How could Macy’s overlook millions in hidden expenses for years? ABC
How to Get Ahead in Washington: Lessons from the Renaissance and Baroque Eras War on the Rocks
Climate
Seven Reasons To Be Skeptical About SMRs (With Four Charts) Robert Bryce. SMR = Small Modular Reactor.
UN chief says plastic pollution talks ‘did not fail’ despite collapse France24
Car tyres shed a quarter of all microplastics in the environment – urgent action is needed The Conversation
Syndemics
Bleeding eyes virus sparks global alert: Travelers urged to take precautions amid outbreaks Times of India. Marburg, but surely H5N1 as well.
Emerging H5N1 mutations raise risk of human infections The Hindu
* * * A twice-yearly shot could help end AIDS. But will it get to everyone who needs it? AP
How HIV Research Reshaped Modern Medicine (press release) Harvard Medical School
“The Meese Revolution” by Calabresi & Lawson Legal Theory Blog
China?
Chinese cities fight lying flat mentality with ‘snail awards’ for poor workers South China Morning Post
Chart of the Day: Interconnected roads improve people’s lives in China CGTN
Deadly attacks shatter China’s aspiration to be a ‘harmonious society’ Channel News Asia
Nobel-winning economist James Robinson on China’s place in his theory of institutions South China Morning Post
Syraqistan
U.S., Allies Reignite War On Syria Moon of Alabama
Mapping who controls what in Syria Al Jazeera
* * * Israel conducts military operations in southern Lebanon despite cease-fire Anadolu Agency
Journey to Idlib: An Interview with Wassim Nasr, Journalist, France24 Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. From 2023.
* * * Syria launches counterattacks in an attempt to halt insurgency, as Iran’s top diplomat meets Assad AP
Syrian National Army continues progress in Operation Dawn of Freedom against PKK/YPG Anadolu Agency
The US has backed 21 of the 28 ‘crazy’ militias leading Turkey’s brutal invasion of northern Syria The Gray Zone. From 2019.
* * * All Eyes on Somaliland: The Tiny African State That’s Key to Israel’s War on Houthi Terror Haaretz
Pro-Palestinian journalist found dead on rooftop in Marseille Al Mayadeen
European Disunion
Is France heading for a Greek-style debt crisis? FT
French PM risks tumbling as far right set to block social security plan France24
European Central Bank to abandon crisis-era strategy as inflation falls Irish Times
New Not-So-Cold War
Ukraine’s Dmytro Kuleba: ‘If it continues like this, we will lose the war’ FT
Russia Forges Ahead in Eastern Ukraine, Capturing More Villages in Recent Days NYT
* * * Five key takeaways from Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s interview with Sky News Sky News
Zelenskyy explains why he doesn’t request foreign troops: Half of partners would stop providing support Ukrainska Pravda
* * * National security advisor Jake Sullivan says Biden told him to oversee a ‘massive surge’ of weapons deliveries to Ukraine before his term ends Business Insider
* * * Scholz arrives in Kyiv Ukrainska Pravda
Ukraine’s NATO membership must include entire territory: Zelenskyy Anadolu Agency
* * * Is the ruble worth anything? Why is there no panic in Russia over its 7% depreciation against the dollar in the past week? Gilbert Doctorow
The Final Frontier
Earth or Mars? The future lies in choosing where, and who, we want to be Business Standard
South of the Border
Embracing uncertainty – monetary policy in Latin America Bank of International Settlements
Biden Administration
Joe Biden pardons Hunter Biden Axios. Commentary:
The start date of January 2014 for Hunter’s pardon is extremely notable because it coincides with Joe becoming the de facto viceroy of Ukraine. Hunter (who had and has never been in Ukraine) started raking in millions from a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch in April 2014. pic.twitter.com/wir4Q8LgoZ
— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) December 2, 2024
Meanwhile:
We are gonna miss @JoeBiden's fundamental decency and normalcy in 51 days. pic.twitter.com/hKPNFHx74K
— Chris D. Jackson (@ChrisDJackson) December 1, 2024
We haven’t seen a pardon as sweeping as Hunter Biden’s in generations Politico
Trump Transition
Trump Labor pick surprises unions, rattles business The Hill
A Constitutional Crisis Greater Than Watergate David Frum, The Atlantic. The deck: “Trump’s nomination of Kash Patel threatens to turn the FBI into an instrument of personal presidential power.”
2024 Post Mortem
SBSQ #15: Democrats have a “fool me twice” problem Nate SIlver, Silver Bulletin
Antitrust
Monopoly Round-Up: Trump’s FDA Pick Knows How to Fix Medical Shortages BIG, Matt Stoller
Monopoly Capital and the Rise of the Synthetic Age Monthly Review
Digital Watch
Crazy cleaning fees have pushed once-loyal Airbnb travelers back to hotels Orlando Sentinel
Dear Old Blighty
Labour’s Choices Phenomenal World
Imperial Collapse Watch
Class Warfare
Karl Marx Explained the 19th Century. Wolfgang Streeck Is Explaining the 21st. NYT
A General Logic of Crisis Adam Tooze, London Review of Books. 2017 review of Wolfgang Streeck.
Cicadas 3 Quarks Daily
Xenophilia: Golden Rule of the Stranger JSTOR Daily
Losing your mind looking at memes? The dictionary has a word for that BBC
Antidote du jour (Basile Morin):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
176 comments
Comments are closed.
Oreshnik
(melody borrowed from Maxwell’s Silver Hammer by The Beatles)
Almost Biblical, its apocalyptical—nothing like it’s known
Melts strong steel like it was an ice cube (ohh oh oh oh)
London or Berlin, Paris takes it on the chin—all the Eurozone
Landing like the lightning from scriptures (woe, oh, oh, oh)
There is no place that it cannot go—a whole new way of war
Putin didn’t bluff or stammer, he meant what he said
Simple words in simple grammar—‘Be careful where you tread!’
A missile is a tool, but then so’s a ducking stool—bases get destroyed
Thirty minutes warning to flee the scene!
Vlad attacks today, when and where we cannot say, radar’s simply blind
Punishing our crimes in one deadly blow oh oh oh
The West would love to have such a toy—we’d conquer all mankind!
Putin didn’t bluff or stammer, he meant what he said
Simple words in simple grammar—‘Be careful where you tread!’
(musical interlude)
What is to be done? All our proxy wars are done! We’re Oreshnik prone!
Forced to listen to angry strictures (ohh oh oh oh)
Lands like asteroids—buried bunkers get destroyed—war is obsolete (war is obsolete)
Guaranteed defeat before we say ‘Go!’ (oh oh oh)
The Russians have rewritten the script—to peace we are confined!
Putin didn’t bluff or stammer, he meant what he said
Simple words in simple grammar—‘Be careful where you tread!’
(Whoa whoa whoa, ohh!)
(Do do do doo doo)
Simple grammar . . .
Thanks Antifa. Good song choice as it’s so disturbing to start with.
And thanks to all who took part the comments on Saturday’s Rob Urie post. It’s a lot to get through but I found it helpful. I wouldn’t dare to try to summarize it myself. Perhaps we can ask ChatGPT to do that?
I think my memory of Beatles songs would be pretty rusty by now if not for these parodies ; )
Hard to think of anything more appropriate for our times than re-Gilbert&Sullivanizing Lennon & McCartney!
Bravo
“Is the ruble worth anything? Why is there no panic in Russia over its 7% depreciation against the dollar in the past week?”
By coincidence, The Duran have just dropped a video talking about this and joke how this happens every year at this time and every year they do a video explaining it-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBS4y3KbGDU (20:24 mins)
“Is the Yen worth anything? Why is there no panic in Tokyo over its 38% depreciation against the dollar in the past 5 years?”
Working link for “How could Macy’s overlook millions in hidden expenses for years?” article at-
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/macys-overlook-millions-hidden-expenses-years/story?id=116230573
So maybe somebody should have a quick look at their petty expenses account as well.
Honestly, an internal controls failure so extreme that it allowed $154m in expenses to go unaccrued is just as bad as management collusion to commit fraud. As an accountant, I’m still betting on management collusion. I’m guessing there was at least pressure from someone in management to hide expenses as well as help from someone else in accounting to look the other way or cover it up. This idea that it was one lone wolf is absurd, or at least would be in any company where internal controls are present and functioning.
Both options are bad, it’s either management collusion to override controls and commit fraud or internal controls so broken that it wouldn’t even be noticed. Either way, pinning it on one individual employee is a crock. It’s a scapegoat all the way.
I’m going with the collusion angle, or IBGI-YBGI*
* I’ll be guaranteed income-you’ll be guaranteed income
Less than 4% percent should be enough for AI tools to flag, if they were worth a damn. The article quotes Macy’s saying “the employee” has been fired. So one person made acrruals that weren’t reviewed or passed review? Seems odd.
I suppose when Macy’s can get a solid figure, 130 or more than 150 scam, they’ll explain it all, in detail, on the next call. As of right now, stock is up, btw.
No accountant here, and given the minimal disclosure it’s hard to tell, but Macy’s press release speaks of the employee failing to accrue the expenses, yet goes on to state “that the erroneous
accounting accrual entries [did not have] any impact on the company’s cash management activities or vendor payments”.
Since payments were still being made to vendors, it sounds like the employee effectively put that account on a cash basis, only recording shipping costs when paid rather than accrued. In a time of rising shipping costs, this would shift expenses forward, inflating profitability of the unit and the company. If shipping costs ever came down, the accruals could be introduced over time to smooth earnings.
So no benefit to the employee (other than continued employment) but benefit to the company and the stock price. Hmmmm…
Yes and no, assuming shipping costs are fairly standard, and not wildly “lumpy”, this trick only works once. Once the initial quarter is distorted, every other quarter looks largely normal, until you do an accural, which distorts that quarter. Hope that makes sense.
I worked in place that had a large software licence contract that was from Apr-Mar, and it was never accrued because the payment occurred every year, and the immaterial increase in the fee between years didn’t warrant a change in policy.
It’s not the first time Macys (nee Federated Department Stores) has been scammed.
Bamboozlement was in fact, The Miracle on 34th Street?
I beg your pardon
Ixnay on me saying you’d get no Presidential pardon
Along with the potential of Burisma sunshine
There’s gotta be a little decadal refrain sometime
When you take you gotta give so live and let live or let go
Oh-whoa-whoa-whoa
I beg your pardon
Ixnay on me saying you’d get no Presidential pardon
I could have promised you things like Kamala coming through
But don’t expect anything after November 5th, if I was you
So you better think it over
Well, if by sweet-talkin’ word salad you could make it come true
She would run the world right now on a silver platter
But what would it matter
So smile for a while and let’s be jolly
Getting off shouldn’t be so melancholy
Come along and share the good times while we can
I beg your pardon
Ixnay on me saying you’d get no Presidential pardon
Along with avoiding Burisma sunshine
There’s gotta be a little decadal refrain time
I beg your pardon
Ixnay on me saying you’d get no Presidential pardon
I could sing you a tune and promise you the moon
But if that’s what it takes to hold you
I’d just as soon let you go
But there’s one thing I want you to know
You better look before you leap, still waters run deep
And there won’t always be someone there to pull you out after 1/20
And you know what I’m talking about
So smile for a while and let’s be jolly
Getting off shouldn’t be so melancholy
Come along and share the good times while we can
I beg your pardon
Ixnay on me saying you’d get no Presidential pardon
Along with the potential of Burisma sunshine
There’s gotta be a decade of free from crime time
I beg your pardon
Ixnay on me not giving you an ironclad Presidential pardon
Rose Garden, by Lynn Anderson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXHsWBKKNbI
Will Biden make a deal to resign the presidency a few days before January 20th in exchange for a pardon from the first female to hold the office?
…anything is possible in Poltempkin Village
Will she follow through or leave him hanging in the wind? My money would be on the latter. Surely there would be “further negotiations” were Biden foolish enough to start down this path.
Many years ago I did a mini-tour of the olde country. We were in Galway or Limerick, I don’t remember. The tour guide told a story about a mayor way back in the day named Lynch. Lynch’s son was convicted of some grievous crime and was sentenced to be hanged. Lynch had the power to pardon his kid, but he let him swing. Consequently, “lynched” entered the popular jargon. Make of that what you will.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching
Its an Americanism.
Indeed.
The brothers Lynch who founded a very good folk band in their name in Ireland the 2000’s felt moved to change its name to Lankum last decade because of the adverse association with the US practice….
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lankum
(6 degrees of Kneecap: their manager is the partner of Lankum member Radue Peat, who sings on their album)
Not a fan of misery and chaos but this would be funny to me. And probably inspire those women to go scream into a lake again. Which is funny to me.
Perhaps I am a flawed and uncaring person for having zero concern for the problems of women who have the time and means to organize a group trip to a lake to film themselves shrieking.
Biden’s not stupid. He’d have that post-dated pardon signed and in hand before he resigned.
Joe may need that pardon now that Hunter has his. The latter now is subject to subpoenas without any Fifth Amendment defense.
But not that long ago they found that old Joe was too old and frail to stand trial and that was the official report. Though not old and frail enough not to have the nuclear football and try to to get the US into a shooting war with Russia.
That was then. This is now.
Unburdening family of all that has been. ;)
Bad optics, for sure. But the gratuitous Joe-bashing is getting a little old.
There’s a more reasonable explanation. I seriously doubt that Joe would have given Hunter a pardon, if Kamala had gotten elected. I seriously doubt whether Kamala would have given Hunter a pardon. The process would have proceeded.
But Trump is all about vengeance, by any means necessary. I think that Joe was looking at the prospect of a poisonous, vindictive effort to destroy his son, personally, for things that stupid people do and should face consequences for, but that pale in comparison to fraud, corruption, and crimes that Trump and his pack of rabid hyenas routinely do.
What Hunter was facing looks nothing like justice. Joe is genuinely all about family, one of the few things that I respect about the man. At the end of the day, the pardon was about preventing Trump from using Hunter as a political weapon.
The simple fact that Hunter was too coked out to pick up a laptop full of secrets that he dropped off at a random strip mall repair shop speaks volumes: if the Bidens were a hundredth as corrupt as Trump wishes they were, they’d be a lot better at it than anything that Hunter had in mind, and smart enough to know that Hunter was a train wreck.
I’ve dealt with influential coke addicts and bipolar corporate executives several times in my professional career. This is what it looks like. I suspect that Hunter’s delusional, fumbled attempts at influence peddling really happened, but that nothing came of it: Biden family corruption claims are bullshit. Ironically, now that Hunter is legally off the hook, we’re going to find out one way or another if I’m right.
I’d like some of whatever it is you’re smoking.
Smoking stuff from Hunter’s stash, obviously.
Isn’t a vengeful, vindictive effort to destroy by any means necessary pretty much what the Democrat party lawfare has done to Trump over the last few years?!??!? I’m so old, I remember when Democrats used to claim “elections have consequences” (and then proceeded to make sure there really weren’t any to protect their Republican war criminal friends – but that’s a different story). Well, there might be some for them now.
As to all the fraud, corruption, and crimes of the Trump family, I find it amusing that so many people say that without listing any of them, just assuming everyone should understand what they are. If there were so many obvious frauds and crimes, why did the lawfare of the last few years come up with so many novel ways of bringing an indictment and trial? Presumably if those crimes were out there in black and white, they could have tried Trump on those rather than concocting 34 felonies out of an accounting entry made with the dropdown menu in an outdated system, or making a massive financial judgment against him when the supposed victims said there was no wrongdoing and they’d be happy to keep doing business.
And if you can’t see the Biden family’s corruption, maybe you aren’t looking hard enough.
Lots of lawfare over the years. Suits, counter-suits, investigations, fines, settlements, etc .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_and_business_legal_affairs_of_Donald_Trump
“Lots of lawfare over the years. Suits, counter-suits, investigations, fines, settlements, etc”
How is this relevant? And ‘lawfare’?
Hunter was a victim of his name. If he had done the same as a private citizen no one would have tried to prosecute him. The Republicans used his name for political benefit. The MAGA addicts have Biden derangement syndrome.
Say what? Hunter being a Biden kept his a$$ out of jail, like it just did now. You think Hunter Smith would have gotten a presidential pardon?
Hunter being a victim of anything, is the best joke I’ve heard all day.
I’m a private citizen, how do I get on the board of Burisma with no oil industry experience and rake in millions? My dad is not President.
I am certain of it, just as you are.
I’ll take more gratituous Joe-bashing and then some. Corrupt senile pedo-guy who started two failed wars. I got more if you want it, lots more.
gratituous
1. The opposite of gratuitous
2. called for
Joe has murdered tens of thousands of Palestinian children; no amount of “gratuitous Joe-bashing” can get old for me
Madeleine Albright says those are rookie numbers.
If you think this pardon is primarily about the two trivial convictions Hunter has faced, you either haven’t been paying attention or you are clueless — the tell is in the start date and the duration of a blanket pardon.
I don’t know whether Trump would have gone after Hunter or not. I am not a seer. I strongly suspect that Hunter never committed any business fraud. He didn’t need to. In China he had friends to remind him to stay straight, and in Ukraine he didn’t need to do anything illegal. All he needed to do was serve on the board. That sent the message to the oligarch’s potential enemies that he was connected. Hunter just happily collected his legitimate director’s fees while on a long binge. The blow and hookers were illegal, but he is never going to be prosecuted for that kind of stuff
I don’t care that hunter is not going to jail.
This entire slimy family has been a corrupt parasite on the american people for 50 years. 3 years at a Club Fed, courtesy of the american taxpayer, as “atonement” would not be nearly enough.
I hope Kash Patel exposes every scintilla of criminality perpetrated over the years by this slimy bunch and everyone who has fronted or covered for them (lookin’ at you, obama), and they ALL go down in history as publicly shamed and shunned exemplars of the rampant, highest-level corruption that killed millions for money, and (almost?) destroyed a great nation.
But Biden is only the poster boy. Corruption is our DC disease. Biden’s problem was that he was simultaneously corrupt and dumb–seemingly incapable of making the right decision on anything.
For all the squawking about Trump’s upcoming cabinet he seems to have gotten the message that we are sick of these people. Time for a new cast of potential villains (or–dare one dream–the opposite).
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Corny, I suppose, but still true.
The start date on the pardon is strange. Seems pretty clear that it’s meant to cover the Ukraine grift that started in 2014, but Biden was VP from 2009-2013 too and I doubt that Dear Hunter was squeaky clean in those preceding years.
I’d settle for the DOJ exposing the Ukraine-related crimes even if no jail time can be doled out for those, although even getting that might be a stretch. A little birdie told me a few days ago that the Congressional Democrats really are terrified that they will be tied up in prosecutions, legal fees, etc., so I suspect they will try to block any nominees that might actually upset apple carts.
But a guy can dream, and mine starts with exposing the Ukraine grift and ends with nailing Hunter on something done prior to 2014.
Many federal crimes have a 10 year statute of limitations
It’s not a journey of a thousand miles when the miles keep adding up during the journey. 5 steps in, what’s supposed to be a thousand miles journey has gone exponential and now it’s a million miles, and 10 steps in, it’s a gazillion miles. If Jesus were to live again, he won’t be able to fix America, let alone … Kash Patel. Anyway we know the playbook, corruption will win again.
Yes, they might as well build a large greenhouse in DC to grow the Banana’s for the Republic!
The US is making Haiti (Duvalier) look like a shining City on a Hill.
Corruption is integral to the human condition. If we threw all the scoundrels out, and replaced them with upstanding citizens, it would only be a few years before we would be back where we started.
That’s what the rule of Law and the Justice Dept. is for. And why Hunter needed to be sentenced first.
Nah. Rule of Law and the Justice Dept. are there to legalize corruption among the rich, and criminalize it amongst the poor. Working as intended.
Poster boy, you say? Well, it’s high time some one such got properly posterized.
Be careful what you wish for. I have no brief for decades of Democrats in power. But a vast, unseen Clintobamen conspiracy is less likely than a Trump regime that is rotten to the core.
If you say so…
Yes, they’re all corrupt, but I’d wager that Trump’s private business and 4 years of presidential corruption pales in comparison to that spun from the 16 years of Clinton Obama having their hands on the levers of power with full backing of the blob. But, yeah, whatever you say… kind of like arguing about whose fart stinks more.
I’d say the probability of both is near unity
Now that Hunter has been pardoned of everything since 2014, does the 5th Amendment still apply to him since he can’t incriminate himself?
If he can’t plead the 5th, then I can’t wait for the official questions he’s going to face about his family business dealings.
How can someone be pardoned of everything? What kind of carte blanche idiocracy is that? What if we find out that his basement is full of bones of Ukrainian kids and prostitutes?
You are shouting at the clouds.
sounds like Papal Indulgences during early Christian era, my possibly flawed understanding is that a large enough sum could guarantee a “stairway to Heaven” free from St Peter judging the indulged one.
I was thinking that! Though in partial defense of the church fathers, I believe the indulgences were for cutting down the time spent in purgatory and not a free ticket to heaven.
Biden still has the opportunity to turn out thousands of these blanket pardons. Maybe they could be turned into NFTs.
No ‘Efffin Time served?
Like his father, Hunter no longer remembers what he did with himself the previous day.
Thanks for Matt Stoller’s article. That’s a good read to start the week.
an aside: Stoller writes, “And the second is to shrink the profit margin for producers to virtually nothing, meaning that factories that make critical supplies are poorly maintained and prone to shutdowns for bad sanitation, which is what causes shortages. ”
(my emphasis)
To that point, the new head of the FDA, whoever it is, might want to revisit their 2019 rule change, which is still in effect, as far as I know. / my 2 cents
—–
Removal of Certain Time of Inspection and Duties of Inspector Regulations for Biological Products
…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA, the Agency, or we) is issuing a final rule amending the general biologics regulations relating to time of inspection requirements and also removing duties of inspector requirements. FDA is taking this action to remove outdated requirements and accommodate new approaches, such as a risk-based inspection frequency for drug and device establishments, thereby providing flexibility without diminishing public health protections.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/04/02/2019-06187/removal-of-certain-time-of-inspection-and-duties-of-inspector-regulations-for-biological-products
adding: Shortly after signing off on this rule change, the FDA’s then director, Scott Gottlieb, left the FDA to joint Pfizer’s Board of Directors.
Scott Gottlieb Elected to Pfizer’s Board of Directors
Thursday, June 27, 2019 – 12:17pm
https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/scott_gottlieb_elected_to_pfizer_s_board_of_directors
(The revolving door.)
“National security advisor Jake Sullivan says Biden told him to oversee a ‘massive surge’ of weapons deliveries to Ukraine before his term ends”
Jake “The Snake” Sullivan tells Biden that Army Detachment Steiner will get on those deliveries straight away. They just have to stop off in Syria to pick them back up again first.
Somebody should think about all those poor North Koreans lost somewhere in the Kursk region, too. Nobody has seen them in 7-8 weeks for now.
Just goes to show you that the North Koreans had an unexpected, genius-level talent in camouflage. :)
Will no one think of the North Koreans lost in the Kursk region!
Pretty much count on comments here for the joke of the day.
They say that Catch 22% is the sweetest catch of all…
In their favor, they are used to the Ruble being worth not too much all of the sudden, in theory a Ruble was worth a buck fifty during the Cold War, but in reality not worth much in the west, and then when the curtain call came on Communism it took 1,000 Rubles to equal a buck.
Still, 22% interest is what you’d expect from a Latin American country with a woeful currency~
Um, the US Fed rate was 20% in 1980 in an attempt to upend ongoing CPI inflation.
Car tyres shed a quarter of all microplastics in the environment – urgent action is needed The Conversation
I recommend Jane Holtz Kay’s book, “Asphalt Nation.” It featured the toxicity of car tires long before the word “microplastics” was in vogue.
I recall Michael Moore writing in one of his books how when he learned that a major highway skirted a body of water where New York drew it’s water from and would be accumulating all those tire microplastics, that that was when he started to buy bottled water for his apartment.
But now he’s consuming microplastics from the water bottles.
Bottled water, filled from similar body of water.
One of my favorite quips from a long ago MAD magazine is a complaint that since car tires don’t last very long, make the tires from concrete and the roads of rubber!
Never tire of repeating this fact about the tire industry: As of the 1970s, the United Rubberworker’s data on its members showed that of workers who remained on the job until age 65, their remaining average life expectancy was less than one year.
I’m sure the heavy tobacco consumption had a lot to do with that, as well as the fact that the local bars opened at 7am to accommodate graveyard shift workers and all did good business six days a week. The industry had nicknames for the toxic products we used constantly: soapstone was actually talc, benny was not in fact benzene but white gasoline (naptha) which was less toxic but in heavy daily use. Each tire was said to have a barrel of oil in it when energy costs were added in.
When you add in all the hidden costs, it’s criminal that we don’t have better mass transportation options.
IIRC, Nixon had some part in granting Bebe Rebozo an exclusive license to sell tires in I believe South America?
It’s been said Nixon was the mafia’s man in the white house, and that he didn’t know it.
Commence reading about the toxicity of tires at page 98’s ‘…the Royster facility in Tracy, California, the world’s largest tire dump…”
Source: file:///C:/Users/fritz/OneDrive/Desktop/asphalt-nation-how-the-automobile-took-over-america-and-how-we-can-take-it-back_compress.pdf
I think this answers the “Who is going to go in to remove the Houthis?” question. Probably Ethiopia, in exchange (so they believe) for a path to the sea through northern Somalia.
Ethiopia’s army would get demolished
I saw a very banana republic style commercial this morning on Bloomberg from this organization exhorting their wealthy viewership to lobby Musk and Ramaswamy at DOGE to cut IRS funding. I spent five minutes looking for the commercial itself on Youtube but couldn’t find it.
If my memory serves me well, taxpayers protection alliance has been lobbying hard protecting intuit (turbotax) from IRS competition (developing robust free file) for a while now. There may be other motivations at this point as well. Rich people hate paying taxes, so defunding the IRS seems a natural fit.
“NYT op-ed argues ‘resentful’ men, ‘manosphere’ and overall anger and loneliness led to Trump’s victory”
Well, OK then. I guess that that mean that the Democrats do not have to change their long-term strategy and that they did nothing wrong in this year’s campaign at all. Good to know. So America has a man problem? Sarah Bernstein is seriously going to blame half the population but it does not occur to her that this same attitude led to so many groups abandoning Harris – women too – no matter how many fingers were wagged at them. Then she writes-
‘But if we are willing to reject the manosphere’s narrow ideas of masculinity, we will find that it is possible for both men and women to thrive at the same time — in work and in love.’
Maybe it might be an idea if both sides base relations between the two sexes on actual equal relations and not a zero sum game. That later strategy is what led to Trump getting to be President – twice.
Blame it on the testosterone.
Of course the chauvinist cohort have their own hormonal accusations as evidenced by the Greek origins of the word “hysteria.”
Clearly Freud was right and sex is the key to everything, at least going by the NYT.
I dunno about that Freud kink.
It says somewhere in the Bible that “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” (I Timothy 6:10)
Freud could have said its modern counterpart as “For the love of sex is the root of all evil.” It sounds suspiciously Calvinist, very suspiciously Calvinist considering Freud’s background and all.
I won’t even venture into the question of “Transitory Phenomena.”
Well, if you were on the wrong end of the Me Too vendetta you’d be resentful too.
National security advisor Jake Sullivan says Biden told him to oversee a ‘massive surge’ of weapons deliveries to Ukraine before his term ends Business Insider @@@@@@@ And what weapons would that be? Shovels? Mostly, the item we can surge to Ukraine is $USD. We’ve been doing that for 3 yrs. Sooner or later that comes back to us in the form of inflation or lowered living standards. Also, how much of these USD end up in hands of Hunter and the Biden Crime family?
Pro-Palestinian journalist found dead on rooftop in Marseille, RIP Marine Vlahovic, who, according to Global News, (Reddit link) “…was working on a documentary on the ongoing genocide in Gaza and was preparing to make revelations about the IDF.” From the Al Mayadeen article, “While the circumstances remain unclear, police have stated that there is no initial evidence that a crime has been committed.” To be fair, authorities are waiting for an autopsy to determine cause of death, nevertheless less there is already a faint whiff of cover-up.
you’re too polite – reading the headline, the whiff turned into a stench –
Trying to be even, but yes, you and I align there.
The other face of Simplicius the Thinker talks about such issues in his last essay:
https://darkfutura.substack.com/p/palladium
An excellent read, this struck home,
Someone famously said:
“If you want to understand how the world works, imagine that every action is the result of a conspiracy by your enemies.”
This may seem cynical on its face, even nihilistic when you really chase the thought down, but we increasingly find today that it is unfortunately a realist perspective. Yup.
This is fine sentence,
The revolving-doorism phenomenon thereby became evermore commonplace, since the Machine had become impossibly indecipherable, such that the common man could not be bothered to exhaust himself with its extrication.
I wonder if he’s read Snow Crash
Re Karl Marx Explained the 19th Century. Wolfgang Streeck Is Explaining the 21st
This is of a piece with Blyth’s Angrynomics, Piketty’s BRAHMIN LEFT VERSUS MERCHANT RIGHT: CHANGING POLITICAL CLEAVAGES IN 21 WESTERN DEMOCRACIES, 1948–2020 and Dani Rodrik’s trilemma: “democracy, national sovereignty and global economic integration — pick any two” …
Tooze and Streek right below that, Streeck’s Staatsvolk v. Marktvolk seems to me to be holding up better than Tooze 2017 review of it.
As I watched in the last year the PMC close ranks around racist war in Ukraine and actual genocide in Gaza, here in NYC, the belly of the beast in my highly Plutocrat adjacent role as an architect, I’ve seen with the class consciousness of the PMC, who obscure their gaze at their subservience to oligarchy (one must to maintain ones’ pay, a sin I here confess), what strikes me as a clear formation of Marktvolk.
This grouping is happy to see human lives as feedstocks in any of a half dozen market institutional profit making processes that spring to mind: war; terrorism; big Ag; Pharma; CDC/HIPAC “for profit disease control”; environmental deregulation. Those who don’t see themselves as part of the human feed stock are perfectly happy to let Ulrich Becks’ “Risk Society” consume the population for the financial benefit of the stateless, globalist “Marktvolk”.
Michael Hudson has been doing great work explaining the 21st century too!
“Is France heading for a Greek-style debt crisis?”
‘For the first time ever, France’s borrowing costs have risen above those of Greece, the country which sparked a euro-zone crisis.’
Didn’t see that coming. And because of France’s recent election results – or the ignoring of by Macron – France is now in a very unstable condition to handle this crisis. I’m sure that Macron will rise to the occasion by flip-flopping his way to a solution, probably involving Marine le Penn.
Didn’t see that coming, me neither. Are they using Macy’s accountants?
Just do a spin-off for “Emily in Paris” that is happening in Paris and tourism flow into Paris after that will fix everything.
It´s so easy, guys.
Turns out the Sahel was underwriting all those sidewalk cafes!
Metropole doesn’t work so well without the territories.
Merde. Taste of things to come?
G-7 debt:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1BSuw
January 30, 2018
Government debt as a share of Gross Domestic Product for United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and United Kingdom, 2007-2023
Multipolarity discusses this quite at length. Their argument is that the methodology has been validated when Liz Truss was ousted as PM in UK…
re Hunter–so Biden is determined to ooze out of office on a slime trail of sleaze. It’s a pity he can’t also pardon himself lest he wind up in an Alzheimer’s facility with bars, lots of bars.
The real question is whether grieving elites will break out of their trance and finally concede that Scranton Joe was one of the worst presidents ever. Not holding breath.
So Biden is determined to ooze out of office on a slime trail of sleaze.
Same way he oozed in.
Or, indeed, has gone through his whole life. Taken as a family, the Bidens are even viler than the Clintons.
Bill Clinton had his ties to financier Marc Rich, but those were just Beltway business ongoing and nothing much to see there….of course not \sarc
People who can retain memories into the future might well mark this moment. It wasn’t a Trump getting a pardon from a President Trump, no it was Hunter Biden receiving the pardon from President Joe Biden. Begs a question, just what exactly is the difference among our elected leaders and elite… they’re in it for themselves and I find it hard to believe otherwise.
Biden pardoned Hunter prior to the sentencing, which was to be in December, so Hunter and the USA will never know what he would have served.
Could this early pardon be part of a Biden pardon marketing scheme to let others know that the pardon business is open until Jan 20?
We’ll have to see what Biden does as he exits. He does not appear concerned about his sorry legacy.
Well, the mainstream media have been screeching for months that Trump is going to “politicize” the Justice Dept. (LOL!) and take “revenge” on his political enemies (I can’t imagine anyone using the DOJ and The Law in an attempt to get their political enemies – can you?). His recent nominations, especially Kash Patel at the FBI (LOL again!), have generated much freaking out. Maybe a blanket pardon for everyone involved in Crossfire Hurricane and the whole Russiagate/Ukraine fandango will ease some minds.
Seriously, I’d like to think there was actually a chance that these sleazeballs would be fully exposed at the least, if not prosecuted. But I don’t. Nothing will fundamentally change. Nothing ever does. As always, I hope I’m wrong. I don’t think I will be.
It’s one thing currently being done that we can be sure that Biden (and family) is actually calling the shots on.
Reading the tea leaves today – no – not gonna happen. Its seems many think this is a wonderful thing. Why? Because it sticks one to Trump. How? Because it’s a great big middle finger to Trump because he accused Hunter of being crooked and that just isn’t so. All the stuff Hunter was accused of was made up – he is as clean as fresh snow. And now Joe proved it.
Disclosure; I know that doesn’t make a lick of sense – but neither do the people with stage 5 TDS – who haven’t made much sense for the last 8 years their hair has been on fire. Nothing the democrats or Biden can do is worse, or even close, to all the stuff Trump has done. That IS the playing field.
Yes, welcome to the Banana Republic.
Airbnb: Tools
“So we created a tool called the compare listing tool, where people can see how much other people are charging in the neighborhood.”
They allow you to compare prices? How is this possible? Is it even legal? Where do they get the technology? AI?
They don’t even bother with the “sharing” moniker anymore, not that it ever was sharing.
If it is like VRBO, it is two tools:
– a comparator set of similar properties in your area (you choose similar and area), which you can visualise on a map
– a graph of two plots, these data as an average excluding you and your data
So you can benchmark your pricing and also investigate who is charging how much for what.
Oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh
Oooh
Up every evening
Just counting time
I give my complete attention
To a very good friend suffering from a TDS bind
He’s barely recovered from J6, he’s a
He’s got more derangement coming
So horrors graphic, oh DJT forty-five
November 5th brought him home, he, he sat around forlorn
He saw DJT forty-five, mind’s gone, he
He crawled right in, oh my, he crawled right in a quadrennial blind
So graphic horrors, oh DJT forty-five
Oh, so demonic, oh in regards to DJT forty-five
Maybe if I pray every, each night I sit there pleading
Send back my Biden loving baby, his main feature
In lieu of DJT forty-five, he, he just stares back unblinking
So horrors graphic, oh DJT forty-five
One of these nights he may jump back down rainbow woke way
Be with the Donkey Show, then he’ll spend some time together
So graphic horrors, oh DJT forty-five
My friend’s in there someplace, he’s ranting in the sky
So horrors graphic, oh DJT forty-five
Transition
Transmission
Transition
Transmission
Oy vey DJT forty-five, oh oh, DJT forty-five
Oy vey DJT forty-five, oh oh, DJT forty-five
Oy vey DJT forty-five, oh oh, DJT forty-five
Oy vey DJT forty-five, oh oh, DJT forty-five
Maybe if he prays every, each night he sits there pleading
“Send back my American Dream test baby, Kam’s my main feature”
DJT forty-five, he, he just stares back unblinking
So graphic horrors, oh DJT forty-five
One of these nights he may jump back down woke rainbow way
Be with the Donkey Show, then he’ll spend some time together
So horrors graphic, oh DJT forty-five
My friend’s in there someplace, he’s ranting in the sky
So graphic horrors, oh DJT forty-five
Oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh
Transition
Transmission
Transition
Transmission
Oy vey DJT forty-five, oh oh, DJT forty-five
Oy vey DJT forty-five, oh oh, DJT forty-five
Oy vey DJT forty-five, oh oh, DJT forty-five
Oy vey DJT forty-five, oh oh, DJT forty-five
Oy vey DJT forty-five, oh oh, DJT forty-five
Oy vey DJT forty-five, oh oh, DJT forty-five
Oy vey DJT forty-five, oh oh, DJT forty-five
Oy vey DJT forty-five, oh oh, DJT forty-five
Oy vey DJT forty-five, oh oh, DJT forty-five
Oy vey DJT forty-five, oh oh, DJT forty-five
Oy vey DJT forty-five, oh oh, deja vu DJT forty-five
TVC 15, by David Bowie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh8RDktOdnc
Until I got to the end I thought this was Joy Division’s “Transmission” from 1978 (two years after Bowie) but thanks to my incredibly bad memory for lyrics this parody still worked for me (probably not the first time I’ve mis-hummed the melody while reading one of these ; )
Fwiw, these are the Joy Division lyrics:
Change radio to internet and transmission to podcast and I think you have a ready-made parody ; )
An earlier comment disappeared into the nethersphere but when Joe Biden was showing off the Oval Room, just be aware of how it has changed over the decades-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3xC5GXdK64 (2:03 mins)
Nice little bit of history. Surprising to me that it was basically a desk and a few chairs until Jackie’s remodel, and that set the stage design to the present. You could argue that it went from being an office to a living room as part of her redesign. At the time it was a big deal that the room was getting a significant facelift. There are some interesting letters coming up for auction relating to gifts of furniture during the Kennedy and Ford administrations which make interesting reading: https://doyle.com/auction/lot/lot-247—group-of-five-letters-from-the-white-house-to-mrs-henry-breyer-jr/?lot=1416973&so=0&st=&sto=0&au=9052&ef=&et=&ic=False&sd=0&mc=4&pp=96&pn=1&g=1
I rather like Carter’s back-to-back sofa arrangement.
That green carpet in use from 1909-45 must have been getting a little threadbare! Funny how it change d so that everyone now puts their own stamp on it. Kinda wasteful. Nixon’s purple and gold was horrendous! I liked HW Bush’s the best. Wonder what Trump will do this time around?
Re: Oval Office decor youtube — According to this presentation, William Jefferson Clinton didn’t use the Oval Office? (Maybe everybody else knows this and I just missed it somehow.)
Here’s a photo of Clinton in the Oval Office:
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-politician-us-president-bill-clinton-meets-with-news-photo/897030436?adppopup=true
The Oval Office decor youtube omits Clinton entirely. Anybody else find that strange? I mean, I agree, we probably would have been a lot better off without him, but that’s not the point here. Thanks, juno mas, for the photo, which indicates he changed the drapes but may have kept the carpet installed by Geo. HW Bush.
re: Gemany vs ICC/Gaza/reparations
– This is German only. Subs are not (yet) available –
Today there was a semi-official conference in Berlin where usually the government is holding it´s daily press conferences by 4 experts who demand that Germany participate in reparations for Gaza and follows ICC arrest warrants against Bibi and Gallant.
The site text contains the statements but not the Q&A which is almost an hour and only in the video.
https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=125587
Thank you, Lambert.
Further to the dear old Blighty link, I don’t think Labour will stray from its current approach, which is a continuation of Tory and Liberal austerity.
May I, please, explain why from my engagements with the former shadow Treasury and Business teams and the likes of the Labour in the City Network.
The (Labour half of the) neoliberal uniparty is functionally incapable of delivering: Many, if not most, of the advisers and the likes of the LCN have either gone straight into politics from university or after some, but not many, years in the civil service, often the case with the Blair secondees. Few, if any, have experience like the experts here such as Anonymous 2, Aurelien, Froghole, Harry, IM DOC, Ignacio, PK etc. Not only are they not familiar with the issues and technicalities, they are not interested, either, and don’t want to be shown up by engaging with the likes of the commenters I cite above. In a profession that requires being a courtier and even a courtesan, the only ability / experience that counts is getting close to or in power and staying there. Fixing problems are a distraction and not what they are qualified to do or in politics for, an issue amplified by the(ir friends in the) MSM getting people on air who are not experts in anything, vide assisted dying, where I never saw a doctor speak. In any case, these problems aren’t problems for the PMC. The LCN lot are rarely in big finance itself, but work in PR and perhaps legal in tandem with client firms. They often seem superficial.
There is no money, apparently, to fix the South Wales problems, but there is money available to throw at, e.g. London & the South East: These are provincial concerns. The above may even think that is “little Englander”. They are not interested, especially if insecure provincials running away from their backgrounds and are seduced by the big smoke, big apple and west wing. As above, fixing problems are a distraction and not what they are qualified to do or in politics for.
I’m hearing more and more about the Aberfans still out there. I dread to think of another tragedy happening. The alarm has been raised from Wales, but it barely registers in Whitehall. It’s not just ministers, but Treasury officials are no better. The Treasury needs to be broken up.
In short, Labour is, perhaps unwittingly, preparing the ground for a resurgence of the Tories, but in tandem with Farage’s Reform in 2029. Reform won’t need the money Musk is dangling as Labour has baked in its defeat.
Further to your comments on the PMC: political staffers are intent upon appearing the smartest people in the room even if they are not. My small city of 40,000 put out a request for local volunteers to sit on their many boards and commissions. Thinking I might have something to contribute, I sent in my CV citing extensive work experience in transportation and environmental review. Not a peep…what was I thinking.
Thank you, Chuck.
I’m sorry to hear, but am not surprised.
Um, you don’t understand, these boards/commissions are for ‘citizens’ not knowledgeable experts.
I’ve been on several in my town. Done with that. The discussions on NC are more interesting.
“Further to the dear old Blighty link…”
A superb, if saddening analysis.
Thank you, CA.
My parents, 80 last month and in Blighty since May 1964, and I are planning to go to Mauritius for good in the next couple of years.
Thank you, Colonel. What if it is not the Tories that make a resurgence but, god help us, Nigel Farage and his party instead? He could see himself as the UK’s Donald Trump here.
Thank you, Rev.
I imagine it will be in tandem, but Farage will be the driver.
Last week, Starmer crossed the floor to greet Farage warmly and cheerfully in the Commons. It’s rarely mentioned that one of the terms for Murdoch to endorse (probable winner by then) Starmer was to give Farage an easy run in Clacton, which Starmer did by ordering the Labour candidate to campaign elsewhere and cut back on campaigning. The other was not to pursue an investigation into phone hacking, intimidation and corruption by the media and reform of media ownership.
On NYT op-ed argues ‘resentful’ men, ‘manosphere’ and overall anger and loneliness led to Trump’s victory
Yep — my comment on this didn’t make the cut, but I noted that the oped definitely didn’t mention online dating, which is a dumpster fire for most men. Of course, the Fox article also doesn’t mention this either. It’s literally a copy and paste of quotes from the oped. Hilarious this is getting the attention it deserves, I guess, as a political football completely devoid of context or any dose of reality.
Revealed: A space-tech behind Russia’s deadly Oreshnik missile
“On the 10th day after the Russian Armed Forces struck the city of Dnipro in Ukraine with an Oreshnik missile, more details about its origin began to emerge. The latest revelation came hours ago from Roscosmos’ General Director, Yuri Borisov.”
Above my pay grade. Hopefully useful.
Edit, from bulgarianmilitary .com
Thanks for this!
My takeaways:
– Claims that it was liquid fueled, not solid. But the claim is based only by the builder being Roscosmos and there having been an earlier Roscosmos program called Oreshnik. So not proof, but slightly more evidence than anything else recently…
– Also claims it followed a “lofted” trajectory, but with no evidence. It does line up with the steep re-entry angle in the video though, without needing recourse to phantom late stage course changes.
– Amusing: “Photo credit: Reddit”. Way to narrow it down there guys : )
– The video contains an animation of the Avangard, with (imho) ‘wishful thinking’ of the cross-track manoeuvrability of the glide vehicle. It shows it weaving around the engagement envelope of AD systems. I’m not an aero guy, but that seems like an awful lot of plane change energy.
– The video also has cleaned up frame by frame images of the sub-sub-munition’s individual tracks. The staggered arrival times are surprising.
– More and more, any use of the term ‘hypersonic’ is an indicator of propaganda. (hey, it worked, so why not keep using it?)
Roscosmos is a huge corporation with over 60 subsidiaries. One of them is the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology (a joint stock company, regardless of the name), which itself runs 2 “research centers” (like the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Science) and 3 factories – one builds RS-24 Yars and R-30 Bulava missiles, the other builds engines for both and the third builds mobile launchers.
So, it’s this dude’s responsibility to make sure those factories way down in the corporate chain have the resources to construct yet another type of missile, and he says he’s on it. I think the bulgarian military site stretches his comment way out of proportion.
Oddly enough, I can’t find anything mentioning the older project in the Russian language Internet, even if it seems to be common knowledge in the English language Internet. Probably my mistake, but still odd.
None of these matters. Everyone is waiting for the actual pictures and photos from after impact…
Thanks for the heads-up. Interesting videos.
I say Yuzhmash is ‘dust’ until I see video otherwise.
This is again a project of an unfathomable scale that’s just been completed in China and barely anyone has heard of it in the rest of the world https://x.com/tphuang/status/1863336445827776596/video/1
China has just finished constructing a continuous 3,046-kilometer (1,892-mile) green barrier – made of plants and trees – completely encircling the Taklamakan Desert, the world’s second-largest shifting sand desert which is about the size of Germany (!).
To put this in perspective, this is like building a living wall from Paris to Istanbul, or from Los Angeles to Chicago – except they built it in one of the world’s most inhospitable environments.
They spent about 40 years building this “green wall”. The final 285 kilometers was completed in 2024 on November 28. They built the “wall” with desert-hardy plants like Populus euphratica (desert poplar), Haloxylon (saxaul), and Tamarix (salt cedar), along with innovative sand-control engineering and solar panel installations.
The objective of the project is to contain the desert’s expansion and to protect surrounding agricultural areas and cities from sandstorms. Before this project, many towns in the region had to be relocated multiple times due to encroaching sand. For instance, the town of Qira in Xinjiang had to move three times in its history, with sand dunes once approaching as close as 1.5 kilometers from the town center.
This is easily one of human history’s most ambitious and grandest ecological engineering projects. It’s insane when you think about it: completely containing a desert the size of Germany!
And it’s also insane how little attention this has received globally: sadly we’ve apparently lost the capacity to be impressed by such a project, let alone have the boldness of vision to conceive of one ourselves. All resulting in the fact that whilst China is out there completing 40-year missions to tame entire deserts, we can barely fix potholes in our roads.
From
tphuang
from@RnaudBertrand
Thanks. That’s quite a feat. Interestingly, this just came across my alto transom, “Land degradation expanding by 1m sq km a year, study shows”, (the Guardian). This article is more about unsustainable agricultural practices, an adjacent lane.
It’s sad that the US doesn’t pursue forward thinking sustainability projects like the one you’ve flagged here.
https://english.news.cn/20241101/db77ab868cbb4f35a61290a4906d227c/c.html
November 1, 2024
New study uncovers evolution of China’s largest desert
LANZHOU — A new study by researchers from China’s Lanzhou University has provided valuable insights into the formation and evolution of the Taklimakan Desert, the country’s largest desert, using first-hand data.
The study revealed that the modern landscape of the central Taklimakan Desert began forming approximately 300,000 years ago, based on an analysis of a 200-meter drill core collected from the center of the desert, according to Wang Xin, a professor at the College of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Lanzhou University.
The Taklimakan Desert is also the world’s second-largest shifting desert. A better understanding of its geological evolution is crucial for comprehending the formation of desert landscapes in mid-altitude Asia, noted Wang, who led the team of researchers.
Since 2008, the study team has carried out a research program to drill core samples from multiple deserts, including the Taklimakan Desert, to provide direct in-situ evidence for a better understanding of the evolutionary history of China’s major deserts. In the center of the Taklimakan Desert, the drilling depth reached 1,340 meters.
Through first-hand information from these drill cores, the team discovered that the initial formation of the Taklimakan Desert dates back at least 1.8 million years, although a precise age for this early phase remains undetermined…
The relevant research findings * have been published in the journal Science Bulletin.
* https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095927324007175?via%3Dihub
Very cool, thanks.
Here’s another short video titled “Xinjiang’s Kekeya becomes green miracle in China’s largest desert” for some nice visuals.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2024-09-29/Xinjiang-s-Kekeya-becomes-green-miracle-in-China-s-largest-desert-1xhGdFxXvmo/p.html
September 29, 2024
Xinjiang’s Kekeya becomes green miracle in China’s largest desert
Decades of persistent efforts against desertification in and around Kekeya have paid off, generating economic and ecological benefits for this once-arid land in Aksu Prefecture, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Nestled on the northern edge of the formidable Taklimakan Desert, Kekeya was once notorious for its tumultuous weather and ceaseless sandstorms. Covering a staggering expanse of 337,000 square kilometers, the Taklimakan is China’s largest desert and is infamously known as the “Sea of Death.”
To combat desertification and alleviate the adverse effects of shifting sands and dust storms on nearby residents, an ambitious afforestation project was launched in Kekeya in 1986. Consequently, what is now known as the “Green Great Wall” has gradually emerged.
Faced with water shortages, high soil salinity, and a lack of heavy machinery, the pioneers who first engaged in the project in Aksu rose to the challenge. They toiled with simple tools to soften the hardened soil, level the ground, and adjust soil alkalinity to create a suitable environment for the growth of trees.
One year later, the barren land of Kekeya showed its first signs of greenery. Local people saw hope for better living conditions, free from sand finding its way into their rice bowls.
“We were planting trees almost every spring and autumn then. Since our shelter-belt forest was planted, it has blocked the wind and sand from afar and helped keep our homes clean,” said Song Jianjiang, one of the first forest rangers involved in the afforestation project.
In the first decade of the project, Kekeya saw about 2,200 hectares of artificial forest completed, with another 4,360 hectares established in the second decade.
Since 2012, Kekeya has achieved 62,000 hectares of afforestation…
Remarkable. We (US) should be as forward thinking.
How wide is the belt? 100 m, 500m, 1km, 10 km, 50 km?
The techniques used to accomplish this are simply amazing:
Guardians of China’s desert can plant trees in just 10 seconds
TP Huang is exceptionally knowledgeable about the Chinese chips, EV, and MilTech spaces and well wortg following on Twitter/X. He did 3 talks with Steve Hsu on these areas fairly recently.
https://www.manifold1.com/search?query=TP+huang
In a similar vein, I’m not sure of what to make of Xiangyu yet, but this recent discussion with “Mr. T” was very interesting. “Mr. T” did a couple talks with Carl Zha as well from a couple years ago that was particularly interesting for what he thought about the Indian tech space, but I believe that’s behind a paywall.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mLpSFJxPg44
The AL Jazeera article about mapping Syria doesn’t point out the area controlled by the USA. Hmmmm
I think its labeled as “other groups”!
Karl Marx Explained the 19th Century. Wolfgang Streeck Is Explaining the 21st.
Nov. 28, 2024
For fuller explication of neoliberalism’s anti-democratic (and anti-nation-state) roots, read Quinn Slobodian’s Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism.
Nate Silver: Did I read that his analysis of the election shows that Democrats need to focus on defined, material benefits in order to win, for a change? I think he did.
Unfortunately they have no credibility, regardless of what they promise. It will be interesting to see them try to rehabilitate themselves over the next four years.
They will not have to.
They can rely on the GOP to run the economy into the ground and people will switch sides again.
Rotating villains…
https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1863588111713997174
🇬🇪 The unrest in Georgia is increasingly becoming similar to the Maidan in Ukraine
Protesters are given baked goods, similar to how Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt distributed cookies and food to participants in the coup d’etat in Kiev on December 11, 2013 (photo).
Earlier, Salome Zurabishvili called on schoolchildren to join the riots, which also corresponds to the scenario of the Ukrainian coup.
That tells you everything that you need to know about Salome Zurabishvili. She will put children in the middle of riots with lasers, Molotov cocktails and explosive fireworks as human shields. When they throw her out of her office in a fortnight’s time. I hope that it is hard enough that she bounces twice.
Remembering what happened at the Maidan coup I have a sinking feeling this is a deliberate strategic move. They want dead children for the shock value. Then the west will declare it has a responsibility to protect. I am not sure just how they could do that but that will be the play.
re: Hunter Biden
from MoA commentariat:
“Article II, Section 2, paragraph 1 {The President}.. shall have power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons <=== for Offenses against the United States, except in the Cases of Impeachment.
It is highly questionable whether or not the crimes committed by those Biden just pardoned were crimes against the United States. Especially I question this in light of the recent Supreme court limitation on presidential immunity. As I understand that ruling the President is immune to criminal and civil liabilities only when the crimes he is convicted of involve official duties. His private life conduct is not immune.I do not know the citation for that case and have not read it.. "
p.s. https://bidenreport.com/
Sure, but it hasn’t been used that way. Previous pardons have been for all sorts of traditional, mundane crimes.
I believe any contravention of the federal criminal code is formally a crime against the United States, and that’s all that’s being referenced here.
Hunter would do well to hope that none of his antics contravened state law in any unambiguously red states.
It occurs to me that if Hunter Biden was to be questioned about any alleged criminal activity during that period he wouldn’t be able to rely on the 5th amendment, so in theory could be encouraged to incriminate anyone else involved in any wrongdoing including (and I’m speculating wildly here, obviously) family members.
Or doesn’t it work like that?
And so it goes. Intel soon to be another TBTF with Boeing?
Intel chief Pat Gelsinger to quit with US chipmaker in crisis
FT — https://www.ft.com/content/1da33c80-6328-49a7-be8a-e7e1221c43c0
archived– https://archive.ph/tmqMe#selection-1747.0-1747.62
‘…rocked by the departures of executives, thousands of lay-offs and a plunging share price. Over the past year, Intel’s share price has dropped more than 40 per cent, falling to a market capitalisation of just over $103.7bn. By contrast, shares in Nvidia, which has cornered the market for cutting-edge AI chips, have risen more than 200 per cent over the same period, reaching a market cap of $3.35tn.’
Interestingly, the market cap of ARM is now $140.17 billion USD, ahead of Intel
Good thing they did not let Nvidia take over ARM.
re: THE DURAN & GERMANY/SEVIM DAGDELEN
Ho-ho-ho
Sevim Dadelen on THE DURAN!
I guess they can´t just censor me now, if I post links by them:
Germany Deindustrialising & Subordinated – Sevim Dağdelen, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen
48 min.
https://theduran.com/germany-deindustrialising-subordinated-sevim-dagdelen-alexander-mercouris-glenn-diesen/
re: Taibbi/Kirn
Flora wherever you are hiding – you forgot to remind us of Taibbi tonight!
Bad service!
I am counting you!
ATW live in 7 hours
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7QNLc0O1lQ
My data point for today, filed under “PMC whiplash alert”:
My alma mater, a large eastern Canadian school, emails alumni every few weeks with notices of various continuing education and travel opportunities.
The latest one announced an upcoming “Anti-Oppression Certificate program”, which will be offered jointly with the school’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and is described as follows: “In this program you will examine the current instances of oppression and their impact on Black, Asian, Muslim and Jewish communities.”
Only ~ 5 months ago at the same school, a peaceful protest encampment erected by pro-Palestine, pro-divestment campaigners was taken down under the threat of disciplinary and legal actions. In an announcement immediately afterward, the university’s President noted that “Respectful debate and dialogue is encouraged and is woven into the very fabric of our university.”
As the DEI industry crumbles, I imagine there are going to be large numbers of former DEI Department staffers now desperately in need of something to do.
The obvious solution: offer degrees and certificates in the field of DEI!
I just recieved a notice that both my Medicare premium and my Medicare “Part D” premium have been increased.
The “Part D” increase is 80%, medicare is less, thankfully.
When Brandon took office I had the same low fixed income, however I could afford basic internet service, simple food (Meat or chicken twice a week) and with enough left over to buy my daughter a cup of coffee twice a Month.
That is no longer the case and if it were not for the food bank I would not have enough to eat.
I have a LOT of company.
It’s going to be a heck of an interesting next few years, for the survivors.
They gave us a 30 dollar discount (if you qualified) on internet under one of those bills. It was taken away after maybe a year because congress didn’t renew it. Bombs and killing people and war is more important than our seniors, veterans, and homeless.
I wish we could vote all of them out at once and start over. Picking name randomly from a phone book couldn’t be any worse.
Good luck, I can relate.
My favorite things about the Part D increase is that:
.1. Every article, announcement, coverage says that this is a small increase, and that many won’t see one. And that it is overall going to save seniors money.
2. Biden is prominently mentioned and given credit for this improvement.
3. In most cases not only have the premiums gone up, so has the deductible. (At least here in NY.)
My friend has run the numbers, and between the premiums and the deductible, he cannot get a policy that provides coverage for his prescriptions where he doesn’t spend more for the insurance coverage than if he just paid cash for them outright at today’s prices. All it does for him is provide a hedge against a massive price increase. As someone who thinks we should have single payer with full drug, vision and dental coverage this offends me greatly. Not just the cost, but that he has had to spend time to figure out he is getting screwed.
Believe it or not, my increase has yours beat. My placeholder offers little or nothing policy but satisfies the requirement to have a policy has more than quadrupled in price. And it is still the cheapest policy available here. But it is nice to know there is no donut hole and a maximum out of pocket for the drugs I am not on and don’t buy. (Today I paid for the first prescription I had in 2024. I didn’t even bother to bring out the insurance card. The likelihood of my getting prescribed enough more to meet my current deductible for 2024 is slim and none.)
The Secret Pentagon War Game That Offers a Stark Warning for Our Times NY Times
Ian Welsh:
https://www.ianwelsh.net/about-the-syrian-war-those-rebels/#comments
“About the Syrian War & Those Rebels”
Short and to the point.
I wonder if anyone has access and could post to the Robert Bryce article on modular reactors.
This article is really good, saying the same stuff we have been saying here for years.