By Lambert Strether of Corrente
Patient readers, I musk ask your indulgence once more, as I complete a quixotic post on masking. Tomorrow I shall be back in form. This is an open thread. –lambert.
In honor of the recent reception of the Azovs in “The People’s House,” as Pelosi likes it call it, I thought I’d post X’s “Under The Big Black Sun,” the Black Sun being a Nazi symbol, hence much appreciated by the losers of Mariupol (though perhaps they’ll clean themselves up for American cable). Unfortunately, the lyrics, though great, are thoroughly off-point.
Then I thought: What the heck?
Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. From Copeland:
Copeland writes: “This is Salvia greggii ‘Radio Red’. One of its common names is Autumn Sage, and though it blooms all spring and summer, it really does put forth a mighty effort going into autumn after taking a bit of a breather in midsummer. Tremendously attractive to hummingbirds.”
Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. So if you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldn’t see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I’m on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals:
Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated:
If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!
72 comments
Comments are closed.
I know what the Overton Window is. Is there an Overton Window, or some equivalent to inflation tolerance, before people finally rebel?
Went shopping yesterday for a mixed bag of groceries, picked up cleaning, bought some beer. We’re talking prices TRIPLING from a couple years ago. It’s gone from tragedy, to tragicomedy to absolute farce.
I see the same. I go to the store every couple of weeks. I buy the same stuff for the most part. It has always been 50-60 bucks. The last two times it was 105 and 113. It has been increasing over the last year but doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Gas even jumped a dime this week.
Hi, Carla. I’m Carla, too. I’ve been using my first name as my Naked Capitalism handle since I first discovered this blog about 2010 or 2011. To my knowledge, you joined this wonderful community this year. IMHO, it would be very kind and neighborly of you to add an initial, a nickname, or something else to your handle to distinguish yourself from me. I wouldn’t want to take credit for any of your excellent comments, and you might not want to be blamed for some of my less than stellar ones.
That’s kind of CPI right? The increase in the “basket of goods”?
I recall from what CPI looks at, and the concepts of interchangeable goods, the official stats will be lagging behind the reality we experience for quite some time. Also, there may be other limits on things beyond what people assume in those metrics. Like, you can’t substitute chicken for pork when pork becomes expensive if the trains aren’t running and there is no chicken to buy in the store. Or, say you’re allergic to lactose and because of energy costs or other shortages of supply inputs all the dairy free products you want to buy aren’t available or are too expensive to purchase on a budget. These kind of things completely defeat the data collection methods and concepts behind how our leaders measure the impact of inflation on citizens.
What’s also crazy is how we handled this last time we experienced it in the US. I talked about it with my father in law the other day and he remembered getting 10% or 20% yearly salary increases as raises when inflation was really hitting hard. Can anyone imagine that today?
As for rioting and the people being outside some financial overton window, I think we’re there now. The amount of theft at all levels for common goods is outrageous. So much shoplifting. So many porch pirates. Violent crime and mugging. Lots of people are showing us they’re done with being poor and having no options. No one in power is listening.
To add a point here, telling us the economy is just great and going 100% bangers for everyone is bound to fail at some juncture. I’m not sure how much longer the rational and reasonable is able to withstand this. I tend to agree with what you write above.
And the WH, the Congress, what are they doing exactly? Let’s send money to the Ukraine. We don’t have just an ineffectual leadership and elites, we have them in droves.
The only thing I’d disagree with in what you wrote is that our leaders are ineffective. They are very effective. We don’t have something different now because they don’t want it to be different. Their donors don’t want it to be different. Our current leadership and party system has managed to stymie and derail consistent requests for programs with highly favorable polling for decades. That is incredibly effective governing… for the donor class.
Not only can’t imagine increases that high, but would expect in almost all cases that the bosses decide “inflation is hitting business hard, have to tighten belts, no increases or even decreases this year”.
Acid Brandon. W/
Carla2—
As Carla points out, your handle is confusing to readers. Please change it from now on. Thanks!
Yeah, Carla the new, come on.
Sorry, as usual. As usual, I didn’t read down far enough. Sorry, for the zillionth time.
Jon, hope all is well with you and yours.
We’re doing very well, Carla. Thanks for asking! How about you? I hope you have all stayed healthy.
We’re doing okay, thank you, although many friends and relatives have had Covid. Meanwhile, we get variously exercised about politics at every level, from international down to hyper-local.
Maybe Soundgarden is more apropos lyrically? – Black Hole Sun
Can’t say I grok any of it, but here you go –
RIP Chris Cornell.
Yes, the world is very hard on people who are sensitive to others pain and can see clearly.
I am certainly not one to quibble with anything on offer from Cornell or the band Soundgarden itself (or Audioslave while we are at it. Alive in the Superunknown is a great riff by Soundgarden.
How about Black Flag, by King’s X? What a great sound, yet typically over looked.
https://youtu.be/RR0G9XKuHdE
Yeeeeaaaah! 🤘
Really digging the new Kings X album. They released it on thick vinyl, four sides at 45RPM. Sonics are excellent.
Apologies if this is a repeat but it bears mentioning it again for Chicagoans:
Revealed: the ‘shocking’ levels of toxic lead in Chicago tap water
Tests performed for thousands of Chicago residents found lead, a neurotoxic metal, in amounts far exceeding the federal standards
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/21/lead-contamination-chicago-tap-water-revealed
Jimmy Dore has a good show on it as well. It’s found mostly in the poor sections of the city. Lightfoot has done jack…and residents are expected to pay for new pipes.
I got nothing other than the eu citizens are going to be very cold soon. I’m sure it will effect us in Amerika and none of the govt. care.
I’ve got enough firewood for this year and adding to pantry more rice and beans.
I’m sure joe b. and his buddy powell will helps us on Main Street/sn
I have a small jet-stove, a hatchet, a saw, and a crumbling wooden deck. I also have a small popup tent. If your home is cold, pitch a popup tent and sleep in it.
The tent inside idea is one I thought of several years ago. I’m assuming you meant to pitch the tent inside the house.
An old fashioned hot water bottle with cozy will keep you warm for a long time.
The best ones are a brand named Fashy, made in Germany.
Thanks, that’s on my list. And that’s affirmative, Portia.
As a humble suggestion, if you have money and time, consider making upgrades to insulation in your house before it gets colder this year. There’s a lot of benefit to be gained in simply not losing as much heat througg your building envelope during the winter.
I rent and the house 60 to 100 years old depending what room you’re in. I do have clear acrylic over the windows that helps a lot for wind. I light a fire on cold nights ( live near Tracy, Calif.) Then only live in my office/computer room and kitchen. It’s all good and thanks everyone for the ideas.
Bubble wrap over windows is widely used where I live. Wet the window using a damp/wet rag and put the cut to size wrap on the window. Smooth it over with your hands and it should stick.
Or perhaps this one from The Rollins Band’s End of Silence album which sports a black sun cover. A little Nazi therapy from Henry? – Low Self Opinion
I think you got a low self opinion man
I see you standing all by yourself
Unable to express the pain of your distress
You withdraw deeper inside
You alienate yourself
And everybody else
They wonder what’s on your mind
They got so tired of you
And your self ridicule
They wrote you off and left you behind
You sleep alone at night
You never wonder why
All this bitterness wells up inside you
You always victimize
So you can criticize yourself
And all those around you
The hatred you project
Does nothing to protect you
You leave yourself so exposed
You want to open up
When someone says
Lighten up
You find all your doors closed
Get yourself a break from self rejection
Try some introspection
And you just might find
It’s not so bad and anyway
At the end of the day
All you have is yourself and your mind
The self hatred that blinds you
Binds you grinds you keeps you down
The world falls down around you
You build up walls around you
You wear disgust like a crown
If you could see the you that I see
When I see you seeing me
You’d see yourself so differently
Believe me
I know the self doubt that runs inside your mind
I know the self that treats you so unkind
If you could see the you that I see
When I see you
You would see things differently
I assure you
Side note: Maybe the Wagner Group should look into hiring Rollins. Back in the day at least he was so jacked he could have taken out the Azov types singlehandedly.
TV Party was Henry’s profoundest statement.
We’re gonna have a TV party tonight! All right!
Gonna pass out on the couch! Tonight!
Don’t care about anyone else
We don’t wanna know
Just gonna watch
Our favorite shows…
Saturday Night Live!
Monday Night Football!
etc.
The Dark History of Sea Monkeys
https://youtu.be/DTElmUuOAk4
With a link to the KKK!
Half of X moved on to become The Knitters but doing some digging I found that X did get back together again in 2015 and performed the entire Under The Big Black Sun album on stage in Pasedena. [YouTube link]
My favorite Knitters tune (though I like X a lot better). Truly offensive!
I must be a very old foggy. The band “X” and the their tune highlighted here did nothing for me. I did not feel moved to dance, and the lyrics were incomprehensible to my old ears. Neither the music nor the incomprehensible lyrics did a thing for me.
What am I missing? I love music from all periods … but although I do like the repetition of the thematic beat and melody, it is overly repeated without variation making it — shall I say most nicely, repetitive and boring. Without words, what is the charm of this selection, … or this band? [Sorry I had no temptation to listen to your favorite tune from the Knitters (most odd name) adjacent to your comment above.]
The name “The Knitters” was a nod to the group “The Weavers.” Pete Seeger was likely the best known “weaver.”
In a similar move, the Dutch quirky group The Nits was invented as a play on the Beatles. They didn’t maybe realize what it meant :)
You might want to give X’s first album Los Angeles a listen.
Love X, such a cool band. I’ve always thought that their guitarist Billy Zoom had a great style. Their performance and interview in The Decline of Western Civilization are worth checking out (the whole movie is required watching for anyone interested in punk or hardcore).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uov0PAetRZY
For my money though, the best segment was from Black Flag, especially when they talk about living in an old church for $16 per month. Or the interview with Darby Crash…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhJnuT_ay_k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFtmrNdKLLc&list=PLA45C422FFBC8B480
Darby Crash, now THERE was a piece of work!
Under the Big Black Sun is my favorite X album. Never tire of that record. “Riding with Mary…”
I saw “X” three different times in the 80’s. Quite fun. John Doe’s book, Under the Black Sun is a great read of the LA punk, post punk scene. Also that bring to mind the movie, Decline of the Western Empire, documentary of the scene, more or less. I am calling that period my “glory days”.
Wild Gift for me. “We’re Desperate- Get used to it!…”
There was a documentary about them called The Unheard Music that I recall enjoying.
Stuck on the Streets of San Francisco in a Driverless Car
Useless tech.
But correct skepticism:
Why don’t we have augmented reality driving instead? I never thought twice about flying or robot cars, but a rare few times in my life, I thought we’d get a HUD in the car. That might even be usefully achievable.
But this fully autonomous crap is just that, crap. Pure fiction. Some people are making some serious cash milking this, though.
I love today’s plantidote. Salvias are wonderful decorative plants.
The variety pictured reminds me very much of a beautiful tender-perennial Salvia given me more than 20 years ago that became a gorgeous bush but did not survive the winter. Neither I nor the giver noted what it was at the time and we’ve been looking for it — we refer to it as the “mystery salvia” — ever since. This may be it; now to find a nursery that sells this plant. I don’t think it is available to home growers to grow from seed.
I searched for “Salvia greggii ‘Radio Red’” on Duck Duck Go and it came up. Hardy only in zones 7-10. Plants for sale. Maybe grow it in a large pot and take it for the winter? Dunno. Some plants won’t survive that.
A genuine question: If the Nordstream 2 gas pipeline is kaput but there’s a new gas pipeline to Germany from Scandinavia tapping into Norwegian gas — and if there’s enough gas for the new line to last at least 10 years — what’s the problem? Why won’t there be enough gas for Europe to avoid shutting down industries and keep from shivering this winter?
I’m sure there are answers to this, a subject I find geopolitically riveting but not so much that I can quit my job and take the time necessary to explore enough ins and outs to make sense of it all.
And genuine thanks in advance to anyone willing to take a stab at providing an answer.
MofA discusses this today at the end of this post – https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/09/whodunnit-facts-related-to-the-sabotage-attack-on-the-nord-stream-pipelines.html#more
I believe there is a typo in there, but if I’m understanding it correctly the new pipeline has less than 10% of the capacity of the ones that got holed –
“The Baltic Pipe has a capacity of only 10 billion cubic meters per year. The Nord Stream system could carry up to 110 (I believe they forgot a ‘billion’ here) cubic meter per year. All of which is needed to keep Europe’s industries running.”
I’m guessing that there is not that much gas to be gotten from Norway, and that therefore most of the gas piped would be re-gasified (probably not a real word) expensive LPG from the US and other places. Does anyone know if that’s the case?
the Norway pipeline goes to Poland, not Germany.
Norway and Germany were discussing their own pipeline for hydrogen, but now that will probably be for gas.
Dunno what Norway’s spare capacity for gas is. But I doubt that it can meet Germany’s pre-2022 needs.
According to Oilprice and others Norway has been running all out to produce everything it can this year. They can’t increase their current output without additional investment and changes to their physical plant. That can be done but it won’t be started this year, or completed before winter bares its teeth.
As best i recall, there is already a pipe from Norway to Germany (and one to UK as well).
But even with the capacity maxed out, Norway can barely hit something like 10% of Russian deliveries.
Another question: If the Nordstream pipeline was shut down before the breach occurred, why is it leaking gas now? How I wish I were back on an editing desk so I could task reporters with filling in these narrative holes for general readers like myself.
My understanding was that there was still some gas in the pipe it’s self and that in a few days there would be no gas bubbling up. Just the remnants of what was in the pipe after it was shut down by Russia. I believe I heard this on one of the Duran but not sure now.
One explanation is the pipeline needs to be pressurized to keep oxygen out. Speculation, I saw, is Germany has been receiving gas via N2 under the contract.
It was fully charged so when Germany said yes it would start right away.
Riddle me this today, Mr or Mrs Batman. Where does our ever present Rapture Ready Index stand at the juncture today, nearing 7pm on the US East coast. Inquiring minds and all that.
https://www.raptureready.com/rapture-ready-index/
It is showing at 186. I am absolutely selling that, must be a delayed response. Just for a recap:
Exh. A. Category 4 hurricane makes landfall in major US coastal region. Climate should be a +1.
Exh. B. Nordstream pipeline explosion. Climate / energy / international conspiracy should be a +1.
Exh. C. Early this morning, the UK central bank will be acquiring their own sausage a mere week after a 0.50% increase to their targeted short term rate. This is just plain weird territory. I’m adding +2 to be nice.
As CBS host and sporting event anchor Jim Nantz is prone to announce Hello Friends. What have I missed exactly.
…a watched plot never boils over
Personal belief based on observation but not having checked the data thoroughly – the rapture ready operators are liberals through. The index moves a lot more under republican administrations, but events approved by the DNC-types don’t shift the dial.
Could be wrong, but that’s the impression I’ve got.
That would explain a lot I do suppose. I’ve been cynical for far too long to have made the distinction, aka the cynical part starting about 2009 to 2011. Wait a second though, have Democrats kinda run things more in these past 10 to 12 years?!? Yes I think that has been the case.
Perhaps it’s a combination of many factors.
I think I’m probably wrong though – going to the actual website its full of evangelical woo, which tends to say republican.
I’m going to make a prediction: The Dems are so sure they are going to weather the midterms but I’m offering an alternate hypothesis. The Dems will win every poll between now and the end of the year, except the one on November 8th. I still see them getting creamed but at least it will be a surprise to them.
I think things are in flux. There is a chance they will hold on, not that I really think they want to do that. The thing to remember is that with much of the House the results are a foregone conclusion. And the outcome of districts that are in play is going to be affected by more things than Roe and January 6th. Wages are stagnant, inflation is not. Despite the big claims nothing has really been done by the Democrats to curb that or provide relief for it. Food is going to continue to get more expensive, insurance companies will be declaring their new premiums, it isn’t certain yet but Ian and other hurricanes and tropical storms could further knock out refinery output sending gas through the roof, heating oil and gas as well. All of which could really blast incumbents. War doesn’t really play well either. But who knows what other events might happen between now and Election Day.
Personally I think you are reading the tea leaves better than the pollsters are. But that is not an unbiased opinion. I have a hard time imagining any thinking person really voting for most of the candidates, Democratic or Republican.
Just thinking about this for the US Senate, there are two states where the Republicans have put forward a perhaps less than ideal candidate for Senate seats; this is specific to PA and to GA.
In Georgia for example, Republicans should have been able to bounce the Democrat Warnock, but MR. Walker is just a bit too far on the popular but not terribly bright scale. And those word salads on climate change or pollution are absolute doozies. I see a +2 advantage for Warnock from a recent site check on 538 where others mileage may vary. The site is also listing the NC Senate race as a razor thin advantage for the R candidate (whom I hear is a MAGA dude, for what that is worth).
Hey All, I won’t post the link you can find it easy. But I use to like Jimmy Dore, then early December he called Omicron a ‘hoax’…when four weeks later (always the gap as we know) 2000 a day were dying. He also had Max B on twice saying, ‘once you get it, you are immune’…..this was just 9 months ago…..and NOW he just posted a video wondering if the new fascist in Italy is actually fascist. And I watched the whole damn video. He claims he wonders if that is really ‘true’, since she opposed vaccine mandates etc…(which is ‘fascist’ as he says)..and also he says she is ‘anti capitalist’. (WOW!) He then makes fun of an Amy Goodman segment about the party , saying ‘ohh, they mix some things with flags’….as if fascists cannot be identified by symbols they embrace. Indeed.
These are not the Progressives that you are looking for-
‘Jose Vega
@JosBtrigga
(1/2)I confronted Squad member @JamaalBowmanNY
today about funding Neo-Nazis in Ukraine. His Bio reads “Fighting for jobs and education, not bombs & incarceration” yet he votes to give the racist Azov battalion billions of dollars.’
https://twitter.com/JosBtrigga/status/1574927026922098689 (1:10 mins)
I’d be a lot happier if the Azov guys & gals were promised ‘access’ to weapons and funding.
> … ‘access’ to weapons and funding
Hahahahahahaaa!
The USA & USSR always had to be polar opposites in everything they did en route to collapse, and the almighty buck has become ever more valuable against all other currencies, while the Ruble back then was becoming one of the least valuable currencies.
As it is time to order roses for autumn planting. Does anybody know of either a floribunda or David Austin rose in this color?
https://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-1QPySQwNlqRKhblP-k47DYQ-t500x500.jpg
There are lots of pink roses, but I am looking for something like the classic neon magenta/fuschia color that was so popular during the 80’s and still is with the whole synthwave aesthetic. I find the color very nostalgic in terms of 80’s “feels” as I am an 80’s kid.
It would have to be be hardy down to Zone 4, uncovered.
CAPE CORAL, Florida — The ads promised paradise, “Legendary Lazy Living” in a “Waterfront Wonderland.” The brochures sold the Florida dream, “an enchanted City-in-the-Making (average temperature: 71.2 degrees)” without winter, worries or state income taxes. Cape Coral was America’s land of tomorrow, just $20 down and $20 a month for a quarter-acre slice of heaven: “Breathtaking, isn’t it? How could it be otherwise when Nature was so lavishly generous to begin with?”
Raso Tate’s true-believing dad soon became a top salesman for Cape Coral’s developer, Gulf American, peddling paradise on layaway, promoting one of the most notorious land scams in Florida’s scammy history. Gulf American unloaded tens of thousands of low-lying Cape Coral lots on dreamseekers all over the world before the authorities cracked down on its frauds and deceptions. It passed off inaccessible mush as prime real estate, sold the same swampy lots to multiple buyers, and used listening devices to spy on its customers. Its hucksters spun a soggy floodplain between the Caloosahatchee River and the Gulf of Mexico as America’s middle-class boomtown of the future, and suckers bought it.
The thing is, the hucksters were right, and so were the suckers. Cape Coral is now the largest city in America’s fastest-growing metropolitan area. Its population has soared from fewer than 200 when the Rasos arrived to 180,000 today. Its low-lying swamps have been drained, thanks to an astonishing 400 miles of canals—the most of any city on earth—that serve not only as the city’s stormwater management system but also its defining real estate amenity. Those ditches were an ecological disaster, ravaging wetlands, estuaries and aquifers. Cape Coral was a planning disaster, too, designed without water or sewer pipes, shops or offices, or almost anything but pre-platted residential lots. But people flocked here anyway. The title of a memoir by a Gulf American secretary captured the essence of Cape Coral: Lies That Came True.
Hi newer Carla! Just a quick note from one of at least five* Chris’s here! The Chris’s have managed to co-exist peacefully, and I hope you find the right Carla appellation for yourself! :)
* – Chris, ChrisPacific, ChrisRUEcon, Yet AnotherChris, a different chris
Second hand inflation report . . .
My younger brother lives in Saratoga Springs , New York. He has subscribed to a CSA for some years now and gets his box of mixed vegetables once a week. It has not gone up in price. He gets shinola eggs from the farmers market. They were always high priced but have not yet gone even higher in price.
He told me he went to a mainstream grocery store recently. Various canned soups were twice as expensive as the last time he checked their prices. Mainstream “meh” eggs have gone severely up in price since he last looked long ago. He was shocked by his re-exposure to mainstream food prices at a mainstream food venue. He doesn’t know how much of this increase is “just lately” as against “right along”.
But it seemed like the sidestream shinola food sector had not had the recent round of price increases that the mainstream sh!tfood sector has had. In his recent experience.