Recent Items

Links 3/7/2026

Posted on by

The Corporate Bullshit Receptivity Scale: Development, validation, and associations with workplace outcomes Research Gate (Micael T)

The Missing Sense in Modern Medicine JSTOR (Micael T)

Scientists discover the brain protein that drives cocaine relapse Science Daily (Kevin W)

Yale study challenges notion that aging means decline, finds many older adults improve over time EurekaAlert (Dr. Kevin)

Bicycling Into the Future JSTOR (Micael T)

Climate/Environment

Carbon dioxide overload, detected in human blood, suggests a potentially toxic atmosphere within 50 years Springer Nature

Climate Change Drives Walruses Northward Polar Journal

Rising temperatures pose a threat to tropical insects Nature

Canadian drinking water at risk long after wildfires, UBC study warns UBC

China?

China targets lowest growth range since 1991 in realistic move as pressures rise South China Morning Post

How Cross-Border Chinese RMB Flows May Weaken U.S. Sanctions Council of Foreign Relations. Department of the Obvious.

Koreas

North Korea’s Kim oversees cruise missile tests from new naval destroyer Aljazeera

India

US will ‘not make same mistake’ of giving India ‘China-like concessions’, says official Times of India (Micael T)

Africa

Sudanese army retakes Bara, secures el-Obeid in North Kordofan Aljazeera

US, Others Express Concern Over Violations of Ceasefires in Eastern Congo Reuters

Niger Suspends and Revokes Foreign Mining Licenses Including British-Linked Firm Modern Ghana

South of the Border

US, Venezuela restore diplomatic relations as Washington pushes for access to minerals France24

European Disunion

Russia’s government is scheduled to meet to discuss halting gas exports to Europe, following President Vladimir Putin’s warning that supplies could be cut “right now” amid a spike in energy prices Independent

Stalling German economy prompts graduate ‘poverty’ fears Times Higher Education

Ukrainian Heroes of Zionazi Germany Moss Robeson (Micael T)

How German political spies mistook a random Berlin woman for a white nationalist troll, surveilled her for two years and got her fired for no reason eugyppius (Micael T)

Shia congregations mourning the Ayatollah – the minister’s criticism Expressen via machine translation. Micael T: “If you want to feel real intolerance, just hang around liberals. They really can‘t understand the religious authority the Supreme Leader of Iran has. They believe its authority is political only.”

Old Blighty

Britain bears brunt of bond market sell-off triggered by war in the Middle East This is Money

UK firms pull fixed energy deals as Iran war pushes up prices BBC

County’s GP unemployment rises, councillors told BBC (Paul R)

Israel v. The Resistance

Iran War Cost Tracker (Kevin W)

Iran’s Winning Strategy Shakes the World’s Biggest Military Global Geopolitics

Iran Denies Asking Trump to Talk; Official Says No Negotiations Will Be Considered Until a New Supreme Leader Is Named Drop Site

An Insane Demand in an Insane War Daniel Larison

Why the US is facing strategic defeat Policy Tensor (James C)

Can Israel & the U.S. Sustain Iran’s Military Power? Conflicts Forum. Alastair Crooke with Chris Hedges

The Tech Download: Data centers become military targets as Iran war rages on CNBC (Kevin W)

Houthis keeps finger on trigger as region watches for next move Middle East Online

Balochistan on alert as thousands cross border from Iran Dawn

Iran War: fmr IDF Soldier & Historian Omer Bartov Daniel Davis, YouTube. ZOMG, I missed this in my scan for Iran war news yesterday. Bartov is a great scholar and thinker. From a 2012 post:

Having influence means making compromises. And even in situations like the Holocaust, it is not as easy to draw bright lines as one might think. One particularly good discussion came in 2001, in an article by Omer Bartov in a review of a book describing how Bulgaria came to be the one Nazi state that refused to turn its Jews over to Germany for extermination:

But the lesson is not quite so simple or so edifying. For we also learn from such instances that the difference between virtue and vice is far less radical than we would like to believe. Sometimes the most effective kind of goodness – I mean the practical kind, the kind that can actually save lives and not merely alleviate the consciences of the protagonists – is carried out by those who have already compromised themselves with evil, those who are members of the very organizations that set the ball rolling towards the abyss. Hence a strange and frustrating contraction: that absolute goodness is often absolutely ineffective, while compromised, splintered, and ambiguous goodness, one that is touched and stained by evil, is the only kind that may set limits to mass murder. And while absolute evil is indeed defined by its consistent one-dimensionality, this more mundane sort of wickedness, the most prevalent sort, contains within it also seeds of goodness that may be stimulated and encouraged by the example of the few dwellers of these nether regions who have come to recognize their own moral potential. As the great cosmological myth of the Kabbalah has it, the shreds of light that remain from the original divine universe may be collected only from the spheres of evil in which they now reside.

* * *

Two Middle East F1 races in serious doubt, Australia could get another Grand Prix News.com.au (Kevin W)

Afghanistan-Pakistan

Nearly 66,000 Afghans displaced amid fierce fighting on Pakistan border Aljazeera

New Not-So-Cold War

Ukraine-Russia peace talks could be postponed for ‘a while’ due to Iran war Sky

Putin Might Finally Deal His Long-Awaited Deathblow To The EU Economy Andrew Korybko

Finland Proposes Lifting Some Nuclear Weapons Restrictions Bloomberg (Micael T)

Trump 2.0

Trump’s White House Posts Fascist Memes As It Wrecks the Economy Zeteo

Pam Bondi’s in trouble with Republicans on Capitol Hill Politico (Kevin W)

Withheld Epstein files with accusations against Trump released by justice department BBC (Kevin W)

FDA vaccines chief who ran afoul of pharma to depart Politico (Kevin W)

Trump kicks Tucker Carlson out of MAGA RT (Kevin W)

What we know about Noem’s new ‘Shield of the Americas’ role The Hill (Kevin W)

Tariffs

Two dozen states in the US have sued the Trump administration, seeking to block the latest tariffs announced by the White House BBC

A Trade War at the Longest Undefended Border Reshapes Economies Bloomberg

Spook Country

Does Netanyahu Have Spies in the White House? Thomas Neuburger. Of course they do. John Kirakou says the CIA would meet Mossad in rented space because they’d try to plant bugs every time they were given entry to CIA premises.

50 Years of Secrets: Why You Should Care About the FBI’s ‘Prohibited Access’ Files Matt Taibb. Important.

Economy

U.S. Loses 92,000 Jobs in Widespread and Unexpected Downturn Wall Street Journal. Full page banner headline.

US Unexpectedly Sheds 92,000 Jobs, Unemployment Rate Rises Bloomberg

Posting as a sentiment indicator:

Antitrust

How Trump’s Antitrust Enforcer Andrew Ferguson May Be Pushing Up Oil Prices Matt Stoller

The Bezzle

Investors poured billions into private credit. Now many want their money back CNBC

Some private credit firms are using accounting tools to mask leverage, Rubric Capital tells investors Market Screener

BlackRock Slashed Private Loan Value From 100 to Zero Bloomberg

Antidote du jour (Mike M):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Subscribe to Post Comments
71 comments

  2. The Rev Kev

    “Putin Might Finally Deal His Long-Awaited Deathblow To The EU Economy”

    Putin may be a believer in that axiom that when your enemy is drowning, throw them an anvil. I’m trying to think of a solid reason why the Russians should bail out the EU but am coming up empty. Even before the outbreak of war the EU had literally burnt every bridge that there was between the EU and Russia with the European Parliament gleefully going along with it all. And Putin himself has said that the present leadership of the EU and many of their member States is so toxic, that Russia would have to wait a generation for them to go and then perhaps try to re-establish some sort of relations again. The EU could try to make some sort of gesture by slowly cancelling the sanctions but much more likely they will introduce Sanction Package # 23.

    1. Hickory

      Remember that Hegseth video yesterday where he bragged about “kicking them when they’re down” and “that’s how it should be”?

      Sounds like what Russia is threatening to do to Europe with gas.

    2. Fried

      This is funny, because I distinctly remember being told that we Europeans must hamper the Russian war effort by refusing to buy Russian anything. So imagine my surprise when I read a headline yesterday in one of the useless Austrian daily newspapers (they are all useless) that said, “Wah wah wah, gas prices are rising and now Putin threatens to stop selling us Russian gas!!”

    3. tegnost

      The Ukraine war is turning out to be a massive mistake as it showed usa to be a paper tiger. At the beginning the sane reality based voices such as berletic laid it out in detail for all of us on the fringes but the empire would not be denied it’s place in history (Yes democrats, I mean you. And yeah republicans suck too.) Long ago putin warned he would help US enemies in the same shadowy way the us is helping ukraine, and it looks like the piper is cashing some checks.
      It has oblique similarity to the dems kneecapping bernie in order to be sure they remained a right wing party which lost the consent of the governed while bernie has proved himself to be not insanely left of center. own goal of the century imo and for the dems I don’t see a way back to consent even if they win every other election as people throw the current bums out every year. Rinse, repeat, keep digging.

      1. XXYY

        Yeah, driving Bernie out of the presidential race (twice!) was a laughable but predictable act of political suicide by the Dems. What’s also strange is how little the Dems have taken advantage of Trump’s ridiculous and frequently unpopular incumbency to try to win back the US population. They seem determined to keep digging their own hole deeper and, whatever happens, avoid doing anything that would make them popular with their incumbents. I honestly can’t remember the party being this bad.

        Evidently we have to wait until every Dem politician that came into office during Clinton’s term or later dies of old age and is replaced by someone that sees the point of being in office. It’s going to be a long wait.

        1. ambrit

          We could always enlist the aid of the Brothers and Sisters of the Confraternity of Saint Luigi the Adjuster. If worse comes to worst, we can emulate the Israeli Example. Think Count Bernadotte, the King David Hotel, the Iranian and Egyptian bombings of the fifties and sixties. It is not too late to learn from the Masters of Chaos.
          Stay safe.

    4. fjallstrom

      Speaking of the Ukraine war, someone here at NC asked some time ago about reliable stats for war losses.

      A new site has been launched: Ukraine War Losses which seeks to compile documented deaths and documented missing, presumed dead over time. For questions about the methodology there is a new video form the History Legends youtube channel that goes through it in detail.

      I think it is a good and accessible site to view documented deaths, but documented deaths is of course only a baseline. Take it for what is worth.

      1. AG

        Thanks for the info but you are aware they suggest:
        Total fatalities:
        RU 155.726
        UKR 170.537
        (Confirmed Deaths: 86.554
        Missing: 83.983

        ratio of 1: 1.1

        Huh?

          1. AG

            I haven´t gotten further (no time)
            but Ukraine they follow this site as source
            https://lostarmour.info/
            Looks fishy.
            The Russian numbers are from https://svo.rf.gd/ which is probably official RU site simply because unlike https://lostarmour.info/ my google doesn´t translate the site which it usually rejects to do if it´s genuine RU.
            But regardless: Obviously the Ukrainian figures are fraudulent. They kind of forgot to add a 0.
            “Nothing to see here.”

            1. 俺様

              .gd is domain zone of Grenada. svo.rf.gd is 185.27.134.216 which is hosted on AS34119 (Wildcard UK Limited). I don’t think it’s an official Russian website.

        2. fjallstrom

          It’s documented deaths as in the sum of individuals that can from open sources be reasonably documented as dead because they are individually identified. Documented deaths in a war are as a rule lower than the actual death count, but are still valuable in getting a baseline. Demographic methods in general give a truer number, but with more uncertainty. Armies usually have records that are fairly good at their own sides losses (and all over the place regarding the other side), but those are not available at the moment.

          I don’t see much value in counting a ratio as the site does, because the factor between documented and real can differ between the sides. Though one can note that even if that ratio is true a smaller country can’t keep trading even losses in a war of attrition.

    5. ChrisRUEcon

      I am feverishly trying to find out when this “meeting” to discuss shutting off gas to EU will be … I gather there’s no real Russian expression for “chef’s kiss”, but if someone knows the closest approximation, please let me know.

  4. The Rev Kev

    “Shia congregations mourning the Ayatollah – the minister’s criticism”

    You had some Shia congregations here in Oz holding three day vigils for their assassinated leader. But that was not good enough for the usual suspects. You had some bitching about how could they do this for a tyrant who oppressed women, etc, etc, etc. You had the opposition, who are hard core neocons, complaining about people being allowed to do this and PM Albo said ‘I don’t think they’re appropriate, and certainly I think that overwhelmingly, people won’t be participating.’ So it’s OK to have people go out on the streets celebrating his death but the 200,000 Shia here in Oz should not be allowed to mourn the passing of their religious leader. He was their religious leader as much as the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury are for theirs so all these groups in the following article should have a nice, big mug of STFU-

    https://www.news.com.au/national/scary-aus-mosques-mourn-death-of-irans-supreme-leader-ali-khamenei/news-story/5caf464981b611b89bd3b96fabe24234

  5. The Rev Kev

    “US, Venezuela restore diplomatic relations as Washington pushes for access to minerals”

    And at the forefront of those minerals is Venezuela’s gold which Trump would take a personal interest in. In fact, a deal has just been done to sell the US a ton of gold-

    https://www.axios.com/2026/03/05/trump-us-venezuela-gold-deal

    So at what point will Trump tell the UK to return Venezuela’s gold that they stole a coupla years ago. Is it even still at the Bank of England anymore?

    2. Tom Stone

      Of course Venezuela’s gold is no longer at the Bank of England, it was replaced by a note personally guaranteeing that it would be replaced in due time, signed by Boris Johnson.
      If you can’t trust Boris Johnson, who can you trust?

  7. Qedre

    **The housing market isn’t replaying 2008—because this time, the *math* behind the mortgages is completely different.**

    The 2008 housing crash wasn’t caused by high home prices.
    It was caused by **payment shock.**

    Millions of borrowers held adjustable-rate mortgages, 80/20 loans, and had little to no equity. When teaser rates expired, payments doubled or even tripled almost overnight.

    At the same time, the financial system had insured massive amounts of mortgage risk with very little capital behind it. When those payments reset, millions of homeowners suddenly couldn’t afford their mortgages.

    They all tried to sell at once.
    Inventory spiked.
    Demand fell.
    Foreclosures surged.

    That cascade created the crash.

    ***

    **Today’s housing market is built on almost the opposite structure.**

    Most homeowners are sitting on some of the cheapest fixed-rate mortgages ever issued, many below 3%. Others own their homes outright.

    Instead of payment shock forcing people to sell, we have **payment lock** keeping people in place.

    Selling often means trading a 3% mortgage for a 6–7% mortgage. For many households, that would increase their payment by $800–$1,500 for the same house. So they stay.

    That slows mobility. And when mobility slows, inventory doesn’t recycle.

    That’s why transaction volume is low.
    Not because buyers disappeared.
    Because fewer people are moving.

    ***

    **What we’re seeing now is more nuanced.**

    Buyers are still competing for good homes. Well-maintained properties sell near asking.

    But homes with 25–30 years of deferred maintenance are sitting longer because buyers don’t want to inherit expensive repairs.

    That’s not a crash.
    That’s a **quality reset.**

    ***

    **Regional pressures matter too.**

    States that saw the biggest pandemic price spikes—often low-tax states like Florida, Texas, and Arizona—are wrestling with rising insurance costs and affordability adjustments.

    Other regions with tighter supply and slower population shifts are holding much steadier.

    ***

    Housing markets don’t move because of headlines.
    They move when life forces movement:

    – marriage
    – divorce
    – job relocation
    – children
    – retirement
    – death

    Inventory doesn’t just “come back.”
    It **recycles.**

    Right now, the system is experiencing structural friction, not systemic collapse.

    Understanding that difference matters—for buyers, sellers, and anyone trying to read this market.

    1. mrsyk

      Thanks for this informed comment. It serves as a very useful baseline for anyone interested in trying to gauge the real estate market. One observation, Buyers are still competing for good homes. Well-maintained properties sell near asking. This is the market that PE aggressively pursues.

    2. Mikel

      That post was so hair on fire that I almost laughed. Crashing/exploding home market!!! AND Inflation!!!!
      Hmmmm….

    3. TomDority

      If — you are saying that higher interest rates on mortgages creates market friction resulting in lower ‘mobility’ which reduces inventory
      And – Mobility happens when ‘life forces movement’ (‘marriage, divorce, job relocation, children, retirement, death’)
      Therefore – the rates of ‘marriage, divorce, job relocation, children, retirement, death’ are down.
      Do I have that right?
      or
      If – house prices have a relation to the income opportunities available in specific market areas described?
      And – time property remains on the market is increasing
      Then – the system is experiencing forces near or beyond its structural inelastic deformation limits.
      ie – Prices to damned high.
      For example – well maintained houses exist in areas where relational income opportunities exist.
      and Homes with 25-30 years of deferred maintenance exist where relational income opportunities do not exist.
      Just another way to read the tea leaves

    4. Linearperk

      When you generate with an LLM you can get non markdown copy for non markdown sites and inputs…

    5. Ben Panga

      I don’t want to seem rude but this very much reads like it was generated by chatgpt. I stopped reading as soon as I realised.

      1. EGrise

        Same here. What does it say about the world that I’m beginning to recognize AI speak?

      1. Yves Smith Post author

        It is 100% correct about the adjustable mortgage reset issue.

        Financial institutions held onto mortgage securities because:

        1. They had hedged loans in the pipeline with CDS that no longer provided protection (Bear, IndyMac, WaMU). They did NOT intend to keep them long term

        2. Their traders engaged in reg and bonus arbitrage games that created false profits (Eurobanks only)

        3. They would up holding CDOs they had intended to sell when the music stopped (Merrill, Citi)

  8. The Rev Kev

    “Iran’s Winning Strategy Shakes the World’s Biggest Military”

    A pretty decent analysis this post and worth reading. At one point he mentions about Russians giving the Iranians intel on US bases and ship movements. Trump was asked about this but punted the question away and finished by insulting the reporter. Even Trump recognized that trying to criticize the Russians over this would open up how the US has been doing the exact same thing in the Ukraine the past four years and which Trump is still doing. Better not to go there.

    1. Jason Boxman

      Perhaps Putin would be so kind as to explain to Trump how the Russians have been countering US intel sharing with Ukraine, so that America can do the same in the Mideast…

    2. North Star

      If the US stalls, in the face of global financial carnage and strong Iranian defense, one scenario that cannot be ruled out is that Trump plays a nuclear threat card to try to force a surrender. Iran says nope, and then Russia/China step in and there is a nuclear standoff. And then the world holds its breath.

      I think one of the key factors is Hormuz. If Iran is not able to keep the blockage in place then it might fall. But if it can hold Hormuz, then I see the above scenario playing out.

  9. The Rev Kev

    “How German political spies mistook a random Berlin woman for a white nationalist troll, surveilled her for two years and got her fired for no reason”

    This could happen a lot with identity theft so rampant. Somebody steals your identity, they use it to publish white nationalist garbage or some such, and the first you know of it is when one morning you hear the words coming from the other side of your front door ‘FBI. Open up now!’ followed by a crashing sound.

    1. Archie Shemp

      Except that today’s FBI has little interest in countering white nationalists, yeah?

      If they’re knocking on someone’s door about it, they’re likely there to ask how they can help. Or to say, “Hey, good work, can we interest you in a federal job?”

  10. Earl

    Regarding smell: “The Missing Sense in Modern Medicine” as a sign of health. Highly recommended is “Being a Dog-Following the Dog Into a World of Smell by Alexandra Horowitz. Uses canine sense of smell as introduction to explore human olfaction. Recall exercises on training humans (including sniffing the ground) to discover their street sense. Our untrained noses miss a lot.

    1. Trees&Trunks

      After having attended a couple of good wine-tasting events with inspiring sommeliers focussing a lot on the smells, trying to reactive smell memory, I have found myself more attentive to smells for a few days. Then it just slips back into the nothing unless there are foul smells or strong nice smells. I wonder why?

      1. Earl

        The book deals with wine tasting. Sometimes I smell something immediately first seeing the source as if detecting the scent is a confirmation.

    2. marieann

      I shall look out for this book…not because I have problem smelling, but the opposite…..there are places I cannot go because of the overly perfumed air…..my sense of smell gives me lots of headaches in a world that drowns in scented “everything”

      1. Archie Shemp

        Me too, marieann. My current pet peeve is male perfumes. They’re so rank, and they can project outward a dozen or more feet from the man (usually a young man) who’s wearing them. What a horrible trend!

        1. ambrit

          May I add in the Thrift Shop practice of soaking “slightly used” clothing is something that smells awfully like Febreeze? That gives me headaches. I have to first wash out and then hang on the line Thrift Shop clothing I purchase, in the back yard overnight, or even longer in some cases.

  11. Maxwell Johnston

    Re mysterious cash/gold movements to UKR via Hungary —

    The official UKR excuse is that the imported cash is needed to supply liquidity, and the absence of air travel necessitates ground transportation. Well…..maybe. That’s a lot of cash. So much for UKR’s plans to be a digital nation; whatever happened to Diia? And why gold bars? Unless someone can convince me otherwise, those are a marker of pure corruption; i.e., insiders preparing go bags for their eventual escape to the west after Project UKR closes down permanently. 1 kg of the yellow stuff now goes for about $160k, so 10 kg tucked discreetly in a suitcase is a nice little nest egg for future expenses in the new homeland.

    A more granular summary from the Events in Ukraine blog:

    https://eventsinukraine.substack.com/p/gold-bars-in-budapest

    1. Alex Cox

      Isn’t there an election coming up in Hungary? Have to make sure it turns out the right way…

  12. ciroc

    >Houthis keeps finger on trigger as region watches for next move

    Recently, the Yemeni government overpowered the Southern Transitional Council (STC), an influential separatist group. The government now controls most of Yemen’s territory. The Houthis believe that the government will target them next. Therefore, they may hesitate to allocate resources toward fighting Israel and the United States.

  13. mzza

    re. “Iran War: fmr IDF Soldier & Historian Omer Bartov Daniel Davis, YouTube”

    What seems glaringly absent from this conversation between Davis and Bartov — even if there was a magical instantaneous cessation of attacks from all armed parties — is any consideration of the ‘new geopolitical reality’ the region will face as the dust clears on the seemingly well-documented damage done US bases, surveillance, and support structure throughout the region.

    Is the expectation that the US/Israel can just restore their material assets in those locations in days or weeks? the same institutions who built the infamous floating dock On The Beach of the Gaza genocide?

    I was taken aback listening to him dismiss the idea that Israel is seeing damage to it’s cities or defenses, or that it will be a matter of whether either the US or Israeli leadership can convince it’s voters to keep them in power until the next inevitable round of violence after a ceasefire and waiting period — as if that’s just some unalterable reality of middle east life.

    Bartov is obviously an intelligent and experienced voice, with insider knowledge of Israeli society and politics, but even here it’s difficult to separate fantasy from fact, and I have to wonder if he’s running propaganda for his home country, or if he has cultural blinders where he simply can’t imagine a diminished US/Israel post-conflict, and has to perform analysis based outside the apparent possibility that the voting populations of these regional hegemons may have less control over the reality of the next four years or so than he imagines.

  14. Jason Boxman

    I love how CNN has a daily “today’s price of gas” on their website now. Bullish?

  15. tegnost

    the February employment report will revive questions about whether last year’s three rate cuts were sufficient to protect the labor market.

    The WSJ forgot the snark tag, rate cuts are for the grifters, not protecting the workers. Thats laughable.

  17. Clwydshire

    Is Trump on his way out because of recordings of his threats to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and the Canadian release of recordings of trade negotiations with the US? On the trade negotiations: “Trump’s Own Cabinet Turns on Him After Canada Releases Damning Trade Recordings”. Trumps private threats to Carney: “Carney Reveals Recordings of Trump’s Private Threats —Global Leaders DEMAND Investigation”. Wishful thinking maybe, but I’m not sure. And if the threats over the phone are true, and I believe they are, Trump really has lost his mind. Canada has been a good neighbor and ally, and many Americans have both affection and respect for the country.

  18. pjay

    – ’50 Years of Secrets: Why You Should Care About the FBI’s ‘Prohibited Access’ Files’ – Matt Taibb. Important.

    I think this is indeed important for a number of reasons, though as Taibbi himself notes it will be overlooked with everything else going on. For one thing, it recalls the one period in postwar US history when we *almost* pulled back the curtain on some of the worst elements of the Deep State in the wake of Watergate and the Church and other Congressional investigations. However, that window of opportunity was quickly slammed shut, and we have been steadily patching the cracks since then (sorry for the mixed metaphors).

    It also reminds us of the good work Hersh actually did when his sources were good. But Taibbi only vaguely hints at the reason why this was the case. During this period there was internecine warfare going on within the CIA between the Old Boys network which was under investigation – the Dulles club represented by Helms and Angleton – and the upstarts represented by Colby. The latter were no saints (Colby headed Operation Phoenix in Vietnam at one time), but in this they were on the right side of history – therefore Hersh was, too. This was part of the larger internal conflict over Vietnam and Cold War strategy going on within the National Security Establishment during this tumultuous period in history. The “good guys” would win some battles back then but eventually lose the war.

    Finally, it reminds us of the good work Taibbi can still do when he wants to. This is two or three decent offerings in a row by Matt. And he didn’t even disparage the Epstein case as conspiracy hysteria or another Russiagate by Democrats – at least not explicitly. I have no faith whatsoever that this will lead to another Family Jewels moment. But I am glad to see Taibbi on the right side of history again.

    1. AG

      I don´t know Taibbi as well as most here who have been reading his work but to his defense what I saw in recent years often was the attempt to merge journalism/commentry with entertainment – as an explicit peak attempt see ATW. That is almost impossible to pull off. But brave and honourable from the professional POV and excellent when it worked. With a steep moral curve when it failed.

  20. XXYY

    Iran’s Winning Strategy Shakes the World’s Biggest Military Global Geopolitics

    This is a good and pleasantly succinct analysis of the current war in the Middle East. The writer hits all the points of an asymmetric war where a weaker power takes on a stronger empire and (likely!) emerges victorious. I suspect this kind of analysis explained why the US has held back from invading Iran for many decades. Only an inexperienced and low IQ US president made the present expedition possible.

    The writer strangely omits a couple of things:

    (o) A comparison to the US invasion of Vietnam seems pretty apropos to this situation the US finds itself in now. A much smaller country develops and uses a strategy of attrition to wear down the empire and eventually (15 years) drive it out. I have not seen anyone bring this up in the last few weeks. Maybe the ’60s and ’70s were just too long ago for the current generation of analysts and writers.

    (o) A notable feature of both the Ukraine war and the current Iran war is that the US is not in control of the war’s timeline and cannot “turn it off” whenever desired. This seems hard for Americans to get their heads around, and we continually see commentary to the effect that the US can literally or figuratively make a phone call whenever the conditions are right and immediately bring hostilities to an end. Both of these wars instead have the feature that someone else will decide the criteria for when they want the war to end, and there is nothing the US can do to affect that. This seems like a fairly unique situation during the US imperial era, and I’m surprised it’s not getting more notice. I suppose it means confronting a very profound US weakness (“you bought the ticket and you’re taking the ride,” as Hunter Thompson used to say) and most people are uncomfortable with that.

    Anyway, a good and thought-provoking post.

  21. fjallstrom

    This quote is from an article over a decade ago:

    One particularly good discussion came in 2001, in an article by Omer Bartov in a review of a book describing how Bulgaria came to be the one Nazi state that refused to turn its Jews over to Germany for extermination:

    But it sent me down a rabbit hole. Having gone through Nazi allies that were not occupied (so leaving out the various Quisling regimes that were under de facto occupation) on Wikipedia, I would say some resistance to the Holocaust was the rule, not the exception.

    Romania is the exception, it had an apparently entusiastic genocidal regime after the fascist take over.

    Fascist Italy did not send jews from Italy or Italy occupied territories to the concentration camps. Germany did once northern Italy was under German de facto occupation. Same for Hungary.

    Finland did not send Finnish jews, but did send eight austrian refugees.

    Slovakia sent, but after internal resistance halted deportations until Germany established outright occupation at the end of the war.

    Finally Bulgaria, that did send jews from territories occupied under the war and prepared to send those in pre-war Bulgaria when resistance from politicians and church leaders led to that policy being halted and jews in pre-war Bulgaria was spared the Holocaust. They were put in labour camps and their assets stolen, but they survived.

    If one looks at the reason the Bulgarian jewish population survived the war, the atypical factor is that Bulgaria (and Finland) by geographic location never came under direct German occupation.

    This isn’t really relevant to anything in particular, other then that claim (in a 25 year old book review) appears to be false.

    1. AG

      If I remember correctly Bulgaria was an ally of Germany but neutral to the USSR, which is why you got all the Russian dailies there. It made Sofia a focal point for secret services from Axis and Allies alike. An eastern Casablanca.

  23. Jason Boxman

    In this episode of MAGA on the March

    Duke Energy in NC is raising rates 15.5% in the upcoming cycle and another 3.9% the year after.

    And this is pre-War.

  24. Sub-Boreal

    File under “It Never Rains But It Pours”:

    I wonder what odds Polymarket is giving on a 2026 bird flu pandemic?

  25. Tom Stone

    In times of uncertainty Mr Market gets the vapors and there is a flight to “Safe” assets and a movement away from assets percieved as risky.
    There’s less money for gambling, investors want assurance of a return and start looking at their “Investments” with a critical eye as $ becomes tighter.
    ISTM that the current situation has a high likelihood of popping the AI bubble because AI has no path to profitability, it’s been “Number Go up” and the “Greater Fool” until now.
    This smells like “Game Over” to me.

  26. St Jacques

    I’m an occasional watcher of HistoryLegends on youtube (thankyou Colonel Daniel Davis of Deep Dive), not because I’m into war porn ( I hate it) but because I want a reasonable understanding of the war in Ukraine (ie, I pick and choose the videos I watch, as I do with Deep Dive, The Duran, Diesen, etc because of proven value).

    The HistoryLegends host has presented a very interesting analysis of what he claims are the actual statistics he thinks apply to the Ukraine war and he also lays out his methodology after criticising that of those that are commonly referred to. For those interested, here it is:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoiP5Rfpmpw

    1. Maxwell Johnston

      This is fascinating (yes, I watched the whole thing). Thanks for posting. I’m surprised at his conclusion, but the guy seems to be intellectually honest.

      TL;DR he believes that RU:UKR fatalities in combat (KIA) are roughly 1:1 since February 2022. About 170k each.

  28. KLG

    Late to the party, but I just listened to the conversation between Crooke and Hedges (at 1.40x) before seeing it in Links. At the end of the video Crooke calls this Persian War “a catastrophe of miscognition.” A perfect description. I wonder what odds Polymarket is giving that this catastrophe is the death rattle of empire?

  31. Louis Fyne

    >>>>THE HOUSING BUBBLE IS BURSTING. GET OUT NOW. 🚨

    so move from an overvalued illquid asset to an overvalued rental?

    the moral of the story is to be under-leveraged. easier said than done for 95% of people …and don’t be an AirBnB owner (appicable to 99.5% of peeps) lmao

Comments are closed.