Links 4/25/2026

Subscribe to Post Comments

93 comments

1. hereweare April 25, 2026 at 7:16 am

   Geoengineering could protect Amazon rainforest from climate change
   The language in this article seems very mixed up. For example, “the new study—by the University of Exeter—shows that state-of-the-art climate models actually project an increase in global land carbon storage under SAI compared to both high and mid-range CO2 scenarios.” SAI does nothing that directly affects CO2 emissions, which is presumably what CO2 scenarios means, so what is being compared here? Presumably the intended meaning is carbon storage in high and mid-range emissions scenarios with and without SAI.

   The paper the article’s based on makes things a bit clearer:
   The effects of SAI are especially clear in Amazonia where land carbon storage increases compared to both SSP245 (+8.6 %) and SSP585 (+10.8 %), even though the latter scenario has the same atmospheric CO2 scenario as the SAI scenario.
   1. Steve H. April 25, 2026 at 11:19 am

      On a quick look at the primary source, it’s clear this is not a policy paper, but rather exploratory modelling.

      > we note that SAI is a temporary mitigation measure which, while reducing global temperatures, does not address the primary drivers of climate change, (increased concentrations of greenhouse gases). As a result, if SAI is terminated, global temperatures would rise rapidly due to the elevated greenhouse gas concentrations (this is known as the “termination effect”

      What concerns me most is the variation in precipitation, both between models, and between regions around the Amazon. Wildfires are mentioned but not explicit in all scenarios, which can wipe out expected carbon sequestering rapidly. As an ecologist, they are also acknowledging they are changing biomes, with no thought toward potential wtf that means. Sort of like using Value At Risk as a one-number-fits-all metric for financial risk.

      Still, it’s worth appreciating for advancing understanding via modelling. Uncertainties and politics wipes it out in terms of practical application.
      1. Jon Cloke April 27, 2026 at 12:05 pm

         Geoeingineering is a Hail Mary pass from techno-giants and pet technicians who don’t want to admit that climate change will bring an end to mass-consumption capitalism. The process goes:

         1) 1900-2000 ignore climate change and drill, baby, drill!
         2) 2000-2030(?) Admit that there IS clmate change but a) say it’s natural and b) close down research into it and c) fund denial
         3) 2030 – O fuck we broke it; let’s develop a quick planetary techno-fix that will allow mass consumption to carry on and pretend we’re doing something.

         A comprehensive read of the Professor Branestawm opus will tell you how this works out
2. The Rev Kev April 25, 2026 at 7:35 am

   “‘The Falklands are British’: UK blasts report of Trump mulling NATO reprisals”

   This is a nasty piece of work from the Trump regime. They are telling Milei’s Argentina that if they make a move on the Falklands, that they will do nothing about it. It is like sounding a dinner bell and Milie is stupid enough to try something so that he can win popular acclaim in Argentina. So much for the ‘special relationship’ that British leaders keep on boasting about.
   1. hereweare April 25, 2026 at 8:37 am

      Argentina calls for direct talks on future of Falklands – Telegraph
      Argentina has called for renewed talks over the future of the Falkland Islands after the US suggested it could support Buenos Aires’s claims of sovereignty.
   2. ChrisFromGA April 25, 2026 at 9:33 am

      I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, Taco’s treachery and vindictiveness are on full display. On the other hand, I can’t help but gloat at the UK getting humiliated. Sounds like Starmer had better divert some of those resources he has been squandering on Project Ukraine to defending the Falklands.
      1. cfraenkel April 25, 2026 at 1:29 pm

         The funniest UK response would be ‘I see your Falklands bet, and raise the lease on Diego Garcia’. ; )
         1. John k April 25, 2026 at 4:01 pm

            Whose troops are on Garcia these days? Possession is 9/10ths…
      2. Revenant April 25, 2026 at 7:20 pm

         And what of the Falklanders? Britain may be an amusing piñata but real people (and rather more sheep) live in the Falklands and they have no wish to be Argentinian….

         I don’t think you’d find it so funny if Trump told Bibi he could take the British Sovereign Territory in Cyprus….
   3. DJG, Reality Czar April 25, 2026 at 10:13 am

      The Rev Kev: As far as I am concerned, it couldn’t happen to a nicer, and more deluded, husk of empire.

      My advice to the addled English ruling class: First close down the “extraterritorial bases” in Cyprus. Then sign over the Falklands, with a provision that the Argentines rename them Islas Thatcherina.

      And then, hmmmm, time for Northern Ireland, the original settler colonial experiment, to be returned to its rightful owners?
      1. dearieme April 25, 2026 at 10:32 am

         But there are no neolithic pre-Irishmen left. The Irish murdered them long ago.
      2. hk April 25, 2026 at 11:47 am

         Free Wales? Free Cornwall?

         “Decolonization” is a nasty drug.
         1. gk April 25, 2026 at 3:12 pm

            Don’t forget Pimlico.
         2. Revenant April 25, 2026 at 7:22 pm

            Yes to both. But you cannot decolonise the Falklands unless you elect a government of penguins. It was terra nullis.

            And as for Ireland, well, ruefully yes but neither north nor south wants unification in practice rather than theory, too many rice bowls to be broken.
      3. caucus99percenter April 25, 2026 at 4:44 pm

         Northern Ireland alongside the Republic = an example of the much-ballyhooed “two-state solution”…
   4. Ian Howie April 26, 2026 at 2:16 am

      Lots and lots of territory all over Europe (indeed globally) perhaps we should be considering returning that to their rightful owners!
   5. gk April 26, 2026 at 3:48 am

      What does British mean? When Scotland becomes independent, who gets them?
3. AntiSchumer April 25, 2026 at 7:39 am

   Maine Gov. Janet Mills vetoes ban on data center construction

   Kiss any chance of winning your senate primary goodbye Ms Mills!
4. ambrit April 25, 2026 at 7:48 am

   Just a few North American Deep South Zeitgeist observations.
   The price of jet fuel and the price of cut flowers in the Bigg Boxx store is linked, obviously. This fact has been highlighted by the rise in the price of roses flown in from the higher altitudes of South America. (I usually get Phyl a half dozen roses every once in a while. They have recently gone up first from five dollars a half dozen to six dollars a half dozen this early spring. This past week, the price went up again to seven dollars a half dozen. When will this admittedly “First World Item” become unobtainable?
   The price of petrol at the pump has risen again by ten cents a gallon. We are experiencing regular price rises on this item now.
   The price of cheap ramen, the generic brands, has risen from around forty cents a packet to fifty cents a packet on the Bigg Boxx store shelves. (This works out to be a twenty-five percent rise.) The prices of imported ramen have risen even more. Some foreign sourced ramen brands coming from places like Japan and Thailand have roughly doubled in price over the past year.
   The price of “fizzy water” has had a large and noticeable rise over the last few months. We shall not even consider the price rises seen in the beer aisle.
   The price of “sugary snacks” has risen enough to make one self-solve their refined sugar addiction problems.
   The price of chips has puffed up enough to make the average consumer chose moderation over hedonism, an epochal development. A can of the generic “pringles” style chips has risen in price from a dollar per can last fall to two dollars a can today. A one hundred percent rise in price.
   My contacts in the pawn shop field have mentioned that their businesses have steadily grown over this winter. A slow but steady rise in pawns and a fall in redemptions is the trend. One mentioned that he now has to add discounts to his “sale” prices to increase outgoing items. His cash reserves are growing thin.
   As one friend put it recently: “People should be scared. We are just at the beginning of major economic dislocations.”
   Stay safe. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.
5. Dr. John Carpenter April 25, 2026 at 8:49 am

   If anyone feels their mood is too good, read that Peter Girnus tweet. JFC. This whole system needs to be torn down.
   1. Screwball April 25, 2026 at 10:37 am

      I agree, but who’s going to do it?
   2. jo6pac April 25, 2026 at 10:50 am

      Yes, a must read for sure. I’m going send to a few friends and put in comments on other sites.
      1. Glen April 25, 2026 at 12:46 pm

         Same here.

         No wonder Congress cannot be bothered with stopping an insane war teetering on the brink of going nuclear. They’re very busy insider trading.
   3. DD GE April 25, 2026 at 2:35 pm

      I’ve been reading it while listening to a sad, slow jazz tune.
      I don’t recommend doing this at home :-)
      Feels like the end of everything.
   4. Revenant April 25, 2026 at 7:27 pm

      People who read the tweet should remember the Peter Girnus account is a satire/parody/impersonation. The only effect on your mood should be to lighten it.
6. upstater April 25, 2026 at 8:51 am

   Another one to file under the Bezzle…

   France Investigates Temperature Spikes That Led to Big Payouts on Polymarket NYT

   The authorities said a Paris airport weather sensor may have been tampered with as large wagers were placed on the betting site.
   …
   Wagers on the daily high temperature in Paris totaled nearly $1.4 million over the two days, with some receiving thousands of dollars in payouts, according to the company’s data.
   …
   “The Charles de Gaulle incident is not an isolated curiosity,” Mr. Hallali said. “It is what happens when financial incentives meet fragile data infrastructure.” [me: all data infrastructure is fragile for us plebes]
   …
   As to how the instruments could have been tampered with, a number of theories have been offered online, including by use of a hair dryer or a lighter. Mr. Hallali said that the precision of the spike on April 15 suggested the use of a calibrated portable heating device, although he declined to speculate about what kind.

   Fake news will be again claiming climate change is fake.
   1. hereweare April 25, 2026 at 9:15 am

      Where I am, betting on rain is quite a thing. Rain counts as water emerging from drainpipes, so naturally drainpipes get tampered with, to either intercept or inject water. Did someone imagine sensors at an airport wouldn’t be tampered with when betting’s involved?
7. The Rev Kev April 25, 2026 at 9:03 am

   “EU formally approves 90bn euro Ukraine loan and new sanctions on Russia”

   Of course 60 billion Euros will stay in the EU and only 30 billion will go to the Ukraine. Lots of beaks will get wet with this money. Zelensky opened up the Druzhba pipeline which led to Hungary and Slovakia dropping their objections to this loan but after the vote passed, the Ukrainians attacked the Druzhba pipeline again-

   https://www.kyivpost.com/post/74581

   Some EU countries refused to take part in this loan but all the others put themselves on the hook for this money and will have to borrow for it. That 90 billion loan to the Ukraine is interest free and only has to be paid back – in part – if Russia loses this war and has to pay reparations. No doubt those EU countries will have to cut things like healthcare, education infrastructure and the like to raise the money to give to the EU to give to Zelensky but its all in a good cause.
8. mrsyk April 25, 2026 at 9:04 am

   Janet Mills, citing imaginary jobs, vetoes statewide data center ban, scuttles any chances for eking out a victory in the senate primary contest.

   Poll question: Which do you view more favorably,

   1. Janet Mills
   2. Pumpkin Spice flavored pale ales
   3. A flaming paper sack of dog poop on your front porch
   1. DJG, Reality Czar April 25, 2026 at 10:21 am

      mrsyk:

      I will rely on the timeless sage, Jack Benny:

      “I’m thinking it over!”
      1. mrsyk April 25, 2026 at 11:17 am

         At least some thinking is planned.
   2. DJG, Reality Czar April 25, 2026 at 10:27 am

      mrsyk:

      Two great philosophers contemplate Janet Mills’s age and her second term in the Senate:

      Marilyn Monroe: What about the difference in our ages?
      Jack Benny: Oh, it’s not that big a difference. You’re twenty-five and I’m thirty-nine.
      Marilyn Monroe: I know, Jack. But what about twenty-five years from now when I’m fifty and you’re thirty-nine?
      Jack: Gee, I never thought of that.
   3. John k April 25, 2026 at 4:14 pm

      So bird in hand ‘profit’ on data center exceeds likely potential future revenue from senate seat.
      Those centers cost big bucks.
9. LawnDart April 25, 2026 at 9:20 am

   Should our young men and women join the military and fight in Iran?

   Does it beat the alternative?

   I enlisted because I ran out of road to run. My friends were getting offed by OD-ing or straight-forward suicide, and others were getting murdered– Ducky gunned-down by the Vice Lords after false-flagging, Kris raped and then killed, Derrick putting a bullet through his head hours after telling me that my first love Amy had OD… and then the damn judge threatening real jail-time because I was a frequent-flyer who had accumulated too many points… I told him I was joining the Army, and I began my enlistment in the USAF soon after.

   I got to see the world on fire– up close and personal. It didn’t define my life, but it sure as hell altered some of my perspectives.

   And then, life goes on…

   I’m quite certain that others in the commentariat have their own stories to tell.
   1. ilsm April 25, 2026 at 9:40 am

      Retired career reservist, I would resign before going into the Ramadan war!

      Trump abuses each point of Just War doctrine (St Augustine). Why our Pope speaks.
   2. Tom Stone April 25, 2026 at 10:38 am

      The Military promised respect, career training and the prospect of joining the middle class once the GI Bill paid for a college education.
      Which was a lie.
      The alternatives were fentanyl (100,000 OD deaths per year of American Men aged 18-34}, a gig job that didn’t pay the rent or Prison as an inmate or a guard.
      Land of the Fee and home of the Grave.
   3. Charles Carroll April 25, 2026 at 11:33 am

      The Epstein class purposely set up the environment that you were in to encourage enlistment and/or slavery.
      1. LawnDart April 25, 2026 at 2:04 pm

         I came to realize much later on that most of the American Aristocracy (the Blue Bloods, the Epstein Class) actually fears, despises, or otherwise holds US veterans in complete contempt, as though we are lesser-creatures, mere animals. And they feel the same way about most public service employees and most non-federal level politicians except for those of very high rank.

         Same applies to the great unwashed, the hoi polli– the ruling-class hates you too. I did find it amazing how much deference they showed to jews, especially after meeting with the principal of a reinsurance company who turned rather cold after I failed to claim even a tiny bit of jewish-blood in my ancestory… life could have been much different if I had lied, which is basically what I was being asked to do.

         Orthodox Christian I remain.
         1. CCutrano April 25, 2026 at 4:24 pm

            “Goy Polloi” you mean?

            Then on Friday, when bombings required, there’s the

            Shabbos GOP.
   4. Butch April 25, 2026 at 2:32 pm

      Union trades apprenticeship is the answer. Earn and learn.
      1. LawnDart April 25, 2026 at 6:15 pm

         Union apprenticeships kinda depend upon where you’re located, and sometimes on who you know, but otherwise I totally agree with your sentiment.

         I basically (re)turned to the trades midlife, and they have treated me very well. One of my best friend’s grandson– who was a complete f**k-up into his 20’s– found his way into an electrician’s apprenticeship, and this turned his life around. Maybe what also helped is that he got to see a real paycheck, and realized he had something he didn’t want to lose.

         That said, even a tradesman can benefit from a classic liberal arts education.
         1. TimH April 25, 2026 at 7:55 pm

            Anecdotal, but I have found people with trade-skills (so brain, knowledge, motor skills) far more interesting (or, perhaps, more well-rounded) people than white collar mental-skill-only types. I include nurses in the former, software engineers in the latter.
         2. Butch April 25, 2026 at 11:26 pm

            Gee LawnDart, I agree completely although I am often looked at weirdly for being both a veteran and degreed…
10. dingusansich April 25, 2026 at 9:26 am

    Re the Chetuya Math Chinagolum tweet: interesting juxtaposition of books by Kant and Fanon, with Fanon amusingly (?) “under” Kant in the photograph, given that Fanon’s Hegelian master-slave dialectic intrinsically critiques the universalism of Kant’s categorical imperative. The power and subject position of colonial master and colonized are not the same, which calls into question whether a single code, no exceptions, can or should apply to both. Leastways that’s my 25-or-so-word takeaway. I’m reminded of the expression that in a free society anyone, rich or poor, can live under a bridge. Funny thing is, though, that you won’t find many of the wealthy camped by abutments.
11. The Rev Kev April 25, 2026 at 9:28 am

    “View from China: The People’s Liberation Army has figured out the trump card of the US military”

    It might be that the PLA, if it got into a war with the US, would go after US oil tankers for the fleet, repair ships, supply ships, dock landing ships, amphibious transport dock ships, etc. as well as hitting every major logistics base & airfields that it could like the Iranians have done. Then let those US warships die on the vine while using their missiles to sink any that approached the Chinese coastline.
    1. hk April 25, 2026 at 11:54 am

       ArmchairWarlord did suggest US is trying hard to cosplay Imperial Japan during WW2 for this very reason (although it turns out that we are following them in other dimensions too…)
    2. Revenant April 25, 2026 at 7:32 pm

       It was an odd article. There was no trump card, only Trump, in the text. Were they trolling or just mixing metaphors? The rest of the article was about the US military’s Achilles’ heel but it still didn’t explain what it was. The US military hates this one cheap trick!
12. hereweare April 25, 2026 at 9:37 am

    “We Knew They Were Paying Informants”: SPLC Donors Reject Trump DOJ Fraud Claims – Intercept
    Twenty donors to the Southern Poverty Law Center said the alleged “fraud” being prosecuted in their name was exactly how they hoped the group would spend their money.
    1. KD April 25, 2026 at 10:43 am

       I don’t see the fraud here either. Aren’t they doing the exact same thing the FBI does to gin up Islamic terrorists?
       1. hereweare April 25, 2026 at 11:08 am

          Not the exact same thing.
          The FBI and its informants set up not very bright people to plan a half-baked terrorist thing before busting them and parading it as a victory in the War on Terror.
          The SPLC pays people to infiltrate existing groups many of us would recognise as extremist hate groups.
13. The Rev Kev April 25, 2026 at 9:54 am

    “Russia Prepares to Fight Europe… White House Setting the Stage to Renew Attack on Iran”

    Years ago I read that while the Russians were building up their military force in the Ukraine, that they were also building up another force in case they had to confront Europe. At the time I thought that such a scenario would be extremely unlikely. I was wrong. Lots of those European countries are going all out to put together a force to fight a war against Russia. This is just plain nuts. Russia has zero desire to invade Europe but would annihilate anything that headed their way. Do young Europeans yearn to emulate their grandfathers and launch a civilizational war against Russia again? But I have read that lots of veterans of the SMO are going into government so you can count on the next generation of Russian leaders being more hard line and not willing to put up with Europe’s crap anymore.
    1. Polar Socialist April 25, 2026 at 12:04 pm

       Nor just SMO veterans, but recently the widows of those died in SMO now have free access to university education.

       Not that EU countries could build a capable army within the next decade or two. It’s 99% mere noise and fantastic plans for now…
       1. fjallstrom April 25, 2026 at 4:51 pm

          Noise, fantastic plans and weapons sales. Don’t forget the weapons sales!

          (Sales is of course different from delivery as Switzerland recently experienced.)
    2. neutrino23 April 25, 2026 at 1:56 pm

       My ancestors suffered multiple invasions from Russia. I see the East Europeans arming themselves to defend themselves from this happening again.
       1. Polar Socialist April 25, 2026 at 4:42 pm

          My ancestors suffered multiple invasions from Russia, too. They also invaded Russia multiple times. At times they even invaded for Russia. And I see East Europeans arming themselves to force Russia invade once again.

          Contemplate this old quip: Russia’s neighbors are either friendly to Russia, neutral, or part of Russia. Russia is the dominant power in Europe, no matter which way one looks at it.
14. ChrisFromGA April 25, 2026 at 10:17 am

    The Grift-O Kid

    Sung to the tune of, “The Cisco Kid” by War

    Melody

    The Grift-o kid was a friend of mine
    The Grift-o kid was a friend of mine
    He drink whiskey Taco drinks the whine
    He drink whiskey Taco drinks the whine

    They met down on the border Pakistan
    They met down on the border Pakistan
    Eat the salted peanuts out of the can
    Eat the salted peanuts out of the can

    The outlaws had them pinned down at the Hormuz fort
    The outlaws had them pinned down at the Hormuz fort
    Grift-o came in blastin’ closin’ ports
    Grift-o came in blastin’ closin’ ports

    (Die! Die! Die!)

    They rode the sunset Learjet made of steel
    They rode the sunset Learjet made of steel
    Chase those tanker rustlers through the fields
    Chase those tanker rustlers through the fields

    (Die! Die! Die!)

    The Grift-o kid was a friend of mine
    The Grift-o kid was a friend of mine
    The Grift-o kid was a friend of mine
    The Grift-o kid was a friend of mine
15. The Rev Kev April 25, 2026 at 10:31 am

    “Rats love driving tiny cars, even when they don’t get treats”

    Just goes to show you. Like fighter jocks, they have the need.The need for speed.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PzpztFJZP8
16. KD April 25, 2026 at 10:34 am

    Some fifteen years ago I wrote that western reliance on its lens of secular rationality

    There is a repeat trope about the Iran War being some kind of religious war, and somehow Israel’s conduct is somehow driven by religion.

    Look at the recent messaging from the Iranian leadership. They talk of the unity of Iran as a nation, they talk of defense of the homeland. This is an appeal to nationalism, not Islam. Further, it is very interesting that the Islamic Republic, at least in its English language communications is choosing to articulate the conflict in terms of patria. The propaganda regarding casualties gave prominence to the Israeli attack on the Iranian synagogue on Passover–this is not the messaging of a holy war, this is about patria. Patriotism may be likened to a kind of passion, but it should be comprehensible to any “secular rationalist” with a basic knowledge of the French Revolution.

    Likewise, the “religiosity” of the Israeli’s has nothing to do with religion, you are witnessing a race war between ethnic groups. What role is religion serving except to legitimate racial supremacism and justification for ethnic cleansing and theft of property? I suppose if the program is killing people because they belong to the wrong ethnic group and taking their lands, then it would run up against what most secular rationalists would hold as basic canons of ethics, so maybe you need a religious teleological suspension of the ethical to justify it. However from a completely selfish perspective, if you kill your neighbors and steal their lands, its a lot cheaper than saving your money and purchasing the land from your neighbor at fair market value. The “religion” of the Israeli ultra-nationalists is just a patina to cover over what amounts to murder, rape, robbery and pillaging by rapacious ethno-gangsters.

    Last, the Americans are trying to make this into a religious war because the Iran War has nothing to do with the national interests of the United States, except to the extent that the national interest of the US is completely submerged and subsumed into the project of Greater Israel, as it is in the minds of a Shapiro or a Levin. Because Iran poses no threat to the US, and there can be no justification for the Iran War from any rational, realist framework of IR, it can only be sold to the public on the basis of some kind of religious crusade combined with Islamophobia and racial hatred. For this reason, it is important to push back on this narrative that this is some kind of irrational religious war. It is difficult to conceive of a less religious war than the present conflict.

    The only party to the war for which it is irrational is the US, but even here, it is being pursued for completely rational reasons of internal politics relating to the power of AIPAC and a network of powerful political donors who want this war. The war is completely rational for Israel, who seeks to dominate the ME and to carry out a project of lebenstraum against their neighbors. It is rational for the Israeli settlers, who want something for nothing, except maybe the price of their souls as a result of their crimes. It is rational for Iran, which wants to preserve its security, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. Don’t buy the b.s.!
    1. Chris April 25, 2026 at 1:10 pm

       Patriotism and religion are only contradictory motivations in the modern Western conceptual framework.
       1. KD April 25, 2026 at 6:12 pm

          Patriotism and religion are only contradictory motivations in the modern Western conceptual framework.

          Separation of church (religion) and state (patriotism) are opposed in a modern Western conceptual framework, and define secularism in some sense. Shia Islam doesn’t really have a church as an institution, they have specialists in Islamic Law, which in an Islamic Republic, are integrated into the State. But the appeals in English are about the unity of the Iranian nation, not really anything about Islam or Shi’ism or the 12th Imam or any kind of sectarian messaging. The kind of thing an Iranian Christian or a Zoroastrian or a Jew could get behind. I don’t speak Farsi and I am not privy to what the messaging is like internally, but from the outside it sounds more like Republicanism than Islamism.
          1. Chris April 26, 2026 at 12:16 am

             The messages in English are propaganda aimed at English-speakers. I don’t know what it is internally. I would presume that it is different for different audiences, with religious belief NOT being emphasized, because the last thing the Iranians would want is trouble with religious minorities. But the main point that I am getting at is that for a “pre”-modern society, the homeland and religion are not really different — the homeland is an expression of the divine. In a religious eschatological framework, the former is an expression of the latter. If you attack 10th-century England, you are attacking the faithful, which means you are attacking God.

             The lego stuff, despite being aimed at an English-speaking American audience, does use religious language, though, sometimes Muslim and sometimes more general..
    2. In Cold Chud April 25, 2026 at 5:45 pm

       I agree with your assessment of Iran and Israel, but the United States (meaning, as always, the elite) does have a material interest, here: preventing, delaying, or reversing development independent of Western capital. It’s just that that’s harder to sell than racism/religious hogwash.
       1. tegnost April 25, 2026 at 10:43 pm

          western capital scales globally and so…
17. demodynia April 25, 2026 at 10:52 am

    https://covertactionmagazine.com/2026/04/24/timothy-leary-1960s-acid-guru-may-have-been-among-the-cias-greatest-assets/

    Interesting that Al Hubbard takes on such a similar role for LSD as W. Bryan Hubbard is taking on now for Ibogaine. I know Hubbard is a common name in the US, and no obvious relations from a quick search. Is it maybe just that history rhymes?
    1. wol April 25, 2026 at 4:07 pm

       Drugs As Weapons Against Us, watched gingerly: trailer (1:55). https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8727494/
    2. ArvidMartensen April 25, 2026 at 8:03 pm

       And I think Trump has approved a focus on the psilocybin industry. For PTSD of course.

       This looks like a pincer movement. And it’s by twisting “morality” and “human kindness” that they have inflicted the most heinous crimes with no consequences on people.
18. Steve H. April 25, 2026 at 10:58 am

    ‘The damage is done’: global oil crisis has changed fossil fuel industry for ever, IEA chief says [Guardian]
    > International Energy Agency’s Fatih Birol, the world’s leading energy economist, also says UK should largely forgo North Sea expansion
    > Building renewables was an option “I never heard that anybody ever regretted”, he said. “I don’t see any downsides for renewable energy.”
19. Jason Boxman April 25, 2026 at 11:03 am

    The NY Times oped discovers infectious disease

    Measles Is Back. What Comes Next Will Be Worse. (NY Times)

    Meanwhile, this is COVID Pandemic year seven.

    The resurgence of measles — a terrible disease that can swell the brain and cause permanent disabilities or death — is alarming enough on its own. There have been more than 1,700 cases reported in the United States already this year, up from about 70 per year in the early 2000s. Three children died last year.

    The rise of measles may also be a harbinger of something even worse, public officials say. “Measles is basically a canary in the coal mine for our entire system,” says Dr. Scott Harris, the state health officer in Alabama’s Department of Public Health. “When it surges like this, it signals that our vaccination programs are starting to fail, and that other diseases won’t be far behind.” Already, cases of whooping cough have surged, too. And after two Florida children died of Hib, a bacterial infection, epidemiologists worry that disease is resurgent.

    completely omits the Biden administration decision to make people choose between being able to eat and getting the shot

    The Covid pandemic once seemed as if it might reinstill confidence. The virus was a new and terrifying pathogen for which scientists developed a safe, highly effective vaccine in record time. It offered a case study in the power of vaccination. But Covid, too, soon became subject to political polarization.

    Many conservatives questioned the vaccine in irrational and self-defeating ways. Liberals rightly embraced the vaccine but sometimes went so far as to be alienating — insisting that children needed annual boosters (which most countries did not), calling for the firing of unvaccinated people and more. The combination played into many Americans’ pre-existing uncertainty about how much to trust public health experts. In the years since, vaccination rates for other diseases have slipped further.

    and certainly conflates the COVID shots with other, sterilizing vaccinations.

    Meanwhile, at the grocery store, in the checkout line, I saw latest women’s magazine, with top story “Beat Brain Fog & Lose Fat”.

    I can’t imagine why people still have brain fog in 2026, can you?
    1. ambrit April 25, 2026 at 2:12 pm

       News bulletin from the top.
       “Measles Is Back. What Comes Next Will Be Worse. All is going according to plan.”
    2. CCutrano April 25, 2026 at 4:39 pm

       Or Javier Becerra, as HHS official, losing 85,000+ unaccompanied minors, most likely without any vaccinations, among our general population.
20. Windall April 25, 2026 at 11:13 am

    How transformers are build. And why it is difficult to scale up production.

    ThyssenKrupp Electrical Steel, the only sizable European producer, announced in December 2025 that its Isbergues plant in France would drop to half capacity and close entirely from June through September 2026, citing Chinese imports that had tripled since 2022. The decision removes the last European producer of premium GOES at a moment when the continent has committed to major grid expansion. This sequencing undermines European industrial and energy autonomy.

    https://open.substack.com/pub/frontiermap/p/the-us-imports-82-of-its-large-power?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=319lal
21. Jabura Basadai April 25, 2026 at 11:18 am

    this morning finding this tacked onto the end of twitter links – ?ref_src=twsrc^tfw – and while that is part of link the twitter link will not open – once taken off and reloaded without it, opens fine – wonder where that came from and if firefox is adding it or if it already there in the NC link?? – just started – took a while to figure out – anybody else?
    1. Pearl Rangefinder April 25, 2026 at 11:31 am

       That is a completely normal part of the embed HTML code for embedding tweets onto a page, you’ll find that on all twitter links that are embedded on blogs, other pages, etc. It’s worked this way for literally years now, so I assume one of Muskrats H1B/AI coding army broke something if it isn’t working correctly? LOL
22. AG April 25, 2026 at 11:43 am

    re: Michael Parenti memorial service

    in 4 hours

    Memorial Service for Michael Parenti
    April 25, 2026

    Live from Berkeley, California at 2 pm PDT, 5 pm EDT Saturday, a memorial service for Michael Parenti, the great historian, social critic, author and lecturer.

    Speakers include Dennis Kucinich, Max Blumenthal, Jimmy Dore, Christian Parenti and Marcie Smith.
    https://consortiumnews.com/2026/04/25/watch-live-memorial-service-for-michael-parenti/
    1. AG April 25, 2026 at 12:00 pm

       On Blackshirts & Reds: Remembering the Class Analysis of Michael Parenti

       April 24, 2026

       On Saturday, a memorial service will be held in Berkeley, Calif., for Michael Parenti, radical historian, social scientist, author and public speaker. Ann Garrison takes a look at one of his many invaluable works, Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism, published in 1997.
       https://consortiumnews.com/2026/04/24/on-blackshirts-reds-remembering-the-class-analysis-of-michael-parenti/
23. communistmole April 25, 2026 at 12:04 pm

    “The biting irony here is that this was precisely the intellectual state of the entire Western world and America itself, before the Manhattan Project detonated the first atomic bomb.’

    “Wir spüren das Morgenwehen eines neuen Tages nicht bloß für Deutschland, sondern für die Menschheit”. (“We feel the dawn of a new day not just for Germany, but for humanity”), so Paul Natorp at the beginning of WWI.

    Natorp back then was one of the leading figures of so called Neo-Kantianism …
24. AG April 25, 2026 at 12:31 pm

    Lebanese reporter Amal Khalil killed

    Lebanese Journalist Amal Khalil Killed in Israeli Strike, Medics Blocked from Saving Her Under Rubble
    https://www.democracynow.org/2026/4/24/lebanon_amal_khalil_sara_qudah_journalists

    Israeli forces killed the prominent Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil on Wednesday despite a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. Khalil and her colleague, photographer Zeinab Faraj, were reporting from southern Lebanon when an Israeli drone struck a car near them, killing two civilians. Khalil and Faraj sought shelter in a nearby building, but then Israel struck that building, as well. Emergency and medical workers rescued Faraj but came under fire before they could rescue Khalil, and were prevented by the Israeli military from returning for over six hours. Khalil died by the time her body was recovered from under the rubble.

    Every news service in the West should be forced into a seminar where they´d be told what this actually meant:

    Somewhere in Israel there were actual people who were following the movements of both newspeople and ordered multiple attacks: to.get.them.killed.

    And when first aid emergency rushed in they did the same blocking them intentionally!

    IDF are Nazis.

    Very.simple.

    Only liars and morons do not see or admit this.
    Or other such Nazis.

    Israel has no rights what so ever.
25. Wukchumni April 25, 2026 at 1:15 pm

    What happens when you play a Meta AI song backwards?

    You get your job back~

    Meta to lay off 8,000 as part of AI efficiency push Axios
26. JG5 April 25, 2026 at 1:23 pm

    The Big Think article missed mentioning Giacomo Ciamician, who was ahead of the same curve.

    The Photochemistry of the Future
    https://www.jstor.org/stable/1637055
    Giacomo Ciamician
    Science, Sep. 27, 1912, New Series, Vol. 36, No. 926, pp. 385-394
    Published by: American Association for the Advancement of Science
    …
    It has frequently been said even by persons of authority that some day the transformation of coal into bread may become not only possible but economically desirable. According to these people the ideal of the future should be to produce through synthesis from coal all substances necessary for the alimentation of man: such substances as starch, sugar and fat, also proteins and perhaps cellulose; in other words to abolish agriculture altogether and to transform the world into a garden of useless flowers.
    …[there is a surplus of arid lands in The Great Western Desert]
    “On the arid lands there will spring up industrial colonies without smoke and without smokestacks; forests of glass tubes will extend over the plains and glass buildings will rise everywhere; inside of these will take place the photochemical processes that hitherto have been the guarded secret of the plants, but that will have been mastered by human industry which will know how to make them bear even more abundant fruit than nature, for nature is not in a hurry and mankind is. And if in a distant future the supply of coal becomes completely exhausted, civilization will not be checked by that, for life and civilization will continue as long as the sun shines! If our black and nervous civilization, based on coal, shall be followed by a quieter civilization based on the utilization of solar energy, that will not be harmful to progress and to human happiness.”
    …
27. Wukchumni April 25, 2026 at 1:45 pm

    There was a crooked man, and he talked a crooked style,
    He founded a crooked cryptocurrency and made a crooked pile;
    He fought a crooked war which cornered him like a crooked mouse,
    And they all lived together in a crooked White House.
28. Tom Stone April 25, 2026 at 2:09 pm

    I’m off to have lunch with an old friend on her 73rd Birthday, someone I have been friends with since we met on Memorial Day 1958.
    A wonderful gift.
29. BillS April 25, 2026 at 4:01 pm

    As Italy celebrates its anti-fascist partisans and tries to forget its pro-fascist past today – Liberation Day, I am reminded of W B Yeats’ dark poetic masterpiece.

    The Second Coming

    BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

    Surely some revelation is at hand;
    Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
    The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
    When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
    Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
    A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
    A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
    Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
    Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
    The darkness drops again; but now I know
    That twenty centuries of stony sleep
    Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
    And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
    Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
30. johnnyme April 25, 2026 at 6:34 pm

    AI To Take Over 50% Of UAE Government Services By 2028; What It Means For People

    The United Arab Emirates has announced a major step towards AI-driven governance, with plans to run 50 per cent of its government services and operations through autonomous artificial intelligence within the next two years.

    The initiative was announced by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum under the direction of UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The move aims to position the UAE as the first country to operate government functions at this scale using advanced AI systems.
31. LawnDart April 25, 2026 at 7:52 pm

    Yeah, about that zionist ethnic-cleansing of Christians:

    Replay: Israel’s slow ethnic cleansing of Christians from the Holy Land

    Obviously not the “right” kind of Christians. Kinda like the wrong color Jews who can’t find sanctuary in Israel either, not amongst the zionists.
32. LawnDart April 25, 2026 at 8:50 pm

    ‘Zionism Led to Genocide. It Must Disappear’: Omer Bartov’s New Book Explores Where, Exactly, Israel Went Wrong

    “Israel cannot exist as a normal state under the ideology of Zionism. Zionism must disappear. The state will remain. It’s not going anywhere. The question is what kind of state it will be. It must change fundamentally. Under the Zionist ideology, it can’t.”

    “If it doesn’t give it up and become something else, it will be a full apartheid state, an illiberal democracy at best, very violent, eventually losing much of its more educated elite. Most of the population will stay; populations always stay. It will become a pariah state, isolated. It will lose the support of its most important allies – Europe, the United States – and of Jewish communities around the world, who increasingly see it as a danger to themselves rather than a protector.”
33. thoughtfulperson April 25, 2026 at 9:09 pm

    Per Aljazeera apparently Trump was taken by Secret S. from the Correspondents dinner.

    Jokes too offensive?

    Fake bomb threat?

    Illness?

    No doubt some explanation will arrive soon…
    1. ThirtyOne April 25, 2026 at 9:28 pm

       I saw a c-span video. Nice to see the sudden fear on all those nice faces.
       1. Pat April 25, 2026 at 10:01 pm

          Was there any video of a shooter or just noise? The report I read was shots heard, and immediate evacuation of the Trumps from behind the dais. But the shooter was caught. I never immediately jump to false flag, but this time I did, convenient and just doesn’t smell right.
       2. tegnost April 25, 2026 at 10:39 pm

          I think there are a certain people who gladly massacre journalists and by knocking them and trump off would be counting coup.
          It’s dark days because the skies are covered in self flying cow patties
          Needless to say, keep your head down…
    2. Yalt April 25, 2026 at 9:31 pm

       Quite an evening in D.C. Secret Service and Law Enforcement did a fantastic job. They acted quickly and bravely. The shooter has been apprehended, and I have recommended that we “LET THE SHOW GO ON” but, will entirely be guided by Law Enforcement. They will make a decision shortly. Regardless of that decision, the evening will be much different than planned, and we’ll just, plain, have to do it again. President DONALD J. TRUMP
34. Huey April 26, 2026 at 6:19 pm

    That article on Leary was amazing, thanks much for the excellent find.
    1. Lefty Godot April 26, 2026 at 10:16 pm

       I have my doubts about the central premise however. The CIA was certainly testing LSD on unwitting subjects and mucking around with it, but not to steer the leftist younger generation away from activism and into hedonism–because the younger generation was not noticeably activist overall. Yes, there were SDS chapters at many universities, but that didn’t mean a large percentage of the students where there were chapters had any interest in them. And the SDS fractured itself with the usual leftist circular firing squad tactics, with the Maoist faction citing the Little Red Book as authority, the Trotskyites pulling away to become the future neocons, and the Che Guevara admirers romanticizing about armed action at the barricades, etc. Connecting with the working class was not a high priority for many activists because the working class was Their Parents in many cases. And if Al Hubbard was carrying out a sinister program to corrupt youth, why was he giving out LSD to Clare Booth Luce and her husband Henry, along with other movers and shakers? Also, I doubt Allen Dulles bought up the entire world’s LSD supply, because Sandoz was desperately giving it away for free to any researchers that might be able to find a commercial ($$) use of some kind for it.

       There are a lot of tales that try to explain why the leftist youth movements fell apart (Musa Al-Gharbi puts it all down to Nixon ending the draft, which killed the incentive for middle class youth to protest the war), but I think it was mostly a matter of young people not adhering to the leftist ideologies in great numbers to begin with, a lot of low commitment level followers getting peeled away by both the drug culture and the working (and new family) life, and the US suddenly making nice with Mao (what a shock if you were a leftist). And it took until Reagan’s re-election for the last flames to flicker out, by which time drugs were passé.
       1. Henry Moon Pie April 27, 2026 at 7:01 am

          Agreed. I read Greenfield’s very critical bio of Leary, and even there, the CIA angle was not present. Leary’s wife committed suicide, and that was a major factor in his explorations first of psilocybin, then of LSD. “Tune in, turn on, drop out” was a call to a certain kind of activism as discussed by Leary with Watts, Snyder and Ginsberg at the Houseboat Summit. He was calling for people to drop out of “straight” society and form their own “tribes,” an invitation to form your own New Buffalo Commune. No, it wasn’t Leftist or labor organizing, but the underlying view was that we shouldn’t have huge auto factories or coal mines in the first place. It wasn’t called a degrowth movement at the time, but it was essentially that, a back-to-Nature, anti-consumerist movement.

          Re: the Luces, LSD and the CIA, when Leary was experimenting with psilocybin, he was giving it not to his students but to people like Ginsberg and others in NYC.

Comments are closed.