This month is kindly sponsored by an anonymous donor in memory of Rev. Michael Dowd, founder of postdoom.com.
“As trust in the US collapses, leaders in Australia and around the world are frantically recalibrating.
“Like the child who realises that her parents were joking when they said she was their favourite, people all around the world are coming to the life-changing realisation that their nation’s relationship with the United States was not really “special”.”
“Greenland’s prime minister slams ‘highly aggressive’ visit by US officials, including second lady Usha Vance.
“Greenland’s prime minister said a planned visit to the island by US officials, including second lady Usha Vance, is “highly aggressive,” plunging relations to a new low after President Donald Trump vowed to annex the autonomous Danish territory.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/24/world/greenland-prime-minister-us-usha-vance-intl-hnk/index.html
“Trump’s expansionism threatens the rules-based order in place since second world war…
“Experts are warning that …Trump’s comments explicitly pushing for the US to acquire Greenland, Canada, the Panama canal and Gaza is fuelling a permissive environment that threatens long-recognised borders and the international rules-based order that has existed since the end of the war.”
“Trump stirs fears of a new nuclear arms race…
“The US president’s pivot to Moscow and scathing disregard for Nato has prompted old allies — from Berlin and Warsaw to Seoul and Tokyo — to confront what was seemingly unthinkable: how to prepare for a potential withdrawal of their US nuclear shield.”
https://www.ft.com/content/1a7c9b17-862d-4986-ac09-42de2dee44f2
“Diverging US Economic Data Begs the Question: Is a Slowdown Coming?
“…The mixed signals are causing jitters across Washington and Wall Street on what lies ahead for the world’s largest economy — which, in a matter of weeks, has shifted from global outperformer to the top source of uncertainty.”
“Tax revenue could drop by 10 percent amid turmoil at IRS…
“The prediction, officials say, is directly tied to changing taxpayer behavior and President Donald Trump’s rapid demolition of parts of the IRS. Senior tax agency officials issued detailed warnings about those outcomes to the incoming Trump administration…”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/03/22/irs-tax-revenue-loss-federal-budget/
“America’s rich scramble to open Swiss bank accounts over Trump fears…
“Fears of potential restrictions on moving money overseas mean ultra-wealthy Democrat families are moving huge chunks of cash out of the country as an insurance policy against the Republican administration.”
“China calls for global business to ‘resist protectionism’ as American executives gather in Beijing…
“CEOs including Apple’s Tim Cook, FedEx’s Raj Subramaniam and Pfizer’s Albert Bourla gathered in the Chinese capital over the weekend for a two-day forum that comes as US President Donald Trump has ratcheted up trade pressure on China…”
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/24/business/china-us-executives-trade-development-forum-intl-hnk
“Factory and services slowdown saps hopes for Japan growth.
“Figures out Monday showed factory activity falling at its fastest pace in a year. The closely watched Purchasing Managers’ Index for manufacturing from au Jibun Bank fell to 48.3 from 49 previously. That’s well below the key 50-point mark that would indicate rising activity.”
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/video/factory-services-slowdown-saps-hopes-033908045.html
“Rachel Reeves to cut 10,000 [UK] civil service jobs in effort to lower government costs…
“In advance of Wednesday’s spring statement, the chancellor defended her stewardship of the economy since the election, saying she had made difficult choices.”
“EU watchdogs warn that weakening rules risks another financial crash…
“Laboureix said he was “absolutely ready” to engage with calls for the burden of regulation to be eased. But he warned policymakers not to forget the lessons of the last big banking sector meltdown. “Don’t forget the 2008 crisis. What did that mean? Bailouts everywhere.”“
https://www.ft.com/content/a4210c56-bd4c-4ca9-9cc7-36dba2dd
“‘The only thing still working’: Russia and UK agreement to tend war graves transcends bitter international relations…
“The two countries appear to have come to a private understanding… The commission has continued to maintain 674 Soviet graves in its cemeteries in the UK and around the world and, although it cannot be certain, it believed that the Russians are doing the same for the 663 British military personnel.”
“Ukraine war briefing: US seeking Black Sea ceasefire in talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia…
“A wide gulf remains, however, between the US’ and Russia’s expectations, with US envoy Steve Witkoff signalling hope for “real progress” and Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov warning that “difficult negotiations” lie ahead.”
“‘Mission accomplished’: US-Philippines Balikatan drills return in full battle mode…
“A test of firepower. A projection of strength. A message to China. This year’s Balikatan exercise promises to be all this and more, organisers say, even as the United States adopts an increasingly isolationist stance under its mercurial president, Donald Trump.”
“Pakistan kills 16 fighters amid rising Afghanistan border tensions.
“Border troops killed all the fighters in an exchange of fire during the night between March 22 and 23 in North Waziristan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the army said.”
“Iran Deploys Missile Systems on Disputed Gulf Islands Amid Rising Tensions.
“Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has deployed new missile systems on three strategically vital islands in the Gulf, asserting their capability to strike “enemy bases, vessels, and assets” within a 600-kilometer range, state media reported Saturday.”
https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/831293
“Turkey lurches toward outright autocracy as Erdoğan’s main rival is jailed…
“İmamoğlu, a highly popular secularist who was widely seen as the most likely next president to succeed the Islamist Erdoğan, responded with an impassioned call for mass demonstrations to save democracy in the NATO heavyweight of 86 million.”
“Thousands of Israelis protest Shin Bet chief’s dismissal, for captives.
“Thousands of people in Israel have gathered in Tel Aviv to protest against the decision by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to dismiss the head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service and resume fighting in Gaza.”
“How Israel plans to escalate its war on Hamas in Gaza…
“The new and more aggressive tactics, according to current and former Israeli officials and others briefed, will probably also include direct military control of humanitarian aid; targeting more of Hamas’s civilian leadership…”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/03/23/israel-gaza-war-plans/
“Yemeni forces hit Israel’s Ben Gurion airport again with hypersonic ballistic missile…
“They said the strike successfully achieved its “goal” to disrupt air traffic in the occupied Israeli territories as long as the zionist killing machine continued its genocidal war against the Gaza Strip.”
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/03/23/744922/Yemeni-Armed-Forces-Hit-Ben-Gurion-Airport-Missile
“Saudi report says high-level Houthi official killed in US airstrikes…
“A very senior Houthi official was eliminated in overnight US airstrikes in Sanaa, the Saudi Al Hadath network reports. The report does not identify the official by name or by position.”
“Ethiopia’s army claims to have killed 300 Fano fighters in renewed clashes.
“Ethiopian troops have killed more than 300 Fano armed group fighters, former allies against rebels in the Tigray region, in two days of renewed clashes in the northern Amhara region, according to the army.”
“The battle for Khartoum: Sudan war comes full circle…
“The recapture of the presidential palace caps several months in which momentum in Sudan’s civil war swung decisively in the SAF’s favour. If the army can consolidate control of Khartoum it would allow Gen Burhan to install a transitional government and attempt to gain wider international recognition.”
https://www.ft.com/content/980e2188-4c9a-4648-b0b6-555ac86cdada
“The country [Congo] where beheadings and jihadi violence are rife – but nobody is talking about it…
“Congo’s northeastern provinces are quickly becoming a jihadi stronghold, a launching pad for extremists determined to enforce their violent ideology. This is despite the fact that Muslims make up 1.5 per cent of the population. So how did this happen?”
“Mali’s security crisis continues as two members of pro-junta group die in blast…
“Two members of an armed organisation allied with Mali’s ruling junta were murdered Saturday after their motorbike collided with an improvised explosive device, according to a statement from their outfit.”
“Why companies are quietly abandoning their climate ambitions…
“The first explanation, the cynical one, suggests many self-serving companies are jumping on the populist backlash against the climate agenda personified most obviously by US president Donald Trump… The second …is that the emission-abatement standards set by the SBTi and others are “just too difficult”.”
“Have humans passed peak brain power?
“…In one particularly eye-opening statistic, the share of adults who are unable to “use mathematical reasoning when reviewing and evaluating the validity of statements” has climbed to 25 per cent on average in high-income countries, and 35 per cent in the US.”
https://www.ft.com/content/a8016c64-63b7-458b-a371-e0e1c54a13fc
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You can read the previous “Economic” thread here. I’ll be back tomorrow with a “Climate” thread.
Think of the dumbest person you know and imagine half of them are dumber than that.
– George Carlin
We need to go.
Americans are too stupid for democracy.
I was born and raised in Texas and traveled all over this country.
It’s true.
Doom Wizard, I haven’t been to the US since 1993, so I am not in a position to comment there, but that George Carlin quote always tickles me.
Regarding the last weblink above from the Financial Times on diminishing brainpower, which is behind a paywall for me. So, I added some more info below to aid understanding of how bad it is here in the US.
Too bad that probably most Americans can’t read, comprehend, or do the math to help them understand where we are headed globally:
https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/post/literacy-statistics-2024-2025-where-we-are-now
Literacy Statistics 2024- 2025 (Where we are now)
21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2024.
54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level (20% are below 5th-grade level).
Low levels of literacy cost the US up to 2.2 trillion per year.
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https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2020/2020025/index.asp
Adult Numeracy in the United States
What are the rates of numeracy proficiency in the United States?
Over two in three (70 percent) U.S. adults have sufficient numeracy skills to make calculations with whole numbers and percentages, estimate numbers or quantity, and interpret simple statistics in text or tables—numeracy skills at level 2 or above in PIAAC (OECD 2013). In contrast, nearly one in three U.S. adults (30 percent) has difficulty completing such tasks in English (FIGURE 1).
This translates into 62.7 million U.S. adults who possess low numeracy skills in English: 38.6 million at level 1, 16.0 million below level 1, while 8.2 million could not participate in PIAAC’s background survey either because of a language barrier or a cognitive or physical inability to be interviewed. These adults who were unable to participate are categorized as having low numeracy skills, as is done in international reports (OECD 2013), although no direct assessment of their skills is available.
Adults classified as below level 1 may be considered not functionally numerate in English. They cannot successfully complete one-step tasks presented in English involving counting, sorting, and identifying elements of simple graphs and spatial representations (OECD 2013).
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[ME] Videogames, Netflicks & TV & movies, tic-tok, cellphones, sports, and shopping are all higher priorities for many parents than helping themselves and their kids to greater understanding of the world around them. Are the teachers ready to step up and fill the knowledge gaps deliberatively avoided by the parents? Maybe many of them are now lacking the skills to help elevate the kids.
My hypothesis is that the US has long been the global leader in using lots of unnatural chemicals & plastics for our food & beverages and our brains are basically saturated and cooked.
Bob Shaw Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
Bob Shaw: “Regarding the last weblink above from the Financial Times on diminishing brainpower, which is behind a paywall for me.”
Ninja-me has you covered. Here be a link that bypasses such things:
https://archive.md/DZ3hs
Thanks, James Fenech–upvote for you!
From the article at the end, “The good news is that underlying human intellectual capacity is surely undimmed. But outcomes are a function of both potential and execution. For too many of us the digital environment is hampering the latter.
Makes one wonder if there are lots of potential young Einsteins, Socrates, and Isaac Newtons out there, but the parents will totally sidetrack their development by heavy exposure to worthless electronic entertainment.
Actually interact & develop with your child, or instead, foist upon them many electronic nannies so that the parents can scroll & stream for hours for max dopamine overload? I think too many are choosing the latter.
Full Disclosure: I have no children, no smartphone, and nearing 70. So not an expert at all.
Bob Shaw Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
Bob, the ones I know about to get behind many but not all paywalls are archive.ph and archive.vn .
Thank you, Bob, for your thoughts and, James, for your skilful ninjutsu. 🐱👤
I can easily buy into the notion that we have passed peak brain power. I might just be getting old and jaded, but the dross Hollywood is churning out these days and the banal pap on the radio airwaves makes me feel like we have passed peak creativity, too.
Peak longevity may even be upon us. If it isn’t now; it certainly will be very soon.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/13/good-news-everyone-we-appear-to-have-reached-peak-longevity
Hey Pan, Peak longevity is now on the downslope:
[ME] I thought the “Future always belongs to the Young”, but evidently the Old Farts of SCOTUS & POTUS think otherwise.
Common sense & the Precautionary Principle & Science applied to Climate Change should make it obvious that we cannot continue on with Business As Usual {BAU}. If so, then no lawsuit would have been needed…
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https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/24/politics/climate-crisis-youths-supreme-court/index.html
Climate crisis: Supreme Court declines appeal from youths seeking to force action on climate crisis | CNN Politics
Supreme Court declines appeal from youths seeking to force action on climate crisis
By John Fritze, CNN
Published 9:39 AM EDT, Mon March 24, 2025
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a long-shot appeal from a group of minors who have for years been attempting to force the federal government to address climate change.
Filed by 21 children and teenagers in 2015, the lawsuit alleged that the federal government’s energy policies unconstitutionally deprived them of their “fundamental rights to life, liberty, personal security, dignity, bodily integrity, and their cultural and religious practices.”
“This sprawling and unprecedented suit is far beyond the type of matter traditionally resolved by ‘American courts,’” the Trump administration told the Supreme Court in written arguments last month.
…The group has repeatedly lost in federal courts and the question for the justices was a procedural issue dealing with whether the group had established standing to sue.
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[ME] Upon hearing the SCOTUS decision: my guess is these now young adults instantly went from standing tall to falling to their knees in anguish.
I need a new saying to replace my old saying, “The Future always belongs to the Young”.
Eight new choices below:
The Future is Denied to the Young.
The Young are Denied their Future.
The Young and their Future are Both Denied
Normal life expectancy is Denied to the Future Young
Young Death is the Future
Youngsters are Kaput
The Future Always Belongs to the Powerful
A child’s coffin is half the price of a full size.
Can you offer a better set of new word combos?
Eco-anxiety just jumped to the next level in the young. Greta Thunberg can mention Betrayal again.
Bob Shaw Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
Question: does setting fire to Tesla charging stations and trucks count as climate action or denial, or both?
I have no idea, Jupiviv. It certainly looks cathartic, though.
I have noticed in the past that some people here have placed mean spirited comments about those that believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairey as examples of dulusional people. I think that I can top those examples. My example is those that thiink that humans will sustainably colonize outer space.
Curt, the condition of the astronauts returning recently from their extended stay on the International Space Station underlines how inimical space is to human health.
I recall reading that even eyesight can suffer in space due to changes in the pressure of ocular fluid. These environments are not conducive to good behaviour either:
“Antarctic bases are hotbeds of stress and violence. Space stations could face the same challenges.”
Earlier this week, reports emerged that a scientist at South Africa’s SANAE IV Antarctic research base had accused a colleague of physical assault.