Links 3/30/2022

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1. griffen March 30, 2022 at 7:12 am

   Babylon Bee is crushing it lately.

   Good to see
   news from the Bee
   On top of their game.
2. Another Scott March 30, 2022 at 7:30 am

   Regarding suicide rates in US versus other countries. I think there have been studies that have shown that access to guns doesn’t increase the rate of suicide attempts, but since guns are effective at killing people, they increase the rate of suicide. I seem to remember a comparison of suicide attempts of men and women (perhaps just teens) that showed that although women were more likely to attempt to kill themselves, but that men were more likely to accomplish it for that reason.
   1. chris wardell March 30, 2022 at 9:32 am

      access to guns doesn’t increase the rate of suicide attempts
      yep here you go:
      https://fox2now.com/news/st-louis-police-identify-children-in-murder-suicide/
      1. Wukchumni March 30, 2022 at 9:43 am

         I have at least a few dozen very sharp and potent knives in the kitchen that would be a good stand-in for the 25,000 guns that participate in suicides each and every year in these not so united states (by far the leading cause) and yet suicide by knife is a negligible number in comparison, almost meaningless.
         1. BillS March 30, 2022 at 11:17 am

            Seppuku requires some skill..and you want a good second behind you with a sharp sword.
   2. Adam Eran April 2, 2022 at 11:22 am

      From Shankar Vedantam’s The Hidden Brain

      [RE: Gun laws – after a discussion which revealed that people’s unconscious bias is that guns protect them, even though the facts say otherwise. For example, when Washington D.C. banned handguns, the suicide rate fell 23%… so the feeling of safety is belied by fact]

      “People feel safer barreling down a highway at seventy miles an hour-without seat belts-than they do sitting in a passenger plane going through turbulence. The fact that we are in control of the car gives us the illusion of safety, even though all the empirical evidence shows we are safer in the plane.

      “Suicide rates in states with high levels of gun ownership are much higher than in states that have low levels of gun ownership. Alabama, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, and New Mexico have twice the rate of suicide of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, Hawaii, and New York. The United States as a whole has a very high suicide rate compared to other industrialized countries. Researchers working for the federal government once examined the suicide rate among children in the United States and twenty-five other industrialized countries over a single year. The suicide rate among American children was more than twice the average suicide rate among children in the
      other twenty-five countries. The homicide rate among children in the United States was five times higher. Guns were responsible for much of this. If you measured only gun-related homicide and suicide, American children were eleven times more I likely than children in the other twenty-five countries to commit suicide by shooting themselves, were nine times more likely to be killed in accidental shootings, and were sixteen times more likely to be murdered. There were 1107 children shot to death in all the countries; 957 of these victims-86 percent-were children in the United States.”

      “The researchers Arthur Kellermann and Donald Reay once examined all gun-related deaths over a lengthy period of time in King County in the state of Washington. They were trying to find evidence for the common intuition that gun owners are safer because they can protect themselves and their families should someone break into their homes. Kellermann and Reay identified nine deaths during the period of the study where people shot and killed an intruder. These are the stories that gun advocates endlessly relate to one another. In the same period, guns in people’s homes were implicated in twelve accidental deaths and forty-one homicides–usually family members shooting, one another. The number of suicides?
      Three hundred and thirty-three.”
3. The Rev Kev March 30, 2022 at 7:49 am

   “CRISPR: US biofirm plans to gene-edit cats so they don’t trigger allergies”

   I hope not. So imagine this scenario. Some marketing droid is thinking about how to “improve” cats and he sees an image of a cat like in today’s Antidote du jour and then it comes to him. When a person gets home, a dog will jump all over them like a long lost friend. A cat on the other hand will look up and ask where the hell dinner is. So by a bit of creative gene-editing, a breed of cats could be developed that will act just like dogs and will be all over their humans the moment they walk in the door and will want to play with them constantly. A marketing droid will think this a good idea. But it will no longer be a cat.
   1. jr March 30, 2022 at 8:21 am

      “A marketing droid will think this a good idea.”

      This same problem applies to attempts to define consciousness in materialist terms. The thing becomes the concept of the thing in the mind of the observer. The observed becomes the observation. The mystery is set aside for the model; the model becomes the totality of the object in the unreflective mind. The pointing finger becomes the moon.

      For example, those scientists who claim to know what someone is thinking about, say an elephant, because the “elephant neurons” are firing. This is not the experience of the thinker. It is third person view of a first person event. It may tell you that something that correlates to the idea of an elephant is occurring but it is not the thing-in-itself. However, just as a cat-dog will be marketed as an “improved cat”, the image of an elephant-thought on the monitor is thought to be the elephant-thought itself. The undefinable mystery is lost for the imbalance of certainty.
      1. LawnDart March 30, 2022 at 8:08 pm

         Jr, nicely done.
   2. bob March 30, 2022 at 9:10 am

      genetic engineering, results maybe like covid?
   3. revenant March 30, 2022 at 9:15 am

      Cats have allergens in both their saliva and in their skin cells (dander). Some people are only allergic to one. Exotic cat breeds, which cross the domestic cat with Asian leopard cats (Bengals), servals (Savannahs) etc do not express one of the two allergens. My inference is that the hybrid generations are selectively chosen for maximum wild type coat expression, so they lack domestic cat dander genes.

      Anyway, the result is a cat which I am not allergic to. We proved this when adopting two Bengals by burying my face in them as a test! No CRISPR needed but some patience with a high maintenance cat is required. :-) Before this discovery, I had noticed that I was less allergic to some of the Siamese we have owned than to normal cats but only by degree: at some point, all of them had set me sneezing or made me red eyed from close contact. But not Bengals!

      Comic interlude:
      If you want to see just how high maintenance Bengals can be, trying reading the new homes wanted column for a Bengal society. Remember, these are trying to present the cat in the best light! Sample “Mika can be aggressive but it’s generally in a playful way- so needs lots of stimulation. He has recently started to stalk and attacked the owners 1 year old child. Mika’s owner is happy to discuss this further with any potential new owners.”

      https://bengalcatassociation.co.uk/welfare.php
      1. Leftist Mole March 30, 2022 at 2:53 pm

         Siberian cats have low allergen levels in their saliva. They’re very furry and have some dog like characteristics. Ours will do tricks for treats and comes when we call him.
      2. playon March 30, 2022 at 5:10 pm

         I was considering a Bengal cat but after looking at the prices (low end, $600, high end $2000-3000) and reading about the amount of attention they require, we opted for a local adoption of a 6-month old kitten and are very happy with her. I do have mild cat allergies but the brown tabby we ended up with doesn’t seem to trigger them much, maybe we just got lucky.
      3. Old Sarum March 30, 2022 at 6:19 pm

         The ‘Mika’ story reminds me of ‘Archie’ a large athletic one-year old calico which was recently being fostered whilst his owners were between homes. and needed more food supplies. Jen went shopping and after she came back I had to say “Are you mad? Have seen what you’ve bought?’ The brand was ‘Leaps & Bounds’. Archie had to be extracted from high level fly screens before he did too much damage, and was adept at ambushing adult humans and was quite persistent with it.

         I miss him but not his fur.

         Pip-Pip
      4. Skunk April 1, 2022 at 4:34 am

         Primate venom sheds light on why so many people suffer cat allergies
         https://phys.org/news/2020-02-primate-venom-people-cat-allergies.html
   4. Craig H. March 30, 2022 at 9:22 am

      I like cats. I do not like genetic engineer fantasists. In general.

      Nevertheless I wholeheartedly endorse this extravaganza. Learning a little cat management humility can’t do them any harm I can foresee.
      1. urdsama March 30, 2022 at 4:20 pm

         Are any of us in a position to know what is good/harmful to a cat? Some very basic behaviors still stump the most experienced vets.

         This is the road to madness. Paved with hubris.
         1. LawnDart March 30, 2022 at 8:11 pm

            Are any of us in a position to know what is good/harmful to a cat?

            Antifreeze. Trust me on that.
   5. JohnnySacks March 30, 2022 at 1:58 pm

      Germline editing is going to be a horrible example of unintended consequences. When the CRSPR target probe attaches to the desired target site and produces the desired change in the trait, it’ll be time to celebrate! IPO hype! Let the money tsunami roll! And to hell with trying to figure out if the target probe may have changed some other region, for good or for bad, until, of course, it’s too late to pull back the mutation from the wilds.

      Oh well, plenty of Pandora’s boxes we’ve opened, what’s a few more?
   6. Brunches with Cats March 30, 2022 at 2:15 pm

      > a breed of cats could be developed that will act just like dogs and will be all over their humans the moment they walk in the door and will want to play with them constantly

      Well, then, apparently I’ve been mistaking my brunch mate for a cat … although, in the presumed-cat’s defense, he does want to be picked up, hugged and squeezed first — not for too long, mind you — before the interactive play. Desired play time depends on how long I’ve been away from home; i.e., past dinnertime.

      Maybe he’s a cat who self-identifies as a dog?
      1. Brunches with Cats March 30, 2022 at 3:09 pm

         A cat I had nearly 20 years ago refused to eat until he’d had some affection. Sweet little L.E.O. (I wanted to name him Leo, because he looked like a tiny lion cub, but it was then-partner’s turn to name the new cat. A defense/space industry worker, he agreed to compromise on the acronym for Low Earth Orbit, but only if it was punctuated.)

         L.E.O., a runt of the litter who remained tiny for the rest of his short life, was attached to me as much or more than the current big guy. When I came home after a long work day plus 4-5 hours’ commute time, the other cat was waiting at the food bowl — if she hadn’t already opened the cupboard, dragged the 12-lb bag to her bowl, and torn it open. I’d just dump some food in their bowls so I could go drop on the couch, but L.E.O. wouldn’t eat until I’d picked him up. If I didn’t, he’d wrap his paws around my ankles and refuse to let me go.

         I hadn’t had him for even a year when one night he didn’t show up for dinner. The next morning, I found him dead on the compost heap. The next-door neighbor said she’d heard vomiting on the other side of the fence. I cried longer and harder than I did after the loss of a parent and two siblings.

         While I was still in the early stages of grief, L.E.O. visited me in a dream. His light tawny fur was filthy and hanging off of him in clumps. I remember his exact words: “Sorry for my appearance. I can’t help it, I’m dead.” The rest was mostly lost in translation between the language of dreams and non-sleep (some might call it “waking consciousness”), but the gist was, “I want you to know that we don’t need a body.”

         L.E.O. was my little love, the predecessor to my Big Love, who I’ve often said isn’t a cat at all, but a higher being who put on a cat suit to walk with me for a while. Physically, he looks more like the cat who figured out how to serve her own dinner, but he has L.E.O.’s heart.
         1. Xihuitl March 30, 2022 at 6:58 pm

            Lovely. Thank you.
   7. Nordberg March 30, 2022 at 8:49 pm

      Don’t do to the cat world what people have done to the dog world by cross breeding crazy poodles with everything
4. Louis Fyne March 30, 2022 at 7:55 am

   putting media reports of Russian losses into context. A Twitter account gets skeptical about hyped Ukrainian victories…

   https://twitter.com/ArmchairW/status/1509047026159300608?cxt=
5. bwilli123 March 30, 2022 at 8:00 am

   Antidote cat looks very much like my own. That expression translates as “What? Not cat food again?”
   1. LawnDart March 30, 2022 at 9:18 am

      Antidote cat looks like it needs some time alone.

      Back away, slowly.
      1. Brunches with Cats March 30, 2022 at 1:56 pm

         Funny, my first thought was, “Who is that beauty?” A demonstration of the Cateshov Effect?

         FWIW, a threatened cat likely would have its eyes wide open or ears back, or both. The half-shut position with ears upright would indicate that the cat is relaxed.
         1. LawnDart March 30, 2022 at 3:21 pm

            Last tom I hosted was Nick the D**k (he could be a total s**t), and he had that same expression after getting heavily-mawed by a Lab-Pit mix I was sitting (cat totally deserved it– Nick sucker-pawed the mutt with a swip clear out of the blue when the dog was just sitting and minding its own business– clocked him good. After landing the blow, kitty skeedadeld from immediate harm, but dogo remembered… a few hours later, payback happened, leaving kitten in a thick coat of slobber, and that exact expression on his face).
            1. Brunches with Cats March 30, 2022 at 5:37 pm

               So maybe Nick was into that sort of thing.

               Seriously, though … from the cat’s POV, the dog was encroaching on his space and not “just sitting there minding its own business.” The swipe not only was a warning to a much larger opponent not to get any ideas, but an assessment of how much of a threat it actually was. I’d also say he was a pretty smart cat to sense that if and when the threat was carried out, he was going to be on his own … and then blamed for being the aggressor.
               1. LawnDart March 30, 2022 at 8:57 pm

                  I didn’t witness “payback,” but my daughter did. She was 6-7. She months later drew a portrait of Nick, standing upright, pitchfork in paw and a spiked tail… …lightning coming from behind; but at the time of payback, I couldn’t understand her through the snot and tears, until many minutes later when she could finally blurt out, “the dog is eating the cat…” The damn thing surely used 8 of 9 lives that day alone.

                  So the assessment failed, and kitty almost ended up a Scooby-snack, but for the grace of soft-mouthed dog. So while Nick was sneaky and clever, he did get caught, whatever that says about smarts.
                  1. Brunches with Cats March 30, 2022 at 11:33 pm

                     Two articles from a widely quoted study in 2019:
                     Study finds Cat Behaviors May Reflect their Owner’s Personality Traits

                     
                     If your cat is an A*****e, it probably means you are too.
6. Stick'em March 30, 2022 at 8:06 am

   For red and blue America, a glaring divide in COVID-19 death rates persists 2 years later ABC (Dr. Kevin)

   ^ link is truncated so doesn’t work. This one works:

   https://abcnews.go.com/Health/red-blue-america-glaring-divide-covid-19-death/story?id=83649085
7. DJG, Reality Czar March 30, 2022 at 8:12 am

   The physician who didn’t shower or use soap for five years.

   There is so much misinformation in this article that it strikes me as a stunt more than anything else.

   First: And I believe I learned it here at Naked Capitalism. The uptick in peanut allergies has to do with not exposing children to peanuts in their diet. It’s a kind of vicious cycle: Fewer kids eat peanuts, and allergies mount. And the article doesn’t even give a source for this, errr, unusual assertion.

   Second: That Christians didn’t bathe. This has been refuted a gazillion or so times. At least in the Mediterranean world, public baths existed and continued to exist well after Christianity made inroads in the Roman Empire. Further, as we see in this article, Trotola (and other female physicians from the medieval Medical School of Palermo (and their male colleagues, too)) advocated bathing:

   https://www.elle.com/it/magazine/storie-di-donne/a27551252/trotula-de-ruggiero-prima-donna-medico/

   For health and beauty. Look for the word “bagni.”

   Then there’s the part about “time sink,” which is plain old puritanism. After all, one should not spend time touching oneself and massaging the skin. Who knows what might happen–when you could be off managing your 401 k instead.

   Soap? Yes, soap can cause problems. There are other means of getting the skin clean. The Romans and Greeks used olive oil.

   Sheesh. Next up? The long-awaited report from the physician who never cuts his toenails. (Heck, they now come in handy for trimming the lawn.)
   1. The Rev Kev March 30, 2022 at 8:25 am

      A minor note. In movies set in the 19th century, the actresses will look just like us with full-bodied hair. I believe that because of natural hair oils that women’s hair back then tended to be flat which you can see on photos from the 19th century. Maybe that was why bonnets were popular then. Just to push this further, men in the 1800s and early 1900s used Macassar oil in their hair to groom and style hair. But of course it stained lounge and chair material hence the invention of antimacassars – a washable cloth to protect the furniture from all that oil. Brought to you from the Department of Useless Information-

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macassar_oil
      1. britzklieg March 30, 2022 at 9:35 am

         As I started to lose my hair, back when I still had a professional image to consider, there was a product we referred to as “hair-in-a-can” applied like hairspray which thickened and colored thinning strands. The look was hideous, actually, but worked well enough from afar to be used on stage. I was living in a walk-up studio in NYC and had a loftbed which just barely allowed me to sit up without banging my head on the ceiling, although my “big” and can-treated hair would brush against it. Noticing the resultant smearing was a powerful motivator for me to start shaving my head. Bald was better than balding and much better than skidmarks on the ceiling.
      2. LifelongLib March 30, 2022 at 4:54 pm

         IIRC in some Dickens novel one of the male characters leans his head against a wall and leaves a mark. A female character notes this but doesn’t seem to think it odd. Thanks for the explanation!
   2. Stick'em March 30, 2022 at 9:47 am

      The hypothesis peanut allergies in kids are caused by not feeding your kids peanuts is sponsored by the Peanut Growers of America. Caveat emptor

      https://www.peanutsusa.com/industry-info/allergy-information.html
      1. DJG, Reality Czar March 30, 2022 at 10:09 am

         It’s more complicated than that:

         https://www.science.org/content/article/revolutionary-treatment-allergies-peanuts-and-other-foods-going-mainstream-do-benefits

         Long and interesting article about trying to blunt the effects of food allergies, peanuts being a particular problem.
         1. Stick'em March 31, 2022 at 2:32 pm

            Of course it’s more complicated than that. The Academy of Pediatricians originally recommended infants not eat peanuts as a reaction to the increase in peanut allergies they were already seeing.

            So duh, the increase in the frequency of peanut allergies began before the pediatricains recommended infants not eat them. Therefore, it can’t be the case not feeding the kids peanuts is the cause of the rise in allergies because the rise happened before the docs recommendation reduced the number of infants eating peanuts.

            So the original statement “The uptick in peanut allergies has to do with not exposing children to peanuts in their diet” cannot be correct because they are not temporally correlated. But nevermind pesky facts, the peanut lobbyists are sticking with the story like peanut butter to the roof of your mouth in order to sell more Jif.

            There is some sort of mutifactorial etiology with allergies. There isn’t just one cause. People’s brains do this heuristic process to make sense of a complex world by assigning simple minded causes to everything. As in when folks were pretending vaccines caused the rise autism prevalance. But the real world don’t work that way with multifactorial condtions.
      2. griffen March 30, 2022 at 12:36 pm

         I’m an avid consumer of the peanut, and it’s varied products such as the ubiquitous Lance peanut butter crackers (ever present in most southern US gas station and convenience stores).

         How do those afflicted with said allergy encounter life without ever enjoying a PB&J sammich?
   3. Carolinian March 30, 2022 at 11:50 am

      Sorry but I think that’s a fascinating article despite the quibbles. George Carlin used to joke that he grew up swimming in the filthy East River and never got sick a day in his life (until he died of heart disease).

      And of course our European ancestors certainly did not bathe as much as we do. They doused themselves with perfume.
      1. jonboinAR March 30, 2022 at 1:50 pm

         Yeah, I noticed that when they talked about the guy who didn’t bathe for 5 years didn’t say he didn’t stink. They tried to imply he was healthier (I don’t know enough to know if that’s so). He was just lonelier.
      2. Maritimer March 30, 2022 at 4:43 pm

         “George Carlin used to joke that he grew up swimming in the filthy East River and never got sick a day in his life (until he died of heart disease).”
         ******
         There is certainly a lot of evidence that the Scientists want to replace the old, antiquated human immune system with their whizbang, can’t-fail, safe and effective injections.
         1. Chops March 30, 2022 at 5:42 pm

            No there isn’t.
         2. Soredemos March 30, 2022 at 11:06 pm

            What do you imagine vaccines do? They’re just training the immune system. If your argument is ‘get covid, get better immunity’, you really, really don’t want to get covid.
8. The Rev Kev March 30, 2022 at 8:15 am

   Re Gonzalo Lira. On my tablet, it says that he has a live interview scheduled with Scott Ritter for 3/30/22, 10:00 PM.
   1. JohnMinMN March 30, 2022 at 10:43 am

      Gonzalo said there were tech issues with YouTube. You can find the audio here.

      https://twitter.com/realGonzaloLira/status/1509142811781832707?cxt=HHwWhoC5uYfZxvEpAAAA
   2. Lunker Walleye March 30, 2022 at 12:39 pm

      I listened to part of the interview that NC linked to. Gonzalo is engaging and has interesting insights. However, I do quibble with his psychoanalysis of women who do not have children. And men who aren’t fathers are “nothing” to him. (?)
      1. WhoaMolly March 30, 2022 at 2:41 pm

         An off-topic question about canceled YouTube videos.

         Does anyone know what happens to the videos? Are they lost forever? Does this mean if someone puts a video on YouTube, they should *always* have it backed up elsewhere?

         Chris Hedges lost 150 or so in the last couple days. Are they ‘gone’?
         1. WhoaMolly March 30, 2022 at 3:51 pm

            Update: Chris Hedges interviews are said to be available on Rumble. I haven’t checked it yet.

            I assume any Hedges videos that were on YouTube have swirled down the ‘cancel hole’.
            1. playon March 30, 2022 at 8:29 pm

               From comments I read on twitter, Hedges’ entire RT (Russia Today) video archive was deleted from youtube. Looks like his other vids are still there.
            2. Greg March 30, 2022 at 10:30 pm

               To answer your question – yes, as a content creator you must maintain your own archives hosted locally on storage media you control. The cloud is fickle and anything you can see there can easily be disappeared forever for any of a host (sorry) of reasons.

               One would presume Chris Hedges kept copies of the files he originally uploaded to YouTube, and can use those files to upload them elsewhere.
      2. nippersdad March 30, 2022 at 3:45 pm

         I put his views on the sexes down to his being from Chile, notorious for its’ macho culture.

         It was interesting that he did not cite the study which found proof of the Maidan attacks coming from right wing nationalist forces, and that it was Merkel who initiated the Normandy Format which led to the Minsk I Protocol in order to prevent the embarrassment of admitting that the Ukrainian forces had been put in a cauldron and were about to be decimated. It was, otherwise, a really good rundown of the events that led to the present situation. I knew that Nuland was evil, but precisely how evil was a real shock.

         https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266855828_The_Snipers'_Massacre_on_the_Maidan_in_Ukraine

         https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/results-the-normandy-format-talks-for-ukraine-hope-reservations
         1. Jonhoops March 31, 2022 at 1:29 am

            He’s not exactly from Chile. He grew up in Burbank, went to high school in Chile. Then went to college at Dartmouth.

            So I would say he’s more American than Chilean.
   3. square coats March 30, 2022 at 9:04 pm

      He also has a telegram he’s active on pretty regularly. He made several posts so far today.
9. Nikkikat March 30, 2022 at 8:16 am

   Love the cat. He appears to be saying, yes I am the king. Now do my bidding. As a funny aside, has anyone seen the stories where people are going to school board meetings and demanding to know if there are litter boxes installed in school rest rooms for children identifying as cats? Hilarious as it’s a rumor someone posted to the internet and people in Michigan, Iowa and Kentucky think this is real. Fox News should be running with this any day now. Lol
10. jo6pac March 30, 2022 at 8:25 am

    Press TV
    I got them to play by clicking on download.
11. Alan C. March 30, 2022 at 8:25 am

    The link on the article “For red and blue America, a glaring divide in COVID-19 death rates persists 2 years later” doesn’t work. This one does:

    https://abcnews.go.com/Health/red-blue-america-glaring-divide-covid-19-death/story?id=83649085&fbclid=IwAR367CObbAs9fZJbeABY3YvBf1cLxYwTCKq6IltD61KD3dU3v3HgcHqwlC0
    1. playon March 30, 2022 at 8:30 pm

       Aside from the anti-mask and anti vax sentiments, I wonder how much of this can be attributed to the fact that Republican states tend to have poorer public health care?
       1. Yves Smith Post authorMarch 30, 2022 at 10:45 pm

          Related to that, they also tend to be more rural, and rural health care has deteriorated badly, from loss of primary care physicians to closure of hospitals.
12. britzklieg March 30, 2022 at 8:25 am

    Gonzalo Lira is now live, interviewing Scott Ritter on twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/realgonzalolira

    his youtube channel is not broadcasting it.
    1. britzklieg March 30, 2022 at 8:31 am

       better link: https://mobile.twitter.com/realGonzaloLira/status/1509142811781832707?cxt=HHwWhoC5uYfZxvEpAAAA
    2. djrichard March 30, 2022 at 11:27 am

       Gonzalo Lira’s video from yesterday or so talked about Azov battalion members being distributed amongst other battalions as a “thickener”. I wonder if that “thickening agent” includes getting Azov tattoos added to your body. Would incentivize you to fight to the last man if you know that you won’t be taken prisoner if you have an Azov tattoo.
       1. B1whois March 30, 2022 at 12:07 pm

          I thought the word he used was stiffener. And the purpose of the stiffener is to shoot anyone who is not sufficiently motivated to fight the Russians. So the rest of the battalion has the choice between being killed by Russians or being killed by the stiffener. It must be fearsome
          1. djrichard March 30, 2022 at 12:38 pm

             Stiffener, thickener … I’ve been watching too many cooking shows. Thanks for the correction!
          2. digi_owl March 30, 2022 at 1:43 pm

             And elsewhere people joke about Russia having brought back the commissar to “improve” moral.

             Brings to mind how the Ukraine soldiers didn’t want the foreigners on the front line as they worried said foreigners would not be able to tell Ukrainans from Russians.
             1. Brunches with Cats March 30, 2022 at 6:12 pm

                … they worried said foreigners would not be able to tell Ukrainans from Russians.

                And rightly so, since there have been reports of civilians in battle zones being abused by Ukrainian soldiers posing as Russians. And then there are the latest reports, of Russian POWs being tortured by Ukrainian soldiers, some of whom were speaking Russian with a Ukrainian accent. How would foreigners possibly be able to distinguish native Russian from Russian with a Ukrainian accent? Can you imagine the PR nightmare if they were allowed anywhere near the front?
13. dave March 30, 2022 at 8:31 am

    Nobody really knows anything, but the ingredients for a recession are in place:
    lots of uncertainty
    Fed raising interest rates
    stimulus programs over
    President crowing about deficit reduction
    1. WhoaMolly March 30, 2022 at 4:01 pm

       And…
       supply chain disruptions
       shortages of fertilizer
       drought slamming the California central valley farms
       skyrocketing inflation in energy, food, land, and housing
14. Louis Fyne March 30, 2022 at 8:50 am

    Someome bought 3 new LNG carriers at almost 250 million USD per ship.

    Delivery date? Q4 2025.

    LNG ain’t going to rescue Europe

    https://m-en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20220324007000320?section=
    1. lyman alpha blob March 30, 2022 at 12:15 pm

       Remember in the Big Short when a couple of the short sellers realized that there was a bomb waiting to go off in the mortgage industry once they discovered that there were set dates in the contracts when interest rates would skyrocket? Well, in the fracking industry something similar occurs, although without the date certain written into a contract. The production of these wells drops off dramatically and very quickly, meaning more and more wells need to constantly be drilled in order to keep overall gas production at the initial levels – https://www.eia.gov/analysis/drilling/curve_analysis/

       Several years ago I wondered how one might go about shorting the industry since fracking companies were losing money hand over fist and it was clear that fracking would be a relatively short term phenomenon given the hard physical limits. In retrospect I’m glad I never did it since i probably would have taken a bath – I haven’t followed the industry all that closely so someone please correct me if I’m mistaken, but it seems like a lot of dumb money has been injected into the industry to keep it artificially propped up for years after it should have gone bankrupt. A “free market”, fracking is not.

       Given that the US was trying to keep Germany from signing on to the Nordstream II pipeline well before the latest hostilities in Ukraine (the West does like to pretend 8 years of shelling the Donbas never happened), and given that the US is now trying to unload this fracked-gas-turned-to-LNG onto Europe at rather high prices compared to what they would have paid to Russia, it sure does seem like the US provoked a war just to keep its own doomed fracking industry afloat just a little bit longer.
       1. digi_owl March 30, 2022 at 1:48 pm

          Didn’t we see something similar happen with oil futures when the Saudis started bankrolling their side in syria? Resulting a number of tankers anchored off refineries etc because the price had dropped so far that honoring those contracts would be bankruptcy.
15. Tom Stone March 30, 2022 at 8:56 am

    When there’s a major policy change such as the sanctions against Russia it is usual to give the right people a “Heads up”.
    I don’t think that happened this time.
    The “Right people” have thin skins and sharp knives…
    1. super extra March 30, 2022 at 10:44 am

       I’ve been thinking a lot about this! Because I still can’t believe there aren’t going to be domestic political consequences for those who destroyed the US financial sector AND the dollar by these people who are getting burned by these extremely cavalier decisions. And mostly I mean ‘how are Biden and Harris going to be removed’, because if the dems are slaughtered in the midterms isn’t Mitch McConnell 3rd in line to succeed after they’re both out? If Biden is removed on mental health grounds because the financial bloodbath picks up speed then only Harris has to be impeached. Nobody expects a miracle dem turnaround at this point, they can probably make big moves if they think it will save a tanking dollar to have ‘an adult’ back in charge. Plus this gives McConnell the chance to fully stomp out (well, try) the maga/nationalist faction that go against his own financial interests.
       1. marym March 30, 2022 at 11:17 am

          Third in line: Speaker of the House
          Fourth: president pro tempore of the Senate (by tradition the one who’s been there the longest (Grassley, but they can theoretically elect whomever they want))
          1. digi_owl March 30, 2022 at 1:51 pm

             That is one way to get everyone to say “madam president”.

             Ice cream anyone?
          2. super extra March 30, 2022 at 2:44 pm

             oh boo, thanks Marym, I had the order of succession wrong.
             But wasn’t Pelosi’s son also involved in something unsavory in Ukraine? Not as bad as the Bidens, but her and Romney (and now-deceased McCain) were the congressional names I recall being involved in personal dealing within the corruption there. What is the likelihood that intra-elite knife-fighting to keep those things hidden (or exposed!) after the Russians begin their war crimes tribunals? I’m thinking Benghazi but on steroids.

             To be clear I’m not playing the ponies on any favorites. Just trying to understand what the amoral psychos who captured power are going to do now that they’ve killed the golden goose and there is the real prospect of consquences outside the (now collapsing) rules-based order. They don’t know how to fall on their sword!
             1. nippersdad March 30, 2022 at 3:56 pm

                I have wondered the same thing; ultimately they appear to have cooked their own goose. These people may be smart, but that is not the same thing as having a little common sense.

                I am guessing turning up the McCarthyism to eleven will be their kneejerk response, but this time there are going to be a lot of (armed) people in the streets asking why they have no shame. It would appear that Mark Blyth’s point about “Martha’s Vineyard not being a defensible position” will soon be put to the test.
                1. Lost in OR March 30, 2022 at 10:21 pm

                   I believe that was the Hamptons. But yeah, same thing.
       2. Fanny March 30, 2022 at 11:38 am

          Regime change begins at home.
          Start at the bottom, not the top.

          For example, people should be educated about Newsom and his PG&E corruption, but more effectively they should start with local officials,like mayors, appointed police chiefs, council members and bureaucrats. Make them do their job to serve the electorate. Vet candidates and keep track of major donor industries.

          Form collective bipartisan and strange bedfellow groups of citizens who have common interests and use people’s insider knowledge to identify the problems and propose solutions.

          Petty bureaucrats that administer bad laws, codes, whatever, are often very impeachable and one has access to many locals who have been affected by them directly.
       3. Michael March 30, 2022 at 11:39 am

          #3 is Speaker of the House.

          If Dems lose the House, Pelosi will no longer be Speaker, and that choice will be very important if the plan is to impeach Harris.

          What R House member would you support?

          Or if said Speaker declines?

          Mitch for Prez? He might decline also.

          Madame Secretary anyone?
          1. dday March 30, 2022 at 1:00 pm

             I’ve been watching a Netflix show called “Designated Survivor”. The premise is that the Capitol is bombed on the nite of the State of the Union speech, so the only official left is the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. It turns out he is an architect and a political independent.
             1. The Rev Kev March 30, 2022 at 7:52 pm

                That was also what happened at the end of Tom Clancy’s 1994 novel “Debt of Honour” which sets up the events for his next novel “Executive orders”-

                ‘A secret cabal of extreme nationalists gains control of Japan and start a war with the U.S. Ryan, now National Security Advisor, as well as Clark and Chavez, agents in Japan, help win the war. The Vice President resigns in a scandal, and the President appoints Ryan to replace him. A vengeful Japanese airline pilot then crashes a jetliner into the U.S. Capitol during a joint session of Congress attended by most senior U.S. government officials, including the President. Ryan thus becomes the new President through succession.’
             2. aletheia33 March 30, 2022 at 9:44 pm

                in the novel “alas, babylon” (1959), nuclear war wipes out most everybody in DC. the new president/highest ranking survivor in gov’t is the female secretary of HEW. she does the job. her first, humble, broadcast, to those surviving who can receive it, is well told, if a bit too smarmy-patriotic, as per that time.
          2. nippersdad March 30, 2022 at 4:01 pm

             The idea has been floated that, were the R’s to take the House in the midterms, Trump might be nominated for Speaker of the House. While Trump has declined their kind invitation, I wonder what he will say when he finds out how the Constitutional laws of governmental succession work.

             What surprises me most is that no one has told him that yet.
             1. albrt March 31, 2022 at 1:40 am

                They probably told him and he didn’t listen.
       4. B1WHOIS March 30, 2022 at 12:28 pm

          If president Biden were removed, then Harris would become the new president. And then Harris would appoint a new vice president, yes? Then Harris can be removed and that vice president would become president. That could happen more quickly than waiting for the new house to elect a speaker…
          1. Anthony G Stegman March 30, 2022 at 4:02 pm

             What would be the reasons given for removing Harris? It would be very difficult to remove Harris. Giggling all the time isn’t a good enough reason.
             1. ambrit March 31, 2022 at 2:59 am

                Compel Willie Brown to testify and impeach her for Moral Terpitude.
                What would be an adequate defense against such a charge; “Everybody does it?”
          2. GC54 March 30, 2022 at 4:10 pm

             That’s how HRC gets the job
          3. Half Bankrupt March 30, 2022 at 7:09 pm

             Just reach back into not-too-distant-history:

             Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned and Pres Nixon appointed Gerald Ford as VP.

             Then Pres Nixon resigned and VP Ford became Pres Ford.

             So… get Kamala Harris first, then Biden.
    2. Maritimer March 30, 2022 at 4:56 pm

       I’m also wondering about how many of the “Right people” have been burned by the BigPharma/Medical Industrial Complex/WEF/WHO and their Looting Raid on the Globe. Great for Gates,Soros,Schwab etc. but what about some of those other Big Players who maybe are dependent on healthy, working, solvent Consumers to add to their Pile. Only the ***** Star Guest List at Davos knows for sure.
16. Wukchumni March 30, 2022 at 8:58 am

    Passengers positive for COVID on cruise billed as ‘fully vaccinated’ USA Today
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Looking @ deals on Norwegian Cruise Lines, they’re still bottom fishing, trying to overcome the fear of contracting Covid, as price fixes everything, right?

    Look at this deal, $399 for a week cruise in the Caribbean, free open bar, free specialty dining, free wi-fi, etc.

    70% off for 2nd guest (About $100 for a week cruise)

    $99 for 3rd & 4th passengers for a week cruise.

    I’m guessing that the cruise lines are losing money hand over fist trying to fill the death ships… (apologies to B. Traven)

    https://www.ncl.com/cruises/7-day-caribbean-round-trip-new-orleans-harvest-caye-cozumel-and-roatan-BREAKAWAY7MSYCZMRTBBPICMAMSY?destinations=4294961647&numberOfGuests=4294953449&sortBy=price&autoPopulate=f&from=resultpage&itineraryCode=BREAKAWAY7MSYCZMRTBBPICMAMSY
    1. The Rev Kev March 30, 2022 at 9:07 am

       I’ve been getting emails from a major cruise company and after deleting them a coupla times, finally went in and ‘unsubscribed’ from their list. A few hours later I got another one listing their great deals. They try it again, I will use a filter to send them straight to the trash bin. Who wants to sail on a potential pandemic Flying Dutchman?
    2. Barbados Slim March 30, 2022 at 1:57 pm

       >I’m guessing that the cruise lines are losing money hand over fist

       Ain’t that a shame
    3. Ignacio March 31, 2022 at 4:47 am

       Cruises are indeed seeing their opportunity for recovery and advertising everywhere as I see online.
       Yuhuuuuuu, back to normal!!! casualties attached, but normal. Another business looming should be medical insurance associated with cruises.
17. NotTimothyGeithner March 30, 2022 at 9:14 am

    Will Biden be “Irish” towards President Manchin?
18. Tom Stone March 30, 2022 at 9:24 am

    Biden is a member of the most numerous and powerful Irish clan,as is my ex wife.
    Clan O’Blivious.
    1. smith, m.j. March 30, 2022 at 12:34 pm

       The best take-down of Biden’s faux Irish moral outrage was delivered 3 weeks ago by Irish female MEP Clare Daly. Succinctly describing the miseries his policies are now deliberately inflicting on Afghanis, she asks, “My God, they must be wondering what makes their humanitarian crisis so unimportant?” A rhetorical question, to which she supplies the obvious answers.

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cNKrnZIoCM

       Normally I prefer text to video links, but not here. The words are powerful, but her delivery sizzles like an isotope. Well worth 1 1/2 minutes of your time.
       1. nippersdad March 30, 2022 at 4:05 pm

          Wow! That was powerful.
       2. fringe element March 30, 2022 at 8:48 pm

          yeah, wow
19. Jason Boxman March 30, 2022 at 9:24 am

    “Since my getting here what I said is, ‘we’re gonna lead with the science.’ The implication was that science was black and white, and in fact, in an ever-evolving virus, and a two-year-long pandemic, the science isn’t always black and white. It’s — it’s oftentimes shades of gray,” Walensky said.

    Except on masks. But we must always avoid that scarlet letter, no?
20. Alice X March 30, 2022 at 9:32 am

    Youtube has deleted Chris Hedges’ entire archive of his ‘On Contact’ pieces on RT.

    https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/on-being-disappeared?s=r
    1. jo6pac March 30, 2022 at 9:38 am

       Amazing and at the same time ukraine nazi got their utube channel back. WTF
    2. Louis Fyne March 30, 2022 at 1:10 pm

       RT dot com has all the old RT videos, it may even have “On Contact” . i am not familiar w/that show

       RT had a lot of good, apolitical, slice of life documentaries on Africa, Latin America, and Asia on their youtube channel.

       https://rtd.rt.com/
       1. Procopius March 31, 2022 at 2:38 am

          It appears that’s their documentary channel. The main home is at http://www.rt.com. Funny, I could have sworn I read that they completely shut their business in the U.S. down.
21. jefemt March 30, 2022 at 9:34 am

    Winnebago backlog… not a peep, even the innocent question… impact of fuel prices.

    I have been wrong many times, but I simply do not see price retrenchment —on any front.
    1. Wukchumni March 30, 2022 at 9:54 am

       During the gas lines of ’79, people were just about giving their RV’s away (truth be said, there weren’t all that many land yachts back then, people were content with getting a motel room instead) as those beasts would struggle to get a few miles per gallon on the road, not all that dissimilar to now.

       Friends bought a 15 year old full-sized RV from their uncle, and he kept it in fine fiddle-really looked sharp, and about 10 years ago decided to drive 250 miles from LA to see us, and they reckoned it cost about a buck per mile to get here and back in gas cost then, imagine what the tariff would be now?
    2. JohnnySacks March 30, 2022 at 2:00 pm

       If you can afford a $100k land yacht, what do fuel prices have to do with anything? Just a minor itch.
22. jr March 30, 2022 at 9:39 am

    Incredible “on the ground” footage of Russian and Ukrainian forces engaged in combat:

    https://youtu.be/xYxQR5haqTs
    1. Mauro March 30, 2022 at 12:33 pm

       This is better than that, and adds a more historical context.
       This is exactly what you are not supposed to watch.

       https://www.rt.com/shows/documentary/551108-donbass-war-airport-documentary/
23. marcyincny March 30, 2022 at 9:45 am

    Thank you for the bittern link. I’ve never seen or heard one myself but I’ve always found them fascinating and I treasure an Audubon print of the least bittern. https://pixels.com/featured/least-bittern-john-james-audubon.html
24. t March 30, 2022 at 9:46 am

    Wondering if the documentary will look at the number on right- wingers who were paying close attention to DNC hijinks in the last two primaries and how that helped taint their view of US election process.
25. Carolinian March 30, 2022 at 9:49 am

    Re Biden–a new poll shows him losing to Trump 47 to 41. How much longer before the Dems admit what a huge mistake they made in choosing Biden as their anti-Bernie? All the shrill propaganda in the world can’t disguise his mental frailty. Another poll says Americans are now worried about nuclear war–as though we needed yet another national crisis.

    There was a time long ago when building a bomb shelter in your backyard was a thing (my brother and I started one). Now RVs are in big demand as a recreational escape pod or perhaps the other kind. But where to go?…
    1. NotTimothyGeithner March 30, 2022 at 10:11 am

       Who else would it be? Harris, O’Rourke with his railing against CRT, now Secretary Guaido, its okay because he’s Italian Cuomo? Part of Biden’s appeal was he was a common name from being VP and not causing any kerfuffles that made the nightly news as opposed to the years of Hillary being in the news. I kind of feel its hard for older Democrats to grasp the issues young people have with Hillary isn’t over Republican attacks but her record.

       Without misplaced nostalgia, none of these people get through. I do think older Democrats wanted to go back to the era when it was cool to be a Democrat in 2008, not

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMRmuyy9f_w This is who they are.

       This is a party that waxes nostalgically for JFK. They desperately want to be popular and reach to a golden age.
       1. Wukchumni March 30, 2022 at 10:32 am

          I could see the Donkey Show trying to undo the 22nd Amendment to bring Napoleon Obamaparte back in the fold…

          Was with the dartful codgers last week in Mammoth and I brought up what a pitiful President he was, and there were a few eye daggers pointed my way, how dare I bring up something so obvious!
          1. The Rev Kev March 30, 2022 at 10:42 am

             Or….or they could stand up Michelle Obama as a Presidential candidate. She is young, black and familiar – and a perfect insider. And of course once you have Madame President Michelle Obama, you have Barry coming in the back door as First Hubby and pulling all the strings behind the scene.
             1. Louis Fyne March 30, 2022 at 10:54 am

                Michelle Obama is smart enough to not want to pick up Uncle Joe’s mess.

                The Obamas don’t need the money, they already have lifetime Secret Service protection, they don’t need the headaches that come along with taking power in 2025.

                And Michelle Obama doesn’t seem to have the same power hungry Clinton megalomania
                1. Pat March 30, 2022 at 11:15 am

                   Oh she craves power, she is just subtler than Hillary. I was going to use a version of Dracula simile but that doesn’t really work. Hillary fixated on being President, Michelle is open to all possible power routes. She is also smart enough to realize that Biden has shat the bed so badly whoever follows him will not escape the stench. And that means the presidency is currently not a good choice. She will remain an “influencer” and bide her time to see if any better opportunity presents itself in the future.
                   1. NotTimothyGeithner March 30, 2022 at 11:32 am

                      She was a first lady like Barbara and Ladybird. She didn’t do anything. I’m skipping Rosalyn and Laura. She didn’t reach their levels of activity. She’s a nothing and a perfect demonstration of how woeful Team Blue is. They are so desperate to be popular again they will settle for a nothing.
                      1. Arizona Slim March 30, 2022 at 11:58 am

                         When it comes to promoting wildflowers and other good causes, Lady Bird was no slouch. Link:

                         http://www.ladybirdjohnson.org/
                         1. Pat March 30, 2022 at 12:08 pm

                            I have traveled too many highways not to appreciate Lady Bird. I actually had the odd though about a year ago that we might have had bee and butterfly issues much earlier if not for her work. I know that wasn’t really the point, it was an unexpected side benefit.
                      2. Pat March 30, 2022 at 12:15 pm

                         I didn’t pick the term influencer and put quotes around it for no reason. That is and has been how she has presented herself since Barack started making National moves. But to discount her contributions to their networks and corporate support is deeply underestimating her.

                         The Michelle Obama public persona is as much a con as her husband’s hope and change, outsider one was in 2008.
          2. NotTimothyGeithner March 30, 2022 at 11:07 am

             Hence, the Michelle talk despite her being one of the just there first ladies. They desperately want to be liked.

             I think the Ukraine fervor is largely a result of too many being relieved the US isn’t shooting first for the first time since Hussein invaded Kuwait. They can feel good about not holding anyone accountable.
       2. Carolinian March 30, 2022 at 10:36 am

          Your point of course underlines the belief among some (me) that it’s time for the Dem party itself to go the way of the Whigs. In the 19th century the Whigs failed to confront the then national crisis–slavery–and were replaced by a party that would.

          Similarly the Dems refuse to confront our current crisis of out of control capitalism and show no interest in real reform. Instead they use fantasies of rightwing overthrow to pretend they are doing something useful by constantly talking about Trump and a racism that, while still very much present, is nowhere near what it was mid 20th cent. They probably picked Biden because his imaginary world of heroes and villains reflects their own.

          A country hatched in the Age of Reason doesn’t work unless reason is given an outlet. At this point even the Republicans seem better since a lust for arbitrary wars would be bad for business–at least for those not in the arms business.
          1. Louis Fyne March 30, 2022 at 10:56 am

             in 2009 I thought it was the GOP that would be extinct. I think you are correct—-the Dems are imploding.

             My how times have changed.
             1. hunkerdown March 30, 2022 at 6:29 pm

                Two people screeching unhinged nonsense at one another sucks many times more oxygen out of a room than one person screaming unhinged nonsense at anyone or no one. Two people screeching also keeps bystanders in their seats and compliant for a bit longer than a single person would.

                Nancy Pelosi doesn’t call for a strong GOP because she wants them vanquished. Quite the opposite; she needs a strong GOP to fill the bad parent role and justify hostility toward the materialist left. McConnell needed the DNC’s big guns to fix the primary and propel the planned loser Amy McGraft into the general. They rescue each other when one is in trouble and promote one another to the world, as spouses do.
       3. Pat March 30, 2022 at 11:04 am

          Being a recovered Democrat it took a while for my amusement at the levels of absurdity Democratic voters display to return. Sure it is mental, but the desperation at its base is also heartbreaking. I mean a group that has bought both the Clinton and Obama con games affecting superiority to the delusional Trump voters is blackly humorous.

          The numbers of Democrats in the cognitive dissonance stage is overwhelming. Biden has been so bad AND things just keep getting worse. They still grasp at absurd positions but most are still unsure and scared deep down, Covid is over, but it isn’t. Wages are up but people still can’t afford X. Police are back, but crime and violence seem to be everywhere. Russia is evil, but… The bench is so shallow it is terrifying. But it is that shallow because the system is deeply corrupt. And Republicans have the advantage that they are upfront about whom they serve.

          I don’t know how big the blood bath in November will be, but I do know voters will lose as the agenda won’t be about them regardless. I don’t know who will be the nominee in 2024, except it won’t be Biden. And barring rebellion of some sort the voters will lose then, too.
          1. fringe element March 30, 2022 at 9:36 pm

             Yes, but even if we are too corrupt to be saved, if we can manage to decline without taking the rest of the world down with us, I will be pleased.
    2. Pat March 30, 2022 at 10:40 am

       Funny how in trying to ramp up fear in other countries to get them bowing to American will, which largely consists of stripping all value from them for their rapacious natural resource companies, or treating them as fodder for the voracious appetite the MIC has for their ever increasing share of American ill gotten booty, has induced fear of nuclear war in its citizenry.

       A win win, as a fearful America has proven to be extremely gullible in approving military misadventures.
    3. Daryl March 30, 2022 at 11:20 am

       What is even more amazing about the poll is that Harris fares worse than Biden. Seems like choosing a VP that couldn’t even win her own state may have been a bad political move. Order your MAGA hats now, beat the rush.
       1. NotTimothyGeithner March 30, 2022 at 11:25 am

          What is even more amazing about the poll is that Harris fares worse than Biden

          Isn’t that like predicting the Orioles will be at the bottom of the AL East?
    4. Geo March 30, 2022 at 1:07 pm

       “Dems admit what a huge mistake they made in choosing Biden as their anti-Bernie?”

       Anecdotal but most I know think it’s AOC and Bernie who made the Dems too radical and blame them for Biden’s failings.

       And, while Twitter ain’t real life, the comments under this New Yorker piece where AOC says Dems are “in trouble” is filled with vitriol toward the “progressive wing of the party” while defending “moderates” like Manchin: https://twitter.com/nymag/status/1508787826128740357?s=21&t=d5Al_Qanq2TQOtdIfUTlvA

       Lots to complain about with our progressive reps but sure don’t envy their political situation. Hard to tell who hates them more: Conservatives, Liberals, or The Left.
       1. Michael McK March 30, 2022 at 2:54 pm

          I knocked on many doors in early in the 2020 campaign in a purple place. A surprising number of people I would casually tag as conservative said they would only vote for Bernie or Trump. AOC was distainfuly lumped in with Gavin Newsom,
          Bernie would have won. Left Populists centered on universal programs unshackled from identitarian Liberals are the only thing that can stop yet another rightward lurch. Unfortunately the Democratic party (and the Media echo chamber in general) have spent the last 30 years ensuring no one not sold out to the Corporate, Financial and Security elite has any policy input, gets campaign support, or gains useful experience within the system. Fetterman is a rare exception in PA but of course the party is going all out for Connor Lamb over of him.
          1. Mike Mc March 30, 2022 at 6:43 pm

             Busted hump at 2016 Nebraska Democratic Caucus LD 6 (Legislative District) in Omaha to try and help Bernie beat Hillary… which he did.

             Seeing Bernie then get shafted by national Dems and the execrable HRC nominated. (Insert Bill The Cat noises here.) Close friend and I both had epiphanies exactly two week before the election – Trump would win.

             A busier schedule in 2020 and COVID meant I just sent Bernie $$… until seeing Bernie then get shafted A SECOND TIME by national Dems and the execrable Biden nominated. (Insert Bill The Cat noises, machine gun fire, explosions here.)

             We need fifty Fettermans and the $$ and votes to elect them. Find them and fund them. No parties bench is very deep right now.
26. The Rev Kev March 30, 2022 at 9:58 am

    “Russia Has Fired ‘Multiple’ Hypersonic Missiles Into Ukraine, US General Confirms”

    ‘The stunt, likely meant to intimidate Ukraine and allies, has not had the effect Moscow intended.
    Hypersonic missiles are designed to thwart the world’s most sophisticated air defenses, so it’s unclear why Russia is using them against the Ukrainian military, which doesn’t have the sort of defenses that would merit the use of an advanced, experimental and very expensive weapon.’

    I don’t think that he gets it. Apart from the fact that the Russians are testing these missiles in actual combat conditions which they also did with other combat gear in Syria (including robots), they are using them to send a message to NATO as in we can hit you and you can’t stop us. Back in the 80s I think it was, NASA released images taken from space which revealed buried structures in Egypt which sounded exciting. But I heard later that that was actually a message from US intelligence to the Russians to say that they had the technology to find buried structures in Russia. Same thing her but this time it is the Russians sending a message to NATO.
    1. Louis Fyne March 30, 2022 at 11:01 am

       The US has never fought an enemy that could continually attack its rear logistics and rear HQ.

       I’m assuming that the general is talking 100% PR spin. But you never know. The brain rot at the Pentagon may be just as bad as on Capitol Hill and at the White House.

       First 3 days of any war with Russia, every major military fuel dump, airfield and command center will be taken out by Russian missiles just like in Ukraine
       1. Paul Jurczak March 30, 2022 at 1:11 pm

          First 3 days of any war with Russia, every major military fuel dump, airfield and command center will be taken out by Russian missiles just like in Ukraine

          This statement assumes:

          1. Russia has sufficient inventory of such missiles.
          2. The glide phase of supersonic trajectory works as advertised and is effective against higher quality air defense systems compared to what Ukraine was able to field.

          I’m not certain both conditions are met.
    2. Darthbobber March 30, 2022 at 11:36 am

       He does get it, he just doesn’t want the public to. He and his fellows are part of the intended audience for these displays. We aren’t. In Syria, they launched a batch of naval Kalibers from ships in the Caspian Sea. Largely as proof of product.

       I believe one of the strikes in Ukraine destroyed a Soviet-era command bunker under 60 feet of rock, which was doubtless a clarifying experience for some of the Joint Chiefs.
27. russell1200 March 30, 2022 at 10:01 am

    U.S. Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters (the general talking about hypersonic missiles) was busy in 2020 talking about drawing down troop levels in Europe – Trump appointed him and was his boss at the time.

    Now – of course – he wants to ramp up troop levels.

    And he is on record for believing that the US should have a flexible first use of nukes policy. I am sure that appoint this guy to be NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) and Commander of the U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) didn’t make the Russians nervous at all.

    On first use of nukes – https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Tod_Wolters
28. Matthew G. Saroff March 30, 2022 at 10:16 am

    News release, April 1, 2036.

    Supercats, the result of an accident in a recombinant DNA lab to get have defeated the last pockets of human resistance, so Cleveland has now bowed to our new feline overlords.

    Speaking from hiding, former US President Will Smith has declared that humanity will never surrender, and that giving cats opposable thumbs, and hence the ability to operate a can opener, was a tragic error.
29. Wukchumni March 30, 2022 at 10:23 am

    My Kevin (since ’07) has a Madison avenue problem, it appears Cawthorn didn’t invite Kev to any orgies or share any Bolivian agricultural exports with him. Expect the mildest of rebukes.
    1. The Rev Kev March 30, 2022 at 10:30 am

       Do the November midterms effect him in any way? Our Scotty may be out of a job in a month or two so may be looking for something new to screw up.
       1. Wukchumni March 30, 2022 at 10:38 am

          The biggest issue Kev has is he’s firmly in the camp of the previous teetotalitarian leader, which in theory by condoning the likes of Boebert, Cawthorn & Greene dream team, ought to cause contretemps with the 4 Republicans not all that enamored by the Donald, but who am I kidding really?
       2. Greg March 30, 2022 at 11:38 pm

          To be fair to Scotty, it seems like he’s lasted a good long while for an aussie PM – you fellas like to swap them when you take the bins out each fortnight I thought.
          1. The Rev Kev March 31, 2022 at 12:02 am

             Believe it or not, when Scotty took the job it could have been far worse. We could have ended up with Peter Dutton-

             https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Dutton

             Far worse – and that is saying something.
30. Bazarov March 30, 2022 at 10:35 am

    That report on American cancer patient suicide is bleak.

    Whenever I have to deal with hospitals or insurance companies, after hours on the phone or a long session that ends in the run around or having to explain my problem for the thousandth time because you can never get the same person on the line, I think to myself:

    “How in God’s name could a person who was really ill, someone undergoing nasty chemotherapy or recovering from a stroke, have a chance against this kafkaesque chicanery?”

    The answer is that they don’t have a chance. That’s the point. For many of them, the dark inevitability of their own defeat and ruin–and in many cases the ruin of entire families!–results in determination to prevent the hospitals and insurance companies from extracting any more from them.

    The powers that be have not as of yet figured out how to extract lucre from the corpse of an invalid.
    1. Geo March 30, 2022 at 1:20 pm

       Agreed. So much of our bureaucracy seems designed with the intent of ruining the lives of those in need.

       During the early pandemic I remember how frustrated so many were with trying to sort out unemployment payments. It was a real eye opener for many who had never been on the bad side of our system before.

       Personally, hopping off this mortal coil will be either my health insurance plan or retirement plan – whichever toll seeks payment first.

       “They tell us that suicide is the greatest piece of cowardice; that only a madman could be guilty of it; and other insipidities of the same kind; or else they make the nonsensical remark that suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.”
       – Arthur Schopenhauer, Studies in Pessimism
       1. Wukchumni March 30, 2022 at 1:24 pm

          One thing I find intriguing in regards to suicides is the idea if you are in the public eye, the press will always tell of how you killed yourself, but you’ll never ever see an obituary for an ordinary Joe or Jill who offed themselves, that mentions it.
          1. Geo March 30, 2022 at 1:47 pm

             It’s such a taboo topic. A close friend took her own life recently. Wasn’t famous but was a “notable” person who’d been on the news many times and had a few other high profile endeavors. No mention of the suicide ever came out.

             Wish she’d found a better solution to her ills but knowing her well it was clear she was at a loss for how to continue and I don’t begrudge her decision. She is no longer suffering.

             Suicide, like any other act of violence, should always be a last resort. But, in a society that celebrates violence through war, guns, militarized police, dystopian prison systems, etc, it’s ridiculous how taboo we are about suicide. I guess violence in our society is only OK when it’s forced upon another and not voluntarily self inflicted?
             1. caucus99percenter March 30, 2022 at 4:58 pm

                I always thought it was odd and not in keeping with the usual taboo that the theme song of the extremely popular TV series M*A*S*H was called “Suicide Is Painless.”
                1. Pat March 30, 2022 at 5:29 pm

                   I think they got away with it for one very big reasons. While it was shown being played and sung in the much more acerbic R rated movie, the theme itself was a much fuller instrumental version . That was, unless I cannot remember it, was the only version ever used on television. Most people would never know the title or even that it had lyrics.
             2. LifelongLib March 30, 2022 at 5:56 pm

                Suicide is (or was) stigmatized in many subcultures e.g. Catholicism. A friend doing genealogical research found that one of his great-grandfathers died from “a gunshot wound to the head, inflicted in a brief moment of despair”. Obvious what that meant, but because “suicide” was not explicitly stated the man was allowed to be buried in a church cemetery and presumably religiously absolved of any wrongdoing.
          2. CanCyn March 30, 2022 at 3:42 pm

             Apparently research has shown that people with suicidal thoughts are more likely to attempt suicide after learning about a successful suicide. Hence the lack of mention in obituaries.

             See the section on suicide contagion:
             https://wmich.edu/suicideprevention/basics/faq
31. jo6pac March 30, 2022 at 10:47 am

    Long but worth the time.

    https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/03/30/do-americans-really-want-to-support-the-neo-nazi-filled-western-ukrainian-government/
32. jo6pac March 30, 2022 at 10:49 am

    An American in the front lines.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWaNtAentO4&list=LL&index=3
33. RockHard March 30, 2022 at 10:58 am

    >Press TV. Interview with Gilbert Doctorow. De facto blocked in the US

    Thanks for the link, very interesting stuff. The video played fine for me. Staying at a friend’s so I’m not sure who the ISP is here.
    1. Late Introvert March 30, 2022 at 5:59 pm

       It also played for me, and it was nice to hear the great Gilbert Doctorow speak in person. RT was blocked for me a couple weeks back, but it’s working fine now.
34. antidlc March 30, 2022 at 11:09 am

    961 US COVID deaths yesterday:
    https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/cumulative-cases

    #CDCFAIL
    1. Mr. House March 30, 2022 at 2:00 pm

       More Jabs! That’s the ticket!
35. Wukchumni March 30, 2022 at 11:10 am

    Aside from being a fellow Slav, the only time i’m aware of us ever being together was at a B-52’s concert in the mid 80’s @ the Universal Amphitheater. He had a suicide blonde draped all over him about 100 feet away…

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/weird-al-eric-idle-birthday-video_n_6243ab0ee4b0587dee6233f8
    1. NotTimothyGeithner March 30, 2022 at 11:20 am

       I love that Dr. Demento gave Weird Al his name when he was 14 and could only come up with “weird.”
36. djrichard March 30, 2022 at 11:14 am

    > Huawei: The Chinese tech giant Trump couldn’t kill Axios (resilc).

    From the article, “Critics cited its ties to the Chinese government and fears that its products contain secret “backdoors,” a charge Huawei has denied.“. I thought it was the other way around. That Huawei wouldn’t support CIA/NSA/FBI backdoors into their equipment. I don’t think anybody really connected the dots from that to Trump’s sanctions, but I always assumed that that was what it was about.
    1. Carolinian March 30, 2022 at 12:22 pm

       It’s okay when we backdoor.

       I was forced to get a new Android phone and notice that Google is now a lot pushier about trying to get me to jaw with them. They would probably be just as walled a garden as Apple if not for those open source licenses they have to respect by swiping Linux.

       That said, on at least some level smartphones are amazing machines. Just lie back and think of England?
37. scarnoc March 30, 2022 at 11:17 am

    For Lira (and many others), Telegram is always the best source. He updates there first. Telegram is also the best app for people in the west who want to receive Russian media updates quickly and with comparatively minimal censorship so far.
38. CaliDan March 30, 2022 at 11:39 am

    Has anyone else become concerned about the dramatic rightward shift of The Conversation lately? Just wanted to check in, because I haven’t been there in some time, and here’s one of the first articles that popped up, “Yes Putin and Russia are fascist –– a political scientist shows how they meet the textbook definition.”
    1. Louis Fyne March 30, 2022 at 3:35 pm

       The US is fascist too….if you use the boring textbook definition: fusion of state + business + citizenry + nationalism. So is China, so is Russia, so is Japan, so is German (minus the nationalism)
    2. Darthbobber March 30, 2022 at 7:17 pm

       Boy, that’s some word salad there. And amazingly, he opines that you can avoid being fascist just by having a leader who isn’t “really” charismatic. And the rest is of a piece with that bit of brilliance.
       1. albrt March 31, 2022 at 1:44 am

          So Joe Biden meets the textbook definition of “not fascist”? Fascinating. Does this guy have a newsletter I can subscribe to?
39. Lex March 30, 2022 at 11:44 am

    I was in a feed store yesterday buying treats for my elderly dog, describing the increasingly desperate situation we found ourselves in trying to find his favorites, and the deep poo I was going to be in if I showed up without a suitable substitute, since his favorites seem to be in permanent back order. The clerk’s dog is 18; she told of the side-eye she received when she arrived home 15 minutes late and then showed me the photo on her phone. It’s like being given the stink eye by your great-granny. The stink is strongest with elders; it emanates from the multi-generational judgment of your character and if found a hopeless case, the possible revocation of your tribal membership.

    Frankly, in this life I haven’t really understood the sway of tribalism… unless I’ve just been nailed to the floor with a single fuzzy-faced look for shorting him on Hypotreats. I’d rather be drawn and quartered.

    Oh, you don’t live with an old pet? See cat du jour, turn it sideways and age 10 years. Does that glare seem to be following you around the room as you break into a cold sweat and dive for the scissors to get that package of biscuits open? It’s like that and don’t expect any extra gratitude, but you’re probably still in the will… for now.
    1. Wukchumni March 30, 2022 at 11:50 am

       Einstein (the brains of the outfit) gives off this nearly hound dog howl when the matter of Temptations is brought up by him.

       If I ever ran out of kitty crack, there’d be hell to pay.
       1. Pat March 30, 2022 at 12:00 pm

          We aren’t called staff for no reason. But it isn’t just howls and stink eyes. My late Stewart, who really was the sweetest cat I have ever known, did the sadly disappointed favorite teacher looks and sad meow if I happened to pick the wrong food from his rotating selection of about six foods. He would leave it and stare at me for up to the next hour with the “this needs to be corrected look”. While occasionally I managed to be strong, the give in time could be as little as ten minutes. Nuns had nothing on my Stewart.
       2. HotFlash March 30, 2022 at 1:18 pm

          My Negrutsk (spelling sort of phonetic, I never got the Romanian pronunciation right) has this look — disappointed but resigned, as if he never expected much from us anyway. Someday I’m gonna find the team who invented Temptations and punch them out. Meanwhile, I stockpile.
40. Sub-Boreal March 30, 2022 at 12:05 pm

    For landslide fans – spectacular stills & videos: https://hakai.org/the-big-slide/

    This story has it all: a dynamic landscape, climate change, scientific detective work, indigenous salmon fisheries, & lessons from the 1980 Mt St Helens eruption!
41. Wukchumni March 30, 2022 at 12:08 pm

    Some Israeli pulls off an all-too familiar mass murder of 5 via hand cannon in the holy land, and Drudge calls it ‘Terror In Israel’.

    Funny how the Vegas shooter never earned the title of terrorist by killing 10x as many people, just another 2nd amendment enthusiast.
    1. Wukchumni March 30, 2022 at 12:25 pm

       p.s.

       A pretty heavy duty solar storm is about to rain down upon us, and if it were enough to fry the grid and all electronics, guns would be the one thing that continues to function, turning the USA into the basis for Dime novels of the old west where everybody was shooting one another all the time, except they really weren’t.

       A geomagnetic storm warning has been issued after 17 solar flares were detected erupting from a single sun spot, some of them while it was pointing at Earth.

       The US space weather prediction centre said a G3 geomagnetic storm watch is now in effect following what scientists call a “cannibal coronal mass ejection (CME)” being launched towards Earth.

       A cannibal CME takes place when a second larger flare follows an initial one and ends up sweeping up the material in front of it.

       This results in “tangled magnetic fields and compressed plasmas that can spark strong geomagnetic storms” according to SpaceWeather.com, meaning that the auroras could be seen closer to the equator than usual.

       https://news.sky.com/story/geomagnetic-storm-warning-issued-after-17-solar-flares-erupt-from-single-sun-spot-12578081
       1. Geo March 30, 2022 at 1:29 pm

          Seems like the cosmos is just taking out the trash:
          “Earlier this year SpaceX confirmed that a geomagnetic storm destroyed most of the Starlink satellites it had attempted to get into orbit during a launch”
          1. Maritimer March 30, 2022 at 5:13 pm

             Let’s run that Monopoly Digital Currency off satellites—the transactions will go faster—no need for a backup payment system.
             1. Martin Oline March 31, 2022 at 3:31 am

                It would be a real shame if all those bit coins got affected by this. I wonder what their worth is as scrap?
       2. Martin Oline March 30, 2022 at 2:50 pm

          It will be Thursday with Auroras visible as far south as Oregon, Iowa, and Pennsylvania.
42. Wukchumni March 30, 2022 at 12:44 pm

    Soaring Prices Are Changing the Way People Eat Bloomberg (J-LS). Yours truly has been stockpiling….
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    One thing that’s easy to leave out in your proposed pantry is fun foods, make sure you have plenty…

    On the left coast we have Grocery Outlet which is a fun way to shop, they currently have 4x 1 pound metal tins of Danish butter cookies* (28% butter and too good for their own good, yum) for $5.99, or a buck fifty per pound with a use-by date of December 22, 2022.

    * these are usually around $3-4 per pound tin, and just how do the Danes do it even at the higher price?
    1. Louis Fyne March 30, 2022 at 1:05 pm

       Polish or Russian milk, Ukrainian flour, factory might be in Slovakia.

       But if they all can’t get Russian energy and fertilizer, does cookies are going to $8+
    2. Maritimer March 30, 2022 at 5:16 pm

       “the Way People Eat Bloomberg”
       **********
       I haven’t eaten any Bloomberg since the last time when it gave me financial indigestion and d……
43. Wukchumni March 30, 2022 at 1:15 pm

    If I was the Governor of Nevada, i’d make it obligatory for everybody in Las Vegas to go do a field trip to see boat launching ramps on Lake Mead, to give them an idea of what they are up against in their long playing drought.

    Most of them are hundreds of yards from where the water used to be. Every picture tells a story, don’t it?

    https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2022/03/lake-mead-nra-managers-grappling-low-water-levels
    1. curlydan March 30, 2022 at 3:24 pm

       whoa! Lead Mead is already 23 feet below last year’s level at this time, and the 1047 feet predicted in October would be 18 feet below the lowest level observed in 2021.

       http://mead.uslakes.info/level.asp
       1. Wukchumni March 30, 2022 at 3:34 pm

          A friend moved from LV last year and I tried to convince her to sell her house there, pleading with her not to rent it because that would put her in the doghouse as far as the $250k capital gains tax-free holiday goes, but all of her friends told her she was doing the right thing by holding onto to it.

          Vegas will sadly be just another Nevada ghost town, but unlike most of them that are hidden away in the Silver State, it’ll be right there on either side of interstate 15.

          On Interstate 15, by Wall of Voodoo

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUSGlb72YVw
          1. Anthony G Stegman March 30, 2022 at 6:38 pm

             Large metropolitan areas such as Las Vegas (and Los Angeles, Phoenix, etc…) will always get the water they need for the simple reason that water flows towards money. Poor, rural people will be the ones left dry. Las Vegas will never dry up.
    2. juno mas March 30, 2022 at 4:44 pm

       Well, as a former state official, I can tell you Clark County (Las Vegas) has a plan. For decades, the state has been exploring underground aquifers along eastern Nevada valleys. There is substantial underground reserves.

       Six percent of Las Vegas winnings go to support the state beauracracy + plus rent from the 85% of land owned by the Federal government. That’s part of why there is no state income tax. But it also tells you whom controls the state.

       If Lake Mead dries up, aquifer water will replace it. But what about power generation from Hoover Dam (Lake Mead outlet)?! Nevada is the driest, sunniest state of the 48; solar power and LED technology will be the alternative.

       The Show must go on!
       1. Wukchumni March 30, 2022 at 6:24 pm

          Past performance isn’t necessarily indicative of future performance, and i’d expect much of the country to be broke in the not too distant future, negating any need to gamble or go to conventions.
          1. juno mas March 30, 2022 at 8:47 pm

             Agreed. Money or not, many arrive for the nearly naked dancing ladies that appear before and after the Celebrities. The Show will go on.
44. Geo March 30, 2022 at 1:35 pm

    “Bruce Willis Stepping Away From Acting Following Aphasia Diagnosis”
    https://t.co/r6oK9LliO8

    “Bruce Willis’ family has announced the actor is retiring from the profession after being diagnosed with aphasia, a language disorder caused by brain damage that affects a person’s ability to communicate.”
    1. Benny March 31, 2022 at 9:05 am

       Well, that explains pretty much all the questions raised by Red Letter Media. The video is both informative and highly entertaining, but this news puts a sad spin on it.
       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd1eNS9HtXo
45. Tom Collins' Moscow Mule March 30, 2022 at 1:38 pm

    “Cancer Patients Are at High Risk of Depression and Suicide, Studies Find New York Times”

    “One day years ago, during her training in neurology, Dr. Corinna Seliger-Behme met a man with end-stage bladder cancer. Before the diagnosis, the man had a stable family and job, and no history of mental health problems, Dr. Seliger-Behme recalled. But, soon after learning of his terminal disease, he tried to kill himself with a knife in the bathtub. He spent the last week of his life in the psychiatric ward.”

    The above noted situation is a classic example of both the real life theater of the absurd and a: “Catch-22” is “a problem for which the only solution is denied by a circumstance inherent in the problem or by a rule.”; where, in the prototypical game of ‘psychiatry’, the assumption is, “Since I am a healer, if you do not get better it is your fault.”

    There are, of course, a multitude of other assumptions that help to define and set the rules of the game; wherein, most of those same rules ignore historical realities, inescapable physical realities (Where even elaborately constructed meat puppet heat engines are subject to the veritie(s) of the Second Law. ), simple and logical cost benefit analysis in the face of unalterable inevitability, acts of defiance against the logically absurd, ect., ect.
    Seen as a brazen insult and poke in the eye of the living such ideas as voluntary death are viewed as very, very bad indeed, fully realizing that Tolstoy’s “old eastern fable” is not just cogent observation, but an apparent guiding life principle for the human inhabitants on this planet.

    It is further observed that, “It reiterated the views of previous centuries, arguing that suicide was an act against religion and so a crime against civil society because it deprived others of expected physical and mental services and immoral for being contrary to the individual’s duties to maintain relational ties.”

    “Leonardo Tondo: Brief History of Suicide in Western Cultures”

    https://inhn.org/fileadmin/user_upload/User_Uploads/INHN/Archives/Tondo_Brief_History_Suicide_01.pdf

    Not much has changed,over the course of time, except that the old priests have been replaced by a reinvigorated priest class that is now medically trained, yet remains just as dogmatic. That is:

    “To accept that sane people might choose death over life is to open up possibilities for self-determination that even in a free and democratic society seem politically dangerous. In western culture we are engaged in something more than, in Ernest Becker’s words, “the denial of death.” We are at war with death as much as over it. At stake in debates about vuluntary death is the right to control life. Who is in charge? The individual? The state? The professions, legal and medical?”

    “History of Suicide: Voluntary Death in Western Culture (review)”—-Kathleen M. Joyce

    https://muse.jhu.edu/article/15175/pdf
46. Wukchumni March 30, 2022 at 1:58 pm

    Andre Antunes, my favorite heavy metal interpreter of Karen action…

    Karen Metal 4! [No Pomegranates]

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnLLrnZVwFI
    1. cjinla March 30, 2022 at 5:40 pm

       I do love your musical interludes. No Pomegranates indeed! :)
47. jo6pac March 30, 2022 at 2:42 pm

    You have to love it when the 1% give us on Main Street advice.

    https://www.rt.com/news/553001-blackrock-americans-inflation-scarcity-/
48. Dave in Austin March 30, 2022 at 3:13 pm

    Very Important!

    Well, the Administration can’t say it wasn’t warned. Here is a 2019 Rand study that speaks directly to the Ukraine situation:

    “Overextending and Unbalancing Russia. Assessing the Impact of Cost-Imposing Options”
    https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB10014.html

    Andrew Marshall pioneered the approach of making relatively inexpensive moves that imposed high costs on the USSR when it tried to respond. His was an excellent “economy of force” strategy. Read “The Last Warrior” by Andrew Krepinevich with a forward by Robert Gates. Marshall invented New Assessment. But he also knew that if you push someone too far the response might be more than you bargained for.
49. Marcy March 30, 2022 at 3:46 pm

    On lynching; “Moments after Mr. Biden signed the law — named for Emmett Till, the Black boy who was murdered in Mississippi in 1955”

    Emmett Till was the first victim of the Me Too movement, although for other reasons.
50. Maggie March 30, 2022 at 7:33 pm

    Talking about food choices and inflation …. not good news for Turkey Day 2022.. Adding link to article …” A commercial turkey operation in North Carolina has tested positive for avian flu …”
51. Roxan March 30, 2022 at 8:13 pm

    Regarding cancer and suicide, if you’re terminal, I don’t think there is much to be done for the pain suffered in the final months. That is certainly what I’ve seen. These days, even cancer patients are often denounced as drug seekers, slackers or cowards if you ask for pain meds. I finally just tossed their terrible hormone pills I was supposed to take for 5-10 years, and when asked, say I am taking them. If I said I refused (again!) it was clear I would be dismissed from the practice and probably no other dr would treat me either as it would be in my ‘permanent record’. There was zero interest in actually helping with the side effects, or avoiding some of the pain unnecessarily inflicted during procedures. I’ve had other ailments and surgeries in the past, and I felt drs did their best to prevent or ameliorate pain. When I was in nursing school, I was shocked at the bad attitude of nurses on the oncology unit. Things have not improved.
52. John Zelnicker March 30, 2022 at 9:09 pm

    Yves – I experimented with using a VPN to get the Press TV video to play.

    First I tried using a server in Russia just to see if they’ve been knocked off my VPN provider’s list and couldn’t even reach the Press TV web site. So, it looks like Russian servers are being blocked, too.

    Next, I tried using a Canadian server and got the web site and the video will play.
53. lance ringquist March 30, 2022 at 10:15 pm

    very welcome news indeed.

    https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/03/30/the-death-spiral-of-globalization/

    “Given that our planet is now choking on human-caused fossil fuel pollution, if Fink is right, the decline of extremely energy intensive globalization would be a welcome turn to a sustainable future — and the long-overdue demise of human and resource colonization.”
    1. SocalJimObjects March 31, 2022 at 1:01 am

       But? Blackrock controls 10 trillion dollars of asset. How is he going to profit from deglobalization? Is this a call to arms? A cry for help to fellow “oligarchs”?
54. RobertC March 30, 2022 at 11:38 pm

    Biden

    Hudson Institute has joined AEI’s and FDD’s Biden bashing with It’s Time for Israel to Stand Up to Biden’s Appeasement of Iran

    It’s time to admit that the Biden administration’s policy in the Middle East directly threatens vital Israeli interests, chiefly, preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, and blocking the expansion of its regular and proxy forces throughout the region.
55. The Rev Kev March 31, 2022 at 12:07 am

    In lighter news for the day, a Call of Duty gamer was accused of being a cheat. And ‘In an attempt to clear his name, the player shared off-screen footage of his gameplay, in which you could clearly see…that he was cheating’–

    https://kotaku.com/call-of-duty-cheat-cheater-hacking-wallhack-kenji-colle-1848729501

    Maybe he should go into politics.
56. Mikel March 31, 2022 at 3:36 am

    “Soaring Prices Are Changing the Way People Eat” Bloomberg

    The article is more about the changes restuarants are making when people eat out.

    Aren’t there actually fewer restaurants now than before Covid?

    Something still doesn’t add up about the narrative around supply.
57. SET March 31, 2022 at 6:33 am

    Gonzalo Lira! As of 3:30 AM PDT, his youtube channel:
    Video unavailable
    This video has been removed by the uploader

Comments are closed.