Octopus jumps shark and goes for a ride on its back Guardian. resilc” “Better on top than inside.’
Bald eagle went viral for protecting his ‘RockBaby.’ He just died in Missouri storms Kansas City Star. resilc: “An omen for Trump.”
Why don’t we remember being a baby? New study provides clues ScienceDaily (Kevin W). I do have a memory of looking through wooden crib bars.
#COVID-19/Pandemics
The US gov is scapegoating cannabis use so they dont have to admit covid is causing mass heart attacks lmao pic.twitter.com/JPpKKOlCOk
— 🎨Artsy M*rxist 🎨 (commissions waitlist open) (@ArtsyMarx1st) March 21, 2025
For H5N1 BirdFlu to become a human pandemic it needs to change from a virus efficient at infecting birds guts (and spreading through bird droppings) to one efficient at infecting human noses and lungs (and spreading through the air). The following mutations of the PB2 and HA… pic.twitter.com/qlBrsYJdd6
— Dr Richard Hirschson (@richardhirschs1) March 22, 2025
Climate/Environment
More Than 150 ‘Unprecedented’ Climate Disasters Struck World in 2024, Says UN Guardian
International call to suspend genetically modified wheat Rebellion via machine translation (Micael T)
E-Waste Recycling Innovation Could Transform Lithium Markets OilPrice
China?
China’s EV Boom Is Bad For U.S.Tech CrazyStupidTech. resilc: “Why Silconjob valley is moving into ez DoD money……..”
CONFIRMED: China built and has brought to full power the world’s first-ever thorium-containing molten salt reactor, the TMSR-LF1. Initial criticality occurred on Oct 11, 2023. Full power on June 17, 2024. Pa-233 from thorium was detected Oct 8, 2024.
It’s the first MSR to run… pic.twitter.com/7DdWqoxs4x
— Nick Touran (@whatisnuclear) March 21, 2025
China is too far ahead of the second place country.This statistical chart can only be designed this way👇😂 pic.twitter.com/oKQtKZJXXs
— ShanghaiPanda (@thinking_panda) March 21, 2025
South of the Border
Venezuela Rejects Canada’s Sanctions, Accuses Ottawa of Acting as a “51st U.S. State” TeleSUR (Micael T)
European Disunion
EU : dictatorship without borders CocoetteMinute
EU capital flight tops $300 billion – European Council president RT. Micael T: “Oh, it’s like the oligarchy-run Russia before US turned off Swift. Capital flight was the name of the game.”
I dont know if there is a kill switch in the F35’s or not. We obviously can not take your word for it.
As one of the decision makers behind Denmark’s purchase of F35’s, I regret it.
The USA can certainly disable the planes by simple stopping the supply of spare parts. They… https://t.co/rDucWMUXDz
— Rasmus Jarlov (@RasmusJarlov) March 19, 2025
The EU Elite Also Wants Access to Private Savings Finn Andressen (Micael T)
THE FOOD GIANT’S WINNING RECIPE – HIGH PRICES AND LOW WAGES Proletaren via machine translation (Micael T)
Old Blighty
Heathrow says it will resume ‘some flights later today’ and hopes to run full operation on Saturday BBC. I was a volcano refugee in London in 2010. I was exceedingly lucky in that my very generous host, Richard Smith, was completely cool about my extending my stay (even better, he was a glider and knew how to read weather maps, and so could give a good estimate as to when things might clear up). I can’t imagine what it would be like to be stranded and have to scramble for a place to stay.
Brexit a key factor in worst UK medicine shortages in four years, report says Guardian (resilc)
British Submarines “Capable” of Destroying 40 Russian Cities – But Can They?
Former Royal Navy Rear Admiral Chris Parry claimed that British submarines, armed with Trident ballistic missiles, could wipe out 40 Russian cities.
“That’s something to think about. These missiles… pic.twitter.com/CMXkpWIo7I
— Zlatti71 (@Zlatti_71) March 21, 2025
The Telegraph, LOL)) Andrei Martyanov (guurst). More on UK military potency fantasies.
Operation Unthinkable: Churchill’s top secret plan to invade Russia Telegraph (Robin K)
Israel v. The Resistance
“The ovens are cold. The world is colder.”
The Israeli military has blocked food and all aid since the beginning of March in Gaza.
Starvation as weapon of war and elimination. https://t.co/tqxd3Z6UtL
— Nicola Perugini (@PeruginiNic) March 21, 2025
Lives shattered in Tulkarem amid Israel’s escalating military assault in the West Bank Mondoweiss (guurst)
On Peter Beinart, “Being Jewish after the Destruction of Gaza” Juan Cole. resilc:
No Saving Grace: The politically organized Jewish collective is sweepingly for the genocide, slaughter and ethnic cleansing of Palestine Alon Mizrahi
However, calls to excommunicate anti-Zionists “from within the Jewish people” are becoming increasingly insistent. “In most of the Jewish world today, rejecting Jewish statehood is a greater heresy than rejecting Judaism itself. … We have built an altar and thrown an entire [Palestinian] society on the flames” (p. 102).
* * *
Geography Willian Schreyer. Important.
War on Iran Would Be No Cakewalk American Conservative
New Not-So-Cold War
Trump wants a deal — not peace. Julian Macfarlane
Understanding Why Russia Won’t Accept a “permanent” Ceasefire Larry Johnson
Top Trump allies hold secret talks with Zelenskyy’s Ukrainian opponents International Affairs. resilc: “Maybe these kleptocrats use less cocaine than the current fool, but a turn towards peace with Russia it ain’t.”
UK to host further military planning sessions on Ukraine Politico (Kevin W)
Head of Russian National Guard IT Center Arrested in Moscow in Fraud Case Kommersant via machine translation. Micael T: “In Russia they are arrested. In the collective West, they become Bundeskansler or Ministry of Health in Germany or President of the European Commission.”
Solving the Drone Dilemma: Can Russia Succeed? Simplicius. Important but paywalled. He usually offers a big chunk for free.
Turkiye
Tense protests grow in Turkey over Istanbul mayor’s detention Reuters (Kevin W)
Imperial Collapse Watch
Sinking ship: US undersea nuclear deterrent’s plunging credibility Asia Times (Kevin W)
Trump to announce new Air Force contract for next-gen fighter jet Seeking Alpha. resilc: “The F-35 doesn’t work so why another, especially when drones are the current and future……….”
Trump 2.0
“To cross that rubicon [of defying court rulings] is a big ‘no, no’” for Americans. This court issue is a big loser for Trump.
The belief that Trump must follow court orders is more popular than Mother Teresa: 84% of all adults, 92% of Dems, 82% of Indies & 79% of the GOP. pic.twitter.com/viRxH66YUO
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) March 19, 2025
America’s Economic Exceptionalism Is on Thin Ice New York Times. resilc: “On thin ice? Where has this person been in the last 50 yearzzzzz?”
The Great Demolition Persuasion. Micael T: “This is not honest. The deconstruction of the New Deal started earlier. Trump is not changing anything, just radicalizing the trajectory.”
Medical school advocates warn Trump order could impede aspiring doctors The Hill
Legal experts say Trump official broke law by saying ‘Buy Tesla’ stock but don’t expect a crackdown Associated Press
Trump escalates threats against those who destroy Tesla vehicles Washington Post (Kevin W)
Elon Musk visits Pentagon after bombshell reports on access to China war plans Axios
US attorney general to bring charges for Tesla damage, citing ‘domestic terrorism’ Guardian (resilc)
J.D. Vance Is the Most Disliked New Vice President in History Washington Monthly
Trump on collision course with GOP defense hawks over NATO The Hill
DOGE
Machiavelli warned that a prince could kill a man’s father and still retain authority, but not take his patrimony. Threatening Social Security is worse than that. And yes, it does affect younger people by reducing inheritances and/or leading some to spend more to support aging parents.
From an alert reader:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/21/social-security-benefits-trump-doge/
[https://archive.is/fEieS]
Dudek initially told news outlets, including in a Friday interview with The Washington Post, that the judge’s decision to bar sensitive data access to “DOGE affiliates” was overly broad and that to comply, he might have to block virtually all SSA employees from accessing the agency’s computer systems.
And from the Department of Schadenfreude:
As Dudek contemplated whether to halt agency operations, many headquarters offices in Woodlawn, Maryland, were thrown into chaos. The DOGE team of about a dozen software engineers were denied access to the building and to their government laptop computers on Dudek’s order, leaving their status on Microsoft Teams “Unknown,” as if they had quit or retired, said one employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The key point:
As for the rest of the agency’s more than 50,000 claims processors, call center employees, disability hearings staff and other staff, “How are they not DOGE-affiliated?” Dudek asked.
Dudek can take that view in consequence of DOGE being a Bolshevik-style parallel structure to the existing government structure, rather like am epiphypte or a cancer. Fortunately, at least for social security recipients, the judge disagreed. Here is the restraining order, which is a corker:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.577321/gov.uscourts.mdd.577321.48.0.pdf
The order’s definition of “affiliate” is Section 10(b), image attached:
I think Dudek is wrong in his interpretation of “affiliated”, although IANAL, because affiliate does not mean random connection but implies an authority relation or a business relation:
https://content.next.westlaw.com/practical-law/document/I03f4d935eee311e28578f7ccc38dcbee/Affiliate
https://dictionary.justia.com/affiliated
https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/candidate-taking-receipts/affiliation-and-contribution-limits/
Hence, if you’re in the DOGE chain of command, or implementing “the DOGE agenda” (presumably stated in the Executive Order) you are “affiliated” with DOGE.
“any persons working, directly or indirectly, in concert with any of the above individuals”
Take Dudek. He cooperated with DOGE, before he got fired (then rehired and promoted), to get them data. I would say that makes him an “affiliate” although *directly*. This is in fact sensible, if the judge wants to build a firewall between personally identifiable SSA data and DOGE; you would want both parties of the data exchange on the outside of the firewall, given that the SSA person handing over the data “showed willing” to break whatever rules, regulations, and statutes DOGE is breaking (rather like a receiver of stolen goods). So we might conceptualize the firewall as going “one degree of separation” out from DOGE (that being the tissue, to continue the cancer metaphor, to be excised).
But what about “indirectly”? If that implies any number of degrees out from DOGE, then Dudek’s interpretation is colorable, but I think “in concert” (i.e., sharing “the DOGE agenda”) takes care of that problem. “Indirectly” could be two or more degrees out, but it’s as if one part of the DOGE tumor were particularly malignant and had to be traced further to be cut out; but it does not imply (Dudek’s interpretation) that the cancer has metastatized to the entire body (that is, the entire SSA).
This may account for the climbdown. Hoisted from comments:
It looks like Dudek has backed down for now:
Today, the Court issued clarifying guidance about the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) related to DOGE employees and DOGE activities at the Social Security Administration (SSA). Therefore, I am not shutting down the agency. President Trump supports keeping Social Security offices open and getting the right check to the right person at the right time. SSA employees and their work will continue under the TRO.
For most Americans, not getting their Social Security check would mean not being able to afford rent, groceries, their medication—or all three!
But a billionaire cabinet secretary is saying if you complain about not getting the benefits you’ve EARNED, you’re a fraudster. pic.twitter.com/IdeqF3nq64
— Senator Patty Murray (@PattyMurray) March 21, 2025
Casar: You can quickly explain Doge with just two numbers.
First: $8 million a day. That’s how much Elon Musk collects in federal government contracts.
Second: $65 a day. That’s how much the average senior—someone who has worked their entire life—gets from Social Security.… pic.twitter.com/kjAATxP7E0
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 22, 2025
Accenture is DOGE’s first corporate casualty as shares dive on warning that contracts will be cut CNBC (Li). Sorry, no. Tesla is.
GOP Clown Car
Texas’s GOP Governor Can Arbitrarily Deny Democrats a Seat in Congress Until Next Year Intercept
States of Denial: Government transparency spotty in the states, and worsening Iowa Capital Dispatch (Robin K)
Immigration
French scientist denied entry to US over views on Trump’s policies Middle East Eye (Kevin W)
U.S. to revoke legal status of more than a half-million migrants, urges them to self deport CBS (Robin K)
Trump admin wants undocumented immigrants to come forward. What do NY lawyers say? Gothamist
Our No Longer Free Press
UK MP Questions Whether Elon Musk and JD Vance’s Criticism of Censorship Laws May Constitute “Foreign Interference” Reclaim the Net (Micael T)
Groves of Academe
“I’m waiting to hear whether I will be another person thrown to the lions”
Columbia professor Bruce Robbins reveals that a formal investigation has been launched by the university after he took his class to one of the encampments last year.
Watch➡: https://t.co/wVP081r9Ys pic.twitter.com/NJWdCzrXbz
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) March 20, 2025
Columbia agrees to Trump demands in effort to get back federal funding Politico (Kevin W)
Universities are caving to Trump with a stunning speed and scope Politico (resilc)
Police State Watch
Long Range Acoustic Device (LRDA) [i] Black Mountain Analysis
Crapification
Southwest flight almost takes off from taxiway — not runway — at Florida airport ABC (Kevin W)
Class Warfare
Shareholder Power and Workers’ Labor Market Outcomes Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. resilc: “Never ’nuff for the oligarchy.”
Medicaid Is a Middle-Class Benefit. Here’s What to Know. New York Times (resilc)
Antidote du jour (via):
And a bonus (Robin K):
‘Night…XXX pic.twitter.com/Gu3tI8vgEX
— David Coverdale (@davidcoverdale) March 20, 2025
A second bonus (Robin K). Is one snail getting healthy food and the other junk food?
Hungry snails.. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/BVlCoSfgeO
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) March 20, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
