The Heroic Industry of the Brothers Grimm Hudson Review (Anthony L)
Scientists Find ‘Spooky’ Quantum Entanglement Within Individual Protons Space
Cold weather alerts from New Mexico to Florida, with another winter storm expected ABC News (Kevin W)
France sees temperatures as low as -33C ConnexionFrance
You Are What Your Ancestors Didn’t Eat Nautilus (Micael T)
Are Some Ultra-Processed Foods OK? New Study Has Answers Wall Street Journal. Does not address ultraprocessed foods like whey protein. These are not exactly fun to eat but can be made reasonably tasty.
The Midlife Transition: Confronting Mortality and Rebirth Neo-Feudal Review (Micael T). I must confess that I don’t relate to this.
Climate/Environment
Earth shattered heat records in 2023 and 2024: is global warming speeding up? Nature
Climate Models Can’t Explain What’s Happening to Earth Atlantic
Permafrost thaw beneath Arctic lakes poses surprise pollution threat New Scientist
California and environmental groups sued Exxon over plastics. Now Exxon is striking back. Grist. Lawyers in the house, feel free to correct me, but I believe CA has pretty strong anti-SLAPP laws so that the defendants can countersue and delay the underlying case (delay is generally seen as unfavorable to plaintiffs). However, I doubt that matters much to Exxon, since the point is likely to impose costs (and legal bills will do just fine) and deter others.
Thailand Bans Imports of Plastic Waste To Curb Toxic Pollution Guardian
Cava crisis: Spanish fizz must adapt amid torrid droughts Drinks International
Lords Of The Untamed Wild Nomea (Anthony L). From last month, still germane.
California Burning
Thousands told to abandon homes as huge wildfire rips through Los Angeles suburbs BBC. Lead story and BBC knows I am not in the US. Apparently the big risk is extraordinary high winds, which could blow hot embers far and wide.
California wildfires live updates: New blazes erupt as crews battle Palisades Fire NBC
Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso calls into Fox News and says “there’s no water coming out of the fire hydrants” in the Palisades.
The mayor is out of the country. The resources aren’t in place to manage this disaster.pic.twitter.com/sBi1RV5Twg
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) January 8, 2025
Getty Villa Museum grounds catch fire Los Angeles Times
China?
1/6
Very interesting FT article: "Chinese venture capitalists are hounding failed founders, pursuing personal assets and adding them to a national debtor blacklist when they fail to pay up, throwing the country’s start-up funding ecosystem into crisis."https://t.co/0xWJMWoTVF— Michael Pettis (@michaelxpettis) January 6, 2025
Key section from underlying Financial Times story:
Once blacklisted, it is nearly impossible for individuals to start another business. They are also blocked from a range of economic activities, such as taking planes or high-speed trains, staying in hotels or leaving China. The country lacks a personal bankruptcy law, making it extremely difficult for most to escape the debts.
O Canada
Canadian PM Trudeau’s Resignation is Perfectly Normal Ian Welsh (Micael T)
The Authoritarian Legacy of Justin Trudeau Reclaim the Net (Micael T)
European Disunion
EU will defend borders, says French minister in response to Trump’s Greenland threats Financial Times
Therefore, the court returned the weapon to a 17-year-old gangster Aftonbladet via machine translation (Micael T)
Israel v. The Resistance
South Lebanon today |
Despite a ceasefire in place for weeks now, and no hostilities between Israel and south Lebanon
Israeli forces continue in full force to flatten and demolish the homes of displaced Lebanese civilians pic.twitter.com/8uzfSQMA6o
— Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) January 6, 2025
Chris Hedges: Genocide — The New Normal Consortium News (Robin K)
Col. Larry Wilkerson: Israel’s Conflict Expansion: A Costly Gamble Backfiring Dialogue Works, YouTube
After Iraq, Libya, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, the Pentagon attacks Yemen Voltaire.net (Micael T)
New Not-So-Cold War
WaPo Editors – Ending The War Is Worse Than Losing Moon of Alabama
Trump’s Ukraine aide postpones trip to Kiev – Reuters RT
🇺🇦🇷🇺 RUSSIA CAPTURES THE BIGGEST LITHIUM DEPOSIT IN UKRAINE!
The village of Shevchenko to the west of Kurakhovo, where the largest lithium deposit in Ukraine is located was captured by the Russian army, this was announced by Ukranian deep state mappers.
The Russians announced… pic.twitter.com/4Ujpi4PyzH
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) January 7, 2025
“Whoever comes to us with a sword will perish by the sword!” – Thousands of foreign mercenaries killed in Ukraine International Affairs (Micael T)
Electronic warfare will be useless against Ukrainian FPV drones on fiber optics: shotguns are needed – lots of them TopWar (Micael T). Erm, there were articles on Russia having deployed this type of drane back in March: Russian Fiber Optic Drone Beats Any Jammer Forbes
Syraqistan
Why water scarcity is key factor in Syria’s protracted conflict The Week
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Hackers Claim Massive Breach of Location Data Giant, Threaten To Leak Data 404media
Pornhub pulls out of Florida, VPN demand ‘surges 1150%’ The Register (Dr. Kevin)
1/6
AOC’s Blatant January 6th LIES Glenn Greenwald
Trump 2.0
Trump Declines to Rule Out Military Action to Obtain Greenland, Panama Newsweek
Trump Imagines New Sphere of U.S. Influence Stretching From Panama to Greenland Wall Street Journal. Amusing to see the Journal ‘splain Trump.
JUST IN – Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's bill text that would officially change the name of "The Gulf Of Mexico" to "The Gulf Of America". – Daily Caller pic.twitter.com/XbFqZUoaLx
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) January 7, 2025
Crisis? What Crisis? A Video for Elon Musk on the Deficit Steve Keen
Trump’s Trade Policies Spark Rare Earth Uncertainty Metal Miner
Judge temporarily blocks release of special counsel report on Trump cases as court fight simmers Associated Press
Elbridge Colby and the Reurn of Republican Realism Drop Site (Robin K)
Our No Longer Free Press
Meta ending fact-checking program: Zuckerberg The Hill
BBC Middle East Editor Collaborated With CIA, Mossad Consortium News
Mr. Market is Moody
Continued Labor Market Deterioration Angry Bear
Versus: Labor Market Dynamics Retighten, Job Openings Jump Again. Fed Faces Scenario of Solid Job Market, Re-accelerating Inflation Wolf Richter
Bank of Japan research refutes the main predictions made by economists about the impacts of large bond-buying programs Bill Mitchell. Important. It confirms a point many, including yours truly, have made repeatedly over the years: QE is not money printing and does not generate inflation.
Antitrust
Big Landlord Settles With US, Will Cooperate In Price-Fixing Investigation ars technica. This was fast for at least one defendant. See date on this article: US Justice Department accuses six major landlords of scheming to keep rents high Associated Press
How the OS/2 flop went on to shape modern software The Register (Kevin W)
AI
A malfunctioning Waymo left a passenger stuck in the autonomous vehicle as it drove circles around a parking lot Business Insider
At the Intersection of A.I. and Spirituality New York Times
Cybertruck driver used ChatGPT to plan Las Vegas attack, police say CBS 42
The Bezzle
Carvana: A Father-Son Accounting Grift For The Ages Hindenburg Research (Micael T)
The Great Crypto Crash Atlantic
Class Warfare
Why the Left needs to watch Star Trek: It has lessons for today’s techno-optimists Yanis Varoufakis, Unherd
New federal rule will remove medical debt from credit reports ABC (Kevin W)
The case against ‘Western’ Marxism MR Online (Anthony L)
Antidote du jour (Chet G):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
> Gulf of America
I’ll sit back munching freedom fries while watching that play out.
It has the feel of The Day of the Locust in L.A., not only is the city burning up, but its in tandem with the entertainment industry also in tatters, many of the players being ensconced in Pacific Palisades as luck would have it.
Fires will be the signature feature of the Big Heat Age, do all you can to prepare yourself for something wicked this way comes.
Any big fires brewing up near where you live at all? Or are those fires mostly concentrated around LA.
We got enough rain for everything to green up sufficiently, that there is no wildfire risk, although we’re well below atypical snowpack levels at this juncture in time in the High Sierra…
The recent hurricane knocked down many of our trees but at least we have many more left and forest fires are rare here. We tree lovers feel your CA pain.
As for the movie stars and their mansions–oh well.
I think Golf of Trump has a certain appeal.
How ’bout a compromise:
Golfo de América
I think it should be called the gulf of correxit. The name of the thousands of gallons of chemical that was authorized by
Obama to cover up the BP oil spill.
Or maybe the gulf of enviromental disaster.
It was obsessively reading The Oil Drum blog following the BP/Macondo blowout that originally brought me to Naked Capitalism lo those many years ago. I would point out that the amount of Corexit that was used is an order of magnitude (at least) greater than the “thousands of gallons” that you mention. The millions of bbl leaked is gathered in vast clouds below the surface (instead of floating, thanks to Corexit, injected into the well plume) – don’t forget that BP is still liable for every gallon that was leaked and it’s kinda hard to calculate how much if it never floats to the surface. Just saying.
Better – Golf de Greengo. Then 4 yrs from now, a Dem Prez can rename it Gulf of Ukraine.
I’ll settle for Golpe de America.
A Spanish pun?
In Spanish, Golfo means gulf; in Spanish slang it means scoundrel or bum.
So, el Golfo de Trump?
Exacto! All these lifetimes later, these troglodytes have yet to wrap their arms around the idea of the Americas. As Bad Bunny says in his most recent album:
“América es nuestra casa
“Aunque pongan más alto el muro, comoquiera se traspasa. . .”
America is our home/No matter how high they make the wall, we’ll get through it. . .
(Your translational mileage may vary a little on the second line.)
El Golfo de Trump sounds excellent! What about El Golfo del Chingón de Trump?
No me diga! Mar el Lago es una Casa de Veronicas? Lo preguntaranda por un amigo….
Mexico could consider unilaterally renaming Texas “Norte de México.”
Maybe while he is at it, he can change out the stars on the US flag for a skull and crossbones instead and the new national anthem would be the “Pirates of the Caribbean” theme. And Marjorie Taylor Greene would make a great pirate’s moll. Arrr!
Six pointed blue thick-outline stars on a white background would be more true to life.
A minor niggle Rev – given the context, wouldn’t MTG be considered a wench instead?
The vibes from the incoming administration read that the HB1 kerfuffle is not going well so they are bringing back freedumb fries.
The next time he needs a media diversion he could propose to rename the country Trumpi America. That’s got a ring to it.
They should just change it only for the Dead Zone. Thanks Iowa farmers!
“Trump Doesn’t Rule Out Military Action to Obtain Greenland, Panama Canal”
Been chewing this over and decided to zoom out to get the big picture with a map. My conclusion is that Trump & Co. want to create a resource zone of sorts with a few twists. So Trump wants to seize back control of the Panama Canal and there might be several reasons why. Right now the US pays passage like every other nation but if the US grabbed back that Canal, they could charge US ships half-price for an economic advantage while doubling the rates on Chinese ships to put them at an economic disadvantage. But more important, Trump keeps banging on about Build That Wall. But if the US controlled the Canal Zone, that could become the new Wall as it is so narrow and would be easier to stop migrants from South America getting to the US-Mexico border.
For Greenland, that island has several trillion dollars worth of resources and that is the bottom line, not security. In addition, forcing Canada into an economic union and including Greenland then suddenly gives the US through its new coastline to the Arctic all its resources. On a map it is like a huge triangle with the point in Panama and the base in the Arctic and the Arctic has a lot of resources up for grabs to countries that have a coastline there. That is why Trump is talking about Canada – not only for its resources but because of its coastline with the Arctic. Of course the US would have to grab Iceland later because of its strategic position. I don’t think that Trump came up with all this but I think that somebody has been looking over some maps and making some economic calculations which Trump could understand.
Trumplandia (the U.S. plus Greenland and Canada) would be bigger. Bigger than Russia. The BIGGEST! Making Trump the GREATEST. Well, okay, he already is the greatest, but this would make him even greatest-ier. Trump in a nutshell (choosing words carefully).
Oh, yeah, global warming, resources, the Arctic, geostrategic gambits. Let me simplify that: $$$$$. In sum: ego and money. Pick order to taste.
Before long Europeans will wonder (out loud), Did we let the right one in? The global south probably has a notion or two to share on that subject.
Make that “Trumplanada.” It rolls off the tongue more fluidly.
File under You say to-mah-to, but sure, also good. The world view is that of a slap-a-fool’s-gold-marquee-on-it real estate shyster as traditional imperialist mafia don (or Donald, in this case, if you prefer).
It looks to me as if Trump, yawping from his bully pulpit, sees Russia and China as too big to tangle with and Europe as too puny to give an eff about except as an extortion mark. His instinct is to carve out turf agreements with the other big families in an arrangement IR theory respectably refers to spheres of influence and balance of power. Thus, Ukraine—let Russia have it, and maybe the U.S. and Russia can team up against the Chinese when mutually convenient. (After all, we’re culturally similar, wink, wink.) Taiwan—it can make chips for us and buy our arms, but don’t expect the U.S. to get nuked for that. To put it another way, the Trump doctrine is warmed over, literally, Monroe.
It differs from the PNAC consensus of the past several decades in that it backs away from the idealist aspiration of neoconservatism to keep a single boot (ours) on the neck of the world forever. In that sense it is “realist.” A throwback to overt colonial expansionism, yes, but also a retrenchment, after a fashion, the better to exploit what Trump & Co. can get its short-fingered hands on.
But because it’s Trump, it’s reflexive, impulsive, and instinctual rather than programmatic, and so it’s not a sure thing, to say the least, that, as in Trump v.1, the neocon vision and methods won’t prevail. Fun times.
Russia – invade
USA – obtain
Funny thing is that Washington has been calling Russia an expansionist empire for the past two years now.
Those are the linguistic rules of the rule-based order.
I wonder if Germans back in the day had titles like: “Hitler Doesn’t Rule Out Military Action to Obtain Lebensraum”, or if Israel nowdays have “Netanyahu Doesn’t Rule Out Military Action to Obtain Damascus.”
I think we have to understand that much of Trump’s focus it to try and decrease hypocrisy in our culture. We are an Empire and fight imperial wars which we tend to lose (but the oligarchs always come out ahead). Trump believes that the culture as a whole should benefit from imperialism and seizing useful economic assets honestly is an improvement and will produce some truthiness in the culture which seems locked into fantasies. We are not a democratic republic under the Constitution–we are an Empire ruled directly by a network of oligarchs with a virtual Emperor–Trump may want to be an actual Emperor like many Emperors in Rome who pursued policies that improved the life of their subjects. He wants to move from oligarchy to aristocracy. Democracy in our culture is just pretend.
Perhaps there is method and motive to the madness of u.s. neocons beyond the immense profits of government spending on ‘defense’. I believe the picture The Rev Kev’s comment suggests of a dream of creating a greater u.s. Empire encompassing all the resources within relatively close reach of the u.s. Empire may explain some of the u.s. foreign policy ventures of the last few of decades. Forcing a greater u.s. Empire might offer some rhyme and reason for the otherwise bizarre u.s. foreign policy. A long-term plan to tie up resources in Russia, the Middle East, and China, while severely weakening Europe would support an expansion of the u.s. Empire.
I am not suggesting there is some Wisdom behind u.s. policy and actions in the World. I suppose I just prefer some larger madness to explain the otherwise random madness — a conspiracy theory[?] of sorts to comfort my desire for pattern, purpose, and consistency to what otherwise appears as a string of random and disturbing events suggesting a fractured u.s. Elite randomly shooting the u.s. Imperial feet.
And the plebs hails the imperialism, because they will get all the bread and circuses they want, sans the bread. It’s culture, on par with bacterial one.
I haven’t heard many plebs hailing imperialism, although I did notice Princeton/Oxford guy Walter Kirn praising the idea of obtaining Greenland on the last ATW stream. Taibbi seemed to be mostly joking, but Kirn seems absurdly and genuinely enthusiastic for Trumpian Expansion. It fits the theme of Kirn increasingly becoming a partisan Trump cheerleader.
The shadow government, in power for decades (centuries?) and no elections needed, have ways of dealing with the wrong government being voted in.
First, spend all the funds before the new government takes office. Take military actions the new government do not want. Lock the new government into the spending and policies of the defeated government. – Already happening.
Second, create chaos in the country. Screaming headlines every day about some disaster / outrage / pandemic / threat / fraud / criminal gang . The elected government spends all of its time snowed under fighting these apparitions, with no time for actual governing. Expect more “terrorist” attacks. Expect media exposes and legal attacks on Trump officials. Disgruntled partners, friends, business associates all come out of the woodwork. – Just ramping up now.
Third, expect the population to gradually become burnt out with all of this chaos and clamour for change of government so that the next government, the “correct” government, will surf in on a massive margin of voters.
The oligarchs provide the direction and the money, the PMC provide the symbolic thinking, the administration and the technology, the spies and military get their hands dirty with all the lyin and cheatin and stealin and dirt-diggin and suicidin.
Control of thawing of Artic shipping lanes seems to play into gambits involving Trumpian interest in Canada and Greenland.
Direct control of the Panama Canal will likely also involve thwarting Mexico’s southern rail project. It will siphon off shipping traffic that cues up for Panama passage. Trump is making a former CIA spook Ambassador to Mexico. Threats to invade Mexico bc drugs are elevating; chk out Nick’s recent report.
China’s interest in a canal transiting Nicaragua has requickened. Colombia is also looking at a rail project similar to Mexico’s.
The new US embassy in Mexico will be staffed with 1700 people.
https://www.state.gov/u-s-department-of-state-dedicates-new-u-s-embassy-mexico-city/
One can wonder if this will be viewed as a “show of force” from the USA to Mexico.
But per the press release, this may be consolidating staff that was ALREADY there.
This is another one where I have to ask if any talk about Greenland and Panama is real or just “flood the zone,” maybe with a special trade deal to follow. If we’re talking about Greenland and DOGE, I wonder if we’re focused on cabinet appointees or the TCJA extension.
I haven’t heard anyone mention H1b’s since Trump started ranting about Greenland, Canada, Panama, and the Gulf of Mexico. Trump knows what he’s doing.
This is the insanity of late stage globalization: there are no American ships, there are just ships serving a global market, almost none under US flag. If you want to charge Chinese ships more, it will just increase the cost to US consumers. The only ships the US has are warships.
As for Canada, the US already has access to our resources at market prices, through companies that are largely owned by American shareholders. There are no “Canadian” companies, they are just companies.
Also, why would we agree to be 1 state like North Dakota (pop. 750k) when we have 40 million people. Look for 10 new states, 20 new senators who will probably vote Democrat. Not going to happen.
I like your take and it would seem more logical than just randomly wanting to annex Greenland.
A corollary or at least an implied outcome from forcibly taking Greenland would be the end of NATO. Denmark is an early NATO member so article 5 would theoretically apply if Greenland was “invaded” which if done by the US would likely mean the immediate end of NATO if that hadn’t already been done in the run-up to the invasion because article 1 says members agree to a peaceful resolution of disputes.
Can Trump unilateraly declare war on Panama and Denmark and Canada without Congress approval and without popular mandate? Is there a deep seated American jingoism that would clear such actions just because “we wants it and we can”? Despite the promises to end the war in Ukraine, and the war in Gaza. And let’s not talk about the desire to attack Iran…
“Pornhub pulls out of Florida, VPN demand ‘surges 1150%”
I can see the next headline now-
‘Florida Governor Ron DeSantis complains that PronHub pulled out prematurely before they were ready’
DeSantis caught with his pants down – Florida industry unprotected against pr0nhub leaving. Residents don’t know what to do with spare time and both hands.
Pro-natalism, porn blocks, and abortion bans – is it time for America to adopt a new national anthem?
Alas, the pullout method is notoriously ineffective.
PS All this talk of age verification makes me think there is a way to do this without attaching any personally identifiable information to it. You could sell small Bluetooth keychains or stickers–but only to people over 18. They would work for maybe two years. Press a button and they would transmit to the computer, allowing over 18 web content for that session. Software on a minor’s computer’s OS could disable this functionality entirely unless an admin password unlocked it.
It wouldn’t be impossible for minors to find porn, but at least it would be harder. And since the keychains and stickers were all identical, online age verification wouldn’t have to be a gateway to digital ID.
Not that anyone in power seems to have an interest in avoiding digital ID. But it would strengthen the anti-digital ID argument if we had an alternate plan that still protects kids.
Pornhub pulls out for VPN moneyshot.
Well played!
Soon no one will be sure what the P in VPN stands for.
In all the commentary I’ve seen concerning Justin Trudeau’s “impact,” no one has commented on how his government — and the one which eventually will replace it — are millimeters away from completing his father’s program of extermination (genocide) of Indians (“indigenous peoples”). It show just how irrelevant our issues are to all mainstream narratives.
Thanks
Mr Chrisjohn, it very much appears that we are all just millimeters from extinction. Not to make little of your point. I read The Narwhal. “What can’t be bought is stolen outright” seems about right. Never the less, not even the likes of Trudeau can fight off a forest fire with a garden hose.
The Narwhal is pretty good – been subscribing to their feed for about 4 years – spunky group and effective –
Lesser evilism leads to a lot of blind spots.
Obviously neither Justin nor Pierre were very capable.
For the first time, the Census enumerated more than 1 million (1,048,405) First Nations people living in Canada.
This is the 2021 Census.
The Indigenous population grew 9.4% from 2016 to 2021, almost twice the pace of growth of the non-Indigenous population (+5.3%) over the same period. Population projections for First Nations people, Métis and Inuit suggest that the Indigenous population could reach between 2.5 million and 3.2 million over the next 20 years.
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/3920-canadas-indigenous-population
>>>>Why the Left needs to watch Star Trek:
this deserves a lengthy op-ed….but as an allegory the (IMO) cultural rot of Star Trek from 2009 – present, particularly post-2016 (versus 1967 to 2000) reflects the systemic intellectual-cultural-story-telling rot of Hollywood/the “intelligensia”.
now get of my lawn! as i cling to my Captain Kirk VHS tapes
ST Voyager guy myself but I think that a few things were missed in this article. Where it said-
‘There, on the margin, alien species afford us opportunities for introspection, like the Bajorans who have just come out of the brutal occupation by the Cardassians, a supremacist species that ran Bajor like a penal colony complete with concentration camps and genocidal drives.’
I did a double-take as even watching those episodes when they first came out, I always took the Bajoran story of being an analogue for the Palestinians, not the Israelis. And Yanis Varoufakis thinks that the 23rd century is a communist society but I would dispute that. Gene Roddenberry was a humanist and that philosophy is woven through his vision of Star Trek and how that society worked-
https://humanists.uk/humanism/the-humanist-tradition/20th-century-humanism/gene-roddenberry/
Irregardless of whether Star Trek’s underlying philosophy is communist or humanist, it’s safe to say that hardly any of the techno geeks of the 1990s who are now Silicone Valley in their 40s and 50s understood what Star Trek’s message was. That’s assuming that they were fans, which I assume based on the computer geeks in my high school (private, Chicago, early to mid-1990s, with passionate debates on the merits of The Next Generation vs. Voyager vs. Deep Space IX). The drive to accumulate, be it money, power or both, is as strong as ever, as is the hubris of the tech “lords.”
Iain M Banks created the Culture civilization and series of independent novels as a challenge to present a form of “communist” technologically developed society. It is even more libertarian than STar Trek and AI, The Minds, are taking a lot of lead there, no Star Fleet thank you very much…
https://theculture.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_spacecraft
There has been no Star Trek since 2009. Just as there were only ever 3 Star Wars movies,
The Critical Drinker agrees with you wholeheartedly-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ_7EXT9eeY (7:44 mins)
Part of the long-term trend where a studio will take a franchise, completely change everything, do everything to get rid of the fan base that has been following it for decades, and then try to recruit a brand new fan base. They have done this for Star Trek, Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones, etc. and in every case it is a near total failure with billions of dollars in total squandered.
In retrospect, Jar Jar Binks merchandise was the first clear sign of the coming Jackpot.
Better Jar Jar Binks than Jar Jar Abrams.
It once was a fun joke in different work settings, to speculate on the highly secret Sith within plain view for all to see was indeed…Jar Jar Binks…
Of all things after their acquisition of Lucas films, Disney kindly told the famed director ” no thank you ” on any involvement of the new films or series or that’s my recollection. I’m not a “true fan” I suppose, as I can’t watch the series ( Mandalorian, etc ..). I didn’t get terribly worked up about the last few films, but will understand why those entries can be irritating or highly problematic. Guess I got different things to ruminate upon.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/30/six-years-after-buying-lucasfilm-disney-has-recouped-its-investment.html
This is still a failure as the Star Wars acquisition was done as it was viewed as a money making machine.
It’s been anything but with massively diminishing returns overs the years.
Star Wars is another example too…
Post-Post-modernism has “Year Zeroed”
“The Hero’s (Heroine’s) Journey”
Lately I’ve been thinking about the episode with the planet who’s only remaining inhabitants were the AI Killer drones …
Re France sees temperatures as low as -33C
That is such a clickbait headline. It refers to Jura, historically the coldest part of the country with a specific geography. Here in Hérault, in the far south, we have had single figure temperatures in recent weeks, but nothing worse. In the far north, the weather is similar to south England with snow in both this week. Again, more like single figure – Celsius temperatures. Don’t panic.
-33C is approximately-48F. That is very cold.
-33C x 5/9 = -59.4 +32 degrees = 26.4F
26°F = -3.3°C
Close, multiply by 9/5 then subtract 32.
Luckily it no longer gets to -33c here anymore and -40 when the scales are equal is a distant memory.
-33×9/5=-33×1.8=-33*(2-10%)=-66-6.6=-59.4+32=-27.4F
Clumsy to write it out this way, but it works for doing it in your head.
Take the C, double it, subtract 10% of that, then add 32.
For reference: the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales intersect at -40.
No.
-33C = -27.4F
thank you
>The case against ‘Western’ Marxism MR Online (Anthony L)
No mention of “Jews” in the article. If anyone with broad internet reach is making a case against Marxism these days it’s Candace Owens. Her highlighting Genrikh Yagoda’s role in the massacre of Christians and the Jewish composition of Marxist in general has garnered millions of views.
Growing up I read much of the primary Marxist literature and almost all the Frankfurt School authors etc.., and I never once thought much about the religious affiliation of these authors. Now new evidence has emerged, or maybe it was always there, that Trotsky, a Jew, was actual a British agent. This whole period between the formation of Marxism and the end of WWII is being constantly revised. Also, the post WWII period with Gladio and other CIA secret operations is putting the “case against Marxism” into a new light. So, I’m not too sure of the validity/usefullness of the article’s conclusion below:
… declares Losurdo, “the self-dissolution of Western Marxism ends up departing from the terrain of politics and settling in the land of religion.” Losurdo is clear that “changing the world” involves an intensification of anti-colonial struggle, and an ongoing renewal of Marxism, not limited to any hemisphere.
I don’t think making much of Trotsky’s birth religion is an accurate depiction of him as a thinker:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Trotsky
Trotsky had a godson, FFS, a very un-Jewish thing to do…who happens to be Michael Hudson.
Maybe Trotsky himself didn’t think much about the “Jewish Question” but Marx did publish “On the Jewish Question” in 1843 and the “Young Hegelians,” especially Bruno Bauer, were interested on the topic.
More importantly, for me, is not so much Trotsky’s religion but the allegation that he was working for the British. This was covered in a recent “Geopolitics & Empire” podcast: Richard Poe: The British, The Jews, Communism, & World Government
https://youtu.be/Um7efXNjoYQ?si=BqJwmcv0cAJO-h0G
Friedrich Engels, Marx’s big financial backer, his closest collaborator and also an important fellow journalist/proto-economist/revolutionary, was not Jewish. I studied both writers, and Engels was influential in his day, even if his impact wound up being less lasting than Marx’s. So I do not buy this conflation of Judiasm with Socialism. The Fabians were if anything hostile to Jews. So please drop this line of discussion. It’s counterfactual.
Trotsky a British agent? Source?
If one reads his autobiography, you would immediately discount that notion.
I highly recommend, My life: An attempt at an autobiography from Trotsky. Fantastic read.
https://sovinform.net/Trotsky-MI6-agent.htm
Based on declassified US intelligence and other historical information.
“Trotsky had a godson, FFS, a very un-Jewish thing to do…who happens to be Michael Hudson.”
i love little tidbits like this,lol.
(i’m a direct descendant of the brother of Davy Crockett…cant get more Texan than that)
weren’t the Crocketts from Tennessee?
If you’re going by where your ancestors were from, everyone north of the Rio Grande is from somewhere else.
Except for the few First Nations who haven’t been relocated, that is….
guess it depends on how far back you go – we’re all from Lucy our first ancestor from Olduvai Gorge out of the Africa continent
David Crockett (the formal first name is often used in this area) was one of the founding fathers of Lawrence County, Tennessee. He didn’t live here very long, but his name graces public buildings, roadways, monuments, and the lovely Tennessee state park, David Crockett State Park. Thre’s even a log cabin recreation in downtown Lawrenceburg of his home, with various memorabilia of his time here.
And the first few lines of the Ballad of Davy Crockett:
“Born on a mountain top in Tennessee
Greenest state in the land of the free
Raised in the woods so’s he knew every tree
Killed himself a bear when he was only three”
I bet you’re already familiar with this song, one of my favorites. Always enjoyed the scansion of this verse –
“I don’t wear no Stetson
But I’m willin to bet son
That I’m a big a Texan
as you are.”
amfortas, it seems Davy Crockett is my 9th cousin 4x removed.
I also spent a lot time on this literature, and on the debates over “Western Marxism,” many years ago. My own views on the Frankfurt School are complex and I won’t go into them here. I mainly agree with the more traditional Marxian criticisms that seem to be expressed in this book. Nevertheless, they were grappling with real issues: the role of mass culture in the hegemony of capital over class consciousness; the significance of Stalin for Marxist theory; the effects of postwar political economy on working class assimilation, etc. Their various experiences after the war contributed to their retreat, in different ways, into forms of individualist aestheticism. Marcuse, remaining in the US and becoming father-figure of the “New Left,” was less alienated from politics (he often *did* champion anti-imperialist Third World movements, at least in rhetoric), but like the students who surrounded him he gave up on the political potential of the “working class,” and on class analysis as well. For NC readers, it is interesting to compare this “New Left” turn to the contemporary observations of the Ehrenreichs, who were much more engaged in actual political organizing and writing prophetically about the detrimental effects of the academic “left” and the “professional managerial class” on class-based politics.
That said, though, in my view the Candice Owens line conflating Jewishness with “Marxism” through “cultural Marxism,” etc. is dangerous. Some on the actual left have praised Owens recently for her sharp criticisms of Israel. But for me she combines historic right-wing anti-Semitism with the conflation of liberal “wokeness” with “Marxism” – and both with “Jewishness” – for a worthless obscurantist mishmash guaranteed to keep the masses ignorant and divided.
Well put.
A link to Marx’s “On the Jewish Question” from the Marxist Internet Archive might be useful here. The idea that the political emancipation of Jews — or, the emancipation of people in terms of their religious identity — was an inadequate and stunted way of thinking about a thorough emancipation of humanity is rather timely.
They didn’t give up on class analysis; they gave up on romanticizing service and all the other Platonic pietisms that eternally mystified Germans loved and our swarthy bearded Moor despised. Western Marxists are more or less out to kill God, and Owens, as the sacred temple servant of the neoliberal ruling class, is protecting the conditions of her lazy-ass email existence in the only way the Greeks knew how: calculated lying and emotional drama.
Losurdo’s book sounds like a steaming heap of bitterness. The standard, and valid, criticism of the Frankfurt School is that they were so impressed with Keynesian crisis management, and attendant state planning capacities, that they assumed oppositional elements would be bought off by a stingily granted material prosperity. In his book Buying Time, Streeck summarizes this well, and wryly: more or less, “we were so interested in whether or not state capitalism would remain legitimate in the eyes of workers that we didn’t imagine it would become illegitimate in the eyes of capitalists.”
Losurdo apparently takes particular issue with the Frankfurters’ criticisms of extant state socialism and, recalling one side in the debates within the European left during the middle 20th c., he seems to load heavily on their support for 3rd world liberation movements and to sidestep the one-party authoritarian travesties that developed domestically.
As for Trotsky as a British agent, I’ll leave that to Comrade Vyshinsky.
The review, and maybe Losurdo’s book, seems to leave out any mention of May 1968 in France — the one time a Western Marxist-influenced movement credibly challenged state power in a vast national strike. Contrary to the idea that only national liberation movements were significant, militants then contended that the chains of imperialism had to be broken where they were forged, and it would be interesting to see Losurdo’s answer to that.
There doesn’t seem to be any consideration of the actuality of what Western Marxism emerged from — active popular revolutionary movements that were often organized around workers’ councils, and not around bureaucratic Social Democratic or Leninist parties.
I read some rumors that all that upheaval was organized by CIA to desuade the French for repatriating their gold and for asking payment in gold for all the services/goods provided to the US – Vietnam War and such…
I appreciate Gabriel Rockhill podcasts on the matter. He is such a well spoken and pleasant personality. A true delight.
“You Are What Your Ancestors Didn’t Eat”
I have read about studies like this and they can be a bit of a worry. As an example, those Irish who escaped the great famine in the 1840s and went to places like America would, according to this study, have their descendants suffering the effects of it which would include people living today.
Maybe that is why Joe Biden has memory problems and other indicators of poor mental and physical health.
Given the global prevalence of nutritionally deficient diets currently and in the past, I’m guessing that there are many millions of us who are more or less in the same epigenetic boat. As we know, modern diets in relatively wealthy countries, even if calorically sufficient, may not be nutritionally so. On those occasions when I used to eat a hot dog now and then, I never once thought of how that might affect my future descendents.
This topic sounds suspiciously like Lysenkoism all over again.
I suspect that the inheritance of acquired characteristics is a thing, although not in the way that Lysenko thought. Mitochondria are free living self replicating organelles within each cell of the body. They are metabolic powerhouses, responsible for energy generation within each cell, and have their own DNA. Your mix of mitochondrial types Is inherited from your mother – from the mitochondria in the ovum.
It’s possible that external environmental conditions (such as famine) which the mother experiences during the early stages of foetal development can alter the mix of mitochondrial subtypes, which would explain the findings reported in the article.
Epigenetics is a newish field. Apparently, what a person’s parents or grandparents lived through can affect how their genes are expressed. Suffer from a famine and your descendants might suffer from obesity.
File under laughing so we don’t cry, the 2024 Shkreli Awards have been announced by the Lown Institute. Surprisingly, UHC only won the No. 2 slot for the worst healthcare related grift in the US.
Wow, what a list of horrors. Thanks so much for the link.
Unbelievable! Now Trump’s transition team is getting in on the Big Ceasefire Lie:
(TL;DR – Trump sends a stooge to bully Hamas. As if Biden’s stooges weren’t getting the job done?)
https://www.axios.com/2025/01/07/trump-gaza-hostage-ceasefire-talks-witkoff
I was looking forward to all these lies ending when Antony Blinken takes the last box out of his Foggy Bottom offices in a mere 12 days. Looks like I was prematurely optimistic. Months and months of lies, bullying and fraud posing as legitimate diplomacy are set to continue.
Trump wants to start his Presidency with a big gift to the Israelis and what better gift than those surviving hostages being returned. And why not? His previous Presidency was just one gift to the Israelis after another. Why would his second term be any different?
I voted for Stein so I wash my hands of this debacle.
It seems increasingly like Trump will just be an extension of Biden on ME foreign policy. We know that Trump is besties with Netanyahu so I expect Netanyahu to agree to some sort of deal after the inauguration, denying Biden his stupid fraudulent lying sack of yak squeeze ceasefire, so that Trump will get the credit for a nothing-deal that accomplishes nothing.
Hamas already has hinted that most of the hostages are dead, Gaza has been razed, and the Genocide
is in progress. Now kids are freezing to death while Blinken fiddles and Trump bullies and bloviates.
There is nothing but scum and villainy here.
You ever thought that the most deadliest threat to the lives of those hostages comes from the IDF itself? The IDF killed a coupla hundred of them on Day One and no doubt have been killing more of them with every apartment building dropped. It wasn’t that long ago that three hostages tried to get to the IDF for safety but the IDF murdered them instead because they assumed those were Palestinians trying to surrender.
More than thought … I’d say that’s a reasonable conclusion.
Netanyahu probably figures that all the hostages dropping dead is better, then Hamas has no more leverage.
From Day 1 this has been about Biden and now Trump refusing to use any of their leverage to force Netanyahu to a deal. They could have cut off aid, or just lethal aid, but no. They’re Bibi’s captured stooges.
Doesn’t look like it’s much leverage either way, as Emma says below. It’s about as effective as using human shields against a force that is at best absolutely indifferent to civilian deaths.
At this point, Hamas should hand them over ( and I believe they’ve been really flexible in the prisoner exchange part – Netanyahu simply refused to make any deal – probably because he knew about Syria and may be counting on war with Iran). The Israeli society at large show that they not only don’t care about hostages but are quite willing to Hannibal Israelis. Hard lesson, but they did unmask the Israelis and the Western governments for the monsters that they are. That may be a pretty big win for all of the AoR and China/Russia, provided they can survive the current round.
There’s at least a theoretical chance that Trump and the GCC states don’t want the wanton slaughter of Palestinians to continue and to continue the two state artifice in some way. In any case, other than some rhetorical flourishes, it’s hard to see how Trump can outdo Biden on belligerence against the Levant or Iran, and he’s at least possibly better on Russia and China, given the positioning of billionaires around him.
GCC state general populations may not want. Their leaders either don’t care or want it to happen asap so that they can get on with lucrative deals with Israel.
The Arab tyrants don’t care much, but letting Third Temple crazies desecrate Al Aqsa is a bad look and the smarter ones may be thinking about the day when the US is forced to withdraw from West Asia.
Plus Israel doesn’t have much to offer the works except teaching your cops to be ultra racist and brutal, surveillance and crowd suppression tech, wormy VPN and porn sites, and agricultural produce grown on stolen land.
LA mayoral candidate Rick Caruso trying to make political hay on the LA fires. Dude needs to climb back under whatever rock he calls home.
A fire driven by 99 mph winds. Yikes!
Those Santa Ana Winds are a big problem, but it is a regular, albeit deadly, phenomenon. There is the problem of decades without brush clearance, meaning generations of fuel buildup. Reminds me of parts of the Bay Area where homeowners have blocked it because it either creates (short term ugliness) or cost money to do. But I really want to know is why there is no water in the fire hydrants. San Francisco burned in 1906 because of it, but that is because of the earthquake breaking all the pipes. What is LA’s excuse?
Given the sordid history of Cali/LA’s governance of public water it’s no real surprise. Here’s a handy group of suspects, leaving out big-tech and manufacturing because I’m too lazy to look it up:
California’s Top 10 Agricultural Commodities
Dairy Products, Milk — $8.13 billion.
Grapes — $6.52 billion.
Cattle and Calves — $4.76 billion.
Lettuce — $3.93 billion.
Almonds — $3.88 billion.
Well, Caruso should know that most of the destruction is not in the LA City boundary (Pacific Pallisades) but in the Santa Monica Mts. adjacent Altadena and Pasadena. Politics in the time of peril is peurile.
Ummm. Pacific Palisades is within the LA city boundaries and is the location of the Palisades fire which had all the video yesterday and has many structures destroyed (1000+ is what I heard at a press conference). The Eaton fire is as large and started above the Altadena area north of Pasadena in the San Gabriel mountains. It started in unincorporated Los Angeles County and they are reporting 2 fatalities as of right now.
https://www.fire.ca.gov/
Yes, I’m aware of the location of Pacific Palisades. I live 90 miles up the coast; I can see the glow in the night sky. My comment was actually a poke at Caruso who is being a ‘sore loser’ with his comment about current Mayor Bass. She was on a trip to Africa when the fire(s) broke out. She is already back in LA to take executive action.
The most destruction is occurring outside the LA city limits (the limit of her authority). The Eaton Fire (Altadena/Pasadena) is actually larger in size than Pacific Palisades and 5 people have died in that fire (none in Pallisades). Eaton has many more lost structures (homes) than Palisades; but, of course, the more valuable property is in Palisades/Malibu and along the coast highway (PCH).
I think two different fires? Palisades fire straddles LA city/county border per AP fire map. Eaton fire in the San Gabriels in LA county.
Yves many thanks for the mid life transition paper……
I am 74 yoa, retired about 6 years.
In my late 40’s early 50’s I did all those “transition” things!
This hit me:
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with friends…… Yes!
In college I joined a fraternity, a set of us loosely kept in touch over the years. In 2016 our independent (not related to a national frat) celebrated 150 years in continuous activities. We had a large reunion!
Since that event a group of us from several years that we were students together are meeting every other Saturday on GoogleMeets. Maybe 20 men on the “list” often 12 or 13 show up.
A smaller group of us have a small common vacation together each Fall.
We share good stories from 50 odd years ago, health issues and we lost 2 brothers in the past year. One to illness and one to sudden accident. One brother has been incapacitate by illness and we get a lot of moral support from him.
Friends are a blessing.
Yes, and I would add so is solitude. Unity in isolation. I am practicing that not because I don’t want friends but when one gets to a certain age it seems harder to make friends. Easier to be alone. For me knowing that I only have so many years left, I value the time in meditation and trying to understand the mistakes made in the past and take stock in the gains as well. A life not spent in contemplation is a life not living. Socrates
I have discovered that friends from different stages of life change in importance over time. College buddies lose their connection from distance and accumulating responsibility (work, family, etc) and simply the passing of time. Professional colleagues no longer have the same vitality after retirement.
This is where the Arts are helpful. Reading, writing, drawing, music, sculpting, etc. can be done late in life and be the best friend possible.
Friends are cool.
Alone time is cool too.
You all need cats!
Fire return intervals (when a patch of ground burns, how long on average before it burns again) for California coastal shrub habitat is about 25 years. Compared to Wyoming sagebrush which might be 250 – 400 years.
It’s meant to burn. And that’s before any impacts from climate change, invasive species, or human development.
The photos coming out show 30-40 flame lengths on the front of the fire. There’s nothing you can do but try to get out of the way and drop retardant to slow it down.
Here’s hoping the winds die down.
And it is the human development (homes) that are the major combustion source that keeps the wind-driven embers igniting again and again. This same thing happened in a Santa Rosa, CA subdivision in 2017 (Tubbs Fire).
Local fire agencies can handle a couple houses on fire simultaneously, but not 20 or more.
re: midlife transition–
Life is short
Filled with stuff
Don’t know what for
I ain’t had enough
I learned all I know
By the age of nine
But I could better myself
If I could only find
Some new kind of kick
Something I ain’t had
Some new kind of buzz
I wanna go hog mad
—The Cramps “New Kind of Kick”
Re: Chinese venture capitalists force failed founders on to debtor blacklist and comment.
This financial death is like how the government handles student loans in the USA. Once on the list, it’s financial death with no way out.
“chinese venture capitalists force failed founders on to debtor blacklist
Pursuit of entrepreneurs threatens start-up ecosystem as investors target personal assets to claw back funding”
So the venture capitalists are not investing but are lending money without risk. Just like Biden enable law that prohibits bankruptcy for student loans creates high education cost because why not charge as much as one can to non-dischargeable government guaranteed loans – just no risk.
I thought venture capitalists were risk takers, movers and shakers – guess they prefer not to venture anymore.
The latest in Sam Altman news from here in St. Louis.
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-courts/openai-chief-sam-altman-accused-by-sister-of-sex-abuse-in-lawsuit-filed-in-st/article_e72ead64-cd41-11ef-aaa0-cf26d5f78399.html#tracking-source=home-top-story
The dilemma: on the one hand, “believe women”, on the other consider the cautionary note struck by such works as Making Monsters: False Memories, Psychotherapy, and Sexual Hysteria. Is accuser’s history of mental illness the result of abuse or are the accusations a delusional manifestation of mental illness? Hard to know. Although, I must admit my bias toward believing the worst when it comes to billionaires.
It seems like only the day before yesterday when Wuk wrote
SoCal is on the verge of burning, man.
They’ve received about bupkis in their May to December rain relationship, and 60 to 100 mph winds are coming…
It’s the wind.
Stay safe
A friend in Woodland Hills texted me that she had nearly 100 mph winds overnight and the evacuation zone is just half a mile from her house, and it really isn’t anywhere near Pacific Palisades.
I can’t imagine what last night was like to those who live there. Looking at the weather forecast, the winds start subsiding this afternoon. No rain in the 10 day outlook. I wonder how much of LA will be left come February.
I’m a native and a veteran of multiple fires so we pay attention to wind forecasts especially when it’s been dry. We clean up our property, tie down or put away outside furniture, and my husband just finished testing our “ember cast” fire suppression tools.
And per usual during these wind events, I only slept about 4 hours last night. Between worry and the wind noise, I get very anxious.
I can’t imagine the stress, I’m hoping I don’t have to take a turn.
Suppose it depends on the definition of “near”, but I used to have business with a Litton defense contractor plant there and would often take Topanga Cyn when coming up from LAX to avoid the 405. That seems to be the heart of the fire area from Malibu up into the mountains. That’s the thing about LA — dense urban and right next to it mountain semi-wilderness.
Woodland Hills just north of the mountains and then head towards Agora Hills to the west and it’s rural, same thing north to the Santa Susanas.
As of last night, Biden was scheduled to fly out of LA at about 2pm PST. That’s a good a clue to when winds will calm.
He became stranded after an event.
“After Iraq, Libya, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, the Pentagon attacks Yemen”
I don’t think that much has changed here at all. In the Saudi/UAE war against Yemen, it was fully backed and equipped by the Collective West and at one stage it had an Aussie commander on the ground for technical help. There is not a possibility of the Pentagon invading Yemen as that would make Afghanistan look like a walk in the park. They can bomb it but Yemen is not backing down. In fact, the weapons that Yemen has been using has thrown western navies on the defensive because of their sophistication. Bombing Yemen is like bombing Afghanistan. It looks like you are doing something but nothing really changed on the ground. Same with Yemen.
Any word on where the Harry S Truman is today?
“Unknown”, according to the ship trackers I looked at…
This may be one plan for Yemen.
Recognizing Somaliland: A geopolitical game-changer for West Asia?
https://thecradle.co/articles-id/28141
Yemen just announced that it’s fully self sufficient for flour. They may take the DPRK approach to dealing with their neighbors.
Well there is civilian infrastructure like airport and water treatment facilities of no military import
I’m sure they’ll bomb those.
“Why’d you kill those people?…… They were there…..”
> Gulf of America
“Mexica” is the pre-Hispanic-invasion, ie indigenous, name for the country we now call Mexico. According to Aztec legend their empire stretched from Alaska to Nicaragua.
“America”, as I learned in 8th-grade geography class, is derived from an Italian conquistador named America Vespucci.
So Trump wants to rename the gulf, now named from the ancient pre-Hispanic indigenous nation of Mexica to a name from the American conquistador empire of Trump.
What a creep he is.
Making the late 19th Century Gunboat diplomacy era great again …
Moneyfest Destiny
You win the internet yet again W.
Can I get it grift wrapped?
[rimshot]
Most folks think Matthew Perry was a “Friends” actor who OD’d recently, but we both know the original would really be there for you to intimidate nations who didn’t get the memo on the 19th-century version of MAGA:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_C._Perry#Mexican%E2%80%93American_War
Gift wrapped?! It will arrive in a brown box with a smile on it.
“conquistador”
What country, pray tell, did Vespucci conquer?
Well, he was actually just an explorer/navigator. He is said to have written a narrative that claimed he discovered the ‘ New World’ before Columbus. The Spanish Conguistadors followed his maps to South Amerigo and subsequent defeat of the Aztecs and Incas. (With a big assist from small pox.)
Lords Of The Untamed Wild, a meandering read, a bit of dominion theory in a NPR style.
I like this, It quickly becomes evident that “rewilding” does not really mean removing human agency from the landscape — if anything, it means increasing it in service of nostalgia for a place we’ve never been.
The paradox of “managing wild lands” goes unheeded.
For some reason, discussing human population levels is verboten, yet isn’t that what we are really talking about?
young lady hands me some banknotes. the discussion about the change she has given me does not revolve around whether or not it is the correct amount, but on the works of the authors depicted on the bills. this ends up involving the entire market. they are fascinated i know their poets and their works, and i am fascinated by those works.
the poor countries, the ones that get taken advantage of by neoliberalism, are the ones who still – if they can! barely, by a thread! – value literature, poetry, dance, music, above all. there will always be a place for ‘the alchemy of commerce’, always has been always will be, but the emphasis in these poor countries, the ones devoured by the others, remains on identity – the strength of the family, the heritage endowed to and from those who spoke or sang or versed the crystallization and presentation of Who We Are.
it’s different from you, but we respect you, said one syrian-greek-armenian to an englitsch-american-german, and in the end you may have to regain an estimation of what we value, and recognize that it still holds value for you –
i don’t even want to sleep, ever again. this time not out of restlessness, but from the ecstasy of feeling at home.
‘nani, nane’ – good to listen to montserrat again. she played it in-store, in the most meagre of markets.
https://youtu.be/JoHu0VNVhoM?si=vbkXgY9HSoXsqDFR
sweet!
that really transported me.
Wonderful, thank you. Gets me where shakuhachi does.
File under No Longer Free Press:
Due Dissidence guys hosting JImmy Dore show with guest Whitney Webb. utube, ~27+ minutes.
Recent Terror Attacks Have CIA Fingerprints All Over Them! w/ Whitney Webb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUaVlYTs5pw
Whitney Webb is my hero these days.
That’s what I call surface politics. If we can keep everyone yelling about surface politics they might not notice what’s really happening until it’s all done. Works quite well most of the time.
I.e. the proposed rule blocking healthcare debt from appearing on credit reports. There’s a 60 day period before it becomes law, and the new administration can undo the rule without much hassle if it’s under the 60 day window. It’s just for show. I highly doubt any of the rulemaking done in the 60 days before the inauguration will become law.
My US version, I hand the young lady a dollar coin. She does not recognize it, hands it back. I pocket the Susan B Anthony. Got change for a hundred?”
We put victors on our currency, and my sarcasms always on.
Dang. hoki_haya, this was for your comment, which I very much enjoyed. Thanks for the ephemeral music.
The SBA, Sacagawea and Presidential $ coins were all minted for use in Ecuador pretty much, as the seignorage is a sweet 85 Cents per coin.
Nice of Ecuador to adopt the almighty buck around the turn of the century!
I’m hanging on to my Anna May Wong quarter
re: Steve Keen..
Good as far at is goes. However, as a mope, I watch the money increase all go to those big guys – the so-called to-big-to-fail bank, Wall St. and the billionaires who use that lovely lucre for financial games and buying up everything. The result of which is driving up prices on everything for us mopes who haven’t had a real, inflation adjusted wage raise in 30 years. We’re falling farther and farther behind. Homelessness is up, for starters.
Keen’s explanation may be right, but what good does that do the 90% ? A better definition of how the casino works improves what, exactly?
adding, from Charles Hugh Smith:
I Quit! The Tsunami of Burnout Few See
That’s the problem with deploying play-acting as “solutions:” play-acting doesn’t actually fix the problems at the source, it simply lets the problems run to failure.
https://charleshughsmith.substack.com/p/i-quit-the-tsunami-of-burnout-few
from the article:
Of my top eight annual earnings, two were from the 1970s, two were from the 1980s, three from the 1990s and only one in the 21st century. Please note that the nominal value of my labor has increased with time / inflation; what we’re measuring here is the purchasing power / value of my wages over time.
That the purchasing power of my wages in the 1970s as an apprentice carpenter exceeded almost all the rest of my decades of labor should ring alarm bells. But this too is taboo in the Village of Happy People: of course life is better now because “progress is unstoppable.” But is it “progress” if our wages have lost value for 45 years? If precarity on multiple levels is now the norm? If the burdens of shadow work are pushing us over the tipping point?
Corrupt state AG Bondi:
A ‘Business-Friendly’ Lawyer’s Rise From Lobbyist to Attorney General Pick (NY Times via archive.ph)
Important – thanks for posting. Another important detail – Carnival Corp, the company that Bondi lobbied for, is not a US-based company. They’re based in the UK, I believe. So she should have registered as a foreign lobbyist.
(Carnival does have a pretty big operation in Miami so arguably there were some sort of “jobs” at stake but not really.)
Just as a follow-up, Carnival is a dual-listed corporation with Panama and the UK as its corporate domiciles. There is an American entity HQ’d in Doral, Florida. However, as is the legal custom, Carnival’s owners take full advantage of foreign registration and securities registration laws to evade US Labor Laws to the maximum allowable extent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival_Corporation_%26_plc
The thing about Crypto is it seems to mostly be young adults that have been the true believers so far.
It isn’t as if most of them have any stock investments, but it’d be a damned handy thing to blame a big downturn on Wall*Street, nudge nudge wink wink, say no more.
RE: Medical debt removed form credit report
Here’s a link to Michael Hiltzic’s business column on the origin of medical co-pay, deductibles, and insurance premiums. Debunks ‘skin in the game theory’. A good read!
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-01-08/column-heres-one-key-reform-that-can-fix-us-healthcare
(Toggle reader view then refresh the page to bypass the LATimes Subscriber Page.)
Here’s the correct link for the ABC story:
New federal rule will remove medical debt from credit reports
re: Brothers Grimm
There is this issue which I havem’t been able to seriously look into – some allege there was an argument / struggle going on within German intellectual space of those years as to which set of stories should arise to the status of the German national narrative – Grimms’ Tales or the Song of the Nibelungen.
Now rumour has it that latter won out because it just was much more jingoist, simplistic and arousing primitive emotions of nationalism, irrational marvel at violence and a Manichean ideology. i.e. good vs. evil. As such more akin to today’s movie franchises.
So there is more scholarly work to be accomplished.
In this context people like Fichte, Herder, Schelling, Schlegel, Tieck (i.e. Weimar Classic and German “Idealism”) are of significance as well as their relationships to Grimms and to the kings and counts who reigned German lands.
One argument goes Nibelungen for its obvious taste for power would win out over “Grimms Märchen”. For this development more authoritarian German thinkers such as Fichte and Herder were the likeliest advocates.
However it has to be kept in mind both sets of stories had to be purified first along ideological and aesthetic principles. Nationalistic narratives are artifical creatures they do not come natural. However eventually Grimms´ Tales might have appeared too unruly and diverse for such a purpose. (Compare episodic structures with today’s stories of power and violence which prefer one single forceful thread.)
But how it came that Nibelungen would eventually take position as more attuned to German statecrafters and tool for national identification is not yet clear. As much as this matter is complicated as Grimms, as the Review mentions, were involved with work on Nibelungen too. So this was a process of many years and directions and crafted by various groups.
Last point, if I recall correctly it needed several editions to create a successful set of Grimms’ Tales where also others – from above group of friends I believe, too – and publishers – were involved – in creating a successful literary “product” that would sell.
On How the OS/2 flop went on to shape modern software
But this is patently false; The entire Windows ecosystem didn’t dominate simply because Microsoft targeted future hardware; completely ignores all kinds of shenanigans and illegality, culminating in the Microsoft antitrust trial. The author has had hardware longer than I’ve been alive, and ought to know this, but reduces it to a discussion of technical minutia instead.
I didn’t know the part about OS/2 2.0 targeting the 286. From what I remember (and I have a copy of “Design of OS/2” sitting on my bookshelf so I just now pulled it out) 2.0 did introduce the “flat” 32 bit memory model that avoided the segmentation kludge in Windows on 386 hardware.
I didn’t consider Windows viable until Win98SE. But the killer was the USB interface that came out after IBM gave up supporting OS/2 4.
re: Meta ending fact-checking program: Zuckerberg The Hill
I don’t think this has anything to do with courting Trump.
Of the hundreds of friends I have on FB every last one of them has stopped posting, commenting, liking, sharing, checking their feeds or have closed down their accounts.
The highlight of FB was during Occupy when you could post to a group and have instant reach to all members. FB introduced a dampening algorithm at the request of government and law enforcement specifically to clamp down on Occupy and handicap protest movements.
The product is defective because algorithms decide content, period, not just censorship. There is therefore no “social” in this so-called social media if you can’t use it to organize.
The video is worth a watch without the sound. His almost atonal reading a teleprompter tone belies his facial expressions. Hit the pause button. He appears to be about to cry. Every time. Is that his normal appearance? to me he looks to have been read the riot act, by his accountants, by Trump, or both, who knows. “Similar to X” comes up a lot.
Re: Atlantic article – Climate models not matching last two years’ changes
The climate change models do not include solar forcing nor the effects of the polar excursion, which are both accelerating. Not to go all henny-penny, but the earth’s magnetic field is shifting and weakening due to the polar excursion, which allows much more solar and space radiation to enter the biosphere. The result is increasing energy into the climate systems, and the increasing chaos in weather we are experiencing. This will not go away, only increase. If we get an actual polar reversal, all bets are off.
And there are also geologic effects of these changes. Earthquakes, volcanic activity, we can expect more of all. I hope I’m wrong – but a year’s supply of food is a good idea, along with the tools and seeds and space to grow your own food. Last year the most productive stone fruit region in Canada, the Okanogan, had a 100% failure of the stone fruit crop – peaches, nectarines, plums – ZERO harvest. IMHO a good idea to be prepared. Humans have been through several of these cycles over our 2 million year history – and we’re still here.
A hungry man is an angry man.
Your store of food is only as good as your neighbors’.
Runaway warming = us no longer here.
Hunger games in the Canadian bread basket. I’d prefer to watch this on tv.
Nihilism, eh? That’s about right for those bound for extinction….
It’s a pretty good fit around here.
Speak for yourself.
That’s fair. I meant as a contributing perspective not the overall color.
The video is worth a watch without the sound. His almost atonal reading a teleprompter tone belies his facial expressions. Hit the pause button. He appears to be about to cry. Every time. Is that his normal appearance? to me he looks to have been read the riot act, by his accountants, by Trump, or both, who knows. “Similar to X” comes up a lot.
What to make of Trump yesterday posting the video of Jeffrey Sachs recounting the parade of horrible neocon history of duplicity and blunders in U.S foreign policy including his blunt criticism of Netenyahu?
Biden sort of did the same thing in a press conference – he stood aside, saying nothing, while the person at the podium (sorry, I can’t remember his name) spoke critically about Israel and its crimes against the Palestinians. I thought at the time it was about the maximum Biden could do – pretty pathetic, but it was at least something. Same as this Sachs video from Trump. Neither can criticise Israel – that’s just the reality of the power structure of the USA and its empire, sadly. To criticise Israel is anti-semitic, doncha know?
re: Trump
Chris Hedges Live Q&A Tonight, 4:00p.m. PT / 7:00p.m. ET
Jan 08, 2025
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/chris-hedges-live-q-and-a-tonight
RE: Canadian PM Trudeau’s Resignation is Perfectly Normal
I like Ian Welsh but I fail to see how what he says about Trudeau in any way invalidates what Taibbi had said. They clearly both intensely dislike Trudeau. Maybe as a Canuck, he just doesn’t take kindly to Canadians being mocked by USians?!? Taibbi’s piece is pretty damn funny though.
I think his point is that Taibbi is inanely mocking Trudeau as a failure, when Trudeau was clearly pretty successful from the perspective of his own career (he held on for a long time and suffered no real consequences, unless you count attracting mockery from enemies, which is weak). Also, he sees Taibbi as preoccupied with American culture war issues of the kind that he despises, and that had little to do with why Trudeau is going now.
Well Taibbi’s first sentence in that excerpt is clickbait and a lead-in like that about “feminist heartthrob” sounds incredibly silly to a Canadian. Maybe he is some kind of heartthrob outside of Canada;here he is just the PM and has been for a long time.
This bit, “dropping from 65% to an incredible 16% approval rating over the course of a nine-year reign just seems to suggest that Taibi knows almost nothing about Canadian federal politics and the fates of Canadian Prime Ministers over the last 45-50 years.
It is very unusual for a Canadian Prime minister to win three terms in office and inevitably their popularity declines, often fairly rapidly if they do. So Trudeau’s drop in the polls was to be expected though I am not sure how he compares say with Mulroney or Harper, two of our more hated PM’s in the last 40 years or so.
I would agree that Welsh does dislike Trudeau. A goodly number of Canadians do, some with good reason, some with poor reasons, and some because he is Pierre Trudeau’s son.
With Taibbi, unless he knows a lot more about Canadian history and politics than I think he does, it looks to me he tossed together a few facts and/ or factoids and published.
I disagree with some of Ian’s points but Trudeau does have plenty of faults as well as some good points. I don’t see Trudeau going down in history as one of our greats but I’d say he’s not done a bad job, albeit as something of a neo-liberal.
He also has been head of a government that in one way or another has gone from one crisis to another since at least, 2020 with the Covid-19 pandemic going on to that idiotic and potentially deadly trucker convoy, and so, on while dealing with a Leader of the Opposition who seems to have Mitch McConnell as his role model. “Obstruct, obstruct, obstruct” is Poilievre’s motto.