The Philosopher and the Tsar: When G. W. Leibniz Went to Work for the Russians The Hinternet (Anthony L)
Quadratic Gravity Theory Reshapes Quantum View of Big Bang PhysOrg
I’m seeing more people in therapy struggling with war-related anxiety. Here’s what helps Guardian
How Do YOU Walk? Classical Wisdom (Micael T) Some of us have structural issues. One of the few things I can say I have in common with Talleyrand.
#COVID-19/Pandemics
Do you have the new Covid variant, flu or other virus? Look out for these symptoms NBC
“Not a whole lot of substance”: HHS posts Long COVID website, six months after making big promises The Sick Times
Climate/Environment
Your 'water-cooler fun fact' for today:
The 3-year running average for the global surface temperature anomaly is currently sitting at a record 1.53°C above the pre-industrial baseline. pic.twitter.com/xaQSbuVPI1
— Prof. Eliot Jacobson (@EliotJacobson) March 30, 2026
Thawing permafrost becomes 25 to 100 times more permeable, experiments find PhysOrg
These Scientists Tested How Climate Change Affects Wild Meadows—With Alarming Results Mother Jones
Global warming already impacts daily lives around the globe, study finds Mongabay
China?
You can just do things.
Seriously nobody saw this coming for Cheng Li-wun. This time last year the ex-legislator had nothing better to do but be a regular guest at one of Taiwans many many political talk shows. I was a huge fan of hers. But I didn’t expect much career… https://t.co/ucXXNyogC2
— Angelica 🌐⚛️🇹🇼🇨🇳🇺🇸 (@AngelicaOung) March 31, 2026
Why Geothermal Failed in China China Talk
Southeast Asia
Myanmar junta leader’s family buys B100m Bangkok home Bangkok Post
Africa
In South Sudan, a prophet’s sacred stick helps fuel a violent struggle for political power Independent
South of the Border
The Weight on Delcy Rodriguez Craig Murray
West Asian War and the BRICS: (1) Brazil Olivier Boyd-Barrett
European Disunion
🚨 BREAKING: The European Commission has urged people to work from home, drive and fly less, and for EU countries to urgently roll out renewables, as it warned of a prolonged energy crisis as a result of the conflict in the Gulf.
Full story: https://t.co/0IU3HD1E8u pic.twitter.com/nWOXcCVGGl
— POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) March 31, 2026
Old Blighty
Energy bills in Great Britain forecast to hit almost £2,000 a year this summer Guardian (Kevin W)
The UK must continue turning a blind eye to Trump’s requests for military help Ian Proud
More UK troops to be sent to Middle East, defence secretary announces BBC
The Syrian super-drug coming for Britain Unherd. Aurelien:
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse …The Captagon problem (it’s a very strong amphetamine) was the great
unreported story of the Syrian war, and it was the way in which the Assad regime made up for the loss of oil after sanctions. Syria had quite a good pharmaceutical industry before 2011, and they switched over to making synthetic drugs because that’s where the money was. The drugs were smuggled out either through Latakia, or through Beirut and Tripoli, where Hezbollah helpfully controlled the Transport Ministry and thus the ports. The main market was in the Gulf, but that may be changing, not least because of the fighting there. All we need is the Syrian mafia in Europe to add to all the others.
Israel v. The Resistance
This plan was not perfect in that even before the infiltration that turned the protests violent and then the assassinations, support for the opposition was not all that high. And the person the West had fixated on as its puppet, Reza Pahlevi, was hated. The old Shah’s security service, Savak, was fabulously brutal. John Kirakou has repeatedly said that if Reza Pahlevi landed in Iran, he would not survive to walk out of the airport. Larry Wilkerson has made similar remarks. In this context, Chas Freeman has cited the advice of Machiavelli never to rely on the advice of exiles: they have an axe to grind and their perspective is often wrong. But this does articulate the Mossad design:
REVEALED: Israeli spy agency Mossad sold Donald Trump a plot to instantly take out Iran—but it had one fatal flaw.
And that one little mistake has put the United States firmly in the crosshairs of a war it cannot win—and is creating global panic over oil prices.
.
The top… pic.twitter.com/05Km0jZWHU
— Nury Vittachi (@NuryVittachi) April 1, 2026
The Real War for Iran’s Future Foreign Affairs. ZOMG will make you stoopider unless you recognize this, to paraphrase Erin Brockovich, as lame-assed propaganda.
“The defense of Palestinian culture.” The Floutist
U.S. Allies Want No Part in the Illegitimate War Daniel Larison
New Not-So-Cold War
Russia demands Ukraine withdraw from Donbas within 2 months, Zelensky says Kyiv Independent
Kallas insists Russian assets are an option if Orbán doesn’t lift veto on Ukraine loan Euronews. Someone needs to gag her.
Brief Frontline Report – March 31st, 2026 Marat Khairullin
Ukraine’s Security Deals With The Gulf Are Worth Paying Attention To Andrew Korybko
Notes on Military Education Approaches in Russia and the United States [i] Black Mountain Analysis
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
LAPSUS$ claims massive breach of AI hiring startup Mercor, says 4TB of data taken via Tailscale VPN TechStartups. Micael T: “‘storage reportedly includes video interviews containing face and voice data, along with KYC documents and passports’”
OkCupid gave 3 million dating-app photos to facial recognition firm, FTC says ars technica (Paul R)Judge Approves Trump Effort to Obtain List of Jews From University of Pennsylvania New York Times (Kevin W)
Imperial Collapse Watch
Not Getting It Together Aurelien
Hellworld personalities Events in Ukraine
After 16 Years and $8 Billion, the Military’s New GPS Software Still Doesn’t Work ars technica
WTO meeting ends with no deal Politico
Trump 2.0
Trump to give “important update on Iran” Wednesday in prime-time speech Larry Johnson. Detailed update on movement of forced to Middle East.
Trump signs order to restrict mail-in ballots in probably unconstitutional move Guardian (Kevin W)
Judge temporarily halts construction of Trump’s White House ballroom BBC (Kevin W)
Trump’s overtime tax break is a hit. Democrats aren’t sure what to do about it. Politico
Supremes
Read: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson strikes out alone dissenting on conversion therapy The Hill
The Epstein Case Is Beyond Trump’s Reach W.A. Lawrence
Our No Longer Free Press
PATRICK LAWRENCE: A German Journalist’s ‘Civil Death’ Consortium News (fk). Conor featured this horrible case before, but it can’t get too much attention.
Manufacturing Consent in Real Time: The State Moves Inside the Algorithm William Murphy (Micael T)
Economy
Fuel vs food: These Americans are cutting back to afford higher gas prices CNN
AI
The Subprime AI Crisis Is Here Ed Zitron. Important
AI Data Centers Can Warm Surrounding Areas By Up To 9.1C New Scientist
In the Iran war, it looks like AI helped with operations, not strategy Gary Marcus
3 ways to prove you’re human online Big Think
Life With AI Causing Human Brain ‘Fry’ France 24
The Bezzle
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
68 comments
Comments are closed.
Ah yes, lets urge a ‘doubling down’ on implementing use of renewable energy at this ‘nth hour, surely that’s how this’ll work. Where was this energy when it was ‘just’ global warming at stake, not imminent food/fuel riots?
“The more you can do to save oil… especially jet fuel, the better we are off,” Jørgensen said (emphasis mine). Rules for thee, not for me, again, then?
Will the elites be cutting back on their use of jet fuel? No, I thought not.
“How Do YOU Walk?”
Considering the ambulatory lack of many Americants (most often designed in to our cities and roads), I wonder if a contemporary parallel to the Roman is “How Do YOU Drive”?
Hosting visitors to a walking city like New York is a stark reminder how little actual walking gets done around the country. Road rage, and the varied characteristics of the drivers who practice and/or inspire it, is a universal talking point.
The right walking pace for yours truly is a talking pace where you’re going fast enough but not so that conversation isn’t possible, a fine line.
Oh, and I always lead with my left leg when starting out~
I noticed a few years ago that my favourite walking music is 110 beats per minute. And when I got a smartwatch I noticed that also corresponds to my heart beat when walking at that pace.
Walking with music about walking.
“These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” – Nancy Sinatra
“I Walk the Line” – Johnny Cash
“Walk Like an Egyptian” – The Bangles
“Walk This Way” – Aerosmith / Run DMC
“Walk on the Wild Side” – Lou Reed
“Walkin’ Blues” – Robert Johnson
“Walk all Over You” – AC/DC
“Walking On Sunshine” – Katrina & the Waves
“Walk Idiot Walk” – The Hives
“Walking by myself” – Jimmy Rogers
“Walking The Back Streets And Crying” – Albert Winter
“I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” – The Proclaimers
Theme from Twin Peaks – Fire Walk with Me
The Stargazers – The Happy Wanderer
“Walk Like a Man,” Frankie Valli
“The Wanderer – Status Quo
Walkin’ after Midnight – Patsy Cline version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiKsAuv7O7c
Charlie Musselwhite: Walking Alone
Does the mind drive the body and car? If so, perhaps they are similar. I can forget myself on long walks and familiar drives. Awareness is extended outwards toward threats and opportunities in both tasks, and to best walk or drive, knowledge of the inner mechanics makes both tasks more efficient. However, I like to believe that my body is somehow different than a vehicle; that perhaps I am more than a ghost in the machine. Indeed pain seems to beguile my ghostliness.
In any case and FWIW, I’ve found great success regaining mobility when practicing Foundation Training, which is a program designed to increase awareness of bodily mechanics by practicing specific postures that promote healthful movement (although it is a subscription model, and offers some free trial). I especially enjoy the foot and ankle protocol.
Back when our town hosted Dan Burden to chat up walkable/bikeable communities (90’s?) one stat that blew my mind… most Americans only walk 300 steps a day.
Kitchen… garage… parking lot…. elevator…. desk… reverse… rinse/ repeat.
Shank’s Mare is looking well-rested!
File under The Bezzle”:
Mark Goodwin on Jimmy Dore show hosted by Misty Winston. utube, ~28+ minutes.
Stablecoins Are A TROJAN HORSE For Mass Financial Surveillance! w/ Mark Goodwin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-PJxUmg_AE
“EU prepares mutual defence clause trigger”
For Europe, NATO was the go to organization when some sort of military force was needed to make an appearance such as the attack on the British base in Cyprus. But with Trump being so erratic and promising to be even more erratic over NATO because they refused to get involved in his war in Iran, it looks like the EU is wanting to develop a mechanism for military forces outside of NATO and under the jurisdiction of the EU.
A Euro army under the control of someone off the same assembly line as von der leyen et al, is not as wonderful an idea as they think it is.
They would have the benefit of less lethal competencies.
Paid for by…. ? / ;)
From Breaking Points with Ryan and Emily, utube, ~26+ minutes.
Robert Pape: Iran ‘NEW WORLD POWER’, NATO DEAD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXDWh3faH_Y
re: PATRICK LAWRENCE: A German Journalist’s ‘Civil Death
important
NACHDENKSEITEN suggesting that something like #FreeAssange might be forming…
use google-translate
part 1/2
(2 will follow tomorrow)
#FreeDogru and #FreeBaud? – Calls for a campaign modeled on the #FreeAssange movement are growing louder.
The case of sanctioned Berlin journalist Hüseyin Doğru ( red media ) and the recent escalations and “tightening of penalties” by the Brussels sanctions regime—now his wife’s bank account has also been frozen —are increasingly causing outrage among many people who are following his case and that of Swiss security expert and geopolitical analyst Jacques Baud. The central questions are what forms of resistance are possible and what might be effective.
A two-part article by Maike Gosch
https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=148568
The new Inquisition circa 2026. The rack by bank account instead of the wooden wheel.
The sooner and the farther the U.S. gets from the European Union and NATO the better.
“OkCupid gave 3 million dating-app photos to facial recognition firm, FTC says”
‘OkCupid and Match do not have to pay a financial penalty in a deal made with the FTC over an incident from 2014. OkCupid and Match did not admit or deny the allegations but agreed to a permanent prohibition barring them from misrepresenting how they use and share personal data, the FTC said yesterday.’
In other words they got completely away with it and didn’t even get a slap on the wrist. This is the sort of case which makes people lose what faith they have in the justice system.
Lose faith in the justice system while continuing to give data, photos, and whatever to the sleazy tech companies that control them through their phones.
As a lawyer, after many years of observing and thinking about it, I don’t believe punishing a randomly selected 1 in 100 instances of bad behavior by retrospective civil liability can actually work as a control mechanism for a society. But it does apparently work as a means of pacifying the masses, who continue to believe that we have a just society so long as it appears possible to win a big jury award or win the lottery or become a successful Tiktok influencer.
One reason why I’ve never used and will never use a service like this.
Big Think on AI was interesting. To value content, viewers/readers need to see that a human being’s “effort” went into what they are viewing/reading.
Sounds a lot to me like DNC Democrats always FIGHTING for us. Voters should value their content because they’re all that stands between us and Trump. Democrats work to get things done, Democrats actively resist Trump, all hail the protectors and guardians of the guard rails!
Try not remember how hard Demcrats worked to bring about war in Ukraine and disrupt the Middle East. What is the value of effort when it only accelerates the downward spiral?
Re: Shah of Iran
The Shah was an open admirer of Hitler and his visit to Germany in 1967 where a protestor was murdered by German police helped kick off the RAF and other anti-fascist militants:
How the Shah of Iran’s visit impacted German history
My dad, young student at the time, was detained in an anti-Shah protest during Shah’s visit, but as the police wagon was already full, the officer shoved him away and told him to go home.
One for the guillotine watch. Even the puppets are realizing that maybe voting for tweedledum isn’t going to do much and getting militant. This video did not end the way I thought it was going to!
Price of Eggs by Carsie Blanton and The Burning Hell
Hehe!
Yes, boss man!!!!! ❤️ 😆
#Endorsed
Not Getting It Together Aurelien
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another great essay!
Everybody knows the price of oil per barrel, but nobody I know has ever bought one. The value of driving or flying when it isn’t possible is a whole different matter.
The gas lines of ’79 in the USA were completely egalitarian, but that was back when the idea of a way shorter line (complete with velvet roped lane markers and lane custodian) for rich people to utilize for a price was but a whet dream,
I’ll note that gas usage 46 years ago was vastly smaller not only due to Communism’s ad hoc austerity measures, but there was also only a little over half as many human beans on this orb.
Aurelien asks a question. Can you use solar panels to obtain fertilizers? For which the answer is yes. First use the electricity generated by the solar panels to produce electrolysis of water obtaining hydrogen which can be used to produce ammonium from atmospheric nitrogen which is already a fertilizer.
Very few are doing this but it is IMO a process that makes sense and it is not sufficiently pushed by governments unable to link left and right brain processes.
What water? (kidding…sort of)
The essay by Aurelian and the essay by Black Mountain Analysis should be read together because they both pivot on operational art.
re: Yuri Vittachi reposted tweet: I agree with his assessment. It all worked great, as our very often carefully planned and well-executed initial tactics do, until the part comes when we’re counting on the population to rise up and join us as the saviors and now protectors of their “freedoms”. Funny how that -Part 4 in this assessment-, it just doesn’t happen that often, from Vietnam since. There’s this thing that other country’s populations have, not just ours, called patriotism. And our decision makers never, ever, ever seem to learn this. Why is that? I’m genuinely puzzled, dismayed in this instance.
Re: HK-based journalist Nury Vittachi’s claim that Trump suckered into Iran War by Mossad four-point plan. Evidence for this thesis first reported in NYT according to Middle East Eye: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israels-mossad-promised-it-could-ignite-regime-change-iran-says-report
Summary of Mossad plan: 1 Staged CIA colour revolution in Tehran 2 Sham US peace negotiation with Iran leadership 3 bombing of Iran leadership 4 installation of US puppet leadership in Tehran. In other words, the regime change playbook successfully implemented in Venezuela – and before that, in Ukraine.
Flaw in the plan was the dodgy succession planning – no plausible new leader identified like Rodriguez in Venezuela or Zelensky in Ukraine. With no way forward to point 4 of plan, US is stuck at point 3 – keep bombing the bad Iranian leadership until the good Iranian leadership revealed. Einstein-level insanity!
“I’m seeing more people in therapy struggling with war-related anxiety. Here’s what helps”
Some of the people that guy was helping had first world problems such as will the war interfere with my holidays and will tickets be affordable. What those people in therapy should be worried about is the oncoming recession and shortages with a possible depression looming if Trump keeps this up. So what helps here? Well a deep pantry for a start.
Like many short people, I walk “too fast” according to everyone else except rangy people over six feet who will stop me in public to comment on the length of my stride.
(A couple of freakishly tall people have also commented on the lack of dust in my house, up high. They live in a world the rest of us never see, unless we stand on stools to clean everything instead of spraying air freshener around.)
#OurNoLongerFreePress
Hüseyin Dogru: I see this, as not solely a violent, inhumane penalty on the journalist in question, but also a trial balloon of sorts. I think this is the way the revolting masses will be brought to heel in this new emerging phase of Western dystopia. I’ve said it since #theTroika brought Greece to its knees – banks have replaced tanks. It’s clear that this mechanism is meant firstly “pour encourager les autres”, and secondly as a test run to validate the desired result. Just imagine mass protests looking to take down these unelected EU bureaucrats; police arrest as many as they can, and this is what starts to happen to those arrested. You can release them in under an hour, but their lives are ruined. I know what the French would do (via channelstv.com), but the rest of the EU better buckle up.
PS: Stock up on cash!
a 12 min. video essay examining the 1968 film “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” via a geopolitical, regime change lens—the production of that film was filled with WW2 UK spooks like Roald Dahl. (who woulda dunk it). And the plot of the film centers around a child-sanitized regime change of a fictional land.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2Zbl-rB2Yg via the CineMollusk channel
Funny. I’ve just been reading the Dick Van Dyke book One Hundred Rules for Living to One Hundred. He says that Cubby Broccoli and the director were only interested in the gadgets and making the film was a miserable experience. He also claims that Broccoli–owner of the Bond franchise–offered Van Dyke the Bond role after Connery stepped down which seems weird but may be true. Obviously Bond was always supposed to be camp.
The legacy of all those British spooks stays with us even now. Meanwhile Trumpie has a bust of Churchill in his office….
How do I walk?, slowly, painfully and carefully.
Without regular epidurals I would be in a wheelchair.
The good news is that I am getting a guided injection in the C5-C6 area Friday which might restore full function to my right arm.
Being able to raise it to shoulder height would be nice.
I am still a dangerous Man, not only do I carry a bottle of nitroglycerin every where I go, my breath is a deadly weapon!
Hope all goes well for you.
Nothing is more dangerous than the threat they don’t see coming!
Regarding “After 16 Years and $8 Billion, the Military’s New GPS Software Still Doesn’t Work”, let me make a reference to another failing project in another NATO country.
In 2018, Germany launched the D-LBO programme (Digitalisation of Land-Based Operations), whose objective is to provide a modern, integrated, digital battlefield communication and control system for the Bundeswehr.
Initially budgeted at €1.2bn to equip 10’000 vehicles by 2030, by 2022 it grew to €1.35bn for 20’000 units, with an option of €1.52bn for 14’000 additional units, with running and maintenance costs of €2.2bn over 20 years of utilization.
There are just two little issues that popped up and that were exposed in a damning internal report of the German ministry of defence — report which has been kept confidential and leaked only recently:
1) The devices do not work; signals are too weak, connections fail, range is disastrously insufficient, communications are unintelligible.
2) Initially, the devices could not be mounted in vehicles of the Bundeswehr, because their design did not take into account the physical dimensions to allow this.
The report states that using those D-LBO devices in their existing form during exercises or during normal operations represents “a danger for life and limb”.
The devices, in their basic version, were supposed to pass acceptance testing in 2026, and start to be integrated in vehicles in 2027. They failed two series of tests in 2025, and nobody knows when they will be ready — and how all the rework will cost.
Let me also recall the British Ajax AFV, which has proven unusable because vibrations and noise are such that they make the crew rapidly sick — and the vehicle does not fulfil its operational requirements anyway. The Ford aircraft carrier (catapults not working properly, arresting cables not working properly, lifts rarely working, toilets not working at all) is another example of unusable piece of weaponry from the USA.
That projects are late and cost much more than budgeted is a common occurrence. That their deliverables are utterly unusable has become disturbingly frequent in Western armies; military institutions are no longer decadent, they are now completely deliquescent.
In the mid 90’s, shortly after the first Iraq war, I was involved in a project to fit a mine clearing plow to the front of a tank (and have it automatically adjust height). (fight the last war syndrome) We were supposed to build the sensor to feed the height control system.
No one other than me asked how this would work in NH. We never did get the sensor to work right but, fortunately, they built a plow and attached it to a tank and tried to use it on a flat test track, Tank could not push the plow. This one they scrapped after a year or so.
Here in OZ, over the past 45 + years the federal governments have been paying huge tribute mostly to the USA.
It is visibly apparent when again and again submarines, strike fighter planes, frigates, helicopters and probably now missiles are the form it takes. All way over delivery time, way over budget, way under-performing to real world war-fighting conditions and always, always, always new better kit we ‘need’ for regional stability reasons… interoperability reasons… China reasons… reasons…reasons…reasons…
Assume 20% of that taxation money was the real cost of the working operational hardware, then all the rest were not spent on hospitals, schools, ambulance services, free internet for citizens and a lot of other infrastructure for everyone.
Well, if/when these military boondogles, (subject to some investigations by journalists) are ever needed, they will likely be stuck in the hangers undergoing eternal upgrades and maintenance, and those attacking will just walk through the populated areas and date stamp people with barcodes laser etched and people then start mooing and searching for a half full trough….errr… free food pantry.
Oh, but the USA is our strategic partner and they will intervene….yes…no?
The priority list no doubt changes from time to time.
What a Mess!
“Oh, but the USA is our strategic partner and they will intervene….yes…no?”
Wellie … if’n according to Trump … ***the worlds omnipotent military super power***
can’t defend anything in the ME, including their own billion dollar bases/stuff, how could[?????] they protect anything this far away.
On the distribution of taxation at a federal level I remind that it does not fund nor buy anything. You can blame Keating for the rest. Ushering in the neoliberal FIRE sector economic agenda with selling of state assets and privatization of all social functions since then.
There are a couple articles in today’s links that I’d like to read but are paywalled. This reminded me that all my little tricks for overcoming paywalls (other than paying!) have become obsolete and no longer work. I might be persuaded to pay for a substack or two, but I’m definitely not giving a dime to corporate media to read fake news. I’ll read the elite spin for free, thank you very much.
Does anyone know of a paywall bypass that is safe and currently operative?
Substack does effectively block paywall busting :-(
https://archive.ph/ is great for a bunch of stuff but I have never seen it work on substacks. The thing that works for substacks is the writers are often intrinsic blabbermouths and anything they can get anybody to listen to goes out on other channels.
Michael Wolf is now doing his Jeffrey Epstein story on his paywalled substack but the juiciest bits inevitably come right out on his daily beast show. If it’s worth knowing it will come out sooner than anybody needs it could be the working premise here.
Substacks seem to almost all have an RSS feed which will at least get you the gist of the article until their chosen cutoff point.
Maybe this doesn’t help with substack, but often if I hit a paywall I copy the title of the article and search on that. Many times they are republished on sites with no paywall.
This is a very serious problem and is more and more turning into a real symptom of economic and social crisis.
Expensive-to-do outlets in Germany like DIE ZEIT weekly or FAZ daily – designed and set up for wealthy readership – both have basically created closed communities of subscribers and are conducting a political culture of their own sealed off from the rest of the country.
Since I don´t read either any more I can only guess that content is tailored for their particular readers/subscribers. Which of course will lead to an insane level of affirmation bias.
We will get more and more of such insulated publication communities where one won´t know what the other does or writes or argues – and won´t be interested in. Total atomisation of media. And society.
Only government funded media like German public broadcasting will remain available to everyone but those will take you only so far if you are really interested in the deeper substance of things. And they too are nothing but PR.
More critical, independent outlets naturally are not there yet. We will see if they will follow the same path. However, as soon as they do, they won´t be truly indie and anti-establishment any more.
re: Germany / BSW / letter of resignation
recommended:
Zaklin Nastic, one of the most prominent and sophisticated founding party members of the Sarah Wagenknecht Party (although they have changed the name of the party) and also former MP has published a letter of immediate resignation.
It´s worthwhile to read.
Published in BERLINER ZEITUNG
machine-translation
Party resignation
Bitter reckoning: Zaklin Nastic leaves the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance
The co-founder breaks with the BSW. In a scathing critique, she accuses the leadership elite of internal intrigue and contempt for the “little people”.
https://archive.is/BZpWI
Typical NC….I run across a post like that Zitron one, and can’t grasp all of it, out of my vocabulary, but still…….come away with actual real learning and knowledge. Sharing it. I need this site so much….have since the beginning.
re: German frm MP child abuse case
WikiLeaks has this item.
I can´t find the direct link so I put in the whole message:
Hartmut Ebbing, a former MP and former member of FDP has been convicted of child abuse.
Wiki adds an Israeli angle, which I am not sure is justified or not.
“(…)
German Court Shields Israeli-Linked Politician from Public Trial in Child Abuse Case
A German court chose to avoid a full public hearing in former Bundestag politician Hartmut Ebbing’s child sex abuse case, citing concerns that exposure could harm his role as treasurer within the German–Israeli Society (Deutsch-Israelische Gesellschaft (DIG)). Instead, the case was handled through a criminal order, limiting public scrutiny.
Ebbing asked that his case be handled in the expedited procedure with a criminal order. He referred to the “modest prominence” that he had “at least in a certain Berlin bubble”. A main public hearing, he argued, would also be a serious blow to the German–Israeli Society if the allegations became known. Since October 7, Hebbing argued, such non-disclosure had become even more important to prevent harm to society. The district court allowed Ebbing’s request.
This resulted in a court decision that prioritised protecting reputation and institutional relationships with Israel over full transparency in a case involving the abuse of German children.(…)”
Sources:
DIE ZEIT, giving the info on the court proceedings (in German)
March 18th
https://archive.is/cktx2
This one is a long-read also by DIE ZEIT (in German)
March 25th
He called it “family petting”
A former member of parliament is alleged to have abused his partner’s seven-year-old son. Chats raise the question: What role did the mother play?
https://archive.is/20260325162400/https://www.zeit.de/2026/14/hartmut-ebbing-kindesmissbrauch-lehrerin-abgeordneter-urteil
The Berliner Zeitung picked up on the “did-lobby-influence-keep-things-hush-hush?” angle yesterday, pointing back to WikiLeaks:
https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/news/kindesmissbrauch-gericht-schliesst-oeffentlichkeit-im-fall-des-ex-fdp-politikers-hartmut-ebbing-aus-li.10027900
Human error….sure it was.
Re: Do you have the new Covid variant, flu or other virus? Look out for these symptoms
Or, you know, you could test. Especially if our society supported the idea of testing and staying home if sick. There are rapid antigen tests for SARS-2, RSV, influenza and with a little effort there could be ones for the cold coronaviruses. These tests would be much less expensive if produced at scale.
Public health? What a concept, but that wouldn’t align with the goal of precarity for the proles.
I worry about cost and availability of tests, particularly limited NAAT tests which is just one vendor now I think in the US, with the ongoing oil crisis.
Sigh.
N95s, too.
Re: The Syrian super-drug coming for Britain (Unherd)
This is a fairly interesting article about the narco aspects of the Syrian failed state but the headline claim doesn’t stand up.
Captagon isn’t new. It’s [contra to the claim in the Unherd article] a run of the mill amphetamine, which is actually weaker than Adderall. It was a principal product of the Bulgarian criminal gangs that grew up during the collapse of communism time and afaik the main market then was the Middle East. At the same time, these gangs were involved in smuggling heroin into Western Europe. One assumes that if Western Europe was vulnerable to Captagon (or Kaptagon as it was then), it would have happened then.
The Middle East does not have the developed sophisticated drug palate of Western Europe and is much stricter legally. Cheap speed is more attractive there.
Speed has been around since long before I was a wild youth, and will always have it’s limited place in the drug world. But it’s not some terrorist super-drug about to take over Europe. Speed has always been very cheap, so it’s not like more supply will suddenly increase consumption.
File under Climate Collapse,
‘On a whole other level’: rapid snow melt-off in American west stuns scientists, Guardian.
Setting the table for a fire season of record.
Driving back on Hwy 58 that goes through Tehachapi the other day, it dawned on me that a grass fire was a real possibility, in March!
The bigger issue with mountain ranges is they usually stay somewhat wet until June or July, but everything in the Sierra here will be quite dry by May. Gonna be a long fire season~
Please read the Craig Murray article on Delcy Rodrigues. The main takeaway is that she was not bought by Trump and that it was Maduro himself who ordered his backers to stand down to avoid a war in the knowledge that something was coming.
He’s been in Venezuela for 5 weeks now I think and seems to have talked to everyone there. I’ve read him for years and trust him.
I maintained a “don’t know what happened and probably never will” attitude for quite a while but so many NC approved podcasters, eg Stanislav and Wilkerson yesterday, treated it as a given that she’d been compromised that I believed it myself. Now I don’t.
Loads of other good stuff there too.
thanks
actually I sometimes tinkered with this idea myself that Maduro possibly wanted to avoid bloodshed and was one driving mind behind this outcome…which would add an interesting new detail to the question if a people should take up arms to protect its nation-state or not.
Thank you for highlighting that one. It was a really excellent piece and I would have missed it.
Very good comparison between the coup against Chavez and Maduro’s kidnapping, and how both chose not to plunge the country into even more violence.
Also, I’m pretty sure it was Larry Johnson who said he knew for sure that some of Maduro’s guards had been compromised with a $50 million bribe which the US later reneged on. Either he’s mistaken, or maybe the US did actual renege because they learned of the stand down order. But apparently the US murdered all those Cubans for absolutely nothing.
How it would work in New Hampshire?
An aside: Several years ago, most local store owners in my uni town stopped accepting checks because too many bad checks were being written just before college students left town for the summer. Well, you know…. It only takes a few bad apples to spoil the barrel.
Now, most local store owners in my uni town do accept checks, at least from older customers. For years I’ve continued to ask in local stores when buying something, “Do you accept checks?” Usually the answer was “no.” Fine. They’re working on thin margins. I understand. But, I kept asking over time.
In the last year or two the answer has become, “Yes, we accept checks. In fact, we prefer checks and cash.”
I asked one store owner what had changed. The reply was that they were seeing too much cc fraud, and that most college kids these days don’t pay by check and don’t know how to pay by writing out a check. (Don’t know if that last is true or if it’s the store owner’s assumption based on observations.) Store owner and I had a laugh over that. Showing our age no doubt. Maybe my age has something to do with the local shop owners accepting my checks. / ;)
That last part is true! I’ve had to show more than one younger person how to write one – they really are clueless and grew up paying with electrons rather than cash or check. They definitely don’t know what a check register is! Also very interesting to watch some of the younger people try to count out change – I’ve had to help with that too.
Idiocracy. We have arrived…