Readers, this is a touch long, but there were so many lovely pairings I found it hard to cut. Sorry! –lambert
Why private equity has been involved in every recent bank deal CNBC. Because bottom feeders feed at the bottom?
At the Money: Claudia Sahm on How To Defeat Inflation (interview) The Big Picture
A Hidden Crisis in US Housing Bloomberg. The deck: “In places most prone to wildfires and hurricanes, state ‘insurers of last resort’ are absorbing trillions of dollars in risk.”
Michelle W Bowman: Tailoring, fidelity to the rule of law, and unintended consequences Bank of International Settlements
Climate
Arctic sea ice set for steep decline Arctic News
‘Uncharted territory’: February was ninth straight month of record-breaking heat worldwide France24
Climate change pushes Malaysia’s coastal fishermen away from the sea Al Jazeera
VA Hospitals Vulnerable to Extreme Weather as Climate Changes, Report Finds The War Horse
* * * Title hangup complicates Frontier Town progress Adirondack Explorer (Bob). Bob comments: “NY State requires clean title for ‘donated’ land, to prevent what New York state just did: build on land without clear title. NGO’s in the middle of the green washing and real estate development explain why title insurance is a good thing…..”
Water
We Need New Heroes, Not The Same Old Politicians To Solve Our Mounting Water Woes The Brockovich Report
There’s Plastic in My Plaque! Eric Topol, Ground Truths
#COVID19
From the Introduction:
To our knowledge, there has been no systematic large scale study of culturability of virus in aerosols and whether this is consistent across variants or whether this is affected by proximity to symptom onset and with differing patterns of host immunity. Thus, critically, the final proof that human-generated aerosols <10 μm can harbour replicating virus remains largely unclarified.
From the Discussion:
The frequency of aerosol virus culturability was high at ~60%…. About a third of patients were probably non-infectious, 50% probably highly infectious, and ~20% moderately infectious by our definitions. These data may be in line with the ‘super-spreader’ hypothesis… Here we show for the first time that asymptomatic persons may also produce infectious aerosol <10 μm which is potentially suspensible for several hours and may be deeply inoculated by inhalation into the small airways and alveoli of the lung.
And from the Conclusion:
These data support the need for prevention of airborne transmission risk using better ventilation in public transports, and indoor environments, especially hospitals, workplaces and schools, and the use of other airborne infection controls in health care facilities caring for COVID-19 patients.
Droplet dogmatists, take a seat. And STFU.
China?
China’s ‘two sessions’ 2024: focus on work-life balance urged to stop workers being trapped by ‘invisible overtime’ South China Morning Post
China will launch giant, reusable rockets next year to prep for human missions to the moon Live Science
More women in China choosing singledom as economy stutters Channel New Asia
Jonathan Spencer, Sri Lanka, and Political Anthropology Journal of the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology
Organiser of ‘white party’ in Sri Lanka apologises after backlash BBC
India
Irula People: An Essential But Invisible Component Of The Global Healthcare System Madras Courier. Amazing.
Syraqistan
U.S. Pushing for Gaza Cease-fire Before Ramadan, but Sinwar Appears to Favor Escalation Haaretz. Sinwar = Hamas “leader in the Gaza Strip.”
Why Ramadan Matters in the Israel-Hamas War Foreign Policy
Total viewing hours by Arabs increase by 80% during Ramadan Middle East Economy. From 2022, still germane.
* * * Ship with Chinese steel hit by missiles in Houthis’ first fatal attack; two sailors killed S&P Global. Saudi-bound (!). Filipino crew.
Houthis: Threat to Telecommunications and Seabed Warfare Internationalist 360°
* * * Leaked Israel lobby presentation urges US officials to justify war on Gaza with ‘Hamas rape’ claims The Grayzone
UN finds ‘grounds to believe’ Hamas committed sexual violence on October 7 FT. No forensics, no victim interviews. And IDF minders?
* * * Gaza: What are the Village Leagues Israel plans to replace Hamas? The New Arab
‘Carry the burden’: Anger grows in Israel over military exemption for ultra-Orthodox France24
Against Solutionism New Left Review. In the short run, intractability. In the long run….
Ras al-Hekma: How Egypt is exchanging land to unlock Gulf funds The New Arab
European Disunion
Is Greece Ripe for Sortition? Equality by Lot
Nadya Tolokonnikova on Pussy Riot, Life as Performance Art, and How Anonymity is Her Strength (interview) Colossal
New Not-So-Cold War
Sending troops to Ukraine: A necessary but badly presented debate Le Monde
How Western Troops Could Be Sent To Ukraine And Not Start World War III 1945. Mercs! Yeah, that’s the ticket!
America’s New Twilight Struggle With Russia Foreign Affairs. The deck: “To Prevail, Washington Must Revive Containment.”
* * * Putin promises support to leader of pro-Russian Moldovan autonomous region of Gagauzia Ukrainska Pravda
Russia hits Ukraine’s port of Odesa during Zelenskiy and Greek PM visit Reuters
* * * Surprisingly Weak Ukrainian Defenses Help Russian Advance NYT (March 2) and Ukraine war: Eastern residents brace for Russian advance BBC
Zelensky in bind over how to draft more troops as Russian forces advance WaPo. If Big Z won’t throw the last tranche of warm bodies into the meatgrinder, you’ve really gotta question his commitment.
* * * Turkish oil terminal halts Russian oil business amid pressure from US: report Turkish Minute
Russia oil fleet shifts away from Liberia, Marshall Island flags amid US sanctions crackdown Hellenic Shipping News
* * * US pilot warns Kiev regime about F-16’s deficiencies, calls it ‘prima donna’ InfoBrics
South of the Border
Peru’s Prime Minister Otarola resigns over allegations of influence-peddling France24
The Caribbean
Haitian gang leader warns of civil war if premier doesn’t resign Anadolu Agency
Biden Administration
Joe Biden to propose big tax rises for billionaires and corporate America FT
Rep. Massie bringing Julian Assange’s brother as guest to State of the Union FOX. A Republican. Naturally.
Secret Service Finds Biden Attempting To Dig Own Grave On White House Lawn The Onion
Digital Watch
Copilot can’t stop emitting violent, sexual images, says Microsoft whistleblower The Register
Google Says It’s Purging All the AI Trash Littering Its Search Results Gizmodo
AI pervades everyday life with almost no oversight. Colorado and other states are scrambling to catch up Associated Press. Wherever you encounter a PMC gatekeeper operating off a checklist (and maybe interviews), that gatekeeper’s position is a candidate for replacement by an AI. Bad as the current systems are, imagine trying to reach a human and never being able to.
How Apple Sank About $1 Billion a Year Into a Car It Never Built Bloomberg. More genius capital allocation decisions made by oligopolies that can’t deliver on product: Boeing, Google, now Apple.
Our Famously Free Press
“The Locusts Of The Newspaper World”: How Fortress Investment Group Decimated Newspapers Before Gutting Vice Defector. Well worth a read on private equity.
Healthcare
HHS response to cash flow concerns from Change cyberattack inadequate, providers say Healthcare Finance
New Unique CMS Code Assigned to React Health V+C Integrated Cough Therapy Respiratory Therapy. So, plenty of upcoding with CMS’s “flu-ification” policy, where all respiratory viruses are thrown in the same bucket? Or am I too cynical? Readers?
Zeitgeist Watch
The Case Against Children Harper’s
Imperial Collapse Watch
Plutonium pit ‘panic’ threatens America’s nuclear ambitions The Hill
Guillotine Watch
Class Warfare
Labor unions end Starbucks boardroom fight after progress on bargaining Reuters
Large Pork Producer Faces Shocking Worker Retaliation Allegations Manufacturing.net
America’s most powerful union leaders have a message for capital FT
World War II ‘Rumor Clinics’ Helped America Battle Wild Gossip Smithsonian
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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Comments are closed.
“Secret Service Finds Biden Attempting To Dig Own Grave On White House Lawn”
He wasn’t digging his own grave. Years ago he worked out that the safest place to keep his 10% is in the grounds of the White House where the Secret Service could guard it. But then old Joe had to dig it up to make sure that it was still there and that his no-good son had not dug it up previously to spend on hookers and blow.
…or perhaps even waste some of it!
pace George Best
That wasn’t his grave biden was digging, he was looking for the femur that Commander snatched from him not long ago. He needed it tonight, for the speech, to prove to everyone that he could stand on his own two legs. He was heard muttering and swearing, before breaking off in his best old man baritone, ‘Give me back, give me back, give me back my femur.’ But old joe couldn’t find it, the femur must have fallen among all the skulls and bones he’d gathered from Gaza. There was such a haul. But some of them were blinken’s. Bummer. Now joe had bones to pick with tony.
So well conjured up!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PYEkfEWhgg
A nice new video from Prof. Michael Hudson
As a Canadian, I was somewhat aware of the Texas border issues but I have to admit this is the first I’ve heard about California’s issues with the border and secession. QRD on California’s current issues?
Nice video indeed, thanks for posting! As a native New Yorker transplanted to NorCal since 2015, it is easy to observe undocumented immigrants being exploited (and tbh, hustling against the odds to get a piece of the American pie). Just look at the legion of ‘gardeners’ cleaning the debris from lawns and parking lots or loitering in the parking lots of big box home improvement stores hoping to pick up day labor gigs for cash. No Inglés? No problema – a compadre will be happy to help for a piece of your pay. Same as it ever was except now the borders are being overwhelmed by seekers that are not just Mexican or Central American- I hear there are even numbers of Ukraine refugees in the mix, figuring that they can disappear once they run the gauntlet. Having spent a few of my years here in Cali unhoused and “running with the romans” I can sympathize with Mayor Adams and the indigenous homeless of NYC being overwhelmed with migrants being bussed in from Texas. If we have an election in November Trump is likely to wipe the floor with Biden and the blue PMC over this issue. We live in “interesting times”! (Side note- one of my fondest memories EVAH was meeting both Prof Hudson and Yves at an infrequent NC ‘meetup’ (in the mid ‘noughties’ iirc) at a watering hole in the East Village – I was warmly welcomed into ‘the club’ and had to sadly tear myself away to catch the last Amtrak up the river where we moved after being priced out of Brooklyn. So it goes…..)
the articles of confederation is a document for slavery and exploitation. that document was wiped away by Madison, Waashington and others.
states have rights, till the federal government over rides those rights. the supremacy clause strictly prohibit succession.
https://truthout.org/articles/did-the-founders-hate-government/
“The Right’s historical narrative holds that the Founders designed the United States to have a weak central government barred from confronting most domestic problems (though with broad powers for defense). Under this “free-market” system, wealthy business interests had the “liberty” to set their own rules and the average citizen had the “freedom” to make his way the best he could.”
“Still, the counter-narrative to the GOP mythology is grounded in solid history. Indeed, the evidence is that most constitutional framers were pragmatic men interested in building a strong nation. They also were fed up with the weak central government under the Articles of Confederation. They surely weren’t anti-government ideologues.
In the Constitution, they created a robust central authority, stating in the preamble the explicit responsibility of the government “to promote the general Welfare.” The document also granted the federal government broad domestic powers, including authority to regulate interstate commerce, the so-called Commerce Clause.”
“Framing the Commerce Clause
Plus, the Commerce Clause was not some afterthought at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. It was presented as one of the new federal powers in James Madison’s Virginia plan on the first day of substantive debate. It also was considered one of the least controversial features of the new governing framework.
Indeed, constitutional architect Madison had been maneuvering to give this power to the federal government for years, seeking such a change in the Articles of Confederation, which governed the United States from 1777 to 1787.
Madison “sponsored a resolution instructing Virginia congressmen to vote to give the federal government the authority to regulate commerce for twenty-five years,” noted Chris DeRose in Founding Rivals, a resolution that won the support of Gen. George Washington, one of the fiercest critics of the weak central government in the Articles of Confederation.
Because the Articles’ structure of 13 “independent” and “sovereign” states had left Washington’s soldiers starving and desperate – when the states reneged on promised funding – Washington advocated a much stronger central government.
Regarding Madison’s commerce idea, Washington wrote that “the proposition in my opinion is so self evident that I confess I am at a loss to discover wherein lies the weight of the objection to the measure. We are either a united people, or we are not. If the former, let us, in all matters of a general concern act as a nation, which have national objects to promote, and a national character to support. If we are not, let us no longer act a farce by pretending it to be.””
“A Dramatic Change
In spring 1787 – with a convention called in Philadelphia to amend the Articles of Confederation – Madison unveiled his radical alternative, not simply some modifications to the Articles but an entirely new system that wiped away the Articles’ language about the “independence” and “sovereignty” of the states.
On May 29, 1787, the first day of substantive debate at the Constitutional Convention, a fellow Virginian, Edmund Randolph, presented Madison’s framework. Madison’s Commerce Clause was there from the start, except that instead of a 25-year grant of federal authority, the central government’s control of interstate commerce would be made permanent.
Madison’s convention notes on Randolph’s presentation recount him saying that “there were many advantages, which the U. S. might acquire, which were not attainable under the confederation – such as a productive impost [or tax] – counteraction of the commercial regulations of other nations – pushing of commerce ad libitum – &c &c.”
In other words, the Founders – at their most “originalist” moment – understood the value of the federal government taking action to negate the commercial advantages of other countries and to take steps for “pushing of [American] commerce.” The “ad libitum – &c &c” notation suggests that Randolph provided other examples off the top of his head.
Historian Bill Chapman has summarized Randolph’s point as saying “we needed a government that could co-ordinate commerce in order to compete effectively with other nations.”
So, from the very start of the debate on a new Constitution, Madison and other key framers recognized that a legitimate role of the U.S. Congress was to ensure that the nation could match up against other countries economically and could address problems impeding the nation’s economic success and the public welfare.”
“The Founders did debate the proper limits of federal and state powers, but again Madison and Washington came down on the side of making federal statutes and treaties the supreme law of the land. (Madison had even favored giving Congress veto power over each state law, but settled for granting the federal courts the authority to overturn state laws that violated federal statutes.)”
Rumsfeld said he knows where the Iraqi WMD is; it’s somewhere north south east or west of Baghdad. So good luck to Joe in finding his ten percent in the White House lawn.
>America’s New Twilight Struggle With Russia – Foreign Affairs.
Opening paragraph:
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced Washington to rethink its fundamental assumptions about Moscow. Every U.S. president from Bill Clinton to Joe Biden had sought some degree of engagement with Russia. As late as 2021, Biden expressed hope that Russia and the United States could arrive at “a stable, predictable relationship.” But Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine has radically altered that assessment. It is now clear that the two countries will remain antagonists for years to come. The Kremlin possesses immense disruptive global power and is willing to take great risks to advance its geopolitical agenda. Coping with Russia will demand a long-term strategy, one that echoes containment, which guided the United States through the Cold War, or what President John F. Kennedy called a “long, twilight struggle” against the Soviet Union.
At least it didn’t start with “unprovoked” invasion. What are those “fundamental assumptions?” Are they based on a pre 1990’s Soviet Union? What kind of “engagement with Russia” did Bill Clinton conduct? I think the Tucker/Putin interview provided some insight on this.
It is “clear that the two countries will remain antagonists” why? Up until WWI Russia had supported the U.S. against Great Britain’s imperium? This is my favorite “The Kremlin possesses immense disruptive global power..”? WTF, who really has been the “disruptive global power?” FA is stuck in a time warp, it even alludes to some fictional “struggle against the Soviet Union.” Nobody told them that the Soviet Union only exist in the history books; they completly whited-out the Harvard boys destruction and pillage of the Russian economy when the latter was open to transitioning to a Western leaning/style economy.
Maybe the article gets better but I can never seem to get beyond first paragraph when reading FA on Russia.
Clearly written by one of MiniTru’s finest. We have always been at war with both Eurasia *and* Eastasia. They hate us for our freedoms.
Yes, the US” engagement had no interest in Russia’s Putin feeling like JFK in Oct 1962!
Brutal invasion to keep US nukes more than 400 miles away from Moscow!
While the US (neocon) morality includes the responsibility to protect those who would give US launch sites…..
“Yes, the US” engagement had no interest in Russia’s Putin feeling like JFK in Oct 1962!
Brutal invasion to keep US nukes more than 400 miles away from Moscow!
While the US (neocon) morality includes the responsibility to protect those who would give US launch sites…..”
Remember, that as NATO was expanded and missiles brought closer and closer to the Russian border, America was simply cancelling arms treaties. America went from cancelling arms treaties in December 2001 to placing missiles in Poland in 2009. This, even after Georgia had suddenly attacked Russian peacekeepers in Ossetia along the Russian border in 2008.
1) https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/13/opinion/tearing-up-the-abm-treaty.html
December 13, 2001
Tearing Up the ABM Treaty
2) https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/world/europe/21biden.html?ref=world
October 21, 2009
Poland to Accept Missile Defense Offer
By JUDY DEMPSEY
“Yes, the US” engagement had no interest in Russia’s Putin feeling like JFK in Oct 1962!
Brutal invasion to keep US nukes more than 400 miles away from Moscow!
While the US (neocon) morality includes the responsibility to protect those who would give US launch sites…..”
Remember as well, that America has had a policy of containment of China since 2011. President Biden who from the beginning filled the administration with pushers of China containment, has just added fierce China containment adherents to high-level posts in the State and Defense departments.
They hate us for our freedoms to meddle with their affairs.
The war was neither unprovoked nor has it been a quagmire, as this article claims. Russia is steadily but surely grinding the Ukrainian forces down to complete the stated aims of demilitarising and denazifying the country. No amount of copium and hopium by FA and other western mainstream media will change that. Oh and nor is Ukraine crucial for European stability. On the contrary, the costs to the EU in terms of money and materiel sent to Kiev, and the ongoing cost increases due to loss of access to Russian energy and resources, are far more likely to destabilise Europe than events in Ukraine.
One would think any intellectually honest European expert would see exactly the point you note. However, its clear that the preference of European politicians for US backed narratives are trumping the reality as they choose a steady path of de-industrialization and declining global economic competitiveness to supposedly defend Europe in Ukraine, (the nation they wouldn’t even allow to become a member of the EU or NATO) from “evil” Russia. Of course one of other cherries on top is as the Ukraine project becomes a larger resource suck, we still hear chatter about the fantasy dream of “NATO expansion” in Asia to save the world from the other “evil”.
That’s the kind of paper that gets you an A+ in our “elite” education system.
It opens all kinds of employment possibilities too, from FA there a world of public and private opportunities!
But not if you bring in dirty facts or disgusting ”disinformation” from outside the walled garden (looking at you, JohnA: no sinecure at Brookings for you!).
It’s mind numbingly dull. It took four people to bandy about the word “containment.” Sanctions, cutting off SWIFT payments, trying to embarrass China into cutting off Russia, and so forth. What do these authors think?
The article has the feel of Pepsi’s sprite alternatives they roll out every few years. The clear efforts article containment failed two years ago, so let’s try it again!
DC must sanction Russian oil is the gem these people come up with. This is why The New Yorker has cartoons to fill up space when people submit this drivel.
Let’s be clear that there’s no Sprite alternative – it’s itself an alternative to the one and only real thing, 7Up, the Uncola.
RE: Why private equity has been involved in every recent bank deal: Because they studied with Willie Sutton? (and, per the link under Free Press, there’s no money left anywhere else?)
Re: Google Says It’s Purging All the AI Trash Littering Its Search Results: Like the first 50 links that want to sell me useless crap goods when I’m trying to do research on a topic? Over the last 6 months, the first useful results are appearing farther and farther down the list, in many cases with the first several pages of results being ads for faintly related products.
Banks have the magic of a regulatory “moat” if you will, as opposed to any other business. Much of their liability structure carries an implicit/inherent guarantee from the FDIC. A former Goldman guy like Mnuchin understands that aspect very well. Problems with the asset risk and structure can be solved I wish to believe.
NYCB is a case study for the future of any franchise getting too big for their own benefit, and they’re not a SIFI organization like a Citigroup was…
Related by ownership rather than purpose or use, but about one week ago, the number of ads and ad breaks inserted in any YouTube vid that has ads seemed to double. Every musical presentation classical to jazz to rock close to unlistenable; can’t wander from remote or even Alex and Alexander close to unwatchable. Further Alphabet ensh**tification.
I use Yandex and it remembers all my downloads so my search results reflect what I’m actually looking for. No privacy, but that’s the price I paid to Google as well.
I don’t miss Google at all. When I put a musical artist’s name into Yandex, it shows me their most current release, news stories and reviews. No ads.
Regarding google, I’m wondering if the motivation to “purge the trash” is part of a larger long term “gate-keeping” strategy to limit free public access to its AI.
Given how much cash Apple generates, and the potential market size, I’d argue it would have been irresponsible of them not to dabble in cars. What else should they do R&D on?
There’s endless companies that have never made a profit burning VC dollars on innovating new forms of rent-extraction, but lord forbid a thoroughly profitable company takes a calculated risk and tries to do something else in hardware, a notoriously difficult category, and fails. Would you prefer they spent it all on stock buybacks, instead of just some it?
How about investing in a supply chain that doesn’t involve slave labor?
Well, all the low hanging fruit has been picked.
But the article has me thinking about money and innovation.
While some things will be expensive, where are the points where all the “expensing” causes more problems than a higher budget solves?
“Would you prefer they spent it all on stock buybacks, instead of just some it?” YES!
I’m just glad that Apple and Tesla have not gotten into building aircraft. Flying one of their aircraft would be on par with the thrill of flying in a Boeing 737 MAX.
But if they decided to build once more Boeing 314 Clippers, I might be interested-
https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-the-luxurious-boeing-314-clipper-2013-8
FWIW, Apple has either extracted or eliminated a big chunk of automobile manufacturers profits, along with their freebooting buddy Google through usurping their infotainment profits. Via Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. By either giving it away or adding to the ubiquity of their “ecosystem”. Does anyone still pay for an OEM navigation system? An underlying but yet unrealized goal (mostly) was GPS specific mobile advertising.
Given all that, no wonder Apple was sniffing around trying to further expand and monetize driving.
As far as failing? Actually investing in auto manufacturing would have been the fair. It is an awful business.
“Plutonium pit ‘panic’ threatens America’s nuclear ambitions”
They are going to encounter all sorts of problems trying to do this. The article admits that ‘the NNSA hasn’t done large-scale pit production since the early 1990s’ which is over thirty years ago. I imagine the tools are still there so they just have to get the rust off first. But what about experienced workers to do the work? Will they come up short? Have the techniques been forgotten of doing the work because nobody thought to write them down or perhaps some new manager decided to get rid of old dusty paperwork? And the safety record for this place is not exactly a confidence builder.
“The agency also plans to open a brand-new plutonium pit production plant in South Carolina, known as the Savannah River site, to meet an ultimate target goal of 80 pits a year.”
Perhaps Boeing can offer them tips on how to get up and running quickly.
“Have the techniques been forgotten of doing the work because nobody thought to write them . . .”
They’re probably stored on an old Dysan 8-inch floppy disk somewhere.
They want to do some of that Plutonium production at SC’s Savannah River Site. Lucky us.
I’ve been there as a student–had to wear a radiation badge. Maybe Carolinians will now be getting them as a general issue.
“Provided”? Nope. All you’ll get is “access to.” No such thing as socially provided concrete material benefits in this dying hole. “Never, not ever.”
And while we’re at it, if one feels the need for potassium iodide pills for “thyroid protection,” the neoliberal industrial policy ensures that one may not even have “access to.” https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/14/business/potassium-iodide-pills-demand-surge/index.html
The article quoted a production rate range of 30 pits per year (PPY) to a target of 80 PPY.
Divide the number of warheads in inventory by the rate.
3 to 4 thousand warheads according to wikipedia.
At full blast 80 PPY, thats 37 years.
Lack of executive function watch. Scrambling!
Always fumbling about is not a good look.
How does starting a new arms race “keep us safe”? I guess we need to ask Obama about that one.
So “success” for Biden in his State of the Union tonight, would be first and foremost, successfully standing upright and reading a teleprompter for about 45 minutes? “Hitting it out of the park” would be if his hand gestures, facial expressions and vocal inflections were timed appropriately to whatever the teleprompter is telling him to recite?
So does every elected person in Hose and Senate get to invite a guest, or just the favored few? I couldn’t find anything about guests for Rashida. Hoping they might stand up and yell for the actually starving to death kids in Gaza……it’s not just newborns, either.
Newborns die of hunger and mothers struggle to feed their children as Israel’s siege condemns Gazans to starvation
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/06/middleeast/israel-gaza-starvation-siege-mothers-babies-intl/index.html
Some will give the event a miss, along with the rebuttal commercial. There will be plenty of opportunities to get eventual distillations without the nausea-inducing lies, smarmy mugs and performative BS. The supply of nonsense exceeds demand in these cases.
They should hold a camera on Blinken’s face to see how he reacts when Biden goes off script like he does. Last time it was hilarious.
My prediction, based on nothing but a hunch, is that Biden’s minders will be so nervous about him glitching out that they will “over serve” Joe with whatever chemical cocktail they’ve been feeding him and create the very spectacle they hope to avoid.
I’m looking forward to the explanations and hand-waving away when people point out Sleepy Genocide Joe acting like he got ahold of Dear Hunter’s stash. Bonus points if they have to hide him away for the next week while he shakes off the hangover.
I’m going to try to watch but I don’t expect to last long. I will have a barf bag handy as well. I can only image the bingo card.
Honestly though, they have to be worried about how he performs. I don’t know how he can stand and talk for over an hour. I also wonder if they hope he doesn’t do well so they have more reasons to give him the boot. The alt-media will not be kind. I think it could get really ugly. What happens if he freezes like Mitch. Who’s going to run up and get him. Like I said the other day, he will be pumped up with enough cocktail to make Secretariat blush.
But here we are, wondering if a drugged up POTUS can stand up and talk for an hour. We truly are exceptional.
Hey that’s right! Where IS our SOTU bingi card?
My bold prediction is the text of the SOTU will be the best in decades since before Reagan brought back the egregious spectacle. They are awful and nothing but mindless fluff. It’s a low bar.
The problem will be the deliverer. He’s already been the president. The opinion is already there, and he has a track record 9f lying. No speech cam save him. The choir may be enthused for a day as they zombified bodies nod along to Joe Scarborough. The speech won’t result in one vote because it’s just a self masturbatory exercise performed for the choir.
who can stand a 45 minute long standing ovation?
Who knows though, could be one for the aged…oops…ages
To be fair, Biden could get up, babble a few minutes off-script, something about talking the other day to his dead relatives and about his ski trip with Putin when he warned Putin that he better keep his hands off St. Petersburg, no malarkey! and then by led by the hand off-stage by Kamala and the MSM would pronounce this to be the most consequential speech since Churchill addressed the House of Commons in 1941 or the Gettysburg Address or something.
Private equity in bank deals- The real reason is that they know they will bailed by the Treasury and the Fed. This is the ultimate in “moral hazard”. It’s not for nothing we see Powell fist bumping with Mnuchin.
It all started with Greenspan and LTCM.
Joe Biden to propose big tax rises for billionaires and corporate America FT
Why not include a big hike in the Minimum Wage and Happy Days For Everyone? Republicans control Congress so he knows that will never pass, either.
Biden is proposing it precisely because he knows it will never pass.
It’s a campaign prop. Should he somehow win reelection and the donkeys take over the House and Senate, it will get memory-holed.
“Should he somehow win reelection and the donkeys take over the House and Senate, it will get memory-holed.”
Hey, Biden learned from the best, President MyBoss. Mustn’t be divisive.
But but but . . . He’ll be fighting for it! Real hard, he promises.
Ugh, I’m pretty cynical this morning, folks….
His State of the Union address to Congress is tonight.
Proposed drinking game could include taking a sip every time he says:
“fighting for”
“folks”
“listen”
“our democracy”
Nah, everyone would be sloshed by the time he ends. / ;)
Is he running on the Manchurian ticket?
(Hypnosis is a terrible thing to waste.) / ;)
He’s more properly…
‘The Anchurian Candidate’
Bingo card in progress! Some other candidates:
“crazy s.o.b.”
recent talk with long-dead leader
[drink twice]
“anti-semitic”
“Tik Tok”
“President Brezhnev” or “President Gorbachev” [finish bottle]
“Coalition of the willing”
“Thug” [extra round if Joe messes it up and uses it reference to Bibi vs. Putin]
“Best economy in 40 years”
“Tonight, I’m appointing Kamala Harris to be the new czar for going after corporate CEOs [stop drinking, proceed straight to sniffing industrial grade airplane glue]
I think I’ll start early. It might be the only way I can watch it.
I wonder too, how many are like me; I’m only going to watch to see how bad it is. I don’t give one good hooey about what he says because I don’t believe a damn thing that comes out of his mouth anyway.
That holds true for all of the DC scum and their mouthpieces in the press. Maybe I’m too cynical.
I wanna get drunk. I’m taking a shot every time he slurs and mumbles.
Add in the word “MAGA” and you’d better have EMS crews standing by.
How Western Troops Could Be Sent To Ukraine And Not Start World War III
Let’s consider the good case: no nuclear induced human extinction event. The US has what, 450,000 active duty troops, and its supposedly 7:1 support to combat. The rest of NATO has what as a functional military? NATO has 90K troops in their biggest exercise right now on the Russian border. Say they could put double that on the ground–180K–you are looking at maybe four months for the Russian meat processing industry. OK, the Ukrainians plug some holes in the line for a few months, maybe. Maybe that carries Biden through November without some major collapse? Maybe? (Or maybe Putin means it about the nuclear red line?)
The biggest place NATO would create a difference is that NATO has plenty of air power, and the Russians are gaining ground because they have air superiority on the front. There is talk about F-16’s but where are they going to get the pilots, but what would change the battlefield is NATO air forces entering into the fray. Its not clear how this would play out (RF has good air defense and a significant air force of their own) but it would change the battlefield, assuming it stayed conventional. That is not what Macron is talking about, and most likely to get a nuke back, but the only option that might change the dynamic.
Its pretty obvious that NATO is on tilt, and spluttering nonsense, but assuming no nuclear war, NATO would need mass conscription if they want to fight a sustained war with Russia, and the casualty levels will be brutal. We witnessed the riots in the Paris suburbs last year, imagine when they come to round up all those kids so they can send them to die in meat waves in Ukraine. Its hard to imagine the NATO-stan publics, who are already weary of Ukraine, putting up with it. The leaders are basically talking to themselves now.
This article suggest labeling NATO troops as mercs. Already been tried as that is precisely what the Poles do for example. But more to the point, the French had a whole hotel full of these *air-quotes*mercs*/air-quotes* so the Russians bombed the hotel killing a coupla dozen of them. Apparently before Macron went public in suggesting NATO troops to be sent into the Ukraine, he had a lot of serious conversations with his generals about doing that with the French army. Many moans to be heard emanating from Napoleon’s Tomb.
If active military people start dying in large numbers, it would cause issues domestically even if you call them mercs.
“Such volunteers could serve under special contractual clauses/caveats where they will be in units comprised of their own countrymen, commanded by officers from their national militaries, and continue to draw pay from their home defense ministries.”
You don’t find autonomous units of “volunteers” commanded by officers of their own military and paid for by their home defense ministry convincingly deniable both in regards to the Russians and to the public back home ? Shocking.
When I listened to Macron about sending troops I began thinking Dienbienphu…..
My age!
As to NATO establishing “air dominance”: consider an ‘air establishment’ much larger than Vietnam, a deployment much larger than Desert Shield.
Few friendly ports and a lot of land transport!
While the other side would sit back?
If NATO troops go to the front line against the Russians, they will be at the end of a 1,000 mile transport line going all the way back to Poland. That’s not good. Same for NATO aircraft as they will have to travel so far to do any support missions
Big Serge on twitter said Macron has cracked and that he’s a dangerous man. I think this is possible. Ukraine has been a clown show he might have stopped, and unlike the msdnc faithful, the French can find Russia and Ukraine on a map. Macron will be held as the villain when it’s clear everything has been going South for a long time.
I thought about the Charlemagne Division–they were there before in 1940s. Oh, and the French Nazi volunteers were among the last and most fanatical defenders of Berlin in April/May, 1945. Some things don’t change, I guess.
Oh dear, oh dear. The author clearly has no idea what he’s talking about. NATO does not have the forces, the weapons, the technology, the organisation or the anything to make a difference now, and probably never did. Clever (and debatable) legal tricks might smuggle a few specialists in Ukraine, but they would have as much influence on the outcome of the war as the regiment-sized unit of French fascists who fought at Leningrad. This is a big war, and one where the Russians have the advantage. NATO is not going to risk losing its air force to the best air defence system in the world.
Enough. If anyone’s interested, I’ve dealt with all these points at length in my essay published yesterday.
Read that essay of yours this ‘arvo and it is a really great one. Highlights a lot of the real world problems that so rudely disrupt the plans of the neocons.
Love your essays…
Admitting to defeat in Ukraine won’t be easy, and political casualties will be stacked like cord wood, easily ignitable with the ire of the public when they figure out how badly they’ve been mislead.
The public will never figure out they’ve been misled.
Defeat will be the result of cowards, collaborators, useful idiots and Putin-lovers, plus all those evil foreigners who refused to align their foreign policy to that of the United States,
It will be a two day wonder, but the public can take consolation from the notion that the heroic defence of Ukraine at least prevented Putin from conquering Poland and the Baltic States.
Then on to the next crisis – the threat posed to Taiwan by the evil Chinese.
It doesn’t seem fair, really. When reality proves me wrong I have to re-think my ideas, wonder if there’s other stuff I might be wrong about, and generally ‘fess up to having misread the situation. It’d be a lot easier to just accept whatever narrative the MSM are currently peddling and memory-hole every time it previously turned out not to be true.
@Jeff V.11:17 am
“The public will never figure out they’ve been misled.”
Sadly I agree. Few people where I come from (Canada) care about Ukraine. Most barely notice. It’s just stuff that happens on TV in some far away place with unpronounceable names. When the media stops talking about it the whole thing will be forgotten. Other than some Polish “mercenaries”, and obviously Ukrainians, no Westerners have died so who cares?
The idea of sending Western combat troops to Ukraine is insane and a measure of the desperation of the elites in some countries. People would really care then – a very bad idea for the elites.
Much better to forget and move on to confront the next bad guy far away – China, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, whatever.
But I do think the defeat of the West in Ukraine is very significant. My favourite passage from Aurelien’s remarkable essay: “Internally, the loss of Ukraine and the strategic adjustments that will follow will be a shattering blow to the self-image of the Professional and Managerial Caste, and to their radical Liberal ideology. Consider: a state that publicly values religion, tradition, families, culture, language and history has just wiped the floor with a globalist ideology that denies and seeks to destroy all these things.”
I know many PMC believers in radical Liberal ideology. They are going to find the defeat of the West difficult.
That really was a tremendously great essay.
My favorite quote:
Loved the reference to Morrison at the end. Reminds me of another song by 60’s greats. “I may be goin’ to Hell in a bucket, baby, but at least I’m enjoying the ride!”
-Grateful Dead.
agree, here’s my favorite:
My two favorite quotes as well. The PMC in the US has brought divide and conquer to a fever pitch in this country. I fear the consequences and long for a different better world.
Aurelien, I enjoyed reading your essay, but I wasn’t satisfied with it.
1. I think that you overlooked the significance of modern BMD, and the transformative effect it could have on all escalation scenarios. BMD is a big unknown; I make no claims for it. But I see it as the most important single question in today’s power-politics.
2. The history of the Anglo peoples has shown, on several important occasions, that unpreparedness for war may have little to do with their willingness to wage one.
3. While I understand, and want to agree with, your opinion about the socio-cultural vacuum caused by globalist neoliberalism, nevertheless I think it’s dangerous for any of us to underestimate the ideological fervour of today’s Western elites. Among these elites, a wish-fulfillment metaphysics increasingly prevails: a sincerely held notion that reality must ultimately conform to desire.
While neoliberal capitalism emerged from sceptical materialism, its ideological development has not ended there. While globalist elites denigrate the national cultures of their peoples, at the same time they intensify their own ideological identity, and sense of mission. These elites may entertain a philosophy that is ludicrously unworthy of their own Occidental heritage. Yet armed thus, these elites could slay many millions. To scorn, or not to scorn?
BMD??
Best guess: Ballistic Missile Defence.
There is none.
Correct, BMD is just a bunch of BM.
It seems to me that the key question here is : will the collective west even know it’s been defeated?
Ask yourself – will a typical US congresscritter or MEP see victory or defeat in Ukraine in say 2025? And that’s true in spades for ordinary folks.
I think we’re in for unprecedented levels of happy clappy propaganda that’ll leave Russiagate looking plausible by comparison.
Remember, our masters may be unable to fix a blown circuit breaker, but they can spill out (and, God help us believe it) til the cows come home
I enjoyed your essay, except I believe you are too sanguine about the impact of a serious strategic defeat on Western leadership. Paranoid delusions and megalomania armed with nukes and confronted with a bleak reality is not a recipe for world peace or acceptance of the decrees of Fortuna. There is a significant danger of an over=reaction that ends human existence.
This is an excellent article. The future is grim. The Russians and Chinese have made it a multi-polar world again. Can they keep it? Do they want to keep expanding forever like the West or will they settle for a UN Armistice and DMZs to avoid nuclear war? There are likely enough plutonium pits after 30 years that are still functional enough to destroy the Axis of Resistance and mankind.
Mercenary Generals are extreme versions of professional managers who get off on adrenaline rushes. Having merged with neo-liberals, they are totally incompetent in their grasping for criminal graft. NATO is dysfunctional. If they persuaded Ukraine, last summer, to try to retake Crimea from Russia and not build secondary and tertiary defensive trenches before launching the offensive; this is arrogant hubris even worse than WWI that puts human civilization at risk.
There is no way that the US would send an army without massive air support.
Remember during the beginning of the SMO when Western toadies fantasized about a “no-fly zone?”
The copium was strong with that one.
Realistically, the best they could muster would be over Western Ukraine, and maybe Odessa. The latter would be complicated by all the Russian territory gained in Kherson, certainly close enough to put S-400s and shoot down a lot of F-16s and F-35s.
Ukraine is a big country and keeping the front well east of the NATO lines of defense means you can forget about massive air support, unless the fighting is west of the Dnipr.
To me, this demonstrated State and the White House election team (especially Clintonistas) cooked this up then spewed nonsense to foreign leaders before they ever even asked how things would work. They couldn’t conceive of the scale difference between Libya and Kosovo and Russia because its just magic done by “the army” which is there to be used per Madeline Albright.
I think when it’s defenseless Iraqis the “mercs” volunteer in large numbers for the big pay, they like their odds.
But against the Russians those odds will be much less attractive.
I do like the idea of a general merc self-cull, though. It’s overdue.
I wonder if Erik Prince has objections against using Constellis to fight fellow Christians.
I always thought Apple’s car project was a vanity project.
The real failure for Apple is the multiyear delays in making its own smartphone modem chip to replace Qualcomm, after acquiring Intel’s product line. The number of vendors in this space has basically shrunk to Qualcomm and Mediatek. The major exception is Samsung, and some Chinese vendors due to sanctions.
The issue there may be patents. Qualcomm has a long history of aggressively patent use.
As best i recall, the European UMTS (3G) standard ended up using time division multiplexing because Qualcomm had a patent on the more efficient code division multiplexing.
And to this day i think Samsung switch from their own chips to Qualcomm’s for the models sold in USA.
And i believe Apple has been burned once in the past by getting into a patent spat with Nokia of all companies.
I don’t think it’s patents. Haven’t read or heard anything about it, and patents used in standards like LTE have to be available to all. Previous patent disputes were over things like user interfaces and system architectures, not the air interface.
UMTS uses Wideband CDMA (WCDMA). It was designed to get around patents in Qualcomm’s competing CDMA standard. For LTE 4G and 5G, Qualcomm is part of the 3GPP standards, so the patents are available on fair and reasonable terms.
Making a modern modem chip is hard, harder than Apple’s efforts on its previous System-On-Chip (SoC) for MacBooks and iPhones.
Patents are important, but not decisive.
The main point is that the competence of Apple lies in computer hardware: designing CPUs, the whole packaging with motherboard and associated chips, and related operating systems is what it has known how to do — since the late 1970s.
However, mobile devices entail technologies in which Apple did not, or still does not have an established competence. Designing wireless communication hardware is a whole domain of skills which it always struggled to master. The antenna fiasco was typical of people who are not entirely knowledgeable about how to miniaturize and place antennas. There was a time when AT&T networks buckled under the load imposed by iPhone users. This was not a consequence of a super-massive increase utilization of mobile Internet, rather it was because Apple programmed the communication protocols in the iPhone in the same way it used to for wireline networks. AT&T had to send engineers to teach Apple developers how to deal with the peculiarities of wireless networks.
Replacing Qualcomm, Mediatek, or Samsung wireless chips with its own production is a very, very tall order — and no, acquiring Intel’s corresponding division is insufficient, as Intel never was a relevant player. It is understandable that Apple wants to control wireless technology, not because of its dependence from suppliers, but because that component represents a significant portion of the added value of an entire device, and there is currently nowhere else where Apple can capture such value.
As another example, Apple took many years to have iPhone cameras finally reach top quality — and this was only possible after Apple hired some of the Nokia engineers who had designed the cameras that sustained Nokia’s leadership in that area, even as its mobile phone unit was floundering.
Hey, tonight
Gonna be tonight
Don’t you know Joe will be lyin’
Tonight, tonight
Hey, come on
Gonna chase the billionaire tax evaders tomorrow
Tonight, tonight
Gonna fill it to the rafters
Watch him now
Joey’s gonna get religion
All night long
Hey, come on
Gonna hear the the same old sing-song
Tonight, tonight
Gonna fill it to the rafters
Watch him now
Joey’s gonna get religion
All night long
Hey, tonight
Gonna be tonight
Don’t you know he’ll be lyin’
Tonight, tonight
Tonight, tonight
Hey Tonight, By Creedence Clearwater revival
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk8ZRq7uzrk
Pussy Riot – whenever I read about them these pictures come to mind. The Exile, always a source of wisdom and insights.
https://exiledonline.com/how-pussy-riot-troupe-voina-got-the-exile-censored-in-2008-the-lost-story/
Frequency, kinetics and determinants of viable SARS-CoV-2 in bioaerosols from ambulatory COVID-19 patients infected with the Beta, Delta or Omicron variant Nature.
Did anyone remember the study title for the study linked here at some point on how little Covid virus is found on hands? I usually save those types of studies in my reference manager, but I guess I did not get around to that one and now I can’t find it in the old postings. Looking online I am swamped by the normal hand washing stuff. It is a good paring with the above study when advising family about the poor quality of official CDC guidance. I have a number of scientists in the family so this type of argument often works.
Here is the link I think you’re looking for: https://www.cureus.com/articles/227537-sars-cov-2-contamination-on-healthy-individuals-hands-in-community-settings-during-the-covid-19-pandemic#!/, it was included in the March 1st Water Cooler.
Thanks!
RE: Medicare Advantage
Letter signed by Schumer, Klobuchar, and other Democrats
https://www.cortezmasto.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Senate-Medicare-Advantage-Call-Letter-CY25_Final.pdf
Huh. Nothing about these private MA insurance plans stiffing hospitals? Nothing about stricter regulation of private MA insurance?
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/hospitals-are-dropping-medicare-advantage-left-and-right.html
And from Wendell Potter in 2022, nothing has changed. Watch the embedded video in this Democracy Now piece.
Health Insurance Whistleblower: Medicare Advantage Is “Heist” by Private Firms to Defraud the Public
https://www.democracynow.org/2022/10/12/medicare_advantage_program_healthcare_providers_unitedhealth
“Huh. Nothing about these private MA insurance plans stiffing hospitals? Nothing about stricter regulation of private MA insurance?”
Of course not.
Link to the NYT investigative seriers. paywalled.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/08/upshot/medicare-advantage-fraud-allegations.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/08/upshot/medicare-advantage-fraud-allegations.html
October 8, 2022
‘The Cash Monster Was Insatiable’: How Insurers Exploited Medicare for Billions
By next year, half of Medicare beneficiaries will have a private Medicare Advantage plan. Most large insurers in the program have been accused in court of fraud.
By Reed Abelson and Margot Sanger-Katz
The health system Kaiser Permanente called doctors in during lunch and after work and urged them to add additional illnesses to the medical records of patients they hadn’t seen in weeks. Doctors who found enough new diagnoses could earn bottles of Champagne, or a bonus in their paycheck.
Anthem, a large insurer now called Elevance Health, paid more to doctors who said their patients were sicker. And executives at UnitedHealth Group, the country’s largest insurer, told their workers to mine old medical records for more illnesses — and when they couldn’t find enough, sent them back to try again.
Each of the strategies — which were described by the Justice Department in lawsuits against the companies — led to diagnoses of serious diseases that might have never existed. But the diagnoses had a lucrative side effect: They let the insurers collect more money from the federal government’s Medicare Advantage program…
re: “And executives at UnitedHealth Group, the country’s largest insurer, told their workers to mine old medical records for more illnesses — and when they couldn’t find enough, sent them back to try again.”
(my emphasis)
Gosh, ya think EMRs could be helpful in that “mining” effort? / ;)
That list of signatories is a bipartisan rogues gallery. I think you know that when when Schumer and Cruz agree the American public is being fleeced. The bad combos are numerous when you can pick among Fetterman, Manchin, Romney, Klobuchar, Graham, Kelly, Rubio….
Turley’s latest:
A Moment of Supreme Clarity: How the Court Delivered a Blow to the Lumberjack School of Constitutional Law
https://jonathanturley.org/2024/03/06/a-moment-of-supreme-clarity-how-the-court-delivered-a-blow-of-the-lumberjack-school-of-constitutional-law/
The “Lumberjack School ” is a good quip. / ;)
I spoke to a true blue acquaintance yesterday and he asked me what I thought about Biden.
I replied that I considered him the greatest American President to take office since Hillary Clinton!
That got a confused look and “But Tom, she lost in 2016” to which I replied “Try telling HER that”.
I doubt he will invite me to brunch anytime soon…
LOL – love it!
My better half was a huge Hillary fan. She had stage 10 TDS. For Christmas one year her daughter bought her the Hillary book called “What Happened.” When she showed it to me I said “you don’t even have to read it.” She asked why. I said all you need to know is right there on the cover.
She didn’t talk to me for a couple of days. It was worth it.
“Sending troops to Ukraine: A necessary but badly presented debate Le Monde”
Macron is enough of a politician to know never to call for something in public unless the matter already has been decided and any debate and consideration is but a rubber-stamp.
And of course, there’s no way that the escalation will stop there. “Since WWIII didn’t start by sending non-combat troops, we can order airstrikes, combat troops, etc.!” This use of The Sunk Cost Fallacy is entirely intentional.
I’m all for sending troops to Ukraine from America as long as military experience is not a criteria but support of the war is. They can start with the Kagans, Blinken, most of the publishers and producers of The NY Times and MSNBC (please include on air talent the Scarboroughs and Maddow), Hillary Clinton…
But unless the first, and only, group includes the masterminds and top cheerleaders and let’s them report from the front after the first of their group gets killed for retreating by the Ukrainian patriots they kept honoring, that would a big fat NO!
You know and I know that’s not how it works.
Macron is enough of a politician to know never to call for something in public unless the matter already has been decided and any debate and consideration is but a rubber-stamp.
I strongly disagree.
Macron is an individual with an inflated sense of his importance, who likes to make dramatic pronouncements that put him in the limelight. He is also a strange kind of weather vane, who tries to align his declarations on what he believes is the direction the wind is starting to blow.
Let us remember that, in 2019, he made thunderous declarations that NATO was in a state of “cerebral death”.
In France, he is well-known to make grandiose statements whose effect is more irritating than anything else. When the Covid pandemy started he proclaimed that France was “in a state of war”, and recently he called for a “demographic rearmament”, among other pearls. Although his national policies are ruthlessly neoliberal (and effectively implemented), nobody takes the inflated rhetoric of “Jupiter” (the nickname he has been labelled with) seriously.
Getting to know President Macron:
http://africasacountry.com/2017/11/should-africans-care-for-emmanuel-macrons-africa-speech-in-ouagadougou/
November 29, 2017
Should Africans care for Emmanuel Macron’s “Africa Speech” in Ouagadougou?
By OUMAR BA0
French President Emmanuel Macron delivered his “Africa speech” at the University of Ouagadougou, in Burkina Faso. It has become a ritual for all French presidents in recent memory (Nicolas Sarkozy, Francois Hollande, etcetera) to speak to and about Africa, on African soil. These verbose speeches must always deliver an obituary of Françafrique (how France’s relationships with its former African colonies is known as), again and again. They also give the French president an opportunity to address vague questions about the future of the continent, and a new French vision for its inhabitants. This ritual is the moment for them to utter such platitudes as building a common future in Africa with Africans…
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/corporate-greed-made-the-change-healthcare-cyberattack-worse/ar-BB1juPuZ
Corporate Greed Made the Change Healthcare Cyberattack Worse
Thanks for the link.
We heard similar arguments before every western escalation. The West escalated anyway, since Russia has failed to respond to previous escalations.
Unless and until the sociopaths who rule the West in general and France, in this case, start to face consequences themselves, they have no reason not to keep on doubling down.* It’s a Martingale betting strategy – keep doubling your bet until you win, and since Russia doesn’t respond, the West can basically keep betting ad infinitum,
*the rulers don’t care about public opinion, any more than they care about the peons who get sacrificed or the chickens that go into the McNuggets, as long as the rulers themselves still enjoy their perks.
Unless and until the sociopaths who rule the West […] start to face consequences themselves
And what would that be, concretely?
They are not the fighters going to the front, so soldiers/mercenaries/volunteers will be the ones dying or returning as cripples. They are not the citizens depending on social services that are pared down to pay for the “aid” transfers to Ukraine. They are not the engineers getting fired because they could not produce enough shells in time. They are not the SME owners who have to close shop because they can no longer pay for energy costs. They are not the farmers who are ruined by the dumping of agricultural produce from Ukraine.
So what “personal consequences” do you envision for those politicians and what arrangements will be needed to apply them?
That is a good question, and that is why those sociopaths safely continue to double down. As long as the police and army will still follow orders, those sociopaths sleep soundly in their beds and no consequences will be forthcoming.
And you wonder why I am pessimistic.
Re: More women in China choosing singledom as economy stutters. (Channel New Asia)
In last week’s episode of the world-crisis in gender relations, the news came from ABC Australia with a story entitled “Japan’s new births fall to record low as demographic woes worsen.” I highlighted this quote from the story, “Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has called the low births “the biggest crisis Japan faces”, and put forward a package of measures that have included more support and subsidies mostly for childbirth, children, and their families.”
In this week’s episode of the world-crisis in gender relations, the news comes from Channel New Asia with a story entitled “More women in China choosing singledom as economy stutters.” I highlight a quote from Lü Pin, a Chinese feminist activist based in the United States, where she is quoted as saying, “In the long run, women’s enthusiasm for marriage and childbirth will only continue to decrease. I believe this is the most important long-term crisis that China will face.”
The Japanese government is doing something. According to today’s news story, the Chinese government promises to do something, i.e., “Chinese Premier Li Qiang also vowed to “work towards a birth-friendly society” and boost childcare services in this year’s government work report.”
I point out the central contradiction of feminism, i.e., female hypergamy, i.e., the tendency of women to only be interested in marrying men of equal or higher socio-economic status. This news story, like all news stories in the mainstream media, offers deception on the issue. On one hand the article states, “Gender equality also plays a role: All the women said it was difficult to find a man who valued their autonomy and believed in equal division of household labour.” On the other hand in the next sentence the article states that according to Xiaoling Shu, professor of sociology at the University of California, Davis, “There’s an oversupply of highly educated women and not enough highly educated men.”
It is not enough for a man to value a woman’s autonomy. He must also be of equal or higher socio-economic status. In fact it gets worse. Last month we had an article where a Chinese professional matchmaker said that the main reason why young Chinese women reject the young Chinese men on offer is that the men are too short.
I don’t know why you make this out to be a women’s issue. Men are exceeding uncomfortable with a woman who earns more than they do.
Not much discussed because not PC but:
https://slate.com/business/2012/12/women-who-earn-more-than-men-men-dont-like-it.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/20/study-men-get-more-stressed-when-their-wives-make-more-money.html
https://medium.com/remaking-manhood/why-some-men-still-fear-a-wife-who-earns-more-e4f2ce677ab
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/17/upshot/when-wives-earn-more-than-husbands-neither-like-to-admit-it.html
Husbands more likely to cheat when the wife makes more:
https://www.kiplinger.com/personal-finance/603298/women-who-make-more-than-their-husbands-should-watch-out
I’m dated, I know, but back in my day many of my blue collar coworkers had white collar g’friends/spouses. But working in the factory dept with the most women, I’m not aware of any of them having white collar husbands. In fact most were single moms with no post-secondary education.
I strongly suspect this is a PMC/PMC+ issue. No illusions, my white collar g’friends liked having b’friends who were physically fit and (usually) a few years younger. Not a gigolo thing, in the ’70s twenty-something blue collar workers almost always made more money than their white collar peers. Not to be rude, but it was a sex thing and like with similar white collar men, adultery/open marriages were common.
Talking Des Moines, Iowa. Can’t imagine what the really big cities are like in this regard but for folks who ignore class, the upper classes can be very insecure about who in the marriage makes the most money. And, in truth, I do not remember my farmer father ever complaining in the years when mom’s schoolteacher wages were higher than dad’s net farm earnings. Farmers married school teachers for exactly that reason (steady income to off-set good year/bad year production).
With domestic violence an age-old problem well known to women in every country, women who can support themselves may opt out of a partnership with a man. Divorce has increased with earning capacity of women. When they get a chance to be free they take it.
https://www.businessinsider.com/credit-card-debt-vs-mortgage-interest-consumer-payments-economy-2024-3
maybe inflation is having some effect
Where we are environmentally now: We have just passed through by far the warmest year since 1880 when modern record keeping begins. The last 8 months have each been the warmest such months since 1880. The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is now the highest recorded, while 2023 was the highest year ever recorded for CO2 growth.
According to the model developed by James Hansen and associates at NASA, we are very near the CO2 concentration where the earth was last virtually ice-free:
http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/abs/ha00410c.html
December, 2008
Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim?
By James Hansen, Makiko Sato, Pushker Kharecha…
A public service announcement from Arizona Slim:
As mentioned previously, I am a home brewer. I’m currently trying to enter a couple of my meads in a competition.
Smooth sailing until I got to the PayPay-powered checkout. I’m not a fan of PayPal, and I closed my account a while back.
Any-hoo, this checkout offers the option of paying with one’s PayPal balance, or using a credit or debit card. I chose the card option.
Well, I get to the bottom of the form, and I’m greeted by this blue button that says, “Create Account & Pay Now.”
Ummmm, no. PayPal, I don’t want an account. I just want to pay for my entry and move on with my day.
Instead of doing that, I’m taking screenshots and sending them to the competition organizer. This is a trap that will get the unsuspecting to sign up for PayPal, and that’s not right.
I agree. Good on you for pushing back on this creeping intrusion of required middleman tracking services, for some definition of “service”.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202110/1235772.shtml
October 8, 2021
Average height of Chinese men sees the biggest rise of nearly 9 cm over 35 years: report
The average height of Chinese men increased by nearly 9 centimeters over 35 years between 1985 and 2019….
The average height for male and female residents aged between 18 and 44 increased by 1.2 centimeters and 0.8 centimeter respectively, compared with the figures of five years earlier, while boys and girls aged between 6 and 17 increased by 1.6 centimeters and 1 centimeter respectively over the period.
A global survey * published in the medical journal The Lancet in November 2020 also shows that the Chinese population is getting taller with the average height of Chinese males seeing the biggest rise between 1985 and 2019 among all the 200 countries and regions surveyed, while that of women ranked third. The report says the average height of 19-year-old Chinese males is 175.7 cm, and that of Chinese females is 163.5 cm…
* https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31859-6/fulltext
“More women in China choosing singledom as economy stutters.”
China’s economy is of course not “stuttering,” and real GDP has just grown at a rate of 5.2% in 2023, while real per capita disposable income has grown at a 6.1% rate with per capita disposable income growth of 8.4% in rural China. China’s economy is growing very, very well and the focus on environmentally friendly, green growth and technology advance will only help China for many years to come as well as helping other countries.
China’s real GDP is now 24.7% larger than that of the US and 32.4% larger than that of the EU. China’s real per capita GDP has been growing dramatically these last 45 years:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=17icV
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for China, European Union, India, Japan and United States, 1977-2022
(Percent change)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=17id3
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for China, European Union, India, Japan and United States, 1977-2022
(Indexed to 1977)
Argentina’s new administration appears methodically destructive in utterly stark ways, but American senior academic economists appear either to be turning away from criticism or, as for strict conservatives, starkly favoring. Policy has been the strictest austerity and devaluing the Peso so that Argentine assets can be readily sold at the lowest possible prices:
https://www.reuters.com/science/nobel-laureates-sound-alarm-argentina-cuts-science-funding-2024-03-06/
March 6, 2024
Nobel laureates sound alarm as Argentina cuts science funding
By Reuters
BUENOS AIRES – Sixty-eight Nobel laureates in chemistry, medicine, economics, and physics sent a letter on Wednesday to Argentine President Javier Milei voicing concern that cuts to science and technology funding will hinder Argentina’s development and its global contributions.
“We observe how the Argentine science and technology system is approaching a dangerous precipice, and we are discouraged by the consequences that this situation could have both for the Argentine people and for the world,” the scientists said in the letter seen by Reuters.
The laureates, who include the renowned British mathematician Roger Penrose and American virologist Harvey J. Alter, highlighted the “dramatic reduction” in budgets for Argentina’s National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) and for national universities…
I could not make chatGPT to give me the total value of US treasury billy maturing in a particular year. it seems that AI is currently unable even to make simple compilation statistical data.
I suspect, just like bigdata, AI will be proven to be a technology truly useful only in a narrow scope in some contexts after the initial buzz fades.