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Links 1/18/2025

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Three million years ago, our ancestors were vegetarian ScienceDaily (Kevin W)

Iron Age DNA Reveals Women Dominated Pre-Roman Britain ScienceAlert (Chuck L)

Regency Sex Ed History News Network (Anthony L)

The Power of Prayer aeon. Micael T: “Can you Luigi oligarchs through prayers? Will we see oligarchs with lifeguards protecting them from prayers?”

Honey, I forgot to duck: Jackson Lears London Review of Books (Anthony L). On Max Boot on Reagan.

Them and us: How good are we at getting on with one another? Times Literary Supplement (Anthony L)

The Adults in the Room Michael Ignatieff (Anthony L)

Younger Women Are Now More At-Risk for Cancer Than Men Wall Street Journal (Micael T). Have not found a non-paywalled version. Another report on the same data: Cancer cases are increasing in women while declining in men, report finds NBC

#COVID-19/Pandemics

Rise of vaccine distrust – why more of us are questioning jabs BBC (Kevin W)

Avian influenza outbreak in Georgia halts sale of poultry, forces quarantine Fox5. KLG: “Northern part of Georgia is chicken central”

Climate/Environment

Trouble Transitioning Adam Tooze, London Review of Books (Anthony L)

China?

CHINA’S CONTEMPORARY PARADOX: RISING INEQUALITY, FALLING SUPPORT FOR REDISTRIBUTION World Inequality Database (Micael T)

Trump holds ‘very good’ call with China’s Xi RT

Beijing calls Biden a ‘liar’ and says hello to Trump Asia Times (Kevin W)

India

Wed or I’ll shoot: Inside the criminal world where young men are forced to marry at gunpoint RT (Chuck L)

European Disunion

ECB Faces a Problem: Euro Area Services Inflation Stuck at 4.0% for 13th Month. CPI Accelerates Further, as Energy & Durable Goods Stopped Plunging Wolf Richter

EU faces up to €1 trillion loss for cutting Russian gas – Moscow sovereign wealth fund RT

Old Blighty

UK economy sliding back into recession London Loves Business

Oldham gang rape survivor blasts ‘appalling’ Labour plan for local grooming inquiries and ‘rapid audit’ Independent (Kevin W)

Israel v. The Resistance

Israel Admits Failure in Gaza John Mearshemer

Ceasefire and colonial self-cannibalization Alon Mizrahi

Starmer’s Support for Gaza Ceasefire Riddled With Lies Jonathan Cook

All the uncertainties surrounding the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal Thomas Fazi

New Not-So-Cold War

How the West Was Lost American Affairs Journal (Anthony L)

Ukraine’s Debt: an instrument of pressure and spoliation in the hands of creditors CADTM (Micael T)

Dusk for Norway is dawn for Russia’: The looming gas crisis facing the West Telegraph

Game Changer — Russia and Iran Sign Mutual Security Agreement Larry Johnson. This is more than was expected.

Inside the Russia-Iran Comprehensive Partnership Treaty: What’s In It and Why It Matters Sputnik (Kevin W)

SITREP 1/17/25: Russia-Iran’s Landmark Agreement Imitated in Starmer’s Last Minute Kiev Stunt Simplicius

Getting Russia Wrong: A Quarter Century of Putin American Conservative (Anthony L)

What will a “European Armenia” bring? Strategic Culture (Micael T)

6 questions and answers about the document signed between Armenia and the USA Media Max (Michael T)

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

WEF Director Backs UN’s Pro-Censorship AI Watchdog Reclaim the Net (Tom D)

Lawsuit alleges Vermont tracks pregnant women deemed unsuitable for parenthood Associated Press. Paul R: “Lebensunwertes Leben. Apparently they tracked when pregnant women had mental health episodes, and flagged them to have the kids taken away once born.”

Imperial Collapse Watch

Wars top global risk as Davos elite gathers in shadow of fragmented world Reuters

Trump 2.0

Authorities Preparing For “Worst Case Scenarios” Ahead of Trump Inauguration Modernity

Georgia appeals court upholds partial dismissal of Trump election interference case Courthouse News

Yellen: Debt limit will be hit day after Trump’s inauguration The Hill. Another Biden parting present

U.S. Shale’s Capital Discipline Outweighs Trump’s Pro-Growth Rhetoric OilPrice

Everyone has their reasons Jan-Werner Müller, London Review of Books. Anthony L: “The LRB’s idea of brilliant political analyst is back”

Biden

Remembering The Golden Years: Here Are The 11 Best Moments Of Biden’s Presidency Babylon Bee

Biden in His Bunker Philip Pikington

California Burning

Los Angeles fires survivors face arduous federal aid process, delayed payouts WSWS

Wildfire smoke is always toxic. LA’s is even worse. Grist. Remember the first responders at 9/11? Same potential health damage on a bigger scale

Immigration

Trump to Launch Mass Deportation Raids in Chicago on Tuesday – SEIU 1199 to Face Leadership Challenge Mike Elk

Senate advances Laken Riley Act, teeing up final vote The Hill

Our No Longer Free Press

Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban, Biden stays execution — but broad power now lies with Trump Drop Site (Li)

TikTok says it will ‘go dark’ on Sunday without US government action BBC

VIDEO: Sam Husseini’s Viral Confrontation With Blinken Decensored. Lambert featured this appalling conduct, but many of the videos were not the best, and this one gives a fuller picture of what transpired.

CNN In DEEP TROUBLE With Defamation Case: Legal Analyst Jonathan Turley Warns Glenn Greenwald

Mr. Market is Moody

Investor who predicted dot-com crash issues chilling three-word warning as another market storm brews Daily Mail (Li)

Trump’s plans could trigger liquidity crises across Europe and Asia South China Morning Post

US financial deregulation would raise crisis risks, French central bank chief says Reuters

AI

Falling for the Algorithm: New Study Reveals Emotional Bonds Between Users and ChatGPT ScienceBlog (Dr. Kevin)

The Bezzle

Wall Street could get a boost from $1 trillion in buybacks, Goldman says Reuters (Michael Hudson)

Regulators are investigating reports of property damage from SpaceX Starship’s explosion CNN (Kevin W)

Class Warfare

GoFundMe Is a Health-Care Utility Now Atlantic (Paul R)

Antidote du jour. Lennymemes via Paul R. Legend: “I knew crows were smart but this one is actually dipping his nuggets.”

And a bonus (Chuck L). So why hasn’t this been made into a children’s story?

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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97 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    Working link for “Wall Street could get a boost from $1 trillion in buybacks, Goldman says” article at-

    https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/wall-street-could-get-boost-1-trillion-buybacks-goldman-says-2025-01-16/

    So would I be correct in thinking that this is $1 trillion that won’t be invested in research & development, won’t be used for training & development of personnel, won’t be used for maintaining & upgrading infrastructure but will just be going to bonuses and payouts for investors?

    Reply ↓
    1. JohnnyGL

      You betcha! This is a primary mechanism of how elites use financial markets to under-invest, and lower long-term productivity growth!

      Policymakers used to understand this and the practice used to be banned, and we had punitive tax rates such that it wasn’t worth sucking capital out of enterprises, but, we made a point of forgetting all that.

      Reply ↓
    2. CA

      “So would I be correct in thinking that this is $1 trillion that won’t be invested in research & development…”

      There we have a critically important reason that US manufacturing productivity has now been decreasing for 14 years:

      https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=m2mB

      January 30, 2018

      Manufacturing Productivity, * 1988-2024

      * Output per hour of all persons

      (Indexed to 1988)

      Reply ↓
    3. timbers

      Time for Nancy Pelosi to share with The Blebs some more of her insider trading stock tips like “take a look at defense stocks”. Oh wait she’s not Speaker anymore, so it’s up to (is it Johnson?). But she must still have connections…and a big insider trading broker account. Do you think she is girl friends with once house arrested Martha Stewart?

      Reply ↓
  2. Wukchumni

    Los Angeles fires survivors face arduous federal aid process, delayed payouts WSWS
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    In just 10 days time, a number of homes here that didn’t work as STR’s on account of price and have been on the market for years, have sold to Angelenos presumably sick of the Big Smoke (now with even more deadly smoke!) and wanting to make a fresh start in Tiny Town.

    I’d long hoped that in lieu of speculators with no social skin in the game, we’d get interesting people from LA & SF who wanted to put down roots, and I’m thinking this is a good opportunity for said speculators to get out-as the market is really saturated (350 out of 1,100 homes here are STR’s) and I don’t think anybody is really doing all that great on their garage mahals being wannabe Hiltons, from what i’m hearing.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      Perhaps I am being unfair to those Angelenos that fled the Big Smoke and came to settle in Tiny Town but I would be wary that once they settle in, that they don’t decide that they want to make the place more like how things are done in LA. If they could afford the house price, then they still have money behind them. The reason that I say this is that over the years I have read people in other States complaining how some Californians fled to their State as they wanted a better life but once there started to push for how things were done in California in their new homes.

      Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        It’s quite Lorax-ian here, oak trees dominate the landscape and nobody is of a mind to clearcut them to dot the land with more homes, maybe 30 new homes have been built here in my 20 years.

        I use the term Tiny Town as a descriptor, and it’s diminutive in the same way a 6 foot 7 bouncer who weighs 287 pounds gets called Tiny.

        There’s 44 square miles of town here, populated largely by trees.

        Reply ↓
        1. Idaho_Randy

          Following the Harriman’s sale of Sun Valley to a California developer in 1964, we had bumper stickers made that read ”Don’t Californicate Sun Valley”

          By the late 1970’s, they had pretty much ruined it.

          Reply ↓
          1. JMH

            It is not all that different in the East. Once the “city folk” discover the “scenic”, the”quaint”, the “rustic”, they cannot but want to improve it, add a few “amenities”, mess with local politics, until they have re-created the dystopia they left behind. Then some move on and do the same thing somewhere else. Example: Bozeman, Montana 25 years ago and today.

            Reply ↓
        3. FreeMarketApologist

          Yes, heard versions of that for years (60s-70s) in Idaho, as people headed north as CA was viewed as a place heading rapidly into the dumper at the time. Idahoans were already mad that a large amount of the hydroelectric power generated in the state was being shipped off to CA, rather than lowering rates for residents.

          By the way, what does the picture caption mean “… directs his crew while checking homes for structural issues in the aftermath of the Palisades Fire…”? The issue looks to be that there is no structure!

          Reply ↓
        4. Wukchumni

          I’d take my chances with Bob & Betty Bitchin’ from Pacific Palisades and their lovely offspring Trevor & Truly wanting to live here-as opposed to being here for a 3 day tour-a 3 day tour.

          Our K-8 school went from 220 to 105 students in 20 years, our pharmacy went out of biz, and the feeling is that of a transient locale where nobody knows anybody.

          If you move intrastate, is it really Californificaction?

          Reply ↓
          1. JP

            “Tiny Town”, gate way to the sequoias has always been a vacation spot. It was also a major hippy haven in the 60’s-70’s. That is why we moved to the other side of the ridge when we escaped the big city. When our friends back in LA asked us why we moved to a place where our property values wouldn’t increase we told them that was the whole idea.

            Many who move here to get out of town find themselves with no entertainment and only last a few years until moving back to town. When we were moving, a friend back in Long Beach, an anesthesiologist who puts people to sleep for a living, asked me who the hell I was going to talk to. He turned out to be more prescient then the real estate vectored friends. Indeed good conversation is hard to come by. However judging from some of the comments here it is obvious the people from CA are markedly smarter then people in other states.

            Reply ↓
            1. ambrit

              This Sothron begs to differ. What “other states?” The State of Denial? The State of Divided Mind? The District of Columbia? The Pays de Davos?
              However, you are forgiven. That smoke is notoriously toxic.
              Stay safe, breath free.

              Reply ↓
        5. Joe Well

          The incoming governor of New Hampshire ran on the slogan:

          Don’t Mass with NH

          It was on billboards and everything.

          Reply ↓
      3. Nikkikat

        Rev Kev, You have that right. I fled the state sick of very wealthy entitled people every where, my neighbors did as they pleaded. Destroyed peace and quiet. Thought they should be able to do anything they wanted any time they wanted. Everything was about them. Now I have another family from California with a swimming pool and spa that runs in winter with no one using it. Because they can afford it.
        This thing buzzes all night long keeps me awake. They watch TV outside by the pool on their 70 inch screen with speakers turned on full blast.
        I’m going to have to sell this place and move. Next time I will buy out in the country.

        Reply ↓
        1. ambrit

          If they don’t have a good outside security camera set up, sneak in and pass an old bass woofer driver magnet by their electronic controls for the television. I guarantee hilarity the next time they try to run the thing.
          Don’t try this at home kids! Mom and Pops will be livid!

          Reply ↓
          1. Wukchumni

            I don’t know anybody in Tiny Town who locks their doors on homes or cars, must be one scared local somewhere.

            Reply ↓
      4. Carolinian

        My friend who lives in Phoenix says that everyone there complains about the influx from California. On the other hand her house value has more than doubled.

        We still don’t see many California plates here in SC. Not enough surfing.

        Reply ↓
        2. timbers

          Even my Trump supporting father has told our my sister in Phoenix she might consider moving because at some point there will be no water, so Californians moving to Phoenix may be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. Here in Knoxville, the post office delivery man told me some folks purchased a huge house nearby and completely gutted it’s interior to do their own redecorating. And the real estate brokers mentioned to me when I recently relocated to Knoxville that a lot of Californians have moved here even a sales clerk at Lowes told me she came here from California. The locals have mentioned precipitation in the summer may not have declined but is becoming less frequent but heavier. Hopefully that is a more distant prelude to what awaits Tennessee in terms of climate change. Regarding winters her in Knoxville I’m slightly surprised how cold it can get in Knoxville yet each time I directly compare our weather to where I came from in Massachusetts, it is warmer in Knoxville.

          Reply ↓
          1. diptherio

            They’re getting ready to put in an additional 500 house development in my little rural town of 600 people. I think some people are well aware that we’re going to have some real mass migrations in our future and have been preparing to profit from it for quite some time.

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  3. Vicky Cookies

    Regarding the FOIA’d document about the military and social media:

    While it has other uses, from the perspective of the ruling class, social media represents the privatization and crowd-sourcing of mass surveillance, for use by, mainly, advertisers, and, secondarily, police.

    Reply ↓
  4. Cervantes

    > Micael T: “Can you Luigi oligarchs through prayers? Will we see oligarchs with lifeguards protecting them from prayers?”

    Consider the Magnificat:

    And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” Luke 1:46-55.

    Reply ↓
    3. Henry Moon Pie

      The Magnificat is usually considered a song rather than a prayer. In the next chapter of Luke, you’ll find the Song of Simon, also known in the liturgy as the Nunc dimittis, (the first words of the song in Latin). It contains an “ask” (basically, take me now Lord) typical of a prayer, though not a sine qua non.

      From the biblical genre of blessings and curses, close to a prayer but not quite, here are some sentiments similar to the Magnificat:

      But woe to you who are rich,
      for you have received your consolation.
      Woe to you who are full now,
      for you will be hungry.
      Woe to you who are laughing now,
      for you will mourn and weep.
      Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

      Luke 6:24-26 (NRSV)

      This is from Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount, which he fits into the narrative by calling it the Sermon on the Plain. Matthew does not include any curses, even though the model for this genre comes from Deuteronomy 28, which includes both blessings and curses. Luke is known for often sounding like an old Hebrew prophet with his concern for “the widow and orphan,” so it’s not surprising he lets loose with this Amos-like barrage, but did Matthew include curses originally, only to have them excised by an editor worried about meeting pledge week goals in Ephesus or some place?

      For a classic prayer, consider the collect, found towards the beginning of the liturgy. It happens to contain most of the elements considered important by the article’s author.

      Reply ↓
    4. LawnDart

      Maybe Ephesians?

      For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

      I suspect there are many passages in the Bible that would support our avenging angel’s candidacy for sainthood– Saint Luigi the Adjuster.

      Luigi brought insurance practices into light, and the industry’s human cost, or toll of victims. With one murder, Luigi may have saved thousands of lives and prevented an untold amount of suffering. How so? By making “deny, delay, depose” part of our national conversation, even if for only a few weeks or so, thus informing the public of the dangers of privatized insurance: at least some will have given this thought and opted for programs such as traditional Medicare rather than “Advantage” plans and the like.

      Reply ↓
  5. The Rev Kev

    “Lawsuit alleges Vermont tracks pregnant women deemed unsuitable for parenthood’

    I lost track of how many red lines Vermont crossed here but this was really ugly. It reminded me of how decades ago here in Oz it could easily happen that a new born baby was snatched by the authorities if the mother did not have a husband and went up for adoption. But there is one thing that I am curious to know about is why Vermont went to all these steps to snatch themselves a free baby. Could it be that there is a shortage of children/babies to be adopted? I seem to recall that a lot of couples went to places like Russia and China to get themselves a new born baby but I believe that both those countries shut that particular door closed. But where there is a market, there is a way so is that the case here? Maybe.

    Reply ↓
    1. VTDigger

      Take it from one who lived there, you need only look at the basics, housing and healthcare, to see how stunning the incompetence of the state government in Vermont is.
      I wouldn’t put it past them to try to solve their demographic crisis (which is existential at this point) by grabbing babies at random.

      Reply ↓
      1. mrsyk

        Lack of population density and a northern New Englander’s stubborn addiction to “doing it yourself” have contributed to our “social-libertarian” type environment. Honestly, it could be worse.
        An intellectually disabled person’s world is littered with good intentions gone bad. I’d wager this is an example, some do-gooders idea of helping.

        Reply ↓
  6. mrsyk

    Regarding Ukraine’s debt, this caught my eye;
    Meanwhile, several European private banks such as the Austrian Raiffaisen, the German Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, the Italian Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo have not discontinued their activities in the Russian Federation. In spite of sanctions, they have multiplied their profits fourfold in that country since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. In March-April 2024, they paid EUR 800 million tax on profits to the Russian government without any measures being taken by EU authorities.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      I think that all those countries that gave/lent money to the Ukraine can kiss it all goodbye. They will never see that money again. I see too that the IMF has lent them over $17 billion so perhaps they should not have changed that rule about not lending money to countries at war like they did for the Ukraine. Can you imagine what would happen if Russia occupied the bulk of the Ukraine? I bet that all those countries and institutions will threaten to sue Russia to get all their money back – until they realize that there is no court that will hear any such cases that the Russians recognize. Fun times ahead.

      Reply ↓
      1. mrsyk

        Kiss it goodbye, lol yes. I’m curious if the 2024 deal with private bondholders had any language concerning credit default swaps, or perhaps the derivatives market for mitigating risk no longer exists as the western financial industry turns out to be about as “agreement capable” as the US.

        Reply ↓
  7. Stephen V

    Much better a Children’s Story than Scotty in marketing putting mouse ears on the crow or some other danged thing.

    Reply ↓
  9. griffen

    Debt limit will be maximized on Day 2 of Trump 2.0…I am noting from the article that the national debt currently stands about $36 trillion…so anything the Congress or this effort by the DOGE personnel should be perceived as rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic…\sarc

    I’ve noticed a trend in more recent times, where business reports make note of interest payments on the existing US debt to roughly add up to nearly $200 to $300 billion per quarter ( quoting from a Rand Paul interview in the past week ). I can’t fathom who it was so long ago that opined that deficits don’t matter? That’s right….it was a Republican VP who said it.

    Reply ↓
    2. Wukchumni

      Imagine if all we had was paper money in lieu of hiding that $36 trillion in debt away in 0’s and 1’s on a computer, how obvious inflation would be if the manna was in print form?

      A trillion bucks is 10 billion Benjamins…

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        If it was in paper money, would it be enough to buy you a cup of coffee or a loaf of bread? Or would you give blocks of it to your kids to build play castles out of? I suppose the only real reason that it all still works is that all the money in the world is now fiat money which is kinda a first in history I believe.

        Reply ↓
            1. mrsyk

              When I was a little boy I got reproduction Confederate bank notes out of a Cheerios box over breakfast. I, at a most knowledgeable seven years of age, considered these top tier cereal premiums. They’re tucked away in a box somewhere.

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              1. The Rev Kev

                Sweet Jee-zuz. Can you imagine what would happen if they tried to do this today? It would be totally worth it to find out.

                Reply ↓
              2. Wukchumni

                When I was a kid you could buy brand new 1864 CSA $20 banknotes for a few bucks, how many tens of thousands would you like?

                Now, all CSA currency from $1 to $20 denominations are worth more than the face value to collectors, so technically the south did rise again.

                Reply ↓
      2. griffen

        Fun with charts…from the ever excellent ST Louis Federal Reserve…a 10 year graphing of Federal receipts…I can’t suggest nor will I put forward any notion of Balanced Budgets or any such scenario but sweet good gracious does all spending generate rainbows with a basket of puppies, such that spending or expense overrun must not be reviewed…

        https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFR

        Reply ↓
  10. Zagonostra

    >Israel Admits Failure in Gaza John Mearshemer

    Well what does someone do who “fails?” A weak person would give up, a strong one would try and try again. With the U.S. Congress almost completely bought, one where Bibi or whoever is calling the shots, I don’t think that Israel is weak. Of course failing and doing the same thing over and over is also a sign of weakness, or as some say, insanity. I don’t think Israel is weak/insane in this regard, they achieved the opprobrium of the civilized world, but they gained territory. For the opprobrium they will get their folks at CNN, Pierre Morgan, and the rest to work on mitigating and they will try and ban TikTok and other social media platforms.

    Reply ↓
    1. Carolinian

      Oh I disagree. Israeli power is a house of cards with a huge barrier of PR to keep it from blowing away. This is why Netanyahu fears Trump who is rich enough (and with a new very rich friend) to do what he wants and not kowtow.

      Reply ↓
      1. Skip Intro

        Mearsheimer was asked whether the huge amount Trump owed to the Adelson widow would keep him from getting tough with Bibi. I’m not saying Trump isn’t great at repaying loans, but I am reminded of the old saw: ‘if you owe the bank $10,000 you’re in trouble, if you owe the bank $10,000,000, the bank is in trouble.’

        Reply ↓
  11. Zagonostra

    >The Adults in the Room – Michael Ignatieff

    Only someone with NLP training (neurolinguistic programing) would start an article that purports to be serious with that tread bare meme, perhaps someone who works not for the dissemination of truth but to frame the subject in such a way as to provide cover or direct the public discourse/understanding in a certain way.

    Reply ↓
    1. Neutrino

      You can practically hear the smug, yet tastefully restrained, intonations of NPR newsreaders. From their perch, everyone else is a non-adult, donors excepted.
      Then they return to reading Plato and cherishing their places and roles in The Republic.
      Or was it their roles in protecting Democracy? Hard to tell in the shifting PMC world.

      Reply ↓
  12. VTDigger

    Prayer as vulgar problem solving…

    I’m starting to think that all Stanford post docs do is scroll through grant proposals, send people surveys designed to confirm the grant owner’s theory, and collect the check.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      ‘send people surveys’?

      You mean like WEIRD people? As in Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic people that might make up most of the Stanford student body? It’s a lazy way of doing research but for a very long time it was the standard – and maybe still is.

      Reply ↓
  13. Zagonostra

    >Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban

    It doesn’t matter that Trump can stay the ban. The Congress and now the Supreme Court have revealed themselves to those who did not understand or didn’t care how rotten the government and the oligarchs who control it are. Could this be on giant psyop where Trump saves the day, just like the iconic photo of him pumping his fist in the air post being shot. I think it doesn’t matter. I’ve been browsing RedBook, and if the continues to gain American youth, and older curmudgeons like me, it will have opened up a new avenue for the population to share their disgust…as well as sharing the lighter, less serious side of life and art and increase cross-cultural exchange.

    Reply ↓
  14. heh

    “I knew crows were smart but this one is actually dipping his nuggets.”

    A really smart crow would not eat junk food.

    Reply ↓
    1. Neutrino

      French kids learned about the crows and ravens in La Fontaine’s fables while in primary school.
      My old friend was the daughter of an Institutrice. Her mum would hum the opening lines, and the kids then wrote down the words. They also learned about what crows and other characters, like foxes, represented. One famous example is Le Corbeau et Le Renard.

      Maître Corbeau, sur un arbre perché,
      Tenait en son bec un fromage.

      Spoiler alert: The fox flatters the crow, who drops the cheese.

      Master Crow perched on a tree,
      Was holding a cheese in his beak.
      Master Fox attracted by the smell
      Said something like this:
      “Well, Hello Mister Crow!
      How pretty you are! How beautiful you seem to me!
      I’m not lying, if your voice
      Is like your plumage,
      You are the phoenix of all the inhabitants of these woods.”
      At these words, the Crow is overjoyed.
      And in order to show off his beautiful voice,
      He opens his beak wide, lets his prey fall
      The Fox grabs it, and says: “My good man,
      Learn that every flatterer
      Lives at the expense of the one who listens to him.
      This lesson, without doubt, is well worth a cheese.”
      The Crow, ashamed and embarrassed,
      Swore, but a little late, that he would not be taken again.

      Reply ↓
  15. The Rev Kev

    “Israel Admits Failure in Gaza”

    This must be a very bitter pill for Netanyahu and the hard right to swallow. That not only is Hamas still there but it is still fighting. Even Blinken was forced to publicly admit that they have recruited the numbers to make up for all those that they lost. I guess that when your family has been wiped out by a bomb, that the road is clear to join Hamas to fight the IDF. It seems that no matter how many civilians they slaughter, it does not have the effect of making those people abandon Hamas as who else is fighting for them – apart from Yemen. They know by now that although the Middle eastern countries are not stopping Israel, neither will they accept 2 million Palestinians. And with Trump coming in it is not guaranteed that he will let the slaughter continue either. Certainly the Israelis are not ready to negotiate with the Palestinians and there are a lot of groups demanding that the killing continue. Sounds like the Israelis have boxed themselves into a corner and may need somebody like Trump to get them out of it as they can’t do so for themselves.

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  16. Lieaibolmmai

    RE: Three million years ago, our ancestors were vegetarian

    Well, that was three million years ago. Those people spread out all over the world, some of them ending up above the Arctic Circle and places like Northern Finland when my people come from. They are called the Sami and we eat very little vegetables but we love our berries. Like our land brothers, the Inuit, people are amazed that we can survive on our ancestral diet, but that is a diet only for us. When we eat like the southern farming people we get sick.

    We are shaped as a people by that land we inhabit, this is our ancestral legacy we cannot escape.

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  17. ambrit

    Throwing this over the transom.
    Several major banks have suffered online transaction “delays” and “outages” due to troubles with a major third party services vendor, Fidelity National Information Services Inc. Right on “Pay Day” for many in the working world, direct deposits blocked. The problem being “handled” by “hand” in the affected bank’s back rooms.
    See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIS_(company)
    Naturally, the affected banks are being as obscurantist as they can be concerning this. Boilerplate BS all the way down. Anyone else see anything about this on legacy media? I thought not.
    The above has validated our decision several years ago to lay in a small stock of physical currency for “emergencies.”
    See: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/capital-one-direct-deposit-issues/
    Stay safe. Stay a little liquid.

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    1. griffen

      I noticed an email with the headline late yesterday, like a summary of sorts via LinkedIn…I did not look further but hey it’s a three day weekend for many, but not all and a Federal holiday on Monday. Never a good look, and then wait for the PR spin…

      Cash on hand went from a nice to have it, into the you better have it during the first few days after hurricane Helene hereabouts. Very few locations were equipped for accepting a plastic card form of exchange for their services. Took the local grocery chain two or so days longer to reopen, but they opened for as much as they had to sell….shelves looking bare almost like March 2020 yet again.

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  18. Milton

    Don’t know why the “Authorities” are concerned about violence during the inauguration. Liberals are mostly a passive-aggressive bunch. They’ll stage whisper threats to their friends at brunch or offer up a snide comment to the checker at Whole Foods or draft a scathing rebuke of the political process on Bluesky and how it was upended by Russia ad buys and propagandized Muslim women in Michigan…
    but Liberals will never threaten what they perceive as a temporary stall in the progression to having their WEF-sponsored candidate finally sworn in.

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  19. Es s Ce Tera

    re: TikTok says it will ‘go dark’ on Sunday without US government action BBC

    US Attorney General Merrick Garland said authoritarian regimes should not have “unfettered access” to Americans’ data and that the decision prevented China from “weaponising TikTok to undermine America’s national security”.

    It seems not to occur to Merrick Garland or anyone in US government (except perhaps Trump, it seems) that a GOVERNMENT OR STATE BANNING SPEECH amounts to CENSORSHIP and therefore, in this case, it’s the US that is being authoritarian – and tends to prove that China is NOT authoritarian, at least in this regard.

    Reply ↓
      1. Es s Ce Tera

        There’s a different version of TikTok in China. I’m not aware of an outright Chinese ban, but perhaps someone with inside knowledge can speak to this. Hey, maybe we could ask people on Redbook.

        Nevertheless, if the US goes forth with this ban, that still makes it state censorship.

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    1. ambrit

      The Israeli Zionists, as distinct from “regular” Israelis, do have one for the Palestinians. They call it “RedMist.”

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  22. tegnost

    Losing wars tops threats to globalization by the davos elite to retrench and rally their embattled academic and business leader troops who were sure they already controlled the world and were too busy cashing in as they gathered in the shadows misinforming/disinforming the stupid plebes to notice otherwise.

    There, kind of long for a headline but sort of fixed it

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  24. Carolinian

    Biden in His Bunker hits the target squarely.

    “There is no method to this madness; it is purely a case of an old man whose policies have failed taking out his anger on those around him.”

    And Dem party itself seems to be bitter at all the deplorables who have failed them. And while many would object I agree with this, being a Boomer.

    “The Baby Boomer generation has long claimed to be the generation that embodies a whole host of virtuous ideals. This is the generation that cut its teeth opposing the Vietnam War and pushing for greater personal freedom. In its twilight hours, however, this generation has revealed a much darker side of its personality. This raises the obvious question: are these final acts in the Baby Boomer play revealing the truth of this generation, the real instincts behind the lofty ideals? It is hard to think otherwise: we can, after all, only judge a tree by its fruits.”

    With the Vietnam war on the way out those war protests–often more about the draft–faded all too willingly into the Me Decade. What the Boomers did have however was the energy of a country at the peak of its powers and this carried over into a creative explosion that has yet to be matched.

    In the end America won this cultural war but the rest of the planet may be having second thoughts.

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  25. pjay

    – ‘Honey, I forgot to duck’ – Jackson Lears London Review of Books (Anthony L). On Max Boot on Reagan.

    Years ago when I was in grad school I came across one of the best discussions of Gramsci’s concept of cultural hegemony I’ve ever read. It was by Jackson Lears. I’ve been a fan ever since. Here he uses the excuse of reviewing a book by the miserable Max Boot to write what is one of the best essays on Reagan I’ve ever read. Not surprising, given Lears’ deep cultural understanding of why Reagan was the perfect front-man for his times. He even convinces me that Boot has something useful, if limited, to contribute to our understanding of Reagan. I wouldn’t have thought that he had anything useful to say about anything. An excellent essay, well-worth the time.

    By the way, here is the Lears essay on hegemony. I think I still have at least two dog-eared and marked up copies in a file box somewhere in my basement. Maybe I’ll dig them out; I’m sure it’s still worth reading today.

    https://www.jstor.org/stable/1860957

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  26. Aurelien

    Larry Johnson has got himself confused over the Russo-Iranian Treaty. It’s not the game-changer he thinks it is.
    He cites Article 3:

    “In the event that either Contracting Party is subject to aggression, the other Contracting Party shall not provide any military or other assistance to the aggressor which would contribute to the continued aggression, and shall help to ensure that the differences that have arisen are settled on the basis of the United Nations Charter and other applicable rules of international law.”

    This means what it says, as far as I can tell. The first half-sentence is the bare minimum that any treaty like this could possibly contain, and I imagine that the Iranians would have wanted more. The second promises, effectively, Russian support in the Security Council and the General Assembly for a settlement of “the differences” by the UN rules for peaceful resolution of disputes. What that means is that, in the event of an Israeli attack, Russia undertakes to rally political support for Iran and promote a peaceful settlement. That’s it.

    It says nothing about military action, and nothing about Russian military “support” for Iran. Indeed, the text very noticeably stops short of saying anything that could be interpreted as that. The reference to Art 51 of the UN Charter is a red herring. That Article is just a footnote to the Charter that says that of course a nation doesn’t have to wait passively while the UN comes to its rescue, it retains the inherent right of self-defence that nations have always had. And the Iranians could ask for Russian support if they wanted to, and the Russians would have there right to support them if they wanted to. Nothing in this Treaty changes any of that.

    Article 4, so far as I can see, doesn’t say that intelligence cooperation is already happening, it says that the countries “shall” cooperate in agreements that have yet to be written. But as Johnson obviously knows, nations trade intelligence all the time, without written agreements, including with states that they are otherwise at odds with. All this means is that the US and others are being put formally on notice that the Russians will pass the Iranians intelligence material if they feel like it.

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    1. CA

      BRICS member countries are China, India, Russia, Indonesia and Brazil in order of GDP. That is the largest country by far, and 5 of the 8 largest countries in GDP. These 8 BRICS countries are far larger in GDP than the G7 countries.

      South Africa is also a BRICS member country. There are as well important BRICS partner countries such as Belarus, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand and Uzbekistan…

      The point is that these BRICS countries will deal with each other just as they wish, and Russia in particular has made it clear that from here Iran will not be isolated diplomatically or economically.

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  27. Robert Hahl

    Re: Smart crows. I have seen crows move road kill, flat squirrels, into our birdbath and then return hours later to eat.

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  28. Ben Panga

    Suicides, new tactics and propaganda iPads: details from captured North Koreans expose new foe in Ukraine (Guardian)

    Discovery of two injured servicemen sent from Pyongyang and disguised as Russian fighters blows apart myth that Zelenskyy’s fight is solely with Moscow

    BP: Without clicking on the link, can you guess which Guardian ‘journalist’ wrote this in depth piece full of tidbits fed from the Ukrainian military machine.

    I cannot make the link format correctly but here it is

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/18/suicides-new-tactics-and-propaganda-ipads-details-from-captured-north-koreans-expose-new-foe-in-ukraine

    Reply ↓
    1. JohnA

      Yes, it had to be Harding. In the meantime, the Daily Mail, not to be outdone on the Mad Vlad propaganda, today ran a huge splash claiming Putin bathed in stag blood over the orthodox New Year, as part of a program to keep him eternally young. The same rag that has printed all sorts of articles about Putin’s failing health and being at death’s door for several years now.

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14299191/putin-break-sibera-moscow-mountain-palace.html

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  29. AG

    re: Sam Biddle
    Just from scrolling down his posts…
    I won’t agree with him on his hate speech mania – but maaaan, MSM really would have so much to report on every single day – doing actual news. Yet none of that shit appears in the national media ever.

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  31. Sub-Boreal

    This is just so perfect: clicking on the link to the piece by Michael Ignatieff – the most ineffectual of modern leaders of the Canadian federal Liberal Party – leads to a centrist thinkpiece with an archetypically condescending title (“The Adults in the Room”) which gradually fades into illegibility as you scroll down until you hit a paywall. To paraphrase another Canadian, the medium really is the message.

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  32. Tom Stone

    I landed in cardiac ICU after the Tubbs fire and my Cardiologist told me he was seeing people five years earlier than he would have expected after that fire.
    The ones that made it, as he put it.
    Patrick Devlin, now retired.
    One of the best MD’s I have encountered, he actually listened to me when I talked about my prior complicated medical history and took me seriously.
    Everyone exposed to that smoke will experience the consequences for the rest of their lives.

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  34. Principle

    In other news, ICC meets former ISIS and Al Qaeda leader.

    https://x.com/IntlCrimCourt/status/1880268135099728193
    #ICC Prosecutor @KarimKhanQC met today w/ Ahmed Al-Sharaa & #Syria Foreign Minister @Asaad_Shaibani in #Damascus.
    Prosecutor Khan grateful to Syrian authorities for open & constructive
    discussions on building partnership towards accountability for crimes committed in #Syria.

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