2:00PM Water Cooler 1/27/2025

Bird Song of the Day

Brown Thrasher, Elkinsville Rd. and Kirk’s Ford Rd., Brown, Indiana, United States. Grab a cup of coffee for nineteen minutes of thrashing!

* * *

In Case You Might Miss…

  1. Trump’s first week.
  2. Democrats for 2028.
  3. Surviving pandemics.

* * *

Politics

“So many of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in fact a rational management of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles

* * *

Trump Administration

“Scoop: How Trump’s ‘black box’ limits outside influences” [Axios]. “President Trump is surprising — even frustrating — some longtime friends in his second administration’s early days with fewer leaks, a lack of exploitable rivalries, and tighter restrictions on access to him. Why it matters: No modern president has done more — across more areas of American policy, culture and life — than Trump in the past six days. This new operating style and system enabled a strategy of flooding the nation with so many huge moves that it’s hard for critics to attack specific ones.” And: “It’s stunning to veterans of Trump’s first West Wing. But at least in Week 1, the new government has mirrored the discipline of his 2024 campaign operation — another sharp contrast with his previous teams…. There’s a ‘strong silo system’ that has kept advocates and special interests from forum-shopping and end-running administration officials, the lobbyist added.” Interestingly: “The biggest change of all, Axios has learned, is that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and other aides have clamped down on the ability of random friends and reporters to call Trump directly. Until now, if you had his phone number and called, Trump would answer and talk to you — and maybe even act on whatever you suggested. Now, Trump wants to focus more on work and has less time for bull sessions so he’s less prone to answer his phone.” • Of course, some might suggest that we want Trump to “work” as little possible.

“Confident, organised, still freewheeling: Trump 2.0 has learned from past” [BBC]. “The stacks of leather-bound executive orders piled high on the Resolute Desk illustrate how the Trump 2.0 era is set against a different political landscape from four years ago – one which has produced a more emboldened commander-in-chief…. ‘It’s been much more disciplined, on-point and issue-focused,’ said Lawrence Muir, a former official in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Mr Muir, who was tasked with hiring administration personnel as part of the 2016 Trump transition team, told the BBC his work was ‘essentially discarded’ by the incoming White House at the time. ‘They did not have a great idea about what they were supposed to be producing, or how to produce it,’ he said. ‘[Trump’s] doing much better this time in terms of what he’s getting out, getting it out efficiently, and knowing how it has to be enforced down through the agencies.'”

* * *

“Trump’s agenda is about to hit a make-or-break moment” [Politico]. “House Republicans are heading to President Donald Trump’s Miami-area resort for their annual policy retreat…. The biggest task for the gathering at Trump National Doral: Finalize a budget blueprint plan for the massive, party-line bill they’re planning, touching energy, border security and tax policy. But to do that, Republicans need to decide what will go in that package — with the price tag of Trump’s priorities reaching $10 trillion over 10 years — versus what might be included in a separate, bipartisan government funding bill that will be negotiated with Democrats over the next seven weeks. The fate of a necessary debt ceiling increase is top of mind…. The planned retreat discussions have been tailored to show attending members the possibilities for the way forward and to take their temperatures on potential spending cuts, according to three Republicans with direct knowledge of the planning. Leaders will have to carefully balance sometimes competing interests from various GOP factions.” And: “Centrists are also relaying their concerns to GOP leaders about some committees’ plans to target pieces of the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that provides food aid benefits for more than 40 million low-income Americans…. Those proposals are relatively more palatable for GOP lawmakers in competitive districts than the massive cuts to current benefits some conservatives would prefer. But they’re still politically divisive and could provide Democrats major campaign fodder in blue and purple districts ahead of the 2026 midterms.” • But cutting Medicaid, though easy and fun, won’t get those trillions. It never does.

* * *

“Trump actions could wreak havoc on South Florida’s sizeable Colombian population” [Miami Herald]. “Florida is home to 473,606 Colombians, according to the U.S. Census data. The state has long been a magnet for new arrivals from the South American country who are seeking a place where there are many Spanish speakers, a warm climate and a ready-made community.” • Interestingly, the story doesn’t sat what percentage of those new arrivals have their papers in order.

“Trump wants to tackle inflation. Will these top actions bring prices down?” [WaPo]. The deck: “Here’s six key actions, executive orders and promises, from this past week and how they would affect inflation.” More: “‘The reality is, inflation of the type we have gets embedded into the economy and takes a long time to wring out,’ said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, a conservative think tank. ‘There aren’t many quick solutions.'” Be that as it may, the six: Immigration crackdowns, deportations [▲]; New tariffs and trade policies [▲]; Expanding oil and gas drilling, other energy overhauls [▼]; Rolling back regulations [▼]; Undoing Biden’s efforts to lower prescription drug prices[?]; Lowering interest rates[▲].” • Triangles for what WaPo thinks could go up, or down.

“Trump shocks the system. Will he solve problems voters care about most?” [Dan Balz, WaPo]. “The larger issue for Trump, and what ultimately will determine the political and substantive success of his second term, is whether this flurry of activity signaling a major course change will result in the betterment of the lives of the voters who supported him in November. Getting rid of DEI offices and personnel will cheer his most loyal supporters and hurt a federal workforce in a nation becoming more ethnically diverse. It won’t necessarily help families struggling to pay bills. Deporting millions of undocumented immigrants in fact could raise food prices and further labor shortages…. Shocking the system is one thing. Providing tangible results to people is another.”

2028

“The 12 Democrats who make the most sense for 2028” [WaPo]. Starts out well: “Save for a few months at the tail end of the 2024 campaign, the party hasn’t had an authoritative, dominant leader for a long time.” Really? 2024? Who was that? Anyhow, here are the 12, starting with #12: Tim Walz, Josh Stein, Andy Beshear, Gavin Newsom, Raphael G. Warnock, Wes Moore, Ruben Gallego, John Fetterman, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Gretchen Whitmer, and — at #1! — Josh Shapiro. It’s been a long time since I deployed the “Please kill me now” trope….

Our Famously Free Press

“Too Much News, Redux” [Jon Allsop, Columbia Journalism Review]. “I noted in 2020 that the ‘basic rhythms’ of the news business aren’t designed to cope with deluges of huge stories: whatever the day’s news, it must be stretched or shrunk to fill roughly the same number of newspaper column inches or cable news hours; the internet, of course, theoretically offers near-infinite space for news coverage to expand, but many digital formats—from homepages to newsletters—themselves have spatial limits, and that’s before we get into strained newsroom resources and apparently diminished audience buy-in, as Stelter pointed out last week. These constraints make it hard for the news media, as a collective apparatus, to communicate proportion. We have tools for organizing stories by importance—back in 2020, I noted that the New York Times had run thirty-three banner front-page print headlines in less than six months, smashing even its election-year average—but the constant blare of headlines, as I noted, can have a ‘flattening effect, making it harder, over a long period of time, to distinguish actual news from attention hustling.’ The problem of proportionality is recurring now. A story previewing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s potentially radical plans to ‘target vaccines’ should he be confirmed as health and human services secretary appeared about halfway down a major Politico newsletter on Friday; yesterday, the CIA lab-leak story made the front page of the Times, but only in brief form at the very bottom. Needless to say that in the summer of 2020, both these stories would have been earth-shaking.” • Allsop complains of Trump’s tendency to make news, or at least news stories — “flood the zone with sh*t” — but I think there are more stories out there, as one would expect as a function of slow civilizational collapse (newsrooms are smaller too).

Democrats en déshabillé

“Playbook: A tough Week One for Democrats” [Politico]. “On Saturday, at their winter meeting in National Harbor, Maryland, Democrats will make their first consequential decision since their November drubbing: selecting a new chair of the DNC. In the opening days of the new administration, Democrats have struggled to frame Republicans, careening from the critique that Trump has surrounded himself with ‘broligarchs,’ as Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) put it, to whether Elon Musk made a Nazi salute. Senate Democrats have zigged and zagged on their Cabinet confirmation votes. Of course, not all nominees are equal. But they are clearly divided over tactics in responding to Trump’s program.” • Maybe — hear me out — the important Democrat problems aren’t at the tactical level?

“In the wilderness: Democrats struggle to navigate the politics of new Trump era” [Guardian]. “‘He’s been in office less than a week, and you’ve already seen a federal court with a judge who was appointed by a Republican president – a president that much of the conservative movement in America upholds – say that he’s operating blatantly unconstitutionally,’ said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of the non-profit legal group Democracy Forward. ‘I think what you’re going to see is more sophisticated legal responses this time because civil society, I think, is much more organized and savvy to this playbook.’ Democracy Forward is one of more than 350 organizations that have joined a coalition known as Democracy 2025, which has the explicit aim of ‘disrupting any efforts by the Trump-Vance administration to attack our rights.’ ‘The message that we want to send to all Americans across the country is thbe doing is demanding a president and a Congress that does the same thing,’ Perryman said.” • So, doubling down on lawfare. 350 organizatioat there are lawyers and advocates who are going to be in court every single day fighting for your rights, and what we need to ns is not a sign of strength. It’s a sign of weakness. Nor are these NGOs representative of “civil society” as a whole.

“Trump Just Broke the Law. Blatantly. And He Might Get Away With It” [Michael Tomaskey, The New Republic]. On Trump firing the 15 Inspectors General: “Under the original law, presidents had to give Congress 30 days’ notice about their intent to fire an I.G. and just supply some vague reason why. President Barack Obama’s excuse for firing the I.G. of national service programs was simply a lack of confidence in the guy. Then came Trump. As Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith wrote at Lawfare in 2022, ‘More frequently than prior presidents, [Trump] manipulated vacancies and related laws to fire or dismiss disliked inspectors general and replace them, pursuant to the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 (FVRA), with a more like-minded or pliant official.’ So Congress, through a larger defense bill, amended the I.G. law by replacing the word ‘reasons’ with the phrase ‘substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons.’ In sum, Congress toughened this law because of Trump. And now, Trump has broken the provision that was added in response to his flouting of the original law! That he broke the law is obvious. He didn’t give 30 days’ notice. He didn’t provide any ‘substantive rationale.’ He didn’t provide any reason at all. He just did it. And he told reporters Saturday that it was all fine. ‘It’s a very common thing to do,’ he said. Once he says that, we know that basically every Republican, and Fox News and Sinclair and the rest of the propaganda chamber, are going to say the same thing. Lindsey Graham on Sunday hilariously admitted that ‘technically, yeah,’ Trump broke the law but Graham wasn’t losing any sleep over it.” • It’s a good thing that four solid years of lawfare (eight, if you count RussiaGate) didn’t make people cynical about Democrat accusations of illegality, because this thing looks like it could have legs.

Realignment and Legitimacy

“Column: The rise of Silicon Valley, from indifference to lords of the political universe” [Los Angeles Times]. “When the high and mighty of Silicon Valley assumed their privileged perch at the swearing-in of President Trump, it was an ostentatious show of wealth and power unlike any before. ‘You could go back to the Gilded Age and you could have a similar concentration of capital and power. You know, Rockefeller and Carnegie,’ said historian Margaret O’Mara, citing two of the richest men who ever bestrode the earth. ‘But they weren’t on the dais of the inauguration.’…. The explanation for their propinquity lies not in the creation of some whiz-bang, life-changing, paradigm-bending consumer product, or the shining virtues or particularly fertile minds that grace Silicon Valley’s fruited plain. ‘It’s one of the oldest truisms in politics,’ said Larry Gerston, a San José State political science professor emeritus, who’s followed the tech industry from a front-row seat for decades. ‘Money buys access.’ Bezos’ Amazon and Zuckerberg’s Meta were among the tech firms that tithed $1 million each to help pay for Trump’s inauguration. Musk invested more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect Trump. Given his conjoined-twin closeness to the 47th president, it appears money well spent.'”

Syndemics

“I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison

* * *

Covid Resources, United States (National): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; includes many counties; Wastewater Scan, includes drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, but national data). “Infection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts” (especially on hospitalization by city).

Lambert here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To update any entry, do feel free to contact me at the address given with the plants. Please put “COVID” in the subject line. Thank you!

Resources, United States (Local): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin, dashboard; Stanford, wastewater; Oakland, wastewater); CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); FL (wastewater); GA (wastewater); HI (dashboard); IA (wastewater reports); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d’Alene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard); PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (wastewater); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).

Resources, Canada (National): Wastewater (Government of Canada).

Resources, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).

Hat tips to helpful readers: Alexis, anon (2), Art_DogCT, B24S, CanCyn, ChiGal, Chuck L, Festoonic, FM, FreeMarketApologist (4), Gumbo, hop2it, JB, JEHR, JF, JL Joe, John, JM (10), JustAnotherVolunteer, JW, KatieBird, KF, KidDoc, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (6), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, square coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, thump, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).

Stay safe out there!

Airborne Transmission

Airborne governance, interesting concept:

But commentary, putting the diagram in context:

Transmission: H5N1

“2nd Edition Ready For The Next One: A Guide to H5N1 Preparation” [Ko-Fi]. Description: “While much of the US struggles to see the oncoming avian flu pandemic as a true public health threat, Sharon offers a way forward into an uncertain, chaotic future with a special focus on H5N1 preparation. Includes all the material in her H5N1 prep essays along with printable bonus material, like health preparations and talking points & communication strategies.” • Haven’t evaluated it, but it is paid for on a sliding scale starting at zero, so perhaps some kind soul in the readership would like to take a look.

“How the Messy Process of Milking Cows Can Spread Bird Flu” [New York Times]. From December 5, 2024: “[D]ata strongly suggests that the virus, known as H5N1, has spread primarily* through milk. It replicates quickly in the udders of infected cows, which produce milk with sky-high levels of the pathogen. Droplets of milk can splash into dairy workers’ faces, while milk-splattered equipment and vehicles can transport the virus from cow to cow…. In theory, a virus that spreads through milk should be easier to control than one that floats invisibly in the air. But a look inside the modern dairy industry reveals that milk-based transmission is profoundly worrying. ‘Milk is hugely problematic,’ said Seema Lakdawala, a virologist at Emory University.” • Detail on how humans and robots milk cows. Commentary:

I only know what I read in the papers, so perhaps some kind reader can comment on this solution.

NOTE * If HN51 travels on dust blown by the wind, the “primarily” claim could turn out to be false.

Maskstravaganza

Masking and class:

Prevention: Covid

Covid-consciousness as HODL:

I think it’s good not to be infected, and the next best thing is to put off being infected; the advantages of, say, not getting brain damage compound.

How to survive a pandemic (thread):

Personal Risk Assessment

So they tell us:

* * *

Lambert here: Indeed, the CDC data seems to have paused onTrump’s order (except for National Hospitalization, oddly). How I wish we had Biobot’s wastewater charts back!

TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts

Wastewater
This week[1] CDC January 13 Last week[2] CDC (until next week):

Variants [3] CDC January 18 Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC January 11

Hospitalization
New York[5] New York State, data January 16: National [6] CDC January 24:

Positivity
National[7] Walgreens January 27: Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic January 18:

Travelers Data
Positivity[9] CDC December 30: Variants[10] CDC December 30

Deaths
Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] CDC January 11: Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] CDC January 11:

LEGEND

1) for charts new today; all others are not updated.

2) For a full-size/full-resolution image, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows) on the chart thumbnail and “open image in new tab.”

NOTES

[1] (CDC) Seeing more red and more orange, but nothing new at major hubs.

[2] (CDC) Last week’s wastewater map.

[3] (CDC Variants) XEC takes over. That WHO label, “Ommicron,” has done a great job normalizing successive waves of infection.

[4] (ED) A little uptick.

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Definitely jumped.

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Leveling out.

[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.

[8] (Cleveland) Continued upward trend since, well, Thanksgiving.

[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Leveling out.

[10] (Travelers: Variants). Positivity is new, but variants have not yet been released.

[11] Deaths low, positivity leveling out.

[12] Deaths low, ED leveling out.

Stats Watch

National Activity: “United States Chicago Fed National Activity Index” [Trading Economy]. “The Chicago Fed National Activity Index for the US increased to 0.15 in December 2024, the highest reading in seven months, compared to an upwardly revised -0.01 in November. The reading showed economic growth increased in December, with production-related indicators contributing 0.19 (vs +0.03 in November) and employment-related indicators adding (vs unchanged).”

Manufacturing: “United States Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index” [Trading Economics].

* * *

Manufacturing: “Boeing may soon sell some of its businesses. That could finally boost the stock” [MarketWatch]. “Leaders at Boeing Co. have been struggling to turn the company around after years of bad headlines. Now, some investors are hoping they’ll look to a new tactic: selling some of its businesses, which could shore up the company’s balance sheet and lift the stock from its doldrums. There are a few discrete businesses within the aerospace and defense behemoth that could generate cash, including Boeing’s Jeppesen navigation unit and Boeing’s parts distribution business. In conversations with MarketWatch, some investors also have raised the possibility of changes to Boeing’s satellite-launch joint venture with Lockheed Martin Corp.”

Manufacturing: “Budget airline Ryanair cuts passenger traffic goal again on Boeing delays” [CNBC]. “[Ryanair CFO Neil Sorahan], who said he recently returned from a trip to Boeing’s production facilities into Seattle, said he’d seen ‘huge improvements in relation to supply chain and everything else’ in recent months. ‘I have a high level of confidence that the remaining nine aircraft that we need to get to 181 ‘Gamechangers’ along with the existing fleet will come in,’ he added. Sorahan said that Boeing appeared to have ‘turned the corner,’ adding that he was hopeful Ryanair would not need to cut its traffic targets even further.” • I hope its true. Regardless, kudos to whoever took Sorahan round the plant….

Tech: Nate, Nate:

And:

Tech: Matty, Matty:

And:

Tech: Can this be true?

It does make sense that the tech bros, being bottom feeders, would stuff their training sets with the cheapest possible content…

* * *

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 38 Fear (previous close: 48 Neutral) [CNN]. One week ago: 37 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jan 27 at 1:49:14 PM ET.

Rapture Index: Closes unchanged. [Rapture Ready]. Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 181. (Remember that bringing on the Rapture is good.) • This is a tough crowd. Surely Trump’s first week brought the Rapture closer?

Gallery

How New England (1):

How New England (2):

Zeitgeist Watch

“How to Weather the Storm” [Kottle.org]. All about the feels. That said: “I’ve decided that part of what I’m doing to weather the storm is to keep doing what I’m doing here on kottke.org — that is, highlighting the creativity of humanity, telling the truth about what’s going on in the world, sharing dumb stuff that makes us laugh — and continue to develop an online community built around those things via the comments and other means.”

Guillotine Watch

“The Wage Crisis of 2025: 73% of Workers Struggle Beyond Basic Living Expenses” [Resume Now]. Self-reported, but in a way that’s the point: “A recent survey by Resume Now reveals that financial stress has reached a breaking point for American workers, with 73% of employees struggling to afford anything beyond their basic living expenses.” And:

  1. 12% often cannot afford basic living expenses, and 24% struggle to cover essentials.
  2. Only 6% are able to save for the future.
  3. One-third of workers say their salary has not kept up with inflation.
  4. 55% think their salary is lower than it should be.
  5. 29% have moved to lower-cost areas or housing to navigate financial strain.
  6. 3 in 10 have taken on debt to cover living expenses.
  7. Only 4% of workers feel truly valued in their role.

Commentary:

News of the Wired

“What an Insomniac Knows” [Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker]. “[Matthew Walker, who runs the Center for Human Sleep Science, at Berkeley,] suggests that humans are made for ‘biphasic’ sleep—that is, two sleep sessions per day. People in traditional communities where everyone naps live longer than people in modernized ones where they don’t. The siesta is lifesaving. Walker even conjectures that our peculiar sleep patterns may explain our evolutionary advance. We sleep less than other primates, but get relatively more REM sleep, and the dreams it brings, than our monkey and ape cousins. It is during REM sleep, Walker insists, that we engage in ’emotional processing.’ The mnemonic collisions during this phase forge new connections among our experiences, and we wake not merely refreshed but revived and enlightened by our re-wrought neural networks.” • Hmm.

* * *

Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. From Timotheus:

Timotheus writes: “Evening view of a beloved giant gingko on Broadway and 211th Street, Manhattan.”

* * *

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About Lambert Strether

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

114 comments

      1. The Rev Kev

        Love the Hopper painting as well “Rooms for Tourists.” Found this-

        ‘Edward Hopper’s paintings of buildings are portraits, in which the human presence is implied but not seen. In Rooms for Tourists, Hopper portrays the exterior of a boarding house in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He made study drawings of the building and then traveled there repeatedly at night while he worked on the painting. The contrast between the warm, electrically lit interior and the darkness of night outside captures the sense of transience and impermanence inherent in the boarding house’s impersonal arrivals and departures.’

        https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/52638

        Reply
      1. Wukchumni

        > “Sir, a second open source AI model from DeepSeek has been revealed”

        We need a Sam Altman Downfall parody, for sure.
        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        Gotta include Hamish Harding in it, a DeepSeeker.

        Reply
      2. Splashoil

        Moon of Alabama wrote this development up. The Raspberry Pi’s are now sold out. Deepseek software is free and will run on this device.
        This deserves some recognition.

        Reply
        1. Xquacy

          Please stop amplifying nonsense. Deepseek’s frontier model R1 is 671 billion parameters. Model parameters are directly correlated with compute requirements and quality of output. 671 billion parameter model won’t run on a powerful desktop computer, let alone a Raspberry Pi. Even with their optimization tricks, it still has to compute 32 billion parameters. What they were running on pi is a tiny model with terrible output quality. All tiny models (and I have played with many) are toys, and their outputs are completely unreliable.

          Smaller 7 billion parameter models do run on desktop computers already, including small Llama, Mistral, Gemma etc. models with a 6 core Ryzen CPU running it are an intolerable 20-30 tokens per second. To give you a reference of that speed, the model would output the length of your comment in about 5 seconds.

          Tiny models with 1 billion parameters run on Rasberry pi’s, and DeepSeek’s tiny-model is not the first one to do so.

          Reply
      3. Joe Well

        There are AI video tools that could do this, put his face on Hitler.

        Could they capture his uber-PMC mannerisms?

        Reply
    1. ChrisFromGA

      We need a new classification to describe half-built, abandoned data centers, now that DeepSeek has moved our tech oligarchs cheese.

      Busted bunkers?

      Rebar-wrecks?

      I am sure Wukchumni will have a nice suggestion.

      Reply
      1. Wukchumni

        Maybe make nightclubs from the wreckage?

        This Los Angeles Stock Exchange building opened in 1931 and the company merged into the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange in 1956. It was incorporated as the Pacific Stock Exchange in 1973.It was the largest regional stock exchange west of the Mississippi.

        In 1986, the exchange moved to another site. By the end of the decade, the Stock Exchange, a nightclub, opened in the renovated building.

        Reply
        1. ChrisFromGA

          All-night raves in the site of an abandoned rebar-wreck … I like it!

          With all that physical security built in (6-foot thick walls, security cameras, fences) it will keep the cops out, too.

          Bomb shelters probably made good speakeasies, back in the day.

          Reply
      2. GF

        Here’s a Ryan Grim post explaining the current DeepSeek invasion and a shout out to Lisa Kahn:
        “U.S. tech stocks are plummeting as China looks to be exposing American companies involved in AI as wildly overvalued. It’s a predictable consequence of how the American government has approached Silicon Valley and vice versa. This isn’t the kind of thing we normally cover, but we don’t quite trust the U.S. media to tell this story accurately.”

        https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/deepseek-openai-lina-khan-sam-altman

        Very good timeline development and technology explanation.

        Reply
        1. ChrisFromGA

          Thanks. Our Tech Lords tried to grease the skids for their fraudulent business models that relied on massive amounts of confetti money as a barrier to entry.

          DeepSeek deep sixes greased AI. Film at Eleven!

          Reply
        2. The Rev Kev

          Very good article that. It seems that DeepSeek just did an Oreshnik on OpenAI’s burgeoning financial structure.

          Reply
        3. Lefty Godot

          Time to pivot back to crypto! Or the metaverse. The bubble must not deflate! And don’t tell me DeepSeek can mine cryptocurrency at the same time it’s answering questions from the plebes. We might as well give up and welcome our new Chinese overlords if that’s the case.

          Reply
      3. Patrick J Morrison

        > We need a new classification to describe half-built, abandoned data centers

        AI-mandias?

        I met a traveller from an antique land
        Who said: Two thousand vast and trunkless boxes of stone
        Stand in the desert. Near them, on the wires,
        Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
        And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
        Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
        Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
        The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
        And on the pedestal these words appear:
        “My name is Altman, King of Kings:
        Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
        No thing beside remains. Round the decay
        Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
        The lone and level wires stretch far away.

        with apologies to Percy Bysshe Shelley

        Reply
          1. Patrick J Morrison

            Given the high quality of words and word play around here, I will float around a bit today. Thank you.

            Reply
          1. ambrit

            Remember what happened, (or failed to happen,) to the Giant Super Duper ACME Particle Collider facility that was supposed to be built near Hammond.
            Put it near Vidalia and have the benefits of hydro-electric power and river water cooling at the same time! With the Grand Gulf nuclear power station nearby for “backup” power if needed. We can call it the “Jacob’s Ladder Data Centre.”
            Stay safe down there in the icy wastes of N’Awleenz.

            Reply
  1. Jason Boxman

    Democrats doing lawfare is also an admission that the current system services liberal Democrat purposes just fine, Their Democracy, and they don’t have any particular interests in making any changes that might provide material benefits.

    Kind of mind-bending that we went from the Biggest Threat Ever to Trump is a president to be opposed by gentle lawfare efforts.

    Wat?

    Reply
    1. steppenwolf fetchit

      Anyone can do lawfare. Part of the Civil Rights Revolution was conducted through the Courts, and that was lawfare. Lawfare was one weapons system and demonstrations/marches/Freedom Rides/etc. was another weapons system and political organizing/registering to vote/voting was another weapons system.
      Damage suits against the oil companies are lawfare.

      If lawfare is the only weapons system you have, you use that or you use nothing at all.

      So the question becomes, who is using lawfare against whom, and in service to what?

      Reply
  2. Carla

    Democracy 2025. Lambert comments: “So, doubling down on lawfare. 350 organizations is not a sign of strength. It’s a sign of weakness. Nor are these NGOs representative of “civil society” as a whole.”

    But Lambert, they’re FIGHTING for us. Surely that’s all we need to know, isn’t it? Isn’t it?

    Reply
    1. lyman alpha blob

      These lawfare Democrat should count themselves extremely lucky that nobody seems to give a [family blog] about that genocide they’ve all been facilitating. Last I checked murdering tens of thousands of women and children was frowned upon by the law…

      Reply
  3. Screwball

    The democrat list for 2025 looks like they want a president Vance.

    Also just read a Tweet from team D that Orange Hitler has spent 30% of his presidency playing golf. Giggle. So he has done so much his first week they can’t get a grip on what to be outraged about, yet he spent too much time playing golf.

    Crazy times we live in.

    Reply
      1. IM Doc

        It really is not a good look at all for AOC, et al.

        All over twitter yesterday about how expensive coffee and cut flowers were going to be very soon. That was their priority.

        Meanwhile, and so far, all the attention rounding up these illegals seems to be on the criminals, etc. I would make a rational assumption that the planes to Colombia are pretty much those kind of immigrants. In other words, exactly who needs to be sent home. And by so doing – protecting the kids and families of America who should not be forced to live next to pimps, drug runners and criminals.

        My patient family today who brought in their grandma were just effusively singing the praises of Donald Trump. “He understood these bad people need to go home” and “he cares about our safety”. etc.

        Ummm, AOC – the coffee and flowers routine is not working on these people. Of course coffee and daily Starbucks hits are much more important issues to your constituency. It will be really entertaining when it is Mexico’s turn….Oh me oh my, what are we ever going to do without our avocado toast? Better luck next time.

        Not to mention is the entire flower issue is predicated on the fact that the entire industry was moved to Colombia by NAFTA neoliberals, leaving all of those American workers behind to learn how to code and leaving boarded up greenhouses – STILL THERE – saw it this summer – in their wake.

        The other thought going through my head last night…….There must be a couple hundred very bad people on that plane that the President of Colombia would risk a trade war to keep them out.

        This is going to be a very interesting four years. This is going to be a very long four years for the AOC crowd if this absolutely pitiful response is going to be the best they can do.

        Reply
        1. hk

          One thing that the “rights people” do that’s offensive to those whom they think they are currying favor with is that they go out of way defending various dubious people who happen to be members of a certain group, as if they are being persecuted because they belong to that group, while ignoring the bit about their being dubious (e.g. criminals etc.) They feed the preconception (which, perhaps, they themelves hold, that members of that group are predisposed to criminality, say (and, worse, “can’t help themselves,” because of culture or whatever.) In other words, attempts at playing “culturism” winds up being pretty much a perpetuation of racism (possibly, that, their own racism.) Having been on the other end often enough (allegedly positive “model minority” stereotypes and variations of thinly disguised “yellow peril” ones), I’ve found this tendency profoundly offensive a bit too often.

          Reply
          1. flora

            This makes a deal of sense. The NGOs claiming to rescue the victims must insist the victims are always and immutably victims. There is no out or up or escape into better lives for the victims, only the ministrations of the NGOs can make the victims lives better, the NGOs may claim. The NGOs may do good work at one level but terrible blocking at another level.

            Reply
        2. Joe Well

          I am amazed that people, especially intelligent people who should know better, eat up the propaganda stunt of the denied deportation flight.

          Look at how I’m going to stare down the government of any country on earth:

          1. arrange a flight that doesn’t follow normal protocols (shackling deportees), using military planes (do you want other countries to fly their military planes into the US without getting permission first??)
          2. say nasty things when flight gets rejected
          3. arrange a more normal flight the next day
          4. declare victory when it gets accepted

          Also, if he’s really going to do mass deportations, where is he going to get all the planes? Why isn’t anyone talking about ships yet? (Hint: he’s not really serious about the mass deportations.)

          Reply
          1. JustTheFacts

            They say their target is 1200-1500 people per day. That is at most less that 2.2 million people over Trump’s entire term. My understanding is that 2 million illegal migrants came every year during Biden’s term. So they’d need to increase the rate four-fold to return the number of illegal migrants at the end of Trump’s first term.

            There were supposedly 12 million illegal migrants in the US at the end of Trump’s first term, and if an additional 8 million arrived, there would be 20 million of them. That would mean each one has a 1/10=10% chance of being deported.

            Immigration crackdowns, deportations [▲];

            I don’t see why we should expect that to cause inflation, particularly if those who are deported have been convicted of engaging in activities that reduce productivity (crimes such as theft, procuring drugs, making places unsafe, etc). It’s not as if Biden’s term, during which the number of illegal migrants increased by 8 million, is known for reducing inflation.

            Reply
        3. JBird4049

          All over twitter yesterday about how expensive coffee and cut flowers were going to be very soon. That was their priority.

          I guess the one million homeless Americans, the threats to the food supply, not to mention the price of it, and various other things are not important? If I couldn’t afford coffee, I would just buy tea, as much as I have started with coffee most every morning for forty years. Really, the arguments from the Democratic Party and its supporters are getting more unserious by the day.

          Reply
        4. spud

          very good IM DOC, lets remind all what NAFTA stands for,

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

          North American Free Trade Agreement

          it was sold to us by neo-liberal weasels in the economic professions, politicians, media shills as free trade, because it is free trade for a few.

          now they say there is no such thing as free trade, after its imploded.

          under free trade, government no longer has sovereignty and democratic control. government is now subservient to capital, they now are the enforcers of free trade for capital.

          https://fpif.org/free-trade-regime-oligarchy-action/

          “Let’s put this assertion to the test by looking at the concrete example of free trade agreements and their relation to democracy and national sovereignty.

          “Democracy” typically refers to a system of government in which people decide on the rules of their sovereign nation. In the true spirit of democracy and sovereignty, all spheres of policy — including the environment, trade, finance, intellectual property, and culture — must be subject to a fair political process and self-determination.

          In the modern, globalized world, the institutions of democracy and sovereignty exist in tension with another powerful institution: the global market and its free trade regimes.”

          “While a small number of labor unions and NGOs appear to have some involvement in the process, critics note that many relevant actors have been shut out. As renowned economists Joseph Stiglitz and Dean Baker contend, it is mostly the executive branch and some privileged big corporations that are involved in the process, and are therefore able to shape the treaty to fit their narrow interests.”

          Reply
    1. Big River Bandido

      Pretty sure we’ll have winged piglet passenger service between Davenport and Muscatine before any of those 12 losers get elected President. (Mayo Pete 😂 )

      Not surprised that WaPo completely overlooked the one Democrat with the political assets or strengths to be a credible challenger in ’28.

      Reply
      1. flora

        Winged piglet passenger service between Davenport Iowa and Muscatine Iowa before…something. 29 miles by car. This comment is hilarious. Thanks. Where is A Prairie Home Companion when we need it? / ;)

        Reply
    2. JMH

      That list was supposed to be serious? Actually serious? as candidates? For the presidency? Of course the Jackpot may have something to say about it.

      Reply
  4. flora

    Great links today. Thanks.

    Adding in no particular order:
    Boeing thinks boosting its stock market price is more important than delivering a good product? When did Boeing become a ‘trading sardine”?

    AI models that fail but might be relied upon could collapse the entire business ecosystem long term? Ya think?

    LA Times on Silicon Valley: they just now noticed? After decades of Dem party’s promotion also SV? (See B. Clinton touting a ‘bridge to the 21st century love letter to SV; see Google’s Sergey Brin and the H. Clinton 2018 campaign. It’s OK if you’re a Dem?)

    12 Democrate for 2028: Are they kidding? They must be kidding.

    T has done some things I agree with wholeheartedly and some things I disagree with wholeheartedly in his first. It remains to be seen which way the balance will go.
    The Dems for the past 4 years did nothing I agreed with wholeheartedly. That’s the problem. imo.

    Reply
      1. flora

        edit also: H. Clinton 2016 campaign, and, Democrats for 2025.

        I blame the flying fingers of fumbles for these typo mistakes. / ;)

        Reply
    1. ChrisFromGA

      “AI models that fail … collapsing business models”

      More like collapsing Mr. Burns evil plans to replace workers with a pack of digital howler monkeys. Excellent, Smithers!

      Greased AI going down just means HR department have to start reading resumes again, and customer service departments might have to hire a human or two.

      Reply
  5. Lieaibolmmai

    “What an Insomniac Knows”:

    Hmmm, you will not find my people taking siestas, but it is not 100 degrees in the summer where I live so why would we need, or want, to sleep during the day. People who nap in my culture are considers sick or strange.

    But our nights in the winter are so long that we sleep longer at night in the winter and less in the summer. Maybe it is not so much the the siesta is good for all of us, but good for those living in lower latitudes. Or maybe we are all so disconnected from nature that we cannot even feel the natural rhythms anymore, and maybe those with insomnia are just much more sensitive.

    If you are interested, here are some historical photographs of the Sami.

    Reply
    1. Norton

      REM sleep, the hard way.
      Prostate brachytherapy, with multiple waking periods per night.
      N=1, easy to fall back to sleep and dream, so that is good.
      Life span extended, too. :)

      Reply
    2. Wukchumni

      I used to fight the nap, go 12 rounds or so and then fall asleep at an accepted hour after dark, but now that i’m on the verge of geezerhood, quite enjoy a 3 or 4 hour bender in the afternoon-you are feeling very sleepy. (waves pocket watch in a swinging motion)

      Maybe once a week I’ll partake.

      Reply
  6. Mark Gisleson

    If Politico is quoting Amy Klobuchar, my money’s on Ken Martin. In so very many ways he’s the worst possible choice and therefore irrestistable to the double-downers in the DNC.

    Same link also quotes Slotkin (MI) trash talking Tulsi Gabbard with one-sided anecdotes and a completely unattributed allegation that Gabbard is not very intelligent, leading me to think that CIA embeds aren’t as smart as we’ve been led to believe.

    Reply
    1. JMH

      Is it out of bounds to say that Tulsi Gabbard scares the crap out CIA and the other 15 to 20 intelligence agencies and their fan girls and fan boys in Congress.She has been on the right side of the issues of which I am aware. They have either been wrong, “misinformed” or flat out spinning yarns to keep the cash flowing in all the right directions.

      It has reached the point that if the DC Bubble and Echo Chamber says something, I assume it is at best distorted and often flatly false. Tulsi might let a bit of light into that dark and fetid room that is DC.

      Reply
  7. steppenwolf fetchit

    . . . ” • Of course, some might suggest that we want Trump to “work” as little possible. ” . . .

    If that includes the Collective Trump, I would agree. Especially if that also includes all the personnel involved in or adjacent to the Project Catfood 2025 Conspiracy.

    Reply
  8. marym

    > Florida: papers in order

    Lots of registered voters

    Florida has the largest concentration of Colombians in the U.S. In 2020, about 275,000 Colombian eligible voters lived in Florida, up from about 200,000 in 2015, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of American Community Survey data.
    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/republicans-court-growing-conservative-voter-bloc-colombian-americans-rcna17175

    Profile of the Unauthorized Population: Florida
    2019 estimate: Colombian: 55, 000 7% of undocumented people in FL
    Another page on this website referring to this estimate commented that the number would likely have increased with the pandemic.
    https://www.migrationpolicy.org/data/unauthorized-immigrant-population/state/fl

    Reply
  9. Carolinian

    New Patrick Lawrence takes a glass half full look at the Trump liftoff and even ventures some explanations.

    Many of the big-name philosophers of the past 100 years — Husserl, Heidegger, Lévinas, et al. — shared a pronounced preoccupation beginning in the 1920s. I relate this (and the scholars may correct me) to the wreckage of the First World War they found all around them. These were the explorers and developers of the discipline called phenomenology. Who are we? What has become of us, we who dwell in mass, mechanized societies? What is the nature of human relationships? These were among the questions.

    Emmanuel Lévinas, a Lithuanian Jew who lived in France (1906–1995) and wrote in French, elevated these matters to an enduring discourse concerning the Self and the Other. Indifference to others, he argued — and how radically must I simplify — lay at the root of the 20th century’s ills and evils. The cult of the individual, he posited (among a lot of other things) must be transcended in favor of relationships with all the Others among us. We realize who we are only by way of these relationships; they are primary. “The Self is possible only through the recognition of the Other,” he wrote, a noted line. So, to continue my simplification: We are social beings first; our individuality derives from our sociality. Lévinas published Totality and Infinity, the book wherein he stated his case most fully and famously, in 1961. […]

    Americans are not well-advantaged in these matters, to put the point mildly. We long ago turned our insistence in our individuality into the “ism” of individualism, an ideology that, however far it has taken America in the past, now proves a ball and chain at our ankles. Equally, America has had such power since the 1945 victories that its policy cliques long ago lost interest in the perspectives of others—how the world looks to them, their aspirations, their histories, all the rest. This is why, with admirable but few exceptions, America produces such poor diplomats. It has had no need of them. And the policy cliques in Washington have not yet registered that we have in consequence already begun to fail.

    https://scheerpost.com/2025/01/27/patrick-lawrence-trumps-failures-americas-failures/

    He’s saying the American cult of individualism also accounts for Trump’s pronouncements about the countries he wants to take over or the map points to be renamed. It’s a bit of megalomania to be sure but also the provincialism of someone who doesn’t worry much about how others might see these ideas. And for that reason he’s saying it’s very unlikely that most of them will come to pass including, one hopes, his recent statements about the Middle East.

    By contrast the Bidenistas’ fantasies were serious as a heart attack. One might well claim that in that instance the America above all others view morphed into sociopathy.

    Reply
    1. flora

      Thanks for your comment.
      One argument I’ve read about T touting a north-south US empire vs an east-west empire is that the neocon dream of an east-west empire has hit a stopping point. Whereas, in comparison, a north-south empire can still be achieved in some fashion, and would also undercut the neocon east-west dreams, if one wanted to undercut the neocon dreams.
      Not a bad argument, imo.

      Reply
    2. Jonathan Holland Becnel

      Reminds me of Cheneys quip about creating their own reality and everyone else just having to go with it.

      Reply
  10. seppenwolf fetchit

    ” Thinking ChatGPT is useless is midwit” . . . is midwit. Nate Silver has outed himself. Perhaps he always was an idiot-savant, or at least a moron-genius. Or maybe he got Covid which left him with a touch of long-term Covidementia and/or Covidunning-Krugeritis.

    Reply
      1. bob

        Natty and Mate, lost on an island they can see across–

        Mate – I see water

        Natty – This is more complicated that it looks!

        Reply
  11. steppenwolf fetchit

    . . . ” Absolutely wild statistic.

    There really are 2 Americas.

    And not a single politician, public figure, or business leader is in this bottom 75th percentile group: ” . . .

    How many of this bottom 75% would be ready to form or join a party called the Lower Class Majority Party? How many would still be too ashamed to admit that they are Lower Class? ( Because joining such a party would be a tacit admission that one is Lower Class).

    We! Are! the Seventy-Five Per Cent!

    How many of this bottom 75% would be ready to form or join a party called the New Deal America Party? ( That would take millions of person-hours at teach-ins all over the country to explain to Americans below a certain age what the “New Deal” even was. Only then could people decide about joining such a thing or not. I think it would be worth doing, though. Maybe it could be taught about in that nationwide network of Reading Rooms which no successor to OWS has yet been able to organize and fund itself to the point of being able to create).

    America needs a better Two Party System. A better Two Parties for a better Two Party System. A Lower Class Majority Party and a Make America New Deal Party, and they could spend a couple of decades in political cage-match fighting and Darwin could decide which is the better Party.

    Reply
    1. GF

      The New Deal teach-ins should emphasize the Second Bill of Rights proposed by FDR. They are never mentioned in the MSM:
      – The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation;
      – The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
      – The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
      – The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
      – The right of every family to a decent home;
      – The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
      – The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
      – The right to a good education.

      https://billofrightsinstitute.org/activities/franklin-roosevelt-second-bill-of-rights-1944

      Reply
  12. steppenwolf fetchit

    Here is a picture titled : The UC Davis pepper spray incident that the university paid over $100,000 to ‘erase from the internet’. ”

    And here it is, back on the internet.
    https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1ibcewz/the_uc_davis_pepper_spray_incident_that_the/

    Spirit of Saint Luigi.

    There must be non-violent ways to do non-violent things in the Spirit of Saint Luigi. Ways to really f*ck things up and tear things down strictly within the letter of the law. Global Guerillas is a blog well worth re-visiting and studying in slow careful fine-tooth detail.

    Reply
      1. Joe Renter

        Search for the Anarchist Cookbook. Bonus material includes how to make LSD.
        Interesting read via wiki on the book and author.

        Reply
  13. Anon

    Re: Trump Just Broke the Law

    From time to time, I end up in discussions on Facebook and I just so happened to come across a discussion regarding this. What Tomasky curiously omits in his piece is that incoming Administrations aren’t affected by the rule stating that you need 30 days of notice to remove an Inspector General. I really hope this isn’t “we’re out of strategies, just do lawfare all over again!” like the first term was. If so, we are in for a long four years.

    Reply
      1. Anon

        The best argument I can find is here – looks like if Democrats are determined, this can go up to the SC:

        Lawfare Media

        Not sure what punishment would be in mind if it’s acknowledged that he didn’t go about it the right way (providing 30 days of notice).

        Reply
  14. Carolinian

    Alastair Crooke also has a Substack and here’s an interesting discussion with Napolitano about Netanyahoo’s secret intention to restart the genocide and the changing mood of the Israeli public which opposes this.

    https://conflictsforum.substack.com/p/are-trump-and-netanyahu-on-a-collision

    Perhaps Trump knows this and his remarks about resettlement were aimed more at Bibi and to forestall. Crooke thinks a return to the bloodshed may lead to a breach with Trump.

    Reply
    1. anahuna

      I’ve been watching Tucker Carlson’s lengthy interview with Matt. Good to see Matt in that platform, though sad to see him pushing the idea that masks were unnecessary and their use was instituted as a way of “inducing social conformity”. He seems to be a big Battacharya fan.

      Reply
      1. JMH

        Matt did say that inducing social conformity might well have been a motive and, as I understood it, after the fact. I do not recall him saying masks were per se unnecessary.

        Reply
      2. Sub-Boreal

        Yes, sad indeed, much as I enjoy Matt’s commentary on many things. He falls into a special category of writers who are usually so spot on, that when they go off into the deep end it is so absurdly wacky and obvious that I’m prepared to cut him more slack that I would for someone of lesser talents.

        Reply
        1. flora

          And yet, do we throw out the baby with the bath water? Or do we do our own research (horrors!) and come to our own conclusions? Taking Taibbi and many others into account?

          The US’s ye olde health authorities having fallen into disrepute, I’ll read widely and come to my own conclusions. Gasp!

          Reply
  15. Jason Boxman

    From How the Messy Process of Milking Cows Can Spread Bird Flu

    It takes seven hours for the farm to milk all 1,050 cows. Then, the workers spend an hour cleaning, which includes washing out the milking equipment with detergent and hot water. After that, the next eight-hour shift begins, and all the cows are milked again.

    It’s hard to believe this doesn’t milk the cows to death. Like a war, this runs 24/7.

    Reply
    1. lyman alpha blob

      My family’s dairy farm used to milk the cows twice per day, about 10-11 hours apart, so the schedule from the link isn’t that drastic. Also, dairy cows are “dried off” (not milked at all) for several weeks per year.

      I’m sure though that your average cow in an industrial herd has a shorter lifespan than one on a small farm that sends most of her day out in the field.

      Reply
      1. JMH

        That sounds right and on an industrial milk factory as described it would take hours to clean the equipment. If the cows are milked in the same order the milkings would be 10 to 11, maybe 12 hours apart.

        Reply
  16. flora

    re: Gallery

    Wonderful and hilarious Chas Addams cartoon to think most readers identified with and got a laugh from the Addams Family cartoons.
    Could it be that we are all more alike than we think. / ;)

    Reply
  17. Wukchumni

    My spidey senses are on overdrive, and so far its been a slow slog into the abyss, but I get the feeling things are gonna speed up in a big slide kind of fashion, could get messy… if you’d allow me to be Frank with you~

    The Frank Slide was a massive rockslide that buried part of the mining town of Frank in the District of Alberta of the North-West Territories, Canada, at 4:10 a.m. on April 29, 1903. Around 44 million cubic metres/110 million tonnes (120 million short tons) of limestone rock slid down Turtle Mountain. Witnesses reported that within 100 seconds the rock reached up the opposing hills, obliterating the eastern edge of Frank, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) line and the coal mine. It was one of the largest landslides in Canadian history and remains the deadliest, as between 70 and 90 of the town’s residents died, most of whom remain buried in the rubble.

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

    Reply
  18. Tom Stone

    It’s quite an exciting start to the New Year, LA Fires, DeepSeek deep sixing Open AI, Trump tossing shit bombs in every direction and best of all I haven’t heard a cackle from Harris..
    Trump has done a few things I approve of and more things I disapprove of, but he is always entertaining.

    As to 2028 I think Fetterman is the Dem’s best choice, a genocidaire with obvious brain damage is an entirely suitable choice for the Party.

    Reply
  19. Wukchumni

    An oldie but goodie from last year…

    She can’t seem to face up to the facts
    She’s tense and nervous and without killing something can’t relax
    She can’t sleep ’cause of all the ire
    Don’t touch her as Veep material, a no hire

    Canine Killer
    Qu’est-ce que c’est?
    Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa, better
    Run, run, run, run, run, run, run away, oh-oh-oh
    Canine Killer
    Qu’est-ce que c’est?
    Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa, better
    Run, Fido run, run, run, run, run, run away, oh, oh, oh, oh
    Ay-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya, ooh

    You start a controversy, you can’t even finish it
    You’re talking a lot, but you’re not saying anything
    When you have nothing to say, your lips are sealed
    Kill something once, why kill it again?

    Canine Killer
    Qu’est-ce que c’est?
    Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa, better
    Run, run, run, run, run, run, run away, oh-oh-oh
    Canine Killer
    Qu’est-ce que c’est?
    Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa, better
    Run, Fido run, run, run, run, run, run away, oh, oh, oh, oh
    Ay-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya

    Ce que j’ai fait, ce soir-là
    Ce qu’elle a dit, ce soir-là
    Réalisant mon espoir
    Je me lance vers la gloire, okay
    Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
    We are vain and we are blind
    I hate people when they’re not polite to animals

    Canine Killer
    Qu’est-ce que c’est?
    Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa, better
    Run, run, run, run, run, run, run away, oh-oh-oh
    Canine Killer
    Qu’est-ce que c’est?
    Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa, better
    Run, Fido run, run, run, run, run, run away, oh, oh, oh, oh
    Ay-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya, ooh

    Psycho Killer, by the Talking Heads

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O52jAYa4Pm8

    Reply
  20. stefan

    When I lived in Japan I was surprised by the dearth of lawyers and lawsuits. I came to the conclusion that Japan is governed by customs, unlike the US which is governed by laws. Yet, if we denigrate both norms and lawsuits, what recourse remains?

    Heraclitus (fragment 249): “The people must fight on behalf of the law as though for the city wall.”

    Abraham Lincoln (in “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions.”): “As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor…. Let reverence for the laws…become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars.”

    Reply
      1. flora

        I think not in the US. Else why would Davos fellow the American John Kerry claim the US Constitution’s !st Amendment regarding freedom of speech a difficultly and an impediment for “their right to rule”? Where said “their right” is an entirely undemocratic and shadowy body?

        Reply
      1. stefan

        Hence the recourse in the US to lawsuits (or as some would have it, to lawfare).

        Property, liberty, and wardship compose authority, first in the solitary individual, then in the family, and finally in the state. (At the state level, wardship consists of all laws, magistracies, judiciary, arms, fortifications, wars, and treaties.) Civil authority, comprised of all three, is political sovereignty, but from what shall this authority derive its justification?

        Authority is related to certitude as reason is related to truth. Truth is the object of divine reason–Only god knows the Truth; certitude is all that belongs to man. This certitude depends not on reason but on authority–the authority of our senses or of our informants or of those who have enacted the laws which we receive as determinant or certain.

        Certitude is a partial knowledge. Certitude is subjective. Certitude is empirical, dependent on experience or tradition, and not on reason.

        Hence, progress in history and politics consists in the gradual assimilation of authority to reason. In theory, anyway.

        Reply
  21. ambrit

    The true ‘Red Flag’ in that Resume Now list is the fact that 3 in 10 report having taken out debt to pay living expenses. The more immiserated people become, the more desperate they become, the more angry they become. We are thus seeing first-hand the creation of a revolutionary mass.
    As people become increasingly “homeless,” Power truly will be out in the street waiting to be picked up.
    What the American Democrat Party needs now is an American Lenin to force them into action.

    Reply
  22. Acacia

    Re: “Scoop: How Trump’s ‘black box’ limits outside influences”

    It’s a total black box,” a lobbyist close to the administration told Axios. “Nothing is leaking except what they want.”

    There’s a “strong silo system” that has kept advocates and special interests from forum-shopping and end-running administration officials, the lobbyist added.

    So… “forum-shopping and end-running administration officials” means either the way things worked in the Trump 1.0 admin, or else it means this has just been the standard operating procedure for DC lobbyists under any recent admin (given time, tho, I’m sure the lobbyists will figure it out).

    On this subject, if anybody can suggest a good article or book on how lobbyists and lobbying work in DC, I’d be grateful to hear.

    Reply

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