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Links 11/4/2025

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This family’s cat turned chef added a dead mouse to their soup Not the Bee (Li)

I know it is in terrible taste to cheer, but:

Alarming surge in memory problems among young adults ScienceDaily (Kevin W). Predates Covid.

#COVID-19/Pandemics

The Effect of US COVID-19 Excess Mortality on Social Security Outlays NBER. Paul R: “Covid deaths help SS trust fund.”

Outbreak of polio reported in Laos Bangkok Post

Climate/Environment

Earth showing alarming symptoms of climate distress as 22 of 34 key indicators hit record highs: Report Down to Earth

Increasing central and northern European summer heatwave intensity due to forced changes in internal variability Nature

The nature extinction crisis is mirrored by one in our own bodies. Both have huge implications for health Guardian

Water

Iran’s Water Crisis Puts Millions in Danger Newsweek

India’s Indus Treaty Suspension Sparks Water Crisis In Pakistan Grand Pinnacle Tribune

China?

China Urges US to Avoid ‘Red Lines’ After Reaching Trade Truce Bloomberg

China Backs Domestic AI Chips with Massive Energy Subsidies to Counter US Sanctions WinBuzzer

Japan

The Japanese Thatcher Julian Macfarlane

Africa

Nigeria rejects claims of Christian genocide as Trump mulls military action Aljazeera (resilc)

Stay Out of Nigeria Daniel Larison

Mali’s Potential Fall To Terrorists Could Result In Another French-Led Intervention Andrew Korybko

South of the Border

Report: US Preparing Mexico Mission Against Cartels That Would Include Troops and Drone Strikes Antiwar (Kevin W)

Venezuela Exposes CIA ‘Casus Belli’ Plot, Arrests Suspected Operatives Orinoco Tribun (Robin K)

Paraguay Declares War on “Narcoterrorists” Paraguay Post

Mexican mayor killed during Day of the Dead celebrations Guardian (resilc)

European Disunion

Germany’s Deindustrialisation Is a Capital Coup China Economic Indicator (Robin K)

What Secrets Does the Nord Stream II Blast Still Hold? Poland’s Opaque Game NEO (Michael T)

Old Blighty

Millions Lending Money to Friends and Family to Cover Essentials BBC

Even ex-banking MDs can’t get their children finance jobs now eFinancialCareers25 (Micael T)

Israel v. the Resistance

Israel to appoint new army lawyer after Palestinian prisoner rape scandal  Middle East Eye (resilc)

Israeli Settlers Filmed Torturing Lambs in a Palestinian-owned Pen in the West Bank Haaretz (resilc)

The Olive Harvest Deportations Jewish Currents (Susan C)

The myth of US peacemaking: Why Washington’s mediation in West Asia keeps crumbling The Cradle

The Arab World’s Last Militant Leader Is Elusive and Defiant Wall Street Journal

New Not-So-Cold War

The Root Causes of the War in Ukraine, Or Why Russia Insists on the Donbas Antiwar

Imperial Collapse Watch

Western Political Lies Signal The End of an Era Finn Andreen (Micael T)

The US and EU had a bold plan to counter China’s BRI in Africa’s copper belt. It fell apart in under a year. Kevin Walmsley

America’s Magical Thinking on Ukraine and North Korea American Conservative (resilc)

The World’s Highest Incarceration Rates (Including U.S. States) Visual Capitalist (resilc)

Trump 2.0

A Trace Analysis of 150 U.S. Cities Shows One of the Greatest Drops in Gun Violence — Ever The Trace (resilc)

FDA’s top drug regulator resigns amid investigation STAT

Shutdown

Trump administration will tap emergency fund to pay partial food stamp benefits BBC. Per court order.

Senate GOP blocks Dem effort to fund SNAP The Hill

Tariffs/Trade

Trump says China, other countries can’t have Nvidia’s top AI chips Reuters

Supremes

“Regular Forces” and the Insurrection Act Steve Vladeck

Monday: Tariffs Incoming At SCOTUS; Thinking About Rare Earths Mark Wauck

Republican Clown Car

FULL Republican Civil War EXPLODES Over Tucker, Fuentes, Israel Breaking Points

Democrat Death Wish

Inside the Democratic identity crisis Unherd. Some great phrasemaking.

Working-class voters think Dems are ‘woke’ and ‘weak,’ new research finds Politico. Paul R: “It took a big research study to find that out, lol.”

A year after Trump won, why won’t Democrats change their playbook? Norman Solomon, Guardian (resilc)

How the Democrats Can Play Offense Washington Monthly. Um, they are pretty good at being offensive.

Mamdani

When Zohran Mamdani campaigned in Arabic, He was Speaking an old American Language Juan Cole (Randy K)

Four Early Voting Takeaways in NYC, By The Numbers THE CITY

Trump threatens to restrict federal funding if Mamdani wins New York City mayoral race Anadolu Agency

Obama calls Mamdani and offers to be ‘sounding board’ if he wins mayoral race Guardian. resilc: “Obomba is a bigger con than Ttrump……..at least Trump is an open book asshole.”

Zohran Mamdani’s child care gamble Vox

Our No Longer Free Press

Teen Vogue Ridiculed for Dissolving Politics Team Just One Day Before ‘Major Election’: ‘A Knife in the Back’ The Wrap (Harvey L). Teen Vogue had a labor column. We often linked to its stories.

Mr. Market is Moody

We’ve never been so sure of an imminent financial crash: Industry leaders across ALL sectors come together to say these signs of US economic meltdown are undeniable Daily Mail

Economy

Bessent Says Some ‘Sectors’ Of Economy Are In Recession Forbes

AI

Why AI scientists fail to impress human experts at one-of-a-kind online conference South China Morning Post

The Bezzle

Catalog of Dark Patterns Hall of Shame (resilc)

Private capital zombie firms will pile up in next decade, says EQT chief Financial Times

Guillotine Watch

Top Trump officials Miller, Noem and Rubio adopt bunker mentality with housing reserved for military officers: report Independent

Class Warfare

The Ghost in the Machine Ryan Perkins (Robin K). Today’s must read.

She’s 93 and still job searching. Why older Americans work, even if they’re sick. Business Insider (resic)

Is This Rock Bottom? Corbin Trent and America’s Undoing. resilc cites:

I keep waiting for someone in power or seeking it to say the quiet part out loud: the amount of work required to fix this country is far bigger than “beating Trump” or “restoring norms” or whatever line gets handed to Democratic donors and MSNBC panels. I keep waiting for someone to look the public in the eye and say: we’re not going to vote our way back to the America we think we used to have, because the America we think we used to have never actually existed for most people.

Why Is Healthcare Expensive? Dean Baker

Inmates will pay up to 83% more for phone calls, thanks to new FCC rule Popular Information

‘Soul-Crushing’: Students Slam Harvard’s Grade Inflation Report Harvard Crimson. ZOMG, the entitlement, it burns.

BCC Sees Dramatic Increase in Enrollment, Thanks to Free Tuition Programs iBershires (resilc)

Antidote du jour (via):

A bonus:

A second bonus:

And a third:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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161 comments

    2. Acacia

      Right now, Takaichi looks rather worse than Thatcher.

      From the article:

      To do business in China, Japan must work in Yuan by 2030 when, if not the world’s reserve currency at that time, Chinese currency will be more powerful than the dollar.

      Is that really where things will be in five years time?

      Reply ↓
  2. The Rev Kev

    “Dick Cheney Dead”

    Hell under total lockdown. His infernal majesty Satan says no way is that sob going to get in as even they have to draw the line somewhere. ‘Hell’ he said, even ‘Adolf doesn’t want him there.’ A rumour states that he tried to slip in as a Dark Prince until a Demon remembered that that was just his normal appearance.

    Reply ↓
    1. JohnnyGL

      Satan is going to have a real problem on his hands once those Israeli prison guards start making their way to the afterlife.

      Same with the rest of their whole cabinet and knesset.

      Reply ↓
      1. Lefty Godot

        The Israelis are trying to open the gates of Hell and merge it completely with life on earth. They must figure at this point that just a few more atrocities will be needed to do the trick. And our so-called Christian government is egging them on all the way. “Christians For Satan” tees will be big this holiday season, no doubt.

        Reply ↓
    4. Louis Fyne

      84 is not that old.

      An American male with de facto unlimited access to theoretically “the best” health care in the world lived barely longer than the median Australian or Japanese male. While Mugabe and Castro, pushed 90+. The current Iranian Ayatollah is 89.

      reminds me of Roald Dahl’s idea that people with ugly thoughts rot on the outside too.

      Reply ↓
        3. Michaelmas

          He had three heart transplants and was not far from the time for his fourth, which someone more deserving — which would be pretty much anyone else on the planet — will get now.

          Reply ↓
          1. motorslug

            Yeah, I wonder how many proles disappeared for those hearts. Wouldn’t someone that old and that bad of health be far down the official recipient list?
            I guess vampires are mortal after all.

            Reply ↓
            1. mrsyk

              Don’t overlook the potential for victims on the donor side. Anyone else read Nancy Farmer’s terrific novel “the house of the scorpion”?

              Spoiler Alert

              The story is about a cloned son of a drug dealer. The reason he exists is to eventually have his organs harvested for El Patron when the need arises.

              Reply ↓
      2. AG

        Below linked satirical biopic “VICE” is actually about Cheney.
        The film has a major plot point concerning his heart transplant.
        VICE contains a satirical what-if ending had Cheney NOT received that new heart.
        So he already was dead once.
        Would invite an essay about undead or those who return from the dead losing their soul (if he ever had one) as a price in return.

        p.s. Or a fun remake of A CHRISTMAS CAROL – 3 ghosts Powell, Rummy, Cheney. Powell being the nice one – haunting Trump.

        Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        I’m going to make a prediction here. In the old days when somebody famous died it was not long before a bunch of tell-all books came out saying what they were really like. But when John McCain fell off his perch several years ago nothing like that happened. It was like America publishers were told ‘Don’t you dare!’ and he was buried in a State funeral. So I predict the same for Cheney. No tell-all books will come out and he too will get a State funeral as a great American patriot.

        Reply ↓
        2. Dr. John Carpenter

          The best part will be all the Dems, who could just keep their mouths shut, telling us what a great American he was.

          Reply ↓
    6. Jason Boxman

      I had a similar reaction to everyone else; then I got to thinking about judgement. May whatever god he believes in find him wanton, but more than that.

      I was thinking about Crimes Against Humanity; I never dug into the history of the Nuremberg Trials. What was that even about? The Allies also committed atrocities during the war, without a doubt. In grade school, I don’t recall a lot of nuance in the history.

      Few among the elite ever face justice for their crimes, Big and small.

      Reply ↓
      1. GF

        There is an Amazon Prime Video streaming movie out now about the last days of Stephen Mil… err, oh – Joseph Goebbels. It seems he never made it to the Nuremberg Trails.

        Reply ↓
      6. Randall Flagg

        >Is Cheney being buried? If so, can anyone recommend a good tune for dancing on a grave?
        Yes, please send me the location so I can relieve myself there

        Reply ↓
    8. John Wright

      Dick Cheney is an individual who could inspire a “USA flags normally at three-quarters staff” movement.

      When a good hearted, responsible, and significant person expired, the USA flag could be lowered to one-half staff, as it is now and then returned to three-quarters staff.

      When a deeply harmful and significant USA person passed, the USA flag could be raised to full staff, in for a “celebration period” of their death and then lowered to the new normal three-quarters staff.

      This could be a grass roots campaign to have a “USA flags normally at three-fourths staff”.

      Reply ↓
  3. ProNewerDeal

    Any update on imperative/how-to advice on Covid prevention/mitigation?

    I assume that the risk of long-term organ damage & Long Covid, as expressed by experts like Dr Al-Aly who testified before Sen Bernie Sanders Long Covid hearing are still extant with the current predominant Covid variant(s). Any take on this?

    For prevention/mitigation ala “swiss cheese” layered model, what do you recommend?
    1 wearing N95 or at least KN95 masks as much as possible in indoor public spaces?

    2 Novavax 2025-26 vaccine?

    3 take prophylactic OTC vitamins including Vitamin D/C/Quercitin as listed on the FLCCC “I-Prevent” protocol?

    4 take prophylactic “I vitamin” twice per week?

    Reply ↓
    1. Louis Fyne

      this will come across as sarcasm, but ain’t…..don’t be around other people is the only real fool-proof prophylactic.

      Good luck with that.

      Reply ↓
      1. Jason Boxman

        True. That said, I know people from the weekly COVID Saturday Zoom that have not yet had COVID, and they work on-site, such as in primary education, every day. Always masked. So it is possible to avoid infection for a very long time, and the fewer lifetime infections, the better.

        Reply ↓
    2. JM

      From what I know.
      1&2: yes, mask diligence is ol’ reliable
      3: I guess, check your diet to see if you need supplements
      4: ??? – I don’t know, probably won’t hurt

      There is also evidence that CPC (found in some mouthwashes) and Azelastine (found in some allergy sprays) can be protective. I don’t have the studies on hand but you can probably find them.

      And what LF says, avoid known ill ppl when possible.

      Reply ↓
    3. Jason Boxman

      So I recommend Public Health Action Network, and they have a weekly email news letter, and lots of helpful resources about much of this kind of stuff. Because IVM is politicized, I don’t think they ever talk about that specifically, but for any other kind of mitigation, they’re a fantastic resource, and they’re involved in trying to improve indoor air quality and public health education regarding COVID. They’re also looking for volunteers, for anyone interested, and seem to be a competently run organization. They also have a weekly Twitter Spaces (sort of like a Zoom call) with different COVID/clean air topics and experts.

      For my part, I really recommend finding a P100 elastomeric that fits well. These can be reused hundreds of times. And they can be cleaned gently with soap I believe, and the filters replaced per the manufacturer’s recommendations or sooner.

      I got and definitely recommend, as a regular lay person, Novavax. I got mine at Publix Pharmacy of all places. They screwed up the online order, and my prescription receipt showed Pfizer, and seeing this I made them correct it to Novavax (before giving me the shot), which they did. So be careful. Other places likely aren’t used to delivering anything other than modified RNA shots and might make a mistake.

      There’s so much information at PHAN, I’d urge you to take a look.

      Stay safe out there!

      Reply ↓
    4. Expat2uruguay

      @pronewerdeal You’re missing the nasal rinse and gargle with a 1% solution of iodine.

      Are other people using that, or has it been contra indicated?

      Reply ↓
        1. Jason Boxman

          The challenge with nasal spays in the evidence is generally weak at best. While some are probably harmless at best, you need to avoid over-using the iodine-based ones.

          Reply ↓
          1. Expat2uruguay

            Thanks for your comment Jackson Bowman. I searched and searched, but found no specifics on how much is too much when it comes to 1% iodine sprays in the nose. The best information I could find is here, which generally talks about a 10% solution being toxic at 1/2 a teaspoon:

            Povidone-iodine: Safe Use of a Common Antiseptic | Poison Control https://share.google/XL45SzWji73XAd1VD

            Anyway, I use it before and after: rides on the bus, every 4 hours when traveling on a plane, and when going to church or other gatherings with many people and little air circulation. The most I have used it in any one day would be six times, and in two years of use I haven’t had any problems with my nose.

            I use it as part of a layered strategy. The idea is to create a antiseptic environment in the nose that would kill respiratory viruses.

            Reply ↓
            1. mrsyk

              For color, I was given nostril swabs of iodine solution on my way into surgery (this past September) as a prophylactic against “hospital acquired infection”.

              Reply ↓
        2. Expat2uruguay

          You can purchase a 10% iodine solution and dilute that to get the 1% solution. Iodine is that red colored liquid that they use in surgery

          Reply ↓
    5. Rick

      Thanks for asking the question, the virus has not gone away (the only respiratory virus that hangs around all year per Marc Johnson).

      Evidence of the mid and long term ill effects continues to mount. Incredible failure of public health and society in general.

      Reply ↓
  4. Tony Wikrent

    Should also be noted that Cheney’s last act of national vandalism was to sink the Harris campaign, after Kamala stupidly decided to stop campaigning on economic issues and begin highlighting Cheney and his daughter’s support.

    Reply ↓
      1. MicaT

        That’s correct.
        What a disaster to somehow think tying your campaign to the Cheney family was going to help you win.

        Reply ↓
  6. Christopher Fay

    The next week of hagiography will be horrid. The bright spot is with our goldfish memories by November 11 it will all be forgotten

    Reply ↓
  7. The Rev Kev

    “Top Trump officials Miller, Noem and Rubio adopt bunker mentality with housing reserved for military officers: report”

    Hegseth too. A case of these people putting the ‘chicken’ into ‘chickenhawks’. These people are authoritarian bullies and revel in beating on people that cannot defend themselves. And yet they hide out on a military base when push comes to shove. The late unlamented Dick Cheney was the same over twenty years ago. He lived in the Vice-Presidential home of Number One Observatory Circle but made sure that satellite images of his home there were heavily blurred out in case somebody wanted to use that info for an attack. As soon as he left office that blurring was removed.

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

    Reply ↓
    1. erstwhile

      ‘These people are authoritarian bullies and revel in beating on people that cannot defend themselves.’ Not so surprising that american politicians are increasingly identical to the zionist politicians in the mideast. I read that the jewish zionists are attempting to become an apex predator by destroying the most defenseless people on earth. Gaza, brother. The americans, though, are fed by zionist billionaires, and the manic notion that it’s god’s will that the Palestinians be eliminated. Since the trajectory of u.s. and israeli history seems to bend to destruction and genocide, it gives a new meaning to the oft repeated phrase, the u.s. is based on judeo-christian principals.

      Reply ↓
    2. GF

      The move to the military base has a couple of possible outcomes: 1) It will be easy to round them and their families up when the military coup occurs; or, 2) They will be safe and sound when the collapse comes. MTG on Bill Maher last Friday really acted surprised when Bill brought up the subject. She actually came across as a rational person.

      Reply ↓
  8. Christopher Fay

    Hillary chimes in, “as a leader in international affairs and security during my first term in the senate Dick had a firm hand in guiding the triumvirate of mossad, the CIA, and the gulf hereditary dictators. I worked closely with him in this essential work. Not since the days of F troop have our resources been corralled in the wrong direction. Up until today we still have not recovered.”

    Reply ↓
    1. DJG, Reality Czar

      Christopher Fay: Like you, my first thoughts and prayers went to the grieving Hillary Clinton.

      I can’t find the essay, but someone wrote that Dick Cheney’s distinct talent was being on the wrong side of every issue his whole career. Talk about failing upward.

      The difference is that Hillary Clinton is a media creation, whose hardly controlled venom has great allure for U.S. media workers. Dick just didn’t have that much charm. Yet Clinton has never been right about anything — she’s the Handmaiden’s Tale, indeed, handmaiden of predatory capitalism. As was he.

      It is going to be wonderful to see who shows up for the funeral. Will W invite Obama? Will Trump bury the hatchet? Are Bill & Hill packing their bags? — Any chance to be in front of a camera is good enough for them.

      Meanwhile, I am not believing any of these reports. Someone send me a photo of Cheney in a coffin with a stake through his gnarled heart.

      But there is hope: Liz Cheney still lives!

      Reply ↓
  9. DJG, Reality Czar

    Corbin Trent. Rock Bottom?

    Trent should read a bit more about just how bad (deliberately so) the U.S. Supreme Court has been at protecting the citizenry:

    Ohhh:
    Dred Scott.
    Plessy v. Ferguson to make segregation de jure.
    Lochner, overturning regulation of workers’ hours.
    Adkins, overturning the minimum wage.
    Case after case in an attempt to turn over the first New Deal.

    So the delusion among liberals is that the Court can be somehow turned around and return to those few blip years of Douglas, Jackson, Brandeis, or Warren.

    Not so. And that is why the focus by liberals on Court appointments is just the usual obsession with legal niceties at the expense of politics (Richard Kline’s wonderful essay often mentioned here at Naked Capitalism explains). The Court is not going to ensure justice. It is debatable whether it was ever meant to do so — in fact, the early Court decided to create itself and judicial review because the Constitution is ambiguous.

    All of which to say that Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a cultural hero only if your definition of cultural hero is rather loosey-goosey.

    Reply ↓
    1. ex-PFC Chuck

      There’s also Jacobson vs. Massachusetts (1905), which nullified the Preamble. From the majority opinion:

      “We pass without extended discussion the suggestion that the particular section of the statute of Massachusetts now in question (137, chap. 75) is in derogation of rights secured by the preamble of the Constitution of the United States. Although that preamble indicates the general purposes for which the people ordained and established the Constitution, it has never been regarded as the source of any substantive power conferred on the government of the United States, or on any of its departments. Such powers embrace only those expressly granted in the body of the Constitution, and such as may be implied from those so granted. Although, therefore, one of the declared objects of the Constitution was to secure the blessings of liberty to all under the sovereign jurisdiction and authority of the United States, no power can be exerted to that end by the United States, unless, apart from the preamble, it be found in some express delegation of power, or in some power to be properly implied therefrom.”

      “Promote the General Welfare?” Ha!

      Reply ↓
      1. Jason Boxman

        That’s hilarious, that exchange from the movie Sneakers (1992) is actually for real.

        Whistler: I want peace on earth and goodwill toward men.
        Bernard Abbott: We are the United States Government! We don’t do that sort of thing.
        Martin Bishop: You’re just gonna have to try.

        Truth in art.

        Reply ↓
      2. Tony Wikrent

        Until they were shocked by the December 2021 decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization which swept away Roe v. Wade, liberals and leaders of the Democratic Party have been crippled by a large part of “the left” rejecting out of hand USA Constitutional law and political history as mere instruments of an oppressive and exploitative capitalist system tainted irremediably by slavery. Liberals, Democrats and “the left” ignored the historical record of the fight within USA between republicanism and oligarchy. They mistakenly believed liberalism was a derivative of civic republicanism instead of seeing how much of liberalism — with its emphasis on “private property” and “individual liberty” rather than the General Welfare — was shaped as an oligarchical response to civic republicanism and the rising power of the American republic. Thus they were disastrously outflanked by the Rehnquist / Scalia / Thomas assault on the law and persistent undermining of the principles of civic republicanism. Meeting the oligarchs’ / reactionaries’ “argument” that Social Security, Medicare, the EPA, the Federal Labor Relations Board, and so on, are unconstitutional, liberals respond only with incredulity rather than historically-based explanations that the powers of the national government are, and were intended to be, general in nature and broad in scope.

        In Reconsidering the Constitution’s Preamble: The Words that Made Us U.S. (University of Wisconsin Legal Studies Research Paper Series Paper No. 1718), David S. Schwartz, explains that while conservatives and originalists dismiss the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution as a “stylistic flourish with no operative legal significance,” … “the drafting history of the Preamble, observable by comparing the preambles in the Articles of Confederation, the Committee of Detail draft of the Constitution, and the Committee of Style’s final version, demonstrate that the Framers considered the Preamble to be substantively meaningful…. concluding that the Preamble is “a legally inoperative flourish has no basis as a matter of text or history.”

        In his 1833 three-volume Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States — long considered the most through and faithful exposition of Constitutional interpretation — Justice Joseph Story wrote that while the Preamble does not confer any “substantive power” on the national government, it does “expound the nature, and extent, and application of the powers actually conferred by the constitution,” and should be used as a guide to interpreting the Constitution when “the terms of a given power admit of two constructions, the one more restrictive, the other more liberal.” Further, interpretation should be “governed by the intent of the power;” that is, Constitutional interpretation of federal powers should “promote” and not restrict — Story uses the word “defeat”” — that power.

        Schwartz writes, “For Story, then, the preamble is an argument against strict construction of federal powers: a statement that the Constitution’s grants of powers are to be liberally construed, to promote such things as “the general welfare.”

        This is, of course, the exact opposite of the doctrines of conservatives and originalists such as William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito, not to mention the entire (anti)Federalist Society. Schwartz makes the important point that “The argument that the preamble meant nothing more than a stylistic flourish … was highly congenial to compact theorists, nullifiers, and secessionists.”

        We have seen this throughout American history: the “domestic enemies” of the Constitution have tried repeatedly to have the Constitution reinterpreted in ways that limit and even abrogate the powers of the national government. Today, the “domestic enemies” of the Constitution want to dismantle “the administrative state” and allow “free enterprise” and “private property” free reign to foul our environment, alter our climate, exploit our labor, limit our economic prospects, mute our political participation, and surveil our lives.

        Schwartz ends by noting that at the time of ratification, the Anti-Federalists fully understood that the grand objectives proclaimed in the Preamble meant that the federal government was not at all strictly limited in its powers, but pointed to an expansive realm of implied powers, as Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton would argue in his February 1791 report to President Washington on the constitutionality of establishing a national bank.

        Reply ↓
    1. DJG, Reality Czar

      I skim-listened to this video this morning: What fascinated me is that Tucker Carlson went to make nice (I’m not sure about apologize) by talking with famously anti-Zionist Dave Smith.

      What do you make of the juxtaposition?

      Reply ↓
      1. flora

        Dave Smith is a well-known US comedian, podcaster and a Jew who is, yes, anti-zionist and anti-neocon.
        I think Dave invited Tucker on his POB podcast show to give Tucker an opportunity to answer his neocon critics. / that’s my guess

        Reply ↓
      2. lyman alpha blob

        Smith and Carlson have been in agreement on the Zionist entity for a while now. I’m about half way through, and Carlson is apologizing for earlier declaring his hatred of Xtian-Zionists, who he blames for allowing Israel to kill Xtians with impunity.

        Been waiting for some leftist opposition to the genocide, but instead those leading the way are Carlson, Candace Owens, Marjorie Taylor Green, Dave Smith and Charlie Kirk (shortly before having his head blown off).

        I never thought I’d be listening to and agreeing with them while giving up on Matt Taibbi, at least on this issue.

        Reply ↓
        1. Screwball

          MTG went on The View today. That might be a fun watch. I would, just to see how entertaining it might be, but I’m afraid of killing too many brain cells, and it wouldn’t be from MTG. That has to be one of the most gawd awful shows on TV.

          It’s not like we can’t find enough places that do nothing but bitch about Trump.

          Reply ↓
          1. ChrisFromGA

            Here you go: (M T-G on the View)

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltGQRmn-HIk

            Marjorie Taylor-Greene has been a real breath of fresh air, IMO. She’s a spanner in the works, a lightning strike on a sunny day. It’s like someone slipped some magic mushrooms on her pizza.

            Watch her fry weasel-face Mike Johnson’s brains out.

            Reply ↓
  11. Wukchumni

    Goooooooood Moooooorning Fiatnam!

    The uproaring 20’s were upon us, Lootbaggers counted coup as 1’s & 0’s on a screen symbolized that they were indeed all that when it came down to what mattered-the bottom line.

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisFromGA

      I’m triggered by the phrase “roaring 20’s” as applies to our current circumstances.

      So far we have had a pandemic that killed millions, wars in Europe and the ME that also have killed millions, a genocide, plus the dismantling of democracy here in the US.

      That the stock market or some digital nonsense manages to rally over the mountain of dead bodies is a sideshow.

      We’re living in a decade that only Pol Pot could love.

      Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        Great art, writing and more came out of the 1920’s, all we have now is larceny on a grand scale that’s hardly artful, more of a brutal grab with everybody watching.

        Reply ↓
        1. ChrisFromGA

          I’m pretty sure that historians will rank Harding and Coolidge favorably vs. Pudding Skull and the Orange Julius (Hey, not a bad name for a band!)

          But we still have to get our Hoover, so there’s always hope! J.D. Vance, please step up!

          Reply ↓
          1. Wukchumni

            USA 1920’s: Largest Creditor, largest manufacturer, largest auto producer. largest oil producer & gold owner (all by far), and a few other largest things i’ve forgotten

            USA 2020’s: Not so much

            Reply ↓
  12. The Rev Kev

    “Mali’s Potential Fall To Terrorists Could Result In Another French-Led Intervention”

    There’s something awfully screwy going on around here. You had all these main stream media saying Mali was about to fall and this was picked up by smaller publications. They talked about how the terrorists had cut fuel to the capital and it was all going pear shaped. And yet Alex Christoforou in his latest video was saying that people that actually lived there were saying that this was all made up. That they were still receiving fuel under escort from the Russians so there was no emergency. Alex even showed an image of this Russian-escorted convoy. But if the French are thinking about going back into Mali – which may have been the point of all those media stories – I think that the French will have to fight their way back in. Does Macron really want to risk it?

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisFromGA

      The lesson I takeaway is that once you get to D.C, no matter how solid your bona fides are as a man or woman of peace, you’ll always trend warmonger. It’s just something in the water.

      In the 90’s, conservatives used to lament how Supreme Court justices like David Souter (a supposedly conservative choice of GHW Bush) would inevitably tilt leftwards once they arrived on the D.C. cocktail circuit. The pressure to fit in and mingle with the liberal crowd always did its magic.

      There must be an analog for the way bloodthirsty warmongers and killers like Graham are able to worm-tongue their way into the heads of any President. How fitting on the day Dick Cheney kicked the bucket.

      Reply ↓
  15. Steve H.

    > The Ghost in the Machine Ryan Perkins (Robin K). Today’s must read.

    >> the Agency bankrolled a vast ecosystem of anti-communist left-wing intellectuals through the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF).

    University of Chicago    : the preferred citation is: International Association for Cultural Freedom.

    Reply ↓
    1. Camelotkidd

      Another article probing the history of identity politics
      In Le Capitalisme de la séduction (1981), Michel Clouscard, describes a Washington project to construct a non-communist, liberal left, through the capitalism of seduction. He argued that “once capitalism had secured material abundance under U.S. hegemony, it no longer needed to repress desire; it could instead commodify it.” Identity politics supplanted class issues of capital and labor with the politics of desire, sexuality, and identity, and became the perfect ideological vehicle for the new consumer society. In Clouscard’s terms, the political form of capitalism’s cultural evolution–“rebellion repurposed as consumption.”

      Reply ↓
      1. hemeantwell

        Recently Clouscard was linked here. I tried to post a comment noting that his thesis as stated was identical to Marcuse’s concept of repressive desublimation, as discussed in chapter 3 of One-Dimensional Man, 1964. I’ll try again, without elaboration.

        The article linked today does note Marcuse’s concept of “repressive tolerance” but loses the connection to Clouscard’s interest. In any case, it suffers from a one-dimensional reading of the Frankfurt School. While Habermas did eventually throw in the towel on class others, particularly Marcuse, sought to augment a class analysis by talking about other sources of resistance to a relentlessly commodifying capitalism. And there’s a quote on my wall from Adorno, c. 1962 or so: “The idea of freedom from labor has been replaced by the possibility of choosing one’s own work.”

        Reply ↓
    2. hunkerdown

      “Must-read”? Nah, this is LaRouchie-adjacent ACP political mythology. Glazing Stalin is the tell. Ehrenreich had the New Communists’ number 50 years ago, indignant New Left PMCs cosplaying as blue-collars.

      The “New Communist Movement” arose out of the shambles of SDS in 1969 and picked up recruits with the collapse of the radicals-in-the-professions approach in the early seventies.* The New Communists explicitly dissociated themselves from the New Left and adopted a political outlook which was superficially not very different from that of the earlier generation of PMC radicals who had been Communists in the 1930s. They advocated the primacy of the working class in revolutionary struggle and the need to build a vanguard party to lead that struggle. But exactly who constituted that working class was not entirely clear. Sometimes (e.g., in describing teachers’ strikes and the spread of union-like attitudes in professional organizations of engineers and nurses) the New Communists adhered to the orthodox Marxian two-class model and included all wage earners within the “working class”, But most of the time, by “working class” they meant the traditional blue-collar (and in some cases, lower-level white-collar) working class.* Students and young professionals joining New Communist organizations were urged to “proletarianize” themselves in outlook, life style, and even occupation. Factories replaced universities as the key setting for political activity. Issues which had preoccupied the New Left — personal fulfillment, community, participatory democracy, etc. — were dismissed as “petit-bourgeois” or even “decadent”.

      And this Substack guy standing there crying because his bien-pensant ardor entitles him to a crusade! Adventure! Heroic glory! How dare people criticize the reproduction of industrial despotism before this guy got to be a PMC “leader”! Such childish bourgeois revanche only works by reifying communism as a Christian nationalist empire, which is exactly the sentimental petit-bourgeois nonsense over which Marx and Engels almost split with the European communist parties.

      What I see here is a conservative labor-fetishist who is misattributing the “labor heroes” rhetoric of Saint-Simon, a bourgeois socialist adventurer who fought on Washington’s side at Yorktown, to Marx, who only had use for the working-class insofar as they were useful for ending the game of class society entirely. Perkins hates that people are looking at culture, because the means of reproduction of class and debt are hidden there and his desire, as a conservative before a socialist, is to prevent the emancipation that Marx’s critical labors offer us, and to foreclose the production of criticism while establishing moral control over critical activity.

      The funny part is that the public-private trolls on the NSPM-7 beat are working this exact same anti-critical-theory line from a bourgeois-national perspective on reddit.

      Nationalism and socialism only produce one thing. Everyone who has followed the history of Marx and Marxism, which excludes 90% of “Marxists” who are just there for the emotional peacocking, already knows this.

      Who deemed right-wing Stalinist propaganda in concert with Trump’s ideological efforts a “must-read” and how much of what were they smoking at the time?

      Reply ↓
      1. Yves Smith Post author

        I suggest you read the article. It appears you didn’t, or just enough for you to cherry pick it.

        The key point was not the origins of this viewpoint, but that the CIA and other anti-Communist organs used it to undermine the material-benefits/anti-inequalty left, which has always been seen as dangerously socialist/communist adjacent. Nothing you wrote above rebuts that claim, which also constitutes the bulk of discussion in the piece.

        Reply ↓
        1. hemeantwell

          I am inclined to think that the subhead “How the CIA created the modern Left…” does smack of the sweepingly dismissive claims that came out of the LaRouche camp back in the 70s. The New Left was an ideological smorgasbord, running the full gamut from Maoist to Situationists. There is no doubt that the CIA was trying to influence its politics. But to try to tar everyone with a big CIA brush as caught up in an agency creation is uninformed, to put it naively. To his credit, the author spares us the LaRouchian claim that Marcuse’s work for the OSS during the war meant he was a spook.

          If anyone is interested in further reading, check out Serge Guilbaut’s How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art. Covers much of the same ground without the axe-grinding.

          Reply ↓
          1. Yves Smith Post author

            The new woke/identity politics left is widely described in the media as left (particularly by Trump as “radical left”) in contrast with the old “reduce economic inequality/improve conditions for work stiffs” left. And the latter are pressured to swear fealty to the former, as Sander’s first v. second presidential run demonstrated.

            To depict a piece that refers to that widely-noted divide (and how this supposedly inclusive conception of the left was used as a class warfare vehicle and hence is a darling for the supposedly enlightened members of the PMC) as a LaRouche camp product with no other evidence is a considerable stretch.

            Reply ↓
    3. Lefty Godot

      He mentions Frances Stonor Saunders, and her book is a really in depth treatise on this. And the great majority of these “left-wing intellectuals” became the modern neoconservative chickenhawks that have infested our government from the Ford administration on, and overwhelmingly since Bush Jr. Traumatized by the 1960s counterculture’s lack of respect for their piles of academic credentials and by its sympathy toward Palestinians.

      Reply ↓
    4. Jeremy Grimm

      The must read was an interesting read. I have some trouble giving so much credit to the efforts of the CIA. I believe many other forces were at work shaping the collective Imperial thought. The Imperial elites bought up the Media and control over the various agencies and commissions established to constrain the Media. The Imperial elites bought the government. I do not view the Imperial elites as a class per SE so much as an amorphous group with some common interests and many underlying conflicts … that is I cannot view them as a single entity with even so much coherence as the CIA machine.

      The essay seems to ignore how ready the soil of boomer disaffection was to accept and grow the kinds of philosophy that so well blunted boomer anger and turned it inward. I believe the boomer generation was bought off with passably tolerable hopes for the future for themselves and for their children. I believe most people are not committed revolutionaries, but simply desire to raise a family, live a quiet life, and retire with some level of comfort. Those simple goods were variously provided as the philosophies described in the link grew in their acceptance and impacts. I am a boomer and I have little understanding of the generations that followed mine and so avidly accepted or so strongly rejected what I considered philosophic nonsense. I am alarmed by how many boomers seem anxious to accept and adopt the new mass philosophies described in the link. I am also alarmed by my own children’s adoption of belief in the nonsenses which I believe is little more than a way to fit in with the rest of their generation. I would like to blame the CIA or some other dark force, some other demons in the woodwork … but I view the CIA as at best an instigator and a monetary fertilizer for beliefs that have too easily taken hold over the Empire. To my perceptions … madness reigns … madness reigns at all levels of the political and social hierarchy.

      The link seemed intent on the “class consciousness and revolutionary politics”. I do not believe Marx’s class analysis has proven especially insightful in understanding the Communist Revolutions that have actually occurred in the past and present Imperial society is much more complicated than the simplistic analysis of class that fit the England Marx analyzed. The Stalinism that Russia and later the Soviet Union implemented should have strongly suggested some new analysis by Communist theorists, although in the Soviet Union such analysis could meet with an ax in the skull or a long remote stay in extreme cold doing hard labor without adequate food, or a bullet in the head. Within the Empire, Communist analysis was steered by funding lines … not all of which originated from the CIA, and by the peculiar consciousness widely encouraged through multiple channels, and with brutal control of deviant thought dealt with through multiple channels … which I doubt were universally CIA based.

      There was no CIA in the twenties when the Wobblies were killed and incarcerated.

      Reply ↓
    5. lyman alpha blob

      A favorite (and sad) story from that time is that of “Doc” Humes, who co-founded The Paris Review in the 50s along with George Plimpton and Peter Matthiessen. As he got older his mental health deteriorated to the point he was wandering around northeastern college campuses all disheveled, claiming the government was out to get him. Students treated him as a sort of odd mascot. Turns out Matthiessen was on the CIA payroll when the Review was founded and the CIA kept a file on Doc for years.

      Which just goes to show that just because you’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.

      Here’s a link to a really good documentary on Humes done by his daughter, although I don’t think you can actually watch it at the link – https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/doc/

      Reply ↓
  16. The Rev Kev

    ‘Massimo
    @Rainmaker1973
    «Never forget the power of a small, sincere gesture»
    Penguins have a courtship ritual in which the male finds a carefully selected stone and presents it to the female. This male penguin did it with his zookeeper.’

    Man, that’s adorable that. She knew exactly what that gesture was and acknowledged it while trying to hide her mirth.

    Reply ↓
    1. mess

      *in David Attenborough’s voice*
      Americans have a courtship ritual in which the male finds a carefully selected stone, priced twice his monthly salary, and presents it to the female.

      She knew exactly what that gesture was, and is shocked because he has no income. :)

      Reply ↓
      1. Jeremy Grimm

        Perhaps the Penguin was not unaware of the difficulties of mating with a human. He may have assessed the possible food and treatment pluses to courting his keeper, while being fully aware of the complications.

        Reply ↓
  17. The Rev Kev

    “Germany’s Deindustrialisation Is a Capital Coup”

    ‘The systematic dismantling of the nation’ industrial base is not an accident—it is the triumph of financial capital over industrial capital.’

    It sounds like they want to replicate the old Morgenthau Plan but this time Germany will keep it’s arms manufacturers so as to fight the Russian bear. Of course most Germans will live in poverty and I expect there to be an exodus of young, skilled Germans to other countries so that they can work. Probably not the UK or other EU countries though. Financial capital over industrial capital? At least those industrialists know how to build things and have an understanding of how things are manufactured. Those financiers only know how to push numbers on a screen and make bank. Hard times for Germany ahead-

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

    Reply ↓
    1. Ben Panga

      >I expect there to be an exodus of young, skilled Germans to other countries so that they can work. Probably not the UK or other EU countries though.

      So where are they gonna go? And what defines “skilled”?

      The skills and education gap between the traditional white people countries and a lot of East/South-East Asian countries is closing fast. The wage gap must follow IMO. There are no longer so many opportunities for Westerners abroad. And there’s no way a high-income, high-tax country can compete in the export market. So what’s left for the white countries (absent huge political and economic revolutions)?

      Fwiw I teach some courses for unemployed Germans. There are many intelligent, educated, and skilled Germans on the courses, some (but not many) who see that German deindustrialisation is not a temporary issue. The years of comfortable incomes are over, although whether we’ll see full collapse or slower decline I don’t know.

      I have more than a few students who are looking to leave Germany, but very few who are finding good options.

      Western decline (and a rebalancing of global incomes) seems inevitable. For every European with expectation of a comfortable 9-5, there are many ambitious, educated Asians willing to work harder and longer.

      Reply ↓
    2. Schopenhauer

      The article is spot-on. Big cities like Cologne, Stuttgart and Munich are more or less bankrupt, the legendary hidden champions of the manufacturing “mittelstand” are looking more desperate by the day losing their competitive edge (and market share) because of being shot in their back by the EU and their own government (from Merkel over Scholz to Merz). The health and pension systems (founded nearly 150 years ago by Bismarck) are reaching their cracking point. I could go on like this for a couple of hours – to say it short: Germany is ripped apart, its citizens will be expropiated, their civil and social rights will be shredded. Germany is finished.

      Reply ↓
      1. AG

        what is so odd – no.resistance.
        whatsoever.
        it´s all TINA TINA TINA.

        I have zero clue where this idiocy comes from.
        Just look at the labour unions.
        It´s beyond me.
        And I will never get over it.

        Reply ↓
        1. Schopenhauer

          Me too, AG, me too!
          Even left-wing union cadres like Ulrike Eifler from IG Metall, a fierce critic of the grotesque rearmament and the idiotic policy against China and Russia, has subscribed blindly to the “energy transition” (“Energiewende”) in the suicidal german version. In an interview a few days ago she laments about “deindustrialisation” but she treats the deindustrialisation process like some negative deus ex machina and does not ask herself whether the lunatic german energy transition is one of the main causes of the destruction of the german “hidden champions” in manufacturing (see the interview here: https://www.german-foreign-policy.com/news/detail/10176 )

          Reply ↓
  18. Wukchumni

    Alarming surge in memory problems among young adults ScienceDaily (Kevin W). Predates Covid.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Funny article, they never deign to mention hand held rectangulars that resemble the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

    A few years ago at a wedding reception, we were seated at a table with a 3rd grade teacher, and I asked him what they teach now that rote memorization is no longer needed after 70,000 years of usage?

    He laughed somewhat nervously, and mentioned that memory skills are strictly on demand from a device these days~

    Reply ↓
    1. ocypode

      Well if Socrates (or Plato using him as a device) said a couple of thousand years ago that written language, which was then all the rage in old Greece, would make people stupid because they’d stop using their noggins to remember things, I wonder what he would say about having the internet in your pocket at all times. The ars memorativa is long dead, or, rather, has become such an advanced skill as to be indistinguishable from magic. (On that note, Paul Zumthor noted in La letter et la voix that the last bard of Spain was killed by the inquisition because inquisitors couldn’t believe he really could recite an entire epic from memory, and must therefore have made a pact with some evil entity to gain such a skill).

      Reply ↓
  19. Jason Boxman

    News that you can use

    Target Shooting Could Be Causing Brain Injuries. We Measured the Danger. (NY Times via archive.ph)

    That’s some firepower

    Every day, thousands of people use indoor gun ranges that are designed to limit the hazards of target shooting, including lead exposure and stray bullets. But shooting indoors poses another hazard that has been almost entirely overlooked: Concussive blast waves that can damage the brain.

    Evidence has emerged from the U.S. military that firing some military weapons can damage brain cells, and repeated exposure may cause permanent injuries. But there is next to no public information about the strength of the blast waves delivered by civilian firearms, or the potential hazard.

    Reply ↓
    1. PuntaPete

      One of my uncles , the brother of my father, contracted and died of early onset Alzheimer’s. No one else on that side of the family experience, a dreadful disease. My uncle served in an artillery unit during World War II and I’ve often wondered if the exposure to that artillery had anything to do with his illness. Does anyone knowif the VA or anyone else has looked into this possible connection?

      Reply ↓
  20. Jason Boxman

    Extended treatment on jobs, AI-washing and the massive layoffs hitting the economy (CNBC)

    Corporate giants Amazon, UPS and Target each announced layoffs in recent weeks totaling more than 60,000 jobs cut this year.

    In the absence of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly jobs report, the layoff announcements have raised questions about the strength of the labor market and if it’s the start of an AI-driven, white-collar recession.

    While some companies investing in AI are looking to cut costs elsewhere, the layoffs more likely signal concerns about the economy and a slowdown in consumer spending, according to experts.

    Reply ↓
  21. lyman alpha blob

    RE: ‘Soul-Crushing’: Students Slam Harvard’s Grade Inflation Report

    These precious youngsters seem to be under the impression that if they are “stressed” and work hard, they somehow deserve an A. These fears that they won’t get a job if they don’t have straight As from Hahvahd is just nonsense.

    The best professor I had in college was the one who said that grades don’t matter, it’s what you learn that does. He wasn’t going to give you an A just for showing up, because some kids do actually perform better on exams than others. He was also denied tenure (other profs resented his popularity with students is my best guess as to why), which was very sad since he was a great teacher. On the last final exam he gave, he was a little disgruntled for obvious reasons and he told he would give us whatever grade we felt we deserved. I’d like to think most people responded honestly back then. Luckily, he wasn’t teaching entitles 2025 Harvard grads.

    Reply ↓
    1. tegnost

      If I recall correctly, when I lived in colorado an eon ago one of my friends dad taught fiber optics at CU and he said most of his students failed. in the 80s.

      Reply ↓
      1. lyman alpha blob

        There was another prof I really liked and he wasn’t allowed to teach any of the core courses in his department. The word I heard was that he had failed everyone in a small class one semester – he refused to grade on a curve because he said none of the students put in any effort at all. He was told by administration that he couldn’t do that, so the next semester he gave everybody an A. It was the back bench for him after that.

        Reply ↓
        1. Screwball

          College class 2 years ago I had a kid who I should have failed but didn’t. I was afraid of the repercussions so I let him through.

          Next semester, first day of class he was sitting there. I asked him “what are you doing here?” He said “they told me I failed this class.” No, you didn’t, how did you get that idea? That’s what they told me. No, you can move on, I’ll fix it.

          Who is they? I didn’t ask because I didn’t want to know. Was it his academic advisor? Don’t know. On the other hand – can’t you read your own damn grade card?

          Small state college in Ohio. I got progressively worse over the last 6 years so I gave it up. It’s a mess but this is where we are.

          Reply ↓
        2. Santo de la Sera

          Haha, I had a prof like that. It was a small math class so he graded us on what he felt would be a North American standard, and I guess we we were in the bottom 30% of the pool of all North American students because he failed all of us.
          The only repercussion for him was he wasn’t asked to teach that class again, which I think made him quite happy.

          Reply ↓
  22. Jason Boxman

    From She’s 93 and still job searching. Why older Americans work, even if they’re sick.

    This is just insane; Social Security should fully fund anyone’s retirement years such that they aren’t ever at risk of being homeless or starving or skipping medical care. Seriously, in America’s rapacious capitalism, surviving to retirement age ought to be a prize, and we ought to afford anyone that makes it that far, sacrificing the best years of their lives for the capitalists, a comfortable retirement, having been consumed by capitalism physically and mentally. Seriously. It’s the absolutely the least the elite can do. But

    1) because markets
    2) go die

    and thus the mistake here is in fact that these Americans survived too long after the capitalists consumed them, body and soul; how inconvenient; unmitigated COVID spread is certainly going to “help” with this.

    For four decades, Patricia Moore, 81, has managed a gas station, earning about $36,000 a year despite suffering from neuropathy and swelling. It’s exhausting some days, but she has to work to supplement her $2,800 monthly Social Security income, as she doesn’t have sufficient savings.

    “Retirement is not in the near future, as it costs more every month to just survive,” said Moore, who lives in California.

    The average retirement age in the US is 62, when accounting for people who retire early because of disabilities.

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisFromGA

      That petty little Rand Paul wants to raise the Social Security retirement age to 70.

      With an average life expectancy of around 78 that means you get at best 8 years of relief from the toil of work until you die.

      Reply ↓
      1. amfortas

        when Tam and i were on the road for her cancer adventure, we saw a lot of this…grandmothers working at mcdonalds, etc.
        and sweeping floors in the hospital…these latter were all hispanic, with varying ability in english…and we got to talk to them.
        some insisted that they just like working, and working in that job also pleaed Jesus, and such.
        but most, it was because their kids were in shitty jobs, deported, or out of work altogether, and the grandkids had to eat.

        as for me, i “retired” 20 or so years ago, and am 56, now.
        i’m a lot stronger than i was, but i still cant get a regular job…cant promise that ill be able to walk tomorrow, etc.
        and anyway, ive sort of backed into this crawdad hole of a farm, and am tied to the place…and nobody wants me to run a register for 2 days a week in the morning (i am required on-farm in afternoon)
        so i have 3 yards i maintain, in season, and this winter, im getting Tam’s great uncle’s 2 lots(where he and all his siblings were born) cleaned and cleared so i can keep that up, going forward.
        and i am bound and determined to get the Big Greenhouse covered this february, with tax return.
        Eldest has already committed to help knock it out…just need a helper and a spiderlift and some more self tapping metal screws.
        then i can have fruits and veg to sell year round.(i want an avocado tree or two, and some dwarf bananas, and at least some dwarf limes)
        (and a warm place to hang out in winter(a giant wood fired hot tub is slated to be an essential part of the heating system….the huge round metal water trough is already onsite))
        2 years to go before Tam’s tiny little teacher’s pension runs out, then another 4 til i’m able to get Social Security at 62…assuming its still there, which i have never in my life expected to be the case.
        but at least i wont be spending my dotage at mickey D’s.

        Reply ↓
      2. chris

        Fellow Chris,

        Setting the social security age to just after the average long suffering worker dies is very on brand for our government. Makes sense given the original age of 65 was much longer than your typical worker was expected to live back in the 40s.

        It really is a crime that there is no way to just be and not spend money in the US. There is a cost of living. It is always increasing. If you are lucky, you have ways of increasing your income to accept the increases. Otherwise, you start accepting reductions in lifestyle until you can’t anymore. Then you die.

        I don’t know what to suggest to fix this. Im not even worried about people like Mitch McConnell or other Evil Dead octogenerians taking advantage of whatever is developed. There’s too few of them to really worry about compared to the millions of poor elders in this country currently. Perhaps no state or federal taxes on any income below 100k$ after 65? No real estate taxes on primary residence after 65? Something like that would help the people who have pensions or 401ks but it won’t help people who have nothing but SSN. It certainly won’t help people whose savings are destroyed by medical issues. Or scams. It’s just so sad.

        I hope I die in my sleep after a long healthy life.

        Reply ↓
  23. Tom Stone

    I find the threats by the Trump administration to go after the Cartels curious, the Cartels are an integral part of the “Establishment”.
    The cartels are bringing in Cocaine by the containerload, 40,000 Lbs at a time.
    That is big business, it requires a lot of infrastructure and it requires friendly bankers because they are moving one heck of a lot of $ on a consistent basis.
    If this is about reducing competition in the dope biz and establishing a friendly monopoly to deal with it makes sense, otherwise not.

    Reply ↓
    1. Alex Cox

      I think it is about subjugating Mexico, installing a government more compliant than MORENA, and establishing US military bases there. The drug trade is already entirely under control.

      Reply ↓
  24. Adam1

    Pennies!!!!

    Holy crap!

    I’ve just been given a fire drill data analytical request! It appears we are running VERY low on pennies. I know I’ve seen news stories about retailers who are having issues with penny inventory, but I work for a financial institution with direct ties to a FED branch only and hour away from our HQ. If we are running low on pennies then it means the FED is running low. As a depository financial institution we have legal obligations to meet demand deposit account withdrawal requests. There are no loop-holes for “sorry I’m out of pennies”. At best it means we have to round up to the nickel as rounding down would legally be a default absent some rectification in a few days. In either situation this can become real money for and FI very quickly and at a minimum very bad PR if it goes wrong.

    Reply ↓
    1. George

      When I was stationed overseas, the BX/PX would always round off cash transactions to the nearest nickel. The cost of transporting pennies to and from military bases was simply not practical. I really don’t understand what the excitement is about?

      Reply ↓
      1. Adam1

        As a consumer I’m not into pennies either. But for an FI we have legal obligations to give people their money, right down to the penny. As I hear, the short term solution is to make people deposit the excess coinage, but that’s not going to work for people closing accounts.

        Reply ↓
        1. Mikel

          I’m thinking of pissing off my local retailers by making my occasional low value purchases with pennies. Want to first get them rolled up.

          Reply ↓
          2. amfortas

            we paid an illegal property tax bill on vehicles in pennies, in feedsacks, unrolled, once.(state had repealed the tax, but county kept on collecting, stepdad put his foot down and fought them).
            i carried in all those feedsacks(like$300,lol), plopped them on the floor, and said, deadpan: “i’d like a receipt…”.
            the withering gaze of that woman was priceless…and assessor guy came a running and blew smoke, “yes sir, yes, sir, ill get you that recpt right now…”
            the county finally stopped collecting that tax after that…and the county tax assessor’s office just doesnt fuck with me, at all.
            almost like theres a note attached to my file, or something.

            Reply ↓
  25. Expat2uruguay

    Regarding Dick Cheney’s death:

    I know it is in terrible taste to cheer,

    Just last night I was thinking about Donald Trump and the likelihood that he will die while President, one way or another. Just think about how happy and/or relieved that will make the entire world. Sure some people won’t be happy but that news will be good tidings to billions of people on a scale not seen in this century: Trump gone, good!

    Even in the last century there were people that were hated, but by the entire world, at the time of their death?

    , every time I quote using the blockquote tag I get hung up by skynet. Weird

    Reply ↓
      1. Jacktish

        Well, yes and no. The one aspect that his follower probably won’t have is the overwhelming narcissism that causes unpredictable behavior and decision making. The scariest thing about Trump is not knowing where he’s going next.

        Reply ↓
      2. Ben Panga

        Indeed.

        Thiel’s pet, President Vance will be just as horrible but less hamstrung by insecurities. Miller isn’t going anywhere.

        They know Trump is old, and they are obviously preparing for what comes next. They have a vision.

        I fear competent fascists much more than I fear Trump.

        Reply ↓
      4. Christopher Fay

        One main function of a contemporary us president is to make you miss the bum who just left, but Genocide Joe breaks that streak for me

        Reply ↓
    2. gf

      Maybe in his 3rd term. I have known a number of people in much worse shape than him and they lasted 6, 8, 10 years anyway.

      Reply ↓
  27. Expat2uruguay

    I have wondered if the threats and violence against Venezuela have been a “softening up” operation for active US intervention against drug gangs in Mexico.

    Reply ↓
    1. amfortas

      nah. as Tom says above, the cartels are part of the establishment.
      their cashflow props up high finance/casino banks.
      i suspect that its performative…and maybe a side thing of getting a better deal.
      also, think about what would happen if “illegal drugs” suddenly disappeared from USA.
      top to bottom pandemonium, is my bet…an wholesale hobbsean omniwar.
      much worse than the chaos thats already in the pipeline.

      Reply ↓
  29. Rabbit

    Obama turned the richest African state into a place where you can now buy slaves. A war criminal. Libya will follow him to Hell.

    Reply ↓
  30. Wukchumni

    $4.01(k) update:

    Like every other numisaddict constantly hitting the update button on the going rate for Bitcoin, I know we’ve all been watching it teeter @ $100k, and it’d be bad for price morale if the Seinfeld of investments were to only be in the double figures.

    Reply ↓
  31. Acacia

    Dick Cheney in a Cold, Dark Cell (2009 | 00:02:40)
    https://www.vdb.org/titles/dick-cheney-cold-dark-cell

    It’s hard to understate the amount of anxiety created by a vice president who usurped authority for eight years to start wars and wreck the economy and then sidled off to Wyoming to be a retired Hero of the Right. Impunity is not just the stuff of autocratic dictatorships in the third world. The American form of impunity is going to get us all killed.

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  32. amfortas

    i just watched the whole dave smith/tucker convox, and wow.
    i am as far to the actual Left as one can be in this country, and i’d vote for either of them.

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  33. ChrisFromGA

    It’s looking like a bad night for the GOP in the NJ/VA gubernatorial races. The Donkeys are smashing them over the head with an aluminum baseball bat. What a shocker … /s

    Waiting to hear the NYC mayoral results.

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisRUEcon

      Miss having an election live blog!

      CNN has frickin’ Rahm Emmanuel on their panel … ::vomit-noises::

      MILO-Span just gave her acceptance speech … and I feel a strange disturbance in the force as if millions of #VBNMW brunch lovers just made plans for this weekend.

      Reply ↓
      2. ChrisFromGA

        I think that Taco realizes he’s cooked. He’s now demanding that the GOP Senators kill the filibuster.

        Rage, rage against the dying light.

        The House isn’t even in session, so assuming he even cares about Congress, there is no way forward for any of his agenda other than more lawlessness and executive overreach.

        One day soon, we’re going to wake up and Trump will be just another old man, dying of cancer or something. He’ll no longer be cool. The younger generations will move on to a Mamdani, or some other new flavor we don’t yet know of.

        Reply ↓
      3. DJG, Reality Czar

        ChrisRUEcon:

        Yep, color commentary by senior member of the Democratic Party Establishment, Rahm, about ooshy-moderate Spanberger is a strong indication that the Dems haven’t learned a thing.

        Next up: Reaching across the aisle to comfort Liz Cheney.

        Reply ↓
        1. ChrisRUEcon

          > a strong indication that the Dems haven’t learned a thing

          Exactly. For once, it is the Dem establishment that “held its nose”. Hoping Chuck Schumer gets primaried!

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      2. Martin Oline

        That’s great news for us in Florida. We are thinking of selling our house and leaving the state. Perhaps an influx of New Yorkers will make it possible.

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  34. AG

    THE HILL says Mamdani

    “Live updates: New York City elects Mamdani as its next mayor; Spanberger, Sherrill win governor’s races”

    The coincidence is meaningless but highly symbolic – Mamdani (if this is indeed official) wins the day after the dark prince dies.

    p.s. NYT seriously dares print a guest essay titled
    “The Tragedy of Dick Cheney”.

    Reply ↓
  35. alrhundi

    Development on plans for military action in Mexico

    “Developing: The U.S. military is planning operations to send troops into Mexico to fight drug cartels, NBC News reported Monday, citing current and former U.S. officials. “The early stages of training for the potential mission, which would include ground operations inside Mexico, has already begun…But a deployment to Mexico is not imminent” because “a final decision has not been made,” three NBC reporters write.

    As we discussed in a recent podcast episode on the topic, the troops would be expected to come from Joint Special Operations Command operating under Title 50 status with assistance from the CIA. According to currently-understood plans, “U.S. troops in Mexico would mainly use drone strikes to hit drug labs and cartel members and leaders,” which would “require operators to be on the ground to use them effectively and safely, the officials said.””

    https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2025/11/the-d-brief-november-03-2025/409258/

    Reply ↓

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