Universe expanding faster than physics can explain — New evidence deepens cosmic ‘crisis’ Study Finds
Scientists Discover Bacteria Trapped in Endless Evolutionary Time Loop Science Alert
Ants never overtake, have smart traffic sense, could solve urban transport challenges Interesting Engineering
Mathematical model shows how conformity influences cultural trends and polarization Phys.org
Octopus Arms Think for Themselves – Scientists Reveal How They Work SciTech Daily
Climate/Environment
These small flying robots could be the pollinators of the future ZME Science
Exponential Abyss New Left Review
***
Federal Reserve Says It Will Leave Climate Change Organization US News
One Community’s Journey to Create ‘Energy Democracy’ Through Solar The Allegheny Front
***
Newsom strikes deal with major lenders to provide mortgage relief during wildfire crisis Long Beach Press Telegram
Modern “plastic” homes burn faster and release toxic chemicals during fires Environmental Health News
Why California keeps putting homes where fires burn Cal Matters
Pandemics
Game wardens went to shoot geese near Nazareth in bird flu fight and found 1,000s already dead Lehigh Valley Live (Carla)
Report warns fatal deer disease could jump to humans. Unlikely, Michigan says Bridge Michigan
Tik Tok
Monopoly Round-Up: Explaining the TikTok Dispute BIG by Matt Stoller
Trump proposes 50% US ownership of TikTok: ‘We’re going to have a lot of bidders’ USA Today
Lol sorry, this may be good for Trump domestically but internationally the US is looking like an unserious joke – the kind of thing they like to paint as “third world banana republic” stuff when others do it. What do you mean TikTok is back? At least Brazil got a concession out… https://t.co/qArrHwiUOY
— Alonso Gurmendi (@Alonso_GD) January 19, 2025
China?
China’s Industrial Policy for Shipbuilding: The US Pushes Back Conversable Economist
Africa
Kenya’s Safaricom faces abductions backlash Semafor. “Activists have accused Safaricom of sharing customer call records and location data with alleged state agents, allowing them to track and capture targets.”
Samar al-Bulushi on Kenya and the War on Terror Geeska
Pfizer Trial Survivors Recount Pain, Demand Overdue Justice After 29 Years News Central
Old Blighty
Keir Starmer touts relationship with Donald Trump as he seeks US-UK trade deal Financial Times
Corbyn is being smeared again – this time to stop protests against genocide Jonathan Cook
O Canada
Canada’s best response to Donald Trump’s aggression? Socialism The Breach
Inside the Conservative Party’s growing alliance with right-wing Hindu groups The Breach
Syraqistan
Trump’s Middle East envoy is considering a visit to the Gaza Strip amid ceasefire deal NBC News. Commentary:
Are these people serious? Where else in the world does “rebuilding” require expelling the entire population? And if Gazans have to be moved, shouldn’t they go back to the homes they were kicked out of in what is today Israel?https://t.co/xyesIeKJda pic.twitter.com/nnTdthXJmT
— gathara (@gathara) January 19, 2025
TERRORIST MARCH Shameless AK-47-wielding Hamas terrorists come out of hiding to throw PARADE on dawn of Gaza ceasefire & hostage release The U.S. Sun. (resilc): “notice the new toyota truck. how is this possible? did idf take over the toyota dealer?”
No Return to the Status Quo Alon Mizrahi
***
One in five Israeli tech firms moved some operations and staff abroad during war Times of Israel
The Former Israeli Spies Building AI Systems At Global Tech Companies ¡Do Not Panic!
***
Graham calls for the ‘decimation’ of Iranian nuclear program after ceasefire The Hill. Water is wet.
The MEK terrorist group: from domestic crimes to international deception GeoPolitiQ
Syria’s Al Qaeda Branch Intercepts Iranian Drones and Armaments Being Smuggled to Hezbollah in Lebanon Military Watch
European Disunion
Fear and loathing in Davos: EU frets about its lose-lose choice between Trump’s US and Xi’s China Politico
Pressman Badmouths Hungary in NYT Interview — Balázs Orbán Fires Back Hungarian Conservative
David Pressman’s departure from Budapest today—reprising his provocations on the way out—doesn’t just portend a new dawn in Hungary-US relations.
It marks a key moment in showing that the whole “aircraft carrier” of liberal foreign policy has run aground.
A few thoughts🧵 pic.twitter.com/TO541cMLbd
— Gladden Pappin (@gjpappin) January 13, 2025
New Not-So-Cold War
Medvedev In His Parting Words To Biden … Andrei Martyanov, Reminiscence of the Future…
Donald Trump Jr. says Zelensky desperately sought inauguration invite Al Mayadeen
Zelensky, Starmer Discuss WW3; West-Russia War, Russia Advance Quickens; Trump Xi Talk Alexander Mercouris (Video)
Russia Says It Will Counter Any UK-Ukraine Cooperation In Sea of Azov Reuters
Ukrainian air defence system on par with US Patriot announced by Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Ukrainska Pravda. Not sure that’s as impressive as he thinks it is.
South of the Border
Cultivating Dragon Fruit’s Political Power in Ecuador Sapiens
Biden Administration
Biden hails ‘extremely successful’ Israeli war that transformed region Al Mayadeen
Biden worked ‘tirelessly around the clock’ — to prevent a ceasefire Responsible Statecraft
Democrats en Déshabillé
‘Lady McBiden’: Alexandra Pelosi Blasts the First Lady Politico
Chartbook 346: Against overcorrection. Yellen’s Treasury defends the legacy of Democratic fiscal policy. Adam Tooze, Chartbook
Vice President Harris faces tough decisions on political future The Hill
Trump 2.0
Trump Inauguration Official’s “Phony Charity” Allegedly Pocketed East Palestine Train Disaster Funds The Intercept. Weasels.
The Billionaires Flocking to Mar-a-Lago to Meet With Trump Bloomberg. Six of the ten richest people on earth so far.
Real estate elite expected at Trump’s inauguration The Real Deal
Trump to suspend security clearances of 51 intelligence officials who falsely implied Hunter Biden laptop was Russian fake New York Post
‘Shock and awe’: Trump plans 100 immediate executive actions. Here’s what could be coming. USA Today
Immigration
Maybe if we’d season th’ immygrants a little or cook thim thurly, they’d go down betther. 3am Thoughts
Americans support mass deportation (until you ask them to think in concrete terms about almost any aspect of that policy), according to a new Axios poll pic.twitter.com/L1S0zT2N1R
— Eric Levitz (@EricLevitz) January 19, 2025
Healthcare?
UnitedHealth mounts full defense of its business in wake of Thompson’s killing Stat
UnitedHealth’s Reckoning: Wall Street Isn’t Buying the Blame Game HEALTH CARE un-covered
Supply Chain
U.S. Companies Stockpile Chinese Goods Amid Tariff Uncertainty Global Trade Mag
Police State Watch
Computer says no fly Lighthouse Reports
Flyover Country
On Development: The cloud is made of concrete Matter
The Great Sherman Land Rush D Magazine. “What happens when $40 billion pours into a North Texas town so small that half its population could fit into a high school football stadium? Sherman is about to find out.”
Biden boosts loan for ioneer’s Nevada lithium mine to nearly $1 billion Mining
Foreign ownership of US farmland continues to rise, but Chinese holdings dip Agriculture Dive
Groves of Academe
MIT Shuts Down Internal Grant Database After It Was Used to Research School’s Israel Ties The Intercept
The Bezzle
Donald Trump’s memecoin drops 38% as wife Melania launches token Coin Telegraph
What the release of Trump’s memecoin signals for crypto regulations Coin Telegraph
Class Warfare
Locking the Door on Corporate Housing Rollups Boondoggle
COSTCO TEAMSTERS OVERWHELMINGLY VOTE TO AUTHORIZE STRIKE International Brotherhood of Teamsters
MLK’s Legacy Is One of Class Struggle. To Fight Trump, We Must Carry His Torch. Truthout
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
211 comments
Comments are closed.
“Keir Starmer touts relationship with Donald Trump as he seeks US-UK trade deal”
The current British foreign secretary, David Lammy, has described Donald Trump as a “neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath”. Good luck with the trade deals and the “special relationship”! (LOL)
You think that Trump has already forgotten how Starmer sent over 100 Labour operatives to campaign for Harris against him? Trump does not strike me as the forgiving type. And Lammy is toast for sure.
Lettuce, turnip and pea.
Der Starmer is the joke.
Until they are out of power, no tourism to the British Isles, boycott of all their scant products.
… “spectral relationship”
‘Alonso Gurmendi
@Alonso_GD
Lol sorry, this may be good for Trump domestically but internationally the US is looking like an unserious joke – the kind of thing they like to paint as “third world banana republic” stuff when others do it. What do you mean TikTok is back? At least Brazil got a concession out of Twitter lol’
Depends on what sort of deal that Trump is talking about with Tik Tok. I heard that he is talking about a 50/50 ownership but does that mean that US part of the 50% will be owned by a US corporation – like Musk’s Twitter? But if Trump wants a deal where Tik Tok would give the US access to all their files, algorithms, etc. aka their “secret sauce”, then there would be a no deal. Maybe this 6 month deal is all about the US getting ready to ban RedNote too if the Tik Tok deal proves a bust.
Ironically the actual Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin appears to be available for foreigners to join now so that’s another alternative
Forgot to mention. When Tik Tok went down for half a day, Tik Tok users in Canada discovered that they could not access it either causing them to joke that perhaps they have already been made the 51st state-
https://xcancel.com/theepopprince/status/1880820077035139275
From what I see, the kids don’t see this as a Trump-Biden thing and view it as the US Gov being childish & petty, like a narcissistic parent, flailing for clout, etc.
I suppose those already on a stream, insta, etc will have no trouble adding Red Book to their list of platforms.
TikTok in the US is hosted by Oracle. You think the US spooks don’t already have everything?
I think the bigger concern is control of the algo that chooses what each user sees.
I thought Stoller’s article was better than Gurmendi’s tweet. In the end, after much consideration and getting rather confused, I could not decide what is more embarrassing for the US: to be seen as a) an unserious joke, b) a joke, c) a serious joke.
Thank you, Conor.
Further to the link to the Jonathan Cook article, an acquaintance, an ex US Fed and Bank of England official, was at Saturday’s march and reported how the police were instigating violence. Said acquaintance wonders if Israeli forces were deployed.
Said acquaintance is at every march, volunteers at food banks, reports rising desperation and discontent and wonders if the intimidation of Corbyn and MacDonnell is also designed to head off marches over continued austerity.
Readers interested in payments and dedollarisation may know who said acquaintance is. We work together on operational resilience and belong tothe same professional body.
The bearded gentleman in the hi-vis vest shown in the accompanying photo certainly doesn’t match my mental image of a typical English copper. A better match for my image of someone from Mossad or IDF (or a Maccabi Tel Aviv supporter).
Each Martin Luther King Memorial day I share this.
https://www.crmvet.org/info/mlk_viet.pdf
“Beyond Vietnam”
Thanks for this. Such an historically important address, for a lot of reasons.
Nope, nope. That won’t do. That is not a sanctioned MLK speech or paper. You will be inundated with an endless recitation of l have a Dream and Letter from Birmingham Jail epistles. References to class are verboten on this day (and any day).
Thank you. And thanks to Public Enemy for their bit in making today a holiday.
My favorite lines –
All my money is spent
On the goddamn rent
Neither party is mine
Not the jackass or the elephant.
One of the peculiarities of the English-speaking world is its immense interest and belief in political parties. A very large percentage of English-speaking people really believe that the ills from which they suffer would be cured if a certain political party were in power. That is a reason for the swing of the pendulum. A man votes for one party and remains miserable; he concludes that it was the other party that was to bring the millennium. By the time he is disenchanted with all parties, he is an old man on the verge of death; his sons retain the belief of his youth, and the see-saw goes on.
Bertrand Russell – 1923 (speaking at the London School of Economics)
“If only the Tsar knew about this!’
I’ve been reading Victoria Glendinning’s biography of Johathan Swift, and I’d be surprised if Russell had not read Swift, who seemed to be agin party politics after direct exposure to the powers-that-be of his time. Glendinning points out that at the time those skilled in ‘manipulation’ made money out of Tory versus Whig. Plus ça change….
Pip pip!
ps I am Little Endian.
MLK
Isn’t that the speech which led the Nazi-Paperclipping Deep State to decide to have King assassinated?
that’s my understanding as well. Dr King was allowed non-violent civil rights activity but apparently his geopolitical knowledge and willingness to address imperialism led to the greenlight.
The line in Reverend Doctor King speech that stays with me is his commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ, that is the rock on which Doctor King founder and lived his public life.
“Love your enemy”!
“Modern “plastic” homes burn faster and release toxic chemicals during fires”
‘In short:
-Plastic materials in homes, such as furniture foam and vinyl flooring, release toxic gases like hydrogen cyanide and volatile organic compounds when burned.
-Synthetic furnishings ignite quicker and cause rapid “flashover,” making house fires deadlier than in the past.
-Smoke from urban fires, mixed with toxins from burning plastics, poses severe health risks that standard masks cannot block.’
I’m shocked, shocked by this revelation. Oh wait, no I’m not. I heard about the same points brought up in the film “The Towering Inferno” – and that was made back in 1974. But there is a new twist to this story. Teslas. There were a lot of these cars in this area before the fire and when they finish burning – eventually – they leave behind a toxic cocktail that requires specialized removal, especially with all that Lithium-
https://www.dailynews.com/2025/01/17/burning-teslas-fried-battery-storage-systems-slow-la-return/
I’ve read lots of stories like this and they all talk about active fires. They don’t mention post fire, completely cold battery. So I’m not sure if/how toxic a cold dead ev is.
I don’t know how many EV’s there were or home battery systems. I do know that external heat will cause them to burn.
And as has been reported repeatedly, pretty much impossible to extinguish because the gases are under pressure from inside the battery cells meaning you can’t get water into them.
Anyway, it does add an aspect of fire prevention problem that is new.
And also a reason for the new sodium chemistry.
Newer home solar panel installations use lithium batteries as well.
No, solar installations do not generally use lithium batteries. The vast majority of solar installations have no local storage of energy, as in batteries, and are simply grid tied. As is my 5.4kWh array. ~20% of solar home installations have battery backup according to a Google search. Unsure of the specifics of the CA situation, but the cost of batteries is unwarranted in a municipality with reliable grid and the cost of suitable amount of batteries would be silly for the few days per decade without grid power. Using a small battery pack (PowerWall) for gaming on-peak pricing may be advantageous in the CA market, but a true backup battery would need to be 50kWh and above which is a lot more than the paltry 13kWh of the PowerWall3.
Here in Honolulu there is saturation of the utility grid and batteries seem to be a big factor in new installs. The utility has a “bring your own device” incentive program to install additional battery capacity to export into the grid during high demand. Don’t know if we have any “Moss Point” style massive storage sites; wouldn’t be surprised if we do.
Moss landing is from the early ages of lithium battery storage.
The AES fire which happened in 2019 in arizona was the event which radically changed BESS design. Better manufacturing cell design, better enclosures, venting, spacing etc. And those improvements continue to this day. Every year they are improving.
Moss landing phase 1, was from the earlier time when someone thought it was a good idea to install BESS into an enclosed space. Phase 1 which burned, was installed in 2020, designed in 2018 and constructed in 2019, right around when the AES fire happened. They should have changed their design but they didn’t. By enclosing it in the building it allowed gas’s to build up then catch fire and also create an extremely difficult/impossible fire to fight.
No one designs systems like this any more because of the AES fire in 2019.
There are many many utility scale BESS energy systems on the islands of Hawaii, but they are all outside, with ample spacing, nothing combustable around them. And many thousands of smaller home sized battery systems.
And as I’ve stated many times, the vast majority of the battery chemistry of newer BESS is LFP which is the safest lithium chemistry. Many but not all home systems are LFP.
Thanks to all. I’ll remember to say please next time I ask AI about anything.
On Development: The cloud is made of concrete – Matter
“Sometimes technology and commerce get a little ahead of themselves. We proceed based not on what we need but on what we are able to do. We set off in new directions before we have thought them through. Before we have even raised the relevant questions: Why are we doing this? What are the implications? Are there long-term costs?
Is an advertising brochure written by artificial intelligence more important than farmland? Are one-day shipping and fast-fashion clothes more beautiful than a mountain gorge cut by a mighty river? Do we need a massive new infrastructure to store our cat videos and uninformed political screeds?”
The last paragraph:
“It sounds so simple to have all of our. electronic devices and magically store our photos and information “in the cloud.” But they are not fluffy, bunny-shaped wisps across the sky. They are concrete. And there are hundreds of them with thousands more to come – giant concrete boxes erupting beneath our spacious skies. I don’t know what we need to do about it, but we can’t find the right answers until we ask the right questions.”
From 1/19 links:
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Says This Will Be the No.1 Most Valuable Skill in the Age of AI – Inc.
“Figuring out what questions to ask will be more important than figuring out the answer,” he says…
Obviously, Altman isn’t going to be the one.
Altman sounds like just another smug geek who blew off philosophy and other liberal arts classes in college.
Socrates has been around for a while, Sammy ding-a-ling.
Well said.
We’re already at that point in the day when I need a spittoon for contempt overflow.
Smug geek here: look, I didn’t blow off philosophy, I flunked it. There’s a difference.
Amidst all that talk of concrete, there was not one word about data centers thirst for water.
In Outer Pentagonia my neighbors have been up in arms about the data centers, focusing on water, but to little effect. A few years back, they elected a Democratic Socialist to the State House. Nothing came of that, either. :-(.
Foreign ownership of US farmland continues to rise, but Chinese holdings dip – Agriculture Dive
Anything about that in the alleged hundreds of executive orders the press is expecting?
Federal Reserve Says It Will Leave Climate Change Organization
Not even simple interst, I reckon.
Breaking News: He did it. The SOB actually did it-
‘US President Joe Biden has issued preemptive pardons for former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the US response to the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as members of Congress who investigated the January 6 Capitol riot.’
https://www.rt.com/news/611306-biden-pardons-fauci-cheney-milley/
So let the fun and games begin by investigating just what those people are actually being pardoned for. I love what Biden said of Fauci – ‘The United States is safer and healthier because of him.’ (bronx cheer)
A point that cannot be made too often: once pardoned, you can still be investigated and lying while under oath is a whole new crime.
Biden just accidentally created a Truth & Reconciliation Commission.
Good point about lying under oath.
I think it is better than that. The pardon means they can be compelled to testify, without recourse to 5th amendment protection against self incrimination. I think the Biden bunch pardoned Hunter so he could hang like a sword of Damocles, suspended only by the largesse of his numerous unindicted coconspirators. Now Fauci can be subpoenaed to spill the beans on whatever he was pardoned for…
Very good point. And as Senator Ron JOhnson of Wisconsin said in interview with Bret Weinstein (youtube – worth watching) – yes we won’t get criminal convictions – but we can expose the crimes, and destroy the reputations of people who live and die by their reputations.
I’m much more optimistic. These scum won’t be able to go out in public ever again.
Doesn’t it also eliminate the 5th Amendment protection since prosecution is no longer possible?
To my non-lawyer mind, seems to offer a bevy of perhaps new issues for courts
1. Can a person named in a pardon be indicted? My reading is yes.
2. If 1 is yes, must this person enter a plea? If so can it be not-guilty or guilty? No idea.
3. Must the person accept and submit the pardon to the court? Seems to be yes.
4. When must the court consider the pardon?
No idea.
5. Assuming the court accepts the pardon, can a proceeding continue, or is it ended at that point? No idea.
6. Is an individual called to testify, but not under indictment, able to submit a pardon to avoid questioning in court? No idea. By Congress? Assume no.
7. If person can be compelled to testify can he raise 5th amendment objection? No idea.
I assume that these pardons don’t excuse state crimes. Is that correct?
Ahh, Katniss, yesterday’s wish has been granted. This should condemn Fauci to a certain level of ignominy, perhaps enough to remove him from the public sphere. I guess they all can join the lobbyist crowd.
“Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
On Newsmax this morning, Judge Nap said that a pardon must be “accepted” by the “pardonee.”
Dunno if that’s true, but milley has, apparently, already eagerly grabbed the life preserver.
But with only a few hours left, can biden possibly leave his own family to twist in the wind? To whatever extent biden is even aware of what he’s doing, I seriously doubt it.
I predict more to come.
My thought, too. What his “brilliant” (ahem) handling of the AIDS crisis did not do this pardon may do. There’s stink to it that will linger.
Biden solidifies his place in history as the worst US president ever. A monumental achievement.
Well done, Joey.
I believe George W. Bush has a lock on “worst president” as he did so much harm, world wide, and ignored financial issues brewing in the USA leading to the GFC.
Cost of Iraq-Afghanistan is around 8 trillion USD and maybe one million deaths of foreign citizens.
And maybe a bit of damage to the USA world wide reputation.
Bush had access to a prudent father with an extensive rolledex of experienced advisors and yet Bush went in his own, massively destructive way.
Biden will be mourned when he exits, with many excusing his actions from dementia.
Chuck Schumer is quoted as referring to Biden’s “50 years of good work” when Schumer encouraged him not to run.
I guess I missed all the good Biden did, but even with Ukraine, Gaza, lawfare, censorship and pardons, Biden did not take “the worst” title from Bush Jr, in my view.
Iraq was bad but not actually genocide.
What makes Iraq not actually genocide, given the numbers of Iraqis killed?
Half million kids dead, not actually genocide. Some CIA & CNN staged massacre, actually genocide.
Almost all of the Native Americans gone, also not actually genocide. No one even charged for a misdemeanour.
Biden adopted Bush’s foreign policy team, and upped the ante, and then there’s covid. Does Halliburton really compare to Hunterbiden?
No, I don’t think dubya has a claim any more. The blanket pardons really seal it.
I agree. Both Junior Bush and Obama way-outworsened Biden.
Chuck the Schmuck meant fifty years of good work for Israel.
I have never forgotten the clip of Biden braying he was a Zionist.
the worst, not in numerical order,
1.andrew jackson
2.woodrew wilson
3.jimmy carter
4.bill clinton
5.barack obama
6.joe biden.
top pick, bill clinton. he almost single handedly destroyed america. he ushered in the forever wars, killed half a million iraq children. had six wars going at once.
his polices imploded by 2008 dragging america and much of the world into a slow grinding poverty, indebtedness, and a slow motion depression.
carter was probably the best of the worse.
republican wise in the 20th and 21st century, almost all trash except Ike and nixon.
Makes the Warren Harding admin look like a bunch of pikers. / ;) (The thing is, Joey isn’t making the decisions, imo. His presidency’s committee , aka the WH politburo, is making the decisions. )
Sorta like at the end of Reagan’s second term when people began to wonder if it was Nancy running the country – along with their astrologer.
Harding was not viewed as personally corrupt.
He was quoted:
“I have no trouble with my enemies. I can take care of my enemies in a fight. But my friends, my goddamned friends, they’re the ones who keep me walking the floor at nights! ”
Harding had many of his “goddamned friends” who were guilty of graft/corruption, but Harding did not push the USA into wars.
And now Biden, in a final blaze of sleaze, pardoned his friends.
I prefer to estimate the sheer harm that some USA presidents do while in office or lay the groundwork for future harm.
Harry Truman, Woodrow Wilson, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Biden are in my personal top tier of bad presidents as they did a lot of harm while in office and laid the groundwork for even more after they left.
LBJ, and his promotion of the Vietnam war, was bad, but he was good on civil rights.
Warren G. Harding does not make my “bad presidents” list because he did not do a lot of harm.
The USA has had far worse presidents than Harding and historians should recognize that fact and not cheer for “activist” presidents such as Truman or Wilson..
Don’t forget old man bush and his host of Christmas Eve pardons in 1988 that kept his ass out of the frying pan. But genocide Joe gets my vote for the worst s.o.b. to ever hold, or strangle, the office of us president.
and Clarence Thomas
This administration, more so than any other in my six decades, has made the case for a constitutional amendment that curtails Article II powers during a transition period. If Fauci, Milley, et al deserve pardons on January 19, then surely they deserved pardons on November 1. Would help voters make up their minds.
Of course, turkeys never vote for Thanksgiving, so I don’t see this happening.
Or we could just eliminate the transition period entirely and have the new President be sworn on an ASAP basis. This would, of course, require that we fix our broken election system so that all races are decided by the next day at the latest.
I have a solution. No pardons during the lame duck period. Hell, no executive orders at all. Let the executive nut up and perform these actions before the election or anytime prior.
I’m curious if preemptive pardons exist in the rest of the developed world – or they are another quirk of American exceptionalism. They sound like a legal absurdity to me.
Selling indulgences? Granting indulgences for services rendered? / ;)
And look where that landed the Catholic church in the end.
“Creepy” Joe Biden as our modern Johan Tetzel? A curia coincidence? Kinda makes me consider the merits of “prestadestination” as a theological concept. It is rumoured to be one of Saint Luigi’s superpowers.
Stay safe.
Also, I’ve been trying to find out if preemptive pardons last forever or are limited to the duration of Biden’s presidency, but I had no luck so far.
Life-long pardons would be horrendously problematic, as this delightful story from Wikipedia about indulgences for future sins illustrates.
“Luther claimed Tetzel had received a substantial amount of money at Leipzig from a nobleman, who asked him for a letter of indulgence for a future sin he would commit. Supposedly Tetzel answered in the affirmative, insisting that the payment had to be made at once. The nobleman did so and received a letter and seal from Tetzel. However, when Tetzel left Leipzig, the nobleman attacked him along the way and gave him a thorough beating, sending him back empty-handed to Leipzig, saying that was the future sin which he had in mind.”
Renaissance men certainly knew how to spice up their lives.
So funny, thanks for that!
From United States v Wilson (1833) it appears US courts have looked to English common law to define the scope of the pardon power; so don’t see it as a case of “exceptionalism”.
I wonder if this means Trump can start serious investigations into these people, not to prosecute them, but for posterity. Indeed, he can even argue that, since they are immune, they have no reason not to cooperate, unless they are covering for the peope who pardoned them.
PS. Oh, you did suggest exactly this. My bad.
Between this and Trump’s shittoken, we’ve proven once and for all that America is not a serious country. Third world stuff here. An empire in serious decline.
Biden pardons Fauci. Oh.
Biden pardons Fauci and Milley in an effort to guard against potential ‘revenge’ by Trump
https://apnews.com/article/biden-trump-fauci-milley-pardons-january-6-3cba287f89051513fb48d7ae700ae747
Milley is a particularly disgusting swamp creature. Biden’s pardons don’t cover the ICJ which might have jurisdiction over war crimes? Genocide of Ukrainians?
‘Scranton Scramble’
Biden almost makes me long for the next teetotalitarian leader
Rehoboth Ice Tea?
FTA:
Of course…
Why not James Biden I wonder? Especially after this:
Comer requests Trump DOJ prosecute James Biden for making ‘false statements’ during impeachment inquiry
It is now being reported Milley and Fauci’s pardons go back to Jan 1, 2014. Strange that…
More just dropped – the Biden family including James.
A lot of people have Fauci Derangement Syndrome.
Trump could have canned him in his first term if he wanted.
I know. I mean, right? / ;)
https://www.amazon.com/Anthony-Fauci-Celebrity-Prayer-Candle/dp/B087NFJP6B
re: Ants never overtake, have smart traffic sense, could solve urban transport challenges Interesting Engineering
It’s always the speeders and racers, those who weave in and out of lanes, those who try to get ahead, disrupting the pace, who cause the red brake lights to light up for miles, creating congestion.
The engineering article doesn’t say how this info about ants can be used, but I’ll make a suggestion – either use FSD in all cars, or narrow the lanes and erect physical walls between lanes, or put cars on rails. These three options seem like the only way to control for the speeders, overtakers and weavers.
BEFNAR* was always the cause of traffic jams on LA freeways…
If we gave ants rear brake lights there’d be mayhem too-
*Brakes Engaged For No Apparent Reason
Wukchumni: Indeed.
On Chicagolandia expressways, BEFNAR is raised to an artform. I recall being (warily) near drivers who can somehow engage the brakelights and accelerate at the same time.
Old Steven Wright joke. Attach gas pedal to break lights…
As someone who drives a stick, have long felt if everyone had to have standard transmission, traffic would be much smoother.
My man! Standard, aka manual transmission. What? You don’t want 3 pedals on the floor? / ha
adding: learning why gear one is different from gear 3 or 4 is sort of important, particularly on ice or slippery steep road grades, imo.
And adding the now older auto transmissions with 1-3 or 4 drive gear manual shifts were pretty important. Back in the day. Are you on ice when starting out? Put the car in D-1. etc. Do the newer auto CVT transmissions adjust for “spin out ” on slick ice or steep gravel conditions? I hope so. / ;)
Ants don’t overtake, because they tend to follow pheromone trail, like a rail. Trains also don’t overtake. There is not such thing as “smart traffic sense”. Writing like this does disservice to science.
Behaviour of ants have been part of AI research long before AI became “next big thing”. Lots of interesting, and potentially useful stuff there.
Also, there’s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEKwQxO4EZU
Not sure when all science articles started claiming “New” instead of more research or new ideas about how to apply.
And the sum of this is ants behave correctly to avoid congestion, we could to.
As a former Crowdoradan, and now in no-longer-MT, one of my favorite bumper snickers:
Did you move here to hurry?
And one of my favorite creatures, who is also a very early cousin of animals, is an excellent urban/traffic designer.
Ants don’t lose their job for being late, miss their plane, or die from reaching the hospital too late.
Yeah sure, all those speed racers weaving through traffic are headed to the hospital… And the ones headed to the airport are going to get there 90 seconds earlier to stand in the security line for a half hour. Sounds like someone is reaching for excuses.
My standard joke after being cut off is they are late to pick up the disabled kids for their trip to the zoo.
That’s why ambulances, fire engines and police cars drive slowly. Excuses. Make sure you block the next one you see. That’ll teach them.
Did I say all ? Oh, no I didn’t. But the article said no ants overtake.
Those that need to reach hospital urgently are inside an ambulance, and everyone will move to the side, at least in the normal world. In USA it’s probably different, because of all the democracy.
“Russia Says It Will Counter Any UK-Ukraine Cooperation In Sea of Azov”
Zakharova described the Sea of Azov as Russia’s internal sea and she right as it is inside Russia right now. Is the UK going to send in warships like they did off the coastline off Crimea before the war? The UK is already talking about setting up bases on the Ukrainian coastline at the end of the war just like they did before the war started. The Russians will not allow NATO bases to be set up to threaten Crimea with missiles as was planned three years ago by the UK. That sort of talk will only encourage the Russians to roll up the Ukrainian coastline entirely.
One point of interest is that since the bridge was built, Russia has required any vessels seeking to enter/exit the Sea of Azov to take onboard a Russian pilot to navigate through the straits. The Ukrainians muttered about ignoring that and may even have made a token and futile attempt to pass through. The British are so arrogant I can see them attempting to refuse to do so. However, I recall the British navy vessel that sailed too close to Crimea, including with a BBC stenographer onboard, when Johnson was still PM, claiming ‘freedom of navigation, but hastilly changed course when they realised the Russians would sink them if pushed too far.
Starmer just took a page from the Truss book. She said that she would never
recognise Rostov and Voronezh as Russian. :-)
Regarding:
“Where else in the world does “rebuilding” require expelling the entire population? And if Gazans have to be moved, shouldn’t they go back to the homes they were kicked out of in what is today Israel?”
I fully expect the West (especially USA and Europe) to push towards “relocating” the population of Gaza via some devious, forceful but not military, means.
Let us take the UNRWA. Its budget is highly dependent on the largesse of the aforementioned countries, and last year we saw how fast they cut or suspended the payment of their dues on the basis of the flimsiest accusations by Israel.
Let us also consider the repeated reports (by various UNO agencies, NGOs, activists, reporters, etc) that the operations of the Israeli forces have turned Gaza into an unlivable space (dwellings flattened, hospitals destroyed, medical personnel assassinated, bakeries bombed out, universities, libraries, and schools blown up, agricultural land devastated, energy, water, and sewer infrastructure dismantled, etc).
All those reports were studiously ignored by Israel’s allies; now they will serve as argument to re-direct the funding and activities of the UNRWA. In simple terms: the West will request decreasing budgets for lorries to bring much-needed supplies into Gaza, and increasing budgets for coaches to bring Palestinians out of Gaza — of course, for their own good, to ensure a future for Palestinian children in healthier, livable conditions, to handle the poor victims of an atrocious war in places with suitable medical and rehabilitation facilities… After all, isn’t the UNRWA mission to help Palestinians?
In this way, Israel may achieve a belated, but total victory: the slow ethnic cleansing of Gaza — unstoppable because of its international institutional support enforced via underhand means by wealthy Western allies.
I’d like to know who is going to pay for all this. I mean, coaches out of Gaza to say Egypt, the flights from there to a place like Indonesia (have they even asked them?) and then the cost of setting up the camps for over two million people and the ongoing expenses of running these huge camps. Initially you are talking about hundreds of millions and eventually billions of dollars. You just know that the Israelis will not cough up even a shekel for this operation but demand other countries – especially Uncle Sugar – to pay for it all. And when Israel refuses to take back any Palestinians what happens to that country or countries that now have all those refugees and are on the hook for them kinda forever.
The budget of the UNRWA amounts to about USD 750 M. It used to be covered to about 45% by the usual suspects (USA, Germany).
All those displaced Palestinians in the Near East (and that includes Gaza and the West Bank!) require quite a lot of support, and administering camps in the Sinai or Iraq would not be fundamentally different from what the UNRWA is already doing.
Sending them to some far away places such as Indonesia will never happen, in my opinion, except perhaps for a few individuals.
Like how all those Jews got sent to Madagascar? Exactly.
Lots of empty housing in Northern Israel :)
Fear and loathing in Davos: EU frets about its lose-lose choice between Trump’s US and Xi’s China – Politico
“…Now, Trump has billionaire China dove Elon Musk in his ear — and he needs Washington to retain good ties with Beijing to keep his electric vehicle company Tesla afloat.
That has the EU worried that if it does break with China, an eventual rapprochement between Beijing and Washington could see the continent stuck out on a very shaky limb.
Luisa Santos, the deputy director general at the biggest EU corporate lobby group BusinessEurope, said the Europeans are alive to the “possibility that there is an agreement at some point, probably after tariffs are introduced, between the U.S. and China.
“That’s why we need to tread very carefully when it comes to China policy at this stage, because we don’t really know if there will be a continuation and possibly an even more assertive policy vis-à-vis China — or whether at one point Trump will have some sort of agreement with China.”
Indeed. I was wondering if officials in other countries were taking that potential outcome into consideration.
Have a Cigar, Joe
Come in here, dear Joe, have a cigar, you really came far
You really flew high, we really thought you’d died, you somehow made it to the top; nobody loves you!
I always had the deep respect I mean that most sincerely
The cease-fire’s just fantastic, that is really what I think,
Oh by the way, what’s that genocidal stink?
And did we tell you the name of the game, Joe?
We call it ridin’ your walkin’ cane!
We’re just knocked out
We heard about the Gaza sellout
You gotta get more pardons out, you owe it to the beltway!
They’re so happy they can hardly count …
Kamalamala is just green
Ignore approval charts
It’s now time to depart
Nance was really such a monster, but we’ll all pull together as a Donkey Team
And did we tell you the name of the game, Joe?
We call it memory care for your brain!
[Acid rock guitar solo outro; Joe exits, stage left.]
Well done!
Bravo!
A real ‘bell ringer’! Give da man a cee-gar! (I’m assuming gender here ;^) I’ve performed that tune well over one thousand times playing bass with a Pink Floyd tribute band back in the ‘90’s – never got tired of the music either. “We call it riding the gravy traaaiiin……” Betcha lyricist Roger Waters would give a wry chuckle – bless his heart, he has remained an outspoken and vociferous critic of the genocide in Gaza and the Floyd album Animals has only gained relevance in light of current events.
So funny!
Interestingly, the article on CWD (chronic wasting disease) affecting deers in Michigan mentions neither the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, nor BSE (aka mad cow disease), all neuro-degenerative diseases caused by prions. Hell, the article does not even allude to the fact that there are other well-known illnesses caused by prions exhibiting the same symptoms and consequences.
Do the authorities want to avoid the impression that there is an out of control “mad deer disease” around?
CWD is just another insult capitalism has had on my indigenous culture. It has begun infecting our reindeer herds where it was never found before. When herding is constrained, the reindeer have a greater opportunity to eat the feces of other reindeer who carry the bad PRNP gene and increases infection in other herds. Our herding communities (siida) used to be nomadic, but the people who invaded our land have us constrained .
We know scrapie can cause mad cow which we know can cause Creutzfeld Jacob (v for variant itself a PR maneuver)….
So you betcha!
Funny thing about this article is the advice to landfill the carcass after one has harvested the meat. That carcass is full of dangerous nerve tissues, but braise yourself up a delightful feast!
Michigan should drastically reduce its deer population. Especially near roads. Especially roads near my car. I feel like Admiral Spruance off Okinawa.
I heartily recommend that you read “Lady McBiden” by Jonathan Martin at Politico.
I give if five meows.
Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow.
Note the solicitude of Grand-Duc Henri de Luxembourg, who undoubtedly was worried that Nancy’s pals Lindsay Graham and Chuck Schumer will have Luxembourg visited by a color revolution. If they can find Luxembourg on a map. Hint: It borders Andorra and Narnia.
Then there is this meowful treat: ‘“If I was Lady McBiden, I’d put on my big girl pants, play the long game and think about my husband’s legacy,” Alexandra Pelosi, the former speaker’s daughter, told me Saturday.’ Mixed metaphors! Self-righteousness! Claptrap about buzzword “legacy”! Hint: Joe’s “legacy” is the planned double genocide of Palestinians and Ukrainians in furtherance of wars that have served no purpose.
And this! Worthy of Hillary Clinton: “Desperate to get her the best possible care in the initial hours after the accident, the Pelosis grappled with whether she should go to a U.S. military hospital, which she did, or immediately fly back home for care. And part of that trepidation, I’m told, owed to uncertainty about whether Biden would quickly get her a plane “because we have this wall at the White House,” as as one person familiar with the situation put it.”
Meowlicious. Hint: Nancy didn’t want to go to a “hospital” in Luxembourg or neighboring Germany because she knows that they would have required her to be bled and then force-fed with liver sausages.
This article would be even funnier if these people weren’t the Imperial Court.
I think that recourse to Mr. Guillotine’s clever meat slicer is very much to be desired.
That article was full of last days of the empire gossipy goodness. Well worth a read. I envisioned a “desperate” Queen Nancy vainly searching for medical care to save herself from a future forever condemned to frumpy flats. Oh, the humanity!
I know that antidote was intended to make the reader feel sorry for Nancy and that Biden is a petty jerk, but all I could think was must be nice to have several good options to choose from in a medical emergency, none of which involve years long crippling debt.
I particularly liked “…owed to uncertainty about whether Biden would quickly get her a plane…”. Because Nancy Pelosi, who could have a plane arrive with the flash of her super-duper platinum card, clearly first thought of how to foist this expense off on the public. Grand Duc Henri is of course falling all over himself to keep her happy, as he probably doesn’t want to be sued for negligence.
Can’t wait for all these people to be admitted to the memory care facility (the real one, not the one they’re elected to).
Dementia patients can really spill the beans. Still trying to decide if the head of nursing at Beth Israel was delusional about the alien autopsy after Roswell.
My favorite part was the author throwing in his opinion into the mix. Pelosi kept the Democrat party from losing even biglier!
“Yet when the history of this period is written, I have no doubt that Pelosi’s intervention will be seen as vital for her party. Had she, and other leading Democrats, not insisted Biden drop out of the race, Republicans would have harnessed his abysmal debate performance to claim even more congressional seats, doing even greater damage to Biden’s legacy.”
Today’s novel pardons aren’t going to help polish that turd of a “legacy” either.
That one and the article on the who’s who of billionaires flying in and out of Mar a Lago to serve tribute are definitely guillotine bait. I’m so looking forward to the denouement of all this. I may be dead before it finally happens but I’m sure my eternal soul will lmfao.
“We’re not sure if robot pollinators are a hi-tech revolution or glimpse into dystopia, but either way, they’re edging closer to reality.”
I wish that these people would go away. This only encourages people to say lets forget real pollinators and go for these high tech mini-robots because nothing will ever go wrong with them such as a dodgy software update or a corporation manufacturing these things achieving a monopoly where with prices the sky would be the limit. So maybe instead they should spend the resources on supporting the pollinators that were 120 million years in the development and finely tuned to the environment-
https://www.museumoftheearth.org/bees/evolution-fossil-record
It’s all about attracting VC. Getting the dough, while the getting is good. Consequences be damned.
And the hubris of assuming we know as well as bees when it come to who to pollenate.
If you really have to question whether it a “glimpse into dystopia” I’d say you’re in need of some psychological help.
Gates and his mosquitoes – another disaster waiting to happen.
title of the link was enough to scare me to not even click on it – no bees no food – no robot pollinator will ever be capable to succeed in even a minute minuscule fraction in comparison to bees – very frightening that it is even being considered –
I’ve always felt that way about bottled water. Instead of buying water in plastic jugs (the jugs are poison in themselves) why don’t people support clean water from their tap? More bandaids on a weeping cancer sore.
A few year ago I read a German sci-fi short story about the topic of robotic pollinators, which in that fiction had become indispensable because of colony collapse disorder, invasive hornets, & co.
Unfortunately, most firms had failed to develop robotic bees that could buzz around, find, and pollinate a reasonable number of flowers without quickly getting lost as electronic trash somewhere in the nature because their micro-batteries could not sustain them for any duration even remotely comparable to their biological models.
One firm became successful with a shrewd approach: animal bees continued to be entrusted with pollination. Robotic bees remained quiescent, in an energy-saving mode, springing into action only if they detected a danger, such as hornets — in which case they would act as bodyguards for the biological workers. If I remember correctly, the robots could also detect if something anomalous was happening with bees, and then speed back to inform the beekeeper.
In any case, artificial pollination (by the hand of individuals from the species Homo Sapiens Sapiens) has been happening for a very long time — date trees in Northern Africa, apple trees in China, and I doubt very much that robotic pollinators will become feasible any time soon.
I was thinking those tiny flying robots would be great for vaccinating people in a pandemic. Juice em up, send em out. I think that was also an X Files plot.
Black Mirror “Hated in the Nation”. Robotic bees (required for pollination in the future) hacked, hijacked, and used to kill.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hated_in_the_Nation
I agree, but there are areas in China where people pollinate their trees by hand because the pollinators were wiped out. In the US bee-keepers move bee-hives from place to place to provide “pollination services” particularly to almond growers in the Californian desert which harms the bees. We’re already living the dystopia.
To witness this horror, watch “Queen of the Sun: What are the Bees Telling Us?” After this, I vowed never to eat another California almond.
JustThe Facts: In the US bee-keepers move bee-hives from place to place to provide “pollination services”
And from a futurological POV forecasting what’s actually likely to happen, that there is the probable shape of things to come.
Bee-type robot pollinators is just infeasible nonsense. Bees genetically engineered and enhanced to pollinate, on the other hand, are perfectly practical and possible.
The spirit of the times. And you thought that liberals are spiteful and resentful.
From the article on 100 Executive Actions extravaganza at USA Today:
This is classic middle-management idiocy. Imagine a whole administration run by the worst sort of middle managers — the jobs you walked out on rather than enduring still another day of pettiness and distrust.
“You took two Munchkins!”
Oh, yep: That was what the Biden administration was all about, too.
PS: The part about birthright citizenship in the article is an indication of major trouble in the U S of A. Birthright citizenship has distinguished the United States for some 150 years. The alternatives are not pretty.
Middle-management (and other elites) projection: assuming the working class has the same low levels of morality that they possess.
If you do not believe in something such as morality, it is hard to have it, act on it, or even see it in others.
It rather explains the soulless actions of some people, does it not?
Indeed, DJG, regarding birthright citizenship, we should consider not only the plain language of the 14th Amendment (“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”); we must also consider, prior to that, the overwhelming weight of precedent. Consider the following:
I. “Nothing is better settled at the common law than the doctrine that the children even of aliens born in a country, while the parents are resident there under the protection of the government, and owing a temporary allegiance thereto, are subjects by birth.”
— Justice Joseph Story, concurring opinion in _Inglis v. _Trustees of the Sailor’s Snug Harbour in the City of New York_ (1830), 28 U.S. 99. (https://en.wikisource.org/…/Inglis_v…/Concurrence_Story; I have rendered italics with underscore symbols)
II. The opinions in _Inglis_ above rely on the 1608 English case _Calvin’s Case_ (1608), 77 ER 377, (1608) Co Rep 1a. In that case, Lord Coke wrote: “yet it was resolved, that all that were born under one natural obedience while the realms were united under one sovereign, should remain natural born subjects, and no aliens; for that naturalization due and bested by birthright, cannot by any separation of the Crowns afterward be taken away: nor he that was by judgment a natural subject at the time of his birth, become an alien by such a matter _ex post facto_.” (Calvin’s Case, 409. http://www.commonlii.org/uk/cases/EngR/1572/64.pdf)
Considered together, it becomes clear that no mere executive order, which necessarily is limited to the Executive Branch under Art. II of the U.S. Constitution, is competent in a constitutional sense to undo either an actual amendment to the constitution, or, even prior to that, to extinguish rights which have for many centuries inhered in the Common Law.
He’s going to end the travesty in which federal workers are pretending to work but are not actually working.
Well it’s easier to organize the football or hockey pools if everyone is in the office. Long boozy Friday lunches are easier too.
Over coffee this morning, while pretending to understand a conversation about Bitcoin and these Trump and Melania coins, I was told the following, and was looking for insight if this is a plausible case. I hang out with some out there folks so no idea if this is valid, but if true, I could see huge economic consequences and an opportunity for some sort of renewal.
I hope it all vanishes because of the harm it does to peoples psyche and to the environment. I tried to steer the conversation away from the topic to focus on why my friend seemed to think he needed these tokens, which was a good strategy. “Fear” was the conclusion.
$TRUMPet coin.
And they don’t fear losing it all? That is ack-basswards.
why would a partial sale of 53 billion cause a run on 2.13 trillion?
But not to fear. The govt will be the bag holder allowing the whales to sell out and moreover, the plan will allow them to do so TAX free
Well
Uncle Sugar in the mornin’
Uncle Sugar in the evenin’
Uncle Sugar at suppertime
Be my little Uncle Sugar
And arm me all the time
Money in the mornin’
Money in the evenin’
Money at suppertime
So be my little honey
And arm me all the time
Put your arms around me
And swear by the blue star above
You’ll be mine forever
In a heaven of love
Sugartime
Sugartime
Sugartime
“Trump to suspend security clearances of 51 intelligence officials who falsely implied Hunter Biden laptop was Russian fake”
The New York Post must have loved printing this story as it vindicates them entirely. And Trump really knows how to do payback here. Because those 51 spooks and former spooks (is there such a thing?) are having their security clearances suspended, that means that a lot of lucrative jobs will be closed to them as they no longer have clearance. And this will be a warning to others if they try a similar gimmick against Trump again down the track. I note too that he suspended their clearance rather then cancel it outright so he has given them a path back. Trump just killed a chicken to scare the monkeys.
Whatever else Trump does on Day One, this is an Executive Order I can really get behind.
I was delighted to see that as well. When Presidents NEVER do anything I like, I’ll take this one.
Now he needs to start sending out checks again. /s
Guantanamo secure court facilities were expanded significantly over the past few years for classified hearings. Catherine Herridge posted a picture of herself at the base with a caption Stay Tuned.
That would seem to indicate some hearings shortly.
Aurelien should write an essay about it. :-)
The modern misuse of “Decimation” bugs me. Does Graham really want to see just 10% of Iran’s Nuclear Program destroyed?
It literally makes my head explode ;)
on par with US Patriot = not very good
re: Monopoly Round-Up: Explaining the TikTok Dispute
The bolded part is where Stoller is wrong. It doesn’t go beyond other social media apps, it is just that those are under US control, can manipulate what people see on order (or suggestion) of US officials. A US corporation is subject to US national security and intelligence laws, etc. If the argument is particular to the US, in that it is reasonable for the US to have control over US social media, then by extension US social media should be viewed as a potential threat vector in all other countries, which should by the same logic ban Meta, Google, X, etc.
But here is a blind spot among many US liberal observers. Other countries, like China, can be assumed to use tools of surveilliance and narrative control, simply because it is in their power and interest to do so. When it comes to the US, the same assumption can not be applied. To act like the US government would use surveilliance and narrative control, simply because it is in their power and interest is treated like an extreme proposal, even in the face of evidence. Even though there is no lack of people in positions of power condemning TikTok for allowing the geoncide to be shown. Even though the Twitter files has laid out how it works with government suggestions leading to shadowbanning and US propaganda accounts that are exempt from moderation etc.
Being extreme is unserious, and if there is one thing a liberal in good standing must not be, it is unserious.
Agreed. One only has to point to the Cambridge Analytica affair with Facebook, it can’t get worse than that. The Twitter files are mild in comparison. It exposed exactly how social media can be manipulated by governments and wasn’t even Chinese.
Stoller does a lot of good work, much of it with which I agree. But when it comes to China he is hopeless, in my opinion. Much of what he says here is objectively true, but as you say it is what he leaves out that skews the story to make the ban sound like a perfectly reasonable action in the public interest. This did not surprise me; in the past I’ve read some really outlandish anti-China comments from Stoller that could have come from the Epoch Times (in fact some of them probably did). So I was curious about what he would say on this subject. As I say, I was not surprised.
100 %
Stoller is good on a lot things but an absolute loon on China.
Seems like case of demanding the defendant to prove negative, which is of course impossible. There is always theoretical possibility that China is secretly and invisibly manipulating TikTok content. Or maybe aliens are doing it. Or CIA. Except in the CIA case Stoller doesn’t seem bothered by it, he just trust them they aren’t doing it. Or if they do, it’s for greater good.
I don’t like Tiktok but I have a great deal of difficulty imaginging how this most basic of forms, people independently posting short videos of themselves, and it appearing firehose style in your friends feeds, can be manipulated – how can the CIA or China or anyone intercept or intervene, what would they do. Show more of your single friend who likes Trump versus the 5 who prefer Biden and hope that influences your vote? Nor do I see how product reviews or recipes or makeup tips or 20 second diatribes can constitute a security threat. In this case speech itself is obviously the “national security threat”.
According to Glenn Greenwald’s retweets, the problem is that the Israel lobby can’t prevent us from seeing what’s happening in Gaza when it’s on TikTok, and they want to control what we see. I read somewhere else that the Israel Lobby was behind Tulsi Gabbard’s change in her stance on warrantless surveillance to get confirmed. Their argument was apparently that warrantless sureillance is needed to counter what they call the rise of antisemitism. The fact TikTok was only banned for 14 hours might signal a less compliant Trump, just as his posting of a critical clip by Jeffrey Sachs about Benjamin Netanyahu on his Truth Social account might.
In theory i’m going to purposefully hurl myself down steep embankments repeatedly on skid row with the Dartful Codgers, but in practice it will be -5 degrees @ Deer Valley with the wind chill factored in, and i’m not sure my delicate California constitution is up to that low a temperature livin’ la vida polar…
…might need a hot chocolate IV drip
Steel yourself by re-watching former NFL QB Ryan Fitzpatrick take his shirt off in the end zone pre-game, to pump up the Bills crowd:
https://x.com/NFL/status/1881129230567604520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1881129230567604520%7Ctwgr%5Ed6ed026df425111e932b09cd35e6cf690dc5ccc5%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.espn.com%2Fnhl%2F
I was convinced another come from ahead loss was in the offing @ the Ralph, but alas no.
Saved by the cold, perhaps Andrews should have worn mittens?
Anyways, its on to Kansas City, as the dread Coach Hoodie might say, where King Patrick and his Swift-brats await.
It could be the Bills are a team of destiny, as based on my completely unscientific survey of X.com, it appears that the entire country save Missouri and parts of Kansas are rooting for the Bills to end the gawdawful Chiefs Swiftian reign of terror.
As a made man in the Bills Mafia, i’m hoping for the best-prepared for another heartbreaking loss.
It was hard to watch the final quarter. It did seem to be headed towards another classic collapse-from-ahead which reminds me of a classic hockey game heckler.
Back in the day, Atlanta had an NHL hockey team, the Thrashers. We were in the cheap seats, and a guy in front of us sitting with his son would yell out, every time the Thrashers got an extra man on the ice to make up for a penalty on the opposition:
“THRASHERS ON THE POWER KILL!”
(Icers typically have a better chance of scoring with a 5-4 advantage, but such was the futility of the Thrashers power-play at that time that it was essentially an advantage for the other team who were on the penalty-kill.)
I read yesterday someone call them the Kansas City Swifts. Got a chuckle out of that.
They got another gift in the last game from the refs. People are sick and tired of that, and it’s not a good look.
Go Bills!
I bear no ill will against Chiefs fans, to be clear. I just want to see an end to the Reid-Swiftian Reign of Terror.
No Raiders, Broncos, Ravens, Steelers, or Texans fan will ever be marked safe from the refs until the Bills close the deal.
I think the officiating this year has been awful, but even more awful when the Swifts are involved.
I used to be a huge sports fan but they are losing me fast. We touched on the reasons for FB. Baseball lost me long ago, and now the NIL stuff is/has ruined the college game. Never cared for the NBA. I’m about out of sports to watch. All I have left is racing.
The NFL is threatening to become flag football, with the Lions-DC game reminding me of a pinball game.
Defense, anyone?
Yesterday’s two games redeemed the league, IMO. Two games outdoors in the snow, the way it should be.
The Iggles winning in the snow, with Saquon Barkley looking like OJ back in the day … well, before you know what.
Then the Ravens-Bills slug-fest. There was some defense played by both teams. Let’s hope the championship games rise to the same level, and the refs stay out of the fray.
Those were good games. Defense? I think the NFL wants every game to be 50-48. That’s not football.
I am a Steeler fan so defense was a thing for me. My favorite guy was #58 – Jack Lambert of vampire in cleats fame who said they should put dresses on QBs. :-)
Don’t remember the year, but they were celebrating one of their super bowl anniversaries and they interviewed Dwight White or L.C. Greenwood, can’t remember which one. They asked how they thought they would do in today’s game. “Not very good” they said. “You aren’t allowed to beat anyone up.”
That was football.
How about cricket? Or curling?
Having said that, an interesting thread about which sports are least impacted by bad referee calls:
https://www.reddit.com/r/billsimmons/comments/17ifmg1/which_team_sports_are_least_affected_by/
My rooting interest in football ended several decades ago. I do have a standing “god save me”interest in every major sport, which is to save me from any NY team in playoffs or championships. The city gets crazy. The Bills almost squeak through being upstate, but…
That admitted, I really do believe that no playoff should ever be in a home game. I get that there is a massive conspiracy theory that it is a NFL fix, both that every Super Bowl has been fixed for both teams and winners and now that the NFL will do anything to make sure the Swift PR win continues through the Super Bowl. That in mind makes any attempt to guard against biased refereeing moot, but there should still be some.
:-D
On Sunday, I watched those Detroit fans as the game ended and remembered how many times I had felt just like that. For a fifty-year span, the Chiefs managed to win one divisional playoff game after which the Bills quickly dispatched an aging Montana along with a can’t-win-playoffs Marty Schottenheimer. The team is just finally catching up.
I felt the same way about the Pats as people now feel about the Chiefs. Brady always got the call right up until 2018 when the Patriots came back to tie the Chiefs at the end of regulation and won when they won the coin toss under the old overtime rule. Since then, Mahomes and the Chiefs are 16-2 in the playoffs.
But the reality is that the NFL is nothing like the MLB, where the big media market teams dominate year after year. The salary cap and coach poaching, along with the ever-present possibility of key injuries, make it very difficult to be consistently good in the playoffs, and what the Chiefs are doing is remarkable.
I had a surprising conversation with one of my doctors on Friday. I brought up the Chiefs, and he turned out to be a fan even though he’s from Virginia. His gateway drug was Tecmo Bowl and Christian Okoye, the Nigerian Nightmare, from back in Marty’s day. He believes that Mahomes’s ultra-competitiveness rubs off on the rest of the team so that anyone can make a big play at a critical point in a game.
Buffalo is a worthy opponent for this year’s Arrowhead Invitational, but the Chiefs are healthy, the rust is off, and the Threepeat beckons.
It’s been even colder at Alta
Here’s a pro tip–Get some graphite wax and put some X’s on the bases of your skis
When it’s this cold in Utah the dry snow acts like sandpaper and the ski’s get sticky and don’t slide
The X’s help break the static and allows them to slide
Skied a half a day, Shackleton would have been impressed, got cold feet.
Watch a few hotdog hans videos and have fun … it does not last forever bloke …
Hard to say…
I was cruising down the mountain a fortnight ago in Mammoth when a straightlining snowboarder doing 50-55 mph crossed a few feet in front of my skis and I think he never saw me, boarders having a huge blind spot thanks to their sideways lifestyle.
Could have been ugly, but all I got was a fright, ski heil!
Trump and dump?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch… (3 days ago).
HHS bans EcoHealth Alliance and group’s ex-prez from receiving federal funding for 5 years after Wuhan virus experiments
https://nypost.com/2025/01/18/us-news/hhs-bans-ecohealth-alliance-and-groups-ex-prez-from-receiving-federal-funding-for-5-years-after-wuhan-virus-experiments/
About time! A good wrap-up from the NYPost.
The Billionaires Flocking to Mar-a-Lago to Meet With Trump – Bloomberg. Six of the ten richest people on earth so far.
I noticed this rumor making the rounds:
https://wccftech.com/elon-musk-reportedly-emerges-as-a-potential-intel-buyer/
Musk Now Starts To Eye At An Intel Acquisition According To SemiAccurate; But Take This Rumor With a Grain of Salt
>Octopus Arms Think for Themselves – Scientists Reveal How They Work SciTech Daily
So does my autonomic nervous system, good thing to or else I’d have a big problem.
>Why California keeps putting homes where fires burn Cal Matters
By the article headline I think I know where this is going, though I may be wrong. The responsibility rests solely on the owners and the public authority is not culpable for the destruction brought about by this specific (general?) force majeure. The balance between the two, as in the topic covered in the article The Next Unwind of Social Guarantees: Home and Medical Insurance ,the issue of “social guarantees” or any social benefit that redounds on a specific class of people cut out by law, is problematic.
Oh, my belly laugh of the day. A bit of a Freudian Slip here: “Syria’s Al Qaeda Branch Intercepts Iranian Drones” ……….. Al Qaeda Branch (of the CIA)
>UnitedHealth mounts full defense of its business in wake of Thompson’s killing
The killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson led to a wave of vitriol and frustration toward health insurance companies, of which UnitedHealthcare is the largest.
A “wave of vitriol and frustration.” Sounds like an irrational response, like some housewife or house husband upset at the spate of nasty weather. One thing that was curious about my quick peek into RedNote, is the how the Chinese see Luigi Mangione as some type of cultural icon, almost like a Clint Eastwood character in a Western movie. The comparison of medical bills has opened up some young people’s eyes…not that that will change much, at least not foreseeably (maybe when an “authentic” more radicalized Bernie Sanders comes along).
Good luck with “mounting a full defense,” you’ll need it convincing the general public that if “you have an insurance company you like, you can keep it” – a la Obama.
No way these cretins would say, “led to a wave of executives worried about profit over people.”
Yes, and if people in the USA are slow to come around, that is one area where the RedNote communications may be able to help others in the world critique the “American Dream.”
Taibbi/Kirn apparently with a Lynch/Trump Special
(What a mix)
ATW Livestream Today at 3 PM ET/2 PM CT
https://www.racket.news/p/atw-livestream-tonight-at-3-pm-et2
Today would have been David Lynch’s seventy-ninth birthday. The greatest filmmaker of his time, described by Pauline Kael as “a Frank Capra of dream logic,” was diagnosed with emphysema in 2020. His condition confined him to his house in the Hollywood Hills, where he relied on supplemental oxygen. Reports indicate that his health worsened considerably after he was forced to flee his home amidst the Los Angeles wildfires. He was staying with his daughter when he died. It should go without saying that this is an extremely senseless loss.
What’s your favorite David Lynch work? Let us know in the comments.
Today is also Inauguration Day. Walter and I will be live at 3:00 PM ET to reflect on the day’s events. We’ll also discuss any newsworthy actions Donald Trump takes between noon and airtime, as he makes his transition from president-elect to forty-seventh president of the United States. And in case this week wasn’t hectic enough, there’s also the business surrounding the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. Join us at 3:00 PM ET for a very special Monday night episode of America This Week.
People in the COVID community have rightly pointed out that those that love this man’s works of art, didn’t care for the man, leaving him to fend for himself, with other people with preexisting conditions, as COVID continues to ravage this country, again and again.
I think many older in the film industry were afflicted.
I dont know about the stage community.
While I have serious contentions over the entire body of government actions during Covid – with movie-sets there is the unique nature that you have many aged in senior positions. And without them the machine doesn’t work. If your costume designer has 50 years of experience that is literally invaluable. Same of course for all the other departments.
A local in Tiny Town was lamenting before the LA Infernos how work had really dried up, and he related that he only had 35,000 hours working on sets in Hollywood.
Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier granted clemency by President Biden
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/01/19/leonard-peltier-indigenous-activist-clemency-released-by-president-biden
Biden does one good thing. Doesn’t excuse the family pardons, but it truly is a good thing.
Commutation means house arrest in Pine Ridge. Still he will be home with family & community. Never dreamed Biden would do this. 50 years a prisoner of war- a servant to his people.
Thanks for the two articles re Canada. Having read them, I am reminded of how Tommy Douglas of the NDP party (which has some of the same ideas as Sanders used when he was talking about Democratic Socialism) which already has the earmarks for being a Socialist party. Because we have this Socialist party already we can begin immediately to put into practice what we need to eliminate the power that privatization takes away.
Not sure which NDP party you are referring to.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ndp-votes-to-take-socialism-out-of-party-constitution-1.1385171
Popcorn time!
This is a fun one!
About a week ago, an article (practically a puff-piece) posted to links announced that short-seller firm Hindenberg Research was calling it quits– this could be why:
Hindenburg’s Nate Anderson under cloud for sharing report with hedge fund
“There are multiple counts of securities fraud for both Anson Funds and Nate Anderson, and we have only gone through 5 per cent of what’s in there as of the time of writing,” it said. “From what we have read so far, it is almost a certainty that when the whole exchange between Hindenburg and Anson reaches the SEC, Nate Anderson will be charged with securities fraud in 2025.”
https://www.business-standard.com/world-news/hindenburg-s-nate-anderson-under-cloud-for-sharing-report-with-hedge-fund-125011900392_1.html
This headline is even more direct:
Hindenburg Research Involved In Securities Fraud Along With Anson Funds, Says Report
https://www.ndtvprofit.com/business/hindenburg-research-involved-in-securities-fraud-along-with-anson-funds-says-report
The profile-pic used in these stories show that Anderson (the sleazy prick) seems to have an especially punchable face. And as a shareholder damaged by one of his false reports, I call dibs.
I just listened to President Trump’s inaugural speech, which aside from the usual Tumpian exaggerations and the promise to expand the physical dimensions of the American Empire, was not as bad as I thought it would be. That is a low, low bar I understand, but I will take what feeble embers of good news that I can.
At times like these a little escapist fiction is sometimes appreciated.
Martin Walker’s “Chief Bruno” series set in the fictitious town of St Denys are delightful, especially for foodies like myself.
His love of the Perigord and its people ( And Food!) is palpable.
Connor, how about a thread with predictions for the next 4 years? And at the end of the mandate, you could distribute prizes to the posters who got it right (or mostly right).
I have no objection against comfits.
Realistically, you need two threads, one for national policy, and one for foreign affairs, otherwise chaos would ensue.
” These small flying robots could be the pollinators of the future”. Not a good future. Once an industry is established on robot pollinators, the robo-pollinator industry will have a vested interest in exterminating all the insect pollinators on earth, to protect and extend their business.
I would like to see a pollinator protection movement and culture. Part of what it would address would be antipollinator pesticides, pollution and other things.
its to late for canada to reverse neo-liberalism. there best chance was blown by the neo-liberal dupe, truedough.
he had a chance to save bombardiers passenger jet, that was a good competitor to airbus/boeing.
all canada needed to do is order a dozen or so for air canada, instead truedough let Bombardies massive investment slide away, and ordered from the boeing/airbus, the competitors, ah the magic of the market place.
instead a company from brazil got the passenger jet in a fire sale.
it was a sure sign that industrial investment was now a thing of the past, that was slipping away since nafta anyways.
truedough cemented neo-liberalism, just as obama did.
now canada has all the earmarks of a failing state. ah the magic of the market place!
I guess you have no knowledge that Air Canada is now a private corporation.
As for ordering AirBus, you have to go back to the Mulroney years.
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/airbus-affair
correct. it was the military planes, forgot.
china’s industrial policy was ours, build everything. then you get robust supply chains, like we used to have till 1993.