Links 4/4/2026

This tiny claw in a 500-million-year-old fossil just rewrote the origin of spiders Science Daily (Kevin W) The Best TV Casts of the 21st Century (Pt. 2) Ministry of Pop Culture (Micael T) Climate/Environment The Nino index (Nino3.4) has just reached Nino-neutral, but global SST (sea surface temperature) has matched the highest level for this date, which was achieved during the last El Nino. Super warming is clear. Look for a global temperature soon of at least +1.7C, even if the… pic.twitter.com/yP7AK7VXNa— James Edward Hansen (@DrJamesEHansen) March 31, 2026 How declining cloudiness is accelerating global warming Carbon Brief Ocean heat content in 2025 Nature ‘Fast-food ocean’: climate change is draining sea’s nutrition Oceanographic Arctic ice loss brings dual heatwaves to Europe and eastern Asia To have an idea of the exceptionality of this March 2026 in USA,for several stations in the West,March 2026 is being hotter than ANY April on record Monthly anomalies are up to +16F vs 1991/2020 (Flagstaff). Some records exceeded by as much as 4F those of April (Flagstaff again) https://t.co/sZb6OVJSdg— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) April 1, 2026 Guardian China? Trump administration proposes expanding Chinese tech gear crackdown Reuters Under the Skin of America’s Humanoid Robots: Chinese Technology Wall Street Journal (resilc) Trump turning China’s yuan into world’s next safe haven Asia Times (Kevin W). Sigh. Not until China credibly renounces capital controls. Reading China through its most courageous reporting The East is Read China’s Debt Surpasses Europe for the First Time Visual Capitalist Japan Japan aims to fill defense ‘vacuum’ in Pacific to counter China Asahi Japan sets 10-year bond coupon at 2.4%, highest since 1997 NHK Pakistan-Afghanistan Pakistan says onus on Afghanistan to end hostilities New Arab Antipodes Iran war leaving Australian farmers struggling to sow crops and feed animals ITV Africa a href=”https://www.newarab.com/news/civilians-killed-sudans-civil-war-spills-chad-msf” rel=”nofollow”>Civilians killed as Sudan’s civil war spills into Chad New Arab At least 43 people killed in ADF attack in northeast DR Congo, army says Aljazeera South of the Border US lifts sanctions on Venezuelan interim leader Delcy Rodríguez BBC Cuba to free more than 2,000 prisoners as economic crisis deepens under US pressure CNN European Disunion Any weapon Europe buys from the US is a liability’, rearmament expert says France24 France plans huge missile increase in new defense push, document shows Politico Berlin is rearming, and its neighbors are weighing the risks and benefits of the new German hegemony ElPais US begins secret talks for new military bases in Greenland Telegraph Israel v. The Resistance F-15E Down In Iran, Rescue Operation Ongoing (Updated) The War Zone "What do you want? To exterminate two million Gazans?" “Of course. I have no problem with that… The one who'll be born there tomorrow will be a terrorist. So if you can, prevent him from existing" pic.twitter.com/h80eO1L8vo— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) April 3, 2026 Palestinians in West Bank protest, strike against Israeli death penalty law Aljazeera The ‘other’ war: Lebanon is now on brink of humanitarian and ecological collapse Euobserver Exclusive: Greek ships secretly supplying Israel with oil and military cargo Middle East Eye Disturbing trend’ of US-Israeli strikes hitting non-military targets in Iran France24. Gee, ya think? Iran still possesses significant missile launching capabilities: US intelligence Anadolu Agency. Gee, ya think? Prof. Ted Postol: Iran Already Achieved NUCLEAR DETERRENCE Against Israel Dialogue Works (resilc) Experts dispute US account of deadly Iran sports hall strike in Lamerd BBC Lavrov Reveals Who Lurks Behind Bahrain’s Draft UNSC Resolution Karl Sanchez New Not-So-Cold War Russia responds to Zelenskyy’s Easter truce offer with drone attack Guardian Big Brother is Watching You Watch AI Just Hacked One Of The World’s Most Secure Operating Systems Forbes (Ann) What’s The Importance Of The Newly Revived Russian-US Interparliamentary Dialogue? Andrew Korybko Imperial Collapse Watch Golden Dome, ships and missiles top Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense wish list Defense News Anyone Who Tells You That We Can’t Put Criminals in Jail Until We Win an Election Is Complicit in the Murder of Our Democracy Chris Armitage Trump 2.0 GOP praise pours in for Army chief of staff ousted by Hegseth The Hill Trump Unveils 100% Tariff on Some Patented Drugs Medpage US judge upholds decision to toss subpoenas into Fed Chair Jerome Powell Aljazeera (Kevin W) Trump’s ballroom fight sheds new light on an underground White House bunker NPR (Kevin W). As speculated some time ago. 📞Leaked Call: Trump Fires Pam Bondi… She Destroys Him Completely! 💥 Trump (cold and arrogant): “Pam, you’re fired. Pack your shit and get the hell out. You were useless on Epstein, you failed to destroy my enemies, and now you’re a liability. Your time is over.” Pam Bondi… pic.twitter.com/hQ0PrfBOEK— S. Blackwood | Briefs (@BlackwoodBrief) April 3, 2026 Economy Oil shock triggers global price spikes as Iran war drags on Aljazeera From Energy Shock to Global Recession Energy Intel A Record Sulphur Rally Is Raising Costs For Metal Miners Finimize Iran war’s fuel crisis spurs panic, violence in nations facing shortages Washington Post Mr Market Freaking Out Yet? Iran war risks private credit crisis and AI bubble bursting, Bank of England warns Politico AI Half of planned US data center builds have been delayed or canceled, growth limited by shortages of power infrastructure and parts from China — the AI build-out flips the breakers Tom’s Hardware (Kevin W) Why AI lies, cheats and steals ComputerWorld AI accused of ‘unjust exploitation’ as bots reprint entire books Telegraph Google to tap into gas plant for AI datacenter in sharp turn from climate goals Guardian The Bezzle CFTC sues three states over efforts to regulate prediction markets NBC Sports (Kevin W) Antidote du jour (via): See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here. “GOP praise pours in for Army chief of staff ousted by Hegseth” Sounds like even the Republicans are getting jack with Trump and Hegseth and their self-serving decisions. Praising Gen. Randy George so openly is their way of protesting what has just happened. By now they can see that Trump is going to lead the Republicans into a helluva hiding this November but Trump does not seem to care. Even if the Republicans wanted to dump Trump I do not think that there is the time or inclination among enough Republicans, even though Trump has now become the albatross around their necks. And they just know that Trump is going to do something stupid & spectacularly stupid in this war that will make things even worse for them. At least Trump cannot possibly coup at this point. No military support and not enough public popularity. The question is how angry are Americans at the Democrats vs. how scared are they of the next wanna-be Trump like Vance next election. The scariest part of the ouster is that it takes away those who don’t favor using nuclear weaponry, and lets face it, the only way the evangs and Zionists get their self-fulfilling fantasy of end-times is via nukes. He can declare a state of emergency. Hegseth is just Stalin for time. Bwahhh! Mr. Wuk, sir, even your groaners are great! Quote of the day. Close second from a pal: “Have no sympathy for all the rich snowbirds.” Full Marx for that pun! I think the falling poll numbers…which portends bad midterm results..are going to trigger a survival instinct for the Republicans in Congress. They’re going to start talking to the military top brass and create pressure to wrap up this little misadventure. Hegseth will have to be thrown overboard, with the threat of impeachment if Trump doesn’t do a unilateral TACO. That will solve the problem of keeping US casualties down, and the bad headlines of downed aircraft. The tricky part is that Iran still won’t ‘open’ the Straits in the way that the western countries want the Straits opened. Plus, there’s the Israel problem. Bibi’s fortunes are tied to this project, too. I don’t know: isn’t the impeachment well poisoned, thanks to the D’s overdoing the Lawfare thing, especially re Impeachment #1, which was transparently political (and stupid, as it was an outgrowth of Russiagate)? It wouldn’t take all that much for remaining MAGA diehards to gum up the works. I think there’s a greater likelihood of a quiet internal coup to get rid of Putrid Man, or else we start getting into “I, Claudius” territory, and some Blackwater/Praetorian Guard type holds a pillow over his face one night. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/hegseth-intervened-military-promotions-dozen-senior-officers-rcna266062 Hegseth has intervened in military promotions for more than a dozen senior officers The defense secretary’s efforts to block or delay promotions to general or admiral for some officers has raised concerns that he may be targeting them because of race, gender or affiliation with the Biden administration, sources say. Ambitious GOPers could take this opportunity to go against Trump. Opposition could be to their advantage sooner then later. Then again, these aren’t the smartest people the nation has to offer, and even if they are smart their critical thinking skills are in short supply, if they ever existed. It’s hard to fathom why more of them haven’t gone the way of M T-G and Massie. Nancy Mace seems to be on the razors edge … any day now, she could make “Milk Carton” Mike Johnson’s day get even worse. I’d say that they’re all hidebound ideological stooges, except that they aren’t even clinging to ideology. They’re clinging to the aura of Donald circa 2024. As Trump’s poll numbers sink and the war sends the economy into the crapper, the GOP is going to be slaughtered by the voters in November. I predict we will get a few more dissidents, as the polls get closer. I suspect that most are going down with the ship, though. re: leaked phone call “Trump hangs up immediately, hands shaking.” Seriously? Reads more like UCLA screenwriting class 1st semester. But perhaps that´s new New Journalism in our time… Agreed. Really off-putting when drek like this posted as news. *Sigh* Did you miss that Links are not just news?!?! I normally do not hat tip for tweets, and this was submitted by a regular, so at least one reader disagrees. As in this falls in the realm of tastes. Bondi as we can see from hearings is a screecher and not easily silenced. IMHO the only thing not plausible about the exchange as a script was the depiction at the end that a diatribe from her (or anyone) might have had an impact on Trump. I am exhausted and doing Links on top of Iran War post….on a day when before the war I NEVER did original posts, is a huge load. And on top of that I am sleep deprived because I am having to find time to massively stockpile to get in front of shortages we are pretty sure to have here in Southeast Asia Getting pissy over content that is free to you is Being an Asshole. Your comment was also written as an attack on me personally. You want me to shut down the site permanently, this is just the way to do it. Your work is greatly valued by the vast majority of your readers, Yves. We are very grateful to you for all the effort you put in. Thank you very much. Thank you and I do appreciate your comment but I am not soliciting praise, just people being less insensitive. FFS we have often posted items from Babylon Bee, Daily Mash, Stars and Stripes, The Onion. Sometimes the humor works on everyone. Sometimes it doesn’t. But getting nasty over a parodic tweet? Really? What are you stockpiling? We are at risk of a plastic shortage here. That is what our government begged Iran for, they wanted to send a container ship of food and bring back plastic pellets. Think of how many things come in plastic. So medications + pretty much every other consumable. We have bought a couple dozen quart sized canning jars and a slick vacuum sealer . No plastic leachates, washable, re-useable. Might be worth a look. Very pretty in the pantry— varied dried legumes, rice types. We are on the edge of the Yellowstone caldera, so it could all come crashing down on ur concrete floors… That said, pondering it all, I keep coming back to the fact that we literally do eat oil … My sinking feeling keeps deepening… It’s not just food…any consumable. Garbage bags. Detergent. Light bulbs. It’s hot here so canned and pickled items preferred. With it being responsible to ration air con, minimizing stove use is a consideration. I may have to get by without coffee :-( Green tea is not even close, but might be an adequate caffeine substitute? And, considering source, certainly proximate … I made some waffles with wild huckleberries, and real maple syrup and melted butter. My slipping into nihilism first- move? Jackpot and privation…. as my son’s T shirt says, Embrace The Suck! If I get to the US this month, I am massively stockpiling dietary supplements (I already eat more of them than food :-)). Caffeine pills are on the list. Weirdly you cannot get them here. I had a phase when I was using an ACE stack for weight control so caffeine by pill is not unfamiliar to me. Ughhhhhhhh, f**k no! Coffee+cream is one of my non-negotiables. You’re right about the plastic packaging; even my coffee cream comes in TetraPaks which uses both aluminum and plastic layers to seal the contents, both of which are getting whacked right now. It’s crazy how this sh**show is affecting supply chains up and down wherever one cares to look. It’s not the creamer. I drink black. It is that my great Thai beans (and pretty much all coffee beans here) are delivered to store in plastic bags. We may have no plastic and a lot of business failures due to difficulty in arranging replacement packaging. Fresh beans good only for 3 months. Maybe 4 if frozen but my condo has only 2/3 Western size fridge/freezer. We’re gathering dried beans, dried fruit, grains in addition to rice, nuts. Canned fish–some’s good to 2030. As a lurker and small-time contributor, I’m grateful for you, Yves, and everyone working to make NC the single site that I visit each morning for stories and analysis I don’t find anywhere else. I’m in the U.S. pacific northwest and stories on shortages and conflicts in southeast Asia are passing daily on my feed. Stay safe Yves and honestly, rest when you need to. OMG coffee… Of my three recreational drugs, coffee is the last I would ever give up! Here to perk us up is Manhattan Transfer with “Java Jive” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XxsasUHzaQ Take care Yves. You are loved. No coffee? “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It…” I keep growing my collection of le parfait and fido storage jars, the rubber gasket is more durable than the mason jar lids. At least it’s a good time to start a garden. https://bormioliroccous.com/collections/fido Yves, the silent majority has nothing but love for your work. Every once in awhile, someone doesn’t get the joke. No biggie. Among the reasons I enjoy Links is the enormous range of material, from science to news to opinion to humor and ending, as a note of relief, with the Antidote of the Day. I recognize the enormous amount of work that you and other NC people put into assembling the links, the best first-stop place on the web to have an appreciation of everything going on in the world. Then, Yves, in addition there’s your daily war summary. All I can say is: Wow! I, too, am grateful for your work and just sent my second supplemental donation. Personally, I just took it as wishful thinking. Anyone getting close enough to rip Donald J. Trump a new one, even fictionally, is fine by me and I appreciate it. Bondi’s future is beyond bleak. Her influence is now over. Trump otoh is still actively destroying our economy, our health, what minimal stability there was in the Middle East, and along with illegally killing Iranians is sending American military to certain death. Some of us need the release of thinking there is some Schadenfreud for him that doesn’t include our own devastation if just for a moment. I enjoyed it because it is plausible and is excellent satire. The fact that it is plausible (irrelevant whether it is true) is a very sad statement of what things have come to with the Epstein Class ruling the West. Goooooooood Mooooooooorning Fiatnam! The platoon had been ferried halfway around the world for a chance to go to battle against al-Catraz being reinstated, a formidable island in the straits where weird Al Capone once held sway in a small way. Someday this war’s gonna end… US x Iran ceasefire by…? December 31 70% https://polymarket.com/event/us-x-iran-ceasefire-by That “Transcript” of the conversation between Trump and Bondi is plausible whether true or not. What a hoot. Bondi is known for having a temper and not for being forgiving, this could become much more amusing… I drew two conclusions from that transcript. One, that it was probably fake even though it was well written. Two, even though fake, it would not surprise me if what actually happened was not that far off what was written in that transcript. Still a fun read. Yes, I read/enjoyed it as a humorous, based on reality satire much like the Iranian LEGO posts trolling the Trump administration. Juvenal Bondi has to know where the bodies are buried (quite literally as it may be.) If she had an ounce of smarts, she’d have her own copies of the paper trail. We know this administration isn’t particularly concerned with people making personal copies of sensitive docs, though these docs could be an exception? She could make things very interesting, if she so desired. Agreed that the call sounds fake, but entertaining, and plausible, anyway. I dislike the oversized graphic of the “leaked” Trump/Bondi phone call. It doesn’t belong here. It’s fake. And if we’re amused by it, we only sink deeper cesspool of fake news that Naked Capitalism constantly and intelligently inveighs against. Take it down, please, it’s a discredit to great news site.. No I am not taking orders. Formally, your comment is an assignment and therefore a violation of our written site Policies. You are an adult. You can choose to ignore it. As I said, if you want me to cease publishing NC entirely, this is exactly the way to do it. I think it’s a great tweet. It’s a modern political cartoon. We have no proof that it is fake or real but it is what we all hope to be true. My own view, as expressed at the social media site formerly known as Twitter, is that the reported conversation is “colourfully expressed, referring to a number of realities, but probably not in these exact words – is my guess – I haven’t met either one personally.” Perhaps those who wish to improve NC by specifying what content should not be here DO wish NC to stop publication – on the other hand, my wish is otherwise – Lenny Bruce said, “I’m a liberal, with the cancelled checks to prove it.” It would depend on the context and who I was talking with whether I would call myself a liberal or not, but in fact I actually do have an image of a cancelled check to prove that I am a supporter of NC. Some Greek wrote, long ago: Lovers of wisdom must be inquirers into many things indeed. The same guy: Everything flows. It worked for me! She’s a vile sycophant who never said no to T and still has a career in mind. I can’t post “Have a nice day” without going into moderation. How does something like this get posted? We don’t discuss our moderation rules. But we are also often having comments that should not be moderated winding up in mod. We have been spending a lot of time trying to debug that with no success so far. As I have discovered commenting here, there are Rules! #1) The internet is an unforgiving taskmaster. #2) It takes a thick skin to comment, anywhere. (Which is character positive to me.) #3) Code is Law. (Hat tip to the Late Lamented Lambert. [Not dead, pining…]) #4) Commenting requires infinite patience. #5) Ego is not your friend. #6) This is someone else’s site. Have respect. #7) The Internet is a giant place. Some spots have signs saying: There Be Monsters Here! Stay safe. As I have discovered about commenting here – keep it to a minimum. Yves, my deepest apologies. I somehow forgot that NC often posts political humor, as you note, and I let this nasty little bit of it got under my skin. I love NC, have been following since the Great Meltdown years and have shared NC with friends as one of a tiny handful of trustworthy US-based online news sources. To back up these thoughts I’m putting some bucks into the Tip Jar, as many as I can. Again, my apologies. Don’t let us ninnies get you down. And please do not cease publishing!..(That’s a request, not an order.) Speaking just for myself, I wonder if you ever get to feel in your bones just how deeply a great many people respect you, admire you and even love you. I am one. Yves, you have given the world so much. Steve No. Please just ignore comments like this. If you were to let comment like this cause you to cease publication, that would mean letting the assholes win. Don’t let the assholes win. >As I said, if you want me to cease publishing NC entirely, this is exactly the way to do it. I just sent a donation, should I stop payment?? LOL Seriously, to the commenters that object to any links , tweets or WTF here, reading NC is no different than TV, radio, podcast or a bad book. Don’t like any of it? Move on. This site is a godsend when looking around the wasteland that is the web. It doesn’t particularly appeal to me either – but I don’t want a site that gives me exactly what I like. I become suspicious of myself when I find I am too consistently in agreement. What if everything NC posted was right about everything all the time? Readers would lose the habit of questioning, become mindless nincompoops. I am not here for gospel. It took me only a moment to realize the Bondi post was satire. Every good source produces flawed news of one kind or another – because the only way to avoid posting anything wrong is to never go beyond the obvious. An intelligent and interesting person takes positions. Takes risks. Someone who has nothing imperfect to say has nothing to say at all, and will certainly never perceive change. Diverse views – including the positive need for mistaken ones – are the foundation of democracy. Where you may see the threat of fake news, I see an even greater threat in the conviction that one can know Truth and possess it. Nothing like a virtuous liberal who has found a high horse to climb up on. Yeesh. Why not just go on about your business? I didn´t reflect on how inspired it was, but saw it as emblematic: Bondi and Tulsi (if she’s next to go, women seeming to be the sacrificial lambs here) will have some tales to tell. Hopefully at the top of their lungs, whether sexist a**holes like the pitch or decibel levels or not. Re the taped interview of the three Israelis, I have no insight into how common such racism and extreme views are in the general population. Is this how most Israelis think? These mirror the most ethnophobic views of (what I hope are a small minority of) Americans, culturally and politically isolated, often deliberately. Stephen Miller. And many Americans are outraged at their dwindling real prospects at the hands of an arrogant and greedy elite, employing what is in effect economic terrorism. But Miller can’t be representative of the average American, at least based on what people have expressed historically in polls and the voting booth. Maybe I’m being characteristically naïve, but can the people in the video really represent the majority of Israel’s 10M people, or simply a siloed minority? Several years ago Abby Martin interviewed ordinary people on the streets of Jerusalem and was shocked at the racism of them. I think that this is the video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e_dbsVQrk4 (23:13 mins) General attitudes have gotten more worse since that video came out. “Nits make lice..” U.S. Army Colonel John Chivington ordered his troops to kill Native American women and children, stating, “Damn any man who sympathizes with Indians!… Kill and scalp all, big and little; nits make lice”. Sand Creek Massacre This crap is older than dirt. Humans really need a paradigm shift, STAT When over 90% of Israelis (based on polling data) support an on-going genocide in Gaza, then yes, as difficult as it is to believe, we have to assume their views are representative of the majority. It speaks to the power of Israeli propaganda/distorting facts and history in their media and schooling. The same efforts have long been made in the US and Europe to convince all of the perennial victimhood of Israel and Jews via constant reminders of the “6 million” Jews who died in the death camps. The 5 million “others” who died in those same camps barely get a mention. There was a documentary about the Nakba that interviewed several of the elderly surviving perpetrators a few years ago. You can see the trailer here. More here. Looks like you can watch the full documentary on YT for a fee. I’ve watched a longer clip but not the whole movie. I’m not claiming that those interviewed speak for all Israelis, but they are the elders of the society present at the Zionist entity’s founding via terrorism. And they do not seem particularly repentant. From JImmy Dore, utube, ~7+ minutes. Israelis Literally POP CHAMPAGNE Over Legalizing MURDER Of Palestinian Prisoners! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTuz0kIOsVQ “Two Nice Jewish Boys” podcast from September 2024: fantasized about “pushing a button” that would end all life in the Gaza Strip. They later defended themselves as just reflecting general public opinion in Israel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9cB0QOkChU https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/06/israeli-podcasters-laughing-gaza-genocide-two-nice-jewish-boys “Iran war leaving Australian farmers struggling to sow crops and feed animals” You know a lot of those problems could be made to go away if Oz dropped all sanctions against Russia and asked if they could sell us what we need. But that will never happen. The US will never allow us to do the first part and our government/elite is too committed to Russia!Russia!Russia! to ever do the second part. At most we will keep on buying “Indian” oil and look the other way like the EU does as to its origins. Who know that India had so many oil fields. /sarc Famine seems likely and those that can plant in the northern hemisphere must be coming up against high fertilizer and other input prices that negate even bothering tilling the soil, while I can tell you here that a good many oranges in large monocrop orchards are lying on the ground, trees loaded with fruit that hasn’t fallen off yet, and new white blossoms prominent. Their export market ruined by the tariffist~ Another plug for keeping a fair amount of food on hand if you have the room to store it, we all know things are gonna get weird in some capacity to reveal itself on the shelf in increased prices along with availability* concerns. Beat the rush at your leisure. Our local food bank doesn’t care if a use-by date was a year ago on a can of Spaghettios, a great way to turn a personal insurance policy against hunger into a gift for those less food fortunate, when the time comes to donate your stash of uneatens. * since the war started, Topo Chico has disappeared from the shelves, and while I still have half a dozen liter bottles on hand, the situation is getting serious! Don’t forget food for your cats or they will end up eating you. Better get the easy open tops, because otherwise when you die they’ll eat you whether there’s Nine Lives in the cupboard or no. India should trade the oil for durable foodstuffs, not sell it, starting a few weeks ago. Just wanted to thank Yves from the bottom of my heart for her tireless and exhaustive (and for her, exhausting) work in producing Links, trenchant analysis of the ongoing Iran war debacle, … everything that goes into maintaining a site that has no equal. NC is my lifeline to the real world. Yes. Amen to that. Yves’ posts are the first thing we turn to for accurate info on the war, just as Links is invaluable for the same reason. I couldn’t agree more. The only thing that horrifies me nearly as much as this administration’s actions is the thought that I’d have nowhere left to know about them. Yves’ contributions now, just like her and Lambert’s during the early days of the pandemic, are irreplaceable. Yves, ban any @sshole you want, including me if necessary. Just keep publishing. I agree wholeheartedly. Yves Rocks! NC is my go-to site several times a day. Imagine…Chris Armitage writing the same article but without using dishonest talking points. This draft reads like a Jack Smith speech to Democrat fat cats before saner heads edited out the more inflammatory/less true parts. I know it sounds insane but I’m doubling down on the midterms. This war can’t last that long if for no reason other than a lack of materiel. Huge mess, absolutely the stupidest thing Trump has done. Iran is a Moby Dick-sized albatross around his neck. So what? How does Congress go after Trump without going after Israel? I mean it wouldn’t be hard, but wouldn’t that require all new Congress critters as these all wear the Star of David brand?. Iran isn’t another Vietnam, Iran is the tar baby of all wars: touch it and you’re part of the discussion and not in a good way. This is why D leadership is so astonishingly reluctant to criticize this idiot war. Gabbard (I’ll be shocked if she’s scapegoated like all her enemies are loudly hoping) is spearheading significant investigations uncovering massive fraud in Georgia, Arizona and California. She’s not Pam Bondi and I would expect to see multiple 2020 vote counting scandals emerge between now and the midterms. In time to get electronic voting banned? Sadly not but here’s a FREE idea for GOP ad-makers: make all your ads be about proven 2020 vote fraud. Hammer home the hackability of machine voting/tabulation. Go full Epstein on some Third Way pundit until they break and start spilling on how Bush-Cheney GOP hacked the 2000 and 2004 elections using the same companies now controlled by Democrats (and Third Wayers). This will spark rage voting from the Right (and Left — never forget Bernie 2016) but in states still clinging to absentee ballots, electronic voting and the cult of HRC, I would expect voters to stay home. We got Trump because he was everyone’s C) Eff all of the Above vote. Well, that won’t work again as Trump’s not on the ballot this fall and running against him isn’t the surefire path to victory the DNC’s overpaid copraphagic consultants think it is. Democrats won’t win until they purge current leadership. All of them. Their base is rip roaring and ready to go but is no longer willing to march behind their diaperless Percheron-mounted leaders. Blindly following these Bojack Horsemen is like strolling through a dog park with your head in the clouds. By November, even the thought of voting will make many Americans feel nauseous. Look at the new Democrats running: CIA embeds and/or heavily groomed fresh faces, all sincere and all with the same website design and talking points. Donald Trump is the easiest to beat candidate ever but the same Democrats who couldn’t beat him in 2016 are still running the party, strategy and candidate selection process. I have never seen a party work so hard at losing elections. To illustrate how people feel about our current political predicament, I was going to once again post a recent video by Carsie Blanton and the Burning Hell called The Price of Eggs. But when I checked youtube just now , all the videos of hers that I clicked on were saying ‘video unavailable’ although her channel is still listed: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5jzY5EVnfveVBGiqu9gvrg Not sure whether that means she has taken the videos down herself (her pro-labor themes suggest she might not like relying on a corporate conglomerate), YT found them offensive for containing too much truth and banned them, or its just a temporary technical issue. Don’t have social media accounts myself so noit sure how it works. Maybe just a temporary tech issue. I’d watched some other videos this morning with no problem, and after typing the comment above, I got the same message on Judge Nap and Nima videos. Some but not all have now started working again. So either the tech issue is just with me, or maybe some of Alphabet’s servers met Mr. Missile this morning ;) More likely their servers met some ‘vibe coded’ patches. I’ve been noticing lots of randomish sites just not working with increasing frequency these last couple of weeks. Surprising the rot has reached something as substantial as UTube, but here we are….. I don’t know much about Georgia and California is a cesspool so anything can happen, but I happen to live in Arizona and know people. I will be very impressed if somebody comes up with a plausible 2020 vote fraud case here after multiple highly-motivated local efforts have failed spectacularly. This is the “meta” in discussions of 2020 vote fraud: D judges dismissed cases and dismissed cases were then then characterized by pundits AND actual election officials as “proven” to be hogwash (or spectacular hogwash if you prefer). If a case got through, it was only because other strategies were in place to thwart a proper investigation. That there were almost no serious official investigations is given as proof no investigations were ever needed. Srsly, that’s the logic underpinning the lockstep D strategy of not permitting the 2020 election to be forensically audited. Election officials not permitting audits is like mobsters taking the Fifth Amendment on the witness stand. Handmarked paper ballots etc. My fantasy is a complete grass-roots undermine of the two sides of the same coin duopoly. The Write-In Party. No need to qualify, walk around the gate-keepers. Create a simple 10-30 point platform that resonates with the working poor and the sensible center. Be very clear that the write-in name needs to be printed legibly, and spelled correctly, with precise consistency. Get a younger smart not-overly cynical candidate. F the RNC/DNC AIPAC AARP AMA Pharma FIRE lobbies ( I realize the list would be exhausting if exhaustive) 435 Congress-critters, and a few Dozen every six year fat cats. Impeach Trump, deal with and displace JD. It’s only 2-3 years. Democrats play the lessor of two evils card. See, you let DT in last time? We’re better. We’ll fight for {insert lies here} for you! In US politics, a third party would have a chance these days with the unpopularity of the two current parties. An issue to be resolved, with the current system totally tied to finance, is funding. A third party would need a lot of $27 contributions, and likely a billionaire to back it or a lot of good size contributions, and not be seen as benefiting beyond what we would all gain from honest government. Lack of money isn’t what’s stopping a third party from stepping up. Getting on the ballot is much harder than people realize. However, a successful third party movement would almost certainly turn signature-gathering to get on the ballot into an effective organizing tool. Do this fifty times plus however many protectorates/colonies we have and the news media will find you impossible to ignore. New parties not limited to playing the long game and are free to go for all the marbles, saying exactly what they mean and making doable promises to the voters. The “Jesse Ventura” effect kicks in when voters realize that the “other” guy could actually win. That’s exciting to everyone complaining about the terrible choices and creates an electrifying peak Bernie kind of vibe. All this depends very heavily on honest elections as machines/tabulators could (and do) steal votes from third party candidates wholesale and no one blinks. Also, for there to be any traction, the candidates have to pass the ‘Caesar’s wife’ test: no CIA embeds, nutty spouses or shoveling donations to crony consultants. All indications are that there was no massive fraud in Georgia. The Republican state government investigated the mostly Democratic Fulton County election process and found some mistakes but no major irregularities. https://www.npr.org/2026/02/10/nx-s1-5710649/fulton-county-2020-election-affidavit-fbi The seizure of records by the FBI was justified by debunked accusations from conservative activists. https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/10/fulton-county-search-warrant-affidavit-00774751 If you have some evidence of massive fraud I’d love to see it, please post. It was four years ago, the results cannot be overturned. There is no downside to investigating now and a huge potential upside if election integrity is improved. I’m not a voting machine expert or an expert on Arizona law. But I have worked in (Democratic party) politics all my adult life and the 2020 election stinks to high heaven. If it had been a clean election there would be no reason to obstruct so forcefully. Asking for an audit is not taking up arms. There still has not been a reckoning over the massive own goal in 2016 and as a consequence the biggest losers in party history are still in charge. Covering up is not cleaning up, it just enables the same nepo/crony party autocrats to keep losing the same way. We can’t have our party back until these folks get perp-walked out of the building. And fyi, NPR and Politico are Democratic party sheepdogs who will never share news with you that might upset your worldview. Srsly, as someone who’s made a living torturing the English language into communicating things that ain’t necessarily so, the current media propagandists are not very good. Audit any of their stories (find alternative sources) and you’ll see how they omit key information and distort context to created a warped understanding of the news. There is no legitimate reason to obstruct these investigations. Period. I don’t think we will vote ourselves out of this mess. “A republic, if you can keep it.” Ben Franklin “The United States is an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery.” Former president Jimmy Carter Nah, they won’t purge their leadership. I’m having trouble finding the articles from last year when there was such an uproar over the issue. My recollection is the party said they can’t think about even discussing changing leadership until after the midterms, which was basically saying f-off. I don’t think these people will do any such thing, and would rather lose elections than give up their power. The machine they built to suit themselves belongs to them, seems to be the operating assumption. I do my best to listen to whatever message the Democrats have to say to voters, but the only thing I’ve heard so far is that asking a candidate their position on any topic is a “litmus test” and therefore contemptible. So will congress even go after Trump or Israel? Or will they deflect and try to make his presidency about Russia again, or something else equally stupid and and duplicitous? The very fact they decided to sit on their collective derriere, fall asleep, and expect to be simply carried into power while slumbering is very telling about what they will do when they get back one or both chambers. At least in my opinion. These are not people who will deign to answer the riff raff. By staying silent that to me is what they are directly saying. They make no promises, and announce no goals about reversing Trump’s terrible disfigurement of the government. They would most definitely rather lose than offer solutions for any problems their fellow elite (or bosses, if you prefer) don’t approve of. No plan, that’s all they have to offer, take it or leave it. “Trump Unveils 100% Tariff on Some Patented Drugs” Oz is being hit with 100% tariffs here but there is a reason for this. Oz has what is called the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. The government will heavily subsidize a list of proven drug so that the cost is typically less then eight bucks over the counter. But here is the kicker. To get on that list, that drug has to be proven to actually be effective. And they will not accept the say so of some drug company and the US Big Pharma corporations hates this scheme as they cannot charge the same prices in Oz as they do in the US. As an example, under the PBS Insulin is about $25-$31.60 AUD per box. Point is Trump and big Pharma want to use these 100% tariffs as leverage to get Oz to dismantle the PBS. Not gunna happen- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmaceutical_Benefits_Scheme The T admin acts rather like a syndicate, imo. / ;) Trump Bondi- Has anyone ever come away from working for Trump looking good? What is the upside? Why does anyone still agree to work for him, he’s going to make you look like ship. I can’t think of one, single name that came away from Trump and doesn’t look worse. Anyone? Ex-Colonel Douglas Macgregor is the only one that I can think of but he was from Trump’s first term. South Park: ” Pam you have shit on your nose…” Podering that, literally, with deranged diaper Boy. In my finest Irish lilt, “How it mnakes me quiver…” Or, as one of the teachers opined, “Enough to Gag a Maggot”. Back in 2018 Rick Wilson, Republican strategist, wrote a book called “Everything Trump Touches Dies”. A depressing but cogently argued piece. Midas touch….recall the fable? 👍🙃 What would happen if Zelenskyy and Trump shook hands? Must be some pretty attractive short term gains or everyone thinks they’re going to be the exception? “Anthropic Suddenly Cares Intensely About Intellectual Property After Realizing With Horror That It Accidentally Leaked Claude’s Source Code” What if it wasn’t really a leak. Well, sort of. What if some user asked Claude where they could find it’s source code and Claude obligingly told them where exactly and would the user like it downloaded to their computer. I could believe that. Understatement of the decade award goes to anthropic It’s certainly within Anthropic’s right to issue the takedown request, but the hypocrisy of Anthropic running to the law to protect its intellectual property is plain to see, especially for a company that’s relentlessly positioned itself as the ethical adult in the room. Adding: Why does ai lie cheat and steal? Because it’s designed and implemented by liars cheats and stealers to perform that task for them thus cleansing their rotten souls RE: “AI Just Hacked One Of The World’s Most Secure Operating Systems” Based on a quick inspection of the website for the author of this link. He is definitely a strong proponent of AI. I do not know enough about how AI accomplished this attack to evaluate the content of this link’s description of how the attack was accomplished. Besides I have been out of the game for decades. My first response to this link, assuming its content is true and largely correct, is that this may be one of the most important pieces of news today and for a long time. The “most secure operating system” attacked was FreeBSD, which I believe is indeed a very secure operating system. If FreeBSD can be breached as described — “remote super user, or root shell, on unpatched servers” — a lot of systems could be in serious trouble. Unless I did not read this link carefully enough, the “unpatched” qualification is unnecessary in that I got the impression the flaw was discovered by “Nicholas Carlini using Claude, Anthropic” and then exploited by that same AI. In other words, it was a zero day exploit. Now consider what this might mean for doing your banking online, your taxes, your vote …. I checked in on Karl Denninger’s site, since he’s a BSD tech guy: he posted that his system would be down for 12 hours while switching from BSD to Linux. He signed off: “Thank you for your attention.” It was April 1st. This author definitely over-egged the pudding. I’d rate this somewhere between “nothingburger” and “meh”. Here’s the link to what I posted late yesterday on this topic. I missed this discussion from yesterday. Thank you for pointing me to it. I believe this statement from your comment contains the crux of your argument: “If the article stated that Claude created an original, never before seen malicious payload, that would be impressive. “Oldest and more reliable methods” means there’s a lot of published exploit code already out there for Claude to slurp up and iterate through until it finds one that works.” I agree that a never before seen “malicious payload”, suggestive of a remarkable act of creation would indeed be remarkable for an AI. However, I am not convinced that lack of such creativity warrants what seems your facile dismissal of the reported AI attack. I believe, in the old saw, “the devil is in the details” — details I about which I am not knowledgeable. I believe AI has been over-hyped to the max. Even so, there are particular applications of current AI technology that yield indeed remarkable AI tools. Google’s AlphaFold is one example. While I doubt an AI using the present art would be creating entirely new exploits, I far less doubt that using present art an AI might be trained to locate zero-day vulnerabilities. As far as I know the different kinds of vulnerabilities are limited, and each kind has an associated set of exploit codes, collected from past exploits. Perhaps there are still varieties of exploitable programming errors that have not yet been discovered and new clever exploits for existing and newly discovered vulnerabilities. That would be disturbing news in itself. I believe the limited number of types of vulnerabilities, which have all been exploited by a non-infinite number of attacks and attack codes, tends to undermines your dismissal of the link’s content. Existing types of vulnerabilities have been attacked many times in the past and I believe and hope only very few new kinds of vulnerabilities remain to be created in new code or found in the wild. I believe this suggests the ability to remember, catalog, and craft exploits from existing exploits may be less than amazing as you say, but somehow the speed and breadth with which an AI trained to launch attacks for arbitrary vulnerabilities in arbitrary operating systems at computer speed is very scary whether impressive to you or not. There are many tools for finding vulnerabilities in existing code, and systems as they run. I recall a tool from several years ago [cannot locate a link] the located numerous zero-day vulnerabilities in the SNMP [Simple Network Management Protocol] protocol. There are existing tools for generating exploits for newbies based on existing attack code. I am very worried by an AI based tool that might extend vulnerability discovery combined with applicable exploit assembly, whether the exploit code is ‘new’ or not. But I conclude with some uncertainty about the link’s contents. The “devil is in the details”. Thank you, Jeremy. Unfortunately, it looks like Skynet gobbled my earlier lengthy reply so here’s the Cliff’s Notes version sans links and potentially triggering text: The NIST advisory for CVE-2026-4747 contains links to the code generated by Claude and the 44 prompts used. Claude’s code was written after the FreeBSD advisory was posted. The advisory was included in the prompts giving Claude (and the person feeding it prompts) a massive headstart. The prompts used indicate a high level of knowledge is still needed. I would be very interested to see a start-to-finish example of a zero-day discovered by Claude and the code it generated to take advantage of it before it was patched (and especially if it occurred on a closed-source system). Yeah, Smotrich said something like that too, and I know what you’re thinking. But you can’t compare him to that mustache guy. He only said 2 million and not 6 million. Off-topic, but may be of interest considering Yves’ aversion to voice matching. Just had phone call to Chase, and after the usual verification, the system announced their voice verification scheme. To start, please say your full address. Silence from me. Please say your full address. More silence. At that point, it skipped. But no explicit option to opt-out. re: Hungarian elections quick ANTI-SPIEGEL item Important considering that German MSM are mute. 100% Espionage, Intrigue, Propaganda The election campaign in Hungary is probably the dirtiest in the history of the EU As was expected, the Hungary-election in the hot Phase of the election campaign on a topic, which is produced in Germany almost daily headlines. For the EU and for Orban, it is literally everything, according to ruthless is set to intrigue and dirty Tricks. April 2nd https://archive.is/5zQum re: Germany conscription Since 2026 all males 17-45 have to first ask Bundeswehr before they plan to leave the country 3+months. Until now this was mandatory only in wartime or under heightened threat to the state. Now it´s standard. Bundeswehr is supposed to approve. But they don´t have to. And that may change any time. This appears to be news since no-one reported until last week. I just heard Ronnie Bowman died. Here is a very timely you tube. 4 minutes RIP! (blu ooooo ooooo ooooo grass music!) https://youtu.be/L4ZRlHr07M4 Never claimed to have much money, no mansions do I own. There are those who criticize me but at least I’m not alone. ‘Cause I’ve got friends and all my family and they love me for who I am not what I’ll be. There are those who curse the losers, even the winners, but they can’t see… We only have One Life let someone live it. Why don’t we give up intolerant ways? We have one world and others live in it. Why don’t we give up instead of hate? No one knows all the answers we’re still searching to find the way. I’m not worried about tomorrow, ’cause I’ve got all I can handle today. Well, I don’t need to judge my brother. Let’s just love them for who they are not what they’ll be. We only have One Life let someone live it. Why don’t we give up intolerant ways? We have one world and others live in it. Why don’t we give up instead of hate? We only have One Life let someone live it. Why don’t we give up intolerant ways? We have one world and others live in it. Why don’t we give up instead of hate? https://youtu.be/L4ZRlHr07M4 Query on the war timeline: is there any useful commentary on the countdown of the War Powers Resolution 60 days? and did Trump submit the required report in 48 hours? re: Israel death penalty excellent interview by USEFUL IDIOTS (here Katie Halper) with Palestinian Lawyer Diana Buttu Iran, Nukes & the Palestinian Death Penalty w/ Palestinian Lawyer Diana Buttu & Israeli Lawmaker Ofer Cassif Watch a free preview of our episode and subscribe for the full interview with Knesset Member Cassif on whether Israel killed its own people on October 7 with the Hannibal Directive starts TC: 8:30 https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/iran-nukes-and-the-palestinian-death p.s. Unfortunately the Oct. 7th segment is not included in this free preview. Has Hegseth always been such a whack job or did something happen to him? I was surprised to see recently that he went to Princeton. He seems like too stupid a thug for that. Ivy League is where all the mediocre thugs go to get their ruling class Serious Person credentials. See G. W. Bush, for example. By invitation, natch. Judge Nap the other day mentioned that he used to work with him at Fox and that he was not a whack job then, and something has changed since. He reminds me of Shrub too – he’s got those dry drunk vibes. And now for something completely different… “I’ve always been drawn to the energy and storytelling of heavy metal.” William Shatner announces Rob Halford will guest on his eagerly-awaited all-star heavy metal album Hah! The late Christpher Lee ventured into Metal music late in his life and did well. See: https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Christopher_Lee/3540365280 Charlemagne: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne:_By_the_Sword_and_the_Cross His actual life was a bit metal. [Behind enemy lines commando during WW-2.] What I want to hear is Shatner do Metal in Esperanto. That should be a hoot mon. Sekure restu. For those interested in the historic culture of America’s Border Patrol and a glimpse into the mind of a psychopathic killer you can’t do much better than Colonel Charles Askins “Unrepentant Sinner”. Askins was a championship pistol shot who admitted to killing 27 Men “Not counting Blacks and Mexicans”. His total was probably in the range of 100 and some of the killings he recounts were…questionable. He was also a prolific writer for gun magazines for decades. There are Men like this, Psycho killers who find a structure in Police or special Military units that allows them to sate their addiction to killing and stay out of prison. High functioning psychopaths. He was one of the Men who shaped the culture of today’s Border Patrol, which hires and promotes Men like Jonathan Ross. On Japan stepping into the unstated US security void, Japan is considering putting some additional radars on some islands at some point, but is unsure which Islands it might consider and if they would be feasible. Color me unimpressed with the headliner writer. Of course those radars would last about 5 minutes in an actual war with China (since Japan relies on US A/D), so the equivocating may be just to show Donigula that Japan is doing something while doing nothing.