Links 1/28/2023

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1. zagonostra January 28, 2023 at 7:29 am

   >WHY IS VENEZUELA’S GOLD STILL FROZEN IN THE BANK OF ENGLAND? Declassified UK

   Whether the gold will remain frozen until Venezuela holds elections which are to the satisfaction of the UK government, or the courts will find that the case for freezing the gold has now collapsed, remains unclear.

   Amazing. The hubris is hard to get my head around. This whole fiasco reminds me of St. Augustine in Book IV of The City of God where he says:

   “Indeed, that was an apt and true reply which was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride, “What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor.”
   1. Chas January 28, 2023 at 10:15 am

      What are the chances the gold is still in the vault?
      1. tevhatch January 28, 2023 at 11:01 am

         Considering how long the British delayed giving back to Germany it’s holdings upon request, the question might be better put is there any gold still in the vaults.
         1. digi_owl January 28, 2023 at 4:51 pm

            That has been the question since the first bank run…
2. timbers January 28, 2023 at 7:42 am

   The future of space travel might rely on buildings made of mushrooms

   If the mushroom matter doesn’t block deadly space radiation, it won’t be able to do what the article says, and the article makes no mention of any plans regarding that.
   1. Steve H. January 28, 2023 at 8:24 am

      But if they grow in the presence of space radiation, then all the settlers can turn into infrastructure!

      Neoliberalism at its most efficient.
   2. The Rev Kev January 28, 2023 at 8:31 am

      Maybe they will treat those astronauts like mushrooms. Keep them in the dark (about radiation) and feed then nothing but bulldust. Yeah, any Moon habitations will have to be underground because of the constant surface radiation. That one is not up for debate.
      1. TimH January 28, 2023 at 11:41 am

         any Moon habitations will have to be underground

         That may not work if the Moon’s gravity is insufficient. ISS showed that zero gravity is detrimental to human health, but what is the minimum for safe living?
         1. Jeotsu January 28, 2023 at 2:46 pm

            Unknown, and unless we put habitats in orbit where we can spin them for artificial gravity of different intensities, we won’t be able to test the various health-thresholds for humans in space.
         2. The Rev Kev January 28, 2023 at 5:54 pm

            Life under one sixth gravity will be interesting but it is unknown what the long term effects on humans will be. One effect I imagine would be that they would have to adopt a sort of sliding walking lest they be launched at the ceiling be stepping down too hard.
   3. Lexx January 28, 2023 at 8:45 am

      On the other hand eating mushrooms may increase our lifespans, so the radiation will matter less on balance.

      https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-01-25/anti-aging-techniques-taken-to-extreme-by-bryan-johnson?utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_content=business&sref=E9Urfma4

      ‘Out on the edges of medical science, he argues, there must be better outcomes than the ones we grudgingly accept.’

      This was a fascinating article in line with our reading here on the longevity projects going on amongst the very rich. What I wanted to know, as I stare at my morning handful of dietary supplements, is how is Bryan Johnson getting that many supplements down every day? I take 14 and it’s a battle of will every morning.
      1. Mark Gisleson January 28, 2023 at 9:30 am

         I’d love to see a scientific study of shiitake mushrooms vs any Big Pharma blood thinners. The mushrooms would win every time and without nasty side effects.
         1. Mikel January 28, 2023 at 12:29 pm

            Good to know.
      2. semper loquitur January 28, 2023 at 9:31 am

         Personally, I take a few supplements and my meds to try to make my life less painful. Extending it? With all that faces us? No thanks.
      3. will rodgers horse January 28, 2023 at 8:43 pm

         Hysterical! Thought that was a satire by the Onion.
         Dude spends so much time and energy trying to be healthy he seems to have completely lost sight of the fact that health is wholeness. How pathetic we are.
         1. kareninca January 29, 2023 at 2:03 am

            I don’t think what he’s doing is awful. It’s no worse a quest than many worldly quests. But he doesn’t look especially young or healthy, and that is to me a sign that what he is doing isn’t actually working. I don’t suppose the doctors he is paying will tell him that, however.
      4. Grateful Dude January 30, 2023 at 6:19 pm

         check out Lion’s Mane, Cordyceps, Reishi, and Chaga mushrooms. The first three encourage nerve growth, as in Nerve Growth Factor, and are sold in various formulations for brain stimulation – “herbal Adderal”. Or so I’ve heard. Also Turkey Tail is supposed to be very good at promoting immune response.
   4. wendigo January 28, 2023 at 9:04 am

      Mushroom matter will block radiation, it just has to be thicker than a more dense matetial.

      One pound of feathers will attenuate gamma radiation more or less the same as one pound of lead.
      1. jefemt January 28, 2023 at 10:21 am

         50 grains of molded lead render the entire discussion moot.

         I want to see elroy and besoxs on the first capsule out.
         1. Henry Moon Pie January 28, 2023 at 2:52 pm

            “Elroy”

            That is really good. And made this old Boomer think of “his boy, Elroy: (Video)
            1. ambrit January 28, 2023 at 10:09 pm

               Mess with the Scientologists’ heads and sing: “…and his son Elron!”
      2. tevhatch January 28, 2023 at 11:11 am

         Assume you are referring to high energy gamma radiation, it’s a bit more tricky to pick what and how much with low to medium energy gamma ray radiation. Water, and particularly heavy water, are used to moderate high energy radiation to lower energy forms which are more likely to initiate collisions/sustain controlled chain reactions.
         1. wendigo January 28, 2023 at 4:30 pm

            Neutrons are “moderated” to initiate fission.

            Where it gets tricky is when neutrons and beta need to be shielded as well, alpha is a lot easier, thick paper works well.

            I have no experience or training for shielding high energy cosmic rays.
   5. JustAnotherVolunteer January 28, 2023 at 12:38 pm

      Just leaving this here because talk of mushrooms and the moon opened up this memory hole.

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

      The late 50s and early 60s were a trippy time.
   6. digi_owl January 28, 2023 at 4:53 pm

      Heh, gets me thinking of the genetically modified whale blubber that was used as shielding in some sci-fi game or other.
3. The Rev Kev January 28, 2023 at 7:45 am

   ‘At a Senate hearing, top US diplomat Victoria Nuland celebrated the Nord Stream 2 pipeline bombing:

   “Senator Cruz, like you, I am, and I think the administration is, very gratified to know that Nord Stream 2 is now, as you like to say, a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea.” ‘

   As far as Nuland is concerned, reality is something rapidly diminishing in the rear vision mirror. At the same hearing she was saying ‘In the context of a Russian decision to negotiate seriously and withdraw its forces from Ukraine and return territory, I would certainly favor – and I believe Secretary [Antony] Blinken would also favor – sanctions relief’ Sanction relief for Russia pulling its troops out of the Ukraine? I would imagine that sanction relief would be only on those things causing economic chaos in the west while the rest stayed in place. She was also muttering about Putin being a war criminal and also said ‘I would cite the precedent of Kosovo, of Bosnia, of Rwanda, where we have successfully supported wars winding down through diplomatic means while also pursuing justice.’ Yeah, that’s going to happen. Right after regime change in Russia. Real soon now. And so here is the question. So does she believe what she says or is she playing to an audience not in that room?
   1. Stephen January 28, 2023 at 8:01 am

      “Victoria Nuland said yesterday that the US is working on setting up a “judicial mechanism” to prosecute Putin, whom she preemptively declared guilty. Thus confirming that the US is pursuing regime change. If you’re throwing Putin in prison, you’re changing the regime by force.”

      Western elites continue to huff and puff but they cannot blow down the brick house that the Russians have built. So they are engaging in theoretical measures that will amount to very little.

      For any objective observer their behaviour is counter productive, hysterical and hypocritical.

      Nuland talks as though the US is an omnipotent power. But this crisis has shown up how weak the US truly is. Russia has the strategic initiative.

      The only thing western elites have “achieved” is to propagandise western populations. As indicated by the German poll results in favour of Leopards. Although 38 per cent against seems high to me, given the wall to wall propaganda.

      Rekindling Prussian militarism is not an achievement for anyone to be proud of. Just as my own country the UK constantly trying to relive its imperial past while claiming to have changed is nothing to be proud of either. Nor is the US pretending that it is defending freedom while making war wherever it chooses.
      1. griffen January 28, 2023 at 8:18 am

         Nuland reminds me of the phrase, that When someone shows who they really are we should believe them, and Nuland is in the lot of the worse offenders in DC elite circles and their kind. I conclude the vast majority are all bats in the belfry, full of their own shite.

         This judicial mechanism that she references…seems like a curious and particularly a US thing to suggest it. They’ve taken Karl Rove at face value and improved on his statement, creating our own reality. I get that they really hate Putin, but deposing a sitting government doesn’t happen in the courts. I know let’s get John Bolton on the horn.

         To quote the quotable Hudson from Aliens. we’re on an express elevator to hell.
         1. 'The Rev Kev January 28, 2023 at 8:26 am

            ‘Going down!
            1. John January 28, 2023 at 10:02 am

               Nuland and Neo-con land start with a presumption of omnipotence coupled harnessed with a belief akin to the divine right to rule. Their dreams must be realized. Their plans will work … eventually. repeated failures are not their fault. Everything is permitted to them.

               They are not only tolerated but given access to power in what purports to be the land of democratic values and a “rules based order.” It is insane.
               1. Kouros January 28, 2023 at 11:13 am

                  The Skeksis from “The Dark Crystal” somehow seem as a good comparison…
      2. pjay January 28, 2023 at 10:32 am

         I know this is an overused metaphor, but the neocons are truly a cancer that has metastasized throughout the various organs of our political system, media, and national security apparatus. As the wretched examples of Nuland, Blinken, and Sullivan et al. demonstrate, they dominate both political parties. They are not some secret cabal; they have been laying out their philosophy in various publications since the early 1990s (actually the 1970s if you want to go back to the CIA ‘Team B’ days). But the truly striking thing is how they have been able infiltrate the Establishment and steadily advance their agenda over the last several decades during war or peace, Democrat or Republican administrations. They certainly have some Big Money behind them: arms manufacturers, foreign interests representing Israel or the Gulf States, right-wing billionaires, etc. But I’m not sure this provides a full explanation. Their ideological dominance has been aided by the complete gutting of any real “left” in US politics. This has now been accomplished in Europe as well. There was considerable resistance in Europe to the US invasion of Iraq; now there is only the most venal submission to our neocon demands.

         We need to figure out exactly how this has happened. Unfortunately, it may well be that the cancer has spread to far to cut it out at this point.
         1. Mikel January 28, 2023 at 11:32 am

            “they have been laying out their philosophy in various publications since the early 1990s (actually the 1970s if you want to go back to the CIA ‘Team B’ days)”

            I would say propaganda, manipulation and spreading, is their A game (and team) – not intelligence gathering, analysis, or any of that spy craft that people are dazzled with in action movies and tv shows.
            Look at many of those narratives as the A game of intelligence agencies.
            1. ArvidMartensen January 28, 2023 at 5:21 pm

               Astonishing to see how their tentacles spread through most countries – how their quislings can be activated at will, some recent surprising examples Kosovo, Iran, Peru, German Greens
         2. britzklieg January 28, 2023 at 11:52 am

            Indeed, It’s getting to the point where being a member of any mainstream political party (including, maybe especially so, those of the EU) is tantamount to joining the KKK, except that they will be using “Russian” instead of the the “n” word. It’s become a fundamentally racist hatred.
            1. JBird4049 January 28, 2023 at 4:54 pm

               How is this any different than in the Twentieth and Nineteenth centuries? Back when politicians labeled unionists, civil rights advocates, and reformers in general as communists, anarchists, or Moscow agents; the poor and immigrants were cast as inferior with eugenicist epithets used and forced sterilization applied. White Appalachians, Blacks, the Irish, Poles, Greeks, Russians, Jews, and Italians all being treated as a mass of “inferior stock.”

               Really, the past thirty or forty years has been unusually, not peaceful, never that, but less violent with the directed use of racial and class lynchings along with the appropriate language for it discouraged. The Democrat and Republican dog whistles are being used again to direct the violence and political repression. I wonder if I could considered Hillary Clinton’s dog whistle about the “Deplorables” as the start for the ramping up. No, the suppression of the Occupy Movement is probably it.

               It’s a scary feeling, but interesting as well, to realize that the America that I have studied for much of my life has never been of the past for it has never ended. It is the future that I have been reading about. It just put on a more beautiful face for a while and now the mask is slipping.
               1. Boris January 28, 2023 at 10:13 pm

                  I am perceiving exactly the same here in Germany that you describe from the US. Over the span of my life (60 years) it seemed we were getting better, civilizing ourselves—but no longer. All the old barbary is back, and I have no doubt that the majority in Germany will not need very much more propaganda massaging until going to war for real will be accepted, perhaps with joy.
                  1. digi_owl January 28, 2023 at 11:58 pm

                     Because the world went form people that had experienced hell up front, to people that think swearing is the equivalent of punching them in the face.

                     I’m no fan of the overly macho notion that peace make humans soft, but something has certainly snapped in the social psyche over the decades.
         3. bassmule January 28, 2023 at 12:18 pm

            How it happened? There’s always Janine R. Wedel’s The Shadow Elite
            Blurb:
            In this groundbreaking book, Wedel charts how this shadow elite, loyal only to their own, challenge both governments’ rules of accountability and business codes of competition to accomplish their own goals. From the Harvard economists who helped privatize post-Soviet Russia and the neoconservatives who have helped privatize American foreign policy (culminating with the debacle that is Iraq) to the many private players who daily make public decisions without public input, these manipulators both grace the front pages and operate behind the scenes. Wherever they maneuver, they flout once-sacrosanct boundaries between state and private.
         4. spud January 28, 2023 at 12:38 pm

            read the article on orban, he says he must stay in the e.u. for economic reasons.

            that is the real problem why there is no real left in the west, the idiots signed up for free trade, lost their sovereignty, and cannot survive if the fascists pull the economic plug on them. free trade is a trap.

            nuland says it well, the sanctions. only she has no real idea what sovereignty, protectionism, and production can achieve.

            that is why she is so delusional about putin. you can see the same in the trampoline jumpers running Germany, Finland and Moldova.

            nationalism is not fascism. whats left of the left simply cannot figure it out. that is why the right is winning the populist war.

            she is a product of our times. bill clinton once said sovereignty is quaint. he meant it, he was and is a idiot.
            1. digi_owl January 28, 2023 at 8:26 pm

               Free trade is modernized imperialism. It is about directing the resources, materials, people, energy, of the peripheral towards the core.

               The inclusion of the former communist nations into EU resulted in a massive freeze of local wages etc. The local shipyard that used to employ the whole municipality, is now 90% polish or some such. They come by the plane load every few months or so, and stay in a purpose build “barracks” for the duration.

               As for nationalism, i think the problem there is that there are two concepts of the term going around. Nation by culture or nation by blood/etnicity.

               The former is what one have in France, though far from perfect as one see when looking at French history, while the latter is what most often come to mind when talking about nationalism today (ethnic cleansing and all that).

               What is going on right now, is that the champagne “left” think they can have nations as administrative units within their globalist utopia. But without any of that singular culture etc.

               And that just means they are playing straight into the hands of the xenophobic right.
               1. JBird4049 January 29, 2023 at 8:04 am

                  All I can add to this is the deliberate conflating by both the white nationalists and neoliberals that being a nationalist can only mean that you are a racist white nationalist.

                  So, if I say that I am an American nationalist, they say or imply that I must be a white nationalist, a white supremacist, and cannot be a liberal, or a socialist, or against racism.
                  1. spud January 29, 2023 at 11:09 am

                     free trade hit minorities the hardest.

                     of course free trade is racism/fascism: I can’t think of a better recipe for inducing racial tension than having D.C. elites financed by Wall Street pushing offshoring and then saying that anyone who opposes having their community and livelihood destroyed is racist.

                     https://twitter.com/matthewstoller/status/1578131184504242176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1578131184504242176%7Ctwgr%5E4b5b58ff84c8f0aac19e79b5ab82a0e178967c4e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nakedcapitalism.com%2F2022%2F10%2Flinks-10-7-2022.html

                     https://twitter.com/DanielRangelJ/status/1578058529423990786

                     @WSpriggs
                     and his team ECONOMETRICALLY showed that the decimation of US manufacturing caused by the China trade shock increased racial inequality considering the change in the share of Black employment and Black hire rate in the most affected areas (2/).
                     https://groundworkcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/The-Impact-of-Trade-on-Black-Workers.pdf
               2. spud January 29, 2023 at 10:59 am

                  that is what Mein Kampf was all about. i cannot imagine anyone stupid enough to sign up for the E.U., if they knew history, the E.U. came out of the fascists movement in the 1930’s.

                  the paper left has no idea of history at all. nationalism they equate with fascism. but the fascists only counted their own government as being sovereign, everyone else would be their subjects to do as they please with them.

                  protectionism is the foundation of national self-determination and is fundamental.

                  https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nationalism-is-rising-not_b_10281138

                  headshot
                  George Friedman
                  ,
                  Contributor
                  Geopolitical Forecaster and Strategist
                  Nationalism Is Rising, Not Fascism
                  06/03/2016 02:18 pm ET Updated Jun 04, 2017

                  “Recently, there have been a number of articles and statements asserting that fascism is rising in Europe, and that Donald Trump is an American example of fascism. This is a misrepresentation of a very real phenomenon.

                  The nation-state is reasserting itself as the primary vehicle of political life. Multinational institutions like the European Union and multilateral trade treaties are being challenged because they are seen by some as not being in the national interest.

                  The charge of a rise in fascism comes from a profound misunderstanding of fascism. It is also an attempt to discredit the resurgence of nationalism and to defend the multinational systems that have dominated the West since World War II. ”

                  —

                  https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/03/nazi-germanys-american-dream-hitler-modeled-his-concept-of-racial-struggle-and-global-campaign-after-americas-conquest-of-native-americans.html

                  “British advocacy of free trade, he believed, was political cover for British domination of the world. A prosperous Germany required exchange with the British world, but this trade pattern could be supplemented, thought Hitler, by the conquest of a land empire that would even the scales between London and Berlin.

                  Once it had gained the appropriate colonies, Germany could preserve its industrial excellence while shifting its dependence for food from the British-controlled sea lanes to its own imperial hinterland.

                  It was reassuring to Hitler that such an alteration of the world order, such a reglobalization, had been achieved before, in recent memory. For generations of German imperialists, and for Hitler himself, the exemplary land empire was the United States of America.”
                  1. digi_owl January 30, 2023 at 8:27 pm

                     The EU model is at its core a carbon copy of the Zollverein.

                     Massive trade tariffs on those outside, zero on those inside, but in exchange you have to relinquish sovereignty.

                     And yeah, Hitler had much love for USA. In particular Ford factories, and Jim Crow laws.
      3. Kouros January 28, 2023 at 11:11 am

         So they will take Putin’s hologram, put it through this judicial mechanism (will it be real?) and then place the hologram in a prison (real?). Will this serve the purpose of making hoi polloi think that the US has actually won?

         Will the real Putin, in Kremlin be accused of being a double?
         1. TimH January 28, 2023 at 11:43 am

            Russia and USA are not party to ICC, so what mechanism?
         2. ThirtyOne January 28, 2023 at 1:12 pm

            Sounds like a perfect use for the useless Metaverse.
      4. dftbs January 28, 2023 at 2:40 pm

         “Victoria Nuland said yesterday…”

         Duffman says a lot of things.
      5. digi_owl January 28, 2023 at 5:03 pm

         Almost as if they have been on ice since the WoT kicked off back in 2001, and thus still think Russia is a broken nation running on home grown potatos and vodka.
   2. Terry Flynn January 28, 2023 at 8:59 am

      Not sure if my comments re psychotropic meds will pass muster but there’s been lots of work since the 60s when links between them and the gut (MAOIs) became infamous….
   3. Paul Jurczak January 28, 2023 at 10:21 am

      Send her to the Eastern Front. Spring offensive is coming…
   4. Cat Burglar January 28, 2023 at 3:45 pm

      Yeah, that “judicial mechanism” for prosecuting the Russians…wasn’t there a World court someplace?…um, maybe I am confusing it with the International Court of Justice? For a while, you used to hear about rule of law in international relations, but that got dropped for the “rules-based order.” That always runs into trouble when they start to specify what the rules are and who gets to make them.

      The judicial mechanism is likely going to be used to justify seizures of Russian assets and currency, to fund the conflict.

      The US has form here — look at the manipulation of the Tokyo Tribunals. There is a reason you only read about Nuremberg.
      1. jan January 28, 2023 at 7:07 pm

         I was listening to the Blowback podcast about Iraq earlier today, and they mentioned the trial of Saddam Hussein. There too the USA avoided using the International Court of Justice.
         Because rules based order, i guess?
   5. digi_owl January 28, 2023 at 4:59 pm

      Ah yes, the very same Kosovo and Bosnia that Putin invoked as precedence for starting the SMO in the first place.
   6. agent ranger smith January 29, 2023 at 3:43 am

      She believes what she says and she wants to convert the Senators into true believers and recruit them to support enough war on Russia to succeed in capturing Putin and putting him on trial just as with Milosevic.
      The correlation of forces will probably never be in her favor, but that is what she believes and what she wants and what she wants the Senators to want.
4. Steve H. January 28, 2023 at 8:16 am

   Yossarian: The enemy is anybody who’s going to get you killed, no matter which side he’s on, and that includes Colonel Cathcart. And don’t you forget that, because the longer you remember it, the longer you might live.

   Ian Welsh: Know Thine Enemy

   Gates: We also need to fix the three problems of vaccines. The current vaccines are not infection-blocking. They’re not broad, so when new variants come up you lose protection, and they have very short duration, particularly in the people who matter, which are old people.
   1. Lexx January 28, 2023 at 11:44 am

      Ian Welsh: Know Thine Enemy

      I’m struggling with his definition of the word ‘harm’ and its breadth. In that case I’m on a lot of intended and (mostly) unintended enemy lists..The backdraft of tribalism alone is stunning to behold.

      My own list of Others has been rather short. One was a decades long project.* An enemy is someone I can effectively harm, not just mutter under my breath about. Vengeance takes a lot time, energy, mindfulness, patience, and determination, and who wants to dedicate that much of themselves scoring pain on another? Not me, life’s too short as it is.

      ‘An enemy is someone who is doing you harm, or intends to do you harm. If they have the ability to do you harm, they will act on it.

      Note what this definition does not include. It says nothing about hate or anger or emotional state. It does not matter why someone is or wants or intends to harm you, all that matters is that they do.

      It does also not matter if you are collateral damage: if they don’t even know you personally exist. If they’re willing to harm you to get what they want, without caring one way or another about you, they’re your enemy.’

      *As a rule – not always – but I find it to be generally true, those who have harmed me or tried, got or get their comeuppance. I’m rarely a focused target. I just got in the way of someone generally self-destructive and angry with the world. Their pathology has a way of catching up with them… except world leaders and their courts, but they have entire staffs running interference for them or theirs heads would be covered with noogies every damn day. ‘Come ‘er Henry, here’s those noogies you so richly deserve!’
      1. spud January 28, 2023 at 1:31 pm

         welsh is speaking about the leaders of countries, not so much about local gripes.
         1. Lexx January 28, 2023 at 4:01 pm

            I’ve read Welsh for a couple of years. I knew what he meant.

            ‘The personal is political.’

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_personal_is_political
            – see ‘Multiple Meanings’
5. The Rev Kev January 28, 2023 at 8:23 am

   “WHY IS VENEZUELA’S GOLD STILL FROZEN IN THE BANK OF ENGLAND?”

   Just spitballing it here but could the real reason be that those gold bars belonging to the Venezuelan government are in fact no longer in the vaults of the bank of England? That after being seized, that they were used for honouring other transactions? If I had to guess where they were I would be looking East.

   If Venezuela ever was going to get its gold back, they will have to play it smart. So no sending it by plane in case an “accident” happened causing it to be missing for good, supposedly on the bottom of the Atlantic. No, it can go by a Venezuelan warship instead. Also, they will have to check that they are real gold bars and not just gold-coated Tungsten bars. It has happened before.
   1. Mark Gisleson January 28, 2023 at 9:33 am

      The stories about there being no gold in those vaults have been around for quite a while. It would be easy to think that most govts don’t press for the truth because virtual gold is better than no gold at all which, in this instance, might prove to be the case.
      1. The Rev Kev January 28, 2023 at 9:46 am

         It’s like Fort Knox. Nobody really knows what is there as it has not been properly inspected since, what, the 1970s? Oh, there was that visit about six years ago by Steven Mnuchin and Mitch McConnell and we know that they would never lie about what they saw-

         https://www.coinworld.com/news/us-coins/treasury-secretary-pays-visit-to-fort-knox-gold.html

         Come to think of it, didn’t the US government order between 1.3 and 1.5 million 400 oz tungsten blanks back in the 90s during the Clinton era (think Robert Rubin, Sir Alan Greenspan and Lawrence Summers)? Just sayin.’
6. Henry Moon Pie January 28, 2023 at 8:25 am

   Related to climate and all the good discussions being had around here about science–

   I had something interesting in my inbox today from a climate newsletter called Heated. In December, the American Geophysical Union, an organization of scientists, held its annual meeting in Chicago (no masks of course). Heated’s detailed reporting recounts a 21st century PMC tale with calls for direct action on climate conflicting with a woke milestone for the AGU. The resulting punishment for the climate activist AGU members provides a nice example of how the scientific establishment disciplines its ranks.

   Teaser:

   The next day, Kalmus and Abramoff [the activists] interrupted a panel at the conference, asking scientists to speak up about the need for climate action.

   The panel they interrupted was the first-ever AGU plenary session on art and science, moderated by the first-ever trans scientist to lead such a session at AGU, Art Institute of Chicago climate scientist Mika Tosca. More than 1,000 people were in attendance.

   Abramoff and Kalmus interrupted the event before the panelists took the stage, but session chair Kate Semmens was about to introduce the panelists over the loudspeaker. As a result, all three spoke at the same time.

   “Our science is showing that the planet is dying. It’s terrifying. Everything is at risk,” said Kalmus from the stage, trying to be heard. “As scientists, we have tremendous leverage, but we need to use it. We can wake everybody up.”

   “Please, please, please find a way to take action,” said Abramoff, before a woman approached the stage and pulled the banner out of her hands. Abramoff and Kalmus were then escorted from the stage by AGU staff.

   Scientists we spoke to said the protest’s timing left them disappointed because it eclipsed the panel’s message of hope and its featured artists. “I’m supportive of disruptive activism and I respect Peter and Rose as colleagues,” Tosca said. “[But] we ran this really amazing panel and all the media seems to care about is the protest that was like 15 seconds long before I even went on stage.”
   1. agent ranger smith January 29, 2023 at 3:53 am

      If Kalmus and Abramoff are the only two members of the AGU who feel that way, then there is nothing they can achieve with, within, through, or against the AGU to put reality on the table.

      But if several hundred other AGU members feel the same way they do, and feel it to the same level; they can quietly plot to all resign from the AGU at the very same time for maximum media exposure, and form a rival opposition science group. They could call it the AGSU, for American Geophysical Survival Union. But there would have to be enough AGU members willing to do this all at once to where by doing it they could cripple the AGU and weaken its influence and degrade its reach. They would then have to do the Science Activism they want to see done.
7. Kevin Smith MD January 28, 2023 at 8:27 am

   re: Effect of Fluvoxamine vs Placebo on Time to Sustained Recovery in Outpatients With Mild to Moderate COVID-19
   It is important to realize that almost all of the patients who received fluvoxamine in this study were not started on treatment until 5 or more days after a positive Covid test [the pills were delivered to the patients by mail or courier].
   1. there’s no treatment, including Paxlovid, which would be very useful if started 5 or more days after a positive Covid test, and
   2. no attempt appears to have been made to determine how many of the subjects actually took the pills which were delivered to them. [In my experience, patients are MUCH more likely to start and stick with medications which are directly given to them; in particular in clinical trials or with controversial situations like Covid.]

   Finally, the dose of 50 mg twice a day was half that used in other studies which showed a good response at 100 mg twice a day, for example.
   1. ambrit January 28, 2023 at 11:17 am

      Which leads to the question of where is the study covering those concerns? (If there is one such study, it is very low key, and basically invisible to the general public.)
      The lack of rigorous studies, properly designed and carried out concerning Coronavirus-19 treatments is enough to drive one to contemplate “alternative explanations” for the present direction of Public Health policy.
      1. Mikel January 28, 2023 at 4:37 pm

         And I’ll say again, alot of these same policy makers and influencers want you to think their “climate goals” have public health as a priority.
8. KD January 28, 2023 at 8:40 am

   a mummy as a “mummified person”

   For non-native speakers, you can translate Englib back into English by applying the basic rules for good writing as set forth by Strunk and White.
   1. lyman alpha blob January 28, 2023 at 10:47 am

      Thanks for the comment – made me go back and read that one, where I found this unlikely political statement from the Greek Miss Universe contestant calling for the return of the Elgin Marbles – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le3bbwbD6a4
9. griffen January 28, 2023 at 8:41 am

   Article from the Intercept about a slow implosion of a vaunted campaign tech firm, feel welcome to substitute any other functional business model which becomes acquired by a private equity / buyout firm, if only to be merged or combined with another in the same or comparable business. This is what happens, as typically documented over the years. Lately the coverage of this vampire-like business process extends into healthcare, dental care, elder care, aftercare for children, practically any business which generates cash flow and might scale to a bigger market.

   Back on topic, even by today’s standards that is a pretty crappy way to just fire people and not permit them ongoing access to just their laptop or to the company network through the end of the workday. Office Space was not cynical enough !
   1. BrianH January 28, 2023 at 10:15 am

      It would be absolutely delicious if the democrat party sleep walked through the destruction of their data/organizing infrastructure at the hands of private equity. And of course there will be zero self reflection, no one will make the connection that allowing private equity into any industry is a death sentence.
      1. semper loquitur January 28, 2023 at 12:54 pm

         To paraphrase Lambert, if your political party relies on a single tech outfit that is owned by rapacious parasites, it’s not really a political party…
      2. spud January 28, 2023 at 2:53 pm

         bill clinton deregulated the hedge funds, and they now have such a stranglehold on america, that everything you use, everything you touch, every where you go, maybe even the air we breath someday, a financial parasite will be feeding.

         it would be karma that they finished of the nafta democrats.
         1. agent ranger smith January 28, 2023 at 4:03 pm

            Well, as Mahatma Gandhi once said . . . ” You have to be the karma you wish to see in the world.”

            or something like that.
      3. agent ranger smith January 29, 2023 at 3:56 am

         If the DemParty’s owners and patrons consider the DemParty ongoingly important and necessary to the pursuit of their power-money political agenda; they will stand up another fundraising and data-organizing infrastructure to keep doing whatever this entity can no longer do.
10. jo6pac January 28, 2023 at 8:50 am

    WOW I didn’t get the memo.

    “Why Senate Democrats are playing it safe with their agenda this year.”

    They’re not only playing safe they haven’t released it to the rest of us. Then of course if they have plan at all I would be shocked.
    1. The Rev Kev January 28, 2023 at 9:07 am

       That must be the memo that says ‘Try to get the US and Russia into a real shooting war in the Ukraine.’
11. The Rev Kev January 28, 2023 at 9:04 am

    “Germany says it is not a warring party in Ukraine”

    Deliberately not including the line where Baerbock said that Germany is at war with Russia? That is why German’s have revived the Nazi-era term “Luegenpresse” (lying press). They do it right in your face, pee on your pants, and tell you that it is raining. And the UK based Reuters did the same. Which is why I am suspicious of those German polls that say people are all onboard with sending German tanks to fight the Russians. Never would have guessed a coupla years ago that the German Greens would be the Warmongers party while the AfD is now the party of caution and reason. There is going to be hell to pay in Germany when this war is over, that is for sure. And Baerbock? I am sure that she will choof off to a nice think tank somewhere or perhaps the EU will find a nice lucrative job. Hell, maybe she is being groomed to take over Ursula von der Leyen’s job one day.
    1. timbers January 28, 2023 at 9:28 am

       If Brian Berletic’s video a month or two ago is any guide (it shows Western donated tanks plastered with symbols used by the German leadership of the 30’s – 40’s and troops using military salutes to those leaders), I wonder if some in the German military has given any thought to the probability of their tanks once again sporting Third Reich insignia? Some of them may be quite upset by such a prospect.
       1. The Rev Kev January 28, 2023 at 9:32 am

          You just know that the Ukrainians are going to do it. They won’t be able to help themselves. We should have a pool on when videos of the first Leopard 2 tanks sporting a Balkenkreuz will appear on the net.
          1. timbers January 28, 2023 at 9:57 am

             To paraphrase one of the most quoted movie lines in history, Claude Raines in Casablanca, “I’m shocked SHOCKED! Nassim is going on in Ukraine.” The West knows no limits to its hypocrisy.
             1. The Rev Kev January 28, 2023 at 10:04 am

                I liked the bit yesterday where they banned the Russians from the commemorations for Auschwitz, even though they were the ones that freed that camp, but what they did do was to have the Ukrainians as special guests who in WW2 were actually helping man those camps as guards and were working directly for the SS. And this is the world that we live in now.
                1. timbers January 28, 2023 at 10:31 am

                   Last night, I posted a comment in a movie forum on the recent release of Casablanca in 4K. The point made is the relevance of current events to that movie using the same point I made here regarding tanks. This morning I found my account gone. The reason given is that I was masquerading as someone else, who I’d never heard of. Oh well. I can just open another account. No contrary views allowed from the prescribed narrative. Guess they thought I was a Russian KGB agent.
                2. Pat January 28, 2023 at 10:39 am

                   Dear god I missed that. In another time the screams would be heard from all corners of the earth. But now it only happens when those noted Jew haters Corbyn and Sanders appear to gain some political traction.

                   History really is being rewritten.
                3. Bart Hansen January 28, 2023 at 11:10 am

                   Last evening I saw a video of Zelig, I mean Zelensky, placing a wreath on a memorial at Auschwitz. Is there no place on earth where he will be refused entry?
                   1. ambrit January 28, 2023 at 11:22 am

                      “Is there no place on earth where he will be refused entry?”
                      Forget the Earth. Jump to the Afterlife. I humbly suggest that “Z” demand to be buried with a lot of sunscreen and asbestos clothes.
                      1. Nikkikat January 28, 2023 at 12:42 pm

                         Lol Ambrit! Mr Z will get is just desserts!
                      2. griffen January 28, 2023 at 4:49 pm

                         He is appearing everywhere. Now he’ll be on boxes of cereal, packed with marshmallow goodness !!

                         https://babylonbee.com/news/lucky-charms-unveils-new-ukrainian-flag-marshmallow
                         1. ambrit January 28, 2023 at 6:37 pm

                            Is being on the side of a milk carton still a ‘thing?’ That would be priceless.
                            “Believe him missing with a number of men. Don’t expect to see him again.”
                   2. Kouros January 28, 2023 at 11:26 am

                      Hopefully the coming Italian San Remo…
                      1. DJG, Reality Czar January 28, 2023 at 11:50 am

                         Kouros: Indeed.

                         All one has to do is enter “Sanremo no a Zelensky” in a browser and dozens of articles come up.

                         And when you have Moni Ovadia and Matteo Salvini on the same side of an issue, it is obvious that Zelensky’s grandstanding (which is being openly mocked in Italian newspapers) isn’t welcome.

                         Sanremo is about a certain way that Italians write songs and present them. Zelensky is an intruder in what the critics point out is an artistic competition. Of course, the Ukrainian government interfered in Eurovision, so maybe Zelensky thinks he’s going to do the same at Sanremo.

                         Now: To eliminate the proposed shipment of Italian armaments to Ukraine.
                         1. Bart Hansen January 28, 2023 at 2:34 pm

                            Keep tuned for appearances at post office openings, dog shows, and, heaven forbid, Bar Mitzvahs.
                4. hk January 28, 2023 at 11:48 am

                   Given the way things are now, people will have clapped if he praised the brave Ukrainian guards who kept the Russian invaders out of Auschwitz as long as they did. Good times. :(
       2. hk January 28, 2023 at 9:59 am

          I’m not sure if they’ll stay upset. The apparent rapid shift in German public opinion about arms deliveries makes me wonder how soon we’ll see the Germans, politicians and public alike, sieg heiling each other, “fuer freiheit,” of course.
    2. hk January 28, 2023 at 9:55 am

       What exactly is German public opinion now about “war” with Russia now, I wonder? If the linked tweets are to be believed, they are all over the place….
       1. Katniss Everdeen January 28, 2023 at 1:00 pm

          Does it really “matter” what Germans think or don’t think, or what Baerbock “said” or didn’t “say?” Their fate was sealed when their “leaders” committed energy / economic suicide and on their behalf.

          What really matters is what the Russian people and their leaders heard, and I’d say they got the message loud and clear.
    3. Kouros January 28, 2023 at 11:24 am

       Maybe both the Greens and the NSDP had the same external financial backers?! What do I know.
    4. Mikel January 28, 2023 at 11:47 am

       Think of the ground work that had to be laid for the brazen lie the German press is reporting to work with any effect. And the MSM here is dutifuly reporting what the German press said. All of them have video hosting capabilities. How many are showing exactly what she said or just repeating the lie in a headline and pretending to “objectively” report the German media response?

       The ground work has to be laid which creates a reader or watcher that doesn’t care about truth (the lie will guarantee a continued comfort of some sort) and/or thinks by going along to get along there is some kind of reward.
12. Carolinian January 28, 2023 at 9:13 am

    I like BAR and Margaret Kimberley but her article on “cop city” gives every benefit of a doubt to the protestors and none to those who suggest that this is a manufactured dispute. When she says “outside agitators” is a historic trope it should be easy enough to get the info on those arrested and determine if all of them are in fact from out of state. One would assume that if a suspiciously unanimous “98 percent” of those polled (in fact per her link only “52% of survey respondents are residents within the closest zip codes”) are opposed to the project then at least a few locals would be included among the arrested. When she appeals to the “old growth” trees on this former prison farm it is again a vague claim in a region where all true old growth was logged long ago. And while it’s true that we have no proof that the man killed shot first, it is true that one among the police was shot and seriously injured by someone.

    So Atlanta is now being promised a revival of the 2020 riots out to the horizon over an incident where the facts are unclear and about a piece of property which was always in a rural suburb of the city and always a law enforcement property. If the response somehow proves that the city’s longstanding black leadership are all Uncle Toms I don’t see it. There’s a big history of racism in Atlanta but also a big history of nonviolent civil rights protest. Antifa they don’t need.
    1. kson onair January 28, 2023 at 12:05 pm

       >is true that one among the police was shot and seriously injured by someone.

       1. Good, it’s only a shame that they’re only injured.
       2. It was probably another worthless cop.
       1. Katniss Everdeen January 28, 2023 at 1:26 pm

          Helpful, thanks.
       2. Steve H. January 28, 2023 at 1:37 pm

          Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends
13. Carla January 28, 2023 at 9:18 am

    Here’s a story of health care privatization from a Canadian who has never paid for any medical care before in his life. As an American, I find it valuable to have the perspective of a person, who together with his country, is just starting on this journey to hell we demonically, in the U.S., call “health care.”

    https://www.ianwelsh.net/a-story-about-how-health-care-privatization-happens/
    1. griffen January 28, 2023 at 9:38 am

       I was preparing to post a comment on the RIP medical debt thread. Which is helpful information of course, to those who have little to no recourse in repaying a small hill or small mountain (either one) of medical debt and healthcare costs. America is not a serious country, it is often said.

       A high school friend from the early 1990s had mounted a campaign during summer of 2022, doing so as lead pastor of his fairly small but thriving (perhaps, I hope) ELCA Lutheran church. So it’s encouraging to see these anecdotes from a broader cross section of medium to large cities.
    2. wendigo January 28, 2023 at 10:30 am

       “slowly at first,then all at once”

       My province,which has started contracting services to private clinics in Ontario, is adamant the Federal Government has to provide more money for health care.

       On a totally unrelated area, they are handing out cheques and promising to cut taxes because the public ” best knows how to spend this money”.
    3. CanCyn January 28, 2023 at 12:57 pm

       Just read Welsh’s article. As a fellow Canadian, I share his worry about healthcare 10 yrs from now. And believe me it ain’t so great right now. I also also his experience of never paying for any aspect of healthcare except prescription meds and dentistry. I have a family doctor but he runs a walk-in clinic, the place is pretty hectic, visits are short, one topic only. As a child I had allergies and had to get a weekly shot from spring through to fall. The doctor had two nurses on staff. Sometimes one of them gave my allergy shot, sometimes he did. He would chat with me and my Mom or Dad like he had all the time in the world. Often do a bit of a consult with them on their own healthcare issues. It feels like a dream when I think about my current doctor’s office. Doctors now are overwhelmed with administrative, recording everything they do in order to be paid. Kids in medical school now are steering away from becoming family practitioners because of it. And like COVID, most people here have an everything is fine attitude or are just oblivious to the impending doom being forced down our throats by our neoliberal elite. I am doing my best to take very good care of myself because I’m 61 and I don’t want to think about being sick in my later years.
       1. Carla January 28, 2023 at 2:28 pm

          CanCyn — I appreciate hearing your perspective. Destroying just about every positive aspect of American life for 90 percent of the population has been a long-term project, spanning much of my adult life, but with the planning starting even earlier. Now financialization and neoliberalism have infected the whole world, or at least all of the global north. Being so close to the epicenter, Canadians have gotten the first of it and the worst of it, perhaps. (Mexico having had some protection conferred by another language and a sizeable indigenous population resulting in a distinctly different culture.)

          I believe that as Jason Hickel posits in “Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World,” the future of the planet depends upon the global south. Hope his book is translated into Spanish soon! And in the meantime, I will try to interest young people here in reading it.
          1. CanCyn January 28, 2023 at 6:11 pm

             Hi Carla – On your earlier recommendations I am awaiting Less is More from the library. I am thinking, like KLG mentioned in a post, that I need a little bookshelf. I get tongue tied trying to explain things to the PMC bubble people in my life. I’m going to start recommending books to people. I suspect Leas is More will be one of them.
       2. Mildred Montana January 28, 2023 at 3:00 pm

          As a Canadian I lament the slow breakdown of our single-payer Medicare system. And it’s all because the privateers want to horn in on public largesse.

          I say, let them try—and make them fail. Don’t fall for their lies. I say, let them go private, and try to collect when their patients can’t pay. That’s what Medicare was all about when it was introduced in Canada back in the early ’60s. Doctors agreed to have their fees regulated but in exchange they were guaranteed payment by the provincial or federal governments. Quid pro quo.

          Now I say, let the privateers charge what they will, and then watch as their client base at $70 a visit shrinks, disappears, or fails to pay. Just don’t let them, under any circumstances, dip into public funds. Otherwise Medicare has become nothing more than a public-private partnership (PPP) and we all know what happens to the public in those arrangements.
       3. agent ranger smith January 28, 2023 at 4:08 pm

          Is there any political party in Canada which would overtly object to that creeping privatism? And run on that objection?

          New Democrats? Anyone?

          ( One wonders if the neoliberals are running to privatise Canada’s system and abolish Single Payer in Canada as fast as they can so that we in America who want Single Payer are deprived of that successful Better Example to be able to point to).
14. Another Scott January 28, 2023 at 9:34 am

    A story from the world of sports business. Bally Sports is on the brink of bankruptcy. What is Bally Sports? They are regional sports networks (RSNs) that used to be owned by Fox, but were sold to Sinclair (and others) in order to comply with Disney (ESPN)’s acquisition of Fox. Sinclair seemed to take a private- equity style approach to financing the deal, loading debt onto the acquired property and making sure that all of the executives were taken care of.

    Here’s a link to the Bloomberg article and some analysis from Baseball Prospectus.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-25/sports-broadcaster-diamond-faces-8-6-billion-debt-reckoning

    https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/80012/in-the-dirt-sinclair-prioritizing-buybacks-over-baseball-hurts-fans-the-most/

    The PMC types who dominate a lot of the sports analysis I read are horrified by Sinclair (because it’s pro-GOP), but only seem outraged by this style of acquisition and failure when it happens to an industry they like, but never seem to understand that this type of behavior happens all of time to people in other industries. And I don’t even want to get into how Wall Street-style analysis has permeated MLB front offices.
    1. griffen January 28, 2023 at 10:44 am

       I was pretty unaware of the ownership structure, but in America 2023 is the parent company on the hook or is it the operating subsidiary instead. Either way, a reorganization in bankruptcy seems one likely outcome; really doubtful this matters much or causes long term damage to MLB. As it goes for professional sports teams in the USA, the rich ownership generally thrive on local and municipal handouts, or they generally suckle from the teats a lot more when threatening to leave ABC city for XYZ city without a gleaming new stadium or sparkly bright arena. Rinse and repeat.

       Back to the Bally Sports network and programming. I generally forget that one, it’s available with my cable television and two, that live sports is available on the channel. One day in the distant future, our general descendants will question the validity of paying professional baseball athletes in the manner that MLB athletes are compensated. One guy on an NBA team can accomplish much ( ie, see M Jordan, Lebron, D Wade ) with the right cast surrounding him. One guy on an MLB team can’t play both third base and shortstop. And the way pitchers are managed after a mere 6 innings is just ridiculous.

       All that said, I do love sports but baseball just not that much anymore.
    2. NotTimothyGeithner January 28, 2023 at 3:41 pm

       Grrr is that why I had no option to watch the UVA game the other night other than one hosted by dick Vitale?. I watched acc games for years without listening to that dip.
       1. eg January 29, 2023 at 5:45 am

          He’s at his abysmal worst whenever it’s a Duke game, a team which I can never see lose often enough.
15. Not Again January 28, 2023 at 9:40 am

    the council of six unions covering 45,000 workers at Disney World is recommending a “no” vote on the company’s latest offer.

    Looks like Congress needs to break another strike. The Dems in 2024 will run on “We kept Disney World open but not the federal government.”
    1. ambrit January 28, 2023 at 11:27 am

       I can see this as a campaign slogan for Biden 2024: “We made the rides run on time.”
       The Democrat Party must be planning to run a “Bread and Circuses” campaign in ’24.
       1. Not Again January 28, 2023 at 1:20 pm

          It could explain why the intend to run Goofy for president.
          1. ambrit January 29, 2023 at 4:28 am

             True that. I’ll expand the idea by suggesting that the Democrat Party has already run Goofy, and won. One can observe that the GOP ran “Scrooge McDuck” who beat “Minnie Mouse” in 2016. (The Democrat Party, including “Mickey,” claimed that it was “her turn.” However, admitting that would force us to accept that American politics has been ‘Mickey Mouse’ since at least 1993.)
16. britzklieg January 28, 2023 at 9:59 am

    No disrespect for King Tut, but Biden gives mummies a bad name. All it takes is one bad apple…
17. Objective Ace January 28, 2023 at 10:52 am

    These cities, and now possibly a state for the first time, are buying medical debt at a ratio of 100-1

    Doesnt this just incentivize medical providers and debt collectors to continue to jack up prices and pursue debts? There’s now a formal backstop in place to pay at least some of it. (I believe there’s also tax implications for those whose debt is forgiven)

    The correct solution is help and/or an easier process through bankrputcy
    1. Yves Smith January 28, 2023 at 11:09 am

       Actually, it is to help debtors stare down the providers. Statute of limitations is six years in most states, less in others. And medical debt is no longer included in credit scores. Just tell them to fuck off.

       The problem is they might attempt to garnish assets so you need to make your bank and other financial asset accounts hard to find. This is where talking to an expert would help.

       Another trick is never to deal with that provider again. With banks, doing that restarts the statue of limitations clock and I would assume that applies to creditors generally.
       1. Carla January 28, 2023 at 7:58 pm

          Re: never dealing with that provider again. There are only three “providers” in our region: Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and MetroHealth. Metro used to be Metropolitan General Hospital and it was our only Public hospital, but that was a very long time ago. Although Metro still sucks at the public teat and gets plenty of tax dollars, it’s a strange amalgam of public, non-profit, and I-don’t-know-what that leads to recurring, major corruption scandals. Anyway, my point is, if you quit one “provider” because you didn’t pay, there are only two “providers” left. Quit the second, and… so forth. And they DO turn you over to collection quickly.
    2. John Zelnicker January 28, 2023 at 12:08 pm

       Ace – Yes, there are tax implications for most forgiven debt, although there are important exceptions. Medical debt is not one of those.

       Debt which has been canceled becomes income to the debtor unless they qualify for an exception. The two relevant ones are that the debtor is in bankruptcy or they can be shown to be insolvent prior to the cancellation. The first is easy to prove, the second is not so easy. The rules are a bit complicated and every asset is included, which means that assets normally immune to creditor claims, such as retirement plans are counted.

       Interestingly, those with the biggest debt may have the easier task of proving insolvency since the canceled debt is included in that calculation.

       I hope that these cities and states are making sure that people understand this. Otherwise they are going to be surprised next year when they get a 1099 form telling them to report the income.
       1. Diogenes January 28, 2023 at 5:27 pm

          Perhaps as to forgiven debt, but I would assume not for uncollected debt which is time-barred by an elapsed statute of limitations, unless adjudicated by a court. I.e., because the statute of limiations is an affirmative defense to collection, the debt itself still being valid.
    3. IM Doc January 28, 2023 at 3:42 pm

       When I was a young doctor working in a Catholic hospital, things were just a bit different. It really was Catholic. There was a convent of nuns who lived in an attached dormitory. You would see those women running all over the place. There were walls and walls of Catholic bling and crucifixes everywhere.

       And they had mass every day. And when you went to mass, one of the nuns would bring a piece of paper and lay it on the altar. It was a list of unpaid bills and it was their way of giving it to God. They never gave specific names but they would often list off verbally who they were helping – young single moms with a sick kid, widows, young men unemployed because of their brain tumor, etc, etc. It made quite an impression on one young doctor in the crowd, I can assure you of that. It reminded me of the fact that in those days, the taxpayers had heavily paid for me to have the privilege of being a physician. It was my duty to give what I could back to the taxpayers all the years I practice. In that regard, the nuns were amazing role models. That thread has long been lost in our current world.

       That hospital was always on the edge of running out of money. Lots of donations from the wealthy, and churches etc. They managed to provide very good health care though, much better than today. And they did so without mahogany tables and paneling and marble walls. The hospital was serviceable but did not appear to be the lobby of The Four Seasons which is what it looks like today. Now, the nuns are gone. The dormitory was long ago demolished and all the bling removed. It still has the Catholic name but is now run by MBAs, the spawn of Mammon. They take pride in sending all the freeloaders accounts to collection agencies. I have been present for their meetings, and unlike the masses of long ago, it is rather ghoulish. Loud boasting about screwing this or that insurance company and how much better our advertising is than the other hospitals, etc. How much lower “the spend” is in their facility, etc. Somehow, I think the consequences of allowing this evil into our midst is going to come back and bite, and bite hard.
       1. Carla January 28, 2023 at 8:03 pm

          Nail, meet head.

          Thank you again, IM Doc
18. IMOR January 28, 2023 at 10:54 am

    “Landlord lobby brags about blocking executive order on housing crisis”
    Klipinger is right to call this out, of course. But he seems to believe it is novel, or at least egregious. It is not. If he ever reads half an issue of the basic monthly of the National Apartments Association, his head will explode.
19. lyman alpha blob January 28, 2023 at 11:04 am

    RE: Against Copyediting

    Read the first half of that one with interest, as copyeditor seems like the kind of job I might like. Then the author starts into how “white supremacist” it all is, excluding certain dialects and cultures from the printed page if they don’t conform to a certain set of “rules”, which didn’t really comport with my own reading experience. I soldiered on, however, until coming to the author’s critique of Eats, Shoots & Leaves, which is an (how about that for grammatical sticklery!) hilarious little book about the proper use of punctuation, but one which the author suspects just might be propping up the far right somehow. At that point I could take it no more and had my suspicions about the author. I scrolled down to find my suspicions confirmed – the author was not a member of some historically aggrieved ethnic group, but yet another hand wringing white lady.

    I’d suggest that the author read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , written in 1884(!) to assuage her fears about certain dialects not being allowed on the written page, but of course the “woke” are trying to have that one banned due to the very dialect it includes and celebrates. If she can’t find a copy at the library I’m happy to lend her mine.
20. Lex January 28, 2023 at 11:08 am

    If the US can increase artillery shell production to the stated goals … and I think it should be understood that’s a very big “if” given there is only one factory I know of which produces the charges … but if it is successful it will take almost 18 months to replace what’s been given (officially) to Ukraine so far. So if everything goes right and we stop supplying Ukraine tomorrow, then US artillery stocks can reach their February 2022 levels sometime in mid to late 2026.

    Though it’s probably worth noting that the stated production goals are significantly higher than recent CSIS estimates for even surge production. Until very recently a target number of 20k/month sometime this year was put forward as the realistic big push for 2023. IIRC, the next goal was 40k/month but that would require several years of buildup. Shipments to Ukraine are now pushing close to 1.5M.
    1. Not Again January 28, 2023 at 1:05 pm

       2026? You missed by one year.

       https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/us-air-force-general-predicts-war-china-2025-memo-rcna67967
       1. Willow January 28, 2023 at 3:28 pm

          Pentagon deliberately thinking out loud? Reason for the recent pessimistic Rand report? If 2025 is the time horizon, US will need to be out of Ukraine in under six months. Which means Russia is in a very strong position and any negotiations will deliver what Russia wants on a plate. Is this why there seems to be a forced change of guard in Ukraine? Arestovich ‘switching’ sides? A need to install someone willing to give what the Russians want?

          Fly in the ointment will be UK/Poland/Baltic States trying to keep the US in the war and whether they will do something stupid.
          1. Willow January 28, 2023 at 6:12 pm

             Expectations of US in a war with China by 2025 will push Israel to address the Iran problem sooner than later.
          2. tevhatch January 28, 2023 at 6:27 pm

             The war in China means the war in the China Closet of Capitol Hill, it’s a dire fight for money. Who shall get the most money, gets the best board seats upon retirement. Like Ukraine, the USA has no intention of getting directly into war with China, that would collapse the USA economy, which would end the money games. Cui Bono? What they want is more leverage over China by getting Taiwan to commit suicide, then using the backlash to try to stop China from overtaking USA in Africa and South American markets. I don’t think it will work, considering how everyone outside the EU is ignoring Ukraine game or even profiting from it (Even USA is breaking EU trade embargos).

             Remember Ukraine borders NATO, the only likely candidates for USA harassing China are both protected by a significant body of ocean water and prevented from doing anything significant by the same. South Korea’s constitution may give power over it’s military to the Pentagon, but ala Park, a bullet in the head of any leaders who attempted to do the USA bidding for full war is what I’d expect.
             1. ACPAL January 29, 2023 at 1:51 am

                Just as with Ukraine, the US will convince Japan, S. Korea, Australia, and other countries to do the heavy fighting against China. The US might send a few navy ships, British SAS and US Navy Seals and such on sabotage missions, and maybe a few varied aircraft and missiles just to see how well the technology works. It might risk sticking it’s toe in but not its foot and never it’s territory. The US will again fight to the last non-US citizen.
                1. OnceWereVirologist January 29, 2023 at 2:48 am

                   I confess I don’t see how this is possible. None of these countries share a land border with China. Where is the battlefield ? The straits of Taiwan ? Contender for shortest war in history if a naval task force consisting of just what Japan, South Korea and Australia could supply attempted to go head to head with China just off the coast of China itself.
                2. tevhatch January 29, 2023 at 11:57 am

                   I suspect, based on past behavior, the US is only interested in the colonies fighting if it means they will have to buy replacement gear from USA. The USA intends to sacrifice Taiwan as soon as it’s successfully moved chip production back to USA. 2025 is too early for the simple reason that moving the chip production has been much harder than expected.
          3. hk January 28, 2023 at 8:07 pm

             I doubt Russia negotiates any time soon. Russia’s de facto war goals now are demilitarizing United States and “denazifying” Europe, while keeping the shooting war limited to Ukraine. If so, it’s going tremendously well so far and Ukraine’s NATO puppets are playing the role they are assigned by feeding NATO military resources in penny packets into Ukraine. I was a bit surprised by the poll numbers in Germany in the links, though, as that suggests that we are still very far away from the end of this war
21. DJG, Reality Czar January 28, 2023 at 11:15 am

    Against copyediting: I read poor Rubenstein’s tale of woe, and I note at the end, in her biog, she is now “transgressive” (word of the moment a few years back) and a one-on-one (a veritable discalced Carmelite in her charity) writing coach. I’ll take an honest copy editor any day over the swampy world of writing coaches, life coaches, free-lance dramaturgs, and others preying on people’s talents and hopes.

    The purpose of copy editing is to fix mistakes, check facts, ensure that the book is internally consistent, count the endnotes, and other aspects of the craft of publishing. Publishing is still very much a craft–and is better off when self-appointed drudges like Rubenstein head for the door. And you wonder why holiday parties in publishing are so horrible… (or maybe you don’t).

    Case in point: another transgressive and aggressive whiny writer, Rebecca Solnit. Solnit was the writer of the Easy Chair intro column at Harper’s Magazine for several months maybe four years ago. It is obvious that her gear-grinding style cannot be remedied by copyediting. Her Trump Derangement Syndrome would usually evince around paragraph five (“I saw his puffy face in an ice cube in my Cuba Libre!”). Then she would maunder churlishly for a few more paragraphs and quit. She hasn’t been in Harper’s since, and Harper’s, so obviously “mansplaining,” without a doubt had to fire her.

    Copyeditors are supposed to have a light hand. Rubenstein mainly wants to preach. Yes, all of you are being terribly, terribly oppressed by having to learn standard U.S. punctuation. [And, yes, the semicolon must die.]

    I’m sure that Victoria Nuland, whose style of speech is pure logorrhea, will free us from such oppression.

    DJG, your reality czar and flinty publishing type.
22. anon January 28, 2023 at 11:36 am

    the us army’s modern war institute…..

    a propaganda piece soft soaping the introduction of nato tanks to kiev’s war on donbas.

    are the tech manuals translated so anyone can start training?

    logistics seems to be a missing art at west point.

    much less evolutions from missing strategy.
    1. jhallc January 28, 2023 at 12:16 pm

       I read the article and have no way to dispute the armament figures put forth, but once I read this paragraph I have my suspicions.

       “Ukraine’s impressive performance so far in the war is a function of its defiance of many analysts’ projections that the weight of numbers would quickly tell. Ukraine’s spirited commitment to its own defense notwithstanding, the sheer advantages in manpower and materiel that Russia held were widely expected to tip the balance in its favor. That did not happen. In fact, even without the influx of new tanks, while Russia was losing half of its entire stock of readily available tanks, Ukraine likely actually increased the number it had because it captured more Russian tanks than it lost on the battlefield. In sufficient quantity, it is difficult to see how an injection of new, highly capable tanks like the Leopards will not further shift this balance of attrition, which is already heavily in Ukraine’s favor.”

       The lead author is a military intelligence spook so take the article with a large helping of salt.
       Also the organization is not really connected to West Point. They just want to sound like they are.
23. Roger Blakely January 28, 2023 at 11:50 am

    When alpha mice are trounced by weaklings, they spiral into depression Science

    “Hu says her study does point to one potentially helpful takeaway for humans. “Try not to get too used to winning all the time.” After all, the higher your expectations, the harder you can fall.”

    What men experience in the dating market these days is that the dating market is a winner-take-all market. Women are only choosing the top 4.5% of men. I know. I know. This assertion is controversial. Data sets fly back and forth. When I put the query into Google, it spits this out: “A 2019 study entitled Are men intimidated by highly educated women? Undercover on Tinder found that men swiped right on 61.9% of women on Tinder but women on average only swiped right on average 4.5% of men.Sep 29, 2022”

    Whatever the reality is, this statistic rings true for men. If a man is not at the top of the heap, he gets nothing. Women reject him. It makes perfect sense that a deposed alpha mouse would spiral into depression.

    It turns out that all women want the same guy. To women a man is three things. The first thing, the most important thing, is his height. Most women set their dating app to weed out men under six feet tall. The second thing is his money. Most women aren’t interested in any man who earns less than $100,000 per year. The third thing is his looks. Women want a conspicuously handsome man.

    Even the most masculine, ball-busting feminists want the rich alpha Chad. They want a man who is big and strong like an NFL linebacker. In order to feel safe, they want him to be a like a professional bodyguard with expertise in street fighting and firearms. They want him to be rich. He must have enough money to provider them with a luxury lifestyle. He must be hyper-masculine and dominant. The idea is that he is so dominant that he forces the masculine, ball-busting feminist into behaving as a submissive feminine woman.
    1. kson onair January 28, 2023 at 12:13 pm

       Maidenless behavior right here.
    2. begob January 28, 2023 at 12:35 pm

       Am I correct in saying Roger Blakely hasn’t had it lately?
       1. Eclair January 28, 2023 at 2:08 pm

          Well, begob, you are not correct, or kind, in saying it. But you, and many of us, may be forgiven for thinking it.
    3. wol January 28, 2023 at 12:40 pm

       ‘…I cant of course but be curious what an analytic sort such as yourself makes of the fair sex in the first place. The slurred murmurings. The silken paw in your shorts. Beguiling eyes. Creatures soft of touch and sanguinivorous of habit. What runs so contrary to received wisdom is that it really is the male who is the aesthete while the woman is drawn to abstractions. Wealth. Power. What a man seeks is beauty, plain and simple. No other way to put it. The rustle of her clothes, her scent. The sweep of her hair across his naked stomach. Categories all but meaningless to a woman. Lost in her calculations. That the man knows not how to even name that which enslaves him hardly lightens his burden….’

       Cormac McCarthy
       The Passenger
       1. wol January 28, 2023 at 1:21 pm

          ‘If You Want to Be Happy’, Jimmy Soul, 1963. 2:39: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4TOR7856d4
    4. semper loquitur January 28, 2023 at 1:32 pm

       I can tell you from personal experience that this isn’t the case. I’m not saying that there aren’t a lot of women looking for the stereotypical male you describe but it certainly isn’t all of them. Not even most. A lot of women I dated were looking for something other than that, they don’t want some arrogant b@ll-sack upon whom they come to rely for financial security. And certainly not a guy prone to violence.

       I’m no linebacker. I couldn’t fight my way out of a laundry bag and when I was active on the dating sites I was consistently broke. My humor, wits, charm, and agreeable appearance were more than enough to land me dozens and dozens of dates annually. And “numbers” at, according to one old girlfriend, around nine times the average straight man. I should add that this was when I was an unmedicated bipolar, to boot.

       Here’s the secret: Volume, baby, volume. Get yourself some nice looking pictures. NO BARE CHESTED SHOTS. Women hate those. Get a spare profile, don’t go off on your politics or how much dating sucks or what a genius you are, just some basic details is all you need. No one wants to read someone’s autobiography.

       Hammer out a nice introductory message, not too long nor too detailed. “Hello, I came across your profile and I have to say you look stunning! Would you like to chat sometime?” Go through the profiles and just look at the pictures. Glance at the text to make sure they aren’t entirely incompatible with you. Open the one’s you like as tabs.

       Then, copy and paste the message into the instant messenger thingy or whatever. Send and repeat. When someone gets back to you, THEN examine their profile in greater detail.

       When I was active, I would do this a couple times a night. I averaged around three dates a week, sometimes more. I got pretty savvy about it, as in I could tell pretty quickly when the lady was just in it for a free dinner or was a major tease. Don’t waste time chasing. I repeat: don’t waste time chasing. If a lady bailed on a date, no problem, let’s try again. Second time? Bye. Ball’s in her court. Keep on cutting and pasting.

       It’s not problem free, of course. You still get burned…and burned out. But I had a lot of fun and met some wonderful women along the way. And my partner too.
       1. farmboy January 29, 2023 at 7:41 am

          “Don’t waste time chasing…” good advice, same with markets. Also, don’t get old!
    5. griffen January 28, 2023 at 1:53 pm

       Never really worked out the right angle or approach on Tinder. Let’s face it, when your face becomes odd or disfigured from standing around your apartment smoking cigars and pipes it turns your otherwise alluring glance into a hideous looking face. Happened to Kramer !

       Wait until about the 2 minute mark…I’m hideous…

       https://youtu.be/4lHLS9daGBk
    6. Pat January 28, 2023 at 2:21 pm

       I have spent decades working with beautiful women. I am on my best day average. I am also educated, funny and pretty nice. But I could not get a second’s notice from men with about one or two exceptions annually. I would expect the same in today’s dating app world without extensive photo editing. I should point out that at the end of the night at whatever type event we might have met at. I could suddenly became interesting. Shallow is not limited to females.
       And I honestly think I have it better than those beautiful women I worked with. Um they know to a large portion of the male population they are pieces of meat. The joke about talking to the breasts is based on a lot of truth. Humans become idiots around people they are attracted to a great deal of the time. It is even worse when those humans are in some way successful. Ignoring the opposite idiocy, from my experience observing things The Chads you are talking about, well a whole lot don’t grow out of the idiocy and entitlement. Seriously, I spent too much time watching Donald Trump’s pick up technique while he was engaged to Marla Maples. The women he was running his half assed game on were experienced enough to blow him off without outright insult, but rightfully thought Maples was an idiot, even knowing she wasn’t all about love in her game as well. He might be the most notorious example, but he wasn’t unique. Most of these women had seen a whole lot.
       Out of all those women, some were gay, some went for wealthy, some went for artists, but the vast majority went for nice average guys with regular jobs who had something else going for them. They were kind or made them laugh, or were great with their kids or some combination thereof. It was usually a long process for them to figure out what they wanted, but when they had figured it out that is what they went for, something for the long term.

       It appears it takes a lot of men awhile to figure out what’s important long term as well. Their criteria might be just as limited and limiting for a large segment of their dating life as what you describe for women.

       Just saying.
    7. Soredemos January 28, 2023 at 11:23 pm

       I really, honestly beseech you to go out and talk to actual girls once in a while.
    8. Aumua January 29, 2023 at 3:23 am

       I think this is what the kids call ‘small d*ck energy’.
24. lyman alpha blob January 28, 2023 at 12:14 pm

    My better half has a professional acquaintance who is a financial advisor and convinced her to open an account a few years back. At some point, the advisor switched companies and is now with Morgan Stanley. My wife heard about their offer of a 4% savings account and called the advisor to inquire, only to be told that not only would she not be getting the 4% rate, but Morgan Stanley was dropping her as a client altogether since she didn’t have enough money under management to make her account worth their while any longer.

    Seriously, [family blog] these people, Morgan Stanley and the whole lot of these financial firms, and the [family blog]ing gilded white show ponies they rode in on. The jackpot can’t come soon enough. I look forward to the day when these people who can’t do anything but push papers around are begging those of us who can for a pot of beans. I promise to be compassionate if that day ever comes, and will not charge them an arm and a leg – maybe just one or the other.
    1. Kouros January 28, 2023 at 1:28 pm

       In the meantime you can watch The Triangle of Sorrow…
    2. griffen January 28, 2023 at 1:29 pm

       It may not seem this way, but I suggest they are at a very minimum polite to your faces in telling you (and I presume it so) as opposed to charge you even more fees since the apparent balances are not eye popping enough to the MS wunderkind,er, financial management. One can shop around if one chooses. I only switched what I had from my initial 15 – 20 years of planning from Ch Schwab because of a friendship ( going back in the late 90s when neither me nor my now advisor had much in our pockets after rent ).

       Bad actors there will always be, but some good apples can be found.
25. TroyIA January 28, 2023 at 12:14 pm

    Now that the Twitter Files has exposed Hamilton 68 bullshit here’s hoping that the Propornot idiots will get the same treatment. Yes I’m still chafed at NC and others being smeared.
    1. The Rev Kev January 28, 2023 at 6:28 pm

       That is a major weapon in the neocon’s armoury – smearing. They do it all the time. Just look at the past year alone for example. ‘You want negotiations with Russia to end all the killing in this war? What are you – some sort of Putin bot?’
26. CanCyn January 28, 2023 at 12:15 pm

    Sorry for this thread jack but I know there are a few Ursula K LeGuin fans in the NC community. Someone just shared this lovely Granta piece about her.

    Enjoy with a cup of coffee
    https://granta.com/her-left-hand-the-darkness/
    1. C.O. January 29, 2023 at 1:31 am

       Thank you for sharing the link to this piece, that was a wonderful read!
27. Eric Anderson January 28, 2023 at 12:36 pm

    I’m just going to put it out there that I’m troubled by the constant linking to twitter. How can one fight billionaires while using the tools of the billionaires? When enough people make the migration to mastodon type federated social media we will no longer have to worry about the billionaires influence over social media. Yes, there is a switching cost. I get it. But someone needs to begin to bear the cost of switching. The media is there on Mastodon. It might not be as plentiful yet, but it exists and will only increase with Twitter flight.

    Please. NC is reader supported making it immune to “platform” suppression. Leadership by example? I’m making a donation right now to help it stay that way.
    Thanks for everyone being here. My day would not be the same without the incredible work of everyone contributing to this site.
    1. Eric Anderson January 28, 2023 at 1:07 pm

       After thought:
       I also know NC depends in large part on readers providing content. I’ve been lax as an often times lurker in providing this service. So, I promise to do better. I’m going to try and regularly send content to NC moderators from federated sites like Mastodon to put my money where my mouth is.
       Thanks everyone.
    2. Objective Ace January 28, 2023 at 2:37 pm

       I’m just going to put it out there that I’m troubled by the constant linking to twitter. How can one fight billionaires while using the tools of the billionaires?

       Traditional news media is the same thing. The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Time, and Fortune.. all owned by billionaires. And that doesnt factor in that regardless of ownership, they’re also somewhat beholden to their [corporate] advertisers.
       1. Diogenes January 28, 2023 at 5:30 pm

          Where do you think the Internet came from?
          1. ambrit January 28, 2023 at 6:55 pm

             DARPA. I remember The Well and dial up. And being taught computers on punch cards and reel to reel mainframes.
          2. tevhatch January 28, 2023 at 7:01 pm

             One could say that about the paper that I.F. Stone feed into his mimeograph, “Who made that paper, that ink, the stencil?” I only know it was I. F. Stone who dug, scrabbled, and scraped to get dig out the words and deeds. His ilk live on at the Grayzone, The Canada Files, Geopolitical Economy Report, Mint Press, all of whom I support, as well as individuals like Yves Ingler, Glenn Greenwald, Calib Maupin, etc. The internet was created by the elite, just like mass produced paper. For now at least, it’s just a tool; it’s up to humanity to decide if they want to read either Trollope or Dickens.
             1. ambrit January 28, 2023 at 10:03 pm

                What about those of us who read both Trollope and Dickens, and throw in Galsworthy and Graves for good measure.
                1. tevhatch January 29, 2023 at 11:59 am

                   That’s luxury living there, certainly more time than most of the 99% have.
          3. Jason Boxman January 28, 2023 at 9:12 pm

             Why, it’s a series of tubes!
    3. agent ranger smith January 28, 2023 at 4:13 pm

       If twitter is still the only place where the ” covid is airborne” threads are permitted to exist, then it is twitter that NaCap will have to link to if it wishes to re-publish those “covid is airborne” threads at all.
       1. Eric Anderson January 28, 2023 at 11:23 pm

          They’re alive and well on Mastodon as well. As are many of the doctors and researchers posting them.
    4. Mikel January 28, 2023 at 4:47 pm

       NC posts a lot of things for the commentariat to deconstruct. It’s a favorite pastime here.
    5. Bugs January 28, 2023 at 7:34 pm

       Coincidentally deleted my twitter account last week because it was actually making me more anxious and I don’t need that right now. I guess I was following people I mostly agreed with, and some sources of news that were pertinent, but the general culture of the space became oppressive. The twitter links here are limited enough that it makes sense and contributes to the NC narrative, which seems to be to encourage intelligent reflection and exchanges…
    6. chris January 28, 2023 at 8:22 pm

       I respect your impulse here. But…

       There is news that is only on Twitter. There is COVID related information that you get on NC only by NC linking to Twitter. All other conventional platforms silenced aerosol scientists it seems, except Twitter. You can’t be aware of important events or topics and not use Twitter.

       It’s kind of like trying to boycott Amazon. Oh, sure, you can delete the app and give up prime and only buy local. But you can’t stop using things which rely on AWS, or online delivery options that will still go through Amazon, or stores that say they’re one thing but really are from Amazon. Your local stores also order things from Amazon too. And then there’s the Amazon relationship with the US government. Or the way Amazon buys things which in turn can effect your investments… you can’t boycott Amazon. You can’t boycott Twitter. We don’t have the power or the ability to do it as citizens. I hate that it’s come to this. But absent a revolution that is the way things are.
       1. Eric Anderson January 28, 2023 at 11:35 pm

          Are you on Mastodon? If not, how can you say that with authority? There are, literally, 1000’s of Mastodon servers. Each one is an ecosystem unto itself. It is truly an open and democratic ecosystem. The sooner everyone learns this the better off we’ll all be.

          The tenor of this reminds me of the Big Head Todd and the Monsters song “Resignation Superman.”
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnQwk7C-r8Y

          He’ll come flying out of this town
          A resignation superman
          And today the bad guys win
          ‘Cause he turned his cape in
          Now, he says
          And I’ll turn my back on this world
          Yes I’ll turn my eyes from this world
          Oh well…
          Yes he’s tired of fighting in this town
          All the suffering and vice
          He wants to fall in love
          Maybe settle in and live a life
          And I’ll turn my back on this world
          Yes I’ll turn my eyes from this world
          Oh I want to believe in you now that I’m suffering
          Oh Lord, I need to receive your hand in my heart
          And he keeps an eye upon this town
          The resignation superman
          He’ll keep himself amused
          With the evening news
          Oh my…
          And I’ll turn my back on this world
          Yes I’ll turn my eyes from this world
          Now I broke my back on this world
          Now I’ll wash my hands of this world
          Oh I want to believe in you now that I’m suffering
          Oh Lord, I need to receive your hand in my heart

          Perhaps you’re right. But, I’d rather be wrong and fight the power. I could be wrong, but I think that’s what NC is founded upon.
          1. Yves Smith January 29, 2023 at 7:02 am

             Mastodon’s siloing not only makes is extremely unfriendly to information foragers like Lambert and me, but those silos make it a huge venue for kiddie porn. I’m sorry, it loses the lack of virtue contest with Twitter, big time.

             https://www.secjuice.com/mastodon-child-porn-pedophiles/
             1. farmboy January 29, 2023 at 7:44 am

                “information foragers”, I belong to this category. It’s any easy way to perspective and away from disinfo. thx
             2. Eric Anderson January 29, 2023 at 11:52 am

                I’ve seen similar articles, and all I can say is that this hasn’t been my experience. Reputable instances (read servers) default block against such content and keywords. Meaning, if you’re not searching for it you won’t find it. Does it exist? Of course, I’m sure. But, the general mood over there is that it’s a very freeing and revolutionary form of social media. People who have made the move are reporting constantly that they’ve enjoyed making the move and will never go back because the sense of community is so much higher.

                As to siloing, that’s defeated by using the hashtag. For example, I just searched “#Covid19” which revealed that 88 people have already posted the hashtag today. That search is then broken down in to 4 separate categories: All, People, Hashtags, and Posts. Some of those results were posted from the extremely interesting instance @mstdn.science which is a collective of scientists constantly swapping useful information.

                I feel like this is simply a learning curve issue. Please take it for what it’s worth — just one person’s humble experience. My only hope is to promote an honest and informed discussion about the pros and cons of the federated experience.
                1. Yves Smith January 29, 2023 at 12:11 pm

                   Lambert has spent a lot of time on Mastodon and finds it unsatisfactory for his purposes. I don’t have time to learn new tools unless absolutely necessary and clearly productivity improving.
                   1. Eric Anderson January 29, 2023 at 12:24 pm

                      Fair enough, Yves. I’ll stop banging the drum in the comments.
                      But, I am going to try and make good on my promise upthread to send more content your way from the fediverse. Hopefully it’s helpful. Just found a really interesting new study on Vitamin D that dropped and I’m prepping to email soon.

                      Best regards,
28. Mikel January 28, 2023 at 12:43 pm

    “The Adani crisis – is Modi’s house of cards at risk?” Adam Tooze, Chartbook

    Tooze spent some time in India recently. I wonder if it’s going to be a focus of some new book?
29. Chas January 28, 2023 at 12:58 pm

    I’m suspicious of the article claiming Mennonites are illegally chopping down large forested areas in South America. For one thing there was no attempt to ask the Mennonites for their side of the story. IIRC Mennonites are like the Amish but are more inclined to accept modern conveniences like automobiles. However, the Mennonites come from a long tradition of organic, regenerative farming and it seems way out of character for them to be indiscriminately clearing forests for farm land.
    1. Not Again January 28, 2023 at 1:19 pm

       It’s OK if God tells you to do it.

       From 2017
       https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/business/energy-environment/deforestation-brazil-bolivia-south-america.html

       From 2020:
       https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/peru-prosecutors-probe-amazon-deforestation-linked-to-mennonite-communities/

       From 2021
       https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/across-latin-america-mennonites-seek-out-isolation-at-the-expense-of-forests/

       https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/shipibo-konibo-communities-challenge-mennonite-colony-under-investigation-deforestation
       1. Don January 28, 2023 at 3:48 pm

          Thanks for these eye-opening links. I am not religious, but my wife, who is christian, advises “don’t trust anyone who loudly professes to be a christian; they think they have absolution”.

          Feel free to substitute any religion for christian — I remember a commenter a few years ago (on another site) arguing that the reported genocide of Rohingyas, lead by buddhist monks in Myanmar, couldn’t possibly be true, because buddhists…
          1. agent ranger smith January 28, 2023 at 4:16 pm

             William S. Burroughs once said that this way . . . ” “If you ever do business with a religious son of a bitch, get. it. in. writing. His word ain’t worth a shit — not with the Good Lord telling him how to fuck you on the deal.”
          2. rowlf January 28, 2023 at 7:02 pm

             Try to explain to someone that some Buddhist monks carry firearms in dangerous areas…
             1. ambrit January 28, 2023 at 10:00 pm

                Also the “Warrior Monks.” Sohei.
                1. hk January 29, 2023 at 1:01 am

                   During 16th century invasion of Korea by Japan, there were battles in which all the combatants from both sides were Buddhist monks. But then there is a reason why Buddhist monasteries were centers of martial arts training for centuries.
30. britzklieg January 28, 2023 at 1:36 pm

    Curious how the Dirty Bubble essayist, linked to in todays Bezzle, names one of the the bagmen behind the FTX-Belarus scam as Prokopenya who bought out his partner Gutseriev “son of one of Russia’s wealthiest oligarchs” before FTX purchased ZUBR.

    “Shortly before FTX’s acquisition of ZUBR, Prokopenya had bought out his partner in ZUBR, Capital.com, and Currency.com…”

    “His father, Mikhail Gutseriev, is one of the wealthiest oligarchs in Russia. He controls the Safmar Group, a conglomerate controlling major oil production and mining operations in Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan. In 2006, he fled Russia after allegations of tax evasion. However, he returned in 2010 with the charges dropped and his sins apparently forgiven.”

    The essayist uses “Russia” and “Russian” a lot but it’s only in the last paragraphs that we learn:

    “In contrast to the Gutseriev family, Prokopenya has been staunchly pro-Western in his outlook. In 2015, he was arrested in Belarus and released for actions against the regime. He then moved to London and apparently has lived in the UK since that time. After the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, Currency.com stopped providing services to Russian clients.”

    You know what they say… one man’s Russian is another man’s… uh… Russian?
31. flora January 28, 2023 at 2:09 pm

    Krystal and Saagar.

    No Fly List LEAK Exposes Mass Surveillance State | Breaking Points

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YoYJxEJQds

    No due process. Will peaceful protestors be added to the list? So many questions.
32. flora January 28, 2023 at 2:26 pm

    Krystal and Saagar.

    Pelosi BLASTS MSNBC For Disloyalty | Breaking Points

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYpJSictD6E

    Not so free press…?
    1. Screwball January 28, 2023 at 4:49 pm

       I’m guessing MSNBC isn’t the only one. All we have to do is watch the MSM to know how truly awful it really is. Do we expect Suzanne Malveaux of CNN to tell us the White House press secretary is a liar (which is her job I guess) when said secretary is her domestic partner? Didn’t Jen Paski go to MSNBC or CNN?

       It is even bigger/worse. As Krystal said, they (MSNBC) will probably go even easier on the dems due to this, but what about all the stuff they DON’T cover? Look how they already cover for these people – even to the point of not covering bad news at all. I’m sure readers can name plenty of examples.

       We have internet connections and places like NC. We can get the news we want without any of the MSM. Starve the beast – turn them off (which is probably why you are watching Breaking Points instead of the MSM – but more need to).
       1. flora January 28, 2023 at 7:55 pm

          I don’t even want just the new I “want”. I want the news that I even don’t “want” if it’s real news. So glad I found NC.
          1. The Rev Kev January 28, 2023 at 10:19 pm

             If news were food, the main stream media would be the empty calories that we keep on hearing about.
       2. flora January 28, 2023 at 9:48 pm

          “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting”

          ― Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

          Milan Kundera is a Czech writer in exile who escaped to France in 1975 during the years of Soviet domination of Czechoslovakia and became a French citizen. Per wiki:
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan_Kundera
33. Michelle January 28, 2023 at 2:45 pm

    Newsom, the incompetent for president?

    “In 10 years”, Newsom pledged on June 30, 2004, “the worst of San Francisco’s homeless problem would be gone.”

    “The most seriously ill homeless people would be moved indoors, clearing downtown streets of in-your-face transients who were startling residents and tourists alike. Emergency shelters would cease to exist because nobody would need them, he said. And new arrivals to the streets would be helped immediately.
    “This is a dramatic shift,” Newsom announced as he unveiled his “Ten Year Plan to Abolish Chronic Homelessness.”

    San Franciscans are still waiting.
    A decade and roughly $1.5 billion later,(more like 2.5 billion now) the city has succeeded in moving 19,500 homeless people off its streets, roughly equivalent to relocating the entire Castro district. But despite that major effort, the homeless population hasn’t budged, showing that as one homeless person is helped, another takes his place.”

    https://www.sfchronicle.com/archive/item/A-decade-of-homelessness-Thousands-in-S-F-30431.php
    1. Jason Boxman January 28, 2023 at 3:00 pm

       How performative.

       Meanwhile, Kennedy laid down a marker about a man on the moon. And that was achieved.

       This current crop of leaders is apparently bankrupt of anything beyond personal ambition and self aggrandizement. Rots from the head indeed!
    2. eg January 29, 2023 at 9:07 am

       1.5 billion ought to buy a lot of public housing, but I guess that would be socialism, eh?
34. Jason Boxman January 28, 2023 at 2:58 pm

    INSIDE THE SLOW IMPLOSION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY’S VAUNTED CAMPAIGN TECH FIRM

    While cuts across multiple departments are typical in layoffs, the current employee said, NGP VAN is in a unique position. “We also happen to be a near-monopoly for the Democratic Party software and provide products/services to many labor unions and nonprofits,” they said. “It shouldn’t be owned by a British private equity firm and led by a nonpolitical ‘social good’ tech company.”

    LOL. Oops.

    That’s our Democrats. I can’t see why this would be a problem? After all, liberal Democrats love them some free markets and hedge funds. Enjoy the efficiency!

    Maybe I’ll stop getting emails from these hacks that I never signed up for.
35. agent ranger smith January 28, 2023 at 3:00 pm

    Another book on the coming Dust Bowl: Killing The Hidden Waters.

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/297926.Killing_the_Hidden_Waters

    I read somewhere ( can’t remember where) that the aqua-subsidy belt Southwest leadership had a very simple plan for the day of ” no more water”. Here is the plan: they planned to have so much development, population, and political power against the rest of North America that they would be able to extort all the water they wanted from non-desert America and non-desert Canada too.

    Part of their big plan was NAWAPA.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Water_and_Power_Alliance
    The lower the water gets, the harder they will try to extort the rest of the continent into submitting to NAWAPA. This must be prevented at all costs, including whatever civil violence the aqua-subsidy-belt will try unleashing in order to terrorise the rest of the continent into submitting to NAWAPA in particular and water extortion in general.
36. polar donkey January 28, 2023 at 3:07 pm

    Here is the some of the context of what has been happening in Memphis that created the situation of the beating death of Tyre Nichols.
    1) Car thefts/car jackings are out of control. People getting car jacked at gun point all over the city. Car thefts (Kia Boys videos) are at epidemic proportions. The impound lot is so over flowing with cars, a guy searched 9 hours for his car and couldn’t find it. The police can’t get cars in the back of the lot out anymore. 4000 cars there. Over 700 have shown up since Jan 1. So many of the thefts and car jackings are happening by kids under 18. Additionally, there are organized gangs that steal cars in mass from car lots and valet parking lots.
    2) Street racing. City residents have been up in arms for a few years now about the street racing. Happens all over the city. People frightened because chaos on the roads and serious accidents happening.
    3) New District Attorney. The previous district attorney had been in office for 18 years. She was a republican and gave the cops a looonnng leash. New DA was elected in November. Democrat. He has done as good a job as possible handling this incident. Cops were immediately fired and charged, along with releasing the video footage as quickly as possible.
    4) The police chief and the 5 cops involved in this incident were black. This is a big factor along with the DA being transparent, that kept protests here from escalating. People realize policing has to change. Under the previous DA, cops could get away with a lot of busting head tactics. I’m sure when mayor and police started getting pressure about doing something about crime, that meant gloves come off and go back to busting heads/getting arrests. These special units like “scorpion unit” can’t go cowboy style like they used too.
    5) No one in local government as any idea how to deal the car related crime, along with all our other problems.
    1. polar donkey January 28, 2023 at 3:32 pm

       The institute for public service reporting has a big article about Scorpion Unit. http://www.psrmemphis.org
       1. polar donkey January 28, 2023 at 4:55 pm

          Update. City of Memphis just disbanded the scorpion unit. Also, reports are that Tyre Nichols was seen talking to one of the police officer’s girlfriends before his beating.
37. Soredemos January 28, 2023 at 4:24 pm

    Watching the four videos that have been released, I’m struck by how just…dumb the cops were. Like, really stupid. They don’t seem to comprehend the import of what they were doing. They all seem to be hopped up on adrenaline and just thought the whole thing was exciting. As in “wow, what a crazy night, that guy took off and then we had to catch and subdue him. Wild.”

    After the beating there’s minutes of the (now exhausted, and one is limping from having sprained his leg kicking) cops just talking They all look and sound like actual stereotypical gangbangers themselves. At one point, after Nichols has been handcuffed and is lying next to one of the cars, one of the cops says he seems like he’s high. Yeah, he is twitching like an addict. but he wasn’t like that twenty minutes ago. He’s like that now because you’ve beaten him so much he’s literally brain damaged. These cops are actual morons, in addition to anything else.
    1. digi_owl January 28, 2023 at 7:38 pm

       Because US cops are anyone that pass some minor physical and a 14 day night school most places.

       Frankly if not for post world war industrial capacity, USA should have been a dusty backwater where obsolete thinking go to rot. Because any “idea” coming out of there via social media in particular, but also Hollywood etc, seem to be setting back social and political thinking in the rest of the world by decades.

       But thanks to that it has become a proverbial child emperor, throwing tantrums left and right.
38. petal January 28, 2023 at 4:48 pm

    Hey ambrit, I think I remember you said you had a stock of iodine pills? Which are they? Wondering if I should maybe start to find some…
    1. Yves Smith January 28, 2023 at 5:29 pm

       Kelp is high in iodine. You can get kelp tablets from many dietary supplements stores and they are cheap. Problem is not standardized for iodine content.
       1. petal January 28, 2023 at 5:38 pm

          Thank you, Yves. I’ll check out the supplement section at our local Coop.
          1. ambrit January 28, 2023 at 9:57 pm

             The Co-op might have potassium iodide pills in stock. I know that Now brand sells them, in a low strength that can be multiplied as needed.
             As tevhatch mentions below, do take care with the dosing.
    2. tevhatch January 28, 2023 at 7:16 pm

       I don’t know the background, but if its a nuclear emergency that has you worried, then note If you are already taking a multiple vitamin with iodine in it, and are a mature adult, then you really won’t need to take much at all and can overdo. It’s youth, particularly in periods of high growth, who tend to be sensitive to uptake of radioactive iodine isotopes in the case of an accident. If it’s a war, then you can skip the pills anyway.

       There are tables on dosing, but they have a lot of assumptions built in that are not safe to assume outside of extreme emergency, so I’m not going to link to them. Careful consideration of a complete list of your medicines, current conditions, and any supplements or unusual foods customarily consumed, like sea cucumber, if any, before you embark on significant dosing.
       1. rowlf January 28, 2023 at 8:01 pm

          My GP was a young research doctor behind the Iron Curtain when Chernobyl went up. He has stories of everyone scrambling to get iodine. A family member was downwind of the disaster and developed thyroid cancer, which he survived after treatment.
    3. ambrit January 28, 2023 at 7:33 pm

       Greetings petal.
       We have two plastic jars of crystaline ‘Potassium Iodide USP Grade.’ Net weight per is 26 grams. This sort of ‘product’ is often available at Health Food stores. The Preppers have an affinity with the Health Food community. Something to do with a “commonality of interests.”
       I would be very surprised if you could not find this through the scientific supply companies that sell to the University and Labs. Just demand USP grade for some guarantee of purity and safety.
       From the side panel of the jar: Add 26 grams of potassium iodide to one litre of water. Shake well. The resultant solution provides 130mg of KI per 5ml, (one teaspoon.)
       The 130mg dose is the standard suggested dose for an adult. Many vary the dose based on body weight. [There are 200 teaspoons in a litre of water, so, we plan on ‘cutting’ the supply to one quarter of a litre of water, or less if we can measure the crystals that finely.] Only mix the potion when needed.
       The “official” narrative: https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/radiation/emergencies/ki.htm
       “Proper” iodine pills are made in 65mg and 130mg strengths.
       “Regular” Potassium Iodide pills are available through e-bay and Amazon. [The prices are all over the place. Take some time to comparison shop. The provision of this substance is in direct contravention of Neo-liberal Rule #2, so, obstruction and sabotage of acquisition is SOP.]
       Stay safe!
    4. LilD January 29, 2023 at 11:44 am

       San Luis Obispo county gives out free potassium iodide pills just in case something goes wrong at Diablo Canyon

       https://www.slocounty.ca.gov/KI.aspx
39. The Rev Kev January 28, 2023 at 7:05 pm

    “Are Transcarpathian Hungarians taken by force to die against the Russians?”

    Strange way to end the article. It talks about people being nabbed off streets, in markets, aboard buses, etc. for military service but tacks on a bit at the end saying that it is not an anti-Hungarian measure. I suspect that the newspapers editor tacked on that last bit. But I saw a chart recently showing that Ukrainian minorities were being drafted out of proportion to national numbers so I think that the nationalists just want to see the numbers of military-aged men for those minorities reduced for after the war. If Poland tries to grab Galicia for themselves at the end of the war, I wonder if Hungary might not try the same with the Transcarpathian Hungarians. The only difference will be that NATO/EU thinking Poland doing that a good idea while Hungary doing that is breaking international law because Viktor Orbán.
40. The Rev Kev January 28, 2023 at 7:35 pm

    Oh dear god. I heard about it but had to see if this was real. ‘The goal, the German government said, was for Germany and its allies to supply two battalions with Leopards, which would be 88 tanks.’

    They really are making it quite blatant now. If you do not know what I mean, just Google 88. Hint, The number 8 is the 8th letter of the alphabet and so would be ‘H’-

    https://www.axios.com/2023/01/25/germany-us-ukraine-leopard-abrams-battle-tanks
    1. Burritonomics January 28, 2023 at 10:20 pm

       That’s just…wow. You can’t make this stuff up
    2. Karl January 28, 2023 at 11:11 pm

       Also, Germany will initially send 14 tanks, a number that is significant:

       The most significant use of the number fourteen [in the Bible] is found in the date Nisan 14; on this date occurred the deliverance of Israel [=Ukraine] from bondage to Egypt [=Russia], as well as the deliverance of the first born from death by means of the blood of a lamb sprinkled on the doorposts.

       Zelensky, who is Jewish, couldn’t help but understand this message.

       Blatant indeed!
    3. square coats January 28, 2023 at 11:37 pm

       Not just that, but Germany is initially providing 14 tanks…

       https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteen_Words
    4. digi_owl January 29, 2023 at 3:39 am

       As a bit of a WW2 gear head, Germany and 88 brings to mind the German flak cannon.

       It fired an 88mm shell, initially using a timed fuse to try to blow up near whatever plane they were aiming for.

       But later on the crews discovered that the shell size worked just as well against allied tanks, turning it into an antitank gun.

       And later still it became the main gun on the Tiger tank…
       1. eg January 29, 2023 at 9:12 am

          If memory serves, the German ‘88 is the most fearsome artillery piece in the desert war game, Tobruk
41. Bugs January 28, 2023 at 8:05 pm

    Tom Verlaine from Television died. He was 73.

    https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jan/28/tom-verlaine-frontman-and-guitarist-of-us-band-television-dies-at-73
42. britzklieg January 28, 2023 at 11:26 pm

    https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/01/26/sam-bankman-frieds-mother-and-brother-not-cooperating-in-financial-probe-ftx-lawyers-say/

    At least some of Sam Bankman-Fried’s immediate family aren’t cooperating with the probe into the collapsed crypto exchange FTX and should be cross-questioned in court, the company’s lawyers have said in a legal filing made Wednesday.

    The FTX founder’s brother, mother and father were his “advisors,” and should be subpoenaed alongside former company executives as the company’s new management seeks to find out what happened to allegedly misappropriated funds, the filing said.

    “The Debtors and their advisors have been working tirelessly and nonstop over the last 70 plus days … to implement controls, recover and protect estate assets,” said the legal filing made jointly by FTX and creditor representatives. “Key questions remain, however, concerning numerous aspects of the Debtors’ finances and transactions,” the filing continued.
43. agent ranger smith January 29, 2023 at 12:50 am

    Vignettes from ” tiktok cringe” but fit right on “antiwork”.

    Young people talking about the unlivability of this modern life today. Sounds like a “Soviet Collapse” style mass cultural defection silently preparing to take shape.

    Called ” We live in a society . . . ”

    https://www.reddit.com/r/TikTokCringe/comments/10nlype/we_live_in_a_society/
44. agent ranger smith January 29, 2023 at 1:20 am

    GMO hasbarists on display in a thread . . .

    Here is an item about PepsiCo suing some Indian farmers for growing a type of potato “grown by PepsiCo for its Lays brand potato chips”. PepsiCo dropped its suit under backlash pressure from Indian government and farmers union.

    But the discussion thread quickly moves to Monsanto and GMOs, and there are 2-3 pro-Monsanto pro-GMO hasbarists for every legitimate commenter on that thread. It is quite a sight, and an opportunity to study how the GMO hasbarists work.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/FunnyandSad/comments/10nhnlk/whats_next_society_better_wake_up_before_its_too/
45. The Rev Kev January 29, 2023 at 1:44 am

    The stupidity – it burns. So the other day you had this jerk named Rasmus Paludan burn a Koran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Sweden because he thought that it was a good idea. The Turks then told the Swedes and the Finns to forget them agreeing to their NATO membership. Well this guy is at it again and has now appeared in Denmark where he burned three Korans – one in front of a Mosque, one in front of the Turkish Embassy and the third in front of the Russian Consulate. Danish authorities wouldn’t touch him because free speech and everything. So here is the best part of this story-

    ‘Paludan said he was doing so in “disgust at the ideology and religion of Islam.” The activist also told Sweden’s Aftonbladet newspaper he would continue burning Korans in front of the Turkish diplomatic mission in the Danish capital until Ankara consents to Sweden’s accession to NATO.’

    https://www.rt.com/russia/570623-russia-condemn-koran-burning-denmark/

    Yeah, that’s gunna work. Self-entitled does not even begin to describe this guy’s character but you think that the Swedes and Finns could have at least charged him with causing a public disturbance. But to me it does sound more like a hate crime.
    1. Soredemos January 29, 2023 at 6:32 am

       ‘Hate crime’ is a vague concept that in practice just means whatever it’s politically advantageous to claim it means at a given moment. Best to just stick to universal freedom of speech, rather than claiming X was ‘targeted hate’ and so isn’t free speech.

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