2:00PM Water Cooler 12/20/2024

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96 comments

1. lyman alpha blob December 20, 2024 at 2:23 pm

   RE: “For the recently legalized US hemp industry (Cannabis sativa), cross-pollination between neighboring fields has become a significant challenge, leading to contaminated seeds, reduced oil yields, and in some cases, mandated crop destruction.”

   Just goes to show that no matter what, some people are going to be snobs. No need to be picky – smoke ’em if you got ’em.
2. Anon December 20, 2024 at 2:30 pm

   Democracy was in such danger in 2020 that Democrats put up the one person least in charge of their own mental faculties to safeguard it with a woman who believes in nothing. Isn’t life grand?
3. griffen December 20, 2024 at 2:54 pm

   Perp walk, tweeted or I guess from the X platform….just brings to my mind all those perp walks happening in late 2008 into 2010 for all the investor fraud, securitization fraud, foreclosures fraud …Oh that’s right. Bernie Madoff comes to mind, it’s been awhile so perhaps my recall is too fuzzy. And back in that post crisis era Mr. Mortgage king of Countrywide and CEO Angelo Mozillo was the more likely poster child for Orange Man Bad analogy.

   Any excuse to find a rolling bus to throw the Eric Holder and other DOJ associates under…but I’m not bitter I swear…\sarc
   1. jhallc December 20, 2024 at 3:24 pm

      Lot of heat being carried by those cops in the Perp Walk. Worried about all those folks happy with their healthcare or CEO’s with itchy trigger fingers looking for payback.
   2. ChrisFromGA December 20, 2024 at 3:32 pm

      The federal charges are ridiculous, clearly the Feds are out of control and haven’t learned anything from the overzealous prosecutions of Trump.

      This is a simple homicide that can and should be prosecuted under NY State Law, in a New York courtroom with a NY DA as the lead prosecutor. The notebook allegedly shows mens reas that he had thought out the crime. Motive should not matter. And as Lambert put it, we don’t seem to care about school shooters killing kids as much as we do CEOs.

      That they’re going so far to hook in a death penalty sentence shows how they circle the wagons around corporate America.

      The Feds should be focusing resources on prosecuting crimes that require Federal prosecution, not piggy-backing on state level offenses to make a political point.
      1. midtownwageslave December 20, 2024 at 6:09 pm

         In light of the previous state court prosecutions of Weisselberg and T, I would wager this Fed play is for narrative control.

         We’ve seen what a Bragg special looks like. No need to further sensationalize the headlines and stoke public reactions with the circumstances and charges as hot as they are.

         “LM is a working class folk hero” chatter is the last thing the ruling class wants.
      2. albrt December 20, 2024 at 9:01 pm

         Fed charges are probably viewed as necessary in the not unlikely event Bragg blows it.
   3. DJG, Reality Czar December 20, 2024 at 5:27 pm

      griffen: I am getting a whiff of Chicago Seven trial, in which over-eager lawyers and police officers, who think that they are so smart, overplay their hand and end up with the larger public against them.

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

      To bring people up to speed. Or to contradict the “vibes” I am receiving.

      The trial of Saint Luigi may have many, many unforeseen side effects on U.S. politics. The case already has had some: That notorious poll showing significant public support for Saint Luigi, especially among the young’uns.
      1. DJG, Reality Czar December 20, 2024 at 5:28 pm

         Oops. I posted without a last wrap-up sentence >>

         And charging Saint Luigi with terrorism is frosting a whole lotta people’s cookies.
         1. The Rev Kev December 20, 2024 at 6:29 pm

            Do they do that with school shooters? Hit them with terrorism charges? If such killings is suppose to inspire fear in a group of people – kids & their parents – that would qualify as terrorism. But charging Luigi with terrorism for hitting a CEO is drawing an extremely long bow to draw for a terrorism charge.
            1. mrsyk December 20, 2024 at 6:49 pm

               Think of the CEOs! I’m wondering if those drones are private security.
         2. JBird4049 December 20, 2024 at 6:41 pm

            The Powers That Be are no longer aware of the symbolism of their own actions. The authorities are focused on being tough as well as making an example of the shooter, and they are not focused on enforcing the law, or more importantly, on seeking justice under it. Then there is the problem of our godawful healthcare.

            It weirdly makes me think of the dynamics of the British government and the American Colonies. The government was focused on being tough and maintaining their right to govern without paying attention to how the colonists would actually perceive their actions; instead of reinforcing their legitimacy, their actions both before and during the Revolution weakened it.

            The worst the treatment, which included treating even the loyalists as children instead of actively getting their aid, the less support the government had from the colonists.
         3. mrsyk December 20, 2024 at 7:14 pm

            The elite’s problem is that Luigi’s action is seen as justifiable by many. Everyone already hates our “godawful” (right on, JBird) healthcare system even before you get to the money/bankruptcy part. Then add on that last part, and that most everybody has family/friends on the ropes from that last part. In my case, family funds are fungible, all of us are victims. (twelve grand for root canal crown work for one family member without dental coverage these last six weeks.)
            I love the MSM weak tea, never mind, go family blog yourself opinion pieces. I’m too lazy right now to do the research, but is there anyone with a byline saying it’s PE and big box healthcare, Obama care, and health insurance in general that need to be dealt with. I’d wager “no” because that would make one a supporter of universal single payer coverage, and worse, a Socialist.
            End rant.
            1. The Rev Kev December 20, 2024 at 7:25 pm

               Jury selection is gunna be fun and games. Can you imagine? Anybody that has a healthcare policy that has had a problem with their healthcare corporation through a refused claim will be disqualified from serving – which is nearly everyone! :)
               1. mrsyk December 20, 2024 at 8:16 pm

                  Or a family member or friend.
            2. griffen December 21, 2024 at 9:43 am

               I’ll add one incrementally evil entry, pharmacy benefits management. Middle men or grifters on the expense of drug price increases, just like the depiction of the mob in the ever excellent Goodfellas these PBM entities get their cut. And it’s just a handful of companies! More akin to a duopoly than a legitimate Standard Oil type monopoly…one area I can find agreement with the outgoing administration.

               https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/09/ftc-sues-prescription-drug-middlemen-artificially-inflating-insulin-drug-prices
               1. Fred1 December 22, 2024 at 6:02 pm

                  One little known wrinkle of federal sentencing, is that if a defendant is convicted on at least one count of a multi-count indictment, the court at sentencing on the one count of conviction is permitted to take into account the defendant’s conduct from the counts the defendant was found not guilty. It is beyond the scope of a comment in a thread, but IOW the sentence imposed on the one count of conviction can be increased and usually is based on the conduct of which the defendant was acquitted.

                  See:

                  https://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2024/01/acquitted-but-not-free-how-sentencing-based-on-acquitted-conduct-undermines-the-jurys-purpose.html

                  The comments can explain better than I can this anomaly.
4. ChrisFromGA December 20, 2024 at 3:04 pm

   So more drama from the House this afternoon, it looks like “Plan C” is to break up the son-of-porkulus (slimmed down from 1500+ pages to a mere novella of 116!) into three separate bills, with no debt ceiling increase.

   I have to dissent from those saying its chaos, clown show, etc … this is a step forward in that Trump and Musk finally called out the gutless Mike Johnson on a terrible bill. Johnson promised no more omnibus bills passed under the threat of Christmas … he then idiotically agreed to set an arbitrary deadline of Dec. 20th for the last CR, despite knowing that would create the exact same dynamics that always lead to GOP capitulation.

   Just getting the bill down to 100 some odd pages was a victory. I am sure there is still some awful stuff in there, but having read most of the bill yesterday, it looks like mainly defense dept. pork mixed in with extenders for some public health policies.

   Of course the Donkeys are furious, because they’re used to stuffing all kinds of junk into these “must pass” fund the government bills. They sound like a bunch of sore losers, and barring some epic flip-flop by Johnson that looks politically impossible, they’re going to lose. The GOP can always shut down the government or punt with a bare-bones CR for 3 more weeks and leave this mess for January and a new Congress.
   1. Lambert Strether Post authorDecember 20, 2024 at 3:25 pm

      > Just getting the bill down to 100 some odd pages was a victory.

      Page count is a ridiculous metric. Would getting the bill down to 10 pages be even better? How about 1?

      As for “Porkulus,” I’m surprised you haven’t applied the same witty sobriquet to the just-passed Defense bill. Oddly, President Musk didn’t go after it either. One can only wonder why.
      1. ChrisFromGA December 20, 2024 at 3:38 pm

         Fewer pages is objectively less risky – less room for mischief, less to read through, less chance of some obscure threat to our liberty being snuck in there. Of course, you can still do a lot of harm with single pagers … I see your point there. Repealing Glass-Steagall was likely a one-pager. Or could have been, I don’t recall.

         I don’t like either party and wish they’d both go away. The NDAA was likely pork-filled garbage as well, but I haven’t read it so I ought to be reserved in commenting either way.
         1. lyman alpha blob December 20, 2024 at 3:55 pm

            If I remember right, Glass Steagall itself was only 30-odd pages.
         2. Lambert Strether Post authorDecember 20, 2024 at 4:01 pm

            > Fewer pages is objectively less risky

            Somebody needs to take the shovel out of your hand.
            1. ChrisFromGA December 20, 2024 at 4:11 pm

               Sorry, shovel still in hand. I think you ought to view it in the totality of the circumstances.

               Yes, a 1000 page bill that merely repeats the Bill of Rights would be less harmful than a one-pager that sends more money to Ukraine to kill humans. Or to Netanyahu to keep up the genocide.

               But we have to take into account the behavior both parties. They’re opportunistic wolves who love to take a simple bill to fund the government at the same levels as 3 months ago, which ought to be 10 pages or fewer, and pile on all kinds of riders, clauses, and such, in an obvious attempt to manipulate the legislative process. How is it manipulative?

               + It gets laws passed that would not pass on their merits alone, because nobody has time to read the thing.
               + 1000+ pages is impossible for all of their staffers to read through, let alone we the people, on any reasonable basis. Sure, some fanatic might. But the average person won’t. It’s clearly a tactic done in bad faith.

               The overall dynamic has existed for a long time, but has gotten worse each Congress. There are no heroes here. Trump and Musk have their own (bad) agendas. But Johnson promised to stop this nonsense, and then repeatedly didn’t. It’s about time somebody called him out (other than Marjorie Taylor-Greene.)

               Putting shovel down.
               1. Lambert Strether Post authorDecember 20, 2024 at 5:25 pm

                  > But we have to take into account the behavior both parties. They’re opportunistic wolves who love to take a simple bill to fund the government at the same levels as 3 months ago, which ought to be 10 pages or fewer, and pile on all kinds of riders, clauses, and such, in an obvious attempt to manipulate the legislative process. How is it manipulative?

                  Oh my goodness. You’re telling me politics are involved? On the bright side, you’ve dropped each of those silly metrics I shot down — which are even sillier when proposed by a squillionaire, who really ought to know better — and retreated to “the totality of the circumstances.”

                  Speaking of bad faith, I’m still waiting for the outrage on the defense bill….
               2. Polar Socialist December 20, 2024 at 5:28 pm

                  Just sayin’ that in my tiny corner of the blue ball the parliament can’t pass a bill that doesn’t specify it’s scope as the first item and has no more than three sentence long preamble describing what the bill is trying to achieve.

                  Actually, the parliament can’t even process a bill that doesn’t state it’s scope so that it can be passed to the proper committee for vetting (and watering down).

                  There’s no way to have “riders” in those bills, and even a layman like me can read and understand what is the “will of the legislative branch” if that bill passes. And as I have to observe several laws in my job, I do appreciate that I can always go to the very source and understand the laws apply to my work and how.

                  Did I already mention I live in a civil law country?
                  1. Lambert Strether Post authorDecember 20, 2024 at 5:34 pm

                     > Just sayin’ that in my tiny corner of the blue ball the parliament can’t pass a bill that doesn’t specify it’s scope as the first item and has no more than three sentence long preamble describing what the bill is trying to achieve.

                     Which country?

                     Fine. Let’s rework the conventions by which we create legislation.. I’m all for it! I remember, back when I was a consultant, hearing a story about another firm that created a content management system for a legislature (legislation not being all that easy to manage), but the legislature rejected their work because they really didn’t want their process to be transparent. Not good.

                     But if we could discard the simple-minded, knee-jerking tropes — next, I suppose we’ll be talking about “welfare queens” or, heaven forfend, foreign aid — and take the process that takes place under Article I seriously perhaps some progress could be made. Maybe there are some conservative scholars who have done the work, idk. Certainly President Musk hasn’t.

                     Or we could do government by DOGEpile (hat tip to a reader, please raise your hand). I’m sure that would improve matters.
                  2. ChrisFromGA December 20, 2024 at 5:39 pm

                     Sounds like a much better system.

                     Thanks for that observation. I want to say that the US Congress did not used to operate the way they do now back in the 80s, when Tip O’Neill ran the House. Everything tended to go through “regular order” which was closer to the system you describe, though not really the same.

                     My recollection is that things started to go downhill here in the states in the 90’s, when the government shutdowns started under Gingrich/Clinton. Those shutdowns tended to backfire on the GOP, as Clinton effectively managed to portray the GOP (maybe rightfully so) as demagogues more interested in making political points than governing.

                     Then we had the last actual passage of all 12 appropriations bills under regular order, sometime around 2000 or so. Since then, every year, under Pelosi, Dennis Havig, McCarthy, and now Johnson, Congress has been unable to pass legislation to fund the government via regular order. I’d argue that this is their most fundamental duty, and they’ve failed miserably for something like 23 years or so.

                     This has resulted in the current situation where they end up every year with a huge omnibus bill to fund all the agencies. What Congress can’t get done during the year, they try to tack on to it at the last minute.

                     Johnson deserves to lose his Speakership because he promised to end this practice, or at least make some inroads. He couldn’t even deliver a bill that met the requirement of at least 72 hours of reading time before a vote – they’re voting right now on some new bill that supposedly looks just like the one from yesterday, but with no debt ceiling clause. We don’t really know what’s in it!
               3. LawnDart December 20, 2024 at 5:47 pm

                  For consideration:

                  Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) are industrial computers that control the functions and operations of heavy industrial equipment (conveyor lines, balers, or whatever). PLCs began to replace relay-logic systems in the 1960s-70s, as ultimately the PLCs were much less costly and saved tons of time, especially when it came to troubleshooting malfunctioning equipment.

                  Code for these computers is usually written in ladder logic form, and ladder logic closely resembles standard electrical diagrams, making it easy for a person with some electrical background to understand the program… in theory. Well-written code makes it easy to monitor or turn on/off inputs (sensors, switches, etc.) or outputs (lights, motors, actuators) to narrow down and help isolate a problem versus having to trace thousands of feet of wiring and testing perhaps many dozens of relays and other electrical components– hours of work and downtime eliminated. In theory.

                  In practice, shortly after I entered the field, I discovered that “spaghetti code” is quite commonplace, and for different reasons:

                  1. Ignorance: the programmer simply didn’t understand the process or just sucked at code and was trying to cobble something together to make the machine(s) work.

                  2. Job-security, aka induced dependency: being the only one who knows how the code works can give you a bit of leverage. There are major OEMs that do this deliberately so that only their programmers can work on the equipment.

                  3. Job-creation/billing: you can hide all kinds of nastiness inside code, either to justify future service-calls or to brick the equipment. A company that I worked for used to insert “deadbeat code” that would shut down the equipment periodically in case the customer was late in paying, in order to force the customer to contact us (I discontinued/refused to continue this practice). Of course, they’d usually forget to null the deadbeat code which resulted in unplanned downtime and a service call for the customer…

                  Well-written code is logical, transparent, and easy to understand. Spaghetti code is the antithesis of this, just the same as flim-flam fast-talking bullshit gibberish is intended to distract and confuse the victim of a confidence scam: code should not require hours of close-study by a cloister of monks of an obscure monastic order in an effort to discern it’s ultimate, divine meaning.

                  Code can be short but highly complex, difficult to follow and decipher. Code can be lengthy but straight-forward, although getting from Point A to Point B is onerous and taxing. Good code falls between the extremes of this spectrum, and in itself does in no way undermine the functionality of the process or intended outcome. Should not legal code be held to the same standard?

                  Given some knowledge of the pig-butchers in DC, by nature, I’d be suspicious of lengthy code as attempted bafflement by bullshit by the blithering, bureaucratic bastards– elected, selected, or otherwise. As usual, this “shutdown” fight seems all about posturing as to who gets what cuts of meat, save some scraps for the dogs.
         3. steppenwolf fetchit December 20, 2024 at 7:29 pm

            Having an unelected Plutocrat all by himself threaten our elected Congress into rescinding its own bill is bad governance and is certainly “extra-constitutional” at the very least.

            In light of that, the contents and the page-count of the bill are irrelevant.

            Unless you welcome your new Musky Overlords. In which case, “good governance” and “constitutionality” is what is irrelevant to you. And why not? If indeed you welcome your new Musky Overlords.
            1. rowlf December 20, 2024 at 9:13 pm

               I’m pretty sure the Western political Norms Fairy requires oligarchs to remain in the shadows and never put on Superman Garanimals and go running around in public. /s
      2. marku52 December 20, 2024 at 3:40 pm

         The old one had a NFL stadium and 12 new biolabs built into it. I’m happy to see that go.
         1. Lambert Strether Post authorDecember 20, 2024 at 4:02 pm

            > The old one had a NFL stadium

            Oligarch goring the American gentry’s ox. You love to see it. That said, for all the sound and fury now, the project will doubtless advance….

            As for the shopworn “waste and ineffiency” trope — corporate America isn’t wasteful? Really? — I once again register my amazement _{MR SUBLIMINAL Not!} that the defense bill remains immune from criticism. Of course, President Musk, the working man’s friend, is, of course, a major defense contractor….
            1. Young December 20, 2024 at 9:39 pm

               İn defense of Musk, he has a lot of zeroes, but no standing army
               He cannot take on Pentagon.

               To paraphrase an old wise man, nobody can @#%^ with DoD.

               Heck, they only tell you, on a Friday afternoon before the Christmas weekend, that they have 2000 pairs of boots on the ground in Syria, not 900 that they claimed for years.
            2. ChrisFromGA December 20, 2024 at 9:46 pm

               Exhibit ‘A’ for wasteful corporate America – Andy Jassy (Amazon CEO) clinging to the past to save a bunch of expensive, way overpriced buildings he foolishly built pre-pandemic.

               Ordering his army of Amazonians back to the office, despite technology now allowing for remote work to be productive, and damn global warming! Commute and burn moar fossil fuels, serfs!

               What a maroon. Along with AT&T, Jamie Dimon from JPM … notice a pattern? Too big to fail, bloated, corporate dinosaurs.
         2. marym December 20, 2024 at 4:33 pm

            It wasn’t a provision for a stadium. It was to transfer ownership of the long-vacant former stadium site from the federal government to DC. (This is not an endorsement of stadium building, but in general I do support DC local control.)
            https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/rfk-stadium-site-provision-removed-from-federal-spending-bill/3796501/

            I don’t know any thing about the labs, but here’s some detail of the Musk commentary.
            https://www.politico.com/newsletters/inside-congress/2024/12/18/what-elon-got-wrong-about-the-cr-00195226
5. Carolinian December 20, 2024 at 3:12 pm

   Flora linked this and here’s agreeing it is good.

   https://www.racket.news/p/america-this-week-dec-20-2024-damn

   Press criticism is all important. Who else is doing it these days?
6. Carla December 20, 2024 at 3:17 pm

   No plantidote? ;-(
   1. Lambert Strether Post authorDecember 20, 2024 at 3:33 pm

      Whoops, done. Too many story-threads to follow!
7. Michael Hudson December 20, 2024 at 3:32 pm

   Luigi should be so glad that he’s accused of federal charges now.
   The one place you DON’T want to go is to a state penitentiary. (Think of the hard bunks for his backs.)
   Where you DO want to go is a Federal pen. All the political prisoners, embezzlers and other elite federal criminals go to these country clubs. Lyndon LaRouche’s roommate was Tammy Baker’s husband.
   My father said that the happiest year of his life was in Sandstone prison. He worked in the library, writing collections of proverbs and selections from the writings of Lenin and Trotsky. Luigi will have good medical care, good reading and research facilities, and a healthy lifestyle — and many interesting companions.
   1. Ben Joseph December 20, 2024 at 4:55 pm

      And all wire fraud charges are based upon internet and cellphone use being ‘interstate’ because of server and tower locations. If he got paid, they would have added it too.
   2. Jonathan Holland Becnel December 20, 2024 at 4:57 pm

      Hear, Hear, Doc Hudson!

      Some of the most illuminating months of my life were spent on the streets and jails of Colorado. I often heard the proverb that prison was much cushier. Ironically, I would say the metal beds with barely any cushion in jail helped my lower back.

      We are all in this together!
   3. steppenwolf fetchit December 20, 2024 at 7:32 pm

      I’ll bet they have a SHU to send him to. I’ll bet they have a special place within the Federal Prison system where they can Padillify and Guantanamize him a little bit.
      1. albrt December 20, 2024 at 9:07 pm

         He’s gonna get Epsteined before he can get Padillified and Guantanamized.
         1. steppenwolf fetchit December 20, 2024 at 9:41 pm

            I have my doubts. I could be wrong about that. But I think that Epstein got epsteined because he knew way too much. They wanted to silence him fast.

            How much does Saint Luigi of the Adjustification know? About anything, really? They don’t need to silence him. They may feel they need to make an example of him. That would involve years or decades of torture by Guantanamization and Padillafication as much in open view as they think they can without making him even more of a folk hero.

            Saint Luigi of the Adjustification. He died for our medical conditions.
            1. albrt December 20, 2024 at 11:08 pm

               I agree it is a different backstory, but I think The Claims Adjuster will need to be silenced because of the political potential rather than the blackmail potential. Although I don’t think it will help. It is unclear whether dead Luigi is a better or worse symbol than live Luigi.

               The weird thing is that it took so long to get rolling. This is from 2014:

               https://theonion.com/delighted-health-insurance-executives-gather-in-outdoor-1819576169/

               h/t Margaret Kimberly
               1. The Rev Kev December 20, 2024 at 11:38 pm

                  Well that didn’t age well.
            2. fjallstrom December 21, 2024 at 6:14 am

               One interpretation if he dies before the trial is that the murder weapon, the huge wad of cash and his manifesto that he brought to a McDonald’s, 5 days after the murder, wasn’t really his. And that the massive NYPD isn’t that great at investigating crimes so, under pressure to solve the murder, they framed somebody who they could place in the vicinity of the crime. Luigi does look like the man in the hostel, who I think had a different jacket than the shooter.

               But hopefully he lives and gets a fair trial. Trials aren’t great, but they are a much better way we got of actually sorting out what happened than a media hunt.
   4. LawnDart December 20, 2024 at 10:58 pm

      No no no no no!!! Some of the Fed joints are as bad as anything out there!

      Luigi ain’t destined for Club Fed– if he doesn’t get the needle, sure as hell he’ll be shipped to a supermax or a gladiator school.

      Please note the federal prisons on this list (in bold):

      17 Worst Prisons in the US in 2024 – America’s Notorious Correctional Facilities

      1. ADX Florence (Florence, Colorado)
      2. Rikers Island (New York, New York)
      3. Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola, Louisiana)
      4. Folsom State Prison (California)
      5. William C. Holman Correctional Facility (Alabama)
      6. Penitentiary of New Mexico (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
      7. Attica Correctional Facility (New York)
      8. Thomson Correctional Center (Illinois)
      9. Red Onion State Prison (Virginia)
      10. Orleans Parish Prison (New Orleans, Louisiana)
      11. USP Beaumont (Beaumont, Texas)
      12. USP Big Sandy (Inez, Kentucky)
      13. USP Hazelton (Bruceton Mills, West Virginia)
      14. USP Pollock (Pollock, Louisiana)
      15. San Quentin State Prison (California)
      16. Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary (Kansas)
      17. USP Marion (Illinois)

      https://freedomforallamericans.org/worst-prisons-in-the-us/

      Life in a supermax is pretty much the same thing as being burried alive, only death won’t be coming in days to free you from misery– you get to suffer decades of misery.

      In a gladiator school, I’d give Luigi a couple of weeks. I kinda like the kid, but he’s a pretty-boy from a wealthy family, with probably not much in the way of real street-smarts, ripe for extorting– after a few “demonstrations of power.” And when the money stops coming…
8. marku52 December 20, 2024 at 3:55 pm

   A nation can’t go bankrupt. True but it can destroy the value of its currency. And you’d have to say, spending $3 of debt for every $1 of GDP growth is not a winning trend, particular when the debt doesn’t’ get invested into anything useful, just helping people next to the Cantillon Effect hose blow asset bubbles.
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Cantillon
   1. Lambert Strether Post authorDecember 20, 2024 at 4:03 pm

      > particular when the debt doesn’t’ get invested into anything useful,

      Why is so hard to see that it’s resources that matter, not the money?
      1. CA December 20, 2024 at 4:22 pm

         https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/weo-database/2024/October/weo-report?c=223,924,132,134,534,536,136,158,922,186,112,111,&s=NID_NGDP,&sy=1980&ey=2024&ssm=0&scsm=1&scc=0&ssd=1&ssc=0&sic=0&sort=country&ds=.&br=1

         October 15, 2024

         Investment as a percent of GDP for Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, Turkey, United Kingdom and United States, 1980-2024

         Investment as a percent of GDP, 2024

         Brazil ( 15.9)
         China ( 42.0)
         France ( 22.3)
         Germany ( 20.6)

         India ( 33.7)
         Indonesia ( 30.5)
         Italy ( 22.1)
         Japan ( 26.6)

         Russia ( 25.0)
         Turkey ( 25.6)
         United Kingdom ( 17.1)
         United States ( 21.8)
      2. steppenwolf fetchit December 20, 2024 at 7:35 pm

         If you emit a near-infinite amount of the “country’s currency”, each unit of the “country’s currency” will have near-zero worth.
      3. ambrit December 20, 2024 at 11:46 pm

         Because, and bear with me here, the “money” is a symbol that can be used to manipulate the allocation of resources.
         Is “finance” a resource or a symbol manipulation scheme?
         We can end up in ye olde infinite regression here.
9. Roger Blakely December 20, 2024 at 4:05 pm

   RE: ★ Variants [3] CDC December 21

   In yesterday’s CIDRAP podcast Dr. Osterholm talked about XEC, KP.3.1.1, LP.8.1, and MC.1.

   MC.1 comes from KP.3.1.1. LP.8.1 is in the same family as KP.3.1.1.

   Dr. Osterholm pointed out that XEC is not the run-away winner this holiday season. Maybe the reason why we’ve had the best December since the beginning of the pandemic is because 1) KP.3.1.1 and that family of variants gave us a worse-than-expected summer and 2) XEC is not exceedingly more transmissible than the previously existing variants. XEC has failed to completely take over from the other variants.
10. TheMog December 20, 2024 at 4:15 pm

    It’s an interesting day when I find myself agreeing with a Daily Mail article (the “Biden was never president” one) and considering the second link just below it worth reading.

    Strange times we live in.
    1. Michaelmas December 20, 2024 at 5:43 pm

       It’s interesting to see how successfully the Daily Heil — founded in 1896 and honed by Fleet Street’s savage Darwinian competitions for a century and a quarter — has now gone global and is feeding red meat to audiences worldwide. I note three links to it in Lambert’s 2:00 Cooler today.

       I’d love to see the Mail and the NYT thrown in a shark tank together to fight it out till only one survives. I’d put my money on the Mail.

       FYI, its owner keeps a low profile, but is Jonathan Harmsworth aka the Right Honourable Viscount Rothermere, Member of the House of Lords, and LordTemporal (which last sounds like Doctor Who.)
       https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/how-much-daily-mail-owner-lord-rothermere-worth-1628099
11. Carolinian December 20, 2024 at 4:41 pm

    Helmer on the Putin Q and A

    Quoting Putin

    “And our position is well known in Lebanon and Palestine. Our position is not subject to the current situation. We have always believed so and now believe that it is possible to solve the Palestinian problem only by solving the causes of its occurrence. There was the decision made by the UN Security Council at the time that two states should be formed – Israel and Palestine. Israel is established; Palestine, in fact, has not yet been created. That’s the problem.

    “Moreover, from its side Israel continues the so-called illegal settlement activity. I don’t know what Israel’s ultimate goals are in the Gaza Strip, but it deserves only condemnation. We have done this repeatedly at almost all levels, from the public level and our position in the Security Council United Nations. There’s nothing to add here. The same goes for Lebanon. ”

    https://johnhelmer.net/the-russian-line-on-syria/

    So it’s a hands off stance now that countries and not just jihadis are openly involved.
    1. anahuna December 20, 2024 at 5:06 pm

       I don’t quite understand your last remark, Carolinian. Do you mean Russia is assuming a hands-off stance? If so, how does that relate to what Helmet is reporting?
       1. Carolinian December 20, 2024 at 7:35 pm

          That’s my interpretation of what Helmer reports. In other words Putin in the full article somewhat defends Turkey’s “sphere of interest” actions and even Israel’s while condemning Israel’s cruelty and violation of international law. Putin declined to intervene in Syria because its own government too weak or corrupt to defend its sphere.

          Meanwhile our USians only invoke the UN–seemingly–when they want to invade or regime change somebody else. This certainly wasn’t FDR’s view of the UN he helped create but Truman brought a different team.
    2. Alice X December 21, 2024 at 12:39 am

       The General Assembly on November 29. 1947 passed Resolution 181, generally known as the Partition Plan for Palestine. It called for the Security Council to act for its implementation. The Security Council took it up but did not issue a resolution. The initial resolution was not therefore legally binding, but Zionists used it for a template anyway, ignoring the aspects that would have prohibited their violent land grabs.
12. Bugs December 20, 2024 at 4:51 pm

    Uplifting Water Cooler today compared to the gloom of the past few weeks. Winter solstice will soon be past us in the northern part of the globe and days will lengthen. Hope springs eternal.
    1. Late Introvert December 20, 2024 at 10:32 pm

       21st is also the end of Zappadan.
13. ChrisFromGA December 20, 2024 at 5:23 pm

    Live debate on House floor – in case anyone is interested.

    https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5049988-house-republicans-government-shutdown/
14. rswojo December 20, 2024 at 5:31 pm

    that re-farmer guy is either a rookie gardener or a total fucking idiot. Deer eating his veggies? Did he ever hear of a thing called a fence? Cats in his garden? Buy a litter box.

    You don’t go through all the work putting in a garden to feed deer! sheesh!
15. flora December 20, 2024 at 5:41 pm

    re: “A nation that is sovereign in its own currency cannot go bankrupt. ”

    Something has always seemed missing in that formulation. I think what is missing is an unwritten clause that goes something like this:

    “A nation that is sovereign in its own currency cannot go bankrupt”, provided that the nation is a an autarky or near autarky. That is to say, so long as it has national self-sufficiency and nonreliance on imports or economic aid.

    I think the entire soft-war of sanctions on RU and others was/is an effort to bankrupt those countries and bring them to their knees. RU, however, turns out be a near autarky, able to provide for most of its own needs within its country, and so, able to trade in its own currency without resorting to Western imports or economic aid. This is a recent development and seems to have caught the West by surprise.

    The US is no longer an autarky, imo, having offshored its heavy manufacturing. How much do we import from other countries to fill critical needs? The US does have the World Reserve Currency, which is powerful, but can be replaced. If the dollar is replaced as the reserve currency, then what?

    / my 2 cents.
    1. Pat December 20, 2024 at 6:13 pm

       I have always found that the desire to go after Russia and China is so prominent with so many of those attached to America is the top of the food chain types blackly humorous. Especially as that meanwhile they are also big on rewarding foreign operations of American businesses while ignoring or devaluing things that keep the production and work in the country. That they haven’t really figured out yet that the latter makes bloviating at Russia and China not just annoying and pointless to those countries, it actually endangers the American position in the global system because we aren’t able to feed, clothe, medicate etc ourselves or even produce most of our poorly designed weaponry without foreign products, parts or sometimes even knowledge.
16. Pat December 20, 2024 at 5:44 pm

    Go Emmi, you are one beautiful and talented feline! And you and your human, SV, have great taste in jigsaw puzzles.

    Lambert, I for one appreciate both the butter and the kittendote.
    1. mrsyk December 20, 2024 at 6:22 pm

       Emmi! Lol, I bet you’re good at folding laundry and making the bed as well.
       We’ve done that puzzle and had similar “help” from our master puzzle destroyer at the time, KT (stands for kitten time, rest in peace). If he was feeling it, he would hit the puzzle surface at velocity, stomp on the brakes, and slide what was your work over the opposite edge.
       As for “The Missing van Gogh Masterpiece”, unless there are questions of provenance (pre-sale) I’m going with the auctioneer (I don’t have to like him/her). Creating rules about what people can and can’t own seems like a slippery slope.
    2. The Rev Kev December 20, 2024 at 6:41 pm

       Being a cat, Emmi decides to lie on the side of the puzzle not yet complete I see. But she is a beautiful cat and SV does have great taste in jigsaw puzzles.
       1. Pat December 20, 2024 at 11:30 pm

          Pretty sure that Emmi believes the point of puzzles is only to keep her human and possible cat toys in one place all the better to pet and amuse her. She knows the best position for that. And having been cat staff for most of my adult life I know better than to disagree.
          1. The Rev Kev December 20, 2024 at 11:48 pm

             Dogs are in our homes so that we feel loved. Cats are in our home to keep us grounded.
17. Duke of Prunes December 20, 2024 at 6:01 pm

    “to spite Pelosi and Barack Obama, who had also worked behind the scenes to push Biden out, and who both held serious reservations about Harris’s capabilities.”

    I don’t know why this just hit me, but maybe this was a sweet Uno Reverse play… B pushed Harris as Pres because it was Pelosi and Obama who pushed her for Vice-Pres.
    1. steppenwolf fetchit December 20, 2024 at 7:37 pm

       So Harris-for-Pres was Biden’s parting ” hate-sh!t” on the face of his Party and his Country?
    2. Jason Boxman December 20, 2024 at 7:41 pm

       The viciousness of Biden dogs was definitely a tell about him.
    3. Skip Intro December 20, 2024 at 8:08 pm

       Jill’s ‘Burn the place down’ campaign includes the Hunter time bomb. The amazingly broad yet specifically timed pardon leaves him subject to subpoena, with a memory whose sharpness may depend on his feelings towards his former colleagues. I think Biden was OK with Kamala, since he knew she would be bad enough to assure him a shot at a 2nd term.
    4. Dr. John Carpenter December 20, 2024 at 10:29 pm

       Biden flipped so quickly from “I am not going anywhere” to “I’m dropping out and endorsing Kamala.” I think he endorsed her before she officially declared she was running. It always seemed suspicious to me. At a minimum, it seemed to catch the Dems by surprise. I’d have no problem believing it was an f u to the Dems and kamal.
    5. Samuel Conner December 20, 2024 at 11:21 pm

       > Pelosi and Obama who pushed her for Vice-Pres

       IIRC, at one of the 2020 D Primary debates, JRB pledged to select a woman of color as running mate. I don’t think it was realistically possible to back down from that promise, made on national television, and I think there may not have been many options. Was there anyone other than KDH and Stacey Abrams who would have been in the running?
       1. mrsyk December 21, 2024 at 12:03 am

          Thank you. I remember it this way as well. I also recall team blue’s authoritarian messages of meritocracy, and intersectionality. Surely, only a “woman of color” like Harris would fit the bill. Nevertheless, inviting the California mob into the White House must have been considered a risk. Cali is in team blue’s bag one way or the other. “Reservations about Harris’s capabilities”, lol, no kidding. It was a horserace, they picked who they thought would push them over the edge and deal with the mess later.
18. Pat December 20, 2024 at 6:02 pm

    One thing about this plethora of information about how his inner circle kept Biden wrapped up in tissue that does amuse me, is that the timeline even in the story shows that this was going on almost from day 1 of his presidency. It makes me want to check on an old friend who kept trying to tell me the debate was just a bad night and that Trump showed more signs of dementia than Biden. Oh, and his was fine in the 2020 campaign as well. Almost all of which is getting demolished daily. Now I would have more of a chance of arguing it was media bias, but he was firmly in the NYT, Washington Post, major networks, CNN and MSNBC are totally trustworthy group which does sort of limit his ability to reject the new information as they slowly join the let’s notice the obvious crowd. Having gone through the realization that we are being conned and that our system is broken, it is not fun. He, I think will be fine.

    But I do have to wonder how much the revelations of the past six weeks have shaken other even more invested people. Between the information that internal polling never had Harris winning (Biden, too), to the clear mismanagement of the campaign and outrageous waste of those funds, to Biden’s hideous pardons, to this… It has been one more hit on top of another for the folks who watched their sure thing lose it all on Election Day. It cannot be good.
19. Stephanie December 20, 2024 at 6:11 pm

    From the Carsonogenic essay:

    1. Let’s watch our culture to see whether or not we are simply recreating polygyny, be honest about it if we are, and consciously choose to not do that if we don’t want it.

    2. I think the thought experiment makes it obvious that different cultural norms can be good and bad for different groups of people. Not in the “everyone is a unique, do your thing” sense, but in the sense of sexual economics: every sexual assortation arrangement has winners and losers, and those winners and losers will be present in every subculture.

    At the risk of assuming that incentives matter, Point 2 calls into question the relevance of Point 1. If the “winners” of the polygynous assortation arrangement want to do it, I’m not sure exactly what those (presumably the “losers”) who ‘consciously choose not to do that if we don’t want it’ are going to achieve. Assuming some critical mass of heterosexual women (the mids in Carson’s rating scheme) choose pure polygyny, they aren’t available to the heterosexual men they’d hook up with in a more flexible assortation scheme (also presumably the mids by Carson’s reckoning).

    Of course the same is true for the winners and losers of a purely monogamous system – although I doubt that has ever existed any more than a purely polygynous system has. The counter-thought experiment is to say that critical masses of pivotally placed people choose sub-optimal systems all the time (neoliberalism, as a for-instance) and ‘consciously choosing’ not to participate – or believing you’re smarter faster stronger than the system – doesn’t mean you don’t have to lump it with the rest of the mids.
20. Lefty Godot December 20, 2024 at 7:16 pm

    vengeful Jill Biden is urging ‘depressed’ Joe to ‘burn the whole thing down’ in their final days

    If the “whole thing” means the Democratic Party, this would be a public service. I’m just worried that the “whole thing” might mean the entire planet though. Never let “vengeful” and “diminished” old people near the nuclear button. But as for the Democratic Party, sure: Burn. It. Down.
21. flora December 20, 2024 at 7:21 pm

    From Off-Guardian:

    The big story of 2024 that NOBODY is talking about

    https://off-guardian.org/2024/12/18/the-big-story-of-2024-that-nobody-is-talking-about/
22. Mark Gisleson December 20, 2024 at 7:52 pm

    This is sort of an early Xmas video thing but from a year ago. Video quality is poor (or maybe a 3D thing) but it’s a Russian who’s got talent show’s big holiday extravaganza and the masked singer is a past winner with a five-octave range. There are at least three videos and the one linked to is a patriotic song about Jacob’s battle on the mountain. Each time I watch it I’m amazed at how willing they are to do a Bible song as well as getting out front of their audience. Hard also not to note how much this dovetails with stoking the fires of nationalism.

    Not the best example of Diana Ankudinova’s singing (I’m pretty sure she’s miked inside the mask) but something a little different for the late night crowd.
23. Lunker Walleye December 20, 2024 at 9:29 pm

    Here’s a bowl of cherries to go with the Vollon butter mound: https://www.kunstkopie.de/kunst/antoine_vollon/still_life_of_cherries_in_a_bowl_antoine_vollon.jpg
24. steppenwolf fetchit December 20, 2024 at 9:48 pm

    I see that the “Elevate President Musk” idea is spreading around here and there in social media.
    Here are a couple of very short very telling comments in that regard from a post about Musk’s latest
    TwiXtter Tantrum.

    ” We really need to ramp up the President Musk memes and comments. The more thunder gets stolen the more likely he’ll be told to fuck off by the orange one.”

    responded to with . . .
    ” I seriously recommend you listen to Anthony Scaramucci’s podcast TRIP USA.

    He is really clear on what annoys Donald Trump (in which he is a proven expert) and this is by far and away number 1.

    He believes it’s why we see so little of JD Vance, he gets it, but Elon Musk doesn’t because he’s just as egotistical.”

    Sanders may keep doing it but the DemDemocrats won’t do it because it wouldn’t be nice. Thousands and then millions of social media posters and commenters may begin doing it though.
25. steppenwolf fetchit December 20, 2024 at 9:52 pm

    Someone has done a TrumpenMusk morph portrait called President Musk. Hopefully thousands and then millions of people post copies of it to every place Trump sees and also to every Officeholder so they can burn with shame and humiliation.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1hivrfq/president_musk/
26. steppenwolf fetchit December 20, 2024 at 9:55 pm

    And here’s a picture of Saint Luigi given a Medieval Master-Painter-style halo. The more people click this and send it all around, the more it might rise on the search-engine screens ( if search engines work that way).

    https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1himl5i/st_luigi/
27. steppenwolf fetchit December 20, 2024 at 9:59 pm

    Here’s a post about how Trump and his people are already responding to the rising President Musk meme.
    The poster encourages everyone to keep doing it because ” its working”. I would say millions of people should do it to make sure it really is working.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/1hitg09/its_working/
    1. ForFawkesSakes December 20, 2024 at 11:50 pm

       Oh CNN said it? Gosh it must be true! Like Clarissa Ward freeing the Syrian prisoner true.

       This mean girl nonsense preys on the PMC fear of not being acknowledged; Trump surely knows that he gets all the pageantry and power of the office.
       1. steppenwolf fetchit December 23, 2024 at 2:06 pm

          It could be true even though it was on CNN. Colonel Lang more than once advised his readers to judge and analyze the accuracy-or-not of a piece of intelligence or information separately than from the source it came from.

          Is it mean girl nonsense? It could be. But so what? . . . if it works. It costs almost no money and very little time and can be indulged in by millions of social media posters on a brainwar battlefield where they already have a massively distributed presence. If millions start doing it and it has no visible effect on Trump’s behavior, then they might well move on to something else. If it does have a visible effect on Trump’s behavior, then they can keep right on doing more of it.
       2. steppenwolf fetchit December 23, 2024 at 3:20 pm

          Here’s another Trump v President Musk post, and it isn’t even on CNN.

          Its from the MurderedByWords subreddit and is titled ” We’re getting to the exiting part”.

          https://www.reddit.com/r/MurderedByWords/comments/1hkqmsd/were_getting_to_the_exciting_part/
28. AG December 21, 2024 at 1:00 am

    re: poverty/expensive food in Germany

    This quick piece from weekly FREITAG:

    Two million people in Germany depend on free food supplies: the food banks provide great help to those in need. But now their existence is in danger. Why can’t our rich country help the poor?

    https://www.freitag.de/autoren/ulrike-baureithel/tafeln-in-gefahr-wo-das-reiche-deutschland-versagt

    (is food bank an English term?)

    “(…)
    We are poor, we are rich – that is the title of a novel by Angelika Mechtel that captured the conditions of the post-war period. Almost 80 years after the end of the war, it is still just as valid. And that is bad, because in the post-war period there may have been soup kitchens, but there were no food banks that would have organized poverty away at no cost to the state and given the better-off a clear conscience.

    Poverty was still visible, at least in my childhood in the old Federal Republic. Hand-me-down clothes and impractical furniture. People hoped for a social housing apartment. But food, which was expensive back then and took a lot out of their wages, was eventually affordable for most people. Housing was much cheaper than it is today.

    Six decades later, a roof over one’s head has become an expensive luxury for many, and two million people in Germany are dependent on the free food provided by food banks . Because by the middle of the month at the latest, the citizen’s allowance, the pension supplemented by basic security or simply the salary are no longer enough to make ends meet.
    In some places, donations have fallen by 50 percent

    The food banks are organized by other people, usually not well off either. This is the solidarity among the poor that we know from history. The poor have always helped each other. In contrast, those who are on the rise are almost always careful to keep a social distance.

    But now even these charitable food bank associations are under threat. And this despite the fact that there are more and more people in need who collect fruit, vegetables and other food from them. In the past ten years, their numbers have increased by 25 percent. In some locations, their number has even doubled. For quite a while, the food bank system worked very well. The German society of excess and throwaway has given away a tiny fraction of its wealth.
    
    But now almost a third of all food banks have had to stop accepting those in need. They lack food. In some places, donations from small producers, supermarkets and discounters have fallen by 50 percent.
    There are a total of 960 food banks in Germany

    There is also a lack of volunteers to collect the donated goods every day, sort them through and then distribute them to pensioners, refugees, the unemployed or low-income earners. Many of those who help people in need have now reached their limits; they are physically and mentally exhausted. And perhaps one or the other of them even has their own career in poverty in mind when they go to work.

    There are a total of 960 food banks in Germany. But they can distribute less and less. Supermarket logistics management has become increasingly modern. As a result, there is less and less food left over that can be donated to those in need. Expired products are often sold locally at half price. On the one hand, this is good for the environment because less food is wasted. But on the other hand, it is bad for the poor because they get less to eat.

    The real scandal, however, is a completely different one: Why does a rich country like the Federal Republic of Germany fail to provide its citizens with the most basic necessities?
    (…)”

    
    (May be “eat the rich”?)

    From Dec. 2022, German state TV news:

    “(…)
    Many more people use food banks

    Less food, but more people: Two million people visited the food banks this year. That is 50 percent more than last year. One in three facilities imposed a freeze on admissions.

    According to their own statements, the food banks in Germany have experienced a large influx of people this year. On average, around 50 percent more people visited the services than in the previous year. “We are talking about around two million people who come to the food banks,” said federal chairman Jochen Brühl to the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND).

    relief for volunteers

    The food banks were not prepared for this with their food supplies: “At times this year, around 30 percent of the food banks had to stop accepting people.” There was simply too little food and too little capacity for too many people. “More than 70 percent of the food banks also stated that they had less food.”

    The rush has not only led to great stress for those seeking help, but also for the volunteers. “More than 60 percent of those helping said in a survey that they were very psychologically stressed by the whole situation,” said Brühl.

    The federal chairman also called for relief from politics for those helping: “For example, one could give volunteers who can prove a certain number of hours of work a free transport ticket for their commitment.”
    Food banks provide support

    Brühl renewed his demand that politicians have a duty to provide for those in need. The more than 960 food banks only provide support.

    However, things are different in some places: “Food banks sometimes not only provide support, but are also firmly included in the calculations.” The aim is to “save food that is left over and pass it on to people who do not have enough.”
    (…)”

    Additionally a few weeks ago 5 million people have been added to the poverty statistics due to their inability to pay the insane rents for apartments.

    Besides since the early 2000s poverty has increased invisibly. Many were supported by family or friends who were rich. Those have either died since or are less wealthy themselves.

    You can observe it in formerly unquestionably wealthy suburbs in West Germany that were once your classic well-to-do areas. Saving money on buying less expensive clothing and food has long become a habit.

    It is astonishing that MSM do not understand the connections here in regard of political views. at. all.
    1. Acacia December 21, 2024 at 3:44 am

       Yes. “Food bank” in English too.

       This is part of the class war, of course. As food and commodity prices increase, workers getting the same pay can’t keep up. And they are getting the same pay, because govt sides with capital against labor, enables capital to profit more, sharing less of the profit with labor. It’s all become normalized. In the US, few even seriously question a billionaire oligarch serving at the helm of a new extra-constitutional entity to shape these policies in support of capital.

       Everybody knows this is happening, though many still carry water for the political parties that are openly siding with capital.
       1. AG December 21, 2024 at 10:01 am

          So it is food bank, thanks.
          (I was amazed how bad deepl did 2 years ago when I used it to translate a fiction piece due to time constraints. I since use it to create a workable basis for the then more serious translation which I must compose myself “manually”. Not sure when this will truly change, since AI has no consciousness. Of course by creating ever finer patterns it will approximate more authentic solutions but merely again by repetition and recombination via copy, not think.)

          >”Everybody knows this is happening, though many still carry water for the political parties that are openly siding with capital.”

          This is one of the most important and least discussed parts of our idoctrinational system.

          Imagine school kids were actively educated with the understanding that market economy is an expression and means of power by certain strata. Not some divine bullshit. And can thereof be altered, abolished, abandoned, whatever.

          p.s. they still are not willing to abolish the panelty for taking food stuffs thrown away by supermarkets.
29. ChrisPacific December 21, 2024 at 1:47 am

    I have been trying to look up the names of other people fatally shot on 4th December. It’s actually very hard to do on a national scale, but the Sun-Times has a very good list with names and links to news articles. I can report that in Chicago, two people were murdered on 4th December: Brandon Greenwood, 23, and Brian Mason, 66. Both were shot while in a car, in separate incidents. No arrests were made in either case and no further developments have been announced.

    Feel free to write the names down, and mention them if anybody accuses you of indifference to Thompson’s fate (if you’re feeling disingenuous, you can inquire as to how the investigations are going).
    1. steppenwolf fetchit December 23, 2024 at 2:10 pm

       Poor Lives Matter!

       Obscure Lives Matter!

       Ordinary Lives Matter!

       Say Their Names!

       How would those slogans look on signs if there was a movement to wave those signs around?

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