Learning to live with musk oxen High Country News
Diaper Spa in NH catering to adults with trauma, raises eyebrows, concerns WHDH
America Hasn’t Seen Syphilis Numbers This High Since 1950 MedPage Today
Differential peripheral immune signatures elicited by vegan versus ketogenic diets in humans Nature
Why did NIH abruptly halt research on the harms of cell phone radiation? The Hill
Climate/Environment
Climate change drives migratory range shift via individual plasticity in shearwaters PNAS
Abbott’s Border Standoff Fueled by a Climate Crisis He Helped to Create Texas Observer
Chile: Emergency State and 22 Dead Due Forest Fires Telesur
Could a Giant Parasol in Outer Space Help Solve the Climate Crisis? New York Times. What could go wrong?
Toxic Train Bombs
Rail safety legislation still stalled one year after East Palestine disaster WLBT3
#COVID-19
What Works and For Whom? Effectiveness and Efficiency of School Capital Investments Across The U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research. From the abstract: “Spending on basic infrastructure (such as HVAC) or on the removal of pollutants raises test scores but not house prices; conversely, spending on athletic facilities raises house prices but not test scores.”
India
US Drone Sale to India Unblocked Only After Key Senator Extracts Pledge on Pannun Plot Probe The Wire
Building Blocks of a Digital Caste Panopticon: Everyday Brahminical Policing in India Logic
Japan
Teachers on leave for mental illness in Japan hit record high Kyodo News. “…an increased workload amid the COVID-19 pandemic cited as a possible factor.”
China?
Chinese billionaire’s carmaker adds satellites in Musk territory Business Times
Why China needs to mind the earnings gap South China Morning Post
China Labour Bulletin Strike Map data analysis: 2023 year in review for workers’ rights China Labour Bulletin
Syraqistan
US, UK launch new strikes against Houthis in Yemen Anadolu Agency
Yemenis ditch UAE–Saudi coalition for Gaza The Cradle. The deck: “The Gaza war and renewed US–UK strikes on Yemen are shattering what remains of the UAE–Saudi-led coalition. Now Yemenis of all stripes are flocking to embrace the Sanaa government and its resistance stance.”
Red Sea attacks force firms to test new land routes via UAE, Saudi Bloomberg
Lord Cameron ‘sympathetic’ to making surprise diplomatic move to fix Red Sea Houthi crisis Express. Somaliland, “a potential location to base UK and US warships.”
***
ISIS exploits US strikes to attack Iraqi forces in Anbar The Cradle. The deck: “The US has used the nearby Al-Tanf base in Syria to train ISIS forces in the past.”
Iran Qualifies as ‘Strategic Error’ US Attacks on Iraq and Syria Telesur
Ending The U.S. Presence In Middle East Moon of Alabama
***
Poison gas new Israeli weapon threatening lives of captives in Gaza The Cradle
Sources to Al Mayadeen: Egypt to not allow Israelis to invade Rafah Al Mayadeen
Western Officials Warn of War-Crimes Complicity Consortium News
***
Pakistan’s Imran Khan, wife now get 7 years jail for marriage law violation Al Jazeera
The US Toppling of Imran Khan Jeffrey Sachs
Old Blighty
The Tip of the American Spear? How the United Kingdom Could Pursue Military Specialization War on the Rocks
Mechanical issue prevents HMS Queen Elizabeth from sailing on NATO exercise Navy Lookout
Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill elected first ever nationalist First Minister of Northern Ireland Irish Times
European Disunion
Trump-Proofing Europe Foreign Affairs. Understandable that it took five authors to construct the alternate reality in this piece, e.g., “over the last few years, the world has seen a glimpse of a stronger Europe.”
Germany’s dream of 15 million electric vehicles is fading away Business Times
New Not-So-Cold War
ICJ Delivers Preliminary Objections Judgment in the Ukraine v. Russia Genocide Case, Ukraine Loses on the Most Important Aspects EJIL: Talk! Commentary:
Media done its best to bury the ruling, not only by ignoring it, but completely distorting and inverting its substance. Common spin was ICJ can now consider “part” of the genocide case against Russia. What’s not stated is this “part” is whether *Kiev* itself committed genocide. pic.twitter.com/6pYU16Kala
— Kit Klarenberg (@KitKlarenberg) February 2, 2024
***
15 killed in attack on bakery in Ukraine: Russia Anadolu Agency
US P-8 Poseidon ‘Key Suspect’ Behind Sinking Of Russian Ivanovets Warship By Guiding Ukrainian Naval Drones? EurAsian Times
Kremlin comments on Nuland’s latest Kiev trip RT
Ukraine’s Leadership Soap Opera Continues to Boil Larry Johnson
***
By me, @HenryJFoy and @lauramdubois: the big idea being talked about in G7 on seizing Russian assets has come out of Belgium. Give money to Ukraine now, bill Russia and — if they don’t pay — seize the assets.
— Chris Cook (@xtophercook) February 3, 2024
Imperial Collapse Watch
The Gaza Method The Ninth Wave. The deck: ‘The West’s evolving blueprint for controlling a poly-crisis world by mass-murdering and subjugating the poor, the rebellious, and those deemed “superfluous.”’
The Three Strands to the ‘Swarming of Biden’ Alastair Crooke
America’s displacement anxiety and the decade of living dangerously Warwick Powell, Pearls & Irritations
Congress poised to cede more foreign weapons oversight. Why? Responsible Statecraft
Does The White House Have A Drug Problem? The Deep Dive
South of the Border
Self-described ‘world’s coolest dictator’ heads for reelection in El Salvador SEMAFOR
Democrats en déshabillé
Democrats Are Demented Genocidal War Sluts Caitlin Johnstone
GOP Clown Car
Former Trump adviser: Republicans will pass a military-only Ukraine aid bill SEMAFOR
Ron DeSantis has been dreaming of complete military power for three years. Florida lawmakers may finally give it to him. Seeking Rents
2024
AI
Unlearning Machines New Left Review
Healthcare?
Your Money or Your Life HEALTH CARE un-covered
Antitrust
The Dirty Business of Clean Blood BIG by Matt Stoller
Hungry for profits SOMO. The deck: “How monopoly power tripled the profits of global agricultural commodity traders in the last three years.”
Police State Watch
Prisoners in the US are part of a hidden workforce linked to hundreds of popular food brands AP
A Wave of States Reduce “Death by Incarceration” for Young Adults BOLTS Mag
Guillotine Watch
Ad firm Publicis, drugmaker Hikma settle US opioid cases for $500 million Reuters
Justice Department Secures Agreement with Pennsylvania Courts to Resolve Lawsuit Concerning Discrimination Against People with Opioid Use Disorder US DOJ (press release)
The Bezzle
How bad is Tesla’s hazardous waste problem in California? The Verge
Over 2 percent of the US’s electricity generation now goes to bitcoin ars Technica
Our Famously Free Press
Easily one of the more unhinged Thomas Friedman NYT column…
He decided to “understand the Middle East through the animal kingdom” (always a great idea to go compare peoples to animals in a context of genocide and dehumanization) and, surprise, surprise, the more noble animals… pic.twitter.com/jnl8lum2px
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) February 3, 2024
BREAKING: Tucker Carlson reportedly spotted in Moscow, Russia as speculation swirls that he will be interviewing Vladimir Putin.
Carlson said he previously planned on interviewing Putin until he found out the U.S. government was spying on him.
"The NSA broke into my signal… pic.twitter.com/MahlBIDEFa
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 3, 2024
Class Warfare
Lies, Damn Lies, and Economic Impact Reports Boondoggle
Getting Comfortable With Illegal Strikes How Things Work
The hidden political history of SF’s 1906 earthquake and fire—and what it means today 48 Hills
I Sing the Bioelectric Atmos
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
199 comments
Comments are closed.
GAZA CHORES
(melody borrowed from Blackbird by The Beatles)
Ten story building bombed last night
Rats chew people down there out of sight
Please don’t cry — the screams are irritating
And so are all the flies
Vultures search for people by daylight
Their soldiers shoot at anyone they see
Please don’t cry — if you stand there shaking
You will be no use to me
People die
Don’t ask why
It’s wrong or it’s right
That is not our fight
Save some lives
Please don’t cry
Say some prayers
To the morning light
Tag the bodies when you know you’re right
It’s hard to tell — you can see why
It’s a life — lots of people loved them
And will want to say goodbye
Lots of people loved them
And will want to say goodbye
Lots of people loved them
And will want to say goodbye
Reading your lyrics I could hear McCartney singing them, perfect cadence and flow which made the words perverse in a very Beatles kind of way. Well done.
“Poison gas new Israeli weapon threatening lives of captives in Gaza”
Please dear Lord, don’t let it be Zyklon B.
Fun fact, Zyklon was invented by a Jewish chemist
Assuming you’re referring to Fritz Haber, whose life might be described as a series of ironic events writ large.
The article claims it is carbon monoxide – deadly, but not exactly new.
CO is new as a weapon of war. I thought poison gas was a war crime.
The Nazis used it before they switched to Zyklon B, so even that isn’t exactly new.
https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1753977225832251417
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
This is an interesting study by Europe’s Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) that demonstrates that much like “the US is the world’s sole military superpower” (spending more on its military than the ten next highest spending countries combined), China is now “the world’s sole manufacturing superpower” (producing more than the nine next largest manufacturers combined).
The most interesting part of the study is the sheer speed at which it happened. As the authors put it: “China’s industrialisation is unprecedented. The last time the ‘king of the manufacturing hill’ got knocked off the throne was when the US surpassed the UK just before WW1. It took the US the better part of a century to rise to the top; the China-US switch took about 15 or 20 years. China’s industrialisation, in short, defies comparison.”
We often hear “US bombs, China builds” (or the “Belt and Road Initiative” vs the “Bomb and Ruin Initiative”), this shows it’s factually speaking their main respective characteristic: one is the world’s unequivocally largest machine of death and destruction, the other the world’s largest producer of everything we need in our daily lives. But as Biden put it in a 2022 speech we’re “in the battle between democracy and autocracy” and “the world is clearly choosing the side of peace”. And by “democracy” and “the side of peace”, believe it or not, he meant America.
That’s the study:
https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/china-worlds-sole-manufacturing-superpower-line-sketch-rise
https://cepr.org/sites/default/files/styles/flexible_wysiwyg/public/2024-01/baldwin17janfig1_0.png?itok=TJ4eMpqv
https://cepr.org/sites/default/files/styles/flexible_wysiwyg/public/2024-01/baldwin17janfig2_0.png?itok=zGASago_
10:02 PM · Feb 3, 2024
I would guess also that China is one of the world’s biggest weapons manufacturing superpowers. As we have seen in the Ukraine, unless you can produce the weapons that your army, navy & air force needs as well as the ammo it shoots, then you are not in the game.
The USA imperial class did their very best to deindustrialize the country and ship every blue collar job and many white collar jobs to China (and India) to maximally enrich themselves. In exchange they gave us the four horsemen of the apocalypse. So everybody wins, right?
Would China have manufacturized that fast without the help of the Western companies moving all production there?
Counterfactual conditional thinking is allowed on the day of rest. Unleash your speculative beast!
“Would China have manufacturized that fast without the help of the Western companies moving all production there?”
This actually never happened.
Possibly ask why, with all the Mexican manufacturing and manufacturing export increases since NAFTA bolstered trade, Mexican growth actually fell continually behind American growth and Mexico lagged the growth of almost every other country in Latin America.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=16NcB
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for Mexico as a percent of Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for United States & Exports of Goods and Services by Mexico as a percent of Gross Domestic Product, 1992-2022
(Indexed to 1992)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=16NcG
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for Mexico as a percent of Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for United States & Exports of Goods and Services by Mexico as a percent of Gross Domestic Product, 1992-2022
(Indexed to 1992)
An intriguing reply indeed.
You have any thoughts on why Mecico didn’t grow?
Also, addressing your comment about transferring blue collar jobs to China. China may well have advanced scientific and production capabilities in parallell with transfer of blue collar jobs from the West to China. A lot of plants have during the 90s been moved to China with staff reduction in the West as a consequence.
Many Chinese factories are just across the line in Tijuana. Don’t have access to data, but much of their activity is probably credited to China?
Along with good jobs exported, now 96% of the phosphate fertilizer the U.S. must have to grow food, and a quarter of the world’s grain exports are kept out of America by the Biden brain trust. Gee, wonder why food is so expensive?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/economy/2022/03/11/us-sanctions-russia-biden-order/7000099001/
“You have any thoughts on why Mexico didn’t grow?”
This is an important question. A significant answer is the relative lack since 1992 and NAFTA of domestic investment in Mexico:
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/weo-database/2023/October/weo-report?c=223,924,534,273,199,111,&s=NID_NGDP,NGSD_NGDP,&sy=2007&ey=2022&ssm=0&scsm=1&scc=0&ssd=1&ssc=0&sic=0&sort=country&ds=.&br=1
October 15, 2023
Total Investment & Gross National Savings as a percent of GDP for China, India and Mexico, 2007-2022
2022
China
Total Investment ( 44.8)
Gross National Savings ( 46.4)
India
Total Investment ( 32.8)
Gross National Savings ( 29.3)
Mexico
Total Investment ( 20.8)
Gross National Savings ( 19.6)
Devastating situation with the Mexican Peso from the late 1970’s to 1992, it went from 12.5 Pesos to the $, to 3,300 Pesos to the $.
This is the primary reason why there were so many immigrants who made their way up to El Norte.
A fascinating argument but highly contradictory to facts in other industries. The best supporting factors for it that I could offer is that if, as you suggest, the west did not support China’s rise, they certainly did nothing to prevent their own fall. We haven’t been able to throw around big steel for almost two decades now. That’s a problem as we seek to build new reactors and large things again.
I know from personal experience we in the US literally shipped the capacity to do such things to China and Korea. I also know from personal experience that Chinese engineering still isn’t the same as how we do things in the West. But they’re catching up quickly, while we continue to decline, so that distinction may not mean much anymore.
Please forgive me. I am not arguing, since I know too little. Simply setting down what I find in the data:
China became a member of the WTO in December 2001. George Bush placed a tariff on steel imports in March 2002 and the tariff stayed until December 2003 when the administration determined there was no further need.
Steel tariffs were imposed again in 2009, and so on…
China was exporting only about 4% of US steel consumption in 2019, and that was highly specialized.
Possibly US companies were and are responsible for China having a steel industry, but I can find no evidence that is so. China seems to me to have built a steel industry by and generally for itself.
Forgive me if I am wrong about all this, but I try to look to the data and set down what I find and understand.
The decline in iron and steel employment occurred with fairly stable production, and seems obviously to be the result of productivity increases:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1d3JL
January 30, 2018
Iron & Steel Goods Production and Employment, 1992-2023
(Indexed to 1992)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1fCVm
January 30, 2018
Iron & Steel Goods Production and Employment, 1988-2023
(Indexed to 1988)
China just passed 4 million domestic invention patents, of which more than 40% are high-value, but only a short while ago prominent American academics were telling students that the Chinese could not be technologically innovative.
High level theory, research and development publication shows 3 of the top 5 science publishing institutions to be Chinese, 7 of the top 10 to be Chinese and 11 of the top 20 institutions:
https://www.nature.com/nature-index/institution-outputs/generate/all/global/all
The Nature Index
1 September 2022 – 31 August 2023 *
Rank Institution ( Count) ( Share)
1 Chinese Academy of Sciences ( 7436) ( 2224)
2 Harvard University ( 3673) ( 1123)
3 Max Planck Society ( 2621) ( 655)
4 University of Science and Technology of China ( 1853) ( 638)
5 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences ( 3161) ( 634)
6 French National Centre for Scientific Research ( 4440) ( 617)
7 Nanjing University ( 1431) ( 599)
8 Peking University ( 2226) ( 587)
9 Tsinghua University ( 1827) ( 580)
10 Zhejiang University ( 1449) ( 549)
* Annual Tables highlight the most prolific institutions and countries in high-quality research publishing for the year
Wait! The Chinese invested heavily in research & development and educating their people while keeping educational standards high? Are they allowed to even do that?
Well, for a long time China was outside of the reach of the Western helping hand (IMF) due to US policies. So China actually got to develop the economy on basis of China’s own interest.
Neither India or Mexico was as lucky, they more or less were kept colonized by the international system of finance.
I can add a big of detail on that.In the electronics company I worked for we put our ‘hard tooling’ out west in the late 80’s
“The USA imperial class did their very best to deindustrialize the country and ship every blue collar job and many white collar jobs to China…”
This is importantly and deceptively incorrect.
The Chinese have been inventing and making stuff for centuries, as Cambridge’s Joseph Needham showed in a monumental 27 volume science and technology history of China. American production indexes continually increased through the decades when China was inventing and learning how to mass produce the stuff of modernity.
There was no shipping of jobs to China for the building of a comprehensive and advanced space exploration program. Rather America in April 2011 with the Wolf Amendment prohibited NASA from working on space exploration with the Chinese. Time has passed. Now simply look at Chinese accomplishments in space, and be duly impressed and likely startled.
I think we’ll all stipulate to your very good points about China’s capabilities and achievements.
And it must be purely a weird coincidence that at the same time our manufacturing base and unions have been gutted, most non-food products we buy are imported from some distant country, and many of them are stamped Made in China. We are all jumping to some crazy conclusion. Joke’s on us.
Notice that American manufacturing and industrial production indexes continually increased from 1980 until after 2007. What happened after 2007, was that American productivity, especially manufacturing productivity simply stopped increasing:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=lueE
January 15, 2018
Manufacturing Production Index and Industrial Production Index, 1980-2023
(Indexed to 1980)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=m2mB
January 30, 2018
Manufacturing Productivity, * 1988-2023
* Output per hour of all persons
(Indexed to 1988)
I’m finding your line of reasoning intriguing enough to post a question. Leaving aside the Socratic method, do you have an explanation for these incongruities you introduce, simple enough for an upper lower-class individual like myself to easily grasp?
Thanks.
This is an interesting observation. However, I do not believe it is inconsistent with US elites shifting to investments in China at the expense of investing in the US. There’s countless examples of this. (Teslas and Apple phones as some such examples)
I will grant you, it is surprising output in the US would not increase while this was going on. One would think it would be the less productive sectors of manufacturing that would be moved making the “average output per hour” of those remaining increase. However, there’s no reason to think that effect is enough to offset the other effects from reduced investment (See Boeing)
Given that new capital investment is a key determinant of productivity growth, it’s hard to see this as either a great mystery or somehow disconnected from the demonstrable heavy capital investments in China and elsewhere in Asia by American and European firms, or from the decisions by firms from Apple to Nike to outsource production altogether to firms with campuses in China.
The furniture industry of North Carolina wishes to have a brief word. Those jobs left in my native state starting in the late 1980s and 1990s. Also, textile manufactures rotated further away from the US. I live in area of South Carolina that was only able to revive after textiles departed with the BMW manufacturing plant off of I 85.
Manufacturing has a long history starting historically in the northeast states. Then they left and went further south of the Mason Dixon. Capital is transitory and it transitioned outside the country where labor costs were significantly reduced.
Also…General Electric is a key example of a once large industrial conglomerate that transitioned, mostly to it’s great expense and company shareholders, into a financial creature of the FIRE industry.
Please don’t discount the significant “contribution” that Jack Welch made to annihilate the profitable GE corporate into corpse, just to benefit himself and shareholders.
Let’s not overlook the machine tools that build those pieces of furniture.
I have a small shop that reflects that offshoring with many pro grade tools still sporting the “made in America” badge from the 90’s sitting along side Chinese made stationary and portable equipment from same tool companies from that period and current. Today I can’t think of any hand tools or small to mid-sized tools or machinery that’s being built in the US. Delta’s gone, Powermatic may have a few pieces still being built here, most is overseas. Oliver’s a rebadged import, etc..
I have a few Delta pieces from the early 00’s alongside the same machines from the 50’s (wood shapers, radial arm saws) and it’s clear that much of the refinements from the earlier pieces had been dropped in the later ones. My guess was price pressure from the pacific rim had forced them to cut out any extra touches that, IMO, make the earlier machines more of a pleasure to use.
My 4×8 CNC is US built but I c as nt hrlp notice how many are being imported and rebadged from overseas now and follows the same path as the previous mentioned tool market. Why buy domestic when you can get so much more from the import market?
Protecting markets are bad now and your right wing xenophobic to think otherwise in some circles. S’funny how the unions and left used to argue against free trade.
I don’t doubt automation has allowed the US to keep its productivity numbers up thru that offshoring transition from the 90’s to present. I’ve also seen whole markets, once produced locally when I was younger, now being almost solely produced overseas (try buying a drywall screw that’s not imported from Asia..).
Numbers on a page say one thing. Tools and materials I use on as daily basis say another.
Tim,
You are exactly right. I still have my old tools, all USA made. Hard to get repair parts for some. “Off-shored” ones do not feel the same and are usually less accurate.
Retired Carpenter
I find that some smaller companies that make niche products are still in the USA.
The companies may have moved from higher cost Southern California to Idaho or Nevada, but they are still USA based.
The volume/market may be too small to clone overseas, and the companies are able to command a higher price as a result, so a USA location works.
To judge from a recent visit to a big box store, China is also outsourcing as some consumer tools were marked “Made in Vietnam, finished in China”
I have a number of USA tools from the 1970’s and 1980’s. Plastic parts (sacrificial gears, levers) are an issue and the old USA manufacturers no longer stock them.
I have access to a USA made mill and tool room lathe, so I can fab some replacement parts on occasion, but I suspect I am very fortunate in that regard.
Perhaps you ought to change your handle to Mill Wright? One of my Uncles, (nearest in age to my father, who was himself by far the youngest) was one such, in of all places, Millinocket, Maine.
I have sold software to many Midwest, medium and large sized manufacturers for the last 30+ years including many supplying the big 3 auto manufacturers. (For a while I was worried that angry car workers would ‘key’ my Japanese car when I parked in their parking lots; luckily that never happened.) Almost every one of these companies moved their manufacturing to China (and some to Mexico) and I had the pleasure of watching their IT workers scramble madly to find new jobs. Yes, this is anecdotal but I guess that was all in my imagination?
And China will be ahead of the US in microchips within the next decade, the US does not understand that “scarcity is the mother of invention”. They are trying to create a scarcity of leading edge chip manufacturing ability in China through limiting such things as advanced lithography (ASML) machine exports to China. So China doubles down on research in the area and will end up surpassing the West.
Prior to the export limitations, Chinese companies were fine just importing the microchips and thus providing the revenue to Western suppliers to enable further research and development. Now those Western companies are having significant reductions in revenues while China invests more and more in replacing them.
A lot of the Chinese research is on leap-frogging current microchip technology, if they manage to do this then the whole area could look like the EV industry (the electric motor and battery technologies leap-frogged the internal combustion engine), with two-thirds of all chips produced by China using Chinese technology.
We cross posted that study as soon as CEPR put it on their site, two weeks ago:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/01/china-is-the-worlds-sole-manufacturing-superpower.html
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/01/china-is-the-worlds-sole-manufacturing-superpower.html
January 17, 2024
China Is the World’s Sole Manufacturing Superpower
Posted by Yves Smith
[ Thank you so much. ]
Excuse me, but unless you’re M. Bertrand lui-même, I think it would be more fair to him to post a link and a comment on his excellent post rather than a rote copy/paste…
Agree, and now that CA has come out hard on the no jobs shipped to China line, credibility is in question.
From November 2004:
Wal-Mart & China: A Joint Venture
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/secrets/wmchina.html
There is no doubt that China benefited from America’s outsourcing, but any smart manufacturer is also ultimately going to understand how the product functions and improve on that product. And China has made it a national priority to do just that.
Most Americans are late to this party, somehow thinking that China may soon pass America when by most practical measures, China’s industrial might and technical know how was passing America about when Obama got elected.
>>>Most Americans are late to this party, somehow thinking that China may soon pass America when by most practical measures, China’s industrial might and technical know how was passing America about when Obama got elected.
Like much else, the powers that be created a façade to hide this. (Hello, Hollywood) Just look at California in general and the San Francisco Bay Area in particular, or just go straight to the city of San Francisco itself. It is all a theme park using the remnants of the past to hide the ruins of today. There is hardly anything left of the manufacturing, shipping, coastal farming, finance, and increasingly education that the state used to have. I think even the fisheries are shadows. Certainly San Francisco’s are more of a tourist attraction.
It is Hollywood and the Techlords of Silicon Valley with tourism (See the homeless c****ing on the streets in San Francisco or the gigantic Skid Row of Los Angeles!) being third, and then there is the inland farming using whats left of the aquifer. We have masses of people here illegally driving down wages in construction and what is left of manufacturing, or being used as near slaves in the Central Valley. And the massive corruption and incompetence. Marvelous.
Aside from California, I do not have personal experience of this, but iterations of this must be true throughout the United States in the last forty years.
I believe there are still shreds of the old industries and knowledge still around as it is a big country. The country also spent over a century and a half building what was sent over to China to use and it is hard to destroy all of that. However, if we don’t start using what is left in the United States to rebuild in a modern iteration of the American System of 1787-1972, it will be over for us.
GDP numbers (eye-roll): remember, the USA and its supplicants count all that money owed by people to banks, to the healthcare system, etc. as “growth.”
Usary is still all to real among other things.
When the majority of “your” GDP is economic rents, it ceases to have any meaning in terms of productive capacity.
the legacy of bill clinton and tony blair,
https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/NAFTA-Factsheet_Mexico-Legacy_Oct-2019.pdf
“Under NAFTA, Mexico Missed Chance to Achieve European-level Living StandardsNAFTA supporters promised the deal would yield strong growth rates for Mexico. Yet, since 1994, Mexico’s real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita growth rate has been less than 1 percent. Mexico ranks 17th of 20 Latin American countries in growth of real GDP per person from 1994 to 2018. Had Mexico grown at the higher rate it did prior to 1980, it is estimated that Mexico would be close to European living standards.Income inequality has also remained a problem.
The richest 20 percent of Mexico’s population collect over half of the nation’s income while the poorest 20 percent earn just 5 percent. Despite the promises of NAFTA proponents, the nation’s income inequality index remains among the highest in the world.”
tariffs,
Tariffs and export taxes slow down the speed of capital: Tariffs and export taxes promote industrialization: Tariffs and export taxes promote food stability and local supply chains: Tariffs and export taxes are ecologically sound: Tariffs stabilize employment and communities.
tariffs do not cause depressions.
there has been no tariff related inflation.
tariffs raise wages.
tariffs give democratic control over trade.
tariffs reverse poverty caused by free trade.
tariffs protect the wealth of a nation.
tariffs promote research and development.
tariffs help labor create a high standard of living, its called a civil society.
tariffs do not blockade ports, otherwise where does all of that tariff money come from.
this is a work in progress.
All supported by Hudson’s America’s Protectionist Takeoff 1815-1914
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/10074353
“Lord Cameron ‘sympathetic’ to making surprise diplomatic move to fix Red Sea Houthi crisis”
I smell a deal. It says this-
‘The country has a coastline on the Horn of Africa of 531 miles close to the current problems with the Houthis in Yemen. It has a major port Berbera which is a key haven for shipping, a significant important export point for East Africa and a potential location to base UK and US warships.’
So the UK and their friends officially recognize Somaliland and in return they let the US and the UK turn that port into a major NATO Naval base with maybe a sublet to an Israeli spying post. Looks like this is a case of never letting a crisis go to waste.
And if they set up an runway they have easy access to the whole of Yemen. And the naval ships would not even need to leave port to hit anywhere in Yemen with a Tomahawk.
What if fuel bunkers are set up for that base and the Yemenis target them? The US/UK are having a hard time defending their own ships at sea but being in port means that that can’t maneuver and become fixed targets. And as they say, ‘Incoming fire has right of way.’
I wonder what the locals would think of that base firing at Yemen in support of Israel? Isn’t there a variety of armed groups around there? It might be easier to supply missiles to such groups than to Hamas or even Yemen.
This just looks like us doubling down and spread thinner.
Sounds like they are just setting up another missile target, in that case.
White House and drug problem.
The people in the White House and the critters and parasites on this carcass seem to be high on a lot of different high potent drugs: pure evil, own propaganda, stupidity, incompetence, bribes, pure evil (did I mention that?), foreign money, substances and everything else damaging your brains.
I don’t see marijuana on the list, the one drug that might chill our warmongering political class. Maybe we should put a hog-leg care package together.
It has to be listed somewhere because as soon as Biden got in, he sacked everybody in the White House that had admitted to using marijuana on their paperwork.
It’s kind of an odd article, based on an OIG report…ineligible WH staff or family members receiving prescriptions for Ambien and Provigil. Ground breaking to read, that they (this WH medical unit) did not prescribe a generic alternative, since that is what the peasantry must do ( opt for the lower price drug that is ). The article didn’t mention or cover the time under our current POTUS.
Trump’s and Biden’s administrations both probably needed the stimulants. It’s all “Land of Confusion” territory, at any rate. Who knew that Phil Collins and his co-writers was so prescient to write that?
When I read that the other day it struck me that the people who are charged with keeping Biden awake are having difficulties sleeping. Sounds like a very Guantanamo type of operation they are running over there.
Manufacturer’s warning. “Modafinil [aka Provigil] affects the central nervous system. This medication may impair your thinking or reactions. “
“Teachers on leave for mental illness in Japan hit record high” Kyodo News
This was a bizarre article.
First of all, the framing of mental health vs mental illness. I guess that is a cultural difference – in the USA a person taking leave for the reasons in the article wouldn’t necessarily be described as mentally ill.
Then, it takes a U-turn into stats on sexual assault charges against teachers. ???
Maybe something was lost in translation somewhere along the line.
At any rate, I get the impression that teachers were embattled there long before Covid.
Yemenis ditch UAE–Saudi coalition for Gaza The Cradle. The deck: “The Gaza war and renewed US–UK strikes on Yemen are shattering what remains of the UAE–Saudi-led coalition. Now Yemenis of all stripes are flocking to embrace the Sanaa government and its resistance stance.”
The article basically confirms what we already knew – public statements aside, the Saudis just wish Gaza would go away so that they could get back to cozying up to Israel.
That doesn’t seem consistent with making peace with Iran. Or the deal with Yemenis, either. No doubt us is pushing very hard to get a saudi-israel accord back on track, but looks to me saudi is already on the BRICS side.
But meanwhile imo things are changing. Before Oct 7 israel was seen as the dominant military in the levant, that’s not so clear now. And war with Hezbollah might be a mistake. The west is looking more and more like a paper tiger; if that doesn’t change soon a lot of the world will reevaluate their options.
ICJ rulings are meanwhile seriously damaging the west, which hardly looks to be on the right side of history.
The Saudis doubtless will hedge their bets, but the rapprochement with Iran can be reversed in a heartbeat.
Of course, it doesn’t matter whether Israel’s military is or isn’t dominant, as long as their American thug will jump in when bidden.
Of course, nobody cares about the ICJ.
“ISIS exploits US strikes to attack Iraqi forces in Anbar’
Well of course they do. Check out this tweet-
‘Daniel McAdams
@DanielLMcAdams
The Biden Administration just literally just blew up all the weapons of the Iraqi brigade that was fighting ISIS!
Let that sink in…’
https://twitter.com/DanielLMcAdams/status/1753554252608225592
And there have been cases where ISIS and the US have worked hand in glove and lots of unmarked helicopters flying around this region. As I have said before, if the US left Iraq and Syria, ISIS would be toast. They would have been wiped out several years ago but then the US grabbed al-Tanf and eastern Syria which gave the ISIS fighters a place of respite and to re-train.
US support for ISIS is an open secret.
What does anyone propose to do about it?
It does look likely that in our lifetimes Russia will ultimately kick Ukraine to the curb, and provide more assistance to Syrians. Iran will continue to provide assistance in the ME to anyone oposing occupation forces, and Arab monarchies and military dictatorship will take a clue from the Arab Street to see from where the wind is blowing and at least hold the door. China will provide strategic depth to all.
You seem to like quickies, eh?! Remember GW Bush with his Mission Accomplished?
I don’t care about “quickies” one way or the other. I care about winning.
The fundamental reason that there will be no successful insurgency in Ukraine is because the one thing all successful insurgencies have in common is a young population.
The median age in Ukraine is over 40, and that figure from before the war.
It’s just retconning to justify Russia’s miscalculations.
It should be noted that the phenomenon of whole countries with long-term aging demographics has become common only in recent times, and Ukraine might be the first one to undergo a hostile military occupation.
So it’s hard to say whether there could be a significant insurgency in a country with an aging population. The case has not yet really been tried.
For example, it might well turn out that a whole bunch of wifeless, childless, middle-aged men with a grudge can conduct a guerrilla war with skill, enthusiasm, and all of the requisite cruelty.
Middle-aged men may be enthusiastic but they won’t have the energy and stamina of young men in their late teens and 20s. And how many middle-aged men have neither wives or children?
Zeitgeist watch, America circa 2024. Apologies to followers and devotees of all things Swift…but the coverage is ridiculous. I look forward to one week ahead, when the SB is being played in Vegas ( gambling and vices…who cares now…not your NFL! ) and the boost of a Swift / Kelce sighting will hopefully be lessening…
Make it Stop ( set to “Shake it Off” from her iconic album, 1989 )..
I’m on TV everyday
America has zippo for brains
That’s what my publicists say
Yeah that’s what me people say…
I go out with a star player
He’s great and a two time champ
I’m hoping that we will stay…
Yeah I’m hoping that he’ll stay..
Make it Stop
Make it Stop
Make it Stop…
IMO the best games are always the championships, the superbowl is a great day to go skiing or something.
So let me get this straight. The West would like to issue loans to Ukraine against frozen Russian collateral and then present the Russians a demand for repayment which if refused would justify the seizure of said collateral ? Seize the money if you must but don’t insult everyone’s intelligence with such a childish scheme. Are non-western actors supposed to look at this laughable facsimile of legality and conclude that their holdings in Western financial institutions are safe, contrary to if Russian assets were just straight-up seized ?
I seriously doubt that it will stand in an International Court and the Russians have already said that they will fight this there. This might be a case where both Wall Street and The City will also fight this lunatic idea because if it goes ahead and stands, a helluva lot of money will be fleeing the west and seriously damaging both Wall Street and The City. They have been trying to find some sort of legal justification for stealing Russia’s money for two years now and they keep on coming up blank. If there had been a legal way, surely it would have been done by now.
Are you sure that capital from other countries will flee the West if the “zeez not freeze” the Russian assets? Most oligarchs believe that they are special and untouchable. Putin warned the Russian oligarcshs and see where they are now.
Is there any data on increased capital flight from EU due to the increased risks of zeezing not freezing? I am not an oligarch so I don’t think I am special so I would move my assets away as soon as Ursi-Korrupti started to talk about zeezing not freezing
If the US/EU go ahead with this idiot idea, then the choice is clear. If you have millions or billions invested in those places, are you really going to risk it by trusting people like Joe Biden and Ursula von der Leyen? Either is fully capable of seizing other country’s money or even seizing the money of individuals to make a point or to give a lesson to their country. If the bank you have your money in suddenly decided to seize and keep the money from a major customer, would you still keep your money there too?
The seizure of Russian assets, aka.open piracy is baked in the cake. It’s only a question of “when” and “how” not “if”.
USTs barely budged.
Stop kidding yourselves.
I’m not seeing how your response disputes what Rev said. No mention was made of currency change, just moving it out of US/West aligned banks.
Things are shifting, and not to the advantage of the US.
You don’t think investors would be seeking to ditch USD assets if they feared unilateral expropriation?
RU’s western-based central bank reserves, like darling Clementine, are lost and gone forever. I think RU understood this long ago but will nevertheless fight vigorously in the courts not in the hope of winning (RU will lose) but simply for the sake of maximizing bad publicity for the financial and legal credibility of Borrell’s Garden. The short-term impact will be near-zero (as you note correctly). The long-term impact will be incalculable.
“…open piracy…”: true, but one must admit that modern western piracy (using computers and lawfare) is far more elegant and pristine than the old-fashioned type of piracy (using more kinetic methods). Personally I prefer the dash of Sir Francis Drake and Blackbeard, but times change and tastes differ.
In practical terms, this whole discussion of what to do with RU’s reserves is a giant exercise in virtue signalling and will have zero impact on the UKR battlefield. The Fed/ECB can instantly create trillions of imperial units and credit them to UKR, if ordered to do so. The tricky bit is converting those digital units into actual tangible items (weapons, ammo, fuel) and training fit young men who are willing to use said items under lethal conditions for a dubious cause. Printing money is the easy part.
…from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The problem is, where to put it? The west’s securities have been the safest place for centuries, so holders will generally be reluctant to leave, but if you decide you must, what then? S America? Maybe China will be a beneficiary here, but to move the needle trillions would have to shift.
Certainly everybody might think of gold, but that move into the metal would drive it so high we’d all be digging. And even then, where to store it?
Maybe the multipolars will work this out someday.
Invest at home – hire the Chinese to build things for you and then maybe your own citizens will provide you with some form of profit?
…like say the Central Pacific railroad?
…mostly still in the same place as before, apart from a few particularly delusional idiots among them? I’m not sure what you mean by this.
I’m seeing some new commenters here and they’re freaking me out.
AI often has problems with logic. Remember when Mighty Mouse was being chased around the space station by the Master Cylinder? MM beat him by unplugging him from the wall. Good and simpler times.
Had a cat named Master Cylinder 30 years ago, MC for short.
Quite a few of them had assets freezed and zeezed. They thought that they were untouchable but then they woke up losing a yacht or two.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2023/04/14/inside-the-150-frozen-homes-yachts-and-jets-of-sanctioned-russian-oligarchs/
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/rep/releases/graham-first-transfer-of-seized-russian-oligarch-assets-good-news-for-american-taxpayer-ukrainian-people
Good luck enforcing any court or arbitrary ruling.
Theft is theft.The lipstick doesn’t pretty it.
Theft presumes property rights.
Of course it’s theft. It doesn’t matter if nobody will enforce the law.
The sociopaths who run things could not care less about our clever word games, our tightly reasoned arguments or our close and careful readings of relevant texts. They care about power.
Actual collateral for these loans is not needed, only the illusion. These never to be paid back “loans” undoubtably will be packaged, securitized, etf’d, and made available to/risk dumped on mom and pop investors.
I’ll mention here that regarding the recent and much ballyhooed plus/minus 50 billion euro package for Ukraine, described as roughly one third grants/two thirds “loans”, I could find no mention of collateral whatsoever.
As usual the US Taxpayer will be left holding the bag after the banks and finance companies are made whole. What a deal!
I read more about that idea this weekend in a FT article.
From the sound of it, they’re going to kick the can down the road about worrying about the legality of it all.
It’s like issue the junk loans now, worry about collection later.
( insert infinite clown emjois)
But it really just keeps the war drums beating against Russia – if not about one thing, then another.
To what extent do these “assets” have any meaning in terms of control over actually existing molecules and joules?
It’s like arguing over the points on the scoreboard when the action is really on the field.
“Winning the war but losing the peace”
Not sure exactly what that means.
1). We could say Russia long ago lost the peace, roughly around 2014. Russia is at war and the West is just fine targeting her civilians which has been happening since 2014 and sponsored by the US and other Western nations, which often go unpunished. That is not peace.
2). Or as a second possibility does it mean that Russia could absorb too much territory and inherit a population hostile to her? That is possible, but intelligence in the Kremlin can avoid much/most of that situation. My guess is, the Kremlin will succeed in that.
3). A third meaning might be Russia will face elevated Western sponsored terrorism. She might.
It is the 1st item that Russia herself has helped bring about. By Russia’s too little too late response for about 10 yrs, the West has learned escalating and attacking Russia brings great dividends towards Western agenda of destroying Russia and killing her civilians and learned it will rarely be punished.
I’ve been saying for some time now, Russia needs to formulate a better policy to deal with Western aggression, and implement it shortly after winding down her military activity in Ukraine. I’m not sure what the answer is, Russia needs to make clear Western attacks on her will be met in kind. And she should probably follow her new policy with certainty and swiftly so the West can learn from it.
For example, what if after destroying Nordstream, Russia targeted US oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico? There are a lot of rigs in the Gulf so maybe that is a bad idea because it’s not even feasible, but the point is valid, also there may be civilians on the rigs. If that is not a good target, move to the next possible target. Avoid civilian deaths. There must be many pipelines flowing to US and Europe with no civilians present. Those might be legitimate targets.
Russia is probably militarily superior to the US. She has a right to defend herself. She should start doing so.
Don’t forget that Russia was in no position to have a full fledged war in the Ukraine back in 2014. It took the better part of a decade to make the Russian Army a capable field force, ramp up weapons production for what they would need and most important to make their economy as bullet-proof as possible for the coming sanctions. Just having to build an alternative to the SWIFT system took several years. And Scott Ritter is here to tell you that they won’t be inheriting a hostile population but people who believe that they are Russian in their hearts-
https://twitter.com/SputnikInt/status/1750874292953264459
No point attacking western infrastructure directly as that would put the Global Majority of countries off-side. As it is, the Russian Federation is bypassing and sidelining the US around the world which is making them go crazy in DC and all these attacks in the Middle East are an attempt to keep their place there. But have they got the ammo to keep this up the rest of the year?
I think the recent international court rulings are probably a huge kick in the pants wake up call for everyone not insane or delusional in our Bureaucracy. (Maybe for yours as well.) Even ten years ago neither one of those Courts would have ruled in this manner. They would have jumped at a technicality or used archaic rules to deny Russia a defense. America was not to be crossed. The only thing keeping the UN itself from out right giving the US (and Israel) the middle finger is the overworked US veto.
The well bought media may keep this quiet in the US and UK, maybe Australia. But Europe is blowing up, Africa can see what is happening and most of Asia has either picked Russia/China or working hard to stay on the sidelines. They have to know that they are next to be sacrificed to save those psychopaths at the top.
It is now a speeding train. even more of the US credibility is going to crumble after the Bidenites ill considered “revenge”. The problem rebuilding arms and weapons is not going to stay hidden for long, and the retaliation is going to be better thought out. Partly to expose the US weakness.
My only problem with all of this is the innocent lives lost from America playing War with real countries, and the world of hurt I see for the majority of the American people who have had little or no say in this. Not to mention the populace of the other countries who followed and enabled this insanity. Not thousands but millions upon millions.
And Russia’s military is designed to defend it’s borders and not to project power across the globe. It uses the eminently brilliant Lavrov to project Russia’s message of cooperation to those willing to listen. It is clear that China now recognizes the extensive air defense capability of the Russian Air Force and is taking notes, if not the actual technology.
I will agree that Russians need to drop their interest in Western culture and understand that the neocons are implacable.
Why bother with something so polluting as oil infrastructure when the real game would be undersea internet cables? Take out the lines between the US and Europe in several different places and then just sit back and watch the chaos ensue.
https://www.businessinsider.com/map-shows-extent-of-undersea-internet-cables-that-russians-could-cut-2017-12
“…Russia needs to make clear Western attacks on her will be met in kind.”
I have my doubts about this. Clear messaging requires a recipient capable of understanding the message and responding in a rational manner. I don’t see that the collective west is responding rationally to any of the challenges it currently faces. RU policy (as well as that of China) seems to be one of pursuing its own perceived interests whilst doing its utmost to avoid provoking the crazies in Washington and Brussels into doing anything overly stupid.
Your suggestion re oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico is exactly the sort of stunt that RU should avoid. (For now, anyway; if things get really hot, then all these seabed assets–especially the internet cables–will become juicy targets). Similarly, USA is now sending its jets over Syria to bomb sand. RU has AA missiles in Syria which could certainly take down several of those jets (imagine the screaming headlines on CNN if a B1 bomber went down!), but again: why bother? Nobody knows how Uncle Joe might react if he’s off his meds (and Victoria Nuland doesn’t look quite the ticket herself recently), so if the Yankees want to blow a few billion on a made-for-TV video stunt that does nothing to harm RU interests…..let them.
The USA has many internal problems on its plate and has a volatile election season approaching. As RU (or China or Iran), I would just sit and wait and mind my own business for now and see how the chips fall over the next few months. “Festina lente”: make haste slowly.
I would disagree with this strategy for another reason. And not just because that old adage that goes something like why get in the way of your opponent when they are destroying themselves makes so much sense.
The fastest way to stop growing public recognition that their government is doing deranged and dangerous things that will hurt the country is to give them a bigger better enemy. Right now more and more people are subconsciously and many even consciously realizing that it is the US that is trying to start WWIII. Without 9/11 we wouldn’t have spent almost two decades openly waging war in the Middle East, and the first half a decade the public pretty much supported it. Russia attacking any part of the US, including the Gulf, will set off fear, patriotism, anger and revenge all directed to the evil empire that attacked us. And America’s part in it will not even be considered.
Russia has to let the US keep shooting itself in the extremities.
The wars end would benefit Russia as it slowly shifts from a war economy. Imo a peaceful way to put more pressure on the west would be to reduce trade with unfriendlies, even squeezing indirect trade thru India etc. this would immediately affect eu. Russia would maintain existing contracts, but no need to extend as it continues shifting to row. Perhaps cutting off those nato countries that most aided ukrain while boosting trade to Central Asia and Eastern Europe.
The approaching atmospheric river now embarking on Cali’s shore will allow many rafting possibilities for those seeking Class 9 rapids on high. Remember, if you fall out of the raft-try and keep your feet up to avoid obstacles down below.
This storm has the potential to be rather epic, hurricane-like winds as far north as the bay area and inland, with a veritable shitlode of rain hitting the central coast and LA, along with damaging zephyrs up the ying yang.
“Class 9 rapids on high”…highways? Stay dry Wuk!
Deplaning out of a Boeing 737 Max 9 has never been easier, just make sure you are firmly placed in the raft, and you’re good to go.
Hydroplaning in a whole new way! nDon’t forget to safely stow your gear under the seat in front of you…
Where is that damn idiot with the wooden Ark at when you really need him? I guess that Noah* guy wasn’t all that crazy after all…or Gilgamesh depending on your choice of the flooding epic.
I’m busy lining up matched pairs of animals, and being in close proximity presently to the San Diego Zoo, I feel that we’ll have enough for the ride later today, that is if we can find an ark here.
Don’t have those animals lined up alphabetically whatever you do. You don’t want the ants next to the ant-eaters.
There was some consternation at the SD Zoo when I started going into the wildebeest enclosure, the very excitable zookeeper demanded at least a photo of my ark, and thinking quick I pulled up an image on Google with animals filing in. He also graciously gave me a week’s worth of food for Henrietta & Jake.
tsunami, Snake, tsunami!
https://youtu.be/a3HOCIXroqQ?si=QIh8_wQPzkDpFdY7
…the very high, turbulent winds and waves are striking Santa Barbara as I type. But the rain is NOT nearly as intense as indicated by the county emergency declarations. Seems like there will be more broken trees than flooded cars. YMMV.
aye. here in the nw texas hill country, we’ve had seriously high winds for 2 days…steady at 30 mph, gusting up to 55 or so.
for lil ol me, the steep pressure gradient(high and low close together) that causes these wind events is the weather that hurts my bones the most.
i hardly moved at all yesterday…and am forcing myself to move around the house, today.
last time yall in socal got an atmospheric river, we got a bunch of rain a week or less later…but so far my forecast says nothing.
i tossed 40# of rye across the road the other day, just before the rain came(1″)…so im not averse to more precip…but in moderation, please,lol.(rye is fodder for when i move all the birds over there in late march….an annual migration across the road,lol)
interestingly, Judah Cohen…one of my fave meteorologists…had in his long range forecast a week or more ago…that the southern tier of conus would be seeing another arctic blast mid-Feb…so ive been watching for that…and laying in more firewood in anticipation.
https://twitter.com/judah47
…Reply to self: 3.5 hours later and wind is now crazy wild and the rain is sideways. If this is as close to a hurricane I ever get, I’ll be thankful.
You guys keep yourselves safe where you are, OK? Time to batten down the hatches.
My husband is a golf fan … they cancelled Sunday play at the Pebble Beach Pro Am due to the weather in Cali. Rain alone isn’t usually too big of a deal. But coupled with winds gusting to 60 plus MPH, they had to shut it down. They’re saying they may not be able to play tomorrow either. Lucky golfers may get 4 days pay for 3 days ‘work’!
Regarding your last sentence. Receiving 4 days pay for 3 days of their labor, a competing league of highly compensated professionals say “yeah, hold our beer”. NBA players seemingly want the bag but not the required 82 game regular season schedule to earn that bag. Unbelievable, a seeming lack of awareness at work here. Sports injuries maybe need an exemption but a knee problem or lower leg injury is not that uncommon among tall professional athletes. Just ask Bill Walton.
Starting just a few years ago, the notion of “game management” or “load management” was on the fringes until it became wildly popular. Hey, sit out the game at ( by current example of a bad franchise) Detroit or maybe Charlotte so as not to risk being injured on the job. NBA executives got wise to the notion, ahem, star players being disappeared for 15 to 25 games every season and their media rights being “less than desirable”…The gall of someone today doing this to the game built and established long before their arrival on the scene. Bill Russell should return from the grave and punch a few of these punks in the face.
https://sports.yahoo.com/explaining-nbas-65-game-rule-030826797.html
Yeah disappointed on the golf tournament myself. Was hoping to see another run at scoring 59 today. I’ve scored a 59 plenty of times but unfortunately had plenty of golf left ( ha ha ) to go on the back nine.
I prefer the old pineapple express terminology. Also not keen on vegan leather (plastic) or vegan silk (rayon?).
Re: Justice Department Secures Agreement with Pennsylvania Courts to Resolve Lawsuit Concerning Discrimination Against People with Opioid Use Disorder
Having worked in Drug Courts, this issue is pretty complex and quite easily seen as big pharmas capture of the court system. A lot of drug treatment professionals have been sceptical of quasi-opiates used to treat opiate addiction, the classic example being methadone. These days Suboxone is what people push drug courts to accept. Because blind taste test studies have shown opiate addicts as identifying Suboxone as heroin, and it being found in plenty of DUI and OD cases, treatment providers are often sceptical that’s it’s safe and compatible with getting totally off opiates. Big lobbyist groups try to force it’s acceptance in Drug Court treatment programs but I remain conflicted and somewhat sceptical.
“Learning to live with musk oxen”
In reading this article, it really comes off as a hit piece and you wonder what the motives behind it are. And they seem to be using tribal Leaders and elders as justifies for this article’s slant. But if the Alaskan government announced that they were going to sell hunting licenses for $10,000 each that would enable that hunter the right to kill one musk oxen and take what they want for trophies, then “High Country news” would say that this was an excellent idea I’m sure. of course only wealthy hunters need apply which makes it exclusive.
Apparently the Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep population got whacked hard last year in the winter of record for 125+ years in the southern Sierra, there used to be around 600 of them, which was a great rebound from the lows of around 100 SNBS left many decades ago. The thinking is there are now 300 left, which ain’t no bueno.
The SNBS is quite the prize for a well heeled hunter, and hunting tags fetch about a quarter of million in auction for the right to bag one, and the moolah goes into moving some of the herd around to repopulate them in other areas of the Sierra Nevada.
I doubt they’ll be auctioning off tags for awhile, we don’t have the luxury of allowing 1 sheep to be killed for fun, its more of a survival situation now.
Dang, that is bad news indeed. I’m not a hunter – any wildlife shooting to be done involves a camera – and I’ve had the good fortune to see a small herd of them up fairly close when traveling in the Sierra.
Let’s hope the population recovers.
Re: “Unlearning Machines” from the NLR: Terrific quote:
“…this magic is overwhelmingly concentrated in the hands of a few often idiosyncratic people at the social apex of an unstable world power. It would obviously be foolhardy to entrust such people with the reified intelligence of humanity at large, but that is where we are.”
Of minor note:
I read the Tom Friedman column that Arnaud Bertrand highlighted.
One take-way, the famous Iraqi War “Friedman Unit” of time may have been redefined in this column.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_Unit
“The Friedman Unit, or simply Friedman, is a tongue-in-cheek neologism. One Friedman Unit is equal to six months, specifically the “next six months”, a period repeatedly declared by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman to be the most critical of the then-ongoing Iraq War even though such pronouncements extended back over two and a half years.”
In Friedman’s highlighted “Understanding the Middle East Through the Animal Kingdom” column, he writes
“My guess is that the next week or so is likely to be the most important in the Gaza war”
Have the world witnessed a drastic shrinking of the “Friedman Unit of time”?
Perhaps this is a birth of “Friedman Time Unit 2.0” as Friedman continues to propagate weekly columns declaring “the next week is likely the most important in the Gaza war”
Go Tom go, the world awaits your wisdom.
There may be no more fitting representation of the ruling class in America than Tom Friedman. Dumb, bloodthirsty, and mostly wrong on the facts; he aspires to what he imagines to be the intellectual level of the aristocracy, yet is quick to descend into ‘so what?’ and ‘what’re you gonna do about it?’ bully-territory. In his head, a warrior-scholar; in the eyes of the world, a rich, out-of-touch buffoon.
But I thought he was the “Mustache of Great Understanding.” Gee willikins, another idol swept from its perch.
I can’t imagine what it must be like to be mostly wrong about almost everything, but to nevertheless continuously proclaim it in tablet form from the top of the mountain. And to have a tribe following you, hanging on every word, looking for guidance on what to do about anything and everything. The burdens this man must have.
Exhibit A to Exhibit Z. Larry Summers, former US Treasury Secretary, former Harvard president, and still able to whisper to the world as a trained economist. Being wrong does not seem to harm his professional endeavors.
Summers is a punching bag and for so many good reasons. Very thankful that he never served a position for the Federal Reserve, to my knowledge, but his name pops up on occasion.
At one time I believed the 2003 Tom Friedman interview by Charlie Rose would permanently silence Friedman.
But that was more than 20 years ago and Friedman is still on the Times payroll.
Charlie Rose WAS disappeared, not due to his practice of softball suck-up journalism, but for sexual harassment.
Friedman justified that the USA was correct in invading and doing great harm to the citizens and country of Iraq.
From https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Backchannels/2013/0318/Thomas-Friedman-Iraq-war-booster
“The New York Times columnist broke down what the Iraq was really about for Charlie Rose on May 29, 2003.”
“Rose: “Now that the war is over and there’s some difficulty with the peace, was it worth doing?”
“Friedman: “I think it was unquestionably worth doing Charlie, and I think that looking back that I now certainly feel I understand what the war was about and it’s interesting to talk about it here in silicon valley…”
“And what we needed to do was to go over to that part of the world and burst that bubble. We needed to go over there basically uhm, and, uh, uhm take out a very big stick, right in the heart of that world and burst that bubble. And there was only one way to do it because part of that bubble said ‘we’ve got you’ this bubble is actually going to level the balance of power between us and you because we don’t care about life, we’re ready to sacrifice and all you care about is your stock options and your hummers. And what they needed to see was American boys and girls going house to house from Basra to Baghdad uhm, and basically saying which part of this sentence don’t you understand. You don’t think we care about our open society, you think this bubble fantasy we’re going to just let it go, well suck on this. Ok. That, Charlie, was what this war was about. We could have hit Saudi Arabia. It was part of that bubble. We could have hit Pakistan, We hit Iraq, because we could. And that’s the real truth. “
Well, we are blessed with a surfeit of these tall foreheads, are we not? In addition to Friedman I give you Frum, Brooks, and (Niall) Ferguson.
Our cup runneth over …
Can’t wait for Taibbi’s next entry in his continuing saga of Friedman’s follies.
As for animal kingdom analogues to human war-making, no one said it better than Yeats:
“Now days are dragon-ridden, the nightmare
Rides upon sleep: a drunken soldiery
Can leave the mother, murdered at her door,
To crawl in her own blood, and go scot-free;
The night can sweat with terror as before
We pieced our thoughts into philosophy,
And planned to bring the world under a rule,
Who are but weasels fighting in a hole.”
https://celt.ucc.ie/published/E910001-058/text001.html
https://www.libraryofsocialscience.com/newsletter/posts/2015/2015-03-06-hitler-lenin.html
Adolf Hitler: “The Jew was only and always a parasite in the body of other peoples….The Jews are a people under whose parasitism the whole of honest humanity is suffering” (in Mein Kampf).
Adolf Hitler: “The spider was slowly beginning to suck the blood out of the peoples pores…The Jew is a true blood sucker that attaches himself to the body of the unhappy people” (in Mein Kampf).
and for fun and giggles (twice over, because Stalin was the High Commisar with Personnel) this:
Vladimir Lenin: “The bureaucracy is a parasite on the body of society, a parasite which ‘chokes’ all its vital pores…The state is a parasitic organism” (in The State and Revolution: The Marxist Theory of the State and the Tasks of the Proletariat in the Revolution).
Illegal strikes–
Excellent article that was preaching to a choir member when it comes to me. Two things stuck out:
“There are some notable exceptions, yes, but in general, people who work at unions are not typically going to tell their members to go break the law.”
It’s been my personal experience as a youth in the DC labor bureaucracy that people who work at unions do not even want their members to know that the law is turning against them.
And the tendency toward bureaucratization is a strong one. When I used to go to Wob meetings, the office in Chicago proposed one year to buy an office building to improve the headquarters. This is an organization whose Preamble reads in the second sentence:
Owning property just makes you more susceptible to the government’s power to seize union property under Taft-Hartley, and things like wildcat strikes, a tactic so fundamental to IWW’s philosophy that SaboCat is the union’s symbol, are prohibited under that law as well. If you’re going to be a revolutionary, you don’t buy business properties (or use Facebook as a way to alert your members of activities).
But even among the Wobs, that urge was there. It’s tough to combat in such a capitalist society.
Finally, Staughton and Alice Lynd have been preaching this kind of solidarity unionism, practiced outside the bounds of Wagner and Taft-Hartley, as the way to go in these times.
“If you’re going to be a revolutionary, you don’t buy business properties (or use Facebook as a way to alert your members of activities)…”
Indeed.
I do not trust anyone who tells others that a corporate platform of any kind is going to host anything remotely “revolutionary.”
As a former union organizer I can say that many unions in the US, particularly the ones for lower paid workers, are highly dependent on hiring idealistic young staffers who are willing to work 60+ hours per week but who have little in common with the membership.
“15 killed in attack on bakery in Ukraine: Russia”
You can up that to 24 killed with 10 badly-injured rescued from the collapsed building. Why yes, it was a terrorist attack. The attack itself was timed when there were lots of people gathered around that bakery on a Saturday morning and the weapon used was probably a US-supplied HIMARS missile. Looks like the Ukrainians are learning from the best as the Israelis were also targeting bakeries in Gaza that had people gathered around them as well.
To be absolutely and mind-numbingly pedantic, neither what the Ukrainians did, nor what the Israelis are doing amounts to terrorism.
Because that’s what the international law says.
You see, there is an International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings which stipulates:
1) At article 3, that the convention does not apply when perpetrators, victims, and place of occurrence are all from the same State.
There start the controversies. For Ukraine, Donetsk is Ukrainian; for Russia, it is Russian. Similarly, Israel does not recognize a Palestinian State, while Palestinians argue that Gaza is part of a Palestinian State.
2) More crucially, article 19.2 unambiguously states that the convention does not apply to the activities of armed forces and military forces during an armed conflict.
So if soldiers or guerrilleros do it, it is not terrorism — but it may well be a war crime, for which there is a different convention.
In general, forget about “terrorism”. There is no internationally valid, legally binding generic definition for it (there were three unsuccessful attempts to elaborate one in the course of a century, starting with the League of Nations), only a series of conventions detailing specific “terrorist crimes”. And an army bombing civilians and civilian infrastructure is not one.
“How bad is Tesla’s hazardous waste problem in California?” The Verge
The EVs are just getting started.
And still there would be issues with the disposal of billions of gasoline powered vehicles.
Waste management.
It’s going to make a huge difference with whether or not Idiocracy becomes a documentary.
“America Hasn’t Seen Syphilis Numbers This High Since 1950”
Anybody else here think that it would be interesting to see a Venn diagram of those who wear masks in public and those who use condoms instead of riding bareback? Personally I would be very interested to see such a diagram to see if there is a correlation between the two groupings.
those who use condoms instead of riding bareback.. Been a while since I had to make that call.
This follows previous discussion about the need to wear motorcycle helmet, or perhaps not if your locality (city, county, state, what have you) does not enforce the safety of wearing a protective basket on your head. Freedom !!
So, Darwin award candidates can step right up! Here in my state of South Carolina, it is not required. I just know, speaking personally, I’d probably choose to wear a helmet if ever I see the need to own and operate a motorcycle.
I seem to recall a quip from an emergency room nurse that a motorcycle helmet is most useful if the wearer prefers an open casket.
Also, before helmets became mandatory in many/most states, some doctors referred to the vehicles as “donorcycles.”
As a keen motorcyclist myself, I’d have to agree if the helmet is paired with the regulation attire of shorts, flip flops and a t-shirt.
Each to their own, I suppose I’ll stick to wearing proper safety gear.
A philosophy that might extend to fun activities other than motorcycling a well.
Doctor’s note re rate of syphillis:
FDA issues warning letter about possible false syphilis result following a COVID-19 vaccine
https://www.hpnonline.com/infection-prevention/article/21250937/fda-issues-warning-letter-about-possible-false-syphilis-result-following-a-covid19-vaccine
Well, since you brought it up Rev….
In the early days of COVID when we didn’t know much about the virus, my wife was part of a data analysis project trying to create predictive models around the virus spread.
One of their discoveries was a positive correlation between COVID positivity and STD infection. And the data came from Florida of all places.
re: economic impact studies
Economists exaggerating the number of jobs in economic impact studies has been a rampant problem misleading the public for decades. Primary employment data are rarely collected. Direct jobs are exaggerated by counting indirect jobs (and even induced jobs) as direct jobs. National or state multipliers are wrongly applied to less diverse local economies. Net job growth rarely estimated. Slower job growth in the future is wrongly portrayed as jobs lost – when it is simply slower job growth. Garbage in garbage out.
Several years ago the Boulder Weekly did some excellent investigative reporting on the subject https://boulderweekly.com/opinion/transparency-lacking-in-leeds-schools-remi-report-on-2500-foot-setback-initiative/
Thanks for the musk ox piece. I had always thought they were a remnant population and didn’t realize that had been reintroduced to Alaska in recent decades. That their population is on the rise somewhat makes me feel a little better about my niece eating them.
She recently moved to Alaska to teach elementary school in a very small and remote community where supplies are hard to come by and there’s a lot of making do. One of the locals recently shot a musk ox and the meat was shared with everybody in the community. Based in what I’ve heard from her, I’d imagine that if resources weren’t shared like this, distributing food even to those who didn’t help directly in producing it, the community would be a lot smaller very quickly. From each according to their ability, and to each according to their need – whether you want to call that socialism is just basic human decency, it was nice it hear it’s still practiced freely somewhere.
Another world is possible.
I am confused by the ICJ news about UA v RF. The article in EJIL:Talk! It says the court accepted Ukraine’s reverse compliance claim, i.e. that it did not commit genocide in Eastern Ukraine, and then says that the court will decide if Ukraine committed genocide in Eastern Ukraine.
As I understand it, the argument of Ukraine can be reduced to this:
“Russia has defamed Ukraine by accusing it of genocide, and taken aggressive actions based on that slander. Please establish that Russia’s accusations are defamatory, and punish Russia for its unjustifiable actions”.
The reply of the court amounts to:
“Your argument has merit, and we will investigate whether Russia was right or wrong in accusing Ukraine of genocide — as this is the kind of dispute amongst states that we can decide. But even if that accusation is defamatory, we cannot punish Russia for its actions, as this is an aspect that lies outside the scope of the convention against genocide, and hence cannot be construed as a violation thereof”.
The 1981 massacre mentioned in the “world’s coolest dictator” piece must be
the El Mozote massacre, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Mozote_massacre.
Not to be missed: From earlier today: here Craig Murray definitively trashes two specimens of zionist propaganda, including the fake Oz-NSW anti-Jewish sloganeering fantasy.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2024/02/quality-and-propaganda/
Yeah, I read that. American MSM continues to out itself as narrative and propaganda.
From The Hill, 2023
California, New York in danger of seeing House delegations shrink further
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/california-new-york-in-danger-of-seeing-house-delegations-shrink-further/ar-AA1lTlZQ
Shrink further? They lost seat for the 2022 election?
From NYTimes 2021.
Which States Will Gain or Lose Seats in the Next Congress
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/26/us/politics/congress-house-seats-census.html
I guess there’s one way to raise headcounts quickly. The US census counts everyone, not just citizens, for purposes of assigning House seats and other govt support programs./ ;)
I’ve been thinking a bit about the Biden Administrations recent actions, they seem completely unconcerned about the upcoming election if the ongoing support for the slaughter in Gaza is any indication.
Since “Trump must be stopped at all costs” is the current Mantra, what does that actually mean?
The example of what happened to MOVE in Philadelphia back in the day comes to mind…
The current Administration has the full backing of the spooks in both the FBI and the CIA and it has shown no respect whatsoever for either International or Domestic law.
Abandoning Ukraine and providing the means Israel is using to murder Palestinians by the hundreds of Thousands or Millions is extremely provocative, I can easily envision a terrorist attack being allowed and then used as an excuse to “postpone” the election until the emergency has passed.
Given the efficiency of America’s surveillance state ( Total Information awareness has arrived) I don’t believe any group can maintain operational security if it involves more than three individuals, and three is pushing it.
The spooks are arrogant enough to believe that they can control chaos, after all they have TIA and Fusion Centers and Warrior Cops and the Military and censorship and propaganda tools that were only dreamed of by the STASI…and they are the smartest and coolest Human beings who have ever existed.
They have Joe’s back and everything is under control, no worries.
Homemade sign on overpass:
U.S. out of my uterus and the Middle East
Nothing would surprise me anymore. We are under the thumb of crazed lunatics.
From the link above, and what I see via social media, Tucker Carlson is rumored to have an interview with Putin. He also claims he is being spied on. I suppose if that is true, spying on him may be warranted.
But if the interview happens, I expect this to be a firestorm of epic proportions. How will the administration react? What will they direct the spook community to do? How will he be tarred and feathered? I read if it happens, it will be on Twitter. If so, they will get a two-fer for the Hitler of the month club in Carlson and Musk. I’m confident my PMC friends will want him/both deported and/or executed.
Another thing I am sure of, if the interview actually happens, what is actually said in that interview will be secondary to whatever agenda the administration wants to push.
At this point, and I’m no fan of either Carlson or Putin, I would believe either of them before anything coming out of gaslight nation, otherwise known as the administration, or the American Pravda press. That probably makes me a commie and in line to be executed as well.
ahh…and heres a preemptive strike by another one of those goodthinkers who has been wrong about just about everything…as well as Scott Ritter’s Pwn of same:
https://twitter.com/RealScottRitter/status/1754090453987680411
Tucker interviewing Putin will be epic….i’ll be watching the entire folder in my bookmarks marked “blue check nation”…
ever since 2002, ive been outspoken around here regarding our status as the actual evil empire(yes, we’re the baddies)….altho i dont venture out all that much anymore.
a handful of superpatriots have attempted to bully me(including me being strangled, literally…bruised hyoid)…but fuck those people. I hate my country Because i’m a frelling patriot…and they cant argue with it.
only yell incoherently.
i disagree with Tucker on many things…but he remains among the dwindling ranks of Real; Journalists we have left.
i look forward to this.
It has begun. Reference Glenn Greenwald responding to an Adam Kinzinger Tweet calling Carlson a traitor. I would expect nothing less from that clown. I’m surprised Hillary hasn’t chimed in yet. The Russiagate people will be losing their minds, or what little they have left.
If it wasn’t so sick and depressing, it would be funny.
According to the Rugg tweet, Carlson said the NSA had hacked into his Signal account. The unnamed official who interviewed him said so almost explicitly.
Oh, well, I never say anything on Signal I’d object to seeing as a headline in the NY Times….
d’you think Putin will do the interview in English or Russian…
He is fluent in German but the Oliver North interviews were in Russian and translated to English. Interview part 4
He is fluent in German but in the Oliver Stone interviews a translator was used. Interview part 4
Our best hope is probably that the totalistic state is unsustainable for basic material reasons, as demonstrated by the U.S. rapidly running out of ammunition and apparently having little ability to crank up production.
If we run out of conventional ammo, that leaves us with nukes, and seeing as glorious leader loves conflict (2024 campaign slogan: ‘Four More Wars!’) that might not be so bueno.
“Ultimately the story of San Francisco’s bread lines, refugee camps and earthquake cottages demonstrates how the relief and recovery only exacerbated inequalities along lines of class, race, and gender.”
What a crock of intellectual shit. The state owns lots of land, upon which plenty has been built. The author is just anachronistically looking for places upon which to affix her new toolkit of invented words and concepts.
Those who can do. Those who can’t get jobs teaching the gullible.
I’m seeing Tucker Carlson content chopped up and distributed on a number of platforms in addition to other shows/podcasts airing clips. This didn’t strike me as that unusual until I noticed that some of “fresh” clips were over a month old. Given that none of our current political problems have been resolved, the clips still seem fresh especially I’m sure to those who didn’t see them the first or second time.
I haven’t watched network news for so long I don’t know if they do this, but they sure didn’t back in the day. It’s slick marketing-wise but I cannot think of anything wrong with doing this from a news perspective. From a political perspective, however, this will leave a mark. Carlson and others are reconditioning their audience to news of any length, not preset half hour or hour long broadcasts.
Slice’n’dice, mix it all up news channels/coalitions? Politically speaking, this is going to be an interesting year.
Should be interesting if he does in fact interview Putin.
The Daily Kos is losing it’s mind over the fact that not only is Tucker Carlson in Russia but that he might have an interview with Putin-
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/2/4/2221504/-Tucker-Carlson-is-in-Moscow
Carlson was asked by a guy in Moscow at the reaction in the US media and all he could do was laugh and circle a finger around one ear.
In a newsletter from someone on biz Twitter, someone in crypto “mining” expanded on the idea of being a industrial real estate broker and how to approach getting properties with the right aspects under management to broker to BTC miners; claims there is quite a lot of ready to go mining equipment stuck in shipping containers out in CA, just waiting for these industrial properties with cheap power, already wired up with circuits for heavy loads, ready to go.
Fun times.
“Biden easily wins South Carolina primary”
Wow man, look that support he got!
Biden collected 94.6% of the vote in Greenville County, 95.4% in Spartanburg County, and 94.75% in Anderson County.
Just one little problem there………. :|
Overall, voter turnout was low in South Carolina at 4% with 131,870 votes cast.
FOUR F’ING PERCENT TURNOUT?
Low voter turnout could impact South Carolina’s position in the primaries in 2028.
https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/02/03/biden-easily-wins-south-carolina-democratic-primary-yet-faced-low-turnout/72464833007/
I had forgotten all about it until I noticed that it was yesterday on a website. So I missed my opportunity to write in Michael Hudson.
However I can still vote against in Nikki in the Repub primary so that may be my big chance. You can only vote in one or the other.
And Clyburn predicted 150,000 turnout so Biden’s IPO for 2024 missed the “guidance” as the financial blogs say. Still big mo for Genocide Joe. There’s no stopping him now.
Hey man, cut out the malarkey. Momentum has to begin somewhere. Big Mo at 4% seems about right for The Big Guy. No place to go but up.
Not sure where to file this. Maybe under ‘neoliberalism and its discontents.’
The rules-based order is becoming…uh… porous.
Precision equipment for Russian arms makers came from U.S.-allied Taiwan
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2024/02/01/taiwan-russia-sanctions-cnc/
A short video of someone hands-free “driving” a Tesla cyber truck down the freeway while wearing and operating an Apple Vision Pro AR headset: https://twitter.com/ayeejuju/status/1754062178284679295
That would probably be illegal as they are in no position to take control of the car in case something happened. Future Darwin Award winner.
Absolutely correct on both counts.
The liberal establishment has deployed the big guns to advance Nikki Haley. She appeared on SNL as a “surprise guest”:
https://youtu.be/l_cWqbHU3Tw?si=VM8q2jaDneDezRPY
They don’t even try to hide their machinations anymore, do they?
Nikki Don’t Lose That Number…Nikki Tikki Tavi…some of that is honestly funny. Maybe she is getting some funding via a Reid Hoffman type? A bit of sarcasm and also perhaps not…
Doesn’t matter, as long as it works.
Just like having Bill Clinton play saxophone on Arsenio Hall.
SNL now becomes the TV version of The Daily Kos.
RE: The Dirty Business of Clean Blood BIG by Matt Stoller
This article’s description of what goes on in the kidney dialysis “industry” in america today is shockingly grotesque, even for those of us who thought we’d seen and heard it all and nothing could shock us anymore.
Do not read if you have a weak stomach.
Just as a teaser, here is a description of what goes on at a davita corporate “team-building” retreat. These are your for-profit “healthcare” providers, my fellow americans:
40% of publicly-traded davita’s outstanding shares are owned by everyone’s favorite grandpa genius “investor,” warren buffett.
https://x.com/jpweiland/status/1754203868085309913?s=46
“Trump-Proofing Europe” Foreign Affairs
I think I see why there has been so little commentary about this article.
First sentence:
“As Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its third year, Europe has performed far better than expected…”
I recall expectations for the sanctions on Russia as not being met.
I stopped reading after the first sentence.
I applaud your bravery — it’s one more sentence than I could bring myself to read.
Irony on two levels. / ;) ($950.00 worth of goods is a pretty high threshold before getting charged with shoplifting in CA. Some people might see it as an invitation of sorts.) He asked to see the manager?
NEW: Gavin Newsom says he was visiting a Target and got blamed for a shoplifting incident to his face by a worker who didn’t recognize him.
https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1753250474751303774
adding: Lower the value of goods stolen threshold down to $50 or $100 (from the current $950) to get charged with shoplifting and see what happens. Your state’s crime stats might go up? / gasp!
speaking of…ahem…criminals, Kelley Vlahos on neocons…i was unaware how rife MSM has been in the last week with these creatures(since i dont partake of msm, unless i walk through mom’s living room)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/beware-the-iran-pearl-harbor-moment/
Thanks for the link. Good read. Team Neocon: ‘Can’t tell the players without a program,’ as they say.
adding: That Bill Kristol… what a card. / ;)
‘Perhaps we need a total and complete shutdown of Tucker Carlson re-entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.’
https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1753949177023795467
Bill Kristol. A man studying to be a moron – but failing badly. Does he think that he and his buddies can do an Edward Snowden on Tucker Carlson?
I was in Walmart yesterday and swung by the pharmacy section where some generic pills I buy were newly behind plexiglass. I and another customer then spent about fifteen minutes waiting for the one employee who had the key to show up and open the case (they were busy). It wasn’t like there weren’t store employees nearby but they all said “this is not my department.”
So it’s not just California and not all in the imagination of rightwingers. Shoplifting is becoming much more of a thing here as well.
‘Censored Men
@CensoredMen
🇺🇸⁉️ Senator Josh Hawley: “You’re doing a terrible job as Secretary of Homeland Security.”
Alejandro Mayorkas: “I am the child of a Holocaust survivor.”
You can’t make this up…’
https://twitter.com/CensoredMen/status/1753929281925730389 (1:29 min video)
Seems likely to become a meme; I can see it now:
“Honey, you forgot to the take the trash out again!”
“Sorry, I am the child of a Holocaust survivor.”
Boss – Your job performance has been below acceptable levels, Smithers. I am afraid we’re going to have to put you on a performance improvement plan”
Employee: “I am the child of a Holocaust survivor”
NTB investigator: “Can you explain, Captain Anderson, why you dove the plain into the icy waters of the Potomac when there were no engine problems or other anomalies with the flight, leading to the deaths of some of the passengers?”
Pilot: “I am the child of a Holocaust survivor”
Oh man. Does Mayorkas think he’s on the old ‘Queen for a Day’ TV show? Personal stories told about great hardships to win big prizes. (Or to get a free pass for an incompetent job performance?)
Now that’s chutzpah!
> The Three Strands to the ‘Swarming of Biden’
Problem for Biden Administration is that Israel has lost so much in such a short period of time. Not only Gaza but also the longer term imperative of an Israeli state absent any Palestine. Its now so bad Israel has gone backwards and could possibly lose territory as global opinion swings behind the Palestinians. Israel has become like a punter at the racetrack. As the day progresses and having lost on all races so far, Israel is making increasingly riskier bets in attempt to recoup lost ground. Iran and rest of the Islamic world know Israel won’t be able to help itself. There’s no need to make the first move. Its just a matter of patience. Billion dollar question is whether US will let Israel go bust? If not, US is playing for time. Waiting for winter to be over (after oil/gas demand peak) and any war will still be ongoing & at worse inconclusive by election day. If you can’t bet Trump by lawfare then warfare to keep him out of the news cycle is the next option. US has just regained its place as the world’s biggest oil producer – there’s a hell of a lot of money to be had by some very powerful people if there’s an Iranian war..
Atmos. I Sing the Bioelectric. Well, Atmos wouldn’t let me read past the teaser unless I gave them my email address and since I can’t access my email I couldn’t finish the article. But yes it is an amazing fact that everything in the universe operates on its own self generated high tech fuel. The electron. Everything from Betleguese to bugs. So in disappointment of being cut off from the rest of the article, thanks a lot Atmos, I will offer this: the electron is more than the spark of life and intelligence. It is the mother of gravity. I’d like an explanation of just where the electromagnetic spark actually goes when the wave function collapses. And if it goes into the general fabric of space, dissipates, it does not just disappear into the general glow. That energy becomes gravity and is part of the process that expands space and contains it. Electromagnetism. Sounds poetically accurate. So, Atmos, the mystery is solved. The mystery of why gravity can be explained by Einstein equations but has eluded a corresponding quantum explanation.