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Links 5/7/2023

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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway dumps billions of dollars of US stocks FT

Nobody Knows Anything, FedWatch Edition The Big Picture

Climate

High concentrations of floating neustonic life in the plastic-rich North Pacific Garbage Patch PLOS. “We collected samples through the eastern North Pacific Subtropical Gyre in the area of the North Pacific “Garbage Patch” (NPGP) known to accumulate floating anthropogenic debris. We found that densities of floating life were higher inside the central NPGP than on its periphery….” A terrific thread on this article, with many photos:

Estimating the impact of new high seas activities on the environment: the effects of ocean-surface macroplastic removal on sea surface ecosystems Aquatic Biology. “[The Ocean Cleanup (TOC)’s] aim is to remove plastic from the ocean surface by collecting it with large nets. However, this approach also results in the collection of surface marine life (neuston) as by-catch.”

Scientists Discover Fungi That Can Eat Plastic in Just 140 Days My Modern Met

* * *

Macroalgae exhibit diverse responses to human disturbances on coral reefs Global Change Biology. From the Abstract: “Instead, we found relationships between the division or genera of algae and specific human disturbances that were not detectable when pooling taxa into a single functional category, which is common to many analyses.” “Functional” = “ecosystem service” = “priceable.” Like soil, coral reefs are not priceable.

* * *

Alberta is on fire: The wildfire situation today and where to find evacuation orders and alerts Global News

New pipeline agency rule aimed at cutting methane leaks AP

Water

Opinion: Water is the great test of Coloradans’ ability to understand one another Colorado Sun

#COVID19

Selective Neuronal Mitochondrial Targeting in SARS-CoV-2 Infection Affects Cognitive Processes to Induce ‘Brain Fog’ and Results in Behavioral Changes that Favor Viral Survival (preprint) Medical Science Monitor. From the Abstract:

“Hypoxia in the microenvironment of select brain areas may benefit the reproductive capacity of the virus. It is possible that in areas of cerebral hypoxia, neuronal cell energy metabolism may become compromised after integration of the viral genome, resulting in mitochondrial dysfunction. Because of their need for constant high metabolism, cerebral tissues require an immediate and constant supply of oxygen. In hypoxic conditions, neurons with the highest oxygen demand become dysfunctional. The resulting cognitive impairment benefits viral spread, as infected individuals exhibit behaviors that reduce protection against infection. The effects of compromised mitochondrial function may also be an evolutionary advantage for SARS-CoV-2 in terms of host interaction. A high viral load in patients with COVID-19 that involves the CNS results in the compromise of neurons with high-level energy metabolism. Therefore, we propose that selective neuronal mitochondrial targeting in SARS-CoV-2 infection affects cognitive processes to induce ‘brain fog’ and results in behavioral changes that favor viral propagation. Cognitive changes associated with COVID-19 will have increasing significance for patient diagnosis, prognosis, and long-term care.” From 2021, still germane. Since MSH is archived in the National Library of Medicine, I assume this is not a predatory journal…

* * *

Covid is still a leading cause of death as the virus recedes WaPo. Great deck: “But many Americans dispute the data and the risks — much as they have throughout the pandemic.” “… you leave ’em laughing when you go….”

* * *

The plasma metabolome of long COVID-19 patients two years after infection (preprint) medRxiv N = 108. From the Abstract: “Mitochondrial dysfunction, redox state imbalance, impaired energy metabolism, and chronic immune dysregulation are likely to be the main hallmarks of long COVID even two years after acute COVID-19 infection.”

Why viral reservoirs are a prime suspect for long COVID sleuths NPR

U.S. Pilot, Air Traffic Controller Shortage Leading To Fewer Flights Forbes. ‘Tis a mystery!

China?

Chinese tourists filmed crawling on cliff edge without safety gear prompts official probe as mainland social media questions tourism value of dangerous thrill-seeking South China Morning Post. China’s capitalist ruling class normalizing precarity?

After ‘hottest April’ ever, Asia braces for new extreme weather normal as El Nino looms to supercharge heat South China Morning Post

Fear of Covid-19 patients straining Southeast Asia hospitals returns as cases soar South China Morning Post

Africa

Africa Is Russia’s New Resource Outlet The National Interest

Why African soft power matters Semafor

Zimbabwe to launch gold-backed digital token as currency concerns mount FT

Dear Old Blighty

King Charles Declines Offer to Wear Burger King Crown Food & Wine (Re Silc). From March, still germane. Commentary:

Dozens arrested in anti-monarchy protests during Charles III coronation: ‘NOT MY KING’ FOX

New Not-So-Cold War

Ukrainian officials fear counteroffensive may not meet expectations of partners Ukrainska Pravda

Wagner chief asks Moscow to hand Bakhmut positions to Chechen forces France24

In Ukraine’s forests, its soldiers race to prepare for the next push against Russian forces ABC Australia

Can Zelenskiy’s Ukraine End the War? Gordon Hahn, Russian and Eurasian Politics

Update 156 – IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine IAEA. “The IAEA experts at the site are continuing to hear shelling on a regular basis, including late on Friday.” If the shelling were coming from Russia, they’d say. Therefore, the shelling is coming from Ukraine.

2024

“No Ties to You”: MSNBC Host Spins Possible Hunter Biden Charges In Rare Interview With President Jonathan Turley. Biden was going to hold a presser so he goes on MSDNC instead, lol.

B-a-a-a-a-d Banks

JPMorgan: the bank that never lets a crisis go to waste FT

UBS ‘Clean Team’ Descends On Credit Suisse As Deal Nears Closing Bloomberg

Digital Watch

The Global Race to Regulate AI Foreign Policy

WEIRD AI: Understanding what nations include in their artificial intelligence plans Brookings Institution

These ChatGPT Rivals Are Designed to Play With Your Emotions Wired

Our Famously Free Press

Judgment Day Has Arrived for the Journalism Business The Honest Broker. Well worth a read. Lots and lots of stupid money in media.

Supply Chain

On frontier of new ‘gold rush,’ quest for coveted EV metals yields misery WaPo. Behaves oddly in Opera, OK in Safari.

Barry FitzGerald: The lithium junior catching some billionaire eyes right now Stockhead

Gunz

Texas mall shooting updates: 9 dead, including alleged gunman, 7 hospitalized ABC. Ah well, nevertheless:

There are a lot of very explicit videos and photographs of this particular shooting circulating; please don’t post them. This is a family blog; we don’t do pr0n.

Assange

A Kingly Proposal: Letter from Julian Assange to King Charles III Julian Assange, Declassified UK

Zeitgeist Watch

‘Celebrity Nation’: New Book Tracks How Celebrity Worship Took Over in the United States Teen Vogue

Realignment and Legitimacy

Reparations panel, in historic vote, proposes payments, reforms and apology for Black Californians LA Times

Texas is a state of mind — but should its history be too? Mexico News Daily

The Jackpot

Population Decline Will Change the World for the Better Scientific American

Tom Koutsoumpas Wants to Ease the Ordeal of Dying WSJ. Short life.

Opinion: Excess deaths in the U.S. are rising at a shocking rate Mercury News. From April, still germane. Musical interlude.

Where 3 HAIs have risen most since 2019: Leapfrog Becker’s Hospital Review. HAI = Hospital-Acquired Infactions (a.k.a. nosocomial). Reactions to Leapfrog study linked to here. “‘We had some early evidence that infection rates were going up during the pandemic,’ Ms. [Leapfrog’s CEO Leah Binder said. ‘But we were surprised at the extent of the increase, at how dramatically these rates went up. We’ve never seen increases like these.'” ‘Tis a puzzlement!

When thinking or talking promotes tumor growth Eric Topol, Ground Truths. Above all, let’s not think or talk about immune dysregulation….

Guillotine Watch

Bill Gates, Leon Black, Thomas Pritzker: ​One​ Day in the Life of Jeffrey Epstein WSJ. “Mr. Pritzker, part of a wealthy and politically connected Chicago family, was a frequent guest at Epstein’s townhouse, according to the documents.” Well, well.

Polo and Ponies: ‘My Money Pit of Choice’ NYT (Re Silc).

Everybody Wants to Go to Maine Bloomberg. Maine needs A Wall.

Class Warfare

Should we automate the CEO? The Hustle. Yes, along as we wire an electromagnetic shotgun to every CEO’s forehead.

ChatGPT is powered by these contractors making $15 an hour NBC. An enormous theft original accumulate of intellectual property, followed by brutal exploiation of precarious workers. Silicon Valley at work!

Why the super rich are inevitable The Pudding

In the Factories There Is Wealth, but There Is No Life: The Eighteenth Newsletter (2023) Tricontinental

Swearing Like A Sailor May Not Be Such A Bad Thing Discover

Make Hope Covid Underground

The Double Flame: Octavio Paz on Love The Marginalian

Antidote du jour (via):

Bonus antidote:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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About Lambert Strether

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

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158 comments

  1. griffen

    Hey listen Jack, I spoke to experts in this corrupting and influencing process and received assurances from Bill and Hillary, heck even Chelsea, that everything can be above aboard. And if asked any tough questions, just yell “Republican Republican Fox News” in the event of a necessary defense. \sarc

    No need to genuflect or pontificate any further. Nothing to see, to all you that seek between the truth and the lies. I have spoken !

    1. tevhatch

      All of this is Hill-Billy and Obie-wan clique reminding James, Jill & Hunter, to paraphrase Bill Burns speaking to Zelenkskyi, stop taking a larger share of the skim money than was going to the DNC crime family.

      1. The Rev Kev

        I heard that the US Treasury Department was able to trace where all that money went and who the corrupt ones were in the Ukraine that were taking all that money starting from Zelensky and working their way down. Unfortunately that have not been able to trace where 10% of that money went or who took it.

  2. jackiebass

    Unfortunately COVID is going to be with us just like the common cold. Unless there is a better vaccine or new more effective treatments, COVID is going to continue to plague us. I personally being old will continue to practice safe behavior. It is the only reasonable thing a person can do to remain COVID free.

    1. Mikel

      It’s always been said about the coronavirus that is also known as the common cold: there is no vaccine.

      The implications of the denial and fantasy being pushed now are astounding.

      1. The Rev Kev

        Remember how a coupla months ago Putin said that the West was an Empire of Lies? The guy had a point. But it is one thing where a leadership class tells lies constantly but another when they believe their own lies – and will punish all those who do not believe them.

        1. ambrit

          It’s a classic double bind. If you believe the lies, such belief will bring on punishment, via Coronavirus infection and subsequent long term damage. If you do not believe the lies, you will be punished by the society, (or what passes for one today.)
          When we are playing with a novel coronavirus, which mutates quickly and unpredictably, we will be ‘played’ in return.
          No matter how it happened, the Jackpot is here.

          1. chris

            But they clearly do not believe their own lies. Walensky and Jha got their kids’ schools HVAC upgraded early on. Biden and other political luminaries don’t go to events where people aren’t pre-screened for COVID (and contrary opinions…) just like the people who attended Davos this year. Their kids don’t serve in the burn pits or in combat forward positions. They may preach about the joys of not owning anything but they’ll never relinquish their own family property. They talk about quiet quitting but refuse to do the jobs they were hired for. They talk about opportunities and yet they deny others the chance to take advantage of large market fluctuations. They preach about the importance of education but actively try to destroy the careers that require it.

            This isn’t some clever double bind. This is an imperial class thrashing around, dirtying the water, leaving blood and pain in its wake.

    2. Lambert Strether Post author

      > Unfortunately COVID is going to be with us just like the common cold. Unless there is a better vaccine or new more effective treatments

      The comparison to the common cold is destructive; the common cold doesn’t produce cumulative vascular or neurological damage, let alone behavioral change (nobody seems to have noticed that “The Last of Us” style link). I know that’s not what you meant, but you shouldn’t throw Covid and the common cold into the same box, ever.

      As for effective vaccines, nasal vaccines offer at least the possibility of being sterilizing (links too numerous to mention). The only reason to regard that situation as hopeless is that the Biden administration is butchering the development process, whether out of fecklessness or fealty to Big Pharma I don’t know.

      1. Pelham

        Covid produces affects the brain and, apparently, leads to riskier behavior. Could that include a degree of derangement? And could it account in part for the enormous increase this year in mass shootings?

        1. chris

          I mean…have you driven anywhere lately?

          The traffic, people’s reaction time, incidents of road rage, they’re also worse than pre-2020, despite that we’re using less gasoline!

          Take the preliminary statistics for 2022 that were released last month. The best we can say is that we’re no longer trending up, after 7 consecutive quarters of increasing, and that’s referenced to Q3 2020. So during a time when less people were driving, and everyone was driving less, and we were still coming out of lock downs, and plenty were not commuting, traffic fatalities and other driving related incidents were increasing in frequency.

          Massive neurological damage across the driving age population would certainly be a reasonable explanation for that kind of result. I can’t believe people aren’t talking about COVID more in this context. But have no fear! I’m sure your insurance company will be an early adopter of any COVID related penalties. And because there is very little chance of the US suddenly permitting millions and millions more people being officially rated as disabled due to COVID-19, the insurance companies won’t face any penalties if they do charge you higher premiums or cease coverage.

      2. tindrum

        Not wishing to ruffle anyones feathers, but Is NC really buying the “safe and effective” Pfizer sales pitch?

        1. ambrit

          Just the opposite. You will find a large segment of “in the closet” anti-Covid-vaxxers in the Commenteriat. The trick being that “traditional” vaccines were pretty darn successful, over long periods of time. The Coronavirus vaccines seem to be of almost ephemeral effectiveness, with a lot of nasty side effects.
          The readers here have done their “personal risk assessments” and decided to be very skeptical about the claims of Big Pharma concerning these particular “vaccines.” This is not the same as being generally ‘anti-vaccine.’ Conflating the two is a common tactic of the Big Pharma supporters.
          Stay safe, and keep a very open mind.

          1. Hickory

            Quite a few prior vaccines had their problems too. Like any medicine or anything else you put in your body, do your research.

            We’ve all seen how trustworthy the companies, media and regulators are. They didn’t suddenly get less trustworthy in 2021.

      3. Rick

        Unfortunately SARS-CoV-2/covid will be around just like HIV/AIDS, though the details vary.

        So it goes.

        1. chris

          If you want to get an education about differences in the vaccines and possible concerns, read through the last 2 years of NC. But to give you a brief taste of how different the vaccines for COVID are, consider the kind of trial they’re running for the new RSV vaccine:

          “The safety and effectiveness of Arexvy is based on the FDA’s analysis of data from an ongoing, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical study conducted in the U.S. and internationally in individuals 60 years of age and older. The main clinical study of Arexvy was designed to assess the safety and effectiveness of a single dose administered to individuals 60 years of age and older. Participants will remain in the study through three RSV seasons to assess the duration of effectiveness and the safety and effectiveness of repeat vaccination. Data for a single dose of Arexvy from the first RSV season of the study were available for the FDA’s analysis.”

          Got that? Pfizer and others are perfectly capable of collecting more data and looking at risks over a longer period of time. The FDA is perfectly willing to work with developers using different approaches. They’re all well aware of the pre-cautionary principle. They just didn’t follow it when getting paid oodles of money for COVID-19 related work.

      4. Greg

        the common cold doesn’t produce cumulative vascular or neurological damage, let alone behavioral change

        *that we know of. Wouldn’t be surprised if it just hasn’t been studied (successfully, thoroughly).

        We keep making this mistake where we think the things we know are all the things. A study showing links from “a” to “b” doesn’t preclude “a” linking to “c” through “z”, and “a” itself.

      5. some guy

        If the US BidenGov is the only one butchering the development process of nasal vaccines, then it could be from fecklessness or fealty to Big Pharma or some other BidenAmerica-centric reason.

        IFF! . . . every major government is butchering the nasal vaccine development process in whatever ways needed to keep progress from progressing, then Occam’s Rusty Razor would lead us to suppose that all those different governments are butchering the development out of fealty to Big Jackpot.

        So . . . are the other governments doing better at developing nasal vaccines? Or are they butchering the development as well?

        ( If the CubaGov develops a working sterilizing nasal vaccine against covid, there will be a lot of nasal vaccine tourism to Cuba. Second, third and fourth party countries will work out elaborate methods of “destination laundering” so that Americans and others from “sterilizing vaccines are forbidden!” countries can sneak into Cuba, get vaccinated, sneak out again, and not be traced.)

        1. JBird4049

          Medical tourism with medical drugs and treatments that will not be named gained from those terribly backwards places like Cuba, Mexico, and India where they don’t have serious agencies like the CDC keeping us all safe from those unapproved treatments in “modern” America.

          If someone had predicted to me as a young man that this would be normal for 21st Century America, I would have thought him goofy.

  3. Henry Moon Pie

    Epstein and Thomas Pritzker–

    Everywhere you look, you’ll find Pritzkers.

    Thomas is still a money guy, handling the details of the family businesses, including Hyatt.

    Then there’s J. B., governor of Illinois and mentioned as a fill-in for Foggy Joe.

    Then there’s Penny, funder of Barack Obama and his Commerce Secretary.

    Next up is Jennifer, formerly Lt. Col. James Pritzker, the family’s leading but not only extensive funder of transgender research and promotion.

    And let’s not forget Rachel, daughter of Tibetan Buddhist lama Linda, who is one of the leading Eco-Modernists and founder of the transhumanist Breakthrough Institute.

    Nobody can claim our oligarchs are boring people or lacking in hubris.

    1. chris

      Yep. People keep saying they’d rather have Pritzker than RFK Jr. I’ll take a Kennedy with questionable opinions about some vaccines to any Pritzker, any day.

    2. Lambert Strether Post author

      > Everywhere you look, you’ll find Pritzkers

      Picturing a scenario where Biden slips a cog — 548 days is a long time in politics, even if you work only four hours a day — Harris comes up lame, because she is lame, and J.B. reluctantly buys the nomination steps in as the savior of the party.

      Trump v. Biden would be entertaining. Trump v. Pritzker…. Not looking forward.

      1. Henry Moon Pie

        The Republican attack ad producers would have some things to work with. Culture wars to the max.

    3. some guy

      I have not studied Epstein in detail. But from my little reading and hearing, I gathered that he led two separate parallel lives.

      Life 1: Advancer of “clever ” ideas and image self-polishing hobnobber with the Great and the Good.

      Life 2: Keeper of hush-hush resorts for treating the Great and the Good to all kinds of illegal depravity on demand . . . . and for making secret tapes of those people and their activities. It is that second life which finally caught up with him. His mistake was to confuse himself with the Great and the Good he hobnobbed with and also procured services for. The Great and the Good don’t get suicided in prison.

    4. Laura

      The Pritzker family and billionaire David Rubinstein paid for the 219 trips Stephen Breyer took since 2004 – more than any other sitting justice.

      Like Epstein and his handlers the Maxwells, these folks are working for Israel and world Zionism.

      *Robert Maxwell was a spy allegedly working for the British and Russians. And Israel. Being that he’s celebrated as a founding father inside Israel, it doesn’t take genius to deduce who he was ultimately working for.

      https://israelpalestinenews.org/fortas-breyer-brandeis-frankfurter-ginsburg-israel-partisans/

  4. mrsyk

    “Population Decline Will Change the World for the Better” Everybody here ready to take one for the team? Heh heh.

    1. griffen

      Not just yet, I still have hopes of more sinning and grinning, and varied acts of chicanery! I have seen the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, FWIW, but have a vetted interest, that one day I will visit Rome and Italy. I have the time, but the lack of another necessity is a show stopper.

        1. rudi from butte

          “It’s hopeless! Tomorrow there’ll be even more books I should have read than there are today.” AB.

    2. The Rev Kev

      The present world population is estimated at about 8 billion people – at least. The actual carrying capacity though is supposed to be about 500 million. Populations that exceed the resources available sooner or later crash and that is when it gets brutal. But think about how it could play out with smaller populations. India right now has a population of 1.4 billion. Would life be much easier in that country if it was only 240 million as it was about 1900? And look at the US. Would it be so bad if the population was set at about the 200 million people mark? That was what it was back in the late 60s and I don’t think that life was so bad back then. Of course with a smaller population wages would have to rise but we all have to make sacrifices-

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_the_United_States#Historical_Census_population

      1. flora

        Remember Deagel’s population prediction? 2025 is right around the corner. / ;)

        1. Procopius

          Deagel’s numbers look like the result of a nuclear war, where the U.S. and its allies are the victims of a successful first strike. I wonder what their model and sources were.

      2. jefemt

        Wonderfully energy dense portable oil, the Devils Brew, has enabled stunning over-shoot in the last 7 score (generations) or so.

        What if, as populations slowly dissipate, we increase wages and/or benefits, and increase job sharing, in those sectors covid exposed as being the ‘essential’ functions and sectors. Call them Utilities.
        Nationalize or globalize them, remove Executive pay, investors, quarterly reporting and ‘returns’. Embrace a long view for humas and all species.
        Everybody work three days, take four days off, focus on society and Better Living?

        Hmmm

      3. Pat

        Well that might explain why the choice to let a novel corona virus rip AND AI developed to the point where the elites honestly believe it will replace a huge portion of workers happened at the same time. Wages should never rise except for those exceptional people at the top.

        For the record I believe that the people intent on replacing workers with AI and robots will find that they have not and will not actually be able to replace humans for many of the most necessary jobs, jobs they don’t even know they depend on being done.

      4. ChrisFromGA

        Dead consumers don’t shop. Or take cruises on heavily bloated debt-zombie corporations like Carnival, that need a bigger influx of customers to stay alive.

        Debt-based late stage predatory capitalism doesn’t have a reverse gear. Too much leverage in the system means grow or die.

        My money is on the latter.

        1. some guy

          Thiel and Bush won’t care about dead consumers not shopping after they are in their respective survival fortresses in New Zealand and Paraguay.

      5. Roland

        It’s more about the consumption level, than the population level. If the world consumed like Canadians, humanity would be extinct already.

        But a world of humble servants, thoroughly surveilled and managed by a wise and visionary class of meritorious eco-mandarins, could be sustained in the many billions. What a wonderful life, and so sustainable! But that kind of sustainability is enough to make me hate the word.

        Another question would be whether any of the world is to be left unmanaged for the benefit of humanity? Is the entire biosphere to be domesticated?

        For my part, I have little patience for those who want to save humanity by having most of us die, or want to decree who should breed, and who shouldn’t. Such self-appointed arbiters of Utility must be made to begin with themselves.

      6. bdy

        Pretty sure I saw a thought experiment linked in NC comments a while back, and wish I could cite the original author. I crunched the numbers on my phone just now, and they check out. The devil is in the details, and optimized subsistence farming as a career for each and all is a big unreasonable ask; but for the sake of argument:

        Give 5,000 square feet to till and live on per family of four, then add another 20% for circulation and small public spaces. 10 billion peeps can fit on just under 1.4 trillion square meters of land, about 15% of good old USA, and comfortably within the bread basket of the American Great Plains.

        I understand that land use by area doesn’t scratch the surface of the modern human footprint. But I also mistrust any estimates of global carrying capacity that come with modern priors. ~100% of populations living in State Supported Markets yields pretty much two modes of living (with some transitioning between): Global South and Global North. Neither is dignified, decent or efficient compared to what organize people are capable of with just technology (assuming justice and tech are compatible, another big ask). And neither can be assumed if State Supported Markets were to fail the stress tests that they seem to be stumbling towards.

    3. deedee

      This begs a question I’ve been meaning to ask NC peeps. Forgive me if this has already been addressed.
      Is Peter Zeihan worth taking seriously on any level? Seems like a spook/charlatan to me.

      1. Bandit

        Certainly, if you want to listen to a mouthpiece for the CIA and the intelligence community.

        1. Kouros

          There is some honesty in Jordan, especially when he talks about the Paretto distribution in human societies as something normal that we should all embrace – he thinks he is in the 20% group, or because he works so hard for the 20%, he should be well rewarded…

          1. bdy

            Can I embrace the distribution without embracing the inevitability of debt/wage/literal servitude for the lower 4/5ths of us?

    4. lyman alpha blob

      I realize you’re kidding, but there are other ways of taking one for the team besides standing in front of an oncoming bus.

      The rule of thumb of always heard is that to keep population static, each couple needs to have around 2.3 children. If you have two or fewer children with your partner, you are doing your part to reduce the overcrowded planet.

      1. mrsyk

        I’m guessing that humanity is going to be offered the bus option only. A multi-generational time line seems to be out of reach at this point..

      2. Lexx

        We chose to have no children… my SIL however chose to have eight and another had five. The largest Catholic church in town is half a block west. The Mormon church is half a mile southeast.

        At Costco last week I couldn’t seem to escape shopping behind a mom and her 5 small blonde-headed children and move along. Mom would catch my presence out of the corner of her eye, look annoyed at me and the kids, pull her brood in toward the shopping cart so I could pass, and then in the next aisle we got to do that dance all over again. I started skipping aisles and came home without the crackers and laundry detergent.

        One just gets the feeling that there are those who didn’t get the memo, won’t be getting the memo, remain willfully ignorant that memos exist, question the existence of paper and ink and their alleged usefulness to mankind in general, have blocked their inboxes, and curse any new messages that somehow get through to upset their reality bubbles. They were never big on reading. ‘Who has time?’

          1. Lexx

            Did you read the article above on ‘Celebrity Nation’ and feel your eyes drift over to the column on the right, to get hooked on the words ‘naked’ and ‘Met Gala’? I couldn’t help myself. I’ve been waiting for this for years, that inevitably in their desperation for attention, celebs will start showing up at these events wearing nothing more than large jewels in their navels.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJDcoqrh1ac

              1. Amfortas the hippie

                lol. i dont know who most of those people are.
                but…let them go naked.
                in my considerable experience, people tend to be more honest when naked in groups.
                and polite, too, interestingly.

                and hell, after the frelling Meat Dress, where do you really go from there to get eyeballs.
                we’re already at Pan-Em or last two french emperor level of gaudi overthetop ridiculousness…i haven’t seen anyone lately with a boat in their piled high bouffant, but give it time.

        2. lyman alpha blob

          RE: Not getting the memo

          Reminds me of a story my father told me. Our extended family is located near Joseph Smith’s birthplace so there is still a residual Mormon population. The patriarch of one family had two sons (he got the memo). His sons however did not and each of them had over a dozen children. The patriarch told his sons in a futile attempt to pass along the memo, “I know the Good Lord said be fruitful and multiply and populate the earth, but he didn’t mean the two of you had to do it all by yourselves.”

        3. Tom Doak

          They got the memo from the Church, which was to produce as many believers as possible, and expand their influence.

    6. some guy

      Well, if it starts with the Overclass and the Upperclass, that could be true.

  5. griffen

    Should we automate the CEO, headline from the article above. I pulled this mental nugget from the article, “Even die-hard free market capitalists have trouble justifying these pay packages.” I’d like to know where these die-hard capitalists are lurking, cause it sure isn’t Mr Cramer of CNBC for example. The market sets the price for our leading light executives, especially the ones who suck at their job! You know, like the guy who runs Boeing currently. The article also references to Zaslav of Warner Discovery; that is such a dysfunctional media company, maybe he should offer the token pay of $1 until his working in progress overhaul begins to yield any tangible results. He won’t, obviously.

    1. Mildred Montana

      Oh, he would happily set his salary at $1 (taxed at 37%) in exchange for a truckload of stock options (taxed at 20%) and a compliant board willing to reprice them in the event they go underwater.

      I know I don’t need to say this here, but the structure of CEO compensation is rigged, with a bought board rubber-stamping some exorbitant number while making nods to the “competition for executive talent”. That disingenuous word “competition” is intended to satisfy restive shareholders and bamboozle any rubes paying attention, while ignoring the fact that there can be no real competition in a rigged system.

      1. barefoot charley

        Shareholders are bought too, by tying executive compensation to stock price performance. When the stock, not the company, performs, stockholders cherish the executive who ruins the company to their short-term benefit. Win win. (There is no society.)

        1. some guy

          That could be true for large scale stockholders who own thousands or millions of shares of something. But is it really true for the 401k captives and hostages who ” own” a tiny share of the stockmass per 401k captive and who have zero influence over compensation policies?

          A Social Democrat New Deal Party could run on repealing the laws and de-writing the rules which made tying executive compensation to stock performance so legal and so lucrative.

  6. The Rev Kev

    “Covid is still a leading cause of death as the virus recedes”

    Far be it from me to impugn the intelligence or motives of the Washington Post – the place that truth goes to die in darkness – but if Covid is still a leading cause of death, how is it that it is receding then?

    1. Henry Moon Pie

      It’s not leading by as much. Maybe the humans can stage a Chiefs-like 4th quarter comeback and go to Disneyland–where they can catch Covid again.

      1. jefemt

        Thank you, Jonathan Toews, Captain Serious, for so many memorable and stellar performances on the ice sheet, from University of North Dakota, to Team Canada, to the Blackhawks.

        Godspeed to improving health and diminishing suffering.

      2. Bsn

        Quick question. When you say “the top level men’s bicycle racers” do you mean the ones in the women’s races too? Sorry to digress. Stay safe out there.

    3. chris

      We picked up my daughter from college yesterday. 60% of people were masked. All the vendors and wait staff in the area were. The parents all milled around confused wondering why they didn’t get the memo that they needed to be masked too, only to be told it wasn’t a requirement. Then they’d look at the masked people around them and ask then why were so many people wearing masks? It was kind of comical in a black sense.

  7. John

    Should we automate the CEO? (I love easy questions like this.) The answer is yes. From the charts and lists in the article, it appears that the parts of the CEO’s job that are less likely to be automated involve: Public Relations (which transmogrifies into crap built on lies), schmoozing the board, other CEOs, and the public, I am confident that with the lightning quick advances in AI, according to those CEOs (who are not disinterested parties) that schmoozing by AIs is just around the corner. Give in five to ten years and 90% of the CEO’s raison d’etre will be accomplished by that dollar a year “person”, the company AI. Think of the savings that could then be directed, not to labor, but to the shareholders.

    1. jefemt

      Yes, fergosh-sakes, never, ever re-distribute savings from eliminated Management or Executives to the line laborers who make the businesses hum.
      That would be so anti-capitalist! Super critical that Capital and excess labor value is captured by the parasitic Oligarchic Galtians.

      gaaaaah!?

    2. TimH

      That’s the CEO job in a stable company. For a startup, the CEO’s job is more or less to raise money.

  9. John

    Are the Super-rich Inevitable? No, unless There Is No Alternative to so-called free market capitalism, which as I observe means heads a few win and tails everyone else loses and it must be that way because the winners are good, and smart and virtuous while the losers are simply … there are no other words for it … deplorable, takers.

    1. lyman alpha blob

      That article didn’t do a very good job of convincing me of their inevitability either. While they do admit the model they’re using isn’t the most accurate description of a real economy, it doesn’t even come close, to the point of being worthless. In the betting scenario (which is NOT how an economy is run – I don’t make a bet when I buy a loaf of bread), the model sets an arbitrary constraint of betting no more than 20% of wealth so the person who loses the first bet has a much harder time of recouping their losses. Well duh. If each person were simply allowed to continue betting $200 each time rather than a percentage of their remaining wealth, that wouldn’t happen. And the model assumes a limited and equal supply of money for each person to start with whereas in real life, not everyone starts equally and people can go make more.

      Try sitting down at a no limit poker game with a $100 stack of chips when the table leader has $20K. You can have two aces on the board and two in the hole and that hand isn’t going to get you very far. And you aren’t going to get hands like that very often

      It’s not math that causes inequality, it’s the rigged game of capitalism.

      1. cfraenkel

        The point of models isn’t to accurately depict reality in all it’s messy complexity. It’s to pick out one or two threads, isolate them in a toy universe and see what happens to illuminate contributing factors.

        This example is trying to show how simple, basic cumulative probability will tend to drive a system towards increasing inequality. It’s not saying that the math is causing inequality *more* than ‘rigged capitalism’, it’s saying that even if you somehow replaced ‘rigged capitalism’ with a benevolent philosopher king (good luck with that), you’d *still* end up with the math pushing you towards increasing inequality.

        1. some guy

          That problem could be at least partway solved by progressive taxation and estate taxes. And no different tax rates for different kinds of monetized gain. And tax withholding from every kind of revenue stream reaching someone, not just from wages and salaries.

        2. lyman alpha blob

          I probably should have used “sketchy economics” rather than “math”. The numbers may not lie, but the assumptions that go into building models are subject to error. The old saw about assuming a can opener came to mind while reading that piece.

        3. eg

          As I recall, this was the original premise behind the invention of the game of Monopoly, no?

  10. KD

    Wagner chief asks Moscow to hand Bakhmut positions to Chechen forces

    I have a pet theory on Prigozhin’s antics, specifically that its some kind of reverse psyops on the Ukrainian side. First, he has the video with the 30 bodies, which much seem pretty small to the Ukrainian defenders in Bakhmut if the Russian MOD estimates are even partially accurate, second the blasphemy toward Russian MOD, which is not something Ukrainians are permitted to do and probably something pent up inside a lot of the defenders, third the demand for ammunition or he is going to leave, then they get ammunition. I would think to the Ukrainian defenders in Bakhmut, this might be some kind of psyche out as they probably have much great casualties, cannot criticize command, and they may be facing severe restrictions on munitions, and intended to implant the idea of leaving positions because the leadership doesn’t have the soldiers back. Further, he came out with these antics shortly after it was reported a Ukrainian brigade left its position, so you have to wonder. Last, because it is “Russians are running out of ammunition” and “Wagner is withdrawing from Bakhmut”, it is sure to get amplified in Western/Ukrainian megaphone, when in fact it may be actually intended to subvert the Ukrainian morale. If it was directed at Ukrainian positions and addressed the same points (ridiculous casualties, incompetent and corrupt leadership, and a call to abandon posts if support not received), it would be vigorously suppressed.

    As I said, just a pet theory, but I tend to doubt that Prigozhen is just some loose cannon, you have to figure that what he does is scripted and intended to serve as propaganda for the Russian side. If he was just a loose cannon, they would have replaced him long ago.

    1. jan

      Interesting theory 🤔
      We may find out over the next days/weeks, when we find out what happens to Prigozhin.

    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      > plastic-rich North Pacific Garbage Patch

      I think that section deserves a little more attention. First, the garbage patch was absolutely teeming with life, as the lovely photographs in the accompanying thread show. Second, over time, that life is going to figure out how to eat the plastic, as a following link suggests: “Scientists Discover Fungi That Can Eat Plastic in Just 140 Days.”

      So I found that section encouraging.

  12. The Rev Kev

    “Zimbabwe to launch gold-backed digital token as currency concerns mount”

    I was reading a few weeks back that the International Monetary Fund is seriously unhappy about the Zimbabweans doing this against their advice. The IMF wanted the Zimbabweans to invest their resources into paper and digital assets instead and told them not to invest in the barbarous relic because we all know how reliable and sturdy paper and digital assets are.

      1. The Rev Kev

        Yeah, I was thinking about that too. However people feel about gold, I will note that whenever a country is toppled by the west, that one of the first thing that happens is that that country’s gold is flown out of the country to destinations unknown. The day after the Ukrainian Maidan putsch, that country’s gold was filmed being loaded aboard a transport at nighttime and away it went. Same with Libya’s gold and silver. Poof, aaand it’s gone. And look at Venezuela’s gold. I could list other odd things about gold but you get the gist.

        1. some guy

          Perhaps if a government “knows” or suspects in the strongest possible terms that it is about to be overthrown or putsched and it’s country’s gold taken away, that government could have stealth metallurgical operatives very quietly melt down the gold, mix radioactive Polonium 210 into it, and then make it back into gold bars or whatever, all nice and fresh and waiting for the bad actors to put their hands on it and take it away.

  13. Mark Gisleson

    I find it interesting that Berkshire’s “quarterly filing indicated it sold a sizable portion of its stake in oil major Chevron.”

    I hope this means hard times ahead for Chevron. So long as the Donziger conviction stands, I don’t feel like I’m living in a particularly free country.

  14. Mildred Montana

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/other/jaws-star-richard-dreyfuss-slams-new-oscars-diversity-rules/ar-AA1aQnhM

    In his Friday evening interview with Margaret Hooper on PBS’s “Firing Line”, Richard Dreyfuss blasted the Oscars’ new diversity and inclusion rules, saying they “make him vomit”.

    So honesty-starved am I and so overfed on pabulum, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing: A man actually speaking his mind on a controversial subject and pulling no punches.

    I might not necessarily agree with everything Dreyfuss said or the way he said it, but his frankness was a refreshing change from the usual MSM sludge. Sadly, his outburst pretty well guarantees we won’t be seeing him again any time soon.

      1. Mildred Montana

        “Vomit” at about 19:30. And sorry, the interviewer is Margaret Hoover, not Hooper as above.

    2. Carolinian

      We weren’t seeing him anyway at 75 although lately he has made a few of those low budget tax dodge type films. I saw one where he played a kind of geriatric action hero. It was really bad.

      As for diversity and inclusion, H’wood doubtless feels the guilt for its greatly racist history and that’s appropriate. But I’m not sure the current results make for good art which is after all–at its best–universal rather than particular. Still if the films can mold us into a more colorblind society perhaps it is helping sociologically.

      1. Mildred Montana

        As far as diversity and inclusion go, I am on both sides of the issue. Yes, I like it and think it’s necessary in government and the civil service, the police, the military, the media, and suchlike. Those institutions should be representative.

        But when it comes to art? Should the aims of art be vitiated, subordinated, in service to diversity and inclusion? As Dreyfuss says in his interview, “Why can’t I portray Othello in blackface, as Laurence Olivier did?” “Must I be a Jew in order to portray a Jew?”

        I will always remember how the late (not dead, just gone) host of the CBC radio program “Q” Jian Ghomeshi got slapped down by a French film director when he tried to play his (and the CBC’s) PC card:

        JG: Shouldn’t you have used a trans actor to portray your trans character?
        Director: (clearly irritated by the question) They’re actors. They’re paid to act. Should I hire a carpenter to play a carpenter?

        Ghomeshi, duly rebuked, quickly retreated from that line of questioning.

        1. Carolinian

          Well, Al Jolson isn’t Shakespeare and that is a big difference in whether it’s ok for Olivier to do it. Plus if you are “Golden Age” Hollywood and the question is whether a bumbling, comic relief maid or shoeshine boy must be played by a black actor the answer is “yes.”

          But those days are long gone. We’ve had great black actors in great roles since so the current “standards,” which often verge onto tokenism in practice, can be legitimately criticized. Perhaps it’s more about the movie audience fracturing and shrinking just like the newspaper audience and studios feel they have to go “market segmentation” as the cornflake makers put it. The recent crash in streaming suggests this may not be working. The best solution may be to turn out creative and original shows that will entertain all races.

          Meanwhile Dreyfuss should retire already. IMO past names selling their “brand” to quicky productions that need a name for financing is not a good trend.

      2. ambrit

        The problem with this idea is that, as you mentioned, “Entertainment” in the modern age has always been about social control and manipulation. Many, many times, “Entertainment” takes it’s cues from the moneyed interests; the people who pay the bills to make the “Entertainment” often call the shots. This can be overt as in the days of single sponsor television shows, or very subtle, such as today’s ‘Action Films,’ but generally the same story where ever you look.
        Go back a few hundreds of years and you see the ‘institution’ of straightforwardly partisan printed newspapers. This goes all the way back to the Committees of Correspondence of the pre American Revolutionary War period.
        The main problem with electronic media is that of platforms, and who owns and controls them. Going Meta here, who sets the rules for platforms in general is higher up in the hierarchy of “values” is of even greater “interest.” So, to gain some semblance of “civility” in our communications, influencing the “Watchdog Agencies” involved in Communications in general is key in our hyper-triangulated culture. That translates into regaining some control over the Government in general.
        It all comes back to “interests” and corruption.
        All in all, revolution can be seen as a social “palate cleanser.” However, do be careful what you wish for. Many Revolutions end up being much more Puritan and oppressive than that which they replaced. It’s hard and bloody work “reforming” a society.
        Stay safe. Blend in, be unobtrusive. (Now why don’t I follow my own advice and shut up!)

    3. jefemt

      I think her name is Hoover, and she is apparently a descendant of Herbert Hoover, one of the smartest and least successful record of achievement US presidents?

      Be careful what you think—gotta say, when I first watched her, I thought hoo boy, vapid legacy blonde bombshell…but I humbly slapped myself down. She has great timely guests, comes prepared, asks great questions.

      Refreshing in this day of narrative, scripts, and controlled messaging/ propaganda.

    4. Bsn

      I’m happy he only had an “outburst”. In the USA one used to be able to say or position oneself on any side of a discussion, free speech and all. He should be glad he’s not in Ukraine and spouting disinformation. In the US, as long as it’s not weaponized speech (whew, he almost went that far), he’s OK. No jail time for him, maybe some for Black Socialists such as Omali Yeshitela, but not Mr. Dreyfuss.

    5. Glen

      I think this was linked to earlier, but it’s a great success story about how to get better inclusion:

      How one medical school became remarkably diverse — without considering race in admissions
      https://www.statnews.com/2023/03/07/how-one-medical-school-became-remarkably-diverse-without-considering-race/

      The back story to this includes some history about UC Davis Med School:

      Court decision harks to UC’s Bakke case: New affirmative action ruling could have profound impacts, but not at UC
      https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/court-decision-harks-ucs-bakke-case-new-affirmative-action-ruling-could-have-profound-impacts

      I was in the College of Engineering at UC Davis when SCOTUS ruled on Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. I remember most of the students like me thinking that Bakke was rather old to be going to Med school, and as a result, wouldn’t be a practicing doc for very long but whatever.

      The big, never to be discussed gatekeeper for a college education in America now-a-days is COST. Back when I was there, I was spending about $1200 a year for university, and the cost of living was low so I was able to work and put myself thru college. That’s now pretty much impossible.

      So, I digress quite a bit, but the big divide that needs to be surmounted in America today is between the rich, and everybody else. I’m not saying RACE is not a problem – it is.

  15. Lex

    Apparently everything has been squared away and Wagner gets all the munitions it needs. The Russian army will take the flanks (which AFAIK has been the case for a while) and Surovkin will be the Wagner-MoD liaison.

    Weird conflict. Probably not weirder than others but this time we have up to the minute news feeds with social media antics so we can experience the weirdness.

  16. Ken Murphy

    Dagnabit, I’m getting tired of reviewing active shooter protocols with my team.

    FWIW:
    1) Get Down
    2) Put mass between you and shooter
    3) GTFO

    Sadly, I also note to them they are under no moral obligation to assist anyone else as they exit. They may choose to do so, but their only obligation is the preservation of their own life. Sauve qui peut. Leave the heroics to the idiots like their manager.

    Someone is spreading FUD. Acts like these, the mysterious fires at various plants, endless waves of illegal immigrants; something is going on behind some curtain with the intent of fomenting fear in the citizenry. The question is whether we, collectively, will allow the fear to kill our minds and overwhelm us, or whether we will let it pass over and through us, leaving nothing, that we remain to deal with those who would seek to inflict fear on the citizenry.

    1. jefemt

      I had to look up F U D. Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt.

      Here’s one— rural Montana County, County Clerk and Recorder newly elected— there has been HUGE turnover in every County… Clerks and staff simply quitting, due to election process assault by baseless clueless wingnuts… if you think the septi-octa generian rancher wives who volunteer are there to jam Biden and the Dems into power in Montana, you are certifiably bat-sh*t cray-zy.

      Anyway, we were chatting it up, and she mentioned the wingnuttery, mentioned she has a concealed carry permit and carries… and I said, why are we all so afraid, and why is carrying a gun the answer?

      I could tell it set her back for a second, but I also realized, where is in a vulnerable public position, and, being born and raised in the sticks, she had used guns all her life, had seen birth and death, and there was no question in my mind that her pragmatic in the moment choice would be to gun someone down if her castle was under threat.

      I have no answers other than I need to find another way to make a living and circulate waaaaay less.

      Weather forecast calls for spates of molded lead flying about at terminating velocities…

      1. Ken Murphy

        Sadly, FUD is probably one of the most effective tools for social control. It has been used quite effectively for much of human history to enforce compliance and steer the masses. The COVID response used FUD extensively to great effect.

        I personally do not carry, at least not yet, and have no real intention of doing so. I have been in many sketchy situations in scary areas and I have always used my brains to get me out. This includes an armed carjacking (I knew immediately that it was a fake gun they were waving in my face, and that they wouldn’t know how to drive a stick) and an armed mugging in NYC (he got a couple of bucks, I kept most of my money). It is the strongest tool I have in my toolbox, and not having a bad tool at hand for the wrong situation means I have to focus the mind that much more to get to the other side of whatever.

        They key to overcoming FUD is to recognize it as a tool that people use to try to get you to alter the way you think and act to be more compliant with their agenda. Then to recognize when it is being used on you. That’s harder, but it becomes easier to recognize once you realize the nature of how FUD is applied. One way is to have events that provoke an emotional rather than a thinking response. Unfortunately, images of dead children are a particular prod in that direction, which is why I refuse to look at the Twitter stuff.

        From my perspective, the killer’s kit tells me that there are way more factors at play here than we can know at this moment. There are people who know where he got that stuff. There are people who were becoming increasingly nervous being around them in the past few weeks and months. Something served as a trigger to set them off: a message, a slight, a karma slap. I am drawing zero conclusions at this point.

      2. Bsn

        Well, I disagree that “Clerks and staff simply quitting, due to election process assault by baseless clueless wingnuts”. I don’t think it’s (right wing) “wingnuts”. Look at what the Dems did to Bernie Sanders in the day, Jan 6 people being egged on by FBI plants, Dems refusing to hold debates, voter suppression by Dems – I propose even more so than by the Repubs. SO, who are the “wingnuts”? The well funded and well supported FBI, CIA, NSA, et al. It’s not just “wingnuts” but they are easy to blame – distract, divide and propagandize.

        1. marym

          There have been many stories since 2020 about why election workers are quitting.

          2021: “There is no shortage of job openings for local election officials in Michigan. It’s the same in Pennsylvania. Wisconsin, too.

          After facing threats and intimidation during the 2020 presidential election and its aftermath, and now the potential of new punishments in certain states, county officials who run elections are quitting or retiring early. The once quiet job of election administration has become a political minefield thanks to the baseless claims of widespread fraud…”
          https://apnews.com/article/election-officials-retire-trump-2020-threats-misinformation-3b810d8b3b3adee2ca409689788b863f

          2022: Mother-daughter election workers targeted by Trump say there’s ‘nowhere’ they feel safe
          Emotional testimony at Tuesday’s Jan. 6 committee hearing by Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss underscored the direct and dangerous effects Trump’s lies had on election workers.
          https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/election-workers-targeted-trump-ruby-freeman-shaye-moss-say-s-nowhere-rcna34640

          2022: “A new survey of local election officials released Thursday by the Brennan Center for Justice found that 1 in 5 local election administrators say they are likely to leave their jobs before the 2024 presidential election.
          …
          Of those election officials who said they were likely to leave their jobs before 2024, the most common reasons why were that too many politicians were attacking “a system that they know is fair and honest” and that the job was too stressful.

          A majority of voting officials surveyed also said they’re worried about interference by political leaders in how they do their jobs in future elections, “
          https://www.npr.org/2022/03/10/1085425464/1-in-5-local-election-officials-say-theyre-likely-to-quit-before-2024
          2023: “Hounded by baseless voter fraud allegations, an entire county’s election staff quits in Virginia…In Buckingham County, four people quit their jobs after a feud between local Republicans and the general registrar consumed the small community.”
          https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/buckingham-county-virginia-election-staff-quits-baseless-voter-fraud-rcna76435

          The evils perpetrated by Democrats weren’t directed at election workers.

    3. jrkrideau

      Then you will not really appreciate the Texas bill to require all Gr. 3 pupils to get what at least one commentator terms “combat medic” level training.

      The Green Berets

      As someone who does not live in the USA I remember hearing about armour inserts for children’s backpacks. I guess this is along the same lines.

      Texas seems to have figured out it is difficult to get a non-surgical abortion if the medicine is not available; why can it not do the same with firearms, Mass sword murders are possible but a lot harder to do.

    1. The Rev Kev

      Just to extend that comment – ‘Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony. You can’t expect to wield supreme executive power just ’cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!’

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtYU87QNjPw (3:00 mins)

      2. petal

        I love that scene. Love that movie. Never gets old. 100 years from now it will still be just as good.
        A distant cousin participated in the coronation yesterday. I got up at 5am my time to watch and see the family tradition (King’s/Queen’s Champion). Another neat find from the ol’ genealogy research, though sadly it’s been neutered to tamely carrying the royal standard instead of riding in on a horse whilst wearing a full suit of armor, and throwing down the gauntlet to any challengers. Really think they ought to go back to that.

      3. CitizenSissy

        Thanks for the link! Saw KCIII with the orb yesterday, and immediately thought of the Holy Hand Grenade.

      1. jrkrideau

        Henry Ford III?

        I have always thought the US elites really lament the loss of hereditary titles. :)

  18. Mikel

    “Why the super rich are inevitable” The Pudding

    The model/study only describes the working of a process.
    They say in the article and experiment that the actual world is more complicated.

    Let’s talk about that:

    It’s never said in the model whether or not the players have a choice to play. It’s interesting that there has to be a built in assumption that one has no choice but to play that particular game.

    The coin flipper is a “middle man” – how is it compensated and how is it chosen. How many are there?

    Can the coin flips be audited? After all, it ultimatley still deals with account keeping.

    Just a few of the real world thoughts that crossed my mind.

    1. cfraenkel

      It’s like the hoary joke about the physicist ‘assume a spherical cow’.

      He doesn’t actually think the cow is round. But a round cow simplifies the math to show something that really does affect real cows. (as empirically seen in the real world.)

      The math is what is interesting. You’re asking about the round cow.

      1. digi_owl

        Sadly economists go beyond that to assuming there is a cow where none has been observed.

  19. tevhatch

    Make Hope Covid Underground
    Nice essay, hopeful.
    The poster of Obama, i.e.: Obie the Wan Bland, would have looked better if there was evidence of a rubber ball gag under the surgical mask, and hopefully nose plugs. Maybe while standing on a stage next to a guillotine? That’s one of my mimetic desires.

  20. Robert Hahl

    re: The Double Flame: Octavio Paz on Love – The Marginalian

    “True love consists precisely of the transformation of the appetite for possession into surrender.”

    That, and all the others in the piece, just sounds like a guy who started out girl crazy and stayed that way. (There but for the Grace of God go I.) I found a far more useful guide to this problem on the intertubes recently, maybe here. “Love is the awkward realization that something outside yourself is real.” This of course also applies to things other than people, and is infallible imho.

  21. Henry Moon Pie

    Thomas Pritzker and Epstein–

    And Thomas, who seems to handle the Pritzker’s Hyatt wealth, may be the most boring of the family.

    There’s J.B., governor of Illinois, who might fill in for Foggy Joe.

    And Penny, Obama’s long time financial backer and his Secretary of Commerce.

    Then there’s Linda, a real live Tibetan Buddhist lama, and her daughter, Rachel, a real live transhumanist, author of the Eco-Modernist Manifesto and founder of the Breakthrough Institute.

    Finally, there’s Jennifer, formerly Lt. Col. James Pritzker, who leads the family’s funding efforts in transgender research, advocacy and clinical facilities.

    Do you think growing up rich–and all these old money Pritzkers did–might tend to exacerbate the problem of hubris?

    1. Mark Gisleson

      Oh my, words gonna fly for sure, some possibly connected to one another. Definitely a dietrismo opportunity!

    2. Lambert Strether Post author

      > B is sending Kamala? Really?

      I linked to this already. Biden sending Harris means everything was already wired up. As indeed it was. I need to put on my yellow waders and look at this stuff. A cursory review says it’s horrid.

      1. albrt

        Not so horrid, if you assume everybody who spends the day looking at a phone is dead already.

    4. Greg

      Makes perfect sense. Kamala is just as good as chatGPT at making semi-sensible statements full of bald faces lies.

  23. Robert Hahl

    Re: Everybody Wants to Go to Maine – Bloomberg. Maine needs A Wall.

    But apparently they are all creatives looking for authenticity. I recently got this lament from a friend in Maine:

    “I think this is a critical time for our community. We don’t have enough, or in some cases no, young tradespeople (plumbers, electricians, auto mechanics, etc.), no dependable law enforcement—due in part to no affordable housing, sea level rise seems inevitable and the occupation of most of us—lobstering—faces threats from the climate and from federal and state authorities. At the same time, a singular, inexplicable, relentless but undeniably detrimental, acquisition of our downtown properties is underway and threatens the major infrastructure improvements that are about to get underway.

    “Another reason that this is a critical juncture, is that although there are two vacancies on our [city counsel], only one person has taken out papers to fill that position. We haven’t needed capable and forward-thinking representation any more than we do now.

    1. Lost in OR

      I left Maine 25 years ago. I was a budding construction PM and could not make more than $10/hr. To rub salt in the wound, I was working on the “cottages” of old money in NE Harbor and vicinity. Not surprised young people were not attracted to the trades.

      I knew I would miss Maine and I do. In some ways it was stuck in time, perhaps the 60’s. Still largely resource based economy with some (too much) tourism. I hope it has eased into the new millennia well.

    2. Carla

      @Robert Hahl — I hate to break it to your friend in Maine, but there are no reliable tradespeople under age 60 anywhere. When the senior group retires, it seems to me that everything is just. gonna. stop.

      An observant friend of mine explained it to me this way: fixing cars, painting houses, building structures, replacing pipes, etc., in addition to requiring specific skills, also entails hard, manual labor. When people figured out how to get paid to spend their lives looking at computer screens, they discovered that to be a lot easier.

      1. JBird4049

        Pretty much the entire generation of my parents in the family fled into college partially because it was a guarantee of a good job, but they never lost their respect for physical labor. Somehow, and I am curious as to why, much of the country did lose their respect for both the trades and its own ethos.

        The change seems to have occurred immediately before offshoring of all the factories and right when whites like my high school classmates were going into them were starting to be replaced. Force people out of productive, usually well paying work, and then treat them, their skills, and their belief system with contempt because they were not the cool knowledge workers. The generation just after the Boomers. Nice.

  24. ambrit

    Mini EconoZeitgeist report.
    Got a letter yesterday from the small regional bank we use. They are closing down a local branch. The branch that serves one of the poorest parts of town. Accounts are being transferred to the Downtown branch, which is only two miles away, but a long slog for those who are “temporarily embarrassed” and thus on foot.
    This bank was recently bought up by another medium sized regional bank. The purchaser had no branches in the area, so competition between rival bank branches is not the reason for the shuttering. Monthly fees have increased by roughly 50%. The tellers are now being made to try and “upsell” the customers at every interaction. The online banking “services” seem to be down for “maintenance” more frequently than before. The bank’s shares are down a bit over 25% for the last year and down 45% for the last five years.
    We’ve got Trouble, right here in River City.

    1. Bsn

      Join a Credit Union. By law they are “not for profit” and must return their profits into the institution (aka members) as opposed to banks who are “for profit” entities. The difference is a percentage point or two difference on returns (to the members) and fees. The difference is always positive for the members, not the CEOs or share holders. Small, but big difference.

      1. barefoot charley

        But credit unions too have been bit by the growf virus. Our little local hippie collective now has branches, a service truck for outlying cashpiles, hulking telephone trees to nowhere, and constant turnover because why would anyone want to work there. The CEO is killin’ it, recruited from far away because none of us could dream of such ‘progress.’ The answer to all complaints, of course, is Grow or Die. Just like the alternative.

  25. Jason Boxman

    Inflation watch. The soda deals at Ingles are finally done. Used to be about 45% off for three, then finally two, now it’s $1 off for three. With tax it’s $8 each. With the best deal previously, it was about $5. Fun times.

    Back in 2021 at Walmart it was about $4.50 each. Now it’s about as expensive as anywhere else.

    Soda ruins budgets, don’t get addicted.

    1. griffen

      I have noticed here (being in South Carolina and also at an Ingles), the cost of the bare bones dozen large eggs has dropped to roughly, I wish to say, $2 or $2.25. I really don’t keep any Pepsi Colas or Cokes around much anymore.

      Branded potato chips, on the other hand, remain pretty high. And holy cow I don’t really use bleach but I was shocked at the pricing on a gallon of popular Clorox. Back in my retail store department days, working in high school, I moved plenty of cases of Clorox (i.e., setting up small aisle displays or frequently, a larger display for a sale).

      1. digi_owl

        There was a claim some time ago about a popular detergent being used as a currency.

        1. johnnyme

          Laundry detergent has been under lock-and-key for some time at a suburban Minneapolis grocery store I sometimes shop at. As far as I could tell, it was the only product in the store that was locked up and it was the first time I’d seen this level of theft deterrence in a grocery store.

          At a different grocery store in town, the shampoo is locked up but the laundry detergent isn’t so the decision about what to lock up isn’t consistent with this particular chain of stores.

    2. ChrisFromGA

      I can still remember buying a 12 oz can of soda at a New York State thruway stop for a quarter, back in the 80s.

      The best choice is to skip it, I agree.

  27. Daryl

    A Pemex plant in Houston (Deer Park) exploded recently. This is a regular occurence in Houston of course, but the fire is still not extinguished and commenters may notice some familiar sounding language in the city’s announcement:

    > Air monitoring is ongoing and has not detected any harmful levels of chemicals affecting neighboring communities. There is no danger to the nearby community, however residents and neighbors may notice black smoke, flaring and increased noise from the facility.

  28. Jason Boxman

    America is shallow and vacuous:

    For replica enthusiasts on Reddit, “187 Factory” is legendary for its top-notch Chanel bags. It commands a premium of $600 for a caviar-leather quilted double-flap — pricier than a midtier $200 rep, but still far from the bag’s asking price at a Chanel boutique ($10,200) or on resale sites ($5,660 for one in “very good” condition on Fashionphile, $3,600 for one with “heavy scratches” and “noticeable balding” on the RealReal). But as Kelly describes it, “187 Factory” sounds like a branding ploy for what’s really just a well-organized chain of blocks, functionally indistinguishable from other miniature companies making premium knockoffs out of the same buckles and patterns. Kelly always lets clients know that she can get them equal-quality bags for less than what the 187 people charge. Still, many buyers insist they must have a “bag from 187.” Some have told Kelly that they’ve saved paychecks for months just to buy a 187 Chanel — in a curious echo of the fervent consumers doing the same for the authentic bags.

    (bold mine)

    Inside the Delirious Rise of ‘Superfake’ Handbags

  29. Henry Moon Pie

    Just a comment on the astonishing cultural gap in this country. I’ve followed Indy car racing since I was a kid rooting for the Unsers to beat the Andrettis. I’m still hooked, watch most of the races, even attended the Mid-Ohio race a few times.

    The typical Indy car race begins with a local pastor offering a prayer, followed by some local talent singing “God Bless America” and “The Star Spangled Banner.” A local businessman sponsoring the race or a hometown sports celebrity will tell the drivers to start their engines. Even the biggest race, the Indy 500, doesn’t have a much more elaborate pre-race ceremony other than adding “Back Home in Indiana” and a country star singing some of the songs.

    So I just looked in on the Miami F-1 pre-race today. A British reporter covering for ABC made his way through the cars on the grid toward the stage where the drivers would be introduced. He worked his way past Roger Federer, the Williams sisters and Tom Cruise to the stage where LL Cool J handled the introductions backed by a close-to-full symphony orchestra seated on the race tarmac. The production values rivaled the Super Bowl, actually better.

    Two different worlds in the same country.

    1. Screwball

      I couldn’t agree more. I live in Ohio so I am familiar with Mid-Ohio even though I never attended a race there (know many who have).

      Indy was always “the greatest spectacle in racing” and is still an event in my house. Had a party last year. Not what it used to be, but the tradition still grips me. Miss Jim Nabors (Gomer). For years I would buy the Indy Star newspaper for the month of May (they had a special just for that) just to keep track. Years ago, maybe 100 cars trying for 33 spots. Didn’t get much better – and the stories that made history.

      I was there in 87. Incredible experience if one is into that kind of stuff. We had seats in the 4th row right across from the timing/position tower at the end of the pits. Couldn’t see the cars go by other than a blur. I asked the guy we went with why, after going for the last 25 years, he didn’t have seat way up in the grandstands? He wanted to watch the parade. Oh boy!

      Same guy who drove an old beat up car to Mid-Ohio with his son and cooked on a hibachi that he sat on the trunk of his car. He got a kick out of that.

      F-1 is different. The most technologically advanced racing on the planet that uses wheels. Funny, today I was watching the NASCAR race while surfing the net, and read someone talk about the F-1 race saying “I’m giving up on this to go watch the grass grow.” That’s F-1 and road courses. Not exciting racing IMO. All they have is fluff and sporting all their money to the elite – because the racing sucks. A racing equivalent of the Met Gala.

      You want good racing? Open wheels and ovals should be on the menu…and a little tip. Check out sprint cars on dirt. Best racing on the planet – and it’s right in your lap. Too bad we don’t have smellivison.

      Looking forward to the 500 this month. I live in a little Ohio town I’ll call Cornhole. Back in the mid 70s a local businessman sponsored an Indy car, made the show with a hippie driver named Jan Opperman who came from the dirt (many did at that time). Had to listen on the radio. Great memories.

      1. rowlf

        Sprint Car racing: Bring safety glasses and keep your hand over your drink. Been to Attica and Eldora.

        On the other hand, if pro F1 drivers are ascared of driving a Sprint Car (or Outlaw Sprint Car) maybe it is better racing.

        Turn right to go left. Give it a lot of throttle.

        1. Screwball

          I live about 30 minutes from Attica. Been there many times. About 2 hours from Eldora. Been going there since the 70s. Incredible race track.

          The old saying goes “if you ain’t gettin’ dirt in your beer, you ain’t racin'”

          Nothing like 24 900 hp cars going 120 mph on a high bank dirt track.

      3. ambrit

        I used to know an older man who did 2 litre road racing. There are circuits in Texas, and the Mid West. He had two Lotus racers. Plus a spare engine for both. Four cylinder engine, 2 litre displacement with seven speed double de-clutch manual transmission. The cars are weighed before and after the race, with the loss of weight from fuel usage factored in. One way to cheat was to add weights to the rear bumper. That gave you added rear wheel traction, which gave you tad better speed, plus better road handling because of the greater rear wheel traction. Drifting around the sharper curves was a common problem. Get a rainstorm and road handling can go all to H—. Since this was road racing, something approaching stock was required, thus, no spoilers or added weights.
        Then there is “Racing for Lemons.” Racing for $500 cars. Their motto, “Because racing isn’t just for rich idiots…. it’s for all idiots.”
        See: https://24hoursoflemons.com/
        Stay safe. (Once you’re behind the wheel, you’re on your own.)

      4. Henry Moon Pie

        My dad would take me to Riverside across the river from K.C. to watch the dirt-track midgets that the Unsers learned on. Now Indy car has it’s own development programs like F-1. Riverside was built for horse racing–it turns up in the climactic scene in “The Sting”–but when that was allowed, it became an auto racing venue.

        There’s a gelato place in a western Cleveland suburb that has a little F-1 shrine in the dining room that includes an F-1 steering wheel. It’s more complicated than the Indy car steering wheels I’ve seen at the auto show here and in the paddock down at Mid-Ohio, but the real difference is between NASCAR and Indy. NASCAR drivers don’t have much luck if they try Indy. Even NASCAR multi-champion Jimmy Johnson has had only a couple of oval races where he got in the groove.

        It took me a couple of years to figure out how to do Mid-Ohio. The first year, I used the parking lot and just saw the Indy car race on Sunday. The next year, I bought an infield pass, parked my van there and took in the GT and Indy lights races early Sunday. The last year, I went early Saturday with an infield pass. Since they don’t let you camp in the infield, I then moved to the campground and tried to sleep in the van as kids ran around on dirt bikes throwing fireworks at each other al night. The reward was the next morning when I arose at dawn and found a prime spot in the infield under a tree and right next to the most interesting spot on the course. Later in the day, a group I call the Four Visitors appeared, asking me if I would share my space, to which I assented. After a while, they broke out a joint, and I smoked pot for the first time in 35 years. They were such a mellow crew that it was a very enjoyable afternoon. The race turned into a symphony, more a fugue actually, as the cars were all downshifting and upshifting as they passed through the curviest, lowest part of the course.

        Back in the CART days, Indy car was closer to F-1 caliber with races in Australia and Brazil, but the feud between Penske and the owners of the Indy track destroyed CART and the engineering competition between multiple manufacturers. I wondered if the whole enterprise would survive Covid, but Penske’s buying the Indy track and upgrading it has helped keep things alive. And the best thing that has happened over these decades is a phenomenal improvement in driver safety that has coincided with a more organized and occasionally militant drivers’ association. I almost quit watching in the 70s when the cars were gasoline bombs that burned several drivers when there were multi-car pile-ups. The last driver to be killed was a few years ago when a crash sent the front wing flying into his car and beheaded him. Since then, they’ve added a windshield that has saved several drivers when their cars went flying and landed upside down.

        It’s nuts given our climate situation to be a motor sports fan, but old habits die hard.

  30. Pelham

    Re reparations: Is there no constitutional protection against penalizing people for harms they didn’t inflict?

    1. Henry Moon Pie

      There’s an interesting argument in the Bible about it. The “preamble” to the Ten Commandment in Exodus 20 reads:

      I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.

      The exilic prophet, Ezekiel, says no way in chapter 18:

      The word of the LORD came to me: “What do people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel:

      ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes
      and the children’s teeth are set on edge?’

      As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel…The soul who sins in the one who will die.”

      The closest thing to a verdict on this dispute in the Greek bible is found at Matthew 16:27.

  31. Jason Boxman

    The killing continues in America.

    At Least 7 Killed After Driver Plows Car Into Group of Migrants in Texas

    The driver was charged with reckless driving and has been detained, said Martin Sandoval, an investigator with the Brownsville Police Department.

    The police are awaiting the results of a toxicology report, he said.

    It was unclear whether the driver had lost control or had intentionally run over the group, Judge Treviño said. He said the driver had been injured and taken to a hospital.

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