Recent Items

Links 4/5/2023

Posted on by

Japan’s bear meat vending machine proves a surprising success Guardian (resilc)

#COVID-19

What’s at Stake as the US Ends Covid Emergency Measures Bloomberg (ma)

Climate/Environment

‘Tornado alley’ is shifting farther into the US east, climate scientists warn Guardian (resilc)

From peak to plummet in 15 years: Coal continues its precipitous decline Grist

Amazon, Despite Climate Pledge, Fought To Kill Emissions Bill In Oregon Washington Post

China?

What the US and its allies get wrong about Chinese neutrality Responsible Statecraft

Emmanuel Macron to urge China’s Xi Jinping to drop support for Russia over Ukraine war Financial Times. Even the Atlantic Council source quoted in this piece says the odds of this campaign succeeding is “basically zero”.

But turnabout is fair play!

Mexican president bemoans ‘rude’ US fentanyl pressure in plea to Xi Jinping Guardian. Resilc: “An attack by China on the southern front. I would do the same strategy.”

India

India rejects China’s renaming of places along disputed border Reuters (furzy)

Old Blighty

A ‘Red Tory’ on Britain American Conservative

‘London Is Over.’ A Billionaire Abandons Belgravia Living for Dubai Bloomberg. Yours truly corrected the typo in the Bloomberg headline.

Brain-drained HK workforce marks historic decline Asia Times (resilc)

Nigel Lawson’s economic ‘success’ was an oil-fuelled illusion openDemocracy

La belle France

French minister slammed for Playboy photoshoot as Paris protests intensify Remix (BC)

Strikes disrupt fuel supplies in 1/3 of gas stations in Paris Region Al Mayadeen on April 1. But note as of today: Fuel shortages: a “clear improvement” expected this week in Île-de-France Archyde

Africa

Uganda’s president calls on Africa to ‘save the world’ from ‘dangerous’ homosexuality Pink News

Africa ‘All Out,’ 54-0, Against Joining Biden’s Proxy War on Russia Antiwar (resilc)

4.7M people in Burkina Faso will need humanitarian assistance this year: UN Anadolu Agency

New Not-So-Cold War

Top Russian spy warns of Polish land grab RT

Some 19% of promised Western tanks supplied to Ukraine — statistics TASS. Note that Ukraine counter-offensive is expected soon….

Scott Ritter: Exclusive Talk On Ukraine/Russia & Much More YouTube

THE LEICESTER VILLAINIES — THE LINE THAT RUNS BETWEEN THE DEATHS OF KING RICHARD III, RICHARD MAYNE OF MH17, AND DAWN STURGESS OF NOVICHOK John Helmer (Kevin W)

Syraqistan

US Forces Under Fire in Syria: Illegal Occupation Enters Dangerous Phase Brian Berletic

Israeli forces attack worshippers in violent Al-Aqsa Mosque raid Middle East Eye

Assange

Ithaka, Revisited Scott Ritter (furzy). Important.

Big Brother Is Watching You Watch

Hackers Can Remotely Open Smart Garage Doors Across the World Vice (resilc)

Imperial Collapse Watch

OPEC: Saudis aren’t afraid of US anymore Indian Punchline (Kevin W)

What good is America for Europe? Thomas Fazi

‘Just in time’ F-35 supply chain too risky for next war, general says DefenseNews (Kevin W)

Trump

Democrats Throw Biggest-Ever Fundraiser For Trump Campaign Babylon Bee (BC)

Trump’s Indictment Is Already Boosting Him in the 2024 GOP Primary Vice (resilc)

Donald Trump campaign using fake mugshot to fundraise off indictment USA Today. Right wing surveilling readers say right wing TV is reporting >$10 million in new donations, and more important, 20,000 new volunteers.

The insanity of the anti-Trump ‘resistance’ led America to this point Spectator. Hammers a point your humble blogger has made from time to time, that what many Trump opponents find most offensive about Trump is that he unabashedly does things status-mindful people find horrifying, like decorate in gold and marry former swimsuit models. This horror dates from the 1980s, when New York Magazine made him A Topic for precisely this sort of thing, being rich and not caring to curry the favor of Serious People by buying board seats at respectable charities. That is not BTW to say that Trump hasn’t done crooked things, but that those are not what is driving the intense emotional reactions.

Karen McDougal: Who is the second woman in Trump case? BBC (furzy)

Biden

Kevin W notes: “This is like his [Nord Stream] pipeline promise.”

Judge destroys Fox News’s defenses in Dominion defamation case Washington Post (furzy)

Liberal Wins Wisconsin Court Race, in Victory for Abortion Rights Backers New York Times (furzy)

New Jersey Gov. Murphy Signs Bill That Reshapes Campaign Finance Laws New York Times. Resilc: “Crips and Bloods on the SP500 payroll. USA USA.”

Democrats en déshabille

Obamaworld’s Problem with the Progressive Left Ross Barker (UserFriendly)

Woke Watch

Kansas passes bill forcing residents to use bathroom of the sex they were at birth – and also bans transgender people from changing name or gender on driving licenses Daily Mail

Rotten Banks

Dylan Riley, Drowning in Deposits New Left Review (Anthony L). On SVB.

Swiss claim U.S. banking crisis toppled Credit Suisse Angry Bear

AI

Stanford Releases 386-Page Report On the State of AI TechCrunch

Study uncovers social cost of using AI in conversations PhysOrg

Biden says tech companies must ensure AI products are safe Associated Press. Resilc: “Is this a joke?”

The Bezzle

Crypto Tax Compliance Staggeringly Low: Only 0.53% of Investors Declared Crypto in 2022, According to Study Yahoo. Quelle surprise.

Feds seize $112m in cryptocurrency linked to ‘pig-butchering’ finance scams The Register

The Internet Is Ruined. The Metaverse Can Still Be Saved Wired (Micael T). Um, why bother, save for the grift?

Confirming my prejudices: American Teens Aren’t Excited About Virtual Reality CNBC

Google Is Cutting Down on Some Bizarre Things to Save Costs (See The List) The Street (Kevin W)

Tax Cuts Are Primarily Responsible for the Increasing Debt Ratio Center for American Progress (resilc)

Class Warfare

“Will There Be a Role for Us Ordinary People to Play in the New World?” Russia in Global Affairs (Micael T)

Antidote du jour. Robert H: “Betsy and her cat Henry”:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Subscribe to Post Comments
141 comments

  1. Antifa

    BAKHMUT
    (melody borrowed from You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive per Brad Paisley)

    We’ve held on in Bakhmut
    For the railroads and highways
    Many thousands have fought
    Here and died
    Now we stay in these trenches
    To do those men honor
    We will never leave Bakhmut alive

    There is no man who knows
    Where or when death will find him
    We’ve seen the meat of
    Countless young lives
    Every man is brave
    But the fear here is real
    We will never leave Bakhmut alive

    Well, the Wagner Group
    Comes at us with no warnin’
    First they find our holes
    Then we chase them away
    Then they drop their shells
    Right in the trenches that we hide in
    All that fire and flame
    Takes our front line away

    From here to Kiev
    There’s just empty wide open
    On the rural steppe
    We can’t hope to survive
    If we ever leave this place
    We will run for the Dnieper
    But we’ll never leave Bakhmut alive

    There’s a short daily truce
    While they truck back our bodies
    And those trucks are filled
    With young boys and old guys
    They send us grandsons and grandpas
    And we send them at Wagner
    They cannot leave Bakhmut alive

    (musical interlude)

    AZOV blockers behind us
    And Russians everywhere
    We turn basements into bunkers
    To survive
    But a building doesn’t matter
    When the rockets come to shatter
    We will never leave Bakhmut alive

    Well, the Wagner Group
    Comes at us with no warnin’
    First they find our holes
    Then we chase them away
    Then they drop their shells
    Right in the trenches that we hide in
    All that fire and flame
    Takes our front line away

    Well, the Wagner Group
    Comes at us with no warnin’
    First they find our holes
    Then we chase them away
    Then they drop their shells
    Right in the trenches that we hide in
    All that fire and flame
    Takes our front line away

    We’ve held on in Bakhmut
    For the railroads and highways
    Many thousands have fought
    Here and died
    We will stay in these trenches
    To do those men honor
    We will never leave Bakhmut alive

  2. DJG, Reality Czar

    Yes, the article by Scott Ritter, “Ithaka, Revisited,” is important. What he is writing about is an ethic, a way of working one’s way through the world, how Assange embarrassed the powerful and is now the embodiment of the cruelty that dominates these baroque and bigoted times. Konstantinos Kavafis also was an outsider, although he was not imprisoned unjustly for his actions.

    Here is Ritter’s embedded link to the poem itself,

    https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51296/ithaka-56d22eef917ec

    Always keep Ithaka uppermost in your mind.

    1. Ignacio

      Thank you DJG, i will go for it.
      I found also interesting Ritter’s interview by Slaviangrad in the links. For instance the questions about Serbia and Hungary and how Russia should, in Ritter’s opinion, deal with it. You may agree or disagree but it is an open discussion, of the kind it is now nearly impossible to find in Western media. Watch for instance the Responsible Statecraft analyses. These are way more careful not to upset those not ready to be upset by anybody.

  4. The Rev Kev

    ‘Xi Jinping is pulling out all the stops for French President Emmanuel Macron via @bpolitics
    “French officials say they have sensed a special warmth from Chinese counterparts ahead of the trip and they say preparations have been smoother and friendlier than previous visits by Macron” ‘

    Just spitballing it here but what if the idea is not to put a wedge between Europe and the US so much as to put a wedge between France and the rest of the EU? Will Ursula von der Leyen be also getting similar treatment? If Ursula comes in on her high horse and tells China to fall into line about Russia and the Ukraine while China is promising lots of trade deals for France, who will Macron side with then?

    1. Martin Oline

      Interesting thought there Rev. Macron does not care for the fate of the French but the undeniable attraction of being the bagman of Chinese investments for his banker and industrial friends is huge. What to do, nearly immediate wealth and influence or potential status in the EU hierarchy in the distant future (after 2026)? Why not both.

    2. Bugs

      This is likely misinterpreting standard Chinese diplomatic protocol regarding national leaders for “pulling out all the stops” or just BS to swell Manu’s head even more. I don’t believe anything that comes out of the Macronite machine anymore. They just made stuff up to push the pension reform through, lie constantly about what the cops and gendarmes are doing out in the streets to gilets jaunes and other protesters and I frankly think that’s the M.O. for everything they do now. Lie, obfuscate, blame the other side (or anyone else caught in the crossfire) never back off. If called on it, maintain radio silence until the noise dies down.

      1. Not Again

        It is pretty sad when the world’s diplomatic corps cannot tell the difference between “pulling out the stops” and common courtesy. But then again, the French have been dealing with Americans for the last 100 years so anytime a battered wife doesn’t get hit, it must be love.

      2. Stephen

        I agree.

        Courtesy and a nice greeting cost Xi very little and it is hard to see what he would have to gain by being rude.

        He is simply giving the US and collective west a masterclass in how to do diplomacy, given their usual inability to show such courtesy.

        The lesson will no doubt be lost on them.

    3. Steve H.

      Anchoring with Rev Kev’s comment on renewing Nordstream insurance:

      That picture of Macron! Xi like a saucy Capitano, with Isabella come callin’:

      Oh so pleased to meet you! Ah feel a, Special Warmth, from your handshake there! (Curtsies)

    4. Steve H.

      Anchoring with Rev Kev‘s comment on renewing Nordstream insurance:

      That picture of Macron! Xi like a saucy Capitano, with Isabella come callin’:

      Oh so pleased to meet you! Ah feel a, Special Warmth, from your handshake there! (Curtsies)

    5. JW

      France has been very lukewarm regarding support for Ukraine. Its recently doubled the amount of shells its sent, which means an extra day/month. Historically France values its relationship with Russia.
      My guess is that Xi and Putin have discussed the possibility of China enabling a widening of attitude between France and NATO and to some extent the US. France has the continuing arrogance to assume a semi-independent foreign policy which after Merkel’s departure has increased.
      Also France economy needs friends, its courted China for sometime, you only have to go around Paris to see every sign in Chinese ( with English often relegated to 3rd place) to see the efforts made to appear welcoming.
      Xi is obviously a skilled enough negotiator and diplomat to help preen Macron’s feathers, I wouldn’t be surprised if he is reasonably successful in his aims.

      1. Polar Socialist

        Beeley is wrong. There’s a ceremonial guard on both sides of the red carpet, and a bunch of people to shake hands with between the cars and the stairs. You can see them stepping up to shake hands even if the official photographer tries hard to block the view.

        In any case, Gilbert Doctorow pointed out that while it’s not really mentioned anywhere, Macron has around 50 French CEOs accompanying him to sign big trade deals with their Chinese counterparts. Macron’s trip has very little to do with Ukraine, though it will probably be mentioned in “discussions” so he can say something to the journos.

  5. OwlishSprite

    Re: Obamaworld’s Problem with the Progressive Left

    I don’t get the bubble this article describes. Obama has always courted the rich and nothing has changed. I don’t see Michelle Obama being a “formidable opponent” in a presidential race. I don’t see Blacks trusting and revering them any more. What I see is this:

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/chicago-neighbors-say-obama-center-is-raising-rents-forcing-them-out/ar-AA19pq97

    “It feels natural for Michelle and me to want to give back to Chicago and to the South Side in particular,” the former president told the audience. “The Obama Presidential Center is our way of repaying some of what this amazing city has given us.”

    Of course, the ‘giving back’ benefit seems to be for the flippers and the REIT sector and the Chicago tax base. Obama knew this was going to happen and made a lame joke about it, something like “it will only affect peoples’ grandchildren.” I was born in South Chicago in a different time, but, plus ça change…

    1. OwlishSprite

      Oh, and I just saw that Johnson was elected mayor. Hope that turns out well for South Chicago.

      1. jsn

        “Would it not in that case
        be simpler for the government
        To dissolve the people
        And elect another?”

        Looks like it’s time for Obamaland to regrade its back yard.

        Biden’s looking into doing this for half the nation.

      2. Michael Fiorillo

        I don’t know much about Johnson, but Vallas is a vicious s.o.b who started the attacks on the public schools in Chicago, back when “Barry” was a young plaything of the Pritzkers.

        1. OwlishSprite

          Yes–it’s a poke in the eye for the Obama set. Johnson ran on promises to work for social and mental health programs and protecting against gentrification. We’ll see how that goes I guess.

  6. eb

    re:” Dems will do anything in their power to stop Trump running & becoming the next Pres.” Biden’s announced the next coup (attempt)?

    1. fresno dan

      eb
      eme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸
      @ImMeme0
      Follow
      Biden told us that Democrats will do anything in their power to stop Trump from running and becoming next president:

      Biden: “We just have to demonstrate he’ll not take power. But if he does run we’ll make sure under legitimate efforts of constitution doesn’t not become next…
      =====================================================
      Is not doesn’t not a double negative…that negates the ?negativity? and therefore becomes a positive, rendering the actual true meaning that Trump will become the next president?
      Error? ?Freudian slip? ?repub sabotage of the Biden chatbox algorthm?

      1. CaliDan

        Biden: “We just have to demonstrate he’ll not take power.”

        CIA: “Hold my beer.”

      2. Objective Ace

        The whole thing doesnt make any sense. He is attributing “legitimate efforts” to the constitution — which has no agency to undertake any efforts. I think that’s what the double negative is applying to–meaning whatever means Biden is referencing do not pass legitimate constitutional scrutinty.

        Who knows though — if a 3rd grade english teacher came across it she would certainly give it an F with big red circles all over

        1. Mildred Montana

          Yes, there’s a double negative in that poor rendering of Biden’s comment, but watch and listen to the video. He clearly says, “does not”, not “doesn’t not”. At least to my still functioning ears.

    2. GramSci

      Just as in 2016, the Dems are promoting the only old Republican fool their annointed candidate stands a chance of defeating. The Dems will indict, but they will not convict.

      1. tevhatch

        the Dems (DNC) are promoting manipulated to elect the only old Republican fool they believe their anointed candidate stands a chance of defeating.

        I’m running out of Tinfoil, and aluminum foil does not look appropriate so I’ll quit here for the day.

    3. tevhatch

      Since most of the 1% and pretty much all of the 0.01% made out like bandits under the dysfunctional Trump regime, I guess they are funding/egging on the DNC to keep committing suicide. Next step, have the cackling vp as candidate by dumping docs on Biden regime 6 months before the election that are deadly enough to cause impeachment. Must be plenty of them with Biden’s stupidity and greed. How’s that for tinfoil hatting?

    4. Boomheist

      I agree with those many who think TDS almost looks like a plot by Democrats to make sure Trump runs again, and I absolutely agree with those even more many who have become sadly used to Democrats, especially the PMC Democrats, ability to f*** things up. I am loathe to imagine all these indictments are a coordinated plot, but I was similarly loath to think that the Jan 6th thing was mainly a riot run amok only to learn later there did seem to be a master plot on place to declare martial law and seize power (witness Flynn’s brother and the new Sec Def pulling back troops on that day, something weirdly not promoted by the Jan 6th committee).

      I also think the Bragg effort may and will completely unravel, weak sauce, weak indeed, but when Trump surely is indicted a few more times – Georgia election calls, taking the classified documents away, other New York business cases – it becomes clear that regardless of whether or not any of these cases have merit, it will be true that Trump, under several indictments all with their own discovery and scheduling issues, will surely be constrained as to what he can say while running, especially if some idiot tries to, for example, injure Bragg’s daughter. And, and I hate to even suggest this, maybe that might be the entire point and maybe that is what Biden is referring to.

      I worked in NYC 1984-1990, in WTC Tower Number One actually, and back then it was all Trump all the time, casino stuff, the Central park 5, Guliani all over the place busting fishmongers at Fulton Market and setting up his mayoral run, Al Sharpton, 100 pounds heavier then, defending Tawana Brawley, the young woman who made a false accusation of abuse, I think……point being Trump has not changed one iota ever since he came on the scene and whatever you may or may not say about him he has a unique and durable method of staying on course, retaining influence and media attention, and proving his critics weak, every time. I don’t think this time will be any different.
      But, if the outcome of all this is the implosion and destruction of the PMC and woke politics and a turn back to some party supporting the working stiff, it will be worth it. Even another Trump term, I think, if that is the eventual outcome.

  7. ChrisFromGA

    Ukraine counteroffensive postponed due to Trump indictment taking all the oxygen out of the room.

    Look for it to be rescheduled for May sweeps week.

  8. The Rev Kev

    Yeah, about today’s Antidote du jour. I think that Robert H may have it wrong when he says “Betsy and her cat Henry.” It might be more of a case of “Henry and his dog Betsy” going by the way that Henry is letting Betsy spoon him.

    1. Pat

      As a long time cat owner and lifelong cat lover, I think you underestimate Henry. My experience is that when male cats bond they tend to do that more as equals. Now if Henry were Henrietta, I would probably go along with you. Most of the dominant felines I have known were females. And they were always top dog so to speak.

    1. The Rev Kev

      If they play this sort of music enough, it might lead to arguments among the homeless of an unexpected nature. The music would be identified immediately but then would come the debate whether this was the version done by the conductor Carlos Kleiber or the one by Herbert von karajan – and which one was the better version.

    2. petal

      I was in orchestra growing up. I don’t mind playing it playing it on an instrument in a group. However I cannot stand listening to it, such as on a stereo or in an audience, etc. It makes me angry, BP goes up, it hurts my ears, makes brain irritated, the whole 9 yards. Physical reaction to hearing it. Can’t explain it to you. It is the polar opposite of relaxing.

      1. OwlishSprite

        I was a classical musician from the time I was 8. I had to stop because of physical issues at 35, and listening does kick in my critical thinking about interpretation, performance, etc., but I don’t get the hate thing, it still puts the world in order for me. I find the classical syntax predictable and soothing–no Penderecki for me.

        1. The Rev Kev

          Personally I am a fan of Baroque music much more than other classic music. There is just something about it that takes the edge off that other classic music does not.

          1. OwlishSprite

            I love Baroque and earlier music also, and I love the more adventurous aspects of Classical and Romantic music. It engages my heart. I can see why you find Baroque calming.

            1. semper loquitur

              I was a Baroque listener but have pretty much moved on to Renaissance and Medieval music. There is something so much more, I don’t know, human about those periods. Baroque and Romantic often strike me as pompous.

              1. OwlishSprite

                The later eras took advantage of new advances in musical instruments and more skilled players, with makers, players and composers urging each other on to new possibilities. I guess some composers used this better than others.

            2. Mildred Montana

              >”It engages my heart.”

              That’s the funny thing about music, how it can hit one’s heart, almost instantaneously. Back in the early 70s I completely by chance happened to hear on an FM station a song from a prog-rock band I’d never heard of. I was immediately transfixed. I stopped what I was doing and listened to the entire ten minutes. The next day I went out and bought their album and every one thereafter.

              Love at first listen.

              1. OwlishSprite

                Thanks for sharing that. “Transfixed” made me recall a little cat I had who was sitting on my lap during a recital by René Pape on TV. I looked down, and she was as absorbed in the magic as I was, until the end of the song, when we both shook ourselves awake. Bonding with a cat over opera–I never forgot that.

                1. britzklieg

                  Pape is one of the finest classical singers of the last two decades. I can’t remember hearing anyone better at the Met… what a voice!

              2. Pat

                There is a moment in The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard where the pop loving male protagonist reacts positively to Bach. To quote a review of a Broadway revival of the play in The Wrap:

                The Real Thing” looks at how pop culture can, for some people, be more the real thing than classical art. Henry, for instance, winkingly insists that Bach ripped off Procul Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale.” For him, pop music is the real thing, classical isn’t, because of the real emotions it triggers in him.

                Or make that it looks at how music…or art…or literature engages the heart.

          2. Amfortas the hippie

            out of the Classical folder in my digilibrary, i like Baroque more than the other periods, as well.
            been on a Vivaldi kick for most of the last year, when it’s Classical day, out there in the trees.
            my boys…and my workers…are not as enthusiastic about those days, as they are about some of the others.(workers are fond of West Coast Jazz Days, which surprised me a bit)

              1. Amfortas the hippie

                at my scarcity?
                or the periodic drunken rambles and nostalgic last callisms?

                ive been covered up with work…Cabin, mostly…but also farm stuff…looking like the first real garden since before Cancertime.
                interspersed with pain days…generally weather triggered on top of the labor…
                those days, and most evenings after working, i veg out and netflix(currently, “Justified”)
                so the only time i have is when i force a day off, hang out at the bar all day, cooking and reading in the am, and then shiner on tap til chickens finally go indoors.

                i still manage to read something cool that makes me think every morning, usually from y’all, but not always
                eg:https://rhyd.substack.com/p/caliban-and-the-witch-preface-and

        2. Alice X

          I’ve played classical and jazz all my (long) life. I go for long periods not listening to anything but always playing. Then I go on jags to listen a lot. Back and forth between the two. Penderecki is one of my modern favorites, from his ventures in the 23rd century back to the twentieth. His two violin concertos are sublime, I have reductions of both and have read through them a number of times, but of course no one would want me to play them out. Anne-Sophie Mutter does a superb job on the second. In several instances I’ve slowed her recordings down to half speed where most mortals who sound perfect normally begin to show slight imperfections. Anne is still perfect, She is a goddess, she terrifies me.

    3. Wukchumni

      I love classical music, in particular from around 1775 to 1900, every country in Europe had mad talent, trying to outdo one another.

      We generally want words in our songs, and largely classical doesn’t play that game, and requires an awful lot of repetition in listening to understand the nuances.

      Incidentally, Franz Schubert was homeless, would he be the preferred listening choice among the downtrodden?

    5. CaliDan

      Music has been used, for better and worse, in various contexts for population control since the first broadcast. One of the most visible manifestations after the war was Muzak (LBJ owned several franchises). Originally piped into workplaces across the country using different methods, Muzak was specifically researched and designed to manipulate workers’ attitudes and behaviors, statistically speaking, especially to increase productivity, but also to quell dissent, etc. I have a soft spot for how innocent it was at the time; but it worked!

      Fast forward half a century, those who dabbled in this sort of manipulation found that the same principles can be applied in other contexts using extant music (No more dealing with pesky artists!). Music can be used to engender and dissuade all sorts of behaviors from your daily commute to the subway station to Guantanamo interrogations. When I lived in Boston in the early 2000s, for example, they started piping in ragtime piano music in the Forest Hills T station to deter kids from loitering––worked like a charm, a kind of hostile architecture.

      Even more disconcerting, we can be trained to do it to ouselves! Good luck out there.

      1. ambrit

        Fear not, Brian Eno has been on the job since 1978. That was the release date for his “Music for Airports.” It was actually tried out in the Marine Air Terminal of La Guardia Airport in the 1980s.
        Read: https://ethnomusicologyreview.ucla.edu/content/music-airports-continued
        Read: http://divergencepress.net/2019/02/14/2019-2-4-diffusing-the-norm-brian-enos-music-for-airports/
        Being cognitively blinkered, I trend towards minimalism in all it’s form.
        Stay safe! Stay focused!

  10. griffen

    Google is cutting back on perks. I saw a CNBC reference to this yesterday, and the joke was whether a Swingline red stapler was the preferred choice or on the chopping block. Oh the humanity of employment at a large, global technology firm; no free yoga ? \sarc

    Most office jobs I’ve held, abundant but cheap coffee was the main offering. Lunches and meals, on the infrequent basis or likely during some promotional day or week to gather employees together, so we may all drink Kool Aid. Pass the grape flavored punch!

    1. Ready Go Set

      Swingline red stapler having a curtain call long after Office Space claim to fame.

      The Milton Waddams film character said I believe you have my stapler.

      1. griffen

        Milton said a few things in Office Space that are timeless quotes. Cubicle dwellers just never forget all the gems from that film. Plus the ensuing debate, as to which Michael Bolton musical hit was the programmer Michael Bolton’s favorite.

        Faulty office printers have never been viewed in the same light.

    2. Jason Boxman

      The memo, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, named not just employee travel and entertainment but office snack bars and worker cafeterias as areas where the company is looking to cut back. Some “microkitchens” will be cut entirely while others will only operate on days when the most people are in the office.

      Google Cambridge (MA) had an exclusive noodle bar on the top floor of one of the buildings in that complex; Was quite popular, as I recall. Made to order.

    3. Late Introvert

      This is such an old story. I worked for a company called Macromedia in the late 90s leading up to the Dot Com Crash. For a while we had catered lunches, a dedicated gaming room, they bought 150 brand new luxe office chairs, there were 3 or 4 recruiters on staff, our team went from ~10 to almost 200 in less than 6 months. This was all for an ad-supported gaming website, with jigsaw puzzles and bowling that you could play in your browser.

      Needless to say I bought my stock options the day they vested, and sold them immediately. Very few of my co-workers did, they were told by the CEO we would all be millionaires. One day the catered lunches were canceled and I quit soon after. My supervisor was amazed that I predicted it was all going to be over soon. They had mass layoffs about 3 months later. I’m no genius, it was so bloody obvious.

  11. Steve H.

    > THE LEICESTER VILLAINIES — THE LINE THAT RUNS BETWEEN THE DEATHS OF KING RICHARD III, RICHARD MAYNE OF MH17, AND DAWN STURGESS OF NOVICHOK John Helmer

    Butchers butchering, catch innocents between:

    Ah my poore Princes! ah my tender Babes:
    My vnblowed Flowres, new appearing sweets:
    If yet your gentle soules flye in the Ayre,
    And be not fixt in doome perpetuall,
    Hover about me with your ayery wings,
    And heare your mothers Lamentation.

  12. fresno dan

    HOW SENIORS CAN JOIN THE MILITARY
    Piach
    @PhilipPiacenti1
    Mar 17
    Replying to
    @search_this_
    As an old Marine 8404 FMF corpsman, I think this is excellent! Actually the minimum age for enlistment should be 65. All wars hence forth should only be fought by seniors! Pee breaks every 15 minutes, camouflage depends, Metamucil MREs. Break time Andy Griffith shows on!!!!!
    ==============================================================
    Pee breaks every 15 minutes? I wish – the guy must have a bladder of steel. And who can afford brand name Metamucil – I have to use the Dollar store brand, which I understand is made up of ground up chevy citations.
    Andy Griffith shows??? give me a break – every old timer knows its Matlock
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W99APLlpBnY

    1. Pat

      Did you know they are rebooting Matlock with Kathy Bates as Matlock? But I suppose since The Equalizer with Queen Latifah was a success….

      1. ambrit

        Kathy Bates as Matlock!!?? H— hath no fury like a demographic scorned!
        What next? Will Professor Jones be retconned into Phoebe Waller Briggs? Kathleen Kennedy has a lot to answer for.

    3. GramSci

      Cheer up! There is life after Social Security and Medicare. It’s the USian version of the MMT Job Guarantee.

    4. The Rev Kev

      Any formation full of soldiers in their 60s would be invincible. They would literally have no fear of death and it would be worse than facing the Death Korps of Krieg. Being out in the field they would be mean, be cranky, irritable, be aching in their bones from camping and would be wanting to take their wrath out on the nearest enemy with extreme prejudice.

    5. Keith Newman

      @fresno dan, 8:40am
      Dollar store dietary fibre from “ground up chevy citations”. (Hilarious btw). At least the Citations would be put to good use if they were used for that. I had one. What a piece of garbage. The president of GM apologised for them. I went all Japanese after that. Have a Mazda now.
      Have you tried rolled oats mixed with barley flakes for fibre?

      1. JM

        I thought of this book too. I remember describing the basics of the plot to my then art professor, and his disappointment when they got to the cloning into new superhuman bodies; looking back, it is a kinda lazy way to remove the initial premise of using “used up” human bodies for a war in space. Though I’m not sure I can come up with anything better…

      2. digi_owl

        Well there have been some research into motorized skeletons to help with load carrying…

    7. Boomheist

      So let’s see…..the military cannot fill recruiting quotas so if they open behind-the-lines jobs to seniors then they accomplish a couple things: 1) further expand their tentacles into the broader economy (think public private partnerships here, for example military reserve ships run by “private” contractors) thus deepening the MIC proportion of the economy [and therefore insulation from any budget cuts]; 2) by enrolling otherwise struggling seniors by employing them further broadening the voting base’s support come election time; and 3)neatly for the moment hiding growing evidence that the pool of young, fit, capable warriors is steadily shrinking…..

  13. DGL

    French minister – on her chest is 49.3. That is the article of the French constitution that allows executive to implement legislation without the parliament voting. That is a direct slap in the face towards the protesters. It seems governments are embolden to show disdain for their citizens.

    2. Wukchumni

      Playmate profile:

      Turn-ons: I like barefoot walks on the beach, soft candlelit dinners, executive privilege and compliant citizens.

      Turn-offs: those that protest a bit too much, let them eat take.

    4. psv

      I second The Rev Kev’s comment, wow. Thanks for pointing that out. Useful to see these people putting their cards on the table, so to speak.

  14. fresno dan

    French minister slammed for Playboy photoshoot as Paris protests intensify Remix (BC)

    Playboy still exists??? Playboy magazine still exists???? Purely for research purposes, where in the world do they sell it?

      1. The Rev Kev

        Yeah, after they turned that magazine into ‘a newer, woke-er, more inclusive Playboy.’ That went down well as everybody was demanding that happen.

        1. digi_owl

          Funny that, given how Playboy was an arch defender of free speech back in the day. I can’t help think that without that first amendment, USA would be as bad as some middle eastern theocracy. But i guess it is all “ok” as long as it is the mob, not the government, that is enforcing thought control.

    4. Bugs

      The photo with the 49,3 on her chest is obviously photoshopped. Playboy is still sold at newstands in France. 15€ an issue, last time I checked. Quarterly.

      Mlle Schiappa was previously “minister for women and men’s equality and the battle against discrimination”. She’s fairly easy on the eyes for a minister.

      These long and bizarre ministry titles started around the beginning of the century and they keep getting more Vonnegutesque as time goes on.

  15. Lex

    Israel is playing a very dangerous game. Not only does it have widening domestic issues but its foreign policy plans are in shambles and its primary protector is becoming unreliable. We’ve reached a point where the Israeli PM is making veiled accusations of the US running a color revolution op against Israel.

    So to violently enter an incredibly important mosque while the whole of the gulf region is restoring relations with Iran and – to some beginning degree – reuniting Muslims within the religion’s heartland is something. It may find itself trapped between acts like this to placate internal divisions and efforts to stop the foreign policy bleeding. But if there are problems with the US relationship and the US relationship with the KSA can no longer provide needed regional influence, not to mention potential physical limits on the ability of the US to provide direct military support, then Israel is realistically in a far worse position than even the late 60’s. That’s especially true given that aside from nuclear capability, the IDF is not the superior force it used to be. The last tangle in Lebanon went poorly. Israel’s enemies have far greater capability today than they did in 2006.

    1. The Rev Kev

      Fully agree here. In the same way that US actions have united both Russia and China together, Israel’s idiotic actions here are uniting the Sunni and Shia together – and by that I mean Saudi Arabia and Iran. Can you imagine what the world would be saying if that had been Italian riot police doing this in the Vatican? The Israelis haven’t completely lost the plot yet though. The other day some Ultra-orthodox worshipers wanted to take lambs up to Temple Mount to slaughter them for a religious ceremony but that was just a bit too far for the government so they put a stop to it. Having a blood sacrifice next to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound would have just been to much.

      1. hk

        Even more interesting is that Netanyahu government seems to be in a practicallybopen fight with the Biden admin–the whole “color revolution” accusation and all that. I can sort of see the logic behind this–they are seeing that Biden’s days are numbered and Trump has been, fwiw, much more friendly to Israeli extremists. OTOH, given how the whole world is realigning, that still seems like a pound foolish “cleverness.”

    2. jsn

      Mini-Me is having a rough go, even as Me is getting shot at in Syria. Illegal occupations just aren’t any fun anymore.

      They smiley face is already off in Israel, Biden looks to be taking it off here too.

      It promises to be an interesting summer.

      1. JBird4049

        It is more than having a rough go. It is being foolish with attacking worshippers at such an important and historical place and and religiously important time. The people being attacked are sympathetic and certainly not a threat to anyone, which makes it very bad optics.

        I can see an American government being almost as foolish, but not quite.

  16. The Rev Kev

    ‘I am struck by just the ridiculous ways in which the US government overspends but at the same time tries to nickel and dime their way through a military contract. Apparently an insurance issue is holding up multiple programs.’

    Not just the US here. As I was waiting for Links to come online I came across a story about the hundred odd Canadian troops in Poland training Ukrainian soldiers. The problem for them is that they are being forced to buy their own meals as the Canadian Armed Forces made no provision to do something about that. The Army told them to buy food and that they would be reimbursed for the costs but in spite of them being there since last October, they have not received any money causing them and their families to go into debt. Canada has given the Ukraine over $1 billion but just can’t be bothered by this nickel and dime stuff of food for their soldier-

    https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/canadian-troops-in-poland-not-being-reimbursed-for-meals

    1. Kouros

      Canadian governments are really big scrooges in this respect. I had my earful from my bosses when catering for a committee I was supporting.

      As if a bit of warm food would not lubricate decisions better…??

      Stupid is as stupid does. And this just to maintain a certain public image of taking care of public money…

  17. OwlishSprite

    re: Study uncovers social cost of using AI in conversations

    “I was surprised to find that people tend to evaluate you more negatively simply because they suspect that you’re using AI to help you compose text, regardless of whether you actually are,” Hohenstein said. “This illustrates the persistent overall suspicion that people seem to have around AI.”

    Gee, I wonder if that’s because it’s insulting and arrogant? You’re not engaged, or blowing me off? I am not sure to get good information? If I wanted to talk to a robot I would not talk to you? They needed a study for that?

      1. OwlishSprite

        I also see some people being so afraid to ‘offend’ that they don’t trust themselves any longer to speak for themselves. And it backfires on them. No conversations to come to a personal consensus are happening. I can remember hashing things out with people (intellectually) and becoming closer as a result. It is a skill that requires practice, and IMO we aren’t getting it now.

        1. Mark Gisleson

          Tom Wolfe talked about this back in the early ’70s. I forget what he called the phenomenon, but he described it as like when you are at a party and all the conversations are above your head but finally someone mentions something that you just learned an interesting fact about but before you can ‘brilliantly’ insert it into the conversation, the topic changes.

          Wolfe’s focus was on how you handle that situation. Do you wait and try to force your fact into the conversation later, or do you just let it slide and die a little bit inside?

          AI could probably write a book about this phenomenon.

      2. Don

        Actually, every TV commercial that I hear sounds like it’s written by AI: “No-one left behind” “For yeeue!” Whoa! — Just wait ’til I’m in charge.” “We’ve got your back!”…

        Are they?

    2. ArvidMartensen

      From all accounts, having a conversation with AI is exactly the same as having a conversation with your psychopath friend or partner.

      You never know when they are lying
      You never know when you are being gaslighted
      They love talking about themselves
      You know they are looking to make/get money out of you somehow

      Sure, sounds like just the thing to let loose in western society Will fit right in.

  18. Wukchumni

    Gooooooood Mooooorning Fiatnam!

    My Kevin (since ’07) was on a R & R mission to liasion with the leader of the island nation, and lunch was interesting, as Kev thought dim sum must be the number 13, so he went safe and ordered lemon chicken-which was more appropriate, seeing as Nancy paid a personal visit to Taiwan to polish her anti PRC bonafides, while he played it safe in Cali.

    Kev will discuss renaming things-as is his penchant, with the the president of Formosa, er Taiwan.

  19. Lexx

    ‘The insanity of the anti-Trump ‘resistance’ led America to this point’

    Trump’s opposition (the neoliberals?) are shallow people, because their chief objection to him is he has tacky tastes? They hate him for his gold toilet seat? If only he’d paid off any woman other than a porn star? Someone more like Marilyn Monroe, for example. It’s just so sordid!

    Those with the most skin in the game are the American public, all 339 million of them. I don’t agree that their chief offense, for those who are offended and bother to discuss it all, is the vanity of his comb-over. It’s the ever growing sense from the top down of a social instability from which there’s no escape. If we’re not a nation of laws, what are we? If we’re not a democracy, what are we? It’s the unspoken answers that do and should pursue us in our sleep.

    1. JTMcPhee

      When I went to law school (1973) lawyers could lose their credential for advertising. I actually, even after a liberal arts (history) education, believed that “the law is the social cement that binds the fractious pieces of the polity together. Took me three years of “legal education,” matched against what I had learned in the Army (Vietnam) and observed (Ollie North Iran Contra Watergate etc.) to see that my initial understanding was pure myth and shibboleth. Confirmed working first as a prosecutor of consumer fraud cases, in the corrupt Illinois ( Chicago) courts and political mire, where malefactors got off via bribes and connections. More of the same as an enforcement attorney with the US EPA. And completing my legal education and career as an associate with a big Seattle law firm.

      The gulf between the myths and shibboleths on the one hand, and the realities of The System, is no doubt causing extreme effects from the unmistakable cognitive dissonance that can’t be papered over sufficiently by the best ladling of Bernays Sauce.

      Whatever elements of social homeostasis there might have been seem pretty effectively exhausted. Anomie is a real thing, and leads to stuff like the many episodes of the salient American version of running amok. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_amok

      1. Lexx

        This morning I was watching Jon Stewart’s latest podcast, talking with David Dayen and Prof. Phil Goff. I learned a little about what has changed since the days when the Feds put bankers in prison… something called a ‘deferred prosecution agreement’ and its origins. I’m interested in what it would take to educate the public about how white collar crime is prosecuted differently from blue collar, and why.

        Cognitive dissonance is mentioned several times over the hour.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pMTPMy9Sug
        https://prospect.org/topics/david-dayen/
        https://afamstudies.yale.edu/people/phillip-atiba-goff

  20. The Rev Kev

    “Uganda’s president calls on Africa to ‘save the world’ from ‘dangerous’ homosexuality”

    I heard that Uganda had passed a pretty bad bill against LGBTQ people with a death penalty attached. Knowing nothing about Ugandan politics, I do wonder if this was a bill was really all about making the government popular. More to the point, whether it was sold as fighting foreign influences. So for example, the US State Department gave a $20,000 grant for drag shows in Ecuador as well as grants to universities and non-profits to promote LGBTQ inclusion in India. And this goes on all around the world. I said in a comment the other day that most countries tend to be more conservative in their beliefs and practices and with these sort of grants, it lets local politicians in those countries to rail about this to get people to support them because they are more about traditional values. Trump did the same in the US saying how he was for traditional American values. So it would be interesting to learn why the Ugandans thought it necessary to pass such a ultra-radical bill. There must have been some sort of background to it.

      1. tevhatch

        I would not be surprised in the least to see the USA funding both sides of this division, as another way to create useful pressure points against the Uganda 1%, may of whom are heavy users of SWIFT and off-shore banking in Joe’s home state.

    2. digi_owl

      The place reads like a mess and a half, and things can likely be traced back to British missionaries.

  21. Carolinian

    Wired

    “That will be very complicated to do when we still have municipal, county, state/province, and country borders,” Black says. These might not exist in the metaverse itself, “but that will very much govern the meatspace humans that build it.” Creating a better online space will mean monitoring who gains control of the metaverse—and who gets left behind.

    Wha??

    I have to admit that not only do I not know what the metaverse is but that I have never been on Facebook or Twitter or see the need to be socially mediated by Zuckerberg or to communicate in haiku like bursts of words. RL beats VR any day.

    1. R.S.

      Meatspace. Meatspace.

      ===
      …I remember my whole generation abandoning the real world for a bootstrapped Afterlife. I remember someone saying Vampires don’t go to Heaven. They see the pixels. Sometimes I wonder how I’d feel, brought back from the peace of the grave to toil at the pleasure of simpleminded creatures who had once been no more than protein. I wonder how I’d feel if my disability had been used to keep me leashed and denied my rightful place in the world.

      And then I wonder what it would be like to feel nothing at all, to be an utterly rational, predatory creature with meat putting itself so eagerly to sleep on all sides…
      ===
      (q) Blindsight by P.Watts.

      1. Carolinian

        My local library dumped their music disc section and expanded the video game section to fill the space.

        Yeaargh.

        I’ll admit I enjoyed MS Flight Simulator at one point but that was as much about learning how airplanes work. Are the gamers learning how assault rifles work? How is this a good trend?

        1. Henry Moon Pie

          Those first-shooter games grew out of DoD training and are now viewed as good propaganda for the shoot-first-negotiate-later crowd. That may answer your question as to the end goal.

          As for VR, as the climate catastrophe progresses and people are living in cubicles in massive highrises eating bugs and worms, they’ll need a little escape now and then. “Travel through a beautiful temperate Earth forest as they once actually existed.” Think “Soylent Green” meets “Elysium.”

        2. scott s.

          MS shutdown its flight sim group over a decade ago, licensed the code to Lockheed Martin. You could buy it from L-M, as long as you agreed you weren’t using it for entertainment. But then MS partnered with a Belgium outfit, Asobo, and rebooted it as MSFS 2020. But now requires online connection to get geo data from MS Bing/Azure. Some complain about certain things being dumbed-down so MSFS can run on XBox, which I guess was an MS requirement.

          As far as shooter games, don’t think they are teaching how to clear jams, zero optics, field strip or the like.

        3. R.S.

          Are the gamers learning how assault rifles work?

          It looks like some of them think they do. Definitely not a good trend. Some twenty years ago I used to regularly do paintball/airsoft skirmishes. Some guys might have had crazy ideas, but in general we just had fun, shaking off the lard and all that. I wager that it was a million times closer to the real thing than CGs.

          When all those C-19 lockdowns began, I got hooked a bit too much on roguelikes. And after several months, I had a personal revelation of a kind. I could be just as good sitting with a sheaf of math tables or something, rolling the dice and trying to get a nice-looking string of numbers. Yeah, there were funny pictures and text messages, but in the essence it was just that. A sort of an empty cognitive masturbation that produced exactly nothing.

    2. semper loquitur

      The article is an exercise in techno-fetishism and delusion, albeit with some attempts at a critical perspective.

      VR is an attempt to escape reality by definition. This would be fine if it were on the order of playing D & D or reading a work of fiction. But it’s not, not even close. It’s tries to displace consensus reality. Thus the derisory language of “meatspace”. Thus the notion that these illusions will somehow become more important to the average individual than the ground they actually stand on, or recline in their gaming chair on.

      There will be no kinder, gentler VR “reality”. The system to create the laws that might conceivably regulate those “spaces” is irrevocably broken, poisoned. Any of the grievances, misconceptions, and prejudices these “spaces” are supposed to regulate will simply fester and burst forth in the real world, negating whatever isolated good such regulations may have had in the first place. The regulations will be based on the decisions of a handful of powers who will pick and choose what’s acceptable and not acceptable according to their own prejudices. Profit will drive it all and ultimately dictate the terms.

      At it’s basis, it’s all about disassociation from one’s humanity, as is so much these days. Whether it’s smothering oneself with a fuzzy blanket of opiates, escaping one’s body for the delusion of a different sex, drowning in the immersion of a multi massive online video game, gibbering and moaning through the faux rituals of electoral politics, the divine wrath inducing abominations of the transhuman ideology, or “deconstructing” the world with dull-witted word games, it seems that large swathes of the West are deeply intent on getting away from themselves.

      1. digi_owl

        The idea of “meatspace” has been floating around since the earliest days of the net.

        The old joke went something like “online nobody knows you’re a dog”.

        These days i suspect it has flipped on its head, with the offline people not knowing that your online self is an anthropomorphic wolf.

  22. The Rev Kev

    “American Teens Aren’t Excited About Virtual Reality”

    I can understand why. Most teenagers have their faces stuck in a mobile screen and they start young. Everywhere they go, there is a mobile stuck in their pocket and you see it everywhere. So how are you supposed to do virtual reality when you are out and about? In games yes when you are home but when you are out?

    1. Mikel

      I’d imgine parents aren’t excited about purchasing another tune-out device for the kiddies.

    2. Late Introvert

      TRK,

      I held out until the week before middle school started (7th grade). I later told my daughter I wasn’t getting her a phone until she cried about it. But that’s how big a deal it is for them.

  23. petal

    Stay tuned! Forensics teams, police with riot shields and unanswered questions: Massive police raid on Nicola Sturgeon’s house sees her husband Peter Murrell arrested in probe over missing SNP money for independence referendum
    Snip:”Nicola Sturgeon and her husband Peter Murrell are at the centre of a massive police investigation into missing donations given to the SNP to fund its independence drive.

    Police officers, including forensics experts and others with riot shields are going through the family home in Glasgow and the nationalist party’s Edinburgh headquarters after arresting Mr Murrell, 58, early this morning.

    He was held by detectives investigating what happened to more than half a million pounds donated to the SNP to pay for a second independence referendum campaign that never materialised.
    The extraordinary scenes that have left Scottish politics in a state of turmoil come just a week after Ms Sturgeon handed over power to Humza Yousaf.

    This morning he was forced this morning to defend her surprise departure as SNP leader and First Minister, insisting it was noting to do with the police investigation.”

    2. paul

      It’s rather odd that an open and shut case of fraud has taken 3 years to investigate, is now being so dramatically escalated.
      It will be interesting to see how it all pans out.
      Our former first minister and party leader does not seem to be standing by her man, fleeing the scene 20 minutes before the coppers turned up.
      Alex Salmond had a hard time keeping a straight face when asked to comment on the situation his persecutors find themselves in.

      Craig Murray seems to be suggesting there might be more to it than just the missing 600k.
      However reporting restrictions are now in place and it is very hazardous for anyone to say more.

  24. Amfortas the hippie

    re:that last link:
    wherein some russian intellectual consortium asks a myriad and disparate bunch what life will be like 20 years hence:
    working my way down in between shoveling horse manure.
    so far, quite a few are predictable based on source/institution.
    but the Princeton guy( Oushakine ):
    ” But I think there is one problem we are unlikely to solve. We struggled with it a lot in the 20th century and it came to the fore as real as ever in the last ten years, namely the establishment of a balance between the general and the specific, between the local and the global, between ethnic and cosmopolitan. All attempts to find an acceptable solution have so far ended in failure—neither communism nor globalization has succeeded: either the “specific” did not fit into the general framework, or the “general” was not the general, but the imposed “specific.” We are unlikely to succeed in twenty years either, even though I would very much like to hope otherwise.”

    i think that’s a hell of a lens to look at the world through, and one that’s not looked through enough.
    (relies on a modicum of humility, methinks)
    similar to the other link regarding hyperpolarisation in the body politic, and splashing into everything else.
    Totalising The Other, etc.

  26. tevhatch

    Japan Oil Deal – Japan will have to buy in Ruble, which means Japan has to either buy the Ruble (from India or other’s who also need Ruble or with Gold in Russia) or export goods to Russia. So much for the IC chip/ high end parts boycott?

    Western Tanks – several reports that Ukraine under contract constraint to not bring Western Tanks (Leopard 2, Challenger, and Abrams – but not Leopard 1) to front line under sales terms. Whether or not Ukraine will for once follow the contract is another issue, but it says something about how much the West is committed to Ukraine winning.

  27. Tom Stone

    A couple of books for those interested in US Labor History, “Red Harvest” by that notorious Commie Dashiell Hammett and “Two Evil Ism’s Pinkrtonism and Anarchism” by Charlie Siringo who spent many years as an undercover detective for Wells Fargo before joining the Pinks.
    It’s a little hard to find because it was successfully suppressed for many decades.
    Charlie and Bill Tilghman are my favorites among old west lawmen and his time in Dodge City at the time of the massacre at the OK Corral makes for fascinating reading.

    1. Martin Oline

      Tom, in order to find Charlie’s book I had to search for Charles Siringo on ABE books. Charlie turns up other titles by him. Thanks for the tip.

  28. JTMcPhee

    Nice antidote today, a bit of a painful surprise for me since the doggie on the right is a twin to my Maggie, who died last Thursday.

    Fourteen years is what, 98 in doggie years? She was pretty spry up to doggie age 92 or so.

    We called her our “red-headed stepchild,” with a bit of OCD, or maybe it was only her enforcement of all the elements of her particular social contract — walks twice a day, 10:30 am and 7 pm, breakfast at 9, dinner at 6, treats at noon and 9pm. She did not adjust for daylight savings time, by the way.

    Fourteen years of dog love, getting underfoot and eventually living with the shame of incontinence. Held her as she died, felt the living warmth and spirit leave her. We got a cat two years ago, they did not mesh well and of course a cat is not the same thing as a dog who would lay her head on your feet, angle to maximize her share of bed space until not able to get up or down.

    Salut, Maggie! You were a better person than I am. I hope the Rainbow Bridge thing is not just a comforting myth…

    1. Pat

      My sympathies to you and your family, JT. No matter how long you have with a beloved four legged member of your family it is far too short. May Maggie be enjoying walks and treats and feeling spry as a puppy as she waits in the fields beyond that bridge. Till you meet again…

    2. kareninca

      I’m very sorry about Maggie. We lost Sophie in January; she was almost 14; she was a German Shepherd Golden Retriever mix. It is very hard.

    3. Yves Smith Post author

      I am so so sorry. Very hard to lose a good friend.

      It may be the cat becomes friendlier now that it is no longer competing with Maggie.

  29. Ranger Rick

    Anyone who thinks the Internet is ruined clearly hasn’t been paying attention to the chatbot space. It can always get worse. The signal to noise ratio on anything accessible to the general public is about to go way, way, way down, while “AI researchers” rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic.

  30. Bart Hansen

    At eleven minutes into Brian’s video on Syria is part of a briefing by one of our protectors, which I recommend.

Comments are closed.