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Links 1/15/2024

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World’s oldest 3D map discovered ScienceDaily (Kevin W)

Babies born on Mars could diverge from Earthlings within a couple of generations ZMEScience (Dr. Kevin)

Lifetime risk and projected burden of dementia Nature Medicine (guurst). Eeek.

Climate/Environment

PFAS: The astronomical cost of depolluting Europe Le Monde

Supreme Court Allows Hawaii To Sue Oil Companies Over Climate Change Effects CBS

The utterly plausible case that climate change makes London much colder Financial Times

World’s record heat is worsening air pollution and health in Global South Mongabay

Climate change forcing farmers to replace cows with goats, chickens with ducks FirstPost

China?

US finalizes rule to effectively ban Chinese vehicles, which could include Polestar The Verge

Why China’s Ice Silk Road has Trump up in Arctic arms Asia Times (Kevin W)

TSMC ‘a piece of meat on the chopping block’ the US would rather destroy than lose: spokesperson Global Times (guurst)

China plans to blow Starlink out of the sky in a Taiwan war Asia Times

Koreas

S Korea impeached president arrested after investigators scale walls BBC. Wowsers

O Canada

Canada Says It Will Match US Tariffs If Trump Launches Trade War Michael Shedlock

European Disunion

The window of opportunity for a possible rehabilitation of Nord Stream is closing Nachdenkseiten via machine translation (Micael T)

EU’s enlargement process expected to gain impetus: Commissioner Anadolu Agency

Israel v. The Resistance

Israel’s Ben Gvir Threatens To Quit Government Over Ceasefire Deal Antiwar.com (Kevin W)

Trump’s Action Demonstrates Biden’s Failure In Stopping The Genocide Moon of Alabama (Kevin W). Headline assumes Israel won’t flagrantly violate the ceasefire as it has in Lebanon, and that it gets done.

New Not-So-Cold War

Large frontline summary 7-13 January 2025 Marat Khairullin. Grimmer than a lot of YouTube takes.

But then:

Why NATO’s Plan to Conscript Ukraine’s Youth Will Fail Glenn Diesen (Micael T). For some definition of failure. Aside from the lack of a Plan B, motives include having Ukraine seem remotely viable at least through German elections and get Trump attached to the tar baby (by continuing funding by following the ongoing fallacy of trying to improve Ukraine’s position before negotiations)

Russia Says Ukraine Targeted Infrastructure of Gas Pipeline to Turkey Defense Post (Kevin W)

Syraqistan

How Trump can break China’s tightening grip on Central Asia Asia Times (Kevin W)

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Government Sites Across the U.S. Are Awash in Hardcore Porn Intercept

Imperial Collapse Watch

The State of Western Warcraft Lee Slusher (AG). Important

Britain’s post-imperial delusion Unherd

Califorinia Burning

What happened on Tuesday, Jan. 14 during the Eaton, Palisades firestorms in Southern California Los Angeles Times. Live updates

House barrels toward fight over placing conditions on California fire aid The Hill

Particularly dangerous’ wildfire weather returns to California and could linger for months, say forecasts Guardian

Australians may have to pay more for their home insurance due to the catastrophic fires in Los Angeles, as international firms raise premiums to pay for the expected massive payouts from those blazes Daily Mail

1/6

Jan. 6 committee members talk to White House about pardons Punchbowl. Take with your preferred dose of salt.

Trump 2.0

Hegseth’s views on women in combat, infidelity and more — in his own words Associated Press (Kevin W)

The Predictable Capitulation of Tulsi Gabbard Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News

Move fast, break things – sprint to kiss Trump’s ring. It’s the tech bros inauguration derby Guardian (Kevin W)

Biden

Biden Will Remove Cuba From List of State Sponsors of Terrorism New York Times

Our No Longer Free Press

Fake news is not just the practise of the Right Bill Mitchell. On economic and fiscal canards.

US TikTok users flock to Chinese app Xiaohongshu in protest with TikTok ban looming Associated Press (Kevin W)

Mr. Market is Moody

Credit Card Default Wave Hits U.S. Banks Doug Casey (Micael T)

Producer Prices Angry Bear

PPI Inflation Accelerates to +3.3%, Driven by “Core Services,” +4.0%, both the Worst Readings in Nearly 2 Years Wolf Richter

Falling birth rates raise prospect of sharp decline in living standards Financial Times. Sigh. Japan has weathered this very well. But it is also very cohesive, with low income inequality.

AI

Training AI models might not need enormous data centres Economist (Kevin W)

Water shortage fears as Labour’s first AI growth zone sited close to new reservoir Guardian

The Bezzle

The New $30,000 Side Hustle: Making Job Referrals for Strangers Bloomberg

Class Warfare

US Employee Engagement Sinks To 10-Year Low Gallup

Even Harvard M.B.A.s Are Struggling to Land Jobs Wall Street Journal

Hanging out at Starbucks will cost you as company drops open-door policy Seattle Times (Kevin W)

Drug Commercials Aren’t Just Annoying — They’re Costing You Money The Lever. This may seem like old news (as in the outrageous expenditure on marketing exceed R&D) but this focuses on misinformation, a less well-publicized angle.

Antidote du jour (Cheryl K):

And a bonus (Chuck L). Balance of power!

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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68 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    ‘Mina
    @Mina696645851
    #Ukraine launched a total of 200 drone strikes and 15 ATACMS missiles on various parts of #Russia. The main attack areas were the Tula region and the city of Kazan.’

    This was not really a Ukrainian attack on Russia. This was from Biden as a message of hate to Russia and maybe even to Putin personally as all his plans had failed catastrophically and Russia is still standing. Those ATACMS were some of the last that the Ukraine had a probably the US/EU sent a large shipment of drones to take part in this attack. Hard to know beforehand how the Russians will respond so maybe it will be lights out for the Ukraine.

    Reply ↓
    1. Zephyrum

      I think it may also be one more attempt to provoke a strong reaction from Russia in order to limit Trump’s options in the forthcoming negotiations. Meanwhile even the most liberal Russians of my acquaintance are getting restive over the failure of Moscow to prevent these attacks or to respond with overwhelming force. The pot is on full boil and the lid is starting to dance.

      Reply ↓
    2. Carolinian

      We are counting the days until mad king Joe jets off into the sunset.

      Trump will be no great gift either but for Biden everything is personal. It’s a career of self aggrandizement curdled into dementia.

      Reply ↓
  2. flora

    re: Google re-education camps.

    Many utube channels are already running mirror sites on Rumble and/or Odysee. Good plan.

    re: today’s antidote.
    Blue blue, blue suede shoes. Don’t step on my blue suede shoes.

    Reply ↓
    1. AG

      Are these sickos doing this under outside pressure or because YT staff is actually convinced???
      Lets send YT a questionnaire on First Amendment Rights as a PR act…. ever heard of “National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie”? They´d be shocked. Would be sending SCOTUS to reeducation too if they could. God damn fuckers…stupid, stupid, stupid and uneducated.

      Reply ↓
    2. Wukchumni

      Its worth noting that Dr. Drew (a sex therapist) was an outspoken critic that Covid was no big deal early on in the game, a charlatan’s charlatan.

      Reply ↓
      1. Pat

        In a previous era Dr Drew would have been traveling around the country in a wagon selling ointments and tonics along with a partner who sets up the fraudulent pitch to the crowd. IOW he has been a modern snake oil salesman for almost his entire career and certainly his entire media career.

        Reply ↓
      2. The Rev Kev

        He sounds like another Dr. Oz-

        ‘In April 2020, Oz appeared on Fox News with Sean Hannity and said that reopening schools in the United States might be worth the increased number of deaths it would cause. Referencing an article published in the medical journal The Lancet, Oz said, “I just saw a nice piece in The Lancet [medical journal] arguing that the opening of schools may only cost us 2–3% in terms of total mortality.” Oz’s comments provoked a backlash online, and he apologized, saying he had misspoken and that his goal was “to get our children safely back to school.” ‘

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehmet_Oz#Medical_claims_and_controversies

        And now he is going to be the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Just the man to be in place for the coming H5N1 pandemic.

        Reply ↓
      1. AG

        Great!
        Thanks.
        Fits … a bit….
        BERLINER ZEITUNG today:

        “Right-wing extremist is now a woman according to the Self-Determination Act
        Sven Liebich is apparently a trans woman. The surprising thing is that he is also a well-known right-wing extremist.”

        https://archive.is/vP0PV

        Reply ↓
    4. griffen

      “Blue you’re my boy!”. Frank, Old School.

      I like that bonus antidote… albeit a quick and brief video it seems, like something out of the first two Jurassic Park movies. But very real of course! Imagined conversation between the lions, as the apex predators…”I’m not so hungry yet and honestly, the giraffe is a hard one to catch …”. “Yeah and hyena always has a funny taste…”

      Reply ↓
    5. FreeMarketApologist

      I recently read Enter the Dragon, art critic Dave Hickey’s essay on beauty (reissued in 2023 in a 30th anniversary edition), and he relates Michel Foucault’s interesting distinction between autocrats who monitor appearances and bureaucrats who monitor your soul. This leads to a discussion of Jeremy Bentham’s theory of reformative incarceration (in Panopticon, or The Inspection-House), and the point is made that while a king will uncaringly destroy those who don’t show sufficient fealty,

      “…Bentham cares. He has no wish to punish, merely to reconstitute the offender’s desire under the sheltering discipline of perpetual, covert, societal surveillance in the paternal hope that, like a child, the offender will ultimately internalize that surveillance as “conscience” and start controlling himself as a good citizen should.”
      Bentham’s warden… demands our souls, and on the off chance that they are not forthcoming, or cannot come forth into social normality, he relies on our having internalized his relentless surveillance in the form of self-destructive guilt and henceforth punishing and ultimately destroying ourselves.

      What has happened, that all these tech executives think they should be Bentham’s warden?

      Reply ↓
    6. Mikel

      I just did a search on YouTube with “youtube re-education training” to see if any content creators have been bold enough to do a video about their “re-education” experience.
      Nothing yet.

      Reply ↓
  3. Zagonostra

    >Babies born on Mars could diverge from Earthlings within a couple of generations ZMEScience (Dr. Kevin)

    In time, natural selection would amplify certain traits in the Martian population that would considerably differentiate humans born on the Red Planet from Earthlings

    Not sure there will be any “Earthlings” remaining in a “couple of generations,” if there are, I speculate they will have massively bigger thumbs to scroll through meaningless memes on their Xphones.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      Any Martians may find themselves being unable to visit Earth due to gravity-

      ‘Since Mars has less mass than Earth, the surface gravity on Mars is less than the surface gravity on Earth. The surface gravity on Mars is only about 38% of the surface gravity on Earth, so if you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you would weigh only 38 pounds on Mars.’

      To visit Earth they would have to spend years training in a centrifuge and even then if they came to Earth everything would weigh three times normal weight, they would feel like they are wading through quicksand constantly and their feet would ache all the time. The scifi author Robert Heinlein had one character in one of his books come to Earth from Ganymede and experienced all these problems.

      Reply ↓
      1. diptherio

        It’s also an important plot point in The Expanse series (which, for my money, is the best sci-fi to come out in recent memory, hands down).

        Reply ↓
    2. Milton

      We Gaians find the term Earthling to be offensive. You may use Terran if you so choose but note not all who dwell on this planet live on land.

      Reply ↓
        1. Wukchumni

          I got cornered by a couple of zealous evangs pushing dogma in the cat food aisle @ a Wal*Mart in San Diego a few years ago, and I calmly explained that my cult was much older than theirs and my God shows up on average 270 days a year in SD, the mark of Zoroastrianism!

          Reply ↓
        2. Contranarian

          The level of discussion around colonizing Mars is bewildering to me. The first and only fact anyone needs to know about the planet is that it has no magnetosphere. As a result, the levels of solar radiation are incompatible with life. Sure, we can ignore that, and many other issues, and speculate about generations of Martian kids riding to school on dinosaurs, but it’s never actually going to happen.

          Reply ↓
          1. The Rev Kev

            Agreed. The only way that they could pull of Martian colonization is to have those colonies well underground to shield them against all that solar radiation. So the whole thing is just a scam otherwise.

            Reply ↓
  4. The Rev Kev

    “Canada Says It Will Match US Tariffs If Trump Launches Trade War”

    Canada might have two good cards to play in a sanctions war with Canada imposing an export tax on everything going to the US. The first card would be on lumber as a little bird told me that the US is going to need lots and lots of lumber in the coming months and years. The second is oil going to the US and the Canadian opposition leader Pierre Poilievre complained the other day that Canada is ‘selling oil and gas at a massive price discount to American refineries and LNG plants that are able to massively profit at our expense’–

    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/canada-selling-oil-gas-massive-224743386.html

    I suppose that would cause both gas prices and inflation to rise in the US and I do not think that Trump would welcome that.

    Reply ↓
    1. wendigo

      One current guess is Trump will bring in the tariffs gradually, the boiling frog strategy.

      Pierre can say a lot of things, unfortunately for him the 10 % or so of Canadians that are Trumpers are a large part of his base.

      Reply ↓
  5. Wukchumni

    “We got to get a pound of flesh for any dollar that’s spent on California, in my opinion,” said Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    I get how deprived for porn some of our political leaders are, but can’t they just go on the internet?

    Reply ↓
  6. Zagonostra

    >US finalizes rule to effectively ban Chinese vehicles, which could include Polestar The Verge

    China’s access to vehicle software presents “a significant threat” to the US in that it would grant an adversary “unfettered access” to critical tech systems and the user data that they collect, the White House said.

    I’m so thankful that my gov’t is working to ensure that China doesn’t have “unfettered access” to “user data,” after all, we only want to give American companies that allow NSA/CIA/etc. access to that information.

    Meanwhile, forget about getting your hands on a nifty $10K EV.

    Reply ↓
    1. timbers

      Did an oil change last week at a VERY large Toyota dealership. Very impressive digs. Walked around while waiting, asked a sales rep how many new cars did they have on the lot? He looked out proceeded to named each one outloud. All 6 of them. The folks running this nation have wrecked affordable housing, wrecked affordable higher education, wrecked affordable Healthcare. And now since 2017 when I bought my car at the height of the car glut featuring entire lots with rows and rows of brand new vehicles, they have wrecked affordable cars and transportation vehicles. No wonder its not uncommon to see cars sometimes more than one parked in yards obviously no longer road worthy but a scrace commodity being saved to be cannibalized when needed. We’ll done, American elites. American lawns are becoming a car junkyard.

      Reply ↓
      1. earthling

        Toyota has been cutting production. From what I can see as a hapless would-be buyer, this is part of their business model, to keep demand and prices high by creating an artificial scarcity. You’re supposed to get desperate enough to place an order and pay a premium over list for whatever they happen to let roll off the line.

        Reply ↓
        1. Wukchumni

          I took my Taco in for a service to the dealership and they had maybe a couple dozen new cars, and the Nissan dealership next door had so many new cars on the lot, it was close to bursting.

          Nissan has acquired a crummy reputation as of late, I get that.

          Reply ↓
  7. Mark Gisleson

    If Jake Sullivan starts another war, he should become Gitmo’s sole occupant for life (and his life should be radically extended through science-like, Fauci designed and supervised experiments).

    Reply ↓
  8. Zagonostra

    >Canada Says It Will Match US Tariffs If Trump Launches Trade War Michael Shedlock

    Canada buys more US-made goods than any other country, according to US Commerce Department export data

    What Canadians buy, or already own, is condo’s in Florida. My cousin (lives in Montreal) just told me he is selling his condo in Ft. Lauderdale because the monthly maintenance fee went up 50% and with the current unfavorable exchange rate it makes more sense to sell and rent an AirBnb when visiting. I bet this is being replicated en masse. Maybe Wolf Richter will look into it…

    Reply ↓
  9. Zagonostra

    Max Blumenthal
    @MaxBlumenthal
    In Israel, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt paints the “genius” pager attack in Lebanon as a model for countering “antisemitism” in the US

    What more needs to be said, the U.S./Israel have normalized state-sponsored terrorism.The UN, might as well walk quietly away into the night, it has proven that it is impotent to stop genocide and terrorism, it’s a vestigial organization, serving no function, or at least falling far far short of its stated mission.

    Reply ↓
    1. timbers

      A United Nations without USA and Israel would at least stand a chance of being effective. Those 2 nations being allowed to remain in the UN are in some ways the equivalent to slavery in pre civil war United States – a house divided against itself can not stand. BRICS IMO is getting so many wanna be’s in part due to desire for an alternative UN in some ways.

      Reply ↓
  10. ChrisFromGA

    Re: Trump’s action shows Biden’s failure in stopping genocide MoA

    It’s looking like Trump is finding out that pushing Netanyahoo around isn’t so easy.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gaza-ceasefire-appears-close-us-egyptian-leaders-put-focus-coming-hours-2025-01-14/

    But a senior Hamas official told Reuters late on Tuesday that the Palestinian group had not yet delivered its response because it was still waiting for Israel to submit maps showing how its forces would withdraw from Gaza.
    During months of on-off talks to achieve a truce in the devastating 15-month-old war, both sides have previously said they were close to a ceasefire only to hit last-minute obstacles. The broad outlines of the current deal have been in place since mid-2024.

    This is classic Netanyahu pulling the football away just before Charlie Brown attempts the FG. He’s going to show Trump how he rolls. Those maps aren’t coming, and the IDF will bomb the Gazans into the Stone Age while Trump is sworn in on Monday.

    Brump!

    Reply ↓
      1. timbers

        Yah. I mean to say, Hillary’s Seth Rich approach probably using with her billionaire donors to do the deed operating with or without her knowledge, looks Bourne espionage archaic by comparison. In contrast, using Greenblatt’s suggestion, entire swaths of uncooperative Congrescritters could be made to be no longer a problem.

        Reply ↓
  11. Zagonostra

    >Britain’s post-imperial delusion Unherd

    For when it came, the blow of Britain’s dethroning as Top Nation, by our own former colony, was softened by this sense of kinship.

    I know the Schiller Institue organization is suspect for many people because of its association with LaRouche but they offer nice contrast with the assumptions assumed in this article regarding the process of “dethroning.” In fact, what is happening with Trump’s focus on acquiring Canada and Greenland actually falls into place with the notion of “five eyes” alliance and the theory that was put forward by Anton Chaitkin and Webster Tarpley (who went completely off the rails with a severe case of TDS) and others in the clip below.

    https://youtu.be/utkhD0Gypro?si=SD5QXCriQZ0tvlW2

    Reply ↓
  12. Wukchumni

    The utterly plausible case that climate change makes London much colder Financial Times
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    If there was a repeat of the winter of 1709, the die-off in Europe would be rather on an epic scale…

    The Great Frost, as it was known in England, or Le Grand Hiver (“The Great Winter”), as it was known in France, was an extraordinarily cold winter in Europe in 1708–1709, and was the coldest European winter during the past 500 years.

    Elizabeth Charlotte, Madame Palatine, the Duchess of Orléans, had written a letter to her great aunt in Germany describing how she was still shivering from cold and could barely hold her pen despite having a roaring fire next to her, the door shut, and her entire person wrapped in furs. She wrote, “Never in my life have I seen a winter such as this one.”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Frost_of_1709

    Reply ↓
      1. mrsyk

        Thanks both. I love the painting, Rev. The good citizens of Venice are acting like they’ve been at the catnip. This quote from the end of Rev’s article;
        Modern climatologists have been unable to explain the causes of the winter, but have noted that it took place during a phase called the Maunder Minimum, when unusually low sunspot activity was recorded on the surface of the Sun.
        Interesting.

        Reply ↓
    2. mrsyk

      A decrease of 0.5 PW represents ~16,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 joules per year! 1.6 x 10 to the 22nd. Whoa. About those stronger winds, storms…….

      Reply ↓
  13. ChrisFromGA

    Re: Low employee engagement

    Employees in specific industries. Engagement fell in the finance and insurance, transportation, technology, and professional services sectors.

    Just an observation, the work place feels like the worst it’s ever been in my career. Not personally, but based on what I’m hearing from friends and seeing on social media. In particular the rose bloom is over for tech. I would suggest the following factors:

    1. Big Tech pre-announcing huge layoffs (Meta, Microsoft) marking their bottom 10% for culling. This tatoos “loser” on every future job seeker who has those companies on their resumes and has to explain why they couldn’t hack it.

    2. RTO/RTP (return to the office/past) mandates – clearly Jamie Dimon and Andy Jassy value CRE over their people. No surprise that this gets reflected in surveys that show employees feel that nobody cares about them or their careers.

    3. AI being used to induce fear and loathing.

    4. Corporate America trying to squeeze every last drop out of remaining employees after the mass layoffs.

    5. Massively dehumanizing interview processes – ASM used to screen out candidates resulting in rejection letters hitting your inbox two seconds after hitting “submit” on a lengthy job application. Multiple rounds of interviews including panels for a simple entry-level job cranking out code.

    Reply ↓
  14. AG

    This is German source, in case use google translate.

    Since 2023
    The Gates-Foundation received 600M Euros from the German state.
    Aspen Institute 500k
    Marshall Fund 2,5 M
    Open Society Foundation 5,2 M
    Various so-called American Institutes in various towns each 90k.

    However the charts on the site which are of interest won´t be translated and needn´t be.
    Self-explanatory:

    https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=127273

    Gates received as much money since 2021 as the state has granted Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building additionally for 2025.

    Sick, sicker, capitalists.

    Reply ↓
  15. Kouros

    I like how wildlife uses roads for travelling or resting. Animals are not stupid.

    Working in the Flathead area in the SE corner of BC doing some sampling after fording a creek (bridge was impassable) we found this landing (point of collection of felled timber to be loaded in trucks) that we used as a starting point to get into the bushes.

    It was quite a large area, almost as big as a soccer field. You had to pe careful to not step on grizzly bear poops.

    Reply ↓
  16. Wukchumni

    All the evacuees are gone (all the evacuees are gone)
    And particulate matter is gray (and particulate matter is gray)
    I’ve been for a walk (I’ve been for a walk)
    On a winter’s day (on a winter’s day)
    I’ll be safe and warm (I’ll be safe and warm)
    But if I was in L.A. (but if I was in L.A.)

    California burnin’ (California burnin’)
    On such a winter’s day

    Looked into the remains of a church
    I saw on the internet today
    Well, I got down on my knees (got down on my knees)
    And I pretend to pray (I pretend to pray)
    You know I like the cold (I like the cold)
    God knows I’m gonna stay away (knows I’m gonna stay away)

    California burnin’ (California burnin’)
    On such a winter’s day

    All the evacuees are gone (all the evacuees are gone)
    And particulate matter is gray (and the particulate matter is gray)
    I’ve been for a walk (I’ve been for a walk)
    On a winter’s day (on a winter’s day)
    I’ll be safe and warm (I’ll be safe and warm)
    But if I was in L.A. (but if I was in L.A.)

    California burnin’ (California burnin’)
    On such a winter’s day (California burnin’)
    On such a winter’s day (California burnin’)
    On such a winter’s day

    California Dreamin’, by the Mamas & Papas

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhZULM69DIw

    Reply ↓
    1. griffen

      Nicely done there…it should be ( it has so yeah ) acknowledged that the one music group you are adapting the lyrics onto the horrific situation ongoing in Socal…Well some of those musicians had some children who also entered the entertainment business….

      So for Californians and those elsewhere who face a struggle of rebuilding or perhaps worse still…just Hold On. Below provided by Wilson Phillips…Early 1990s music was going, well a little odd to my young ears so thank you all the Seattle bands!

      https://youtu.be/uIbXvaE39wM?si=9JHVjpVihJ4cxrlA

      Reply ↓
      1. Mikel

        “Well some of those musicians had some children who also entered the entertainment business….”

        And the story could’ve taken a head-spinning turn from there.

        Reply ↓
      2. Lena

        I always found the lyrical advice given in Wilson Phillips’ “Hold On” to be bizarre and contradictory. I have to remind myself that these women grew up in highly dysfunctional, albeit talented and wealthy, families, so I cut the poor dears some slack.

        Reply ↓
  17. Mikel

    Credit Card Default Wave Hits U.S. Banks – Doug Casey

    “This puts the final nail in the coffin of the “strong economy” narrative that President Biden’s handlers and Fed Chair Jerome Powell have been pushing. It’s anything but strong…”

    But all that debt people were racking up was being counted in the BS GDP numbers as “growth”. And they said, “See number. Good.”

    Reply ↓
    1. Zagonostra

      Is it any wonder people are defaulting with terms such as below? It is from a recent email I received from one of the credit cards I hold.

      Your variable Annual Percentage Rate (“APR”) will be increased to 34.99%. This includes an increase in the margin to calculate your variable rate APR. The margin will be 26.49%. Your APRs may increase but will not exceed 34.99%.

      A Penalty APR of 39.99% may be applied to new and existing balances as described in the Revised Terms section below.

      Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        The idea that the credit card interest rate is closer to the actual inflation rate than Big Gov #’s on most everything I purchase-save gasoline, is quite telling.

        Reply ↓
  18. The Rev Kev

    ‘Nature is Amazing ☘️
    @AMAZlNGNATURE
    In Africa, the encounter between two lions, four vultures, a hyena and a giraffe, who did not know what to do next, was filmed.’

    I think that what we have here is a scheduling conflict. The giraffe was supposed to turn up first. Then the two lions were supposed to arrive and take down that giraffe. When they had their fill, then the hyena was supposed to move in and when he was done, finally the vultures would turn up. Instead they all arrived at the same place at the same time. Stupid Microsoft Outlook Calendar.

    Reply ↓
    2. Wukchumni

      For a moment there I was sitting too close to the color TV watching Daktari and mom nagged me to move back, on account of radiation poisoning.

      Reply ↓
    3. Mikel

      “In Africa, the encounter between two lions, four vultures, a hyena, a giraffe and a camera crew, who did not know what to do next, was filmed.”

      Also, what happened to the giraffe’s instincts that had it walking into an open road trap?

      Reply ↓
  19. heh

    TSMC ‘a piece of meat on the chopping block’ the US would rather destroy than lose: spokesperson Global Times (guurst)

    A Taiwanese Christopher Columbus have just disovered American policy, a scorched-earth policy.

    Reply ↓
  20. Jason Boxman

    From House barrels toward fight over placing conditions on California fire aid

    As usual, the money just isn’t there suddenly

    Johnson, for his part, is denying any political motivations.

    “We’re going to look at this very honestly,” Johnson said Tuesday. “And it’s not political. We have to do the right thing for the people at a time when our fiscal house needs to be paid back in order.”

    It is telling that no one is talking about tying the aid to providing aid for the people of western NC. How about that?

    Reply ↓
  21. TomDority

    “For instance, when mortgage rates are high, even the most engaged and skilled real estate agents struggle to close deals compared with periods with lower rates.”
    And this is somehow – news – that FIRE sector actors are skilled and engaged when that can’t sell due to market conditions.
    Let me make-up a sentence….
    Even the most engaged and skilled shoppers struggle when they have no available funds to purchase their needs at check-out.
    ‘There is a difference between talking politicians and working politicians’ and today we have flood of the former and draught of the later.
    Maybe we have a draught of competence in the managerial suites prostate to the flood of incompetence of their FIRE sector owners.

    Reply ↓
  22. The Rev Kev

    “Water shortage fears as Labour’s first AI growth zone sited close to new reservoir”

    This is all Keir Starmer’s brilliant idea for saving the UK. Just invest everything in AI because it has the capability of powering the UK economy rather than just making stuff. They don’t really have the power that those centers will demand so they hand wave it away with talk of small nuclear power generators because everybody knows that you can buy them off the shelf at your local hardware store. And I would bet that any water would be prioritized to go to those AI centers over, you know, that needed for actual drinking water. Let them drink bottled water. And if you protest the insanity of this idea, then I am sure that Keir Starmer would happily apply domestic terrorism laws against those protestors. Liz Truss, come back – all is forgiven!

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  23. Pat

    I know I am probably being naive here, but why would anyone think that only the “good guys” can booby trap personal tech, now that the Israelis have opened that Pandora’s box and done it large scale as a weapon?
    Get access to the right production facility, the right shipper and it can be phones for the Knesset or for Greenblatt’s organization or the US State Department…or…or…
    I know these people think they are masters of the universe, but how often have they been shown to be wrong or to have overestimated their abilities. WTF do they believe they are the only ones who get to do evil?

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  24. The Rev Kev

    ‘Zlatti71
    @Zlatti_71
    🇩🇪 The German left-wing chancellor candidate, Sahra Wagenknecht, has called for lifting sanctions against Russia and maintaining the import of Russian gas. In her view, the U.S. sanctions policy has nothing to do with the Ukrainian conflict and is solely aimed at boosting the American economy. Wagenknecht also described Washington’s restrictions on Russia as a “program to kill German and European companies,” as quoted by Die Zeit. It is worth noting that Wagenknecht also advocates for banning the supply of German weapons to Ukraine.’

    And for having these views, the German establishment has labelled her a hard-right winger and just like the AfD.

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  25. Mikel

    Why China’s Ice Silk Road has Trump up in Arctic arms – Asia Times

    In the earlier days of the SMO in Ukraine, I remember mentioning the conflict of NATO/USA vs “The Others” spreading to the Arctic.

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