"You can't fool all of the people all the time" (21) - Hitting a new low & It's the economy, stupid

Other "You can't fool all of the people all the time."

Hitting a new low

YouGov

It's the economy, stupid

The men who possibly raised the alarm before October 7th.

Yigal Carmon, founder of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), publicly warned in August 2023 that a major regional conflict could erupt in September or October. Drawing on Arabic- and Persian-language media, Carmon identified escalating threats, military preparations, increasingly advanced weapons, and public statements by Hamas and other Iranian-backed groups. Officials in Israel and the United States largely dismissed his warning.

Carmon’s new report, Chronicles of a Disaster Foretold, argues that Hamas’s intentions were visible through open sources long before the October 7 attack. It highlights earlier discussions about breaching Israel’s border, increasingly explicit statements about an imminent “decisive battle,” and a large Hamas military exercise in September 2023 that closely resembled the subsequent assault. Carmon acknowledges that he mistakenly expected the war to begin in northern Israel, but maintains that Hamas successfully misled Israeli leaders into believing it prioritized economic development over conflict.

It was Israel’s failure to anticipate the attack to a broader “perceptual failure”: officials assumed that financial support and economic incentives would contain Hamas, while funds were allegedly diverted toward weapons, tunnels, and military capabilities. It also places Carmon’s warnings within current Israeli political disputes, including criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, demands for an independent investigation into the October 7 failures, and allegations concerning Qatar’s influence and financial ties. Despite criticism of MEMRI’s methods and accusations from Qatar, Carmon insists that the evidence was publicly available and that Israeli leaders ignored clear warning signs.

(Source The Man Who Raised the Alarm Before October 7)

This is further evidence, in addition to the alleged warnings from the head of Egypt's intelligence services, Abbas Kamel, and the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed, that Bibi and his government used Hamas, first to weaken the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and Fatah, and then, anticipating what was coming, ignored the warnings because this could divert attention from corruption charges, save them from the courts, and give them a chance to win the next elections, as well as provide an opportunity to eliminate Hamas and weaken the Ayatollah regime. All of this aligns well with known facts, but some argue that even if true, which they deny, stating this is antisemitism and favors the Shiite dictatorship, meaning that those who say this place the truth on the side of antisemitism and the Shiite dictatorship.

"You can't fool all of the people all the time" (20) - Robot portrait of a Trump supporter: male, old, white, and poorly educated

Other "You can't fool all of the people all the time."

YouGov

Back to the 19th century mercantilism

«In his second administration, Donald Trump has injected the federal government deep into private markets and undermined the independence of government agencies and institutions. Most notably, he repeatedly and publicly pressured the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. In a sharp departure from the traditional US model, and the model of economic government that has prevailed in the United States for centuries, Trump’s administration has acquired equity stakes in more than 30 American firms, and has even taken control of large swathes of the Venezuelan economy. 

Until the 19th century, Trumpian-style mercantilism was widely regarded as sound economic policy. That changed after Adam Smith’s powerful refutation of mercantilism revolutionized economic thinking. When private sector producers compete with one another, Smith argued, an “invisible hand” generates benefits that none intend, resulting in the production of goods and services that constitute the true “wealth of nations.”»

Making Globalisation Work: Trump’s 21st-Century Mercantilism

By Anne O. Krueger  (*)

___________

Anne Krueger is an American economist, World Bank Chief Economist from 1982 to 1986, and deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2001 to 2006.

"In MAGA-land people are dying faster than they are being born"

The Economist

«Populations grow and shrink from fertility and migration. At first glance Republicans appear to have the edge on both. We combined birth records with population data by age and sex to estimate fertility rates for more than 3,000 counties. In 2024 the total fertility rate—the number of children a woman would be expected to have over her lifetime—was 1.8 in counties that usually vote for Republicans, compared with just 1.4 in those that vote for Democrats (see chart 1).

The trouble comes later in life. Reliably Republican counties skew older, but they have significantly higher death rates even after adjusting for age. A paper published in 2022 by Haider Warraich, then at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and colleagues found that the adjusted death rate in red counties was 16% higher than in blue ones in 2019. Updating their analysis with data from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, we found that the gap had widened to 18% by 2024, and to 27% among the most reliably Republican and Democratic counties. The result is visible in longevity, too: life expectancy in the most reliably Democratic counties is 80.7 years, versus 77.4 in the most reliably Republican ones.

This means deaths now outnumber births in reliably Republican counties for the first time since at least 1982. Natural population growth in solid-red counties fell to -2.0 per 1,000 people during the pandemic, and is now -0.4; in solid-blue counties it is +2.8 (see chart 2).»

"You can't fool all of the people all the time" (19) - The swing voters of 2024 have abandoned the president. Swing but not stupid

 Other "You can't fool all of the people all the time."

Donald Trump’s disintegrating coalition

«Since returning to office, Mr Trump's approval ratings have sunk to historic lows. Virtually all those who voted for Ms Harris disapprove of his performance, as does one in five of his own voters. (...)  Just 65% of Mr Trump’s supporters plan to vote for a Republican.»

"You can't fool all of the people all the time" (18) - In all areas, there are more men and women of all ages, races, and educational levels who reject Trumpism on all issues. It's difficult to get worse, but not impossible.

Other "You can't fool all of the people all the time."

YouGov

Os equívocos do Programa "Mais Habitação", ou como tentar administrar uma medicação sem saber qual é a doença (15)

Continuação de (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10), (11), (12), (13), (14)

Segundo o presidente do Instituto da Habitação e da Reabilitação Urbana (IHRU), o Plano de Recuperação e Resiliência (PRR) terá financiado 31 mil casas até ao fim de Agosto.

mais liberdade

À primeira vista, parece um grande feito. À segunda vista, nem por isso. Desde logo, porque o PRR durou 5 anos e o contributo do maior programa de sempre que inundou o país com 22 mil milhões de euros (16,3 mil milhões de euros em subvenções e 5,6 mil milhões de euros de empréstimos) foi de pouco mais de 6 mil habitações por ano, o equivalente a menos de 40% da média anual de novas habitações na primeira década deste século. Depois, porque só metade das 31 mil habitações são novas, as restantes são reabilitação ou transformação de edifícios de serviços e industriais.

Financial Times

Se considerássemos o contributo do PRR para mitigar a carência de habitação uma notável realização em Portugal, como classificaríamos a realização de Auckland, a maior cidade da Nova Zelândia (menos de metade da população portuguesa) que cresceu de 1,3 milhões para 1,8 milhões em 2025 (cerca do triplo da população da cidade de Lisboa e mais de metade da população da área metropolitana de Lisboa) que há 10 anos enfrentava uma crise habitacional ? Talvez como um milagre.

O milagre consistiu em várias medidas, nomeadamente duas: foram fundidos oito órgãos locais e a cidade, entalada entre dois portos, começou a crescer em altura. Os resultados foram mais 100 mil habitações e uma queda de 25% dos preços

O mundo não é perfeito e não vai ser possível recolocar a pasta dentro da bisnaga

mais liberdade

A globalização reduziu a pobreza dos países pobres, foi sentida como uma ameaça e exacerbou o nativismo e o populismo das classes médias dos países ricos, a quem trampolineiros prometem recolocar a pasta dentro da bisnaga.

Pro memoria (148) - See my leaps, don’t read my lips. The trumping way to Make the Debt Great Again

Trading Economics

«Maybe we'll pay off our $35 trillion dollars, hand them a little crypto check, right? We'll hand them a little bitcoin and wipe out our $35 trillion.»

August 2024, in a Fox Business interview

"You can't fool all of the people all the time" (17) - Oklahoma is gone, Idaho and West Virginia are next

Other "You can't fool all of the people all the time."

YouGov

It is easy to understand why the net approval rate has been falling. What is hard to understand is that more than a third of Americans still approve.

It just have to avoid being defeated itself

Read on Quora

No, the ayatollahs would only be confident they could defeat the US if they were stupid. They are confident they only need to avoid defeat. As simple as that, but beyond the level of understanding of a guy who suffers from hubris syndrome and paranoid narcissism.

You can't fool all of the people all the time (16) - Oklahoma withdrew and joined the remaining 45 states.

Other "You can't fool all of the people all the time."

YouGov

Trumpism at its finest: accusing China of trying to manipulate the 2020 elections while he himself tries to manipulate the 2026 elections

If he knows that these doctrines are not true, he is a
demagogue; if he believes his own lies, he is an idiot.

«(Wednesday night) President Trump delivered a rare prime-time speech, but his address fell well short of the hype. Purportedly, the president was going to make a major statement about election integrity, but in reality, the speech was dense and hoarsely delivered. As my colleagues report, he provided no evidence to back up his long-standing lie that the 2020 election was stolen. The White House also released four tranches of documents meant to support the speech, but Trump’s claims were a farrago of recycled information, misrepresentations of evidence, and tendentious claims based on materials too heavily redacted to parse. Major news networks, apparently concerned that Trump would mislead, declined to air the address live.

So why even deliver it? The speech was a sign of desperation. Trump spoke now not only to distract from his sputtering Iran war and its effects on the economy, but also because his attempts to concretely interfere with the 2026 election thus far have almost all failed. As his opportunities to change the rules of the game before November slip away from him, the president is falling back on one of the few tools he has left: attempting to sow chaos and doubt among Americans.»

Trump’s Plan for November Is Failing, The Atlantic

Mitos (355) - O contrário do dogma do aquecimento global (XXXIV) - O Paradoxo de Crutzen e a Lei de Morton

Outros posts desta série

Em retrospectiva, que o debate sobre o aquecimento global, principalmente sobre o papel da intervenção humana, é muito mais um debate ideológico do que um debate científico é algo cada vez mais claro. Que nesse debate as posições tendam a extremar-se entre os defensores do aquecimento global como obra humana – normalmente gente de esquerda – e os outros – normalmente gente de direita – existindo muito pouco espaço para dúvida, ou seja, para uma abordagem científica, é apenas uma consequência da deslocação da discussão do campo científico, onde predomina a racionalidade, para o campo ideológico e inevitavelmente político, onde predomina a crença.

Nós aqui fazemos o possível para não ficar entalados entre o ruído da histeria climática que, levada às suas últimas consequências, conclui que o homo sapiens sapiens tem de ser erradicado para salvar o planeta, e o ruído das teorias da conspiração que consideram que o único problema sério com o ambiente é a histeria climática.

Negar os factos do progressivo aquecimento global exige cada vez mais uma fé quase religiosa (ver, por exemplo, os gráficos do post anterior desta série), fé que tem vindo a ser substituída pela fé contrária nos efeitos miraculosos das medidas defendidas pelo áctivismo ambiental, apesar dos avisos de há vinte anos do Prémio Nobel da Química Paul Crutzen que no seu ensaio «Albedo enhancements by stratospheric sulfur injections: a contribution to resolve a policy dilemma?» chamava a atenção para o paradoxo do ar limpo em que a redução da poluição atmosférica poderia aumentar o aquecimento global por via da redução do albedo (capacidade de reflexão da radiação solar pela superfície terrestre).

Earth is dimming

Pois bem, parece que é isso que está a acontecer: a redução dos poluentes atmosféricos, como o dióxido de enxofre (SO₂) e a fuligem, que, por um lado, reduzem a chuva ácida que mata milhões de pessoas anualmente e, por outro, têm o efeito de reflectir a luz solar e, assim, reduzir o aquecimento global.

Voltarei a este assunto e, entretanto, alinhavo, por agora, duas conclusões não sobre o clima, mas sobre a mente humana. A primeira, é que estamos, mais uma vez, perante um exemplo da Lei das «consequências imprevistas da acção social intencional» enunciada por Robert K. Merton em 1936.  A segunda é que estamos perante outro exemplo da difícil convivência do mundo real em geral, e da ciência em particular, com cérebros ideológicos (Leor Zmigrod, "The Ideological Brain") saturados com doses maciças de convicções inabaláveis alimentadas nas últimas décadas pelas redes sociais e há séculos pelo jornalismo de causas. E acrescento uma previsão: os que têm negado o aquecimento global vão passar a atribuir o inexistente aquecimento global às medidas para o mitigar. 

AVALIAÇÃO CONTÍNUA: Câmara de Almada, um caso notável de incompetência individual e sistémica

Alfredo Martirena

Secção Res ipsa loquitur

A Dr.ª Inês de Medeiros, com um nome próprio acompanhado de seis apelidos, dois advérbios e um hífen, é um membro característico das elites de esquerda bem-pensante (também poderia ser das elites de direita, que vinha a dar ao mesmo), actriz de cinema, deputada pelo PS, é há 9 anos presidente da Câmara de Almada, onde chegou, sucedendo a uma dezena de vereações comunistas, sem qualquer experiência ou vocação para gerir o que quer que seja e com notável pesporrência.

Durante sete anos produziu inúmeras declarações, sendo uma das mais notáveis sobre a água, e ignorou olímpicamente a crescente degradação da rede de água, que tem uma das mais elevadas taxas de perda e serve um concelho com um consumo per capita muito superior à média, concelho que, segundo a Dr.ª de Medeiros, estaria «assente sobre uma reserva quase inesgotável de água de grande qualidade» (apud Helena Matos). O que faz uma criatura bem-pensante quando a realidade da falta de água lhe entra pelo gabinete e os protestos dos munícipes pelos ouvidos? Procura rapidamente um culpado pelas consequências da sua negligência (o governo, Bruxelas) e alega a universal falta de meios (neste caso, os omnipresentes fundos generosamente providenciados pelos contribuintes europeus).

Concedo à Dr.ª Inês de Saint-Maurice Esteves de Medeiros Victorino de Almeida cinco urracas pela sua inacção na presidência, quatro bourbons por nada ter apreendido nem esquecido, cinco pilatos por lavar as mãos do assunto, apesar da falta de água, e três chateaubriands por imaginar que não faltaria a água em Almada, apesar do rio passar ao lado da cidade e não a atravessar. (avaliação contínua)

You can't fool all of the people all the time (15) - Idaho, North Dakota, Wyoming, West Virginia, Oklahoma, are still left

Other "You can't fool all of the people all the time."

YouGov

Is Bibi following in the footsteps of his godfather, who attacks his allies and venerates his enemies?

Groundnews

BELIEVE IT OR NOT! Finally, an agreement in which it is agreed that maybe an agreement will be reached (2) - Executive summary for MAGA believers

Continuation of (1), (2)

The following text is a summary by the MS Copilot of the article "Donald Trump gambles that Iran wants money more than power," and is intended for those who, 109 days after the incompetent attack on Iran, are still searching for a rationale in the chaotic decisions of their messiah. Good luck with that.

«The article analyzes Donald Trump’s preliminary peace deal with Iran, arguing that Trump is betting that Tehran values money more than strategic power — a risky and likely misguided assumption.

1. The deal: lots of money, few demands

Unable to defeat Iran militarily, Trump now offers:

• The unfreezing of tens of billions of dollars
• Lifting of sanctions
• Immediate access to oil exports
• A reconstruction fund of at least $300 billion (1)

In return, Iran promises:

• Not to build a nuclear weapon (a long‑standing pledge)
• To reduce part of its enriched uranium
• To negotiate aspects of its nuclear program (without firm commitments)

The regime gives up almost nothing.

 2. The Strait of Hormuz and American humiliation

The deal includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz, but:

• Before the war, the passage was already open
• Now, after 60 days, tolls may be imposed
• The article frames this as proof of the folly of the war and Trump’s final capitulation

3. Why the plan may fail

The text lists several reasons:

1. Iranian leaders do not trust the U.S.
2. They expect Israel to sabotage the agreement
3. The nuclear program provides prestige and protection
4. Iran is skilled at dragging out negotiations
5. Inspections will be difficult, and the regime may cheat

4. Israel: the big loser

• Israel pushed for the war but was excluded from the negotiations
• Its campaign against Hezbollah was weakened
• Netanyahu may pay a political price in the October elections (2)
• The war was a strategic failure: Iran remains a threat

5. Gulf states: between fear and pragmatism

• They need to restore an image of stability
• They remain vulnerable to Iranian drones and missiles
• They may:
• Strengthen ties with Israel
• Accommodate Iran
• Or try to balance both sides
• They can no longer rely on America’s willingness to fight

6. The final critique

The article concludes that:

• Trump should never have started the war
• He now tries to exit it by assuming that “everyone does everything for money”
• But diplomacy requires understanding that the adversary does not think like you

In short

The deal is portrayed as:

• A humiliating U.S. retreat
• A strategic victory for Iran
• A setback for Israel
• A risk to regional security
• A fragile bet based on financial incentives that may not work.»

_______________

(1) With the pious intention of shedding light on the dull minds that habitually resort to the lazy and unintelligent expedient of trying to disguise the errors of their idols with the errors of their enemies, I remind you that the Barack Obama administration agreed to pay Iran compensation for defaults by previous administrations to resolve a long-standing legal dispute handled by the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in The Hague. This payment had the following two main components:

• USD 400 million for failing to deliver military equipment paid for by Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution;
• USD 1.3 billion relating to interest accrued over 35 years on that amount.

(2) Bibi has based his propaganda on: (a) only he could withstand international pressure and (b) only he could influence Trump. Now Bibi is compelled to choose between (a) and (b) and either disobey Trump on Lebanon and Iran, to save (a), or give in to preserve the perception of (b). Either option is bad for Bibi.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT! Finally, an agreement in which it is agreed that maybe an agreement will be reached (2) - Losing his grip on reality itself

Continuation of this other post

«Donald Trump arrived in France yesterday for this morning’s G7 summit and promptly confirmed America’s capitulation to Iran. Instead of merely repeating the outlines of what looks to be a terrible peace deal, however, Trump made a series of statements so bizarre, even by his usual standards, that they raise the question of whether the president still understands the words that come out of his own mouth.

The president began with a classic Trumpian move, daring his listeners to forget today what they knew yesterday. Just this winter, Trump had promised the Iranian people that the tyrants who ruled them would be gone. But now? “I never cared about regime change,” he told reporters, waving away his failure to achieve a primary strategic goal by denying that it had ever been a goal at all.

Things got a little weirder, however, when he described the Iranians who have stepped in to replace the regime leaders killed in U.S. strikes: “We’re dealing with people that I think are very rational people. And they were nice to deal with.”

“They were strong people, smart people,” he added. And then he dropped this remarkable claim: “They’re not radicalized, and they’re, you know, looking to help their country.”

This definitely not-radicalized group that Trump seems to like includes the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei (whose father, wife, and son were killed by U.S. strikes), and the still-standing Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, all of whom have shown no compunction about lashing out in any direction during Trump’s “cease-fire,” the make-believe pause in the war during which no one actually ceased firing.

Trump’s description of the current regime in Tehran as a bunch of swell guys was brewed in a heavy-duty vat of wishful thinking. It’s an extreme version of Trump’s tendency, when he’s been outplayed by powerful enemies, to describe his opponents as basically reasonable people. (He has done the same over the years with dictators and autocrats in North Korea, Russia, and China, among other countries.) This is his way of assuring the public that he did not get taken to the cleaners—because, of course, his affable partners would never do that.

Trump fared no better talking about the Iranian nuclear program. Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium exists largely because Trump unilaterally called off U.S. participation in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 agreement that was meant to prevent Iran from enriching uranium beyond minimal levels for civilian uses. After the U.S. and Israeli attacks last year, and yet more pounding during Operation Epic Fury, that uranium remains underground, either hidden in storage or buried beneath tons of rubble; some of it can likely be recovered and enriched for military uses. Trump has said, repeatedly, that Iran must hand it over.

Until today.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT! Finally, an agreement in which it is agreed that maybe an agreement will be reached

After 104 days of bombing, several threats of total destruction, a three-dozen announcements of peace agreements followed by new attacks or threats causing in enormous stock market volatility, which some speculated were precisely the purpose of those announcements and threats, President Donald Trump announced yet another agreement yesterday, which, to be announced on his birthday, I speculate cost him several concessions, in addition to a concession to his own narcissism.

The announced memorandum of understanding will be signed at the end of this week and, from what it appears so far, leaves the most difficult issues for later, including the fate of the enriched uranium stockpile.