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2:00PM Water Cooler 3/8/2022

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By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Bird Song of the Day

This reminds me of trying to go to sleep in the country, and you realize the country isn’t quiet at all!

* * *

Politics

“But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51

“They had learned nothing, and forgotten nothing.” –Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” –Hunter Thompson

Biden Adminstration

“Fossil coleoid cephalopod from the Mississippian Bear Gulch Lagerstätte sheds light on early vampyropod evolution” [Nature (PS)]. “We describe an exceptionally well-preserved vampyropod, Syllipsimopodi bideni gen. et sp. nov., from the Carboniferous (Mississippian) Bear Gulch Lagerstätte of Montana, USA. The specimen possesses a gladius and ten robust arms bearing biserial rows of suckers; it is the only known vampyropod to retain the ancestral ten-arm condition…. The species name is to celebrate the recently inaugurated (at the time of submission) 46th President of the United States, Joseph R. Biden.” • The Elder Gods will be pleased.

“100,000 student borrowers eligible for debt cancellation: DOE” [The Hill]. • 100,000. Boy, that’s really something.

“Biden just put out an executive order on cryptocurrencies — here’s everything that’s in it” [CNBC]. “The Biden administration is calling on the Treasury to assess and develop policy recommendations on crypto. It also wants regulators to ‘ensure sufficient oversight and safeguard against any systemic financial risks posed by digital assets.’ … Part of the language in the White House announcement focuses on giving the U.S. a competitive edge over other countries when it comes to crypto development. This is especially significant now that China has effectively banned cryptocurrencies. Biden has tasked the Department of Commerce with ‘establishing a framework to drive U.S. competitiveness and leadership in, and leveraging of digital asset technologies.'”

“Americans Care About The Invasion Of Ukraine — But That Doesn’t Mean They Will Rally Around Biden” [FiveThirtyEight]. “According to multiple studies, one thing that can make Americans care more about foreign affairs is heavy media coverage of a given issue. And the media is heavily covering the war in Ukraine right now. According to closed-captioning data from the Internet Archive’s Television News Archive, from Feb. 22-28, the three major cable-news networks (CNN, Fox News and MSNBC) mentioned Ukraine in an average of 2,478 15-second clips per day.1 On Feb. 24, the day after Russia started its invasion,2 Ukraine was mentioned in a whopping 3,095 clips. To put this in perspective, during January, the word “COVID” was mentioned in an average of only 482 clips per day.” • If the media tried to shape the news, instead of just reporting it, we’d be in real trouble.

* * *

Ukraine snippets:

Lateral thinking:

Never happen, of course; but if a solution like this is what it would take…. We’re in worse trouble than I thought.

Because of course:

When hating the gays is OK:

I will never, never understand how liberal Democrats can deploy this trope. It’s hardly, well, gender-affirming. Liberal Democrats are principle-fluid, I suppose, even with the “In This House….” signs on every lawn. Any stick to beat a dog!

Apparently, you are not to know about the 2014 coup in Ukraine:

From the IMDB entry:

Ukraine. Across its eastern border is Russia and to its west-Europe. For centuries, it has been at the center of a tug-of-war between powers seeking to control its rich lands and access to the Black Sea. 2014’s Maidan Massacre triggered a bloody uprising that ousted president Viktor Yanukovych and painted Russia as the perpetrator by Western media. But was it? “Ukraine on Fire” by Igor Lopatonok provides a historical perspective for the deep divisions in the region which lead to the 2004 Orange Revolution, 2014 uprisings, and the violent overthrow of democratically elected Yanukovych. Covered by Western media as a people’s revolution, it was in fact a coup d’état scripted and staged by nationalist groups and the U.S. State Department. Investigative journalist Robert Parry reveals how U.S.-funded political NGOs and media companies have emerged since the 80s replacing the CIA in promoting America’s geopolitical agenda abroad.

Seems legit. Why on earth would the platforms want to censor this?

Democrats en Déshabillé

I have moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Party (“the Democrat Party is a rotting corpse that can’t bury itself”) to a separate, back-dated post, to which I will periodically add material, summarizing the addition here in a “live” Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It turns out that defining the Democrat Party is, in fact, a hard problem. I do think the paragraph that follows is on point all the way back to 2016, if not before:

The Democrat Party is the political expression of the class power of PMC, their base (lucidly explained by Thomas Frank in Listen, Liberal!). It follows that the Democrat Party is as “unreformable” as the PMC is unreformable; if the Democrat Party did not exist, the PMC would have to invent it. If the Democrat Party fails to govern, that’s because the PMC lacks the capability to govern. (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” of course.) Second, all the working parts of the Party reinforce each other. Leave aside characterizing the relationships between elements of the Party (ka-ching, but not entirely) those elements comprise a network — a Flex Net? An iron octagon? — of funders, vendors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with assets in the press and the intelligence community.

Note, of course, that the class power of the PMC both expresses and is limited by other classes; oligarchs and American gentry (see ‘industrial model’ of Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Jie) and the working class spring to mind. Suck up, kick down.

* * *

Take one for the team:

This team:

2024

“Lawmakers agree on $100 million to help nurses, cops, firefighters, teachers buy homes” [Miami Herald]. “State lawmakers are looking to divert $100 million in affordable housing money to help ‘hometown heroes’ like nurses, police officers and teachers pay closing costs and down payments on new homes. Under a plan agreed to by House and Senate budget negotiators, the money would come out of $209 million assigned to the State Housing Initiatives Partnership program, known as SHIP. That program goes to cities and counties to establish affordable housing policies, including funding low-income homeowners’ emergency repairs, down payments and closing cost assistance, as well as construction and acquisition of property for affordable housing. Under the Legislature’s plan, nearly half of that money would go to a new “hometown heroes” program established by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. Who would be considered a ‘hometown hero,’ and how the program would work, has not been decided. A proposed Senate bill this session would create a similar ‘hometown heroes’ program for police, firefighters, 911 operators, teachers, paramedics, healthcare workers and home-health aides. Under the bill, eligible participants would have to be first-time home buyers whose family income does not exceed 150% of the state or local median income, whichever is greater.” • “Hometown heroes” is excellent; I bet this would play well nationally, which is why I filed it here.

Realignment and Legitimacy

“Søren Kierkegaard and Hubert Dreyfus on the Social Networks” [The Mirror and the Lamp]. “Back in 1997, UC Berkeley philosopher Hubert L. Dreyfus offered a diagnosis of the World Wide Web that, in retrospect, predicted with virtually 100 percent accuracy our socially networked democracy’s current predicament. Remarkably, he did this by applying to the Web as it was then an analysis of ‘the Press’ and ‘the Public’ worked out by Søren Kierkegaard in 1846. (See Kierkegaard’s The Present Age.)… Kierkegaard, Bert began, was skeptical of what political philosophers and theorists of democracy call the public sphere. The public ‘took an interest in everything but were not committed to anything. [Kierkegaard] attributed this growing cultivation of curiosity and the consequent failure to distinguish the important from the trivial to the Press. Its new massive distribution of desituated information, he held, was making every sort of information immediately available to anyone, thereby producing an anonymous, detached spectator.’ Bert was struck by how Kierkegaard’s worries about the Press applied to the Web, but more importantly he saw how the Web would exacerbate the most troubling features of the Press. ‘[T]he essential feature of this freedom to have an opinion on everything is that people do not take responsibility for their opinion. The Press speaks for the Public but no one stands behind the views the public holds.’…. Bert saw, with Kierkegaard’s help, that the Web would encourage the formation of advocacy organizations composed of amateurs at best and crackpots at worst…. The problems of the kind of ‘press’ and ‘public sphere’ created by social media, Bert suggested, are different from what people like Tocqueville feared, such as the tyranny of the majority. It isn’t only that dissenting views are drowned out or forced to conform to the majority – although of course that happens too. It’s that all views are equally legitimate and illegitimate, neither one nor the other, and are deemed worth talking about merely because someone is talking about them. I would add that Kierkegaard/Dreyfus’s analysis also shows the inadequcy of J.S. Mill’s view that the marketplace of ideas is self-correcting.” • Hmm.

“LGBTQ Activists Host Gender-Inclusive Sex-Ed Summer Camp for Elementary Schoolers” [National Review]. “LGBTQ activists in Indianapolis, Ind. are hosting a sexual-education summer camp for elementary schoolers. The four-day program is open to third-through-fifth-graders and costs $250 per child. A web page advertising the event states that enrolled children will participate in ‘affirming, non-binary, body-positive, social emotional learning through play’ with an ‘inclusive sexuality educator.’ After the event attracted negative social media attention Monday, the Eventbrite page was taken down.” • It’s the rare third-grader that will be able to pay the $250 freight for sex camp, so as far as I can tell, the project reinforces “parental rights,” if anything. “It’s a free country.” That said, the whole enterprise, and it is an enterprise, gives me the creeps. If a third-grader can make sense of Sappho, Oedipus Rex, Romeo and Juliet — or, heck, MacBeth — or Wuthering Heights, then they’re ready for sex camp. And the jargon makes me feel like my head is being pushed through a bucket of mush. That said, maybe I’m just an old codger and all the third-graders have cellphones, in which case they probably all have porn collections, which aren’t teaching them the best lessons about sex either. Musical interlude [NSFW] (lyrics):

#COVID19

Case count by United States regions:

Fellow tapewatchers will note that “up like a rocket, down like a stick” phase is done with, and the case count is now leveling out. At a level that, a year ago, was considered a crisis, but we’re “over” Covid now, so I suppose not. I have added a Fauci Line.

NOTE I shall most certainly not be using the CDC’s new “Community Level” metric. Because CDC has combined a leading indicator (cases) with a lagging one (hospitalization) their new metric is a poor warning sign of a surge, and a poor way to assess personal risk. In addition, Covid is a disease you don’t want to get. Even if you are not hospitalized, you can suffer from Long Covid, vascular issues, and neurological issues. For these reasons, case counts — known to be underestimated, due to home test kits — deserve to stand alone as a number to be tracked, no matter how much the political operatives in CDC leadership would like to obfuscate it.

The official narrative was “Covid is behind us,” and that the pandemic will be “over by January” (Gottlieb), and “I know some people seem to not want to give up on the wonderful pandemic, but you know what? It’s over” (Bill Maher) was completely exploded. What a surprise! This time, it may be different. But who knows?

Here is BA.2 from CDC is the regional proportions variant tracker, done with “specimens collected,” not the NowCast model, for whatever reason:

CDC Region 1: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont. Note these are relative proportions, not absolute numbers. The MWRA wastewater data tells you the absolute numbers are still small, at least compared to Biden’s ginormous Omicron wave.

MWRA (Boston-area) wastewater detection:

Flattened out, continues encouraging (and independent from the CDC).

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) service area includes 43 municipalities in and around Boston, including not only multiple school systems but several large universities. Since Boston is so very education-heavy, then, I think it could be a good leading indicator for Covid spread in schools generally.

From CDC Community Profile Reports (PDFs), “Rapid Riser” counties:

Those notes in red at the bottom make me wonder about what else is wrong. (Remember that these are rapid riser counties. A county that moves from red to green is not covid-free; the case count just isnt, well, rising rapidly.)

The previous release:

Here is CDC’s interactive map by county set to community transmission:

Continuing slow improvement, assuming the numbers aren’t jiggered.

Hospitalization (CDC Community Profile):

Sea of green still. From the point of view of our hospital-centric health care system, green everywhere means the emergency is over (and to be fair, this is reinforced by case count and wastewater). However, community transmission is still pervasive, which means that long Covid, plus continuing vascular damage, are not over. (Note trend, whether up or down, is marked by the arrow, at top. Admissions are presented in the graph, at the bottom. So it’s possible to have an upward trend, but from a very low baseline.)

Death rate (Our World in Data):

Total: 987,615 985,914. Heading slowly downward. I have added an anti-triumphalist Fauci line.

Covid cases in top us travel destinations (Statista):

Stats Watch

Employment Situation: “United States Job Openings” [Trading Economics]. “The number of job openings in the United States was 11.263 million in January of 2022, down slightly from a revised record 11.448 million in December. Still, figures came above market expectations of 10.9 million, suggesting worker shortages persist. Job openings decreased in several industries, with the largest declines in accommodation and food services (-288,000); transportation, warehousing, and utilities (-132,000); and federal government (-60,000). Job openings increased in other services (+136,000) and in durable goods manufacturing (+85,000).”

* * *

The Bezzle: Would knowledgeable readers care to assess this speculation?

The Bezzle: “The Newest Crypto Side-Hustle: ‘Discord Grinding’” [Decrypt]. “The crypto industry is in a hiring frenzy with companies dangling six- and seven-figure salaries to attract top blockchain talent. But the boom has also extended to the lower strata of the labor market, where people are engaging in a new form of social media engagement known as ‘Discord grinding’ for as little as $5 an hour. Discord grinding takes its name from the popular platform of the same name, which is beloved by students and gamers, but which has also become an essential tool for Decentralized Autonomous Organizations aka DAOs—loosely organized communities that come together to build or support crypto projects and often finance their activities with tokens. DAO communities on Discord are composed of volunteers and builders who are passionate about a given project—but in recent months, they have also become places for ‘grinders’ to make a quick buck by hyping something they may not know or care about. A recent investigation by Decrypt uncovered a thriving trade on the work-for-hire platform Fiverr, where people offer to work as Discord grinders. On Fiverr, would-be Discord grinders post messages like, ‘I will staff, mod and be your crypto, gaming or NFT discord moderator or manager,’ and ‘I will interactively chat on your discord server and NFT chat.'” • Ah, “passionate.” Such a bullshit tell.

The Bezzle: “Cryptoverse: The young HODLers keeping bitcoin on an even keel” [Reuters]. “Young retail investors betting on bitcoin as a long-term proposition rather than for quick gains are swelling the ranks of these true believers, whose name emerged years ago from a trader misspelling ‘hold’ on an online forum. This trend could help stabilise the notoriously volatile crypto market and potentially provide a long-term floor, according to some market watchers who point to the fact bitcoin is up about 5% versus before the Russian invasion. A study by multi-asset retail investment platform eToro, which says it has millions of users, found that those aged 18 to 34 were far more likely to invest in crypto than anyone else, with 66% of that age bracket owning bitcoin and other digital currencies. That’s up from 46% last July. Perhaps more tellingly, more than a third of those invested in crypto said they believed in its long-term value as ‘a transformative asset class.'” •

Concentration: “Vertically Challenged” [Cory Doctorow, Locus Magazine]. “If Facebook is Facebook because Mark Zuckerberg is a once-in-a-millennium genius who did what no other could, then our best hope is to somehow gentle the Zuck, bring him into public service, like a caged ET that govern­ment scientists either bribe or torment into working on behalf of the human race. That’s the constitutional monarchy model, the model where we continue to acknowledge the divine right of kings, but bind them to the material plane by draping the king in golden chains of office whose ends are held by an aristocracy that keeps the monarch from getting too frisky. But if Facebook is Facebook because Zuck got lucky, if he just combined cheap capital with regulatory tolerance for buying out the competition and building a legally impregnable walled garden around his users, then we don’t need Zuck or Facebook. There’s plenty more where he came from, and all we need to do is withdraw the privileges that regulatory forbearance granted him. That’s the republic model, where we get rid of the king and govern ourselves.” • Worth reading in full. I am skeptical that the Biden Administration won’t, at some future point, yank Lina Khan’s choke-chain and cut a deal with the platforms, but for now they’re letting her do good work.

* * *

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 16 Extreme Fear (previous close: 12 Extreme Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 24 (Extreme Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Mar 9 at 1:28pm.

The Gallery

I didn’t have Chagall filed in the Surrealism bucket:

Our Famously Free Press

The Crimes of David Leonhardt:

So if the brain shrinks 5% after each infection, and “living with Covid” means a life-time of infection, is 95% * 95% * 95% * 95% a cause for… panic? Probably not if you throw in a couple three more infections, but before that? If that’s happening, of course. It might not be.

Games

“The Benefits of Gaming As a Couple—or Even With Your Kid” [Wired]. “For many couples, gaming together is the new quality time together. However, it doesn’t come without challenges. Finding time and accommodating different tastes is part of the process. When I game alone I prefer to cozy up with a handheld and tune out the world. On the other hand, I enjoy playing open-world games in the company of my other half. If you went on a big trip to a whole new location you would want company, right? Someone to take the photos, check on the supplies, and give you the courage to jump out of that top floor window, despite the braying hordes of enemies flanking you at every turn. My partner and I discuss plot points, consider strategy, and admire the often beautifully depicted in-game vistas. We chip in and help each other when gameplay gets tough and keep each other on track. So if we collaborate so well in games, can it improve our relationships? Recently, we started playing It Takes Two together—an adrenaline-fueled multiplatformer game that has a couple on the brink of divorce at the heart of the story. The couple are transformed into tiny clay dolls by a flamboyant magic book and they work together to become human again, while navigating their now gargantuan home.” • Interesting….

The 420

“Launching New York’s premier cannabis industry publication” [Syracuse.com (Bob)]. • I wonder if marijuana will displace grapes in Upstate New York.

News of the Wired

A thread on small gardens:

There’s still time to plan!

* * *

Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi and coral 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 (Angie Neer):

Angie Neer: “Shot on the trail to Rattlesnake Ledge, east of Seattle, under low, heavy overcast. Sunshine is nice, I suppose, but diffuse light from surrounding fog let all the textures of this forest POP!”

* * *

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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157 comments

  1. scarnoc

    Um, is Mosler being serious, or is that a joke I don’t understand? Russians do not want to be Americans, bro. They have better benefits than we do already (particularly in employee-employer relations, healthcare, pensions, vacation days). Do Americans really not understand that there is such a thing as national pride outside of the USA? Do Americans really believe Russia might use nukes within Ukraine? That’s preposterous, and not how strategic nukes would ever be used.

    1. JBird4049

      Aside from being unable to see from the perspective of other people, plus general historical amnesia of everything including anything American, I think that too many of our “elites” are becoming as, IIRC, some wit said of a British poet “mad, bad, and dangerous to know.”

        1. IM

          Some have come to the conclusion that the words applied more to Lady Caroline Lamb herself than Byron, but only history can be judge of that…

    2. Lou Anton

      How do you stop an elephant from crossing the street?
      You don’t. You clear a path.
      What’s the path to de-escalation when a nuclear power, any nuclear power, is on the offensive? And if things are not going well for that power (either losing, not winning fast enough, whatever), does that increase the probability of nuclear weapon use? How do you de-escalate from that? How do you take that off the board of options?

      Mosler’s solution is purposefully unrealistic. But it would take nuclear-weapon use off the board.

      What else takes them (nukes) off the board?

      1. XXYY

        Adhering to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty would be one good way in theory. Wikipedia notes (my emphasis):

        The NPT is often seen to be based on a central bargain: the NPT non-nuclear-weapon states agree never to acquire nuclear weapons and the NPT nuclear-weapon states in exchange agree to share the benefits of peaceful nuclear technology and to pursue nuclear disarmament aimed at the ultimate elimination of their nuclear arsenals

        This last part is not going well, however. For example, the US is in the midst of a $1 trillion upgrade of it’s nuclear weapons programs.

      2. Polar Socialist

        Maybe a multipolar world with at least a minimum of mutual respect, countries adhering to international agreements and following international “laws” with some “live and let live” sprinkled on top?

        We could even consider dissolving NATO and replacing it with a genuine attempt at collaborative European security arrangement. That would probably require dissolving, or at least heavily reorganizing, European Union, too.

    3. Mel

      Exactly. Statehood would put Russia in thrall to the U.S. dollar, and finish the process that got its abortive start in 1991. It’s everything the Russians have been fighting against.
      Contrariwise, Russia would get two Senators and a couple of hundred Representatives. And if one of the Senators was Joe Манчин, heck, they could wind up running the place.

    4. The Rev Kev

      There was an old trope believed in decades ago that inside every foreigner was an American trying to get out. And that emigrants were proof of this.

      1. Greg

        I suspect they confused the commonality of greed with a universal desire to be of the greedy people.

  2. albrt

    Brain shrinkage is definitely not a reason to panic. In fact, if your brain shrinks enough you may never need to panic again. Then the Harris administration can hire Temple Grandin to help you walk calmly up the ramp to the soylent green factory.

    1. vao

      Those questions had already been raised years ago regarding the mysterious “biological research facilities” set up by the USA in Georgia.

      1. flora

        Thanks. Your link references the country of Georgia on RU’s border, not the US state of Georgia.

          1. deplorado

            Dilyana recently reported that another lab is being opened in Bulgaria, agreement signed late autumn 2021. It was confirmed by the director of the Bulgarian military health service (not exact title, need to look up).

            1. deplorado

              PS. She reported all US staff at the lab would have diplomatic immunity. So, not subject to local laws.
              Interesting.

          2. pjay

            Thanks for this. A very useful reference from a well-respected source. Many of the labs and companies noted in this 2018 article are being mentioned in current Russian briefings about the labs.

    2. upstater

      Greenwald forgot to list (per Wikipedia):

      From 1993 to 1996, during Bill Clinton’s presidency, Nuland was chief of staff to Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott before moving on to serve as deputy director for former Soviet Union affairs.[12]

      This lady has been around the block many time with our elites.

    3. Sardonia

      We can rightfully despair at the lame state of US media – but do note that this very topic – including airing Nuland’s testimony and a lengthy interview with Tulsi Gabbard on US bioweapons research labs worldwide – was just now the lead story on Tucker Carlson. Great interview with Tulsi.

  6. Glen

    So did Biden ban oil imports because Congresscritters bought all the energy stocks or what? It’s getting pretty hard to tell where the corruption stops and the policy starts!

    2. jo6pac

      the corruption stops and the policy starts!

      Policy WTF is that. It’s about show me the money in govt.

  7. Appleseed

    re: Ukraine on Fire. Just placed a hold on the DVD from the public library and as a test searched online. Was able to watch/download from Vimeo

          1. Jonathan Holland Becnel

            Lol had to to accept NOT ONE BUT TWO Warnings about Content.

            Oh shit…is this some A Serbian Film type content imma bout to watch????!!!!

            1. Jonathan Holland Becnel

              Ugh. Worse than A Serbian Film!

              The gore and violent content I mean.

              And the shady Ukrainian/Nuland scenes were creepier too.

              Highly recommend watching!

      1. John Zelnicker

        This post by Scott Horton is a video and transcript of a talk he gave to the Libertarian Party of Utah on Feb. 26, 2022.

        It’s quite long at 1:58:44, but it is a very thorough analysis of the history that led to the current situation. Horton goes through the actions and their effects of each administration from George H. W. Bush to the present.

        When we negotiated the reunification of Germany with the Soviet Union, we promised not to expand NATO “one inch closer” to their borders. We broke that promise within a few years. And a lot of experts warned us of the consequences.

        Key quote: “It never had to be this way. Putin and his men obviously are responsible for the decisions that they have made and the blood on their hands. But the fact remains that it is the U.S.A. which has picked this fight so far from our shores.”

    3. johnherbiehancock

      Hmmm… I noticed there’s another documentary (it’s a few years old), the similarly titled “Winter on Fire” which was co-produced with the Ukrainian government (according to Wikipedia) and when I searched for Ukraine on Fire, one of the first links that popped up is this Yahoo News article mentioning Netflix just made “Winter on Fire” free. There’s no mention of “Ukraine on Fire” in the article… odd?

    4. dcblogger

      saw a few years ago. I seem to remember an interview Stone gave Putin that was just plain embarrassing. Stone can be so willfully gullible.

      1. The Rev Kev

        In total contrast to every MSM interview with every US President ever. Well, maybe not Trump. But he was not supposed to win, was he, hence the visceral hostility. He was not ‘one of us.’

      2. Jonathan Holland Becnel

        I 100% agree. I too, like Mr. Stone aka BMF who made Platoon, find myself roped in by Putin.

        What is it about him????

        His answers are coherent. He’s convincing. He even looks like a cool ? dude I’d wanna have a beer with! Well, Orange Perrier for me since I don’t drink anymore…

        I’m so gosh darn gullible, NC!

        If I don’t watch out, those pesky Marxists might rope me in!!!!!

        ? ? ? ? ?

        But seriously though, DCblogger, you know anyone in DC gullible enough to put down Twitter and pick up a gun on the way to the Western Front in the Ukraine ???

        1. ambrit

          To your last point; they have ‘people’ to do that for them. (Those ‘people’ may not even know they are doing so.) It’s all so reminiscent of the practice during the American Civil War of paying someone to take your place in the draft. Buying an exemption naturally favours the wealthy. The rest of us? Tough titty bud.
          As long as America fields a “volunteer” army, draft riots will not be a problem. When manpower needs excede available “volunteers?” Trouble.

  8. kramshaw

    In the “where do I donate” category:

    https://www.dailywire.com/news/iran-plots-to-assassinate-ex-trump-official-biden-admin-resisting-public-indictments-due-to-iran-deal-hopes-report

    At least two Iranians in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF), an elite Iranian military group that is also a designated terrorist organization, have allegedly been plotting to assassinate former Trump national security adviser John Bolton, according to a new report.

    I think another commenter here who was a neighbor of Bolton reported seeing a heightened security detail? I could see such a plot as revenge served cold for the assassination of Soleimani…

  9. Quentin

    What is a ‘strategic nuke’? As opposed to a ‘non strategic nuke’? I don’t get it. Really not. Evidently a terminology pulled out of a hat somewhere in D.C. Does it have something to do with the difference between tactics and strategy? Call me dense.

    1. shinola

      The term “tactical nuke” goes back to the 1960’s. Another term for it is “battlefield nuke”.

      It seemed that someone came up with the idea that maybe lower-yield nukes could be used in an active battle situation to destroy enemy armored vehicles and/or fortified positions. I don’t recall any discussion of how this would NOT lead to nuclear escalation other than something to the effect of “they wouldn’t dare risk a full-on nuclear holocaust”

      Kind of a Dr. Strangelove thing…

      1. David

        Yes, in theory a weapon with a small enough yield to be of value on the battlefield, against things like large troop concentrations or airfields. At sea it was also assumed they’d be used against nuclear missile submarines. In NATO Cold War doctrine, the idea was that, since NATO simply couldn’t match the likely size of conventional WP forces, they would use tactical nuclear weapons quite early, as a sign of determination to resist. Would it have worked? Who knows?

        1. none

          As mentioned above, using tactical nukes if you run out of conventional stuff is part of current Russian doctrine. We are probably in for a lot of nuke proliferation by small countries too, now that Ukraine has showed the failure of the Budapest memo.

          I think the US Navy deploys nukes for the purpose of taking out enemy large surface ships such as aircraft carriers. Idk if those count as strategic, tactical, or some other category.

          1. IMOR

            It was ours in Central Europe for 50 years- if it’s not still. Russia and the world had a great teacher.

          2. Mike

            Please remember, we used “depleted” uranium in our armor-piercing shells in Iraq. Of course, that meant we waited for the half-life to be exhausted…

        1. The Rev Kev

          Can you imagine what would happen if one of those plane accidentally crashed into a city? (shudder)

    2. Greg

      I believe the warmongers in the pentagon differentiate between strategic and tactical nukes based on amount of explosive power.
      This is of course a nonsense differentiation as only insane people believe any use of a small nuke against a nuclear power could be constrained and not result in immediate escalation.

  10. Lou Anton

    How do you stop an elephant from crossing the street?
    You don’t. You clear a path.

    What’s the path to de-escalation when a nuclear power, any nuclear power, is on the offensive? And if things are not going well for that power (either losing, not winning fast enough, whatever), does that increase the probability of nuclear weapon use? How do you de-escalate from that? How do you take that off the board of options?

    Mosler’s solution is purposefully unrealistic. But it would take nuclear-weapon use off the board.

    What else takes them (nukes) off the board?

  11. Katiebird

    Regarding the brain shrinkage story…. My next oldest sister mentioned it and she doesn’t think it’s that big a deal. Well, I’m hanging onto whatever brains I’ve got with both hands (just today told our brother that I couldn’t visit with him because I’m still hunkered down) I really can’t believe that someone I’m closely related to thinks she has brains to spare.

    1. jr

      I’m in New Jersey at the moment and almost no one is masked. Jersey Strong! reads the one sign on some store. We shall see. Those 5%’s seem awful precious around here.

      But it’s more than future COVID zombies. Everywhere are the trappings of a delusional society. Everyone, I mean everyone, is driving a brand new vehicle. No one dare not look like things aren’t as cracker-jack as could be. The majority of them must be financed. Lots of those pedestrian killing trucks that have never hauled a fraction of their actual capability.

      I passed a school letting out a few minutes back. The line of cars reaches out onto the state road as parents queue to grab the kids because the drive up to the pickup point is about the size of a large house’s. Idling, burning fuel, wasting time, slowing down traffic. No planning, no forethought, the school is near no one’s home.

      The supermarket is a cartoon bright horror show of garbage food raised and produced unsustainably. The aisles of fresh food are outnumbered by the crap ones by three and even the produce section is riddled with prepared junk. Overweight people push carts filled with sugars, cheap fats, and artificial who knows what. Almost all of them look exhausted. The music that’s piped in sounds like one long, sappy sweet paean to either renewed love, the weekend after the ubiquitous crazy week at work, or the need for a vacation. It all sounds so dumb. It’s surreal, it’s a caricature of a real life. Meaningless acts, meaningless art, meaningless food, and people who look drained.

      1. Jonathan Holland Becnel

        Outside my place there’s a residential road leading to the public K-8th grade school. Every day the line of cars goes a mile from the pickup spot. I’m on block 8. These are 2 ways streets so when the huge ass car line blocks one of those two lanes …well you can see the ineptitude of it all.

      2. anon y'mouse

        your post sounds like what Debord was nattering on about in Society of the Spectacle.

        or was it? i never could quite understand. he uses the same word so many times that it never took on a distinct meaning and then did that thing that happens when you repeat a word so many times that you find it totally ridiculous and impossible to even be part of the human language, much less be a referent for some distinct thing.

        guess i need to try again. or just read your post and get the Cliffs Notes version.

    2. bidule

      I couldn’t resist this quote. Below is the incipit of a famous book.

      Le bon sens est la chose du monde la mieux partagée : car chacun pense en être si bien pourvu, que ceux même qui sont les plus difficiles à contenter en toute chose, n’ont point coutume d’en désirer plus qu’ils n’en ont. — René Descartes, Discours de la méthode, 1637.

      Translated (fortunately not by me) as:

      Good sense is of all things in the world the most equally distributed: for everybody thinks he is so well supplied with it, that even those most difficult to please in all other matters, never desire more of it than they already possess. — René Descartes, 1637, Discourse on Method.

      This first paragraph is so elegant and concise, with this nice touch of irony. Still relevant today, nearly four hundred years later.

      1. Bugs

        In the context of this quote, I’d translate “le bon sens” to “common sense” in English.

        1. orlbucfan

          The words actually translate to “the good sense” in English. Descartes was no mental midget, for sure! Hopefully, good/common sense is not extinct though I wonder nowadays.

  12. Wukchumni

    Why did the chicken cross the road in Kiev?

    To tell people on other side that the sky was falling with shrapnel.

      1. Wukchumni

        ha ha

        A few years ago there was a homeless guy on the slim island inbetween traffic when you’re making a left hand turn at the light, and was holding up a cardboard sign that said:

        ‘Will Work For A Median Income’

        It was worth a few bucks, that chuckle.

  13. upstater

    re “Launching New York’s premier cannabis industry publication” [Syracuse.com (Bob)]

    Now I probably know why that Canadian company put hundreds of acres under glass, ostensibly to grow “strawberries” in Madison County (I think it even gets a cheap hydropower allotment) staffed by indentured migrants (the first COVID cluster outside of NYC!).

    I hope grapes and wines don’t get displaced by pot farms! Somehow those tens of thousands of acres of vinifera above the Finger Lakes replaced by cannabis does have the same romance to it. Having flights of reefer on a deck overlooking the lakes on an Autumn afternoon somehow doesn’t seem anywhere near as appealing.

    1. mrsyk

      “Having flights of reefer on a deck overlooking the lakes on an Autumn” doesn’t sound so bad. One would think the ROI on marijuana cultivation can only have a downward slope, but who knows how much pot America can consume (or export!).

    2. petal

      My mother’s direct neighbour to the south of her property in Ontario, NY(Wayne County) is a huge tomato greenhouse facility (Intergrow). Lots of light pollution at night, she says.
      If the climate continues to change and we lose the specialised climate in the FL, I can imagine cannabis being the replacement. Or more second homes.

    3. ambrit

      That news release was obviously written by a clueless MBA. Real cannabis aficionados would have written: Launching New York’s Primo Dope Mag. Nestled inside the first issue would have to be a page of pre-perforated rice papers. With the magazine’s logo printed on each segment. A public service and a cunning bit of self promotion to boot.

      1. anon y'mouse

        as a person whose father was supposedly an incognito star of High Times, yeah—your title is better. or just “primo dope, for those who smoke” and no further explanations.

        no one should be involved in that trade that acts like it’s the tool and die manufacturer’s trade sheet.

    4. Wukchumni

      I’ve been growing pot marjoram and there’s no limit to how much you produce here, so I should clean up.

  15. Jason Boxman

    More just in, about the uselessness of liberal Democrats:

    Democratic leaders on Wednesday abruptly abandoned efforts to win approval of $15.6 billion in emergency pandemic response aid to fund the Biden administration’s new coronavirus strategy, announcing they would drop the package from a sprawling, $1.5 trillion spending bill amid disputes about how to cover the cost.

    …
    “It is heartbreaking to remove the Covid funding, and we must continue to fight for urgently needed Covid assistance, but unfortunately that will not be included in this bill,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California wrote in a letter to Democrats announcing the decision.

    …

    The measure would have sent $10.6 billion to the Department of Health and Human Services to pay for additional antivirals, vaccines and testing, as well as research and development to counter any future variants. It would have also provided about $5 billion toward a global vaccination effort.

    (bold mine, because who needs a strategy?)

    I’m sure Pelosi is just truly heartbroken.

    Meanwhile, we found extra money to arm and support the Ukraine.

    Democrats scrap a $15.6 billion emergency Covid response package meant to help fund new Biden strategy.

      1. John

        Yeah. The democratic leadership is always fighting. To what end is never quite clear and never accomplished, unless, as I strongly suspect, their losses are exactly the result they want. Ever since the DLC made the party into boneless republicans, it has been feckless.

  16. cocomaan

    Great garden video!

    You can feed yourself out of a small garden. However you will work for it. On a lot that small, you’d need fertilizer inputs and you’d likely be spending most of your day out there. Harvesting alone takes freaking forever, as fun as it is.

    I’m all about food security on an individual basis and practice it myself. But I won’t pretend it isn’t an enormous amount of work to produce your own calories.

    1. Randy

      There is a drawback to crowding like that. Around here it is called fungi. I practice close to “square foot gardening” but you can’t crowd too much. You need sunlight and the space between plants that provides ventilation and prevents fungus infestations.

      We have had wetter summers and I have problems with fungus on a scale that I have not experienced in past years.

      1. cocomaan

        True, I live in PA and that’s a huge problem for us. Super wet here. I do find that if you can get full sun, the midday burns off the moisture well, but in 2018 it was mildew city and we lost a lot of crop.

  17. Objective Ace

    >Lawmakers agree on $100 million to help nurses, cops, firefighters, teachers buy homes

    Or we could just pay them more so they could afford a house on their own? Except that wouldnt drive up asset prices for the likes of Blackstone and private equity who are now the largest owners of SFHs in the country

      1. Objective Ace

        If you’re asking if its good that the rest of the us who aren’t “heroes” cannot afford to buy a home, the answer depends who you ask. I dont think politicians particularly care and their lobbying buddies are probably happy with that outcome

        If your asking what the effects of paying public servants more would be on the rest of us: it would drive up wages for everyone as private companies must compete with public services for employees. This would ultimately also help the rest of us afford a home. (alternatively we could choose to join public service which is paying higher)

          1. ambrit

            Which just goes to show that we aren’t the Praetorian anything.
            I am ruefully noting that this money was originally intended to help “poor” people. Now it’s being proposed as another tool in the “divide and rule” tool kit.

            1. Michael Ismoe

              In Southern Arizona, we have a ton of “for profit” prisons. (FYI, most of Alaska’s felons are housed in the Sonoran desert – mustn’t get too many visitors, i assume.)
              So these prison guards – who work for private enterprises – are now eligible for low rate mortgages? I remember when everyone used to bitch about WalMart health care being subsidized by the government – now I have to pay for private label prison guards too?

              1. ambrit

                I’m surprised that the prisons in Arizona haven’t been “outsourced” to the Sonoran Desert, in Sonora and Baja California, Mexico. I’ll bet the Mexican prison guards work for even less than the American ones. Plus, no more worries about housing!
                Of course, we could take a page from the French and lease the Isla Tiburon, (aptly named, it means ‘Shark Island,’) from Mexico and make it our version of ‘Devil’s Island.’

              2. Objective Ace

                >So these prison guards – who work for private enterprises – are now eligible for low rate mortgages?

                The government has all kinds of programs that subsidize mortgages (and everything else). Jared Kushner received a 100 million dollar subsidized loan under the auspices of “affordable housing”. You should be much more upset about that than prison guards, but your playing into the divide and rule mindset ambrit mentioned

                Link to Jared’s loan: https://www.propublica.org/article/the-kushners-freddie-mac-loan-wasnt-just-massive-it-came-with-unusually-good-terms-too

        1. Wukchumni

          “Forward, the Light Brigade!”
          Was there a man dismayed?
          Not though the Commander in Chief knew
          Someone had blundered.
          Theirs not to make reply,
          Theirs not to reason why,
          Theirs but to go and die.
          Into the valley of debt
          Light the six hundred.

          1. Wukchumni

            p.s.

            I’m in the state’s red bastion so there’s that, but 3x in the last week i’ve had shopkeepers with no prompting, mention something derogatory about Biden to me, and yeah it comes with the territory, but yeesh… never had something like that happen in regards to any President in a retail setting.

            1. steve

              The wife runs a small business that is nearly exclusive to the ladies and caters to the rich and the just getting by alike. The chitchat usually stays confined to the noncontroversial with the exception of the red/white vs the orange/blue but that’s to be expected in these parts, except lately. Joe Biden is really eliciting some anger. It’s everyday now that politics and JB/Ukraine in particular is brought up. The consensus thus far is Ukraine is solidly Joe’s fault. A little surprising considering the propaganda onslaught. Admittedly this is solid Repub territory but until recently politics just wasn’t mentioned. I think the whole Russiagate/Trump CF might have inoculated the Trump fans to Russia aimed disinfo.

    2. Dr. John Carpenter

      RE: When hating the gays is OK: I’ve been fascinated watching even in my small social media exposure how quickly the old homophobic Russiagate era memes came back, along with some new ones questioning Putin’s manhood etc. I’m sure these folks still consider themselves among the woke, but makes me wonder if Putin was black or brown what else would be allowed.

  18. Michael Ismoe

    Well, here’s another site you don’t have to read anymore: Ian Welsh calling for a nuclear holocaust to prove NATO has big testicles

    This is why I have said that even though I think the Baltic states, for example, should never have been let into NATO, if Russia attacks them I support war, and if it goes nuclear, so be it.

    Is everyone nuts?

    1. Johnr

      The same politicians and captains of industry with their MSM cheerleaders who have determined much of the irrational response to covid (let her rip) have also caught the virus, albeit mostly with repressed acute symptoms due to vaccines. How many of these politicians and captains have long covid and degraded brain function? Total speculation, but I think it is worth considering as we watch the unfolding of events over the next few years.

    3. Jessica

      He then proceeds to be rational for the rest of the piece. Ian Welsh writes wonderful insightful pieces and is well worth reading.
      That one line (and what leads logically to it) shows that the trauma of being bullied still remains for him.
      Yves Smith has mentioned that school shooters are (almost?) always folks who were bullied. Ian’s one awful line is the verbal equivalent of that.

      1. Yves Smith

        That finding comes from Mark Ames in Going Postal. Contrary to popular opinion, shooters were mainly of higher than average intelligence, didn’t have histories of mental illness, and had little in common except being almost always men and having been severely bullied.

      2. Ian

        If we will not use nukes under any circumstances we should get rid of them. If we will use them under some circumstances, then surely the time to be willing to use them is when we defend people we have promised to defend. What I see are a bunch of people no one can trust to have their backs when it matters.

        “If it goes nuclear” also doesn’t suggest starting a nuclear war. I don’t support first use of nukes. But I am willing to defend the Baltics using military force, which is dangerous and always has the risk of escalating to nuclear war.

        (Those who went postal, if Ames is correct, would not have gone postal if anyone had stepped in to stop the bullying. Much of the rest of the post can be considered to be about that, if one wants to read it.)

    4. VietnamVet

      This quote indicates that by admitting the Baltic states to NATO in the first place was nuts because the one and only way to stop the Russian invasion is by using tactical nuclear weapons. All three Baltic States are small and two border Russia. All three would immediately be destroyed if Russia invaded and nukes were used — “if Russia attacks them I support war and it goes nuclear, so be it”. There is no deterrence. Instead, they were admitted to NATO to destabilize the Kremlin.

      After the West’s poking, Russia invaded Ukraine. NATO failed to prevent it. NATO is now prepping for a long guerilla war there. If Russia invades NATO member, Poland, to stop the flow of weapons to the guerrillas, a nuclear war is guaranteed unless, once again, some unknown officer does not push the red button igniting the first of many nuclear weapons.

      The USA did not invade North Vietnam because Russia and China threatened the use of nuclear weapons (Mutual Assured Destruction – MAD). Dick Nixon had to be a “mad man” who would use nukes to make deterrence work. Vladimir Putin has proven to be an actual mad man. MAD does not work when a nuclear power invades a country that does not have a nuclear shield. MAD may have ceased to work, now, since the ruling neoliberal system of both nuclear powers only values money not human lives and western oligarchs think they can just fly their private jets away to a safe place.

        1. drumlin woodchuckles

          Well, read Ian Welsh’s entire post. He lays out the context where he thinks it would be appropriate to take the risk and why.

          All you have to do to “hear” it is to go over there and read it.

          I even offered a link so you can do that very thing. And you can leave a comment explaining your disagreement with his view in its context, if you wish. If it is politely written, it will probably be published.

  19. Chauncey Gardiner

    Under today’s Realignment and Legitimacy section, I disagree with the writer’s view as expressed in the summary of the linked article in “The Mirror and the Lamp”. I also find it rather ironic that opinion is being expressed in a blog post on the Web, the very media he criticizes. Unlike Marshall McLuhan and the writer here, I think the medium is not the message. Rather, the message is the message regardless of the medium in which it is expressed. And dissemination of the message into the broadest possible marketplace is an important determinant in testing and establishing the truth of an idea.

    As stated in the opening paragraph to a related article in The First Amendment Encyclopedia, “The marketplace of ideas refers to the belief that the test of the truth or acceptance of ideas depends on their competition with one another and not on the opinion of a censor, whether one provided by the government or by some other authority.”

    John Stuart Mill’s values and ideas must be defended, regardless of the discomfort that might cause those engaged in organized propaganda campaigns.

  20. enoughisenough

    “I will never, never understand how liberal Democrats can deploy this trope. It’s hardly, well, gender-affirming.”

    100% it’s also doubly confounding, since Howie Klein is openly gay himself. I’ve never understood his homophobic jokes.

    Howie Klein, despite his bad taste in political satire art, and jokes, is still pretty heroic in his DownwithTyranny site.

    1. michael Ismoe

      Down with Tyranny has been using this trope for 5 years. It’s ridiculous and hateful so it must be The Democrats.

      I’m pretty sure that I will never vote again. Why bother?

    2. The Rev Kev

      In a good cause, even gay bashing becomes acceptable. Do not be surprised to see ‘black face’ digitally added to that image of Trump and Putin to denigrate them but please ignore people like Trudeau who actually did it in real life. People like this mistake fashionable opinions for their values and so will quickly change them according to what they can get away with on their social class.

  21. herman_sampson

    Why wouldn’t essential workers also be “hometown heroes”? Oh, wait, they probably couldn’t afford to buy a house, maybe a shed.

  22. North Star

    Lambert did not go down the Biden-Ukraine rat hole in his piece on Zelensky, but I would like to see a deep dive into old Joe and Hunter and their dealings with this country. “I smell a rat”, said Jack Nicholson in ‘The Departed’. It may simply be ‘follow the money’, but all the articles I have read to date, many provided on this site, just seem to just scratch the surface.

    1. ambrit

      Agreed. The antics of that lovable scamp, Hunter, are an example of Conan Doyle’s famous dictum: The dog that didn’t bark in the night. As was the case with the villian in Doyle’s story “Silver Blaze,” Hunter also seems to have had “inside connections.”
      At the risk of seeming churlish, I note that Hunter was just following the play book used by the Clintons before him. Curiously, neither is nor are being prosecuted for their crimes.
      As Gregory from the Yard asks Holmes: “Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”
      Holmes replies: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”
      Gregory: “The dog did nothing in the night-time.”
      Holmes: “That was the curious incident.”

    2. lyman alpha blob

      Back around 2008 there was a report in one of the UK papers (The Independent if I remember right) where a couple of Yesmen types pretending to be representatives of some dictator with a bad reputation pulled a prank and got a meeting with a DC lobbyist to see what could be done to get their man some favorable treatment in DC. The lobbyist let on that Joe Biden would be a good guy to help their murderous client. Since this was right when Biden had been picked to be the VP candidate and he was also heavily involved with poking at the Russians in the uprisings in Georgia, I decide to take a look into his connections. What I found is that he was connected to everybody and I couldn’t find anything really definitive, not having access to anything other than free interwebs sites for my research, because everybody else was connected to everybody too! It was really easy to find a picture of just about any politico you wanted posing with some lobbyist or grifter representing some less than savory character trying to get their snout into the trough.

      Several years later The Blob came into popular parlance to describe the incestuous and corrupt nature of all these bad actors in DC. It’s all very unsavory, but very difficult to pin anything definitively illegal on anybody, especially as our current grifter “leadership” has made legal so many things that should be illegal. It’s also why I’m going to win an expensive steak dinner from my TDS infected buddy who bet me after the 2020 election that Trump would go to jail or flee to Russia. Since they’re all crooks, nobody wants to rat out anyone else.

    3. Tom Stone

      Whitney Webb may have done some work investigating the Biden family, IIRC brother James got a sweetheart government contract along with other benefits.
      And you can find clips from R.Hunter’s laptops on youtube.
      Hunter is an admitted alcoholic and drug addict whose Sister in Law ( And former lover) has stated that she took a gun away from him due to fears about his safety.
      Hunter allegedly purchased that pistol at a gun store,if so he completed a form 4473.

      Drug addicts are prohibited persons, unable to legally purchase or possess firearms…
      Form 4473 is quite clear about who is prohibited from possessing a firearm and the penalty for lying about your status under oath is made crystal clear.

      2. Michael Ismoe

        I applied for a medical marijuana license and was told that I should think about it before submitting it because I would not be eligible for an Open Carry license if I had was a regular marijuana user. I needed the weed more than a gun. Still true today.

        I can’t speak for anyone else but if the Russians attack us from Mexico, me and Sergei and Boris, we be jammin’

  24. Tom Stone

    I have mentioned before that my Daughter will be graduating Summa Cum Laude from the honors college of the University of San Francisco in late May.
    I went to their website this morning and discovered that I will not be allowed on Campus because I have not had a booster shot.
    That is not going to happen, I’m still experiencing the side affects from the shot I took on April 24 2021
    Graduates are limited to 2 guests,so I’ll let my Sister take my place and wait immediately off campus like the unclean thing I am.

      1. Tom Stone

        Being there will mean a lot to my Sister and the Cinderella bakery is in easy walking distance…I’ll have a cup of tea and a fine Russian pastry and be watching the pretty girls while Sis sits through the bloviating on a hard backed chair.

  25. djrichard

    re: Gaming as a couple

    I’m not a gamer, but my son and his girlfriend are. They came to visit us during the winter holidays and they were playing the game mentioned in the article, “It Takes Two”. They had a blast playing it. And my wife and I had a blast just watching from the sidelines, both the action as well as the plot points. It’s silly and fun, brought us together.

  26. JohnM_inMN

    BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. wildlife officials reversed their previous finding that a widely used and highly toxic pesticide could jeopardize dozens of plants and animals with extinction, after receiving pledges from chemical manufacturers that they will change product labels for malathion so that it’s used more carefully by gardeners, farmers and other consumers.

    Thanks for your pledges chem manufacturers! I feel so much better now…

    https://apnews.com/article/science-business-animals-wildlife-billings-e3443e0a0ff76211d1e1bb0275f9385b

  29. JCC

    RE: “and you realize the country isn’t quiet at all!”

    I used to live in Upstate NY in the country and slept like a baby every night. Now that I’ve been living in the Mojave for over ten years where the night is deadly quiet, when I go back to visit I am always amazed how loud and noisy the night time is back there. Hundreds and hundreds of crickets, tree frogs and more chattering at each other all night long.

    I love it, but it sure takes awhile to get to sleep.

  30. Expat2uruguay

    I’m happy to report that Breaking Points with Krystal Ball and Sagaar Enjeti strongly opposes the US sanctioning of Russian oil.

    It’s great to see this show step away from the overwhelming media narrative. I’m willing to excuse lapses in judgment, shouldn’t we have 48 hours to change our minds? According to recent commentary here, yes.

    Speaking of going back to someone I used to admire, I’m really enjoying the library of videos from The Problem with Jon Stewart. In this case, forgiveness is a funny thing!

    2. PlutoniumKun

      Yes – very bad news. Yoon (or Yun) is a borderline crackpot and very right wing (at least by non-Korean conservative standards). He is strongly influenced by US libertarianism rather than conventional Korean conservatives. He also seems to be corrupt. He once called for a 120 hour minimum work week.

      ROK along with Taiwan have been models of good centre-left governance for the past few years. It looks to be a case of older and wealthier voters simply being more likely to vote making the key difference.

  32. britzklieg

    Irish MEP Clare Daly had something to say about “humanitarian crisis” but I could only hear it in the Zimbabwe press. Curious that. https://www.thezimbabwemail.com/world-news/video-eu-placed-on-defensive-after-clare-dalys-hard-hitting-speech-on-ukranian-russian-war/

    Mind you, the article remains true to empire, damning her treachery by quoting a fellow MEP who suggests her message is “irrelevant.” Someone less skilled at obfuscating the truth would have referenced “whataboutism.”

    “Irrelevant” means never having to say you’re sorry.

    2. ambrit

      Considering that Tchaikovsky was a closet gay, this would look to be a case of duelling Wokenesses. As seen in the example of Trumputin “pseudo-gay bashing” displayed above, Gay bashing is acceptable in a “good cause.” [For some definition of ‘good cause.’]

  34. britzklieg

    Pictures of Epstein with Summers and Gates (linked) and the Clintons and Trump, etc but NO ONE ever admits he did less damage to “children” than the esteemed people who always seemed to be around him.

  35. drumlin woodchuckles

    I offered a comment semi-recently on neo-nazi organizations/movements and their implausibly deniable Nassi Swassika symbols and emblems. I have just recently read of a pro-Russian neo-naziform movement in the breakaway republics fighting on the Russian-sympathy side, called Russian National Unity. Here is a bunch of images of their logos which show that they, too, have an implausibly deniable Nassi Swassika.
    https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrJ7J_OqiliclEA_7xXNyoA;_ylu=Y29sbwNiZjEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZANMT0NVSTAzNl8xBHNlYwNzYw–?p=russian+national+unity+emblem+images&fr=sfp

    So it seems that both sides have their pet nassis.

    1. The Rev Kev

      I thought that you heard. ‘The Only Way to Stop a Bad Nazi With a Gun, is a Good Nazi With a Gun.’ :)

  36. Josef K

    “The Mirror and The Lamp” is M. H. Abram’s conception, the title of his 2nd book. Sad that Dolan must have consciously appropriated it without attribution (that I could see on his blog). Blujays shouldn’t steal feathers from an eagle’s nest.

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