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Links 3/6/2024

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Dear patient readers,

A malicious reader yesterday posted a comment falsely stating that I had been hospitalized for Covid (and having dealt with this troll before, the point apparently is to depict me as a poor source of information as to how to avoid Covid). I do not and have never had Covid.

Moreover, if I were to make a statement regarding a serious health issue, I would do that in a post proper, and never as a comment. So please disregard any comments like that in the future, in the highly unlikely event they do get through.

I do appreciate all the expressions of concern, but they were extracted under false pretenses. That confirms the lack of consideration the poster had for the impact on others, which is what got them blacklisted in the first place.

Separately, I am mystified at the fragile egos of those who try to make Naked Capitalism a personal project after having been banned. It says they have no higher and better use for their time than posting petty commentary at a small website, don’t have other outlets (as in have a history of having been blacklisted elsewhere) and/or think they are entitled to a platform but lack the self-discipline and ability to generate the interesting content needed to develop their own audience. As Barry Ritholtz often said, GYOFB.

* * *

With the ingestible perfume, toilets will now smell good Turkish Economy (Dr. Kevin)

Societies of perpetual movement aeon

Setback For Hopes of Life As NASA Says Less Oxygen On Jupiter Moon Than Thought Guardian. We have an awfully narrow conception of what life could look like.

Screen Time Robs Average Toddler of Hearing 1,000 Words Spoken By Adult a Day, Study Finds Guardian. They are losing not just language training but also development of interpersonal skills.

#COVID-19

Hypervaccinated Man’s Immune System Remains Fully Functional ScienceBlog (Dr. Kevin)

Climate/Environment

Cities are vulnerable to heatwaves. But green spaces can help more than we thought ZMEScience (Dr. Kevin)

Waiter, There’s a Fly in My Soup! Sustainable Food: Insect Farming Leads to Eating More Meat Bloomberg (Dr. Kevin)

The Arctic Ocean Could Be ‘Ice-Free’ Within the Decade, Researchers Warn Los Angeles Times

Satellite to ‘name and shame’ worst oil and gas methane polluters Guardian (Kevin W)

E-bikes caused a year’s worth of fires in two months, New York fire chief warns RT (Kevin W)

China?

China and the US are wrestling over a web of cables we never see, but rely on everyday ABC Australia (Kevin W)

VACC: Rifles for civilians to boost defense vs China Philippine Star (furzy)

Philippine and Chinese vessels collide in disputed South China Sea, four sailors injured 9News (Kevin W)

Old Blighty

And remember the UK’s population is less than half that of Russia’s:

European Disunion

Fron Politico’s European morning newsletter:

WHO KILLED THE EU ARMY? For years, Paris, Berlin and even Budapest have called for an EU army. But over the past few months, as European leaders have held intense discussions on the Union’s defense ambitions, the voices calling for an EU army have largely fallen silent.

What happened? “Defense is a member state competence. The point is not about having an EU army but rather to work better together among the 27 armies,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, told Playbook.

Really? But German MEP Hannah Neumann, an expert in defense, has a different explanation: “It doesn’t make sense to call for a European army at a time where you can’t even produce enough ammunition to defend yourself or support your closest partners.”

German defense ministry uses ‘1234’ as password RT (Kevin W)

France’s budget deficit will be ‘significantly’ above target, says finance minister Financial Times

Gaza

Operation Al-Aqsa Flood: The Defeat of the Vanquisher Jacques Baud, The Postil (guurst)

Houthis blow open murky world of ship nationality Financial Times

Time Is Running Out to Stop a Major Famine in Gaza Daniel Larison

Redemption through genocide Mondoweiss (sst)

‘We will die and not enlist’: Extremist Haredim block major highway for hours Times of Israel

Claims of Mass Rape by Hamas Unravel Upon Investigation Yes! Throughly stomps on what little is left of the defenses of these claims.

Why Netanyahu is laughing all the way to the bank Responsible Statecraft

On Palestine And The Worthlessness Of The Western Liberal Caitlin Johnstone (Kevin W)

New Not-So-Cold War

Cookie Monster is out! But she’s not visible enough with the general public to be an adequate scapegoat for Project Ukraine…even though she was its grand architect.

Putin’s nuclear warning is direct and explicit Indian Punchline (Kevin W)

ICC issues arrest warrants for top Russian commanders BBC

Western Values

Worthy vs. Unworthy Victims: Study Reveals Media’s Selective Coverage of Navalny and Lira MintPress (Kevin W)

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

US and Europe try to tame surveillance capitalism The Register

UnitedHealth Group: vulnerable and ill-equipped to defend against modern threats like cyberattacks Wendell Potter (antidlc)

Imperial Collapse Watch

Coast Guard Poised To Buy Badly Needed Private Icebreaker The Warzone (Kevin W)

2024

Trump, Biden Ride Super Tuesday Wins to 2024 Rematch Few Want Bloomberg

Handy chart from the pink paper:

Raskin and the Agents of Chaos: Democrats Prepare to Resume Disqualification Efforts in Congress Jonathan Turley. Trying to weaponize petulance. They know they don’t have the votes.

Budget Brinksmanship

Earmark battle emerges as late threat to spending bill The Hill

GOP Clown Car

Nikki Haley Reverses Pledge to Endorse Trump if He Becomes the GOP Nominee Rolling Stone (Kevin W)

Democrats en déshabillé

Kyrsten Sinema announces she is retiring from the Senate CNN (Kevin W)

Immigration

Biden administration ADMITS flying 320,000 migrants secretly into the U.S. to reduce the number of crossings at the border has national security ‘vulnerabilities’ Daily Mail

Krugman vs. Krugman Tablet (Anthony L)

Abortion

France becomes the only country to explicitly guarantee abortion as a constitutional right Associated Press (Kevin W)

As France makes abortion a constitutional right, UK women see sharp rise in abortion convictions France24 (Kevin W)

Our No Longer Free Press

Amanpour Confronts CNN Brass About “Double Standards” on Israel Coverage The Intercept (Dr. Kevin)

How a lack of local reporting affects the Supreme Court Eugene Linden, Columbia Journalism Review

Hello 143 Million US TikTok Users, Congress Is Working to Ban the App Michael Shedlock

We’re opposing crackdown on free speech Babylon Bee. Somehow I missed this new New York “hateful conduct” law. Via e-mail:

New York has announced a new censorship law that would coerce social media networks, including the satirical website The Babylon Bee, to monitor and crack down on what the state deems as “hateful conduct.”

But what will be deemed as “hateful conduct” is left up to humorless state officials to decide. And the Bee would need to adopt and endorse the state’s definition….

Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the Bee and urging a federal court to uphold a lower court’s decision halting this blatant censorship law—but we need your help.

Internet depends on unpaid labor of a small pool of hobbyists Guardian (Dr. Kevin)

Falling Apart Boeing Airplanes

Boeing Must Now Address Multiple Safety Issues With Its Planes Forbes (Kevin W)

‘I’m Not Trying to Cause a Scene. I Just Want to Get Off This Plane.’ Politico (Userfriendly)

Calpers Looks to Outsiders, Compiles Short List for New CIO Bloomberg (non-paywalled here)

AI

Microsoft Accuses the New York Times of Doom-Mongering in OpenAI Lawsuit engadget. A hard sell given the pervasiveness of that in the popular press and even labor market impact guesstimates by the likes of the IMF>

The rise of the job-search bots Business Insider (Kevin W)

The Bezzle

Facebook, Instagram, and Threads Are All Down The Verge

Class Warfare

Investors gobbling up homes in one of Calif.’s last affordable regions SFGate. Paul R: “Tax them into the ground.”

Biden to form ‘strike force’ to go after price-gouging The Hill. The Ford “Whip Inflation Now” program had more teeth, and they were not enough.

Antidote du jour (via):

And a bonus:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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156 comments

  1. Antifa

    EVEN IF YOU’RE JEWISH
    (melody borrowed from Jug Band Music by The Lovin Spoonful)

    The bombing of Gaza is certain to cause a
    Lotta folks to be displaced
    The UN has sure tried to stop the supply side
    Before the Strip is wholly erased
    The survivors have scattered so beaten and battered
    Drinkin’ water filthy with brine
    Killing kids is wrong even if you’re Jewish
    Blood sacrifice is not divine

    The blast is off the scale then the shrapnel lands like hail
    While the ground is shakin’ like it does in earthquakes
    As the fires are getting hotter with the screaming from the slaughter
    Then you find a bleeding baby and your heart breaks
    All we want is independence but the Jews are in ascendance
    While the US feeds them bombs like they are pancakes
    We truly need a ceasefire — the permanent kind
    They strafe the crowds at food trucks and our people keep dyin’
    Killing kids is wrong even if you’re Jewish
    Blood sacrifice is not divine

    The wounded and sickly will die all too quickly
    If the world won’t send us help
    And come to an accord that lets us all afford
    To live with hopes of keepin’ our health
    Call on our neighbors to put down their sabers
    And keep their people out of our shrine
    Killing kids is wrong even if you’re Jewish
    Blood sacrifice is not divine

    Israel has chosen to deliver more explosions
    Mister Biden’s call for mercy is a decoy
    Now they’re bombing Rafah city with no trace of human pity
    While Joe Biden bows to Bibi like a houseboy
    We are shattered in our land because the Jews want to expand
    And there is no lie or deception they won’t employ
    They plan to bomb Al-Aqsa our holiest shrine
    Israel will find out that’s the end of the line
    Killing kids is wrong even if you’re Jewish
    Blood sacrifice is not divine

    Killing kids is wrong even if you’re Jewish
    Blood sacrifice is not divine

  2. The Rev Kev

    Re a European army.

    The guys at The Duran say, and here I fully agree with them, that if a European army was formed that it would be used for internal controlling the population of the EU. NATO would be still there but it would be used for expeditionary purposes like in Asia but a European army would be used in riot control, crackdown on protests, going after dissidents and the like. Being a European army would mean that if there was trouble in say Germany, troops could be brought in from Poland to Portugal to crack down on it under so long as they were members of this European army.

    2. TomDority

      “It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.” -James Madison

    3. Random

      The core issue is not an army.
      It’s the fact that the EU is a structurally unstable due to the way the Euro and the accompanying rules are set up.
      A lot of people knew this since the time it was set up and it became obvious by the time of the debt crisis.
      They can either federate with all the things that entails: a common army, a common budget, fiscal transfers and so on or it’ll all fall apart eventually.

        1. Anonymous 2

          It may be credited, but I suspect the opposition of Rupert Murdoch was more important.

    4. Aurelien

      The so-called “European Army” idea has been around since the 1950s, but got a new lease of life after the Political Union Treaty of 1991. The idea was that, whilst NATO would continue as a security structure dealing with crises in Europe, it should be possible for coalitions of European states to carry out military missions together elsewhere, under the EU flag. There was some talk of setting up a permanent multinational unit on standby with components from different countries, but this has only got as far as the so-called EuroCorps, which today is a framework, with no units permanently assigned. (Check out a thing called the Petersberg Declaration.) Because defence is a national competence, this would be done through the Council of Ministers, and not the Commission, and the idea was to set up a permanent EU headquarters to make this possible. When the British were members of the EU they systematically blocked this initiative, because they feared having less influence within the EU than they had in NATO. As a result, NATO’s cumbersome command structure was pressed into service for operations elsewhere. Interior affairs and justice are national competences as well, and no state would let others use its police forces in their own. In any event, military forces are basically useless for public order duties without long and specialised training, and even then they would only be used where the level of violence was too much for the regular police to cope with. The Duran, I’m afraid, needs to do a bit of research before sounding off.

        1. digi_owl

          That said, using outsiders to crack skulls is an old school classic.

          No connection to the locals, thus less chance of them holding back or disobeying orders.

          1. Jeff V

            When the authorities cracked down on the Merthyr Rising of 1831 (in South Wales) they send in the Scottish Highlanders. Apparently, when the soldiers marched past in their kilts the Welsh public suggested they go home and put some trousers on.

            For some reason the Wikipedia entry doesn’t identify which soldiers were involved, or mention that they opened fire on the crowd, which had refused to disperse after the reading of the Riot Act.

    1. The Rev Kev

      But she did so well with the voters in the District of Colombia and won in a landslide there.

      1. Colonel Smithers

        Thank you, both.

        @ the Rev: Is that a Freudian slip?

        I went on holiday to South Carolina in 2011, being a history enthusiast, and fell into conversation with a black cabbie. He was planning to move to North Carolina for work and its emerging blue majority. I was stunned when he said that Haley was a native American.

    3. Screwball

      In my travels, PMCville is in full meltdown mode, and this is another dagger. Between the Supreme court ruling, Trump’s shellacking of Haley yesterday, and bad poll numbers they see another 4 years of hell. To make it worse, they read Musk and Trump had a meeting about something. They hate Musk about as much as they hate Trump. They think he is going to pay his court fees (or loan). Hair on fire stuff.

      The topping on the ugly sundae will be Biden’s performance tomorrow at the SOTU speech. Sorry, but I wonder how they will prepare him for that? Is he capable of a coherent speech for an hour plus? They have to be ****ing razor blades. Slow Joe on a national stage LIVE and uncut. Hoo-boy!!!

      I’m guessing they will have him so drugged up it would make Secretariat blush. That’s almost much watch TV but I don’t think I can do it. The aftermath should be quite entertaining.

  4. Terry Flynn

    I fell for the deception. And though it sounds self serving and “hindsight is 20/20” I did pause for a few minutes to see who else responded since the “tone” rang some alarm bells.

    It certainly reminded me to up my guard still further regarding the Internet. Moral of the story: if even a tiny bit of your gut feels “off” then wait.

    1. kareninca

      I somehow missed the comment entirely. That is strange since I at least glance at each comment. But I am often a day behind in reading, so maybe it had been removed by the time I was looking.

  5. Ken Murphy

    One scene that stuck with me in the movie “The Last Emperor” was after one of the boy’s daily download of a brown load, the eunuchs conduct an olfactory examination of the contents and determine that the emperor needs more meat in his diet. So it seems to me that masking what can be a significant indicator of the state of one’s gut health with the smell of roses would work against one’s self-health optimization.

    Over the years I’ve learned to pay attention to the state of my daily downloads, and not just because dad died of colon cancer. Our human focus on visual data acquisition tends to lead us to neglect the data provided by our other senses, and not pay so much attention to things like sound or smell, to our disadvantage. Because if your farts can clear a room, or bathrooms are quarantined for a few hours after you pay a visit, then there’s a good likelihood you have some serious dietary/health issues to address. And rose-scented poop pills won’t change that fact.

  6. timbers

    “Biden administration ADMITS flying 320,000 migrants secretly into the U.S. to reduce the number of crossings at the border has national security ‘vulnerabilities’ Daily Mail”

    Thank goodness that’s not an insurrection. It might be called a Pre-insurrection or maybe a pre-insurrection to head off a possible real insurrection…if the intent is to flood the 2024 election with the correct votes, but even that is a bit pretzel logic.

    An invasion then? Maybe they had connecting flights to Ukraine for conscription. No…more likely to McDonalds, Walmart, roofing companies, etc as newbee hires. In the city I live in, Craigslist has a daily add for hired help. You just show up early in the morning as if there is work for you, you’re in. No mention of ID’s.

    Do you suppose these 320,000 were offered voter registration forms?

    1. The Rev Kev

      Maybe they can round up military-age illegal immigrants, load them aboard US Air Force transports, and when the doors open at the other end announce ‘Welcome to Kiev. You are all now new recruits in the Ukrainian army. Remember, service guarantees citizenship – of the Ukraine.’

      But flying 320,000 migrants into the country? Seriously? For the cost of that airfare, they could have given every homeless person on the streets in the US a new sleeping bag, a bag of groceries, credit for their mobile phones and change left over.

      1. Adam1

        And from any good neoliberal country the final PA announcement will say final airfare expenses will be billed to next of kin.

    2. marym

      According to the Center for Immigration Studies link in the post the program is: Processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans

      As far as travel expenses, according to the program’s website “If the beneficiary has been authorized to travel to the United States, they must arrange and fund their own travel. Beneficiaries must arrange to fly to the United States by air directly to an interior port of entry and their final destination.”

      https://www.uscis.gov/CHNV

    3. Tommy S

      As previously posted Rand Study (even!) on NC said. Only about 15% of those ‘flown into the country’ are allowed to stay. Also if you check ICE page and CBP page…there are currently about one million a year removals, deportations, and refusals…..all different categories.

      1. Tom Stone

        Those illegal aliens being flown in may not stay in the USA but their Tuberculosis certainly will.

        1. JBird4049

          Plus measles and syphilis, which is not a personal attack. Much, maybe most,have gone through hell escaping from collapsing countries while being subjected to mass rape and and robbery by the Cartels. And of course, a complete absence of healthcare. You can see similar problems with homeless Americans as well.

    5. ChrisFromGA

      I suspect that this is enabling human trafficking. From the CIS web site:

      While seven of the nationalities, excluding Venezuelans and Nicaraguans, can claim eligibility under older family reunification parole programs, all can also just fly in if they can show they have a non-family financial sponsor (which can even be “an organization, business, or other entity”) and meet other requirements, such as owning a valid passport and passing security checks based on biometric information provided through CBP One.

      https://cis.org/Bensman/Government-Admission-Biden-Parole-Flights-Create-Security-Vulnerabilities-US-Airports

      So how hard would it be to set up a shell company, or some fly-by-night DBA entity, and sponsor young girls to come to the US? The security checks only establish who the immigrant is, they do nothing to vet the sponsor.

  7. The Rev Kev

    ‘What the media hides.
    @narrative_hole
    🇷🇺: 400 people arrested for social media posts
    🇬🇧: 3300 people arrested for social media posts
    But Russia is more oppressive?’

    This year the numbers for Russia may be a bit higher as they are in the middle of a war but you can bet that the numbers for the UK would be really bad because of the genocide in Gaza. Prime Minster Sunak has labelled those protesting this genocide as extremists so for sure they will be going over every social media account with a fine tooth comb and cracking down on them for the crime of dissent.

    1. Daniil Adamov

      I admit I was surprised by this. I expected the French to beat us in social media arrests (they have some form), not the British. Gaza seems to bring out the worst in European governments, though.

      1. Feral Finster

        Gaza and Ukraine both were pretexts, much the way in the 1990s, then-Senator Biden sponsored something much like what later became the so-called Patriot Act. His proposal sank like a stone.

        Starting 9/12, Americans could not surrender their civil liberties quickly enough.

        1. Daniil Adamov

          I suppose so – the British have been creeping in this general direction for a while, and the protests give them a perfect excuse. Never let a good crisis go to waste. Helps that they have already tested anti-anti-Semitism as a political weapon, too.

        2. steppenwolf fetchit

          Starting 9/12? No .. . it was starting after the anthrax attacks ( whose exact dates I forget).
          Those anthrax attacks were a warning to the Senate and House that they personally could all be killed with secret government anthrax if they did not vote for the Patriot Act.

        3. spud

          well it did not sink. the patriot act was bill clintons baby. if you want to track down almost all of americas ill’s, just one name needs to be spoken, bill clinton.

          https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/09/the-uncomfortable-truth-are-we-hating-donald-trump-for-the-wrong-reasons/

          Trump’s intention to build a wall at the US-Mexico border is the brainchild of President Bill Clinton. In fact, when Clinton proposed the wall and a crackdown on illegal immigrants in his 1995 State of the Union address, the Democrats gave him a standing ovation.

          As for Muslims, they have been an easy target for at least 20 years.

          Muslims were mainly the target of the ‘Secret Evidence law’ in 1996, and ‘suspected’ Muslims were either jailed indefinitely or deported without their lawyers being informed of their charges.

          It was then called the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, later expanded to give immigration authorities the right to deport even green card holding permanent residents.

          Few protested the undemocratic, no due-process law – and the media barely covered it – as most of those held were Palestinian activists, intellectuals and university professors.

          The 1996 Act morphed into the Patriot Act, following the attacks of September 11, 2001. The new Act undermined the very US Constitution, giving the government unprecedented domestic authority to arrest, detain people, and spy on whoever they wished, with no legal consequences.

          The Obama administration had no qualms using and abusing such undemocratic, unconstitutional powers.

  8. Mo

    Vaxxman is truly amazing. I thought I was going to have to take my wife to the hospital after her third!

    1. Yves Smith Post author

      Health is more individual than most scientists and doctors want to admit. He looks like a fascinating but probable outliner, not just in his habits but also in his constitution. To use a different example, just because Houdini could wriggle his way out of locks and chains underwater because he could dislocate his shoulders does not mean you should give it a try.

      1. IM Doc

        In my own practice, the record at this time seems to be 14 vaxxes of a patient who definitely fits into the group we call “the worried well”. She lives her life in panic and fear not just about COVID but everything.

        She has also had COVID 4 times since starting the regimen. Each time she is infected makes her seek more boosters.

        I have multiple others who have had more than 9. About 10 or so patients fit into this group.

        All of them have had COVID multiple times.

        The most important take home point about this situation is a simple question – “How is this even happening?

        If we truly had the robust vaccination monitoring system they told us we had, this would not be being allowed. These people seem to be able to do it with ease.

    2. pjay

      “Vinay Prasad’s nemisis…”

      Yeah, I can see a lot of “anecdotal evidence for me but not for thee” reactions (no pun intended) here. “Load up those syringes! Let’s roll!” It’s reported in Science Blog after all, so…

  9. Colonel Smithers

    Thank you, Yves.

    Further to United Health, they are donors and advisers to the Labour Party and offices of Starmer and Streeting and have former employees in NHS management and current employees seconded to Labour HQ.

  10. mrsyk

    Biden to form ‘strike force’ to go after price-gouging Something smells like election year pandering. Don’t hold your breath waiting for results. Meanwhile, I’ll eat my lunch at 4:15 in order to avoid surge pricing.

    1. ChrisFromGA

      Also has a smell of OJ announcing after his acquittal that he was going to dedicate his life to find the “real killers.”

    2. Stillfeelinthebern

      It’s about time something is done about ridiculous cc “late fees.” Almost everyone I know has been caught by these. They are predatory and should be banned. You pay super high interest rates, why should they be able to take more? This is a significant win for consumers and a blow at the “financialization” factory.

      From the article: “The ​​Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will also announce a final rule to lower the credit card late fee to $8 from $32 for the largest issuers, defined as those with more than 1 million open accounts”

      1. Michael McK

        And those late fees are “financial services” counted towards the GDP. When house prices go up the “imputed cost of rental” that you do not pay if you own your house also goes up and is counted as more GDP. So as you pay more fees and everyone is less able to afford rent or to buy a house the economists gush about a strong economy with a rising GDP. Since so much rise is also just asset prices that make the concentration of wealth increase and the power of the masses decrease I think a GDP rise is bad news for almost everybody.

      2. Glen

        Did you know usury laws use to make the current interest rates being charge illegal?

        Usury Isn’t What It Used to Be
        https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1980/05/11/usury-isnt-what-it-used-to-be/378a2c48-5d20-469f-aa84-b5aa67ffcafb/

        “As late as the end of the 1970s, 8 to 10 percent usury ceilings were common.”

        This article is from 1980 after many usury limits were removed. These mostly applied to home and auto loans because back then, using credits cards for daily living items like food, rent, utilities, etc was almost unimaginable.

        But credit cards rates of 20-26% were also unimaginable, and illegal.

    3. Feral Finster

      Ya think? I heard some Team R jackhole say that Biden was going to go full banana republic and promise the population free money in exchange for votes.

      Which raises the question: so why didn’t he do so when he had majorities in both houses of Congress?

      1. Dr. John Carpenter

        The answer is in the question. Waiting allows them to keep “fighting for” and prevents them from having to do.

  11. The Rev Kev

    “ICC issues arrest warrants for top Russian commanders ”

    There is a rumour that Russia’s Sergei Lavrov might retire this year though I find that unlikely. So a prediction here. What is the bet that soon after he retires, that he is served with an ICC arrest warrant as well. Since he will no longer have diplomatic immunity, it would curtail any travels plans that he might have which would be the whole point of the exercise. Been saying for years now that the only people that go to trial at the ICC are African blacks and former Yugoslavs. But with their performance the past two years they are just now an international bad joke.

  12. flora

    File under 2024 and our famously free press:

    I watched Taibbi and Kirn’s 2 hour live stream on the Super Tuesday results. They opened with talking about the MSM’s response to the Supreme Courts decision that keeps T on the ballots in all states, and pointed out that Rachel seemed annoyed that lawfare wasn’t going to eliminate B’s opponent, that people will have to vote to decide which man becomes pres. It was a funny opening.

    Here’s a link to the live stream utube I started at the last 30 minutes, where they talk about how MSM coverage of pres races has changed. They have some really funny speculations about how the MSM might cover (and spin) the rest of B’ and T’s campaigns this year.

    https://youtu.be/X5X0vJPaNFM?t=5265

    1. notabanker

      I love the MSM graphic, 78% of Haley voter don’t k ow if they will support the nominated candidate. I wonder if all 200 of them will have their own convention.

  13. QABubba

    Re oxygen on Europa:
    I have long felt that there was life on mars. Sulfate reducing bacteria, which are anaerobic, require water, sulfur, and iron. All three are available beneath the surface of Mars. Their byproduct is iron sulfide, which is black, which if the winds uncovered it might explain the “canal” features.
    I’m not sure if NASA is really looking. This would seem the most likely.

  14. Snailslime

    The West is really trying hard to roll Back the centuries long attempt to to some degree Limit, “tame” and “civilize” war by restricting it to Professional combatants.

    Granted, it didn’t Work much of the time anyway and there was obviously a bias towards imperial forces and against irregular resistance fighters, which is of course unsurprising as all the countries cooking Up the modern laws of war were imperialist/colonial Powers that had zero interest in ever legitimizing any armed resistance by their colonial subjects.

    BUT there was nonetheless a lot of value to the Idea.

    The West’s current attempts to turn every actual or potential conflict that involves any party they don’t like into a fill fledged people’s war, militarizing and dragging the civilian population into the violence as much as possible, deliberately making as big as at all possible part of the population into (indeed legitimate) military targets, is absolutely despicable and truly diabolical and it has something inherently (quasi) genocidal/democidal to it.

    Clearly the US encouraging the Philipines to pass out rifles to random citizens and encouraging them to take potshots at chinese soldiers in a hypothetical (and from the perspective of the US of course wanted and planned) conflict with China, aims to deliberately provoke or even force chinese troops to commit massacres of the “civilian” population (civilian in “” because obviously by taking up arms and opening fire they would very much stop being civilians, not that that would matter to the media narrative).

    Now obviously this sort of dirtiest of tricks has been around for a long time, possibly forever, but seeing it become the shameless, official standard procedure of the entire collective, imperial west the world over, eagerly and cheerfully promoted by all media, is nonetheless sickening.

    Just as Ukraine was from day one encouraged to systematically use it’s own civilian population as human shields.

    But deliberately getting your own civilians killed is all part of the price of freedom, I guess.

    I don’t see any difference between trying to ensure that mass death and warcrimes will occur and actually committing warcrimes oneself (except for the former requiring some unique, additional fiendish coldbloodedness, especially since one is doing it to one’s own supposed friends/allies/people trusting in one’s protection).

    1. Stephen V

      Aurelien is interesting here on Western defense industry:
      I’d go so far as to say that, taken as a whole, the western defence industry is losing the technical and management skills to produce effective equipment, and the few remaining areas of expertise are now starting to disappear. Moreover, this is not something you can cure by radical measures such as re-nationalisation, because the technical and managerial skills now lost would take a generation to reconstitute, even if that were possible. The political and strategic consequences, if this judgement is correct, are obviously very profound. Truly, the marketisation and financialisation of the western economy since the 1980s looks more and more like a form of economic suicide.
      FULL text:
      https://aurelien2022.substack.com/p/when-the-musics-over?utm_campaign=email-post&r=jz47a&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

    2. JBird4049

      I am critical of China and think that the government is guilty of some monstrous actions, but wtf would even the most revanchist China invade the Philippines? This is something the United States would do, China. I think a little projection is happening.

      1. Snailslime

        Obviously if (and it’s one giant if,of course) it were to happen it would be in reaction to the US getting the Philippines to attack the Chinese in some way or the US itself attacking China from the Philippines or at least believably threatening to do so, while involving and blaming the Philippinos as much as possible.

        In a way it doesn’t matter much if using the Philippines in particular as a proxy never goes anywhere, because whatever proxy they end up using that gives them the conflict they desire will suffer the same fate.

        Whoever wins that stupidest of lotteries, the US will try to paint as big a target on their civilian population’s collective back as it possibly can.

      3. Kouros

        Monstruous actions? Like bombing other countries to smitherines, or commiting genocides? Check Harol Pinter’s Nobel Prize speach.

        Also, look into the many independent western vlogers in China. When you see people of various ethnicities in Xinjiang still speaking their languages and bearing their customs, same as the Tibetans you start questioning western propaganda.

        1. JBird4049

          The use of propaganda is not limited to the United States or the West. This does make discerning the truth universally difficult. But it can be done if only in a limited way.

          Both states are empires that want to maintain control over certain things and are quite good at doing so. If it requires, to them, monstrous actions, they will commit them. For now, the actions of the United States are more discernible, but many were not for a time because of either propaganda or disinterest.

          And Tiananmen Square was real enough.

  15. The Rev Kev

    “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood: The Defeat of the Vanquisher”

    I was wondering about one part in this article when he was talking about Israeli assassinations of Palestinians. What is the bet that they were also murdering future moderate leaders and the like as well. If there is on thing that Israel does not need is a Palestinian Nelson Mandela as that would be a nightmare for them.

    1. JBird4049

      No bet. It is Israeli policy to assassinate any moderate Palestinian leader while encouraging the more extreme. Hamas’ creation was encouraged by the Israelis. Peaceful coexistence is not the goal.

    2. steppenwolf fetchit

      There may be an exception to that. I have sometimes heard of the currently-imprisoned Marwan Bargouti referred to as “Palestine’s Nelson Mandela in waiting.” (But that was years ago before the BenGvir-Smotrichians took full possession of the Government of Israel.)

      I gather Barghouti retains major credibility with the Palestinian public at large. So if the residual rump “non-Right” in Israel could somehow retake power and crush and destroy the power of the Right, the Palestinians would trust Barghouti to not support any fake deals not meeting Palestinian needs ( from within his prison cell).

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

    1. The Rev Kev

      More petty than weird. I suppose at this stage of the game that that is all they have left to work with – pettiness.

      1. JBird4049

        Ah, but they do photograph ever piece of mail that they handle and have done so for generations. IIRC, it started in the 1950s, but I really should double check the date. But at least sixty years.

        Just know that when you mail something Uncle Sam knows. Then there are all the identity dots placed in each print from any printer and photocopier. Those started with the original commercial machine sold. The Eyes of Uncle Sauron are everywhere.

    1. pjay

      I have not read the full UN report on which this story is based. But if the UN press release is any indication, it sounds like the same hearsay evidence (I mean “information” – the word “evidence” seems to be avoided), controlled through official Israeli sources. From the press release:

      – “The visit was neither intended nor mandated to be investigative in nature, a mandate vested in other United Nations bodies, which have promptly signaled their willingness and availability to investigate all alleged violations committed in the context of the 7 October attacks and their aftermath. The scope and parameters of the visit were agreed in advance with the relevant authorities, to ensure, unimpeded and confidential access to interlocutors and information…”

      Regarding that “access”:

      – “While the number of survivors/victims of sexual violence of 7 October remains unknown, the mission team was made aware that a small number of those are reportedly undergoing treatment and continue to experience severe mental distress and trauma. Despite concerted efforts to encourage them to come forward, the mission team was not able to interview any of these survivors/victims.”

      https://archive.is/IGYLE

      It was good of Israeli officials to make the UN team “aware” of these survivors, though.

      I’ll let Mondoweiss, Gray Zone, Electronic Intifada, and other investigative journalists pick the UN Report apart. But I will note that the two reporters credited with this story were Farnaz Fassihi and Isabel Kershner. Both have Wikipedia entries. I’d recommend reading them if you want an idea of why they were assigned to this task. Fassijhi is known for stories critical of Iran. Kershner is less established, but I thought this passage was interesting:

      – “In her role reporting on Israeli-Palestinian issues, she has been accused of conflict of interest, as her son has served in the Israel Defense Forces,[4][5] and her husband is an employee of the Institute for National Security Studies, which is involved in promoting a positive image of Israel, and which Kershner often relies on as a source.[6][7]”

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

  18. John Beech

    Myself, and my immediate family, continue our NOVID status. How after four years? Through endless vigilantism and action.

    Like what? Simple, really . . . by staying up to date on vaccines when they become available. Always wearing a mask when indoors. Denying ourselves the pleasure of eating-in at restaurants. Promptly finding elsewhere to be if I find myself in the presence of someone hacking up a lung. Horking with PVI-saline solution immediately upon return from possible exposure (basically, anywhere I’ve been where wearing a mask was advisable). It’s a lot of work but individually, merely require a bit of discipline and awareness of the stakes in this. Those suffering PASC should be a cautionary tale for all who have yet to contract COVID, and if they have half a brain, realize each infection confers a 13% risk of same, so 3X infections means 38% risk. Yesterday a paper in this very site brought to our attention stats showing 56% of those working when they attained a PASC status no longer work. We’re throwing away our future through political malfeasance – sigh.

    Me? I would bitterly resent someone making a false accusation of my having contracted COVID19. I am very sorry for your experience, Yves. That stinks!

    1. ChiGal

      Yes, I missed it yesterday or would have offered my get well wishes. I am amazed to hear there are malicious NC readers.

      The mods do a great job of filtering out the negativity, many thanks!

      p.s. also Novid here…

    2. britzklieg

      I have not gotten covid either and follow basically the same routine as you, here in Florida, except that I have never taken any jab, not one and I have no intention of doing so. Common sense made my regime an easy choice and a non-sterilizing, rapidly ineffectual “vaccine-that’s-not-a-vaccine” played no part in it.

    3. ambrit

      ” We’re throwing away our future through political malfeasance – sigh.”
      For some definition of “our.”

    4. JaaaaaCeeeee

      When I think about how many hundreds of millions of dollars were spent to portray Bernie voters as prejudiced and voting less for the eventual nominee than Clinton’s 2008 primary voters (the opposite of reality), how Bernie is just an attention seeking $$ grifting pervert who never accomplished anything in office, or how WaPo never corrected it claim that Naked Capitalism is Russian disinfo, it makes me think that Naked Capitalism bloggers should know that the more they expose about the corruption of extending an unsustainable status quo, the more this blog might make them targets of similar attacks. GYOB may still be the only problem, but for how long?

    5. kareninca

      I haven’t been vaccinated and am still NOVID (at least per a weekly test, and no symptoms). I follow the rest of your practices, and some extra things (claritin, Xlear, AirTamer). However, my life situation makes this easy. I only give up what are counted as pleasures (but which I don’t actually like). It is very, very hard for people in some work, housing and family situations, however.

  19. Lee

    The race took an unpredictable turn in the final weeks when Schiff and his allies spent more than $11 million on ads that elevated the profile of Garvey…

    Porter, a law professor who gained national prominence wielding her whiteboard and black marker as she interrogated corporate CEOs in congressional hearings, had long been expected to face Schiff in November. But Schiff’s allies viewed Garvey — who had barely campaigned or revealed details about his policy agenda — as a much weaker opponent in November. WaPo

    Truly despicable ratphking at its finest. Also worth noting is the frequency with which money raised and spent by candidates is mentioned in the MSM. Is this meant to normalize our system of legalized corruption or an attempt to rub the public’s nose in it with an eye toward increasing public demand for reform. Not that public demand matters that much anymore in determining policy.

    1. tegnost

      As I recall there was another despicable that elevated trump since he would be easy to beat and history may not repeat but does rhyme.

      1. Lee

        The hard choice faced by the electorate is between the deplorables and the despicables. Determining the lesser of two weevils is never easy.

        1. JBird4049

          I have not kept up with California politics as normal recently, and so, I cannot comment on this particular race. However, for thirty years the Democratic Party has been increasingly a corrupt PMC tool using weaponized IdPol, and Gavin Newsom is a good example; the Republican Party is also corrupt and incompetent, but has drifted into John Birchean Libertarianism. Both parties are extreme in their own ways and both are competent only in their corruption, while being poor at actually governing.

  20. Dessa

    How did the spoofer even get a post up? Everything I enter hits moderation before anyone can read it

  21. Victor Sciamarelli

    Nancy Pelosi was not about to leave it up to the voters of California to decide who their next senator would be. It was Pelosi who made sure Dianne Feinstein did not retire even though Feinstein was physically sick and out to lunch mentally. Moreover, Gavin Newson said he would appoint a Black woman as Feinstein’s replacement if she decided to retire. Pelosi, however, wanted Adam Schiff to replace Dianne Feinstein and that would be more difficult with an appointed senator who might plan to run for election herself as a now sitting senator.
    Feinstein was absent from the Senate for many months, and jeopardized Biden’s judicial appointees. Moreover, Pelosi’s daughter was a caregiver for Feinstein.
    Still, Pelosi wanted Schiff as the next CA senator regardless. Newsom must have been promised something when, upon Feinstein’s death, he appointed a woman who clearly would not challenge Schiff in the general election.

    1. Feral Finster

      I understand that Schiff was the preferred candidate of the California Team D political apparatus.

  22. Carolinian

    Re Haley/Rolling Stone–brings to mind a certain movie character

    “I am big. It’s the pictures Republicans that got small.”

    Her claim that the Republican party has changed in between her Iowa pledge to support and her now withdrawal could be Norma Desmond territory except in Sunset Boulevard the Gloria Swanson character was a former star whereas Nikki is little more than a Trump employee who has now turned on him. She was always small regardless of what one thinks of Trump.

    2. steppenwolf fetchit

      Wasn’t she Governor of South Carolina once? Isn’t that more than just “little more” than a Trump employee?

  23. Jason Boxman

    Latest COVID denialism sighting: Allergy seasons is starting early this year.

    Yep, that must be it! Pollen is spreading months early!

  24. Antifa

    Victoria Nuland abruptly resigning — after several recent speeches strongly pushing the Ukraine project — indicates a serious difference of policy with Biden, Blinken, and Sullivan. Whereupon she was asked for her resignation.

    Talking about 2024, she has referred to “asymmetric warfare” several times before saying Russia will see some “nasty surprises” this year. Most people figure this means either Taurus missiles landing inside Russia, or maybe troops or nukes on the Finnish border. Or attacking more ships in Sevastopol. But then these are not really surprises. They aren’t nasty, either. Russia has plans ready to deal with them, and for defending the Kerch Strait Bridge.

    The only truly nasty surprise that’s possible in the Ukraine project would be the use of a tactical nuke, either as a demonstration or as a tactical elimination of Russian troops and positions.

    Do you suppose she suggested a mini-nuke, and got herself resigned on the spot?

    1. Nikkikat

      A couple of weeks ago, we saw multiple news tidbits as the base in Syria came under attack and 3service persons killed, that US was going to pull out of Syria and was working on exiting Iraq in negotiations with Iraqi government. About 2 days into the Syria narrative, there was a tweet put out by Nuland that simply stated “ we are not pulling out of Syria.”
      I wondered about it because I thought that it would be a little odd for her in the position she holds to release a statement like that. I believe this may have been a bridge to far for Nuland
      And she was asked for a resignation. Jake Sullivan would not appreciate the fact that the foreign policy has been the disaster that it is for Biden. Not that Ukraine has not been a disaster however, she was caught during Obama administration under mining Obama decision on Syria and Iran. I think this is what is causing her sudden retirement. Giving Jake Sullivan a headache!

      1. digi_owl

        The lady has been close to the white house in some way or other since Bill Clinton, the only exception being the Trump years…

    1. ChrisFromGA

      It’s beyond words to even express how I feel. Never thought I would see this sort of thing in my lifetime. See Yves latest on Nader estimate of the true death toll as 300k.

      The latest insult is Biden claiming that the cease fire talks are going anywhere. Why do they feel the need to lie so much?

      1. ambrit

        “Why do they feel the need to lie so much?”
        A truly philosophical question. In Days of Old, minions of “The Adversary” were sometimes described as “People of the Lie.” Eventually, ‘The Lie’ becomes internalized and treated as if it were ‘The Truth.’ I see this as an indicator of how far away from observable reality these people have gone.
        Orwell should be made a Saint in some Church. He was a Prophet of sorts.

      2. Daniil Adamov

        I think it’s simply that the reality is so obviously hideous that lying is the only recourse. (If they’re not going to try and actually restrain Israel, of course.)

        1. ChrisFromGA

          I guess it could also be the go-to move for all the regimes since Clinton – kick the can, man.

          No cease-fire because you’re Bibi’s pet? Keep lying, pretend that you’re still trying, kick that can.

      3. Feral Finster

        “The latest insult is Biden claiming that the cease fire talks are going anywhere. Why do they feel the need to lie so much?”

        Talk of ceasefire talks is a moral figleaf, as is air-dropping a few rations over Gaza. It’s the equivalent of Obama cultists insisting that the president had a sad when he signed the murder list for droning that week, and in each case, it fools only those weakminded sorts who actively wish to be fooled.

    2. ambrit

      Link please. I wouldn’t put that past certain ‘actors’ in the region, but, there are still a million plus Palestinians in the Wrecktangle.

      1. ChrisFromGA

        I’m referring to Yves post about Nader just look at the top of the blog. I made a mistake – the estimate is 200k, not 300k

        1. ambrit

          That’s OK. Give it a week or two and it will be 300,000.
          Starvation is an old, old siege tactic. Next comes the “putting the town to the sack” phase. Counter-intuitively, Israel may not survive this as an integrated, functioning State. Too many forces pulling against each other, both external and internal. For instance, what are the latest figures on out-migration of Jews from Israel? How many of the Dual Nationals are jumping ship? One side effect of this phenomenon is the continual concentration of ‘True Believers’ in the Jewish Israeli population. The “Moderates” are leaving.
          The actions of the fanatical groups here, and we have them on all sides, are literally Biblical in scope.

          1. ChrisFromGA

            I think Simplicius pointed out that Israeli GDP shrank by something close to 20% in Q4. That’s COVID-style bad.

            I also wonder how much trade with Gaza contributed to the Israeli economy. Wiping out your customers is never good for business.

            Many tech bro types probably fled the country if they had the means. At least in the non-management group. More visible leaders probably had to stick around and do their duty to military conscription.

          2. flora

            The two Due Dissidence guys think Isr will not survive as an apartheid zionist state. Isr will still be there as a country but the zionist ideology won’t run the place, just like South Africa is still there but is no longer an apartheid state. We’ll see.

            1. ambrit

              One could make the argument that the original South Africa, (originally the Orange Free State and the South African Republic,) was established as a Theocracy, just like the ‘original’ Zionist movement.
              It has been noted that Israel and the apartheid South Africa were close partners over a span of years. (The Vela Incident anyone?) Thus, it might behoove the Zionist Israelis to study and learn from how their Dutch Reformed brethren managed their fall from absolute power.

          3. Antifa

            Indeed. In Jewish theology, this world that God created arrived broken, and it is the task of the Jewish people to repair it, which is known as tikkun olam — ‘perfecting the world’ to make it fit for the Messiah.

            Jews variously interpret this task as doing ritual worship, following the Commandments, doing good unto others, establishing social standards, contributing to civilization, and/or all of the above.

            Fanatical Jews — Zionists especially — view it as establishing the original borders of the Land of Israel and making it a perfect Jewish homeland and nation. This includes parts of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and Palestine, and is centered in Jerusalem. Too bad for the Arab people living in those places. They’ve all got to go, one way or another, because establishing Israel as it once was means the Messiah has to come, and then those folks will be dispatched anyhow for not being of the Messiah’s chosen crew.

            Bibi Netanyahu’s War Cabinet consists of extremely fanatical Jews who have no more qualms about killing Arabs in their way than you would have any moral objections to mowing your lawn. And they say so. And they ‘mow the lawn’ in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip routinely.

            None of this genocide will matter in the least the moment they have the original Israel back in their hands and cleansed of non-believers. At that moment the Messiah will appear, and the Jews will dominate all nations of the Earth for a thousand years — so says the Torah.

            Oh — and fanatical Christians in America support this goal as well, since they believe the restoration of Israel and the rebuilding of the Third Temple on the spot where the Al-Aqsa mosque sits now will bring back their Messiah, Jesus.

            Squaring all this with modern national borders is getting real messy . . .

            1. steppenwolf fetchit

              Does the Torah really say that? Is there a link somewhere to the relevant quote?

              ( According to the Rapture and Armageddon community, once the Third Temple has been rebuilt and Jesus comes back, some mystical number of Jews will convert to Christianity and the rest will be killed and sent to Hell for having rejected their Lord and Savior for all this time. That is part of what the Rapture and Armageddon community hopes and plans to get achieved by supporting the Right and Far Right forces in Israel to unbreakable state power within that country).

                1. Ellery O'Farrell

                  Only a quick skim, but all the sources I saw were extra-canonical–definitely not part of the Tanakh, much less the Torah–plus a few quotations from psalms for gravitas. Doesn’t prevent people from believing them, of course, but it’s not mainstream.

    3. ChiGal

      Yes, Alice, we are truly down a rabbit hole. That we are standing by as the bully repeatedly kicks another kid on the playground pervades the world atmosphere, makes breathing difficult.

    1. tegnost

      I’ve been wondering about vote totals, as in how many more votes can biden get beyond his primary total. The biden vote is highly committed and mail in voting makes it easy, so how many more can he get?. The dem overlords would look at my voting record and assume I will pull the lever for the blue but there is no way. I’ve generally undervoted in the last few elections but now I don’t want any possible shenanigan that could imply that I must’ve forgotten to check biden since my downballot was for issues/candidates considered their own hand. Not sure how I’ll deal with it yet. Mickey Mouse?

      1. ambrit

        Well, some old style Anglos would opine that Biden is ‘Mickey Mouse’ all the way.
        I’m thinking about writing in “Direct Democracy” on that line.

        1. Pat

          I’m leaning to “None of the above IS a vote for democracy”, but come the day if I feel the need to name a person I might write in Zephyr Teachout. Voting for a person who gets corruption is also a statement.

  28. Daniil Adamov

    “Separately, I am mystified at the fragile egos of those who try to make Naked Capitalism a personal project after having been banned. It says they have no higher and better use for their time than posting petty commentary at a small website, don’t have other outlets (as in have a history of having been blacklisted elsewhere) and/or think they are entitled to a platform but lack the self-discipline and ability to generate the interesting content needed to develop their own audience.”

    I’d bet that’s a big part of why a lot of us fell for it. This is such a ridiculous thing to do. Oh well, glad you’re okay.

  29. Feral Finster

    “Claims of Mass Rape by Hamas Unravel Upon Investigation Yes! Throughly stomps on what little is left of the defenses of these claims.”

    So if Hamas really were behaving so barbarically, why the the fake allegations? If the evidence is really so strong, why do Zionists present so many crude fakes?

    1. ChrisFromGA

      Oh, that’s a slow pitch right over the center of the plate.

      They keep it up for the same reason the Ukrainians keep it up with the fake “victories”, Ghost of Kiev, 13 Russian planes shot down, 30 out of 10 Russian drones successfully downed (by their targets they forget to add), etc.

      It’s cheap, fast, and nobody calls them out on it. Well, until lately.

      And therein lies the problem. Eventually, lies unravel. Sometimes, though, it takes a decade or more. Look at the lie that Assad gassed his own people, when it was really ISIL (sponsored by the CIA.) The OPCW finally admitted as such just the other day.

      Fortunately for the CIA, it has long since been forgotten and the lie had its effect.

      Zionists use the same techniques. The fact that most of the press are hidebound stooges of Israel doesn’t hurt, either.

      1. Feral Finster

        “It’s cheap, fast, and nobody calls them out on it. Well, until lately.”

        Even when they get called out, the mental conditioning is still there. I run into neocon diehards who insist that Iraq was chock-a-block with WMDs, Saddam’s top weapons scientist defected and told us everything…..

        Of course, “Curveball” (the code name given to the alleged defector) was a hoax that a kitten could have seen through, even if the FBI and CIA didn’t want to see through it. But it still shaped the discourse, and those who wanted to believe have their reason to believe, and even those who only pay casual attention to the news will notice the big glaring headline and not the Page 8C retraction a couple weeks later.

        The Great Satanic Daycare Hoax is most instructive here. IIRC, there are still people in prison over it, and there are still people who insist that it was all authentic.

        1. ChrisFromGA

          I almost forgot about the daycare hoax.
          Thanks.

          As far as fighting back against the conditioning: my X feed has a guy wearing a T-shirt with Assad’s smiley face and the caption “Still here.” Along with a smaller sub-group of faces like Cookies, Hillary, Obama, McCain, and Dick Cheney with red strike through lines over their mugs.

          We need to order about 10M of those and start wearing them or better yet give them away on street corners.

    2. Daniil Adamov

      Yes, quite. Isolated cases of any number of atrocities are, I’m afraid, to be expected from any fighting force operating among hostile civilians (at least, I’d genuinely like to hear of an army that has a genuinely clean record under such conditions). Claims of mass rapes are more dubious (those things happen but are much less common). When they are accompanied by this level of fakery, it becomes incredible. Maybe there were some real incidents too, but this media strategy makes it virtually impossible to believe them.

  31. elissa3

    “But she’s not visible enough with the general public to be an adequate scapegoat for Project Ukraine…even though she was its grand architect.”

    Might I suggest that she canbe the scapegoat within the Blob. Somebody has to be. It will now be interesting to see which faction or alliance of factions is on the rise.

  32. Tom Stone

    I found the news that Covid tests will no longer be required for those coming into contact with Genocide Joe quite interesting.
    It seems like a good way to ensure that he will be gone before November while reinforcing the Narrative that the pandemic is over, much more subtle than a pillow over the head or a fall down the stairs.
    Different strokes for different folks, so to speak.

    2. Pat

      I’m still hoping he will stroke out during the State of the Union. Severe disabling medical event live on television is the way to go (and it might be our only shot of discovering the drug cocktail he is on, unlikely as it is. I would hope for Covid if I thought the virus would be given the respect it deserves as a result. It won’t, although it will be darkly humorous watching the “it’s no big deal” crowd twist themselves into pretzels to keep it that way.

      But let’s be honest, as bad as it is going they need him alive until just before the convention. Either they really believe the bull they have been spreading, or they have some other protective mechanism or action that works like an real vaccine, not the shams for public use.

      1. Vandemonian

        “it might be our only shot of discovering the drug cocktail he is on”
        What makes you think that Biden’s post-Morten will be reported with more detail and accuracy than JFK’s? Or Epstein’s?

        1. Joe Renter

          I wonder what the odds are of sleepy making it to Nov in Vegas? An astrologer I follow says, he won’t make it.

  33. Eclair

    Caitlin Johnstone this morning, on liberals. ““Maintain the status quo, but make it pretty and psychologically comfortable for me.” They never want to do what’s right, they just want to feel like they are right. Theirs is an imperialist, militarist, tyrannical oligarchic ideology with a bunch of feel-good social justice bumper stickers slapped on top of it. A boot on your neck and a flower in its hair.”

    I saw the first Israeli flag in our Seattle neighborhood yesterday, flying proudly over the front door of a neatly kept c. 1910 bungalow. This is a neighborhood of mostly tech workers at Amazon, Google, Microsoft, that has been been filled with signs announcing: In This House We Believe, Black Lives Matter, Women’s Rights Are Human Rights, No Human Is Illegal, Science Is Real, Love is Love, Kindness is Everything, in Rainbow colors. Another favorite: Hate Has No Home Here! A few Ukrainian flags appeared in the early months of 2022.

    No Palestinian flags, yet. But increasingly more little stickers, Free Palestine, Ceasefire Now! around the pedestrian call buttons at the heavy traffic intersections. And 300 to 1000 (estimates vary: it was a big crowd) people turned out in downtown Seattle, in last Saturday’s cold, windy and rainy weather, to march for Palestine. No local politicians in attendance.
    And the Seattle Democratic Socialists of America are calling for Dems to vote “uncommitted’ in next Tuesday’s primary.

    1. Joe Renter

      There has been a “Israel out of Palestine” presence in Seattle since the 80’s that I have seen. On the weekends downtown on 3rd and 4th near the square they can be found.

  34. tegnost

    Krugman vs krugman…

    I mark the shift to when stiglitz and krugman had lunch with obama in ’09

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/krugman-wont-comment-on-o_n_197232

    Must’ve been some good roast beef…
    Probably a side dish of filet of soul to whet the appetite…
    FTA…(worth the read)
    On this issue, Krugman has performed an intellectual somersault. In 2006, Krugman sternly denounced exploitative guest-worker programs like H-1B: “Meanwhile, Mr. Bush’s plan for a ‘guest worker’ program is clearly designed by and for corporate interests, who’d love to have a low-wage work force that couldn’t vote. Not only is it deeply un-American; it does nothing to reduce the adverse effect of immigration on wages.” Expanding guest worker programs, Krugman 2006 warned, “could create a permanent underclass of disenfranchised workers.”

    I read “permanent underclass of disenfranchised workers” as homeless people. Mission accomplished.

    Now he’s just another affluent professor teaching the precocious offspring of his friends and colleagues, completely out of touch with the hoi polloi.

    1. CA

      https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/27/opinion/north-of-the-border.html

      March 27, 2006

      North of the Border
      By PAUL KRUGMAN

      “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” wrote Emma Lazarus, in a poem that still puts a lump in my throat. I’m proud of America’s immigrant history, and grateful that the door was open when my grandparents fled Russia.

      In other words, I’m instinctively, emotionally pro-immigration. But a review of serious, nonpartisan research reveals some uncomfortable facts about the economics of modern immigration, and immigration from Mexico in particular. If people like me are going to respond effectively to anti-immigrant demagogues, we have to acknowledge those facts…

      https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/03/27/notes-on-immigration/

      March 27, 2006

      Notes on Immigration
      By Paul Krugman

      Immigration is an intensely painful topic for a liberal like myself, because it places basic principles in conflict. Should migration from Mexico to the United States be celebrated, because it helps very poor people find a better life? Or should it be condemned, because it drives down the wages of working Americans and threatens to undermine the welfare state?

      https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/05/opinion/immigration-republicans-economy.html

      February 5, 2024

      Immigrants Make America Stronger and Richer
      By Paul Krugman

      Modern nations can’t — practically or politically — have open borders, which allow anyone who chooses to immigrate.

      The good news is that America doesn’t have open borders, and there is no significant faction in our politics saying we should. In fact, immigrating to the United States legally is fairly difficult.

      The bad news is that we’re having a hard time enforcing the rules on immigration, mainly because the relevant government agencies don’t have sufficient resources. And right now, the reason they don’t have those resources is that many Republicans in Congress, while fulminating about a border crisis, appear determined to deny the needed funding…

      1. tegnost

        Because republicans, that’s original…
        The tablet referenced took a more jaded view of the feb 5 op ed

    2. ChrisPacific

      Krugman 2006 was correct. I used to be a defender of the H-1B program (as a past ‘beneficiary’ of it). I still defend legal employment-based immigration, but I’ve come to realize that the particular implementation in the H-1B program serves to create an underclass of workers with fewer rights and much lower mobility, which can then be used as leverage to lower working conditions and pay for everyone in the industry. Give immigrants the same rights as residents and the problem largely goes away.

      Fast forward to today and the article shows clear evidence of exactly the kind of problems that Krugman 2006 predicted.

  35. ambrit

    American Politics.
    I’ll opine that the “Uncommitted” votes are much more important than they seem at first blush.
    These are Primary Election results. Usually, only the die hard Party faithful vote in these “contests.” So, such an outcome is an order of magnitude greater in import than it appears.
    It would be instructive to compare the results from “open” versus “closed” Party primaries. If there was a significant crossover vote from the Democrat Party ranks to the Republican Party contests in the ‘open’ primaries, then the figures would be questionable. The Democrat “True Believers” might have temporarily switched to Republican to vote for Hailey as an Anti-Trump tactic. If that is so, then the percentages on the Democrat side of the primaries would be skewed towards Anti-Biden voters. Thus, comparisons with the results from “Closed Primary” state contests will give us some inkling of the true state of affairs.

    1. Cassandra

      “Uncommitted” was not an option in my state, so I wrote in Aaron Bushnell yesterday. It is true that he was born after 1989, but Cenk is a naturalized citizen and was still on the ballot.

  36. Jason Boxman

    From The rise of the job-search bots

    “The biggest challenge for job seekers is that you see a great job, but you see it at the same time as 5 million other people on the job board,” Emily Lamia, an experienced career coach, told me. “How you find out about those jobs before they’re listed, and how you make the right connections to even design a job for yourself, is how people end up in positions that are really fulfilling for them.” Lamia routinely polls her clients, and she’s found that 80% of the time, they got their current jobs — and most of their past ones — through some kind of connection. That’s why she says she would never recommend job-search bots to her clients. Instead of cold applying to hundreds of jobs, they need to focus on networking for the ones they really want.

    (bold mine)

    Never seen the utility. I’ve only ever gotten one job in my life that way, and it wasn’t through “networking” with people and playing that game, it was through an actual friend in the same field at the time. And a short billable hours contract because of someone I’d met at a tech meeting once. That’s it. Every other job has been old fashioned brute force applying for jobs. A few former coworkers had offered to be a reference if I applied to their employer, but that was a one off in all these years as well.

    Granted, if you can afford a “career coach”, it’s probably people that are C suite and thats’s a different game altogether.

    I guess that bodes well for me, given that with the Pandemic I never leave the house or my tiny area of rural land.

    1. LifelongLib

      Thanks for the link! It reminded me that there have been attempts (unsuccessful) to find life with a different biochemistry from ours here on Earth (“shadow biosphere”). Unfortunately (?) it could be that once our “good enough” form of life appeared and spread it destroyed other possible lifeforms or prevented them from developing. Maybe other planets are better (albeit much more difficult) places to look…

    2. ChrisPacific

      I found the article confusing – Europa has tons of oxygen if it has a water ice shell and sub-surface ocean. Water is H2O, after all.

      The source paper on nature.com was more helpful. Apparently the radiation splits water molecules at the surface into H and O ions which then reform into gas, and that’s what was being measured. Why this is being used as a proxy for the oxygen content of the sub-surface ocean (where any life would be located) is unclear to me. Are they proposing radiation at the ice shell surface as the primary source for said oxygen? How do we get it back under the ice and into the water, and not just evaporating off into space?

      Most oxygen on Earth is produced by plants via photosynthesis. That’s obviously not likely on Europa if there’s no light under the ice, but other mechanisms could (and do) exist. It’s all there in the water molecules, after all – we just need to get it out. The fact that the one mechanism we can observe (because it’s at the surface) isn’t doing this in sufficient quantity isn’t evidence that it’s not happening elsewhere.

    3. steppenwolf fetchit

      Isn’t chlorine gas a caustic “oxidizer”? What if there were a planet with water and carbon and so forth, but also a chlorine atmosphere? Could chlorine-breathing life come into existence?

  39. CA

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/06/nyregion/subway-national-guard-police.html

    March 6, 2024

    National Guard and State Police Will Patrol the Subways and Check Bags
    Gov. Kathy Hochul, amid a series of violent crimes on the subway, said she would deploy 1,000 members of the State Police and National Guard to the transit system.
    By Maria Cramer and Ana Ley

    Paul Krugman however has been telling us the only problem in America is “White Rural Rage”:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/26/opinion/white-rural-voters.html

    February 26, 2024

    The Mystery of White Rural Rage
    By Paul Krugman

    1. CA

      Paul Krugman however has been telling us the only problem in America is “White Rural Rage”

      [ Explaining further, there are significant social problems in a range of American communities, and I find no reason to decide that racial and rural stereotyping makes social problems experienced in a community disappear. ]

  40. kareninca

    I know two people in the real world who have been banned from Naked Capitalism, which is incredible since my social circle is very small. One is a very scary person; she is a psychopath. The other is a well meaning dolt.

  41. Vander Resende

    Poland News
    Tusk despicable act
    According to Reuters
    0603204 “Tusk faces a delicate balancing act, seeking to
    – address farmers’ concerns while also
    – maintaining its staunch support for Kyiv in a year where it
    – faces both local and European elections.
    He has said that [agricultural] market disruptions were not only caused by imports from
    Ukraine, but also from
    Russia and its ally
    Belarus and on Monday said

    Poland planned to ask the EU to ban imports of Russian and Belarusian agricultural products.”

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/polish-farmers-clash-with-police-outside-parliament-warsaw-2024-03-06/

    A little bit of 5 minutes research:

    06032024 How much grain is Poland importing from Ukraine and Russia? MAR 4, 2024 |
    “Grain imports from Russia to Poland doubled in 2023, which was the fifth-largest rise among EU member states. However, they remain a small fraction of the amount of grain imported to Poland from Ukraine, despite the latter falling by over half last year amid a trade dispute between Warsaw and Kyiv. …
    “Eurostat’s data show that in 2023 Poland imported around 12,700 tonnes of Russian grain (consisting of buckwheat, millet, canary seed, meslin and maize), up from 6,100 tonnes the previous year.
    “Yet last year’s imports of Russian grain constituted just 1.3% of the quantity of grain arriving in Poland from Ukraine, which stood at just over 1 million tonnes. However, that figure was less than half the 2.4 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain imported to Poland in 2022.
    https://notesfrompoland.com/2024/03/04/how-much-grain-is-poland-importing-from-ukraine-and-russia/

    Sum-up:
    From Ukraine – ~1,000,000 tonnes
    From Russia – ~ 12,700 tomes (~ 1,3%)
    Edit by @vanres1974

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