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Links 12/23/2023

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Psychologists Pinpoint Average Age Children Become Santa Sceptics Guardian

See the moon and Jupiter enjoy their final meet-up of 2023 tonight Space (furzy)

Vibrating Pill May Give Dieters a Feeling of Fullness, Study Suggests Guardian

Learning to sleep like a bear could save your life Washington Post

Risk of Penile Fractures Rises at Christmas, Doctors Find Guardian

#COVID-19

DOD to study whether COVID-19 vaccine helped or hurt troops Military Times (Kevin W)

New COVID variant JN.1 surges to 44% of cases, CDC estimates — even higher in New York, New Jersey CBS

Climate/Environment

Genomic evidence for West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse during the Last Interglacial Science (guurst)

‘People are proud of this green spirit of ours’: how a small Spanish city rejected cars Guardian (Kevin W)

Biden Administration Unveils Hydrogen Tax Credit Plan To Jump-Start Industry NPR

Maine forced to delay vote on EV mandate amid widespread power outages Fox News (Kevin W)

China?

The U.S. and China at Year’s End Michael Klare TomDispatch

US alarmism over Taiwan and mainland China is truly alarming South China Morning Post (furzy)

Tinian airfield: US Air Force to reclaim Pacific base that launched atomic bombings as it looks to counter China CNN (furzy)

Gaza

‘Operation Al Aqsa Flood’ Day 77: Palestinians in Gaza face famine, as political prisoner count in West Bank soars Mondoweiss. guurst: “Baby Jesus is getting starved.”

* *

ZOMG, click through to read this tweet sent by Chuck L

Red Sea attacks disrupt world trade, more ships vow to avoid waters Reuters

US pressures Saudi Arabia to postpone imminent peace deal with Yemen The Cradle. Kevin W:

The Biden White House is truly fucked in the head if they see this as a good idea. Yemen lets Saudi tankers go through the Red Sea unmolested and Saudi oil infrastructure is off limits to attack by them. If the Saudis joined that maritime force, that would change in an instant.

War on Gaza: Why the oil market isn’t freaking out about Houthi Red Sea attacks Middle East Eye (Kevin W)

* *

* *

Israel-Hamas war: UN Security Council passes Gaza resolution DW

Israel in the shadow of American decline Asia Times (Kevin W)

Russian diplomat warns against letting Israeli-Palestinian conflict spill over to Syria TASS (guurst)

* *

Would Israel Be Any Different Without Netanyahu? Haaretz (Userfriendly)

New Not-So-Cold War

Zelenski For Sales Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)

How Putin’s Right-Hand Man Took Out Prigozhin Wall Street Journal. Will be interesting when the usual suspects weigh in on this story.

Exclusive: 150,000 Ukraine soldiers killed in action through October Asia Times (Kevin W)

Ukrainian military vows to boost numbers by any means RT

NORD STREAM AND GERMANY’S SHRINKING ECONOMY Seymour Hersh

CIA Veteran: Biden’s Proxy War in Ukraine Evokes Strong Memories of Vietnam Disaster Sputnik

Imperial Collapse Watch

SCOTT RITTER AND LARRY JOHNSON JOIN ON UKRAINE’S WOES, ISRAEL OUT OF CONTROL, PLUS MORE! Danny Haiphong.Two key bits from Scott Ritter, one on Hezbollah starting at 119:20 and the Houthi at 123:55. The big takeaway from the latter is the Houthi attacks have exposed that the US cannot protect the Strait of Hormuz (I had long assumed that to be the case, I see a lot of people thought the reverse).

Megatrends: The Collapse of Global Democracy The Issue (Randy K). They need a fainting couch. Curious lack of interest in loss of freedom due to spying tech.

The Mainstream Against Democracy American Conservative (fk)

Trump

Trump recorded pressuring Wayne Co. canvassers not to certify 2020 vote Detroit News (furzy)

Supreme Court rejects Jack Smith’s request for justices to quickly hear Trump immunity dispute CNN. Your humble blogger called this one.

Times Editorial Board Member Paints Opponents to Trump’s Disqualification as Modern Day Confederates Jonathan Turley. Lambert and your humble blogger have also discussed that way too many are trying to foment a civil war. But there’s not enough cohesion for a sufficient-scale organized effort. Instead the likely outcome is more violence.

Newsom pans efforts to block Trump from California ballot Politico

Biden

Biden kept at distance from McConnell on border deal talks The Hill

Biden emailed son’s business associate 54 times – Republicans RT

Biden pardons thousands convicted of marijuana charges Associated Press (furzy). He can only pardon Federal convictions….

GOP Clown Car

Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani files for bankruptcy protection CNBC (furzy). A top tax expert said this is a strategic bankruptcy filing. Even though Giuliani almost certainly can get the amount of the judgement way down, and would still probably be balance sheet negative, the court decision is highly irregular in attempting to get Giullani to pony up immediately. That would put these plaintiffs ahead of all Giuliani’s other creditors, including his lawyers to whom he also owes a lot of money. So this is to make sure all creditors get a piece of the pie.

The 2023 House by the Numbers: 724 Votes, Only 26 Laws Enacted New York Times (furzy). Accident or design?

California, New York in danger of seeing House delegations shrink further The Hill

Angry About Your Kid’s After-School Satan Club? Blame Clarence Thomas. New Republic (furzy)

NC bans investing, contracting with Ben & Jerry’s ice cream over its stance on Israel News & Observer (MWB)

Immigration

Migrant crisis: Bus from El Paso, Texas, drops off migrants at Kankakee gas station, police say ABC7 Chicago (furzy)

Our No Longer Free Press

Doing own research leads to ‘misinformation’ – political scientists RT (Kevin W)

Why Harvard’s Claudine Gay Should Go New York Times (furzy). I got a missive from Harvard, even though I try not to be on those lists, which said they were supporting her, and it was not in the kiss of death “She has our full confidence” style. But that was before the latest billionaire defection.

AI

Artificial intelligence is a liability The Register

New AI Transistor Works Just Like the Human Brain StudyFinds

The Bezzle

Cummins pickup truck engines systematically tricked air pollution controls, feds say USA Today

Class Warfare

The University of Phoenixification of Elite Education Maureen Tkacik. American Prospect. (David in Friday Harbor). I know Moe personally and agree with Dave’s sentiments:

Hoo-boy! And you think your alma mater Harvard has an oligarch problem. Just gotta love Apollo. Marc Rowan makes Leon Black look like Gandhi. Milken, Black, Rowan, Ressler — They’re running the country using the Drexel high-yield alumni philosophy of Heads I win, Tails you lose.

This woman does terrific reporting and is a fabulous writer, IMNSO.

Also worth a read in the spirit of babies born in the Holy Land with targets on their heads:

Americans Are Signing Up for Obamacare in Record Numbers New York Times. Userfriendly: “I clicked on this going “what’s the catch?” They got kicked off Medicaid.”

Cancer Patients Face Frightening Delays in Treatment Approvals KFF Health News

Antidote du jour. Tom D:

Local photgrapher Eric Sherman got this amazing shot last weekend (Sat. 12/16).
From his Facebook post: “I was able to sneak out to the woods for a couple hours this afternoon and once again I was in the right place at the right time. This beautiful Canada Lynx is my 12th of the year.”

http://www.ericshermanimages.com

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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184 comments

  1. Antifa

    SECOND IN COMMAND
    (melody borrowed from Winter Wonderland as sung by Bing Crosby)

    Whispering — are you listening?
    Hillary — oh, she’s bristling!
    This kind of fight ain’t sweetness and light,
    When Kamala is second in command.

    Biden’s gone, have you not heard?
    At some point he’ll be interred.
    It won’t be too long till he gets the gong,
    But Kamala is second in command.

    Biden isn’t any kind of statesman.
    He’s missing his cassette and floppy drive.
    When you ask him, Joe says, “I feel great, man!”
    We’ll have to do Amendment Twenty Five!

    The DNC is on fire;
    Biden’s got to retire.
    He’s a crooked old horse who can’t run the course,
    But Kamala is second in command.

    All the polls — are just sickening,
    While the plot — oh, it’s thickening!
    Our team’s got to jump much higher than Trump,
    But Kamala is second in command.

    Theater of the absurd;
    And FUBAR is our password.
    As we scrape along, it’s all going wrong,
    And Kamala is second in command.

    Biden can’t campaign around the nation;
    He can barely read the scripts we wrote.
    He is who they blame for this inflation;
    So “Anyone But Joe” is how they’ll vote!

    The White House is on fire;
    Zips are inside the wire.
    We so gotta trade this harlequinade,
    But Kamala is second in command.

    Kamala is second in command.

  2. Tom67

    I checked Seymour Hershs claim that the new gas contract, that Germany concluded with Norway would replace the deliveries by Nordstream. It is not true. In fact the contract stipulates the delivery of roughly 50bcm in ten years. That is as much as flowed through Nordstream in one year. Germany is facing catastrophical deindustrialisation as the cost of energy has increased 5 fold. Worse news: the Bundesnetzagentur (Federal agency for the electricity network) has decided not to reimburse big industrial users for sudden brown outs. Any large electrity user with any brain is leaving Germany. And not to forget: BASF has decided to sell Wintershall. That is the subsidiary that used to work with Gasprom.

    2. Neutrino

      Germany’s goose was cooked when they decided to decommission or otherwise take out of service the base load generating capacity without solid alternatives. They blundered into greater risk and uncertainty without apparent consideration of all the bad s**t that became far more likely to hurt their people.

      It shouldn’t be that hard to transition, but it matters to keep eyes, ears and minds open before, during and after.

    3. vao

      And as I reported here, the company SEFE (formerly Gazprom Germania nationalized by the German government after a period of fiduciary administration by the Bundesnetzagentur) is bleeding cash because of the mismatch between the long-term delivery contracts priced at a time when the firm was supplied with cheap Russian gas via Russian pipelines, and the cost of sourcing replacement gas from the North Sea, or via LNG, or now from Norway.

      SEFE is trying to extricate itself from those long-term delivery contracts, but some customers — such as India’s GAIL — are refusing without a full compensation for the charges incurred when buying energy on the spot market instead.

      It looks as if all German politicians has been taken over by body snatchers — their relentless persistence in selecting the moves that will have the most detrimental impact on Germany is truly abnormal.

        1. The Rev Kev

          If they hate the country so much why don’t they just move? Maybe to America which they seem to feel more loyalty to anyway. I’m pretty sure that the 80-odd million left in Germany will get along without them just fine.

          1. SocalJimObjects

            Why would they want to be a couple of small fishes in a BIG pond, when they control all the levers of power in Germany?

  3. Wukchumni

    Psychologists Pinpoint Average Age Children Become Santa Sceptics Guardian
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    A couple of characters who watch our every move and reward us for believing in them seems ridiculous as the stage is way too big for the drama, and we figure out one of them isn’t real by the time we’re 8, but why does it usually never waver in regards to Jesus?

    1. The Rev Kev

      Well one is a jolly man in a red suit that lives at the North Pole and delivers presents while the other is a magical carpenter whom nobody even wrote about until decades after he died. It’s pretty obvious why when you say it this way. :)

      1. GramSci

        Also, the Jesus story is a very real object lesson in what fascists do to communists. Imitate Christ at your peril.

        1. ambrit

          Not to mention the differing interpretations of the story, and it’s moral lessons.
          The Rabbi’s “message” has more spin on it than a bucket full of sub-atomic particles.

          1. synoia

            Spin in atoms is not spin as we see it, it is a label for an an aspect of atoms.

            It is not real.

            We cannot explain why water is liquid at standard temperature and pressure, and not a gas.

            1. ambrit

              Ah, this makes the “Christmas Story” even more ineffable.
              If we could truly “understand” the ways of nature, would that make us gods?

            2. Procopius

              We also cannot explain why water’s greatest density is at 4° C, instead of 0° C. It’s important, because otherwise all the water except a thin layer would be ice at the bottom of lakes and oceans. Instead, ice is less dense than water at 4°, and so floats, and so melts (eventually). Life as we are accustomed to could not exist on Earth otherwise.

      2. Wukchumni

        What if we did a makeover, with Santa looking like the Zig-Zag man, er Jesus, and Christ almighty an older fellow that never missed a meal and then some?

      3. griffen

        Santa brings gifts one day per year, what else is that fat man up to the other days of the year? Sounds like a cushy position, like kicking a Field Goal in the old school US Arena football league that launched a prolific career by Kurt Warner.

        Jesus was a carpenter by trade, so the skill set still transfers today as it was done back then. And today, I do think the prosperity gospel evangelists and acolytes fail to comprehend or acknowledge context about parable of the rich man and poor man in the New Testament. “Give away all you have and follow me” As is natural, other mileage may vary.

        Now I’ll have to listen to Jackson Brown’s “Rebel Jesus” to remind myself what the season should be about after all.

          1. juno mas

            Thanks for that. Prine and me were of the same age. He was a unique character; singer/songwriter. I saw him live and he was bigger than life itself. The “Missing Years” was a 1991 release, believe it or not.

        2. undercurrent

          What else is that fat man up to the other days of the year? He’s constantly checking up on you, and everyone else, using all the newest surveillance techniques that’s available between the North Pole and Foggy Bottom, to see whether you, griffen, have been naughty or nice, and so you just better be nice, okay? If you’re naughty, you do know what happens, don’t you? Santa will put you in the cornfield, where you’ll be all by yourself, all alone forever, and where that infernal ringing in your ears will be Lambert’s last, loud utterance bouncing around forever in your noggin like a very small marble, or b.b. So just be nice, and let Santa do what he’s been programmed to do.

        3. Not Qualified to Comment

          Jesus was a carpenter by trade

          To be boringly pedantic the actual word used in the Gospels, once for Jesus and once for Joseph his father who also wasn’t, is the Greek ‘tekton’ which is not specifically ‘carpenter’ but more loosely ‘craftsman’ or ‘artisan’, and is the root of the English ‘technician’. If the Gospels have any veracity at all it would have been used merely to indicate that Jesus had a blue-collar background; “humble beginnings” as it were. The claim that he was specifically a carpenter didn’t surface for another century.

      4. kareninca

        We don’t know that no-one wrote about Jesus until decades after he died. We don’t have any very early texts, but that hardly means that there weren’t any. The odds of a manuscript surviving and being found are low.

    2. El Slobbo

      Maybe I was unusual, but I remember in grade 1, some teacher addressing the class and saying “now everyone here knows Santa Claus isn’t real, right?” And enough people were nodding their heads that I figured I should go along with it.
      Honestly, I was fine with it either way as long as the presents kept coming in.

      1. The Rev Kev

        Why would you have the need to say this to little kids in Grade 1? She could have said nothing but instead felt the need to curb-stomp some children’s beliefs. Of course if she had said ‘now everyone here knows that we are no longer a democracy, right?’ that might have been some useful information that those kids could have used going forward. Some teachers are sadists.

        1. Dessa

          Some people just aren’t interested in participating in coordinated gaslighting campaigns designed to coerce children into desired behavior. Like the article says: Many children don’t appreciate being lied to about this.

        2. Leftist Mole

          I was one of those parents who raised their kids without Santa Claus or Jesus. What is wrong with taking credit for giving gifts to each other, instead of claiming a mythical being did it? The only problem was keeping my kids from blurting out this truth to their school mates in elementary school.

        3. El Slobbo

          This set of comments has somehow linked Santa and Jesus, which is very cute, but perhaps a more useful linkage would be Santa as a commercial marketing product that is a perversion of the memory of a Turkish bishop/saint who was famously kind to children.
          From that perspective, “curb-stomping” some fantasy about how The Marketing is Reality is a good thing, the sooner the better.
          I think one reason I was not particularly upset about the grade 1 teacher’s revelation was I could see my own parents’ attitudes, that this was just one of those weirdo anglo things and let’s go along with it.

          1. The Rev Kev

            The time for magic is when people are little children so let them have some fun. Give them stories that give them delight. They will have the rest of their lives to deal with reality and be ground down by it. But at least they will happy some happy memories to look back on.

            1. Wukchumni

              Like most, I had Santa sussed out by the time I was say 6, but kept up appearances, so as to keep the gravy train going, and reluctantly told my parents I didn’t believe anymore in my mid 30’s.

            2. El Slobbo

              What Santa really does, is teach children from an early age that their happiness is explicitly linked to a consumer lifestyle.
              But in my experience, children are plenty delighted with life even when they’re not getting all stressed out about whether or not “Santa” will get them the latest Barbie™ doll at Christmas.

        4. CarlH

          When I first experienced cannabis as a teenager I had the same emotional response as when I figured out Santa wasn’t real as a child. What else are adults lying to me about? Everything? Now I know it’s more complicated than that, but that’s how I responded at the time.

    3. Socal Rhino

      Reminds me of Obama talking about poor people clinging to their guns and religion. No his finest rhetorical moment in my opinion.

    4. kurtismayfield

      To answer your question, Jesus promises the adults presents after they die, while Santa only delivers to children.

  4. The Rev Kev

    “Ukrainian military vows to boost numbers by any means”

    Any means also includes trying to get EU countries to return all Ukrainian males so that they can be sent to the Eastern front. Plucky little Estonia – which has 7,000 of them – has said that they are ready to track these people down as they know where they all are so that they can be sent back. Already they are preparing an extradition agreement with the Ukraine to make this happen. Let me see now. So 7,000 divided by 800 killed and wounded Ukrainians every single day. Umm, that works out to about enough soldiers to last for 9 days of fighting. Unless of course Estonia decides to send military age women as well-

    https://www.rt.com/russia/589567-estonia-ukraine-draft-extradition/

    1. Paradan

      “Ukrainian military vows to boost numbers by any means”

      OMG! This is it, this is it! We finally get to see Nazi Zombies!

      1. Neutrino

        Signing bonuses and press gangs. Networks of recruiters for the international brigades from Africa, Asia and points beyond. You can see the posters and hear the pitches for the Ukrainian Foreign Legion. Join now and get a snappy cap.
        /s

    2. begob

      The equality angle is interesting, with a view to legal challenges to forced repatriation: the process would have to apply to females too, even in the selection stage. to avoid unlawful discrimination; but then Kiev seems to have abandoned its proposed conscription of females, so the females will have a hard time arguing risk to life.

    3. Steve H.

      Limits to Growth BAU2 recalibration (2023).

      I recently had a ‘seeing with new eyes’ experience. I’ve been following The Limits to Growth since 1976, when it was a source for the debate team topic of the year. It had pollution as the main driver for population decline, and the image shows that non-renewables and population have a higher amplitude peak than was projected.

      But the timing did not change. And what I saw with new eyes broke my primary frame of thinking from a 1970’s perspective. It’s fifty years later, and population growth has about flatlined at about 8 billion people. The chart shows a steep dropoff starting about now.

      Janet and I could live until 2050, and the projection is a billion less people. That’s an order of magnitude greater than current death rates. But because people keep having babies, the number dying will be over two billion people in the next quarter-century.

      Here’s the horrible. Fewer people have to die if you start with the women and children. Plus all those resources aren’t wasted on unproductive children as they grow up. And times’a’wastin’, if you killed everyone in the Israeli/Palestinian lands it would only be about one percent of the dieoff.

      Quotas, quotas, quotas…

        1. Steve H.

          I believe there are those that believe that.

          As Prince Philip said, “In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, to contribute something to solving overpopulation.”

  5. GramSci

    Re: Biden pardons potheads

    «No one was freed from prison under last year’s action, but the pardons were meant to help thousands overcome obstacles to renting a home or finding a job. Similarly, no federal prisoners are eligible for release as a result of Friday’s pardon.»

    1. ambrit

      So, just what is the definition of a ‘pardon’ today?
      Hopefully, “Creepy” Joe’s last minute “pardons” of himself and his family members will not keep them out of prison.
      Here’s hoping the judge is compassionate and let’s “Creepy” Joe bunk down with his old pal Bibi. For s—s and giggles, they could be immured together in the Landsberg Prison in Bavaria.

    2. Neutrino

      I find that the pot pardons are one more desperate attempt to woo voters and to distract from bigger problems.
      The West Wing, or whatever they may style themselves as now, keeps polling and praying, if one is allowed to mention the latter, in desperate hopes of something, anything to stay relevant.
      And by relevant, I mean stay in power.

      Running a country by polls is farcical.
      Thanks, Obama

      1. Wukchumni

        Sing a song of repence
        A pocket full of bye
        For 420 yardbirds
        Baked in a Federal sty

        When the sty was opened
        The birds began to sing—
        Wasn’t that a dainty dish
        To set before the re-election of the king?

        The king was in the counting-house
        Counting out his & Hunter’s money
        His queen was in the parlor
        Tap dancing for her honey

        The veep was in the rose garden
        Hanging out in close
        Along came this black bird
        And if Joe goes, what happens who knows?

        Sing a song of repence
        A pocket full of bye
        For 420 yardbirds
        Baked in a Federal sty

        When the sty was opened
        The birds began to sing—
        Wasn’t that a dainty dish
        To set before the re-election of the king?

  6. Alice X

    >‘Operation Al Aqsa Flood’ Day 77 Palestinians in Gaza face famine, as political prisoner count in West Bank soars – Mondoweiss

    A new report from the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has found that 25 percent of Gaza’s population is facing “crisis level” hunger, with four out of five households in the north and half of households in the south going enduring days without any food. The IPC predicts that, unless there is a ceasefire that allows humanitarian aid to reach people in need, that by February 7th the entire population of Gaza will be at “crisis or worse” levels of hunger. It is the highest share of people facing acute food insecurity that the IPC has ever classified.

    Worse, as in dead? How many dead would be enough? 50,000? 100,000? 500,000? 2.3 million? They’ve past 20,000, but worse is coming well before February 7th.

    “In effect, the US is voting for the continuation of the siege, for the continuation of the mass killings in the Gaza Strip. And most importantly, the idea of humanitarian assistance without a ceasefire is absolutely meaningless and illusory,” Middle East analyst Mouin Rabbani told Al Jazeera.

    A continuation of the massacre is precisely what they are voting for.

    2. Polar Socialist

      Massacre of the innocent is so very Christmas-y, though.

      “When Herod Netanyahu realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi Hamas, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys children in Bethlehem Gaza and its vicinity…”

    3. The Rev Kev

      ‘A new report from the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has found that 25 percent of Gaza’s population is facing “crisis level” hunger, with four out of five households in the north and half of households in the south going enduring days without any food’

      Well that can’t be right. Just a few hours ago on the news I heard an IDF spokesman say that there was no problem with food in Gaza at all-

      https://caityjohnstone.medium.com/at-this-point-we-have-to-always-assume-israel-is-lying-until-proven-otherwise-ac80b8a168ac

      1. Vicky Cookies

        I’d be interested in the methodology by which the report stating “four out of five households in the north and half of households in the south… [are] enduring days without any food” is interpreted to mean that just 25% of the people of Gaza are at “crisis level” hunger. Math seems iffy here.
        Professional language and culture are very good at obscuring human costs; during this genocide it is rather important not to.

        1. mrsyk

          Agreed. These numbers seem to be estimates/guesstimates just by their wholeness. I’m guessing they’re lowballs.

      2. Alexandra

        Since they keep dredging up that word,
        like a ball of phlegm,
        is it OK to call Jewish people “Semites” now?

  7. The Rev Kev

    ‘Kathleen Tyson
    @Kathleen_Tyson_
    The US is pushing for expropriation of frozen Russian central bank foreign exchange reserves to endow these in some form to Ukraine.
    Under international customary law central bank reserves have diplomatic immunity from seizure, even in a declared war.
    If they do this G7 ends FX reserves, innovated in 1922 as an expedient to expand debt, except among themselves and aligned states.’

    That giant honey pot of money is just too tempting for all those western countries. They can almost taste it. If they steal this money and send it to Zelensky, all those countries will no longer have to send him any more money anymore and it would be up to the Ukrainians to spend that money wisely. I had considered the likelihood that the politicians in each of those countries will charge, ahem, a “commission” for sending them that money. But I am now wondering if perhaps those countries will want to retain a large chunk of it to help them balance their budgets. Germany must be sorely tempted to do so at the moment and they can tell themselves that it was all the fault of the Ukraine for putting them in this financial position in the first place. But all the central bankers, the financial experts and anybody who knows anything about markets is shouting to them ‘No! Don’t do it! It will end in tears’ but dammit, that money is just too tempting dagnabit.

    1. begob

      Perhaps they’ll transfer it to Ukraine on condition that a chunk is immediately returned in satisfaction of existing war loans. How much of the sausage will be left after slicey-slicey?

    2. ambrit

      The financial system basically relies on the faith of the participants in the system to continue functioning. This move would destroy much of the international ‘faith’ in the fairness of the system. Massive dislocations in the international financial system will be a result of such an expropriation. Even better, Russia can get along just fine without the funds if necessary.
      One scenario is that Russia “expropriates” Ukrainian ‘assets’ after the fall of the Kiev regime in compensation for those seized Russian funds tracked to the Ukraine.

      1. JBird4049

        >>>The financial system basically relies on the faith of the participants in the system to continue functioning. This move would destroy much of the international ‘faith’ in the fairness of the system.

        Who the heck cares? I doubt many Americans will have faith in the political system by 2025, regardless of their own politics, and plenty don’t of the American legal, medical, or educational systems. I guess that our elites decided to add the international monetary system as well. Destroying people’s faith in any thing seems to be the only thing that they are good at. Aside from stealing everyone else’s stuff that is.

        1. Polar Socialist

          I may be mistaken, but isn’t this the very international monetary system that was created to keep The West in general and the USA in particular on top with the all the money and everyone else indebted to the fourth generation. Thus providing The West with easy and cheap access to any resource they wished for.

          It has many names: rules based order, free trade, neo-colonialism, Bretton Woods… Do they think they can save the system by destroying it?

          1. Feral Finster

            The West will simply replace debt slavery and even a pretense of rules or order with open and outright piracy.

          3. hk

            Worse, I think. They think everyone else is so dumb that they’ll stick with it even when they are plainly breaking everything. They’ll be in for a big shock, and sadly, a lot of other people will fall with them.

    4. TomW

      The idea of confiscating Russia’s foreign reserves is a hugely popular proposal. The kind that can be difficult to kill regardless of facts. Not entirely dissimilar to the Trump proposal to expropriate Mexican funds to pay for his fantasy wall. Never mind that a real wall would have proved cheap compared to the current alternative. Anyone who thinks it is too big of a technological challenge should visit Istanbul. Their wall kept out the hoards for 1,000 years. They are seriously impressive structures.
      Meanwhile we are going to be negotiating with Russia, finally. For a new security order. What if TPTB want a deal that requires they be returned? impossible? Probably it is literally impossible to package it that way, but the US needs to hang on to its rules based order. We just put it on a credit card anyway.
      Ukraine as “the most important thing ever” is over.
      And the US isn’t shy about negotiating someone else’s territory away. No? That has been SOP since WW 2.
      Just kill this hare brained scheme along with the fading info war aspirations, that used to be facts. Including the companion notion that Russia was particularly criminal in their SMO. Compared to nuking Japan, for instance. Closers drink coffee and winners write the history.

      1. Procopius

        “The horde of mongol horsemen found a large hoard of gold coins.” [Sorry, I’m a spelling Nazi at heart]

        Byzantium (Constantinople, Istanbul) built their impressive walls on reasonably level ground around the city. They did not have to cross streams, rivers, and mountains. Even the Great Wall of China did not have to cross mountains. The Great Wall of America, however, does have to. Given Americans’ propensity for corruption (especially in the construction industry), it should not surprise you that it costs a lot more than you expected.

  8. Otto Reply

    re: New COVID variant JN.1 surges
    “a CDC spokesperson confirmed Friday afternoon that the Biden administration has so far decided against elevating JN.1 to being a standalone “variant of interest.” Instead, the strain remains grouped with its BA.2.86 parent as a “variant being monitored.” 
    “We will continue to monitor variants, including JN.1 and provide updates when information changes,” CDC spokesperson Jasmine Reed said in an email.”
    move along people, nothing to see here …

    “Data from early studies of the strain cited by the WHO in a risk evaluation this week also pointed to research suggesting JN.1 “displays a higher immune evasion” compared to its BA.2.86 parent, though not enough to prevent this season’s COVID-19 vaccines from being effective.”
    Of course the vaccines are effective against a strain with a higher immune evasion. Of course they are.
    I’m using all the NPIs I can – including declining to party in crowded indoor spaces with folks who have had “mild” COVID multiple times. Happy Holidaze!

    1. Roxan

      Re: New Covid variant. My ‘significant other’ went to a small party of around a dozen, Dec. 6. Less than a day later, he was sick, and soon, so was I! He was really fanatical about masking and never going anywhere, all this time, too. Turned out, the lady doing the cooking was sick and almost everyone caught it, so a small ‘super spreader’ event. And I didn’t even go to the party! It’s truly been miserable and ruined the holiday. Of course, I got much sicker than he did. I am not feeling very kindly towards him.

  9. bassmule

    Has anybody seen this on fb? Move On wants to run attack ads during Trump’s televised trial. Giving him the opportunity to claim he can’t get a fair trial, don’t ya think? TDS to the max!
    https://act.moveon.org/donate/fb_dd-ms-Trump-trial-ads-monthly/?id_donation_type_recurring=recurring&source=ads.middleseat.fb.dd.trumptrial.20230911.natl.cfdonlal.a003&utm_medium=paid&utm_source=fb&utm_id=23858199369580765&utm_content=120200945653380766&utm_term=120200945651840766&utm_campaign=23858199369580765

    1. Screwball

      8 selections of amounts from $15 to $400 and a blank so you can go bigger. It even has a checkbo that says; << Make it *monthly* to keep up the fight against MAGA!

      The monetization of hating Trump – you gotta love it. Maybe my stage 5 TDS inflicted PMC friends will take out a HELO on their house.

  10. The Rev Kev

    ‘John Ʌ Konrad V
    @johnkonrad
    Dec 21
    This is by far the craziest story I have reported on in the 15 years I’ve been CEO of @gCaptain

    BREAKING NEWS: Confirmation From Dr Sal on the news about @cmacgm and the French Navy I posted to my video this afternoon.’

    I can really recommend reading this long tweet as it is absolutely amazing – such as the fact that it seems to be Jake Sullivan organizing this naval coalition who is just a political hack. No wonder France bailed. Or that Trump handled this region with far more professionalism than Biden who just shut everything down on Day 1 of his admin. At one time he put Pete Buttigieg in charge which mean that nothing happened. The guy calls this all an epic failure and it was all done on Biden’s watch.

    1. mrsyk

      Why is it a mess? The maritime interests of the nation were left to atrophy by the Obama administration who put a junior white house staffer and them a navy O5 submarine commander in charge of the important US Maritime Administration…
      Credit where credit is due.

    2. doug

      If you were intrigued by the tweet, or unable to see it, I suggest going to Gcaptain website and see the longer article there on the topic. Wowsers it is not a good look at all.

    3. Neutrino

      Awaiting the new Freedom Fries campaign.
      Freedom Flotilla doesn’t have the same cachet, does it?
      Can’t say cachet, that smacks of French.
      Bah. What is desperate hack Jake Sullivan to do?

      1. flora

        Sullivan has an extremely impressive academic resume, including Yale – summa cum laude, Rhodes Scholarship, and Marshall Scholarship.

        The problem isn’t brains, the problem is arrogance or lack of humility. With all those shining academic medals how could he understand there’s a whole lot he doesn’t understand about the real world and how it works. Maybe that’s the single biggest problem of ‘rule by experts’: no horse sense or common sense or even a simple shrewdness about the real world. Shorter: they don’t know their own limits. / my 2 cents

        1. flora

          adding: B Clinton also has impressive academic credentials: Georgetown, Yale Law, Rhodes Scholarship.

          O’s academic credentials: Columbia, Harvard Law, president of Harvard Law Review.

          Ya know, maybe the problem with the Dem estab lies right here: acquiring Ivy League credentials short-circuits an important part of their thinking capacity, the part that remains open to the idea there are new things they don’t know. Instead, that part of the brain is replaced with the certainty that if they didn’t learn it in school then it’s not worth knowing. Also known as academic arrogance. Or something like that.

          1. JBird4049

            A college education’s primary purpose use to be teaching people on how to think with an actual degree in a specific field being secondary. I guess this ain’t true anymore, which rather explains the boneheadedness of too many of our (elite) college graduates.

            1. scott s.

              Except that the 1862 Land Grant College Act specifically set a purpose to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life, largely in the agricultural and mechanic arts, to include military tactics. Then you had the development of the normal school system eventually rebranded as state teacher colleges.

              1. JBird4049

                Extremely good counterpoints, but what about the Ivy league or places like Stanford, or even UC Berkeley, which is where most of our elites go to?

          2. The Rev Kev

            It doesn’t sound like getting an education so much as making sure that you get your ticket punched with the right credentials.

        2. NYMutza

          With respect to Henry Kissinger, his doctorate advisor at Harvard William Yandell Elliott told Kissinger at Elliott’s retirement party “Henry, you’re brilliant. But you’re arrogant. In fact you’re the most arrogant man I’ve ever met. Mark my words, your arrogance is going to get you in real trouble one day”.

          Sullivan may not be as brilliant as Kissinger, but his arrogance may get him in real trouble one day.

        3. CA

          “Sullivan has an extremely impressive academic resume, including Yale – summa cum laude, Rhodes Scholarship, and Marshall Scholarship.

          The problem isn’t brains, the problem is arrogance or lack of humility…”

          An important insight, but the group have been groomed as neoimperialists:

          ‘I am a fully paid-up member of the neoimperialist gang. Two years ago — when it was not at all fashionable to say so — I was already arguing that it would be ”desirable for the United States to depose” tyrants like Saddam Hussein. ”Capitalism and democracy,” I wrote, ”are not naturally occurring, but require strong institutional foundations of law and order. The proper role of an imperial America is to establish these institutions where they are lacking, if necessary . . . by military force.” ‘

          http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/27/magazine/the-empire-slinks-back.html

          The Empire Slinks Back
          — NIALL FERGUSON

    4. flora

      Agreed. This is just wowl Holy Moley! can’t make this stuff up territory. I knew the Dem estab believes in patronage jobs, but slotting in incompetents at this level shows a degree of ignorance or indifference in B’s admin I didn’t think was possible, even for them. / sheesh!

      1. GC54

        Tactical incompetents like Sullivan may save us, unfortunately strategic incompetents may vaporize us because logistical incompetents have left only decaying nukes in play.

  11. EMC

    Thanks to DJG Reality Czar for the link yesterday to the Harper’s article on Russia. Many ambiguities, as you say.

    https://harpers.org/archive/2024/01/behind-the-new-iron-curtain/

    I’d love someday to read such an article free of the value judgements and preconceptions which drive the interpretation of the article, but that’s a rare thing. He gets points for going outside of Moscow and Petersburg into the regions. A passage that stood out for me:

    “His office seemed to have been designed with the express purpose of disorienting anyone hoping to understand Russia in 2023: busts of Stalin standing alongside Russian Orthodox icons, a portrait of Nicholas II looming over a Soyuz statuette, a picture of Vladimir Putin hanging next to an image of St. Andrew, the patron saint of Russia.”

    Why disorienting? It’s only perplexing or inconsistent if you haven’t been paying attention or want to pigeonhole it into what you already believe it is.

    Nonetheless, the full article is definitely worth reading.

    1. anahuna

      I would see all of those figures less as political statements than as protective amulets. A different kind of power.

      1. Daniil Adamov

        Is there a difference between those two concepts? :) “Stalinist-monarchist” displays are certainly popular in some circles. One of my city’s biggest oligarchs, Andrey Simanovsky, is quite big on them. I think it is meant to signal, honestly or otherwise, support for “strong government” and disdain for “liberal values”, while offering a sort of broad church for everyone who thinks similarly whether they are religious conservatives or Stalinists (some of those disdain any such conciliation, of course, but not all). I think that is a political statement, but it could function as a protective amulet of sorts. Then again, no one has suffered for failing to do such things, so the focus may be less on protection and more on building a reputation among the likeminded. Symbolic and social capital, I think it’s called?

        1. hk

          Combinations like that are not too uncommon in US either (or, any other country for that matter): I know at least one person who had portraits of Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Bryan, Nixon, Carter, and Reagan.l in his office. That’s a peculiar combination of political viewpoints, but it’s also not that hard to find a common theme underlying them all in context of Americana. Surely, one could see a common denominator connecting, say, Alexander I-III, Stolypin, Lenin, Stalin, and Putin pretty easily.

    2. Carolinian

      Of course the Putin as the new Stalin theme is music to neocon ears and may need a more robust defense. Helmer suggest Putin doesn’t have anywhere near that kind of power.

      1. Daniil Adamov

        Frankly, no one does. I know the terminology is contentious, but I do think one can meaningfully say that we had a totalitarian state under Stalin and an authoritarian one under Putin. Putin does not have nearly as much power and also does not intervene nearly as much or as disruptively, for better or worse. The elite and ordinary people alike are largely safe as long as they don’t directly and blatantly get in the state’s way, which was not the case under Stalin. There is also much less control over people’s lives in practice, despite some escalating attempts at “traditional value” enforcement.

        1. Kouros

          All states are authoritarian. There is a big body of laws created by each state such that outside elections, the head of the government is very strong, bordering authoritarianism de jure, and if times require, de facto.

          1. Daniil Adamov

            Yes, that is one possible angle of attack on this terminology. I agree to some extent – all states have authoritarian elements, and getting rid of them completely is impossible. However, they manifest in different ways and to varying degrees. Compare, say, the Russian Empire and the United Kingdom in the late 19th century. De jure, the former had unbounded authority concentrated in the hands of one man, while authority in the latter was fairly dispersed and kept in certain bounds (if we are talking about Britain itself and not the colonies, of course). I think it is reasonable to make a distinction between the two cases, though better terminology may be needed.

            In any case, what I meant by authoritarianism in this case is a system in which the government’s power has few institutional checks but is still restrained by a combination of elite consensus, public opinion and tradition. A totalitarian system, a la Stalin, can disregard those restraints as well.

    3. Daniil Adamov

      I did think it was remarkably good for a Western article about Russia. I could quibble with some parts, but he did indeed go outside of the capitals and let people speak for themselves, which has got to be worth something.

      1. DJG, Reality Czar

        Daniil Adamov: I read the article because Marzio Mian is Italian and the article was written in Italian (deftly translated by Elettra Pauletto).

        Mian also has an expertise in rivers, so he was in his element.

        For many years, Italians have maintained good relationships with Russia, even when the Partito Comunista Italiano refused to buckle under “suggestions” from the Russian communist party.

        https://pulitzercenter.org/people/marzio-mian

        As always, one must consider the source. No American journalist could have written a piece with such attention to detail and to political nuance.

  12. griffen

    File this under “something to watch out for” from the Netflix streaming services. As a young child born in the early ’70s, I can vividly recall seeing the Rocky series of films and also the Rambo series of films. Thought Stallone was great in Demolition Man, playing opposite Wesley Snipes. I never did get into the Expendable movies, but conceptually as he describes in the documentary it was a stroke of genius. Quite a bit of funny or entertaining pieces from his early period and working along with Winkler in the first breakthrough film opportunity.

    The documentary on Sylvester Stallone is titled “SLY”. The video below is a teaser, this is currently available. Clocked in less than two hours, I enjoyed it.

    https://youtu.be/5KJw3NRHMBs?si=JOHnlBtfnZcTQChh

    1. Carolinian

      Stallone said he wrote Rocky so he could finally get an acting job. Later he took a turn to the right with Rambo so he could continue to get acting jobs.

      My money’s more on Mel Gibson in his dotage. His geezer parts are always fun.

  13. thoughtful person

    The situation in the Red Sea is interesting. NATO and US led military activity seems to be failing, with France going it alone. The Houthis seen to have found an effective pressure point. Might this result in food arriving in Gaza and a cease fire, before mass starvation?

    1. JTMcPhee

      The sh!ts who run Israel are deeply wrapped in the Magic Cloak of Impunity. I doubt anything will deter them from grabbing for the brass ring in their ride around the concrete-crusher carousel. And I bet the Bidenobamanauts are ready with the equivalent of the Berlin Airlift if asked, or the Paper Clipped departure for green pastures and still waters for the Likudniks if things go pear-shaped. The killing will continue, including the death of those puerile sh!tes in the IDF/iOF who bomb and shoot and crush with armored bulldozers the people of Gaza and West Bank and Jerusalem. Jacob Dreizin thinks the Ids have it well in hand and are crushing the resistance people. Not so sure what his sources are, but lots of video evidence to the contrary in Telegram land.

      1. flora

        Whoa! This Clevand Clinic link is suddenly not recognized a day later after my comment? Even though the link was recognised for a long time before my comment? (aka before the widely read blog NC linking to the page.) Wha’da’ya make of that? Try Mayo or other sources. / sheesh

  15. The Rev Kev

    “Biden emailed son’s business associate 54 times – Republicans”

    Must have been about yoga routines and wedding plans then. Hey, it worked for Hillary.

  16. The Rev Kev

    ‘Arya – آریا 🇮🇷
    @AryJeay
    The 13th battalion (of the Golani Brigade) has officially left the Gaza Strip due to heavy losses among its commander ranks & soldiers. The battalion practically became paralysed, the remaining soldiers were sent to a medical institution since they are suffering from physical & mental problems and can’t continue to fight.’

    The Golani Brigade also had two battalions badly mauled on October 7th so it will take a very long time to rebuild this brigade. I would not expect that the other Israeli Brigades would be doing that great either. Well, they are doing great against unarmed civilians. Against professional Hamas fighters not so much.

  17. Wukchumni

    My Kevin (since ’07) didn’t bother informing his right hand man of his rapture ready moment when becoming a political corpse, and trouble indemnity ensuing with Fong ghoul suing…

    This means the field is wide open and while I* have no plans of throwing my hat in the ring, plenty of other nobody’s have expressed an interest, game so on.

    On Dec. 15, Weber’s office issued a news release saying state law prohibits a candidate who has filed a declaration of candidacy from withdrawing as a candidate at the primary election. It noted Fong had already filed his nomination documents for the 32nd Assembly District before the Dec. 8 filing deadline.

    “Mr. Fong then submitted completed nomination documents for Congressional District 20 during the five-day extension period triggered by the incumbent’s decision not to seek re-election,” Weber’s release stated. “State law prohibits any candidate from filing nomination papers for more than one office at the same election.”

    https://www.bakersfield.com/news/fong-sues-california-secretary-of-state-over-rejection-of-his-candidacy-for-mccarthys-seat/article_1d4a7760-a111-11ee-b700-1b4cab6360b0.html

    *i’m Wukchumni and I approve this message

  18. Carolinian

    Interesting Wapo about the bears and hibernation and heart disease. Also we will need to learn how to hibernate when Musk shoots us off to far galaxies or at least to maintain the credibility of hypersleep, that staple of sci-fi movies going back at least to 2001. Some of us would like to do it right now given our attitude toward 2024 and the upcoming election: wake us when it’s over.

    Seems the bears have a protein that keeps their blood from clotting while snoozing.

  19. lyman alpha blob

    RE: Megatrends: The Collapse of Global Democracy

    Not worth reading in full, and I stopped skimming it when I was told by yet another TDS-infected midwit that electing Donald Trump using the democratic process would be the end of democracy in the US and would knock their rather arbitrary global democracy scorecard down by another 20%.

    Just more blatant propaganda written by someone who assumes their readership are morons.

    2. Screwball

      He does have quite the audience though.

      I was told yesterday; go ahead, indict Biden with zero evidence while Trump is delaying all his trials so he can pardon himself. He is only running to stay out of prison. They also think his re-election campaign is ran through the Kremlin.

      As linked above, Move On or somebody is monetizing Trump hate – which should be quite a solid business plan. Especially considering the narrative for the next year about saving democracy from Trump the fascist dictator who will make himself president for life.

      If only the deplorable know-nothing white trash scum were smart enough to see how effing great Joe Biden and the democrats are, and how they are the only ones to save this country and the world from Trump/Putin/Russia/fascism.

      Orwell would be proud.

  20. Wukchumni

    Oh, the Red Sea situation is frightful
    But the ire is so delightful
    And since we’ve no place to go
    Let it snowball! Let it snowball! Let it snowball!

    Man it doesn’t show signs of stopping
    And I brought me some corn for popping
    The ship lights are turned way down low
    Let it snowball! Let it snowball!

    When we finally kiss Suez goodbye
    How I’ll hate going ’round the Cape
    But if we go there in their summertime
    All the way home I’ll be warm

    And our hegemony is slowly dying
    And, my dear, we’re still out there lying
    But as long as we’re all enthralled
    Let it snowball! Let it snowball and snowball!

    When we finally kiss Suez goodbye
    How I’ll hate going ’round the Cape
    But if we go there in their summertime
    All the way home I’ll be warm

    And our hegemony is slowly dying
    And, my dear, we’re still out there lying
    But as long as we’re all enthralled
    Let it snowball! Let it snowball and snowball!

  21. Tom Stone

    A few remarks on what it was like in the East SF Bay in the days before the Rumford act.
    My Parents bought 254 Wildwood Ave 94610 ( Lower Piedmont) in 1957, we could see the back of my Grandparents ( The Stones) on Kalmar Ave on the next ridge to the South.
    In our tract all of the deeds has similar restrictions, it was illegal to sell, lease or rent to “Any descendant of the African or Hebrew races”, in upper Piedmont where the real money was there were no restrictions on Jews owning, leasing or renting property.
    Doing so to blacks was not necessary, such an action was unthinkable.
    Kalmar Ave was Oakland and upper class blacks did live there (And in Crocker Highlands), it was ethnically integrated to a degree.
    Blacks like the “King Bishop Narcise” who lived in a walled compound a block from where Grandpa did, I met him walking with Grandpa in 1958 or so.
    The King Bishop had a different Rolls Royce for everyday of the week and
    his Chauffeur was a stunning blonde with a perfect peach and cream complexion wearing a uniform that was pure Hugo Boss and he was in his robes.
    An early lesson in the difference between Class and “Race”.

    1. Oaktownboy

      Today’s “diverse” Oakland right next door and surrounding Piedmont. Even a new Whole Foods has opened up. Doesn’t matter. The cancer is spreading everywhere in the East Bay. Want a crime free place to shop? Drive or move to Marin or relocate to Montana.

      “Robberies and residential burglaries, for instance, are close to where they were in 2018-19 — commercial burglaries are higher than they’ve been at any point since at least 2016.”

      “We are just experiencing auto burglaries that are off the hook,” said Chris Jackson, the manager of the Rockridge District Association, which represents businesses on College Avenue. He said he thinks the rise in crime has resulted in fewer people coming to shop at stores, because they feel unsafe”

      https://www.sfchronicle.com/eastbay/article/oakland-temescal-property-crime-18556941.php

      1. JBird4049

        >>>Drive or move to Marin

        I hate to tell you, but just as with San Francisco, much of the retail shopping has gone away.

        You could hit the high end shopping centers in Corte Madera or the stores in Sausalito, Mill Valley, Tiburon, Ross, San Anselmo, or Fairfax. However, those towns, which all use to be working or lower middle class towns sixty years ago, with the exception of Tiburon being upper class, are now Professional Managerial, upper, middle class bastions of privilege. Tiburon has always been for the upper middle class, now it is a mini oligarchic bastion of the wealthy complete with the local police cameras taking photos of every car that goes on the road to there. They feel they must keep the blacks and other undesirables under observation and under control, and I am not being sarcastic.

        I think that just like with the Town (of Oakland) and the City (of San Francisco) to use the regionalisms of my youth, the Bay Area is evolving into upper class archipelagos surrounded by small, sinking reefs of desperate and despairing middle class families in rising ocean of poverty. Aside from those reefs, the places that I used to feel comfortable being at are either too dangerous, or too alien and expensive for me.

  22. KLG

    On the University of Phoenixylvania:

    “But the Penn fundraising source has a theory about one of the “subconscious” drivers behind the putsch. After the Supreme Court overturned race-based affirmative action last June, the source notes, they began to sense a distinct unease among wealthy donors about “legacy admissions,” by which the offspring of alumni receive preference in the admissions process, possibly prompted by a Pennsylvania state senator’s proposal to ban them, or the Department of Education’s launch of a civil rights investigation into Harvard’s legacy admissions procedures, which had come under particular scrutiny during the Supreme Court arguments…

    “…Perhaps that is the thing motivating all these billionaires to show Big College who is boss. The cost of post-woke diversity and equity turns out to be the educational fortunes of their sons and daughters, and no self-respecting oligarch is willing to withstand that.”

    1. Mikel

      The weird thing about this is that they don’t need the institutions to exist in order to pass the favors and jobs based on relations and parental social status.

      1. flora

        But but, think of the parental embarrassment if jr or sis can’t get into the parents’ alma mater, Penn in this case. / ;)

      2. Kurtisnayfield

        They have to continue the facade of “qualifications” and “credentials” so that the rest of the hoi polloi don’t get distrustful

    2. flora

      That’s a terrific article, rings the bell on all points. Even public state uni admins are walking on eggshells (more the usual) when it comes to alumni donations.

  23. Jabura Basaidai

    “Biden administration unveils hydrogen tax credit plan to jump-start industry” –
    isn’t this just another gift to the fossil fuel folks? – Yves provided a link in 2022 –
    https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/08/the-economic-case-for-blue-hydrogen-is-getting-worse-cue-the-lobbyists.html
    don’t forget the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act – the article concludes The Husk’s administration has clearly fallen for this scam hook, line and sinker – can’t call it that when you’re complicit –
    https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/billions-wasted-on-hydrogen-hype
    just another black hole of grift addressed back in October
    https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/10/the-dirty-secret-behind-the-hydrogen-hype.html
    our wonderful environmental president….how’s the Willow project coming along?

  25. Wukchumni

    Interesting to see what Czechia does in regards to their gun laws after a shooter with an assault weapon laid waste to innocents…

    They had a day of national mourning, which is further than we’ve ever gone beyond the usual prayers amounting to nothing.

    1. Dida

      Nothing else will be done. Czechia has a significant arms manufacturing industry for a state of its size: ‘The Česká zbrojovka company is ranked among the ten biggest manufacturers of small arms in the world and five which produce automatic weapons.’

      Radio Prague International: ‘Historically the former Czechoslovakia was a world leader in the production and export of armaments, largely because of this country’s heavy industrial base at the onset of the previous century. This industrial base proved to be of importance during the second world war, when Nazi Germany annexed Czechoslovakia through the infamous appeasement agreement of 1938 and not only gained the territory of Czechoslovakia, but also the country’s massive arms production capacity.’

      Le Monde: ‘The Czech Republic has had a solid industry established on its soil since the 19th century when it concentrated the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s arsenal. The practice continued even after the transition to a market economy in the 1990s.’

      Also Czechoslovakia supplied weapons to Israel in the 1948 war, breaking the UN arms embargo, and was crucial in the establishment of Israel. Given this ‘distinguished’ history of the Czech Republic’s arms sector, a couple of dead children mean nothing.

      1. Tom Stone

        I have owned or fired a number of firearms made by CZ and all were of high quality, their rimfire rifles are up there with Anschutz when it comes to accuracy.
        As far as getting rid of Gunz, how do you propose to do it?
        Even France is estimated to have 1.5 illegal guns for each legal firearm, some of which were undoubtedly stashed by members of the FFI in ’45.
        Looking behind the walls of country barns and old houses might produce some interesting finds…

        1. Wukchumni

          Thanks to you, I was able to figure out that there was but 1 mass murder in 2001 in the USA, which corresponds perfectly with when the Federal ban on assault rifles was in effect.

          How does that compare to 2023 with unfettered availability of such guns?

        2. Dida

          As far as getting rid of Gunz, how do you propose to do it?

          Time: ‘These countries restricted assault weapons after just one mass shooting.’

          NYT: ‘Other countries had mass shootings. Then they changed their gun laws. Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway: All had a culture of gun ownership, and all tightened restrictions anyway. Their violence statistics now diverge sharply from those of the U.S.’

          It is not impossible to ban automatic and semi-automatic weapons when there is political will. Of course, in the US currently there is no political will for anything else than tax cuts and war, but other states proved quite capable to put an end to the slaughter of innocents. I don’t believe though that this can happen in Czechia, given the disproportionate importance of the arms industry.

  26. CA

    “US Air Force to reclaim Pacific base that launched atomic bombings as it looks to counter China”

    The Biden Administration is riddled with frighteningly abrasive officials.

  28. LawnDart

    Re; Times Editorial Board Member Paints Opponents to Trump’s Disqualification as Modern Day Confederates

    “Insurrection!” is clearly now the glittering, amorphous war-cry that unifies the hive-minds captured by Blue-establishment MSM, “you’re either with us or against us!” and “Russia! Russia! Russia!” hit-singles falling out of the top-ten.

    Personally, I would have a difficult time giving my loyality to those who demand it, by threat of coercision or worse. To me, giving in to such demands isn’t loyality, but fealty, and, being one who really appreciates freedom, I guess they’re forcing me to take the side of the insurrectionists then.

    Anyone who can be proved to be a seditious person is an outlaw before God and the emperor; and whoever is the first to put him to death does right and well. Therefore let everyone who can, smite, slay and stab, secretly or openly, remembering that nothing can be more poisonous, hurtful, or devilish than a rebel.— Martin Luther

    Not suprisingly, Hollywood is jumping into this fray, and even if this movie’s utter crap it’ll be worthy to note the messages sent, the narrative injected into conversation: coming Spring, 2024, “Civil War,” the movie:

    https://youtu.be/aDyQxtg0V2w?si=aqM7iQnYzeI9_TQn

    1. flora

      Or, restated: You’re either with us, the PMC expert elites, or you’re a horrible, terrible, no-good person. (Sounds like a cult, but whatevah.) / ;)

      1. LawnDart

        Let’s take it further:

        Either you’re with us,
        Or an insurrectionist:
        The choice is not yours.

        –Blue Haiku

        (Maybe a focus-group guided by a PR firm could reduce the expressed sentiment to a bumper-sticker sized bite?)

    2. Alice X

      The first two comments:

      I’m going to see this just to find out how Texas and Cali ended up on the same side…

      I wanna see this in the theater before it comes to the streets…

      And another:

      Finally, a heart warming film about real American values.

  29. Jason Boxman

    From Cummins pickup truck engines systematically tricked air pollution controls, feds say

    Cummins Inc. allegedly installed defeat devices on the engines of hundreds of thousands of 2013 to 20199 RAM 2500 and 3500 pickup trucks, according to the Department of Justice. The DOJ also says the company installed defeat devices on the engines of 330,000 newer RAM pickup trucks.

    Defeat devices are hardware or software used in vehicles to trick air pollution tests, or bypass emissions controls.

    I’ve become of a new mind on these kinds of white collar crime; the penalty should be each executive loses a finger. That’s it, done. Every time you commit crime as a corporate officer, you lose a finger.

    I doubt much corporate crime would continue to be a concern.

    2. bwilli123

      I hope they include the improvements AI has brought to his catalogue

      …”Using AI, I was able to take some old painting and make it better. First the painting. Notice how you can barely see what’s even going on. Where even is this? Who are the people? Huh? You’re too far away to really see the setup. Whole left side blank. Nothing here to grab onto….”

      https://twitter.com/soncharm/status/1725283749468807410

      1. The Rev Kev

        That’s……pretty messed up. Seems this guy wants AI to show him only happy images where everything is bright and the people young and smiling. The first painting you can delve into and see what is going on. The atmospherics are heavy in it. The improved version look like an add for Coca-Cola.

        1. skippy

          Adam Curtis last doco … whole server farm town where were “WE” are all getting better teen girl … via meds …

  31. zach

    “This woman does terrific reporting and is a fabulous writer, IMNSO. ”

    If only “this woman” had a name, then, in my not so opinion, more people could follow her and read her work! Shame!

  32. Willow

    > SCOTT RITTER AND LARRY JOHNSON JOIN ON UKRAINE’S WOES, ISRAEL OUT OF CONTROL, PLUS MORE!

    Israeli leadership has made a commitment Hezbollah problem will solved, minimum pushed back 15km from the border, by end of Jan 2024. As Scott Ritter succinctly states in the podcast Israel can’t defeat Hezbollah no matter the timeframe. There’s no way Israeli leadership can keep its promise to have things sorted out within a month so that settlers can return – using conventional means. Only way Israel has a chance of defeating Hezbollah is by using tactical nukes in Southern Lebanon. Key questions: How committed is Israeli leadership to the settler promise? And how unhinged over Gaza and prophecies of ‘end of days’ that Israeli leadership consider using of nukes? And, if Israel does use nukes in Southern Lebanon, does Pakistan’s commitment to Iran extend to Hezbollah? Israel could trigger a mega-regional war far beyond the Levant and conventional warfare.

    As Ritter points out, Gaza conflict won’t escalate into a wider regional conflict drawing in the US directly unless Israel makes the first move. Hezbollah, Iran, Syria & Türkiye are happy for the focus to remain on Gaza and for Israel and US to burn geopolitical capital at an alarming rate.

  33. Jason Boxman

    I don’t understand this EV thing. I don’t. If this is the bid to save the world, why aren’t there paid for by federal government ads nonstop about EV ownership benefits. I’ve driven a gasoline car my entire life. That’s most people. Wtf do I care about an EV. Not saving the planet. How does this help my unit economics? How does this improve my life? This is a huge public relations campaign liberal Democrats and NGOs ain’t running. Time to start?

  34. ChrisRUEcon

    #OperationEffYourProsperity

    Headline : Joe Biden warned ‘no one takes him seriously’ as EU brutally snubs US

    Ouch!

    Even more brutal, the lede:
    France, Spain, and Italy have all announced their withdrawal from the US Command Structure for Operation Prosperity Guardian (via express.co.uk)

    1. lambert strether

      This is actually less bad than it might have been; the slope of the curve has not steepened. That may change, of course, after the Xmas and New Year’s gatherings, plus travel, plus return to school.

      1. Jason Boxman

        Sure. The area under the curve is a problem though. Lots of ongoing infection and disability from long COVID.

  36. LawnDart

    Sorry folks, it’s looking like you’ll soon be needing to get your Gaza-updates from Israeli-friendly Facebook.

    12/23– Israel bombs TV station, kills 13:

    Israel Bombardment on Palestinian Al-Aqsa TV Chanel

    An Israeli attack on the headquarters of the Palestinian television channel Al-Aqsa TV in Gaza City resulted in the killing of 13 members of its media personnel and the total destruction of the building and equipment of the channel.

    https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Israel-Bombardment-on-Palestinian-Al-Aqsa-TV-Chanel-20231223-0003.html

    1. CA

      https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1737977057630708214

      Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand

      CPJ (Committee to Protect Journalists): “More journalists have been killed in the first 10 weeks of the Israel-Gaza war than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year”

      https://cpj.org/2023/12/israel-gaza-war-takes-record-toll-on-journalists/

      They also denounce a “pattern of targeting of journalists and their families by the Israeli military.”

      6:23 PM · Dec 21, 2023

    2. ChrisFromGA

      Is it just me, or ever since COVID, hasn’t the world taken a real turn into the darkness that makes the Iraq War and the war on terror look like the good old days?

      It seems that there is nobody in governments who has the sense to see that mass killing just leads to more cycles of violence. Today I watched Dima’s military summary channel, and I had to stop because it was just too depressing (and I have a high tolerance for war porn.) Zelensky’s full mobilization is going forward, they’re going to scrape the bottom of the barrel looking for anyone to send to the front next year. Dima took the time from his usual mapping updates to mention a friend of his in Ukraine, a male, whom he offered a safe place in Belarus.

      These men and women, Biden, Stollenberg, Boris Johnson, Bauerbeck, the whole rotten lot, are the most vile and evil people to walk this earth since WWII. They all are going to sit there and do nothing but egg Zelenksy on to turn his country into Cambodia, circa mid 70’s. Without the warm tropical climate, and with much worse demographics.

      Where is some adult in the room to tell these clowns that they’re genocidal criminals if they don’t stop it, now?

      Martin Armstrong has written a lot about the cycle of war. It seems there is some truth to it, we had to make it 80 years almost past the end of WWII for that generation to die out and then forget what hell war is. Human life is cheap, now.

      1.2M dead from COVID … crickets chirp.

      500k dead in Ukraine … crickets chirp.

      20k and counting in Gaza. The world shrugs.

      I think 2024 is going to be horrific for Ukraine.

      1. juno mas

        I agree. So does a friend who is now flying his long stored Peace flag at his house on a well traveled road in town. Would be great to see more arrive. Generate more activism like I experienced in the 60’s.

      2. tegnost

        These men and women, Biden, Stollenberg, Boris Johnson, Bauerbeck, the whole rotten lot, are the most vile and evil people to walk this earth since WWII.

        It is truly astonishing

      3. digi_owl

        I dear say the real rot is found on Wall Street and in City of London, and the names you mention are its puppets.

        Stoltenberg for example pushed the neoliberal turn in Norway before getting the NATO position.

      4. Daniil Adamov

        “Is it just me, or ever since COVID, hasn’t the world taken a real turn into the darkness that makes the Iraq War and the war on terror look like the good old days?”

        I imagine it doesn’t look that way to the Iraqis. The hotspots just moved.

  38. CA

    A few days from now, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Algeria, Iran and Ethiopia will become members of the BRICS and Brics New Development Bank.  The point, as I find, is that the new BRICS members will be able to work on infrastructure and technology advance projects with other BRICS members and especially with China.  Having to depend on the US or Western Europe for limited technology advance will be unnecessary.

    Saudi Arabia is wealthy in the per capita sense, but Saudi Arabia has not grown at all since 1977.  Rather, Saudi Arabia has a much lower GDP level now than in 1977.  Working with China should change this from here, but that means the US or UK are far less important to the Saudis.  (Robert Solow would recognize that technology advance is necessary for growth.)  I am guessing at a significant change in multi-faceted relationships between the new BRICS members and China.

  40. Tom Stone

    I was talking to my Daughter earlier today about Music (She’s a K Pop fan) and mentioned the first Rock and Roll concert I went to was at Winterland on 10/10/1968.
    The song that hit me between the eyes was “Hey,Joe” and the whole concert is on Youtube.
    I watched it today after 55 years and that song hit me just as hard.
    What a treat!
    I have heard a number of good guitar players over the years, two were transcendant, Jimi Hendrix and Andres Segovia.

  41. steppenwolf fetchit

    . . . ” ‘She was put in this role to shake things up’
    FTC Chair Lina Khan’s vast ambitions to cut back on corporate power could be a huge part of Biden’s legacy — if they come to fruition. Her enemies have been lining up to stop it. ” . . .

    One supposes that if Biden cares about this particular area of things, he could promise that ” if elected”, he would keep Khan and all her co-workers and subordinates right exactly where they are through a second Biden term, doing more of exactly what they are doing. ( One wonders if political operatives are reading this blog and others like it to get a feel of evolving sentiment of various publics and whether those operatives should recommend their bosses do one thing or another based on that evolving sentiment-feel).

  42. Robert Gray

    This is an admittedly off-the-wall question but with the crowd-knowledge of this commentariat I reckon someone will have the answer. A Finnish friend visiting the US is baking goodies for the holidays. She prefers fresh yeast to dry. She was flabbergasted by the price: a small block ( 2 oz. ) costs some $4.00. She looked in several supermarkets and the price was similar (so it wasn’t an anomaly). More than that, some big supermarkets didn’t even carry it! The thing that got her, she said, was that at home in Finland a comparable size little cake ( 50 grams ) costs only 25 euro-cents! So, the question for the Americans in the audience is … why exactly is it so bloody expensive in the USA?

    1. digi_owl

      Not American but this tickles something in my brain, because i have gotten the impression lately that US grocery chains love long shelf life products. This to the point that they will sacrifice taste etc in order to maybe add a few more days.

      In this instance fresh yeast seems to have a shelf life of 2-3 weeks, while dry can sit for maybe a year as long as the package remains sealed.

      That said, i am seeing a similar trend for long duration goods in Europe as well. But at least around my part the stores carrying them is scoffed at, even as people complain about food costs etc.

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