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Links 6/15/2024

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In Praise of the Paranormal Curiosity of Charles Fort, Patron Saint of Cranks Literary Hub (Anthony L)

The danger of decadence is also its value. We need more of it aeon (Anthony L)

Are you a precrastinator? The opposite of procrastinating has its downsides Guardian (Dr. Kevin)

The $100 Million Quest to Build the World’s Greatest Golf Ball Wall Street Journal

The Daily Heller: The Little-Known Legacy of the EP Print Magazine. Anthony L: “For (us) old farts.”

Dementia Breakthrough: Brain Scans Predict Disease Up to 9 Years Early ScienceAlert (Chuck L)

Can Psychedelics Improve Mental Health? Quanta (Dr. Kevin)

Alzheimer’s Slowed by Intensive Lifestyle Changes MedPage

#COVID-19

Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to incite fear of China vaccines Reuters (Paul R, neutrino)

Climate/Environment

Uranium Price Surge Reveals a World Returning to Nuclear Power Bloomberg

China?

What Western mainstream media won’t tell us about China MR Online (Anthony L)

DJI to the rescue? U.S. police want China drones despite Washington clampdown Nikkei

Europe risks trade war with China by hiking tariffs on its electric cars CNN

How Washington makes up a fake genocide but enables a real one South China Morning Post (Tom H)

Africa

South Africa’s Ramaphosa secures ruling coalition, but allies hold veto Al Jazeera (Kevin W)

Sudan’s army says it has killed US-sanctioned RSF Darfur commander Arab News

European Disunion

The euro’s share of global foreign exchange holdings fell last year amid concerns that plans to use frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine could further erode the appeal of Europe’s single currency Financial Times

The rise of the far right alarms German business leaders Economist

Old Blighty

Nigel Farage says he is ‘leader of the opposition’ after Reform UK poll boost Guardian (Kevin W)

Gaza

The international criminal court should investigate Israel’s hostage rescue raid Guardian (Dr. Kevin)

PATRICK LAWRENCE: The Afterlives of Lies Consortium News (Anthony L)

The story of the U.S. ‘floating dock’ built from the rubble of Gaza’s homes Mondoweiss

Yahya Sinwar’s Impossible Resolve Jospeh Jordan (Chuck L). Must read background. Note the one-para discussion of the Israel slaughter at the peaceful Right of Return protest. Norman Finkelstein has discussed the 253 UN report on that attack at length. Among the details are that Israel snipers targeted children and handicapped men 300 yards away, shooting (successfully) at their knees or below so as to inflict “life altering injuries.”

New Not-So-Cold War

Vladimir Putin’s Peace Proposal for Ukraine and Reengagement with Europe – June 2024 – ENG Subtitles Michael Ross, YouTube. Zach K: “Doc Rossi thoughtfully provides an index of topics and timestamps in the video description I watched about the first 15 then skipped to the ‘peace proposal.'”

Vladimir Putin sets out Ukraine ceasefire conditions Financial Times. Thin coverage in the Western media.

Moscow reveals next steps after Putin’s Ukraine offer RT

Denmark becomes first NATO member to invest in weapons production in Ukraine Anadolu Agency

US reporter Evan Gershkovich to stand trial in Russia on espionage charge France24

Nazi NMR is classified as a terrorist by the USA aftonbladet via machine translation. Micael T:

In spite of the Swedish Security Service not having any investigations going on against these three individuals. The Swedish vassal-government doesn’t even try to defend its citizens against unilateral terrorist-listing. Sure enough, NMR are unsavoury characters, they are Nazis after all, but when even the Swedish Security Services do not investigate them as terrorists, shouldn’t that lead to protests?

The real reason for the terrorist-listing is that NMR are strongly against NATO, Swedish NATO-membership and the Swedish-US Defence Cooperation Agreement (which is more like an occupation or surrender treaty for Sweden).

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Wells Fargo fires employees for ‘faking’ keyboard activity The Register. Lambert ran the FT’s version of this story yesterday. Chuck L: “As The Register subhead noted, ‘Homer Simpson was ahead of his time.'”

How Data-Fueled Neurotargeting Could Kill Democracy MIT Reader. Paul R:

This is a good article. It says what Cambridge Analytica was doing with all that facebook data. Classifying people’s personality types, picking out the neurotics (who were likely to be susceptible to emotional manipulation) and spewing tailored misinformation at them, supposedly to help the Trump campaign. It’s only been getting worse since then. It demystifies stuff that I think a lot of us had picked up on but not quite understood.

The Caucuses

Georgia’s protesters vow to stay on streets until government falls VOA

Immigration

Mexico’s tactic to cut immigration to the U.S.? Wear out migrants Los Angeles Times

Conflicts drive number of forcibly displaced people to record high Guardian

Imperial Collapse Watch

Crude propaganda? Rumours abound that Saudi Arabia is set to drop the petrodollar for the Chinese yuan New Arab. We said in comments yesterday that this was fake news. We alerted the Duran duo. Alexander Mercouris wrote back and said he’d spent hours trying to run this down and concluded it was baseless. He also concurred that the frequent claims made about the early 1970s US-Saudi petrodollar recycling arrangement were typically all wet. Alex Christoforu gave a short discussion in his talk today.

How the US government uses NGOs to corrupt ‘civil society’ around the world Glenn Diesen, RT

Trump

‘Brazen corruption’: Donald Trump is selling policies for a second term to the highest bidders Independent (furzy)

Biden. I am suddenly seeing non-stop Biden fundraising ads by Biden and Obama on the YouTubes by the Duran duo. Heretofore I was getting a huge number of “fix your slice”, generate your own power, home fitness, and in Thai, many many consumer product ads. Wonder if the Biden takeover extend to my other YT faves.

IN JOE MOTION Doddery Biden is ‘the worst he’s ever been’ – everyone is worried, say G7 insiders as video shows him shuffling away The Sun

What triggered Joe Biden to lose his temper at TikTok star and threaten to ‘throw his phone’ at a White House party as the president scrambles to earn love from influencers Daily Mail (Li). Anger and lack of impulse control are signs of dementia.

Kamala Harris is Biden’s secret weapon in North Carolina The Hill

The Washington Post’s Philip Bump Makes Last Pitch to Keep the Laptop “Conspiracy Theory” Alive Jonathan Turley

GOP Clown Car

DOJ says it won’t prosecute Attorney General Merrick Garland after House contempt vote CNN (Kevin W). Recall Peter Navarro is sitting in prison now for refusing to testify on the same basis, assertion of executive privilege.

Men-Only, Christian-Only Secret Society Gets More Secret TPM (Paul R)

Gunz

Supreme Court invalidates Trump-era bump stock ban The Hill

The NBA Is Monetizing A Public Health Crisis The Lever

Falling Apart Boeing Airplanes

Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Max goes into “Dutch roll” during Phoenix-to-Oakland flight CBS

AI

AI candidate running for Parliament in the U.K. says AI can humanize politics NBC

Class Warfare

The Costco of Housing is…Costco? Urban Proxima. Paul R:

Costco wants to bypass the prevailing wage requirement for a housing co-development (or whatever it’s called) by installing prefab housing from low-wage-place instead of building on site.

Antidote du jour. Tracie H: “Here’s a Canadian goose who looks very pleased that there’s green blades of grass, and perhaps edibles that hide within same.”

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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307 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    ‘RNC Research
    @RNCResearch
    Biden campaign spokesman Adrienne Elrod tries to spin the viral video of Biden wandering aimlessly across Italy as “disinformation” — and demands “social media platforms” censor it.’

    Adrienne Elrod is doing her own disinformation here – with the editing skills of MSNBC to help her. Here is the original tweeted video and note how Italy’s Meloni, who was on the other side of the pack, kind of shuffled sideways and even backwards (useful political skills) to rescue old Joe while the rest of the political pack crowded in for a group photo as if that was the intention all along-

    https://x.com/ClayTravis/status/1801303650091856158 (31 secs)

    1. DJG, Reality Czar

      The Rev Kev: The reaction here in Italy has been interesting. By and large, the cat is out of the bag. Joe Biden is non compos mentis.

      Giorgia Meloni’s gestures are quite normal for Italian society: Italians are very attentive to where other people are and what they are doing. So I would expect her to be the only one able to rescue Joe from his episode of dementia. (Marco Travaglio referred to it this morning, tartly, as Joe talking to that imaginary friend he talks to.)

      Also, it is more than obvious that he is suffering from flat affect. Look at that expressionless face. (And, again, as an Italian, Giorgia Meloni, who is notoriously intelligent, would have picked up on that. Her intelligence doesn’t mean that she has good politics, eh.)

      Jimmy Dore has posted a video of Joe Biden giving a speech at Borgo Egnazia and having a brain meltdown. The transcript is something like: “shwargle mashush wa hadno toto” (followed by some slogan) “and we vote for democracy and freedom.” And truth, justice, Steve Reeves, and the American Way.

      He’s dredging up his old speeches, where were plagiarized anyway, out of whatever (few) synapses aren’t coated with prions and haven’t snapped.

      Throw in the “I’m not filling my diaper moment” of a few days back.

      Joe is gone. It is time to stop pretending. The whole “stuttering” thingy is just a band-aid to make it look as if he isn’t deteriorating swiftly.

      As Yves Smith has commented, What we are seeing now is elder abuse.

      1. The Rev Kev

        It may be elder abuse, but he is one elder that deserves to be abused. His crimes and actions against people number in the hundreds of thousands at a minimum. Just think of his Crime Bill alone. I cannot think of one redeeming factor about him and the only reason that he is President is because the American political system is broken. If somebody asked me what the one thing that old Joe always does, I would answer that he always has to kick down, even if he does not need to. It is his nature.

          1. Chromex

            But then we reach the question of whether he is mentally competent enough to make such a decision. And, in fact, those closest to him have a duty ( to him and to the country) to provide him with the facts and with support for the decision to quit. In the name of power, none of those duties have been addressed.
            The delusional part of the DNC is that if a semi-competent old man wants to run then then the DNC ( which has the duties outlined above) should ignore duty and admire the Emperor’s clothes.

          2. Laura in So Cal

            So my Mom just died of Alzheimers and it was her primary diagnoses with no other major health problems. I spent 8+years watching her deteriorate and the last 2 years physically caring for her. I watched Joe Biden in 2020 in the democratic debates and told people that he had dementia. Most of my “blue” friends told me I was imagining things and they deny it to this day. My aunt did finally admit I was right last year.
            We did everything we could to protect my Mom from the horrible mental and emotional agony associated with losing yourself. There was a point at which we stopped putting her in difficult situations so she could pretend everything was OK. BUT we also had to protect other people. We took away her car keys and surrendered her drivers license, we warned caregivers about what would cause her to physically lash out, we shut down her finances (she loved qvc) to protect my dad’s future.
            What is happening to Joe Biden is elder abuse in my opinion and I blame his wife first and foremost.

            Obviously, this is a sore spot for me.

            2. Oh

              Sorry to hear about your mom. Genocide Joe is being propped up by both parties so they can have a marionette whose strings they can pull. Reminds me of the song by ABBA.

        3. Neutrino

          That charming old gentleman* just wants us all to play along with the charade as he continues to try to create his own reality fatuity.

          In other news, people around the world are getting tired of pretending, humoring and now tolerating such absurdities. That is not limited to The Doddering Belligerant Lying Fool and extends to workplaces, campuses and public spaces, and sometimes especially via media into homes.

          *Awaiting more humor, intentional or otherwise from Dr. Jill and the White House spokes-holes.

          1. Scott

            Who is going to the next step: both candidates are leaving our planet.
            What is to be done?
            We’re all watching from our armchairs, but no one is taking action!

        5. Emma

          Yeah, it’s elder abuse the way that releasing a demented elderly Godzilla on Tokyo is elder abuse.

          1. Reply

            Expect some bizarre event to preempt the debate. National security, mom, America, apple pie.

        2. Ignacio

          Knowing nothing about US election procedures… does this mean Harris will be the real candidate?

          1. Katniss Everdeen

            No knowledge of US election procedures required. Just take a look at biden–he’ll never make it another four years–so his running mate is being elected by default.

            But, under the circumstances, harris is more likely to be Trump’s secret weapon, if you know what I mean…

            1. Sam

              Trump agreed to no audience at the debate. Why would he throw Biden a bone? And the moderators should be one from CNN and Fox not 2 anti Trumpers. Why would he agree to Bash and Tapper?

              I thought the debate with Bernie had been taped so they could edit out Biden’s gaffes. Bernie stayed silent on it. Will Trump?

            2. Ignacio

              At what point will the electorates realise that Biden is not the real candidate an how this may have an effect on polls etc.

              At some point the polls should be asking preferences between real candidates. IMO the fiction cannot be kept up to December.

              1. DJG, Reality Czar

                Ignacio: The president of the U S of A is head of government as well as head of state. The House of Representatives is dissolved every two years. According to European Parliamentary ideas, this means that the U.S. gets a new government (not just a change in the ruling government) every two years.

                So this system is nothing like what you are used to in Spain.

                There is also a “sacred” element in electing the President of the United States. So the candidates may be mean as snakes (sorry, snakes), but this is a civic ritual.

                Americans know that Biden is an empty husk, fuelled by his well-tended resentments. Americans know that Trump is a showman, fuelled by his well-tended resentments. And so it goes. They are “real candidates.” This is as “real” as it gets in the U S of A these days.

                And war is the national business.

                1. JBird4049

                  I can see why people would see Kamala Harris as a secret weapon, but she is extremely unsuitable. She apparently refuses to study any of the issues, which includes listening to her staff’s briefings or reading the reports prepared for her. She also treats her staff horribly, blaming them for her mistakes, which is what I have been reading since she was San Francisco’s DA. She always fails upwards. District, city and county, state, and now national. Willie Brown has something to answer for as his patronage started her political career.

                  I bet people would want her in the Oval Office because she would be manipulable, but she would have all the worse traits including the sadism of Biden, and she would be more fearful.

                  1. steppenwolf fetchit

                    I think that is what is meant by ” Harris is Trump’s secret weapon”.

                    The Trump campaign just has to say: ” Elect Biden and you will get Harris very quickly. Are you sure you want that?”

                    Some people will risk it, some people will not risk it.

      3. Yves Smith Post author

        I do not think he was pooping if we are talking about the same scene (with Macron and his wife and others, where Biden put both hands on his thighs and went into a mini-squat). But my take is just about as bad re his condition.

        IMHO, Biden was so out of it he could not judge when to sit down (“I’m in front of a chair so I should sit”), and started to even though there were no external cues that it was yet time, but (again very old reflexes kicking in, such as from school and church) that sitting down when people next to your weren’t yet was a no-no, so he straightened a bit and then resumed sitting down when the others did so.

        1. DJG, Reality Czar

          Yves Smith: Yes, we are talking about he same scene, the D-Day commemoration.

          It seems to me that we are both interpreting Biden as non compos mentis.

          I’m not sure how the Democrats think that they can pull this off.

          So we see the U.S. election developing as P.T. Barnum versus Flat Affect versus Legacy Child + Selective Fact Picker. And the Libertarians, whom I define as White Boys Who Don’t Want to Pay Taxes.

          I’ll be voting Green. (My absentee ballot is already promised to me. Cook County still functions, although Joe Biden doesn’t.)

          1. Chris Cosmos

            The Democrat Party at this point in its history is so interlocked with the news and entertainment world and, most importantly, spookdom (in general) as well as the various powerful interest groups that support the current trend of corrupt spending. It can pull anything off. They pulled off Russiagate based on sheer fantasy and, as far as I know, there has been no clear mainstream debunking of that fantasy. I could go on to how this “Democrat” system has invented reality but that would take too much time.

            1. Michael Fiorillo

              Russiagate was an incredibly successful and comprehensive psy-op (involving spookdom, media in endless permutations including continuing disinfotainment, lawfare, etc.) that played upon the fantasies/fears/sublimations of a politically feckless and morally vain PMC.

              Scratch a polity turning Right, and find a degenerate liberal class just underneath.

      4. petal

        DJG, thank you for bringing up the “flat effect” and expressionless face. Now that you mention it, he was like that here in 2019. I guess I was more focused on the other glaring signs at the time, but that was definitely something that was also occurring.

          1. Neutrino

            Those CNN crafty devils, always there to spin, fabricate, lie and attempt to sway, all while their ratings flounder. Making payroll when the check from, checks notes, say, Langley, clears? Or do they just keep feeding Madcow? /s

          2. The Rev Kev

            If all that was true, then why did they not embed the original video in that article to prove what they said was the truth? A strange omission that.

            2. juno mas

              Look, whether it’s the D-Day ceremony or some G7 photo Op (with military paratroopers) it’s clear that Biden loses track of the meme. He cannot maintain thought concentration for more than a moment.

              At the end of the day, he likely cannot accurately recount the days events. This is a disaster.

            3. Bsn

              They imbedded their own video to imply it was the original video. Being a video editor with some experience, using 2-3 cameras, one can edit between them and do interesting “takes” on a scene to tell a desired story. And now we have “AI” to help.

            4. steppenwolf fetchit

              Beau of the Fifth Column made a video about this video. He claims that he will be able to find the original un-cropped video and will post it in the comments section of this video of his so people can see it. If he does, then we can see it and see what we think.

              Here is the link to Beau’s video about this matter.
              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPTRZCG1znA

              1. The Rev Kev

                Beau is trying to pull too long a bow here. There are other videos of Biden wandering off for years now and the first one that comes to mind was when he was wandering through a cafe in Cornwall back in 2021 during the G-7 Summit. At the time I wondered where the hell his security detail was. But if Beau can dig out a video showing the full field, then fine. But there have been unofficial reports of leaders at this G-7 shocked at his deterioration since the last one.

                ‘Slowly at first, then all at once…’

          1. DJG, Reality Czar

            Katniss Everdeen: Yep. And that video for me was eye-popping. Even though I dislike psychologizing, it is more than obvious that Biden is long gone. He isn’t just some white guy who can’t dance. He’s a walking corpse. The flat affect is a symptom of inner death.

        2. Katniss Everdeen

          And this guy is going to do a 90-minute LIVE debate in front of the whole frickin’ country?

          I just don’t see it.

          Can you imagine his giving an answer like this to a moderator’s question? What comes next? The moderator saying, “Mr. Trump, your response…”

          Hopefully Trump is undergoing intense sensitivity training because I suspect he’s gonna need it.

          1. Screwball

            I suspect the moderators are having practice sessions on how to cover his gaffes. They will also no doubt be gaming out how to handle Trump when he goes after Biden’s obvious decline (like asking him what cocktail he is on). CNN, Tapper, and Bash are not there to be moderators, they are there for two things; hurt Trump and help Biden.

            It should be highly entertaining, sad, and an epic $hit show all at the same time. At least the ratings should make the CNN bottom line happy.

            And of course the post game show should be wild too as Maddow and the MSNBC bootlickers tell us how Biden kicked his butt and how great our current FDR was/is. Of course the PMC class will rejoice and cheer how Biden destroyed Trump no matter how many times he freezes, aimlessly walks away from the podium, or spits out a paragraph of incoherent gibberish.

            Yes, America, we are exceptional.

        3. DJG, Reality Czar

          Yves Smith: Yep, that Dore clip with shmurgle burgle lapupsa tipitappy is what “sealed the deal” for me.

          Biden is suffering from severe dementia.

          I’m not a medical doctor, but liberals truly have to stop insulting my intelligence.

          Given that the Democrats’ bench is nearly nonexistent, you do realize that when Biden’s brain stops function, completely, imminently, that leaves us with Pete Buttigieg as the heir apparent?

          1. Mike Mc

            Yes. My scenario involved Harris caught in a scandal or some other circumstance that bounces her from VP. Mayo Pete is selected VP. Biden collapses or otherwise is obviously incapacitated, presto! President Pete. Civil War 2.0 in 3, 2, 1…

        4. SocalJimObjects

          Surely there has to be an AI model somewhere that can decode that speech.

          Perhaps we’ve all been too harsh on Biden and he is actually trying to convey the Word of God, and we are just too stupid to understand it.

          From 1 Corinthian 14: “For anyone who speaks in a tongue [1] does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit.”

          Naaaah. As a Java programmer, I think what we are seeing here is the so called OutOfBrainMatterError, and in Java, you can’t recover from Errors

    2. Martin Oline

      The way the world losers regrouped around Biden after he shuffled off to talk to the parachutists (Did he ask if they had seen Beau?) reminds me of the phrase ‘herding cats.’ Trying to keep him in control by surrounding him. This is going to get worse fast. If I was cruel(er) I would say get the popcorn, but his decline can no longer be hidden. Still, it couldn’t happen to a nastier person.

    3. Benny Profane

      That woman is very androidish. All of those meaningless words coming out of a face that looks like it’s had thousands of dollars of work done to it. I guess she connects to the MSNBC type, but, the rest of the country?

      Impressive how, not only Meloni, but the other G7 leaders quickly gathered around Biden for the spontaneous photo shoot to save him. They know what’s going on, and see the deterioration in six months to one year periods. We watch it slowly over days. It’s really getting bad. He really should be put in a beach chair in Delaware under a blanket and allowed to nap in between meals. They’re going to have to Zoom the convention, not because of protests, just to hide him as much as possible.

      1. The Rev Kev

        Adrienne Elrod’s history is quite revealing-

        ‘Adrienne Elrod is a political strategist and government affairs expert. She is President of Elrod Strategies, a strategic communications firm specializing in influencer engagement and public affairs. During the 2020 general election, Elrod served as Biden for President’s Director of Surrogate Strategy and Operations, where she deployed surrogates – including elected leaders, celebrities, and other high-level influencers – across the country and via multiple platforms to advance the candidacy of President Biden and Vice President Harris. On the 2016 presidential campaign, Elrod served as Hillary for America’s Director of Strategic Communications. Elrod has also served as Vice President and Communications Director for American Bridge and Correct the Record, a joint communications and research organization founded to defend Hillary Clinton from false and misleading attacks. She served nearly six years as Chief of Staff to Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, managing legislative and communications agendas. On Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, Elrod served as Regional Press Secretary, Texas Communications Director, and Deputy Director of the Congressional Delegate Selection office. Elrod began her career in President Clinton’s Administration, serving in the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. She later returned to her home state to join the Arkansas Democratic Party as Communications Director and worked at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and several Congressional offices and campaigns.’

        https://milkeninstitute.org/events/gc21/speakers/49654

        She’s a Clinton woman going way back.

        1. Benny Profane

          I’ll bet she’s done very very well after all that. Must have an awesome home in D.C.

          1. Neutrino

            But don’t drive on any backwoods roads in Arkansas or parks across the Potomac. The loyalty goes one way and the reaction is subject to change at the drop of a hat. /s

    4. SocalJimObjects

      Trump is gonna Snow Crash Biden so hard in the upcoming debate, not even Hiro Protagonist will be able to bring the later back.

      1. Milton

        No. Because of the amazing cocktail that Biden takes before his SOTU and debates seems to get him back to a lucid state. Whatever the drug is, focusyn perhaps, needs to be available to the rest of society. That would be his one contribution from which his administration could hang its hat.

        1. Chromex

          Well debate forums are not designed to give us anything resembling a real debate and there may not even be one. Trump has made a Biden drug test a precondition- one I have a hard time believing Biden will accept ( I think he should agree if Trump does the same- Trump shows some symptoms of meth abuse to me) Assuming the tests were legit, it would be interesting reading.Anyway, one thing this election demonstrates is that the current system is incapable of delivering candidates that anyone wants.

        2. Pat

          Do you honestly think they didn’t give him the “amazing cocktail” before the DDay ceremony, or this G7 event? These are important international events where press coverage is less under their control then in America. It is far easier to get the full video than only have the CNN/MSNBC edit. He is deteriorating much faster than he was. There is a significant decrease in mobility in the last year, hell even since the SOTU. The only way they didn’t is if there is a huge crash following its use. And if that is the case they are still in trouble because there is still campaigning todo after the debate, and once again he is in worse shape than he was during the SOTU period.

          This is getting impossible to disguise and ignore.

          1. Katniss Everdeen

            Absolutely. When asked how biden can possibly get through a “debate,” most people expect he will be heavily drugged.

            But, as has been pointed out numerous times on social media, his most recent “vigorous” video performances are heavily edited and stitched together from numerous “takes.” It’s reasonable to assume that he was drugged for these too.

            This “debate” will be, what, 2 live hours with no opportunity for editing except by commercials if they even have them. It’s shaping up to be an epic slow motion car wreck from which no one will be able to look away.

            As delusional as biden’s handlers are, I suspect even they are looking for a way out. But I’d say if they take the out, the jig is well and truly up.

            Should be an “eventful” next 2 weeks–history in the making–regardless of the road they decide to travel….

            1. Es s Ce Tera

              I wouldn’t mind if someone with a medical background could opine on what might cause that suuuuper slooooo mooootion putting on of the shades.

              My own quick google says it’s called bradykinesia and is a primary symptom of Parkinson’s, though it could also be a result of stroke. I wonder if they’re going to announce Biden has Parkinson’s.

              1. Cassandra

                My own quick google says it’s called bradykinesia and is a primary symptom of Parkinson’s, though it could also be a result of stroke. I wonder if they’re going to announce Biden has Parkinson’s.

                Might be. But my experience with relatives suffering from Alzheimer’s included poor fine motor control in the late stages, leading to a characteristic hand “posture”. Simple actions required a lot of concentration when concentration was almost impossible. Biden’s hands look my grandfather’s did about a year before he succumbed.

                1. ambrit

                  So, the real drama at the Democrat Party convention will be who is chosen as Vice Presidential candidate. “Creepy” Joe can run, in the sure knowledge that he won’t survive his first year of re-election. When he goes, the Veep steps up.
                  My question here is: Is Harris secure in her position as present and future Veep? She would be a fool to accept any voluntary downgrading. Simply put, if she pulls off this year’s Veepstakes, and the Democrat Party ‘engineers’ a win, she will be President. Barring any “unfortunate incidents” of course.

                2. Frank

                  It is obvious that the president has dementia.
                  I have managed too many cases not to recognise it.

            2. Chris Cosmos

              The “debates” will be an opportunity for both candidates to make speeches with minimal (as I understand it) back and forth. For a pol who has been bullsh*tting all his life (I’ve followed his career a long time) it will be easy for Biden to pull it off even in his condition if properly medicated/drugged.

          2. Sam

            Maybe that’s why Biden missed dinner that night? He crashed from the cocktail of whatever he’s taking. And then can’t give him too much or he becomes tolerant to it.

          3. Michael Fiorillo

            “This is getting impossible to disguise and ignore.”

            Indeed, which will make the misdirecting, deflecting, euphemising and flat-out lying about it by #McResistance media all the more spectacular and self-discrediting.

          4. Randall Flagg

            Simple to escape the debate. At this point would you out it past his handlers to have some “event” or what the hell, a false flag event if done sort that would demand he cancel the ability to participate? And blame it on Putin. Or the Middle East.

        3. Bugs

          Simpsons reference for the win. I’d guess he’s getting Modafinil, Ritalin and a vitamin cocktail.

        4. Benny Profane

          I want a prescription for those drugs. Although I’m guessing it’s good old amphetamine based.

          1. ambrit

            You can make your own now. We deplorables describe it as using the ‘Paperclip Method’ to make the stuff.

    5. rowlf

      Convince me not to regard Western News media the same as Flat Earthers. This is getting worse than in 2016 when one could watch the raw footage of a Donald Trump rally and then the news reporting for the same rally didn’t match except for getting the location and date correct.

    6. steppenwolf fetchit

      The drugs seem to work fairly well when they are working.

      ” Flowers for Bidenon”.

  2. timbers

    “Kamala Harris is Biden’s secret weapon in North Carolina”

    I take that to mean North Carolinians are sleep deprived and Kamala can help them fall asleep to catch up on needed rest? I’ve seen a few Kamala adds. To say she is a candidate for the old Saturday Night Live skits “Slow Talkers of America” would be an exaggeration but it is…soothing to listen to her.

    “I believe very strongly that the accomplishments of our administration — such as creating 15 million new jobs (in China, Russia, and elsewhere); creating over 800,000 new (part time) manufacturing jobs (at the expense of full time jobs); the historic low unemployment (using the magic of digital manipulation of data), particularly for the Black community, are very important. Critically important,” Harris said

    2. Pat

      I take it as trying to make her sound like a campaign asset for a public that won’t get past the headline and first couple of paragraphs. The ones who don’t automatically think NC have voted for Democrats twice in the last 50+ years, they didn’t vote for Biden the last time around and even the more popular Obama lost NC in 2012. Harris is not going to change their minds this time, even on the off chance there has been some significant increase in democrats moving there. (And Haley supporting Trump recently doesn’t even get them her little group of disgruntled voters)

    3. Neutrino

      Speech and rhetoric professors will use her utterances in seminars and the odd colloquium to parse, dissect and even diagram, all while maintaining composure.

      1. Expat2uruguay

        Here’s a reasoning for voting Biden. Alistair Crooke tells Glenn Deison and Alexander Mercouris that the Russian people are actually feeling pretty good right now because they know they’ve won the war. But the thing that really makes them angry and want to fight is the belligerence coming from Joe Biden. And of course it would come from Trump as well. But I can’t see Kamila Harris pulling that off.
        24:30 https://youtu.be/56I0fq0NZ9o?si=hhRK-wWcTZ2XQtpl

        TLDR: vote for Biden so that Harris will be president and the Russians will be able to laugh instead of wanting to fight us. It could keep us out of world war 3.

        If only this wasn’t the stupidest timeline…

  3. Mikel

    “The NBA Is Monetizing A Public Health Crisis” The Lever

    “…Today, people can make bets on everything from how many times a Taylor Swift commercial will air…”

    Hmmm. That’s not a matter of chance.

      1. Wukchumni

        Major League Baseball said Friday night it has disciplined umpire Pat Hoberg for violating the league’s gambling rules, and that he is being held out of games during this season while an appeal is considered (NYT)
        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        I get why pro sports gravitated towards gambling, the average age of a fan was pushing 50 to 60 years old, the game was too slow for young adults and they weren’t all that interested, how to draw them in?

        When the umpires are gambling on the game, boy howdy is pro sports on the verge of a calamity, all on account of what we used to call ‘bookies’.

          1. The Rev Kev

            Unfortunately, all to many people have their bank accounts in the same pocket these days.

            1. GF

              Don’t the teams get a cut of the handle? This would be the incentive to allow gambling it seems to me. And paying huge salaries to the players would incentivize them to not gamble as they would loose that big salary. Umpires, not so much.

        2. Michael Fiorillo

          I don’t know about baseball and basketball, but some charter NFL teams were ownedby bookies. My understanding is that the both the Maras in NY and the Rooney’s in Pittsburgh were both professional gamblers.

          At some point, maybe sooner than later, a huge gambling scandal is going to engulf professional sports. Will people even care?

          1. ambrit

            My big “Sporting” worry is the Bears versus the Eagles, now entering ‘sudden-death’ overtime.

        1. mrsyk

          True that, never the less let’s imagine ai learning and practicing the “hustle economy”.

    1. Es s Ce Tera

      What’s shocking, to me, is that these employees thought they could install or run an unauthorized script/macro in a highly secured bank environment, of all places.

      The minute they installed anything an incident response would have been automatically generated. Their managers would have received a notification from security, in some cases asking if this was authorized or asking them to approve. So their managers knew it the minute they installed it and likely that email also CC’ed their own leaders. Their managers would be frowning, not recognizing the software, probably glancing over at the team, probably asking fellow managers in Teams chat “do you recognize this app”, making inquiries. Ultimately, they won’t be willing to put their own careers on the line so they’re going to click that “Unauthorized” link in the email.

      Security (variously called Incident Command Center, Security Operations Center, Risk Fusion Center) would have red flagged the accounts regardless and someone in the incident response war room would be busy evaluating, grading and reporting the risk level – the most immediate risk being did they install a trojan or virus, does containment need to happen, what permissions and data does this employee have access to, what is the potential damage.

      And I should point out any software which mimics mouse or keyboard activity is potentially also keylogging, so the red flags are going to be biggish. The actual macro or executable is now being studied, the code read, checked against databases, possibly reverse engineered.

      Not only would there be company policy expressly forbidding installation of non-approved software but the employees would have been required to take mandatory training and be explicitly tested on it. They also likely would have been required to sign a document agreeing to it.

      And if they had access to financial or client info, sensitive or confidential information, or securities, they’d have signed even more legal agreements.

      This would have triggered not only a flurry of meetings and emails between legal, ER and HR, it would have gone all the way up to the executive – their actual names will be crossing the CEO’s desk. EA’s will be explicitly advised to forward any potentially forthcoming emails to the HR team.

      The employees themselves will have probably begun to notice a certain coldness in aspects, glances, greetings, might have been unsure if they were imagining it, but by now certain feelings would be manifesting in the pits of their stomachs. Some of them might opt to snitch.

      Their managers will by now be considering business continuity impacts, evaluating who has capacity to take over workloads, advising project managers that they may have to pull so-and-so from the project. Managers know not to ask questions, they’ve seen it all before.

      The HR team called into the situation would be a specialist team. Managers and managers adjacent will be given handouts, lists, told what to tell their teams, how to respond to questions. Building security would have been notified, a date and time would be set to revoke privileges, a taxi will be called, the risk of violence will be evaluated, the risk of impacts to the larger team will be evaluated, the HR team will give a carefully scripted speech, will profer certain documents to sign, even as this is taking place their own team will be called into a meeting to announce their departure. Social media teams will begin watching LinkedIn profiles, Facebook, for any negative exposure. PR will be involved to manage reputation.

      Those employees are not only out of a job, fired, with no severence and unable to claim EI, they have no idea how many people were involved in their firing, an entire army, they’re also blacklisted from the industry, famous for the wrong reasons. Banking folks tend to be very networked, mouths wag, the grapevine is buzzing. They also probably lost any securites licenses or trading privileges in the process.

      And all they had to do was create a meeting and be in it, set themselves to Busy/Unavailable.

        1. Es s Ce Tera

          By now the world knows it too. Banks are primary targets, I guess Wells is now more of a target than most.

      2. Jason Boxman

        At Mastercard remote laptops are completely locked down, Macs in ways I didn’t know was even possible, no Internet access unless the VPN is up, all traffic routed through the VPN, if the VPN target IPs are blocked or disrupted, a mad-dash of attempting to connect to dozens of other IP endpoints. And the usual security profiles that prevent installation of any software without remote approval. Key loggers and the like wouldn’t surprise me.

        At least if they were remote, they should have just bought a “mouse jiggler” unless laptop security policy prohibited the use of external USB mice. Problem solved. If on-site, how hard is it to sit at your desk and just click around while browsing the web on your phone?

        For a bonus I did a Wells Fargo account recently, and they’ve moved to floating desks at branch offices, at least mine. Before that they had their own offices. In the new setup, they are permitted only one personal photo or effect. Nice place to work, I guess.

  5. Wukchumni

    Gooooooood Mooooooorning Fiatnam!

    With the Supremes giving the green light to bump stocks, naturally most everybody in the platoon couldn’t hardly wait until Monday to buy some NVIDIA and other obviously undervalued securities in Dow Jonestown.

    It isn’t often that the justices give the go ahead on these matters, carpe diem!

    1. griffen

      It’s the most wonderful stock market time of the year,
      With 10-1 splits and analysts being full of cheer,
      It’s the hap, happiest time of all,
      Bet your 401k’s worth that it won’t fall…

      Unbelievable, in particular the Nasdaq and the S&P 500; the Dow index is trading down from it’s All Time High. And like in very broad terms, it is fewer than 10 equities pushing this forward. Onward and upward, ever higher we shall rise. Plus there are indications of a few $trillion resting comfortably at night in short term and money market funds!

      We’ll own AI chips, we’ll own AI robots from Tesla and we’ll consume delish chips at Chipotle.

    2. JohnAnon

      The bump stock ruling is meaningless as the same rapid fire effect can be achieved with a rubber band.

      1. scott s.

        Bump stock ruling not meaningless as it has implications for other attempts at executive agency rulemaking redefining law. It will impact other cases involving pistol braces and firearm parts.

        The core statutory construction problems come as a result of two separate controlling laws, enacted with different policy goals/means. The National Firearms Act of 1934, recodified in 1968 as Title II of the Gun Control Act is an internal revenue act that defines 5 classes of “firearms”, each of which is subject to a “making tax” and “transfer tax” (includes “silencers”, most people would not consider to be a gun in and of itself).

        The main Gun Control Act has its own definitions, which are not always 100% consistent and is a commerce clause act. This gets into the long-standing debate over what “commerce” entails. Unlike NFA there’s no tax on making or transfer, but relies on the definition of “being in the business” for authority.

        There’s three other definitional rulemaking cases out there:

        1. If adding a “brace” to a handgun is “making” a short-barrelled rifle (one of the 5 taxed classes of NFA firearm).

        2. If any sale of a firearm is subject to GCA requirement to have a business license.

        3. What parts can be defined as GCA firearms subject to business licensing.

    3. ChrisFromGA

      While I applaud the justices diligence in applying textualism to interpret the 2nd amendment, I wish that other parts of the Bull of Rites would get similar treatment:

      Freedom of Speech: why aren’t the FBI goons hired by Twitter pre-musk sharing a jail cell with SBF?

      Protection from cruel and unusual punishment: Julian Assange would like a few minutes to plead his case.

      Right to a fair trial: Many young black defendants have been sent away to rot by DAs like Fani Willis and Kamala Harris for small amounts of marijuana and other street drugs.

      Come in Thomas, Gorsuch, Alito, Robert’s and Kavanaugh, let’s get some textualism on!

  6. The Rev Kev

    “Denmark becomes first NATO member to invest in weapons production in Ukraine”

    If Denmark is going to do this, then they should export about 10,000 bicycles to the Ukraine as well. As the Ukraine will soon not have the electricity to run a coffee pot, then they can hook those bicycles up to a generator and have 10,000 “volunteers” peddling away to power up that weapons factory – maybe. They could also send the coordinates to that new factory to the Russians so that when they are up and running, the Russians can provide the fireworks for them.

  7. William Beyer

    Regarding “Yahya Sinwar’s Impossible Resolve,” a few weeks back I watched a clip of Finkelstein describing it and was flabbergasted. I had never read a word about it, and like most NC readers, I read a lot of words. None of my well-read colleagues had ever heard of the Great March of Return, either. With all the garbage that Israel has pulled since October 7, nothing has made me angrier.

    1. DJG, Reality Czar

      William Beyer: Thanks for this comment. I recall the Great March of Return because someone took some excellent photographs that looked like a Delacroix painting of French Revolutionaries. These were all over social media for a few days. Then the reports of sniping came out.

      This paragraph of the article struck me:
      “Most who have sought to understand Sinwar’s calculations agree that he launched October 7th knowing it would trigger a hysterical overreaction. A cutting-edge artificial intelligence program developed to find patterns in Sinwar’s decision-making process so far found that his thinking is highly scientific and rational, creating outcomes many steps in advance.”

      As I have been commenting over the last couple of days, the Western elites now rule by management by chaos. At a basic level, why are home pages so chaotic and crappy? At the big level, what are Joe Biden’s caretakers, Rishi Sunak, and Omen Nomen Stoltenberg up to?

      It is very much to Sinwar’s credit that he figured out that he had to retain his cool, and these knuckleheads would engaging in crimes and melodrama.

    3. gk

      I had read lots and lots about the March, with all the gory details. It makes me wonder what “well-read” colleagues read. The New York Times?

  8. The Rev Kev

    “US reporter Evan Gershkovich to stand trial in Russia on espionage charges”

    The Russians must figure that they have this guy dead to rights and can convict him in a court of law. They seem to be a very legally minded country at times. Putin has said that he is ready to swap this guy in an exchange but for whatever reason, the Biden White House is refusing to do so. Of course the Biden White House may want to wait to do so until September or October in order to get a good news boost in time for the upcoming elections and I would not put it past them. Tough luck if your name is Evan Gershkovich though.

    1. Yves Smith Post author

      I assume spies have higher value in trade than reporters who wandered too close to military facilities, so it means that Biden is not willing to concede that Gershkovich was engaged in something spooky.

    3. Bsn

      He’s too useful to trade, at least for a while. His name makes good headlines such as “Russia Bad and Mean Too”. Then again, imagine how much he’ll make with his publishing writes for the book….. “Needles Poked in My Eyes” by Evan Gershkovich and Adrienne Elrod.

    4. steppenwolf fetchit

      Why shouldn’t I believe that Gerskovich has not been goverkidnapped for hostage-ransom? ” America bad” doesn not necessarily equal “Russia good”.

      He doesn’t seem to be the first American governkidnapped for ransom or exchange or whatever. Even though I am a nameless nobody, I would not go to Russia for any tourist reason for fear that someone in authority might decide ” your turn now, you random son of a b!tch.”

      1. Yves Smith Post author

        The WSJ has not denied Russia’s accusation, that he was snooping around a military site. That’s prima facie grounds for arrest. They just keep saying he was doing journalism, not spying. But if you look to be after military intel, the distinction is meaningless.

  9. Terry Flynn

    The neurotargeting article underwhelmed me. It is correct but vastly understates/under-estimates what those big online platforms have been doing with all that social media data. Yes, social media has finally enabled cheap collection of massive amounts of A/B testing data but the theoretical properties of such interventions goes back decades; researchers in fields like academic marketing and clinical trials research moved beyond these in the mid 1980s and what can be done now with the online data is much more insidious.

    The clinical members of the commentariat who are familiar with n-of-1 trials will understand the issue (as well as others who know the properties of logit/probit models generally). The ability to use statistical designs to move A/B models into a multinominal framework was established mid 20th century but the more worrying issue is that of the respondent’s consistency of response to a stimulus. Thus the clinician who sees two patients from an n-of-1 trial that both responded to treatment more often than not, but has seen patient X respond on all 8 of the “intervention cycles” and never on the 8 “placebo cycles” and patient Y respond on only 5 of the 8 intervention cycles and never on the 8 placebo cycles would (should) be concerned.

    The power of all that social media data lies not in the “snapshots” (single “picture” data) of social media users, but in the “video” (repeated stimulus) that shows if a given person responded to the intervention because of a strong “underlying mean effect” or because the person has high consistency (8 out of 8 rather than 5 out of 8). Mental/psychological labels such as neuroticism may appear to define segments but the actual causative mechanism in areas of health that involve cognition is just as likely to be rooted in consistency of responses: ergo we have a confounding issue.

    TL;DR: It is not the comparison of groups of people who saw different coloured buttons on a survey that gives Cambridge Analytica etc power. It is that if I had access to their data I could do a logistic regression for YOU as an individual to disentangle the effectiveness of all these different stimuli and then by comparing individuals, could discover what (mis)information can be used to mess around with your consistency of response (likelihood of actually voting) etc. That is the power of the data and sadly which is totally omitted by the article.

    1. ambrit

      The NC commentariat is the best commentariat.
      As you suggest; the data itself is neutral. The applications to which the data is put are crucial.

      1. Terry Flynn

        Thanks. Agreed re the commentariat. The use of attitudinal data as a second dataset (adjunct to the primary “how does this stimulus affect people’s choices” data) has been proposed independently by various groups. It is a solution to the fundamental problem with all limited dependent variable models like the logit and probit – the “beta” estimates are in fact a perfect confound of means and variances.

        To “unconfound” these you must have a second equation (independent dataset). Attitudes proved to be very very good. They were what YouGov used in its (at that point pilot) “secondary” projection of the UK 2017 General Election. Famously, its existing “primary” model, along with those of all the other mainstream survey/polling companies, missed the fact that Theresa May had miscalculated and was, in fact, about to lose her overall majority, not increase it. However the YouGov “attitudinally augmented” model – along with mine(!) – knew she was in trouble.

        Having a second dataset is still not a panacea in a multinomial framework. Interpreting the data is still an art, not a science. But, as you say, having the two sets of data puts you in the driving seat and how you use the knowledge is potentially very scary.

        I’m very interested, in a “I wonder if we have a new way to blow us all up way”, to what extent AI will manage to deal with this fundamental problem with logit/probit models. Cambridge Analytica still had a lot of human “guidance” of the data interpretation. Who knows to what extent their AI models (now forced out of the public eye) are performing?

        1. ambrit

          Thanks for the eye opener.
          Time to do some reading on the subject.
          I think we can agree that the “average” person, not only ‘on the street,’ but also ‘within the beltway,’ has no clue as to how “useful” such analytical tools can be in the aggregate. Old fashioned politicos can burble on all they want about “all politics being local.” The reality is that National politics is mass based. So, this is a case where the old concept of “Technocracy” has weight. This ‘Technocracy’ is run by technocrats, masters of the art and sciences of the material world. The question now, as you mentioned, is whether or not AI is sophisticated enough to qualify as a “technocrat.” The science is there. As for the art being there….
          The defining moment in this will be when an AI self generates, no Terran humans involved. Which brings up the intriguing question of can two AIs cooperate in generating AI offspring?
          Stay safe.

          1. Anonymous 2

            Good reading, though inevitably getting somewhat out of date, is Mindf*ck by Christopher Wylie about Cambridge Analytica, especially with regard to the Brexit campaign, but also some resonances for the Trump campaign. Chilling stuff.

  10. Wukchumni

    Uranium Price Surge Reveals a World Returning to Nuclear Power Bloomberg
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~
    So the story goes, my dad lands in NYC in 1952 and meets up with a couple of Czech fellows, one of whom owns a car and the trio does a Kerouacian On The Road trip to find their slice of America, headed west.

    They get to Denver and my dad who graduated with a degree in economics @ the University of Lausanne and was an avid skier, tells the duo that this is where he wants to live, been nice hanging out with you, Ahoj!

    Denver used to be the Penny Stock trading capital of the world, rivaled only by wily Vancouver in such low value pursuits, and what does a newly minted economist do for a living in the mile high city, so he gravitated towards that market, which was dominated by uranium stocks in the 1950’s, kind of how high tech stocks are now.

    I remember him telling me a story of some uranium stock he had bought 5,000 shares of for 2¢, and it fairly promptly fell to 1¢, and he forgot about it and the stock languished in a drawer, and a couple of years later, a friend he worked with said there was a buyer @ 5¢, oh lucky day and he cashed out 4,500 shares.

    The uranium company ended up also making important components for NASA and ended up going to $5 a share, ha ha.

    Moab Utah seemed to be the mecca for uranium pursuits…

    …around the turn of the century, I did a 6 day raft trip on the Green River-which was amazing in that when we put in outside of Moab the walls of the river were say 10 feet high, and 3 days later deep in the canyon, walls on both sides streaked vertically upwards thousands of feet, you could only tell what the weather was like in a narrow gap above you, and never have I seen such slot canyons which were carved labyrinths, some so curvy.

    At the put out point where a bus picked us up was a circa late 1950’s giant uranium dredge rusting away slowly, never going anywhere, you wonder how they got it down in the canyon in the first place?

    1. Karanica

      The hidden booster of nuclear is Gavin Newsom. Every single decision he has made as State Lands Commisioner, later Lt. Governor, then Governor, has boosted the fortunes of nuclear power in California. Search for “Newsom Nuclear Power Diablo Canyon” to get dozens of articles.

      Pushing for All Electric cars and homes is part of that, Creating more demand for electricity.

  11. Mikel

    “The Costco of Housing is…Costco?” Urban Proxima

    Costco wants to build a new store in Los Angeles’ Baldwin Village neighborhood.

    “…What Costco seems to be planning is to buy prefab modular units (built at a factory somewhere else). This will let them save on labor costs. It will also result in housing that looks like a stack of shipping containers…”

    I wonder if this is inspired by stories like:

    https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/14/us/carla-gautier-castro-puerto-rico-shipping-container-housing-cfc/index.html/

    “..Gautier Castro first saw container home structures while visiting Europe and the mainland US as an architectural student..”

    “..The result, by using an anchored shipping container, Gautier Castro created a home that could withstand both earthquakes and hurricanes with winds in excess of 175 miles per hour…”

    1. Skip Intro

      Costco is doing Sears Roebuck homes
      And another reminder of Snow Crash, which had the story’s protagonist (Hiro), living in a shipping container.

      1. Scott

        Sears Roebuck homes were very robust.
        Rosenwald also made one-room schools for black students.
        Many of the schools and homes are still standing.

        1. steppenwolf fetchit

          My younger brother lives in a legacy Sears Roebuck home. He has been very happy with it and in it.

          1. Procopius

            I was interested to discover that the house I lived in, from when I was 2-1/2 to 12, is still there, 84 years after we moved in. More than interested, amazed. The driveway looks narrower than I remember, there doesn’t look to be a swing on the front porch, the “snowball” tree is gone from the yard, as is the scraggly hedge, and the house looks smaller than I remember it. But think about it! I don’t think the house was new when we moved in, and it’s at least 84 years old, maybe a full hundred, and still being lived in. Are houses built now going to last that long?

  12. CanCyn

    Re the antidote. The Canada goose is a beautiful bird but we here in the Great White North are finding them mostly pesky these days. There are too many of them and their poop causes problems in parks and especially near lakes where their poop mixed with rain causes ecoli and algae blooms problems in lakes. For a good overview of both positives and negatives about this controversial bird (in Ontario at least) and some more photos, see: https://barrie360.com/canada-geese-history/

    1. The Rev Kev

      Aren’t they suppose to be aggressive and dangerous as well? I read somewhere that they have a bit of a reputation in Canada.

      1. Terry Flynn

        Also dangerous to passengers on US Airways flight 1549, though thankfully the humans all survived!

      2. Stephanie

        We had a small pond at my university which a flock of Canadian geese would take over each spring and yes, the ganders are mean af, have a large wing span, and will chase you if sufficiently irritated. Nobody got anywhere near the water during nesting season.

      3. johnnyme

        Canadian Geese (also known as “Grass Processors”) aren’t too aggressive but they will hiss at you if you get too close to their goslings (I got hissed at yesterday on a bike ride when I passed a group of them next to the trail).

        The are very prolific breeders and unfortunately have become so problematic (they poop like there’s no tomorrow and snarl up traffic whenever they decide to go across roads) here in Minneapolis that they are culled a couple of times per year and the meat is sent to local food shelves.

      4. lyman alpha blob

        Not so much aggressive as stubborn. There is a growing population of them in the park where I live. Driving to work in the morning you can often see a few crossing the road VERY slowly and taking their own sweet time, just daring someone to hit them.

        They often flock to golf courses too. Years ago there was a group about 50 feet in front of the tee box. Buddy hit a really hard low line drive off the tee and nailed one goose squarely. I thought it would be dead, but it just honked a bit and shook it off.

      5. Ignacio

        Geese in general have a strong character indeed. Cranes too, and many other birds though I would give the prize to galliform males during mating season. Crazy they are.

    2. Yves Smith Post author

      Farmed geese make for very good eating. How about wild geese? Just allow them to be hunted like ducks (wild ducks and turkeys are generally NOT great eating unless you get a young-un, too lean, game-y, and often chewy)

      1. Anne Niemous

        “Farmed geese make for very good eating. How about wild geese?”

        Nope. Canada geese do not make for good eating.

      2. Neutrino

        How long until someone makes a rustic self-feeding device to induce foie gras? That would combine interests for people in Georgetown, the Hamptons, Napa and so many other influencer locales. Supply creating its own demand! /s

        1. Yves Smith Post author

          You have to force feed them to get a duck or goose to eat enough to produce foie gras. That’s why it has been outlawed a lot of places. It really is torture.

          The term of art is “noodling” as in “noodling a goose”.

      3. albrt

        I believe they were endangered/protected when I was a kid, due to overhunting. There are certainly a lot more of them now.

      4. Yeti

        I used to do a lot of goose/duck hunting in the lower mainland(Vancouver area) made sausage out of our take, with the right spices and about 10-20% pork fat found it to be very palatable

        1. Yves Smith Post author

          Hah. I only had venison sausage made out of organs and odd bits plus the obligatory pork fat. Delish. Have no idea why none of my father’s hunting buddies were willing to do the same to ducks.

          1. Martin Oline

            FYI if you like geese and can buy them there, James Beard had a recipe for stuffing that was used with wild game like duck, goose, etc. I’ve used it on turkey (in the neck sack anyway because others like traditional) because I just like it. I won’t bother with the whole thing but you add maybe raisins, a cup of dried apricots and a cup of dried plums (prunes) to the bread dressing. Helps with gaminess and who knows, maybe the fowl in Thailand are a little more wild than the US. There is a Tunisian dish of braised lamb shanks that uses a similar approach, simmered with browned shanks and then food milled before adding back to the dish.

            1. Yves Smith Post author

              Hunting is generally illegal. A friend from Holland who loves Thailand is on the receiving end of a divorce because hubby can”t hunt here.

      5. Amfortas the Hippie

        goose hunting is a thing.
        cousin does it every year…usually snow geese, and some other kind i cant remember.
        and…everything everybody said about these wild canadian geese, is also true of domestic geese.
        ive had this lot for 20+ years…started with 12, lost 4, and i know for a fact that 2 of my current flock are part of the original batch(certain distinctive markings…one is Dick(Cheney), but we ate george jr years ago after he bit my ass a bit too hard).
        started with 6 each of “grey” and chinese white.
        but theyve all interbred, and we have a steady supply of black ones(“Satan Geese”, per the boys)
        i eat a couple per year…and could get away with harvesting more, but they’re hard to catch and kill humanely by myself.
        the “Yardbird” plucker is well worth the $ if you clean geese even sort of regularly.
        i rarely hafta mow.

      6. randy

        I shot a goose once. I thought, “This will make a nice Thanksgiving dinner.”

        After gutting and plucking for a long time I ended up with a naked bird, skin still on, but gross looking due to pigment from pin feathers. Skin on is better than skin off. Put some stuffing in it, roast until done.

        Legs, thighs and wings inedible, tough, dry stringy. Too many tendons. Breast meat flavor poor, taste reminds of liver. Somewhat dry. Made gravy from pan drippings, tasted like liver, gravy went into garbage. In short, big goose, little meat, poor flavor. I would never shoot a Canada Goose again unless I was really hard up for protein.

        Most people filet the breast meat off the bird and make a meat/gravy sandwich filling like “hot beef” which doesn’t taste great either.

      7. Kouros

        And for dawn as well. My grandma used to have about 15 and they were ushered every morning to the village commons, all by themselves. Not all by themselves, since there wereentire flocks there. Once or twice being plucked for their dawn and so all her kids got innordinate amount of pillows and duves filled with goose dawn. The village duves are like those old German ones, half a meter thick, such that one doesn’t need to make fire through the night in winter.

    3. DJG, Reality Czar

      CanCyn: When I was still living in Chicago, I was not far from the historic Rosehill graveyard (known for its haunted staircase down from the railroad embankment).

      The place was loaded with Canada geese, so much so that taking a walk and looking at the many interesting gravestones and mausoleums meant also tracking groups of ill-tempered geese.

      The population started to drop: The local ecologists / biologists figured it out. Some coyotes also had taken up residence around there. A favorite coyote snack is a goose’s egg.

      Viva Coyotes!

    4. mrsyk

      Canadian Geese are not to be messed with. The avian flu angle compounds my anxiety. I’m not wanting them in the yard.

      1. truly

        “Canada goose” is the type. “Canadian geese” denotes which country they hail from. If you are having issues with a particular type of goose don’t blame it on where they hail from.

        1. ambrit

          Oh come on now. Every right-thinking American Consumer knows that Canada is the Devil’s Back Yard.
          Bonnie Henry, and I rest my case.

    5. steppenwolf fetchit

      What is interesting is that most of these human-habituated Canada geese living in the Midwest and beyond are descended from a subspecies of Canada goose which had become so rare as to be thought extinct before a tiny not-dead-yet population was discovered. They were protected, and I believe introduced into different areas, and have done very well.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Canada_goose

    6. Emma

      Geese are a$$#/!es and Canadian geese are the geese of geese. Long may they continue to harass humans and pets.

  13. Wukchumni

    I linked a story from Texas in regards to pineapple sized hail hitting there last week, apparently a state record in such matters.

    That Austrian jet looks awful, wonder what the size of the frozen surprise was that hit it?

      1. Wukchumni

        {golf clap}

        I’ve lived a sheltered hail life here in Cali when growing up enduring savage SoCal winters, I remember it hailed twice when I was in school-both times for just a few minutes, and when it occasionally comes down in the High Sierra, tends to be around the size of a pea or maybe a bit bigger.

        10 minutes of it can completely cover the ground…

        Couldn’t imagine getting pummeled by pineapples, though.

        Better find yourself a boulder with an overhanging roof to hide under~

        1. mrsyk

          I’m pretty sure I know what “BM” stands for. I imaging there was quite a bit of that occurring spontaneously on that flight.

        3. Neutrino

          Boulder tangent: there was an entire subdivision east of town that found the need to get new roofing. Quite the microclimate as neighboring areas escaped. Signs sprouting after the storm and then concerns about rising insurance premiums.

    2. rowlf

      That is a mild case of hail damage. The radar antenna is not hammered against the forward bulkhead. It also still has composite wing/body fairings and antennas.

      Sometimes this happens when ATC will not let an airplane vector around weather.

      1. The Rev Kev

        In that crew’s defense, that tweet did say that that storm did not show up on radar so must have caught them unawares.

  14. sarmaT

    Moscow reveals next steps after Putin’s Ukraine offer RT

    The Godfather gives you an offer you can’t refuse. The Putin gives you an offer you can’t accept.

    1. Yves Smith Post author

      *Sigh*

      The US and NATO have no security interest in Ukraine.

      The Pentagon Papers showed that every US president who was presiding over US engagement in Vietnam was told the US could not win. Yet none were willing to exit the project because US credibility. Here all that is at stake is US/NATO credibility, plus that of the particular pols. And we are spending way more in treasure (and lives, but so far nearly all Ukrainian) that we did in Vietnam.

        1. Yves Smith Post author

          I agree there isn’t. But the way you formulated it, even though it was clever, made it sound as if it being rejected was due to Putin over-reaching in some sort of absolute sense, as opposed to Team Collective West being unwilling to climb off the limb they are in the process of sawing off (continuing to prosecute a war when they are running out of weapons)

          1. sarmaT

            Well, it was formulated as a one-liner joke, not an analysis.

            Putin is not over-reaching, quite the contrary. He gave them an offer that is way too good for Ukraine, considering the situation on the ground. In my head, the joke suggests that he made a very generous offer knowing in advance that it will be rejected. It’s almost like state level trolling.

            P.S. Some time ago Vucic, out of all people, “predicted” that Putin will liberate all four new regions and then make a peace offer. If the offer is rejected, then all hell will break loose (or God help us all, or something along those lines).

            1. Yves Smith Post author

              I apologize for having an attack of literal-mindedness, but you should see some of the newbie comments we get that don’t let through (as in I see the thinking processes of some lurkers or drive-bys….)

            2. Maxwell Johnston

              “It’s almost like state level trolling.”

              I think you nailed it. Especially making a (remarkably generous) offer just before the start of the big conference in Switzerland, knowing perfectly well what the reaction will be. Today’s screaming headline on the BBC website: “Putin peace terms slammed at Ukraine summit”. Now Putin can shrug his shoulders, explain to his own citizens and the Global South that “we tried our best to make peace”, and continue to establish new facts on the ground in the country that used to be called Ukraine.

              Nobody trolls like the Russians.

              Ukraine can expect a brutally hot summer of military activity.

        1. Neutrino

          Some after-action report could uncover factors that led to a domestic mutual-assured destruction pact. Lies, blackmail, incomplete disclosure, misinterpretation by proto-influencers, MIC dudes, shadowy characters, occasional proffered names like Gen. Westmoreland, Charlie Wilson and so many others could be candidates.

          The results probably show that there was never any plan of completion, let alone any plausible measure of success, beyond more, more, more*. As in We’ve come this far, can’t let down the side or risk credibility erosion by giving in to the conspiracists or fill-in-the blankety-blankists.

          That represents a commitment where the citizenries do not have any say but must acquiesce as the BS keeps being shoveled. In olden days, that was just body counts in faraway places. Then breathless commentators. Can’t wait for how the future gets gamed out. :(

          * see John Fogerty

      4. ilsm

        Over at Prof. Chinn’s blog he brings up Chamberlain re Johnson and some obscure Rings analog and his regulars support the sacred Ukraine land integrity all the way to Stalin and Krushjev whims.

        I see them as running toward Vietnam. Even to keeping unelected U.S. puppets.

        Self acclaimed liberal for a new Vietnam style debacle.

      5. Chris Cosmos

        My father was in the State Department at the time and spent an hour a day meeting with Bill Bundy and other colleagues talking about Vietnam policy (1965-68). He said that every proposal they and CIA (the info guys) gave to the WH was rejected out of hand even though McGeorge Bundy (Bills brother) ruled the roost over there. It was, yes, a matter of prestige but it was a matter (if you listen the Lyndon Johnson tapes) a question of ego and realpolitik in Washington. But, in my view, it was all about money for the MIC (even more important today) and promotion-city for the military officers who were miffed they didn’t get a chance to fight a war for nearly 20 years.

        My dad eventually decided to dissent (privately) and offer opposing views. He was removed from the ambassador track and assigned to Somalia (considered just about the worst posting at State. The State Department never changed and the rest of the government has followed suit–no dissent allowed.

        1. flora

          Thanks for your comment. So much to “read between the lines”, as they say.

          And, not that it matters at all these days, however, I refused to buy McNamara’s book “The Fog of War” or pay to see the movie of the same. His mea culpa was too little too late, imo. Not that it matters now.

          1. flora

            adding: McNamara’s plea for understanding and forgiveness didn’t go down well. I lost friends and brothers of friends in the VN debacle. He was trapped in WWII thinking about stuff? So the General Motors WWII production material might wasn’t the winning thing there in VN? OK. Last war thinking, Maginot Line, etc. He was trapped in political demands and personal career considerations? Oh…. It’s the personal career considerations that gets me.

            1. juno mas

              Think about this: The US involvement in Vietnam lasted approximately 20 years (1955-75) and 53,000 US servicemen died. More than 2 million Vietnamese non-combatants were killed. In Ukraine, since Feb. 2022 more than 500,000 servicemen (both sides) have died. Few from the West. The carnage is beyond ‘crazy’, but our current ‘McNamara’s’ will NEVER apologize.

            2. The Rev Kev

              My favourite McNamara story is of how he was all in on invading Cuba during the missile crisis of ’62 when he was Secretary of Defense but was over-ruled by JFK. About thirty years later he happened to be sitting at a table next to the Russian in charge of their military in Cuba back then and they got to talking. McNamara nearly fell off his char when the Russian told him that not only did he have strategic nukes but also tactical nukes and was fully authorized to use them in case of an American invasion.

    2. Benny Profane

      It’s an offer. What does our little green proxy man want? NATO membership, and every inch of his so called country back, including Crimea. I think he’s still talking about war crimes trials over those kids the Russians protected. But, anyway, at least there’s something happening, however absurd you may think the positions. If we didn’t have this damn election in November, they’d really be talking.

    3. Craig H.

      If they don’t accept this offer the next one is going to be worse. The only way they get a better offer is if it’s not Putin and even then they very probably aren’t going to get a better offer.

      This is all in history books for people to take the time and energy to read them.

      The sanctions have done nothing. In PPP Russia’s economy just passed over Japan to number four.

      1. John k

        Imo putin is the dove in the kremlin, nobody else would have made an offer that didn’t demand Odessa and Kharkov. And likely putin knows he’s making an offer they can’t accept.
        But hopefully he goes slow at least until after us election, the crazies will be distracted until then, and after they can blame trump.

    4. Chris Cosmos

      The reality is that for Washington (which runs NATO and Ukraine) no peace is acceptable. The only goal it has is complete subjugation of the world (“full spectrum dominance”) to Washington. At best, Russia may be able to negotiate a temporary cessation of hostilities with a demilitarized zone and a rump Ukraine that is neutral for a few years. The “war” would continue until Russia/China eventually fails. The neocons are deeply and fanatically ideological in their belief that the world will, despite military failures, eventually adopt the values of hyper-materialism and Hollywood values.

    5. Willow

      Putin does this every time things are about to go to the next stage which will be moving towards Odesa. Putin makes a reasonable offer to the West which does have strategic cost (because Putin knows West can’t be trusted to abide by it) but gives Russia the moral high ground. An offer Putin is willing to accept but knows West won’t. Its a bit like Putin calling checkmate in 24 moves – West can waste its time & money or concede (which it won’t because there’s too much sugar on the table for the grifters in charge).

  15. Joker

    Georgia’s protesters vow to stay on streets until government falls VOA

    Georgia’s protesters vow to stay on streets for as long as the foreign money keeps flowing in.

  16. The Rev Kev

    “Vladimir Putin sets out Ukraine ceasefire conditions”

    One thing that should be mentioned is the timing. The Swiss peace conference is about to kick off and I have no doubt that it would have been choreographed to the minute with appearances by the right people, announcements of support & money, resolutions on the permanent support of the Ukraine, etc. Everything would have been planned out. But now that has all been blown up and the main thing that will be discussed will be Russia’s own offer. They may not want to but there are so many countries that were invited there, they can hardly ignore it. Zelensky has already rejected it because he has nailed his fortunes to his 10-point plan which is the basis for the Swiss conference. But as harsh as the Russian conditions are (to the west that is), this is probably the best deal that Russia is prepared to make since the one in Istanbul. I would guess that at the conference, that the western powers will take turns rejecting it but I would assume that the Russians would know this. The way to Odessa is now clear. But to all those non-western countries, they can see that Russia made a reasonable offer that was rejected out of hand.

      1. Martin Oline

        Someone should gift him a copy of Billi Gordon’s cookbook You’ve Had Worse Things In Your Mouth. This cover illustration in the link is a revised edition apparently but more apt to this comment. It has kept it’s value and is still selling for what it cost new in 1986. No one will give him one because it is politically incorrect but it is divided into section pertinent to daily life, like: Seduction – What to cook to catch that man; Motivation – What to cook to keep him bringing home the bacon; Destitution – What to cook when he stops bringing home the bacon; Revenge – What to cook when you find out why he stopped bringing home the bacon, etc.

    1. The Rev Kev

      You say that in jest but there is an element of truth there. The past year or two at least the US has enacted all sorts of sanctions on this region to crush any industry such as cotton that the Chinese are setting up in order to impoverish the Uyghurs and make them destitute. The hope is that an impoverished Uyghur population may rebel against the central government. That sort of “saving” the Uyghurs definitely do not need.

      1. Emma

        The Uyghurs in Xinjiang are doing amazing thanks to a huge tourist boom.

        A couple more rounds of American/Euro sanctions (sounds like they’re currently spinning up some “Russian” sanctions actually intended to exclude Chinese banks) and the “garden” is going to be one potted petunia. Maybe that’s why Russia and China and Iran all refuse to act, they’re hoping for more Western sanctions.

        1. CA

          https://english.news.cn/20240506/e9d1e0ad5c494d938896968f8653f34d/c.html

          May 6, 2024

          Xinjiang tourism revenue up nearly 34 pct during May Day holiday

          URUMQI — A variety of travel programs rolled out by China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region boosted both visitor numbers and revenue during the just-concluded May Day holiday.

          Statistics from the regional culture and tourism department showed that during the five-day holiday, the northwestern region received about 8.56 million domestic tourists, an increase of 6.3 percent compared to the same period in 2023.

          Tourism revenue generated during the five days totaled nearly 8.1 billion yuan (about 1.14 billion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year increase of 33.87 percent.

          Covering approximately one-sixth of China’s land area, Xinjiang boasts varied and unique natural landscapes, and rich historical and cultural tourism resources.

          China has increased air routes and implemented visa exemptions with countries such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. During the May Day holiday, Xinjiang saw a surge in cross-border tourist flows…

        2. CA

          https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202404/24/WS66284242a31082fc043c3979.html

          April 24, 2024

          Low-altitude economy in Xinjiang starts riding powerful tail winds
          By YAN DONGJIE and MAO WEIHUA

          Beijing and Urumqi – The launch of Xinjiang Tianyuan General Aviation Co’s first flight from Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, to Fuyun county in Xinjiang’s Altay on Sunday, and the opening of a low-altitude economy research institute marked the beginning of new opportunities for the region’s low-altitude economic growth.

          Tianyuan General Aviation was established through cooperation among the Xinjiang Airport Group, Urumqi and Kashgar airports and the Jiangsu Yajie Aviation Development Group. It is committed to building a “one-hour aviation economic circle”, with Urumqi as its center and Kashgar and Yining as its southern and northern hubs, respectively, within a radius of 500 kilometers.

          The innovative development of “short-haul transportation along with electric vertical takeoff and landing” is driving the overall low-altitude economic development of Xinjiang, said Yang Li, vice-president of the Yajie group and secretary of the board of directors of Tianyuan General Aviation.

          According to the Xinjiang General Aviation Airport Layout Plan (2018-35), the region will build 89 general airports above A2 level by 2030. By 2035, it will build a total of 98 general airports above A2 level.

          After the whole plan is achieved, 99 percent of the county-level administrative units in the region will be able to enjoy general aviation services within a linear distance of 50 kilometers, serving 99 percent of the population of Xinjiang…

  18. Dave

    It is really worth it to pay the subscription fee to stop getting Youtube ads altogether. The Duran videos are especially gummed up with ads.

    1. Louis Fyne

      If you watch Youtube on a TV….you might want to try this experiment…

      I still use one 10-year old 1st gen. Chromecast that has been on continuously for months at a time. I’ve noticed that watching Youtube on the ancient Chromecast = 90% less ads than the latest Chromecast or a fully ìntegrated “Smart TV” or computer or tablet.

      My guess is that the limited RAM/SSD on the old Chromecast means that it can only buffer X secs. of adverts.

      An used Chromecast = ~$10 on eBay. It may be worth the experiment. Your mileage will vary

      1. Terry Flynn

        Thanks re TV YT tip. For those who watch on Tablet and computer I’ve discovered (anecdotally) that if you use the “skip” option at the 5 second mark on all ads that offer you that option and never ever follow up on anything YouTube tries to sell to you, the algorithm gives up – my Dad and I are both puzzled at how many ads per 30 minute video many commenters claim to see when we are fortunate enough to see only 2 at most (with at least one skippable after 5 secs).

        I think the algorithm has decided we simply are immune. Though it may also be threatened because I also watch YT on my Linux laptop with a browser that skips all ads and even the channel-recorded inserts. Yes, my Android YT app is showing the telltale 5 second delay in loading the page of thumbnails on start-up but YT have not gone after me……yet.

        Plus the YT ads still show telltale signs of the early days “identification” or in this case misidentification of gender/age. Though having a long career in survey design I delight in messing with algorithms to see what happens…..

        1. FlyoverBoy

          Doesn’t work for me. In fact the opposite is happening: I’m getting more and more where I’m forced to watch the entirety of two ads, each 10-20 seconds, before I can see ONE video. And if I pause it after just a minute or few of viewing and return the next day, it’ll resume the next day where I paused it and then cut away to two MORE ads before resuming. I completely agree with Louis Fyne, they’re deliberately trying to make it unwatchable in exactly the same way Amazon punishes non-Prime members by creating an intolerable wait to receive your merchandise. When you have a monopoly, you can do that. Google should never have been allowed to buy YouTube in the first place, and they should be forced to divest it now.

      2. Bugs

        Drag the little dot all the way to the end of the video, then pull it back to the beginning. Usually works.

    2. Louis Fyne

      PS, presuming this is a feature, not a bug.

      Google has all the data about subscription conversion rates, watch time, and zip codes. It doesn’t take AI to maximize advert delivery to non-subscribers.

      The whole point of Youtube now is to make you so annoyed from adverts that you buy a plan

    4. JM

      Or install uBlock Origin, or if you’re really serious set up a pi-hole. You might be shocked how tolerable the internet becomes.

      I have no experience with it, but Louis Rossman has a couple videos about his experience with paid YouTube, and it wasn’t at all positive for him.

    5. Yves Smith Post author

      I am not giving Google any more data than they already have. That matters more to me than the $. I similarly do not subscribe to any sites that allow you to see more/everything in return for “free” registration. I’ll use archive.ph, which does the trick for most sites.

    6. Glen

      There’s ads on YT?

      That ad blocker is working better than I though. I occasionally have to click thru a stopped ad to start the YT, but never get any during the YT.

      And in the unlikely event I see an ad, that item goes on a never buy list.

    7. Captain Obvious

      Duran videos are also available on Odysee, sans subtitles. Another option is using alternative frontend for YouTube (Invidious redirect.invidious.io, or Piped github.com/TeamPiped/Piped/wiki/Instances), where some experimenting with various instances is required.

    8. Captain Obvious

      Duran videos are also available on Odysee, sans subtitles. Another option is using alternative frontend for YouTube (Invidious or Piped), where some experimenting with various instances is required.

      I’ve included links in the post but it did not appear, so I removed them.

  19. Carolinian

    Re Merrick Garland refuses to prosecute himself–shouldn’t that be listed under Dem Clown Car? Or perhaps just Clown Car. After all a true circus clown car can hold an unlimited number of clowns.

    My theory on Garland’s blatant partisanship is that he never got over being being blocked from the Supreme Court by the Repubs. He coulda been a contender instead of a……

    1. flora

      My thoughts exactly. (As for blocking Garland from the SC, his show of temperament and character since then makes me think the country dodged a bullet there.)

  20. Jeff W

    “the Duran duo”

    I know Alexander Mercouris and Alex Christoforu run a news-media platform called “The Duran” but, just out of curiosity, what does that name the Duran mean?

          1. Jeff W

            Thanks, everyone!

            The British rock group Duran Duran occurred to me, too, but I thought that just couldn’t be it.
            The “evoke durable” explanation strikes me as a bit dubious because, well, it doesn’t exactly do that, at least not for me—if anything, the name evokes southeast Asian fruit. (And why the arthrous use of The Duran?)

            That it’s explained exactly nowhere—not on the official site, not on the YouTube channel, not on some wiki page (reputable or not, I have no idea)—gives me the impression that, well, whatever it is, it’s not something that either Alex or Alexander is keen to publicize. They certainly don’t have to—it’s just something I’ve wondered about.

            1. Captain Obvious

              Southeast Asian fruit is durian, and it stinks. ;)
              For the the (which also happenes to be a name of unrelated band) check out my comment about available domain name below.

              1. Jeff W

                “Southeast Asian fruit is durian”

                Exactly.

                And thanks—I think the “available domain” idea is at least consistent with the name and the definite article but, of course, it doesn’t really answer why that name in particular.

                It’s not a big deal. It’s just something I had wondered about (and was convinced that everyone else knew), and, after a few searches online yielded, as I said, nothing (not even speculation), I thought I’d raise the question here. So far, the “evoke durable” answer, coming directly from one of the principals, seems the closest to an answer, although I don’t find it entirely convincing.

              2. Yves Smith Post author

                I have not been brave enough to try it but durian is famously delicious despite the smell. There are stalls here full of durian, pickups full of durian…lots farmed and it would not be if there was no market.

        3. Bugs

          “Ordinary World” is a lovely and moving song. I remember hearing it in over the speakers in my little grocery store, when we were in the worst depths of Covid and I’d lost a friend far away, and felt rather helpless. That song made me feel like we’d make it to the other side. I’ll thank Duran Duran for that.

          Also, their Bond theme is a banger.

      2. hk

        I always wondered if that has something to do with Turkish cuisine (there are apparently a number of eating establishments in Istanbul with the word “Duran” in it–which apparently means “lingering” or “standing.”). But both Alexes are culturally Greeks, so I imagine that’s improbable.

    2. Offtrail

      what does … the Duran mean?

      Google is your friend! If nothing else, you should been able to glean that by perusing this site.

    3. Captain Obvious

      It means that com domain was available. Alex Christoforou said that it was very important. He denied reference to the band, or that it’s someone’s last name. He also said that they did not want some generic name like gepolitics-blah-blah.

    1. The Rev Kev

      Time for young people to stuff themselves full of junk food and get that blood pressure up high. Spend all their times playing video games too. Better that than dying on the battlefields of the Dnieper to protect Zelensky’s secret bank accounts and his real estate empire. After the war they can always diet and exercise to get healthy again.

      1. flora

        Is this why B leaves the US southern border open?

        “Section 531. Selective Service System: Automatic Registration. SEC. 3. (a)(1) “Except as otherwise provided in this title, every male citizen of the United States, and every other male person residing in the United States, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six, shall be automatically registered under this Act by the Director of the Selective Service System.”

        “…and every other male person residing in the United States, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six…” Importing cannon fodder? Inquiring minds…. / ;)

        1. Amfortas the Hippie

          hey, it worked for Imperial Rome…until it didnt,lol.
          im too lazy to crow for day, atm…but was the service for citizenship thing some years ago, all talk, or did they actually do it?
          i mean, to make the ancient roman comparisons even bleaker,lol…Foederatti.

    2. Geo

      From the article:
      “Why an automatic draft? Members of Congress and the President have an obligation to explain to the American people to which foreign land will their sons, and perhaps their daughters, be sent to die?”

      News from earlier this week:
      “The Biden administration is close to finalizing a treaty with Saudi Arabia that would commit the U.S. to help defend the Gulf nation if it were attacked”

      Gotta perpetuate those wars our MIC needs for profiteering and if it’s bodies they need it’s bodies they will get.

    3. Laura in So Cal

      Not sure why? It is already a requirement to register at 18. According to what I remember, you are supposed to be ineligible for federal student grants/loans if you aren’t registered. I guess I’m sure that that isn’t being enforced.

      We seem to lack the will to enforce the law and just make more laws to cover up that fact.

      I have a 20 yr old, physically fit son so I’m scared of all the signals being sent.

      1. Screwball

        It is already a requirement to register at 18

        This is correct as I’m reading things. Link to Selective Service;

        Selective Service – Who Must Register

        I’m not sure where Kucinich getting this automatic “draft.” It sounds like automatic registration. There is a difference IMO. He needs to clarify that unless I am reading him wrong, which is possible.

        Aside; his war stance is probably the cause of his falling out with JFK Jr.?

    4. Chris Cosmos

      They are going to have a really hard time forcing people to “serve” in today’s military unless they dump the economy in the toilet which will bring its own problems. The draft will also force people to look at foreign/military policy and that will doom their prospects for world-domination. Better to use other countries to act as mercenaries as they’ve begun to do in Ukraine.

  22. CA

    https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1801639668100042772

    Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand

    This is an absolutely insane investigation by Reuters

    https://reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-covid-propaganda/ *

    At the height of the Covid crisis, the Pentagon ran a massive secret disinformation campaign “to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China”.

    For instance in the Philippines they created “phony internet accounts meant to impersonate Filipinos”, making “social media posts that decried the quality of face masks, test kits and the first vaccine that would become available in the Philippines – China’s Sinovac”. Almost all of these accounts were created in the summer of 2020 and centered on the hashtag #Chinaangvirus – Tagalog for “China is the virus”.

    Another example, in “Central Asia and the Middle East, the Pentagon used a combination of fake social media accounts on multiple platforms to spread fear of China’s vaccines among Muslims” by claiming that China’s vaccines “sometimes contain pork gelatin and thus could be considered forbidden under Islamic law”.

    “We didn’t do a good job sharing vaccines with partners,” a senior U.S. military officer directly involved in the campaign in Southeast Asia told Reuters. “So what was left to us was to throw shade on China’s.”

    And of course as the Reuters article highlights, there’s a LONG history of psyops by the US against countries they consider adversaries, no matter if – like in this case – it comes at the cost of lowering trust in health supplies in the middle of a pandemic and therefore threatening lives…

    And make no mistake, it very much continues, the scale of the disinformation on China is terrifying…

    * Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to incite fear of China vaccines

    11:35 AM · Jun 14, 2024

    1. The Rev Kev

      The Philippines, like Taiwan, is set to become the new Ukraine of the Pacific. Could it be that another reason for this anti-China vaccine campaign was to turn that country against China which is now manifesting itself into that country confronting China under Marcos jr?

        1. Yeti

          It should also be noted that China used a traditional based vaccine if I’m not mistaken. Your chart shows no change in life expectancy…. In every highly vaccinated country Covid-19 deaths increased after vaccine rollout as well as excess deaths. it could also be that the Chinese data is suspect.

          1. Bsn

            Yes, but we can trust the data from the CDC and NIH at least. Whew, I knew I couldn’t thrust Chiiiina

  23. Carolinian

    A very much worth a read Diana Johnstone on the true victors of WW2. Treachery thy name is Churchill.

    At the very moment of Germany’s defeat in May 1945, Churchill ordered the British Armed Forces’ Joint Planning Staff to develop plans for a surprise Anglo-American attack on the forces of their Soviet ally in Germany.

    Top-secret until 1998, the plans even included arming defeated Wehrmacht and SS troops to take part. This fantasy was code-named Operation Unthinkable, which coincides with the judgment of the British chiefs of staff, who rejected it as out of the question. […]

    In fact, Stalin always scrupulously respected the sphere of influence agreements with the Western allies, refusing to support the communist liberation movement in Greece (which angered Josip Broz Tito, contributing to Moscow’s split with Yugoslavia) and consistently urged the strong Communist Parties in Italy and France to go easy in their political demands. While those parties were treated as dangerous threats by the right, they were fiercely opposed by ultra-leftists for staying within the system rather than pursuing revolution.

    Soviet and Russian leaders truly wanted peace with their erstwhile Western allies and never had any ambition to control the entire continent. They understood the Yalta agreement as authorizing their insistence on imposing a defensive buffer zone on the string of Eastern European States liberated from Nazi control by the Red Army.

    Johnstone is saying that Churchill’s dreams lives on in the FP of the US and UK tail that wags it. Most Americans likely don’t realize that they are mere pawns in the Great Game. Someone should tell them.

    https://consortiumnews.com/2024/06/14/diana-johnstone-d-day-2024/

    1. pjay

      I strongly second this recommendation. I just happened to read this right after I read Putin’s speech at the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs (the translation posted at MofA). Together, the two put the Ukraine conflict in very broad historical context, showing that WWIII has been 80 years in the making. Diana Johnstone is always a welcome antidote to our increasingly Orwellian history. Everyone in the West should know this; almost no one does.

    2. Jason Boxman

      For more on the contentious relationship between De Gaulle and Churchill and Roosevelt, I recommend: Allies at war : the bitter rivalry among Churchill, Roosevelt, and de Gaulle. (ISBN 0786709499)

      In short, Churchill and Roosevelt really derided de Gaulle. Chiang Kai-shek of the Chinese Nationalists got even shorter thrift, despite being key in pinning down the Japanese in China.

    3. LifelongLib

      Dunno. I’ve seen historians who claim that the U.S. bankrupted the British Empire by insisting on dollars or gold for war supplies early in WW2, and was very much calling the shots after it entered the war in December 1941. Living in the U.S. my entire life I’ve never had the sense that our government cares much about what Britain thinks. And Wall Street doesn’t need help from the City of London to be nefarious…

      1. Anonymous 2

        Yes, the 1941 Atlantic Charter can be read as the British Empire’s suicide note, dictated to it by the US.

    4. The Rev Kev

      Roosevelt would have shot down that idea straight away. Churchill wanted the Allied D-Day to be in the Balkans so that the Allies would have to fight bloody wars through that whole mountainous region like they were doing in Italy. The reason was to stem Russia taking those areas. Eisenhower took one look at a map and said no, that D-Day will be on the northern French coastline so that the Allies could race to the Ruhr, cut off German industry and end the war quickly. The rest is history.

    6. steppenwolf fetchit

      Is this to suggest that the standard left-wing narrative that America dominates Britain, NATO, etc. could be wrong?

      Is it really Britain that dominates America through a kind of Vulcan mind-melding brainworm parasitism? And that Britain dominates NATO through its “pitiful helpless giant” American servant?

      Can the standard left-winger handle that flipping of the script on who is the Master of Evil in this special relationship?

  24. Jean Gingras

    Do US citizens realize that they don’t get to vote for the people who are actually running the show ?

    1. Louis Fyne

      roughly 70% of people who can register to vote do so.

      of that pool roughly 66% voted in 2020

      so 0.7 * 0.66 = less than 50% of eligible Americans vote.

    2. Geo

      I my own little circle of humanity it seems to be an age/class divide. Older and well-off people still believe the system functions but is in trouble (especially if the Orange Man wins). Younger and poorer people are more inclined to believe the system is rigged and voting is a placebo ritual to placate the masses with the illusion of democracy.

      Oddly, there’s a middle group that seems to be a large portion that believes both – that our elected leaders don’t represent us but voting is still important. Sort of like political agnostics who don’t believe our government works but still have some sort of faith they cling to and take part in its rituals. They also seem to be the ones who most cling to the “lesser evil” concept that both parties are corrupt but one is better than the other. I know plenty like this on both sides of the political spectrum.

      1. steppenwolf fetchit

        Does voting still matter more at State levels? At regional levels? At local levels?

        Does it matter who is the Mayor? Who is on the City Council? The School Board? etc.?

        Yes or no?

    3. Neutrino

      Even if you vote, those Critters look at the act as merely advisory, even performative. Platitudes and talking points all around, when their lips move.

      They follow the general trend as a crude indicator, but really dial into what their minders and lobbyists tell them to do. Representative in name only.

  25. griffen

    The quest to build a better golf ball…well this is timely given the focus on the current golf major underway, the 124th US Open being held at Pinehurst course #2. Pinehurst has expanded after the GFC and runs a total of 9 courses; a few of the tracks are lesser known and more suited for us older players who rather stay around 6200 yards max than a 7500 yard trek.

    Back to the golf ball, meh and whatevs. Golf equipment companies are constantly inventing and innovating for a game that fundamentally just doesn’t change every year. Golf is easier to measure or compare in terms of players and their era. Sam Snead then a Byron Nelson, a Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and a bevy of all timers with him. I often think Gary Player gets seriously overlooked for his longevity and his commitment to health and exercise. Tiger Woods took the game and it’s popularity to a new place; and with that young energy, the tournament purses grew as well

    I rather enjoy watching the US Open, especially on a Fathers Day weekend when I can recall high times and fun times for the spring and summer days on golf courses ( or 9 holes of goat track ) with my since departed old Dad. Been 22 years since the damn cancer cut him short, but I honestly wouldn’t complain much myself if 71, or 72 years is the total of my years.

    1. ChrisFromGA

      I used to really enjoy golf but midlife demands and such mean I don’t play often.

      I can’t even get any of the geezers I know to play a round with me. And forget about the younger crowd. Could be the younger generation just isn’t feeling 5 hours spent chasing a white ball around.

      Looks like another “trunk slammer” for Tiger. Would love to see him win another major but Father Time is a real &$@!&!

      1. griffen

        The playing time for a full round of 18 is now a deterrent, and with it I’m also more in the black on my spending habits on outdoor activities. A lot of local options to hike or ride bikes are easy to find and don’t charge much at all, maybe an entrance fee to the South Carolina state parks. Hiking has much in common, walking a full 18 holes or walking a hilly hiking trail but the hiking goes faster and no worries if I let a faster group play on through. A cold beer after either endeavor is still a likely welcome respite as summer is really starting to heat up on the Fahrenheit scale.

        As you suggest it wasn’t just Tiger packing his bags, which leads me to consider that individual sporting efforts like pro golf, or pro tennis are still quite unique versus professional team sports (NBA, MLB). You lose your tennis match, or miss a golf tournament cut, you get sent home sans any participation trophy for just being present. No prize awarded for 80th place this weekend, and very likely as well, no money.

        1. Bsn

          Sorry, but I just can’t forget Johnny Carson asking some famous golfer if his wife kissed his balls before a match for good luck. Go ahead moderators, I understand …. :-)

          2. griffen

            That’s an all time quote from one of the greats! Golfers and their (golf) balls…the puns and jokes are endless….

            Rick Reilly used to write hilarious columns in Sports Illustrated, generally sports but he covered a lot of golf majors. And I kinda miss the whimsical comments from a Feherty on the CBS or NBC tournament coverage.

        2. Screwball

          The playing time for a full round of 18 is now a deterrent,

          Time AND cost. I was once an avid golfer. Played almost every day. Membership to course and driving range. On vacation I once played 162 holes.

          Now I don’t play at all. Quit 2 years ago. When it took 3+ hours to play in a 9 hole league, or between 6-7 hrs to play on the weekends, it was no longer fun, or worthwhile. Alone, I could play 18 holes in a little over 3 hours – walking. Not today.

          Then there is the cost. 2 years ago, 9 hole league night with cart $14 bucks (not the greatest course, but not bad). Now – $19. $43 for 18 and cart on the weekend when it used to be around $30. Nope, not paying $43 for this place.

          I can walk around the block to get my exercise and it doesn’t cost a cent, and I’m not a human target on what seems to be a shooting range full of errant round white missiles. Fore!

  26. antidlc

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/yes-everyone-really-is-sick-a-lot-more-often-after-covid/ar-BB1oeN0H
    Bloomberg
    Yes, Everyone Really Is Sick a Lot More Often After Covid

    The resulting research, based on data collected from more than 60 organizations and public health agencies, shows that 44 countries and territories have reported at least one infectious disease resurgence that’s at least ten times worse than the pre-pandemic baseline.

    The post-Covid global surge of illnesses — viral and bacterial, common and historically rare — is a mystery that researchers and scientists are still trying to definitively explain. The way Covid lockdowns shifted baseline immunities is a piece of the puzzle, as is the pandemic’s hit to overall vaccine administration and compliance. Climate change, rising social inequality and wrung-out health-care services are contributing in ways that are hard to measure.

    What about Covid’s impact on the immune system?

  27. The Rev Kev

    “In Praise of the Paranormal Curiosity of Charles Fort, Patron Saint of Cranks”

    Charles Fort, in his 1919 compendium “The Book of the Damned’ recorded all sorts of phenomena and I think that there is place for such a work in science. Call it a repository of unexplained science. The first one that comes to mind which I have mentioned before is ball lightning. Anybody that saw it was called a liar or deluded or mistaken but we now acknowledge that yes, ball lightning is real. Trying to explain some of the other entries in such a repository could lead to other scientific discoveries.

  28. Karenica

    “Trump selling cabinet positions.”
    That’s scandalous.

    Moreso is RFK jr. selling the Vice Presidential ticket to his largest donor, Nicole Shanahan.

    1. Neutrino

      Acquisition and Distribution, time-honored rites of administration for generations.

      The old way was to populate the cabinet based on interest groups, called-in favors and in rare cases, actual applicable real-world talent.

      The new way cuts out the middlemanperson and allocates based on cash, with suasion on occasion.

    2. John k

      …he’s selling policy to the highest bidder…
      So… no fundamental change…
      Oligarchs see this as just another subscription service. Like insurance companies, gotta change your provider now and then or they raise rates too much.

    3. Pat

      Well the Biden camp sold the VP position to Kamala and her Clintonite backers and Secretary of the Treasury to Mayo Pete, that wasn’t the first time we saw high governmental positions traded for support. Mind you there did seem to be more emphasis on naming them as Ambassadors rather than the cabinet earlier.

      1. NotTimothyGeithner

        Sold to Harris? That was just Biden telling a lie expecting to do whatever he wanted later. Harris was the only elected black woman who aligned with him enough to be his running mate.

        1. Pat

          NTG, the exit from the primaries was very coordinated. Biden himself may not have promised VP to Harris and her backers, but something was. And the only thing that makes any sense for them was VP. Pretty sure he had no idea that the VP promise in his speeches had very limited parameters AND that he would be held to it.

      2. steppenwolf fetchit

        Mayo Pete didn’t get Secretary of Treasury. He got Secretary of Transportation. I believe Janet Yellen is Secretary of Treasury, but that is just my memory talking.

  29. antidlc

    https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2024/06/13/barda-awards-500-million-project-nextgen-funding-vaccine-clinical-trials.html
    BARDA awards up to $500 million in Project NextGen funding for vaccine clinical trials

    Project awards made under new Rapid Response Partnership Vehicle will evaluate novel COVID-19 vaccine candidates

    The project awards were made through BARDA’s Rapid Response Partnership Vehicle (RRPV

    ) to support the following companies in planning for and preparing the vaccine candidates for Phase 2b clinical trials:

    Up to $453 million to Vaxart of San Francisco, California, developing an oral pill vaccine candidate, adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad-5). BARDA will provide an initial $65.7 million for early trial milestones, with remaining funds provided as the effort successfully advances toward trial execution. Vaxart will execute its own Phase 2b clinical trials.
    Approximately $34 million to Castlevax, part of the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City, developing an intranasal vaccine candidate, CVAX-01.
    Approximately $40 million to Cyanvac of Athens, Georgia, developing an intranasal vaccine candidate, CVXGA.

    Castlevax and Cyanvac Phase 2b trials are in partnership with BARDA’s Clinical Studies Network.

  30. Robert Gray

    re: Are you a prescrastinator? Grauniad

    One year during college I got a summer job at a big factory. I was assigned as helper to one of the full-time permanent maintenance mechanics who kept the place running; fella named Verne. It’s many years now but I remember him well. Verne was in his 40s or 50s. He could fix anything. The system was such that every Monday the foreman gave us a list of what we needed to do that week, leaving it to Verne to decide the how and when. About my third or fourth week, on Monday morning Verne showed me the list and asked me what I thought: how should we approach our tasks? One job in particular stood out. It was a big project that would take us two or three days. It also looked horrible: messy, stinking, slimy, filthy; just horrible. Well, young eager beaver that I was, I suggested that we tackle the big bad job first, to ‘get it over with’. Verne smiled compassionately at my naïveté and shook his head. ‘No’, he said. He then spoke words of wisdom that I have remembered all my life. He said ‘Always do the easy jobs first; you never know, you might die before you get to the shit work’.

    1. marieann

      “you might die before you get to the shit work.”
      This reminded me of my motto when I was in nursing. We were always poorly staffed and some teams had more that their share of more “difficult patients”
      I was part time so 1 day on and then 2 days off etc. so my patient load was always changing. Someone mentioned that they wouldn’t like all the changing and not knowing.
      I said,next shift I could get a different team, or the difficult patient could have been transferred…or the difficult patient could die…or I could die.

  31. Bsn

    Regarding “Can Psychedelics Improve Mental Health? ” I’ve always said, yes. Everyone should take at least one hit of acid and also spend one night in jail. This will help people learn restraint and freedom. Just don’t do it on the same day.

  32. Pelham

    Does anyone join me viewing the video of Biden at the G7 parachute event in being rather touched that little Giorgia Meloni would go so out of her way to corral Biden? Just setting aside politics and appearances, it was a really nice thing to do. Bless her.

    1. Willow

      Biden has a 90 min debate on the 27 June. I can’t see it happening. What false flag will they pull to get him out of the debate? Ukraine, Iran or at home?

      1. Acacia

        The only thing I can figure — a bit fanciful, perhaps — is that it will be “live” but there will be a secret deal such that audio and video of Biden gets piped through a DNC subcontractor under the command of a present-day Oscar Goldman spook, running a small crew to drive a proprietary “Joe Headroom” app that generates real-time vtuber video of Biden speaking coherently, not drooling, etc. — and that’s what will come through from the Biden side of the room. Trump will mostly look self-satisfied at all of real Joe’s speaking in tongues, which TV audiences are expected to read as Trump simply being the narcissist they expected him to be.

        After all, it’s pretty clear the Democrat leadership is all-in on governance through perception management, so logically they will just double down as far as the technology permits. And the technology of fakery is getting better and better. We haven’t reached the level of a full audio-animatronic der Alte from P.K. Dick’s The Simulacra, but it could probably be done for video under the controlled conditions of a TV debate.

    2. Rolf

      Yes, this was my reaction, if one ignores the real circumstances, and just imagines a social gathering, e.g., a wedding reception. She seemed to immediately sense something wrong, and herded him back to the circle. I have little sympathy for Biden, but thought this a very gracious thing for her to do, and in a way that brought little attention to the maneuver.

  33. AG

    On that Canadian goose:
    My Mum grew up in the countryside tasked with shepherding those “monsters” as she says today. Imagine her, 8 or 9 years old, the geese at least as tall. Her armed with a stick and nothing else? Good luck. There you have your life-long trauma.
    So, no goose at Christmas for us.

  34. Bsn

    From the files of “ticky tack”. I have an experienced birding friend who corrects me when I say “Canadian goose”. It’s “Canada goose”! Oy, that’s not one battle I will fight.

  35. MaryLand

    A bit off topic, but for those who need to ease cars away from parents no longer able to drive safely due to dementia or other causes, here’s what we did for my mom. We said the car was in need of service and offered to take it in for her. Then after a few days we said they found a problem and needed to work on it. When she asked about it we said it wasn’t finished yet. After a while she stopped asking.

    1. Vicky Cookies

      I told my father that if he continued to drive, he’d be making the road less safe for all the people we share it with, but that he could now become a self-righteous environmentalist. He laughed, and stopped driving.

  36. Daniil Adamov

    I have read all of Charles Fort’s books and haven’t regretted it for a moment, though his idiosyncratic style of writing is certainly not for everyone (if I did not enjoy it so much, I would agree that it is “unreadable”). Glad to see I’m not the only one to appreciate it today. In his own time, he was quite popular and influenced the development of English-language science fiction. What I like most about him is his persistent self-awareness. He briskly offered up many extremely dubious theories and never pretended to believe in them himself. This sets him aside favourably from many later, more self-serious “cranks”. There was a lightness and humour in him that I find very likeable. At the same time, one can’t say he was lazy, given the effort that went into gathering and scrutinising his sources; and his critiques of contemporary science and science-worship were effective.

    1. steppenwolf fetchit

      In the spirit of Fort, there was another author of books about ” strange but real things”. Ivan T. Sanderson was an ecologist and an organism-collector for the British Museum and wrote numerous mainstream popularised books about various Natural History topics.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_T._Sanderson

      . At some point he decided his reputation was solid enough that he could risk it writing books about the Strange. One such book was Investigating The Unexplained, about materially real things which were not explainable by the mainstream science of the day and were therefor left undiscussed. So he decided to discuss them.
      https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1211993.Investigating_the_Unexplained

  38. Glen

    The local power company is doing work on our road, and it’s interesting to see all the work crews involved. The first thing you notice is that instead of the power company having a maintenance crew that does the work, this an almost endless array of contractors that show up. One for traffic management, one for the digging, one for trimming trees, one for the electrical, one for setting poles, one for re-paving, one for stripping (painting) the road.

    So it’s gone from one “vertically integrated” work crew, to at least somewhere between five or more contractors. There has to be “managers” for all those crews. So it seems like the ratio of doers to managers has shifted. I guess that makes sense, it seems like there is way, way more money in management that in actually working, but it’s interesting that while this shift has been occurring, the impetus of American company management seems to have shifted to strip mining companies for maximal profit even if the company gets destroyed.

  39. Jason Boxman

    Interesting Dating App conversions.

    One woman agreed with dangers, is immune compromised and now has long COVID from 2022. Suffering from head and nerve injuries from car accident pre COVID. Said nonetheless she’d do long COVID forever over her other injures.

    Talked briefly with another woman that said the science is clear, it’s airborne. And less risky to immune compromised people than TB is. Wouldn’t debate she said, just curious what COVID safe meant when I asked if she was. I guess to her it meant COVID shot = safe. She couldn’t be more mistaken about the science. Founder of a NGO thing. I guess she likes to brunch hard, didn’t get to ask.

    The first woman pointed out that she taught communications and studied nurses, that people discount a thing until it happens to them.

    I mostly do this for the conversation now, as it is hopeless but enlightening. Maybe I’ll help someone avoid long COVID but probably not.

    Sad we can end this any time. We know what to do. America has the wealth to do it.

  41. Glen

    And anecdotal on seeing more campaign crap:

    I started getting two a day Biden/Harris emails this week, and I’m getting several a week texts from Trump. If this gets worse, I may have to set up some automatic filter rules to block/delete it all.

    1. Pat

      Wow, you are lucky. I get between 5 and 7 BidenHQ emails a day in my commerce email account. The only reason I do not get any texts because I don’t do BS two step verification nor do I give out my cell phone number to 99% of the people who think they should have it.

  42. steppenwolf fetchit

    One reason Nigel Farage gets so many likes and clicks and follows and etc. is that he is so very entertaining.

    1. steppenwolf fetchit

      I’ve been sick a lot less often since the onset of the Age of Covid. But I live a semi-shut-in low-social-exposure existence.

  45. Willow

    Betting odds for TINA winning presidency have really improved over last few weeks. Now only double Michelle. Maybe plan is for Biden to crash & burn in debate & then ride in for the ‘rescue’? There is no way it’s a good idea for Biden to debate Trump.

  46. djrichard

    > The danger of decadence is also its value. We need more of it aeon (Anthony L)

    Wow, what a read. Covers things I take for granted – it’s part of the waters we swim in. But the waters we swim in now weren’t always this way, so interesting to see a treatment covering the period when that change took place. And a glmpse of the “culture wars” behind it. And this culture war isn’t over. It’s just striking into newer territory. So it’s interesting to read about some of its origins.

    Apparently the decadence movement has ties to aestheticism, as the author of the article has a book on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Pater . Which perhaps might inform what I thought was a somewhat cryptic ending to her article. At the very least where I might be willing to discount decadence, it’s much harder to discount aestheticism.

    When I was younger my aestheticism was more around music. But now unexplicably it seems that paintings at art museums now have an emotional punch that I previously wouldn’t have experienced. Not all, but when they do, wow. Is this decadence? Or if not that an induced affectation? I don’t think so, but who am I to say, lol. I guess the dividing line is when I start to feel guilty. Anyways nice to have this article to give me food for thought and look forward to reading more on these topics.

    1. djrichard

      P.S. with respect to that emotional punch I get from paintings, it’s like there’s a part of my brain I didn’t realize even existed. If that’s what it’s like for the decadents, then I can better appreciate where they’re at.

  47. djrichard

    P.S. with respect to that emotional punch I get from paintings, it’s like there’s a part of my brain I didn’t realize even existed. If that’s what it’s like for the decadents, then I can better appreciate where they’re at.

  48. JBird4049

    The Daily Heller: The Little-Known Legacy of the EP Print Magazine. Anthony L: “For (us) old farts.”

    (Hey man, LPs are hep, doncha know?)

    There are a few songs that I want that might be easier to find on EPs, which I been ignoring; I don’t do 45s. There is also the problem that there are frequently LPs that either were never released on CDs or were changed for the re-release on disc. Time for Discogs again.

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