Prepping for the Apocalypse? You May Want to Pack a Little Treat Mother Jones
Pathogenic virus infects and structurally reorganizes human cells, finds new study Universitätsklinikum Essen
#COVID-19/Pandemics
A major breakthrough may finally explain long COVID — and provide concrete proof that it’s a real, biologically driven condition rather than just psychological or lingering effects.
In a 2025 study, researchers detected persistent fragments of SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins hidden… pic.twitter.com/XokJFX7IYP
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) March 9, 2026
19 Covid deaths & 50 hospitalisations in the last week in #NZ per Health NZ, equivalent to about a 1000 deaths over a year: double that of influenza
Self isolate if suspected #nzpol #Kiwi pic.twitter.com/EVOWvRe6eT
— Mountain_Tui (@Mountain_Tui) March 8, 2026
Climate/Environment
Balayage to biodiversity: Are Europe’s hairdressers the secret weapon in tackling climate change? Euronews
Another study confirms it: Global warming is speeding up E&E News
Climate or biodiversity? Global study maps out forestation’s dilemma Mongabay
Can green fuels clean up aviation? Scientists say the math doesn’t add up Independent
Migratory species face rising extinction risk, new UN update warns Oceanographic News
On the Farm, the Hidden Climate Cost of the Broken U.S. Health Care System Inside Climate News
The mystery that stands out: “It looks strange”: Sweden reports three times greater carbon uptake in the soil compared to Finland. Aftonbladet via machine translation (Micael T)
Water
From Tigris and Euphrates to Nile: Growing Water Challenges Raise Regional Tensions Shia Waves
Pakistan rejects water weaponisation, terrorism by India The News
Water and Security in the Middle East: Lessons from the Iranian Crisis Resilience
China?
China said it ended poverty. Did it? Financial Times. Important. Which I had time to discuss.
China’s exports soar nearly 22% in first two months of 2026 Nikkei
Nvidia halts H200 production as China backs Huawei AI chips Asia Times (Kevin W)
What’s wrong with a G2? Wang Yi lays out China’s case against great-power rivalry South China Morning Post
Why is China set to approve a new law promoting ‘ethnic unity’? BBC
Japan
Japan considering steps to cushion economy from Iran conflict, PM Takaichi says Arab News
Koreas
Oil shock prompts South Korea to impose fuel price cap for the first time in 30 years CNBC (Kevin W). We cited Bloomberg yesterday that this was likely coming.
India
Oil shock pushes rupee to all-time low; central bank support softens slide Reuters
Southeast Asia
Thailand Confronts an Energy Shock The Coffee Parliament. I have gotten a rumor from a connected party that Russia is sending LNG, and if true, the government might be loath to make that public so as not to annoy the US, which is a big weapons supplier to Thailand. However, oil supplies are the bigger problem.
Thailand races to modernise artillery against Cambodia Intelligence Online
Africa
Sudan’s devastating civil war could be about to get worse — and global The Times
Foreign outflows push Egypt’s pound to its lowest official level on record National News
European Disunion
Iran War Is the Latest Blow for Europe’s Battered Industrial Backbone Bloomberg
Merz’s minister of culture uses domestic intelligence agency against independent bookshops Guardian (Paul R)
Dutch troops “rehearse” defending against Russian troops in Norway NL Times
Middle East war is already affecting shipping — and Europe won’t be spared Politico
Old Blighty
UK must stockpile food in readiness for climate shocks or war, expert warns Guardian
Great Britain has only two days of gas stored, while Iran war threatens to disrupt supplies Guardian
The UK hay crisis: how extreme weather is redefining forage, welfare and costs for horse owners Your Horse
Israel v. The Resistance
The No World Order: Meir Kahane, Netanyahu, Trump, and the war beyond Iran. Sarah Kendzior (Lucy K). Important.
US missile hit military base near Iran school, video analysis shows BBC (Kevin W)
Russia Accused Israel Of Deliberately Destroying Its Cultural Center In South Lebanon Andrew Korybko
The Poisoning of Tehran Daniel Larison
TRUMP AND NETANYAHU NEED TO STOP THE BOMBING BEFORE THE WORLD IS DESTROYED Ian Proud
Lavrov Articulated Russia’s Official Position Towards The Third Gulf War Andrew Korybko
Inside Iran’s Revolutionary Guard: The Organization Built to Outlast War Kautilya
Does Iran Pose a Real Threat to US Carriers? Debate Finally Answered For Good Simplicius. Including this so as not to look remiss, but SERIOUSLY? The pretend Iran in the 2002 Millennium War game pretend sank an aircraft carrier almost as soon as the exercise started. Military experts know these carrier are monster targets. The big reason for Iran not to scupper one is the environmental damage that would result, since they run on nuclear power.
We’re going to make a tonne of money’: US Senator Graham on US war on Iran Aljazeera (Kevin W)
New Not-So-Cold War
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says next round of US-brokered trilateral peace talks with Russia postponed Anadolu Agency
Iran war gives Russia the upper hand over Ukraine Unherd
SETTLING IN RUSSIA & WATCHING AMERICA FROM AFAR Hal Freeman (Anthony L)
Imperial Collapse Watch
Trump’s Obsession and Limitations with “Energy Dominance” Strategy in the World by ZHANG Rui and YUE Fengli China Affairs+
Trump 2.0
Trump job approval sinks in new poll The Hill
Trump says “the war is very complete,” and he’s considering taking over Strait of Hormuz CBS
In South Dakota you’ll soon be able to challenge other voters’ citizenship Sun (resilc)
Economy
Crop Prices Jump as War Snarls Trade and Risks Tightening Supply Financial Post
Tungsten prices surge nearly 6x amid China export controls and geopolitical tensions with Japan DigiTimes
Mr. Market is Moody
Oil extends slide as investors assess Trump comments on Iran war, Strait of Hormuz CNBC
The cause of the next global market crash is hiding in plain sight South China Morning Post
AI
How to Talk to Someone Experiencing ‘AI Psychosis 404 Media
Anthropic sues Trump Administration over ‘supply chain risk’ classification Quartz
The Bezzle
blockquote>Blackrock fund limits withdrawals amid private credit fears City AM
McDonald’s CEO ruthlessly mocked over viral video tasting Big Arch burger: ‘Most unnatural thing I’ve ever seen’ New York Post (resilc)
Antidote du jour (Ann M):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
75 comments
Comments are closed.
Corpus Christi’s slow motion water crisis, from March 8.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08032026/after-a-decade-of-missteps-a-texas-city-careens-toward-a-water-shortage-catastrophe/
This good bit of journalism features every human flaw. And they all seem to converging into a very bad end.
“Thailand Confronts an Energy Shock”
I don’t know how true it is or not but the TV news here in Oz were saying that to save energy, that they were considering restricting the hours that an air conditioner could be used by people. Are they going to also suggest that people start installing a Punkah in their homes?
Well, that may give employment as punkah wallahs to all those unemployed by AI…
Thank you for linking the Sarah Kendzior piece on Meir Kahane. Important indeed
Seconded.
Growing up in NYC as a precociously political yout’ in the 1970’s, I specifically recall Kahane and his followers spreading their poison. The extended NYC teacher’s strike in 1968 – where efforts at community control in Black neighborhoods conflicted with union work rules in a largely-Jewish teacher’s union – fractured the Black-Jewish political coalition in the city, and provided fertile ground for him.
Then, as coincidence would have it, over twenty years later I was working as an organizer/business rep for the NYC musicians union – great job, donning a tux and walking around Midtown Manhattan and the Upper East Side, sneaking into Society weddings and balls to talk with musicians – when I was briefly in the room at the Marriott East Side hotel, probably thirty minutes before he was gunned down.
May Jews in the future spit when they utter his name, for what he helped bring upon them, let alone for what he and his followers have brought upon non-Jews.
raspberry jam and Henry Moon Pie.
Yes, No World Order by Sarah Kendzior is among today’s must reads (which also, and unfortunately, include Yves Smith’s thorough and insightful updates of the daily disasters happening in Iran, Palestine, and Lebanon). The whole essay is like more cold water splashed in the face.
The cast of characters starts to look too familiar. And what a tight group (a reminder of the wisdom of George Carlin). Wowsers.
This: “Trump’s father, Fred Trump, became friends with Netanyahu in the 1980s, when Netanyahu was Israel’s ambassador to the UN. The friendship extended to Donald. Trump’s closeness to Netanyahu grew stronger when Ivanka Trump married Jared Kushner, whose family was so close with the Netanyahus that Netanyahu used to sleep in Jared’s bed (when Jared was not in it.)”
Forty or more years of planning by a death cult.
I agree. This is definitely an important piece, not just on Kahane but on the much larger connections which you hint at here. The author, Sarah Kendzior, has done a lot of good work documenting what I would call the “right-wing” factions among the global criminal networks that have come to control much of the world. This is especially the case with her book ‘They Knew.’ She is also very familiar with Trump’s history and long-standing ties with organized crime, going back to her days as a tabloid journalist in NY.
As with most authors – actually with literally *any* author I have ever read – she has her blind spots and biases. These do not undermine anything she writes in this article. But in my opinion they do prevent her from understanding fully the *neo-liberal* or Atlanticist faction of our bipartisan criminal Establishment. She can discuss the evils of Israel and the Israel lobby quite well. Yet she cannot adequately consider Russia or Ukraine. For her Putin is just another autocratic kleptocrat. She does not distinguish Putin and the Kremlin from those Russian oligarchs and mafiosi with whom Trump had significant dealings. This, and her deep knowledge of Trump’s corruption, led her to promote the Russiagate bulls**t. In her view, Mueller and Barr were actually covering up for *Trump* rather than for the Deep State coup to oust him! For her the *real* coup attempt was on January 6. Though she is quite critical of the Democrats, it is mainly because in her view they “let it happen,” the “it” being the takeover of our country by the Trump crime syndicate and its Zionist allies. She does not seem to comprehend the active role played by the Blue Team factions in our Game of Thrones history.
Ok, sorry for the rant. I do not mean to undermine this article. In fact I recommend it, along with her other work. It’s just that it continues to be so frustrating to read people who are so knowledgeable in some areas and yet so myopic in others.
Thank you for the “rant”.
I too appreciated many of Sarah Kendzior’s revelations, while being similarly disturbed by her blithe inclusion of Putin in her axis of evil dictators.
Thanks for the detail. I did notice her anti-Russian slight but didn’t realize she had been a Russiagate humper. But otherwise, that was a great and informative article.
You allude to something I’ve been wondering about for the last decade now – Trump’s ties to organized crime. For a NY real estate developer of that scale, it would be surprising if Trump did NOT have mafia ties. In all the talk of Trump’s corruption for the last decade, I have never seen any specifics about these ties. When Trump passed infrastructure legislation in his first term, I fully expected to see documentation of government funds finding their way into mafia hands through construction projects, but saw nothing.
There has to be a tie somewhere, doesn’t there? Instead, he gets charged with 32 felonies over some made up nonsense done by an accountant using outdated software. Teflon Don indeed.
Ah, when #McResistance liberals thought Stormy Daniels and charging Hitler with jaywalking would Save Our Democracy: good times!
Arguably could be the first and last links of todays amalgam. Might be worthy of repeating for the next few days. Eeeeeee-yuccch!
Important – and head-spinning
Another study confirms it: Global warming is speeding up E&E News
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Big storm dumped as much as 8 feet of snow in the Sierra a fortnight ago, so why was I skiing on 8 inches on the ground in Mammoth yesterday?
Warming melted most of it off, and the upcoming heat wave in the west will do in the rest as many temps won’t go below freezing overnight in the higher climes.
All of the tributaries for the Colorado River came up way short in snowfall this winter, perhaps forcing a decision long overdue in states share of the goods.
Last year aside from the LA Infernos, it was an off wildfire year in Cali, everything is gonna get dried up a lot sooner this spring.
About that “A major breakthrough may finally explain long COVID ” tweet:
Self interest: My daughter feels she has mild Long COVID.
Why did Massimo not link to the study?
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s15010-025-02612-x
I am new to reading these studies but from what I understand the control group was only blood samples from pre-pandemic blood. Why did they not get post pandemic blood samples from people like me?
Also, does this mean they did not always find the peptide?
I am afraid this is a poor study being hyped and that makes me angry becasue it just gives false hope to people who are suffering. We have seen so many of these “breakthroughs” and we are tired of them.
As a physician, one of whose jobs is to evaluate studies for a living, and who has LC, I’m afraid you are right. A ridiculous number of studies that purport to study LC use uninfected individuals as the control.
In this case, the sample size of 14 is also so tiny as to be little more than a curiosity.
In a universe of a million stars, like the molecular biology of mammals, it’s easy to find all sorts of patterns that seem to be meaningful constellations….
“Blackrock fund limits withdrawals amid private credit fears”
A canary in the coalmine feeling woozy? I imagine that a lot of investors were withdrawing their funds to cover their positions but to have Blackrock limit how much they could pull out must have been a very nasty shock indeed. I suspect that when this is all over, that it will be found that certain favoured investors were able to withdraw all their money on the sly.
It gives me great joy that Blackrock’s decision is starting to make headlines, and it will give me even greater joy if this is seriously noted by the ordinary person on the street, as it will be the thing that keeps private equity out of retail IRAs and 401ks. “They won’t let you take out your own money.” should be the meme that becomes a core belief of the retail investor when confronted with the idea of PE in their accounts. I do see that the hype that PE should be available to retail is toning down somewhat.
>>>Does Iran Pose a Real Threat to US Carriers? Debate Finally Answered For Good
Only the Iranians know what lurks in their mountain arsenals.
Given Iran’s knack at drones, it only makes sense to have a jet-powered kamikaze, long-range drone that slots beneath its missiles and above the Shahed.
Strike a carrier or one of its escorts with one such hypothetical-sized drone, it may not be enough to sink a ship, but enough to be embarrassing or downright hair-raising (see the beating that the USS Forrestal took off of Vietnam after an accident).
If Iran truly had sophisticated FPV capabilities, send one right into the aircraft elevator.
Simplicius also does not understand orbital mechanics – a satellite cannot remain over Ukraine – it must traverse the equator. Animations of a polar orbit (typically sun synchronous for Earth observation satellites) are easy to find. A LEO constellation of 20-40 can swath map the globe hourly.
Simplicius usually doesn’t make mistakes that basic – probably exhausted.
https://www.wired.com/2015/03/watch-mesmerizing-animation-nasa-satellites/
geostationary position?
You can be geostationary only over the equator, roughly. In another orbit at that altitude, in which the orbit takes 24 hours, the sat’s position over the earth oscillates north-south over a longitude line.
That’s why those satellite dishes are always pointing south. In the 80s in New Mexico, we had one of those 6 ft. diameter dishes on a steel pole set in concrete. You had to adjust it to point toward one of the several satellites carrying TV signals.
That was the “Golden Age,” to borrow a term, of satellite TV. Everything was free, HBO included. Sports was especially fun. This was ’85, and my Royals were headed for a ring. You could “tune in” before broadcast time, and the sportscasters were on camera discussing where they’d had dinner the night before. During the time when regular viewers were watching ads, you could watch them discuss the game or the weather or the next town during the break.
“Russia Accused Israel Of Deliberately Destroying Its Cultural Center In South Lebanon”
Pretty sure that this was a deliberate attack by the Israelis. It might be their response to Russia dressing down the Gulf States the other day for not condemning the US & Israel but putting all the blame on Iran which the Russians would not go along with. Israel has a very long history of petulant violence and this attack would suit their profile.
There’s some juice in the comments section in that article on Substack. One bit in the author’s reply to one poster in a discussion about some various alliances:
Andrew Korybko
9h
Edited
“It’s rather simple, all that countries have to do to dupe Russia is talk about multibillion-dollar energy deals, trap Russia in endless negotiations, and spew a bit of anti-American rhetoric from time to time and Russia will think that they’re it’s newest best friend.”
On March 5 Doug Henwood (podcast, 25 mins) interviewed Behrooz Gahmari, who teaches at the U of Toronto, on the Iran conflict. I recommend as good sketch of the complex Iranian political order, which arguably is a “managed democracy” within fairly strict theocratic limits. Gahmari believes that there is enough space in the system for popular forces to bring about significant changes if external pressures don’t provide the excuse for repression, or require it.
“A “managed democracy” within fairly strict theocratic limits. Gahmari believes that there is enough space in the system for popular forces to bring about significant changes if external pressures don’t provide the excuse for repression, or require it.”
He’s talking about Iran or the US?
Chas Freeman has said Iran like the US is a directed democracy, that both have topics that are off limits as far as political debate are concerned.
He did not elaborate with respect to either one but I assume with the US no-nos include saying nice things about communism
That’s right. Gahmari lamented the fact that protestors have tended to move from issue advocacy to advocating for secular democracy, which from my perspective is legitimate, but will result in getting you either arrested, imprisoned or, as happened during the 2009 protests against election theft, defenestrated and killed. The regime has not been able to extirpate the constitutional democracy tradition going back before Mossadeq and has been forced to an awkward accommodation with it. Gahmari has enough faith in the durability of that tradition in defining both democratic aspirations and, to use Tilly’s term, “repertoires of contention,” that he believes that if foreign entities, especially Zionist ones, would gtfout of Iranian society the development of secular forces, combined with moderate and left religious groupings, could proceed.
Jsn’s point about the erosion of differences between our supposedly open democratic society and the managed democracies — Russia would be a good example — is well taken.
Re left-wing clergy, I’m not up on current factions. However, back in 1979 there were some stellar examples. Ayatollah Taleghani stands out. If you go to that Wiki link you can get a sense of both his views and the maneuvering the hard liners had to engage in with him.
This speaks to Yves comment re communism. Land reform in general was a hot issue. The Shah, in his “White Revolution”, had skewed in favor of agribusiness for export and failed to gain the popular support that was possible.
I dared to watch Piers Morgan vs. Mahrandi yesterday. I don´t understand why Marandi didn´t tell him that stating “Starmer is a dud” is a joke and not critical journalism. Which is why Morgan believes he lives in a system of freedom of speech. It would have been so easy to pull the rug from under just by simply giving a few examples of criticism based on intern. law which Morgan could never state in British or US legacy media. Like Starmer being a war criminal and should be prosecuted for supporting genocide. And same would be true for Morgan himself. Not to speak of Palestinian rights etc. It´s too obvious actually to articulate it. Mahrandi instead laughed because Morgan is of course in incredible idiot.
(That´s actually what Chomsky tried to do when he explained Morgan what intern. law is about in a show in the summer of 2023.)
fwiw here Mahrandi
TC 49:10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wdtljAyOi4
Before there is a chaos with some genocidal maniacs faced among others by Aaron Maté. I tuned out of it after 2 minutes. Not considered it worth my time.
And then – yes – all the things discussed in the Henwood podcast that you hint at.
Thanks for reminding people of the entry.
Recommended.
“China said it ended poverty. Did it?”
Did the Chinese mostly do it? Certainly. But here is the thing. They stated an aim to reduce poverty in their country and did not stop until it had been done. It may not be perfect but it is for now good enough. How many other countries are attempting this? How many advanced western countries are doing this? I would go so far as to say that the later accept poverty pour encourager les autres. In fact you can build an industry on poverty – like with homelessness – where billions are thrown at the problem but nothing happens except a bunch of consultants make bank. So here I will give the Chinese a pass for actually trying in the first place
re: Germany deindustrialization – VW
TELEPOLIS Blog
use google-translate
VW in a death spiral: Too big to fail – too slow to win
VW’s profit halves to 6.9 billion euros. 50,000 jobs are cut in Germany – more than planned. But the biggest danger lurks elsewhere.
https://www.telepolis.de/article/VW-in-der-Todesspirale-Zu-gross-um-zu-scheitern-zu-langsam-um-zu-gewinnen-11205239.html
“Europe’s largest car manufacturer, Volkswagen, recorded a massive decline in profits in the 2025 financial year. The group’s net income after taxes fell by around 44 percent compared to the previous year, from €12.4 billion to €6.9 billion, as the company announced at its annual press conference on March 10, 2026, in Wolfsburg.
CEO Oliver Blume and CFO Arno Antlitz presented the financial figures. It is the weakest result since the diesel scandal crisis.”
“Anthropic sues the Trump administration as its AI feud with the Pentagon goes to court’
Of course they should be fighting this. Trump and Hegseth had Anthropic declared as a national security risk simply because they told Hegseth that they would not let their software be used to spy on Americans and have it also used for autonomous weapons aka Skynet mode. So Trump and Hegseth went the total maximalist mode as in they went nuts.
I thought the U. S. carrier in the 2002 Millennium Falcon Challenge was in the Persia Gulf, as in right next to Iran. Now the carrier is out at sea 500 miles or more, a bigger challenge as a target.
As Carolinian said on our Iran post:
Out of curiousity, how many here have experienced the “Standard” out of body experience?
In my case pain popped me right out of my body and when I came back i was looking down at my body from about 10 Ft and connected to it by a golden cord.
Pretty much the standard experience, it seems less common than the “Standard” transcendent experience of directly experiencing the integrity of the Universe, the unity of all things.
Been there twice, a nice place to visit and one that taught me that there are things that can be communicated with dance and music that can not be communicated in words.
The problem that proponents of transcendent experiences have is that the experiences are necessarily individual and cannot be replicated upon demand. The problem that deniers have is that there are too many such claims from otherwise normal people to be ignored.
I’m glad you stayed connected, Tom. We’d miss you, brother.
Chemo brought me the closest I’ve come almost two years ago. I was sitting in an ER exam room with my son, but if I closed my eyes, I was sitting alone in an entirely different room. Never felt as if I left my body though, just my surroundings. Before things could “progress” to the point you’re describing, two doctors got a tube down my nose and began pumping out the 150 oz. of black bile that had doubled the size of my stomach and was about to do me in. I was like a donkey tethered to a post with that tube for the next two days in the hospital.
I have no memories of two surgeries where things got dicey.
About a year after my ER experience, I was in what might have been the same exam room with my spouse who had sprung an arterial leak in her nose. She was going into shock from the blood loss, and kept saying, “Everything’s turning yellow.” Within a minute or two, she was wheeled into another room surrounded by a dozen doctors and nurses. They started getting some blood into her, and the light came back into her eyes. Bizarrely, the same thing had happened almost 50 years before to the day when we were young kids in Boston with no car and no money. This time, at least we had an old car with a stick shift. She complained all the way to the ER that I was popping the clutch as the blood was streaming from her nose. She did not have an out-of-body experience either even though she might have been close.
I have had such experiences during my early twenties while experiencing psychedelics. It is indeed a curious experience. There is no fear or ‘trauma’ associated with my memories of the events, just calm wonder. To this day I have no “belief” nor “disbelief” concerning this type of experience because I have no “solid” evidence. All I have are subjective “facts” to contemplate. Contemplate is perhaps the best word to use here. The relationship between an individual consciousness and the universe is more of a subject for philosophy than “hard” science.
Glad to see you decided to stay with us for a while more.
Stay safe. Remain conscious and lucid.
A little perspective on US Inequality: 60% of American households could not handle a sudden $400 bill, that’s more than 200,000,000 people.
Elon Musk could give 400,000 Americans $1MM each and he would still be a Centi Billionaire, worth more than $100,000,000,000.
That’s a tad unbalanced.
While Spending Billions on Iran War, Trump Quietly Moves to Boot Millions More Off Food Aid
https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-food-aid-cuts
From the department of LOL
Amazon plans ‘deep dive’ internal meeting to address AI-related outages (CNBC)
I saw that outage, when I couldn’t checkout.
AI agents are trash, an accident happening by choice.
Firing people to achieve success
There is more trouble in Altman paradise … OpenAI is being sued for practicing law without a license:
https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/openai-sued-for-practicing-law-without-a-license
Big tech won’t indemnify users who rely on shoddy legal outputs to their own detriment. But in order to practice law, you have to be licensed and carry malpractice insurance. This sets up a catch-22 … Altman and other tech lord fantasies about AI replacing legal work are now reduced to ruins.
The best they can do is sell super-expensive LLMs as souped-up LegalZoom templates. Real lawyers will need to check every paragraph, sentence, and punctuation mark.
And yet Volokh Conspiracy is rife with stories about lawyers who DON’T check every paragraph, sentence, and punctuation mark.
Or, more importantly, “cites” and “quotes.” I’ve never had an appellate brief or memorandum called out for a misplaced comma, but I suspect that hallucinated cases might just get me some unfortunate notice.
Me reading this while I’m sitting through a 2.5 hour talk by our CEO about how we’re pushing AI everywhere and, “If you don’t use AI you will be fired”
At an employer I know, the directive this year is to accelerate AI adoption.
The United States is really suffused with stupid, and is self immolating at an alarming rate.
Similar here, and I just can’t fathom this “AI” obsession. Has there ever been another product that was so widely adopted at great expense without having any valid use case first??!?? It’s just “Go figure out what to do with it, and quick or you’re done here.”
It’s just white hot stupid everywhere you look.
Let ’em spin
Sung to the tune of “Let ’em in”, By Paul McCartney and Wings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re61B8sKQWk&list=RDre61B8sKQWk
Someone’s engine is knocking at the presser
Someone is fibbing like Hell
Someone is knocking at the presser
Somebody’s fibbing like Hell
Do me a favor, open the door, and let ’em spin!
Someone’s engine is knocking at the presser
Someone is fibbing like Hell
Someone is knocking at the presser
Somebody’s fibbing like Hell
Do me a favor, open the door, let ’em spin!
Little Marco, Karoline,
Tattooed Love Boy, MAGA’s fine!
Uncle Jeffrey, maybe he lives?
Open your mind, and let ’em spin!
(oh yeah)
Another doozy, the war’s still on,
Stevie Witkoff, Vance and Don
Uncle Jeffrey, I think he lives,
Open your mind, and let ’em spin!
Someone’s engine is knocking at the presser
Somebody’s fibbing like Hell
Someone is knocking at the presser
Somebody’s fibbing like Hell
Do me a favor, open the door, and let ’em spin
(ooh yeah)
[March]
A tankin’ Dow Jones, $5 gas,
It’s all good, man, this too shall pass!
Goebbels spinning, six feet down,
Open the door now, send in more clowns!
Someone’s engine is knocking at the presser
Somebody’s fibbing like Hell
Someone is knocking at the presser
Somebody’s fibbing like Hell
Do me a favor, get me a beer, and let ’em spin!
Such a light-hearted, bouncy tune!
Tattooed Love Boy
That’s gonna leave a mark, lol.
Unusually nuanced article and well researched.
The whole ‘China has eliminated poverty’ idea has always annoyed me. I don’t think the people who threw around the factoid really understood how this is calculated. I always wondered what would happen when China was re-defined as an upper middle income country and then miraculously 200 million people are suddenly in poverty again according to OECD definitions (it’s simply a function of how it’s calculated). Actually putting a cash value on what constitutes ‘poverty’ is surprisingly difficult – witness the recent academic bust up over US poverty definitions.
There have always been numerous problems with how to measure poverty, especially as a country moves from underdeveloped to a more developed status. A peasant family who generate $1000 dollars a year can be quite comfortable if they have a roof over their heads and can grow their own food, while an urban family can be really struggling with 10 times that income. There is always a nominal rise in income as a country urbanises rapidly – the core question is always whether it’s actually making people better off.
This isn’t to deny the enormous improvement in Chinese living standards over the past 3-4 decades – it’s very obvious to anyone who visits regularly. It’s not just in terms of income – there have been major improvements in air quality, schools, healthcare and other important metrics of progress (although, it should be said, Chinese healthcare is still appalling, even in comparison with other middle income countries). But there have also been major steps backwards more recently which have been shrouded by our obsession with GDP numbers. The collapse in the property market has pushed many millions from fairly well paid construction jobs to the gig economy which is extremely ruthless and cut throat as it falls outside general labor protection rules. Millions of households have huge debt loads that they will almost certainly be unable to pay back – much of that debt was put into property which seems in terminal decline (the boom was more than just the usual boom bust – there was never any realism behind the valuations).
The article also points out that many rural poverty alleviation programs are well meaning, but often make things much worse, not least because they often put people (or their local government) deep into debt while encouraging a proliferation of local businesses that make no sense to anyone but a local bureaucrat. And the complexities of the hukou system often hides multiple problems, especially in urban areas where those on the fringes or outside the system don’t appear in official figures.
Re the comment that Chinese healthcare is still appalling. Life expectancy in China is 79.02 years, the US is 79.76.
https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/
Infant mortality in China is 6.2 deaths per 1000, the US is 5.1.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/infant-mortality-rate-by-country
The US spends 17% of GDP on healthcare, China spends 6%.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.CHEX.GD.ZS?locations=CN
None of those statistics necessarily speaks to quality of healthcare at the points where healthcare is required (hospitals, clinics, etc). The first two speak more to public health outcomes. The third speaks to the US’ unique system/political economy of healthcare. If I recall correctly the United States is considered to have excellent quality healthcare in general, despite its quite badly trailing other similarly developed countries in life expectancy. That healthcare, though, also happens to be unaffordable for a lot of the population. This is presumably why the wealthy and ultra-wealthy in the United States don’t travel to China for medical treatment (as far as I’m aware).
Try comparing those Chinese figures to other countries of comparable levels of development, not an outlier like the US. You might learn something.
Trump appoints Erika Kirk to Air Force Academy board to continue Charlie’s ‘legacy’
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/03/10/trump-appoints-erika-kirk-air-force-academy-board-charlie/89081470007/
if you can stomach the video at the top
She’ll fit in well with all the holy rollers at the Air Force Academy.
She’s looking more and more like Tammy Faye Baker, circa 1987.
Every time I look at you I don’t understand
Why you let the things you did get so out of hand.
You’d have managed better if you’d had it planned.
Why’d you choose such a heated time in such a twisted land?
Since you died today, you have reached a whole nation.
Israel said 3 times it had no participation.
Don’t you get me wrong.
I only want to know.
Charlie Kirk, Charlie Kirk,
What have you become since you bit the dirt?
Charlie Kirk Superstar,
Do you think you’re what they say you are?
Tell me what you think about your friends at the top.
Who’d you think besides yourself is the pick of the crop?
Donald, was he where it’s at? Is he where you are?
Could Bibi move the US, or was that just PR?
Did you mean to die like that? Was that a mistake, or
Did you know your messy death would be a record breaker?
Don’t you get me wrong.
I only want to know.
Charlie Kirk, Charlie Kirk,
What have you become since you bit the dirt?
Charlie Kirk Superstar,
Do you think you’re what they say you are?
Superstar
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Murray Head
https://youtu.be/IvVr2uks0C8
Trump has undermined the agency tasked with making sure America never has another nuclear meltdown
https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/10/climate/trump-nuclear-regulation-safety-energy-future
How to Talk to Someone Experiencing ‘AI Psychosis – 404 Media
I have to wonder if part of the pychosis is that people are accepting that this is “a thing” that communities and families have to work through.
Wellie … I suggest before one considers AI Psychosis that they have a quick look at Religious Psychosis as sorta an introductory course. Been around heaps longer and studied in depth. It might just be me but … why would anyone Trust[tm] an algo with a profit motive on anything …. digital Bernays ….
That’s part of the issue. It’s not like there isn’t already a crap load of things that need to be handled. It just keeps piling on.
Are you the product? Just feed us more data!
There are several especially virulent strains going around now.
re: Germany Palantir
NACHDENKSEITEN blog
use google-translate
Baden-Württemberg’s questionable cooperation with Palantir
The German state of Baden-Württemberg has purchased the Gotham system from the US company Palantir to process surveillance data on behalf of law enforcement agencies using artificial intelligence – with the support of the Green Party, the current election winners. While the Baden-Württemberg police state that Palantir’s software is strictly controlled to prevent misuse or data leaks, the collaboration with Palantir is nevertheless raising serious concerns.
by Shir Hever
https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=147462
+ + + + + +
p.s.
Fascistic for me is a software of this sort named after a graphic novel and the people who actually chose this name. It is in the very vein of Mussolini when he threatened that Italy´s fascism was about upending normal everyday life and turn it into a “challenge” built on the laws of fiction – Life as “Running Man”.
The permanent state of emergency.
Of course the mindset behind these fascistic concepts still has to be implemented. Which turns the word into the deed.
It´s this implementation of the fascism trope which is the decisive part.
Of course in the realm of German local law enforcement as now in Baden-Württemberg the introduction of Palantir will only be a question of formality. As banal as this Palantir case may appear from US or Palestinian POV – it does root in Gaza (as the longer article above explains.)
And of course German police forces already have powers unjustifiable by any serious democratic measure. Especially in the 25 years since the Greens had been in power time and again on national level.
For those who don´t follow German politics – the West German state of Baden-Württemberg had elections this WE.
Baden-Württemberg is one of the hubs of what used to be the core of German “industrial might” embodied by over 50% of all those medium size industrial companies worldwide that formed the heart of global industrial expertise since the 19th century (engineering and chemical industry especially, Baden-Württemberg see cars and machine-building.)
The elections were won by the Green Party again which long ago was originally a champion of serious progressive policies and the protection of the individual against the very kind of powers which Palantir is representing.
Of course this is old news.
The victor in Baden-Württemberg was opportunistic hypocrite Cem Özdemir who of course has a longterm plan to run as chancellor.
Once a darling of media and up and coming young Green with Turkish roots until he got entangled in a rather benign corruption scandal when using party connections for private purposes in 2002.
He had to take a detour and chose the Young Leaders Program which gave us other luminaries as Anna-Lena Baerbock.
Özdemir was trained and connected with the serious people, got a revamp and is back with a – ahem – vengeance.
Özdemir must be insufferable when it comes to actual questions of who is in charge.
(Like Habeck.)
So don´t let yourself get blinded by his fake smiles and local tongue which he instrumentalizes for mundane crusades over power and imperialism.
Wikispooks Cem Özdemir:
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Cem_%C3%96zdemir
Wiki German Özdemir:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cem_%C3%96zdemir
Can someone explain how significant this is? It sounds like something an insolvent bank would do, but there doesn’t seem to be a panic reaction going on.
These private credit products were designed to offer limited redemptions; they’re necessarily illiquid as you’re into proprietary structured stuff. But it’s also all marked to make-believe. If people do run for the exits on these, they’ll start having to mark to market to actually sell, and stuff starts getting haircuts, and then that can be a problem. I guess it depends on just how much of this shadow banking stuff there is out there and how tightly coupled it is with the regulated financial system.
In Today’s episode of Republicans are trash, no, you did not lower prices
Gas prices threaten Republican lawmaker’s plans to win on affordability (CNBC)
These people are huffing glue. When did any prices come down? Our electricity at Duke Energy NC is going up 15.5% for the next billing year, and they got a 3.8% approval for year+2.
re: Poland vs. EU
via BERLINER ZEITUNG
machine-translation
Domestic power struggle: Poland’s president blocks EU loans for rearmament
The Polish government wants to use billions from the EU’s SAFE program for arms projects. President Karol Nawrocki prefers a national financing model.
https://archive.is/WZweX
Expanded Trans Mountain pipeline almost doubles oil exports from Port of Vancouver
Oil exports through the Port of Vancouver almost doubled in 2025, with a huge increases in shipments to China, helping propel overall cargo shipments to a new record.
https://vancouversun.com/business/expanded-trans-mountain-pipeline-almost-doubles-oil-exports-from-port-of-vancouver
RACKET NEWS
Who’s That Source? Iran Edition
How much thinking really happens at a DC think tank?
by Jillian Butler
Mar 11, 2026
https://www.racket.news/p/whos-that-source-iran-edition?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1042&post_id=189918038&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1i81oo&triedRedirect=true&_src_ref=deref-gmx.net&utm_medium=email
“Analysts from Washington think tanks and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have appeared dozens of times in the New York Times, Washington Post, CBS, and Bloomberg as subject matter experts on the Iran War — and counting. While they are usually presented as neutral policy experts, their funding structures and advocacy histories are rarely disclosed.”
Some of these institutions are then listed and assessed.
The “expanded” Trans Mountain pipeline was punched through my orchard three years ago. They destroyed all of my mature fruit trees and berry bushes. Then they bought me new ones – little sticks – I will not live long enough to eat the fruit. One big swath through the middle was declared theirs and I am forbidden to touch it. They have the right to go in there any time and do whatever they please. I locked the gate.
+ 1
Is the archived FT article about China not working for anyone else?
It works for me. Try accessing it with JavaScript disabled.