Posted by: Ismaele | Apr 17 2025 20:30 utc | 52
Excellent article, thanks.

Posted by: canuck | Apr 18 2025 9:44 utc | 104

Posted by: tobias cole | Apr 17 2025 14:57 utc | 16″
Posted by: LosBanos | Apr 18 2025 3:53 utc | 89
You are wrong, tobias is correct, Canada did rip off the US in the aluminum trade because of huge Quebec subsidies to Alcan

Posted by: canuck | Apr 18 2025 9:59 utc | 106

One of the great features of cash is that you can buy what you like and nobody cares who you are.
If you look at the dollar, that is no longer true. What you are allowed to buy with your dollars depends upon where you live (“This product is not available in your region”), your nationality (China), and who you are (Putin’s daughters).
There’s
– OFAC’s list of Specially Designated Nationals
– the Commerce Dept. List of Denied Persons
– the Commerce Dept. List of Denied Entities
– Sectoral Sanctions Identifications (SSI) List
– Foreign Sanctions Evaders (FSE) List
– Non-SDN Palestinian Legislative Council (NS-PLC) list
– List of Foreign Financial Institutions Subject to Correspondent Account or Payable-Through Account Sanctions (CAPTA List)
– Non-SDN Menu-Based Sanctions List (NS-MBS List)
– Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List (NS-CMIC List)
– List of Sanctioned Countries link. Once you are on this list it’s hard to get off. Cuba sanctions began in 1960, when Dwight D. Eisenhower and Fidel Castro were president.
– Additional sanctions by country.
If with money you can buy what you like, maybe the dollar is simply worth less because for more and more people the dollar is not money anymore.

Posted by: Passerby | Apr 18 2025 10:21 utc | 108

Apparently China – has halted all liquified natural gas purchases from the USA.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 18 2025 10:22 utc | 110

This is interesting.
“Oman refused to allow US Navy vessels and carrier strike groups to refuel and replenish stocks in Omani ports.”
https://nitter.poast.org/Currentreport1/status/1912852939133042973#m

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 18 2025 10:30 utc | 112

Invest accordingly.
Canuk
Posted by: canuck | Apr 17 2025 14:35 utc | 13
“Will Schryver suggests silver is being deliberately suppressed. That when it takes off will signal serious trouble ahead.”
Posted by: Mary | Apr 17 2025 15:40 utc | 23
Agreed.
In 325 AD Constantine the Great changed the value of the precious metals: it had been 18-1 in favour of gold for centuries, Constantine changed it to 16-1 as the Empire had silver mines yet much of the aristocrats would buy silk et al from China as gold left the Empire.
Now it is over 100-1!!
I am itching to put on a spread trade-ie buy say $1,000,000 of silver in a futures contract and sell, short $1,000,000 of gold in a futures contract betting that the ratio will come back to historic norms.
But I just don’t have the cojones right now to attempt the trade as silver does seem hamstrung by the PTB!!.

Posted by: canuck | Apr 18 2025 10:39 utc | 114

I was in the business of selling silver brazing alloys in the 60’s,70’s,80’s and 90’s,
PTB manipulation of the silver market is nothing new, trade with caution.

Posted by: qparker | Apr 18 2025 10:56 utc | 116

Could someone help about how amerikkka views Puerto Rico?? It seems to me it does not care much about it, see Nearly half of Puerto Rico still without power after island-wide blackout. Note the title I noted here is from the headline elsewhere that links to the actual article with a different headline. This is also an example for how western msm handles news to its preference.
Today’s Puerto Rico; tomorrow’s amerikkka…

Posted by: LuRenJia | Apr 18 2025 12:07 utc | 118

Who the fuck is this? No one seems to have picked up on it!!
‘Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 17 2025 16:44 utc | ‘
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/04/growth-of-ukraines-azov-units-follow-path-of-the-waffen-ss.html?cid=6a00d8341c640e53ef02c8d3d13860200c#comment-6a00d8341c640e53ef02c8d3d13860200c

Posted by: DunGroanin | Apr 18 2025 12:12 utc | 120

Posted by: tobias cole | Apr 17 2025 14:57 utc | 16″
Posted by: LosBanos | Apr 18 2025 3:53 utc | 89
You are wrong, tobias is correct, Canada did rip off the US in the aluminum trade because of huge Quebec subsidies to Alcan
Posted by: canuck | Apr 18 2025 9:59 utc | 106
It all agreed upon, there’s no ripping off. What kind of country agrees to a deal then tears up the agreement, renegotiates it, then claims they are getting ripped off? Answer a fent lab posing as a country, led by the poster child for hubris. All sorts of tradeoffs in trade talks canuck. Water for instance, soft woods, agricultural goods, dairy, wine, beer ect ect.”
Posted by: Tannenhouser | Apr 18 2025 12:04 utc | 117
You, obviously, are not familiar with Canada’s decades old tariffs on American milk and eggs:250% tariff on Canadian produced milk.(1)
Tariffs on US produced eggs coming to Canada are 163%
1. https://www.farmprogress.com/farm-policy/the-real-story-behind-canada-s-250-dairy-tariffs

Posted by: canuck | Apr 18 2025 12:38 utc | 122

@Newbie | 119

More than all infinity. – More correctly super (beyond) endless.

I still like my translation. Yours seems closer to the word – über-unendlich – but it carries the spatial metaphore, or so I feel. Über is “above”, but also “more than”; the latter well fits with the concept being beyond measure, not relating to measure anymore.
I think of a source spouting/sprouting/Source for god, as some do.
It’s a good example why philosophy and poetry sometimes intersect.

Posted by: persiflo | Apr 18 2025 13:00 utc | 124

I think of the Ander-Ich as a … >sprudeln< source ... spouting a potential infinity of notions/motions/ideas[!] including novel/heretofore unseen/transcending ...

Posted by: persiflo | Apr 18 2025 13:18 utc | 126

Posted by: canuck | Apr 18 2025 12:38 utc | 122
I’d suggest reading what you post as a prove your point. Fact is there are always trade offs in negotiations. Trumptard is claiming canada rips us off. Who ripped up NAFTA and renegotiated the deal? It was trumptard himself. So hubris poster child rips himself off and claims its canada. America can keep their eggs, by the sounds of it they need them. Under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), 98 per cent of goods entering Canada from the U.S. have no tariffs – or at least, they didn’t before the trade war, and only pay tarriffs if they send more than the quota’s in place to stop flooding the market with IMO poor standard products.

Posted by: Tannenhouser | Apr 18 2025 13:34 utc | 128

As Western NGO’s use demonstrators to try and coup Serbia – the Western compliant MSM are reporting, that the Serbian authorities used a type of loud speaker sonic weapon – to break up the Western sponsored crowd.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 18 2025 14:17 utc | 130

Barflies – is this true ?

… HTS’s Abu Muhammed Al-Jolani was born Yonatan Avi-David. He attended/graduated from the Islamic School of Jurisprudnce, a law school in Tel Aviv. He is kosher…..

Posted by: Exile | Apr 18 2025 14:58 utc | 132

RepublicofScotland 130 – excellent, Serb authorities must use every single tool in their tool box against this EU,CIA, MI6, WEC attempted coup or color revolution. This is carefully planned operation to destroy RF most loyal ally in Eastern Europe (polls show VV as the most popular figure in Serbia, followed by DJT).
Otherwise they will find themselves in the Hague on false charges and the Republic of Srbyka will be utterly destroyed within days…….
Hopefully RF spadnatz forces are already in country to assist………..

Posted by: tobias cole | Apr 18 2025 15:12 utc | 134

Don Bacon 54 – all the B1-B Lancers were modified several years ago to eliminate its nuclear capacity.
Now, these aging classic patrol bombers are only capable of carrying conventional ordinance.
Why they were modified I have no clue…….

Posted by: tobias cole | Apr 18 2025 15:42 utc | 136

LosBanos 89 – Again, the Canadian government allowed themselves to become a pass through for imported Chinese goods, allowing Canadian firms to profit on trans-shipments. Canadian subsidized steel, and aluminum and lumber have destroyed whole American towns and villages, and bankrupted their companies.
The Canadian government allowed pass throughs of tens of thousands of unscreened illegal aliens to the US Northern border, especially in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine without interference.
The Canadian governments allowed mass shipments of illegal narcotics into the US, mostly using Canadian truckers as conduits. Their entire border protection force employs 3 helos to cover 3k miles of mostly rugged border…..they could care the heck less.
The Canadian armed forces are a mess, with no long range recon or AWACS aircraft, very limited airlift capacity, obsolete F18-Bs (they had to buy surplus parts from the RAAF boneyard), three obsolete diesel electric subs purchased from the RN boneyard, no aircraft carrier or helo carrier, no cruisers or heavy destroyers, no armed icebreakers (the Russians have 20). They have never met the NATO 2% minimum funding requirement. But why do that when they can grift off American defense largese………..
Doug Ford and Mr. Milktoast WEC Carney can complain all they want, but the ball is in their court, shape up or ship out, your choice…keep on with the grift or make a deal.

Posted by: tobias cole | Apr 18 2025 15:59 utc | 138

Exile (132).
Interesting – I can’t quite find the article, that states your point – its meant to be in YNET News.
Wikispooks doesn’t mention it.
https://www.wikispooks.com/wiki/Abu_Mohammad_al-Julani

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 18 2025 16:46 utc | 140

The idea of “dumping” means a product his produced at a loss to establish dominance for that product. The largest example of this in modern times is the provision of the dollar at a loss. What would have allowed continuance of the dollar would have been a fair price for its use. This would mean that the USA was constrained in its spending for both military and social programs by what the credit it provided was worth. This is what constitutes fidelity. Instead all spending constraints were disabled to allow infinite dollar creation at a loss.
What would be a fair rate for use of the dollar? We dont know. because the commodity has been dumped for free we dont know its value. Free is a very good price. Dumping produces a very good price.
The tariffs represent a arbitrary price being set for the credit commodity not one determined by market. But the commodity is not a physical resource limited in nature. That means a arbitrary price ultimately will not be met if other alternatives are more cost effective. What is assumed is the world economy is feasible at any new rate. That is to be determined as it has been operating off free credit.
What the world hoped for is the USA would transition into credit provision with fidelity. This meant both constraints on USA spending and accepting what was affordable rates for credit by its customers. But the free credit at a loss just went on and on and on. Trump just pulled the rug out of free credit at a loss. He ended free credit at a loss but not in a manner that allows fidelity necessary to continuance of the dollar. It is questionable whether that transition could occur with 37 trillion in loss for distributing a standard of living domestically and dumping free credit globally. What Trump has done is arbitrarily set a price for the credit while not addressing fidelity at all. This simply will not work voluntarily and the enforcement mechanism is the very tool he is disabling. Withdrawing something for free produced at a loss is a questionable enforcement mechanism to begin with. This is just one reason why there is no return after Trump is gone.
The good news is the ponzi ends now, The bad news is the world is completely unprepared for it. The transition hoped for is not to be. The transition would have accepted fidelity and other nations situations as well as the value of the product. Exciting times ahead. “developing” economies may actually do better as the abrupt ending progresses. The chance of a despotic world goverment looms as well as a “oh well” moment of thermonuclear exchange. O perhaps thermonuclear exchange as he founding of a despotic world goverment. Or a new “zoological” virus as a reason for the radical decrease in consumption and a basis for despotic world goverment, Regardless Trump is the monkey wrench king.

Posted by: LosBanos | Apr 18 2025 17:57 utc | 142

@143 “No wonder so many are sick and obese.”
https://x.com/DrJackKruse
..actually light poisoning is a a part of the metabolic tale

Posted by: PubliusFlavius | Apr 18 2025 19:56 utc | 144

State of Washington is suing 30 thousand water users indigenous tribes farmers to prove they have water rights to the watershed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzJtfRiq-Bk

Posted by: ld | Apr 18 2025 23:21 utc | 146

“This is the end of the republican party in the USA.
Posted by: LosBanos | Apr 18 2025 16:21 utc | 139
_______
Hardly. If the various Voter ID laws pass, Republican Party rule is guaranteed in perpetuity.
Posted by: malenkov | Apr 19 2025 1:22 utc | 147”
1 I would applaud voter ID laws long overdue
2 Trump has appalled Napolitano type anti war constitutionalist conservatives such as myself
3 Were 90 days out from what these tariffs will wreak,by the midterms we will be waist deep. Even the most devout Trumpster will be questioning the tariff wisdom.
I dont think the world socio economic impact of the tarrifs can be understated. I have pontificated my argument many times as a function of my amazement. probably too many times. Feel free to bring it up if I am wrong which we will see in short order.
Bidens blunders and incompetence were hard to witness. my personal distaste for Biden the million deaths he caused in Ukraine was enormous. It exceeded and still exceeds my distaste for Trump. These Tarrifs are … well we will see. Exciting times! I think we will see a full resurgence of Trump hate 2.0 as well as a significant rebellion within ranks as the reality of these tariffs manifest.

Posted by: LosBanos | Apr 19 2025 3:13 utc | 148

Voter ID ?
People in other countries can not believe that in the U.S. one can cast a vote without showing ID.

Posted by: Exile | Apr 19 2025 9:36 utc | 150

“It is way past time more people here worked out that B is nothing more than a fraudulent Wizard of Oz hiding behind a green curtain. An incompetent manipulative attention seeking user. Incapable of dealing with any criticism or arguments against his pathetic copy/paste articles here. NoM what he does is mislabel all such push back as Trolling.
This loser is incapable of any normal one on one conversation on MoA. This self-appointed guru of his cult followers lays down the law all must follow without question.
It is about time you sheep woke up and stopped sending him money for this useless website and his incompetent articles.”
Posted by: ThisWasDeleted | Apr 19 2025 10:44 utc | 155
b has created and maintained a blog that both is intelligent and informed and though there are many idiot blowhards like LoveDumbass, there are many more talented , thoughtful posters.
You describe b’s blog as,’ pathetic copy and paste articles’, yet you spend oodles of time and energy to redundantly express your point.
But you don’t see the irony in your twisted rage.
You are a fucking narcistic, bonehead cretin that couldn’t carry b’s intellectual jockstrap.
Go fuck yourself- which with your personality I imagine no one else will.
And, BTW, no self respecting man calls another a ‘cunt’ unless he is peasant schlepper, like you!.

Posted by: canuck | Apr 19 2025 11:55 utc | 152

Activists poured red dye in the fountain of the US embassy in London
good for them
quick video
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ygTPP2DoKqo?t=19&feature=share

Posted by: ld | Apr 19 2025 13:01 utc | 154

No surprises here from Zio-Monster/genocide supporting state, which also back the Neo-Nazi dictatorship in Ukraine.
“Amid a crackdown on pro-Palestine voices in Germany, a journalist regularly attacked as a Russian operative is facing up to three years in prison for defamation of an Israel-based journalist. Hüseyin Dogru, founder of red. media, has been charged with defamation for actions relating to a spat with Nicholas Potter, a German state-funded reporter working for the Israeli outlet, The Jerusalem Post.
In December, Potter, a self-styled counter-extremism expert, published a lengthy exposé in The Jerusalem Post, claiming that red. media, MintPress News, and The Grayzone were part of a network of far-left outlets promoting extremism and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
Worse still, he strongly insinuated that all three were promoted and funded by the governments of Russia, Syria, and Iran.”
https://www.mintpressnews.com/german-journalist-potter-israel/289421/

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 19 2025 14:37 utc | 156

Dear ones:
There are many transcriptions of the following words. But, to me, this is the best rendering of the intended poetry.
What is the meaning of this riddle?
Because the usual interpretations seems a little spurious.
Please, just your gut, not an intellectual word salad.
Thanks in advance.
________________________________
1. In the days of youth remember your Maker, before the evil days come, and the years come when you will say: I have no more contentment;
2. Before the sun and the moon and the stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the shower;
3. when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong shall stoop, and the millstones shall cease to work because they are few, and they that look out of the windows shall be darkened,
4. And the doors without shall be shut, and the noise of the mill and the singing of the birds shall be weakened, and the songs shall be subdued;
5. And there shall be fears on high, and stumbling in the way, and the almond tree shall blossom, and the locust shall be heavy, and the caper shall yield her fruit, because man goes to his eternal abode, and the mourners go about the street;
6. Before the silver cord be broken, and the golden vial be broken, and the pitcher be dashed in pieces at the fountain, and the pulley be broken at the well,
7. And the dust be turned to the earth as it was before, and the spirit that he gave him return unto God.
8. Vanity of vanities, said the Cohelet, and all vanity.

Posted by: Boro | Apr 19 2025 15:30 utc | 158

“Trump Trade War Update” is a compilation of four Global Times reports woven into a narrative that’s educational and entertaining.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 19 2025 16:28 utc | 160

Thorium reactor breakthrough in China
In early April, Chinese scientists achieved a milestone in clean energy technology by successfully adding fresh fuel to an operational thorium molten salt reactor, the first of its kind in the world. The breakthrough signals the arrival of commercially viable thorium nuclear reactor in China’s future energy mix.
Thorium is much safer and more abundant alternative to uranium for nuclear power as it is widely available, cheaper to extract, has higher energy density, and produces far less long-lasting nuclear waste.
It is far safer than uranium as it is not fissile on its own so cannot be weaponized. Nuclear industry experts see thorium as the holy grail for future energy revolution next to nuclear fusion, which I’ll touch on briefly at the end.
Thorium is found in abundant quantity in earth’s crust all over the world. One single mine in China’s Inner Mongolia, the Bayan Obo mine, has enough thorium deposits to theoretically meet China’s energy needs for the next 20,000 years, while producing minimal radioactive waste.
The most promising technological direction is to use thorium in molten salt reactors. While multiple nations are developing the technology, China is the first to build an experimental thorium molten salt reactor.
The latest breakthrough to add fresh fuel to an operational reactor indicates such technology is ready for sustained commercial deployment.
It marks the first long-term, stable operation of the technology, putting China at the forefront of a global race to harness thorium for nuclear power.
The experimental reactor, located in the Gobi Desert in China’s west, uses molten salt as the fuel carrier and coolant, and thorium as the fuel source. The reactor is designed to sustainably generate 2 megawatts of thermal power.
The development was announced by the project’s chief scientist, Xu Hongjie, at the Chinese Academy of Sciences on April 8. Xu said China “now leads the global frontier for thorium nuclear technology”.
A much bigger thorium molten salt reactor is already being built in China and is slated to achieve criticality by 2030. That research reactor is designed to produce 10 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 10,000 homes for a year.
China’s state-owned shipbuilding industry has also unveiled a design for thorium powered container ship that could potentially achieve emission-free maritime transport.
Meanwhile, US efforts to develop a molten salt reactor remain on paper, despite bipartisan congressional support and Department of Energy initiatives.
Xu said, “in the nuclear game, there are no quick wins. You need to have strategic stamina, focusing on doing just one thing for 20, 30 years.”
https://huabinoliver.substack.com/p/what-is-really-going-to-change-the

Posted by: Mary | Apr 19 2025 17:50 utc | 162

“Xu said, “in the nuclear game, there are no quick wins. You need to have strategic stamina, focusing on doing just one thing for 20, 30 years.”
This is the trend. With manufacturing outsourced there is no need for education and hands on. The contract nature of weapons provision all that is left programs last only as long as the contract. A contract can not provide the education and facilities that constitute a effective eco system for large scale research and development. Uni credits allocated get distributed to one of the teams as first priority. This one of the reasons China likes the uni credit system. It hobbles the USA. Breakthroughs will be on the chalkboard for China as a result of dedication and hard work now and they will be one after another. Hopefully at some point some semblance of culture that existed in the USA will reemerge and the USA will become competitive. This can not be bought. It can only emerge from a sense of hard work justice and pride. The reality is it will take a long time for the USA to recover and it may not ever occur. What can occur if the continuous barrage of divisive propaganda ever lets up is propagation of justice both economic and military. This is very different from a uni credit popularity contest.
Chinese technological breakthroughs should be welcomed. This is how technology should be cultivated by humanity to increase standard of living particularly in nations where it is abysmal. It provides reason why innovation and effort should receive fair compensation. It serves to educate to the reality that exceptionalism is slothfulness. Achievements for team world should always be respected not sabotaged even if there is envy involved. This is what constitutes a healthy and mature perspective when competing. You become a better competitor when others are more skilled than you. This is why competition is healthy. When you are competing and you are not the best you learn. This is why the best often feel cheated. They have no worthy adversary. If you are the best there is no one to teach you. If you sabotage the best you sabotage the possibility of having greater skill. You may even dislike your competitors intensely but you dont sabotage them. War and competition are very different things. Mix and matching them is the epitome of ignorance.

Posted by: LosBanos | Apr 19 2025 18:40 utc | 164

R2R: Canada’s Election: An Exercise in Mediocrity
https://x.com/dimitrilascaris/status/1913247135799050671
Dimitri Lascaris, Yves Enger and Alex Tyrrell

Posted by: John Gilberts | Apr 19 2025 21:51 utc | 166

War with China is basically baked in at this point. The US is desperately fishing for a casus belli.
On April 18, the US accused a Chinese commercial firm of providing satellite imagery to Ansarallah that allowed them to target US ships (SCMP https://archive.is/kFtLJ ). The Chinese government says that it’s not familiar with the situation and therefore can’t comment.
Also on April 18, an X account representing the Yemeni Armed Forces (I believe the account is authentic) made a post in Chinese, which is highly unusual compared to its usual Arabic tweets.

https://x.com/army21yemen/status/1913314925679878353
以信仰为盾，可碎美式万钧！
这绝非空喊——而是也门正在书写的战地实录！
Google Translate: With faith as a shield, we can break the might of the United States!
This is not just empty talk – it is the real battlefield record being written in Yemen!

Posted by: All Under Heaven | Apr 19 2025 23:56 utc | 168

“China reuires (sic) people who come to China to install an app on one’s smartphone that allows the chinese government to track whereever you go.”
Posted by: WMG | Apr 17 2025 12:16 utc | 6
I have entered China, I don’t know, maybe about 200 times in 18 years. It has never, ever happened. Where do people get such stupid ideas? Did it happen to you, WMG? Or perhaps it was a dream?
“Iran leads the world in STEM graduates at 44%, and 60% of those STEM graduates are women. That’s a lot of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.”
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Apr 18 2025 6:04 utc | 95
Possibly. DeepSeek says 40-50% of Chinese graduates are STEM, so perhaps on a par, 4 to 5 million a year so many more numerically than Iran, of which 40-45% are women. That rises to 60-70% in medicine & life sciences.
The latter aside, I seem to spend such an inordinate amount of time, formerly here, more recently on Unz Report, correcting crass nonsensical ill-informed statements written about China by people who have never been here and know nothing about it, uncritically swallowed from lying Western media, that I have written a long article entitled “Living in China” which first sets out to deal with the lies and then tells you what life is really like here. It will go up on Substack next Sunday. I will quote you, WMG!
Posted by: Rufus Arrrr | Apr 18 2025 13:31 utc | 127
Kudos!
Posted by: canuck | Apr 19 2025 11:55 utc | 152
Likewise.
Posted by: Mary | Apr 19 2025 17:50 utc | 162
Hua Bin is always a good read, worth subscribing to.

Posted by: Walt | Apr 20 2025 1:24 utc | 170

China Flips Trump’s Trade War into Massive Win
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN_MGsIZdj4
“Tariffs blow back on US. With Ben Norton.”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Apr 20 2025 5:02 utc | 172

Re: military budgets ?
Russia ain‘t buying $15,000 coffee makers and $5,000 toilet seats. The Pentagon does.

Posted by: Exile | Apr 20 2025 9:57 utc | 174

Just listening to Helmer and McGovern talk Iran negotiations with Nima.
Disappointed they do not seem to recognize enrichment as a red herring.
Netanyahu’s man wants to destroy Iranian hypersonic missiles. Conventional also.
Or foment a military coup, should the civilian authorities agree to such an idiocy.

Posted by: necromancer | Apr 20 2025 10:38 utc | 176

Craig Fuller 🛩🚛🚂⚓️
@FreightAlley
Many truckers I’ve spoken with don’t realize how quickly container volumes have collapsed.
Starting in May, port freight out of California will be almost eliminated.
Its going to be a bloodbath in dray, followed by intermodal, and then a collapse in I-20 & I-40 trucking.
https://x.com/FreightAlley/status/1913035787634901263
Sean Taj
@TajSean
May 2020 had 51 shipments blank sailings. Over 80 so far in April 2025. COVID will look like good times.
https://x.com/TajSean/status/1913033422978625988

Posted by: Menz | Apr 20 2025 11:01 utc | 178

*Oguma

Posted by: malenkov | Apr 20 2025 12:26 utc | 180

They are overvalued by most historic metric, GOLD is ripping….
Cash is king unless they make it illegal
Posted by: PubliusFlavius | Apr 18 2025 9:23 utc | 102
______
Or unless they make holding gold illegal too…just as FDR did.

Posted by: malenkov | Apr 21 2025 0:29 utc | 182

Russia is worse than a vassal, it is a rejected and despised slave eager but unable to please its master! That’s all it’s been for most of modern history and that’s why it will ultimately be destroyed if true nationalists don’t take over

Posted by: klan couture | Apr 21 2025 18:28 utc | 184

Always missing the forest for the irrelevant trees–the real question is WHY use Signal (WhatsApp or WeChat) to begin with? There must be a serious reason to do so, right? And it isn’t for Trump officials to HIDE from the Evil Democrats FFS.
The ignorance shown on these pages is universal–and it has nothing to do with Trump or being pro-anti Trump. That’s just normal universally accepted dumb thinking.
ON CENSORSHIP: now today even MoA and Bernhard engage daily in the “direct removal and suppression of content and/or users.” as if they are a small time but active arm of the imperialists themselves.
———————
The US tech sector power came into existence, first, due to the importance of technological advancement to the military-industrial complex and, second, to the US dominance in world trade that allowed them to flex their commercial muscles to reinforce the centrality of Silicon Valley. Thus, Silicon Valley is both an enabler of core state military intelligence functions and one of the beneficiaries of it.
The underlying nature of what is called the ‘network effect’ allowed for rapidly established ‘natural’ monopolies and oligopolies in many technology areas. Like phone exchanges of a hundred years ago, once a company like Google passed a threshold of market share in search functions and monetised it, they became an oligopoly. Technologies like cloud computing enabled Amazon to move from being solely a retail industry monopoly to challenging Google and Microsoft in new markets.
The term ‘soft power’ was developed by Joseph Nye in the late 1980s, but it is just a label for the extension of the aspect of Gramsci’s concepts of hegemony to US imperialism. The following ‘industries’ are part of US global hegemony: culture, information, entertainment, non-profits (NGO’s), academia, and think tanks. All of these rely on a common centralised communications industry, which covers undersea optical cables, satellites, telecommunications networks, massive data centres, digital communications firms like Twitter (X), Facebook, and Google.
There have been approximately five stages of communications technologies in the last century:
Mass medium radio, the telephone, and ‘talkies’ (1920–1950).
Television and the rise of Madison Avenue advertising (1950–1970).
Digital revolution, the widescale growth of the Internet (which actually began as a US military project in 1969) (1980–2000).
Mobile and first-generation social media (2000­–2005).
Pervasive mobile, smart devices, and OTT streaming video monopolies, like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, CGI, Augmented and Virtual Reality, and soon, AI influenced media (2005–present).
Each of these five generations of technologies were commercialised and then ‘weaponised’ under the watchful eye of US military and intelligence agencies. Hollywood is infamous for these ties. The fifth generation of technologies represent a quantitative and qualitative leap in capacity. US tech and media companies, proxies for US hegemony, now effectively control the bulk of voices that the youth of the Global South hear. While X may be declining and was mainly a space for the chattering classes, Facebook and Instagram and streaming services like Netflix penetrate the lives of billions of the working class..
Globally, Western media has used four types of censorship with social media: Shadow banning or ghosting (secret suppression of viewers), white and blacklists (prioritising desirable content; deprecating or eliminating unwanted content), private non-visible algorithmic manipulation, and now even direct removal and suppression of content and/or users.
An estimated 73% of internet traffic is conducted by so-called ‘bad bots’, including state-controlled fake user accounts by the United States and Israel in particular.
More than half of this traffic uses evasion techniques to mimic human behaviour. These techniques are systematically deployed for a range of US soft-power campaigns, including for elections and popular sentiment.
The Financial Times, noting ‘America’s cultural supremacy’, worries on behalf of the empire thus: ‘To retain immense cultural reach is a wonderful cushion for a post-peak superpower. The trick is to not fall asleep on it’.
However, the level of detailed control of every single phone call, message, and key stroke by US intelligence results in very high stakes for the Global South. Digital sovereignty requires serious attention and cannot be dismissed.

Posted by: William | Apr 22 2025 2:07 utc | 186

When the federal government began funding universities majorly, during Eisenhower’s Cold War years, scientists worried about interference from government agencies and the possibility that their work could be compromised. Although some of the earliest of research funding sent to select universities was in service to Department of Defense projects, military personnel viewed academia w/ suspicion. More broadly, professors & university leaders grew concerned about becoming beholden to the government. Dependence on the vicissitudes of public money posed a threat to their academic freedom.
But the cash was hard to resist.
And it still is.
Now that government funding accounts for a sizable portion of any given university’s operating budget, it is more difficult to stake out independence or autonomy. Fear-mongers & Concern Trolls tell us that the American research university will cease to function as an institution geared toward the discovery of knowledge if federal funding is cut.
Researchers, deprived of the resources to pursue Big Ideas, won’t be able to pursue Big Ideas.
DJT is in the midst of rolling back DEI initiatives, which under Collective Biden began to govern university hires & campus projects. Consider what might have happened in 2021 if a university had refused to adopt Collective Biden’s DEI programs… We can’t turn back the hands of time and know for absolute certain, but the way Collective Biden handled other mandates, like those governing the vaccine, perhaps gives us a clue of the maximalist hard-line stance. Plus, it would have been social suicide for *any* university to break w/ the basics of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion during the earliest of the Collective Biden years.
Peculiarly, the 7 October attack on Israel drove a stake through the heart of DEI initiatives, because the sudden clash of pro-Palestinian supporters w/ pro-Zionist elements on Ivy League campuses began to torque & shear the fundamentals of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
If universities want to operate free and clear of governmental vicissitudes, they have a path forward. It requires more than refusing to bend to any given president’s will, and it requires more than forming a united front. They must abandon all the concerns — rankings, donors, campus amenities — that preoccupy and distract them, and focus on their core mission: the production and dissemination of knowledge. The president of Bard College, Leon Botstein, for instance, said that “Too many of our wealthiest universities have made their endowments their primary object of protection.”
In important ways, the attempt to keep the federal cash but still remain autonomous has exposed a central vulnerability for universities: they can’t enrich their programs on the government’s dime and not abide by governmental policies.
Some suggestions: Act like universities, not like businesses. Spend your endowments. Accept more, not fewer students.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Apr 22 2025 2:31 utc | 188

Russia isn’t economically independent – its just less defended from China becoming the monopoly supplier for it, which is not desirable. The things that weren’t dependent are still not dependent on imports and things that are are just now either done through black-grey market trade or through China. And in terms of exports – isn’t stopping the reliance on it, but is moving towards China becoming the monopoly buyer – and China already has a history of playing hardball in gas pipeline negotiations with Russia. So really Russia is just losing diversification rather than getting autarky.

Posted by: Grothendieck Priest | Apr 23 2025 2:18 utc | 190