Thursday, November 6, 2025

Call Your Congresscritters: OpenAI Laying the Groundwork for Massive Federal Bailout

AI is not just coming for your job. Industry leaders plan to pick your pocket on a massive scale via a bailout.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the Shifting Landscape of Trade and Investment

The US has responded a bit China’s Belt and Road initiative by increasing foreign direct investment in participating countries.

Health Advocates Call for a Federal “Reboot” in Addressing Ultra-Processed Foods

The debate over ultra-processed food is becoming more intense. But has any real progress been made in discouraging consumption?

Coffee Break: Zohran Mamdani Wins New York City in a Youthquake

Zohran Mamdani’s youthquake overturned the New York power structure, and his victory has national implications.

Revolutions in Russia in 1917: February and October

A summary of the tumultuous events of Russia’s 1917 revolutions.

Links 11/5/2025

The Primary Care Puzzle: Can It Be Solved?

Lisa Rosenbaum, MD, is a national correspondent for the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).  She has just published Is a Long-Simmering Crisis Boiling Over? U.S. Primary Care Today.  The easy, and current, answer is “Yes.”  But this is not necessarily the final answer.  Dr. Rosenbaum begins with the description of the career arc of […]

With Baseless Fraud Claim, White House Says Trump Preparing Anti-Voter Executive Order

Yet more Trump threat display to try to extend the reach of his faction, here by stymieing voter access to elections.

“The Multipolarism of Fools: The BRICS Are Not the Answer”

A hot mess of a BRICS critique, among other things lambasting the growing association as anti-democratic.

Coffee Break: Armed Madhouse – The Poseidon Problem

Russia’s new Poseidon weapon, a nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed undersea drone, threatens coastal cities with massive radioactive destruction. Its speed, stealth, and long range make very difficult to defend against, forcing adversaries to consider ruinously expensive countermeasures. This article examines Poseidon’s capabilities, the challenge of undersea defense, and why renewed arms control is the only rational response.

The Lasting Economic Scars of War

War is even more destructive in economic terms than is widely acknowledged.

Links 11/4/2025

How Brazil’s New Digital Payments System Managed to Enrage (and Terrify) Both Wall Street and Silicon Valley

A mobile payments system that is publicly controlled, easy to use and without fees (for individuals and small businesses) is “tough to beat.” 

Wall Street Journal Insults Reader Intelligence, Depicts Lenders as Addressing Loan Risks When That Horse Has Left the Barn and Is in the Next County

The Wall Street Journal does its readers no favors in its whole-hog adoption of the fraud spin in ‘splaining high profile loan losses.

Technology Empires and the Race to Cement Dominance

A look at how the US and China are seeking to achieve technology hegemonies, and the efforts of smaller countries to carve out niches.