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Links 6/2/2024

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Man who transformed into a dog says he wants to become another animal Scripps (Furzy Mouse)

This Week In Doom – #19: Chicken In A China Shop (transcript) Grant Williams (PI).

Climate

Mongolia’s Fight Against Desertification and Land Degradation The Diplomat

IKEA blamed for Romanian forest destruction Monga Bay

Solar project to destroy thousands of Joshua trees in the Mojave Desert LA Times

Climate activist arrested for attacking Monet painting at Paris’s Orsay museum France24

Saving Art from the Revolution, for the Revolution JSTOR Daily

Water

A Closer Look at America’s Water Crisis The Progressive

This troubled California lake just turned so green it’s visible from space SFGATE

Syndemics

Rising numbers of flu, COVID-19 cases puts Victorian ambulances under the pump The Age

South Australia public hospitals operating in internal emergency, elective surgeries paused ABC Australia

Traveler infected with confirmed case of measles at Seattle International Airport as cases in US increase FOX

COVID-19 associated with higher risk of erectile dysfunction News Medical Life Sciences

Driver’s brain fog from covid-19 linked to Cork crash that claimed lives of elderly couple Irish Examiner

Myanmar

Myanmar Junta Orders All Security Personnel to Frontline as Losses Mount in Hard-Hit Regional Commands The Irrawaddy

Syraqistan

UPDATE Pinned on Biden’s account:

Blinken discusses Gaza cease-fire proposal with Turkish, Jordan, Saudi counterparts Anadolu Agency

Far-right Israeli ministers threaten government dissolution if Netanyahu agrees to Biden’s Gaza proposal Anadolu Agency

Bipartisan leaders officially invite Netanyahu to address Congress The Hill. Who’s the sovereign?

European Disunion

EU members reportedly set to punish Hungary with weak portfolio in next Commission BNE Intellinews

New Not-So-Cold War

On Friday, Ukraine Got Permission To Launch American Rockets At Targets Inside Russia. Hours Later, HIMARS Opened Fire. Forbes. Belgorod, twenty miles in from the border (and not, say, a shell factory beyond the Urals. It’s really unclear to me where Biden’s red lines are, though it is clear that every line Biden has drawn has, with time. been erased; see Big Serge here, and read to the very end).

US should allow Ukraine to use US-supplied weapons against military targets in Russia – ISW Ukrainska Pravda

Biden admin isn’t fully convinced Ukraine can win, even with new aid Politico

Biden’s Secrecy on Allowing Ukraine to Strike Russia Is Dangerous Ken Klippenstein

* * *

In Ukraine, Russia is Beginning to Compound Advantages RUSI. From mid-May, still germane. “Ukraine has spent several months fortifying Kharkiv, but storming the city is not how Russia intends to fight. The Russian target this summer is the Ukrainian army, and against this target it has started to compound its advantages…. Russia’s aim is not to achieve a grand breakthrough, but rather to convince Ukraine that it can keep up an inexorable advance, kilometre by kilometre, along the front.”

SITREP 6/1/24: Ukraine’s Latest Gasp Off to Rocky Start Simplicius the Thinker(s). Simplicius prints the revised version of this headline:

Ukraine Retreats From Villages on Eastern Front as It Awaits U.S. Aid NYT

* * *

EU in the South Caucasus: Can Brussels become a geopolitical player? JAM News. Vassals aren’t players.

Ukraine war created “arc of instability” from Balkans to Caucasus BNE Intellinews. Just like Libya, Syria, Iraq….

How Globalization Rose and Fell With Nord Stream Foreign Policy

* * *

The Russian Armed Forces once again struck at the Yavorovsky training ground of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, where foreign instructors were located Top War. Russian milblogger site. FWIW: “Confirmed: Russian “Kinzhals” turned bunkers with NATO officers in Ukraine upside down‼️” ThreadReader (ctlieee). Worth keeping on eye on.

Dear Old Blighty

Starmer has now made it clear: he intends to govern on behalf of the rich Funding the Future

Starmer promises cut to net migration under Labour BBC

Global Elections

India election results 2024: How will votes be counted? Al Jazeera

Mexicans vote in election overshadowed by violent attacks BBC

South Africa’s ANC loses 30-year parliamentary majority after election Al Jazeera

US presidential election slips into uncharted waters with historic Trump criminal conviction France24

Trump verdict puts US among infamous countries that prosecuted opposition leaders: Who else is on the list? FOX

* * *

If voters adopt statewide ranked choice voting, Colorado may prevent it from taking effect Colorado Sun

Kansas Constitution doesn’t include right to vote: state high court majority FOX

Biden Administration

President Biden vetoes crypto custody bill TechCrunch

Antitrust

Is Ticketmaster Telling the Truth About Its Finances? Matt Stoller. BIG

Trust busting as freedom The Ink

2024

Plot twist: WA has a law against felons running for office Seattle Times. I wonder how many other states do.

Digital Watch

Google admits its AI Overviews need work, but we’re all helping it beta test TechCrunch. Swell. Where do I send the invoice?

AI and Finance: Insights from an Experts alts.co. One of the use cases: “Summarizing a company’s earnings call as a buy or a sell based on the language used by the executives.” Totally revolutionary, one giant step for mankind, exactly like replacing call center serfs with bots.

AI on Trial: Legal Models Hallucinate in 1 out of 6 (or More) Benchmarking Queries (press release) Stanford University

* * *

The Google API Leak Should Change How Marketers and Publishers Do SEO SparkToro

More dark patterns at Meta, what a surprise:

* * *

Self-driving cars are underhyped Matt Yglesias, Slow Boring

Codd almighty! Has it been half a century of SQL already? The Register. Standards matter, solid mathematical foundations matter, and declarative implementation matters. Listen and learn, LLM nimrods.

Our Famously Free Press

Twitch draws pro-Palestinian influencers as rival sites back off politics Taylor Lorenz, WaPo

Stanford, Silicon Valley, and the Rise of the Censorship Industrial Complex RealClearPolitics

Zeitgeist Watch

Nearly 1 in 3 Americans have reported losing someone to a drug overdose: Study The Hill. Rule #2.

Nostalgia: A History of a Dangerous Emotion by Agnes Arnold-Forster review – the past isn’t a foreign place Guardian

Boeing

Boeing Starliner capsule’s first crewed test flight delayed at last minute Channel News Asia. Loose door? Commentary:

Imperial Collapse Watch

Jeffrey Sachs: The Untold History of the Cold War, CIA Coups Around the World, and COVID’s Origin (video) Tucker Carlson, YouTube. Re-upping from 5/30, now that I have listened to it carefully. Two hours, so grab a cup of coffee. Fortunately, there are chapter headings in the video so you can scroll to the high points; Sachs’s potted history of the neocons is really excellent. On Covid’s origin, I think it would be best if Sachs had stayed in his lane. Consultants Disease: Not knowing the limits of your own knowledge. Sachs is, however, excellent on geopolitics and is well worth a listen. Kudos to Carlson for an excellent, graceful interview.

Off Leash: Inside the Secret, Global, Far-Right Group Chat The New Republic. Erik Prince among others.

Class Warfare

The $150,000 Housekeeper: Wage Inflation Kicks Into Second Gear Charles Hugh Smith

The Dream of a Thing: Refounding the Economy of a Venezuelan Commune Monthly Review

A Russian Village Sophie Kropotkin, Anarchist Library

Legal Theory Bookworm: “The Interbellum Constitution” by LaCroix Legal Theory Blog

Antidote du jour (Aris riyanto):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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214 comments

  1. ambrit

    YouTube will not allow me to view anything on their site now since I use the dreaded a- b——s service. (This in relation to the embedded Tucker Carlson video.) Oh well. Goodbye to YouTube.
    Now, what’s that Rumble business all about? Let’s find out.

    2. The Rev Kev

      Now that is weird. That video comes right up for me here in Oz. Could it be blocked on a regional level?

      1. SocalJimObjects

        I think so. I live in Taiwan and Youtube is still working for me even with an ad blocker installed on my Firefox. What’s funny however is that often times Chrome would give me the white screen of death when I cut and paste a link into the address bar, no ad blocker plugin required ;)

      2. David Mills

        You just have to parse your VPN settings. I’m based in KL but my VPN is Oz, Iceland, Japan or West Coast North America (Phone just Oz). Also, use Brave.

    3. leaf

      which one are you using? ublock origin is the only I am using and it appears to be functioning just fine

      1. Glen

        Using the same here, and seeing no YT ads with any browsers. Occasionally there is a still ad I have to click thru at the start, but none after that.

        I am using linux for the OS.

    4. Acacia

      YMMV, but for me, YouTube recently went into overdrive with ads.

      Try FreeTube for the same experience but with no ads at all.

    5. Bugs

      Suggest switching from your old extension to uBlock Origin. Problem solved. Be sure to remove the old extension. On Android use Kiwi browser with uBlock (Brave browser scams computing cycles for crypto, so avoid) and use NewPipe app to replace the YouTube app. You can’t comment or sync with NewPipe though.

      1. Vandemonian

        I’m so old that I remember the “good old days”, when the internet just worked, and we didn’t need to trade tips about getting around content provider cruft.

        Thanks, Bugs, for the useful tip about Brave. Hadn’t spotted that caveat.

        1. Cassandra

          I had noticed that I had to clear memory every time to open a YouTube on Brave, but it seemed worth it for no ads. Thanks for the tip, Bugs!

      2. Old Builder

        There is nothing wrong with Brave Browser. It has some crypto features that you can use or disable at your will. The viral reddit post that accuses Brave of backdoors etc is bunk, OP’s speculation can be easily disproved. Talk to the Brave team, they are an open and communicative bunch.

    7. ambrit

      Thank you to one and all for trying to teach this long in the tooth dog some useful new tricks.
      Stay safe.

    9. SOMK

      FYI you can also avoid ads by simply downloading the video instead, there are numerous free websites that you can use for this easy to find via google.

  2. The Rev Kev

    “Climate activist arrested for attacking Monet painting at Paris’s Orsay museum”

    Good. Throw the book at her. When these people actually attack the headquarters for fossil fuel corporations and harass politicians who vote down environmental protections, then I will give them a solid measure of respect. But this sort of entitled, performative theater of attacking works of art only serves to alienate people from their cause and only gets respect from people like themselves – a very tiny minority. If it came out that the organization that she belongs to was infiltrated and secretly financed by Big Oil, I would not be surprised in the least.

    1. Emma

      Agreed. These vandalizations are always well publicized and never prosecuted anything like for substantive actors like Palestine Action or Cop City protesters or pipeline protesters. If it walks and quacks like establishment paid agent provocateurs…

    3. Jabura Basaidai

      RK i listened to an interview with Gloria Steinem from the JFK Assassination archives and she discussed being an operative for the CIA and their infiltration in the 60’s of various antiwar, anti-racist and communist organizations in the USA – imho to support and subvert from within and sow discord, a tool effectively used ever since – my point is, not being surprised if Big Oil is behind this is a pragmatic perspective of infiltrators as agitators – can only shake head at stupidity of defacing art as statement against anything –
      link to Steinem interview – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoukTBdTio0

    4. flora

      The vandalism of famous artwork and vandalism of cutting down Joshua Trees for a solar project, plus Boeing falling down, plus US drug overdose deaths, plus endless wars and now B and NATO poking the Bear, etc: This is the nihilism of our so-called “betters” at the end of empire. Dave Smith on X-twtr about late stage empire and its manifestations, ~2+ minutes.

      You can tell when @ComicDaveSmith
      is saying something that really connects because everyone’s listening to him. The room is silent…

      https://x.com/ChristianMalaza/status/1796766419709022460

        1. JBird4049

          I know that suggestion comes from extreme frustration, but I think that suggestion is a bit much, especially as it would have the same practical impact as vandalizing art, but training and funding for perpetual protest at wherever they are 24/7/365 would better if the goal is to bring attention to the crisis. Even better would be publicizing in every way possible the history of Big Oil’s falsifying the facts of climate change including its direct complicity in it for profit. Or funding replacement candidates for political office to counteract Big Oil’s lobbying and funding.

              1. JBird4049

                Oops.

                In the here and now, the difference between satire and seriousness is thin.

                1. flora

                  Very thin. I never thought the MSM evening news would sound like a Saturday Night Live or Monty Python satire skit. But here we are.

                    2. ambrit

                      And what do you have against pop music? (sarc/) She’s the Superspreader of the Stars!

        2. Cassandra

          Of course, military adventures are a major source of environmental degradation (see Nordstream, Hanford, burn pits, transport) as well as the secondary effects of sucking up resources that might otherwise be used for things like food, housing, health care, etc.

    6. bobert

      I was at our local farmer’s market yesterday with my partner and our dog. While walking past the stalls, we overheard a woman with a cameraman in tow addressing a couple with a dog. The woman had a clipboard and leaflets and she offered both to the couple.

      It was what she said that made us look twice. She was offering humanely raised dog meat for sale. The couple she was addressing were totally confused.

      We figured that it was a PETA stunt. Being moralizing progressives, the money shot is to back someone into a corner with a “Gotcha!” argument and then……well, what exactly? I’d bet I could count on one hand the number of people who have quit eating meat because of this little farce. They certainly didn’t make a friend of the couple, who were doubtless annoyed.

      It doesn’t matter that the argument is actually sound, if you are eating cows you may as well eat dogs, but the delivery is all about shock value and the trapped look on people’s faces. Thus the cameraman, so they can gloat later and put it up on their website as a testament to their righteous position. Pure theater.

        1. Objective Ace

          I don’t really see the hypocrisy. Humans are animals too, would a revulsion to eating humans make an “animal lover” a hypocrite?

          As a human, it’s impossible to exist without destroying animals. Whether it’s directly because you don’t want ants or rodents in your house, or indirectly as the area required to grow edible plants necessarily destroys the environment that was previously housing life. You can minimize this destruction, but it’s impossible not to inflict some harm on animals regardless of your stated preferences

          1. Jules

            There is a vast moral, environmental and ethical gulf between trying to minimize suffering of non-human animals to the best extent possible and not giving a shit.

            1. flora

              an aside: For readers who who are vegetarian, (even ovo, ovo/lacto, or pescatarian vegetarians) and for vegans: please do take care to take a good vit B supplement. It’s very important. (Been there, done that.)

              1. flora

                adding: a good vit B-complex suppliment. Many B vits in a B-complex suppliment should have all of them, and they work in concert. There are commercial B-complex vits that are OK for vegans. Check the labels, etc.

            2. steppenwolf fetchit

              When PETAs give a shit about trying to minimize suffering of non-human plants equal to the shit they affect to give about trying to minimize suffering of non-human animals, then I will believe that PETAs give a shit about something other than the Moral Superiority Stuff-Strutting look-at-me theater which is actually what they give a shit about.

    8. Jeff W

      But this sort of entitled, performative theater of attacking works of art only serves to alienate people from their cause and only gets respect from people like themselves.

      I respect them, even as I get the downsides of their tactics, and I’m not alienated from their cause—and I’m nothing like them.

      Just Stop Oil’s spokesperson Emma Brown gave the group’s rationale on Owen Jones’s YouTube channel (which, you’ll recall, I linked to previously), following the throwing of tomato soup on the Van Gogh’s (glass-covered) Sunflowers in October, 2022 by two of the group’s members. “Actually attacking” (whatever that means) the headquarters for fossil fuel corporations would just get them arrested and more or less ignored, whereas actions involving works of art gets them and their cause gobs of publicity, at least in their estimation.

      In this instance, as in every other instance of action involving artwork or significant artefact that I’m aware of, there was no actual damage to the piece—the article notes “[a] restoration expert examined the painting which suffered no permanent damage” (Alex De Koning, another JSO spokesperson, pointed out, following the action involving the Van Gogh painting, that “…the suffragettes slashed paintings and quite violently destroyed them, while we’re just throwing soup at a glass pane…”)

      And the group is well aware that the millions that they get are from people like Getty Oil heiress Aileen Getty. De Koning says “We need people to fund us, otherwise we’re not getting anywhere. We don’t care about people’s pasts – we only care about what’s going to happen right now.”

      The foundation Getty co-founded, the Climate Emergency Fund [CEF], said, in a statement to the Art Newspaper in that article linked to by flora, “The first step, which must be taken immediately by all governments, is to stop the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure,” which aligns closely with the demand of JSO to have the UK government stop licensing all new oil, gas and coal projects. So it’s not surprising that the CEF is funding the JSO nor that the JSO is accepting the CSO’s funding. (The article also notes that Aileen Getty has not personally worked in the oil industry.) I don’t think it’s unfathomable that Getty herself believes in the mission of the CEF—her work could be an act of expiation, given the source of her wealth, although, obviously, I have no idea of her actual motivations.

      And, however “entitled” they might be, these activists face real consequences, including jail time, for their actions. Whatever thoughts one might have of the tactics of women in their 80s barely cracking the glass case holding the Magna Carta in a recent Just Stop Oil protest, I would hope that “throwing the book” at these protesters is not one of them.

      1. flora

        No, throwing the book at these people isn’t an on thing for me. The activists may believe deeply in their cause, I expect they do. If their funders are using them as useful tools, however, what then.

      2. The Rev Kev

        If I was part of a Big Oil intelligence unit, I would consider their actions a great help in discrediting their cause and would put them on my Christmas card list. The long and the short of it is this. Are their actions helping or hindering their cause. I would judge the later – like those groups that glue themselves to tube train rooftops or on main roads across bridges to cause maximum disruption as possible. You might influence a small group to look favourably on their actions but you have lost the sympathy of tens of thousands of people at the same time. Not a great plan. Their tactics suck and you wonder if they are doing acts like this to get likes on social media but more importantly, their standing in their group of activists. In an earlier century, they would have been devoted followers of Florence’s Savonarola.

  3. griffen

    I’m far too young to recall the missile crisis when Russia was going to arm Cuba with missiles capable of easily reaching south Florida and the US. Okay that happened under JFK with Nikita Khrushchev on the Russian /USSR side. That was maybe 9 to 11 years before I became a viable option as a human child.

    How’s it go that the Ukraine can launch US weapons into Russia in 2024? Does that not meet any criteria to be a Bizarro World headline, and sorry if I’m playing a bit of catch up on this topic. Busy week went hyperbolic by Thursday of course !!

    1. Louis Fyne

      we are at the penultimate moment in the Wile E. Coyote hover….no Normie realizes that we are well beyond the precipice.

      Here is a video of a US vet addressing the Austin City Council re Israel, https://x.com/MissJacque_line/status/1797212533839061287

      To “Normies”, the vet sounds like he just got off a bus from Mars.

      As readers of NC and the like, we are not “Normies”….this summer is going to be wild…we going to get flavors of 2008 (economic) and 1968 (political) mixed. IMO

      1. Fred_in_Chicago

        On the front page of today’s (Sunday) edition of The Chicago Sun-Times:

        “Delegates, Demonstrations . . . . AND RUSSIONS WITH ILL INTENT
        For DNC in Chicago, experts say foreign propaganda efforts aim to ‘sow chaos, violence'”

        The story inside has of course a big photo of V. V. Putin (as Alex Christoforou would say, “The Putin“), quoted expert is Max Bergmann, Program Director with the Center for Strategic International Studies in DC.

        Further down, they cover the indictments against Nevel, Hess, and Yeshitela (the Uhuru Three). accused of acting as (illegal) agents of the Russian govt, reporting it pretty much according to the fed’s storyline, along with a few defense attorneys’ quotations to provide “balance”.

        If they’re starting this early in the cycle they must be worried. Gonna be a long summer and autumn.

        1. Bugs

          Here’s the link :

          https://chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdogs/2024/05/31/russia-propoganda-democratic-national-convention-dnc-chicago

          That’s some Chicago sized sweet propaganda there.

          “Bergmann says Russians are primed to seize on issues such as undocumented immigration and racial justice just as activists are preparing to protest President Joe Biden’s support for Israel’s war against Hamas and the erosion of abortion rights.”

          Yeah, without the Russian interference, the American people would be fairly content with the Biden administration response on these things. How dastardly those Slavs are, exploiting these minor divisions in Our Democracy™

        3. Jabura Basaidai

          ‘If they’re starting this early in the cycle they must be worried.’
          they are already making moves to have the convention online and not in-person in a Chicago hot summer – think they know what will happen – 1968 convention – it’s deja vu all over again, as Yogi once said –

    2. Eclair

      Griffin, I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis very well. Walking to work every morning, in the brisk October air, stopping at the corner variety store (this was pre-coffee shop era) to read the terrifying headlines in the morning papers. We were all sure we would wake up to a nuclear wasteland in the morning, being on the east coast and all.

      Definitely breathed a huge sigh of relief when the Russians crumbled. Funny how, at the time, there was no mention of the US having placed missiles in Turkey and how the Russian gambit in Cuba was a reaction to that. I only learned about the Turkey emplacements about ten years ago. At the time, the Russians’ actions were portrayed as totally ‘unprovoked.’

      Jeff Sachs talks about this in his interview with Tucker Carlson, in today’s links. As Lambert remarks, Sachs’ summary of the Neocons’ depravity over the past 30 years is brilliant and concise.

      1. Acacia

        Also no mention of the USian nuclear missiles in Okinawa pointed at Russia and China.

        We were just standing there with a gun pointed at them, when they went crazy and reacted. Just totally inexplicable, that.

        1. BeliTsari

          German x-partner, remembered USAF evacuating families to Weisbaden, via some north African USAF base. She’d watched Turks, dragging Greek corpses from a graveyard & burning them only weeks before. She’d no idea, what the excitement was. B58s were all bombed-up. So THANK you yet again, Vasily Aleksandrovich Arkhipov!

      3. farmboy

        missiles in turkey were well known at the time and a point of negotiation to remove them. IIRC the US agreed to take them out, but then reneged after missiles in Cuba were gone. removal didn’t happen until those missile were obsolete. we practiced hiding under our desks in school. our teacher was terrified, but tried not to show it.

        1. The Rev Kev

          With all those kids and the teacher hiding under their desks, I imagine that any kid who got a brown paper bag, blew it up and popped it would have been sent straight to detention. :)

          1. Posaunist

            Not sure about detention, but the kid who did that in my school (in Maryland) did go to the principal’s office.

      4. Lefty Godot

        It was extremely fortunate that Kennedy had established a private channel for negotiating with Khruschev. According to the book JFK and the Unspeakable, Kennedy agreed to pull the missiles from Turkey in exchange for the USSR pulling theirs out of Cuba. But he said his move would have to be kept completely unpublicized, or else the military would probably overthrow the government and start World War III on their own initiative. And Khruschev went along with that, although it made it look like he was backing down. Very dangerous time whose danger I did not then appreciate, due to reading too many science fiction books where the hero ends up surviving a nuclear war along with a bunch of attractive women.

        1. Jabura Basaidai

          such and incredible and thoroughly well-documented book – 20% of the book at the end are the cites used to back everything up – even if you thought you knew about what happened on 11/22/1963, this book documents and sends cold sweat down your spine to understand the depth of depravity that caused The Unspeakable

        2. digi_owl

          “or else the military would probably overthrow the government and start World War III on their own initiative”

          And in the end he died from “magic” bullet wounds…

      5. Jabura Basaidai

        wouldn’t use the term the disingenuous term ‘crumbled’ for the Russians – it was the situation that caused the realization by both Khrushchev and JFK that it was insanity to threaten each other with nuclear war – as James Douglass makes clear in “JFK and the Unspeakable” these two world leaders began to understand the need for peace and not the Cold War – it did not end well for JFK to traverse this road of peace – i was sitting in my high school class at a Jesuit school in Detroit when the word came over the PA that JFK had been assassinated – that’s when the CIA took control in a coup in broad daylight that Sachs refers to in the interview –

      6. Wukchumni

        I wasn’t quite a year old, so no memories of the Cuban missile crisis, but my mom told me she and evey other housewife stripped grocery stores of every canned, bottled and dry goods, only to return them for a refund when the crisis abated

    3. ilsm

      I was 12 in Oct 1962. A kid in my 7th grade class had older brother on a USN aircraft carrier. Later, I served with airmen in the reserve who had served during that time.

      One thing JFK did which is not well remembered was to nationalize national guard Air Force units and move them into Florida, Georgia and Alabama. Activated army and marine units.

      Also not remembered US had missiles in Turkey etc. that were “destabilizing”……

      Whoever is running this ‘game’ in the swamp are dangerous!

  4. Carolinian

    Re Yglesias pointlessly tap dances around topic

    But the reality is that if you have a business meeting in Downtown Phoenix, you can take a driverless taxi to the airport when you wrap up. Not in the future. Not hypothetically. But right now.

    And the reality is that you can take a driver equipped taxi for probably the same price. So why would you want to Waymo just to help out Google? As Lambert says, where do you send the invoice?

    Having spent some time on the road recently I’d say there’s definitely a place for self drive on crowded freeways but only if everyone is using it in a fully integrated system including the roads themselves.But in America, where the auto is taken as a form of individualism and self expression, that’s pie in the sky indeed.

    1. digi_owl

      Yep, for “self driving” to really get going the roads would need something like ATC or train dispatchers.

      I guess the idea is that it will all happen once both human drivers and Waymo cars are tapping into Google Maps directions, and follow them blindly.

    2. griffen

      I’m just left with a vision of our future from Total Recall* where the Schwarzenegger character climbs into the cab and shoves the robot driver out of his way. Sure something like a Waymo service does offer the public limited uses…not being freeway capable just makes them seem pointless except for the ownership class and VC firms.

      Alternately there is the driving scene from I-Robot when Will Smith’s character becomes overwhelmed by the helpful new robots in “steering” his vehicle. Yeah, future automation in the movies just always seems creepy and corporate profit driven. No thank you, not at all ever.

    3. rudi from butte

      Bus: 1 driver. 25 passengers. 96% driverless

      Train: 1 engineer. 100 passengers. Track safety. 99% driverless

      1. Steve H.

        Them’s good stats.

        Professional drivers could be considered an intervention. Numbers Needed to Treat vs pedestrian deaths, wrecks, traffic jams..

    4. herman_sampson

      Yglesias touched on land reform of sorts, people not needing garages and parking: why not do the land reform first, with affordable housing near jobs, reducing cars, pollution, expenses of cars. If people could walk, bicycle or take short, cheap bus rides to work and shopping, there would be little need for experimental, externals-ignoring toys.

    5. fjallstrom

      I have forgotten the name of the “self driving” San Francisco company that went belly up and it turned out that they had more employees than cars. It would have taken less people to run a cab company.

  5. The Rev Kev

    “Trump verdict puts US among infamous countries that prosecuted opposition leaders: Who else is on the list?”

    In connection with this, Alexander Christoforou’s latest video drop starts with something bizarre. So Biden was at a press briefing and started to leave when a reporter said ‘President Trump refers to himself as a political prisoner and blames you directly. What’s your response to that sir.’ When almost out the room he stops, turns to the reporters and then gives a really creepy grin and I mean creepy. Make of it what you will-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_X0Ob7S1L0 (the first 20 seconds)

    1. Carolinian

      Biden is creepy as hell IMO. Trump by contrast is just a garden variety a’hole. I think much of the public gets this.

      Biden with his capacity to make up lies to rationalize almost anything seems to know no restraint. Putin must go. Trump must go. Those who defy him on Covid must be fired and serves them right. Empathy never seems to play a role here except when it comes to his own family including the dubious Hunter and dead Beau.

      1. griffen

        Nobody “screws” with the Biden’s. Funny how that does not fit the general fawning by the media about Joe, friendly and easily likable guy from little Scranton and a lover of apple pie, America and a Corvette. He was friends with almost anyone!

        Curious if the mandate as commanded in 2021 will get a rewrite in a Presidential election year. Memories are short, mine included. Btw there was an interesting interview with Frank Luntz in regards to the impact of this conviction handed down Thursday in New York. His comments on CNBC seem relevant and worthwhile. I will try to look for that interview, and possibly post it later.

        Egads I really loathe so many of our career politicians. Equally in both parties.

        1. Cristobal

          People talk about the posibility of violence if Trump wins the election. I believe that violence will be more likely if Joe (nobody screws with the Bidens) loses.

          1. JBird4049

            Yes. Another JFK style coup seems likely although it could be another “heart attack.” What unrest would happen and that would do to the country is something terrifying to think about; any deaths of important politicians, no matter just how it happened, would likely cause unrest.

            1. hk

              To be honest, the only reason I might possibly have for favoring Trump becoming president is someone like Vance or even Gabbard going to the WH. That scenario would be fine by me.

              1. Jabura Basaidai

                wonder if Drumpf would follow through on his recent promise to pardon Assange? – of course he wanted to pull troops from Afghanistan and that didn’t go well for him – neither are capable or worthy to be the prez but that makes no difference – hope against all hope that Assange is freed as well as Leonard Peltier – speak truth to power has its consequences here in the ‘land of the free’ (excuse me while i cough up a hairball of the american dream) – as George Carlin said, “…….they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.”

    2. ilsm

      The democrats are keeping it simple, only 2 points!

      One, is Trump will force you to make babies.

      Two, Trump will eliminate our [Stalinist] democracy sustaining kangaroo courts that squelch all dissent!

      Besides if Ukraine don’t need elections……

    3. JustTheFacts

      Our ruling elites seem completely unable to see things from other people’s perspective. They imagine the plebs will think “Trump is a convicted felon, how terrible! I could never vote for someone like that!”. But it’s quite possible for the plebs to think “Trump is a convicted felon because the governing class doesn’t like him, which means he must be doing something to loosen their grip on power, which is A-OK”.

      Their key qualities nowadays seem to be ignorance, arrogance and stupidity.

  6. Keith

    “Standards matter, solid mathematical foundations matter, and declarative implementation matters. Listen and learn, LLM nimrods.”

    What is ironic is that LLMs are pretty handy with SQL :).

  7. Carolinian

    Re the destruction of thousands of Joshua Trees for the benefit of KKR–er, green power. I’m reading a book called Wild New World which suggests that destruction of nature for profit was always and primarily the motive for the Europeans who colonized this country and the destruction of nature was quite wanton. By this reading the reason the English wanted to protect the Ohio valley natives from the colonists (a prohibition that played a role in the Revolution) was not out of tender concern for the tribes but because the indigenous were helping them to wreak havoc on all the fur bearing animals for the benefit of the fur trade. In Europe they had already wiped out all their beaver etc.

    And it wasn’t just the beaver as the white tailed deer started to disappear in the East and of course all the trees were cut down such that only a few pockets of original growth still exist in the East. Meanwhile entire species like the Carolina Parakeet and the Passenger Pigeon were simply extinguished. With their limited knowledge of biology and fundamentalist beliefs in Genesis, people of the time claimed extinctions were not even possible.

    Our knowledge has improved but our greed is the same. Here’s suggesting all claims by KKR should be taken with a grain of salt. The wind farms–impressive to look at–can be taken down if they prove to be a mistake. Species destruction is forever.

    1. The Rev Kev

      Thanks for that comment. I will add only a minor but noteworthy point about when you mentioned beavers. The beavers of Europe were wiped out as you mentioned and those in North America were also being pushed to extinction as well. Beaver felts were valued for – and I kid you not – for making top hats out of which we have all seen in old photos. But luckily for the beavers fashions changed and top hats were not so popular anymore meaning the pressure came off those beavers-

      https://www.hbcheritage.ca/things/fashion-pop/beaver-hats

      Saved by a whim of fashion.

      1. KLG

        And reintroduction of beavers can save local ecosystems. Also true in North America.

        I once lived across the road from a beaver pond. Seldom saw the little engineers, but their handiwork provided habitat for many other creatures and a pleasant landscape for human creatures.

        1. Carolinian

          One point made by the book I’m reading is that wiping out the beavers–and it only took a few decades–changed the hydrology of the continent and made the West even more prone to drought as all that beaver dammed water could now flow off to the ocean.

          So those “mountain man” heroes we were taught about as kids were really unwitting ecocriminals with consequences even now.

          1. Martin Oline

            Regarding “those mountain man heroes” they have come quite a ways down in my estimation too. They increased the take of skins by using liquor as a medium of exchange with the tribes. When the Indian agency at Leavenworth (where boats to the West were inspected) restricted the amount of whiskey and alcohol that could be transported up river in the mid 1830’s, the American Fur Company increased the amount of corn grown around Fort Union so it could be distilled and used to trade for pelts. This alcohol led to murder and mayhem inside the native villages and the destruction of tribal authority. Source is p.538 Lost Voices on the Missouri by Mark W. Kelly 2013

      2. R.S.

        Yeah, beaver hats were extremely popular (and expensive). AFAIR some German cities even tried to pass local sumptuary laws limiting the size and the type of felt the hats could be made of. Something like 1/4 or 1/2 beaver, for example, might be OK, but pure beaver was labeled as too extravagant.

        Two paintings that immediately sprang to my mind, both by Willem Pietersz Buytewech from the early 17th century:
        “Dignified [or elegant] couples courting”, both men are wearing beaver high tops.
        https://www.wga.hu/html_m/b/buytewec/couples.html

        “A tavern scene”, two rich young gentlemen are passing the time with wine, smoking and a street musician. A high top and a wide brimmer, made of beaver felt with its deep black glossy colour.
        https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Willem_Pietersz._Buytewech_001.jpg

    2. Wukchumni

      You couldn’t say Joshua trees are unloved, but they just seem like part of the desert, and typically make for lousy trees to set up your hammock on as they are either too close together or too far apart.

  8. The Rev Kev

    ‘🇷🇺💥🇺🇦‼️Confirmed: Russian “Kinzhals” turned bunkers with NATO officers in Ukraine upside down‼️
    According to Russian military officials, the NATO officers who died were highly trained specialists from the European Union, 👇 ‘

    Pretty soon NATO is going to stand for Need Another Thousand Officers. By now the Russians must be actively hunting NATO personnel. Their very presence gives lie to the repeated protestations of western countries that ‘we are not a party to this war.’ Only it turns out that they are. And yet Macron is really keen on sending in French soldiers in order to force other nations to send theirs. And when the Russians annihilate those NATO – I beg your pardon – EU soldiers, guess which superpower they are going to run to demanding that they send their militarily into the Ukraine as well. Go on, guess.

  9. Joker

    Ukraine war created “arc of instability” from Balkans to Caucasus BNE Intellinews. Just like Libya, Syria, Iraq….

    It’s an “arc of instability” that transcends time and space. It went back in time and initiated balkanization, as a precondition for Ukrainian war and creation of the “arc of instability”.

  10. .Tom

    Re the 3-phase peace plan tweet that Biden pinned, “Palestinians civilians can return to their homes in Gaza.” 1. Who decides who’s a civilian and what’s the process for revising the classification? 2. Allowing people to return to a home that is rubble and dust, where the water, electricity, food, fuel and medicine have been cut off and where the schools, hospitals and universities have been demolished isn’t such a generous proposal. It seems to me that these ensure that this part of the peace plan is consistent with Israels strategic goal of depopulating the Gaza Strip.

    1. The Rev Kev

      I liked the last phase where they are talking about a major rebuilding of Gaza. Last I heard, the Israelis have caused over $50 billion worth of destruction. Who is going to pick up the tab for that? Certainly not the Israelis going by past performance. And this is especially important when there is an excellent chance that the Israelis will destroy it all again in only a few years. And the Israelis are likely to kick up a fuss in any case about any construction materials going into Gaza because Hamas might use them.

      1. Cristobal

        In addition to picking up the tab, Israel should agree for Mr. Netanyahoo and his war cabinet to be individually placed in those rolling circus cages that once were used to display lions and tigres. The cages should then be placed at various sites of destruction in Gaza and the small children and women be allowed to poke at him with sticks. A different site each day. See that the prisoners are fed and well cared for that they may enjoy a long life.

    2. inchbyinch

      I think that the true home for most of these Palestinians is Palestine, now occupied by the Zionist entity. Possibly wrong, but aren’t most of the Palestinians in Gaza second and third generation descendants of Palestinians forced to flee from their homes at the time of the first Nabka? I’m sure that Biden didn’t mean that, but he’s always free to go home himself, and be pleasantly rocked to sleep, deep inside Bibi’s pants pocket.

      1. .Tom

        Indeed. The words home and return are so heavy with meaning in this history that I did wonder if the text of Biden’s tweet was designed to be provocative or was just insensitive.

  11. Balan Aroxdale

    UPDATE Pinned on Biden’s account:

    What’s next? He puts it in ALL CAPS? Starts crying on TV about it? Asks pretty please?

    I’m trying to figure out whether this is all part of some perverse humiliation strategy of Netenyahu’s: A ritual political gelding of the POTUS’ authority as he arrives to pet his kennel dogs in Congress, maybe have them bark some more at 1600 “Philadelphi” Avenue, now under Israeli operational control. We’ll see what the voters have to say about it.

    1. ChrisFromGA

      I’m not certain who’s authority is being challenged. Israel is a sovereign country and Biden is doing a pretty good job of humiliating himself.

      Since when does the US have the right to dictate terms to any nation?

      It seems that AIPAC dictates terms to the US.

      My read of the situation is that Biden is too weak to do anything material, like announcing that the ICJ order to immediately stop the bombing of children and civilians will be enforced with US military might.

      So he is trying the soft policy of announcing fake ceasefire plans that he knows Bibi won’t accept, and hoping to pressure the rest of Israel to get behind.

      Even though this won’t accomplish much, it is better than nothing and kicks the can down the road …plus he has a compliant press that won’t question anything and will be complicit in memory holing all the dead kids and dismembered hospital workers as soon as the war ends.

  12. ChrisFromGA

    Re: Gaza

    Didn’t Netanyahu repudiate Biden’s latest fake ceasefire agreement?

    Seems these things are meant for the US voters, not a serious proposal.

    1. hk

      My reaction to Biden was whether US was making “Israel’s” proposals without consulting them first. OTOH, it has to mean that AIPAC is divided and weaker–some of them are at least willing to sell their own government down the river to the Americans, but, this sort of blatant nonsense can’t have much of a shelf life and will destroy US credibility even further–if you lose Israelis, then who else have you left?

      1. ChrisFromGA

        There is a dirty game being played here. I’ve never heard of “negotiations” where the two adversaries aren’t even at the same table. Blinken and Biden are just dictating a phony plan that serves the interests of their administration. Get this Genocide off the front pages, pronto.

        Presumably they have internal polling that shows they’re in deep trouble. Plus the war is going on longer than they planned and diverting resources from project Ukraine.

        Netanyahu cannot accept the deal and they know that. His coalition will fall apart. Likud is smartly offering to back him if he ditches the ultra right but that’s not how Bibi rolls. He’s not Mike Johnson who couldn’t realize that by folding like a cheap tent he ensured his own political obituary.

  13. pjay

    – ‘Ukraine war created “arc of instability” from Balkans to Caucasus’ – BNE Intellinews. Just like Libya, Syria, Iraq….

    Sometimes official propaganda and mainstream media can actually inform a reader. All you have to do is flip everything in a story 180 degrees and read it as total projection. Creating “arcs of instability” is our thing. It’s what we do. We’ve been doing it for a long time, but it’s pretty much *all* we do in terms of “foreign policy” these days.

  14. The Rev Kev

    “IKEA blamed for Romanian forest destruction”

    It would be one thing if they did it for high quality furniture that you could pass on to your children, But they aren’t. It is meant for junk furniture that will never last. This being the case you think that they could use plantations of pine trees or some such but no, instead they are going after some of Europe’s last ancient forests. Corporations like IKEA are fully capable of cutting down the last Sequoias in California in order to make toothpicks out of them-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh7DQZ4ukxg (11 secs)

    1. Wukchumni

      I read an account of a teenager who worked at Atwell Mill in Mineral King around 1900, turning Giant Sequoias into pencils exported to France.

  15. antidlc

    May 30, 2024 TODAY show:
    https://x.com/TODAYshow/status/1796278292728721549

    TODAY
    @TODAYshow
    Doctors say they are seeing an alarming number of seemingly healthy younger patients having heart attacks. Now doctors at Mount Sinai are tracking patients to see if they can uncover the new risk factors behind the trend. @annenbcnews
    reports.

    video at the link.

    Gee, I wonder what it could be??

    1. Milton

      The damn shot! Until there are studies that can definitively state, one way or the other, the the disease or the “vaccine” is to blame, I will put my money that is was big Pharma that is responsible for the uptick in heart disease deaths in our young people.

  16. tegnost

    “While trees will be impacted during project construction, vastly more Joshua trees are being threatened by climate change caused by rising greenhouse gas emissions, which the Aratina solar project directly addresses,” the company says

    kkr’s solar project does not, however, directly address jevon’s paradox…
    despicables…
    despicable

    2. ISL

      Well, I know how effective the cutting down and shredding of Joshua Trees will be (100%). As to how effective KKR solar project will be at preventing climate change – probably zero given that they are not also transferring solar technology at no cost to the developing world, which means that in a decade, the Joshua Trees will need the diversity KKR profited off or reducing.

      Short-term California politico’s who are desperate to do something but not anything significant (grid upgrade, please).

  17. Craig H.

    On Covid’s origin, I think it would be best if Sachs had stayed in his lane.

    Chairman of Lancet Covid commission is not a credential?

    I don’t like it either but it seems he is an authorized expert witness.

    1. Yves Smith

      He does not have a medical or biomedical or even a science background, unless you labor under the misapprehension that economics is a science. He hasn’t even been doing very mathy economics. He is the sort who could be easily snookered by medical types with an agenda. So he was not at all a logical choice to lead this effort.

      1. rudi from butte

        What would be their (medical types) agenda? They are floating the idea (according to you and Lambert…CRAZY) that Western/US nut jobs released a highly contagious, modified strain in China. One could reasonably argue that Chinese reaction was on the level of Bio-Warfare and so was rest of world.

      2. Ghost in the Machine

        You don’t need a degree in this stuff to pick it up. Plenty of graduate students and post docs get into biomedical research projects using molecular technics having gotten degrees in other areas. They pick it up and do fine.

        To assess the lab leak hypothesis all you need to understand is the toolkit. What is possible. It is cookbook.

        1. JBird4049

          Jeffrey Sachs must have his faults, including being too confident in his abilities, but his willingness to acknowledge and mock his naïveté on the neocons along with his willingness to go against the official narrative despite the cost makes him more credible than many others.

          1. Yves Smith

            He has not backed down from defending his role in Russia in the 1990s. He was all aboard with the neoliberal economics that drove Russia fast and hard into a ditch. He has NEVER admitted error.

            Expertise and good performance in one domain cannot be assumed to transfer into another. Acting as if they do is a classical cognitive bias, the halo effect. Look at the ginormous number of libertarians who have sound things to say about foreign policy and then advocate a gold standard as one of a zillion examples.

            1. anahuna

              Yves I can’t substantiate this with s link, but I do remember at least one podcast — 2022 or 2023?– in which Sachs was not only apologizing for his actions and the advice he provided to Russia, he cited remorse as one of his motives for speaking out now. This occurred in a colloquy, not an individual interview. Could have been on the Duran?

              I was puzzled to find no hint of an apology in his
              interview on Tucker Carlson.

              1. The Rev Kev

                There was one interview where he was saying that he would give financial advice to Poland and it was carried through, But he said that when he tried to give similar advice when in Russia, his advice was refused or ignored.

                1. Joker

                  Yea. All those victims asked for it, and he wasn’t enjoying the rape that much anyway Those that didn’t resist didn’t get beaten as much. It’s not his fault, his buddies made him do it. He is sorry that things didn’t go as planned, and the victims survived to tell the story.

                2. anahuna

                  Yes. Thanks. To clarify, he based his advice on his experience in Poland and expected that the loans offered to Poland would be offered to Russia. Instead, the US government refused any form of aid — too busy looting and pillaging.

        2. Lambert Strether Post author

          > What is possible

          Goalpost moving much? You can’t reason from the existence of a toolkit to the use of its tools by any person in any context, and that is the point at issue.

          Lots of things are possible. I mean, it’s “possible” I could be a biomedical researcher if I bought the home study kit from Monkey Ward, right?

      3. The Rev Kev

        Come to think of it, the same is true of Bill Gates. And yet he has pushed his way onto the Covid response effort as if he were a medical expert.

    1. The Rev Kev

      I wondered about that story and imagined that there might be some scorch marks on it’s armour plated side so not serious. But if so, I imagine that the fleet is flying out a few cans of paint for them to use before it reaches any port.

      1. ISL

        But in that case, why not show how minor the damage was? That the warhead was defused by EW, or the anti-aircraft fire or whatever. USA #1 rah rah rah.

        Instead, showing an old video only makes one wonder….. Such as that they hit something embarrassing (to the captain) – like a plane on deck (why was it on deck) or an illegal moonshine still, or something serious like a radar installation . .

        1. ChrisFromGA

          Even if it was a dud or lacked the explosive power to do serious damage, just the fact that the Houthis were able to make a direct hit on an aircraft carrier far away from any shore and with the most advanced Anti-aircraft systems in the world (supposedly) to protect it would be a huge embarrassment.

          1. Wukchumni

            We seem content fighting the last war, not that there is anything wrong with that as far as the MIC is concerned.

          2. juno mas

            Yes, when the Russians retaliate for ‘NATO’ strikes on native Russia the Khinzal rocket will not miss the Ike and it will become a fish reef. Easy target.

  19. Lee

    Plot twist: WA has a law against felons running for office Seattle Times. I wonder how many other states do.

    Constitutionally, a felony conviction does not disqualify a person from running for president. It seems the party that so vociferously and self righteously demands unimpeded suffrage for those most likely to vote their way is quite willing to disenfranchise the opposition.

    According to some of the commentary I’m seeing, the founders did not imagine that the people would choose to elect a person of such low moral character. LOL! It seems to me that low moral character writ large is itself a prerequisite for high political office.

  20. farmboy

    matt stoller, boeing paused to do a quick whistleblower murder, that’s sick in every sense, toooo funny

  21. Lee

    This troubled California lake just turned so green it’s visible from space SFGATE

    It would appear that Clear Lake isn’t.

    1. juno mas

      …and it isn’t about to return to that status. The key nutrient driving algal blooms is phosphorus. It doesn’t cycle through the atmosphere like nitrogen. It stays in the algal sediment that transition to the lake bed after the bloom. Phosphorus is 7x’s the catalyst for photosynthesis in algae than Nitrogen.

      So the lake will never be clear again as there is now sufficient nutrients available in the sediment to set off the bloom, year after year.

  22. pjay

    – ‘Stanford, Silicon Valley, and the Rise of the Censorship Industrial Complex’ – RealClearPolitics

    There is a lot of useful information in this article. But a warning: this is a very incomplete and partisan history. This passage clearly demonstrates its central flaw:

    “Initially U.S. authorities focused almost exclusively on foreign jihadist organizations’ exploitation of social media. That began to change when the Obama administration created a series of policies and associated entities – most of which worked closely with Big Tech and academia – targeting a broader array of adversaries.”

    You see, the problems really began with Obama and the Democrats. Gosh, after 9/11 the Cheney/Bush folks were just using our rapidly developing technology to target the bad guys – and they were successful! You just may not have realized it because of all those terrorists we stopped before they could act! But then Obama came in and…

    If you believe this bulls**t then I have a bridge to sell you. Any critical history of the censorship-surveillance industrial complex that doesn’t *focus* on 9/11 and its aftermath is severely deficient.

    2. IM Doc

      I can play that game as well. Pick one thing out of the ether making my point while ignoring everything else.

      Mr. Krugman, now do fertilizer. See I can do this too.

      Thankfully, we use composted cow manure and potash tea from our fire place ashes. All organic all the time. Lots of work but worth it.

      I loathe chemical lawn fertilizers. There is one thing that if gone would likely help the biosphere overnight. But since so many live in HOAs etc, they are forced to do it.

      I look at the prices just to get a mental picture of how much money I am saving with all the work we do.

      A bag of Scott’s weed and seed last year was 30 bucks. This year it is 90. Just amazing. An average HOA yard is now spending I would guess 360 bucks 2 or 3 times a year.

      These people like Krugman are the worst kind of hucksters. Ignoring the 99/100 items that are hideously more expensive, to highlight the 1 that is lower. And anyone reading the news knows McDonalds is doing that purposely to increase traffic and bury the competition.

      What a complete joke our media have become.

      2. Jason Boxman

        I’m a bit unfair to Krugman here. This is specifically about the 18 dollar big Mac flap. His point being incomes kept up so all is okay.

        If people only bought big Macs life would indeed be better then for all. But it’s intentionally missing the forest for the trees. He’s good at obfuscation.

        If other food costs went up more, on balance you’re still worse off.

  24. Jason Boxman

    Gen X is the 401(k) ‘experiment generation.’ Here’s how that’s playing out.

    Generation X has been the alpha tester for the 401(k) retirement system, and the gloomy results are rolling in.

    Nearly half of Gen Xers say their retirement savings are behind schedule, according to the newly released Goldman Sachs Retirement Survey.

    “Many Gen Xers got a late start transitioning to 401(k) plans and struggled to catch up,” Chris Ceder, a senior retirement strategist with Goldman Sachs Asset Management, told Yahoo Finance.

    Who could have predicted?

    1. griffen

      I’m in that cohort and it feels like I’ll stay on track for retirement say at age 66 to 67. Health holding and all that, assumptions made about not developing an untreatable condition. I dare add that with older siblings already in the ranks of professional and / or CPA designated positions ( not always in a CPA firm, mind you ) I got a leg up earlier. “Open one and start !” I just shrugged my shoulders and I agreed, so listening to solid advice helped.

      Future returns in the market may not resemble past performance and all. I’ll still count on a social security remittance until a mean politician says otherwise and actually dares to impede it after some 35 to 40 ish years of paying the toll. Health care will still require a job attached with it, until then.

      1. Jason Boxman

        Having to save “enough” for retirement is the ultimate expression of neoliberal disregard for human life. I guess ideally, American workers simply die when they’re no longer of use. It solves the problem tidily. It’s certainly the ultimate expression of a careless, selfish culture. And elders are on their own; children often can’t reasonably provide much help, financially or otherwise, being under the screws of neoliberalism themselves, not to mention atomized families living under multiple roofs in sometimes disparate places. And not everyone has children. Oops on you, I guess, if you do not.

    2. Belle

      As a Gen Xer I have just now become eligible for a 401k, after my former employer got bought out by the chain it was a franchise of. (I do have about $20k in stocks, a tiny bit of crypto (mostly acquired for free) and no debt. I also have no house or car and am stuck with parents.)

      2. griffen

        I have multiple fingers and toes crossed, someone in the vaunted halls of Congress wakes up to the developing situation in the next 20 or so years and then recognize not everyone everywhere has had the type of opportunities in life, and in a lengthy career, to possibly build and transport a 401k savings fund as jobs and lives are shifted forward, sideways and so forth. I don’t expect any action though…not with the likes of conservative goons like a Tom Cotton or a Rick Scott.

        Expanded health plan offerings for one, no nasty penalties attached would be a good start. Though we aren’t a serious country of course. Just serious about funding military and war wherever we can foment conflict.

  25. Tom Stone

    I’ve been thinking about just how big this latest own goal by the Biden Administration is.
    Rigged trials are nothing new in the USA and when they are used to keep Uppity Blacks, Union Organizers and the spoiled children of the PMC in line they are OK.
    However, Plutocrats have always been off limits.
    No rich man has ever landed on Death Row.
    While Trump is the kind of Man that gives assholes a bad name, he is, by virtue of his birth and his wealth, a member of the club.
    IM Doc’s reaction and the reaction of many other life long Dems is important, even more important is the reaction of Men like Bill Ackman who have concluded that Biden’s attack on Trump is a very blunt message to “Get in line, or else”.
    They may despise Trump, but he does not threaten them or their wealth personally, Biden just has.
    Hochul’s statement that “If you aren’t Donald Trump you don’t have anything to worry about” conveyed the opposite.
    And Trump is sound on the important issues, enabling the slaughter of Palestinians, tax cuts for the wealthy, keeping the rabble in line, ensuring the profits of the MIC…
    The question in my mind is the degree that the various three letter agencies are invested in the Biden Administration, they have overtly interfered in the last two Presidential races and they and the Biden administration have no reverse gear and recognize no limits when it comes to trying to achieve their goals.
    It’s going to be an interesting next few Months.

      1. Martin Oline

        I imagine there was a bit of a row when they were fitting him into that noose. Not loud enough to wake the guards however.

        1. steppenwolf fetchit

          Well, not after Atty General Barr waddled over to the Detention Facility after the first engineered suicide failed to speak with various people there about their “incompetence”. He probably warned the guards that next time they had better stay asleep if they knew what was good for them.

          1. Martin Oline

            Oh yeah, Robert Johnson, I mean Billy Barr, Candy’s little brother. Read Compromised by Terry Reed if you wanna know about Billy. What a piece of work. Apologies if you have already read it. . .

            1. steppenwolf fetchit

              I read it decades ago . . . long enough to have forgotten most of what was in it. So no apologies needed for a valuable reminder.

              One neat little fact I remember from that book is that for a year-or-so period when Terry Reed was involved with the Contra Support effort, and when he met with the more important figures he sometimes had to join in a meeting with, a fairly important one of those figures was named ” John Cathey”. He wrote that years later when he saw Colonel Oliver North on some TV appearance, he said to himself: ” Hey! I know that person as John Cathey! So that’s really ” Oliver North”? ” I paraphrase but that is the entirety of that little fact.

              I have wondered down the years whether Terry Reed and Oliver North are both still alive. If Terry Reed is still alive, perhaps he could still remember how the name ” John Cathey” was pronounced by all the people in the room, including by “John Cathey” himself. And if Oliver North is still alive, does he still make occasional public appearances, either official or unofficial?

              If both people are still alive and functional, perhaps an intrepid gotcha-artist could ask Terry Reed how ” John Cathey” is pronounced. And perhaps someone armed with that knowledge could show up at an Oliver North appearance and without warning, stand behind or off to the side of Oliver North and suddenly shout . . . ” Hey, John! John Cathey!” And if Oliver North whipped around to look for who said that, that whiparound could be captured on video-audio cellphone.
              And maybe the cell-phone capturizer could say with a sneer and a leer, ” gotcha! . . . John Cathey.” and capture the look of rage and hate on “John Cathey’s” face.

  26. EMC

    In the article on EU in the south Caucasus in the statement “France sought to build on this “success” by lobbying for Georgia to receive EU candidate status, even though the Georgian government had not requested it.” EU candidate status was not even initiated by Georgia? Seems an important detail I certainly wasn’t aware of. Can anyone elaborate on this?

    1. The Rev Kev

      What I will say is that these days as soon as you get into the EU, that this gets you on an automatic fast track to being in NATO. I think that this is why this push to get Georgia into the EU.

      1. Kouros

        Actually, for instance with Romania (at least), the precondition to join the EU was to first join NATO…

    2. Joker

      It’s a carrot meant to fool Georgians. EU candidate status means nothing. Lobbying for something that means nothing, means even less.

  27. The Rev Kev

    “EU members reportedly set to punish Hungary with weak portfolio in next Commission”

    Hungary is still the outlier in the EU/NATO. It’s army still has it military equipment and ammo as they haven’t been sent to the Ukraine. It remains an anchor on the European rush to fight the Russians in the Donbass. And just a few hours ago I saw on the news a massive anti-war rally-

    ‘Orban said his country must draw lessons from the devastation it went through the darkest times of the 20th century. “In the two world wars, the Hungarians lost 1.5 million lives, and with them – their future children and grandchildren,” he told the crowd.

    “I’m saying this slowly so that Brussels would understand: we will not go to war. We will not go to the East for a third time, we will not go to the Russian front again.” ‘

    https://www.rt.com/news/598644-budapest-peace-march-nato/

    Obviously to the leadership of the EU/NATO, the Hungarians don’t know their place.

    1. flora

      Hungary kept its currency, the forint, after joining the EU. It still has its own currency, that gives it some maneuvering room, imo.

      1. Wukchumni

        For whatever reason the Forint was exchangeable in the west at a fairly decent exchange rate compared to other bloc party currencies which were worth 1/3rd to 1/2 of the official exchange rates, before 1990.

        1. playon

          But now – 1 USD = 358.745 HUF – or 1.00 US Dollar = 358.7184 Hungarian Forints.

    2. CA

      ‘Orban said his country must draw lessons from the devastation it went through the darkest times of the 20th century. “In the two world wars, the Hungarians lost 1.5 million lives, and with them – their future children and grandchildren,” he told the crowd.

      “I’m saying this slowly so that Brussels would understand: we will not go to war. We will not go to the East for a third time, we will not go to the Russian front again.” ‘

      What a remarkable passage. For years, American NGOs were used to push a color revolution in Hungary. Finally such NGOs were forced from Hungary, with Hungary turning increasingly to China for necessary development support.

      1. Kouros

        EU can bring from the archives the “Margareta I” plans to see how they can take control of this fickle country…

        But Hungary can learn from Romanians how to prepare, since Margareta II operation failed in Romania…

  28. Ghost in the Machine

    “On Covid’s origin, I think it would be best if Sachs had stayed in his lane. Consultants Disease: Not knowing the limits of your own knowledge. ”

    Sachs headed up the Lancet inquiry into Covid origins and interacted with scientists. Among those he interacted with was Daszak of Ecohealth Alliance who Sachs said clearly obstructed the inquiry (caught in lies). Sachs is in his lane and knows more than most scientists. This stuff is not quantum mechanics; you can get your head around it. I have two practicing biomedical scientists (one is a molecular biologist who uses genetic techniques) in the family both who thought it was zoonotic. I showed them the accumulated evidence often discussed here and now they think it was a lab leak. For the molecular biologist, it was the lack of genetic diversity of original covid that did it. No sign of the genetic struggle/evolution that viruses have to go through to jump species. “Like it was from a point source.” They don’t discuss it with others for political/career reasons. Most scientists who have an opinion do not know the details surrounding the origin, or the emails, DARPA grant etc. Just like most people who have an opinion about Ukraine or Israel do not understand the real history. I think the lab leak is more of a slam dunk than the Nordstream pipeline sabatoge. Hersch sort of gave us a plan with his article from an unnamed source, but we have the actual plan with the DARPA grant.

      1. Keith Newman

        @Flora
        I second that. In my opinion from the information alluded to by Ghost and other reliable sources, combined with the lack of interest by the US and Chinese governments to seriously investigate the Covid calamity, the lab leak theory is, on balance, the most likely.

        2. Lambert Strether Post author

          I think all these arguments amount to saying that you can reverse engineer the truth out of bullshit. But that’s not possible.

          So far as I can tell, NIH is an even worse cesspit than CDC, so from a policy standpoint I’m perfectly at ease with setting the place on fire, plowing the rubble under, and salting the ground.

          That’s not the same as saying that lab leak is in any sense proven. It’s not, and if it is, it will be from evidence not seen at this point.

    2. Lambert Strether Post author

      I trust Sachs on institutional issues, where he can rely on a lifetime’s experience for good judgment. And institutional issues are a huge part of the origins controversy (see here for the horror show that is EcoHealth Alliance). I have less trust in Sachs on the science, where he cannot similarly rely, and must depend on “sherpas.” As for “lack of genetic diversity,” where would we have been able to look for it?

      There’s obviously an enormous stench round the whole episode, but in the same way that “miasma” was not a theory of transmission, as aerosol transmission was, a stench does not equate to causality (and I think that’s a fair summary of what Sachs says in his discussion with Carlson). See Proverbs 28:1a.

      1. flora

        Well, gosh. I’ve spent a career in a branch of science. Sachs’s observations makes sense to me.

        As you say, “There’s obviously an enormous stench around the whole episode.” Indeed, there is, imo.

        1. Lambert Strether Post author

          Here is a transcript of Carlson’s show.

          Gosh, Sachs can certainly put a narrative together. The key sentence is right up front:

          The question is which lab and in which way? It almost surely did not come out of nature

          1) If we don’t know which lab and in which way, we don’t really know anything. As I say elsewhere on this thread, you can’t reverse engineer the truth out of bullshit, and that includes the bullshit communications and behavior of Fauci, Farrar, Collins, and the rest of the bunch.

          Show me email that says “Yeah, we sent a vial of the stuff to Wuhan and they dropped it, but they say they cleaned it up, so everything is OK” or “We sent the Wuhan the cookbook and, well, when he licked his thumb to turn the page…” So for all the competence of Sachs’ narrative, the key facts are missing. (I assume by “which lab” he doesn’t mean a US lab. Interesting he does). Maybe the hearings will show this. That’s unknown.

          2) “almost surely did not come out of nature” boils down — I don’t think we have or can have a complete inventory of SARS-CoV-2 viruses, so “nature” is doing a lot of work there — to virologists saying “the furin cleavage site is so beautiful that it must have been man-made.” That is, exactly and precisely, the “watchmaker analogy,” much beloved of anti-evolutionist charlatans. This has always been the hurdle on the furin cleavage talking point that I cannot get over. As one who believes Darwin got the science right, I reject the watchmaker analogy categorically, though YMMV.

          1. Keith Newman

            Well, double gosh!
            Somewhat similarly to Flora, I have a university degree in chemistry and have done multiple courses in biochemistry and microbiology, albeit many years ago. I think the science behind this is understandable to an intelligent layperson.
            Nonetheless I take the points Yves and Lambert make.
            My current amended view is that there is no proof a lab leak explains Covid. However the origin issue has not been properly investigated by either China or the US, at least so far, and that leaves important questions unanswered and makes me suspect they have nastiness to hide.

    3. jobs

      I’m assuming you are talking about the DEFUSE grant – it is pretty damning indeed.

  29. Skip Kaltenheuser

    Re: Bipartisan leaders officially invite Netanyahu to address Congress

    Anything to undercut an already mushy Biden ceasefire proposal.

    Schumer and Jeffries have long been among those Democrats raking in the most largess from the Israeli lobby and its big money supporters.

    I wonder how much of Washington journalism’s institutional memory includes Bibi testifying to Congress that if the US didn’t invade Iraq, Saddam would arm terrorists around the world with nukes.

    Or Congressional institutional memory.

    Or if it matters.

  31. djrichard

    > Russian FinMin introduces first corporate and personal tax hike in two decades BNE Intellinews

    The above was in the links on Friday: links-5-31-2024.html. I was thinking somebody needs to let Stephanie Kelton and the MMTers know about this.

    Here’s some analysis via the Telegram channel of Tinkoff Investments (the Russian bank). How will the Ministry of Finance’s initiative to increase taxes affect the market?. This is a google translation of the bottom.

    Impact on bonds – potentially positive

    …

    If the new tax measures have an impact on inflation, it will be small and short-term (VAT will not be affected). Over the medium term, their effect is disinflationary due to a reduction in free income in the economy and demand. This also reduces the pressure on interest rates, especially since the Ministry of Finance will not be able to increase the placement of OFZs.

    That’s why we saw a positive reaction from the government bond index today. The announced measures reduce inflation risks, and therefore the risks of a long period of high interest rates, bringing closer the start of monetary policy easing. This is a plus for government bond prices.

  32. Jason Boxman

    So the big takeaway from the Google Search leaks, if you’re not in SEO, is that Google does spy on you if you use Google Chrome, they use the clickstream data to partially inform search ranking. So if you’re using Google Chrome, you are the product.

    This won’t come as any surprise to NC readers, but it’s worth emphasizing anyway.

    That part isn’t of much interest to SEO people investigating the leaked documents, they’re only focused on the technical aspects of this, and its just relayed matter of factly. It ought to gross people out.

    In any case, there are alternatives including Firefox, not based on Chromium at all, or Chromium based browsers such as Brave that put privacy at the forefront. (I found my browsing history partially in Facebook, when looking at their data on me section, with an attribution to Opera, so I’d never use Opera again my life; this coincides with the sketchy Opera sale to a Chinese billionaire; The Opera developers all decamped to the Vivaldi browser.)

    1. J.

      I found this bit especially interesting:

      > It looks like Google actually is using the Chrome click stream data to devalue links and potentially entity mentions from pages and sites that don’t get much traffic.

      Google is squelching the little sites in search results.

  33. Vander Resende

    “Abdoulaye Bathily, the United Nations (UN) envoy for Libya, resigned [1] from his position at the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) after just 18 months. This move was expected due to the lack of progress in the stuck political process in Libya. This resignation is expected to deepen the existing diplomatic crisis and intensify the political stalemate.”
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/analysis/opinion-uns-libyan-envoy-resigns-what-does-it-mean-for-libyas-political-future/3231641#:~:text=Abdoulaye%20Bathily%2C%20the,the%20political%20stalemate.

  34. Bugs

    Anyone thinking of travelling to Normandy for the D-Day remembrance celebrations will need to take into account a lot of security and slowdowns. Since Big Z will be there, consider this a guide to avoiding him. I imagine his entourage will stay in Caen, since the best hotel is there. Otherwise at the golf course but I don’t think it’s their style.

    https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/normandie/calvados/carte-80-ans-du-debarquement-routes-bloquees-zones-regulees-le-point-sur-la-circulation-le-6-juin-dans-le-calvados-2977403.html

  35. Vander Resende

    “while in 2021 Russia exported 167bn cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas to Europe, last year that volume had collapsed to 45bcm of which 28.3bcm went to EU member states.

    In total, Russia exported 203.5bcm of natural gas in 2021 (18.7bcm to Belarus, 8.4bcm to other CIS states and 9.1bcm to Turkey). Last year that total was less than 100bcm.”
    https://www.intellinews.com/macro-advisory-moscow-is-playing-a-long-gas-game-327451/#:~:text=while%20in%202021,less%20than%20100bcm.

  36. ChrisFromGA

    Potentially important story I haven’t seen any mention of here:

    https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-state-department-official-resigns-says-us-report-gaza-inaccurate-2024-05-30/

    Another state department official resigned. This one looks particularly devastating. She accused the Biden admin of intentionally making false statements in the Gaza report sent to Congress. The false statement allegedly said that Israel wasn’t blocking aid to civilians in Gaza.

    She was a SME on the report so she’s not some random disgruntled employee.

    1. Rolf

      Chris, thank you for this link. The article also describes her a 20 year veteran of the department. And she is number 3 to have quit in protest.

  37. JBird4049

    >>>Legal Theory Bookworm: “The Interbellum Constitution” by LaCroix Legal Theory Blog

    It seems to be an interesting book with a different slant on a topic important to me; I don’t have much of a budget left, but I think that I will find both time to read and money to buy and put this on the top of my already towering book stack.

      1. Jason Boxman

        Come now. Democrats of today love nullification. Isn’t that that sanctuary cities are?

  38. Kouros

    IKEA & Romania.

    IKEA to be blamed. Hold your horses. It is IKEA and the Romanian regulators and the Romanian state as well. I worked in mid 1990 for 5 years as a forest management planner engineer and I can say that the cuts in the picture are criminal in their implementation. Nothing in Romanian silvicultural practices allows for clearcuts, never mind clearcuts of that magnitude, and definitely not in broadleaf, beech forests. This is known. IKEA doesn’t care. And Romanian corrupt functionaries and ploiticians also don’t care.

    I worked for the planning of the first privatized Romanian forests. It was impossible since what I was assessing one day, ended up being cut practically the next day… While the “Monitorul Official” the paper publishing all passed legislation, showed that all and any law had little riders allowing the export of raw lumber from this or that Forest Service District…

    1. Es s Ce Tera

      Thank you for this informative comment, Kouros. Out of curiosity, what would we need to look for to know Ikea is being a good corporate citizen? In your view is there any way a company the size of Ikea can responsibly source wood?

  39. Willow

    >On Friday, Ukraine Got Permission To American Rockets At Targets Inside Russia

    These missile attacks on Russia, and eventual F-16 deployment, all require West’s ISR support. Hence Russia’s next point of escalation. UK in particular no longer has the money nor capability to replace its ISR satellites – it would be a crippling blow.

    1. bwilli123

      And would the US be too upset? The Brits have a penchant for getting over their skis in relation to Russia.

  41. sleeplessintokyo

    Sachs and Lanes? he was the Chairman of the Committee charged with investgatiing the origins. i would suggest that might make him ‘in his lane”

    2. flora

      and from Taibbi’s longer article:

      ‘Not one of these people recognized the obvious: that of all the things Donald Trump has been accused of, none are as serious or system-imperiling as abusing the courts to dispose of a political rival. If Trump was caught buggering a corpse while smoking joints rolled in rubles, it wouldn’t approach the offense of “concocting” a charge to put away someone you want to “nail” for “something.” ‘

    3. skippy

      In spirit of your comment flora I was watching the UFC yesterday avo, held in New Jersey, packed house. So just as the prelims were getting started none other than DT made his appearance to a standing ovation from the crow, sports commentator mentioned he was a feral UFC fan.

      Best bit is some top fighters after winning, went straight too him, as part of their victory lap. One in particular that has a huge fan base due to his straightforward personality after winning his fight – said too the crowd this is the man over and over ….

      These are the types of fans that favor the “two step in and one steps out” mindset for everything.

      So as this slowly unfolds its going to be interesting.

      1. Steve H.

        An earlier fighter gave an emphatically pro-Palestinian message, and there was a rumble from the crowd. Not one ‘boo’.

        It’s going to be very interesting.

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