Patient readers, Yves had to get her mother to the ER, so she apologizes in advance for… however today’s posting ultimately turns out. Do wish them both luck. –lambert UPDATE $90 co-pay. From Medicare! “Citizen, don’t even think of sending your mother to the hospital unless you can cough up ninety bucks, cash on the nail.” What a country.
Bee-friendly urban wildflower meadows prove a hit with German city dwellers Guardian
Shark Attacks in Maine Were Unthinkable — Until Last Summer Downeast
Market Narratives Have Pushed Aside Fundamentals Barry Pu, The Big Picture
How meme lords fuelled a boom in the ‘stonk market’ FT
Fatal Strategies And The Value Of Human Life The Heisenberg Report
A Reluctant Optimist Scott Galloway
The Memo Chris Laing. APIs and Amazon’s business model.
‘Potentially the worst drought in 1,200 years’: scientists on the scorching US heatwave Guardian
#COVID19
Britain faces learning to live with Covid’s tragic consequences FT
Choosing Love over Eugenics JSTOR Daily
* * * Can the C.D.C. Be Fixed? NYT. By Betteridge’s Law, no, as we have been saying for some time.
* * * High-dimensional characterization of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 Nature. From the Abstract: “Our findings show that a substantial burden of health loss that spans pulmonary and several extrapulmonary organ systems is experienced by patients who survive after the acute phase of COVID-19.” We really need to get away from the (hospital-centric) notion that hospitalization and death are the only metrics that matter.
Brain imaging before and after COVID-19 in UK Biobank (preprint) medRvix. From the Abstract: “There is strong evidence for brain-related pathologies in COVID-19, some of which could be a consequence of viral neurotropism…. UK Biobank scanned over 40,000 participants before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, making it possible to invite back in 2021 hundreds of previously-imaged participants for a second imaging visit…. [Our findings] consistently relate to loss of grey matter in limbic cortical areas directly linked to the primary olfactory and gustatory system. Unlike in post hoc disease studies, the availability of preinfection imaging data helps avoid the danger of pre-existing risk factors or clinical conditions being mis-interpreted as disease effects.” As above. Not just “the flu.”
* * * Mass mask-wearing notably reduces COVID-19 transmission (preprint) medRxiv. From the Abstract: “We establish the effectiveness of mass mask-wearing, and highlight that wearing data, not mandate data, are necessary to infer this effect.”
The Novel Coronavirus’ Spike Protein Plays Additional Key Role In Illness Salk News. From late May, still germane.
Wondering if the Vaccine Worked? Get the Right Test, at the Right Time NYT
China?
China’s Falling Unemployment Masks a Lack of Jobs For the Young Bloomberg
Li Yang: The total scale of China’s banking industry exceeds that of the United States, but there are still three major shortcomings What China Reads. At the bottom of the page: “Note: This is an auto-translated version of the article meant for Chinese audience. A mature and nuanced reading is suggested.”
Taiwan’s COVID-19 legacy depends on working from home and innovative testing Commonwealth Magazine
Companies give vaccines to workers, boosting Japan’s rollout AP
Myanmar
The UN has condemned Myanmar’s military coup. Will that matter? Vox
Myanmar junta leader leaves for Russia conference, second trip abroad since coup Reuters
Patient readers, Yves had to get her mother to the ER. so she apologizes in advance for… however today’s posting ultimately turns out. Do wish them both luck. –lambert UPDATE $90 co-pay — from Medicare! “Citizen, don’t even think of sending your mother to the hospital unless you can cough up ninety bucks.” What a country.
Bee-friendly urban wildflower meadows prove a hit with German city dwellers Guardian
Shark Attacks in Maine Were Unthinkable — Until Last Summer Downeast
Market Narratives Have Pushed Aside Fundamentals Barry Pu, The Big Picture
How meme lords fuelled a boom in the ‘stonk market’ FT
Fatal Strategies And The Value Of Human Life The Heisenberg Report
A Reluctant Optimist Scott Galloway
The Memo Chris Laing. APIs and Amazon’s business model.
‘Potentially the worst drought in 1,200 years’: scientists on the scorching US heatwave Guardian
#COVID19
Britain faces learning to live with Covid’s tragic consequences FT
Choosing Love over Eugenics JSTOR Daily
* * * Can the C.D.C. Be Fixed? NYT. By Betteridge’s Law, no, as we have been saying for some time.
* * * High-dimensional characterization of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 Nature. From the Abstract: “Our findings show that a substantial burden of health loss that spans pulmonary and several extrapulmonary organ systems is experienced by patients who survive after the acute phase of COVID-19.” We really need to get away from the (hospital-centric) notion that hospitalization and death are the only metrics that matter.
Brain imaging before and after COVID-19 in UK Biobank (preprint) medRvix. From the Abtract: “There is strong evidence for brain-related pathologies in COVID-19, some of which could be a consequence of viral neurotropism…. UK Biobank scanned over 40,000 participants before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, making it possible to invite back in 2021 hundreds of previously-imaged participants for a second imaging visit…. [Our findings] consistently relate to loss of grey matter in limbic cortical areas directly linked to the primary olfactory and gustatory system. Unlike in post hoc disease studies, the availability of preinfection imaging data helps avoid the danger of pre-existing risk factors or clinical conditions being mis-interpreted as disease effects.” Not just “the flu.”
* * * Mass mask-wearing notably reduces COVID-19 transmission (preprint) medRxiv. From the Abstract: “We establish the effectiveness of mass mask-wearing, and highlight that wearing data, not mandate data, are necessary to infer this effect.”
The Novel Coronavirus’ Spike Protein Plays Additional Key Role In Illness Salk News. From late May, still germane.
Wondering if the Vaccine Worked? Get the Right Test, at the Right Time NYT
China?
China’s Falling Unemployment Masks a Lack of Jobs For the Young Bloomberg
Li Yang: The total scale of China’s banking industry exceeds that of the United States, but there are still three major shortcomings What China Reads. At the bottom of the page: “Note: This is an auto-translated version of the article meant for Chinese audience. A mature and nuanced reading is suggested.”
Taiwan’s COVID-19 legacy depends on working from home and innovative testing Commonwealth Magazine
Companies give vaccines to workers, boosting Japan’s rollout AP
Myanmar
The UN has condemned Myanmar’s military coup. Will that matter? Vox
Myanmar junta leader leaves for Russia conference, second trip abroad since coup Reuters
Clinic raided for offering Ivermectin to Covid-19 patients Free Malaysia Today
India
Goa: ‘Government stand on Ivermectin Contradictory Times of India
Africa writes back Aeon
Syraqistan
Karzai says US legacy in Afghanistan is a ‘total disgrace and disaster’ The Hill
Biden set to meet Afghanistan President Ghani amid troop pullout Deutsche Welle
New Cold War
Five Degrees Of Improbability — General Gerasimov Won the Battle of Geneva Without Firing a Shot John Helmer
EU/UK
French far right irked by election results, southern region in play Reuters
Biden Administration
Joe Biden is better on the world stage than any president since George H.W. Bush David Rothkopf, USA Today
Decision Time for Biden on Infrastructure Deal: GOP Senator Bloomberg
Sanders says no to gas taxes, electric vehicle fees to fund infrastructure deal NBC
How a single new Alzheimer’s drug could blow up the federal budget NBC
Our Famously Free Press
Just 12 People Are Behind Most Vaccine Hoaxes On Social Media, Research Shows NPR. From May, still germane.
With Bezos at the Helm, Democracy Dies at the Washington Post Editorial Board Mint Press News
Class Warfare
Chamber of Commerce urges Biden to double visa quota amid nationwide worker shortage Yahoo News. Good to see the CoC finally coming out in support of open borders.
‘When is this going to end?’: US factory town devastated by jobs moving overseas Guardian (Re Silc). The town is in West Virginia, so why not see what President Manchin can do?
Policies That Make the Poor Less Poor Eclogiselle
America Should Become a Nation of Renters Bloomberg
Tasks, Automation, and the Rise in US Wage Inequality Daron Acemoglu & Pascual Restrepo, NBER.
Bacteria converts degraded plastic bottles into vanilla flavoring New Atlas (DL).
Enthusiastic Amateurs Advance Science As They Hunt For Exotic Mushrooms NPR
Clinic raided for offering Ivermectin to Covid-19 patients Free Malaysia Today
India
Goa: ‘Government stand on Ivermectin Contradictory Times of India
Africa writes back Aeon
Syraqistan
Karzai says US legacy in Afghanistan is a ‘total disgrace and disaster’ The Hill
Biden set to meet Afghanistan President Ghani amid troop pullout Deutsche Welle
New Cold War
Five Degrees Of Improbability — General Gerasimov Won the Battle of Geneva Without Firing a Shot John Helmer
EU/UK
French far right irked by election results, southern region in play Reuters
Biden Administration
Joe Biden is better on the world stage than any president since George H.W. Bush David Rothkopf, USA Today
Decision Time for Biden on Infrastructure Deal: GOP Senator Bloomberg
Sanders says no to gas taxes, electric vehicle fees to fund infrastructure deal NBC
How a single new Alzheimer’s drug could blow up the federal budget NBC
Our Famously Free Press
Just 12 People Are Behind Most Vaccine Hoaxes On Social Media, Research Shows NPR. From May, still germane.
With Bezos at the Helm, Democracy Dies at the Washington Post Editorial Board Mint Press News
Class Warfare
Chamber of Commerce urges Biden to double visa quota amid nationwide worker shortage Yahoo News. Good to see the CoC finally coming out in support of open borders.
‘When is this going to end?’: US factory town devastated by jobs moving overseas Guardian (Re Silc). The town is in West Virginia, so why not see what President Manchin can do?
Policies That Make the Poor Less Poor Eclogiselle
America Should Become a Nation of Renters Bloomberg
Tasks, Automation, and the Rise in US Wage Inequality Daron Acemoglu & Pascual Restrepo, NBER.
Bacteria converts degraded plastic bottles into vanilla flavoring New Atlas (DL).
Enthusiastic Amateurs Advance Science As They Hunt For Exotic Mushrooms NPR
Antidote du Jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
215 comments
Comments are closed.
>Double Double vision
I think some of the links are doubling up or maybe I’m in a time worm hole.
Hey, it’s a good selection of links, so sure worth seeing twice? (paraphrasing a barman from a nearby pub).
hahahahah! For a while i did not know if the computer was scrolling by herself or if it was just me getting senile.
Yes
I’m seeing Double there’s four of them
Just …… desert
Somehow, I don’t believe the “nation of renters” is the target audience of this piece on Bloomberg. Is this another one of those “burning the planet down is good for the p̶l̶a̶n̶e̶t̶ institutional investors” things?
It’s just more unemployed money looking for a place to land and to generate additional income for the already wealthy and secure, and to do so without any effort on their part.
“”In coastal markets with strong demand for housing, market forces would normally have led to the replacement of single-family homes with duplexes and apartments.””
In Calif we are facing both. Upward population growth and state govt attempting to force local govt to upzone all property, not just those near transit hubs, to allow up to 8 units on a single family lot. Some rules apply, but zoning has always been a local issue.
Assembly Housing Comm is voting on a series of housing bills, dubbed “7 Bad Bills”, tmrw. If you live in Calif, get on the phone to help stop this assault before your neighborhood becomes an investor free for all. Think I’m kidding, here in San Diego, “people” are building granny units in the front yard! No on site parking will be required!
America Should Become a Nation of Renters
Wow… what an awful opinion piece. I have to wonder if opinion writers like this know they’re just shilling talking points for PE overlords or if they actually believe what they’re writing. Either option isn’t good.
They are called “opinion pieces” but I doubt having a different “opinion” would get that guy published at Bloomberg.
I’m thinking that Bloomberg was faced with space limitations ceteris paribus as this professor would divinely intone to his Econ 102 nimrods. There was no room for a serious discussion of Rent Control Ordinances or limitations on the ownership of single family dwellings. In any case, as we all know, the market works doggedly towards equilibrium. Bloomberg, as always, does the best it can. Let’s play 18!
It won’t stop with houses. Everything in their pipe dreams is to become something you rent instead of own, or in their words “a service” you pay for based on use – like public utility, except private without any utility rate boards.
Software as a service. See Adobe’s change to buy-the-month payments instead of selling boxed software for a onetime payment, for example.See the fight against right-to-repair.
At least in the old rent-to-own schemes one would eventually own something outright.
Pssst! Don’t tell anyone, but there are alternatives to Adobe and its subscription model.
Case in point: Yours Truly doesn’t use Adobe for photo editing. My alternatives? Nikon Capture NX-D and Affinity Photo. They work just fine for me, and the clientele doesn’t care what I use.
I’ve been looking for a full-strength alternative to Adobe Acrobat, but sadly it doesn’t yet exist. Would love to bail on their “Creative Cloud”.
That makes two of us.
Anyone with a lead on an open source Acrobat, please share!
Here’s quick take on PDF support from the OS I am currently using:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PDF,_PS_and_DjVu
Libre office, draw, I think it is, freeware allows edits to pdf files. Works pretty so far.
Am also trying out Corel. Seems fine for clipping images from photos but not sure about importing complex layered graphic images.
+1 for Libre Office.
https://www.libreoffice.org
Adobe CC is utter garbage. Their latest PS update destroyed my install, even trashed my older CC versions. I’m lucky in that I have an old CS5 and Cs6 version that I own; planning on cutting the cord on those con-artist hacks very soon.
Check out PDF Studio too. I just installed it to take a look. I think they have a free and a pay version.
Try Gimp. Look it up. It’s been around for years
Adobe first went the buy-the-update route, and had everything divided into separate modules. I am sure there was always too much sharing too. Although if everthing eventually has to be downloaded it will save on cd pollution. It reminds me a bit of Quickbooks, which is scarier if they have your general ledger in their possession.
I use an open source Linux program called Ledger. It requires some configuration (not much), is essentially a database that can be stroked to give you reports as required. I even can do bank recs on it, although my clients are all small and I prefer paper recs. Entry is like old-time pen-and-ink ledgers and date-stamped to prevent tampering so corrections are done as reversing entries — clear trail throughout. All is kept on my little old laptop, with copies to the clients, whom I encourage to run Linux even if as a dual-boot if they can’t be parted from their Windows, or on a stand-alone if they prefer.
I am ready for the post-pulse future, too — I have stockpiled ledger paper, red and black ink, and own several antique dual-font bookkeeper’s inkwells :).
Thanks, I use Linux and had not heard of Ledger. I only do my own books now, and invented my own spreadsheets with Libre Calc. I still have ledger paper and mechanical pencils–when the great troubles come we will be ready!
Take a look at GnuCash and KMyMoney too.
Thanks!
“You’ll own nothing and love it.” – Heard that one before? Thought it was just the MAGA-chumps? But now they’re coming for you too.
I’m fine with the abolition of private property. Problem is, the B3W types and all other crypto-capitalists need to pretend that status, a kind of property, does not inevitably result in elite corruption.
It’s not just Adobe. MS is pushing enterprise into the Office 365 model pretty hard. I’ve also seen many specialized software, from building code compliance software to dental record management, going to a subscription license. Unfortunately in those instances, there aren’t alternatives. Though I would also point out trying to sell users who think their programs are gone if a desktop icon moves on Gimp, Open Office or Linix is pretty much torture for all involved.
And, if you get into the weeds of most EULAs I’ve ever seen, they don’t consider purchasing software more than purchasing a license to use their software, which can be revoked for tons of arbitrary reasons. The subscription model just insures you’ll need to keep paying for the privilege.
SaaS is made or broken by the second S, where the provider gives good support, offers reasonable customization services, provides secure data hosting, and so on, or doesn’t. You’d be surprised how much people will pay just to have a machine tuned to do their business their way.
Here’s a Microsoft corporate counsel and law prof about two decades ago, drooling over the private property he created in an article baldly called “The License is the Product“.
The educator version of Adobe still has a disk, but it’s expensive and you also need to verify that you qualify as an educator.
If the Mindflayers discussed in that brain sucking helmet article get their way, you’ll be paying for your literal thoughts and dreams.
Don’t forget streaming music rather than downloading, TPTB seem to want people to forget that you can own music.
So much to dunk on, so little time. Thankfully the readers over at Bloomberg have done a pretty good job of shredding this piece.
I would call your attention to this article from a recent Links posting.
https://medium.com/surviving-tomorrow/were-not-in-a-real-estate-bubble-38c09ddc74f9
Yes indeed, the PE overlords look forward to monetizing everything. They own it, we rent it.
This article was an encomium to precarity and financial instability.
Like the need to move from job to job and residence to residence was “dynamic” and not an emotional and economic hardship.
Just propaganda. Disgusting.
Does this Bloomberg piece somehow justify the U.S. Govement’s transfer of trillions to the Fed to fund stock market inflation and the transfer of private homes into the hands of Private Equity? I am still very angry about the CARES Act and its many splendored gifts to Big Money. As it plays out, my anger and outrage grows. Strange the proximity in time between the CARES Act, Davos Reset, and now the transformation of homes into temporary housing for our insanely happy mobile work-forces.
While we focus attention on the housing market — I cannot help but wonder how much of the Fed made money is going into the purchase, Corporatization, and monetization of medical and dental practices, along with the few remaining independent pharmacies. What is ahead for small and medium scale businesses? Utility companies? — who am I forgetting? I guess we will all have to learn how to sing for our suppers while bowing low and kneeling.
Probably both. And in line with the WEF’s ” Great Reset”, where ” you will own nothing, and you will be happy.”
” I like the way you think.”
” That’s because I think the way you like.”
Our mission, should we choose to accept, is to delay, deny and prevent the “nation of renters” from happening.
>Joe Biden is better on the world stage than any president since George H.W. Bush David Rothkopf, USA Today
Ok, for argument’s sake let’s say you’re right USA Today, how does he stack up to Putin. I viewed the Ytube video of NBC’s 1.5 hour interview with Putin last night. I was impressed and depressed. Impressed at Putin’s ability to answer questions without index cards and teleprompters and his sense of American Media’s rhetorical casuistries. Depressed in how low the MSM news has devolved.
The clip had almost 3.5 Million views. I scrolled through some the comments, there were 27K of them, and both Keir Simmons and NBC were excoriated for their embarrassing questions and ACCESS Hollywood-like interview.
Below link to the interview may have already been posted, though long it is a very interesting view, with some comedic interludes, where Putin gently admonishes Keir Simmons not to worry about running out of time (Putin: “I control the time, so don’t worry about the time”). Or “don’t be mad with the mirror, if you look ugly.” And, asking Keir to be patient with his answers even if he didn’t like what he heard.
So USA Today and CNN can try and inflate Biden as much as they want but anyone who watches below will know, and be saddened, at how poorly the U.S. “leaders” compare with Russia’s leader.
https://youtu.be/m6pJd6O_NT0
The MSM
https://www.sadanduseless.com/cat-breading-funny/
Shockingly obsequious drivel from USA Decay.
Clinton and Obama were clearly playing in a different league than Biden, and I am speaking as someone who did not really like either one in terms of governing. Obama was an excellent orator and Clinton well known for his ability to communicate.
Only W. was arguably less coherent than Biden, who seems to struggle putting a sentence together at times.
What I get from Biden the whole time I have been listening to him in his political career is his struggle to not say what he is really thinking. He is not a nice guy. He never got facile at the kind of smooth BS BO lays down effortlessly. I recall seeing him on Youtube from early in his political career selling his soul to the highest bidder in an interview. Funny, I just can’t find that vid any longer.
Was that the one where after he was first elected, that he went to the ‘right’ people to sell out his position. But that they told him that he was too young and to come back when he was forty or so to sell out? And Biden was idiot enough to tell that story in later years and have it recorded?
That is the one! I could not believe my ears, myself. But it seems so passé to be surprised now, doesn’t it?
Excellent oration skills and ability to communicate only made the two liars into better liars.
Make that three (in recent times, at least). You forgot Ronnie.
Rothkopf’s calling Biden as good as GHW Bush is not the compliment he imagines. Here’s Bush pere after his Navy shot down Iran’s civilian airline flight 655, killing 290: “I don’t care what the facts are…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10qatUWwIeg
https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-nw-jetliner-shot-down-iran-air-655-20200110-4tsmwvgqkjehjmnmjofw4pd6i4-story.html
Poppy ‘born with a silver foot in his mouth’ Bush?
The man who started the Pacific Century by barfing in the lap of the Japanese Prime Minister?
Thanks for the link. Haven’t watched a cat batting a mouse around for a while.
The bad faith underlying Karl Smith’s Bloomberg essay “America Should Become a Nation of Renters“ becomes evident in his final two sentences: “To see the U.S. as a nation of renters requires a revision of the American dream of homeownership,” Smith writes. “This country was always more about new frontiers than comfortable settlements, anyway.”
Since Smith is a professor of economics, I am assuming that his falsification of American history is intentional and self-interested, like the NYT’s 1619 Project. Widespread homeownership — i.e. the right to personal property broadly construed — is fundamental to modern constitutional democracy. The whole New World project begins with escape from and freedom from feudal institutions — landlords and rentiers especially — and the subsequent invention of an historically unprecedented nation in which all could be citizens and an historically unprecedented national economy in which anyone could participate and try to grow prosperous.
Yet our man at Bloomberg would have us believe that the return of a rentier class and a regression to feudalism would constitute some Kennedyesque “new frontier.”
Calling this piece a justification for feudalism is probably the best way to put it, so thanks for using the F word.
Jefferson, among others, went far out of their way to eliminate primogeniture in the United States as a matter of law.
America today needs to take a step toward thinking ethically about the value of having small landholders, rather than a permanent aristocracy. Unfortunately, we’re quite distracted by a multitude of stupid arguments, woke, anti-woke, etc., and can’t seem to get our heads above the fray to think about property and wealth.
‘we’re quite distracted by a multitude of stupid arguments’
Amazing how well that suits the elites; and how easy such arguments are promulgated.
Everything is going according to plan…
My take is that the model is despotism. Feudalism suggests there might be some reciprocal obligations. Remember, you will own nothing. There will be no claim on the elite.
I like your framing. When Feudalism is presented as a more compassionate and socially acceptable model to what the plutocrats have in store for us, even the most dense market worshipers will be given pause.
Yes, we need to think critically about whether a landed gentry PMC will be just as insufferable as the elites they have pledged fealty to. So far, the answer is arguably that they’re worse, with their entire PMC class identity based on total domination.
American has thought about that issue ad nauseam. That ends usually in one of three places – neofeudalism, Georgism, or (some kind of) socialism. It’s not that we’re confused on the issue – it’s that only one of those three options is good for a large part of the people who are currently in power.
The question isn’t “why aren’t we thinking about this”, it’s “why is nothing being done about it”, and that has to do with social power imbalances that have only heightened since the 1970s.
Methinks we American’s should get our salt back and get the distant landlords out of the land and house ownership bizness.
Distant is right. Single family homes in my rust-belt city are being snapped up and converted to rentals by investors from around the world. Very dispiriting.
John Siman
June 21, 2021 at 7:35 am
I managed to pay off my mortgage, but still, when I look at what my monthly mortgage cost was, versus what rent is for a MUCH smaller abode, with NO land or outdoor space at all, I wonder how ANYONE can afford rent. It reminds me very much of all the touting of “free trade”
And even though I already posted this, let’s remember what happens when your dependent on the capitalists for EVERYTHING
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRh0QiXyZSk
Exactly. My first house mortgage mo. pmt was the same as the one bedroom apartment I vacated to move in–and that mo. rent was slated to go up $50 at renewal.
Same here. Then the mortgage/insurance/taxes payment was shuffled through several different loan companies before I paid it off.
Just how can the Financial world make money, buying, trading and servicing these loans?
Does anybody here know if, when a loan is ‘bought,’ a new fee can be added to the principal? (We only had a loan for our original land purchase back when Mammoths roamed the Mid-American tundra. After that experience, cash all the way, or we didn’t get it.)
As an example of “when life was worth living;” my parents had a monthly mortgage payment of $82 USD per month for the fixer upper on Miami Beach. That was in the mid 1960s. When Mum sold the place in the early 1990s, her monthly taxes and fees were over $300 USD. Now the whole place is starting to flood at the high tides.
My High School sports avatar was the Hi-Tides. Irony before it was cool.
No one from there that I have heard from has yet said the dreaded words, “Population Migration.” At the end of the day, the entire penninsula will have to be abandoned to the sea. All it will take is one good meltwater pulse to get the ball rolling.
Climate Refugees will be the great tragedy of the next century.
I always got loans through credit unions who promised never to sell the loan. I heard horror stories about predatory practices.
I tell young(er) people all the time about how I could save for a house, had same experience as Alfred wrt payments. Making minimum wage or just a little more we saved up the 10% downpayment ($4,000) and then some. I tell them how the two of us could cover our rent, later mortgage, and utilities on a small but cozy 3 bedroom house with one week’s earnings. Second week’s pay for groceries and clothes (minimal), third week student loan*, 4th week for savings. When we had a fifth week (bonus!) we decided what to do — go to the opera or ballet? chuck it in savings? road trip? new bicycle?
Interest rates on savings accounts back then hovered around 7%, so savings grew fairly fast (ie, double in 10 years). I could and did do the math and could (and did) later hand-calculate mortgage rates and payments.
Our weekly grocery budget (quite sufficient, thank you, at $14) is less than a McDonald’s meal for two nowadays. I tell young people so that they, the frogs being brought to a boil, understand that it *doesn’t have to be this way* and that they are being screwed.
I cannot imagine the situation of today’s young people, what their futures look like to them. How to fix it? I think that the state as the only holder of legal violence can actually make that happen, and I despair.
You have to look at the bigger picture–taxes and maintence are included in a rent payments. So when you add that on top of your mortgage payment, and other other costs that go into a rent payment, the advantage may not be as great as it seems.
If the down payment is greater than your annual salary and you don’t have family or other sources of income, it’s simply isn’t happening.
Prices in general are putting homeownership out of reach–look at what houses are going for versus what people make and you’ll see the problem.
A landed gentry is fundamental to “democracy” (by which you mean bourgeois liberal republicanism)? Very interesting. Do all sophists misuse terms like “democracy” to serve their personal interests, or are we meant to pretend they stopped doing that after rebranding as “philosophy”?
Laying it on a little thick with the “rah-rah America” bit, there, aren’t you John? All could be citizens…I mean, I guess…a 100 years or so after the founding. But then, we still have controversy over granting immigrants citizenship, so maybe not quite all can be citizens. And, of course, anyone can “try to grow prosperous” here, but as we are all aware trying and accomplishing are two very different things. Anyone can try, but not anyone can succeed. Just sayin’.
? ? ? ?
Philosophers seem mostly interested in rationalizing original sin so that elites can exist. That is, philosophy is just another word for sophistry we happen to like.
Yes, diphtherio, I intentionally laid it on thick because the point needs to be made that the invention of modern politics and of (as it was called) political economy in the 18th century laid all the conceptual groundwork necessary for any subsequent people to strive to make themselves into a nation of political equals who would enjoy widespread and increasing prosperity. This was an astounding and unprecedented philosophical and historical achievement. Hence the title of Gordon Wood’s book, The *Radicalism* of the American Revolution.
Here’s where John Major came from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Major#/media/File:260_Longfellow_Road.png
Ms Thatcher:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher#/media/File:Maison_natale_de_Margaret_Thatcher,_Grantham.JPG
You wanna compare that to the Bushes? Al Gore? The Trump family?
“…an historically unprecedented nation in which all could be citizens…”
Not quite. This, from The Atlantic:
Right. The ideal of universal citizenship and universal political equality — along with the not-at-all-farfetched possibility of the attainment of this ideal — is radically new to history. This ideal — this proposition, that all men are created equal — is first published — i.e. is first proclaimed to the general public — in and around the year 1776. It is in no way diminished by the countless obvious and predictable human failures to live according to its guidance.
radically new to white history, maybe
The Blackfeet Nation had this culture long before. This is not the best link, but I could not find the one I was looking for. Ironically, their society was destroyed by the advent of “ideal of universal citizenship and universal political equality” you tout here.
https://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-blackfoot/
The ideal – the proposition, that all men are created equal – that popped up in 1776 for the first time ever in human history is, of course to be taken quite literally. All men.
Sometimes the pace of progress is just dizzying for someone of my advanced age. Why it’s only taken 12-15 years to go from George W. Bush’s “Ownership Society” to Biden’s “Renter America.”
What will they think of next? Maybe the debacle in India will give them some ideas about oxygen rentals. You can pretty much charge what you like.
Chamber of Commerce urges Biden to double visa quota amid nationwide worker shortage
Nice to see the CoC supporting the use of cheaper immigrant labor to keep wages down.
What? Is Bezos running out of meat to beat?
Amazon shopper = whip cracking sadist
It isn’t “immigrant labor” keeping wages down.
Re CoC wanting overseas slave labor–an evaluation from a career waiter:
https://www.grubstreet.com/2021/06/why-restaurants-are-struggling-to-find-workers.html
I really really don’t want to contemplate eating food prepared and served by unhappy, hungry, desperate human beings.
>I really really don’t want to contemplate eating food prepared and served by unhappy, hungry, desperate human beings.
I hate to break it to you buddy but that’s already how things are.
Yeah, I never eat where I’m not sure any more.
Amen to that. It’s amazing that people feel the freedom to mistreat the people who are making their food. There is a lot of anger in resentment in a lot of restaurants: the failed actors, the rock-star bartenders who can’t afford to open their dream bar, the cooks and chefs paying big student loan bills with a 12$ an hour job.
A case in point: I worked with a cook years ago who had a system for people who returned steaks. He would drop the meat into his underwear, dance around for a second or two, then back onto the grill. If it was overdone, the fresh steak got the treatment. I almost never send food back, if I do I’m extremely respectful and gracious about it.
“The town is in West Virginia, so why not see what President Manchin can do?”
Time for a House committee to bring Heather Manchin Bresch – seems nice
– in for some friendly questioning. Under oath.
Also couldn’t not notice that the article was published
on the one-year anniversary of Trump’s Kodak pharma scam.
Too bad that Navarro and Kushner didn’t try to work with actual facilities,
like the one in Morgantown, instead of vaporware.
If Kushner had to work with actual facilities, he would have less emergency govt money to vaporize into his and his buddies’ offshore accounts.
“Citizen, don’t even think of sending your mother to the hospital unless you can cough up ninety bucks.”
Years ago in Oz there was this guy on TV named Joe the Gadget Man who sold stuff for a local store called Knock & Kirbys. He was a local minor personality for decades and it was not unknown for him to come unstuck on TV as his performances were live. A lawn mower that refused to start or a lounge suite that collapsed under him for example. The point is that he had a famous catch-cry that went “And don’t forget – bring your money with you.”
Yeah, that’s the American health system’s catch-cry too.
If Bernie Sanders or AOC want seniors to stop running in horror from them perhaps they ought to consider killing the 20% co-pay on Medicare services. I pay more for my co-insurance that pays 20% of the fee than I do for the Medicare portion that pays 80%. Hooray for private insurance companies!
They both support a public insurance program for comprehensive, universal healthcare free at the point of service. Any voters running from them may want address this issue with whomever they voted for instead.
A privately run private equity “emergency room” no doubt. That is horrifying. Yves is laid up with 2 new hips and her mother is old and frail. Both of them are “covered” by Medicare and private policies… and some greedy snot-nosed gum-popping computer receptionist demands $90. just to allow Yves mother to be “processed” into the goddamned ER? When is Hell gonna get paid? Soon I hope.
Re Africa writes back: European ideas of African illiteracy are persistent, prejudiced and, as the story of Libyc script shows, entirely wrong
I entirely fail to see how the existence of Libyc script shows it. This script likely descended from the Phoenician alphabet and was used in North Africa which was a part of the Mediterranean civilisation and had next to nothing in common with sub-Saharan Africa. No one in Europe have ever considered North Africa to be illiterate.
You seem to have forgotten that Africa is a country /s
“Bacteria converts degraded plastic bottles into vanilla flavoring New Atlas (DL).”
Starbugs Barista: Would you like to try our new vanilla flavored mealworm latte?
Customer: No, I’ll stick with vanilla cricket cappucino.
Bean grind run off with large, grazing mammal lactate is more appetizing? Or curdled mammal lactate? I could handle insects, but Starbucks? Yuck.
Starbucks is foul indeed.
Strip-mall coffee. I told some people here in the US that there are bars in strip-malls. They had never been to the US, and still don’t believe me.
re: –lambert UPDATE $90 co-pay. From Medicare!
I think I recall Yves mentioning her mom uses a Medicare Advantage (MA) plan, not original traditional Medicare with an add-on Part C or Part F, etc insurance plan. (I could be wrong about this.) That could be the “problem” here. MA plans are NOT traditional Medicare, though you’d never know that from their advertising. They’re Medicare-like private insurance company offerings that have their own payment models. So, if Yves mom has a MA plan, not traditional Medicare, don’t blame Medicare for the ER bill.
The whole advertising and naming schemes are designed, imo, to confuse people about what is what and which is which… to the detriment of original Medicare.
For about the umpteenth time, this is not about the differences between “traditional” Medicare where you pay hundreds of dollars monthly to buy supplemental / drug coverage from a private insurance company whether you use it or not in return for $0 “copays,” and Medicare Advantage where you pay less monthly in return for accepting copays when you show up for treatment.
Medicare is the same wringer under-65s get put through, albeit with a better reputation.
This is about why ANY american should pay ANYthing at all when they need “healthcare,” as is the case in the rest of the developed world.
It is a given that health care should be free to all. However, I would argue that traditional MA is overall a better system than advantage plans. These can change over the remaining lifetime of the recipient as I understand, for example: they can go out of business.
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/010816/pitfalls-medicare-advantage-plans.asp
The important differences for myself are portability (use anywhere with any doctor, your choice), no limited networks, no co-pays (other than medi-gap), no denial of coverage by some insurance company. All that said, you would have to have the income to pay the additional insurance premiums, and vision/dental payments. This is a big no for most Americans. So being low income may force you to choose MA plans, but you may end up paying more than traditional medicare. buyer beware
The important differences for myself are portability (use anywhere with any doctor, your choice), no limited networks, no co-pays (other than medi-gap), no denial of coverage by some insurance company. All that said, you would have to have the income to pay the additional insurance premiums, and vision/dental payments. This is a big no for most Americans. So being low income may force you to choose MA plans, but you may end up paying more than traditional medicare. buyer beware
As I said, “Same wringer, better rep.”
It is, I think about the difference between MA (wholly privatized) and traditional (regulated private insurance supplimental plans). The suppliment Part D drugs plans on offer can cost as little as $15 dollars a month, depending on the drugs in the formulary they cover. Or as much as hundreds of dollars a month, again depending on the drugs they cover.
I.Yes, I agree the US healthcare payments system is near criminal and outrageous.
2. The US healthcare system is what we have at the moment. In this system traditional Medicare is a better deal, imo, with more govt regulations on costs and area of coverage (even has an out-of-country coverage for something like $50k dollars (lifetime) ) and is accepted in every state by doctors and hospitals that accept Medicare. This isn’t true for MA plans.
So, yes, the US healthcare payments system is a near racket. Traditional Medicare is less of a racket than the all-private insurance plans. Why is there the call for Medicare for All? (Although, if the Dems ever decide to get onboard with that I’ll bet they destroy tradtional Medicare and turn in into a new private insurance companies payoff. ) My 2 cents.
My original point was simple–arguments that “my Medicare is better than your Medicare are mindless and pointless.
They both suck. But, more importantly, such arguments only serve to obscure the fact that, in this day and age, the existence of Medicare only serves to prop up an inherently unsustainable, unfair, financially rapacious “healthcare system” that, if forced to stand alone, would not provide “healthcare” to any older or disabled american due to lack of profitability.
Ditto for the calls to “lower the age of Medicare eligibility” which are really just calls for the government to shoulder more of the exorbitant and rapidly escalating costs and profits of the business of “healthcare.”
We need to stop being baited. It’s not getting anyone anywhere.
I’m sorry to keep contradicting, I understand your point, and agree in principle. However, one program is Medicare and one program is not Medicare (no matter what they call it. Yes they take the Medicare premiums from your SS like Medicare but unlike Medicare they aren’t bound by the same stringent payments/reimbursments to providers rule and the US-wide coverage rules.) The distinction is important for seniors to understand when deciding which system to sign up for.
adding a history note:
Lyndon Johnson was the last New Deal president. Medicare and Medicaid were the last New Deal programs passed as part of Johnson’s ‘War on Poverty’.
https://scholars.org/contribution/how-war-poverty-expanded-care-elderly-and-changed-us-health-system
but we Americans just need to be better shoppers and wisely consider which will be best for us, over the long term, Ms. Everdeen. regardless of whether or not we know what will happen to our health long term. and anything that does happen is probably because of something we did to ourselves.
the reason people can’t navigate this is because they fail to teach basic economic life skills in school.
/s
How about, “Health care is not a commodity and does not meet the requirements of a market. The product is not undifferentiable and the sellers are price fixers. It is a huge example of the impossibility of forcing widespread activity into a model that is not appropriate to it.”
These so called Medicare advantage plans are just garbage; put in place to undermine Medicare. Never buy these if you have any other way to do it. Aunt and uncle chose these plans. When he had a severe back problem and needed an operation, he was told he could if he could pay the 50,000. My aunt had breast cancer. Could only get radiation, no Chemo.
When I became eligible for Medicare last year, I was deluged by phone calls and mailings.
This went on for months. Every scammer in the country trying to sign me up.
Of course taking regular Medicare covers part A hospitalization and part B covers doctor visits. The supplemental insurance covers the so called 20% left. My mother has regular Medicare. But what I noticed is the so called 20% is usually only small amounts in the billing and Medicare covers the bulk of her medical cost. The bills to the supplementary are usually small under one hundred dollar amounts. She is paying huge premiums for these minor bills. The drug plans are also expensive. I take no drugs so I bought a 20.00 a month plan.
As a side note there are now hundreds of these worthless plans for Medicare advertised, claiming to provide hearing aids and glasses and exercise programs. What friends of mine have discovered as well as relatives is that they don’t currently cover these items in their area. These plans are HMO plans. From an article I read recently many of Obama’s
Admin now sit on boards or own companies that sell these plans. Kathleen Sibelius being one of them.
Thanks Obama
I’m won’t be eligible for Medicare until late next year. Already getting the mailings, and, most likely, the phone calls. (If I don’t recognize a number, I don’t answer the phone.)
And, Nikkikat, I think you’ve hit the nail right on the head. So far, the mailings I’ve received all but scream the word “scam” — they’re that obvious. Into the paper shredder they go.
This is what is offered by SSA–don’t know if it varies according to state programs.
https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/medicare/prescriptionhelp.html
Nikkikat, you hit on an important point here that’s often overlooked.
But what I noticed is the so called 20% is usually only small amounts in the billing and Medicare covers the bulk of her medical cost. The bills to the supplementary are usually small under one hundred dollar amounts. She is paying huge premiums for these minor bills.
The point of insurance, imo, is to either stabilize one’s financial damages ‘in the event of’ or minimize as much as possible the financial losses in a catastrophic event. It sounds like your mom pays relatively large medigap insurance premiums (premiums charges are base what options one chooses) – which premiums she can count on being steady for the current premium year, can calculate in her budge, and cannot be canceled on the insurer’s whim. In exchange, if she – god forbid – suffers a catastrophic accident injury or diagnosis of a serious disease then the relatively higher premiums now will shelter her finances from devastation. (at least in theory) I’m sorry your relatives had to discover to their cost, going with the apparently inexpensive Medicare Advantage (MA) plans cost them dearly when a bad health event occurred. Those kinds of sudden enormous charges can devastate one’s finances and one’s life. Not something one wants to worry about in the midst of a traumatic healthcare event. my 2 cents.
People with MA plans already get Medicare. MA plans are there to enhance Medicare offerings. Basically, it comes down to this, Medicare doesn’t cover preventative anything. It only covers “medically necessary” procedures. So your eye glasses and cholesterol checks, aren’t covered which is where MA plans step in. Also, Medicare does not cover the full price of anything. It requires the person to cough up 20% of costs and a per diem for hospitalizations. This, again, is why having a MA plan is good, because it reduces your liability for these copays as well. Medicare part D is supposed to cover pharmaceuticals but it doesn’t cover all drugs and it does segregate drugs into tiers based on cost. So a MA with part D coverage can help out with costs that Medicare doesn’t cover for pharmaceuticals.
What confuses people is that they believe that Medicare = free and Medicare = whatever service you want. Neither of these things are true, and being in the Medicare system puts you even more at the mercy of your physicians as they call all the shots on what they think is medically necessary.
You’ve summed it up very well. If you opt for Original Medicare they’ll still force to sign up for a drug plan (Pharma lobbying result). I looked into the differences between Original Medicare and MA last year. The MA plans play games with copays for each item. I found out that signing up for Original Medicare would still cost me a monthly fee for Part B, the same as the what I would pay for the MA plan but I would still have add the premium for the drug plan whether I want it or not, which makes it more expensive than the MA (it’s supposed to be that way to make Original Medicare look bad). Therefore I decided on the MA. In addition I can use the vison care benefit that the MA provides.
I the copay for Yves’ mom of $90 is because she went to the ER. I don’t think the MA plans usually charge a copay for admission but they would charge a copay depending on the length of the hospital stay.
I think you may be on to something with the MA plans occasionally resulting in higher costs. I’ve had to use the ER four times since going on Medicare. I can only afford basic Medicare; but in all four cases I was not billed a dime–and twice the ER bill exceeded $10,000.
Best wishes to Yves’ mother. I hope she doesn’t have to stay at the hospital. Best wishes also to Yves for a speedy recovery.
Seconded.
Thank you Flora. I was suspicious of all those confusing post cards I was getting in the mail. I just chucked them in the recycling bin thinking. “If I mess around with my tried-and-true medicare plan I’ll be sorry.” I don’t respond to anyone selling me anything. Ever.
Finally an online petition I can get behind –
https://www.change.org/p/the-proletariat-do-not-allow-jeff-bezos-to-return-to-earth
Don’t you agree Capt. Picard?
“uncontrolled re-entry” and “thermal protection system failure” come to mind
So the Post writer is right! ” the article claimed that Americans have such class envy that the government would “destroy [billionaires’] fortunes so that the rest of us don’t have to look at them.” ”
About “destroying” those fortunes–that’s a pretty big tell, that way of phrasing it. The class envy Bezos must feel when one penny of his money has to go to his employees or indeed, now, his vendors.
Jeff, we thank you for contribution to our consumer based economy. And in response to the upheaval & irreversible damage, you’ve won a lifetime spot in the latest moon resort by Marriott!
signed – and let’s hope Elon Musk joins him
My preference is that Elon designs and launches his own TESLA space vehicle powered by the world’s biggest “big-ass” battery, and guided by the superior AI navigation system popularly known as TESLA “full self-driving.”
Picard can also tell Bezos his money is no good out in Space. I guess Jeff never watched Star Trek.
I dunno-he seems to be modeling his look on Praetor Shinzon.
Troi will get ‘im
If Picard told Bezos how the 24th century economy worked, it would be just as well that nobody can hear you scream in space-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H5uPyU2oKE (29 secs)
Bezos is a non human in the most recent JJ Trek movie. Good background music really does cause people to ignore plot and dialogue.
Make him apply for a re-entry visa from space.
Why the double-posting for all the Covid , China, new cold war links today?
This is the result of a technical problem in the online publishing industry which is known as a “mistake.” I know I have posted some bloopers and not realized it until the 5-minute correction window has expired. :(
Re: Policies That Make the Poor Less Poor
So much common sense so early in the morning. My brain is reeling.
I started laughing remembering something a young man at the (famous and expensive) private college in the next town said to me as I was waiting for the bus. I told him I could not afford to own a car in our conversation, and he said, “Why, you look perfectly respectable to me!”
After reading “Just 12 People are behind Most Vaccine Hoaxes on Social Media”, I checked to see if Dr. Tess Lawrie’s letter to the WHO was still on the internet or if it too had been banned as a hoax.
The letter was still available. In this letter, Dr. Lawrie, a very respected UK researcher called for a halt to vaccines until more research could be done after having reviewed the UK version of VAERS, the Yellow Card System of reporting adverse events.
She said, “The nature and variety of ADRs reported to the Yellow Card System are consistent with the potential pathologies described in this paper and supported by other recent scientific papers on vaccine-induced harms, which are mediated through the vaccine spike protein product(2,3). It is now apparent that these products in the blood stream are toxic to humans.An immediate halt to the vaccination programme is required whilst a full and independent safety analysis is undertaken to investigate the full extent of the harms, which the UK Yellow Card data suggest include thromboembolism, multisystem inflammatory disease, immune suppression, autoimmunity and anaphylaxis, as well asAntibody Dependent Enhancement (ADE). ”
https://www.covidmedicalnetwork.com/open-letters/Tess-Lawrie-Report-to-MHRA.pdf
I’m certainly not competent to comment on the validity on Dr. Lawrie’s report but I don’t see that it can be of much value while it fails to break-down the results as between the three different vaccines being used in the UK’s vaccine role-out – the Pfizer, the Astra-Zenica and the Moderna.
Shonde @ 8:36 am
Thank you for the link to the MHRA open letter. This is important information about the C-19 vaccines that is being ignored by the MSM. I’m so grateful to NC for all the excellent C-19 information available on this site and within the commentariat. I’ll download this pdf in case it disappears.
“America Should Become a Nation of Renters”
I made a comment the other day about ‘Rentier America’ and here is Bloomberg, floating a trial balloon about this very concept. It says in this article ‘As investments went, single-family homes were cheap and slowly grew in value in both good times and bad.’ which is quite true. So what happened? Financialization happened. Wall Street went in with their grubby mitts and next thing you know, the housing market was riddled with subprime loans which went on to blow the economy up.
It further says ‘But the illiquidity that made houses a safe investment also made America less dynamic and mobile.’ but unless you are a regular house-flipper, that is the way that it is supposed to be. People prefer to stay in their homes and plant roots in the local community. They don’t want to flip their kids from one school to another. It’s called stability and for most people, is a desired state – until it is not. This article then complains that people want to stay in single-family homes instead of duplexes and apartments. So for Bloomberg, people in houses is bad, people in duplexes and apartments is fine and dandy.
And where it complains that ‘and sky-high rents for any residents not lucky enough to own their own home’ that is just Bloomberg being disingenuous. If most Americans (not the wealthy ones) just rented a duplex or apartment, they would find their rents sky high as well. That’s just the way that things are done these days. So Bloomberg’s future is that you will rent your homes, your furniture, your cars (‘You will own nothing…’) but be grateful that that is your lot in life (‘..and be happy about it’). Unsaid is just who will own all those homes, cars, etc.
The Rev Kev
June 21, 2021 at 8:51 am
And where it complains that ‘and sky-high rents for any residents not lucky enough to own their own home’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRh0QiXyZSk
You load 16 tons and what do you get – another day older and DEEPER in DEBT
The company store was compassionate amateurs compared to the vampire squids of Wall Street…
Man, I haven’t heard that song in a long time. Thanks. It may very well make a comeback soon. Imagine – the whole economy as desired by Bloomberg resembling the company store.
stealing from the comments at Bloomberg: “rent a coffin, your remains will be removed if your prepaid credit runs out.”
That was my favorite also! Wasn’t there an article here not long ago about burial plots being repo’d?
Jen
June 21, 2021 at 9:26 am
I’ve always said that when I die, my preferred method of disposal is to be left to be eaten by coyotes, vultures, wolves, bears, bugs….whatever will have me.
But you can’t lay my corpse out to be eaten BECAUSE THERE IS NO MONEY IN THAT
LOL. no. Your rotting carcass does not belong above ground.
https://www.joincake.com/blog/how-tree-pod-burials-work/
The precarious nature of jobs make this difficult, but in the presence of single payer and a secure job market, not gig jobs (the digital age will work for food signs), a long term lease with reasonable outs and extension opportunities (another kid or parents moving in) makes sense. Again zoning laws and such would have to change. It’s not a terrible idea in theory.
The real problem is renting and home ownership monthly costs are so similar. If renting was cheaper, it would make sense. Also the lack of Commons for both adults and kids is and huge problem. Homes reflect the lack of commons.
The rent idea is fine in theory, but it won’t be achieved with tinkering.
If houses are going for 10 times your annual salary, which is the case for a lot of people, you either are SOL on buying–the downpayment alone could be more than you’re annual salary–or looking at a 30 mortgage which is a pretty risky proposition if you don’t have job security.
In a world where people are in increasinly precarious positions when it comes to job security, renting isn’t necessarily a bad choice–losing your job when you have a mortgage is a lot scarier than losing your job when you’re a renter because leases are much easier to get out of.
Yes, and it works the other way too. A woman I work with, who has been renting in the area while looking for a not insanely expensive place to buy, just found out that her landlord wasn’t renewing her lease and she had to get out with 30 days notice. Fortunately, she’s a solid 10 percenter, and she and her husband took jobs elsewhere. That’s not the case for a lot of people, and neither renting, nor buying are good options these days.
The headline alone ruffled my feathers.
The opinion piece did nothing to smooth them.
While I know the west coast especially is experiencing unparalleled prices in both rent and homes, Colorado has also increased DRAMATICALLY.
I’ve been keeping an eye on the price of sustaining a roof over ones head in this state.
Too costly for us seniors trying to survive on SS.
(Most people don’t realize that public housing for those on low income has a waiting list of generally 4-6 YEARS, so that’s not an ‘instant’ option).
It seems the cost to rent just a BR in someone’s home (or share a house with other renters), starts around $650 month in a more rural area, older home. (No public transportation, nearby shopping, or hospitals)
A nicer home in a large town or city is more, of course.
An actual 1 BR apartment is double or more.
No pets allowed in either so one must get rid of any ‘family’ they share their life with. (Yet there are many articles about how a dog or cat can be very soothing and good for ones health, but too bad. Fido or Kitty must go).
At least in public housing they do usually allow one pet–cat or dog, if the dog is (IIRC) 45 lbs or less.
Of course, by the time an apartment becomes available, your pet may have died of old age, anyway.
Another enlightenment. The big list of low income apartment buildings is not what they seem.
While they may boast over 200 units in one, only a few (literally) are designated for low income.
Hence, the long waiting lists.
To own a home is now outrageous in pricing.
Here is one example that has gone viral. (Even a UK paper carried the story). An example of a now ‘only’ $590,000 home:
https://krdo.com/news/top-stories/2021/06/16/colorado-springs-house-with-vulgar-graffiti-rotting-meat-broken-windows-disastrous-deck-590k/
It’s already sold. To a neighbor. For CASH.
Forgot to add that if you read the article, note that the listing says the home is also in a “risky area of geological landslides”, yet if you watch the video it seems MANY are still interested (in flipping it, of course).
All for a mere $590,000.
I am more appalled by the small lot size than what I could see of the condition of the house–some paint will fix that, although the separating deck could be caused by shifting “geology”
In VT the Burlington Free Press is publishing First World Problems with real estate “woes” and realtors are making $$$ hand over fist while trying to appear suitably chagrined “making a lot of money but I’m not happy about it” (ya gotta love Vermonters, lol). Four Seasons Sotheby advice for buyers: cash is king; 40-50% deposit and forgive minor repairs; offer flexible closing dates; unspoken–be ready to get into a bidding war. One would-be buyer wanted a house in a community with an HO that would not allow them to drape sheets over their deck railing to dry–this was the deal-breaker. People who want houses under $400,000 are pretty much SOL. Current listing sales are up 380% over last year at this time.
Judging by this piece Bloomberg is the propaganda arm of Wall Street.
Serfin’ USA.
Krystal and Saagar add their thoughts to that despicable article-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIXkeYYum6k (14:48 mins)
The Novel Coronavirus’ Spike Protein Plays Additional Key Role In Illness, Salk News.
Ummmmm…how is a Pseudovirus spiked protein different from a spiked protein created by an mRNA vaccine? Do tell, because Salk Institute you say there is a difference but then leave it at your word? Safely coded you say? Anyone please relieve me of my concern…
“Now, a major new study shows that the virus spike proteins (which behave very differently than those safely encoded by vaccines) also play a key role in the disease itself….
“In the new study, the researchers created a “pseudovirus” that was surrounded by SARS-CoV-2 classic crown of spike proteins, but did not contain any actual virus. Exposure to this pseudovirus resulted in damage to the lungs and arteries of an animal model—proving that the spike protein alone was enough to cause disease. Tissue samples showed inflammation in endothelial cells lining the pulmonary artery walls.
“The team then replicated this process in the lab, exposing healthy endothelial cells (which line arteries) to the spike protein. They showed that the spike protein damaged the cells by binding ACE2. This binding disrupted ACE2’s molecular signaling to mitochondria (organelles that generate energy for cells), causing the mitochondria to become damaged and fragmented.”
Posted in yesterday’s links by Quicksilvermessenger:
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-deadly-coronavirus-spike-protein/
Thank you. That was informative…and something of a relief.
I’d be cautious with sciencebasedmedicine.org… here’s the thread for Quicksilver’s post yesterday. The comments from Yves, isotope c14, Plutonium Kim, J. Grimm et.al are instructive, ihmo:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/06/links-6-20-2021.html#comment-3562864
Thanks Urblintz!
Science as a process is a slow and methodical test of a hypothesis. You have to keep a very open mind, and temper it with no emotional connection to the end result. That is the real problem with the PhD system, is they are usually soldier brains, and very often deeply un-creative. There is no place anymore for the scout in Science. It’s publish or perish.
The individual discounting Ivermectin on that site, has an emotional attachment to having no therapeutic agent be “better” than a vaccine. Now I’m not saying it is “better”, but it is a very promising tool in a very depressing pandemic – as it was most likely entirely avoidable.
Many folks that associate therapeutics with “Trump” are a bigger problem to solving this pandemic than they think. Hopefully some of them read that Nature paper, but I’m guessing most won’t.
I am not convinced that website is arguing in good faith (which for me would be examing claims and research papers with an open mind, willing to be led by the data in one direction or the other, i.e. no confirmation bias.
However, from the article linked above it is clear that author sees their role as debunking “antivaxxer” claims and to reinforce authorities claims that the vaccines are “very safe”. There can be no room for nuance for fear they feed the trolls.
Please note, many medical professionals (including our IM Doc) who have administerd many thousands of vaccinations (so not antivaxxers!) are also posing such probing questions. For example, Dr Robert Malone, one of the inventors of mRNA vaccine technology, has also linked to one of the papers “debunked” by the above website. He himself has long-Covid and has been vaccinated. Here is his measured take:
Link to his statement on his LindedIn page:https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6812703149678243841/
My baseline here was Natural News and its ilk. From that perspective, this site looks good. In general, if I know the appropriate discount for a site, I can make use of it.
“…we just do not have the comprehensive safety data necessary to accurately evaluate risk/benefit for the various cohorts – elderly, healthy normal adults, immunocompromised, pregnancy, adolescents, children, and infants.”
**********
Nonetheless, the Public Health Experts in my jurisdiction without even considering the risk/benefit for my cohort, tell me to Take One For The Herd. Might as well be at a Vegas gaming table.
…an animal model….
Apropos of nothing except that I thought it was interesting enough to remember, from Dr. Robert Malone in the infamous 3-hour Dark Horse podcast entitled “How to save the world, in three easy steps” on lab testing drugs to be used in humans:
“Mice lie. Chimpanzees mislead. Only humans tell the truth.”
America Should Become a Nation of Renters
My only hope now is that I live long enough to see the American elite get their comeuppance
You can’t just wait for it. You have to make it happen.
Indeed. We can own Nothing because they want to own Everything. Their ambition is breathtaking.
Prof. Ian Goldin in his pandemic silver-lining fantasy tells us, “Covid-19 has shattered the mental mirrors that have prevented us from breaking from the past and embracing new horizons.” Well, it has shattered some illusions, for sure. No single-payer Medicare for All, during a global pandemic that has killed millions and will kill millions more, lockdowns without adequate income replacement, for-profit vaccines of novel type and unknown effectiveness, without sufficient (ie, normal) testing, but with some disturbing, untracked adverse effects — and, oh yeah, all liability waived for the mfrs. AIrlines got bailed out and we’re now back to flying, ‘space’ travel, even, when the *only* way we are gonna slow climate change (if it’s not too late) is to leave oil and gas in the ground. On the home front, we have rent and mortgage postponements only, not bailouts like the Big Guys got, and individuals are racking up a big bill that will, you can bet your bottom dollar, will come due and they will lose their homes. IOW, They will happily squeeze us to death and we will never, ever get even crumbs.
I do not see any comeuppance in store, for heaven’s sake, where’s it gonna come from? we can’t even agree to wear masks during a global pandemic while Organized Money has been working single-mindedly since the Powell Memorandum (qv) to rule the world. Oh, by the way, if you are wondering why WHO is big on profitable vaccines and down on any out-of-patent generics, see who is funding WHO these days. It’s a public-private partnership called GAVI — and it’s right out of the Powell playbook.
“Joe Biden is better on the world stage than any president since George H.W. Bush”
Does USA Today really want to go there with that?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGTPWqsJrgg (4:01 mins)
That’s Bush the Lesser — G. W. B., no “H.”
I should have guessed. When G. W. Bush became President, he didn’t even own a passport. They had to go get him one to travel overseas with. In some circles back then, it was a point of pride not to need or own a passport.
G.H.W.B. was a great statesman. He’s the one who proclaimed,
“I will never apologize for the United States of America, ever. I don’t care what the facts are.”
As an American, I feel eternally blessed by our abundance of remarkable leaders such as Bush the Greater and Biden the Coherent.
He said that after the US Navy shot down Iran Air Flight 655 back in 1988 killing all 274 people aboard because they thought they were taking a pot-shot at an Iranian F-14 instead.
The Captain of the USS Vincennes, the guided missile cruiser that shot the Iranian airliner, was eventually awarded the Legion of Merit and crew received the Combat Action Ribbons
They should have court-martialed that sob for abandoning his assigned post in the Gulf, ignoring an order by his senior officer to return back and all so that he could get a “kill” to his credit.
Nine months afterwards, his family van was bombed while his wife was in it. She was not hurt but I think that a message was given-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_C._Rogers_III#Bombing_of_Rogers'_family_minivan
He didn’t have a diplomatic passport until he became president.
He certainly had traveled outside the US before he became president though off hand I only recall his trips to Mexico while governor of Texas.
‘Bill Smith
June 21, 2021 at 3:30 pm’
From what I have read, American citizens did not need a passport to visit Mexico or Canada back then. That only changed on June 1 2009 when a passport was required for all land crossings for those countries. American citizens traveling to those areas needed a passport by January 8, 2007. Either way, Georgie Bush did not need no stinkin’ passport before then. Both former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush only found out about that in 2009-
https://www.ctvnews.ca/bush-clinton-ignorant-of-new-passport-rule-1.402998
Joe Biden is the best on the world stage since the guy who threw up on the Japanese Prime Minister…alright this does check out.
The article claims Biden intervened in the Gaza slaughter. Again Pravda is getting weird. This has a weird cult like phenomenon as its fairly aware of Obama and Clinton’s bumbling. It’s pretty obvious Shrub was far and away a worse president than all but Wilson, and we’ve had bad ones.
Remember just a few months ago when he was just like FDR? It seems he has taken a down grade here. HW was a weasel like dolt.
Cult-like is the world. I feel like I died and went to North Korea.
I’ve felt that way since 2016.
“Clinic raided for offering Ivermectin to Covid-19 patients”
So here is an interesting question. Malaysia right now is using the Pfizer, AstraZeneca & Sinovac vaccines. So was this raid instigated by the Ministry of Health of Malaysia because they were concerned about Ivermectin itself? Or was this a condition placed on Malaysia to receive the western vaccines. That to receive them, they had to crack down on any alternative treatments – which include Ivermectin? Big Pharma corporations have made some outrageous demands on some countries to receive their vaccines after all-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccination_in_Malaysia
Re: Sanders says no to gas taxes, electric vehicle fees to fund infrastructure deal NBC.
Gas taxes are regressive. Sanders is correct but he did not express this concern. Two words: yellow vests.
I have no problem with Tesla owners paying for the roads they use. They should add a special tax for Tesla 0wners for keeping the fire department open to cover their “auto drive” features.
My Chevy volt owning neighbors aren’t the ones beating the crap out of my road. It’s the squillionare who bought up almost all of the vacant land and trucked in gravel to put in logging roads.
I do support a special “fire hazard” tax for Tesla owners though.
I support raising the gas tax. The auto-based US society has all kinds of externalities. Essentially subsidizing driving is an obstacle to change. I also think the income tax rate should be zero for the first $50,000 or so, the top rate should be 90 percent, and we should have a jobs guarantee.
Re Mint Press–as the article points out, the WaPo was going downhill long before Bezos decided to pull out some of his pocket change and buy it. Perhaps he looked at their shoddy journalism and just decided it would be a natural fit.
One might even suggest that the Post’s prominent role during Watergate was a foretaste of our current era with the deplorables of that time (“silent majority”) and their landslide elected president up against urban elites who hated him with a passion. Given Nixon’s very real villainy that may be as far as the comparison goes, but the ring of power once grasped seems very hard to put away and the press began to see themselves as players and not just hangers on. Once so much is at stake the media owners are not going to turn the reins over to mere fact gatherers. Bezos didn’t hire Fred Hiatt or write all those lousy Woodward books.
“Five Degrees Of Improbability — General Gerasimov Won the Battle of Geneva Without Firing a Shot”
So this really hinges around the fact that while the Chief of the Russian General Staff was with Putin, that his Pentagon counterpart – General Mark Milley – was not with Biden. There may be another reason why this was so that was not mentioned in this article. So a US official was reported as saying that communication between Milley and Gerasimov was “one of the only bilateral channels that works still.” Maybe that was the problem. Biden’s minders did not want that but only members of their own group present like Blinken. That way, they could “control” the narrative that was reported back home.
And the US press is never going to challenge that narrative. They are beyond pathetic at this stage. When Biden was “taking questions”, he came right out and said is ‘I’ll take your questions and as usual folks, they gave me a list of the people I’m going to call on’ and then proceeded to name an AP reporter at the top of that list. So the reporters who would ask questions were already selected and I bet that the White House vetted and selected those questions. And told Joe how to reply to each one. Can you imagine if Trump had done that? It would have been called a threat to democracy and to freedom of the press.
And there’s more to that bidenesque obfuscation: US reporters were allowed to ask Putin questions while Russian reporters are denied access to Biden’s press conference. Nice trick if can get it and, with the resent state of US political awareness, you can get it even if you don’t try.
The narrative, the narrative … will no one free me from the clutch of the narrative. I hear narrative and I think story, as in fiction. I read John Helmer. Information emerges from behind the veil of the narrative. Since my respect for the US media cannot be less than zero, I sigh but am unmoved to sorrow, anger, or rage. It is as I have come to expect.
Is it any wonder that people fall for conspiracy theories?
How is this a big deal one way or the other?
Karzai says US legacy in Afghanistan is a ‘total disgrace and disaster’
The self-licking ice cream cone is a well known trope around here. This would be the perfect example of a self-shining turd.
When the guy starts saying “the international community came here 20 tears ago…” you can trash away all his words.
Karzai was the first turd polisher for the US. He tried spit and shine but he was good at licking boots.
Prepare to Pay More for Uber and Lyft Rides (NY Times)
I guess that will be the line every company will use to raise prices now; “Can’t find enough workers!”
I do not see inflation, only price gouging.
Re the drought article–my friend who lives near Phoenix says the authorities are now warning people that the water in their swimming pools may be too hot to use–you may boil like an egg (a slight exaggeration). It has been in the hundred teens with all eyes turned skyward, hoping for the Monsoon to actually happen this year.
Andrew Ross Sorkin, to absolutely no one’s surprise, is busted shilling for Manhattan DA candidate
and her hedge fund husband. Thread.
If only the NYT had a public editor.
For the energy-heads:
https://newatlas.com/energy/seaborg-floating-nuclear-reactor-barge/
Sodium reactors on barges.
RE: How a single new Alzheimer’s drug could blow up the federal budget NBC
Given that this country has agreed to pay any price for any drug without any consideration of its effectiveness or “risk,” is it any wonder that it’s come to this? I’m surprised it’s taken as long as it has to get to the point that it’s right there in your face.
But if the arrogance and unapologetic exploitation of the above isn’t enough, get a load of this:
You can “negotiate” the price of a drug if its STARTING PRICE is more that the median household income!!! They’re trying to pass a “law.”
jeezus h. christ. Just burn the whole thing down already.
Not sure if it’s already been linked, but there Pierre Kory was briefly interviewed by Maria Bartiromo yesterday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu54ndHKuJA
Thanks for the link. Kory mentioned he’d be on with Bartiromo in a recent podcast. I’ve heard his dismay in the past, mentioning that the only media giving him any interest is Fox and other right-wing pundits… he’s a self-proclaimed lefty, in fact. He was particularly unsettled when the entire Democrat delegation stood up and left the chamber during his youtube-censored address to the House committee.
You tube decided USians were not allowed to hear Congressional testimony from a distinguished and highly qualified professional dealing daily, hands-on, with a virus that killed too many.
“Après moi, le déluge”
it is already taken down
Still down @ 2:43. Incredible.
It’s on the Fox website:
https://www.fox.com/watch/50a3bcd54041dcea2d76157d81f84bbf/
A gloss on the (rather superficial) Reuters story on the French elections for those who may be interested. The real story is about a lot more than the PMC media obsession with the “far right.”
These elections (the first round of the Regionals and Departmentals) were by some distance the worst supported of any French elections in modern history. Barely a third of the population voted, and those were mostly older electors: only about 15% of first time voters bothered to turn up. This is a catastrophe and being seen as one. However, the Rassemblement National (Le Pen) suffered the most from absenteeism, and in fact differential turnout accounts for most of the decline in its vote, and the relative disappointment by comparison with the polls. But this is explicable: the establishment parties hate each other but they hate the RN more, and where the RN candidate is in the lead after the first round, they’ll club together behind the most promising opponent to stop them winning. Thus, for RN voters, it’s hardly worth turning out, because they are unlikely to win.
In other news, Macron’s party disappointed again. Because Regional/Local Elections in France often involve local personalities and issues, incumbents have a big advantage. Even then, the results were poor, and LREM stands revealed for what it always was: a metropolitan BoBo PMC party that can’t win even in the big cities, including Paris which voted overwhelmingly for Macron in 2017. Not a good omen for the Presidentials next year.
Macron’s policy of fracturing the Right by encouraging them into electoral alliances with him as the dominant partner has failed. The boot is on the other foot: now, LREM will have to support the traditional Right in the second round. The Republicans have now managed to present themselves as the principal barrier to Le Pen.
The Socialists, under Oliver Faure, have gone from a position that was disastrous to one that is merely bad, which is progress of a sort, and have held some of their local bastions. But the next Presidentials are less than a year away.
– Mélenchon’s LFI continues to sink, and is probably terminally damaged.
– The Greens did OK but there was no “green wave” this time. Their internal contradictions are becoming painfully clear.
Both of the potential candidates of the Right for next year (Bertrand and Pecresse) did well. If the Right can agree on a single candidate, they could well eliminate Macron in the first round and win against Le Pen in the second. But of course a lot can happen between now and then.
Puff what a political/electoral landscape. Nobody attracts voters these days. In this scenario anyone who presses the correct button in the appropriate moment could win for better or for worse.
(This was a reply To David’s 11:31 comment)
Tweet by Eric Feigl-Ding:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1406779894785351688.html
I think this was already mentioned on NC, but I don’t think the video was posted.
https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1406162036694913024/vid/640×360/MxAWBJXfwreHUd5M.mp4?tag=14
“Sanders says no to gas taxes, electric vehicle fees to fund infrastructure deal NBC”
Bernie hired Kelton and it would be great to start to talk about the insights from MMT. Cause, it really would drive home a key point, which is that spending is really a choice. Right wing politicians (most of them are) don’t spend on things because they oppose those things for class and ideological reasons and because they are corrupt. They are not forced to cut spending on long overdue programs and policies because they have to for budgetary reasons, which makes their decisions all the worse. What funds spending is politicians deciding to fund that spending. The focus would then be on what they decide to spend on and the impact of that spending, not focusing on where the money is going to come from. It comes from them deciding to spend on things.
Re: Heisenberg Fatal strategies
from the story:
“This ideological terrain had been already claimed and appropriated by the conservative Right, resurrected as Right Wing populism, which has latched onto the underlying white discontent as their lifeline and the last point of rescue from their own obsolescence. In a bizarre symbiosis between the super-privileged and the super-marginalized segments of the white American population, conservative leaders have taken upon themselves the role of speaking on behalf of the poor so that the poor wouldn’t speak for themselves: We want to include you in the decision without letting you influence it.”
Anyone really believe the conservative Right has a patent on “speaking on behalf of the poor so that the poor wouldn’t speak for themselves?”
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/covid-19-vaccines/advice
Who says hold off on Kids shots? WHO says.
Yeah that is what i asked. Who says?
That is very significant. Thank you.
From that link:
“Children should not be vaccinated for the moment.
There is not yet enough evidence on the use of vaccines against COVID-19 in children to make recommendations for children to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Children and adolescents tend to have milder disease compared to adults. However, children should continue to have the recommended childhood vaccines.”
************
Very odd that WHO scientists do not even bother to give the age range for a child. Bit of an oversight in a pandemic.
In my jurisdiction, the Dear Medical Leader has been pushing 12 year and older children to get vaccinated. In addition, there has been a lot of Government noise about children being able to decide vaccination for themselves, negating the legal, traditional relationship between parent and child. (Just checked Government “health” site and still recommending children be vaccinated.)
Another outrageous Public Health act to add to an extremely long list.
‘Potentially the worst drought in 1,200 years’: scientists on the scorching US heatwave Guardian
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We were blissfully high up in the loftier climes where it was only occasionally hitting 90 degrees during the scorcher lasting 5 stanzas.
On the way down today to the foothills, one nice place to stop and take in the waters on Mineral King road is called ‘the Potholes’ @ around 4,000 feet, there are about a dozen water-worn holes you can soak in along a sloping granite face, and in the summer it’s around 90 degrees there, so comforting!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomhilton/41816234210
The water was coursing down nicely on Wednesday when we passed by, but had ceased today, just stagnant water trapped in the potholes.
I’ve never seen this creek go dry so quick, and the heat wave was tantamount to a convection oven in that it was more of a heat dome @ all altitudes, it must have evaporated water like who knows what in the flatlands.
Another similar 5 day scorcher hits starting this Saturday…
Appropos of nothing.
I watched a YouTube video by Russell Brand, the subject isn’t important to the point. The bottom fifth of the YouTube screen was dedicated to a banner “ad” for “..the latest information from the CDC about COVID-19.”
This is outright propaganda, also serving to obscure and ‘question’ “unofficial” sources of information. It’s something like having a poster for next wekend’s KKK cross burning up on the Community Information board at the Soul Food restaurant.
[Oh boy. When I googled ‘restaurant’ to check my spelling, I got a full page of links to local food outlets. Thanks Google!]
Try loading an Opera browser and use GoDuckGo as your search engine. The ad-blocker will prohibit you from entering many sites, but if you really, really need to see something you can always go back to your Amazon-approved browser.
… or try Brave browser, which has a button allowing you to disable the ad blocker for a one-time read of a particular page.
Opera has free VPN mode. You can set Brave to strict mode to restrict many ads and interferences. Both are good browsers.
TheirTube.
Well if you search term restaurant wouldn’t you expect to see a lot of restaurants? It’s probably the same in DuckDuckGo which I use exclusively these days.
Some years ago, I read an article by an ex-diplomat at Juan Cole’s Informed Comment blog about how the West, led by the US, aborted and derailed a post-Victory effort to bring back the old king Zahir Shah to preside symbolically over a series of jirgas, starting from huge numbers of microjirgas and working upwards to the final capstone Loya Jirga where all the heads of tribes, groups and nations would finalistically work out who/what would succeed the Taliban as the governing structure for Afghanistan.
The West and the DC FedRegime GoverLords preferred their own CIA asset Hamid Karzai as ruler of Afghanistan, so they manipulated a fabricated election of some sort to install Karzai into the rulership. So Karzai himself is the first instance of America’s disgraceful failure in Afghanistan and was a key architect of America’s further disgraceful failures in Afghanistan.
If someone were to pay me a hundred dollars an hour to sit there and read back posts of Informed Comment till I found that particular post, I could do that. But I certainly won’t do it for free.
You could always try a targeted search in your favourite search engine (mine is DuckDuckGo). Enter the following in the search field:
site:https://www.juancole.com/ “loya jirga”
Quite a few hits there, drumlin, but not sure which one you were thinking of.
Dr John Cambpell discusses repurposing of drugs as antivirals. The frustration is palpable in his Brit snark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of5_oiuqDp8
Who knew IVM also killed mosquitoes!? We should all be on it to wipe out two scourges at once!
Hello Yves and hello to your mom,
Both of you get well soon and I and all readers pray for that.
I’m reminded of a (Yiddish?) proverb, “When trouble comes, it brings all its relatives.”
All the best!