ought to take a little more pride in the craft.
    2. Lefty Godot March 31, 2026 at 12:19 pm

       The author highlights the way all context is ignored/removed in articles like that, and decontextualizing facts is indeed a major tactic of propaganda, so events become unlinked from their history and no one is tempted to connect any dots. Remember that “unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine” that ignored everything prior to February 2022, including the Minsk agreements, the 2014 coup against the elected government, the history of NATO expansion despite the protests of Russia, the promises of “no eastward NATO expansion” to Gorbachev and Yeltsin, etc., etc.
15. Mikel March 31, 2026 at 10:27 am

    “CEO said a thing!” Gary Marcus

    A nice companion piece to Ed Z’s continuing mission.
16. The Rev Kev March 31, 2026 at 10:48 am

    “Israel is making sure Trump can’t find an off-ramp in Iran”

    Of course they are. Israel wants Iran bombed to rubble so that they can, like with places such as Lebanon & Gaza – have a nominal peace but still be able to bomb their infrastructure and kill their leaders on a constant basis. Some Israeli official more or less said this. They are going to have to suffer a lot more pain before they realize that they cannot do this anymore.
17. Ann March 31, 2026 at 10:57 am

    Peak load tipped to double as industries flock to Australia’s world-first 100 pct renewables grid

    Peak demand in South Australia is expected to double over the next 15 years as industry flocks to the state, attracted by its high level of renewables and its unique status as the world’s first gigawatt-scale grid to reach 100 per cent net renewables.

    The state transmission company ElectraNet says the state is on the verge of a “once-in-a-generation” economic growth opportunity, underpinned by low cost, reliable and green grid.

    https://reneweconomy.com.au/peak-load-is-expected-to-double-as-industries-flock-to-australias-world-first-100-pct-renewables-grid/
18. Ann March 31, 2026 at 10:58 am

    Top trade officials of South Korea, Canada discuss energy, industrial cooperation

    https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20260331009500320
19. Es s Ce Tera March 31, 2026 at 11:20 am

    re: America’s long-haul truckers were already struggling. Then came $5 diesel CNN

    If I were a LHT or a carrier I would park the trucks until this was over.

    This is the same scenario as was facing restaurants during the COVID lockdown, do they continue to pay expenses at a loss or just close up shop for a while, possibly losing their prime locations. Nobody knew at the time how long this would take. The correct decision, as it turns out, was to close immediately and wait for a return to normalcy.
    1. You're soaking in it? March 31, 2026 at 3:17 pm

       The large majority of long haul truckers are owner-operators, who basically function as indentured servants. If they were wealthy enough to have downpayments for their rigs then they are in hock to the bank, if not then there are numerous “company store” type arrangements where they are on the hook to the same people dispatching their loads. Either way, if they stop working they lose their rigs.

       As you can imagine, this is by design. What will happen is prices will have to go up, most haulage contracts break out fuel as a line item which is already responding to prices. As everything (and it is everything) that goes over the road gets more expensive, well, this leads to what is politely referred to as “demand destruction”.
       1. converger March 31, 2026 at 6:37 pm

          Ah. Tariff by other means.
20. AG March 31, 2026 at 11:32 am

    Chris Hedges Q&A in Princeton

    Iran, Gaza and the Future of American Foreign Policy
    recommended

    23 min.
    https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/chris-hedges-q-and-a-at-princeton

    1) I would argue that the issue with Holocaust Studies goes deeper than Hedges at least in this short form addressed.

    As a single discipline for itself, confined to WWII, it appears to have caused more harm than benefit.

    I have no statistics: But I wouldn´t be surprised if the huge majority of those within academia who have been publicly battling the genocide did so due to studying not or not only Holocaust but genocide and mass murder as such, mainly in colonial context. They understand and accept because of putting Holocaust into context and erase its awful claim for uniqueness. That should question each chair for Holocaust only studies.

    We have now had the experience of 80 years putting Holocaust into the centre of this area (although the academic chairs are younger) and we can look back and ask ourselves – did it actually help preventing a genocide at the most difficult of circumstances as the victims are now the perpetrators?

    It is only under these very seldom special conditions when the true value and weight of an academic field may face the ultimate litmus test.

    2) He did not really answer the lady´s question on how he sees Iran as fighting the empire. I assume she would have wished him to either endorse the government or not. And may even go further. He did draw a stark line between the population and the regime instead, having been detained, kicked and what not by it.

    But 23 minutes were way too short. And he is too professional to give only half-answers when he chooses to answer he is definitive. That however often makes him appear more narrow and unforgiving in his views than he really is.
    1. Carolinian March 31, 2026 at 12:16 pm

       More Hedges

       https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/making-the-film-palestine-36-w-director
    2. AG March 31, 2026 at 12:31 pm

       edit:
       “having been detained, kicked OUT” by the Iranians
21. In Cold Chud March 31, 2026 at 12:09 pm

    Re: Egalitarianism

    So–it’s interesting that he (I’m assuming it’s a dude) elides the assumption Huebner is somewhat (though only somewhat) more explicit about: That the million people in World A somehow know they’d be the better-off *half* of World A+, and therefore would prefer it. I had to read this statement in the Huebner piece several times. (Perhaps this world is Dubai.) Be that as it may, this manages to be less offensive than the stipulation that life for the worse-off is still pretty good. That solves a lot of problems. (Is Bentham’s Bulldog a Sam Harris burner account?)

    The orthodox academic economics idea of utility as something cumulative is dubious. I’m sure it’s unrelated to being part of a discipline that believes in infinite growth.

    Even on its own terms, though, utility is never defined. This is deliberate. How much more utility can someone who makes $500,000 a year get, and is it utility they should even have? No billionaire will ever get the utility from *anything* that someone else gets going from $25,000 to $50,000 a year.
    1. vao March 31, 2026 at 3:46 pm

       That article was junk, in my opinion.

       1) There are inconsistencies in the arguments themselves:

       “World A+ has all the same people as world A has, plus some extra well-off people.”

       No, World A+ has as many people as world A at a higher level (102), and as many people that are worse-off (at level 1).

       “In this case, the prioritarian cares more about the first 50 utils than the next 51. So they have every incentive to take option A, even though it’s worse for people in expectation.”

       From the argument, this should read “So they have every incentive to take option B […]”.

       2) The so-called “Huemer’s argument” does not make sense:

       2.a) it compares population of different sizes (1m vs 2m);
       2.b) and with difference levels of total “utility” (101×1=101 vs 102×1+1×1=103 vs 50×2=100);
       2.c) at different levels of inequality (worlds A and B vs A+).

       These examples are no commensurable. The correct argument is to compare worlds keeping two characteristics the same and varying the third. Of course Germany, with a larger population, a larger GDP and GDP/capita, and a higher income and wealth inequality is most probably preferable to Kyrgyzstan. But this is only a dimensioning effect: rich, large, unequal countries are generally preferable to poor, small, less unequal ones (assuming GDP is a measure of utility), just because their general standard of living his inherently higher. This is however a trivial assertion; the real issue is whether two countries with similar populations and GDP are better off when their GDP/utility/welfare are more equally distributed.

       Thus, a world A+ with a total welfare at 99×1+1×1 would, by all arguments, be worse off than world B with 50×2 — contrarily to what the author states.

       3) The third section of Pareto just repeats arguments that have been overridden by more advanced statistical principles.

       The argument that 50% of 101 (option A) has a better expectation than a certain 50 (option B) is irrelevant, because it does not take into account the nature of the options to select. If options are nonrecurring, the choice is not between expectation 50.5 and 50, but between (either 0 or 101) and 50. Most people prefer a certain 50 to the risk of getting 0, which is a rational decision. And even if recurring, calculations based on the expectation are only valid if every choice is independent of the previous ones, i.e. the probability does not apply on an accumulation or an increment of previous welfare units, or the probability itself does not depend on past choices.

       In other words, the stated principle:

       “if there are two actions which both give me some reward at some probability, I should take the one that gives me reward at higher probability, all else equal.”

       Does not hold, because time is an ever-present variable (even as a discrete succession of events) in realistic choices and this laughably simplistic principle does not take it into account.

       The disquisitions about people entirely forgetting their previous state of mind and welfare state (including such constructions as having lived 1bn years in the past), or their feelings during past dreams, or “air spirits”, are just absurd.

       “both egalitarianism and prioritarianism imply that, in the right circumstances, the value of your welfare depends on your welfare at previous points. But this doesn’t seem right.”

       That bloke has never read about the marshmallow test. Children who had had hard times and cannot trust that promises will be kept because by experience they assume an uncertain environment prefer not to wait and go by ” a bird the hand is better than two in the bush”. Once again, welfare depends on many factors which the author ignores in favour of simplistic, unrealistic computational rules.

       4) By section 4, the author goes with even more bonkers arguments. I am not sure in which category of logical fallacy they fall (red herring?), but arguing that breaking the nose of a well-off person could be construed as a reduction of welfare inequality is plainly absurd. The question is how to distribute goods and money to reduce inequality; noses or the well-being thereof are not transferable commodities.

       Then there is this:

       “Here’s a bigger problem: egalitarianism seems to imply that how good your welfare is depends in bizarre ways on other people.”

       That bloke has never heard of the Whitehall studies, which demonstrated that, indeed, individual welfare (there health outcomes) depends on others’ welfare via the level of inequality. Less inequality, better health for everybody — including those at the top of the social hierarchy.

       5) The conclusion delves again on old (by now discredited) concepts such as utility and diminishing marginal utility. It is well-known that utility is not a closed concept, which ends up being defined tautologically, ends up reduced to monetary quantities, individual utilities are not transitive, can generally not be computed, and even then they cannot be aggregated anyway (see Steve Keene for details).

       When he states:

       “Your first banana is very good, your second is medium, and your fiftieth has no value. Your first 100,000 dollars are very valuable, your next are far less valuable, and the ones after that diminish even more.”

       I would argue that I have had thousands of bananas in my life, and they generally provided the same level of satisfaction. Of course, an important variable is disregarded: time. In what world does that bloke live that he is given an entire bunch of bananas to eat? As for the 100’000 bucks: yes, the next 100’000 are very valuable — they allow me to cover about 18 months of living expenses. And the third 100’000, another 18 months. It is called safety, otherwise known as savings — a concept that bloke is not familiar with, and which, again, require the variable time.

       6) Conclusion.

       The arguments put forth in that article have that dusty, mildewed fragrance of superannuated worldviews that have been empirically and mathematically discredited a long time ago.
    2. eg March 31, 2026 at 4:31 pm

       After gritting my teeth through this substack I consoled myself that John Kenneth Galbraith might find some small satisfaction to discover this observation of his remains evergreen:

       “The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
    3. Grebo March 31, 2026 at 5:48 pm

       This piece seems to me a typical (well, smarter than typical) right-wing strawmanning of ‘egalitarianism’ or ‘equality’. They do this to divert attention from the real issue. Unfortunately, many on the left fall into the trap.

       ‘All men are created equal.‘ That is what equality means and what the Left believes.

       ‘People like me are inherently better than others.‘ That is what the Right believes.

       It is a moral principle, not a balance sheet entry.
22. AG March 31, 2026 at 12:09 pm

    re: October 7th

    Mearsheimer recently confirmed that the majority of Israelis were killed by their own.
    Is this now an established fact in a way that official studies, data and verdicts could be quoted? Independently from particular personalities such as Mearsheimer?
    1. caucus99percenter March 31, 2026 at 3:21 pm

       Pro-Israel organizers in Germany, such as those who keep trying to silence and de-platform UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, do their best to prevent the general public from absorbing that fact.

       https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politik-gesellschaft/geopolitik/francesca-albanese-berlin-gaza-film-babylon-li.10027791
       1. AG March 31, 2026 at 7:56 pm

          Thanks!

          machine-translation for non-German-speakers

          Francesca Albanese in Berlin: “I am shocked by Germany’s role in the Gaza war”

          During a screening of the film “Disunited Nations” at the Babylon cinema, the UN expert sharply criticized Western policy towards Israel. Meanwhile, protests took place outside the cinema.
          https://archive.is/qj4BC
          1. caucus99percenter April 1, 2026 at 12:16 am

             Thanks for the translation!

             A few meters away: almost the same number of people on the other side. They are protesting against the appearance of the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine. It is an unusual mix that has gathered here: Israeli and Ukrainian flags wave side by side, along with the flag of the Iranian Shah regime and a banner of the FDP (Free Democratic Party), which called for the protest under the motto “No platform for antisemitism at the Babylon!” Shouts of “Terrorists out of Berlin” and “Islamists out of Berlin” echo across the square.

             And the FDP, formerly a key player and kingmaker in (West) German coalition politics, continues to be puzzled why they didn’t make the 5% cutoff in recent state elections in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. The lack of self-awareness — “kiss up, kick down,” and “rich, well-off folks are the real/m victims” the FDP motto…
23. Ann March 31, 2026 at 12:50 pm

    Trump’s Tax Cut Delivers at Least $65 Billion Windfall to Corporations

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-31/amazon-walmart-verizon-benefit-from-trump-corporate-tax-cuts

    ‘I Just Hope We Can Bounce Back’: GM’s Prized EV Truck Factory Goes Dark Again

    https://insideevs.com/news/791616/gm-factory-zero-production-pause-evs/
24. AG March 31, 2026 at 12:52 pm

    re: Hegseth, Iran and defense stocks

    REUTERS quoting FT (via Martyanov)

    US Defense Secretary Hegseth’s broker looked to buy defense fund before Iran attack, FT reports
    https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/us-defense-secretary-hegseths-broker-looked-buy-defense-fund-before-iran-attack-2026-03-30/
25. Jason Boxman March 31, 2026 at 12:53 pm

    AI abuse continues. From an investing web site I follow

    Some of you may have noticed website was down for quite a while this morning and was slow etc.

    Apparently ChatGPT has been aggressively trying to copy and catalogue every image posted on the Blog, which slowed website to a craw and crashed Apache a couple of times. We’ve put in a block for now, but anyway we’ve been seeing more and more of this type of behavior from AI and cloud sources
26. AG March 31, 2026 at 1:10 pm

    3x LRB

    1) on Unredacted: Russia, Trump and the Fight for Democracy
    by Christopher Steele

    Among the Private Spies
    review by Vadim Nikitin
    https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n06/vadim-nikitin/among-the-private-spies

    2) on Operation Wrath of God: The Secret History of European Intelligence and Mossad’s Assassination Campaign
    by Aviva Guttmann

    Beware the mattress
    review by Andrew Cockburn
    https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n06/andrew-cockburn/beware-the-mattress

    3) on Crooked Cross
    by Sally Carson

    Born with a Hitler moustache
    review by Dinah Birch
    https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n06/dinah-birch/born-with-a-hitler-moustache
27. LifelongLib March 31, 2026 at 4:42 pm

    I could only read 3) through the paywall, but I’m skeptical of the idea that there are necessary connections between (say) racism/sexism and fascism. It seems very easy to imagine societies with one but not the other. In fact that seems to be the direction the U.S. is headed in, albeit slowly — where the distribution of wealth looks more equal in terms of race and sex, but is much less equal across economic classes, than it was before.
28. Jason Boxman March 31, 2026 at 5:24 pm

    Axios Supply Chain Attack Pushes Cross-Platform RAT via Compromised npm Account

    An enormous number of JavaScript projects use this.

    The popular HTTP client known as Axios has suffered a supply chain attack after two newly published versions of the npm package introduced a malicious dependency that delivers a trojan capable of targeting Windows, macOS, and Linux systems.

    it is serious

    With more than 83 million weekly downloads, Axios is one of the most widely used HTTP clients in the JavaScript ecosystem across frontend frameworks, backend services, and enterprise applications.

    “This was not opportunistic,” Kurmi added. “The malicious dependency was staged 18 hours in advance. Three separate payloads were pre-built for three operating systems. Both release branches were hit within 39 minutes. Every trace was designed to self-destruct.”

    …

    As Elastic Security Labs pointed out, the attack makes use of three parallel implementations of the same RAT – PowerShell for Windows, compiled C++ for macOS, Python for Linux – that shares an identical C2 protocol, command set, message format, and operational behavior. “The consistency strongly indicates a single developer or tightly coordinated team working from a shared design document,” the company said.
29. Alice X March 31, 2026 at 5:35 pm

    I hardly know where best to put these observations, but I will put this here.

    With Judge Nap today:

    Prof. John Mearsheimer : Will Trump Go Kamikaze?

    The title is slightly off, but the Prof lays out keen assessments.
30. flora March 31, 2026 at 5:46 pm

    from Breaking Points, utube, ~13+ minutes. Energy shortages start biting.

    World Leaders DIRE WARNING: ‘Can’t Sleep’ Over Iran Crisis

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWiYoXa9bQM
31. johnnyme March 31, 2026 at 7:33 pm

    Alex Pretti’s Death Came After Insane Stephen Miller Order

    During one of his many furious morning calls with immigration enforcement officials, Miller demanded that federal agents be dispatched to certain areas of Minneapolis in order to “force confrontations” with anti-ICE protesters, two senior DHS sources told the Daily Mail.

    Miller repeatedly urged federal agents to engage with protesters in order to win a “PR battle,” one official told the outlet.

    He told officials that anti-ICE could not be viewed as successful, and repeatedly said that demonstrators “need to be vanquished by any force necessary,” another DHS source told the Mail.

    The Daily Mail article referenced here is paywalled.
32. Wukchumni March 31, 2026 at 8:12 pm

    Are you ready, Stephen? Uh-ha!
    Markwayne? Yeah!
    Marco? Okay.

    All right, fellas, let’s go!

    Oh, it’s been getting so hard
    Livin’ with the things Biden did to me, ah-ha
    My dreams are getting so strange
    I’d like to tell you everything I see, mm

    Oh, I see a man an administration back as a matter of fact
    I blame him for everything under the sun
    And M T-G no longer in my corner, let no one ignore her
    ‘Cause she thinks she’s the passionate one

    Oh yeah, it was like lightning
    Everybody was frightening
    And the criticism was hardly soothing
    And they all started grooving
    Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

    And then the press hacks in the back said: “Everyone attack”
    And it turned into a ballroom on the fritz
    And a reporter from fake news said: “Boy, I wanna warn ya”
    It’ll turn into a ballroom on the fritz
    Ballroom on the fritz
    Ballroom on the fritz
    Ballroom on the fritz
    Ballroom on the fritz

    Oh, I’m reaching out to Fox News
    Doing nothing’s all I ever do
    Oh, I softly call them over
    When they appear, there’s nothing left to do, ah-ha

    Now the reporter at the back of the presser is ready to crack
    As he raises his hands to the sky
    And Karoline in my corner is everyone’s mourner
    She could kill any argument with a wink of her eye

    Oh yeah, it was electric
    So frantically hectic
    And the original architect ended up leaving
    Thank goodness Shalom is still breathing
    Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

    And the press hack in the back said: “Everyone attack”
    And it turned into a ballroom on the fritz
    And the fake news reporter said: “Boy, I wanna warn ya”
    It’ll turn into a ballroom on the fritz
    Ballroom on the fritz

    Oh yeah, it was like lightning
    Everybody was frightening
    And the criticism was hardly soothing
    ‘Cause they all started grooving
    Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

    And the press hacks in the back said: “Everyone attack”
    And it turned into a ballroom on the fritz
    And a fake news reporter said: “Boy, I wanna warn ya”
    It’ll turn into a ballroom on the fritz
    Ballroom on the fritz
    Ballroom on the fritz
    Ballroom on the fritz
    Ballroom on the fritz

    It’s, it’s a ballroom on the fritz
    It’s, it’s a ballroom on the fritz
    It’s, it’s a ballroom on the fritz
    Yeah, it’s a ballroom on the fritz

    Ballroom Blitz, by Sweet

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPQPdYttl7U&list=RDmPQPdYttl7U
33. Wukchumni March 31, 2026 at 8:32 pm

    I’ve seen many citrus orchards here where oranges are laying all over the ground and the trees are loaded with fruit and new blossoms coexist with them.

    My first thought was fruit pickers (Mexican-Americans) were staying away in droves on account of ICE and such, but I was set right in that the farmers are just letting the fruit rot out, as their export markets have been wrecked by the tariffist.

    …and they all voted for him!
    1. ambrit March 31, 2026 at 9:06 pm

       Yes, it is a shame, but I have read that ICEIS is mostly comprised of tarrifiries.

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