Tortoise engraving suggests Middle Eastern religion from 37,000 years ago EuroNews
World’s oldest living crocodile celebrates 124th birthday Ynet
Why world’s economic powers could find 2025 a year of great struggle FT
Climate
Startups Begin Geoengineering the Sea IEEE Spectrum
* * * New York to charge fossil fuel companies for damage from climate change AP
A (successful) test of the state-by-state approach! Bill McKibben, The Crucial Years
* * * The planet’s melting glaciers are releasing a treasure trove of ancient artifacts CBC
Syndemics
Metapopulation heterogeneities in host mobility, productivity, and immunocompetency always increase virulence and infectiousness PNAS. From the Abstract: “Our general theory reveals that, when host populations experiencing different local conditions are linked by movement networks, more virulent and infectious pathogens evolve than in a corresponding homogeneous population. We show that the greater the variation in host mobility, productivity, and immunocompetency, the more virulent and infectious pathogens become. Worse still, when multiple such heterogeneities are positively correlated, the evolution of higher virulence is boosted: For example, for positively correlated heterogeneities in movement and birth rates, the evolved virulence increases to nearly 200%. Our theory provides insights into aggravating risks for the emergence of more virulent pathogens in our highly connected heterogeneous world.” Cf. Norman, Bar-Yam, and Taleb’s prescient January 2020 paper: “It will cost something to reduce mobility in the short term, but to fail do so will eventually cost everything—if not from this event, then one in the future.”
* * * Genetic Sequences of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Viruses Identified in a Person in Louisiana Avian Influenza (Bird Flu), CDC. “The analysis identified low frequency mutations in the hemagglutinin gene of a sample sequenced from the patient, which were not found in virus sequences from poultry samples collected on the patient’s property, suggesting the changes emerged in the patient after infection.” And in English–
CDC says H5N1 bird flu sample shows mutations that may help the virus bind to cells in the upper airways of people STAT News. The deck: “The mutations likely developed post-infection, the agency said.”
* * * BMC Genomics: Evidence of an Emerging Triple-reassortant H3N3 Avian Influenza Virus in China Avian Flu Diary
China?
China’s industrial profits decline at slower pace in November South China Morning Post
* * * China Stuns With Heavy Stealth Tactical Jet’s Sudden Appearance (Updated) The Warzone
Chinese firm unveils world’s first ride-on robot dog for all-terrain adventures South China Morning Post
* * * Why China Isn’t Scared of Trump Foreign Affairs
Worst enemy of the U.S. is itself, says Chinese spokesperson CGTN
* * * How a Mao-era system creates second-class citizens in modern China FT
Prosecutors find workers in ‘slavery like’ conditions at Chinese car company site in Brazil AP
The Koreas
South Korea’s acting president Han Duck-soo impeached, stirring new political chaos Agence France-Presse
Unlikely political ‘Thor’ emerges from South Korea’s martial law crisis Al Jazeera
Syraqistan
Is Israel Really Building an Empire Across the Middle East? Haaretz
WHO chief says he was metres away from Israeli attack on Yemen airport Al Jazeera
The US says it pushed retraction of a famine warning for north Gaza. Aid groups express concern AP
‘Squad’ Dems demand end to US investigation into anti-Israel weapons embargo FOX
Advocates launch legal push for Argentina, Chile to arrest Israeli soldier Al Jazeera
Africa
Ugandan runner due to arrive in London after 516 days and 7,700 miles on the road Guardian
New Not-So-Cold War
Aviation experts say Russia’s air defense fire likely caused Azerbaijan plane crash as nation mourns AP
‘Azerbaijani plane downed by Russian air defense system’: First semi-official version from Baku JAM News. “For the Azerbaijani side, involved in the investigation, the situation is absolutely clear. No one claims it was done intentionally.”
* * * Putin rejects peace plan proposal being crafted by Trump team – ISW Ukrainska Pravda
A Pathway to Peace in Ukraine Foreign Affairs
Devoted to “weaker” Russia, exiting Biden team finds “strength” in Ukraine Aaron Maté
* * * Trump wants 5% Nato defence spending target, Europe told FT
Ukraine war shows NATO’s biggest problem isn’t its strategy, think tank argues Business Insider
* * * ‘Security through obscurity’: the Swedish cabin on the frontline of a possible hybrid war Guardian
A Newly Declassified Memo Sheds Light on America’s Post-Cold War Mistakes Slate
Global Elections
2024 Was a Year of Angry Elections Foreign Policy
Realignment and Legitimacy
The two major problems with Luigi Mangione case that could torpedo trial Daily Mail
Read the NYPD’s Mangione report the media won’t publish Ken Klippenstein
* * * Indian immigration is great for America Noahpinion. Commentary:
Tucker Carlson Calling Out The H-1B And Other Visa Scams
“Who gets hurt? Well, among others, the college graduates who took on huge amounts of student loan debt only to be dumped into a system where their foreign replacements get preference over them.” pic.twitter.com/8Kz9WSbyu7
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) December 26, 2024
If Elite Composition Matters, Skilled Immigration Matters The American Conservative
Vivek Ramaswamy Dragged After Wild Rant on How American Workers Suck The New Republic
How & Why Government, Universities, & Industry Create Domestic Labor Shortages of Scientists & High-Tech Workers Institute for New Economic Thinking. From 2017, still germane.
Spook Country
Chicago man asks justices to clarify when officers can search your cellphone at the border SCOTUSblog
Antitrust
Lina Khan’s Christmas Gift: Limits on Annoying Fees by Hotels and Ticketing Services Matt Stoller, BIG
Healthcare
Medicare $2,000 prescription drug cap starts Jan. 1 Axios
Medicare Advantage: National Carriers Expand Market Share While Regional Carriers Without Affiliation Decline, 2012–23 Health Affairs
Digital Watch
Elon Musk’s ‘social experiment on humanity’: How X evolved in 2024 BBC
Apple called on to ditch AI headline summaries after BBC debacle The Regioster
Meta envisages social media filled with AI-generated users FT
Zeitgeist Watch
Housing
19 Unhinged Homeowner’s Associations That Went Way, Way Too Far In 2024 Buzzfeed
Class Warfare
More Starbucks Unfair Labor Practices Matt Bruenig, NLRB Edge
Musk’s rise is symptomatic of our neo-feudal capitalist times Al Jazeera
Wealthy Dad Surprises Child With Tree House He Can Airbnb For Passive Income The Onion
Kafka’s Screwball Tragedy: Investigations of a Philosophical Dog The MIT Press Reader
Antidote du jour (Giles Laurent):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Wonder if H5N1 has the same spike protein that COVID had.
I just sat through a very long discussion about H5N1 this past few days.
The sequencing of the H5N1 genome in this patient in Louisiana is actually fascinating and also a bit concerning. Not much is being released about this patient other than they were at baseline very ill.
Also, please note how completely different is the rollout of this influenza H5N1 virus compared to what was experienced during COVID. H5N1 is absolutely behaving in textbook manner as a zoonotic infection. We are seeing lots of various kinds of sick animals and this has been going on for months/years before human involvement, and we have not even had human involvement to any degree yet. Compare that to COVID. A completely different almost nuclear rollout, almost as if it was tailor-made to infect as many humans as possible right off the bat. No pun intended. The COVID rollout is most definitely not what we would expect from a zoonotic heritage.
How does the roll out compare to SARS-1 or MERS? I guess neither affected migratory birds (which are monitored) or domesticated farmed animals… other than camels?
“19 Unhinged Homeowner’s Associations That Went Way, Way Too Far In 2024”
Came across a video today though I did not bother watching it. It was a woman living in a HOA and this women sent her cop husband over to demand that she share the pool with her. Some of those HOAs are run by lunatics going by those stories.
Those Housing Association stories always give me strong JG Ballard book vibes
I clerked for a judge back in the day (mid 00’s) and he told me that HOA disputes were the most insane and acrimonious lawsuits he saw in his courtroom, far worse than even divorce and child custody disputes.
In my tenure there, we never had one in court, but I heard other stories…
“2.”My HOA in Texas has recently FLIPPED OUT because we painted our house black. Originally, all of the houses built in the early 2000s were similar pastel colors. Light grey, yellow, blue, etc.. very boring. The CCRs state that to repaint your house you have to submit the color to the architectural control committee (ACC) and that the colors must be ‘harmonious’ with the neighborhood or some BS like that. Nothing specifically prohibits any specific color. We followed the rules to the letter and got written approval.””
One of the short stories in a collection of Chinese stories is about a guy that paints his room black and all the association is outraged and the party rep comes to talk with the resident and see what is wrong there… Life copying art…
Yep, HOAs are right up there with school boards for infantile behavior. I was in one HOA as secretary and am currently president at for our residential HOA.
I still recall my first meeting during which a number of females members were screeching at each other over something to do with who or why to stack the chaise lounges at the swimming pool. After that meeting an elderly gentleman pulled me aside and said the meeting reminded him of his high school reunion.
What I’ve learned is that adults can still act like petulant, temper tantrum throwing five years olds. And that’s before mentioning the cliques, and mean-girl gossiping that goes on.
I’ve also realized that if you’re a new person in the community then you’ll be targeted to join the HOA. Be wary, very wary.
From one perspective, these childish, petty behaviors can be seen in a sympathetic light. People with no real power over the more important realities of their daily lives and futures, the guide rails inside which they can make limited decisions, attempting to exercise control. From another perspective, you might see that they’ve got significantly more capital, and its attendant privilege than does the average shmuck, the cushioning effect of which blinds them to the absurdity of their behavior. If I had to be involved with them, I’d take the first perspective, so as to be more forgiving and understanding. Since I don’t, I’ll take the second.
Re: Indian immigration is great for America
For the past couple of days there has been an almighty amount of vitriol between the tech-right and MAGA-right about H1B visas.
Laura Loomer Vs David Sacks and Elon Musk has been the ‘highlight’
It’ll be interesting to see how this coalition is going forward. Especially so if the MAGA folks figure out how different their and the tech bros goals are.
Those MAGA-right could launch a nasty campaign against Trump over those Indians flooding into the country taking those tech jobs. They could use the slogan ‘I voted for Make America Great Again, not Make India Great Again.’
How about fine-tune it to ‘I voted for Make America Great Again, not Make India Great.’ (without the final again) to really signal one’s contempt and sense of cultural superiority?
Or even shorter “I voted to make America, not India, great again”
One thing that was pointed out by multiple people — at least the MAGA crowd has these debates. It doesn’t necessarily lead to infighting and cancellations like if there was a rare debate among the Blue Anon, it could lead to discussion and maybe compromise. We’ll see.
Early days. And reports at least that Musk is banning and shadow banning anti H1B voices on X.
MAGA not MIGA
During my time in Boston (1984-2023) I saw first hand the financial and office tech work force totally transformed from American to Indian, so much so the morning rush hour T public transportation went from predominantly American to plurality Indian. Entire apartment complexes once occupied by Americans close to public transportation became occupied mostly by Indians. Entire and I do mean entire company IT support staff went from being American workers to become Indian workers. I meet spouses of these Indian workers take lesser jobs in banking and other areas
I watched the same happen in corporate America as in Whirlpool. Entire IT dept. outsourced to India. H1B people hired over Americans by the dozens (all tech people). My boss said we had been invaded. They cost me my job, and a bunch more just like me. In my round it was 113 people, all between the ages of 58 and 64 – all replaced by H1B Indians.
Cheaper. Not better. Cheaper.
When Elon first came to Twitter, he did a big round of layoffs impacting plenty of engineers on H1B:
– https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-staff-visas-and-parental-leave-fired-ex-engineer-says-2022-11
– https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/migrate/mass-twitter-layoffs-put-h-1b-visa-holders-in-an-immigration-limbo/articleshow/95319316.cms?from=mdr
We are right now in the middle of an enormous bubble, so when it inevitably bursts in the future, we will most likely be seeing something like this, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/world/asia/kansas-attack-possible-hate-crime-srinivas-kuchibhotla.html happening more often.
gee a familiar name keeps popping up to one after another outrage against the american worker.
Clinton Signs H-1B Bills into Law
https://visaandgreencard.com/blog/clinton-signs-h-1b-bills-into-law/
“The new law increases the number of H-1B visas available to 195,000 for the years 2001, 2002 and 2003. To remedy the problem of the INS’ “overcount” from the last two years, the law automatically raises the FY 1999 and 2000 caps to accommodate any visa numbers over the old limit attributable to Petitions filed during those fiscal years. Therefore, as of October 1, 2000; the start of FY 2001, there are 195,000 H-1B visas available!
The new law exempts certain workers from the cap altogether. Persons to be employed on H-1B status for higher educational institutions, affiliated non-profit entities and individuals employed by Governmental and nonprofit research organizations are not counted against the cap. The INS is also not allowed under the law to count against the cap any person who has been in H-1B status within the previous six years.
The new law makes H-1B status “portable,” allowing for H-1B workers to transfer employers and begin working upon the filing of the new petition, without waiting several weeks for approval, as was previously the case. This provision, however, is effective only for petitions filed on or after October 17, 2000. Additionally, this provision assists beneficiaries of labor certification applications and I-140 Petitions for Immigrant Worker whose applications for adjustment of status are pending in accepting new employment without penalty. If the I-485, adjustment of status application, has been pending more than 180 days, the worker may change jobs without losing the validity of the underlying I-140 or labor certification.”
Aren’t H1B visas designed to support the American University business model? n=1 here, the one university that I am familiar with the details of their admission policies requires foreign applicants to pay full fare plus provide proof of certain capital reserves on hand.
By definition, that means that they only want the kids from rich families from overseas to turn up. When those rich kids turn up for an interview, probably the first question the university would ask them would be ‘So how much did you say your name was worth?’
This is indeed the case, although with a bit more diplomacy, again, n=1.
I think the MAGAs and the techbros figured out they have different goals and worldviews.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfxV3odWMAE50WC.jpg?name=orig
I’ve been dealing with this since 2000 in the life insurance industry and have seen companies go from American staffed IT departments to almost entirely Indian staffed – mostly in India and some H1-B’s and L1’s on shore. Since 2017 I have not worked with any Americans except on 2 short projects. In other words I am the only American on a team working for an American company in America.
Makes sense doesn’t it?
I checked in, warily as usual, on Xwitter last night and up popped VS’s diatribe (reposted by someone I follow) on why foreign (Asian), or first generation, tech bros are better, due to ‘culture’, than native-born American tech bros: short form, the former are acculturated to study, hard work and, tah dah, giving long long hours to the firm. Versus the latter, being interested only in sports, drinking, fast cars and sex.
Wow, I had to leave, thinking, this should provoke a sleetstorm. I have been mentioning Seattle, for the past couple of years. In South Lake Union are Amazon, Apple offices, block after block. And lunch time is nirvana for Asian food truck mavens. MAGA peeps are screaming about the dirty, disease-laden ‘Mexicans,’ taking our jobs, but nary a word, until yesterday, about where the high-paid tech sector jobs are going. And how many 50 and older tech people (mainly white and native-born?) are jobless.
One must wonder if Trump thinks (if he does think) the internet and AI spring up in some autochthonous manner, and are not the work of tens of thousands of H1-B techies, beavering away 16 hours a day in Seattle and Silicon Valley. Not to mention the $210 million power station built by Seattle City Light, mainly to power the Amazon offices. (And Amazon is planning nuclear power plants in eastern Washington.)
I come from a northeast city, where, from the American Civil War onwards, the wool and cotton mills were staffed with thousands of poor and desperate immigrants (my ancestors among them) from Ireland, England, Italy, Poland, Syria, French Canada, Lithuania. They provided cheap, easily exploitable labor and made fortunes for the likes of the Cabots and Lowells who laundered their money through the endowments of Harvard and Yale and Andover, where their sons could network and prepare to rule.
The PMC (to which I belong, on the fringe) have been quick to deplore the Trumpian rabble who are said to vote against their own interests. Ex-factory workers and and tool and die makers and small farmers and dairymen, whose livelihood up and vanished one day. But, now the PMC is being threatened. Woah! A family member who works for an international insurance brokerage, mentioned that the company’s actuarial section has been moved to Mexico City. From NYC. Actuaries, unlike customer service reps (which have already been outsourced to lower cost countries) tend to be highly educated and well paid.
I’ve been dealing with the H1-B issue since 2000. It has caused me to be out of work 30% of the time since then and working for a rate that is 40% less than I was making at the time. I work in the life insurance industry and most of the IT work has moved to India. So much so that I have been the only American working on projects for American companies in America since 2017 except for 2 projects where I was one of just a few Americans. Most of the projects I have worked on since 2006 have been staffed by a majority of Indians and their numbers increased yearly while the number of Americans decreased.
I would guess that other industries have experienced similar fates.
Sorry for the double reply. I thought the first one had disappeared.
i cant hate H1-Bs because my best friend at uni is indian and consequentially i am friends with a lot of indian students. and i so support them and want them to get jobs. they all deserve it except for this one girl who i think is annoying.
according to my friends, a lot of why indian students come to america is because indian universities are few and super hard to get into. like it is super stressful and competitive to get a spot, and there are very few spots because they refuse to build more universities. there are enough people with advanced degrees in india to staff universities, but there arent enough universities to provide jobs for those graduates. so they end up working tutoring jobs to help students get into colleges, apparently in really dangerous conditions too. going to school in america is a way for the either really smart or really wealthy to bypass the struggles of indian exams.
most of my coworkers at my on-campus job are indian. almost all of them are getting a masters in computer science, business analytics, or engineering management. they’re almost always really nice! i kinda get indians wanting to hire more indians. it’s normal ingroup behavior. also it’s kinda fun to be the cultural minority in the room. forces you to reflect a lot more on how your culture shaped you!
Gooooooood Moooooooning Fiatnam!
Something is rotten in the state of den mark to model regarding Greenland, and so in late January hostilities arose with the Danes using hypersonic weaponry in the guise of tins of butter cookies @ Mach 8, and they are able to pull it off for only $3.99 per tin-with 6 different varieties, including those cookies with oodles of sugar caked on the outside.
After most of the HIMARS were taken out, our armed forces were forced to rely on small arms fire, and luckily some of the incoming cookies remained intact, which made for a nice dessert after polishing off an MRE.
MREs? So would that be a Meals Rejected by Economists?
Because they required can openers?
I haven’t seen one of those tins in years. What happened to them?
I assume you are talking in regards to 155mm hollow shaped armaments, no?
“Analysis | Is Israel Really Building an Empire Across the Middle East?”
American-Israeli journalist who has lived in Israel since the 90s is surprised to find out that Greater Israel is a thing and not just a slogan. Is amazed to discover that some religious radicals actually want this to happen. Has she been living under a rock or something? As a journalist, you would expect her to get a handle on what is going on in Israel right now after living there so long but all these developments seem to baffle her.
Do you suppose “Greater Israel” can coexist with “Greater Türkiye”?
Never. Israel will never tolerate a military power in this region which might rival it so would attempt to balkanize them, probably using the Kurds. You would expect that if Israel attacked Turkiye, that Turkiye might go for Article 5 under NATO which also means the US. Not so sure about this though as a coupla days ago you had voices coming from the American Enterprise Institute suggesting that the US bomb and kill Turks to bring them to heel. What could possibly go wrong with that idea? I think that it might have been Rubin that said this. The hitch for Israel is that they still need Turkiye as a transit nation for oil coming to them.
I might be nuts, but I’m favoring Türkiye over Israel for who ends up “greater”. MTGA???
Israel has been lagging Turkey in per capita growth for decades:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1s5ah
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for China, Turkey, Egypt and
Israel, 2000-2023
(Indexed to 2000)
Make the Ottomans Great Again – MOGA.
https://www.aei.org/op-eds/the-united-states-needs-to-prepare-to-kill-turks-in-syria/
December 17, 2024
The United States Needs to Prepare to Kill Turks in Syria
By Michael Rubin
We can see then how well the S-400 works, eh?!
This bewildered Israeli journalist could also have read any number of neocon policy papers, in particular the well-known ‘Clean Break’ paper, written by Perle, Feith, Wurmser et al. – for Netanyahu – in 1996 – which serves nicely as a blueprint for US/Israeli policy ever since.
Interestingly, in that plan for reshaping the Middle East, the neocons counted on the cooperation of Jordan and Turkey (now Turkiye) in taking out Syria. It’s hard to tell how that relationship will ultimately play out, but so far this is yet one more example of everything going according to plan, just taking a little longer than anticipated.
I keep saying this, but anyone who thinks 21st century developments in the Middle East are a series of unplanned responses to unexpected events should go back and read these neocon documents.
Clean Break full text here.
I think she may have been aware of those expansionist plans. She just chose to ignore them so she could be ‘shocked’ for the article. I think the last sentence of the third paragraph gives it away.
Then spends the rest of the article writing about all the other Zionists who never gave up on the idea of Greater Israel.
The key, I think, Rev, is: “It’s getting harder to push back against” (the claim of ambitions for a greater Israel). She hasn’t been living under a rock, she has deliberately dug herself a convenient hole in which to shelter from anything that might disturb her wholly idealistic vision of the country. And is still comforting herself with the shreds of that vision — after all, Netanyahu has “voluntarily” allowed himself to be put on trial.
I can’t decide which I look forward to more, future articles in America where a long term journalist has to notice the fascist policies of Democratic politicians, or the one that admits there are no longer political parties answerable to voters only oligarchs pushing levers for greater power. From this article it should happen in about a decade.
“How & Why Government, Universities, & Industry Create Domestic Labor Shortages of Scientists & High-Tech Workers”
This was no surprise to me, but I have a personal experience that would seem to reflect this. In the later half of the 1990’s I began a PhD in Economics. About half of my classmates were American born and the other half were foreign students. In the end I and most of my American born classmates took our Masters and left the program while most of the foreign students remained to complete it.
For my foreign classmates the program was their ticket to being in America and completing their PhD would increase their chances of obtaining a job and staying in America. To the best of my knowledge most did stay in America after completing their degree. For me and my American classmates we were already here so many of use began (as good economist) to weigh the cost of completing the academics while also being a low wage teaching/research assistant and often putting up with god awful rude behavior by faculty towards graduate students versus knowing the fact that (at that time) the estimated lifetime income difference between having a Masters vs PhD in economics was only about $20k. So, most of us eventually opted for better paying private sector employment versus spending another 2-4 years in the program.
I’m sure the current crop of grad students face even more complex thoughts given so many graduate with mountains of undergraduate debt.
The article states “the University system stopped growing organically in the early 1970s”. Does anyone know why this occurred? It doesn’t seem like a demographic issue as the number of college students continued to increase.
End of the draft?
From what I remember while attending an engineering program for graduate degrees at a top tier research university in the early 2000’s, the end of growth for native English speakers from the US was because jobs were plentiful and paid well for engineers. A grad student life only made sense if you were coming from a place with limited options. Or you were a sucker like me and interested in science for its own sake. If you didn’t need a visa to work in the US, why would you go to grad school for a MS or PhD on your own? Much better to get a job and have your employer pay for it.
Those kind of programs did not typically require a thesis or research. Hard to grow an academic program like that. It became harder still when Bush killed a lot of funding for research and state budgets shrunk. Hence, the end of a lot of growing research programs.
On MSM and Aliyev immediately calling the plane downing against Russia prior to any investigation, it may be a good time to revisit this substantial thread on MA370.
https://x.com/bidetmarxman/status/1527786514280722432
Oops, meant MH370.
An interesting data point from Wolf Richter’s blog:
I wonder if the IT job market is about to take a big face-plant … I’ve also noticed a huge crapification wave in customer service for just about every service out there. Trying to get some help for a sudden jump in bandwidth consumption in our home router proved fruitless. Might as well just fire-and-replace w/ AI as these companies have crapified the customer service process beyond what seems legal.
https://wolfstreet.com/2024/12/26/san-francisco-house-prices-drop-back-to-2019-condo-prices-to-2015-as-tech-jobs-in-the-city-silicon-valley-evaporate-after-drunken-hiring-binge/
Kafka’s Screwball Tragedy: Investigations of a Philosophical Dog The MIT Press Reader
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I don’t know what it is about us, but nobody does absurdity better as a cultural norm, and not merely all those great Czech writers such as Kafka*, Hašek, Hrabal and the rest.
Humor was always dark in our household, and often pitch black.
A great movie encompassing our traits is Miloš Forman’s The Fireman’s Ball
The Firemen’s Ball with subtitles (Eng, Esp, Por, It, Fr)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1X3WvgNrWc&t=305s (70 minutes)
* yeah I know he’s a German, but I think Prague** rubbed off on him.
** my favorite taxi ride ever was in Prague… in theory my nephew, I and 2 other friends were going to this really interesting restaurant, crammed into a tiny Spanish made car, but in practice the cabbie couldn’t find it, and en route to nowhere he drove down a sidewalk, and at one point hopelessly lost on a dark rainy night, slammed on the brakes as a big fluffy rabbit was on the road in front of us, and embarrassed by not finding the eatery, gave us an amount similar to the taxi fare as recompense for the run around.
So, rabbit paella for dinner? Goes nice with a rioja.
“The planet’s melting glaciers are releasing a treasure trove of ancient artifacts’
It must be like Disneyland for archeologists out there – except there are no crowds. I’m just imaging the sort of stuff that might start popping out of the ice. Tools, weapons, shoes, Paleolithic survival kits clothing, transport gear like those ancient skis found, maybe musical instruments, personal belongings. They’ll be studying this stuff for decades and teasing all sorts of information out of it. Theories and guesses is one thing but to have actual ancient artifacts coming out the ice to examine is another.
Agreed, a silver lining for mineral collectors as well, for good or bad.
I could tell you the exact day we saw Ötzi the Iceman, it was September 14th, 2001 and he’d only recently gone on display in the museum in Bolzano. At the railroad station there, we left our luggage for half a day in the baggage storage, and i’ve never seen an American Tourister get practically taken apart by the authorities almost in gorilla like fashion as in the old TV commercials, the level of tension a few days after 9/11 being ratcheted to 9.
Ötzi himself was jackknifed into a pretzel of sorts, and seen one ancient corpse-seen em all, but his clothing and gear, oh my gosh!
In regards to recent finds it’s awful cool to see skis over a thousand years old with bindings intact, but you get this oh look the ocean receded so much we can explore shipwrecks on foot now! kinda feel to things~
MALDA! Make American Labor Desperate Again.
Tell everyone to get back into the office or they’re fired. No severance; no unemployment if you do not comply you quit. The most desperate will comply – now you know they’re desperate and you can push them harder. Bring a bunch of people in from 3rd world countries with technical skills to compete with native born American labor. Blame it on the workers for not being competitive.
This is NAFTA and Free Trade Agreements 2.0. This time against white collar workers – and the difference will be that instead of using outsourcing as a vehicle for labor arbitrage – they plan to use immigration.
Results will be largely the same. More returns to capital; less to labor.
Shorter Vivek Ramaswamy:
I got yer “replacement theory” right here buddy! [makes rude gesture]
Re: Vivek Ramaswamy Dragged After Wild Rant on How American Workers Suck
Culture? Want better engineers or workers? PAY THEM. The best engineers/scientists have been going to Wall St for over a decade. Easy, easy money compared to actually designing and making things. Heck, starting pay for engineers at most tradition big manufacturing corporations (like Boeing) cannot even afford to buy a house anymore.
It’s particularly disgusting that these elites want office workers back for no good financial reason. Productivity went UP not down in 2020, when office usage tanked to epic lows.
The savings on canceled or non-renewed office leases are huge. For a small company, we’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I suspect it is sheer anger that the rabble get the same perk they’ve enjoyed – working from a nice, cushy home office. God forbid that non-elites don’t have to schlep through a miserable commute.
#EliteMalfeasance
There are different rules for bosses and workers. When I was in Sydney I spent a fortune on traveling to and from work every day even though I used weekly passes. One morning as I was walking through the underground carpark on the way up to work I saw the big boss pull into his parking space. But before he got out he puled out a booklet and was writing out the kilometers used to travel to work. Yeah, I had to pay full freight on traveling to and from work but the bosses got to claim the very same off their taxes. Different rules.
“Ugandan runner due to arrive in London after 516 days and 7,700 miles on the road”
7,700 / 516 = 14.9 miles per day. That’s not very much. For comparison, thru-hikers on the 2650 miles Pacific Crest Trail typically average 20 miles/ day. And that is hiking, not running, while carrying a backpack with all their gear, several days food, etc. And they are average people, not athletes.
True, but there are differences between hiking and running. For instance, imagine hiking 20 miles a day on asphalt. Goodbye knees. Air quality should be considered as well. I’m getting an apples to oranges vibe here.
Aside from that, I grew up roaming the stretch of the AT in my backyard (the Mahoosuc Notch).
You rarely have to hike through unstable African countries on the PCT, advantage North America.
I found an alternate link to the post-literate society article.
Something about the term “post-literate society” bothers me: it sounds euphemistic, especially when the trend being described reminds me of the movie Idiocracy.
This part says it all, doesn’t it?
Hard to imagine? I suppose if you’re director for education and skills at the OECD it is “hard”. Apparently he doesn’t get out enought in the real world. Locally kids in the city and some suburbs have attendance rates below 50% and many are ESL. Overworked parent(s), crime, hunger and poverty. Add to this mess the dumbing down of education defined by standardized tests, bloated administration and wokedom. And big tech and devices. Of course it is all ignorance by design, a feature not a bug.
When all you need to converse with your friends is to listen/watch
TicToc videos on your phone, literacy is going to fall. DontUno!
“Idiocracy” may be the way we hidebound, print-bound descendants of Gutenberg’s revolution regard oral cultures. The article takes Caleb Crain as an authority:
“In oral cultures, he wrote, cliche and stereotype are valued, conflict and name-calling are prized because they are memorable, and speakers tend not to correct themselves because “it is only in a literate culture that the past’s inconsistencies have to be accounted for”.
I wonder just what oral cultures Crain was thinking of and how much he knew about them. There were certainly highly sophisticated African cultures in which knowledge was transmitted through memory. I once heard a visiting professor of Comparative Religion from Nigeria describe the way he had been trained in this. The key was that he was protected from reading until the age of 9, by which time he had perfected his menomic knowledge of the Yoruba tradition. After that, he was sent to school, where his British teacher refused to believe that he could memorize an entire page of English poetry at a single glance.
I believe that what is being described pejoratively as “oral culture” is actually a debased, post-literate version in which true skills and discrimination have been lost, so that when literacy declines, there is nothing left to supplement or substitute for it.
Its also worth noting that there are no great American novels so far in this 21st century, so the tragedy of the literary commons stretches from nadir to zenith.
My 19 year old nephew reads at 3rd grade level, that is when he isn’t scared off by a vowel movement.
Yes there are some great American novels published in the 21st Century. I would direct your attention specifically to Richard Powers. Who has a few things to say about reading. Reload the page for more.
https://www.richardpowers.net/
Thanks~
The Overstory looks to be right up my alley.
The Understory, lol Overstory is well worth a read. I’ve been told that Cloud Atlas is excellent as well.
Some guy named Luigi went and did a performance art version of the Great American Novel recently as well.
Overstory was a great read. I haven’t read Cloud Atlas but I did watch the movie. I didn’t hate it, but it was a little too much on the woo woo side for my tastes. YMMV.
Cloud Atlas is of course, better than the movie, which wasn’t too bad, but somehow I did like better this one: “The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet”. Quite immersive, poetic but packed with action. Fascinating characters, and a beautiful ending, aching with love.
Cloud Atlas isn’t an American novel. Author David Mitchell is a Brit resident in Japan.
I would offer Pynchom’s Inherent Vice and Bleeding Edge.
Failed at posting a longer, more detailed response just now, so I’ll just note that in addition to your excellent example, two of the foundational texts of Western literature and culture come from the oral tradition – the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Some of the new sci-fi writers are giving it a good go methinks.
Jeff Vandermeer is worth a read. Seems to express the disjointed, unreal, apocalyptic alienation of our time, and search/hunger for meaning m a world where spiritual and moral decay is visceral, and ecological. To me it reads like prophetic, or religious text. Naked hallucinatory violent assesment, desperate, transformative visionary invocations/pleas/plights. But not everyone’s cup of tea, I’m sure. Annihilation was made into a movie. My personal favourite so far is Dead Astronauts.
N K Jemison’s duology starting with The City We Became of New York waking up as deity, and the bad guys basically being private equity buying up land but transdimensionally – quite apt.
Caleb Crain clearly never tried to tell a bed-time story to multiple kids either from memory or while making it all up – kids can and will point out inconsistencies immediately
Hah! This reminds me of the time I was telling the Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Ichabod Crane story to a six year old Picabo Street (Olympic skier) one Winter in Triumph, ID. She consistently questioned my account—to the giggled glee of her father as we sat together on a bench in the kitchen next to the warmth of a wood cooking stove.
As it is, a major problem is managers who don’t understand and actually fear technology but displace existing working solutions because they listened to the friendly salesman selling stuff that doesn’t do what’s needed. The excuse is “we need to standardize” and other such rubbish. God knows what it will be like, when they believe ChatGPT over their own experts. It often sounds credible, and you need understanding to see where it got it wrong. A whole new level of dysfunction is looming. Unlike the Romans, our leaders don’t even have the foresight to leave the aqueducts standing.
“Putin rejects peace plan proposal being crafted by Trump team – ISW’
At this stage blind Freddy can see that the Ukraine is heading to a comprehensive military defeat which means also a defeat for the western alliance. This being the case the western objective seems to be to negotiate a peace that ensures that the Ukraine comes out the winner in a few years time. So one idea is to delay the Ukraine’s entry into NATO by a decade or so when Putin is gone from the scene. Since a major objective of the Russians is to remove this possibility so that you don’t have US nukes stationed in the Ukraine 6 minutes flight time to Moscow, the Russians will never agree. Another idea is to freeze the conflict in a truce but as the Russians already did that in Minsk 1 and Minsk 2, no way will they go for Minsk 3. Lavrov said ‘A truce is a road to nowhere’ and he meant it. Syria was left as a frozen conflict and look where that all ended up. I’m not sure if Trump understands any of this, especially since he has that ex-general Kellog suggesting such ideas. Trump imagines himself as this great negotiator but he better get ready to hear the word ‘Nyet!’ coming from the Russians as they have lost too much blood and treasure to only end up in a worse position than ever. Unfortunately, this is precisely the aim of the US/EU political establishment. Trump may rage when he does not get his way with the Russians and threaten the sanctions from hell but he will be surprised to learn that Russia has a few arrows in their quiver as well.
The Foreign Affairs article is a howler, 90% the usual West negotiating with itself stuff, except for this bit that someone who actually read what the Russians were telegraphing in the weeks before the SMO snuck in:
Notice though the “separately” that the astute editor put in to stymie actual acknowledgment of the Russian negotiation position.
You can get past the paywall with archive.is
Yes, Foreign Affairs has an endless supply of authors just making stuff up. They should just read Yves’ posts on this topic and save their time. There is no denying Russia its victory.
My impression of Trump (If I was the Donald, lol), is he strategizes from what he considers his skill set (that of an astute businessman) I imagine he would be focusing on capping/limiting liability in the form of reparations, and doesn’t really give a nickel about NATO, or nukes in Russia’s back yard.
That article gives off a strong flavor of political bias, like they’ve made a stew with a fat piece of meat only to ruin it with Sysco seasonings.
John Helmer being John Helmer offers the only new entertaining puzzle piece in this – although on military matters I do not take him seriously any more – “RU war with Turkey”:
“What is needed now from Russian point of view is time to build the army and the economy for a bigger war. That, according to everyone I talk with, is going to be war with Turkey when the stakes will be much higher than they are with Ukraine. Putin is adopting a wait-and-see stance.
Russian military sources believe that Putin and the General Staff have agreed to restrict their operations to electric war targeting; to avoid decapitation strikes at the Ukrainian leadership or US, French and British forces operating long-range Ukrainian missile units; and to characterize current air operations as “retaliation”, not “escalation”.
https://johnhelmer.org/the-new-time-of-troubles-part-iii-dont-worry-be-happy/#more-71668
Re Startups Begin Geoengineering the Sea, looking at the photos, I can’t help but notice lot’s of vulnerable looking equipment, storage containers (hydrochloric acid?) and open pit infrastructure, either on barges or land built within meters of the sea. Will this survive our current “super-storm” climate reality?
As part of the Decembris Movement, ya got to love the name of the South Korean Prime Minister: Han Duck-Soo, which is only a letter away from being Han Duck Solo, who just got impeached
That new fenagled Chinese stealth fighter that’s had a link here at NC 2 or 3 times. Do the wheels not fold in and shut in the undercarriage? Seems like they’re out in all the photos and videos.
I’m sure Taiwan will now be purchasing even more high-tech gadgetry to avoid the eventual inevitability. Maybe they too need to spend 5% of their GDP.
Wheels kept down is a conventional thing during early phase test flight.
In the first few test flights the landing gear is traditionally left down. They’re basically still testing that the systems work as intended and how the aircraft handles at very slow speeds. Often these flights don’t involve any other maneuvering than a lazy circle or two around the airfield at low height.
When they are satisfied that the systems work and that the plane is safe to take off and land, then they start doing more serious test involving speed, height and maneuvers. That’s when they start withdrawing the gear.
farmboy with too much time on his hands, gonna get worse too, retiring
2025 will be the year everything shifts:
90% of businesses will use AI tools.
Entire industries will disappear overnight.
Productivity will skyrocket but so will competition.
You’ll either adapt or get left behind.
Here’s what the professionals are contemplating;
DeepSeek V3
ChatGPT got down and why
Alignment fakery in AI training
Remember that huge bomb Israel dropped in Syria that caused an earthquake felt in Cyprus and Turkeye? Radiation levels rose in surrounding countries. Was it nuclear?
https://www.india.com/news/did-israel-explode-a-small-nuclear-bomb-in-syria-spike-in-radiation-report-says-7490316/
>Vivek Ramaswamy Dragged After Wild Rant on How American Workers Suck
I don’t like him very much, but I think he has a point.
Sure, he has a point. And is deliberately misusing it to hide his corporatist agenda. They don’t want the H-1Bs to take the place of the jocks; they need the H-1B to take the place of the valedictorian / chess club geek who went to engineering school. The native valedictorian knows what she can make in the open market, and more importantly, can tell the pointy haired boss he’s full of it. They want H-1Bs who know they’re one disagreement with the boss away from a flight home.
He’s definitely being disingenuous, as his purpose is to bring in cheap labor, but he is absolutely correct. America has an anti-science and anti-intellectual culture, one that both informs and is shaped by its popular culture. Cop shows and Kardashians. The intelligentsia elite exacerbate this by playing holier than thou. Kids have no role models but get rich quick athletes, movie stars, musicians, and reality contest winners.
“More books, less TV”. Monitors would be the term to use. Much more clarifying. That said…
Just spitballin’…but can’t really tell a society they are stupid and should let “AI” skim off all knowledge and call it “thinking” and expect people to be excited about being on the hampster wheel to keep making oligarchs wealthier.
i dont know if it’s about american media. i think it’s more how american schools suck and prioritize graduation rates and pushing students forward instead of making sure students actually learn. because we’ve gutted social services so schools are forced to provide all social services. and now they provide social services instead of education. i do think this ties into the ‘achievement vs normalcy’ thing where no child left behind does kinda prioritize normalcy over achievement. it’s this horrible balance between ‘ok we we want to provide support systems’ but support systems for those who are struggling or those who are achieving?
and it’s not just engineers. it’s also people in trades. and another part of it is that if you’re smart enough to do engineering, you will realize you can make just as much if not more money doing business. also the glorification of engineering by tech bros is weird. i agree it is important. but they act like its some religious calling. engineering is not the priesthood. it will not save you.
re: ‘I may end up in tears telling my story’: How a former MPP and Toronto city councillor found himself living in a homeless shelter Toronto Star
A better link, the Toronto Star is up to hijinx: https://archive.ph/zUIcj
I was thinking about what kind of threats Healthcare CEO’s are worried about and what an “appropriate” response would be, and cost.
Bombs aren’t much of a threat and neither is a passenger on a motorcycle spraying them with an UZI.
Someone with a scoped deer rifle is a little more likely, but not by much.
You are pretty much looking at a lone person with a pistol being the danger.
That lone person could be Male or Female and of any age from their late teens on.
There are tailors that make very nice bullet resistant clothing, which is EXPENSIVE but well worth the price.
A close personal protection team will need to be at least three people and some executives will need three shifts.
At least one member of each team should be Female, because restrooms will need to be checked.
Where will they come from?
The Secret Service and the State Department’s diplomatic security teams are the best, followed by people who have private training on top of training from Police/Security/Military agencies.
They have to look right, be able to blend in at social events…the right clothes and haircuts, good social skills are necessary.
So, not less than $2,500 per day each.
And of course a large amount of liability insurance would be prudent because shooting someone wielding a banana cream pie could lead to adverse publicity.
Eight million dollars a year for full time protection? How much healthcare or housing would that provide for the average American? Or how many families?
You would be providing for the American families of the security agents. Unless they get replaced by H1Bs.
I believe that the CEOs would import cheaper security than pay American wages to American workers. Money is everything to these greedheads.
For “Groves of Academe”: As demand for disability accommodations in universities grows, professors contend with how to handle students’ requests. Curiously, nothing is said about the possible impact of repeated COVID infections!
The article is paywalled, but here are some excerpts:
More than 6,000 of the roughly 28,000 students at Queen’s last year (22 per cent) were approved for such accommodations by the disabilities office. Five years ago, it was about 2,250 students (9 per cent).
What’s happening at Queen’s is part of a trend that’s apparent across Ontario and the rest of Canada. The number of students registering with disabilities at universities has rapidly increased, causing resources to become strained. The shift has also raised questions about the fairness of accommodations and triggered frustration among professors who are unsure how to handle the volume of requests.
As recently as 2013-14, the proportion of students registered with a disability office across all Ontario universities was six per cent. In a little under a decade it doubled to about 12 per cent. At McMaster University in Hamilton, the number of students identified as having a disability nearly tripled between 2013 and 2022. At the University of British Columbia, 26 per cent of undergraduates said they had a disability in a 2020 survey, up from 22 per cent in 2018-19, with mental illness by far the leading category.
The panel reported a widespread impression that students are being granted accommodations unfairly. It described that view as a largely unproven suspicion that has fuelled an image of a system “rife with abuse,” which is “being exploited to make university ‘easier’ ”for some people.
Finley Mackay, a first-year sociology student, receives accommodations for ADHD and dyslexia. She gets 50 per cent more time and a quiet room for exams. Although the measures help her, she has heard other students cast doubt on the legitimacy of some learning disabilities. In some cases she feels similarly skeptical, she said. “Certain people should have accommodations and certain people shouldn’t. There’s a difference between not being able to read what’s on the paper and having a little bit of anxiety before a test,” she said.
We’re at about a third of the students in a class being registered at the Access Centre and demanding extra time on tests at my university in Montreal. It’s everywhere.
The other trend that I’ve noticed is the rise in food allergies.
This past summer I was at an evening event at my former academic employer, attended by perhaps 25-30 members of the external community. There were also about 8 students helping out in various ways.
Dinner was provided, and at the self-serve buffet table there were detailed labels next to each serving dish detailing what was in each item (e.g. with/without gluten, dairy products). We were asked to let those with food allergies go first so that they could serve themselves from the non-allergen-containing dishes.
All of the students, and none of the other attendees, went first.
i have accommodations and have had accommodations since i was a little kid. i hate using my accommodations and avoid using them as much as i can. they’re just there as a backup option for emergencies. i dont think the real world will have accommodations so i try to use them unless again, i am legitimately sick which does happen sometimes.
i think part of it is overdiagnosis. because it’s easier to pathologize your problems than face them head on. part of it is how accommodations are a bit of a cheat code. i have a disability single, and one of my friends tried to get a disability single but got denied because apparently a lot of people have been asking for a disability single without needing one.
Medical students can get an accommodation for “test anxiety.”
The ADHD students at my community college get preferential access to big-screen computer stations in the library. It’s really a scam. I’ve talked to some of the students and they are far from impaired, in any way.
Then there are the ‘study buddies’ that are big, comfy, slouch chairs (replicating cartoon characters) to reduce student anxiety.
JACOBIN
Here’s How Economic Populism Can Win
By
Jared Abbott
Dustin Guastella
Sean Mason
To win competitive districts, left-wing candidates must challenge both economic oligarchy and cultural elitism.
https://jacobin.com/2024/12/democrats-dealignment-populism-culture-class
Interesting. My nephew is a regional Dem bigwig in the Bible Belt, and gay. After a long climb he is firmly established PMC. Before the election, he said he felt “pretty good” about Harris’ chances after attending the Convention, etc. Because I love him, I gingerly rejoined, “I wish I agreed, and hate saying ‘I’ve usually been right’ about Dems in the last 10 years.”
Anyway, talked to him today for the first time since the election. Sounded him on his post-mortem take. “Carville was right: It’s the economy, stupid. Our problem is poor economic messaging and disinformation.
“Harris actually had good economic policies. First time homebuyer aid…”
And I pushed back here. Asked what “material benefits” she offered to more than first-time home-buyers and families wanting help buying baby carriages. Asked why Dems aren’t offering solutions to the main economic drivers of majority concern: rent, health insurance, Social Security protection, etc.
He basically said “Sounds good but can’t because gerrymandering.”
Similar on culture issues. Can’t credit that old Libs like me see valid concern re: trans women in high school sports, etc.
So “better messaging on failed priorities” seems his solution moving forward. And he’s sanguine on mid-term Dem success. Says hair-on-fire reactions to the shift to Team Red are exaggerated and alarmist. Everything is fine.
Normally I would ignore this but since it is a piece by Davide Maria De Luca who moved to UKR recently to report from there I post it.
Ukraine, a Late-Capitalist War Effort
By
Davide Maria De Luca
Years into the war with Russia, the Ukrainian state has not resorted to widespread nationalizations or labor conscription. Unlike the total mobilizations of the last century, Ukraine’s war effort heavily relies on market mechanisms and civilian donations.
https://jacobin.com/2024/12/ukraine-late-capitalism-war-russia
His Substack in Italian (DMDL is not a narcotics name but his initials)
https://dmdl.substack.com/
(It’s amazing how many languages there are and how little their national press-es are prominent in intern. discourse next to English and a tiny bit of French outlets.)
I read that and found it very enlightening. So DTEK (the Ukrainian energy company) is reserving power for oligarch-owned entities like big department stores. No shocker (pun intended.)
There hasn’t been a war effort in the US where the private sector was asked to sacrifice much of anything since WWII or maybe Korea (I was too young to remember the Korean war.) We’ve had neo-liberal wars ever since Vietnam ended.
Russia has been rather forgiving in not waging war directly on late-stage capitalism. Such a strategy would lead to targeting things like that big department store, in order to hurt the foreigners who own it. Quite possibly, the fact that a similar department store exists in Moscow with the same foreign owner may be playing a role.
I would have thought that bombing Ukraine’s central bank would have been a day one target. Reducing the Kiev airport to Gaza-style rubble would have also hurt foreign capital (Ryan Air CEO was caught complaining about the loss of the Ukrainian market due to commercial flights being banned.)
The problem for Ukraine is that the neo-liberal way of war is leading to defeat. Had they done a total mobilization and nationalized industries, perhaps they would be winning.
Pay the bribe, or die, in the name of the free market.
This is very interesting: John Helmer answering questions.
Politics meets gossip.
https://johnhelmer.org/direct-line-from-the-alt-media-answers-to-reader-questions-and-other-home-truths/#more-71671
e.g. on himself:
“I was declared persona non grata by the Foreign Ministry in September 2010, and the ban has been confirmed to last fifteen years until November 2025. This was an action taken, not by the FSB or SVR which reported they had no security concern, but personally on the order of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. (…) Requests by oligarchs in the oil and mining businesses to invite me for short trips to meetings at their companies have all been refused. In July 2023 Lavrov personally refused to suspend the ban temporarily to allow me to accompany my wife’s body home to her funeral and burial in Tomsk. Judge for yourself what reason an individual has to behave like this continuously over fourteen years. I don’t know it.”
e.g. on Doctorow, the “THE DURAN affair” and Doctorow’s business relations:
-“I understand that Dr Doctorow was very upset at having to debate the evidence for the views he propounds, based, he says himself, on watching Russian television talk shows. He was so upset he almost walked away from his microphone in his Brussels house. I don’t know what he did later with the podcasters, Alexander Mercouris and Alex Christoforou, behind the scenes. They subsequently cancelled a podcast they had commissioned with me on the Skripal case and they have banned me altogether, without explanation. “
–What Doctorow has allowed to be publicly known through a 1999 email of his is that after he graduated from Columbia with a doctorate which took eight years to complete, he went to work for the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX). This organisation was established to promote academic exchanges between the US and the Soviet Union. It was indirectly funded by the CIA; if that was suspected by the KGB, it has been corroborated by US researchers and confirmed by Doctorow himself. He then says he moved to Russia for “the relatively cleaner business of strong drinks.” He became a Russian sales manager for a London-listed company called United Distillers, which subsequently turned into Guinness and then Diageo. During the Yeltsin administration, Doctorow says he was “Mr Smirnoff, Mr Johnnie Walker”. “Very congenial business”, he called it: “also very politicized business”.
-Diageo claims to have left its business in Russia when the Special Military Operation began. In the two years since, its share price and market capitalization have dropped by 36%. (…) But Diageo’s alcohol brands keep coming into the Moscow market, often through schemes of sanctions-busting parallel imports through Dubai and other ports of convenience.”
-“Doctorow was asked for comment or correction “in the event you detect error of fact or analysis in relation to the report on your business in Russia for IREX and then United Distillers (Diageo).” He replied: “I write to you only to assert that you have maliciously distorted every aspect of my professional career within the possibilities of someone who has not researched it beyond reading the back cover of my Memoirs of a Russianist Volume II. (…) I will not do you the honor of a public response.””
p.s. however considering Doctorow’s frequency with posts and work he invests into his online news presence makes me think he might only skim the business cream. Not unusual or indecent for an older fella.
As Capote said, all (great) literature is gossip.