Links 9/8/2022

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Lambert and I, and many readers, agree that Ukraine has prompted the worst informational environment ever. We hope readers will collaborate in mitigating the fog of war — both real fog and stage fog — in comments. None of us need more cheerleading and link-free repetition of memes; there are platforms for that. Low-value, link-free pom pom-wavers will be summarily whacked.

And for those who are new here, this is not a mere polite request. We have written site Policies and those who comment have accepted those terms. To prevent having to resort to the nuclear option of shutting comments down entirely until more sanity prevails, as we did during the 2015 Greek bailout negotiations and shortly after the 2020 election, we are going to be ruthless about moderating and blacklisting offenders.

–Yves

P.S. Also, before further stressing our already stressed moderators, read our site policies:

Please do not write us to ask why a comment has not appeared. We do not have the bandwidth to investigate and reply. Using the comments section to complain about moderation decisions/tripwires earns that commenter troll points. Please don’t do it. Those comments will also be removed if we encounter them.

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Nothing Will Stop the Dollar From Getting Stronger John Authers, Bloomberg

Humanity was stagnant for millennia — then something big changed 150 years ago Vox. A review of Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century, DeLong’s new book. Worth a read.

Climate

Hydrogen production from the air Nature. “This so-called direct air electrolysis (DAE) module can work under a bone-dry environment with a relative humidity of 4%, overcoming water supply issues and producing green hydrogen sustainably with minimal impact to the environment. The DAE modules can be easily scaled to provide hydrogen to remote, (semi-) arid, and scattered areas.”

Pakistan floods: will rich nations ever pay for climate loss and damage? The Conversation

Europe’s Summer of Record Solar Power Saved Billions of Euros Bloomberg

A Text Alert May Have Saved California From Power Blackouts Bloomberg (J-LS).

Sheep Are the Solar Industry’s Lawn Mowers of Choice WSJ

Water

Baltimore latest among major cities experiencing contamination in water supply ABC

Microsoft leads Big Tech on a crucial issue: water scarcity Yahoo Finance

#COVID19

“At what price?”

This price:

Note the source.

Examination of SARS-CoV-2 In-Class Transmission at a Large Urban University With Public Health Mandates Using Epidemiological and Genomic Methodology JAMA. The Conclusions: “With the ongoing concern of safety for students, faculty, and staff as universities return to fully functioning, an effective model for overall disease transmission safety in the classroom setting is necessary. Our data support the hypothesis that a combination of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and risk mitigation measures including indoor masking, regular surveillance testing, and enhanced air filtration can be highly effective at limiting disease spread within a large university academic environment to the extent that classroom transmission risk is negligible.” Now they tell us….

Hochul drops mask mandates on mass transit Spectrum News. I think the headline needs fixing: “Democrats Openly Sabotage Protective Mask-Wearing for New Yorkers”:

“You do you” my Sweet Aunt Fanny. Of course, since Cuomo culled of thousands of nursing home residents, New York Democrats have form.

Downward monkeypox trends continue in Europe, Americas Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy

China?

China’s August coal imports rise as heatwave stokes cooling demand Hellenic Shipping News

‘Beggars in a car park’: couple in China ditch high rents to live in camper van, but some people are freaking out South China Morning Post. Not just the US, then.

Hedging With Humility: Reassessing China’s Power Projection Capabilities Against Taiwan War on the Rocksd

Myanmar

Is Myanmar’s National Unity Government Ready to Govern? The Diplomat

Myanmar Buys Diesel Fuel From Russia, Junta Chief Says Moscow Times

Can Japan feed itself? FT

Why You Should Choose an Online Casino Over Another One Maravi Post. Hmm.

UK/EU

BoE says Truss plans could slow inflation, too soon to talk about rates International Business Times

Caught in a Cycle of Despair and Exploitation Craig Murray. “So the UK today gets its fourth successive Tory Prime Minister, despite the fact the previous three all crashed in failure, even in their own terms.”

New Not-So-Cold War

Live news: Zelenskyy claims ‘good news’ after reports of gains around Kharkiv FT. For some definition of good. See the next story–

Wounded Ukrainian soldiers reveal steep toll of Kherson offensive WaPo. Well worth a read; heavily excerpted at Moon of Alabama.

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Ukraine military chief says ‘limited’ nuclear war cannot be ruled out WaPo. Projecting, no doubt, as usual. “He called the Crimean strikes a ‘convincing example’ of Kyiv’s calls for allies to send longer-range weapons for its outgunned soldiers. Moscow, he said, can hit 20 times farther.”

When they tell you who they are….

More German troops begin arriving in Lithuania France24

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US’s gas rescue plan for Europe threatens domestic backlash FT. So far, no:

Russia ready to turn on Nord Stream 2 — Putin TASS

Scholz Accuses Russia of ‘Blackmail’ Over Pipeline Shutdown Bloomberg. Not clear to me how countries maintain normal commercial relations and fight a proxy wars at the same time. How does that work?

* * *

JP Morgan plans to move work from Germany to UK over blackout fears – years after moving assets from London to Frankfurt due to Brexit Daily Mail

Russia’s top banks have started lending out yuan and transferring China’s currency outside the SWIFT system Business Insider

Six months into war, Russian goods still flowing to US AP. Fortune passes everywhere….

Chilean voters resoundingly reject a new ‘ecological’ constitution Science. Here is the very first sentence from WaPo’s Editorial Board, urging rejection. “Lithium is a key input in batteries that run millions of laptops and upon which the United States is basing its electrified automotive future.” Clarifying!

Chile’s Boric reshuffles cabinet after new constitution rejected Al Jazeera

The Bezzle

A year on, El Salvador’s bitcoin experiment is stumbling Reuters

Our Famously Free Press

Should We Save Newspapers from Google? Matt Stoller, BIG. Today’s must-read.

Internet Archive Opposes Publishers in Federal Lawsuit Internet Archive

Police arrest county official in reporter’s stabbing death Las Vegas Review-Journal

Abortion

Pregnant women held for months in one Alabama jail to protect fetuses from drugs AL.com

Zeitgeist Watch

World’s Largest Cruise Ship to Be Scrapped Before First Voyage Jalopnik (Re Silc). S.S. Petri Dish to the knacker’s yard….

Imperial Collapse Watch

HMS Prince of Wales has “Significant Damage” Likely Requiring Dry Dock Maritime Executive

F-35 deliveries suspended after materials from China discovered UPI

Explainer: How did big fish in Navy bribery case get away? AP. Fat Leonard.

Class Warfare

You Should Join a Union. Yes, You Kim Kelly, The.Ink

Lab leaders wrestle with paucity of postdocs Nature

Your attention span is being robbed! Unstructed.tech

One Data Point Can Beat Big Data Behavioral Scientist

Antidote du jour (via):

Bonus antidote:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

220 comments

  1. Sardonia

    Hillary Clinton tells CBS that she will never run for President again. It’s the end of an era, and one can’t help but have feelings of nostalgia – remembrances of things past. And although people pass out of our lives, our fond memories of them will never be forgotten. So, a bittersweet farewell song to Hillary, altered from the classic lyrics of “I’ll Be Seeing You”, sung by Billie Holiday below:

    We’ll be seeing you
    In all the old familiar places
    Though it will be brand new faces
    We’ll see you.

    In some little grift
    Some futures trading gift
    The Senate’s carousel
    Will always be…their wishing well.

    We’ll be seeing you
    In every scheme of pay-to-play
    In every huckster making hay
    We’ll always think of you that way.

    We’ll find you in Senate Chambers
    And when each session’s new,
    We’ll watch other Russian-blamers
    But we’ll be seeing you.

    We’ll be seeing you
    In every foreign war-torn day
    In every Empire Power Play
    We’ll always think of you that way.

    We’ll find you in fake charities
    And when we watch The View
    We’ll see new ghastly wannabe’s
    But we’ll be seeing you.

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

    1. lambert strether

      > Hillary Clinton tells CBS that she will never run for President again

      That’s a damn shame….

      1. Sardonia

        And yet there were no candlelight vigils anywhere last night! I expected that – and maybe a self-immolation or two.

        How her legions disappoint me!

        So sad…..

        1. LawnDart

          A has been? Thankfully, more of a never-was.

          She got some grift and consolation prizes, but it never was her turn. That said, her presence and grandstanding poisoned the body-politic and relations throughout the world to such a degree that we may never recover from the damage.

          May she soon take her high school glories to her grave and
          the memory of her fade with history.

          1. Sadie the Cat

            “That said, her presence and grandstanding poisoned the body-politic”.

            I would add deceit and unscrupulous behavior.

        2. Katniss Everdeen

          And Trump has paid/is paying a high price for ridding the country of her and her lech husband, not the mention the scourge of the seriously defective bush clan.

          IMNSHO, he deserves to be thanked profusely for finally taking the garbage out.

          1. Sadie the Cat

            Until the garbage rolled back in in the form of Biden, another “bought” pol who’ll stoop to anything for a vote. But, yes, I agree.

        3. Mark Gisleson

          Isn’t it about time for Her to report to her job in Ireland?

          And wasn’t/isn’t Trump sitting on govt documents outlining the scope of Her Russiagate conspiracy? Which coming from any other human being would be considered treasonous? (It wouldn’t be hard to find D quotes about Bill Casey undermining the Iran Hostage negotiations, etc.)

          They’ll try to make everything go away but mostly She has to go away because there was literally nothing there and that nothing has snowballed into a war that will realign earth’s politics forever.

          Really, She can’t go far enough away.

        4. hunkerdown

          Good elites ensure that elite orders are stably reproduced before vacating their posts. Remember, the Clinton Global Initiative was about “monitoring” “commitments”, and it just wouldn’t do to have her katcina mask retire before the Christian Cosmic Circulation of Souls is set “proper”.

      1. Amfortas the hippie

        didn’t she similarly hint last time?

        and, ergo: if losing to trump wasn’t a beheading AND a stake to the heart(and several ounces of silver), what will be?
        more rocks piled on that political grave, please.
        and talismans.
        and etc.
        i try not to think about her, and the counterfactuals/bizzaro history that entails…she reminds me of my boomer former ibm exec aunt…always has, which certainly effects my opinion, and shamelessly…
        that she still has a sufficient fanclub(like my aunts, and my mom) out there ready to rally to the black and red flag is disheartening.

        i think she’ll run again.
        and given the desolation that is the Team Blue farm team system, i expect that the mediated environment will do the reruns, on both sides(saviour vs evil babyeating commie)

        (caveat: i’m rather surly….i’m currently 8 teeth fewer, and with a mouthful of stitches…like i ate some cactus, or a small porcupine…moral: take better care of your teeth,lol)

        1. tegnost

          as an underdentisted 60’s I’ve had a good experience with coconut pulling, the most notable effect being a significant reduction in halitosis making mask wearing much more pleasant. I have one 20 year old “temporary” crown and a molar that is a cracked shell filled with whatever mastic they put in teeth so I have to be careful…no popcorn…

          1. norm de plume

            60’s here too, not so much underdentisted as overcarbed. Sugar yeah, but I was never much of a sweet tooth, more into biscuity snax like Twisties and crackers and loads of white bread. Didn’t realise until relatively recently that all that stuff turns into sugar once digested. Then there’s the alcohol..

            I just had three out – two upper left and one lower left molar – and the absences have made eating and even speaking a little weird, but yes the halitosis reduction is a bonus. My main beef with the treatment was that after waiting 90 minutes past my appointed time I was put in the chair and given 6 injections, and only then was I presented with a laptop on which, if I wished to continue, I had to ‘sign’ a waiver releasing them from liability for any damage they might inflict for a procedure I had already paid for. ‘Pretty standard’ I was told.

            I made it clear I was unimpressed with this approach and when asked if I had any questions I replied ‘how come I wasn’t given this to sign during that 90 minute wait, rather than when I had no real choice?’ I also pointed out that if you paid a plumber to fix your pipes and he put the sewage thru your bath tap, he would have to come and fix it at his expense. Why should dentists be any different.

            The dentist, who seemed to be in his early 20s, was a little nonplussed and assured me that if there were any issues I could come back for free. We went ahead. When a week later I realised he had left a jagged ridge of tooth or jaw that was ripping into my tongue, I made an appointment to have it looked at. The very frustrating app – no receptionist/secretary involved, that’s progress – tried to charge me so I found a phone number and gave them several pieces of my mind. I eventually got my appointment, gratis and it seems to have worked out OK.

            The surgery was a large room divided up into tiny stalls like in Office Space, each with a youngish dentist drilling or jabbing away industriously, no doubt making profits for a large corporate concern or a group of already wealthy senior practitioners. Every dentist I ever went to as a youngster had their own business, sometimes there was a couple of them, but that model seems to have passed into the history books. Again, the ‘progress’ of crapification.

        2. Henry Moon Pie

          I can’t verify it from the Internet, and it’s been a long time since I saw the movie, but my recollection is that there is a scene where Little Big Man (Dustin Hoffman) asks his wise Grandfather (Chief Dan George) for some tidbit of wisdom. Grandfather, who had parleyed with generals and Presidents and witnessed the near destruction of his people at the hands of white men, ponders things for a moment, then answers, “I wish I’d taken better care of my teeth.”

          If anyone else recalls that scene, please confirm that I’m not imagining this scene. ;)

          1. Lexx

            ‘There is an endless supply of white men, but there has always been a limited number of human beings’.

            I can’t find your quote, but if you have Prime you can stream it.

        3. Robert Gray

          I once saw a Public Health message on the side of a city bus:

          Ignore your teeth and they’ll go away.

          1. Late Introvert

            My message to my daughter from day one: only brush the ones you want to keep. And my teeth are OK, but I also wish I had taken better care in my 20s and 30s.

        4. airgap

          Amfortas;
          As my dad used to say, “be true to your teeth or they will be false to you”, and then he’d pop out his fake choppers and scare us kids.

          1. Mildred Montana

            “The famous claim that George Washington sported a set of wooden teeth is little more than a myth, but America’s first president was certainly not a shining example of oral hygiene.

            “Dental issues plagued Washington for most of his adult life. He began losing teeth as early as his twenties, and was eventually forced to wear several sets of unsightly and painful dentures. Rather than wood, Washington’s many false choppers were made out of varying combinations of rare hippopotamus ivory, human teeth and metal fasteners. He got his first set before the Revolutionary War, and may have also undergone a “tooth transplantation” procedure—perhaps even using teeth purchased from his own slaves!!!” (Exclamation marks mine)

            https://www.history.com/news/did-george-washington-have-wooden-teeth

          2. Amfortas the hippie

            my Wild Years, ages 16-25 are what did it for me (53, now)…brushing habits just went by the wayside with roadlife.
            took wife a while to get me back in those habits…didn’t know brushing wasn’t enough.
            given childhood dental trauma, i maybe didn’t want to know,lol.
            they have improved with their tools…not near the angle grinder marathon man experience i remember from 40 some years ago.
            i still get the feeling of being waterboarded, though.

            for this surgery(4 wisdom teeth and 4 front bottom teeth removed…as well as a bunch of zombie human bone paste* injected everywhere else(hence the million stitches))…they put me under…fentanyl and versed(forgetting drug).
            but even with my recent vicodin holiday, i apparently still have opioid tolerance,lol…as i started to come up from the bottom before they were through.
            (same thing happened with hip replacement)
            reptile brain activated the innate SERE Training, and i started waving my arms.
            trying to escape.
            i very very dimly remember the hot one putting the restraints on, telling me it was ok.
            i also dimly remember holding real still for an indeterminate amount of time while they did things(i think the zombie bone paste by that point).
            so…again”’take care of yer teef.
            this sort of rear-guard action is no fun at all.

            * re: zombie human bone paste: same stuff they put on the artificial hip to make the femur grow into and through it.
            made from donated human bone tissue(!), and mixed with some portion of my own blood to lessen chances of rejection(so…some sort of pseudochimeric state?)
            costs a pretty penny.
            but signs and wonders, man,lol…like star trek….
            this guy also has a weird xray machine…no more cardboard mouth inserts…you stand there in the thing and the chingadera whirls around yer noggin…and a digital image appears right over there.
            pretty cool stuff.

            1. Anthony G Stegman

              Dentists typically use bone material derived from pigs in order to replace bone loss due to infection.

              1. Amfortas the hippie

                my guy specifically included “human”.
                but it’s good to know i might be part pig, now…and my mouth, too,lol…
                excuses for various faux pas and assorted barbarianism just roll off the mind…

        5. HotFlash

          My friend, who had all her teeth removed due to Issues, and then found that she couldn’t keep her dentures in, used to counsel, “Take good care of your teeth, you never know when you’ll want to bite someone.”

        1. rob

          chelsea clinton is a member of the council on foreign relations already… so she has already been endorsed by the establishment… to be a “helper”

          1. Bardon

            CFR? Too obtuse, here’s a great metaphor for her future career:
            Her fellow bimbo emeritus of the future:

            https://fortune.com/2016/03/14/chelsea-clinton-theranos-fundraiser/

            Chelsea!, I think she needs an exclamation point like JEB!, is the ideal person to represent young women working at Starbucks who are trying to raise their babies:

            Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky’s 2010 wedding at New York’s Astor Courts estate reportedly cost up to $5 million. According to the Daily Mail, here’s a partial breakdown: an $11,000 cake, $250,00 for Chelsea’s jewelry, $109,000 for “tables and crockery,” $600,000 for glass-walled, air-conditioned tents, $500,000 for flowers, and $200,000 for extra security. What if the 500 guests had to use the bathroom? Per TMZ, they could visit the $15,000 porta-potties with porcelain toilets.

            https://www.nickiswift.com/185929/strange-things-about-chelsea-clintons-marriage/

        2. NotTimothyGeithner

          They tried to set Chelsea up some years ago in a congressional race, but Chelsea is the dolt who couldn’t manage to get the equivalent of ghost writers for an msnbc job. I guess she pulled in over half a million for nothing, but it likely harmed her potential.

          1. skippy

            I can not forget her stoush with Cory over her misuse of ‘Banality of Evil’ and kept on compounding error – what a show …

            Classic case of my parents are X, when too school at Y, and due to all that and more what I think is above reproach …

      1. The Rev Kev

        Already happening. She is introducing Chelsea to American audiences on the Jimmy Fallon show with a feel good story-

        ‘Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton nearly left her daughter Chelsea at the Kremlin when the first family was on a state visit to Moscow during Bill Clinton’s presidency, the former first lady revealed on the Tonight Show on Tuesday.

        Clinton told the story in response to a prompt from host Jimmy Fallon for any “crazy vacation stories.” Acknowledging the experience was “pretty traumatic,” she claimed she and her husband had gotten caught up in the formalities of their visit with then-Russian president Boris Yeltsin and had already been “ushered into” their limousine to return to the airport before they realized Chelsea was not present.’

        https://www.rt.com/news/562395-hillary-leaves-chelsea-kremlin-clinton/

        1. Sardonia

          “Nearly left her” my Aunt Fanny. She traded Chelsea for 10% of Gazprom, but then got outbid by some oligarch and Yeltsin reneged on the deal.

        2. Lex

          Russian sources are saying, “Um, that never happened.” Who knows but HRC has been known to slightly exaggerate events in her life. Like that one time she landed under sniper fire.

          1. LawnDart

            I don’t know about others, but that sniper-fire bit is the one thing that pushed this ’92-’93 UNPROFOR volunteer over the edge and into Hillary-hate.

            It was noble cause but a f-ed-up mission, in so many ways… …and she used that lie repeatedly, without shame.

            1. Mildred Montana

              Yeah, Christopher Hitchens impressively shredded that lie—and others—in an essay of his. Anything Hillary says is not news, it’s disinformation and should be censored out of existence to protect the gullible.

        3. Anthony G Stegman

          You can be sure that Hillary’s story is a lie. The Secret Service keeps a close eye on family members. It is highly unlikely that they would allow Chelsea to be “forgotten”. No way, no how.

    2. Lexx

      Whoopi Goldberg did a cop buddy film about 25 years ago where she’s paired with a dinosaur. It was a terrible film, but there was this one scene that has stayed with me ever since. She’s standing at a bar when a Lounge Lizard comes up and hits on her and she begins to laugh, at first surprised then the laughter begins to bubble up from deep within and takes over; she was holding onto the bar unable to stand up straight. She would gain control, look at the Lizard, and collapse in laughter all over again. It just got funnier and funnier.

      The Lizard’s face folds and he slinks away.

      It occurred to me in that moment that laughter was a weapon, and that laughter should be taught to all women along with the other skills of self-defense. In some families, humor is a defense taught to the young, and built on as threats grow and dragons become more difficult to name and defeat. In some families, humor and laughter are the threats from within and must be extinguished.

      I have some sympathy for what looks to me like pathological seriousness. The two faces of Janus look out in opposite directions; Comedy and Tragedy are usually turned in slightly toward each other.

      In some ways comics are our culture’s heroes, nothing is so sacred to them that it’s beyond close examination and criticism when found wanting. In this way the Coyote’s contribution is beyond measure to the health of the tribe, for which I have an appreciation that is beyond price. Coyote makes Us stronger.

      1. fringe element

        Molly Ivins used to say that one of the things that rattled men about Ann Richards (the last good governor Texas ever had) was that in addition to being pretty, she had a sharp sense of humor.

    3. fresno dan

      I say we bring her back!!! Once more into the breech! Hillary vs Trump II – rumble in the jungle – this time the gloves are off! She’s tan, rested, and ready…
      The halcyon days of 2016, those were the days my friend

      1. Randall Flagg

        Well now that the donations to the Clinton Foundation dried up years ago maybe she can go back to trading cattle futures.

      2. Mildred Montana

        >”She’s tan, rested, and ready…”

        More like, she’s wan, detested, and ready, if it comes down to Hillary vs. Trump II, for a little bit of “Rope-a-Dope”.

  2. Antifa

    We’ll Do It All With Science
    (melody borrowed from The Sounds of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel)

    Some day we’ll have flying cars
    And urban colonies on Mars
    Down here both poles will have a lot of ice
    We’ll make this world a total paradise
    We’ll build scrubbers — to remove all the CO2
    This we’ll do
    We’ll Do It All With Science

    We’ll orbit giant solar shades
    Make megawatts with windmill blades
    We’ll refreeze the melting permafrost
    We’ll fly electric planes with no exhaust
    We’ll drill holes down to magma, to get never-ending steam
    That’s our scheme
    We’ll Do It All With Science

    And we’ll use CRISPR on our genes
    Till we all look like kings and queens
    Bugs and fungus stew for every meal
    To let our lovely planet rest and heal
    And the stars are ours — warp ships will go explore
    Our candy store
    We’ll Do It All With Science

    We’ll live a leisurely routine
    The robots fetch and fix and clean
    We’ll talk of art and philosophy
    Sipping cups of orange algae tea
    When we’re sad, well, we’ll just pop a pill
    We’ll Do It All With Science

    Our schools will download knowledge fast
    Our speed of learning unsurpassed
    Chips and cables stuck into our heads
    We’ll grok physics sleeping in our beds

    There’s no doubt that advanced human consciousness
    Will be our reality
    Just wait and see
    We’ll Do It All With Science

      1. Eclair

        Yes! I foresee an anniversary commemorative collaborative anthology of the collected works of Antifa and Sardonia. Ruminations on the Collapse. Or some such.

  3. griffen

    Scrapping the largest cruise ship. Can’t find a billionaire buyer who could win in an argument over I got the largest…ship now! Eat dirt Jeff Bezos and Larry Ellison !

    What a waste. A floating experiment for Covid and monkeypox just wasn’t on the Bingo card this time.

    1. PlutoniumKun

      Its a curious story. It was reported as being sold because the shipyard went bankrupt, but that didn’t make sense to me. It turns out the German shipyard is owned by a HK/Chinese holding company that includes the company that ordered it and intended to run it, but the entire company went bust.

      This sounds a very odd set-up to me – I wonder if it was all a bit of a money laundering operation – by coincidence I read yesterday that there have been more outflows of capital from China than accounted for – I wonder if the entire holding company was using the contract as a means of avoiding capital controls or taxes via transfer pricing. It may never have been intended to launch the ship.

        1. PlutoniumKun

          Yes, except those conglomerates are almost always based only in one country/culture, so there will be very tight informal links (i.e., no outsiders have any idea what is being decided internally).

          The company involved in this seems to have been a seemingly random assortment of Chinese, HK, Malaysian and European companies, all under a HK holding company. So it looks to me to have been more about financial shenanigans than anything else.

          Of course, it might be that its another tourism covid victim, but I find it curious that nobody was interested in buying up the ship for cheap. That suggests to me that there is something not quite right there.

      1. griffen

        If it was a US Navy ship, at risk of being decommissioned, I am sure a really concerned Congressperson could find a purpose for getting that big old boat on the sea. Purposeful or not, think of the jobs!!

    2. Paradan

      They should hoist it up onto the ice in Antarctica and drag it way far inland. 10,000 years from now after civilization has recovered some scientists will discover it buried in the ice and be like “How the **** did this get here? Goddam these people were idiots.”

      1. albrt

        Not that I expect Antarctica to have glaciers in 10,000 years, but I approve this experiment as our version of Paddle-to-the-Sea.

        1. Andrew

          Waddle to the Sea …
          My fellow sixth graders and I talked for months about that movie. Now I have to see if it is still available.

  4. The Rev Kev

    “Russia ready to turn on Nord Stream 2 — Putin”

    He’s not wrong. True, about 50% has already been allocated for use in Russia already but hey, any port in a storm, right? I suppose that for Gazprom, the EU must be the customers from hell with all their demands and whinging over the years. The last straw was when Von der Leyen said that the EU is going to put a price cap on gas supplies from Russia. Try a stunt like that at your local gas station. Anyway, Gazprom came out with an ad about the same time which I think is their response and it’s subtle as it is epic-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcbcBrL4ju4 (2:04 mins) – lyrics below in a comment

    1. Polar Socialist

      It went kinda unnoticed, but the Nord Stream terminal in Portovaya just opened a gas liquidification facility, so all that gas that would go to EU can now be loaded on LNG ship and be transported everywhere in the world.
      In the first phase mostly to Kaliningrad since Lithuania seems to have become somewhat agreement-incapable.

      1. PlutoniumKun

        As LNG is a largely fungible product it will make it much easier to sell the gas directly or indirectly to Europe. You could well see countries buying it and then selling it on via other means to European customers.

        Apart from anything else, this is environmentally catastrophic – it takes an enormous amount of energy to manufacture LNG. Its probably worse than coal when it comes to climate impacts.

      2. The Rev Kev

        If Russia just opened a gas liquidification facility, then the implication is that they are not expecting to be shipping much gas to the EU anymore and have now made different arrangements.

        1. Polar Socialist

          It was originally scheduled to open in 2019, so started earlier than that. Don’t know why the delay, though.
          From the scraps available it seems to have been originally meant for LNG bunkering, not for the gas markets. So maybe the delay was due to change of plans.

  5. Old Sovietologist

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62836057

    The death of the Queen will have a huge impact on the UK. Who knows whether it will be good or bad? One certainty it won’t be insignificant.

    When she acceded to the throne Stalin was still head of the Soviet Union which puts her longevity into some perspective.

    1. The Rev Kev

      When the Queen acceded to the throne, Bernie Sanders and Nancy Pelosi were just then entering their teens.

    2. griffen

      Now I’m reminded of the scenes from Gladiator, where the old and in failing health Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, endeavors one more ask of his great general.

      So much for the glory of Rome. So much for the glory of UK royalty.

    3. Stephen

      I hope she continues to live but unfortunately reality catches up with all of us eventually.

      She has played her role very intelligently. She has political views but ninety nine per cent of the time she does not express them and no one really knows for sure what they are. It is essential for the success of the monarchy. The queen is never associated with specific governmental errors and transcends politics. At heart, I am not a monarchist but a constitutional monarchy is probably the right system for the U.K.: one can oppose the government but do so within a framework of loyalty to the Crown. Harder within a system where the Head of State is also Head of Government. But, I am not a Neo Con universalist so do not believe all countries should adopt this model!

      The challenge now is that her elder son and his elder son (not to mention the other male sons and grandsons) are less smart and want to express their views. This will not help the monarchy.

      The queen grew up before the war in a society that had a very different view of “duty” and of the role of women. The latter may paradoxically have enabled her to play the role so intelligently. It also valued stoicism or the stiff upper lip. Men and modern women would both find it far more tricky to avoid expressing views and being seen to exert influence of some form. The transition when it comes will be interesting.

      When Princess Diana died I did not cry. I am pretty sure I will do if the Queen does. She has been a constant in our lives for so long and has been a figure of continuity; as well as a person who has done her duty in a very traditional way. The antithesis of modernity. And I am not a monarchist.

            1. CanCyn

              Charles will have a much shorter reign – he’s 73! I guess the life of luxury he’s had will ensure some longevity. William will be the next long reigning monarch of England. Canadian here who does not see the point of the monarchy. Don’t wish them ill as individuals, they’re who they are by luck of birth. Perhaps the current bunch arguably do some good in the world but I can’t help but see them as yet another grossly wealthy family, representative of the massive inequality in the world. Not to mention the great harms to the world over time caused by their predecessors.

                1. Dermotmoconnor

                  Oh no. A long Charles reign will accelerate decline of monarchism and unionism. Long live king WEF!

      1. fresno dan

        Stephen
        I think your analysis is right on. Especially with regard to the queen being a woman fron another age. And it certainly brings to mind a different age in the US, where the president could be of a different party, but he was due the respect of the office of the presidency.

        1. kson ontheair

          >And it certainly brings to mind a different age in the US, where the president could be of a different party, but he was due the respect of the office of the presidency.

          There never was such an age.

      2. Pat

        I will add two observations to this.

        She married well for her job. Phillip was deeply flawed but also savvy and a decent enforcer. He was also of that age where duty meant something. He was probably her best advisor on the optics of the monarchy. Their teamwork correcting the missteps was essential. And both of them understood the service part of her job. Together they made her the constant, not just the figurehead.

        She thinks/thought well on her feet. Her handling of the unexpected often showed her off best.

        I think Charles may have finally understood the intricate dance steps of the position over the last decade, but it was probably too late to allow him to step into the role of a constant, a foundation stone for most of the UK. We won’t know until he does ascend the throne if he is even capable of it. I hope so. Especially in the crisis the nation is just beginning.

        1. Henry Moon Pie

          Please excuse my cynicism, but the UK is in a very serious fix right now. I’m sure that hauling out the Queen to do two to three minutes of “Stiff upper lip!” was under consideration for the coming winter. Putting Charles in front of those cameras, with his first real time before the public as king being a dire crisis, will put a lot of pressure on him.

      3. kson onair

        >When Princess Diana died I did not cry. I am pretty sure I will do if the Queen does.

        The only thing worth crying about is that she’s dying of natural causes, of old age, surrounded by luxury and wealth stolen from millions of other people. It’s a tragedy she and her whole line weren’t guillotined.

        1. Stephen

          I once thought that way. And in 1644 the English did chop the head of a king off but then quickly grew weary of the alternative.

          The French experience after 1791 with multiple violent revolutions since then is less compelling than it could be too.

          Am not a monarchist at heart but other models are not so great either. Most Heads of State seem to enrich themselves at the expense of others; as we know well from such diverse countries as the U.S. and Ukraine.

          1. Alex Cox

            Hear, hear. As an English, I’m quite astonished how much Americans (some of whom I fear are posting these remarks) love royalty. In Liverpool, royalty are detested.

            1. jobs

              I’m with you and those people in Liverpool. Sad to see so many have bought into the royal dog and pony show and think it’s normal and fair that these people own and control all this insane wealth. Nuts.

      4. Kouros

        She was very good at enlarging the assets of the Windsor family, with direct inside knowledge of every law to be passed in Parliament.

        Cannot remember ever expressing herself for the benefit of the British population at large… I.e. the population didn’t want the Iraqi war but the Government / Tony did.

        Was she or wasn’t she the head of the state?

      1. Henry Moon Pie

        That may have been the final blow, but it seems to be acknowledged that she declined seriously after contracting Covid this summer.

      2. Dermotmoconnor

        She was hanging on to outlive Boris. Wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of preening over her casket.

  6. flora

    Odd, I had a comment up with a couple of Taibbi links. Then it vanished. Skynet must be hungry today. / ;)

    1. katiebird

      Hi Flora, That was me. Can you send me an email to (email address deleted) so I can explain? Your email server is rejecting my email (from two different accounts)

  7. B flat

    Re Jeff German terrible thing. he was a fine reporter, an actual investigative journalist. His newspaper stories are well worth a read of your interested in Nevada. Going by how he was dressed it appears Telles’ disguise was an attempt to put suspicion off to Mexican gardeners.

    1. Laura in So Cal

      I got that text sent out by Cal Iso. It did prompt me to go upstairs and make sure my husband had turned off the ceiling fans upstairs (he had). We do laundry and dishes in the morning so the only active things running were the AC, ceiling fan downstairs, tv/DVR, and my husband’s laptop. Our frig and router were running per normal as well.

      1. Louis Fyne

        not saying this to be a jerk…but to demonstrate how much HVAC uses and how difficult conservation can be at times..

        the power use of the AC dwarfs everything else on that list combined, unless the laptop is a Cray supercomputer

        1. Amfortas the hippie

          aye.
          especially if its winderunits.
          i’m really digging my minisplit whole house system. got it on amazon(expedience, flameproof bathrobe deployed), installed it myself, with a real ac guy to check my work.
          cut summer power bills by 2/3, easy.
          only other hogs we have left are my son’s one window unit in the trailer/library, and the fridges and freezers…and the welder, of course.
          with tankless waterheater and led bulbs, the rest is almost unmeasurable.
          i expect power bill to drop to almost nothing once it gets cool and/or cold(wood heat)

  8. Doug

    “Nothing will stop dollar from getting stronger” — well, um, not quite accurate.

    Should the long-term Republican party coup d’etat push the ball over the goal line with the upcoming ‘independent state legislature’ Supreme Court decision — or, even failing that, should the minority party elect the autocratic, ‘the only fair elections are the ones we win’ Congress, then as sure as the sun will set this evening and rise tomorrow, the US will default on its debt.

    One might even say the Republicans are obsessively focused on performing an abortion on the US Dollar

        1. barefoot charley

          That’s just not fair to Al Gore. Republicans steal things fair and square; Democrats aspire to gentility. (Their vulgate in the cities don’t count except on election day.)

    1. griffen

      The US markets are currently the tallest midget amid a sea of shorter midgets. Also, for all the hemming and hawing I do not believe a serious Republican in the Senate will push the line on a default. To the extent that one exists, they are rare in captivity as are the serious Democrats.

      Hell, Democrats have floated plenty of $ US billions already to the Ukraine. To what end.

      1. playon

        Just as the US dollar is “the least dirty shirt” compared to other currencies. I find the idea of the dollar being “strong” a joke when inflation this year has been close to 10%.

    2. Anthony G Stegman

      There is no reason for the US to default on it’s debt, at least not in a direct and official way. As long as interest payments are made in a timely fashion the debt can remain for generations. Over time, inflation will reduce the debt in any event. That inflation can be viewed as a tax on all of us. A tax for paying down the debt. Workers in nations who purchase US debt (China and Japan, for example) are in effect subsiding consumption in the US as they will never be fully repaid their savings their governments provide the US in the form of debt purchases.

      1. Yves Smith

        The US cannot INVOLUNTARILY default on dollar debt. It can always create more dollars. It can create too much inflation by too much net fiscal spending v. available real economy resources or can deliberately default.

  9. Chas

    The story about sheep grazing solar electricity arrays left out a major reason why power lawn mowers can’t do the job. Until a few years ago, a friend of mine was the manager of the sheep flock at North Carolina State University. He was approached by a power company that had been using a fleet of power lawn mowers to mow the grass at a large solar array. The remote controlled lawn mowers were supposed to go out every morning and mow designated areas and then return to their station at the end of the day. However, the solar panels produced enough stray voltage to interfere with the remote control of the lawn mowers. They were going out and getting lost and not doing their job. My friend organized a pilot project that used the university’s sheep to graze the grounds of the solar array. It was one of the first uses of sheep grazing solar arrays.

      1. ambrit

        Did the sheep’s wool stand out in the infamous electrostatic effect?
        (That would make a good Shaun the Sheep episode. Such as our hero wearing sunglasses with solar panels as the eyepieces.)

        1. fresno dan

          ambrit
          I have been waiting for Netflix to make Shaun of the sheep: Farmageddon available for months and months. For those who haven’t seen a Shaun of the sheep movie, see it – your in for a real treat!

    1. russell1200

      I have worked in solar pv in North Carolina. At least 95% of the fields at that time were done by your normal pull behind mowing with spraying under the panels to keep weeds down in inaccessible areas. A couple were done by sheep.

      None were done by automatic mowing machines. Labor is still pretty cheap in North Carolina. It’s the sheep that are hard to come by. Because of State tax laws, North Carolina has been at the very top the solar builders. We now export a lot of skilled labor to other places.

      The problem with the mowers comes mostly in two categories. One is that the sites themselves are often rather wet and boggy. This is North Carolina after all. It gets wet and very green. I have been stuck solid more than a couple of times in North Carolina fields. True, the developers are starting to address the landscaping design issues a little more to lessen operations and maintenance costs, but it is what it is.

      The second, and probably larges, is that the relatively efficient pull behind mowers have a very hard time navigating the relatively narrow lanes. So damage to the modules is not uncommon. Sheep (with a donkey thrown in for coyote protection) don’t break modules.

      A third, but unfortunately probably not as important as the first two, is that the spraying to get at the inaccessible areas (for a mower) is not exactly a green solution, and pigweed is pretty resistant to spraying in any case.

      One item I see different than the WSJ article is that a lot of these fields do not have full time human attendants. A lot of NC fields are relatively small. So what you get is a handful of sheep and a donkey or a dog. The downside of the dog is that it eats different food than the sheep.

      1. Lexx

        I thought goats were the go-to livestock for such landscape problems. It’s been said they’ll eat anything and everything, but require human supervision and protection. Is there a shortage of them as well? Added benefit… delicious milk.

        1. Amfortas the hippie

          sheep for the grass, a donkey for coyote protection and for the brush and for the grass…goats for the brush and small tree seedlings and other non-grass stuff.
          might have to goat and donkey proof the apparatus, as they are both curious and PITA at times.
          geese will do the grass, too, btw…and with a sufficient nightlight, will defend themselves against even a fox or bobcat…but not coyotes or stray dogs.

          also, our sheeps(dorpers) rub their wool off on everything when it’s hot…fences, brush, anything.
          they can be pretty destructive if not shorn.

          1. ambrit

            There is also the side benefit of sheep kebabs. Culling the herd each fall will be a food positive process. Unless you bring in some “soft” wool varieties and go for semi-cottage industry cold weather production. Voila! An export product, with the added benefit of the creation of a semi-feudal social structure!

            1. Amfortas the hippie

              yeah they climb surprisingly well.
              the 3 that showed up here six months ago(we put the word out, remain unclaimed) are apparently a spanish/pygmy cross…look like spanish, but small…climb right over the pallet rings i put around the trees where they are…i keep telling them to eat the damned bamboo like i hired em on fer…but they just complain all the more.
              i can easily see them getting on top of the free standing panel things ive seen.
              goat rule of thumb: they will go exactly where you didn’t even think about not wanting them to go…and if there’s a hole in the fence, they’ll find it.

              ive thought about bells around their necks, but am afraid that the strike action may go too far, into self harm territory.

            2. Wukchumni

              Friends have 4 and getting a goat sitter is turning out to be really hard, as one of them named Bucky, specializes in terrorizing bipeds with the last instance happening a month ago when he snuck up behind the standing sitter and ‘scrape goated’ him, resulting in another human that’ll never pass muster again.

              Here in mountain lion country, goats tend to end up being almost as favored as deer, in terms of what the cougars kill.

    2. PlutoniumKun

      A friend of mine in England has found his chickens love his solar array – the ground beneath is dry and sandy which they love for cleaning. He often finds they prefer to lay eggs under the array than in their coop. He had to extend his netting around his array for just this reason.

      Sheep are very commonly used in Europe around solar farms. They are an efficient means of keeping the grass down. I can’t find a link right now, but I did read a while back that the productivity of a solar array as sheep grazing was around 40% of ‘open’ land. As sheep really like shade and wind protection, its quite likely they prefer it to open fields.

  10. The Rev Kev

    “Russia’s top banks have started lending out yuan and transferring China’s currency outside the SWIFT system”

    Over time this will impact the strength of the US dollar as the new world order shakes itself out. Does that mean the end of the US dollar? Not yet. But to steal a 1942 quote from Winston Churchill-

    ‘Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.’

    1. digi_owl

      What will bring the USD to a standstill is the Saudis.

      If they start accepting yuan or rubles for their oil, or halt production completely, it is game over.

      Once that happens, there is little reason for the world to hold USDs.

      1. John k

        I’ve read saudi has begun taking yuan, logical as they import 4x from China compared with us imports.
        And, in spite of a surplus with us, they are letting some treasuries roll off, per Arab news us says down 4.5% yoy to Aug. granted, China is letting them roll off faster. This all means others are still willing to hold us reserves, but at some point they, too might think they have enough… especially if they have a trade deficit with China or Russia.

    1. Polar Socialist

      Back in spring, many foreign corporations rushed to announce their withdrawal from Russia, believing that our country will suffer more than others. Today, we see one manufacturing site after another shutting down in Europe itself. One of the key reasons, of course, lies in the severed business ties with Russia.

      Ouch!

    2. fresno dan

      LawnDart
      thank you for that – I was looking for a transcript of this yesterday but couldn’t find one.

      PUTIN: I have already mentioned that the entire system of international relations has recently undergone irreversible, or should I say, tectonic, shifts. Emerging states and regions around the world, primarily, of course, in the Asia-Pacific region, now play a substantially bigger role. Asia-Pacific countries emerged as new centres of economic and technological growth, attracting human resources, capital and manufacturing.

      Despite all that, the Western countries are seeking to preserve yesterday’s world order that benefits them and force everyone to live according to the infamous “rules”, which they concocted themselves. They are also the ones who regularly violate these rules, changing them to suit their agenda depending on how things are going at any given moment. At the same time, other countries have not been forthcoming when it comes to subjecting themselves to this dictate and arbitrary rule, forcing the Western elites, to put it bluntly, to lose grip and take short-sighted, irrational decisions on global security, politics, as well as economics. All these decisions run counter to the interests of countries and their people, including, by the way, the people in those Western countries. The gap separating the Western elites from their own citizens is widening.

      The waning dominance of the United States in the global economy and politics, as well as the stubborn unwillingness or even inability of the Western elites to see, let alone recognise objective facts, acted as a catalyst for these processes.
      ========================================
      For all the “analysis” done by the MSM in this country, Putin has about…a million times more accurate diagnosis of the problem.

      1. juno mas

        … and that is why Putin is leading the parade (BRICS+). He’s giving them a vision of the future in which they can thrive.

      1. LawnDart

        It may have been difficult to miss, if you knew what you were looking at.

        Going back to (now day-before) yesterday’s links, the title within the embed, “Eastern Economic Forum plenary session” and the words “the President” briefly caught my eye but didn’t capture my attention because I did not associate this with Putin nor recognized the importance of the body he was addressing.

        Putin says Western Leaders have lost minds, play Calvinball, and interrupt serious discussions between adults

        Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin suggested that heads of emerging nations coordinate efforts to distance themselves from the “loony-bin” politicking of Western figureheads, stating that neither great author Lewis Caroll nor William Boroughs could conjour enough imagination necessary to describe this surreal shit-show that the collective West has become.

        Source: RU.serious/EN.reallyneedvodkatonite10102022

  11. antidlc

    https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/top-scientists-join-forces-study-leading-theory-behind-long-covid-2022-09-08/
    Top scientists join forces to study leading theory behind long COVID

    Top scientists from leading academic centers are banding together to answer a key question about the root cause of long COVID – whether fragments of the coronavirus persist in the tissues of some individuals.

    The effort, known as the Long Covid Research Initiative, aims to streamline research and quickly pivot to clinical trials of potential treatments. By sharing diverse skill sets and resources, the group hopes to uncover the scientific underpinnings of the disease and use that to design evidence-based trials.

  12. The Rev Kev

    “HMS Prince of Wales has “Significant Damage” Likely Requiring Dry Dock”

    ‘Observers noted as she departed that she seemed to only be showing a wake on the portside leading to rampant comments of a problem with possibly the starboard propeller.’

    It’s strange this article in how it tap-dances around the cause of the breakdown of this ship. The cause was mentioned in other publications though – like the Daily Mail.

    ‘Britain’s new £3BN warship ‘ground to a halt off the Isle of Wight because the propeller shaft wasn’t GREASED properly’

    For the want of a coupla barrels of lube, the ship was stuffed. So is that shaft jammed now in place? It sounds like it is going to take at least months to fix and untold millions of pounds-

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11162835/Britains-3BN-warship-ground-halt-propeller-shaft-wasnt-GREASED-properly.html

      1. LifelongLib

        Nothing new. I recall a maritime historian in the 70s saying that in terms of seamanship and attention to duty the Titanic was probably better run than most ships now. I’d be surprised if that’s gotten better in the last 40 – 50 years.

    1. OIFVet

      I love how the graphic of the carrier included the police office and detention cells. All that was missing from it is the location of the storage cabinet for the cat o’ nine tails.

    2. scott s.

      Sounds shaky analysis to me. Never heard of a “greased” prop shaft. Outboard bearings are lubed by seawater, inboard bearings by oil. I recall a case where USS Long Beach had a failed line shaft bearing that damaged the shaft. Fortunately there was a set of spare line shafting at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and DD4 was available at Pearl Harbor so we could dock her.

      But what I’ve seen and sounds more reasonable is that a shaft SKF muff coupling failed. I don’t recall ever seeing one of these back in my day; we used conventional flanged coupling with pilgrim nuts. Installing that coupling requires using oil under pressure to allow the coupling outer sleeve to move up a tapered inner sleeve, so when the oil is removed there is an interference fit that can transmit the torque load.

  13. Robert Gray

    > Nothing Will Stop the Dollar From Getting Stronger John Authers, Bloomberg

    Yesterday Ania K talked to this guy Gareth Soloway — about whom I know nothing: what kind of light he is seen in, here, and even if his name can be mentioned at all. Anyway, he was saying that the rise of the dollar is pretty much over and that the Euro would soon be re-gaining lost ground. Fwiw.

    1. Yves Smith

      Delusional on the euro save maybe a dead cat bounce. The EU has no answer for its energy crisis, which is bearing down on it like a freight train.

      Dollar v. other currencies a different matter. You could see other outcomes there.

  14. Lex

    Ukraine: it appears that the Ukrainian Kherson offensive is effectively over but the Kharkov offensive has had some success. The degree and sustainability of that success is almost impossible to determine, although all signs point to Ukraine going all in. So if the Russian allied forces can withstand the punch, then there will be significant trouble for Ukraine. It is clearly an attempt to cut supply to the Izium grouping of Russian forces with long, deep penetration through Russian lines. High risk, high reward because supplying those forces 30 km deep will be a challenge. The flip side is that it may force Russia to take actions it clearly prefers not to take.

    Feels like this gets said a lot, but the next 3-7 days may determine quite a lot. And the doomer criticisms are pretty valid for the area around Kharkov.

    1. The Rev Kev

      The Kherson offensive certainly was a bloody affair and something that Brian Berletic said in recent videos was making me wonder about it, especially when he said that US officers helped plan it. There has been discussion in the US military for years about how to defeat the Russian Battalion Tactical Group as an organization, particularly when facing a US Army brigade. As the Russian BTG is heavy on firepower but light on actual numbers of infantry, the theory seems to have been developed that it could be overwhelmed with sheer numbers. So maybe, maybe, the Pentagon was using the Kherson offensive as a way of testing this theory – and using the Ukrainians as disposable crash test dummies.

      As for the present offensive in the east, the situation sounds serious but not critical. The Ukrainians have a lot of armour but that means that when they use then, that they will be vulnerable to attack by whatever the Russians have which is a lot as we have already seen. It seems that Russian doctrine is not to attack the advancing forces but to attack command centers, supply depots, fuel supplies, etc. behind those forces and when that attack grinds to a halt die to lack of supplies, then they go after the attacking forces. We’ll see what happens in the next few days.

      1. Lex

        Agree on what some of the deeper reasonings for the offensives and how they’ve been carried out. From a NATO perspective, overwhelming Russian ground forces with infantry is a pointless exercise since NATO doesn’t actually have force numbers or the willingness to sacrifice forces in that way. Also agree that the next week or so will be telling.

        The problem with big arrows on maps is that they cost a lot. Clearly NATO has no concerns with minimizing Ukrainian casualties but the reality remains that these long attack columns require supply and support. If Ukraine can’t manage that, he carnage is going to be massive.

        1. anon in so cal

          Zelensky apparently yielded to Zaluzhny to focus on Kharkov.

          With their very limited success, they can get more weapons:

          “summit of the Western allies at the US airbase in Ramstein, Germany, at which Washington is expected to announce the supply of $675 million worth of weapons to the Ukrainian army. For this event, Kyiv needed to show at least some success in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the use of the supplied weapons . And at least Ukraine fulfilled the task.

          Intel Slava Z

          🇺🇲🇺🇦⚡The Pentagon handed over GPS-guided Excalibur guided missiles, its most accurate artillery rounds, to Ukraine — Bloomberg

          > in other news, Chrystia Freeland to head NATO? Fitting.

          1. OnceWereVirologist

            $675 million seems to me a pretty underwhelming figure in comparison to the scale of Ukrainian losses.

            1. Polar Socialist

              Considering that a million gets you 9 Excaliburs, it may be even more underwhelming than it feels.

              And I’m not going to minor issues like Ukraine not having much left of it’s 155 mm artillery needed for the Excalibur, nor does Ukraine have sufficiently long-range targeting capability to get the true advantage from something like Excalibur.

              Unless they’ll keep on bombarding the administrative buildings in ‘occupied’ areas.

              1. ambrit

                Or, heaven forbid, use the “Excaliburs” to hit the spent fuel depot at the Zapp Atomic Plant.
                I wouldn’t put anything past this lot.

            2. KD

              I guess they are slopping on another billion, but you got to wonder if this is their way of pulling the plug on the whole thing.

          2. skippy

            All this money being thrown at a battlefield sounds more like a Wall St/Corporatist financial solution than a tactical solution. Bush Jr threw open the gates to privatization of so many aspects of the military from Mfg, services, and best of all think tanks full of private/ex-military analysts.

            Then on top of all that it takes at least 6 months to get recruits into some kinda physical shape, let alone basic individual skills, and then on top of all that some sort of unit function, of which, you have too have experienced NCO/Officer cadre to facilitate that objective. Any weak link in that chain and the whole thing will fall apart at the first shot fired.

            Not to mention as a old NC post talked about was the U.S. military first shooter dramas up to Vietnam e.g. 10% put sights on body requiring a rethink about indoctrination just from a logistical stand point – wasted ammo. Good luck with that under these conditions.

            Now the situation is Russia has most of the territory it sought and for the Ukraine to get any of it back has to expose itself to dialed in stand off TOE artillery – lots of it and many layers = meat grinder.

            Mean while in the lands of the free it seems a bad case of Gallipoli/WWI mishmash and I’m having flash backs to Kubrick’s Paths of Glory movie end scene with Kirk Douglas and his superior Broulard.

            Paths of Glory (10/11) Movie CLIP – I Pity You (1957) HD – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VICyZk-XSLA

      2. Polar Socialist

        From what I’ve seen so far, the initial success was mostly due to the line being held by DNR militia and Rosgvardiya (Baskirian SWAT teams, in this case) at this sector. Against the Ukrainian barrage and assault they had little chance.

        The assessment yesterday was that there’s “only” about 9,000 Ukrainians participating on the attack, so they likely don’t have the strength to cut Izyum off, especially after the Russian reserves start engaging. The battlefield is only 6 minutes from Russian Federation as the Rook flies, so the Russian aviation is pounding everything the ground units can target. Even if the Ukrainian air defense in Kharkov area is much better than in Kherson.

        Also it was noted that the leading elements of the Ukrainian push outrun their artillery support and were pretty much at the mercy of Russian artillery. It seems that if the Russians can hold on to their current positions, this will be a rerun of the Kherson. But if the Ukrainians can get to Vesele and/or Shevchenkove, they will be a much bigger problem for the Russian troops.

        1. pjay

          It is interesting to read the analyses of these Ukrainian incursions by people like Martyanov, Raevski (Saker), and Schryver, who, while biased, have some knowledge of what they are talking about. They essentially swat away any concerns by “doomers” as uninformed. We’ll see, but I’d certainly hold the celebrations if I were a Zelenskyy fanboy.

            1. Polar Socialist

              Only in the southern parts, so far. Even UAF refuses to announce capture of the city yet. Citizens have been evacuated to Kupyansk (where they are being with Ukrainian HIMARSes).

        2. skippy

          I’ll stick with the Russian program of depleting the Ukrainian military over holding onto any sector of land before determining some notion of success Polar Socialist. In my view the Ukraine does not have the population demographics – alone – to grind this out. Further complicated by pot luck equipment sent in so inexperienced operators can figure it out in real time or multi unit cohesion effectiveness.

          Reminiscent of how some depleted their best over a few years in WWII and then the gear mattered not ….

          1. anon in so cal

            Not taking any consolation from Will Schryver’s latest comments, or replies, either. I can see myself morphing into a concern troll so I will say no more.

            1. skippy

              Schryver has a good multivariate insight … but like many … not the first hand experiences. It does make a difference in the long run because stuff breaks, no parts, no support or logistics, broad experience from the individual solider as part of a larger whole all starts going out the window – so many many factors …

              At the end of the day what are the Russians fighting for post Gorby and the Harvard boyz experience, post years attempts at normalization, and ultimately the Wests machinations at its boarder. Which has a history going back to Clinton and regardless of attempts at some semblance of Lucy Ball Détente can never be had.

              Basically the West is fighting for the advancement of a baked in Ideological Agenda so utopia can be had [riches for elites] and Russia is fighting for Sovereignty, West is only supplying funds and near use by date weapons, and the always hilarious REMF advisors with no bodies on the line so MSM does not have a sad …

              Imagine if the 82’d got sent over and got repulsed with heavy causalities … the entire PR over decades would just go poof and how would that play back home – pandemonium. Not that I have not known Russian famialys that have moved to the U.S. back in the 80s in Calif, and went back, thought the society too shallow and
              bereft of life outside mindless consumerism.

              Skippy … aka back in the day also known as the human hand grenade.

            2. Old Sovietologist

              No\thing wrong with concern as long as it doesn’t morph into defeatism .

              https://www.rbth.com/arts/2015/04/16/moscow_is_speaking_the_voice_that_brought_hope_to_a_nation_45303.html

              Levitan always told the truth even when the news was not good.

              https://soviethistory.msu.edu/1943-2/the-nazi-tide-stops/no-one-steps-back/

              The Russia Ministry of Defence has to stop the nonsense “everything is going according to plan.” if they don’t people will stop believing believing in them and of course the leadership

              That is, exactly what Kiev, London and Washington are seeking with this offensive.

              They have to level with the population about the situation near Izyum. It’s not catastrophic but it is very serious.

              The current offensive is the the hardest test of the Russians stamina, military organization, operational-strategic school. And, of course, their will to win.

              Is it a pivotal moment for the SMO? I believe it is.

      3. Jeremy Grimm

        “…the theory seems to have been developed that it could be overwhelmed with sheer numbers.”
        Wasn’t there some World War I General who had that same sort of theory, which he applied repeatedly at the Battle of the Somme?

      4. Katniss Everdeen

        Regarding the involvement of the u.s., uk and nato el al. in terms of “training”/planning/advising of ukraine forces, I found this, from the Moon of Alabama link, “interesting”:

        Russian electronic warfare also posed a constant threat. Soldiers described ending their shifts and turning on their phones to call or text family members — a decision that immediately drew Russian artillery fire.

        “When we turn on mobile phones or radio, they can recognize our presence immediately,” said Denys. “And then the shooting starts.”

        Russian soldiers are not allowed to carry mobile phones. Why Ukrainian soldiers are allowed to have then and use those is beyond me. Do they want to commit suicide?

        Sounds like a pretty serious, unforced error that’s costing plenty in more ways than one. I mean, WTF?

      5. digi_owl

        Yeah more and more this is starting to seem in part like a probing exercise.

        Get the Russians out in the open to see what they have actually been up. After all, Russia (and China) has had 20 years of observing NATO blunder about in the middle east. I get the feel that planners were taken aback by Russian effectiveness in Syria, and is now using Ukraine in a more controlled manner.

        1. Yves Smith

          Huh? The West is exhausting its weapons caches. RUSI says it would take ten years for the West to re-industrialize to produce artillery at Russia’s scale.

          What Berletic said was there was an old paper (I think from 2017 based on 2014) on how a BTGs exhibited trouble in coordinating under attack and thus could be overwhelmed. He went through all sorts of reasons why that was not on point, a biggie being that the forces then didn’t use drones and thus had poor situational knowledge compared to know.

          Yesterday Alexander Mercouris said Russian reporters were overreacting to what was happening in the East because so many were there (v in Kherson), He went through the numbers. Only 9,000 Ukraine troops committed to the new advance in the East v. 15,000 in the first wave in Kherson and 10,000 in the second.

  15. mrsyk

    Fellow NC adventurers will find the study linked on this Eric Topol tweet interesting. The abstract:
    “Due to changes in SARS-CoV-2 testing practices, passive case-based surveillance may be an increasingly unreliable indicator for monitoring the burden of SARS-CoV-2, especially during surges. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of a population-representative sample of 3,042 U.S. adults between June 30 and July 2, 2022, during the Omicron BA.5 surge. Respondents were asked about SARS-CoV-2 testing and outcomes, COVID-like symptoms, contact with cases, and experience with prolonged COVID-19 symptoms following prior infection. We estimated the weighted age and sex-standardized SARS-CoV-2 prevalence, during the 14-day period preceding the interview. We estimated age and gender adjusted prevalence ratios (aPR) for current SARS-CoV-2 infection using a log-binomial regression model. An estimated 17.3% (95% CI 14.9, 19.8) of respondents had SARS-CoV-2 infection during the two-week study period, equating to 44 million cases as compared to 1.8 million per the CDC during the same time period. SARS-CoV-2 prevalence was higher among those 18-24 years old (aPR 2.2, 95% CI 1.8, 2.7) and among non-Hispanic Black (aPR 1.7, 95% CI 1.4 ,2.2) and Hispanic (aPR 2.4, 95% CI 2.0 , 2.9). SARS-CoV-2 prevalence was also higher among those with lower income (aPR 1.9, 95% CI 1.5, 2.3), lower education (aPR 3.7 95% CI 3.0,4.7), and those with comorbidities (aPR 1.6, 95% CI 1.4, 2.0). An estimated 21.5% (95% CI 18.2, 24.7) of respondents with a SARS-CoV-2 infection more than 4 weeks prior reported long COVID symptoms. The inequitable distribution of SARS-CoV-2 prevalence during the BA.5 surge will likely drive inequities in the future burden of long COVID.”
    The prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection and long COVID in US adults during the BA.5 surge, June-July 2022

    1. mrsyk

      Perhaps I should highlight this from the abstract. “An estimated 17.3% (95% CI 14.9, 19.8) of respondents had SARS-CoV-2 infection during the two-week study period, equating to 44 million cases as compared to 1.8 million per the CDC during the same time period.”

      1. kareninca

        So Gottlieb’s guess is that there are 7-8 cases for every one officially reported. But it is really 25 cases for every one officially reported? Really it seems that anecdotes on Reddit would be more helpful than the official figures.

  16. fresno dan

    https://compactmag.com/article/america-s-bad-bet-on-sports-gambling
    The boosterish American Gaming Association claims sports gambling has produced $1.3 billion in local taxes since 2018. Great. But President Biden conjured a thousand times that in “emergency” spending in his first month in office. And jobs? Well, these are virtual businesses, matters of trademarks and accountants and intellectual property lawyers. You don’t need construction workers, because an online “sports book” doesn’t have a building. It doesn’t really even have a product.

    Gambling is, according to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, addictive. Estimates are that about 2 percent of the people who do it wind up in extraordinary trouble. This spring, I sat in a sports bar in King of Prussia, Penn., with a former gambler who had opened his laptop to explain how betting sites work. It was a slow sports day, and suddenly there popped up on his screen a solicitation to bet on Argentina’s “B” Soccer league. “If you’re sitting here in the dark on a beautiful Saturday afternoon placing prop bets on the Argentine B league,” he said, “I don’t think you need the DSM-V to tell you what the problem is.”

    That is why the most disturbing aspect of sports betting is the collusion of the power structures defending it. The industry requires close ties between corporations, politicians, media, and sports leagues, ties of a seemingly new kind. Of course, there is the usual corporate-government revolving door. Former Massachusetts senatorial candidate Martha Coakley went to work at DraftKings. Then-President Donald Trump invited sports-gambling impresario Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports to the White House. (Perhaps due to the ex-casino mogul Trump’s lock on Republican affections, sports betting is one of the few projects of the Washington establishment that meets little populist opposition.)
    =======================================
    At some point, I begin to wonder if EVERY tie between corporations, politicians, media and the “interest” is for the few and not the many…

    1. Adam Eran

      “Gaming is a tax on ignorance” – Warren Buffett… So it should raise a lot of $ in the U.S, no?

  17. semper loquitur

    Here’s a fun talk between John McWhorter and Glenn Loury wherein they kick around the flabby football of Kendi and his “racism under every rock” shtick, this time in regards to standardized testing:

    https://youtu.be/x2Yj9TetIuA

    It all started with a Tweet made by McWhorter regarding testing for social workers and Kendi jumped in with his usual ambiguous claims of “Racism!” McWhorter makes some good points. People of color do tend to perform more poorly on standardized tests but at least one study and his years of teaching and studying linguistics points to class as the real divide, specifically the use of more abstract language lends itself to higher performance on standardized testing. Middle class “knowledge workers” and such use much more abstract language, I suppose it lends itself to a broader and more versatile comprehension of questions. When working class whites and working class people of color’s scores are compared, there is much less of a disparity.

    McWhorter also dismantles Kendi’s fuzzy accusations of racism, both towards himself and the tests. Kendi never supports his claims, he just off-gasses generalized charges, which McWhorter notes may be the best he can do as Kendi seems to struggle with consecutive reasoning. McWhorter notes that this plays well to the mob around Kendi as it panders to their preconceived notions. For his part, Loury plays the devil’s advocate well and adds that his economics PhD program at Brown has received similar criticisms. He finds that blacks are severely underrepresented in his courses but notes that moving away from quantitative approaches to qualitative approaches would drastically alter the nature of economic inquiry and someone will have to convince him why that’s a better route before he’s going to go the “numbers lite” way. The obvious bottom line, to my thinking, is that we need better education for all ethnic and class groups.

    One quibble: he and Loury seem to think it’s all just poor epistemology and argumentation on Kendi’s part. McWhorter does briefly entertain the notion that there is some bad faith reasoning on Kendi’s part. I take it further and argue Kendi is a racism-peddler pandering to the soft skulled mob who are looking for moralizing, mushy answers to allow them to engage in witch hunts and finger pointing.

  18. JWP

    re: Attention spans:

    This is spot on and I appreciate how the author feels caught up in the same game we all do, as opposed to being an all-knowing “my life is great, you all are wrong” author. The attenton spans of young people or really anyone sucked into the internet now adays is a victim of this. There should be laws against endless scrolling. In a better world, against social media as a whole. however, this attention span issue, has led to the extreme increase in psychological disorders. Most of my freidns in our 20s are on SSRIs or something for ADHD, anxiety, or depression. Problem is, a lot of the adhd and anxiety is simply the brain being rewired as a byproduct of social media and tech as a whole. With no end in sight, I wonder what the consequences will be long term?

    1. CanCyn

      Agree. Neil Poston’s book should be regarded as a classic, if you don’t know it, give it a read. I do have some good news about the attention span problem. I have found that, with some effort, I have regained my ability to read for long periods of time. I’ve always been a voracious reader, 30-50 books a year was pretty standard even when working full-time. During my father’s prolonged illness and the the last few years of my working life I was down to very few books per year and when I first tried to read a novel after I retired, I just couldn’t focus. I kept trying, stopped scrolling so much and picked up a book more often and found that eventually I got back into the flow. My sister had similar difficulties and found the same thing, that with some effort and practice, long periods of reading were again doable.

      1. Anthony G Stegman

        Over the past few months I have dedicated two hours daily to book reading. I have been able to read one book per month at that pace. I intend to maintain that pace, though not increase it. Too much reading is bad for our eyes, and reading too quickly makes it difficult to fully comprehend what we are reading. Reading should be done for pleasure, unless one is being paid to read. Take your pleasure when you can, but don’t overdo it.

        1. CanCyn

          I found that it was the combination of picking up a book and less time spent scrolling/reading short bits online that was my cure.
          It is a myth that reading causes damage to your eyesight. Eye strain and tiredness perhaps but no permanent damage. https://opto.ca/eye-health-library/reading-myths-debunked…one of the myths debunked in this link is that glasses make your eyesight worse. Not so, your eyes do get dependant on the correction so when you take off your glasses your eyesight seems worse and your brain has to work harder to do the correction that it can do. I have perfect proof of that, my glasses correct my double vision and after a prolonged bout of reading if I take my glasses off, my double vision seems much worse for a while.

    2. Jeremy Grimm

      I believe the Internet, social media, scrolling, as sources of “shrinking attention spans”, much like television, and radio in their times, receive far more attention than they deserve as the causative agents. Each of these media have been first and most enthusiastically adopted by our Youth, who have been going to the dogs since the time of the Greeks – and probably for some time before that. Without overly minimizing the impacts of — the Internet, social media, scrolling, and television, and radio in their times, in shortening attention spans — I believe it is very important to look to another more insidious cause for our short attention spans.

      I believe there has been tremendous speedup of the rate that we are expected to read and absorb new material. I believe our public schools for grades up to senior year of high school have deliberately added considerable and often disconnected material to textbooks in heroic efforts to seem more advanced more comprehensive or more something. The result has made standard textbooks incredibly boring and meaningless. Short attention spans … or excruciatingly boring textbooks? At colleges and universities the race is on to discover who can cover more material faster — with little regard for the depth of understanding acquired. More and more, faster and faster these are the mantras. But deeper and deeper? The only testing of deeper I recall were the many times questions on the finals required knowledge and background neither taught in lectures nor T.A. sections, nor covered in the textbooks, nor in exercises. In the modern workplace we are each given a firehose to drink from and shorter and shorter spans to “come up to speed” on the contents of their information flow. What’s attention span got to do with it?

      However, I want to focus on a particular component of this speedup problem, something which has become more and more troubling to me. In addition to the Neoliberation of science and scientific research and publications, I believe there has been a mindless speedup of the thought that goes into research proposals and the research that follows successful proposals. The kinds of deep thinking that goes into great insights and discoveries is stifled and strangled where there are schedules and constant week-by-week progress reports, and endless quarterly reviews. Our science advances one small brick at a time, many of those bricks of poor quality and badly, toward commercially motivated goals. Worry about diminishing attention spans? … Worry about the diminishing rate that science and Innovation is progressing, and the change in what it is ‘progressing’ toward.

  19. Jason Boxman

    What a graphic! The ultimate refutation of public health and society in general: “You do you”

    America is a death cult.

  20. semper loquitur

    Wow, I came across this sad bit of Russophobia by a Russian-American on Medium I thought the group may find edifying, if only to demonstrate the onerous effects of propaganda on supposedly reasonable (Cambridge and Harvard Business School educated no less! *genuflects) people:

    https://medium.com/@alexeisorokinstories/dostoevsky-is-canceled-6ff2794b10ab

    Is Alexei Sorokin someone who has been linked here before? The name has a familiar and negative ring but I may be thinking of someone else. The essay is entitled Dostoevsky is canceled and that cancellation comes from the author himself. It’s not only great writers who he is cancelling but also Russian pastries and grocery stores. These are sad, nay pathetic, times.

    1. OIFVet

      Hatred of one’s origins is a widespread side effect of Oxbridge and Ivy League education, though Anglo-Saxons seem to have natural immunity to it. As a matter of fact Anglo-Saxons view it as a benefit, as it provides them with many willing and greatful compradors

      1. Polar Socialist

        I believe there is a certain faction of Russian (old school) liberals who believe that it’s the very Russianness of Russians that keeps them from turning Russia into a liberal paradise. A school of thought that everything in Russian culture binds the Russian people into a serf-like submission.

        So they do have a tendency of hating most things Russian as something antagonistic to their way of life. Which usually is wealthy enough to decouple them from Russian realities, or from Russia itself.

        1. OIFVet

          You can substitute ‘Russian’ and ‘Russianness’ with any Slavic country and your comment will still be true.

      2. semper loquitur

        Interesting. I suppose they despise their commonplace origins when basking in the light of the upper strata of society. Chimps gonna chimp.

    2. Maxwell Johnston

      Recent immigrants are often more patriotic and koolaid-swallowing than the locals. Plus royaliste que le roi. And of course Russians who leave their country of birth to settle in the west (let alone in the USA) tend to be anti-Putin to begin with. The author might take a look at what his adopted country’s military has gotten up to in recent years before cancelling Russia outright.

  21. JBird4049

    Pregnant women held for months in one Alabama jail to protect fetuses from drugs AL.com

    I guess(?) this is better than the sterilizations done, often illegally or worse legally, of the poor and minorities in the past, which still happens covertly from time to time especially in prisons; it is still treating the poors as if they were mindless, self-indulgent sheep, which is normal with horrible things that are worse than anything that was done is normal. Putting someone in jail, ostensibly to protect the baby, because of weed is cruelty. Putting someone in American jails especially Southern jails is possible homicidal. Even California jails often have… issues.

    The jailers are indulging themselves with some gratuitous virtue-signalling, nanny-state cruelty.

  22. Bardon

    “US VOTERS THINK BIDEN’S WAR AGAINST RUSSIA IS UNCONNECTED TO PRICE INFLATION”

    How stupid a group did they survey? Biden’s executive orders are what slammed the door on cheap Russian fuel, fertilizer, food and parts.

    Seeing occasional paper money with
    “Biden Sanctions raise prices!”
    written on the back.

    1. Pat

      My first thought was it was a focus group raised by Bette Midler and Rob Reiner.
      But since we don’t really know how the questions was phrased, we may have to hold off thinking them stupid. We know they are ill informed, unless they are iconclasts where news sources are concerned.

  23. Pat

    Queen Elizabeth is dead.
    I think Bojo and Truss (and Andrew and Harry) were too much for her. She was only 96.

  24. Mikel

    “Caught in a Cycle of Despair and Exploitation” Craig Murray

    “….A Prime Minister elected by 80,000 people mostly in South East England, to govern 66,000,000 throughout the UK, receives office from an old woman, elected by nobody, dwelling in a castle….”

    And they’ll tell you they are fighting for “democracy.” The last Prime Minister’s parting words were to “stay close to the Americans” – where elected officials spend the majority of their time dialing for campaign cash.

    (426,000,000 clown emjois)
    (about the size of the populations of the two countries combined.)

    1. David

      Murray is being silly, and he knows it.
      Truss, for better or worse, was elected leader of the Tory Party by its members. Because she’s the leader of the largest party, she’ll be asked to form a government. Forty years ago, she would have been elected by three-hundred-odd MPs. Sixty years ago, she would just have been appointed, after “consultations.”
      All the Labour Party had to do was win the last election.

  25. Amfortas the hippie

    adjacent to the TNR thing about viral untermenchen:
    “The central political-economic fact of the last 40 years in the United States is the massive transfer of wealth from the middle to the top. A Rand Corporation study in 2020 concluded that from 1975 to 2018, nearly $50 trillion in income had been moved from the middle class to the top 1 percent. Put another way, using numbers people can grasp: If all this money had not been shifted away from the middle class, the median individual income in 2018 would have been not the $36,000 it was, but about $57,000. That’s what neoliberal economics has done to the middle class. And while Republicans are far more responsible for this than Democrats, Democratic administrations bought into many neoliberal precepts, too; Bill Clinton privileged deficit reduction early in his term to reassure the bond market, pushed for free trade, and deregulated banks; Barack Obama proceeded cautiously out of the meltdown and pivoted toward deficit reduction during his first term. Both also made some bold Keynesian moves, but during both their terms, inequality rampaged and monopoly power intensified.”
    https://newrepublic.com/article/167607/economics-democracy-freedom-democrats-argument

    i was thinking throughout, “this is tomasky”,lol.
    maybe its shroom season wherever he lives.
    might even penetrate my brother’s corpseworldthink, sharkpeople enabling ,panglossian bubble universe.
    but maybe i’m just on a lot of drugs and been disconnected from the puppet show for too long.

    1. skippy

      But Amfortas I’m a binary agent in a market place that’s distribution is out of the question …. are you mad /s … Newtonian maths and physics can not be refuted …

      Heretic, deviant, socialist, commie, communalist, any other term that distinguishes you from the normal people that except goats will … the market is divine … lmmao …

      PS. sux I’ll never be able to cook you some slow cooked meat whilst drinking some piss at your garden and heck I might even inhale … been awhile … then some folks that know my past get nervous … lmmao …

    1. JBird4049

      I am not big on elites running anything, but looking at the combined ruling class of the Anglo-American community, including the United States, I do not see how a king could be much worse. He might even be an improvement.

      1. skippy

        Kings of divinity don’t rule … their advisers do with a deft touch … we now call these sorts orthodox economists … aka the HR for the elite rulers …

    2. HotFlash

      I long ago concluded that hereditary monarchy guarantees that every now and then you will get a psychopath or a congenital idiot in charge. However, with democracy, we can get one every time.

  26. Skip Intro

    Hydrogen production from the air Nature

    The authors may have missed a trick:

    However, the performance of this DAE module started to decline after 72 hr and we had to stop it at 96 h. This was because the voltage of the DAE module increased from 2.3 V to 2.4 V due to the gradual conversion of KOH into K2CO3 and eventually KHCO3 at exposure to the 420 ppm level CO2 in the air.

    It sounds like they have a Direct Air Electrolysis cell that also scrubs CO2 from the atmosphere.

  27. Kouros

    The War on the Rocks article (a critic on itself of another report predicting the doom of a PLA invasion) on PLA capabilities of successfully invading Taiwan is quite good. A sobering assessment for the US military.

    The overall conclusion is that China’s industrial base could crank up sufficient military capabilities to overwhelm the island’s defenses, even if the initial attack is poorly executed.

    But the author thinks the US support is necessary and ultimately sufficient to stop PLA. No discussion on the US industrial base’ ability to support a conventional war with China…

  28. Minnesota RN

    Lawn Dart-Thank you for the link to the Eastern Economic Forum and V. Putin’s address.
    To my mind that man is head and shoulders above any “statesmen” of the US or our “allies.” He articulates policy in a fashion that is understandable and shows thoughtfulness
    as well as grasp of economics and history. He entertains questions and challenges until
    all are satisfied. We probably don’t deserve such intelligent leadership, but I wish we had
    it. We would have a much better polity if we had such a leader. We would have hope.

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