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Links 1/16/2024

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How a major bank cheated its customers out of $2 billion, according to a new federal lawsuit Popular Information

Founder of muckraking financial information firm Hindenburg Research calls it quits AP

The Governments That Survived Inflation Foreign Affairs

The Bitter End Doomberg (PI).

Xiaohongshu (RedNote)

‘TikTok refugees’ unexpectedly turn to Chinese alternative as ban looms LA Times.

America’s youth longs for Chinese e-commerce Garbage Day. Worth a read on social media.

RedNote (1):

RedNote (2):

RedNote (3):

RedNote (4):

RedNote (5):

RedNote (6):

RedNote (7):

* * *

Trump is looking to save TikTok from potential ban, Waltz says Axios

Trump adviser says president-elect is exploring options to ‘preserve’ TikTok AP

‘It’s a personal choice’: China dodges RedNote censorship issue as US TikTokkers migrate South China Morning Post

California Burning

The story of how two Beverly Hills farmers privatized water in California Yasha Levine, weaponized immigrant

Anti-COVID groups distribute masks and air purifiers faster than LA government amidst fires The Gauntlet. Commentary:

California utility faces billions in claims for fire damage even if it did nothing wrong Reuters

Climate

Top financial watchdog warns climate change set to trigger market panics FT

First US congestion pricing scheme brings dramatic drop in NY traffic FT

Syndemics

FOLLOW-UP: “Covidians” & Cults Pandemic Accountability Index

China?

China retail giant bans staff from engaging in domestic violence, sparks privacy concerns South China Morning Post

The Pettis Paradigm and the Second China Shock Noah Smith, Noahopinion

Applicants wanted: China’s C919 to benefit as Beijing bankrolls ‘large aircraft’ research South China Morning Post

In South Asia, Power Shifts Usher in Diplomatic Surprises Foreign Policy

The Koreas

South Korean authorities take impeached President Yoon to detention center after questioning AP

Syraqistan

Live updates: Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement awaits final approval AP:

A “last minute crisis” with Hamas was holding up Israeli approval of a long-awaited agreement to pause the fighting in the Gaza Strip and release dozens of hostages, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes killed dozens of people across the war-ravaged territory.

Netanyahu’s office said his Cabinet won’t meet to approve the agreement until Hamas backs down, accusing it of reneging on parts of the agreement in an attempt to gain further concessions.

Commentary:

Bowen: Long-overdue ceasefire may stop the killing but won’t end the conflict BBC

Israel Pulls Out of Gaza Strip as Barack Obama Assumes the Presidency PBS. January 19, 2009, still germane. But it rhymes?

* * *

One Question Looming Over Israel-Hamas Truce Deal—Why Now? Foreign Policy

IDF general credits Trump threat as ‘big change’ in securing cease-fire after Hamas rejected same deal in May FOX

A Year of Empty Threats and a “Smokescreen” Policy: How the State Department Let Israel Get Away With Horrors in Gaza ProPublica

* * *

US says it’s committed to preventing return of Hamas rule in Gaza following cease-fire deal Anadolu Agency

Netanyahu Just Agreed to a Hostage Deal With Hamas. But It’s Not the Deal He’s Selling His Supporters Haaretz

* * *

Outgoing CIA director says ‘no sign’ Iran developing nuclear weapons The Cradle

How US activists are infiltrating Israeli events selling Palestinian land Waging Nonviolence

The New Great Game

Opinion: ‘Armenia and US sign strategic partnership charter as legacy for Trump’ JAM News

European Disunion

German economy continued to shrink in 2024 Anadolu Agency

New Not-So-Cold War

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrives in Kyiv to sign ‘100-year yartnership’ treaty Euronews. “Partnership,” actually.

How are EU gas reserves holding up against the halt of Russian supplies? Euronews

Zelenskyy: Europe has no chance against Russia without Ukrainian military Ukrainska Pravda

Trump Transition

The Senate is considering the Laken Riley Act. Here’s what it would do LA Times. Commentary:

Trump promises an “External Revenue Service” to collect tariffs Axios

Saving the Government Money RAND

The Second Trump White House Could Drastically Reshape Infectious Disease Research. Here’s What’s at Stake. ProPublica

How Trump Got Away With It, According to Jack Smith Time

South of the Border

Depose Maduro Bret Stephens, NYT

Biden Administration

Biden warns in farewell address that an ‘oligarchy’ of ultrarich in US threatens future of democracy AP. Commentary:

Democrats en deshabillé

Kamala Harris Paid the Price for Not Breaking With Biden on Gaza, New Poll Shows Ryan Grim, Dropsite

Spook Country

The CIA’s Racak ‘Massacre’ Hoax Kit Klarenberg, Global Delinquents

The Bezzle

Pension funds dabble in crypto after massive bitcoin rally FT

The Final Frontier

SpaceX rocket launches private missions to Moon BBC

Healthcare

UnitedHealth, employer of slain exec Brian Thompson, found to have overcharged some cancer patients for drugs by over 1,000% Fortune

Zeitgeist Watch

I’m taking my health seriously this winter – here’s why we all should Independent

Kelly Stafford Admits She Felt ‘Guilt’ for Exposing Entire L.A. Rams Team to Sick Kids on Private Jet People

Speculation: Euthanasia Will Become Coercive Lyman Stone

The Co-Opted Chinese Word That Broke Risk Management Oxebridge

The Weight of a Stone American Scholar

Antidote du jour (Derek Keats):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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About Lambert Strether

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

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108 comments

  1. AG

    re: “UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrives in Kyiv to sign ‘100-year partnership’ treaty
    Starmer plans to stay in office for a pretty long time apparently

    Reply ↓
            1. AG

              Endive in fact very much a working class “thing” in Western Germany. So that won’t do for Starmer – unless you’re telling me endive is Tory in GB.
              Or should I say food for the progressives? I don’t even know the proper words any more.

              Reply ↓
      2. Ignacio

        I read fartnership. And Starmer politely asked Z to recruit, please, the 18 years old, because if not the partnership would last less that a wild strawberry.

        Reply ↓
  2. The Rev Kev

    “IDF general credits Trump threat as ‘big change’ in securing cease-fire after Hamas rejected same deal in May”

    Yeah, nah! This general is lying but that is par for the course for every Israeli spokesman so nothing different. What happened is that Netanyahu has been throwing spanners into the works of any peace deal that came up and Biden never stopped him. But then a Trump envoy threw a spanner at Netanyahu’s head by saying that he would have a meeting with him. Netanyahu, who is not particularly religious, said not possible because that day was a Shabbat. Trump’s envoy said be there and just after that there was a deal. Netanyahu is not in Trump’s good books right now and will not be able to roll over him like he has been doing with Biden and Blinken. If this deal is wrecked by the Israelis once again then I predict consequences.

    Reply ↓
    1. ilsm

      Do you suspect Wilkoff said “no more bombs, guidance kits, first dibs at F-35/15/16 parts satellite feeds…..”?

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        I think that it is a case of Trump reminding Netanyahu that the US is the big dog and Israel the tail and not the other way around.

        Reply ↓
        1. Neutrino

          Netanyahu pulled out of a coordinated strike on Soleimani after he had agreed, and Trump would not soon forget that duplicity.

          Reply ↓
          1. The Rev Kev

            If I recall correctly, when Trump was near the end of his Presidency Netanyahu turned on him as he figured that Trump was finished and would never come back so no longer needed him. Trump will not have forgotten much less forgiven him for that betrayal. He has a very thin skin about such matters.

            Reply ↓
        1. The Rev Kev

          That’s “Little” Rubio saying that and I think that Trump will have him on a tight leash. Trump only values loyalty from his team and Rubio would be painfully aware of this.

          Reply ↓
    3. curlydan

      Unless the deal was to get a deal by inauguration for the PR effect (e.g. Reagan and the Iranian hostages), then let things drift apart as necessary. Reagan’s deal had the advantage that a hostage exchange is kind of hard to reverse whereas bombing always can have an “excuse”.

      Reply ↓
    4. Carolinian

      There’s another post today on this but worth noting that it has been Republican presidents in the past who have been willing to pull rank on the Israelis–Eisenhower during Suez, Reagan during the 80s Lebanon incursion, Bush senior in the early 90s. Meanwhile Democrats–Truman, LBJ, Clinton, Biden–have been the Israelis’ great enablers. The Democrats are far more dependent on Lobby money and money seems to be calling the shots. One could even speculate that Trump is sending a signal by making Musk his new BFF.

      Of course both parties in Congress still cower before AIPAC threats but the executive runs foreign policy. I say let’s wait and see what happens.

      Reply ↓
  3. Zagonostra

    >RedNote

    Glad to see coverage of this topic. I don’t use TikTok but my apolitical daughters certainly do. With the U.S. gov’t’s proposed ban soon approaching, they all of sudden are becoming aware of how politics directly affects them, hopefully this will expand interest to all those “indirect” and opaque ways it impacts them.

    I downloaded the RedNote app on my phone, not so much to get information or to be entertained, but to send a message to our unenlightened members of Congress that banning social media platforms, that some have argued is motivated by Israel lobby, does not sit well with me.

    Reply ↓
    1. curlydan

      And the cultural exchange includes some health care cost information as well. Anecdotally, my family was in China last month where my son got food poisoning or Norovirus 1.5 days after arrival. He was puking, had an upset stomach, and was very dehydrated, so off to the Chinese ER we went.

      Long story short, after 4-5 hours in a Chinese ER, we wound up with a bill of 350 Yuan–or about $50. Probably about 1/40th of the U.S. cost in an urgent care clinic.

      Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        A couple years ago in Utah, I was really feeling out of sorts, out of breath at the top of a lift, sweating and not really enjoying life, so one of the Dartful Codgers suggested I take a day off la piste de la resistance and get myself checked out, and so I did.

        Went to the ER in Park City and they took X-rays and did vitals and all that, and could find nothing wrong with me, but said if I wanted to, the Hospital could run a blood test, which they did and again, couldn’t discern anything out of sorts.

        A few months later the bill arrives, and it’s around $4,500, and I think I paid $167 via insurance.

        What if all business ran like that, say a new Tacoma was $45,000 MSRP, but your cost is $1,670?

        Reply ↓
    2. Mikel

      Politics is still a small corner of social media.

      Marketing products is still its beating heart.
      The trick is letting the users think they are in control.

      Reply ↓
    3. The Rev Kev

      It will be interesting to see how big the uptake of Rednote is in the US. It might even go viral for all we know. In trying to ban Tik Tok because they did not control it and so could not censor it, they have instead unleashed a direct line between – mostly young – Americans and their favourite punching bag China. But I did not expect ordinary Americans to be swapping notes on what life is like in both countries and the cost of living and the like. Trump may bring back Tik Tok simply to get those people back again on it and to forget Rednote.

      Reply ↓
  5. Not Again

    Depose Maduro Bret Stephens, NYT

    So, the guy who denies there is a holocaust in Gaza, sees any criticism of Israel as antisemitic and swore there were innumerable rapes and massacred babies on October 7th has written another column.
    Why would anyone read it?

    Reply ↓
  6. Wukchumni

    Its a bit odd having the National Guard with guns at the ready, patrolling burnt out neighborhoods, is ash sifting all that lucrative?

    Nothing, save gold jewelry or perhaps a set of sterling silver flatware-is worth bupkis post fire, and most domiciles wouldn’t have anything in that realm, so which of the 12,000 homes in cinders would you go after if you were an ashen paleface bent on crime?

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      From what you say, people are going to be needing a soil sifter screen and a good shovel. It would be heart breaking to see your life reduced to ashes. But it is only a matter of time until bulldozers are sent into clean out that landscape.

      Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        In some small measure, having your home reduced to a pile of ashes and cement that survived the maelstrom, has to be an easier ending that a home in WNC where the flood waters went up to the attic and then receded, leaving a standing building that needs to be torn down.

        Reply ↓
    2. heh

      Its a bit odd having the National Guard with guns at the ready, patrolling burnt out neighborhoods, is ash sifting all that lucrative?

      Aren’t they just finishing off the survivors?

      Reply ↓
    3. earthling

      I have to assume that road also leads to some untouched homes which have been evacuated and would be subject to thefts.

      Reply ↓
  7. Zagonostra

    >South Korean authorities take impeached President Yoon to detention center after questioning AP

    Yoon, the country’s first sitting president to be apprehended, now faces the prospect of a lengthy prison term over potential rebellion charges

    This country can’t even attempt to charge certain high-level gov’t officials when they are caught red handed getting kick backs and there exist incontrovertible evidence of malfeasance of all types, some “democracy.”

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      That guy deserves a good kicking. It came out the other day that the first time the police went to arrest him but those soldiers stopped them, he wanted those soldiers to open fire on those police.
      Doesn’t he realize that he could have just written himself out a pardon? /sarc

      Reply ↓
    2. ciroc

      In my opinion, an innocent national leader is an oxymoron, so I’m in favor of the Korean approach of imprisoning all presidents.

      Reply ↓
  8. Zagonostra

    >Suchir Balaji

    Not a fan of Tucker Carlson but I’m glad he is bringing this topic to a wider audience. I think it’s important to keep an eye on what happens in this case, especially after two Boeing whistleblowers conveniently committed suicide just before they were to testify.

    The interview is worth listening to (in spite of TC) just to get a picture of how corrupt San Francesco and California politicians are. Rep. Khanna represents the district where the murder (no doubt about it) took place and he seems to be avoiding dealing with it. You get a sense, after listening to Suchir’s mom, of just how deep and wide that corruption is, staggering.

    https://youtu.be/Kev_-HyuI9Y?si=jMTcq23gp-M4jBiV

    Reply ↓
  9. The Rev Kev

    “How are EU gas reserves holding up against the halt of Russian supplies?”

    Maybe not so good as of the past day or two. In payback for the US/Ukraine trying to blow up Turkstream, the Russians have just blasted one of the largest natural gas storage sites in Ukraine’s Lviv region. Now I may be wrong here but I recall that the EU had the brilliant idea to store a lot of their gas in the Ukraine – which just happens to be a war zone. And as Lviv is near the Polish border, I am kinda betting that it was used to store gas for the EU. If so, the the EU just lost a huge chunk of their storage capacity. Of course nobody could have ever predicted this ever happening-

    https://www.rigzone.com/news/wire/russia_says_it_damaged_facilities_at_ukraine_gas_storage_site-16-jan-2025-179328-article/

    Reply ↓
    1. nbvillager

      What is needed is an interpretation of Russia “damaged ground infrastructure”. In my interpretation, Russia damaged the infrastructure that sits above ground while leaving the below ground storage tanks intact. Access to those storage tanks is lost “temporarily” as the above ground infrastructure can be replaced. Of course, Russia can (attempt to) make a deeper strike at another time. Russia is certainly signalling directly to the EU that it can retaliate to the EU (and Ukraine’s) aggressions.

      Reply ↓
      1. Skip Intro

        It may be better for Russia to just destroy the ground infrastructure every time it is rebuilt, or at least every time they want to add some excitement to the EU gas markets. Once it is destroyed alternatives will be found, as an ongoing failed promise, it is more damaging.

        Reply ↓
        1. Wukchumni

          Kiev closely resembled bombed out Berlin after the war, along with most all other Russian cities that needed rebuilding-which they had to do, unlike us who are cool with abandoning our bombed out economy.

          Once bitten-twice shy?

          Reply ↓
  10. JohnA

    UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrives in Kyiv to sign 100-year yartnership

    The Hundred Years’ War, fought between England and France in the Middle Ages springs to mind. England lost that in the end.
    Starmer has a mandate that expires no later than 2029. I wonder how such a long-term undertaking can be legally binding on his successor(s). Even earlier if Alexander Christoforou’s infamous Zelensky Curse, where politicians photographed with Zelensky and subsequently lose office, kicks in.
    Ever since the 2024 election, Starmer and finance minister Reeves, have cited a so-called £22 bn black hole as the need to cut winter energy support to pensioners plus other welfare benefits, and implement further austerity measures, yet to date some £12+ bn has been funneled to Ukraine (together with British passports for the Z family) since 2022, with more largesse to come via this 100 year scam. They really do think people are gullible to swallow that.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      When this war is finally over it will be revealed that the most effective weapon in the Russian military was – the railway line from Poland to Kiev. No, seriously. Along that railway line has come a procession of western leaders who arrived and gave Zelensky a big hug thus dooming them with the Zelensky cursed that you mentioned. Biden’s fate was the most brutal here. And of course with those western leaders came tens of billions of dollars which drained the coffers of so many western countries such as the UK causing huge problems in their own countries. As well came huge deliveries of weapons and now NATO has been demilitarized. The Russians would have been happy with just the Ukraine getting demilitarized but hey, a win is a win. In fact, they should really nominate that railway line for a Nobel peace prize.

      Reply ↓
      1. Samuel Conner

        > which drained the coffers of so many western countries

        perhaps that was part of the point — create shortfalls in the budget through these ‘essential’ foreign policy expenditures, shortfalls that would then provide justification for domestic austerity.

        That seems to be how it works in US, which doesn’t even have an objectively real funding constraint. It must be even more effective in EU countries, which are funding-constrained since they don’t control the currency they use.

        Reply ↓
  11. ilsm

    RAND saving the government money!

    The tanker study is one area I am directly familiar. SAC days!

    No money saved!

    The answer to saving money in Air Mobility Command (they had to put if somewhere, they shuttered SAC) refueling enterprise is to keep the KC 135! Kill the KC 46 which has not met all its performance spec after years of compromise!

    The KC 135 was re-engined with with CFM 56 generation engines in the 1970’s and 80’s. Those engines pushed the fuel off load potential to about 200 thousand pounds. The KC 46 has same off load limit! The difference is the KC 46 is a hybrid cargo hauler. With 2 engines the mission reliability is less than the KC-135!

    As to age, the measures of aging total flight hours and total compression/decompression cycles the KC-135 had decades left, might spend a bit longer in 5 year cycle overhaul and require a bit of re-engineering to certify new material parts but has done the job since 1962.

    Rest of it was same could have had a bunch of grad students…..

    Reply ↓
  12. ChrisFromGA

    Big Tech Is Toxic

    Sung to the tune of “Toxic” by Britney Spears

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOZuxwVk7TU

    Baby, can’t you see I’m calling?
    A job like you should wear a warning
    It’s dangerous, I’m falling

    There’s no escape, I can’t wait
    I need a resume hit, baby, give me it
    You’re dangerous, I’m loving it

    Too high, can’t come down
    Losing my head, spinnin’ after layoff rounds
    Do you feel me now?

    With a taste of Big Tech, I’m on a ride
    You’re toxic, I’m slippin’ under
    With a taste of a poison paradise
    I’m addicted to you
    Don’t you know Zuck you’re toxic?
    And you stack rank me too,
    Don’t you know Jassy’s toxic?

    It’s getting late to give you up
    I took a sip from AI devil’s cup
    Slowly, it’s taking over me
    Too high, can’t come down
    It’s in the cloud and it’s bezzles all around
    Can you feel me now?

    With a taste of Big Tech, I’m on a ride
    You’re toxic, I’m slippin’ under
    With a taste of a poison paradise
    I’m addicted to you
    Don’t you know Zuck you’re toxic?
    And you censor me too,
    Don’t you know Zuck you’re toxic?

    Don’t ya know Big Tech’s toxic?

    With a taste of Big Tech, I’m on a ride
    You’re toxic, I’m slippin’ under
    With a taste of a poison paradise
    I’m addicted to you
    Don’t you know Zuck you’re toxic?
    And you stack rank me too,
    Don’t you know Jassy’s toxic?

    Reply ↓
  13. Zagonostra

    >SpaceX rocket launches private missions to Moon BBC

    Nasa is backing the endeavour, which, if successful, will be its biggest commercial delivery to the Moon so far.

    Interesting how NASA has ceded it’s historic role of moon missions to SpaceX. It will be Interesting as well to follow how private companies compete with China. The excitement of watching that first NASA Space Shuttle take off from Canaveral seems so distant in the past.

    China has a strategic plan to build a space economy and become the world leader in this field. It intends to explore and extract minerals from asteroids and bodies such as the Moon, and to use water ice and any other useful space resources available in our Solar System.

    https://theconversation.com/with-its-latest-moon-mission-success-chinas-space-programme-has-the-us-in-its-sights-233792

    Reply ↓
    1. DJG, Reality Czar

      Zaganostra: Thanks for bringing this up.

      What I don’t understand is how SpaceX has been allowed to push NASA aside with nary a peep from the Congress (oh, well, $$$) or the public. Among the public, NASA still is held in high regard, I assume. It is truly a storied effort by the U.S. government, like the Post Office (alas!), the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, and the WPA buildings and programs.

      (Here in the Chocolate City, one “American” thing that sticks out is NASA t-shirts and sweatshirts, which are more common that other U.S. swag, except for Chicago Bulls stuff, ironically.)

      I read today in Fatto Quotidiano the SpaceX did all U.S. launches last year. NASA seems to have done none of them.

      Something is seriously wrong here, and no one is acknowledging it. See also: Musk out of control elsewhere in the U.S. government.

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        I think that the reason why NASA was pushed aside and had to allow all those companies to look over all their data is that Congress wants space to be “corporatized” and just not done by a government organization. Well, except for the US Space Force that is. They want to give a few corporations the ability to “bottleneck” how the US and other countries get into space and let them charge accordingly. After all, all those space corporations should be good for a few donations after all and NASA isn’t famous for giving money to political campaigns.

        Reply ↓
      2. earthling

        The something which is seriously wrong is 98% of our elected officials have decided to prostitute themselves to greedy monied interests, even if it ruins our American society and lives. They can’t see beyond their own bank statements, nor care to.

        Reply ↓
      4. Matt L

        Mainly because NASA failed at their mission for the better part of 4 decades. Failed project after failed project added up to a black hole of budgetary hell.

        The Space Shuttle failed at being the quick turnaround reusable spacecraft that was envisioned. It’s replacement was massively over budget and behind schedule until the plug was finally pulled on it. The multi-billion dollar mars probe that crashed into the martian surface because of a simple math error. Etc etc etc …….

        Not to mention that it was an easy cut to make in balancing the budget from Democrats and Republicans alike.

        Instead private companies were able to deliver satellites faster and cheaper for telecommunication companies and defense needs and that leads us to where we are today.

        I’m no fan of SpaceX or Boeing or the other 2 or 3 private contractors but NASA failed at it’s mission and failed badly.

        Reply ↓
  14. Wukchumni

    The Governments That Survived Inflation Foreign Affairs
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Back when there was only physical banknotes, countries would go out of business all the time on account of heavy handed inflation, and despite Genocide Joe’s other awful proclivities, that’s the main thing that did him in, how could you not notice the prices of most everything you buy going up in price demonstrably during his tragic reign?

    Hyperinflation has traditionally needed a prop be it coins or paper money, but how do you get there in the digital age where it isn’t obvious?

    Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        Oh, vast oodles of manna have been conjured up, but its all kind of hidden away. not apparent to the public that something is very wrong in the state of den mark to model.

        Imagine the effect a few trillion $ worth of banknotes circulating in the country would have, limited to $100 being the highest denomination, that’s around a veritable shitlode of Benjamins.

        Reply ↓
          1. Wukchumni

            Physical banknotes are but a blip in the scheme of things, what is it, around 4% of the economy revolves around rectangles consisting of 72% dead Presidents?

            Reply ↓
  15. DJG, Reality Czar

    The RedNote chain of info provided by Lambert Strether is valuable indeed, particularly the videos in 1, 2, and 6 by the young women. These three videos have much more information in them than the typical twiXt.

    The question is how much cultural reach any discontent on RedNote would have. Any at all? That’s a question for the commentariat, I s’pose.

    Side note: I happen to have a good deal of respect for Ryan Grim, who comes from a modest background and isn’t all that flashy. He’s an old-style journalist, minus the cigarette dangling off the lower lip. I enjoy his understated sense of humor.

    Context: I believe that it was the Rev Kev who introduced us in a comment to the genre of videos, “How I Figured Out That the US of A Fottuted Me.”

    Take a look at one — of many:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU0iDAYHQek

    I am wondering if we may collectively be bumping up against a real demonstration of those aghastitudenous polling numbers in which we discover that 41 percent of those aged 18-36 have a good deal of sympathy for Saint Luigi the Avenger. When they are talking about not being able to afford an apartment, worrying about calling an ambulance, and being afraid of loud noises… when many of them came to political consciousness knowing only politicians of the caliber of Obama, H Clinton, Trump, and Biden, who would give the herpes virus a good name.

    Reply ↓
  16. Wukchumni

    ‘What’s not in your wallet?’

    How a major bank cheated its customers out of $2 billion, according to a new federal lawsuit Popular Information

    Reply ↓
  17. Dr. John Carpenter

    To Biden: my brother in Christ, is it already happening. We are already there. And you are partially to thank for it. Sigh.

    Reply ↓
      1. Dr. John Carpenter

        He wishes. But that’s exactly what it sounds like to me combined with a last minute play for relevancy and legacy building and a one finger salute to the people he feels let him down. All it is to me is proof he knew all along what the problems were and chose “nothing will fundamentally change” instead.

        Reply ↓
    2. Randall Flagg

      He’s probably also just realizing that fire is hot, water is wet, the sky is blue on a clear day. One of his aides probably snuck that one into his speech at the last minute and he was still not lucid enough to recognize it.
      Thank you President Biden for telling us what we already know. One
      Al least he is bringing this news to more people by mentioning it.

      Reply ↓
    3. Wukchumni

      I most worried about the Holygarchy calling the shots.

      End-time evangs aligned with end-time Zionists could well do a self fulfilling prophecy on us.

      Reply ↓
    4. ciroc

      I feel for him. America has the freedom to be president and the freedom to tell the truth, but the freedom to do both at the same time does not exist.

      Reply ↓
  18. Wukchumni

    The Weight of a Stone American Scholar
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    My dad loved Giant Sequoias, and Sequoia NP was kind of LA’s NP, while Yosemite NP seemed to be more the place for San Franciscans, tyranny of distance and all that.

    We would spend a week or more in the Giant Forest every summer in a housekeeping cabin-one of around 100 rental cabins nestled in and around the big fellas, and I have photos of yours truly clambering on all fours on fallen Brobdingnagians and huge boulders, the weight of a stone being enormous and how can I get on a giant hunk of granite the size of an SUV when i’m 6, very much set me up for a life of climb.

    The most interesting stones are granite boulders in the high country known as ‘erratics’ which were on top of glaciers when the ice age gave up the ghost, and can be anywhere now-seemingly no rhyme or reason to their placement. They can be enormous, say the size of a school bus.

    Mountains look impressive from a distance, but as you get close they’re all the same makeup, which involves a scree field below the summit as long as the steepness isn’t too much. Its kind of like walking through an M.C. Escher drawing-the crazy jumble of boulders of every size that flung off the top and ran out of gravity eventually-all at crazy angles.

    Reply ↓
    1. Lee

      To every natural form, rock, fruit or flower,
      Even the loose stones that cover the highway,
      I gave a moral life – I saw them feel,
      Or linked them to some feeling…

      Wordsworth, from The Prelude

      Reply ↓
    2. MaryLand

      Wuk, your wordsmithing has made my day with the Brobdingnagians reference. We appreciate your daily efforts to cheer us! If you wrote a book about your adventures I would buy it.

      Reply ↓
  19. The Rev Kev

    ‘People’s City Council – Los Angeles
    @PplsCityCouncil
    This video is a perfect example of what’s happening in Altadena. National guard & cops with guns out on one side of street – while community organizes mutual aid & resources next to a burnt down house across the way
    The state isn’t doing anything here other than a show of force’

    One guy had the ultimate comment below and says it all-

    ‘VP 🇵🇸
    @VP1015
    Replying to @PplsCityCouncil
    All able men, none of them really helping.’

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni

      And to think of all the assault rifles in those burnt out homes and for those with swimming pools, salvation could have possibly come by spending $899 instead on a gasoline powered water pump and hose setup, giving you about 2 1/2 hours of firefighting ability @ 200 gallons a minute coming out out the chamber, rat-a-tat-tat.

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        For the cost of an assault rifle, you could get all that as well as a good bug-out bag in case things went south. In passing, back in 2011 we had some really bad floods in this region. It taught me to scan every photo that I had and back it up to a portable drive so if there was ever a time we had to evacuate, by grabbing that drive I would have a copy of all our photos. The reason I mention this is that after every fire, flood, etc. you always see people at the wreckage of their homes and in tears as they realize that all their family photos were gone for good.

        Reply ↓
        1. earthling

          Make copies on thumb drives and give to relatives who live in other places. Because sometimes you’re not home in time to beat the tornado, flood, or fire.

          Reply ↓
      2. tegnost

        The lookout has (had?)* a new video comparing google earth views of initially burned houses that implies to me that chainsaws would have been more effective than swimming pools as the vegetation around the houses featured was thick and close. From that perspective I’d say no one was going to stop that conflagration, regardless of their political leanings or armchair firefighting. *The video doesn’t seem to be up now, maybe the audio problems got it pulled or maybe some other reason, hopefully it will show up again, but those interested can probably go to g.e. and wander around for themselves…

        Reply ↓
  20. ChrisFromGA

    The days of being masters of their own ledger domain may be coming to an end for the banks.

    From the local business rag:

    https://archive.ph/JuT8p

    Buckhead’s sprawling office campus Piedmont Center is facing foreclosure and a huge markdown in its value, potentially a sign of a much larger fire sale of aging properties across the city.

    When nobody wants to go into the office you can only “extend and pretend” for so long. Jingle mail is the final destination. Next up, mark it to “Crazy Eddie.”

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni

      Honest price discovery @ 70% off of the last sale price not so long ago!

      ‘Wide Elephants’

      The phrase seeing the elephant is an Americanism which refers to gaining experience of the world at a significant cost. It was a popular expression of the mid to late 19th century throughout the United States in the Mexican–American War, the Texan Santa Fe Expedition, the American Civil War, the 1849 Gold Rush, and the Westward Expansion Trails (Oregon Trail, California Trail, Mormon Trail).

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

      Reply ↓
      1. ChrisFromGA

        Banks ending their ledgerdemain might have salutary effects. Imagine a group of investors pooling together $15M to buy up a zombie office complex. Heck, that’s a mere 15 McMansions around here.

        Put in some fresh carpet, a massage studio, and cut the rents. Now you’re undercutting the latest LEED-certified palace and that’s capitalism at work.

        Or just bulldoze and build affordable apartments.

        Reply ↓
        1. Wukchumni

          Aside from the obvious that the vast majority of us won’t forsake our homes in order to be at work all the time, how far do single family houses have to fall?

          If you were Big Insurance and saw what went down in LA it would only behoove you to get the hell out of dodge, and no insurance=no mortgage tickee.

          Reply ↓
          1. ChrisFromGA

            I feel for all those displaced by the fires, even those that can afford to rebuild damn the torpedoes of corrupt insurance companies.

            (As an aside, is there anything more deserving of our wrath than insurance companies?)

            Perhaps the worst of both worlds is the comeback of the “company town.” You live in an apartment right next door to the office. The boss man is your landlord.

            Reply ↓
            1. Wukchumni

              What’s really maddening about the cold-blooded insurance industry, is one of them uses a Gecko as their spokesperson, 4 legs good with an English accent no less.

              My buddy is driving down to LA with a whole bunch of clothes shoes and whatnot, and most of the places accepting donations only want new stuff now.

              Reply ↓
            2. mrsyk

              anything more deserving of our wrath, perhaps not, but there are many on equal footing, pick your poison. Climate change has certainly caused headwinds for the insurance industry. So the American dream is swirling the toilet as homeownership as a means to accumulate wealth over time is vanishing from the landscape. Leaves me wondering what comes next.

              Reply ↓
              1. Wukchumni

                My cheap made in China crystal ball I purchased @ Wal*Mart is only good for events a month out-6 weeks tops, and I can give you the all-clear until then.

                Reply ↓
    1. Zagonostra

      When will we see behind the scenes “suppressing of free speech” on Ytube? But not to worry, they are private corporations, it’s not like the gov’t is involved, oh wait, forget that last clause.

      Reply ↓
  22. t

    No way to know I suppose, but curious about the number of Chinese-American conversations on RedNote with the Chinese using the English they know, instead of apps, for chatting.

    Reply ↓
  23. Mikel

    “Xiaohongshu opened a window for Americans to learn more about China by directly interacting with Chinese people.”

    Not too mention that China has a lot of exports to sell.
    ………
    But note the American inspired marketing campaign.

    “Directly interacting” – look at that being redefined. Directly interacting was accepted as meaning in person and in the same space.

    Advertising and marketing campaigns for products being framed as “changing the world”…how quickly we forget.

    Just because it’s in a different language, doesn make it less a variation of campaigns like “Don’t be evil” and “the future won’t be like 1984”.

    All roads (and apparently Belts and Roads) leading to surveillance capitalism.
    ‐——-
    No, I don’t think there should be censorship of the apps.
    But for crying out loud, keep perspective about the apps.

    Reply ↓
    1. Stephanie

      Are you suggesting that the average Chinese people that Americans are interacting with may in fact be influencers?

      Reply ↓
      1. Mikel

        Do you think there aren’t any “influencers” among them?

        The overall presentation is so much of what has been seen before in more aspects than that. Marketing and sales tech. Marketing and sales is the A game.

        The spin trying to make everything that has been seen before get a makeover and sold as new and improved. So familiar.

        “Directly interacting” – on a mediated platform????

        Reply ↓
  24. flora

    File under LA wildfires.
    From the LATimes, no paywall.

    Signs of rent gouging rise across region in fires’ wake, bringing calls for enforcement

    https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-15/as-signs-of-rent-rouging-proliferate-amid-fires-a-call-for-enforcement

    and

    Why does Newsom look so, if not happy, maybe the word is giddy, for whatever reason. utube, ~18+ minutes. Body language analysis.

    Newsom Displays Body Language of DELIGHT Talking About a TRAGEDY!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FEgF4oS5Z0

    Reply ↓
    2. BeliTsari

      Anybody else noticing, their Firefox anti-tracking/ malware add-ons, extensions going nuts, lately? Perhaps, I’m paranoid, but…

      Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        I haven’t noticed any of that, but my minder in Big Eavesdrop, Utah is now hep to me being on skid row next week in the Beehive state/\

        Reply ↓
  25. AG

    4xLONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS

    on
    Reagan: His Life and Legend
    by Max Boot

    review by Jackson Lears
    https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n01/jackson-lears/honey-i-forgot-to-duck

    on
    More and More and More: An All-Consuming History of Energy
    by Jean-Baptiste Fressoz

    review by Adam Tooze
    https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n01/adam-tooze/trouble-transitioning

    on
    The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time
    by Karl Polanyi

    by Stefan Collini
    https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n01/stefan-collini/the-future-was-social

    L.A. on Fire
    by Colm Tóibín
    https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n01/colm-toibin/in-la

    Reply ↓

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