Golden Parade: Mummified pharaohs moved to new Cairo home Deutsche Welle
Malaysian resort island Langkawi can avoid environmental disaster by making the most of flying lemur and other wildlife’s comeback during Covid-19 travel ban, scientist says South China Morning Post
How my uncle dodged death and escaped from East Pakistan to India (with a little help from a hen) Scroll
The Ethiopian who saved an Italian goat cheese BBC
Food, Not Steel, Is Our Biggest Climate Challenge Project Syndicate. Adair Turner.
Dozens dead as torrential rain leads to floods and landslides in Indonesia and Timor-Leste ABC News
As endangered birds lose their songs, they can’t find mates Phys.org
A doctor and medical ethicist argues life after 75 is not worth living MIT Technology Review. From 2019; still germane.
Sleeping octopuses might experience fleeting dreams – new study The Conversation
#COVID-19
Are we entering a ‘fourth wave’ of the pandemic? Experts disagree. WaPo
Pharmacies score customer data in vaccine effort. Some are crying foul. Politico
Should College Students Be Prioritized for Covid-19 Vaccines Now? Chronicle of Higher Education
An apparent fourth wave of COVID-19 is centered in the East. Will it hit California? LA Times
Europe’s third wave: ‘It’s spreading fast and it’s spreading everywhere’ FT
Weekend Lockdown In Maharashtra, 8 PM-7 AM Curfew Amid Covid Surge NDTV
100,000 New COVID-19 Cases and Bad Governance Push India to Cusp of Disaster The Wire
Everyone in England to be offered twice-weekly Covid tests, PM to say Guardian
An HIV lab’s pivot to develop a single-dose Covid-19 vaccine wins STAT Madness ‘Editors’ Pick’ Stat
Why some Republicans think vaccine passports will backfire on Democrats The Hill
UK eyes testing COVID-19 passports at mass gatherings AP
Backed by Millions in Public and Private Cash, Rapid Covid Tests Are Coming to Stores Near You Kaiser Health News
Big Brother IS Watching You Watch
All the data Google’s apps collect about you and how to stop it Wired
Hacker Publishes Phone Numbers and Other Data of 533 Million Facebook Users for Free Gizmodo
Class Warfare
MLK Was a Radical Who Hated Not Only Racial Subordination But Class Exploitation Jacobin
The Liberal Contempt for Martin Luther King’s Final Year Consortium News
Homes selling faster than ever even as prices rise to all-time highs Fox 5
Guillotine Watch
Covid: Paris police probe ‘secret luxury dinner parties’ BBC
Our Famously Free Press
Tankie, Conspiracy Theorist, And Other Pejorative Tools of Narrative Control Caitlin Johnstone
The Enduring Terror of Violent Crime Victimhood Glenn Greenwald
Sports Desk
As Republicans Fume, Georgia Dems Have Mixed Reactions to MLB’s All-Star Game Relocation Common Dreams
Inside Corporate America’s Frantic Response to the Georgia Voting Law NYT
Biden Administration
GOP Unites in Opposition to Biden’s Popular Infrastructure Plan TruthOut
Why Biden won’t likely leave Afghanistan Asia Times
As Biden Ramps Up Detention Capacity, Group Warns Contaminated Military Bases ‘Are No Place’ for Kids Common Dreams
Turkish ex-admirals arrested over criticism of Erdoğan’s ‘crazy’ canal scheme Guardian
Turkey arrests 10 retired admirals over government criticism Al Jazeera
Netanyahu in court as Israel’s lawmakers mull over his political fate Guardian
Syraqistan
Saudi Arabia’s scramble for an exit strategy in Yemen Al Jazeera
Jordan’s Prince Hamzah vows to defy ‘house arrest’ orders BBC
Biden regime taking on global authoritarianism — by reaffirming our strong support for a feudal king who arrested his feudal prince brother because he criticized the monarchy’s systemic corruption. The values-based liberal international order is back!https://t.co/9GWWXtpDFj
— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) April 4, 2021
Old Blighty
The government’s race report has fuelled the controversy it was supposed to lay to rest Independent. Patrick Cockburn.
‘Kill the bill’: More than 100 arrests at London protest Al Jazeera
Waste Watch
Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act reintroduced, plastics industry ramps up opposition Waste Dive
China?
China warns US against taking a superior position in global affairs South China Morning Post
Springtime for Hitler meets The Sound of Music. ? China produces a musical set in Xinjiang. Even fiction about an authoritarian state’s propaganda couldn’t have made this up. I read this entire piece with my jaw on the floor. AFP via The Guardian: https://t.co/Zlp4U4Hwr8
— Melissa Chan (@melissakchan) April 4, 2021
Myanmar
Bangladesh’s Bloggers Under Siege Diplomat
India
CCTV cameras switched off in EVM strongroom, alleges Congress candidate in West Bengal Scroll
‘Mind Game’: How a Perception War Is Dominating the Bengal Election Campaign The Wire
When Modi invokes Gandhi, he should also recall the Mahatma’s criticism of the sedition law Scroll
Excerpts: US State Dept Report Records Increasing Use of UAPA by Indian Government The Wire
Pre-Columbian transregional captive rearing of Amazonian parrots in the Atacama Desert Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Antidote du Jour (via):
And a bonus video:
Start your day watching a couple of gorgeous birds bathing @ParrotOfTheDay pic.twitter.com/xgQcrOnyie
— Kerrit Bareet birdbath cam (@KerritBareetCam) April 4, 2021
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
86 comments
Comments are closed.
Good morning everybody!
[Insert name of favourite politico here] is Risen!
Meet the ‘New Boss,’ same as the ‘Old Boss.’ (Welcome to the ‘Cult of the Boss.’)
American politics has sunk to the level of ‘Blasphemers’ versus ‘Heretics.’
Re: Zeke Emmanuel’s proposed cutoff at 75–
Contra:
Maude: I’ll be 80 next week. Good time to move on, don’t you think?
Harold: I don’t know.
Maude: I mean, 75 is too early, but at 85 you’re just marking time. May as well go look over the horizon.
And doesn’t Zeke realize our political class would be decimated if his recommendations were followed? Even Maude’s 80 would be too early.
Massachusetts fined me for not having insurance after I was laid off last March. I didn’t get it because I couldn’t get an appointment, my doctor closed his office for a bit. I filled an amended return claiming a “deep religious objection” to getting healthcare. As the Massachusetts refers to healthcare as insurance, and the title of the form and most of it’s verbage inserts “healthcare” in the place “insurance” ought to be, it will be interesting to see the outcome of my amendment. In a slight twist, the religious objection part asked “did you receive HEALTHCARE in 2020?”. I correctly respond “no”. I am expecting them to reply “but you had insurance Jan, Feb, March so you can’t claim religious objection” to which I hope to be able to reply “Insurance isn’t healthcare. I received no healthcare in 2020.”
Actually, that argument ( decimation of the politicians in Congress and the white house) may be a strong one for Zeke
Henry Moon Pie
April 5, 2021 at 7:35 am
considering you shouldn’t trust anyone over 30…
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074812/
My mom, who died at 84, suffered for most of her adult life from manic-depression. It wasn’t diagnosed until after she had passed the 75 mark, at which point she was prescribed a medication that worked wonderfully. Her remaining years were probably the happiest of her life.
Zeke can stuff it.
I know a lot of people over 75 who are happy to be alive and who make other people’s lives happier and richer too. Zeke can stuff his Logan’s Run rubbish.
Zeke is 63, according to wiki. I *might* (emphasize “might”) listen to him in another 12 years… to see if he’s really serious and see what he does then. /heh (Who gave him the title “ethicist”?)
“A doctor and medical ethicist argues life after 75 is not worth living”
His aim is to die at age 75 by not taking any life-saving medications. Mine is to have half a dozen showgirls arguing over my drunken carcass. We all have our own fantasies. And yeah, I can believe that this is Rahm Emanuel’s brother talking. I suspect that this guy will be like another Ayn Rand. Arguing against all government support – but in old age enrolling in Social Security and Medicare using another name.
I’m with Tyrion Lannister on the best way to die. (youtube link).
Re: A doctor and medical ethicist argues life after 75 is not worth living
Why stop at those worthless people who are over-75? Let’s get rid of *all* the undesirables.
But how to choose? That’s a real question for an ethicist.
I have a modest proposal for Zeke. How about everyone with an IQ less than Zeke’s, or everyone with an annual income less than Zeke’s. But maybe that’s too complicated. Let’s simplify it further. How about anyone over 40 without a PhD from an elite university or a net worth of less than seven figures?
Reckon they’re already trying to wipe out everyone that can’t afford housing of some sort. They keep squeezing the lower classes and making it harder for more and more people. Gotta wonder what their goal really is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezekiel_Emanuel
Describing him as “a doctor and medical ethicist” is the understatement of the day so far.
…but, but…who would blow my leaves!?
How about anyone who can’t tell a juvenile female Philadelphia vireo from a juvenile female Tennessee warbler in the fall?
Interesting how the world would be a better place when he and his siblings leave it.
I used to work as a health economist. One of the so-called gurus (Alan Williams) is (in)famous for arguing for the “fair innings” – three score years and ten (70). He argued at conferences for many years and here is a reference:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/8199102_A_fair_innings_between_the_sexes_Are_men_being_treated_inequitably
Needless to say he was constrained by old style neoclassical rules on monetary rules rather than real rules on resources. What made his diatribes at conferences very insidious was that that he’d use his own chronic conditions as defences to attack anyone who argued against his hypothesis that “we get 70 years then the state should essentially let us die”. He set a lot of the rules used by NICE. Whilst undoubtedly a good figure in the fight for health being not something dependent on “ability to pay” his arguments went much further and never ever understood post-keynesian economics.
Suffice to say this use of his arguments as a new ” point of retreat” is not what I’d like.
My mother just turned 94, I doubt very much that she would agree that life after 75 isn’t worth living.
Everyone should read the article where the doctor argues life after 75 is not worth living.This is the doctor who had a major role in designing Obamacare. No wonder Obamacare is such a lousy health care plan.
That article is almost two years old and I remember the uproar about it back then.
That someone CAN live to 110, that alone has meaning. Too bad he can’t see it.
And I just have to add, that for rich folks like the Emaunel’s, well, they probably are less likely to need life saving medications after 75. But heck, I am having a hard time getting medications in my 50’s so…
You’re right.I didn’t notice the 2019 date, although I usually check such things.Technology Review doesn’t typically reprint old pieces. I missed this interview when it was originally published. I’ve added a note to indicate it’s not a new piece, but is still germane. Or at least I think it is.
It’s still germane and it’s good to remind people
Thanks for your comment. I guess it’s especially so if he’s a member of a Biden COVID-19 advisory board.
this Emmanuel ghoul demonstrates that ‘smart’ does not = ‘wise’
disgusted to see he is a professor of medical ethics
but then again, he’s not the only ruthless jerk who has slithered up the greasy pole
of ‘meritocracy’
What is this doctor’s idea of a meaningful life if it isn’t getting to hike and ride motorcycles and PLAY after a lifetime of work? It sees to me he’s saying that retirement is a waste of space and for oldies to get off the planet when they start needing help.
How does this attitude qualify him as any kind of ethicist? Is it the job of an ethicist to decide which lives are meaningful?
A doctor and medical ethicist argues life after 75 is not worth living
These people who live a vigorous life to 70, 80, 90 years of age—when I look at what those people “do,” almost all of it is what I classify as play. It’s not meaningful work.
What a Puritan a**hole.
Haha!
Add in: “These children…seven, ten, twelve year olds. I look at what these people do. It’s not meaningful work. Are there no workhouses?”
Babies are so lazy!
Laying around, crying all the time.
Let’s hook them up to bio batteries so all that heat energy isn’t wasted.
It is ironic that Emmanuel lambastes the Silicon Valley types for their stereotypical Californian egotism, yet casually invokes his American, or Puritan as you say, work ethic. Even more to the point, there are some philosophies that consider an obsession with doing as a sign of mental illness, and one should be being as much as one can. In that way, if being retired allows one the time to do that, then it’s a period in your life that gives you the best opportunity to be fully alive.
What a Capitalist a**hole. “Work or Die.”
What’s truly galling to me is that he never once considers what they provide to others, be it wisdom, experience, or even a direct example of the reality of old age and suffering.
People shouldn’t live past 75 for their own sake, so much as the sake of their grand- and great-grandchildren
It won’t be long before we’re rhetoric about “useless mouths…”
We’re already there. Ask a liberal Democrat if “deplorables” deserve health care. It’s like 1930’s Germany. Deplorable-Nacht is right around the corner. And it will be led with a Twitter attack.
Judging from how my mother was treated I think doctors often do resent the elderly since, whatever they do for them, the long term outcome is unlikely to be good and dents their heroic healer self image.
The other night PBS had a good show about Doc Severinsen who is still playing trumpet at concerts and going to the gym in his 90s. I haven’t yet read the article but here’s suggesting that in common with all broad brush stereotypes it’s likely hooey and intellectually lazy.
>and dents their heroic healer self image.
That is a really good point. That’s why they persist, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, about “lifestyle” and everything else they can think of (well, nothing societal of course as that would mean confronting TPTB, just individual) to blame people for dying at an age not to far off from their parents and their parents before and their parents before that…
Again, I am totally about exercising (which I do), eating healthy foods (which I do), minimizing stress (ok getting better at it…) and all that stuff. It really really improves the quality of your life.
But longevity? Eh, not so much. The only thing about the Trump family that makes them useful is that they are fat and eat cheeseburgers and worse and Dad lived to 96 and I would take odds on The Donald making it to at least his mid-80s. And we should rub that in the medical profession’s face every chance we get.
Whereas every male in my family is long dead, and I have no doubt that I won’t even see Trump’s current age.
“Ummm, that’s not probably a meaningful life.”
This guy is a medical ethicist? His obtuseness is matched only by his callousness.
And he’s talking about people who are living “vigorous lives” at 80 or 90, hiking, riding motorcycles. If anything—assuming we have to make judgments at all—I would think it’s better to celebrate those lives rather than assessing them on one’s own scale of “meaningfulness” as not measuring up.
This medical ‘ethicist’ has been the point man against single payer every time it has come out since he helped produce that massive payoff to insurance companies and private medical and Big Pharma known as ACA aka Obamacare. You know the huge ‘healthcare’ reform that meant more people had insurance but Kaiser proved went to the doctor less, even as insurance and medical costs increased at an exponentially higher rate than inflation.
There is little ethical about Zeke Emmanuel. And you can be sure that when he gets to be elderly any ‘rules’ he is now advocating will certainly not apply to him. Well that is unless there is a God in heaven who turns him into a seeming drooling vegetable preferably secretly aware of every humiliation of the medical system.
I fully admit if I had to choose between karmic retributions where Rahm went to a slave labor/private prison for the rest of his life for his multiple crimes against humanity most especially his part in the Chicago black box illegal detention center and of a drooling Zeke helpless in a medical conditions usually reserved for us plebes, I would have to go with Rahm. But it would be one of the toughest decisions of my life.
“Well that is unless there is a God in heaven who turns him into a seeming drooling vegetable preferably secretly aware of every humiliation of the medical system.”
And if that God keeps Zekie-poo alive in that condition till age 150, with terminal-cancer-style pain for every day of that “extra 75 years of life”, that would be a God I can get behind.
Brother of Rahm, in case anyone missed that.
I am appreciative of the post, but I do wish- regardless of when he penned it, that it would have had some mention of author, and connection to Brother Rahm.
Dot-connecting.
Add a few drops of follow the money and agenda elixir, and voila— a Cynics Dream!
I’ve got to stop reading NC first thing in the morning. Gets my blood pressure up…
Re: “A doctor and medical ethicist argues life after 75 is not worth living”
“…when I look at what those people “do,” almost all of it is what I classify as play. It’s not meaningful work. They’re riding motorcycles; they’re hiking. Which can all have value—don’t get me wrong. But if it’s the main thing in your life? Ummm, that’s not probably a meaningful life.”
What a selfish s*** to think that his definition of ‘meaningful life’ is definitive. Given his siblings, it seems his parents made some significant errors in raising their children.
“Europe’s third wave: ‘It’s spreading fast and it’s spreading everywhere’ ”
It’s serious but not yet critical. If it was actually critical, you would be reading how the EU is giving emergency approval of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for use in the EU itself. After all, the European Medicines Agency does have their pride-
https://www.rt.com/russia/520129-eu-delaying-sputnik-v-approval/
The article is part of the fear porn, which is being touted by the media in general. Numerous people are really getting more and more pissed off, at the lack of progress, and the insane measures, which have typically been more severe compared to the first wave (when we still thought Covid-19 was much more deadly, than it actually is). Add to this a healthy disapproval of “medical apartheid”, also known as the vaccine passport, which has been in the works for years in the EU.
As far as I can see for most of the countries involved, we’re still following the seasonal behavior of this type of virus, and things will get better in a few weeks. Also, the number of cases should NOT be used as an indication, since it depends on the number of tests. The number of people actually in a hospital, or IC, should be the really significant figures. The number of cases is too easily gamed to keep up the measures, which have outlived their purpose. I’ve seen this occur in The Netherlands recently as well, the number of tests has increased to keep up the number of “cases”.
Why do you say this vaccine passport has been in the works for years in Europe?
I am against them but I had not heard of a plan, just reaction to the pandemic.
It may be a sort of stand-by plan for “emergency passports” of one kind or another, just waiting for a golden moment to make it real.
In America, the “Patriot Act” was a years-in-the-making laundry list of police-surveillance-state means and methods waiting for an excuse. When Deeply Hidden government-allied-and-supplied actors attacked various sites and people with military-grade anthrax, including attacking Senators’ offices with it as a warning to pass that bill or else, the Congress went ahead and passed that bill.
I saw on the Italian state broadcaster RAI a report of a deal being made to produce the Russian Sputnik vaccine soon in Italy. The EU are reportedly furious about it. Haven’t seen anything in the English language press.
My personal perspective is that between the irrational waffling and delaying on getting the AZ vaccine and trying to prevent member countries from acquiring their own vaccine supplies, that the EU regulatory bureaucracy appears to be doing everything in its power to guarantee that as many EU citizens as possible will become infected and die of COVID. And the plan seems to be working a treat judging by the results.
>MLK Was a Radical Who Hated Not Only Racial Subordination But Class Exploitation – Jacobin
The article ends with this conclusion:
…the real question is how to invent a liberatory politics around both race and class that shows respect for difference while dramatizing a common condition.
“Liberatory politics?” What is that exactly? I understand the necessity of grounding politics in an understanding of the prevailing economic system and class analysis. But when you write an article about MLK and omit that the gov’t conspired in his assassination you miss a key element of any politics that is willing to take on the establishment. And that is, identifying to forces arrayed against you.
I know I’ve posted this before, but it warrants repetition. In 1999 William Pepper, an attorney for the King family went to trial and proved the gov’t was involved in MLK’s assassination. This is in court records and anyone can look up the case. William Pepper is someone who should be recognized. His decade long legal battle, a battle with which came with some threats and economic hardship, is a case in true heroism.
Below is from the NYT, not some fringe newspaper.
After four weeks of testimony and one hour of deliberation, the jury in the wrongful-death case found that Loyd Jowers as well as ”others, including governmental agencies” had been part of a conspiracy. ..Mr. Pepper said federal, state and Memphis governmental agencies, as well as the news media conspired in the assassination….’We all thought it was a cut and dried case with the evidence that Mr. Pepper brought to us, that there were a lot of people involved, everyone from the C.I.A., military involvement, and Jowers was involved.
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/09/us/memphis-jury-sees-conspiracy-in-martin-luther-king-s-killing.html
The “races” and the “classes” will have to create their own liberatory politics themselves. They may well decide that the Lefto Intellectuals and the Social Justice Wokenons have zero to contribute to that process.
>Why Biden won’t likely leave Afghanistan- Asia Times
In Short, because of Russia and China is the answer, according to the article. It strikes me as peculiar that when I read news from Right leaning web sites, domestic problems are due to China and from Left leaning sites, it’s Russia.
As in domestic politics, so too in foreign.
That’s because the Cognoscenti keep looking out the window, and not in the mirror to place blame.
I believe our beloved leaders should embrace ending their lives at 75, and provide a collective example by Tuesday next week.
Starting with the senate and House.
“A doctor and medical ethicist argues life after 75 is not worth living”
Another day when The Onion has become our reality….
“Cost Of Living Now Outweighs Benefits”
https://www.theonion.com/cost-of-living-now-outweighs-benefits-1819567799
Consider this from the Wired article.
“Consider this: more than more than 60 apps and nine of its products have one billion people than a billion people use Google’s apps. That’s a lot of data.”
That’s a lot of garbage actually. Don’t authors ever re-read their work before submitting? Don’t publications like Wired employ sub-editors?
Same story, same great editing-
“All of the above will limit what Google can access about you to a degree, but it is only a sticking plaster.”
Editing? Isn’t that what Microsoft Word is for?
A lot of these publications are much smaller in staff than we think. My wife was talking with the editor of a publication recently and this woman was basically a one person show.
> That’s a lot of garbage actually . . .
Yes, and it requires an exponential growth of power sucking data centers to store and sift it for golden nuggets. And because Google uses soooo much power, they get it cheap instead of paying triple retail to discourage use.
In my opinion, life is not worth living period.
Yes. What a bizarre idea, life is worth living. As if any of us can step out of life and assess the pros and cons of living. We live, we’re stuck in life, we know nothing else.
And that’s where this jerkoff “ethicist” enters the picture, to tell everyone whether their lives are worth living or not.
A virtue hoarder par excellence.
Wasn’t there a fellow with a funny mustache last century who opined about life unworthy of life?
Wired is awesome! I’ll help to summarize, TINA
“All the data Google’s apps collect about you and how to stop it Wired”
From the bottom of the story-
“If you’re going to use Google, you’re agreeing to have data collected about you.”
Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act reintroduced, plastics industry ramps up opposition Waste Dive
“Plastic in the environment is never acceptable, but after a careful analysis of the legislation we have concluded it won’t end plastic waste but rather end the American plastics industry by restricting the production of modern and innovative plastic materials,” he said.
My bold highlights the bottom line truth in Mr ACC Plastic Directors own words there. If we can’t achieve the former-then we will have to accept the latter–they are his own words.
Here is the Plastic Cartel Industries real Boogyman, imo:
Also returning from last year’s bill is a requirement that packaging producers take responsibility for collecting and recycling materials. They would be encouraged to join producer responsibility organizations (PROs) with makers of like products. PROs would be required to develop their own product stewardship plans by Feb. 1, 2023, to be approved by the EPA every five years.
EPR–isn’t it about time??
Homes selling faster than ever even as prices rise to all-time highs
My first instinct is to ask if this means that we are headed for a housing crash that will dwarf 2008. My second instinct is to assume that the powers that be won’t let that happen, and that the cost of housing will continue to rise, while the average person can’t afford to buy and increasingly, can’t afford to rent, either, and homelessness continues to explode even among people who are still working.
But then I remembered that the best way to predict the future in the US is to imagine the worst and stupidest outcome. So probably what we’re in for is another housing crash that forces thousands of people out of their homes, which will then get snatched up by investors who jack up the rent to obscene levels, somehow without any lower-priced homes ever making it into the hands of anyone who is not already ridiculously wealthy. I’m guessing that current trends will accelerate until we’re all renting from Blackstone?
It’s not just Blackstone. In my little resort town, most every “affordable” home for sale is bought up by those who aspire to the rentier class.
In my city, there are no more “affordable” homes! People from CA are selling for a bundle and then moving here and buying with cash. Anyone who has lived here for years trying to save a down payment simply can’t compete. They should have learned to code and moved to California a decade ago, apparently.
This is becoming a problem in The Netherlands as well. In the popular big cities, like Amsterdam, or Utrecht, it’s nearly impossible to buy a home, if you only have a median salary. Investors snapping up houses is driving up prices, and there’s just not enough inventory being built. The government has allowed this to happen, and they’re still failing in fixing the housing issue in general. Mortgage debt in The Netherlands is already (too?) high, and this is really dangerous with the upcoming economic issues.
Sutter Cane, that is what I am dealing with right now. I spoke with a real estate agent this morning, and he said all the buyers are from out of state and bidding up the prices. Places are going for cash, sight unseen within hours of going up. There are no places, even little condos, for sale, let alone in my price range. There aren’t even rentals available. He said his company manages 80 rental units, and there is literally no one moving. Rent over the years here has been expensive, and my pay rather low, so it has been impossible to save for a downpayment. I am now losing my apartment at the end of June because the College(my landlord) has to do capitol improvements. I have nowhere to go. There’s nothing out there. Hardly anything on the area rental listing boards, etc. Anything that is is out of reach price-wise. A small 2 bedroom is going for $2000 a month. That would be all of my monthly pay packet. I am now going to have to beg my mother to let me move back and pitch a tent in her back yard, which means I’ll have to quit my job and my career will be over because there aren’t any biotech jobs there. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to get a PT job stocking shelves at Wegmans. I’m almost 43. Feels like my life is ending.
I wish you lots of luck petal, that sounds really rough. Have always appreciated your comments here.
Oh, Petal. I am so sorry. That’s terrible.
Sutter Cane, “all renting from Blackstone?”
Yes, many millions of homeowers/mortgage holders a decade ago had Obama to thank for that. And practice makes policy.
But that’s just water under the bridge, right?
Housing isn’t being built to accommodate the needs of the societies we have, but to extract the maximum rents that the proles can bear…
I see housing as a means, not end– a house is no more a home than living is life. For many of us, our means is dictated by our employment, and for those who are blessed with an iron rice-bowl, then buying a house might be reasonable.
I don’t feel that the housing market is due for a crash, at least not any sooner than Vegas going bankrupt. But if it does there will be Blackstones there to pick up the pieces.
“As Republicans Fume, Georgia Dems Have Mixed Reactions to MLB’s All-Star Game Relocation”
If it wasn’t for the present pandemic, you would already have had things like Conventions, business meetings and the like also re-located. But as they have been canceled already due to the pandemic, that is why we are not seeing mention of them as well.
re: Are we entering a ‘fourth wave’ of the pandemic? Experts disagree. WaPo
An apparent fourth wave of COVID-19 is centered in the East. Will it hit California? LA Times
from the former:
from the latter:
&, in the meantime: Europe’s third wave: ‘It’s spreading fast and it’s spreading everywhere’ FT
what i see? one big wave of confusion…
Anyone else watch Wolf Richter call the top to the market? https://wolfstreet.com/2021/04/03/stocks-real-estate-inflation-and-latest-blowup-all-this-super-leveraged-craziness-going-on-looks-like-a-market-peak-sez-wolf-richter/
Any thoughts? I don’t listen to a lot of market prognosticators, but Wolf is a good voice.
On the other hand, he’s now joined Peter Schiff and Michael Burry.
Wolf called a top last winter. The market took a dive for about a month. The swoon ended when the Fed started buying junk bonds…there was a message there somewhere. So, Wolf sees a new top. He may as well read tea leaves..like me. The Fed calls the shots. Powell will spin away until he and the other three guys in his foursome own absolutely everything, and they can play Double Nassau for 18.
This. The market is completely divorced from any objective fundamentals that could be used to predict it. Its course isn’t decided by facts, it is decided by political calculations. The only way to know where the market is headed is to know where those political calculations are leading to.
RE: GOP Unites in Opposition to Biden’s Popular Infrastructure Plan TruthOut
So, “electrify” the entire federal vehicle fleet and “improve” Amtrak…..
Anyone know if there’s any money in there for the nation’s toxic waste containment “infrastructure” like the one that’s breaching in Florida currently and spilling millions of gallons of garbage that’s been around since 1966 into the Gulf?
That site is the result of fertilizer production, and since we’ve decided to “grow” the economy by exporting agricultural products as the topsoil is depleted and increasing amounts of fertilizer are required, it’s a safe bet that there will be an ongoing requirement for such “infrastructure.”
And if you’re going to “electrify the federal fleet,” what are the plans for the spent batteries? Has any thought been given to the “infrastructure” that will be required, or do they plan to cross that improved “infrastructure,” AKA a bridge, when they come to it?
RE Modi and India: Modi is quoting Gandhi, not because he supports anything the Mahatma said or did, but because he already has the Hindutva vote locked up (Hindu nationalists see Gandhi as a traitor and sellout) and he is trying to make inroads among voters who would vote Congress and its allies (and who hold up Gandhi as an icon).
One tidbit of revisionist history is how unpopular MLK was with liberals while he was alive.
Besides being opposed to the War on Vietnam, MLK was seen as impatient on civil rights and practically a communist in economic terms.
“Love me, I’m a Liberal!”
Actually MLK was pretty popular with liberals. I remember.
On those “situations” in Yemen and Notagainistan and Iraq and Niger:
Calls to mind the story from Uncle Remus (can people still refer to those moral tales?) that ol’ Br’er Rabbit got into with the Tar-Baby, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar-Baby. “Blip! One paw stuck. Blip! Another paw stuck.” Until Br’er Rabbit was duly involved. All that’s needed is someone to flip that aggressive rabbit back into the briar patch he was born and bred in…
RE: Food, Not Steel, Is Our Biggest Climate Challenge Project Syndicate. Adair Turner
This idea by which we should focus in this or that is bizarre, IMO. We have to focus on everything and of course we cannot leave steel, iron, concrete, construction or manufacturing aside. Period. We cannot put the ‘problem solved’ seal in steel, aluminium etc. isn’t it true? So, a better headline which might still be disputable could be:
Food, Is Our Biggest Climate Challenge
And then argue why with good numbers and assessing the whole carbon cycle of foods (an exercise not done in the article). Otherwise this pretty much looks like an anticipation for steel producers asking for moratoriums. And if we are comparing sectors assess the whole thing, not just selected items like steel vs whole foods. If you don’t do that you look very much like a steel defender against beef eaters and this is not how things should be framed.
I’m not sure about Massachusetts specifically, but one of the ways to prove hardship to get out of the ACA penalty in general was to not pay your utility bill until you got a disconnect threat. You could use that notice as proof. I checked into it when ACA started and my utility doesn’t report the late payments to credit reporting agencies until they actually disconnect you. Your mileage may vary, depending on location.
Good luck! I hope you can appeal successfully.
Golden Parade: Mummified pharaohs moved to new Cairo home Deutsche Welle
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From the article: “The parade is part of Egypt’s efforts to revive its tourism industry.”
Janet Yellen contact Egypt’s Military Dictator Sisi immediately, he has found a way to monetize stiffs.
And, Vegas, just think of the draw this Mummie Parade would be on the Strip!
” A doctor and medical ethicist argues . . . “. Just from the title, I just knew that had to be Zekey-poo Emmanuel. And I was right. I wonder how old he is.
If Zekey-poo was born in 1957, I guess that means he is 63 right now. Hundreds of thousands of people should keep track of whether he reaches 75, and if he does, they should all be chanting, holding signs outside his home, sending him emails, buying billboards, that all say . . .
” Congratulations, Zeke! You’ve arrived at 75! Remember what you said? Show us you mean it!”
About the article Food Not Steel Is Our Biggest Climate Challenge . . . . I notice the still-believed-in-by-many statement that . . . ” Within the food sector, moreover, meat production is highly emissions-intensive.”
That statement is based on an ongoing conflation between corn-soy feedlotted industrial meat, especially beef, with meat from livestock raised on multispecies pasture and/or range, which is net carbon-capture.
This is understood on many outer fringes of the media, and will eventually beat its way in towards the center of the media, where Adair Turner still gets his information.
‘Homes selling faster than ever even as prices rise to all-time highs’
I have been a small time landlord for twenty years. For most of that period, it hasn’t been easy. We’ve faced low rents–we’re in the upper Deep South, but near a metropolitan area–high property taxes in our state relative to owner occupied homes, and difficulty finding good tenants. When Blackstone and others made a bet on the residential rental property market ten years ago, my first thought was, ‘Are they crazy?’
I guess they were crazy like foxes. I did not imagine that, with their collective buying power, and with the banks simultaneously curtailing credit for home buyers, they would drive up rents and then property values nationwide. But that appears to be what is happening. I’ve recently considered selling a house or two, but may hang on, because I don’t see circumstances that will drive the Blackstones out of business.