Links 11/25/2025

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1. The Rev Kev November 25, 2025 at 7:23 am

   ‘Mario Nawfal
   @MarioNawfal
   🇯🇵🇨🇳 JAPAN JUST THREW MISSILES ON CHINA’S FRONT LAWN’

   I saw an article about this island over at Asia Times but missed it’s significance. The Asia Times article goes into much more detail and reveals that it is the US Marine Corps that is offloading all the equipment there and helping set up this island as a forward base against China-

   https://asiatimes.com/2025/11/japans-yonaguni-arming-up-for-a-taiwan-war-with-china/

   If I were Japan, I would not be counting on any deliveries of refined rare earths any time soon as this move is part of an effort to pin the Chinese Navy against their own coastline. If the balloon goes up you can depend on this island being flattened by a wave of Chinese missiles.

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   1. ocypode November 25, 2025 at 7:57 am

      Bold move on the Japanese’s part daring China to right some historical wrongs. Not like the Japanese are very fond of admitting Nanjing, or Unit 731, or the rest of their genocidal practices. Maybe they’ll remember why for most of history the Chinese saw themselves as the center of the world and the Japanese as a not particularly important set of islands full of warlords.

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      1. Louis Fyne November 25, 2025 at 8:27 am

         Chinese-Americans assimilated too well into American society, ie they don’t have rabid interest groups pushing for their ethno-policy (ukraine).

         not many know about the China-Japan part of WW2 or Japanese genocide/war crimes upon China.

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   2. Tom Stone November 25, 2025 at 11:59 am

      More ( Unneeded ) evidence that Human stupidity is infinite.
      Every time in my 72 years that I have thought or said that “No one could possibly be THAT Stupid” I have been wrong.
      To what degree Covid contributes to this is an open question.

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   3. leaf November 26, 2025 at 9:44 am

      What I find interesting is Mario Nawfal was one of the journalists who met Foreign Minister Lavrov together with Judge Napolitano and Larry Johnson during that tour (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICvOkguQsk4). When he returns he continues to put out pro-Ukraine, Taiwan and now Japanese slop. Even Colonel Macgregor gets a little annoyed with him in interviews when he just recites Western talking points wholesale on Ukraine and Russia.

      I wonder why they invited a mainstream media plant like him besides the large audience. Maybe they hoped to convert him or at least make him more open minded but I’m not sure that worked. Maybe it was just for his large audience

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      1. moose November 26, 2025 at 9:59 am

         That was the first time I’ve heard about Nawfal. I remeber being confused, and wondering who he is, and why I haven’t heard of him before.

         The guy tries (or pretends) to be neutral, but he is way out of his depth. He looks like random Youtuber making videos about whatever is popular, in order to get the views. I guess that also describes the journalists of our times (and why I wouldn’t call Judge and Larry journalists).

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2. The Rev Kev November 25, 2025 at 8:08 am

   “In pictures: Berlin metro turns into urban warfare training ground”

   The good news for Germany’s Wachbataillon (Guard Battalion) who carried out these drills is that because of Germany’s de-industrialization (cough*NS2*cough) that that will be also able to drill in shut down factories, schools, malls, hospitals and all sorts of places that will be soon abandoned because of the economy. For them, it will be a cornucopia of choices. Lucky them.

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3. YuShan November 25, 2025 at 8:16 am

   “Part 1: My Life Is a Lie”
   This is an excellent piece. I wish essays like this were in the mainstream media so they become part of the public discourse.

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   1. satterle November 25, 2025 at 11:09 am

      I found this article refreshing and insightful in non-jargon language. In particular, a real “ah ha” moment with the description of an $80,000 family member at the grocery store seeing the $40,000 family member be able to buy more food because of SNAP. Based on his analysis, clearly the SNAP levels need to rise but instead the fear/hate mongering of divide and conquer blames the SNAP recipients.

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      1. JP November 25, 2025 at 12:41 pm

         The article makes it pretty clear that it’s not about food. The big dent is in housing, health care and child care. That means the SNAP benefit is the cheapest bone the govt could throw. There are ways around some of these costs but the average working couple with two kids does not want to risk no health coverage. Lots of housing in the 50’s would be considered sub-standard and not even close to current building code. A resourceful person with some skills can carve out a place to live but it will not have a picket fence.

         Taking care of the working class is the same as maintaining bridges. Housing, health care, child care and education are all social infrastructure. The program against the poor started with Regan branding them as freeloaders. Of course if all things are free and easy many will coast. Why do we have to work to survive anyway? The problem with a welfare state is the only incentives to climbing out of poverty is the punishment for staying there. The state should not make having employment a condition of aid unless the state can provide jobs. The problem is no one has demonstrated a comprehensive social system that works.

         The other glaring comparison that wasn’t made in the two articles is that in the 50’s things cost less in real terms because there was a lot less population pressure for available resources than in 2024.

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         1. Kouros November 25, 2025 at 3:11 pm

            I would think the resources are less limited now, with the global economy bringing stuff at the doors of every American. Land still is plenty. Healthcare is more stressed due to the increase in older and more needy population.

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            1. JP November 25, 2025 at 3:22 pm

               Resources are more available but many things cost more in terms of earning time. I’m talking commodities as as well as services like healthcare. But yes, people used to die faster.

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   2. albrt November 25, 2025 at 11:12 am

      Yes, very good, although his basic survival income numbers are so high that most people would immediately reject them as kids today having unreasonable expectations.

      Take me for example–I make far less than his basic survival number and up until the last year or so I would have said I’m pretty comfortable. Then again I don’t have kids, I own my home, and I got my education relatively cheap back in the day. Two of those three things are not choices available to young people today. And when people like me start to feel stretched, that is a recipe for widespread unrest.

      The basic points of the article are really important, especially how the unreasonably low poverty line turns social welfare benefits into a trap.

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      1. Norton November 25, 2025 at 12:16 pm

         Morning coffee thought exercise.
         Visualizing some demographic cohort tracking over decades with Green’s categories, then layering in recessions like the typical gray vertical bars of the GFC and so many others. Seeing what happened when in pay, food, shelter, childcare, personal survivability scores and life paths. Remember those?
         The score is just one darker side of unofficial social credit scores.
         That reinforces how random events can sidetrack or set back human lives.
         Graduate in the wrong year, for example, or now decade, and spend forever trying to hang on.
         Recall the 1980s image of a in-crowd on the train, suspenders, yellow ties, big hair leaving the station that was the sanitized yuppie dink version, resonant with a smaller group than today’s widespread precariat.

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      2. Kurtismayfield November 25, 2025 at 3:03 pm

         Then again I don’t have kids, I own my hom

         This is why his numbers are probably for a family of four. I dont agree with the childcare numbers, but everything else checks out. I think the childcare numbers are about 10k too high, but as that demographics everything else looks close. For example, my family insurance costs are 14k a year. My food costs are around what he estimated. My housing costs are a bit lower, as well as transportation, but I drive em until they die and we locked in housing costs in 2017. If I had to purchase or rent now they would be the same.

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         1. lyman alpha blob November 25, 2025 at 6:46 pm

            I haven’t paid child care in a while but his $32K figure can’t be too far off. About 15 years ago we paid around $50/day for our kid, so $250/week or a little over $1K/month. Two kids would have been about $25K annually. Add in some inflation and you’re at the author’s figure.

            And this was a small daycare with one woman watching the kids in her home. I think she had six kids max on any given day, so she wasn’t exactly raking it in either. Her husband would have had to made as least as much as her for their combined incomes to meet the author’s $140K poverty line.

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4. vao November 25, 2025 at 8:17 am

   Regarding the third bonus:

   “The kitten just realized that all dogs are scared of him”

   Somebody with more experience with pets could chime in, but it seems to me that the dogs are actually intrigued and do not quite know what to do with the kitten. Some of them repeatedly take the typical position corresponding to an invitation to play, but the kitten does not react as expected.

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   1. Ignacio November 25, 2025 at 8:25 am

      Indeed. The two larger dogs look playful and curious rather than scared. That’s the attitude i like from dogs.

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      1. mrsyk November 25, 2025 at 8:36 am

         Those dogs speak well of the person/people who care for them. Nice energy. That orange kitten hit the lotto when he got adopted.

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         1. JG November 25, 2025 at 6:57 pm

            Meow, kitty for the win! Absolutely agree with your comment; feeling the love. More, not less, please and thank you🐈❤️🐾

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   2. .Tom November 25, 2025 at 9:35 am

      Yeah, I think the video’s title has it backward. The dogs are playing and look confident doing typical dog stuff. The kitten is deploying it’s defenses. The dogs dodge the kitten’s lashes because it’s just play to them and there’s no reason to risk a scratch. The kitten looks stressed to me but I don’t know how badly and they may all reach a détente soon enough.

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      1. mrsyk November 25, 2025 at 10:58 am

         I’m pretty sure that kitten is having a blast. Kittens will try to hide if they are threatened. If hiding is not an option they will loudly vocalize their stress.
         Instead we’re seeing classic play posturing, for instance the bouncing sideways Halloween cat and the jaunty tail pointing forward, exploring multiple angles of contact.
         What a warm and happy house that must be.

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         1. JM November 25, 2025 at 2:54 pm

            Yes, that kitten is having a good time, its not afraid at all in what’s shown.

            Seems like a great environment, they’re all lucky!

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   3. cfraenkel November 25, 2025 at 12:20 pm

      Same with second bonus w/ the turkeys. That dobie was having a blast, staying *just* out of reach, going back for more. Taunting the dinosaurs.

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      1. Oregon Lawhobbit November 25, 2025 at 2:29 pm

         That was my thought. Grandmother had a doberman that would let us chase her around the yard (and the huge rock nestled therein) for as long as we wanted. She could have easily left us in the dust but stayed JUST out of reach for the game.

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5. Michaelmas November 25, 2025 at 8:32 am

   Re: It Works, If You Work It. America’s Undoing (resilc). Yes a second must read, trust me.

   Concur: Readers here, and every American, should read this. The guy has worked to put specific figures on just how feudalization in the US has been proceeding.

   America isn’t a country, it’s a business– a plantation.

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   1. The Rev Kev November 25, 2025 at 8:43 am

      Our elites don’t want people to remember how things use to be and want thinking about the past to be discouraged and especially the study of history-

      https://xcancel.com/financedystop/status/1963935896622993862#m

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      1. Wukchumni November 25, 2025 at 8:51 am

         My parents bought their first home in LA for $12k in 1960…

         They sold it for a $500 profit in 1968~

         It now Zillows for $1.1 million

         If it were to continue the same rate of increase over the next 65 years in 2090, why it would be worth about $100 million!

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         1. ibaien November 25, 2025 at 6:49 pm

            https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/24/los-angeles-stahl-house-sale

            built for $37k, now listed for $25m. gorgeous at least, but what appreciation!

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      2. Carolinian November 25, 2025 at 11:32 am

         That past world had a lot fewer people. How do we plan to bring that back?

         And it wasn’t good for everyone–black people for example.

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         1. Laputan November 25, 2025 at 12:38 pm

            And that past had a lot more people than one before it, though I doubt there were many people singing the praises of the good ole days of the late 1800s back then.

            I also don’t see how a lower cost of living is inseparable from Jim Crow. I think everyone is aware that the progressive era had its share of problems. It’s just that, in contrast to all the chart fetishists currently employed by think tanks, economic hardship wasn’t as much of one as it is today.

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         2. Steph Hellman November 25, 2025 at 4:27 pm

            Speed up deportations of illegals so rents drop, more food available, less competition for entry level and middle class jobs, school space etc.

            Otherwise, try and reconcile rear view mirror complaints with present day proclamations for social justice as you become low person on the social totem pole and give up more of your white privilege.

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      3. Adam Eran November 25, 2025 at 3:58 pm

         To me, the key is that the author prices things not in dollars but in years of labor. Asset inflation can be deceptive.

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   2. Wukchumni November 25, 2025 at 8:58 am

      Perhaps the best record of what things sold for in the USA is the Daily Record newspaper from Morristown NJ, which faithfully kept track of prices for the past 125 years, here’s what stuff cost the year of my coming out party…

      https://www.mclib.info/Research/Morris-County-Library-Reference-Guides/Historic-Prices/Historic-Prices-1960s/Historic-Prices-1961

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   3. flora November 25, 2025 at 10:45 am

      Yes. Two quotes from the article:

      ‘Wall Street and the executives who built this system aren’t just taking our money. They’re taking our lives and leaving us with nothing to show for it.’

      and

      ‘This gap between what the statistics say and what we live breeds the rage you see in our politics.’

      In my opinion this is the real reason politicians in the West are pushing for digital ids: something that can be used like individual shock collars in case citizens start objecting in large numbers to the current neoliberal economic dystopia. / my 2 cents

      adding: this is the real reason Mamdani won the NYC mayor’s race, imo. He hired Lina Khan into his admin. A good start.

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   4. Mikel November 25, 2025 at 10:50 am

      I’ve been saying the officials and wanna-be trillionaires are after a platform plantantion.
      In many industries, assorted variations of sharecropping has been going on for years.
      When people began making up their own “coins” and talk of “tokens” started, I remembered the wooden nickles and such used by plantations to keep workers poor and indebted. Democratization of finance my ass, was my first thought.

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   5. ocypode November 25, 2025 at 10:50 am

      I’m finding the whole “hedonic adjustments” business to be one of the greatest hoodwinks the economics profession has yet produced. On both must-reads today this trickery has made catastrophic losses in income into modest adjustments. Maybe econometrics was a mistake; another point for Keynes.

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   6. Screwball November 25, 2025 at 11:15 am

      Interesting article. Good stuff in there and presented in a cool way. At the end the writer says this;

      No amount of statistical manipulation can hide that theft anymore. We see it now.

      We need to start thinking about building what we need together, as a people. America is ready for systemic change. Hell, Trump has already done a lot of the destruction. The old order is weakened.

      The question is are we ready to knock it over and build something beautiful in its place. Will “We The People” be at the table?

      Who is “we” Kemosabe? What exactly are “we” suppose to do about it? Vote democrat? Vote Republican? “We” are not voting our way out of this, so what do you suggest “we” do?

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      1. Laputan November 25, 2025 at 12:52 pm

         Were you honestly expecting your own personal instruction manual? It’s not like history isn’t rife with examples of social movements, many of which actually made major advances via electoral politics. Maybe look into it?

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         1. Screwball November 25, 2025 at 1:52 pm

            I don’t know, I’m 69 years old and for the life of me I can’t remember any major advances via electoral politics. Especially here in the good old USA. Maybe I missed something, so perhaps you can fill me in?

            I’m still in the camp that agrees with what Carlin said about the American Dream circa 1991.

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            1. Adam Eran November 25, 2025 at 4:05 pm

               Worth remembering, LBJ was (re)elected, and he did civil rights, the war on poverty and Medicare. If those aren’t “major” advances, I don’t know what would be.

               Also worth remembering: Like Trump, LBJ had multiple mistresses, crooked business dealings and all the subtlety of a practiced extortionist when he wanted what he wanted. The big difference with Trump: LBJ grew up poor.

               LBJ’s downfall: the Vietnam war. His DOD and diplomacy were at odds.

               A recent book about JFK even accuses the CIA of the assassination because he wasn’t belligerent enough.

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6. Wukchumni November 25, 2025 at 8:37 am

   Goooooooooood Moooooooooorning Fiatnam!

   Shrugs were about as good as it got in preparation for the arrival of 3I/Atlas, why were the extraterrestrials all of the sudden interested in us after oh so very long between interstellar vacays?

   Our fervent hope was that they had heard about the amazing gains in Nvidia and wanted to invest~

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7. The Rev Kev November 25, 2025 at 8:51 am

   ‘DD Geopolitics
   @DD_Geopolitics
   🇺🇸🤖 Trump just signed one of the biggest AI directives in U.S. history: the “Genesis Mission.”’

   Missing from that statement was an announcement how a Manhattan Project scale push will be made to upgrade and expand the electrical grid so that all that AI crap can have the juice to actually work. In one of the replies to that Tweet was this which I found interesting and have heard before-

   ‘Kathleen Tyson
   @Kathleen_Tyson_
   This Executive Order is the polar opposite of the Chinese approach to AI. Rather than pick winners and losers, China states the policy objective and hundreds of commercial initiatives compete using diverse strategies to fulfill the ambition. Instead of a ‘winner takes all subsidies’ China gets a diverse, agile, ecosystem growing in parallel to its rapidly innovative economy.’

   https://xcancel.com/Kathleen_Tyson_/status/1993179663301067028#m

   The replies to this reply are also worth reading.

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   1. Michaelmas November 25, 2025 at 11:27 am

      … the Chinese approach to AI. Rather than pick winners and losers, China states the policy objective and hundreds of commercial initiatives compete using diverse strategies to fulfill the ambition. Instead of a ‘winner takes all subsidies’ China gets a diverse, agile, ecosystem growing in parallel to its rapidly innovative economy.’

      The Chinese are far better capitalists than the US.

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   2. alrhundi November 25, 2025 at 12:25 pm

      This Genesis mission is confusing to me. On one hand you have the current administration dismantling and privatizing the federal sector but then you have this project come out trying to create a large-scale project at that level. I’m sure there will be massive private kickbacks but it’s a bit contradictory.

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      1. Ignacio November 25, 2025 at 12:39 pm

         Sorry I missed RevKev commentary and left mine below. I can only talk for what the X post comments about it and to tell the truth I find it as confusing as you. Integrating public data sets sounds great, doesn’t it? Will the integration of DOJ datasets on laws or whatever with NCBI genomic datasets provide any advantage to the US in life science research or in lawmaking? Will this magically result in “AI”? Automated research?– NCBI genomic datasets are globally accessed. Will Genesis limit access through central control? Only to US national labs or US-compliant labs from unsanctioned countries? May be this is one of the objectives. It will be problematic!

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   3. Glen November 26, 2025 at 2:21 am

      At first glance I was going to guess that this is just a way for the Silly Con Valley AI tech lords to do a real thorough data scrap of every national lab database. I had assumed they’ve already data scrapped pretty much the whole internet so one wonders just how much more there is available at this point.

      But like you say, without a serious push to improve America’s electrical infrastructure, how does this happen at all?

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8. Afro November 25, 2025 at 9:02 am

   Part 1: My Life Is a Lie Michael Green. A must read. resilc: “No idea about the overall conclusions but some of the analysis is enlightening.”

   *****

   That is quite the article line.

   A poverty line of $31,200 for a family of four is completely absurd. Frankly, the median income of $80,000 sounds poor too, though might work if somehow your home and car are paid off, and one parent stays at home so daycare is free.

   But the gut punch in the article says that if we adequately account for inflation since 1963, then the poverty line for a family of four would be about 130,000, that sounds right.

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   1. ocypode November 25, 2025 at 10:45 am

      I find his surprise a little unexpected. I’ve seen for many years discussions that the US poverty line is absolutely Dickensian, and thus not really reflective of much except the sorry state of US statistics. Though clearly he knows his stuff, I find this passage revealing:

      But there was one number I had somehow never interrogated. One number that I simply accepted, the way a child accepts gravity.

      The poverty line.

      It betrays something I often see on economists which is the acceptance of metrics without the questioning of what the metrics really mean, especially when they regard social factors. Of course Green seems to be a lot wiser than most, but nonetheless shouldn’t this be self-evident? Credit where credit is due, though, his breakdown of the costs of living is very useful, especially the attention given to childcare and the differing levels of income that show that it’s better to earn less than to earn more.

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   2. flora November 25, 2025 at 11:01 am

      What Milton Friedman and the neoliberal Chicago School economists hath wrought.

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   3. Craig H. November 25, 2025 at 11:18 am

      Spartans and Helots. There is documentation on how it ended.

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      1. eg November 25, 2025 at 10:27 pm

         Also Morlocks and Eloi if you prefer an imagined future to the distant past

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   4. ex-PFC Chuck November 25, 2025 at 2:12 pm

      This is indeed a “must read.” One of the most important features of it is that it presents and discusses family economics in a non-political way that will seldom trigger knee-jerk partisan reactions.

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9. DJG, Reality Czar November 25, 2025 at 9:09 am

   If It Works, You Work It. Corbin Trent. Content investigator resilc rings us with a wakeup call.

   I agree with Trent. The economy is based on measurements that the bourgeoisie (and Trump is a bourgeois) wants to take. To paraphrase Marie Antoinette, Why are the peasants complaining that there’s no bread when I can go and buy a brioche for three centimes?

   Three centimes that the peasants don’t have. I’m so old that I truly remember when there was such a thing as penny candy and nickel candy bars,

   Also, although Trent is focused on his analysis of historical statistics, there is an underlying theme: The bourgeoisie and the captains of industry took all of the gains in production and productivity, monetized them, and kept the money for themselves. See: health insurance. I’m so old that my delivery at a hospital on the Near South Side of Chicago — by angels and the stork, natch — cost about $125.00. Yes, one hundred twenty and five. I have the bill even still. I believe that my mother also remained in the hospital for three or four days after the blessed event. Think about how women are treated now after giving birth…

   Esteemed commenter rowlf posted this video late in the day in the comments to yesterday’s links:

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gli4Ox4i54I

   Shoe0nHead, making an analysis very similar to Corbin Trent — although somewhat saltier. The remark about psycho Karens in the Democratic Party isn’t off the mark. Hmmm. Thinking of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Epstein Whisperer + pseudo-rep from the V.I. Stacey Plaskett.

   What is to be done, comrades?

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   1. DJG, Reality Czar November 25, 2025 at 9:33 am

      Michael Green. My Life Is a Lie. Or, the whole economy is mismeasured to suit the powerful.

      Green’s observation near the end: “When you see these charts, don’t let them gaslight you. They are using broken rulers to measure a broken house. The top chart proves that you need $150,000 to make it. The bottom chart proves they refuse to admit it.”

      This observation is what Corbin Trent’s essay is about.

      Give both of them a look. There are many details and some technical terms, but we all suspect that we have been looking for a new way of describing the U.S. economy and U.S. class system. As Green says early on, in a sharp and valid criticism: ‘I’m sure many of my left-leaning readers will say, “This is obvious, we have been talking about it for YEARS!” Yes, many of you have; but you were using language of emotion (“Pay a living wage!”) rather than showing the math. My bad for not paying closer attention; your bad for not showing your work or coming up with workable solutions.’

      The real left, which still exists, is concerned with economic disparities and with equality of the citizenry. Let’s not call it woke: Let’s just say that the infestation of the left with radical chic means having to listen to someone burble out a land acknowledgment or a ritual denunciation of Vladimir “The Tsar” Putin to an audience not willing to deal with their continuing impoverishment (financially, politically, culturally). Now it’s time to show the work: Free buses. Single-payer health insurance. Repeal of anti-worker / anti-union laws.

      What is to be done, comrades?

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      1. mrsyk November 25, 2025 at 9:46 am

         What is to be done, comrades?

         Eat the rich? Yuk. I’m gonna have to hire one of those Japanese bears to be my proxy.

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         1. Expat2uruguay November 25, 2025 at 2:32 pm

            What is to be done?

            Sortition. Tax the rich. Eliminate Citizens United with acts of a new congress. Single payer. Eliminate stock buybacks. A new new deal that creates jobs by government provision of health care, child Care, elder care, midwifery: basically caring for people.

            A simple idea that I fantasize about is an app that pays a person for self-locomotion. $15 an hour for up to 2 hours a day of traveling to work, school, shopping on your own energy. The phone tracks your location and speed to verify that you’re actually on foot or on a bike. Existing camera grids can be used to verify randomly. Cheating the system results and not being able to access it for a week.

            Advantages of healthier citizens, less pollution, and money in pockets.

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            1. Kouros November 25, 2025 at 3:37 pm

               Legislatively, this is only possible if there is immediate credible and unavoidable threat to life of elected and their families.

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      2. .Tom November 25, 2025 at 10:59 am

         To your 2nd what’s to be done.

         Let’s define, for the moment, just for the sake of argument, the culture war as what the cartel political parties agree to argue with each other about and want us arguing about. Let’s call everything else, the things that matter to people but that are usually governed using roughly the same plutocrat-friendly policies by all the cartel parties, real politics. The cartel doesn’t want us to engage with real politics, be informed about it (see these two articles today), or even imagine it could be different. They prefer we not ask questions about cost of housing, extortionate power of banks, cost of health care, monopolies and price fixing, vast budgets for war, dismal stupid foreign relations, money influence in politics, and all the rest. (A lot of work goes into keeping us focused on the culture war and re-framing as culture war real political topics that come up.)

         What you called “woke” is a rubric in the culture war, thus defined. It’s what established power wants us arguing about. And for exactly that reason I refuse. There are enough real politics topics for me and if we make progress on those then we will help the most vulnerable first and most. If that means by someone’s definition of “left” I’m not left then so be it, although I will continue to consider myself a pinko.

         Another reason I’m ok to abandon affiliation with the word “left” is because plenty of people with aspirations aligning with my own in real politics are culturally and/or socially conservative. Many of them will have an allergic reaction to the word “left” and I can’t really blame them for that. I’d join a coalition with them for less war or public banking or national health etc.

         While I don’t know what it should be, I feel the need for a different language to use with this framework I sketched, one of the people versus the plutocrats.

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      3. Carolinian November 25, 2025 at 11:44 am

         Perhaps because I live in what was once the country’s most impoverished region things don’t really seem worse to me. But coming from a lower middle class background I’m pretty frugal. My parents who lived through the Great Depression could tell you about poor.

         So yes it’s unfortunate that all those college graduates can’t find jobs but back then many of them would have had to find jobs in factories or the trades or farming because it was a far less middle class world. If we are going to take up history let’s take up all of it.

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         1. Jeff H November 25, 2025 at 6:19 pm

            I would imagine my perceptions are not much different from yours. I grew up in the remains of a coal company town in Podunk Pennsyltukey. My parents formative years were the height of the Depression and I had a close relationship with my grandparents. The perspective and approach to life I inherited are core to my ability to maintain sanity in an insane world.
            The question that I pose to the free market mavens is Does the market exist to serve the public or does the public exist to serve the market? Until you can reconcile the effect with the intent, I don’t think you’ll find a workable solution.

            Reply ↓
      4. Norton November 25, 2025 at 12:28 pm

         When you’ve lost Ken Burns to land acknowledgements, sigh.

         Reply ↓
      5. Jason Boxman November 25, 2025 at 1:18 pm

         And Green doesn’t even mention that when climbing the ladder, you get nuked from orbit when you go from the 12% bracket to the 22% when you hit the “middle class” income. All this bleating by Republicans about taxes and, surprise, they never have proposed addressing this by adding graduations, nor liberal Democrats. Instead, enjoy your big 10% pop on taxes due over the threshold.

         Reply ↓
      6. Adam Eran November 25, 2025 at 4:11 pm

         I’d suggest the re-implementation of the laws that leveled the playing field would be one thing to do. Robinson-Patman demolishes Walmart’s business model because it makes it illegal for manufacturers or wholesalers to sell at a discount to a big, as opposed to mom-and-pop, operation. It hasn’t been enforced for decades, nor has anti-trust been enforced, but these things are essential if the excesses of “pure” capitalism to be managed.

         BTW, I really like Corbin Trent’s observation that the Democrats are still blaming Trump. Nope, fellows, it’s been bipartisan all the way down.

         Reply ↓
   2. .Tom November 25, 2025 at 10:17 am

      What’s to be done?

      Debt cancellation. Price controls. Competitive markets instead of oligopolies and trusts. Public banking instead of Wall St. Land tax that balances its rent value. Democratic choice for the people instead of a political cartel paid the plutocrats. Expand the VA into an NHS. Dismantle the war machine.

      Revolution, in other words. So Idk how to make that happen.

      Reply ↓
      1. curlydan November 25, 2025 at 11:49 am

         When I think of ways to stop rising inequality, I say #1 Stop stock buybacks and #2 Medicare for All.

         Reply ↓
         1. mrsyk November 25, 2025 at 12:03 pm

            (I will add) Robust public utilities inclusion and regulation, and ruthless anti-monopolization enforcement.

            Reply ↓
      2. JP November 25, 2025 at 1:51 pm

         OK, maybe debt amelioration. What makes debt attractive to lenders is the interest. That’s what needs to be structured. Debt cancellation is a pipe dream, you say you want a revolution. Price controls have never worked well but competitive markets might be achieved by executing lobbyists. Taxing rents will probably just raise the cost of renting.

         And stock buybacks are not a primary cause of inequality.

         Reply ↓
         1. Adam Eran November 25, 2025 at 4:16 pm

            I disagree. Stock prices are part of asset price inflation, and that’s definitely one of the drivers of inequality. BTW, it used to be illegal to do stock buybacks, or pay the C-suite with stock or options. (Thanks Reagan!)

            As for debt cancellation, it’s worth remembering that, according to its own audit, the Fed extended $16 – $29 trillion in credit to Wall Street. For only $9 trillion, they could have paid off everyone’s mortgage. Bailing out the banks was more important (!) The producer of dollars (government) could buy every mortgage and make it a zero-interest loan.

            Steve Keen is on record as recommending zero interest loans and some other measures to make housing affordable again.

            Reply ↓
            1. JP November 26, 2025 at 9:32 am

               https://www.slowboring.com/p/asset-price-inflation-is-not-a-thing

               Reply ↓
      3. Kurtismayfield November 25, 2025 at 3:10 pm

         A debt Jubilee and a real investigation into health care costs in the US would do wonders.

         Reply ↓
   3. flora November 25, 2025 at 10:56 am

      What is to be done? idk. I do know that listening to MTG’s resignation speech I knew I’d be happy to make common cause with her on economic issues. Maybe that’s why both parties talk up cultural issues in order to keep the base of each party from making common cause with each other on economic issues. / ;)

      Reply ↓
10. vao November 25, 2025 at 9:11 am

    I heard the entirety of that speech by Melanie Phillips, and the more it went, the more I realized those people have absolutely no historical awareness — and I mean none whatsoever. It is astounding and dreadful.

    1) Israel is under an onslaught (she loves the word) by islamists intent on eradicating Jews.
    2) Judaism is the source and Jews the defenders of all values foundational of Western civilization.
    3) By letting islamists undermine their culture and polities, Western countries are careening towards collapse.
    4) Israelis are the only ones upholding the future of civilized peoples through sound demographics with a fertility rate of 3-4.
    5) Diaspora Jews should stop focusing on their place in their local communities, and instead devote all their energies to supporting Israel first and foremost.
    6) There is no such thing as Palestine and Palestinians; the only legitimate denizens of Israel are Jews — by law, history, and religiom.
    7) Jews, infected by liberal values, have been too considerate so far; it is time to go on the offensive.
    8) Jews must overturn the narrative of Israel being an aggressor, committing crimes, starving Palestinians, and tell the truth: Israel is the victim of a genocidal plan, it is feeding the Palestinians, etc.
    9) In that epochal struggle, how uplifting is it to see all Israelis, religious and secular, fuse into a single Jewish community ready to do its utmost to defeat the enemy.
    10) Israel is a beacon for the West; the West needs Israel more than Israel needs the West; Israel is the bulwark against islamism.

    Replace “Israel” with “Germany”, “diaspora” with “Volksdeutsche”, “islamism” with “judeo-bolshevism”, and you end up with what would readily pass as a speech by a NS-propagandist. All the arguments are there, and the rhetoric is similar as well: forceful assertions, no demonstrations, no evidence, allegations without well-grounded arguments, turning reality on its head, outright lying…

    There is a lot of talk about “fascism” being on the march in Europe or the USA (notably because of the ascent of uncouth politicians with authoritarian tendencies), but this is the first time I see a pristine example of a discourse that truly mirrors what was common in Germany in the 1930s-1940s. I suspect that banderists must also pronounce equivalent speeches of the same tenor — with Ukraine replacing Israel, Russia the Palestinians, etc.

    I encourage people to spend the 20 minutes required to hear that speech; it is quite edifying.

    Reply ↓
    1. DJG, Reality Czar November 25, 2025 at 9:59 am

       vao:

       Thanks for wading through the supremacism.

       Point 2: 2) Judaism is the source and Jews the defenders of all values foundational of Western civilization.

       There was an incident in Naples on 3 May this year that caused a controversy in Italy. An Israeli couple had dinner and started chatting up those at neighboring tables. Eventually, there was a disagreement about what is happening in Gaza, and the owner intervened. The restaurant is oriented toward SlowFood but also toward BDS.

       The couple videoed the altercation. The wife, in English, started berating the Spanish and Italian customers — mainly middle and working class, out for a nice meal on a holiday weekend.

       The woman screamed the same thing at the other diners, Everything in your culture comes from the Jews, or words to that effect.

       To a group of Neapolitans? A city founded some 3,000 years ago by Greeks? As you write, no historical knowledge whatsoever.

       When I heard her ranting — noting the heavily accented English — I thought that she might have been some kind of a crank (who wanted a free meal). You indicate otherwise: Where are these attitudes coming from? What is the source of the propaganda? Surely, it isn’t just “mainstream media” in Israel. Something else is at play here.

       Further, how are we to separate Melanie Phillips, the free-loading couple in Napoli, and Daniela Weiss, the vicious grandmama of the settlements?

       A report from the reliable Italian foodie magazine, Gambero Rosso:

       https://www.gamberorosso.it/attualita/ecco-cosa-e-successo-davvero-alla-taverna-santa-chiara-di-napoli-accusata-di-antisemitismo/

       Reply ↓
       1. skippy November 25, 2025 at 6:26 pm

          Huge drama with the term “Jews” in the context its use by this woman. Would she be informed about biblical anthropology and how the proto Jews were refugees that moved West – after – the collapse of the Sumerian Empire. They took its foundation myths with them and it all evolved through small hamlets over a long time until a big population expansion happened. With that came the first city nation/states at the time and a top down unified religious order. She might also be interested in the evolution of clay sacrificial alters and the iconography depicted on them. Nothing was set in stone as it were and brings some interesting questions about any notion about a never ending linear progression e.g. since the beginning of time.

          Then there is the really cray-cray stuff~~~

          July 3, 1933. Over 100,000 Jews gather at Soldier Field in Chicago to celebrate 3,000 years of Jewish history and nationhood by worshipping a fire-breathing statue of Moloch and feeding it children. The event was called “The Romance of a People.” It was organized by the Zionist Organization of America, sponsored by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, and produced by Meyer Weisgal, with help from Rabbi Solomon Goldman as well as Maurice Samuel, the author of “You Gentiles.” One of the big speakers at the event was none other than Chaim Weismann, first president of Israel and the guy who alongside Lionel Walter Rothschild authored the Balfour Declaration, which was the agreement that dragged the US into WW1 in exchange for the British stealing Palestine from Ottoman Turkey and allowing Jews to settle there. – snip

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJHufcYb5gs

          PS I am not vouching for 100% accuracy of the author of this YT clip but it does have a relevant historical perspective in my opinion.

          Reply ↓
    2. Ignacio November 25, 2025 at 10:11 am

       I hadn’t the stomach to watch it all. It is indeed dreadful that people like these are given microphones or space to write and spread their bile. (Sorry the latest is a literal translation to English of a common Spanish say. I realise that I must be doing this very often). According to wiki she might be the creator of so-called Eurabia conspiracy theory. This goes well with your thesis vao.

       Reply ↓
    3. mrsyk November 25, 2025 at 10:34 am

       I’ll pile on and point at #3, where islamists are responsible for western collapse, because they are responsible for climate collapse, Covid, and conflagration caused by poking the bear with a stick, obviously, lol.
       Of our dysfunctional congress, who have not been up to the task of meeting these challenges, I put the blame squarely on AIPAC and the Z’ist junta.

       Reply ↓
       1. herman_sampson November 25, 2025 at 1:49 pm

          A particular interesting bit was when she said Jews were to be loyal to Israel first, and then secondarily to whatever country they are a citizen of. Does make one question the loyalty of an American displaying prominently an Israel state flag.
          I did watch the whole thing and it was quite the education.

          Reply ↓
    4. flora November 25, 2025 at 12:42 pm

       The two Due Dissidence guys take apart Sarah Hurwitz’s arguments or sales pitch. / ;) utube, ~27 minutes.

       UNHINGED Obama Speechwriter KEEPS GIVING AWAY THE GAME On Israel

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCNk3SPAV9Q

       Reply ↓
    5. Lefty Godot November 25, 2025 at 12:43 pm

       Judaism is the source and Jews the defenders of all values foundational of Western civilization

       Given the track record of Western civilization and its colonialism, racial supremacism, love of war, and schizoid attitudes about sex, that’s not really the type of claim anyone should assert as a positive. American Jews have pretty much been the source and defenders of all values foundational to Hollywood and the culture it has promoted, that much seems clear. I wouldn’t want to pin all the rest of Western civ’s baggage on them though.

       Reply ↓
    6. Francis Parker November 25, 2025 at 3:37 pm

       The trouble is, from a standpoint of self-preservation, this zio-maniac has a point. That only a handful of bad apples are spoiling the barrel does not change the fact that barrel is being spoiled. With instant global telecommunication, everyone can compare notes, and so Jacob’s strategy of divide-to-survive may not be tenable.

       The rise of global Anti-Semitism in the 21st is due in the main to the actions of Jews, not to tropes or canards.

       Is this the first time in history such a thing has happened?

       I ask because this undeniable phenomenon goes against everything we have ever been told about Anti-Semitism. Or as one anonymous poster correctly out it:

       “Anti-Semitism is the only effect that has no cause. It’s the only reaction that wasn’t preceded by an action. It is a crime without a motive.

       Anti-Semitism materializes ex nihilo like quantum foam. When Parmenides argued that “nothing comes from nothing,” he failed to consider anti-Semitism.

       The iron law of Anti-Semitism is that Jews are hated everywhere, yet blameless everywhere.”

       Reply ↓
    7. ACPAL November 25, 2025 at 7:23 pm

       Years ago I became curious why Jews have been persecuted for about 2,000 years, a rather long time for non-Jews to hold a grudge. It took a few minutes of searching but I found two things. First, the vast majority of writings were very similar saying things like “people hate us because are the chosen ones” and “everything derogatory said about Jews is lies.” Second, (it’s been a long time so I’m going by memory) Jews didn’t integrate but kept themselves apart. Their dealings with non-jews were almost strictly business. Where Christians often shared their wealth with the general poor the Jews kept all the money they made within their own group. While it may have been good business it tended to pull money away from the Christians and when they were run out of town they’d take all their wealth with them, leaving the towns broke. Not a good way to make friends or supporters.

       Today I tried again with the same question and found two general things of interest. First, it was a lot harder to find anything other than the usual “anything derogatory about Jews is lies.” I had to go to the 12th Google page before I found anything else. Second, almost everything was written by a Jewish related organization. Deja Vu 1984.

       I did find one article titled “Why Were the Jews Persecuted?” by Tim Black, Published in History Review Issue 48 March 2004. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/why-were-jews-persecuted. I found it to have a fairly brief, but to the point, historical perspective of Jews and antisemitism. The only thing I would liked to have read is more about the financial dealings. They have always earned interest as lenders of money and from other readings I’ve learned that they helped finance wars. IIRC England only recently finished paying off their WWII debt.

       The list above by “vao” (I didn’t watch Phillips) does not paint a good picture of Jews, nor does Israel’s aggressions in the Middle East. What bothers me most is the iron grip that Jews have on our politicians (and the methods they use to enforce support), our media’s support of Israel through censorship, and the Jew’s influence on our culture that allows such gross censorship and funding/arming of Israel.

       Other than funding wars what are the good things said about Jews?

       Reply ↓
11. mrsyk November 25, 2025 at 9:14 am

    Regarding “Mamdani Response to Protest Inflames Tensions with Jewish Leaders”, here’s the beef,

    But it was what he said next that alarmed some Jewish leaders: He chastised the synagogue, saying through his spokeswoman that “these sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.”

    How is this controversial?

    Reply ↓
    1. JMH November 25, 2025 at 10:37 am

       It is not, unless any limitation on your “right” to proceed with total impunity is questioned.

       Reply ↓
    2. Post-Raisin Bran Studies November 25, 2025 at 10:43 am

       How can a synagogue in New York be violating INTER-national law? Or is Mamdani just a scold and a hypocrite? Because he shares a lot of the same concerns about Israel that Idi Amin had. Amin used the exact same excuse, that Mamdani’s family were colonialist capitalist occupiers of Uganda who were violating international law, to expel Mamdani’s father and mother. It is nice to be able to emigrate to somewhere safe where a demagogue doesn’t use your plight to score a single mayoral term.

       Mamdani is going to find out that a mayor is no match for 51 New York City Council members who have 100 more hands on the levers of power than an underemployed would-be grad student turned social media darling.

       Reply ↓
       1. mrsyk November 25, 2025 at 11:19 am

          Hmm, are not “promoting activities in violation of international law” (Mamdani) and acting in violation of international law two different things?

          Reply ↓
       2. Bugs November 25, 2025 at 11:59 am

          The synagogue was hosting an event to promote land sales in the West Bank (the eastern part of Palestine) to diaspora Jews who can do aliyah and move to Israel and be paid for it. It is against international law for Israelis or anyone else to transact real estate in Palestine that they have no claim to.

          Idi Amin expelled Indian immigrants from Uganda because his regime was of the view that they were exploiting the indigenous population to make bank. The Indians had emigrated during British occupation and were not occupying Uganda. There are absolutely no parallels to be made here and Mamdani is perfectly within his rights as mayor elect to express an opinion about activities in his city that promote violations of international law and further oppression of the Palestinians by Israeli occupiers.

          Reply ↓
    3. Buzz Meeks November 25, 2025 at 12:02 pm

       A synagogue on one of the main avenues in Buffalo has been flying an Israeli flag since the Israelis murdered their citizens on October 7 to start the Palestinian land grab and genocide.
       I see that as a direct affront to the city, state and country; separation of politics and religion. Pull their tax exempt status and make them pay their share instead of parasitic guzzling. And now trying to scam four billion?
       I have an awful feeling it isn’t going to be pretty for these parasitic scum when the MAGA pussies finally wake up and see what has really in done in the name of this country. Especially with Trump as Israel’s bitch.

       Reply ↓
       1. mrsyk November 25, 2025 at 1:02 pm

          Israel first

          Look, it slips out in point five, Melania Phillips speech, helpfully posted above by vao. Looking forward to her guest appearance at a TP USA event.

          Reply ↓
12. The Rev Kev November 25, 2025 at 9:23 am

    “Trump Administration is Letting Europe Kill Its Proposed Russia/Ukrainian Peace Plan”

    Looks like Trump was rolled by the Europeans and let them rewrite that plan. Doesn’t really matter as no plan that Trump or the Europeans come up with will be acceptable to the Russians. Funny thing that. I have heard Trump’s original plane called a Russian wish-list or a set of “Russian talking points” and that seems to be the narrative. And this implies that after three and a half years, nobody is listening to what the Russians try to tell them ad nauseam. Meanwhile the Ukrainian army is still collapsing and the Russians keep on taking more territory while the west plays these games with so-called peace plans. But at the end of the day, it is the winners of a war that set the peace terms, not the losers.

    Reply ↓
    1. mrsyk November 25, 2025 at 9:58 am

       So it becomes Europe’s fault that the Peace Plan fails, instead of Trump’s plan failing for its deficiencies.
       Winning?

       Reply ↓
       1. JMH November 25, 2025 at 10:35 am

          These are not serious people.

          Reply ↓
       2. Mikel November 25, 2025 at 11:21 am

          The conflict is necessary for the social, political, and economic controls it’s allowing for many of the players.

          Reply ↓
13. The Rev Kev November 25, 2025 at 9:59 am

    ‘Shining Science
    @ShiningScience
    Nov 23
    ❄️ This MRI Can Destroy Cancer Without a Single Cut ❄️’

    This is so cool this. Expensive initially but I bet far cheaper over the long run that conventional treatments. One doctor added something interesting in replies-

    ‘Jason R. Williams, MD, DABR
    @jasonwilliamsmd
    This is what we’ve been doing for years. Cryoablation is powerful, but not just because it destroys the tumor. The real magic: frozen tumor cells become antigens. Your immune system recognizes the debris and learns to hunt that cancer throughout the body. Combine it with intratumoral immunotherapy during the same procedure and you’re essentially creating a personalized vaccine. No surgery. No chemo. Working with the immune system instead of destroying it.’

    How good is that.

    Reply ↓
    1. mrsyk November 25, 2025 at 10:39 am

       Thanks Rev, it’s rare when we get a bit of good news. If this technique works as advertised it’s an incredible advance in the treatment of cancer.

       Reply ↓
       1. Craig H. November 25, 2025 at 11:28 am

          Haven’t they been freezing skin cancers for a long time?

          Reply ↓
          1. cfraenkel November 25, 2025 at 12:50 pm

             Well, yeah, that’s kind of the point. Combining with the MRI lets them freeze internal cancers, not just the ones on the skin that the Dr can see and touch. Also, to Dr Williams comment mentioned above, skin cancers aren’t surrounded by the immune system, so the external procedure wouldn’t produce the follow-on immune response.

             Reply ↓
             1. bassmule November 25, 2025 at 5:24 pm

                It does sound amazing. And it also sounds like many rice bowls in the cancer pharmaceuticals industry might get broken. They’ll fight.

                Reply ↓
14. ilsm November 25, 2025 at 10:08 am

    Rubio was there to represent the Atlanticist/neocon front soft soaped by Witkoff-Kushner-Dmitriev triumvirate.

    Neither version cares for Russian Federation continued existence.

    The Atlanticist version from Rubio sees 800000 soldiers lined up east of the Dneiper to launch against the Russians at the Volgograd crossings. Rather than 600000 that Kushner said.

    Will Lavrov preside over conferences like the Vietnam Paris ones?

    The worth of the laundry lists is Russia can drag out the peace conference until Germany et al are bankrupt.

    Reply ↓
15. Jeremy Grimm November 25, 2025 at 10:35 am

    RE: “President Xi Jinping Speaks with U.S. President Donald J. Trump on the Phone”
    I think the description of this event and Arnaud Bertrand’s analysis of its import should be a third
    “must read”. President Xi may be casting pearls before a swine but I think what he is saying is of great importance. The Japanese and their actions before and during World War II are well remembered in China and Korea and doubtless in many other countries in the East. The memories are not fond. For reasons that elude me, the u.s. has begun to unleash the Japanese Devil in the East. This action bears a curious symmetry with the u.s. efforts that lead to the war in the Ukraine.

    After World War II Russia assembled a buffer wall of unwilling confederates between itself and Germany. It went to lengths to dismantle German militarism. Many in the Ukraine readily adopted Nazism and sought to join the German invasion so they could strike against Stalin. The Germans and their actions before and during World War II are well remembered in Russia. The u.s. steps in to reanimate Ukrainian enmity against Russia and through its actions re-militarize Germany.

    I cannot imagine what kind of ‘logic’ drives u.s. ‘diplomacy’. And in case anyone suggests the Chinese and Russians have especially long memories of past offenses I suggest they visit the u.s. South and carefully listen to the people there and feel the palpable enmity toward Yankees.

    Reply ↓
    1. Henry Moon Pie November 25, 2025 at 2:04 pm

       Agreed, Jeremy. Of all the points of near-term danger that are lurking out there, this China/Japan situation seems to be escalating the most unpredictably.

       Reply ↓
16. Mikel November 25, 2025 at 10:36 am

    The Kobeissi Letter
    @KobeissiLetter
    “Americans aged 70+ now own a record 38.9% of all US equities held by households.”

    Well, technically, if they bought at lower prices and just held, they could own fewer shares than younger people and still have more gains.

    Reply ↓
    1. chuck roast November 25, 2025 at 12:24 pm

       It’s all the Boomers fault. They worked, saved and invested. But their unforgivable sin was that they lived too long.

       Reply ↓
    2. cfraenkel November 25, 2025 at 1:05 pm

       That whole argument is just a new front in the culture wars commented on above re the Michael Green piece. Oh look, the boomers own 39% of equities, oh the humanity. Meanwhile, pay no mind behind the curtain where the top 1% now own more than 50%.

       Reply ↓
       1. lyman alpha blob November 25, 2025 at 2:01 pm

          Yeah I didn’t get the guy’s point. Yes, people hold on to investments. In other news, water was found to be wet. No idea how much my own folks have in reserve, but they are saving it and not spending profligately. At some point my generation will inherit that, and do exactly the same thing.

          Meanwhile, social security payments are notoriously inadequate. I used to see people coming in to the bank to cash their checks on the first of the month and was appalled by the amounts they were expected to live on. If you didn’t have another source of retirement income, you were likely living in a cardboard box. So if the goal is to increase the circulation of money on the economy, maybe start by increasing social security compensation instead of trying top figure out how to reduce middle class savings.

          And the argument that people are going into bitcoin as a result of old people hoarding seemed off to me. My theory on why the prices of crypto stay so high is precisely because there are whales holding large chunks of the available “assets” – same thing the guy is complaining about in the first place.

          Reply ↓
       2. Glen November 25, 2025 at 3:02 pm

          So true.

          When you walk thru homeless encampments:

          You know who you find? Boomers.

          You know what you don’t find? Billionaires.

          Reply ↓
       3. bayoustjohndavid November 26, 2025 at 12:05 am

          Does’t that mean that the statistics Kobeissi (a finance guy, btw) cited tell us absolutely nothing about median net worth of boomers (or any other made up “generation”)? Especially since there are still a few 80 somethings (“silents”) in the 1% that owns more than 50%.

          There are a few things that I don’t think get enough attention about the use of generational labels in our public discourse. For one, it’s relatively new. From what I gather, there was a young generation and an old generation when I was a kid, but even then it wasn’t like the clearly defined age tribes that we’re all supposed to believe in now.

          It gives a ridiculous amount of importance to points on a widely spaced bar chart, in this case 15-20 years apart. It’s like saying New Orleans weather during the last week of September is like Maine weather during the first week of December because it’s all Fall in the continental U.S.

          Most importantly, it’s identity politics put to the most obvious (or should be obvious) divide-and-conquer uses of any idpol ever. I said most obvious, not most harmful. Since, it’s hard for me to comment on the subject without being tempted to write enough to get into get your own damn blog territory, I’ve refrained from commenting thinking instead that I would ressurrect my own damn blog.

          However, another recent story had me close enough to restarting my own damn blog that I searched through old links that I had sent to myself on the subject in the fourteen years since Occupy. I came across two old post by Yves that I think are still relevant:
          https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/11/identity-politics-and-the-stoking-of-generational-warfare.html#srWC14u6QreR35kE.99
          and
          https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/04/joe-firestone-using-generational-warfare-divert-attention-oligarchy-corporatism.html

          Reply ↓
17. AG November 25, 2025 at 10:53 am

    re: Germany economic decline

    German daily BERLINER ZEITUNG

    use google-translate

    MAN, Mercedes, Bosch are relocating: Germany’s arrogance is now taking its toll.

    MAN and Mercedes are relocating parts of their production to Poland, Bosch to Hungary – and Germany under Merz is watching as its industry invests elsewhere.
    A commentary.

    by Liudmila Kotlyarova

    Nov. 19th
    https://archive.is/gCgvc

    Reply ↓
18. Mikel November 25, 2025 at 11:05 am

    No Saviors In The Multipolar Mirage: We’re Living In An Inhuman World – Fioralle Isabel, YouTube

    Articles by Eric Toussaint and Patrick Bond on Cadtm.org also provide some good critiques on subjects such as BRICS and the relations with the IMF and World Bank and the idea of sub-imperialism (to name a few).

    Reply ↓
19. chuck roast November 25, 2025 at 11:12 am

    Should the Bank of England be Independent?

    Two more in a long line of tedious talking heads. I’m not familiar with the structure of the Bank of England, but the Anglo-Saxon world being what it is the mechanics may change, but the structures remain the same.

    Here for example, is are the mechanics and structure of the US central bank, the Federal Reserve:
    – 12 Regional Federal Reserve Banks controlled by the regional bankers
    – a Federal Open Market Committee consisting of regional bankers and other bankers
    – the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. All financiers, financial economists or bankers

    This central bank is independent of what exactly? Certainly independent of any democratic accountability.

    Reply ↓
    1. Revenant November 25, 2025 at 9:40 pm

       The question is a misnomer. Should monetary policy be independent would be better. Historically the Chancellor of the Exchequer set the interest rate (post WW2 when the Bank was nationalised). The Treasury handled debt sales. The bank merely dealt with financial plumbing and regulation (the Governor of the Bank of England’s eyebrows…), custody of gold and forex, market and commercial intelligence etc.

       I don’t know how the system functioned pre WW2. Obvious HMG was concerned about the gold standard and subsequently sterling balance but the BoE was a private company with shareholders setting the Bank Rate so as to make a profit (seigniorage; discounting of debt instruments between third parties known as bills)

       Reply ↓
20. AG November 25, 2025 at 11:50 am

    re: EU and private retirement pension

    The social contract which was core to the EEC/EU for decades is being dismantled with the speed of light. And the public is watching and does…nothing.

    Latest example:

    Equity-based pension for all: EU copies US model with 90 million savers

    use google-translate

    https://www.telepolis.de/article/Aktien-Rente-fuer-alle-EU-kopiert-US-Modell-mit-90-Millionen-Sparern-11089496.html

    Reply ↓
21. Ignacio November 25, 2025 at 12:12 pm

    On Genesis (From DD Geopolitics tweet).

    As I see it is vagueness and grandiose wording at its best but will little if anything on objectives whatsoever.
    Datasets integrated in a AI platform? So, if a lab searches something on, say, “cucumber genes involved in flowering”, what will be the advantage of such a grandiose AI platform?

    Automate research? Come on, Scam Altman has managed to turn the government in idiots.

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22. Jason Boxman November 25, 2025 at 12:49 pm

    Far be it from me to be that guy, but tern starts with

    Like the starting point here with endometriosis of the uterus. The graph above was all ages.
    This is all diagnoses in young adults.

    A *tripling* in a flash.
    And that graph makes it look like there’s more to come.

    And we know that, despite the Establishment Media telling women that they don’t know their own bodies, it was later admitted that the modified RNA shots did effect women’s menstrual cycle. I’m to no degree an anti-vaxer, but given how limited the studies were before the modified RNA shots were green lit, it’s hard not to wonder on this particular point if it might be more than just repeat SARS-CoV-2 infections at play here?

    The charts do go through 10-18 year olds, and I have no idea when shots were approved for adolescents, so that might entirely invalidate this line of thinking.

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23. Pelham November 25, 2025 at 1:20 pm

    Nice batch of antidotes. Thanks. I need a carefully measured dose of animal videos daily but refuse to immerse myself and get lost on YouTube.

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24. Richard Childers November 25, 2025 at 1:49 pm

    That whale video is AI if I am any judge.

    The panning of the camera is too smooth – no kicking is evident – and there is no turbulence from the movement of a huge fin tip only a few feet away from the lens, no bubbles either

    If it looks too good to be true, it is

    It did not evade my attention that my long post a week ago in response to the article on AI being used to preprocess current events was blackholed, just sayin’

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    1. vao November 25, 2025 at 5:38 pm

       The one segment that leaves me puzzled is from 20s to 30s. I cannot quite make sense of the perspective when the dolphins, that seem to be above and slightly behind the head of the whale appear to move in front of it.

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25. alrhundi November 25, 2025 at 1:53 pm

    Re: Trump Cancels Release of Crucial Economic Report to Hide His Failures

    Things are not looking good. Makes me cautious to go into anything medium-high risk

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26. larry November 25, 2025 at 2:07 pm

    Is there any effort going in to not letting AI videos seep into the antidotes? The whale video appears to be another one in a long list of AI videos I got tricked into watching by clicking an antidote post. Sorry if this is already being discussed in previous comments or is just to hard in today’s AI slop filled environment!

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    1. Yves Smith Post authorNovember 26, 2025 at 12:31 am

       These were not AI videos. You are now seeing Commies under the bed.

       Reply ↓
       1. Smurf November 26, 2025 at 9:05 am

          How can you be so sure? The whale video could swing either way. One might call it a virtual coin toss.

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27. Jason Boxman November 25, 2025 at 2:08 pm

    The developing world should be so grateful for these jobs

    The Auto Industry Was Warned: Battery Recycling Was Poisoning People (NY Times via archive.ph)

    Despite decades of evidence on the toxic effects of lead battery recycling, companies opted not to act and blocked efforts to clean up the industry.

    Not really a surprise, and there’s been similar coverage from the Times in the past about electronics recycling in India, with similar results. The cheapest way to extract the valuable metals from electronics is apparently to just burn it all. You can imagine the end result of that horror.

    Capitalism sucks.

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28. lyman alpha blob November 25, 2025 at 2:13 pm

    RE: New cash law

    This is something needed at the federal level. Several years ago I noticed some local businesses that starting refusing cash. I took it up with the city council, thinking they were in violation of the law based on what I read on the back of my currency, but I was informed that I was mistaken. Here’s the Fed policy – https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12772.htm

    “Is it legal for a business in the United States to refuse cash as a form of payment?

    There is no federal statute mandating that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether to accept cash unless there is a state law that says otherwise.

    Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled “Legal tender,” states: “United States coins and currency [including Federal Reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal Reserve Banks and national banks] are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues.” This statute means that all U.S. money as identified above is a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor.”

    Doing it at the Federal level would be a hell of a lot easier than having every municipality and state make their own rulings on it. Cash issued by the US government should be accepted as payment everywhere. It seems downright un-American not to.

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29. Henry Moon Pie November 25, 2025 at 2:47 pm

    Re-Civilization–

    An excellent piece whose co-author is familiar here: Philip Pilkington. The piece focuses on three elements:

    1) How well has Fukuyama’s “end of history” held up? No need for a spoiler alert here, but the authors provide a lot of the intellectual background of Fukuyama’s ideas. I was struck by this parallel between Pilkington’s (et al.) description of Fukuyama’s picture of neoliberal Paradise:

    If only liberal states can satisfy the desire that drives history, then what more concretely is that desire? Recognition. It is an archaic individual thirst for recognition which finally matures into the modern political “struggle for the universal recognition of rights.” The social contradictions which make history are nothing but the shifting objective formations of this primitive desire to be recognized. Fukuyama’s hope is that late liberal states realize a political culture which is so “universal” and so “homogeneous” that “all prior contradictions are resolved” within it. Once the desire that makes history is satisfied, post-history can finally begin.

    ;

    and Mr. Jensen’s speech from “Network:”

    We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there’s no war or famine, oppression or brutality — one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.

    2) What are the differences between the Chinese and Western approaches to the interface between ideology, economy and culture?

    In the course of this discussion, Pilkington brings up wu wei (non-action) and leadership. While the authors of the linked piece attribute the wu wei concept to Confucianism, it is also the cornerstone of Taoism:

    So a wise leader might say:
    I practice inaction, and the people look after themselves.
    I love to be quiet, and the people find justice themselves.
    I don’t do business, and the people prosper on their own.
    I don’t have wants, and the people themselves are uncut wood.

    Tao te Ching #57 (Le Guin rendition)

    3) How might Westerners recover from the end of the “end of history” by means of “Re-Civilization?”

    Here’s the authors’ prescription:

    The process of re-civilization is undertaken by integrating aspects of one’s ancestral civilization with ultramodern innovations in both government and technology. While libertarian conservatives in the West decry state bureaucracies, the Chinese intelligentsia has realized that these bureaucracies are themselves the tools by which we can inculcate civilization. The law is a teacher—and the bureaucracies bring the law.

    That will be a tough assignment for States and bureaucracies as discredited and bereft of ideas (other than self-serving ones) as are found in the West. As Pilkington and his colleague argue, this interaction of ideology, economy and culture never reaches some telos, but is instead in a constant state of change and evolution. China may succeed in its effort to preserve harmony while continuing with technological change by relying on a strengthening of traditional values that have never been entirely lost, even in the Maoist era. For the West, the problem is that, according to Pilkington, liberalism itself has proven to be a destructive, destabilizing force, so we’re left with finding some new paradigm that might incorporate elements from earlier Western culture, but will nevertheless be something fundamentally new. That’ very unlikely to come from Western bureaucrats like we see in American or European governments. The more likely source is the poet, the filmmaker, the songwriter or the philosopher.

    But this remains a read that generates some thought. Check it out.

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    1. lyman alpha blob November 25, 2025 at 9:24 pm

       Thanks HMP – that is definitely worth the read. This bears highlighting –

       “The demographic realities in fact favor China in the medium- to long-term. Consider agricultural employment in China versus its competitors. In Europe, roughly 3.8 percent of the labor force are employed in agriculture; and in the United States, roughly 1.6 percent of the population work in the sector. In China, however, over 22 percent of the population remain employed in agriculture. If we assume that the Chinese cities need around 1 percent annual labor force growth on top of the current rate of population growth, China has at least seventeen years of potential labor force growth locked up in the countryside. Yet when the Chinese build enormous residential projects to prepare for these massive population flows, skeptics in the West call them “ghost cities” and argue that a property collapse is set to destroy the economy.”

       Chinese bureaucracy plans for the long term. The West is currently engaged in destabilizing other civilizations through economic and military means, creating a large importable pool of cheap labor in the process to keep those short term profits coming. And they can’t even be bothered to build housing ahead of time. This causes the problems discussed in the My Life is a Lie piece in links above –

       “This mathematical valley explains the rage we see in the American electorate, specifically the animosity the “working poor” (the middle class) feel toward the “actual poor” and immigrants.

       Economists and politicians look at this anger and call it racism, or lack of empathy. They are missing the mechanism.

       Altruism is a function of surplus. It is easy to be charitable when you have excess capacity. It is impossible to be charitable when you are fighting for the last bruised banana.

       The family earning $65,000—the family that just lost their subsidies and is paying $32,000 for daycare and $12,000 for healthcare deductibles—is hyper-aware of the family earning $30,000 and getting subsidized food, rent, childcare, and healthcare.

       They see the neighbor at the grocery store using an EBT card while they put items back on the shelf. They see the immigrant family receiving emergency housing support while they face eviction.”

       China is at least trying to build for the future while the West has clearly lost its way.

       One added thought – the Tao te Ching line “I don’t do business, and the people prosper on their own” sounds a lot like how MMT works.

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30. Jokerstein November 25, 2025 at 3:47 pm

    Re the food and wine article: isocycloseram is not a per/poly fluorinated chemical. PFASs have most or all C-H bonds replaced with C-F bonds. It does have a trifluoromethyl group, but that is a small part of the molecule. I don’t know what the exact breakdown path would be, but the molecule is going to be susceptible to rapid degradation – there are three amide bonds which readily hydrolyze. The trifluoromethyl group will likely end up as a stable unit, but the molecule itself is most certainly not a PFAS.

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31. Carolinian November 25, 2025 at 5:06 pm

    When FDR acted like Trump. Ansel Adams documents Manzanar.

    https://www.openculture.com/2025/11/200-ansel-adams-photographs-of-japanese-internment-camps-during-ww-ii.html

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    1. AG November 25, 2025 at 11:04 pm

       nice
       considering that AA has been known today mainly for fetishized and fetishizing nature panorama photography

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       1. AG November 26, 2025 at 7:19 am

          edit: “landscape” photography not “nature”, of course

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32. flora November 25, 2025 at 5:09 pm

    re: SightBringer twtr.

    “The United States financial system outsourced price stability to the retirement expectations of the Baby Boomers.”

    That’s not quite right. The US financial system outsourced Wall Street expectations of higher stock prices to destroying traditional defined-benefit pensions retirement systems and told Boomers they had best invest in the stock markets if they expected have any money for retirement. Defined benefit pensions were going the way of the dodo bird. (Along with manufacturing jobs being outsourced to other countries.) Direct investment with a brokerage house or indirect investment through a 401k or 403b tax sheltered account would basically be the only way to replace the defined benefit pension’s guaranteed income stream in retirement. And so boomers started buying stocks and the stock market went up.

    No wonder then that that’s how some boomers treat their stock investments, as the retirement pension replacement.
    Thanks to Wall St. and people like Chainsaw Al Dunlap. / ;)

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33. amfortas November 25, 2025 at 6:38 pm

    the aging curve liquidity trap thing from the tweet by ‘sightbringer’ totally blew open my brain.
    but im too frazzled from my labors(and OPBS) to really contemplate it atm.

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34. Mountain November 25, 2025 at 7:57 pm

    A headline that made me do a double take: (UK) Jury trials to be scrapped except for alleged rapists and killers. I know that most countries don’t use a jury system, but this would be a massive shake-up in the UK legal system, which pioneered the use of juries. It can’t be a sign of anything good.

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35. AG November 25, 2025 at 8:58 pm

    Ha!

    The MOST IMPORTANT NEWS

    Barbra Streisaпd Caпcels All Upcomiпg Shows iп New York City for Next Year — “SORRY NYC, BUT I DON’T SING FOR COMMIES” – BON

    Published November 10, 2025
    https://sportnewss.livextop.com/posts/breaking-news-barbra-streisand-cancels-upcoming-shows-new-york-city-next-year-nyc-sing-bon-ynhi123

    Donnie & Barb singing side by side on the beaches of Grenada, er, Gaza.
    “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” as John Milius once put it.

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36. DG Bear November 26, 2025 at 11:32 am

    Both Must reads were great and clarifying.

    Reply ↓