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Links 5/16/2026

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Retired Californian finds fulfilment as Lumphini cat caretaker Bangkok Post

Earth Rotation Residuals as an Early-Warning System for AMOC Decline Craig Tindale

Who are the Japanese? Huge DNA discovery rewrites history Science Daily (Kevin W)

Thai watermeal tipped as ‘green gold’ of future food Nation Thailand

Hantavirus

Climate/Environment

Birds dying along California beaches as marine heat wave intensifies Deseret Sun

China and Norway push to increase krill harvests around Antarctica Mongabay

‘Insect apocalypse’ is already fueling malnutrition in some regions, first-of-its-kind study reveals LiveScience

Climate Change Is Creating a New Kind of Weather Disaster Gizmodo

Super El Niño could reshape catastrophe risk pricing, insurers warn ITIJ

Drones now key to fighting malaria as the climate crisis fuels ‘catastrophic’ rise in cases Independent

Some seas may soon be trapped in near-permanent heatwaves, scientists warn Earth.com

Ancient Euphrates River Is Disappearing And People Are Linking It To The Bible NDTV

No trees, no fans: surviving extreme heat in India’s salt pans Japan Times

Arizona, Nevada and California take massive Colorado River water cuts Federal plan Tucson.com

China?

I am at a bit of a loss when reading some of the hot takes on the Trump-Xi summit. There was no sherpa work because Trump does not do that (see the summit with Putin in Alaska). No sherpa work = at best very little concrete will be concluded. Trump blew up the low-odds possibility of China agreeing to buy more soyabeans or Boeings by two sets of sanctions of Chinese companies mere weeks before the get-together. The one thing Trump might have fantasized he could have gotten done was to get Xi on board with some level of support in getting the Strait of Hormuz open. But China no way no how will provide military support. The other path is negotiations, which are impossible due to US maximalist demands, lack of patience, and being both negotiation and agreement incapable.

So this wound up being a wag-the-dog event, a distraction from the war in Iran (and Chas Freeman added the Epstein files). However, another Trump-Xi meeting is set for Washington in September.

As a diplo-connected contact wrote:

One of Trump’s key concessions to China was to be the lifting of restrictions for the supply of Nvidia H100 (second most powerful AI chips) that he’d previously restricted. Jensen Huang went on the trip hoping to sell $billions of these devices once Trump eased the restrictions.

However, China said they weren’t interested as their new Huawei Ascend chips are far more powerful and are fully integrated with Deepseek. Jensen had more bad luck after he went shopping in China and he had to dump all of his purchases into the trash as they weren’t allowed on the plane.

And there was no acknowledgement from the Chinese on the purchase of Boeings (500 expected originally, revised down to 200) or soybeans.

What a shambles

Xi owned Trump in this summit.

After Trump’s pledge to ‘open up’ China, low expectations for trade deal Aljazeera

Trump’s Failed Mission to China Larry Johnson

Salesman Trump leaves China with very little in his bag Asia Times (Kevin W)

Good detail, do click through:

* * *

Taiwan releases statement in response to Trump comments The Hill

The US-China trade war is entering a worrying new phase: a legal arms race South China Morning Post

China’s Growing Quantum Dominance Forces U.S. to Adapt F-35 Software Military Watch

China has decisively won the shipping war Kevin Walmsley

India

India raises fuel prices as global energy crisis adds pressure on economy Independent

Church leaders killed in latest ethnic violence in India’s Manipur Aljazeera

Africa

Acute hunger grips nearly 20 million people in war-battered Sudan, says IPC Aljazeera

European Disunion

Fußball 101: Bier Bundesletter (Micael T)

The EU and China are stumbling into a trade war Economist

China ‘very disappointed’ with Europe’s planned investment restrictions, diplomat says Reuters

Nato to press Europe’s arms makers to boost investment and production Financial Times. Lead story.

Friedrich Merz vows to oppose new EU debt despite Germany’s borrowing spree Financial Times

Greece’s Water Crisis Is Becoming an Economic Crisis Tovima

Old Blighty

I’ll never regret what I did – Palestine Action activist cleared over Elbit raid The Standard

There’s a risk of another Liz Truss moment’: City raises spectre of bond market meltdown again Guardian

Andy Burnham will push to become PM before Labour conference, allies say Guardian (Kevin W). Forgive me for badly uninformed priors. Wes Streeting is an even more fierce Zionists than Starmer, so by default, your humble blogger is of the “anybody but Streeting’ school. Reader comment on Burnham welcome.

UK govt warned fuel crisis may lead to ‘crops rotting in fields’ Agriland

China warns UK over nationalisation of British Steel Financial Times

Why does Guernsey dump raw sewage into the sea? BBC

Surfers to launch nationwide protests over failing water system Independent

e

Israel v The Resistance

Featuring this rather than the full video, which the YouTube censors have made age restricted:

Senate fails to curb Trump’s war on Iran even as Republican opposition grows Guardian

Simulations Confirm Iran’s North Korean Attack Submarines Can Sink U.S. Navy Carrier Groups Military Watch

Iran turns to Pakistan land corridor as US naval pressure disrupts Gulf trade Middle East Eye

New Not-So-Cold War

Zelensky Claims Leaked Russian Intel Docs Show Russia Preparing to Take Out “Decision-Making Centers” of Ukraine Simplicius. Hard to take the Zelensky effort to elicit rage seriously. Government buildings in Kiev are legitimate targets. Putin has apparently been resisting great pressure from the General Staff to strike decision-making centers. The more interesting part of this story is Zelensky saying that drone strikes into Europe are also in the works, and Simplicius describing why this is not impossible.

Ritter’s Rant 089: The Karaganov Fallacy Scott Ritter (Micael T)

Big Brother is Watching You Watch:

NHS England confirms: Palantir staff can access patient data The Register (Chuck L)

Imperial Collapse Watch

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts – Change Forged in Misery and Blood Jesse’s Café Américain Jesse’s musings are regularly very good and I have been too busy to check in for a while. A section from this piece:

There will be no good and sustainable monetary system easily reached for the same reasons that this generation of leaders can no longer create and put forward fair and workable laws for their own country. They are overcome by ego and greed. They wish for a system riddled with loopholes and personal advantage for them and their friends. So this is what is produced. And until this changes, progress and change will be spattered with misery and blood, as it has so often been in the past.

If there is any key point I wish you to take and hold in your minds and hearts it is that there is no such thing as a perfect, self-regulating monetary system. There could only be such an ideal model if men and women were angels, perfectly rational and reliably virtuous.

Trump 2.0

Trump administration proposes easing toxic wastewater regulations for coal-fired power plants ET Now

Colorado’s Democratic governor commutes ex-election clerk Tina Peters’ sentence after Trump pressure Associated Press

Our No Longer Free Press

Rich Guy Quote Journalism Peter Shamshiri (Paul R)

Economy

The Iran War Could Crash the Global Economy, Here’s How Fair Observer

The World Is Burning Through Its Oil Safety Net Wall Street Journal

Iran, Ukraine wars deliver worst hit in years to oil refining output Reuters

Mr. Market Needs Therapy

Bond Market on Verge of Crash, Long Bond Yield Near 19-Year High Michael Shedlock

Global bonds tumble as flaring inflation spooks investors Reuters

The Energy Crisis Is Becoming a Currency Crisis Bloomberg. A lazy report via being narrowly accurate but substantively misleading in details. The baht is not in currency crisis terrain, FFS. It may wind up there there but it is not in the position of the rupee. The baht is exactly where it was a year ago. On top of that, it rises during high season, November to March, so a lot of the fall since the start of the war is attributable to that. There are still many complaints from local businesses that it is overvalued.

AI

US AI policy is a clumsy mess. Here’s what to do about it Gary Marcus

Mayo Clinic is Using AI to Listen to Emergency Room Visits 404 Media (The Joker)

Brussels runs on summaries and AI is now writing them Euractiv

Do Job Postings Show Early Labor‑Market Effects of AI? Liberty Street Economics

Your CEO is suffering from AI psychosis Jake Handy (The Joker)

The Bezzle

Class Warfare

Antidote du jour (Tracie H):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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110 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    ‘GBX
    @GBX_Press
    In a social experiment conducted by a YouTube channel in Spain, the sound of a child crying was played from underground.
    ▪️People couldn’t hold back their tears when they realized the crying sound belonged to Palestinian children killed by Israel.’

    You can see the grief that that woman felt when she understood what she was seeing & hearing. But if you told her that such recordings are used by the IDF to lure civilians out of cover so that snipers can murder them, then you may have seen a different emotion – rage.

    Reply ↓
  3. Wukchumni

    I beg your pardon, here’s some seeds for a new rose garden
    Along with the monkeyshines there’s gotta be a little refrain sometime
    When you take, you gotta give, so live and let live and let go, oh, oh, oh, oh
    I beg your pardon, but you cemented over a rose garden

    I could promise you things like buying Boeing wings
    But you don’t find roses growin’ on stalks of clover
    So you better think it over
    Well, if sweet talking you could make it come true
    I would give you the world right now on a silver platter
    But what would it matter?
    So smile for a while and let’s be jolly; relations shouldn’t be so melancholy
    Come along and share the good times while we can

    I beg your pardon, but you cemented over a rose garden
    Along with the monkeyshines there’s gotta be a little refrain sometime
    I beg your pardon, here’s some seeds for a new rose garden

    I could sing you a tune and promise you the moon
    But if that’s what it takes to hold you I’d just as soon let you go
    But there’s one thing I want you to know
    You’d better look before you leap; Hormuz waters run deep
    And there won’t anyone left there to pull you out
    And you know what I’m talking about
    So smile for a while and let’s be jolly; relations shouldn’t be so melancholy
    Come along and share the good times while we can

    I beg your pardon, but you cemented over a rose garden
    Along with the monkeyshines, there’s gotta be a little refrain sometime

    I beg your pardon, but you cemented over a rose garden
    Along with the monkeyshines, there’s gotta be a little refrain sometime

    Rose Garden, by Lynn Anderson

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXHsWBKKNbI&list=RDKXHsWBKKNbI

    Reply ↓
    2. ChrisFromGA

      We have to give credit to Xi, that’s a clever way to diss Trump. Giving him seeds for a garden he just paved over. Maybe that’s why Taco looked so glum at the presser.

      Reply ↓
    1. Old Jake

      Nota bene: they will grow out of this behavior. My two, almost identical, sibling cats did this when young. Now 11, they merely tolerate – most of the time – each other.

      Reply ↓
  5. dearieme

    “China warns UK over nationalisation of British Steel” Financial Times

    Fair enough: nationalisation is theft.

    Did Red China nationalise any assets owned by Britons, British firms, or the British government? That would be theft too. Hand ’em over!

    Reply ↓
  6. raspberry jam

    A little more inside baseball on how utterly stupid and self-defeating the attempted H100 play with china truly was: H200s and B200s came out over the last 6 months and H100s aren’t even for sale through the big western hardware and cloud providers for long term leases or purchase. Holding the H100s from China was presented as leverage because China “didn’t have capable chips” but it was really about dumping the overproduced H100s as the (more expensive) H200s and B200s came online. Jensen is a huge rube for allowing Nvidia to get drawn into this. China’s chips are all RISC-v, that they are fully integrated with their homegrown models also means they are permanently splitting from the ARM and x86 instruction sets (fee paid to western companies). Huge implications long term for China using western software, because the software on top of the chips has to work with the instruction set and very few if any major western software giants (eg Microsoft) support RISC-V.

    Reply ↓
    1. raspberry jam

      sorry one point of clarification: RISC-V is specific to the CPU chips (which China already makes) not the Ascend GPUs. But since they make both they’re more tightly integrated than using an Nvidia chip with their homegrown CPUs. Having their own GPUs now means they will proceed on their own sovereign development track based out of these architectures and not the western ones.

      Reply ↓
      1. Laughingsong

        Thanks very much for the clarification! I have appreciated all of your contributions to the community here at NC, especially in the Iran War posts.

        Reply ↓
    2. ChrisFromGA

      I’m going to assume that the real point of bringing Huang over to China was simply more insider trading by Trump. He probably had his friends and family load up on NVDA before the trip, then sprung the surprise announcement.

      Using fake diplomacy as a pump-n-dump operation.

      Reply ↓
      1. Who Cares

        That would fit Trump to a T.

        But Huang has a good reason to go as well. NVIDIA needs a new sink for their LLM chips, the US market is more then saturated (basically the amount of chips being installed is half of what is being bought, at best). The only other place that is seriously investing in LLMs is China.

        Reply ↓
    4. Bugs

      If I remember correctly, IBM has emulation for RISC-v that it built for a research project. I’m obviously not of your subject matter expertise but spent time in their hardware division doing painful licensing negotiations.

      Back in the day, Big Blue was one of the only Western technology companies, if not the only, doing business with Beijing. Funny how that worked out.

      Reply ↓
    5. nyleta

      Microsoft as well is being undercut. Both the Soc and the ISA of these chips are open source as are the operating systems being developed. The newest chips apparently sport local inference with DeepSeek.

      I don’t know how good Ubuntu Risc-v tool chain is for a comparison.

      Reply ↓
    1. paul

      I think that there’s a very strong chance mr burnham will lose to reform in makerfield, which would bring a rare smile to starmer’s death mask.
      Joshua simons, labour together toady, stepping aside for him is rather odd, unless they genuinely think he is the continuity candidate.
      Reminds me of the wistful yearning that preceeded gordon brown’s premiership. ‘At last someone proper labour!’. Alas the broonosaurus was anything but.

      Reply ↓
  9. Aurelien

    Just in case you were feeling optimistic about a resolution of the Hormuz crisis, here’s Craig Tindale on the critical but unacknowledged importance of Sulphuric Acid and its consequences, in the context of the proposed reduction in fossil fuel use:

    “The central paradox of our age is now impossible to ignore.

    The global transition to electrification, renewable energy infrastructure, and advanced defence technologies was intended to free humanity from dependence on fossil fuels. Yet the chemical reagents that make this transition possible are not new green inventions; they are direct by-products of the fossil-fuel economy itself. And today these same reagents have become the arena for an unforgiving contest between two of civilisation’s most basic imperatives: feeding eight billion people and powering the electrified world.”

    https://ctindale.substack.com/p/the-global-reagent-squeeze-supply

    Reply ↓
      1. AG

        Is “heaps” explicitely Australian or would it be used in written form by US or Brits too without sounding odd?

        Reply ↓
    3. Ignacio

      Of course there are renewable alternatives to produce sulphuric acid via green or renewable hydrogen production (water electrolysis using renewable power electricity). Production of green hydrogen is low but supposedly poised to increase “by a lot” (leading China of course). The war launched against Iran should be a wake up call.

      Reply ↓
  12. Trees&Trunks

    Brussels and AI – well, the non-AI Brussels hasn‘t really impresses the world. Maybe AI can througj its mechanism towards the average smooth out the most crazy thoughts in Brussels. One would hope that in 51% of the cases in the training data peace is better than war.

    Reply ↓
  13. Mark Gisleson

    re: 538 archives being taken down

    Shortly after billionaire Glen Taylor’s Star Tribune acquired City Pages, one of the first things they did was to take down all the online archives. That was the wild and crazy mid-2000s when bloggers could actually impact the news cycle. Since then Big Brother has pretty much terminated the blog scene, current host excepted (also the current host who keeps saying, “If your business relies on the internet as a platform, you don’t really have a business.”)

    Reply ↓
    1. mzza

      Yes, I was working for a Time Inc. property in the mid-00s and there was a similar situation where all blogs were deleted (many of the blog authors ‘saved’ copies of their own work but much was just erased). I’m of two minds with this actually. On one hand, of course it’s knee-jerk scary to see private enterprises decide to ‘erase’ journalism from what we consider our collective history (which I think on an emotional and possibly irrational level brings up a sense of digital book burning). On the other hand, the false promise of digital eternity is an obviously false premise that doesn’t seem to be solvable in any practical way.

      I mean specifically the costs connected to digital storage that in my experience most casual users want to pretend doesn’t exist (like the vast number of people I encounter who like to think ‘cloud’ computing is somehow server- and energy-free), but also the history of digital formats becoming outdated and more and more difficult to access — if not impossible due to degradation — as years go by and digital technologies improv.

      This is true of most modern data storage from magnetic tape and mini-discs to Hi8 and floppy discs.

      In this era there is a point when any business will look at those costs and decide the user-base for the archived digital content doesn’t justify the server cost.

      In brick-and-mortar we’ve seen the trend to do away with (sell) public library buildings and ‘convert’ to computer centers (hello NYC!) in short sighted budgetary decisions that have implicit, real-world social and political effects.

      Books, newspaper archives, well preserved film / microfiche — all have a longevity potentially built in as long as the spaces housing the archives are protected.

      For example I have 78rpm records over 100 years old that I can right now drop onto my 1970s turntable and play through a 2025 amplifier and speakers and it conveys its information to my ears flawlessly. And I have DAT recordings from 2000 that no longer work.

      Yesterday’s NC Coffee Break opening with a report on sustainability over growth, and my practical mind runs to a similar place when I think about the remarkable amount of writing / music / art / research / etc. that gets pushed out every day in this world — probably even more rapidly as “AI” copies and pastes it’s way to social relevance. But I can simply think of no sustainable way to continue to add nonstop to a digital environment without a wistful invention of a zero-sum data storage system with infinite potential growth which feels like a fantasy similar to the unlimited potential of fusion power I’ve been promised was only years away since I was a kid in the 70s.

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      1. Michaelmas

        mzza: I have 78rpm records over 100 years old that I can right now drop onto my 1970s turntable and play through a 2025 amplifier and speakers and it conveys its information to my ears flawlessly.

        Not even an eyeblink compared to the most powerful data storage technology —

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_digital_data_storage

        We’ve pulled data 1.2 million years old out of mammoth specimens found in Siberian permafrost.

        And naturally preserved ancient DNA survived despite degradation, in fragmentary form requiring enormous reconstruction effort. Engineered DNA storage systems would use synthetic DNA in controlled conditions—possibly dried, possibly minerally encapsulated—optimized for longevity.

        Then, DNA’s data storage density is almost incomprehensibly high. A single gram of DNA can theoretically store around 215 petabytes of data, or 215 million gigabytes.

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      2. flora

        100 or 200 or more years from now, what actual physical documents on paper will exist for historians to use when reconstructing our current age? Paper memos, letters, diaries, etc? Email exchanges from politicians? Nope. None of that will exist. The national archives? Who will decide what digital data gets carried forward onto new media and what gets left behind?

        Future historians will have a hard time finding primary, original sources for their research, imo. Lost in the ether.

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        1. The Rev Kev

          Hmm. When future historians write the book about the lack of primary sources from our era, I can think of no finer title than ‘Lost In The Ether.’

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        2. Es s Ce Tera

          Granted, even if future historians could recover our artefacts they would likely still be utterly baffled by this timeline.

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      3. Earl

        Published in 2002, in some ways it may not be up to date, but I recommend Alexander Stille’s “The Future of the Past.” I read it a long time ago so I’m quoting or paraphrasing from internet blurbs. “Takes the reader to eleven locations and explains how the past is perceived, evaluated and now imaged in the information age (includes the Vatican collection).” “Ramifications of technological change and how our past is preserved and threatened in the modern world.” Reading is becoming an elite function but still accessible. I wonder if technology will reserve access to the past to a narrow few.

        Reply ↓
    2. curlydan

      One of the best arguments for why the Internet Archive/Wayback Machine/archive.is/archive.ph are essential is these broad digital erasures by greedy corporations. These archive sites are the libraries of the digital age and serve as a public good.

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    3. Alphonse

      Linkrot is ferocious. Deletion and changed links aren’t the only problems. With the advent of Substack many articles are paywalled. If I subcribe and my subscription lapses, I lose access. Bloggers also sometimes move previously free articles behind a paywall (Policy Tensor did this).

      I now save good articles with Joplin I suspect it’s not the best software, but it’s open source with data in Markdown, which should enable me to get at my articles regardless of what happens to the application. A painful experience with Ami Pro on OS/2 taught me not to rely on proprietary data formats. I curate the best articles in Scrivener.

      A few years ago I went through the articles, comments, tweets, etc. that I had saved about Covid. I collated the best of these chronologically into a PDF of the first year or so. It records facts that were known early but denied, divergent perpectives, official stories that are now obvious propaganda, the slide into political polarization, the emergence of hate. Without me providing a word of commentary it tells a forgotten story. This would be virtually impossible to collect now. (Were I to try, I would probably start with Naked Capitalism’s archive – but even then the work involved would be prohibitive.)

      It may be pointless. The only copy I shared was on paper. Copyright would make it highly illegal to upload. I haven’t done this again.

      The Internet is all about Now. It’s like peering through a telescope, only where a telescope zooms on space the Internet zooms in on time. Right now I could drown in stories about the Iran War. A year from now those articles, podcasts and videos will mostly still exist, but they will be impossible to see together to depict a period of time. They will replaced by a narrative. Anything that doesn’t fit will be forgotten. You may remember, but without evidence would you be able to show anyone else? Already I heard that it is widely believed that the reason for the U.S. attack on Iran was to open the Strait of Hormuz.

      While the medieval Church kept pagan writings under lock and key the monks diligently made copies. When these escaped the monasteries they enabled the Renaissance. The relatively flat imagery and time of the medieval period were deepened in the perspective of space and the duration of history. For all are supposed technological brilliance, we have no such capability. Just as medieval artists dressed Biblical figures in anachronistic clothing, we are caught in an eternal present or morality and history. The Soviet threat never ended. The struggle against the Nazis is eternal. If one day the Russians are our friends they will doubtless always have been our allies against fascism. (Orwell reference.)

      I cancelled Netflix and started collecting DVDs about old movies. Not just for entertainment. The versions of America they show are unimaginable today, things whole generations never knew. For example, the relations between the sexes in Philadelphia Story, All About Eve, The Big Country, and Now, Voyager are so much more interesting than the flat tales we are told today. Actually, I would say essence of many of these stories is less about men and women than about what it means to be a grown up. Yes, it’s all propaganda to an extent, a view from the elites, yet it expresses ideals that people aspired to. Moviewise is great on this, e.g. in his wonderful discussion of Billy Wilder’s Sabrina.

      When I was studying for my degrees a couple of decades ago I was puzzled by a frequently-used term: “historical.” Obviously it was jargon, not the ordinary meaning. I declined to use it until I figured it out. What it means is this: Contingent. Shaped over time by social forces. Something that could have been otherwise. Socially constructed. The implication is that one cannot understand something today unless you understand its history.

      As slide into post-literacy, have we any history?

      Reply ↓
      1. Mark Gisleson

        keyword: Home taping

        No, don’t upload to a torrent site but yes, feel free to use an online “locker” (cloud, whatever but preferably a private site and not iCloud or Google) to share whatever digital content you like with friends because Congress specifically included a home taping exception to the Copyright Law of 1992.

        Not that any article written about copyright law since then has mentioned “home taping.” RIAA’s big copyright court victories were over uploads to file sharing sites. Usenet/cloud lockers aren’t file sharing sites but you can certainly share a key to your locker with friends.

        And yes, at times I do feel like a medieval monk as I rip downloads to .mp3 and then share with friends who then make more copies to share. Thanks to the tireless work of file sharers like myself, future generations will know what the Dead Kennedys and Foetus At The Wheel sounded like : )

        Reply ↓
  14. The Rev Kev

    Been thinking about the Trump-Xi summit and all the billionaires that Trump had in tow. Since he had no cards to play, perhaps he hoped that all those billionaires would overawe the Chinese and get them to give lucrative contracts that Trump could boast about afterwards. That didn’t happen and may partly explain why he was so subdued afterwards. But I was also thinking about a historical parallel. Back in the mid-1850s, America sent a squadron of warships to Japan to force them to open up to trade. The warships were technologically centuries ahead of the Japanese and the Japanese were forced to admit that they were outclassed by them. I think that we witnessed something similar. But instead of a contingent of warships, Trump showed up with a contingent of billionaires whose overall wealth was supposed to overawe the Chinese and start to force them to open up much more to the Wall Street economy. Only a businessman would think this a great idea and it is no surprise that the Chinese were less than impressed by this ploy.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Expedition

    Reply ↓
    1. Es s Ce Tera

      Did Trump bring along those billionaires as a sort of hat-in-hand, head-down apologetic humble-pie gesture? Because look at Musk, for instance, whose Tesla has a gigafactory in Shangai and has been desperately and futilely trying to gain a foothold in the Chinese automotive market, a market where Chinese manufacturers are light years ahead of Tesla in every category, are the world future of cars. I don’t see the Chinese as being particularly impressed by Musk, he must seem more like a failure – especially if he’s just amassing personal wealth for no real societal gain. The Chinese like projects which benefit humanity more than individuals, American billionaires aren’t of that sort.

      Reply ↓
  15. eg

    ‘There’s a risk of another Liz Truss moment’: City raises spectre of bond market meltdown again

    This again? 🙄

    Enough already. The “bond markets” will get away with whatever the Bank of England lets them, no more and no less.

    I mean, what are we playing at here? By whom are we governed? Why even bother with elections and Parliament if decisions are, at best constrained by and at worst actually made by “the markets”?

    Fiscal policy is a primary tool of sovereignty — maybe actually wake up from your long neoliberal slumber and exercise some for a change?

    Are we supposed to believe that the War Cabinet sat around during WWII and worried about what “the City” would think about military expenditure? The premise is absurd. So why is it that these lessons must always be forgotten?

    We are ruled by idiots.

    Reply ↓
    1. GrimUpNorth

      Agreed. So is the inaction of the BoE an attempt to help Starmer or make sure his successor is suitably market friendly? The BoE is currently doing QT whereas the FED is increasing its balance sheet,

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    2. flora

      We are rules by Davos and the WEF’s young global leaders program graduates.

      And, I listened to King Chuck’s speech to Parliament. According to the speech, his govt will bring in digital ID to the UK this year or next. Really, it’s in the speech.

      No free speech, no trial by jury, now digital ID in the UK.
      The West is falling.

      Reply ↓
    3. vao

      Your viewpoint that that state policies should not be determined by the mood of the markets was already a point of contention 60 years ago.

      Here is what French president de Gaulle said during a press conference on the 1966-10-28:

      “La Bourse, en 1962, était exagérément bonne, en 1966, elle est exagérément mauvaise, mais vous savez, la politique de la France ne se fait pas à la corbeille.”

      i.e.

      “The stock exchange was overly buoyant in 1962, and is overly depressed in 1966, but you know, the policies of France are not devised on the trading floor.”

      If de Gaulle himself had to explicit remind the press about this, then it means that the importance of the stock exchange and its influence on politics had by then already become inordinate. This situation, which you decry, is thus much older than generally thought.

      Reply ↓
      1. Ignacio

        And De Gaulle was talking about a cassino while eg talks about public debt. I am very much with eg on this. These days i was talking with someone who is working on fiscal policies in relation with the fight against climate change. She said that at some point there are limits imposed by fiscal “rectitude”, the EU fiscal compact and other stupidities on that vein. Let’s say transport electrification policies. When they start to succeed, countries like Norway and others are realising they have a fiscal problem mainly because taxes raised from fossil fuel consumption are reduced, and reduced and this makes difficult to keep the incentives to change to electric vehicles and these have to be removed. There is a fiscal trap which will make difficult to push further the process of electrification reducing fossil fuel demand. “Naturally”, policies of these kinds have to be aborted before fiscal collapse. Policymakers have a lot of fear for financial meltdowns and in that case fiscal rectitude evaporates for as long as needed to rescue the system. Policymakers invoke wars to spend like crazy in weapons and fiscal woes are again forgotten. Policymakers aren’t worried enough about climate change and here the equilibrium tilts towards the fiscal compact.

        Reply ↓
  16. KD

    Andy Burnham will push to become PM before Labour conference, allies say

    I was listening to a discussion of this last night, and Burnham doesn’t even have a seat, and it will probably be 2-3 months before he could stand. [A requirement in the Labour Party for PM.] Further, in the recent Manchester council elections, Labour went from 30 seats to 6, so there may be enough anti-Labour sentiment that he won’t be able to get that seat. Add to this the growing economic impact of Trump’s Iran Safari, and possible Russian aggression (they have a ship armed with cruise missiles right off the coast), as well as how much more damage takes place as Starmer flails around and gets more desperate and reckless. Even if Burnham wins a seat, its unclear what condition the UK will be in, and whether he is just Liz Truss, the sequel.

    Reply ↓
    1. Bugs

      The Saturday Political show on France Culture radio spent 90 minutes today on the Starmer crisis. The consensus among the French experts on the UK was that nothing will happen until the Labour conference and it will likely be Burnham unless someone finds a way to either block his election as an MP or turns the party vote against him through a last minute deal. There was an audible sigh (gasp) from the host when she was told that, at the end of the day, Starmer may still be PM in six months time. It was a good dissection of the failures of Labour. If you speak French, it’s available to podcast on their site.

      Reply ↓
  17. Stephen V

    Not news, but nice to see it in B & W::
    Billionaires go on podcasts and talk about identity politics. This has given us confirmation that, whatever their talents, an extremely large percentage of rich people are, in fact, idiots.
    LOVE me some rich peeps.

    Reply ↓
    1. flora

      Idiots or…. very clever. If we’re talking IDPol we are not talking about economic class. Not talking about economic class is to the billionaires’ benefit.

      Remember in 2008 and 2009 when the bank and mortgage malfeasance caused the Great Financial Crisis (GFC)? And shortly after the Occupy Wall St. movement began with its class focus on the 1% vs the 99%? Well, when that movement’s class focus began to take hold across the country the big MSM outfits suddenly began focusing laser-like on IDPol and the so-called “rise in r*ism”. (Then there was O coordinating police crackdowns on the movement. That’s another story.)

      When I hear billionaires talk about IDPol with apparent empathy for the plight of the socially “downtrodden” my first thought is of the poem The Walrus and the Carpenter. Young oysters are easily hoodwinked. / ;)

      https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43914/the-walrus-and-the-carpenter-56d222cbc80a9

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        That is sort of like how Israel has been committing a genocide in Gaza and has accusation of war crimes levied against it – then suddenly all the talk across different countries is ‘antisemitism’ and how criticisms of Israel is exactly the same.

        Reply ↓
          1. flora

            adding:

            “Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion go hand in hand.”

            – Bertrand Russell

            Reply ↓
  18. AG

    re: Karaganov + RU attacking EU

    This is Martyanov´s written comment + Scott Ritter´s show excerpt (10 min.)

    http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2026/05/scott-elaborates-on-matter.html#disqus_thread

    1) While Ritter expresses his highest regards for Karaganov and then offers his critique, Martyanov with a scathing comment on Karaganov:

    “(…)Karaganov is NOT military professional, he is a demagogue who failed to insert himself into any position in the Russian Foreign Ministry and was always in the business of self-promotion and self-proclamation of being “adviser” to whoever was a flavor of the decade. He is not and never was any “adviser” to President Putin and he has no a faintest idea about issues related to Russia’s Military Doctrine(…)”

    2) Martyanov recently has very often pushed the idea that RU inches towards striking EU. I wonder if he does so possibly also because he wants to warn EU via Pentagon who are allegedly aware at least of his existence? (I am sorry if this sounds overly speculative and even stupid.)

    However my question remains the same: Why should RU do such a thing assuming, as I frankly do, that EU essentially cannot harm RU in a serious way that would justify the fallout of such a decision by RU.

    Reply ↓
    1. AG

      For those who prefer Ritter directly without Martyanov, here his comment:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8Kih4d1y40

      The problem with his suggestion comes late with TC 8:21

      I honestly believe this needs to be discussed critically.

      While the Oreshnik option does appear sound strictly on a military analytic level (neutering the US´s necessity and justification to react likewise with nukes) the problems remain:

      Any such attack by RU would lead us down the path of complete destruction of intern. law in the long run. The US would take it as offered a carte blanche on future breaches of intern. law of the worst kind.

      We have seen enough evidence that monstrous crimes can be comitted without WMDs.

      p.s. is the nature of drone warfare by the EU now suddenly really of that structural threat as Ritter suggests???
      Or is this not a bit of bluster to bolster the argument?

      If this is about EU drone & routes before any RU attack I would expect some RU UN resolution to provide evidence in the court of world public that the EU is the party responsible – even though I doubt EU could pull this off entirely without US assistance – or could they???

      Reply ↓
    2. Yves Smith Post author

      This sort of ad hominem attack by Martyanov, (if this is all of it or representative) is piss poor, the same way he demonizes liberal arts majors rather than dealing the content of their claims.

      Russia’s military is subject to civilian control, so Martyanov’s implicit position, that only current or ex military professional, can opine on military and military-adjacent geostrategic matters, amounts to advocating for a military coup.

      And thatKaraganov has plenty of company in the “self-promoting actual or wannabe public intellectuals” is a sign perhaps of how difficult is it to earn a living or get a name in the field (like entertainment, I suspect it is subject to power law returns).

      The fact that he is (per Martyanov) a relentless self-promoter is not sufficient to discredit. The real issue, which I cannot address, is whether Karaganov has a meaningful following, particularly among those with influence. Claiming he exaggerates his reach does not establish that he is inconsequential.

      Reply ↓
      1. KD

        One data point of concern was that early into the SMO, Karaganov was giving interviews in English stating RF needed to change its nuclear first strike doctrine. Shortly thereafter, RF changed its nuclear first strike doctrine. Maybe Karaganov is a nobody with no influence, but there must have been others with influence who agreed.

        Second, is it some accident that Karaganov is in the media again? Isn’t he the perfect spokesperson for a message that the RF doesn’t want to express officially? The message has perfect official plausible deniability yet maybe he is spot on for where RF is? Especially if the RF is looking seriously at conventional strikes in Europe (probably overdue from the RF perspective), doesn’t having Karaganov with the megaphone change the meaning of conventional strikes in Europe? Wouldn’t it tend to affect the European response?

        I don’t have any clue as to who is big and who is just a self-promoting fool in the RF. But I do have some general knowledge of how states act, and its pretty clear that Karaganov appears to be doing some important messaging from the standpoint of the interests of the RF, and I can’t believe it is an accident. Maybe Karaganov is a self-promoter, its not clear he is a fool, and its not clear he has no influence.

        Reply ↓
    3. GC54

      Look at all the glass in the NATO HQ bldg and imagine a big BANG in the early am that shatters it all without further damage.

      Reply ↓
  19. Wukchumni

    Its way too early for a Cali conflagration, but that was the old normal…

    A Red Flag warning has been hoisted for the entire Sacramento Valley, with winds up to 50 mph expected, and all the grasses are cured and ready to burn~

    https://www.weather.gov/sto/

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      “But if there isn’t even a formal meeting with the Korean counterpart, that runs against diplomatic convention, and it’s hard to imagine between allies.”

      The Trump regime running true to form. Diplomacy? What’s that? Hopefully Bessent won’t go all macho man and start issuing threats against the Chinese economy if they do not buckle to his demands.

      Reply ↓
  21. Wukchumni

    When Donny comes marching home again
    Chorus: Hurrah, hurrah!
    They’ll give him a hearty welcome then
    Chorus: Hurrah, hurrah!
    The evangs will cheer, the boys will shout
    The ladies, they will all turn out
    Chorus: And we’ll all feel less gay
    When Donny comes marching home

    The old church bell will peal with joy
    Chorus: Hurrah, hurrah!
    To welcome home our darling boy
    Chorus: Hurrah, hurrah!
    The takes a village idiot lads and lassies say
    With roses they will strew his way
    Chorus: And we’ll all feel less gay
    When Donny comes marching home

    Get ready for the hyperinflation Jubilee
    Chorus: Hurrah, hurrah!
    We’ll give the hero three times three
    Chorus: Hurrah, hurrah!
    The laurel wreath is ready now
    To place upon his loyal brow
    Chorus: And we’ll all feel less gay
    When Donny comes marching home

    Let love and friendship on that day
    Chorus: Hurrah, hurrah!
    Their choicest dogma on display
    Chorus: Hurrah, hurrah!
    And let each one perform some part
    To fill with joy the warrior’s heart
    Chorus: And we’ll all feel less gay
    When Donny comes marching home

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0CLsxAm7fY&list=RDV0CLsxAm7fY

    Reply ↓
  22. Michaelmas

    Re. the Military Watch piece, China’s Growing Quantum Dominance Forces U.S. to Adapt F-35 Software.

    It notes: ‘Quantum radars, which are the most complex and challenging to develop of the emerging quantum technologies, have the potential to nullify the survivability advantages provided by stealth aircraft like the F-35.’

    Quantum radar’s far bigger global strategic impact will be on nuclear submarines and deterrence.

    Quantum radar is likely about 10-15 years out as far as I can assess, but possibly nearer. Nuclear submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) are a crucial leg of any state’s ‘nuclear triad,’ along with land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and aircraft-launched nuclear missiles. Quantum radar will enable those nuclear subs to be accurately detected and targeted for the first time, making them potentially quite vulnerable.

    Most critically, quantum radar is undetectable by any aircraft or submarine so targeted.

    That means quantum radar threatens to silently invalidate the entire second-strike logic of the SLBM leg of the triad without the targeted state even realizing its deterrent has been neutered. A state could potentially find itself in a position where its subs have already been tracked and targeted, while its strategic planners still believe their sea-based deterrent is intact and operational.

    Reply ↓
      1. Michaelmas

        hereweare: Would quantum radar work underwater? Electromagnetic radiation doesn’t travel well down there..

        Quantum radar uses entangled photon pairs, with one photon (the “signal”) sent toward the target, while its entangled partner (the “idler”) is retained at the receiver. The detection mechanism is the entanglement. But, yes, a photon is still electromagnetic radiation, which, like you say, would be attenuated by seawater. Even extremely low frequency (ELF) radio waves — used because they penetrate water better than anything else — only reach submarines at depths of perhaps 100-200 meters.

        But while quantum radar is limited underseas, quantum sensing more broadly for underwater threat detection is feasible because below that depth quantum magnetometry, and quantum gravimetry will both work.

        Quantum magnetometry because a submarine’s hull, propulsion system and electronics create a magnetic signature. Quantum magnetometers —
        https://www.ukri.org/news/uk-quantum-sensors-track-earths-magnetic-pulse/
        –are sensitive to tiny perturbations in magnetic fields and could detect subs at much greater range and depth than the conventional magnetometers maritime patrol aircraft already have today.

        Quantum gravimeters —
        https://www.muquans.com/product/absolute-quantum-gravimeter/
        — because every object with mass creates a minute gravitational perturbation and subs would be detectable.

        Reply ↓
        1. LifelongLib

          Dunno if it’s BS and/or I’m misunderstanding, but I read someplace that submarines can theoretically be detected from their wakes, but until recently the computer processing power to do so in real time didn’t exist. Supposedly it does now.

          Reply ↓
          1. Polar Socialist

            Soviets installed the first “wake detection system” on a submarine in 1969. It’s a set of passive sensors looking for radioactive, chemical and turbulence changes in the surroundings of a submarine.

            The West has never appreciated the tech (learning about it some years later), but Soviets even developed wake-following torpedoes. And as far as I know, Russian submarines today have this SOKS installed, too.

            Reply ↓
  23. The Rev Kev

    יאל‘ Guy Azriel
    @GuyAz
    BREAKING: Following the controversy surrounding Prime Minister Netanyahu’s confirmed secret visit to the UAE, it can now be revealed that not only the PM, the Mossad chief and the Shin Bet director visited the Gulf state during the war — but also IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir.’

    It’s kinda funny this. Reports emerged that Bibi visited the UAE during the war and the UAE was hotly denying this and said that it never happened. And now Bibi is saying sure he did and so did the Mossad Chief, the Shin Bet Chief as well as the IDF Chief of Staff. Maybe Bibi picked himself up some brownie points in Israel but it has served to humiliate the UAE in front of the other Gulf states. Way to go, Bibi.

    Reply ↓
  24. noonespecail

    re : link on coal-fired power plants (ET Now)

    ET Now link includes this line, “Changing the rule is essential for making electrcity more affordable…” per EPA honcho.

    Sure, I’ll buy that for $1. The fleece doth cover my eyes…

    Recalled that some years ago North Carolina’s freshwater systems received that clean coal gift –

    So quick interwebs searches and let’s check the scorecard…

    Back in 2016… from Waterkeeperscarolina.org:

    “Duke Energy has 14 coal ash sites in North Carolina, and for years, monitoring wells at all 14 have revealed violations of state groundwater standards for metals associated with coal ash…Catawba Riverkeeper began sampling around the perimeters of coal ash sites in 2012. We found unpermitted discharges with high levels of metals and reported them to state and federal authorities. That evidence became a part of the record $102 million fine issued by the Federal government in 2015 for violations of the Clean Water Act across the state.”

    https://waterkeeperscarolina.org/the-catawba-river-is-the-coal-ash-capital-of-north-carolina/

    and here in 2026 recent news of Duke’s political donation largesse aimed at helping clean coal stay relevant (link below published May 8, 2026):

    “But renewed concern about Duke Energy’s power and influence have emerged as the utility requests an 18% rate hike over the next two years, citing a need to keep up with growing electricity demand and make sure the electric grid can handle future storms…

    Former Republican NC Sen. Paul Newton spent the better part of his career working for Duke Energy, including as an executive. After he retired, he was elected to serve in the legislature, where he eventually earned a coveted leadership position. Last year, he sponsored a bill to give electric public utilities, like his previous employer, a few breaks.

    Newton told lawmakers the bill would save North Carolinians billions of dollars — $13 billion, specifically…

    First, the law removes a 2034 checkpoint for Duke Energy to reduce carbon emissions by 70% compared to 2005 levels.”

    https://carolinapublicpress.org/75549/buying-power-do-dukes-energys-nc-campaign-donations-fuel-influence/

    Reply ↓
  25. Tom Stone

    It strikes me that the Space-X IPO has a good chance of being this cycle’s “Lehman Moment”, it could flop at the get go or it might take a week or two before people ask “Where’s the Money”.
    They will ask and the answer will be “We will be leveraging the symmetries” or similar BS, when people look under the hood they will see squirrels rather than a turbocharged 427 with Holly carbs.

    Reply ↓
    2. ambrit

      All street rod enthusiasts know that you hit those squirrels with nitrous oxide and they go into overdrive. Those rotating cages become blurs. Also, anyone who has taken a good look at this phenomenon knows that the real secret to speed is gearing.
      Stay safe, at any speed.

      Reply ↓
  26. Es s Ce Tera

    Re: UK govt warned fuel crisis may lead to ‘crops rotting in fields’ Agriland

    I wonder, might this be a good time for a large scale shift away from fuel dependency in agriculture?

    Gather crops by hand? Especially if AI will kill most jobs, or if high unemployment?

    And as for reliance on fertilizer to boost crops, are there any natural or organic alternatives that can be applied at scale? I once experimented with grass tea and if even I could create a barrel of fermenting aerated grass tea, how hard can it be? Granted, the way farms use fertilizer is chemically customized for fields needs, with precise adjustment %’s of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous. Perhaps it’s time to learn to adjust mixes in other ways – comfrey is high in potassium, nettle is high in nitrogen, etc.

    Let necessity be the mother of invention for a change, let farmers relearn the old ways of farming, and invest some new ones?

    The one difficulty is no fuel = no bringing product to market. I was wondering how much load a teamster of bicycles could pull.

    And speaking of, wouldn’t the world be a much better place if cars were replaced with bikes, and people lived where they worked, worked where they live? Traffic congestion eliminated.

    Reply ↓
        2. tegnost

          learn to drive a six mule team…
          maybe get into buggy whips on the ground floor.
          It’s a growth opportunity!

          Reply ↓
  29. tegnost

    Much to Jesses credit his site is where I go when I need to be lifted from despair which happens a lot when reading the news. Always something unexpected and commonly historic.

    Reply ↓
  32. johnnyme

    Latest development (with more to come this month) in the ISDS case filed by Russia as reported here last December in Russian Central Bank Sues Euroclear Over Frozen Assets; Will the EU Be Hoist on the Investor-State Settlement Disputes (ISDS) Petard? regarding the funds seized by the EU:

    Court upholds Central Bank of Russia’s claim for 200 bln euros against Euroclear in full – Euroclear lawyers

    MOSCOW. May 15 (Interfax) – The Moscow Arbitration Court has upheld the Central Bank of Russia’s claim against the Belgian depository Euroclear in full, Euroclear lawyers Maxim Kulkov and Sergei Savelyev told reporters.

    The Central Bank is happy with the ruling, its press office told reporters. “We’re satisfied with the ruling, which deemed the Euroclear depository’s actions to be illegal and have inflicted losses on the Bank of Russia,” it said.

    The Central Bank also said it continued to challenge what it described at the European Union’s illegal actions with respect to its assets. On February 27, 2026, the Central Bank filed an appeal with the General Court of the European Union against the EU Council regulation imposing an indefinite freeze on the Central Bank’s assets. “The case is pending, and the EU Court has ordered the respondent (the EU Council) to submit its position by the end of May,” the Central Bank said.

    The Central Bank filed the lawsuit against Euroclear with the Moscow Arbitration Court on December 12, 2025, seeking compensation for losses amounting to 200.1 billion euros (18.173 trillion rubles). The claims comprise actual damages of 181.5 billion euros, as well as lost profits/potential income from assets totaling 18.6 billion euros, a source familiar with the text of the claim told Interfax previously.

    Reply ↓
    1. bertl

      I maintain my longheld view that Russia under Putin will not respond directly to the European powers providing arms, financial support or air corridors to Ukraine, each of which, singly or in combination, would not justify the kind of military strikes that Russia will use against the European powers (and here I include the UK) and necessary to demonstrate the inadvisability of any US response beyond the purely diplomatic, if at all.

      Given the highly predictable verdict of the Moscow Court of Arbitration, whatever judgement the General Court reaches, the EU’s immediate political position will not change and it will hold onto the frozen assets and that will be the the last poke that activates the lawyerly Bear’s wrath, and will be viewed by the majority as the absolutely clear casus belli for a Russsian military takedown of the major European powers and the of the EU.

      As Alice Weidel says, ‘You can’t keep poking the bear with a hot iron and expect nothing to happen’. A clear – even a momentary – breach of the ISDS provisions will be enough to justify a military response by the thinking Bear, and that is how this business will end and create a new, more realistisc beginning for the countries of Western and Central Europe.

      Reply ↓
  33. samm

    US AI policy is a clumsy mess. Here’s what to do about it by Gary Marcus

    I think Brian Merchant’s article pairs well with this one:

    https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/ai-as-the-new-avatar-of-american

    Marcus tries the always awkward “centrist” routine where you construct a false dichotomy by describing two extremes: AI enthusiasts wanting no regulation, and AI skeptics wanting heavy regulation. Then the “centrist” defines a middle path which is not too hot, not too cold, but the just right amount of “smart” regulation in the middle.

    However funny it is some people seem to never get tired of the artificiality of this exact formula. (As a matter of fact, I think it’s the actual definition of a Democrat, but I digress.)

    Merchant reminds us AI isn’t about innovation, as Marcus describes it, but about class war:

    “AI has after all been adopted and promoted as an instrument of efficiency, control, and leverage by just about every layer of management at every institution, from any given Fortune 500 company to a department in the federal government to your boss who makes you use Copilot, to which one might direct their populist anger. This is less the result of a specific political project, as much as it is how capitalism tends to function when there is a new instrument to discipline workers on offer.”

    Merchant even seems tired of discussing AI as being “the next industrial revolution,” because the parallels are are so true (and not flattering as the boosters think). And he’s right, Marx wrote a lot about the original Industrial Revolution and how the machine automated work and deskilled the worker. Once you had a skilled weaver, for instance, but then they were placed in front of a Jacquard that separated them from their skill set. Then they became a machine operator, a worker who is far easier to replace than a skilled weaver.

    AI is being leveraged in the same way. It is an automation technology that is placed between the skilled worker and their specialized skillet and makes them into someone who is more easily replaced. There are many questions about how efficient AI is really making workers who are forced to use it, but efficiency isn’t really where its value comes from.

    Reply ↓
    1. Jason Boxman

      But for this intended purpose, as a practical matter, it needs to deliver profits in excess of dealing with labor, or the capitalists are so bent on squelching any remaining vestiges of worker power, that as a class they’re willing to reduce profit seeking in this pursuit, which I doubt. Given the cost of compute, we’ll have to see if the outputs are good enough, that labor can be replaced or substantially disciplined cost effectively. When we exit the investor subsidy phase of this, we’ll see.

      Of course “good enough” can produce disastrous social results; see for example, medical transcription with LLMs.

      Reply ↓
      1. samm

        Yeah, we’ll see. They’ve bet big on this, but it’s true, it doesn’t look like there’s a return visible on the horizon yet.

        Reply ↓
  34. Tom Stone

    Thanks Johnnyme, it would be hilarious if the ISDS system actually upheld the Russian Central Bank’s position,
    Which seems likely based on the Law and the Facts, watching Brussel’s turning itself into a pretzel in an attempt to steal Russia’s money will be entertaining, and I hope unsuccessful.
    I’m a fan of that “Rule of Law” thingy, seeing a pack of thieves getting their due would be nice.

    Reply ↓
  36. Wukchumni

    California city once known as crystal meth capital smashes into top 100 summer vacation rankings

    Fresno was once declared “The City Addicted to Crystal Meth” in a 2009 documentary — but now, somehow, it’s landed on a new list of America’s best summer vacation destinations.

    The much-trolled California metro ranked No. 84 overall in WalletHub’s 2026 “Best Summer Travel Destinations” rankings, beating out several better-known areas across the country despite finishing near the bottom in attractions and safety.

    https://nypost.com/2026/05/13/lifestyle/10-california-cities-make-best-summer-travel-destinations-ranking/
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Fresno is akin to a canker sore on the inside of your mouth that never goes away~

    Reply ↓
    1. ambrit

      I wonder if the recently married Fresno Dan will open a B&B there?
      Pair this with Artisanal Cannabis Farm Tours, “take a trip and not leave the farm,” and you have a “Destination” in the making.
      Stay safe, even in California.

      Reply ↓
    1. hk

      Serge calls his analysis “revisionism,” but nobody with serious historical interest into Japanese military of 1930s and 40s, ie people who know who Ishiwara Kanji was, would find anything he says unexpected. Having said that, it does firmly place Yamamoto among the “better” senior Japanese commanders of WW2–people who were skilled in tactical amd operational realms, but limited in strategic vision and downright infantile in grand strategy, in many ways–although it wasn’t their job to think grand strategy, I suppose, although it was ultimately a small cabal of senior military men who did (who exactly that was is kinda mysterious–even as the PM, Tojo, for example, was not even the seniormost army general, let alone unchallengeable political leader–more like army’s representative to the cabinet who happened to assume its chairmanship because no other faction was in position.) As ArmchairWarlord mentioned a while ago, there is weird echo running through US military political establishment today–no one really knows who’s in charge and people are “competent” only in oddly circumscribed manner.

      Reply ↓
  39. Ann

    Green energy will have the last laugh — because of Trump

    https://www.salon.com/2026/05/16/green-energy-will-have-the-last-laugh-because-of-trump/

    Talarico won’t campaign with Democratic House candidate who wants to open ‘a prison for American Zionists’

    https://forward.com/fast-forward/825448/talarico-wont-campaign-with-democratic-house-candidate-who-wants-to-open-a-prison-for-american-zionists/

    Trump’s health cuts complicate federal messaging on hantavirus

    https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5880824-hantavirus-trump-cdc-response/

    Donald Trump traded hundreds of millions of dollars in US securities in first quarter

    https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/f5896500-cab6-457f-9558-11ef8b3cd362

    Inside Trump’s Midterm Strategy: a Mountain of Cash to Stem GOP Losses

    https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/trump-republican-midterm-election-strategy-81278c65

    Trump touted Palantir on Truth Social after buying the company’s stock, records show

    https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/15/trump-palantir-stock-truth-social.html

    Reply ↓
      1. skippy

        Thanks mate … aware of the Japanese thingy …

        This is such a funny nation, history so separate from the rest of the West. Everyone seems ambivalent until something really screws with everyone and then its a team effort. Depending on how long the dramas with oil persist as a supply thingy is a unknown and stuff is already being sorted that way by those informed. Classical resource curse aside …. heaps of nations depend on our raw exports and deals will be made to facilitate that.

        Reply ↓
        1. ambrit

          Isn’t coal a major export item for there? (China still uses coal for power plants if I remember correctly.) Then there are opals, and gold. (Shiney! Shiney!) I can see an export opportunity in Great White Sharks. (Toss one or two in the Washington reflecting pool some dark and stormy night.)
          I won’t even venture near politics, living in this big glass house known as America.

          Reply ↓
  41. Nicholas

    Re: Lumpini Cat Man

    Strange how life works. The first time I saw Steve the cat man was when I was behind him in line while he was having a not fun time at the bank, in Bangkok Asok neighborhood. Second time, he was smoking a cigar on the sidewalk, also in Asok area. Third time, reading this.

    A few of the cats there are rather plump but many also do need medical care, and budgets for such are tight. The cats are fortunate to have someone care enough about them to wake up at 0200.

    Reply ↓
  42. KD

    I am having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that America is experiencing a fertilizer crisis given abundance coming out of the President’s mouth.

    Reply ↓

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