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Links 4/6/2024

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The Club of Cape-Wearing Activists Who Helped Elect Lincoln—and Spark the Civil War Smithsonian (Chuck L)

Trudeau Pushes 3D-Printed Homes To Solve Canada Housing Crisis Daily Hive

Penis pics for AI medical diagnosis? Startup claims it can spot STIs STAT (Dr. Kevin). So men can send dick pix and say they were really meant for their doctor.

How resurrecting extinct species might impact medicine STAT (Dr. Kevin)

#COVID-19

Federal Judge Hits CDC Over Withholding Data on Adverse Vaccine Reports Jonathan Turley

Climate/Environment

Heat-Trapping CO2, Methane Levels In the Air Last Year Spiked To Record Highs Associated Press

Gene-engineered bacteria grows plastic-free, self-dyeing vegan leather Interesting Engineering (Chuck L)

Dozens of Ad & PR Industry Directors Have Ties to Heavily Polluting Industries DeSmog

Only 57 companies produced 80 percent of global carbon dioxide Endgadget (Kevin W)

Climate Change Shifts Terrorist Activity Patterns, Study Reveals ScienceBlog (Dr. Kevin)

China?

Biden reaches out to Xi Jinping with eye on financial stability Indian Punchline

Yellen Faces Diplomatic Test in Urging China to Curb Green Energy Exports New York Times (Kevin W)

China’s big bet on ‘new quality productive forces’ Asia Times (Kevin W)

India

India will enter Pakistan to kill terrorists who run away there, defence minister says Reuters

South of the Border

Mexico’s president says country will break diplomatic ties with Ecuador, after police raid embassy ABC News. Kevin W: “At least they did not bomb the Embassy to get that guy.”

FACTBOX: Ecuadorian police storms Mexican embassy in Quito, countries sever relations TASS. guurst: “Manners, please.”

European Disunion

Freedom of speech in France? Think again… Gilbert Doctorow (Anthony L). So now, shades of the Cultural Revolution or the Stasi, citizens can denounce each other to the authorities.

Old Blighty

Thomas Piketty: “The Labour Party is too conservative” New Statesman (Anthony L)

UK: Labour cuts ties with major Muslim organisation Middle East Eye (Anthony L)

Cropped out, banned, airbrushed: the school photos that show the ugly face of Britain today Guardian (Dr. Kevin)

Gaza

‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 182: Israel says it will ‘temporarily’ allow aid into Gaza Mondoweiss

Israel’s ‘battle between wars’ has failed The Cradle

Diplomatic spat erupts between Poland and Israel after WCK killings in Gaza Al Jazeera (Kevin W). Judge Napolitano pointed out that there was worldwide outrage over 7 white aid workers being killed, but not over the >130 Palestinians previously murdered.

Israel Orders Strike On Chef José Andrés’ Boyhood Home The Onion (Chuck L)

US Envoy Suggests Diplomacy With the Houthis as Bombing Campaign Has Failed Antiwar.com. Kevin W:

Embedded tweet saying ‘Lenderking already admitted that he thinks the Houthis will stop Red Sea attacks “when there’s a ceasefire in Gaza.” Now he’s backtracking, hoping to entice Houthis to stop attacks without a ceasefire, in exchange for removal of the terrorism designation.’

Covid masks have many uses. Add oversize fake eyebrows and a wig. If you are skinny, get oversized clothes and rent a fat belt. There is also biometric ID matching-defeating makeup, see here: https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/p9j10r/anti_facial_recognition_makeup/#lightbox

New Not-So-Cold War

From John A:

Sweden starting to realise it has bought a pig in a poke, when joining Nato
Stoltenberg interviewed on Swedish radio saying Sweden must invest in defence, infrastructure and healthcare to meet Nato demands.
This article in Dagens Nyheter, the approximate equivent to. The Guardian in England, and very much pro Nato, anti Russia etc,. etc.

https://www.dn.se/sverige/stoltenberg-sverige-behover-investera-for-att-klara-natouppdraget/ Yves: the tracking notice is blocking the machine translation, something I have never had happen before. Perhaps you will fare better than me at: https://www-dn-se.translate.goog/sverige/stoltenberg-sverige-behover-investera-for-att-klara-natouppdraget/?_x_tr_sl=sv&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Academics Probe Apple’s Privacy Settings and Get Lost and Confused The Register

FCC Won’t Block California Net Neutrality Law, Says States Can ‘Experiment‘ ars technica

Imperial Collapse Watch

Trump

Trump Media stock sinks to post-merger low CNN (furzy)

Biden

Hidden inflation tanks Biden re-election campaign Asia Times (Kevin W)

2024

Georgia bill could ‘inject chaos’ into swing state election, civil rights advocates fear USA Today

ACLU threatens to sue Georgia over election bill conservatives praise as ‘commonsense’ reform FOX

GOP Clown Car

Florida Court Rulings Pose Risks for House Republicans on Abortion New York Times (Kevin W)

Screws up female brains”: MAGA leaders are conditioning Republicans to back birth control bans Salon (furzy)

Democrats en déshabillé

In jaw-dropping decision, judge strikes down all New York recreational cannabis rules Syracuse (bob).

District Attorney Fani Willis has opened up a website to sell merch, particularly on “Fani Friday.” You too can have your very own Fani T. Willis fan club t-shirt. ThreadReader

Woke Watch

The Problem With Saying ‘Sex Assigned at Birth’ New York Times (Anthony L)

What Liberals Get Wrong About ‘White Rural Rage’ — Almost Everything Politico (Kevin W)

A historic revolt, a forgotten hero, an empty plinth: is there a right way to remember slavery?Guardian (Anthony L)

Police State Watch

New York City to pay $17.5 million for forcing women to remove hijabs for mug shots Reuters

SEC pauses climate disclosure rule pending court challenge The Hill

AI

Malfunctioning NYC AI Chatbot Still Active Despite Widespread Evidence It’s Encouraging Illegal Behavior THE CITY. Why hasn’t this been shut down until it works? Because it’s more important to have a chatbot than be accurate?

Meta Will Require Labels on More AI-Generated Content The Verge

Zimbabwe launches ‘gold’ currency to replace dollar RT (furzy)

Class Warfare

My dream died, and now I’m here YouTube (Terry F). Detail on the academic precariat, from a German physicist.

Apple Lays Off More Than 700 Workers, Including Apple Car and MicroLED Teams 9to5Mac

Best Buy Geek Squad Agents ‘Going Sleeper’ After Mass Layoffs 404media

Antidote du jour. We are overdue on featuring blue-footied boobies, and Cheryl K filled that gap:

And a bonus:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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250 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    ‘One Cult, Two Cults, Red Cult, Blue Cult 🇵🇸
    @ljmontello
    Democrats flipping the bird at young people by making student loan forgiveness illegal is a really good way to ensure Millennials & Zoomers never vote for your party ever again.
    Best of luck, Boomers.
    Clearly you don’t need us.
    Don’t blame us when y’all lose.’

    This one I do not understand at all, especially when the US is supposed to have the most important election in history in a few months time. Surely the Democrat strategists realized that these kids will be voting for the next half century so why kick down on them? Is that their first instinct? Old Joe said he has no sympathy for the younger generation so is that the Democrat policy now? To pull up the ladders behind them that they themselves climbed up? God help them if there is ever another Trump but one with brains.

    1. Pat

      Seeing Chuckie’s name there makes me think that once again donor service is all important. Forget fairness, forget elections, forget anything but current donations post elected office sinecures. And we all know Biden only rolls out student loan forgiveness when grandstanding or cornered and it is flawed by design and always crashes down the line. So he, and his handlers, are all in on anything that makes the already difficult even harder.
      Any body want to bet most, if not all, of the Democrats on board for this will state their support for student loan forgiveness during their campaign or while campaigning for Biden.

      1. Debt Slave

        “The Republican-led bill tightened the bankruptcy code, unleashing a huge giveaway to lenders at the expense of indebted student borrowers. At the time it faced vociferous opposition from 25 Democrats in the US Senate.”

        “But it passed anyway, with 18 Democratic senators breaking ranks and casting their vote in favor of the bill. Of those 18, one politician stood out as an especially enthusiastic champion of the credit companies who, as it happens, had given him hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions – Joe Biden.”

        https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/02/joe-biden-student-loan-debt-2005-act-2020

        1. Acacia

          Had a friend tell me recently that Biden really wanted to pass legislation to forgive student loan debt but the Supreme Court struck it down.

          1. The Rev Kev

            Did you mention to your friend that it was actually Biden that wrote the legislation to make sure that student debt could not be extinguished in bankruptcy? Come to think of it, they probably don’t wanna know.

            1. Acacia

              Yeah, that point would likely have just bounced off as a “that was then…” thing.

              Mostly I was just gobsmacked that Biden could be seen as some kind of good guy on this issue, as if it’s the Supremes or evil GOP that are the parties keeping millions in unsustainable debt.

          3. Pat

            Iirc that doesn’t describe what the Supreme Court threw out, but I might give them points for switching up the bad Republicans won’t let him meme.

            I just wonder what the explanation is for Biden taking so long to get to East Palestine. And that is giving them a break on lack of action to address the issues that led to the disaster.
            I should have more patience. It isn’t as if I didn’t spend years willfully ignoring the dereliction of their duty to their voters by Democrats. I made up and spouted excuses, too. I like to tell myself the lying two faced nature was less obvious then, but was it. Regardless so often I really want to go all Moonstruck on people, cuff them up the side of the head and scream “snap out of it”.

    2. Amateur Socialist

      At some point you have to seriously entertain the notion that we’re getting the election the sponsors want. This is the issue that matters to them, whether they win the election is not the central point.

      Making borrowers insecure is the point. The donors won’t tolerate any relief from the predations of their free markets etc. Losing elections is merely a second tier problem, far preferable to limiting the power of finance.

    3. jsn

      That ladder was pulled up a generation ago.

      Whoever it was told Macron 2rump won’t be happening is confident the generation of serfs that have been deliberately created to make the app economy work won’t have the solidarity to effectively respond.

      The strong are doing what they believe they can and it’s up to the weak now to physically demonstrate they’re not weak by doing something. It remains to be seen. And I can’t be judgmental because I don’t know what to do either.

    4. Sam Adams

      Democrats do not want to win and the Republicans just want power. Democrats want to wag their finger at the bad Republicans who took away ‘our’ rights, hold overcooked fundraising drives; hire some dangling aides who use the money they are paid for a house in the Washington Suburbs and for little Meagan’s ballet lessons and brother biff’s hockey lessons in preparation for applications to an Ivy League school. Mommy drives a SUV and is daddy is working his tail off to jump onto one of the think-tanks elevators.
      Will the US survive into the next century? I’m not sure Ben was thinking of the career politicians, aides and think tanks making bank, but he sure was prescient: We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.

      1. hk

        Oh, Dems “want to win” alright, but they don’t feel like getting their hands “dirty” while doing it.

    5. Cassandra

      Surely the Democrat strategists realized that these kids will be voting for the next half century so why kick down on them? Is that their first instinct?

      Rev, I used to be a political activist and my specialty was connecting with young people, getting them involved and registered to vote. I can tell you from personal experience that yes, that is indeed their first instinct. You could see it in the reaction to the Occupy movement, and most especially in the reaction of the Democratic Party Establishment to the hordes of young people who turned out for Bernie in 2015 and 2016. It was amazing, exceeding my wildest hopes. The same thing happened across the pond with Jeremy Corbyn.

      You could tell the owners were rattled and they shifted into high gear to quash the movement and neutralize the leaders. They were quite effective, handing power to the Tories in Britain and to their counterparts in America (Republicans, Biden & Co). So here we are, with “our democracies’ ” decay more obvious than ever and a new generation with no faith in the possibility of improving things through the political system.

      At this point, I have to think that the game plan is to have the young people so crushed that they embrace nihilism, so debilitated by disease and malnutrition, so pacified by the escapism of cyberspace, that they do not come for their tormentors with guillotines. It may work; it may not.

      All I know is that this Boomer will never, ever support another Democrat for what they have done to the kids. Whose kids? My kids.

        1. spud

          by blaming boomers is to be ignorant of the facts. the youth of america put in obama, twice, biden once so far.

          the boomers were badly burned by bill clinton, many dropped out of voting, or went to the GOP and nader.

          using term like boomers, plays right into the riches divide and conquer scenario.

    6. Jason Boxman

      Democrats hold their voters with contempt, just like those populating fly-over country. They’ve made this abundantly clear, again and again. After all, where else can they go? Vote for the racist party? Hilariously, at least when it comes to minorities Democrats thought they owned, those voters actually are voting increasingly for the “racist” party. Whoops. I guess material benefits outweigh fear. Nothing would amuse me more than liberal Democrats becoming a minority party.

      1. undercurrent

        Nothing would make me happier than to see the US abandon crapitalism for socialism. Neither party amuses me. Both are the hired guns of the capitalists who rule our world.

      2. LifelongLib

        So we swap a party that hasn’t done anything for average Americans since 1965 for one that hasn’t since, oh, 1905? I’m still looking for Door #3…

    7. SocalJimObjects

      I am waiting for the day when Democrats would hand out “abortion slots” whenever they are about to lose some election.

  2. timbers

    Hidden inflation tanks Biden re-election campaign…

    Hidden? Hidden!

    How is inflation “hidden” when anyone can see it right in front of them everyday? Housing/cars/rents make up huge portions of the Fed’s vastly understated and corrupted inflation measure and they are all rising. Retailers are tightening return policies many of which are not codified by law.

    Just try buying car/home or leasing renting one. I bought a car in 2017 for $17k, am pre-emptively shopping for a car in case mine suddenly goes, and today I’d pay close $40k for replacement I don’t even like or want but it’s the best I could hope to get and I’d likely have to rent a car for weeks waiting to get it and pay lots of insurance on it, too. And I don’t finance cars I buy them outright and that takes out interest and over-insurance so I’m shopping at a lower bar in terms of cost.

    2. Carla

      I second every word in your first paragraph, timbers, and re: the car market, I have had my own version of the experience recounted in your second paragraph. “Hidden” inflation my a**. Hidden only to our elite masters.

    3. griffen

      As documented frequently…the cost of living for just standard fare and standard requirements of life like insurance for stuff or for shelter is higher by a minimum of 20% to 25%, just for starters.

      Not a problem I presume for some American families, however I presume it’s a problem that will always cost votes during a national election. Some things are never ever going back to that starting point circa late 2020 – early 2021. Now just wait for a price shock to WTI crude oil or to grocery products due to a breaking avian flu.

    4. The Rev Kev

      Did a double-take on that headline myself. I mean seriously. I cannot even guesstimate the number of times that people in comments have complained at the out of control prices of things for the past few years. Everything from eggs through to insurance. I guess that when you earn a very good pay packet, that you do not notice the increased inflation that much. But when you do not, that means a few less beans in the pot which you notice.

      1. Wukchumni

        Pot is the one deft defying deflationary item on a shopping list, ounces can be had here for $40, offset of course by out of control inflationary measures on munchies.

          1. The Rev Kev

            There was an economist – perhaps Larry Summers – that argued several years ago that the economy was going great as television sets were getting cheaper and cheaper as were white goods. Food maybe not so much.

            1. Wukchumni

              Seeing as a Stoner came up with the commonly held assault rifle in the USA, is there a market for an all-in-one AR15/70 inch HD TV/Bong?

                1. The Rev Kev

                  In the Newsom recall election, was there an option to choose Gavin Newsom’s hair as a candidate?

                    2. Emma

                      Newsom’s hair now reminds me of Matt Miller.

                      Jeffrey Sachs’ hair could knock out Gavin Newsom’s hair in a first round knock out.
                      Assuming that Sachs’ hair carried garlic and wooden stakes for protection.

        3. lyman alpha blob

          Hopefully that catches on, because in my neck of the woods, it’s more expensive now than when it was illegal. Way more shops than necessary, and all sell for about the same price. I smell cartel.

      2. Megan

        The best way to lower, i.e. force, prices down is to go on a buyer’s strike.
        Food, can’t be done, fuel can’t be done, essentials like school supplies, natch.

        However, every other discretionary item that one can postpone buying, that can be done. The expectation of lower prices tomorrow cripples today’s high prices.

        Talk about an easy way to protest Gaza, Ukraine, inflation, student debt, inequality; stop spending and save money while you do it.

    5. Wukchumni

      The plowers that be in these not so united states cling to their 2% inflation mantra in a Bizarro World fashion to how candidates in Soviet elections usually won with a 98% plurality.

      In happier hidden news:

      The Hidden from 1987 is one hellova sci-fi horror thriller flick if you like bad arse alien transmutation into humans-and I know you do, starring Kyle McLachlan & Michael Nouri.

      1. Ben Panga

        Thanks for the movie recommendation.

        After David Grusch, David Fravor, and Ryan Graves testified under oath to Congress last year I’m waiting for the real life alien (or non-human intelligence) story to come out.

        https://www.youtube.com/live/SpzJnrwob1A?si=DIM-SVjWDfQMG4Mb

        No idea if it’s true, a weird psyop, or they are delusional. Something weird is definitely going on though. Especially intriguing given that the current Inspector General of the Intelligence Community called Grusch’s whistleblower complaint “credible” and his lawyer is a former ICIG. Something looks to be being hidden in those black programs and SAPs.

        For the first time in my life it’s a UFO story I can’t fairly easily dismiss as nuts, unsourced, or speculative.

        1. Wukchumni

          We were hanging out in Wolverton the other day in Sequoia NP waging war in a snowball fight where both sides eventually gave up, when once upon a time in 1955 not too far away a couple of fellows met up with a Venusian dressed in 19th century garb who communicated telepathically with them, and later they saw a UFO over Moose Lake.

          I want to believe!

          “Well, no one was on the trail. Yet, Ken and I were now startled to see a finely dressed gentleman coming down trail and not over fifty feet above us. He noted from our surprised features that we were mystified at his sudden appearance and made some comment on it.

          “At once certain things became apparent to us. The stranger was not dressed for this wild woodland setting. From somewhere he had come from a dressing room. Low topped oxfords, brown in color, brown bands of a heavy drill, like whipcord, neatly pressed, light blue shirt; old fashioned wrap-around dress tie. His eyes were different from any I had ever seen. They were a clear transparent brown that one looked into, with depth- not opaque like ours. I was getting a little nervous. I thought this gentleman might be a ghost from the nineteenth century, dressed as he was and appearing out of nowhere.”

          The intrepid flying saucer investigator was recording everything that Oscar Knight was saying. He then asked Oscar to provide more details about the appearance of this unusual gentleman encountered along the trail.

          Oscar continued: “It was easy to place his height at six feet, two inches. I would guess that he was around two hundred pounds, in weight, by our measuring standards. He had a finely featured face that shone with strength and beautiful character. Ken and I would have placed his age in the late twenties, except for a point that would throw our guess off.”

          https://www.phantomsandmonsters.com/2017/12/the-kenneth-arnold-files-part-ii.html

      2. douglass truth

        just watched it a few days ago – for the third or fourth time. this time I was thinking, in our world Kyle MacLachlan didn’t kill the alien.

    6. flora

      re: ”
      “How is inflation “hidden” when anyone can see it right in front of them everyday? ”

      Unless they are an economist. Remember, economic model do not contain either money (cash) or banks. odd.

    7. Pat

      They have to keep it “hidden”, acknowledged inflation would affect more than the election. Think of what might have to be raised in government spending (mostly but not entirely social). The whole reason all the indexes were skewed to begin with still apply, even or maybe especially when inflation cannot be contained and hidden by those twists.

        1. timbers

          The must mean immigrant workers never had it so good. Keep seeing headlines that all new full-time jobs are going to immigrants. Jobs to US citizens declining except part time jobs.

          1. Neutrino

            People see immigrant news daily, with hordes rushing borders, handouts, ungratefulness, crime and then face their own sad realities of inflation and local social ills. They would not be wrong to get the message that their own government hates them, or at least relegates them to less-deserving of recognition, or even a modicum of respect. Their tax dollars and votes are for naught beyond feeding that DC beast.

    8. Paleobotanist

      Anybody else how much the cost of cat food and veterinary care has gone up? In Montreal, private equity has been buying up the vet clinics and taking care of pitou and minou will shortly only be for the wealthy…

      1. Screwball

        The cat food I buy at Kroger is $25 for a 4 lb bag. That’s a little over $6 a bag – I should east so good. Well, I do – bacon is $7 a lb. $4 for a gallon of milk, and don’t get me started on toilet paper.

        Now there’s an idea – lets tax the crap out of toilet paper – the more FOS you are, the more it would cost. We could pay off the national debt in a couple of years just from DC alone.

    9. Pookah Harvey

      According to the government there is no inflation in those increased car costs. 40% of new car costs are due to electronics.

      New cars now frequently carry 200 pounds of electronics and more than a mile of wiring. Processors and their peripherals have squeezed into the side- and rear-view mirrors, wheel rims, headliner, gas tank, seat cushions, headrests, bumpers, and every other crevice of a modern car. Dashboard electronics such as the radio, air conditioning, and satellite navigation system are just the obvious ones.

      Due to hedonic (pertaining to pleasure) pricing none of that 40% increase is actually an increase due to the fact that the commute to work is now so much more pleasurable. Forget that I went through 3 different mechanics to fix an intermittent electronic fault of the transmission control module . I have found the experience of paying the bill to be very hedonic.

    10. SocalJimObjects

      Got stonks? With enough NVDA in your portfolio, you can remove the word inflation from your vocabulary. Heck, even “barbaric” relics are making new highs every day.

      The best way for Iran (or anyone else) to retaliate against the USA is to surface “hidden” inflation by tanking the stock market.

  3. Lena

    Re: The Clintons at the Biden fundraiser

    Who among us would love to be able to scream FU to Hill and Bill? Let’s see a show of hands.

    1. mrsyk

      Can I put my hand down yet? My arm’s getting tired. Too bad we didn’t get an “Inglorious Basterds” finale at that fundraiser.

      1. timbers

        Yes and yet of course steps have been taken to prevent formats allowing more verbose or magniloquent forms of criticism of the elites including the Clintons.

      2. undercurrent

        Those two words, when delivered with the appropriate feeling, as in the video, are two of the most satisfying words in the English language. Another two words I’m always more than a little pleased to hear are “ I’m buying.’

    3. JTMcPhee

      Clintons could turn that impulse into a nice cash income stream. Obvious they are unperturbed by the hatred, since still enbubbled by a cocoon of sycophants, PMC true believers, and comprador Epsteinians.

      Why not take turns sitting on the metaphorical ducking chair while mopes get to throw insults at them? Maybe a premium price for appearing together?

      Of course their sacred bodies would be protected by a battalion of Secret Service and private-army thugs.

      Hey, if Fani Wills can sell T shirts to Blue Pill idiots, why not monetize ClintonAnger? “We welcome your hatred…”

  4. The Rev Kev

    John Ʌ Konrad V
    @johnkonrad
    Fact: The US Navy is in charged of the Baltimore Bridge salvage effort
    Fact: The US Navy has more Admirals that warships
    Fact: there is not one Admiral in uniform today who is a salvage master
    Fact: salvage masters were once among the Navy’s most respected officers
    Opinion: If the US Navy had not divested all its salvage equipment, subcontracted most of its salvage work to an overseas company, and still promoted experience hardened salvage masters to the rank of Admiral… this bridge could have been cleared in a few weeks
    But today’s Admirals won’t be found on the decks of shipwrecks wearing wrinkled khakis. The hundreds of Admirals in today’s Navy prefer wearing starched Army camouflage to office jobs.

    Should I be so crass as to mention that White House spokesman John Kirby was also a rear Admiral? As was James G. Stavridis? And let us not forget the Admirals of the Fat Leonard scandal? The Navy really needs to tighten up on their Admiral selection process.

    1. Nikkikat

      Just one more stupid move from the Biden administration. How did we end up with this idiot again?

      1. Cassandra

        How did we end up with this idiot again?

        We ended up with Biden because the voters refused to fall in line in 2020 for Kamala, Beto, Mayo Pete, Stapler Amy, etc. By the time Super Tuesday approached, they were getting desperate for an acceptable candidate. So, Biden. And he doesn’t want to step down and they *still* don’t have an acceptable alternative.

        Doesn’t really matter, it would be the same entities calling the shots whoever was the face of the party.

        1. The Rev Kev

          Didn’t hurt that you had Obama ring all those candidates and tell them that they can stop pretending that they are running for office as President as the insiders – like him – have decided who the winner is going to be.

          1. flora

            They weren’t going to let it be Bernie. No matter what the voters thought. See 2016. / ;)

            1. JTMcPhee

              And in retrospect, sure seems like Bernie was just another gilded, gelded bullish!tter. An “independent” Abrahamic.

              “They’ve got you screwed six ways from Sunday,” said the official Party greeter to the erstwhile Mr. Smith.

              What is to be done, indeed! Ride the Tiranic down into the frigid water. Freezing to death is supposedly peaceful, though from what I’ve been told, I hold with those who favor fire…

              Pretty funnysad, that “On The Beach” might have it wrong, and the Rooskies, Chinese and most of the global south May well survive a “nuclear exchange” which given the relative strengths of offense and defense and resilience and survivability, does not favor the Fokkers who rule us Nacerima and our mignons…

      2. Jason Boxman

        Because The Wizard made a phone call. (Cue scene from Enemy of the State where entire building blows up.)

        Thanks Obama!

    2. Benny Profane

      It’s not just the navy. Last I heard six months ago, we now have over 41 four star generals. During WW2, we had 4, commanding a much larger multi national force.

      1. Jason Boxman

        And probably doing it with some degree of competency ;) The stories of how broken the US Pacific fleet is are legend at this point.

        Interestingly, I finished The First Salute, which is Tuckman on the naval aspect of the Revolutionary War, and Britain’s entire navy as an empire was a debacle, miss managed, political infighting between factions on political lines in the navy itself, an officer corps that was as old as liberal Democrat benchers, and unwillingness to violate doctrine of Line Ahead for engaging, and so on.

        We know how the British Empire ended up. And in all of it, hubris, and disbelief that the colonies might be serious in their rebellion.

    3. Big River Bandido

      It bugged me that the tweet referred to Admiral King (CNC US and CNO), but the photo was Admiral Nimitz (CNC PAC) and Admiral Halsey.

    4. scott s.

      History of USN salvage:
      Mud, Muscle, and Miracles
      Of note was the decision by FDR as Asst SecNav to create a salvage monopoly company which was contracted to provide salvage services to the navy in the inter-war period.

      IMO a problem was the elimination of the Construction Corps and the office of Chief Constructor just prior to WWII.

      As far as Stavridis, worked with him when he was a Commander. He was marked for flag back then. Got all the right assignments needed for promotion.

  5. notabanker

    The Politico article on White Rural Rage is one of the best links I’ve ever read here, and that is saying a lot. When I first clicked on it and re-read the headline I thought to myself, ‘self, what white rural rage? I don’t see it and I live here’…. I was kinda expecting another MSM polished turd of excuses, but it was exactly the opposite. What a thoughtful and well researched piece. I related to it on many levels.

    Thanks for the link!

    1. The Rev Kev

      I would go so far as to suggest that the real problem is not White Rural Rage but Democrat Urban Rage. The amount of hatred unleashed back in 2016 against rural regions was a sight to behold and you had people cheering at any misfortune that befall those in rural regions. It got crazy. I do not know if anybody has really analyzed this phenomena without being dragged into the Hillary Black Hole of Injustice but I think that somebody should as it is important.

      2. Stephen V

        I think this is one major cause of Trump Derangement Syndrome. I’m afraid the only cure will be self-vaccination. Spoken as one who lives among rednecks but has “smart” CA friends who think I’m a Trumper bcz of my visceral hatred of Team Blue.

      3. Skip Intro

        As long as White Rural Rage can be pitted against Black Urban Rage, it is business as usual in USA. From Reconstruction through the Dixiecrats (Biden) and the Southern Strategy (Nixon and Bush versions), it is all divide and rule.

        2. digi_owl

          I dear say the divide and rule goes all the way back to the beginning with the English pitting Scotts against Irish.

          Heck, the current issues in Africa etc can largely be traced back to all colonial powers playing this game to some degree.

        1. The Rev Kev

          On reflection, I would go with your “PMC Urban Rage” as it is a much better description and more accurate.

        2. Lena

          Love that beautiful poignant song. Iris is a brilliant singer/songwriter. Her sensitivity is exquisite.

          I’ve noticed you have good taste in music, Retired Carpenter!

          1. Retired Carpenter

            Lena, Thanks. The PMC just ignore how “Easy’s Gettin’ Harder Every Day” outside their enclaves.

            1. Lena

              I have been listening to John Prine today. Tomorrow will be the 4th anniversary of his death from COVID. He left us such wonderful songs. Does it get any better than “Paradise”?

        3. Neutrino

          There is probably some fear mixed in with that rage. The out-of-towners stopping in for a cuppa would have a difficult time keeping the sneer inaudible, and just might miss out on some genuine hospitality. They keep an ear pitched for banjo music, and a hand on the car keys just in case. Most would have the sense to keep themselves on mute as they wouldn’t try that in a small town. ;)

      5. Zephyrum

        Exactly this. My all-liberal San Francisco based coworkers are all in on the deplorables ruining the country. It’s hard to tell which they hate more, Trump or rural people.

        1. flora

          Would the Dem liberals in SF need some ‘other’ to hate if their lives were getting better? More comfortable? More secure in their hopes for their kids’ futures? “Let them eat hate”, as Marie did not quite say. (How is life in SF these days?) / ;)

        2. Pat

          Fear. There but for the grace of god go I…only without the empathy that is supposed to bring. They may not see the best of the “deplorables”but they are well aware of the devastation that has been inflicted in the areas they hate. Deep down they get they are next or soon after, they just cannot admit it. They believe if they clap harder and scream fascism louder the more the lives they thought they were building will stop chipping away.

          1. digi_owl

            Because “for grace of god” gets reinterpreted into prosperity gospel predestination…

        3. Randall Flagg

          >My all-liberal San Francisco based coworkers are all in on the deplorables ruining the country. It’s hard to tell which they hate more, Trump or rural people.

          Where do those numbnuts think their food and energy come from?

        4. CarlH

          I would like to point out that while Bay Area liberals are taken as token representatives of the area as a whole, like everywhere else, the Bay Area is mostly filled with normal, working class people who hate our famous liberals. In fact, we might hate these people even more, since we are forced to live with them side by side and have to deal with the disastrous results of their ideology before they are rolled out elsewhere, generally. As a treat, we also get to experience their all encompassing smugness and arrogance live and in real time! They are truly insufferable.

          1. CarlH

            It also galls us to no end that our beautiful little slice of the planet is known mostly for our horrible liberals and techbros these days. They are a curse.

          2. Lena

            CarlH, how do normal, working class people afford to live in the Bay Area? I’m not asking for snarky reasons, I am genuinely interested. It must be very hard.

            1. CarlH

              It is difficult. Many have moved out of the Bay Area proper and now live on the outskirts and commute. Many more people are living with parents than ever, some are cramming more room mates into already too crowded apartments, and most live in increasingly impoverished and decaying neighborhoods where the rent is more “reasonable” (lol). I myself have wonderful housemates and am doing relatively well since getting a disability rating from the VA about ten years ago, but it feels like yesterday that I was in the same boat financially as all my friends and fellow working class people. As an aside, the resentment amongst the people who are native to this area that I grew up with towards the tech people who colonized us (the borders of Silicon Valley have expanded steadily since my childhood, finally engulfing my town in the 90’s) is getting immense, and the situation itself reminds me greatly of the flyover states’ experience. There are flyover spots in our local communities and cities and the dynamics are similar, if not identical to the national flyovers.

        1. digi_owl

          There is little urban life left. Only empty apartments acting as safehouses for the global rich and now nearly as empty offices.

    2. upstater

      Krugman’s commentary The Mystery of White Rural Rage epitomizes the cluelessness of the elites in short form, so don’t go out and buy Schaller and Waldman’s screed. I posted Krugman’s commentary in links a few weeks ago; it is very special. I said Paul needs to take a sabbatical up some Appalachian hollow or in flyover country. Live in a 40 year old mobile home with an $800/month stipend to food shop at dollar stores and eat fast food. Maybe he could get script from a pill mill to dull his pain.

      But the truth is that while white rural rage is arguably the single greatest threat facing American democracy, I have no good ideas about how to fight it.

      The dynamic that has gutted and impoverished rural America is the same one that gutted our industrial base. Neoliberalism.

      1. Wukchumni

        White Rural Rage here* consists of mostly complaining in regards to the touron in an AirBnB that left every conceivable outdoor light on in order to ward away something 4 legged this way comes, and wreck the dark skies vibe.

        * over 20 miles to the first stoplight from Tiny Town, which according to Wiki, was 90.6% White in 2010, or as one wag calls us… ‘Caucasian Island’.

          1. Wukchumni

            …a liver runs through it

            Not much diversity here, but the next town over in Woodlake also suffers as well, with 87.7% of them being Hispanic, we have a Mexican restaurant here, and forget about it, go to Woodlake and eat @ Super Taco or Dora’s.

            Try and go around mid May to mid June to Dora’s, as that is when the magnificent Loquat tree in front of the restaurant is ripe with lots of fruit for the picking.

            Kids go to school K-8 here and then high school in Woodlake.

      2. notabanker

        Yeah, Krugman is a lost cause and what I was referring to above referencing the MSM turd polishers. Refreshingly, the article wasn’t that at all.

      3. tegnost

        I have no good ideas about how to fight it.

        Well Paul, the min wage in the US is 7.25 an hour, and you think you need undocumented labor to bring that number down. Maybe start there, then move on to how to pay off your 100,000 student loan debt while “competing” with un docced labor with zero student loan debt and you may see some other windows of opportunity open up for you.

      4. ilsm

        Krugman/PMC’s version of “American democracy” is similar to Mao’s and Stalin’s.

        The US government is a ‘representative republic’ form.

    3. Lena

      It’s an excellent article. I also related to it in many ways. I liked the fact that the author acknowledged he has previously contributed to the false narrative about rural America.

      It never ceases to amaze me that elites who know nothing about “flyover country” and rural life think they can understand us. We love our communities, we want to stay here, prosper and thrive. It breaks our hearts when we see our communities dying. We are tired of being scapegoated and stereotyped. Help us, don’t continually mock and put us down, then expect us to vote for you. We know b.s. when we smell it.

      1. The Rev Kev

        In fairness to that author, he said ‘Imagine my surprise when I picked up the book and saw that some of that research was mine.’ And his own research contradicts the message in that book. Like he saw no sign of the rage depicted in that book.

      2. Screwball

        I think we have talked before and are from the same state. I’m in rural Ohio, centered between Toledo, Columbus, and Cleveland. I share your thoughts. I read that article and agree with most of it. I couldn’t agree more to your statement “We are tired of being scapegoated and stereotyped.”

        People like those who wrote that book, along with elite ass****** like Krugman should walk a mile in our shoes, milk a cow, shovel manure, drive a tractor. Or be a laborer in one of our factories that are still left or $17.00-$20.00 an hour. They wouldn’t last three days.

        I think I can sum up my thoughts in a lot less words than the article. To the elites that want to tell us how to live, what to think, what to do, and how to vote; screw you and leave us the hell alone.

        1. lyman alpha blob

          Guy that wrote the article is from Colby college. Not much happening in that area except for the college. If Krugman went there, the likelihood of finding shoes would be reduced since all the Maine shoe factories got shut down decades ago. It would be hard to milk a cow or shovel manure because all the small farms have been put out of business. Just drove past my family’s farm this morning – the one that had to sell off the dairy herd a year ago.

          The elites have made it nearly impossible for rural people to live the kind of life they might want to. And the Democrat party can’t figure out why the rurals don’t realize how good they really have it.

    4. flora

      It’s An election year. The Dems are dropping. B is tanking. The word has gone out, imo, that DEI is to be downplayed and/or criticized, rural voters are to be respected, etc. I’m glad to see this. I do not this that leopard changes its spots, however. If the Dems and B win this fall, I expect all the old Dem steriotypes and DEI will return with a vengence. / ;)

      1. flora

        question: what happened to the post-comment edit function? It’s disappeared on my last several comments.

        2. Lena

          The edit function isn’t working for me this morning either. Yesterday some of my comments totally disappeared. And let me just say, they were some of my best comments ever!!!

          I think it’s some sort of pre-eclipse phenomenon in my case as I am in ‘the path of totality’. I love that phrase, it sounds so impressive. I have never been in ‘the path’ before and I will never be here again. The profundity of this realization is immense.

          My head, it spins.

          2. mrsyk

            You will be entertained to learn that just last night I was sipping on a (rather good) VT ipa of that exact name. sigh
            Frank Zappa put out a song on his Bongo Fury lp about the commercialization of The Bicentennial called Poofter’s Froth Wyoming Plan’s Ahead. Safe for work.

          3. digi_owl

            The site runs through a Cloudflare DDOS cache best i recall.

            Sometimes what seems to happen is that when we hit the button to post the comment, Cloudflare correctly forwards that to the NC server but then hands our browser a stale cached copy of the site. This then making it seem like the comment vanished.

    5. jsn

      The Reuters article about NYC settlement for mug shots is a similar switch to bait headline: the article describes an improvement of police procedures, an actual improvement to civilization in multiple sensitive areas of domestic (meaning here within the home) power relations, which the headline depicts as an abuse.

    6. pjay

      Yes. I want to strongly second your opinion of this article. In our increasingly polarized country where simplistic and distorting stereotypes completely dominate the media, this article and its author are a breath of fresh air. It was knowledgeable and nuanced. And in trying to present a more accurate picture of rural political culture it did not, in my opinion, try to over-romanticize it.

      For Democrats, or their academic apologists, it would also be wise to realize that “rural” in this political-cultural sense does not just apply to farmers or small town folk in Oklahoma. When I moved from the midwest to New York state I was quite surprised just how “rural” a lot of this large state was.

      This article is a welcome antidote to the typical fear-mongering screed by Dan Froomkin posted in yesterday’s Water Cooler. I bet Froomkin loved ‘White Rural Rage.’

      1. Lena

        I think “rural” as used by the elites is often a synonym for “anyplace flyover”. I can remember a long discussion among PMC types several years ago about whether Indianapolis was “really a city”. The PMC types, who had never been there, argued it was not. I could not believe my ears.

    7. Carolinian

      The Dem PMC seem to be terrified of their victims although victim may be too strong a word for Americans who–even the rural–are still well off by international standards. As the article points out what we are really seeing is cultural resentment, not rage, aimed at the boobs in the media including those who wrote the book. Call it an eye roll rather than a revolution which would require passive Americans to first lose a few pounds in military basic training. Even the guns are for show for the most part although having them lying around does lead to many tragedies.

      Surely it’s the rage over the “rage” that we really need to worry about assuming the Dems cling to power long enough to follow up on their panicky rhetoric with repressive censorship and other measures. At the moment the real victims of our dysfunctional America are living overseas and flag waving rurals do deserve some blame on that score. The PMC are a bubble within the larger bubble that is the USA. Time to snap out of it.

      1. Lena

        Having guns in rural areas is just part of life for many people. Even my Quaker relatives who lived on farms always had shotguns and went hunting for food. Rural gun ownership is nothing new and is not a sign of ‘rage’. The urban elites don’t understand that.

        1. Wukchumni

          One of the neighbors 3D printed a 155mm howitzer and thank goodness there is quite the shortage of shells for them, combined with no ammo sales in Cali Wal*Marts anymore.

            1. Wukchumni

              What is worse is the idea of a burgeoning arms race here in Tiny Town, with another neighbor putting the finishing touches on a 3D Printed Paris Gun that would put Pixley in much peril should it ever go off.

      2. flora

        The Dem estab abandoned the rural states’ Dem parties a long time ago. Shortly after passing NAFTA. They knew what they were doing. The Dem estab shows up in nominally red rural states every pres election year to blah blah, collect as much money from the local Dems as they can, hollowing out the state’s struggling Dem party coffers, and leaves town. Howard Dean turned that around with his 50-States policy. That policy got O elected even in the rural states. O then killed the 50-State politicy. Imo, the Dem estab can go pound sand.

        2. Neutrino

          The Dem quadrennial appearance and promise parade roughly coincides with the two- to four-year locust, or is it cicada virus scare. Each election cycle seems to spawn some variant. Recall Bird Flu, Swine Flu, Bullsh*t Flu? Dem genius will keep you safe, just keep pulling our lever, faster.

    8. IMOR

      I also have resided ‘there’ and do again. There’s plenty of white rural SCORN for PMC numbnuts and elites. Those targets hear it as ‘rage’ because they’re guilty, oversensitive, overprotected punks.

    9. Lefty Godot

      It’s an okay takedown of that book, but that book is part of a cottage industry stoking division along the PMC’s preferred battle lines, where white people are all automatically suspect and sure to be evil if they’re also any one of: rural, religious believers, heterosexual, cisgender, male, not college educated, etc. And don’t forget we’re responsible for slavery, even those of us whose ancestors only made it over to the US (in steerage) after the Civil War. So get ready to cough up for Reparations, you evil ones. Yes, just like the right wing book publishing industry that pushed Ann Coulter and her fellow travelers, there is a “woke” book publishing industry pushing books like White Rural Rage. You can’t treat them as serious intellectual investigations. They’re paid-for propaganda.

      The significant fact is that white rural voters backed Obama when he first ran. And got a lot of watered-down, privatized, bureaucracy-heavy nothing out of him for eight years. And Biden has followed the same course. So is it surprising that his party’s “brand identity” is now in the toilet among the RoA (rest of America)?

      1. Neutrino

        Here is an Econ 101 connection.
        The PMC types do not recognize that there is much less Demand for all of the politicking that they are paid to Supply. So, why doesn’t that price fall?
        The true believers may follow Joe and Mika, or Rachel, or whomever. Others have lives and many continue to eke those out rather than frothing.

    10. Lee

      Take that, Krugman et al.

      Hating on those of us most responsible for the production our fuel, food, fiber and much of what’s left of our manufacturing is a destabilizing social policy….another grotesque manifestation of the stupidest timeline, I suppose.

  6. Enter Laughing

    Israel says it will ‘temporarily’ allow hundreds of aid trucks into Gaza

    More proof the temporary pier is a load of hooey.

    At the snap of a finger, the Israel Cabinet decided to allow a dramatic increase in humanitarian aid into Gaza:

    “The Israeli cabinet said on Thursday that it will “temporarily” allow up to 350 trucks of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip through land crossings, including 250 trucks through the Rafah crossing and the rest through the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Israel.”

    Each truck approximately 20 tons of supplies, so 350 trucks can transport about 7,000 tons a day, or up to 22 million meals (using the 30-ounces per person, per day metric of the U.S. Humanitarian Daily Ration package)

    The supplies aren’t all food, of course, but I use that number to compare it with the “2,000,000 meals per day” talking point everybody loves to use when talking about the temporary pier.

    This move by the Israeli Cabinet to instantly allow more trucks through the land routes into Gaza shows how ridiculous the pier is.

      1. Enter Laughing

        Thanks!

        Here’s another try at the original link, and for good measure, another link to the news of increased aid into Gaza.

        1. Emma

          Thank you. That link worked.

          I read that as Israel’s “concession” of letting in a total of 350 trucks to southern Gaza (when famine is extreme in northern Gaza), when they are already obligated to let those trucks through. 250 of the allotted number are for Rafah, a crossing between Egypt and Gaza that Israel has no right under international law to block. So once again, we see the effects of Biden’s “stern” talk and continued supplying of 2,000 lb bombs. This is not something to celebrate as it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the needs, which was 500 trucks a day before October 7.

          The other link is about a 2020 aid shipment.

  7. ChrisFromGA

    I’m wondering if Ecuador got its inspiration to violate Mexican sovereignty and diplomatic norms from Israel
    bombing the Iranian consulate.

    They say courage begets courage … thuggery begets more thuggery.

    1. The Rev Kev

      There was an attempt to bring up the bombing of the Iranian Consulate at the UN but Alex Christoforou says that they US nixed it and said it was because they could not assess the damage. But perhaps Ecuador can ask the New York Times to write up an article defending them like they did for Israel. That one is called “Israel bombed an Iranian Embassy complex. Is that allowed?” and argues that everybody knows that a State can bomb the Embassy of another country so long as it was in a third country. Got it?

      https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/02/world/europe/interpreter-israel-syria-embassy.html

      Oh, and it was Syria’s fault for not defending that Consulate from a F-35 attack.

      1. Emma

        Maybe Syria could have had proper AD capabilities to protect itself if mysteriously well funded Jihadis didn’t mysteriously blow them all up in the early days of the dirty war.

        Once again, the Israelis have “battle tested” a piece of military hardware on Arabs (and Iranians but it’s not as if the West could tell the difference) so…winnings?

    2. Belle

      Nah. They likely got it from when they let the UK into their embassy to arrest one of their citizens who was granted asylum by the previous administration.

      1. ChrisFromGA

        This is true … overall, I suspect that the West is going to be served up a nice, warm, cup of blowback very soon. Normalizing attacks on embassies won’t end well for lots of US or UK, French embassies, not to mention Israeli ones.

        I bet that Israeli embassy in Jordan is going to need a forcefield around it, similar to the USS Enterprise in Star Trek.

  8. griffen

    Medical diagnosis made available, please forward your selfies to the website that follows…”nopenotcreepy.submittedpeckerpic.org”…Trust us we’re in the medical profession..\sarc

    To speak personally, not going to do it…but I’m sharing that article with a few older gents so we can crack up like teenagers in high school at the idea.

  9. Wukchumni

    We got 7/10’s of an inch of rain @ Burning Man, and Marjorie Taylor-Greene related that it was God smiting us, and now Big Apple-adjacent gets a yeah whatever 4.8 temblor, and we are supposed to repent. I’m still smarting from the smiting.

    1. Emma

      Maybe the Russians will unleash HAARP weapons across North America during the eclipse. We’d rocking and rolling.

    2. griffen

      Narratives on the pending doom and ending of the world are as old as the hills are they not? I can recall once upon a time, when I was living in Texas that the A&M Aggie and Texas guvna Rick Perry would “pray for rain” amid an epic drought…Per the Old Testament after Noah it won’t be a deluge of rain lasting 40 days and 40 nights…

      Being Saturday this puts into my mind a few notable entries for end time end tunes…
      REM…”It’s the end of the world as we know it..”
      Def Leppard…”Armageddon It…Come on Steve get it…” Steve riffs on guitar…
      Aerosmith…”There’s something wrong today…I don’t know what it is…”

      1. Wukchumni

        It’s the end of world for 200,000 of us on a daily basis, only to be replaced by 340,000 new arrivals each and every day like clockwork, tick tick tick tick.

      2. mrsyk

        That’s going to be a long list. I’ll add two that most people won’t recognize.
        Mallett Brothers, “Buffalo”
        Zappa “Dumb All Over”
        Enjoy!

      3. mrsyk

        Gene-engineered bacteria grows plastic-free, self-dyeing vegan leather These come in different flavors? Makes eating one’s boots a-ok. We’re saved!

    3. Pat

      Hey I resemble that remark. I was amazed more didn’t fall, but yeah as a friend said, “it happened, we’re fine, let’s just get on with it”.

  10. hemeantwell

    Doctorow’s bit on monitoring of political speech in France displays the sort of arbitrary sniping I would have thought was beneath him. Opinion surveillance and suppression has hardly been confined to the left, fcs. The Russian Whites, exiled after the 1917 revolution and whom Doctorow relies upon for orientation, were the residues of Tsarist Russia, a world-class innovator in political spying as a gateway to extended vacations in the frosty northeast of the country. I’m reminded of the late Justin Raimondo, founding editor of Antiwar.com. Although the site has long made solid contributions to the antiwar movement, Raimondo just could not resist occasionally ginning up a pot shot at Trotsky in the midst of criticizing imperialism so often targeted by Trotsky himself. I may be mistaken, but this way of cashing in on good work to bolster shallow, drive-by trashing seems to be more common on the right.

    1. Daniil Adamov

      Those “residues” were very politically diverse, running the gamut from socialist republicans to reactionary monarchists. In exile, they were about as likely to fall in with the left as with the right. I wouldn’t tar them with the same brush, were I you. Their modern descendants tend to be more homogenous conservative nationalists, though.

      1. hk

        Curious how the descendants of the White emigres who still reside in the West look like now. Many, if not most, were solidly anti communist during the Cold War. They seem to have diversified now: I’m reminded that the Shaker, the formerly outspoken blogger, is a scion of old White Russian emigres who turned super Russian nationalist despite having been a “Western” all his life,case far as I know. But there seem to be still a decent number among them who are not friends of the Russia as it is now, at the very least.

        1. Daniil Adamov

          Domestically, the pro-Russian Empire part of the far right has been bitterly divided between those who support Putin as a restorer of Orthodoxy and Empire and those who hate him as a Soviet successor of lowly origins who unduly favours workers and ethnic minorities, retains some egalitarian policies and isn’t restoring the Empire nearly enough for their liking. (Admittedly, this is simplistic, but that is the usual division I have seen.) I suspect there is something similar among the unassimilated parts of the diaspora.

          Part of the reason why this diaspora is so right-wing these days might be that many of its left-leaning members eventually returned to the USSR. Or else simply assimilated. For the rest of the community, an idealised memory of “the Russia we have lost” was the obvious rallying point, and that almost inevitably pushed them to the right.

          1. The Rev Kev

            Wasn’t it Putin that said that those who do not miss the Soviet Union had no heart, but those that wished it back again had no brains?

            1. Daniil Adamov

              Yes. That is his centrist compromise position between those who can’t stand the Soviet Union (the emigres, the monarchists, the liberals) and those who want it back (communists, mostly, but that’s a big block even now). It works for most people (and is similar to sentiments expressed even by some of the more moderate liberals, after their faction’s 90s triumphalism had crumbled), but not all.

    2. Cristobal

      Yes, but we have to give him some leeway. No doubt he is pretty stressed out living in the midst of the absolutely unbelievable level of pathological Russofobia where he is.

    3. vao

      Tsarist Russia, a world-class innovator in political spying as a gateway to extended vacations in the frosty northeast of the country.

      I alluded to this a couple of years ago:

      The infamous tsarist political police, the Okhrana, had in its time set up a tentacular organization to keep track of dissidents, infiltrate political parties, monitor the activities of terrorist organizations and thwart their attacks. By opening correspondence, infiltrating moles in armed organizations, employing an army of snitches and informers rivalling what the GDR would do much later, and relying upon new filing technologies.

      After the October 1917 revolution, Victor Serge visited the headquarters of the Okhrana with a bolshevik official (I do not remember whether he was invited, or whether he convinced the official to let him do the visit).

      He was aghast. On the walls of the headquarters were displayed the entire structures of practically every anarchist, socialist-revolutionary and bolshevik organization that counted. Everything represented as graphs, linking every member with an indication of their role and personal details. Even the most secretive terrorist cells were there. The Okhrana had an almost total awareness of its enemies, and that still did not prevent the tsarist regime from collapsing after decades of bombings and assassinations.

      This episode is reported in the very nifty book by Victor Serge entitled “Ce que tout révolutionnaire doit savoir de la répression” — I do not know whether it was ever translated into English.

      Of course, the bolshevik promptly put the tsarist information to use in order to eliminate their SR and anarchist adversaries.

      1. Old Jake

        Makes one wonder which side said Okhrana were on, no? The ultimate insiders, so to speak.

        1. Daniil Adamov

          That is a good question. The Okhrana as a whole was loyal to the monarchy (it was not quite cohesive enough to be faithful solely to itself, but then even the KGB did not quite manage that). On the other hand, many of its key figures had played a double game. Their most notorious agent, Yevno Azef, seemed to hate the revolutionary underground (after having seen it from the inside) and the government equally. He acted accordingly, using them to kill off each other in a controlled way until exposed. Sergei Zubatov also started as an Okhrana double-agent; later he tried to manipulate his superiors into adapting his social reform agenda.

  11. ChrisFromGA

    Crypto-fraud alert!

    It’s only civil fraud, so SBF won’t be getting a bunkmate to chat with about how to defraud investors using ones and zeroes.

    But Terraform founder Do Kwon was found liable by a jury in a civil fraud case involving “stable” coins:

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/terraform-founder-do-kwon-found-liable-in-sec-s-crypto-fraud-trial-built-on-lies/ar-BB1l99Xj

    Remember when they claimed the coins were “stable” because they were tethered to the USD? Fun times, turns out they cheated by injecting a huge amount of investor money:

    The SEC has said Kwon and Terraform secretly arranged to have a third party purchase large amounts of TerraUSD to prop up the price when the stablecoin slipped from its peg a year earlier, in May 2021. Kwon falsely attributed the recovery to the reliability of TerraUSD’s algorithms, according to the regulator.

    A small win for the SEC.

    #TheBezzle

  12. Vicky Cookies

    “What Liberals Get Wrong about White Rural Rage”: While the picking apart of the shoddy scholarship in the book discussed is a help, the author buries the lede, in the 11th paragraph: the phenomenon is one of “non-college educated whites”. Rural students are “one of the least likely groups to attend college, and one of the most likely to drop out.”, he later writes. There are also several mentions of a “politics of place”. Gathering these together, we might make a few inferences about class which are, apparently, inaccessible to a professional political scientist, and one who states that “the problem the Democrats haven’t been able to solve isn’t policy; it’s politics”.
    I’m not quite sure how one makes sense of a society without being able to distinguish between the classes. It seems that the types of analyses applied in the place of ones rooted in class lead towards these blurry explanations, caricatures and stereotypes.
    Conservatism among whites in the rural south is understandable without class, too, or touching it only obliquely. Conservatism in a country with a historical racial hierarchy, for members of the dominant group, would seem obviously to include views of racial supremacy, which the author concedes correlate with Trump support. It also seems clear that when lower-class members of that group (and others, too) are under assault by policy, a conservative mindset is almost a means of self-defense, and the natural red herring to toss up in order to redirect the consequent ‘rage’ or ‘resentment’ would be race. Thus, race-baiting from the Republicans and the Democrats, or, as the author would have it, the right and the left. It’s a wonderful means to obscure just who it is going to the bank with all the money. Incidentally, Barbara Walter (not that one) wrote a surprisingly decent book (“How Civil Wars Start”) which holds that the erosion of the privileges of dominant groups predicts political violence. We don’t have to look at it through an exclusively racial lens; Turchin’s theory of elite overproduction fits nicely over it as well.

    1. griffen

      Cue the hilarious SNL skit from back in the day, aka when the Lonely Island guys were doing seriously funny work and usually with Justin Timberlake along for the performance. They did some very funny skits!

      It’s my D*ck (pic) in a box…I can’t link to a Youse Tuber clip since this laptop imitation called a chromebook is a working failure …

  14. Daniil Adamov

    France is following in Scotland’s footsteps here, is it not? Although it already has fine form, having criminalised “verbal support for terrorism” and then used this to punish Mbala Mbala for making a questionable joke after the post-Charlie Hebdo free speech march.

    In Russia, we already have comparable anti-free speech laws to what France had up to now (no saying things that could be interpreted as favouring terrorism, etc.). I wonder if Putin will lower himself enough to copy this latest Western novelty as well. I also wonder what Doctorow and his interlocutors would say about it.

    1. The Rev Kev

      I wondered if anybody else was thinking about Scotland’s hate crime laws. You know what I am waiting for? For some person to be arrested for dissent against the Narrative in something that they said in their living room or even their bedroom. It goes to Court and that person said that it was a private conversation and there is no proof of what was actually said anyway. At that point the prosecutor would say. ‘If it pleases the Court, we have gone to Amazon with a warrant and have a copy of what was said as recorded by their Alexa device which we will now present now.’ Can you imagine?

  15. The Rev Kev

    ‘Dances_with_Bears
    @bears_with
    French DefMin Lecornu telephoned Shoigu Wednesday to talk for an hour. French media claim terrorism was the topic. In fact, Shoigu warned against deployment of 1,500 French forces in the Ukraine, planned for this month.’

    As I said in a previous comment, the Russians would have no choice but to kill those men. If they do not, then more and more NATO contingents will be sent in like from Poland and Romania, those nations would then declare an Article 4 which would turn those contingents into an integrated NATO force (estimated to be eventually 60,000 men) and that they have a mission to defend parts of the Ukraine such as Odessa and the Dnieper river. And that is how you get a shooting war between NATO and the Russian Federation. And the US? The Biden White House would be loving this but because there are elections in only seven months, that the US would not send in actual troop formations but would help with logistical support. It will have to happen soon as the Ukraine is getting desperate. How desperate?

    ‘If you go down to the front today,
    you’re sure of a big surprise…’

    https://twitter.com/djuric_zlatko/status/1776172966876692879

    1. Feral Finster

      Korybko said much the same thing yesterday.

      Macron’s statements about how France won’t need backup and won’t call for it are so much hot air and everyone knows it.

      1. vao

        Neither can I. Yandex seems to want to translate the URL, not the page the URL points at.

      2. Brian L

        Did you click “Translate Page” in bottom right of destination language box after pasting the url? After clicking “Translate Page” the requested page opens in a new tab and is translated. It does a much better job on Russian to English than google, IMO (at least for readability, I don’t know Russian so I cannot speak to accuracy). Just copy the address of the translated page to share it. Here’s an example.

    2. griffen

      I’d think Luntz is in a recent mode of making quite a few reasonable, salient points. He made a comparable comment in the past week or two, maybe that was on CNN I wish to recall. Discussing the lawfare at work and the legal minutiae and particulars of the varied cases against one candidate for President.

      In a three way race, legitimately what or who is going to be the lesser of these evils we get to “choose” come early November?

    3. Emma

      Wait until somebody tells Luntz about how Harry Truman got nominated instead of Wallace in 1944.

    4. ddt

      They did it 4 years ago, in PA I believe where they tried to kick out the Greens/Jill Stein on a technicality. This is now standard operating procedure to “defend democracy” dontcha know?

      1. mrsyk

        Yes. This is standard operating procedure at this point. Not sure how Luntz overlooked that part.

  20. Feral Finster

    “Freedom of speech in France? Think again… Gilbert Doctorow (Anthony L). So now, shades of the Cultural Revolution or the Stasi, citizens can denounce each other to the authorities.”

    TPTB scream ever more loudly about “Muh Democracy” “Muh Freedom” “Muh Rule Of Law” even as these things are ignored or denigrated.

  21. Sebastian

    RE: Student Loan Forgiveness: A few questions to consider… Should a sitting US president have the power to cancel debts owed to the US government? If so, where in the Constitution or subsequent law is such power granted to the President? If we allow President Biden to “cancel” loans to former college students, how will that power to forgive debts due to the US government be used by future Presidents? Readers can imagine President Trump II forgiving lease payments due by corporations to drill on public lands OR grazing fees being waved for US ranchers using public lands OR government agency home loans being forgiven en masse. Shall we allow the President to have such powers? The person who expresses snarky reprisal – in today’s links – to the Democrat leaders who are trying to limit unconstitutional Presidential power to forgive loans should consider that Federal Student Loan forgiveness will lead to Any Federal Loan forgiveness if it is not checked now. If it is the will of the majority to forgive personal debts to the US government, let’s pass a law and make it legal! Such forgiveness adds to the national debt. Is that Okay?

    1. Es s Ce Tera

      If a sitting president pays off the aforementioned debts, is it technically correct to say he/she “cancelled the debt”? I suspect they’re misusing the terms.

    2. marym

      The student loan forgiveness that the Biden administration has done so far is under a law that passed in 2007 (Public Service Loan Forgiveness) and a revised income-driven repayment plan (such plans having been available since 1993). He is reported to be announcing on Monday a forgiveness plan based on the Higher Education Act of 1965.

      https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/22/politics/biden-student-loan-forgiveness-supreme-court/index.html
      https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/05/politics/student-loan-debt-biden-proposals/index.html

      He (and Republicans and other Democrats) shouldn’t have made student loans non-dischargeable in bankruptcy. They should be doing more, not less, to provide debt relief in this and other areas; and to make some kinds of debt less likely in the future (for example with free public higher eduction and publicly funded universal health insurance).

  22. The Rev Kev

    “3D printed homes? Trudeau announces $600 million for homebuilding innovations”

    This is truly a brilliant idea on Trudeau’s part. It’s just a shame that Canada does not have access to anything that they could build houses out of. Stuff that could be sourced locally and not imported and ideally that could be regenerated.

    1. Don

      Perhaps we could grind up trees and mix them with… sumthin, and then use the paste to print houses?

      1. zach

        HA! Houses! Made out of trees! That’s a good one. Too bad that’ll NEVER happen.

        Also, don’t give them any ideas…

    2. Kouros

      Trudeau has promised so many things and has fallen so short of them… He was called a liar…

  23. The Rev Kev

    “Cropped out, banned, airbrushed: the school photos that show the ugly face of Britain today ‘

    This has got to be one of the most vilest descriptive articles that I have ever read. And it is actually happening right now.

    1. Ben Panga

      You’re right Kev, it’s really disgusting. Is it because schools want perfect Instagram fantasy photos or because parents do?

      I resonated with this line near the end:

      “That is the thing with true ugliness. It does not come in the shape of a wheelchair, a cleft lip, white cane or scars. It sits in prejudice, digging and clawing its way into our culture until one day the nice man who is taking your child’s school photo asks her to hide her hearing aids.”

      —

      Tangentially – when teaching at a school in S Korea, I had a mixed race colleague from South Africa. Our school photos were heavily lightened to make her look white, and the rest of us look ghostly. The boss said he had to do it so that prospective parents wouldn’t be put off. Definitely the most openly racist culture I’ve lived in. The SA colleague would get racist abuse shouted/muttered at her in the street most days. And this wasn’t in the backwoods, it was in Busan the second largest city.

      1. JBird4049

        I think, but this is only because of a gut feeling, that being different outside of the approved forms is increasingly less acceptable; this includes the DEI movement as physical and mental disabilities are not what is celebrated. The increasing general economic difficulties, political and legal repression, general insanity, and simmering violence, makes people want to create and enforce a Potemkin Reality where the differing nails are hammered very flat and out of sight.

        There is also the reality that those people of the good or right class, the non-Deplorables, have access from birth to all the medical care that reduces, if it cannot fix, any issues. Just look at the perfectly shaped and and arranged brightly gleaming teeth of the upper classes, which speaks of lifelong quality dental care. Which many, perhaps most, Americans do not have.

        Perfect teeth, skin, and hair covering a slender body is what is demanded for success (and survival) in America.

        Well, I think I will show my crooked teeth and wear my hearing aids with some pride. However, nobody has ever asked to not take my pictures just because of my aids. Any discomfort was of a more organic, honest, acceptable one of the unknown, which most people have of something, not the pernicious one of today’s demand for a certain kind of agreed perfection while seeing an ugly stain in the different. We are regressing as a society.

          1. The Rev Kev

            Where prejudice became a science. The only reason that we do not have a Gattaca today is that the bulk of our elites would not be up to standard.

  24. ex-PFC Chuck

    The Duran video/transcript with Michael Hudson, Glen Diesen, and Alexander Mercouris is the deepest dig I’ve ever encountered into the root causes of what’s going on in the world today. Definitely a must watch/read. Don’t miss it.

    1. Emma

      I find the Hudson/Desai discussions much more interesting and in depth. Not Hudson’s fault but Mercouris and even Diesen don’t seem to fully grasp what he is saying through the discussion.

      Desai is a great Marxist scholar in her own right and she knows Hudson very well. So it’s always interesting for me to see where she agree and adds to, or very politely pushes back, on Hudson’s points.

      1. lyman alpha blob

        I’ve noticed the Duran guys aren’t really good on the econ front. I don’t think they understand it nearly as well as they do geopolitics, which is their strong suit. They don’t talk economics often, but when they do, they bring on some pretty sketchy characters, including David Sacks recently.

      2. ex-PFC Chuck

        Agree that the Hudson/Desai conversations are in more depth, and as such they probably appeal more to people who are deeply familiar with the subject of economics. But the very fact that someone such as Mercouris was involved in this discussion, a widely informed man but not one deeply familiar with the subject, I believe made this a much better discussion for the general audience.

  25. Sub-Boreal

    re: video clip of Arizona protest surveillance vehicle

    The immediate fix seems rather obvious – just pop a paper bag or pillow case over the camera on the mast affixed to the rear of the vehicle. It’s a bit of reach, and if it’s going to be considered confrontational to stand on the bumper to do this, there should be a way to deliver the bag via a stick or other implement. Easy!

    1. Wukchumni

      Cops don’t dig you messing with anything of theirs, as a rule.

      I would go with plan B and have everybody wear matching Bob Uecker masks~

      1. Cassandra

        I would go with plan B and have everybody wear matching Bob Uecker masks~

        …or Guy Fawkes.

    2. Es s Ce Tera

      In don’t think these surveillance vehicles are cops. The cops nearby always seem aware but also under instructions not to interfere if they come under attack or attention. Besides, local police always have their own clearly marked surveillance vehicles. This makes me think they’re trying to avoid a situation where anyone is charged with property destruction, thus creating a legal case which necessitates revealing who owns/operates these vehicles.

    1. Yves Smith Post author

      John Willams does not have the capacity to produce ANY credible stats. Please do not link to them.

      It is visually obvious his inflation measure is garbage. He just added a set % to the official inflation numbers.

      He is very good in his compilation of how statistical measures have changed over time.

  27. matt

    re What Liberals Get Wrong About ‘White Rural Rage’ — Almost Everything

    i definitely get this. i think one of the major failures of the democratic party is its alignment with the PMC and how much this alienates rural voters. people dont support trump because they are stupid or racist, they do so because he doesnt support the PMC. and that is somewhat admirable. i also do think the question of racism is always more nuanced than ‘people support trump because they are racists’ because the question becomes (for me) ‘why are they racist?’ [obligatory caveat about how racism is bad and i am not defending it, merely looking for an explanation. this is as a preemptive defense against any failure of mine to effectively communicate my point]

    the article touches on the point of a ‘sense of place and community’ which i think in part explains that. but i think also, race relations become a boogeyman to wave in front of people to distract them from the actual issues by causing infighting. similar to how in the middle ages misogyny was encouraged to cause a split between men and women to do the classic infighting while those in power remain in power (silvia federichi covers this). or the classic example of the rainbow coalition being shuttered by cointelpro. what always strikes me the most is that these people see the issues with society. they want those fixed. that desire is one of the most beautiful things out there. but then this anger is directed at the wrong place.

    for a while now i have been enjoying channel 5’s coverage of aggressive trump supporters. he does some really great interviewing and its caused me to realize that people are firstly, involved in a cult because they are looking for meaning and community (who isn’t?) and secondly, because they are experiencing issues, just again, supporting the wrong solution.

    Link to video interviewing people at the border convoy, free on youtube. Channel 5 has also produced a documentrary called ‘This Place Rules’ that also covers this theme.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sRvgsJbKgI

    1. digi_owl

      Yeah, i get the impression that the shift to Trump happened when Sanders got the metaphorical shiv by the HRC backers.

      Because when i see rural i see people far closer to the primary sector of the economy, people that see first hand what it takes to keep a nation running. Food on the table, roof over the head, etc.

  28. Sub-Boreal

    Here is the full text for the paywalled NYT article, “The Problem With Saying ‘Sex Assigned at Birth'”:

    As you may have noticed, “sex” is out, and “sex assigned at birth” is in. Instead of asking for a person’s sex, some medical and camp forms these days ask for “sex assigned at birth” or “assigned sex” (often in addition to gender identity). The American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association endorse this terminology; its use has also exploded in academic articles. The Cleveland Clinic’s online glossary of diseases and conditions tells us that the “inability to achieve or maintain an erection” is a symptom of sexual dysfunction, not in “males,” but in “people assigned male at birth.”

    This trend began around a decade ago, part of an increasing emphasis in society on emotional comfort and insulation from offense – what some have called “safetyism.” “Sex” is now often seen as a biased or insensitive word because it may fail to reflect how people identify themselves. One reason for the adoption of “assigned sex,” therefore, is that it supplies respectful euphemisms, softening what to some nonbinary and transgender people, among others, can feel like a harsh biological reality. Saying that someone was “assigned female at birth” is taken to be an indirect and more polite way of communicating that the person is biologically female. The terminology can also function to signal solidarity with trans and nonbinary people, as well as convey the radical idea that our traditional understanding of sex is outdated.

    The shift to “sex assigned at birth” may be well intentioned, but it is not progress. We are not against politeness or expressions of solidarity, but “sex assigned at birth” can confuse people and creates doubt about a biological fact when there shouldn’t be any. Nor is the phrase called for because our traditional understanding of sex needs correcting – it doesn’t.

    This matters because sex matters. Sex is a fundamental biological feature with significant consequences for our species, so there are costs to encouraging misconceptions about it.

    Sex matters for health, safety and social policy and interacts in complicated ways with culture. Women are nearly twice as likely as men to experience harmful side effects from drugs, a problem that may be ameliorated by reducing drug doses for females. Males, meanwhile, are more likely to die from Covid-19 and cancer, and commit the vast majority of homicides and sexual assaults. We aren’t suggesting that “assigned sex” will increase the death toll. However, terminology about important matters should be as clear as possible.

    More generally, the interaction between sex and human culture is crucial to understanding psychological and physical differences between boys and girls, men and women. We cannot have such understanding unless we know what sex is, which means having the linguistic tools necessary to discuss it. The Associated Press cautions journalists that describing women as “female” may be objectionable because “it can be seen as emphasizing biology,” but sometimes biology is highly relevant. The heated debate about transgender women participating in female sports is an example; whatever view one takes on the matter, biologically driven athletic differences between the sexes are real.

    When influential organizations and individuals promote “sex assigned at birth,” they are encouraging a culture in which citizens can be shamed for using words like “sex,” “male” and “female” that are familiar to everyone in society, as well as necessary to discuss the implications of sex. This is not the usual kind of censoriousness, which discourages the public endorsement of certain opinions. It is more subtle, repressing the very vocabulary needed to discuss the opinions in the first place.

    A proponent of the new language may object, arguing that sex is not being avoided, but merely addressed and described with greater empathy. The introduction of euphemisms to ease uncomfortable associations with old words happens all the time – for instance “plus sized” as a replacement for “overweight.” Admittedly, the effects may be short-lived, because euphemisms themselves often become offensive, and indeed “larger-bodied” is now often preferred to “plus sized.” But what’s the harm? No one gets confused, and the euphemisms allow us to express extra sensitivity. Some see “sex assigned at birth” in the same positive light: It’s a way of talking about sex that is gender-affirming and inclusive.

    The problem is that “sex assigned at birth”- unlike “larger-bodied”- is very misleading. Saying that someone was “assigned female at birth” suggests that the person’s sex is at best a matter of educated guesswork. “Assigned” can connote arbitrariness – as in “assigned classroom seating” – and so “sex assigned at birth” can also suggest that there is no objective reality behind “male” and “female,” no biological categories to which the words refer.

    Contrary to what we might assume, avoiding “sex” doesn’t serve the cause of inclusivity: not speaking plainly about males and females is patronizing. We sometimes sugarcoat the biological facts for children, but competent adults deserve straight talk. Nor are circumlocutions needed to secure personal protections and rights, including transgender rights. In the Supreme Court’s Bostock v. Clayton County decision in 2020, which outlawed workplace discrimination against gay and transgender people, Justice Neil Gorsuch used “sex,” not “sex assigned at birth.”

    A more radical proponent of “assigned sex” will object that the very idea of sex as a biological fact is suspect. According to this view – associated with the French philosopher Michel Foucault and, more recently, the American philosopher Judith Butler – sex is somehow a cultural production, the result of labeling babies male or female. “Sex assigned at birth” should therefore be preferred over “sex,” not because it is more polite, but because it is more accurate.

    This position tacitly assumes that humans are exempt from the natural order. If only! Alas, we are animals. Sexed organisms were present on Earth at least a billion years ago, and males and females would have been around even if humans had never evolved. Sex is not in any sense the result of linguistic ceremonies in the delivery room or other cultural practices. Lonesome George, the long-lived Galápagos giant tortoise, was male. He was not assigned male at birth – or rather, in George’s case, at hatching. A baby abandoned at birth may not have been assigned male or female by anyone, yet the baby still has a sex. Despite the confusion sown by some scholars, we can be confident that the sex binary is not a human invention.

    Another downside of “assigned sex” is that it biases the conversation away from established biological facts and infuses it with a sociopolitical agenda, which only serves to intensify social and political divisions. We need shared language that can help us clearly state opinions and develop the best policies on medical, social and legal issues. That shared language is the starting point for mutual understanding and democratic deliberation, even if strong disagreement remains.

    What can be done? The ascendance of “sex assigned at birth” is not an example of unhurried and organic linguistic change. As recently as 2012 The New York Times reported on the new fashion for gender-reveal parties, “during which expectant parents share the moment they discover their baby’s sex.” In the intervening decade, sex has gone from being “discovered” to “assigned” because so many authorities insisted on the new usage. In the face of organic change, resistance is usually futile. Fortunately, a trend that is imposed top-down is often easier to reverse.

    Admittedly, no one individual, or even a small group, can turn the lumbering ship of English around. But if professional organizations change their style guides and glossaries, we can expect that their members will largely follow suit. And organizations in turn respond to lobbying from their members. Journalists, medical professionals, academics and others have the collective power to restore language that more faithfully reflects reality. We will have to wait for them to do that.

    Meanwhile, we can each apply Strunk and White’s famous advice in “The Elements of Style” to “sex assigned at birth”: omit needless words.

    Alex Byrne is a professor of philosophy at M.I.T. and the author of “Trouble With Gender: Sex Facts, Gender Fictions.” Carole K. Hooven is an evolutionary biologist, a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, an associate in the Harvard psychology department, and the author of “T: The Story of Testosterone, the Hormone That Dominates and Divides Us.”

    1. Lefty Godot

      Talking about “sex assigned at birth” makes sense in the context of babies born with “ambiguous” (outward signs of both female and male) genitalia, or with unusual chromosomal variants like XYY, etc. A doctor may make a decision to assign a baby like that one particular sex on the birth documentation. And even perform surgical alterations to make the baby’s outward appearance more in line with that assignment, although there are arguments against this. But cases like that are rare. So the question becomes how many rare variants in every category should we be trying to capture/represent on forms, and for what purpose?

      1. Dessa

        How many indeed? Doctors don’t test for chromosomes at birth, yet gender essentialists insist that the chromosome is the ultimate arbiter of sex, so pure and decisive that it leaves no ambiguities.

        The answer is we can only guess at how many cases are “rare” because chromosomes are only tested when a problem arises, but a doctor taking a gander at a baby’s genitals is fast, easy, and cheap. Yes, there are XY people with what appear even to doctors as vaginas at birth. But they’re declared female. Are the chromosomes wrong or is the doctor? When a form asks for our sex, is it after chromosomes or crotches?

        Theres an easy way to resolve this potential ambiguity: you specify exactly what you’re after by stating it plainly but politely. It’d be a bit embarassing for a random form to ask “were you born with a penis or a vagina?” Asking what a person’s assigned sex at birth is is a more genteel approach.

        To say nothing for the possibility that a trans person might say their identified sex when it’s specifically important to know what dangly bits you were born with.

        This isn’t a “woke” phrase. It’s the most precise phrasing we have to identify specific facts about a person.

        Ironically, its the gender essentialists here who are insisting on blurring lines here for the sake of ideology.

        1. bobert

          Sex isn’t fully determined by chromosomal development. There is sexual differentiation independent of the chromosomes, it’s the development of either the Wolfian or Mullerian ducts.

          Wolfian develops into a male, Mullerian into a female. Chromosomal sex can introduce some rare ambiguities such as vaginal development on a male etc. but, like all mammals, human sexuality is binary. So you are right to criticize the gender “essentialists”, who aren’t talking about gender anyway when they take an essentialist stand, if they believe that sex is wholly chromosomal. But you are wrong in a more profound way as you ignore the basic binary nature of us.

          How do you know chromosomes are only tested when there is a problem? Simple common sense tells us that there are fields of study that will examine people’s chromosomes for reasons other than determining their sex at birth. Here’s one study that places the numbers at .018%.

          https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12476264/

          although the full document isn’t free.

          So odds are noting the observed sex is a very, very safe bet. And if there is some sort of chromosomal aberration in the development, it’s still possible to identify a male or a female.

        1. JBird4049

          IIRC, sexual identity is far more hardwired than sexual orientation. The sexual identity almost always follows physical identity. Much more than any preferred sexual orientation. Just as a suggestion, if it is one of those very, very rare cases of complete sexual ambiguity, why don’t we ask the child, preferably when they are a teenager and the later, the better. By then, the person will know what it is. Rather than doing anything permanent beforehand.

          The rush to make life altering decisions, followed up with drugs and surgery, is flatly unwise, which is the reason why I have always been suspicious. In the past, great care was done and anything permanent was only done after everyone had agreed. Unlike today.

          1. Lefty Godot

            I may have the terminology wrong, but to me “sex” is what you call physical identity while “gender” is what you call sexual identity. The first is a physically evidenced phenomenon where I would say the options are “female, male, intersex”. The latter is partly a psychological but even moreso a social construct, which can obviously differ (and have more variations) in different types of societies. So gender is at least in part a performative social act. And sexual orientation is even more based on social factors and what the boundaries of “normal” behavior are defined as. Even the LGBTQIA+ flag waving now still leaves out (or even abominates) a range of sexual behaviors that some people prefer. As a part of Western civilization with its very large heritage of Christian notions about everything, we are still working our way out from under the original Christian notion that any type of sex which does not have a high likelihood of leading to pregnancy is evil. Which left one with a very narrow set of possibilities. The woke are fixated on their own neat categories (and hierarchies) of everything, but I see no reason to treat them as if they have the final answers. It’s a mess, but one that 1% are using to sow division among the 99% and keep us fighting stupid battles rather than uniting against them.

            1. JBird4049

              Yes, biological sex (male and female) and social genders (male/man and female/woman) are used in fields like anthropology. Then there is sexual orientation, which in modern Western Civilization is broadly accepted as heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual.

              In many other cultures especially those that have been westernized and historically there are often more social genders.

              I think that there has a very deliberate conflation of the different categories of biological sex, social gender, and sexual orientation for political reasons; there is also the often extreme ignorance of not only our society’s past, but of humanity great complexity past and present. I remember when some gays and lesbians were claiming that bisexuals did not exist because you just had to be either heterosexual or homosexual, and bisexuals were just people that could not make up their minds. That many straights were saying similar things and using conversion therapy to try to force people to become straight, usually unsuccessfully, must have slipped their minds.

              How does one have a discussion with people who conflate different things and call you a hater if you do not agree with them in every particularly? Children having vicious temper tantrums. It seems like the goal is to have everything legitimized without limits, never mind a philosophical or reasoned basis for it. Complete freedom without thought or caution is a good way to destroy both the individual and his society.

              I could easily be wrong about something, but if I try to talk with the zealots about certain things, I find it exhausting and possibly academically dangerous if at school.

              1. Ben Panga

                Jbird4049 I find myself in complete agreement with you.

                IMO most of the visible debate is about 2 things:

                1. Semantics. This is a stupid conversation that makes me want to bang my head against the wall and I refuse to engage when others (on either side) get worked up about it

                2: Surgery, drugs that under 18s can be given that alter their physiology, perhaps permanently.

                I have many trans friends (lots who have taken hormones, a few who have had reassignment surgery), have had long term relationships with trans women, and had a long period of experimenting with gender stuff in my 30s as I wrestled with how I did not fit with societal ideals of masculinity, and indeed had many traits often societally only acceptable in women.

                My 2c: None of my trans friends care that much about the “are trans women, women” debate . The vast majority would agree that transition is a confusing process and that no decisions should be taken lightly or at a young age (under 18). They don’t care about words much; they are much more worried about being murdered in bathrooms, employment rights, etc

                There are a small number of very loud “trans activists” who dominate the debate. They are often entitled, privileged idiots, and take militant positions that most trans ppl would disagree with. They argue emotionally in absolutes. Sadly these people are who many think of when hearing “trans people”. They do trans people great disservice. I’m resisting calling out particular individuals.

                There is also a lot of disingenuous argument from those who shout loudest on the other side of the debate. Deliberate misconstruction, conflation and absurd “what if” arguments etc etc. Again these people do great disservice to women, parents and others who have legitimate concerns (eg on women only spaces).

                There are far more quiet people with nuanced positions. They get that being trans is complicated both for an individual and for others in society.

                If we can avoid getting lost on 1 and 2 above I think it’s possible to have productive conversations. Good faith conversation and compassion on both sides would work wonders.

                Tl;dr as with so much, the poisonous online and media conversation doesn’t relate to most people’s lives and is an obstacle to progress.

  29. Wukchumni

    Mexico’s president says country will break diplomatic ties with Ecuador, after police raid embassy ABC News.
    ~~~~~~~~
    …is it open season on sanctuaries* in cities?

    When I was in NZ for an extended stay in Auckland, sometimes i’d go to the US Consulate in order to read 3 day old Yankee fishwraps, hot off the 747. News spread like molasses back in the day.

    * I don’t know much about the subject, but i’ve stayed @ Embassy Suites a number of times with nary an incident to report

    2. ChrisFromGA

      If all it takes is one little raid to break diplomatic ties, why hasn’t Iran broken diplomatic ties with the US, and Israel, and why hasn’t China broken off relations with the US?

      (Belgrade, 1999)

  30. antidlc

    https://wendellpotter.substack.com/p/big-insurance-2023-revenues-reached
    BIG INSURANCE 2023: Revenues reached $1.39 trillion thanks to taxpayer-funded Medicaid and Medicare Advantage businesses
    The seven big for-profit U.S. health insurers, which also control access to prescription drugs, have seen revenues increase by over 345% in the last decade.

    The Affordable Care Act turned 14 on March 23. It has done a lot of good for a lot of people, but big changes in the law are urgently needed to address some very big misses and consequences I don’t believe most proponents of the law intended or expected.

    At the top of the list of needed reforms: restraining the power and influence of the rapidly growing corporations that are siphoning more and more money from federal and state governments – and our personal bank accounts – to enrich their executives and shareholders.

    1. GF

      I received notification that my Cigna Supplemental Medicare Insurance policy is being shuffled to “Medco Containment Life Insurance”. My wife has the same policy and has received no notification from Cigna.
      From Attachment 4 of the mailing we received:

      “In order to give you an opportunity to transfer your Policy to one of Cigna’s Medicare-designated affiliates, you are receiving this offer to transfer your Policy from Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company to Medco Containment Life Insurance Company.”

      I have 90 days to comply. Has anyone heard of Medco? If so, what is their track record for customer satisfaction? Cigna states they are leaving our state and withdrawing the Supplemental insurance from our market.

  31. Pat

    I’ve been ruminating about the Katie Phang regarding Judge Cannon’s ruling. If it is accurate it is very telling. The most benign reading is that Smith has got a good case but just wants a back up plan. The less benign one is that Smith knows he has a weak case but this is as much about keeping Trump active and draining his funds as it is about convicting him. They need the second trial to keep doing that. And similar to trying to keep everyone off the ballot, the Judge has just highlighted how unfair and devious this action is and contrary to the supposed guiding precepts of Justice.
    Watching Smith step all over these again and again in just the marked difference in standards for Trump and for Biden I have to go with the less benign reading.

  32. Ghost in the Machine

    My dream died, and now I’m here YouTube (Terry F). Detail on the academic precariat, from a German physicist.

    I’ve come across her videos on the Internet just randomly looking up physics topics. She does a good job at explanation. And she does a good critique of academia here.

  33. Tom Stone

    After reading that “Expose” of Israel’s AI targeting program that shows 90% accuracy ( For some value of “Accuracy” ) in identifying Hamas terrorists, several thoughts occurred to me.
    1) It’s excellent marketing.
    2) If the FBI isn’t already using this they will be soon, the shutdown of “Occupy” was straight out of the Israeli playbook.
    The Fibbies are going to need a LOT more SWAT teams and Ukraine might be a good place to do some recruiting.

  34. ISL

    Re: India punchline and the biden – Xi phone call, Mercouris had a very different take. Of course he read the entire official readouts (in his presentation, listened to at 1.5X) rather than pulling snippets (from news reports rather than original, who knows, but often US news reports are filled with spin and backsplaining), and concluded it was a desperate call from Biden to beg Xi to pressure Russia to accept a ceasefire, and Xi read him the Taiwan riot act.

    I must say, the recent deployment of marines 3 km off the Chinese coast suggests MK is on the wrong track that the US-China relationship is improving.

  35. ISL

    Re: India punchline and the biden – Xi phone call, Mercouris had a very different take. Of course he read the entire official readouts (in his presentation, listened to at 1.5X) rather than pulling snippets (from news reports rather than original, who knows, but often US news reports are filled with spin and backsplaining), and concluded it was a desperate call from Biden to beg Xi to pressure Russia to accept a ceasefire, and Xi read him the Taiwan riot act.

    I must say, the recent deployment of marines 3 km off the Chinese coast suggests MK is on the wrong track that the US-China relationship is improving.

    1. hk

      One thing that I keep bringing back up is that, by ROC’s own accounting, Jinmen is part of Fujian Province, ie Chinese mainland. So the Marines are not 3km off of Chinese coast. They are actually in mainland China.

  36. Glen

    Re: My dream died, and now I’m here

    I watched this yesterday. It’s true that at certain institutions research has ALWAYS been about pulling in the grants, but it sounds like grant selection in certain topics is more, what, ossified?

    I can tell you what I see in the manufacturing megacorp space I inhabit. I always envied the R&D guys I worked with on the factory floor – not so much that they could be R&D, but that they were allowed to fail, they only had to have successful projects 40% of the time. I am doing almost exactly the same work in many instances, but have to be successful every time. But R&D even at this relatively low level was constantly being cut, and the larger dedicated R&D organization was also constantly being slashed. The R&D guys would call up and ask if we had any funding/projects only to be told that we were underfunded for every project we have at the time.

    Corporate pulled a fire everybody in the main R&D organization, and then set an identical organization at a new location, and offered the displaced people their jobs back with lower pay and benefits so most of the dedicated R&D people left. I don’t think corporate understood what that would do, I think it put a stake in the heart of an R&D organization that had done some good work. I worked closely with them to get some very good projects done, and afterwards went back and showed the managers that we were able to patent the results of the project, and it was down working on the factory floor making product. But it had gone over budget, so the manager was done with it even though other production lines were interested in implementing it.

    Real research and development becomes almost impossible to justify if it’s all based on internal rate of return or quarterly earnings. Most R&D does not result in anything immediately profitable, it’s a grind, with dead ends all over the place. Yet, America use to be good at this, or at least better. And as I mentioned above, having some R&D experts you could call on the phone, and get on the team is a real benefit. Later, we would call them only to find out the experts had left, and the guy we were talking with knew less about the technology than we did.

    Peter Thiel is one of those which argues that the rate of real progress in science has slowed. I think it has, but so much of that progress was a tremendous burst of research done to win WW2 and then an inertial like follow on from that for the next 30-40 years propelled by the Cold War. It just doesn’t seem like this is a country that values pure research that way. I suspect Manhatten Projects (lots of people, money) are what will be required to make critical jumps in fusion power or even modular reactors. I just don’t see American elites willing to do something like that – neoliberalism does not allow it.

    1. Terry Flynn

      Glen & Ghost ITM re academia problems. I like your comments and first of all, I wouldn’t have proposed that NC link to Sabine if she were one person expressing concerns over academia. However, Sabine is the fifth or sixth person I follow this year with a solid academic or other research based background who posted to YT about utter burn-out and disillusionment with the system generally and YT in particular.

      Some criticism has been of the “ossification” that Glen mentions: I am reminded of the insult thrown at some parts of science – “it’s not even wrong”. To throw my own anecdote out there, I vividly remember the Blair-Milburn “turn the health funding taps on full” around the turn of the millennium when it became clear that 18 years of Conservative neglect was in danger of collapsing support for publicly funded healthcare and healthcare research; something had to be done fast. The publicly funded institute I worked at did a 180: the short-termist bean-counter-led approach to academic research goals was out and the “old way” of “just giving us 5 years to do our thing” was back in.

      The reference to the Manhattan project is interesting. I got to meet and work with someone who from around 1960 onwards had worked for scientists (mostly the mathematicians) who were in some way connected to key members of that project during WW2. There definitely was a much more resource-intensive long-term approach to research. My key colleague was working as an emeritus Professor post-2000 and he recalled to me how glad his generation were to retire in the run up that year, having seen the short-termism and drying up of fresh ideas taking root from the 1980s onwards.

      The “extraction of value” from these YouTubers has accelerated massively recently and you see it in the weariness in the videos of people like Sabine. These are people who, I suspect, are too busy to have ever seen a post by NC or one of the bloggers NC links to; they don’t really think deeply about the systemic issues that are collapsing their fields. Hence, they’re just quitting. They have reached the point that running sufficiently fast just to stay still is no longer possible.

      One final observation: some of the YouTubers I watch have had an instinctive knowledge that YouTube alone as their “voice” is dangerous. They grouped together to post less-censored content via Nebula streaming service. This was clearly set up as a streaming service that intended to be less of a neoliberal profit-extracting machine than YT. However, the “bundling” deal Nebula had with Curiosity Stream has been cancelled (I learnt by accident – they hadn’t told me!) At the end of this year I’ll have to decide if I want to fund either/both. I suspect Nebula is dying. Particularly since a larger and larger proportion of their news output is by channels like TL;DR News who put out videos announcing how Russia is on the point of defeat in Ukraine, Biden is great and all the other nonsense NC routinely skewers. We are rapidly hitting Lowest Common Denominator TV/streaming. Academia was captured years ago and will not fight back.

  39. Dessa

    > making student loan forgiveness illegal

    Democrats are telling on Joe Biden with this, who insists he tried to forgive student loans but he couldn’t: Why would Congress need to ban loan forgiveness if it was already impossible?

  40. Lena

    It’s so pretty in my path of totality this evening. Clear blue sky. Not a cloud in sight. The weather is perfect. All the spring flowers, bushes and trees are in bloom. We are supposed to be getting 3x our population coming to see the eclipse, but right now, it’s very peaceful.

  42. Ben Panga

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/06/russia-accused-of-using-chemical-gas-attacks-against-ukrainian-soldiers

    “Ukraine soldiers describe ‘almost daily’ illegal gas attacks as invaders seek to dislodge them from embedded positions”

    Hands up if you’ve seen this movie before?

    “A CS gas grenade was provided to the Telegraph for verification by Rebekah Maciorowski, an American combat medic and a qualified nurse serving in the Ukrainian army.”

    The desperation for escalation is palpable.

  43. Brian In Seattle

    https://jonathanturley.org/2024/04/05/federal-judge-hits-cdc-over-withholding-data-on-adverse-vaccine-reports/

    This article mentions that “the lawsuit by the Informed Consent Action Network, revealed “nearly 8% of V-safe users said they required medical care, another 12% couldn’t perform normal daily activities and yet another 13% said they missed work or school.”

    Oddly enough the number of 8 percent also roughly matches the number of people in multiple WA state counties who didn’t go back to get their second dose of vaccine in the initial series

    This dashboard here – https://doh.wa.gov/data-statistical-reports/health-behaviors/immunization/covid-19-vaccination-data. You can click on each county and look at percent initiated and completed

    King County
    Initiated 91.5 percent
    Completed 82.5 percent
    Difference – 9 percent

    Snohomish County
    Initiated 79.1
    Completed 72.9 percent
    Difference – 6.2 percent

    This 5-9 percent number shows up in every county listed. One or a few is as low of a 3 percent difference

  44. Willow

    >Israel bombing Iranian embassy 1st April
    nailed the date back in Feb…

    Willow
    February 18, 2024 at 11:30 pm
    Just at thought. But if Israel was going to do Hezbollah (and Iran) the best time would be at the beginning or towards the end of Ramadan. Either mid March while people are adjusting to the rituals or beginning April as people are preoccupied with the celebratory end. Or to really screw with Westerners and catch everyone by surprise, 1st of April. So we’ve probably got another month or so to go before things get serious.

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