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Links 12/26/2025

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Why there’s always room for dessert – an anatomist explains The Conversation

Investors Warn of ‘Rot in Private Equity’ as Funds Strike Circular Deals New York Times

Dad’s Microplastic Exposure May Prime Daughters For Insulin Resistance StudyFinds

How Accurate Are Learning Curves? Construction Physics

How Father Christmas Found his Reindeer History Today

The Radioactive Reindeer Problem JSTOR Daily

Climate/Environment

Southern California sees third death from atmospheric river storm drenching region The Guardian

‘The Poor Are in a Very Bad State’: Climate Change Accelerates California’s Cost-of-Living Crisis Capital & Main

Increasing demand for minerals used in renewables could further worsen mining-related deforestation in future: Study Down to Earth

New study finds sea level rise is speeding up, contradicting federal report WBUR

A Massive Stone Wall Built 7,000 Years Ago Was Found Intact Beneath the Sea Off the Coast of France ZME Science

The Koreas

North Korea reveals 8,700-ton nuclear submarine as Kim Jong Un warns South Korea Interesting Engineering

Japan

Japan’s Cabinet approves record defence budget that aims to deter China Channel News Asia

Japan has become a troublemaker in international community: Global Times editorial Global Times

China urges travel agencies to cut Japan-bound visitors by 40%, say sources Straits Times

China?

Why the IMF thinks China has a zombie problem Asia Times

India

US raises red flag for India? Pentagon report flags China-Pakistan cooperation in defence & space Financial Express. Full report.

Syraqistan

‘Israel’ detains Santa Claus amid raid on Haifa Christmas celebration Al Mayadeen

Israel ‘will never leave’ Gaza Strip, defense minister says Anadolu Agency

‘They want to cleanse Syria of Christians’: A community speaks of betrayal, terror, and exile The Cradle

Russia reportedly mediating security pact between Israel and Syria with US approval New Arab

Africa

Trump says US launched strike against ISIL in northwest Nigeria Al Jazeera

Nigeria confirms ongoing security cooperation with US over terrorism threat Anadolu Agency. Commentary:

(1)

(2)

(3)

Burkinabe’s President Traore Takes Helm of Sahel Confederation as AES Unveils Stronger Strategy West African Voice Network

Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger launch $895m regional investment bank Africa Business Insider

O Canada

The Toronto Tragedy JRUrbaneNetwork

European Disunion

Liberalism’s Denouement in Europe’s Permanent State of Exception Warwick Powell

New Not-So-Cold War

Christmas Day humilation for Putin as Ukraine takes full control of Kupyansk – after Zelensky said he hoped Russian leader died Daily Mail

Ukraine strikes oil refinery in Russia’s Rostov Oblast with Storm Shadow missiles, General Staff says Kyiv Independent

Access Without Authority: The Structural Failure of US Backchannel Diplomacy with Russia Kautilya the Contemplator

***

Russia Becomes Europe’s Largest Crypto Market BIT Markets

Russia plans to track every click as Kremlin pushes internet ID scheme Intellinews

Three killed in Moscow explosion including two police officers in suicide bombing Intellinews

South of the Border

White House orders military to focus on ‘quarantine’ of Venezuela oil Reuters

U.S. Military Killed Boat Strike Survivors for Not Surrendering Correctly The Intercept

L’affaire Epstein

In 1982, Jeffrey Epstein Was Already Living Under a Fake Passport Identity and Traveling All Over the World. The North Star

Trump 2.0

Trump’s Economic Lies Exposed by Charts: Jobs Falling, Inflation Rising, Reality Ignored Egberto Off The Record

Inside the New Fast Track to a Presidential Pardon WSJ

JD Vance: Nick Fuentes ‘can eat shit’ Unherd

Tracking how much of Project 2025 the Trump administration achieved this year PBS

Democrats en déshabillé

Liberal Despair Thomas Frank, Harper’s

All I want for Christmas is for the Democrats to play identity politics the right way. The Hill

Immigration

Stephen Miller Cites Children of Immigrants as a Problem New York Times

Imperial Collapse Watch

THE STIBNITE DOCTRINE Shanaka Anslem Perera

AI

Ashley MacIsaac concert cancelled after AI wrongly accuses him of being sex offender CBC

Nuclear developer proposes using Navy reactors for data centres Financial Post

Nvidia to acquire Groq assets in $20bln AI licensing deal Al Mayadeen

Our Famously Free Press

The Bezzle

Waymo Has to Pay People $22 to Close Stuck Robotaxi Doors Gizmodo

Casino Nation

GAME OVER: THE END OF FINANCIAL REGULATION AS WE KNEW IT LPE Project

Teens battle grease and gravity in this lively street game Aeon

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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69 comments

  1. Wukchumni

    I’ll bomb Nigeria this Christmas
    You can plan on me
    Please eradicate ISIS terrorist scum
    And presence, you see

    Christmas will find me on Truth Social
    Where powerful bombast will be
    I’ll bomb Nigeria this Christmas
    If only to make Epstein revelations less seen

    I’ll bomb Nigeria this Christmas
    You can plan on me
    Please eradicate ISIS terrorist scum
    And presence, you see

    Christmas will find me on Truth Social
    Where powerful bombast will be
    I’ll bomb Nigeria this Christmas
    If only to make Epstein revelations less seen

    Reply ↓
    1. eg

      This remains a notorious feature of “Frosh week” at Queens University (in Kingston, Ontario) for the Engineering department.

      Reply ↓
      1. Sub-Boreal

        Ahh, the Queens engineers! I went to Western back in the mid-’70s, and there was a huge football rivalry between the two schools. So whenever Western was hosting Queens, the campus was absolute bedlam as the accompanying squad of Queens engineers ran riot.

        On one such football weekend, I was cycling through campus and had to swerve quickly to avoid getting hit as someone leaned out of a passing car’s window, puking his guts out. Fun times!

        Reply ↓
      2. scott s.

        Similar to US Naval Academy end of plebe year climbing of Herndon to get the “dixie cup” hat. Tradition says the one who gets it will be first to make flag. Dixie cup is a vernacular for the traditional sailor’s working hat. For mids, there is a blue band around it. The joke was sailors would tell civvies the blue band meant the wearer had VD.

        The “dixie cup” replaced the traditional “pancake hat” still seen in other navies. IMO a bit of tradition (and also smart appearance) was lost when they did away with it.

        Reply ↓
    2. Norton

      Training program for future politicians, coming to a town near you.
      Climb that greasy pole, chase that greased pig, win prizes?

      Reply ↓
    1. Carolinian

      They even dig into his genealogy to see where the problem might lie. So far no such reports on Miriam Adelson and others who are jumping ship to support Trump and his supposed “white nationalists.”

      Reply ↓
  4. The Rev Kev

    “Nuclear developer proposes using Navy reactors for data centres”

    The need for power for those data centers is getting insatiable. People might remember how in Trump’s 26-point peace plan that the US would get control of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant which is Europe’s biggest and is actually Russian. Now it has come out that the main reason for this to be inserted in that peace plan was so that the US could use it for a cryptomining operation and this was confirmed by Putin himself. How crazy is that?

    https://www.rt.com/russia/630028-us-wants-cryptomining-zaporozhye-putin/

    I got an idea. So Trump America is really desperate for power for cryptomining and for running all those data centers, right? And the U.S. Navy has about 80-90 nuclear-powered ships. How about ordering all those ships to return to ports along the east and west coasts of America. Once there, they could run an extension cord out to those ships and use those nuclear power plants to power up yet more data centers and cryptomining operations. Sounds like a plan to me.

    Reply ↓
    1. Carolinian

      I believe Russia does dual use those reactors on their nuclear powered ice breakers to provide some landbased power–maybe not Arctic server farms.

      Reply ↓
    2. Lovell

      LOL.

      Then China would launch a naval invasion of Taiwan.

      Pentagon issues red alert on all units.

      Cryptomining operations suspended.

      Trump and his crypto scammers lose a billion prospectus

      Reply ↓
    3. Glen

      There are good reasons why this has not been done in the past. Foremost was that commercial nuclear reactors were much less expensive per kWh, but the other reasons are related to nuclear material proliferation:

      United States naval reactors – Power plants
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_naval_reactors#Power_plants

      They have a high power density in a small volume and run either on low-enriched uranium (as do some French and Chinese submarines) or on highly enriched uranium (>20% U-235, current U.S. submarines use fuel enriched to at least 93%)[5]

      Uranium Enrichment
      https://tutorials.nti.org/nuclear-101/uranium-enrichment/

      States with nuclear weapons typically use so-called weapons-grade HEU, which is typically defined as 90% HEU or above, to minimize weapons’ size. Smaller and lighter nuclear weapons are much easier to deliver; ballistic missiles in particular can only deliver highly miniaturized nuclear weapons.

      Reply ↓
  5. Steve H.

    > Liberal Despair Thomas Frank, Harper’s

    >> This is one of the reasons that Zohran Mamdani succeeded in his unlikely campaign for New York City mayor. Whatever else you might say about him, Mamdani didn’t follow standard Democratic Party procedure, patiently waiting for his turn and swearing to honor norms. He understands that bold, energetic action is still possible, on the left as well as on the right.

    Mamdani may be as subversive to the standard Democratic Party as Trump was to the Republicans. He kicked Cuomo to the curb as thoroughly as Trump did to Jeb. NYC is the apex Progressive center, while the Trump base is rural/suburban.

    I thought of NYC when reading Richard Norton’s definition of a feral city: a metropolis with a population of more than a million people in a state the government of which has lost the ability to maintain the rule of law within the city’s boundaries yet remains a functioning actor in the greater international system.

    Considering the rule of law is enforced by Mayor Bloomberg called ‘the seventh largest army in the world’, and that NYC is a functioning actor internationally, there are strategic concerns that are cosmopolitan. The DNC’s past history suggests they will try to take out his legs with a chainsaw. Business concerns (how about those office rents?) are worried about their ricebowl towers wobbling, and rightwing ideologues can be manipulated into infrastructure attacks.

    Chuck a couple of false flags in the mix, a bit of counter-agitprop, and the Big Apple can be painted as a feral city. Then, as Betz says, ‘these feral cities come to be seen by many of those indigenes of the titular nationality now living outside them as effectively having been lost to foreign occupation.’ And the troops get sent in. There is precedence.

    Which way, then, will the ‘seventh largest army’ swing? Or does Mamdani fold into AOC_2.0? I lived in the city, the most complex social environ I’ve ever been in, an operatic scale culmination of civilization in all its grimy glory. It matters. How will this tide turn?

    Reply ↓
    1. Kilgore Trout

      A telling sign of what USA has become (and perhaps has long been?) is the contrast between how fragile the New Deal/Great Society reforms have proven to be under Neo-Liberal Capitalism, and how durable is our war on the rest of the world. Trump’s wrecking crew is appliing the final blows to the DC regulatory and social safety net, while his inability to extract himself from the losing proposition that is Ukraine is due to both the Neo-Consensus in Congress that Ukraine must fight on to the last Ukrainian, and the national security state’s long-standing hostility to Russia. “Kapital Uber Alles” is the real motto, paying homage to the 3rd Reich, whose mantle we inherited after WW2. It’s embraced by both factions of the blob to the detriment of humanity, at home and abroad.

      Reply ↓
  6. Kypck

    Three killed in Moscow explosion including two police officers in suicide bombing Intellinews

    Terms “suicide bombing” and “suicide bomber” imply intention, and a plan to do so. That is not the case here. The suspect was trying to plant a bomb under a car (as Ukrainian directed agents* do all the time), and was spotted by the police. Even the article says that “Investigators are determining how the explosive device was detonated …”

    * Often scammed people used while under distress.

    Reply ↓
  7. DJG, Reality Czar

    Notes on Nick Fuentes and the doltishness of certain rightwing throwaway nut cases.

    From Wikipedia, Fuentes’s distinctly “dirty” ethnic background: “Nicholas Joseph Fuentes was born on August 18, 1998,[1] to William and Lauren (née Chicco).[19] He has a twin sister, Melissa.[20] According to Fuentes, he is of Italian, Irish and Mexican descent.[21][22][23][24] His father is half Mexican.[18] He grew up in La Grange Park, Illinois. He attended Lyons Township High School, where he was president of the student council.[25] He was raised Catholic.[26]”

    This is the Kash Patel syndrome. Fuentes thinks that he can spout rightwing merda and magically become “white.” But people of Italian descent in the U S of A were “black” and only became “white” around 1952. (Just put in your search engine: When Italians Became White.)

    As someone of Sicilian descent born in the 1950s, I have some doubts about my “whiteness.”

    Here in Italy, several people have commented out how virulently rightwing many “Italian-Americans” are, especially for people whose parents and grandparents were “black.” I see surnames like Bongino (Dan) and Bondi (Pam).

    Bondi’s great-grandparents are originally from Sicily, according to Italian Wikipedia, although U.S. Wikipedia says Campania (whiter!). She is sixty years old. Ahhh, born to black parents, under the one-drop rule. It’s the Kash Patel syndrome.

    Schifoso. Cooperating with the oppressor.

    Reply ↓
  8. Wukchumni

    We wish you what may be your last Merry Christmas!
    We wish you what may be your last Merry Christmas!
    We wish you what may be your last Merry Christmas and good luck next year

    Good tidings we bring to the Sleazebags who loved Jeffrey Epstein

    Good tidings for what may be your last Merry Christmas and good luck next year

    Oh, bring us the only one who did drop Epstein
    Oh, bring us the only one who did drop Epstein
    Oh, and long before it became fashionable to do so

    We won’t go until we get some satisfaction
    We won’t go until we get some satisfaction
    We won’t go until we get some satisfaction, so bring some out here

    We wish you what may be your last Merry Christmas!
    We wish you what may be your last Merry Christmas!
    We wish you what may be your last Merry Christmas and good luck next year

    Reply ↓
  9. geode

    Nvidia to acquire Groq assets in $20bln AI licensing deal Al Mayadeen

    I plan to acquire grog assets in $20 deal. I wonder which of our two endeavours will go sour first.

    Reply ↓
  10. Henry Moon Pie

    Marathon training bad for the heart–

    Here’s a little anecdata. I had a roommate in college who ran his first Boston Marathon when he was a sophomore. Fifty-two years later, this is an excerpt from his 50th Anniversary Report:

    A long-distance runner my entire life (resting pulse 38 at age fifty) and so healthy I’ve never missed a day of work, I developed acute onset congestive heart failure two years ago due to an idiopathic cardiomyopathy. Cardiac ejection fraction 15 percent; risk of sudden cardiac death due to the disrupted conduction pathways of my bloated heart 33 per cent in the first ninety days after diagnosis. Every day I (thankfully) awakened I knew there was a one-in-three chance I wouldn’t be alive to go to bed that evening

    .

    Take it easy out there.

    Reply ↓
    1. CanCyn

      I’m a believer in all things in moderation, including exercise but I can’t help but ask – what is his COVID status – never? once? multiple times?

      Reply ↓
    2. Lee

      I guess the cautionary example of what happened to the original marathon runner has been these many centuries since somehow overlooked.

      Reply ↓
      1. bob

        We should be thanking these people for being so healthy and showing the rest of us how to do it. They’re making us all better people with their self-centered masochism.

        Reply ↓
    3. IM Doc

      I read these accounts with great interest. It is an issue that I have seen as a physician. And over the years, it has obviously been above what I would consider the baseline of non-intense exercisers.

      Over the years, I have noted an increased incidence of basically 2 cardiac issues in patients who engaged in these types of high-aerobic high-intensity exercise regimens. I would include marathon runners, Triathlon, Iron-Man, and ultra-marathon runners. It is not unusual for them to show up in their 50s or 60s, long after the peak exercise years, with a fib or less commonly as you describe above a cardiomyopathy. In the past several years, I have seen this repeatedly discussed in the medical literature. It is certainly not the majority of these people, but it certainly happens above baseline.

      I would say that as with everything else in life, moderation is probably the key here.

      Reply ↓
  11. The Rev Kev

    “A Massive Stone Wall Built 7,000 Years Ago Was Found Intact Beneath the Sea Off the Coast of France”

    Kinda sad this. Those early people built that wall across a narrow valley to probably keep out the rising tides and it was a massive project. But as it turned out, those tides kept on rising until not only was that wall under nine meters of water, but the land surrounding that they were trying to protect went under as well. There must have come a point when they saw the tides topping that sea wall and so had to turn their backs and find a new place to live on higher ground. I wonder how many modern sea walls and communities will go under as well in the coming decades.

    Reply ↓
  13. AG

    re: Gaza vs. Anthony Aguilar

    Maybe some remember former Army Special Forces veteran Anthony Aguilar. He had taken up assignment in Gaza for the IDF as contractor. Then was horrified over what he witnessed and went public.

    This years´s Sam Adam´s Award goes to Aguilar.

    After the retired U.S. veteran blew the whistle on the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s “death-trap” aid centers, he’s continued to condemn the U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza.
    https://consortiumnews.com/2025/12/22/anthony-aguilar-wins-sam-adams-award-for-integrity/

    Reply ↓
  14. The Rev Kev

    “US raises red flag for India? Pentagon report flags China-Pakistan cooperation in defence & space”

    Yes the US is very concerned, especially when ‘India and China agreed in October 2024 to disengage from the remaining standoff points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), marking a tactical de-escalation after years of tension.’ Ending a conflict area between two nuclear powers? Yes, that would be very concerning that. And Pakistan having relations with other major powers instead of just Washington is also of concern.

    Do these people even listen to themselves?

    Reply ↓
  15. lyman alpha blob

    RE: Investors Warn of ‘Rot in Private Equity’ as Funds Strike Circular Deals

    “Circular deals” = check kiting. If I engage in check kiting and one of them bounces, causing a financial loss for a party that trusted me, I could very well go to jail. When one of these PE fat cats engages in a “circular deal” and investors take a loss, apparently it’s just caveat emptor and there are no consequences for the guy in the suit.

    In a serious country that didn’t worship Mammon, this crap would be illegal.

    Reply ↓
  16. Donald

    I followed the debate about running and mortality rates ever since O’Keefe put out his original claim and as best I can tell, there is no consensus. My own layperson’s guess is that too much of any form of exercise is harmful, but the limit will vary from person to person. Probably some ultra- marathoners would be better off cutting back. But O’Keefe’s original paper claiming the cutoff was about 20 miles a week was based on a statistical analysis that was heavily criticized. I will find a summary somewhere.

    Reply ↓
    2. Wukchumni

      When i’m with friends on a hike we talk constantly as we go-the pace being perfect for such conversations.

      Do runners talk to one another en route?

      Reply ↓
      1. CanCyn

        I liked to chat when I ran in groups back my running days, I’d say that is pretty common. Except for speed or hill work – that kind of training doesn’t allow for much conversation. I guess the difference would be whether you train for fitness or to race.

        Reply ↓
    3. PlutoniumKun

      A number of population level studies I’ve seen indicate that whatever specific problems might come up, very fit people seem to still have moderately longer lifespans than moderately fit people (for example, in comparing competitive cyclists to fit recreational cyclists).

      However, so many of these studies have numerous compounding variables, and there are consistent problems with the variables used to measure fitness. For example, experienced athletes may (for example) be able to push the limits in tests for VOX more than unfit people rather than actually have significantly higher VOX levels. The studies are also riddled epistemological issues – an example being how often even the experts confuse mortality levels with longevity. I’ve seen these terms used interchangeably by people who really should know better.

      There is, however, a lot of new data coming available because of the widespread use of wearables. For the first time, we can measure what people are really doing in real life, rather than in artificial studies. There seems to be a growing consensus that the key to using exercise for maintaining long term health is to do a reasonable amount of high intensity work (i.e. something like Tabata protocol or the Norwegian Protocol), combined with constant resistance work (i.e., lift heavy sh*t) and constant activity. It does seem that people who engage in regular bursts of intense activity such as running up stairs or chasing a dog, may well be getting more benefits that people who spend a long time on the treadmill in a gym.

      Reply ↓
  17. Carolinian

    That’s an excellent and to the point Thomas Frank. He’s also making the point that we oldsters have been making–that Trump2 is all about Reagan.

    for all that reform, all that ditching of first principles, it felt in 2025 as though we were back at square one, as if the liberal curse of the Seventies and Eighties, the contest between Carteresque gloom and can-do Reaganite willpower, was still in full effect. It is not an accident, of course, that Trump constantly uses the conservative rhetoric of those years and restages its set-piece battles; he thinks this is how you do politics, how you win.

    Meanwhile the Dems can’t even muster Reagan’s soft focus jelly bean vision of a future because they are in service to the people opposed to reform. Frank is saying the capitalist machine may have burned itself out for the moment–James Galbraith’s entropy economics.

    Reply ↓
    1. David in Friday Harbor

      Frank simply reiterates the outline of how the Clintons and Obama subverted the Democratic National Committee and the “party” it claims to represent to the billionaires of the Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate (FIRE) sector, described a decade and a half ago as Inverted Totalitarianism by the late Sheldon in his final book length essay Democracy Incorporated.

      The DNC no longer represents a political “party” in any real sense. It became a “business” that uses the legal strictures of the “two-party system” to gatekeep ballot access and to allow a handful of lobbyists to enrich themselves. Ironically both Clinton and Obama began as insurgent candidacies but the DNC learned how to block insurgents by 2016 and 2020.

      It remains to be seen whether Mamdani is a one-off aberration who slipped past the moral and political collapse of Eric Adams.

      Reply ↓
  19. Wukchumni

    I can’t believe silver is at $76 an ounce, kinda blows my mind a little, and probably on account of Chinese buying would be my guess…

    The middle kingdom always skewed heavily towards the grey mare, with only a handful of gold coins ever issued for circulation and all in the early 20th century~

    Was just in Mazatlan where Spanish galleons laden with newly mined and minted pieces of 8 went east and returned with Ming Dynasty porcelain and other trade goods.

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisFromGA

      Silver is an industrial metal as well as a hedge against the merry band of currency debasers at the Mariner Eccles building. So I wonder what items will be going sky-high in price next year, that depend on it? Any correlation here with RAM prices going nuts?

      Reply ↓
    2. Screwball

      Silver is up another 7% today hitting $76.825 as I type this. A few months ago a buddy took a bunch of coins to a dealer and got $14 grand. He thought he made out like a bandit. It was between 35 and 40 then.

      Reply ↓
      1. Jeff H

        Did you all miss the China silver export restrictions? It’s aimed primarily toward the usage in electronics but of course drives the price up.

        Reply ↓
        1. ambrit

          Yes. The COMEX exchange settled at $79.27 per Troy ounce this afternoon. Silver ended the day in Shanghai at $81.99 per Troy ounce. That’s a juicy arbitrage opportunity there. Samsung sent a buying team directly to mines in Mexico recently and cut out the middlemen. If their silver battery pans out, there will be a phase shift in silver prices.
          Screwball; if your friend came out with a profit on his deal overall, he has nothing to complain about. I hope he put that money to good use.
          Stay safe, and solvent.

          Reply ↓
          1. Screwball

            Yea, we talked about that. A bunch of us old guys meet at a place daily and solve the worlds problems. It’s the highlight of our day. Silver is a hot topic recently. He’s good with what he did, and I told him don’t feel bad, you did fine. This seems nuts. But what ain’t?

            Lawrence Welk would be proud. Giggle. Some won’t get the pun.

            Reply ↓
        1. ambrit

          I see it as the smaller dealers taking advantage of the bottleneck at the refiner level. Refiners are backed up. That will work itself out sooner or later.
          I’m going all “Diamond Hands” right now.

          Reply ↓
  21. Jason Boxman

    Trump promised ‘aggressive’ housing reform next year. Here’s what to expect for home prices in 2026 (CNN)

    LOL

    Next year may mark a turning point for the US housing market.

    After several years in a deep freeze, with high borrowing costs and soaring prices locking many Americans out of homeownership, economists say conditions may begin to shift in 2026.

    But next year, many economists are optimistic about the housing market. Many anticipate that rising incomes will start to outpace home prices, making homes feel more affordable for many Americans.

    Reply ↓
    1. ChrisFromGA

      There must have been a “hot batch” of edible brownies served at the CNN holiday party, spiked with Angel Dust.

      Reply ↓
      1. Jessica

        “white courtesy phone”
        I wonder if the younger generation knows that phrase and where it comes from.
        I find it hard to predict what cultural items have been transmitted to younger generations. My millennial daughter knows who Gilligan is but has no idea what Hogan’s Heroes was.
        Similarly, hard to predict which American cultural products are known in Europe and which aren’t.

        Reply ↓
  22. Lefty Godot

    Washington Post: Venezuela using real and actual threat of invasion and regime-change as “excuse” to prepare to defend against invasion and prevent subversion.

    To once again remind any foreign leaders that may be reading Naked Capitalism, below are the rules of the well-known “rules-based international order” that you must observe, with the particular one relevant to the WaPo’s assertions highlighted:
    —-

    The most important rule of the rules-based international order: when we do it, it’s okay.

    Freedom and human rights are all-important, but may have to be dispensed with during an emergency; an emergency is any circumstance that we say is one.

    Government giving more money to the rich creates a vibrant and innovative economy and culture; government giving more money to the non-rich leads to a stagnant society of slothful, dependent idlers; if you say the reverse has proven to be the case in reality, you’re an evil Communist.

    A government forced by populists to give money to the non-rich must then hire many bureaucrats to create complex rules that make recipients appear guilty of cheating; all other options are forbidden.

    Democracy means having a choice between two different servants of the rich on election day; all other options are forbidden.

    Freedom of speech means being allowed to repeat the approved opinions and stories as fact, with complete confidence; all other options are forbidden.

    Any nation that objects to our putting military bases close to their borders is an aggressor that threatens our way of life; very likely its leader is “the next Hitler” also.

    We reserve the right to attack you for any reason; if you offer resistance and try to defend yourselves and fight back, that makes you terrorists and a threat to the entire international order.

    If you say that we’re projecting, when we accuse you of the very crimes we ourselves openly commit, we will dismiss you as a deranged conspiracy theory believer; just remember, our accusations are always proven facts and require no supporting evidence.

    Our compliance with verbal promises, written agreements, and formal treaties, which you must regard in all cases as completely reliable, may in some circumstances, which we will not describe in detail, be optional; but you can trust us.

    Reply ↓
    2. Jessica

      “Democracy means having a choice between two different servants of the rich on election day; all other options are forbidden.”
      In many European countries, you have a choice between many different servants of the rich.

      Reply ↓
  23. XXYY

    Investors Warn of ‘Rot in Private Equity’ as Funds Strike Circular Deals New York Times

    A touching PE story:

    Platinum Equity, another firm, has struggled with its investment in United Site Services, which makes portable toilets. In 2021, Platinum Equity executives described the sale of United Site Services to a continuation fund it created as a “win-win.” Now, United Site Services is in the process of turning the company over to its lenders, and its investors are expected to lose all their money.

    I’m sure they’re not the first ones to see the vast hidden potential in portable toilets.

    Reply ↓
    2. posaunist

      Not hidden, but big business. I work a lot of events, enough well-maintained portable toilets is one of the keys to success. There is an error in the article, though. USS doesn’t make toilets, they rent them (along with fencing, trailers, and other necessary stuff) to events and construction sites, also provide maintenance and supplies. I believe they are the biggest in the business in the U.S. Note to self – order early for the summer. If United goes under the visuals aren’t good.

      Reply ↓
  24. kareninca

    I know two elderly people (one in CA; one in New England) who have a weird pneumonia that does not include coughing or a fever; just extreme fatigue and then trouble breathing. Plus another elderly person in New England who is never sick, but who has been in bed for three days (she has not gone in to be tested). Tern is claiming that many people are now getting the flu without a fever, and that it is because their immune system is not working properly.

    Fortunately an N95 helps to prevent pneumonia and flu.

    Reply ↓
  26. Rabbit

    Russians seem to back up before taking large losses defending territory. They back up and obliterate anyone following them.
    Ukraine might have Kupyansk today but they won’t hold it for long and they’ll be in worse shape when they leave than they were when they attacked.
    They may do it on purpose. “Retreat” to draw Ukrainians into a fire bag and pound them.
    Still, it doesn’t matter much. The math is still there. Russia will win.

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    1. Ras Tafari

      Kupyansk was never fortified, and thus is much harder to hold than all the “fortress cities”. Same apply to the whole eastern part of the Kharkov region. That whole subregion is of lesser importance, which means that it also has lack of troops to go with the lack of fortifications. That makes it a suitable area for offensive operations, aka. the low hanging fruit. It’s the “easy come, easy go”.

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