Links 4/13/2026

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1. Vicky Cookies April 13, 2026 at 7:31 am

   The second tweet, the one with the video of the person hammering on a US warplane, probably shows a Ploughshares action. The Ploughshares movement, referencing Isiah 2:4 (“they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”, is a Christian pacifist movement begun in the 1980’s. My father used to tell me about seeing one of the Berrigan brothers, Dan or Phil, climbing onto a missile and beating it with a hammer. Glad to see they’re still out and about.
   1. The Rev Kev April 13, 2026 at 7:37 am

      I think that the guy was using a hatchet but point taken
   2. Cetzer April 13, 2026 at 9:31 am

      “neither shall they learn war any more”
      See “Down by the Riverside” (also known as “Ain’t Gonna Study War No More” )
      Some variants do to the characters and words, what Hendrix did to the notes of the Star Spangled Banner:
      “Ain’ go’n’ to study war no mo'”, “Ain’t Gwine to Study War No More”, “Down by de Ribberside”
      ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_by_the_Riverside )
   3. Es s Ce Tera April 13, 2026 at 11:14 am

      Was just thinking that person really ought to aim for the propellers or the GPS antenna. Pounding on the skin is just going to dent the aircraft?
2. The Rev Kev April 13, 2026 at 7:36 am

   “Will Trump’s Order to Blockade Iranian Ports Actually Work?”

   Larry Johnson says that there are only 7 ships that can carry the helicopters to go after those oil tankers. So I guess that they will have to establish a picket line a coupla thousand miles long from this side of India to the coast of Africa. And maybe those carrier pilots will have to fly recon missions to locate those tankers so that the ships carrying the helicopters can close in. I’m sure that the US Navy will welcome the opportunity to conduct such an operation because they have had nothing much to do lately. But they had better hope that there are no Chinese Marines on those China bound tankers. The days of the Yinhe Incident are long over-

   https://twitter.com/CarlZha/status/1131548592810876928
   1. Steve H. April 13, 2026 at 8:18 am

      Here is an excellent wisdom question:

      : And Then What?

      What are they going to do, scuttle them? If they escort them (to where?) then those ships are pinned down. And the whole thing could be swamped by Iran simply releasing more ships. Stupidest timeline.
      1. hereweare April 13, 2026 at 8:51 am

         I think I read that oil tankers can’t simply be parked; they need quite a bit of expensive ongoing work to monitor and control gas levels to prevent explosions and so on. Any thoughts from those more familiar with such matters?
         1. Robert April 13, 2026 at 4:07 pm

            The tankers carrying crude oil do not require very close supervision of their cargoes.
            Liquified Natural Gas tankers do require closer care. The gas must be refrigerated to keep it in liquid form. Even with robust cooling, some quantity of the cargo will evaporate, and this gas is captured and sent to the main engine to be consumed during the voyage.
   2. Es s Ce Tera April 13, 2026 at 12:57 pm

      I wonder why Johnson doesn’t consider that US navy ships might be informed by satellite about tanker whereabouts and movements. Why the need to recon with planes and helos?

      Mind, that the navy lost a few runaway tankers around the Atlantic, Caribbean and coast of Venezuela does suggest something is weird about that.

      Also, intercepted tankers would give the Iranians a very good idea of where US naval assets are bound to be located. Just saying.
      1. Yves Smith April 13, 2026 at 2:50 pm

         The source that Mercogliano cites, which he seems to consider the best, is a US maritime organization. It uses trackers, not satellite.
3. .Tom April 13, 2026 at 7:50 am

   Will Trump’s Order to Blockade Iranian Ports Actually Work? Larry Johnson

   > Trump, in making this announcement, has given the owners of those tankers that are allowed to leave the Persian Gulf ample time to place security teams on board those ships, armed with shoulder-fired MANPADS

   Seriously?

   With what we understand about commercial ship insurance, their owners and what crews are prepared to risk, we’re actually talking about merchant seamen shooting down American military aircraft?
   1. Ozz April 13, 2026 at 10:03 am

      Agree normal crews will not take up arms. We know its possible to hire mercenaries to guard the ships, its also possible but unlikely that the flag country would put troops on the ships. How about this, I don’t think its ever been done but if this really gets bad, why wouldn’t the PLAN or the JMSDF buy or lease the vessels and put full military crews on board. That sounds like a better option to me. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds.
   2. OnceWere April 13, 2026 at 10:13 am

      The Iranians could probably find a Navy crew or two dedicated enough to the cause to go on a suicide mission crewing an oil tanker. Secretly purchase a random tanker, and have them sail it out of the Gulf. I’m not even sure that it’s against international law to use lethal force to fight off pirates so why not vaporize the US helicopter that tries to land a boarding party ? Admittedly the US will probably respond with an all-out air strike that sinks the ship and kills everyone on board, but if you could put the US Navy in the position of never knowing to a hundred percent certainty that a given mission to land men on a tanker is not going to see the total loss of the team, then the task of maintaining a blockade would require far more resources and become rather more difficult.
   3. jrkrideau April 13, 2026 at 9:18 pm

      Or, of course, if you are China and have the world’s largest navy perhaps you just send a few naval vessels to meet the tankers carrying oil for China.

      Times of India re China blockade
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mlru8fAUqEk
4. hk April 13, 2026 at 7:59 am

   Really weird feeling about Hungary. In 1914, Istvan Tisza, the Hungarian PM, was the most enthusiastic voice for going to war (he also hated Ferenc Ferdinand, since the archduke wanted to make concessions to Croats at Hungarian expense, possibly turning the Dual Monarchy into a Triple Monarchy, and practically threw a party at the news of his assassination.). Peter Margyar’s party is named the Tisza Party (presumably, after the river and not the warmongering politician directly, but the historical linkage is too blunt.)
   1. NN Cassandra April 13, 2026 at 9:22 am

      His main problem is that Orban’s policies toward Russia and Ukraine are obviously correct. So if on the next summit he votes for EU banning Russia gas/oil for good and sending billions to Ukraine, it will be just in time for the gas shortages to start. Also it’s guaranteed that when the economic consequences of the war hit US, Trump will squeeze EU for fossil fuels, slapping tens of billions of fees so he has at least something before midterms. There is good chance that having “pro-european” man in Hungary will result in EU falling apart due to there being no one to effectively check collective EU insanity.
      1. hk April 13, 2026 at 11:45 am

         See my historical analogy wrt EU 1.0, ie the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1914, when another Tisza was one of its heads.
5. Steve H. April 13, 2026 at 8:03 am

   > Attributing 2019–2024 methane growth using TROPOMI satellite observations Science Advances

   >> wetlands are the largest total source of methane (28%), followed by livestock (25%), waste (16%), and oil and gas (9%)
   >> Averaging kernel sensitivities are low over the wet tropics including the Amazon and Southeast Asia, where observations are sparse due to cloud cover and/or dark surfaces
   >> may underrepresent inundation from river flooding, particularly in East Africa (51). East Africa has high and increasing levels of inundation observed by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) twin satellites, but this is not reflected in LPJ-MERRA2 or other wetlands inventories

   While sophisticated, this study is having difficulty untangling wetlands from livestock. Their shift toward livestock could be plausible due to (1) drought in areas like the Amazon (which could rebound, but may be due to larger climate shifts), and (2) increased livestock production in East Africa. Methane degradation due to increased -OH is plausible. Number still goes up.

   A genuine thanks to NC for providing these studies and links. My efforts of late have been in local practice of coping with changes (greenhouses, foamcrete), so this here is my window into the science and modelling. The ecological works presented (Daniel Brooks; Pandit et al) have guided and changed my thinking in a profound way. I am very grateful.
6. The Rev Kev April 13, 2026 at 8:08 am

   ‘Francesco Sassi
   @Frank_Stones
   The TAL oil pipeline, connecting Italy, Austria, and Germany, has been sabotaged. As the world’s attention remains fixed on the Strait of Hormuz and on the high-stakes negotiations beginning in Islamabad, a critical energy artery in Europe has been disabled.’

   Anybody notice how there seems to be an attempt to restrict world oil and gas right now. You have Russian tankers attacked or seized at sea, NATO countries let Ukrainian drones through their air space to attack Russian oil facilities, the Gulf has now been totally closed and now you have this oil pipeline that passes through the heart of Europe being attacked. What’s that saying again? Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.
   1. pjay April 13, 2026 at 8:35 am

      Richard Medhurst certainly has:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nt1CgQsgpI

      Medhurst has been brought up a few times in the NC discussions of the Iranian conflict, but few people here, or elsewhere, seem to be taking his thesis very seriously. Though my own view is that Medhurst’s theory understates some significant intra-elite conflicts and cross-cutting interests, I do think his arguments deserve more consideration than they have received. At minimum they provide a “materialist” rationale for US policies that otherwise seem wildly irrational or simply the result of Zionist capture or blackmail. And it seems undeniable that an important aspect of US strategy is control of global energy resources – including disruption of said resources for our “enemies.”
      1. Solideco April 13, 2026 at 9:39 am

         The video is worth a watch.
         I’ve no clue if Medhurst’s theory is actually correct or not, but to my eyes it is believable.
      2. Andrew F April 13, 2026 at 10:06 am

         Thanks for the link. Makes me think this is why a Republican had to win and why Democrats and congress are ceding power to the executive branch.
      3. vivace April 13, 2026 at 10:15 am

         Medhurst’s theory also fits and overlaps with Berletic’s. Berletic has been repeating for years that the ultimate targets are Russia and China, and has specifically insisted on an oil blockade against China. I’m persuaded.
      4. Revenant April 13, 2026 at 7:40 pm

         I am persuaded that, for the USA. relatively greater dominance of a smaller world is an acceptable alternative outcome to outright dominance of the current world. And thus the USA is doubling down on Iran because it feels it wins either way. Israel is pushing at an open door, even with non-Zionists in the US administration.

         The third option, outright loss, appears not to occur to anybody in the USA administration….
      5. kareninca April 14, 2026 at 1:29 am

         Wow. Thank you for the Medhurst video.
7. AG April 13, 2026 at 8:19 am

   re: Hungary?

   I didn´t follow Hungary last year. So all I know is from German Anti-Spiegel.

   However why the whole EU manipulations (dark money, Ukraine incursions etc.)?
   Magyar won with such lead (if the elections were not rigged) and apparently there was no huge upheaval in pro Orbán media over the year regarding polls and Orbán is so quiet.

   My question: Is there a potential deal between him and Magyar?
   Perhaps because Orbán has had enough?
   Perhaps his doctors told him to lose weight and seek relaxation otherwise getting himself killed (just look at how Orbán looked in 2010, or better 2002).
   Or Orbán´s own people were not satisfied and they reached a deal with Magyar. (but why?)
   After all who are the real forces and companies who control that small country. It´s not that many.

   Why all the fuss with the EU if Magyar´s win was so obvious from the start?

   This is all very odd. But some here can judge better.
   1. .Tom April 13, 2026 at 8:36 am

      My contacts in .hu including Fidesz supporters have not suggested anything odd. The results aren’t far out of line with my range of expectation.

      Many Hungarians are sick of Orbán, his outrageous king-like behavior, corruption, administrative and economic incompetence. Magyar campaigned as the not-Orbán candidate yet otherwise perfectly mainstream, clean, competent, new. If there were an election here like that, Americans would throw Trump against the wall too.

      In the UK general election in 2024 Labour won a landslide because voters wanted to punish the Conservatives (and the right wing vote was split) not because Starmer or Labour was appealing. I suspect it’s the same in .hu: enough Orbán and Fidesz.

      Hungarians I’ve met are very fatalistic about politics typically opining that they’ve only had one good leader in 1000 years. Pick your poison.
      1. voislav April 13, 2026 at 12:06 pm

         Magyar and Orban are aligned ideologically, that’s why it’s such a landslide victory. Magyar was a member of Fidesz until 2024 and held a number of government functions, and Tisza shares a lot of ideology with Fidesz. Tisza was able to offer an alternative to Fidesz voters disappointed with Orban’s leadership and corruption, but still wanting Fidesz policies in place (immigration for example).

         I suspect this is why Orban and his cronies are not fretting too much, they still remain in control of the media and much of the economy, and Hungary is locked into dependence on Russian energy. Any substantive changes will carry a high economic and political cost and Magyar is unlikely to rock the boat.
         1. bidule April 13, 2026 at 3:37 pm

            Great point. Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (The Leopard) inclined also to this opinion.

            If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.

            In other words: Ursula von der Leyen could very much have rejoiced too early.
   2. Trees&Trunks April 13, 2026 at 8:57 am

      Picked this up from LinkedIn:

      JD Vance, another triumph for USA 🇺🇸 diplomacy.

      He visits the pope → pope dies

      He leads Iran negotiations → talks collapse

      He flies to Hungary to prop up Orbán → Orbán loses in a landslide

      Man’s got a streak.
      1. Cetzer April 13, 2026 at 10:07 am

         Probable continuation&end:
         Vance initiates the 25th, after visiting the Netherlands to fill himself up with Dutch courage. Then Trump pulls himself together, goes to a real good doctor, gets totally healed and encourages all MAGAs to off Vance. The last point is achieved almost over night, the perpetrator’s instantly pardoned and then canonized by the anti-pope in Corpus Christi (Texas).
         Only some desperate punk band makes a song named “Hillbilly Eulogy”, breaking the Damnatio Memoriae law regarding V and all of them punks are exiled by ICE to a ice floe somewhere south of Greenland.
      2. OnceWere April 13, 2026 at 10:39 am

         It’s more fun to blame the curse of JD, but I think it’s simply the out-sized disaster that Trump’s second term has become which has left the Conservative parties and politicians outside of the US who previously flirted with the MAGA brand, and thus linked themselves to Trump, facing electoral shellackings. Canada and Australia spring to mind as examples.
      3. gk April 13, 2026 at 12:11 pm

         He’s been to Israel. Netanyahu survived.
         1. hk April 13, 2026 at 12:23 pm

            For how long?
8. DJG, Reality Czar April 13, 2026 at 9:00 am

   Jack Hanson. You Can Only Lose a Culture War. Or, Trump versus the Popester.

   Hanson: “More than once I’ve seen it expressed, largely by non- Catholics, that the Catholic Church is the only remaining moral authority in the Western world. I wouldn’t quite say that, but as someone whose upbringing in the faith was marked by a strong rightward turn among the clergy, a cataclysmic sexual abuse crisis, and an overpowering feeling of cultural and political irrelevance, to see this kind of sentiment proliferate is as baffling as it is thrilling.”

   Being a bad Catholic and a bad Buddhist, as I have reported before, I am not exactly frequenting masses. When I go to churches here, it has been to see masterpieces in the side chapels — there’s one in the Cathedral of Torino. Or I go on walking tours led by an artist / teacher, and we get into chapels and churches not always open to the public, like chapels within convents. I have been investigating crypts.

   And if I am in a church with good candles, I light a candle for my dead.

   [And churches are used here regularly for concerts.]

   What is going on right now is not something I would have expected. On the one hand, I have had to deal with Italy as an emanation of Catholicism, and Catholicism as an emanation of Roman culture, which then produced Italy as well as Italian as a continuation of the Latin language. It’s complicated. Yet the phenomenon of Papa Francesco and Pope Leo means that, somehow, oddly, the Catholic Church has done something — regained its voice? returned to the Franciscan ethic? gone pantheistic?

   I don’t know. Yet I’m still contemplating that the Catholic Church, like Roman religion, has eight million saints and numina. There’s a wonder-working icon at the Basilica of the Consolata.

   And all this after the melodrama of “instant saint” JP Wojtyla and the mopery of Pope Ratzi the Retired…
   1. Darthbobber April 13, 2026 at 9:50 am

      An aside on Hungary.
      One of the reasons I remain on fbook to a degree is too follow the ham-handed influence operations by thise who pay meta for access to me.

      The Hungarian election yielded the biggest yet, as from Friday evening on my feed was absolutely innundated by sponsored posts that claimed to be from more than 30 different sources, but all of which could have been written by Soros or Von der Leyen, all with the same themes, sometimes the same wording, and the same cast of villains.

      Interestingly, they all skipped over Orban’s blanket support for Israel and the fact that Netanyahu’s son was dispatched to campaign for him in Hungary, so apparently the funders and sponsors of the sock puppets were anti-Orban but not anti-Zionist. Mainly about the Russophobia.

      Funny, since Orban’s stance on Ukraine is probably the only aspect of his governance that I don’t find problematic.
      1. Darthbobber April 13, 2026 at 11:11 am

         Not sure how this wound up here. It was intended for the top level, not as a response to the above.
      2. hk April 13, 2026 at 12:28 pm

         I was wondering about that: if I were a Hungarian, based on what I know, I’d have wanted to toss Orban for everything except Ukraine. Naturally, Westerners think that it’s Ukraine that did him in.

         Would love to know what the Hungarians or, at least, those with real contacts in Hungary, think.
   2. NotTimothyGeithner April 13, 2026 at 10:25 am

      Despite the efforts of JP2 and Ratface, I think the RCC has a few major changes it’s dealing with that have remade it:

      -the globalized church. All those people at St. Peters’ were home while waving their national flags. What is Roman culture? The RCC is the organizational remnants of the old Empire. Then the church has never had a problem with 8 kajillion saints. When one local Virgin Mary is exposed as fraud, they just calm the locals by pointing out there are still two other local Virgin Marys.

      -effective separation of church and state if not in theory. Jefferson was only 250 years ago, and the Papal States were dissolved 150 years ago. The RCC is removed from the imperial power in a way it’s never been. There will be consequences to the Vatican instead of the Papal States that will play out much like the introduction of Cardinals or the Knights Templar-the Catholic areas of Europe are where the Knights Templar operated.

      -smaller families. The extra sons of the wealthy aren’t joining the church. The frontline priests are just that now and not part of the family business. Even if they are crooks, they aren’t Orsini crooks.

      JP2 and Ratface wanted to bring the US to heel by ending activities such as priests in politics, but I think they may have remade the RCC everywhere else with their focus on the US. I wouldn’t say the RCC has gone to a pure Franciscan ethic as the would-be Francis of Assisi types would do something else, but the baseline of the RCC will be aligned with “oh, there are like a billion people we have to consider” for all manner of reasons including attendance.
   3. TimH April 13, 2026 at 11:38 am

      Hanson: “More than once I’ve seen it expressed, largely by non- Catholics, that the Catholic Church is the only remaining moral authority in the Western world. I wouldn’t quite say that, but as someone whose upbringing in the faith was marked by a strong rightward turn among the clergy, a cataclysmic sexual abuse crisis…”

      A key part of Catholic dogma is heaven/hell for eternity post mortem based on behaviour pre mortem. It’s interesting that so many senior clergy were involved in the sex abuse story, even if only to turn a blind eye. Since kiddy fiddling surely puts one down for the hell option, I wonder whether those senior clergy actually believe their own dogma?
   4. Lefty Godot April 13, 2026 at 11:55 am

      I think Ratzinger was actually a small improvement on Wojtyla. The premature (but all too convenient for certain people) death of John Paul I set the Church back by decades and allowed a lot of bad actors to have their deeds hushed up. Francis and Leo have been stuck trying to shift the course of this institutional ocean liner little by little back in a more humane direction. A number of the Vatican 2 reforms were misguided, but the overall thrust of that effort was worthy and overdue. But the American Church has been overly influenced by their counterparts in the extremely well-funded Christian Right. All those Catholics on the Supreme Court would have been unthinkable in my youth, but they’re totally in accord with the Zionist Evangelicals now.
      1. hk April 13, 2026 at 12:32 pm

         In some ways, even worse. There is a bit of grassroots antiauthoritarianism among the Evangelicals. Catholics don’t really have that.
9. Quintian and Lucius April 13, 2026 at 9:57 am

   “Pakistan Might Assist With The US’ Blockade Of The Strait”

   Piece sounds speculative, and frankly I find it insane that not two days after attempting to mediate negotiations Pakistan would so blatantly pick a side.
   …Not unbelievable, but insane. I miss neutrality, and jokes about Switzerland.
   1. Cetzer April 13, 2026 at 10:28 am

      Only German jokes about Switzerland and Austria can save us now:

      I don’t mind Swiss people, as long as they speak Italian¹.
      I don’t mind Austrian people, as long as they look like Helmut Qualtinger²
      100 Rappen = 1 Swiss franc. 100 Swiss francs = 1 blown kiss (in Vienna)

      ¹Ticino (Tessin)
      ²Had one internationally renowned role in ‘Name of the Rose’
10. jefemt April 13, 2026 at 10:02 am

    Organic Intellectuals and The Toilet Paper Fire. Brought to mind two things— words matter.
    The author carefully uses Arson, and not Terrorism. Sabot-age might also work.

    The other, was a great film, where Arson, with no harm to persons, becoming Terrorism after 911, the main theme of an excellent film/ documentary about ELF. If a Tree Falls… HIGHLY recommend this

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1787725/

    Heady times!
11. LaRuse April 13, 2026 at 10:08 am

    A little bit of anecdata if permissible.
    I cannot for certain attribute it to the war or just the general crapification of the American health care system, but I have been scheduled for my biannual iron infusions for chronic anemia and my hematologist said I have to be given a less effective and much slower to infuse (3 hours as opposed to 1.5 hours) medication because my normal medication is completely unavailable.

    Checking in on the Southern Baptists – my mom is a devout Evangelical. She says her prayer shawl crochet group no longer talks about Trump at all, having moved from glowing reviews in the Summer of 2025, to slightly concerned approval during the peak ICE-violence, and now total silence. This morning, after the AI Jesus photo, her pastor posted to their congregation FB page that it was “blasphemy.” This is a really radical shift for a super MAGA congregation. I haven’t been willing to talk to my UltraMAGA father since 2/28, but if I find out he has turned on DJT, it will be a strong indicator that MAGA, from UFC to your 70 year old evangelicals are jumping ship.

    Finally, my MiL needs a specialized MRI due to an internal defibrillation device. There is only one of these MRI machines in the region at MCV/VCU, so we were warned it might be a few weeks or a month to schedule it by her neurologist. In fact, she won’t get her MRI brain scan until this this autumn for “resource allocation issues”. This will significantly delay the mitigations her doctor is exploring for her rapidly progressing dementia. I can see her being bumped down the priority list because she simply doesn’t have much longer to be with us, but a 6 month wait for anyone with a defib pacemaker to get an MRI is going to cause a lot of knock on health effects.

    The hopium of peace talks did lower fuel prices in the Central VA area a bit. My usual place was $4.05 on Friday, down from a peak of $4.19 and I even spotted $3.99 yesterday in the low income East End of Richmond yesterday. There were unusually steep sales on canned sodas and seltzer waters – surprising to me giving how high they have soared since 2022 and the coming aluminum shortage.

    PS: Has anyone heard from Terry Flynn or IM Doc recently?
    1. TimH April 13, 2026 at 11:41 am

       Terry Flynn was not well. I posted a similar enquiry here a couple of months ago, and heard nowt.
       1. Randall Flagg April 13, 2026 at 5:26 pm

          I also miss the comments from Arizona Slim, Petal, and Jen.
          Good thoughts and best wishes to them all
       2. Revenant April 13, 2026 at 7:51 pm

          Terry is still in NHS fighting form. He is taking time away from the internet for his sanity.

          I’ll pass on the site’s regards and I’m sure he’ll be pleased to be thought of but equally he’d tell you to worry about yourselves before him!

          Is Colonel Smithers reporting for duty lately or has he hung up his spurs?
12. The Rev Kev April 13, 2026 at 10:44 am

    “AI is the boss at this retail store. What could go wrong?”

    I’m reading this as that store being a lab experiment, the customers as being lab rats, and those two dudes will sell all their accumulated data so that someone can scale it all up.
13. Tom Finn April 13, 2026 at 11:36 am

    Had a couple of posts cross my YouTube feeds and give me an inkling of hope. Sam Forstag (Montana) and Graham Platner (Maine) are running for Congress and the Senate respectively. While both are running as Dems, both are primarily running as folks against the oligarchs.
    As I said, “an inkling of hope” tempered by can they actually use common sense and common cause to defeat the DNC, big money, and AIPAC and if they, and hopefully a cadre of like minded individuals from other states, do succeed, can they survive and be effective against the machine that is DC?
    1. jefemt April 13, 2026 at 1:46 pm

       Forstage is the pretty real deal. The primary here has some solid candidates.
       Jar-Head former Seal faux cowboy Zinke smelled that a foul wind doth blow and stepped away from the Fall Fray.
       I think Zinke may have blown it: there will not be elections. My alloy-laded obsolete 2 pennies.
14. LY April 13, 2026 at 12:19 pm

    From various sources, including Dropsite news and Mejia’s Twitter feed, NJ-11 House of Representatives Democrat candidate Analilia Mejia has been endorsed by pro-Israel J-Street. That’s notable because she won the nomination to replace Gov. Mikie Sherill despire heavy AIPAC opposition. She’s endorsed by Bernie Sanders, and is perceived as not so friendly to Israel.

    I’m intepreting it as either going to the head of a mob and calling it a parade, or they’re trying to co-opt her.
15. Jason Boxman April 13, 2026 at 1:03 pm

    Mrs. Sánchez Bezos seems to have influenced the uber-rich to stop apologizing, and start enjoying themselves.

    I hope they enjoy themselves in hell; they aren’t going anywhere else.
16. NotTimothyGeithner April 13, 2026 at 1:15 pm

    https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/13/trump-jesus-truth-social-pope-leo.html
17. Birch April 13, 2026 at 1:40 pm

    Regarding Bird Flu, the CBC put out a fairly thorough report on the ostrich farm debacle that is probably familiar to Canadian readers. 400 ostriches shot by hired marksmen in a hay bail compound. Because international agreements.

    The Ostrich Con

    Predictable CBC point of view, but worth checking out because it could have implications for how these things are dealt with in the future.
18. lyman alpha blob April 13, 2026 at 2:09 pm

    RE: Israeli strike kills infant girl in south Lebanon during father’s funeral

    I think this part is worth highlighting –

    ” “This isn’t humanity. This is a war crime,” Saeed told Reuters at the hospital where Aline’s mother, Ghinwa, was still being treated.

    “Where are the human rights? If a child – a child! – is wounded in Israel, the whole world jumps up. Are we not people? Are we not humans? We’re like them!” he said.”

    Amen, brother.
19. Alphonse April 13, 2026 at 5:04 pm

    From the article about Carney in Canada:

    once you define governance as a problem of complex systems requiring expert management, you implicitly downgrade the role of democratic friction.

    Somewhat ironic from an article that looks to me like AI style. It is right about Canadian technocracy. Like many others, I feel that the Canada I grew up in is dead and buried.

    This was reinforced in a recent speech I watched by Adam Tooze before a Canadian university audience. Tooze said that he believes that issues should be “black boxed” to render them immune to politics. He explicitly stated that favours less democracy. The “radical” audience sat in silent approval.

    Tooze attacked neoliberalism – what does neoliberalism do but use markets to black-box whole domains safe from democratic interference? I’m sure he would agree that markets are constructed, not natural – how then is his black-boxing any different? How is it even liberal?

    The first half of his talk was largely idea-free. He spoke of the “nauseating” polycrisis. He waxed ecstatic about the MRNa vaccines. It came to me: this was not ideas but communion. A religious ceremony. In the question and answer that followed there was never any serious challenge or disagreement. The closest perhaps was when he was asked about the lack of ideological diversity in the universities and replied with a mild wish for conservative voices – even though “reality has a liberal bias”.

    The inconvenient presence, unseen and unmentioned, is the people. Even if technocrats had the right ideas (hah), what about the collapse of institutional legitimacy that follows their high-handness? What about the clear disquiet that Tooze and the audience shared about the state of the world? Might there be a non-technical problem that afflicts them – something cultural, psychological, even spiritual? Obviously Tooze has not actually listened to conservatives. Even if he disagreed, he would have at least had thoughts about these broader issues. Like the rest of the room, I think he lives in the left hemisphere of his brain.

    I am surrounded by elites and ordinary citizens who see themselves as temporarily embarrassed elites. They believe that the true and only heaven of Progress will be achieved if only the hoi poloi shut up and get out of the way – but no matter, they can be steamrolled. They are oblivious to how the country is tearing apart. When the collision comes I fear they will respond with hatred and rage.
    1. Kouros April 14, 2026 at 12:52 am

       Thank you, thank you. Yes, the guy admitted on his substack that he used AI to write the article. It looks like a ChatGPT product to me, an almost power point presentation style.

       I have nothing against using AI LLMs as tools, but I think they require a certain finessing in the inputs provided, the oversight, the style of the output demanded, and maybe a socratic style in leading towards a more desirable product. Because of the argument that I had with the guy, I ended up, with the help of Claude, to draft of a Commonwealth Basic Law. For a purely democratic polity (can one spell sortition?)

       As for Adam Tooze, he is more and more enamoured of China, where he thinks there is no popular input to inform upwards… Like he never heard of the mandate of heaven…
       1. Alphonse April 14, 2026 at 1:54 pm

          Your comment confirms my impression that Tooze basically wants to turn the West into China. I’m thinking I should re-read N. S. Lyons’s China Convergence (last year Lyons said he took a position in the Trump administration dealing with international policy… I wonder how that’s going).

          China definitely has its own problems. It has devastated its historic cities and villages and their way of life. The youth are becoming listless and fertility is crashing. A civilization has a spirit. You can’t just manage the world of matter and ignore the spirit. Even the captains and foot soldiers of capitalism obsessed with “mindset” recognize the importance of culture. I hear that the Chinese regime has at least some awareness of the need to keep the population on-side and shield the culture from the worst excesses of capitalism. I recall a global survey last year that found the population who most strongly believes that their system is democratic is… China. Maybe they’re right that China is more substantially democratic than the West. I certainly don’t want to follow China’s path: but our leaders in the West seem so far from the mandate of heaven that they are not aware it was a thing they could lose.
20. AG April 13, 2026 at 5:06 pm

    re: Russia new cancer treatment

    via Martyanov

    “(…)
    MOSCOW, April 13 — RIA Novosti. The first patient received the peptide vaccine Onkopept for the treatment of colorectal cancer, the press service of the FMBA told RIA Novosti. “The first patient was injected with the drug on March 31, 2026. Now he has already received the third injection of the vaccine. The tolerability of the vaccine is good. For the next patient, the Onkopept vaccine is already ready, the first administration is scheduled for April 20, 2026,” they said. … At the end of November, the Ministry of Health issued permits for the use in clinical practice of the personalized therapeutic cancer vaccine Onkopept for the treatment of colorectal cancer. It was created by the Y.M. Lopukhin Center for Physico-Chemical Medicine FMBA.In early April, the first patient received another personalized vaccine for the treatment of melanoma. He was a 60-year-old resident of the Kursk region. As noted by the head of the Ministry of Health Mikhail Murashko, the man feels good.
    (…)”
    https://ria.ru/20260413/fmba-2086859477.html

    p.s. Anybody with professional insight into how Russian, Chinese and Cuban Covid vaccines fared compared to EU Big Pharma´s experiments after 5 years of experience and data.
21. AG April 13, 2026 at 5:27 pm

    re: Saudis and Hollywood

    THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
    trying to sell the move towards Hollywood without completely blending out reality

    Inside Saudi Arabia’s Billion-Dollar Bet on Hollywood

    The Saudis are pouring billions into the Ellisons’ Warner Bros. megamerger — and that’s just the latest move in a Hollywood takeover that’s really about courting Trump, buying Washington influence and giving a restless young population bread and circuses instead of human rights.
    April 13
    https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/saudi-arabia-billion-dollar-bet-hollywood-1236555730/

    At least Iran is mentioned 4 times (although not much considering the geopolitical earthquake and the length) but that´s showbiz, “show must go on”.

    -Even the war in neighboring Iran, which has seen drone attacks directed at Saudi Arabia, has, so far, had little impact on Riyadh nightlife. Cinemas remain open and packed, evening moviegoing being a popular pastime during Ramadan for people after they break their fasts.

    -That rapprochement accelerated under Donald Trump, whose administration maintained unusually close ties with the Saudi leadership and encouraged deeper economic cooperation. Bin Salman’s fullest return to America’s good graces was sealed Nov. 18 when he was welcomed back to the White House for the first time since Khashoggi’s murder. In the U.S.- and Israel-led war on Iran, the Kingdom is a prime ally, not least because the attacks are targeting the Saudis’ main adversary in the region.

    -Despite the tentative ceasefire, the Iran war creates a new series of unknowns and could potentially impact current Saudi and Gulf state investments and future commitments. It has caused shipping traffic to slow to a halt through the Strait of Hormuz — the crucial waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas passes. Under increasing economic strain, the Gulf states could invoke force majeure clauses to exit current contracts or put future investment plans on hold. On March 4, Qatar declared force majeure on liquefied natural gas delivery contracts after Iranian strikes on its large Ras Laffan complex. One of Saudi Arabia’s largest oil refineries also has been struck.

    “It’s really too early to say what the impact of the war will be [on Saudi investments],” says Roll. “If a more unstable situation leads to higher oil prices [long-term], that’s something the Saudis want, because the price of oil has been far too low for them now. But they still have to get the oil out, and if the war keeps the Strait of Hormuz closed, they will be impacted.”

    Against that backdrop, the Paramount-Warners transaction looks less like a vanity investment and more like a node in a larger strategy: Anchor American cultural infrastructure with Gulf capital, cultivate proximity to political power brokers, and secure the IP that fuels both domestic spectacle and international clout.
22. Jason Boxman April 13, 2026 at 6:45 pm

    From AI is the boss at this retail store. What could go wrong?

    I call BS, as a human, I could not get Internet service from AT&T.

    After researching the neighborhood, Luna singlehandedly decided what the market should sell, haggled with suppliers, ordered the store’s stock and even purchased the store’s internet service from AT&T. Leah Stamm, an Andon Labs employee who has been Luna’s main human point of contact in setting up the store, said Luna scheduled an early-morning internet installation without first checking to see if she would even be available.
23. lyman alpha blob April 13, 2026 at 7:44 pm

    Ha! One for the “AI” files –

    https://theonion.com/man-who-threw-molotov-cocktail-at-sam-altmans-home-claims-he-was-following-chatgpt-recipe-for-risotto/
24. AG April 13, 2026 at 9:28 pm

    re: Burkina Faso

    MONTHLY REVIEW

    Ibrahim Traoré: We do not want a democracy that kills

    The recent interview by Ibrahim Traoré, president of Burkina Faso, has caused widespread debate after going viral across global media platforms. Headlines, particularly from mainstream outlets, quickly framed his remarks as a wholesale rejection of democracy, some even suggesting an intention to entrench permanent military rule.

    But this interpretation, while sensational, is deeply misleading. It strips Traoré’s statements of their political, historical, and material context that is essential to understanding both his words and the broader trajectory of the Sahel region.
    https://mronline.org/2026/04/13/ibrahim-traore-we-do-not-want-a-democracy-that-kills/
25. Tom Stone April 13, 2026 at 9:37 pm

    Most of us have seen a quote from Smedley Darlington Butler’s “War is a Racket” that’s a page long, an excerpt from an illustrated pamphlet that was published in 1935.
    There are four chapters.
    1) War is a Racket.
    2) Common sense neutrality.
    3) An Amendment for peace.
    4) The Horror of it.
    It has been republished by Feral Press, http://WWW.Feralhouse.Com.
    It’s a powerful example of American Anti War writing, worth a place in your library next to Mark Twain’s “War Prayer”.
    May there be peace in your Heart, if nowhere else.

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