By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Readers, this is an open thread for those of you who are not tied up with travel, or wrapping presents, or doing last minute shopping, or whatever it is you do for the holidays. I will take Christmas Day off, and then return Wednesday, though probably not at full force; it’s nice to have a vacation! Enjoy the day! –lambert
Some conversation starters–
I love “Poorly Drawn Cats” as a business concept:
Thank you, Heloísa, for perfectly capturing Dot's weird paws! pic.twitter.com/45c7CecKI4
— Avril Mansfield (@AvrilMansfield) December 22, 2018
And speaking of Steve Mnuchin:
“I will be away from the office until January 4th. In the event of an #18thcentury emergency, please sell your shares in the South Sea Company and distance yourself from the Walpole regime. I will respond via weekly paper, available at Lloyd’s, when I return.”
— Seth Rudy (@SethRudy) December 22, 2018
Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, (c) how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal, and (d) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. Today’s plant (AA):
AA writes: “Nest year’s basil and sweet potatoes in the windowsill.” This is the kind of kitchen it would be nice to come home to.
Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser, now completed. So do feel free to make a contribution today or any day. Here is why: Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I’m on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of small donations helps me with expenses, and I factor that trickle in when setting fundraising goals. So if you see something you especially appreciate, do feel free to click below! (The hat is temporarily defunct, so I slapped in some old code.)
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For those interested in housing: Minneapolis recently adopted a plan that could lead to legalizing more housing in all areas throughout the city. The state of Oregon might be seeing a bill soon to eliminate single family zoning restrictions in towns over 10,000. Does anyone see similar progress in their cities and towns? Is there real change afoot?
There was a discussion about this sometime in the last week; either the Links or Water Cooler contained a link and I remember reading it. Can’t be more than a week old, I think…
Has me wondering. Here, in California – Santa Cruz, where I live, there is a call for more housing – and we also have several thousand homeless wandering, and tenting, and living in their vehicles. In our particular neighborhood – strangers are constantly appearing – don’t always know which ones are mentally ill, and/or drug addicted, or are meth dealers and/or thieves, or young adventurers, or someone recently lost their jobs – or just got priced out of housing. Or, some combination of all of the above. The housing and homeless situation looks serious.
There are all kinds of local discussions here in Santa Cruz about it – What to do? Build more housing in all parts of the city? I don’t know about that.. At least make it a city decision. If you make it state wide law – you take it out of the hands of the community – Are we to trust the land developers and builders – some out of town- given carte blanche right to do whatever for profit? What about infrastructure, water supply problems, road capacity? Is the state gonna raise taxes for those things?
Meanwhile, as I understand it, The California University System – an out of town Board of Regents, has been endlessly pushing to drastically increase enrollment at the University at Santa Cruz – yet they do not have plans to pay for an equivalent share of more student housing on campus. (It’s a very big campus) The surrounding community is then inundated with students sharing formerly single family residencies. I suppose a profit center now for whoever rents out these houses. Raises rents for everyone too. The goals of the State – and the needs of the community not lining up in this.
“What about infrastructure, water supply problems, road capacity? Is the state gonna raise taxes for those things?”
If people are already living somewhere even if they are homeless don’t these problems already exist? Ok maybe many of the homeless don’t have cars, but additional potential problems exist like hepatitis outbreaks, really also a problem of lack of infrastructure, that is toilets.
The state maybe doesn’t handle it best, but at this point it does seem a statewide issue, is there almost any city in CA that doesn’t have a housing crisis at this point?
State changes a law – then does not back it up with anything but words.
(The city recently installed a couple porta-potties down the block. I heard the County and the City are at odds with who should pay for such things.)
I think the State should be involved in funding law changes – also the Federal government. Taxes should go up if need be – and needs be. – not down – and earmarked to help with these infrastructure and housing problems: (Sorry, disgruntled self reliant hardworking people. State taxes up, Federal taxes up – and definitely not siphoned off to military contractors…. and throw in taxes for some kind of Federally mandated ‘Medicare for all’, while we are at it. That might help).
I visited Santa Cruz last month as my daughter is at UCSC. She is one of six sharing a small 3 bed house. I couldn’t believe the high number of homeless people around the town. In cars doorways, Coffee shops. There is a desperate need for social housing
@Howseth—The last 50 years have shown that when you leave zoning regulations in the hands of the community, they will consistently zone against anything that will negatively impact home values. Higher level intervention is the only way to remove enforced artificial scarcity. At the end of the day, zoning is asset value insurance backed by the municipality.
And although I am not a developer, I often find myself standing up for them trying to build housing for a profit—our society has decided that that is the way want housing to get built. So if builders don’t get profits, but the state won’t build housing either, then housing is always going to be undersupplied. And what about the generous profits homeowners recieve when selling their house for X over what they paid for it? They are taking advantage of public investments capitalized into their home prices and then making off with it.
Just look at pictures of Hong Kong and ask yourself, are there homeless people there?
Of course not, they can rent little cages in those high rises, problem solved.
Let’s build out Santa Cruz and YOUR city to make it look like Hong Kong. Think of the profits to landowners, developers and the votes from grateful occupants.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/cage-homes-hong-kong
There are more empty houses than homeless people; the problem isn’t supply, it’s distribution.
Richmond, CA was going to use the power of eminent domain to seize empty, foreclosed houses, at market value, and put homeless people in them; but the banks threatened a capital strike – they were going to cut the city off, so it backed down on that plan.
One more reason for public banks.
That’s terrible, Charles, and shows how powerful we have allowed our banking sector to become. Having them fund deficits which the Feds could just spend was never a good idea
Believe it or not, you won’t find it so hot, if you ain’t PG&E
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4IJweR1d0dE
Just a suggestion, but can we start calling the tiny houses the new Hoovervilles? Or Obamavilles?
How about ‘Obamavillers’ … ?? as that includes any and homeless folk, villes or otnerwise.
Thanx Obama ! You really fixed some things .. you wanker !!
Oh, and by the way .. those cooool hightone boots Michelle showed off just the other day — I’m sure they look mighty classy … as she detours around the lumpin poor who are really hurtin ..
Those boots are made for walking OVER and ON, not around…
That’s why that “news item” is part of the build up to the Hillary/Michelle 2020 Campaign.
Roman Emperors would adopt promising young politicos as successors, to make the dynasty safe. Hillary is just taking out some insurance in case Chelsea has an attack of ‘common sense’ any time between now and the hand over of power.
Best wishes for the holidays to all you NC readers and a great big THANK YOU to Yves, Lambert, J-LS et al for all their hard work in bringing this website to a world that sorely needs it.
I’ll happily second that, and add thanks and best wishes too to all regular commenters here, who add much to the interest and information to be found at NC.
Happy Everything Y’all!
All of the above :)
Here’s to a coming year of doing useful things beyond the usual, and helping each other simply because that makes things better for all (even if it’s not what we dreamed of).
Also seconding the motion!
Belated thanks and best wishes to our site owners and all who contribute, and a thankful reminder that there’s a whole bunch of people who also observe, learn, and are occasionally stung to contribute good thoughts and insights.
We all, I believe, are struggling to make sense of what is, understand how things got this way, and maybe find a path or paths into a more decent and survivable future. (Apologies to those who understand the universe as vibes and cycles, rather than linear time and cause and effect, and have re-conceived suffering and fear in a different way. Wish I could join you. )
May the new year bring us all better tidings.
You’re welcome!
Thanks so much for your posting the story of Jesus, Mary and Joseph with the religiosity removed. I loved the singing from Cambridge too – really touched my heart.
I hope that you enjoyed a peaceful Christmas Day. We are blessed to have your commentary here at NC.
I realize this is Christmas Eve and not Halloween, but…
Amazon hired private detectives to spy on injured worker WSWS
Off to eat…will try to bring more holiday-like fare on my return.
Alas, a practice neither new nor uncommon, often instigated by insurance companies. I’m assuming Amazon is self-insured so far as liability is concerned.
A common behavior for employers trying to avoid workers comp claims. No doubt there is some cheating by workers, under the cruel and business-biased workers comp system. The Big Law Firm I worked for had a pair of attorneys who provided WC “services” for Big Clients, a nice fillip —and they would float over “catching the cheaters.” And share their triumphs over lunch.
But injured workers without a safety net and in this atomized system have to haul the trash, get food, fix things that break— often suffering further injury and living in fear of being “caught” doing stuff the docs and admin officials say they shouldn’t be able to do. Desperation everywhere. No wonder at all why death rates are rising, whether “natural” or self-inflicted.
And so many of us deprecate the fellow mopes who are “caught by the private eyes,” don’t we?
aye. they do this with things like Disability and SSI, too.
problem is, certain ailments are all but invisible.
like mine.
when I’m having a pain day, nobody sees me, because I don’t get out of bed.
assumption of fraud is common in all those poor people programs.
St Paul is moving in similar directions. My sense is that the city boards of the Twin Cities are looking to increase density so as to increase property tax revenue and lucrative new construction projects for politically connected contractors and builders. St Paul is planning to develop a very dense housing area on the site of the old Ford Plant. I am skeptical about how this will turn out given lack of public transport and/or thoroughfares in the highland park area of the city. Most of the planned residences are for singles and couples with no kids. Not sure how this will help increase and/or diversify family housing in St Paul but can definitely see it increasing tax revenue to the city.
Reducing zoning restrictions often gets sold as a city’s attempt to increase tax revenues. But it is also fundamentally about allowing more flexibility in what people are able to build–if there is no need for more dense housing, then people have nothing to worry about, the market won’t build it. If there is, then it will get built–and isn’t that a good thing? Are singles and couples without kids somehow corrosive to communities?
Long ago the our (US) society decided that it wanted to rely on “the market” to produce housing for people of whatever income level. Within this chosen paradigm, encouraging more private development on its own is really the only way to get that done. If public entities were still building large amounts of housing then perhaps we could continue to pretend that single family homes are not as wasteful a housing type as they are, but it just doesn’t seem likely to happen.
I put this up on the prior thread that was discussing increasing housing density:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/12/links-12-15-18.html#comment-3073129
Local blog here (PDX) used to have a commenter that discussed what he called “The Missing Middle”.
Looking at the impact of only allowing single family housing…
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. As for singles and couples vs families, there is no necessary conflict there, except that the kind of local amenities, civic programs, tax expenditures singles and couples of a certain age and economic background tend to support are not always the ones that family households tend to. But that’s democracy etc and no big deal unless the percentage of singles/families swings wildly very rapidly.
Seth Rudy’s Twitter feed is very amusing. Excellent find. I am trying hard not to get lured back into that appalling time trap….still….
Some good news for workers.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-12/24/c_137695906.htm
https://www.masslive.com/business-news/index.ssf/2018/12/with_crrc_in_springfield_ready_to_deliver_1st_orange_line_mbta_cars_china_trade_war.html
I spent my morning going 30mi one way to get my stolen utility trailer. $400 storage fees but the crew there was nice enough to put in both tires and tighten down the straps. The bad guys did dump the yard trash for me but now it’s filled with pallets. The good news is once I go to DMV:( to get new license plate and can take it to place near by that buys pallets:-)
More than a 20% drop in sp500 since September highs. Down another 2.5% today.
Steve’s in Mexico, calling bank CEO’s and making sure everyone knows-
EVERYTHING IS OK! REALLY!
But hey, The President is fine and dandy. Maybe Just a little unusual. At least he won’t start a war!
No need to concern yourself with any kind of criticism, ever, cuz Amy of that is just sour grapes and makes you a centrist pragmatist dem with no brains.
Ya know, the people said give him a chance and he’s certainly not as bad as the democrat party makes him out to be.
It isn’t like he blames the Fed 100% or would consider firing the Fed chair. Don’t worry about THAT!
Thank god!
But seriously, what will it take for the “volatility voter” to ever concede that the volatility we are getting is a bit more than we bargained for.
I was partially on board when Teump won. Maybe it would lead to change via differentiation. But I don’t get it if you still think that. This shit is real.
look at the reaction of the “centrists” to even a tactical retreat from syria. all this tells me is we had 2 (family blog) choices. a war with russia is a bit more volatility than i want, too. that would also be real.
This is worthy of attention.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/12/24/capitalism-in-the-united-states-and-in-europe/
It was indeed well worth of attention. I shall give it some more tomorrow and thank you for a good distraction from turkey, mince pies and the overwhelming temptation to stab various trying relatives with a cake fork.
If I may also add, perhaps as a vaguely related adjunct to Lambert’s other post (the content of which I’m still working on! Crikey, challenging material or what!?) may I also offer:
https://www.lucistrust.org/world_goodwill/world_goodwill_homepage/view_latest
Yes, very long as it is actually a transcript from a talk by Steven Colatrella in Padua, Italy. Good overview of how capitalism and democracy have evolved and how the US has not, until now, had to compete for mobile capital. Get a big cuppa ready
Happy holidays to all, and particularly those that work so hard to bring us such interesting insights in the interesting times we live in.
On a more somber note, it may be Hussman time. Stopped clocks, twice a day etc.
>>AA writes: “Nest year’s basil and sweet potatoes in the windowsill.
LMAO. I have 2019’s tomatoes and peppers growing on the kitchen floor next to the window.
glad to see that I’m not the only gardening nut who does that.
Merry Christmas to all the fellow gardening nuts out there in the electronic ether
alas, i had hoped to have the attached greenhouse finished and up and running some time ago. life intervened.
it makes for a warm bath on a cold day, so long as the sun is out….and it helps heat the house.
100% recycled/reclaimed/otherwise liberated material.
once the shelves are finished, I’ll plant all those tree seeds i picked up this fall around the medical center(4 kinds of oak, madrone(!), mountain laurels, sycamore and walnut(for the graywater driven little wetland))
I want tomatoes all year, too.
and I came across this in the margin of one of the Links this am:
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/12/toward-the-wiki-society
Thought it was cool to think about.
and we all should strive to be cool this yule, as it were.
Peace.
> i had hoped to have the attached greenhouse finished and up and running some time ago. life intervened. it makes for a warm bath on a cold day, so long as the sun is out….and it helps heat the house.
Yes, a greenhouse properly positioned can help heat the house. Impressive!
1st seed catalogue appeared in the mail today. Is it too early to start planning?
Happy Christmas, y’all. Be safe.
my first came today, too,lol.
seems early.
you all have a nice christmas…and be sure to check out the moon tonite…or early in the am.
It was a Paper Moon earlier this evening here.
> It was a Paper Moon earlier this evening here.
Hanging over a cardboard sea?
Ye gads! All this time I’ve been living a lie!
This full moon, I’m told, is the Cold Moon. Nothing about brightness, lensing, or colouring. Blast!
> Is it too early to start planning?
No.
does planning cease, so to begin anew?
i find that i can’t help it,lol.
now, if only labor and capital would fall from the sky….
thought of you when i read this. fella sounds like a Thomist, but that’s not such a bad thing, as conservative philosophers go.
https://areomagazine.com/2018/12/20/servile-oblivion-and-the-end-of-education/
“…But poetry and philosophy, art and music cannot break open and take root in souls that have not been taught how to read and look and listen in silence, patiently awaiting and anticipating the dislocating shock of wonder. The virtues that are required to learn from the classics are cultivated only by habitual exposure to the classics. The survival of the liberal arts—of education as such—depends on the existence of teachers who treasure the precious inheritance of the past and are allowed to transmit it to their students. This is a hard truth, for if present trends continue, such teachers will all but vanish from American colleges and universities within a generation. Still, the humanities will not be entirely extinguished. Quietly sustained by individual readers and writers, artists and poets, the vital tradition will shelter underground until it someday sprouts in new forms.”
that “dislocating shock of wonder” was called Thaumazein(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_(emotion)) by the Greeks.
It’s one of my favorite words.So I’ll give it to you.
Merry Christmas.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/24/politics/mccaskill-exit-interview/index.html in which Claire McCaskill warns Democrats in general, and AOC in particular about cheap talk.
“… McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat who’s in her final days in office after losing her bid for a third Senate term, told CNN in a wide-ranging interview that her party must begin to focus and deliver on real issues to attract independent and white working class voters — not pie-in-the-sky policy ideas, such as tuition-free college, that have little chance of becoming law. Her concern: Voters grow cynical after hearing campaign promises that never go anywhere, empowering forces like President Donald Trump to rail against Washington for failed promises, as he did in 2016.
Democrats, she suggested, should be cautious about the rise of politicians like the 29-year-old Ocasio-Cortez, who vanquished a Democratic leader, Joe Crowley, in her primary, and have vowed sweeping changes in policy.
“I don’t know her,” McCaskill said when asked if she’d consider Ocasio-Cortez a “crazy Democrat” like the ones she decried on the campaign trail. “I’m a little confused why she’s the thing. But it’s a good example of what I’m talking about, a bright shiny new object, came out of nowhere and surprised people when she beat a very experienced congressman.”
McCaskill added, “And so she’s now talked about a lot. I’m not sure what she’s done yet to generate that kind of enthusiasm, but I wish her well. I hope she hangs the moon.
“But I hope she also realizes that the parts of the country that are rejecting the Democratic Party, like a whole lot of white working class voters, need to hear about how their work is going to be respected, and the dignity of their jobs, and how we can really stick to issues that we can actually accomplish something on.”….”
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hang_the_moon
https://www.9news.com/article/news/health/theres-a-way-bigger-risk-for-heart-attacks-on-christmas-eve-heres-why-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/73-53630bef-0c9d-43ba-a0c6-e6a759674b8d
Enjoy your figgy pudding….
Well . . . . the ex-Democratic voters of Missouri didn’t hear about any of that from McCaskill, did they? If they had, they would have voted for her, eh?
Maybe AOC should say THAT if she is asked about “McCaskill’s thoughts”.
I thought I invented bad/quick cat drawings, my default cheery symbol for years of second graders. Okay, I didn’t think I invented them. But damn, I could have been making money here, and not just drawing free catheads, free of charge.
Since I am learning to play guitar:
Stephan Wake – Cry of the Celts /Shirley Hills /Covsdale /Land’s End
https://youtu.be/WGlmP4kBT3s
Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge – Live on Flathead Lake
https://youtu.be/zkiL_XQovsE
Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge
https://youtu.be/ZkWFsM4iv7E
Roxane Elfasci – Fuoco, Roland Dyens
https://youtu.be/qz3pyNA92wI
Peace, blessings and good cheer to all…may 2019 bring more solutions and less new problems
Reverend Billy Bob shouts, “Can I get a big AAA-MENN?”
Here’s a link to a pic of the space in front of my living room window, you folks with Brio-style wooden train sets will like it. Got the Music Choice “Light Classical” music channel on the TV … right now playing a bit of Rameau, I love the baroque masters.
Happy holidays to all, and to the hardworking NC staff, thanks for all you do!
Loved the foto that you uploaded. Christmas is everywhere.
Thanks! The nephews liked the train set, but literally 30 seconds after seeing it asked “do you have more track pieces we can use?” and immediately set about modifying the layout into a topologically-even-more-interesting one reminiscent of something out a Dr. Seuss book. Good times.
An Open Thread?
The symbol of the siren is in your face almost any where you go on the planet earth.
Symbol of the siren image
Chances are well over 50% this is completely a cosmic accident. Maybe it is not. If it is not, what in the heck is it doing there?
Christopher Knowles has some interesting theories and the blog post is absolutely the perfect form for whatever you call what it is that he does.
Where There’s Smoke…
The Secret Sun
Friday April 27 2018
> the siren image
Starbucks To Begin Sinister ‘Phase Two’ Of Operation
Seems some New York State unions are opposed to Medicare for All. The greater good is not their concern.
https://www.salon.com/2018/12/24/why-are-these-labor-unions-opposing-medicare-for-all_partner/
From the article:
Patronage is, I suppose, a form of rent…
One thing I will not miss – endless Christmas songs being played at stores. They’ve been playing them since Halloween ended …
http://oi63.tinypic.com/2eb7gcp.jpg
Ozzie xmas …
You fiend! And here I was expecting Ozzy Osbourne doing holiday ‘classics!’
The provenance of that wall hanging critter is suspect. I never heard of big bucks in Oz.
Enjoy your tropical Holiday Inn. A remake of the Bing Crosby film with Aussie actors, a la, ‘Priscilla: Queen of the Holiday Inn’ might go over nicely.
Be happy, and safe.
The deer is decades old and Oz does have some big bucks, not to mention a family member owns an hunting preserve that serves international clientele – some years ago on NC I noted the head of Russian security had a holiday there.
Anywho it was just a photo on my Ozzie Xmas view from the formal dinner table at the olds eating, Ham, Morton bay bugs, and oysters with sides. Wife and kids are up at Noosa whilst I dog set and have work on tomorrow and will only be taking new years day off too. The growing all black 5 month old German shepherd needs lots of work, bad form to have some 60kg+ dog with bad manners if you know what I mean – http://i67.tinypic.com/33m74ly_th.jpg
Hes only half grown in the pic, from the other day, at around 40kg and Rue in the back ground is just a treat and could work as a service dog with her demeanor.
Anyway that’s my wife on the far right of the cupboard from her 80s youth, oh, I forgot to mention and want to blame NC for her planing to do the whole French rowing thingy next year with youngest 90kg 14 year old boy ….. shakes fist – !!!!!!!
Just so you know, “bugs” are crustaceans, similar in form factor to a lobster, but size between a lobster and a crayfish. One of the fancy food mags (Bon Appetit?) included bug in its list of ten best ingredients in the world.
Having enjoyed both east and west coast lobsters I have to say the inclusion of the ‘Bug’ was a nice inclusion, pop some fresh daily reef fish like red emperor or sweet lip with it and zowie ….
As good as it is I leave it to only special occasions, save some for later thingy.
BTW I was serious about wife doing the French rowing enduro, which is kinda funny as my across the road neighbor is French and over 6′ and watching my barely 5′ wife talk about doing it was hilarious.
Enjoy being with the olds, skip. Not the same when they’re gone, bro.
And how does NC get the blame for entering the enduro??
Be good for the young’un
In my region we have deer which led to them becaming part of our previous Council’s logo. Here is where they came from-
Deer were first introduced into Queensland in September 1873 when two stags and four hinds were released at Scrub Creek, Cressbrook Station. These deer were from Windsor Great Park and were a gift from Queen Victoria to the Acclimatisation Society of Queensland. Today, the descendants of the original release are well entrenched in the ranges of the Brisbane and Mary Valleys.
In other words, like so many species introduced into Oz, they went feral and took off in numbers. More on them at-
https://www.daf.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/73510/IPA-Red-Deer-Factsheet.pdf
Thanks to all of you for the many gifts I find here every day of the year. Peace.
This is definitely worth a link and says what needs to be said about our current “news” media.
https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2018/12/trump-derangement-international/
Merry Christmas to all….