Links Christmas Day

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1. Jim Haygood December 25, 2015 at 8:14 am

   ‘People are definitely interested in cannabis-themed gifts, and they are coming in for gifts that can help someone harvest their plants.’ — Alternet

   Had a visit from Colorado friends. As a couple, they’re entitled to grow twelve plants (six apiece). They cheated a bit by germinating more than a dozen, then weeding out the males.

   Colorado law requires that plants not be visible from outside the property, so they grew them in a small outdoor greenhouse in the back yard, with frosted polycarbonate glazing.

   After three growing seasons, they’ve got more cannabis than they can use stored in the garage. So they aren’t even planting this spring.

   Last I heard, they were baking brownies for Christmas. :-)
   1. ambrit December 25, 2015 at 8:37 am

      If the giving of weed is legal in the DC, pack up some and send it to their Congress droid. Would that be bribery, practicing medicine without a license, interstate transport, a Racketeer Influenced Philanthropic Organization (RIPO), [if you can convince your friends to follow suit,]? Given the porous nature of campaign finance law, the act of not reporting this activity would not cross the threshold of misprision, and neither would you.
      1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef December 25, 2015 at 11:48 am

         Will we see better DC politicians as a result?
         1. ambrit December 25, 2015 at 12:09 pm

            If it gets them off of coke, an unqualified yes.
            1. Gio Bruno December 25, 2015 at 1:12 pm

               …brown or white?
      2. sid_finster December 25, 2015 at 8:35 pm

         Weed nothing. They should put thorazine in the DC water supply.
   2. Paul Tioxon December 25, 2015 at 9:06 am

      Alas, the time has come to pass where we don’t bake the brownies, the brownies bake us.
      1. ambrit December 25, 2015 at 12:11 pm

         It gives a new meaning to “Deep Fried Twinkies.”
2. fresno dan December 25, 2015 at 9:20 am

   Stephen Breyer on the global challenges facing the Supreme Court Market News (Jim Haygood).

   Wager: The “challenges” will always be used to diminish the citizens rights and increase the state and corporations rights…

   Breyer: “As a lawyer and judge, I see our government as a kind of experiment in which Americans have long engaged. At a time when democracy was to be found nowhere else in the world,…”

   ======================
   A lawyer and a Judge, but apparently, not a political scientist or historian. The United States is a republic, and if one looks at a number of countries at the time, it would be hard to argue that the Swiss, Dutch, or English (and who knows how many elsewhere) were NOT substantively republics as well and their citizen had substantively rights on par with the US (cough, cough, cough….coughs lung out…OH YEAH – SLAVERY). Britain abolished slave trading 1807 (without a war) and Slavery in 1833 (without a war) The US, like most states than, were de facto Oligarchies, and many would argue the US still is…

   Seriously, I find this RAH RAH exceptional-ism that is expressed by someone who should know better nettlesome and tedious. It precludes discussion by taking it as a given that the US always is doing the right thing by virtue of its manifest destiny, instead of examining policies as to their logic, utility, and intrinsic worth.
   1. Antifa December 25, 2015 at 10:23 am

      Excellent observations.

      There is also the looming arrival of some version of TPP-style treaties in all directions, which will let any corporate entity in any signatory country override and nullify laws duly passed by the American people or their representatives. The Supreme Court’s opinion won’t matter, and won’t be asked for. The treaty already settled it.

      The SCOTUS needs nine rubber stamps that all say the same thing:

      “Not my job, mon!”
      1. Kurt Sperry December 25, 2015 at 3:23 pm

         Sometimes global consensuses (yes, that’s the plural) can be invoked for good at the SCOTUS–see Stevens on Atkins v. Virginia or Kennedy on Roper v. Simmons, both controversial DP cases where global consensus was invoked to argue against the DP.
      2. polecat December 25, 2015 at 11:28 pm

         “Nine rings to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them!”
   2. tegnost December 25, 2015 at 11:30 pm

      yes I cringed a bit when reading it and second antifas basis of approval, those who despise regulations seek to impose regulations upon us(TPP being a regulatory structure) while absolving themselves of any responsibility for doing so because TINA. I’m sure they’ll be happy to opine on how we can fit ourselves into the new rule regime.
3. jgordon December 25, 2015 at 10:07 am

   What Drives Gun Sales: Terrorism, Politics and Calls for Restrictions

   I can absolutely confirm this. I don’t own a gun and don’t feel any particular desire to have one. However the one time I was desperate to get one was right after the Sandy Hook shootings and Obama started talking about gun bans. At that point I raced over to several local sporting goods stores to buy what I was looking for (at that time, an AK-47), but all the stores were either out of stock or the weapon was 3X more expensive than it was usually. So I went home disappointed. After a while it looked like gun control wasn’t going to pass after all, my anxiety went down, and I forgot about it.

   Yes, the only time I’m really inclined to run out and arm myself is when gun-control advocates start talking about the need to ban guns. And further more if they only talk about banning certain types of guns and accessories for them, then it is precisely those items they want to ban that I feel the most intense need to acquire. I’m certain that’s the situation for most people. It’s why I have a such a jaundiced vie of these “anti-gun” efforts. They’re manipulating me into buying guns!

   Later I started analyzing my reactions and I realized just how effective Obama et al are as gun salesmen. Also, with the cynicism I’d come to view the Obama regime by that time, it suddenly occurred to me that the NRA must be doing something for Obama and others on the left to get them to run these boneheaded campaigns that completely backfire each and every time they’re tried. Whether knowingly or not they’re the most effective tools at the NRA’s disposal.
   1. Lambert Strether Post authorDecember 25, 2015 at 11:12 pm

      Yes, that’s why ridiculing ammosexuals is necessary as a starting point; it’s a moral issue, and will probably take a generation to play out, much as the NRA’S public relations campaign did, or cancer stick marketing and subsequent successful regulation each did.

      Apparently, a threat to your consumer fetish object of choice had you in such a dither you actually thought Obama was capable of accomplishing something.
      1. jgordon December 26, 2015 at 2:35 am

         You really think American society is going to hang together for another several generations? Well that’s probably where one of the major unexamined points of contention is then: considering the current rate of degeneration, I don’t personally think that we’ll have much of a coherent society left in a few years time–anarchy, or at least much smaller political units, will be the rule for America in the years ahead and whatever measure of safety and security will exist for the people will be eked out through their own efforts.

         If you really want to have your unpopular ideas about gun control become more widespread you could start by convincing people that the government that will be enforcing those gun control programs is fair, legitimate, and stable. And if you don’t even believe those things are true yourself (imperial collapse watch?), then why in the world would you want that government to have even more power and control over citizens?
         1. Lambert Strether Post authorDecember 26, 2015 at 2:36 am

            No, step one is to make gun humpers seem as ridiculous as they are. Thanks for your assistance!
            1. jgordon December 26, 2015 at 9:39 am

               You have no logic or reason for your beliefs. I have had this same sort of conversation before with religious nuts. Well, at least I know where you’re coming from now.
         2. ewmayer December 26, 2015 at 5:35 pm

            So your prediction for the not-too-distant future is of a dystopian America which resembles the ZeroHedge commentariat, one of millions of human mini-Smaug-the-dragon basement-lair hoarders of gold, silver and lead. Interesting … do roaming hordes of flesh-crazed zombies have a place in your future America?
4. Puppytoes December 25, 2015 at 10:43 am

   Mother Theresa described as “manipulative,” “dishonest,” and “despicable?”
   Really?
   Merry Christmas to you, too!
5. Steve H. December 25, 2015 at 10:52 am

   { Forget the snark. Merry Christmas}

   (edited)
6. dcblogger December 25, 2015 at 11:04 am

   what do you want to bet that the document alleging that ISIS is involved in organ harvesting is a forgery?
   1. Steve H. December 25, 2015 at 11:13 am

      Moon of Alabama has a previous instance:

      http://www.moonofalabama.org/2015/12/us-military-spokesperson-circulates-fake-islamic-state-document.html
   2. Katniss Everdeen December 25, 2015 at 12:38 pm

      Where’s your sense of humor?

      It’s prolly just those crazy jokesters at the cia paying back their buddies at the “defense” department for sabotaging their program to arm the “moderate” syrian rebels by sending obsolete Korean-war-era ordnance instead of gunz that worked. (As linked here a few days ago.)

      Hilarious.
   3. optimader December 25, 2015 at 10:31 pm

      So how would the logistics work on that again?.. absurd .
7. MyLessThanPrimeBeef December 25, 2015 at 11:35 am

   Dalene Bowen free lunch, hungry student.

   More education at work.

   What are we teaching our hungry and not-so-hungry students?
   1. Katniss Everdeen December 25, 2015 at 12:23 pm

      But Bowden said if a child exceeds the $11 credit limit, workers are instructed to take their tray away and throw out the food.

      We’re teaching them the consequences of not managing their credit responsibly or the need to live within their “means.” It’s been said that american students are not financially “literate” enough. It would appear that’s not the case in Pocatello, where financial “literacy” is a priority, even in the cafeteria.

      “So this is Christmas, And what have you done……
      1. John Zelnicker December 27, 2015 at 8:54 am

         The child in question had not exceeded her credit limit!
8. MyLessThanPrimeBeef December 25, 2015 at 11:43 am

   Cronyism…the worst kind of inequality.

   Nepotism is also up there.

   “Of course, you’re my friend.”

   “No problem. He’s my cousin. We have a big family.”

   “The job goes to that person over there. We’re from the same country, the same people.”

   Why?

   Is it because our friend-foe identification gene is math-challenged (specifically, large number challenged)?
9. MyLessThanPrimeBeef December 25, 2015 at 11:55 am

   London must stop sucking up cash…

   Isn’t London, and not the rest of that country, where fiat money is created?

   Are we seeing something similar to the Observation Effect here – the ability to create money changes that entity and leads to a need to suck up more cash?
10. Bunk McNulty December 25, 2015 at 11:59 am

    Gunz for Xmas: Police Kill Teen Gunman Inside Northlake Mall
11. MyLessThanPrimeBeef December 25, 2015 at 12:02 pm

    The Flynn Effect and a worsening world…a warmer planet and a world with more and wider wealth inequality – don’t leave home (country) without it (inequality).

    Maybe we should pray for an anti-Flynn effect or a reverse Flynn effect?!?!?!

    Very smart people?

    We have too many of them. And a lot more ‘just smart’ people.

    Give us some not-so-smart ones instead.
12. Vatch December 25, 2015 at 12:23 pm

    Merry Christmas, Happy belated Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Merry Saturnalia, everyone!

    Here’s a nice short interview with a New Yorker cartoonist by the Center for Biological Diversity:

    http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/toro_cartoon.html

    Cartoonist Tom Toro says:

    My greatest concern is that unchecked population growth and depletion of the earth’s natural resources will lead to a desolate planet. A barren place where people can’t see beyond the sprawl of what we ourselves have constructed and controlled, where all of the wonder and mystery and diversity of nature has been erased and there’s no place left to step off the concrete and to stand in awe of all creation. I can’t imagine a worse home for our species than one in which we live alone.
13. gonzomarx December 25, 2015 at 12:59 pm

    Merry Christmas to one and all.
14. John December 25, 2015 at 1:11 pm

    The Free lunch comment brought mirth and merriment to my Christmas!

    We should not underestimate how much laughing (so hard milk came through my nose) can be antidote like the daily dose of animals….

    Grateful!
    1. Lambert Strether Post authorDecember 26, 2015 at 3:52 am

       Sorry about that….
15. LifelongLib December 25, 2015 at 2:27 pm

    Jacobin has an article on what really happened with “Datagate”:

    https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/12/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-data-breach-president-debate/

    Merry Christmas to all!
16. Cynthia December 25, 2015 at 2:39 pm

    Greetings and felicitations to Yves and Lambert for all of the brilliant, relentless, compelling analysis and commentary on contemporary events and other interesting topics from time to time.

    And best wishes to all other regulars, old and new, active or less so, holiday greetings to you too and good wishes to you for the New Year.

    I rarely comment here anymore, but I still frequent this site and appreciate the views and insights of all.
    1. Yves Smith December 26, 2015 at 2:47 am

       I owe a big thanks to all of you who have wished Lambert and me a Merry Christmas, and I want to thank Lambert for being willing to run the site today (and tomorrow) so I can have a sort-of breather.
17. Jim December 25, 2015 at 2:46 pm

    The article “Feuding physicist turn to Philosophy for help,” may have some application to feuding economists.

    The article states “For a scientific theory to considered valid, scientists often require that there be an experience that could, in principle, rule the theory out…or falsify it, as the philosopher Karl Popper but it in the 1930s.”

    But Popper seems to want to limit the scope of contingency for the sake of being able to do science as he conceives of it.

    In another essay Popper wrote “What is dialectic,” he argued that according to the rules of inference enshrined in the traditional Aristotelian logic, a toleration of contradiction means that no possibilities can be ruled out. He states that if two contradictory statements are admitted any statement whatsoever must be admitted–for from a couple of contradictory statements any statement whatsoever can be validly inferred.

    Popper argues that in order to do science in a fruitful way we need to circumscribe this scope of contradiction to the furthest extent possible and then the results could harbor the prospect of being cumulative, linear and progressive.

    But there are philosophical positions (like, for example, skeptical idealism) which is concerned with perpetually opening up presuppositions of argument to further scrutiny and investigation–of being committed simultaneously to the truth and the untruth of all propositions.

    Adapting this philosophical perspective might go a long way toward diminishing the religious fervor of debates between economic theorists who tend to believe that they have grasped the truth.
    1. craazyman December 25, 2015 at 6:24 pm

       string theory poses some knotty epistimological problems. what are the strings made out of? boy. more strings? maybe string theory can be tied to quantum loops. knitting two theories like that together would either go in circles or you can thread your way to another universe. you can already hear the naysayers chorus of “fraid not’. But you have to keep sewing your ideas together. They may not be as loopy as they sound. I’d have more respeect for these fukkers if they looked for bigfoot. But they are not empiricists anymore. They just sit around and mentally you know what. it begins with an m. and ends with a bate. other universes can certinly be observed and they are every day, but nobody believes it. there’s a video on the internet right now of sounds from hell. it’s in mexico. google ‘;Listen to eerie underground noises sparking panic in Mexican town’ It may not be hell but it sure sounds like it. it may be anoher uinverse, right there in a british newspaper! Thaat’s not hard to find, even for a theoretical physicist. There was even a video of a levitating witch or demon of some kind there too. It may still be on youtube. it is kind of freaky. I wouldn’t want to see it. Actually i would, through binoculars, and only far enough away that I could escape if it started heading toward me. I would be like Scooby Doo running, that’s for sure
18. ewmayer December 25, 2015 at 6:05 pm

    Was out of town yesterday and catching up on several days’ worth of recent posts today, but would like to comment w.r.to the 12/23-linked China Just Launched the Most Frightening Game Ever — and Soon It Will Be Mandatory | The AntiMedia (ChuckL).

    Prediction: Western “democratic” governments will very soon – insofar that they are not already doing this sort of thing “informally” already – be going down this route, but with an even more subtle twist: Instead of any appearance of mandatoriness, people not allowing their life data to be continually vacuumed up via social media (and thereby dutifully fed to the government domestic-spying hydra) will simply find themselves evermore shut out of the emerging Big Data-run economy. Want to work in the aboveground economy? Gotta have a Facefuck acount, your employer’s corporate spying app installed on your smartphone and and be trackably online 24/7.
    1. hidflect December 25, 2015 at 6:53 pm

       You can already see it in the “Rewards” cards at supermarkets that offer 2% discounts of your purchases. I refuse to participate in a system that informs private enterprise of who I am, what I purchase and when I purchase it. It is not a 2% discount to all participants, it a 2% penalty on me for my intransigence with the higher powers.
       1. diptherio December 25, 2015 at 8:34 pm

          Who said you have to give them your real information? ;-)
       2. sd December 25, 2015 at 8:36 pm

          Exactly. Add to that discount, rebate and gift cards.
       3. different clue December 25, 2015 at 9:10 pm

          I got a store rewards card once. I gave a false name and address. I only pay in cash when I shop there.
19. Daryl December 25, 2015 at 6:22 pm

    Well, Merry Christmas and thanks to Yves, Lambert and all for keeping us informed. It’s 80 degrees here, so I’m enjoying it in shorts and a t-shirt.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ECUtkv2qV8
20. Plenue December 25, 2015 at 7:18 pm

    When you start looking for hard information on Teresa, a picture of a truly awful human being emerges. It isn’t just that she didn’t spend much of her huge amount of money to actually help people; it’s that she had a typically extreme Catholic philosophy that suffering was in itself beautiful and noble. Her Home for the Dying is literally what its name says: it’s a place for being to stay in until they die. They call it a hospice, but there isn’t much actual care going on in it. But of course she herself didn’t like to suffer and happily flew herself off to the United States whenever she needed expensive medical treatment.
    1. optimader December 25, 2015 at 10:56 pm

       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Mother%27s_Smile
       1. William C December 26, 2015 at 4:30 pm

          An alternative point of view:

          PrasadJeremiah

          Being an Indian and have practically seen the missionary services rendered by the noble mother, I am not in favour of Mr.E. MaCaan’s opinon. Mother has taught what is humanity, human service and the path of Jesus Christ in India. Mother has earned lot of respect and many poorest among poor are worshiping her.
          1. Plenue December 26, 2015 at 4:43 pm

             So she impressed people with her metaphysical talk. Still doesn’t change the fact that she took millions in donations to give aid to the poor and then didn’t do much with it to, you know, actually aid the poor. Instead she expressed admiration for their suffering.
             1. Skippy December 26, 2015 at 4:50 pm

                Biggest revenue cow for the RCC and modern times and example of Calvin…

                skippy…. just shows what a dash of Bernays can do…
                1. William C December 27, 2015 at 7:32 am

                   I think there was more to the story than just metaphysical talk and advertising.

                   I only met her once, when I was 18 and doubtless easily impressed, but she struck me as a very good, loving woman with a genuine concern for the most disadvantaged in society. Would I have thought differently when I was older and more cynical? Perhaps. I cannot tell.

                   More substantively I do know that when she stayed with my uncle she insisted that he accompany her to go and look for the homeless living under the nearby bridges, to see what they could do to help them. I suspect that she thought the Catholic clergy were better at preaching the Gospel message of concern for the poor than at living it, and that they needed to see the problems on their own doorstep.

                   What caused amusement in the family was that we knew my uncle regarded it as his duty as a priest in a city with significant homeless to go out every evening to walk the neighbouring streets looking for homeless people to see if he could help them find some shelter for the night. He was too much the gentleman to tell her that.

                   I am no expert on the details of her life but what little I know of as absolute fact -as opposed to information intermediated through the media – does not make me think her a monster.
21. VietnamVet December 25, 2015 at 9:08 pm

    The SpaceX article is interesting in describing the burgeoning space program. The landing of the first stage is remarkable and will open further space exploitation. But, if you wonder why everyone’s head is buried in the sand, this article is a prime example. The path the space program has taken is described as “weird”. It is not that. It is crony capitalism run wild.
22. cwaltz December 25, 2015 at 11:28 pm

    A little good news instead of bad, Bowden was offered her job back after this made news.

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-lunch-lady-fired-for-free-meal-offered-job-back-20151224-story.html

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