Recent Items

Links 11/22/2025

Posted on by

A lot of axolotls: the amphibian-themed banknote Mexicans don’t want to spend Guardian

The Patent Office Is About To Make Bad Patents Untouchable Electronic Frontier Foundation (Kevin W). This is a call to action. If you have any interest in patents, please read this artice and submit a comment opposting the proposed US Patent Office rule change.

Massive hidden structures deep inside Earth may explain how life began ScienceDaily (Kevin W)

THE ATLAS OF ECONOMIC COMPLEXITY Harvard Growth Lab (resilc)

Climate/Environment

Less water from glaciers during future megadroughts in the Southern Andes Nature

Climate Change Is Stressing Italy’s Cows, and Coming for Your Burrata New York Times

Record-breaking November heat blankets the South, shattering records ABC

China?

China Weighs New Property Stimulus Package as Crisis Lingers Bloomberg

U.S. rare earth ambitions center on Malaysia. But China’s already there. Washington Post (resilc)

Japan-China Row

China says trade cooperation with Japan ‘severely damaged’ by Taiwan comments Reuters

Deutsche Bank Warns of Japan Capital Flight in Echo of UK Crisis Bloomberg

Koreas

Won’s real purchasing power falls to lowest since financial crisis Joongang Daily

India

Anger grows as Delhi’s residents take to streets over toxic air: ‘People have woken up’ Independent

Lives lost to extreme weather events in India increased nearly 50% in 4 years Down to Earth

Pakistan

US quietly pushing Pakistan and Israel together Asia Times

Africa

Scramble for Sudan’s resources fuels brutal civil war France24

Plea for aid as Kenya suffers latest climate-driven drought The Tablet

Chad: Authorities failing to address deadly clashes between herders and farmers amid climate crisis Amnesty

South of the Border

Putting Venezuela Into Perspective… A Massive Challenge Compared to Iraq, While Russian Offensive Picks Up Steam Larry Johnson

On Venezuela, Trump Should Take the Money and Run American Conservative (resilc)

Warning signs appear on Mexican beach declaring area restricted by U.S. as Mexico rejects Trump offer to strike cartels CBS (Kevin W)

European Disunion

Germany’s problems are worse than you think Financial Times

More than half of Dutch nationals (56%) are avoiding turning on their heating as rising energy bills push households into financial hardship Energy Live

Old Blighty

UK government borrows more than expected in setback before budget Guardian

Labour plot to slash electricity prices for AI companies The National (Paul R)

Returning to London after a year in the countryside, the signs of societal collapse are everywhere – even at 7am Daily Mail

‘People tell me they haven’t eaten in days’ BBC

Israel v. The Resistance

Gaza: As Cold and Rain Assault Homeless, Israel Blocks Entry of Tents Juan Cole (resilc)

West Bank: After nine months of Israeli military operations, refugee camps are ‘uninhabitable’ Le Monde

Fundraisers warn of ‘catastrophic’ drop in donations to Gaza since ceasefire Guardian

Mike Huckabee Held Meeting With Jonathan Pollard, Who Spied on the US for Israel Antiwar (resilc)

Israel’s ‘Inquisition’ Begins; The Last Cries of Liberal Israel? Conflicts Forum (Chuck L)

New Not-So-Cold War

28 Points Zero Sense Julian Macfarlane

Russia Unstoppable Set To Reject US Plan; Kupyansk Falls; Putin Sticks To Terms; Kiev Regime Change Alexander Mercoursis, YouTube. It turns out there are multiple versions of this scheme circulating, with some important differences among them. But most important, Mercouris presents evidence that Dimitriv did not negotiate, much the less agree, this draft but might have provided some input. Alternatively (which Mercouris did not contemplate) Dimitriev was more than minimally involved, he was way out over his skis and official Russia is officially disavowing his participation. John Helmer has often said that Dimitriev is known as an aggressive self-promoter so this is not impossible.

Putin on the 28 Points Karl Sanchez

US vice president defends Ukraine-Russia peace framework, says critics ‘living in a fantasy land‘ Anadolu Agency

Brief Frontline Report – November 21st, 2025 Marat Khairullin and Mikhail Popov

McConnell, Wicker pan Trump plan for Ukraine as rewarding Putin The Hill

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Border Patrol is monitoring US drivers and detaining those with ‘suspicious’ travel patterns Associated Press (Kevin W)

Imperial Collapse Watch

What are the consequences of an escalating global arms race? Annual military spending is rising globally at its steepest level since the Cold War Aljazeera

China’s chip war is only just beginning Telegraph

Five Eyes Become Three Blind Mice Washington Monthly (resilc)

Documents reveal Gerald Ford’s effort to block report on CIA assassination plots Guardian

Trump 2.0

7 signs Trump is losing his groove Politico. resilc: “Dead or impeached by mid 27 and removed.”

DOJ reverses, says grand jury approved Comey charges The Hill. I can’t even….

The Comey Case Is a Comedy of Errors New York Times

Coast Guard reclassifies swastikas and nooses as hate symbols after backlash CNN

GOP Clown Car

MTG’s full statement. It sounds as if her inability to get much done, as in have bills get considered, was a significant factor.

Epstein

Is This Finally and Blessedly the End of the Larry Summers Era? Dean Baker, The New Republic (resilc). Whoever wrote the headline did Baker a disservice. Summers has quite the rap sheet.

Summers Will Not Finish Semester of Teaching as Harvard Investigates Epstein Ties Harvard Crimson (resilc)

Jeffrey Epstein Claimed to Have Meddled in Israel’s Elections Jacobin (Paul R)

Mamdani

I’ll stick up for you’: key moments from the cordial Trump-Mamdani meeting Guardian (Kevin W)

Trump SWOONS Over Zohran in Surreal Oval Office Presser Breaking News

Can Lina Khan make beer cheaper at Yankee games? Gothamist

Our No Longer Free Press

The Algorithm Accountability Act’s Threat to Free Speech Reclaim the Net

Economy

>G20 countries’ medium-term growth to be weakest since 2009 crisis, IMF says Reuters

All the signs that America may be teetering on the brink of recession Telegraph

‘This is a structural goods recession’: U.S. freight market is starting to roll over as Chinese trade plummets CNBC

Mr. Market is Moody

The Warning Signal That Preceded Every Crash Since 1929 Just Flashed Again Investing

AI bubble fears return as Wall Street falls back from short-lived rally Guardian

AI

The Way Billionaires Are Using AI May Cause Concern They Have Actual Brain Damage Futurism

OpenAI’s Business Model Is A Money Laundry  indi.ca (resilc)

Are the Benefits of AI Worth the Risk of ‘White-Collar Bloodbath’? The Daily Economy (resilc)

Learning with AI falls short compared to old-fashioned web search The Conversation

The Bezzle

Private credit markets and stablecoins need close monitoring, G20 watchdog tells leaders Reuters

Americans’ Nest Eggs Built a Private Equity Loan Revolution Bloomberg (resilc)

Class Warfare

Raising taxes on the ultrarich Economic Policy Institute

Rising Home Insurance Premiums Are Eating Into Home Values in Disaster-Prone Areas New York Times

Corporation Pumping Soothing Gas Into New York Subway Station Futurism

Antidote du jour (via):

A special bonus from resilc who has a farm in Vermont:

A bonus:

Another bonus:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Subscribe to Post Comments
150 comments

        1. IMOR

          Pat, you may have just resolved the question of how best to view / assess AI visuals of all types for me (and everyone?). They are cartoons, caricatures of their source material or parallel human endeavors.
          Thank you!
          May even apply to AI business and science projects: caricatures of what is actually necessary.

          Reply ↓
    3. .Tom

      The cat video, otoh, demonstrates the sense of humor of the domestic feline. Like a stand up comedian the cat keeps checking the audience reaction to its performance.

      Reply ↓
  2. The Rev Kev

    “Putin on the 28 Points”

    There is no way that Putin is going to treat those 28 points as the final plan but will consider them a basis of negotiations though Trump may have other ideas. And as the negotiations continue, the Russian military are setting up new realities on the ground by taking the Ukraine fortress belt. In one “version” of that 28 point plan, the unoccupied part of the Donbass would be not only turned into a DMZ but that Russia would lease that territory from the Ukrainians. A few weeks more and it will be a moot point as the Russian military will take it all back – and more.

    Funny thing is that Trump is demanding that Zelensky accept that plan by Thanksgiving as if it was the final version. And to put pressure on him, he has threatened to cut of weapons and intel from the Ukraine. If I was Zelensky I would call Trump’s bluff and refuse to sign it. That way if the Ukraine starts to collapse, the Neocons, the Ukrainians and the Europeans will put all the blame on Trump for losing the Ukraine which is the last thing he wants.

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni

      When Black Friday comes
      I’ll stand down by the door
      And wear a green shirt when Trump
      Says no more
      When Black Friday comes
      I’ll collect everything I’m owed
      And before my friends find out
      I’ll be on the road

      When Black Friday falls
      You know it’s got to be
      Don’t let it fall on me

      When Black Friday comes
      I’ll fly down to Nicosia
      Gonna be Lefkosia behind
      Pay Kiev little mind
      Gonna do just what I please
      Gonna wear out my welcome too
      With nothing to do but be
      On the loose

      When Black Friday comes
      I’ll be on that hill
      You know I will

      When Black Friday comes
      I’m gonna dig myself a hole
      Gonna lay gotten gains down in it
      ‘Til I satisfy my soul
      Gonna let the world pass by me
      The Demos gonna sanctify me
      And if more alms & arms don’t come across
      I’m gonna roll

      When Black Friday comes
      I’m gonna stake my Cyprus claim
      I’ll guess I’ll change my name

      Black Friday, by Steely Dan

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lmy_b2Ej8k&list=RD1lmy_b2Ej8k

      Reply ↓
  3. ScottD

    A supplier for a company I once woked at developed an optical component under NDA and applied for a patent behind our backs. A year or so later our customers started getting sued for using said component in their products, even though it was agreed in writing that we would have a royalty free and assignable license to the technology developed.

    Rather than deal with the legal issues, our customers shifted to another technology from overseas. A 9-figure revenue loss.

    Reply ↓
  4. bertl

    “The Patent Office Is About To Make Bad Patents Untouchable”

    Truly a gift of immense importance to corporate (and individual) Luddites in whose interests it is to prevent innovatiion by others and enables then to get great rents on the IP they own. Once again, a US institution gives the future away to China, Russia and the other BRICS countries, and enables the US economy to go down the tube even faster than Germany. God bless America.

    Reply ↓
    2. Carolinian

      The article points out that patent trolls will still exist regardless and that the review process has only existed since 2013. Many including Dean Baker and Cory Doctorow have pointed out that the problems with our Intellectual Property regime are way bigger than the proposed change.

      In movie world patents had a lot to do with the existence of Hollywood since zealous enforcement of basic patents on the movie camera caused early filmmakers to flee the NY area to California in order to use their “pirated” machines (CA weather also had something to do with it). Doctorow says that unreasonable IP enforcement does indeed lead to “piracy, the obvious choice” among the public if less among money making corporations that can be more easily sued.

      Reply ↓
  5. The Rev Kev

    Working link for “G20 countries’ medium-term growth to be weakest since 2009 crisis, IMF says Reuters” article at-

    https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/g20-countries-medium-term-growth-be-weakest-since-2009-crisis-imf-says-2025-11-19/

    I would suggest that some members of the G20 are having better economies than others. G20 countries like Argentina, France, Germany and the UK would be having a rough time of it while G20 countries like Russia and China would be coping better.

    Reply ↓
  6. hemeantwell

    The FT article on the German economy contains at least one memory hole:

    Another frequent scapegoat is the price of energy. There is no doubt that Germany was hard hit by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to turn off the taps on gas supplies to Europe in 2022 (and not to fill up Germany’s reservoirs in the autumn of 2021). But everyone in Europe suffered from the resulting energy crisis. Did Germany suffer a greater blow?

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      The only problem with that FT article is that Russia never turned off the gas but it was European countries which cut the gas off themselves. But to avoid the blame for doing so, they made up the legend that Putindidit.

      Reply ↓
      1. ilsm

        US export of LNG skyrocketed in summer/fall 2022! (per US DoE EIA)

        Running around 6 million barrels per day equivalent measure since then.

        US importing some crude needs, but LNG exports give 2 to 3 million barrel a day export surplus.

        Reply ↓
  7. Wukchumni

    A lot of axolotls: the amphibian-themed banknote Mexicans don’t want to spend Guardian
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    With a design including Diego Rivera as an added bonus!

    It’s a rare vertical oriented banknote too, never see that~

    How money looks is a good barometer to how a country is faring, our paper money is largely unchanged since 1929 and frankly horrid looking, with the insipid $10 sporting a red torch that bears no reason to be there, aside from an afterthought of doing an anti-counterfeiting measure. (color copiers can’t pick up certain color combos)

    Since the Lydians came up with the idea of coined money some 2,500+ years ago, artistry waxes & wanes, here’s a variety of Ancient Greek coins of the highest artistry:

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

    About 1,000 years later, this is what coins looked like in the Dark Ages just after the fall of the Roman Empire, and the artistry only declined from then on for 500 more years.

    https://www.vcoins.com/en/coins/world/germanicdark_ages-583.aspx

    Our paper money was quite beautiful once upon a time, with the 1896 Educational Series even sporting a little bit of nudity on the $5 banknote!

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

    Reply ↓
    1. mrsyk

      “Banned in Boston”

      The naked breasts of the female figures on the $5 silver certificate reportedly caused some minor controversy when several Boston society ladies took offense to the design. Some bankers reportedly refused to accept the notes in transactions, and the term “banned in Boston” allegedly originates from the $5 silver certificate

      Reply ↓
  9. DJG, Reality Czar

    Ahhh, Coming for Your Burrata. Is it time for the national conversation on U.S. narcissism?

    The article is a reminder of the DJG Axiom about Writing by Anglos about the Mediterranean World >>
    It is almost always inaccurate, and most Anglo writing about Italy is just plain wrong.

    (A notable exception — and another reason for reading Naked Capitalism — is Conor Gallagher, who always runs down details and gets them in line.)

    Observations, dairy-related:
    –Burrata is something of a fad, like “cacio e pepe,” which went from being a Roman favorite to a supposedly national dish. Except that I have almost never seen it here in the Undisclosed Region.
    –Puglia has always had very hot and dry summers. I am not trying to discount climate change, the effects of which are readily seen in much of Italy, mainly as excessive warming. Patience Gray in her wonderful Honey from a Weed has some vivid descriptions of Puglia in summer, rainless, preternaturally bright, and hot.
    –For these reasons, the farmers in the article are bravely challenging some problems with weather and climate. In most of Italy south of Roma, the main milk producers are sheep, buffalo, and goats. All of these animals tolerate heat better.
    –In Sicily, the main producers of milk have been the sheep and goats. According to Mary Taylor Simeti, in her definitive Pomp and Sustenance, there was no (bovine) dairy in Sicily before the early 1800s, when one was established because of royals exiled from Napoli during the Napoleonic invasions.
    –Buffalo is still highly regarded in Italy, as are sheep and goats. U.S. farmers might learn something, but U.S. agriculture is locked into mono-cropping, and animal husbandry consists of growing animals too fast and slaughtering them too young.
    –Here in the Undisclosed Region, some producers still send their cows up to higher pastures in the Alps during spring and summer. Special cheeses are made during the “alpeggio.” Then the cows come down in the fall, during celebrations, with the cows all dolled up in flower crowns and wearing big bells. The seasonality of milk is widely understood in Italy.
    –The article is worth reading for the typical Italian meticulousness and care. Italians are extremely serious about food production, and the article does give a glimpse of how intense the process can be. (By the way, buffalo-milk mozzarella is often considered the real mozzarella.)
    –There is a rather sly producer here in the Undisclosed Region who is making camembert from buffalo milk. The cheese is grand. (Don’t tell the French.)

    U.S. agriculture is too industrialized. The lesson of the article is that U.S. farmers and eaters should take a step back and try to rescue the U.S. countryside, now overwhelmed with unsellable soybeans, corn being made into syrup, and cattle feedlots with thousands of sick cows making sick milk.

    Reply ↓
    1. KLG

      “U.S. agriculture is too industrialized. The lesson of the article is that U.S. farmers and eaters should take a step back and try to rescue the U.S. countryside, now overwhelmed with unsellable soybeans, corn being made into syrup, and cattle feedlots with thousands of sick cows making sick milk.”

      Some of us try to get the point across, but the “farmers” in Georgia think it is there purpose and right to produce, not farm, soybeans and feed corn on thousand-acre plots. The state legislature is all-in on the grift. There are precious few who do not go along but their lights don’t go out, so there is hope. As for Americans being serious about food…Ha!

      Reply ↓
      1. John9

        In addition to not understanding the seasonality of milk, Americans have no clue about the taste of milk from different breeds of cows and the wonderful taste of buffalo milk.
        Holsteins produce vast quantities of inferior tasting milk that is made even worse by the crap diet the cows are fed to stimulate max production. Crap tasting industrial milk is all that’s available to most Americans.

        Reply ↓
      2. lyman alpha blob

        There are some efforts. There is an alpine breed of cows in France called Tarentaise whose milk makes a very nice cheese. An artisanal cheesemaker in Vermont wanted to try to replicate it in the US and approached my family’s farm several years ago thinking their herd would be a good match. They milked Jerseys, but pastured on a terrain similar to that in France. My family agreed to supply the milk for their Tarentaise cheese , which they did for several years. But even with the cheesemaker paying them substantially over the going rate for their high quality milk, they couldn’t make a go of it as a small farm and sold the herd a few years ago.

        Reply ↓
      3. skippy

        Its like some people have completely forgotten or never aware of the Green Revolution of one Norman Borlaug. For all the laurels bestowed on him, he ushered in the Corporate Ag/Food Industry Cabal. For the increase in yields there is a very long and broad list of cons off setting them. Of note is the need to buy seed from monopolies, cross pollination IP dramas [see Mexico currently], petro-chem [waves at DuPont (better living through chemicals ads lmmao) – short list. The deal is industry sets the standards based on a balance sheet and flow of funds first and foremost for the benefit of a few.

        On the petro-chem I remember an old doco about some banned Herbicide in the U.S. which by law was supposed to be destroyed. Wellie the Mfg found it more profitable to ship it to Mexico and be used there. Clear evidence of it being improperly stored [little wooden shacks and leaking], handling, and worst of all … poor farmer families lived right next to the fields where it was sprayed whilst the kids were playing et al – its a neurotoxin. So a experiment was undertaken to judge the cognitive effects between the farm children and say children living at a higher elevation in the same region. Basically the kids on the farm were like zombies compared to the kids at higher elevation, things like rocking up with a red balloon and their reactions, kids running up to greet them, instigating spontaneous play between themselves, all of it.

        Sorta like Dick Cheney’s [bless his dear deported soul] mate getting help to sell a byproduct as an artificial sweetener till real world effects were cropping up. Not that background toxicity like CO2 has gone parabolic and lest we forget man made neurotoxins/psychotropics. Add Covid into the mix and the gaslighting to dump down the public is a trifecta of human stoopid[tm].

        Reply ↓
      4. steppenwolf fetchit

        Food-serious Americans buy serious food from companies like Anson Mills.
        https://ansonmills.com/biographies

        Food-serious Americans pay to keep serious food artisanality alive here and there.

        And food-serious Americans with back yards at least are also learning serious-food gardening in order to grow themselves some serious quality fruits and vegetables grown without petrochemical cancer juice.

        Reply ↓
    1. Louis Fyne

      being a Congressperson is no fun if you’re in the minority. even worse as a blacklisted-majority.

      No big conspiracy. if MTg was smart, she’d leverage her (niche) fame into being a pundit

      Reply ↓
    2. ChrisFromGA

      I have to admit to feeling very sad about this.

      Someone finally shows some grit and a spark, and it gets extinguished like a fire after someone throws a pail of piss on it.

      Without her the Freedom caucus is a joke. I’m sure Lindsey Graham is celebrating, and Liz Cheney too.

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        Maybe. There are too many unknowns here. Remember when Tucker Carslon got the sack from his network, only to come roaring back with his own independent one that is now a major factor in its own right? I don’t think that MTG is just one to fade off into the distance but will come back in one form or another. Time will tell.

        Reply ↓
          1. Victor Sciamarelli

            I don’t think you should imply that MTG, who is a woman, has big balls. Besides, men have owned that phrase for a long time and women should get their own phrase. Perhaps, we could say she has a big pair of ovaries but I don’t want to catch hell for interfering.

            Reply ↓
            1. Yves Smith Post author

              Policing other readers’ tone is not on. Please don’t do so.

              And I as a woman, I would take that as high praise.

              IMHO, the issue here is that most billionaires that IM Doc and his colleagues have treated have had genital-enhancing surgery, both the balls and the penis. So I would be more concerned about this sort of remark reinforcing equipment size fetishism.

              Reply ↓
              2. elissa3

                “genital-enhancing surgery”. What?! Is this true? Don’t the oligarchs know that “it’s not how long you make it, it’s how you make it long”? (No apologies to Winston).

                Reply ↓
                1. Dr. John Carpenter

                  If the rumors are true, Elon not only had surgery but it went very wrong leaving him unfunctional. Sometimes it’s better not to take the risk and leave well enough alone. ;)

                  (Also further proof money can’t buy you everything.)

                  Reply ↓
                2. Yves Smith Post author

                  I am told additionally that many can no longer have vaginal intercourse as a result (not that they can’t get hard, but the stiffened member is not receptacle-friendly). But at their level, it’s the balance sheet and not the performance that is presumed to pleasure their sex partner.

                  Reply ↓
      3. mrsyk

        Like her or not, MTG was providing critical, vocal observations on the hypocrisies evident in Trump policies when held to the America First maxim. She will be missed.

        Reply ↓
    3. Yves Smith Post author

      1. She said in effect that she didn’t want to have to fight a bare-knucle battle to win in the primary (which she should win, she had big margins in her past elections) and then be in a House that would probably be controlled by Democrats and have to defend Trump v. the expected impeachment.

      2. There was speculation she would run for the Senate or Governor but she said no. But plenty of time to draft her later and have her gracefully accept.

      3. IIRC one of the threats against her was versus a family member….her son? That would also focus the mind.

      Reply ↓
      1. KLG

        I think her turnaround is genuine and comes from personal growth, but I have been fooled before. Still, it happens, especially with someone who is not of the Swamp.

        She would win her primary without breaking a sweat, but defending Trump in the aftermath would be too much to take given that she has finally seen up close and personal what kind of man he is. The backlash against Trump among her constituents because of his attacks – Marjorie Traitor Greene – will be measurable. They are likely to take it personally, and this makes GOP candidate appeals to their Trump bona fides a perilous tactic outside of the Blue urban areas of Georgia.

        I’m going with #2. The current GOP candidates for US Senator are unimpressive in the extreme, but it may be too late for that. And I cannot see her being subservient to Lindsay Graham. Governor is a definite possibility, though. Georgia is flush right now and she would be unlikely to mess that up. She would also be less inclined to pay attention to the supplicants under the Gold Dome. A definite plus. She had no problem with the beat down of the two GOP Public Service Commissioners earlier this month. They lived in the pockets of Georgia Power Company and everyone knows that.

        #3 certainly would have pushed her to make this decision. If this comes out, the perps will be cast into the outer darkness in perpetuity.

        Reply ↓
        1. AG

          She is still young. Enough time to come back. Besides there are still Rubio, Vance, perhaps Tulsi (and some others). How far could she make it with those in charge?

          Reply ↓
      1. mrsyk

        Imagine. Two of the issues that she is most vocal on are Epstein and Gaza, and they both are critical for the current Israeli regime.

        Reply ↓
        1. ambrit

          I hear the Charlie Kirk was killed for his nascent anti-Zionism theme often on the street here in the North American Deep South.
          I now think that the Zionist Elites have overreached. American public opinion is now firmly anti-Zionist here down South. What the Zionists either fail to understand or do not care about is that this anti-Zionism will easily change into full blown anti-semitism.
          Expect to see the return of pogroms, popular pogroms. One ultra-conspirational theory is that the Globalist elites will divert the public’s anger about the deteriorating conditions of the average Terran human’s standard of living from them to the Jews. My inner cynic can easily see this happening. Some may counter argue that many of the Globalist elite are Jewish. Hannah Arendt showed clearly in her analysis of the Holocaust in “Eichman in Jerusalem” that the high status Jewish elites sold out the low status Jews to insure their personal survival. Thus, it follows that the Jewish Globalists will sell out the lower status Jews to preserve their power.
          That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

          Reply ↓
          1. Alice X

            God’s Chosen People™. Blood is thicker than water, it is the Almighty at play for sure. But thickest of all is the Almighty dollar.

            Reply ↓
          2. vao

            “[…] the high status Jewish elites sold out the low status Jews to insure their personal survival. Thus, it follows that the Jewish Globalists will sell out the lower status Jews to preserve their power.”

            In other words: it is all about class — the concept that should never, ever be mentioned in polite society.

            This is something that the Jewish “bundists” had already understood: they found irremediably suspect the idea of emigrating to Palestine in order to establish colonies there, on land bought through grants paid by, and travel expenses subsidized by the same ultra-rich Jewish capitalists who, at home, where exploiting them and their non-Jewish comrades without any moral compunction. Of course, zionists hated the bundists.

            Reply ↓
          3. steppenwolf fetchit

            One hopes the lower status Jews have enough guns and ammo to make the “popular pogromists” pay for their “popular pogroms”.

            Reply ↓
            1. ambrit

              The problem here is that most if not all “resistance” movements require a “vanguard” cadre to guide and “enlighten” the downtrodden masses. The degree of “kinetic capability” is almost irrelevant here. This is why the “thought leaders” of emerging movements are usually “liquidated” to ameliorate the nascent threat to the status quo. I place Charlie Kirk firmly within this category.
              Alas, despite the fondest wishes of so many, proper revolutions are not “crowdsourced.” Also of note is that most pogroms from the past were “officially” approved. The status quo elites view such eruptions of popular anger as not only social pressure relief valves, but also opportunities for personal profit through seizures of goods formerly belonging to the dispossessed. When you worship at the altar of Mammon, all else falls away, morals, ethics, restraint.
              Stay safe.

              Reply ↓
    5. Wukchumni

      …she wanted it to coincide with the assassination of JFK?

      I think she reached the pinnacle of politics as ugly as it stands presently in these not so united states, with only a downward spiral to look forward to as the feckless Donkey Show wins in a year by default-not by ability.

      Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        p.s.

        M T-G has come a long way…

        In light of 8/10’s of an inch of rain @ Burning Man in 2023, she stated that said deluge was divine punishment…

        “God has a way of making sure everyone knows who God is”.

        Although I was there for the Rx possibilities, great art and the best vibe ever shared by 75,000 others, she pegged me…

        “probably being brainwashed that climate change is the cause of all of it” and that after they dispersed, they would “have these stories to tell about how terrible this is and how we have to do everything possible to stop climate change”

        Reply ↓
    6. Jessica

      I am going to honor her spark and backbone by assuming she has been sincere. In that case, it must be a crushing disappointment to have the hero she fought so hard for turn out to be a turncoat.

      Reply ↓
    8. antidlc

      Thanks for all of the replies.

      My hope is that her final act will be the reading of the names from the Epstein files on the House floor.

      just FYI:

      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/rich-marjorie-taylor-greene-123013554.htmlhttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/rich-marjorie-taylor-greene-123013554.html

      Greene’s financial journey is as unconventional as her political career. Since joining Congress in 2021, her net worth has skyrocketed, jumping from around $700,000 to as much as $25 million. As of October 2025, Marjorie Taylor Greene’s estimated net worth is approximately $25 million, which marks a significant increase from before she took office.

      Reply ↓
      1. ChrisFromGA

        IMO she should have stuck it out for the rest of her term. She’d have been a useful gadfly even as a lame duck.

        Now the GOP governor will have to call for a special election in her district, and that person will hold office until the next rep wins a general election and is sworn in a year from Jan 2026.

        That means another headache for Mike Johnson, as technically his majority will drop to one vote after she leaves.

        That makes Massie the GOP equivalent of Joe Manchin. Not a bad parting shot at the Swamp Stooge Speaker.

        Reply ↓
        1. scott s.

          Depending on state election law, special elections can be really difficult to handicap. Special election is how Repub Djou got elected to Congress in deep blue Hawaii.

          Reply ↓
    9. GF

      Antidic: My thoughts are THANK YOU GOD!! She voted for every Trump initiative he put forward. She is one of the main causes of the mess we are in. Now if the rest of MAGA resigns, the country might just survive.

      Reply ↓
      1. GF

        Also, IIRC, didn’t MTG threaten AOC (implying that she had a gun in her purse while yelling at her walking down the street)? I can’t find the video right now. Please correct me if I am wrong on this.

        Reply ↓
      2. Alice X

        When someone criticizes the Zios, I listen, and maybe stand with them, though they may leave out some crucial fundamentals. Otherwise it’s an open field. She did, and so she was a target. Make no mistake, the Zios are absolutely ruthless. I’m waiting to hear from AOC.

        Reply ↓
      3. Dr. John Carpenter

        Yeah, it’s a bit odd to see many lefties reaction to this. I can only relate it to when Dick Cheney suddenly became part of McResistance. In both instances, Trump became a bridge too far but the rest of the package seems the same.

        Reply ↓
    10. .Tom

      Quit while you’re ahead.

      She can come back to electoral politics another day but right now she’s looking good and can bank that. The coming year+ will be much less fun and quite risky for her.

      Reply ↓
  11. The Rev Kev

    Damn man, there is something about resilc’s snow clearing in Vermont that is both relaxing and mesmerizing. It’s like those people that put video cameras on trains and you follow their journey as if you were at the front of that train. Well done, resilc.

    Reply ↓
        1. flora

          The flags on either side of the snowplow engine hood are a give away that it’s probably a state or county snowplow. Those flags aren’t US or Vermont./ ;)

          Reply ↓
          1. Mass

            They also aren’t flags or any European country I know of (and look like reverse Austrian flag with proportions off), so they may just be markers of the edges of plow used as help in navigating narrow areas. ;)

            Reply ↓
    2. flora

      Video title says it’s from the John Deere co. about snow clearing in the Alps. The Green Mountains are in Vermont. The Green Mountains are a subrange of Appalachian Mountains. Vermont snowplowing probably looks exactly like this. / ;)

      Reply ↓
        1. ambrit

          The original version is definitely a better film. The bit at the end with the snow plow and the paraglider is laugh out loud sad funny. Skarsrgard had the father character down cold. Angry, determined and melancholy all at once.

          Reply ↓
    4. Wukchumni

      Sequoia NP has a Pisten Bully that dates from before the end of the century that’s used on the odd occasion snow surveyors need to get into Mineral King to measure up, and too boucoup of a base for snowmobiles to tread.

      I rode it once for about 9 miles of the hydraulic arms on either side schluffing off 5 feet feet of snow as if it twas nothing, the operator at the gimbal stick of a steering wheel, precisely pushing it to the proper place.

      And then we turned around and did it again by cleaning up the road’s act down to the snow-mo’s waiting for riders.

      Reply ↓
      1. flora

        I had to look up Piston Bully on utube to see what kind of machine moved so much snow. wow! Probably a little to big for my driveway. / :)

        Reply ↓
    5. Yves Smith Post author

      Please read with more care. This site is about critical thinking :-)

      The video is clearly labeled as from the Alps.

      I said resilc had a farm in Vermont. I never said the video was from or of Vermont.

      Presumably he hearts having snow plowed.

      Reply ↓
  12. eg

    “Raising taxes on the ultrarich”

    By all means tax the rich in every way listed here, but for family blog’s sake can we just PLEASE stop arguing for it “because revenues?” This just contributes to the pernicious framing that “money grows on rich people” and that we somehow need them! Stop the self-harm! Yes, we need the tax system to be seen to be just, and yes we need to tax the rich in order to prevent them from “buying” our legislatures, but NO! We do NOT “need” either them nor their money!

    Gaaaah!!! 🤦‍♂️

    Reply ↓
    2. Alice X

      We do NOT “need” either them nor their money!

      From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.

      Reply ↓
  13. eg

    Sorry if someone else has already noted this (I have had trouble keeping up with all of the comments over the past few days) but NC got a nice shout out on Philip Pilkington and Andrew Collingwood’s “Multipolarity” podcast on Thursday — in this case in particular for coverage of events in Mexico.

    Reply ↓
  14. Carolinian

    Re AI–I’m a fan of the Hudson/Wolff/Nima transcripts and toward the end of this one they say that Youtube vandals are taking their videos and manipulating the visuals with AI and earning money off the content. The manipulators haven’t yet started putting other words in their mouths but could be the script kiddies find faking intelligent conversation harder to do than playing with pixels.

    https://michael-hudson.com/2025/11/cowboy-capitalism-in-central-asia/

    Reply ↓
    1. Ben Panga

      There’s loads of this kinda stuff on YT now. I first noticed it with Whitney Webb clips being repurposed for Crypto (and now just Whitney Webb “fan accounts” with AI visuals).

      I have heard fake audio for Alan Watts. I was fooled for about 5 minutes until “AI-lan” started talking about doom-scrolling which seemed several years ahead of it’s time ;)

      Reply ↓
  15. The Rev Kev

    “Less water from glaciers during future megadroughts in the Southern Andes’

    Wouldn’t be the first time something like this has happened. About 4,200 years ago a severe drought forced the population to leave the ancient city of Caral in Peru and to disperse to places where they could still feed their people. This mega drought, known as 4.2ka, may have also struck such far off regions such as Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley as well as other places-

    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/nov/05/archaeologists-discover-how-oldest-american-civilisation-survived-a-climate-catastrophe

    Reply ↓
  16. Carolinian

    Re the Border Patrol and “predictive surveillance” didn’t know this

    The Border Patrol has for years hidden details of its license plate reader program, trying to keep any mention of the program out of court documents and police reports, former officials say, even going so far as to propose dropping charges rather than risk revealing any details about the placement and use of their covert license plate readers. Readers are often disguised along highways in traffic safety equipment like drums and barrels.

    Of course they also like to be obvious and visible as in those required traffic exits on New Mexico and Texas interstates where you will be given the “papers please” treatment if you or your vehicle look at all suspicious. (I’ve been getting the wave through–so far. They do ask “are you a US citizen?”)

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      Here in Oz at least you can get stickers that you can stick onto your rear window saying ‘Baby On Board.’ Maybe there will be a market with similar stickers saying ‘US Citizen On Board’

      Reply ↓
    2. Wukchumni

      In yet another chapter of the mutual Bizarro World collapses of the USSR & USA…

      You couldn’t travel internally in the USSR without a passport or the correct papers (please give personal remembrances in this regard oh so reliable NC Russian relations of a certain age) when one was free as a bird to go where they wanted in the USA, with the only state crossing tale of oh! being the old-timey tale of a criminal who eludes capture by evading the law in merely going over the border, where for some reason the other state couldn’t touch him.

      Old way of detaining somebody: ‘I tracked you for about a mile doing 77 in a 65’

      New way of detaining somebody: ‘the license plate reader shows that you go drive this road a lot, which is very suspicious, and also it indicates you’re into kinky amputee porn.’

      Reply ↓
      1. Carolinian

        Yes in the good old days it was only the Texas sheriff speed traps you had to worry about.

        Our most recent sheriff was into setting up drug dragnets out on the interstate and seizing large amounts of cash which by (his) definition must be drug dealer money.

        Then it turned out he was using the county credit card for personal use and was therefore a crook. Karma is a bitch.

        Oddly no jail time for him–just the boot and reputational jail time. He did confess all in court.

        Reply ↓
        1. Wukchumni

          My favorite trap ever was some road off of the Hume Highway, the main artery between Melbourne and Sydney.

          I was too young to rent a car circa 1982, so I bought a 1968 Renault 10 with windows that went sideways and not up and down like every other car.

          It faithfully got me to and fro a few times, and this one time I went that different way I was talking about, and all of the sudden the blacktop ended and you were on a dirt road doing about 40 mph per hour too close to the car in front of you, and I didn’t take it for granite, more igneous, but a stone the size of a large walnut shattered my windscreen and for the next mile had to drive with my head looking out to the right, when I got to a town of about 1,000 people, with 8 windscreen stores.

          I’d imagined schoolchildren were sent out on field trips to plant the just right sized rocks on the roadway, ha ha

          Reply ↓
    3. flora

      Ah, license plate readers…. It’s not like the license plate reader computer OCR (Optical Character Reader) chip could glitch, could get things wrong, could never make a mistake. Is it? Of course not. I mean, it’s a computer! They never glitch or make mistakes, right? (do a really need to add the snark tag here? ha.) And, yes, Flock feeds to ICE.

      From Benn Jordan. (Note: the scary deep-voiced narration in certain parts is entirely for satirical purposes, though the satire is dark.) utube: ~35 minutes.

      Breaking The Creepy AI in Police Cameras

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp9MwZkHiMQ

      Also remembering, huge numbers of new ICE hires with very little experience have been hired this year. How many of these stops are ‘training exercises’ for the new hires?
      What could go wrong?

      Reply ↓
        1. Alice X

          Thank you! I started to watch Brazil some years ago*, but then did not, I will soon.

          *Brasil, it had such a broader understanding, there were disputes on several in DVD ending offerings.

          Reply ↓
      2. Duke of Prunes

        I had a long battle with the tollway authority over a mis-read license plate. I sold my car, and didn’t buy a new one so the plate wasn’t transferred. 6 mos later, I get a nasty letter from the tollway about unpaid tolls for the car/plate I no longer own. Long story short (many calls and letters and “fixes” that only worked temporarily), there was a car with my old license plate, except it had an F where my plate had an E. The other car also had a license plate frame that encroached into the bottom of the plate that apparently caused the reader to see an E rather than an F.

        Yes, this is the technology I want to involved in “pre-crime” decisions.

        Reply ↓
  17. pjay

    – ‘Trump SWOONS Over Zohran in Surreal Oval Office Presser’ – Breaking News

    Surreal is the word! Every time I think Trumpworld could not possibly get any more bizarre, I am proven wrong. I urge those who have not actually watched the Trump-Mamdani press conference to take a look. He bullies Marjorie Taylor Greene out of office and then turns around and loves-up the Commie Jihadist from NYC. WTAF is going on?

    Reply ↓
    1. mrsyk

      Two general observations,

      Mamdani evidently has serious political instincts and skills.

      Trump displayed one of his most potent skills, throwing everyone off balance, misdirecting focus.

      I’m imagining a NY Post headline, Trump tosses MTG overboard, adopts Zohran as son he always wanted, hah, who believes that?

      Did Trump play to a pre designed kid glove strategy?

      Reply ↓
      1. Jeff W

        “Mamdani evidently has serious political instincts and skills.”

        If I thought Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani was brilliant before (and I did) he’s more than confirmed it now. All the mainstream commentators are talking about how Mamdani “charmed” the President—as if he whipped out an invitation to yet another state visit to Windsor Castle or something—but, while he undoubtedly did do that, he came with a strategy laser-focused to appeal to Trump (e.g., building more housing units in New York). The press is dopily talking about the “bromance” between the two men, which reduces everything down to a lazy Hollywood trope, but, while Trump is obviously taken with Mamdani, I’m positive that Mamdani knows exactly who and what he’s dealing with.

        So Mamdani, in a stunning coup, at a minimum, neutralized the threat to New York City and his administration coming from the federal government (at least for now), threw a wrench into the plans of the Republicans to run against “communist,” “jihadist” Democrats in 2026, and, as an added bonus, made those who refused to endorse him before the election look petty and short-sighted and those in the House who, just before the meeting, were “resolving” to condemn “socialism”—a few being in both groups—look hysterical. It doesn’t get much better in politics, at least in terms of optics, than that.

        Reply ↓
        1. mrsyk

          Thanks. Those “resolving” democrats deserve a mountain of scorn, and should be roundly criticized. Classy lot are they. But they also confirm what team blue thinks about Mamdani (and socialism), not that we didn’t already know.

          Reply ↓
        2. show_me

          This is classic Trump. Be super dooper nice and flattering, then make unreasonable demands, then claim hurt and betrayal when he doesn’t get what he wants. Then he’ll lash out to demonstrate how dangerous it is to oppose him. Bang goes the bromance.

          Reply ↓
          2. Duke of Prunes

            Maybe a little “enemy of my enemies is my friend” (at least for now).

            I always remind those who infantilize Trump that you don’t successfully build skyscrapers around the world (navigate city and state bureaucracy, labor unions, mob, environmentalists etc) by being the oaf you play on TV. I mean he’s obviously not book smart and has the vocabulary of a 7th grader, but he’s got some other skills.

            Reply ↓
  18. The Rev Kev

    “Corporation Pumping Soothing Gas Into New York Subway Station”

    Not really a fan of this idea as you are talking about a corporation doing this in a public place with no opt out. Did they use those CIA studies about diffusing gases in subways as an inspiration? Bath & Body Works may be pumping vanilla and fresh pine scent from diffusers but how long till other people get ideas about what can also be pumped into the air in such places. Pax, here we come-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-NVs68X_S4 (2:01 mins)

    Reply ↓
      1. Laughingsong

        ‘The Pax’ is the very first thing that came to my mind as well.

        “In a year, ten, they’ll come back around to the idea that they can make us ‘better.’ And I do not hold to that.”

        Reply ↓
    2. Louis Fyne

      artificial fragrances have not been proven safe, nor have they been proven unsafe. there are some studies that suggest that certain cleaning chemicals raise lung cancer odds.

      Precautionary principle should apply….but of course won’t, cuz peeps love the smell of artificial vanilla

      Reply ↓
  19. FreeMarketApologist

    Re: “Dead or impeached by mid 27 and removed.”

    I know this (or some variation thereof) is the fantasy of many, but be very careful of what you wish for. Booting DJT means that Vance will become president, and he is both a) significantly smarter than DJT, and b) has actual backing and support from the likes of Thiel and crew. The views of his wife are immaterial, just as Melania’s are. If DJT’s own party operatives manage to remove him, they will make sure to do it after he’s served 2 years and 1 day, so Vance would be eligible to be in power for a maximum of 8 more years after his ascendance in the current term. I’m convinced they’re working from a long-term strategic plan, something the Dems seem to be unable to manage.

    Reply ↓
  20. AG

    re: nukes & fiction

    Apparently Jeffrey Lewis of all people in 2018 published a novel about a nuclear attack by North Korea on the US (this guy really had spoons full of this irresponsible nonsense), “The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States”.

    Reply ↓
    1. ilsm

      In 2025, DRPK has significantly improved it weapons and delivery potential, quality and quantity.

      I read the short book it interested me because of the duties I performed from 1972 to 1983 in SAC and Air Defense Command. Later, civilian work in US military sensor and command and control projects.

      The only complaint I can recall is he did not say whether the blasts were air or surface bursts.

      Otherwise, given the leaks of western missile defense demonstrated in Israel and Kiev I find little fault. It was mercifully brief.

      400 tomahawks in the hands of Tokyo will be meaningless.

      Reply ↓
  21. pjay

    – ‘Mike Huckabee Held Meeting With Jonathan Pollard, Who Spied on the US for Israel’ – Antiwar (resilc)

    Not surprising in an administration where “MIGA” always trumps “MAGA.” And this applies even more to Huckabee, for whom “MIGA” is a prerequisite for the Second Coming. I was puzzled by this statement though:

    “Pollard described the meeting as “friendly” and told Israeli media that he thanked Huckabee for aiding in the effort to secure his release from prison.”

    Did Huckabee actually aid in Pollard’s release? I clicked on the Times of Israel links and did not find any information on this issue.

    Reply ↓
  23. The Rev Kev

    “Putting Venezuela Into Perspective… A Massive Challenge Compared to Iraq, While Russian Offensive Picks Up Steam”

    ‘Venezuela is covered with triple-canopy jungle and mountains. These geographic features make it easy for insurgents to hide and carryout deadly ambushes. Second, and related to the first, are the porous borders with Brazil and Colombia… Insurgents can move easily across these borders and obtain resupply.’

    I tell you. I am definitely getting Vietnam vibes here if Trump is idiot enough to send in an invasion force. They might have the troops to control the capital and the oil fields but the rest would be enemy territory and the resistance would be fierce.

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni

      It reminds me of the Darian Scheme, the first ‘Faraway Bubble’.

      (Mississippi Scheme and South Sea bubbles being the others)

      A good chunk of Scotland’s wealth went into the Darian Scheme in the 1690’s investing in what sounds very much like a Venezuelan jungle motif.

      When it went bust, the scheme was a prime reason for Scotland’s union with the UK in 1707.

      The Darien scheme was an unsuccessful attempt, backed largely by investors of the Kingdom of Scotland, to gain wealth and influence by establishing New Caledonia or Britain-in-Panama, a colony in the Darién Gap on the territory of present-day Panama, in the late 1690s. The plan was for the colony, located on the Gulf of Darién, to establish and manage an overland route to connect the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

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

      Reply ↓
    2. Lefty Godot

      It depends if the goal is to really take over the country as a functioning entity, or if it’s merely to steal some of Venezuela’s oil, put a puppet government in Caracas, and otherwise destroy the country (including any people who might be insurgents because they are, you know, leading a goat or a donkey along a country lane instead of driving a Cybertruck or a Humvee on a highway). How much did it cost Obama to destroy Libya as a country just to show the world who’s boss? Trump would use the same math I would guess.

      Reply ↓
    3. ilsm

      Are there any logisticians telling Hegseth: “you can’t get there and supply it, from the east coast”?

      Distances, Roosevelt Roads is hosting F-35’s. It is 850 km or so from Caracas! That is about two aerial refueling going and at least one coming! Gerry Ford can launch around 20 strike sorties per day until the EMAG catapults die. Maybe lots of tomahawks!

      Drone warfare has interest but flying around the triple C!

      A US army brigade, currently the large maneuver organization, with organic logistics, requires a container port with roll on roll off facilities. Useable if US had sufficient Ro-Ro ships and loading capacity on east coast! A lot of ton supply per day! Just getting stuff to a suitable port on the east coast may be a problem.

      Are there airfield to fly tons and tones into Venezuela? Will US wear out the C-17’s and C-5’s. I was a 22 year old 2nd LT when that monster was new!

      Most POL for the 3000 vehicles per Brigade would be shipped by tanker to a port (?) and distributed how?

      A Marine Expeditionary Unit, with about a quarter the rifles of an army brigade, needs three large “landing ships” and a cargo fleet to supply once ashore. But are there suitable beaches to deliver the 21st century John Waynes/Smedley Butlers?

      Vietnam war was from the beginning a multi-year business plan. The Vietnam surge to take off required building a huge port at Camh Rahn Bay to augment deliveries to port of Saigon!

      Iraq logistics infrastructure was kept lukewarm from Desert Storm days! Is there a port for large material in Venezuela?

      The logistics!

      Reply ↓
  24. TomDority

    H. CON. RES. 58
    CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
    HOUSE PASSES REP. SALAZAR’S RESOLUTION DENOUNCING THE HORRORS OF SOCIALISM
    That Congress denounces socialism in all its forms, and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States.
    (I think it outlines in the now USA that, we have socialism under monopolistic capitalism..so why not denounce that…but that besides the point)

    and then after this

    I’ll stick up for you’: key moments from the cordial Trump-Mamdani meeting Guardian (Kevin W)

    Trump SWOONS Over Zohran in Surreal Oval Office Presser Breaking News

    So Trump pulls another…I tell you something that appears to go one direction while, knowing he has backing to drive the knife into Zohran from the house.

    “The United States is both a democracy and a republic, as both terms refer to forms of government in which supreme power resides in the citizens. The word __republic_ refers specifically to a government in which those citizens elect representatives who govern according to the law. The word democracy can refer to this same kind of representational government, also called a representative democracy, or it can refer instead to what is also called a direct democracy, in which the citizens themselves participate in the act of governing directly by voting for all laws, policies, decisions, etc.” – Merriam Webster

    “The real danger of socialism,” Lange wrote, in italics, “is that of a bureaucratization of economic life.” But he took away the force of the remark by adding, without italics, “Unfortunately, we do not see how the same or even greater danger can be averted under monopolistic capitalism” (Lange and Taylor 1938, pp. 109–110).

    “Whereas President Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote, “To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it”;
    Sponsor: Rep. Salazar, Maria Elvira [R-FL-27] (Introduced 10/24/2025)
    Committees: House – Financial Services

    Here T Jefferson was talking IMHO- about industrial capitalism not financial capitalism “banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies” is a quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson, who believed that private banks could threaten the liberties of the people by controlling the currency, leading to financial manipulation and the potential loss of property. I mean really another twisted presentation of Thomas Jefferson who warned against the “aristocracy of moneyed corporations”

    and then in the same H. CON. RES. 58
    CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
    “Whereas President James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution”, wrote that it “is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has in his personal safety and personal liberty, is violated by arbitrary seizures of one class of citizens for the service of the rest”
    IMHO, we have legislated (enacted) seizures (the corrupting influence of big money) by a class of citizens (united)/ “”aristocracy of moneyed corporations” who, through financial manipulation have disposesed millions of their personnal life safety and personal liberty.

    That House – Financial Services – that being the one place most concentrated in folks representing FIRE sector interests and tax policy to benefit the FIRE sector – just figures they would come up with this neoliberal distortion of Madison and Jefferson
    Just keeps the drips brewing for an complete privitization of all things at the public expense – the socialist aristocracy of moneyed corporations

    Reply ↓
    1. amfortas

      during the first bernie run, when i got unwittingly pulled into beinga teabilly whisperer and evangelist for a new new deal in the dern feed store parking lot…when they’d say, “but hes a soshulist!”(ref my bernie sticker), and i’d first ask them to define that word, and counter everything they falsely attributed to it with an example from our corporate and federal masters(including property taxes, as far as never actually ownig anything…which sent them into confused silence)
      then i talked about actually existing socialist structures they used every day:highways and streets and county roads that belong to all of us…the ISD that not only babysits and teaches their kids, but employs more people than any other entity in this county, the city(2nd largest employer), the county(3rd,lol)…
      and if they were old enough, medicare, social security…VA benefits and healthcare…and so on.
      the dern volunteer fire department?
      lol.
      but then bernie got shivved, and trump came a blusterin in, and all was forgotten for a while.
      i dont go among the mundanes near enough any more for a repeat of all of that.
      but i do overhear that the local lumpenrighties are not very happy with trump, et alia.

      Reply ↓
  25. Wukchumni

    Hot on the trail of Larry Summers
    And the internets are burning
    I sit around
    Trying to smile
    But the rumor mill is so heavy and dry

    Strange voices are saying
    (What did they say?)
    Things I can’t understand
    It’s too close for comfort
    This heat has got right out of hand

    Don’t be cruel to Larry Summers
    Leaving him here on his own
    Don’t be cruel (don’t be cruel) to Larry Summers
    Now you’re gone, you’re not the only Epstein Islander, don’t be cruel

    Harvard is crowded
    My friends are away
    And I’m on my own
    It’s too hot to handle
    So I got to get up and go

    Don’t be cruel to Larry Summers
    Leaving him here on his own
    Don’t be cruel (don’t be cruel) to Larry Summers
    Now you’re gone, you’re not the only one mentioned, don’t be cruel
    Don’t be cruel (don’t be cruel) to Larry Summers
    (Leaving him) Leaving him here on his own
    Don’t be cruel (don’t be cruel) to Larry Summers
    Now you’re gone, you’re not the only Epstein Islander, don’t be cruel

    Mmm, now don’t you believe me
    Mmm, now don’t you believe me
    Now don’t you believe me, come on, come on
    Mmm, now don’t you believe me
    Mmm, now don’t you believe me
    Now don’t you believe me, come on, come on

    Don’t be cruel (cruel) cruel to Larry Summers (Larry Summers)
    Leaving him here on him own (Leaving him here on his own)
    Don’t be cruel (don’t be cruel) to Larry Summers
    Now you’re gone, you’re not the only one

    Cruel Summer, by Ace of Base

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZogE9W55heE&list=RDZogE9W55heE&

    Reply ↓
  27. hamstak

    Moon of Alabama’s latest regarding the 28-point plan:
    Kellogg Fired Over Leaking 28-Point Plan – Proposal Designed To Trap Putin

    To summarize, B suggests that the (pardon the phrase) leaking party, referred to as “K” by Witkoff, was not Kirill Dmitriev but special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg. Kellogg has now stated he is leaving the post in January although he appears to already have been effectively replaced by army secretary Dan Driscoll.

    Interestingly, the recipient of the leaked propoesal was one Barak Ravid of Axios — the same “journalist” who recently reported the purported foiling of an Iranian plot to assassinate the Israeli ambassador to Mexico.

    Reply ↓
  28. Wukchumni

    The same sort of weather event happening 20 miles up presently, caused the brutal freeze of 2018, pay heed.

    For two straight weeks bridging 2017 and 2018, December 26th to January 8th, the mercury never crept above 32º. Those 14 sub-freezing days tied with 1979 and 1940 for the second-longest cold spell in the city’s recorded history, according to a thing I found on the internet. Only 1961’s 16-day streak beats it. Throw in a new phrase “bomb cyclone” to liven up a brutal winter storm in the middle of that cold spell, and you’ve either got more than enough reason to cuddle up next to the fire with a glass of cabernet, or you layer up to take advantage of an ever rarer phenomenon: deeply frozen rivers.

    https://hiddencityphila.org/2018/01/deep-freeze-2018/

    Reply ↓
  29. Wukchumni

    $4.01(k) update:

    Crestfallen is perhaps not strong enough sentiment to express anti-sediments settling down to $84k per Bitcoin, gasp.

    Was the sinking of the Titanic like this? you wonder as you collect your valuables from the online pursers office…

    Reply ↓
  30. Tom Stone

    I believe that the recent speculation about Trump having Dementia is correct, he has become increasingly erratic over the course of the year.
    It may be Covid induced, something that will be increasingly affecting public officials due to their greater exposure, however it’s going to affect all of us more and more as time passes.
    The claim he has ended 8 wars, his direct threats to reporters and networks and his congenial meet and greet with Mamdani in a short time are not the actions of a stable genius.
    It is a heckuva show, here’s hoping it is survivable!

    Reply ↓
    1. Luxo

      He has a piece of paper that lists all the wars “he has ended” (probably because all the Aberbaijan vs Cambodia stuff), so the claim does not count as dementia (though the need for that paper might).

      Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      How long till Trump has a passenger airliner shot down over Venezuela because the plane was full of narcoterrorists who might have drugs aboard to fly to the US.

      Reply ↓
  33. Acacia

    Re: Deutsche Bank Warns of Japan Capital Flight in Echo of UK Crisis

    At first, PM Sanae Takaichi was being described as “the Japanese Margaret Thatcher”.

    …but now, she’s become “the Japanese Liz Truss”.

    And ppl on X have already started joking about the cabbage.

    Reply ↓
  34. Alice X

    Drone footage of southern Gaza captured by AP.👇🏼

    How can the world continue to sugar coat what this actually is? 🤯

    The world of the many understand this.

    It is about the power of the few.

    The many must overtake that power.

    Reply ↓

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *