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Links 12/31/2023

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Happy New Year to you, dear readers! –lambert

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Study: Albatrosses May Use Ultra-Low-Frequency Hearing to Navigate Maritime Executive

How Geopolitics Might Crash a 2024 Soft Landing Bloomberg

The How and Why of Errors and Mistakes Times of India

English still rules the world, but that’s not necessarily OK. Is it time to curb its power? Guardian

Climate

Community forest management linked to positive social, environmental outcomes: study Monga Bay

Water

The 20 Farming Families Who Use More Water From the Colorado River Than Some Western States ProPublica

#COVID19

COVID Mask Mandates Return to Hospitals in Five States Newsweek. Check out these complex eligibility requirements:

This week, Mass General Brigham, the largest health system in Massachusetts, said that effective January 2, masks will be essential for healthcare staff directly engaging with patients [A] in clinical-care settings until respiratory illnesses fall below a certain percentage [B]. Patients and visitors are also strongly encouraged [C] to wear masks [D], which will be provided by the hospital, and staff in hallways and common areas are exempt [E].

More lethal hilarity from Hospital Infection Control (in the person of Erica Shenoy, see below). [A] So non-clinical staff (cleaners, porters), although in the same ward as patients, won’t be masked. [B] “Percentage” established how? CDC’s “green map,” heaven forfend? [C] Unmasked visitor: “I read the sign. So what?” [D] Baggy blues, or N95s? [E] Remember non-smoking areas in restaurants, and even airplanes? How’d that work out? It’s the same deal here, since #CovidIsAirborne and spreads like smoke. On the bright side, managing this complex system is a jobs guarantee for hospital administrators!

Universal Masking in Health Care Setting Annal of Internal Medicine. MGH’s Shenoy et al. defend their “Let me see you smile” Ideas and Opinions article in AIM. First priority: Tone policing: “Free, open, and respectful debate is a critical element of a functioning academy and society.” Second priority: No course change at HICPAC; patient protections will be reduced, translating: “[T]he rationale for ending universal masking remains sound. As evidence continues to evolve, we will continue to evaluate it. Aligned with the principles of implementation science and dynamic sustainability, we reiterate our support for ongoing development, reevaluation, and discontinuation of policies as conditions, contexts, and evidence change.” A heaping portion of mush. Gaaaah.

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Hybrid immunity from SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination in Canadian adults: cohort study (preprint) medRxiv. From the Abtract: “[W]e conducted serial assessments (each of ~4000-9000 adults) examining SARS-CoV-2 antibodies within a mostly representative Canadian cohort drawn from a national online polling platform…. Spike levels were higher in infected than in uninfected adults, regardless of vaccination doses. Among adults vaccinated at least thrice and infected more than six months earlier, spike levels fell notably and continuously for the nine months post-vaccination. By contrast, among adults infected within six months, spike levels declined gradually. Declines were similar by sex, age group, and ethnicity. Recent vaccination attenuated declines in spike levels from older infections. In a convenience sample, spike antibody and cellular responses were correlated…. Strategies to maintain population-level hybrid immunity require up-to-date vaccination coverage, including among those recovering from infection.” Isn’t it ironic…,

What do infectious disease specialists think about managing long COVID? Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology. N = 117 of 2,978 recipients. From the Abstract: “[O]ur survey of infectious disease providers and their perspective on long COVID care suggested a lack of familiarity with existing resources, a sentiment of missing guidelines, and scarcity of dedicated care centers. In addition, the low response rate to this survey can be interpreted as ID providers not regarding their specialty as the primary point of contact for delivering long COVID care.”

Organizing Toolkit to Keep Masks in Healthcare COVID Advocacy Initiative and COVID Safe Campus, Google Docs. For example:

Eyam, the village that stopped Bubonic Plague Times of India

The United States is not a serious country:

China?

China’s manufacturing PMI falls for third month in a row highlighting 2024 challenges for world’s second-biggest economy South China Morning Post. Commentary:

China struggles to disperse cheap loans to businesses in economic slowdown FT

Sweeping Chinese military purge exposes weakness, could widen, say analysts Channel News Asia

Facing roadblocks, China’s robotaxi darlings apply the brakes TechCrunch. Chinese executive: “[Cruise], a leader in the industry, needs 1.5 operators per vehicle.” Oh.

India

Pegasus Used to Target The Wire’s Founding Editor, Reporter Working on Adani, Amnesty Confirms The Wire

The Lucky Country

A nation for a continent – no thanks Pearls and Irritations

Syraqistan

Maersk pauses Red Sea sailings after Houthi attack on container ship Reuters

Houthis show no sign of ending ‘reckless’ Red Sea attacks as trade traffic picks up, commander says AP

Two U.S. Navy Amphibs Leave Red Sea Despite Houthi Attacks on Shipping Maritime Executive

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‘Blood libel’: Israel slams South Africa for filing ICJ genocide motion over Gaza war Times of Israel. Here is South Africa’s filing (PDF).

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Netanyahu says Gaza war on Hamas will go on for ‘many more months,’ thanks US for new weapons sales AP. Commentary:

Scoop: Biden in “frustrating” call told Bibi to solve Palestinian tax revenue issue Axios

Analysis: Has Israel weakened Hamas enough to win the war on Gaza? Al Jazeera

Where Was the Israeli Military When Hamas Attacked? NYT. Scroll to the text.

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Pakistan poll body rejects ex-Premier Khan’s nomination papers for 2024 elections Anadolu Agency

Dear Old Blighty

Inside Labour’s plan to open up NHS to private ‘entrepeneurs’ iNews

New Not-So-Cold War

Russia tries to overwhelm Ukraine with missiles The Economist

Ukraine’s Nightmare Scenario Is Now Its Reality Foreign Policy

Zelenskyy: We are working with partners on robust solutions Ukrainska Pravda

Where does the river flow – 2024 (Google translation) Rossiiskaya Gazeta

Words vs. deeds:

Biden Administration

DOJ torched after prosecutors announce Sam Bankman-Fried will not face trial on illegal political donations FOX. You don’t say.

Effective altruism was the favoured creed of Sam Bankman-Fried. Can it survive his fall? FT

When Silicon Valley’s AI warriors came to Washington Politico

Fake Plane Parts Scandal Shows Peril of Antiquated Paper System Bloomberg

Spook Country

US claims Chinese spy balloon linked to US-based internet provider Anadolu Agency

Digital Watch

Google settles $5 billion privacy lawsuit over tracking people using ‘incognito mode’ AP

The Internet Is About to Get Weird Again Rolling Stone

How AI-created fakes are taking business from online influencers FT

Xmas Post-Game Analysis

“Our seasonal card” (AC):

New Year’s Eve Pre-Game Festivities

For those seeking insight into my personal New Year’s Eve celebration (sound down):

I hate New Year’s Eve – there, I’ve said it The Telegraph

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What went right in 2023? Here’s some good news Al Jazeera

Mess They Made of 2023 Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News

2023: The year of the total COVID cover-up WSWS

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Happy anniversary:

Kudos to Li Wenliang, and also to Zhang Yongzhen, who released the SARS-CoV-2 genome.

Sports Desk

State of college football has coaches up in arms: ‘It needs to be fixed’ Orlando Sentinel. No. It needs to be abolished (which includes returning it to genuine amateur status).

Zeitgeist Watch

Voluntary simplicity Duane Elgin and Arnold Mitchell, Co-Evolutionary Quarterly. 1977, still germane. Sadly truncated at The Honest Broker.

The kids are alright:

Guillotine Watch

Consulting firm McKinsey agrees to $78 million settlement over claims it helped fuel the opioid crisis AP

Class Warfare

Review of The Case for a Job Guarantee by Pavlina R. Tcherneva, Polity Press (2020) NJFAN

What was it like when the cosmic dark ages ended? Big Think

Eppur si muove:

World at Dawn Orion

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.

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156 comments

  1. Antifa

    ANNA INDIANA
    (melody borrowed from The Music Man)

    Anna Indiana, Anna Indiana
    Anna Indiana can’t compose and cannot sing
    Anna Indiana, Anna Indiana
    Anna Indiana knows not what she’s uttering

    Who brings before our eyes this aberration?
    She deeply needs behavior modification
    She utterly fails at simple communication
    Her music is odd, a mere pasquinade

    Anna Indiana, Anna Indiana
    Anna Indiana she’s supposed to look demure
    Anna Indiana, Anna Indiana
    Anna Indiana this attempt is premature

    (sing it again, Sam)

    Anna Indiana, Anna Indiana
    Anna Indiana cannot follow her own tune
    Anna Indiana, Anna Indiana
    Anna Indiana she’s an AI picaroon

    She seems a demonic visitation
    She tests my final nerve of toleration
    What is this instant urge for strangulation?
    She can’t keep the pace, she can’t move her face

    Anna Indiana, Anna Indiana
    Anna Indiana head to toe she’s styrofoam
    Anna Indiana, Anna Indiana
    Anna Indiana don’t permit her in your home

  2. Steve H.

    >The How and Why of Errors and Mistakes Times of India

    >> purifying ourselves from the negative effects of our actions.

    Sort of a quasi Buddhist-Fascist manifesto. This happens when mechanical engineers go all sanctified.

    >> In Advanced Mathematics, there is a topic called ‘ Errors and Approximations ‘
    >> Errors are unintended and inadvertent due to lack of proper knowledge

    Slippery-slopes his definitional framework here, from mathematical inevitabilities to ‘proper’ (ie normative) knowledge. If he’s going to haul in math, lets be clear, there is no evolution without variation. And which variants are selected is a product of the environment, ie covariation. His solution finds A solution and quality controls it until they call it THE solution. And thats how you get ‘the Definitive Article is Fascist.‘

    “To put it another way, incremental moves toward the abstract, unattainable ideal of perfect competition may not improve the collective good; indeed, they can make matters worse.” [ECONned, p.104]

  3. Trees&Trunks

    The purge of Chinese generals due to corruption: opposite of the racket called NATO.

    1.5 operators per robotaxi: great stuff as a labour-market intervention. Are the Robotaxis Thunderdome MMT Power 1.5 the way forward to solve the upcoming crisis?

    1. The Rev Kev

      ‘The purge of Chinese generals due to corruption’

      That was a very weird article that. Were the Chinese supposed to protect corrupt officers and maybe even give them a promotion? Orban got rid of a lot of questionable officers too in the Hungarian army not long ago for which the other western countries criticized him heavily. Personally I think that wide-ranging anti-corruption crackdowns are a great idea and if you find a corrupt officer, you charge and try them. And if found guilty you throw them in the slammer. Come to think of it, General Eisenhower also got rid of a large number of substandard officers before America went to war as he knew that if he did not, then it would have resulted in a lot of dead soldiers. Maybe the Chinese are following this example as they know that the US are gunning for them.

      1. GramSci

        Happy New Year, Rev! And wishful thinking to all!

        That purges should be considered a bad thing in the corridors of power is indeed an odd, if not obsequious thought. Especially when paired with the evergreen rumination on whether a MMT Job Guarantee can be feasible, as if it’s a ‘theory’ that it can work and be paid for ‘without new taxes’.

        Of course it can work. It’s working today in every country with a military, a police force, and jails. The problem is that the theory can ‘work’ for good or for evil. Periodic purges (along with non-military ‘innovation’) are needed to keep it working toward good ends.

      2. Es s Ce tera

        One possibility that comes to mind is the generals are being shifted to new fronts, Russian style. By that I mean the public is told they were purged only to see them re-appear in different theatres with new tasking. Which is what you’d do if you’d wanted to match particular tasks with the particular skills and specializations of the generals.

        But yes, the article was a bit fragmented, like many adjustments were made, although my general sense is the author(s) wanted to whine about something.

      3. Altandmain

        I suppose that officers being corrupt and getting promoted is the norm in the US – upon retirement, they get highly paid careers working for the military industrial complex.

        The way militaries work is vulnerable because there’s a lot of money involved. That’s true even of other nations that have a more efficient military than Western ones. Purges can be for good or bad – it depends on how it is used for, who gets removed, and why.

        There are always going to be corrupt or underperforming military leaders.

        Perhaps the West is just unhappy that the military of China will be more capable when they hope to provoke a war over Taiwan.

    2. Kouros

      The West started hopping mad that Putin and then Xi are autocrats when they implemented anti-corruption campaigns and the return of a strong state in their respective countries.

      Let’s always remember that oligarchy hates the most “tyranny” that is allied with and backed by the demos…

      2. Roger Boyd

        Absolutely, Putin went from GW Bush’s “friend” to the Devil nearly overnight when he took down the biggest oligarch Khodorkovsky who was looking at selling a major piece of the Russian oil and gas industry to Exxon-Mobil.

        Xi made it obvious that China would not become a capitalist-elite dominated nation when he carried out the anti-corruption purges, and even more intolerable from the West’s point of view cut Jack Ma down to size and stopped his rentier capitalism activities.

  4. The Rev Kev

    “Maersk pauses Red Sea sailings after Houthi attack on container ship”

    That may not have been a random attack on that ship. It was a Singapore-flagged vessel owned and operated by Denmark which may be common enough. But here is the thing. This attack came a day after Denmark announced it would contribute to the US-led group by sending a frigate next month to take part. So this may have been Ansarullah telling Denmark that if it wants to play stupid games – after being given permission to sail their ships through the Red Sea – then they will be awarded stupid prizes.

    1. Boomheist

      Lots of feeds this morning about the US helicopter sinking of 3 Houthi boats and now it seems an imminent announcement that the British and the US are about to attack Houthi missile sites and other on-land sites to beat back the Houthi ship attacks. So this seems surely about to happen, the next escalation.

      Question is, can the navies wipe out the Houthi attack infrastructure? In other words, are the Houthi missiles located on hard sites that can be mapped and targeted, or are the missiles launched from mobile sources like vehicles which can move around? Same thing for the drones. Are these located in, say, a half dozen places, like drone bases, which can be taken out, or are they literally being carried one by one by a human being somewhere near the coastline and hidden from view? If an on-land Houthi attack can really damage and restrict the drone and missile threat, this might encourage ships to return to the Suez. If however such an attack then sees US warships hit, and damaged, or many commercial ships, a further escalation seems pretty likely – ie, next step would be attacks on Iran….

      1. alfred venison

        they won’t get them all, by a long shot, so the next step would be Houthi swarm attacks on the naval facilities at Camp Lemmonier in Djibouti, where American and allied shipborne air-defence rocket tubes are reloaded. The closest alternative tube reloading facilities are out of theatre, in Japan or Europe.

  5. Revenant

    The military watch article is a broken link. :-(

    The solar system motion tweet was interesting enough to read but is disclaimed later in the same thread, which contains less misleading descriptions (the issue is that the sun and solar system are in absolute motion through space but not in relative motion to our local galactic structure, unlike the impression the video gives).

  6. ilsm

    Happy New Year.

    Thank you all for this place of information and interaction.

    Health and peace in the New Year for all.

    1. griffen

      Happy New Year to all. And if 2023 was a ride on the struggle bus, 2024 says “here hold my beer”. I align closely to the above post about a NYE celebration; a cozy spot on the couch awaits. Hope that it is a safe, and mostly a peaceful turn to a new year.

      Now to be highly cynical, does all hell break loose this calendar year? Consulting my magic 8-ball, says to “ask again later”. The darn thing is broken. Or more likely it’ll be the Kurt Russell as lawman Wyatt Earp speech…”and hell is coming with me, you hear! Hell is coming with me!”

    2. herman_sampson

      Happy Waltz Day 12-31-23 (123-123)! (Stolen from local dulcimer society).
      I look for memorable but uneventful bike rides – may this year be the same.
      Thanks to to every one at Naked Capitalism and their regular o h irregular contributors Michael Hudson and IM Doc.

  7. Samuel Conner

    > As evidence continues to evolve, we will continue to evaluate it.

    I would feel more confident about this affirmation if I knew that the “evidence” under consideration included assays of cognitive impairment among the HICPAC members.

    Of course, to even recognize that cognitive impairment is a possible consequence of repeated infection would be to default toward more precautions rather than fewer, so I suspect it won’t happen soon.

    ———

    Happy New Year’s Eve, all. I get the sense that 2024 is going to be interesting. And, for those who have highly active mirror systems, probably distressing.

    Here’s a life goal for the new year — give away more N95s in 2024 than in 2023.

    In case quantities, these can be had for a bit over a dollar each and can be reused repeatedly. Distributing these is not only pro-social, it’s “pro-self” in the sense that by helping your neighbors to protect themselves, you’re protecting the system we all rely on.

    1. timbers

      Noticed that, too.

      We’re being protected from propaganda. From mediabiasfactcheck.com:

      Analysis / Bias
      Military Watch Magazine focuses on reporting defense-related events and publishes articles that are generally in line with the Russian Government’s narrative.

      I think mediabias is the same site that told me Alex Christoforou is a Moscow native and hangs out there. (he was born in Arizona if I recall).

      1. The Rev Kev

        Alex Christoforou was born in Scottsdale, Arizona but he is actually a Cypriot as his father was a diplomat who moved around a lot. So he grew up in the US, Mexico and also the old Soviet Union. Must have really broadened his views that.

      2. Janie

        Alex recently spent some two or three weeks touring in Russia and made his daily walking videos from there.

  9. timbers

    Ryan Grim…battle field artillery…huge blast radius (of new weapons package to Israel)

    After seeing Israeli behavior these past months, the fact USA gave Israel nukes festers over time in my brain. If I had to name one nation most likely to use nukes, Israel is at or near the top of my list.

    What on earth were they thinking giving Israel nukes?

    1. The Rev Kev

      And now the Israelis have their very own Samson Option. If a war is going against them, they will resort to nukes. But the suspicion is that they will not only use them against their enemies but other distant regions as well such as Europe so as to take everybody down with them. Fortunately for them, they have been supplied with submarines by the west capable of carrying nukes so who knows in which waters they will appear.

      1. Jabura Basaidai

        oh lord and i was just feeling so uplifted by the pic of the cheeta Mom and now this fresh hell – this past year has been day after day of the insightful commentariat providing a fresh dose of what Dorothy Parker referred to as Fresh Hell – she didn’t mean it to be funny and nor do i – but as Billy Burroughs pointed out, “How long does it take man to realize that he cannot want what he wants? You have to live in hell to see heaven.” – Heaven becomes clearer and clearer day after day – thankfully there is still some nature for me and a rambunctious pooch to put a smile on my sour puss –

      2. steppenwolf fetchit

        One wonders if , in the event that the Government of Israel decides to nuke far-distant cities, that they would prioritize nuking the cities with the biggest Diaspora Jewish populations first, to get revenge on all those Diaspora Jews who “failed” to immigrate to Israel the way they were “supposed to”. For example, since New York City has the largest single-city Jewish population in the world, one wonders if in this scenario, NYC would be the first city Israel tries to nuke to get maximum revenge on a maximum number of Jews who “failed” to move to Israel the way they were “supposed to.”

        Would it be irresponsible to speculate? It would be irresponsible not to.

        1. Jabura Basaidai

          not only failed to immigrate but protested against the zionists – lots of Jewish folks don’t appreciate the smear and being called antisemitic for not going along with the right-wing nut cases –

        2. Todosantos

          For sure it won’t be Hollywood.

          https://www.businessinsider.com/arnon-milchan-and-israels-nuke-program-2013-11

          Is this guy even a U.S. citizen? Deport him to his preferred country.

          “Israel’s secretive LAKAM economic espionage unit, which was tasked with securing technology for Israel’s secret nuclear weapons program, recruited Milchan in the 1960s. At one point, the 69-year-old told Channel 2, he operated 30 companies in 17 different countries.”

    2. Micat

      I’d always read Israel’s nuclear program was mostly self done and with some help from the French and South Africans. As they did their first test in SA.

      1. Kouros

        Oh, no. Germans donated some Dolphin class submarines to Israel not that long ago and the nuke carrying planes were donated by the US (I think)….

      2. Aurelien

        The French transferred a lot of nuclear weapons technology to Israel in the 1960s, and it was the basis of their nuclear weapons programme.

    3. GramSci

      «What on earth were they thinking giving Israel nukes?»

      Oil, Suez, and that nobody would dare mess with the Anglosphere’s goons.

  10. Cassandra

    From the Armchair Warlord tweet re: the “domino theory” for the West’s Ukraine operation:

    Which then begs the question of why the hell, exactly, the collective leaders of the West have gone all in on a Russian-killing project in Ukraine when they seem to have a bone-deep confidence that Putin isn’t actually a threat to them.

    The Russian-killing aspect is a bonus. The primary focus is money-laundering, and the operation has been a spectacular success.

    1. jsn

      I was thinking the same, corruption has become the sole point of being a western General.

      Interesting note in the translated Russian interview about “military economy”, Clausewitzian in suggesting military economy is an extension of political economy by other means, an incomprehensible notion in the Market State!

  11. griffen

    Apologies if this is currently, or previously had been linked. I’m not seeing the info dropped anywhere, just yet…but the ending of 2023 brings the end to one of the better actors in film ( my humble two cents). Tom Wilkinson has passed at age 75.

    Loved his work in Michael Clayton opposite Clooney ( movie is a persona favorite ), in the John Adams mini series as some guy named Franklin, in the Patriot as General Cornwallis…just to start with a few key examples. Feel welcome to add a favorite role or work of your choosing.

    https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/30/entertainment/tom-wilkinson-death/index.html

    3. timbers

      Tom Wilkinson played an excellent creepy CIA-Blob spook in The Ghost Writer directed by Roman Polanski (who’s plot while simplified is spot on in it’s portrayal of how Blob works to control other nations).

      1. Carolinian

        That is a good movie. It came up before due to the uncanny seeming similarity between the plot and the Obama drowned chef in Martha’s Vineyard story. But who plays Tom Wilkinson in real life?

    4. Katherine Beatty

      Michael Clayton one of the few movies I rewatch – Wilkinson was amazing. Other outstanding performance: the dad in In the Bedroom.

    5. Tinky

      I first saw Tom Wilkinson in the BBC mini-series SPYSHIP way back in 1983, long before he became well-known in the U.S. It’s an excellent series (I have it on DVD!), and in some ways it foreshadowed Michael Clayton.

    6. mary jensen

      Why do people say and write “passed” instead of “died”? Tom Wilkinson died, he is dead. He didn’t “pass”. What is that? “Pass”: it’s a play in certain card games ie one passes; it’s a way in front of another motor vehicle on a road; it used to mean a move in the game of sexual seduction and on and on. It does not and never did mean death. Not even in French: ” « Un ange passe », on emploie souvent cette formule lorsqu’une conversation s’épuise et qu’un silence s’installe, menaçant de se prolonger.”

      A few days ago Yves Smith took exception about the use of “decimation” instead of “destruction” and she is right. I am now taking a stand against “pass” in lieu of “died”. Say what you will, bring it on. While I’m at it, I’ve really had enough of “iconic” in lieu of “well known” and everything else under the sun, not to mention “infamous” which used to mean infamous and now means nothing at all.

      If English really has become the lingua franca of the world then heaven help us. All the ‘yeahs’ and ‘likes’ and ‘y’knows’ and ‘ohmygods’ have made English practically despicable and a pain in the ass (ear) to listen to. I really don’t care how many excuses for such trash English people such as Stephen Fry come up with, the fact is he himself would never say nor write ‘infamous’ when he meant notorious: so obviously not the same thing at all and most of us know it.

      1. c_heale

        Imo pass away is good, as a phrasal verb it has a different and singular meaning. But pass is annoying.

      2. skippy

        Yet there are superlative colloquialisms like the Oz *** Carked it *** when describing death. It was and still rings when used with other Oz syntax when heard.

        Per your umbrage I found the ‘Yeah but’ my and other kids started using around 10ish years ago in these parts maddening. Attempting to have a conversation or debate about something, with them, only to retort with ‘Yeah but’ ….

        Personally I think the ‘Passing on’ is in a religious context, as in, moving on to the next plane of existence. Then again many sci fi movies and books portray a future where many languages get blended, especially by the lower class, where the purity of language is the domain of the elite class. Not to mention in China and Japan some jobs are tested for ones command of the language like broadcasting.

        1. anahuna

          Among the black people I have known, the word is almost always “passed,” and very much in the sense of passed on to another form of existence. It is said softly, tenderly, as in “After Doctor King passed.”

          I can’t imagine being offended by that.

      3. griffen

        Both my parents passed away from cancer. Sounds better to write that as opposed to, by example, cancer killed them in a slow and dreadful manner as we gradually then quickly abandoned hopes of survival. Now a non attached person can write hey your Mother is dead but I liked her as my teacher. Doesn’t bother me much.

        As they say about opinions and varied other aspects, these things can vary. I’m not espousing in the King James version of writing, here, exactly.

  12. DJG, Reality Czar

    English Still Rules the World by Michele Gazzola.

    Some of the observations in the article are interesting, but none of them seem practical, do-able.

    The decline in study of “foreign languages” among Americans is well known. It doesn’t help that Americans consider bilingualism to be speaking U.S. English and Mexican Spanish. The provincialism of the largest English-speaking country is more than obvious.

    Here in the Chocolate City, I hear English speakers regularly, but then I live between the campuses of the two big universities. So I am hearing many faculty members and students.

    The effect of English in Italy in general isn’t easy for me to gauge. The problem is that the English being spoken through much of the world is Diluted Business & Marketing English. It’s all slogans, no Shakespeare. You have native speakers who can’t express themselves in English, and you have the influence of “globalization” on English.

    And in the Undisclosed Region in particular, use of language has been complicated for centuries. Many of the valleys west of Torino were almost completely French-speaking till recently. Except for the Occitan cluster of villages. And the Walser villages, with their eccentric version of Swiss German. So one can see that Italian is the lingua franca, especially in Turin, where more than half the population derives from migrants and immigrants.

    Yet Piedmontese is still a factor. There is plenty of signage in Piedmontese, although in Turin, Piedmontese isn’t heard much on the streets. That changes in the cities and villages around Turin.

    The English being used in Italy also goes through the same phenomenon that English in Japan does. The Japanese make English into something that suits Japanese culture–some expressions being famously incomprehensible to native speakers of English.

    English is too fashionable in Italy. I make a point of not speaking English in public, which means some joshing when the young men and women at the stores and restaurants I frequent decide to use some English on me and get an answer in Italian.

    This fall, the expression Black Friday (sale) was extremely popular here. It extended into Black Weekend. Then there were Black Weeks.

    One doesn’t have to be Japanese to see that the Italians make English into something else.

    Is English wiping out Italian? No. Does English now have too much influence in technical and scientific publication? Yes. Do Americans avoid reading translations?–heck, Americans can’t even read subtitles. So yes. Has the inability of English-speakers to recognize other languages now turned up as a factor in crises like the Arab world and Gaza and Ukraine and Russia. You bet.

    Being insular means being limited.

    1. Feral Finster

      English as default choice for second language worldwide one of the many aspects of American soft power.

      Polish person: “We were *forced* to learn Russian in school, the horror, the horror!”

      My dumb self: “English is mandatory in pretty much every Polish curriculum today…”

      Outraged Pole: “That’s DIFFERENT!”

      1. hk

        I heard something similar about pretty much every country that hasd official ideology of hating its neighbor/past (and if the neighbor ruled over you in the recent enough past, both). One of more peculiar thing (IDK if it is quite true) is that modern Norwegian emerged pretty much in 20th century (at least in its written form) so as not to be Swedish, as Sweden was Norway’s former overlord into the beginning of the 20th century. And Norwegian and Swedish, I think, are mostly mutually intelligible….

        Something that you might know better than I is that Poles claim that they can somewhat understand Slovak, but not Czech, and I thought Czech and Slovak are as close as Norwegian and Swedish and both, along with Polish are West Slavic, so I found that story hard to believe and thought that was a projection of national sentiments (I understand that Czechs and Poles hate each other but Poles are not hostile towards Slovaks). Does this story seem plausible, just based on languages?

    2. Carolinian

      Yes but wouldn’t it be easier if the rest of the world simply switched and “talked normal”? We Americans find all these languages to be inconvenient.

      Some of us are so old we remember how the French consciously tried to defend their language and culture from the Yanks. Now if a French movie includes a pop song it’s probably from the US. They are still “the children of Marx and Coca Cola” but now without the Marx.

      1. NotTimothyGeithner

        The British Empire. I wouldn’t underestimate the importance of the Royal Society in this. First rate science was being done through them, and especially science which contributed to views of ourselves such as understanding the Earth is really old and can be explained, not by secret traditions but math.

        The French were leading too, but they were curbstomped by Prussia one Summer and lost their leading status.

        Their is soft power, but you can’t deny the 13 colonies are just the first of many countries to throw the British out. The trend setters are going to be copied.

        1. EGrise

          When asked what was the greatest political fact of modern times, Bismarck is reported to have responded, that it was “the inherited and permanent fact that North America speaks English.”

    3. Ignacio

      Same of that, let’s say “peculiar” English is found in Spain. We enjoy making literal translations of popular sayings which mostly have their equivalent in English but the literal translation results funny or senseless. Such as “from lost to the river” (de perdidos al río, I defy you to find the original meaning) or “speaking in silver” (hablando en plata) which would be better expressed as “saying it in clear and blunt terms”. Destroyers of the English language we are frequently.

      1. caucus99percenter

        I had a German boss who did that, as a way of kidding around — he would say “I have my nose painted full” in English (the literal translation of Ich hab’ die Nase gestrichen voll = “I’m fed up / I’ve had enough”).

    4. Bugs

      No worries about this phenomenon happening in France lol. Some young people like English but I never ever have anyone try to speak it with me, and there’s resentment in at work of the French who have managed to learn English well enough to have seamless conversations and imho use it to get undeserved promotions in my evil multinational. My favorite all time situation though is to be on a conference call with Indians and French at the same time. Neither can understand the others’ accents and chaos reigns. Nothing gets done. Which is how things should be.

      My one accomplishment of 2023, of which I am very proud, is that I joined a union and am now on the works council. Imagine my employer’s surprise. We’re planning on some comms around corporate finance and tax and their effects on salaries. I’ll use some of the enormous library here as reference to help draft them – thanks to all and Happy New Year! Here’s hoping it’s entertaining lol!

      1. sfglossolalia

        I work in IT in the US and have regular communications with our India team. They are by and large quite capable, but the accents and varying levels of English proficiency do make it challenging, especially in a field where accurately describing complex technical problems is important. I know a lot of French people and am quite familiar with their pain points with the English language (eg. squirrel, thorough, rarely, etc.) and it gave me a good laugh picturing French and Indians trying to communicate!

    5. SKK

      It doesn’t help that Americans consider bilingualism to be speaking U.S. English and Mexican Spanish.

      Do you mean Hispanic Americans ? :-) Sorry, but that trope about Americans jolted me. Cos i was buying a car in ‘white-flight’ Santa Clarita, a LA exurb, and it struck me that the greeter was Korean origin, the negotiater Mid Eastern, most likely Persian, the finance / closer was Hispanic. And I’m subcontinent/brit. And none of us talked about origins. Wellll, it’s kinda obvious innit.

      Between us, I guess we knew 7 different languages.

        1. lambert strether

          How sizable? After a cursory search:

          The Italian language is estimated to be made out of a total of 450,000 words with the largest Italian dictionary having over 270,000 words.

          1. mary jensen

            French. The French language. There is no differentiation between I like broccoli and I love you, it’s “j’aime” in both cases, or more precisely the verb ‘aimer’ in both cases. There is no like/love. It’s so bloody primitive it makes my skin crawl.

            As for how many words are in Webster or OED, what the f— does that matter when most people wouldn’t know either what they are nor how to use them either written or spoken?

            I’m a native English speaker in a French speaking part of Europe and I can assure you that both languages are circling the drain in respect to the use of their respective vast vocabularies and it’s because of the computer keyboard made portable on people’s bloody ubiquitous ‘telephone/camera’. The young’uns can’t spell any more, they can’t even write “longhand”, 13 year olds write on paper like 6 year olds. It is dreadful and they don’t even understand why they should care about it: good ‘handwriting’ is not in any way important to the youth of the present generation and forget about proper spelling being understood because there’s a squiggly red line under the words to let them know that something’s amiss – but gee guess what? What if in fact you wish to play with the words? Nah, I’m going too far, they don’t even know how to play with words because they don’t care what anything means any more unless it’s iconic, ironic, picked over by ‘woke’ like a vulture over a carcass or likely to make them some money somehow sometime soon.

            1. Bugs

              To like is “aimer bien” in French.

              “J’aime bien les brocolis”

              “Je t’aime bien mais je ne sais pas si je t’aime“

      2. marym

        This got me curious about how many pages/volumes there are for the OED. Which led to this:
        Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages

        https://bookshop.org/p/books/reading-the-oed-one-man-one-year-21-730-pages-ammon-shea/11337164

        and this

        “The Dehkhoda Dictionary…is the largest comprehensive Persian encyclopedic dictionary ever published, comprising 200 volumes. It is published by the Tehran University Press (UTP) under the supervision of the Dehkhoda Dictionary Institute. It was first published in 1931. It traces the historical development of the Persian language, providing a comprehensive resource to scholars and academic researchers, as well as describing usage in its many variations throughout the world…and currently contains 500,000 entries…according to the latest digital release of the dictionary by Tehran University Press (version 3.0)…”

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

    7. sfglossolalia

      Does English now have too much influence in technical and scientific publication? Yes.

      I understand that there may be resentment that English has the influence that it does, but doesn’t there have to be an agreed upon lingua franca in world as complex as technical and scientific publication? I’m thinking of all the research papers written on COVID by researchers all over the world in the last few years. What if they had each been written in their own native language and it was up to everyone else to accurately translate them in to their own native languages?

      1. rowlf

        ASD-STE100 (Simplified Technical English or STE, for short) is a controlled language for the preparation of technical documentation.

        English is the international language of science, technology and human relations. It is also the language of the aerospace and defense industry. However, it is not often the native language of the readers of technical documentation. Many readers have a limited knowledge of English. Complex sentence structure and the large number of meanings and synonyms that many English words have can cause confusion.

    2. Michael Fiorillo

      Dutch Harbor is the port for what is basically the most valuable and productive fishery in the country, as well.

      1. Bsn

        I have a brother that’s lived there for 30+ years. He’s let us “lowers” know that the fishing industry is tanking up there. Lots of Japanese fisheries are moving out. Salmon that used to be considered chum are now being sold as salmon. There is not a reliable fishing “industry” up there anymore.

    3. foghorn longhorn

      Maybe they should tow it on over to Fukushima and at least keep it all contained in one polluted area.

    1. juno mas

      Wow! That’s impressive video. I imagine the aerial shots are via drone and reveal the on-water flotilla experiencing the fireworks. (Zelensky will complain that all that explosive could have been sent to Ukraine.) In watching New Year celebrations around the world it’s important to know how far the site is below the Equator. It’s summer in Sydney. Winter where I live.

    1. The Rev Kev

      His courage and dedication will be sorely missed as he was an actual journalist and not just a stenographer. RIP.

    3. bwilli123

      In Ukraine, the US is dragging us towards war with Russia
      (John Pilger from May 2014)

      …”When Putin announced the withdrawal of Russian troops from the border, the Kiev junta’s defence secretary, Andriy Parubiy – a founding member of the fascist Svoboda party – boasted that attacks on “insurgents” would continue. In Orwellian style, propaganda in the west has inverted this to Moscow “trying to orchestrate conflict and provocation”, according to William Hague. His cynicism is matched by Obama’s grotesque congratulations to the coup junta on its “remarkable restraint” after the Odessa massacre. The junta, says Obama, is “duly elected”. As Henry Kissinger once said: “It is not a matter of what is true that counts, but what is perceived to be true.”
      In the US media the Odessa atrocity has been played down as “murky” and a “tragedy” in which “nationalists” (neo-Nazis) attacked “separatists” (people collecting signatures for a referendum on a federal Ukraine). Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal damned the victims – “Deadly Ukraine Fire Likely Sparked by Rebels, Government Says”. Propaganda in Germany has been pure cold war, with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung warning its readers of Russia’s “undeclared war”. For the Germans, it is a poignant irony that Putin is the only leader to condemn the rise of fascism in 21st-century Europe.”

      https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/13/ukraine-us-war-russia-john-pilger

      2. CA

        Thank you so much:

        https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/13/ukraine-us-war-russia-john-pilger

        May 13, 2014

        In Ukraine, the US is dragging us towards war with Russia
        Washington’s role in Ukraine, and its backing for the regime’s neo-Nazis, has huge implications for the rest of the world
        By John Pilger – Guardian

        https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/opinion/a-russia-scholars-views.html

        A Russia Scholar’s Views

        To the Editor:

        The Ukrainian crisis, the worst and most fateful of the 21st century, is the outcome of Washington’s 20-year bipartisan policy toward post-Soviet Russia, spearheaded by NATO’s eastward expansion. I have been arguing this since the early 1990s, long before Mr. Putin appeared on the scene.

        STEPHEN F. COHEN
        New York, March 7, 2014

      3. anahuna

        Echoing those thanks. Pilger’s voice loud and clear.

        A reminder of the days before the Guardian turned into a cheering section for Ukraine.

  16. griffen

    State of college football, is that at the highest Division I level or FBS division it is no longer possible to act as if these young “kids” do not play a violent sport where only the coach can make $9 to $10 million per year ( looking at your A lister hypocrite, Dabo Swinney ). The next level down is the FCS championship division, where the amateur status is more applicable (as it is in nearly all the non revenue sports, of which I know less). College football head coaches can go cry me a river but they get the bag if they win and they get the bag if they lose. And, they can be hypocrites in public life citing Bible verses on Twitter/X while being less than honest in their personal aspects, but they still get a bag of money from a desperate school ( see Hugh Freeze, now at Auburn ). Hypocrisy can be survived and embraced if you put enough butts in seats and mark more in the W column.

    Texas A&M is paying former coach Jimbo Fisher a monstrous amount of money to not coach at Texas A&M. Full stop; Fisher averaged about 7-8 wins per season, not good enough to stand with the Alabama and Georgia college teams. They also must pay their new head coach, but he gets lesser amount by comparison. And in my own yard since I must, a > 70 year old Mack Brown coaches at UNC for a nice sum of $5 million plus varied incentives. As once was said..”hello, you play to win the game”…

    Arguments can be had that a Nick Saban, or a Kirby Smart, are worth every cent as long as no shame tarnishes the brand ( ahem, Georgia has a few nicks in recent years ). I could offer up a post in 2024 to show how ridiculous that men’s college sports, chiefly football and basketball, are a study in contrast of how they exhibit the timeless trope, do as I say but just ignore what I do as a leader of young people.

    1. Joe Well

      Why do MLB and the NHL have minor leagues but not the NFL and NBA?

      I know football has its roots in college sports, but what about basketball?

      1. griffen

        The NBA actually has an almost minor league, called the G league. Undrafted players and those unable to stay on a full roster can be relegated or called up, I think. But it’s not exactly a minor league, only a few top level draft picks thus far have chosen that over a 1 to 2 year stint at Kentucky, Duke, Kansas…wherever it might be.

        Basketball has an odd history to it, to be fair. It was almost like a regional sport where cities like Cincinatti once hosted a team featuring an all timer in Oscar Robertson. The NCAA champion played second fiddle to an NIT champion for some time. Then there was the rampant fixing in the 50s and 60s, to start there.

        1. eg

          I submit that the fixing extended past the 50s and 60s and offer the ludicrous loss by a stacked UNLV team to Duke in 1991.

          1. griffen

            I believe we have a winner. The sports betting that continues to proliferate, and naturally with forward progress it is okay to embrace Las Vegas as a destination for professional sports and for amateur big time events like the final and ultimate PAC 12 football conference championship. The Super Bowl is on the agenda next.

            The seedy or unseemly past behind many titans of college sports is not broadly known or well covered. Speaking of UNLV, men’s coach Jerry Tarkanian had a suit against the NCAA and I believe he finally won it. The farce of the NCAA is a side topic I could also put to an original post.

      2. Benny Profane

        Basketball has experienced direct from high school to pro, but, problem these days is that the pros are so immense and strong that an 18 year old would be destroyed physically and made to cry with the well refined trash talk.

  17. magpie

    I guess the Guardian ‘linguistic justice’ article is meant to be taken seriously. Hmm. Seems like achieving The Justice will be an expensive affair. It will require robust PMC efforts. Oh, you didn’t choose to be born in an English-speaking country? Perhaps you can sue for a tax exemption. Even if Esperanto is a “neutral” language, and even though it would acquire the same exact practical problems at scale as any other language ever – ie, it has to be learned – this is implied to be preferable to the “dominant” languages like French or Spanish.

    So I’d say it’s obvious where the ideological roots of this modest proposal lie.

    I’ve had an Egyptian, a Punjabi and a Brazilian tell me that English is relatively straightforward to learn and compares favourably with other languages they know in terms of difficulty. This was not the answer I expected, but their answers were sincere. Then again, practicality isn’t the point, is it?

    1. schmoe

      As for English being easy to learn, it believe that is the point of modern English. From 1000-1100 what is now Britain had French, Old English, Old Norse and a smattering of Gaelic and Welsh speakers, so Old English was transformed into a language much easier to learn. Specifically, Old English’s case system (gendered nouns), which was carryover probably from German, was dropped. There are Youtube videos to see if German speakers can understand Old English given their similarities.

      When I was in Egypt a few years ago several people in the tourist industry said that English was easy and when I volunteered that I was trying to learn German, two of them said they tried but gave up because it was confusing.

      1. magpie

        Great point about the case system. Until I looked it up just now, I did not realize Arabic also has gendered nouns.

    2. Laura in So Cal

      That is my experience as well. I’ve worked with lots of people who are not native English speakers and they all stated that English was relatively easy to learn at the first or even second level. They did struggle with some of the idiosyncratic spelling, dual use words that depend on context, and colloquialisms or sayings that were sort of opaque, but those aren’t critical to basic communication.

      1. hk

        Heck, a lot of them are opaque to us, too, when we go to other English speaking regions, even within the same country…(my experience with Southernisms)

    3. vao

      With English, one can acquire enough vocabulary and grammar to hold day-to-day conversations, work in an English-speaking environment (once the technical terms are known), and read most written material.

      But going beyond that is hard.

      One stumbles on pronunciation and orthography — which seem increasingly arbitrary the more one gets in contact with linguistic features outside the bog-standard English one has studied and uses in the globalized work environment. Just think about English names (Reading? Cockburn? Worcestershire? No, they are not pronounced at all like one expects). Then there is literature. Everything is all right when dealing with, say Michael Crichton. Then one gets a work by William Golding — and it is necessary to read sentences twice because they appear to be so hard to parse (although Golding does not have the most difficult style). Then, when one is considered fluent in English, Scots, Australians, Irish and others lapse into speaking with their specific accents or dialects and one wishes there were English subtitles.

      Somehow, most people get stuck in a plateau. It is workable, fairly sizeable, largely enough for the usage they make of English, but it is objectively limited.

      1. eg

        Even for native speakers of English, encounters with unfamiliar words in written form can lead to embarrassment if forced to read them out loud. I speak from childhood experience where Thames and Colonel are concerned.

      2. hk

        Reading Shakespeare (or even KJV Bible) without being aware of linguistic changes from the Elizabethan/Jacobin periods can be, eh, entertaining as many high schoolers can attest….

        1. flora

          I remember being asked to read as a younster a passage from KJV Bible in Sunday School, and the embarrassment for being unable to pronounce half the pronouns correctly; I remember high school English class wherein we were required to read early 19th C Nathanial Hawthorn’s famous book The Scarlet Letter, and wondering why the heck our teacher was torturing us with reading a barely understandable book – both in language and social mores outlook – that seemed to have no relevance to us ‘moderns’.

          Some years later I realised the training in tackling the much earlier and near obsolete English language use, (mocked by us children and teenagers at the time), made reading earlier English language writen brilliant works accessible – we’d tackled it as children so tackling it again as adults wasn’t too intimidating. We’d been over the hurdles before.
          I credit Mrs. Brown making us tackle Hawthorn, when we were too young to appreciate the novel’s meaning and import, for my willingness several decades later to read Melville’s Moby Dick; it’s called the great American novel for good reason, imo.

  18. The Rev Kev

    “A nation for a continent – no thanks”

    Regretfully, I find little to argue with in this article. Like other western countries, we are being turned into a submissive client state. Our elites are selling us down the river and are prioritizing the whims and wants of Washington rather than local needs – and yet they want us to pay for all this. The irony is that in doing so and remaking our armed forces standardized to US doctrines, we end up with a weaker, less capable force that is only really good for supplying contracts to US arms manufacturers and will not be capable of bringing much to the table in case of war. On the other hand, they have made us a nuclear target for both China and Russia so there is that.

    1. Ben Joseph

      Internet, cellular service, and social media are space-age bread and circus. Not sure if it was directly intended to defeat voluntary simplicity, but it sure has.

      1. JP

        Voluntary Simplicity was defeated by the children of the 60’s having children of their own and needing to get a job and picket fence.

        Great paper by two guys who were well over 30 during the 60’s and 70’s. They were also in California near the epicenter of the psychedelic revolution. It is interesting that they never acknowledged the influence that abundant LSD had on the social change they were reporting.

        Near the end of the paper they make reference to the Briarpatch Network as a business that might typify the new paradigm. The Briarpatch is out of San Francisco and is still a going thing. I think they should have also referenced the Whole Earth Catalogue.

  20. Katniss Everdeen

    RE: Where Was the Israeli Military When Hamas Attacked? NYT. Scroll to the text.

    So, the legendary israeli military, stalwart defender of american “interests” in the “region,” turns out to be a fraud.

    How likely is it that the mighty american military, riven at the top with careerists only looking to cash in on their experience lobbying for the MIC, and increasingly beholden to the demands of social justice warriors who cannot conceive of a military actually being needed to defend anything, is a similar fraud?

    Pretty likely, I’d say. But I guess we’ll see…..lindsey graham and nikki haley are hot to “finish” Iran.

    1. NotTimothyGeithner

      We have too many generals, creating conditions where they have cachet to impress a board room but anonymity otherwise, hence no repercussions. The idea of fighting a real war is just someone else’s problem. This is why we went from calls for no fly zones everywhere to drying up. The Pentagon which makes absurd promises to impress politicos realized they wold be on the hook. It took time, mostly as the Pentagon realized their isn’t a way to bring up the planes necessary without the Russians reacting as the planes came up.

      The general who blamed soldiers for mold in on base housing at his base is a perfect example. He can’t even conceive of responsibility now that he is a general.

      The Israelis likely have a similar bloat, but I imagine knowing they are under US protection means they don’t need to plan either. The Israeli brass can focus on exports.

      1. Benny Profane

        Alexander Mecouris schooled me on this earlier this summer. We won WW2, with a much larger fighting force spread over two parts of the world, with four four star generals. Now we have 39 ( at the time of that YouTube). Lord knows how many we have added since the Tuberville logjam was broken.

        As per Israel, according to Scott Ritter, the IDF is filled with sub 24 year old fairly high ranking soldiers that are given these promotions with much less experience and time than most armies. I was reminded of our 21 year old sergeants mowing down anything that moves in Nam

        1. hk

          I don’t think that’s quite true: US army had a peculiar system of permanent vs temporary ranks for a long time, after all, and I am positive that there were more than 4 “temporary” four stars by 1944, even if they were still lower ranked on “permanent” basis. (For example, Marshall made “permanent” two stars on the day he became the chief of staff when he also became a “temporary” four star. He became a temporary five star when the rank was created in 1944 and that became his permanent rank after the war (he never held “permanent” 3 or 4 star ranks)

    2. CA

      https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/30/us/politics/pentagon-venture-capitalists.html

      December 30, 2023

      New Spin on a Revolving Door: Pentagon Officials Turned Venture Capitalists
      Retired officers and departing defense officials are flocking to investment firms that are pushing the government to provide more money to defense-technology startups.
      By Eric Lipton

      When Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and other top officials assembled for an event this month at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, they walked into a lesson in how the high-stakes world of Pentagon lobbying is being altered by the rise of defense technology startups.

      Inside, at this elite gathering near Los Angeles of senior leaders from government and the arms industry, was a rapidly growing group of participants: former Pentagon officials and military officers who have joined venture capital firms and are trying to use their connections in Washington to cash in on the potential to sell a new generation of weapons.

      They represent a new path through the revolving door that has always connected the Defense Department and the military contracting business….

  21. Screwball

    Scoop: Biden in “frustrating” call told Bibi to solve Palestinian tax revenue issue- Axios

    Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think Biden has the ability to negotiate anything. Besides, I don’t think he tells Bibi what to do. It’s more likely the other way around. This looks to me like a typical Axios article putting lipstick on another democratic pig.

    ****
    DOJ torched after prosecutors announce Sam Bankman-Fried will not face trial on illegal political donations FOX. You don’t say.

    FTA (bold mine):

    “Given that practical reality, and the strong public interest in a prompt resolution of this matter, the Government intends to proceed to sentencing on the counts for which the defendant was convicted at trial,” the prosecutors added.

    I’ve read a couple articles that say the same thing – public interest in prompt resolution. Who’s the public we are talking about here? Sure as hell ain’t people like me. Not a lawyer, but it looks like this “public interest” loophole (just made up?) is another way to legalize bribery.

    We are living in a banana republic

    ***
    Oh, and where is the Epstein list they promised to release a week or so ago?

    1. ChrisFromGA

      “Public interest” is just a fig leaf for prosecutorial discretion.

      Of course, the DoJ ought to go after SBF or better yet, flip him to get indictments for bribery given the donations were not all clawed back from politicians.

      However, they won’t because it probably leads to many powerful individuals in the Democratic party, which controls the DoJ.

      1. Karl

        …it probably leads to many powerful individuals in the Democratic party

        Maybe also Republicans, regulators in the Bahamas, The City of London, the Tory Party…. Who knows? As with Epstein, speculation will be rampant. The most important “public interest” here–the public’s trust in their government–definitely is NOT being served by this decision.

    2. Kouros

      To me, it seems that Israelis are trying to provoke the population in Western Bank (see also the recent bank robberies carried there by IDF and settlers) so that they will have a reason to do the same thing in the West Bank they are doing it in Gaza, and push the population in Jordan.

    3. NotTimothyGeithner

      I feel like its a White House plant. See our boy Biden trying to corral the evil Netanyahu. Maybe, Biden can even get a win of sorts on this in the mind of Neera Tanden.

      The White House hive mind has probably realized the prime time address didn’t make Biden look presidential. They need to make him look like he’s not a genocidal freak.

      1. Amfortas the Hippie

        stumblin joe just texted me again…wants $25.
        me:”i’m broke, you monster.. and i remain unrepresented.
        my flag has a middle finger on it. go sniff a child, or something, and leave me be”

        aside from the slight hardon i get from texting a proxy for power thusly…its also a probe…a test to see if anyone is listening…even ai.
        when fbi arrives, i’ll attempt to send up a flag, so yall know that someone/something is, indeed, listening.

        1. chris

          Is it just Ol’Joe asking for your help? If so, consider yourself lucky. I get texts from Mr. Newsome, Ms. Pelosi, the Democrats, Bernie, Chuck Schumer, and the DNC! Doesn’t matter how many nasty responses I send them or how many times I hit unsubscribe. The number changes and they blast me again.

    1. juno mas

      I can agree that reducing the “returned energy” (Kwh) price drop by the CPUC messes with the incentives for installing rooftop solar (PV) panels. The original incentive price induced quite a few homeowners in CA to partake. More rooftop solar (w/battery backup) is a good thing. However, the program needed fine-tuning (closer regulation) as some of the solar panels are being placed on NORTH sloping roofs with minimal solar exposure. I’ve overheard homeowner conversations that the solar rebate, and the home resale “improvement” was too good to pass up.

      The CPUC is wielding another broad brush in its attempt to encourage low-income homeowners to partake. With the average cost of home sales around $800k, there will be few low-income homeowners. Ownership is a stretch even for the middle-class.

      1. NYMutza

        I’ve heard that the switch to all-electric homes add $50K to the price of a house. At least in California. Rooftop solar is a scam as will be evident within a decade.

  23. Carolinian

    Re Pro Publica, the Imperial Valley and water is for fighting–a search does suggest some pushback against the public/private grift of agricultural water rights.

    https://blog.ucsusa.org/amanda-fencl/ca-legislature-could-make-overdue-changes-to-water-rights/

    And here’s a legal summary of Western states water law. It all seems to revolve around judgments about “beneficial use.” Is growing hay for Saudi Arabia and Korea such a use?

    https://corporate.findlaw.com/business-operations/water-rights-law-prior-appropriation.html

  24. Carolinian

    For clarity one more water link. Apparently the federal government does have the power to override state first come first serve water rights as established by individual states.

    https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/calmatters/us-unveils-options-for-cutting-californias-colorado-river-water-calmatters/103-76a953ce-390b-492d-90e5-1939822c2646

    Another option would override the historically bulletproof rights held by the Imperial Valley. In that option, the cuts in allocations “would be distributed in the same percentage” across the three states. It includes “progressively larger additional shortages as Lake Mead’s elevation declines” and “larger Lower Basin shortages in 2025 and 2026 as compared with 2024.” Under that option, California would be hurt the most and have to give up the most water.

    So re those water (and money) greedy hay farmers–“that which cannot continue will not”? Cue Mencken on the “honorable husbandman.”

    1. LifelongLib

      My off-the-top-of-my-head reaction is that science can tell me how far it is to Alpha Centauri, but when we’re talking about why I should care we’re no longer in the realm of Science. There may indeed be good reasons but they aren’t scientific ones. Science is far from the whole of Reason and shouldn’t be expected to carry that load.

  27. Tom Stone

    For those not aware, the Anti Defamation League is the largest and most influential US Police training organization.
    The response to “Occupy” was straight out of the Israeli playbook, and the Ferguson Mo Sheriff’s Dept is one of hundreds of LEO agencies trained by the ADL.
    I expect the Censorship Industrial Complex, the Propaganda network and the various enforcement agencies ( Including the Public/Private Partnerships) will be doubling down on keeping the rabble in line.
    I also expect at least one terrorist attack will be allowed to happen as a means of “Justifying” emergency measures to “Protect the Children”.
    It’s going to be an interesting year, for the survivors.
    I’m very glad that Yves made it out in time, it’s going to get very rough indeed for those who question the official narrative.

    1. chris

      That would be something if the people in charge decided criticism from Yves and others was too much to bear. That vanishing their content was no longer enough. I suppose B over at MofA, Patrick Lawrence, Scott Ritter, and Tucker Carlson, would also be on the list of officially unpersoned people who need to be made an example of to keep us in line. What would the reactions of our allies be, I wonder?

      Trudeau and his Canadian Reich would no doubt wonder what took us so long. I feel like Germany would be politely horrified, almost in the opposite fashion to the reaction they gave Trump when he warned them about relying on Russian energy too much. Maybe Russia and the rest of the world would call us out for shedding any pretense of liberty.

      However, I don’t think it will come to that. These people by and large don’t read what they don’t like. De-monetizing a platform or vanishing content will probably remain the preferred tools to handle troublesome writers. I keep hearing the words of Lex Luthor whenever this topic comes up: “Freedom of the press is a wonderful thing, as long as no one is listening.” Frank Miller may be a racist crank but I think his portrait of a totalitarian US is well drawn. And in this world, we won’t have Batman or Superman to save us.

      On the fictional front, since we’re in the same time period where androids begin to dream of electric sheep, I wonder if PKD could have imagined that we’d let a virus turn so many into chicken heads?

  28. CA

    A timeline from the paper submitted to and published by the New England Journal of Medicine:

    https://www.nejm.org/na101/home/literatum/publisher/mms/journals/content/nejm/2020/nejm_2020.382.issue-13/nejmoa2001316/20200320/images/img_xlarge/nejmoa2001316_f1.jpeg

    January 29, 2020

    Onset of Illness among the First 425 Confirmed Cases of Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)–Infected Pneumonia (NCIP) in Wuhan, China.

    The decline in incidence after January 8 is likely to be due to delays in diagnosis and laboratory confirmation. China CDC denotes Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, NHC National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China, PCR polymerase chain reaction, WHC Wuhan Health Commission, and WHO World Health Organization.

  30. southern appalachian

    Thanks for the links “Voluntary simplicity Duane Elgin and Arnold Mitchell, Co-Evolutionary Quarterly. 1977, still germane”

  31. John k

    This site is a lush oasis in the barren msm desert. May it, and it’s commentariat, enjoy a happy, healthy, and peaceful new year in 2024.

  32. Jason Boxman

    Hospital infection control and minimizers are degenerates; the level of virus circulating can’t be reconciled with their beloved fomite or droplet transmission fetishes. It just makes no sense. The evidence of airborne transmission is overwhelming at this point. To suggest otherwise is lunacy or idiocy and ought to require the highest burden of proof.

    1. Tom Stone

      I suspect that many in the Medical profession are suffering from cognitive dissonance to a very painful extent.
      The betrayal of trust by America’s “Public Health” experts is inconcievable to them, just as the fact that Men and Women have the same number of ribs is inconcievable to Biblical literalists.
      It is ( Or can be) a Noble Profession, “First do no Harm” is a spiritual principle that most Dr’s and Nurses I have met honor, consciously or not.
      That has been true for thousands of years.
      The field of Medicine is Hierarchical,, “DOCTOR knows best” because in emergency situations questioning authority means more deaths.
      When the Authority in question is competent and has integrity that works well, when it isn’t, WASS.
      Some people will insist that the “Vaccines” are safe and effective no matter what they see with their own eyes because it is too Psychically painful to admit what is happening.
      Denying obvious facts and lying to yourself about what is a life or death situation is stressful, and that stress is often expressed as rage.
      It’s going to be an interesting year or two, especially when the lies about Covid being “Like the ‘Flu” end with “Bring out your dead”.
      Which is only a matter of time because it’s a freaking Corona Virus with Billions of hosts.

  33. Pat

    Oh goody America will be infecting the UK again.

    Dr Who and Sherlock meet The West Wing
    To make it simple Steven Moffatt has told The Times he wants to adapt The West Wing for Britain. Moffatt was a prominent show runner of Dr Who and is co-creator of Sherlock. I suppose my only question is how often he has had Covid and could it be effecting his brain function.

    1. Carolinian

      I saw that on Deadline. No offense to fans but I really hated Sherlock and so it seems like a good fit. BTW I did finally see A Haunting in Venice and thought it was better than Death on the Nile at least. Branagh seems to see himself as a cinema whiz so the direction is rather fancy.

  34. Kouros

    The little clip with the Sun and planets moving through space. And then extrapolate that to the move associated with the rotation within the Orion arm of the Milky Way around the center of the galaxy.

    First time I tried to envision that was the last time I cared for time travelling SciFi movies/stories. Add to that the ireversibility of biological processes…

  35. Jeff W

    I hate New Year’s Eve – there, I’ve said it The Telegraph

    I won’t say I hate New Year’s Eve but, over the years, I’ve come to think of it as the night of anti-climax.

    You wait around the whole time—if you’re on the West Coast of the US, you get to see replays of almost everyone else’s New Year’s Eves celebrations from around the globe—that’s some kind of advantage, I guess. At one minute to midnight, you watch “the ball drop”—that, in itself, is a replay of the events in New York three hours earlier—and count down the last few seconds, cheer “Happy New Year” and clink some plastic champagne flutes with whoever’s nearby and—well, that’s it. There’s nothing really wrong with it but it seems like a lot of buildup for not much. (Then again, any celebration of one more revolution around the sun inevitably boils down to one instant, whether it’s on the night of the 31st of December or any other time, say, the morning of the summer solstice—which, come to think of it, might be sidereal time but anyway—so maybe there’s no getting around it.)

  36. Jason Boxman

    While the AI doomers are definitely insane, I do think there’s a risk in “deepfakes” as an approach to fool people into engaging in whatever activity an attacker intends. It’s certainly useful for propaganda; look at all the recycled photos used on Twitter to claim this or that party engaged in some attack in Syria, or Ukraine, or Israel; if a locally run LLM generates a photo or video of carnage, there’s no way of determining this unlike recycled photos. Granted, photoshopping has been around forever. But these are ostensibly more realistic, and can be generated rapidly, on-the-fly almost. I don’t know if that’s starting a nuclear war, probably not, but you could possibly panic. With large language models, the prospect of using it as part of a social engineering attack are certainly plausible. But self aware it is not.

  38. Jabura Basaidai

    would be nice to be able to get those tests that Saruul Erdene showed in her twitter post – says she got them in Mongolia for $1.50 equivalent and available all over Asia –

    1. chris

      I do appreciate the basic and content full nature of the commentariat and the posts… but sometimes I wish Yves and Lambert would give us emoji. The only response worthy of what I see in those posts is a head banging against a wall until it bleeds.

  39. chris

    Wow. Simon Tisdale at the Guardian rang in the new year with crazy. His predictions, to save you the time of reading the article:

    Prediction: Biden wins the popular vote, Trump the electoral college – which means Trump gets a second term.

    Prediction: Xi is stripped of some or all of his powers in an internal Communist party revolt.

    Prediction: this global vote-fest will see further advances for authoritarian and populist-nationalist far right leaders.

    I expect zero reflection or discussion of his predictions when 2024 closes. I wonder what the popular vote means in a time when people aren’t allowed to vote in the US? I wonder what is the basis of him suggesting Xi is unpopular with the party or his country? And why, just why, are far right or populist leaders winning the votes? It appears the people who brought us all the wrong in 2023 are already hard at work to pollute their daily rags with even less reality in 2024.

      1. John k

        I can’t imagine hardly anybody I would like winning any major election in this country. Or even getting a major party’s nom.

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