2:00PM Water Cooler 5/25/2023

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1. Otis B Driftwood May 25, 2023 at 2:20 pm

   BJG has opened up this recent Bad Faith interview with journalist Ben Norton. Norton is one of the best independent journalists out there, has encyclopedic knowledge of geopolitics and doesn’t buy for a second the notion that Tucker Carlson is ant anti-war hero.. His work deserves much broader exposure.

   https://youtu.be/5eZwN5_WpsM
   1. pjay May 25, 2023 at 3:16 pm

      You are right about Ben Norton. I have long admired his work, and his principles. In his clarity and demeanor, I see similarities to another journalist I admire greatly, Aaron Mate. But I disagree with him on this. His absolute refusal to make common cause with “the Right” on those issues on which they might agree was his reason for leaving the Grayzone. Like some others on the left, he seems to fear that *any* example of a “red-brown alliance” will fatally contaminate and co-opt the “good guys.” But when the issue is the rapidly growing surveillance/censorship power of the National Security State, or the rapidly growing danger of starting WWIII through our insanely aggressive policy of NATO expansion and provocation, then *any* opportunity to widen the cracks in the propaganda Wall should be taken – period. If Tucker Carlson has the largest audience on cable TV and allows truth bombs on these issues, the opening should be used. Since there are NO comparable outlets on the “left,” and indeed since most of the so-called “left” are on the wrong side of these issues, then the alternative is for the handful of authentic, anti-imperial leftists to keep talking amongst themselves. They can feel good about their ideological purity – and get their information out to no one outside their own choir.

      This does *not* mean that one cannot challenge Carlson directly on the issues on which he is still playing the right-wing demagogue. Hell, call him on it. And it definitely does not mean that people like Greenwald, Taibbi, Mate, et al should let their guard down about being co-opted by the “paleoconservatives.” But if there is *ever* going to be any chance to wake up a significant segment of the public to enact any meaningful change, then you have to start where they are. Ideological purity will accomplish nothing.
      1. Nikkikat May 25, 2023 at 5:14 pm

         Thanks for your comment Pjay. I agree.
      2. Henry Moon Pie May 25, 2023 at 5:36 pm

         Thumbs up from me on that, pjay. I like that the attack on Taibbi has united Aaron Mate, Katie Halper, Glenn Greenwald and Jim Jordan on one side. It is probably a very temporary alliance, but it’s really the only political route forward. The Right’s obsession with whatever they call Marxism and the “Chinese Community Party” doesn’t make things any easier, though.
      3. Tommy S May 25, 2023 at 7:25 pm

         You sound like a good person, and I bet if we were neighbors, we would get along, as I do with many people on the ‘right’, if you are or not, but anyway….It is not ideological purity for the real left to NOT align with the right. ..(though I could see it in mass one issue anti war things-that’s politics, not movement building)….it is actually survival, self defense, and responsibility against imperialism and mass murder by your own country. It is a much needed ethical compass to see the ‘right’ as the mortal enemy, that maybe even at this point, should cause us to form CNT type militias. Also, Ben left TOO because of Max’s insane Omicron pronouncements that December 2021 on the jimmy Dore show and the idea that the Canadian trucker strike was ‘working class movement’. And he was right for doing so. Ben Norton may be a bit of a tanky, but he has a damn ethical center…..rooted.
      4. WRH May 25, 2023 at 7:38 pm

         Absolutely. Meet people where they are.
2. Rod May 25, 2023 at 2:22 pm

   Well now:
   Here’s a comment on today’s Current State of Affairs on Rising– by Matt Taibbi about the IRS Home Visit:

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL05lxaVsKY&t=5s
   ps -Lambert thanks for that scratch through get back–i took a picture
3. Angie Neer May 25, 2023 at 2:28 pm

   AM: I love that photo, with the sphere of flowers floating in the center, and the background blurred yet still showing structure and symmetry.
4. Jake Dickens May 25, 2023 at 2:34 pm

   I think the grocery isle odor test should work. Last week while wearing an N95 respirator I walked past a guy who was apparently wearing powerful cologne. A few steps later, going outside, I took off the mask and only then smelled his fragrance. I was surprised that the mask stopped cologne.
   1. Lambert Strether Post authorMay 25, 2023 at 3:05 pm

      I found the Tweet. She recommends the fabric softener aisle.
      1. Lee May 25, 2023 at 6:12 pm

         Since odor molecules are much smaller than viruses, a mask that stops viruses may not stop all odors. I can detect some odors through my P-100 Elipse, such as rubbing alcohol, and so far as viruses are concerned, so far so good.
5. Amfortas the hippie May 25, 2023 at 2:37 pm

   1. now i cant get lesbian kyjelly wrestling out of my mind…so, thanks!
   2. i hate it when Woke/CRT is equated with…variously…”The Left”, “the Far Left” or Marxism.
   it aint none of those things…and doesnt derive from the Frankfurt School, either.
   instead, it flows directly from Judith Butler’s bad misreading of a bunch of bad translations of certain French Post-Structuralists and pseudo-Existentialists.
   i hung out with a bunch of lesbians in college…89-92 or so(fun times!…and they made me read Butler, and her derivatives…and we argued a lot about what she was actually saying. most of my lez friends ended up agreeing that this approach…along with the misapplication of Intersectionality…was a recipe for atomisation and a sort of stealth prophylaxis for solidarity, fellowfeeling and similar necessary things for forming coalitions and broad political movements.

   i finally got around to the Frankfurt School while i was waiting around for a hip replacement. this was during Obamatime, when “Cultural Marxism” was going around within the then fringe amurkin Right.
   what They thought it was…is not what it really was,lol.
   more about how the mass production and mass politics of the time helped keep the imperial capitalist behemoth rolling, in spite of contradictions…and with the Plebs and Proles’ help, because we were all in the soup…as in the fish arent aware of the water.
   but in a billion words…and with the usual problems with german to english philosophy translations(german compound word= english incomprehensible paragraph or 3).
   Mercuse is the only one out of that bunch that came even close to a semblance of being a precursor to Woke.
   and even that is a stretch.
   end rant, as its raining again…and internet, land lines and cell fones out here are like stealth bombers, and do not function well in the rain.
   1. DJG, Reality Czar May 25, 2023 at 2:47 pm

      amfortas the hippie: The central observation of the tweet is that lesbians are being erased. So are gay men. The replacements are woke self-declarations and “queerness,” which means wearing a pink t-shirt on Tuesdays and thinking of oneself as a sexual outlaw.

      As you say, and as Lambert Strether remarks above, woke-o-locity is not Marxism. The gay Druid philosopher Rhyd Wildermuth considers wokeness to be a religious impulse.

      Yet a number of people in the response thread of her tweet engage in red-baiting. I recall years back, when I used to demonstrate with the Gay Liberation Network in Chicago at the Pride Parade. A few years running, we had a big banner supporting Bradley Manning. (That’s how long ago it was.) From the sidelines, from the spectators, I’d hear the occasional yawp, “Traitor.”

      The conservative impulse, especially among gay men, has not served gayfolk well. One can only do so much “Clarence Thomasing” before the results diminish.

      The joylessness of current gay icons like Pete Buttigieg is what the tweet is about.

      The red-baiting is plain stupid. Where do these people think the gay liberation movement arose from? Everett Dirksen’s living room?
      1. Henry Moon Pie May 25, 2023 at 3:40 pm

         Rhyd Wildermuth–will have to read some of his stuff. Looks very interesting.

         As to the provenance of things these days, there’s wild theories about everything out there. Today, I heard from the semi-official leader of the Trump Youth, Charlie Kirk, and his pentecostalist, Darby-ite pastor and mentor, Jack Hibbs, that those Davos billionaires and millionaires and their hangers-on are the evil disseminators of socialism.

         The hard right is bound and determined to refresh or even re-demonize Marxism, communism and socialism. No doubt part of the reason lies in the polls since ’08 that show a rise in approval of socialism among the young, but they’re so fervent about it. Maybe the Reds on the Righties’ list right after the Muslim and LGBT citizenry. They’d better hurry up of there won’t be any Marxists, etc. left.
         1. Daniil Adamov May 26, 2023 at 1:05 am

            If Marxists no longer exist, they would simply have to invent them; and arguably that is what they already did.
      2. Amfortas the hippie May 25, 2023 at 4:15 pm

         Rhyd is one of my fave thinkers out there.
         the last person i talk to from high school called me about this very issue last night…whats “cultural marxism”?
         and i held forth as above.
         he’d been apparently watching some jordan peterson analog…albeit one who hides his Burkeanism revaanchism a bit better.
         i stated categorically, “if you heard the phrase “cultural Marxism” on youtube, twitter, or whatever other platform, the person using it was either hysterical, ignorant or trying to fool you into joining theior right leaning cult(including Woke, which is just as Righty as Red Scares or the Inquisition).
         …and likely all 3 at once…since contradictions do not matter to Orthodoxy.
         all of this, of course, is in service to the ultimate aim of the Neoliberal Dispensation…atomisation…hyperindividualism…so that, as someone said, nothing like the New Deal…or even Unions(except cop unions, of course) are even possible as a threat to the Oligarchs/Archons.
         the thing THEY fear the most is a good number of the lower orders, in spite of their multifoliate diversity, getting together to compare notes…and then all looking upwards, to the top of the pyramid and then nodding to one another as they sharpen their knives, scythes or pencils, as the case may be.
         1. Amfortas the hippie May 25, 2023 at 4:38 pm

            my last High School buddy made an interesting aside during our 2 hour convox:
            ” for all the talk about cops killing black people…who cops really kill are poor people”
            as in, Its about Class, stupid!
            all this hystericism and division-engendering hooplah, from both Right and “left”(sic) serves to obscure Class.
            thats the whole point.
   2. Lambert Strether Post authorMay 25, 2023 at 3:06 pm

      Thank you. The “cultural Marxism” thingie is so absurd I can’t bear to study it.
      1. Henry Moon Pie May 25, 2023 at 3:46 pm

         All you need to do, Lambert, is go on Youtube and put “Jordan Peterson” in the search box. He’ll ‘splain the whole thing. ;)
   3. Hepativore May 25, 2023 at 3:09 pm

      One thing that irritates me is the rise of the “Jimmy Dore”-flavored “left”, I.e. the Jimmy Dore, Sabby Sabs, RBN etc. types that think anybody who dares disagree with them on political strategy is automatically a sellout or enabler and they are constantly launching personal attacks on people who agree with them 9/10 times.

      This is the perfect example of the bloc in the political left that instigates a lot of the infighting that is holding back a lot of the progress of the political left since the collapse of the Bernie Sanders movement.

      I mean, yes, I understand that not everybody is going to agree with everything 100% of the time in terms of political stances, but this particular area of the left seems eager to stir up trouble with ad hominems with any area of disagreement.

      Anyway, I have long resigned myself to the fact that no meaningful political change is going to happen in my lifetime and I am a very early millennial. The New Deal era might as well have been a myth at this point, and the US aristocracy and its uniparty representatives as well as PMC enablers have put structures in place to make sure that a historical fluke like the New Deal era is never going to happen again in US history. The unstoppable behemoth of neoliberalism marches on, and all of the pronouncements of its death have been premature as it shows no signs of stopping in the US.

      I admit, I am rather cynical in my view of human nature, as I disagree with my fellow leftists in regards to their optimism of the nature of humanity. I think Hans Morgenthau was depressingly accurate in his portrayal of what drives humanity, I.e. we are still stuck with the baggage of millions of years of hierarchical evolutionary instinct that is ill-suited for modern times, but since evolution is such a slow process, we are saddled with much of this behavior that is now dysfunctional for our survival because of the existence of modern weapons. It cannot be gotten rid of as it is hardwired in our brains, only understood and ameliorated.
      1. chris May 25, 2023 at 3:44 pm

         I disagree that no meaningful political change will occur in our current lifetimes. I think what we’re going to see is a dramatic rush towards authoritarianism everywhere in the “West”. I think whatever passes for the left will be kicked down the stairs to rot in the basement until further notice. It won’t be a positive change. But it will be a meaningful change.
   4. Aurelien May 25, 2023 at 4:38 pm

      I agree very much about bad translations from the French. For example, when the Bald One talked about “power” he used the word pouvoir whose root meaning is related to the ability to get things done, not puissance which means “power” in the physical or political sense. He was interested in how systems work and things get done, not in formulating general theories of repression.

      I don’t like the term “Cultural Marxism” either, and it’s infuriating to see modern IdiotPol pundits acting as though they were part of the Left, or even owned it. In any event, the mistranslated French writers were in most cases not of the “Left” anyway. The Bald One was greatly influenced by Nietzsche and was fascinated by the Iranian Revolution: he’s pretty much considered a reactionary these days; The only variety of Marxism that had any traction at all in those circles was Maoism.

      That said, I think there is a clear line of development between the Frankfurt School (and especially Marcuse) and modern IdiotPol literature, not in content, but in form. If you read Marcuse, say One-Dimensional Man (OK, why would you?) you can see that it’s actually a cross between a surrender document and a suicide note. The capitalist system is so powerful, so all-embracing that it’s impossible to fight it. It dominates and co-opts everything, and all that might appear to be objective (science, mathematics, reason, rules of language and just about anything you can think of) is just another instrument of capitalist domination. Above all, it’s a perfect argument for passivity, since nothing you do can have any effect. This translates directly into today’s fatuous vocabulary of structural “isms,” which are so powerful and impossible to wipe out that all you can do is organise conferences and write unreadable books on how there’s nothing you can do but persecute other people for ideological deviation.
      1. dommage May 25, 2023 at 6:58 pm

         There are others who did not share your view of the study of Marcuse. His student, both undergraduate and graduate, Angela Davis for one. Her view: “Herbert Marcuse taught me that it was possible to be an academic, an activist, a scholar, and a revolutionary.” Permit me to suggest that she has made a substantial contribution against capitalist domination, taking a somewhat different lesson from Marcuse than yours. And she was his student at precisely the time in which he was writing One Dimensional Man. We are talking the early ’60s in the U.S. The success of anti-communism apparently complete, a consumerist working class = middle class = the people – “who have made their mutilation into their own liberties and satisfactions, and thus reproduce it on an enlarged scale.” But the system requires and reproduces a substratum, the unemployed and fearful of becoming so, the blacks who face dogs, stones, and bombs, jail. Whom reality honestly seen offers no hope for a truly meaningful change. It is they whom we must remain loyal to. This is literally the conclusion of One Dimensional Man, and the lesson Angela Davis learned as she continues to demonstrate. You may recall the book ends with this quote from Walter Benjamin:
         Nur um der Hoffnungslosen willen ist uns Hoffnung gegeben.
         It is only for the sake of those without hope that hope is given to us.
         1. Aurelien May 26, 2023 at 4:25 am

            Yes, Davis’s appropriation Marcuse is one of the most curious episodes in the history of the New Left, and was certainly a surprise to Marcuse himself. It’s often argued, though, that what really sold Marcuse to the New Left was his pamphlet on “Pure Tolerance,”which argued that in liberal/bourgeois societies so-called tolerance was is actually (just another) form of capitalist domination. What was needed was revolutionary tolerance, including tolerance for violence used by them, though not others. I can’t remember how many times this kind of thing was quoted at me fifty years ago by people who had read a few extracts from Marcuse in an essay somewhere.
         2. skippy May 26, 2023 at 4:48 am

            Yet strange now days as birth rates are all the vogue …. he .. tis not the 60s …
      2. Late Introvert May 25, 2023 at 11:49 pm

         Please, who is The Bald One? I know The Bearded One.
         1. aleric May 26, 2023 at 12:28 am

            Foucault, I believe.
            1. Late Introvert May 26, 2023 at 12:56 am

               Thanks, so as not to put work on others I think I will start compiling a list of the voluminous short-cuts one might encounter on NC. At first for my own use but if I think others might find it useful I will share. A sort of FAQ for Slang.

               Short-cuts is the best I can come up with for a catch-all term for the various acronyms (PMC) and cultural references (The Bearded One), etc.
         2. sin nombre May 26, 2023 at 12:54 am

            the bald one aurelien refers to is obviously foucault and not lenin
         3. s.n. May 26, 2023 at 12:55 am

            ‘bald one’ = foucault (not lenin)
            1. ilpalazzo May 26, 2023 at 1:22 pm

               The Bald One should definitely be Lenin if this convention has to make sense.
         4. skippy May 26, 2023 at 4:51 am

            Random neither place orifice – ????? – lots of that about …
      3. Daniil Adamov May 26, 2023 at 1:01 am

         “This translates directly into today’s fatuous vocabulary of structural “isms,” which are so powerful and impossible to wipe out that all you can do is organise conferences and write unreadable books on how there’s nothing you can do but persecute other people for ideological deviation.”

         Or agitate for the election of candidates based on their identity, since there is no actual hope of changing the system, but you can get in someone who appeals to you personally.
      4. communistmole May 26, 2023 at 6:23 am

         Marcuse’s closeness to Foucault also has its reason in both’s closeness to Heidegger, whom one could call ‘the Nazi One’. Marcuse was his student.
         As for the so-called Frankfurt School: its development cannot be understood without the failure of the German labor movement from 1914 to 1933, Stalinism and the destruction of the european Jews. Combined with a peculiar reading of the critique of political economy, which undervalues the aspect of the crisis nature of capitalism, a rather sober view of the possibilities of emancipation in late capitalism emerges …
   5. The Rev Kev May 25, 2023 at 7:50 pm

      Notice one thing about all those lesbian activities? They were just people having fun. But how much fun can you have with this pronoun rubbish and the one-upmanship that comes with it. Saw an article a day or two about lesbian ocean liner cruises and can only imagine the differences that have taken place aboard-

      https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/may/22/olivia-travel-lesbian-cruise
6. DJG, Reality Czar May 25, 2023 at 2:38 pm

   Walking down the detergent aisle to test a mask: I am highly skeptical of the idea that if one can smell anything through the mask, the mask is ineffective. (I recall during the early days of Covid, a lot of the early Covid truthers would spout that, too.)

   Geraniol is a common scent, and it has a chemical formula of C10H18O. That makes it a molecule of 29 atoms.

   A molecule of 29 atoms is a jellybean next to a soccer ball–a virus.

   Here in Chocolate City, a woman at the Guerlain counter taught me a neat trick. Apply cologne to the little strip of paper, hold the paper above the mask, and let the molecules fall down (hey, it’s Lucretius in the scent department). I doubt that doing so ruins the mask or lets in viruses.
   1. tevhatch May 25, 2023 at 4:13 pm

      If she can’t smell anything, then she’s already got COVID? You are correct, N95 masks can stop most virus clusters while doing nothing to reduce smell loading from commercial scents. They can help with smells from combustion products, hence the use of certain long chain molecules for mask fit testing.

      Even a P100 will not reduce most commercial scent loads, unless the canister is also equipped with an active carbon stage (my go to for aircraft flights, reduces hydrocarbon intake from PFAS fire-resistant hydraulic fluids, etc., for a significant reduction in post flight headaches on cross Pacific flights). Please don’t wear scents when going to a hospital… they can do a number on people who are already struggling.
7. LawnDart May 25, 2023 at 2:44 pm

   At least he didn’t hop a freight train during the rail strike that never was…

   Not wanting the Secret Service bothering my neighbors, monitoring my communications, and rooting through my trash, I would never suggest that Obama should hop a freight train, especially since that water that he drank in Flint, MI must be catching-up to him by now… oops, wait a sec…

   (Almost) Daily Derailment(s):

   CSX partial derailment in Finksburg | PHOTOS

   A CSX train MidLine train partial derailment in Finksburg Carroll County at Sandymount Rd. and Patapsco Rd., Thursday May 25, 2023.

   https://www.baltimoresun.com/photos/cc-finksburg-train-derailment-vg-20230525-4lexulyt6beptiypmliq5w2krq-photogallery.html

   No injuries from Maryland Midland Railway train derailment in Carroll County

   BALTIMORE – A Maryland Midland Railway train derailed Thursday morning in Carroll County, according to officials.

   Two of the railcars on the 31-car train carrying stone came off the tracks near Wesley Road in Finksburg. The crossing is expected to be blocked for several hours.

   https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/no-injuries-from-maryland-midland-railway-train-derailment-in-carroll-county/
   1. in_still_water May 25, 2023 at 4:24 pm

      Training exercise of a train derailment taking place today at Quantico.

      At least things aren’t as bad in the states as in South Africa.
      1. in_still_water May 25, 2023 at 4:54 pm

         AMLO deployed mexican naval forces to ‘occupy a 75-mile section of railroad’.
         1. GF May 25, 2023 at 5:30 pm

            AMLO nationalized the railroad and sent in the Marines to protect it from sabotage.
            The article was in the CEPR Latin America News Roundup May 24, 2023 but I can’t locate it on their website.
8. ambrit May 25, 2023 at 2:50 pm

   When I hear about “Identity Politics” I generally think about the most basic form of ‘Identity’: Hungry or Not Hungry. I imagine that The Bearded One would have seen the utility of that framing.
   1. nippersdad May 25, 2023 at 3:36 pm

      Whole heartedly agree. If your biggest problem is getting society to acknowledge your pronoun usage then you just don’t have big enough problems.
      1. some guy May 25, 2023 at 7:39 pm

         There is such a thing as ” displacement behavior”. I remember reading about an animal behaviorist experiment once where a bunch of mice were in a cage and a little fire was lit in one corner of the cage. The mice could do nothing about the fire so they began frantically grooming themselves instead. The behaviorist called this “displacement behavior”.

         Perhaps worrying about getting society to acknowledge your pronoun usage is a “displacement concern” for the bigger things you would like society to get concerned about but are helpless to make society get concerned about.
   2. griffen May 25, 2023 at 5:29 pm

      I like to recount what a former work colleague told us once, about being “starving” or “hungry” by lunch time during a work day. He grew up in Cameroon, and was a teenager when his family moved to the US. Cameroon did not have fat squirrels on account they got ate before getting fat.

      He said that in light of my mention of squirrels outside. I do guess in the harshest of times ala the Book of Eli or comparable, squirrel would still taste a lot like chicken? I’ve only had a taste of squirrel once, a real long time ago.
9. LawnDart May 25, 2023 at 2:51 pm

   [Meant as a reply to the Hippy above]

   I hate to say it, but I for one might have to reconsider my affinity for socialism…
   1. Amfortas the hippie May 25, 2023 at 4:19 pm

      i’m leaning more towards anarchy, here of late.
      but since i have no intellectual peers out here, i’ll settle for being an Anarch, for now(Junger, forest passage)
      1. Stephen V May 25, 2023 at 4:50 pm

         As in Ernst Junger? Seriously?
         Will have to give him another look. I had a much older German friend who carried on a correspondence with EJ for decades. (They were post-WWI Youth movement chums–railcar in the woods…) Knowing nothing, I didn’t ask any good questions. Sigh.
10. polar donkey May 25, 2023 at 3:01 pm

    I work for a business that sells psilocybin mushroom spores. I’m happy to see research being done, not just for our financial benefit, but for all the people that could be helped by psilocybin mushrooms. One interesting note, we’re based in the South but sell more spores to MIT and Harvard than the entire SEC all together.
    1. Amfortas the hippie May 25, 2023 at 4:21 pm

       i was shocked to learn, some years ago, that its perfectly legal to both possess such spores, as well as to mail order them…
       but ive always been leery of it being a honeytrap…like ordering growlights from High Times.
       1. Henry Moon Pie May 25, 2023 at 5:18 pm

          I’ve been thinking along those lines myself. I’m a little reluctant to partake unless I’m real sure of the provenance. The wrong LBM would not be a good idea.
          1. Gumbo May 25, 2023 at 7:45 pm

             LBM = little brown mushrooms
             1. Late Introvert May 25, 2023 at 11:52 pm

                polar donkey has a side gig if he wants it?
    2. ddt May 26, 2023 at 4:51 am

       Do you send abroad? Asking for a friend.
11. ambrit May 25, 2023 at 3:05 pm

    About the mushroom “therapy.” I see that it probably does have utility in the treatment of PTSD and similar ailments, but I see nothing about Mycotherapy being approved for pre damage use. So, the possible utility of psychoactives as teaching aids for personal character building programs is still verboten.
    Since Psychiatric Medical Practitioners fill the niche of Shamans in “Moderne Society,” to deny them age tested and perfected methods and substances is actually harmful to the mental health of not only the Individual, but the Collective the Individuals inhabit.
    That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
    As Gong infamously said in their album ‘Camembert Electrique’: “You Can’t Kill Me – I’ve Been Stone Before.”
12. Lambert Strether Post authorMay 25, 2023 at 3:08 pm

    I added more than the usual orts and scraps, because I got a late start. Do scan from the top, if you have the time.
13. griffen May 25, 2023 at 3:11 pm

    Alien film. Plates of spaghetti would never appear the same! I am such a nerd for this film series. I found the last entry, Covenant, to be mildly disappointing ( I mean heck, those things gestate for like 10 minutes then they’re free it seemed ). Back to casting for the original; Tommy Lee Jones as Capt Dallas? Oh man.

    There is a fun series on Netflix about how the movies were made, started with some early ’80s entries. They include an entry for Aliens. Highly recommend.
    1. Carolinian May 25, 2023 at 5:29 pm

       There’s a fairly extensive “making of” on the Alien disc–perhaps what’s linked up top. Fun anecdote: the cast were brought on set for the Hurt demise scene without knowing what was going to happen. Ridley wanted their authentically horrified reaction (and got it).
    2. The Rev Kev May 25, 2023 at 7:16 pm

       The other day I wondered what would happen if way down the track we became a space-faring people and made contact with other aliens. And that somebody showed a bunch of his alien friends the films “Alien” and “Alien 2.” I think that they would translate well.
14. none May 25, 2023 at 3:15 pm

    Oops N95 not NOT.
15. Mikerw0 May 25, 2023 at 3:19 pm

    Re: Aliens. One of the authors had Crohn’s disease and a key scene is based on what it is like to live with it. Our daughter who has the disease says “exactly.”
16. LY May 25, 2023 at 3:20 pm

    Regarding the plant of the day, I hope it isn’t a Callery Pear. Those are banned in Ohio and other states. iNaturalist or iSeek app are good apps to identify them. They also helpful for citizen science, so please upload wild sightings.

    Once they escape, they produce seedlings that can puncture tires, and they produce a strong odor. If it’s growing wild on your property, cut it down. If deliberately cultivated, still consider cutting it down. In some states, they have programs that will replace it.
    1. Late Introvert May 26, 2023 at 1:03 am

       Sort of related, we had trumpet vine growing in our yard when we bought our house, and it’s pretty, but OMG. That thing will take over. We spent about 7 years pulling it up from every new location it sprouted. It’s been gone for at least 5 years now. This past year we got a burr invasion, and that is ongoing.

       We do not mow, we just pull weeds.
17. herman_sampson May 25, 2023 at 3:20 pm

    Strong inhaling and checking for that the mask collapses at least partially is not a quick and dirty but semi-useful method?
    1. Samuel Conner May 25, 2023 at 3:31 pm

       My intuition is that this is useful. I can feel the front panel of my Aura 9210+ N95 pull against my face when I inhale, and I don’t have the slightlest hint of sensation of air motion anywhere around the skin/mask contact surface. I suspect that this means that the great majority of the air is going through the filter and not past the seal.

       Still, a proper fit test would be reassuring. I’m particularly curious about how well the mask performs, with a real fit test, after repeat uses. If I end up doing this, I’ll report the results in comments.
       1. Verifyfirst May 25, 2023 at 6:54 pm

          I wonder about the utility of fit tests, because for me at least, every mask I have ever tried (which is a lot of masks, including most of the supposedly best ones on the market, including elastomeric) fit me differently each time I put them on–I can often feel what’s different, where it’s not quite in good contact, etc. So I’m guessing I could pass a fit test one day in a given mask, and fail the same fit test with the same mask the next day? And what I’m doing with the mask on–i.e., how much I’m exhaling, can also seem to change fit and pressure against the face.
18. Samuel Conner May 25, 2023 at 3:25 pm

    Perhaps in addition to the election countdown “clock”, a “days until US voluntary sovereign debt default clock” would also be useful. Currently, the clock is at about 6 days, but even if this default is averted, the clock would still be useful, since it would simply reset to (an estimate of when) the next debt limit would be reached.

    It would be a reminder (if any were needed) to NC regulars of how dysfunctional our government is and if any D governing elites happen to check it, it might (perhaps this is wishful, or even magical, thinking) remind them that it is possible to avert these crises if one acts timely when one has control of the legislative levers.
19. flora May 25, 2023 at 3:31 pm

    Putin and the Bolsheviks. One interesting comparison is the enormous international debt Tzarist Russia had before WWI. WWI drove the debts even higher. Ordinary Russians suffered increasing poverty; Bolsheviks ousted the Tzar and repudiated all foreign debts. A political answer to increasing want was creating all sorts of fantasy ideologies that were offered about what would make a better future.

    This makes an interesting if stretched comparison is to the past 15 years in the West and the Great Financial Crisis, which was never repaired for most people, and now Yellen is talking about US debt default or something. (that won’t happen). In the same 15 year space in the US woke ideology has sprouted and grown. It hasn’t improved anyone’s paycheck – except maybe those leading the movements. It hasn’t cleaned up the banks. It has directed energy away from cleaning up the big banks, from breaking up monopoly control of businesses, etc.

    This does make an interesting comparison, imo. Great financial destabilization bringing about great social upheaval, and how that can play out. / my 2 cents.
    1. flora May 25, 2023 at 4:09 pm

       adding: The newspapers and the pols started pushing identity politics and “woke” in the same time frame Occupy Wall St was gaining public attention. People were starting to understand and identify with “the 99%”, even though the news refused to cover the protests. O sent out word to mayors to destroy the Occupy camps springing up in their cities, and pushed “woke” even harder as a substitute for effective action, imo. Cansel Culture and later tearing down statues was offered as a good substitute for cleaning up Wall St. and ending fraudulent mortgage foreclosures and predatory banking practices that cost the black and brown communities a disproportionate amount of their wealth. One example of what I’m talking about above. / ;)
       1. Henry Moon Pie May 25, 2023 at 5:47 pm

          My first face-to-face encounter with identity politics and “woke” was in Occupy. I attended a committee meeting about housing and had to learn my place as an old white male. That was fine. Didn’t hurt me. What disturbed me was the way the conversation turned to some quasi-homeless teenage boys who got attached to Occupy mainly as a place to crash. They would glide around on skateboards at gatherings carrying a circle “A” flag. The two budding PMCs at the meeting were very offended by the behavior of these kids, their rough manners and failure to perceive the intricate rules of the Occupy meetings.

          According to the affidavit filed by the U. S. Attorney (which I perused carefully looking for my name), an investigation of these kids was instigated around that time, and a fitting CI was provided to give them a roof over their heads and plenty of beer and pot. Those kids ended up being sentenced to nearly 10 years in federal prison. I’ve wondered since if they were victims of the Woke.
          1. John D. May 26, 2023 at 12:46 am

             My big face-to-face encounter with what we eventually came to identify as the Woke was in the early 1990’s at a meeting of Queer Nation. Anyone remember them? I daresay they were typical of their type of protest group, not that they amounted to much in the end, natch. This was my first (and only) attendance at QN. I’d tagged along with a friend that week out of curiosity. Anyway, it was held at a local Starbucks, in the gay area of downtown Toronto. There were somewhere between 20 to 30 participants gathered. We shoved a few tables together for the meeting, ordered our coffees and sat down. I recognized quite a few of the folks involved; they weren’t people I actually knew, but I was familiar with their faces having seen them around the neighborhood over the years. The trouble started with a pair of younger ones I’d never set eyes on before. College student ages, one guy, one girl.

             They were striking, I’ll say that for them. Both very attractive physically, and they looked very similar in appearance. I think they were siblings, they might even have been twins. Shades of that stupid kente cloth stunt Nancy Pelosi pulled a while back, they were both dressed in trendy African clothing – need I add that they were white as snow? – but they took the bit much further than Pelosi ever would have dared: They both had very long, thick, luxurious heads of blond hair reaching past their shoulders, and had been folded into dreadlocks, Rastafarian style. It was quite a sight.

             There was a hard-eyed arrogance to them right from the beginning, even before either of them opened their mouths, and it became readily apparent when it was their turn to speak that they weren’t even remotely acting in good faith. We’d gone around in a circle taking turns talking, a ‘la Alcoholics Anonymous. Came their moment to address the group, the pair actually stood up, noted the lack of diverse faces in the crowd (we were all Caucasians), and promptly denounced us all as a pack of racists. I’ll clarify that their position wasn’t, “Oh, isn’t it unfortunate at the lack of diversity here!” No, from all the, er, ‘evidence,’ the rest of us were all no-good, stone cold, KKK style racists. Nor were they brief in their comments; they went on and on at considerable length in this insulting vein. When the two finally sat down, the woman acting as moderator that week looked more than a little shell-shocked…but she thanked them politely for their comments and said their concerns would be looked into. Now, as I’ve already said, it was a pretty white crowd. The duo weren’t wrong about that. But it’s not like the rest of us had any control over who showed up for a public meeting and who didn’t. That was just common sense. There were hardly armed guards keeping undesirables out.

             Still, they’d had their say, so the meeting could just continue as usual from that moment on, right? Ho, ho. The two pests then began to interrupt others when they were talking, not waiting for their own turn to speak again. They were rude as hell, being disrespectful to the rest of the group and were in general deliberately disruptive…which, I can only conclude, was the real goal for them being there in the first place. They would not shut up, and their commentary was the same rubbish repeated again and again and again: We were racists, they weren’t, and they were our moral superiors because of that. They were tenacious and kept it up to the extent that the meeting had to be called to a halt early. Not that these are any great stakes I’m talking about, obviously…Even so, looking back on this episode, it’s remarkable how a mere pair of egomaniacal bullies could derail something with at least 20 other people involved so easily.
          2. JBird4049 May 26, 2023 at 12:56 am

             Maybe they were victims. Warnin, what I am about to say has to do with a specific style of politeness and not that only some Americans are polite.

             I have noticed that the Professional Managerial Class as well as the Woken Ones use New England upper class appropriate politeness and civility as a weapon. Unless it is better to used one’s lived experiences by showing anger even contempt towards the bad individuals. Then being an unpleasant person is fine for them.

             As someone whose family was New England adjacent in culture and often middle class, I already can be hyper-polite; it is also a very good tactic to frustrate unpleasant people such as customers, bureaucrats, and police.

             The problem is that for many people, such politeness is not some cultural aspect but a way to control others. It’s use is demanded to enforce obsequious behavior from the inferiors such as clerks and the poor with the greater the difference in caste/class/position requiring greater amounts of politeness from the inferior one and less from the superior one.

             If you one is deemed uncouth, which can mean not only violating social norms, it seems to have expanded to having the appropriate beliefs or at least to publicly aping only those beliefs. This expansion appears to be something new. Anyways, highly educated upper middle class people seem to demand this more than anyone else. I have also noticed this somewhat with the police. However, old money, lower middle class and below, plus Hispanics do not seem to need do this.

             Since the vast majority of Americans do not require this sort of weaponized politeness including a chunk of the college educated, and do not act that way, it is a potent weapon especially as it apes old school, upper middle class politeness. They can reduce most Americans to the unwashed masses especially if they don’t speak or understand the class specific terms, the approved body language, even the pace and rhythm of speech. Again, I think that it is also expanding to the appropriate behavior of words and strength of expression towards Identity Politics and Woke issues, but since I have been isolated due to the pandemic, my impressions are just that. Impressions.

             If you are uncouth, then the appropriate authority should be notified be it the management or the police. Emotionally, PMC snitches can feel justified in their actions. That the idea of politeness of any kind is to be a way to be respectful to, and ease friction with, everyone regardless of who they are does not seem to occur to them.

             Using the idea of a new class formation and consciousness, the signals of class appears to have expanded, been strengthened, and while not conscious of it, increasingly used to identify the different classes especially those not of the Professional Managerial Class. Much like how the British use their class signifiers.

             If I somehow ever get a masters in cultural anthropology, I would likely write a thesis on the changing class structure in the past fifty years. The increasing use of PMC decorum both physically and ideology at the same time the all the classes from the middle-middle on down are being destroyed as well as the expulsion of Americans from the trades especially on the West Coast, the denigrating of any career involving physical activity, and the destruction of the industrial base is fascinating. I would almost changed my major just to study this.
    2. Daniil Adamov May 26, 2023 at 12:55 am

       “Bolsheviks ousted the Tzar and repudiated all foreign debts.”

       Sorry to be pedantic, but the first half of this is inaccurate. The Tsar was ousted by his ministers and generals in a temporarily successful attempt to appease a worker uprising in Petrograd/St. Petersburg. The Bolsheviks were barely involved back then; they overthrew the provisional government (by then controlled by democratic socialists) months later. They did scrap the debts but it was hardly the most prominent part of their program or messaging (what they promised to most of the population was peace and land).
20. Sub-Boreal May 25, 2023 at 4:14 pm

    Mask art suggestion: I’d buy a box of N95s with the original Cheshire Cat
    smiling face on it.
21. Wukchumni May 25, 2023 at 4:31 pm

    My Kevin (since ’07) sold off some of his used chapstick for $100k to MTG so let nobody question him in large financial matters, especially as in the last day Kev has reiterated that the debt ceiling standoff imbrogliowe is not his fault, which of course is tantamount to farting loudly in a crowded room and then denying responsibility, but the former instance has less odor typically.

    Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) placed a winning $100,000 bid Tuesday for a lip balm stick used by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who also promised a visit with the winner’s donors and supporters.
22. jsn May 25, 2023 at 4:49 pm

    What happened in the 1980s? High Fructose Corn Syrup.
    1. spud May 25, 2023 at 7:10 pm

       H.F.C.S. EXACTLY, toss in hydrogenated oils, and you get a twofer. now they are sneaking in maltodextrin.
    2. Vikas May 25, 2023 at 7:16 pm

       A lot of things happened at that inflection point. If you plot US spending on health care vs life expectancy, which is famously an outlier compared to the rest of the OECD etc. it only became so around 1980 and got worse and worse thereafter.

       I blame the dynamic duo of Gordon Gekko and Deng Xiaoping, the unacknowledged creators of the Zeitgeist that followed.
    3. Late Introvert May 25, 2023 at 11:59 pm

       HFC for sure.
       Fast food went on steroids.
       Pesticides got dumped on everything.
       Supermarkets drove out local grocers.

       I remember as a youth swimming in Iowa lakes. SMH
23. bdy May 25, 2023 at 5:06 pm

    >Not the 80s, the mid 70s: What happened in the 1980s so that everyone, everywhere of all ages started getting fat?

    Per wiki:
    …the Big Gulp came in 1976 from Dennis Potts, the merchandise manager for 7-Eleven in the Southern California market in the 1970s. Wanting to help lagging sales at the stores, The Coca-Cola Company suggested to Potts that they use a then-unheard of 32 ounce cup for their drinks…

    Interesting that the suggestion came from corporate.
    1. JBird4049 May 26, 2023 at 1:06 am

       Yes, but I think that putting more and more corn syrup into everything, but the produce is also a serious cause of it. Corn producers just have too much of and it is a very cheap way to make prepared foods more attractive.
       1. Late Introvert May 26, 2023 at 1:10 am

          I tell my family that Iowa makes meat and (soda) pop. While polluting the Gulf of Mexico.

          I’m not popular.
24. hunkerdown May 25, 2023 at 5:41 pm

    Heard tell r/The_Ronald will be relaunching next week in support of Mr. deSanctimonious. I wonder whether it will be as great a cat ass trophy as the Twitter audio was.
25. Acacia May 25, 2023 at 6:15 pm

    Re: Dems retweet more. The word: slacktivism.
26. The Rev Kev May 25, 2023 at 7:33 pm

    ‘Hey everybody, we have just added this to our products. TGA approved. Now in use by WA Health. Comfortable. Excellent for people whose mouth needs to be seen.’

    Excellent for people forced to lip-read and same for those who can tell their managers ‘But I am showing them my smile.’
27. Benny Profane May 25, 2023 at 8:31 pm

    I heard some clips from the DeSantis Twitter “conversation”. First time I’ve heard him say anything in length beyond snivelly podium rants from Florida. He’s doomed. He is really hard to listen to. Awful, charmless, whiney voice (I am reminded of Steve Correll in The Office, and I hate that show) trying to appeal to the poor victimized white voter, cycling through cliche culture triggers. I have an even worse visceral reaction to the sound of his voice than Hillary’s, which, I swear, made me run to the remote and turn her off when she got loud. That is not going to even get close to help him win. Didn’t they learn anything from Nixon/Kennedy? The man has zero charm, and I am far from the first to say it. Trump is, first, a seasoned TV star. Lots of America loves the guy. I have yet to see DeSantis banners or signs anywhere. I’m guessing he fears the turnout for a rally anywhere but Florida. Even there, he knows Trump will just beat his ass with a quickly announced rally at the same time.

    Definitely Biden/Trump in 24.. Fasten seat belts.
    1. Late Introvert May 26, 2023 at 1:12 am

       I want to know why Trump has let the Durham Report go. I guess he doesn’t read.
       1. Benny Profane May 26, 2023 at 8:05 pm

          He didn’t. Took a victory lap on Truth Social. You’ll hear him talk about it much more when the rallies commence. If anybody covers the rallies. He could very possibly be censored out of the game, even during the campaign.
          Problem is, his core base doesn’t read. So he isn’t wasting time on it, now.
28. Jason Boxman May 25, 2023 at 9:27 pm

    And so capitulation begins.

    White House and G.O.P. Close In on Deal to Raise Debt Limit and Cut Spending
    The details had yet to be finalized, but negotiators were discussing a compromise that would allow Republicans to point to spending reductions and Democrats to say they had protected against large cuts.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/25/us/politics/republicans-debt-limit-talks-biden.html
    1. griffen May 26, 2023 at 5:09 am

       I have to quote here, in the most sincere of terms, the comedy gold from Dumb and Dumber. I still have doubts this is all squared away, and perish the thought, politicians might actually work over the US holiday weekend.

       Lloyd. So you’re saying there’s a chance?
29. JBird4049 May 25, 2023 at 11:54 pm

    >>>The mask you can smile with:

    I don’t want masks to show off my grumpy smile although I can believe some boss with delusions of importance or customers with the same demanding smiles, if such masks become common.

    What is important for me is communicating as my hearing is fine as long as the hearing aids are in perfect condition and I have no colds, flues, or allergies, which is about a quarter of the time. Seeing a person’s whole face gives you an amazing amount of information even if can’t hear them at all.

    In a better world, there would be all kinds of masks for every need. But if people are so mindscrewed as to doubt Covid and the effectiveness of masks, I don’t anticipate seeing any of those see through masks unless some business has imposed it on their employees.
30. Jorge May 26, 2023 at 3:17 am

    “Ron Unz Confronts the Far Right” is awesome. It’s a pitch-perfect replica of a type of comic piece that a lot of old New Yorker writers loved to do: S. J. Perelmen, for one.

    Also, I have a glancing relationship to Old Moldy Marius, so a bit on him is highly appreciated.
31. The Rev Kev May 26, 2023 at 5:22 am

    Re the fascinating tweet thread on the original “Alien” film. It says that Genevieive Bujold was once considered for the role of Ripley but missed out. Genevieive Bujold was also to be the original Captain for Star Trek Voyager but was quickly replaced by Kate Mulgrew. Here is footage that survives of her original appearance-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpkHURChrSw (10:02 mins)

    Fun fact. The studio execs were so paranoid if a woman could carry off the lead role as a Starship Captain, that they spent the first few days on the set watching Mulgrew like a hawk until they were convinced that it would work. Trekkies had already seen lots of female Star Trek Captains in previous series so it was no biggie for them.
32. ashley May 26, 2023 at 7:27 pm

    im a lesbian thats probably around heidi’s age, and drag shows have always been a thing at the lesbian parties i went to. i actually found it incredibly annoying, not because i have a problem with drag but because it would always interrupt a song that i was vibing to and often dancing with a cute chick and then poof its over time to watch this awful amateur performance that ruins the vibe. and of course the cute chick would wander off.

    this was back in ~2010.
    1. The Rev Kev May 26, 2023 at 7:47 pm

       Could be worse, ashley. I was at this place where the dj played the following song at the end of a dance as couples were really hitting it off-

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OfvdLPaGLk (5:55 mins)

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